Contrary to rather quite irresponsible speculation and baseless propaganda making the rounds, there is absolutely no intent, not to talk of attempt, overt or covert, on the part of the President Bola Tinubu administration to move the capital of Nigeria to Lagos, I can authoritatively report.

What occurred of recent is the relocation of certain offices for greater functionality and enhanced practicality to a location that best suits them.

Some of these offices never even effectively moved to Abuja, in the first place.

By the way, this idea that everything must be headquartered in a country's capital is a rather unimaginative one which ends up concentrating development in one place to the detriment of other parts of the country.

In fact, it is not even replicated in most other countries.

The Presidency of South Africa is domiciled in Pretoria; the Supreme Court of South Africa seats in Bloemfontein, the Constitutional Court of South Africa seats in Johannesburg; and, the Parliament of South Africa seats in Cape Town.

In Switzerland, a country with a population that is rivaled by the average state in Nigeria, you still hear of Geneva as much as of Zürich, Basel, Bern or Lausanne.

Dubai is so well-known across the world, many people think it is a country of its own, whereas it is in reality just a part of the United Arab Emirates, a country whose capital is actually Abu Dhabi!

In the United States of America, whereas Washington DC is the capital, numberless and quite strategic departments and agencies are headquartered elsewhere.

The Center for Disease Control, CDC, is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia; the US Nuclear Weapons' Command (what arguably makes them the world's most powerful country) is headquartered in Massachusetts; the gold bullion of America, the national wealth of the world's richest country in solid gold, is not kept in Washington but in Fort Knox in the state of Kentucky!

It is very difficult to find a single state in America where something critical to the wellbeing of their country is not located, unlike in Nigeria where we have had this utterly retrogressive and quite inequitable practice of concentrating everything in a particular place to the detriment of other parts of the country.

Washington State is known for Boeing and Microsoft; Michigan is known for General Motors, Chrysler, Ford, etc; Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania for steel and Akron, Ohio for tyres; Silicon Valley is in California; Houston, Texas is known for the oil industry and so on and so forth unlike in Nigeria where an head office had initially even been earmarked for the Nigerian Ports Authority, NPA, in Abuja where there is no port (that building is the present location of the Ministry of Defense) or oil companies producing crude in the Niger Delta are headquartered in Lagos!

Let us not make mountains out of molehills or display an inclination to be petty, divisive, clannish or regionalistic over everything in this country.

The Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, is and shall remain the undisputed capital city of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and no one is more committed to upholding that status quo than President Tinubu, himself.

Onokpasa, a lawyer, writes from Abuja.

As President Bola Tinubu sets up a committee to decide a new minimum wage for Nigerian civil servants, it would seem worrisome that the country’s rising inflation, currently at 28.92%, is yet to be tamed.

Economists believe the implementation of a substantial new minimum wage will hurt the economy with more than 50% inflation. This is just as the naira exchange rate to international currencies widens daily.

President Tinubu is touting a minimum wage that will be satisfactory to all, which leaves many in wonderment what that would be.

According to the World Bank, People living below the poverty line don’t have enough to meet their basic needs. Countries typically define national poverty lines, using the lines of a group of the poorest countries to define the international extreme poverty line of $1.90 per day.

Currently, at the rate of N1,520/$, a N30,000 monthly wage is worth 66 cents per day, which is far below the poverty line.

If the committee set up to recommend a new minimum wage, does it by the World Bank’s standard, that means the next minimum wage must be at least N84,474, going by the current exchange rate to the dollar.

Considering the fact that the civil service across the states and the federal government is at least 1.7 million, an addition of at least N50,000 per civil servant would mean infusing N85 billion into the economy every month, or N1.02 trillion every year.

Without value addition in terms of productivity, the government will resort to printing or borrowing money endlessly to meet its recurrent expenditure, which would in turn cause massive demand-pull inflation.

The President said his administration hopes to surpass the basic Social Protection Floor for all Nigerian workers, considering the sustainable payment capacity of each tier of government for employers or businesses.

Veteran stockbroker and lecturer at Adeleke University, Professor Tayo Bello, told Nairametrics that increasing wages in Nigeria during a period of rising inflation could initially provide relief to workers by improving their purchasing power and standard of living. He said higher wages may contribute to a boost in consumer spending, potentially stimulating economic activity.

• “However, the downside is that this wage increase might exacerbate inflationary pressures. As businesses face higher labor costs, they may pass on these expenses to consumers through increased prices for goods and services. This, in turn, could create a feedback loop, with rising wages fueling further inflation,” he said.

Dr. Tosin Olaleye, an economic affairs analyst, also told Nairametrics that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), which make up more than 96% of businesses in Nigeria, may be particularly vulnerable to increased wage costs, potentially leading to layoffs or business closures.

He said this could negatively impact employment levels and overall economic productivity. He also said depending on how well the minimum wage is managed, the exercise could increase the rate of inflation by as much as 50%

Special Advisor to President Bola Tinubu on PEBEC and Investment, Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, revealed that 39.7 million MSMEs in Nigeria today account for roughly 96% of businesses and 88% of jobs.

Financial economist at Ebonyi State University, Dr. Nelson Nkwo, noted that the government may need to implement complementary policies to manage the potential negative effects of wage increases, such as tightening monetary policy to control inflation and providing support to affected businesses through targeted interventions.

• He said striking a balance between addressing the legitimate demands for higher wages and managing inflationary pressures is crucial for achieving sustainable economic growth.” Policymakers must carefully consider the broader economic implications and adopt a comprehensive approach to ensure a harmonious and stable economic environment,” he stated.

Drawing strength from the outcome of the Udoji Commission in 1972, Nkwo said, “I fear we may have another bout of uncontrollable inflation, maybe above 50%, if the wage increase is not properly managed.”

Also speaking, the chief executive of Anthill Concepts Limited, Dr. Emeka Okengwu, stated that it is more appropriate to be talking about living wage because living wage takes into consideration what minimum wage does not.

He said a living wage would contain three major factors, including energy cost, which would include electricity and transportation, education, and the cost of food and healthcare.

He caveated that this cannot be achieved without productivity because it cannot be accomplished with imported goods and services such as energy and health facilities.

He also cautioned that it’s only a small percentage of Nigerians that are in paid employment and a smaller percentage of Nigerians in the civil service.

According to the Anker Reference Value Update Rural Nigeria 2023, the Living Income for 2023 is NGN 232,948 (USD 383). This update takes into account the amount of inflation to mid-2023 for the country since mid-2020.

Accumulated inflation in this period was 68.0%. “Without accounting for inflation, the living income estimated in 2020 would not be sufficient for families to have a basic but decent standard of living in 2023, because the purchasing power of the living income would have decreased.

The Coordinator of the Independent Shareholders Association of Nigeria, Moses Igbrude, and Professor Tayo Bello agreed that increasing the minimum wage will not be the ultimate solution to the underlying problem laborers face.

Speaking separately, they cited that the government needs to improve the country’s productivity, especially in the agriculture and manufacturing sectors.

Igbrude noted that an increase in the minimum wage at this time would reduce the value of the increase in no time because there are no measures in place to curb the rising inflation and the sliding value of the naira, which is another major cause of inflation.

[Nairametrics]

Nigeria is the second-largest trading partner in Africa to the United States of America, Julie Leblanc, U.S. Commercial Counselor to Nigeria, said during her speech held at the BusinessDay Africa Trade and Investment Summit.

The event organised by Africa’s business journal of international repute, BusinessDay, is currently taking place at the Eko Convention Centre, Lagos, and has had captains of industry, senior government officials, and members of some diplomatic coups in attendance, with more to speak today (Friday).

Leblanc, who stood in for Will Stevens, the U.S. Mission to Nigeria, and of Consul General, spoke about the significance of strengthening bilateral trade relations between the U.S. and Africa, and in particular Nigeria.

She emphasised the roles played by the U.S. government to reduce the trade gap between both countries.

She said, “Turning our attention to Nigeria, one of the continent’s largest economies, we recognise the vital role it plays in regional and global markets. With two-way trade exceeding $10.6 billion in 2022 and U.S. foreign direct investment totaling $5.6 billion, Nigeria stands as our second-largest trading partner in Africa.”

The U.S. envoy stated the specific areas that have helped improve this bilateral relationship, with more focus directed towards enhancements in technology, education, healthcare, and agriculture, amongst other areas.

Leblanc said, “Our partnership is increasingly technology-driven, with significant investments in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem and collaborative efforts to tackle global challenges in education, healthcare, agriculture, and other key areas.”

LeBlanc highlighted the pioneering programme of the Biden-Harris Administration, the Digital Transformation with Africa (DTA), as a demonstration of the U.S.’s commitment to enhancing productivity in its partnership, particularly with Nigeria and the entire continent of Africa.

She says, amongst several things, that the DTA is going to “expand digital access, enhance U.S.-Africa commercial relations, and strengthen digital environments in alignment with the African Union’s Digital Transformation Strategy.”

The programme was created not only to acknowledge the continent’s contribution to global trade but also, most importantly, to amplify its role in global digital transformation.

In addition to the remarkable initiatives aimed at enhancing trade relations between the world’s largest economy and Nigeria, the U.S. envoy highlighted several commendable programmes the U.S. government employs to bolster Africa’s presence on the global stage.

Among these initiatives is the U.S.-African Continental Free Trade Area Memorandum of Understanding. The U.S. government’s unwavering confidence in the programme is reflected in its investment of $160 million to support it.

According to Leblanc, “this funding supports the development of digital trade and investment protocols, stakeholder engagement across Africa, and trade facilitation efforts.

“Our focus is on expanding trade in goods and services, digital trade, and supporting the Women and Youth Protocol of the African Continental Free Trade Area.”

[BusinessDay]

Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta has revealed that Thomas Partey has suffered an injury setback.

Arteta was speaking to the media on Friday, ahead of Liverpool’s visit in the Premier League this weekend.

The club had initially confirmed that Partey was back in full training.

But the Ghana midfielder missed the 2-1 win at Nottingham Forest and will now be unavailable for the top-of-the-table fixture against the Reds.

“With Thomas unfortunately we had a little setback a few days ago. He’s not going to be available in the squad.

“We don’t know if it’s a few days or weeks. He felt something in a very similar area & he wasn’t able to train the last few days,” Arteta said.

[DailyPost

The Belgium government has sounded a warning that it is not easy to survive in Belgium, albeit Europe without a decent job.

Belgium also expressed concern over the spike in some asylum seekers from Nigeria in the post-COVID era, saying it has increased from 50 to 380 in 2023.

Freddy Roosemont, Director General, Office of Foreigners, Belgium barked out the warning while addressing journalists in Abuja on Friday.

Roosemont said right now there is no space for people to migrate to in his country, as lots of irregular migrants end up on the streets.

He therefore stressed that most dreams of a better life in Europe are nothing but eldorado; adding that it’s a dream and not a reality.

He said: “First of all, informing the people correctly, because that they often leave with a dream. If I say to the investor, you’re gonna win the lottery next week and it’s going to bring you a million euros and he believes me it will be a dream, is that dream realistic? Not at all.

“So first of all, you have to take away the dream. The dream is not real. That’s why I’m telling you and I hope that through you, the public is aware that dream is not real.

“It’s not easy to survive in Europe, without a decent job and without sort of being an employer or by a university. The dream is fake.

“The second thing is, of course, we have legal migration, but legal migration will not be for 10,000 for 5000 people. It will be for some people who have gone through some conditions. Somebody who wants to study in Belgium is very welcome. But he first has to show to the university that he will be capable of following the studies there in English, that if he’s studying medicine he has a sort of basics to study medicine, and if he wants to become an engineer, that he has a technical knowledge that he is good in maths and so on. So there it’s the division University is going to select who they let it was not only from Nigeria, it’s from everywhere in the world like that.

“The work possibilities are there, but it will be a Belgium employer who is looking for somebody who can fill a position in his company, and he has connections, he knows that you’re capable of doing so that he asks at the Belgium service of labour if he can contact you give you a contract and get you over family reunification is easy to do.

“So you need a family you need a wife and your children. But those three are the three main levels of legal migration.”

He also warned that coming to Belgium to seek asylum would not work, as there is a low chance of obtaining a residence permit.

“So at that moment, we have to limit the reception of asylum seekers only to people who are vulnerable and that means families, women with children. No man alone, not in that group.

“So for the moment there are lots of these asylum seekers living in Brussels on the street, and I can assure you the temperature in Brussels is not what it is here in Abuja. It got to minus seven, minus five. Now it’s around zero Celsius.

“So it’s really not easy to survive in Brussels without help without assistance.

“We are by law obliged to give that assistance but we simply can’t do it because places are filled up or simply filled up. It’s a very painful situation for Belgium, but it’s like that if you look at the newspapers, if you look at the journals, if you walk in the streets in Brussels, you’re going to see everywhere, people sleeping on the streets and people trying to survive without any help.

“Secondly, we also see that a lot of people, especially girls are forced into prostitution in the big cities.

 “If we find girls like that, we try to help them we try to help them to come to come them the people come keep guilty of that.”

He also added that certain procedures in the Belgium Justice Department would help girls who want to leave the profession. So we get quite good information about what they have to do and what they earn. And they earn nothing, their passport will be taken away from them. Their humanity will be taken away from them and they will end up there and that’s why you have to inform your public, the people of Nigeria, the youth of Nigeria that things like that are still going on in Europe and Belgium.

Roosemont pleaded with the media to help educate the people, saying “Notifying the youth that it’s not the dream to go to Europe to go to Belgium is not realistic and it’s very dangerous. So that’s why I making that brief. That’s also the reason why we were here in Nigeria the last week to try to inform the youth directly or indirectly, that the thing that they hope is not realistic. It’s a very dangerous thing.”

A Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday dismissed a preliminary objection challenging the competence of the Inspector General of  Police to prosecute them on terrorism-related offences.

The defendants Chime Eguma Ezebalike, Prince Lukman Oladele, Kenneth Goodluck Kpasa, Osiga Donald, and Ochueja Thankgod, who are loyalists of the Rivers state governor, Simialayi Fubara, are standing trial on terrorism-related charges and alleged murder.

The IGP had instituted the charges against them following their alleged role in the bombing of the Rivers State House of Assembly in October 2023.

When the charges were read to the defendants, they all pleaded not guilty.

In a preliminary objection filed through their counsel,  the defendants urged the court to stop the trial of the terrorism-related offence preferred against them as only the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice could try them on such an offence.

Justice Mobolaji Olajuwon, in a ruling on their preliminary objections on Friday, held that the defendants were wrong in their claims that only the AGF can put them on trial.

Justice Olajuwon said that the law, especially sections 3, 63, and 74 of the Terrorism Prevention Act, were clear to the effect that the AGF is Constitutional. Power to strengthen the terrorism prevention law, the same sections did not confer the exclusive rights to prosecute on the AGF.

The Judge said that while section 5 of the Terrorism Prevention Act confers the responsibility of gathering intelligence and investigation on police, the same section donated rights to Police to initiate criminal charges in a competent court of jurisdiction.

Specifically, Justice Olajuwon held that while the AGF, under section 174 of the 1999 Constitution, can lawfully take over, continue, or terminate any initiated criminal charges, such right did not make trial an exclusive right of the AGF.

“From the cursory look at all the authorities cited by lawyers for and against the IGP rights to initiate the instant criminal proceedings, one thing is clear too, that police can rightly initiate criminal charges including terrorism charges”.

The Judge said that the preliminary objections to the trial by the defendants were incompetent and lacking in merit.

Olajuwon subsequently dismissed their objections.

After the ruling, the counsel for the first and second defendants, Lukman Fagbemi (SAN), urged the court to grant bail to his clients.

But the counsel for the prosecution, Simon Lough (SAN), opposed the application.

Justice Olajuwon, however, fixed Monday, February 5, for ruling on their respective bail applications.

Justice Olajuwon ordered that the five defendants be returned to Kuje Prison in Abuja pending the decision of the Court on whether to allow them on bail or not.

[Punch]

. . . fourth time is less than 14 months

The Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, has approved an increase in the import duty rate by 43 percent.

Importers and stakeholders in trading woke up on Friday to find the increase in the exchange rate, which before now was set at N951.842 per $1 as of December 2024, taken up to N1356.42.

Reacting to the development, Chief Executive Officer of the Center for the Promotion of Private Enterprises, CPPE, Dr. Muda Yusuf, expressed shock at the development, saying that the increase will further worsen the already bad economic situation.

Yusuf wondered if anybody was advising the Governor of the CBN on the implications of these actions.

He said, “I am shocked at the development, I mean with all these suffering, with all these costs, we have not recovered from the unification of the exchange rate they just did, now another increase in duty.

“This increase will definitely affect every area of our economic life, already; we recorded a drop in the volume of import last year, so you imagine what will happen with this increment.

“The sharp depreciation and the increment of import duty will no doubt affect the volume of trade because the cost of import is going to increase significantly and this will affect practically all the key components of cost.

“That is the cost of transportation, the cost of shipment, the cost of clearing and this will slow down the velocity and the tempo of activities in the maritime sector. And that tempo has already reduced anyway and it further reduces.”

He warned against the upward review of the exchange rate for the computation of import duty, adding that it would be devastating for both the economy and the citizens.

Speaking in a similar vein, former Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Shippers Council, Mr. Hassan Bello, said that the velocity of the exchange rate is affecting every sector of the economy, adding that the country needs to export more than import.

He said, “As the Naira further depreciates against the Dollar, we will have less importation.”

[Vanguard]

I WILL be surprised if truthfully, the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, is surprised by the exit of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger Republic from the organisation.

The countries had in a joint statement on Sunday, January 29, 2024 announced on their state television stations, an immediate withdrawal, alleging that ECOWAS had “moved away from the ideals of its founding fathers and pan-Africanism.”

In an obvious reference to an initial threat by ECOWAS to militarily invade Niger and restore civilian rule, the troika claimed: “Furthermore, ECOWAS, under the influence of foreign powers, betraying its founding principles, has become a threat to its member states and its populations whose happiness it is supposed to ensure.”

They claimed that while pursuing punitive sanctions against them, ECOWAS “… notably failed to assist these states in their existential fight against terrorism and insecurity.”

 The Commission’s unserious response was that it is “… yet to receive any direct formal notification from the three member states about their intention to withdraw from the Community”.

The withdrawal is not an “intention” as ECOWAS claims, but a done deal as the three countries made public and formal statements withdrawing from ECOWAS. It is another matter if they decide not to bother sending a formal withdrawal notification to ECOWAS. I am not sure there is any court or power that can force the countries to give the mandatory one year notice of withdrawal.

Also, ECOWAS seeks to give the impression that it was caught off guard by the decision of the troika. This is not good for the image of the Commission because the three countries had in the past four months clearly shown by their deeds and utterances, that they are leaving ECOWAS.

For instance, on September 16, 2023, they announced the formation of what was essentially a parallel commission called the Alliance of Sahel States, ASS (French: l’Alliance des États du Sahel, AES).

The announced objectives of the ASS include mutual defense, economic and monetary union and a common currency called Sahel. These three objectives are in fact, more concrete than those of ECOWAS which after 49 years of existence, has no defence pact, is still far from being an effective economic union, and whose common currency, the ECO, is virtually stillbirth. So, with the ASS in place, how can ECOWAS be surprised by the formal exit of those countries?

Three days before the announced withdrawal, an ECOWAS Ministerial Mission to Niamey, Niger Republic, to discuss the future of the country with the ruling junta did not show up. ECOWAS blamed this on technical issues with the aircraft it had chartered. It speaks volumes about the competence of ECOWAS that there was no alternative arrangement for such an important delegation after the Ministers might have flown to Abuja from their various countries.

The withdrawal of the three countries, whose size constitutes 54 per cent of the total ECOWAS landmass, should call for a state of emergency, including an Extraordinary Summit of the Heads of State.

So, even if the reasons the countries have given for the withdrawal are self-serving, ECOWAS ought to look into them, respond accordingly and take immediate steps to mend the cracks. The Commission folding its hands, waiting for the mandatory one-year withdrawal notice, is not a viable option. This is more so, when there is a high probability of Guinea, another member country under military rule, joining the new alliance.

If the ASS thrives, the possibility of more countries in the region joining it is high. If that were to be the case, ECOWAS would split into two and some countries may have one leg each in the two regional bodies.

In truth, ECOWAS suffers from lack of focus, vision and strategic thinking. In 2017, it bogged itself down with the completely unnecessary intrigues of whether or not Morocco, a country in North Africa, should be admitted into its fold.

ECOWAS sanctions against regimes ought to be handled in such a way that it would not adversely affect the collective fight against terrorism which envelops countries like Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad. Simply shutting in Niger, isolating it, imposing punitive sanctions, including food and electricity, and wanting to invade it, was not a wise decision.

Also, ECOWAS has failed to even discuss, not to talk of addressing the fundamental issues of France imposing its will on French-speaking ECOWAS countries, nakedly exploiting them, compelling them to under- sell their commodities, and forcing a currency regime on them.

Again ECOWAS seems to have a very narrow view of democracy as an electoral process to the exclusion of good governance and service delivery, as well as the welfare and security of the people.

Even its view of constitutional rule is parochial, as it does not take on board elected political leaders who rape the constitution. For instance, Cote d’Ivoire President, Alassane Ouattara, is on an illegal third term in office. His fellow pro-France friend, President Macky Sall of Senegal, tried to run for an unconstitutional third term which threw the country into chaos. Only an uprising stopped Blaise Campore from a third term in Burkina Faso, while the Guinean President Alpha Conde was ousted from office in September 2021, after he forced an unconstitutional third term on the populace.

Today, there are protests in Guinea Bissau against the government shutting down the National Peoples Assembly. As usual, ECOWAS has turned a blind eye, would not discuss such unconstitutional steps, and is unlikely to call the government to order.

So, there is an urgent need for ECOWAS to look inwards, refocus, rebuild and set goals, including greater trade amongst members, monetary and economic integration, common currency, and a defence pact. It also needs to aggregate the interests of the region and defend them against external interests. Most importantly, it needs to move from the Assembly of Heads of State with a tokenistic parliament and a court whose decisions are hardly respected to a union of peoples with sovereignty over all powers in the region.

Nigeria, whose population constitutes about half the 420 million people in West Africa and accounts for 77 per cent of its trade, is best placed to lead the ECOWAS reforms. However, it must first think clearly beyond its illusionary beliefs in so-called market forces, make governance people-driven than elite-centred, and be governed by monetary politics. It also needs to be independent of all countries no matter how powerful, rich or seemingly benevolent.

If Nigeria gets it right, West Africa is likely to get it right; if Nigeria is not shamed, ECOWAS will not be shamed. The cracks in ECOWAS need to be mended, not widened.

“The fraught debate on slavery is largely absent in Africa, even though Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade. Africans raided for slaves often in connivance with local chiefs and then acted as middlemen with European and Arab purchasers”. 

In sheer exasperation at the tragic enormity of it all, this subject matter grew out of a conversation I recently had with some friends. We wondered aloud why Nigeria and Africa appear stuck in the mud of underdevelopment with no discernable prospects of a silver lining in the dark horizon. Yet it is not the case that Nigeria has never experienced capacity for sustained development. The trio of Obafemi Awolowo, Nnamdi Azikiwe and Ahmadu Bello were, without any equivocation, an advertisement for development oriented and utilitarian leadership. 

To put it in the horse’s mouth, here was Awolowo at his frank and assertive best (in 1955) “the British did not have the true interests of the country at heart. In fourteen months, under the present government, we have done more for Nigeria than the British did in 120 years.” In the defunct Eastern region, “after the implementation of Arthur D Little’s recommended growth plan, the East’s economy grew at more than 9.2%, starting from 1958 till 1967 when the war tragically interrupted the sterling momentum…At over 9%, the Eastern Region in this period, had the fastest growing economy on earth consistently for 9 years”.

Yet, here we are, several decades along, wondering whether the Hamitic hypothesis of the congenital servitude of the black race was true after all. How do we account for the prevalent vicious cycle of the comprehensive development failure of Nigeria and Africa from which there seems to be no way out?. What follows (essentially speculative) is an attempt to reexamine the nexus between this failure and the phenomenon of slavery from an entirely new perspective.

It is a metatheoretical  perspective that borrows from the philosophy of post modernism which rejects ‘concepts of rationality, objectivity, and universal truth and emphasizes the diversity of human experience and multiplicity of perspectives’. At the convocation ceremony of the University of Lagos Professor Toyin Falola demonstrated an aptitude for this tradition with his advocacy ‘that the Yoruba knowledge and divination system, Ifa, as well as witchcraft be more vigorously studied in Nigerian universities, taking better advantage of systems of knowledge developed by Africans’.

Integral to the unholy trinity of slavery, imperialism and racism, it is trite to restate the truism that the injury dealt to Africa by slavery is monumental, colossal and unparalleled. To bring back the subject matter to focus, we will do well to refresh our memory with the recall of a number of apt iconic recollections. 

In a recent review of Walter Rodney’s classic “how Europe Underdeveloped Africa”, George Apata restated Rodney’s position on slavery: “Slavery was not only one of the greatest forced migrations of people in human history, but it was also possibly the greatest evacuation of manpower from one part of the world to another. The estimated 10-12 million Africans that were removed from the continent over a period of five centuries had a great impact on African underdevelopment. The consequence of this forced migration not only depleted but deprived Africa of its ablest young men and women, the very manpower that was required for development”. 

Peter Ekeh had this to say “African states in the pre-slave trade era decidedly attained greater cultural heights than the states operating  under the aegis of the violence of the slave trade. In this respect, a condition of cultural creativity .. . is most unlikely to belong to the kind of state that owes its existence or its greatness to slavery or the slave trade. [It is remarkable] that the acknowledged masterpieces of the Benin and Ife artists were produced before the end of the seventeenth century and that aesthetic decadence set in precisely when the slave trade was becoming the dominant mode of economic and social life”

Less said is the culpability of Africans in this historic injury. Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani pointedly drew attention to this lapse in the observation that “the fraught debate on slavery is largely absent in Africa, even though Africans were deeply involved in the slave trade. Africans raided for slaves often in connivance with local chiefs and then acted as middlemen with European and Arab purchasers. She recounts stories of the ambivalence of at least some Africans about the role of their ancestors in the slave trade. She reports that Donald Duke, former governor of Cross river state and a good-government presidential candidate in the 2019 Nigerian elections, acknowledges that his ancestors participated in the slave trade. However, Duke says “I’m not ashamed of it because I personally wasn’t directly involved.”

In the rise and fall of transatlantic slave trade, no figure looms larger than the celebrated American president, Abraham Lincoln. Highly reputed for his eloquence and deep insight into the dilemma of mankind, he adjudged slavery as a sin that inherently invites retribution. Noted Lincoln “One eighth of the whole population (of the United States) were coloured slaves, not distributed generally over the Union, but localised in the Southern part of it. 

These slaves constituted a peculiar and powerful interest. All knew that this interest was, somehow, the cause of the civil war. To strengthen, perpetuate, and extend this interest was the object for which the insurgents would rend the Union, even by war; while the government claimed no right to do more than to restrict the territorial enlargement of it”. 

“Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces;  Fondly do we hope–fervently do we pray–that this mighty scourge of war may speedily pass away. Yet, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”

The related theme of the”Hamitic hypothesis”, originally referred to the peoples said to be descended from Ham, one of the sons of Noah. According to the Book of Genesis, after Noah became drunk and Ham dishonoured his father, upon awakening Noah pronounced a curse on Ham’s youngest son, Canaan, stating that his offspring would be the “servants of servants”. Of Ham’s four sons, Canaan fathered the Canaanites, while Mizraim fathered the Egyptians, Cush the Cushites, and Phut the Libyans. According to the Hamitic theory, this “Hamitic race” was superior to or more advanced than the “Negroid” populations of Sub-Saharan Africa”.

Beyond being totally discredited, my difficulties with the Hamitic theory centre on the fact that it is scriptural rather than factual. We have no way of finding out whether indeed there was a Noah who begot the children attributed as his progeny. Second is that, if indeed there was such a parentage and bloodline, the sin of stealing a glance at a father’s nakedness is incomparable to selling off a sibling. If we accept the Hamitic hypothesis, then there will be no further need to seek explanation for slavery. 

My speculation is that beyond the manifest, material and historic devastation and arrested development wrought on Africa by slavery, there is the sin of the spiritual culpability of Africans themselves in enslaving and casting away their own into the cauldron and oblivion of sub-human existence. Quite reminiscent of the wickedness of the older children of Jacob, who sold their junior brother, Joseph, into slavery. We were similarly informed in Genesis, that ‘Abel, a shepherd, offered the Lord the firstborn of his flock. The Lord respected Abel’s sacrifice but did not respect that offered by Cain. In a jealous rage, Cain murdered Abel. Cain then became a fugitive because his brother’s innocent blood put a curse on him’. 

In my imagination, so, likewise, has Africa invited a curse on itself for its unforgivable dealership in the beastly market of the slave trade. Of great consequence were the silent invocation of damnation of those condemned to eternal servitude by their kit and kin- as they were herded onto the decks of the evil carriers taking them on a voyage of no return.. Between the African partakers and their Euro/American counterparts, the balance of sinning more than being sinned against falls on the former. It may amount to double jeopardy, yet if there should be a divine retribution, it should fall more heavily on those who connived with foreigners to dehumanise their brethren. 

But what about the other party to the tragedy?. It appears that a specific and adequate retribution was provided by the American civil war in which brothers spilled one another’s blood over the institution of slavery. As eloquently stated by Lincoln “if God wills that the civil war should continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man’s two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said “the judgments of the Lord, are true and righteous altogether”. 

Why, then, for instance, was the United Kingdom, UK, spared a similar slavery- specific retributive justice? I do not have an answer to this poser beyond being granted a providential reprieve on account of the proactive role of the British in the abolition of slave trade. And Europe as a whole? Again, I cannot stretch my imagination beyond the tenuous interpretation of the visitation of the two world wars as retribution. . 

What about Donald Duke and the scriptural penalty of visiting the sin of the fathers on the offspring? Well, God asked me to tell him to set his mind at rest. In the book of Romans: “The apostle Paul argues that, from a certain point of view, human sin and death are a corporate problem rather than an individual one.