REUBEN'S VIEWS
What is going on in Great Britain right now is ironic. A few weeks ago, we celebrated the same Britain on account of the glory and grandeur of the life, times, example, and the death of Queen Elizabeth II – the country’s longest reigning monarch in history and one of the most influential figures of the 20th and 21st Centuries. But today, the same Britain is the laughing stock of the world, all because of leadership, politics, and mismanagement of the economy. The Empire may have ended, but Britain remains one of the most powerful countries of the world, a country that others look up to, a member of the G7, with London as a major centre of capital and investment in the Eurozone.
But something has happened to them in that same Great Britain - to try an African manner of speech. The other day, the IMF/World Bank, the Bretton Woods Institutions, before and at their annual meeting in Washington DC were forced to express concern about the UK economy and the trickle-down economic policies of the Liz Truss administration – 49p cut in tax rates for the rich, proposed increase in corporation tax, cutting of benefits and spending, and no clear thoughts about how the cuts would be funded – all of which could spur growth, theoretically, but would result in inflation and poverty. The IMF most unusually broke away from tradition and openly criticized a G7 economy. It got so bad that even the Greek Prime Minister is offering to help Britain if it needs advice on how to manage the economy. The German Ambassador in London is also, against diplomatic protocols, putting his mouth in the matter. We can add to this insult upon the injury situation, the fact that President Joe Biden of the United States while buying and licking ice cream at a shop in Oregon, US took time out to comment that the turmoil that Britain now faces was predictable because nobody funds growth. “with unfunded tax cuts.” From ice cream shops to the hallowed halls of Washington DC, Britain has become the butt of jokes with implications for diplomacy, business, investments, leadership and the markets.
But it seems to me that rather than laugh at the current British leadership, there are lessons that can be learnt from their experience, precisely the chaos that the country is currently facing. On this same page, we acknowledged the British and praised the fact that Boris Johnson, former British PM and others had to lose their positions and offices because the system out there resolved that those in positions of leadership cannot set one set of rules for themselves and another set for the people that they lead. Bo-Jo and gang had to go because they used official privilege to break the law, and the people objected. This led to a new round of leadership selection within the Conservative Party. If this were in Nigeria, however, Boris Johnson would still be in office. His kith and kin would have played the ethnic and religious card, in fact, he himself would have hired thugs to break up any attempt to challenge him. But the British held firm and pushed him and all the law breakers out. On this same page and elsewhere, we praised the British when the Tories launched a leadership contest to find a replacement for Boris Johnson as new leader of the party and new Prime Minister. It was a keenly contested race, elimination round by round, which eventually produced four front-runners including Nigerian-born Kemi Badenoch- Chief Femi Adegoke’s daughter- but in the end Liz Truss won, with Rishi Sunak a close second. We felt we had seen democracy at work. The party had decided. The Tories had moved beyond Boris Johnson.
It is in the nature of politics that nothing is ever certain and mistakes can be made. During the Tories campaign, the major issue was what to do with the British economy. The war in Ukraine with Russia had up-ended everything: Britain was faced with a cost-of-living crisis, high energy prices and rising inflation. Liz Truss who became the frontrunner promised to fix the economy by cutting taxes for the rich, scrap planned increase in corporation tax and cut spending; reverse national insurance rise, cut energy bills, delay payment of COVID debt, curtail the powers of the Bank of England, take on the Northern Ireland Protocol, scrape regulations post-Brexit, reduce UK dependence on China and so on. Sunak, who had been Chancellor of the Exchequer, promised that he would also cut taxes, but only after getting runaway inflation under control. He dismissed Truss’s plans as unworkable, supported lower taxes in the long term, promised VAT cuts on energy bills, 4 per cent cut in income tax by 2024, and increase corporation tax. He condemned Truss’s BoE proposals, the Northern Ireland Protocol Bill, Rwanda deportation plan, and promised not to engage Putin, but he would oppose China, and close down Chinese Institutes. He ruled out second Scottish independence referendum. In the last lap of the race, both leading contestants told 175, 000 voting Tories that they could do the job. In the end, the party chose Mary Elizabeth Truss, 47, former Foreign Secretary and Member of Parliament for South West Norfolk since 2010 as leader of the party and Prime Minister. On September 5, 2022, she became the fourth Tory Prime Minister in six years since David Cameron, 2010 -2016, Theresa May, 2016 -2017, and Boris Johnson, 2019 – 2021.
She has spent only six weeks in office and now, the popularity that brought her to power has vanished. Even Prince Andrew is more popular than her in the polls. If a general election were to be called today, the Conservatives would lose by a landslide, the Labour Party being ahead in many constituencies. How did Liz Truss go so quickly in less than 50 days from being the people’s favourite to becoming so unpopular, a Prime Minister whose political future hangs in the balance, and who may end up as the shortest-serving Prime Minister in British History? Her Chancellor, Kwasi Kwarteng is already the shortest ever serving Chancellor of the Exchequer. He was sacked on Friday as the scapegoat for the turmoil into which Britain has been thrown. Truss has presided over a chaotic Conservative Party conference. She has lost the support of business, investors, members of her own cabinet, and the people. Over the weekend, members of her party told the public that the game was up for her. Sir Graham Brady, Chairman of the 1922 Committee of Back Benchers was detailed to tell her the truth. It would be a miracle if she survives the crisis, having lost credibility – an important asset for a Prime Minister.
The death of Trussonomics is a cautionary tale. Politicians must learn not to over-promise. The British have proven that you cannot come to the people, promise Heaven and Earth and hope you can get away with whatever you throw at them. Truss promised the people growth. He appointed Kwasi Kwarteng as Chancellor. But the growth plan in form of an emergency plan, or mini-budget presented by the government simply complicated things: sell-offs in the bond market, uncertainties with the pound sterling, further rise in the cost of living and a gaping black hole in government finance, with a rise in the cost of debts, and mortgage. In a country where accountability is key, no politician can hoodwink the people and play games with the people’s fortunes and future. Liz Truss and Kwarteng could not tell anyone how the huge deficit would be funded. In Nigeria, the story would have been that the critics are jealous or that they are of a certain ethnic extraction. The simple lesson is that politicians must learn not to over-promise. Nigerian politicians promise heaven and earth. They promote manifesto and covenants that even the principal candidate has neither read nor seen. When they are taken up on the issues later, they are ever ready to say they never heard of such a policy. Every major stakeholder in the UK is attentive. Position and power come with responsibility and accountability. Andrew Bailey, BoE Governor whose independence Truss was threatening to curtail is now gloating and blaming Kwasi Kwarteng for “flying blind”. He even had to step in with the Bank’s brief intervention and now he says interest rates would go up higher than expected from 2.3% to 3.5%. He is taking his pound of flesh, as it were. In Nigeria, even in the midst of a similar turmoil, he would have been fired. The system would have found something to hang on his neck and shut him up. Spokespersons loyal to the government of the day would have torn him to pieces with disparaging press releases. But Bailey and the Bank of England are not being targeted because it is clear to the British that Truss and Kwarteng flunked Economics 101 and brought the people greater misery.
Kwasi Kwarteng, the Ph.D in Economic History wonder kid, and brainy master of University Quiz who served briefly as Chancellor has been fired. He had to leave the IMF/World Bank meeting in Washington DC earlier than scheduled, and his return flight was one of the most tracked flights in recent history. He had boasted that he was not going anywhere, and that his economic plan was secure. What we have seen is that the job does not belong to him. It belongs to the British people. You may say he has been fired because someone has to take the fall, but the truth is that the British run a system where nobody is rewarded for inefficiency or misconduct. While I understand the position that Truss herself should go, having placed the future of the Conservative party in peril, the point for us as Nigerians is that if this had been in Nigeria, Kwarteng’s position that he was not going anywhere would have prevailed. People in powerful positions in Nigeria behave as if is a hereditary privilege for them to enjoy proximity to power. They get appointed not because of their knowledge or proven competence but because of who they know. When they fail, they are sustained by the same factors. The British system self-corrects because its institutions are strong. The Nigerian system self-destructs because its institutions are either weak, compromised or non-existent.
In the midst of the. political, economic and social turmoil, PM Liz Truss has now gone to appoint Jeremy Hunt as replacement for Kwarteng. Hunt supported Rishi Sunak in the race for the PM’s office. Last weekend, he granted an interview in which he dismantled and buried Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget. Yesterday at the House of Commons, he did further damage. He ditched the government’s mini-budget that was announced three weeks ago. When the PM showed up at the Commons, she was quiet. Jeremy Hunt, who has little experience in economic matters was practically pushing different ideas. On October 31, it would be his duty to present the much-talked about fiscal plan. Hunt’s appointment is the equivalent of running to the friend of your opponent to help you. In Nigeria and other African countries, that would never happen. Our leaders here are so egoistic, they only see the world in a binary scope of friends and enemies. Sacking Kwarteng and bringing in Jeremy Hunt is a last-minute attempt by Truss to save her position. We are reminded of Abraham Lincoln’s Team of Rivals. When you think you are perplexed, look for the best people wherever they may be, including among the ranks of ideological opposites, if possible. In Nigeria, our leaders are only interested in sycophants and rent-seekers. Can you imagine a man who supported a rival being given a Minister of Finance position and then he goes to parliament, as Hunt has done, to throw the same government’s policy under the bus in less than one week of his appointment? I can bet such an appointee’s name will never appear on Nigeria’s national honours list! In fact, his house could be set ablaze. His wife may be abducted!
But would Jeremy Hunt’s recruitment help? Our gut feeling is that so much damage has been done in six weeks, it would take businesses, the market and the sterling quite a while to recover. When a country like Great Britain goes through so much turbulence as we are seeing, then we need to be more careful in these parts. We need to pay better attention to our leadership recruitment process. Our leaders must not only be 21st century compliant, they must be voted for and chosen only because they know what to do. If Nigeria had found itself in Britain’s situation, there would have been too much talk about the fact that Britain is in the hands of young people in their 40s, but the focus there today, is not age, but ideas and the workability of ideas. We need to pay attention to this.
Finally, too many Nigerians have become adherents of “the Japa phenomenon” – the standard euphemism for emigration away from Nigeria in search of greener pastures. The grass they say is greener on the other side, but not always as we can now see. In Britain today, families are worried they won’t be able to pay for gas during winter to heat their homes and keep warm. Many families can no longer afford three square meals. The people are rebelling because they think the government has no clue. Things are so bad that on Sunday, there was power-outage on Elland Road during the match between Arsenal and Leeds. The match had to be delayed for 40 minutes. It could be worse during winter as National Grid and Ofgem have warned. If you want to “Japa” to the UK, you may need to go with your “I-better-pass-my-neighbour generator”. In Paris, France, the people are queuing for fuel, with oil company workers behaving like members of our own NUPENG and PENGASSAN here. So, if you are thinking of relocating to France, it may help to go with your fuel keg and hose. The world has gone mad but leadership still makes the difference.
I was a witness to the menace of flooding, and the consequences, in Nigeria that occurred in 2012, when between the months of July and October that year, 30 out of Nigeria’s 36 states were submerged by flood. By mid-October, 2.1 million persons had been displaced from their homes, over 400 persons died; many homes were destroyed. The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) calculated the cost of the losses at about N2.6 trillion, and described the floods as the worst in 40 years. It was not the first time Nigeria would experience floods. After all, before 2012, there had been the famous overflowing of the Ogunpa River in Ibadan, South West of Nigeria, in 1960, 1963, 1978 and notably 1980 - when the Ogunpa Floods left the city of Ibadan completely devastated, and Nigeria with a national disaster. What happened in 2012 was worse than the “Omiyale” phenomenon in Ibadan, as that was known locally.
The standard narrative about the Ogunpa floods was heavy rainfall and the dumping of waste along the Ogunpa River channels. The 2012 narrative was different. This was not simply about the dumping of refuse or the seasonal flash floods, but a national calamity with additional dimensions. The Federal Government of Nigeria led by President Goodluck Ebele Jonathan had to provide a relief fund of N17.6 billion to various states to mitigate the effect. NEMA offered relief support. Camps were set up across the country to accommodate the affected persons and families. State governments liaised with the Federal Government and the Red Cross to help displaced persons. Food was released from the country’s National Strategic Grains Reserve to prevent hunger and famine as the country’s agriculture supply chain had been disrupted. Farms in Nigeria’s food basket states were completely destroyed. The most affected states were Adamawa, Taraba, Plateau, Benue, Kogi and the low-lying plains of Rivers Niger and Benue and the tributaries of both rivers.
We visited the camps: 10 years later, the experience remains dark, and haunting- nobody was spared, the old, the young and infants. The worst spectacle of all was the camp set up in Delta state where we saw people on make-shift hospital beds, with the then Governor of the state, Emmanuel Ewetan Uduaghan, vowing that as a Governor, he had a duty to save lives! One of the explanations we were given at the time was that climate change was a problem, release of water from Nigerian dams, and release of water from the Lagdo Dam in Cameroon was also a major cause. It is astonishing, and a reflection of how we never take anything serious, and how Nigerian leaders do not pay attention to critical matters, that in 2022, we are back to the same situation as we had in 2012. Some commentators have even said that the flooding this year is actually the worst ever.
More than 29 states are reportedly affected, including communities along the banks of Rivers Niger and Benue and the Delta region. In Kogi state, parts of the state capital are submerged. Governor Yahaya Bello visiting the communities has been shown riding a canoe. In Anambra State – West and East and Awka North Local Government Areas - over 600, 000 persons have been displaced. In Jigawa, deaths have been recorded in more than six LGAs. In Nasarawa, a 4, 400 hectares of rice farmland cultivated by Olam Agric Farms, worth about US 20 million dollars has been submerged and laid to waste. After 2012, Olam Farms built 52 kilometres of dykes around its farms. Everything has been wiped away. Olam Agric supplies about 25% of rice in Nigeria. Ade Adefeko, the company’s Vice President, External Relations and Stakeholder Management says the damage is so devastating it could lead to food inflation, and that by December 2022, a 50kg bag of rice, a staple food among Nigerians could cost as much as N100, 000 per bag. In 2014, a bag of rice was less than N20,000. As of September 2022, a bag of rice was N54, 000! Five days ago, in Lagos State, the Commissioner for Environment, Tunji Bello, advised persons living in low-lying parts of the state and neighbouring Ogun State like Ketu, Alapere, Owode Onirin, Kara, Agiliti, Odo Ogun, Agboyi, Isheri, Akute and Warewa, to relocate to upland areas because of the threat of floods. Concerned citizens have tried to explain why Nigeria now faces such a perennial problem of flooding.
One reason is that we are in the era of climate change. The global environment has been up-ended by carbon emissions and global warming. The International Panel on Climate Change, a creation of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), advises its 195-member countries about the effects of greenhouse gas emissions, and how the impact can be mitigated. But despite the efforts of the IPCC, and civil society stakeholders like 19-year-old Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, and American actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, most leaders of the world pay lip service to climate change and its effects. Meeting the target of 1.5 degrees centigrade threshold or below, as recommended by scientists, and as agreed by world leaders under the Paris Climate Agreement requires concerted action on the parts of governments, financial institutions, corporations, the private sector and others, and it is something that we hear about on a regular basis at Conference of the Parties (COP) meetings on climate change. The effect of climate change is measured in terms of how our world is becoming unrecognizable: sea levels are rising, the arctic is getting warmer, temperatures are rising, rainfall levels have changed, nature is changing and becoming more acidic. When global leaders meet at COPs, they make promises and commitments: the last was in Glasgow, Scotland, in November 2021, the next one – COP 27 is scheduled for November 6-18 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. The leaders of the world would make the same promises, but action in terms of follow-up is poor and even worse- climate change as is the case with everything else has become an opportunity for politics and competition.
Nigeria is not left out. For more than a decade, Nigerian leaders have always included a paragraph or two on climate change in their statements at the United Nations General Assembly. Most recently at the 75th session of UNGA in New York, President Muhammadu Buhari spoke about the existential threat posed by climate change, Nigeria’s Climate Change Strategy, and climate justice, and the need for financing to mitigate the effects of the climate change. Like his boss, Nigeria’s Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo has also consistently proposed a debt-for-climate-swap deal to achieve an equitable and just energy transition for Nigeria and Africa. In September 2022, the Nigerian Government inaugurated a National Council on Climate Change in pursuit of the implementation of the Climate Change Act of 2021. But the situation in Nigeria is similar to that of many other countries of the world. What we can hold on to is the reality of the dilemma. This year alone, the evidence of climate change has manifested in the form of floods in Aragua State in North Central Venezuela, in Indonesia, in Trinidad and Tobago, India, Australia, Pakistan and Florida, United States and closer home, in Chad.
The second reason that has been offered with regard to flooding in Nigeria is to blame the release of water from the Lagdo Dam on the Benue River in Northern Cameroon. Built between 1977 and 1982, the Lagdo dam was meant for irrigation and the supply of electricity. Nigeria and Cameroon have a bilateral agreement over the dam and its management which is principally that Nigeria will construct a similar dam or embankment on its own side. That embankment located in Dasin Village in Adamawa state has been under construction for close to 20 years. Cameroon fulfilled their own part of the bargain. We failed on our part. International purists can argue that Cameroon cannot keep causing us havoc each time water is released from the Lagdo Dam, but we are not even in any position to reciprocate. The bilateral agreement requires Cameroon to inform Nigeria at least a month earlier before it releases water from the Lagdo Dam. Our neighbours have routinely complied in this regard. As recently as September 13, 2022, Nigeria’s Hydrological Services Agency announced that Cameroon was going to release water from Lagdo dam and that many states along the Rivers Niger and Benue basins would be affected. Information was duly provided but we were in a helpless situation because nobody has deemed it necessary to do anything positive to prevent our foreseeable and forewarned agony. Is it possible to enter into new arrangements with Cameroon? I should think so.
But who will make the effort when we cannot even manage the dams in Nigeria including the ones developed by domestic River Basin Authorities. Each time, for example, water is released from the Oyan Dam under the Ogun-Osun River Basin Authority, parts of Ogun and Lagos State are submerged. When water is released from the Jebba dam, the whole of that axis from Ilorin to Mokwa is flooded. Before blaming outsiders, we must focus on our own inability as a country to manage the environment or nature. The conflict between man and nature is a major existential challenge and it is indeed at the centre of man’s efforts to assert himself or herself as the most wondrous of all Creations and master of the Cosmos. The trajectory of epistemology has shown man’s limitations and a constant reminder that he is indeed, only a part of the Universe and not its master, but in other parts of the world, man’s perpetual search for meaning and dominance is the historification of the world. Here in Africa, and many underdeveloped parts, we do not try enough. We blame God for everything. We resign to fate.
Every year, government agencies tell us that there will be bad weather, heavy rainfall, and floods, but nobody does anything. The rainy season comes, floods everywhere, people die and we just move on. In Jos, Plateau State at certain moments of the year, the weather could be so cold as if it is winter, but the people never prepare. Nigerian newspapers used to report deaths in Plateau State during the rainy season, just because some of the people will refuse to wear warm clothing! The other year, when there was heavy rainfall in Lagos, people were swimming and hunting for fish on the streets of Victoria Island. Many were more excited about catching fish than the fact that the Atlantic had overflown its banks, and the whole of Lagos Island could be submerged. We treat everything as a joke around here including the lives of citizens. There are cities around the world that are below the sea level – Amsterdam, Copenhagen, Singapore, Santo Domingo… They are better managed. When floods occur here, what you are likely to hear is that it is time to propitiate the river goddess. Other countries are talking about artificial intelligence, efficient robots and cutting-edge technology, we are still at the level of spirits and goddesses. This primitivity and superstition is the biggest challenge we face. It is in fact worse than climate change.
The third point to be made is that our major problem in Nigeria is negligence. We don’t care enough about the environment. We believe the best way to live is to beat, game and cheat the system, and ignore all possible rules for harmonious living. We thrive in the midst of chaos. We revel in disaster. This is why regulations don’t work here. Part of our environmental problem is that we build on drainage channels. We dump refuse indiscriminately. We threaten nature with our actions and choices. Government officials collect bribe and look the other way. Basic rules that work elsewhere about building plans and management of the environment do not work here. When nature fights back, we blame everything on witchcraft. The floods before now and this time are a reflection of the way we are.
But should government continue this way or look the other way, and allow the people to suffer and die? No. It is particularly disturbing that official responses have been cavalier. In Anambra and Kogi states, we have seen the state Governors – Soludo and Bello identifying with the people. Most of the other state Governors can’t be bothered. In one state, a Governor and his Deputy who could not be found as floods ravaged communities in the state were booed this week when they tried to attend a festival, behaving as if nothing happened. I am referring to Mohammed Abubakar Badaru of Jigawa State and his Deputy, Umar Namadi. Other state Governors in affected states are too busy with pre-2023 political rallies to even talk about the floods. They obviously consider their political ambitions more important than the people’s agony. This is strange. Political leaders must learn to show empathy. They must demonstrate that the people matter.
The starting point is to provide support for all the farmers who have lost their farmlands and crops, and the families and communities that have also lost so much, as was done in 2012. Where it is possible to provide grants, this must be done. Counselling too. And why are the emergency management agencies at both the Federal and State levels so silent? To stave off the looming effect of food inflation, the Federal Government should release grains from the National Strategic Grains Reserves in the existing 33 silos, even if the entire reserve is at the depleted level of about 60,000 metric tonnes due to COVID-19 interventions and mismanagement. Above all, we have to engage the Cameroonians in terms of temporary measures that can be agreed upon on the Lagdo dam issue. At home, we need to revive the River Basin Authorities, and address whatever problems they now pose, contrary to their original design.
“For First Time, Buhari Excludes Ex-Senate President, Saraki, from National Honours”. This was how the ThisDay newspaper of October 3, 2022, reported the story of the 2022 National Honours ceremony scheduled for October 11 at the State House in Abuja. Other newspapers also wrote the story from the Saraki angle. Before the ThisDay report, the media had reported that the Coalition of Northern Groups (CNG) had raised alarm that there was a deliberate attempt to deny Senator Saraki his place in history by excluding him from the National Honours list. The CNG also pointed out that whereas Saraki served as 13th Senate President of the Federal Republic, and Chairman of the 8th National Assembly from 2015 -2019, three years later his portrait is not on display in the main gallery of the National Assembly. In the various reports in ThisDay newspaper, The Punch, The Cable, The Sun, Leadership, Blueprint and others, quoting the CNG and also, another group, the Arewa Think Tank (ATT), the suggestion was that Saraki is legitimately entitled to the second highest national honour in the land, namely the Grand Commander of the Order of the Niger (GCON), since the convention had been to honour certain categories of persons for having served in certain capacities.
It was even clearly stated that Saraki is being denied his entitlement because of his political rivalry with President Muhammadu Buhari. Saraki emerged as Nigeria’s Senate President in 2015, on the platform of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) under circumstances that suggested that he simply outsmarted the party hierarchy that did not want him. He turned out to be a Senate President from the ruling party with a mind of his own. Under his watch, the Senate passed about 201 bills, and claims the distinction of being far more productive than other National Assemblies since the return to civilian rule in 1999. Saraki refused to act as the ruling government’s rubber stamp. It was therefore a question of time before he ended up leaving the party. He returned to where he came from: the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and to say that his political fortunes have changed since then, especially in his native Kwara State is to state the obvious.
The way these things go, it was obvious that someone was deliberately pushing the Saraki side of the story to make a point. But what is the worth of a national honour in Nigeria? It is a nice chieftaincy title which comes with a medal, a certificate and a pin on your chest, to which anyone who has ever served Nigeria feels entitled. It doesn’t matter if you were a houseboy in the corridors of power, the thrill of the recognition is in itself the thing, and while the honour does not come with a salary or pension, you can get a seat, and a cup of coffee or tea at the state VIP lounge at the international airport whenever you are travelling and you can flaunt the suffix after your name to show that you are above the ordinary run. Those who want Saraki to be given a GCON have managed to establish that the National Honours List has been politicized. It has always been so. I also agree with them that there should be no pettiness in the award of national honours. Other former Senate Presidents got the GCON, there is no reason why Saraki should be denied his, going by convention. Should he, or any one decide to turn down the honour, it should be their prerogative to do so, and not that they have been chosen for deliberate humiliation for partisan reasons. Every human being craves respect, recognition and relevance, and if they are so deserving, they should be so honoured.
But the point needs to be made though that Senator Bukola Saraki is not undecorated, nor can a GCON make much difference to his pulse rate. In 2010, he got the CON award: Commander of the Order of the Niger, for his services as Governor of Kwara State. The CON is one of the top national honours usually reserved for Ministers, Governors and Justices of the Supreme Court. Within the established order, however, persons can be promoted from one level to the other. Saraki’s supporters want a GCON, the second highest honour in the land, for him. Perhaps because of the furore that the 2022 National Honours List that was in circulation in the last few days has generated and concerns raised by some stakeholders, the Federal Government has now disclaimed the list of 437 persons on display. A statement from the Federal Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs stated yesterday, that whatever list that was in circulation was a fake list, and the government was yet to release any list to the public. In the light of this, it would be premature to condemn or endorse the list that has now been disowned. October 11, the scheduled date of the National Awards ceremony is barely a week away. It would be nice if the Federal Government can finalize the process and release the authentic list for public scrutiny and commentary. When the “authentic list” is then released, it would be our duty to compare and contrast, and seek to differentiate between what is fake and true, but before that is done, we can safely make the following observations.
Nigeria’s National Honour is a creation of the National Honours Act of 1964 with the following established categories: GCFR, GCON, CFR, CON, OFR, OON, MFR, MON and service medals – FSS, GSS, DSS, MSS, CMH and CM for service to the nation and individual distinction, to honour, celebrate, inspire, express appreciation and to promote bilateral relations/international friendship. But the big problem that has been observed with the National Honours Warrant is that it has been reduced to the level of an award of chieftaincy titles whereby anyone with any form of proximity to power is decorated with the highest honours of the land. In other jurisdictions, the Honours List is used to make a statement about values and contributions. In Nigeria, it got reduced to such a ridiculous level, it became an award for any Dick and Harry including concubines and housemaids. Even traditional rulers who are of no value to their own people are routinely decorated with national honours and not a few persons of shady persona go about adding national honours to their names., not to talk of Governors who in other societies would never be allowed to show up in decent company after their tenure of office. In Nigeria, you find all sorts on the National Honours List. The pattern needs to change.
The closest that the Buhari government has gone to getting things right was the refusal to turn the National Honours ritual into an annual jamboree. In 2018, the administration announced post-humous national honours for Chief MKO Abiola, and Chief Gani Fawehinmi and others. I shall come to that later. Also, when recently, the administration gave out National Honours in mid-September, I thought it struck the right notes by focusing strictly on athletes who did the country proud at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, United States and at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, UK. Nobody would question why Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, Blessing Okorodudu, Favour Ofili and others got national awards. Their example shows commitment, hardwork, excellence, and patriotism. What rankles, and here is my point, is the usual tendency to turn Nigeria’s National Honours into the equivalent of souvenirs at a jollof rice and pepper soup party. It is not right that a Governor of a state whose only notable achievement is the erection of a few electricity poles in the state capital and the digging of a couple of boreholes in his mother’s village, gets a National Honour or that incompetent Service Chiefs who cannot provide security receive recognition as heroes, or that faceless and idle traditional rulers are given the national recognition they do not deserve. The emphasis should be truly on service, honour and values. When the Federal Government releases its “authentic list”, this is what we should look out for.
The Buhari administration has restrained itself before now from giving out national honours like a jamboree. But it seems it now wants to do so on October 11. Why now? Out of pressure? End-of-tenure blues? Whatever it is, a list of 437 honorees as has been suggested is unwieldy. Elsewhere, the number of persons to be awarded a category of honour annually is capped. We should introduce such a cap to confer more seriousness and dignity on the awards.
Before now, it had been argued that the National Honours Warrant of Nigeria does not accommodate the conferment of the national honour on the dead. In the now disclaimed 2022 list, there were a few post-humous indications – late Abba Kyari, Chief Anthony Enahoro, Professor Bala Usman and late Gambo Sawaba. Section 2 of the law says that the national honour must be received “in person at an investiture held for the purpose.” The Buhari administration broke the convention when it conferred the national honours of GCON and GCFR post-humously on the late Chief MKO Abiola and Chief Gani Fawehimni in 2018 respectively, citing Section 3 of the same law which grants the President “unqualified discretion” to grant National Honour as he may deem fit. Femi Falana, SAN defended the legality of post-humous national awards at the time in the public domain against the position of Justice Alfa Belgore, CJN, 2006 -2007, and Chairman of the National Honours Committee in 2016, who along with others, had raised the issue then. What is probably required is a simple review of the National Honours Act or an Executive Order to lay this matter to rest and thus remove whatever ambiguity may be attached to the interpretation of Sections 1-3 of the National Honours Act even when the action of the government appears to be in alignment with public expectations as in the 2018 cited cases. The word “expedient” in Section 3 of the enabling Act may be open to differing interpretations, especially as no one has deemed it necessary to seek judicial intervention.
The point, at the risk of repetition, is that the National Honours selection process, while a prerogative of the Executive arm of government, needs to be subjected to greater scrutiny in order to protect its integrity. We must ensure that whoever goes about with Nigeria’s national honour indeed deserves it. It is not only in Nigeria that the selection process attracts controversy. There have been similar arguments such as we have here in Jamaica, India, and Bahamas, and other places. There is nothing wrong in making the selection process more transparent and participatory. One obvious way to avoid unnecessary controversy is to make the list short and specific, and ensure the greater participation of the civil society. It also seems to me that the usual practice of relegating artistes and performers to the Member of the Order of the Niger (MON) and Member of the Federal Republic (MFR) categories is unacceptable. If indeed their names are on the list, the likes of Damini Ogulu (Burna Boy), Innocent Tuface Idibia, and Teniola Apata deserve a higher placement on the list than many others for having done more to place Nigeria positively on the global map, and for promoting happiness in the land.
As to the controversy about the list that is in circulation and the Federal Government’s disclaimer, a week to the awards ceremony, just a few questions would be in order: is the published date of October 11 also fake? Did the Federal Government send out letters of award/invitation or not? Is it possible for likely honorees to talk to the media and inform friends and family, if they are not sure that their names are on the list? Is it true as alleged that some people who are responsible for the continued closure of Nigerian universities, and the agony of Nigerian students are actually on the Honours List? Nigeria at 62: with all the problems that we have- is this the right time for celebration, or shame or reflection? It is not enough to blame “overzealous reporters whose aim is to break news even when such news is fake” as has been said. It won’t be too long before the truth is known.
It is a sobering indication of the state of the nation, that as Nigeria prepares to mark the 62nd anniversary of its flag independence on October 1, the dominant discourse in the land among young Nigerians, apart from politics, and the continued closure of universities centres around such annoying subjects as something called the Big Brother Naija reality show and its annual elevation of unseriousness into a creative endeavour, and the unarguably silly controversy over whether a major priority for the Nigerian government should be the need to ban the consumption of cow skin, better known locally among Nigerians as ponmo, kpomo or kanda. Arguments for and against the latter have consumed so much attention and energy in the last week in such an insufferable manner that recommends the whole exercise as a metaphor for the Nigerian condition.
But let us begin with Nigeria’s 62nd anniversary. It would be correct to say that we have never had it so bad. The independence anniversaries of 2020 and 2021 were observed against the background of the COVID pandemic and the international public health crisis which redefined our lives as citizens and as human beings. But there was hope that like all afflictions before it, since the pestilence of Biblical times, COVID-19 would one day be conquered and the world will regain its verve. It has not now disappeared completely, but indeed the world is alive again. As Nigeria celebrates its 62ndIndependence anniversary, we can joyfully look back on how our people survived the scourge, and can now openly sit together on Independence Day to reflect on the nation’s journey over the decades.
What we should be celebrating this year is the resilience of the Nigerian people in the face of afflictions – social, economic, governance and psychological. It is therefore appropriate that the Federal Government has chosen to hold a public lecture on the theme of “National Unity” on September 29. The hero of the story of Nigeria is truly none other than the common man and woman: the ordinary Nigerians who, since independence have been disappointed every step of the way by their own leaders. In 1960, as the British Union Jack was lowered, and the Nigerian green-white-green flag was hoisted to herald the birth of a new nation, Nigerians danced. School children marched to the sound of melodies of hope. The march was abbreviated, the dancing stopped; the walls cracked within barely six years later. A civil war occurred and for decades, the military controlled Nigeria, running a command-and-obey structure that further divided the country along the lines of ethnicity, geography and religion. Every measure that has been taken to reunite the country by the military and even their civilian successors has refused to work. Once upon a time, Nigeria was Africa’s richest and most beloved country, it soon became a shadow of its old self. In 2022, 62 years after independence, we seem sadly to have lost so much.
We once lived in a country where teachers, scholars, and students came from everywhere to study and work here. In my days as a young student, we had teachers from the UK, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, India, the United States, the West Indies and elsewhere who were happy to pursue their dreams in Nigeria. The country’s universities were among the best in Africa and the Commonwealth. The then University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University – OAU) was rated as the most beautiful campus in Africa! The same university, along with the University of Ibadan, Ahmadu Bello University (ABU), University of Nigeria, Nsukka (UNN) and the University of Lagos (UNILAG) boasted of some of the best brains in their respective fields. Ibadan had one of the best science and research laboratories in Africa. The university zoo was a tourist attraction. The country’s university teaching hospitals were so good, so well-equipped that patients came from as far away as Saudi Arabia to receive treatment at the University College, Hospital, (UCH), Ibadan. Today, all that is lost. Our hospitals, from primary health care centres to tertiary hospitals have become mere consulting clinics. All the animals in the Ibadan Zoo have either died or have been used to prepare pepper soup. University teachers have been on strike since February 14. In the last three years alone, Nigerian university students have spent more time at home than in school.
In the 70s and 80s, even the country’s secondary schools were rated among the best in Africa. Today, they have become the target of kidnappers, bandits and rapists. When many old students visit their schools these days, they are shocked that a once beautiful citadel could become so terrible. A senior friend who visited my alma mater about a fortnight ago, called me frantically to tell me that he felt like weeping, because he knew what the school looked like in those days. An old classmate of mine who was with him, and who has lived in the US since we left school told me not to worry. He said there was nothing anybody could do. “This is not the school you and I attended, my brother”, he added. “Where is the government? If Nigerian leaders are not mad, sick and wicked, they would never allow this kind of thing to happen. Even if old students contribute money and re-build the school, who will sustain it? What do Nigerian leaders do with the education budget? In the States…” My old colleague has lived so long in the US, he obviously thinks the same standards can apply here. In those days, our teachers were proud of their chosen career. They were glad to help nurture the future generation. These days, teachers are so unhappy with their lot – no salaries, no promotion, no enabling work environment – they are not in any position to produce happy and capable students.
The oil boom of the 70s turned the fortunes of Nigeria around. The country became so rich, a former military ruler once boasted that the country did not know what to do with money. The emergent nouveaux riche became so wealthy, they left for Europe every Friday, after close of work, enjoyed their weekend in the most exotic haunts of London and Paris, and took the plane back just in time to be at work in Nigeria on Monday. There was Nigeria Airways: having some of the best trained pilots in the world. Return ticket to Europe was affordable. Today, Nigeria has no national airline. Its aviation industry is almost dead. Only the rich can still afford to travel abroad, but not with that old frequency of weekly indulgence. Oil boom brought a culture of indolence and doom. The world is witnessing yet another oil boom today, as a result of the Russia-Ukraine war, but Nigeria is not benefitting from that. Its refineries are not working. Major oil companies cannot function because of crude oil theft and insecurity. The country cannot even meet its OPEC production quota. The country is heavily indebted. Its debt burden is more than the budgets of all the 36 states of the country in one year. Next year, the country may not even be able to fund any capital project!
For those who like to quote data, the statistics on the state of the nation are frightening: inflation: 20.52%, food inflation: 23.12%, unemployment: 33%, measured in the reality of staggering poverty and exponential rise in crime. From being a country of giants, Nigeria has become a country of desperate men and women, in whose hearts the fires of hope die-aborning. This is why there is a more strident call for change now more than ever. There are those Nigerians who continue to blame the colonial masters for all of Nigeria’s woes, and such persons recently used the occasion of the death of Queen Elizabeth II to voice out their grievances. Their argument is that the British left bad leaders behind and structured the newly independent Nigeria to fail, after looting our treasures. The proponents of this argument ignore the fact that the British were colonial overlords in other countries too, where things work and progress has been made, and that the errors of our journey can be traced largely to the post-colonial leaders who simply replaced British colonialism with indigenous colonialism and fascism. It is therefore noteworthy that as Nigeria marks its 62nd anniversary, many young Nigerians are insisting that the country’s general elections in 2023 must provide a great opportunity for Nigerians to elect a new set of leaders who can make a difference, and stop the cycle of failure that seems to have become our lot. They want the glory of Nigeria restored. They are on the streets marching. They are in places of religious worship calling on God to come and help Nigeria as the people of Macedonia once cried out. They ask: why are we so blest, and yet so cursed? From whence will the messiah come? Many persons have had to leave the country to seek hope in other lands. I was at the airport a few days ago – quite unusually crowded - given the high cost of tickets. When I pointed this out to someone at the counter, I was told that most of the people boarding the aircraft to foreign destinations have no plans to return. The true heroes are the Nigerians who have refused to give up on this country and who still believe that Nigeria will be great again.
President Muhammadu Buhari will, of course, customarily use his Independence Day broadcast to reassure Nigerians at home and abroad that all is not lost. He will try to inspire the nation. He will tell us that his administration has laid a better foundation on all fronts and remains determined to deliver transparent and credible elections in 2023. He would most likely heap the blame for every problem on saboteurs and enemies of the people, who will be brought to justice before February 2023. He would also reassure us that the work ahead is a collective responsibility. It would not matter whether his listeners believe him or not. No President would use the occasion of the country’s National Day to accept blame for any omissions. For President Buhari, it would be his last Independence Day Broadcast as President. Expect some self-praise. As part of the farewell, the organizers of the 62nd Independence Anniversary have also announced that there would be a National Honours ceremony. This should not become a jamboree or chieftaincy title ceremony whereby every senior government official who has served in the last eight years, as well as traditional rulers, party chieftains and wives and girlfriends of privileged persons are the ones on the Honours list. There would be Ministers, Governors and political appointees all waiting to be decorated with medals for work not done. This year’s Honours List must convey a message of seriousness. Nigeria’s 62nd Independence Anniversary must not become another Big Brother Naija show! It must not come across like that distraction that I cited as the “ponmo controversy” - a classic case of blaming the victim and missing the point.
For the benefit of those who may not have followed the story, the ponmo controversy was triggered about a week ago when Muhammadu Yakubu, the Director General of the Nigerian Institute of Leather and Science Technology (NILEST) reportedly said his agency was going to propose to the National Assembly, a bill to ban the consumption of cow skin, because its heavy consumption is precisely the cause of the downslide in Nigeria’s leather industry. Cow hides that should be used by tanneries to produce leather, footwear, bags have been diverted into the food chain, and turned into a special delicacy. Yakubu added that “ponmo” has no nutritional value. Nothing represents the lack of seriousness at the highest levels in Nigeria’s governance and democracy than this. Not many have heard of NILET or its DG, and then the first time, anything would be heard, the DG puts his foot in his mouth. His declaration is not based on any data. What is the amount of cow hide that has been smuggled into the food chain to threaten the leather industry? And who told him kpomo has no nutritional value? And why of all things, a government agency is talking about ponmo in this country today?
Mr Yakubu should be reminded that ponmo, a regular sight at parties, usually marinated in well-curried pepper, is a gourmet’s delight particularly when the ponmo and the pepper touch the palate, the softer the ponmo the better, and best when supported with a cold glass of wine, or beer to wash it down the gut. It is a low fat, low-calorie food recommended for persons who want to lose weight. Dietitians tell us that “a 100 kg of boiled, thick cow skin contains essential amino acids, micronutrients and collagen - 224.65k calories of energy, 680g of carbohydrate, about 43.9g of water, 46.9 g of protein, 1.09 g of fat, 0.02 g of fibre, iron – 4.3 mg, magnesium -12 mg, zinc- 6.79 mg and calcium -6.1 mg.” Food inflation has taken ordinary sources of meat beyond the reach of the ordinary Nigerian: fish, meat and other sources of protein have become so expensive. Ponmo is not so cheap either, but it is the only kind of meat that is still within the reach of the common man, their only hope of chewing something during a meal. Yakubu, DG NILET says there should be legislation to ban its consumption and further punish the poor and rob people of jobs. Yakubu is not recommending bills to initiate policies that will make foreign exchange available for the tanneries, access to necessary raw materials, development of the livestock sector to increase supply of cow hide, training and research in the industry… no, he is blaming the victims.
He forgets that this country once had a thriving leather industry: Bata, Lennards, and flourishing tanneries in Kano, Kaduna…but even that failed because of this obsession with unserious matters by Nigerian leaders. The leather industry will not be revived by banning the consumption of kpomo. Wale Ojo-Lanre has dismissed Yakubu’s suggestion as a case of “shallow thinking, empty and gross laziness”. I agree. It is in addition, provocative. It could trigger a spontaneous million-man march in every state of the Federation, and evoke such anger similar to that of an old attempt to ban the sale and consumption of stockfish in Nigeria.
Nigerians deserve better leadership in 2023, a new cadre of governors at all levels who will focus on what is right, and learn to think straight.
Yesterday would be remembered for long in history even by generations yet unborn, as a historic moment in the 21stcentury, the day, Elizabeth II, embarked on a journey to the Eternal Realm, after 70 years of reign as Monarch of Great Britain and leader of the Commonwealth, the grandmother of many across the world and “the rock upon which Modern Britain was built” to borrow British PM Liz Truss’s words. I was impressed by the symbolism, the culture, the tradition, the pageantry, the inter-generational links, the grandeur with which the British, paying attention to every little detail turned that into a tribute to the value of constitutional monarchy, national pride, and the history of a people. There has been so much said in the last ten days, but now that Elizabeth II has gone to be with the Lord, there is a lot more to be said about lessons and the future, and the rest of us who would forever share a connection with the United Kingdom, at cultural, historical, diplomatic, bi-national and individual, polemical, levels. In the end, what was shared was the humanity that connects the entire population of the world, and the subtle differences and disregard for a rules-based international order that divides us. Elizabeth II is gone. The Lord is Her Shepherd…/She has passed beyond the mists that blind us here/Into the new and larger life/Of that serener sphere.” May she travel well. A new era begins.
At the historic occasion, Nigeria’s President Muhammadu Buhari was represented by the Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo and Nigeria’s High Commissioner to the UK, Alhaji Sarafa Isola. Nigeria was not one of those countries that were asked to stay away from the funeral: Russia, Belarus, Myanmar, Syria, Venezuela, and Taliban-ruled Afghanistan. The Russians have complained that their exclusion is “particularly blasphemous.” I can’t figure out how. The British were determined to make a diplomatic statement, and play politics with the Queen’s burial and they did so. Some countries were grudgingly allowed to attend through their ambassadors: Iran, Nicaragua and North Korea. China sent its Vice President, Wang Qishan. But the American President, Joe Biden, the French President Emmanuel Macron and the Prince of Dubai, were treated preferentially – allowed to travel in their own means of transportation, with the US President going to Westminster Abbey for the state burial in “The Beast”, while others were conveyed in buses provided by the British hosts.
As it were, the funeral of Queen Elizabeth II was one of the biggest diplomatic gatherings in decades, the first state burial in the UK since two-time Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill’s passing in 1965, and one of the biggest security operations that anyone has seen for decades: 4, 000 military personnel, 10, 000 policemen on duty, 142 naval officers manning the gun carriage that was last used in 1952 for the burial of King George VI, father of Elizabeth II, drone-blocking technology, a Bank Holiday that placed the entire UK on pause, 4.1 billion people watching across the world, the pomp was a clear indication of how majestic Elizabeth II was in life and death. The British used the occasion to advertise strength, tradition, seamless institutional capacity, and continuity.
The Elizabethan Age is a specific reference in the teaching of English history and culture, and world-view, which in literary scholarship has provided a benchmark for the introduction of students in the humanities to an understanding of the British Renaissance between 1558 and 1603, during the Tudor period. It was the golden age: the time of William Shakespeare and his contemporaries, the Spanish Armada (1585 – 1602) and the emergence of the royal union with Scotland. As someone who once taught the literature of the Elizabethan Age, specifically Shakespeare and His Contemporaries from Shakespeare himself to Ben Jonson, Thomas Kyd, Christopher Marlowe and John Lyly, up till the Anglo-Irish Theatre of the 19th Century from W. B. Yeats to Lady Gregory, John Millington Synge and Sean O’Casey, I would not be surprised if literary scholars begin to explore the constructs for a second Elizabethan Age in the 20th and 21st centuries given the range of Elizabeth II’s reign across culture, science, and politics. Such was the import of the significance of her leadership.
Many Nigerians who attended the Queen’s lying-in-state, or funeral, physically, or virtually, whatever may be their misgivings about the truth-telling, expiatory, cathartic moment this may represent about the legacy of Empire and colonialism, may well have been reassured by the fact that Nigeria was not one of those countries banished from attending the funeral of the world’s grandmother whose burial yesterday was even celebrated in rural Cameron, with an elaborate thanksgiving service! VP Yemi Osinbajo represented President Muhammadu Buhari. But there is a problem here that I would like to throw up, thinking aloud, for general interrogation. As the Vice President’s delegation jetted off to London on Sunday, Nigeria’s President, Buhari also left town for the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The country’s two principal leaders of the Executive Arm of Government at the Federal level, travelled out of town the same day to go and attend events. In those days, Sahara Reporters and Omoyele Sowore would have raised an alarm over the number of persons on the Vice President and President’s delegations, and how that indicates sheer lack of prudence in managing public resources. This time around, Sowore, an anti-monarchist by the way, has missed an opportunity to soro soke!
But my concern is as follows: whereas there is no law that says the President and the Vice President must not leave town at the same time, I still do not think that it is politically expedient that they do so. I also do not think that it is cost-efficient, at a time Nigeria’s Finance Minister, the National Assembly and international observers are complaining about a terrible revenue problem that calls for an urgent review of the country’s corruption vulnerabilities, the civil service, competitiveness and fiscal framework. Nor is it administratively convenient either.
What does the 1999 Constitution say? Section 145 of the Nigerian Constitution deals with, “the temporary absence of the President” while Section 146 expatiates on circumstances under which the Vice President may discharge the functions of the President, but nowhere in both instances do the framers of the law envisage a situation whereby the President and the Vice President could both abandon post and leave the country the same day, even if on two different state assignments. None of the rules of interpretation – literal, golden, mischief or the ejusdem generis rule would seem to resolve the dilemma in my view. But perhaps, simple common sense would help. I can understand President Muhammadu Buhari deciding to attend UNGA 2022. With Nigeria’s next general elections fixed for February 2022, and his two-term tenure as Nigerian President due to expire in May 2023, this would be his last attendance at the UN General Assembly as President.
It makes sense if he wants to show up to bid his brother Heads of State farewell. UNGA begins formally today with the statements of Heads of States, so it probably would have been a bit stressful for him to attend the Queens’ funeral on 19thSeptember and then immediately make the long trip to New York. But then, there were other Heads of State at Westminster Abbey yesterday who will depart London, and go straight to New York. What is the matter with us? The Vice President didn’t even need to go to London. Nigeria could just have been as ably represented by the country’s High Commissioner to the UK, as some other countries - Iran, Nicaragua and North Korea were represented by their ambassadors. Only African Presidents go to every UNGA, almost every year for a jamboree. Countries can even be represented by their Ministers of Foreign Affairs or their UN Ambassadors, the only concern would be the order of protocol. In other words, President Buhari himself could have stayed behind, he really doesn’t need a hollow farewell tour.
The argument can be made that the two trips not falling under the intendments of Sections 145 and 146 aforementioned are in a special category of their own, especially as the Vice President could be back in the country before this newspaper reaches the newsstands, and that in any case the President going to UNGA for a few days can still run the country with the aid of phone calls, text messages, or zoom from wherever he is, or better still, through any of his aides back home. The only problem with this is: the Nigerian Constitution does not say that Nigeria can be governed through telephony from a foreign location. The problem now is: should the President and the Vice President both leave town the same day for whatever length of time, no matter how short, or do we need to amend the Constitution to address this? Yesterday, Nigeria had no Commander in Chief on the ground! Both the President and the Vice President were not only out of the country, even key Ministers were either in one entourage or the other. I was compelled to ask the question, as Nigerians would say:who dey shop oh?
As it happened, yesterday turned out to be a momentous day in Nigeria. Nigerian students under the aegis of their umbrella body, the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) decided to stage a protest in Lagos in solidarity with the union of Nigerian university teachers, ASUU whose members have been on strike since February 14. NANS had blocked expressways – the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, last week and also threatened to shut down the country’s airports to make the ruling elite feel the pains of parents and students, and to compel the Federal Government to accede to the demands of the university teachers. On September 19, as the President arrived New York, and the VP attended the Queen’s funeral in London, aggrieved Nigerian students, defied early morning rainfall, and blocked access to Nigeria’s main international airport. Travellers could not access the airport for hours. NANS accuses the Federal Government of “crass irresponsibility”. The Chairman of the association’s National Taskforce on #EndASUUStrikeNow has threatened that its members would also shut down the Nigeria Ports Authority and the Third Mainland Bridge. The traffic gridlock on the way to the airport was kilometres-long.
When the students shut down the Expressway the other week, many motorists and commuters groaned in pain. NANS has the support of the striking university teachers. Federal Government officials have however threatened that it is a criminal offence to disrupt movement and inflict pain on innocent civilians. The Nigeria Police Force has also threatened to deal with the students. On Sunday, the Lagos State Police Command reportedly said the students “were free to come out and see what awaits them”. The students ignored the threat. They came out as promised. We can only hope that the security agencies would not do anything stupid and further aggravate the delicate situation in the country. Incidentally, the Nigeria Police Force is under the direct command of the Nigerian President and he is away in New York. His Deputy is in London.
For more than 200 days, aggrieved Nigerian students in public universities have been at home. Their anger is understandable. The agony of their parents too. It is not just a whole academic session that has been lost, the future of university education in Nigeria is endangered. Many university teachers have left the country to seek employment elsewhere. Many students have either started afresh in private universities and those who do not have the privilege of being sent to other schools by their parents have abandoned the dream of university education. We have read stories of university teachers who have taken up new careers as petty traders, personal assistants to politicians, or as roadside hawkers of bean cake. The Federal Government has taken ASUU to the National Industrial Court (judgement is expected in the matter tomorrow, Wednesday, September 21), but the university teachers are resilient. They have given minimum conditions: the revitalization of universities, the payment of earned allowances and arrears, review of salaries and payment systems, implementation of agreements and Memorandum of Action reached with ASUU, and outright rejection of the Federal Government’s “No Work No Pay Rule”. What is required is a complete paradigm shift, and a proper re-construction of the idea of the university. Even if ASUU calls off its strike tomorrow, the Federal Government would only have further postponed the crisis, if we fail to address the core issues at stake, the interpretation of which is now a function more of emotions rather than actual knowledge.
Yesterday, Nigerian students were able to get the support and approval not only of ASUU, but also of Omoyele Sowore, a former students union leader, now a Presidential candidate as well as a number of non-governmental organizations including the Social and Economic Rights Accountability Project (SERAP) and Enough is Enough (EiE). With the manner in which Nigerian Students are mobilizing, what began as an industrial dispute with university teachers could very easily snowball into a repeat of the youth protest of 2020, that is the #EndSARS protests. It is not in anyone’s interest to allow another degeneration of the social space, especially as Nigeria prepares for a major political transition, due to begin with campaigns by political parties on September 28.
It is important that Nigeria’s leaders and other stakeholders pay attention. Someone must begin to engage the Nigerian students, and not just allow them to do their worst. The Buhari government may soon effectively become lame-duck, but that inevitability should not be compounded with a lackadaisical attitude.
On August 9, the people of Kenya went to the polls to elect a new President, the incumbent President, Uhuru Kenyatta having completed the constitutional two terms in office. There were elections at other levels -governorship, parliamentary and at county levels but the main focus was the Presidential election with four main candidates: Deputy President, William Ruto, 55, of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA)/Kenya Kwanza Alliance, Raila Odinga, 77, of the Orange Democratic Movement/Azimio One Coalition, Professor George Wajackoyah, 63, of the Roots Party of Kenya and David Mwaure Waihiga, 55, of the Agano Party. On August 15, the Independent Electoral and Boundary Commission (IEBC) announced victory for William Ruto with 7.1 million votes (50. 5 %), followed by Raila Odinga, with 6.9 million votes (48. 9%). Wajackoyah scored 0.44% of the votes and David M. Waihiga, 0.23%.
The result was rejected by Raila Odinga and his running mate, Martha Karua and their supporters who threatened that the result will be challenged in court. This was Odinga’s fifth shot at the Presidency of Kenya. At 77, losing the election means he would not achieve his dream of becoming President. He would be 82 years by the next Presidential election. He refused to congratulate William Ruto, nor did he acknowledge Ruto’s offer of an olive branch to run an inclusive, people-focused government. Odinga was not alone. He enjoys the support of incumbent President Uhuru Kenyatta who has never hidden his disdain for his Deputy. Kenyatta openly supported Raila Odinga, resulting in the characterization of the Kenya Presidential election as a battle between hustlers and the products of dynasties, that is - between poor Kenyans and big, influential families. Kenyatta’s father and Odinga’s father are historical figures in Kenya. Ruto describes himself as “the son of a nobody”, “a chicken seller”– whose mother sold by the roadside but who is determined to lead Kenya. Kenyatta has also refused to congratulate his Deputy, as of the time of this writing. The Deputy’s offence was that he refused to support Kenyatta’s plan to violate the Constitution and do a third term in office!
Yesterday, both Kenyatta and Odinga were further humiliated when the Supreme Court of Kenya, in a seven-man panel led by Chief Justice Martha Koome, in a unanimous decision, ruled that the election of August 9 was validly won by William Ruto of the UDA. The Court had three options before it: to declare and validate the election, and hence allow it to stand, to rule that William Ruto did not score up to the 50.5% announced for him, and hence declare a run-off, or to cancel the election altogether and order a rerun. The Court held that Ruto won. The other winner is Wafula Chebukati, Chairman of the Kenya Electoral Commission, who insisted on the integrity of the election conducted under his watch. As he announced the results on August 15, four of his commissioners walked out on him, led by Juliana Cherera, the vice chairperson of IEBC, and went on to announce their own verdict at a different location. Cherera and co rejected the results, saying it was “opaque”. Chebukati received death threats. The two remaining Commissioners who stood by him were beaten up. Odinga’s supporters were restless, and there were fears that Kenya could slip into another round of electoral violence as happened in 2017, when the Supreme Court overturned the Presidential election, and ordered a new election which led to an orgy of violence that claimed 1,100 lives and the displacement of thousands.
In 2022, the Supreme Court of Kenya received a total of nine petitions, eight of which challenged Ruto’s election, while one supported his victory. The Court chose to strike out two of the petitions and consolidate the remaining seven into one. It then further reduced the issues for determination to nine viz: Did the technology deployed by the IEBC meet standards of integrity? Was there interference in the transmission of Forms 34A? Were there significant differences between the physical Form 34A and what was loaded on the IEBC portal? Did the President-elect get 50% + one of the votes cast? Were there discrepancies in the results? Where were the irregularities alleged by the petitioners, if any, and to what degree? Did the IEBC act in accordance with the law? Did the postponement of Mombasa and Kakamega governorship elections and other polls result in voter suppression? What relief and orders should the Supreme Court consider? In the course of the 14 days during which the petitions were considered, Odinga’s lawyers insisted that the IEBC election technology was tampered with, and that election servers were pre-configured by mercenaries from Venezuela who intercepted and manipulated results.
The Supreme Court of Kenya, in determining the nine issues identified, ruled entirely in favour of William Ruto and the IEBC, and dismissed the claims by the petitioners. They found that the petitioners did not prove their case beyond reasonable doubt, that there were no discrepancies, no interference in the verification, uploading and transmission of results, that there was no evidence of pre-configuration of results or conspiracy to taint the transmission process. The Court also upheld the authenticity of Form 34A, and accused the petitioners of pushing sensational information, hearsay evidence, and actions bordering on perjury, while blowing hot air, and going on a wild goose chase. Thus, along those lines, the Supreme Court of Kenya confirmed the election of William Ruto as the fifth President of Kenya.
Their Lordships of the Supreme Court of Kenya deserve applause for giving a ruling that addresses the issues pointedly, promotes stability, and acquits the Court honourably in helping to protect democracy. Days before the ruling, there had been speculations in Kenya that the Supreme Court had been intimidated and bribed by the President and the ODM candidate, Odinga, and that attempts had also been made to bribe the Chairman of IEBC, Chebukati. In the course of the election petition, there had been so much disinformation and misinformation with persons pushing all kinds of conspiracy theories on social media. The big issue in the 2022 Kenya election would seem to be the distrust between the people and their institutions. The petitioners fuelled that divisive factor by simply insisting that there was no way their man could lose. The whole matter got messy when John Githongo, Kenya’s corruption czar whose story has been told most eloquently in Michela Wrong’s book - It’s Our Turn to Eat - backed Odinga’s campaign and reported that he had information that indeed a 56-member hacker team manipulated Forms 34A.
What the Supreme Court ruling has done is to confer legitimacy on the results as announced by Chebukati on August 15. Future reviews of the ruling may well indicate that the Court downplayed some of the limitations of the election, while focussing heavily on the sensational and conspiracy-laden submissions by the petitioners, but the position of the law today is that Ruto’s election stands. For Ruto’s supporters, this will strengthen their belief in Kenya’s democracy that it is indeed possible for the child of the poor to aspire to the highest position in the land. Except that Ruto had long ago moved from being a poor hustler, without a dynasty to a ranking member of the Kenyan establishment. For establishment figures like Kenyatta and Odinga, they are now under pressure to act like statesmen. As the Supreme Court delivered its ruling, anxious young Kenyans watched the proceedings on big screens on the streets of the Rift Valley of Eldoret and in Nakuru and Mt. Kenya: strongholds of the main gladiators.
On Sunday, both Ruto and Odinga promised to respect the decision of the Supreme Court. They must now be joined by President Uhuru Kenyatta and others in doing so. Shortly after the Supreme Court verdict, Martha Karua, Odinga’s running mate, wrote on Twitter: “The court has spoken. I respect its decision, but disagree with the findings.” Her principal Raila Odinga said more or less the same thing. He too disagrees, and accuses the Supreme Court of using “unduly exaggerated language.” But it is democracy that has won. It is time for Kenya to move on. Next week, William Ruto will be sworn in as next President of the Republic of Kenya. His victory has been hard-fought and hard-won. It is particularly instructive that ethnicity has not been a major, problematic factor in this election. Even in Bondo town, the Opoda home of Raila Odinga, there have been no protests. There have been no celebrations either. The people say they are ready to work with the new President but he must not sideline the region. Raila Odinga should listen to his own people. At the inauguration of the President next week, Kenyatta, Odinga, and all the other key figures in the election must project an image of unity, attend the occasion and show solidarity because Kenya is more important than their individual ambitions. William Ruto is not the “thug” or the “tanga tanga man”, Kenyatta says he is. He is the choice of the people of Kenya who certainly trust him to move their country forward.
Congratulations, President William Ruto. It is now time for work! The issue of the legitimacy of the election may have been settled by the Supreme Court but there is the remaining issue of how to build trust in government and promote unity across Kenya. You promised to eschew the politics of vengeance, and run an inclusive government. You recently invited Odinga to come have a cup of tea and a conversation. You should extend that invitation again not just to Odinga, but also to Kenyatta and others. Your wife, Rachel Ruto has been quoting the Bible and talking about destiny. She is probably right: William Ruto would be the first Deputy President in Kenyan history to succeed his principal, and the second Kalenjin after Daniel Arap Moi, to become President. Both the burdens of history and office place a great responsibility on Ruto’s shoulders. He must proceed with maturity and wisdom in the best interest of the people of Kenya who are painfully weighed down by the high cost of everything from petrol to national sovereignty and security. And for us Nigerians: here is a lesson: Look at how the Presidential election petitions in Kenya were swiftly determined – all within two weeks, before swearing-in. In Nigeria, we delay so much and allow the declared winner to use state resources and institutions to determine outcomes. We need to reform that aspect of our electoral process, to avoid unnecessary delays and manipulation of institutions, and to encourage our judges to be courageous, by conferring the Supreme Court of Nigeria with original jurisdiction in Presidential election matters since in any case, they are sui generis.
On Monday, September 5, Mary Elizabeth Truss, 47, Liz Truss for short, was proclaimed the new leader of the UK Conservative Party, thus making her the new British prime Minister replacing Bris Johnson who resigned in July after his government was hit by what became known as the Party-gate scandal. The Returning Officer for the election said Truss got 81, 326 votes - 57% while the runner up, Rishi Sunak got 60, 399 votes representing 43%. A total of 172, 437 Tories voted, turn-out was 82.6 %, only 654 votes were voided. It was a much smaller margin of victory than was predicted (just 18%) - which means that Truss as PM would have a lot of work to do to carry other party members along. Rishi Sunak certainly was not disgraced, and he has been most gentlemanly in promptly congratulating the winner and asking the party to unite behind her. He deserves praise for his courage and his refusal to drop the ball even when all pundits predicted a Truss win. His ideas may well still find accommodation in the new administration.
Today, September 6, Truss and Boris Johnson will travel to Balmoral in Scotland together for Boris Johnson to take his leave, and for Truss to receive the Queen’s authority to form a government in line with the UK’s unwritten Constitution and the Queen’s role as Head of Government. They will depart from the Queen’s presence as a combination of the old and the new, and the beginning of a new momentum in Great Britain. In her acceptance speech, Truss praised Boris Johnson: “Boris, you got Brexit done, you crushed Jeremy Corbyn, you rolled out the vaccine, and you stood up to Vladimir Putin. You are admired from Kyiv to Carlisle.” These are very kind words, and history may indeed be kind in the long run to Boris Johnson’s legacy, but it would also be remembered of him that he ended up as the first Prime Minister in UK history to have broken the law while in office. Truss is now the third woman to assume office as British Prime Minister after Margaret Thatcher and Theresa May before her. She says she is a modern-day Thatcherite: she wants to cut taxes, address the cost-of-living crisis, address the concerns of households and businesses, and deliver in the next two years and also deliver victory for the Conservative Party in 2024. But can Liz Truss be trusted to move from political rhetoric to action and truly deliver? Her critics insist that she is a master of political convenience and chameleonic politics. With a political beginning as a Liberal Democrat who once advocated for the abolition of the British monarchy, she has shifted so ideologically along the political spectrum, between 2010 when she got elected to parliament till this moment, when she would lead Her Majesty’s Government.
For her, it must be the best of times personally, but the worst of times to be Prime Minister. She is practically inheriting an “economic catastrophe” in the UK. Inflation is over 10%, the highest in 40 years. The cost-of-living crisis is so bad that families now skip meals and companies like Lewis Partnership are promising free meals for staff during winter. Even pub owners are saying, without government help, they may have to increase the cost of beer by 500% per pint, making it 20 pounds per pint! Many families can’t afford gas for vehicles or for their homes. Truss has not given any specific details as to what she would do, but certainly, this is no longer time to play to the gallery.
Nigerians should watch the UK space closely as we prepare for the 2023 general election. Liz Truss is the product of a well-honed internal party democracy system, which we do not have in Nigeria. The Tory election was issues-driven. Here, our politicians don’t even understand the issues enough to talk coherently. Today, Liz Truss is likely to announce her cabinet. Tomorrow she will face PM’s Question Time in parliament and slug it out with Keir Starmer. She was born in 1975. Whoever wants to become Nigeria’s President in 2023, must pay attention, and learn the best lessons from other jurisdictions.
Matthew Hassan Kukah, the Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese who turns 70 tomorrow, August 31, deserves celebration for his service to church, community, nation, and humanity, for his achievements as a true citizen who has used his priestly circumstances, boundless energy and prodigious intellect to promote the causes of justice and the common good. He stands shoulders above many of his contemporaries in his many engagements in the last four decades. He has been a priest for close to 50 years, but his range of influence goes beyond the pulpit to include scholarship, public intellectualism, civil society advocacy and the courage to provide leadership even in the most difficult situations. He is easily one of the best-known faces of the Catholic faith and priesthood in Nigeria. He remains an admirable advertisement of the virtues of Catholicism and the Church.
I am not a Catholic but I admire the Catholic Church, owing largely to my interaction over the years with Catholic priests like Bishop Kukah. I like the fact that the Catholic Church in Nigeria invests heavily in the training and education of its priests. It is mostly in the Catholic Church that you would find such exemplary priests that are usually educated to the highest levels possible. Many Catholic priests parade Ph.Ds as if it is a minimum qualification, in most cases Catholic priests display other skills, with language, research, public engagements and an unusual hunger for knowledge. The Anglican Church over time has also shown a similar commitment to the education of its priests, but the Catholic Church remains far ahead. In a country where many pastors and priests are at best spellbinders, hypnotists and clownish motivational speakers, and petty merchants with very little knowledge of the Holy Book, it is ever so refreshing to attend a Church or listen to a priest who speaks from an abundance of insight and talent. Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah belongs in this category. In the late 80s, the 90s and till date, he has been a shining star of the Catholic Church of Nigeria, who through his example inspires the younger generation, within the priesthood and the general Nigerian community.
I first met him on the pages of newspapers through his writings. In those days, the opinion pages of newspapers were dominated by persons of high intellect, most of whom dissected issues of the day, in beautiful prose, and with great erudition. Fr. Matthew Kukah, as he then was, was one of the most prolific, churning out essays, week after week. Those were the days of intimidating columnists sand contributors on the op-ed pages: to have your essay published on the same page with a Matthew Kukah, Pat Utomi, Herbert Ekwe-Ekwe, Chinweizu, Sonala Olumhense, Odia Ofeimun, Olatunji Dare, Edwin Madunagu, Biodun Jeyifo, Wole Soyinka, Femi Osofisan, Pini Jason, Andy Akporugo, Stanley Macebuh, Fred Onyeoziri, Emevwo Biakolo, Amma Ogan, Sully Abu, Effiong Essien, Ashikiwe Adione-Egom…was like winning a jackpot. Many of us framed the pages, and looked up to the big names. The times are different today. Our newspapers have stopped serving culture and society and the reader as spaces for great intellection, the tradition of old has been replaced by “opinionitis”, a very dangerous disease which pushes just about anyone to think they can inflict bad prose and thoughts on a vanishing breed of readers anyway. Matthew Kukah’s contributions to public discourse was frequent, and often well-received. He was not afraid of debates or intellectual pugilism. In those days, one subject on the pages of a newspaper could result in months of rigorous debate, from a multi-disciplinary perspective, by persons who respected each other’s intellect but nevertheless had the capacity to weave words into prose and good sense. This was the tradition that we grew into, from university to the field. Kukah was a major source of inspiration and a good sport. Many of his opinion pieces and extended essays remain timeless.
Bishop Kukah’s stature began to flower, even more so in his position at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria: he was first a Deputy Secretary General, then he became the Secretary-General of the Catholic Secretariat, located in Lagos, directly opposite Tafawa Balewa Square or Race Course as it was originally known. Under his watch as leader of that Secretariat, it became an important intellectual rendezvous for civil society groups and public intellectuals in the entire Southern Nigeria. Kukah built a very strong relationship with the media, promoting, most actively, both the Catholic Church, and the activities of the Catholic Bishops Conference, focusing on issues of justice, peace and development. When Nigeria descended into chaos in 1993, with the annulment of the June 12 1993 Presidential election, church and society rose against the impunity of the military establishment, and called for an end to military rule and respect for the people’s sovereignty. The majority spoke with one voice that military absolutism had defeated the purpose of good governance and that it was time for the Nigerian military to go. The Catholic Church spoke truth to power on the pulpit and on the streets. Leaders of other churches – the Anglican, the Methodist and Pentecostal Churches also joined the protest. The. Catholic Secretariat in Lagos served the Catholics as an intellectual power house. Kukah had able lieutenants: Fr. George Ehusani, his then Deputy who would later succeed him as Secretary-General. There were others too: Rev. John Uba Ofei and Rev. Fr. Iheanyi Enwerem.
On a regular basis, the Secretariat issued press releases and also organized seminars and conferences on various topics of interest with stakeholders brought together to chart the way forward for Nigeria. I was a familiar participant at those Sunday evening sessions. Many of us became so close to the Catholic priests, we began to also talk about liberation theology. Nigerians had been so badly treated many priests felt it was their obligation and ecclesiastical duty to help free the people from the shackles of of oppression. Even when there was no seminar, the doors of the Catholic Secretariat were always open. I later developed the habit of stopping by whenever I was in that part of the city. On a good evening, there was always sumptuous dinner. And the fridge was always full. Beer, wine…And there was Fr. George often twanging away on his guitar, trying out a new song, or reading a poem. He would later succeed Kukah as Secretary General and indeed that period – the Kukah-Ehusani - could be remembered as the golden years of the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria. Kukah left behind a legacy that raised the profile of the Secretariat and the Church.
Beyond his public intellectualism and duties as a priest, Bishop Kukah has also been very active within the general community as an agent of peace and promoter of good governance and the common good. He is a compulsive bridge-builder, with friends in virtually every corner, and so well established is he among the political and private sector elite of Nigeria that many of his critics try to take pot-shots at him that he would still need to make up his mind whether he wants to be a priest or a politician. In recent years, through his major project, the Kukah Centre, he has been working in Nigeria’s post-military dispensation to promote the cause of peace, good governance, and stability. The Centre in collaboration with General Abdusalami Abubakar, Nigeria’s last military ruler up until 1999 to date, has jointly promoted a National Peace Committee, which gets politicians before elections to sign peace accords and give undertakings that they would embrace peace, as well as promoting peace in Nigerian communities. Kukah was a member of the National Human Rights Investigation Commission, Nigeria’s equivalent of a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, also known as the Oputa Panel 1999 – 2001, Secretary of the National Political Reform Conference under the Obasanjo administration in 2005, Chairman of the Ogoni-Shell Reconciliation Committee since 2005, and member of the committee for electoral reform, 2007 – 2009.
In addition to this, Bishop Kukah is a strong advocate for inter-religious harmony, using every opportunity to promote tolerance and peace. For his efforts, he has been appointed to the Pontifical Council for Inter-Religious Dialogue at the Vatican and as Chairman of the Commission on Inter-Religious Dialogue of the Catholic Bishops Conference of Nigeria. He has also enjoyed a level of visibility and influence that many priests can only dream about. He has probably given as many homilies at events organized by other churches as he has done on Catholic occasions. Political leaders seek his counsel. The intellectual class and the commentariat respect him as one of their own. The establishment at state and national levels seek his attention and counsel because they know that he can be trusted to say the truth without fear or favour. He is not a prosperity or attention-seeking priest. He and others like him including those that I mentioned earlier are cut from a different cloth. Priests of his type present a different model from that other Catholic priest: Fr. Ejike Mbaka of the Adoration Ministries in Enugu. It is a measure of the diversity of the Catholic Church that it is even possible to mention an Ejike in a tribute to Bishop Matthew Kukah. As it were, virtually every Nigerian government has learnt to respect Bishop Matthew Kukah. The only exception has been the Buhari administration whose agents and spokespersons recently developed a passion for harassing the priest. He has challenged them to an open debate. They have not been able to take on that challenge. Meanwhile, Kukah has remained unrelenting in his chosen task of speaking truth to power and exposing chicanery, hypocrisy and the stupidity of hegemons no matter how dandified.
It is not surprising that Kukah is a much sought-after public lecturer. He has given lectures on virtually every important platform in Nigeria, from convocation ceremonies to funerals to anniversaries. He stands out as a consistent man of intellect, with a transparent public spirit. He likes to tell stories: his usual style is to tell a story, catch the attention of his audience with some humour, of course except he is discussing such grim subjects as the killing of his kith and kin in Zango-Kataf in Southern Kaduna or members of his diocese in Sokoto state, or any form of religious persecution, or the failings of the power elite, having learnt the art of choosing his topics with purpose. To mark his 70th birthday, Bishop Kukah is announcing his plans to build a befitting edifice for the Kukah Centre, one of Africa’s leading policy think-tanks. He and the Centre deserve every possible support on a sustainable basis. The Centre would be a major legacy offering from a priest who is on way easily to becoming a legend. Ahead of tomorrow’s event, he recently released a book titled Broken Truths: Nigeria’s Elusive Quest for National Cohesion. Author of many articles in academic journals, Kukah remains conscious of his training and exposure as an academic: diploma, University of Ibadan, B.A., Pontifical Urban University, Rome. M.A., Peace Studies, University of Bradford, (1980), Ph.D, Political Science, University of London (1990), Edward Mason Fellow, Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government; Rhodes Fellow, St. Antony’s College, University of Oxford, Honorary Fellow, Nigeria Academy of Letters. The harvest from his fecund mind has been rich and impressive including some of the most authoritative books on aspects of Nigerian history such as: Religion, Politics and Power in Northern Nigeria (1993) – perhaps his most seminal work, Religious Militancy and Self-Assertion: Islam and Politics in Nigeria (1997); Democracy and Civil Society in Nigeria (2001); Witness to Justice: An Insider’s Account of Nigeria’s Truth Commission (2011), and Broken Truths (2022).
At 70, Bishop Kukah can reminisce with a strong measure of contentment that he has been able to impact many lives, using his chosen vocation of priesthood to make a difference in the lives of those to whose spiritual health he ministers and the larger community of men and women who have drawn inspiration from his wealth of knowledge, humility and accomplishments. As a person, Bishop Kukah is friendly, kind-hearted and always ready with a listening ear. Nobody has given him any national honour. He probably does not need it. Nigeria’s security agencies have stalked and questioned him. He has been abused and threatened for his no-holds-barred homilies. He has been labelled a religious bigot. He is, however, not afraid of authority figures because of his own commitments to a higher cause and his understanding of the dynamics of power. Those who use power and position to oppress the harmless, do so only for a while until they are reminded of the ephemerality of their advantages. Whatever may have been his travails, Kukah’s critics lay the blame at the doorstep of the ambivalence of his insider-outsider relationship with power and politics. But it can be said of Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah that he has lived a life entirely of service and that is the best kind of life. He deserves to be celebrated. What we will be celebrating is not material things and the celebrant is not likely to be decked out in flowing babariga or agbada, the accent would be on service, innovation, ideas, goodness, justice, peace and humanism. I join others in wishing Bishop Kukah many happy returns of the day. He is one of the few redemptive figures in a community of pastors and priests where sometimes it is difficult to truly know what has happened to Christian leadership in our land. To Bishop Kukah: 70 Hearty Cheers!
“Ko ko Ko. Pon Pon, Pon. . Helloo oh”
“Who be dat?”
“Na me oh?”
“Who be na me? You don’t know your own name? I say who dey there? ”
“Na me, FEDECO”
“FEDECO? Which FEDECO? Where you from come?”
“Open door my friend…Or I break down this door now. You drink, you no know my voice again?. Lagos don turn your head? I say na FEDECO dey for door, you dey ask question?”
“Oh, bros., no vex. You know say the kin Nigeria we dey so, person suppose take caution. Anybody can just come to your door and call a known name, you open door, dem go kidnap you.”
“Don’t talk like that. Nobody can kidnap you. Have you forgotten that you are the great grandson of the greatest witch of your mother’s kingdom and the chosen spirit on your father’s side who fought the British to a standstill in the battle of… Don’t worry. I forget the battle now but I remember the story…”
“Bros, you are welcome. In this neighbourhood, people don’t talk about spirts, witchcraft and old kingdoms. I am glad to see you, Uncle..?”
“So you now know your Uncle FEDECO? You boys think some of us old folks don’t know what is going on. But we do. You met me in this Lagos. I am the Chairman of the Village Association in this town. You don’t come to my house. I decided today to come and visit you. That is how an elder behaves. Where is your wife? Where are your children? You people think you know the world, but you don’t know the world. I, your Uncle… I have decided to visit you today just to check on you. Give me something first to welcome me.”
“What do you want Uncle? I am sure I can make it available.”
“What do I want? Hmmm. Give me bush meat pepper soup! Send your people now and get me bushmeat. You can’t have money in this family and somebody cannot chop pepper soup on top of your head. My sister no born onoder pickin. My friend, bring bush meat pepper soup.”
“Brother, please, no bush meat in this house. We don’t eat pepper soup here. Let them bring you cold water and beer first. As for bush meat, no no, no. There is Monkey Pox in town. Many countries that have been non-endemic are now endemic, all the way to South America and Continental Europe. Here in Nigeria, where monkey pox is endemic, there have been over 473 cases in 27 states, 172 have been confirmed, six deaths have been reported, and that is the highest rate in this country in 6 years. Bros, you cannot eat bush meat. I can offer you any other thing.”
“What kind of monkey talk is that? Is every bush meat monkey?”
“The experts are talking about animal to human transmission that has now become human to human transmission.”
“That is white man’s talk. That one no dey here. Bush meat. Make dem boil am well well, put maggi, pepper, and all dem dem things make man chop fill belle. Once you burn am, pepper am well, all the virus wey dey the bodi go settle for stomach, na toilet everything dey go so oh.”
“Bros, let’s be serious. I think all of us should be serious. This was how Nigerians made light of Ebola virus. This is how we continue to joke with COVID-19, and yet many have died. And now everyone is treating monkey pox as a joke. Nobody is even listening.”
“My sister’s son, nobody will listen. You dey hear me? Nobody trusts these our leaders. This is how they will always come up with one problem or the other to adjust budget and provide allocation for their pockets. Do you know how many people became billionaires because of COVID? That one has gone down now, so na monkey pox be next? The next thing you will hear is that the budget has to be reviewed to accommodate monkey pox. They say it has reached 27 states. Have you seen anyone with monkey pox? Very soon, it will reach 36 states and the FCT and you will not see any evidence. The real monkey pox, they will not address, na fake dem go dey pursue”
“This is not fake bros. It is real. We are talking science.”
“I agree. You know I am not dumb. I know there is monkey pox, but is it as serious a problem? Yes, I think it is. Should it be addressed? Yes, my mind tells me so. The big problem is that the monkey pox in Nigeria is being misdiagnosed. They are looking for warts and lesions on people’s skins and talking about consumption of bush meat, and animal to human, human to human transmission. If you want to hear me, they should look at the Nigerian economy. That is where we need treatment, and the need to save the people.”
“I don’t get it”
“What don’t you get? Can’t you see, feel, sense, experience, touch the contagious, transmissible monkey pox in the Nigerian economy?”
“Monkey pox is a medical term. The economy is different.”
“You think I am dumb? And I am saying to you that I understand everything perfectly. The Nigerian economy is a monkey pox economy. Go and think about it deeply. You may not die really, because monkey pox doesn’t have a high fatality rate, but you can spread it through contact, exchange of body fluids. Look at how we are spreading poverty and agony in Nigeria from one sector to another.”
“I am lost”
“You are not lost. Let me tell you. Inflation is now 19.64 % in Nigeria. Food inflation is 20.02%. Many families can no longer eat bread, or buy tomatoes, or prepare a decent pot of soup. The last time I ate bush meat pepper soup was more than a year ago. I specifically asked for it but instead of you telling me that the country hard, ground no level, pocket empty, and I will understand, you started giving lectures on monkey pox. You think I am stupid? I know even rich people are feeling the monkey pox in this economy. The rich are crying. They can’t get foreign exchange to run their businesses. Airline operators are weeping. Foreign airlines are saying Nigeria is no longer an enabling business environment. Airline Operators of Nigeria (the local investors) are saying they will shut down. Have you not noticed that even young men do not want to marry anymore? The only girls who still get husbands in Nigeria today are the ones from rich homes. Rich men’s daughters have become insurance covers. If you are from a poor home, you are on your own. Nigeria’s social dynamics is changing.”
“It is basic social dynamics, sir. Human beings will adjust to new realities”
“You are talking textbook. My sister, your mother, is far more practical. I think the problem in this country is not just too much learning by people like you who study abroad at your parents’ expense and then you come back and start pushing ideas and theories that belong to a different society. The big problem is that we have an army of illiterates who grab political power, and have nothing to offer other than the fact that that they are in power. The only luck we have is that the Nigerian people have not yet taken to the streets out of frustration as people have done in Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Ghana and other parts of the world.”
“Well, that is the point. The world is passing through a difficult season. All this shall come to pass. My daily work requires me to have a balanced view of issues. I am an intelligence analyst, on a daily basis, guiding senior personnel and institutions.”
“Then tell them, we are not seeing enough intelligence in how this place called Nigeria is managed. Your own Uncle cannot eat bush meat pepper soup? He cannot travel by air anymore? Even to go by train or road is wahala? Bachelors have stopped looking for wives? Go to marriage registries across the country, the crowd has reduced. Did we offend God?”
“That is not a problem. We are too many in any case. Nigeria has a population problem. We can’t keep condemning everything.”
“People have a right to marry.”
“Then they should marry reasonably. Bros, you see that my neighbour. You once met him.. He has just one wife and two children. His gateman has four wives and 12 children. How much is his salary? I often walk across to settle quarrels between my neighbour and his wife. But his gateman with his army of dependents living in another man’s compound, you will never hear their voice. They seem to be happy. The owner of the building is in distress. He even threatened to abandon his wife and children. I had to advise him not to do so. Otherwise, his gate man will take over the entire house.”
“You want to hear me? Your neighbour is a stupid man. I pray you don’t end up like him. Me and you go talk dat one later. People like you go and marry these women and turn them into competitors as if you are running an Olympic race and you still want to be a man. When the women begin to show you, instead of you addressing the matter, you would decide to relocate abroad. You become woman wrapper. Idiot-husband. Ode somebody. Efulefu man. But your gatemen, drivers and cooks are the real men. They collect your money, steal from you, borrow from you, live in your compound and they live better. But you – big man! - you can’t control one woman.”
“But you must admit that has nothing to do with your monkey pox theory, bros”.
“Everything is interconnected”
“I don’t think so”
“Wait. Wait. Wait. I have not talked about the strike by university workers and all the unions.
“They have been treated unfairly. Government has a responsibility to be kind to the intellectual community. They are not asking for too much. Greedy, lazy National Assembly members collect so much money and other benefits, the intellectuals who help to build Nigeria’s skills flow and intellectual base are treated shabbily, paid peanuts and asked to go to hell. What is worse, government is adopting a divide and rule strategy, playing non-academic staff against academics. I like the fact that the university teachers are saying they will not move an inch. They have the right to protest.”
“Oh, God. The kind of books you people read. Are you aware that government is already thinking of banning the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU)? They will ban them now and nothing will happen. They already have an alternative – the CONUA. The Federal Government will not only ban ASUU, they will not pay them for work not done. Many of those your so-called intellectuals will beg by the time they can’t pay their children’s school fees and their wives and in-laws begin to mock them. I even hear some lecturers are beginning to sell this and that. One female lecturer now sells puff-puff. Another lecturer in the North is doing Mai Shayi work. I know one in my neighbourhood who follows his wife to the shop every day. He calls himself a Doctor of I don’t what. Business Administration or Accounting? The man is now a big-time shop assistant attending to customers in his wife’s pepper soup joint! When Nigeria happens to you, you will learn your lesson the hard way…Look, I am saying all of this because I don’t want you to be like them…”
“What is wrong is wrong. The universities teachers have a case…Even if the Non-Academic staff return to the campuses this week, without the teachers, there will be no students. Even asking students to sue their lecturers makes no sense. Government cannot simply choose to be callous towards a strategic segment of the Nigerian population. When you shut down the country’s education system at the highest level, you shut down the future of the entire country. That is the issue. Many bright academics are leaving the education sector. Terrible brain-drain. Since 2017, ASUU has been on strike for a total of 578 days. In 2020, for 270 days, In 2022, that is, this year, 189 days as of today.”
“The lecturers just want money. Everybody wants money to hedge inflation. Government should just give them enough money to meet their level of greed, and you’d see there would be peace. No be Nigeria we dey?”
“No. This is not about money. That is in fact why ASUU has refused to cave in.”
“Look, bobo, in this country, everything is about money. Those Union of Electricity Workers who shut down the power grid and feeders on August 17, what do you think they are looking for?... Money!”
“A lot more than that, a close analysis showed.”
“Forget analysis! Everybody is talking about crude oil theft, economic sabotage bla bla. What do you think those behind crude oil theft are looking for?.. Money!”
“Specifically, that is economic sabotage, organized crime and terrorism against the Nigerian state.”
“You can say what you like, but what I am saying is that the real problem in this country is that everybody is looking for money and struggling for survival. Nigeria today is a struggle for the survival of the fittest. This is what has happened to us. In the last eight years, values have collapsed. Life is so hard. People just want to survive. Why do you think the legislature is just so compliant? Once you give people their own share of the cake, they will be quiet. The only problem is that there isn’t enough to go round.”
“Looks like in this country, nobody is ready to listen. Maybe I should just return to the UK or the States.”
“You want to Japa? No. No. No. That’s cowardice. Who do you think will look after my sister if you too run away? All your siblings are already abroad. You are the only one here. Don’t mind me, we are just having a discussion. To tell you the truth, this is still the best country in the world oh, with all our wahala. You know you and I are intelligent analysts. Please don’t tell my sister we even had this discussion, I beg. Wey my bush meat pepper soup?
“No, bros, I only have your usual beer in the fridge.”
“Bring am, bring am. Wetin I bin dey talk sef.”
“We are here this evening to witness this momentous occasion as the people of Kenya restate what is in article one of the constitution of Kenya that all sovereign power belongs to the people of Kenya…I want to thank God for getting us to this point. I want to thank God that today we have concluded this election. I know that there were predictions that I wouldn’t get to the ballot, there were predictions that we would not be here, but because there is a God in Heaven we are here, and I want in a very special way to say, and to confess, that without God, we wouldn’t have been here.” – William Ruto, Deputy President and President-elect, Republic of Kenya, Monday, August 15, 2022.
And thus, it is done: the people of the Republic of Kenya have elected a new President in the person of the current Deputy President William Samoei Arap Ruto, 55, who, barring any untoward developments, will succeed his boss, President Uhuru Kenyatta for whom the constitutional two-term limit of 10 years has come to an end. Kenya’s Constitution requires the winning candidate to receive 50% of the vote plus one, and at least 25% of the vote from 24 of the country’s 47 counties. A keenly contested election, which resulted in six days of vote counting, much anxiety and apprehension, as the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) uploaded and collated the results, ended with William Ruto, candidate of the United Democratic Alliance (UDA) winning 50.5% of the vote, that is 7.1 million votes. His closest challenger, Raila Odinga, 77, candidate of the Orange Democratic Movement/Azimio One Kenya Alliance, got 48.9% of the votes, that is 6.9 million votes. There were four major Presidential candidates in this election, and the third is particularly interesting: Professor George Wajackoyah, candidate of the Roots Party of Kenya, who ran a rather unorthodox campaign, targeted at young voters, with frenzied, eccentric mobilization on social media, and what became a high-pitched political movement combined with reggae dancing and talks about the value of marijuana, and hyena testicles.
Wajackoyah’s social media sensation and populism fetched him 61, 969 votes - just about 0.44% of the total votes cast – a grim reminder of the limits of social media populism in the context of elections. The fourth candidate, David Waihiga Mwaure of the Agano Party, almost stood no chance, with 31, 987 votes (0.23%) as this was a tight race between Odinga and Ruto. Kenya’s general election 2022 is probably the most competitive so far in the history of the country. Ahead of the elections at the Presidential, governorship, senatorial, parliamentary and county levels, there were fears that there could an outbreak of violence, similar to the killings in 2007 and 2017. The two leading candidates are old, bitter rivals, forming broad alliances that were meant to give one or the other an advantage: William Ruto’s Kenya Kwanza alliance (an alliance of 12 political parties) and Raila Odinga’s Azimio la Umoja. It is a measure of how this particular general election in Kenya is a test of the country’s stability - even now that the result of the Presidential election has been announced, it is somewhat difficult to celebrate a definitive end of the process. The fear of violence, litigation and acrimony hangs in the air, and the fear also, of what is next for Kenya.
Just before the chair of the IEBC, Wafula Chebukati announced the winner, violence erupted at the national tally centre in Bomas, supporters of Mr. Raila Odinga reportedly started throwing chairs and tables. There were gunshots. Diplomats in attendance had to be guided away to safety. Mama Sarah, mother of the President-elect, also had to be quickly evacuated to safety from Bomas. Two electoral commissioners were injured. Meanwhile in another location, Deputy IEBC Chair, Juliana Cherera and three other commissioners rejected the results which they dismissed as “opaque”, and even went further to suggest that the results should be challenged in court, because four of them would not take ownership of it. Thus, 4 out of Kenya’s seven electoral commissioners rejected the outcome of the August 9 Presidential poll. This was a brazen display of partisanship and rebellion on the part of Cherera and her gang. Electoral Commissioners openly taking sides with a political party is a recipe for disaster. Before now, Odinga and his supporters had complained about rigging and mismanagement of the electoral process. IEBC insiders rebelling against their own team lead may have unwittingly set the stage for conflict.
What the law in Kenya says is that if Raila Odinga chooses to challenge the results, he is allowed to do so within seven days by petitioning the Supreme Court which would in turn take a decision within 14 days. If not, the results would stand, but if the results are nullified, fresh elections would be held within 60 days. We can safely assume that Odinga will go to court. Former MP/Prime Minister of Kenya (2008 – 2013), this is his fifth attempt at the Presidential seat. This may well be his last chance given his age. Polls before the elections projected him as the winner. His Iron Lady-running mate, Martha Karua was also sure they would win. There is no way they would walk away just like that. There is also the Uhuru Kenyatta factor. The incumbent President has been at logger-heads with his Deputy, William Ruto since 2018. In the lead up to this year’s elections, Kenyatta openly backed Odinga and promised to stop his own Deputy from succeeding him.
The declaration of Ruto as winner of the Presidential election clearly humbles and humiliates the incumbent and the Odinga coalition. It also postpones the dream of a Luo Presidency in Kenya. African political leaders often like to play God, to determine who succeeds them and to impose their will on the people. It is important that the verdict of the people is allowed to prevail. Ruto has told those who opposed him that there is “nothing to fear… there’s no room for vengeance.” The international community must immediately step in to help the people of Kenya manage the new transition. The United Nations, the African Union and all voices of reason must begin to prevail on the leaders of Kenya to give peace a chance. In 2007, more than 1, 200 people died as a result of electoral violence, masterminded at the time by the Mungiki gang. After the 2017 elections, more than 100 people were killed. This time around, the international community must be proactive in ensuring that the elections do not degenerate into another orgy of violence because of the ego of politicians. And in these elections in Kenya the egos in conflict are just too overbearing: beyond the coalitions and the spectre of divisive politics, you have Ruto-Gachagua at one end, opposed with equal fervour by Raila Odinga-Martha Karua. The people must be more important than the gladiators. Kenya’s history of violence must not be allowed to repeat itself, “the hustlers and dynasties” in contention must give the people a chance.
Without much doubt, the 2022 general election was a referendum on the legacy of President Uhuru Kenyatta. He is leaving behind a legacy of high inflation, high unemployment, economic inequality, political corruption, and debt – Kenya’s public debt is more than two-thirds of GDP. Is the average Kenyan better off today than he or she was in 2017? No. Out of a total of 22 million voters, 14 million Kenyans representing about 64.6% turned up to vote in the elections in 47 counties, for 16, 098 candidates contesting 1, 882 positions. Voter turn-out was much higher in 2017 – 78% at the time, but the people are disenchanted with the political elite. Kenya’s next President must give the people hope and rebuild trust in government. Kenya is heavily indebted to China, the country’s entire debt burden of about $70 billion is unsustainable, and to prevent the country becoming another Zambia or Sri Lanka, this must be addressed. The people want food on the table. They want poverty tackled. They want to eat their ugali and mandazi without pain. More importantly they want the high cost of living and taxes reduced. They want peace. Ruto promised the people a “bottom-up economic model”. Ruto would be Kenya’s fifth President since independence. And he has made history. No Deputy President in Kenya has ever succeeded the President. William Ruto will be the first. He is also the second Kalenjin after Daniel Arap Moi’s Vice Presidency and Presidency to lead Kenya.
It is further reassuring to hear that yesterday, he placed a call to Raila Odinga and reportedly told him: “I will be available for us to have a cup of tea because there are areas we can agree on...We agreed that whatever the outcome of this election, we should have a conversation.” The race may have been close, but Ruto won convincingly in critical constituencies such as the Rift Valley, Baringo, Mt. Kenya region where his running mate comes from, Teru, Nyeri and even in President Kenyatta’s Kiambu county where Ruto’s UDA took 11 parliamentary seats! Kenya’s next President has his job cut out for him. He has an obligation to run an inclusive government. It is now time to stop the vitriol and personal attacks. The bitter quarrel with Kenyatta must stop. There is a country to run. Ruto must put his hands to the wheel-barrow and move with it! It is time to rebuild bridges. An openly religious man, he must learn to eschew the politics of hate. There have been celebrations in Murang’a, Kerugoya and Nakuru. And protests in Kibera, and parts of Kondele in Kisumu. The people of Kenya must unite. They will look up to the former “chicken seller”, and self-described “hustler” to lead this country of 50 million people with wisdom, competence and courage.
Whatever happens the day after, the just concluded elections hold some resonance for us in Nigeria as we prepare for our own major elections in 2023. On a positive note, Kenya has done much better this time around in terms of women representation. Half of registered voters in that country are women. Ahead of the elections, there were reports of attacks on women politicians and intimidation and gender-based harassment. But it has now been reported that seven women emerged as Governors in the election out of a total of 47. Six women were also elected as MPs and one as Senator. This is a major improvement since 2017 when in that year, only three women were elected as Governors. In 2010, part of the Constitutional review was the decision codified in law as a two-third rule to encourage women participation in Kenyan politics. There is probably a lesson for us here in Nigeria. To all intents and purposes, Nigerian women constitute half of the voting population but they are structurally and procedurally marginalized in political decision-making processes. Women politicians in countries like Kenya, Rwanda, Zambia and South Africa are far ahead of their Nigerian counterparts. Nigeria pays lip service to the politics of inclusion, but what we run is a backward-looking, patriarchal system that confines female politicians to the backyards.
There was much talk about the deployment of technology in Kenya’s election. There was nothing fool-proof about it. Out of the over 46, 000 electronic voter machines that were deployed, over 200 failed. Election was even suspended in at least one county. It took a whole week to get a final tally of results, creating anxiety. The thing to note is that the democratic process in Africa is still a work-in-progress, and many countries on the continent are still learning how to get elections right. Imagine a situation where it takes a whole week to collate election results in Nigeria! I don’t want to imagine what would happen if we were to experience that kind of delay.
What has also been proven in Kenya is the perpetual conflict between incumbents and their deputies. President Kenyatta is definitely not happy that his Deputy has been declared winner. Both of them have been at each other’s throats since 2018. Ruto says he was the architect of Kenyatta’s emergence as President, for while he worked hard and held crucial meetings to make him President, Kenyatta was always busy sleeping. Kenyatta dismisses his Deputy as a “thug” and a “tanga tanga” man; so much pettiness between those two but no one should be under any illusion that one is better than the other. Ruto is as much a product of the establishment as Kenyatta is. He is certainly not a saint. Indeed, without prejudice to already stated expectations, it would be quite a big surprise if he is able to perform any magic as President. In real terms, the transformation that the people of Kenya seek, may not happen under a President Ruto. But to go back to the original point about African Presidents and their Deputies working against each other, Kenya presents yet another classical example.
The myth that the democratic process at Presidential and Gubernatorial levels offers the people two capable hands for the price of one is exactly what it is: a myth. African political leaders are superstitious power mongers and closet monarchs. They can’t tolerate the idea of a Deputy who may become a replacement. We have seen this in many African countries: in Cote d’Ivoire, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. Most recently, in the party primaries for the 2023 Presidential election, President Muhammadu Buhari of Nigeria did not lift a finger to support his Vice President’s expressed ambition to succeed him. If he did, the outcome of the ruling party’s Presidential primaries could have been different. In 2015, President Ernest Koroma of Sierra Leone sacked his Deputy, Vice President Samuel Sam-Sumana and expelled him from the party, the All People’s Congress. Sam-Sumana had to seek asylum in the US Embassy in Freetown. In 1995, late President John Jerry Rawlings of Ghana reportedly once kicked his Vice President in the groin, punched him in the face, and tore the shoulder of his jacket at a cabinet meeting!
Going forward, what Kenya needs is peace. The elections were generally considered calm and peaceful. On Monday, the Interfaith Council of Kenya called on Kenyans and their leaders to maintain the peace. The Bishop of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Nyeri, Anthony Mheria said: “We send peace to Kenyans, our President-elect, and candidates that lost the vote count. May peace rest in their hearts and families.” Christian and Muslim clergy in the Rift Valley have also expressed similar sentiments. May it be well with Kenya…
More...
The organizers of the just concluded 22nd Commonwealth in Birmingham, UK deserve high praise for delivering an event at the Alexander Stadium in the West Midlands that proved to be a triumph of art, culture, multi-sports glory and remarkable diversity. This was the first carbon-neutral Commonwealth Games (CWG) to be organized, thus a pacesetter for other multi-sports events hereafter. It was also like no other Commonwealth Games before it, with the inclusion of more games and medals on offer for women's sports – for the first time, women's cricket was introduced, in addition to eight para events that were integrated to further highlight the themes of inclusivity and diversity. The last time the UK hosted the “Friendly Games” as the CWG is also known was 20 years ago in Manchester, this year’s event, 10 years after the 2012 London Olympics, was bigger and coming in the year of the Queen’s Platinum, it has been a befitting tribute to the shared Commonwealth heritage, the city of Birmingham itself, and to all the athletes for whom the Friendly Games provides opportunities for self-realization beyond the thrill of participation or attendance.
Our high praise for Birmingham and the UK is not misplaced given the challenges that the hosts had to grapple with. The city of Durban was originally chosen as the next host of the 2022 Games as far back as 2015, but when Durban had to withdraw due to financial constraints, Birmingham volunteered to be the host in 2017, thus saddled with a shorter time for preparation ahead of the 2002 Games. Then COVID-19 up-ended the entire world, creating global process and supply disruptions, lockdowns and shutdowns and an inevitable re-ordering of processes with cost implications. Yet, despite this, Birmingham delivered. The opening ceremony of the Games on July 28 has been adjudged one of the most colourful ever, a celebration of diversity with prominent thematic motifs including equality of all persons and races, and properly toned reminders of culture, art and history: William Shakespeare, Samuel Johnson, Edward Edgar, Charlie Chaplin.
The high point of the opening was the gigantic automaton Bull of Birmingham charging into the stadium, which was eventually tamed. Duran Duran, Spice Girls. A festive musicality filled the air. Prince Charles and the Duchess of Cornwall drove into the arena. Malala Yousafzai, the Nobel Laureate who adopted Birmingham as her new home, after she was shot by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2012, also gave a speech on the importance of girls’ education. The Commonwealth comprises 72 nations and territories, most of which were formerly under the British Empire, representing 2.5 billion people of the world. This year, the Games had in attendance 6, 500 athletes competing in 280 medal events. It started on a high note. It ended on an even higher note, with UB40, Goldie and other global artists performing and Australia topping the medals table with 174 medals.
History was made. I note, in particular, the record set by 72-year-old Rosemary Lenton of Scotland winning the gold medal in para women’s pairs bowling with Pauline Wilson, 58. Birmingham has the most youthful population in the whole of Europe, 40% of its population is under the age of 25, and yet at this year’s Games, Scottish ladies, Lenton and Wilson proved that age is no barrier. But of course, the bigger excitement for me was the performance of the Nigerian contingent at the Games. This was our country’s 15th appearance at the Games, we sent a total of 93 athletes (41 men and 52 women) competing in 7 sports – athletics, boxing, judo, para powerlifting, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling, but this was our best outing ever at the CWG, a firm, redoubtable, confirmation that Nigeria is a country of champions, who only need to be given the opportunity and the enabling environment for their talents to flower. At the CWG 2022, Nigeria finished seventh on the medals table with a total of 35 medals – 12 gold, nine silver and 14 bronze medals. The last time Nigeria did something faintly close to this was at the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada, when the country got 11 gold medals, 13 silver and 13 bronze, and also at the 2014 Games in Glasgow, Scotland.
This year’s performance would be unforgettable, particularly with the record-breaking performance put up by the Nigerian team. The harvest of medals began with Adijat Olarinoye setting the new Commonwealth record in weightlifting, 55 kg category, lifting a total of 203 kg, Rafiatu Lawal also set a new record in the 59 kg weightlifting with a total lift of 206 kg, Folashade Oluwafunmilayo also set a new record in women’s heavyweight powerlifting, winning the gold medal, her compatriot, Bose Omolayo, took the silver medal in the same event. Tobi Amusan whose phenomenal performance at the World Athletics Championships in Oregon, US had been celebrated two weeks earlier when she set a new record in the 100 m hurdles, soon proved that her earlier performance was truly the stuff of genius when she repeated the same feat at the CWG and thus defended her title as indisputable Nigeria, African, Commonwealth and the World Champion in 100 m hurdles.! She is in addition the first Nigerian athlete to successfully defend a Commonwealth Games 100m hurdles title, having won the same in Gold Coast, Australia in 2018. Nwachukwu Goodness provided a taste of additional goodness to Nigeria’s performance when she won gold and set a new record in women's discus throw with just her first two throws! Another hero in discus is Chioma Onyekwere. Nigeria also took another gold and set another record when the quartet of Tobi Amusan, Favour Ofili, Rosemary Chukwuma and Grace Nwokocha won the gold medal in the 4 x 100 women’s relay. Ese Brume placed a nice cap on it all when, on Sunday, she also took the gold medal in the long jump, breaking the record in the event twice on the same day!
It has been said that the ladies did better than the men, winning nine out of all the 12 gold medals for Nigeria. This is not to make light of the effort of the men who won medals for Nigeria: Udodi Onwuzurike, Favour Ashe, Alaba Akintola and Raymond Ekewvo won a bronze medal in the men’s 4 x100 relay. Edidiong Umoafia also won a bronze in 67kg weightlifting. Overall, it was a good outing for Nigeria. We may not have done well in table tennis – the Ouadri Aruna-led men’s table tennis team was beaten in the semi-finals by India, dashing our hopes. Our women’s table tennis team could not advance to the quarter finals, having been defeated by the English team. There was also some initial disturbance about sports kits and Nigeria having to engage a British company MG Sportswear to work round the clock to produce last-minute kits for the athletes – this is a perennial problem with Nigeria. We never manage to get ready until the last minute. Or after. Poor management is the bane of sports in Nigeria, and you can add to that - politics, greed and corruption. Nonetheless, what stands out after the country’s outing in Birmingham is the epochal performance of the Nigerian contingent, more specifically, the female athletes, and the Ministry of Sports which tried to ensure that there was no scandal. That in itself should be considered an achievement. The contingent deserves applause.
Those special moments on the podium at the World Athletics Championships two weeks ago and now at the Commonwealth Games have given us something to be joyful about as a country - at a time when everything appears dim in Nigeria: public-owned universities have been shut down since February 14, the national currency, the Naira, has depreciated so badly in value many families cannot afford to buy a loaf of bread on the family menu because it is now so expensive, inflation is about 18.6%, unemployment - 33.3%, terrorists are getting bolder by the day, they are even threatening to abduct the President and other political leaders…and just in the midst of all that Tobi, Ese, Favour, Goodness and others have made us proud, and put a smile on our lips.
Nigeria could have done better if we had participated perhaps in more events, but the starting point would be for the country to develop the existing potential in other sports. We need world-class facilities to train and build athletes. Many of the Nigerian athletes who often do well in major competitions, may have been discovered at home, but they tend to get to the peak of their potential through foreign exposure and training. It should be possible to generate and keep world talents at home by making our environment more sports-friendly. Once upon a time, Ogbe Stadium in Benin City, Rowe Park and the National Stadium in Lagos, and Liberty Stadium in Ibadan were rated as world-class sports facilities. These days, these and even newer sports facilities merely survive for about a year or two before they go into disrepair despite huge amounts spent on them. Frustrated, many of our athletes take up the citizenship and jerseys of other countries. This is why the dedicated ones who still give us podium moments at competitions are true heroes and sheroes. What remains is to ensure that our 2022 CWG patriots get the befitting reception that they have earned, and of course, nobody has talked about the ethnic identity of these achievers as we all share in their glory as Nigerians – an indication of how sports can be a strong tool for promoting national unity. .
Successful as CWG 2022 may have been, however, questions have been raised about the continued relevance and merit of the Games in its present format. There are three sides to this: politics, cost and scope. There are many who remain uneasy about the fact that the Commonwealth Games draws its identity from a legacy of monarchy, empire and colonialism. They want a clean break from the colonial past as the Empire itself has since ceased to exist as it then was. Originally established as the “The British Empire Games”, the Games has since changed its brand to the Commonwealth Games or The Friendly Games, to reflect the equality of members and the dominance of democracy. The Games thus promote partnership, friendship and the history of the shared heritage among members. Those who want a new identity refer to the fact that in terms of membership, certainly new, non-Empire members have since been admitted into the Commonwealth, the most recent being - Rwanda, Mozambique, Samoa, Gabon and Togo. If it is possible for countries that were never colonies under the British empire to join the Commonwealth out of their own volition, then it should be possible to expand participation in the Games to make it truly multi-sports and multi-nation. Gabon and Togo having become members are expected to send participants to the next Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Australia in 2026.
What is the issue about cost? Funding the CWG can be rather expensive. This is the major reason why in more than two decades, only one other country, that is India (Delhi 2010) has hosted the games outside the UK and Australia. Durban, South Africa had to opt out of its right to host CWG 2022 due to financial constraints. Indeed, no African country has ever hosted the Games since its debut in 1930. Birmingham spent about 778 million pounds to host this year’s event. Can any African country put such an amount together to host a sporting event? Outside Africa, many of the smaller members of the Commonwealth (eg. Nauru, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, Gambia, Tonga, Antigua and Barbuda etc) may also face financial constraints. But if countries are admitted based on capacity to host the Games, the question is: would the CWG not begin to look more like the Olympics? Would the opportunity cost consideration not translate into a complete erosion of brand and identity? Is there a possible new model for financing and hosting the Games to reduce cost and the burden on interested host countries? Unless a new model of financing is thought up, the dream of having every member country host the Games may never be realized. The rich countries that can afford to do so, would continue to lead. Hence, countries like the UK (Manchester 2012, Birmingham 2022), New Zealand (Auckland 1950,1990), and Scotland (Edinburgh 1970, 1986), have hosted the Games more than once. Australia in fact, holds the record of multiple hosting of the Games – five times and would again be the host in 2026 followed by Canada hosting four times (– Hamilton, 1930, Vancouver, 1954, Edmonton, 1978, Victoria, 1994). The doctrine of the sovereign equality of states is a fundamental principle of international law, but in real terms countries are not equal, human beings are also just as unequal.
The assumption that Britain is using the CWG as a vehicle to divert attention away from the ills of its past, presenting itself as a more compassionate nation now making friends with former subjects, compared to other former imperial powers, does not devalue the Commonwealth Movement. The Commonwealth Games in whatever form would continue to showcase cities, and put such cities on the global map as it has done for Birmingham and other cities before now, in addition to providing a strong platform for athletes to prove their mettle in a manner that resonates throughout the Commonwealth and beyond, and a vehicle for the promotion of diplomacy, communalities, goodwill and understanding through sports. Nigeria and its athletes must begin to prepare for the next Games in 2026. For now, CWG is a good outing. At the opening ceremony, on July 28, the Nigerian contingent danced excitedly to Kizz Daniel’s song: “Buga”. By yesterday when the games ended, “E choke” to borrow Davido’s famous Nigerian slang!
I stumbled on a story in the Nigerian media which says that the National Assembly is planning to consider no fewer than 63 bills for the creation of new universities, polytechnics, colleges of education and monotechnics, and I wondered whether madness has finally descended on Nigeria’s education sector. Nigeria at the moment has about 49 Federal Universities, 59 state universities, Polytechnics - about 40, state-owned universities- 49, and private universities – 76, federal and state-owned colleges of health – 70, private colleges of health – 17, Colleges of Education – 219. So, who wants to add 63 more institutions to this array of moribund, inefficient, poorly governed and perpetually-on-strike-
Many lawmakers want a tertiary institution in their own neck of the woods. They want it said that as part of democracy dividends, it was during their term in office that a school was brought to their village, or community. They are forever desperate to be seen to be doing something that would fetch them another term in office. It is not difficult to see why community projects so called constitute such a big competition among lawmakers. Some lawmakers collude with the traditional rulers of their communities to give chieftaincy titles to their colleagues to support their plans to establish Universities of Medicine in their villages. If established. such universities would be no better than Primary Health Care Centres. Worse, actually. Higher institutions of learning should not be created on the basis of political expediency. No school should be established to massage the ego of politicians. Tertiary education should not be about quantity, but quality and capacity, not political convenience, but political interest. We do not need to have a university or a polytechnic in every hamlet of Nigeria - that would be a prescription for chaos and confusion.
Today, it would be exactly two weeks since the President of Nigeria, Muhammadu Buhari gave or did not give, the Minister of Education, Mallam Adamu Adamu, a two-week ultimatum, to find a solution, to the strike since February 14, 2022, of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU). Some other reports indicated that the Minister himself was the one who volunteered to end the strike because he had found a special formula to the matter. The two weeks is up today, so what has happened? What has happened is that by yesterday, ASUU told everyone that the union is extending the strike by university teachers for another period of four weeks. If ASUU was aware of any progress being made with the negotiations, its communique would have said so, but there was absolutely nothing like that. An academic session is about 9 months. Nigeria’s universities have been shut down for more than six months. A whole academic session has been sacrificed on the altar of nothing. Many students by now would have forgotten whatever they learnt in their other life as undergraduates. Many of the boys and ladies would by now have ended up as fathers and mothers, victims of unwanted pregnancy or adolescent sexuality, due to distraction and idleness, quite a number from privileged homes would have moved on to foreign schools or private universities, a larger majority would simply have dropped out to become a big burden unto society. When university teachers embarked on their strike in February 2022, it was just them, but they have since been joined by other unions within the education sector. For months, Nigeria’s public education sector has been on its knees. On the plain surface of it, this is not good enough. It is condemnable, because the crisis is avoidable, and speaks to the failure of leadership and governance.
The involved unions - ASUU, SSANU, NASU, ASUP - are asking for better conditions of service and a quality education system in Nigeria. ASUU insists on a number of issues: fulfilment of the 2009 ASUU-FG agreement, and the re-negotiated agreements of 2014, 2020, and 2022 in line with the sacred principle – pacta sunt servanda – that is the sanctity of agreements. It would appear that the Federal Government of Nigeria does not want to respect any agreements including the latest Nimi Briggs committee proposal. The Briggs committee is recommending an over 100% increase in salaries and allowances for university teachers. The Minister of Labour and Productivity, Dr. Chris Ngige has been heard saying the government cannot pay such money because there is no money anywhere as Nigeria grapples with a local and global season of economic distress. Well, well, well, it is true that Nigeria’s debt service profile exceeds country revenue by about 119%. Excess crude Account has been depleted. What do we have there now? Some little change above $300 million. Our foreign exchange situation is so bad, the Naira is beginning to look like toilet paper in comparison to the dollar! University teachers of Nigeria insist that they do not want the government’s payment system that places them under what is popularly known as IPPIS, they want their own payment system called UTAS. They are asking for revitalization funds for universities. They want the number of universities to be rationalized because they think there are too many universities in the country, resulting in the lowering of standards. They reject the idea that Nigerian students should pay appropriate fees. They think the provision of quality education for the Nigerian child is a sacred duty and anything to the contrary drawn from Western, neo-liberal economics is wrong-headed, human development strategy. There are more than enough hard liners on both sides, however: between those who think government must have its way, and those who think government is manned by stupid persons who have lost the capacity to think intelligently. In that middle are parents whose children have been wrong-footed, a country whose education system is being destroyed and young Nigerians whose future has been mortgaged.
It is perhaps necessary to define the context of this reflection. Once upon a time in this same country, the education system flourished. In 1955, the Western Region led by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and strategic thinkers like Chief Adekunle Ajasin and Professor S. O. Awokoya introduced Universal Free Primary Education System in the Western Region. The policy promoted education in the Western region. By 1957, the Eastern Region led by had also introduced a framework for a similar promotion of education. In 1959, the leaders of Northern Nigeria had their first major summit on education with a clear intention to promote education in the North. The regional system encouraged competition and each region working on its own comparative advantage. The West succeeded with its plan, producing generations of educated persons. The East also succeeded, but the civil war truncated the growth of the East. The East has since recovered pushing forcefully ahead on the competitive plane, after the civil war, a reflection of the people’s resilience, with Igbos now having the highest number of Ph.D holders in Nigeria today. The only region that fell behind is the North where a large number of Nigeria’s out of school children is concentrated and the result has been banditry, terrorism, and illiteracy. My point is that there was a time when every region of Nigeria tried to promote education, learning, and culture, with relative differences. As a primary and secondary school pupil in this country, government gave us books. Some of our schools could easily compare with some of the best schools in England and Europe. Students came to study in this country from other parts of the world. Many of our teachers from primary to university level were expatriates, and they were very happy living and working in Nigeria, with their families.
I remember this: my secondary school got featured on the then old WNTV because we had one of the best farms in the Western region cultivated by the school under the leadership of Chief Sesan Soluade who later became Deputy Governor under Chief Olabisi Onabanjo as Governor of Ogun State. At the university level, we had access to quality. There was water. There was electricity. Hostel staff laid our beds, washed our bedsheets, and every morning cleaned our rooms. The university cafeteria was a place of delight. The food was good. The menu was heavenly. They fed us to make us study well. We drank tea every morning. Every meal came with tea and dessert. Every Sunday afternoon, we looked forward to the special chicken delicacy that we got served as a special treat. Food was so important to us, and a source of celebration that even our cafeteria had a Chairman who was so appointed and recognized by students! Only the Chairman had the right to arrive whenever he wanted and he would be allowed to go straight to the head of the queue. The Chairman was a true Chairman in any case, because he was always the first person to show up at the cafeteria, morning, noon, and in the evening. The irony was that he was a science student with all their laboratory sessions, but he seemed to have taken his reputation as the cafeteria king as his major mission in the university. Chairman graduated. Mr. Jeun Koku didn’t repeat a class! He graduated on schedule.
In the more uptown universities like the University of Ibadan, we were told that the situation was even better. Those ones wore gowns and some of the boys behaved like they were future lords. Before we graduated, everything collapsed. The cafeteria system disappeared. Nigeria under Ibrahim Babangida, had taken the IMF pill. The country went downhill and has not recovered since then. By the time I got to Ibadan for graduate studies, I met a culture of “bush attack”. There was no water. No normal environment. Boys and girls took to the bush in early morning hours to empty their bowels. Everywhere stank. Then, they brought undergraduate girls to graduate hostels and hell broke loose. Boys started behaving like girls. I ran for election as Secretary of Awolowo Hall along with others who thought we needed to save our Hall of Residence, and won, but we all ended up being very friendly with the female wing! It is now so bad that the education system has completely failed. Over 13 million Nigerian children, most of them in the North are out of school. Northern leaders have been holding meetings since 1959 to promote education and enlightenment in the North. They meet every season, every year, every electoral cycle. The number of illiterate children in the North keeps expanding. The situation has been compounded by the menace of Boko Haram, terrorism and the insecurity of lives and property in the North. Religious and ethnic dimensions to the crisis make it more terrible. Not even schools are safe. They have become targets in the hands of those who believe that western education is a sin and that anyone who goes to school must be kidnapped and eliminated.
Given these circumstances, the proposed recklessness of breathing more tertiary institutions into existence through legislation is annoying. Nigeria does not need more tertiary institutions. This is one of the major arguments of ASUU and other unions. I think they are right. Even with the Nimi-Briggs proposition, nothing will change. Has anyone even seen the Briggs paper? What the university teachers want is a quality education system. They do not want the proliferation of mushroom universities that spring up at every corner without the wherewithal to keep them going. The education system is so bad that employers of labour in Nigeria do not even want to employ graduates of Nigerian tertiary institutions. If you must employ them, you would need to set up a training school and this is why perhaps there has been an explosion in training budgets in Nigerian companies. The graduates who come out of Nigerian schools cannot speak English. They do not know the difference between a formal and an informal letter. You should not be surprised if they show up in the office wearing those rags that they call clothes. They behave so badly senior managers are the ones who now have to act in loco parentis. Some of the senior managers are themselves products of a bad era, creating a community of Nigerian managers and their staff who are totally lacking in skills and competence. They pollute the environment. Even when companies recruit foreign graduates, the ones who studied abroad, it is often difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff. Many of those pretty looking ladies and smart boys that you meet in banking halls who speak through their noses have actually never gone anywhere beyond Lekki or Surulere. They have international passports and have had the privilege of getting a visa and probably spent two weeks in downtown Europe, and they would have returned with such strange accents you would think that their grandmother came from Europe.
Nigeria must resolve the crisis in the education sector, starting this time from top to bottom. Having a key percentage of Nigerians in the top educational range sitting at home, doing nothing, and embracing depression, indeed some university lecturers have become petty traders, some of the women I hear, now prepare and sell nkwobi and pepper-soup, is disgraceful to the nation. Ministers of the Federal Republic abusing and threatening university teachers, will not solve the problem. The Minister of Education has missed the two-week deadline. ASUU and other unions are still on strike. As things stand, our universities may remain shut until after the 2023 general elections.
I am concerned, but not shocked in any way, that the most prominent reaction to the interview that Arise News conducted last week with the Presidential candidate of the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar has been sheer tittle-tattle about location, and format and silly ego games. It is a measure of the confusion in the land, and the failure to focus on ideas and concrete issues. The big problem that we face in this country, six months to the 2023 general election is the obsession with minutiae and the irrelevant. This must be considered a national tragedy considering the challenges before us. Thousands, if not millions of young Nigerians burn hours on the social media/internet abusing persons engaged in productive work, while they idle away in their ignorance and obscurantism. Times like this call for a greater deployment of time and intelligence, because Nigeria indeed, now more than before in the last two decades, stands at the brink of a precipice. But alas, Nigeria is saddled with a growing generation of idlers who think that their lives are enriched by pulling down others. But while these ordinary, eponymously anonymous persons need not detain serious minded persons from forging ahead, it must be noted that the emergent political elite is not in any way better. Its members are worse in terms of intellect, capacity, and character. This forces us to ask that question again: what a country! Or as the sage, Chinua Achebe, put it: “There was a country!”. The race to 2023 is a painful reminder of how the biggest tragedy that has befallen Nigeria is the absence of ideas, the collapse of good reason, and the brazen triumph of mediocrity and selective amnesia.
My concern is this: what is the central election issue as Nigeria prepares for the 2023 general elections? Where is that consensus that propels a nation? It is six months to Nigeria’s 2023 general elections, can anyone put his or her finger on any big issues of direct relevance within the context of the Constitution and the people’s expectations? I will address these same questions anon. But to get an idea of my drift, I would like to draw attention to what is currently going on in Britain. There is a bitter, blue-on-blue acrimonious fight for the seat of the Prime Minister of the UK within the ruling Conservative Party. The battle began with Prime Minister Boris Johnson losing the support and confidence of members of his own party and even if he survived two confidence votes, it eventually became clear that with the party-gate scandal and the abandonment of his government on the grounds of principle by many of his key persons, he had lost the support of his own party. From party-gate to everything else, Boris Johnson was his own assassin. He committed political suicide, damaged his own legacy and lost the moral right to lead. The practicality of his rejection is one of the reasons why I argue that Nigeria, going forward, should consider the option of a return to a parliamentary system of government or a combination of the parliamentary and the presidential, as has been robustly canvassed in the extant literature on the subject. The Presidential system creates monarchs, and that is precisely what it does in developing economies. A parliamentary system places greater emphasis on accountability and responsibility at all levels, and the people’s voice. That is what we need. But what do we have?
Nigeria’s political process is inundated with nonsense for structural reasons and what we have is a mad-house. In the UK at the moment, there is a race to succeed Boris Johnson. There is a consensus that the Prime Minister has overstayed his welcome. His party needs to get rid of him, to protect the party ahead of the next general elections. Boris Johnson as Prime Minister has desecrated the seat long enough. He has resigned. He will quit on September 5. But as his party, the Tories seek to appoint a new leader and a new Prime Minister, what we see is a focus on the issues. About eleven candidates began the race for No. 10 but after five ballots within the party the choice has been narrowed down to former Chancellor Rishi Sunak, and Foreign Secretary Liz Truss. Before this Liz vs Rishi moment, it must be noted that the arguments have been about issues and the British people – what can be done to make their lot better, what can be done to reinvent the party and deliver better dividends to the people in the face of an excruciating cost of living crisis – the cost of gas is high, the NHS is in trouble, inflation is so high, the Bank of England has had to tighten rates five times, persons in England now skip meals, confronted as they are by foodflation- so, how to save the Tory party and move beyond Boris Johnson. We have seen in that example, even if the eventual choice would be determined by a minority of about 160, 00 Tory party members, a focus on the big issues that are relevant to the people’s interests. Human beings will ways be human, I know that, but even the personal attacks that we have seen in the Tory dog-fight: on Penny Mordaunt, on Sunak’s centrism, Liz Truss’s extreme right politics have all been within the context of ideas and ideologies. The top contestants are talking about China, immigration, national security, the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war, cost of living crisis, climate change, tax cuts and investments. When the British eventually make their choice at the current intra-party level, it would be a choice between definite ideas, and when they do so in a future general election, it would also be about ideas and the people’s interest.
While the British are in that mode right now, Nigeria is also looking for new leadership, from a choice of 18 political parties and Presidential candidates. Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak had their first, major, one-on-one debate at 9 pm on Monday. The debate continues today, on Tuesday. Both debates matter because the candidates are spelling out their mission and vision. They will be watched closely and scrutinized by their publics, and whoever wins and emerges through the process would be convinced that the battle was truly won and lost as both candidates continue to slug it out on the battle-grounds. Here, in Nigeria, the candidates are not talking to the people. With the key exception of Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Omoyele Sowore of the Africa Acton Congress (AAC), who both run movements, not political parties, the other candidates are busy talking to their kind: godfathers, persons they think control Nigeria, and who can fix the election for them, and the party elite. When they remember the people, they throw money at them, and promise to give them more money if they are elected.
Nigeria, like many developing countries of the world that jumped on the democratization scheme in the early 90s, does not understand what it means nor have the people been able to domesticate the idea of democracy. The democratic project was imposed by the West as a one-size-fits all proposition, but the many contradictions that this has thrown up is beguiling. To use Nigeria as an example, it would be in order to say that Nigeria is not ready for democracy, certainly not in the present shape in which it is. Nigerian politicians are royalists with an undeserved sense of entitlement. They want power because power is sweet and grants a sense of control, relevance and importance. Our democracy is a democracy of terrorists, scavengers and opportunists. This is why there is a terrible gap between those at the apex and those at the base of society. Those who argue that the electorate should get their voters’ cards and make informed choices at the polls next year are all correct, and spot on, but what is anyone doing about the people’s cynicism, and the banditi-zation of Nigerian politics? In the absence of ideas and good conduct by the political elite, the people are in order to be cynical, as they have ever been, and what we see in the current lead up to Nigeria’s 2023 general election is chaotic cynicism.
Back to our original question: what are the big issues in Nigerian politics at this moment? The multiple reactions that have attended the Arise News interview with PDP Presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar simply show the lack of preparedness at the highest levels in this country. Nobody is talking about ideas. The reactions have been about peripheral issues, not ideas. Arise News sat with Atiku for a whole hour and raised issues ranging from politics to economy, relationships and other matters Nigeriana. The Nigerian social media mob took up editorial duties that is entirely not their business as they focused on sponsored and teleguided BS and in their sponsored frenzy, they failed to look at key issues. The only exception in this regard would be in my view, Farooq Kperogi, the scholar and columnist, who resisted and cleverly avoided a habitual tendency to be unkind to other people’s efforts. He focused on bigger issues. But what came from the other communities, that is, the opposition party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the Tinubu Campaign Organization, the Obidient movement supporting Peter Obi, and the Wike Camp, were the usual diatribe about ego: my candidate is better than yours, you lied against me. Within 48 hours, the whole thing degenerated into an ego game. Wike is threatening to talk later and reveal mountains of truth. He should stop threatening. If he has anything to say, let him go ahead and do so forthwith. Tinubu’s people have called Atiku a liar on the subject of Muslim-Muslim ticket. Atiku says he wants Tinubu in a one-on-one, one hour debate to settle the matter once and for all. Tinubu, we are told, has a memory loss issue.
I won’t be surprised if the two candidates start talking about whose wife is more beautiful and who can still crack the best fires in the other room, or who is richer, or more energetic. The Tinubu group picked on the smallest issues in the Atiku conversation, talking about Abraham Lincoln, the politics of running mates, whereas there are more important issues about the economy, privatization, national security, education and health. The way the Nigerian process is going, nobody will talk about what concerns the people. The politicians will share money on or before election day, and given the arrest of persons during the recent Ekiti and Osun Gubernatorial, off-cycle elections, the political bandits will find smarter ways of buying votes, and the ordinary people will find new ways of collecting electoral bribe. It is safe to say that there is no tested, effective law in place yet that addresses this challenge.
So, why are ideas no longer relevant in Nigerian politics? Most of the 18 Presidential candidates have no manifesto. For more than two weeks, the Tinubu Campaign Organization, after rejecting a document that was widely circulated threatened to release a manifesto. Nobody has seen that manifesto yet. What we see are reactions to rival political candidates on peripheral issues. More serious candidates who could have been on the ballot ironically have since been pushed out of the race. Where is Kingsley Moghalu for example? And why is Omoyele Sowore being treated like a student unionist? And why has Peter Obi been reduced to a social media sensation? Ideas, Ideas, ideas. We can’t get anything concrete. Nobody listens to ideas, because the ones that are ready to promote them are not given the opportunity to do so. Those who try to generate ideas, outside partisan boundaries, are treated badly. In 2015, it would be remembered that the APC in seeking to wrest power from the ruling PDP tried to construct its gambit around ideas: security, the economy and fight against corruption. In 2019, the ruling party sustained the same mantra and asked for an opportunity to complete what it started. In 2022/2023, the main gladiators are terribly distracted.
Yet, the major issue in Nigeria’s democracy – federal and state levels today, should be ideas and specific performance. Since the beginning of this campaign, the main candidates have discussed nothing but religion, ethnicity, personal health, clothing, and personality. The 2023 campaign has been dominated by personal ambition and expectations and trivia. Many of the presidential candidates that have emerged do not even have manifestoes. Nobody knows what they stand for or what they intend to do, not even what they understand about the task ahead. Titles are fashionable in Nigeria. Power is desirable. The allure of position and influence is magnetic. Nigerians would jump at anything along this spectrum. They want titles, not responsibility. This is why I think the reaction to the Arise News conversation with Atiku Abubakar veered off from the centre to the periphery. There are issues indicated in that conversation and alive in the public domain that have been conveniently ignored.
NNPC has just been unveiled as a new, commercial entity, in an industry that accounts for 80% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. What do the Presidential candidates intend to do about that? Nigeria has a debt to revenue ratio crisis, with debt service cost exceeding revenue by about 119% per cent? The national grid continues to collapse and function epileptically. Inflation is as high as 18.6%. There is unemployment in the land. Food inflation as well. Life is so insecure, terrorists are threatening to abduct the President, Senators and Governors and either kill them or sell them into slavery, and they sound very serious about that objective. Yesterday, they even made an effort to engage the Presidential guards in Abuja. The country also faces a serious foreign exchange crisis – it is so bad that even bread makers are threatening to go on strike because they cannot access forex and raw materials. The aviation sector is down. The nation’s currency has lost everything including its integrity, the big question is how to save it. In real terms, this country is on the way to Venezuela if not Sri Lanka or Lebanon. These are important issues that should engage the attention of those who want to rule the country. But the space has been taken over by spokespersons writing platitudes and reticent candidates who piggy-back on the dominance of their parties and abdicate responsibility without negotiating the issues and a proper assessment of the chaos that is upon us. The country’s destiny seems postponed. This trend must change. Every Presidential candidate should be shown the video of yesterday’s UK Prime Ministerial debate between Rishi Sunak and Liz Truss.
This day, July 19 should go down as a special moment in the economic history of Nigeria – the day when the country’s main vehicle for economic survival, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is officially unveiled by the incumbent President as a commercial venture. The transition took effect on July 1, in line with the provisions of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), 2021. But by noon today, NNPC would have formally made that transition from being a corporation to become a limited liability company, a company limited by shares, to be known hereafter as NNPC Limited, that is a commercial venture. In some of our media platforms in the last few days, the NNPC hierarchy has been staging a song and a dance over the fact that the NNPC was indeed about to become a new entity. What does this mean in real terms for Nigerians? While we are all obsessed with politics, the Osun Gubernatorial election being the latest menu on the plate of the commentariat and the political elite, it seems to me that the transition that is to be unveiled today at the NNPC deserves some interest. Established in 1977, 45 years ago, the NNPC manages Nigeria’s crude oil, gas and petrochemical resources, the joint venture between Nigeria and oil multinationals, and also engages in petroleum exploration and production through the country’s four refineries.
Crude oil accounts for more than 80% of the country’s foreign exchange earnings. With Nigeria identified as the sixth largest oil producer in the world, and with the country blessed with the sweet, low-sulphur, top grade Brent Crude variety, crude oil was effectively Nigeria’s equivalent of manna from Heaven. In due course, we were told that Nigeria is even more of a gas producing country than an oil dependent country. Milk and honey practically flow under Nigeria’s soil. It has been NNPC’s business to manage all of that, and bring profit to the country. Nigeria is not the only country that has been so privileged. They have oil and gas in Saudi Arabia, Russia, Qatar, UAE, Venezuela (bad reference in the circumstance), Libya, Kuwait, the United States, Norway and quite a number of other countries. Whereas oil and gas resources have brought some countries power and glory, Nigeria’s experience has been mixed and problematic. From being a resource-rich country in the 70s and 80s, crude oil in particular has turned out to be a source of agony and pain for Nigeria. We squandered the riches. A terrible economy developed over the years around oil and gas. Politics, ethnicity, greed, corruption and all the other ailments that assail the country found a home in the oil and gas sector. This should not be surprising. The easiest way to make money in Nigeria is to get into the oily business. It was a matter of time before the people would begin to agitate for reforms and a change of regime. And it happened. Oil resource became the target of seething anger within the system. Those who believe that the oil and gas that come from their soil in the Niger Delta is theirs see no reason why anyone, any group or any region that does not produce oil and gas should benefit from other people’s endowments in a supposedly federal system. Oil became political. Politics became oily and gassy. Right at the centre of this conundrum was the NNPC, and the country’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources and everything attached thereto.
To address both the sentiments and the substance around this issue, there have been calls for resource control. From Adaka Boro to Ken Saro-Wiwa and beyond, there have been calls for true federalism, secession, respect for the rights of ethnic minorities, and counter arguments along geographical lines with the North pitched against the South on the question of who owns what, who should get what, and what share – Nigeria’s main revenue being oil and gas. In due course, the Petroleum Industry Bill was introduced to address many of the issues: governance, regulatory frameworks, community relations and management. When President Muhammadu Buhari unveils a new NNPC this morning, with a new brand, logo and identity, NNPC Limited emerging in place of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, he would be giving effect to a major plank of the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA). President Buhari can comfortably claim the PIA as one of the achievements of his administration. For decades, Nigerians complained about the need for reform in the oil and gas sector. They asked for a review of joint venture frameworks. They wanted a new NNPC that would be organized for productivity and efficiency and not a mere government parastatal bogged down by politics and graft. Oil bearing communities also had their demands relating to justice, equity and fairness and how these have been treated shabbily within the larger Nigerian equation.
For decades, the Nigerian legislature toyed with the law. Under Buhari, the law was passed. It seeks to provide a new governance framework in the oil and gas sector. The law removes the subsidy in the downstream sector especially with regard to petrol. It decrees a transformation of the NNPC into a profit making, independent, commercial venture. Before now, the NNPC has been run as a cash cow for the Nigerian Government, as a dependent public sector agency. It manages the oil and gas resources of the country, makes money, transmits same to the Treasury. Every month, state governments carry bowls in hands, rush to Abuja and at what is called the Federation Accounts Allocation Committee meeting (FAAC), collect their own share of the national cake. Everyone got so greedy, everything got so mismanaged, NNPC got to a point it started protesting that there was very little to share or add again. For months, the NPPC using the excuse of under-recovery and subsidy has not been able to contribute as much as it should to the national purse. This is one reason why its reform is imperative. The PIA has offered a window but how open is that window?
The unveiling of a new NNPC should be seen correctly by industry watchers as a positive development. The need for the transition as proposed is justified by how Nigeria’s national oil company performs badly against its peers. In the wake of the Russia-Ukraine war, Russia has been using its energy resources as a weapon against Europe which depended on Russia for about 40% of its energy needs. Russia simply turned off the Nord Stream 1 pipeline for routine maintenance, and asked for payments in rouble, to push Europe into confusion, and energy prices to the roof. Countries with high demand for energy are groaning. Countries that are rich in oil and gas are smiling: Saudi Arabia and other countries of the Middle East are being wooed as the West looks for alternative sources of energy. The United States is wooing Saudi Arabia afresh. It has tried to soften a bit on Venezuela. Sri Lanka in the Indian sub-ocean is in trouble in part because it cannot provide fuel, food and medicines for the people. Pakistan is hanging on to the IMF to bail it out. Cost of living crisis is a major issue in Great Britain. While Europe is looking towards Algeria, Tunisia, and Angola for solutions and alternatives, Nigeria has been caught flat-footed. Rather than turn the current global crisis into an advantage, we are busy here lamenting that rising oil prices amount to a curse for Nigeria. We are not befitting because we are not ready. In today’s global energy mix, Nigeria pays a huge price for its own failures in managing its main resource and the plain view reason is this: the failure of leadership.
NNPC wears a new toga today. We have made that point. Restructuring of the public sector has been a recurring decimal in Nigeria’s economic history. The question has always been: how can public enterprises be made more profitable: commercialization, privatization or liberalization? Liberalization as in the telecommunication sector has resulted in growth and innovation and the end of the inefficiency of the old, state-owned NITEL. That is one good example. In a deregulated regime, the state has no control over price. It can only regulate quality. Under a privatization regime, the state can regulate, but the entity is controlled by its shareholders. The fundamental thing is: a private entity is after the maximization of profit and minimal cost. What has happened to the NNPC is commercialization, not privatization. But don’t get it twisted: NNPC still remains in the public sector. That is why it is still called Nigerian National… The only difference is that as a commercial entity, it will now have to pay more attention to its profit and cost centres. While there is a limit to which it can dictate price and profit, it must be noted that it can no longer do business as usual.
What is also new is that while the NNPC may still have a relationship with government, the same government can no longer have control over the staffing of the NNPC. The control of the Minister of Petroleum will be limited. As a commercial entity, the NNPC is beholden to its shareholders. Competence, quality will determine recruitment. The old practice of anyone in government sending notes for NNPC allocation or positions would be untenable under the new arrangement. Nobody can send in a note anyhow. The influence of rent collectors would be watered down, if not completely eliminated. It also means that the country can no longer depend mainly on NNPC for Federation Accounts returns (FAAC). The Federal Government would be entitled strictly to returns on its shares. In all of these regards, today’s development, NNPC’s transition into a commercial entity is a laudable development. The Group CEO of the new company, the erstwhile Group GMD of the NNPC whose title has thus changed, has alluded much to this when he made it clear in the past few days that (i) NNPC going forward is responsible to its shareholders as a limited liability company, (2) whatever service it provides for the Federal Government would be for a fee, (3) subsidy is not the responsibility of the NNPC, but that of the Federal Government and (iv) NNPC is committed to transparency and accountability, and accounting rules.
At the unveiling today, the Buhari government can commend itself for seeing through the PIA. But the skeptics are unrelenting and they have raised issues that we need to worry about. They argue for example that it is indeed a good and proper thing to seek to make the NNPC as efficient and as profitable as Saudi Arabia’s ARAMCO and other peers elsewhere but the problem is that NNPC is still tied to the apron strings of government. Most of the workers are still workers of the Nigerian government. As a commercial entity, it should be possible for the company to source its own expertise, consultants and staff from anywhere without the Nigerian government imposing the constraints of ethnicity and federal character. The NNPC of old ran a Nigerian-factor regime where some characters thought access to political power and influence granted them automatic control over the resource management company. Such a system would not be acceptable under the new mode of doing business. That has to change forthwith, to send the strong signal that it is indeed no longer business as usual. Second, the much-talked about NNPC shareholders are the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MoFI) and the Nigerian Treasury, which are both government entities. NNPC says it will send debit and credit notes for services rendered to demonstrate its own accountability and commitment to EITI principles. MoFI can claim that it represents the Nigerian people. What will NNPC Ltd do if government fails to pay – this same government that does not pay electricity bills or ASUU salaries? And as things stand, it looks like NNPC truly can no longer be held responsible for monthly contributions to the Federation Account.
Nonetheless, the NNPC as a commercial entity can only succeed as much as the Federal Government wants it to. As long as the NNPC is government-linked, there will be issues. For the NNPC to succeed, it needs to function under a government that understands the meaning and implications of profit and loss. There is a need for deep reform, for the people’s overall benefit. The meaning of the new dispensation is that NNPC would have no option but to send debit notes to the Federal Government, because the company won’t be able to hide the gaps in its balance sheet. The Buhari government does not have this profit and loss orientation mindset that is required to birth a new NNPC. The responsibility for that would have to be taken up perhaps by a new government. We can only hope that the would-be next President of Nigeria, whoever he turns out to be, is thinking of this, from both an economic and national security perspective. A food for thought is the position that in the long run, the NNPC must be privatized. Its board must not be a political Board, it must be a commerce-oriented Board. The experts must be allowed to do their job, not politicians, seeking rent. NNPC shares must be sold directly to the public as a company under the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA).
There is the unresolved issue of refineries. There is nothing wrong in Nigeria having a national oil company, but to save the NNPC, it is important to keep the fundamentals in mind. NNPC’s transformation comes at a time when the world faces an energy crisis, and a cost-of-living dilemma. It makes no sense that the country’s four refineries are grounded, or running at a loss. It is shameful that Nigeria cannot meet its OPEC quota. It is scandalous that it is only just now that we are beginning to talk more seriously about transparency and accountability in the management of the country’s most strategic resource. The emergence of a new NNPC is a good idea, but it seems to me that the best that the Mele Kyari-team can do, for now, is to lay the foundation for a more far-reaching process. Under Mele Kyari’s watch, the NNPC published its first audited accounts in 43 years in 2020! The new NNPC is expected to do things differently to attract investment, promote innovation, eliminate corruption and inefficiency, and ensure clarity. It must measure up like Saudi Arabia’s Aramco, and Brazil’s Petrobras. Its business model must work for the country’s benefit. The new NPPC must represent a transition in real terms into a new style and philosophy.