“The man is in the hands of the authorities. Something is being done about that. They will sort themselves out.The financial system was rotten. Few people were making away with our money…that is gone now; the man (Emefiele) is in the hands of the authorities,”-President Bola Ahmed Tinubu 

The extant grooming of the Nigerian public to focus its angst on the former central bank, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, serves the purpose of making the banker a scapegoat for the bigger culprit, former President Muhammadu Buhari, on whose desk, the buck stops. Moreso, in this specific instance, when the bank was effectively reduced to the status of an Aso rock villa annex. At the level of generalisation, this is a universal political phenomenon in which deniability is a strategic component of reducing the vulnerability of presidents to hostile inquiry in and out of office. Deniability is plausible and effective when it is minimally deployed, not when it becomes the raison d’etre of the totality of a benighted presidency. 

In the instant, we are led to believe that Buhari is a daft empty minded sovereign who sees no evil, hears no evil and does no evil.That his minions and proxies, from top to bottom, are the ones exploiting the leadership vacuum, to wreak havoc on Nigeria. A misrepresentation is all but summed up in the frivolous exculpation that Buhari is not personally corrupt. What are the parameters for making the determination that a president is not personally corrupt? Would a president be deemed personally corrupt or not corrupt if he, by omission and commission, set up his family and friends to serve as fronts? What would be the implicit utility of the billions allegedly accumulated by the likes of Tunde Sabiu and the eighty two years old nephew of the president, Maman Daura? 

If a president’s cronies took a cue from their principal’s body language to gorge themselves senseless with public resources, would this exculpate Buhari from being judged personally corrupt? How much was his security vote and how was it expended? For what reason would a president resolutely retain so called juicy appointments for ethno regional confederates, if not a dog whistle of a tacit acquiescence to plunder as they wish. 

Hobbled by a number of circumstances, the regret is that his successor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cannot be realistically expected to avail the Nigerian public of the extent to which his predecessor is personally not corrupt. There is the constraining intervening variable of intra-party succession made worse by the fact that the party itself is corruption personified. It is the rule globally, much more so in Africa, that the inclination to probe a predecessor positively corresponds to the degree of the ‘hostile takeover’ by a successor. Were Jonathan to have been succeeded by a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, president, it is improbable, his government would have been subjected to the public show trial conducted by his All Progressives Congress, APC, successor. 

This partisan abetment is reinforced by the implication of Tinubu in the story of institutional corruption in Nigeria. As such he is not expected to readily don the toga of anti-corruption crusader, were he to be otherwise persuaded, in the first place. There is the additional hamstring of anticipatory or aspirational corruption in which a government turns a blind eye to prior acts of corruption and tamps down on anti-corruption rhetoric (in the interest of its own potential fignalling with the public till). 

President Tinubu bore witness to this scenario when he publicly identified a personal opportunity for corrupt enrichment in the legacy of the hitherto two tier window of dealing in foreign currency. “I could afford to share the benefit by participating in the arbitrage, but God forbid! That’s not why you voted for me,” he said. There are, even now, reports of incoming public officials swearing to ownership of fictitious trillions in their declaration of assets as alibi for what they intend to steal from public coffers, going forward. 

There is a morality tale for the president here. In the Nigerian corruption perception index at the inception of their presidency, Tinubu is the opposite of Buhari. At that stage, the latter enjoyed national and international acclaim as an anti-corruption crusader. At the time, this seemed a fair albeit generous assessment 

Eight years of his presidency to the bargain, the man had launched a grenade to explode the myth of his abstemious integrity. Never call a man great until the end of his life, cautions the bard. To the contrary, Tinubu is coming to office with the baggage of a deserved reputation as ‘a corrupt political fixer’. Now, he has an opportunity to make amends and poked the middle fingers at the sceptics. Personally my prayer is that like Buhari, he would undo this earned reputation. 

Beyond the unravelling of Buhari’s reputation as a man of integrity, the myth of his naive innocence is controverted by his freudian slip declaration of intent he let loose in faraway Washington at the early days of his presidency. He solemnly swore to adopt parochial discrimination in favour of those who gave him ninety-seven of their votes. He then proceeded to double down on this policy with his request from the World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim. “In my very first meeting with President Buhari the president specifically said that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern regions of Nigeria and we’ve done that,” said Mr. Kim. 

On his penchant for literally zoning the office of the chief of army staff position to the pan Islamic North, this was his revealing rationalisation. “People who have been there for 18 years or even for 10 years, they trained in Zaria or in Abeokuta, they come through the ranks.“And because they served under all the circumstances, the crises and everything and they gradually rise to that status and you think you just pick somebody just to balance up? These positions have to be earned”. 

So here was Nigeria’s commander in chief making the dubious claim that, of the lot of Nigerian army officers of Christian North and Southern Nigeria origins, none merits appointment as chief of army staff. It did not occur to him that were this truly the case, the Nigerian army will willy lilly stand accused of the practice of apartheid in the upward mobility of officers. This is not the language and logic of a man blissfully unaware of the world around him. It is the mindset of a cunning mischief maker set on an ulterior agenda. If this segment of the Nigerian army were so lacking in qualification, where, then, did his successor find the newly appointed chief of army staff. 

To further prove the point of his malicious capacity for full engagement with selective policy issues was his ideological agitation over IPOB and Biafra. “IPOB (said the purportedly empty minded simpleton) is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about. In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.”

From what we know of Nigeria’s power politics and how it impacts the tenure of appointees from outside the ranks of the exclusive favoured captive enclave, Emefiele should be reckoned to have compensated for his retention in office with a sworn oath of servitude to the Buhari writ large cabal. He remained in office at the sufferance of a president loath to tolerate any strategic office holder not bearing a pan arabic northern identity. Thus sworn to mindless sycophancy to the Buhari cabal, it was how high he would jump whenever self-enrichment requests to compromise his office were made from the Villa. 

There is absolutely no reason to doubt that pervasive corruption was the order of the day during the pendency of Emefiele at the CBN but such comitance was coterminous and coextensive with the agenda of his principal. With specific regards to the monetary policy that got the goat of then candidate Tinubu, (the currency redesign policy), the vested interest fingerprints of Buhari are boldly implanted all over the policy instrument. Such indicators are ‘”President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed Halilu as the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, NSPMC Plc, DAILY NIGERIAN reports. Halilu, an elder brother of First Lady Aisha Buhari”. “I am aware that this new monetary policy has also contributed immensely to the minimization of the influence of money in politics,” 

Former governor and former minister of aviation, Isa Yuguda, may not have had Buhari in mind when he went public with his committee report on the Nigerian national petroleum corporation, NNPC. Inter alia he said “I am sad to let Nigerians know what I saw; we came across situations where subsidy was claimed on pipelines that never existed. They (NNPC and Marketers) just claim that they have pumped X amount of either finished products or crude”

“Those that claimed to pump the products and those that are in the subsidy scam, they just fill papers, invoices and they claim subsidy on it” When asked again if it was indeed the NNPC that was making these claims, Yuguda replied in the affirmative. “Who else is doing it,”. Yet, Buhari was the minister of petroleum. 

And in the spirit of the Bulkachuwa confession culture, the former president pointedly unveiled his culpability in the subsidy scam a week ago. Playing dubious politics with the lives of Nigeria, he confessed “Finally we must be politically honest with ourselves. My administration in its last days could not have gone the whole way in removing the subsidy because the APC had an election to win. And that would have been the case with any political party that was seeking election for another term with a new principal at its head. Poll after poll showed that the party would have been thrown out of office if the decision as envisaged by the new Petroleum Industry Act was made”.

From our standpoint, the sum of the Buhari personae is his mastery of the art of hypocrisy, convenient memory lapse and looking the other way pretending to be unaware of the Nigerian fire he relentlessly stoked. This, for me, is his primary DNA to which incompetence, incapacity and ignorance of arrogance are adjunct genetics.

President Bola Tinubu has approved the establishment of a Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms.

The committee according to a statement issued by Dele Alake, Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communications and Strategy on Friday will be chaired by Fiscal Policy Partner and Africa Tax Leader at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), Mr. Taiwo Oyedele.

The statement said that setting up the committee was in consonance with President Tinubu’s promise to remove all barriers impeding business growth in Nigeria.

It explained that the committee will comprise experts from both the private and public sectors and have responsibility for the various aspects of tax law reform, fiscal policy design and coordination, harmonization of taxes, and revenue administration.

Explaining further, the Special Adviser to the President on Revenue, Mr. Adelabu Zacch Adedeji, said that President Tinubu recognizes the importance of a sound fiscal policy environment and an effective taxation system for the functioning of the government and the economy.

He said, ”Nigeria ranks very low on the global ease of paying taxes while the country’s Tax to GDP ratio is one of the lowest in the world and well below the African average.

”This has led to an overreliance on borrowing to finance public spending which in turn limits the fiscal space as debt service costs consume a greater portion of government revenue, annually resulting in a vicious cycle of inadequate funding for socio-economic development.

”While some incremental progress has been recorded over the years, the outcomes have not been transformative enough to change the narrative,” he said.

Adedeji outlined the key challenges in Nigeria’s tax system to include multiple taxes and revenue collection agencies, fragmented and complex tax system, low tax morale, high prevalence of tax evasion, high cost of revenue administration, lack of coordination between fiscal and economic policies, and poor accountability in the utilization of tax revenue.

The establishment of this committee reflects President Tinubu’s commitment to addressing these challenges and bringing about transformative reforms in fiscal policy and taxation.

The committee’s primary objective is to enhance revenue collection efficiency, ensure transparent reporting, and promote the effective utilization of tax and other revenues to boost citizens’ tax morale, foster a healthy tax culture, and drive voluntary compliance.

These efforts will not only improve Nigeria’s revenue profile but also create a more conducive and internationally-competitive business environment.

”Our aim is to transform the tax system to support sustainable development and achieve a minimum of 18% Tax to GDP ratio within the next 3 years without stifling investment or economic growth.

”It should be noted that this committee will not only advise the government on necessary reforms, but will also drive the implementation of such recommendations in support of the comprehensive fiscal policy and tax reform agenda of the current administration,” the SA on Revenue added.

Mr. Oyedele is said to be a highly accomplished professional with extensive expertise in fiscal policy, taxation, and economic matters. He currently serves as PWC Africa tax leader.

He is the Thematic Lead for the Fiscal Policy & Planning Commission and serves as the Chairman of the West Africa Debt Management Roundtable of the Nigerian Economic Summit Group (NESG).

He chairs the Taxation & Fiscal Policy Faculty Board of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and is a member of the Nigerian Taxation Standards Board.

He also serves as a member of the Ministerial Committee on the implementation of Nigeria’s National Tax Policy.

He is a member of the Global Tax Forum and has previously served as a member of the Global Governing Council of the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA).

As an educator, Oyedele holds the position of Associate Professor at the Babcock University Business School.

He is an alumnus of the London School of Economics & Political Science, Yale University and Harvard Kennedy School Executive Education. He is a guest lecturer at the Lagos Business School and the Founder and President of Impact Africa Foundation.

The 25-year-old suspect who stole a Mercedes Benz GLB 250, worth N55 million, during a test drive in Abuja has opened up on why he committed the act.

On Thursday, the police successfully captured the suspect after stealing the luxury car on June 30 in Abuja. He was discovered in a bush near Oteriroad, close to Doctors Quarters in Ughelli North Local Government Area of Delta State on July 3.

The apprehended person, Meshach Siunuphro, was taken into custody in Benin City, Edo State.

Siunuphro, who claimed to be a 300-level Business Administration student in Turkey, attributed his actions to being hypnotized.

Additionally, he revealed his involvement in forex trading fueled his intention to acquire the car for personal use.

During the suspect’s public presentation, the Delta Police Public Relations Officer (PRO), Bright Edafe, took the opportunity to caution car dealers and owners about a new method employed by criminals to steal vehicles from unsuspecting individuals.

He specifically advised against entrusting car keys to attendants at car wash centres.

French football star Kylian Mbappe on Thursday arrived his home country Cameroon.

He was met by jubilant fans as he visited his father’s village and the school for deaf children while in the country.

Mbappe, 24, was met by hundreds of admirers, many of whom were wearing Paris Saint-Germain’s jerseys as he commenced his three days stay in Cameroon on Thursday, July 6.

A troupe of roughly 100 traditional dancers performed in his honor. Afterward, the police escorted him off in an SUV with tinted windows as the footballer waved to the crowd.

Kylian Mbappe is expected to stay in the hotel complex run by the Yaounde-based family of former French tennis champion Yannick Noah.

The France national team captain and Joakim Noah, a former NBA player, are expected to play in a basketball game. Later, they will participate in a match against second-tier FC Vent d’Etoudi of Cameroon.

Fans trying to touch Kylian Mbappe as he visits Cameroon on Thursday.

Mbappe will then visit a school in Douala, the financial hub of the country, on Saturday before heading to Djebale, the village where his father Wilfried Mbappe was born.

His father left the village for France when he was a young man. While in France, he worked as a football coach and developed Mbappe’s football career.

Mbappe will get the opportunity to visit two schools in Yaounde and Douala that are funded by his charitable foundation, Inspired by KM.

The French footballer will also meet with many government officials, including Prime Minister Joseph Dion Ngute, to discuss initiatives he wants to launch in Cameroon, according to a statement from his management team.

A Lagos-based businessman, Amara Kennedy, who was accused of circulating nude photos of single mothers, has been arrested.

One of the victims, Kester, confirmed the development on Friday.

The Punch news paper had reported in a special feature on Sunday that two women, Kester and one other identified simply as Temi, met Kennedy separately on different WhatsApp and Facebook chat groups for singles.

Kester, who lost her husband about eight years ago in a car crash, said the businessman, after chatting her up, started showering her with monetary gifts.

However, after a disagreement, he sent her over 50 of her nude photos which he secretly took after their lovemaking in a hotel.

She said the suspect demanded N100,000 from her as a condition to delete the photos.

The mother of two noted that after she sent the money and asked if the photos had been deleted, he demanded an additional N40,000 to delete them permanently, which she sent to him.

Despite the payments, the suspect went ahead to circulate the photos on Facebook.

Kester said she attempted suicide twice but failed, as some of those who saw the images started questioning her.

The second victim, Temi, said the suspect usually had marathon sex with her in hotels while under the influence of drugs, and afterwards gave her N1,000 as transport fares.

She said after she discovered that he was not serious about the relationship and was merely using her, she stopped talking to him.

However, Kennedy reportedly sent her several of her nude photos and demanded all the money he had spent on her in the relationship.

She said she borrowed N15,000, which she sent to him.

However, after she appealed to his sister on Facebook for help to talk to him, he started circulating the nude photos.

Temi said the businessman regularly called her to demand money.

After the report was published, the suspect on Monday threatened to continue to damage the reputation of the women for “spoiling my image.”

He then started sending the nude photos to more of their family members.

PUNCH Metro obtained some of the screenshots as the suspect continued to chat with the victims and their friends to show them those he was sending the nude photos to.

Kennedy, in a chat seen by our reporter, wrote, “Her (Kester) pictures are there. At Redeem parish WhatsApp group platform. I am all over the news, she also will be all over the news. By the time I am done, suicide will be her only option.

“This one to her colleague at work…28 pictures. I have sent to her friends abroad both male and female. I have sent to her inlaw, redeem church branch on WhatsApp, to her pastor and more random people online.

“Una never jam. My image is already dented. Hers will go round. Pictures that I have uploaded on a porn site today, all 52 pictures.”

PUNCH Metro also obtained screenshots of some of the people and groups Kennedy sent the nude photos to.

Kester, while speaking to our correspondent, said her in-laws had contacted her over the matter.

She promised not to take her own life, saying her daughters needed her.

Governor Agbu Kefas of Taraba State on Friday declared free education in all primary and secondary schools with effect from the next academic session to cushion the effects of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit known as petrol.

The decision came barely 48 hours after announcing the reduction of university school fees by 50 per cent to cushion the current hardship in the country.

According to him, starting from the next academic session, primary and secondary education in Taraba State would be free.

A statement by his Spokesperson, Emmanuel Bello, said Kefas made the declaration at the Ebenezer Primary School in Wukari as part of his assessment tour.

The governor stressed that it was the government’s responsibility to bear the expenses and that students should not be subjected to any fees.

He said that apart from fulfilling a campaign promise, the hardship occasioned by the removal of the fuel subsidy has made the move imperative.

On Wednesday during his visit to the Taraba State University in Jalingo, Kefas announced the removal of school fees in the university, saying quality education remained his main priority.

Kefas said he had since declared a state of emergency in the education sector and was also committed to free education at the primary and secondary school levels.

Many of the University students expressed joy at the development, saying the reduction in fees would greatly enhance their lives.

“Some parents said the hardship occasioned by the removal of fuel subsidy has made payments of school fees difficult. They said the slash has raised their hopes,” Bello had said.

A former senator, Adamu Bulkachuwa has turned to the federal high court in Abuja, looking to halt an investigation by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) into his actions.

On June 10, during the 9th senate valedictory session, Bulkachuwa claimed his wife, Zainab Bulkachuwa, used her influence as a judge to aid his colleagues in the senate.

As the former president of the court of appeal and the first woman to hold this position, Zainab’s involvement drew significant attention.

This led to a public outcry for an investigation into the former senator’s claim.

However, Zainab has since denied these allegations, asserting that she never allowed partisan interests to compromise her judicial duties.

The ICPC reacted to these developments by initiating an investigation and inviting Bulkachuwa for questioning. While the former senator was set to appear at the ICPC office on July 6, he chose to file a lawsuit in an attempt to block the invitation before the scheduled date.

In his Monday lawsuit, Bulkachuwa requested the court to deem the ICPC’s invitation as illegal and a violation of his fundamental human rights, as defined by sections 34, 35, 36, 37, 41 and 46 of the Nigerian constitution.

Additionally, he requested the court to interpret section 1 of the Legislative Houses (Powers and Privileges) Act 2017, which he believes grants him immunity from any civil or criminal litigation regarding any statements he made on the floor of the upper chamber.

The suit reads, “A declaration that the applicant is entitled to freedom of speech/expression by Section 39(1) of the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria (as amended) and as exercise by his other senators’ colleagues and having not been so afforded by the leadership of the ninth (9th) senate, cannot be held liable for the unintended inference of an inchoate speech/statement/expression.

“An order of perpetual injunction restraining the respondents jointly and severally, particularly the 4th respondent (ICPC), acting directly or indirectly through their agents, officers, privies, assigns and any other persons by whomsoever or however constituted from inviting, harassing, intimidating and/or compelling the applicant to appear before the respondents pending the hearing and determination of suit no: FHC/ABJ/CS/895/2023 at the Federal High Court, Abuja.”

Those joined as respondents in the suit are: attorney-general of the federation, the clerk of the national assembly, Department of State Services (DSS), the ICPC, and Nigeria Police Force.

The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun has declared that there is no ill feeling regarding the elevation of his high chiefs to crown-wearing obas.

He also clarified that the elevation would not create any distortion regarding the traditional system on the emergence of an Olubadan in the future.

The traditional ruler explained that history may need to be reconstructed sometimes to make it enduring and sustainable, noting that the traditional setup in Ibadan continues to evolve, responding to the dynamics of demand and change.

He added that the elevation of the chiefs is an idea that has refused to die despite the opposition against it in some quarters because it has some merits and is worthy of embrace.

Oba Balogun gave the clarification on Friday at the Mapo hall in Ibadan during his address at the coronation of members of his Olubadan-in-Council as beaded crown-wearing Obas.

Speaking through a former Head of Service of the State, Tajudeen Aremu, the Olubadan said the crowning and coronation ceremony will not alter the uniqueness of the Ibadan Traditional System in any way.

He said: “We are here to reconstruct the history because what we are doing today, as historical as it is could not be said to be novel, but the history has to be reconstructed to make it enduring and sustainable and hopefully, it shall be.

“We have a unique system in our traditional set up in Ibadan which continues to evolve, responding to dynamics of demand as occasions may dictate and this has been confirming the agelong aphorism that the onky thing permanent in life is change.

“In our responses to the changes over the years, there had always been issues on forging consensuses as arguments for and against always ensue which makes the ongoing controversy on today’s event a welcomed one being our familiar pattern and style in Ibadan.

“In short, whatever we are today in Ibadan as far as our traditional system is concerned are products of periodic changes we have passed through and there is no shying away from making this our own contribution to the system with the conviction that posterity will record us rightly.

“Just like the previous exercise generated controversy, our gathering here today has not been spared as well with arguments for its propriety or otherwise. The fact that the issue refused to die despite the controversy that trailed it up to the point of my coronation last year means it is an idea that has some merits in it which is worthy of embrace.”

He added: “Another notable observation worthy of public clarification has to do with the fear of the stool of Olubadan losing respect, honour and prestige because of the elevation of the High Chiefs to Beaded Crown-Wearing Obas as Royal Majesties. I don’t think it can happen or I don’t see it happening because the stool of Olubadan is a sacred one that nobody dares desecrate for whatever reason or purpose.

“What’s more, today’s High Chiefs are tomorrow’s Olubadans and the law of what you sow, you will reap or the admonition of our forefathers that when you want to go and bury your senior brother nakedly, take along your younger brother (Eni to ba fe lo sin egbon e ni ihoho, ko ranti mu aburo re lowo) should remain our guide.”

The governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke has caused a stir on social media after nominating his daughter Adenike Adeleke for appointment as State commissioner.

Naija News reports that the speaker of the Osun Assembly, Adewale Egbedun had announced the names of nominees from the governor in accordance with sections 192 (2) and 196(1) of the 1999 Nigerian Constitution (amended).

According to Mr. Egbedun, the governor submitted 25 names for the position of commissioners and another request for the appointment of 25 Special Advisers.

The names submitted as listed; Oladosu Babatunde, Bayo Ogunbamgbe, Sesan Oyedele, Kolapo Alimi, Soji Adeigbe, Moshood Olagunju, George Alabi, and Sunday Oroniyi are among the 25 commissioners nominated, according to him.

Others are Abiodun Ojo, Bashir Salami, Moruf Ayofe, Sola Ogungbile, Bunmi Jenyo, Ayo Awolowo, Wole Bada, Dipo Eluwole, Rasheed Aderibigbe, Moruf Adeleke, Adeyemo Ademola, Olabiyi Odunlade, Jola Akintola, Mayowa Adejorin, Adenike Adeleke, Tola Fasheru and Gani Ola-Oluwa.

Reacting to the appointment, Nigerians called out the governor for giving appointments based on favoritism rather than competence.

One user, packagedjteejuiz wrote: “So most of you supportts this but were crying Tinubu daughter added “”iyaloja general “” to her social media bio?”

amaryllisboozer wrote: ” Before ya all hypocrites come for her don’t forget that Donald Trump’s daughter, Ivanka, was appointed as the Advisor to the President,” a government employee.”

kc_ebu wrote: “IF SEYI TINUBU BECOMES MINISTER FOR PETROLEUM MAKE UNA NO COMPLAIN OOOOOO. CUS IT SEEMS EVERYONE IS NOW BEING USED AS BUTTON FOR HYPOCRISY.”

judebare: “Although there is no law against this act, however I see a lot of comment supporting this action as if morality does not count. To me it is double standard because if Buhari had appointed his son or daughter as a minister when he was president these hypocrites would have cried cried till their voice become hoarse. What if Tinubu appoints his daughter as a minister in his cabinet? I will like to hear what some people will say.”

weightloss_mall: “The double standard in Nigeria is alarming. I say this all the time, MOST NIGERIANS DON’T HATE CORRUPTION, THEY ONLY HATE CORRUPTION BECAUSE THEY DO NOT BENEFIT PERSONALLY. I rest my case.”

More reactions below;

Adenike Adeleke is an Instagram star who uses the platform to promote her love for fashion, makeup and her daily life.

The London-based Economist magazine has often acted as a conservative Anglo-American establishment mouthpiece. Its recent leader (“How Not To Repair America” June 10, 2023) and the accompanying main article (“The Tide Goes Out”, 10 June 2023) on the reparations debate in the United States, exposes both its illiberal ideology and consistent misreading of race issues in America. The British-based magazine crudely caricatures this important issue, making lazy arguments that are often put forward by conservative analysts: reparations are unpopular and backed by only 30% of Americans; most living whites played no part in Jim Crow segregation and so none can be held responsible; black Americans are not the only disadvantaged group in America; resources are finite, and should go towards better schools and health for all Americans.

The argument that reparations are not popular, however, needs to be disaggregated. Explaining complicated historical issues to voters also requires strong and courageous leadership, as America’s partisan media space is often deluged by stereotypical arguments presented by conservative outlets such as this Economist perspective. Many Americans tend to think differently once this issue has been sensibly explained as a structural one in which the country benefited from 400 years of unpaid labour which facilitated America’s industrialisation, using 450,000 enslaved Africans who only won their basic voting rights in the 1960s. Such an approach would also note that, as the Economist itself concedes, the lingering effects of this legacy remains with America today, with many of the victims still alive as heirs who have inherited these socio-economic disadvantages. The Economist itself observes that the median net worth of black families in 2019 was 13% that of white families.  

Such gross racial inequalities are also evident in the lower levels of life expectancy and health, as well as continuing discrimination against African Americans. During the recent COVID/19 crisis, black Americans accounted for 30% of deaths, despite constituting only 13% of the US population. Today, members of this group are less likely to have healthcare; are more prone to police brutality; while 26% of black men have been incarcerated in what scholar-activist, Angela Davis, dubbed America’s “prison industrial complex.” Many African Americans also live in ghettos, suffering more the effects of bad housing, bad diet, and bad schooling, with 34% of black children born on or below the poverty line. These stark realities all constitute the continuing legacies of four centuries of slavery.

In terms of the Economist’s argument that African Americans are not the only group discriminated against, this is scarcely an argument for not paying reparations. After the Second World War in 1946, the US government’s Indian Claims Commission paid $1.3 billion (worth $20 billion today) in reparations to indigenous Americans who had historically been victims of widespread land dispossession and genocide. Japanese Americans incarcerated in concentration camps during the Second World War were also compensated through a $1.2 million payment (worth $18 million today). Though the Economist cites the Japanese case, attempts to repair historical crimes should not be turned into a hierarchy of suffering. Historical injustices with far-reaching and continuing consequences should be repaired regardless of the groups involved.

The Economist’s argument that no living whites are responsible for slavery ignores the structural issues of those who continue to benefit from four centuries of free labour, in stark contrast to those who continue to suffer from it. This statement is akin to saying that no one is responsible and should be held accountable for America’s contemporary racism, which was consolidated over 400 years of black exploitation, dehumanisation, and disenfranchisement. Governments in Canada, Australia, and Germany have paid reparations for crimes committed against indigenous populations and European Jews for which many of their living citizens were not directly responsible. The governments of Germany and the Netherlands have recently announced similar reparations for past crimes. Regarding, the Economist’s argument of resources being finite, the fact that Washington continues to spend more on its military than the next 10 countries combined is the clearest sign of the distortion of socio-economic priorities through its lobbyist-fuelled legislative process of legalised corruption. America can thus clearly afford to pay compensation to repair its past.   

The Economist then cites the case of two commissions in the “Golden State” of California which recently recommended reparations for descendants of American slavery, as an example of how “it is impossible to create an actuarial table of injustice…to determine how much cash is owed and to whom.” The reparations commission recommended that the maximum cost of reparations per African American should be $1.2 million as a down payment, while a similar reparations commission in San Francisco suggested $5 million per person. The Economist notes that California is focused more on repairing current racial disparities which the magazine concedes remain considerable across the country. It further cites 2016 figures showing that black Angelenos had 1% of the wealth of their white compatriots in Los Angeles.

The Economist then suggests that the sum of the proposed reparations would cripple the state’s finances. However, its own British government had paid the country’s slave-owners – and not the exploited slaves themselves or their descendants – £20 million (equivalent to £17 billion in 2016) for the loss of their “property” after Westminster abolished slavery in 1833. This sum was fully paid out just eight years ago in 2015. If the British government could take out a loan worth 40% of its Treasury’s annual income and 5% of its GDP at the time, to make perverse payments to 46,000 slave-owners and their descendants over a 182-year period, why can the government of California not have the ingenuity to devise a similar long-term compensation scheme for a more just cause? The Economist’s alternative suggestion that race-neutral anti-poverty programmes be put in place instead of reparations, seems utterly insensitive given that the institution of slavery itself had been based solely on race. The magazine’s suggestion that the governor of California, Gavin Newson, and mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, oppose cash payments is also mean-spirited.  

In seeking to nuance the Economist’s views, I consulted two mainstream American newspapers. The Los Angeles Times noted that California had been requested by its reparations commission to issue a formal apology for the persistent damage of slavery and discrimination, an important fact that the Economist omitted in its rush to discredit the case for reparations. The California-based newspaper further explained that monetary losses for the descendants of enslaved African Americans had been calculated based on the three categories of health disparities, mass incarceration and over-policing, and housing discrimination, making these sums less arbitrary than portrayed by the Economist’s superficial analysis. The New York Times also nuanced the 30% of Americans that the Economist noted are opposed to reparations, by citing disaggregated figures from the same Pew Research Centre survey: 77% of African American adults support reparations, as do 39% of Hispanics, 33% of Asians, but only 18% of whites. Unsurprisingly, the main beneficiaries of slavery are the most opposed to its redress, while the main victims of this crime against humanity are the most supportive. Significantly, the New York Times also exposed the ideological disparity in this debate, with 50% of Democrats backing reparations, in contrast to 8% of Republicans: a camp into which the Economist falls.

The Economist – not renowned for its cultural diversity, and notorious for a Eurocentric gaze on the non-Western world – tends to view race relations in America through the jaundiced lens of its own British society which is often in denial about widespread prejudices against black and brown people, despite clear evidence of institutional racism in its policing, public health, and more recently, its cricket. A magazine living in a London glass-house is clearly throwing stones.

Professor Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa.