It is not just the menace of insecurity in the land that has been in the news in Nigeria, the economy too, and indeed the latter for obvious reasons as well, with the national currency, the Naira in a very bad shape, inflation at 28.92%, widespread systemic distortions in the economy, a foreign exchange regime gone askew, resulting in a problematic business environment for investors, high unemployment rate, further misalignments between the monetary and fiscal spaces, and gross anxiety among the people for whom the Naira no longer holds as much value as it used to. In November 2023, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu speaking at the Defence Intelligence Annual Conference reported that the Tinubu administration inherited “a bankrupt economy which had resulted in budgetary constraints… it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation…” Before then, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun and Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and National Planning had both said just as much. Fresh concerns have now been raised about the Nigerian economy following the exclusive interview granted to Arise News, by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso. The interview was conducted by seasoned Business Correspondent, Boafson Omofaye. It has been reported widely.

The timing of the interview could not have been more auspicious. The monetary space had become so busy recently, everything was becoming confusing. The Cardoso interview offered needed clarifications on a number of issues. He was emphatic as he had been since November 2023, that the purpose of the reforms being introduced by the CBN under him is to stabilise the foreign exchange regime and the economy through proper alignments to foster economic growth. Over the weekend, there had in fact been a panicky announcement that the FG was planning to convert people’s domiciliary accounts in Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to Naira at a government-determined rate. Cardoso promptly dismissed that as untrue. I think the source of that rumour should be traced. It was a potentially disruptive and provocative piece of fake news, to even suggest that government would take the unthinkable step of stealing people’s money! People who make up such stories that can potentially cause social and economic crises should be made to pay for their folly. The interview raised quite a number of questions.

First, what happened to all the promises made by Mr. Cardoso in his first major outing as CBN Governor when he delivered a keynote address, and an economic roadmap at the 58th Annual Dinner and 60th Anniversary of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN)? On that occasion, Mr. Cardoso outlined the CBN’s priorities as (i) achieving monetary and price stability given the real-life implications of same for the well-being of Nigerians; (ii) targeted policies, transparent market operations and coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities, to ensure a more stable exchange rate, control inflation, and create an enabling environment for businesses and individuals to thrive; (iii) adopt measures to tackle institutional deficiencies, restore corporate governance, strengthen regulations and implement prudent policies, and overall (iv) promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. He also announced these targets: (a) banks will be directed to recapitalize (b) the extant ban on 43 items in the official foreign exchange market will be lifted to enable market forces to determine exchange rates; (c) the adoption of a floating exchange rate among other policies; (d) emphasis on technology in financial services with strict regulatory compliance and (e ) achieving a one-trillion-dollar economy in the next seven years, with the CBN strictly focused on its core mandate. Good ideas, so they seem on paper. It may also be argued that the CBN has not had enough time for its ideas to be fairly assessed, but so far, there have been more anxieties about the Nigerian economy, rather than confidence. Of that, we are certain.

There may have been a slew of reforms, guidelines, directives and measures by the CBN, still, the economy has taken a dive for the worse, with the floating foreign exchange regime or managed float as they call it, resulting in massive depreciation of the Naira, at a point, the naira was losing its value every 48 hours – an absolutely chaotic situation even to non-economists. A Nigerian Professor who delivered his exaugural lecture recently, disclosed that whereas in 2011, his monthly salary was worth $2,698.40, in 2024, with 20 years of service as a Professor - his salary had reduced to $291.88, both figures calculated on the basis of Nigeria’s foreign exchange rate. He is not alone. Ordinary people have more to complain about. Persons who could walk about a year or two ago and still claim that they belonged to the Nigerian middle class have found themselves at such a pitiable level that they can no longer feed themselves. Families have had to withdraw their children from schools abroad and from private schools at home, and send them to Nigeria’s terrible public schools. Many employers of labour are just putting up appearances. They can’t pay staff. They can’t buy diesel. The staff themselves have nowhere to go, because there are no easy alternatives. Many families have broken up because so-called breadwinners cannot win anything again. Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed Nigeria’s economic growth projection downwards from 3.1% in October 2023, to 3.0% in 2024. The Nigerian government is meanwhile optimistic that it would record a GDP growth of 3.76%. How? When one policy appears to be failing, another policy is quickly introduced, or a measure or guideline is thrown into the mix, in typical Nigerian fashion: if this does not work, may be that one would work. Many Nigerians have since fled the country in the hope that life would be better elsewhere. It is called “Japa” in local parlance.

To be fair, we have seen the CBN embarking on a make or mar move to save the Naira which the CBN Governor said was undervalued. But what is the Naira’s real value? Nobody knows, not even the CBN Governor – at least he could not make any revelations in that regard in his Arise News interview. What has happened to the Naira is not strange, it is alarming. In December 2023, the exchange rate was N907.1/$1. By the end of January, the Naira had been devalued to about N1,455.59 – a 37.7% depreciation in one month! In days of yore, the Naira used to be as strong as the dollar and the pounds sterling. Today, many – citizens and investors alike -have lost faith in the country’s national currency, having failed in its original function as a store of value. This has resulted in the continuing dollarization of the Nigerian economy, a misfortune which Femi Falana SAN is currently challenging at the Federal High Court, Lagos seeking the enforcement of relevant sections of the CBN Act, 2007.Unfortunately, the courts can read out the law, but the Naira’s value is beyond the pronouncements of the judex; its real value is in the market-place of productivity and consumption.

Cardoso’s CBN has since moved in with policies, measures and guidelines in a classical fire brigade fashion: On January 29, it issued a circular on “Financial Markets Price Transparency”. On January 31, it issued another circular on “the Harmonization of Reporting Requirements on Foreign Currency Exposure of Banks,” the effect of which was that banks should bring their excess forex stocks to the market unfailingly by the deadline of February 1, 2024. Also on January 31, the CBN further issued a circular on International Money Transfer Organisations (IMTOs). Before now, there had been a +/- 2.5% on the NAFEX rate for IMTOs. That has now been removed. Specific guidelines were further issued on International Money Transfer Services with regard to minimum capital share ($1million), non-refundable application fees (N10 million), and all exporters are required to provide details of their domiciliary accounts and NXP numbers, with export proceeds to be promptly repatriated within 90 days for oil exports and 180 days for non-oil exports. In another move, the CBN reviewed the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) framework. It also reviewed the exchange rate for the calculation of import duty upwards from N952 to N1, 357, with immediate effect. If policy pronouncements and circulars alone could save an economy, the CBN has put up more than enough drama in that regard in recent times. At no other time in the last decade has there been so much frantic effort to assert regulatory control, adopt measures to increase forex liquidity and insist on transparency and ensure correction. Mr. Cardoso defends these policy measures and assures the public that they would eventually stabilise the monetary space. We will see. We will see.

What is interesting in that Cardoso interview is the disclosure by him that about $2.7 billion out of the reported $7 billion outstanding foreign exchange liabilities of the Federal Government are not valid for settlement. An audit process commissioned by the CBN and conducted by Deloitte showed that those claims are fraudulent, and having been exposed as such, those who were making the claims have chosen to be quiet. However, the CBN has settled $2.3 billion valid requests, with current outstanding FX obligations standing at about $2.2 billion. The CBN Governor left much unsaid. Who are those persons or non-entities who made fraudulent claims? They need to be named, and if they had escaped with such “419 tactics” (obtaining money by false pretence) in the past, now that they have been uncovered, they should be sanctioned accordingly. It is not enough to say that their claims were rejected. What do they produce? What do they consume?

Mr. Cardoso also said clearly that whereas he is not against direct interventions by the CBN in the economy provided such interventions were well thought-out but that under him the CBN would rather focus on its core mandate. He pointed out that the CBN had intervened before him through loans and advances, up to N10 trillion, the volume and mismanagement of which resulted in the same distortions and inflation now troubling the economy. Indeed, before Cardoso, the CBN was in the business of Ways and Means beyond the allowable thresholds, and the CBN even became so overstretched, it intervened in virtually every sector of the economy from agriculture to fashion and soon began to dictate fiscal policies. The caveat is that those in charge of those other sectors of the economy at the time practically had no clue. The Central Bank of Nigeria actually had a more up-to-date register of Nigerian farmers than the Federal Ministry of Agriculture! But what are the specific distortions? Who mismanaged those interventions? Cardoso has cleverly offered a veiled criticism of the CBN that he inherited. He should be more specific. He would have to go beyond innuendoes, more so as some of the measures that the CBN has now introduced amount to a complete repudiation of what existed hitherto. Who exactly did what that has brought Nigeria to this sorry economic situation?

It is also important that while trying to return the CBN to its core mandate, the CBN under Cardoso does not repeat the same errors that it seeks to correct. Take for example the decision to return the excluded 43 items to the official foreign exchange market. How has that helped? Take also the increase in exchange rate for the computation of import duty. Is import duty not a fiscal matter? Take the new Implementation Guidelines on Cash Reserve Requirement Framework – here the attempt is to correct the arbitrary practices of old, and correct bad behaviour but what exactly went wrong? The banks were also asked to offload their excess forex stock, and just like that, the improvement in forex liquidity was traced to that directive, the long-term effect of which is yet to be seen. Wait a moment, you mean the banks were sitting on $7 billion and yet they always said they had no forex to sell? To get the banks to sell Forex was an ordeal, in fact, they became so comfortable, they even told customers that there was no Naira in their vaults. Every year, the banks declared trillions of profits at the people’s expense. They were using our money to make profit at our expense! Where was the same CBN? What happened to its oversight, regulatory role? The banks can of course claim that they have not committed any crime. They also do not trust the Naira, so it was better for them to stockpile value in dollars. The banks and the CBN can shift blame from now till the end of the year, that would not make any difference. But then who pays for the bad behaviour all around within the system? I am not too sure that the CBN Governor was in any position to shed light on that. And are there mechanisms in place to sustain the regulatory control that the CBN is trying to assert?

When CBN Governors speak in other jurisdictions, they base their positions on hard core data or evidence. Nigeria’s apex bank Governor did not have much data to speak with, which was why he could not make definite statements on inflation or other macroeconomic issues, or the proposed Monetary Policy Committee Meeting (MPC) now scheduled for February 26-27. For whatever it is worth, however, it was good to hear him speak with so much confidence and optimism even if we all know that it would take more than promises, social media posts, or the movement of departments from Abuja to Lagos, to rebuild this economy. It is either Nigeria goes to the World Bank or the IMF to secure a lifeline to rescue the Naira, or we find ways in the long run to return to those old days when the Nigerian economy used to work. The CBN cannot also do it alone. The long-term solution lies in making this economy productive again. The country is too import-dependent. It can’t even refine its own crude oil, it has to import finished products from elsewhere. The economy is too narrow, it has to be expanded to generate better activities and opportunities beyond oil. Up till the eighties, Nigeria boasted of so many industrial estates that produced textiles and foods and beverages. We produced our own tyres and vehicles and food. Along the Ikeja area, the sweet smell of wheat and barley, and confectionery and beverages wafted into the air; today those old industrial units have been taken over by heavy noise pollution from the Alleluia-shouting choruses! In the Niger Delta, there is too much oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Insecurity stalks the land. The people will not eat hope or policies. We squandered the riches. We are now harvesting poverty. Sad, but true.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has banned alcoholic beverages produced in sachets less than 200ml.
The agency said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles which began in 2018 elapsed on January 31, 2024.

She said enforcement of the ban commenced on February 1, 2024.

The director-general of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, while addressing the media over the development in Abuja on Monday, February 5, said the ban was not a sudden development but a result of a multilateral Committee that agreed that the ban would be in phases whereby production would be reduced by 50 percent by 2020 while outright ban would be on January 31, 2024.

Given that decision, the DG said NAFDAC did not issue renewal licenses exceeding January 2024 to any manufacturer of the products.

According to her, the agency took the route of wiping out the drinks in such sachets because of the negative effects on underage children.

She said because the drinks come in pocket-friendly sizes, accessible and affordable, children easily fell for the packages only to face the consequences in the future.

She said: “This decision was based on the recommendation of a high-powered committee of the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and the Industry represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), in December 2018.

“As a commitment to the decision reached at the end of this Committee meeting, producers of alcohol in sachets and small volume agreed to reduce the production by 5 percent with effect from 31st January 2022 while ensuring the product is completely phased out in the country by 31st January 2024”.

According to her, the future of the country supersedes other considerations in the enforcement of the policy.

Noting that saving Nigerian children and protecting the health of the larger society is paramount, Adeyeye said: “The people who are mostly at risk of the negative effect of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged and commercial vehicle drivers and riders.

“The World Health Organization has established that children who drink alcohol are more likely to: use drugs, get bad grades, suffer injury or death, engage in risky sexual activity, make bad decisions and have health problems.

“The World Health Organization also stated that harmful consumption of alcohol is linked to more than 200 health conditions including infectious diseases (tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS) and non-communicable conditions (liver cirrhosis and different types of cancer).

“It is also associated with social problems such as alcohol addiction and gender-based violence.

“To curb the menace of abuse of alcohol, the World Health Organization recommended some actions and strategies to Policy-Makers that have shown to be effective and cost-effective, which include: regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people) and regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol.”

She said in the course of enforcing the ban it was discovered that some manufacturers were still in production of the banned products and still had stacks of both finished products and packaging materials of the products in their possession.

She noted: “This situation is of course not acceptable, and the Agency views this as flagrant disobedience to the laws of Nigeria. NAFDAC views this matter seriously and will engage all statutory means, which may include prosecution, to deal with the matter”.

She warned that there is no going back on the decision, saying, “I want to use this medium to ask all holders of alcohol in sachets, PET and Glass bottles, empty sachets, PET bottles, empty Glass bottles, and other packaging materials of these banned products to immediately report to the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC for hand-over of same to NAFDAC for destruction, to prevent sterner measures including prosecution.

“NAFDAC is resolutely committed to the strict implementation of the regulations and regulatory measures towards safeguarding the health of Nigerians, particularly the vulnerable youth, against the dangers of reckless consumption of alcohol.”

…Condemns killings of Ekiti monarchs

The Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, on Monday, condemned the killings of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State, saying the organization will do everything that is possible to secure the South West.

The Yoruba socio-cultural organization also urged the Federal Government to fish out the killers of the two monarchs and bring them to book.

OPC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, in reaction to the gruesome murder of three Ekiti monarchs- Onimojo of Imojo- Ekiti, Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, Oba David Ogunsola and the Olukoro of Koro Ekiti in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, Oba Olusegun Cole, whose wife has been in the captive for the past five days.

Condemning the acts, Oguntimehin said it is sad that the monarchs died in such a situation, adding that the OPC will not fold its arms and leave unknown gunmen to spill blood of innocent people in such a dastardly act.

The statement reads: “We have indicated our resolve to assist the government of the south west region in addressing the surge of killings in Yoruba land.

“OPC will not allow the South West to be used as an abattoir where innocent people will be slaughtered and gunmen would live like king in our region.It is unacceptable.We will resist any attempt by gunmen to turn Yoruba land into a den of killers.

“It is unfortunate now that reports of killings and kidnappings are spreading across the southwest. We appeal to the federal and the state governments to co opt the OPC in their attempt to solving the security challenges in the country.

“We are ready to salvage the region from marauders and killers that have infiltrated our region. Those behind the killings of the three traditional rulers would not go unpunished.”

Nigerian sprint icon, Tobi Amusan has set a new African women’s indoor 60-meter record of 7.75 seconds at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.

The 27-year-old’s 7.75 seconds in Boston means she has retired the 7.77 mark she set in Kazakhstan at the Astana Indoor Meet in January.

Despite setting an African record, Amusan’s 7.75 effort was insufficient for first place in Boston, where she finished second to America’s Tia Jones in 7.72 seconds.

On January 27, in her first race of the new season, the Nigerian broke the 7.82seconds African record set by fellow Nigerian Gloria Alozi.

Amusan now has two of the fastest times ever run by an African woman in the 60m Hurdles and is on track to break the World Record of 7.68 seconds before the indoor season ends.

Amusan is ranked second on the world top list for the season behind Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas who ran 7.75 last week at the Corky Classics in Lubbock, Texas.

Amusan has also moved up to number 20 on the world all-time list and the reigning Commonwealth Games champion has now broken all three African records held by Alozie.

She first broke her predecessor’s African Games record of 12.74 set in 1999 when she ran 12.68 to win 10 years later (2019).

Amusan followed up by breaking Alozie’s 12.44 African record when she ran 12.42 seconds on her way to winning her first Diamond League title.

The sprint hurdler now owns the Nigeria, Nigerian Championships, African, African Games, African indoor, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and world records.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar has blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) economic policies for the prevailing pain and despair among Nigerians.

The former Vice President in a post on his X handle, formerly Twitter berated President Bola Tinubu, saying his “poor response to nation’s challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper economic crisis.”

Atiku said President Tinubu’s economic performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerians at home and abroad, adding, “Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that ….His economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multinational Companies, confused and weary of the economy, leave Nigeria in droves.

“The intense cost of living pressures has created more misery for the poor in towns and villages. There is hunger in the land as basic commodities, including bread, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians.

But in a swift reaction, the presidency on Sunday night said Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had certainly found a new hobby to keep himself busy, having failed to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, in a statement, said the former vice president “is increasingly carving for himself the role of opposition-in-chief to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government.”

He said: “Atiku’s latest diatribe was another uncharitable commentary on the state of the economy and the efforts of the President Bola Tinubu administration in remoulding it for sustained prosperity.

“Nigerians can easily see through the hypocrisy of Alhaji Atiku, who in accusing President Tinubu of poor response to the nation’s challenges and causing pains and despair, didn’t offer any better policy options in his run for the Presidency different from the economic reform agenda being pursued by President Tinubu. “His claim that the government’s policies have created intense cost of living pressures are also not grounded on facts as recent comparative cost of living indices show that Nigerians still enjoy the lowest cost of living in Africa.

“Instead of mouthing platitudes every time in a bid to earn cheap political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.

“Atiku should be honest enough to admit that President Tinubu inherited a weak economy, which to all intents and purposes and to ensure the survival of our country needs a complete overhaul.”

“While President Tinubu and his able team are working very hard to make our country better, ensure our economy is stronger and more competitive, Atiku Abubakar and his cohorts may continue to belly ache.

“However, they cannot stop the serious work of nation-building already set in motion by President Tinubu.”

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS has urged the Senegalese authorities to urgently schedule a new date for the country’s presidential elections that was earlier postponed.

The ECOWAS Commission made the appeal in a statement issued on its website on Sunday.

Recall that the Senegalese President Macky Sall had on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.

Sall, in an address to the nation, said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date, because lawmakers were investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.

The ECOWAS Commission said it has taken note of the decision of the Senegalese authorities to postpone the presidential elections, but “expresses concern over the circumstances that led to the postponement of the elections.”

The bloc therefore appealed to the authorities in Senegal to expedite the various processes to set a new date for the elections.

“The Commission further urges the entire political class to prioritise dialogue and collaboration for a transparent, inclusive and credible election,” ECOWAS said.

ECOWAS encouraged President Sall to continue to defend and protect Senegal’s long-standing democratic tradition, assuring that it would continue to monitor the situation in the West African nation.

$2bn balance will be cleared soon

Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), says the country will soon be free of its $7 billion foreign exchange (FX) backlog, as $2.3 billion has already been paid to foreign airlines and other sectors.

Cardoso spoke during an interview on Arise TV monitored by TheCable on Monday.

On September 26, 2023, the CBN governor, had said the apex bank was working on settling the $7 billion FX backlog liabilities.

The apex bank, which began clearing the debt in November 2023, recently released $500 million to various sectors to address the backlog of verified FX transactions.

On January 30, 2024, the CBN said it had concluded the payment of all verified FX claims by airlines with an additional disbursement of $64.44 million to the concerned foreign aviation firms.

‘WE INHERITED $7 BILLION FX BACKLOG’

Providing updates on the backlog liabilities, Cardoso said his leadership inherited the $7 billion debt, noting the central bank discovered that $2.4 billion of the sum was invalid following an enquiry into the transactions.

He assured Nigerians that the FX backlog issue would soon come to an end as only about $2.2 billion currently remains unpaid.

“When we came into the leadership of the Central Bank a few months ago, the issue of foreign exchange backlog was something that we met — obviously for something that had been accumulated over a period of time. It is very important as a sovereign nation to be able to keep your integrity intact, and as a bank, to be able to show that we consider obligations as obligations that must be met,” Cardoso said.

“Now, approximately $7 billion was what we were told, and we looked at these and commenced the process of starting to pay.

“We were settling some which we believed were valid and due for payment, and obviously this isn’t something we could just do in one shot or take a bit of time,” he said.

“Now, as we went along, we now had reasons to believe that we needed to take a harder look at these obligations. So we contracted Deloitte Management Consultants, to do a forensic of all these obligations and to actually tell us what was valid and what was not.

“We were committed to ensuring that we would pay all valid transactions and the result that came out of this was startling.

“We discovered that of the $7 billion, roughly about $2.4 billion had issues and had no business being there, and the infractions on that range from so many things, for example, not having valid important documents, and in some cases, even entities that did not exist, and in some cases, beneficiaries, account parties who had asked for exchange and got more than they asked for and some who didn’t even ask for any, got.

“Well, we’re not paying, if you don’t qualify. They are not valid.

“We have settled about $2.3 billion and that applies to the airlines and a whole load of different entities spread throughout the economy.”

Cardoso said what remains is about $2.2 billion “and I am confident that we will shortly be addressing those and be able to move on and make progress”.

The Presidency has revealed that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saved Nigeria from economic recession in 2023.

The disclosure was made by Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, in response to Atiku Abukabar, the Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, in the February 2023 election.

Atiku, a former Vice President, had criticised Tinubu’s economic reforms for creating pain and despair for Nigerians.

However, in reaction to Atiku, Onanuga said Tinubu’s recent economy on fuel subsidy removal and Naira floating are steps in the right direction.

He explained that the 2023 budget, with 97 per cent of revenue, was spent on debt servicing, foreclosing economic growth, and job creation.

“The national budget Tinubu met in 2023 showed that 97 per cent of revenue was to be spent on debt servicing, with little reserved for capital, thereby foreclosing growth and jobs.

“Confronted with this grim economic reality, President Tinubu faced a difficult choice of balancing reforms’ political and economic costs against the risks of economic recession. His government chose the former to keep the economy afloat and set it back on the path of growth and prosperity”, he said.

Residents of Minna, the Niger State capital, on Monday, protested high cost of living in the country, blocking major roads within the metropolis.

The protesters, including women and youths, were heard chanting protest songs, while security agents including policemen looked on.

The protesters said the rising cost of food items and poor government effort to arresting the situation forced them to block major roads so that government will hear their cry.

The Deputy Governor of Niger State, Yakubu Garba, while addressing the protesters, said the government is aware of the pain and hardship families are faced with at this time.

“Powerful entities, countries, strong men and their ways always lead me to Wago’s story. South Africa brought the long word ‘xenophobia’ into my consciousness. And, I am not alone. In business, they loathe, bully and muzzle whatever is Nigerian – even on our own soil. They milk us right here – how much was your DSTV subscription three months ago? How much is it now? Their telecoms foothold here, MTN, what is your experience doing business with it? Television station owners in Nigeria should also have stories to tell of their experiences with their South African host. So, it was not a surprise to see Nigerians on Saturday fully backing Cape Verde in wishes and prayers against South Africa. My friends who supported South Africa said they did so not out of love. They said Nigeria peeling and munching the Bafana Bafana in the semifinal would be sweet revenge for that country’s past and present monkeying acts. Another friend who has relations in South Africa did not want Nigeria to face that country in the semifinal “because we will defeat them and our people may be targets of attacks in South Africa.” But, for how long will that fear alter the direction of our supplication?”

Sports, especially football, have opiatic effects on Nigerians. I call it kinetic booze. The ongoing Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) football competition has been remarkable in numbing the people’s terrible pain and pangs of hunger. Since this thing started, morbid fears of violent death and of mass abduction get forgotten every night in sporty ecstasy. “Let’s give them opium, and let them sleep and dream.” That is from Miguel de Unamuno’s Don Manuel, a fictional Catholic priest with no belief in afterlife but who keeps himself happy doing good. We kill our misery drinking football to stupor. We dream of winning the next match and the next with the cup of victory. We are happy. The government should be happy too – and I think it is. Like all festivals, however, this season must end – and it will on Sunday, 11 February. But then, government won’t be government again if it does not have for the people another means of “illusory happiness.”

But what is at stake in AFCON’s semifinal match on Wednesday between Nigeria and South Africa is more than football. Every goal scored by either side will go to settling some mordant scores. We watched the AFCON quarter final match between tiny Cape Verde and big South Africa on Saturday night. Was that really a match between those two? Nigerians took it as their war; they say South Africans are not our friends. We invested money, men and emotions in their freedom from apartheid. We lost every kobo of those investments. The harvest from that field has been barns of hurtful engagements on all fronts. They do not hide their disdain for us; they dislike us – in sports and in politics, in business and in everything.

Trapped tigers when freed feed on their helpers. That is why we say ingrates are not better than thieves (Eni t’a se l’óore tí kò dúpé, bí olósà kóni l’érù lo ni). We push delicious bush meat to them, they unleash on us snakes. People have died; people have lost valuable investments in South Africa just because they are Nigerians. When President Bola Tinubu and South Africa’s Cyril Ramaphosa met at the United Nations headquarters in New York in September last year, they hugged as brothers and their countries as friends. But, “what greater wound is there than a false friend” (Sophocles). Even in international relations and politics, friendship should be a two-way street. Here, it is breached. A Nigerian diplomat was quoted by Paris-based English quarterly magazine, The Africa Report in its September 2023 edition as saying that “there are over 100 South African businesses in Nigeria” but “there are less than 10 registered Nigerian companies in South Africa.” The magazine goes further to note that “several Nigerian businesses have experienced little success in South Africa and exited.” It gave examples. Every fair and foul move you see on the football field of play is displayed across other sectors where Nigeria and South Africa engage. In most cases, the Nigerian side always loses because of unfair deals -and because of the Nigerian state’s peculiar I-don’t-care attitude to such challenges.

There is this character, Wago, in Elechi Amadi’s The Great Ponds. Wago is a fearsome, fearless champion who does not fight fair. He does everything to have his way: he bullies, he threatens, he does sorcery. He does not say sorry and will not beg whenever he is proven wrong; even his plays are hard tackles. “I am Wago, the leopard-killer,” boastful and haughty, he tells his terror-stricken listeners. He thinks his strength represents his village’s superiority over the other villages. He sets out to subdue his opponents and hoists up his community as the ultimate dispenser of favours. And he has had his way many times. Now, he must fight this war over the great ponds of Wagaba. Wago has an old rival to fight and settle all claims, once and for all. If his rival falls, he rises above all men, and his village becomes the exclusive owner of the ponds that serve all. The story ends with Wago and his land failing, disastrously – a victim of his own dark ways of doing the business of war.

Powerful entities, countries, strong men and their ways always lead me to Wago’s story. South Africa brought the long word ‘xenophobia’ into my consciousness. And, I am not alone. In business, they loathe, bully and muzzle whatever is Nigerian – even on our own soil. They milk us right here – how much was your DSTV subscription three months ago? How much is it now? Their telecoms foothold here, MTN, what is your experience doing business with it? Television station owners in Nigeria should also have stories to tell of their experiences with their South African host. So, it was not a surprise to see Nigerians on Saturday fully backing Cape Verde in wishes and prayers against South Africa. My friends who supported South Africa said they did so not out of love. They said Nigeria peeling and munching the Bafana Bafana in the semifinal would be sweet revenge for that country’s past and present monkeying acts. Another friend who has relations in South Africa did not want Nigeria to face that country in the semifinal “because we will defeat them and our people may be targets of attacks in South Africa.” But, for how long will that fear alter the direction of our supplication?

What they do to us here, we dare not do to them there. I maintain more than one telephone line because my job demands that I do. I have a Glo line and an MTN line. I have one other. Two weeks ago, my MTN line stopped working. The company said the line was barred because I had not linked the SIM with my NIN. But that was a lie. I did that a long time ago – the same day I linked my Glo line which is still working – perfectly. It turned out that I was just one person out of millions of Nigerians who suffered that barring of lines. While the problem was across all service providers, the difference has been in how customers are treated. The unjust penalty was not the biggest headache victims have had to contend with. Getting it fixed is a pilgrimage of sorts to the way the behemoth from South Africa treats its Nigerian customers. It has been a yellow-fever experience for millions everywhere they go. At all the centres where I went to try to do as I was ordered, I met people under the searing rays of the sun – waiting for attention. They are still there in tens and scores, suffering and sweating. I finally got my line fixed on Friday but I will be naive to think that it will not happen again.

The Ogiyan of Ejigbo in Osun State, Oba Omowonuola Oyeyode Oyesosin, who clocked 50 years on the throne a few days ago, is one of the deepest speakers of Yoruba language I have (yet) met. About a decade ago, he told me that people who are too big for reprimand will ultimately ruin their society (a tóbi má se é bá wí, wón máa nba ìlú jé ni). South Africa is big in everything good and bad. Until 1989, it was a nuclear power on the African continent. I remember I joked with my friends when in October 2015, the Muhammadu Buhari regime slammed a $5.2billion fine on MTN for failing to disconnect unregistered phone lines. I told my friends that if at all anything would be paid, the money would not come from the South African pocket. I told my friends that they and all other Nigerians who were on that network would pay the fine. Reports said the company eventually negotiated its way out, settling Nigeria with $1.7billion. But, who really paid? Certainly, Nigerians. And the practice that led to that fine, was it fixed? If it was properly fixed, my line and millions of others would not be axed two weeks ago. The same company recently declared a trade dispute with Globacom over interconnectivity fees. MTN claimed N7.05 billion from Globacom; Globacom fought back with counterclaims. A threat to disconnect Glo lines was made and was rebuffed by the threatened. The Bola Tinubu government did well here; it intervened and asked both parties to do reconciliation. Reports say the reconciliation exercise brought the figure down from N7.05 billion to N2.3billion. I had thought that hyperbole existed only in literary and rhetorical heavens. However, with this, I could see that making exaggerated claims can serve as havens if you are big enough. But, should there not be consequences for such a hand-of-God attempt at scoring a goal against an opponent? There will be none. We are dealing with a well-heeled pampered behemoth here.

If you call your food bowl a po, your neighbour will poo into it. It is how you dress that you will be addressed. We allow free-range hunters to poach our elephants. And, because big misfortunes have wrestled down the giant, small ones are finding the courage to play with its balls. Someone said it wasn’t only in Nigeria they do what they do. They say business cemeteries in Ghana, Iran, Afghanistan, Syria, etc contain skulls of those who dared the powerful. For too long, we’ve played soft with South Africa and its twigs. We’ve got wounded and stretchered off the field. That is not how to win against a team of bullies. There should be reciprocal gestures – you bite me, I bite you. A country that will survive and be respected will protect its own and, while dealing with the outside, do as Niccolo Machiavelli counseled: Act as “a true friend and a true enemy” at the same time.

The AFCON semifinal match coming up on Wednesday is a metaphor for settling scores. People who think they are powerful wear the costume of the gods. They toy with the rules and do whatever they like without consequences. Powerful persons and entities are gods; impunity is their turf. Whatever they do, you can’t call them to account. That is why they are gods – they are pampered with sweets of unquestionableness. South Africa, a country beautified with our feathers, with its businesses, does that with us routinely at home and abroad. As of 2019, official records in Nigeria showed that we lost 118 lives to xenophobic attacks in South Africa, 13 by the South African police. I do not have more current figures. That country looks down on us with disgust because we indulge it – even when the field of play is built on our soil. My history teacher in secondary modern school took me through the stories of imperial Rome, Hannibal, Carthage, the three Punic Wars and delenda est Carthago – the patriotic, defiant phrase which ended Cato’s every speech in the senate. Defeating South Africa on Wednesday will serve some poetic justice.