The National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria has expressed its willingness to partner with the governor Uba Sani-led administration in Kaduna in reviving the moribund textile industries in the state.

The President of the Textile Workers Union, Comrade John Adaji, who stated this in Kaduna on Monday while congratulating the governor, noted that revamping the ailing textile industries would ensure sustainable peace and security in the state.

He also added that when the textile industries are functional, the army of unemployed youths roaming the streets will be gainfully engaged, and the state will rid itself of insecurity.

Adaji, however, expressed confidence that Governor Sani has the capacity to revive the moribund textile industries in the state.

He said, “Given his antecedents as a pro-democracy activist and wealth of experience in public administration and finance, we have no doubt that Governor Uba Sani will deepen the peace process and remarkably improve security in Kaduna State.

“However, there cannot be sustainable peace and security without social justice. Sustainable peace and security must also go hand in hand with sustainable development which must start with urgent re-industrialisation of Kaduna State and mass employment of the army of the unemployed youths.

“Our union is willing to partner with the new administration to revive the ailing industries in Kaduna State, especially the textile industries, with a view to creating jobs for the mass of unemployed youths in the state.

“As a private sector union affiliated with the Nigeria Labour Congress and a critical stakeholder in the development of the state and the country in general, we wish to pledge our support and cooperation in the great task of moving Kaduna State and indeed Nigeria to a greater height.

“Even the critics of the immediate past Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai will acknowledge the remarkable effort of the past administration in the area of road construction and rehabilitation across the major cities of Kaduna.

“We have no doubt that the new administration will consolidate on the past achievements and further expand the road network and urban renewal projects of the past administration.

“On behalf of the National Executive Council of the National Union of Textile Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria and the generality of our members, we congratulate the newly democratically elected Governor of Kaduna State, His Excellency, Uba Sani, on his successful election and inauguration as Governor of Kaduna State.”

[Punch]

Nigeria passed legislation that’s expected to set off the biggest shakeup of the West African nation’s chronically inadequate power industry in almost two decades.

The reforms allow the 36 state governments in Africa’s largest economy – rather than just the federal administration – to license and regulate electricity markets within their territories. Nigerian President Bola Tinubu, who took office two weeks ago, signed the law on Friday. 

“It’s the most important new electricity legislation in Nigeria for nearly 20 years,” said Folahanmi Fagbule, a deputy director at the Lagos-based Africa Finance Corp. “It provides scope for each state to compete, innovate and experiment with different approaches to licensing and regulating private sector investment in electricity.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo approved legislation in 2005 that enabled parts of Nigeria’s state-owned power industry to be privatized. While the government sold its generation and distribution infrastructure, poor maintenance and a lack of investment has left the population of about 200 million woefully under-served.

Although Nigeria has more than 16,000 megawatts of installed electricity-production capacity, less than 5,000 megawatts is dispatched to the grid daily, in part because of dilapidated transmission infrastructure and tariffs that don’t reflect market prices. 

State governors — including Tinubu when he ran Lagos state in the early 2000s — have long been lobbying for greater decentralization of electricity markets.

The states “can now allow different tariffs, incentives, rules, standards and conventions for energy produced and consumed within their borders,” Fagbule said. A “significant amount of investments will flow to the states with the energy demand and the best organized regulatory environment,” he said.

 [Bloomberg]

The license for Wigwe University, founded by Dr. Herbert Wigwe, the Group Chief Executive of Access Corporation PLC, the holding company of Access Bank, is among the 37 licenses approved and issued by the National Universities Commission (NUC) on Friday, June 9, 2023. With this, the dream of the university is formally realized, after years of conception, planning and hard work. Located at his hometown, Isiokpo, in Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, 10 minutes from Port Harcourt International Airport, the university occupies about a 300-hectare land space in the sub-urban community just 30 minutes from Owerri. With many of the facilities in the well-laid out campus built; Wigwe University appears ready to receive its first set of students. ‘’Most of our buildings and facilities are ready or would soon be ready, and we expect to begin lectures in September 2024’’, says Yvonne Victor-Olomu, the chief operating officer of The Herbert Onyewumbu Wigwe (HOW) Foundation, the university’s promoter. It is the second private university in the state but would be the best in the country when fully completed.

Founded in 2016 as a non-profit organization, the foundation is the special purpose vehicle through which Dr. Wigwe executes his numerous philanthropic activities. The HOW foundation focuses on education, youth empowerment through leadership and mentorship; and health. It recently adopted 25 Primary Healthcare Centres in Rivers State, which is at least one in each Local Government Area, to refurbish and rejig.

Every week, Dr. Wigwe flies down to PH and drives the short distance to the university campus. In May, he hosted the then governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike at the site to turn the sod for the construction of the Senate Building. As usual, the site was busy. Amongst the 1,000 workers currently on site, over 600 from the community are engaged as artisans, mason, workmen and all sorts of workers. “This number will increase to 2,000 by the end of June”, says Victor-Olomu. In various community stake-holder engagements, Dr. Wigwe has informed the community leaders and youth of the socio-economic development that the huge investment would bring to the community and enjoined them to guard it jealously.

I have leafed through a big hardcover photobook containing pictures of buildings in the massive campus. It would be one of the most beautifully landscaped and planned campuses in the world and would change the economic fortunes of the people for good. I am hoping to visit the place soon.

WU will offer courses in Science; Technology (AI, Robotics programmes, etc); Engineering; Arts (Creative Arts and science-based Art Programmes such as Gaming and Computer Creative, etc) and Mathematics (STEAM); Management and Social Sciences at start and subsequently offer courses in Medical Sciences; Medicine; Law and Post Graduate Degrees. It will have linkage relationships with top foreign universities that would facilitate students’ exchange programs.

The thrust of the university is to create leaders and entrepreneurs who will, upon graduation, be focused on creation of jobs, as opposed to job-seeking.

WU will also attract successful business leaders into its faculty. Think of Aliko Dangote, Michael Adenuga and Richard Branson as your lecturer! Although there are many universities in the country, they have not substantially filled the void that exists in the nation’s tertiary education. WU is therefore being deliberately and carefully designed to fill these gaps, some of which are outdated curriculum; poor funding; decrepit facilities and infrastructure; poorly paid and motivated workforce.

The motivation for establishing the university was principally borne out of Herbert Wigwe’s burning desires to give back to Nigeria, a country he loves passionately. ‘’He realized that education and healthcare are two areas that his social interventions would make the greatest impact on Nigerians. For education, he chose to intervene in tertiary education which is facing many challenges such as graduates lacking requisite skills and basic practical experience and reflexes for employability, lacking entrepreneurial skills and harnessing innovative ideas’’, says Victor-Olomu, a former oil and gas industry professional.

With the 37 newly licensed private universities, there are now 238 universities in the country, of which 147 are private, 43 federal government-owned and 48 state government-owned. But graduates from these institutions face prolonged periods of unemployment because the jobs have dried up and they were never equipped with entrepreneurial skills. Many, especially those in public universities, suffer disrupted academic programs due to incessant labour crises between the federal government and the labour unions in the universities, particularly ASUU and SSANU. While the private universities don’t have disruptions, some are plagued by inadequate funding that stifles the dreams of their founders. These are a few of the landmines that WU will escape.

In designing the academic and non-academic programs at WU, Dr. Wigwe has hired academicians from top US universities and European institutions to work with experts from across the world, including Nigeria. Undoubtedly, the people of Isiokpo community are enthusiastic about the huge investment coming to their town. They know that a big university turns things around for the community where it’s located. See what Okada, Ota and even Ede have become. The Isiokpo community and The HOW Foundation are not taking things for granted. Their various stakeholder engagements will culminate in an MOU. This will provide a framework for mutual co-existence between the community and the university.

Apart from the University, some of the key programs of the HOW Foundation include partnership with Private Sector Health Alliance of Nigeria (PSHAN) in the Adopt-A-Primary-Health-Care Project, where the Foundation has adopted 25 primary healthcare centres in Rivers State. The healthcare centres will be revamped, rehabilitated both in human resources and facilities, upgraded for efficient service delivery, operated for five years by which time a world-class culture and quality of service would have been entrenched, and then returned to the State Government. Its Youth Empowerment programs entail trainings, sponsorship of mentorship and leadership seminars. It has co-sponsored Creative Technology Training Programmes with Nigerian Technology Development Agency and Ascend Studios Foundation. It also co-sponsored the inaugural African Creative Market Summit and the partners and co-sponsors the African International Film Festival.

Dr. Herbert Wigwe is a well-known Nigerian banker and business leader. The third child of Pastor and Mrs Shyngle Wigwe, Herbert is guided by such values as hard work, compassion, kindness and honesty. His father was the DG of Nigerian television Authority (NTA), the Federal Government-owned broadcast network, in the 1980s.

As part of activities marking this year’s Democracy Day, the Governor of Niger State, Hon. Mohammed Umar Bago has approved the payment of fines for the discharge of Eighty(80) inmates spread across various Correctional Centres in the state.

A statement issued and made available to newsmen on Monday in Minna by Secretary to the State Government (SSG), Alhaji Abubakar Usman explained that the payment of fine for the discharge of the inmates by the Governor was in line with power of Prerogative of Mercy as guaranteed under the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

According to the SSG, “the payment of fines were also considered based on the recommendation of the State Advisory Council on prerogative of mercy with due consideration to old age, ill health and good behavior”.

He appealed to the inmates to make use of their freedom by engaging in useful ventures and shun any act that could lead them back to the correctional facility.

Alhaji Usman implored the inmates to be law-abiding citizens and engage in legitimate endeavours by taking advantage of various empowerment windows.

In a similar development, as the nation celebrates this year’s Democracy Day, the Secretary to the Government of Niger State (SSG), Alhaji Abubakar Usman has called on the people of the State to use the period to reflect on their roles in peace building and support for good governance.

The SSG who made the call in a message to mark the 2023 Democracy Day, enjoined the people of the state to support the programmes and policies of the present administration designed to bring rapid development to the state.

He reassured the people of the State that the government is leaving no stone unturned in ensuring that democratic dividends are felt in all the nooks and crannies of the state, stressing that Nigerlites must not allow despondency to replace hope.

Alhaji Usman implored the people of the State to renew their commitment to strengthening democratic institutions by imbibing values that will promote democracy such as tolerance, patriotism and discipline.

The SSG explained that the Government noted with concern the security challenges in the State but assured citizens that all forms of criminality will soon be nipped in the bud.

Exactly thirty years after the June 12 presidential election was annulled, Nigerians need to know that this happened when General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida was Military President and Commander-in-Chief.

The move to cancel the presidential election which Nigerians described as the most credible election did not start hours before the election but months before the electoral process.

According to Vanguard, the move started with one Association for Better Nigeria, ABN, led by the late Francis Arthur Nzeribe and one Abimbola Davis.

Dateline: Abuja, 9:35 pm, Thursday, July 10, 1993. Justice Bassey Ikpeme chose that hour to launch her voyage into infamy.

Though it was an interlocutory application, filed by the ABN, Ikpeme, apparently over-mobilised and over-induced, made a “final” pronouncement. And this was in flagrant disregard of the provisions of Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993.

In a 2018 report published in Vanguard and written by Richard Akinola, a veteran law and human rights reporter, “the Plaintiff in the case, Davis, on behalf of the ABN, had alleged electoral corruption on the part of the Social Democratic Party, SDP, candidate, Bashorun M.K.O. Abiola, (Abiola was contesting against Bashir Tofa of the National Republican Convention, NRC) at the SDP primaries in Jos, between March 27 and 29, 1993.

Before her ruling ex-parte at 9:35 that night, there were flurries of activities between Justice Ikpeme’s court chambers and the Office of the Attorney-General of the Federation occupied by Clement Akpamgbo, leading to the postponement of the ruling from morning to night.

In the ruling, Justice Ikpeme not only stopped the election but also got carried away by the interests she wanted to serve by making a “final” pronouncement on the case even at an Interlocutory level.

The allegations ABN levelled against some of the state governments at the primaries, Justice Ikpeme held, were “the greatest shame in the history of Nigeria’s politics”! For a judge to make this outlandish statement at the ex-parte stage of the case when the other party, the National Electoral Commission, NEC, had not been heard, exposed the judicial conspiracy in the whole saga.

Confusion cradled the nation in its hands.

The NEC promptly issued a statement, disregarding the court order, stating that the election would go on as scheduled.

Meanwhile, NEC filed a counter-affidavit that the jurisdiction of the court had been ousted by Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993″.

According to one of the senior officials of NEC, the commission’s leadership had paid a visit to Aso Rock presidential Villa earlier that fateful day to brief the government on its preparedness to hold the election.

Upon arriving at the Villa, according to the very senior NEC official, “a member of the National Defense Security Council, NDSC, the nation’s highest ruling body at that time, asked us what we came to do at the Villa and we told him we were there to brief government about our preparations.

He simply asked, “Oh is there going to be an election’?.’ It was not until 9:35 that night that the accidental event of the morning resonated in the consciousness of NEC officials.”

The ABN was suspected to have the backing of a section of the NDSC. Indeed, it had. And had Bashorun Abiola paid more than passing attention to the activities of ABN, perhaps, Davis may not have appeared in court that Thursday morning.

One of Abiola’s associates disclosed to Vanguard that Davis was in touch with them and that he kept them abreast of the plans of the ABN and how Abiola could checkmate them.

While some merely suspected that the government of the day was behind ABN, a few insiders were aware of Nzeribe’s visits to Aso Rock where he got briefings.

But many saw the plot as being too odoriferous to be effectuated – until the late-night court order.

And although the late Augustus Aikhomu, who was then Vice President, did issue statements that the transition programme did not have a hidden agenda and that the government was going to keep its promise to hold elections and handover in 1993, the events of June 10, 1993, began to cast doubts over its sincerity.

Section 19(1) of Decree 13 of 1993, an addition to the Transition To Civil Rule Decree of 1987/’88, specifically ousted the intervention of the courts in the affairs of NEC.

But that did not matter to the cabal of that era which included but was not limited to the Attorney General of the Federation Minister of Justice and a national security chief along with a handful of greedy politicians who used the instrumentality of the ABN to disrupt the process.

For, if the government of the day was not involved, why would an association be threatening the major government programme which was meant to lead to a handover to a civilian administration? Yet, there was never a rebuke from any government official against ABN – not even a whimper against what ABN was doing.

A learned legal luminary drew attention to the fact that in 1993 alone, over 103 decrees were promulgated to regulate elections.

Now, that a government which went to great lengths to guide its transition programme with that much legislation would allow a subversive body to ambush it speaks to the evil that resides in the heart of men and women.

Details On What Turned Out On Saturday, June 12, 1993
But the elections were held on Saturday, June 12, 1993. Against all expectations by the schemers, there was no rain, there were no reports of violence or election rigging – and if there were, they were so inconsequential to warrant reportage because Nigerians were willing to put up with just about anything to ensure the exit of the military.

Interim results on Sunday, June 14, 1993, showed Abiola leading with an overwhelming majority in 19 states while NRC had a clear majority in 11 states.

Wednesday, June 16, 1993, NEC declared that it had decided not to release the final results of the presidential election ‘until further notice,’ as the ABN had once again taken NEC to court, and as another Abuja High Court injunction had been served to restrain the NEC from announcing the results.

Thursday, June 17, 1993, following popular demands for the results, two court orders reversed the Commission’s decision not to publish the election results and a Lagos High Court judge, Justice Moshood Olugbani, ordered NEC to release the results within 24 hours.

Dr Beko Ransome-Kuti, the chairman of Campaign for Democracy, CD, issued an ultimatum to NEC to release the results within 24 hours or the CD would do so.

Friday, June 18, 1993, CD released the election results and declared Moshood Abiola the winner of the election. On the same day, Moshood Abiola reportedly “went on television to claim victory”.

Events That Happened On Wednesday, June 23, 1993
The results were mounted on a scoreboard outside the commission’s building but within its compound so that people who were just passing by on the street would be updated with the latest results as and when they were certified to be correct, counted and collated and the agents agreeing and affirming the authenticity of the result.

Alas, after about eight of the results from the states had been put on the scoreboard, an order came from the election committee that the scoreboard should be brought down and removed.

The committee had the NEC chairman, Professor Humphrey Nwosu, the chief returning officer, the resident electoral commissioners of the respective results, national commissioners and the representatives of the two political parties. What transpired was that within INEC, there were moles who kept feeding Aso Rock Presidential Villa of developments within the Commission.

It was from the Villa that the instruction came that the scoreboard should be removed. But that was just the beginning.

Events took a frenetic turn. Later that day, however, Justice Dahiru Saleh, Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Abuja, declared the election null and void allegedly because the NEC had ignored a first, late-night injunction of Bassey Ikpeme not to conduct the polls. On the same day, the government made an announcement cancelling the elections and suspending NEC.

The final straw that suggested that the government of the day had chosen to break the back of Nwosu and NEC, as well as gave the game away was that the warrant and judgment by Saleh was served on NEC by the then Attorney General, Akpamgbo, so, there was nobody to run to.

The Attorney General would have been the one NEC could have approached but here he was, serving NEC with an order. He also told Nwosu that if he disobeyed, he would be on his own.

NEC’s Director of Legal Services, Bukhari Bello, very intelligent and strong-willed, went on appeal.

And while he was at the point of getting a judgment, the government announced the suspension of NEC and the transition programme and that meant that the court was no longer in a position to take any decision because it was going to act in vain.

Tinubu and corruption? A pot calling kettle black? Selective fight on corruption Level 3? So, the man cried. Orji Kalu. Then Akpabio, another billionaire politician. Enter Emefiele and Dangote. Seyi Tinubu and the London mansion. Barely two weeks in the job. Buhari Level II. Vendetta Phase III. The Igbo irony. A looming crisis…

So, the man cried. This man cried. Like the cries of the ordinary Nigerians, his was also heard worldwide. Mr. Orji Uzor Kalu, himself. The Chief Whip of the Nigerian Senate. An unabashed ally of Bola Ahmed Tinubu. A staunch member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC). He cried. The tears flowed profusely. But the tears couldn’t have flowed more orderly. Obviously being denied the opportunity to become the president of the Senate based on allegations of corruption, it was finally a moment of truth.

The truth is the maxim that justice delayed is justice denied. It also goes without saying that the oppressor could one day become the oppressed. It played out that Orji Kalu’s billionaire party men who cannot even explain the source of their huge wealth still have the audacity to call Kalu a thief. But this saga is a pint in the ocean compared to what follows below.

Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was installed president barely two weeks earlier, suspended and arrested the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Ifanyichukwu Emefiele, on charges of corruption. The charges are wide, including $1 billion transaction allegedly with Aliko Dangote, as an accessory. Yes, the Africa’s richest man!

It is necessary to state here that I remain a zero-corruption advocate, but I also pride myself as an epitome of equity, justice, and fairness. Therefore, this piece is not intended to condone corrupt practices in any shape or form. The main gist is that “one who comes into equity must come with clean hands.”

We are talking about Tinubu himself, the most corrupt politician ever to seek the Nigerian presidency. As the current presiding officer of the nation’s corrupt oligarchy, a select group of billionaire politicians without legitimate sources if income, Tinubu cannot in clear conscience attempt to fight corruption. That is precisely why his ally, Orji Kalu, cried. This is precisely why a vast majority of Nigerians who voted in the presidential election of 2023 rejected the former Lagos governor.

Tinubu should look in the mirror and lead by example. The point is that he should take a leave from the presidency and equally subject himself to the authorities until he comes clean with a plethora of allegations leveled against him around the globe. The allegations, of course, border on his shady background, including fake state of origin, fake date of birth, fake school certificates, massive corruption, drug peddling, election terrorism, and much more.

These piles of corrupt practices explain why the then Chairman of Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC), Nuhu Ribadu clearly stated that Tinubu is “a looter of international dimensions.”

Critics are bound to fire back here. They will argue, as usual, that Mr. Tinubu has not been found guilty.

But I have bad news for them. First of all, it is a common knowledge that Tinubu was indicted on drug trafficking in the United States of America. It is also written in black and white that the man cannot explain the sources of his overflowing wealth, as his fellow party member alluded. Moreover, neither Godwin Ifanyichukwu Emefiele nor Orji Uzo Kalu has been found guilty in court of law. Yet, they are being singled out and victimized.

Even worse, though the EFCC is currently investigating Godswill Akpabio for an alleged theft of N108.1 billion of Akwa Ibom State funds, he remains Tinubu’s preferred candidate for the office of the president of the Senate. Despite the fact that Dangote is fingered as an accomplice in the Emefiele corruption saga, no attempt has been made to question the Africa’s richest man, let alone arresting him.

Further, the world continues to wait for the moment the wobbling weakling would demand any investigation or the arrest of his son, Seyi Tinubu, who was busted for conniving with a fugitive, Mr. Kolawole Akanni Aluko, to buy $11 million London mansion, a property purchased with the proceeds of crime.

This selective fight on corruption by Tinubu is a clear testament that he is doing nothing to allay the fears that is bound to become worse than his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, who thrived in primitive vendetta politics that combined to ground his regime.

The trending optics thus far is another version of vendetta against the Igbo. The irony this time is that a vast majority of the Igbo people aligned with the youths and progressive Nigerians to make it clear that a corrupt kingpin cum drug lord would not be their president. Besides, the former CBN Governor initiated the new currency policy that made it difficult for corrupt politicians, like Tinubu, to influence the presidential election with tainted money.

A crisis looms but it is not coming as a surprise. …The fight on corruption in Nigeria was buried the day Bola Ahmed Tinubu assumed the presidency. A solution, therefore, is for Nigerians to explore the most urgent ways to remove the black-market president from office—either through the electoral tribunal or by impeachment.

With the way bandits operate freely in communities of Zamfara State, they may be sponsored by some highly placed persons who are seriously benefiting from the inhuman activities, a retired Islamic school teacher, Alhaji Mujeed Danbaba, reportedly told reporters during an interview.

Danbaba, who lamented the recent attacks in the state, said the citizens are now living at the mercy of kidnappers, bandits who invade their communities, abducting and raping their daughters and wives and performing other criminal activities.

According to him, the development has gone beyond control, forcing people to live in perpetual fear. Danbaba said that despite the coordinated security networks and public outcries, the bandits had continued to unleash terror attacks on unabated communities.

The Islamic teacher noted that within a few days, terrorist groups attacked communities in Bakura, Maradun and Tsafe Local Government Areas of the State, killing and maiming innocent citizens.

He wondered how the bandits were getting their arms and ammunition that were more sophisticated than those of the military and security agencies.

“Thousands of locals have lost their lives, many kidnapped and several abducted victims released after payments of ransom that involved millions of Naira, while many have been displaced, turning uncountable women to widows and thousands of children to orphans,” Danbaba told Daily Post in Gusau, the State capital.

He said the bandits have proved to be more superior and sophisticated than the government, lamenting that how they get their resources to purchase those sophisticated weapons remained very surprising and questionable.

Danbaba said: “There is no doubt that the government is generating huge amounts of resources especially from crude oil, yet it cannot purchase sophisticated weapons like the bandits do.

“There is no doubt that the government generates more resources than the bandits but because of lack of political will, the terrorists are having the upper hand.

“It is not clear whether the bandits are operating on their own or they are being sponsored by some highly placed Individuals who are seriously benefiting from the inhuman activities; it is left for the security agencies to find out.”

Danbaba lamented that the situation was becoming worse on a daily basis, pointing out that no place even in the State capital was free from merciless killings, maiming of innocent lives and rampant kidnapping.

“Emefiele served the last government the way a house slave served his master in 18th century America. And he enjoyed a lot of hand-me-downs as an obedient servant. There are several unbelievable stories flying about on what went on in our central bank while he was there. The Tinubu government announced a probe last week; we wait to see how far it can go without their party committing a suicide. Fire, it is said, does not make fire; it makes ashes. But, whatever they do or do not do with themselves is their problem. We are not supposed to know what lies behind their iron walls. We can comment, however, on what we’ve seen and warn that it must not happen again. We’ve seen photos of Emefiele desecrating the sacredness of the apex bank with postures of servitude. There is at least a photograph of him on bended knees, holding a jotter and a pen while a potentate dictated a to-do list to him. The tragedy is that the man receiving that prostration from our CBN governor did not even hold any position in government. He was powerful simply because he was an FOP (Friend of the President). Such men (and women) are common in our corridors of power. The new government will likely have its own FOPs soon, if it doesn’t already. Because CBN governorship is perhaps the juiciest post in Nigeria, Emefiele thought he would keep it by pouring ceaseless libation of obsequiousness to the priests of the president. And he succeeded so well that he got nine years of active service straddling two regimes that were not friends. Yet, after his failed coup against the new men in power, he did not have the sense to resign and flee. He thought the spell that sold him to Buhari (and Buhari to him) would do the same with Bola Tinubu. There must be something in that office that starves the brain of oxygen. Emefiele was always on his knees in the Villa. He wanted to remain and serve until he is tired of serving us. The Yoruba would look at such mendicant tenacity and say O ló danindanin m’ókùn orò (He held tight to the cord of wealth). But subservient people ultimately sell themselves into slavery. People who sacrifice everything noble to keep whatever job they think they have will lose more than that job.”

In the end, we realise that nothing really belongs to us; not power, not life. Power is fragile; it can also be deadly. It shares properties with candle flames. I take this idea from Brandon Sanderson, author of ‘The Way of Kings.’ Sanderson thinks the lives of men are as brittle and lethal as candle flames. What you get is what you consciously worked for. And, it is no brainer that that thing that provides warmth can also burn if you increase the intensity. Sanderson says when left alone, candle flames “lit and warmed.” When they are allowed to burn without control, “they would destroy the very things they were meant to illuminate.” That is Godwin Emefiele and the enormous powers he wielded at the Central Bank of Nigeria. He was brought in in June 2014 as CBN governor to rearrange the bales in our strongrooms and illuminate the various dark rooms of the Nigerian economy. But, because for eight years we had a president who lacked the mental and physical energy for the driver’s job he took, the CBN and its free-reining governor were soon ‘encouraged’ to set other agenda for themselves – and set Nigeria’s economy ablaze.

Some things need to be made clear. Godwin Emefiele was suspended on Friday; the video of his arrest trended on Saturday morning; a probe of his tenure is underway. All these did not happen to him solely because of what you and I suffered at the hands of his new Naira notes or because of other indignities we may be suffering courtesy of his policies as CBN governor. The man lost his job and his freedom because he got drunk and climbed the tree beyond the leaves; he went beyond the boundary the gods of Nigeria set for him. His cricket was no longer content with eating the leafy greens of his office; he wanted the very food reserved for the gods. He joined politics, bought a nomination form and printed posters. Yes, the law says no CBN governor should nurse such godless lust but breaking the law is no sin if you sit under the protective wings of the country’s principalities. The fatality here is because he broke the law and competed with those who held the yam and the knife of the system. You do not drag the ram with Sango; if you take what Olukoso covets as your delicacy, his thunder celts will shred you. Where I come from, there is a bird that does not die young. We call it igúnnugún (or simply igún); ancestors of the white man named it vulture. Sure-wingedly, igún flies to old age unfamished, undisturbed because it is a very patient bird that knows its place in the world of birds. And because it respects itself, vulture has come to be respected by all. No one kills igún to host a feast; no Babaláwo prescribes igún as a sacrifice to an orí or as an ingredient for a ritual. The place of general dread where three footpaths meet is where vulture takes its meals. Flying or perching or eating, whatever vulture does is without consequences. That is why our ancestors warned all other birds never to compare themselves to the vulture. They warn till tomorrow that any other bird that does what igún does will sleep in the hearth of dinner. That is what happened to Emefiele – he is literally in the soup pot of those he thought he could roast for him to dominate the skies. His butterfly thought itself a bird; it thought the immunity enjoyed by the igúnnugún of Nigeria extended to his flightless bird. He wanted to be president against the letter of the law and in spite of the spirits of politics and power. Such thoughts have always been fatal.

Emefiele served the last government the way a house slave served his master in 18th century America. And he enjoyed a lot of hand-me-downs as an obedient servant. There are several unbelievable stories flying about on what went on in our central bank while he was there. The Tinubu government announced a probe last week; we wait to see how far it can go without their party committing a suicide. Fire, it is said, does not make fire; it makes ashes. But, whatever they do or do not do with themselves is their problem. We are not supposed to know what lies behind their iron walls. We can comment, however, on what we’ve seen and warn that it must not happen again. We’ve seen photos of Emefiele desecrating the sacredness of the apex bank with postures of servitude. There is at least a photograph of him on bended knees, holding a jotter and a pen while a potentate dictated a to-do list to him. The tragedy is that the man receiving that prostration from our CBN governor did not even hold any position in government. He was powerful simply because he was an FOP (Friend of the President). Such men (and women) are common in our corridors of power. The new government will likely have its own FOPs soon, if it doesn’t already. Because CBN governorship is perhaps the juiciest post in Nigeria, Emefiele thought he would keep it by pouring ceaseless libation of obsequiousness to the priests of the president. And he succeeded so well that he got nine years of active service straddling two regimes that were not friends. Yet, after his failed coup against the new men in power, he did not have the sense to resign and flee. He thought the spell that sold him to Buhari (and Buhari to him) would do the same with Bola Tinubu. There must be something in that office that starves the brain of oxygen. Emefiele was always on his knees in the Villa. He wanted to remain and serve until he is tired of serving us. The Yoruba would look at such mendicant tenacity and say O ló danindanin m’ókùn orò (He held tight to the cord of wealth). But subservient people ultimately sell themselves into slavery. People who sacrifice everything noble to keep whatever job they think they have will lose more than that job.

There are arguments that the president cannot remove the CBN governor except in accordance with the law. That is true. But the CBN Act 2007 contains several grounds on which the CBN governor may lose his job. One of those grounds is “If they are guilty of serious misconduct in relation to their duties under the CBN Act.” And how do you establish ‘serious misconduct’ except through investigations? I think there is a clause in Emefiele’s suspension statement which described that presidential decision as a sequel to an ongoing investigation of his office. That is what you get when you have seen it all but do not know when to quit and how to quit. The tragedy of princes and their thrones is “to gain everything and lose everything in the space of a moment” (C.S. Pacat, author of Captive Prince).

Someone described Emefiele as arrogant. I never met him and so cannot validate that charge. But I know that there is something about very big positions with big money and big influence. They intoxicate the office holders. They birth very big egos. If you want to know how big that office is, ask to know the salary of the CBN governor and compare it with the salary of the president who appointed him. What are their allowances? The chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, said on Channels Television’s Sunrise Daily seven months ago that “the severance package of a CBN governor is higher than that of a sitting president.” How much is it? He didn’t tell us but he was diligent enough to educate us that some government officials got as high as N500 million as their severance package while “the president gets N10 million after his tenure.”

To whom much is given, much is expected. There is a historical reason why the CBN enjoys what it enjoys. But the bank has serially abused that reason, this democracy, the privileges and the freedom it confers. What is the job of the bank? Is it not to manage the economy of Nigeria in such a way that everyone would have a reason to live? But it deviates from its core duties. With impunity, it does politics and cuddles politicians. Emefiele’s predecessor, Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, pioneered that path. Unlike Emefiele who worshipped in the shrine of Buhari’s cabal, Sanusi openly romanced the opposition and damned the man who put him in power. There were reports the bank under him started doing what politicians do with money. Donation of cash and community projects here and there – like commercial banks doing CSR. A report said Sanusi was indeed queried for making “donations of N4 billion to Bayero University, Kano; N10 billion to Uthman Dan Fodio University, Sokoto; N500 million to the University of Benin; and N100 million to the Kano State government.” Femi Falana, SAN, at a time, issued a statement accusing that CBN governor of “diversion of public funds to promote his religious and political ambition.” Sanusi’s defence, according to a report, was that he made these interventions and others “with adequate approval from the board of his bank and President Goodluck Jonathan.” Like Emefiele, Sanusi was suspended by the president; he went to court, he lost and never appealed the judgement.

Beyond a perfunctory, political probe of Emefiele, I suggest a comprehensive reexamination of the entire legal and operational frameworks of that bank. How much should we continue to invest in its freedom? If freedom for it is desirable, then how do we ensure that the absolute power there does not continue to corrupt absolutely? To what extent should the president be involved in the appointment of the CBN governor for the bank to be insulated from partisan politics?

The subsisting law gives enormous powers and very sweet freedom to the bank and its omnipotent governor. But, is it not said that with great power comes great responsibility. Those wise words came from grand old witty Voltaire, and, later, from Spider-Man’s Uncle Ben. There is a variant credited to Eleanor Roosevelt who stressed that “freedom makes a huge requirement of every human being” and that “with freedom comes responsibility…For the person who is unwilling to grow up, the person who does not want to carry his own weight, this is a frightening prospect.” Growing up takes place in the mind. For some people, no matter how much nutrients you pump into them, they remain what they want to be – midgets. Emefiele had everything he needed to serve Nigeria without undue interference, but he surrendered every jot of autonomy he had to persons we didn’t know and who did not want to know anyone outside their invidious bank of predatory worms. From May 29, 2015 to May 29, 2023, the man held Nigeria’s sacred cow for a rapacious clique of power sellers to milk in exchange for security of tenure. They gave him, and he enjoyed it. Now, because no empire lasts forever, that cabal is no more and the protege has fallen. There is something like that in Christianity: “Whoever chooses to save his life shall lose it…” Emefiele has eventually lost the job he feared to lose; he has also lost his freedom. Nine years ago, Sanusi suffered suspension as CBN governor. Last week, it was his successor’s turn to kiss the canvas. I do not envy who comes next.