Following the approval of 240 per cent tariff increment for Band A customers by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, some power consumers in that category are complaining of severe extortion by the various electricity distribution companies in the country amidst worsening power supply.

NERC had on Wednesday announced the tariff increment for Band A power consumers from N68 to N225 per kilowatt-hour with immediate effect.

With the new tariff, the regulator said the subsidy on electricity had been withdrawn completely from the Band A consumers, who constitute about 15 per cent of the total number of power users across the country.

At a press briefing in Abuja on Friday, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, insisted that the Federal Government would continue with the new tariff regime for Band A consumers despite calls for its reversal.

He said this was because the government could no longer continue paying humongous sums as power subsidy, stressing that subsidy on electricity for 2024 would cost the government about N2.9tn.

But in a flurry of reactions to the development via their X handles on Saturday, some customers lamented that despite paying exorbitantly for electricity following the tariff hike, they were experiencing poor supply in their different neighbourhoods across the country.

This is just as some Nigerians in Bands B, C, D, and E alleged that they were now being made to pay N225/KWh by the Discos instead of their old tariffs after the distribution companies upgraded their payment platforms to reflect the Band A tariff increment.

Kaduna-based Tariq Abdulazeez @tariqq2 wrote, “The Kaduna Disco has failed to comply with the new regulations thereby upgrading 80 per cent of its customers to band A. We barely get 8hrs power supply.

@OlaosunSina posted, “IKEDC claims OPIC in Isheri-North belongs to Band A and immediately implemented N225 per KwH. N50,000 energy (VAT inclusive) purchased yesterday (Thursday) gave 207 KwH Units. Light was taken since 9.34am today (Friday) 5th April and as of 3.37pm yet to come. This is a pure SCAM!”

Vivo Val also tweeted, “Though I am on Band B, IKEDC gave me 82 units for N20,000.”

One Michael Ifeanyi posted on the platform, “Please NERC, ask Enugu Electricity Distribution Companies to downgrade Centenary Estate Enugu to band C we hardly enjoy 10 hours light. They are charging us for band A.”

One Bolaji @bolsaid said, “I am on Band A and have not had up to 20hrs supply in the last five days, from Easter Monday till now. NERCNG, FCCPC Nigeria,” while @Otyjonah wrote, “My environment is under Band A even though the Disco has refused to issue us a prepaid meter. I have seen power supply since 11pm on d 4th of April. Today is 6th and there is no single hour of light in almost 48hrs. Will I be made to pay for the darkness at the end of the month @NERCNG?”

Lere Ojedokun @doklere said, “There is so much secrecy and loopholes in the electricity ecosystem which investors and players exploit to milk electricity consumers. This is why we will continue to be at their mercy.”

Oluwakemi @tykeemon said, “Are there really any Band A users in Nigeria? Are we joking? I get less than eight hours of electricity supply daily and I have been fraudulently classified as a Band A user. @NERCNG, you are not a regulator but an accomplice to rip off.”

Isaac Emalunegbe said, “We in Calabar around the Akai Effa axis suffer from your Disco staff here. They will tell us we are in Band A and we get supple less than those in Band C and at the end of every month they will issue exorbitant bill. I was a victim in 2021.”

‘Sack minister now’

In a related development, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party in Ekiti State, Lere Olayinka, has called on President Bola Tinubu to sack the Minister of Power for alleged incompetence reflected in his inability to ensure a steady power supply.

Olayinka, a former House of Representatives aspirant, also accused the minister of insensitivity with the incessant electricity tariff increases despite failure to ensure constant power supply since he assumed office.

Olayinka, in a statement in Ado Ekiti on Saturday titled, ‘Sack power minister, Bayo Adelabu, now; he can’t even give you constant electricity in Aso Villa, PDP chieftain tells Tinubu’, advises the government to save itself from further embarrassment by sacking Adelabu and replacing him with a professional.

Obasanjo Farm, others downgraded

Meanwhile, the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has downgraded the Olusegun Obasanjo Farm in Ogun State and 27 other feeders from the Band A to the Band E category.

The firm disclosed this in a list it released on Saturday, which contained the names of the erstwhile Band A feeders downgraded to B, C, D, or E by the company across Oyo, Ogun, Kwara, and Osun states.

According to the list, some areas within the states dropped from 20 hours of daily power supply to zero hours.

This, according to NERC, brought about the removal of those feeders from Band A to the bands that fit their daily power allocations.

 Power ministry, NERC inefficient — Afenifere

Similarly, the Pan-Yoruba socio-cultural and political organisation, Afenifere, has described the electricity tariff increase as an attempt to thwart President Bola Tinubu’s economic recovery efforts.

Afenifere stated this in a statement signed by its National Publicity Secretary, Comrade Jare Ajayi and made available to journalists on Saturday.

While noting that the electricity tariff hike will shrink both corporate and small medium businesses in the country, Ajayi said, “It is clear that rather than exploring ways to reduce the cost of producing energy thus reducing the pains of Nigerians, the relevant government agencies are passing the price of their own inefficiency on the people.

In a related development, Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has called on the management of IBEDC to urgently address current irregular power supply in the state.

Adeleke, who made the demand at a meeting held with the management of the company in Ibadan, Oyo State, described Osun as a critical stakeholder in the Nigerian power sector with Osogbo, the state capital, hosting the National Transmission Control Centre.

 The governor said it was “unacceptable that the state will be having epileptic power supply,” which he said has been affecting its local economy and businesses badly.

[Vanguard]

One thing the flamboyant electioneering campaigns leading to the 2023 presidential elections did not expatiate upon was how the first budget of the new administration would be funded to meet the lofty campaign promises. The expectations became heightened when it became obvious that the inauguration of a new Nigerian President on May 29, 2023 did not come along with a magic wand to arrest the country’s deteriorating economy.

Instead, the strategies designed by the new President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu only emphasized some future relief to be preceded by immediate severe pain on citizens. The first signs that the supposed future relief was achievable emerged a few days ago following the news of a huge increase in revenue generation by the Nigeria Customs Service NCS. According to media reports, the Service pulled off a spectacular performance to collect the sum of N1,347,675,608,972.75 in the first quarter of 2024.

The impressive outing by the NCS must have gladdened many hearts but to those who are familiar with the antecedents of the current leadership of the Service, it didn’t come as a surprise. Some analysts are even looking forward to greater achievements during the tenure of Bashir Adewale Adeniyi who was recently picked as Comptroller General of Customs by President Bola Tinubu.  Industry watchers are generally agreed that in every respect, Adeniyi is a square peg in a square hole. For the no less than 3 decades that he has been in service, he has become known for achieving great things. Some 4 years ago for instance, he was singled out for an award in appreciation of his pivotal supervision of the seizure of $8,065,612 million cash at the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Ikeja, Lagos in January 2020.

By his posture, CG Adeniyi effortlessly makes a case for our agencies to be headed by intelligent and professional career officers who had over the years been prepared for the Chief Executive position. In which case, they would have acquired many years of cognate experience by passing through several critical segments of the relevant entity. Such officers best know the strengths and weaknesses of their organizations; they know what button to push, who to deploy to where and when and how to make progress by not just increasing activities but also by blocking loopholes through which all gains normally vanish within seconds. Organizations such as the Customs Service should therefore never be where to post loyalists or where to reward friends and relations who know nothing about the peculiar nuances of the institution concerned.

But no matter the institution, modern trends suggest that the best way to successfully run an organization is to realize the inevitability of technology which now serves as the redeeming feature of humanity. In this age of technology, it is no longer reasonable to rely on analogue platforms to achieve sustainable progress. CG Adeniyi being a strategic researcher and communicator must have among other things quickly discarded the physical pursuit of smugglers in favour of aerial surveillance just as he must have followed global realities by installing ICT and other digital facilities for operations especially smart scanning machines in airports. What is certain is that because technology changes daily making it possible for yesterday’s kits to show signs of obsolescence even before they are unparked, identifying the latest facilities that can place operations above criminals is now an imperative.

Remarkably, the new Customs administration did not wait for the media to begin to speculate on its activities when it decided on its own that every societal institution owes accountability to the public for whose sake it was established. It is hoped that all government agencies would emulate the NCS by institutionalizing the practice of occasional media briefings in furtherance of public enlightenment. Those who operate differently have so much to lose because by the time the media speculates on their activities warranting rejoinders from them, the first casualty is institutional reputation especially at a point of collective frustration caused by overbearing inflation. If the NCS has made 122.35 percent progress in its revenue generation compared with same time last year, what have others done?  

They need to let us know because the world is now in the age of open government. The narratives of a deceitful colonial era in which operatives were only to be seen but not heard are no longer fashionable. Nigeria must progress into becoming one of the world’s greatest communicating nations. The reverse bears anarchy like the recent situation in Kaduna state where some party stalwarts were unhappy with Governor Uba Sani for revealing the huge debts and heavy contractual liabilities inherited by his administration. More annoying is the alleged suspension of the woman leader of the state chapter of the APC, Maryam Suleiman for berating Governor Sani who supposedly rubbished the former Governor. Penalizing a citizen for expressing an opinion should only happen in a dictatorship and not a democracy.

Government officials at all levels ought to perform well and at the same time inspire public confidence by taking the people along. At the federal level, the repeated assurances by President Tinubu that the buck stops at his desk cannot be used by agency heads to undermine accountability to the public. In fact, Tinubu’s acceptance of vicarious liability presupposes that he is ready to fire all those not performing. This is because a time for economic depression is the best time for activities here and there – not speeches but actions that have quick wins. At the beginning of this administration, there was a lot of public expectations from the Immigration Service due to the proactive posture of Tunji Ojo, the Interior Minister. So, when can Nigerians apply and seamlessly pick up their international passports? Last week, the story was that efforts were being made to print our passports locally. Is that an objective that falls within the realm of rocket science?

We must however not forget to pay tribute to two private sector leaders, namely Allen Onyema and Aliko Dangote that are bringing messages of hope to the homes of citizens. But for Dangote, life would have been much harder at the rate the price of Automative Gas Oil (diesel) was rising and rising. Happily, Dangote Petroleum Refinery has now forced down the pump price of the product to around N1,225 from about N1, 700 per litre. Similarly, Allen Onyema has used his airline, Air Peace to halt the conspiracy of the west to kill the naira. With his entry into the Lagos-London route, all carriers hitherto exploiting Nigerians are now in disarray. It is hoped that other business owners and executives would emulate Dangote and Onyema so that Nigeria can rise again. It is therefore not too much for government to formally commend the two patriots to strengthen them to keep hope alive.

A time like this when people are striving to survive is certainly not the time for any Nigerian business to maximize profit.  It is therefore unfortunate that our power distribution companies have convinced themselves that this is the best time to raise tariffs. It is worse that they are able to persuade their regulator to accept a rise by as much as 300 percent. If precedent is anything to go by, the arrangement of categorising consumers into bands will as usual, lead to profiteering. It will be recalled that during the Buhari administration, metres paid for by government to be freely distributed to consumers were surreptitiously sold by the DISCOS. With some consumers already claiming to have been short-changed, on band categorization, there is no better time than now for the regulator to operate with a human face.

It would be against the run of play if public sector agencies are waiting to be prompted to up their performances so as to give room for the rest of us to breathe.  May be the Nigeria Custom Service should take the lead again; this time not just in revenue generation but in curbing insider abuses. It is unfair that agencies extort huge sums of money from citizens in addition to approved payments before offering the service for which they were employed. CG Adeniyi would leave his name in gold if he can use technology to sanitize all the processes and procedures for obtaining services from customs operatives. Many citizens would be relieved if other Nigerian service provider executives can similarly act.

•Reporter narrates his story
•REVEALED: Councilor who took slain soldiers on trip reportedly captured, burnt

ONE conspicuous reason concerned citizens heaped scorn on the Army in the March 14 killing of 17 soldiers at the Okuama community in Ughelli South Local Government Area is the participation of its personnel in the settlement of communal disputes.

The Chief of Defense Staff, CDS, General Christopher Musa, made several attempts to validate the “peace mission” of the officers and men that turned catastrophic.

Not many agree with CDS’s robust avowals in defence of his men.

However, they all deplored the brutal killing of the soldiers.

Regardless of their primary mission of forestalling lawlessness, protecting the nation’s oil infrastructure, and maintaining the peace in the oil-rich Niger Delta, the military Joint Task Force, JTF, since its deployment in the region, had dug into settling issues, ranging from misunderstanding between individuals, and family relatives to both intra and inter-communal disputes in the region.

However, the simple reason is that the military outfit in the region appears to be more viable, forthright, and “quick” in resolving issues compared to other security agencies saddled with such responsibilities.

Therefore, people take misunderstandings and hostilities between relatives, including quarrels in matrimonial homes to the military outposts for arbitration.

Military personnel often shoulder the responsibility of resolving the issues without charges which has further endeared them to some.

Reporter’s experience

In 2005, the JTF arrested and detained a Vanguard reporter, Chancel Bomadi Sunday, at Bomadi, over a fight between his younger sister and his brother’s wife over a family misunderstanding. “During the fight, my younger sister bit my brother’s wife on the face and transferred her anger onto me by arresting me with soldiers. Though I was not at the scene of the quarrel that led to the fight, I only saw the soldiers on the arrest mission to my room, as my brother’s wife led them”, Sunday narrated.

“They threw me into their guardroom and detained me for hours with some others whom I met there. It was after the intervention of her husband, who told the commander then that I was innocent that they released me to settle amicably within the family.”

More so, creditors, debtors, property owners, tenants, house owners and thieves often take their issues to the different JTF outposts for settlement.

Military, civilians on joint missions Intermittently, the military carried out operations in the region with civilians, especially when the need arose.

In such missions, the military camouflages the civilians with military uniforms as occurred in the Okuama case, which some people had referred to.

For instance, when a former supervisory councilor, Hon. Pius Aboh, ran to the Bomadi Division of the JTF and complained that the Okuama people took his brother, Anthony Aboh, hostage, the Commander, Major Saffa, immediately mobilized his men to the Gbaregolor community waterfront to hire speedboats for the rescue mission.

In that mission, according to sources, they camouflaged the drivers of the hired speedboats, and the former supervisory councillor, who joined them specifically to identify his brother at Okuama.

The military believed that they would be shields to the civilians in case of any aggression, not envisaging the worst that would happen to them on that day.

That is why journalists participating in the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping missions wear camouflage, reporting and photographing, even during crossfire.

Supervisory councillor burnt on a stake!

However, community sources disclosed that those who ambushed the soldiers in Okuama captured Aboh,who dived into the river and attempted to swim away, bringing him back to the community.

How JTF settled Okpokunou, Tuomo, Ojobo crises

Nevertheless, the JTF had settled some intra-communal crises, some being the Okpokunou, Tuomo, and Ojobo communities in the Burutu local government area, variously engulfed in intra-communal crises years back, and in recent times, over selection or election of community chairpersons and traditional rulers.

The military outfit went to the communities on invitation, settled issues, and saved the communities the agony of irate youths bent on destroying properties.

They have also ventured into communal issues of several other communities.
Therefore, the issue of Okuama was not different.

The soldiers were reportedly on a “peace and rescue mission” to avoid escalation of the brewing crisis between the two neighboring communities, Okuama in Ughelli South Local Government Area, and Okoloba in Bomadi Local Government Area, both in Delta State.

Extra-curricular activities of soldiers

Responding to what he, apparently, regards as immoderations of the Army in the state, a senior lawyer in a Facebook post, said, “Since 2016, the Army in Effurun is located at a checkpoint in a private residence. The house is painted in the color of the Command. Not less than 10 soldiers are posted there 24 hours.

“And the soldiers, as part of the command duties, or peacekeeping, established a ‘court’ in the premises, where they preside over matrimonial, land, landlord and tenants dispute. They also double as debt and rent collectors, enforcers of contracts/civil agreements, etc.”

Another reputable lawyer, Martins Ahweyevu Mukoro Esq., also in a Facebook titled, “Okuama Social Soldiers and Soldiers of Peace”, said, “Have not Nigerian soldiers always been soldiers of peace? I am at a marriage ceremony in Ughelli South local government area of Delta State. This is not Okuama, it is not near Okoloba, there is no communal land dispute between the neighbouring communities, yet two uniformed soldiers are on duty, possibly, on a peace mission.

“They are either from Effurun or Agbarha Army Barracks; or are they from the barrack in Bomadi? I think not. So, who and how was an application made, to whom, and why were these soldiers posted to a marriage ceremony to perform peaceful guard or security assurance duties for peak lovers getting married?

“In the part of Delta State where I live, soldiers are routinely posted at a price to man purely civilian social ceremonies, including burial and marriage ceremonies, where military functions are absent.

“We condone all of this aberration, we never queried the social soldiers, we never asked for a policeman in place of the corruptly posted social soldiers. It took Okuama for us to question the abuse of our soldiers. So, I ask, were we, honestly, taken back that soldiers went on a peace mission to Okuama?”

In governance, opportunity cost is more complex as an empirical construct. Foregone alternatives may not necessarily be foregone. In certain cases, there may be very little wiggle room for such niceties. Allocating resources to critical sectors without neglecting other sectors for a holistic and organic development of the country becomes the potent ideal, verging on emergency.

The proclivity for an integral fettling of Nigeria’s gaping concerns is patent in the ideation and iteration of the Tinubu administration’s priority areas of reforming the economy to deliver sustained inclusive growth; strengthening national security for peace and prosperity; boosting agriculture to achieve food security; unlocking energy and natural resources for sustainable development; enhancing infrastructure and transportation as enablers of growth; focusing on education, health, and social investment as essential pillars of development; accelerating diversification through industrialisation, digitisation, creative arts, manufacturing & innovation, and improving governance for effective service delivery.

It is one reticular hoop. One niche subsisting on the other; one outcome depending on the other and vice versa, and one thread cascading down on the others. A breathing filament runs through the nexus of security, agriculture, education, infrastructure, job creation, and other sectoral motifs. They are one important whole.

Effective security will naturally enhance food production as citizens can go to farm; open arteries of investments, and effectuate the deepening of investments in other sectors, as well as impact the overall well-being of society. Improved agriculture will, in turn, ensure food security, price stability, and hunger mitigation. Infrastructure provision will stimulate investments and create opportunities along multiple channels of growth. And so will investments in education, healthcare, and other sectors all converge to secure Nigeria’s future.

It takes a dexterous laying of bricks to build an edifice. The administration takes a cultivated and diligent brick-by-brick approach to governance; to building that nation we all deserve. It is a steady, well-thought-out, and carefully executed step-by-step fashion as against the harum-sacrum option.

In March, President Bola Tinubu approved the establishment of the Renewed Hope Infrastructure Development Fund (RHIDF) to facilitate effective infrastructure development across the pivotal areas of agriculture, transportation, ports, aviation, energy, healthcare, and education in Nigeria.

The Fund will, among other things, invest in critical national projects that will promote growth; enhance local value-addition, create employment opportunities, and stimulate technological innovation and exports.

It will cover agricultural infrastructure and food security with emphasis on the development of robust agricultural infrastructure networks; ports revitalisation, with premium on the rejuvenation of port facilities and associated infrastructure to streamline operations and enhance the ease of doing business; aviation enhancement, with focus on the revitalisation and modernisation of major airports nationwide; road infrastructure, with some strategic projects like the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road, the Sokoto-Badagry Road, among other key road projects across the nation, to receive attention, and rail infrastructure, with Lagos-Kano and Eastern rail lines as some of the projects to be prioritised.

In healthcare, President Tinubu is sparing no effort as investments are being funnelled into the sector. Recently, he directed the immediate upgrade of key health infrastructure and equipment across the six geo-political zones. Ten hospitals bestrewing the six geopolitical zones will be revamped to provide exigent and top-tier healthcare services in the lines of radiology, clinical pathology, medical and radiation oncology, and cardiac catheterisation.

On April 3, the president signed into law the Student Loan (Access to Higher Education) (Repeal and Re-enactment) Bill, 2024. And in furtherance of his resolve to secure Nigeria’s socio-economic future by ensuring sustainable higher education and critical skill development for all Nigerian students and the youth, he expeditiously and carefully appointed a management team. This is so that the necessary instruments are put in place for the effective take-off of this all-important fund.

There is also the plan for school feeding and other education-specific initiatives to overhaul the entire pedagogy train.

The president has also approved the establishment of the Nigerian Consumer Credit Corporation (CREDICORP) and appointed a chief executive to efficaciously manage the corporation and ensure the expansion of access to credit to all classes of Nigerian citizens while promoting financial inclusion, and enhancing the quality of life of the Nigerian people as they access the tangibles of prosperity.

The Tinubu administration is executing a full-system upgrade, even with specific attention to some sectors, understanding that Nigerians deserve a full complement of good governance and socio-economic security.

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

Ali Ndume, chief whip of the senate, has rejected the recent increment in electricity tariff.

On Wednesday, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved an increase in electricity tariff for customers under the B and A classification.

The commission said customers who receive 20 hours of electricity supply daily, will pay N225 per kilowatt (kW), starting from April 3.

The new rate is about three times the existing figure.

Since the announcement, there has been a public outcry against the new tariff.

In a statement on Saturday, Ndume, senator representing Borno south, said Nigerians are yet to recover from the removal of petrol subsidy by the federal government.

“The news of the increment came to me and many of my colleagues as a shock. It also came at a time when the National Assembly was on a break,” the statement reads.

“Personally, I think the timing of this hike is very wrong. Nigerians are grappling with many challenges.

“To put this fresh responsibility on them is very unfair. Nigerians are yet to recover from the fuel subsidy removal of last year.

“Many Nigerians are still grappling with the ripple effects the removal had on them. To now come up with this is wrong.

“I believe that the timing is wrong. There ought to have been some consultations, especially with the national assembly as representatives of the people. We were not consulted. We saw the news like every other Nigerian.

“The inflation is still very high. The prices of food commodities, drugs, transportation, school fees, and other daily expenditures are still on the high side.

“The minimum wage has not been increased. Many state governments are yet to even pay the current minimum wage of N30,000.

“How do we expect the people to survive? We’ve to be very realistic and feel the pulse of the people we represent as a government.”

The lawmaker said the federal government should first provide stable electricity and slow down inflation before implementing a new tariff for electricity.

[TheCable]

35,000 innocent and defenceless Palestinians, including 15000 children, have been targetted and killed in Gaza by Israel over the last 6 months yet it was only after 7 western aid workers of the World Central Kitchen were tragically and callously targetted and murdered in cold blood by the Israeli Defence Force last week that western Governments and the Western media are beginning to recognise the fact that the Jewish state has turned into a monstrous and uncontrollable beast.

This begs the following questions.

Does blood not flow through the veins of Arabs and Muslims in the same way that it flows through the veins of westerners and Christians?

Is the blood of westerners redder than the blood of Arabs?

Do Palestinian lives not matter?

Are American, British, Australian and French lives more precious than the lives of Palestinian men, women and children?

How can one explain or wish away this glaring display of emotional selectivity, hypocrisy and double standards?

Is it not racism in its most glaring and ugly form?

Is this not a case of psychological apartheid in motion and have the leaders of the West not developed a classic sociopathic and psychopathic disposition when it comes to the suffering of the Palestinians.

Even after 75 years of barbarous servitude and occupation followed by the mass murder and genocide that we are witnessing in Gaza today few notable western leaders give a damn and most of them have not only turned a blind eye to it but are also willing partners and complicit in the most graphic and barbaric expression of man's inhumanity to man and sheer wickedness since the Nazi holocaust of World War 11.

Given this all-embracing endorsement and unconditional support that they enjoy is it any wonder that the Zionists believe that they have the divine right to give life and take it at will and at their pleasure?

Is it any wonder that the Jewish state believes that it can get away with mass murder and ethnic cleansing?

Is it any wonder that the Zionists believe that they are divine beings with a divine purpose, the master race, God's chosen people?

Is it any wonder that they believe that they are totally and completely above the law and untouchable given the unconditional support and tacit approval that they enjoy from NATO and the powers that be in the west?

Over the last six months western leaders have applauded Israel for slaughtering the Palestinians and destroying all their infrastructures yet they only started questioning their devilish collusion with what can only be decribed as unadulterated evil when seven of their own citizens who were doing charity work and helping to feed the starved and beleaguered children of Gaza were also butchered in a hail of precision rockets that brutally cut them down one after the other.

These same people did not shed a tear or say a word when Israeli jets mowed down hundreds of Palestinian civilians as they tried to grab food from aid trucks that came in from Egypt.

To them that did not matter and neither did they view it as an atrocity or describe it as a war crime or a crime against humanity because those that were murdered were "mainly Muslims and only Arabs".

Is this fair? Can it be justified or defended?

Is it not a perfidious display of double speak, double standards and devilry?

Is it not a gratuitous insult to our collective humanity and a monumental shame?

Are Arabs, Africans, Asians and the people of the "global South" not human beings too?

Again for the last few months western leaders stuck to their oars and stubbornly refused to acknowledge the fact that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a wild and rabid dog that cannot be controlled and that no longer listens to its master.

They refused to accept the fact that he had become the proverbial falcon that was no longer prepared to listen to the falconer.

They refused to recognise the fact that the genocide in Gaza was not about religion but rather about the implementation of an insidious, sinister, religious and racist agenda and an unconciable attempt by a horrendous and deluded horde of callous, bitter and vengeful Zionist barbarians to decimate, displace and exterminate the Palestinian people and steal their land.

So drunk are Netanyahu and those around him on the blood of Palestinian children that not even American President Joe Biden, their biggest and greatest friend and ally, can control them.

Will the Zionists ever accept the fact that killing women, children, refugees, journalists, clerics, doctors, nurses, hospital workers, United Nations staff, the elderly, the disabled, the mentally challenged, the weak and other innocent and defenceless civilians in the name of world Jewry and the Israeli state is not only unacceptable but also an abomination and an affront to our collective humanity.

They say when a dog loses its mind and not only refuses to listen to its master but also turns on him and attempts to bite him one is constrained to put a bullet in its head and put it out of its misery.

Perhaps the same solution should be applied to the Zionist state.

Perhaps it is time for it to be put down like a sick, dangerous and rabid old dog and removed from the face of the earth.

I have said it before and I will say it again: in light of the events of the last six months Israel has lost her right to exist.

And if calling out Israel for the atrocities they are committing in Gaza & insisting on an immediate & unconditional ceasefire makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

As a matter of fact it is a badge and label that I would wear proudly.

I do not believe that it is acceptable for the Jewish state to consistently break international humanitarian law and commit war crimes. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that aid workers and journalists should be targetted and killed. If that makes me anti-Semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that it is right for Bibi Netanyahu to smirk and grin on national television as he tells the world how the 7 western aid workers were targetted and murdered in Gaza by his army. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that it is right and proper for the Iranian Embassy in Damascus should be targetted and bombed by the Israeli Defence Force or that senior Iranian military commanders that were staying there should be murdered in cold blood. If that makes me anti-Semitic then so be it.

I do not think it is acceptable for Israel to bomb the city of Allepo in Syria and kill 42 people including defenceless civilians. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that the Jews have a licence from God to kill innocent & defenceless civilians. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that it is right for the western nations to continue to supply arms to Israel and to be complicit in and an enabler of genocide. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that the Jews are the master race that have been specially chosen above others by God. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that Christians and Muslims will burn in hell or that the Prophet of Islam & our Lord & Saviour Jesus Christ were fake. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that saying "Christ is King" is a crime. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ was a liar and charlatan who is now boiling in human excrement in hell. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that demolishing the Al Aqsa Mosque, sacrificing three red heifers where it presently stands & building the third Jewish Temple on exactly the same spot is just, right & proper. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that the Jews and the State of Israel should exert so much influence over the affairs of the United States of America, the western democracies, International politics, world banking & finance & the Western media. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that an attack on Israel, no matter how horrific, gives the Jewish state the right to wipe out, exterminate or drive into the desert or the sea the entire Palestinian race or kill every single man, woman and child in Gaza. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that Zionism is of God & I consider the Zionists to be far worse & more insidious, cruel & unrelenting than Hitler's Nazis. If that makes me anti-semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that Candace Owens should have been fired from the Daily Wire for criticising Israel & I do not believe that Ben Shapiro & Rabi Shmuly are human beings. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that Bibi Netanyahu is sane & I do not believe that he is acting in the best interest of the Jews or the State of Israel. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that South Africa & Ireland have done anything wrong by taking Israel to the Intermational Court of Justice for crimes against humanity, war crimes, ethnic cleansing & genocide. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that it is right for Israel to prevent food supplies from going into Gaza and for starving the people to death. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe that ALL MUSLIM countries should unite against Israel but rather I believe that ALL countries, whether Muslim, Christian, Hindu or anything else should unite against Israel. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

I do not believe in ethnic cleansing and the elimination and extermination of an entire race of people as a formula for the resolution of international disputes and I wholeheartedly condemn the holocaust that is being inflicted on the people of Gaza. If that makes me anti semitic so be it.

Finally I no longer believe that Israel has the right to exist & I believe that they forfeited that right when they chose to bathe in the blood of Palestinian women, drink the blood of Palestinian children & butcher the Palestinian people. If that makes me anti semitic then so be it.

75 years ago God in His infinite mercy & wisdom gave the Jews a new beginning, a new country and restored them to their former glory.

This was a great blessing but they squandered it by orchestrating the Nakba, by refusing to share the land and live in peace with the Palestinians that they met there & by refusing to desist from treating them like animals, occupying their land & slaughtering them with impunity.

Sadly with their own hands they destroyed the great opportunity that God gave them & instead chose to visit the same unadulterated evil that the German Nazis once visited on them on the Palestinians.

If the truth be told, contrary to popular opinion, Israel is not a democracy but rather a vicious, heartless, bloodthirsty, parasitic, vampiric & blood-lusting apartheid state that applies one set of laws to the European Jewish colonial settlers that own & run it & another to everyone else.

To be an Arab, a Muslim or a Christian in Israel is hell & to be any of the above living in either Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Iraq or anywhere else in the Middle East means that you could well be subjected to genocide, ethnic cleansing or mass murder by the Jewish state whenever they deem it fit.

It is for this reason that the entire civilised world is enraged with Israel and that every right-thinking person expresses the following words from the inner recesses of their souls and with every fiber of their being.

They proudly proclaim, "FROM THE RIVER TO THE SEA, PALESTINE WILL BE FREE!"

And despite the double standards of the leaders of the western democracies, so it shall be to the glory of the Living God!

I'm sure that once Amaka Modebe (nee Obiofuma) settles down in Heaven, she will make a reservation for us at Olive Gardens. Despite all my efforts, we did not get the chance to visit that restaurant in New York City, but she will ensure it happens in Heaven. Yes, Amaka and I have come a long way.

I first met Amaka Obiofuma in the 90s when I was walking up and down Ikeja, Lagos, looking for a job in journalism. Ok. Scratch that. I did not meet her. She did not know who I was. Nobody at Hints knew me or invited me. I went on a job hunter's equivalent of cold calling. Like many other jobseekers, I sat at the Hints magazine reception area several times, hoping to get an opportunity to meet someone who would interview me for a job.

At the Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), where I started writing at the Press Club, all I wanted to be when I grew up was like MEE (May Ellen Ezekiel) of Classique magazine. I wanted a column in a national newspaper or magazine where I would write whatever came to my mind. Nothing more, nothing less. But if that failed, I had a plan B: to write stories like the ones published by Hints magazine. I had written a few such stories at FUTA that gave me the confidence that I could do it if given the chance.

So, after my NYSC in Akwanga, I went to Lagos to hunt for a job in journalism.

My job searching axis was straight. From Okpebi (the home of Hints) to Allen Avenue, Ikeja (the home of Classique). I had a leg up at Classique because, during my NYSC, I had written MEE every week for a year. So, she invited me to come afterward. But at Hints, I had no contact with any of the writers. So, during those visits, I would sit at the reception and watch them walk in. Like all young people of that period, I read them all - Reuben Abati, Fatherhood with Ibe, Kayode Ajala, Amaka Obiofuma, and the mysterious gossip columnist Toks. As they walked in, they would glance at those of us waiting, and if they recognized a visitor, they would take the visitor with them. For the rest of us, we would wait and wait.

I ended up getting a job at Classique. It didn't lead to a permanent position. I went to the Guardian newspaper a few weeks after Reuben Abati left Hints and went to the Guardian. Again, I didn't get a permanent position at the Guardian. I went to the Daily Mail. At the Daily Mail, I finally got all I wanted in journalism - a column of my own. From then on, when I opened the newspapers and magazines of the week and read columns like those of Amaka Obiofuma, Reuben Abati, Edwin Madunagu, Dan Agbese, and Mike Awoyinfa, I pictured some people somewhere in Nigeria reading mine.

Almost twenty years later, in Valley Stream, New York, I met a man named Paul Onochie Modebe from Ilah. His daughter, Bukun, was in the same catholic school with my daughter, Ijeamaka. We got acquainted, and he introduced me to his wife along the way. He said his wife was a journalist in Nigeria, and her name was Amaka Modebe.

The day I met her over fourteen years ago, she told me she was Amaka Obiofuma of Hints magazine. I told her that one day, we would go to a new restaurant that opened near us in Valley Stream called Olive Gardens so she could tell me about the behind-the-scenes stories of Hints magazine. I had a lot of questions about the stories they published in those days, the people who ran the magazine, and that gossip columnist, Toks.

Over the years, Paul and Amaka Modebe became our closest friends in New York. They quickly became family. They were the only people with the right to pick up our kids in school. Our home became theirs, and theirs became ours. No party at our house was complete without them. Paul Modebe became more of my senior brother, or so I thought. I call him at least twice daily - in the morning and evening. He was the kind of person who knew the answer to any problem that could crop up.

All was going well until a scandal broke one day. I made my usual check-in call on Paul Onochie Modebe, now known to my family and friends as the Ilah of Ilah. Amaka picked up the call. She accused me of being her co-wife. She said I was speaking to her husband, Ilah of Ilah, more than she was.

Once again, I added it to matters we would resolve at Olive Gardens.

Like her columns at Hints, "Frank Talk with Amaka," Amaka was a gentle soul with no pretension. Her kindness was effortless. Her unique laughter filled every space she entered. She was like water, and as Fela said, "Water no get enemy." If William Shakespeare were to write of her, he would have put it this way:

"Her life was gentle; and the elements

So mixed in her, that Nature might stand up

And say to all the world, THIS WAS A PHENOMENAL WOMAN!"

Amaka had moved away from journalism in America, and each time I tried to drag her back into it, she politely declined. She was not even interested when I tried to entice her with the exploits of her former colleagues, like Reuben Abati. During Goodluck Jonathan's time as president, when I could not reach Dr. Abati, I often told Amaka to give him a call for me. Each time, she would only smile and say nothing. It was the smile of someone who knew a lot but would not talk.

I added that to the list of matters we would resolve at Olive Gardens.

I used to tease her that she would be my first guest on a show I planned to do called "Where Are They Now?" I told her that the second guest would be Letty Diai, the editor at Classique magazine when I was there, who also left for America. And then, Innocent Egbunike, Felix Liberty, Jide Obi, and other 80s and 90s celebrities who have melted into thin air.

The day I knew that even though she left journalism, journalism had not left her was when I wrote a column about Pastor James Eze. As one of those who received my column every week, her husband thought I would hear from her whenever she read it. It did not happen. As a former columnist, she understood that a column is nothing but the writer's opinion at the moment in time and that every writer has the right to their opinion. She only told me she would pray for me when we finally discussed it.

For a long time, the running joke between us was when this long-deferred visit to Olive Gardens would happen. We went from wondering when I would have enough money to take everyone to Olive Gardens to when this American life sef would give us the time to go. Time passed. Kids kept growing. They finished elementary school and high school and entered college.

Today, Amaka has left us.

To be sure, Amaka has only taken a raincheck. The only thing that changed was the location. The visit to Olive Gardens will now happen when we get to Heaven.

Though, sadly, Amaka went ahead of us earlier than anticipated, we all take solace in the memories of her that we cherish. We know she will prepare a place for us at the finest table, just like she gave her all to friends and family when she was with us.

 We all miss you, Amaka—Au revoir. See you later at Olive Gardens in Heaven.

Rudolf Ogoo Okonkwo teaches Post-Colonial African History, Afrodiasporan Literature, and African Foketales at the School of Visual Arts in New York City. He is also the host of Dr. Damages Show. His books include "This American Life Sef" and "Children of a Retired God," among others. His upcoming book is called "Why I'm Disappointed in Jesus."

Within the diverse pantheon of African rulership, something curious is emerging.  In many ways, President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda is fast emerging as a model of the transformation of democracy into authoritarianism in Africa. While Museveni has retained his nationalist streak in the fight against the global LGBTQ epidemic as well as his isolated battles against Western multinational exploitation and blackmail, his practice of democracy and adherence to the rule of law would disappoint pundits of African democratic enlightenment.

He has repressed basic freedoms, violated the rights of his political opponents, bludgeoned opposition political figures and jailed those who disagree with him. He has enthroned what is easily a personality cult of leadership that is easily a combination of draconian military dictatorship and crass authoritarianism. That is not strange in a continent that has produced the likes of Nguema, the Bongos and Paul Biya.

In addition, Museveni  now displays some of the worst excesses of Africa’s famed authoritarianism, dictatorial indulgence and the dizzy materialism of its leadership. For instance, the president is reported to travel around with an interminable motorcade that includes a luxury airconditioned toilet.  Worse for Uganda’s democracy are the recent stories of Museveni’s manouvres towards self-succession. Specifically, he has appointed his son as Chief of the army, a move which many observers of Uganda see as a pointer to his succession plan.

For me,  the unfolding Museveni  authoritarianism is a classic instance of the transformation of African leaders from revolutionary nationalists  to authoritarian emperors. I once met and spoke with the early Museveni. He had emerged from a bush war as a liberator and valiant popular soldier that was heralded into Kampala as a liberators. He came to mend a broken nation from the locust ears of Idi Amin and Milton Obote.

The Museveni that I sat and conversed with in the early 1990s  was a committed socialist. He was an African nationalist. He was a social democratic politician  with a strong social science background. His primary constituency was the people most of whom fired his liberation movement in the countryside. We exchanged ideas freely on the thoughts of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels, Frantz Fanon, Walter Rodney and Amilcar Cabral among others.

As the Chairman of the Editorial Board of the new Daily Times under Yemi Ogunbiyi, I initiated and conducted a one on one interview with Yoweri Museveni in his early days after the overthrow of Obote with the backdrop of the Idi Amin carnage. What follows is both a travelogue and a reminiscence of the Museveni before now. Is it the same Museveni or are there two Musevenis?

In 1991, I scheduled a trip was to Kampala to interview Yoweri Museveni. I travelled alone through Addis Ababa and Nairobi. In those days, inter African flight connections were a nightmare of stops and delayed connections. I arrived Kampala and found my long standing friend, Dr. Manfred Nwogwugwu,  a demographer who was based in Kampala as head of the United Nations Population Commission. We had been together at Ife where he and his lovely wife, Ngozi, hosted me for the weeks it took me to find my own accommodation as an apprentice academic at Ife.  He took me on a tourist trip around Kampala. The city was broken and bore fresh bullet holes and bomb craters, the marks of war. From Biafra, I knew this ugly face well enough. Kampala had just been liberated by Museveni’s forces after ousting Milton Obote and remnants of Idi Amin.

I knew as a background that Mr. Museveni had been helped in his guerilla campaign by both M.K.O Abiola and General Ibrahim Babangida, then president of Nigeria. He therefore had a very favourable disposition towards Nigeria. He was also quite influential with African leaders from whom Nigeria was seeking support as General Obasanjo was lobbying to become United Nations Secretary General when it was deemed to be the turn of Africa. As a matter of fact, I was joined at the Museveni interview by Obasanjo’s media point man, Mr. Ad Obe Obe, who had come to interview Museveni as part of the Obasanjo campaign.

Museveni’s Press Secretary, a pleasant but tough woman called Hope Kakwenzire, kept in touch while I waited in Kampala for my appointment. She was sure the interview would hold but wanted to secure a free slot on the President’s choked schedule. She promised to call me at short notice to head for the venue.

When she eventually called, it turned out that the interview venue had just been switched from the Kampala State House to a government guest house in Entebbe, close to the airport and by the banks of Lake Victoria. Entebbe brought back memories of the famous Mossad raid to free hostages of a Palestinian hijack of an Israeli plane. At the appointed time, I was picked up from my friend’s residence. As we headed for Entebbe, memories of the dramatic Israeli commando rescue of airline hostages at Entebbe during the Amin days kept flashing through my mind. When I arrived Entebbe airport on my way in, I was shown the warehouse where the hostages were kept ahead of their dramatic rescue. The rescue had made world headlines in those days. It reinforced Israel’s military prowess and the intelligence dexterity and detailed planning  of the Israeli DefenCe Force (IDF) but the operational dexterity and intelligence excellence of Mossad in particular.

We arrived a nondescript white bungalow tucked amidst trees and vegetation. It was a colonial type sprawling white bungalow.  The entrance gate was a long drive from the building itself. When your car is cleared through the first gate, you drive along a bushy drive way towards the building. The first gate has normal military sentry who already know you are expected. As you drive along the bushy driveway, some surprise awaits you. Suddenly some small figures in full combat gear dart onto the drive way and wave your vehicle to a sudden stop at gun point. They are too young and too small to be regular  soldiers. But their moves are rather professional and smart. They are ‘child soldiers’ or rather ‘baby soldiers’ who had fought alongside Museveni’s liberation forces in the bush war that led to the freedom of Uganda. No emotions, No niceties. They screen the vehicle scrupulously for explosives. These small men  have apparently been trained to trust no one. They ignore the escort and Press Secretary both of whom are familiar faces. They insist I answer their questions for myself. I explain I have an interview appointment with the President. They briefly return to their tent at the wayside and briefly confer by radio communication.

They wave us through to the building.  I am taken through a rather unassuming hallway and a colonial looking living room and dining areas that opens into a simple sit out at the back of the building. The sit out at the back of the building opens into a vast courtyard with well manicured green gardens. The extreme end of the green is Lake Victoria. At its banks, there are tents with simple garden chairs. The serenity of the location is striking. Even more chilling is the eerie silence of the location except for the flapping of the wings of flamingos and pelicans playing by the lakeside. I quickly framed it in my mind: “Conversations by Lake Victoria!”

Seated alone in one of the tents is President Yoweri Museveni, the new strongman of Uganda. His simplicity beleis the mystique of courage and valour that now define his reputation. He was a leading figure in Africa’s then latest  mode of political ascension: the strong man who wages a guerilla movement in the countryside and marches from the forest into the city center of the capital after toppling an unpopular sitting dictator and his government with its demoralized army . After him, Joseph Kabilla of the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire) and Charles Taylor of Liberia followed the same pathway of political ascension but with differing outcomes.

The man in the tent was dressed in a simple black suit. He welcomed me very casually and warmly. “Nigeria is a long way from here, I imagine!”, he said jovially as he ushered me to take a seat. As we settled down to exchange views, it turned out that our exchange would be more than an interview. It was more of a radical social science conversation.

We compared notes on the class struggle in Africa, the burden of the political elite far removed from the masses, the alienation of the rural masses, the working class in Africa’s imperialist inspired industrialization. Museveni was very knowledgeable and sharp. His intellectual exposure was impeccable. He knew a lot about  Nigeria, about our cities and the structure and general disposition of our elite. He had very kind words about M.K.O Abiola and his commitment to African unity and liberation which he was supporting with his vast resources. In particular, he supported Abiola’s ongoing campaign for reparations from the West to Africa for the decades of pillage during the slave trade and the subsequent colonial expropriation and haemorrhage of resources.

I still managed to pierce through his armour of social science and dialectical materialist analysis to ask him a few worrying questions about Uganda and Africa’s political future. He was generally optimistic about the turnaround of Uganda after the devastation of war and the rampaging carnage of dictators.

He added that he was facing the tasks of reconciliation among Ugandans after decades of division and distrust just like Nigeria did after our own civil war. He invited me to return to Kampala a few months hence to witness what the will of a determined people can do towards post war reconstruction. He told me he was out to fix not only the broken landscape of the city but more importantly the destroyed lives of many poor Ugandans. When I mentioned what I had seen of the devastation of AIDS in the countryside, he nearly shed tears but sternly reassured me that he would contain the scourge of the epidemic by all means.

I left Museveni on a note of optimism on the prospects of Africa’s comeback after the days of the Mobutus, Amins, Obotes and Bokasas. Given my own left leaning ideas, I found Museveni a kindred spirit and an unusually enlightened and progressive African statesman. He questioned everything: African traditions, beliefs, the assumptions of African history, the political legacy of the colonialists and the neo colonial state. He discussed pathways to Africa’s future economic development  and the urgent need to question and possibly jettison old development models being peddled by the West through the World Bank and the IMF.

That was Museveni back in 1990-91.

Until he was arrested and convicted in London where he is currently serving a jail term, Senator Ike Ekweremadu was a renowned politician and lawyer who dominated Nigeria’s political landscape like a colossus for several decades.

He was best known for his role as the Deputy President of the Senate. During his time in the Senate, Ekweremadu represented the Enugu West Senatorial District.

As Deputy President of the Senate, Ekweremadu was the Chairman of the Joint Committee of the National Assembly on the Review of the 1999 Constitution.

He played a significant role in Nigeria’s legislative process, formulating and enacting laws and policies. He also represented the Senate at various national and international fora, contributing to Nigeria’s overall diplomatic relations and legislative diplomacy.

Ekweremadu was involved in efforts to promote good governance, the rule of law, and democracy in Nigeria. He advocated for constitutional reforms, electoral reforms, and the protection of human rights.

But things took a swift turn downhill for the senator when he and his wife Beatrice were arrested in London and charged with conspiring to bring a child into the UK with the aim of harvesting his organs. An investigation of the crime went on for about 11 months from when the Metropolitan Police were informed of potential violations of modern slavery legislation. Ekweremadu was tried, convicted and jailed for nine years and eight months, while his wife was sentenced to four years and six months imprisonment.

His influence and celebrity status quickly diminished after his arrest, conviction and sentencing. He has since disappeared from the political space in Nigeria. Many Nigerians have blamed him for not using his influential position to attract world-class hospitals in Nigeria, which could have prevented the medical tourism that landed him in trouble.  

His experience should serve as a lesson for other Nigerian political leaders.

[ThisDay]

Anytime I remember this story, I laugh and shake my head. In 1994, a Nigerian music promoter organised a concert, dubbing it “The Greatest Show”. There was plenty of hype built around it. Shabba Ranks, the Jamaican dancehall artiste and one of the biggest international acts at the time, headlined the concert, which was held at the Tafawa Balewa Square (TBS). There was a modestly attended VIP-only event at the National Arts Theatre, Iganmu, but the TBS event was a total disaster. Only a handful of people showed up. Waziri Adio was then my colleague at TEMPO. After covering the concert, he crafted this scathing headline: “From the Greatest Show to No Show”. Wicked!

This came to mind again after Justice Abubakar Kutigi, a judge of the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), ruled on March 28, 2024 that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had failed to prove that there was corruption in the transfer of Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd’s interest in OPL 245 to Shell and Agip in 2011. It had been billed as “The Biggest Corporate Scandal in History” but after intense scrutiny by the US department of justice, US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), the Court of Milan in Italy, the commercial court of England and Wales, and now the FCT high court in Nigeria, they all came to just one verdict: no evidence of corruption whatsoever. Anticlimax.

The EFCC took its latest loss at the FCT high court quite badly and there were soon WhatsApp rumours that its prosecutor, Mr Offem Uket, was bribed to scuttle the case — although the commission has denied making such an allegation. But if, indeed, the EFCC prosecutor was bribed, were the Italian prosecutors bribed to lose the case in Milan too? In fact, the prosecutors are now facing criminal charges for allegedly hiding vital evidence that would have exonerated Shell and Eni during trial. Were the officials of the US department of justice and SEC bribed as well? It seems the EFCC was working to an answer all along and did not properly plan for how to handle possible defeat.

I started hearing of “Malabu scandal” over a decade ago but, honestly, I never paid attention to it. After all, Nigeria is a huge scam yard. Only God knows how many scams are planned and executed per hour across the length and breadth of Nigeria — both in private and public sectors, and even in religious houses, media and civil society. It takes something of monumental proportions for us to open our mouths and scream. I read that $1.1 billion “that should have gone to the federation account” had been paid to Malabu, a company owned by Chief Dan Etete, a former minister of petroleum, and his friends. Now, $1.1 billion is mouthwatering! I started reading the stories.

In 2017, I had a phone conversation with Mr Mohammed Bello Adoke, the former attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and a big figure in the OPL 245 affair who was accused of authorising the transfer of the first tranche of $810 million to Malabu. He told me he was not a signatory to the account and did not have powers to issue payment instructions. He said Dr Yerima Ngama, then minister of state for finance, authorised the payments. Mr Danladi Kifasi (then permanent secretary, ministry of finance) and Mr Babayo Shehu (then director of funds) also issued instructions. He sent me a bundle of documents on the entire OPL 245 affair, dating back to 1998. His claims checked out.

The EFCC also accused Adoke of taking a bribe of N300 million (around $2 million at the time). The alleged bribe was said to have been paid into his Unity Bank account in 2013 — two years after the OPL 245 deal was signed, sealed and delivered. Something did not click. The Nigerian officials I know do not wait for two years to collect gratification. Pardon me, but I would also expect a corrupt Nigerian minister to get more than $2 million “thank you” in a $1.3 billion deal. Adoke swore and sternly denied collecting a kobo from the deal, saying the N300 million was a loan he took from Unity Bank to buy a property from Alhaji Abubakar Aliyu that was manipulated by the EFCC as bribery.

According to him, when he could not pay up his own N200 million equity to complete the property purchase, Aliyu returned the N300 million to the bank, retrieved the land documents and sold the same property to the CBN in 2013. It was the N300 million refunded by Aliyu that the EFCC classified as a bribe in the trial at the FCT high court. Ironically, in another case filed against Adoke and Aliyu in a federal high court, the EFCC classified the N300 million as mortgage. It was the same prosecution witness presented by the EFCC, Mr Ibrahim Ahmed, that made the contradictory claims. This was one of the facts stated by Justice Kutigi in dismissing EFCC’s charges, which he described as “frivolous”.

Adoke, sounding surprised by my line of questioning during the phone call, said the major role he played in the OPL 245 resolutions was to give legal advice to President Goodluck Jonathan who wanted to know if the consent judgment entered into with Malabu by the Obasanjo administration in November 2006 was valid. President Olusegun Obasanjo had revoked the oil block in 2001 without stating any reason. He then gave it to Shell. Malabu sued the government, lost on technical grounds and appealed. Obasanjo opted for an out-of-court settlement and agreed to return the oil block to Malabu. Adoke said he studied the consent judgment and advised Jonathan that it was binding.

Jonathan subsequently set up an interministerial committee to implement the settlement agreement. OPL 245 was returned to Malabu in 2010, with Mrs Diezani Alison-Madueke, then minister of petroleum, re-issuing the licence to the company fronted by Etete, who was previously convicted of money laundering in an unrelated case in France before the conviction was quashed on appeal. In 2011, Shell and Eni teamed up to acquire Malabu’s interest in OPL 245 for $1.1 billion. All the funds totalling $1.3 billion — including the signature bonus of $210 million paid to the Nigerian federation — were then deposited by the oil companies in Nigeria’s account at JP Morgan in London.

This was where the story became convoluted. According to anti-corruption campaigners, Malabu’s  proceeds of $1.1 billion from selling its interest in OPL 245 should have been paid to the federation account. That was the origin of the “Malabu scandal” narrative. But if a company sells off its interest in an oil block, how can the proceeds go to the federation? It sounded even sleazier when it was reported that Etete bought a private jet from the proceeds — which is not unusual with those who hit windfalls. I doubt anyone would make that kind of money and not buy a yacht and even the sea. Gen Theophilus Danjuma also bought a private jet from OPL 246. It seems to be a status symbol.

My major misgiving was that Etete awarded an oil block to himself in 1998 — a clear case of conflict of interest. Surprisingly, every president, except President Muhammadu Buhari, recognised Etete as the owner of Malabu. Buhari appeared to recognise Mohammed Abacha, who said Etete outwitted him. The EFCC wrote twice to Aso Rock that the son of the former head of state should be compensated before the trial of Adoke, Aliyu and the oil companies could be terminated. Also, Etete used a pseudonym in registering Malabu. Mohammed used “Mohammed Sani”. This was apparently to mask their identities. These issues were not raised by the EFCC during trial. I am still at a loss.

Now that all the court cases on OPL 245 have been dispensed with (although the EFCC has hinted that it may appeal the FCT high court ruling — but having studied it with my “unlearned” eyes, I don’t see an appeal going anywhere), my interest is how Nigeria can put the enormously rich oil block to productive use. By some estimates, the block can produce over 200,000 barrels per day when it finally gets in the groove. Similar deep offshore acreages are producing hundreds of thousands of barrels daily. But for the long-drawn crises in the quest to expose “The Biggest Corporate Scandal in History”, the acreage could have gone into full production ages ago. 

On coming to power in 2015, the Buhari administration had commenced a slew of litigation, trying to get Shell and Eni convicted for corruption. The licence issued for prospecting in 2011 suffered a serious knock. By 2021, the OPL should have been converted to a mining licence but Buhari declined to give the go-ahead, perhaps still hoping the court cases would yield a result, even though the headline trial in the Court of Milan had gone against Nigeria. We had also sued JP Morgan in the UK, asking for a compensation of $1.7 billion under the “Quincecare duty” doctrine for transferring some of the proceeds of OPL 245 sale to Malabu’s bank accounts. Nigeria lost for lack of evidence.

We went on a wild goose chase while the enormously endowed economic asset was wasting away. Top government officials engaged their friends as lawyers to be pursuing OPL 245 cases globally and netting millions of dollars in fees and commissions. They eyed huge cuts if Shell and Eni were to be improbably ordered to pay another $1.1 billion to Nigeria or if the UK court awarded $1.7 billion against JP Morgan. OPL 245 litigation became an oil block on its own. In the end, we woefully lost everything: the lawsuits; and inflow of investments to, and revenue from, the oil block; and JP Morgan won its £22.25 million libel case against us. Total waste of time and energy (pardon the pun).

We were kobo wise and naira foolish. We delayed production from the acreage because we wanted $1.7 billion compensation, whereas we could make far more than that if drilling was allowed to start. More so, Nigeria badly needed higher oil output to be able to earn more from taxes, royalties and export, plus the inflow of lifesaving FX. What’s more, producing deep offshore was the sanest and safest option — with minimal risks of oil theft, pipeline vandalism and host community issues. Our production was dwindling severely but we were comfortable locking up OPL 245. Now that the litigation market has closed, may we kindly allow OPL 245 to commence the process of pumping oil?

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

TRIPLING TARIFF

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Wednesday approved a new electricity tariff plan. The elite consumers — classified as Band A — now pay three times higher than the former tariff. Other consumers will keep paying old rates. The deal, as announced, is that Band A consumers would be enjoying a minimum of 20 hours electricity per day. There is so much to say, but what the government just did was to pass N1.5 trillion of the electricity subsidy to Band A consumers. The dark side is that while Band A may indeed enjoy more hours, other bands will most likely get less. In essence, the sector’s foundational problems will remain unsolved, at least in the short run. Grief.

PEACE MEAL

Great news: Air Peace is now flying to the UK. Reviews so far have been very encouraging and exciting. It had been a thing of shame that the route was left entirely to foreign airlines for so long since the exit of Arik. Nigerians have been suffering from paying extortionate fares — and in dollars. Sadly, I read the comments about the Igbo-style outfit of the cabin crew members. This is so unnecessary. I don’t know when we are going to get over the election mode so that we can free our minds. Rather than celebrate our little successes, some would rather be playing the ethnic card. I don’t care if they wear Kanuri dara. All I desire is for Air Peace to make Nigeria proud. Godspeed!

RISKY BEHAVIOUR

Idris Okuneye, the social media celebrity better known as Bobrisky, was the unusual guest of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Thursday. The influencer, who identifies as a female, was arrested, detained and charged to court for abusing the naira after being caught on video manhandling (womanhandling?) the national currency. There is actually a law that criminalises this very Nigerian culture but it is mostly observed in the breach. There is a feeling the conviction of Bobrisky will send a strong signal to other celebrities and party goers that the EFCC will enforce the law going forward. Some say it will be nice to see celebrity billionaires face the music too. Cynical.

NO COMMENT

Kano state is full of drama, especially under the current governor, Alhaji Abba Yusuf. But I am very much interested in the charges filed against Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the national chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), for allegedly collecting $200,000 bribe from a contractor in 2018. The video purporting to show Ganduje collecting the cash and stuffing it in his babanriga went viral at the time but nothing came out of it, apart from the backlash on Daily Nigerian, the newspaper that published it. Ganduje has kicked, describing the charges as “trumped up”, but won’t it be quite some sight to see the national chairman of the ruling party being sent to jail for corruption? Wonderful.