Bayern Munich announced on Saturday that Senegalese striker Sadio Mane was in talks “about a change of club” with reports suggesting he was destined for Saudi side Al Nassr.

The German champions left Mane out of a friendly match in Tokyo, posting on Twitter: “Sadio Mane is in contract negotiations about a change of club and is therefore not in the line-up today.”

The 31-year-old former Liverpool star is due to become the latest high-profile player to join the cash-rich Saudi league.

Bild and Kicker magazine reported he was on his way for a medical with Al Nassr.

Mane would be another major signing for the club that pulled off the first coup of a raft of signings by Saudi clubs by luring Cristiano Ronaldo, the five-time Ballon d’Or winner.

Mane won the Champions League and Premier League in six seasons with Liverpool and was a key part of Jurgen Klopp’s devastating front three with Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino.

When Liverpool won their first English league title for 30 years in the pandemic-disrupted 2019-2020 season, Mane scored 18 goals.

But in the summer of 2022, when he won the African Player of the Year, Mane decided he wanted a new challenge — unconfirmed rumours said he was tired of sharing the limelight with Egypt’s Salah at Anfield.

Bayern made a big play for Mane, promising to make him the focal point of an attack which had just lost the services of Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona.

After a strong start to the season at Bayern, it soon become clear that Mane was not clicking in Bavaria.

In a Bundesliga game against Werder Bremen in November, Mane suffered an injury to his fibula and his season was put on hold.

The injury forced him to miss the World Cup in Qatar at the end of last year in a crushing blow to Senegal’s chances.

While Mane returned to the Bayern team in 2023, his problems were underlined when he became involved in a physical altercation with teammate Leroy Sane following a Champions League defeat to Manchester City.

Bayern reportedly fined Mane around 350,000 euros ($385,000) and gave him a one-match suspension for his part in the incident.

He ended the season with an underwhelming 12 goals in 38 games across all competitions.

He is set to quit Bayern with two years left on his contract.

Aside from Ronaldo, Al Nassr have also signed Croatia midfielder Marcelo Brozovic, Brazil full-back Alex Telles and Ivory Coast midfielder Seko Fofana.

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola has disclosed that the huge spending from Saudi Arabia may end the English Premier League’s dominance.

The EPL has witnessed a massive exodus from the league to Saudi clubs. Players such as N’golo Kante, Edouard Mendy, Riyad Mahrez, Ruben Neves, Kalidou Koulibaly, Jordan Henderson, Roberto Firminho, and others left this summer.

According to The Athletic, the 52-year-old now believes the Saudi League has the financial strength to compete, and that could hurt the dominance of the EPL.

“It is not about the threat; it is a reality. They want to create a strong league, and so far, they are the league who can do it.

“The Premier League spent more than the other [leagues] because the organisation of the Premier League is better and the broadcasts and the sponsors are higher than the other leagues, so the clubs can spend what they have.

“Right now, the Saudi League—I don’t know how long they will sustain that but the feeling is that they will stay. I would say the players want to take this experience to play in that league and they are able to do it.”

He also agrees with Cristiano Ronaldo, who said a few weeks ago that he ‘opened the door’ to players signing for Saudi clubs.

“A few months ago when Cristiano (Ronaldo) was the only one to go, no one thought this many top, top extraordinary players would go to play in the Saudi league. I think in the close future it is going to happen more and more.”

It has come to light that the Department of State Services (DSS), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), and the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) allegedly disregarded separate petitions filed against the Chairman of the Federal Character Commission (FCC), Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka, who is currently facing probe by the House of Representatives.

The petitions, obtained by THE WHISTLER, contained serious allegations of corruption, job racketeering, nepotism, and certificate forgery, among others, leveled against Mrs. Dankaka by federal commissioners within the FCC.

These petitions, which were submitted in both 2021 and 2022, accused Mrs. Dankaka of running a job racketeering ring within the FCC in disregard for the very Act that established the Commission.

The allegations also reportedly pointed to her involvement in nepotism and running a corrupt network that favoured certain individuals in federal appointments.

The situation escalated on Wednesday, as Mrs. Dankaka and some of the commissioners engaged in a heated exchange of accusations and counter-accusations during a hearing before the House of Representatives ad hoc committee investigating job racketeering at federal establishments.

The hearing shed light on the gravity of the accusations and the urgency of the matter.

However, what raises eyebrows and adds more controversy to the situation is the alleged inaction by the DSS, EFCC, and ICPC, regarding these petitions.

Despite alleged substantial evidence brought forth by the federal commissioners, the anti-corruption and law enforcement agencies seemingly turned a blind eye to the matter, failing to initiate any formal investigation or take appropriate actions against Dankaka who has been the FCC chairperson since July 2, 2020, when former President Muhammadu Buhari swore in current members of the Commission for a five-year term.

In the petition addressed to the ICPC chairman on January 18, 2021, two of the commissioners who wrote on behalf of others noted that prior to their nomination by President Buhari, they had been inundated with allegations that FCC was notorious “as the source of job racketeering” and that lopsided job postings in various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) “were not corrected by the Commission as required by law”.

The commissioners — Augustine O. Wokocha and Abdul Wasiu Bawa-Allah — noted that “the sacrosanct foundation of the creation of the Commission in section 153(1) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) is that application and enforcement of the principle of federal character” in government appointments and job postings.

They accused Dankaka of violating several provisions in the FCC Act and hijacking jobs meant to be distributed equally among different sections of the country despite knowing that “the Commission was patterned along parliamentary structure” to ensure fair and equitable distribution of employment opportunities, social and economic amenities, services, and infrastructural facilities “are jointly carried out by all states representatives and inclusive of a representative from FCT”

“Painfully, the chairman of the Commission has since the assumption of office held members to ransom, taking over members’ jobs and or giving out members’ assignments to directors and or administrative consultants in the Commission with impunity. Since we assumed duty as the chairman and members of the Commission, the chairman has been committing one form of grave infractions or the other and advice and cautions rendered to her were rejected by her,” said the commissioners

Listing some of the sins of Dankaka, the commissioners added, “…one of the malfeasances, perhaps the most egregious is her unilateral decisions to employ 22 people of whom 50% of them are not only from her state but from her senatorial district. The chairman hurriedly wrote to the IPPIS upon sighting our allegation to that effect in our memo requesting for the cancelation of the said recruitment which she had already denied that she knew nothing about. A copy of the letter addressed to the Director IPPIS is attached as annexure ‘C'”

They added, “There are more infractions that should be of interest to your exalted agency and it includes but not limited to the following:

“A. Diversion of public funds and keeping secret details of the financial transactions of the Commission from Hon. Commissioners. Failure to release to Commissioners duty tour allowances since assumption of office till date but releases same to herself and her aides and her consistent failure to disburse monthly running cost to the state offices of the Commission in the Country thereby crippling the statutory responsibilities of the state offices, this act is not only criminal but unpatriotic.

“Additionally the security personnel engaged on casual basis who are on meager stipends of N10,000.00 (Ten Thousand Naira) monthly were last paid in July, 2020. Our findings revealed that funds budgeted for running cost and security personnel monthly stipend were diverted to unbudgeted items, a typical example is the payment for the administrative consultants which she hired who were never budgeted for in the 2020 budget. Further to the fact that these administrative consultants are illegally given offices in the Commission as permanent staff to the detriment and displacement to the staff of the Commission, illegally allowing the consultants to work on the official files, minutes on mails among others. Most requests made by Commissioners and or staff of the Commission are ‘KW’ by the chairman while she quickly grants and approve most requests that directly affect her and her office. The germane question is where does she gets the money to pay herself and her aides and purchase items for herself while Commissioners and staff of the Commission are left to their fate in this regard.

“B. The Commission made far reaching decisions on 7th November, 2013 wherein the approve limit of the chairman for goods and services and capital projects respectively shall be in conformity with the approved limit of the federal government as contained in circular ref. No. SGF/013/1/5/1/111/57. The award of the sum of N35, 706,002.00 (Thirty Five Million, Seven Hundred and Six Thousand and Twenty-Two Naira) to a contractor for media advert was over and above the budgetary provision for publicity and advertisement which is N7,409,534 (Seven Million, Four Hundred and Nine Thousand, Five Hundred and Thirty Four Naira). Even the content of the media advert is shallow and thereby required thorough investigation to determine the actual cost expended on the media advert. A copy of the plenary decision is attached as annexure ‘D’ and Federal Character Commission amended budget 2020 as annexure `E’ respectively .

“C. Similarly, our investigation revealed that the chairman approved the purchase of three vehicles for the Commission without recourse to the plenary for consideration and approval one of the vehicles was reported to have been given out unilaterally to the head of audit unit by the chairman while he was carrying out internal audit of the Commission and this followed the unilateral amendment of FCC civil service structure with the removal of procurement section from the department of general services in clear violation of Section 9 of the Federal Character Commission (Establishment) Act. The vehicles were neither registered nor insured and apart from procurement document nothing to show that those vehicles belong to the Commission. Five vehicles that are pool vehicles are in the custody of the chairman.

“D. The job racketeering status for which the commission is known for is believed to be well and alive under indiscriminate granting of waivers not to advertise to MDAs without enforcing the principle of federal character. There is a guideline at the Commission that clearly stating the procedure to follow before a waiver not to advertise is granted to MDAs. The committee Chairman under which a particular MDA seeking for waiver, must go through the analyzed nominal roll of the organization vis-a-vis the character balancing index (CBI) and thereafter render an advise to the chairman for the granting of the waiver. In a flagrant disobedience to this guideline which is criminal in the Commission Act for anyone who flout it, the chairman is well known to liaise directly with CEO’s, sorts things directly with them, granting waiver and certificate of compliance without recourse to the commission as enshrined in Rule 28 of the Rules for Plenary, 2015 and thereby creates injury to many job seekers and in the process build animosity among Nigerians.

“E. We also noted from our investigation that in their quest for cover up of the job racketeering, the normal process mandatory for the office of the Monitoring and Enforcement to prepare summary of activities of the operational committees monthly and yearly for the Commission but because the director in the department is the anointed man of the chairman and the shady deals are jointly carried out and issues of waivers and compliance are shrouded in secrecy hence the failure to prepare the report for the Commission which is another clear violation of the Constitution and the laws of the Commission. Copies of the report are attached as annexure “F &G” for your perusal.

“F. The chairman of the Commission intentionally used her office to step down five contracts for 2020 which had sailed through the Commission’s tender’s board process and approval for the award of the contracts to the most qualified that were cleared for the job. We urge your Commission to investigate the rationale behind the stepping down of those contracts when the Federal Government 1,2,J fifth/ Jordan,’ ctinds to the Commission’s account for the jobs. The fundamental issue is that assuming the budget performance of the 2020 appropriation was not extended to 31St March, 2021, the funds wouldn’t have been available now for the 5 contracts again which the Commission requested for in the budget and same was granted because the funds had already been retired back to the government account in December, 2020.”

The aggrieved Commissioners had warned that “…Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka is found of lobbying, influencing and luring anyone or bodies of authorities that receive complaints against her and we believe that ICPC will stand tall in the interest of the country and her people at large to get to the root of the matter by causing a forensic investigation to be made into this matter thoroughly by disciplined officers who will go beyond the scope of this petition owing to the level of the rot in the Commission and prosecute the culprits so as to serve as deterrent to others.”

Prior to filing the petition against Dankaka, the Commissioners had through an internal memo dated November 18, 2020 called her attention to their displeasure with the way she was running the FCC “with clear disregard” to provisions of the Constitution, public service rules and other relevant laws and regulations.

They recalled mandating some Commissioners led by retired Major General Suleiman Barau to prevail on Dankaka for “corrective actions”.

They, however, regretted that Danaka “not only rejected the move but insulted, embarrassed and humiliated the team” adding that she “also went ahead to warned (sic) and threatened (sic) our honorable representatives never to attempt taking that up with you again.

“The chairman went ahead to call the team such unprintable name as 37 characters. This is clearly an affront on the entire Commission, our respective states that nominated us, the President of the Federal republic of Nigeria who appointed us and by implication the entire country, just to put mildly.”

‘CERTIFICATE FALSIFICATION’

In another petition filed against Dankaka before the EFCC, a civil society group, Lygel Youths and Leadership Initiatives, accused the FCC boss of falsifying certificates and misrepresenting her identity to secure her appointment by President Buhari as Chairman of the Commission.

While Dankaka was alleged to have claimed that she held a honorary PhD from the Pacific Western University, Denver, Colorado, USA, in 2007, the group noted that the National Universities Commission (NUC) had declared the University’s study campus in Owerri where Dankaka allegedly got the PhD from as “illegal and consequently shut it down,” hence had no capacity to issue such certificate.

Attaching different documents to the petition to back their claims, they raised other issues around the FCC chairman’s academic qualifications, including inconsistencies in the names on her MSc and WAEC certificates:

“That Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka’s name on the master degree certificate obtained from Ahmadu Bello University is Muiba Nike Salau which is not consistent with the name presented to the Senate by President Muhammadu Buhari -(Muheeba Farida Dankaka).

“That Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka’s name appears on the first degree certificate obtained from Bayero University, Kano as Muibat Adenike Salawu, the name is also at variance with the name officially presented by the president to the Senate for screening and confirmation and the name with which she appends her signature for official documents in office.

“That Dr. Muheeba Farida Dankaka’s name on the West African Examinations Council School Certificate obtained in 1978 is Salawu Muibat Adenike which is not consistent with other documents she claimed to have had. It is clear from our investigation carried out on the Testimonial obtained some years later that she enrolled at St Clare’s (ANG.) Girls’ Grammar School in 1975 and graduated in 1978.

“It is a notorious fact that she spent three years in the Senior Secondary School, a claim that was not consistent with the then educational system in the country. Further to this, there was nothing to show that she accounted for the missing years before her enrolment in the school mentioned.”

Meanwhile, AFTER allegedly failing to get the ICPC and EFCC to investigate and prosecute Dankaka for corruption and job racketeering, the FCC commissioners approached the Department of State Services (DSS) with the same allegations in a petition dated September 22, 2022.

In the petition, Wokocha and Bawa-Allah urged the DSS Director-General to “carry out a covert operation” at the FCC headquarters with a view to obtaining evidence of the alleged job racketeering ballooning under Dankaka’s watch.

They warned that failure to stop the FCC chairman “could grow to breed more corruption and potentially (lead to) death”.

One of the FCC commissioners told THE WHISTLER that despite the petitions to the different agencies, nothing had been done to stop the trend.

When THE WHISTLER contacted him for his reaction to the allegation, the DSS spokesperson, Peter Afunanya, simply replied “No comment”

Wilson Uwujaren, the EFCC spokesman, did not respond to phone calls put across to him by our correspondent.

When Dankaka appeared before the House of Reps committee investigating the matter on Wednesday, she swore that “I had made my money” before joining the FCC and didn’t need to soil her hands to get rich.

At the resumed hearing, Moses Anaughe, the commissioner representing Delta State, openly accused Dankaka of selling employment slots and sometimes demands 10 percent of the total vacancies in MDAs.

“Dr Dankaka will request the chief executives to come to her office and discuss 10 per cent. She does collect 10 per cent from all MDAs of all the employment she is signing. All those 10 per cent she is collecting, those are the slots that she employs agents that are selling.

“I have two employment letters here of her children in juicy agencies where the annual salary is N6.1 million; the other is N8.2 million. I have the appointment letters here.

“I just also want to inform this committee if she finds any agency doing employment that is paying more than these MDAs, she will move them to that MDA. She moves them from MDA to MDA.

“She has a lot of agents selling slots for her. After selling, they have a central pool where they remit all the monies, whereby they will withdraw and collect USSD and give it to her. I have all the account details here. In my submission, we have a lot of things to reveal.”

But responding to the allegation, the FCC chairman said “I now believe the adage that says when you fight corruption, corruption will fight back.

“I did not come to this place (FCC) to make money but to serve my father’s land.

“I swear with Almighty God, apart from the oath, I can take an oath with the Quran. Before I came here, I had made my name. I had made my money.

“Before I got to this place (FCC), they were selling slots. The place was like a marketplace. You can find out from people that live in Abuja if I am lying,” she said.

Beyond every iota of doubt, the pace, variety and number of ‘policies’ unleashed by the two-months-old President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on the Nigerian polity fittingly amount to an ‘Economic Tsunami’. The entire economy has been thoroughly disrupted; every economic agent is hard hit, and the way forward and how soon the thick fog will give way to light remain in the realm of conjecture. Two months after the controversial “fuel subsidy is gone” pronouncement by the President, the heavy dust it raised is yet to settle. The price of everything has gone through the roof, inflation is at runaway pace. Millions of the citizenry are getting impoverished by the day—as their disposable income have totally lost value.

The crash of the Naira triggered by the ‘forced’ unification of multiple exchange rates (or Naira floatation), has seen the national currency practically on a tailspin. While the local currency was officially going for N465/$1 in May, today, it goes for about N850/$1—with every tendency to hit N1000/$1 in no distant future. And from all indications, these ‘policies’, including the dismantling of several other initiatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (e.g. non-oil export drive) were not necessarily premeditated. Rather, they are mere products of whimsical arbitrariness, playing to the gallery or display of hubris and ‘heroism.’

In truth, Nigerians have lived with petrol (Premium Motor Spirit, PMS) subsidy for decades—a practice that over time got corrupted to epitomise malfeasance and opacity in public finance dealings. A gang of unscrupulous Nigerians and their foreign cohorts took charge of the subsidy regime to practically drain every kobo in the nation’s public till. From few hundreds of millions usually committed to subsidy payment, the amount in a few odd years ballooned to several trillions of Naira. This impoverished the Government to the point of having huge and rising deficits in its annual budgets, and borrowing endlessly from virtually all parts of the globe for the provision of basic infrastructure. Indeed, at some point, the Federal Government under President Muhammadu Buhari had reportedly been borrowing even for recurrent expenditures including payment of salaries of civil/public servants.

Bad as this is, the peremptory approach to ending fuel subsidy, in all honesty, has left Nigeria and Nigerians worse off, economically. All manner of panic measures are being peddled: more PMS importers are being licensed to keep importing—thus, further depressing the Naira exchange rate vis-à-vis the dollar. No word is heard about re-streaming the country’s four moribund refineries that have been grounded for years. Many state governments are devising various ways of assuaging the pains of their civil servants who can no longer afford going to work on a daily basis because of high transportation costs and soaring cost of living generally. Not a few states have reduced their official work days from five to three or two; others are promising ‘cash awards’ and salary increase even in the face of daunting revenue challenges.

The Federal Government itself seems bereft of effective antidote to the miasma into which it unwittingly plunged the nation. It has rather deployed a number of disingenuous tactics and methods to supress industrial actions (protests and demonstrations) by organised labour and civil society bodies. It had also secured an ‘omnibus’ injunction from the industrial court to ‘perpetually’ stop any person or group(s) from protesting against its disruptive policies. This is why two months after the “fuel subsidy is gone” pronouncement, no palliative package has been effectively put together by the Federal Government. And yet the entire populace is reeling under crushing poverty, accentuated by spiking costs of transportation, foodstuffs and all else, triggered by fuel subsidy removal.

Meanwhile, both the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC), apparently moved by the deteriorating plight of the citizenry and the muddled ‘palliative’ proposals of the Government, have issued, in strong terms, fresh protest notices. Specifically, the NLC has given the Federal Government a seven-day ultimatum to “reverse all its economic policies.” The Labour body says “the Federal Government risked an indefinite nationwide strike if the policies are not reviewed before August 2, 2023.” Towards this end, the NLC has also directed all its affiliates and state councils to “immediately begin mobilization of workers and other Nigerians, including civil society allies, for a long-lasting strike and mass protests” should the government fail to meet its demands.

On its part, the TUC has issued a “warning” to the Federal Government, and set a two-week deadline for negotiation, threatening to initiate protests after August 19, 2023. TUC President, Festus Osifo says “the demand of Nigerians at this moment is for the Federal and state governments to implement policies that can lead to reduction in the cost of living rather than actions that would inflate it.” These threats (by NLC and TUC) and protests already ongoing in some cities across the country actually keep the Nigerian polity in a state of anomie. There is widespread hunger, anger and poverty—being worsened by shrinking disposable income—and Government’s apparent tardiness in providing some succour.  

Indeed, in the face of this dreary augury, the Tinubu administration seems to have adopted policy somersaults, prevarications and tergiversations as public opprobrium and criticism keep mounting. Its earlier proposal to deploy N500 billion to making ‘cash transfer’ of N8000 per poor household for six months had to be ‘dumped’ for a review. The rumoured proposal to increase the salaries of civil/public servants at the Federal level seems yet hanging. In the nitty-gritty of plans for palliatives, the National Economic Council (NEC) unanimously faulted the existing Federal social data, saying it lacked integrity and credibility. Consequently, the ‘cash transfer’ dole had to be moved to the states to administer—on the unfounded belief that the sub-nationals should have more credible social data—to reach the intended audiences/targets.

In truth however, shifting the administration of the Federal Government’s palliatives package (in part or full) amounts to taking an uncharted path that could lead to nowhere. Whatever ‘goodies’ that come the way of the state and local governments from the Centre usually end up as ‘political patronage’ to be dispensed along party lines. The fuel subsidy removal palliatives cannot be anything different at the sub-national levels. Truly, hardly is there any state or local government area in Nigeria today that has updated and credible social data to reach the poor households that really deserve some handouts. Unfortunately, what the Nigerian economy badly needs at this time is stimulus package rather than mere palliatives that are likely to end up in wrong hands and pockets. Palliatives (especially cash transfers) are unearned, unproductive ‘transfer payments’ that do not make for any economic progress.

All said, the flurry of ‘activities’ and policy somersaults of the President Tinubu administration can only show vividly that it neither undertook a proper assessment of the economy nor the implications of the hasty removal of fuel subsidy, and Naira exchange rates unification. For a long time, for sure, the administration will keep grappling with the unintended consequences of those ‘reform’ policies, among others. In fact, more recent policy pronouncements like declaration of “state of emergency on food security”, cancellation and/or postponement of take-off dates of some taxes and levies are being perceived as moves to merely douse socio-economic and political tensions in the land. The government seems to have put too many irons in the fire at the same time. That is, biting off more than it can actually chew!

• The author, Mr. Okeke, an economist, sustainability expert and consultant on business strategy lives in Lekki-Lagos. He can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

City FM is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

Time: 12:00pm

Guest: Professor Jideofor Adibe (Professor of Political Science and International Relations)

Topic: President Tinubu’s Ministerial List

Date: 29TH JULY, 2023
                         
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CITIZENS, including lawyers, human rights activists, academics, and artisans have
faulted the palliative measures put in place by some state governments to bolster the consequence of the removal of fuel subsidy on the people, saying it was a wrong strategy.

Some governments announced payment of N10,000 monthly for public sector workers, some allowances for medical personnel and occasional distribution of food to the poor and most vulnerable households as well as free bus rides for students of tertiary institutions. In their reactions, a number of the residents insisted that it was a rip-off while others said the Federal Government should have put in place a proper plan before getting rid of fuel subsidy.

Professor Ihechukwu Madubuike, two-time Minister of Education and Health, said that for any palliative option to be meaningful, it should not be selective but one that would impact everybody. He argued that the effects of fuel subsidy removal “is on everybody” irrespective of one’s socio-economic status, hence, nobody should be discriminated against in government palliatives.

“The effects of fuel subsidy removal are on every citizen. So, the government should think of cushioning plans that everybody will benefit from.” Professor Madubuike blamed President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for hastily removing fuel subsidies without any ready action plan to cushion the effects of the removal.

He said that the savings from the fuel subsidy should be evenly distributed to benefit all citizens irrespective of their class because everybody gets the heat of the subsidy removal.

He said that the first step to be taken by the government to cushion the effects of subsidy removal was to crash the cost of governance. He said it was a contradiction for the government to be talking of fuel subsidy removal on the one hand, only to be recklessly increasing the cost of governance on the other hand. “Our Presidents are behaving like kings and monarchs. But monarchy is gone even in Britain, people oppose it now”. The former Education Minister who decried the high cost of governance in the country insisted that only a conscious downscaling of the cost of governance will save Nigeria from imminent insolvency. The former Minister for Health also strongly advocated a shift from consumption to production. He regretted that Nigeria had remained the only oil-producing country without a functional oil refinery, a development, he said, smacks of cluelessness in leadership. “We must think differently if we must move forward as a nation. We must start producing something, and stop being a consuming nation”.

Mr Ayo Fadaka, former South-West Zonal Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP said, ”we have a fundamental economic problem that can only be addressed through a comprehensive action and not tokenism as currently obtained by state governments reactions. The Tinubu administration that exacerbated our economic woes is yet to put on its thinking cap in the midst of this crisis and that is disappointing. Government at all levels must think deeply and rescue Nigerians from serious economic woes, as failure to do that is simply to plan for a crisis. We are all poor now and rapidly reverting to hitherto unimaginable practices as people now trek kilometers to eke a living, this is not an advancement but retrogression.

Before Tinubu’s inauguration, the poor could still get an uninspiring meal for N100, that is no longer possible today because of the accelerating and galloping speed of inflation. The devaluation of the Naira clearly indicates that President Tinubu did not come into office prepared to tackle the sloppiness of the Buhari era but to accentuate same and this is disappointing when due cognisance is accorded to the education and training of both men, Buhari was a soldier with a questionable O Level result while Tinubu is a certified accountant with a pedigree. We are suffering in today’s Nigeria and we need help, I just hope that one day soon, social crisis will not erupt and create a dislocation that will be very costly to the nation.

Situation is volatile – Bishop Edem, C-River

Bishop Edem Offiong of the True Worshipers Assembly, Calabar, Cross –River state, said, “The situation is dire. The church offering has dwindled, attendance has gone down drastically, and the joy of being in the presence of the lord has disappeared from the faces of many members owing to what they are going through. In spite of the low offering, after service, many members line up to see me and from what we have collected, we share to them. Therefore, how can you see people dying and you keep money for programmes or development of the church. We have to give out. The palliatives talk is just trying to take the mind of Nigerians away from the real issues they are going through. Very soon, you will see people dying of hunger, diseases, and abject needs. Perhaps, this government is bent on placating its creditors in International Monetary Fund, the European Union, and China who are insisting on reduction of the country’s population to get more loans.

Palliative is a joke – Prof Ossopong, UNICAL, C-River

A Professor of Political Science at the University of Calabar, Ntimasu Ossopong, submitted that “provision of palliatives to cushion the effect of subsidy removal is just a joke. 90 percent of Nigerians feel the pain of what is going on in the country, so who do you palliate and who do you leave out. How can N10, 000 or N8, 000 meet the needs of an average Nigerian? Those talking about palliatives to cushion effects of what we are facing are just not serious yet. As a professor I live at 8 Miles, in the outskirts of Calabar and each day I come here (University of Calabar), I buy 10,000 fuel which cannot bring me here the next day. My salary is less than half a million. If I take taxi, I pay N3, 000 back and forth. Moreover, at my status, I cannot ask students to give me money and yet my needs are mounting. Some junior lecturers earn far less, yet, they have families, and other needs. Therefore, the whole thing is just funny.

On his part, Comrade Nnanna Nwafor, the Executive Director, Foundation for Environmental Rights Advocacy and Development (FENRAD), expressed doubt in the sincerity of government with the various palliative measures being promised. He said he was not convinced that government was serious in rolling out any palliative to cushion the biting effects of subsidy removal on the citizenry. Nwafor who said that the impacts of the subsidy removal on the masses had been devastating, said that government ought to have adopted gradual/phased subsidy removal instead of unprepared outright removal. He advocated social welfare packages that every citizen would benefit from, but regretted that such programme would be sabotaged or abused due to endemic corruption in the country.

According to him, “all these palliative measures cannot go a long way to addressing the suffering people due to government insincerity, corruption and government long term of betrayal and lack of data to ensure the most vulnerable persons are captured. I can see insincerity and lack of trust by government to fulfil this promise.”

Palliative is wrong approach – Nsuke, MOSOP president, Rivers

President of the Movement for Survival of Ogoni People (MOSOP) and lawyer, Fegalo Nsuke, said, “People need a functional system that offer opportunities and encourage production and not to be made to live on humanitarian gestures. Moreover, given Nigeria’s resource endowments, citizen’s living standards can significantly improve with investments in infrastructure and investor-friendly incentives.

“The present state of Nigeria is pathetic and I do not think things will get better with palliatives given the state of our roads and distribution system, power supply, and other essential infrastructure. Therefore, the government should begin with building infrastructure and providing security for farmers to boost food production while other sectors are being developed. The palliatives will not be sustainable if standards of living continue to decline. We also have to face the realities.

Workers must get commemorate pay rise to cope with the pains of subsidy removal. Nigerians will not pay same price for energy like citizens of Saudi Arabia and be on a minimum wage of N40, 000 per month (approximately $50). In essence, palliatives will be meaningless in an economy with exponentially rising inflation, increasing unemployment and high insecurity. Government should deliberately invest in building social infrastructure and food production. That will be a better way to mitigate the effects of the subsidy removal than free transport and all that, which are not sustainable.

Mistaken course of action – Akpan, activist, A- Ibom

The Executive Director of COMPPART Foundation for Justice and Peace Building, Uyo, Mr. Saviour Akpan, argued that, “giving palliatives to people as a means of cushioning the effect of fuel subsidy removal is a temporary measure that has no sustainability plan. It is a wrong policy; it is encouraging consumer economy. I do not support the idea of giving money to any group of people because it will create room for laziness.

Government should channel the money into productive ventures that would better the lives of all citizens. Government should ensure development plans that are sustainable through the provision of rural infrastructure .let the money be used to revamp all the refineries in the country, build rural roads and tackle the challenge of rural electrification. Again, there is a need for the introduction of technical and vocational education, especially in rural communities. The problem in Nigeria is that endemic corruption does not encourage inclusiveness in policy formulation and implementation,” he said.

Palliative not the way out – Mumkhai, PDP chieftain, Delta

A Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, leader in Delta state, Alhaji Mumakhai Unagha, declared, “The fuel subsidy is endless as it has brought untold hardship to the entire country. It is not limited to the poor but to the average Nigerians which is very unfortunate. The federal government should urgently find an urgent solution to it; if not the country will slide to anarchy.

I am convinced that the federal government never envisaged that it would have such a negative effect on the masses. Otherwise, President Tinubu would never have announced the removal. Subsidy removal was a well-hatched and planned theory of the West to sabotage Nigeria to which our educated experts never thought of. The idea was wicked and unacceptable. Ordinarily, what we thought was that before the subsidy removal, the various refineries ought to have been put in place and new ones built. I believe that the government will be able to manage the situation to avoid snowballing to a full-blown and uncontrollable crisis. Nigerians are hungry and dying on a daily basis.

The federal government should fix all the refineries, which is the only way to salvage and save the situation. The N500 billion budgeted to remedy the hardship is not the solution, rather reverse it for now. Palliative is not the solution. Now that we have experimented with the removal and its effects proving tough economic hardship, we should reverse it. We need the subsidy.”

No to transfer of N8, 000 to 22m households – West, CLO member, Bayelsa

A member of the Civil Liberties Organization, CLO, in Bayelsa state, David West, said, “The palliatives should be holistic and encompassing to benefit the totality of the people because what is currently going on is just centered around civil and public servants and they consist just a minute proportion of the population.

The vast majority are independent people. Government should invest the subsidy in critical infrastructure that will benefit everybody. Government should invest the subsidy on rebuilding the refineries, making sure that one or two refineries are functional, expanding the railway transportation system and roads, and there should be adequate power, which will reduce the consumption of petrol which will benefit everybody. I am not in support of cash transfer of N8, 000 to 22 million households for six months, and after the six months, what happens? As members of the civil society and citizens of this country, we should hold government accountable.”

No clear-cut policy – Omare, ex-IYC president, Delta

Former president Ijaw Youths Council, Eric Omare Esq., regretted that several weeks after the removal of subsidy, the federal government was yet to have what he termed a clear-cut policy direction to reduce the impact on Nigerians. “Having regard to the hardships being faced by Nigerians because of subsidy removal, I strongly think that there should be palliatives. First, those that should benefit are the low-income earners, students, unemployed and aged people.

However, my problem is that there is no clear-cut policy direction by the government on palliatives to reduce the impact of the subsidy removal. I think that government must, as a matter of urgency, come up with palliatives to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal at the local, state and federal levels. Nigerians are passing through pains.”

Palliative not sustainable- Odi, retired civil servant, Bayelsa

A retired senior civil servant, Elder Chris Odi, said, “I am not too comfortable with the nature of the palliatives because they are not sustainable. For how long will the government continue to distribute food items to the poor? Instead of cash that they will give for some time, the government should add it to the workers’ salaries. Another big issue is how the palliatives will go around to reach non-public sector workers, or how the government will identify the very poor in a country without a proper database.

The way forward for me is to distribute buses to all the states to convey passengers free or highly reduced fare; ensure there is no electricity tariff hike for now; support farmers with farm inputs so that food prices can come down.

In addition, the government needs to fix the roads for easy evacuation of farm produce from the hinterlands to the markets. The biggest palliative, however, will be the fixing of the nation’s refineries so that petroleum products will be readily available for local consumption and export. The government needs to revive the country’s moribund industries to employ the teeming masses. This will facilitate production, which in turn will encourage export and strengthen the naira”.

Fix refineries – Alagoa, ERA, Bayelsa

Programme Manager/Head, Niger Delta Resource Centre, Morris Alagoa, told Saturday Vanguard, “If the federal and state governments want to initiate social security schemes or welfare schemes for Nigerians as some groups and individuals have been advocating over the years, it is fantastic.

Instead of looting treasuries and engaging in money laundering at the expense of the masses, the federal and state governments should provide legal framework for social welfare or social security for identified categories of Nigerians. Such schemes should have legal backing so that no incoming administrations can toy with it. Unless legislated upon, the idea of giving cash to so-called poor in the society is another avenue for those in the corridors of power to steal such funds. Rather, the federal and state governments should use such funds to find lasting solutions to the lingering and epileptic power situation, get functional refineries, including embarking on a thorough research on local refinery and encourage the locals with modular refineries to make products cheaper, available and reduce unemployment and violent crimes. Such a system should create formal avenues for local refiners to obtain crude oil at domestic price and not OPEC price.

What govs should do – Ambakederimo, -S-South leader, Bayelsa

Convener of the South South Reawakening Group, SSRG, Elder Joe Ambakederimo, asserted, “Before the petrol subsidy was removed, many state governments preferred giving handouts to their citizens, who daily throng Government Houses from Monday to Fridays, throughout the month, appealing for one form of support or the order. The state governments should invest in a multi-modal transportation system and establish agriculture commodity boards that incorruptible persons will manage.

These boards will be off takers of farm produce to be sold at subsidies prices. In the short term the cash handout and free bus ride must be across board for many who are not civil servants; who are unemployed or working in small businesses, including providing for owners of small businesses to keep them in business. The medium term strategy would be embarking on a social housing scheme. The long term strategy would be the provision and construction of rural roads for purposes of evacuation of farm produce, and the light rail to get to all the nook and crannies of the state. When people can move around without stress they feel no pain and this is the real palliative.”

Zadok Akintoye, Public analyst: I believe that payment of extra money to civil servants by some state governments may be an evidence of the knowledge deficit on how the economy works and how it would respond to such increases. Putting more funds in the hand of workers will not resolve the value-depletion of the Naira to other currencies, which has further worsened our economic situation. I disagree with government increasing wages, but will suggest that they do what is required in tackling the widening exchange rate of the Naira to the dollar. Increasing wages only postpones the inevitable by tokenizing the core issues affecting our nation. In the short term, the government should remove all taxes on salaries of public servants as an emergency intervention to provide more funds to them at this time; reduce customs levies on goods and services essential to citizens wellbeing; increase levies paid on luxury items and tax the rich more; create new monetary policies that mitigate round tripping and effectively protects the CBN from being taken advantage of; support the Naira against the Dollar and fund the LGA’s directly. The provision of buses and other consumables are not sustainable in long term and would further plunge the country into economic crisis.

What Tinubu should do – Amorighoye, ILoT scribe, Delta

Secretary of the Itsekiri Leaders of Thought, ILoT, Sir Amorighoye Mene, said, “The truth is that all Nigerians, particularly the poor and low-income families, are passing through very difficult times. Therefore, government and private companies should provide bonuses and allowances to cushion the costs of transportation; mass transit vehicles to move people, goods, and services within their domain and subsidize the cost of conversion of vehicles from petrol to gas, which is far cheaper and more environmentally friendly; government should invest in sundry measures to drastically reduce the cost of living, particularly in the area of food items, health care, and education. The government should create the enabling environment to promote private sector growth to create employment for the unemployed, particularly in the agricultural and mining value chain, and other sectors.”

In Plateau state, Comrade Friday Bako said, “N10,000 monthly palliative is not enough to address the high rate of inflation, cost of living and improve the standard of living which today is very low since income per capita is also very low. What the nation needs now are sound economic policies that will stimulate economic growth and improvement in the salaries and allowances of workers to reflect the present realities.”

Mr. Raymond Gukas noted, ”The entire palliatives plan is a scam. How can they determine who is qualified and who is not? And how many of the needy have bank accounts? Or is it meant only for the city dwellers, what of the villagers without bank accounts are they not Nigerians? There are so many unanswered questions, the same people continue to empower themselves whenever they need to rehabilitate themselves.”

Mr. Solomon Praise, a Private School teacher added, ”This so-called palliative measure is a scam. What modalities are on the ground to ensure that the targeted poor people will be the sole beneficiaries of palliative? Is there a comprehensive data to know who are these poor people, where they are located and what is the number of people in each household? Will the disbursement of the cash be done by hand or via banks and if it will be done from house to house, who are those that will carry out the exercise and how trustworthy are they that the money will not miss? If payment will be via the bank, how many of these poor households even have a savings account? The government should have given palliatives and ensured it is working well before the removal of the fuel subsidy. The money and resources for the so-called palliative should be used to build a strong and stable economy. I am not in support of the so-called palliative measures because it is another way of corruption for some government officials and individuals.

Plateau State Publicity Secretary of the APC, Sylvanus Namang noted, “The palliatives being announced by some states are scratching things on the surface. It needs a holistic approach across all sectors of the economy which had collapsed. When it comes to the states, politics must be removed so as not to equate it with the distribution of political patronage.”

Another APC member, Dr. Elkanah Garang stressed, “The proposed N10,000 will not make a significant impact in the lives of public sector workers with the economic realities of present-day Nigeria. Wages need to reflect the government’s commitment at all levels to ameliorate the inconvenience of subsidy removal. The pressure should trickle down to States and Local Government administrators to ensure funds released by the Federal Government are not misappropriated.”

Mrs Zainab Babaji, journalist said, “It is not feasible. Considering how some other programmes such as the school feeding programme, social investment programme, etc, were managed, there were a lot of allegations of corruption and misappropriation where many people who were captured did not benefit from the programmes. Unless a structure is put in place to ensure prudence, the programme will not be effective.”

Mrs. Kaneng Pam-Hworo from the National Orientation Agency maintained, “My opinion is that the fuel subsidy removal is timely. Palliatives distribution at all levels to the workers and the general public is welcomed to cushion the effect of the untold hardship on Nigerians. The N10,000 monthly payment as palliative for as long as six months will go a long way to assuage the pains and hardship of the people. In addition to the provision of free buses to convey students and workers, the government should ensure that the cost of foodstuff and medicines is reduced to make it affordable to the poor Nigerians.”

Hon Stephen Adewale, Social Democratic Party chairman in Ondo state : Palliatives are essentially temporary aid that might not be attainable or financially viable in the long run. However, these small measures being introduced as palliatives by the state governments will go a long way in cushioning the excruciating effect of the fuel hike until the government is able to successfully introduce a curative measure that permanently alleviates the burden of the fuel hike on the masses. However, state governments must implement palliative policy that will be felt by all citizens in order to guarantee that the actions being implemented reach every individual. First, the ideal method to accomplish this is to implement a successful transport system that will enable students to commute for free. This measure should also be extended to the residents who will pay little as transportation fare.

Ayo Ologun, spokesperson for The Osun Masterminds, TOM

“ The monetary palliative measures introduced for public workers cannot be sustained for a year. The N10,000 proposed for workers by some states is not even enough to buy 20 litres of fuel and how does one survive on 20 litres for 30 days? The government should embrace measures that can benefit majority of the populace. In the area of transportation, government should put buses on our roads, allow students board the vehicles at subsidized rates if it can’t be free. Also, government should look at the possibility of moving farm produce to cities through subsidized transportation to tackle the price hike for food items. If they insisted on monetary provision to civil servants, what will be the fate of other people whose population form over 80 percent of the masses across the country?

In Oyo State, some of the residents said that though the government has tried to cushion the harsh effects of the subsidy removal, the gesture was minimal. Mrs Sidikatu Sulaiman, a trader at Aleshinloye Market said, “the provision of buses by the state government has reduced the hardship to a certain extent. This has greatly relieved commuters who could have been paying through their noses”.

Another commuter, Mrs Esther Ajayi, a businesswoman, said, “many people who are not government workers now prefer to leave their vehicles at home and make use of the state government buses because they are cheaper. We have felt the government response in the area of transportation, the subsidy removal affects other sectors too. Foodstuffs are very costly for average people.”

At various markets like Sango, Eleyele, Bodija, Inalende, Dugbe, traders complained about low patronage saying hike in foodstuff prices has forced people to stay away from the market.

In Ekiti State, Chief Press Secretary to Governor Biodun Oyebanji, Yinka Oyebode, said the government has been putting mechanisms in place to ensure that palliatives measures capture all residents to cushion the effect of fuel subsidy removal. He said the governor was not only concerned about civil servants but all residents in the state. Oyebode stated that the palliatives will also capture youths, students, market women, labourers, mass transit workers, local government workers, among others so that they can also benefit from the system.

In Ogun state, a businessman, Mr. Adeniyi Olanrewaju commended Governor Dapo Abiodun, for approving the palliatives for all categories of people, such as civil servants, public servants, pensioners, artisans, farmers market men and women and others.

Also speaking, a community leader, Oladimeji Abayomi, queried how far the N10,000 can go with the present rate of inflation in the nation’s economic. He said, he found it difficult to believe Nigerian politicians whenever they make promises. They are good in making promises, but find it difficult to fulfill the promises made.

The President Generel of Mzough U Tiv, worldwide, Chief Iorbee Ihagh advised the Federal and state governments to pay special attention to rural dwellers in the distribution of palliatives. Chief Ihagh also warned that politicians should not be allowed to hijack the distribution process by allowing political sentiment to gain prominence during the distribution. He advised that people from different political party affiliations should be drafted into the distribution process to ensure that Nigerian were not unjustly excluded from benefitting from the intervention for reasons of their political inclination.

According to him, “I do not agree with the process of giving large chunk of the palliatives to workers because at every month end they get salaries which nonetheless can be augmented. But there are people living in the villages who do not even get up to N5,000 in a year. And they are no longer farming because of the activities of Fulani herdsmen. Hence, the hunger is so much, people go to the farm and get killed. I strongly feel that the palliatives should get to the people living in the rural areas, it should not be restricted to public servants. The actual poor people are in the villages.

These are people who when they see N10,000 will celebrate to high heavens. They do not have money to buy drugs or even their basic needs. That is why the rural dwellers should be given top priority. The government must take steps to take care of the people in the rural areas because that is where the poverty is biting harder”.

[Vanguard]

President Bola Tinubu, on Tuesday, transmitted a list of 28 ministerial nominees to the national assembly for screening, in time before the 60-day deadline set by a recent constitutional amendment. 

TheCable had reported that the nominees were selected from 25 states of the federation — excluding 11 states. 

An analysis by TheCable Index showed that the minimum qualification of the nominees is a bachelor’s degree and the highest qualification is a doctorate degree. Two of those with doctorate degrees have practiced enough and become professors. 

While 16 nominees hold a master’s degree as their highest educational qualification, nine have bachelor’s degrees as theirs and three of the appointees have a doctorate degree. 

According to section 147(5) of the constitution, no person shall be appointed as a minister “unless he is qualified for election as a member of the house of representatives”. 

Section 65 (1) (a) of the constitution states that a person shall be qualified for house of representatives election if he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent. 

Even though all of the nominees were qualified, according to the constitution, lawmakers had previously voiced reservations about the bare minimum. 

In January 2022,  Femi Gbajabiamila, former speaker of the house of representatives, said there is a need to amend the constitution to increase the educational qualification for election into the office of the national assembly. 

The house of representatives, in February 2022, began the process of increasing the minimum educational qualification for election as a governor, state and federal lawmaker, to at least a “university degree level or its equivalent”.

WALE EDUN AS ‘OLDEST’ MINISTER

The oldest ministerial nominee on record is Wale Edun, aged 67. The youngest nominee is Betta Edu, 31 years younger than Edun, which supporters have said suggests a generational mix but critics disagree, claiming that there would be a huge disparity in ideas.

TheCable’s analysis is based on available data on the ages of the ministerial nominees.

The youngest minister in President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet was 44 in 2019, while the oldest was Buhari himself, who was 76 and held the portfolio as minister of petroleum.

Below is a list of the academic qualifications of the ministerial nominees:

[TheCable] 

The news that came from Johannesburg, South Africa on July 19, in this year of our Lord, was heartrending: Kole Omotoso is dead! The lionized writer, Kole  Omotoso, was my teacher at the then University of Ife, now Obafemi Awolowo University, for four years of my study there in the Dramatic Arts Department with Professor Wole Soyinka as Head of Department.

My first encounter with Kole Omotoso as a lecturer resulted to my handing over a manuscript of mine to him when he asked us, his students, if any of us had “written something, maybe a play or novel.” That manuscript of mine was accepted by Macmillan, publishers of the popular Pacesetters Series, but I kept having some arguments with the publishing house until the Nigerian economy collapsed and the novel could no longer be published. But that is another story…

Professor Bankole Ajibabi Omotoso was born in Akure in present-day Ondo State on April 21, 1943 and was educated at Oyemekan Grammar School, Akure and the prestigious King’s College, Lagos, before taking his university degree at the University of Ibadan in 1969.

He was awarded a scholarship to study for a doctorate in Arabic Literature at the University of Edinburgh and the American University in Cairo, Egypt.      
He married Marguerita Rice, a native of Barbados, before returning to Nigeria to teach in the Department of Arabic and Islamic Studies at the University of Ibadan.

With the establishment of the Department of Dramatic Arts at the University of Ife under the headship of Soyinka, Kole Omotoso transferred his services to Ile-Ife where we met.

He was a striking presence on campus with his Volkswagen Beetle car and the Marxist predilection of his bearing. He was a prominent member of a Marxist group of intellectuals known as the Positive Review Collective that included the fiery Biodun Jeyifo, Yemi Ogunbiyi, Femi Osofisan, John Ohiorhenuan, Odia Ofeimun etc.

The intellection on the Ife campus those days was robustly radical, and the exchanges between the lecturers and the students could be high octane. There was, for instance, one hot session in class when our teacher, Kole Omotoso, and our classmate, Owei Lakemfa, disagreed on the interpretation of a book by the Marxist theoretician, Raymond Williams, which led to the abrupt end of the class!

It’s a mark of Kole Omotoso’s class that he never visited any harsh retribution upon any contrarian student for any excesses whatsoever. Wole Soyinka summed up the class struggle of those days thusly: “They are my students. They don’t listen.”    

Kole Omotoso was elected as the first secretary-general of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and later became president after the founder Chinua Achebe.

His first novel, The Edifice, was published by the esteemed Heinemann African Writers Series (AWS) in 1971. It deals with the sad disintegration of the marriage between the Nigerian overseas student, Dele, and the English girl, Daisy, when he takes her home to Nigeria. The marriage ends and he marries another white woman. The second novel of Kole Omotoso, The Combat, published in 1972 also by Heinemann’s AWS, is a sad parable on the Nigeria-Biafra war depicting two brothers embroiled in a senseless fight. 

He published a collection of short stories entitled Miracles in 1973 and initiated the experimentation in detective fiction in Nigeria through his 1974 publication of Fella’s Choice. His other books are Sacrifice, The Scales, To Borrow a Wandering Leaf, Memories of Our Recent Boom etc.

He also published two plays, namely The Curse: A One-Act Play in Four Scenes; and Shadows in the Horizon: A Play about the Combustibility of Private Property.

Kole Omotoso equally distinguished himself by authoring critical books, notably The Form of the African Novel: A Critical Essay; The Theatrical into Theatre: A Study of the Drama and Theatre of the English-Speaking Caribbean; Season of Migration to the South: Africa’s Crises Reconsidered; Achebe or Soyinka? A Study in Contrasts; and Woza Africa.

The most controversial book of Kole Omotoso is without question Just Before Dawn, a faction on the history of Nigeria published in 1988 by Spectrum Books, Ibadan under the charge of Chief Joop Berkhout. A former Nigerian Head of State threatened to sue him and his publishers. Hell was let loose in some security quarters. The most interesting development about the book’s publication for me was the war it unleashed between two of Nigeria’s most distinguished historians. Prof J.F. Ade-Ajayi of the then History Department of the University of Ibadan stated that he felt more history in Kole Omotoso’s Just Before Dawn when compared with the 13-volume history of Nigeria commissioned by the General Olusegun Obasanjo government and edited by Prof Tekena Tamuno. It’s understandable that Prof Tamuno was not amused at all that his colleague, Prof Ade-Ajayi, had a greater feel of history in the admixture of fact and fiction called faction than in a proper book of History with a capital “H”.

Back in 2018, Kole Omotoso reflected on 30 years of Just Before Dawn thus: “Why faction? This has been one of the many questions about the book. In continuous discussions about the idea of the book with the late Dele Giwa I came to the conclusion that the overall effect would be worth achieving through a style far from the so-called objective historical narrative. Dele Giwa made the case for prose style that affected the reader internally. This should not be a history book. It should be a historic book. I had hoped that he would live to approve of it. What about a sequel? I did attempt a sequel entitled DAYBREAK! The dark clouds had gone and all Nigerians woke up to go to work: the weaver went to his or her weaving machine. The clerk bathes and takes his biro pen and paper and on to the office. The doctor takes his bag and bedside manners and off to the hospital she goes. And so on. But I have no idea where that manuscript is. It is obvious that a sequel in the same manner of detailed narrative of wrong decisions and wrong options although aplenty would be boring to write. It would also be difficult to read. Once, in this case, is enough. How things changed for the better would have been the natural sequel to the book. And since nothing has changed for the better there is no sequel to write. Or is there?”

Kole Omotoso eventually left Nigeria following the ruckus elicited by Just Before Dawn. He briefly got himself in theatrical undertakings at Talawa Theatre Company in London. He wrote articles and reviews for West Africa magazine as demanded by the London-based magazine’s Editor-in-Chief Kaye Whiteman who was his friend.  

He served as a visiting professor at the University of Stirling and was also a visiting professor at National University of Lesotho.

Kole Omotoso was professor of English at the University of Western Cape, South Africa from 1991 to 2000. He served as a professor in the Drama Department of Stellenbosch University from 2001 to 2003. He did a stint with Elizade University upon his return to Nigeria.

He was an advisor to the Big Brother Africa television show which put him in some conflict with his guru Prof Wole Soyinka. He was the patron of the Etisalat Prize for Literature from 2013 to 2016. A prominent public intellectual, he wrote the weekly column “Trouble Travels” for The Guardian on Sunday.

Kole Omotoso shook up South Africa when he started appearing all over the media as the face of the leading telecommunications giant Vodacom. He got splashed all over the television and on billboards as the “Yebo Gogo Man”.

It’s remarkable that when Kole Omotoso met Nelson Mandela, the legend described the Nigerian as “the most photographed man in South Africa.” It takes more than magic to rival the great Mandela for popularity! Incidentally, Kole Omotoso acted the role of Govan Mbeki, Mandela’s fellow prisoner on Robben Island, in the television film Mandela and de Klerk.

Even with all the fame and fortune, Kole Omotoso still retained his personable mien anytime one ran into him in the Lagos home of his bosom friend, the poet Odia Ofeimun, author of The Poet Lied. Having known him from his Great Ife Marxist days as a “ragged-trousered philanthropist” – apologies to the title of the proletarian novel of Robert Tressel – I cannot but celebrate my teacher’s revelation that if a play was being staged in London and he felt like going to watch it, he would just hop into a plane in South Africa, land in London, watch the play, and fly back to South Africa!

A noteworthy fact about Kole Omotoso is that he lived to the old age of 80 after being a sickly child who was nicknamed “Mosquito” by his naughty schoolmates. In fact, some of us in the department at Great Ife called him “Agama Lizard” – behind his back!

He was the father of three children from his first marriage – Akin the influential filmmaker, Pelayo the engineer, and Yewande the novelist and architect who designed his father’s house in the Akure bush.

Kole Omotoso later got married to Bukky after the death of Marguerita, and the marriage is blessed with the children Taiwo and Olamiposi. The renowned author is also survived by his grandchildren Alula, Itai, Paida, Kehinde and Taiye.

Novelist, playwright, scholar, critic, public intellectual, raconteur, actor, loner, teacher, multidimensional author, Kole Omotoso deserves celebration because the writer never dies.     

Music star Davido’s social media promotion of a new song by Logos Olori (whose real name is Olalekan Emeka Taiwo) titled “Jaye Lo” where men dressed in stereotypical Muslims robes gyrated into a sudden burst of frenzied dancing shortly after performing the Muslim prayers near a mosque has incensed Muslims in Hausaphone northern Nigeria but doesn’t seem to bother Yoruba and other Nigerian Muslims.

The differential reactions to the music video—and to most other issues involving religion— among Nigerian Muslims can be traced to the history and character of the evolution of Islam in the North and in the Southwest.

It is not often known that Yoruba and Hausa Muslims share a common, age-old heritage even though the manifestation of Islam in the lived experiences of the people is fundamentally different, which is magnified by the often acrimonious political differences between the two groups in contemporary Nigeria. 

The emergence of Islam in both societies is not only fairly co-extensive, it is also from the same West African source. Islam came to Katsina, Kano (and in much of Hausaland in Nigeria’s northwest) in a sustained, systematic form in the 1300s. It came to Kano when Yaji I was king of Kano— and to Yorubaland in the 1450s during the reign of Oluaso, the defunct Oyo Empire’s longest reigning monarch on record.

Tarikh arbab hadha al-balad al-musamma Kano, the Arabic-language palace diary known to us in English as the Kano Chronicle, which recorded biographical profiles of Kano’s kings from the 10th century until the Usman Dan Fodio Jihad in the early 1800s, is the first known written account to state that Islam was brought to Kano by the Wangara people of Mali during the reign of Yaji I who ruled from 1349 to 1385.

Islam also came to Yorubaland (and surrounding areas such as Borgu and Nupeland) through the same Wangara people of Mali, which explains why Islam is called “Esin imale” in the Yoruba language, which literally means “religion of Mali.” Note that the Wangara are also known by such names as Mande, Mandinka, Malinke, Mandingo, Dyula, Bambara, Soninke, etc.

Although Islam has existed in Yorubaland since at least the 1400s, the first mosque wasn’t built in Oyo-Ile, the ancient capital of the Oyo Empire, until 1550, and in Iwo, a historic Yoruba Muslim town, until the 1600s. While Islam took enough roots in Yorubaland that Sharia courts were established in some towns, traditional modes of Yoruba worship coexisted with Islam for centuries.

Former Bauchi State governor Isa Yuguda pointed out on April 26, 2013, that “the first Sharia court [in what is now Nigeria] was established in Iwo, in Osun State.” Many Yoruba Muslims repeat this claim both to show that Islam in Yorubaland has a historical edge over Islam in the North and to persuade the Nigerian government to allow the implementation of Sharia for Yoruba Muslims who desire it.

But the claim is probably an exaggeration. Sharia courts seem to have existed in Hausaland before they appeared in Iwo, but their appearance in Yorubaland obviously did precede colonialism by at least 100 years. Other Yoruba towns that had sharia courts decades before colonialism are Epe, Ikirun, and Ede (incidentally Davido’s hometown), which are all located in what is now Osun State. (Davido’s grandfather, Alhaji Raji Adeleke, was a respected Muslim leader in Ede who had the title of Baba Adini of Ede, that is, the Chief Protector of Islam in Ede town).

So, Islam in Yorubaland and Islam in Nigeria's extreme north share similar Malian-inflected historical trajectories, and neither is a direct consequence of the other, although there are interesting historical overlaps between them. For instance, several Hausa (and pre-Dan Fodio Jihad Fulani) Muslim scholars traveled to Yorubaland to preach and share Islamic knowledge. This inspired a robust linguistic and cultural interchange between the two groups.

Prior to Usman Dan Fodio’s 1804 jihad, Islamic practices in both Hausaland and Yorubaland were similar in their syncretism. That is, they blended traditional African religions and Islam. In his book Imale: Yoruba Participation in the Muslim Tradition. A Study of Clerical Piety, Patrick Ryan characterized Islamic practices in Yorubaland as “accommodationist” and pointed out that Usman Dan Fodio would have condemned Yoruba Muslims as “mixers”—as he did Hausa Muslims of the time.

So, Usman Dan Fodio’s jihad was the defining point of departure between Islam in Hausaland and Islam in Yorubaland. The jihad didn’t just extirpate the accommodationist, syncretic brand of Islam previously practiced in Hausaland, it also laid the grounds for a new syncretic ethnic identity in Hausaland.

Over the years, Islam has become not just a religion but an intrinsic constituent of an evolving, increasingly expansionist, politically consequential, and largely non-primordial Hausa Muslim identity. This fact has made Hausa the most ecumenical ethnic identity in Nigeria, by which I mean anybody can be “Hausa” provided they are Muslim, speak the Hausa language with native proficiency, dress like the Hausa, disavow allegiance to competing identities, and subscribe to the cultural consensus of the people.

That is why for most “Hausa” Muslims, Islam isn’t just a faith; it’s also an encapsulation of the totality of their identity and being. That explains why they are more emotionally invested in it—and react forcefully when it is, or perceived to be, attacked, undermined, or ridiculed—than Yoruba and other Muslims are.

Communication scholar Bala Abdullahi Muhammad once wrote in his Weekly Trust column that Hausa Muslims carry on as if Islam was revealed in Kano, as if the Qur’an was written in Hausa, and as if Islam is a uniquely primordial Hausa cultural heritage. Even Mali and Senegambia from where Islam came to Hausaland aren’t as roused to extreme passions over Islam as “Hausa” Muslims often are.

Islam in Yorubaland, on the other hand, hasn’t quite evolved from the accommodationist character it previously shared with Islam in pre-jihad Hausaland. And because Islam has been caked into the Hausa ethnic identity and constituted as the most important building block for identity formation in Northern Nigeria so much so that “Hausa” and “Muslim” have become misleadingly synonymous in the Nigerian popular imagination, Yoruba Muslims have been compelled to privilege their ethnic identity to fend off equivalence with, and to establish difference from, “Hausa” Muslims.

In other words, the association of Islam with Hausa—or Hausa-Fulani—has led to its recalibration in even historically Muslim polities in southern Nigeria such as Yorubaland and northern Edo. 

As John Paden noted in Ahmadu Bello Sardauna of Sokoto: Values and Leadership in Nigeria, Ahmadu Bello, Northern Nigeria’s first premier and great-great-grandson of Usman Dan Fodio, actively promoted Islam as Northern Nigeria’s official religion before and after independence. Professor Sakah Saidu Mahmud, in his 2004 article in the African Studies Review titled “Islamism in West Africa: Nigeria,” also pointed out that Islam in northern Nigeria emerged as “the source of identity and a medium of competition for resources and political power.”

He added that “The regional leaders were in competition with each other as they worked to consolidate their local powers, and Islamization was a means for promoting regional identity.” (It also caused dissension in the North and intensified the struggles for a separate “Middle Belt” region for Northern Christians). This reality put Yoruba Muslims in Western Nigeria on the spot since the North instrumentalized Islam for identity and for competition with southern Nigeria, including Yorubaland. 

Perhaps as a consequence of this, many Yoruba Muslims in pre- and post-independence Nigeria chose to conceal their Muslim names even when they were practicing, believing Muslims, just to distinguish themselves from Northern Muslims who have ethnicized Islam. For example, a prominent pre-independence Ibadan politician by the name of Adelabu Adegoke who was famous for his electrifying oratory changed his family name from Sanusi (which he bore throughout his educational career) to Adegoke.

The fact that the Sultan of Sokoto is recognized in Nigeria as the permanent leader of Nigerian Muslims, whether or not the Sultan is knowledgeable in Islam and against the merit-driven principles of leadership in Islam, hasn’t helped.

It should be noted that these are broad-brush characterizations that overlook many exceptions. There is a minority of Yoruba Muslims, for instance, who have more allegiance to Islam than they do to their ethnic identity. For example, at a gathering of Yoruba Muslims in Akure on June 19, 2021, Sheikh Imran Molaasan, national president of Jama'at Ta'awunil Muslimeen and Iwo native, reportedly said, "If Nigeria breaks up, Yoruba Muslims will suffocate" in an Oduduwa Republic, and even implied that the resentment against the Fulani in Yorubaland masks sneaky anti-Muslim designs by Yoruba leaders who are mostly Christians.  

 There is also a minority Hausa ethnic nationalists who resent the “dilution” of their ethnicity with other ethnicities in the name of Islam, and there are Fulani nationalists who agonize over the progressive decline of their language, culture, and identity, but these groups are, for the most part, marginal.

Nonetheless, the foregoing background explains why most Yoruba Muslims see Logos Olori’s music video as mere harmless art not worth their time and Hausa Muslims see it as a mockery of “their” culture over which they must fight. 

urges Igbo community to ignore the reports

Simon Ekpa, a well-known Biafra agitator and separatist leader, has recently called on the Igbo community to disregard circulating reports concerning an alleged letter from Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB).

Ekpa, who is a lawyer based in Finland and claims to be the Prime Minister of the Biafra Republic Government, made this declaration on Friday.

Earlier, it was reported by WithinNigeria that Nnamdi Kanu had expressed his views on the disruptive sit-at-home protests in the beleaguered South-East region.

In response to the situation, the embattled leader of the secessionist group specifically urged Simon Ekpa to halt all sit-at-home activities in the area. Furthermore, Kanu instructed Ekpa to refrain from issuing counter-orders to those given by the governors of the South-East or politicians from the region.

Kanu distanced himself from the sit-at-home protests and the ensuing wave of violence, cautioning that anyone enforcing such actions in the South-East is not a true follower of his cause and should face legal consequences.

However, Simon Ekpa refuted the authenticity of the letter, stating that it is a fabrication created by mischief-makers who oppose the liberation of Biafra. According to him, there are forces at work trying to hinder Biafra’s quest for independence.

Reiterating his call for the release of Kanu to ensure lasting peace in the southeast, he said: “Our attention has been drawn to the fake letter from the pit of hell being paraded by Nigerian media claiming that Mazi Nnamdi Kanu wrote a letter. It is not only a joke but an insult taken too far that the leader of the Indigenous People Of Biafra is being misrepresented in this way. As the Prime Minister of Biafra under the leadership of Mazi Nnamdi Kanu, I call on all Biafrans to disregard the fake letter coming from DSS.”