The easiest and most attractive national pastime remains buck passing especially with the bunch of leaders that we have, that can hardly peel a banana nor wash an already white handkerchief. Not many of us want to take responsibility for anything, from personal, to family or national life.

The blame is on the system. We do not need to create demons out of our leaders because they are already specimens of demons, so we hang our sins on them appropriately and inappropriately too. And unfortunately, their behaviour has made it easy for the critic to descend on them.

We at most, talk, write and discuss the Nigerian myth with a sense of fatalism. If everyone thought as much as I did about justice and fairness, life would be better. I am a critic, but I am also the critics’ critic, the unrepentant believer that the best way to keep the government on its toes is to keep harping on their flaws so they can improve.

Often, I say I believe the things I write on, are important for our nation as they are for other nations, but when it appears to me, Nigerians especially those in authority do not react to these issues as people in other lands do, I repeat them in new essays to remind old readers and recruit new ones to participate in the continuing dialogue.

Sadly, this is Nigeria where nothing works and no one cares, when it works, it is because someone’s interest is about to be served or being served not the people’s interest. We talk about our institutions despairingly. Our leaders do not watch network news except when their faces would be there on occasion of their sons/daughters’ wedding or such. They do not need the newspapers anymore because it is full of their lies, or paid adverts exchanging banters together.

Government bashing remains a national past time and every drinking joint, and suya spot has a sitting parliament with an expert on every and any issue but we forget that no matter the input, if the politicians and actors in our national scene have questionable lives both on personal and domestic level, nothing will change, the best government policy cannot change the individual. It is because the policies are formulated on a bad foundation and by people with warped thinking.

When a witch proclaims her presence, and an invalid does not make away; he must have money for sacrifices at home.

So, for some several weeks, it has been a back and forth between the regulator of our education, in this case the Ministry of Education and parents, on exactly the right age for a child to write the regulatory transitional exams, and let me say whether it is 18years , 0r 5 years, a dullard or an intelligent kid, it is garbage in, garbage out.

That may sound cold, especially in the light of the exploits of Nigerian graduates in other climes, remember I said other climes, and the few who do well here in Nigeria. Like my friend Ndo puts it, the quality is scarily dropping.

Have you noticed the ever increasing cases of graduates and interview candidates having shallow knowledge of the subject matter, poor command of the use of English language, poor knowledge of the examination techniques, as well disregard for correct interpretation of questions before attempting them.

Or that many candidates lack requisite mathematical and manipulative skills for subjects involving calculations, while handwriting of some are illegible and their answers scripts are full of spelling errors. (Not that my maths is so good either)

Many candidates try to cut corners by engaging in various forms of examination malpractice in order to obtain marks.

A good many of us spat on the education we had yesterday, and of course what passes for education today. And there is, certainly, a stratum of our society that looks back, nostalgically, at the quality of yesterday’s education”. How many of us today can argue that this is not the truth, even the generation that had its education in 2000 now looks back with nostalgia.

By and large, however, most of us believed that there was very much missing in the content of our yesterday’s education. What we have today, in spite of innovations and the bold attempts to re-orientate it, remains, as it was yesterday, orthodox, slow foot, myopic.

Our educational system today only sharpens the head to near pin end quality and this is even rare but it also makes the possessors limb atrophied by long disuse. Our education is money centered. It is an education which goads the possessor asking “what can my country do for me?”

In 2024, we are left to define the quality of education we want for tomorrow when our peers have gone far in Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, neighbouring Ghana has even refused to wait for us. To chart out how to tread to win through, we now send our kids anywhere so far it is outside the country the education is better be it Iraq or Zimbabwe.

Do we have an education in which a possessor wants to elevate the less privileged that surge him round, the answer is no. Today what is the value of the education given to a young man who lives or is doing his mandatory service year in a guinea worm infested area and yet is incapable of causing a revolution in the lives of the villagers by transforming their drinking water into healthy supply?

Please, what is the use of education given in physics to a young girl when the lights go out, she does not know what to do to get light again. In Nigerian education, how many graduates can carry aloft an oasis of light, very few because the education is short on quality and is therefore poor.

While there is despair, there is hope and despair, a case of “we can” or “we can’t”. While we battle the scourge of local terrorism, bad leadership, kidnap, health, and countless issues, there is need to come up with some measures that could help both the students and schools to improve on their output, by extension resuscitate a nation’s dying if not dead educational sector.

Our students need to develop a good understanding of questions and also learn the basic rudiments of the English language for better and clearer presentation of their answers. The sex for grade, bribe for certificate syndrome needs to be checked.

There is a need to ensure the appropriate textbooks in all subjects are procured and studied side by side with the examination syllabus, and should be completed before the commencement of examination. Libraries need to go info-tech, not littered with books of 1914. While practical on-hands learning away from just examination should be incorporated.

There is a need to provide basic infrastructure, and a conducive atmosphere in schools, only qualified and committed teachers who will teach their subjects effectively and guide students to become exemplary in their studies should be employed. Not like the teacher in Bauchi State (SUEB) that inherited his grandfather’s grade II certificate and was teaching with it or University dons that have become experts in plagiarism, selling handouts pirated from other works.

The question of whatever happened to the old school inspectorate system should be addressed.

We must move away from the examcentric, conversation curriculum that takes away critical thinking and qualitative reasoning and educate with intention for a future world. If these and even more rigorous steps are taken, we may be saved the irony of the clowns we are churning out these days—May Nigeria win

Prince Charles Dickson PhD

Team Lead

Obi, in a statement via his account on the X platform, said he is pained by the loss of lives caused by the accident.

Recall Naija News had reported that no fewer than thirty (30) people died in a tragic explosion involving a fuel tanker on the Agaie-Bida Road in Niger State on Sunday morning.

The tanker collided with a trailer transporting cattle en route to Lagos State from Wudil, Kano State.

Reacting to the incident, Peter Obi described it as disheartening and unfortunate. He also sent condolences to the families of those involved in the accident as well as a similar one which occurred in Oyo State.

The former Anambra State Governor also appreciated the intervention of the emergency agencies that responded to the accident.

“I have just read the disheartening reports of the deadly tanker explosion which occurred today at Agaie Local Government Area of Niger State where no fewer than 30 human lives were lost and about 50 cattle burnt.

“This unfortunate incident is occurring less than 24 hours after a similar tanker explosion caused serious damages in Ibadan, Oyo state capital on Saturday. I am pained by the loss of human lives, and other means of livelihood in the two tragic events.

“I thank the safety and emergency agencies that arrived the scene for search and rescue operations.

“I sincerely condole with all the affected families who lost their loved ones to this tragedy. I equally commiserate with the government and people of Niger and Oyo States over this tragic occurrence. May God comfort them, and all of us, who share in the pains of this sad incidents in our nation.

“I pray God Almighty to forgive the sins of the dead and grant them eternal rest, and grant quick and full recovery to the injured. -PO”

[NaijaNews]

Nigeria’s caretaker coach, Augustine Eguavoen has explained his reason for delaying the substitution of midfielder, Wilfred Ndidi during the second half of their 2025 Africa Cup of Nations, AFCON, qualifier against the Republic of Benin on Saturday.

Ndidi paired fellow Premier League player, Alex Iwobi in the midfield against Benin.

The Leicester City star put up his best performance in a while for Nigeria but it came at a cost as he became fatigued.

In the second half, Ndidi was caught on camera signaling to the bench to be substituted, but Eguavoen opted to leave him on the pitch until the 80th minute when he was replaced by Raphael Onyedika.

Explaining why Ndidi’s substitution was delayed, Eguavoen said at his post-match press conference that he wanted to allow his replacement enough time to get fully warmed up before stepping onto the pitch.

“But we have to buy time, you don’t have to rush into changes because Republic of Benin today surprised me, a very good team.

“I watched them against us in Abidjan, they were not as good as this, so they came with a good game plan, today’s performance for them was very okay.

“I knew at some point we are going to sub Ndidi but somebody who is coming in has to be properly warmed and prepared.”

Nigeria won the match 3-0, thanks to Ademola Lookman’s brace and Osimhen’s goal.

[nigerianeye]

Nigerian para-powerlifter Folashade Oluwafemiayo clinched a gold medal at the 2024 Paralympic Games in Paris, shattering two world records in the process.

Her remarkable lift of 167kg not only broke her previous world record in the women’s 86kg Para-Powerlifting category but also made her the first Para-athlete in history to achieve such a feat.

Her performance secured Nigeria’s second gold medal at the Paralympic Games.
The 39-year-old, who had previously won a silver medal at the London 2012 Paralympic Games, has now become a two-time Paralympic champion.

Oluwafemiayo’s accomplishment follows a series of strong performances by Nigerian athletes at the Paralympics. Flora Ugwunwa secured a silver medal in the women’s javelin F54 event, while Onyinyechi Mark won gold in para-powerlifting with a record-breaking lift of 147kg. Esther Nworgu also claimed silver in the women’s 41kg Para-Powerlifting event, setting two new Paralympic records.

Eniola Bolaji made history as the first African to win a medal in badminton at the Olympic or Paralympic Games, achieving a bronze after defeating her Ukrainian opponent in straight sets.

Overall, Nigeria’s medal tally at the 2024 Paralympics stands at seven: two gold, three silver, and two bronze. These accomplishments are a testament to the hard work and dedication of Nigerian para-athletes, who continue to excel on the global stage.

Nigeria’s first gold at the Games came from Onyinyechi Mark in the powerlifting finals on Friday.

Esther Nworgu added a silver medal in the women’s 41kg Para-Powerlifting event on Wednesday, and Bose Omolayo also secured a silver medal in the 79kg Para-Powerlifting category.

[BusinessDay]

Before the end of his tenure in 2007, former President Olusegun Obasanjo sold two of the nation's four refineries at a paltry sum of $751 million to a local consortium. Many concerned citizens, including the workers in the oil industry, kicked against the illegal privatisation of the two refineries. 

President Umaru Yaradua probed the sale and found that the sale was singlehandedly carried out by former President Obasanjo in utter breach of the provisions of the Privatisation and Commercialization Act. Consequently, the sale of the two refineries was cancelled and set aside in the national interest. 

Former President Mohammadu Buhari resisted the pressure of neoliberal ideologues in and outside his government to sell the four refineries as scraps. Based on the advice of patriotic forces, the Federal Executive Council approved the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt for the sum of $1.5 billion.

In line with the terms of the contract awarded in March 2021 to an Italian company, Tecnimont SPA, the rehabilitation of the 210,000-barrel capacity refineries was required to be carried out in three phases of 18, 24 and 44 months. In particular, the first phase of the contract was to be completed in 18 months, which would take the refinery to a production of 90 per cent of its nameplate capacity.

Furthermore, on August 6, 2022, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the award of contracts for the rehabilitation of Warri and Kaduna refineries to the Italian company Saipem for US$1.5bn. The installed capacities of Warri and Kaduna refineries are 125,000 bbl/d and 110,000 bbl/d, respectively. The project was required to be completed in three phases of 21, 23, and 33 months.

The two contractors that are said to be international experts in refinery maintenance and rehabilitation have not been allowed to explain the breach of the $2.9 billion contracts. Instead of calling the contractors to order for embarrassing the Federal Government, the Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Mr. Mele Kyari has been shifting the dates for the completion of the rehabilitation of the four refineries. 

Let Tecnimont SPA and Saipem speak out!

Instead of relying solely on the Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company Limited to solve the crisis of fuel scarcity and hike in the pump price of PMS, the federal government should ensure that the September date for the completion of the rehabilitation of the nation’s refineries of 445,000-barrel capacity is not further shifted. If the contractors fail to honour the new completion date, the federal government should not hesitate to sue them for a serial breach of the contracts.

Let the public refineries and private refineries, including the Dangote Refinery, flood the market with refined petroleum products including PMS. 

When that happens, there will be no justification for the incessant hike in the pump price of PMS. 

Femi Falana SAN,

The Chair,

Alliance on Surviving Covid-19 and Beyond (ASCAB)

I have been laughing at the back and forth between the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, NNPCL, and the Muslim Rights Concern, MURIC.

The leader of MURIC, Professor Ishaq Akintola, clearly does not understand anything about the oil and gas industry and only succeeded in advertising his ignorance on a topic he knows next to nothing about when he picked his needless fight with our national oil company.

One very talkative woman has been all over social media, similarly broadcasting her low intelligence conceptualisation of the matter.

What Nigerians need to understand is that the only way Dangote's fuel can howsoever be affordable for the average Nigerian is for NNPCL to be its sole offtaker, at least of the component of his product meant for local consumption.

That way, NNPCL will more or less do what it has been doing thus far with the Federal Government to make it available to consumers below its actual cost.

Dangote, on his part, is obviously reluctant to tell Nigerians what his fuel costs per litre because it could even be as high as ₦1300, if not way more!

Indeed, nothing would alarm Dangote more than for NNPCL to refuse to be his middleman because he would then have to sell directly to independent marketers who would in turn dispense to Nigerians at such a high price that he would immediately become miserably unpopular contrary to his posturing that he has come to save the day.

NNPCL is not forcing Dangote to sell exclusively to it; it is rather Dangote that is begging NNPCL to be the sole buyer of his products.

If you know, you know.

If you don't know, just keep quiet for once, for God's sake.

Contrary to the crass ignorance being displayed by Professor Akintola, no marketer would ever go directly to Dangote to load up fuel when they know they will get it far cheaper from NNPCL as an offtaker.

Ignorance is not bliss; it is a disease in need of a cure called "knowledge".

Social media, particularly X (formerly known as Twitter), has always been a platform where individuals can express themselves, share ideas, and grow their influence by gaining followers. However, a concerning trend has emerged: some users, instead of requesting others to follow them honestly, resort to deception to expand their follower base. These users are not necessarily scammers in the traditional sense, but their deceitful tactics are creating a nuisance on the platform.

The strategy is simple but underhanded. A user creates a post, often pretending to give away something, offer financial help, or share a prize in celebration of a personal milestone. In reality, there is no giveaway or assistance, only an intent to deceive. The goal is to attract attention, spark engagement, and ultimately gain more followers by luring people into interacting with the post.

For example, users may post things like: “Send your account, and I’ll give away N5,000 to five people!” In some cases they go as far as deceptively posting something like, “Follow me and retweet this for a chance to win a brand-new phone!”

While the language may vary, the purpose remains the same: to exploit the curiosity or hope of other users in order to drive up engagement. In some cases, users will even follow through with minimal giveaways to maintain the facade, but the overwhelming majority of these posts are just tricks to inflate their follower count.

You may have asked in this context, “Why Do They Do It?” The answer to your question cannot be farfetched as the primary motive is to quickly and efficiently boost their following, as social media metrics are often viewed as a form of credibility. With a higher number of followers, users can: Increase their social influence, attract potential business opportunities, gain attention from brands looking for influencers to promote products and elevate their status within the X community.

For these users, the ends justify the means. Instead of organically growing their followers by offering valuable content, they resort to deception, prioritizing follower numbers over genuine interaction and trust.

At first glance, this follower-gaining tactic may seem harmless compared to financial scams. However, this deceitful behavior can have long-term negative consequences for the platform and its users. This is as it erodes trust. In fact, social media platforms thrive on trust. When users start questioning every interaction or doubting the authenticity of every giveaway or offer, the very fabric of the platform weakens. People become less likely to engage with others, limiting the sense of community that X aims to foster.

In a similar vein, the deception wastes the time and energy of innocent users of the platform. This is as many users, lured in by the promise of rewards, spend time interacting with these deceptive posts, only to end up disappointed. This wastes their time and adds to the growing frustration many feel on social media.

Also is the false metrics the deception generates. Despite the allure of their posts, the followers these deceptive X users gain are often not genuinely interested in their contents. This creates a distorted picture of their actual influence. Brands or businesses looking to collaborate with influencers based on follower count may find that these users offer little real value in terms of reach or engagement.

The reality is that growing a follower base organically on X requires time, effort, and authentic interaction. Instead of posting valuable content that engages the community, these deceptive users take shortcuts, exploiting the algorithms and the trust of fellow users. By masking their intentions with fake offers, they can generate more shares, likes, and follows than they would through legitimate means.

The allure of a quick follower boost can be tempting, especially when follower count is often seen as a status symbol. But what isgained through deception does not last. Eventually, many followers realize the truth, and the trust deficit created by such deceit can harm the user’s reputation in the long run.

While the number of followers might seem crucial in the social media landscape, genuine engagement should be the goal. X users should focus on cultivating real relationships with their audience by providing authentic content and meaningful interactions. It is better to have a smaller, loyal follower base than a large, disinterested one gained through deceit.

To those using deception to grow their follower count: consider the value of trust and authenticity. There is no harm in openly requesting followers or promoting content honestly. Social media is meant to be a space for connecting and sharing, not tricking others into following for non-existent prizes.

Deceitful users on X may not be scammers in the traditional sense, but their tactics of deception for gaining followers are undermining the platform’s integrity. Instead of fostering genuine relationships and building a community of engaged followers, they prioritize quick, artificial growth. As users, it is essential to be aware of these tactics and promote authenticity, both in our own behavior and in our expectations from others. Social media should be a space for real connections, not one filled with tricks and false promises.

Fiction writer James Hadley Chase famously titled one of his popular novels, “The Vulture Is A Patient Bird”. That title often reminds me of the Yoruba anecdote which denounces the carnivorous bird as a cheat because it feeds on human carrion but man cannot (would not) feed on it. Thus, the vulture prospers from man’s misery without any risk of a backlash or revenge.

I don’t know of any culture where vulture is part of the menu. There are too many cultural taboos hanging around the ‘Dracula-hooded’ birds. They feed on carrion. Carry disease-bearing pathogens. Their relatively tasteless meat in comparison to chicken, cooks forever and is never tender. They are classified with evil or apocalyptic evocations in many cultures.

Human Vultures

Those are the vultures in the animal kingdom. In our real human world, we also have human vultures whose menace we grudgingly acknowledge but still tolerate under a barrage of excuses. Enter Boko Haram, ISWAP, cattle rustlers, armed herdsmen, unknown gunmen and other rogue elements who have totally demystified the government’s claim of exclusively controlling the means of coercion!

If the principal aim of the government is to protect its people and maintain order and stability, the Nigerian government has failed spectacularly in the last 15 years. Swathes of Nigerian territory are under the control of criminals. The government and its security forces continue to lie about the severity of the situation.

Over the years, instead of a frontal attack on the problem, the government and its security agencies were pussy-footing under a number of convenient excuses. The political elite in the affected northern states started playing ethnic and religious cards. When the government decided to end the embarrassment once and for all, the move was sabotaged through blackmail and a campaign to turn the people of the region against the government as if the fight against terrorism was an anti-north agenda.

Foreign terrorists were recruited to add an even deadlier dimension to the terrorists’ capabilities. Issues of the expansionist ambitions of some of the bandits which, in the last 10 years, have tried to colonise the Middle Belt region were quickly dismissed as farmers/herders clashes. Historical carryovers, such as unacknowledged unfinished ethnic wars were dismissed as non-existent.

When illegal mining of minerals in the North was a small-scale affair being run by the locals underground, it did not attract the level of organised violence that it currently enjoys with the involvement of the traditional and political elite. Now mining gangs have their own private armies. The government claims to be in charge of granting mining concessions but we all know that the bandits run the roost in many areas.

In the South where bandits come disguised as herdsmen and routinely waylay motorists on inter-state highways, the government continues to deny what is obvious. Even in cases where the locals have adduced evidence of some of the terrorists being foreigners, the government continues to tell the convenient lie of herders and farmers at loggerheads. That lapse has led to the generalisation in the South that all terrorists operating from the forests are Fulani.

Because of all these acts of omission or commission, as the case may be, we watched from the gallery of nonchalance as terrorism became a lucrative industry, especially after bandits in many states of the North started collecting taxes and protection levies from the people. Up till now, there are parts of the North where farmers have to pay terrorists to access their farms safely. In those places, the government is a distant memory.

The new fad is for the terrorists to issue video recordings of their domination of rural communities and their dispensation of their warped notion of justice — ranging from public floggings to more serious forms of physical torture. Some have even been turbaned by emirs! They are entrenched. They are the de facto government.

Government Abdication

It used to be embarrassing to those in government. Now, it seems that even the people have come to terms with the reality of Boko Haram and the other terrorists controlling territories outside the purview of the Nigerian constitution. We have, through a mixture of neglect, subterfuge and incompetence legitimised terrorism, insurgency, hostage-taking and allied crimes.

Enough of the shameless excuses! There is really no big deal about fighting terrorism if you have the will. Granted that we have lost a lot of ground in the years of complete lethargy, it is never too late to reclaim our space and rid the land of terrorism completely, once and for all. And I truly mean once and for all!

Granted that security is a specialised subject with its own esoterica and technicalities, I wager that what we have before us does not exclusively deserve the formal or conventional wisdom of the usual “experts” and their textbook analyses and fixations. If a band of largely illiterate brigands can outwit and overwhelm our entire security agencies, it is time we weaponise our collective cerebral muscle and deploy the same accordingly. We must out-think them!

We have heard, ad nauseam, about the introduction of “non-kinetic” tactics in the fight against terror. New terms are being introduced daily by the growing army of “security experts” doing the rounds on national television regularly. Nobody – least of all the terrorists – is impressed by all the technical jargon.

Nigerians don’t care whatever tactics you deploy to rid the country of terrorists. All they want is for their government to live up to what it claims to be — an authority in charge. If a government cannot protect its people from any kind of aggression, then it has lost its reason for being called a government.

Between July 2023 and June 2024, kidnapping alone accounted for 1,056 deaths in 1,130 reported incidents. According to the research document, “Economics of Nigeria’s Kidnap Industry”, Zamfara State recorded 1,639 kidnap victims and 146 civilian deaths with about N1.048 billion being deployed as ransom nationally.

Just Do It!

To put an end to all this nonsense, the authorities first have to agree that, among other things, anyone who takes up arms against Nigerians or against the country is a terrorist, no matter under what guise. All terrorists, no matter where originated or based, are equal. Any non-authorised civilian group carrying weapons should be treated as terrorists. After all these years, there shouldn’t be anything like “repentant terrorists” anymore. Any terrorist that hasn’t repented by now does not deserve to live.

Government should map out the territories currently being controlled by terrorists. Security contractors should then be contracted with specific targets, deliverables, expected outcomes and mutually agreed Standard Operating Procedures. Security contractors should concentrate on taking out terrorist kingpins remotely through drones and other digital devices while our police and armed forces are adequately armed to mop up. With the lion’s share of the 2024 budget allocated to Defence and security, we ought to be able to finance this without any problem. State policing is imperative.

The reason for the current spate of insecurity is that the government is not yet ready to stamp it out. When those in government are sufficiently conscientised to end the scam, we will all breathe easy; but not a moment before then.

If Providence grants the collective invocations of Nigerians, the government will regain its consciousness and declare that all birds of prey are equal; that what is good for the hawk is good for the abominable vulture.

Forget the taboo. We shall barbecue the vulture!

Man’s three basic needs or necessities are generally given as food (including water), clothing, and shelter. Food (including water) is needed to keep body and soul together and give us the energy required for our daily activities. Apart from air, food (including water) is the most basic – and important – of man’s needs. Water appears more indispensable to the human body than food. Clothing basically is meant to keep us warm as well as cover our nakedness. Shelter or accommodation is the roof that we need over our head, just as the Mighty Diamonds crooned.

Taking a cue from the Creator of the universe as told in the BIble, light was the first of His creation to bring order and form into a disorderly and formless world. It was afterwards that He began to create all else.

If a vox populi is conducted among the generality of Nigerians today, I am certain the order of priority will be something like food, fuel and power supply (light). Clothing and shelter will come a distant fourth and fifth. In our institutions of higher learning, however, the order of priority will be different. It will be something like water (including food), power supply (light) and shelter (hostel accommodation). Many of the disturbances or student unrest that we have witnessed have centred around water and light issues. Only the electricity subsidy that we heard the Presidency has extended to the hospitals and our institutions of higher learning – if it is substantial enough – will starve unrest from our institutions of higher learning in our present circumstances.

It is a matter for regret that we have proven unable to solve the twin-problems of water and light; rather, they have become exacerbated all over the place. Other problems of decrepit infrastructure, inhospitable learning environment, and inadequate hostel accommodation have joined the league of problems that our so-called leaders of tomorrow contend with in our institutions of higher learning. Things get worse there; they don’t improve or get better.

What you are about to read – Let there be light – was written by Wole Olaoye, erstwhile Student Union president of the then University of Ife (Great Ife), now Obafemi Awolowo University but still “Great” all the same. When we return, we shall make some closing remarks.

“It has been seven seasons now since banner headlines “OAU TO GENERATE 8.03 MW OF ELECTRICITY” announced to the world that Obafemi Awolowo University was poised to become the first university in Nigeria to generate its own power and, in addition, cater to the needs of its immediate neighbour, the Ile-Ife community. In the beginning was the promise and the promise was visionary but the promise has now been dashed.

In the place of round-the-clock provision of electricity leading to increased productivity, enhanced quality of research and improved health, the university now has an abandoned project with sundry installed equipment and facilities rotting away as yet another symbol of the Nigerian government’s corruption and medieval backwardness.

In 2017, Obafemi Awolowo University entered into a working relationship with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to provide a gas-powered turbine that would produce the institution’s independent power needs. The project was to be delivered within two years.

When the project was launched amidst pomp and pageantry, the institution’s then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, revealed that with the coming to fruition of the project and consequent disengagement of OAU from the national grid, the institution would save between N35 million and N65 million monthly. He added that their daily energy requirement was below six megawatts. The gas-turbine-based system being installed was projected to produce eight megawatts daily, hence the assurance that the institution would be in a position to share the excess with neighbouring communities.

Seven other federal universities were also approved to self-generate electricity: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Bayero University, Kano; Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto; Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; University of Lagos, Akoka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Warri; in the first phase of the federal intervention.

For OAU, trouble started in the form of what appeared like a personality clash on the surface but was actually the monster of corruption gripping the federal system under the (Muhammadu) Buhari administration. The Rural Electrification Agency was headed by Clara Ogunbiyi at the time. For some reasons, there was no love-lost between her and the newly-appointed Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman. If you put your ears to the ground, you would hear that the lady was considered uncooperative with the various sleaze schemes brought to her table. Eventually, she left Nigeria to its peccadilloes and resumed a new job in a saner environment at a global agency.

She was replaced as managing director by Ahmad Salihijo, who did nothing to facilitate the completion of the Ife project but soon demonstrated that he had demons of his own to contend with. As soon as the Buhari administration expired, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) swooped in. Salihijo was suspended by the new Tinubu administration. Many eyes popped when the EFCC made public the kernel of its findings. One of the pegs of the investigation was the uncovering of 27 accounts linked with the suspended REA Managing Director.

The commission said, among other things, that about N1.2 billion, which immediately accounted for Ahmad’s suspension, had been wired into the accounts of eight staff members, including two directors. The allegations against the top officials of REA are criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of public funds, procurement fraud and money laundering.

In announcing Salihijo’s suspension in a statement signed by Ajuri Ngelale, the presidency had said: “In the light of new findings unearthed during a comprehensive investigation into the financial activities of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), President Bola Tinubu has approved the indefinite suspension of the managing director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, alongside three executive directors of the agency, from office.

“Furthermore, President Tinubu has ordered a wider investigation into the conduct of the aforementioned officials in a fraudulent mis-expenditure amounting to over N1.2 billion over the past two years, some of which has already been recovered by anti-graft agencies”.

Cynical Nigerians said it would all end up as a game of musical chairs. Abba Abubakar Aliyu was appointed as the MD/CEO to replace Ahmad; Ayoade Gboyega as executive director, corporate services; Umar Abdullahi Umar, executive director, technical services; Doris Uboh, executive director, rural electrification fund (REF); and Olufemi Akinyelure, head of project management unit, Nigeria electrification project.

Although Ngelale reiterated President Tinubu’s determination to elevate the yearnings of Nigerians for good governance and qualitative service delivery above the narrow interests of individuals who are entrusted to provide critical services to Nigerians, the Ife power project stalls still.

The institution’s stakeholders who have been anxiously hoping that all encumbrances in the way of the completion of the project would immediately be removed were surprised that, so far, nothing concrete is happening. The Asian staff who came for the installation of the last set of equipment on site have since returned home. Then, some sources indicated that the Tinubu government wants to convert the project to a solar-powered facility instead of the gas originally designed and upon which the 75 percent completion already achieved is based.

There is also talk of introducing a new player who had never been part of the project before. Nigeria! Now, being a self confessed Engineering illiterate, I will refrain from laughing in vernacular or composing panegyrics concerning this project; neither is required, although this tragic stalling of a developmental project is both galling and dispiriting. For goodness’ sake, how does corruption dog every attempt to gain an inch?

Rather than news about project completion, we have been regaled with tidings of a different kind. It will be recalled that throughout his tenure, President Buhari removed only two ministers. The man posted to the Ministry of Power was one of them, having been sacked for alleged corruption in September 2021.

Last July, hearing in his case was stalled because he was said to have suddenly taken ill outside the court premises and had to be sprinkled with water to revive him. While granting Saleh the benefit of the doubt, there have been too many incidents of government officials dramatising fainting spells or showing up in wheelchairs when dragged before the law. Those are mere distractions.

The buck stops at President Tinubu’s table. Will he allow the present scandalous situation regarding the OAU power project to continue or will he direct the incumbent Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to expeditiously resolve this matter to ensure that, for once, corruption is put to shame? When will Tinubu declare, ‘Let there be light?’”

So sad, not so? But there are more intrigues to the independent power project issue at OAU than president-emeritus Wole Olaoye hinted at above. He only scratched the issue on the surface. My own investigations revealed that more than corruption was involved. Tribalism also played a role in the stalling of the OAU independent power project. Some of the equipment meant for the project were said to have been cleared at the port and transferred to some other locations up North. The authorities must speak to that.

It is not the power project alone that is stalled, the Opa dam that is supposed to supply water to the university community has also been mired in controversy. Land grabbers are engaged in a tussle with the university over a swath of land belonging to the university, which has adversely affected the dam. At a point the water in the dam was suspected to have been poisoned by enemies of the university community.

The unwholesome activity of land grabbers is another headache the OAU authorities have had to contend with. Sometime ago, a Fidelity bank account belonging to a prominent traditional ruler into which funds were reportedly paid by those who bought part of the OAU encroached land, made the rounds.

As if these headaches were not enough, illegal miners also invaded the university and began to mine minerals right within the vicinity of the staff quarters and student’s hostel accommodation! Spirited efforts by the university to ward off the encroachers and procure a licence to prospect for minerals on its own land were reportedly rebuffed by the Buhari presidency!

Reprieve, however, came with the new sheriffs in town as Dele Alake, the Minister of Solid Minerals, gave listening ears to the OAU authorities and suspended the so-called licence being flaunted by the encroachers. That done, it is, however, not yet ‘uhuru’ for OAU. The vice-chancellor, Professor  Adebayo Simon Banire, has a mountain to climb. So also the new chairman of the OAU council, my friend, classmate and coursemate, Professor Gafar Siyan Oyeweso.

All of us the alumni of Great Ife, male and female, young and old, at home and away must stand up to be counted. The battle is not for the OAU authorities or students alone, it is for all of us that have a stake in Great Ife. If there is one way we can give back to our alma mater, it is to make its battle our battle and its cause our cause.

The urge to pray for the survival of Nigeria’s Labour Party (LP) has suddenly become a patriotic duty; not for the sake of the party but to rescue Nigeria’s democracy. It is really saddening that since 1999 when democracy was restored in the country, the otherwise known best system of government in other climes has remained a motionless experiment in Nigeria. How come ours is the only country where no one can identify the political grouping to which any politician belongs?

As of today, the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) was a few years ago, a state deputy governor under a different political party. No one is sure if the national chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and his executives are not members of the APC making it obvious that politics in Nigeria is a game of chance with no speck of principles.

In a Nigerian election, it is easy to see a ballot paper displaying the logos of as many as 18 political parties but no less than 14 of those parties are fake and are merely used by those running them as revenue generating entities. With less than one month to the next Edo governorship elections, 5 such parties, the other day declared their support for one of the few real parties. When asked to explain their decision, they said what their parties wanted to do are exactly same as that of the candidate they are now supporting. How come they never knew that? The reality therefore is that Nigeria is made up of a team of political speculators who see politics as an avenue for material exploitation and are thus prepared to even belong to more than one political party at the same time. This explains why the setting up of government has become a relay race between the two strongest political parties APC and PDP.

During the 2023 general elections, the charisma of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the LP and the fact that many Nigerians had become frustrated by the unending relay race between the leading political twins pushed many to support the Labour Party. Under the cover of the party, political power fell into the hands of charlatans, many of whom had earlier lost the nominations of the leading political traders. Except something is done quickly to remove the grains from the chaff, the LP would itself degenerate beyond the subsisting mercantile groupings. It is against this background that many welcome the on-going efforts to reposition Nigeria’s Labour Party. If that is done, it would be easier to expose the social democrats in the workers’ party whenever they decide to operate as capitalists and power grabbers. All those who are part of the struggle should thus be encouraged to take it to its logical end.

Last week’s stakeholders’ conference at Umuahia which constituted a 29-member caretaker committee to restore the LP to life is a right step in the right direction not necessarily in favour of the party but as stated earlier in the bigger interest of Nigeria’s democracy. To start with, the emergence of a strong LP would drive the drunken leading parties back to line. It would push them to remember that the main purpose of democracy as a system of government is to develop Nigeria and not for a group to confiscate the national wealth. To start with, it is good to hear that most well-meaning leaders of the party were all part of the Umuahia conference. Apart from Peter Obi and his 2023 running mate, Senator Victor Umeh, Governor Alex Otti of Abia State and other governorship candidates of the party such as Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour of Lagos State, Chijoke Edeoga of Enugu State and Athan Achonu of Imo State were all reportedly at the meeting. 

Another evidence that the stakeholders really mean business is that both the interim chairman and the secretary are tested politicians who are coming to office with strong administrative experience. Nenadi Usman, the chairman was once a senator representing Kaduna South. She had previously served as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance during the Olusegun Obasanjo administration. Coming in as secretary of the committee is former Senator Darlington Nwokocha, who was elected to represent Abia Central Senatorial District on the platform of the Labour Party in the 2023 general election. Nwokocha was later elected the Minority Whip/Principal Officer of the 10th Senate and Vice Chairman, Senate Committee on the NDDC. Earlier, he was in the House of Representatives, from 2015 to 2023 as the member representing Isiala Ngwa North/South Federal Constituency of Abia State.

In addition, for the first time in recent history, Labour party leaders appear to be on the same page. As Peter Obi explained at the Umuahia meeting, “we are not here to suspend or sack anybody, but to rebuild the party…. Whatever we are going to do in future, everybody is free to participate in it and nobody will be excluded…. Even after this meeting, we will continue with more consultations and reconciliation… In going forward, let everybody learn to sacrifice.” To Senator Victor Umeh (Anambra Central)”allowing the current leadership of the party to continue in office is like building on quicksand, saying nobody is against anybody…What brought us here is a doctrine of necessity…Our party is currently rudderless.” On his part, the Labour Party National Transition Committee chair, Comrade Abdulwaheed Omar described the Umuahia Decision 2024 as a turning point for Nigeria’s future as it brings to an end in the LP, “the era of transactional leadership of graft and crime.”

It is however worthy of note that like a normal viable political party, there are dissenting opinions by members. The Kaduna state chapter of the party for instance rejected the emergence of Nenadi Usman as the party’s National Caretaker chairman. In a statement, the State LP chairman, Auwal Tafoki, following the stance of the party’s outgoing National Working Committee led by Barrister Julius Abure, described the emergence of Usman, an indigene of the state, as illegal and unconstitutional. They raised 2 main allegations; first that Usman is allegedly not a registered member of the party and second that the organ which convened the Umuahia meeting was unknown to the party’s constitution.  There is doubt however if these technical points make sense now that even the electoral body is shunning the LP. The party has not been invited to at least two recent major political activities organized by the Independent national Electoral Commission INEC.

It is valid and in order to raise technical points that should keep a political party within the rule of law and indeed, to avoid arbitrariness. But such technicalities would certainly become dysfunctional if they are intended to keep a political party in a state of dilemma in which little or no progress is achieved by the party while those holding it to ransom continue to appropriate its resources. In fact, crises in other Nigerian political parties are attributable to unending legal arguments employed by different factions to undo their parties. The support of this piece for the repositioning of Nigeria’s labour Party will evaporate if after the reforms, the party returns to the usual posture of political parties in Nigeria whose members are basically self-seeking. Instead, we look forward to the LP providing leadership and compelling other parties to see politics as a basis for societal development.

For this to happen, LP unlike other Nigerian parties must be well administered. The party must depart from the old system where everyone is pursuing public office to the detriment of an effective management of the ruling party. No Nigerian political party has a viable membership register. That must stop. There must be adherence to regular meetings of organs of a political party as enshrined in the party’s constitution. Nigerian political parties must stop working to the answer by holding national conventions whereas local and state congresses that should have elected delegates to the national conventions were not held.

Also to stop is the idea of politicians turning organs into secret cult like the case of legislators colluding to deceiving Nigerians about their remunerations. For example, many Nigerians were disappointed to find that labour party legislators from a social justice background joined others to accept unduly expensive official vehicles at the expense of the nation’s economy. The character of a Labour Party differs substantially from that.