MONDAY EDITORIAL

There is need to pay more attention to the environment

While hundreds of thousands of citizens are still counting their losses, nature is wreaking havocs on communities in several states across the country. Within the past one month, villages, schools and farmlands have been submerged as more and more Nigerian join the growing population of internally displaced. To compound the problem, the Nigeria Hydrological Services Agency last week predicted more flooding in no fewer than 12 states of the federation. According to an alert from the agency, there has been a systematic rise in the water levels of both Rivers Niger and Benue in recent weeks such that Shiroro, Kainji and Jebba dams were already spilling water.

Instructively, while Nigeria has many challenges, environment is not often listed as one of them. That only shows our lackadaisical disposition to serious issues. It is therefore time Nigeria became part of the global trend of putting issues of the environment on the front burner while the relevant authorities should be more proactive, especially in the prevention of natural disasters. And when they inevitably occur, governments at all tiers, complemented by private organisations and well-endowed individuals, should come to the aid of the victims as we see in other parts of the world.

Meanwhile, elementary science teaches that as global temperatures rise, oceans get warmer and when water heats up, it expands and sea levels rise as we have been witnessing in several countries in recent times. It is therefore no surprise that in several coastal cities across the world today, climate change is creating a situation where too much water comes at an unexpected time, or in unexpected places causing serious problem. It is then little wonder that the densely populated, low-lying cities and towns in our country have also become an environmental nightmare for most of the inhabitants on account of flooding.

However, beyond the intervention of the government at all levels is the need for Nigerians to begin to imbibe the correct attitude to waste disposal because flooding in some of our major cities cannot be solely explained by the factor of nature. The habit of the people indeed plays a crucial role in what has been happening over the years anytime it rains. Most of the drains are blocked due to the indiscriminate throwing on the roads and drainages, disposable empty cans and pure water nylons, among others.

This dirty attitude quite naturally leads to blockages of canals and man-holes resulting in the type of floods that have been witnessed in recent weeks. For instance, Lagos presents a clear example in this regard as most flood-prone areas are replete with buildings erected on water channels. This ugly trend must stop while the state government should ensure that all those buildings are pulled down so as to ensure the free flow of water into the canals.

However, it is not enough for the government to just ask citizens to leave their houses built on flood path without providing compensations or any measures for their relocation, especially if those buildings have all the requite permits which then suggest that the owners are not to blame. Also, there is need for the authorities to resettle those living in flood-prone areas, especially in situations where that is the only solution for dealing with the problem. Naturally, there will be resistance from people who would not like to move from their present habitat but they must be made to realise the consequences of whatever choice they make between accepting to be resettled or risk their lives and livelihoods.

In the final analysis, Nigerians must come to terms with the fact that we are at a period in history when the forces of nature are raging and we must be prepared to deal with them.

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The Carnegie report provides lessons on the war against corruption

A recent report of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace singled out corruption as the most important obstacle preventing Nigeria from achieving its enormous potential. Titled “A New Taxonomy for Corruption in Nigeria”, the report said that corruption weakens the social contract between the government and the people, stymies development and causes billions of dollars to be stolen every year from the country’s economy. What is particularly worrying is that this abuse is not only at all levels of government, it has been extended to virtually all critical institutions in the country, including those in the private sector.

What is particularly instructive about the report is the claim that members of both the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) use political power to steal public resources. “Both are almost identically structured, non-ideological organisations. Both rely on misappropriated public funds to finance election campaigns. Neither values internal party democracy, allowing money and high-level interference to corrupt candidate selection processes,” the report said.

Given the revelation that the line between APC and PDP is very thin, this report should change the partisan manner of fighting corruption by this administration if any appreciable progress is to be made. Just recently, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) froze the accounts of two states – Benue and Akwa Ibom based on what many believe to be partisan political considerations. It took a public outcry before the restrictions on the accounts of both states were lifted.

The accounts of the Benue State government were obviously put on ice because the State Governor Samuel Ortom defected from the APC to the PDP. Why, many wondered, didn’t EFCC vet the state’s security votes when Ortom was in the APC? And why did Akwa Ibom come under the searchlights immediately Godswill Akpabio, Senate (PDP) minority leader and former governor of the state defected to the APC? Why is it that EFCC is only interested in states controlled by the opposition, such that it would gloat after the PDP candidate was defeated by the APC candidate in Ekiti State after the June election?

As we have said on this page severally, there is a world of difference between fighting corruption and peddling sensational information with political motives. The drama and media showmanship that Nigerians have over the years witnessed in the name of fighting graft will worsen corruption in the future. Yet, it is a given that where leadership misdeeds anticipate no consequences, democratic governance can only abide by rules made by autocrats and enforced by a rogue judiciary.

We have at different times challenged the current administration that fighting corruption requires some underlying doctrines that will inform the battle plans with the overall objective of carrying the people along. But with a campaign that has no foundation in public morality or ethical good governance beyond empty propaganda, fighting corruption has been reduced to the arrest of some opposition politicians and telling tales.

What the operatives of this administration ignore is the link between distortion of values and abuse of, or general disregard for, extant rules. Yet once rules are ignored, all templates lose their validity, submitting to collusions and arbitrary exercise of discretion that is nothing but grand corruption that has become very pervasive in the country, regardless of what officials are saying.

Indeed, as we have consistently argued, a war against corruption that is guided only by a blanket notion of naming and shaming opposition politicians will ultimately exhaust its ammunition and record ephemeral success. Fighting corruption in an environment such as ours goes beyond the sensational arrest of persons to putting in place structures that will lead to trials and convictions of those that are guilty without tarnishing the reputation of innocent citizens.

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Nigeria could do more to stem the menace of human trafficking
British Prime Minister Theresa May was recently in Nigeria as part of a three-nation African tour. While in the country, she spoke forcefully about human trafficking and modern slavery for which Nigeria has become notorious. Almost on a daily basis, there are reports of hundreds of young Nigerian girls being trafficked to Europe and Asia for sexual exploitation. The victims are often enticed by promises of greener pastures abroad only to be forced into acts of prostitution and slavery upon arriving at their destinations.

The sheer magnitude and sophistication of this human merchandising indicate that for any meaningful breakthrough to be achieved in the efforts to arrest it, collaborative attempts must be made by governments, non-governmental organisations, corporate bodies and even influential individuals. Critical stakeholders can no longer continue to watch from the sidelines while unscrupulous people classify fellow human beings as commodities and benefit from their ignorance, desperation and, sometimes, greed.

In the last one year, Nigeria has spent huge sums of naira to evacuate hundreds of Nigerians most of whom were trafficked to Libya enroute Europe with promises of better life. Several of them lost their lives while those who survived went through anguish and trauma before the federal government came to their rescue. Aside international trafficking and migration, several young Nigerians are also being trafficked within the country by money mongers who recruit them from poverty -stricken homes in rural areas with promises of improved living standard in the city where they are usually offered as house boys or maids, with traffickers taking the lion shares of their monthly earnings.

Against this background, we share the position of the US Department of State that Nigeria has indeed failed to take decisive steps aimed at curbing the menace of human trafficking in Nigeria. Victims of human trafficking and illegal migration often go through physical and psychological trauma as they must always be at the beck and call of organised patrons from the traffickers without objection no matter their level of grief. Those trafficked abroad neither have peace of mind nor desirable happiness, yet they often live under the threat and fear of deportation with little or no savings of their own.

Like the obnoxious trans-Atlantic slave trade, this present plague is characterised by intricately connected networks around the globe. Of course, with quantum advancement in Information and Communications Technology (ICT), the contemporary practitioners of the criminal transactions have faster and more efficient tools to work with. That means they can move their “wares” more discreetly. This poses a great challenge to the efforts to eradicate the dehumanising commerce.

At the root of human trafficking in Nigeria is endemic poverty. Poverty has been a veritable tool in the hands of traffickers in luring their victims with promises of improved living either in some cities within the country or abroad. By the time trafficked people realise that the promises of a better life were not genuine, it would have been too late. Several of those recently evacuated from Libya narrated how frustration forced them into the journey.

We therefore challenge the government at all levels to address the prevalent poverty ravaging the land and offer meaningful hope of livelihood to frustrated young Nigerian men and women who are often victims of trafficking. We also task the National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) to embark on massive enlightenment campaigns against trafficking particularly in rural areas of the country where this scourge has become prevalent. Parents must be involved in this exercise.

Above all, the security agencies must remain vigilant at the borders, airports and seaports. With its abundant resources, Nigeria must not be made to stay on this list of shame much longer.

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Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Edo State Universal Basic Education Board, (SUBEB), has said that the ongoing training for learning and development Officers, who are championing the Edo Basic Education Sector Transformation (Edo-BEST) programme, will guarantee a result-driven basic education sub-sector in the state.

The Chairman of SUBEB, Dr. Joan Osa Oviawe, who made this known, during a chat with journalists in Benin City, said the state government intends to revolutionise the basic education sub-sector and make it the envy of all, noting that continuous capacity building for improved productivity in the classroom remains a cardinal arm of the Edo-BEST programme.

Oviawe, who is also the Special Adviser to the Governor on Basic Education, said that the ongoing training is in phases and only dedicated hands will progress to the next stage.

“Some of the teachers have advanced to the next stage of the exercise. Others will go back to the classroom to teach and continue to master their craft.

“The selection criteria included assessment scores, oral interview and unbeknownst to all of them, they were under observation in the last two weeks. Some were sleeping in class, while some others were busy chatting online. The pass mark for learning and development officers was set at 75 per cent. We are really gunning for the best of the best to become trainers of teachers,” she said.

She noted that “the experience from the exercise remains a treasure trove of insights and new revelations, as people who are used to the shortcuts of cronyism, nepotism, tribalism have now been jolted to pay mind to their tasks.”

The chairman added that the exercise also revealed that “some teachers are hard of hearing, some cannot see well and we have told them to get their eyes tested and outfitted with glasses.”

According to her, “there were some complaints from some of the participants which we are looking at solving. As we turn over the system and introduce merit as the foremost yardstick for decision making, it is our hope that the teachers will soon cotton on to the mindset of meritocracy.

“At this stage of the training, teachers have to be able to use the tablet effectively to teach. And at the end of the training, those still struggling will not be given a teacher’s tab. They will need to go for more training.”

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We should be prepared for every eventuality, argues Olusegun Adeniyi

In the aftermath of the earth tremors that hit Abuja last week, the federal government assured residents of their safety but it is important that Nigerians do not get carried away by all the assertions that our country is immune from earthquakes. We are not. Where such natural disasters are concerned, nations and territories are categorised into high risk, medium risk and low risk. That Nigeria falls into the low risk category does not in any way rule out the possibilities of an earthquake.

In their book, “The Changing Earth: Exploring Geology and Evolution”, James Monroe and Reed Wicander stated very clearly: “No place on earth is immune to earthquakes, but almost 95 % take place in seismic belts corresponding to plate boundaries where plates converge, diverse and slide past each other.”

Therefore, while earthquakes may be unlikely in Nigeria, and my prayer is that we never experience such tragedy, we should dispense with the notion that it is impossible. That explains why we need to change our attitude to occurrences like the Abuja tremors as I pointed out in a piece published on this page eight years ago, on 1st September 2011 to be specific. Titled ‘It can never happen here’ and published in the wake of the bombing of the United Nations building in Abuja, I consider it very instructive for times like this so the edited version is excerpted below.

First, a confession: I do not own the copyright to today’s headline. It belongs to the late Chike Akabogu, one of the most gifted writers Nigeria has ever produced. He was a member of the defunct National Concord Editorial Board in the late eighties and early nineties. Unfortunately, he died at a very young age. Akabogu once wrote about how Nigerians like to delude themselves that they are different; that bad things that occur elsewhere have no place in our country.

I remember when the wave of terrorism heightened at the beginning of the last decade, it was considered too distant a phenomenon to worry about in Nigeria even when there were explosions at the United States’ embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. When Farouk Muttallab was caught trying to blow up a Delta Airlines flight in December 2009 and the United States’ government wanted to link our nation with terror, we easily wriggled out by claiming that Farouk caught the bug abroad; after all, he was not schooling in Nigeria. We all took the ugly incident in our strides, believing it could never happen on our shores. Now, the chicken has come home to roost with last Friday bombing of the United Nations head office right here in Abuja. With no place to hide anymore, we can no longer live in denial as a nation: In Nigeria, as in other countries, anything and everything can indeed happen!

The philosophy of ‘it can never happen here’ is actually responsible for the state of our nation today because both the leaders and the led have come to certain conclusions that feed not only the culture of impunity that has become a national ideology but also our state of unpreparedness for any eventuality. Yet for us to develop, we must accept that anything can happen here. For instance, our leaders must accept that the ’Arab Spring’ which has consumed several leaders from Egypt to Tunisia and has now birthed at Muammar Gaddafi’s shores in Libya can happen here. We should also never lose sight of the fact that the road to Mogadishu began with the orgy of violence we have witnessed repeatedly in Jos where no fewer than 20 people were killed with several property destroyed in a renewed hostility last weekend. We should expect that we could have an earthquake, a Tsunami and other tragic occurrences as forces of nature fight everywhere in the world.

As pessimistic as all these may sound, that is the way most serious countries now think by building negative scenarios and working to ensure they do not happen; while also planning towards mitigating such occurrences in the event that they do. But by living in denial of anything and everything, we prevent ourselves from learning useful lessons. That is why we were surprised that we now have suicide bombers in our midst. Because we never came to terms with the fact that if it could happen elsewhere, it can also happen in our country.

However, the tragedy of our nation today is not that we don’t learn from the example of other countries but rather that we don’t learn even from our own experiences. We can use a recent incident to underscore that fact. Just a few weeks ago there was heavy downpour which practically sacked the city of Lagos. Last weekend in Ibadan, we witnessed a far bigger tragedy. If we find it difficult to deal with the simple issue of rainfall and flooding, how can we handle bigger tragedies?

As I write this, I just received a mail from one Mr. Dayo Akinuli which speaks for itself: ‘Please we the residents of Alpha Beach and its environs are appealing to you to help us use your column to sensitise Governor (Babatunde) Fashola and President (Goodluck) Jonathan who came to the Ocean almost two months ago with a promise that everything would be done to make the place habitable. Between then and now, over a thousand residents have packed out. The ocean has gradually found its way into our neighbourhood through Bode Ajakaye Street, very close to the GLO Building. All these claims can be verified by paying a visit to the beach. We all know the project is beyond what the state government can handle but they must not wait until the ocean sweeps all the residents to the great beyond before they do something.’

The forces of nature and that of terrorism represent the biggest threat facing mankind today yet experience of the past few weeks has shown very clearly that we are ill-prepared to tackle either of these challenges. On the first one, as a former resident of Ajah, I never fail to entertain fear about the vulnerability of the Lekki Axis of Lagos. Not only do we have no capacity to handle emergency in the event that nature strikes along that coast but indeed that we may not even have anything to warn of an impending danger. That explains why somebody must begin to think along that line: Anything can happen here!

Note: Need I say more?

Adeniyi is Chairman, THISDAY Editorial Board

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The rejection of the bill is a major setback for the country

Citing the provision that empowers the proposed Petroleum Regulatory Commission to retain as much as 10 per cent of the revenue generated amongst other reasons, President Muhammadu Buhari has refused assent to the Petroleum Industry Governance Bill (PIGB) recently passed by the National Assembly. Against the background that the sector—which provides most of the country’s foreign exchange and to a large extent drives other sectors of the economy—has for decades operated with an archaic legislation, this is no doubt a major setback for the country.

It is particularly noteworthy that the unsuccessful passage of the PIB at the National Assembly for many years led the current Eighth Assembly to separate it into various components including the PIGB which deals mostly with the governance issues in the industry; the Petroleum Industry Fiscal Bill, which deals with the fiscal issues; the Petroleum Industry Host Communities Bill, which deals with issues of oil assets host communities, and the Petroleum Industry Administration Bill, which would address other administrative challenges of the sector.

The PIGB, the first of the four bills, was passed in March 2018 to provide the legal framework for the creation of commercially oriented and profit-driven petroleum entities; to ensure value addition and elevate the petroleum industry to international standards through the creation of efficient and effective governing institutions with distinct roles. Basically, the PIGB envisaged that the Ministry of Petroleum shall be responsible only for setting the overall policy and strategy for the oil and gas sector. It also granted the minister pre-emptive rights over all petroleum products in the country in the event of a national emergency.

However, the powers to grant, renew, amend, extend or revoke licenses for oil and gas acreages were taken away from the minister unlike it was in the 1969 Act. It equally provided for the establishment of the National Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NPRC) to replace the DPR, Petroleum Inspectorate and PPPRA. Under the PIGB, the NPRC shall be completely independent, and shall among other functions, be responsible for regulating the oil and gas sector as well as the conduct of bid rounds and or processes for the award of any licenses or lease required for oil and gas exploration and production in the country. It was also going to get the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) separated into functional companies that would be listed on the stock exchange, and ultimately end NNPC’s long years of operational failures, thereby turning its successors into profit making entities.

We are well aware that the PIGB was not the ‘silver bullet’ that would cure Nigeria’s oil industry of all its operational anomalies, but it was going to set off the process of an enduring reform, depending however on the implementation of its provisions. For sure, it provided hope to investors in the industry that there would eventually be some level of certainty in how they do business. Unfortunately, that hope has been dashed.

We will like to remind the president that in setting up his Economic Recovery and Growth Plan (ERGP), he had chosen the oil sector as one of the major pillars of that plan, and anticipated it would contribute immensely to its success. But the oil industry as presently run will hardly provide the kind of results he is expecting for many reasons among which is that new investments to improve its productivity will not come due to operational uncertainties. While we therefore do not want to be seen as being pessimistic, we are nonetheless constrained to warn that this decision is one that could set Nigeria on the road to Venezuela with all its dire consequences.

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Government should introduce a policy that will encourage patronage of the ports in the Eastern part of the country

In calling for the revival of the ports in the eastern part of the country in a bid to secure a permanent solution to the perennial traffic gridlock in the Apapa axis of Lagos, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode was right on point. For years, the two ports at Apapa in Lagos have created perpetual traffic gridlock in the metropolis and constituted a nuisance to both livelihoods and businesses. But the fears of Ambode that the situation could worsen are well founded and the authorities should act quickly to prevent the crisis from morphing into a full blown disaster.

The unending snarl is provoked by the sheer volume of articulated vehicles and tankers traversing the road that connects the two ports to lift containers and offload petroleum products, for onward transportation to other parts of the country. Sadly, the ensuing lockdown is already having severe consequences on the socio-economic landscape of Lagos State. “As it is now, other ports in Nigeria must begin to work immediately to decongest the gridlock in Lagos. Whatever has led to the continual use of trucks to lift fuel – the vandalism of pipelines -should be addressed immediately. We believe that this will allow the road to become free. We don’t need to continuously use taxpayers’ money to build roads that are destroyed by tankers,” Ambode said.

In the past few years, we have used this platform to draw the attention of the authorities to the imminence of what has now become a reality: access to the nation’s major port is increasingly becoming impossible. For years, motorists using the two main access roads to the town spend unbearable long hours on the traffic before they could get to their various destinations. Besides the daily dreadfulness, the loss of productive man hours is emphasised by craters and potholes on the roads, particularly during the raining season.

What is happening in Apapa is anathema to decency in road usage. Unfortunately, years of toeing the path of impropriety and poor infrastructure development and maintenance in the energy and other sectors are having their toll on other forms of business. That explains why we have tankers of all sorts on the roads every day with all the risks they pose to other motorists. Besides, the blocking of the inland roads has caused a disruption to the urban landscape and forced many affluent citizens to abandon their property in Apapa and relocate to other parts of the city.

While we have consistently called on the federal government to crack down on tanker drivers packing indiscriminately on the road while waiting to offload petroleum products in Apapa, the long term solution is for the federal government to introduce a policy that will enable patronage of the ports in the Eastern part of the country by importers. For years, the ports in Port Harcourt, Warri, Koko and Calabar have remained idle largely because of low patronage, underutilisation and inability of high capacity vessels to berth, arising from the non-dredging of the ports. Outside Apapa, the only other active port in the country is located in Onne in Rivers State.

It is regrettable that Apapa, which used to command prime value for property, considering its strategic location and primacy as a commercial and industrial hub is now notoriously reputed for its unrelenting traffic. That is why we subscribe to the solution being proposed by Governor Ambode that the federal government should provide incentives for ship owners by lowering the charges on freight imposed for vessels berthing through the Eastern ports so as to relieve the pressure on the Lagos ports.

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Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo has been in the forefront of restructuring, argues Kanmi Ademiluyi

“Restructuring” is all the rage. It has become all things to all segments and a political battering ram in an election season. Unfortunately, very much like Richard Nixon’s campaign catchphrase, “Law and Order”, referred to jocularly in the press as Laura Norder during the American presidential election in 1968, in some areas it has inadvertently acquired a sinister undertone. In 1968, “Law and Order” on the surface sounded innocuous. Who could possibly be against the imposition of “law” and “order” unless of course you are anarchist? Nevertheless, many believed that Nixon was talking in code. Decoded, it actually stood for – “keeping the African – Americans firmly in their place.” Things like this have to be handled with care, analytical rigour and sensitivity.

In a campaign season in which ill-prepared candidates have sadly not presented a coherent alternative perspective on social and economic reconstruction, a nebulous “restructuring” unsurprisingly, has replaced clinical analysis of the key issues. Former vice-president Atiku Abubakar has seized on the buzzword with glee. Glaringly obvious is the former VP’s problem in explaining why he did not seek action on an issue he is now so passionate about earlier in his long political career.

Until his present reboot for another presidential run, Atiku has certainly not been associated with any deep thinking on the issue of the structure of the Nigerian state. In looking for a cause to use as a campaign theme, he makes a faux pas in taking on the current Vice-President Professor Yemi Osinbajo who in words and in deed has a proven track-record on this issue. What is intended to be Atiku’s knock-out punch is the mistaken belief by Atiku that Osinbajo has taken an opportunistic maneuver, a u-turn conveniently because he is now in government. This flies in the face of available evidence much of it verifiable in court decisions. As Attorney- General of Lagos State from 1999-2007, Osinbajo was fortuitously thrust into the heat of a series of legal battles and jurisprudential jousts over the issue of the rights of the federating units and the necessity to operate a real federal structure in Nigeria.

The irony of history here is pronounced. At the time the Lagos State Attorney – General was jousting in the courts on states’ rights, the sitting vice-president, surprise, surprise, was Atiku Abubakar. On the contrary, there is no available evidence of dissent from the sitting vice-president on these issues. On most of the defining issues, only the states of the Niger Delta sided with Lagos. It is on record that Osinbajo as Attorney General of Lagos State went to court to ascertain the fact that every state should control, to a certain extent, its own resources. This eventually led to the landmark ruling that the oil-producing states should continue to get 13% derivation.

In Attorney General of Abia State & 2 Ors v Attorney General of the Federation and 33 Ors, VP Osinbajo (as Attorney General of Lagos State) challenged the constitutionality of the Local Government Revenue Monitoring Act in the Supreme Court contending that it is a major negation of true federalism. As third plaintiff in the case, Lagos State filed the most comprehensive objections to the act. Osinbajo had argued that the National Assembly could not exercise oversight functions over local government administration in the country.

The act which provided for direct disbursement of local government allocations from the federal account and monitoring of the process by the federal government, amounted to undue interference with the powers of the states over local governments as provided by Section 7 (and other sections) of the 1999 Constitution. He argued too that it was also unconstitutional for the National Assembly to impose a duty on the state as – the act sought to do -, in matters within the legislative competence of the state legislature. The other 33 states supported the arguments. The Supreme Court agreed with his position and ruled in favour of Lagos State. This case has been pivotal to maintaining the powers of states over local governments till in line with the principles of true federalism till today.

In Attorney General of Lagos State v Attorney General of the Federation & 35 Ors (Urban Planning case), he challenged the provisions of the Urban Planning Decree which had been passed by the military and adopted by the PDP government of President Olusegun Obasanjo (with Atiku as VP). The law had purported to confer powers of urban and regional planning for the whole country on the federal government. Based on the decree, the federal government was issuing building plan approvals to people in Lagos State and other parts of the country, in complete disregard of the physical planning laws and arrangements of the states.

The facts are incontrovertible that vice-president Osinbajo has had a distinguished track record of fighting for true federalist cause. What he should not be stampeded into doing is to jump into a vacuous bandwagon using the buzzword ‘restructuring’ to obscure the decisive realities that the Nigerian federation faces. Apart from devolution of authority to the states and the local governments, the critical issue is not a nebulous, ill-defined ‘restructuring’, but a programme of social and economic reconstruction of the glaring inequalities in our country.

Much of the sources of conflicts can be traced to social inequalities and the limitations of opportunities. With the advent of the preposterously termed Structural Adjustment Programme in 1985, Nigeria has largely had what the Latin American economist Andre Gunder Frank described as ‘growth without development’. Ephemeral ‘growth’ figures have not translated into the realities of higher living standards and a fight back against the underlying causes of structured poverty. Cyclical commodities boom have come and gone without policies which have been of benefit to the majority and not to just a privileged view. In contradistinction, the government of Ignacio Lula da Silva in Brazil took 40 million people out of poverty in eight years through the sort of social intervention programmes which vice-president Osinbajo is associated with.

As the vice-president himself in response to Atiku has pointed out, “Good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance. It involves social justice, investing in the poor, and jobs for young people; which explains our school feeding programme, providing a meal a day to over nine million public school children in 25 states as of today. Our NPower is now employing 500,000 graduates; our TraderMoni that will be giving microcredit to two million petty traders; our Conditional Cash Transfers giving monthly grants to over 400,000 of the poorest in Nigeria. The plan is to cover a million households.”

There are a myriad of other social intervention programmes such as free school meals and the anchor borrowing programme for farmers which are a demonstrable attempt to convert millions of subsistence farmers into commercial farmers.

The Italian political philosopher Antonio Gramsci decades ago very astutely pointed out that the central ethos of politics is to shift the territory of debate decisively in favour of one’s own position. For the first time in decades, the territory of the discourse is being shifted to focus on government policies that will benefit the majority. It is early days and there will be hitches and hiccups. Nevertheless, what is shaping up as a decisive break from a dismal past should be supported. What will not be helpful to the prospects of the hitherto neglected majority are attempts by the beneficiaries of underserved and unsustainable privileges to obscure attempts at building a more inclusive, socially just society and lessening inequalities by hiding behind the smokescreen of ill-defined buzzwords and catch-phrases. The central issue of our time is widening social injustice. Personally, I am glad that at least there is now a re-direction of policies to face it.

Ademiluyi is a former Chairman of the editorial Board of Independent Newspaper

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Democracy is built on the principle of rule of law

Nigeria’s main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) recently cried out on the urgent need to pull the country back from the troubling path of impunity, scant regard for the judiciary and the violations of democratic process ahead of the 2019 general election. According to the party, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), an important agency set up to tackle graft, has turned criminal investigation into a tool for tarnishing the image of key opposition figures “perceived to be averse to the whims and electoral interest of the ruling party.”

We agree on the need to restore the country to the path of law and order if we are to make any progress. The presumption of innocence and the requirement of proof beyond reasonable doubt in criminal cases are safeguards meant to protect all of us from the mob and from the state. In societies where leaders bend the rule of law in favour of any cause, including those subsumed under national security, the main aim is usually to abridge certain rights and freedoms that the people hold dear in pursuit of private agenda.

It is against this background that the recent statement by President Muhammadu Buhari that he would “jail more looters” created concern about the role of the judiciary before he added fuel to fire with his declaration at the annual conference of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) that the rule of law would be subordinated to national security. “Rule of Law must be subject to the supremacy of the nation’s security and national interest,” the president had said in what was considered an outright descent to totalitarianism, although there has been a walk back from that position following public outrage.

However, the president’s remark at the lawyers’ conference was a mere reinforcement of an earlier one by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Abubakar Malami. Last July, Malami clearly endorsed the subordination of the law to “national security” in advancing reasons why the former National Security Adviser (NSA), Col. Sambo Dasuki (rtd) was still being held despite repeated court orders for his release since 2015. According to Malami, the former NSA could not be released because the allegations against him were related to “issues of public interest,” obviously as defined by this administration. The “supremacy” of national security and public interest is also evidently at play in the continued disobedience to court orders on the release of the Shiite leader, Sheik Ibrahim El Zakzaky.

The Gestapo-like invasion of the abode of Chief Edwin Clark, former Federal Commissioner for Information by police officers who were later dismissed for acting without authorisation has further heightened the state of lawlessness in the country. Only last Friday, a 20-man team of EFCC officials invaded the headquarters of Standard Chartered Bank in Lagos, ostensibly in the line of duty. A day later, the commission declared that “the raid by operatives purportedly wearing the jackets of the commission might have been the handiwork of errant officers who acted without authorisation.”

It is either that these agencies are becoming increasingly less rule-governed or they have been hijacked by rogue elements within their ranks. But whichever way one looks at it, especially against the recent show of shame by the Directorate of State Services (DSS) at the entrance to the National Assembly, it should worry critical stakeholders that recourse to arbitrariness is fast becoming the norm in our country.

Over the last three and half years, the Buhari administration has consistently fallen short on issues of human rights and the rule of law. It manages security through an ineffective clique that takes delight in harassing and intimidating the opposition. On many occasions, the EFCC had been used and is still being used to fight private battles. Its sister organisation, the DSS is another impunity writ large. Besides, the government disobeys court orders at will. However, even more odd and outrageous was the president’s proclamation in a house full of lawyers that his administration is more or less above the law.

While we subscribe to the notion that national security is of crucial importance, democracy is built on the principle of rule of law. Therefore, no one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to take the laws into their hands or resort to self-help on any issue.

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No one, no matter how highly placed, should be allowed to take the laws into their hands or resort to self-help on any issue

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MONDAY EDITORIAL

Government could do more to contain the menace

The increasing cases of cancer infections among Nigerians, young and old, only help to make life and living a little more precarious. In recent years, reported cases of people afflicted with cancer in the country have been on a steady rise.  While many such persons have been killed by the disease, others have been knocked down by it and are yet battling for survival.

It is bad enough that cancer is a terminal disease, it is worse that most Nigerian medical centres lack the diagnostic capacity to quickly detect and treat cancer infections. This has greatly compounded the problem, forcing several Nigerians to travel to countries like India, the Emirates, United Kingdom, etc., in search of treatment for the disease. The economic consequence of this is that it has led to so much capital flight while most medical experts are now agreed that the disease has become an important health care concern for the country.

Further complicating the situation is the very low awareness of the scourge among Nigerians but more among women, especially rural women. The Federal Ministry of Health and the National Orientation Agency are yet to create the level of awareness that would bring sufferers to the danger of the cancer scourge. Instructively, the most common types of cancer in Nigeria are carcinoma of the uterine cervix and breast for women and liver and prostate cancers for men over 40 years.

The burden of cancer in Nigeria is enormous. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), it is feared that by 2020, cancer incidence for Nigerian males and females may rise to 90.7/100,000 and 100.9/100,000, respectively. It is also estimated that by 2020, death rates from cancer for Nigerian males and females may reach 72.7/100,000 and 76/100,000 respectively. But what is responsible for the growth of the scourge in Nigeria?

 Medical experts somewhat differ on the likely causes, but there is a consensus that it is largely the consequence of lifestyle. People’s dietary habits, lack of exercise, irregular or lack of breast examination, and lack of mammogram checks (especially for those 40 years old and more) are major factors. Research has also shown that cancer could occur more with people who eat much red and processed meat because such meat are known to have plenty of cancer-causing chemicals and fats. Still, many believethat the major cause is the habit of the people which is not helped by government policy or lack of one. For instance, while most countries are making stringent laws against tobacco, our government seems to be encouraging it.

 We believe that the task of saving its citizens from the cancer scourge remains essentially with government which has to provide both the basic facilities to combat the disease and to create the enabling environment that can facilitate the collaboration of the private sector in tackling the menace. Increased awareness campaigns, improvements in public health and increased funding for health care initiatives – by government, donor agencies, and development partners – are all likely to lead to a decrease in the incidence of this killer disease. Nigerians themselves must also begin to imbibe the culture of regular medical check-ups so they can commence treatment of any diagnosed ailment promptly before it gets too late. Regular exercise, losing weight and imbibing the culture of health maintenance could reduce the risk by 50 per cent.

 While the alarming rate of death from cancer points to the state of medical institutions in Nigeria, it is important for critical stakeholders to understand the danger the disease poses to the future of our country. That should encourage discussions on how to fashion both preventive and curative solutions at all levels of the society.

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The electorate should be allowed to determine the outcome of the election

Come Saturday, the people of Osun State will go to the poll to elect a new governor for another four years. It is yet another litmus test for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the security agencies and other stakeholders given what transpired in the Ekiti State gubernatorial election held in June. The summary of the report of observers was that the election was fundamentally flawed and indeed fell short of global standards. While financial inducement is not a new development in Nigeria, the entrepreneurs of vote-buying became so brazen that they transacted their nefarious business in the open.

As we have said repeatedly on this page, the use of money to manipulate electoral outcomes is not only a violation of the law, it constitutes an abuse of the constitutional right of the people to choose their leaders in a free, fair and credible manner. Unfortunately, one of the observers during the Ekiti polls, Mrs. Virginia Marumoa-Gae of the United States’ International Republican Institute (IRI) painted a disgraceful picture of how the slogan, “see and buy” was used to lure voters to show their thumb printed ballot papers in exchange for money.

We are delighted that INEC is not living in denial about this ugly development that is making a mockery of democracy as contestants engage one another in financial shoot-outs to secure power at all costs. The resident electoral commissioner for Osun State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje said last week that the commission would do all within its powers to checkmate vote-buying this Saturday. “It is not an easy thing to prepare for an election and then some people will come on election day with bags of money very close to where you are having your polling units to see how they can pay voters for a particular candidate”, said Agbaje who promised that INEC would rearrange the voting cubicles in such a way that it would be difficult to display ballot paper after voting.

While we support INEC and hope all the stakeholders will help in the bid to demonetise elections in the country, the federal government does not seem to be getting the message. In what was clearly an error of judgment, Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo last week launched the ‘TraderMoni’ scheme, an empowerment programme for 30,000 petty traders in Osun State. Ordinarily, safety net as a social welfare policy aimed at alleviating and reducing poverty in the society by way of deliberate actions is not wrong. However, questions are being asked as to why the programme was launched in Osun State on the eve of a crucial gubernatorial election. For an administration that claims to be fighting corruption, it is to say the least indefensible.

In the last two years, Nigeria’s global credibility ratings on issues of transparency and accountability have continued to dwindle. A recent Carnegie report said despite the much-touted anti-corruption drive of the current government, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is as corrupt as the PDP it replaced. That should worry President Muhammadu Buhari and his administration. The issues of vote buying, financial inducement, and the general deployment of cash to game the electoral process are very serious infractions for which all critical stakeholders must come together to find a solution. When elections become a zero sum game in which dirty money has to be deployed for victory at all costs, then democracy is endangered.

As the people of Osun State therefore go to the poll on Saturday to elect their next governor, it is our hope that the electorate will be allowed to make their choices in a free and fair process devoid of intimidation or any form of financial inducement.

May the best candidate win!

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For there to be any enduring peace, the people of the region need to be empowered

In a bid to contain the grave humanitarian crisis in the Lake Chad Region, a two–day conference was last week held in Berlin. Co-hosted by Germany, Nigeria, Norway and the United Nations, it was a follow-up to last year’s Oslo conference and focused on humanitarian assistance, protection of civilians, crisis prevention and sustainable development in the conflict-ridden Lake Chad Basin. At the end of the well-attended meeting, funds were pledged to help shake the region out of its long humanitarian and economic funk.

The US$2.17 billion in grants and the US$467 million in concessional loans “pledged for the Lake Chad region are a strong endorsement of our new way of working together to address both the humanitarian needs and the root causes of the crisis in the longer term,” said UNDP administrator Achim Steiner. “In this way, our response to a crisis is also an opportunity to invest in a future where crises are less likely and nations are more resilient.”

We thank the donor agencies, particularly the 17 UN Member States, the European Commission, the World Bank and the African Development Bank for this bold life-saving venture. As Mr Mark Lowcock, Emergency Relief Coordinator rightly observed, over 10 million people in the Lake Chad region are in dire need of humanitarian aid and protection as violence, hunger and famine are on the rampage. The money pledged, if redeemed on time, will help in cushioning the plight of the neglected.

The Lake Chad Basin has long been a seat of life-threatening crisis. Situated on the extreme northern part of Borno State and sharing border with Niger Republic, Cameroun and Chad, Lake Chad, once rated as one of the largest water bodies on the continent, has shed more than 95 per cent of its size. Its surface area has been reduced from 25,000 square kilometres in the 1960s, to less 4,800 square kilometres today. Experts have attributed the shrinkage to a number of factors including climate change, overgrazing, excessive and inappropriate demand for water resources, as well as poor enforcement of environmental legislation.

A combination of these factors has had adverse effect on the lake so much that it is increasingly difficult to support the millions of people who depend on it for their livelihood. Indeed with lack of water for irrigation leading to crop failures, livestock deaths, collapsed fisheries and soil salinity, Lake Chad has almost lost all the attributes with which it had sustained lives and thriving economic activities over the years.

However, the crisis in the region is exacerbated by the almost decade-long insurgency in Northeast Nigeria by the militant Islamic group, Boko Haram. The militants’ horrific attacks across the borders from Nigeria into the countries of the Lake Chad Basin had led to the death of thousands of civilians while millions of others have been displaced. This has led to a huge refugee crisis and famine. Indeed, some seven million people made mostly of women and children are reportedly living under inhuman conditions, some bordering on starvation.

At a recent regional meeting to find a solution to the problem, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Resident Representative in Nigeria, Mr Edward Kallon, said despite the progress made on the security and humanitarian front in recent years, more needed to be done to assure the people of the Lake Chad Basin of their safety. “The people of this region have suffered for far too long and we need to redouble our collective efforts to address the underlying causes of the crisis,’’ he said.

This is why we appreciate and welcome the efforts aimed at resuscitating economic activities by recharging the lake and sustaining the peace in the region. For there to be any enduring peace and security, the people of the region need to be economically empowered.

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There must be minimum standards for the establishment of universities

Given the manner in which many of the private universities in the country, including those with ramshackle facilities and second rate faculties, award First Class degrees to many of their graduating students, several pertinent questions have come up. The questions speak to the concerns of critical stakeholders as a result of the proliferation of these institutions of higher learning in our country and they include: What are the standards? Who is accrediting the courses? What are the minimum infrastructure requirements? Is there a national minimum standard for university education?

Ordinarily, the increase in the numbers of universities need not be a matter for alarm if several other questions are posed and answered satisfactorily, namely: Are there adequate and equal numbers of high quality technical colleges? Are there competitive ‘community colleges’ supported by, and relevant to, needs of local authorities for training locally required personnel? Are local communities involved in monitoring the quality of the culture of learning, quality of favourably remunerated teaching and administrative staff? Are local primary and secondary schools endowed with high quality staff, infrastructure, teaching material and innovative teachers?

There are many more questions to pose but the main worry stems from the fact that the sheer incompetence in tackling the problems in the existing public universities is being waived by this reckless recourse to all manner of low-standard private universities. Lecturers who can’t hold their own as senior lecturers in respectable universities are being hired as professors and even vice-chancellors in some of these universities. The same thing that happened with the banks when we had close to a hundred of them is now happening with the universities.

We must point out here that we are not opposed to the idea of private universities but we abhor the current cynical approach to education in Nigeria. That explains why we have been calling for a total overhaul of the sector. That of course will go beyond the universities, private or public.

The late Tanzanian President, Mwalimu Julius Nyerere once argued that since the vast majority of Africans work in the agricultural sector, and since room for training youths are severely limited in pyramidal tertiary educational sectors, it is vital to invest the largest percentage of budgets for education in providing very high quality pre-primary and primary schools so that the products can creatively transform rural economies with their inventions and local manufacturing and processing activities.

The competition between the United States and the former Soviet Union was manifested in the former copying the focus by USSR on community libraries holding high quality books including classics from ancient cultures worldwide. The communist ideology of developing higher quality human beings / citizens fuelled this investment. In the United States, the belief that the defence of democracy depended on well informed citizens also drove the focus on holding high quality neighbourhood libraries.

Rulers of feudal Britain were as fearful of educating their low classes as the Hausa ruling classes whom Mallam Aminu Kano attacked and fought against. Fear of foreign domination pushed Japanese leaders in the same direction for reasons of producing local personnel who can match feared invaders by also using their own model for training leaders. Africa needs a combination of this defensive model with the Soviet model.

The ideological guide needs to be openly discussed. What a Brazilian minister has called the “idiocy’’ of betraying national sovereignty by shutting out the geniuses of hundreds of millions of Nigerians by denying them access to high quality education must be combated. In this regard, high numbers of universities must be matched with ensuring high quality teaching and learning within their precincts.

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The Prisons Service deserves a pat for winning the Confucius Award

After a barrage of negative reports, Nigeria recorded a milestone on 7th September, when the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) named the Nigerian Prisons Service the winner of the Confucius Award for Literary and Skills’ Development. The award came in recognition of the education programme for prisoners through the National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN). In a season when there seems to be nothing to celebrate in and about our country, we must commend the Nigerian Prisons Service for making us proud as a people.

If there is anything that the award has shown, it is that Nigeria actually has the capacity to excel if only the institutions would live up to their responsibilities. While presenting the award to the Prisons Service at the UNESCO headquarters in Paris, France, Director-General of the UN organ, Ms Audrey Azoulay, expressed satisfaction with the uniqueness of Nigerian Prisons Service education programme, saying it has gone a long way in enhancing the capacity of prisoners for knowledge acquisition and development skills. According to its spokesman, Francis Enobore, the Service has dutifully raised 465 undergraduate inmates, 23 Masters degree students and two PhD students in 10 special study centres across the country. This is not a mean achievement.

We hope the award will also awaken the authorities to the crisis of the Nigerian prisons which lack the minimum facilities suitable for human habitation. Many of the prisons were built during the colonial era and since then no efforts have been made to renovate them. Consequently the worn-out facilities and infrastructure are unable to cater for the increasing population of prisoners. The result is outbreak of diseases in the prison environment. It is therefore no surprise that whereas the prison systems in most countries are meant to reform the prisoners, the Nigerian prisons system hardens them.

It is unfortunate that despite the high-level rhetoric on prison reforms by successive governments, no concrete actions have been taken to massively decongest our prisons and ameliorate the inhuman condition under which many prisoners live and even work. The main obstacle to the reforms is the gross over-population of the Nigerian prisons. According to many Amnesty International reports, about 70 per cent of the people in Nigerian prisons have never been convicted of any crime. What that suggests is that efforts to decongest our prisons or ameliorate the plight of inmates would come to naught without a complete overhaul of the country’s criminal justice system.

Therefore, the UNESCO award goes a long way in rekindling hopes that being sentenced to certain years of imprisonment does not necessarily mean the end of life for inmates. The idea of prison establishment was not to serve as a platform for the condemnation of deviants but rather for their rehabilitation and subsequent integration into the society for a more meaningful and productive living.

The Confucius Award for Literary and Skills Development prize was jointly initiated by both the UNESCO and Peoples Republic of China in 2007 with the aim of rewarding outstanding individuals, governments and non-governmental organisations that have been working for the promotion of adult literacy for rural dwellers and out-of-school young persons, notably women and girls. Proponents of the prize named it after Confucius, a Chinese educator, philosopher and one of the most famous historical and cultural figures. Components of the prize include a silver medal, a diploma, $20,000 monetary prize and a trip to the place of Confucius’ birth.

It is noteworthy that the Nigerian Prisons Service has promised to improve on their success in the areas of facilitating literary skills for inmates in the efforts to promote the reintegration of ex-convicts into the society. This is quite commendable.

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There is need for proper monitoring of all earthquake-prone zones in the country

The recent outbreak of multiple earth tremors in some parts of Abuja jolted the city and caused many residents agony and discomfort. For three days, the tremors spanked fears in the communities of Mpape, Katampe District, part of Maitama and some rural communities within the Federal Capital Territory. The intense trembling of the ground made many to even ponder the option of relocation as they imagined the vibration was a sign of earthquake.

Although the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency and other emergency agencies have downplayed the likelihood of earthquake in Nigeria, the findings of the Presidential Committee set up by the federal government to assess the incidents are more revealing of the dangers we face, especially from human activities. The committee headed by the Director-General, National Space Research and Development Agency (NARSDA), Prof. Seidu Mohammed declared that Nigeria is now prone to seismic hazards while the possibility of an earthquake occurrence is elevated.

Therefore, the Mpape experiment is a wake-up call that there is need for a proper monitoring of all earthquake -prone zones in the country after previous incidents in Kwoi, Kaduna State; Saki, Oyo State and Igbogene in Bayelsa State in 2016. The geological, hydrological and geotechnical report for Abuja identified the underneath rock layers of Mpape to be already shifted, weak and bearing several fractures and faults system. This is not unexpected.

For over three decades, the upland area has been exposed to unregulated drilling and blasting of rocks by quarrying companies and artisanal miners. The shift in the tectonic plates, which leads to the sudden release of energy that causes the trembling on the ground, is a probable cause aside other human activities. Besides, according to the presidential committee, “there is the need to regulate the exploitation of ground water resources of Abuja via indiscriminate sinking of boreholes because this has been the primary reason for the stress build up leading to the Abuja tremors”.

It is unfortunate that before the report of the presidential committee, we had basked in the illusion that Nigeria is not at risk of earthquake as the country is not in a region prone to earthquake or where such disaster could be expected to occur. Without putting in place the necessary measures, the safety of lives and resources will be imperilled if we continued to deny that tremors are insignificant natural phenomena that do not deserve to be worried about.

Earthquake is a disaster that inflicts substantial human, material and economic losses, which many affected countries rarely recover from. A case in point is when Port au Prince, the capital of Haiti, an impoverished Caribbean country, was hit by a 7.0 magnitude earthquake in January 2010. Besides killing more than 200,000 people, the massive earthquake destroyed the country and caused estimated $14 billion damage to private assets and public utilities.

It is in this regard that we warn of the consequences from the lack of action to uphold the findings of the presidential or any related committee. To avert earthquake, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency should implement the laws criminalising indiscriminate mining, rock blasting and digging of bore holes across the country. We insist that the unrestricted activities mentioned above could have damaging effects on the underground rocks and by extension the earth layers. In addition, the appropriate authorities should install equipment that will gauge and monitor geological surveying methods across the country.

The federal and state emergency agencies should also organise safety trainings in the communities prone to tremors and earthquakes on how to respond in the event of emergency given that earthquakes result in collapse of buildings, fire outbreak and motor accidents.

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To avert earthquake, the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency should implement the laws criminalising indiscriminate mining, rock blasting and digging of bore holes across the country

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Monday Editorial

The government should do all within its powers to get Leah Sharibu out of captivity

Leah Sharibu, the lone Christian Dapchi school girl who was held back by Boko Haram insurgents when her peers were freed on 21^st March this year, has spent more than six months in captivity. But with the recent threat by her abductors for ransom otherwise she would be killed, the federal government and all other critical stakeholders who are in a position to intervene must do all within their powers to ensure her release. In expressing their commitment to the threat, Boko Haram insurgents killed Ms Saifura Khorsa, one of the international health workers in their custody and gave one month ultimatum to the federal government to respond to their demand of ransom or witness the execution of others, including Leah.

 It is instructive that this Boko Haram threat came barely three days after Ali Ndume, the senator representing Borno South, disclosed that her captors were demanding for ransom before her release. More unfortunate is that Boko Haram also stated that it was forced to carry out the execution of Khorsa because its letter to the federal government as well as a video message requesting for negotiations were both ignored.

We find this baffling considering what government officials had said in recent past about ongoing negotiations with Boko Haram, especially for the release of Leah who was held back because she reportedly rejected the demand of her abductors that she denounce her faith and become a Muslim. “Negotiations with insurgents are quite tortuous and complicated at times but I can assure you we are not leaving her to her fate and those who should are daily working on her release. Anybody who negotiates with insurgents and terrorists in the world will know that is not a direct face to face negotiation like we are doing,” said the Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed in May this year.

The authorities should consider the release of Leah of utmost importance, given the sectarian bent and interpretation being sown among the populace as a result of her continued detention. Indeed, if the federal government negotiating team were better advised, they would have seen the impropriety of securing the release of Leah’s peers on March 21 while leaving her in captivity. To worsen matters, they left the lone Christian girl behind while celebrating the release of others with fanfare, without minding the sensitivity in a bitterly divided country such as ours.

 Meanwhile, despite repeated denials, there have been reports, including from a United Nations agency that huge sums of money were paid as ransom for the release of 105 of the 110 Dapchi schoolgirls kidnapped in February this year. While this is not a policy we endorse, it smacks of hypocrisy for the same government to pick and choose who to pay ransom for and who not to. The case of Leah is particularly peculiar and the federal government must treat it with utmost urgency and care. We also canvass same treatment for the other health workers who are also under the threat of Boko Haram execution.

 As this newspaper has argued repeatedly on this page, we cannot afford to give up on Leah or indeed the other girls and women that are still pining away in captivity. They and many others held behind the lines represent a blur on our collective humanity. Therefore, the authorities must deploy all the necessary resources, equipment, intelligence, etc., to get Leah and others out of the forest and into freedom. Nigerians desperately need the assurance that our government has the capacity to defend our territory and that the life of every single citizen matters. Nothing would symbolise that more than the return of Leah and the other captives.

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Corporate players in Nigeria must play by the rules
Three years after being slammed with an unprecedented $5.2 billion fine by the Nigeria Communications Commission (NCC) for violating the SIM card registration exercise, South Africa’s telecommunications giant, MTN, was again recently visited with a hefty fine by the CBN over foreign exchange (forex) infractions. Four banks were also fined for violating the laws and regulations, including the Foreign Exchange (Monitoring and Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, 1995, and the Foreign Exchange Manual, 2006, on behalf of MTN Nigeria.

Expectedly, the sanctions have elicited mixed reactions both from the affected organisations and other individuals and groups. Some believe the $8.134 billion fine on MTN, which is about half of its market capitalisation, will affect its operations in Nigeria and could threaten the country’s financial institutions. But in dishing out the sanctions, CBN stated that a thorough investigation was carried out into the allegations of remittances of forex by the banks with irregular Certificates of Capital Importations (CCIs) issued on behalf of some offshore investors of MTN. There were also allegations of conversion of shareholders loan to preference shares (interest free loan) which were illegally repatriated by the banks on behalf of MTN. These are serious infractions if true and we do not want to doubt the CBN.

However, whatever may be the repercussions of the sanctions on MTN or any of the affected banks, we hasten to say that no individual or corporate entity deserves to flout or violate laws or rules and regulations established to ensure sanity as well as protect our national interest. It was in keeping to this principle that the South African authorities in 2014 confiscated over $15 million from vendors engaged by the previous Nigerian government to procure arms through the black market for the war against insurgency in the North-east.

For too long in our country, the regulatory agencies have been docile, even in the face of flagrant breaches of their laws by many operators in the economy. It is within this context that we should situate the CBN sanctions. Private sector operators should not be allowed to show scant regards for our people and act with impunity. However, it is equally ‎important that regulations are enforced in a consistent and proportionate manner, just as there must be avenues for seeking redress against any arbitrariness.

Meanwhile, it is important to highlight the reason(s) for the action taken by the CBN. In June 2016, the apex bank had introduced the Certificates of Capital Importation (e-CCI). These are CBN certificates issued by banks for the importation of cash (foreign currency inflow) for investment as equity or loan, as well as for the importation of machinery and equipment. Its primary purpose is to guarantee access to the official foreign exchange market for repatriations of capital and returns on investment (including dividend, interest, and capital on divestments). A copy of the CCI must be presented to the Nigerian bank to process a remittance by the requesting company. This, according to the CBN, was the regulation infringed upon by MTN and the affected banks.

It is curious that besides MTN, some of the banks involved in the alleged violations which attracted the CBN hammer have strong roots in South Africa. While we do not want to impute motives even as we hope it is a mere coincidence, we advise that all corporate players in Nigeria play by the rules. In every clime, there are Antitrust laws which govern the operations of corporate entities. The breach of such laws is usually visited with heavy sanctions. MTN is already a household name in Nigeria and must therefore strive to have a better image by eschewing actions that tend to undermine the laws of our country.

However, the authorities must also deal with the issue in such a manner that they do not in any way harm the operations of the company in Nigeria.

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What went wrong? Hadi Sirika owes Nigerians an explanation

Nigerians who were elated at the prospect of having a national carrier whose operations would cut into the over $1 billion the foreign airlines take away from the country every year as capital flight were shocked last Wednesday by the Minister of State, Aviation, Mr Hadi Sirika. In a terse statement from his Twitter handle, Sirika announced that the plan for ‘Nigeria Air’ has been suspended indefinitely. But the minister owes Nigerians an explanation for this decision that has cost the tax payers hundreds of millions of Naira and raises questions about the seriousness of the current administration.

Ordinarily, given the size of our nation, the huge population and the mobility of our people, there are sufficient grounds to argue for a national carrier. At present the country loses so much money to foreign airliners because there is no national carrier with adequate network of routes or the capacity to operate extensively many of the highly lucrative routes. The few private airlines that make attempts in that direction do not have the wherewithal to finance extensive foreign operations. Yet no matter how patriotic we may feel about the issue, going back to the era of our inglorious past remains nothing but a misplaced nostalgia.

As we reiterated when the whole idea started, most nations are divesting from airlines businesses because they are better run by the private sector. To compound the problem, the nation’s aviation industry is currently going through financial stress and many of the airlines are highly indebted. They are hindered by inadequate fleet and capacity and thus cannot compete effectively. Therefore, given the operating environment, we felt that the proposal for a national carrier was a misplaced priority that would lead to another waste of enormous scarce resources. That is why we support the suspension.

Right from the outset, we were not convinced by the argument from some industry experts that the national carrier could become a pivot for the rejuvenation of the industry and in the process help in manpower development. Despite the fanfare that attended its unveiling the name and logo at the Farnborough Air Show in July in United Kingdom, we remained sceptical that anything good would come out of the idea. With the suspension last week, we feel vindicated.

However, the decision has raised several questions, including the perception of international stakeholders and foreign investors about the integrity, goodwill and seriousness of the Nigerian government in honouring agreements, considering that the country’s image had been impaired in the past in the same industry. The pertinent question therefore is: what will happen to the deal reportedly entered into with aircraft manufacturers, international financiers and lessors by the federal government? Or was what was shown in the media a mere publicity stunt?

When the idea was mooted, many Nigerians had suggested that it was more practical for the federal government to incorporate Arik Air and Aero Contractors, which they technically own and are currently under the management of Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON). The two airlines brought together would have formed the nucleus of the new airline and give fillip to the establishment of aircraft maintenance facility as Aero Contractors presently conducts maintenance on Boeing aircraft to the level of C-check. These suggestions were repudiated by Sirika on the argument that the planned national carrier would have a different business model from the existing airlines. Yet industry stakeholders who could make reasonable contributions to the project were alienated.

Given the foregoing, we endorse the suspension of the Nigeria Air. But it is also important for Sirika to render account of what has transpired on the project and why it was cancelled. He owes Nigerians that explanation.

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Everything should be done to ensure that the election is credible

Shortly before the Osun State gubernatorial election was declared inconclusive last Sunday, the Deputy Chief of Mission of the United States Embassy, Mr David Young, made a significant intervention. He appealed to the candidates of all the political parties and their supporters to be peaceful and respect the results from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). “We request and urge all supporters to be peaceful as this process moves forward. This is part of democracy. We at the United States have had very close elections too. I urge people to be peaceful and respect the result that comes out in the time ahead,” he said.

According to the US envoy, the election was unique in several respects with the most significant development being the increased capacity of INEC to deliver on credible elections. “They (INEC) are moving forward and in a positive way. I think this is going to be a very close election. It is going to come down to a very small margin. I think one of the things we need to do is let the democratic process go forward with parties and their candidates raising any concerns they have through the legal process and for the results to be peaceful,” Young admonished.

We agree with the US envoy as we also commend INEC, all the candidates as well as the security agencies for the peaceful manner in which the entire process went. We are also delighted that there were no incidences of vote-buying which had been of concern to many people, including the Resident Electoral Commissioner for Osun State, Mr Olusegun Agbaje, before the exercise. “It is not an easy thing to prepare for an election and then some people will come on election day with bags of money very close to where you are having your polling units to see how they can pay voters for a particular candidate”, said Agbaje who promised that INEC would rearrange the voting cubicles in such a way that it would be difficult to display ballot paper after voting.

The pledge came against the background of what happened during the Ekiti State gubernatorial election that was a bazaar with votes traded openly. At the end, the decision by INEC to prevent mobile phones inside the voting cubicles helped to minimise financial inducements at the Osun poll. Unfortunately, a winner could not be declared even though the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke polled the highest number of votes among the 48 candidates. But the margin of his victory over the closest challenger, Mr Gboyega Oyetola of the All Progressives Congress (APC) was only 353 votes, while the number of cancelled votes stood at 3,498.

The stakes are higher today since the polling units where elections will hold in the state are just seven. The state government, the security agencies, all the political parties as well as their candidates and supporters have a responsibility to ensure peace. When elections become a zero sum game in which dirty money has to be deployed for victory at all costs, then democracy is endangered. As we have said repeatedly on this page, the deployment of money or violence to manipulate electoral outcomes is not only a violation of the law, it also constitutes an abuse of the constitutional right of the people to choose their leaders in a free, fair and credible manner.

While it is our hope that INEC will be allowed to conclude the process it started so that any aggrieved parties can seek legal redress, we wish the people of Osun State all the best.

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The Osun governorship election seems to suggest that we are harking backwards

If justice, equity and fairness are the metric used, it is safe to conclude that the Osun State gubernatorial election was wide off the mark. The security agencies and indeed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) unwittingly allowed for several unwholesome practices such that the supplementary poll held last Thursday became nothing but a sham.

More disturbing is that all these too frequent inconclusive elections in our context undermine integrity by introducing gang-ups, intimidation, thuggery, and voter alienation. In the process, the initial verdict of the electorate is often thwarted while an unpopular outcome is rigged into place and legitimised through INEC’s stamp of authority. Therefore, the best way for INEC to restore confidence in the system is to avoid constantly walking into the technicalities that lead to inconclusive elections.

Before last Thursday’s victory for the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Mr Gboyega Oyetola, the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) candidate, Senator Ademola Adeleke had led with 353 votes. At the end, the most significant factor in the rerun was the role played by the Social Democratic Party (SDP) candidate, Mr Iyiola Omisore who endorsed the APC candidate. In his stronghold where the rerun poll held last Thursday, election observers, journalists and agents of the PDP were harassed and molested by thugs who practically took over the entire process while the police looked the other way.

It is therefore understandable that many critical stakeholders have condemned the election. “We hold strongly the view that the rerun poll does not meet up with the minimum standards for free, fair and credible elections. It falls short of global best practices in democratic elections which Nigeria aspires towards,” an election monitoring group, the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD), said on Thursday.

That position has been echoed by most other observers, including members of the international community that had earlier commended the manner the first exercise was conducted. “The missions of the United States, European Union and the United Kingdom observed voting at polling stations in Osun today (Thursday). We witnessed what appeared to be incidents of interference and intimidation of voters and have reports of harassment of party monitors, journalists and domestic observers. We are very concerned by these reports and we will be checking with stakeholders to determine the facts. We call on all stakeholders to remain calm,” the United States Consul General, Mr John F. Bray said.

The pertinent question is: What changed between Saturday and Thursday? The answer has to do with the nature of supplementary elections and that is why INEC cannot continue with the practice which allows for underhand deal-making and disproportionate deployment of partisan security agents and policemen that would not have been possible were the election conducted on the same day. In close elections such as we had in Osun State, the process of a supplementary poll in a few polling units could easily be gamed by the party in power. That, many believe, was what actually happened last Thursday. In the end, an election that was ordinarily between 48 candidates became a contest between two with all the implications for the eventual outcome even when it is not a run-off.

The purpose of democracy is to afford the people the opportunity to choose their leaders and subsequently participate in the way they are governed. The basic way this is done is through the ballot box. But when citizens are scared away from performing this civic duty, they are denied a fundamental right that is guaranteed by the constitution.

In both the Osun and other recent standalone state governorship elections, the ruling APC displayed an uncanny residue of the military hangover in our polity. Electoral victory is being pursued as a battle objective into which a combination of brute force, intimidation and aggressive vote-buying are deployed to conquer the opponent. While Nigeria is anxious to enthrone a lasting democracy, great care needs to be taken to ensure that our variant does not end up enshrining the rule of violent moneyed mobs that vitiate public expectations and disappoint the rest of the world.

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While Nigeria is anxious to enthrone a lasting democracy, great care needs to be taken to ensure that our variant does not end up enshrining the rule of violent moneyed mobs that vitiate public expectations and disappoint the rest of the world

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