It has been seven seasons now since banner headlines, “OAU TO GENERATE 8.03 MW OF ELECTRICITY”, announced to the world that Obafemi Awolowo University was poised to become the first university in Nigeria to generate its own power and, in addition, cater to the needs of its immediate neighbour, the Ile-Ife community. In the beginning was the promise and the promise was visionary but the promise has now been dashed.

In the place of round-the-clock provision of electricity leading to increased productivity, enhanced quality of research and improved health, the university now has an abandoned project with sundry installed equipment and facilities rotting away as yet another symbol of the Nigerian government’s corruption and medieval backwardness.

The Power Project

In 2017, Obafemi Awolowo University entered into a working relationship with the Rural Electrification Agency (REA) to provide a gas-powered turbine that would produce the institution’s independent power needs. The project was to be delivered within two years.

When the project was launched amidst pomp and pageantry, the institution’s then Vice-Chancellor, Professor Eyitope Ogunbodede, revealed that with the coming to fruition of the project and consequent disengagement of OAU from the national grid, the institution would save between N35 million and N65 million monthly. He added that their daily energy requirement was below six megawatts. The gas-turbine-based system being installed was projected to produce eight megawatts daily, hence the assurance that the institution would be in a position to share the excess with neighbouring communities.

Seven other federal universities were also approved to self-generate electricity: Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University, Bauchi; Bayero University, Kano; Usmanu Danfodio University, Sokoto; Federal University of Agriculture, Makurdi; Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka; University of Lagos, Akoka; Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Warri; in the first phase of the federal intervention.

For OAU, trouble started in the form of what appeared like a personality clash on the surface but was actually the monster of corruption gripping the federal system under the Buhari administration. The Rural Electrification Agency was headed by Clara Ogunbiyi at the time. For some reason, there was no love lost between her and the newly appointed Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman. If you put your ears to the ground, you would hear that the lady was considered uncooperative with the various sleaze schemes brought to her table. Eventually, she left Nigeria to its peccadilloes and resumed a new job in a saner environment at a global agency.

Corruption Problems

She was replaced as managing director by Ahmad Salihijo, who did nothing to facilitate the completion of the Ife project but soon demonstrated that he had demons of his own to contend with. As soon as the Buhari administration expired, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), swooped in. Salihijo was suspended by the new Tinubu administration. Many eyes popped when the EFCC made public the kernel of its findings. One of the pegs of the investigation was the uncovering of 27 accounts linked with the suspended REA Managing Director.

The commission said, among other things, that about N1.2 billion, which immediately accounted for Ahmad’s suspension, had been wired into the accounts of eight staff members, including two directors. The allegations against the top officials of REA are criminal conspiracy, criminal breach of trust, misappropriation of public funds, procurement fraud and money laundering.

In announcing Salihijo’s suspension in a statement signed by Ajuri Ngelale, the presidency had said,
“In the light of new findings unearthed during a comprehensive investigation into the financial activities of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), President Bola Tinubu has approved the indefinite suspension of the managing director/CEO of the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), Ahmad Salihijo Ahmad, alongside three executive directors of the agency, from office.

“Furthermore, President Tinubu has ordered a wider investigation into the conduct of the aforementioned officials in a fraudulent mis-expenditure amounting to over N1.2 billion over the past two years, some of which has already been recovered by anti-graft agencies”.

Cynical Nigerians said it would all end up as a game of musical chairs. Abba Abubakar Aliyu was appointed as the MD/CEO to replace Ahmad.; Ayoade Gboyega as executive director, corporate services; Umar Abdullahi Umar, executive director, technical services; Doris Uboh, executive director, rural electrification fund (REF); and Olufemi Akinyelure, head of project management unit, Nigeria electrification project.
Although Ngelale reiterated President Tinubu’s determination to elevate the yearnings of Nigerians for good governance and qualitative service delivery above the narrow interests of individuals who are entrusted to provide critical services to Nigerians the Ife power project stalls still.

Anxiety

The institution’s stakeholders who have been anxiously hoping that all encumbrances in the way of the completion of the project would immediately be removed were surprised that so far nothing concrete is happening. The Asian staff who came for the installation of the last set of equipment on site have since returned home. Then, some sources indicated that the Tinubu government wants to convert the project to a solar-powered facility instead of the gas originally designed and upon which the 75 percent completion already achieved is based.

There’s also talk of introducing a new player who had never been part of the project before. Nigeria!
Now, being a self confessed Engineering illiterate, I will refrain from laughing in vernacular or composing panegyrics concerning this project; neither is required, although this tragic stalling of a developmental project is both galling and dispiriting. For Goodness’ sake, how does corruption dog every attempt to gain an inch?

Rather than news about project completion, we have been regaled with tidings of a different kind. It will be recalled that throughout his tenure, President Buhari removed only two ministers. The man posted to the Ministry of Power was one of them, having been sacked for alleged corruption in September 2021.

Last July, hearing in his case was stalled because he was said to have suddenly taken ill outside the court premises and had to be sprinkled with water to revive him. While granting Saleh the benefit of the doubt, there have been too many incidents of government officials dramatising fainting spells or showing up in wheelchairs when dragged before the law. Those are mere distractions.

The buck stops at President Tinubu’s table. Will he allow the present scandalous situation regarding the OAU power project to continue, or will he direct the incumbent Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, to expeditiously resolve this matter to ensure that, for once, corruption is put to shame? When will Tinubu declare, “Let there be light?”

ASUU’s 21-Day Notice

Last week, the Academic Staff Union of Nigerian Universities issued a fresh 21-day ultimatum to the federal government to meet its demands. So far, I am not aware that any high profile ambassador of peace, cleric, traditional ruler, socio-cultural organisation, emergency NGO, concerned stakeholder or any of the usual interventionists who usually pop up once the strike takes effect — has waded in.

The Ministry of Education has probably reconciled itself to the notion that an ASUU strike must be a regular feature of their educational calendar. It’s the habitual fire brigade approach. In the next three weeks, they will roll out their fire trucks with neon lights and long convoys but, as always, the fire hydrants will be waterless.

You’ve got to feel sorry for our unborn tomorrows!

HAVE you ever read Heidi Holland’s Dinner With Mugabe? It was published in 2012 by a Zimbabwean journalist and columnist who worked with Illustrated Life Rhodesia magazine. The book is a very penetrating portraiture of Robert Mugabe. It is a psychobiography of a freedom fighter, liberal lawyer and revolutionary who later became, first Prime Minister and later, President of Zimbabwe. The book’s title was a product of a 1975 sudden call from a Holland friend. He wanted her to arrange dinner and meeting with a friend she had no idea who he was, in her home in Salisbury, now Harare. “It wasn’t until we stood under the veranda light and looked up as we greeted each other that I recognised him. It was Robert Mugabe,” she wrote in the Preface to the book.

Mugabe had a train to catch that night and intermittently looked at his wrist-watch. He had just come out of an eleven years prison and was about to escape through the border into Mozambique to begin war against white rule. Holland, who later became a leading authority on the enigmatic mind of Robert Mugabe, drove Bob that night to the railway station.

For over 30 years, Holland observed Bob morph from a guerrilla-leader-in-waiting into a sadistic and grotesque dictator. Page by page, the psychobiography uncovers how tyranny took hold of Mugabe and the roots of his ruthlessness. It gradually unfolds the horrific consequences of his presidency of Zimbabwe. In all this, Holland reveals that Mugabe had a more complicated persona than his fearsome image the world had.

Heidi’s psychobiography unwittingly shows that emergence of leaders is through two routes. First are the ones whose portraits are known, pre-power, ab-initio and without psychoanalysis. Such leaders the Yoruba call the e-ti- m’oko-l’óko-ikún-kí-e-tó-gbin-èpà-si type. Ikun, the land squirrel, is a rodent smaller than the widely known species called ọ̀kẹ́rẹ́. It lives on the ground as against trees that ọ̀kẹ́rẹ́ is known by. This rodent is renowned for its obsession with devouring nuts in a groundnut plantation. If a farmer knew that the plantation he was about to cultivate was in a squirrel-infested field, and, yet sowed his seeds in it, when he whimpers at its devastation by squirrels, Yoruba blame him for his stupidity. He should have known that a fatal failure awaited him; what the Yoruba, again, call “ofo l’ehin oja.”

The second kind of leadership is Mugabe’s, as profiled by Heidi. At the outset, they wear the garb of innocence. Suddenly, these leaders transmute into wearing the visage of Dracula. They then pounce on the people with their ferocious teeth.

When life is as sour as 2024 Nigeria, the Yoruba compare existence to the taste from licking the sour seed of Iyeye. Iyeye is however Janus. As sour as its seeds are, its generational benefits are legends of folklores. Botanically named spondias mombin, in English, Iyeye is the hog plum. In Igbo, it is Ijikara while Hausa call it Tsardar masar. Its seeds are sour-sweet but the medicinal barks and leaves are used for inducing labour in women. In those days in Iwo, old Oyo State, I picked two songs that still ring in my head till today. As pupils of Ajangbala D.C. Primary School, we sang, while marching from the “Assembly” to our classes, “Odíderé eye Ìwó, Àlùkò eye Òsà, Lékelèké eye Òsun, ìwà re wù mí, màá bá e lo…” (Parrot, the bird totem of Iwo people; Woodcock, bird of the Sea and Cattle egret, bird of the Osun River goddess, your characters fascinate me and I will go with you, wherever you go…).

The other was mostly sung by our mothers in eulogy to the Iyeye. They sang, “Ewé ìyeyè, igba ni o, owó tí mo ní, kò ‘ì tó o, omo tí mo ní, kò ì tó o, ewé ìyeyè igba ni” (as the leaves sprouting out of the Iyeye are two hundred-fold, (may) my wealth and the children I will birth be similar in number; the ones I have are not enough). While the Iyeye song espouses and extols the multiplicity of children that a good tree begets, the two songs, taken together, speak to character and pedigree. The first extols the desirability and aesthetics of character of birds. Odidere, for instance, also called Ayékòótó, (the world scoffs at the truth) is a friend of man and the Iwo. It is domesticated and is said to understand and speak the language of man. It mirrors the purity of mind that its trustworthiness connotes. Such trust is reflected in the deep Yoruba saying that, Odidere should remember the tenets of the agreement it entered into with its master (Odíderé, t’ó bá j’oungbé, má j’oùngbé o!). The birds’ sterling character binds, like a twine, a whole people in friendship with the Parrot, Woodcock and Cattle egret birds.

Unlike Iwo, Sea and Osun River’s friendship with the above birds, our land has always been unlucky to be in besotting friendship with the Abyssinian hornbill bird. Yoruba call this bird Àkàlàmàgbò or Àkàlà. Àkàlà is a bird in whose veins, metaphorically, blood does not flow. It is audaciously bold in doing the unthinkable. It enjoys eating sumptuous sacrifices, food of the gods. These sacrifices are products of the innermost recess of pains suffered by those who offer them. Àkàlà also feasts on carrion, corpses of human and carcasses of non-human beings.

How did Nigerians get here? It is as a result of the fatal consequences they always suffer due to their uncritical profiling and friendship with their leader-tormentors. They once wanted a man who didn’t have shoes while growing up… Again, they desired a Spartan. They got one whose brain was as vacant as a Venetian graveyard. Lastly, they mis-read, mis-profiled and mistook Akala for the Odidere, the latter a bird whose sense of character imposes remembrance of agreement. Have they forgotten that the Vulture comes from a family of sacrifice and cadaver eaters (ìran Igún níí je’bo, ìran Àkàlà a j›òkú)? Why did they think they could make the corpse walk, apologies to James Hadley Chase, by reshaping the fatal consequences of their own hypocritical estimation? They deified a Capon whose heart is as cold as mutton as a potential Messiah. Now, they are wailing. Right by their bedside is their choice, the one they knew so much about, yet so little of the fatal damage that his pedigree they knew so well could do on their lives.

On Thursday, as fuel was being funneled inside my car, I ‘prayed’ for everyone who brought this tragedy on Nigerians. To me, my blood was the petrol from the expensive nozzle majestically flowing into the car. It was N1,000 a liter! It is a very distressing time to be a Nigerian. I instantly remembered that, on October 10, 1998, almost 26 years ago, in Yaba, Lagos, with Nigeria locked in a similar chokehold of petrol scarcity, I asked today’s bird of carrion, who, pretending to be Odíderé, had just flown back to Iwo, what his impression of Nigeria was. In his usual cockney, he thundered: “Retrogression, rolling backwards, on reverse gear; that is my impression. Sad! That people are still queuing at the petrol stations, spend more productive hours at the petrol stations than in economic sector. It is a very sad story… You see poverty, glaringly on the faces of the people, in a nation that has so much resources to thrive on. It hurts.” I wrote this and more in my offering of December 10, 2023.

If poverty and suffering (glaring on the faces of the people) can be measured, I wonder which would be plentier – the ones now or the gnashing of teeth under the military in 1998? But, in unmistakable warnings, we foretold this tragedy. I did in a viral piece published on January 16, 2022. We were Heidi Holland and we literally had dinner with the harbingers of the present pains. Unlike Holland, whose portraiture of Mugabe was post-mortem, ours was ante-mortem. We were demonized as prophets of doom. Nigerians said they had discovered, right on their thumbnail, a great builder who could turn ruins to Ruby. His bio, they said, spoke volumes. Didn’t we know he built Òkun (the Sea) and Òsà (the Lagoon) from nothing and made both a glittering expanse of aquatic modern wonder?

In their excitement, they even foretold life in abundance and plenty under the incoming builder. So they excitedly sang “L’áyé Olúgbọ́n…”, a historical song sung in the old Oyo Empire during the reign of Aláàfin Abíọ́dún. The song was to buttress their anger at what they called our  prophecy of doom. Indeed, during the reign of King Abiodun of Ọ̀yọ́-Ilé in the Empire, his government typified the height of an empathetic and benevolent administration. It prioritized the people’s welfare. There was plenty. There was peace, economic growth, prosperity and development. People praised and sang the goodness and huge financial stability that Oyo witnessed under him. So, women were renowned for singing this hate-laced, scurrilous attack song against the opposition to Abiodun: “During the reign of King Olugbon, we had such plenty that we bought and sewed seven exotic scarves; during the reign of King Aresa, we bought and sewed six scarves; during the reign of Abiodun, we bought and sewed velvet, silks and other pricey clothing materials…” (L’áyé Olúgbọ́n, mo dá’borùn méje, e ó maa ko yìi l’órin, l’áyé Arèsà, mo dá’borùn méfà, e ó maa kò yí l’órin, l’áyé Abíódún, mo ra kókò, mo rà’rán baba aso, e ó maa kò yí l’órin…” They ended their mockery-laced song by calling us lazy drones who only foretold hunger and pain. They asked us to carry our baggage and seek comfort in another land: “Àf’òle l’ó le pé ilè yìí ò dùn; eni bá pé ilè yìí ò dùn, k’ó yára k’érù s’ókò, k’ò gb’oko lo.”

We didn’t relent in telling them how wrong they were. We told the people that no one can build, nor renew any skyscraper of hope on a cracked pedigree. The “Oba Abiodun” they were bringing to sit on the Rock was actually Alaafin Aole. You can check who the original was. He would steal, plunder and despoil farmlands plus their future. He was a lover of the good things of life and would go on a saturnalia with your patrimony, we warned.

Today, the land tastes like a sour Iyeye fruit (Ìlú kan gógó). As our elders say when there is famine and maladministration, our birds chirp in awkward manner; our rats squeak in ways they had never done hitherto. Our situation is almost synonymous with the biblical Samaria where parents entered into consensus to eat their children. Hope is the scarcest on the horizon. The people suffer needlessly. They queue in serpentine, snake-like kilometers-length to buy fuel that oozes out of their own soil. Nothing seems to work. Yet, the people in power live recklessly the proverbial fàmílétèntutó life. They fly glittering jirigin sama, a $100m-worth ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), while their people wallow in abject squalor and poverty. Those who daily eat eggs forget easily that the cock that lays the eggs suffer anal pains. In our face, they flaunt the latest Cadillac Escalade and tell us to go jump inside the lagoon. A country where the groaning of the people does not grate the ears of their leaders is gasping for breath. Being a Nigerian at this time is like wearing a thorn-filled crown and carrying the heavy biblical Jesus’ cross.

To worsen matters, subterfuge and a coterie of lies are official responses to our anger. When you are seen as one who heaves a tall ladder (àbà) to the furrows in order to climb a heap (ebè) you are an Alágàbàngebè – a serial liar – so say the Yoruba. A person or government which lives a life of decet; one who daily tells scores of lies, is labeled Ajíp’ogúnn’ró.

Jamaican reggae music sensation, Peter Tosh, was at the emotional crossroads we are today as Nigerians. A very religious Rastafarian, Tosh preached redemption through his songs for decades, yet none came. He was often brutalized by the police. So, in frustration, he asked a rhetorical question in the track, Jah Se No,“Must Rastas bear this cross alone and all the heathens go free?” No. There is redemption. History tells us so. To ram home the fact that no evil goes unpunished, the Yoruba say nemesis is next door for every enemy of the people, Ìtàdógún kù sí dèdè, ojó elésìín k’òla.

THE Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) is threatening to shut down the country’s economy if its president, Joe Ajaero, is arrested by the police. Ajaero has been invited for questioning by the police authorities over serious allegations that border on the security of the country and the wellbeing of Nigerians. That’s on one side. On the other side is the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) giving notification that it could soon resume its suspended eight-month strike action that crippled most federal and state universities and threw the entire university system into a tailspin that it is yet to recover from. According to Professor Ishaq Oloyede, the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board’s Registrar, there are at the moment two or three sessions’ backlog of admission in these universities, with hundreds of thousands of admission-seekers – and their parents and wards – the victims. Another downing of tools by the eggheads will not only completely smash the system but will also totally demarket the Nigerian university system in the international community. Already, more and more foreign countries have stopped recognizing Nigerian university certificates – and the academicians themselves to boot – denying them the pride of place hitherto accorded them when our educational system was respected as one of the best not only on the continent of Africa but also all over the world.

Put mildly, these are not the best of times for both the NLC and ASUU to embark on another round of strike action, no matter their grievances. Our patriotic instincts should demand that all hands be on deck now to fight the Chinese threat to strip the country of its vital assets because of a contractual disagreement between a Chinese company and the government of Ogun State, one out of the 36 states that make up the Federation. In what appears as a calculated and orchestrated plot to embarrass the Nigerian government and people, Nigerian assets worth far more than the amount in dispute are being seized, not just in one country but in multiple countries in Europe and the Americas. This is sheer blackmail and a well-crafted plot to tarnish the image of every Nigerian. It is a design to give Nigeria and Nigerians a bad name and image. The negative backlash that this international conspiracy will hewn on every Nigerian is better imagined than felt. For a country already suffering one form of image problem or another, this is one scandal too many. Any Nigerian that does not see it this way should have their head examined.

This, however, is not to say that we should not apportion blame where it is due; be they individuals or corporate organisations. Anyone and everyone who has a hand in getting us into this mess must be uncovered and punished. This is one case that must not be swept under the carpet in the usual Nigerian style. But – and this is a big but – we must first drive away the fox before returning home to warn the hen not to wander too far away from its secured zone. For one, the assets being plundered are our assets; I mean, they are the assets of all Nigerians and we cannot say it serves President Bola Ahmed Tinubu right. We will be cutting our nose to spite our face if we reason that way. We should not even wash our hands off it and ask the Ogun State Government and\or its former and sitting governors to clean up the mess. It is only after we have risen like one man to call the bluff of the Chinese gold diggers that we can return to give due recompense to the culprits that got all of us into this sorry pass.

That said, we must advise the government that if Nigerians are to rally round it to face the external aggression that the Chinese businessman’s action typifies, it cannot afford to fish in troubled waters. The police invitation to Ajaero appears one provocation too many. I hope the police authorities were not acting irresponsibly with its invitation to the NLC president because the allegations against him are very grievous – criminal conspiracy, terrorism financing, treasonable felony, subversion and cybercrime. None of the allegations is lightweight. If the police have evidence and can establish a prima facie case against Ajaero, then, the NLC president must face the music. No one is above the law. Put differently, the law is no respecter of persons. As our people will put it, it is the finger that offends the king (the law) that is cut off. If the police are able to prove their case against Ajaero, then, the NLC will be wrong to think of shielding him from having his day in court. The offences or crimes he is alleged to have committed is against all of us; it is against the Nigerian state; it is against present and future generations of Nigerians; it is against the wellbeing of every Nigerian, including the same NLC buffs threatening to shut down the economy just to protect their man, be he guilty, be he innocent. That, I dare to say, is irresponsible. What I expect of them is to insist that Ajaero must not be victimized or oppressed; that his rights must be respected and that he must have his day in court. That should have been the most reasonable path for them to tread.

I expect Ajaero to still insist on having his day in court. It will not be right if, after the NLC’s grandstanding, he hides in a corner and chooses not to clear his name of the damaging allegations leveled against him by the police. The police, too, if they fail to press their case against Ajaero, would have unimaginably dented their own image and destroyed whatever is left of their reputation. In addition, the Inspector-General of Police will have to resign. In addition, he will have to tender an unreserved apology to Ajaero and Nigerians. Ajaero will then also be at liberty to sue him for libel and defamation of character and demand hefty sums as compensation. If none of the two parties follow these recommendations, then, they have something to hide and are not serious-minded fellows. Their integrity becomes suspect.

Now to ASUU! It is too early for the university teachers to threaten to further disrupt an already-disrupted university calendar. No matter their grouse and no matter how long it takes for commonsense to prevail, another strike action should not be on the cards. If we have a sense of shame and responsibility, we must choose to suffer in silence rather than destroy the university system completely. It is like a man setting fire on the roof over his head simply because the landlord was tardy in effecting the repair of a leaking roof. At the recent stakeholders meeting of JAMB held in Abuja, the Minister of Education, Tahir Mamman, spoke eloquently of the benefits the ministry – and the country as a whole – has reaped from his new approach of encouraging dialogue among the various stakeholders in the country’s university system and the government. He admonished the university authorities to bend over backward to maintain peace on campus by toeing the line of dialogue. So, whatever happened to those homilies? Is he not practising what he preaches? The Federal Government must bend over backward to prevent another strike action by ASUU.

Now, if I may ask, what are the government’s excuses for not meeting ASUU’s demands? Is it that there is no money? A country that gifted N90 billion on Hajj subsidy (much of which was found to have ended in some individuals’ pockets); a country that spent billions renovating the vice-president’s quarters; a country that bought multi-million Naira bulletproof cars for its National Assembly members; that just purchased a customised private jet for its president, with a limo that will make the American president green with envy to boot; a country that is preparing for another earth summit jamboree; a country where senators go home with N21 million every month; and a country where the CBN top-wigs are reportedly revelling in the opulence reserved only for Arab oil sheiks  – such a country cannot, in good conscience, claim not to have the means to end the rot in our institutions of higher learning.

His Royal Highness, Alhaji Yunusa Muhammad Danyaya (OON), the Emir of Ningi in Bauchi State, has passed away.

The revered monarch was reported to have died in the early hours of Sunday in Kano, where he had been taken for medical attention due to age-related health issues.

The late Royal Father will be buried later on Sunday evening at 4pm following a funeral prayer to be held at the Emir’s Palace in Ningi.

The announcement of his death was conveyed by the Secretary of the Emirate, Alhaji Usman Sule, Magayakin Ningi, in a brief statement written in Hausa.

The statement reads, “Innalillahi Wa’innan Ilaihir Raji’un. Allah yayiwa mai Martaba Sarkin Ningi, Dr. Yunusa Muhammadu Dan Yaya (OON), rasuwa da asubahin yau, Lahadi a Kano

“IZa ayi jana’iza da karfe Hudu na yamma a kofar Fada. Sanarwa daga Sakataren Fada, Alhaji Usman Sule, Magayakin Ningi.”

His Royal Highness, Alhaji Yunusa Muhammad Danyaya, was a distinguished and highly respected first-class traditional ruler in the North East Geographical Zone.

As the Emir of Ningi in Bauchi State, he was adored by his subjects for his sense of justice, fairness, and equity. His tenure witnessed the rapid transformation of Ningi from a rural community into a fast-developing and modern town.

Born in Ningi in 1936, Alhaji Yunusa began his education at Ningi Elementary School between 1941 and 1946, and continued to Bauchi Middle School, completing his studies in 1951.

He later enrolled at the School of Hygiene, Kano, in 1951, and pursued further studies at Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria, where he completed a one-year course in Public Administration between 1956 and 1957. He also attended a course at the British Council, Kano, between 1959 and 1960, and earned a diploma in public administration from ABU Zaria between 1960 and 1962.

Alhaji Yunusa had a distinguished career in the Native Authority (NA) Administration, starting as a dispenser at Nasaru Dispensary, Ningi, from 1953 to 1958.

He served in various capacities, including as a member of the Ningi Emirate Council (1956-1960), Councilor of the Medical and Health Department (1958-1959), and District Head and Chiroman Ningi in 1959.

He later joined the Nigerian Tobacco Company, Zaria, in 1963 as a welfare officer and went on to work at the Northern Nigeria Marketing Board, where he held several managerial positions.

He was appointed Sub-Area Manager in charge of Gombe, Biu, and Kumo in 1970, and later became the Acting Area Manager in charge of the North Eastern States Marketing Board in 1976.

Alhaji Yunusa was crowned Emir of Ningi in 1978 and was elevated to first-class status in 1998. He played significant roles in various organizations, including Jama’atul Nasril Islam (JIN) and the National Council of States, representing Bauchi State Council of Chiefs from 1979 to 1983.

He also served as Acting Chairman, Board of Directors of Inland Bank Nigeria Plc, and Director of the Hadejia-Jama’are River Basin Development Authority.

His contributions to national development earned him numerous awards and honors, including the National Honours Award as “Officer of the Order of Niger (OON)” and various merit awards from different organizations.

Alhaji Yunusa traveled extensively to countries such as the United Kingdom, Germany, Canada, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Namibia, and other West African nations.

His hobbies included horse riding, farming, and traveling. He was happily married and blessed with twenty-four children.

“There are only two families in the world, my grandmother used to say, the haves and the have-nots” – Miguel de Cervantes, 1547-1616, VANGUARD BOOK OF QUOTATIONS, VBQ, p 87 – available online.

Once upon a time, there were three classes in Nigeria – the Upper Class, the Middle Class and the Lower Class. Only God knows how it happened. Under colonial rule, even those in the Lower Class still managed to eat three times a day. Extremely few Nigerians starved; and, even most of them were taken care of by the well-entrenched extended family network – until Herbert Macaulay, Nnamdi Azikiwe, Obafemi Awolowo and Ahmadu Bello decided that the wicked Britons must go.

Nigerians must rule themselves. If our so-called Founding Fathers could rise from their graves today, and tell the truth, they must admit that they committed a blunder. They rescued us from people chastising us with whips and handed us to Nigerians chastising us with king cobras. Never in the history of Nigeria has such a preponderant percentage of the citizenry been made so destitute and bereft of hope for tomorrow – not to talk of next week, next month, or next year. We are now in the vice grip of five councils – all literally choking us to death in their own way. Whether they enjoy the sadism is difficult to say; but, there is obviously no eagerness to stop killing us softly with their activities. Permit me to list them one by one.

COUNCIL OF STATE

“In every community, there is a class of people profoundly dangerous to the rest. I don’t mean the criminals. For them we have punitive sanctions. I mean the leaders. Invariably, the most dangerous people seek power” – Saul Bellow, 1915-2015, VBQ p 124. 

The NATION newspaper, on the day after the last Council of State meeting, published a picture on its front page. President Bola Tinubu was in the middle; flanked on the left and right by former Presidents Jonathan and Buhari. The paper, published by Tinubu, was too happy to inform the entire world that the Council of State passed a vote of confidence on Tinubu. A picture is always worth more than a thousand words – as advertising practitioners know too well.

Without realising it, if anybody were to be asked to point to how Nigeria found itself in this perilous situation, The NATION provided the shortest and most accurate answer. Nigeria’s last three Presidents, ably supported by Obasanjo and their appointees into various offices, led us into this economic and political quagmire from which escape is almost impossible without dire consequences. Permit me to start with shocking economic facts which even their most ardent supporters cannot refute in any language known to sane people anywhere.

When Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Minister of Finance, persuaded Jonathan that the Nigerian economy needed to be rebased, the two of them had more than economics on their minds. The 2015 Presidential Election was uppermost. To suddenly announce that the national Gross Domestic Product, GDP, had grown from USS270 billion to USS510 billion would certainly help win the election – never mind that Fellow Nigerians experienced no improvement in their welfare. As an added dividend from the meaningless exercise, Nigeria was pronounced the biggest economy in Africa – a claim which visits to South Africa and Egypt could easily reveal as fake news. 

For ten years, Nigeria had paraded itself in the borrowed robes of biggest economy in Africa. Irrespective of how long, every lie has an expiry date. Today, the estimated GDP for the top African countries are as follows:

*    South Africa      373.23

  *    Egypt                  347.59

 *    Algeria                266.78

 *    Nigeria                252.74

Three obvious facts stare Nigerians in the face. One, the nation’s GDP today is only 49.6 per cent of what it was in 2014 or approximately half. Two, our dear country is no longer the biggest economy in Africa; it is now number four. Three, Jonathan, Buhari and Tinubu brought us down to this level.

Two hidden facts which could not be deduced from the figures above are the following. First, in 2014, the population was about 65 per cent of what we have now. Second, with the disastrous decline in GDP, per capita income has gone steadily down; such that, today, poverty in Nigeria has exceeded anything experienced in our history. Third, none of the three leaders can claim to be poorer today than in 2014. Not even self-righteous Buhari. But, we are.

Right now, the three of them control the Council of State – a council of the overfed – who don’t really give a damn whether the rest of us starve to death or not. Deep in their hearts, they know that the palliative measures have failed; that they only opened another opportunity for party members and state officials. In order to protect themselves, the game of mutual back scratching has to be played in the open.

Who among them, as well as other members of the Council, actually believes that we will end this year in better condition than we started it?  “It requires wisdom to understand wisdom…” (Walter Lippmann, 1889-1974, VBQ p 275). How can two failures, as Presidents, know what good governance is? And, if Tinubu is basking in the endorsements by those losers, then we are in deeper trouble than we realise. Vote of confidence my foot.

COUNCIL OF ‘LEGISLATHIEF’ HOUSES

“My monthly salary is less than N1 million. After deductions, the figure comes down to a little over N600, 000. Given the increase in the Senate, each senator gets N21 million every month as running cost” – Senator Kawu Sumaila, NNDP, Kano South.

It is difficult to understand if an inadvertent slip of tongue was responsible for the distinguished senator’s disclosure while speaking on the BBC Hausa Service; but, it has shocked Nigerians normally docile to the marrows. Sunday, August 18, 2024 was unusual in the print media. Virtually every major newspaper had a report or columnist writing about the outrageous amount. One newspaper sympathetic to government had three entries – each adding additional information to what Kawu told us; and all leading to the same conclusion.

Nobody knows exactly how much federal legislators actually take from the national purse each month. But, it is far in excess of what the Revenue Mobilisation and Allocation Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, would lead us to believe. Indeed, if the entire take home pay of senators were to be N600, 000, few Nigerians would contest for the position. Those going there, irrespective of how rich before, still know that there is a pot of gold into which they can dip their fingers without questions asked.

However, those carpeting the federal lawmakers have ignored the same game being played in all the 36 states’ Houses of Assemblies; where a conspiracy of silence reigns. Instead of playing the constitutional roles assigned to them, the Speakers serve as arrowheads to negotiate with the Governors: “Pay us well and there will be no checks and balances”. Just as Ministers “bow and go” during screening in Abuja, Commissioners undergo the same ritual in the states. Thereafter, ‘executhief’ and ‘legislathief’ lawlessness prevails. Invariably, the Auditor General is drawn into the stratagem. His role is simple: “See no evil, write no evil and say no evil about the two branches of government.” To make sure that there is no leakage, the Auditors’ Reports are never read by anybody.

The Auditor General of the Federation’s Report from 2017 to 2021 already provided sufficient information to alert the National Assembly, NASS, to the fact that Buhari’s government was colluding with the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, to loot trillions from the bank under Ways and Means, W&M. But, the NASS, led by Saraki, 2015-2019, and Lawan, 2019-2023, was never interested in saving Nigeria from eventual calamity. Keeping the scheme going was more important than being patriotic. The CBN Governor would be called; and he would ignore the NASS; and Buhari would not call the Governor to order.

If Nigerians want to know how we tumbled from US$510 billion in 2014 to US$273 billion in 2024, all that is required is to look at the quality of leaders we have had since 1999.

COUNCIL OF UNJUST JUSTICES: THE WAY WE ARE

“The worst form of justice is pretended justice” – Plato, 427-347 BC.

Nobody raised objections when a recent report alleged that the Nigerian judiciary is among the most corrupt institutions in the country. That told us all we need to know about leadership in this country. Taking poor people accused of stealing goat before any of our corrupt judges is akin to asking a mass murderer to judge a wife-beater. Yet, the Nigerian bench is crawling with them…

To be continued next week…

The next governorship election in Edo State is some 3 weeks away, making it obvious that politicians and their political parties in the state have had at least 4 months beginning from April 24, 2024 to officially engage in public electioneering campaigns. For the first time since 1999, we have about 4 strong candidates in their own rights representing the All Progressives Congress APC, the All Progressive Grand Alliance APGA, the Labour Party LP and the Peoples Democratic Party PDP.

One would have thought that with such an increase in the number of parties that have nationwide presence as well as the visible strength of the credentials of their flagbearers, the electioneering campaigns would be vibrant and articulate. But that has not been the case; instead, the campaigns have been largely pedestrian and in some cases boring as well as bereft of substantive governance issues.

One irritating element in the campaigns is the unending refusal of members of ruling political parties across Nigeria to differentiate their parties from the government of the day. In Edo State, media reports did reveal efforts by some officials of the PDP – the ruling party in the state to deprive other parties from holding campaigns in public spaces like schools.

For this reason, some APC leaders felt they too could stop the PDP from accessing anywhere through the federal roads supposedly owned by the federal government. Apart from the fact that it is nauseating to claim ownership of dilapidated federal roads in the state, all public institutions and structures – schools, roads, stadia etc. belong to the people and not to any ruling political party. Anyone approaching electioneering campaigns with that puerile mind-set is not likely to articulate issue-oriented messages for the electorate.

Indeed, political campaigns in Edo State have so far, depicted too many superficial and outdated issues. We are told for example that one of the candidates cannot be voted for by his people because he never showed care for them by establishing one branch of his previous enterprise in his own village. In 2024, is Edo State still looking forward to the old inclination of governors focusing more on developing their personal villages?

Of course, all Edo villages deserve to be developed and constantly improved upon. It is against the same background that those who argued at length that it was time for a governor to be an indigene of their senatorial district patronised a weak argument. Accordingly, the attack on a candidate that reportedly cannot speak his own dialect is a non-issue as none of the candidates has a goal of becoming the governor of his village or ethnic group. If all that a governor can do is to speak his own language, how does he, as the governor of all, relate with citizens of other villages?

A few weeks ago in Abuja, when I had an opportunity of speaking with the APC candidate, he sounded quite coherent and different from how he is now portrayed in the media. I suspect that his party leaders are the ones inadvertently disorganizing his thought-process. Considering that the young man is the candidate, he should be allowed to be the major speaker at any rally. To start with, if the party wins the election, he is the one to serve as governor.

It is therefore important for the voters to hear from the proverbial horse’s mouth. For as long as party stalwarts are stealing the show from him at every rally, for that long would the party be misfiring. The point to be made is that the so called ‘orators’ who at every rally suddenly dictate topics/ideas that are different from what the candidate had prepared to discuss are the ones unconsciously provoking attacks on the candidate.

Another candidate that has been a victim of attacks is that of the Labour Party. On entry into the race, many voters may have been excited over a candidate who had held the prestigious office of President of the Nigerian Bar Association NBA. Other parties perhaps out of fear for his personality have since been using fake news and or hate speech to diminish his person. At first, it was reported that he was a PDP mole and that the state governor to whom he was allegedly close brought him to disparage the main opponent of the ruling PDP. He was beginning to come out of it when a new rumour dominating the social media said he has now sold out to the ruling party at the centre. The report had LIVE pictures of his alleged meeting with Femi Gbajabiamila, the chief of staff to the President where the deal was reportedly sealed.

The candidate has since shown that the pictures are old ones taken when as President of the NBA he met with Gbajabiamila who was then the Speaker of the House of Representatives. While some people might see the strategy as tactical because it is capable of destroying an individual, we need to restate here that tactical destruction of an opponent based on falsehood is not part of the approved rules for determining the winner of an election. Bearing in mind that it is the electorate that has the sole mandate to make the determination, we ought to allow the public to hear out every candidate for the purposes of making informed electoral choices. Those who win through the illegal process of undermining others are likely to use same strategies to outwit the people during governance. Consequently, society should not encourage scammers to surreptitiously crawl into office.

Godwin Obaseki, the out-going governor is another person that political party chieftains attack at rallies. It is wrong because rallies are not occasions for intemperate criticisms that can lead to crisis. In other climes, the current campaigns would not dwell on an outgoing governor but on the capacity of each candidate seeking to come to office. We have heard enough of how the last 8 years of Obaseki have been characterised by ‘ineffectual’ Memorandum of Understanding MoU which they suspect he might handover to his preferred candidate. 

What we want to hear next in clear terms is what those they want us to vote for plan to do and more importantly how they intend to implement such plans. We hope and fervently pray that the next administration will not attempt to resurrect the obnoxious practice of ‘yesteryears’ when public funds were shared among party leaders which is the main trait by which great Nigerian politicians are known.

Quite often, those who criticize Governor Obaseki forget that they are talking to citizens who have personally watched his performance over the years and therefore have their own individual feelings about the governor. Based on that, I suggest that those seeking office in Edo State should stop taking the people for granted by seeking to think for them. Instead, they should focus on and publicise their determination to do what the outgoing governor failed to do or could not complete.

Edo State led the nation in increasing the minimum wage. Do those seeking office now intend to improve on it or at least sustain it? To get into office before telling us how difficult it is to pay N70, 000 that a predecessor seemed to have paid with relative ease would be a disaster. There is no better time than this period of electioneering to deal with such issues through public enlightenment.

This is why the government of the day must allow a level playing field for all candidates to copiously brief our voters. To do differently is to short-change the people. The coming election must be free, fair and above all transparent like that of 2020 when the people’s choice prevailed. We do not want the 2016 type when several ballot papers were destroyed while the security operatives employed to secure the process turned a blind eye.

We also deprecate the other aspect of that election where some of its segments were postponed by unknown powers and forces without the knowledge and consent of an electoral body that is supposed to be always independent. Edo voters must ignore violent politicians and reject political parties that send their experts in rigging to manipulate the election process in any part of the nation where election is holding. God bless Edo State, the heartbeat of Nigeria and the cradle of African civilization.

Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged Nigeria’s 36 state governors and the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, Mr Nyesom Wike to “disclose details of any Chinese loans, liabilities, and other external borrowing obtained, and guaranteed by the Federal Government as well the terms and conditions for any such borrowing including the provisions on collateral.”

SERAP urged them to “provide details of the repayment obligations regarding any Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing obtained and guaranteed by the Federal Government, the interest rates on the loans, and any defaults, debt restructurings, and debt exposure to China and other creditors.”

SERAP also urged them to “clarify any investment agreements with Chinese companies and repayment histories of any loans, liabilities and facilities obtained from China and other external creditors and guaranteed by the Federal Government.” 

In the letters dated 24 August 2024 and signed by SERAP deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation said: “We are concerned that your state and the FCT may have failed to efficiently manage your debt obligations, especially your external debt and investment obligations, as guaranteed by the Federal Government.”

According to SERAP, “The failure to uphold your obligations is contrary to Section 6 of the Debt Management Office Establishment (Etc), Act, and creates financial risks and other exposure to Nigeria with respect to these Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing.”

SERAP said, “These Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing by your state and the FCT may not have been used for the purposes for which they have been obtained and terms and conditions guaranteed by the Federal Government.”

The letters, read in part: “SERAP is concerned that there is a significant risk of defaults of the Chinese loans, liabilities, and other external borrowing by your state and the FCT, which are guaranteed by the Federal Government.”

“There are also significant risks of confiscation of Nigerian assets in foreign jurisdictions by multilateral and bilateral agencies and other creditors in cases of failure by your state and the FCT to satisfactorily observe and fulfil the terms and conditions of the Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing which are guaranteed by the Federal Government.”

“The apparent inadequacy of safeguards and accountability mechanisms for these Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing may also expose Nigeria’s assets in foreign jurisdictions to confiscation.”

“Your state and the FCT have a shared obligation to ensure that the spending and repayment plans of Chinese loans, liabilities, facilities and other external borrowing are consistent with the provisions of national and international standards, and to prevent or mitigate risks of confiscation of Nigerian assets abroad.”

“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall consider appropriate legal actions to compel your government and the FCT to comply with our request in the public interest.”

“Despite several external loans, liabilities, investment obligations and external borrowing obtained by your state and the FCT, which are guaranteed by the Federal Government over many years, millions of Nigerians in your state and the FCT continue to lack access to regular electricity supply and have been denied the benefit of renewable energy solutions.”

“A recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that over 133 million Nigerians are living in different categories of poverty, the majority of them women and children.”

“SERAP is seriously concerned that many of the country’s 36 states and FCT are allegedly mismanaging public funds which may include Chinese loans, liabilities and other external borrowing obtained from bilateral and multilateral institutions and agencies and guaranteed by the Federal Government.”

“We urge you to disclose the spending details of these Chinese loans, investment obligations and external borrowing, including details of and locations of projects as well as the implementation status and completion reports, if any, on the projects.”

“According to Nigeria’s Debt Management Office, the total external debt for Ogun State is N168,833,006.66 as at December 31, 2023. The total public debt portfolio for the country’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory is N9.17 trillion.”

“Nigeria’s total public debt stock, including external and domestic debts, increased by ₦24.33 trillion in three months alone, from ₦97.34 trillion ($108.23 billion) in December 2023 to ₦121.67 trillion ($91.46 billion) as of March 31, 2024. The debt represents external and domestic loans obtained by the Federal Government, the 36 state governments and the FCT.”

“SERAP notes that the World Bank has approved several loans and other funding facilities to the country’s 36 states including the recent $750 million credit line meant to the states to carry out reforms to attract investment and create jobs.”

“The World Bank on 15 December 2020 approved a $1.5 billion loan for Nigeria’s 36 states and the FCT for social protection and strengthened state-level COVID-19 response. The loan aims to help the states build a resilient recovery post-COVID19 and to reduce poverty.”

“SERAP is concerned that the Chinese loans and other external borrowing obtained by your state and guaranteed by the Federal Government are vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement.”

“Publishing details of the Chinese loans, liabilities, investment obligations and other external borrowing obtained by your state and the FCT which are guaranteed by the Federal Government would allow Nigerians to scrutinise them.”

“Section 39(1) of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], section 44 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act and article 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights to which Nigeria is a state party impose legal obligations on your state and the FCT to disclose the details sought.”

“Section 41 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act provides: ‘1) The framework for debt management during the financial year shall be based on the following rules: a. Government at all tiers shall only borrow for capital expenditure and human development, provided that, such borrowing shall be on concessional terms with low interest rate and with a reasonable long amortization period subject.’”

“Section 44 of the Fiscal Responsibility Act provides: ‘1) Any Government in the Federation or its agencies and corporations desirous of borrowing shall, specify the purpose for which the borrowing is intended and present a cost-benefit analysis, detailing the economic and social benefits of the purpose to which the intended borrowing is to be applied.’”

“According to section 21(1)(2) of the Debt Management Office Establishment (Etc), Act, ‘No external loan shall be approved or obtained by the Minister unless its terms and conditions shall have been laid before the National Assembly and approved by, its resolution. (2) The Federal and State Government or any of their agencies shall not obtain any external loan except with a guarantee issued by the Minister.’”

[Vanguard]

Onofiok Luke, a former member of the house of representatives, has congratulated Kudirat Kekere-Ekun on her swearing-in as the acting chief justice of Nigeria (CJN).

Kekere-Ekun was inaugurated by President Bola Tinubu as the second female CJN in the country’s history, after Aloma Mariam Mukhtar, who served from July 2012 to November 2014.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the former chairman of the house of representatives committee on judiciary, said he is confident that Kekere-Ekun will embark on judicial reforms.

Luke, who represented Etinan/Nsit Ibom/Nsit Ubium federal constituency in Akwa Ibom, said Kekere-Ekun’s appointment is a “well-deserved recognition” of her “outstanding contributions and unwavering commitment” to the legal profession in Nigeria.

“I am confident that, with Your Lordship’s experience, the Nigerian judiciary will reach new levels of efficiency,” the statement reads.

“I have no doubt that you will usher in reforms that will empower the judicial workforce and improve working conditions.

“The recent assent by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR, to the bill for an upward review of the salaries and emoluments of judicial officers is a milestone that I believe will have an even greater impact under your leadership.

“This commitment by the Executive underscores the persistent advocacy efforts over the years, including those during my tenure as Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Judiciary.

“As you embark on this new chapter, I pray that God grants you the wisdom, courage, and strength to lead the judiciary to even greater heights.”

[TheCable]

During the seventh edition of the Kaduna Investment Summit (KADINVEST 7.0) held in October 2022, His Highness Emir Muhammad Sanusi II, the Emir of Kano, reminded the audience of the grim realities facing the Nigerian economy and presented sobering projections for the country’s economic future if the current mismanagement continued. The emir emphasised that any politician who downplays these realities and portrays solving them as an easy task should not be trusted.

In setting the stage for then-presidential candidate Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s remarks, Governors Bagudu and Badaru attempted to counter the emir’s data-driven analysis with an uninspiring rebuttal that lacked substance, relying instead on political theatrics and empty rhetoric. When Tinubu took the stage, he acknowledged the challenges but suggested they were easily solvable, yet offered no concrete economic crisis management or mitigation plan.

In 480 B.C.E., Xerxes I, the Persian King determined to invade Greece, was cautioned by his uncle and advisor, Artabanus, just as he was about to cross the Hellespont. Artabanus warned of numerous risks, including unfamiliar terrains, insufficient supplies, and the exhaustion and starvation that would likely occur from traversing seas and lands that could not sustain such a large army. Xerxes, dismissing these concerns, replied: “If you were to take account of everything…you would never do anything. It is better to have a brave heart and endure one half of the terrors we dread than to calculate all of them and suffer nothing at all. Big things are won by big dangers.” He crossed, invaded, and ultimately failed—falling victim to all that Artabanus had predicted.

John Lewis Gaddis, in his book On Grand Strategy, elaborates on Isaiah Berlin’s conception of the hedgehog and the fox, defining them as the difference between those who view the world through the lens of a single, unifying idea (the hedgehog) and those who draw on a wide variety of experiences and ideas (the Fox). In Gaddis’s categorisation, Xerxes was a hedgehog, focused on the grand idea of invading Greece, while Artabanus was a fox, emphasising the imperative of situational awareness before the invasion.

Interestingly, the Tinubu-Sanusi exchange mirrors that of Xerxes and Artabanus on many fronts. Tinubu, in typical hedgehog fashion, was focused on winning the presidential election with a central vision encapsulated by the “Renewed Hope” slogan, which seemed disconnected from the situational realities that Sanusi, the fox in this case, and others emphasised in the buildup to the election. All Tinubu saw was a vision of himself solving Nigeria’s problems without fully considering the true state of the country and economy, the resource imperatives for solving the problems and their availability, the conformity (or not) of the prevailing sociopolitical configuration with his reform plan and other critical factors.

While it would be unfair to judge the success of his administration at this nascent stage, it is clear that some of his landmark policies have not yielded the desired results. The combined effects of these policies—the removal of the fuel subsidy and the adoption of a managed floating exchange rate regime—have led to widespread dissatisfaction with the country’s economic situation, sparking protests across Nigeria, particularly in the north, where tensions turned heated and violent. Although the policies may have been well-intended, their implementation has produced outcomes that now demand a strategic review.

The “subsidy is gone” pronouncement by the president during his inaugural speech immediately led to a sharp increase in petrol pump prices, which, in turn, caused significant hikes in the production costs of commodities and transportation. This exacerbated the already high inflationary pressures in the country. The subsequent floating of the Naira against the dollar further fueled inflation through imported inflation, given Nigeria’s unhealthy dependence on imported goods.

These effects were initially expected to stabilize over time. The removal of the subsidy was intended to unlock greater revenues for socioeconomic development, while the new exchange rate regime was supposed to allow the Naira to find its true value in the foreign exchange market, thereby enhancing stability, improving global confidence in the Nigerian economy, and attracting foreign investments.

One of the goods most affected by the government’s exchange rate policy was petrol itself (our biggest import), yet again, which saw a further price hike due to the naira’s devaluation. The conflicting effects of these policies have significantly impacted the livelihoods of citizens, compounding other socioeconomic issues such as insecurity and food inflation. Additionally, the Central Bank’s restrictive monetary policy, intended to curb inflation, only appears to be attracting foreign portfolio investments into the fixed income markets, creating a facade of stability via increased hot forex inflows while failing to address the root causes of inflation.

In his book, Leadership: Six Studies in World Strategy, Henry Kissinger argues that every political system is in perpetual transit between “a past that forms its memory, and the vision of a future that inspires its evolution.” The function of good leadership, I deduced, is the successful navigation of the system towards a future that is bright. He further explains that “leaders think and act at the intersection of two axes: the first, between the past and the future; the second, between the abiding values and aspirations of those they lead.” Whether or not a leader aligns with the aspirations of the people, they are expected to adopt the principles of Grand Strategy, which Gaddis defines as “the alignment of potentially unlimited aspirations with necessarily limited capabilities.”

Were President Tinubu’s aspirations, as exemplified by these two policies, examined for alignment with the capabilities of the economic system? Is this a case of premature load-bearing in policy implementation, exerting a tremendous burden on an economic structure that cannot yet support it—a classic case of being stuck in a capability trap?

Perhaps if President Tinubu had listened more to the likes of Emir Sanusi, who were willing to complement his hedgehog disposition with some fox-like tendencies by offering lessons in situational awareness, he might have approached things differently. Had he also recognised that the intellectual capital he amassed from previous experiences, including his time as the Governor of Lagos, was insufficient for the challenges at hand, he might have understood that his grand vision was akin to knowing his destination was north but only having a compass to guide him. With this awareness, he might have tempered his heightened yet unsubstantiated optimism and fortified his approach before the elections.

As in the case of Xerxes and his uncle Artabanus, Lewis accurately deduced that “Xerxes was right. If you try to anticipate everything, you’ll risk not accomplishing anything. But so was Artabanus. If you fail to prepare for all that might happen, you’ll ensure that some of it will.” What was required of Xerxes, and what is still required of leaders like Tinubu, is what F. Scott Fitzgerald described as first-rate intelligence: “The ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time, and still retain the ability to function.” This means combining, in Lewis’ words, “within a single mind, the hedgehog’s sense of direction and the fox’s sensitivity to surroundings”—all while retaining the ability to function effectively.

Given that the subsidy removal lasted only two months before subsidy payments resumed due to the risk of further hikes in petrol prices beyond what the public could endure, rendering the policy statement void and the policy itself a failure, and that the exchange rate is still unstable, it is time for President Tinubu to break free from the shackles of the groupthink phenomenon – this collective mindset, where the President and his cabinet members and aides think in the same direction, has hindered effective policy evaluation – and review his policies with Grand Strategy principles in mind.

Abdulhaleem Ishaq Ringim is a public policy enthusiast, he writes from Zaria a