The Nigerian Tribune was established in 1949 by Chief Obafemi Awolowo. Being seventy-five years old in 2024 and hence achieving the status of Nigeria’s privately-owned newspaper in Nigeria is a testament not only to the foresight of Chief Awolowo and the managerial acumen of those who have kept its legacies afloat all these years. It is also an indictment of all that have gone wrong with nation-building in Nigeria since independence in 1960. My time at the Nigerian Tribune was one of the best I had ever had in terms of intellectual stimulation and engagement. The editorial board meeting was always an intense one that task our critical perspectives on issues surrounding Nigeria’s economy, political status, democratic governance, international relations, and all sundry matters that relate with the founding vision of the newspaper. 

An editorial board that had the imprint of Alhaji Lateef Jakande, Aiyekooto Chief Olabisi Onabanjo, Abba Saheed Akogun Tola Adeniyi, Mr. Felix Adenaike, Mr. Biodun Oduwole, Mr. Folu Olamiti, Chief Ebenezer Babatope, Dr, Dokun Bojuade, Prof. Ebenezer Obadare, Prof. Wale Adebanwi, Prof. Farooq Kperogi, my colleague at the National Institute (NIPSS), Kuru, late Dr. Obadiah Mailafia, Edward Dickson, Dr. Lasisi Olagunju, Debo Abdulai, Sina Oladeinde, Prof. Adeola Adenikinju, Dr Festus Adedayo, Dr Wale Are-Olaitan, and so many other worthy gladiators of the journalistic guild. The Nigerian Tribune had to guard its ramparts against an encroaching debilitation of journalism as the fourth estate of the realm. At the height of the administrative violence of consecutive military regimes in Nigeria, the press and the media became the whipping boys that were subjected either to the culture of silence under the jackboot, or were lured into the warm arms of corrupt tendencies. It therefore takes only a fearless newspaper to keep churning out editorials that are sufficiently pungent and incisive to retain the sense of what an intrepid and ethical journalism ought to look like. 

It was not surprising therefore that the Tribune would be one of the outlets for my intellectual restlessness and my coming of age in terms of reform advocacy. I was then a public servant that was struggling with the challenge of being a neutral and anonymous while also passionately trying to push the fundamental elements of institutional reform and administrative matters into the public consciousness. And being in the midst of eminent scholars, academics, journalists and personalities was all the encouragement I needed to contribute my own quota to the critical enunciation of what ails Nigeria’s postcolonial status and how it could be resolved. I am a development thinker and institutional reformer, and Nigeria’s predicaments cannot be divorced from the lackluster performance of her civil service system and its capability readiness to capacitate democratic governance. 

The significance and continuing relevance of the Nigerian Tribune cannot be dissociated from the ideological sophistication and foresightedness of Awolowo’s nationalism and patriotic commitment to the Nigerian state. Awolowo’s intellectual and political engagement with the Nigerian state was one of tough love. Even though for him, Nigeria was “a mere geographical expression,” it was the responsibility of Nigerian nationalists and statesmen and women to fill out its potentials and responsibilities to its masses of citizens. And Awolowo had to grab the dilemma of being a Yoruba leader and a Nigerian nationalist by the horn. Being Yoruba, in his reckoning was a necessary plank in holding up Nigeria to its plural essence, rather than a divisive ethnic element. To prove his commitment to fashioning a truly significant ideological framework that would ground democratic governance, Awolowo insisted on democratic socialism as Nigeria’s ideological way out of her postcolonial national morass. 

Democratic socialism is a unique ideology. For democratic socialists, capitalism cannot be trusted to guarantee essential freedom and equality. Hence, there is the need for the state to interfere in the economy while also facilitating political and economic democracy. Awolowo’s brand of democratic socialism is even more unique. He advocates a limited form of social or public ownership of resources and a decentralized system that permits limited central government. This fits into his understanding of the plural nature of the Nigerian state and the significance of a federal system that allows the federating regions and states to develop at their own pace. The state and its federating units must however facilitate state-led infrastructural development that channels the state’s resources into education and others. 

A good ideology requires a mouthpiece that could stand as a critical intermediary between the state and the society, and between the government and the governed. The Nigerian Tribune, within Awolowo’s governance and political vision, was supposed to constitute a gadfly that continually and consistently sting the government of the day into incessant awareness of its responsibility to the masses. Awolowo was convinced of the relevance of his ideological predisposition for the political well-being of the Nigerian state, and so he was determined to pursue that ideological imperative through the establishment of a privately owned newspaper as a platform for disseminating the elements of democratic socialism, critique consecutive governments on their many governance deviations, and keep alive the challenge of making life meaningful for Nigerians. 

Of course, we cannot turn a blind eye to the immediate reason that led to the establishment of the Nigerian Tribune—a reactive development that sought to counteract Nnamdi Azikiwe’s West African Pilot and its ethnic triumphalism. That was the prerogative of Awolowo and the rest of the Yoruba political class, to undermine the self-righteous pursuit of Igbo nationalism by Azikiwe. However, it was not only Azikiwe that suffered the untoward consequences of a devastating critical pen. The Tribune was also deployed in the internal rivalry between Awolowo and S. L. Akintola, Awolowo’s nemesis in the Western Region. The unfortunate result is the role that the newspaper played in stoking the fire that conflagrated the region. But the Awolowo-Akintola could also be seen from an ideological perspective, the conflict between democratic socialism and the capitalist path favored by Akintola. And it would seem that Awolowo won out because he understood the power of the media, and Tribune not only constructed Awolowo as he wanted to be constructed, but also constructed the ideological reality he wanted Nigeria to adopt for betterment of the people.   

The Tribune’s metamorphosis over the years is a testament to its sturdy resilience and a self-reflexive capacity to keep rethinking its objectives within the context and challenges in time and space. While other competitors of a bygone era had been swept under the carpet of history, the Tribune has nestled itself into relevance through a consistent articulation of the relevance of Awolowo’s nationalist call for a responsible government with an ideological vision for making Nigeria work for Nigerians, thus conferring on it the remarkable garland of being Nigeria’s oldest privately-owned newspaper. And that essentially is its own legacy especially in a generation that is technology-driven and social media focused. The influence of the social media today speaks to a form of epistemological relativism that challenges the significance of truth. The social media fragments reality in a way that has implications for journalism. Now, everyone with a phone and internet-access can report any news from any angle and perspective. The sensational rated by virality has obliterated the objective. 

The critical question is how do we begin to understand journalism in a context of postcolonial political predicament and in a post-truth world? Can journalism afford to be dragged into the turbulence of post-truth reporting? While not discountenancing the significance of social media as a platform for resistance and political mobilization, we cannot also ignore its capacity for the fragmentation of fact and the capacity to sensationalize truth. When we situate journalism between the ethical responsibility to mediate influence and facilitate action, then we immediately see how journalism is conjoined to ethics; indeed, we see how journalism that lacks ethics becomes a dangerous handmaid of a post-truth world. We begin to see the dire challenges of reporting the facts within a postcolonial context like Nigeria where facts are sacrosanct to the determination of the well-being of Nigerians and the forging of a strong nation. Outside of an ethical responsibility to gatekeep journalism, what happened as the crisis of the Western Region becomes almost inevitable in a state experimenting with democratic governance and needing an ethical journalism to make sense of it.     

This is where it makes sense to locate the future prospects of the Nigerian Tribune in contemporary Nigeria. To overcome its sordid past and consolidate its current achievements, the Tribune must situate itself at the forefront of ethical journalism that keeps alight the ideological underpinning of the role that journalism can play in articulating the imperatives of democratic governance, the challenges of serving as a watchdog that consistently put democracy under vigilance, and the necessities of gatekeeping the professional ethic of patriotic journalism. Henry Anatole Grunwald, former United States ambassador to Austria, aptly sums the dilemma of journalism in today’s world: “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.” 

Traversing the line between virtue and vice, for journalism in Nigeria today, demands a significant reflection on the governance structure of any newspaper. In its contemporary iteration, the Nigerian Tribune seems to have hit upon a critical understanding of staffing eminent personalities, from academics and scholars to astute journalists and editors with the acumen for excellence. It is to the governance structure one must then look for a consistent objective that navigate the terrible terrain of politics with an ethical compass and the standard of objectivity. This is both the legacy that the Nigerian Tribune has left for print journalism in Nigeria, and the responsibility it must keep shouldering to uphold its service to democracy.  

When I do my quick sweep of WhatsApp group platforms I am looking to see trending issues worth the pause for a read. Recently I found the Tax Reform package going through the National Assembly trending. But I was reluctant to give the postings a good read for reasons of a sense of Deja vous, have I not seen this before, until verbal altercation by two people I know well made me try to find out what they were quarreling about. I then read the package of bills in which were some progressive, and problematic, proposals, from my perspective. The bigger concern, I thought was that we seem to be quarreling about the less important things. There are, in my view more consequential matters for a developmental state disposition from the bill that we seem to be losing in Nigeria as we focus on who gets more of revenues from taxes.

The main issues on equity in collecting and sharing revenues which seem to dominate the exchanges I saw, sort of reminded me that I have grown old with too little accomplished. This is because I entered the public sphere in Nigeria, in the eyes of those who missed my student activism and youth corps journalism days, around the subject of taxation.
I had just returned from Grad school in 1982 and then NTA DG Vincent Maduka had asked them to put me on TV. On that first NTA network interview I lamented the fact that we did not pay taxes and how that resulted in poor governance.

Going back to the Boston Tea Party revolt of no taxation without representation I made the point the appetite to holding government accountable was low because there was no endowment effect’ of ‘oh why are they spending my money like that’. We left government alone and did not demand accountability because they did not demand that we pay taxes and they left us alone because Oil revenues were there for them to play with and we did not bother them because we did not see the money as our money.
The Centre had, in my view, at the time consolidated abuse of federalism the military created, and played games to hand out prebends to stakeholders seeking a share of the national cake, phenomenon Richard Joseph had called out as Bureacratic Prebendalism, in his writings, beginning with his book Prebendal Politics in Nigeria. This I argued was killing the growth spurred by what Robert Melson and Howard Wolpe had called competitive communalism that drove the manufacturing surge between 1957 and Independence, in the competition between the subnationals on who would most bring progress to their people. This phenomenon had outcomes like Kaduna becoming the hub of Nigeria’s Textile industry and Ikeja and Aba trading factories of companies like Pfizer. The outcome was bottom up competitive economic growth in early first republic.
I went on to talk about what to do to revive taxation and issues of horizontal and vertical equity in tax policy.

Then Vice President Alex Ekwueme was apparently one of those watching tv that night and he made sure he sent people out scouting for me.
Sad that 42 years after we are having this kind of conversation on taxes still hooked on the prebendal obsession with who is getting what in an economy that is not producing. What we are taxing is direct and indirect rent from Oil. All this can work up to from experience and continuing evidence is pillage by the powerful and further underdevelopment. In ways the package may negate the fiscal responsibility laws former finance minister Ngosi Okonji- Iweala pushed unto the law books.
Even more important a question for me, having observed the policy process for four and half decades, is whether tax revenues improve the well being of society.
Good insight comes to this from Local governments in the fiscal transfer arrangements.

In the Independence constitution local governments were not part of the fiscal transfers. They were just administrative discretions of the region. The Eastern and Western Regions chose to have more LGAs than the Northern region. There were no revenue consequences of these preferences.
By the time the Obasanjo reforms took place in 1976, LGAs would not only get a share of federally collected revenues but 20.9% of those revenues.
The powerful began to create more LGAs to their areas to get more revenues. We ended up with 774 LGAs with nearly twice as many in the old North compared to the old order when the South, had many more LGAs

For me to whom the bottom line is the welfare of the average person is the bottom line, is there evidence this increased flow of revenues has improved lives. To the contrary the North where I grew up with pride, has become poorer with higher revenue flows. Like the lottery effect where the poor man who won the lottery is often quickly back where he started the revenue flows effect throws up new questions.
This is why the tax reform issues debate sounds like the running water of a distant stream to me.

Revenues in unreformed Nigeria with state capture at the fore and cost of governance in the stratosphere do not have a developmental consequence. They instead deepen corruption and desperation for political power, all adding up to disaffection with the state and more violence, banditry, kidnappings and insurgences.
I think we should begin to focus more on retreating production. How do taxes stimulate production? The supply side needs to be king. And citizen control of politicians and their impunity of conduct need to follow closely. We should also move past this zero sum game in which anything that seems to benefit one group is seen as loss by another.
It reminds me of a comment I made in an interview with Richard Dowden that was published in the Economist in 1996. I suggested that if the Generals and politicians could be given an Island with complete access to Nigeria’s Oil revenues on condition they never have anything to do with the country Nigeria would be better of. The Economist in its tradition of subtle commentary said of my remarks: fair comment.

I have engaged other issues in this space more recently. In one of those I pointed to need for care in issues of tax to GDP ratios prescribed by multilaterals. This is because they may not be sensitive to sociocultural realities. The citizen in Nigeria’s extended family system pay a huge social tax to make up for the social safety nets not provided as done by governments elsewhere. We therefore need to compute these things differently especially where tax policy aims to allow for savings that are invested to generate new ventures. I say this bearing in mind that one of the major contributions to this thinking was Arthur Laffer with the Laffer Curve that was an anchor for supply side economics and that Arthur Laffer gave credit for the equation that the thesis was based on to a Nigerian PhD student of his back in the 1970s.

We have to have systems that discipline government spending and brings in civil society in a regime of checks, as the legislature has gone rogue and is part of state capture, and where the idea of the developmental state, as Omano Edeghije laments,has been eclipsed before traditional prescriptions of Debt to GDP ratios make sense.
This indeed brings to the fore the point James Robison made on CNN last month when he was announced one of the winners of this year’s Nobel Prize in Economics that Economic Development is an intensely political process. Throwing out debt to GDP ratios and pushing for increasing task revenue may just be like Washington Consensus and SAP policies which reasonable in theory led, for example to the despoiling of Nigeria’s educational system that was the very anchor of early progress. A political class that understands and cares is imperative for progress.

To conclude, in my experience revenues do not a Nigerian group make better. So anyone can keep the revenues if they promise to leave those who want to toil for a better life alone.
Pat Utomi

The English Premier League has unveiled the official dates for the 2025/26 season in a statement released late Friday.

The new campaign will kick off on Saturday, August 16, 2025, with the final match round slated for Sunday, May 24, 2026, ensuring a thrilling season from start to finish.

In a move designed to prioritise player welfare, the league has made significant changes to the festive period schedule.

The announcement, obtained from the EPL website, titled “Dates for 2025/26 Premier League season confirmed,” emphasises a renewed commitment to player welfare, particularly during the congested festive period.

For the first time, no two match rounds will take place within 60 hours of each other, addressing long-standing concerns about the congested holiday fixture list.

Furthermore, no matches will be held on Christmas Eve in 2025, a decision likely to be welcomed by players and fans alike.

The release read, “The schedule continues to allow more rest time for players over the festive match-round period, with no two rounds taking place within 60 hours of each other.

“This is in keeping with commitments made to clubs to address the congested Christmas and New Year schedule.”

Key Highlights:

• The season spans 33 weekends and five-midweek match rounds, providing an evenly distributed calendar.
• The 16 August start date guarantees 83 days of rest for players following the conclusion of the 2024/25 campaign.
• The May 24 end date ensures the league concludes ahead of the FIFA 2026 World Cup call-up period, offering players ample preparation time for the global tournament.

This strategic scheduling, according to the statement, underscores the Premier League’s commitment to maintaining a competitive edge while protecting the well-being of its players.

Fans can now mark their calendars as the countdown to another unmissable season begins!

“The 2025/26 season will consist of 33 weekends and five midweek match rounds.

“The start date of August 16 allows for the maximum player rest time available—83 clear days—from the end of the 2024/25 season.

“The season end date of May 24 2026 ensures the Premier League season finishes ahead of the FIFA 2026 World Cup call-up period.

“There will be no fixture on December 24, 2025,” it concluded.

[Punch]

The president of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio in the last week subtly gave a hint to Ndigbo on how they can ease the yoke of political marginalization that has been the lot of their people since the 1966 crisis.

The new trail for Igbo emancipation surfaced at the night of tributes for the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah on Monday. Senator Rochas Okorocha had in the course of the tributes urged Akpabio to plead with President Bola Tinubu to release Mazi Nnamdi Kanu from detention, warning that should he fail, Southeast leaders will take back his Igbo-born wife.

“So, I want to plead with you, Rochas, that I will come to your house, personally, to inform you after I have delivered the message to the federal government,” Akpabio said.

That an Igbo lady easily controls Nigeria’s number one lawmaker is one that may surprise some. It is no secret that as governor of Akwa Ibom and now as President of the Senate that Mrs Akpabio has been a major influencer behind the scenes of the actions and inactions of her husband. The manipulation of the head of Nigeria’s legislature Godswill Akpabio by his wife, Unoma is one that preceded his emergence as Senate President, going back to the time he was in Akwa Ibom State.

But many also are also deciphering that another Igbo lady is also primely positioned in the executive branch of the Federal Government.

Few dispute the fact that Nigeria’s First Son and potential Lagos State governor, Seyi Tinubu is about one of the major influencers of the present administration. Many notable appointments have been credited to him. It is also beginning to dawn on many that Layal Holms, the beautiful wife of Seyi Tinubu has maternal roots to Anambra State and paternal roots in Lebanon.

In effect, two of the three branches of the Federal Government have men controlled by Igbo women controlling them from home.

These two women are among Igbo women who have done themselves well by freeing themselves from the collective yoke of marginalisation through their nuptial engagements.

 Many examples of Igbo women exploring the marriage pathway outside Igboland to positions of political prominence abound.

Among the most notable Nigerian men of power from outside the Southeast that have found connubial leanings to Igbo are Liyel Imoke, Ibrahim Babangida, Atiku Abubakar, the Adeleke family, the late Rotimi Akeredolu, Buba Marwa among many others.

In almost and certainly all the cases above, their wives just like Mrs Nneoma Akpabio played and continue to play considerable roles in their political evolutions.

In one case when a top actor was about to get a prominent political position he was compelled by the authorities to marry a second wife from his region to mask the fact that his original wife was Igbo.

Indeed, among Nigerian women, there is no doubt that Igbo women are among the most adventurous willing to embrace men from other tribes in marriage.

But despite the love for Igbo women why do many Nigerian men from outside the Southeast still play politics of marginalisation against their Igbo in-laws? Why would a scion of the Nasir El-Rufai family sleep with a partly Igbo woman on his marital bed in the night and in the daytime espouse politics of exclusion in the daytime?

We remember that just over a year ago Bayo Onanuga issued a stern warning to Ndigbo to steer clear from the politics of Lagos State ahead of 2027.

With Seyi Tinubu beginning to be reckoned with in the Lagos governorship race it is now being claimed that the warning from Bayo Onanuga and some other Yoruba zealots was merely a chant for political rediscovery. After being browbeaten by the Obidient movement, the resort to ethnic jingoism became an easy route to political renaissance.

While it is true that Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the Labour Party 2023 governorship candidate has maternal roots in Igbo land, he nevertheless shares the same marital identity with Seyi Tinubu in having an Igbo lady as a wife.

It is thus no shock that some are now already labelling Seyi a Chinedu ahead of a probable 2027 political outing.

It is as such refreshing that the politics of warmongering and ethnicity played by many political actors in Lagos was just for self survival. As Senator Akpabio loudly proclaimed when it comes to preserving his family as a reason to forge national unity, many political actors are willing to pay the price. We now enjoin other many Igbo wives from Mrs Tinubu Junior to others in lesser positions to exert their influence to push through the unity and national identity that Nigeria desperately desires.

Soon after independence, election rigging set the western region on fire and brought down the first republic. ‘Operation Wetie’ wasn’t just frustration and impatience; it was a rejection of the courts. In the second republic, malpractices returned to ruin elections’ credibility, and Baba Ajasin saw it better than others. Omoboriowo, who snatched victory from Baba, had to flee.

When that republic fell, the soldiers blamed their coming on economic hardship and rigged elections. The third republic didn’t last. Principal politicians, excluded, others were railroaded into an artificial dichotomy of two sterilised parties. Shorn of natural birth and passion and with a more transparent electoral procedure, the June 12 presidential election lacked edginess, fire and controversy. It didn’t precipitate confusion.

It had to be brazenly annulled. In the fourth republic, politics degenerated precipitously into a lucrative business, and people started stealing  elections. Apathy ensued. Social media has brought back passion, but now those who steal mock their bruised victims, telling them to go to court. Things haven’t fallen apart yet, but with astounding judicial impunity, it appears the falcon has stopped hearing the falconer.

Go to court. You can’t rig where you are not popular. Go to court. The law is an ass. Perhaps electoral laws that require poor victims to prove beyond all reasonable doubt electoral frauds perpetrated by powerful people in government must be a piece of shit. Go to court. The Justices of the Supreme Court are our comrades. Otherwise, we know their price. Go to court. We made them and have them in our pockets. Go to court. We will fill their mouths with sweet dollars, and they will teach you the difficulty of proving a lack of substantial compliance with the laws. Or they might find one or two useful technicalities to throw your petition into your face. You can’t forget Akpabio and Lawan, can you? Go to court. You dreamer, you think power is served on a plate 

 The constitution’s drafters could never have contemplated that the electoral process could be subjected to such gross and comprehensive abuses. Or that rogues would leave the underworld to vie to be leaders at all levels. The law is not for the jungle. It can’t check the conspiracy of the INEC, police, and judges to sabotage elections blatantly. The law lacks that capacity. Indeed, laws are tools, like knives and guns, for good but capable of evil. If society has been captured and seized by roguery, the law will inevitably be used to establish lawlessness to undermine truth, good faith and democracy. 

The law says INEC should be independent. But it can’t go looking for independent-minded, courageous and incorruptible people from Timbuktu  to lead INEC. Here, Governors nominate young and ageing Esaus to play the roles of presiding, collating and returning officers. Presidents handpick the INEC chairman and commissioners. And the presidents often don’t behave like statesmen. The law requires the police to provide security to ensure freedom and fairness during elections. If the drafters of the law knew that an entire police establishment could be reduced to thugs to snatch ballot boxes and result sheets, they would have left the duty to the people to help themselves or perish in servitude. 

Election tribunals are designed to be sparingly used. In Ghana, the United States, the United Kingdom, South Africa, India,  etc, they are rarely used. Our political culture is smash and grab, win-at-all-costs, and live hypocritically ever after. Institutions that regulate and conduct elections should manifest the dignity and integrity of principled umpires. The participants, like sportsmen, would ruin the game and themselves if they had no regard for agreed rules.

However, electoral tribunals will be inundated where the political culture is governed by naked opportunism. Sacred processes will be casually defiled if political office serves cynical personal rather than moral and public interests and the elections are decided by ill-gotten wealth and brigandage. If those who steal elections are allowed to assume office while the process is being adjudicated, then there is an incentive to steal it.

If those who steal it and are sworn in obtain instant access to the treasury and impunity, then the routine buying of judges to cement the electoral perfidies can’t but be rife. And since judges are not saints, and since they live in a society where money is worshipped and people in authority stack tons of it in holes so that they never return to poverty, judgments will be sold without compunction to the bidders who bid from the public treasury.

If the judges know election time is boom time, they might gamble their last naira to be on the tribunals. When that happens, this nefarious judicial decision-making becomes utterly transactional and loses the feel of criminality. It is this predictability that endows people who have grabbed power at elections by hook or crook with the arrogance to look into the faces of the victims and snort, Go to court. Go to your final Waterloo, you JJC!

Sometimes, the compromised judges must pull a rabbit out of their hats. These rabbits eat up the rational framework of the nation’s jurisprudence, leaving legal scholars of all ages in dispiriting quandaries. But our revered judges often need not break a sweat of knavishness. The thief in the government house will hire the best lawyers to hang onto his electoral heist. Besides knowing the handicaps of the law, some of these benighted legal luminaries actually acquired their deity reputations by developing promiscuous relationships with the bench.

So, a combination of their dubious mastery of the law and incestuous dalliance with the judicial cartel makes finding suitable technicalities easier. These judges and lawyers of easy virtue are blessed. Those who draft the legislation in Nigeria are never fastidious once they put their heads down to fashion legal reforms. Sometimes, it’s the benign ignorance of lawmakers, who, in being overly sentimental or sensational in protecting their presumed backward electorate from rapid modernisation, shoot them in the foot by inserting ambiguities in new electoral laws.

If the justices at the apex court had the country’s interest at heart, they would read electoral rules and regulations purposefully to cure the intended mischief. But if the judiciary is filled with Judicial Brother Jeros, piggybacked to the highest echelon by the election thieves and their political godfathers, the outcome will be a cynical, rigid interpretation of the law and arbitrary and underhanded technicalities undermine and frustrate  reforms to the benefit of election thieves. It does appear that the Supreme Court doesn’t want to become irrelevant in the electoral process. The more cases they get, the richer crooked justices become. 

The fourth republic is on the precipice. Some effort was made in preparation for the 2015  elections. The card reader. It should have been improved in 2019, but Buhari failed to drive electoral reforms for cynical self-preservative reasons. The BVAS came in time for 2023 with mandatory electronic accreditation and electronic transfer of result sheets. Hope replaced chronic apathy. But these lofty reforms have been effectively sabotaged by the INEC, Police and Judges. 

A mind-bending deterioration has set in. Without the introduction of electronic voting, we can as well suspend all future elections. Even though that won’t cure vote buying, anything that significantly discourages the hijack of ballot boxes and falsification of result sheets and returns authority to the voter will help now. 

Reforming a thoroughly contaminated system with a backward momentum will be difficult. Without fixing the political culture, the rot will only fester. Our leaders have lost the appetite for electoral reforms. 2023 mischiefs have been freely allowed to damage 2024 elections. Electronic voting must be instituted immediately and tested rigorously before 2027.  We must amend the laws to enable the speedy conclusion of all legal challenges before winners are sworn in. The albatross of an exorbitant, absurd and hopeless four-yearly dysfunctional ritual that perpetuates misery has to be dismantled with good faith and innovation. 

When Justice Dattijo Muhammad of the Supreme Court was retiring, he told the nation that the Supreme Court was manifestly corrupt. That court could become a cult. It will only get more power drunk and corrupt if we don’t clean up the electoral process and save it from the enticement of desperate politicians. The EFCC has been castrated. An Electoral Offences Commission is desirable but might suffer the same fate except if the political culture changes. Prayers alone aren’t good enough; we must do something to fix the mess. But at this point, we need prayers. 

The fourth republic is on the precipice. 

I don’t remember the very first time we met. It probably was on the football field, during a football match.

Thinking back now, it could have been in 1977, during the epic FA Cup match that year when my team, Shooting Stars FC, played against Raccah Rovers of Kano, the team that he played for at the time. I am not so sure again as I write this. 

It could also have been when he was invited to join us in the national team, the Green Eagles, in 1977, by Coach Father Yelisavic Tiko.

Either way, his impact on the national team from when he joined was massive and instantaneous. He was a different kind of player, of a different breed. He was a serious football player playing as if his life depended on winning every match.

He was left-footed, something the country was in short supply of at the time. Since the exit of Haruna Ilerika and Adekunle Awesu, both left-footed players in 1976 and 1977 respectively, there was not a single left-footed player left in the entire national team. It was a great deficit to the team for a short while during which Nigeria, that was a master at wing play with fast runners on both flanks, had to improvise with Adokiye Amiesimaka, a right-footed player but who could effectively use his left foot. Adokiye was an undergraduate at the University of Lagos, but loaded with football credentials as a young player in the Lagos area. He was drafted to the Green Eagles from his inside-forward position to the left side of Nigeria’s attack, to fill the gap. No one missed Awesu again from the moment Adokiye stepped in with his mesmerizing dribbles and pinpoint crosses.

Shortly after that, Felix Owolabi showed up on the national radar with a left foot that was deadly and packed with ‘venom’.

Felix was extremely fast, with the ability to dribble even at top speed, cutting back the ball sharply, and accelerating away in the next movement. Slightly limited in height, and with packed muscles in his legs, he could swivel on a coin whilst dribbling. He was as strong as an Ox.

When racing with the ball at his feet, he was the most difficult player to mark. The only way to stop him was to physically bring him down, or kick him to halt. He was fearless, could ride any tackle with the single-mindedness to get close to an opposing goal through the shortest and fastest route and release one of his hombs in his left foot.

He moves like a train meandering towards goal with the ball glued to his left foot. His attitude earned him the respect and love of fans and coaches.

On top of all those attributes, Felix also had ferocious power behind his shots with the left foot His right foot was like my left foot, fit for standing and as support only. He was a true attacking wing-back on the left flank of attack.

So, Felix joined us in the national team and became a challenge for Father Tiko who could no longer replace Adokiye whose dribbling skills and pullouts with the right foot from the left side of attack were creating goal-scoring chances particularly for me coming from the blind side of defenders to nod home floated balls.

That’s how Coach Father Tiko put on his creative cap and came up with the wing-back system that has now become the norm in modern-day football. He converted Felix to the left full-back position to replace the aging right-footed player manning that area of Nigeria’s defense. That’s how Samuel Ojebode’s career in the national team ended and Felix Owolabi’s began.

It was a tactical masterstroke. The weaker side of the Nigerian team suddenly became its stronger flank. Coping with fleet-footed, master dribbler Adokiye was hard enough for opposing defenders. To now add a second layer, a hardnosed, unstoppable powerhouse charging down the same flank from defense, became a nightmare for opposing teams.

That’s how Felix earned the nickname ‘Owoblow’. He was blowing like a tornado, breaking up attacks and blowing down defenses.

Meanwhile, following the only match that he played for Raccah Rovers against Shooting Stars FC, he became a target for the Shooting Stars’ scouts recruiting exceptionally gifted, Yoruba-born players from all over the country (a response to the system established by Rangers International FC after the Civil War in 1970. They recruited only Igbo players to their club).

That’s how Felix joined me at Shooting Stars FC and together we became very influential members of the Nigerian national team as well as of Nigerian domestic football as a whole for a few years.

When I retired from the game in 1982, Felix, almost single-handedly, won the national league for Shooting Stars FC the following year.

In 1984, I came out of retirement to play in the African Club Champions Cup in an attempt to win the continental trophy for the first time, and, possibly, earn my most-sought-for ‘Africa’s Best Player award’, something I had come close to winning twice before.

Had Felix not missed playing in the finals of the 1984 championship due to accumulated yellow cards, and I had not suffered a debilitating knee injury in the first leg of the semi-final match that would not heal up till the final match, Shooting Stars would have won the African Club Championship that year, with Felix’s presence making an important difference.

That was how our shared dreams were terminated and our football careers, playing together, ended.

He went on to play for another 8 to 9 years for Shooting Stars FC after I had retired rather prematurely it now seems, adding to his chest of medals a second continental club trophy.

His longevity in the game was not a surprise – his level of self-discipline and professionalism was uncanny. He never had time for the frivolities in the life of a superstar. He was, and still is, a staunch practicing Christian, a teetotaler, no messing around with girls and drugs, limited socialization and a strong family man.

He was every player’s friend, and we have been very close without being socially close.

On the football field, the rest of us always took lessons from Felix’s professional attitude and practice, traits that he took to his life after football.

That’s why he succeeded in his academic pursuits, as well as in his civil service career to which retired.

Felix Owolabi ‘Owoblow’ remains an epitome of decency, dignity, industry and family.

This week as he celebrates his climb to the 7th floor of life, I join with all members of our football ‘fraternity’ and generations of football players in Nigeria, to wish him a Happy 70th Anniversary. May his journey through the years of his life ahead be full of life’s best gifts.

Congratulations ‘Owoblow’.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says 65 percent of Nigerian households use traditional cooking methods. 

In its ‘Nigeria General Household Survey-Panel (Wave 5) 2023/2024’ report, the NBS said the three-stone cookstove is the most widespread cooking method used in the country.

“The most common cookstove type used in the country is the three-stone/open fire, with 65.0 percent of households relying on this traditional cooking method,” the report reads.

The NBS said a huge proportion of households (22.6 percent) make use of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and natural gas.

“Traditional cooking methods (three-stone/open fire) remain dominant in rural areas (78.8 percent) and certain geographical zones like North Central (72.1 percent), North East (82.4 percent), North West (85.7 percent), and South East (61.3 percent),” the bureau said.

“However, there is a noticeable use of modern cooking technologies (LPG/natural gas) in urban areas (49.0 percent) and the South West zone (51.0 percent).”

According to the NBS report, other types of cookstoves, including biomass, kerosene, and electric play a minimal role in the overall cooking landscape.

“When using traditional cookstoves, slightly more than half (51.2 percent) of households in the country use them outdoors, making this the most common location,” the report reads.

The NBS said 37.9 percent of households use such stoves indoors but outside the sleeping area.

According to the agency, only 1.8 percent of households use their stoves in a sleeping area.

“The North East (59.0 percent) and North West (50.5 percent) zones are more inclined towards indoor cooking, while households in North Central (60.7 percent) and all the southern zones predominantly cook outdoors/ in a separate building,” NBS said.

“Cooking outdoors or in a separate building is the prevailing practice in urban (46.2 percent) and rural (52.6 percent) areas.”

The bureau said wood is the most-used cooking fuel in Nigeria, reported by 70.2 percent of households, followed by LPG-cooking gas at 23.2 percent.

“Zonal disparities are significant. The North East and North West zones have the highest shares of households using wood as cooking fuel, at 93.4 percent and 84.8 percent respectively,” the report reads.

“In contrast, the South South and South West zones show a higher use of LPG, with 35.3 percent and 51.7 percent, respectively.”

According to the report, urban households have a stronger reliance on LPG (50.5 percent), while rural households mostly use wood (83.8 percent).

[TheCable]

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), empowered by the Statistics Act of 2007, is the official custodian of statistics in Nigeria. Tasked with advising federal, state, and local governments on statistical development, the agency is a vital institution for evidence-based policymaking. However, its recent report on the state of food insecurity and other household challenges in Nigeria raises a critical question: “Has the leadership of the NBS clearly communicated to the federal government, under President Tinubu’s administration, the urgency of the findings that two-thirds of Nigerian households lack money for healthy food?”

If it has, what measures are being taken? If not, the NBS must ensure its findings are not just data points in a report but a clarion call for swift action to alleviate the plight of Nigerians.

The reason for the foregoing views cannot be farfetched as the grim picture painted by the NBS Survey is stark.  In fact, the latest “Nigeria General Household Survey – Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 (2023/2024)” sheds light on the realities faced by Nigerians. The findings are stark.

When the report is looked at from the perspective of food insecurity, it shows that two-thirds of households reported being unable to eat healthy or preferred foods due to a lack of money in the last 30 days, with additional facts that 63.8% of households ate only a few kinds of food because of financial constraints, 60.5% consumed less than they thought they should, and alarmingly, between 2018/19 and 2023/24, the proportion of households worried about not having enough food to eat surged from 36.9% to 62.4%.

Looking at the report from the perspective of energy and infrastructure, NBS Survey says urban areas fare better with 82.2% of households having access to electricity, but only 40.4% of rural households enjoy the same.  Worsening enough is that cooking remains a challenge, with 65% of households using traditional three-stone stoves and 70.2% depending on wood fuel.

Also when looked at from the angle of sanitation and housing, many households lack proper toilet facilities, and informal waste disposal (45.6%) remains common, while 70.4% of households own their homes with rural homeownership (80.1%) far surpassing urban areas (49.1%).

These statistics, though vital, must serve a purpose beyond informing Nigerians of their struggles, they must spur government action.

Beyond Statistics, the Role of the NBS in Advocacy is clearly stated in its constitutional mandate. The NBS cannot function in isolation as a data-gathering entity. Its findings are only as impactful as the actions they inspire. It is concerning if the Bureau’s leadership has not escalated these alarming statistics to the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration with the urgency they warrant.

In a nation grappling with rising prices, depleting purchasing power, and widespread poverty, food insecurity cannot be another statistic. The NBS must actively engage federal and state governments, advocating for policy interventions that address these issues head-on. Churning out data that only paints a bleak picture without prompting actionable solutions risks desensitizing the public and policymakers alike.

Given the foregoing view, there is no denying the fact that the government’s responsibility is to act.  However, it is sad to note in this context that President Tinubu’s administration has promised economic reforms, but Nigerians are yet to feel the positive impact. If two-thirds of households cannot afford healthy food, it reflects a systemic failure that demands immediate attention. The government must respond to these findings with policies that tackle:

The findings of the NBS must be seen as more than just information; they are a call to action for the government. The NBS, as the custodian of these statistics, holds the moral responsibility to ensure its reports do not merely add to Nigeria’s narrative of poverty but act as catalysts for change.

The federal government, on its part, must embrace these findings as a foundation for targeted interventions. Policies informed by robust data have the potential to drive real change, but only if they are implemented with urgency and transparency.

Ignoring the NBS’s findings risks deepening Nigeria’s socio-economic crisis. The inability of families to afford healthy food exacerbates malnutrition, stunts children’s development, and fuels a cycle of poverty. Energy poverty limits productivity, while inadequate infrastructure hampers public health and economic growth.

For the NBS, publishing reports is not enough. It must actively advocate for its recommendations and follow up on their implementation. For the Tinubu administration, addressing these issues is not just a political obligation but a moral imperative.

The NBS has a critical role in shaping Nigeria’s development trajectory. If it has not yet communicated the urgency of its findings to the Tinubu administration, it must do so immediately. And if it has, the government must act without delay.

It is unacceptable for the Bureau’s reports to serve merely as warnings to the public while the government remains passive. Statistics are tools for change, and in the face of such glaring challenges, the NBS and the government must work together to ensure these numbers translate into meaningful interventions.

The time to act is now. Nigerians deserve more than bleak statistics, they deserve solutions.

In recent times, Nigeria has witnessed a curious shift in the culture of charity. Rather than the wealthy focusing their philanthropic efforts on those in dire need, we increasingly see acts of “generosity” directed at their fellow elites, entertainers, politicians, and other high-profile individuals who are far from destitute. What once might have been considered benevolence now often appears as a calculated performance, a spectacle crafted for attention, and a glaring contradiction to the very essence of charity.

In its truest sense, charity is an act of giving with the intent to uplift the underprivileged. It seeks to bridge the gap between the haves and the have-nots, a gesture of kindness that addresses pressing societal inequalities. However, recent events in Nigeria paint a different picture.

Consider the viral episodes where celebrities gift luxury cars, expensive watches, or cash to their equally wealthy peers. For instance, a popular Nigerian singer recently surprised another celebrity with a N100 million. Prior to the foregoing case, he was among other celebrities who contributed more than N60 million for a controversial celebrity who was caught in the web of Nigeria’s law, sparking widespread applause on social media. While such gestures might be celebrated within their circles, they raise a fundamental question: How does this help the struggling masses who can barely afford the next meal?

The political class is not left out. Many governors and public officials have taken to awarding lavish gifts to wealthy individuals during public events. At a time when ordinary Nigerians face skyrocketing inflation, unemployment, and economic despair, these ostentatious displays of “charity” seem tone-deaf.

The evolution of social media has exacerbated this trend. Platforms like Instagram and Twitter have become stages for the wealthy to showcase their generosity, not to the underprivileged, but to their equally affluent friends. Each gift is carefully documented, shared, and hyped online, with fans applauding the magnanimity of their idols.

But is it truly charity if it comes with a spectacle? The essence of giving lies in humility and the genuine desire to make a difference. When acts of giving are performed for public applause or to sustain a carefully curated image of affluence and generosity, they lose their authenticity.

Nigeria is currently grappling with one of its most challenging economic periods. It is no more news that Nigeria in a World Bank report was said to have over 133 million Nigerians living in multidimensional poverty. Hunger, lack of access to healthcare, poor education, and unemployment are everyday realities for many. Yet, these pressing issues seldom attract the attention of the wealthy when they choose to “give.”

For instance, the billions of naira that could transform lives in rural areas are instead spent on lavish birthday parties, with luxury hampers handed out to fellow elites as party favors. Imagine the impact if just a fraction of those funds were directed toward building schools, funding healthcare, or setting up skill acquisition centers in underserved communities.

Philanthropy, when done right, has the power to transform societies. A shining example are the works of Aliko Dangote, Theophilus Danjuma, Tony Elumelu, Jim Ovia and Folorunso Alakija  Also philanthropists like Mike Adenuga, Abdul Samad Rabiu, Emeka Offor, Femi Otedola and Mohammed Indimi have done much in terms of charity to be applauded and recognized in a special way.

Contrast the foregoing with the trend today, where charity is no longer about impact but impression. The wealthy must be reminded that their giving should align with the needs of society. What use is a multimillion-naira car to a celebrity already driving a fleet of luxury vehicles when thousands in their community cannot afford basic transportation?

The Nigerian public, too, bears some responsibility for perpetuating this trend. By celebrating these ostentatious displays, society inadvertently encourages the wealthy to continue this cycle of misplaced charity. The applause should go to those who build homes for the homeless, sponsor education for the underprivileged, and create opportunities for economic empowerment.

Public figures like Tony Elumelu and Aliko Dangote, who have established foundations to address critical societal issues, offer examples of meaningful philanthropy. While their efforts may not garner as much social media clout as gifting a Rolex to a celebrity, they leave an indelible mark on society.

The fixation on public displays of wealth masquerading as charity reveals a deeper issue within Nigeria’s elite culture: a disconnect from the realities of the common man. In a nation where the majority struggle to survive, these acts of self-serving “generosity” are not just insensitive; they are a betrayal of the social contract that should bind all Nigerians.

True charity is not about elevating one’s social status or winning applause. It is about uplifting the downtrodden, addressing societal inequities, and building a more inclusive future. Anything short of this is merely an act of showoff, an exercise in vanity masquerading as virtue.

The solution lies in redefining what it means to give. Nigerian elites must understand that the greatest impact comes from targeting their resources where they are most needed. Initiatives like creating job opportunities, improving access to education, and investing in healthcare infrastructure have a far-reaching and sustainable impact on society.

Civil society, religious institutions, and media must also play their part in reshaping the narrative. The culture of glorifying empty displays of wealth should be replaced with one that celebrates impactful giving.

In fact, it is imperative for the government to incentivize genuine philanthropic efforts. Tax breaks for donations to credible charities, public acknowledgment of impactful projects, and collaborations with the private sector can encourage more meaningful contributions.

As Nigeria grapples with its many challenges, the role of the wealthy in shaping a better future cannot be overstated. However, that future will not be built through spectacles of gifting among the affluent. True charity lies in uplifting the poor, empowering the powerless, and addressing the pressing needs of society. Anything less is not an act of charity but a carefully staged performance, designed to impress, not to impact.

The question remains: Will Nigeria’s wealthy elite rise to the occasion and redefine their giving culture, or will they continue to squander opportunities to make a real difference? For the sake of the millions living in poverty, one hopes they choose the former.