Students from the University of Ibadan (UI) on Wednesday staged a peaceful protest against the 82-day power outage at the University College Hospital (UCH), Ibadan.

UCH is the teaching hospital where medical students from UI are trained.

The Nation learnt UCH has been experiencing power outage for the past year due to debts owed to the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC.

IBEDC cut off the power supply to the hospital in March 2024 due to unpaid electricity bills.

The electricity distribution company earlier disconnected the hospital’s power supply in November 2023 for the same reason.

The power supply has not been restored.

To express dissatisfaction with the situation at the hospital. The students were led by President of the Students’ Union, SU, Bolaji Aweda.

Speaking with newsmen, Aweda stated that students of the institution have been directly affected.

According to him: “We are protesting against what is happening. And, of course, our students are affected.

“For 82 days, there has been no light at UCH, and this is due to the inability of UCH to pay its electricity bill to IBEDC.

“IBEDC has demanded that UCH settle its debt before they will restore power.”

A Nigerian nurse, Ugbede Ojo, who faced backlash after describing Lagos as a “smelly city” in a viral tweet, has secured a new job abroad.

This development follows reports that her position at a Lagos hospital was under threat due to her controversial post.

In November, Ugbede stirred controversy when she tweeted: “This Lagos is a smelly city. People smell, the streets smell, the gutters smell, the water smells, everything is smelly. I’m tired.”

The post sparked mixed reactions. While some defended her right to express her views, others criticised her for being “disrespectful” to Lagos and its residents.

One user, identified as Bayo, strongly condemned her tweet, describing it as “public ridicule.” He tagged Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu and then-Speaker Mudashiru Obasa, urging them to take action.

“Dear Lagos government, you’re leaving the lives and economy of Lagos in the hands of people that hate their employers,” the user wrote.

“If #jidesanwoolu and #mudashiru_obasa will not start demanding respect from people that are taking jobs away from aboriginals, we will also not stop adding external LEGAL pressure until we get the desired respect.”

Ugbede, who was reportedly employed at the General Hospital in Gbagada, later claimed she had been facing “attacks” due to her tweet.

However, another X user, Cross˚, who identifies as #Elkrosmediahub, offered her a job abroad if she lost her current one due to the backlash.

“Hi #nurse_ugbede, trust you are having a beautiful morning. So one of my
Ogas asked me to reach out to you. Just in case anything happens to your job, and you are willing to work in another country, kindly notify me. Will share an email address you can forward your CV to too,” the user wrote.

On Tuesday, Ugbede announced her new job on X, writing, “I got the job, guys.”

Reflecting on her journey, she added: “Just remember that by this time last year, I was homeless in Lagos! Squatting with a friend and borrowing money to pay rent.

“One year later, I got my big girl job and big girl pay. I wondered when it would happen, but when it’s your turn, God will part the ocean!”

[Punch]

Covenant University has been ranked as the best tertiary institution in Nigeria in the 2024 Times Higher Education (THE) World Universities Rankings.

The varsity secured a global position between 201-1000. At the time, the university accommodated 8,940 students with a gender ratio of 37:63.

Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) is Nigeria’s second-highest-ranked university, placing between 1001-1200 globally. ABU achieved an international outlook score of 40.9, a research environment score of 12.4, and a research quality score of 55.7. The teaching score was 23.1, the industry score stood at 19.8, and its overall score ranged between 30.7-34.4.

Landmark University, a private institution in Kwara State, also ranked between 1001-1200 globally, making it the third-best university in Nigeria. The institution recorded an overall score of 30.7-34.4, with a teaching score of 17.3, a research environment score of 18.6, research quality at 60.5, industry at 20.7, and an international outlook score of 32.7.

The University of Ibadan (UI) placed fourth in Nigeria and 1001-1200 globally in the 2025 rankings, a step down from its second-best ranking in Nigeria in 2024. UI’s student population in 2024 was 41,269, with a staff-to-student ratio of 1:19.7 and interdisciplinary science research comprising 19 percent of its academic portfolio. In 2025, UI achieved an international outlook score of 42.5, research quality of 57.8, teaching at 30.1, and an industry score of 20.9.

The University of Lagos (UNILAG) ranks fifth in Nigeria and 1001-1200 globally, maintaining its global position from 2024 but dropping one spot domestically. It scored 42.4 for international outlook, 64.5 for research quality, 15.7 for teaching, and 21.5 for industry.

Top 5 Universities in Nigeria (THE 2025)

1. Covenant University
2. Ahmadu Bello University
3. Landmark University
4. University of Ibadan
5. University of Lagos

Other notable institutions in the top 10 include Bayero University, Kano, and the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA).

Full Rankings: Top Nigerian Universities (THE 2025)

Below is the comprehensive list of universities that made the rankings:

1. Covenant University
2. Ahmadu Bello University
3. Landmark University
4. University of Ibadan
5. University of Lagos
6. Bayero University
7. Federal University of Technology, Akure
8. Federal University of Technology, Minna
9. University of Benin
10. University of Ilorin
11. University of Nigeria, Nsukka
12. Ekiti State University
13. Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta
14. Federal University of Technology, Owerri
15. Federal University Oye-Ekiti
16. Ladoke Akintola University of Technology
17. Lagos State University
18. Nnamdi Azikiwe University
19. Obafemi Awolowo University
20. University of Port Harcourt
21. Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto
22. Abia State University
23. Akwa Ibom State University
24. Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Ndufu-Alike
25. Ambrose Alli University
26. Baze University
27. Bells University of Technology
28. Benson Idahosa University
29. Bowen University
30. Delta State University, Abraka
31. Evangel University, Akaeze
32. Federal University of Petroleum Resources, Effurun
33. Godfrey Okoye University
34. Lagos State University of Education
35. Lagos State University of Science and Technology
36. Nasarawa State University, Keffi
37. Niger Delta University
38. Nile University of Nigeria
39. Osun State University
40. Rivers State University
41. Thomas Adewumi University
42. University of Cross River State
43. University of Maiduguri
44. Veritas University, Abuja

Vanguard News

A healthy nation is a productive one. Health is existential and ranks extraordinarily on the pyramid of desiderata. Since 2023, the President Tinubu-led administration has foregrounded healthcare, making it a nucleus of its policy decisions and prescriptions.

For instance, in the 2024 budget of Renewed Hope, the first in the life of the administration, health, and other contributing sectors to the human capital index received due attention. Also, in the yet-to-be-passed 2025 budget estimates, N402 billion has been allocated for infrastructural investments in the health sector and another N282.65 billion for the Basic Health Care Fund, N188 billion for vaccines, and N40 billion for malaria vaccines.

A brief review of the past year

The Tinubu administration prioritises Nigerians – their health, social welfare, and otherwise. 2024 was a significant year for the administration in the health sector with many tangible outcomes. Over 53,000 frontline health workers were trained in the past year to deliver integrated, high-quality services in keeping with the objective of training 120,000 health workers by December 2025.

Also, the blanket of the Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF) was expanded with over 2.4 million citizens enrolling in the national health insurance scheme in the year and with 10 million Nigerians under its sturdy cover.

Nigeria also secured a EUR1 billion European Investment Bank financing mechanism and a $1 billion Afreximbank financing mechanism to support incoming manufacturers in the health and life science sectors.

In addition, the health sector witnessed significant investment interest with over 70 new healthcare manufacturing companies with 22 large-scale projects in talks with international financiers, and more than 10 value-chain verticals already being established in the country.

The year, 2025, comes with a dispensary of possibilities, considering the streak of outcomes in the previous years. It should ordinarily be a year of new quarries, fecundated grounds, and consolidation.

According to projections by the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare, about 40 percent Level 1 primary health facilities will be enhanced and advanced to Level 2, widening the capacity and reach of facilities capable of delivering integrated Sexual and Reproductive Health (SRH) services across all states of the federation.

Over 60,000 frontline health workers will also receive training in comprehensive SRH service delivery in 2025, aiming to achieve feasible quality improvement in family planning (FP) and post-abortion care (PAC).

Also, there will be a fulsome activation of the free C-Section and VVF repair programme in 50 percent of the 172 priority local government areas, which account for the highest burden of maternal deaths in the country.

In addition, the Sector-Wide Approach (SWAp), a mechanism for driving efficiency in healthcare service delivery, will ensure that performance and financial management officers are engaged in all 774 local government areas to supervise the construction of primary healthcare centres, as well as manage their operations with fidelity to transparency and efficiency.

The Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC) achieved some milestones in 2024, and it is expected that the initiative will consolidate the gains and execute more multiplier interventions and programmes.

PVAC is a crucial all-wheel vehicle established by President Bola Tinubu to unleash the potential of the health sector and unlock the arteries in the healthcare value chain by increasing local manufacturing of pharmaceutical products to least 70 percent of total consumption by 2030; increasing the total direct full-time employees working in the life sciences manufacturing sub-sector to at least 50,000 (up from the current workforce estimated at approximately 20,000); establishing at least two commercial vaccine plants across the health sector; establishing at least five new medical supplies and diagnostics plants, and doubling Nigeria’s pharmaceutical market share in Africa to at least 15 percent.

In 2025, PVAC says it will focus on the priority areas of market shaping, advancing local manufacturing, regulation and policy advocacy, and execution of special projects.

Some of its interventions will include expanding the range of health products and medical technologies manufactured domestically to strengthen Nigeria’s healthcare value chain, further addressing regulatory hurdles, advocating policy changes required to advance healthcare businesses across the sector by providing support to manufacturers, as well as working with public sector bodies.

Also, it will include implementing strategic, high-impact projects on behalf of the government to enhance local manufacturing capacity and improve health outcomes, addressing critical gaps in the healthcare sector.

In addition, establishing three to five manufacturing plants for pharmaceuticals, medical supplies, diagnostics and LLINs; leveraging global knowledge hubs to improve technical capacity for local manufacturing; supporting new manufacturers in obtaining WHO pre­ qualification and implement enabling ecosystems interventions; accelerating implementation of Executive Order and engage EO Technical Working Group to implement import duty and VAT exemption for manufacturing equipment and materials.

By the same token, it seeks to successfully deliver projects that support the establishment or expansion of local manufacturing facilities for essential health products and technologies and launch initiatives that improve healthcare access and outcomes for underserved populations, ensuring alignment with national health priorities.

Also, the Renewed Hope Medical Relief Programme once approved by parliament as proposed by President Tinubu, to be implemented through the Presidential Initiative to Unlock the Healthcare Value Chain (PVAC), will see the federal government purchasing drugs, medical consumables, test kits directly from local manufacturers and distributing via technology-enabled public-private partnership, to 73 FTHIs, 37 general hospitals, and 8,800 PHCs receiving funds from BHCPF. This will subsidise the cost of medicines, channel activated real demand to Nigerian manufacturers, lower costs, and ensure quality.

The National Emergency Medical Service and Ambulance System (NEMSAS), a special-purpose entity which serves as the foundation for organising and institutionalising emergency medical services across Nigeria, says some of its future aims include the procurement and equipping of tricycle and boat ambulances, which is in process with the plan of distributing over 700 tricycle and 30 boat ambulances to rural communities across Nigeria; advocacy and behavioural change communication: each state is expected to implement a robust community level advocacy exercise to drive demand and utilisation of RESMAT services; formal launch and commencement of RESMAT operations; monitoring and evaluation and plan for scale up to 37+1 states.

Already, NEMSAS has supported some states in establishing State Emergency Medical Service Governance and Operational Structures. Some of these states are Anambra, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Nasarawa, Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Plateau, Taraba, Delta, Ogun, Osun, Rivers, Yobe, Jigawa, Kebbi, Adamawa, Borno, and FCT.

NEMSAS says in regions and universities where it is fully operational, individuals facing emergencies—such as complicated pregnancies or deliveries—can dial the national emergency short code (112) or a designated 12-digit number from their institution or state. An ambulance will be dispatched to assess their situation, provide initial treatment, and transport them to the nearest hospital at no charge.

To deepen access to critical emergency services and bridge EMS chasms in areas with limited NEMSAS coverage, NEMSAS seeks to launch the Rural Emergency Service and Maternal Transport Programme.

The World Bank through the IMPACT project is supporting a pilot of this programme, in 15 IMPACT Project states namely: Bauchi, Delta, Ebonyi, Ekiti, Gombe, Kano, Kaduna, Lagos, Nasarawa, Ogun, Plateau, Rivers, Sokoto, Taraba and Yobe.

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) itemises some of its key development benchmarks for 2025 to include public health legislation: passing of the Public Health Emergency Management and NCDC amendment bills, development of Public Health Emergency Management Standards and Structure for states in line with the SWAp Agenda and subnational EPR mentorship; health promotion and disease prevention for priority and epidemic prone diseases on all media platforms, improved national and subnational awareness, AMR/IPC implementation, surveillance and early warning systems (including SORMAS optimisation through a national digital transformation agenda); laboratory and diagnostic capacity optimisation (including genomic sequencing and a standard service menu for state (subnational) laboratories); expand laboratory network and capabilities; response, medical countermeasures, and event (outbreak) management actions (including risk profiling, simulation exercises, IPC, and stockpiling), and reduce outbreak mortalities.

In addition, other targets include increasing national efforts in public health emergencies, human resource capacity development (including field epidemiology and laboratory training, integrated training for surveillance officers); public health emergency training, case management training core personnel and SURGE staff, and definition of the minimum human resource competencies for state EPR programmes), including leadership training and performance review of outbreaks of priority and endemic prone diseases (Lassa fever, Meningitis, Diphtheria, Measles, Cholera, Influenza-like illnesses, Mpox and Yellow Fever).

Looking through the magnifying glass, 2025 is shaping up to be another stellar year for Nigeria’s health sector under President Tinubu.

Fredrick Nwabufo is the senior special assistant to the president on public engagement

The Kenyan government has approved recommendations to enhance its electronic travel authorisation (eTA) system for African visitors.

The approval was granted during the federal government’s first cabinet meeting of the year chaired by President William Ruto.

A statement issued by the State House said the meeting was held to discuss ways of driving transformative change in Kenya.

Improving traveller experience and tourism were some of the priorities.

“As part of efforts to support open skies policies and tourism growth, a key proposal is to grant eTA exemptions to all African countries — except Somalia and Libya — due to security concerns,” the statement reads.

“This initiative aims to promote regional integration and ease travel across the continent.”

The statement said most African visitors will be allowed a two-month stay while East African Community (EAC) nationals will continue to enjoy a six-month stay under the bloc’s free movement protocols.

“To improve efficiency, an expedited eTA processing option will be introduced, allowing travelers to receive approval instantly, with processing time capped at 72 hours based on operational capacity,” the State House added.

“Additionally, the introduction of an Advanced Passenger Information/Passenger Name Record system will enhance pre-screening, strengthen security, and streamline passenger processing at entry points.”

The statement said the cabinet mandated the secretaries of national treasury, transport, interior, and tourism to review, report, and propose guidelines to improve travellers’ experience at all Kenyan airports within a week.

Last year, Kenya introduced a “visa-free” policy that required most visitors to apply online for authorisation before leaving their countries.However, the introduction of the eTA, which replaced the visa requirement for all visitors, was criticised as a “visa by another name”.

The eTA fee is $30 and valid for 90 days.

[TheCable]

I turned 83 years old on the 15^th of September 2024 and recently realised that I have outlived a substantial proportion of acquaintances whom I encountered in the active and useful years of my life. If I was able to visit Jamaica, where I spent my childhood and adolescence, I would hardly find anyone with whom I attended school or with whom I played when I enjoyed a typical Jamaican boyhood. Nevertheless, these days I find myself wishing that I could return to my natal home not necessarily to see old friends so much as to experience old sensations.

This desire I believe is actually a sign of the arrival of old age as the wish to experience juvenile memories is a function of geriatric nostalgia. As I confront daily existence, especially by trying to overcome the unfortunate circumstance of the reduction of mobility and social intercourse occasioned by the loss of my left leg to diabetes in my 79^th year, I feel compelled to reflect on various events that I have witnessed in the journey so far. However, this compulsion generates a terrifying sense of loss and anxiety over one’s own chance of survival when such reflections reveal the serial departure of scores of individuals who were either younger or not much older than myself.

This anxiety coupled with gratitude for my close family’s devotion to my welfare has rendered the consciousness of the importance of divine faith alive in my awareness. While I still entertain some misgivings about the use of religion to satisfy the opportunistic advantages of some of its practitioners I try my best to respect and honour the true belief of the advocates of the best principles of faith.

That is to say that I recognise the need for faith among the believers because my own circumstance makes me hope for divine intervention to make life be more than suffering. I reflect on this issue constantly these days because I am in need of faith as I recognise that old age has arrived.

Taxes, tariffs, duties and levies are ways the government rakes in revenue to run institutions of governance and finance provisions of physical infrastructures including social amenities.

Taxation is as old as humanity so much so that it is even in the holy books. Zacchaeus in the Bible is said to be a tax collector while Jesus himself paid tax.

Remember the popular phrase of giving unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God, what is God’s. Biblical records about tax payment can be found in Matthew 17:24-27 and 22:15-22. During the pre-colonial era, Yoruba people paid isakole and owo-ori, which are forms of taxation.

Really speaking, most people don’t want to pay taxes for different reasons. Many Nigerians believe that the government is rich enough with proceeds from crude oil and gas sales and does not need additional income to run its affairs.

Some refuse to pay because of the assumption that there is no accountability and transparency from the government on what it has done with monies paid by those who complied, especially proceeds from Pay As You Earn, which is deductible from the salaries of workers. Corruption is one of the barriers and impediments to voluntary tax compliance.

Many Nigerians are also of the opinion that they are not earning enough to enable them to pay taxes. Research has shown that many corporate organisations making super profits in Nigeria and the super-rich people in the country do not pay commensurate taxes if they pay at all.

As part of his economic restructuring, President Bola Tinubu on Tuesday, August 3, 2023, inaugurated the Presidential Committee on Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms with Taiwo Oyedele as its chairman.  In October last year, the President sent four tax reform bills to the National Assembly for passage.

The bills are: the  Nigeria Tax Bill, which harmonises all the major taxes, such as corporate income tax, personal income tax, VAT etc.; the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill, which provides a framework for tax management covering taxpayer identification, registration, assessment, collection, enforcement, etc.; the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, which seeks to replace the FIRS with the NRS to perform a broader role of revenue administration in Nigeria and drive collaboration with subnational governments and MDAs and the  Joint Revenue Board (Establishment) Bill meant to transform the JTB to JRB with an expanded mandate and enhanced role for cooperation and tax harmonisation.

The bill also sets up the office of the tax ombudsman to protect taxpayers and advocate for tax simplification.

A December 3, 2024 tweet on the X handle of Taiwo Oyedele (@taiwooyedele) says, “Altogether, the bills offer a comprehensive overhaul of the nation’s tax framework to drive economic growth, support Nigerian households and position the country as a competitive economy within the comity of nations. These reforms reflect a commitment to equity, efficiency, and sustainable development.”

It is noteworthy that since the bills were sent by President Tinubu to NASS for passage, there has been a lot of pushback by many northern elites including governors, senators and House of Representatives members.

Among those who spoke out against the bills were Governors Bala Muhammed of Bauchi, Prof. Babagana Zulum of Borno and Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State.

Senator Ali Ndume also did not hide his disdain for the bills. The bone of contention in the bill majorly was the revised sharing formula for the distribution of the Value Added Tax.

Recall that under the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, this was very contentious to the extent that the then Governor Nyesome Wike of Rivers State had to drag the Federal Government to court over what it considered to be an inequitable sharing formula of VAT.

The Northern Elders, Arewa Consultative Forum and many powerful northern power brokers queued behind their governors and federal lawmakers to issue subtle threats to President Tinubu, indicating that they would not support his reelection bid in 2027.

Indeed, on October 31, 2024, the National Economic Council asked President Bola Tinubu to withdraw the Tax Reforms Bills from the National Assembly to allow for wider consultations and consensus building.

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, said that formed part of resolutions reached at the 144th meeting of the National Economic Council at the State House, Abuja.

On December 3, 2024, the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, in a statement said President Bola Tinubu had directed the Ministry of Justice to work with the National Assembly to address the concerns raised by different quarters on the tax reform bills.

It is important to highlight some of the salient provisions of the four tax reform bills.

According to the earlier referenced tweet by Oyedele, changes to income tax laws will attract remote work opportunities in the global business process outsourcing sector, enabling Nigerian youths to thrive in the digital economy; goods, services, and intellectual property exports will benefit from zero-rated VAT and other incentives to enhance Nigeria’s global trade competitiveness; tax exemptions, including zero per cent corporate income tax, VAT, and withholding tax, will apply to small businesses with annual turnover of N50m or less; minimum wage earners will be exempt from personal income tax, while over 90 per cent of workers across the private and public sectors will see a reduced tax burden.

Essential items such as food, education, and healthcare will enjoy zero per cent VAT while rent, public transportation, and renewable energy will be exempted, providing relief for low-income households that spend nearly 100 per cent of their income on these necessities.

Furthermore, over 50 nuisance taxes are to be repealed, with the remaining levies harmonised into a few numbers of taxes.

Corporate income tax rates will reduce from 30 per cent to 25 per cent over the next two years, and earmarked taxes on companies will be replaced with a streamlined single levy; businesses will benefit from input VAT credits on assets and services, eliminating the minimum tax on loss-making and low-margin companies.

This will lower production costs and stimulate investment; a redesigned tax framework will ensure progressive personal income tax, VAT, and capital gains tax while safeguarding low-income earners.

Taxes on foreign currency-denominated transactions will be payable in naira, easing compliance for businesses and reducing pressure on the exchange rate; VAT revenue will be distributed among states based on an equitable model to reward economic contributions, rather than the current model which is skewed in favour of states with head office locations where VAT remittances are usually made;  the introduction of tax ombudsman to improve the tax system by protecting vulnerable taxpayers and advocating for fairness and lastly,  a strategic framework for fair taxation, responsible borrowing, and sustainable spending will be established to guide the fiscal system.

In a rider to those points, Oyedele said, “These tax reforms aim to alleviate the rising cost of living, foster economic equity, and create a business-friendly environment to attract local and foreign investments.”

It is heartwarming to note that the Nigerian governors who were initially against this bill were able to meet with the Taiwo Oyedele Presidential Tax Reform Committee last week and ironed out their differences.

In a communique issued by the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum and Governor of Kwara State, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, the forum reiterated its strong support for the comprehensive reform of Nigeria’s archaic tax laws.

The forum endorsed a revised Value Added Tax sharing formula to ensure equitable distribution of resources:  50 per cent based on equality, 30 per cent based on derivation, and 20 per cent based on population.

Members agreed that there should be no increase in the VAT rate or reduction in Corporate Income Tax at this time, to maintain economic stability. The forum advocated for the continued exemption of essential goods and agricultural produce from VAT to safeguard the welfare of citizens and promote agricultural productivity.

The meeting recommended that there should be no terminal clause for TETFUND, NASENI, and NITDA in the sharing of development levies in the bills and lastly, the meeting supports the continuation of the legislative process at the National Assembly that will culminate in the eventual passage of the Tax Reform Bills.

This is a classic case of using political solutions to resolve economic conundrums. Commendable!

X: @jidejong

American President Gerald Ford, in a posthumous eulogy read by his son, Steve, at the funeral of another American President, Jimmy Carter, his immediate successor, affirmed, “Honesty and truth-telling were synonymous with the name Jimmy Carter.”

This assessment by a president about another president is the exact opposite of what a Nigerian would probably say about a fellow Nigerian, both knowing that “honesty and truth-telling” will be antonyms to their characters as Nigerians.

That is a sad, but true, commentary on the character of the average Nigerian that prompted former British Prime Minister, David Cameron, to say that “Nigeria and Afghanistan are possibly the two most corrupt countries in the world”, to the hearing of Muhammadu Buhari, a sitting President of Nigeria, who hardly knew how to react to a biting insult.

The best that former President Buhari could muster was his trademark wide Cheshire cat grin, a “Yes” that Nigeria was “fantastically corrupt” and the underwhelming comment that he “was shocked and embarrassed” and would rather “demand… a return of (Nigeria’s) stolen assets (hidden in Britain), than “demand an apology” from ex-Prime Minister Cameron. 

And to appear to be pushing what is no more than a half-hearted demand of his boss, the then Chairman of Nigeria’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Ibrahim Magu. revealed that at that time, $37bn of stolen Nigerian money had been routed through Britain.

A joke that made the rounds in Lagos in the mid-1980s stated that when it looked as if an aircraft on an international flight was about to crash, the flight stewards thought of the most effective way to persuade the frightened passengers to don the parachute and dive into the sky.

To the gambling Americans, they said it was a 50-50 chance of survival. The Americans weighed their options, took the parachute and jumped out. The Japanese took the parachute when they were told that it was a matter of honour to be brave and jump out with the parachute.

It became a royal problem to persuade Nigerians to dive. No one knew how to get them to accept the parachutes. Until a retired pilot, who had lived in Lagos, offered to help. When he got the all-clear, he simply walked into the fuselage and announced, “Nigerians. It is illegal to jump out!”

In less than a jiffy, all the Nigerians on the aircraft jumped the queue, collected and wore the parachutes and saw to it that they all jumped out ahead of other nationals, who stood puzzled that the motivator for Nigerians was the zest to breach rules.

Following is another interesting story. A video gone viral showed a young lady, presumably a Diaspora Nigerian, in a rented boat trying to appease some gods by throwing US dollars into a lagoon. After the ritual, she was asked what she liked about Nigeria. She answered, “I like that I can pay my way through anything,” in the most casual manner.

These stories are probably a summary of the disdain that Nigerians have for orderliness, ethical guardrails and the rule of law. It also shows that any Nigerian state actor, in any official capacity, can be bought to compromise on any rule or policy.

To quote the character, Basi, in Ken Sawo-Wiwa’s TV series, “Basi & Company”, “It’s a matter of cash.” More uncouth Nigerians would use the phrase, “Cash for hand, back for ground,” in the capsule of transactions between a prostitute and her clients.

What all these negatives say of Nigeria is that there are no referees to call out those who engage in wrongdoing. If anything, it is those who are expected to caution and make Nigerians obey the rules that invite them to disobey the laws.

It was rumoured that a Nigerian estate developer who died under the rubble of one of his buildings was encouraged by Lagos State officials to raise the building beyond the level that was originally approved for him.

A referee maintains fair play by interpreting and enforcing rules, making impartial decisions on infractions, keeping stock of scores of the game, and ensuring that a player’s behaviour complies with laid-down rules and guidelines.

In today’s Nigeria, no one seems to be responsible for compliance, and those who should maintain the rules are the culprit-in-chief in the disgraceful act of breaching laid-down rules and regulations. Indeed, the average Nigerian seems to think that rules are to be breached.

When a boss restrained a company driver from driving against the traffic, the driver told him that no one obeyed highway codes anymore and continued breaking the highway codes. When the boss asked the unruly driver to be fired, the HR Manager was interceding on behalf of the errant driver.

You may not be too surprised that Nigeria endures so much impunity, with the two referee organs, the judiciary and the media, created by the Nigerian Constitution for dispensing justice and ensuring fair play, are hamstrung by the same Constitution!

Section 6 (6,c) absolves the government of responsibilities to Nigerians by saying, “The judicial powers… (that) shall be vested in the courts… shall not… extend to any issue or question as to why any act… or any judicial decision is in conformity with the Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy… in (Chapter II of the Constitution).”

What this convoluted jabber is saying is that the Constitution, grundnorm of Nigeria, gives no guarantees that the government shall provide security, welfare, an efficient economy, adequate educational and health services, and safeguard the air, land, forest and wildlife to Nigerians. In other words, the judiciary cannot compel the executive arm to perform its constitutional duties.

The Father Christmas Section 22 of the Constitution gave the Nigerian media the power “to uphold the Fundamental Objectives… and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”.

But Section 45(1) withdrew that, along with a slew of other fundamental human rights, like the right to life, personal liberty, freedom of thought, association, and right to live or own property in any part of Nigeria, “in the interest of (the generally ill-defined) public safety, public order, public morality, or public health, or for the purpose of protecting the rights of other persons”.

Where the hands of the judiciary and the media have been tied behind their backs by the Constitution that created them, they would hardly make any impact, especially when you consider how much the military culture impacted the socio-cultural lives of Nigerians.

The military ruled Nigeria, for 29 of the first 39 formative years of the Nigerian state- from 1960 to 1999- when the military packed their baggage of impunity and disrespect for the rule of law and returned to their barracks.

When a predator Nigerian tells his victim to go to court or gets his less connected compatriot beaten up by friends in the military barracks, he is simply boarding the time-machine, back to the days when a connected Nigerian gets what is not due to him by associating with a senior brass of the military government.

To borrow a phrase from Lasisi Olagunju, a columnist with Nigerian Tribune newspaper, “We cannot become (like the countries that are prospering so well) until we have blind laws that recognise no class (and) no ethnicity.”

When the politics-administration dichotomy inaugurated the practice of public administration, what was intended was a critical need to bifurcate the logic of the two in ways that will extend the relationship between the politicians and the administrator and make it more efficient. The politician is then, within the logic of the dichotomy, restricted to policy formulation while the administrator is confined to the realm of policy implementation. Reality however defeats the neat boundary between the two. Politics and administration, in practical reality, are almost inseparable. And one would expect that the relationship between political science and public administration discourse will reflect this inseparability. Unfortunately, it does not. The separation undermines the fundamental urgency of addressing the political foundation of administrative research and practices, especially as they relate with the issues of power, governance, politics and democracy.

Political science descriptively and critically studies political phenomena and how they contribute to our understanding of the political community. Significantly, political science analyzes the fundamental role that power plays in the articulation of politics especially in the attempt to unravel the dynamics of the political community and its social and political circumferences and trajectories. Public administration is the very embodiment of the state as the most critical embodiment of politics. The state is made most visible within the frameworks and institutional workings of public administration, especially through the public sector and the public services. The straightforward argument is that the political and administrative reality of any state cannot be studied in isolation of each other. This seems obvious enough given that each of political science and public administration reinforces each other in terms of shedding light on the complex and intricate workings of the state and its response to the citizens and the commonwealth. In other words, there is no way the concepts of power and governance, for example, would not intersect political and administrative questions, and complicate them. The issues of democratic governance and innovation, and collaborative governance demand thinking of the interplay between politics science and administration.

In my many years as a deep insider career bureaucrat in the public service, I have been aware not only of the role that politics play in administrative matters, and vice versa. I have also been apprised of how political acts of commission and omission actively promote or undermine the public service. Indeed, my theoretical and practical researches into the dynamics of government business and institutional reforms highlights how political and administrative factors interact. My deep worry however is that political science and public administration discourses in Nigeria carry on as if these interactions and interrelations are at best trivial or at worst non-existence. For instance, in institutional terms, there is nothing to write home about in the existence and possible cross-fertilizing relationship between the Nigerian Political Science Association (NPSA) and the National Association for Public Administration and Management (NAPAM). Indeed, there cannot be such a cross-fertilization because while NPSA is active, NAPAM has remained comatose. And the vision and mission statement of NPSA is not broad enough to take in administrative matters and concerns, or the interplay of politics and administration.

The most fundamental observation that my status as a scholar-bureaucrat in the federal civil service afforded me is a practical understanding of the nature of the fundamental disconnections in public administration practices and the consequences on the state’s responsibility to her citizens, all due to crucial assumptions and principles that have been left lying fallow and unattended to in an interdisciplinary discourse and cross fertilization between political science scholarship and public administration theories and practice. A few examples suffice. In 1966, Nigeria shifted away from the parliamentary system of government and, after the long interregnum of military administrations, resumed with the presidential system, enshrined in the 1979 Constitution. This move was preceded by the Dotun Phillips studies report of 1985, and the Civil Service Reorganization Decree of 1988, which aligned the civil service with the presidential system of government. However, even with the reversal of the reform frameworks by the Ayida reform of 1995, it is still clear that many of Nigeria’s administrative practices still retain aspects of parliamentary elements that could be one source of unresolved structural troubles necessitating performance inefficiency.  

This has some other implications for the practice of federalism and the stabilization of Nigeria’s governance structure. Since the intervention of the military in 1966 and the subsequent militarization of Nigeria’s political and governance structure of the Nigerian state, the federal arrangement that ought to have been the natural remedy for the unruly ethnonational diversity became compromised. For instance, inter-governmental relations and the critical need for fiscal federalism became caught in the cracks of constitutional and institutional dysfunction. The Babangida administration, through the recommendation of the IBB’s Presidential Advisory Committee, established the National Council for Inter-Governmental Relations (NCIS) as one in a series of government’s efforts—like the Centre for Democratic Studies (CDS), National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies, Michael Imoudu National Institute for Labour Studies, etc.—to rehabilitate Nigeria’s governance and administrative structures.   

All this goes to demonstrate a cogent reason why the political and the administrative in Nigeria’s governance context cannot be separated, even in terms of theoretical argumentation. Political science scholarship, in longing for an interdisciplinary relationship with public administration, must recognize how the latter has evolved first as a sub-discipline of political science, and later as a multidisciplinary endeavor that encompasses insights drawn from management science, organizational psychology, sociology, statistics, industrial engineering, computer science, etc. from which it draws to invigorate its curriculum and pedagogy. This point is still not demonstrated in the disciplinary silos that define the existence of political science on the one hand and public administration on the other in Nigerian universities. In some universities, public administration functions in a different faculty, or is its own faculty, as different from the faculty of the social sciences. And so, scholars carry out their scholarly discourses in different contexts, oblivious of the grave challenges that the Nigerian administrative and governance predicament pose to their theoretical and practical separation. In what follows, I will point attention at a few contentious institutional matters to which I have gestured in many of my works, but which I contend require the critical interrogation of political scientists.

First, there is the recurrent issue of the need to keep clarifying the nature and the role of the state in terms of administrative efficiency. While the state is central to the analysis of power, and constitutes one of the central thematic focus of political science scholarship, the fundamental need to redefine the role of the state has often not been taken up in terms of its significance for the restructuring of the ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) that are the critical engine room for measuring the developmental successes of the state. Aligning the role of the state to the understanding of the MDA becomes crucial as it facilitates the reform of the MDAs in terms of the need to remodel and strengthen their core vis-à-vis their non-core functions as both relate to the service delivery function of government. This could also instigate the urgency of conducting institutional audit that is crucial not only to determining the performance status of many state agencies, but to also jumpstart organizational development dynamics that are meant to motivate the movement of structures to institutions. It is institutions, rather than mere structures that government requires to undermine governance failure.      

Second, political science scholarship in Nigeria is necessarily confronted by the need to clarify and explicate the thorny issue of the relationship between the administrative operational dynamics of the executive arm of government in terms of its apparatuses—like the Federal Executive Council—and the working of the American-styled presidential system of government. This is a key concern given that Nigeria’s adoption of many institutional dynamics has remained problematic in terms of relating them to her political and administrative realities. For instance, acute and critical attention need to be paid also to the political economy involved in the executive-legislature relations, and the implications deriving from the planning and budgeting processes from legislative oversight to appropriation and budget implementation. Peter Ekeh’s analysis of migrated structures alert us to the danger of adopting these structures without paying critical attention to their value orientation and the political realities of where they are coming from.    

Democratic governance and all its ancillary structural and administrative apparatuses encompass a host of issues that require critical analyses. Since the notion of the public good and the commonwealth, in the idea of good democratic governance, constitute the formidable core of the relationship between politics, public management and public administration, then the discourse around stakeholder management, participatory governance, performance management and accountability become key and critical core issues that interact with the way we see politics, administration and citizenship. The recent discourse on the resuscitation of local governance, through the landmark decision of the Supreme Court to legally reinvigorate the constitutional strength of local government in Nigeria, points at the significance of connecting community development structures and traditional institutions to the state systems and democratic enablement through the principle of social capital and subsidiarity.

To reiterate, the predicament of the postcolonial Nigerian state demands that political science scholarship must necessarily and urgently signal an interdisciplinary collaboration that will instigate a ferment of theoretical, practical and institutional discourses from which both can expect not only to refresh their internal discursive vibrancy, but also collectively contribute to the understanding of the working of the Nigerian state and her capacity to induce participatory democratic governance.     

⁠