An Igbo proverb says that a dog does not become a leopard because it is addressed as one by its owner, or even the entire community. That is why you have the popular warning, which is often addressed to anyone perceived to be overrating himself: “Oke aha n’egbu nwa nkita” (a big name, or preposterous self-inflation, leads a low-grade domestic dog to its doom). Now imagine a place where dogs are called all manner of names, except their rightful name: ‘dog’.

Tell me, can you make sense of a world wherein everything you know is arbitrarily renamed? Will you even be able to easily retain your sanity and communicate meaningfully if everyone accepted the new names and carried on as if all was well? especially when there is no connection whatsoever between the names and what the entities really are.

Just picture this: An elephant is walking by and you hear everyone shouting “Oh, see that massive and lovely cockroach”! Then a lion is called ‘mosquito’ and a cow is called ‘toothbrush’. For good measure, it turns out also that what you had always known as, and called, a house is now called ‘groundnut’! Well, there you have it: A land affiliated to bedlam; wherein the criterion for sanity is pronounced irrationality.

Is that, perhaps, what our dear country has turned into today? A place where there is no real connection between government expenditure and the welfare of the citizens in whose names the expenses are ostensibly being incurred? A nation in which many of those parading the title of ‘leader’ at state and local government levels are everything a leader should not be? A land where loyalty means “I support you because you pay me and retain me to do whatever you want”. A nation beholden to tomfoolery perhaps, because its current crop of leaders imagine that truth is circumscribed by what they say and do in enclosed government chambers?

It is so pervading, so surreal, so benumbing, and also so profoundly revealing about how far we have travelled on the wrong road. We need a rectification of names!

The mayhem is such that whoever wants to really do anything meaningful here must first start at what we might just call the ethereal level. First specify, to yourself first of all, the true meaning and purpose of many things. This includes titles, institutions of state and even ordinary names. Can you restore their real names, in terms of getting public consciousness to actually internalize new usages? That means getting the people to use the appropriate designation of each entity when they address it?

Now, don’t start any arguments about Ludwig Wittgenstein’s ‘pictorial’ conception of language. Yes, it is true, as he said, that it is by the association of sounds and the objects touched or pointed at when the sounds are made that every child learns the meaning and names assigned to things in his environment as he grows. But does this apply to full grown adults who are not learning a new language?

Still on Wittgenstein, before returning to our core subject matter for today, it was actually St. Augustine, and not Wittgenstein, who first put forth what is described today in philosophical, philological and linguistic circles as the pictorial conception of language. That was in his book Confessions, wherein he engaged in a detailed personal mental walk-through of his life; beginning with the earliest memories he could recollect of his childhood.

Concerning the matter at hand, let us start by observing that to rectify anything is to restore or correct something about that thing. For instance, if there is a spelling, or entry, error against your name in a document, and the error is taken care of, we say that it has been rectified. So, what do we do when almost everything, and everyone, around us is wrongly designated? Budgets are excuses for fleecing the nation in the name of the people. Constituency projects are new names for subterfuge and organized but, back to the rectification of names!

It was worries like the foregoing that n propelled the Chinese thinker, Confucius, to propose the doctrine, or principle, or “Rectification of names” to his people. He taught his disciples that all would be well in any society if everyone played the roles assigned to him by name flawlessly. If father played the role of father, mother played the role of mother, leader played the role of leader, etc., then there would be no place from which corruption, impropriety and societal decay would come in. The catch, however, is that these roles may actually already be badly defined. In such a situation, it would mean reaffirming and reinforcing nothing but the entrenchment of what is wrong.

The question of “who” defines “father” for instance, and all the other concepts, is the catch and the trap set by Confucius. Once a social concept, or any concept at all, is wrongly defined, all is lost. And lost for good!

Take, for instance, the concepts of Yin and Yang, the active and passive principles in nature. A father is Yang to his son. The latter is Yin to his father, but yang to his wife and children. He must always obey his father and all elders and rulers. This places on the son the obligation of having to listen to, and obey, an entire chain of Yangs, even if he has ideas of his own. So, you must listen to your ignorant father, uninformed elders and misguided leaders, instead of venturing forth any fresh thoughts borne of contemporary experience.

Coming back to our issues here, and bearing in mind the extent of national decay at the moment, we must admit that our crop of leaders today are mostly victims, and willing collaborators in a generation of leaders and followers brought up on impunity, consumption and arbitrary use of state power for personal gains.

As was said on this page on 28th October 2016, under the Title ‘Symptoms of a Deep-Rooted Crisis”, that we are in a deep bind that took time to mature. The article said thus then: “The many powerful people whose interests differ from the national interest are partly responsible for the trajectory of most past regimes and presidents. So let us first calmly admit that our crises have had long gestation. To fail to do so is to ignore history, particularly the essential elements of our own history, and replace it with hysteria. The Nigerian nation has been run as a criminal enterprise for too long”.

It went further to say: “We have been building a mansion on quicksand and with pillars of straw. The soil, quicksand as it is, is further infested with two species of ants, called presumption and nepotism. These ants, which feed exclusively on straw, have been nibbling away for decades. They have left us with a hollow and painted frame that conceals a lie. This lie has been on parade for decades. It is described as an architectural masterpiece by casual observers. An architectural masterpiece that is not designed to withstand the wind? Now that the whirlwind has come, and the elements are in their element, radical modifications (in design and material) have become necessary”.

Against the background of what we are seeing everywhere today, especially the pretence that most people in leadership positions are concerned about the national interest, we must wake up to the fact that something stinks around here. The stench is getting worse by the hour. People are not bearing their real names and they are also not available to have their names rectified.  

What was said here in October 2016 stands, namely: “It is not right that a nation should be undergirded by untruth. It is also not right that a nation should be under a political economy of decay and corruption, warehoused and propagated by a business and political elite that lives in denial. When old lies are told afresh by those who know they are lying, a time comes when even the liars themselves won’t be sure whether they are lying anymore. Now that we have brought up children who have seen shielded criminality as leadership, we have a nation wherein hiding under the instruments of state to violate natural justice, equity and good conscience makes you not guilty of any crime. Look at Nigeria today. The dominant motifs are (1) skewed values, (2) a flawed national psyche and (3) an aberrant leadership recruitment process. These motifs have given us several national ‘leadership pseudopodia’, or “false feet”.

Do we have, today, any intimations of Plato’s “philosopher king? A leader with correct knowledge of man’s duality and a broad knowledge of life? and who could also address everyday issues with an overarching vision that many do not possess? Not anymore. We are all now being nurtured in the available knowledge of wheeling and dealing. It is all about temporary gains, seasonal loyalty and debauched offerings.

The Platonic conception of human development as ‘the nurturing of character and the human person through the education of life’ is no more in vogue. Our founding fathers were not deal makers who were out to fill their pockets. They were ideas inventors and investors of repute. They were leadership entrepreneurs, with deeper than average knowledge, insight and vision. That is why they could fashion and nurture broad-based development projects. They designed holistic templates, with their eyes set on consolidation; in addition to mentoring others.

It is trite to say that the root of all leading civilisations, organizations and individuals in the last 400 years always rested on some philosophy of leadership, human capital management, or service delivery. So, what is our current leadership trajectory based on?  Sustainable human, national, economic and political development, must be multi-dimensional; with spiritual, aesthetic, cultural and socio-economic connotations. National character and national development do not derive from a desperate alliance of mechanics, bicycle repairers, cobblers, one-eyed bricklayers, amoral young people pressing computer keyboards and allied tradesmen. If it were so, Japan would not be in its present quagmire of worry over the growing number of computer whiz kids committing suicide every other week.

As things stand today, we need a re-evaluation of all our values as a nation. Where are we headed exactly, and for what purpose? With our basic political, cultural, philosophical and spiritual, values in limbo, is it any surprise that we do not have enough people in the public space who can be seen as responsible managers of our lives and resources, as human beings? What are the core foundations of our nationhood – of our national political culture? What are we drilling into the average young Nigerian today; both young and old?  As debauchery is on the ascendant everywhere today, it behooves us to consider a rectification of names for everyone.

QUOTE

“…all would be well in any society if everyone played the roles assigned to him by name flawlessly. If father played the role of father, mother played the role of mother, leader played the role of leader, etc., then there would be no place from which corruption, impropriety and societal decay would come in.

Nyesom Wike, minister of the federal capital territory (FCT), has explained why Ireti Kingibe is not in good terms with him. 

Kingibe, the senator representing FCT, and the minister have not had a good work relationship since they both came to the office.

In September 2023, Kingibe said Wike does not have the executive powers to make threats of demolition of “illegal” buildings” in the territory.

In January, the lawmaker claimed that Wike had refused to respond to her letters and messages in the wake of the rising insecurity in Abuja.

Speaking at a media parley on Thursday, Wike said Kingibe’s anger stems from his constant companionship with Philip Aduda, her predecessor in the senate.

The minister said he could not be forced to befriend Kingibe.

“Somebody wants to be your friend. I said I don’t want to be your friend. Is it by force? The problem is that she wanted to be chairman senate committee on FCT but the senate (Godswill) president said: I’m not giving you,” Wike said.

The minister said he has always invited the chairpersons of the FCT committee in the senate and house of representatives to witness the flag-off projects in the nation’s capital.

“There’s nothing we have done that I have not invited the two chairmen of the FCT,” he said.

“Nobody can intimidate me. I was a minister before, I became a governor of one of the most important states in Nigeria and now I am a minister of FCT,” he said.

“You’re saying the minister does not carry me along. I don’t have the back. People don’t know how to go about things. It is not by intimidation.”

“The problem is this she ran an election against my friend Philip Aduda. And then she sees  Philip Aduda everywhere with me. She said I am taking Philip everywhere instead of her who is the senator.

“Will I abandon my friend because he failed election? People are so petty. It doesn’t make sense.”

Wike asked Kingibe to “do the right thing” through appropriate communication.

[TheCable]

I had meant to write an article to explain recent economic decisions that are surely on their way to creating a new economy and helping the citizens with relief from the harsh economic climate. Nigerians are passing through what is called a cost-of-living crisis, akin to what citizens of European countries and the USA had seen about two years ago, even into last year. Inflation is the major culprit here, as it gallops in bounds in the face of stalled productivity. And so, all hands are on deck to wrestle it down.

I am compelled to now push out this article because of another one that has gone viral titled ‘Edun and Cardoso – A Case of Ikoyi-bred Economists Trying to Operate a Fadeyi Economy’, by one Ope Banwo, who admits to not being an economist, but to being a certified Fadeyi brought-up. I am neither an Ikoyi nor Fadeyi brought up, but I am an economist.

The upshot of Banwo’s viral article was to say that raising interest rates by 4% as the Monetary Policy Committee did on February 27, 2024, did not slow down inflation and is therefore counterproductive. The quick fact here is that no official or certified index has come out to confirm or deny this, and so Ope Banwo was rather too hasty to dismiss the CBN’s policy accuracy, for now. Also, such policies are not meant to produce immediate reaction but to act in concert with other policies.

Banwo wrote further that in Fadeyi (a suburb of Lagos where he lived) if someone tried to increase prices and exploit customers back in the day, the residents would either burn down his/her shop or threaten his/her family. I reckon that he proposes unorthodox strong-arm tactics by the government to curb ruinous inflation, perhaps because the Nigerian economy is still evolving, and some textbook solutions may not work here. I need to quickly state that those running the economy are aware of the need to go the extra mile, but certainly not to be arm-twisting people or embarking on criminal acts just to curb inflation. When, for example, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission started chasing currency hawkers off the road, the same Nigerians questioned why that was necessary, after all the hawkers who stood by roadsides were ‘serving a market’.

Believers in pure market economics have also wagered that the CBN should allow every form of market to flourish – legal or illegal. Also, when the Ministry of Agriculture complained about hoarding, many Nigerians shunned them for trying to interfere in what they deemed a normal business practice – buying commodities to keep until prices skyrocket. Now, Banwo is suggesting that mafia tactics be deployed by the government. And I was surprised by the number of people who shared the article, liked it, forwarded it, and hailed it. Even Professor Kingsley Moghalu referred to the article in his recent speech, showing how far it went. And that is how Nigerians create economic theories of their own.

So, first to explain all that is going on. Surely, we know that not all of our inflation in Nigeria is explained by excess money in circulation, and when the CBN speaks about excess money being mopped, they are more interested in the huge monies that our banks may be sitting on. When the CBN increases the base rate as they have, yes, one of the incentives is that people will deposit their monies in banks for higher interest earnings. Another is to disincentivise folks from borrowing from the banks. The central bank is solely concerned with its use of monetary policy instruments to curb inflation. And so, by increasing rates from 18.75% to 22.75%, the intention is to make Nigeria into a depository of funds. Banks – local and foreign – with excess money will keep the same in Nigerian bonds and other instruments.

There is an asymmetric window around that rate of 22.75%, which is +1-7. What this means is that when a bank is illiquid and intends to borrow from the CBN, the applicable rate will be 22.75+1=23.75%. But if a bank wishes to merely deposit money with the CBN, they will only get 22.75%-7%=15.75%. This relatively low rate is meant to discourage banks from parking their liquidity for quick interest earnings from the CBN rather than to lend to the real sector and bear the risk that some loans may go back. The excess money supply may therefore not necessarily be such monies as may belong to individuals, but to banks, and other institutions.

The many memos that have emanated from the CBN are still very much on point. The CBN under Cardoso is following the crucial path to economic recovery from a strictly monetary point of view. Some of the achievements of these crucial steps of late include getting Nigerian banks to sell over $2 billion to their customers from what they had hitherto sat upon as Net Open Position. A corporate treasurer with whom I was on an X-space discussion confirmed that the amount of liquidity that the Nigerian foreign exchange market had seen in the last three weeks had never been seen in three years! The CBN has also sold close to $300 million – including $27.46 million to Bureaux de Change at N1,300 for the first time in 3 years! Before this intervention, the CBN had not engaged in the FX market at all for more than five months. But now, the bank is showing capacity, having systemised some of its operations, especially around foreign exchange management.

With the new rule that business and personal travel allowances be loaded on cards and not disbursed in cash, the central bank is ensuring that there will be less fraud. And given the experiences with the last regime which became so slack, there is a very low probability that the usual games will be played when allocating foreign exchange to legitimate importers. Under Cardoso, I am certain that roundtripping will tend to $0.00! It is however not yet uhuru, but Banwo is wrong to write that there has been no achievement – the black-market rate hovers around N1500 today, and not the N2000 that some evil naysayers who were behind the speculative attack on the naira had ‘predicted’.

Of course, alongside the other law enforcement agents, something is being done to clean up the so-called black market. And now we hear that Binance, that cryptocurrency repository where many young Nigerians like to play, has upped and left Nigeria. Nigeria will be the 20th or so country to fine the company and give it the boot.

Further actions that will calm the markets and bring control back to the CBN include delisting 4,173 BDCs from the list of almost 6,000, for several infractions, including non-submission of returns. Now we are talking! By the time the new capital requirements for BDCs are enforced, we may not have more than 100 BDCs that will then be able to transact even more businesses (aside from credit creation) like a bank. I am in the advocacy that properly structured BDCs be allowed to do local and international money transfer businesses as is done abroad. I understand that in Kenya, the BDCs are plugged into their CBK (Central Bank of Kenya’s) reserve management system, thus allowing the bank to capture data on the informal market and invisible trade.

One of the criticisms of the strategy adopted by CBN is that the formal economy is so small in Nigeria and that a policy dealing with interest rates could only be relevant in the formal sector which accesses bank credits. Well, the countervailing point to that is that the strategies around BDCs are meant to help the informal sector, by bringing more players on stream. And the banks don’t do a lot of lending these days anyway. I think we should also encourage the CBN to mandate banks to increase deposit rates (to close the margin between lending and deposit rates) so that their depositing and investing customers will have something to gain as well. Increasing deposit rates also helps to mop up excess liquidity in the hands of the few Nigerians that have cash – monies that would have otherwise chased the dollar for a store of value. All these strategies work together.

Enough of CBN policy reforms which are coming out almost in torrents for now. What about the fiscal side? Wale Edun, the minister for finance, was mentioned as well. It is worth noting that Nigeria’s national oil company, NNPC Ltd, has been instructed to submit its invoices and receipts to the central bank for audit purposes. Also, the international oil companies have been told to leave a float of 50% of their sales for some time so that Nigeria may enjoy some stability in reserve management. To this extent, Nigeria’s foreign reserves have risen by almost $2 billion in the last couple of months. Mr Edun, last December, laid new rules around the treasury single account which will ensure that 100% of what is due to the federation is captured from government-owned enterprises in a systemised fashion using technology.

The Federal Inland Revenue is poised to almost triple its revenue collections for this year from last year’s numbers, and we are already performing very positively in the oil and gas sector, which gave our GDP growth a bump in January. Production nudges 1.6 million barrels a day. Non-oil sector is also performing above expectations. Even the National Bureau for Statistics is working on a rebasing of both the GDP figures and inflation – the former from 2014 when it was last done to 2024, and the latter from 2009 when it was last done, to 2023. Our GDP will certainly be larger in naira terms as new industries and an increased population plus a new stock of infrastructure are a plus.

At the same time, inflation is likely to recede because the 2009 index was heavily skewed towards food, but a 2023 index will consider new choices and habits of Nigerians. For example, Nigerians now buy more internet data than we ever did in 2003, our youth population has increased further and that comes with more psychedelic choices rather than food. Many sectors need to be better captured in our GDP, such as the role of e-commerce and our FINTECHs. Also worth estimating is the explosion of skits, pranks, and comedies. These activities employ hundreds of thousands of our youths and even generate foreign currency.

As I have been emphasising for some time now, it is not only hikes in interest rates that will tamp down inflation towards the single-digit region that we desire. The new understanding of inflation, new surveillance and awareness around the subject, and even the resistance to exploitation by citizens, will also help. We are in this together. The case of the Niger state government comes to mind. The governor spoke up because his people were complaining of hunger, in the state with the largest landmass in Nigeria. So, the man perked up and swore to produce food in record quantity in 2024. He also instructed that the purposes of bulk purchasers be checked. Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwoolu went to Niger state to sign a memorandum of understanding, ensuring that Lagos state gets food directly under the supervision of both governments. That is cheaper food than if left to middlemen to play games with. That points to a reduction in inflation. In the same Lagos state, neighbourhood food/farmers markets have been established where cheaper food is accessible to Lagosians. That is proactive governance, which has its place in managing inflation. I have warned some people who believe that it is over for Nigeria because of present challenges, that they should also understand that some people are thinking and working assiduously to ensure that Nigeria emerges glorious from present hiccups.

To Mr Banwo, I will say he should allow CBN to do its work, which is a very complex one. Maybe by the time Messrs Cardoso and Edun succeed, the Ikoyi gang would have emerged over their less-fortunate Fadeyi counterparts. From antecedents, capacity, ambience, sheer value, and what-have-you, I will personally vote for Ikoyi to trump Fadeyi. But we can be more positive in our criticism. I think that if CBN can achieve positive interest rates soon (where the rate that investors can obtain on government bonds and treasuries exceed inflation, chiefly because inflation starts to recede faster than whatever increases is desired on policy – and by extension lending – rates), we will be home and dry, and would not have to push rates to the 50% region like Ghana, or 70% like Turkey, much less three digits like Argentina. We have seen the way Egypt is being asked to devalue and increase interest rates at once because of her quest for loans from the IMF. African countries are being passed through shock therapy. I think because of the vocal advocacy of people like Mr Banwo, we will escape the worst. But he and other concerned Nigerians should also engage with middlemen and retailers who try to exploit the misfortune of fellow citizens by arbitrarily increasing the prices of everything.

I will close by expressing my profound desire to see a memo going to the banks to increase deposit/investment rates for people who want to park some money in the banks, and also for savings rates. We shouldn’t let go of that opportunity. I will also look forward to a quick resolution of salaries and wages issues in the civil service. Even the private sector should be visibly encouraged to adjust wages so that our people can survive, and public sector entities should adjust their contracting fees etc so that companies that work for them should earn more. The reforms call for a total rejig of the economy and create opportunities for more jobs and contracts as well as innovative ideas. It is certainly not the end of the world for Nigeria. It’s the very beginning.

May the Ikoyi team win, via Lagos Island and Bourdillon. I say no to the Igbobi/Onipanu/Fadeyi tactics. They won’t work in this milieu

It is enheartening that the Federal and State Governments are hearkening to our outcry: They have given nod to the establishment of state police. It is a decision that must be given bite immediately. It is quite a pity that it has taken such a shockingly long time to see that the solution to the insecurity bedeviling our land is the establishment of state police. Something so simple to see and so commonsensical to perceive! Because of the lackadaisical attitude of certain past leaders because they lived in a fortress, all manner of dare-devil criminals were less loose on the country. Citizens were and are still exposed to mindless attacks and destruction of properties. It will soon be 10 years since 276 Chibok school girls in Borno State were kidnapped; no fewer than 96 remain in captivity till date!

The sign of a renewed legislative thinking was foreshadowed in the House of Representatives agenda upon reconvening from its Christmas/end-of-year recess. Perturbed Speaker Tajudeen Abbas did state that the issue of security and the concomitant imperative of the establishment of state police would receive priority attention of the House. Within the last one week, the nation was driven to a fresh rude awakening causing alarm to warrant bringing the matter to the front burner again. A new wave of kidnapping began in Borno State when about 400 persons were kidnapped. It was followed by the abduction of 257 school children in one go in Kaduna State. And to muddle the situation, on Tuesday 60 more persons were kidnapped in the already menaced axis of Kajuru, bringing to more than 300 kidnapped in that state within a week. Sokoto lost 15 persons in the earlier wave of an attack in which two persons were killed. Consider the trauma and a feeling of helplessness of the little school children exposed to the elements and the psychological damage to them as well as the anguish of their parents.

With the Federal and State Governments now on the same page, it should go without emphasizing the fact that the National Assembly should realise that time is of the essence. The country can’t but recognize and agree it has a common enemy: insecurity. There is no part of the country that is not yearning for fresh air and the longing to be free from the menacing insecurity that holds the country firmly in its grips. They should permit no distractions, but speed up whatever processes are required to facilitate the establishment of State Police in the country. What I wrote barely two months ago on the subject following the Reps’ announcement to give new police architecture pressure necessary attention can bear restating in part as follows:

We should all applaud and support the House of Representatives in their rethinking of a new tier in police structure for our land. In the face of seeming intractable insecurity bedeviling the country, that certainly is the right step and it raises a great deal of hope. It would have been a height of insensitivity to look on, believing that the present security architecture is all there is to protect Nigerians from bandits, kidnappers and what have you. It is said that you cannot continue to do the same thing, over and over again, using the same method and expect a different result. It has been the same shibboleth, the same beaten track, the same old hat since the Yusuf Gobir Committee report which recommended one central policing system for the whole country whenever complaints arose about its inadequacy in ensuring security, law and order in the country. We have heard it repeatedly said and as much as practicable, done –that all that is needed is increased funding, training, and raising the numerical strength of the police under the current arrangement. But all that, as it has been clearly proven, has not given us the desired protection shield.

The Gobir committee was set up by General Aquiyi-Ironsi, but he did not live to see the report and implement it. The recommendations were passed to Gen. Gowon, his successor who gave them effect in August 1967. Regional police formations were abolished and swallowed by the federally-run Nigeria Police. Understandably, generals are raised under one command system. But why should the system subsist and tie the hands of states under a democratic order waving the federalism emblem going to 25 years come May?

Good enough, former President Babangida has had a rethink over the issue since he left office and this was brought to the open in 2010. Babangida said we cannot be detained in the past and watch civilization leave us behind. It is so obvious that the present centralised policing system has failed woefully; it is incapable of meeting our national security needs. Former Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo read the situation correctly as far back as 2018. In his words: “We cannot realistically police a country the size of Nigeria centrally from Abuja. State police and other community policing are the way to go.” And come to think of it. Professor Osinbajo was addressing the right audience, the Security Summit organized by the Senate! Disappointingly, in his accustomed obstinacy, President Buhari in pronouncement and body language was unimpressed by all the clamour for state police.

Today, several parts of the country are overrun by criminality and the governors have had to be grappling unceasingly with security challenges. On Christmas Eve, when Nigerians like others across the globe were naturally in a festive mood, terrorists went on an orgy of killing and destruction of property under the cover of darkness in some communities in Plateau State. At the end of the day, more than 200 were killed and more than 100 injured, some critically, in the attacks that lasted several hours. In the Federal Capital Territory, gunmen kidnapped six girls and their father on Tuesday, 09 January. The father was later released to go and find N60 million to pay as ransom for the freedom of his daughters with a timeline of last Friday, 12 January. Frantic appeals were made to Nigerians to donate whatever anyone could into a bank account. By Friday when the deadline elapsed and not enough money had been raised, one of the girls, the eldest and a 400-level student at Ahmadu Bello University, was killed by the abductors. But they did not stop there, they jerked up the sum to N100 million to save the remaining girls.
Senator Shehu Sani, the civil rights activist, commenting, said: “The gruesome murder of Nabeeha Al-Kaddriya is a condemnable act of evil before our very eyes. Her death was an avoidable tragedy. The perpetrators must be brought to justice. The deterioration of security within the Federal Capital should be a matter of urgent concern to our security services.”

Just last Sunday, according to reports, residents of Tse Jikina in Mbavuur, Logo Local government Area of Benue State, had almost all their houses burnt by unknown gunmen, leaving about 3,000 of them displaced. Their farm produce was set ablaze as well. In the same state, gunmen abducted the council chairman of Ukum Local Government Area, Haanongon Gideon, his personal aide, security detail, and driver. They were on their way to the burial of the traditional ruler of Katsina-Ala, Chief Fezaanga Wombo. Recently a vehicle carrying about 45 persons was forced to stop and it was feared that the passengers were kidnapped. This has been the trend largely and it is getting worse—what the ordinary citizens have been going through. Practically every day, someone, somewhere is being shot or kidnapped. Gunmen, marauders, bandits, kidnappers, cultists, and sundry criminals have for years been let loose, laying siege on the country with alarming impunity. In towns and villages most Nigerians go to bed with their eyes half-closed. People travel with bated breath, feeling relieved only when they reach their destination. Prayers are said at motor parks before drivers turn the ignition key to put their vehicles on the road. Schools have been invaded and their students carted away.

The worst-hit zones in terms of insecurity have been the North East, North West, and North-Central with North-West and North-Central taking over from the North-East where insurgents had held the country by the jugular. In the latter two, herdsmen, bandits, and kidnappers have swept through farmlands and rural communities in an orgy of bloodletting and maiming as well as the just-cited mindless destruction of property. It has been so clear, even to the blind to see and the deaf to hear, that the police have been overwhelmed. Daredevil gunmen have been known to take the battle to the police themselves. One night in 2018, seven policemen were shot dead while on duty at a checkpoint. The security situation was so bad at a stage that the then Governor of Zamfara State who doubled at the time as the chairman of the Governors’ Forum of that era, Mr. Abdullaziz Yari, that he threw up his hands in resignation! He washed his hands off being decorated as the chief security officer of his state. He saw his position as a joke. His argument was that he had no operational control over the police. The instruction of a governor may have to be forwarded by the state commissioner of police to his boss, the Inspector-General of Police, who may also wish to seek clearance from the President before it is carried out. The Nigeria Governors’ Forum under his leadership pressed for the establishment of state police. To show how serious the situation was, troops had to be called in in certain cases because the police were overwhelmed and had spread thin because their hands were full, facing challenges on several fronts at the same time.

The silver lining seems to be coming from the National Assembly when they reconvene at the end of this month, January. Their thinking is being reinforced by the reopening and dusting up of Nasir el-Rufai Committee Report being mulled by the National Working Committee (NWC) of the ruling APC. The Deputy National Organizing Secretary, the Hon. Nze Chidi Duru, and a member of the NWC, said Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje-led foremost organ of the party was making internal moves to ensure the implementation of the el-Rufai Committee report. This is coming at the same time the pioneer chairman of the party, Chief Bisi Akande, was pressing, with his weighty voice, for a new constitution to be patterned after the Independence Constitution used in the nation’s First Republic. According to him, that constitution was the best. “For example, in the 1960 Constitution, if you are a member of the National or State Assembly, you are a part-time. You go to your work; politics wasn’t work then. Farmers went to the farm, lawyers to their chambers; doctors to their hospitals…and when it was time for a meeting they went to the meeting and they paid them sitting allowance. Everybody knows that they are doing it in the interest of the public.” Chief Akande is not new to the subject of restructuring; he has written a well-received book on Restructuring.

A major plank on which the el-Rufai Committee report rests is devolution of power and restructuring of the country. The report left no one in doubt on the establishment of the state police which is an element in the restructuring for which the nation has been clamouring. Media reports quote Nze Chidi Duru as saying: “It has become an article of faith in the APC and for APC; in the ideology and philosophy of the party on the basis of which the current Administration campaigned. The issue of devolution of power and restructuring is clearly embedded in that report. “It is good for Nigeria, it will work for Nigerians and it will be best for Nigerians”.

I do hope the National Assembly will not dash our hope this time as it did in 2018. As I did state when I first dabbled into this discourse in 2018, it is so astonishing, to say the least, that we are just about to take this concrete step at addressing the grim security challenge in the land. In my criticism of President Buhari’s embarrassing cold attitude and incomprehensible obstinacy to the issue of state police when he was in the saddle, especially in the wake of killings in Plateau State and before then the massacre in Benue, I did ask: How many more people are we waiting to see killed before we become wise to apply the simplest and most commonsensical panacea: the establishment of state police? I said policing is local and that is how it is in all stable and secure free world. Newspapers have shouted themselves hoarse on the urgent need to set up state police. I will ask President Bola Tinubu the same question at the end of May. I want to believe that he knows that how he handles matters concerning the engine of public spending that has broken loose will be of tremendous interest to a great many when his honeymoon is over by June. The new normal today is to talk in billions and trillions of Naira and in a few cases in Dollars, too. No one talks in thousands of Naira any longer!

It is shocking that any group or individuals because they are in their comfort zone would still oppose the establishment of state police in this country in this day and age, especially given the grave situation of criminality and insecurity in the land. The situation is made much more frightening when the opposition is coming from public opinion leaders who are expected to be exposed, enlightened, and deep. These are leaders expected to consider where we are coming from, survey where we are, and, like prophets, look into the future and help chart a new course.
The face of government you encounter on the street in any community is the police. You see the police and there is the feeling of an assurance that all is well, that you are secure. It is not for nothing that the police authorities launch their sing-song: “The police is your friend”. The constitution says the governor is the chief security of his state. What this says to us is that there is a nexus between the police and the governor whose face the policeman symbolizes and by whose name he swears.

When former Vice-President Osinbajo spoke at the Security Summit organized by the Senate in 2018, he said: “The nature of our security challenge is complex. Securing Nigeria’s over 923, 768 square kilometres and its 180 million people requires continual re-engineering of our security architecture and strategies…” He said it had become difficult for the Federal Government to provide security for the country from Abuja in view of the fact that Nigeria had failed the United Nations requirement of a policeman to 400 people.”

There is hardly any federal state with diverse people that operates a centralized police system. Our experience is that there is no way it will not lead to acrimony and hostilities. If we have elected a federal republic, it means we have chosen what we think is good for us as a country of more than 500 nationalities as discovered by the 2014 National Conference–people with different cultures, aspirations, and worldviews. Policing is a veritable instrument of federalism for the federating units to run their affairs. As former Jonah Jang was wont to remind us: “We cannot be calling ourselves a federation and be running a unitary system of government. If we want to run a federal system of government we should run it properly. It is unfortunate that during the military of which I was a part we believed in a unitary system and any time we were in power, we ran a unitary system, and when we were trying to give the nation a constitution we ended up giving the nation a unitary constitution to be operated in a federal system of government. This is why nothing is working. So if we want to progress as a country we must restructure the country.”
Former Bayelsa State Governor, Henry Dickson, who is now fortunately in the Senate, corroborating Professor Osinbajo’s position, argued that the prevailing security situation and the need for an effective response to the challenge had made the establishment of state police mandatory. His conviction was anchored on the fact that the personnel would be drawn from the locality that makes up the state. Such personnel would be able to access valuable information required to track down criminals. He also agreed with Prof. Osinbajo that the current federally controlled police had become overstretched owing to the wide ratio of the police to the rapid increase in population. And former President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Mr. Joseph Daodu in the heat of the debate, had said in all striking simplicity that state police is for law and order. Can anything be greater than simplicity? That statement says it all. In the living higher knowledge available to mankind on earth today, it is said that in simplicity lies greatness.
I had once reported former President Babangida as throwing his full weight behind the restructuring of the country, and listen to his clincher when he said: “Added to this desire, that is of restructuring, is the need to commence the process of having state police across the states of the Federation…the initial fears of state governors misusing the officers and men of the state police have become increasingly eliminated with renewed vigour in citizen’s participation in and confidence to interrogate power. We cannot be detained by those fears and allow civilization to leave us behind. We must as a people with one destiny and common agenda take decisions for the sake of posterity in our shared commitment to launch our country on the path of development and growth. Policing has become so sophisticated that we cannot continue to operate our old methods and expect different results.” On another occasion, he had said the claim of misuse of state police by the governors was unfounded and exaggerated.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has also thrown his weight behind the establishment of state police. I have gone this length to demonstrate the fact that we have never been short of literature on the imperative of state police and community policing. What is more, the police authority themselves have long recognised the necessity for some form of augmentation by way of community policing. In 2003, the Nigeria Police High Command sent some of its men to Britain to train in community policing.

The establishment of state police is not tantamount to the abolition of federal police. They will work collaboratively under guidelines on the distribution of responsibilities and duties. That should go without saying. The guidelines will safeguard any possibility of abuse such as taking away the appointment of members of the state police commission away from the governor. It can be done in such a way that members of the commission drawn largely from civil societies, religious organizations such as CAN, the Bar, ASUU and retired Justices will appoint their own successors endorsed by their respective organizations every 10 years, and also staggered in a way the appointment of any member will not begin or end with the tenure of any sitting governor. As I did state when I first dabbled into the debate some years back, there will always be ideas. We can always think outside the box, for where there is a will, as it is said, there must be a way.

What the Senate needs to do is just to exhume and dust up its decision of 2018 to pass a Bill for the establishment of state police. It will make easy a joint sitting of the two Houses with the House of Representatives now also ready to take the much-awaited decision on the matter. It will be a delusion to think that the country can make the desired progress without a rethinking of our policing architecture. I do not want to go into the clever security engineering by many of the governors as an indication and signal that they are roaring to go! A lot has been done in that area such as donating helicopters to the police by Lagos and giving them special incentives to work.

The Federal and State governments now deciding to create police should be commended. It raises hope of law and order which alone provides the enabling environment to grow the economy and for the generality of the citizenry to prosper. Above all is the necessity of having the knowledge of the dire consequences of lending a hand to evil, here or hereafter, whether as perpetrators or through negligence of duty.

PRESIDENT Bola Tinubu on March 13, 2024, directed the reopening of Nigeria’s land and air borders with the Republic of Niger. He also ordered the lifting of all sanctions, including commercial, financial and service transactions, like electricity.

He equally approved the lifting of financial and economic sanctions against the Republic of Guinea. These steps should open better opportunities for Nigeria which accounts for 70 per cent of the trade in the West African Region. But, unfortunately, Nigeria has no ambassador in either country that can drive the process. In fact, we have no single ambassador in the entire Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, a body over which President Tinubu presides.

President Tinubu engaged in a somewhat controversial state visit to Qatar from March 2-3, 2024. That was partly because the Qatari had initially turned down the holding of a business and investment forum on the margins of his visit, and also, for the number and composition of his 38-Member Delegation.

The visit was pulled-off and there were cooperation agreements in the fields of education, employment regulation, establishment of a joint business council and in the field of youths and sports.

The Nigerian Delegation returned to the country, leaving no ambassador to drive the follow-up process. This was because back on September 2, 2023, that is six months before, Nigeria had recalled all its ambassadors in the world except for those in the United Nations Missions in New York and Geneva. It means Nigeria cannot reap fully from the dozen foreign trips of President Tinubu in the nine months he has been in power.

Yes, there are charge d‘affaires. But which country takes a stand-in ambassador, serious enough, for business transactions realising he is standing in gap? A charge d‘affaires is like a regent waiting for the appointment and coronation of the actual king.

In my experience outside Nigeria, charge d‘affairs, at state functions, are arranged after ambassadors. They are outranked by ambassadors. So, a country without ambassadors cannot engage in serious diplomacy. My worry is that things are not about to change quickly because the process of having ambassadors in place can be quite slow.

There are those who may argue that in the internet age, countries do not really need physical ambassadors to sit in embassies. This they call E-Diplomacy, Cyber Diplomacy or Twitter Diplomacy –Diplomacy in 40 Characters.

This is, essentially, the use of technology and digital platforms like Facebook and Twitter (X) to run diplomacy, shape or influence foreign relations and, engage global audiences. The most famous or infamous user of Twitter Diplomacy is former President Donald Trump.

In its ‘Social media use by Donald Trump’ report, Wikipedia said: “Over nearly twelve years, Trump tweeted around 57,000 times, including about 8,000 times during the 2016 election campaign and over 25,000 times during his presidency. The White House said the tweets should be considered official statements. When Twitter banned Trump from the platform in January 2021 during the final days of his tenure, his handle @realDonaldTrump had over 88.9 million followers.”

Despite such power and, claims of some Presidents, to be their own foreign ministers and diplomats, the presence of ambassadors on ground is essential as it is a reflection of how you value a country. So, no matter how the power of E-Diplomacy is stretched, a country without ambassadors is like a void on the diplomatic stage.

The sack of all our ambassadors by each new administration without immediate replacement, as was done by the Buhari and Tinubu administrations, is unwise.

In our present case, the process of picking ambassadors is still on. After this, the nominees are to be screened by the Senate which presumably would have had the security report on each nominee. It is after clearance the nominees will undergo some induction course.

Then, the receiving country would decide whether to receive the new ambassador. This is usually a formality, but in some cases, countries reject ambassadors posted to them.

For instance, in April 1984, the United States, US, rejected the nomination of Nicaraguan lawyer and Deputy Foreign Minister, Nora Astorga, as ambassador. She had played a prominent role in the revolution which toppled pro-American President Anastasio Somoza. However, Nicaragua ensured Ms Astorga was a prominent face in the US by appointing her Nicaraguan Permanent Representative to the United Nations in New York.

Thirty eight years later, Nicaragua had some form of pay-back. In 2022, Ambassador Hugo Rodriguez who was confirmed by the US Senate as Ambassador to Nicaragua, was refused entry. This, according to Nicaraguan Vice President Rosario Murillo, was due to his “interfering” attitude.

To be accepted by the receiving country does not mean the ambassador starts work immediately because he still has to present his Letter of Credence to the President of the host country. During the Buhari administration, it was not unusual for ambassadors to wait for months before being invited to present their letters.

So, as it is, Nigeria may not have ambassadors in any part of the world in the next six months. This would mean that under the Tinubu administration, we may not have ambassadors for at least one quarter of its four-year tenure.

Beyond this, is the challenge of politicians who see ambassadorial postings as post-election war booty to be shared. Under Buhari, they took 60 per cent of the ambassadorial positions leaving 40 per cent to be filled by career ambassadors.

In my December 18, 2023 column titled: ‘Tinubu, appoint diplomats, not politicians to run our Missions.’ I had appealed to the President to reverse this unhealthy culture. I had argued that it is better for the country to appoint career ambassadors because they are people who spend their entire career in the Foreign Ministry and therefore understand the basics of diplomacy. This is in contrast to political nominees who, in the world of diplomacy, are essentially birds of passage.

I had received encouraging nods and thought that this culture would be reversed. But now, the feelers I am getting of a push for 65 per cent of the ambassadorial positions going to non-career diplomats, is not encouraging. I hope for the sake of our country, this will be reversed.

One more suggestion. We need to return to the General Murtala Mohammed era when the populace took part in foreign affairs through mass bodies like those of students and genuine civil society organisations.

It was that momentum that defined our principled recognition of the MPLA in Angola, FRELIMO in Mozambique, the African National Congress, ANC, and the Pan African Congress, PAC, in South Africa. It was that mass participation that led to workers contributing part of their monthly salaries into an anti-Apartheid fund for the total liberation of the African continent.

Many have asked, what is this Bulk Purchase Agency by Akwa Ibom State bringing to the table?
With the signing of the Bulk Purchase Agency Bill into law by the Governor of Akwa Ibom State, Pastor Umo Eno, expectedly that would be the question, like a refrain on the lips of many Akwa Ibom people? They would truly be wondering, how "bulky" is the Bulk Purchase Agency?

Yes, watching the governor run his golden pen through the pages of the protected destiny of Akwa Ibom people, assenting to the Bulk Purchase Agency Law, was enough to saturate the Exco Chambers with the imaginary aroma of food security for Akwa Ibom people especially the vulnerable. Food is not just ready for consumption but the sumptuous menu in the buffet of the Bulk Purchase regime brings everything good to the table. It is a table prepared for the people by a leader who sees food and nutrition as part of good governance.

There are so many take aways from the new Akwa Ibom State Bulk Purchase Agency which is simply an intersection of food availability, accessibility , affordability , price stability with food security. The agency comes as grains of grace to the needy and vulnerable members of the society. It is a responsive governor's initiative to challenge hunger hovering over Nigeria.
The Bulk Purchase Agency is intended to out hunger under the mirror in Akwa Ibom State and dissect same to the happiness of families.

The signing of the Bulk Purchase Agency Bill into law in the month of March shows that there is something special in March for Governor Umo Eno and Akwa Ibom people. Remember, it was In March 2023, that Akwa Ibom people gave Pastor Eno bulk votes, and in March 2024, the governor chooses to reward them with food from the bulky warehouses of the Bulk Purchase Agency.

Every responsible government prioritizes the welfare of the people in line with the basic needs of humanity. That is why the United States of America, the United Kingdom and other model democracies pay special attention to food and nutrition especially for low-income families, the elderly, children and those in emergency situations. This is often actualized through bulk purchase of food products. The US for instance operates such special feeding programmes, engaging in bulk food purchase to stabilize prices in agricultural commodity markets by balancing supply and demand. Similar programmes run in the UK with special concerns for the less privileged.

The Bulk Purchase Agency initiated by Governor Umo Eno is a replica of these programmes in other successful climes of the world.

The Bulk Purchase Agency is established pursuant to the poverty reduction and price stability goals of the economic blueprint of the ARISE Agenda as an interventionist agency and a redemptive measure for the procurement and distribution of essential food items at subsidized prices to as palliative to cushion harsh economic situation and ensure food availability, affordability and price stability while scaling up agriculture through boosting local food production to achieve food sufficiency.

By this, Governor Eno aims at cushioning the effects of high cost of living on the citizenry. He is emphatic that the social register will be used in the programme so that the food will go to those who need it most, and not an opportunity for people to play sentiments and cause the aim of the well thought out initiative to be defeated.

The seriousness of the governor in ensuring that the programme succeeds necessitated series of sensitization and enlightenment meetings with stakeholders, market unions and traders, Personal Assistants to the Governor from across the 368 wards in the State, and meetings with other critical and relevant players in the agricultural sector, including the potential vendors and accredited agents when the programme officially kicks off. All of these were at the instance of the governor, and the message was loud and clear: "this programme must not fail."

The collaboration with the market and traders’ union, the 368 Personal Assistants to the Governor who are on ground, supervision of the Ministries of Economic Development, Agriculture and Rural Development as well as the Bulk Purchase Agency gives the assurance that the programme will succeed. It is the only way to reciprocate the passion and compassion of the governor for the poorest of the poor.

The programme is basically a food security and subsidy initiative where the government will buy food items in bulk from the traders at higher prices, and sell them to the people at reduced rates, such that government bears the high cost on behalf of the people. The aim is not to put the traders out of business but to collaborate with them for the programme to succeed. It is to be a win-win situation.

While the initiative is not to work at parallel with the traders, however, in an unlikely eventuality of the agents not complying with the agreement reached for the good of the society in terms of prices or hoarding, the Visioner was unequivocal in stating that government will open Sunday markets and flood same with food to mitigate any untoward occurrences .

This sucour driven programme is an initiative that flies in transparency right from conception. The targeted beneficiaries will collect their vouchers and go to the redemption centres and branded shops of the agents to redeem their goods after confirmation. In order to avoid sabotage on the programme through printing of fake vouchers, the printing of the vouchers is done strictly by the Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Agency, Lagos.

The accredited centres for the redemption of food vouchers shall be found in selected shops and market across the 31 local government areas of Akwa Ibom State.

There shall also be buffer warehouses where food shall be bought and stocked to guarantee long term availability, while incentives shall be given to the accredited agents, a good percentage to motivate and encourage them to be committed and transparent in the process.

So, it is not just food that the bulk purchase agency is bringing to the table, it is also bringing money, business and work will join to make the table full!

But the governor sees the Bulk Purchase Agency as just a victory in a match, not the entire tournament. He is now calling on all to redouble effort for the State to win the tournament by extending the victory of Akwa Ibom State over food crisis beyond the interventionist arrangement of the Bulk Purchase Agency to massively make food available and affordable across Akwa Ibom State, where the State will grow what it eats, and eats what it grows.

Governor Eno believes that for Akwa Ibom State to tick all the boxes in food sufficiency, there must be more tractors in the farms than SUVs in the streets, to make the State more of a production economy than a consuming economy.

When he traversed the length and breadth of the 31 local government areas of the State, he was as consistent as he was emphatic that agriculture will sit at the right-hand side of his his priority list as a governor of Akwa Ibom State. A promise keeper, he did not only do as he promised, he also made sure that agriculture was the leader of the pack as the first alphabet in the acronym of magic, A.R.I.S.E which is the both an expandable agenda and the governance Bible of his administration.

This made him to juxtapose agriculture with rural development, seeing both as Siamese twins. In that spirit, he started with agriculture. He led a high-powered delegation of Akwa Ibom people to Songhai Farms in far away Port Novo, Benin Republic to understudy the secret of the success story in agricultural revolution in that country with a view to replicating same in Akwa Ibom State.

At a stretch, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the both parties resulting to the commencement of work at the Ibom Model Farms in Nsit Ubium Local Government Area. When completed, the Ibom Model Farms will be a modern-day Garden of Eden because there is nothing man will need to survive that that farm will not have, and more. The idea is that such farms will also spring up in other parts of the State as soon as the local government chairmen of the respective areas donate the land to the State Government.

And Governor Eno keeps on calling on the local government chairmen to fast track the process of donation of lands for government to swing into action immediately.

Governor Eno's vision for agriculture also informed why among the first places he visited upon assumption of office were the moribund Akwa Palms Limited where he gave financial lifeline to be injected into the investment for an expected boom; as well as the green houses where he called for emergency diagnosis, prescription and treatment of the facility.

While waiting for all these to bear fruits, the governor's position is that the Bulk Purchase Agency should not make the people to be complacent and rest on their ores. To him, there is still work to be done in the "farm." Hence, his charge to his 368 personal assistants to, as a matter of must, ensure that they own personal farms, even if that means collaborating with other members of the community. Failure to do so is as dangerous as taking away the appointment from such defaulter.

The governor has an outsized vision for the agriculture sector. He was emphatic during his campaigns that he will ensure that Akwa Ibom people achieve the full value chain in agriculture, incorporating storage and processing of agricultural products to distribution and marketing of agricultural products. This is hoped to be juxtaposed with agro-allied industries.

Governor Umo Eno believes agriculture is beyond the art and science of cultivating the soil for the purpose of growing crops for man's use, or tending of livestock. To him, the beauty of agriculture is when its full value chain is achieved. That is where Akwa Ibom State is headed. The governor himself is the number one farmer in the State; his lushly vegetated policies and programmes in agriculture say so beyond the rubric of rhetoric to actualities.

The recently signed into law Bulk Purchase Agency Legislation is a kicker to the emerging screaming headline of agricultural revolution in Akwa Ibom State.

Pastor Umo Eno has shown clearly through his bulk purchase initiative that money banks may go bankrupt, food banks may run out of commodities but ideas bank can never fail. But interestingly ironically, he who owns the ideas bank has the money and food banks in his palms. Ideas are the cheques to cash in the banks of money and food to draw food security and good life. Governor Umo Eno passes for the chairman of the Bank of Ideas and custodian of this good governance initiative represented in the Bulk Purchase Agency.

Of the truth, food is ready in Akwa Ibom State. It is food with delicacies of sustainable meals, money, business, poverty alleviation and empowerment.
Akwa Ibom State is into a thrilling and fulfilling experience in agriculture and food sufficiency. For now, the dessert to wet the appetite is the Bulk Purchase Agency.
Food is indeed , ready; what is your order?

- Aniekan Umanah writes from Abak, Akwa  Ibom State

Senator representing Katsina Central in the upper legislative chamber, Abdulaziz Yar’Adua, APC, on Thursday, emerged as the new Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum.

Sen Yar’Adua’s emergence followed the resignation on Wednesday of Senator Abdul Ningi after his suspension for three months by the Senate over a budget padding allegation.

In his acceptance speech to the members of the forum, Senator Yar’Adua expressed deep honour, saying he was humbled to accept the chairmanship of the Northern Senators’ Forum.

“I extend my heartfelt gratitude to my distinguished colleagues for this vote of confidence in me following the resignation of my distinguished elder brother, Senator Abdul Ningi whom I hold in high esteem.

“I wish to acknowledge and commend the decent outing and the contributions he made during his tenure,” Yar’Adua said.

The Katsina lawmaker states that he was aware of the challenges facing the Northern region in security, agriculture, education, healthcare, drug abuse and human trafficking, among others. 

He noted that the major objective of the Forum is to promote the interest of Nigeria, first followed by development of the North through collaboration with their distinguished colleagues from the South and cooperating with the executive arm of government to ensure that the challenges of the region are addressed.

“We Shall therefore work in consultation with our distinguished colleagues to preserve the unity and progress of our dear nation.

“In advancing these noble objectives, I am committed to streamlined activities within the Northern Senators Forum. We shall operate with transparency, accountability, and integrity, upholding the trust placed on us by the electorate.

“Our legislative discourse will continue to be characterized by civility, dignity, and adherence to the rule of law as we fulfill our lawmaking, policy-making, and oversight functions,” Senator Yar’Adua said

He expressed confidence that with the collective efforts and cooperation of his colleagues, they can effect positive change, uplift the North, and contribute to the overall development of the great nation.

“Together, let us embark on this journey with unwavering dedication and a steadfast commitment to serving our constituents and our country.

“May our actions be guided by wisdom, compassion, and a shared vision for a better and brighter future for all Nigerians,” Yar’Adua added.

[DailyTrust]

The 42nd Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Lekan Balogun has joined his ancestors.

DAILY POST gathered that the Olubadan died at the University College Hospital (UCH) Ibadan, the Oyo State capital.

Balogun came from Ali-Iwo compound in the present Ibadan North East local government area.

The monarch passed on shortly after he was moved to the health facility, DAILY POST gathered.

He was an academic and politician before he ascended the throne in 2022.

The monarch was a lecturer at the Ahmadu Bello University (ABU) Zaria and was later elected to represent Oyo Central Senatorial District between 1999 and 2003.

Balogun, who has a doctor of philosophy, became the Olubadan on 11 March 2022.

He succeeded Oba Saliu Akanmu Adetunji who joined his ancestors on 2nd January, 2022.

[DailyPost]