President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has returned to the country after a two-day State visit to Qatar at the invitation of the Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

Naija News had reported earlier that the Nigerian leader left the Presidential wing of the Doha International Airport on Monday morning and arrived at the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, in the evening.

Tinubu, who arrived around 6:37 pm, was received on arrival by senior government officials led by Vice President Kashim Shettima.

Other officials who received the President include his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila; the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike; the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), Abdullahi Ganduje; and Director General of the Department of State Service (DSS) Yusuf Bichi.

During his visit to the Arabian nation, the President met with investors at the Nigeria-Qatar Business and Investment Forum in Doha on Sunday.

President Tinubu and His Highness, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Emir of the State of Qatar, also presided over the signing of landmark agreements between Nigeria and Qatar.

Tinubu also witnessed the signing of various bilateral agreements concerning critical sectors of education, enterprise development, investment promotion, youth empowerment, mining, tourism, and sports.

Also, during the business/investment forum, he spoke to the Qatari business community about the vast investment opportunities available in Nigeria with an almost unbelievable return on investment, assuring them of his administration’s resolve to make Nigeria the best investors’ destination anywhere in the world.

Amid our current economic challenges, it has become obvious that all hands must be on deck as we search for lasting solutions. It does not matter what our political interests and affiliations might be; what we have on our hands calls for patriotism, collaboration and sense of national pride. Hunger and anger go hand- in-hand, and the last thing we want is a mob action in any part of the country arising from starvation, malnutrition and hunger in the land.

The mob has no mind of its own and it is usually characterised by a breakdown of law and order: violence, looting, brigandage, and a general sense of insecurity. Pockets of protests that are meant to be peaceful are sometimes hijacked by hoodlums.

On Sunday March 3, it was reported that some residents in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Abuja, looted a warehouse belonging to the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) over the current economic hardships in the country. The warehouse, according to the reports, is located in the Karimo Phase 3 region, Abuja.

President Tinubu and state governors must as a matter of national emergency prevent the looming social unrest over hunger and unemployment.

Some people would argue that the mismanagement of our economy over the years resulting in our current hardships is all part of life’s rich tapestry, but I disagree. With the increasing misery index around us compounded by the run-away inflation of goods and services, what can state governors do to make a difference in their respective states? What did they do with the initial N2 billion intervention fund for each state which the federal government disbursed?

Clearly, only those who have access to privileges – family members, former colleagues, old school mates, political and business associates, girlfriends, and concubines – are the ones smiling because they have been ring-fenced from the “pandemic of empty pockets.” This is a phrase popularised by Reuben Abati, former presidential spokesman and anchor of “The Morning Show” at Arise News. When you don’t have money in your pocket, what do you do?

In an article published in May last year, I challenged state governors to think outside the box and make their states centres of innovation, production, excellence and economic opportunities. Do our governors understand the meaning of multi-dimensional poverty?

More Nigerians are slipping into the poverty bracket daily, not knowing where the next meal will come from. Most families are heavily dispossessed, distressed and depressed as a result of the unbearable economic hardships. If you want to buy yam or pepper or tomatoes, you are told the price changes daily because of the volatile forex market.

If we look at the size and population of our states, most of them are the equivalents of some of the 54 countries in Africa. For example, Cape Verde that created upsets at the last Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) hosted and won by Cote d’Ivoire, has a population of 598,682 people, according to UN official statistics.

Others examples are Sierra Leone (8,791,092), Liberia (5,418,377), Mauritania (4,862, 989), Eritrea (3,748,901), Gambia (2,773,168), Botswana (2,675,352), Gabon (2,436,566), Equatorial Guinea (1,714,641), Mauritius (1,300,557), and Seychelles (107,660).

In the UN report, Nigeria was listed as having 223,804,632 people as the most populous nation in the continent. Coming after Nigeria was Ethiopia (126,527,060) with Egypt (112,716,596) at the No. 3 position.

Let no one deceive you, we are still the giant of Africa. Isn’t it evident from the population data above that some of our local government councils can also stand alone as countries? Truth be told, most state governors always underperform because they find it difficult to separate politics from governance. They are also very selfish.

Now, if our state governors are serious about developing their local economies where they currently operate like emperors, they can borrow from the Lagos State model where there has been continuity in terms of transformative leadership from one administration to the next.

If they want to look outside Nigeria, they are free to do so; after all, they are frequent first class travelers to far flung destinations of the world. A first class ticket to the UK, US, UAE, Japan, China, Germany, etc – their favourite destinations – cost over N12 million for each ticket. What of the cost of flying private jets locally? There’s too much waste going on at the subnational government level in the form of corruption and insider abuses, e.g. like paying ghost workers – funds that should be channeled into development to make the lives of the people better are diverted elsewhere.

Let the governors visit Dubai – one of the seven emirates of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) – and Singapore if they are looking for ideas on how to transform their states. To be fair, some state governors are working, and have come up with what can pass as a vision for development. Will the development ideas and implementation be sustained

Unfortunately, some governors embark on white elephant projects for political expediency. Instead, they should focus on strategic projects that are realistic, achievable, time bound, measurable and make sense.

During campaigns, politicians spend a lot of money for their elections. Fund raising is a big part of the electoral process, and running for political offices is not cheap. Those who don’t have funds of their own depend on the deep pockets of their “godfathers” and “sponsors.”

You can spend your entire life savings, in addition to borrowed funds and still lose at the polls. This is usually a major hurdle in our politics and the dilemma of the political elite. All political IOUs must be settled once our political leaders get into office.

The obligation to serve is therefore relegated to the background as those who contributed to the electoral victory of the candidates are rewarded with “juicy” appointments. But it doesn’t end there. The nature of reward is often to pocket the treasury and leave the people – who stood under the sun or rain to vote – shortchanged and stranded.

The irony is that there is no sense of outrage from these voters. They are afraid to ask questions or hold their governors to account. Even when the civil society ask the right questions and demand transparency and accountability, the effort is not sustained.

When governors get into office, they pocket their local governments, appropriate their funds and set sights on their second terms – the next big project. State governors who are ready to work have no excuse. Four years – much less eight years – is a long time to make meaningful impact and progress.

But the mistake the governors and their political parties often make is to confuse their manifestoes with the vision to achieve economic prosperity and development of their states. Politicians usually make promises that they don’t keep – those promises have become a huge joke.

You can call a vision statement a strategic plan to achieve a higher purpose. A Harvard Business School study advised leaders of organisations to always have a vision, foster a buy-in culture of the people in the organisation into that vision and share success when it is achieved. It means that from Day One, there’s a shared commitment to achieve organisational goals.

This three-step model can be adapted by state governors and our presidents in Abuja. A vision that is crafted by the governor’s team – not only by the governor – should state the road map of development with milestones, timelines, targets and resources needed to achieve the set goals. Whereas the vision is the destination, the mission statement is how to arrive at that destination – with the governor as the driver of the vehicle that is in good condition.

There will be bumps during the ride, but that should be nothing to worry about because fit-for-purpose shock absorbers would have been put in place. However, changes, where necessary, can occur so that the road map to the destination is not compromised.

What governors should worry about next is how to foster a buy-in culture of the people who voted them into office. Governors must put their people first – they should be at the heart of their development agenda.

Each state should identify where they have the greatest comparative advantage and narrow their focus to those areas, instead of becoming a jack of trades and master of none. That is how successful brands are built; each state should be known for something that would attract investment and commercial success. The whole idea is for each state to have its own revenue pipelines that are consistent with the provisions of the Constitution.

By the way, the point must be made that the Constitution as it is – before any amendments are made – does not stop state governors from creating wealth for their people. This is what led to the concept of internally generated revenue (IGR) as an additional source of revenue to what is shared in Abuja monthly to each of the three tiers of government.

The Federal Accounts Allocation Committee (FAAC) shared N1.15 trillion as January 2024 allocation to the federal, states and local government councils. But these FAAC allocations have made many state governors lazy. It is the main reason why our politics are a do-or-die affair, because whoever gets into office as governor presides over the treasury for four years, or even eight years.

Lagos State, with a population of about 24 million people, according to the World Economic Forum (WEF), is the fifth largest economy in Africa, and it ranks as a state that can survive without FAAC allocations from Abuja. How many other states can also stand up to be counted? Maybe only a handful. That’s a shame, yet we claim fiscal federalism. What does it mean anyway if states cannot fend for themselves?

I like what Alex Otti, the governor of Abia State, is doing. He has started well, and I hope he will sustain his vision to transform Abia State into our own Dubai – a centre of economic prosperity and development excellence. Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Oyo, Rivers, Ebonyi, Niger, Enugu, Kaduna and Borno States – just to cite a few examples – are also on the right path.

As John Maxwell, the American author, speaker, coach, leadership expert and pastor says, “Everything rises and falls on leadership.” Our governors should lead well. Maxwell has sold more than 24 million books in 50 languages, and he is often identified as the most popular leadership expert in the world. Our governors and other political leaders can learn from him.

Since 1999, you can only imagine what each state has collected from FACC allocations which has now increased by more than 70 per cent average since June last year. But go round the most of states, and you will discover that the development on the ground does not in any way match the allocations received in 25 years.

Yet these states are in debts, and owe salaries as well as pensions. What do they do with all the money? Is it true that state governors, as alleged, raid the black market to purchase dollars at any price each time they receive their FACC allocations, thereby making the US currency expensive and unavailable?

Could it also be true that state governors and other government officials always save up dollars for the next election cycle?

What is required by each state governor is fiscal discipline, sincerity, honesty, transparency and accountability, the trust of the people they serve and the fear of God. They must also lead by example, and stop behaving like shylock landlords – it is their responsibility to bring government closer to their people with the support of local government councils.

Why should Nigerians be hungry with the vast arable land that we have? Every state should be viable and a low hanging fruit for them is investment in agriculture to tackle food insecurity.

In my earlier article, I explained that state governments can also generate revenue from the assets they host (i.e.rental income), in addition to significant commercial opportunities in music, film and entertainment, arts and culture, real estate development, tourism and hospitality, aviation, clothing and foot wear, and technology by building ICT hubs for our vibrant youth population.

If they truly understand how destination marketing works, they will make a lot of money. They should find out how Dubai did it.

Manufacturing, industrialisation and eye-popping infrastructure are capital intensive, but they can be long-term goals. States can also collaborate through regional cooperation to achieve shared success.

Visionary leadership is critical and any governor that has a development mindset will attract investors. But agreements must be honoured, and the integrity of the investment process must never be compromised. Investors – and that includes Nigerians in the diaspora – will always follow the money as long as they are sure of the returns of their investment.

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

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has taken both symbolic and structural actions to demonstrate his belief that the current high cost of government is not sustainable. The first was an announcement or executive order directing ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) to slash the size of official delegations for foreign and domestic trips by up to 60% — an action that resonated with the mood in the country.

The second is the federal executive council’s approval to implement Steve Oronsaye’s report on the merger and scrapping of MDAs. This structural action is a baby step, albeit good for proponents of a complete overhaul of government structure. Both measures are more symbolic than substantive. However, it clearly shows that the government realises the negative impact of high government costs on economic growth and providing services to the people. I acknowledge as a fact that a US-type presidential system tends to be big by constitutional requirements. In a country where the government is both an industry and a social welfare institution, the tendency for big expansive government is high.

Beyond the symbolic actions, which have their values, there is the need for substantive actions and a complete attitudinal change towards waste and profligacy in government. We have had enough debate on the unwieldy and inefficient size and structure of government, our leaders have enough ideas and justifications to prune down the size of government. The only ingredient left to make that happen is the political will. I can imagine the government is caught between a public opinion pressure to cut costs and a constitutional imperative to assemble a huge choir.

On attitude, most government officials have yet to come to terms with the reality of our economic downturn and the need to be more disciplined, prudent and productive. The signals from high officials of government are both depressing and insensitive. For these reasons, we are focusing today on those little acts of prudence that we do every day and, over time, will make a substantial difference.

Political officeholders must have an attitude change in ostentatious living and craving for opulence and status within the society. It is obvious to all that the pomp and festival of political office attracts a mob of political hangers-on whose presence bloats government costs. Trimming that is a matter of personal choice and strength of character.

In our clime, politics and wealth are almost synonymous; politicians compete and outcompete wealthy people in a show of wealth and power. The blaring of sirens and long motorcades of expensive and luxury SUVs conveying our political office holders in federal, state, and LGA is almost becoming a public nuisance and separating them from the people they should serve. Cutting down on this lifestyle is long overdue. This attitude flies in the face of our current reality, where many suffer and struggle for the basics. Frank Herbert, American Writer, argues, “Good governance never depends upon laws but the personal qualities of those who govern. Government machinery is always subordinate to the will of those who administer that machinery”.

We expect attitudinal change among political officeholders on abuse of official property, including official vehicles assigned to them. Many use this as personal property and sometimes even allow family members and friends to damage these properties. We must also jettison the culture of assigning many security attachés to VIP and political office holders. We know the security situation in the country is dire but wasting the existing security personnel and apparatus on a few political officeholders when many Nigerians need these security officers to work to secure their lives and properties is deplorable. Just as political officeholders’ lives matter, so do the lives of ordinary Nigerians.

Some structural changes and constitutional amendments are needed to cut down on the cost of governance in Nigeria. Cutting down on our bloated bureaucracy is essential to save costs. This is the aim of implementing the Oronsaye report. The government should reduce the number of political appointees and close inefficient public enterprises that incur losses that the government eventually covers. We cannot preach the message of fiscal prudence when the number of political appointees gets bigger every year.

Efforts have been made in Nigeria to address the high cost of governance, such as implementing cost-cutting measures and promoting transparency. However, achieving substantial changes requires a comprehensive and sustained approach, including structural reforms, anti-corruption efforts, and a focus on improving public sector efficiency. Addressing the issue of high governance costs is crucial for ensuring that resources are allocated efficiently to promote economic development and enhance the standard of living for the Nigerian people.

More disheartening is the fact that the high cost of government has not translated to administrative efficiency, quality services or high policy outcomes. Nigeria’s government effectiveness index for 2022 is -1.04, one of the worst globally. The index of government effectiveness captures the perception of the quality of public services, the effectiveness of implementing government decisions, the innovation capacity of political leadership, public healthcare, and public schools, amongst others. The maximum score is +2.5, and the minimum score is -2.5.

Our budget and expenditure on critical sectors such as education and healthcare, by percentage, has not improved over the years. The spending has also not delivered on indices. Our maternal mortality ratio is still at 814 per 100,000, while the mortality rate for infants and children under five years is 70 and 104 per 1,000 live births, respectively. This is one of the highest globally.

I recently had a two-hour discussion with the Minister of Health, Prof Ali Pate, and the Minister of State for Health, Dr Tunji Alausa. Their clarity of vision, grand strategy and commitment have raised my hopes and expectations for the healthcare sector. Watch out for a different trajectory in this sector in the immediate to near future.

The education sector indicators are similar. Government expenditure on primary education for the year 2022 is below 0.5%, the ratio of trained teachers in primary school is 62.18, and the pupil-trained teacher ratio is 49.1, all below the West African regional average. According to the USAID dashboard, the enrollment rate and government expenditure at secondary schools are also below the regional average. This abysmal data is coming out of the same country that borrows to fund the lifestyle of government officials. Nigeria and Nigerians are stranded between poverty, insecurity, dearth of infrastructure and profligacy of government officials. These statistics speak volumes and are better than any propaganda that means nothing to the average citizen.

Addressing Nigeria’s high government cost requires a multi-faceted approach involving structural reforms, fiscal responsibility, attitudinal change and increased transparency. I will articulate a few solutions that we may have to consider in reducing the cost of government. Apart from the obvious answer of fighting corruption, wastage, profligacy and implementing measures to enhance transparency in public financial management, procurement, and project execution to curb corruption, the government should first undergo a more thorough public sector review than just adopting some part of a report authored over ten years ago and may not fit in with our current realities. The government should comprehensively review its structure, eliminating duplications and streamlining ministries, agencies, and parastatals to reduce bureaucracy. This is urgent.

Second, implement a rational and transparent salary structure for public officials, aligning remuneration with economic realities and the country’s financial capacity and regularly reviewing the same and ensuring competitiveness. Third, introduce cost-cutting measures in government operations, such as reducing unnecessary travel expenses, minimising overhead costs, and optimising resource allocation. Fourth, embrace e-government through technology to enhance efficiency in government processes, reducing paperwork and associated costs. Fifth, develop a sustainable debt management strategy to reduce reliance on borrowing.

Sixth, implement and enforce fiscal responsibility laws to ensure that government spending aligns with budgetary allocations and regularly review and update budgetary priorities to reflect changing economic conditions and development needs. Finally, encourage citizen participation and oversight through platforms allowing the public to monitor government spending, hold officials accountable, and foster a culture of fiscal responsibility and transparency through public awareness campaigns.

Implementing these solutions requires strong political will, commitment from government officials, and collaboration with various stakeholders. Mr President has started to address the elephant in the room of inefficient government structure but should take a step further by empanelling full e-governance. He would also gain the trust of the people and mileage by leading by personal example on attitudinal change of government officials. The country just needs champions of fiscal discipline and probity.

 I am a fan of the WWE - Smack Down Live and RAW. I used to find such combat sports very violent and irritating, but I later found out that there are certain qualities these wrestlers exhibit that we Christians and everybody that wants to be successful need. And they are; Staying focused and alert, self-confidence, hopeful, courageous, persistence, resistance and tactical. Like John Cena will always say, “Never Give Up!” And the current Universal Champion and my favourite, the Big Dog Roman Reigns tells you to, “Believe That!” And he proves it in the ring afterwards. His is one of the most courageous human beings that I know. These men and women truly hardly give up in a fight. Even with deep pains and blood sometimes, they still fight on. They always believe it will not be over until it is over. And sometimes after a bad fight they still come back for the next match with bandages and injuries. They just keep fighting on. But I still find boxing and kick-boxing too rough. I hardly look at them at all. Now, we are not going to discuss WWE or combat sports here. No. We want to talk about wrestling, struggling with God and it simply means faithfully and tenaciously holding onto God’s promises and his words until you see them come to pass in your life or in your situation. It is holding onto God until you receive an answer to your request. It is also refusing to take no for an answer on what you know that is God’s will.  There are levels you can never attain in God until you learn how to ‘struggle’ with him.  This involves drawing God’s full attention to a particular situation or need, convincing him why he should do that, and hanging on him until he performs what you asked him to do. This is sure a very serious issue.  That is why almost every one that wrestled with God in the bible was on a matter of life and death or about destinies.  Wrestling with God demands for strength, courage, faith, time and patience, but when successful, the reward is always sweet, enduring, glorious and monumental. Let us see few examples of those that wrestled with God in the bible:

Abraham

   Look at what happened between God and Abraham, when the former was going to destroy Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham on hearing the impending divine judgment went into an immediate intercession to extricate his nephew and his family from the destruction.  He struggled, interceded and ‘wrestled’ with God to achieve this.  Read Genesis 18:22-33, “The two other men went on toward Sodom, but the Lord remained with Abraham for a while, Abraham approached him and said, ‘will you destroy both innocent and guilty alike?  Suppose you find fifty innocent people there within the city – will you still destroy it, and not spare it for their sake?  Surely you wouldn’t do such a thing, destroying the innocent with the guilty.  Why, you would be treating the innocent and the guilty exactly the same!  Surely you wouldn’t do that!  Should not the judge of all the earth do what is right?

   ‘And the Lord replied, ‘if I find fifty innocent people in Sodom, I will spare the entire city for their sake.’  Then Abraham spoke again.  ‘Since I have begun, let me go on and speak further to my Lord, even though I am but dust and ashes.  Suppose there are only forty-five, will you destroy the city for lack of five? Will you destroy the city for lack of five?’   And the Lord said, ‘I will not destroy it if I find forty-five.’  Then Abraham pressed his request further.  ‘Suppose there are only forty?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I will not destroy it if there are forty?’  ‘Please don’t be angry, my Lord,’ Abraham pleaded.  ‘Let me speak – suppose only thirty are found?’ And the Lord replied, ‘I will not destroy it if there are thirty.’ Then Abraham said ‘Since I have dared to speak to the Lord, let me continue – suppose there are only twenty?’ And the Lord said, ‘then I will not destroy it for the sake of twenty.’ Finally, Abraham said, ‘Lord, please do not get angry; I will speak but once more, suppose only ten are found there?’ And the Lord said, ‘Then, for the sake of the ten, I will not destroy it.’ Then the Lord went on his way when he had finished his conversation with Abraham, and Abraham returned to his tent.”

    Wow! A master intercessor indeed! This was a very complex targeted intercession. It was indeed a ‘wrestling match’.  It’s unfortunate that ten righteous persons could not be found in the whole of Sodom, otherwise, this great intercessor would have successfully saved the whole city. Can we find any righteous people around us today? May God help us! This should be a model for any would-be intercessor. You must be patient, persistent, humble, alert, focused and articulating.  Abraham persisted and struggled until he was able to save his nephew Lot and his family from that destruction.  That was a typical wrestling match with God.  Abraham did not give up until he achieved his objective. What is it that you want from God? What do you believe him for? It is time to turn it into a spiritual wrestling match. Yes.  Fight for it! You have to fight as if your whole life depends on it. And in most cases, it does. True. We are in a war.  Life is war. Christianity is war. Success is war. If you don’t win that battle you will become a victim or a casualty - your life, your career, your future, your family, your destiny, your joy and prosperity may be taken away from you forever. You must get up now and fight. You must wake up and pray it out!  Call out those things you need that do not exist into existence. Yes, all things are possible! When you refuse to give up, God will not just bless you, but will also turn you into a blessing to humanity. Learn more from my book / audiobook Power of Midnight Prayer by Gabriel Agbo. Please, we will continue. Share this message with others. God bless you!

Vice President Kashim Shettima has disclosed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration is facing the difficult and challenging task of fixing the problems confronting Nigeria.

Shettima said the current administration has no plans of deceiving Nigerians or making life more difficult for citizens.

This was as he assured that the current economic challenges confronting the country would soon be over.

He spoke yesterday in Lagos during the 29th pre-Ramadan lecture organised by the University of Lagos Muslim Alumni, UMA, with the theme, “Economic Reforms for Nigeria: Challenges and Prospects for the Future.”

Represented by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the Vice President urged Nigerians to react to the current realities “in a responsible and mature manner.”

He said: “Yet, my brothers and sisters, we do not have the choice of continuing in the direction that brought us where we are today. We have to fix this country, and failure to do this is not an option. All the options we have are difficult and challenging, and they are, without a doubt, more telling on the poor. If there are easier and reliable alternatives to the policy choices we have adopted, we would have adopted them.

“Our administration does not plan to make the lives of Nigerians more difficult. Nor do we intend to deceive fellow citizens that the change in direction and the expected outcome can be achieved without pain or sacrifices.

“We are also acutely aware that ours is a set of related Nigerian problems, and the solutions we seek must be genuinely informed by a Nigerian context, not the experiences of others or the preferences of special foreign interests which are removed from consequences of mis-steps or errors of judgement.

“We expect that Nigerians should express their feelings over our circumstances in a responsible and mature manner. We are also a deeply religious people, and we believe in the powers of faith and prayers.”

[DailyPost]

The Special Adviser to Lagos State Governor on Housing, Barakat Odunuga-Bakare, has disclosed that the state’s monthly rental scheme will be enforced before the end of 2024 or early next year.

She stated it during a recent press briefing of the Lagos State Real Estate Regulatory Authority in Ikeja, Lagos.

She said, “We all see what is being done in other climes, rents are collected monthly. Hence, we are looking and hoping that before the end of the year, or by early next year, we will be able to implement the policy of monthly rental. Also, the rental would be charged according to tenants’ earnings.

“The good part about it is that we would be test-running it first within the public sector since we can ascertain how much everybody is earning, and once we see that it works in the public sector, we can now push it out to the private sector.”

Odunuga-Bakare reiterated that the N5bn allocated for the monthly rental scheme was still set aside and untouched.

She added that the fact that the scheme was slow to take off showed that the Lagos State Government was still trying to perfect one thing or the other.

She noted, “The last administration that initiated the monthly rental scheme was coming to an end when the scheme was to be introduced.  Now, we have a new administration and the governor wants the scheme to come into effect by the end of this year or early next year.”

Recall that in 2021, the Governor of Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had said the current rental model in which people pay yearly rent in advance to property owners has become inadequate to address contemporary realities in the housing sector, especially in cities where demand for property is high and expensive.

Sanwo-Olu advocated rental policy

The governor advocated a monthly rental system, which he said would be affordable to low- and middle-income earners pressured by the yearly rent obligation.

Sanwo-Olu made the recommendation at the 10th meeting of the National Council on Lands, Housing and Urban Development held in Lagos recently.

He urged policymakers to consider the suggestion and initiate a regulatory framework that would aid the transition to a new rental system.

The governor said Lagos was already working out monthly rent modalities to accommodate residents not keen on the state’s homeownership scheme.

He said, “In Lagos, we operate a very robust rent-to-own programme of five per cent down payment and six per cent simple interest rate payable over 10 years. We are working on another product, which is a purely rental system, where residents will pay monthly.”

The then Minister of Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, corroborated Sanwo-Olu’s position, stressing that the yearly rental system had created inequality in the housing supply and widened the affordability gap for low-income earners.

[Punch]

“Nigeria can’t be tired of helping the poor. Forget about the government and its voodoo economics on subsidy. The social consequences of mass hunger are never pleasant. The developed world today has various social safety nets for vulnerable families and individuals in poverty. The society that does this is neither stupid nor is it a spendthrift. It has simply come to accept that people can be poor without being hungry. My people say when hunger is removed from poverty, poverty is dead. Looting of stores and trucks are bad omens. These acts nudge us to wake up and act responsibly. We may not eradicate poverty but every good society, from the earliest times, knows that the way to peace and security is in taking starvation out of people’s poverty.”

Wise old Tortoise sat his children down. “My dear ones, two things are essential for your growth and wellbeing in life: Always tell the truth, and never ever take whatever is not yours.” The attentive children nodded; they promised to do as their father counseled. They bowed before their dad and left. Four years down the road, there was a severe famine in the land. Food was as scarce as masquerade’s shit. Husbands bartered their wives for grains; wives traded their husbands for a basket of yam. It was as bad as Ireland’s Great Hunger of 1845 which killed one million out of a population of eight million people.

Upright Tortoise’s household was hit by this mother-of-all-famines. There were casualties in his neighborhood. His own children may soon join the fallen. Tortoise panicked. What was he going to do? He talked to himself. He went out one day and came back home with a solution to hunger in his home. On his head was a big basket containing a variety of food items. Tortoise told his children that he found the foodstuffs abandoned in the forest. “It must have been God at work,” he told his children. His disappointed children exchanged looks. They knew that their father had just lied. He stole the items and they told him so: “Father, but you told us never to take what is not ours, and never to lie.” Embarrassed, Tortoise could only mutter some incoherent words. Then he found his voice: “I did it for you, my children. These are terrible times.”

This last Friday at a place called Dogarawa near Zaria, a truck driver transporting cartons of noodles thought it was time to say his Jumat prayers. He parked his BUA truck and joined the congregation. Like predatory soldier ants swarming a bunch of palm nuts, an army of looters invaded the truck and stripped it of every item it was carrying. “Not a single carton of the noodles the truck was carrying was left by the hoodlums,” an eyewitness told a reporter. The driver was helpless. The people he shared the prayer ground with largely made up the looting party. The invaders left the mosque for the truck. They were contemptuous of the law and disdainful of morality. They had no fear of God to whom they prayed. They chose food over faith. “Ba imani (they have no faith),” a disappointed man who video-recorded the event lamented. Ten of the looters were arrested. I will be shocked if the looters agree that they committed any offence.

“Hunger makes a thief of any man” is a popular quote among famine and poverty scholars. It is originally from Pearl Buck’s 1931 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Good Earth. The book is the first volume of her House of Earth trilogy which largely contributed to her winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1938. The novel’s protagonist, poverty-stricken Wang Lung, nurses a starving family. One day, one of his sons brings home stolen meat. Wang Lung sees the stolen item and vows that his sons must not grow up to become thieves. In anger, he throws away the stolen meat. But his wife disagrees – there is a family to feed. She gets up, calmly picks up the meat and cooks it. Wang Lung may deplore that act of thievery and his wife’s disgraceful act of receiving a stolen property, but the hungry must eat. The food is ready; the family eats the forbidden and washes it down with cold water. Fast-forward to years of unremitting poverty and hunger. The same upright Wang Lung later in the story joins a food riot, invades a rich man’s house, takes all the rich man’s money and builds his wealth from the heist.

I am scared because rain does not fall on one roof. In 2024 Lagos, a stampede for rice killed many. Yesterday (Sunday), there were reports of yet another invasion of a government warehouse in Gwagwa, Abuja, by looters of stored food items. Some of the looters probably left Sunday’s church service to partake in the looting. A week before the Zaria truck looting incident, some trailers loaded with foodstuffs in the Suleja area of Niger State suffered the same fate. Bags of rice and other food items in the vehicles were looted by wanton boys and girls. The loot-takers probably thought they were poor because the truck owners were rich. Such a line of thought is dangerous. It is equally dangerous to assume that the hungry are responsible for their own hunger and should, therefore, fix themselves.

Jibia is a border town in Nigeria’s North-West. One Sade Rabiu, a leader of that community, told Qatar-based Aljazeera last week that his people were dying of hunger. “Poverty can lead to theft and murder…anything for survival,” the community leader was quoted as saying. What he said was very unpleasant but may be brutally true. Colonial archives are replete with records of hunger-induced crimes in every corner of Nigeria. Kostadis Papaioannou in 2014 did extensive work on this issue covering the years between 1912 and 1945. He quotes documents and persons; he cites books. He uses “historical newspapers and government reports to explore food shortages, crop-price spikes and outbreaks of violence.” The picture you get after reading his 43-page report tells you that what we saw in Zaria on Friday and in Abuja yesterday were simply a reenactment of the blights of the last century. Nothing new is happening under our heavens. The poor have refused to change in their larcenous reaction to hunger; the society has remained inattentive to implications of mass poverty. In 100 years, we’ve moved without progressing.

There was a very bad famine in Nigeria in 1913 which saw people doing the unthinkable to survive. There are always social consequences for food inadequacies. Colonial official A. C. G. Hastings (1925: 111) recalls that “…the ghost of famine stalked aboard through Kano and every other part. The stricken people…ravenous in their hunger, seized on anything they could steal or plunder.” In a particular province, “the local inhabitants, in need for food, plundered and stole everything in their way.” That was in 1913. Similar experiences dotted the years of lean or no harvest throughout our colonial period. Judicial statistics, police and army documents on that period, according to Papaioannou, showed increased crimes in Ogoja (present Cross River), Ondo and Enugu – all due to increased food prices, decreased income, and generally heightened economic pressures.

People react differently to hunger. Dirty, hungry Tortoise tells the soap hawker at his backyard: “When I have not washed my inside, how can I wash my outside?” Last December, the General Superintendent of the Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor William Folorunso Kumuyi, asked members of his church to redirect their offerings from the church to the poor and the needy in their communities. He said: “All the offerings are not just for the church. There are poor people around. There are unemployed people around. There are indigent people around. We must build our campground – I understand; we are going to build it. But, while you are building (the church), your neighbours are dying. Those who do not have anything to feed are there. Your brothers, your sisters have nothing to send their children to school. Which one comes first when your house is leaking and your mother is dying? How will you spend it (your money) —mending the leaking room or taking care of your mother?” He said his church would go back to “the good old days” when religion served God by taking care of the poor. And, truly, unlike now, the poor used to have a space in the heart of priests and prophets.

Pastor Kumuyi’s sermon was a breath of fresh air. In that short message, he radically redefined religion’s engagement with the people. The former should subsidise the latter; it should not be the other way round. I am not a member of Kumuyi’s church and, so, I do not know how far he has gone in making real what he said on the pulpit. But he did well and should not be alone. Others, particularly the Imams of northern Nigeria, should extend their mandates beyond leading prayers and mobilising the poor for politics. A Jumat service and a looting spree happened at the same place, same time in Zaria last Friday. How else do we define failure of religion? People are stealing to survive. Pastors are losing their flock to satanic fodders; Imams are losing their followers to grains of haram.

The rich cannot continue to ignore the poor – particularly when the poor are poor due to no fault of theirs. We (the elite) are an unfeeling lot. We relate with hunger only as mere media content. We take it as mere texts read in newspapers and as staid social media posts. We think today’s suffering is unreal, contrived. How do you tell the hungry that his hunger is not hunger; that it is exaggerated, or that his loud protests are sponsored? It is time we dispensed with our disgust for the dirt of the poor. Time is running out. We should stop gawking at the grotesque of want. Can we “stop a moment” and “see the poor” as Rebecca Harding Davis asks the rich to do in her ‘Life in the Iron-Mills’? Can we, like Davis, stop taking heed of our “clean clothes” and plunge “into the thickest of the fog and mud and foul effluvia” and save our skins by stopping the hunger in the land? The clock is ticking. Any age that packs what Jacob Riss (1890) calls “ignorant poverty” and “ignorant wealth” into its social space incubates a big bang. New York’s Fifth Avenue is a metaphor for world-class luxury. ‘The Man with the Knife’, Riss warns, stands at the corner of the “Fifth Avenue”. Helping him to drop the knife is helping ourselves.

Nigeria can’t be tired of helping the poor. Forget about the government and its voodoo economics on subsidy. The social consequences of mass hunger are never pleasant. The developed world today has various social safety nets for vulnerable families and individuals in poverty. The society that does this is neither stupid nor is it a spendthrift. It has simply come to accept that people can be poor without being hungry. My people say when hunger is removed from poverty, poverty is dead. Looting of stores and trucks are bad omens. These acts nudge us to wake up and act responsibly. We may not eradicate poverty but every good society, from the earliest times, knows that the way to peace and security is in taking starvation out of people’s poverty.

There was a time Western Europe burnt its fingers trying to de-subsidise the needy and legislate the poor out of existence. It failed. I use England here as an example. In 1834, England introduced what it called the New Poor Law to regulate paupers and their unenviable lives. The rich and powerful welcomed the law; they applauded its provisions which reduced the cost of looking after the poor. The new law created what was called ‘workhouses’ to house and hide the poor. The privileged were happy that the workhouse provision would “take beggars off the streets and encourage poor people to work hard to support themselves.” Critics called the workhouses “prisons for the poor.” Of course, the workhouse concept failed; it suffered riots and the structures were victims of attempted arsons. You are very conversant with Charles Dickens’ Oliver Twist. The story draws its plot from this experience of structures without humanity; its message mimics mansions of well-fed masters and hungry, scrawny inmates. If the Poor Law had worked and the workhouse had been a success, Oliver Twist would not have asked for more.

Between 21 and 25 October, 2009, I was in Las Vegas, United States for that year’s Conference of American Black Mayors. One of the leaders who spoke at that event was the then vice president of Malawi, Mrs Joyce Banda. Banda, who spoke on the African woman and resilience in the face of hardship, said “African women don’t cry. They don’t feel pain. Touching fire is nothing.” The African woman was always a hero in very bad times. She would feed her family even from nothing. Banda likened her to Hare who was seen cooking something in a season of hunger. The story teller said all the other starving, helpless animals saw smoke coming out of Hare’s hearth and rushed to her kitchen. “I am not cooking food. I am boiling stones,” she told her guests. Disappointed, the guests hissed, and Hare told them softly not to rebuke her: “At least I am doing something about the situation.” Our government has repeatedly told the hungry to be patient (E lo f’okàn balè). I hope what is cooking in Abuja’s pot is not what Hare was boiling – stones.

ON Sunday, 24 February 2024, the Heads of State and Government of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, concluded an extraordinary summit in Abuja, the capital city of Nigeria, precipitated by the announcement on 28 January 2024 by Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger Republic of their joint decision to denounce the Revised Treaty of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, and leave the regional bloc “without delay.” From within Nigeria, the anchor state in the region, many around government exuding hubris under the guise of patriotism claimed that “the three countries would have more to lose.”

  By the time they finished counting the costs of the possible withdrawal of these three countries, however, the extraordinary summit found the costs to the Community rather prohibitive. Between them, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger represent 10% of the GDP of the region; 17.4% of the population, and 54.35% of the landmass. The Summit concluded that their departure will “have political, socioeconomic, financial and institutional implications for the three countries as well as for ECOWAS as a group” and “will constitute a reduction of the market size of ECOWAS”. They, therefore, issued an appeal to Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger Republic to “reconsider the decision [to withdraw from ECOWAS], in view of the benefits that all ECOWAS Member States and their citizens enjoy for being part of the Community.” 

  To sweeten the appeal, the Summit decided to withdraw most of the existing sanctions against the three countries and to invite them “to technical and consultative meetings of ECOWAS as well as to all security-related meetings.”

  One of the institutions adversely affected by the issues concerning these three countries is the Court of Justice of ECOWAS. In existence since 1991 and functioning since 2006, the Court is the judicial organ of the Community and is composed by five judges elected by the Heads of State and Government for a tenure of five years. 

  At the end of July 2022, three judges of the ECOWAS Court respectively from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, were due to rotate out at the end of their terms, to be replaced by judges elected from Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali. This would have enabled the two surviving judges from Cape Verde and Sierra Leone to become the senior members judges of the court, all but assuring their succession to the offices of President and Vice-President of the Court. The current Judge President is from Ghana and his Vice is from Côte d’Ivoire.

  However, while they are suspended, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Guinea from ECOWAS cannot propose any candidates or their nationals for election into vacancies in any of the institutions of ECOWAS. Confronted as a result with an inability to fill judicial vacancies on the ECOWAS Court, the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the Community decided at the end of their Summit in Guinea Bissau on 12 July, 2022 that in order “to facilitate the functioning of the Court of Justice in its task of administering justice in the Community…. the judges, nationals of Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire, and Nigeria, are maintained in office until the appointment and entry into office of their successors.”

  The effect of this was to maintain the status quo with respect to both the composition of the court and of its leadership, in effect extending the tenure of the judges from the three named countries. In turn, the judges whose ambitions of becoming the new leaders of the court it also frustrated or deferred, did not take this lightly. 

  The week after the conclusion of the extraordinary summit of the ECOWAS Heads of State in Abuja at the end of last month, the Chief Justices of the Member States of the Community convened also in Abuja as the ECOWAS Judicial Council. The meeting of the Judicial Council also marked the passing of the baton of leadership of the Chief Justices of the Community from Guinea Bissau’s António André Lima to Nigeria’s Olukayode Ariwoola. 

  The Chief Justices grappled with two things. First, almost assuredly instigated by their Judges on the ECOWAS Court who now want to become leaders of the court, the Chief Justices of Cape Verde and Sierra Leone at the meeting of the Judicial Council loudly complained about the expiration of the tenure of the judges from Ghana, Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. At their behest, the Judicial Council resolved to advise the Heads of State to “set in motion the process of filling those vacancies to avoid potential infraction of statutory provisions governing appointment of Judges to the Court.” They were unable to offer any advice to the Heads as to how to do this while the countries from which the putative judges would come remain suspended from ECOWAS. There’s a limit to what the incredible powers of even Chief Justices can accomplish.

  The second thing they grappled with was the low level of compliance with decisions of the ECOWAS Court of Justice. On this, they received and considered a report from the Judge President of the Court, Ghana’s Edward Amoako Asante. Thereafter, the Chief Justices divined that the main reason for the low level of compliance with decisions of the Court of Justice is that litigants do not have to exhaust domestic remedies in their respective countries as a criterion for admissibility before proceeding to the ECOWAS Court of Justice. 

  To address this problem, the Chief Justices promptly decided to constitute a sub-committee of themselves comprising their peers from Cape Verde, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, and Togo in order to review the treaties and protocols governing the ECOWAS Court of Justice so as to write into them a requirement for exhaustion of domestic remedies and also “explore the possibility of creating a pool of qualified judges to serve as appellate judges on an ad hoc basis.”

  In a manner of speaking, this amounts to killing the ECOWAS Court of Justice with an effusion of high judicial attention. In nearly every one of the attending ECOWAS countries, the office of Chief Justice is a shrine to judicial despotism. The word of the Chief Justice is not open to question. Cases linger in court until the day after eternity except those which affect senior politicians to whom most Chief Justices seem beholden. By comparison, the ECOWAS Court of Justice has been something of a judicial miracle in West Africa. Cases receive prompt attention, the judgements are clear and understandable and litigants are treated as if their issues deserve serious attention. The ECOWAS Court is everything that the national court of the member states are not.

  It is, of course, a misconception to take the machete of exhaustion of domestic remedies to a regional court of Justice. The design, treaty law and doctrine applicable to the legal system of the Community makes the idea of exhaustion of domestic remedies anathema to an integrated regional system. Imposing the doctrine on the Court of Justice will render it both irrelevant and impotent. 

  Around 18 years ago, beginning 2006, former Gambian dictator, Yahya Jammeh, sought to get ECOWAS to implement similar ideas. A concert of concerned citizens and governments in the region rallied and killed it. The true tragedy this time is that it is not a dictator, soldier, or politician who wants to ransack the ECOWAS Court before killing it. Rather, it is Chief Justices of the region wielding with maximum malevolence an appearance of commitment to due process and the rule of law. This is why citizens of the sub-region have a duty to resist them. On May 6-7, the Chief Justices propose to convene again in Abuja to “deliberate on the reports and recommendations of the Committees for adoption.” The citizens of ECOWAS States may have less than three months to save the ECOWAS Court.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Governance is not about sharing blame, making excuses, or the individual exonerating himself. It is about getting the job done.

So, when in the face of serious financial and economic crises which have seen hunger envelop the land like a shroud and the national currency waterboarded, Olayemi Michael “Yemi” Cardoso, the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor exonerates himself, something serious must be wrong.

He told the country: “I think it is very important for Nigerians to understand that the Central Bank Governor — I, and my team — are not responsible for the woes that we have today; we are part of the solution.”

It is yet to be seen whether Cardoso and his team are part of the solution, but they are partly responsible for the crises we are facing. First, he accepted the myth that the Naira needs to be floated – without a life jacket or anchor. Secondly, five days after his September 23, 2023 appointment as CBN Governor, the Naira to the dollar, at the parallel market, was N1,009. The next month, it sank to N1,140, and in November to N1,590. In February, 2024, it fell to N1,710. All these were under his watch.

It can be argued that since his appointment, Cardoso has been trying to get an handle on the controls, but if he knew the Naira devaluation was being manipulated like the government insists, why was he further punishing the country by using the fake rates to determine the Customs duty?

The CBN instructs the Customs on the exchange rate to be used for calculating import duty, and the cost is, of course, passed on to the consumers. So, why would Cardoso as the Central Bank Governor of an import-dependent country, continuously increase import duties based on the fake devaluation of the currency and not expect hyperinflation?

When Cardoso was appointed, Customs exchange rate for import duty was N770.88/$. On November 14, 2023, he adjusted it to N783.174/$. The following month, he raised it to N951.941/$. Then, came the craziest part: On February 2, 2024, he raised the Customs rate from N951.941/$ to N1, 356.883/$. The very next day, he moved it upward to N1,413.62/$ and within four days, moved it to N1,417.635/$. What manner of Central Banker in the world increases the Customs duties thrice in one week?

How are investors and manufacturers expected to plan with such volatility in duty payments? How does Cardoso engage in such pseudo-economics and expect stable prices?

Why should employers, marketers and Nigerians be so punished due to the inability of the Central Bank to check criminality in the foreign exchange market? So, how, like Pontius Pilate, does he wash his hands clean of the crises Nigerians are facing?

But, rather than subject Cardoso’s performance to critical analysis, the response from the Presidency is to present him as some superstar. In his February 17, 2024 piece titled: ‘Olayemi Cardoso’s dilemma’, Tunde Rahman, Senior Presidential Aide to President Bola Tinubu, told the world that: “Cardoso is obviously a perfect fit for the CBN top job.”

Then, as if making excuses for Cardoso’s possible failure, Rahman wrote: “But in the wake of the floating of the naira, some of the variables shaping the value of the national currency – including limited production in the country as a result of insecurity, the high taste for imported products, dwindling exports, poor dollar remittances, humongous school fees of Nigerian students abroad and medical tourism, all of which engendered a strong demand for dollar, far outweighing supply – seem to be clearly beyond his control.” Seriously?

Another official appointed by this government that does not only need to speak less, but also leave partisan politics to politicians, is Mr Adewale Bashir Adeniyi, the Comptroller General of Customs. In the wake of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, sanctions against Niger Republic in August, 2023 which included the closure of borders, Adeniyi, like a butterfly, hopped from one border crossing to another, giving instructions. What was his business with enforcing border closure which is the duty of Immigration and the security services? But he is an actor.

Tragically, on February 23, 2024, he carried his Nollywood acts too far. In the face of serious hunger, he announced that he is going to crash the prices of food items and shore up the Naira. How is he going to do it? By selling seized goods to the public at rock bottom prices. For instance, he said his agency would be selling a 25 kilogramme of rice at N10,000; that is a quarter of its current market price. You will think he has a million bags to sell. Laughably, all the Customs had, at least for the megacity of Lagos with some 18 million people, was 20,000 bags of assorted grains!

In a Lagos where just a few days before, Nigerians were whipped for over-crowding a bread distribution point where N100 loaves were being given out, it was expected that there would be a huge turnout at the Yaba Customs warehouse sales point. In realisation of this reality, the Customs National Public Relations Officer, Abdullahi Maiwada, announced that the agency would carry out the sales with a firm commitment to transparency, fairness, and public safety. I am not sure if there was transparency and fairness in the process, but what we all know is that there was no public safety as seven Nigerians died at the Lagos sales.

Not unexpectedly, Customs laid the blame on the doorsteps of the victims. It claimed that after its stock was exhausted, the crowd broke through its barriers demanding for more items to buy, and in the process, there was a stampede leading to the loss of lives.

After this tragedy, it is unlikely that the quixotic Adeniyi who with a few thousand bags of grains announced he would crash food prices in the country, would be made liable for these avoidable deaths. If the Customs truly wanted to help a needy population, it would simply have donated the items to the internally displaced camps or orphanages that are spread across the country. The Presidency needs to call Adeniyi to order so that his next reality show would not be more tragic.

Also, the Presidency should avoid knee jerk actions like invading warehouses in the name of searching for hoarded food. We know the causes of hyperinflation in the country. These include unreasonable increases in the prices of petroleum products, lack of local refining, sinking of the Naira, banditry and terrorism that have forced many off the farms, wholesale looting, high cost of governance and the poverty-inducing programmes of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund which have been imposed on the country. 

Governance, is not rocket science.