Yet-to-be-identified gunmen on Saturday night invaded the residence of Mr Labaran Maku, former Minister of Information at Akpata community in Akun, Nasarawa-Eggon Local Government Area of Nasarawa State and injured four security personnel.

One of the injured security personnel, who does not want his name mentioned, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday that the criminals invaded the residence about 7:50 p.m.

“The criminals forced their way into the residence and started shooting sporadically and in the process injured four of us.

“They came in a mob and were communicating in Hausa language and banging the main gate to the house.

“When I refused to open the gate for them because I did not know who they were, they started shooting and jumped the fence into the compound,” he said.

Commenting on the incident, Maku decried the spate of kidnapping, banditry and other forms of insecurity in all parts of the state.

The former minister particularly said the state was under siege, adding that it was the third time his residence and relatives were attacked by criminals.

“You will remember that about a month ago, these criminal elements invaded my father’s compound at the village and kidnapped three of my family members.

“About two years ago, they killed two of my elder brother’s children at his residence in Gudi community of Akwanga local government area

“What happened today shows clearly that our state is under siege,” Maku said.

Meanwhile, Governor Abdullahi Sule of the state condemned the attack and directed the security agencies to arrest the perpetrators.

The governor’s directive was contained in a statement by Mr. Peter Ahemba, his Senior Special Assistant (SSA) on Public Affairs, adding that the government had adopted modalities toward tackling all forms of insecurity in the state.

Kwara State Governor, AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, has approved N10,000 monthly palliative for workers.

The N10,000 monthly palliative is to help workers cope with the recent fuel subsidy removal and its attendant economic impacts.

The government’s decision was announced at a press conference addressed by the Chief Press Secretary to the governor, Rafiu Ajakaye, at the Government House, Ilorin on Monday.

Ajakaye said, “On top of the palliatives is a cash support of N10,000 for every public sector worker in the state, which will begin this month (July) and last until a new minimum wage is introduced to enable workers to cope with the economic shocks created by the subsidy removal.

“In deference to the new advisory of the National Economic Council for states to design their own independent responses to the development, the governor has directed the leadership of the civil service to continue a staggered work schedule — not exceeding three days a week — to reduce transportation expenses for workers,” he said.

Kwara had earlier introduced a 3-day work schedule for its civil servants but suspended it in deference to an earlier advisory of the NEC for states to await a more holistic response to the development.

The staggered work plan will not cover ‘essential workers, the governor’s spokesman clarified.

“The governor has similarly approved the payment, from this month, July, of new hazard and skipping allowances, and 100% CONMESS for consultants and medical doctors under the government’s payroll.

“He also approved a new regime of allowances for nurses working for the state government. The whole essence is to check attrition rate in the health sector, and attract and retain medics and specialists to provide improved, qualitative healthcare services for the people of the state,” he added.

“The governor has also endorsed immediate cash-backing of 2019 and 2020 promotion for Teaching Service Commission workers. The administration had earlier cash-backed arrears of promotion for TESCOM for the years 2015-2018.

“In the same vein, he has approved cash-backing for the 2021 promotion exercise of teaching and non-teaching staff of SUBEB and restoration of steps to all of them. This is a policy response to the yearnings of SUBEB workers since 2016 when SUBEB workers no longer had steps.

“The Governor also approved the extension of free bus rides for students of tertiary institutions in the state, while modalities for occasional distribution of food to poor and most vulnerable households are to be activated in the next few days.

“This shall be nonpartisan and would be coordinated by a government team to be supported by respected stakeholders who would get inputs from traditional rulers, religious bodies, market leaders, trade unionists, and community-based organisations to generate the lists of beneficiaries and disburse accordingly.

“The whole idea of these interventions, which gulp billions of naira of public funds, is to show empathy and deploy as much resources as the state can afford to support the people at this special time.

“The Governor has also approved the Kwara State Social Investment Programme (KWASSIP) to activate N500m worth of conditional support for petty traders and MSMEs in the state.

“The state government will receive fertilisers and grains from the Federal Government and pay for same. It is not free. Modalities for the handling of these will be made available later. This is to boost farming outputs and food security in the state.

“The government, meanwhile, will be setting up a committee to interface with marketers on the need to curb extortionist tendencies as seen in the arbitrary fixing of prices of foodstuffs.

A total of 529 foreign-trained medical and dental graduates failed the assessment examination conducted by the Medical and Dental Council of Nigeria.

This is according to the examination report obtained from the MDCN on Sunday.

The two-day assessment examination was conducted on Wednesday, July 12, and Thursday, July 13, 2023, at the University College Hospital, Ibadan in Oyo State.

The MDCN said 704 medical and 30 dental foreign-trained graduates participated in the assessment examination.

The council, however, said only 189 medical graduates and 16 dental graduates passed the examination.

It also revealed that 515 medical graduates and 14 dental graduates failed the examination.

The MDCN regulates the practice of Medicine, Dentistry, and Alternative Medicine in the country to safeguard the nation’s health care system.

The PUNCH reports that the MDCN assessment examination is compulsory for all foreign-trained doctors who plan to practise in Nigeria.

The assessment examination tests the candidates’ ability to apply their basic medical sciences and clinical skills in a health care setting.

Commenting on the result, the MDCN Registrar, Dr Tajudeen Sanusi, said, “The pass is at 27.4 per cent, which is poor. However, the assessment exam is necessary because we cannot put the health of Nigerians in jeopardy; it is better we have a few doctors than have doctors that will put the health of Nigerians in danger. All hands must be on deck to put this country in the right place.”

According to him, the assessment examination is a required global practice.

“It’s a global practice that if you train in a particular jurisdiction and, you want to go to another jurisdiction, you subject yourself to an assessment exam. Even if you are a professor of medicine here and you’ve never practised in the United Kingdom or the United States, when you go there, you subject yourself to their assessment exam. So, it’s a global practice,” he said.

“Ninety-three million, four hundred and sixty thousand Nigerians registered to vote in the last elections; only twenty-five million, two hundred and eighty six thousand, six hundred and sixteen came out to vote. People who voted in the last presidential election all voted to escape Buhari and whatever he represented. They did not vote for pain. Whatever wisdom informed the choice they made, the underlying goal was that they wanted life lived well in abundance of peace. So, why would the man who got the throne throw everyone under the bus in order to get a fishing right in the shark-infested seas of Bretton Woods? The man is even now rolling out Buhari’s ineffectual, expired medicine as placebo – a regimen of dummy drugs. So, where do we go from here? Like characters in Caryl Philip’s novel, ‘The Final Passage’, it should be clear to us now that we can’t escape Nigeria. We are in a turbulence……..Stop putting your trust in princes and principalities. Can’t you see that for every plea that they “lighten the burdensome service” of their fathers, their response has been acts that add to the yoke? They withdraw whips and chastise with scorpions. They feast, you yawn. You have no inheritance in the house of their Jesse. Your interest is not their interest. Stop.”

Given today’s state of the nation, it is likely that both Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Mr Peter Obi are thanking their stars that they were not the ones declared as our elected president on March 1, 2023. If they were, each of them would have done what Bola Tinubu did with petrol subsidy with consequences beyond their capacity. They would have done it – they all promised to do it. But, if it was Obi in particular who withdrew fuel subsidy, the North and the West would have exploded in flames of protests. His ethnic base would have defended him with very solid silence. That is the character and structure of protests in Nigeria. Today, everyone is in pain but there is calm everywhere, and that is because the traditional protesters are the ones in government – officially and unofficially.

You notice that your neighbourhood is very quiet throughout the night. NEPA keeps doing its best, transmitting darkness. Super-expensive petrol has choked generators into a coma; noise pollution is gone. The roads are free too. The street offers a free-of-charge gym; trek and sweat away your hunger. Aye ti dara de – life has become so good and cool. Grand old Juju musician, Ebenezer Obey, warned the world years ago: Eda to mo’se okunkun, ko dakun ma ma d’osupa loro…(man who knows the way of darkness should please not be heartless to the moon…). But the heart of darkness would hear that song and sneer. Darkness has a distinctive taste of goodness which only killers of light can explain. Promoters of the night over the day would insist it is therapeutic. They push us to health experts to hear the counsel that if you want to sleep in peace, kill the light around you. It is not part of their knowledge that life and light predate death and darkness. They profess that we must enter the darkness of the night for the day to break; we must die in order to live. That is their logic; morbid.

Defenders of all government actions, I call them phlegm eaters; they existed in Old Oyo as Aj’ito oba. With their mouths, they collected the king’s excess saliva and phlegm and swallowed everything with uncommon relish. Yoruba storyteller and author, T.A.A. Ladele, in ‘Igbi Aye Nyi’ salutes them as ‘aj’ito oba ma p’ofolo’ (men who eat the king’s saliva/phlegm without getting nauseous). A friend calls them the king’s horsemen (awon olokun esin). They do more than tending the king’s stallions; they are ab’obaku, they drink and die with the king. Because they dine, or hope to dine with the state, they hawk the regime’s bitter, poisonous pills from street to street, online and offline. They ignore 21st century’s strides in medical practice with its noninvasive painless procedures and keep pushing the narrative of compulsory pain as a cure: “The times are hard but there can’t be a cure without pain.” I hear that very often now from tribal sour sayers and I wonder if all medicines must have the super-bitter chemical compound of denatonium benzoate to work. It is not as if regime defenders are not in pain too; they are, but they grumble under their wives’ hungry beds; they parallel the pain in town with that of childbirth. Yet, every woman who has been in and out of the labour room knows that unduly prolonged childbirth pain kills. I hope the regime and those who excuse its errors know, and agree in time, that interminable labour pangs incubate stillbirths and mortality of mothers. If you are close to the president and his men, please tell them the sky is blood-red; they should come outside and see for themselves. Unless something positive is done very quickly, businesses will die in thousands, jobs will be lost in millions, life will enter fully the final phase of anomie. It is nasty now, it will be brutish soon.

I have a book by my side here; its title is ‘Democracy Kills.’ Our infirmary appears to have carelessly placed a life-and-death scalpel in the hands of a medical fetus. A man whose manifesto spoke about “phased subsidy withdrawal” and whose inaugural speech text was in concord with what was promised, went off the cuff and plunged the bus into Majidun waters. He was to later tell a bemused world: “When I got to the podium, I was possessed with courage, and I said subsidy is gone.” Just like that! Even Tortoise who took that plunge from the skies is forever nursing the wounds, and that was despite having enough presence of mind to arrange a soft landing for himself. Tinubu’s seventeen ‘words of courage’ represent the very meaning of whim and fancy. No captain does that without crashing his craft. These hardships will define his entire presidency just as the 2012 subsidy crisis mortally wounded Goodluck Jonathan. If a doctor did what Tinubu did, the patient would be in trouble, his own practice would be in trouble too. Whimsically, the man said “subsidy is gone” and it was gone. I hope the president knows that what went down with petrol subsidy was more than the unwanted tree branch: poor, nestling birds also lost their homes and all their toil; their kids are in the rains wondering like Ken Saro Wiwa did at the gallows: “Why are you people treating (us) like this? What kind of country is this?”

The governing of men should not be a deadly trial-and-error farce. What we suffer today is a doctor’s administration of IMF/World Bank poison as medicine. As indigenous people, we are told from infancy never to take kola nuts from strange people. Leopard and dog cannot be friends in equity. Ilorin bard, Odolaye Aremu, tells of Hen that dances to Kite’s friendly beats: Adiye opipi ko tete mo, o nba Awodi s’ore, o ro wipe eye tii ba nii wo’mo ni (beautiful Hen befriends Kite, she does not know in time that Kite is not a bird that assists in nurturing one’s child). I am not sure the president has not realized his error. If he has, congratulations to all of us; if he hasn’t, God save our soul. Unfortunately, he still lacks a team of knowledgeable pro-people economists that can help him pilot the plane out of this turbulence. The labour room of our economy is, at this moment, a bedlam of confusion and rank incompetence; it has a full complement of deceit and guile too. What is the difference between what the 36 state governors offered last week and Bola Tinubu’s offering a week earlier? Distinction without a difference. Tinubu offered to distribute N8,000 each to twelve million households across the country. There was an uproar; he recoiled and announced a “review.” While we scanned his dictionary for the meaning of his “review”, state governors met as the National Economic Council (NEC) and resolved to transfer money to households using their own list. Tinubu was even more open; he told us the value of his offering, the governors withheld their own figure; it is safer for them. Naked traps catch no game. American novelist, Alice Sebold, in ‘The Almost Moon’ notes that “poison and medicine are often the same thing given in different proportions.” She was right.

The more things change, the more they remain the same. Tinubu last week approved what he called Infrastructure Support Fund for the 36 states “to cushion the effect of subsidy removal.” How is Tinubu’s ‘Infrastructure Support Fund’ different from Buhari’s ‘Infrastructure Loans and Refunds Progranmme’ and the General’s various Budget Support Programmes? There is nothing Tinubu has offered as palliative for what he did that Buhari (who did not withdraw subsidy) did not give in his eight years, yet the field was as barren as the Sahara. What I am saying here is that Buhari’s medicine for the eczema of his absent leadership is exactly what hyper-active Tinubu is applying to the self-inflicted leprosy of subsidy withdrawal.

But if the grass becomes wise, what shall the grasscutter eat? Canadian author of many ‘dirty’ books, Stefan Molyneux, is a skeptic. He distrusts politicians and governments. He tells us to know that the state “fails at everything except at increasing its power”; that the state “survives only on propaganda which relies on unquestioning faith.” Applying what he said to Nigeria, I would say the writer is right. He wrote about the paradox of having “an agency that defends your property which also has the right to violate your property rights at will.” He likened having a bumbling government to the scenario of “hiring a bodyguard that you pay to beat you up randomly.” That is the oxymoron in what every hopeful person who voted in the last presidential election did. There was also the Yoruba sultry vote-massing catchphrase: Omo eni ko se’di bebere. I wonder how many waist beads have been lost to the strains of trekking in today’s harsh weather. The cynical argument of Molyneux against putting trust in politicians and expecting them to eradicate poverty, and create wealth for the poor, appears directed at this place – this country: “When poverty declines, the need for government declines, which is why expecting government to solve poverty is like expecting a tobacco company to mount an aggressive anti-smoking campaign.”

A president on a learning curve shouldn’t have used his first act to sink an unsteady needle into the jugular, the ‘terra incognita’ of a country of two hundred million people. Spur-of-the-moment decisions, trial-and-error experimentation with the spine of the economy was too much a plunge. Now, copying and pasting what ruined the past undermines the present and whatever promise it has. Buhari funded his fancies by printing mountains of money- almost N25 trillion. With Tinubu’s Infrastructure Support Fund, how much will be involved and where will the funding come from? Will it come from where Buhari got his, from Ways and Means, a euphemism for currency printing? Buhari printed N25 trillion; Idi Amin Dada of Uganda who pioneered that dark practice in Africa did not do up to that amount. Idi Amin’s was a miserable three million Ugandan Shillings. Will Tinubu go that way or is he there already? We cannot know because even now, we do not have a central bank governor; the president has not been “possessed with courage” to name one.

Ninety-three million, four hundred and sixty thousand Nigerians registered to vote in the last elections; only twenty-five million, two hundred and eighty six thousand, six hundred and sixteen came out to vote. People who voted in the last presidential election all voted to escape Buhari and whatever he represented. They did not vote for pain. Whatever wisdom informed the choice they made, the underlying goal was that they wanted life lived well in abundance of peace. So, why would the man who got the throne throw everyone under the bus in order to get a fishing right in the shark-infested seas of Bretton Woods? The man is even now rolling out Buhari’s ineffectual, expired medicine as placebo – a regimen of dummy drugs. So, where do we go from here? Like characters in Caryl Philip’s novel, ‘The Final Passage’, it should be clear to us now that we can’t escape Nigeria. We are in a turbulence. The sensible thing to do is to keep our belts fastened and ensure that the pilot stops getting high on hubris for our collective safety. More importantly, if you are a phlegm eater in the palace, stop sucking the king’s viscous throat. Stop putting your trust in princes and principalities. Can’t you see that for every plea that they “lighten the burdensome service” of their fathers, their response has been acts that add to the yoke? They withdraw whips and chastise with scorpions. They feast, you yawn. You have no inheritance in the house of their Jesse. Your interest is not their interest. Stop.

To be precise from the onset, it is apt to posit that the centrality, omnipresence  and ubiquitous nature of petrol in Nigeria has elevated it to the status of a deity in our daily lives. We revere this deity and pray that it never unleashes mayhem on us. Any scarcity or increase in the price of this deity brings untold hardship to Nigerians  and we are eager to appease it at any cost. We are hugely dependent on this deity because it is the dominant form of energy that powers our way of living. We are a petrol-fuelled  economy. We depend on petroleum products for transportation, domestic generation of power for homes, small and medium businesses, and mechanised farming. 

Over the decades, we appeased this deity with a sacrifice called a petrol “subsidy”. Recently, the cost of this sacrifice put a knee on the neck of Nigeria, threatened her with strangulation. To breathe and survive the strangulation, the new administration took a plunge and ended the sacrifice. As expected, with the stopping of the perennial sacrifice the high priests and guardians of the deity are livid and predicting doom and damnation to Nigeria. The deity has unleashed severe punishment on the nation . The increase in petrol price has created hyperinflation, a decrease in real GDP, a cost-of-living crisis, spike in food prices and a loss of disposable income for the citizens. The situation as it stands is precarious . Yet is not intractable. Having opted to stop the deity’s sacrifice, we must work hard to tame the deity – for a man who wants to wrestle with his “deity” must prepare for the battle.

Petrol is a crude oil derivative. Fortunately we have it  in abundance. Most Nigerians expect that we should enjoy some benefits and should be a master of the petrol deity. Unfortunately, our history shows that this has not been the case. Instead of mastery over petrol, we have become its slave. This anomaly is  directly linked with our failure to refine crude oil for local consumption over the years. The failure of the government to create the right framework to attract investment in refining of crude or resolve the decades-long collapse of refinery infrastructure has left us at the mercy of others. Other people process our oil and determine the price of finished products. For too long, we relied on imported petrol, subsidised the costs and consumed it even when there is no need . So we became almost addicted to it. This created in the minds of our people some entitlement mentality. And we must worship at the altar of petrol as long as we get it cheaply.

Successive  governments fed the beast of subsidy, which made it grow bigger  until it finally threatened our economic existence. Every government discussed the removal of subsidies, but none dared to try because of fear of the consequences. Goodluck Jonathan administration tried but was forced to  reverse it. For so long , most  Nigerians- especially those in the low income brackets , saw cheap, subsidised fuel as the only benefit they derived from a morally bankrupt and corrupt Nigerian state. However , when they woke up recently to the sleaze and alleged corruption of the subsidy regime, some started accepting the idea of the end of subsidies. At least to end the corruption anatomy of the so-called subsidy. But removing subsidy has left the price of petrol in Nigeria to the vagaries of fluidity and fluctuation of prices in the international market.

There are five main factors that determine the price of petrol in the international market, and these influence the price of petrol in Nigeria. They include: the cost of crude oil from which petrol is refined ; the cost of the product quoted on Platt, a price benchmark denominated in USD; the freight rate (cost of hiring a tanker to bring the product from where it is refined to where it is used, in our case West Africa); the littering expenses from transhipment and multiple handling; and Naira/ USD exchange rate. Any change in one or a combination of these factors will affect the petrol price in Nigeria. With subsidies gone, we are not protected from these events’ harsh realities. We do not have control over these factors and forces that determine the price of petrol. Therefore, we are at the mercy of this deity.

To survive, we must look for an alternative; fortunately, these alternatives exist though some may be more expensive . The government and our universities have been reluctant to research and explore these alternative energy sources for some inexplicable reasons. There are several alternatives to reduce or replace the use of petrol in the country. These alternatives can help diversify energy sources, promote sustainability, and mitigate the impact of fossil fuel consumption on the environment. Nigeria has significant natural gas reserves. Encouraging the use of compressed natural gas (CNG) and liquefied natural gas (LNG) as vehicle fuels can reduce the dependency on petrol for transportation. Promoting the production and use of Ethanol and biodiesel can provide cleaner alternatives for petrol in transportation.

Promoting hybrid vehicles, which combine internal combustion engines with electric motors, can be a transitional step towards full electrification. Encouraging the adoption of electric vehicles (EV)can significantly reduce petrol consumption. This involves building the necessary EV charging infrastructure and providing incentives for EV adoption, such as tax benefits and subsidies. Investing in renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, and hydroelectric power can reduce the dependency on fossil fuels for electricity generation, freeing up more petrol for other uses. Enhancing public transportation systems, such as buses and trains, can reduce the number of individual vehicles on the road and lower overall petrol consumption.

Past administrations ignored these alternatives, and we hope this current administration will focus on them. The petrol price upward swing is not going away too soon. This is a justification for some proceeds of subsidy removal to be applied to investment in viable energy sources and social services like education, health, and affordable public transportation. It is a welcome development that this administration is listening to the yearnings and demands of the citizens. I salute  Mr President for  calling for a review of the proposal to give N8,000 per month to 12m poor Nigerians and  commend the National Economic Council chaired  by the Vice President for coming  up with an alternative palliative strategy.

I will argue that although there is room for a well-considered palliative scheme for the poorest among us, that must not be the focus, for palliative is merely short-term measures to ameliorate the sufferings, whilst developing alternative energy is the long-term solution and must be the focal point of any government intervention. I cannot emphasise enough the importance of energy production in any modern economy. Production of goods and services for local use and export is fuelled by energy.

In the meantime, there are a few things the government must do to cushion the negative impact of a hike in the price of petrol. First, it must provide proper Communication. The government is losing the battle of properly framing this petrol price increase to its advantage. The dominant frame in the public sphere is suffering – all our people are seeing and hearing is suffering. The government’s  spin doctors must rise to the occasion and win the battle for the hearts and minds of the people. This is crucial in transitioning from dependence on petrol deity and maximising alternative energy regime . Secondly , even though the government must allow market forces to determine the price of petrol, it must provide a regulatory framework and infrastructure to influence the market. Therefore, I advocate for adequate regulation, price monitoring, price intelligence (Indicative price versus market price), and some quasi-interventions when necessary. This is important, especially now, because we are still a petrol-dependent economy even though we have deregulated the system and removed subsidies.

Third, implementing energy efficiency measures in industries, buildings, and transportation can help reduce overall energy consumption, including petrol and raising awareness about the benefits of alternative fuels and sustainable practices can encourage individuals and businesses to make environmentally conscious choices. Fourth, supporting businesses, especially SMEs, at this challenging time with the petrol price crisis the country is facing. The government must provide a tax holiday and other incentives to help most of these businesses survive. These businesses are central to our economic activities and must be protected from collapse.

Furthermore, we must admit that the current challenge in Nigeria requires a bold energy policy and a seriously informed economic policy. This time, as hard as it may be on the citizens, provides an opportunity to get things right and push Nigeria towards the path of industrialisation and growth. Government must seize this opportunity to make informed socio-economic choices to cut Nigeria off from continued service of a petrol deity we do not even know. It is important to note that transitioning to alternative fuels and energy sources requires careful planning, investment, and collaboration between the government, private sector, and citizens. Additionally, these alternatives’ specific suitability and feasibility may vary depending on regional factors and infrastructure capabilities.

In conclusion, we must do whatever it takes not to go back to the subsidy. It is an ill wind that blows no one any good. This is a time for everyone to unite and push Nigeria to the next level. It is not a time for scoring cheap political points and doing nothing. Desperate times call for desperate measures. Our collective duty is to provide an energy transition that is sustainable and pulls us out of the shackles of the petrol deity once and for all times.

Nigeria’s return to civil rule has proved to be far more trying than many had hoped. Of the challenges that emerged in its wake, few have proved to be as durable or chronic as that of guaranteeing public safety and security for the country. From the onset of the return to elective rule, the country has battled insecurity.

Following the retreat of the military to the barracks on May 29, 1999, the security situation in the country ran amok. The contest for money, power, and influence among politicians degenerated into a spree of political assassinations. Different people and interest groups freely traded blames, assigning presumptive responsibility for the killings.

Predictably, a major focus of the competing claims was the government of President Olusegun Obasanjo. Following the December 2001 assassination of then Attorney-General of the Federation, Bola Ige, Charles Mafua, then Chair of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Kaduna declaimed that “encouraged by the government’s inability to track down the killers of its law officer and other Nigerians, assassinations, political or otherwise, have assumed (the level) of a national pastime, a very attractive and lucrative business for the teeming jobless youths and adults of our country”.

  Many people also blamed the Nigeria Police Force, NPF, describing its handling of these killings as “lethargic” at best. In response, many states established vigilantes, formal or informal, which ultimately seemed to create more problems than they could solve. The official security services, including the NPF, were hardly fit for purpose. Institutionally, they were undermanned and their personnel suffered from low morale.

  In January 2002, a group identifying itself as “Warrant Officers in the Nigerian Army and their Equivalents in the Navy, Air Force and Inspectors of Police and the Rank and File of the Armed Forces and Police of Nigeria” went public with a letter to three leading figures in civic advocacy, including Chief Gani Fawehinmi, SAN, in which they complained about lingering problems of morale in the joint services inherited in the transition from the military regime of General Abdulsalami Abubakar. Among the highlights of these pathologies they complained that:

*There was no security in the country not necessarily because there were few army and policemen but because many soldiers and policemen were used to guard senior serving and retired officers, their relations and friends, and also the well-to-do in the society, leaving the larger society of ordinary Nigerians unprotected;

*The crime wave in the country continued to rise alarmingly because many policemen and soldiers who should be used to protect Nigerians were attached to crime barons and other dubious persons who freely gave big money to senior officers or those connected to those in the corridors of power; and

*Soldiers and Policemen with good records stagnated on one rank, in some cases for over 15 years without promotion while a few among the personnel who had godfathers enjoyed an overdose of rapid promotions.

The publication of this letter in the New Year roiled the Joint Services, creating a rapid cascade of consequences which forced an angry President Obasanjo to summarily fire then Inspector-General of Police, Musiliu Smith. 

  If there was one thing these developments demonstrated to the country, it was the overwhelming role of the president in ensuring security or undermining it. Chief Simon Okeke, who served as the pioneer chair of the Police Service Commission, PSC, under President Obasanjo from 2001 to 2006, dramatises this point in his recent memoir, Policing the Nigeria Police, in a narration of events that took place in Anambra State, South-East Nigeria, in 2003-2004.

  Chief Okeke recalls what transpired in 2004, when the then president instructed the Commissioner of Police in Anambra State to withdraw police protection from the sitting state governor, Dr. Chris Ngige, at a time when the state government was under violent attack from forces unleashed by close political associates of the president in Anambra State whom acclaimed author, Chinua Achebe, famously described as “a small clique of renegades, openly boasting its connections in high places”. As PSC Chair, Chief Okeke responded by requiring the state Commissioner of Police to ensure that the Governor had police protection; in effect countermanding the order of the President, a retired four-star General who did not take kindly to having his orders treated in that manner. 

  An affronted president summoned Chief Okeke, who was away in the hinterland, to the presidential villa to explain himself. On arrival back in Abuja, President Obasanjo’s Chief of Staff, Abdullahi Mohammed, himself also a retired General whose era in active service coincided with Obasanjo’s, ushered Chief Okeke into the cauldron of a seething president who would not initially be assuaged. When eventually he got the opportunity to explain himself, Chief Okeke pleaded his case as resolutely as he could. 

  Shorn of the diplomatese necessitated by the moment, his explanation was that it was not the place of a president to substitute his whim for the clear stipulations of the Constitution as to how to terminate the tenure of a sitting governor. When the president appeared to insist on his view of the matter, Chief Okeke offered that he could not as Chair of the PSC do the job in good standing if the governor of his state was going to be put at the mercy of death by violence at the hands of acolytes of the president. It was a two-fer of a brutal push-back and an offer of resignation which President Obasanjo, unused to such, uncharacteristically declined. 

  Like a cat with nine lives though, this was not the first time that Dr. Ngige’s fate would be foundational in shaping insecurity in (South-East) Nigeria. On or about July 10, 2003, Assistant Inspector-General of Police, Raphael Ige(who was due for retirement three weeks thereafter on August 1, 2003) arrived Awka, the Anambra State capital, where he subsequently attempted to abduct the state governor, Dr. Ngige. According to Chief Okeke, “the governor very narrowly escaped abduction by a chance phone call made possible by a ‘good Samaritan’ who suspected some foul play”. 

  Four days later, on July 14, President Obasanjo requested the PSC to investigate the circumstances of Dr. Ngige’s attempted abduction. The Commission completed its investigation and delivered a report to the president on July 22, concluding rather incredulously that “AIG Raphael Ige acted on his own and did not have the authority or consent of anybody in the whole saga”. The Commission recommended the dismissal from the NPF of AIG Ige, who had only 10 more days to go in service. Ige did eventually retire in August 2003. Five months later, on January 13, 2004, he conveniently expired at the Federal Medical Centre, FMC, in Lokoja, the capital of his home state, Kogi, in North-Central Nigeria.

  Over two decades later, this vignette offers many lessons in why the pathologies that define coexistence and insecurity in Nigeria are stubborn. First, insecurity will never be solved under the watch of any president who prefers hearing what he wants to hear to hearing what he needs to know. Second, when presidents play fast and loose with public safety and security, the effects can be very durable. Third, public officers charged with protecting the country are unfit for purpose if they choose to be presidential courtiers preoccupied with preserving intimate relationships between their derriere and the glue that holds it to office.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Four female students of the Zamfara State College of Arts and Science, abducted by bandits six months ago, may know their fate this week. Their abductors have given the parents of the young ladies, one week within which to pay N12 million ransom or the victims will be married off. This may be an euphemism for selling the young women into sexual slavery.

What to do about these soulless bandits who maim, rape, murder, loot and visit arson on many states, especially Zamfara, Sokoto, Katsina and Niger, is no straight forward matter.

There are vested interests. For instance, with the new service chiefs vowing to destroy these bandits who in the last eight years have murdered about 65, 000 Nigerians, there are urgent petitions and campaigns that the might of the military should not be used against them.

One of such petitioners who scampered to the Aso Rock Presidential Palace to meet President Bola Tinubu, is Senator Sani Ahmed Rufai Yerima of Zamfara State. He went to plead that even after over a decade of bandits rampaging through the country, the military should not be used against them. Rather, he pleaded that the bandits be granted amnesty.

After taking his bandit campaigns to President Tinubu, Yerima whose trajectory shows he cannot be linked to any principle, said: “The best way to go about handling the issue of bandits is to introduce dialogue first. But as I said, if that fails, then the government will go all out to eliminate them. He urged the President to grant amnesty to the bandits like he claimed the late President Umaru Yar’Adua did to the Niger Delta militants.

It is difficult to place Yerima within any principled position. He came to national attention at 39 in 1999 when he was elected Zamfara State governor. While some of his then fellow governors like Bola Tinubu were focused on educating their people, building infrastructure and increasing revenue, Yerima was busy promoting religion and trying to turn Zamfara State into a theocracy. After having acquired state power, he decided to add religious power by introducing Sharia Law on January 27, 2000 and making Zamfara a Sharia State, the first in the country.

He was not without enthusiastic supporters who rather than demand tangible dividends of democracy, were contented with a Yerima who was employing religion to the extent of threatening the very existence of the country unless he was allowed to have his way. He vowed that not a single thief will be allowed to operate in the state. So when a lowly man, Bello Buba Jangebe, was convicted for stealing a cow, his sentence was amputation. Yerima spurned pleadings that Jangebe be merely imprisoned as he would need both hands to make a living. He got Jangebe’s hand amputated in 2000.

The following year, Mr Lawali Isa, a father of four who said he could not watch his wife and children starve, was caught stealing a bicycle. Again, Yerima rejected all entreaties and got the convict’s right wrist amputated. It took Isa three months before his arm healed and he could try to put it to some use. The amputation went with stigma. Isa said: “As soon as people see you with an amputated wrist, they know who you are.” For him, the easiest way he could make a living was to become a politician and align with Yerima’s All Nigeria Peoples Party, ANPP, which has now metamorphosed into the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC.

Yerima never stopped using religion to his advantage. When as a serving Senator in 2010 he spent $120,000 marrying a 14-year-old Egyptian girl, there was an uproar because having a child-bride, violates the legal status of children and the Child Rights Act, 2003. However, Yerima argued that his religion permits him to marry a child and that Zamfara State had not domesticated the national law.

So, what transformation has come over Senator Yerima who from being an advocate of amputating petty thieves is now advocating forgiveness for bandits who have killed thousands of people, laid waste villages and towns? Simple: Yerima has no scruples.

But beyond matters of principles, morality and conscience, one would expect a Distinguished Senator of the Federal to subject what he advocates, to common sense. Does he need to continue advocating the same principle on banditry which he knows has always failed?Some governors in the region had applied the same formula he is now selling, and seen its futility.

When in 2015, he became Kaduna State governor, Nasir el-Rufai decided the best option was to dialogue with bandits and herdsmen as he thought they could have been wronged. He paid some off as compensation and even sent emissaries as far as Niger Republic and Cameroun to meet them for dialogue and compensation. However, within one year, he realised it was a futility. Rufai swung from being an advocate of dialogue to demanding that bandits be annihilated, including by carpet bombing, “while soldiers on the ground kill all those that escape the bomb”.

Governor Bello Masari of Katsina State apart from dialoguing with the bandits, also offered monetary payments to buy peace. He ran a two-year amnesty programme for the bandits from 2016. The following year, he began full negotiations and unwisely paid the bandits off, including purchasing their arms. He also disbanded the vigilante and volunteer groups that were giving the bandits a fight. Then he discovered he had been scammed and outwitted as the bandits became more powerful and operated with little or no challenge. Governor Masari took to the media to plead for forgiveness from the citizenry and lamented: “In the forest, a lion or tiger kills only when it is hungry and it doesn’t kill all animals; it only kills the one it can eat at a time…How can a human being (bandit) behave the way an animal cannot behave?”

On Yerima’s demand for amnesty like the Niger Delta militants, the South-South leader, Edwin Clark, responded that Yerima and his crowd “mistake amnesty for a blanket idea, to be politicised or invoked to reward mass murderers”, adding: ”It is not. Amnesty worked in the Niger Delta primarily because its militants anchored their fight on the sound economic and federalist principle of resource control. With their people alienated from the oil wealth extracted from their land, and the environmental despoliation in the region, the agitators had legitimate demands. But the blood-thirsty bandits ravaging the North have no legitimate, political, or economic claim that Nigeria is obliged to countenance.”

Senator Yerima advocates amnesty for the bandits because like politicians, they are powerful. The logic is that a thief is not a thief if he is powerful enough to hold society hostage.

We are back with more Women’s World Cup tips as the action continues in Australia and New Zealand. Next up is Germany vs Morocco which takes place at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium. 

Germany come into this clash as the number 2 side in the world rankings. It is no surprise to see them as the red-hot favourite to beat a Morocco side ranked 70 places below them. Our betting expert offers up their three best bets for this Group H clash.

Germany vs Morocco Betting Tips

• Morocco +3 Asian Handicap to win @ 8/11 with Bet9ja
• Alexandra Popp to score FIRST @ 29/10 with Bet9ja
• Under 3.25 Asian goals @ 23/20 with Bet9ja

Stubborn underdogs to make Germans work for the win

Germany have featured in every edition of the Women’s World Cup since it began in 1991 and have won it twice. Only tournament favourites USA are ranked higher than Martina Voss-Tecklenburg’s side hence their very short odds to open their campaign with a win.

However, there is reason to be cautious in adding the Germans on a big minus handicap to our predictions. They have lost two of their last three friendlies. Defeat to Brazil was followed by a victory over world ranked number 32 Vietnam but only by a 2-1 scoreline. 

The real shock came in their last warm up fixture. Falling to a 3-2 defeat to Zambia who at 77th are ranked four places lower than the opponents here. 

Morocco qualified after finishing as runners-up at last year’s Women’s African Cup of Nations. Taking the +3 Asian Handicap makes plenty of appeal. Meaning this bet only loses if Morocco lose by four or more goals. 

Germany vs Morocco Bet 1: Morocco +3 Asian Handicap to win @ 8/11 with Bet9ja

Take Alexandra to pop in the opening goal

Alexandra Popp missed last year’s Women’s European Championships final after injuring herself in the warm up. Prior to that the Wolfsburg hot-shot had scored in all five rounds leading to the final. Including both goals in her nation’s 2-1 win over France in the semi-final.

After returning to full fitness the 32-year-old was in prolific form domestically. Firing in a league high 16 goals from 21 Frauen-Bundesliga appearances. Also putting Wolfsburg 2-0 ahead in the Champions League final they ultimately lost 3-2.

She has showcased how she loves scoring on the big stage and she can underline her return for the national team by opening the scoring here. 

Germany vs Morocco Bet 2: Alexandra Popp to score first @ 29/10 with Bet9ja

Morocco to keep things tight against  

It was Morocco’s attacking play that caught the eye in their journey to the final of the African Cup of Nations last year. Ghizlane Chebbak ended the competition as both player of the tournament and its joint top scorer. 

Her outstanding delivery from set pieces and creativity from open play is seized upon by Rosella Ayane. Standing at 1.80m the Tottenham star is an obvious threat in the air but she also possesses great pace.

In preparation for this tournament, it seems the focus has been on defensive solidity. The Atlas Lionesses have played seven warm up internationals in 2023 conceding only four goals. Keeping four clean sheets across those fixtures too.

Determined not to start their campaign with a heavy defeat, expect Reynald Pedros’ team to work hard and keep the game as tight as possible for as long as possible. Their fate will not be decided by losing to the group favourite Germany but it could be on goal difference.

Completing our tips for this game with the selection of under 3.25 goals on the Asian line here means we only lose if there are four or more goals. Exactly three goals would see half the stake returned as a winner with the other half refunded. Fewer than three goals gives the full win. 

Germany vs Morocco Bet 3: Under 3.25 Asian goals @ 23/20 with Bet9ja

Germany vs Morocco Odds

Odds correct at time of publishing and are subject to change.

• Germany to win @  1/20 with Bet9ja
• Draw @ 45/4 with Bet King
• Morocco to win @ 28/1 with Bet9ja

[Punch]

• Igbo make greatest contribution to Nigeria’s GDP, says Iwuanyanwu
The Chidi Ibeh faction of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, yesterday, urged the South East residents to ignore the two-week sit-at-home order by Finland-based acclaimed Biafra agitator, Simon Ekpa. The group has also asked the people of the zone to rise and put an end to Ekpa’s nefarious and infamous activities.

In a statement in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State capital, the Secretary-General of the Ohanaeze faction, Okechukwu Isiguzoro, said that the Igbo organisation has placed a substantial bounty of $500,000 on Ekpa, as a reward to anyone who can provide useful information that would lead to his arrest.

The Ohanaeze added that it is resolute, in collaboration with South East political leaders, to bring Ekpa to justice for his atrocities and alleged sponsorship of armed groups in the region.

The group further called on every Igbo to play an active role in preventing violence and disruptions of economic activities in the region.

The statement reads: “Ekpa is responsible for the recent surge in violence and insecurity in the region. He has declared another two-week sit-at-home from July 31 to August 14, 2023, undermining the authority of South East governors, who are constitutionally mandated to protect life and property of citizens.

“Ohanaeze has placed a substantial bounty of $500,000 on Ekpa’s head. The reward is offered to anyone who can provide useful information that would lead to his capture and subsequent arrest.

IN a different development, the President General of Ohanaeze, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the role of the Igbo community in Nigeria’s social, political and economic history and development came to the fore at the weekend, in North London.

The Ohanaeze leader pointed out that aside from recognising Igbo for living and working in every part of the country, they are said to make the topmost economic contribution to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

Iwuanyanwu enumerated some of the contributions at a reception the United Kingdom (UK) branch of Ohanaeze held in his honour at St. Edmund’s Church Hall, in Edmonton Green.

The Igbo leader, who came in the company of former Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Allison Madueke (Rtd), told the gathering that not only are the Igbo everywhere and doing business , they make the greatest contribution to the GDP of Nigeria.”

Addressing the audience, Iwuanyanwu disclosed plans to have a Hall of Fame and Museum of Igbo history erected in honour of notable Igbo people who have helped in shaping and preserving them.

[Guardian]