Against the backdrop of the resurgence of the mass abduction of pupils, the Federal Government has said schools in 14 states and the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, are at risk of attacks by bandits and insurgents.

The National Coordinator of Financing Safe Schools in Nigeria, Hajia Halima Iliya, confirmed to The PUNCH on Sunday, that the data of at-risk schools had been collected for intervention.

Iliya declined to identify the states, but the Commander of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, Nigeria Security, and Civil Defence Corps, Hammed Abodunrin, said they included Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, FCT, Kebbi, Sokoto, Plateau, Zamfara and three others.

No fewer than 465 pupils, teachers, and women abducted in the past week are still in the custody of their captors.

Fifteen pupils of an Islamiya school in Sokoto State were kidnapped in the early hours of Saturday, less than 72 hours after 287 schoolchildren and teachers were abducted from the LEA primary school and the Government Secondary School both at Kuriga, in the Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State.

However, 28 of them were on Sunday reported to have escaped 259 in captivity.

A few days before the Kaduna incident, 200 female Internally Displaced Persons were taken away by terrorists in Borno State.

The women were kidnapped in Ngala, the headquarters of Gambarou Ngala in Borno state while fetching firewood in the bush.

On Sunday, there were reports that nine of them had regained freedom remaining 191 in captivity.

Penultimate Thursday, bandits abducted an undisclosed number of people in the Gonin-Gora community in the same Chikun LGA of Kaduna, prompting residents to barricade the Kaduna-Abuja Expressway in protest.

As a response to the April 2014 abduction of the Chibok school girls, the Safe Schools Initiative was launched by the United Nations Special Envoy for Global Education, Gordon Brown, alongside the Nigerian Global Business Coalition for Education and private sector leaders at the World Economic Forum Africa.

Safe schools

The initiative entails a combination of school-based interventions, community interventions to protect schools, and special measures for at-risk populations.

The Federal Government inaugurated the Safe Schools Fund with a $10m contribution and another $10m pledge from the private sector.

In further support for the programme, the Federal Government budgeted N15bn for the SSI in the 2023 fiscal year.

Speaking on the programme in an interview with one of our correspondents on Sunday, Iliya explained that the implementation of the SSI had started in several states.

Responding to questions on what was being done to fortify schools against bandit attacks, she said, “The project has taken off. We commenced implementation in 2023 with the flag off of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, which we intend to replicate at state and local government levels.

“The states have selected most at-risk schools in each senatorial zone for the implementation of National Plan on Financing Safe Schools Programme (2023-2026).’’

In response to the development, the coordinator explained that state governors had expressed plans to provide funding for the SSI for the protection of pupils and teachers in the identified locations.

She added, “Some states have made provision for the Safe Schools Programme in their 2024 budget in line with the National Plan. We intend to engage the states to guide them through the implementation.

“We’ve communicated to all the states; letters have been written for inclusion of Safe Schools in their budget and for them to select the most at-risk schools. More than 11 states have responded. The budget from states is for them to work on physical infrastructure such as fencing state schools and put other control measures.’’

Iliya further disclosed that the Federal Ministry of Education and the NSCDC had conducted some training for their men, adding that the Nigeria Police had trained senior officers, including all divisional police officers across the country on Safe Schools.

According to her, the security forces have commissioned equipment that would be deployed to various state commands for the operations.

“Data of at-risk schools from 14 states, including the FCT have so far been collected for intervention. The Defence headquarters and DSS (Department of Security Services) are expected to mainstream Safe Schools through capacity building of their officers. N15b was provided and released as takeoff in 2023; utilisation is still ongoing,’’ she stated.

The Commander of the National Safe Schools Response Coordination Centre, NSCDC, Abodunrin, said the four-year project was being implemented simultaneously in all the states but in phases, adding that it began with the sensitisation and training of security personnel late last year.

He condemned the latest abductions of school pupils, noting that the attackers operated in locations with poor telecommunication service.

Abodunrin said, “The attacks are unfortunate. What the attackers do is to look for soft targets. They now go to villages where they feel they can quickly operate before help can come. They also target when communication networks are bad. The cases in Ekiti and Kaduna are examples where community members could not quickly call for help. There is also the need to raise more awareness in the communities.

“There is a need for more cooperation. Schools are to register on www.nssrcc.gov.ng detailing their addresses and at least a phone number. Registration is free. Any registered school will automatically be on a database with their coordinates for easy accessibility.

“There are patrols. Global standards do not allow security operatives to be in schools for various reasons. Those who want to target them may kill or injure students and other members of the school communities in the process. There will be more patrols.’’

The commander also said that since security requires personal attention, students and teachers would be given training on personal safety and protection.

“Equipment and platforms are also being developed to facilitate easy communication even without a network. They will be trained on this too. Capacity of various communities are being built in the areas of personal security and information management for effective preventive and response efforts,’’ he disclosed.

Adamawa, Kebbi

On the states that have been identified to be at risk of attacks, Abodunrin said, “Adamawa, Bauchi, Borno, Benue, Yobe, Katsina, FCT, Kebbi, Sokoto, the Plateau, Zamfara.

“These are the states where the state governments have submitted the list of vulnerable schools to Safe School Financing and some of them have already donated Response centres to NSCDC for coordination.

“Some commit to including Safe School in their budgets for the centre to commence operations. Note that all states’ commissioners for finance were addressed by Safe School Finance for cooperation. You may still seek further clarification from Finance (ministry).’’

Continuing, he noted, “Those selected (states) are where concentration is. What the centre is doing in conjunction with NSCDC is to be proactive by making the sensitisation and community engagement national.

“All states of the federation now have Safe School Desk Officers/Coordinators. These attackers would look for soft targets that they think the government is not considering at present.’’

Meanwhile, the state commands of the NSCDC in Gombe, Kano, Osun, Taraba and other states said they were involved in the SSI implementation.

The Gombe State Commandant, Muhammad Bello, noted that his officers were ensuring that no school child was abducted in its safe school project.

He said, “We are ready to face the problem even though we are dwelling in a serious challenge in the area of logistics, and transportation but I will not allow it to impede securing schools and our children. We are doing our best, shortage of mobility will never impede safeguarding children.’’

In a statement, the spokesperson for Osun NSCDC, Kehinde Adeleke, said the Safe School Programme was operational in the state but identified mobility challenges in covering all local government areas in the state.

The Taraba State Commissioner for Education, Dr Augustina Godwin, on Sunday, said the state government had beefed up security around schools, especially in areas prone to banditry attacks since November last year.

In a telephone interview with our correspondent in Jalingo, Godwin said the state government had embarked on the building of perimeter fencing of most schools in the state as a first layer of security.

Godwin said, “We have credible intelligence regarding the plans by bandits to carry out massive school children abduction in the state, and so, the sad incident in Kaduna did not come to us as a surprise.

“The government has engaged personnel of the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, and the state security outfit- Taraba Marshall to provide security in our schools.

“We have also formed the Safe School Security Committee as requested by Unicef. We have also identified schools with serious security needs based on their location and we have fortified such schools with more security.

“Just last week, I embarked on supervision of schools to see the level of security presence in our schools and I was impressed with what I saw on the ground.

“For the schools that are yet to get security personnel, we have provided dedicated phone numbers for school principals and teachers to call in case of any incident,” she said.

Sub-regional forces blamed

Meanwhile, the Presidency has described the recent cases of kidnapping across the country as efforts by ‘’sub-regional geopolitical forces conspiring to undermine the government of President Bola Tinubu.’’

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr Ajuri Ngelale, affirmed this when he spoke on TVC’s Politics on Sunday monitored by The PUNCH.

On the programme titled ‘Counting the Cost of Presidents Tinubu’s Reforms,’ Ngelale revealed that the Federal Government was already receiving support from the United States government for the release of students kidnapped in Kaduna.

“I will say this: across the north, we understand that some of the sub-regional geopolitical forces that are currently at play are actively conspiring against the stability of Nigeria,” said the President’s spokesman.

Ngelale assured Nigerians that the Federal Government was on top of the situation and had received support from the US government to secure the release of the school children and address the regional forces at play.

“We understand that and we are not sleeping. We are responding to it and we’re doing it in a concerted way, with our neighbours.

“And it is worth noting that the United States Government has also pledged its assistance to ensure that there is a full return of all of the schoolchildren who were kidnapped recently in Kaduna.

“But the point is we are going to continue to intensify our collaboration not just within the region, but internationally to make sure that some of the regional actors that are conspiring against our nation are brought to justice and ultimately silenced in the future,” he explained.

The Presidential spokesman lamented that with increased security in major communities in the South-East and South-West, the government was working to extend coverage to vulnerable far-flung settlements in the north.

“First of all, the President has been very clear that this is an administration of no excuses. If you look at other parts of the countries that were in flames before he took office, such as the South-East and parts of the South-West for example, you will know the level of work that has gone into securing our nation.

“Where we still have some challenges is in the North-Central in the North-West and to a lesser extent in the Northeast. There’s still a lot of work to be done along the Kaduna axis. Remember the time when you could not travel by road on the Abuja-Kaduna highway? Now, you’re able to do that.

“Now the problem is when you have these far-flung communities, we do have these hit-and-run incidences of not just violence and killings, but kidnappings and hostage-taking,” Ngelale explained.

He toed the line of the First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, proposing capital punishment for kidnappers, saying, “I think that there’s going to have to be some sort of robust legislative reform that makes it clear to every citizen of our country that if you kidnap anybody, you will be killed by the justice system.

“There will be a death penalty attached to it. I don’t see how this can be solved if we don’t do this and see to its implementation.”

[Punch]

THE Students Loan scheme, planned to be floated in the next few weeks, is an ingenious creation of a problem that does not exist. I explained this as the Lead Discussant at the Federal University of Technology, FUTA, Branch of the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, SSANU, Colloquium on Wednesday, March 6, 2024 in Akure. I had begun my submission by enquiring if a citizen has a fundamental right to be an illiterate. I did not think so, but argued that even if he does, the collective rights of society supersedes such an individual right.

I pointed out that it is in realisation of the indispensability of education to society, that Chapter Two of the Constitution directs that: “Government shall strive to eradicate illiteracy and to this end, Government shall as and when practicable provide free, compulsory and universal primary education; free secondary education; free university education; and free adult literacy programme.”

So, if education is so fundamental to human existence, and if societies need an educated citizenry to run, why should it not invest in education? Why should the citizen take a loan to be educated?

I took the audience through the trajectory of the loan and my observations. The Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act 2023, was signed by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on June 12, 2023, exactly 14 days after he came into office. This gives the impression that the bill was signed in a hurry. On the other hand, it might have been signed on trust since it was introduced by former House of Representatives Speaker, Femi Gbajabiamila, the Chief of Staff to the new administration.

The June 12 date was also Democracy Day, marking the commemoration of the June 12, 1993 annulment of the presidential election by the military regime led by General Ibrahim Badamosi Babangida. So, did President Tinubu, who played a role in the de-annulment struggle, see a correlation between democracy and the Students Loan Bill?

The title of the new law, ‘The Students Loans (Access to Higher Education) Act 2023’, gives the impression that it is meant to grant ‘Access to Higher Education’ in the country, which is not the case.

Nigerians access to tertiary education is limited primarily by available admission spaces. This led to the 1978 establishment of the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board, JAMB, to manage the admission process. So, the introduction of the loan scheme would not lead to increased admission slots.

Given the fact that, generally, tuition fees are not paid in public tertiary institutions, coupled with the reality that nearly all those who send their wards to tuition fee-paying private universities can afford to do so, it is curious why the Student Loan Scheme is being introduced. This is more so when Section 3 of the Act states that the loan is “only for payment of tuition fees”.

My conclusion was that the Tinubu administration intends to introduce tuition fees into public tertiary institutions through the backdoor. I also pointed out that the challenge students face in our tertiary institutions is primarily upkeep. More so with hyperinflation. But the Act forbids students from accessing the loan for anything other than payment of tuition fees that do not exist in public schools.

If the loan is for only tuition, how will indigent students feed and accommodate themselves in the campuses? How would they buy books and other materials for their studies? How would they carry out necessary research? So, I submitted that the interests of the students and the government do not coincide. Also, the Act disqualifies a loan applicant if “any of the parents had defaulted in respect of students loan or any loan granted the person”. This is like visiting the sins of the parents on the children.

Another aspect is that the new law grants beneficiaries a two-year post National Youth Service Corps moratorium before the repayment begins. Working beneficiaries who dodge repayment risk a N500, 000 fine or two-year jail or both fine and imprisonment.

I pointed out that given the reality of mass unemployment , many beneficiaries are likely to default as unemployed graduates will be unable to repay the loans. I pointed that in the United States, students loan has become like an albatross. The outstanding debts in 2021 stood at $1.7 trillion. Secondly, some youths are not getting married because of the burden of the students loan. The sociological implications of this include the promotion of depopulation, burden of single motherhood and increase in absentee fathers. Also, some American youths do not go to college because they want to avoid the loan trap. This partly informs why some developed countries are seeking professionals from the underdeveloped countries to run their system.

I concluded that the scheme may endanger the future of the students and, by extension, society. As alternative, I submitted that government should live up to its responsibility of funding education. This I pointed out it can do, amongst other ways, by restoring the scholarship and bursary awards to students which used to be provided by all tiers of government.

Professor Bayo Aborishade while also opposing the scheme, narrated his experience in the scheme in the country before it was abolished in the late 1970s.

“I took a students’ loan scheme in 1974.It was N400 per annum. I paid back to the last Kobo, but most students never paid back a Kobo. Many of them were children of rich Nigerians who had the means, but saw the scheme as free money. On the loans form, they filled fake guarantors, the state never checked, and the loans were never repaid.

“In my days, the loan was for upkeep. There was no tuition fee, nor is there tuition fee today. The intention of the government is quite obvious: that it is going to introduce tuition fees. But there are enough funds in Nigeria to fund education in a country where a single minister could within weeks of being in office, have access to billions of Naira. The politicians know how to take care of themselves. It is a class issue; if you don’t belong, you are finished.”

Dr Olawale Bello, concurred that government is trying to introduce tuition fees, adding that it has commenced the process by pushing the universities to increase sundry fees.

FUTA Vice Chancellor, Professor Adenike Oladiji, said government should not be judged by what people assume are its intentions. She is confident that the Act will be revisited in line with the intentions of government.

The FUTA SSSANU led by Comrade Felix Adunbi conferred ‘Labour Friendly Award’ on Ondo State Governor, Lucky Orimisan Aiyedatiwa, who was represented by Head of Service, Bayo Philip. The union also conferred the Labour Activist Award on me.

On October 15, 1965, as political uncertainty and violence raged in Western Nigeria, Ladoke Akintola, the regional Premier, was due to deliver a primetime radio broadcast to his people at 19:00. Some minutes before the appointed hour, an armed, unmasked and bearded young man appeared in the studio and required Akinwande Oshin, head of the newsroom at the Western Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation (WNBC) to substitute the recorded broadcast of the Premier with a tape provided by the gunman. At the appointed hour, the entire region – including the Premier – listened as the voice from the gunman’s tape exhorted the Premier to spare the region further turmoil and go. 

His mission accomplished, the gunman promptly vanished into the night, leaving Mr. Oshin and his crew in the newsroom with some questions to answer. The incident would later result in criminal proceedings against a suspect, later identified as Wole Soyinka, at the time a lecturer at the University of Ibadan. In his defence, Mr. Soyinka set up an alibi, claiming that he was in Enugu in the then Eastern Region of Nigeria at the time of the incident. In his testimony, Soyinka’s Head of Department at the university, Professor Axworthy, said that they had both attended a departmental meeting in Ibadan less than two hours before the incident but the Wole Soyinka with whom he attended the meeting, according to the professor, was clean shaven.

The mystery of how a clean-shaven man could grow a bushy beard in less than two hours was too much for the trial Magistrate, who felt obliged to acquit the suspect. Kayode Eso, the trial Magistrate, who would go on to a storied judicial career within and beyond Nigeria, immortalized this story in his book fittingly titled “The Mystery Gunman.”

The mystery gunman is a figure of considerable antiquity in the history of crime and impunity in Nigeria and of myths about both. A mere 11 and a half years after that incident in Ibadan, soldiers brutally attacked Wole Soyinka’s aunt, Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti, in the Kalakuta Republic base of her famous son and Afrobeat musician, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti. A judicial commission of inquiry established to identify the perpetrators and recommend suitable measures of accountability concluded that the attack was the handiwork of the “unknown soldier”. With the act attributed to so ghostly a figure, suggestions of accountability became illusory.

In south-east Nigeria, where a metastasis of murderous violence is widely perceived to have held sway for the better part of the last five years, responsibility for this state of affairs is laid at the feet of the Unknown Gunman. Tired of having to repeat the name with the frequency with which murders, abductions, and violence occur in and around the region, many people have taken to abbreviating the nomenclature to “UGM”. With no memory of what transpired before, the UGM is mostly seen as a novelty in the contemporary ecosystem of violence in Nigeria generally and in the south-east more particularly. In reality, he is neither new nor indeed unknown.

Nearly 10 years ago, when he disappeared on his way to his community in Nanka, Orumba North Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State in May 2014, it was reported that former Anambra State Commissioner for Science and Technology, Chike Okoli, had been “abducted by unknown gunmen.” But one month later, the Anambra State directorate of the State Security Service (SSS) arrested a 10-man kidnap-for-ransom gang, whom they alleged was responsible for the kidnap and disappearance of Mr Okoli. It was led by one Kingsley Chukwuemeka Eze, a local politician from Enugu state.

The abduction and disappearance of Igwe Oliver Nnaji, traditional ruler of Ogwu Aniocha in Ogbaru LGA in November 2021, was similarly reported at first as the handiwork of the “UGM”. However, at the beginning of January 2023, a raid by a Special Forces assault team on the Ochan Forest in the community reportedly led to the killing of ten members of a crime gang led by one Victor Ibenegbu (alias “Network”), who claimed that “his group was behind the serial killings and arsons in the community”, including the abduction of the traditional ruler.

With the police decimated and devoid of confidence, the investigation of the violence does not receive the kind of assets or commitment it deserves. Most victims and witnesses are not unaware of the authors of the violence in their neighbourhoods. But they are equally mostly unwilling to go on record for fear of suffering reprisals. The use of “unknown gunmen” to describe the perpetrators is a misnomer. In most cases, they are known but the expression, UGM, describes a tyranny of despondency in the face of widely held perceptions of state incapacity or impunity for these atrocities.

Over nearly 20 months of leading the Truth, Justice, and Reconciliation Commission (TJPC) into the violence in the south-east of Nigeria, it has become evident to me that the UGM is one of the narrative myths and constraints in the crisis of violence and insecurity in the region. It is by no means the only one. You also have the reality of a population forced by the violence into a habit of fear of candour on the subject; an absence of public or bureaucratic infrastructure of both memory and records of victimisation; a narrative space at both national and state levels unwilling to look beyond separatism as the explanation for the violence; and a policy space attuned only to expeditionary and kinetic responses.

These myths have sustained the misbegotten idea of a unified field theory for the violence in south-east Nigeria. Anyone interested in addressing this situation must be prepared to look beyond the myths. For whoever is prepared to do so, the pursuit could prove both revealing and richly rewarding.

In Anambra state, for instance, the political economy of land is central to understanding the crisis of violence. It is both property and identity and the supply of land in the state is shrinking under the combined assault of fragilities from both nature and of intense land use. Revenues from land, are the focus of an intensity of competing interests. In this competition, cults and organized crime gangs are recruited. These cults and gangs bring with them guns, drugs, and even transactional idolatry. Over time, they also develop a seasonal and entrepreneurial orientation to violence, selling it to whoever is interested, from artisanal rustlers of solid minerals or hydro-carbons to private persons using it to settle scores; from community factions disputing over the stool of the Igwe or positions in the Town Union to politicians seeking offices in the state.

From the political economy of land, other shorter-term factors radiate out, including the mismanagement of transhumant pastoralism; (mis-)appropriation of a narrative vacuum created by official government policy concerning memory from Nigeria’s past; intra-state and inter-community boundary crises; transactional idolatry; the franchising of agitation by criminal cults and gangs; as well as the deployment of violence for artisanal extractive and mining activities and electoral politics.

For both politicians and security agencies, the focus on mobilizing kinetic responses preoccupies itself overly with the symptoms at the expense of addressing the real causes. The implicit idea that the country or the region can shoot its way out of the violence and its causes and consequences is in one word, delusional. Tactical options must always be on the table but, for durable solutions, the country and the region must dispense with the myths and govern their way out of the disease. That is the only way to make the symptoms finally disappear.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu 

Sadly, most Nigerians will not read or appreciate this contribution because frankly, it is beyond them.

Worst still, many of them, particularly in the younger generation, find it difficult to read more than three lines even though it is to their own shame and detriment.

For those that have the gravitas, insight, foresight, profundity and intellectual virility to read and comprehend the counsel I have offered in this write-up, I urge you to bookmark it and wait and see what unfolds unless and until we quickly identify and recognise the problem and address the issues raised.

There are two reasons for the mass abductions and kidnappings that we are witnessing in our country today.

Firstly, to garner cash which is then sent abroad to buy more arms and fund terror and secondly to destabilise our country and to discredit and undermine the credibility of our president and the federal government.

I hope and pray that someone is listening because this is precisely what we witnessed when the Chibok girls and other children were abducted over the years and the motives are the same. Those who think it is only about the acquisition of money are naive and ignorant.

There is far more to it than that and there are numerous shady and sinister characters, international criminal cartels, foreign governments and intelligence agencies and local accomplices and facilitators that are involved in this great evil.

Nigeria has been targeted for destruction, division and disintegration by those who see us as a threat to their regional hegemony, strategic national interests and imperialist aspirations, but most of us still don’t get it and perhaps never will.

They do not want a strong, united, prosperous and regionally dominant Nigeria but would rather turn us into a pathetic and pitiful shadow of our former selves, a cowardly and quivering caricature of what we once were and a weak, divided, incredulous and headless pawn and set us up for self-destructive economic and military annihilation.

They know that a strong Nigeria, like a strong South Africa, would stand up to them in the arena of world politics and international affairs and ensure that our collective interests as Nigerians and Africans would be protected and they do not want this.

As a matter of fact, for us to achieve that enviable status is not just their greatest fear but their worst nightmare.

They ask themselves in their corporate boardrooms, presidential palaces, cabinet meetings and legislative chambers, who can stand up to a strong Nigeria?

They wonder where else they would get their free mineral resources and be in a position to manipulate and dictate to servile leaders if not Nigeria.

And if Nigeria were to fail, fall and go the way they want us to, who would stand and speak for Africa and the black man in the comity of nations?

If the truth be told without a strong, flourishing and virile Nigeria, Africa is nothing and the black man is nowhere and this is precisely why the powers that be, when it comes to world politics and the international community, do not want us to succeed.

As far as they are concerned we are too weak, corrupt, ignorant, primitive, backward, servile, self-hating and dumb to achieve anything meaningful and we are more than happy to spend the next 100 years as a nation and a people that seek nothing but validation, leadership and guidance from them.

Yet how wrong they are. They have no idea who and what we are and deep down they fear us and recognise the fact that an unbound and unfettered Nigeria with strong, bold, articulate, confident and fearless leaders who do not seek their approval or validation and who have no interest in remaining as their slaves would be their worse nightmare. Such leaders would be dangerous to their evil cause and their attempt to sow the seeds of civil war, hardship and economic paralysis in our country.

It is time for us to get off our knees, to throw away the begging bowl, to stop constantly seeking validation from those who do not wish us well, to stop blindly implementing their disastrous economic models which seek to impoverish and destroy our people, to uproot and reject their well-planted seeds of division and to stop tolerating their subversive activities.

Ask yourself, who funds the terrorists and bandits and where do they get their weapons from?

They did it in Mali, Burkina Faso, Chad, Niger, Algeria, Libya, Iraq, Afghanistan, Egypt, Syria and so many other countries over the years and decades and now they are doing it here.

Ask yourself who was behind the attack on a mosque in which worshippers were killed just yesterday in Kaduna and what was the purpose of this abominable and condemnable act of terror if not to destabilise us and create panic and chaos in our nation?

All this must stop and we must desist from refusing to acknowledge that we now have and indeed have always had a major problem which needs to be acknowledged and be solved.

None of these things happen by chance and what we are witnessing is a deep-seated and long-term conspiracy to literally end our nation as we know it and throw us into a state of fear, poverty, anomie, anarchy, fratricidal butchery and carnage.

Worst of all is the fact that our so-called “best friends” and “allies” in the West and the international community are the ones behind it.

We need help and if we can get it from the Russians, the Chinese and even the Iranians in order to restore our peace, self-respect, freedom, dignity and prosperity, we should do so.

Asking the West for help either in intelligence gathering, advice or covert military operations when it comes to the fight against the terrorists and insurgents in Nigeria is like asking the big bad wolf to save Little Red Riding Hood.

It cannot work because ultimately they are the hidden hand behind our numerous travails and they are the enemy.

May God open our eyes and deliver our nation and may we cultivate the fortitude and courage to come together as a people, eschew our differences, resist the evil and save our nation.

The National Pension Commission (PenCom) is neither a lender nor a custodian of funds, says Mrs Aisha Dahir-Umar, the director general.

In an interview with journalists in Abuja at the weekend, Dahir-Umar said it has become necessary to clarify “totally misleading” reports that the commission gave a N10 trillion loan to the federal government.

She further dismissed claims that PenCom was owing federal government retirees as well as insinuations that Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) have not been meeting their obligations to holders of retirement savings accounts (RSAs).

“Investments by the PFAs in the securities of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) are not loans as erroneously portrayed, but investments in securities, through bonds and treasury bills, as approved by the relevant government agencies, in this case the Debt Management Office (DMO) and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). They are traded on authorized capital markets. That is, the Nigerian Exchange Limited and FMDQ OTC Securities Exchange,” she said.

“Moreover, pension fund assets are not managed by PenCom. I have said it repeatedly that when we say pension assets have grown to N19.6 trillion, that does not mean PenCom has N19.6 trillion locked somewhere in its office or bank accounts. Pension fund assets are managed by the licensed PFAs and held in custody by the licensed Pension Fund Custodians (PFCs).

“The PFAs are responsible for investing pension fund assets in allowable asset classes, including FGN (Federal Government of Nigeria) debts instruments. The objectives are safety and fair returns. All these are in line with the provisions of the enabling law, the Pension Reform Act 2014, and the rules issued by the Commission.

“It is obvious from the above that what is referred to ‘loan to FGN’ is just investment in FGN securities by the PFAs, as is done by other institutional investors such as banks, insurance companies, asset managers, etc.”

It is an international best practice to invest in investible instruments issued or backed by the sovereign authority, she said, and that the FGN securities meet the objectives of safety and fair returns.

“The FGN has consistently met its repayment obligations, both the principal amount and accrued interests, for all investments in bonds and T-bills to all investors including pension funds. The information is always in the open and accessible on our website, www.pencom.gov.ng,” she said.

On the outstanding benefits to federal government retirees and deceased employees, Dahir-Umar said it is because of “the inadequate and delayed funding for the payment of Accrued Pension Rights for those who were in service before the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS) was introduced when PenCom was established in 2004.”

She added: “Payment of the accrued rights is subject to release of funds by the Federal Government. So, it is beyond the powers of the Commission. However, we have been engaging the Federal Ministry of Finance for more funds to be released to settle these liabilities, but it is not a secret that the government itself has budgetary constraints.”

All those enrolled under the CPS have been receiving their benefits through their PFAs and there is no unsolved complaint before the commission, she maintained.

[TheCable]

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has strengthened its pre-emptive surveillance of banks to unearth infractions and ensure compliance with extant rules and guidelines.

The banks have been under intense criticism in recent periods for alleged complicity in economic crimes. The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) estimated that some 70 per cent of financial crimes in the country could be traced to the banking sector.

Financial industry sources yesterday said the apex bank has rejigged its surveillance mechanism to appropriately focus on banks’ financial statements and audit reports.

They told The Nation that each report will pass through multiple-level examinations.

One of the sources said the delay in the submission of the audited reports and accounts of many of the banks for last year might not be unconnected with the rigorous screening of the banks’ financial statements.

Banks that had approved their audited results and submitted the same for onward examination and approval by the CBN since the end of January 2024 are still awaiting final approval of the apex bank.

Banks cannot make public their audited reports and accounts without prior and final approval of the CBN.

The delay in the release of the banks’ results has put them in default of the corporate governance rules at the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), where most banks are listed.

When asked about the delay in submission of their banks’ results, spokesmen for two major banks, who craved anonymity, said they were waiting for the apex bank’s approvals.

Post-listing rules at the NGX provide two compliance options for the submission of results. Most quoted companies including all banks, major manufacturers, oil and gas companies, breweries and cement companies use the 12-month Gregorian calendar year as their business year.

Under the first option, companies are required to submit interim or unaudited quarterly reports not later than 30 calendar days after the end of the relevant period. Such companies then have extended 90 days, after the end of the relevant period, to submit their full-year audited reports and accounts.

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However, where a company chooses to audit its quarterly accounts, it shall be required to file such accounts not later than 60 calendar days after the relevant quarter. For the first set of companies, the deadline for the submission of the audited report and accounts for the year ended December 31, 2023, is March 30, 2024. Many banks such as Jaiz Bank, Fidelity Bank and FBN Holdings adopted this option and submitted the interim results for the fourth quarter that ended December 31, 2023.

The deadline for the second set of companies, where several major banks belong, was February 29, 2024. While the rules allow the NGX to grant specific waivers to relevant companies or a general waiver of the deadline under some specific circumstances, a review yesterday indicated that the NGX has not issued any general waiver or specific, publicly announced waiver to the banks.

General waiver is usually given in the event of general disruption to industrial activities such as strikes, national crises, many public holidays and other circumstances that in the judgement of the Exchange may significantly impact the timeline given to companies to prepare and submit the quarterly report.

A review yesterday indicated that the banks had completed their internal approval process and transmitted their results to the apex bank some 40 days ago.

The Sultan of Sokoto, Sultan Sa’ad Abubakar has declared today, March 11, 2024, as the first day of the Holy Month of Ramadan.

He said the declaration was based on the sighting of the moon in almost every part of the country earlier on Sunday, which is the 29th day of the Month of Shaban and thereby signifies today as the First day of Ramadan 1445.

“We got the information from Muslim leaders across the country and we accept the sighting of the moon accordingly,” he said.
Sultan Abubakar, therefore, called on the entire Muslim faithful in the country to start the fast today in accordance with the teachings of Islam.

He also urged Muslims to use this month of Ramadan to pray against the spread of insecurity in the country and for the nation’s leaders to discharge their duties with the fear of God.
He further advised all Muslims in the country and beyond to observe the fast with the ultimate fear of God, while urging the wealthy to support the less privileged with food during the holy month of Ramadan.

The presidency on Sunday night, foreclosed the possibility of a cabal taking control of President Bola Tinubu’s administration, like it had been seen in the past.

Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, who gave this assurance during an interview on TVC News Sunday Politics, also blamed the escalating insecurity in some parts of the north on the activities of those he described as “sub-regional forces”, who are working against the stability of the country.

Ngelale was reacting to various issues that have raised topics in the media in recent times, including the state of the economy, the effects of the negative activities of past government officials, the security and the multifaceted efforts of the Tinubu administration to straighten things out.

Reacting to the possibility of some very influential officials in the current administration, wielding the sort of influence that might allow them to mismanage and abuse public office, the effect of which might linger after the administration, Ngelale said President Tinubu is not that sort of leader, explaining that he (Tinubu) has not left room for such influence by any official to hijack his government.

“The good fortune we have is that we elected, not just a professional accountant, a professional auditor, but we elected a man who fully understands the governance mechanisms, not just at the federal level, but at sub-national level. I think this is a man who anyone working in the office of the President would tell you, there is not one individual in the Presidency that has a monopoly over what the President sees, hears and reads. Nobody has that kind of power in the office of this President and that’s intentional.

“He is someone who everyone has access to, everyone who needs to have access to him, has access to him. He has direct communications on a frequent basis with the heads of intelligence agencies, anti-graft agencies, and the like. So there is not going to be the potential there for anyone to form a cabal around this President because he’s aware of the dynamics of what has happened in the past and he is determined to ensure that that is not replicated under his watch.

“I will also add the fact that in the person of the current CBN Governor Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, this is a man who is reputed around the world as being a prudent manager of men and resources. This is someone who has a reputation, even within the government, of being tight fisted and that is by the intention of President Bola Tinubu to have someone like that in place.

“I would also add that when you look at organizational structures that lead to Governor Emefiele, … put him in the position that he currently is in, the President has taken a comprehensive review of that structure and he has said, even by legislation, that we are going to ensure that not only guardrails are put in place, but that legislative changes be enacted in such a way that this can never happen again.

“He’s determined to do it, Nigerians will watch him do it and that will mean that moving forward, the kind of elite conspiracy we saw between CBN officials, high ranking government officials and high ranking members of the private sector, they’re not going to be able to conspire amongst themselves to find loopholes within the system because we have a President who’s an auditor and accountant, who will close those loopholes, just the way he did in Lagos State many years ago”, he said.

Speaking to the issue of the security situation in the country, especially in the north, Ngelale alleged that there are some sub-regional and geopolitical forces working against the stability of the country, he however noted that the government will continue working on finding solutions through collaborations.

The Presidential spokesman, who further gave insight into plans to ensure peace and stability in all parts of the country, said those currently conspiring to rob the nation of security, through sub-regional conspiracies would be made to face the wrath of the law.

“First of all, the President has been very clear that this is an administration of no excuses. If you look at other parts of the countries that were in flames before he took office, such as the Southeast and parts of the Southwest for example, you will know the level of work that has gone into securing our nation.

“Where we still have some challenges is in the north central in the northwest and to a lesser extent in the Northeast. There’s still a lot of work to be done along the Kaduna axis. Remember the time when you could not travel by road on the Abuja-Kaduna highway? Now, you’re able to do that.

“Now the problem is when you have these far-flung communities, we do have these hit-and-run incidences of not just violence and killings, but obviously kidnappings and hostage-taking.

“But I will say this, across the north, we understand that some of the sub-regional forces, sub-regional, geopolitical forces that are currently at play are actively conspiring against the stability of the Nigerian nation.

“We understand that and we are not sleeping on that. We are responding to it, and we’re doing it in a way that is concerted with our neighbors and it is worth noting that the United States government has also pledged its assistance to ensure that there is a full return of all of the school children who are kidnapped recently in Kaduna.

“But the point is, we are going to continue to intensify our collaboration, not just within the region, but internationally to make sure that some of the regional actors that are conspiring against our nation are brought to justice ultimately silenced in the future of our country”, he said.

Justice Deinde Dipeolu of the Federal High Court in Lagos has ordered the final forfeiture of 36 cars ‘allegedly stolen’ from Canada and brought to Nigeria.

The judge made the final forfeiture order after granting an application filed and argued by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission’s counsel A. B. Abdul-Rasheed.

The EFCC said the vehicles were recovered from various auto shops in Lagos, such as Lekki-Ajah; Ojodu-Berger; Ikeja; Festac Town; Magodo and Ikota-Lekki.

It said they were recovered following intelligence by Royal Canadian Mounted Police that over 350 cars stolen from Canada were shipped into Nigeria and were on display for sale at different auto shops.

The respondents in the suit marked FHC/L/CS/2051/2023 were Wilmon Autos Nigeria Limited; Ikeoyi Enterprises; Ichie Autos; Bounce Autos; Assured Motors Emeko Auto; CNC Auto; Green Hill Auto; First Core Auto; Samuel Motors; Unique Motors; Nice and Rich Auto; Overall Properties; GIDI Auto and Chris Jane Auto Nigeria Limited.

Some of the forfeited stolen vehicles are a 2017 Model Toyota Rav 4; 2019 Toyota Tacoma 2019; 2019 Lexus RX 350; Lexus RX350; 2019 Model 5 FORD FI50; 2018 Model Honda CRV; 2020 Toyota Tacoma; a Land Rover and a 2020 Lexus RX 350.

Others include a 2016 Toyota 4Runner; a Range Rover; Lexus 460; Ford F150 2018 Model; 2019 Lexus RX 350; 2020 Lexus RX 350; 2021 Lexus RX 350 Sport; Honda Civic Touring; Honda Pilot Suv; 2020 Range Rover Suv; Toyota 4Runner SUV; Toyota Highlander, and 2018 Toyota Tacoma, amon others.

The court had on November 29, 2023, made an order for the interim forfeiture of the cars, after listening to the EFCC lawyer, who moved the application the same.

While granting the order, the court ordered the EFCC to advertise the orders in a national newspaper for any interested persons or parties to appear before the court to show cause why the cars should not be finally forfeited.

The EFCC counsel informed the court that the forfeiture order had been advertised but no one had come forward to lay claim to the seized vehicles.

Justice Dipeolu after listening to the EFCC lawyer and perusing through the processes, acceded to the request of the anti-graft agency and ordered final forfeiture of the 36 cars.

An EFCC investigator, Olufemi Olukini, in an affidavit filed in support of the suit said “Sometime in April 2022, during an official meeting held at 7A Okoti-Eboh Street, Ikoyi Lagos between officials of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and EFCC officials, RCMP officials passed credible intelligence to the Commission which alleged that over 350 vehicles which were comprehensively listed out on an excel sheet with their respective vehicle identification Number were stolen from Canada and shipped to Nigeria.

“These vehicles have been sold and/or are being sold on an online website www.jiji.com by some online vendors/agents while others are displayed for sale at various car stands across the country.

“Investigation carried out revealed that a substantial number of the motor vehicles described aforesaid were stolen from Canada and shipped to Nigeria between the years 2019-2021.

The Presidency has said that President Bola Tinubu will on Thursday unveil the Student Loan Scheme.‎

President Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale made the disclosure while speaking on TVC’s “Counting the Cost of Presidents Tinubu’s Reforms” broadcast on Sunday.

Speaking on the programme, Ngelale said the President would introduce the historic National Student Loan Programme on Thursday of this week.

He said: “This is a major form of obligation reduction for Nigerians and families and young people at a time when Nigerians are feeling the pinch. We believe this is the way to go.”

Tinubu signed the Access to Higher Education Act, 2023 into law on June 12, 2023.

The purpose of the measure is to make interest-free loans available to students for educational reasons.

The programme, which the federal government had originally planned to launch in September or October of 2023, had been delayed.