• 1,209 out of 1,280 elective offices to be decided by court verdict
• Free, fair, credible elections held in only 71 polls, representing 5.55%
• 24 out of 28 guber cases for court validation
• Umpire earmarked N3 billion to defend decisions in court
• Electorates blame INEC, politicians, lawyers for flawed democracy
• We had 600 pre-election cases in several courts, Yakubu says

Outcomes of the last general elections and unprecedented flurry of election petitions have heightened credibility doubts of the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) ability to conduct a free, fair and credible election.

Although the trend of ‘election by court order’ has continued since the return of civil rule in 1999, disputed election outcomes waiting for judicial resolution in this year’s polls are alarming.

For instance, a total of 1,280 political offices were contested in 2023, comprising the office of the presidency, 109 members of the Senate, 360 seats for the Federal House of Representatives, 782 House of Assembly seats across 28 states of the federation and 28 governorship positions.

Out of the total figure, 1,209 petitions are before the judiciary for adjudication, according to the President of the Court of Appeal (PCA), Justice Monica Dongban-mensem during the ceremony to commence the 2023/2024 legal year in Abuja, representing a whopping 94.453 per cent of the positions where votes were cast.

The implication is that the electorate have less say about who becomes their leader, as that responsibility has substantially been shifted to the judiciary.

As it is, only 71 offices are truly decided by the citizens, representing a paltry 5.547 per cent of the offices contested.

According to the human rights lawyer, Prof. Chidi Odinkalu, these statistics confirm that the 2023 elections rival that of 2007 in infamy, despite the amendments to the Electoral Act and promises by the electoral umpire to improve the process.

“By contrast, 2015 was the first time that Nigeria’s presidential election did not end up in court, reflecting the consensus that the elections of that year were relatively well organised with results that largely reflected the will of the people.

“It was also the first time that the proportion of elections ending up in courts was less than 50 per cent (663 petitions or 44.32 per cent). The 2019 elections produced 766 petitions (51.2 per cent), roughly the same number as the 769 (51.4 per cent) seen in 2011,” he pointed out.

Considering the clogged dockets of the judiciary in Nigeria, Justice Dongban-Mensem stated that the court delivered 7,295 judgments and 3,665 motions in the 2022/2023 legal year, adding that it could have done more, but for the electoral dispute interregnum.

She added that 98 panels were constituted to hear the 1,209 election petitions nationwide.

Five of them, she said, were filed and concluded at the Presidential Election Petition Court, while 147 filed at the senatorial election tribunal have been delivered and 417 petitions from the House of Representatives are being attended to.

The PCA also said 557 petitions associated with State Houses of Assembly and 83 gubernatorial complaints are being disposed of, adding that 28 states participated in the governorship elections, with petitions filed in 24 of them.

The figures excluded the pre-election disputes, which most of them terminated at the apex court.

Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Olukayode Ariwoola, during the new legal year speech, acknowledged the pressure political cases are mounting on the judiciary due to the timeline attached to their determination.

He said: “I want to specifically appreciate and acknowledge my brother Justices who have delivered 272 judgments in the normal civil, criminal and election related Appeals under immense pressure.

Last November, the chairman of INEC, Mahmood Yakubu, lamented that the Commission was handling over 600 pre-election cases in several courts across the federation during a capacity-building workshop for over 300 judges that would handle election disputes.

He revealed that the cases pending against the electoral body relate to the conduct of primaries by political parties, meaning that now that the elections are over, the cases have risen, such that INEC will be contending with about 1,209 cases, since litigants usually join the Commission in their petitions.

Aware of the litigious culture, INEC in its Election Project Plan for the 2023 general election earmarked N3 billion of tax-payers money to defend election-related disputes in court.

However, stakeholders are blaming INEC, lawyers and the politicians for subletting the right to choose political leadership to the judiciary, warning that if the trend is not checked, it will get to a point where there will be no need to organise any election.

Lagos lawyer, Bankole Kayode, believes that politicians are majorly to be blamed.

According to him, politicians are afraid to lose elections because the consequences of their electoral defeat are quite heavy.

“They instantly become abandoned and deserted by their supporters in addition to the loss of the heavy money and resources they deploy to the failed election venture, therefore, they become worse than someone infected with leprosy.

“The next thing they resort to, to avoid being deserted is to give false hope to their supporters that the courts will restore to them their ‘stolen mandate’ and hence the high rate of litigation we see all over,” he said, adding that many lawyers who ought to discourage frivolous litigations by appropriately advising their clients will rather cash in on the situation to make a fortune out of the desperate losers of the elections by rushing to courts in spite of the poor chances of success.

“I think lawyers should act more circumspectly by giving good advice to the politicians as to their chances in court after they have lost elections,” he advised.

Kayode also blamed top INEC officials who come to the public space to mislead the people about the true state of our electoral laws and their capacity to deliver.

During the preparation for the last election, he noted, a top INEC official was all over the media misleading the politicians and the electorates that Irev and other electronic devices would be compulsorily deployed as ‘prescribed by the electoral laws and guidelines’.

“He was singing it all over that INEC result viewing (Irev) portal was ‘the game changer’ which will eliminate all electoral malpractices, whereas, though a lawyer himself, he was talking in crass ignorance of the provisions of the electoral laws when compared with the subsequent court decisions.

“So, INEC officials should engage law experts to enlighten them on the provisions of our electoral laws so that they in turn will correctly enlighten the politicians and the electorates about the true state of the electoral laws, because nothing is wrong with the electoral laws,” he declared.

Also, Stephen Azubuike, lawyer and author, said a bigger portion of the blame pie goes to INEC.

His words: “When elections are fraught with much evidence of procedural and process anomalies, the candidates will be too aggrieved to let go.

“Of course, Nigerian politicians see elections as a do-or-die affair and will do everything possible until it is considered over. This means that so long as the courts are there, politicians consider the courtrooms as an extension of the polling units where they hope to make another attempt to win.

“Therefore, I don’t see the courts being let alone any time soon even if INEC performs at its best. Interestingly, electoral law can hardly be used to deny any candidate access to courts. It may be viewed as a denial of fundamental rights.”

He called for further reforms, starting with INEC.
Blaming politicians for being bad sportsmen, Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), Chief Yomi Alliyu lamented that they are sometimes deceived by the rented crowd and the money they spent on adverts.

He regretted that few men and women on the bench get to decide who occupies political office for the electorate.

Alliyu said: “It is unfortunate that at times the wishes of the people are decided by 13 people or at most 17 if you consider three judges of the Tribunal, five for the Court of Appeal and five at the Supreme Court. It is 17 for presidential election petitions comprising five at the Court of Appeal and seven at the Supreme Court!

“However, there is nothing anybody can do about this since it is what ‘we the people’ agreed to in our Constitution. We have submitted our adjudicatory power to those arbiters, and they are deemed to be the voice of all of us. This is far better than anarchy.”

The Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Legalpedia, Emeka Albert, fingered INEC as the problem.
“The body is far from being independent and lacks a sense of responsibility or accountability. When the umpire is confused, there are no rules and the game becomes a huge joke,” he quipped.

For law teacher and advocate, Prof Ernest Ojukwu (SAN), Nigeria has imbibed the culture of dishonesty as a way of life, which impacts on the people and institutions.

According to him, the blame goes to the Nigerian in INEC, the Nigerian in politicians and the Nigerian in our leaders, as well as the Nigerian in the electorate, who have all accepted the culture of dishonesty.
“We cannot forestall the trend of massive electoral disputes when our elections are mainly based on dishonesty. Most electoral disputes happen because we do not trust the process and the result of our elections, and we do not trust the umpire who largely takes sides in this culture of dishonesty.

“Until we begin to focus on the character of the Nigerian, and raise a new army of humans with integrity, our elections will never be free and fair,” he declared.
Human rights lawyer, Festus Ogun believes INEC shares the bigger part of the blame. The election, he insisted, was poorly conducted.

According to him, it was not credible. “With that, even those who clearly lost the election would believe they should be declared winner because of the inefficiency of INEC.

“And they are right because what INEC declared as valid votes sometimes get nullified as invalid votes by the Tribunals. So, because people generally lack faith in the electoral system, which is justified, their last hope is the Tribunal,” he said, suggesting that the solution would be to have a truly independent, efficient and effective electoral system.

Efforts to know how INEC feels about the barrage of litigations and their implication for the electoral process, were unsuccessful as its National Commissioner & Chairman, Information and Voter Education Committee, Sam Olumekun did not pick calls placed on his phone or respond to messages as at press time.

[Guardian]

Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has voiced its concern about the consistently litigious nature of elections held in Nigeria since the advent of the present democratic era in 1999.

INEC also decried incessant conflicting judgments by the courts which have become a recurring decimal in the jurisprudence of election in Nigeria and is inimical to the electoral process.

The twin-issues were attributed to the prevailing political culture in the nation.

At a two-day workshop for members of the INEC Press Corps in Akwanga, Nasarawa State, INEC director of Legal Drafting and Contacts, Barr. Toyin Babalola stressed the need for political parties to uphold the principles of internal democracy by ensuring that the selection of candidates accurately represents the will of their party members during primary elections.

Babalola argued that by adhering strictly to the principles of internal democracy and ensuring candidate nominations align with their members’ preferences, political parties could contribute significantly to reducing the frequency of pre-election disputes and their adverse impact on the electoral process.

According to her, “Elections conducted since the inception of democracy have been litigious, owing to our political culture.

“It is important that political parties strictly preserve the tenets of internal democracy by ensuring that nomination of candidates reflects the will of their members at party primaries, to reduce the spate of pre-election matters and its impact on preparation for elections”, she said.

The INEC director stated that it is pertinent to note that election challenges are a crucial part of the electoral processes of constitutional democracies, the world over.

She said, “In Nigeria, like other representative democracies, the electoral laws provide for resolution of electoral disputes through the mechanism of legal proceedings referred to as pre–election and post-election (Election Petitions) cases.

“The challenges associated with litigation are not limited to pre-election cases.

“The following challenges have been identified as relating to pre-election matters: Lack of internal party democracy: This is one of the major bases for pre-election matters.

“Non-adherence to party Constitution and Guidelines, arbitral replacement of candidates from persons that emerged from validly conducted primaries, nomination of placeholders, etc are factors that impact on preparations for elections.”

“Conflicting judgments by the Courts which have become a re-current decimal in the jurisprudence of election in Nigeria and is inimical to the electoral process.”

She said the concerns of the Commission are in respect of the trend which has portrayed partial departure from the time honoured doctrine of stare decisis resulting in conflicting decisions on the same set of facts and subject matter.

She said, “This has resulted in uncertainty, loss of confidence in the system with the attendant negative consequences on the electoral process.

[Leadership]

Inter Milan are eyeing a possible free transfer move for Leicester City striker Kelechi Iheanacho next summer, according to reports in Italy.

The Nigerian striker is one of the players who is due to be out of contract with the club at the end of the season, meaning that he will be available on a free transfer should he not sign a new deal with the club. That is said to have alerted Inter to his availability.

According to FC Inter News, the Italian side have “registered” their interest in the striker, but are still not fully sure if they will make a move. It is said that the club are looking to make “various assessments” on the player before making a firm decision as they plan early for which free agents to move for in just under a year.

It’s not the first time that Inter have been linked with an interest in Iheanacho. The 27-year-old was said to have been identified as a possible option for the Serie A club before the start of the summer transfer window, although no move ever materialised.

Iheanacho remained at City beyond the summer, despite his contract situation. He has shared the lone striker role with Jamie Vardy this season, with Iheanacho scoring four times in the Championship, with three of those goals coming in his last three games.

The striker has been with City since joining from Manchester City in the summer of 2017. He opened up about links away from the City in the summer last month.

[Nation]

WHAT you do not hear in Nigeria probably does not exist, to reformulate the lyrics of a popular gospel song. The latest paranoia across the country appears to be fear of missing one’s manhood. A national daily of October14, reported that the Federal Capital Police revealed it had received reports of about 62 cases of alleged disappearance of manhood out of which it arrested 51 suspects and charged them to court for misinformation and causing breach of peace in the FCT.

Such fears were, however, not limited to the FCT. Earlier on October 13, 2023, it was reported of how one Francis Attah, narrowly escaped being lynched at the New Karshi area of Nasarawa State after he was accused of causing the mysterious disappearance of the manhood of one Jerry Danladi. There are stories that these days many men carry charcoals or bitter kolas in their pockets in the belief that they are antidotes to the charms that would cause one’s manhood to disappear.

The fear that one’s manhood could disappear after shaking hands or having body contact with someone who possessed such mystical power has been with us since the 1970s but would recede intermittently only to resurface again. The same goes with fears that one could be turned into a yam tuber by riding on a commercial motor cycle (Okada) and wearing a helmet given by the Okada man (in those days when it was compulsory for motor cyclists and their passengers to wear helmets). 

It was gladdening that the FCT Police took a decidedly different approach in handling cases of reported missing manhood from the way the Kwara State Police handled a similar incident in 2009 when they arrested a goat on suspicion of attempted stealing of a Mazda car. According to the report, a group of vigilantes pursued some hoodlums they suspected of trying to steal a car. As they pursued, one of the hoodlums was said to have mysteriously turned into a goat. Not to be outwitted, the vigilantes promptly arrested the goat and took it to the Police station where the police confirmed the goat was in their custody “pending further investigation”. The goat was later auctioned as the story made international headlines and the country was ridiculed for its belief in superstitions.  

In 1975, several parts of Igboland were thrown into ‘mourning’ when Rangers International of Enugu was walloped 3-0 by Mehalla FC of Egypt in Cairo. At that time the Rangers team was seen by many Igbos as more than a football club. The team was hurriedly formed in 1970 (the same year the Civil War ended) to enable the then East Central State (inhabited mainly by the Igbos) to take part in a national football tournament taking place that year.

With malnutrition still evident on the bodies and gaits of many Igbos during this time, the hurriedly assembled, ill-trained but well-motivated team surprised everyone by winning that national tournament and qualifying for the 1971 African Cup of Championship. The same year, the same rag-tag team reached the final of the Nigerian FA Cup in a pulsating match with IICC Shooting Stars of Ibadan, which they lost narrowly by 1-2. 

In 1974, the team won both the National League and the FA Cup and accounted for most of the players in the national team, then known as the Green Eagles. Given its successes, Rangers came to be seen by many Igbos as embodying the ‘Igbo Spirit’ of never giving up even in the face of adversity. It was within the above context that the import of the 3-0 walloping of Rangers by Mehalla FC of Egypt could be understood in Igboland.

A story quickly gained ground that Mehalla of Egypt were able to defeat Rangers the way they did only because each time Emmanuel Okala, the giant Rangers’ and Green Eagles’ goalkeeper wanted to catch the ball, it would either split into three or turned into a lion. This seemed to cheer up many people. ”Mehalla will see wahala in Enugu,” became a common refrain. Though Ranger overcame Mehalla at Enugu, I doubt if it had anything to do with any charms.

In 1976, when I was a form one student at Oraifite Boys Secondary school, Oraifite (now in Anambra State) we qualified for the junior East Central State’s Junior Academicals Cup, which was to take place in Aba (currently in Abia State). I was the goal keeper. It was a big deal for us because we were told that scouts from Enugu Rangers would come to watch the match. The senior students took us a to a Dibia (balalawo/medicine man) for charms to help us overcome our opponents.

After some incantations and shenanigans, he threw a certain object into a bowl of water which turned into a flame of fire (in later years I found there is a chemical capable of causing same reaction  when mixed with water). The juju man gave us objects to sew  in our underpants and forbade us from taking a shower for three consecutive days prior to our departure for Aba. He also gave us a padlock and said one of the senior boys should call the names of all the players of our opponents or their jersey numbers and then lock the padlock, “and let them play, let me see them”, he boasted.

For me as the goal keeper, he instructed that each time the ball was shot to my goalpost I should incant ‘ufio’ (meaning,‘miss the target’). Unfortunately despite his charm, we lost the match by one zero. When we went back to the juju man for refund of the money which the senior boys had forcefully collected from the students for that purpose, he threatened to make all of us blind if we didn’t leave his compound immediately; so we ran back to our hostels for our dear lives.

While the belief in the existence of occult and other paranormal phenomena exists in all cultures, there is something untoward about the way this belief is expressed in Africa which has led some to conclude that our belief systems are at least part of the reasons why the rest of the world have left us behind in political and economic underdevelopment. Perhaps the African cosmology, which is intensely spiritual, predisposes us to a pattern of belief that verges on the superstitious.

Traditionally Africans believe that up above is the abode of God, the Creator and Supreme deity and that below the earth is the world of the ancestors – or the living-dead – who exercise some influence over the affairs of the living. They also believe that spirits – both good and malevolent ones, co-habit the earth with humans. Perhaps this intensely spiritual nature of our cosmology is one of the reasons many Nigerians find supernatural explanations for virtually every occurrence, creating in the process an avenue for brisk businesses by ‘smart’ pastors, Imams and babalawos. 

How do the African belief in the supernatural and the occult differ from the way such beliefs are expressed in say the Western culture? Let me illustrate this with just one example: In the UK in the 1950s, one ‘Dr. Carl Kuon Suo’ was peddling a manuscript called Third Eye. Just before the manuscript was published by Secker & Warburg in 1956, its author changed his name to Tuesday Lobsang Rampa. In the book, which turned out to be an instant best seller globally, the author claimed to have been a lama in Tibet and narrated a purported experience of growing up in a monastery there from the age of seven. Dr Rampa also claimed that during that period a small hole was drilled into his forehead, which aroused his ‘third’ (or ‘inner’) eye, giving him very strong powers of clairvoyance.

The spirit of critical inquiry forced Heinrich Harrer, an Austrian mountaineer and Tibetologist, to hire a private detective, Clifford Burgess, to investigate ‘Dr’ Rampa and his claims. The detective was able to unmask Dr Rampa as Cyril Henry Hoskin, an Englishman who was born in Devon, and whose father was a plumber. It was also found that contrary to claims in the book Mr Hoskin had never been to Tibet and spoke no Tibetan. Caught red-handed, Dr Rampa did not deny that he had been born as Cyril Hoskin but claimed that his body was now occupied by the spirit of Lobsang Rampa.

Curiously as an undergraduate in Nigeria in the 1980s, Lobsang Rampa’s Third Eye was a sort of intellectual statement to a certain category of students who claimed to be seeking spiritual enlightenment. And this was some 30 years after ‘Lobsang Rampa’ had been unmasked as a fraud in Europe! In essence, while there are certainly many good things in African culture, I also believe that Africa needs to interrogate some of its belief system to know those aspects that impede its march to modernity. 

…Ndume kicks against Akpabio’s alleged procedural errors, storms out of session

The brewing crisis in the Senate came to a head, yesterday, as the Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, stormed out during plenary to protest the refusal of the Senate president, Godswill Akpabio, to address alleged procedural errors.

To prevent the situation from degenerating, Akpabio requested that his colleagues meet behind closed doors for further discussion.

How it began

Trouble started minutes after the commencement of the day’s session when Senator Ali Ndume (APC, Borno South), raised a point of order to draw the Senate President’s attention to alleged procedural errors committed by him which were yet to be corrected.

Specifically, Ndume referenced a motion on the need for re-opening of Nigeria-Niger border, which was moved by Senator Sumaila Kawu (NNPP, Kano South), which Akpabio allowed to be debated without first having the official title of the motion read as the normal procedure.

Ndume, relying on Order 51 of the Senate Standing Rules, requested that the Senate President should allow for the correction of any error made or observed during plenary.

He said: “This is the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria guided by laws, rules and procedures. If in the course of proceedings at any session errors are observed, they must be corrected before forging ahead with such proceedings.

“Mr. President, there are some things we do in this chamber that are against the rules. Sir, nobody is too big to learn.”

Akpabio had hardly allowed Ndume to end his speech when he ruled him out of order, saying since he had ruled on issues raised, it could not be revisited.

Undaunted, another senator, Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West), rose in defence of Ndume’s point of order by raising another point of order. He was equally ruled out of order by the Senate president.

In an attempt to douse the tension, which was reaching feverish pitch, Deputy Senate President, Jibrin Barau, quickly raised Order 16, which requires a substantive motion to be moved by any senator seeking to correct or review an earlier decision taken.

Akpabio sustained this order and this infuriated Ndume, who equally raised another point of order, specifically, Order 54 to seek correction of the perceived error.

Again, Akpabio ruled him out of order without allowing him to exhaust his line of argument.

Ndume storms out

At this point, Ndume had had enough, he picked up his documents and a few other belongings and stormed out of the Senate chamber.

His action, which was obviously unexpected, led the Senate to dissolve into a closed session.

Incidentally, Ndume was Akpabio’s campaign manager during the race for the Senate presidency in June.

This is happening at a time senators are preparing to leave for Uyo, the Akwa Ibom State capital, for a retreat that will begin today (Wednesday).

Building tension

Tension had been building up long before the Senate resumed from its long vacation in September.

There were speculations about moves to impeach the Senate President and effect a change in the leadership over Akapbio’s alleged insensitivity to the demands of senators, sidelining of some ranking senators in the headship of committees, kowtowing to President Tinubu and unsavoury role during the screening and confirmation of ministerial nominees in August.

This prompted the Senate President’s media office to issue a statement dismissing the speculation as a figment of the imagination of the authors.

However, Senator Elisha Abbo, who was, on Monday, sacked by the Appeal Court, issued a statement on behalf of the powerful northern senators accusing Akpabio’s office of trying to pit them against President Bola Tinubu.

Akpabio bears no ill-will against his colleagues – Aide

Meanwhile, Mr Eseme Eyiboh, Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to the Senate President, said yesterday that Akpabio harboured no ill-will towards any of his colleagues.

He also rejected claims by Senator Elisha Abbo that the Senate president influenced the judgment of the Court of Appeal that sacked him from the Senate.

Eyiboh in a statement, expressed shock at the assertions of the former Adamawa North senator, describing his claims as “delinquent, provocative and unbecoming of a distinguished senator.”

His words: “It is only a diseased and uninformed mind that will not believe that the outcome of any court proceeding is a function of the evaluation of facts and evidence within the province of the rule of law. “It is uncharitable for Senator Abbo to pour his frustrations on Senator Akpabio or anyone else and his action betrays the bile he has for Senator Akpabio.

“Democracy is founded on the rule of law, so for anybody to accuse one of the strong agents of democracy and governance in the mould of Senator Akpabio, such an individual must be a monument of self-pity and his swansong a discordant escape from reality.”

“Senator Akpabio, for emphasis, has no ill will towards any of his distinguished colleagues and as he has said in the past, the embers of the leadership election have been buried and replaced by the fraternal bond of nation-building he shares with the overwhelming majority of senators.”

[Vanguard]

Dangote’s just completed and inaugurated Dangote Refinery and Petrochemical Company during and after construction has been variously described as follows:

“As a rule, I don’t get worked up over oil refineries. But the one gradually taking form on 2,500 hectares of swampland outside Lagos … is so big, so audacious, and so potentially transformative that it is like Africa’s Moon Landing and its Panama Canal – a Pyramids of Giza for the Industrial age.”

“If Aliko Dangote, … can pull it off, he will go down as the continent’s John D. Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie and Andrew Mellon combined.”

 David Pilling, “Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, on his ‘crazy’ $12bn project” Financial Times, July 11, 2018

“The plant will be a game changer for the Nigeran economy which is seriously gasping for breath. It will rewrite the story of our country and make every Nigerian proud…”

Shaka Momodu, “Dangote Refinery: The Audacity to Dream” THISDAY, May 8, 2020

“As a Game Changer.” 

President Muhammed Buhari’s Speech

May 22, 2023

In relation to the topic of this essay, ancient and medieval Africans created different great architectural and engineering marvels but among them the Pyramids of Egypt are the most recognized structures and adjudged as the globally significant engineering masterpiece of them all in terms of their complexity, dimension, size and height etc.

Dangote’s Refinery’s Crude Distillation Column (CDC) equipment is nearly as tall as the Giza Pyramid of ancient Egypt. Like that Pyramid, Dangote’s Pyramid of Industrial Production SPIRALS and SOARS high skywards to distill and produce high quality products for Nigerian, African and world markets.  Hence the title of this essay “Pyramid” is prefaced with “Industrial Production” to speak to the different Age and intention of these monumental projects. This is a project of the modern Industrial Age in which large factories are built for mass production of goods for large-scale or mass societies. In the same way, Dangote’s African Pyramid of Industrial Production is geared to creating an Africa with the capacities for mass production, mass prosperity, mass power and mass pride and the restoration of African Dignity.  

BACKGROUND The Ancient African Technological Advancement and Cultural Power 

The Dangote refinery, fertilizer, and Petrochemical Complex represents a contemporary example of ancient and medieval monuments and structures which Ancient Africans created and built in Egypt Kush and Axum. These were the ancient architectural and engineering master pieces and wonderful projects like pyramids, obelisks, tombs, palaces, exquisite art works; etc. In medieval times, Africans created similar major cultural art works of Kongo, Makonde, Ile Ife, Benin etc, and architectural and engineering monumental complexes like the Zimbabwe project, the walled city of Birnin Zaria, Birnin Kano, Birnin Ngazaragamu, and Benin moats and walls and the Ijebu walls, Mali irrigation projects etc.

These developments indicate African mastery of technological capacity, scientific knowledge and construction capabilities with which to build these monuments, irrigation and other military, economic, and cultural projects. All these projects attest to the technological capacities of the ancient and medieval Africans with the confidence to conceive and undertake these monumental architectural, economic and engineering projects.

In general, the ability to conceive and undertake such these monumental projects implies the existence of leaderships and elites with powerful ambitions and vast visions for greatness and the creation of sophisticated societies and advanced states to undertake these enduring and global significant projects reflecting the outlook of ancient Africans’ self-conception as powerful and technologically equipped societies.

At the same time, to undertake these vast and monumental projects entails the existence of: State Power; State Organizational and Mobilizational capacities; Educational system for the production of highly educated experts as well as vast skilled human resources; Scientific Power; Technology Power and other enabling capacities and resources. These resources and vast state ambitions signify aspirations to global power, and societal power and dignity. These are the capabilities and resources which ancient and medieval Africans, leaders and state created to achieve their ambitious objectives.

Thus, it is clear that ancient and medieval African societies and peoples had the autonomous capacity for self-propulsion and self-development.

      This is the heritage of state power, leadership ambitions, state organizational capacity and technological capacitation for self-propulsion and self-development which ancient and medieval Africans states, societies and leaderships bequeathed to succeeding generations of Africa states and leaderships from the 15^th century. 

2 The Eras of African Disempowerment: Enslavement, Colonialism and Neo-Colonialism and the Implantation of the Colonial Software of Servility and Disempowerment.

While medieval African societies retained their power of self-propulsion and the economic development and self-sufficiency for the management of their societies through to the 18^th-19^th centuries, certain developments internally; and in the global system began to intervene and weaken African autonomous power. The decline of Africa power of self-development and the process of African disempowerment began gradually from the period of slavery/enslavement; but most effectively from the upsurge of European imperialism and colonialism: political occupation, cultural domination and economic exploitation of Africa and partially to the present period of neo-colonialism.

The colonial period was a major era of African history that disrupted African evolution from a period of a continent of autonomous technological power, self-propulsion, self- production, prosperity, and self-confidence to determine their societal choices of development pathways and projects, to an era of progressively weakened and disorientated state. This state was brought about during the period of direct colonial intervention including political conquest and domination as well as colonial programmes and process of intensive cultural warfare: psychological and mental colonization. These were in addition of new economic patterns and institutions for raw material demand and production systems and equipment of exploitation: extraction and exportation, all of which disrupted Africa’s evolution technologically and that affected African confidence in their ability to self-develop. This was the powerful impact of implantation of colonial software of servility which still affects African leaderships and the elite to the present day.

In sum, the enslavement period, imposed indignity on Africans; colonialism imposed political domination, psychological disarray and the software of servility on Africans and neo-colonialism maintained the conditions of mental colonization, economic under production and exportation of value and importation of poverty.

3 The Eras of Re-empowerment and the Liberatory Pathways: Nationalism, Independence, Freedom, Renewal of Africa Agency and the Implantation of the Software of Power.

Despite the imposition of colonial domination and the disempowerment agenda, the colonial agenda was never total and could not reach the entire colonies and convert all the elite with the software of servility. There were significant elements of the African freedom fighters, anti-colonial activists, intelligentsia and elites who retained their cultural and mental autonomy and their “native” psycho-cultural foundations and the free will that spurred their desire to struggle for rights, freedom and independence. These were the African elites and intelligentsia who were patriotic and nationalistic and were concerned with the revival of African self-development capacity for the modern era through technological capacitation, mass industrial production, and in-continent prosperity generation.

With the recovery independence the nationalist leaderships and elites faced complex challenges including the colonial legacy of the neo-colonial system of impediments and disempowerment. Therefore, the patriotic leaderships and nationalist elite began to struggle for new alternative strategies for African political, cultural and economic re-empowerment. These were African patriotic nationalists that were concerned with revival of African self-development capacity for the through technological capacity, mass industrialization, modern agricultural production and the promotion of in-continent and in-country prosperity generation in the modern era.

4 Dangote and the Nationalist Economic Revolutionaries

Dangote was among these African and Nigerian nationalist economic revolutionaries who saw and chose the nationalist economic pathway to economic transformation against the extant neo-colonial system of production of raw material for exportation and importation of manufactured goods as the dominant of comprador bourgeoise economic vocation of the neo-colonial system. According to Dangote, it was in 1978 when he was 21 years old and Nigeria was 18 years old that he came across to the Nigerian government promotional economic ideological ideas of “backward integration ” as a path to national economic development through import substitution industrialization to mass production, mass employment and mass prosperity generation that he eventually came to the conclusion that was the path to take to Nigerian/African transformation and development. He took this doctrine to heart.

      Dangote’s distinctiveness is partly derived from his multiple commercial and social heritages. These include his family business background, Kano as an ancient centre of production and commercial activities; trade within Hausa land; and regional and long-distance trade in ancient West Africa and Kano as an entrepot of the Trans Sahara Trade to and from North African centres as Fez, Marrakesh, Tunis, Sijilmasa etc.

All these heritages were mixed in the melting-pot of ancient Nigerian DNA that today defines contemporary Nigerian-ness or the Nigerianity. This Nigeria DNA is pan-Nigerian, transethnic and found in the societies and peoples who resided in the ancient Nigerian commonwealth: empires, Kingdoms, states, city-states, Chiefdoms, and decentralized societies.

This pan-Nigerian DNA Nigerian, what Professor Ehiedu Iweriebor conceptualizes as Nigerians creative genetic code – a composite psycho-cultural admixture derived from comprised of the following settled traits: hard work, confidence, self-assurance, organizational acumen, vast ambition, audaciousness, achievement orientation, mobilization, sartorial flamboyance, free speech and militant vocal expression and monumental visions.  These elements minimally constitute the genetic markers of classical and typical Nigerian behavior in various areas of human endeavours that Nigerians engage in: the expectation to be the brightest, the biggest and the most successful. These psycho-social and cultural genetic markers were forged in the anvils and forges of the various ancient Nigerian societies: empires, kingdoms, city states, chiefdoms and decentralized societies interacting in the same environment of beneficial political and economic relations, social conflicts and warfare, diplomatic interactions and recovery in same geo-economic commonwealth for millennia. They are expressed in contemporary Nigeria as constituents what Professor Iweriebor describes as the Nigerian Alloy, the universally recognized and globally acknowledged traits of Nigerian-ness.

Dangote is a classic example of the embodiment of this Nigerian DNA in the contemporary era. This is the pan-Nigerian social foundation, fecund soil and affirmative psycho-cultural environment that Dangote was born in, brought-up and excelled with passion and confidence that is captured and expressed by his mantra “Nothing is Impossible”.  An apt summary of the Nigerian DNA.

Dangote and the Doctrine of African Economic Transformation, Re-empowerment and In-Continent Prosperity Generation

This is the basis of Dangote’s practical move from his import and export trading business model/comprador vocation to eventual manufacturing industry/national bourgeoise transformational role. He thereby moved ideologically to the understanding of manufacturing as a more secure source of vast profits through the strategy of “Backward Integration” and import industrialization programme with its national versatile and transformational economic consequences. This Dangote economic model was conceptualized by this writer in his book, Dangote and Pan-African Transformation: The Revolutionary Impact (2018), as the Dangotean African Transformation Template Strategy (DATTS).

This was the ideological and doctrinal basis for the Dangote’s Industries Limited (DIL) policy of mass production, self-reliance and self-sufficiency of these manufactured products such as cement, sugar, rice, tomato and etc and currently applied to areas of refined petroleum products, petrochemicals and fertilizer products. 

This led to the global Dangote Pan-African Strategy of development characterized by these necessary and permanent features: 

MASS PRODUCTION 

MASS PROSPERITY 

MASS POWER 

MASS RACIAL PRIDE

5 Mass Production and Self-Sufficiency

 In economic terms Modern Africa is characterized by a lack of the capacity for mass industrial production of goods and services. Consequently, the economies suffer for endemic insufficiency and the corresponding condition of scarcity, poverty and want.

Dangote development strategy has been geared toward industrial mass production for self-reliance and self-sufficiency. As he began to encounter developing economies like Brazil with vast Industrial production systems, he came to the understand that the path to secure profitability in developing countries like Nigeria was the creation of monumental factories that would mass produce range of goods for self-reliance and self-sufficiency. His framework of thought, as already noted, was applied to all his manufacturing industries. 

This Dangote doctrine of mass production and national and continental self-sufficiency is epitomized by the Dangote Complex, including the Petroleum Refinery, Petrochemical, and Fertilizer plants. The capacities of these plants capture the drive to mass production and self-sufficiency.

The petroleum refinery has the capacity to process 650,000 barrels daily producing the following: Gasoline 53 million liters daily; diesel 34 million liters daily; kerosene 10 million liters daily; Jet Fuel 2 liters million daily. All of these will produce surplus for export.

The Petrochemical plant has the capacity for the production 900,000 tonnes of polypropylene annually. This will eliminate dependency imported on raw materials for the plastics industry. An important element is that the plant will produce 77 types of polypropylene for different uses thereby expanding the scope of industries that can be established to utilize this great intermediate goods industry.

The fertilizer plant is ammonia and urea plant. It has a production capacity of 3 million metric tons of Urea per annum. It is one the largest fertilizer plant in the world. The plant will meet 1.5 million metric tonnes of national demand with other 1.5 available for export.

Thus, the products of Dangote complex will meet Nigeria’s needs of these products, thereby achieving national self-sufficiency. The extra capacities of plants will meet the needs of West and Central Africa and the other parts of the world.

This outcome fulfills one of the original mantras of the Dangote Group’s ideals of their global African objectives, “A SELF-SUFFICIENT AFRICA”. This idea of “A Self-Sufficient Africa” is one of the most potent nationalist Dangote formulations that tallies with the inner-most spiritual desires and material wishes of Africans to be free from the humiliations of dependency, want and lack that has endured from colonialism to the present; and to RE-ENTER the realms abundance, freedom and pride. Thus “A Self-Sufficient Africa” captures the eternal African desires for the restoration of human dignity.

The Dangote choice of mass production and self-sufficiency has become a beacon

for Nigerian industrialists to think and to construct their factories and enterprises to achieve mass production and self-sufficiency for the Nigerian, African and world markets.

6 Mass Prosperity through Mass Industrialization

The significance of these Dangote plants goes beyond mass production for self-sufficiency to the production of intermediate goods that can become the bases of the creation of hundreds of industries and in fact for the activation of national and continental mass industrialization.

      Thus, apart from their basic products, these plants produce intermediate goods that are essential for major modern industries that have to be imported in the absence of domestic sources. For example, the petroleum refinery apart from its petroleum, diesel, jet fuel, kerosene, the refinery produces many by-products including Slurry for the manufacture of Carbon Black. Carbon Black is used in making tires and many other rubber products examples belts, hosses, gaskets, bushing, wiper blades, conveyor belts and others. It is also used in plastics and electronic products and making toner and printing ink.  It is clear therefore that from just Carbon Black as an intermediate good a range new modern industries can be actuated to broaden the Nigeria manufacturing industries. Today with the expansion computers and printer usage in Africa and Nigeria, toners and printing ink are in high demand and are largely imported. Therefore, Carbon Black can be deliberately incentivized to develop a large toner and printing ink industries in Nigeria for the Nigerian and vast African markets.

      Thus the various petroleum intermediate products will promote mass industrialization with mass employment, good incomes, and general mass prosperity.

      Petrochemicals are derived for petroleum and natural gas. The major groups are Olefins, Aromatics and Synthetic Gas. The primary products of the Dangote Petrochemical plant are within the Olefin subgroup with specifically polypropylene and polyethylene, collectively known as polymers. But for now, it is producing polypropylene. These can provide the intermediate goods/feedstock requirement of the entire Nigerian plastic industries. Thus, with these domestic sources the Nigeria industry will no longer be dependent on the importation of feedstocks. Ethylene is used to make garbage bags, camera films, milk crates, bags and others. Thus, these ancillary industries will lead to the creation and expansion of new industries in the cottage, small, medium and large-scale industries in these various sub-sectors of the plastic and other industries. This again will result in mass industrialization based on of on domestic raw materials and intermediate good with the concomitant promotion of mass employment, steady incomes, improved quality of life, in-country and in-continent mass prosperity generation.   

      The other major component of the chemical complex is the fertilizer plant that produces ammonia and urea for agricultural production. This is another example of a production systems to meet the needs for modern agriculture that relied for many decades on imported fertilizer that could have been produced from domestic resources. It is another Dangote’s example intentional Choice to create the basis of national autonomy and self-sufficiency in the agricultural sector.

      Urea can used as feedstock for the development of many modern industries. For example Urea is used in the making of paint, adhesives, polyurethanes, pharmaceutical such as toothpaste, cosmetics, flame proofing, acid, fabric softeners, cattle feeds, formaldehyde, an additive to paper board, and plywood; for surface coating, moulding resins, leather clothing, textile and for products that reduce noxious emissions from diesel engines.

      In short, the intermediate goods from various Dangote chemical complex: refinery, petrochemicals and fertilizer will provide the seeds for conscious and deliberate programmes of Nigerian and African mass industrialization to generate mass prosperity through the availability of mass domestic sources of production, mass employment and advanced living conditions.   

Dangote by the creation of mass industrialization and conditions of in-country and in-continent prosperity generation has shattered the myth of Africa as endemically poverty- ridden; and replaced it with a reality of continent of prosperity generation from the exploitation of internal resources. This is in effect the creation of a new narrative of ideological freedom, production of capacities, practical autonomous national efforts and the triumph of African Will to Victory in an environment suffused by the externally fabricated dogmas of African incapacity.

7 Power and African Re-empowerment

The Dangote chemical complex, the refinery, petrochemical, and fertilizer plants are symbols and examples of African monumental projects of re-empowerment and recovery of the power and initiative to participate in the world system from strength and power. 

This is a new African condition of empowerment created by Dangote is best understands in the context of African and European from enslavement 500 years ago, but especially the conditions of colonialism in the late 19^th century to the 20^th century. The establishment of colonial power over African development provided the context for colonizers to develop and implant a software of servility and disempowerment.

This programme was implemented through the schools, churches, media, literature and other cultural media contributed to the creation conditions of psychological and mental enslavement, cultural diminution, political oppression, scientific and technological disempowerment. 

This successful colonial psychological programming of the colonized and neo-colonial elite: intelligentsia, political, bureaucratic, technocratic and economic leaders of African countries that accounts for the persistence of the mental dependency and the choice of non-development strategies that is perversive in Africa today. In consciously and unconsciously accepting and applying the economic dogmas of the Western Multilateral Imperialist Agencies like World Bank and IMF, these African leaderships are carriers of the software of servility and the pathologies of African disempowerment.

Therefore, the recovery of Africa power and the new regime of re-empowerment requires a full understanding of the causes and conditions of disempowerment to be able create powerful functional solutions, pathways and programmes of re-empowerment. The basic elements of power include the consciousness and the necessity of re-empowerment and their political, cultural, mental, pyschological, social and economic dimensions of power.  The knowledge of these elements will enable the design a large-scale African-wide re-education programmes. These elements must individually teased out and combined into a monumental secular Sacred Liberatory Text of African Re-empowerment.

In the context of this essay the most important component is societal self-owned economic accomplishment which grounds and anchors to all the other power elements and gives the society and its members with the freedom and power to act independently in their interactions with the rest of the outside world and gives them a liberated economic, ideological, cultural and mental self-perception.

Therefore, Dangote’s deliberate choice of the creation of massive and monumental industrial manufacturing systems based on the strategy of effective “Backward Integration” are exemplars of Nigerian and African radical break from foreign enslavement; and re-empowerment and implantation of the software of African liberation and self-propulsion. The Dangotean African Transformation and Template Strategy (DATTS) is the path to African mass production, mass prosperity and power. Thus, African states, nationalist and patriotic industrialists, business people and entrepreneurs must be consciously encouraged and officially incentivized to take paths of relentless investments in re-empowerment projects toward Africa’s ultimate power and the implantation of software of liberation as the norm of normal existence in Africa. 

This perspective coincidences with one of Dangote’s corporate objectives and ideological desires of African empowerment emblazoned in the website as follows: “EMPOWERED AFRICA”. This is therefore also an aspirational outcome that all Africans states, businesses and people should work to accomplish.

8 Pride and the Restoration of Racial Dignity

Dangote’s investment in mass production facilities for self-reliance and self-sufficiency, mass prosperity and power and re-empowerment through monumental industrial projects are also symbols of African pride and the beginning of restoration of African Dignity in their own right. This is outside the unofficial and official African efforts at the revival African cultural power and resilience through the cultural displays and wares in Cultural Festivals as parts of the efforts to restore African dignity during colonial period and the during post-independence era.

These efforts of cultural reclamation and assertion of African dignity were powerful and necessary global efforts and were spectacular cultural displays geared to re-animate and inspire, inform and psychologically re-educate African people about their heritage that were previously denounced under colonialism. But these efforts by themselves were ultimately inadequate and incomplete. This is because these cultural efforts were not backed with contemporary autonomous African scientific, technological capacitation, industrial production capacity and economic power and grand modern accomplishments.

The background to these pan-African efforts at the cultural restoration of pride and dignity stems from the same conditions of centuries of enslavement and the decisive decades of colonialist psychological warfare on African pride and dignity. The African nationalist intelligenstia and political activists in the Diaspora from the early 20th century and later continental nationalists intelligenstia were also as parts of the political efforts toward African liberation and the restoration of African pride and dignity. The diasporan pan-African activists led by intellectuals like Henry Sylvester Williams, Marcus Garvey, WEB Dubois, George Padmore organized and/or participated in Pan-African Conferences between 1900-1945. These were followed by continental activists like Kwame Nkrumah, Dr. Nnamdi Azikiwe, Jomo Kenyatta, Julius Nyerere etc from the 1950s through to the present.

In the post-independence era, the creation of the Organization of African Unity, (OAU) gave a fillip to the efforts at cultural reclamation, restoration of African pride and dignity. This was the context of African Cultural Festivals in 1966 in Dakar; in Algiers in 1969 and the FESTAC in Lagos in 1977. There has been no state sponsored Cultural Fiesta since then.  Nevertheless, several different African, continental and diasporan groups have continued to promote and celebrate African cultural heritage and historical achievements.

The efforts to advance African cultural awareness and pride among the present post- independence and millennium generations has received a major boost from the emergence of Africa video movies embodied and epitomized by the Nigerian Nollywood industry and its variants from the late 20^th century to the present. Its autonomous emergence has also encouraged the similar movie industries in other African countries. The Nigerian Nollywood industry is unique for various factors: its prolificity, its content, confident presentation, its thematic growth, and its gradual evolution in quality over time. It is example of Nigeria’s confident and boundless universal creativity in the modern era. It also the second largest movies industry in the world after Bollywood of India.

      Nollywood is the first modern Nigerian product conceived in Nigeria, manufactured in Nigeria, packaged in Nigeria and sold to the world from Nigeria. It is an exemplar of Nigeria’s global soft-power and its ultimate pervasive cultural Ambassador that implants Nigerian cultural signature the world over.

This trend of the young Africans unapologetically taking ownership of their cultural heritage and proudly promoting these varied cultural heritages has blossomed and is also expressed in the performing arts such as: music, dance and comedy and art works. Recently the activities of Nigerian and African cultural performers such as musicians, actors, dancers and so on has been led to the explosion of African of musical genius on the global level and the arousal of Africa pride about their cultural heritage from the past to the present that has been created in Africa and by Africans, presented and sold to world without the meddlesome “know-it-all” foreign mediators.  

These African cultural performers, carriers and Ambassadors of African artistic genius of the 21st century include Burna Boy, Davido, Wiz Kid, Rema, Kizz Daniels, Tiwa Savage, Yemi Alade, Tems, Fireboy DML, Mavokali, (Commando) Master KG  (Jerusalema)  and from African countries etc. Unburdened by the colonial mentality of their forebears and fathers’ generations, these 21^st century young generation African performance activists are cultural synthesists per excellence proudly combining elements of their particular ethnic heritages and with their contemporary composite national heritages to create unique global block-buster music, songs, movies, dances, and performances confidently presented to themselves and to the world.

      It is in these ways that Africa’s unique creations and presentation in movies, music, dance, art works and other cultural performances efforts have undoubtedly contributed to the partial restoration of African dignity and pride and psychological confidence on the global level.

      But it also clear that without an autonomous African global economic achievement, that racial pride and the restoration of racial dignity would be incomplete.

It is in this regard that the Dangote’s monumental world class industries are undeniable evidence of African global economic achievements in terms of mass production and promotion of self-sufficiency; in-continent prosperity generation; global power and re-empowerment, all of which contribute to racial pride and restoration of human dignity, earned by and created by African self-effort.

Some Conclusions

The Dangote choice to create a new system of economic of transformation which went against the inherited colonial economic system of neo-colonialism that promoted the expansion of exportation of raw materials and national wealth; and the importation of manufactured goods and poverty after independence, was revolutionary. This neo-colonial system leads to the re-creation of cycle of poverty generation and disempowerment.  The Dangote (DATTS) system changed all of that and puts Nigeria and Africa onto the trajectory of liberation, empowerment, developmental self-propulsion and abundance.

In this regard, the Dangotean system is a perfect example of a revolutionary Paradigm Shift in social science and reality that goes beyond the inherited system of economics of neo-colonialism and inaugurated a new economic system of production, prosperity and power. An important aspect of the Dangotean African Transformation Template and Strategy (DATTS) is its practical demonstration of “backward integration” as a viable pathway to massive and secure profit-making and the simultaneous promotion of endogenous resources, non-dependent transformation with its own internal business transactions and supply-chain system and therefore in-country prosperity generation.

The other remarkable feature of this Dangotean transformation system and this particular chemical complex is its design (intentionality) and determination to generate national mass production and prosperity. It is a classic example patriotic and Nigerian national bourgeoisie indigenous investment project that is clearly geared toward the promotion of national development.

This is in total contrast from the much worshipped “Foreign Investors and Foreign Direct Investment” that have never ever invested in transformational economic sectors. In contrast, “Foreign Investors” invest in sectors of assured profit without any iota of contribution to national economic development. Examples include CFAO, SCOA, UAC, RT Brisco, Shell, Total, Agip, Lafarge, Indian companies like Chellarams and Chanrai; Leventis, Suzuki etc. These enterprises despite decades of presence in Nigeria have made no value-added production facilities in Nigeria. Instead, they have maintained primary focus in profitable exploitative extractive and commercial activities that add no value to country.  In spite of this disreputable tradition of FDI non-investment in productive sectors or value-added activities, the Nigerian officialdom: political leaders, bureaucrats, technocrats, business leaders and companies, the intelligentsia in the media and academia are worshipful of so-called “foreign investors” and all parrot the dogma of “FDI” as the pathway to development.

      The Dangote chemical complex is also unique phenomenon and remarkable event in Nigeria’s economic history. It is the first industrial city and economic city of Nigeria. Apart from the chemical complex, the area has a host of complementary industries which are full-scale factories such as a large-scale oxygen and acetylene plant for the production of welding gases. etc. In addition, there are ancillary facilities like workers housing, low density residential areas, mixed use sites, roads, schools, banks, industrial sites, logistic and ware housing, power plants, sewage systems etc of all which suggest that a new human settlement is been developed, an Economic City. All these industries and facilities underscores the patriotic commitment and nationalist zeal that animates Dangote’s desire to make Nigeria into one of the greatest industrial centres of Africa and the world.

      These Dangote monumental industrial projects also have remarkable educational impact. The conception and construction of these plants required the mobilization of massive numbers of experts, professionals, and skilled workers, a total of 30,000 Nigerians. Apart from large numbers of workers used in building of the uncompleted Ajaokuta Steel Plant, this the largest concentration of new Nigerian varied engineers, technologists, technicians, crafts people, heavy equipment operators, and various builders all trained in the Dangote schools of national self-equipment for transformation. 

These Dangote monumental industrial production systems are an African wonder of the contemporary Age. They are also liberatory seed projects and the drivers of required mass industrialization of the convoluted emergent African century.

      This new Dangotean system is unique in its scope and intention, compared to the ancient projects. On the hand, without question the memorable African ancient and medieval structures: pyramids, monuments, exquisite artworks, architectural works and engineering masterpieces are eternal evidence of African leadership visions and ambitious for greatness, grandeur, organization abilities and state power. But their static location in particular countries and regions meant that their impact was limited and indirect. They were known in other parts of Africa by information and spread of knowledge about these African cultural creations.

         In contrast, the vision of Dangote’s African Pyramids of Industrial Production system is deliberately Pan-African, dynamic, versatile, and in its reach is extensive and continent-wide. It is also inherently generative in its capacity for expanded production and the creation self-sufficiency; products availability throughout Africa; mass prosperity generation through mass industrialization; creation of continental economic power; and freedom from dependency on imported goods as well as freedom from the imperative of submission to foreign diktats from bilateral and multilateral imperialist agencies. It is also a contribution to the racial pride and restoration of African Dignity through a globally economic significant project.

These are the eternal impacts on Africa of the Dangote’s African Pyramids of Industrial Production that makes the Dangotean African Transformation Template and Strategy (DATTS), a unique home-grown ideology and praxis with a universally applicable template with nationally appropriate pathways for Africa’s final arrival to autonomous power, entry to into world system as equals and equipped with the domestic industrial capacitation and mechanisms for self-propulsion.

In summary, Dangote is the Nigerian inheritor and embodiment of the African ancient and medieval ideological visions of power and vast ambitions of greatness; with the audacity to conceive such monumental industrial projects in the modern era; to undertake its gigantic construction; the ability to organize the massive financial requirements; the mass mobilization of the large-scale expert and skilled human resources; the discipline and resilience to see the such a massive project to conclusion/completion; unfazed by domestic and external naysayers; to acquire and co-ordinate technological equipment from different sources to create a seamless Nigerian engineering marvel and masterpiece and an African wonder of the modern era. 

Yesterday’s observances of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty are relevant to the economic management of Nigeria at this time. “Decent Work and Social Protection: Putting Dignity in Practice for All,” this year’s theme, is germane in many respects to  the agenda of the administration of President Bola Tinubu. The essence of  the theme, according to the United Nations, is “to promote understanding and dialogue between people living in poverty and the wider society.”

It was, therefore, fitting that the federal government elected to launch on the occasion its cash transfer programme. In the programme,  the most vulnerable 15 million households  will each  be given N25, 000 monthly each for a period of three months. The integrity of the social register to be used for the implementation is a critical factor for  the success  of the much-criticised programme.  

Significantly, the World Bank has pledged to support the programme. In recent times the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) have been advocating   greater social investments so as to strengthen the global economy. In what appears to be a change of tone from their positions some decades ago, the two institutions have been supporting social spending in education and health. The spending in these sectors is now regarded as wise investments in development terms.

This point is worth stressing because   the administration’s economic team seems enamoured of the prescriptions made  by the Bretton Woods institutions. 

To be sure, in  the light of Nigeria’s recent economic history social protection should not require a strenuous defence today because even in the heyday of the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP),  the social content of policy was not completely ignored in Nigeria.  And that was not only at the level of rhetoric. So, if you like, `even SAP advocates in Nigeria made more than a mere allusion to some social protection in the design and the articulation of the strategy. To do otherwise in this difficult socio-economic landscape in which  poor households operate would be dangerously insensitive. 

After all,  even the World Bank and IMF  institutions have now joined the International Labour Organisation (ILO) in paying a greater attention to social spending for the ultimate aim of achieving social protection. And social protection is achievable only with a mix of policies conceived to reduce poverty and bridge the gap of inequality. Hence, the World Bank is supporting the stopgaps contained in the Nigeria’s poverty reduction programmes. Increased allocations for health and education in the budget could be   a long-term antidote for the chronic malaise of poverty. The interventionist social investments are only  immediate and temporary dosages needed by some of the victims of poverty in the acute condition.   Their poverty condition is the worst. Hence, a time frame is often set for the implementation.

Yet, there is the urgent need to ponder the significance of the Conditional  Cash Transfer (CCT) programme.  Targeted at the most vulnerable in the society, the CCT could make a world of difference to the economy of a poor household, albeit temporarily, if honestly implemented. It is, perhaps, understandable while some relatively comfortable  members of the elite cannot fathom the social significance of the N25, 000 monthly for a poor household.

The point cannot be over-emphasised that the  CCT could only be  a marginal  element of a well-structured social protection package.

The policy of social protection needs proper articulation to convince its critics. And, maybe, the cynics too. A middle-class element, for whom the list of economic problems does not include lack of three square meals a day, can afford to dismiss the CCT as “a waste.” He may even begin to give us economic lectures on how the money could be better invested in some phantom productive sectors. There is, however, a reality that  is often ignored by the likes of the person in this  hypothetical case. He goes to his village only to be confronted by the pathetic story   of his 75-year old aunt without socio-economic support whatsoever from anywhere. The poor woman   has not eaten for two days before his arrival! For heaven’s sake, will this person reach for  his purse  to give this poor  aunt even N2,500 or will he give her economic lectures on some “efficient productive investments”? 

The truth which no one is proclaiming is that what Nigeria lacks is  only a systematised social security system. This is because virtually everyone of means is actually a one-man social security outfit. Most of the text messages some middle-class elements with incomes receive are pathetic stories of relations, friends and acquittances in need of some urgent financial support. A lot of the billions of dollars remitted by Nigerians in the Diaspora are actually meant to meet such needs that a well-established social security system should take care of ordinarily. An efficient  social security is central to the overall  achievement of social protection.   

In some  remote areas, the CCT may  be the first  experience of the people  feeling the impact of a government policy in such a direct manner. Some members of  the elite  contemptuously  call the transfers handouts. Yes, in some situations the handouts could indeed be life-saving for some of the recipients.

Models of implementation could be found  in Brazil, India, Mexico, Bangladesh , Argentina, other places. For instance, the World Bank-assisted programmes in Honduras has reportedly reduced the poverty gap by 27% for thousands of beneficiaries. Similarly, the population of underweight children who are under five has been reduced by 26%. With the equivalent of about   $225 dollars only transferred to each of the benefiting households in a year, access to basic education and healthcare was reported to have improved. The success of the Honduran experiment is such that a law has been made to back the policy of devoting 10% of a national trust fund to CCT.

That’s why those in charge of policies today may have one or two lessons to learn from the failures and successes of the last 40 years.

In particular,  lessons should be learnt from the implementation of the social investment programme of the administration  of former President Muhammadu  Buhari.

Besides, there should be a more inclusive deployment of technology to make the implementation more efficient. Special consideration should be given to those in the remote areas.

Above all, the implementation should be foolproof. The officials should be wary of those who may like to corrupt the process even at the lowest point of implementation. The integrity of the process is the greatest asset the programme could have in the circumstance.

Former Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, emerged from his hibernation slinging incoherent aspersions on the person of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and the exalted office he occupies.

After a long hiatus leaking his wounds from the monumental electoral loss of his candidate in the last presidential election, Mr. Lawal unabashedly is out again, peddling gibberish, rather than learn from his political misadventure with equanimity.

Clearly, the defeat of his principal, Peter Obi, at the poll has done incalculable damage to Mr. Lawal’s psyche and his capacity for rational thought as evident in his analysis based entirely on the figment of his warped imagination rather than on hard facts and figures. A clear sign of his disconnect from reality was his reference to election held in May 2023, rather than February.

We challenge Babachir Lawal to give a detailed breakdown of his so-called "aggregated facts sourced from independent sources," which he claimed proved that Obi won the election or forever keep mute. That he did not provide these facts to help Obi prove his case before the Presidential Elections Petitions Court is a massive disservice if not betrayal of his political principal.

Babachir Lawal ought to have known that running a jaundiced commentary on a matter before the Supreme Court is the height of irresponsibility. But he is still nursing bitterness and vindictiveness over his failed dream of running on a joint ticket with Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Indeed, Babachir Lawal is in dire need of professional counseling and deserves our collective pity. It is obvious he may never get over the pain of being tossed into the dustbin of political ignominy by President Bola Tinubu who, against all odds, defeated Mr Peter Obi that exploited our religious and ethnic fault lines in his campaign for the nation's highest office.

Thankfully, Nigerians across all ethnic and religious divides, saw through Babachir Lawal's and Peter Obi's shenanigans and voted for the best candidate, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu.

Furthermore, it is very uncharitable for Mr. Babachir Lawal to call to question the professional competence of President Tinubu's appointees, some of whom he cannot hold a candle to their political and professional accomplishments.

Babachir Lawal is one lightweight politician who thinks himself a heavyweight. He failed spectacularly as a politician in his State of Adamawa where in three election circles he could not deliver his ward and local government in his Hong Local Government.

Despite his legendary failure as a politician, former President Muhammadu Buhari in deference to diversity appointed him to the high office of SGF where he was unceremoniously sacked on account of very poor performance and dishonourable conduct. A man like Babachir Lawal is in no position to offer an opinion on the competence of President Tinubu's appointees.

We are convinced that these appointees would justify the confidence reposed in them by the President by delivering on the promises of the Renewed Hope Agenda of this administration.

And while they are it, we would admonish Babachir Lawal to concentrate on managing his farm and stop constituting himself into a needless distraction unbefitting of his age and status.

Signed:
Felix Morka, Esq.
National Publicity Secretary
All Progressives Congress (APC)

The candidate of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) in the last presidential election, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, said the 26.72 per cent inflation rate underscores the incompetence and cluelessness of the Bola Tinubu administration.

Atiku in a statement by his Special Assistant on Public Communication Phrank Shaibu blamed the rising inflation figure on the removal of fuel subsidies, shoddy exchange rate unification policy, and uninformed introduction of value-added tax (VAT) on diesel.

The former vice president said Tinubu’s declaration of a state of emergency on food security was nothing but mere rhetoric, noting that food prices had continued to rise due to a hike in the cost of transportation and dilapidated federal roads that had made interstate travel unbearable.

Atiku observed that while food prices in several parts of the world are dropping, “they are increasing in Nigeria because the country is being governed by an economic Lilliputian whose only bragging right is increasing the revenue of Lagos State through multiple taxation and the institutionalisation of extortion.”

He argued that the administration knows nothing about exchange rates, monetary policy, or how to run a multi-ethnic and largely agrarian country like Nigeria.

“This was a man who said last year that the only way to solve unemployment was to employ 50 million youths into the army and feed them with ‘Agbado (corn), cassava and ewa (beans)’. How can such a man have the answers to Nigeria’s problems?” he asked.

Atiku described Tinubu’s administration as prodigal, noting that at a time he was calling for belt-tightening, he inaugurated the largest cabinet in Nigeria’s history and is set to plunge Nigeria deeper into more debt.

“He declared an emergency in food security, ordered the release of grains, and reviewed his earlier palliative plan, but 100 days since the so-called declaration of a state of emergency, Nigerians are hungrier and poorer.

“It is obvious that it was all a ruse to deceive the feeble-minded, just like his announcement on the lifting of the UAE visa ban,” the PDP candidate said.

He called on Nigerians to tarry a bit longer while the Supreme Court tried to rectify the electoral disaster of February 25 and expressed worry that should the Tinubu administration last a year, Nigerians would be poorer than ever.