All it has taken to expose the porous underbelly of American democracy is one bad debate night by an 81 year old incumbent president. President Joe Biden fared poorly in his first CNN debate for this election season. A combination of  cold, jet lag and old age troubles made him a bit nervous and uncollected. He was lost in the middle of sentences and seemed to forget his lines on familiar subjects even those where he has excelled as president. 

More destabilising perhaps was the fact that he  was sharing a debate podium with a known serial liar, habitual bully  and unashamed demagogue. That combination in an electoral opponent is enough to unhinge any honest contestant. But even at that, Trump’s negatives are what should have prepared Biden to come fighting. But he did not. He frequently landed weak blows and a miserable thud each time he tried to put up a fight. The strategy of treating Trump with kid gloves as, at best, a spoilt child did not work and never works in politics.

Biden was restrained, meek and a bit uncollected. Trump was his usual blustery, hectoring and serially lying self. He won the debate not by repenting from Trumpism but by repeatedly punching a weakened Biden. In the end, supporters and opponents of the sitting president agreed that he was hardly at his best that Thursday night.

Concern about Biden’s bad showing at that debate has refused to go away.  Concern among supporters has grown into anxiety and even division among Democrats. The Democratic Party is riled and divided. Some would like Biden to quit the stage and yield place to a younger candidate with a better chance of defeating Donald Trump in the November elections. A solid core of Democrats led by majority of governors still believe Biden is their best bet in the circumstance.

Others including of course Biden’s immediate family and his core supporters insist that notwithstanding the bad debate night, Biden is their best bet. He is a tested hand. He has experience, track record and can be trusted by allies and respected, if not exactly feared, by adversaries. After all , he had out- debated and defeated Trump in 2020. He is best suited to do it again than would a totally new hand so late in the day.

The Republicans, especially Trump and his diehard devotees, are triumphant. They see Mr. Biden as a man weakened by age, unstated infirmity and incremental incapacity especially in unscripted situations. They are silent on the fact of Trump being nearly of the same age bracket as Biden.

On the whole, it is bad enough that America is now faced with a presidential choice weighed down by geriatric concerns. It is a binary choice between two ageing men whose competitiveness has been reduced to a comparison between two geriatric health records. It is even worse that both parties have become so limited in their leadership options that they seem stuck with a choice between a convicted blustering old crook and a tired good old man.

Biden’s debate performance means so much because of the peculiarities of American democracy and society.  America is a nation built on an ideal, on a creed of equality of the people and the rejection of monarchical absolutism. A creedalnation that covers such a wide area of territory can best be forged through effective communication. At first, it was radio that forged that communication link. But radio was constrained by voice and sound. The advent of television completed the link by adding images to voice, giving birth to the television nation. People as far flung as from Boston to Alaska , from Washington DC to North Dakota could now hear and see common images of their political leaders and other key influencers.

America’s is an image and television driven democracy. The political contest in America thrives on big marketing, advertisement and image engineering. Over time, television and the media have come to overwhelm American politics with their influence to the extent that the political persona has become something of a pseudo celebrity. The culture of stardom and celebrity created by Hollywood and the music industry have come to rub off on politics, luring the politician into the limelight of celebrity culture.

The ability to appear on most major channels and networks, to out- talk your opponent and reduce the urgent needs of the nation to a marketing selling point have become the deciding factors in whom the electorate votes for. The political star that must sell should wear the correct tie colour, be made up by make-up artists, rehash the catch phrases of the moment and appear to be on the side of Joe the plumber and Jane the housewife. In all of it, the ability to convince, to play the salesman at short notice has become a major indicator of preparedness to lead America.

A candidate who has all the ideas on how to sustain America’s greatness but fares poorly on the television screen  may end up being just “the best president America may never get”. On the contrary, the smooth talker, the guy who has an uncanny ability to combine some substance with celebrity appeal stands a better chance of moving into the White House to lord it over America and, by implication, the entire world for a good four years in the first instance.

Therefore, Biden’s recent bad debate night meant a  tragedy for America’s television image driven politics. This is why the options have narrowed to whether Biden should stay in the race or take a dignified exit. Either option is no easy route. If he were to quit, the Democratic party will be jolted into finding a substitute barely five months to the election. The possibility that the substitute will find his  or her feet so readily and quickly and be in a strong position to defeat Donald Trump is slim. That option effectively means that the Democrats would be ready to lose the election just to make the point that they opted for a younger, more vibrant candidate.

In the alternative, keep Biden in the race and try to fix his lapses and the degradations of old age on his electability.  This requires a closer management of the optics of his campaign events,  better preparations and more indepth homework on Trump’s weaknesses especially his compulsive lying and liberty with facts. The chances of a Biden win can are better if he stays in the race. But of course, those opposed to his staying on are more concerned about the energy and style of governance that he will lead if he secures a second term. In that regard, his experience and mature knowledge of people should equip him with good men and women to pull off a credible administration.

Those who wish Biden well are either genuine supporters or people who live with a mortal fear of the catastrophe of a second Trump presidency. People are genuinely concerned about the future of democracy in the hands of a lover of dictators and a self declared autocrat. Worse still, Trump’s looming threat to the international order is likely to tilt the balance in favour of the forces of authoritarianism. A man who openly admires Vladimir Putin, Xi Jiping, Kim Jung Un etc cannot be placed in the White House without overturning the world order.

Elsewhere in other political cultures, a mere one night of television debate would not mean so much. Take Nigeria for instance. We run a US-type presidential system with a cloned constitution along the same lines. But we hardly subject our presidential candidates to any verbal or intellectual rigour. Our presidential candidates do not have to debate with each other. They do not have to have any mastery of the most urgent national issues. They do not have to reel out statistics of the national economy of other vital statistics. They only need to be the choice of some party, loosely defined.

In 1999 when the military was handing over to a civil democracy, the two front runners for the presidency were Olusegun Obasanjo for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Olu Falaye for the Alliance for Democracy (AD). At the height of the campaigns, the idea was floated that there should be a television debate between the two. Somehow, neither party was enthusiastic about the debate. Time was allowed to elapse and the debate never took place.

In Buhari’s two terms as civilian president, there was no debate between him and any of his opponents. Both Atiku Abubakar and Goodluck Jonathan may have been willing to debate with Mr. Buhari but the latter was not  there for any debate. He lacked the capacity to string sentences together. He lacked any demonstrable knowledge or conviction on whatever were the raging national issues of his time. No one knows what he knew or did not know about anything and everything.

A reclusive and aloof man of few words and scanty ideas, Mr. Buhari was not the type to talk his way to power. He knew only how to cobble together an alliance of strange bed fellows to forge a winning alliance. Power was his means and end as well. In power, he feasted on the combined ability of his devotees and staffers to do most of the talking in no coordinated manner. What was important was that he was in power and at the helm.

As late as the 2023 presidential election campaign season, the matter of debates among the candidates was toyed with but dropped like hot potato. While Mr. Peter Obi and Abubakar Atiku were inclined to engage in open debates and media sessions, not so with Bola Tinubu. In fact, the campaign season witnessed Mr. Tinubu at his most controversial and incomprehensible. At campaign events, he was quoted as uttering gibberish, a point that fuelled speculations about his exact health condition. People who heard him uttering “Bulaba; Baba blu… Bulaba…” could not make out what language he was speaking. The obvious conclusion in street corners and bars was that the man was suffering from some mental health conditions that had affected both his comprehension and elocution.

When he showed up to present his agenda at the Chatham House in London, he could hardly answer any question. Instead, he lined up party faithful and supporting cronies on his entourage as the ones who would answer questions on his behalf  since he preferred ‘team work’.

Eventually, there was no debate between Mr. Tinubu and any of the other major candidates. There was not even a face-to- face interview between Tinubu and anyone or medium of note. But when the election results were announced, Tinubu, the man who said practically nothing to any one, was declared the winner over and above the other two who spent mental energy dissecting the nation’s problems and urgent challenges.

Therefore, the favourite Nigerian presidential candidate cannot be a television  hero or media celebrity. Yet Nigerians have shown more than passing interest in the America’s presidential elections than other nationals. It may be a subliminal celebration of what we long for but do not yet have.

The First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu says women must be seen at the forefront of the Food Security Campaign in the country.
She stated this at the State House Residence while unveiling her vegetable garden which she planted to encourage first time women farmers to join the ongoing Every Home A Garden Competition.

The First Lady who has planted Seven vegetables including spinach, water leaf, bitter leaf, Ewedu, lemon grass, scent leaf and Okro says a little effort on the part of every individual will go a long way in ameliorating food insufficiency.
“This little garden will be able to provide healthy vegetables enough for my house hold and I would definitely be able to let some of my staff have as well. The solution to any problem lies in everyone contributing their own quota to getting that solution. As a leader I must show example and plant my own garden”.

She encouraged first time women farmers all over the country to join the competition by planting a garden in their homes such as the produce will be sufficient to feed them and their neighbours.
“This will also enhance communal living and help drive the food security campaign of the Federal Government. The vegetables are medicinal and the garden is to lead by example for other women to embrace smart gardening”.
She showed off the garden to the Wife of Imo State governor, Chioma Uzodinma and Wife of the Minister of State for Defence Mrs Aisha Matawale.

The Every Home A Garden Competition is open to first time women farmers all over Nigeria. Entries are to be submitted to the Office of the Wives of the State Government of the competitors in the format of a 30 seconds short video with the details of the competitor by the close of work on September 25,2024. The winner would get N25 million naira.

SIGNED
Busola Kukoyi
SSA Media to the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria

See Photo Below:

The over 920,000 shareholders of Access Holdings Plc are excited that the banking group’s rights issue will soon open today, providing another opportunity to expand their stakes in Nigeria’s biggest financial company by assets. Barring any unforeseen development, Access Holdings rights issue to raise N351.09 billion will open on today, July 8 and close on Thursday, August 8. It is one of the largest capital raising programmes in the nation’s capital market in recent years, instigated largely by the Central Bank’s upward review of the minimum share capital for banks. International banks, of which Access is one of the few, are expected to grow their capital base to a minimum of N500 billion, according to a CBN policy announced last March by Governor Yemi Cardoso. With the additional N351 billion, Access will easily surpass the target, becoming one of Nigeria’s biggest financial services company by shareholders’ funds. It already occupies the top spot by assets and number of customers.  

Recently, Access Holdings held a formal signing ceremony with key participants in the offer as part of the arrangements to raise the funds. The money would be deployed to enhance its working capital requirements, and this includes organic growth funding for its banking and non-banking subsidiaries. Simply put, Access Holdings will use part of the N351 billion to acquire other banks and non-bank businesses across the world. Opting for solely a rights issue instead of combining it with a public offer as done by other banks is a deliberate attempt to protect the retail shareholders from dilution. ‘’In 2002 when we took over Access Bank, we had promised the existing shareholders that they would always be carried along as we grow. This rights issue is one example of our commitment to that pledge,” says Access Holdings Chairman Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede.

 It is a vow that resonates with the shareholders. Says Chief Sunny Nwosu, a well-known investor in the banking industry and an important player in the capital market, ‘’Access Holdings’ stocks are easily some of the best investment options in the country. I am sure that this offer will be oversubscribed, especially with the array of well-heeled foreign investors in its books’’. Another shareholder, Mrs Bisi Bakare puts it more succinctly, ‘’the quality of management of Access Holdings; its resilience; time-tested traditions of integrity and transparency endear the bank to the investing public. Consistently, we have seen our investments grow and we are happy.”

 The signing ceremony with respect to the Offer was held at Access Tower, the corporate office of Access Holdings in Lagos. Access Holdings’ shareholders had at its 2nd Annual General Meeting (AGM) on Friday, April 19, unanimously backed its plan to execute a Capital Raising Programme of about US$1.5 billion as well as the subset initiative to raise capital through a Rights Issue of ordinary shares to its shareholders. Under the Rights Issue, the bank will offer 17.7 billion ordinary shares of N0.50 each at N19.75 per share on the basis of one new ordinary share for every two existing ordinary shares held as of Friday, June 7, 2024. “The Rights Issue is a significant step in delivering our 2023-2027 strategic plan. The additional capital will enable us to maximise emerging opportunities and deliver long-term value to our shareholders’’, enthused Bolaji Agbede, acting Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings at the signing event.

The offer is opening at a moment of great buoyancy for the bank, coming after winning a series of awards in the last few months. Just last week, Access Holdings was named the leading Tier-1Bank in the 2024 Proshare Bank Strength Index (PBSI) report. The PBSI evaluates banks based on a comprehensive set of financial metrics derived from audited financial statements for the Financial Year 202. This award therefore, underscores Access Holdings’ significant strides in the banking sector. Proshare’s latest report places Access Holdings at the forefront, alongside other prominent institutions like Zenith Bank, FBNH, Ecobank, UBA and GTCO.

As the Nigerian banking sector evolves, Access Holdings stands out for its proactive approach to addressing macro and microeconomic risks. The report draws parallels to the challenges faced by United States banks where some banks like Silicon Valley, First Republic and Signature Banks, failed in 2023 due to poor asset and liability management (ALM). With the CBN’s recapitalisation programme, the report highlights the importance of investment in financial technology, customer service scalability and digital asset engineering between 2024 and 2026. The analysts emphasise that, “With higher capital levels, banks must use the larger amounts of cash available to improve shareholder returns and customer service experiences. Many banks will get cut at the knees by lacking a deliberate strategy to transition from cash flow to value creation.”

The report further highlighted Nigeria’s economic trajectory, noting, “Nigeria’s GDP in 2005 was N38.78trillion and rose to N77.94trillion, roughly two times in 2023, suggesting an average annual growth rate of 3.55 per cent in the last two decades. However, between 2000 and 2005, bank equity sizes grew over ten times or by 1,150 per cent from N2billion to N25billion. In other words, for a decade and a half, banks have used ten times more equity in their businesses than before 2005, yet the country’s GDP growth has been modest.”

The report, however, clarifies that simply raising Nigerian banks’ equity base is not a guarantee for economic growth and development. “Transforming bank equity into drivers of economic growth requires more than money; it requires a coordinated public and private sector plan, with what Proshare analysts have repeatedly called a whole-of-government approach to policies, programmes, and processes.” Reviewing bank performances in 2023, Proshare analysts observed that banks were pursuing increasingly aggressive approaches to acquiring digital market share while supporting lower operating costs (lower cost-to-income ratios (CIRs).

In May, Aig-Imoukhuede was honoured with the prestigious African Banker Lifetime Achievement Award at a gala in Nairobi during the Annual General Meeting of the African Development Bank. About the same time, the banking conglomerate also won the top spot in the Brand Finance’s Top 500 Banking Brands for the third consecutive year.

The Certified True Copy (CTC) of the ruling by Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo of the Abuja Federal High Court in Suit No FHC/ABJ/CS/165/2024 has revealed that the Hon. Judge gave an order for the inclusion of 378 delegates as part of the 3 Ad-Hoc Ward Delegates to participate in the February 22 Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) primary election.

The Judge made no pronouncement on the validity or otherwise of the candidature of the PDP, Dr. Asue Ighodalo and his running mate, Osarodion Ogie Esq, as against media reports which misled the public on the validity of the primary election.

The CTC document puts to rest the confusion that had emanated from the judgment delivered by Hon. Justice Inyang Ekwo, clearing all misinterpretations of the ruling.

In his ruling as seen from the CTC document, the judge declared that “the Plaintiffs and the other 378 delegates, whose names and election results appear on Exhibits BID 8A to 8L were elected and to allow the Plaintiffs and the 375 other lawfully elected delegates participate in the primary election of February 22, 2024.”

According to him, “A Declaration is hereby made that by virtue of the provisions of Article 50 (3) of the Constitution of the 2nd Defendant (as amended in 2017), the Plaintiffs together with the other lawfully elected delegates, whose names and election results appear on Exhibits BID 8A to 8L herein, are the lawfully elected Ward Congress Delegates in their respective wards and by virtue of which the Defendants cannot exclude them from participating as 3 Ad-Hoc Ward Delegates at the Governorship primary election of Edo State slated for the 22nd of February, 2024 or any other date.”

He continued: “An Order is hereby made directing the Defendants who are bound by the provisions of Section 82 of the Electoral Act, 2022 and Article 50 (3) of the 2nd Defendant's Constitution (as amended in 2017) to abide by the outcome of the 3 Ad-Hoc Delegates Ward Congress of February 4, 2024, at which the Plaintiffs and the other 378 delegates, whose names and election results appear on Exhibits BID 8A to 8L were elected and to allow the Plaintiffs and the 375 other lawfully elected delegates participate in the primary election of February 22, 2024.

The Judge added: “An Order of Mandatory Injunction is hereby made restraining the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Defendants from unlawfully excluding the Plaintiffs and the other lawfully elected delegates whose names and election results appear on Exhibits BID 8A to 8L herein, from participating as 3 Ad-Hoc Ward Delegates in the Governorship election primaries of the 2nd Defendant slated for the 22nd of February, 2024 or any other date.”

On 22nd June, 2024, at a sporting event organized for civil servants as part of activities to mark the 2024 Civil Service Week, the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation (HCSF), Dr. Folasade Yemi-Esan, made a fundamental claim about the status of the Nigerian Civil Service. At that event, the HCSF commended the hardworking and intelligent civil and public servants, and noted that Nigeria has the best civil service in the world. That was a most fundamental statement coming from such a significant personality in the civil service hierarchy. That statement has sufficient weight and implications as to defy the gravity of silence. And it was only just to be expected that this would not just be brought to my notice, but that I would be asked by many, including a few revered global scholars that I cannot ignore, to make a statement about it. The HCSF and I occupy positions that are key in the chain of structural and institutional integrity of the civil service system in Nigeria. We are both aware of the internal working and potentials of the civil service system. But more than this, we both are sensitive to the public service value of esprit de corps, that unwritten rule about our collective responsibility and loyalty to the institutional well-being of this great institution that is responsible for transforming the lives of Nigerians as the engine room and brain box of government.

But there is no doubt that such a statement would generate some forms of reactions from Nigerians. There would be some that would simply wave it aside as a mere statement that does not deserve a response. But, as Simon Kolawole has exemplified, there are those who take the statement with deep umbrage given that it does not represent their felt perception of the efficiency level and the image that the civil service has earned for itself within the context of Nigeria’s democratic governance. But I will go beyond these two kinds of reaction to the statement of the HCSF to articulate a more nuanced understanding of how the statement should be interrogated but without the benefits of a rebuttal or a critique, the reason that this essay is deliberately made somewhat academic. Like the HCSF, I am an insider who have a sense of the struggles and laudable visions of the HCSF and could spin her sense of the heights the civil service system needs to attain.  

So, I think I understand where the HCSF is coming from when she made the statement. My first instinct on reading the submission of the HCSF is to imagine that a similar statement had been made in a conference of public administration experts, scholars and professionals. One methodological approach of a response to this statement—suggested by my research and comparative inclinations—would be to situate the HCSF’s confidence within the historical trajectory of the civil service in Nigeria. There are two significant administrative moments in the evolution of the civil service history in Nigeria that foretell its immense possibilities. The first is the immense administrative achievements of the old western region civil service, one regional administrative success story that I had studied and publish on. Within the context of the Awolowo-Adebo governance collaborative paradigm therefore, the civil service in Nigeria in the ‘60s became renown as one of the best in the Commonwealth community of practice. The second was the critical and outstanding performance of the General Yakubu Gowon’s super-permanent secretaries before, during and after the Nigerian civil war. But then, despite having the credentials to lay claims to being one of the best civil service systems at those moments, such a statement was never made. The nuance in the story is to know why. To say a civil service system is the best in the world demands that certain administrative minimum and maximum be already in place. Indeed, such a statement would have already found the country backstopped by civil service system on top of many human development indices and ISO certification to boot.

Even though the grammatical form of what the HCSF said does not support my next claim, one could think that the statement was actually meant to be taken in aspirational terms. In other words, given the dedication, intelligence, patriotism and credentials of the crop of civil and public servants Nigeria is blessed with (who are unarguably a minority), as well as the quantum of reform efforts that had been sowed, the civil service has the real potential to become one of the best administrative systems in the world. It would be unfair to the HCSF to imagine that those who are grinding within the civil service system do not have a sense of how crippling the dysfunction of the system is. And yet, they keep toiling to keep afloat a system that was once one of the best and that keep standing staunchly as the engine room for making Nigeria’s democratic governance work. And I can make a parallel claim that Nigerian civil servants are among the best I have met anywhere in the world, as I had observed for decades how they keep toiling in an impossible administrative system, and finding it hard to understand why they are being derided by everyone in spite of their best effort. But who has the responsibility to fix that system but the civil service profession itself?

Taking the HCSF’s statement as an aspirational one implies grounding it within a context of to-do policy initiatives that take institutional reforms seriously (what I am sure the HCSF is aware of but is not at liberty to disclose at the occasion). In other words, what would such a civil service system like Nigeria’s do to live out the dream of being the best in the world? This question is highlighted by the governance performance of the Asian Tigers, a performance that is founded on their developmental value orientation and capable state model. A significant form of aspirational policy design is already captured in the 2007 National Strategy on Public Service Reform (NSPSR) that has the vision of facilitating the emergence of “A world-class public service delivering government policies and programmes with professionalism, excellence and passion.” One must concede that the series of reform efforts of consecutive Nigerian governments from 1999 to date have been geared towards the fulfilment of this institutional aspiration.

The crucial issue is to decisively deal with the bureaucratic culture that is already consolidating the failure of the civil service system to become efficient. Bureaucracies across the world, by their very nature, are complex and multi-layered organizations designed to backstop the processes of democratic governance through the values of impartiality, uniformity, neutrality, fairness through the enforcement of governance codes in the interest of the public good. However, these bureaucracies that are supposed to complement democracy have become hindered by three structural matters. The first is that they have become so dedicated to their internal processes and mechanism that they have become closed systems—self-protecting and anti-intellectual. They are therefore incapable of taking full advantage of the seminal culture of cross-fertilization of ideas that enables the flow of ideas from the local and global (glo(cal) knowledge and information networks, and hence too rigid to be significantly innovative. The heavy reliance on administrative precedence and models that worked very well in the past implies that the civil service system becomes backward-looking and resistance to reform and change. And this automatically puts the civil service in a significant conflict with the private sector since it now begins to prioritize rules, regulations and procedures over and above efficiency, effectiveness, performance and productivity.

The second structural matter that hinders the Nigerian civil service system is the fact that it operates within the constraints created by Nigeria’s political culture that politicizes everything. The fundamental problem therefore becomes that rather than aiding the successes of institutional reforms for high-performance of the system, the reformer has to keep overcompensating for distortionary politics. The third structural issue has to do with the ways past reforms of the system have been carried out. The passion the reforms generated have not been founded on adequate knowledge, and so this keeps occasioning a huge gap between the conception of the reform initiatives and the reality of dysfunction. For instance, there has always been a heavy reliance on external expertise in ways that is devoid of internal validation and buy-in.     

The goal of the institutional reform of the Nigerian civil service system is to create a strong, capable, value-based, efficient, flexible, technology-enabled, performance-focused, transparent, intelligent, professional(ized), entrepreneurial and accountable system. Indeed, any contender for the space of the best civil service systems in the world must demonstrate verifiable evidences that play out in terms of policy intelligence, administrative efficiency, service delivery standards, and the productivity paradigm it facilitates. There are several reform initiatives that have the possibilities of concretizing the fundamental significance of the Nigerian civil service as the backbone of an emerging developmental state in Nigeria.

One of the most critical issues to address in terms of reforming the civil service system in Nigeria stems from articulating its autonomy in ways that enhances its status as a vocation. And this can be done when the entry requirement into the profession is adequately monitored, capacitated and incentivized in ways that allow the civil service in Nigeria draws the best graduates the Nigerian tertiary education system can offer. Unfortunately due to adversarial unionism that renders the system over-bloated as the non-performers can hardly be exited, we still operate a personnel policy that supports the recruitment of 1000 mediocre to do work that can be better performed by 150 expert professionals that are adequately remunerated. The idea of public-spiritedness and professionalism, for example, would need to be stretched into a mechanism for professional progression and career pipelining that measures outstanding performances among staff, spiritual values (like integrity), knowledge, expertise and competences in assignments. This must then be complemented by regular cataloguing of benchmarked skills and competences matched with talent management protocols at every career professional level to pipeline officers for higher responsibilities.

Such professional gatekeeping must eventually devolve into a concern with workplace culture and public service values that must be cultivated to enable the rebranding of the civil service system. The administrative leadership, in this sense, will need to provide the means by which a critical mass of new public managers emerge—through the gatekeeping of the entry level requirements—as the clear exemplars of what the civil service stands for.  We also must not fail to add the urgency of a vibrant action research and analytic policy analysis—through the core competences approach—that must be deployed across all the MDAs as the modality for extrapolating detailed information and statistics that backstop policy design, evaluation and problem-solving mechanisms on a case study basis.  

Lastly, the civil service must instigate a fundamental level institutional openness to knowledge and innovation as well as peer review that enables continuous learning culture within which the system can validate its efficiency through corporate governance codes domesticated from global best practices and principles. Such an openness will facilitate a strong mechanism of intra- and inter-institutional professional relationship and partnerships in the form of the public-private partnership (PPP), global and local partnerships, policy and research nexus, inter-agency and inter-governmental collaborations, and so on.

The point therefore is that when the HCSF made the statement that the Nigerian civil service system is the best in the world, it was a critical statement that loads the dice in favour of the intelligent, smart, committed and patriotic Nigerian civil servants who are in the minority, but who have the capacity to make the system the best Nigeria needs to become capable in terms of democratic governance.  

Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

Time: 12:00pm

Guest: Bayo Onanuga
(Special Adviser, Information and Strategy)

Topic: "Controversial signing of the Samoa Agreement and LGBTQ issues."

Date: 6th July, 2024
                         
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https://zoom.us/j/92877141732?pwd=VEJWb29OL2VVekZUTHRpdWYxK0xxZz09

Meeting ID: 928 7714 1732
Passcode: 600206

In the last two days, my social media feed has been suffused with impassioned expressions of grief and outrage from Nigerians over a putative June 28 agreement that the Nigerian government has signed with the European Union to legalize LGBTQ+ rights in the country in exchange for a $150 economic package.

It turned out that a July 4 Daily Trust titled “LGBT: Knocks As Nigeria Signs $150 Billion Samoa Deal” might be the source of the cultural and social anxiety that Nigerian are expressing about Nigeria becoming an “LGBTQ+ nation,” as someone put it on social media. 

Unfortunately, the Daily Trust story failed to cite the portion of the Samoa agreement that mandates Nigeria to change its laws to accommodate LGBTQ-friendly policies. It based its headline and entire story on an unnamed report without even citing evidence from the report. 

“The agreement reportedly has some clauses that compel underdeveloped and developing nations to support the agitations by Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender (LGBT) community for recognition, as condition for getting financial and other supports from advanced societies,” it wrote.

The paper then proceeded to fish for people who would express fury and consternation over a piece of information that it hasn’t originally seen, and these expressions of fury and consternation created a self-reinforcing loop. We call this circular reporting.

Circular reporting, also called false confirmation, occurs when a source contrives a piece of information, repeats the information to multiple sources in the form of interviews (in the case of journalism), and then cleverly passes off the views of the interviewees as the original source of the information. It’s basically creating something from nothing.

I read the 12-page agreement titled “The Samoa Agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific States” that is posted on the website of the European Parliament. There is no obligation in the agreement that requires African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries adopt LGBTQ+ rights.

However, page 2 of the document states, “The chapter on human rights should explicitly list the forms of discrimination that should be combated (such as sexual, ethnic, or religious discriminations) and mention sexual and reproductive rights.”

Even so, there is an admission in the document that several countries, including European Union members, are resistant to enshrining “sexual rights” in their legal codes. 

On page 5, for instance, we see the following: “As of 22 November 2023, however, 30 OACPS members, mostly African and Caribbean, had failed to sign…. Some leaders explained they wanted to check whether the agreement would be compatible with their legal order, notably as regards same-sex relations and sexual health and rights. 

“This move surprised several commentators, as the wording on these topics does not go beyond existing international agreements…) and was agreed after years of negotiation; in addition, the agreement includes the possibility for the signatories to make interpretative declarations or reservations.”

Again, page 8 of the agreement notes that not only African, Caribbean, and Pacific countries but also some European Union members resisted being bludgeoned into agreeing to LGBTQ+ rights.

It says, “While the parties will commit 'to promote, protect and fulfil all human rights be they civil, political, economic, social or cultural', some ACP states were reluctant to see the foundation agreement mention sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTI rights) – an issue on which there are also differences among EU Member States.

“As a matter of compromise, the parties will commit to the implementation of existing international agreements – notably the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action on sexual and reproductive health and rights, the Beijing Platform on gender equality and their follow-up (negotiated agreement, Article 36). The wording however falls short of the EU negotiators' ambitions,” the document says.

Further down on page 9 of the document, it was made certain that the European Union was unable to universalize the merit of protecting sexual health. “Access to sexual and reproductive health services and information will be promoted – without further details, as the parties have varying views on this concept.”

In other words, although the European Union did want to get countries in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Pacific to embrace an expansion of the notion of human rights to include sexual minorities, they got a sustained pushback, not only from them but also from some European Union members. 

The only rights that Nigeria and other countries agreed to in the Samoa Agreement are the rights they have already been signatories to for years such as the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), the International Conference on Population and Development Programme of Action, and the Beijing Platform.

Plus, a provision in the agreement, which states that countries that signed the agreement have the latitude to “make interpretative declarations or reservations” about controversial issues means that they can understand “sexual discrimination” in ways that suit their cultural peculiarities and existing laws.

Anyone who takes the trouble to actually read the 12-page agreement would know that our lazy, stenographic news media ecosystem has merely created a storm in a teacup. In addition to the reality that the cultural soil in Nigeria is too inhospitable for the seeds of LGBTQ+ rights to germinate, much less flourish, no halfway sane Nigerian politician would risk irrecoverable political, social, and symbolic self-diminution by signing an agreement that violates an existing domestic law, i.e., the Same Sex Marriage Prohibition Act, and that causes extreme anxiety in a cultural conservative country like ours.

In all this, my major worry is that Nigerians waste precious emotions and expend tremendous amounts of energy over issues that are really of no consequence to their everyday lives but look away when threats that smolder their souls and annihilate their very existence confront them. The World Bank and the IMF routinely give loans to Nigeria and attach punishing conditionalities to them.

The removal of subsidies on everything, the devaluation of the naira, the shrinking of expenditure on education and health, etc. are some of the conditions these evil institutions attach to the loans. Someone close to people in power told me a few days ago that Tinubu’s resistance to the IMF’s insistence that he increase petrol price has dissipated and that it’s a matter of when, not if, he’ll approve a price increase of over N1,000 a liter.

When that happens, people will merely grumble, thicken their skins, make peace with their suffering, and move on. So long as LGBTQ+ people have no rights, so long as our religious and cultural values are respected, it doesn't matter if the IMF and the World Bank instruct our leaders to murder us piecemeal. 

That’s why people in positions of power will perpetuate their dominance of society and sustain their oppression of the people intergenerationally. They know that most people are governed by their emotions, not their intellect, by their hearts, not their heads.

 The day Nigerians are as engaged and as enraged as they are about this non-existent LGBTQ+ conditionality in a European Union economic package as they are about the IMF’s and the World Bank’s conditionalities that ensure that our people continually live at the subhuman level is the day true liberation will start. 

•His last interview with Taiwo Obe

Tam Fiofori, who passed away on Tuesday, 25 June 2024, at 82, will miss this. Jamaica’s fiery sprints squad at the upcoming Olympics Games in Paris would have kept him on the phone, confirming schedules, reliving moments of athletic apogees, and making predictions of which Jamaicans would shake the world.

Fiofori was a former long jumper, which explains the bounce in his steps. He was an athletics buff and set the pages of The Guardian aglow with his crisp reports and photogenic images that foretold the sprint dominance of “My Jamaicans Gals,” as he titled one of the stories.

The story was told 41 years ago at the inaugural World Athletics Championships in Helsinki, Finland, 7-14 July 1983. Despite winning just three medals — one gold by Bert Cameron in 400m, a silver medal by Merlene Ottey in 200m, and a bronze medal in 4×100 m from the team of Leleith Hodges, Jacqueline Pusey, Juliet Cuthbert, and Ottey — Jamaica showed it had a bright future in athletics.

Grace Jackson, a prominent figure in Helsinki, won a 200m silver at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul behind Florence Joyner of the US. Jackson’s marriage to Hugh Small, Jamaica’s minister of industry, commerce, and production, in 1990 shortened her athletics career. She quit the sport two years later, at 31.

At the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Cuthbert won silver medals in 100m and 200m, and Ottey won a 200m bronze. The Jamaican Girls phenomenon continued with Ottey leading the charge. Ottey won two silver medals (100 m and 200m) and a relay bronze at the Atlanta Olympics in 1996. Four years later, Jamaican Girls won five silver medals in Sydney, and Ottey won a silver and a bronze.

Ottey, one of the world’s most decorated athletes, led the era of brilliance and longevity of Jamaican female athletes, being named Jamaica Sportswoman of the Year 13 times in 23 years of racing for Jamaica and another 10 years for Slovenia.

When Ottey retired at 52, she had logged nine Olympic medals, 14 World Championship medals, and others at the Commonwealth Games and major international events. An Olympic gold eluded her. Ottey was 36 at the Atlanta Olympics when she lost the 100m gold to American Gail Devers, though both clocked 10.98 seconds.

Fiofori’s “My Jamaican Gals” was a parody of Grace Jones’ 1981 hit, “My Jamaican Guy,” a tribute to Sly Dunbar, whose pelting of drums in ways only he could, left his touch on most reggae hits of the time. Now, 72, Sly is still at it. He revolutionised drumming across different reggae bands before computers colonised the role. Jones warmed her way to filling more dance floors in more spots globally with “Pull Up To The Bumper,” from “Nightclubbing,” the 1981 album, still rated as number two in her repository 43 years after its release.

A lot of Fiofori was about music. He started his journalism career as a freelancer in 1965 because he cherished his independence, according to an interview with Taiwo Obe in a 2023 interview. Fiofori reviewed music and arts for international publications in England and the US, where he also schooled.

Musicians impressed him if they were literate. He explained that literate musicians could read music, write music, teach music, and play different instruments. The top Nigerian musician for him was Peter King, who met the criteria. In addition, King ran a music school in Badagry, where more than 2,000 students passed through his guidance. Asa was among them.

Fiofori would often say, “Nigerians don’t know PK. If they did, they would respect him. He won international awards for his jazz and Afro music decades before people filled every space with noise”. PK passed on in 2023.

Brodaa Tam, as I called him, was sad at the scant recognition King received, in life and in death, for all he did for music. He was the one who drew my attention to King’s death, wondering why it was not in the papers.

On Sunday, Nduka Irabor asked me, “Tam Fiofori gone? And the news is not in all the papers?”.

Fiofori was a student when he met Peter King, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, Wale Buckor, and Adams Dagogo Fiberesima in London. The quartet was studying music at Trinity College, which was a school of the University of London. He was well-acquainted with them, and they remained friends until they all transited before him.

Back at The Guardian, where Fiofori was sending loads of pictures to Sunny Ojeagbase (may the Almighty rest him), the sports editor, each package that arrived from Helsinki gave the newspaper, just months on the streets, an advantage that matched The Guardian’s advertisement, “Sooner or later, you will read The Guardian.” It was sooner.

We stole glances at the pictures as Ojeagbase held them with respect fit and proper for sacred objects. When they were finally splashed on the newspaper, they were at sizes unknown in newspapers then. Ojeagbase created the magazine effect for sports pages. “These pictures cannot be wasted,” Ojeagbase would say. He was spoilt for choice.

If photography were a religion, Fiofori would have been its faithful priest, not striving for titles or positions. This priest smoked and drank his beer with a quietitude that could make you a convert or, if you were already one, lead to renewals of the bottles as you discharged them into your waiting throat.

Once he starts with, “Let me tell you this”, usually prefaced with your name, to get your maximum attention, you would be at the feet of a raconteur who would take you on a compressed trip round the world with stops at major global arts capitals, or where film festivals held. Sports were not excluded.

During our 1987 trip with Nigeria’s athletics team to Burkina Faso, he was as enticed by the egregious young jumper George Ogbeide, more known as Lakayana, who had boasted he would break the national record, as much as arranging his participation in the Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou, FESPACO, an annual, international film event that has respected a place in the global calendar. Lakayana would win the National Collegiate Athletic Association, NCAA, long jump gold in 1991. The NCAA is the zenith of American university sports contests.

Fiofori’s films and documentaries were heavy on the devastation of the Niger Delta, culture, and music genres across Nigeria. He was good with words and his work. His best boast was to remind a gathering, “shoe get size”. He was right.

Cast in the general neglect and scorn Nigeria has for the creative industry, Fiofori and his generation got minimal attention as they searched for resources to maximise the reach of their works. He was mainly a self-funder of his works, though there were commissioned ones.

A simple man who lived for over 40 years in the same Surulere house that he cluttered with his works at varied stages of completion, I would walk in gingerly, careful not to step on a piece of history in some form or format. Before taking a seat, I would wait for him to clear some pictures he was working on overnight.

I guess the volume of work in that apartment, their security in the order he arranged them, and the uncertainty of how they would fit elsewhere hugely accounted for his long stay. He was not one to meet when he was angry. “Get this done before I blow my…top,” he would charge over delays in completing his productions, rising mannerlessness, or poor electricity, which often wore him out. I left out the expletive, which came sparsely for someone who lived in Harlem in the nuanced sixties.

Fiofori grew up in Benin City, where Emmanuel, his father, taught at Edo College, but he was from Okrika, Rivers. He attended King’s College, Lagos, and later King’s College London for higher education.

Anthony Kila writes that from all available indices and opininion poll, it’s better for the United States President, Joe Biden to withdraw his candidature for re-election into the White House during the November, 2024 presidential race

Dear President Biden,

Today’s epistle concerns the current electoral process in the United States of America. I dare write to you because, like many others, I believe that what happens in America affects the rest of the world. 

The epistle is directed at you because you are the centre of our reflections. 

The message to you today is to consider withdrawing your candidacy. The request and suggestion are not given with ease, let alone with glee because I believe that overall, you have been a good president. However, in the name of principle that we both hold dear, it is better to tell you in unambiguous terms that I believe it is time to go. 

The reasons for my suggestion and how you can announce your withdrawal are in this suggested speech that I have termed as an imaginary speech by you: 

My dear fellow Americans and lovers of democracy worldwide, I speak to you today as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party and as President of the United States of America, a great country and land of opportunities, a beacon of hope for many and a standard of democracy for all. 

Our country is about to embark on elections slated for November 2024. The stakes are high, and those elections can shape the future of America and the world as we know it. 

In America, we have an important choice to make and a crucial question to answer: Do we give the number one position in America to a man who is a self-serving liar, bully and narcissist and allow those who think it is okay to disregard and disrespect all we stand for or allow hope and peace, respect and honesty, liberty and progress to continue. 

I know Donald Trump; I debated and defeated him four years ago. Together, we stopped him from destroying our country and corrupting the world even when he desperately violently tried to destroy our age-long democratic institution for his reckless and blind ego, pure personal material interests and his innate inability to play by the rules. 

That victory allowed us, in the last four years, thanks to an inclusive team of diverse, talented and dedicated Americans, to recuse the economy and change the course of the pandemic, put more people to work than any time in the history of the USA, rebuild our infrastructures across the country, lower the costs of every day expenses for most Americans, produce more in America and expanded benefits and services for toxic exposed veterans like it has never been done in the history of America. 

Now, there is a man who is clearly a danger to democracy and unworthy of the public trust going about the country spreading lies, fear and hatred, trying to deceive people into giving the key to the White House to serve his unhealthy and immoral interests and to destroy most promising things we stand for. Donald Trump is breeding a dangerous mindset and rearing a scary set of people who think it is OK to hate, lie, cheat and insult others. We must not allow that to happen. 

Like many fellow Americans, I understand what is at stake, and we know how to stop this looming danger of hatred, recklessness, selfishness, tyranny, and opportunism. 

As I did four years ago to stop Donald Trump, I have put myself forward again for the benefit, hope, and legitimate aspirations of the many against the immoral interests of the few. That is what democracy is about, and this is what our America is about. Democracy is about equality, hope, and transparency. 

In my heart, I can still do it; with your support, we can fend off this manipulator and continue the great things we started four years ago. 

I know there are concerns about my age and vigour, but I disagree; I feel strong and capable. However, I will suspend my candidacy and allow my party to consult and represent a candidate for president of the United States of America. I will suspend my candidacy not out of fear or weakness but of love for our nation and democracy. 

My suspension, which is not done lightly, will show Americans of today, those unborn and the rest of the world that in America, there are leaders who are not in politics for themselves but for the love of the nation and democracy and that when we say we listen, we genuinely listen. 

The election is not about me. I have been privileged to serve my nation and democracy for decades in many capacities, and I have always done so patriotically and with dedication to the common good. That will never change. 

I want you, my fellow Americans, and the world to know today that democracy is to be served, loved, and protected, not exploited for selfish interests, hatred, fear, and divisions like Donald Trump is trying to do in every step he takes and every word he utters. 

It is heartbreaking to see that too many Republicans do not have the clarity of mind and courage of voice to vigorously denounce the menace and bag of deceit called Donald Trump, even after they have seen and heard him show his disregard for everything good about our democracy. I salute those who have done so. History will be kind to them for their efforts and courage to stand up for our nation and democracy. 

Democracy is love for humanity, respect for the law, and hope in the people. This vision tells us that even when we think we can serve if truly serving is all we want to do, it does not have to be us and just us in the commanding position. 

Love for humanity means we must always consider the concerns of our fellow human beings; hope in the people means we must trust not only the people’s vote but also believe that someone else is good enough among our people since we all abide by the rule of law. That is why we must all come together to fend off anyone who does not show love for humanity or hope in our people regardless of their colour or creed and does not demonstrate respect for the rule of law. 

I call on all people of goodwill today to put aside our partisan differences and understand that for democracy and liberty to continue to thrive, we must all stand together against deceit, indecency, and immoral ambition and for the rule of law, freedom for all, tolerance, and decency. 

Join me on Twitter @anthonykila to share your thoughts, ask questions, and continue these engaging conversations. 

• Prof Kila is a Director at the Commonwealth Institute of Advanced and Professional Studies.