Traders in the North East geopolitical zone of the country have said that the increasing amount of mutilated banknotes in circulation is hindering small business transactions in the zone.

Petty traders and their customers often apportion blames, with the situation straining business relationships.

Our correspondents, who visited the capitals of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi and Taraba states, report that mutilated banknotes are a common sight in the streets and business environments, particularly among those selling water, kola nuts, vegetables and other edibles.

The overused notes, especially N10, N20, N50, N100 and N200, are weak to such an extent that they tear during transactions.

Some of the petty traders, who spoke to our correspondent, expressed grievances over the situation.

One of them, Maina Adam Konto, who sells vegetables at Monday Market in Maiduguri, said the frustration of dealing with damaged naira notes was more challenging than the business itself.

“The number of damaged notes in circulation is too much; sometimes, you will find yourself quarreling with customers over such notes.

“They will argue that it is a legal tender, that they didn’t print it; so, you must not reject it. And the same customers will refuse another damaged note, telling you that they are not in a good condition.

“Most times, the colour of the polymer has faded such that you cannot differentiate between N20 and N50,” he said.

Konto lamented that the damaged notes always took away a reasonable part of his profits, making it difficult to feed his family.

Aliyu Musa, another trader in Maiduguri, said it was after the introduction of new banknotes that the petty traders, who mostly transact in lower notes, started experiencing the problem.

“When the new notes were introduced, N500 and N1,000 became scarce and more pressure was put on lower denominations like N10, N20, N50 and N100 due to availability.

“And now, we have scarcity of the lower denominations, and the majority of the available ones are mostly damaged,” he said.

Musa appealed to the federal government to print enough notes of good quality that could withstand the weather for smooth business transactions in the country.

Mutilated notes eat up our profits – Traders

Muhammadu Lawan, a kola nut seller in Jalingo, Taraba State, also complained about how mutilated currency notes affect his daily transactions.

He said prices of kola nuts and cigarettes had gone very high, but the value of the naira kept dropping, adding that damaged naira notes exacerbated the situation.

“The naira notes are so weak that you will not know what to do with the money you collected. This is giving every trader you see here worries.

“Some of the wholesalers we buy goods from are rejecting the money. Our capital is very little. Many people gave up business because it ate up their capital,” he said.

Muhammad Goni, a Keke NAPEP rider in Maiduguri, said, “Before now, we relied on filling stations to spend such money, but fuel attendants are now rejecting them. So, it is better not to pick a passenger and collect such notes.”

He said printing new lower denominations like N10, N20, N50 and N100 would solve the transaction problems and save traders from avoidable losses.

Badaru Malum, a fruit seller in Damaturu, Yobe State, said his capital was not more than N20,000; but on the average, he recorded at least N3,000 of damaged currency notes every day.

He said he always returned home with at least N2,000 of rejected naira notes by fruit dealers whenever he went to supply them.

“Once you go to them, the dealers would separate the damaged notes and return them to you. Some would just pity me and collect part of the damaged notes. But at the end of the day, it is me that bear the loss.

“Remember, our profit is not more than N3,000 a day. So, when you consider the amount I forgo, I will be left with almost nothing to take home,” he said.

A roadside sweet potato trader in Azare, Bauchi State, Haruna Baba Usman, wondered why the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) could not mop up mutilated currency notes in circulation. 

 “It is like nobody cares about us anymore. For a very long time, these mutilated notes have been in circulation and the government knows about it. Why can’t they print new ones?

“Besides, the money goes in and out of banks daily, but they don’t want to mop them out of circulation and it is small businesses that suffer,” he said. 

Customers ask CBN to mop up dirty notes

Customers, who spoke to our reporter, called on the CBN to mop up mutilated currency notes from circulation.

They also alleged that traders were in the habit of mishandling currency notes.

One of them, Inusa Hassan, said “no matter how minted a naira note looks”, the traders would squeeze it.

“That is the first stage of disfiguring the bank notes. And some notes are easily forgotten in the pockets and washed, and they end up getting ruined,” he said.

“Believe me, some of the N100 notes in circulation are patched with pieces of brown papers. I wonder why the government should allow this kind of thing to happen. It is an embarrassment to Nigeria as a country,” he said. 

Poor storage affects money quality – Banker

An official of one of the first generation banks, who pleaded not to be named, blamed poor storage and handling of the bank notes for mutilation.

He said the bank on Friday received about N15 million of lower denominations from a customer.

“We could not reject the money, but it is very dirty and delicate to count. We only rejected those with missing parts or without serial numbers. Most of our staff don’t want to count such money because of infection,” he said.

He revealed that for a long time, the CBN had not released certain denominations to his bank.

“For a very long time, we have not been receiving N100 notes from the CBN. We receive N1,000, N500 and N200. The CBN gives us minted N50, N20 and N10, but these are not sufficient,” he said.

On the weak quality of the naira notes, he said: “I always argue that the quality is relatively okay, but our money is being handled carelessly without penalty.

“Since October 2022 when the new banknotes were introduced and the subsequent cash crunch in the country, many people stockpiled cash in nylons underground. This poor storage has affected the colour and quality of the notes,” he said.

CBN’s directives on mutilated notes

It would be recalled that in an effort to improve the quality of the naira notes, in August 2019, the CBN had directed Nigerians to deposit mutilated notes in any bank branch closer to them.

The directive was contained in an email message sent by the Guaranty Trust Bank to its customers and was reported by the media.

“As part of efforts to improve the overall quality of the naira in circulation, the CBN introduced the Clean Note Policy and Banknotes Fitness Guidelines.

“If you have overused or mutilated naira notes in your possession, you are required by the CBN Clean Note Policy to deposit them at any bank branch near you, on or before Monday, September 2, 2019.

“Please, note that overused notes include any naira note that is now weak, to such an extent that it could easily tear at further handling.

“Mutilated notes include any currency that has been partially or permanently damaged, but which clearly still has more than half of its original size together,” the message had read.

Worried by the increasing amount of mutilated banknotes deposited with the CBN, the apex bank, in a circular titled ‘Treatment of Composed Banknotes’, issued to all deposit money banks on March 31, 2022, had directed them to stop including composed currency notes in their deposits or risk paying a penalty of 400 percent of the value of the banknotes.

Composed banknotes are mutilated currency notes comprising several parts of different banknotes of the same denomination.

“The management of the CBN observed with concern the increasing number of composed banknotes deposited by DMBs and request for replacement of such banknotes by members of the public.

“The existence of composed banknotes in the economy falsifies the true value of the currency in circulation, and can also be an avenue for fraudulent activities.

“Consequently, any composed banknote discovered in the deposit of DMBs shall attract a penalty of 400 per cent of the value,” the circular partly read.

Efforts by Daily Trust on Sunday to know the CBN’s next line of action were to no avail as its Ag. Director of Corporate Communications, Mrs Hakama Sidi Ali, neither answered phone calls nor replied messages sent to her yesterday.

[DailyTrust]

• Alake: FG has identified locations with Lithium in commercial quantity

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s two-day official visit to the State of Qatar will assume full gear today with the signing of seven agreements between Nigeria and the Middle East country.

The visit had begun yesterday with a visit the Nigerian president paid to the Museum in Doha, the capital city where the CEO of Qatar Museums Mohammed Saad Al Rumaihi and the Director of National Museum of Qatar, Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Hamad Al Thani conducted the Nigerian leader around the facilities.

The Museum which was recently redesigned ahead of the 2022 FIFA world Cup, offers visitors access to a variety of materials used in Islamic art, including carpets and textiles, manuscripts, ceramics, wood, ivory, metalwork, stone and glass.

The President is expected to see pieces of materials dating back to the earliest Islamic period from the 20th century, spanning Spain and North Africa to the Far East.

The host is also expected to conduct his visitor to view the early Hijazi Quran fragments, the sitara of the Holy Kaaba, the Moroccan arch, a copy of al-Sufi’s treatise on the fixed stars, the Abbasid blue-and-white bowl, the Seljuq stucco panel, the Doha Hind and the post-Islamic Spanish ceiling.

The visit to the Museum is expected to herald other events that will culminate in the signing of agreements in seven areas between the Nigeria and Qatari governments today.

From the Museum, the President will visit the Qatar Foundation, which is responsible for promoting Qatar government humanitarian activities in other countries, including Nigeria.

The Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, is a state-led non-profit organisation in Qatar.

The institution, which was founded in 1995 by the then Emir of Qatar, Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and his second wife Moza bint Nasser Al-Missne, has been linked to development of schools, houses and health facilities in several countries, including Nigeria.

The Foundation helped Nigeria with infrastructures including schools, residential houses and health facilities in states ravaged by insecurity.

Earlier on Friday night, President Tinubu had met with key ministers and top officials of the Qatari government.

At the meeting were some key Nigerian government officials on the President’s entourage, including the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; the Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Dele Alake; the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar; the Minister of Trade and Investment, Doris Uzoka-Anite; the Minister of Youth Development, Jamila Ibrahim and the Minister of Health and Coordinating Minister of Social Welfare, Ali Pate.

FG has identified locations with Lithium in commercial quantity —Alake

The Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr Dele Alake, said the Federal Government (FG) has identified locations where Lithium occurs in commercial quantities in the country.

He said comprehensive data on the pattern and quantity of energy mineral Lithium are available at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency for businesses interested in  establishing lithium companies in Nigeria.

Special Adviser to the Minister, Kehinde Bamigbetan, made this known in a statement.

He said Alake made this disclosure in Doha, Qatar on Saturday at a meeting with Qatari businessmen on the sidelines of the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to the Arab country.

He stated: “Comprehensive data on the pattern and quantity of energy mineral Lithium are available at the Nigerian Geological Survey Agency for businesses interested in  establishing lithium companies in Nigeria.

“Responding to enquiries on the quality of Nigerian lithium by Qatari business mogul Sheikh Shahid Jawad, at the meeting held at the prestigious Sheraton Doha, Alake said mineral exploration initiated by the Federal Government has identified locations where lithium is available in commercial quantities and in high grades.

“To buttress the disclosure, Alake recalled that on a visit to Australia, he was presented with samples of rock composites from Nigeria with high grade lithium content confirmed by laboratory analysis.

“He said it showed that the quality of Nigerian lithium has been recognised by the global mining sector.

“Encouraging Qatari businessmen to visit the country and witness the immense opportunities in mining, Alake said the Nigerian government has put in place generous, investor- friendly policies to facilitate business.

“Also speaking at the event, the Executive Secretary of Solid Minerals Development Fund, Mrs Fatimah Shinkafi, urged investors to explore opportunities in mining infrastructures.

“Giving the example of Vale, a mining company in Brazil that invested in trains to ease the transportation of minerals from the mines to the processing towns, Shinkafi said while the government will continue to provide transportation facilities to the mines, mining companies that recognise the significance of transportation to their future cost control will invest wisely by supplementing government’s efforts.

“Also giving the minister the update of its activities in the mining sector, the vice- chairman of the Qatar- Nigerian Chamber of Business, Muhammed Santuraki, said the chamber was formed in 2017 to build business relations between both countries.

“Recalling a recent visit to a gold mine in Nasarawa State, Santuraki observed the existence of good roads for the haulage of minerals to the ports.

“Other businessmen at the top- level meeting were Sheikh El Jouneid, Chief Executive Officer, ETCC Qatar and Aminu Dahiru, Chairman, Asdub Oil & Gas.”

[TheNation]

John Okafor, popularly known as Mr Ibu was a Nigerian Nollywood actor and a comedian from Enugu State.

His death, announced on Saturday, March 2, 2024, threw colleagues and fans into mourning.

In October 2023, the veteran actor was reported ill and required financial assistance.

In November 2023, Okafor’s family confirmed that one of his legs had been amputated to keep him alive.

The amputation became necessary because of an infection of the arteries at the ankle that was not detected early enough.

Here are eight things to know about Mr Ibu:

1. John Ikechukwu Okafor was born on October 17, 1961.

2. He was a Nigerian actor and comedian.

3. The comic actor came to the limelight in 2004 with the movie “Mr Ibu.” featuring another popular actor, Osita Iheme.

4. Okafor acted in more than 200 Nollywood films including Mr. Ibu, Mr. Ibu and His Son, Coffin Producers, Husband Suppliers, International Players, Mr. Ibu in London, Police Recruit and many others.

5. On October 15, 2020, the veteran ventured into music and released two singles titled “This Girl” and “Do You Know.”

6. In 2012, Mr Ibu called for an end to homosexuality in Nollywood, he described it as akin to a virus.

7. He graduated from the Institute of Management and Technology, Enugu State.

8. He died on March 2, 2024, at the age of 62.

[Punch]

When the story of Nigeria’s national football team, the Super Eagles, through history will be told, it will never be complete without the mention of a certain Jose Paseiro.

Without doubt, he will be listed amongst the national coaches that took the Super Eagles to the finals of the Africa Cup of Nations, but did not clinch it, yet he was rewarded more than any other coach in the history of Nigerian football.

Jose Paseiro is a 64-years old Portuguese coach recommended by the renowned Portuguese coach, Jose Mourinho, to the former president of the Nigeria Football Federation, Amaju Pinnick, on the eve of completing his tenure. His link to Mourinho was his biggest credential. He did not have any known pedigree in football to deserve to be engaged by one of the biggest teams in Africa, one with the enviable reputation of the Super Eagles. Paseiro got the job offered to him on a platter of wood. It was so cheap, he started work on a verbal contract. It was so ‘cheap’ that when his monthly wage was slashed half-way into his 2-year contract, he accepted and held on to the job that many consider a holiday since he was working from his base in Europe most of the time.

Paseiro did not disappoint those who questioned his credentials and why he was hired. For the period of almost two years that he spent as coach of the national team he hardly won any international matches, could not produce a good consistent team, did not impact domestic football in any way, stuck stubbornly to a goalkeeper that the entire country saw as not the best, and did not produce a single, exceptionally-gifted player. He took Nigerians through a frustrating period that left them without a shred of hope going to AFCON 2023 at the start of the year. That was his report card before the championship in Cote D’Ivoire.

Against the grain of all expectations the Super Eagles did well, even though they would not be remembered for any spectacular performances, or special moments during the championship. Their passage through the group matches, the round of 16 and up to the quarter-finals were ‘tales of the unexpected’. With a little bit of luck the team scraped through the matches with relative ease. By the time they arrived at the semi-final match, the players had become confident, were playing with much more ease and had succeeded in making Nigerians to have hope despite all the obvious technical flaws in the team and Paseiro’s bewildering technical manipulations during matches. Tactically, most of his substitutions of players made the team weaker not stronger. No one could decipher his tactical intentions. Obviously, he may not have had any.

The team had two Captains. One did not even kick a single ball throughout, and the other one became the leader that the team had lacked for some time, and played himself into reckoning as the Most Valuable Player of the championship!

In the midfield, the Super Eagles did not have a single truly outstanding player. The team’s talisman, Africa’s newly minted Best Player, failed to ignite any fire, scoring only a single goal in 6 matches. Fans waited throughout the championship for a ‘souvenir’ from him, a memento to take away, a moment of a great solo performance. It never came in all the 6 matches!

At the final match, the team was dismantled by Paseiro’s lack of tactical depth as well as the players’ capitulation to the pressure of the electricity in the air, an atmosphere that would weaken any faint hearts as it did the Super Eagles.

The tactics adopted unchangingly by the Nigerian team was simple, elementary but effective until the final match. He did not have a second strategy. It was the same tactics that we learnt 45 years ago, in 1979, during the 3 months training of the Green Eagles in Brazil.

A defensive funnel strategy that requires every player to fall back in the shape of a funnel into their own half of the field as soon as the team loses possession of the ball. They will then mark the spaces and not the men, always outnumbering the opposing players in Nigeria’s goal area, making it difficult for them to create goal-scoring chances – typical Jose Mourinho tactics. That’s why the Nigerian defense was difficult to break down most of the time.

Jose Paseiro seemed contented with achieving his personal goal of a semi-final place in AFCON. In 2024, such a level of ambition is pedestrian, totally unacceptable because it is not justified by the humongous wage he earns at a time when the country as a whole is going through excruciatingly difficult times and the country is poor.

Although, Paseiro is not connected to the sad tragedy that struck the country when at least 6 Nigerians died from the pressure generated during the semi-final match, the result of poor tactical changes during the match, pressures that would have been avoided if he knew what he was doing tactically.

The country has been very generous and grateful to him for the service he rendered specifically during AFCON 2023 which took us to the final match. He has been rewarded beyond whatever contributions he made to the country’s football. No other nation on earth would have given him a house, a land in Abuja, all the bonuses he collected, and a National Honour, for coming second in a championship. It must be the most generous gift in the history of football in the world. He should go, leave Nigerian football alone and enjoy the largesse.

The Nigeria that Nigerians envision after the present ‘crucible of fire’ that the country is passing through, is a country with the ultimate dream to emerge refined and ready to take its rightful place amongst the greatest countries on earth in many fields, including football.

The goals are lofty and, definitely, beyond what a foreigner or White man without solid grounding in football can achieve for Nigeria. Jose Paseiro does not have what it takes to take the Super Eagles to the next level.

The conversation now should be who should be given the responsibility to replace him amongst the NigerianCoaches that are more qualified than Jose Paseiro to handle the national team. There are a few waiting in the wings that deserve to be given the opportunity.

Gratitude

I wish to thank the following that made my AFCON 2023 Roadshow possible –

Vanguard Newspaper, Peculiar Ultimate Concerns Ltd, Goldberg Lager Beer, Airpeace Airlines, His Excellency, Senator Otunba Gbenga Daniel; His Excellency, Chief Bode George; Engineer Oluwatoyin Jokosenumi; Engineer Tony Ojesina; Lola Visser-Mabogunje and Remi Okuboyejo (both of them in Abidjan).

•How the fate of MDAs created after 2012 will be decided – Arabi, DG, Bureau of Public Sector Reforms
•Addresses claim report is outdated

•‘Reforms not only about mergers but also about restructuring’

Dr Dasuki Ibrahim Arabi is the Director General of the Bureau of Public Sector Reforms, the body overseeing reforms at the federal level including the implementation of the Oronsaye Report.

President Bola Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Policy Coordination, Ms Hadiza Bala-Usman, and the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced last week that the 12-year-old Oronsaye Report, which recommends the merging of some Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government (MDAs) to reduce the cost of government while restructuring the public service for efficiency, will now be fully implemented after more than a decade delay.

Arabi, in this interview, speaks on the genesis of the Oronsaye Report, the journey so far and how the committee to be inaugurated on the implementation will carry out the assignment. He says the Oronsaye Report and review committees’ reports approve the pruning of the number of ministers which currently stands at 48. Arabi also speaks on the fate of MDAs created after the Oronsaye Report had been submitted in 2012. Excerpts:

Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari’s governments did not implement the Oronsaye Report despite having substantial time to do so but President Tinubu’s government wants to implement it. How is this going to happen?

Let me take you back to history. In the first place, why was Oronsaye Committee constituted? It was constituted in response to the global call for change and the need for nations to respond to socio-economic problems all over the world. It was set up to re-jig the public service, to put Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, in their proper positions, so that we will have more efficient Ministries, Departments and Agencies of government.

I want to clear this notion of people who think that Oronsaye Committee was out just to reduce the size of government and get people out of their jobs. In the case of implementation, we are glad that Mr President has taken this bold decision to implement this report after many years but, as you said, it is not that nothing has been done about it.

Truly, there were delays in implementation. The three committees that were constituted by former President Buhari were basically aimed at looking at agencies that were created after Oronsaye’s report. With that work that was done, we have an updated version of the Oronsaye report which President Tinubu has approved for implementation. A committee has been constituted as highlighted by an Adviser to the President. I am confident that the report will be implemented.

However, the implementation, as we have said in the various committees, is not going in the way it was done in 2005, 2006 and 2007, when civil servants were downsized. Government has done quite a lot. One of the things to be done is to have an effective communication strategy to communicate with citizens, labour, the general public and other stakeholders, including our development partners.

Another key player that is being considered in this process is the legislative arm of government because some of the agencies that will be affected have laws backing them. That is why I have, over the years, led several delegations to the legislative arm of government to build this bridge between legislators and the executive, specifically to address this. I want to inform Nigerians that the legislative arm is working with us, closely. They have even created a committee in the House of Representatives saddled with oversight of reforms and institutional changes within the public service. So I am confident that it is going to be implemented.

Is government going to take a second look at the proposed merging of three agencies: the Nigerian Airspace Management Authority, NAMA, the Nigerian Civil Aviation Authority, NCAA, and the Nigerian Meteorological Agency, NIMET, in the Ministry of Aviation?

You know we have four reports now: The main Oronsaye Report, Gonji Bukar Aji Report, Ama Pepple Report and Ebere Okeke Report. The announcement made by Mr President’s Adviser has not given us full details of what is going to happen around the recommendations made, but I am sure that whatever is stated on the report that has been considered by the Federal Executive Council, FEC, is going to be implemented. Let me guide us to know that the decisions were not taken overnight, but were taken after due consultations. In any case, I don’t want to speak for the committee that is going to be inaugurated but I want Nigerians to be confident that the committee is going to look at things objectively and implement decisions in the best interest of our country, Nigeria.

What is your take on the non-inclusion of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission, ICPC, the Economic Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, etc, among the agencies to be merged? Also, how much do you think government will be saving from the exercise?

At this point, we cannot assess how much will be saved because the committee has not been inaugurated and we don’t have the approval of the Federal Executive Council, FEC. Maybe we will have the details after the inauguration. The comments people are making on which agency would save money is up to them. The committee has worked diligently and has looked into the various issues concerning reducing cost of governance. An agency may look small but when you look at its budget, you will know that it is mighty; small in size but mighty in budgetary allocation and spending. The assurance we are giving civil society is that we will collaborate and work with them. Recall what the Adviser said; that, as first step, they are implementing this.

Oronsaye has gone beyond scrapping and merging agencies of government, it has called for restructuring of agencies and ministries, management and staff audit of federal civil service. Something positive is going to come out of it.

My message to Nigerians is to be patient and allow the committee to be inaugurated because, like I said, something positive will come from this wonderful work. In all of these, we are also urging Nigerians to consider the country first, before themselves.

The report is 12 years old and, as such, people think it is outdated. What is your take? And people think the announcement of the implementation of the report was designed to distract from the NLC protests scheduled to hold the following day…

Government has taken note of that concern and that was why the other three committees were set up. They were set up basically to look into the agencies created after the Oronsaye Report was submitted. Secondly, it was to update the decisions taken. I want to inform Nigerians that some aspects of the report have been implemented. For instance, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit that was under EFCC became an office of its own about three years ago.

The privatisation of the River Basin Development Authority was part of the recommendations of the Oronsaye Report, some aspects have been implemented, including the removal of regulatory agencies from the national budget which the Ministry of Finance has driven since last year.

The three committees updated the Oronsaye Report and that is what is going to be implemented. It is not obsolete. It is up-to-date. We have learnt a lot and this is not out of a book but out of experience. We had problems in 2005 – 2007 because major stakeholders, including the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC, were not carried along. On the issue of distraction, I am not a politician. I don’t know if it was a strategy but the Adviser did not say it was going to be implemented on the 27th or 28th. She only spoke of the committee being constituted. So, I think they are two different things.

What attitudinal change do we expect after the exercise?

Recall that we have the National Strategy on Public Service Reforms and Pillar Four of that strategy is looking at cultural re-orientation of the attitude of public servants and the … strategy that is driven by the Office of Head of Service of the Federation is also looking at the issue of attitudinal change by workers. Let’s be happy that government has picked us to serve in this capacity.

That alone is enough to make us patriotic and ready to deliver beyond expectation. In terms of efficiency, we have been driving reforms and changes within the public service aimed at improving efficiency within government agencies.

Some of us outside the service may feel that we have not gone to where we should be, but I am confident in telling you that civil service has improved over the years. Recall that Nigeria has an approved e-master plan which is looking at digitalizing the public service.

Also, we have approved blockchain technology in public service delivery. Digitalization of the word process is going to improve the efficiency of Ministries, Agencies and Departments of government.

Part of the reforms is aimed at opening the system so that civil societies like the Socio-Economic and Accountability Project, SERAP, will be able to work with us and demand excellence in service delivery. The Bureau of Public Service Reforms is working with several civil society groups that are helping us bring out excellent policy briefs that the government is looking at. The Renewed Hope Agenda is aimed at reforms and change. You can see that our President is always talking about reforms wherever he goes.

How is the government dealing with the issue of job loss which appears to be unavoidable if the report is implemented?

When the report was submitted, the government was asked to ensure minimal job loss. Also, the three committees had the same message. The Minister of Information also passed the same message; that there will be minimal job loss and that civil servants should not be afraid. Labour is going to be part of the entire exercise and we shall be briefing Nigerians from time to time.

If agencies are to be scrapped, can you tell us how many jobs will be lost?

Oronsaye recommended that you scrap the agencies and move the staff to where their services will be required. How will these measures cut cost? We are also looking at reducing expenditures at the National Assembly as a way of cutting cost…

If, for instance, an agency that runs a budget of N1b with a running cost of N800m is subsumed by another agency, that capital expenditure of N1b and N800m will be saved. What will remain is personnel cost for the subsuming agency. Recall what happened when we scrapped NAPEP and moved their staff to other agencies.

Whatever decision that is taken will benefit us as Nigerians and as a nation. The Gonji Bukar Aji Committee recommended that political appointees should be guided by the circular of government that determines the number of appointments to be made. The legislative arm of government is working closely with us especially the new Committee on Constitutional Reforms. There will also be a national call for all of us to make sacrifices any way we can.

Is the Committee also going to recommend a reduction in the number of ministers which is now 48?

The call we are making is for Nigerians to look at Nigeria first, work and support the committee and government on this laudable initiative.

At the end of the day, we believe that the common man in the street is going to benefit from this initiative.

Vanguard News Nigeria

It is in order to say President Bola Tinubu is actually showing some balls with many decisions he has taken since he assumed power, although the jury is still out on the reforms. Last Monday, he “ordered” (we Nigerian journalists are madly in love with that word, aren’t we?) the implementation of the Oronsaye Report. We must quickly remind ourselves that it is a seasonal practice. President Goodluck Jonathan, who set up the seven-member panel in 2012 to “restructure and rationalise” governmental bodies, “ordered” the implementation in 2014. President Muhammadu Buhari also “ordered” the implementation in 2020. Let us now hope or pray that this will be the final “order”.

We have this obsession with proliferating governmental bodies in Nigeria. For example, we used to have the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) regulating the entire petroleum industry. Someone had a brain wave that we can further atomise it, so we now have the Nigeria Upstream Regulatory Commission (NURC) and the Nigeria Downstream and Midstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA). Someone will soon develop the idea of creating the Nigeria Downstream Regulatory Commission (Diesel), the Nigeria Downstream Regulatory Commission (Petrol) and the Nigeria Downstream Regulatory Commission (Kerosene and Others). Please, don’t quote me.

How did we get here? Let me guess. Setting up agencies is our own way of “job creation”. Normally, it is private businesses that should be proliferating and creating jobs in a market-driven economy, but since this has become a very difficult thing for us (maybe because the economic policies, operating environment and infrastructure are very hostile to innovation and growth), we have found the short cut by creating agencies upon agencies. The newly established National Commission for the Coordination and Control of Proliferation of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NATCOM) announced last year that it was going to employ and train about 300,000 Nigerians. Yes, 300,000 Nigerians.

Let me guess again. For a tiny group of people, the sweetest jobs in Nigeria are the ones with the coat of arms on the business cards, so proposals for the creation of new government agencies and institutions are never scarce. The moving spirits, or the political enablers, are probably thinking of replicating a bank or a fintech firm with an MD, EDs and GMs. Some agencies have been created since because someone had an idea of the lucre on offer. It does not matter if the agency will be duplicating the functions of another or if it will be useless altogether. Even before some agencies are legally created, the executives are already waiting in the wings. This is stranger than fiction.

How did we get here? As I was saying, when the oil boom happened to us in the 1970s, we lost our senses. As a result of the Arab-Israeli war of October 1973, crude oil prices had risen fourfold within five months. From an average price of $3 per barrel in 1973, it was going for $12 by December 1974. Nigeria became overwhelmed with the flood of petrodollars and the accompanying pathologies. In 1970, our earnings from oil exports was a modest $200 million. Between 1973 and 1978, we earned an overwhelming $32 billion, averaging over $5 billion per year. Imagine your salary is N150,000 and you hit a windfall that now pays you N4 million monthly. You will surely be agog and go gaga.

With so much money, we began to expand the size of government without paying the necessary attention to need, efficiency and service delivery. In 1972, the Udoji Public Service Review Commission was set up by the military government to examine the organisation, structure and management of public service. In 1974, the commission made far-reaching reform proposals, but government was more excited about the recommended 100 percent increase in salaries and benefits across board — to be backdated to 1972 and paid in arrears. That would be politically more popular and beneficial. We had the oil money, so why not spend it cheerfully? Why worry about tomorrow?

Everybody was happy with the Udoji Award, save for the economists who warned of a looming inflation. We had plenty petrodollars, so the exchange rate was about 60 kobo/$ (aka “The good old days”). It was cheaper to import biscuit than make it in Nigeria. Mr Joseph Atobisi, an activist, wrote two years ago, “Civil servants developed appetite for imported commodities like sugar, canned milk, stockfish, dumping available local alternatives. More workers bought cars and expensive furniture. Nigeria soon became an import dependent nation. Manufacturing started collapsing. Unemployment spiralled. From 5.40% in 1973, inflation rose to 12.67% in 1974 and 33.96% in 1975.” It is what it is.

One of the pathologies of sudden oil wealth — or should I say natural resource windfall — is the bloating of government expenditure, notably through wage bills, overheads and white elephant projects, under the philosophy of “nina lowo” (“money is meant to be spent”). We thought our problem was not money but how to spend it. This was at a time most rural roads were untarred and most villages unelectrified. Norway, which also enjoyed the oil boom, chose to insulate most of the windfall from its economy by setting up a special fund and continuing to be a fiscal state. Although we built infrastructure from the windfall, we also created a culture of bloating government budgets.

Another pathology of the several oil booms since 1973 (starting with the Udoji Award) is the humongous expansion of public service. Government jobs could be instantly created and workers easily employed — based more on political considerations than a desire to enhance administrative capacity and efficiency. Every oil windfall came with federal, state and local governments bloating expenditures, multiplying the agencies and thinking oil money would flow forever. We can argue that with a growing population and the liberalisation of the economy from the 1980s, we needed to expand public administrative capacity — but that was probably the smallest rationale on our minds.

We created an agency to make sure that fuel prices are the same all over the country and called it Petroleum Equalisation Fund. People reported for work every day. At no time were fuel prices the same but marketers still got the bridging payments in billions. We created an agency whose job is to enforce federal character in federal employments and named it Federal Character Commission (FCC), even when it is clear that federal character is always missing. People report to that office daily and they even have a DG. I can count at least 200 useless agencies. We have never had the intention of stopping the creation of more agencies or bloating public expenditure. It is always good for politics.

The National Assembly, in particular, appears to be trigger-happy when it comes to unleashing new agencies on us, although the blame equally goes to the executive and states. As reported by PUNCH published in 2022, the 9th Senate passed bills establishing 376 institutions and agencies. How they would be funded is none of their business. We created the Nigerian Independent Warehouse Regulatory Agency, National Poverty Eradication Commission, Erosion Control and Prevention Commission, etc etc. The bill to set up the Electoral Offences Commission (a job purely within the ambit of the police) is in the pipeline. A group recently proposed a Cement Price Control Agency!

In the last three decades, we have decimated the Nigerian Police Force by creating several agencies to duplicate or take over their functions. The Federal Road Safety Commission (FRSC), the Directorate of Road Traffic Services (which we call “VIO”), the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) are all performing the functions of the police. Barely two days after Tinubu “ordered” implementation of Oronsaye Report, the house of reps passed a bill setting up the Peace Corps to also do part of the job of the police. We play too much in this country.

Even before deciding to implement the Oronsaye Report, Tinubu had ruffled features by putting directors and permanent secretaries on a maximum tenure of eight years so that civil servants will stop gaming the system and holding on to those positions forever. The policy was introduced by President Umaru Musa Yar’Adua but Buhari reversed it. Let us now see how far Tinubu can go with the Oronsaye Report. There is a reason it had been gathering dust for 10 years without the political will to implement it. Vested interests will lobby to get some agencies exempted. They know what to do. We talk about how to make Nigeria work but work against it when our interests are at stake.

Finally, let me caution us that the Oronsaye Report is not a silver bullet, but it is a good development that Tinubu has set the ball rolling. He has a tough job ahead and he should know that. More so, the Oronsaye Report is dated, so there will be more knotty issues to deal with. For instance, what happens to the agencies that were created after the White Paper was issued? What happens to those commissions and agencies that are not under spotlight but are richer than some states? Shouldn’t we look at them too? Most importantly, Tinubu has to focus on an overall reform of the public service for optimal service delivery. Nigerians deserve better output from the bureaucracy.

And Four

Other Things…

FORWARD MOVEMENT

We have been told several times that we needed to ditch the “military constitution” because it is against “true federalism” but I am very happy that many states are moving forward with the same constitution. Aviation and railways are on the exclusive list, but states are building airports and running airlines. Lagos state has just inaugurated its second train service, the Red Line, covering Ebute Metta to Agbado with stations at Oyingbo, Yaba, Mushin, Oshodi, Ikeja, Agege and Iju. The first phase is projected to transport 750,000 passengers daily, reaching  1.1 million once it is fully operational. The Blue Line from Okokomaiko to Lagos Marina was inaugurated last year. Progress.

MARKET MESS

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has taken a series of policy measures in the last few days to stop the naira from bleeding, to create a sense of stability. We desperately needed some calm. The naira was already heading for N2,000/$ and someone joked that it might enter 2025 before all of us. The MPC decision on interest rate has been praised by many market analysts who are hopeful that the economy will respond positively. The instability in recent times has been very devastating, although I find it comforting that there has been a swift and decisive response and Mr Yemi Cardoso, the CBN governor, has done a good job of trying to calm our fears. We are watching with bated breath. Relief.

RICE AND DEATH

The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) has gone into the business of repackaging and selling contraband rice to help implement Tinubu’s “renewed hope” agenda. Well done. But, predictably, there was zero risk assessment and zero crowd control, so seven people lost their lives in the stampede at the zonal headquarters in Yaba, Lagos, where the sale took place. In response to the tragedy, customs suspended the exercise, belatedly saying it was “part of the service’s resolve to ensure the safety of Nigerians and to enable it to properly articulate its next line of action, in order not to defeat the vision of the initiative”. Why was I expecting to hear customs had fired someone? Negligence.

NO COMMENT

The Nigerian government has introduced the expatriates employment levy (EEL), fixed at $15,000 per employee. According to the geniuses behind the policy, the levy is intended to “discourage” companies from hiring expatriates for jobs Nigerians “can do”. The EEL is expected to generate $13 billion per year. Imagine if the UK, US and Canada reciprocate by charging $15,000 on each Nigerian immigrant working in their countries. Meanwhile, will expats doing the jobs Nigerians cannot do also pay the levy? If you really want to “discourage” expats, why not deny them work visas? And how will you raise your $13 billion after discouraging expats from coming to Nigeria? And you know what? The company that got the contract is owned by expats doing the job Nigerians can do! Wonderful.

On Monday, the 188MW Geometric Power Plant in Aba, Abia State, was  commissioned. By this weekend, Aba Power Limited, a subsidiary of Geometric Power, will commence the supply of electricity to a section of Enyimba City. It has taken long, two decades in coming. But soon, the much-needed electricity to unleash the full potentials of Aba, the industrial and commercial nerve centre of Abia, will surely make up for the long wait.

I congratulate and appreciate the efforts of Prof Barth Nnaji and his team to deliver on this project despite all the (political and) business environment obstacles. 

His tenacity and demonstration of the ‘can-do spirit’ is exemplary. It is remarkable that the governor of Abia state had stayed the course of the project that he had made an initial contribution to as a private sector person. Equally worthy of congratulation is the enterprising people of Abia.

This significant milestone is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it improves peoples access to electricity – and thereby improves the overall quality of life of the people of Abia. This is a privilege the people of Abia must be thankful for. As we all know, more than 40% of Nigeria’s 220 million people do not have access to electricity.

Secondly, it is a big boost to businesses. Aba is one of Southeast’s industrial nerve centres. The other is the Nnewi axis. Inadequate power infrastructure is identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Nigeria. More than 70% of firms in Nigeria use generators.

Thirdly, the project is delivered by the private sector – and an indigenous one to boot! It demonstrates the resilience of the private sector despite all the business environment issues. It also demonstrates the capacity of the local private sector to deliver on such huge and complex projects.

Why does this excite me?

I have all along been concerned that:

1. The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has over the years suffered from inadequate investments, failure of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.

2. Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is very low, estimated at 35-40% of GDP, below the international benchmark of  70% and below South Africa 87%, Indonesia 70%, China 76% and India 58%.

3. The finances required to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap are in the region of US$100 billion per annum – over the next 30 years.  Nigeria does not have the resources to provide all of its infrastructure needs without sacrificing investments in education, health, and other social services. It should be remembered that Nigeria struggles to budget no more than US$30 billion annually.

For these reasons, I have been an ardent advocate of private sector presence in Nigeria. I have all along advocated for a private sector friendly business environment so we could leverage its enormous resources, including finance, skills, and technology. I doubt if the Abia state government would have been able to execute this mega project with the resources at its disposal.  

My policy document outlines how Nigeria could prioritize investments to increase the stock and improve the quality of economic and social infrastructure across the country. We believe that  narrowing the enormous gap that exists between the demand and supply of key infrastructure facilities in Nigeria is key to improving the competitiveness of our businesses, opening new economic and entrepreneurial opportunities, and promoting enterprise growth. 

To achieve this, we pledged to undertake far-reaching institutional reforms and introduce innovative infrastructure financing models that will be appealing to the private sector to take risks and invest capital.

To this end, we pledged to:

· Facilitate the establishment of a private sector-led Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to mobilize domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all sectors of the economy.  

· Establish an “Infrastructure Development Unit” (IDU) in the Presidency, with a coordinating function and a specific mandate of working with the MDAs to fast track and drive the process of infrastructure development in the country.

· Strengthen the capacity of the ICRC to promote Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in the construction and management of infrastructure across the country.

· Broaden the scope of InfraCredit  to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital. 

· Open up the entire power sector from generation to transmission for private investments.

Going forward, the goal of every developing country must be to  achieve universal access to electricity, ensuring that every citizen benefits from reliable power for daily needs, education, healthcare, and economic activities. This would be in line with the SDG 7 (Sustainable Development Goal 7), which aims to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In this wise:

· Nigeria must double efforts to support the likes of Prof Nnaji. Nigerian governments both federal and state must provide the Business environment that will make  the private enterprises more competitive by (1)  reducing their costs of set-up and operations (2) improving their margins and (3) making government policies more predictable.

· In particular, the authorities must create an environment that will enable distribution companies to recover full costs for power supplied to their consumers with firm commitment to a metering program for all customers. The scourge of electricity theft must be dealt with through a viable partnership between investors in the distribution companies and the government with legislative support for prompt action against electricity theft.

· Attention must be paid to improve access to Credit by enterprises willing to invest in the power sector.

· Government must incentivize the private sector to increase greenfield investments in the development of off-grid solutions to intensify electrification, particularly of rural communities not yet serviced by the grid.

Abubakar, Nigeria’s Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 elections.

An Igbo proverb says that the man who complained about the relocation of the village market because its current location suited his wife is not thinking of the needs and fortunes of the larger community. The Igbo will also tell you that a coffin merchant who says to a customer “I will give you a discount when you come for the next purchase” must be viewed with misgivings by all men and women of goodwill. There is also the Igbo saying that whoever makes a living by impunity, presumption and braggadocio will have a very hard time when widespread hunger, draught and famine compels everyone in the community to deploy his farming skills.

Which brings us to the outcry of Katsina Elders, among other allegedly ‘Northern’ voices, when news of the relocation of some departments of the Central bank of Nigeria and aviation ministry hit the airwaves. Like Senator Ndume, who opened with a rather virulent salvo, the Katsina Elders forum asked President Tinubu to either reconsider the decision or face the clear possibility of losing Northern support in the 2027 elections. The statement was that blunt; and to the point.

But what is this much-vaunted point? The reaction was very likely in anticipation of the potential socio-economic impact of a relocation of institutions of state on Northern Nigeria. The group accused some individuals of ill-advising President Tinubu, calling the presumes mis-advisers enemies of Nigeria who aim to undermine the unity of the country.

By implication the, Katsina Elders are saying that the unity and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is secured and maintained by the continued presence of certain government institutions in Abuja – or in the North, generally. Now, that is absurd, is it not?

Not quite done on the matter, the forum accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of supporting the federal government’s plan to relocate anything at all. Quite an “accusation”, wouldn’t you say? The group also asked why Wike was “inviting the Israelis to come and provide security to (sic) Abuja.” That is the business of Katsina Elders – I mean what a minister does, or does not do, in Abuja; right?

This group of wise elders said nothing when Miyetti Allah, a trade union of cattle dealers, set up a fully kitted alternative national security outfit, with its pilot test case in Nasarawa State. The group said nothing when the son of Professor Ango Abdullahi, Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, was kidnapped from a Kaduna-bound train. The young man was held captive for months, until the full ransom was paid. Not even the subsequent kidnapping of Ango Abdullahi’s relation and her four children, shortly after the release of his son on ransom, was a matter of interest to Katsina Elders.

Even now, the Katsina Elders have not seen anything to worry, or talk, about concerning the routine pillaging of the North by marauders of northern Nigeria origins. Instead, they are very deeply concerned about what President Tinubu should do, in order to please the North and get the support he would need to win the 2027 elections. In strident tones, the group said:
“… we are telling Mr. President, as long as he is interested in coming back in 2027, … to reverse these unconstitutional decisions. Whoever is advising him to take such decisions is an enemy of the country.”

Perhaps the revered Katsina Elders would recall a lengthy submission of four years ago, by the Northern elder statesman, Ahmed Joda. The latter sought to remind his brothers and sisters that Northern Nigeria was not developing its human capital. He also told them, in that well-publicized open expression of concern that the North no longer had the time to do so anymore; and that the region was now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow. He summed it by saying that the North needed at least 20 years of super-accelerated development of its human capital in order to be taken seriously in today’s world.

Is the foregoing the concern of most of the people speaking for the North today? What you see, instead, is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance. No one is asking whether the larger half of the youths of the region possess the skills for tomorrow, or anything that could make them part of a 21st century world in any way.

Everyone now overlooks the major point in Joda’s intervention, which revolved around the fact that the triumphalism of cattle herders will not take the North anywhere in the immediate and long terms. The herders’ illusion of invulnerability rests on a conspiracy to use national security framework to promote insecurity in specific regions of the country. Can this last forever?  Has the headship of institutions of state helped the North, or created a “replacement generation” that can lead the region into the future – even here in Nigeria?

There are abandoned, ungoverned and even ungovernable, spaces all over Northern Nigeria, due to terrorism and banditry. The North’s dominant elite lives in Abuja, while playing games with the very criminals that are wiping out northerners and laying their lands desolate.  

An article which appeared on this page on April 17, 2019, titled “As the North Goes Under”, spoke of how a serving Secretary to the Zamfara State Government “…explained how he abandoned his farm and ranch because of cattle rustling and fear for his personal safety.” He confessed that “it was impossible to deploy law enforcement agents, even for himself, in any meaningful way” because they were mostly outnumbered, ill equipped and answerable to Abuja. As I write, matters have worsened very dramatically in Zamfara State over the years.

Remember that the government of Katsina State once signed an agreement with bandits; for them to stop robbing and maiming hapless citizens under Governor Maisari?  What became of that agreement, and what did Katsina Elders say about it; and about the series of kidnappings going on in the state? What did they say, at that time, about the months-long kidnap of a Katsina State traditional ruler, and of the recent kidnap of a home-going bride and the 63 women accompanying her in the same Katsina?

Remember that Bauchi State signed an MoU on service delivery with development partners a few years ago? Remember also that the same Bauchi State has schools and other social amenities that are better not talked about here. The situation is hardly different in Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano and other northern states. Even states with over 10% of their geographical spaces occupied by marauders have been drafting and implementing budgets and development projects covering these areas, where no one lives.

Is it just elite myopia, leadership illiteracy and abysmal ignorance at work here? Most of Nigeria’s poor are northerners. It is always the case, whether or not most high profile political and economically rewarding positions are held by Northerners. For the first time ever, beginning with the tenure of President Buhari, the North came out with the greatest evidence of a people’s failure to follow the rules of political and economic self-preservation.

What you find at most major social events organized by prominent politicians in most parts of the country today, but specially the North, is that the guests are overwhelmed by shabby looking youths. They are either generally prowling the vicinity, directly affronting guests, or raiding laid out serving-food tables. They are very hungry, and not yet very angry about that. They are looking for bits of leftover, a little cash gift here and there, perhaps a half empty bottle of water, oo a soft drink. Nothing more!

And the big men themselves are usually not embarrassed by the spectacle.

It should be easy for the Katsina Elders to see the disconnect between today’s world and the illusion of relevance they are trying to sustain. School enrolment, the acquisition of vocational skills, professional development, and overall academic performance have not improved, and are not improving, in the North. But go and take a look at the recorded expenditures on education in the last ten years alone.

The North has not shown a significant increase in the number of people registering for SSCE, NECO and similar competitive examinations. And Northerners is being progressively wiped out by “their people” who come here from Chad, Mali, Niger and further away. Many Northern youths are begging in the streets, or in the forests, while those from outside Nigeria now dominate even the herding business; as they turn everywhere into a no-man’s-land. More and more foreigners may be the ones with Nigerian ID cards in the North. The total number of registered candidates for all competitive examinations from the 19 states of the north continues to stand much lower than that of one serious state in the South. Yet, the Katsina Elders are not looking in the right direction for their problems.

The roaming bands of marauders who have no conception of even Fulani/Muslim brotherhood may yet be the undoing of Northern Nigeria, unless the Northern elite wake up on time – if it still has time. The merciless, mindless and truly gruesome regular killing, the kidnappings and the rapacious banditry now has a life of its own. A new breed of wild young men, with predominantly predatory and anti-social skills, and who would rather pick up any healthy-looking man rather than say ‘Ranka dede’, are on the ascendant in Northern Nigeria. This is bad! Very bad for us all!

When you combine the foregoing with widespread drug abuse, poverty, open-ended criminality and elite insensitivity in one location, there you have the ingredients for brewing what is keeping most northern big men to Abuja and environs. Can they be in exile forever? I think not! Abuja itself is no longer safe. Many high-profile, and presumably impregnable, estates and exclusive neighbourhoods in Abuja are no routinely attacked; at the pleasure of bandits and kidnappers.

From the angle of business and simple economics, local economies have collapsed. Re-desertification has taken over the places abandoned by victims of insurgency. Farming and animal husbandry are in limbo, in places where they used to thrive. There is now no peace mind of for those who had the chance to make a difference but failed to do so. Thus, the elite must now spend so much on armed escorts and sundry security measures.

To the Katsina elders, as I said at the beginning of this piece, “…the man who complained about the relocation of the village market because its current location suited his wife is not thinking of the needs and fortunes of the larger community. …whoever makes a living by impunity, presumption and braggadocio will have a very hard time when widespread hunger, draught and famine compels everyone in the community to deploy his farming skills”.

In dealing with one of the initial shocks of the fuel subsidy removal in June 2023, many agencies of the Federal Government and a good number of state governments ‘officially’ reduced working days of the week to either three or two days, instead of the normal five. This initiative was a sort of palliative to lighten the burden of civil servants who were faced with an outrageously high and rising cost of transportation, triggered by rise in the pump price of fuel (Premium Motor Spirit, PMS) sequel to fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on 29 May 2023.

However, while the reduction in work days may alleviate the plight of the civil servants, productivity at the state and Federal levels was utterly sacrificed. In other words, the main reason for hiring these civil servants was played down—all culminating in unquantifiable loss of the ‘output’ of these public servants. On the aggregate, nationwide, Nigeria would have lost immeasurably in terms of the productivity that would have added up to the much needed economic growth and development.

Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services. Productivity is said to increase when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs. But in the subsisting ‘palliative regime’ in Nigeria, the same number of civil servants is being used to ‘produce’ the same or less services at the Federal and sub-national levels: all because of the adverse impact of government policies.

Ever since the adoption of the two or three days (working) week in June 2023, almost every initiative of the Federal and state governments have principally to do with palliatives. There have been hues of ‘salary awards’, cash transfers and motley in-kind palliatives. It is on record that the Federal Government at a point late last year, announced a dole of five billion Naira to each of the states for an assortment of palliative packages for their citizens. The utilization of this fund got ‘soaked’ in the politics of each of the states; and the governors mainly used their political party ‘network’ to reach out to select beneficiaries.

Till date, many of the state governments are still contending that they were given only N2 billion and not N5 billion; and that the money was only to be repaid. Howbeit, it remains very doubtful if the right targets (the very vulnerable) got the government’s largesse (palliatives) in most of the states. This is why, over the past months, rather than things getting better, many more Nigerian have been pushed into the poverty trap in the face of sharp increases in the cost of living.

The import of all these has been continuing deterioration of the nation’s social fabric: sharp increases in crimes and criminality, upheavals and skirmishes, youth restiveness, organized protests, etc. All these have combined to heighten socio-economic tension, even as insecurity keeps posing existential threat to all. The polity is now such that government at all levels is contending with a hungry, angry and restive citizenry. The upshot of this reality has been packaging and re-packaging of all manner of palliatives to (perhaps) merely assuage the frayed nerves and ire of the populace across the country.

In the past couple of weeks, there have been public protests in not a few towns and cities in various parts of the country: Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Abuja, Edo and Osun states, etc. As the protests keep spreading like wild fire, governments (states and federal) seem yet preoccupied with ‘dousing’ the tension (anger, hunger, poverty) through palliatives. This is perhaps why, instead of expeditiously coming up with a new/improved salary structure (or minimum wage), the Federal government seems more bent of paying ‘cash awards’ and ‘crumbs’ to calm the Organized Labor (OL), as it were.

The upshot of this has been that in the past eight or nine months, the OL has been in an endless dingdong with the Federal government over the form and content of palliatives as well as the new minimum wage.

While these remain open-ended, the Federal government has resorted to giving ‘food palliatives’; under this arrangement, the Tinubu administration, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, is working on releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to support the vulnerable population across the country. As this is ongoing, various state governments in a variety of ways, are institutionalizing the ‘palliatives culture.’ In Lagos state, the commercial hub of the country, for instance, a ‘Special Dispensation Palliative Advisory Committee’ has just been set up.

Chaired by the Governor, with his Deputy as alternate Chairman, the eleven man inter-party panel is to determine the content and variety of palliatives to be put in place by the government, going forward. It will also determine the timing and mode of distribution—to reach the teeming populace. At the Federal level, too, President Tinubu has equally empaneled a tripartite economic advisory committee—essentially to come up with “immediate measures to stabilize the economy.” Made up of representatives from the Federal and state governments as well as the Organized Private Sector (OPS), the panel is to help initiate steps to speedily “bring life back to the economy.”

The situation is not different in other states of the country: it is either the government is buying and distributing foodstuff or buying and deploying buses to ‘ease’ transportation challenges in its domain. These buses are made to charge ‘subsidized’ fares as palliatives for the people. Since June 2023, the Federal government had during festive seasons ensured ‘low fare’ charges by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for users of the railways across the country—all in the spirit of palliatives.

Some state governments have so integrated the ‘palliative culture’ into their mode of operation that they rather give crop seedlings (yam, maize, cassava, etc.) to their populace than introduce them to mechanized farming. In point of fact, the seedlings (and in some cases, fertilizer and other inputs) are sold by government (agencies) at subsidized rates—again, as palliatives.

In truth, a panoramic view of all these ‘palliative interventions’ will put to question whatever has been the economic development blueprint of the governments. If there has been any realistic economic roadmap, would palliatives or ad hoc provisions been necessary? Indeed, in the absence of a realistic destination (roadmap), every road (palliatives and doles) just takes Nigeria to somewhere (economically). And that has been its plight for upwards of one year now. At present, the Nigerian economy badly needs direction, stimulation and leapfrogging for a quantum leap. Palliatives will always remain what they are: crumbs!

• The author, Okeke, a practising Economist, Business Strategist, Sustainability expert and ex-Chief Economist of Zenith Bank Plc, lives in Lekki, Lagos. He can be reached via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  In dealing with one of the initial shocks of the fuel subsidy removal in June 2023, many agencies of the Federal Government and a good number of state governments ‘officially’ reduced working days of the week to either three or two days, instead of the normal five. This initiative was a sort of palliative to lighten the burden of civil servants who were faced with an outrageously high and rising cost of transportation, triggered by rise in the pump price of fuel (Premium Motor Spirit, PMS) sequel to fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on 29 May 2023.

  However, while the reduction in work days may alleviate the plight of the civil servants, productivity at the state and Federal levels was utterly sacrificed. In other words, the main reason for hiring these civil servants was played down—all culminating in unquantifiable loss of the ‘output’ of these public servants. On the aggregate, nationwide, Nigeria would have lost immeasurably in terms of the productivity that would have added up to the much needed economic growth and development.

  Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services. Productivity is said to increase when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs. But in the subsisting ‘palliative regime’ in Nigeria, the same number of civil servants is being used to ‘produce’ the same or less services at the Federal and sub-national levels: all because of the adverse impact of government policies.

  Ever since the adoption of the two or three days (working) week in June 2023, almost every initiative of the Federal and state governments have principally to do with palliatives. There have been hues of ‘salary awards’, cash transfers and motley in-kind palliatives. It is on record that the Federal Government at a point late last year, announced a dole of five billion Naira to each of the states for an assortment of palliative packages for their citizens. The utilization of this fund got ‘soaked’ in the politics of each of the states; and the governors mainly used their political party ‘network’ to reach out to select beneficiaries.

  Till date, many of the state governments are still contending that they were given only N2 billion and not N5 billion; and that the money was only to be repaid. Howbeit, it remains very doubtful if the right targets (the very vulnerable) got the government’s largesse (palliatives) in most of the states. This is why, over the past months, rather than things getting better, many more Nigerian have been pushed into the poverty trap in the face of sharp increases in the cost of living.

  The import of all these has been continuing deterioration of the nation’s social fabric: sharp increases in crimes and criminality, upheavals and skirmishes, youth restiveness, organized protests, etc. All these have combined to heighten socio-economic tension, even as insecurity keeps posing existential threat to all. The polity is now such that government at all levels is contending with a hungry, angry and restive citizenry. The upshot of this reality has been packaging and re-packaging of all manner of palliatives to (perhaps) merely assuage the frayed nerves and ire of the populace across the country.

  In the past couple of weeks, there have been public protests in not a few towns and cities in various parts of the country: Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Abuja, Edo and Osun states, etc. As the protests keep spreading like wild fire, governments (states and federal) seem yet preoccupied with ‘dousing’ the tension (anger, hunger, poverty) through palliatives. This is perhaps why, instead of expeditiously coming up with a new/improved salary structure (or minimum wage), the Federal government seems more bent of paying ‘cash awards’ and ‘crumbs’ to calm the Organized Labor (OL), as it were.

  The upshot of this has been that in the past eight or nine months, the OL has been in an endless dingdong with the Federal government over the form and content of palliatives as well as the new minimum wage.

  While these remain open-ended, the Federal government has resorted to giving ‘food palliatives’; under this arrangement, the Tinubu administration, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, is working on releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to support the vulnerable population across the country. As this is ongoing, various state governments in a variety of ways, are institutionalizing the ‘palliatives culture.’ In Lagos state, the commercial hub of the country, for instance, a ‘Special Dispensation Palliative Advisory Committee’ has just been set up.

  Chaired by the Governor, with his Deputy as alternate Chairman, the eleven man inter-party panel is to determine the content and variety of palliatives to be put in place by the government, going forward. It will also determine the timing and mode of distribution—to reach the teeming populace. At the Federal level, too, President Tinubu has equally empaneled a tripartite economic advisory committee—essentially to come up with “immediate measures to stabilize the economy.” Made up of representatives from the Federal and state governments as well as the Organized Private Sector (OPS), the panel is to help initiate steps to speedily “bring life back to the economy.”

  The situation is not different in other states of the country: it is either the government is buying and distributing foodstuff or buying and deploying buses to ‘ease’ transportation challenges in its domain. These buses are made to charge ‘subsidized’ fares as palliatives for the people. Since June 2023, the Federal government had during festive seasons ensured ‘low fare’ charges by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for users of the railways across the country—all in the spirit of palliatives.

  Some state governments have so integrated the ‘palliative culture’ into their mode of operation that they rather give crop seedlings (yam, maize, cassava, etc.) to their populace than introduce them to mechanized farming. In point of fact, the seedlings (and in some cases, fertilizer and other inputs) are sold by government (agencies) at subsidized rates—again, as palliatives.

  In truth, a panoramic view of all these ‘palliative interventions’ will put to question whatever has been the economic development blueprint of the governments. If there has been any realistic economic roadmap, would palliatives or ad hoc provisions been necessary? Indeed, in the absence of a realistic destination (roadmap), every road (palliatives and doles) just takes Nigeria to somewhere (economically). And that has been its plight for upwards of one year now. At present, the Nigerian economy badly needs direction, stimulation and leapfrogging for a quantum leap. Palliatives will always remain what they are: crumbs!

  • The author, Okeke, a practising Economist, Business Strategist, Sustainability expert and ex-Chief Economist of Zenith Bank Plc, lives in Lekki, Lagos. He can be reached via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.