The House of Representatives Ad hoc Committee on Non-remittance of the National Housing Fund (NHF) and the utilisation of the fund from 2011 has summoned critical stakeholders for its investigative hearing.

It set August 23 to begin hearing into the matter.

Rep. Dachung Bagos, the committee’s chairman, said this in a memo in Abuja on Saturday.

He said the speaker of the House, Rep. Tajudeen Abbas, would inaugurate the committee on Wednesday.

Among the critical stakeholders invited were the Head of Civil Service of the Federation (HoCSF), the Federal Mortgage Bank of Nigeria (FMBN), the Accountant-General of the Federation and the Auditor-General of the Federation.

Others include the chairman of ICPC, the acting chairman of EFCC and the Surveyor-General of the Federation.

He also urged the affected institutions and government officials to submit memorandums and other relevant documents to the committee’s secretariat.

(NAN)

The current administration of Bola Tinubu is expected to pay off a $3.4bn owed to the International Monetary Fund during his tenure.

Saturday PUNCH earlier reported that the Federal Government of Nigeria is expected to pay the IMF a total of $3.51bn between 2022 and 2026 to offset the $3.4bn loan.

However, according to information obtained from a webpage on the IMF’s website, titled ‘Nigeria: Financial Position in the Fund as of July 31, 2023,’ there is an outstanding of $3.19bn, which will be paid off during the current administration.

In April 2020, the IMF disbursed a $3.4bn emergency financial assistance to Nigeria.

The loan was approved under the Rapid Financing Instrument by the Executive Board of the IMF on April 28 ‎to address challenges arising from the economic impact of COVID-19 in the country.

The loaned amount was disbursed on April 30, 2020.

A statement by the IMF on the loan read, “The IMF approved $3.4bn in emergency financial assistance under the Rapid Financing Instrument to support the authorities’ efforts in addressing the severe economic impact of the COVID-19 shock and the sharp fall in oil prices.”

It was also disclosed that out of four agreed loans, disbursement was made on only one loan.

Under a section titled ‘Overdue Obligations and Projected Payments to Fund’, a breakdown of how much Nigeria is expected to pay each year is provided.

The amount to be paid was provided in the Special Drawing Rights. The SDR is an international reserve asset, created by the IMF in 1969 to supplement its member countries’ official reserves.

SDR1 is currently $1.33 based on the exchange rate provided by the IMF on its website.

As a result, in 2023, Nigeria is expected to pay SDR373.81m ($497.17m), which includes principal (SDR306.81m/$408.06m) and interest fee (SDR67m/$89.11m) on the loan.

Nigeria is expected to pay a total of SDR1.32bn ($1.76bn) in 2024. This comprises a principal fee of SDR1.23bn ($1.64bn) and an interest fee of SDR94.76m ($126.03m).

In 2025, Nigeria is expected to pay a total of SDR650.58m ($865.27). This comprises a principal fee of SDR613.63m ($816.13m) and an interest fee of SDR36.95m ($49.14m).

The country is expected to pay a total of SDR25.56m ($33.99m) each in 2026 and 2027, which is only an interest fee. This is the least amount during the repayment period.

The PUNCH observed that repayment had been extended to 2027 from the initial 2026 earlier reported.

In total, the new administration is expected to pay $3.19bn to the IMF, which further suggests that the previous administration likely paid $320m on loan.

In its 2022 financial statements, the CBN made reference to the loan.

It stated, “In 2020, the Bank entered into rapid financing instrument’s arrangement with International Monetary Fund on behalf of Federal Government of Nigeria. The loan is a 5 years tenor facility, repayable after a moratorium of 2 years and the interest rate is 1% per annum.”

The CBN added, “Repayment of the IMF loans as well as charges is the responsibility of the bank.”

The President of the Nigerian Labour Congress, Joe Ajero, has noted that the N5bn palliative package per state as announced by the Federal Government won’t amount to N1500 per person when shared among over 133 million Nigerians who are multi-dimensionally poor.

Ajero, who made this known on Friday in an interview on the Politics Today show on Channels Television, argued that there was no way N185bn would amount to something impactful, when shared among 133 million Nigerians who are multi-dimensionally poor, according to statistics he got from the National Bureau of Statistics.

The Labour Union leader maintained that even if the funds were converted to the value of six trailers of rice, it wouldn’t amount to a cup of rice per individual when shared.

He added that from the time of the first increment of pump price for petroleum to the last one, more Nigerians had gone beyond the borderline and had slid into a very high level of poverty.

“Let us assume that it is a palliative and not a loan, you will agree that it is difficult to feel the impact of such an amount at a time like this when the Bureau of Statistics has come up to say that over 133 million Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.

“You start to wonder about the impact of N185bn to 133 million people by their admittance, who are multi-dimensionally poor.

“In fact from the first increase in pump price of petrol and the last one, a lot of people moved from the borderline to a very high level of poverty. If you calculate and do an arithmetic on that, you will discover that it won’t amount to N1500 per person and you ask if that’s the impact that we want to achieve,” he said.

The Edo State House of Assembly, on Friday, called on residents of the state to disregard the purported impeachment plan by the lawmakers against the Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu.

The Speaker, Blessing Agbebaku, who disclosed when the 24 members of the House of Assembly visited Governor Godwin Obaseki at the Government House in Benin City, said he never received a directive from Obaseki to commence an impeachment of Shaibu.

“We are here to clear the air on the insinuation of the impeachment of the Deputy Governor of Edo State. I want to let the people of Edo State know that there was nothing of such in the State House of Assembly.

“There was no time that the governor called me and instructed me that there must be an impeachment against the deputy governor. The rumour of impeachment is from the pit of hell.

“When I approached the governor, he asked if there’s anything like that. I told him there is no such plan. Nothing of such is going on. On my own, I called the deputy governor to tell him that there was nothing like an impeachment plan by the Assembly and what he heard was rumour.”

The Speaker further said that the visit by the lawmakers to the governor to reassure him of their support to enable him to finish well.

“The 24 members of the EDHA are all here to let you know that we will join you to finish strong as Edo people must live a good life and you are already setting the pace,” Agbebaku added.

Responding, Obaseki said the focus of his administration was to continue with its developmental strides in the state as he would not be distracted from delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of Edo State.

He said having done “so much” in Edo, the state should be noted for positive developments.

He added, “There is no crisis in Edo. No crisis in the government. No crisis in EDHA and those who benefit from crises, creating crises, or reporting crises should not be given the opportunity here.

“What should be of concern to us today is the failure of federal roads in the state which have almost incapacitated the State as the people are unable to move. That should be a crucial concern to us as Edo people.”

The Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria (IPMAN) has said the federal government was secretly paying subsidy on petrol to maintain the current pump price.

Naija News reports that presently, petrol sells for between N568 and N617 in different parts of the country, and the ex-depot price of petrol stood at N580 per litre in Lagos on Thursday.

After adding the cost of conveying it to filling stations and the marketers’ profit margin, it ought to sell for between N620 and N630 per litre.

It was gathered that the difference, however, represents the subsidy that the government is surreptitiously bearing despite the fact that there is no budget for that.

In a chat with The Punch on Friday, IPMAN National Secretary, Chief John Kekeocha, said the decision of the government to put a cap on petrol prices meant that subsidy on the product had been reinstated.

He said, “The government is not being very transparent with this issue. When you say you have removed fuel subsidy, you don’t come again and moderate prices. It is like speaking with the two sides of the mouth.

“Removal of subsidy means you have removed your hands, and the prices have to follow demand and supply. So if the NNPC says it is getting forex (foreign exchange) to import products and reduce prices for marketers, are they going to do the same for other importers? Remember that the government gave import licences to about seven marketers?

“Are they still going to moderate prices for those people when they bring in the product? No! You don’t blow hot and cold at the same time. There is no way they can bring in the product and reduce the price and peg it for marketers to sell at a certain level; it means they are indirectly bringing back subsidy.

“If they want to bring back subsidy, let them say it openly that we are going to come back to subsidy because of the pains the country generally is going through. This is because the initial things they are supposed to do they did not do. We have always been clamouring; let the refineries work.”

Also speaking, IPMAN Spokesman, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, insisted that the subsidy on petrol was being returned gradually.

He said, “You can also see the analysis that the Presidency made with the cost of the product in neighbouring countries, as well as in the international market. It said no country is selling non-subsidised petrol at N617/litre.

“But that is not a qualitative analysis. You will talk about the purchasing power of your own currency, as it were. In Ghana, a bottle of Coke is about N400, but it is about N200 in Nigeria. You won’t say because it is N400 in Ghana, Nigerians should also buy it at N400.

“So, that analogy by the Presidency in stating that petrol is cheaper here is not entirely correct. This takes us to the importance of domestic refining, which will enable us to check the demand for dollars and importation of petroleum products.

“If we actually want full deregulation, there must be local production that will check the rise in dollar. For once the dollar is rising, there’s nothing you can do to stop the simultaneous rise in petrol price.

“If not, it means the Federal Government is subsidising petroleum products, which implies that subsidy has indirectly returned.”

Veteran journalist, television host and newspaper columnist, Dr Reuben Abati was one of 102 people inducted as a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (NIM) on Thursday.

The Institute's 2023 Awards, Fellows, and Spouses' Day Luncheon was held at the MUSON Centre's spacious Shell Hall in Onikan, Lagos, with the customary pomp, pageantry, frills, and thrills.

Several prominent Nigerians attended the event, which had the theme "The Leadership Imperative for Managers in a Rapidly Changing World" and was widely attended by them.

 The President of NIM, Dr. Christiana Atako stated at the Nigerian Institute of Management Chartered (NIMC) 2023 Awards, Fellows, and Spouses' Day Luncheon in Lagos that the institute's process of upgrading members to Fellows has always been thorough, which is why only those who are truly deserving of the award are honoured yearly.

The fellowship upgrade, according to her, is a call to greater responsibility and contribution to the institute, the management profession, and the country rather than a goal or an aim in and of itself.

In order to help NIM in its varied missions, Atako urged the inductees to put their skills and areas of expertise at its disposal.

In an acceptance speech on behalf of the other inductees, Abati said that receiving the fellowship from the top professional institute was a source of tremendous pleasure and delight.

Mr. Anthony Arabome, former Director, Corporate Services, African Finance Corporation, and past President, Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), presented The Leadership Imperatives for All Managers in a Rapidly Changing World.

In a dynamic, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous world, Arabome highlighted four traits that successful corporate leaders must exhibit.

The four habits were defined by the former president of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management as making decisions quickly and firmly, engaging for impact, adapting proactively, and delivering consistently.

He contends that high-performing CEOs and C-suite leaders are distinguished more by their increased decisiveness than by their constant ability to make excellent decisions.

"Once a clear course for the business has been set, chief executive officers and top leaders should secure buy-in among their employees and other stakeholders," he said.

The expert noted that leadership demanded initiative and calculated risk-taking to try new ideas, and management should deliver best practises to assure quality and customer satisfaction.

"Strong performers balance keen insight into their stakeholders’ priorities with an unrelenting focus on delivering business results.

"Chief executive officer candidates who scored high on reliability are twice as likely to be selected for the role and 15 times more likely to succeed in it because boards and investors love a steady hand and employees trust predictable leaders.

"Companies and individuals need to develop leadership and management capabilities and become adept at assessing when and how to use them.

"Whether you are in the public or private sector, if you are going to be influential and impactful, you need to have and deploy good management and leadership skills," he said.

 See Pictures Below:

A speculative news story from TheCable about President Bola Ahmed Tinubu considering a temporary restoration of petrol subsidies in light of the current unspeakable adversity that Nigerians are going through trended early this week. If it’s true, it’s commendable, but on Thursday Tinubu doubled down on his decision to remove subsidies, saying his government was rolling out measures to palliate the pain of his policy. Well, that’s not a good sign. Palliatives only temporarily lessen a pain without ever curing it.

Anyone who has followed my writing knows that I’m an uncompromising defender of subsidies (including—in fact, especially— fuel subsidies) and a fierce antagonist of proponents of the elimination of subsidies. It doesn’t matter how much I regard you; I draw the line when you justify cruel governmental irresponsibility deviously euphemized as “removal of subsidies.”

For starters, maybe we should stop using the word “subsidy” since the word’s semantic properties have been hijacked by cold, cruel wretches in and out of government. Subsidy, shorn of all its pretensions, basically means “government assistance.” It isn’t the horrible evil that conservative ideologues want you to think it is.

In a deeply communal society like Nigeria where assisting people less privileged than we are is a core cultural expectation, let’s see how government officials and their flunkies in the media can publicly justify saying “government assistance” in and of itself is bad and should be denied to people who need it because it’s expensive and because people who are tasked with dispensing it are corrupt.

Would a responsible father stop giving assistance to his children—or his relatives— because the people he hired as suppliers of the assistance embezzle some or most of it? No, he would punish the suppliers and then find more foolproof ways to administer the assistance without bankrupting himself. 

In any case, how many dodgy oil marketers who ripped off the country have been brought to justice? “Subsidy thieves” whose crookedness has been invoked as a justification for removing fuel subsidies aren’t disembodied spirits from outer space. They are Nigerians who are intimately known to people in government—and whose theft is assisted by people in government. There is always a relationship between increases in the amount of fuel subsidy payments and the approach of general elections.

If governments don’t extend assistance to citizens on whose behalf they exist, we might as well live in anarchy. Right now, in Nigeria, the government exists only for the rich and for the powerful. For everyone else, it is unvarnished anarchism. 

I talk to people in Nigeria every single day. Because the state is being withdrawn, people are being exposed to the full fury of the elements, and they're losing the will to live. Their self-esteem and sense of personhood are in tatters—in more ways than has ever been the case.

But all that neoliberal apologists in Nigeria do is regurgitate the racist, impractical, flyblown, ill-digested talking points that the World Bank, the IMF, and American conservative think tanks have fed them with. 

They see sobering, indisputable evidence of the abject failure and cruelty of the economic prescriptions their masters in the West have imposed on developing countries but, like preprogrammed robots, all they do is repeat the discredited and unworkable ideological dogmas they have memorized.

They are ideological zombies who have a fixed frame into which they fit everything. If things don't fit, they force or ignore them. That’s why they come across as unfeeling, sadistic ideologues.

We're talking here about real, living, breathing human beings in Nigeria who're dying, who're being suffocated because of the withdrawal of the state. 

 America is the belly of the capitalist beast, and I live in it. None of the mantras neoliberal apologists in Nigeria regurgitate on TV work here.

In every functional society, the government helps the poor and the middle class. The United States subsidizes petrol consumption with up to $50 billion per annum. That's why petrol is cheaper in many parts of America today than it is in Nigeria. With a minimum wage of at least $1,500 a month, Americans are paying less for petrol than Nigeria with a minimum wage of $60 per month.

America also has unemployment benefits for people who lose their jobs; free money for food (called food stamps) for the desperately poor and the unemployable; free money for citizens, permanent residents, and other legal residents during recessions so people can spend money to regenerate the economy; free medical care for the poor and the aged; and so on. 

It's only Third World countries that the IMF and the World Bank recommend soulless, conscienceless, laissez-faire capitalism for and, because our leaders are sadists and mean-spirited and many followers are clueless and ignorant, they embrace their self-immolation with smiles and pride. 

I have little patience with people who are insensitive to the suffering of ordinary, vulnerable people in society because I grew up in poverty myself and know what it means to be poor. I know for a fact that if I were to come of age in this time of the removal of subsidies from everything, I would not be where I am today. So many people's futures are being sacrificed right now.

Tuition fees are being quadrupled across the country from secondary schools to universities at a time when every subsidy is being removed, when new taxes are being introduced, but when salaries remain stagnant. That can't sit well with me.

I always remember where I come from and won't ever throw the poor under the bus just because I'm no longer poor. I'll always fight anyone, no matter who he or she is, who wants to burn the poor— or wants to defend the burning of the poor.

The idea that the government needs to save money from the removal of fuel subsidies to build infrastructure and develop other sectors of the country is a cop-out. Governments in Nigeria have no record of probity in the use of public funds. But, somehow, some Nigerians have been persuaded that money realized from the removal of subsidies will be exempt from the corruption that is the fate of all public money. 

Agreeing with the propaganda that subsidies are bad and should be removed to save money for infrastructure is the severest form of self-annihilating mass hypnotism I've seen in my life.

The truth is that more people are being sunk into absolute poverty because of the removal of fuel subsidies, and many more will sink even further in the coming months and years. Ignorant Nigerian neoliberal ideologues say they don't trust the government to efficiently give subsidies to the poor, but they apparently have no problems with the subsidies people in government give to themselves.

 In fact, as Tinubu implied when he said he was asked to take his "share" from the subsidy removal windfall, subsidy removal often means no more than taking away from the poor to expand the wealth and luxuries of people in government. The money is never used for anything that benefits the nation. It's just more money for the elite to steal. 

If defenders of anti-people, right-wing economics can devote just half the energy of their anti-subsidy masturbations to also fight the unfair subsidies for the rich, we would get somewhere. But it's easier to fight the poor because they're defenseless and there is no risk to that than to attack the privileges of the rich because that might come with risks to the source of livelihood of our new neoliberal evangelists.

No one talks of the drain on the economy that the National Assembly constitutes. No one cares that Nigeria maintains 10 aircraft in the presidential air fleet at the cost of billions of naira in maintenance cost even though Britain, which is far richer than Nigeria, had no dedicated fleet of aircraft for its prime minister until 2016 when a plane was purchased for the office of the Prime Minister  (and “other ministers and senior members of the royal family when they travel on official engagements”) at the cost of $15 million. 

Note that, according to official records, it cost about $15 million between May and November in 2016 to maintain Nigeria’s presidential air fleet.

Besides, hundreds of billions are allocated every year to finance the feeding, travel, medical bills, brand new cars, and even sewage disposal of people in the presidency.

Now compare that to America, the world’s wealthiest nation. American presidents pay for their own food from their pockets. 

If the world’s wealthiest country doesn’t subsidize the personal expenditures of its first families, why do Nigerian budgets earmark billions for the convenience of the first family but talk of “sacrifice” and being “broke” when it comes to giving subsidies to the poor?

Former New York state governor Mario Cuomo once said, “You campaign in poetry. You govern in prose.” In the 2023 election, all the major—and even minor—presidential candidates campaigned in cruelty, not in poetry. They all said they would eliminate government assistance for the poor if they were elected. They got loud ovations from their clueless supporters. Now Tinubu is governing in the same cruelty he campaigned in.

 The truth is that if either Atiku or Obi had won, Nigerians would be going through exactly what they’re going through now. This consideration modulates my anger toward Tinubu. Tinubu isn’t the enemy; the enemy is the pernicious neoliberal ideology that has percolated deep into the recesses of Nigeria. 

A friend said to me a few days ago that Nigeria should constitutionalize the criminalization of neoliberal economics. I agree. Nigerians are not guinea pigs for racist economic experiments.

The conversation below happened among three friends of Itsekiri origin who were invited to a year’s fellowship in an elite research institute in north America. This visit is expected to strengthen their ability to collect and analyze data related to developing countries. As part of the successful completion of the research visit, they are expected to present and submit a book manuscript at the end of their

term. Please find below their dialogue after they met with their host – Prof. Meticulous. Taymesan: Hello gentlemen. I think we are set for an eventful and research packed year. I hope we will become scholarly before we leave this institute.

Eyimofe: Nowadays, I am doubtful who is really a scholar when researchers conduct experiments on a given segment of the population and infer from this segment about the entire population. Not to

mention the accusation of fraud that is all over the place.

Oritsefemi: Well, it is even accepted to study undergraduate students and use their responses to develop policy from marketing to psychology. I stay awake at times wondering about the logic behind

this. Anyway, I will ignore my biases while I learn from mentors and colleagues at this institute. I am happy to meet you Taymesan and Eyimofe.My middle name is Adaramaja. Iam also of Itsekiri descent

but grew up in Portugal and have been working on cocoa research in Ecuador and Belgium for years.

I will return to Nigeria to help with the cocoa sector after this fellowship. Furthermore, I want to know more about the Itsekiri people of Nigeria.

Taymesan: Itsekiri! We will unconsciously learn about our origin as we hang out together in the next 12 months. Remember that knowledge is tacit.

Eyimofe: Personally, I think if we don’t understand other people’s cultures, we will never comprehend our own. In other words, learning about our own culture while immersed in another culture is the

bestconsequence.

Oritsefemi: Thank you Eyimofe. I am glad you are in my cohort. I am positive I will learn a lot from you. Your profile says that you have three PhDs (one in economics, another in philosophy and the

last in religious studies especially the Abrahamic religions).

Taymesan: Wow, I am flabbergasted. I didn’t see his profile, Oritsefemi! But I heard people after the orientation talking about one Eyimofe who is a polyglot and a polymath.

Oritsefemi: Polyglot and polymath? Can you please amplify what you mean by those terms?

Taymesan: Eyimofe is a polyglot because he can speak 10 languages. He is a polymath because he is knowledgeable in different areas. He recently wrote an excellent 1000 pages book on the intersection

of culture, colonization, and religion.

Oritsefemi: My impression is that many scholars have written about those concepts.

Taymesan: Eyimofe’s thesis is different. He developed an extensive nexus between odu ifa (ifa corpus), the 256, and the future of artificial intelligence. Furthermore, he explained how cancer can be treated using African indigenous knowledges including using extracts from bitter leaf.

Eyimofe: Enough about me. On the issue of learning more about the Itsekiri people, I read a journal article a few years ago and the quote below which was insightful to me: “The Itsekiri today number 30,000 people. They speak a dialect of Yoruba but culturally have more in common with Benin. One may postulate the acceptance of the rule of a Benin prince by a people who were proto- Yoruba, that is Yoruba speakers who were unaffected by the cultures invading their country from the north in the past two millennia. The Itsekiri are culturally quite distinct from the neighbouring Urhobo (Edo or Benin speaking) and Ijoh, though from both they have borrowed many traits” (P.C. Lloyd 1963; “The Itsekiri in the Nineteenth Century: An Outline Social History” The Journal of African History)

Oritsefemi: Excellent. This is good start. We will continue from there next week when we meet for our weekly discussion of Itsekiri history.

Taymesan: I have been thinking about the cuisine they have at the institute’s cafeteria. The challenge is they offer a significant amount of pork related products such as bacon, ham, and sausage. I follow

the kashrut dietary law, so I don’t eat pork.

Eyimofe: What you see online is not necessarily sacrosanct. You need to cross check with the hospitality service and let them know you have a dietary restriction. What you see is not necessarily what it  is! Don’t ever judge a book by its cover. As for me, I am a flexitarian (flexible plus vegetarian), a flexitarian is an omnivore with a higher propensity towards the consumption of plant-based diet. So, I am fine with any food that is available.

Oritsefemi: Is kashrut dietary law related to kosher?

Taymesan: Yes, it is.

Oritsefemi: Good to know. I consult for an agricultural export company in east Africa and attaining the European Union (EU) standards with respect to sanitary and phytosanitary standards is always a challenge but now there are religious considerations too. To trade successfully in this global village agricultural stakeholders should be careful of the ingredients that go into the production of food. If you produce insect-based feed, it is forbidden under the kashrut law - kosher. The only insect that is allowed is grasshopper because of the way it jumps. If they use locust, short-honed grasshopper or cricket at times is regarded as closely related to grasshopper, then it would be fine for export to countries like Israel. Some Shia predominant countries are also reluctant to consume insects, though halal is neutral with respect to the consumption of insects.

Eyimofe: Halal, kosher, and organic are all niche markets that are desirable but their compunctions can be difficult to ascertain. Remember that food is an experience and not a search good. You may

not even know the authenticity of the product after consumption except you are familiar with the desirable traits of the food. Certifications are often used to guarantee quality, but it is not a panacea.

In other words, what you see is not necessarily what it is.

Taymesan: Thanks, Eyimofe. Your analysis is related to the economics of information. You can buy a product with the impression that it has the desired attributes meanwhile, but you bought the bad

instead of good in a market for lemons, a situation referred to as adverse selection. This is just to corroborate your assertion Eyimofe that what you see is not necessarily what it is.

Eyimofe: Great. Thanks for the example.

Oritsefemi: Adverse selection, moral hazard, and principal-agent problems are all challenges associated with asymmetric information in the market. Another concept I find useful in economics is dynamic returns to scale – the reduction of cost due to accumulation of experience and learning. A reason why I think countries should protect their economies from dumping and thus allowing for trial and error.

This is usually enhanced by subsidies.

Eyimofe: Dynamic economics of scale is based on learning by doing because learning can be accumulated. How will you learn if your industry is not protected?

Taymesan: Subsidy! There is a dichotomy nowadays between the supporters and antagonists of the implementation of subsidy. Some people even assert that subsidies may be fraudulent.

Eyimofe: Subsidies are very important. For example, the Canadian supply management is a subsidy program for the dairy, eggs and poultry sector. The Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the EU is

based on subsidy otherwise most farmers will be out of production.

Taymesan: I struggle with the idea of leaving the market to operate by itself. There is a lot of hidden and asymmetric information in the market and price mechanism doesn't work most of the time. Price

mechanism may lead to market failure. There's no equilibrium in the market because it creates disincentive for entrepreneurship.

Oritsefemi: Absolutely! Prof. Meticulous, told me that the free market as espoused by the present government of Nigeria and other developing countries my not be appropriate. He told me he does

not believe in perfect competition and equilibrium. In a perfectly competitive market, profit is zero and no sensible person will operate in that domain. He said he subscribes to Kirzner’s idea that what we have in real life is equilibrating tendencies and rivalry among players.

Eyimofe: How can subsidy be problematic. If subsidy is problematic, then it's not the problem of subsidy. It is the problem of implementation, especially lack of participation error. Again, what you see  is not necessarily what it is.

Taymesan: I agree with you.

Oritsefemi: I concur. I explained to Prof. Meticulous that the countries are manipulated to implement these policies by international organization that don’t have a good grasp of the prevailing situation in these countries. Developing countries also lag with respect to research. It's been more than 20 years

that the issue of removal of fuel subsidy started in Nigeria. And there is still a dearth of scholarly work

on this issue.

Eyimofe: The structural adjustment programs (SAP) of the IMF/World Bank with many attributes including devaluation of currency, deregulation, and removal of government support among others

contributed negatively to the economy of developing countries. For example, the devaluation of the naira made cash crops such as cocoa cheap abroad but inputs like Gamalin 20 (a chemical later banned

as carcinogenic) became expensive. Devaluation is only good if your country exports, otherwise it's a disaster.

Oritsefemi: How do you explain the volatility in the foreign exchange market of developing countries?

Eyimofe: The exchange rate is always a challenge, and it can lead to arbitrage. As I was taught by one of my professors, in the short run the exchange rate is a mystery but a function of inflation and productivity in the long run. These ideas are well explained using purchasing power parity, Big Mac Index, Balasa-Samuelson, and the trilemma of international finance. The movement in the exchange rate market is not entirely explained by the theories above because what you see is not necessarily what it is.

Furthermore, my cousin, Amorighoye – a citizen of the US, left Nigeria after high school in 1989. He sent $60 US to his step mum in 1990 (exchange rate was $1US = 10 Naira: SAP contributed to this).

Fast forward to early 2000s when my family friend was about to start his PhD, he transferred money from Nigeria to Canada ($1CAD = 75 Naira). The rates continue to depreciate, and they now fluctuate

between 700 and 900 naira to $1US (August 2023). My concern is that all these policies by foreign experts continue to depress the economy of developing countries. And their currencies are not a good

store of value talk less of convertibility. The question I keep asking myself is how and why the Gambian Dalasi is stronger than Naira and the West African CFA francs?

Taymesan: I think the exchange rate will continue to be a mystery both in the short run and long run. Economists have failed to predict major events in our lifetime correctly. They didn’t see the sub-prime

mortgage crisis of 2008 and they flip flopped with respect to the management of COVID-19. Personally, I think monkeys picking numbers at random will predict the success of an investment better than experts. Be careful of the recommendation by experts - what you see is not necessarily what it is.

Oritsefemi: I am beginning to see that the use of our sense organs and judgment based on observation may not be absolute. A colleague once visited a village where he saw only black goats. He came and submitted a report claiming that the village has only black goats. Little did he know that Mr. Exception has only brown and white goats and he was in a nearby village to visit the veterinary doctor with his goats during my colleague’s visit.

Taymesan: Hehehe… this scenario is related to the ideas presented by Taleb Nassim in the Black Swan.

Oritsefemi: Not necessarily! Taleb is mostly talking about our blindness to random events, that is the impact of the highly improbable.

Eyimofe: There is uncertainty, randomness, and volatility in all spheres of life. For example, the real estate market can present surprises. Who will ever fathom that the second largest developer in China,

1 Currency exchange: August 18, 2023

1USD = 60.55 Gambian Dalasi

1USD = 601 West African CFA francs

1USD = 700 - 900 Naira

Evergrande, can collapse after owing $300 billion. Big at times may be a façade because what you see is  not necessarily what it is. There is a popular saying in land economics that buyers should beware “caveat emptor”.

Oritsefemi: I don’t understand how people will complete their mortgage in the current regime where houses in some cities in Canada are overpriced and based on speculation. There is no relationship

whatsoever between the prices of houses and the average income of Canadians. I wonder who lives in those houses?

Eyimofe: Easy questions. The properties are filled with investors, speculators, people who think a house that they live in is an investment, and conspicuous consumers.

Taymesan: Are you implying it is a bad idea to buy a house?

Eyimofe: It is not but please exercise caution as you try to enter the housing market.

Oritsefemi: Well, ilu gangan loro aye. Ti o ba kooju senikan, eyin loko si elomiran (this life is a like a talking drum, while the front faces an individual the back faces another person). A simple translation is there are two sides to a coin.

Taymesan: Two sides to a coin! I was at a café yesterday for my daily dose of cappuccino and I heard two elderly people and a hippie trashing the gig economy. What do you think Oritsefemi?

Oritsefemi: On the issue of gig economy: Suppose two immigrants with a bachelor's degree from Nigeria migrated to Canada in 2007. One got a job (Mr. A) and he's still working now 16 years later.

The other enrolled in a master’s degree program. The graduate degree holder (B) finished in 2010, did contract jobs here and there before he secured a permanent position in 2015 with an annual income

of $60,000.

Mr. A on the other hand was paid $8/hour in 2007 = $1120/month. And 16 years later, he is paid $15.5/hrs. This translates to $2,170. And after 15 years his qualification is still the bachelor from

Nigeria and skills improvement limited to the place of work.

In 2007, a room in a house was $300 and a two-bedroom apartment was $800. In 2023, it is $600 and $2200 respectively. Is education a signaling device? Are immigrants worse off with the gig economy

(skip the dishes, Uber, DoorDash)?

Taymesan: Apparently, there's an illusion that newcomers can make money from logistics and the gig economy! But some people will argue that getting a Canadian graduate degree does not guarantee a

professional employment.

Oritsefemi: I think you need a ticket to get into the cinema. In other words, education will always be worthwhile.

Taymesan: I agree with you. By the way, Eyimofe, do you still hear from your cousin, Amorighoye?

Eyimofe: Yes, a very principled individual although family members think he is a polytheist because he practices traditional religion. They have failed to realize that he worships Eledumare2 , through

different deities or orisas3 such as Oya, Obatala, Ogun, Yemaja among others that serve as intermediary to the supreme being. It is a misconception because of the lack of understanding by people that he is an monotheist worshipping one God through many intermediaries. This was also alluded to by Yuval Noah Harari in his bestselling book “Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind”.

Oritsefemi: Deep! It has been a very eventful day. My suggestion is that people should be careful of the problem of ‘what you see is all there is (WYSIATI)’ as popularized by Nobel price winner in economics, Daniel Kahneman, which can arise from observation because ‘what you see is not necessarily what it is’

*Special thanks to Mrs. Dupe Animashaun for the coronation thank you card from HRH

Tsola Emiko, The 21st Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atutwase III - Ade ape lori, sapatu a pe lese4.

The Police Service Commission has said that police authorities have yet to bring before it the case of the suspended Deputy Commissioner of Police, Abba Kyari, for further action.

A Commissioner representing the media in the PSC board, Austin Braimoh, disclosed this in an interview with our correspondent on Friday.

Kyari’s troubles started in July 2021 when he was indicted by Raman Abbas, widely known as Hushpuppi.

The Dubai Police in the United Arab Emirates had in June 2020 arrested Hushpuppi and his gang. They were later extradited to the US for prosecution by the FBI.

The FBI Special Agent, Andrew Innocenti, alleged that Hushpuppi contracted Kyari after a “co-conspirator,” Chibuzo Vincent, threatened to expose the alleged $1.1m fraud committed against a Qatari businessman.

In July 2021, the former Inspector General of Police, Usman Baba, ordered ‘an internal review of the allegations’ against Abba Kyari.

In August 2021, Baba recommended Kyari’s immediate suspension.

The Police Service Commission ordered a fresh probe into the allegations against Kyari in January 2022, while in February of the same year, the PSC ordered further investigation of Kyari.

On February 14, 2022, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency declared Kyari wanted.

The NDLEA accused him of being a member of a drug cartel that operates the Brazil-Ethiopia-Nigeria illicit drug pipeline.

On the same day, the police arrested Kyari and four others and handed them over to the NDLEA for prosecution.

Braimoh added that the details of Kyari’s alleged involvement in the case should have been forwarded to the commission for further action.

He said, “No report of him has reached the PSC. All that the PSC received from the former IGP was that he has a case to answer and should be suspended which is an interim thing when someone is being investigated.

“The police hierarchy has not forwarded his case to the commission. The only thing that was done is that when he was arrested, they informed us that he has breached the law and should be suspended.

“If his case comes to the commission, the commission will weigh them. As of now, details of his involvement in the alleged crime ought to be before the commission for the commission to act on the areas he breached professional ethics while the court handles the criminal aspects.”

Asked if the commission had reached out to the police authorities on the matter, he said, “You don’t go asking; it is automatic. It will look as if we have a secondary interest in the matter. As we speak, there is nothing before the commission to adjudicate on.”

However, efforts to get the Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, to react on the matter proved abortive as he did not pick up calls to his line.

He has also yet to respond to a text message sent to him as of the time of filing this report.

The United Nations human rights chief, Volker Turk has said that there was no legal basis for Niger’s military junta to prosecute deposed president Mohamed Bazoum for high treason.

Turk, also stated that the very notion of freedom in Niger was at stake.

On August 13 2023, the Niger junta said it will prosecute ousted Bazoum for high treason over his exchanges with foreign heads of state and international organisations.

Junta spokesperson Colonel Amadou Abdramane said the military authorities had “gathered the necessary evidence to prosecute the ousted president…for high treason and undermining the internal and external security of Niger.”

Reacting, the UN human rights chief as quoted by Reuters on Friday said, “This decision is not only politically motivated against a democratically elected President but has no legal basis as the normal functioning of democratic institutions has been cast aside.

“The very notion of freedoms in Niger is at stake.

“Generals cannot take it upon themselves to defy – at a whim – the will of the people. Rule-by-gun has no place in today’s world.”

The coup leaders have imprisoned Bazoum and dissolved the elected government of Niger, a major uranium producer and a Western ally in the fight against an Islamist insurgency.