The Federal Capital Territory Administration on Saturday pulled down Abuja’s biggest graphics design and printing hub, the UTC Shopping Complex, over 30 years after it came into existence.

According to Administration officials, the sprawling complex had to be demolished to give way for reconstruction to fit into a model required to grow SMEs to address global business needs and challenges.

A Deputy Director, of Monitoring and Inspection, Department of Development Control, Hassan Ogbole said the structures were defective and there was a need to upgrade them to the standard that will meet global business standards.

Ogbole noted that provisions had been made for the traders and other occupants of the complex to enable reconstruction of the place.

He also stated that adequate notices were served on the occupants of the place to enable them to move out and allow the construction to start, but many of them deliberately refused to move out.

He said; “The place is in a state of disrepair. It is no longer habitable for occupation and business activities. The place has to give way for a new development.

“The company handling the development has informed Development Control and we are here to enforce compliance. We have given them enough notice for them to remove their goods, to enable us to start the work”.

Also Speaking, the Secretary, Command and Control, FCTA Department of Security, Peter Olumiji said demolishing the Complex was also needed to contain the security challenges in the area.

Olumiji noted that apart from restructuring the place to meet global standards, there was a need to nip criminal activities prevalent in the place.

According to him, it had become imperative to remodel the place to rid it of elements that engage in faking official documents.

One of the traders in the complex, Samuel Onuchukwu, said the traders and other occupants were worried because the temporary site provided by the developers, was not secured for business.

Onuchukwu disclosed that many of the traders were yet to remove their goods and property from the shops and offices.

According to him, they woke up early in the morning on Saturday to learn that the whole UTC area had been barricaded, and demolition was ongoing, while their wares were still trapped.

Nigerians have been advised to embrace cycling as alternative means of transportation in the midst of fuel subsidy removal in the country.

Mr Joshua Adekanye, Oyo State Sector Commander, Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), gave the advice on Saturday in Ibadan at the celebration of the 2023 World Bicycle Day.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the United Nations (UN) had in 2018 declared June 3 of every year as World Bicycle Day.

It is an international observance recognised as a result of the uniqueness, longevity and versatility of the bicycle, which has been in use for two centuries.

The day is set aside to raise awareness about the importance of bicycles as a sustainable mode of transportation.

According to him, it is advisable for the general public to make use of bicycles now that the fuel subsidy has been removed because bicycles do not use fuel.

He said that carbon emissions to the atmosphere by vehicles would also be drastically reduced when Nigerians rely more on bicycles.

This, Adekanye said, would create an enabling environment for Nigerians to live in.

“Use of bicycle is economically cheap because the cost of a bicycle is not as expensive as using a car or motorcycle,” he said.

On the health benefits, Adekanye said that cycling, not only improves physical strength but also helps reduce body fat “and keep the heart healthy”.

“Cycling may help prevent and manage medical conditions; helps in improving mental health and reduces stress, among other benefits, ” the sector commander said.

He, however, commended the contributions of all the agencies and stakeholders toward advancing the course of encouraging cycling in society.

Adekanye urged relevant stakeholders to keep on sensitising the general public on the need to embrace cycling.

NAN also reports that five cyclist organisations and young cyclists from the Air Force Primary School, Ibadan, participated in the event.

Among the organisations were Lifeline Cyclists, Rising Star Cycling Academy and Pedal Power Cycling Club.

The cycling event took off at the State Command of the FRSC, Eleyele, en route Jericho – Dugbe – Mokola – Sabo and ended at Lekan Salami stadium Adamasingba

The meteoric expansion of Nigeria’s financial services industry and the evolving nature of modern banking in the last ten years due to the rapid advancement of technology has led to unexpected regulatory and legal challenges. The fusion of traditional banking with fintechs offers many growth opportunities for the sector and enhances financial inclusion in a scale unimagined a generation ago. Even as a retired banker, I am amazed to see traditional banking being gradually replaced by digital platforms, with electronic payments, mobile banking and online transactions gaining prominence. Today, a bank is more likely to close a branch than open a new one due to massive deployment of technology, a radical departure from the trend at the turn of this century when I joined the industry.

The rapid growth of technology and the consequential shifts in the banking landscape has also led to financial inclusion and improved earnings in the banking industry. For some banks, digital products and services are at the core of their future growth strategy. At the Annual General Meeting of Access Holdings Plc, the parent company of Access Bank, late May, the Group CEO, Dr. Herbert Wigwe announced that the company’s growth ambitions in the next five years would be supported by seven key enablers, one of which is Digital and Technology. The bank hopes to transform its operating model to deepen digital penetration, according to Roosevelt Ogbonna, its managing director, in his report to shareholders. Other institutions are placing equally high emphasis on digital banking and technology as growth drivers. While traditional banking methods are still relevant, they have been significantly influenced by the rise of digital products and services. Mobile banking apps, online payment systems and contactless transactions have become the new normal, transforming our interactions with financial institutions.

As we all know, every innovation brings a new set of challenges that must be addressed. The adaptation of modern banking practices has given rise to numerous legal issues in Nigeria. These challenges include privacy concerns, data protection, cybersecurity and fraudulent transactions. For instance, in the three months ending September 2022, total amount of money lost to fraudulent activities in Nigeria surged by 207.9%, according a report published by FITC. These challenges must be addressed systematically by the judiciary and the monetary authorities. Another aspect of the digital revolution in the financial services industry is the emergence of Payment Services Bank (PSB) and other digital payment services. PSBs are licensed financial institutions providing banking services to the unbanked and underbanked populations through digital technological devices. They operate with lower capital requirements compared to traditional banks, thus making them available to those who are financially excluded. As the CJN noted, the emergence of PSBs ‘’necessitates a delicate balance between fostering innovation and ensuring consumer protection. ‘’Judicial officers must strike this balance by interpreting and applying the law to encourage financial inclusion while safeguarding consumer interests’’, said the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola at a workshop organized by the CBN. These innovative services have done a lot to bring banking services to the masses, foster financial inclusion and drive economic growth. At the same time, they present regulatory challenges to the authorities. Just as example, the volume of Nigeria’s electronic payment transaction jumped by 298% to N135.52 trillion year-on-year (YOY) in the first quarter of 2023 as cash crunch pushed more Nigerians onto online transactions.

Striking the right balance between promoting innovation and safeguarding financial stability requires carefully calibrating the legal framework, and this is the main reason the Central Bank of Nigeria has, for many years now, been working with the Judiciary to train judicial officers on banking and financial services issues. This year, the CBN focused on the emerging landscape of the nation’s financial services. In collaboration with the National Judicial Institute (NJI), the CBN organized a capacity-building workshop to brush up our justices and judges on the new face of banking and the problems associated with it. It was held on May 24 in Abuja. CBN Governor, Godwin Emefiele, said the workshop was necessitated by the need to keep our justices ‘’abreast of current trends in the banking and financial services sectors and important developments on economic matters’’. The subthemes for this year also covered a wide range of issues like the mandates and operations of the CBN; malpractices in Nigeria’s foreign exchange market; payment systems Vision 2025 as well as the Bank Verification Number Framework and its impact on electronic fraud. The Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Olukayode Ariwoola (who is also the Chairman of NJI) and Justice Salisu Abdullahi, the Administrator of NJI, presented papers.

Justice Abdullahi argued that blockchain technology, which has over the years, emerged as a transformative force in banking and across various industries, is also of great interest to the monetary and judiciary authorities. The potential of blockchain to enhance transparency, security and efficiency in financial transactions is growing rapidly. But with the rapid growth of blockchain, legal and regulatory frameworks must adapt to accommodate the unique characteristics of blockchain. It is therefore critical for our judicial officers to understand the legal implications of smart contracts, digital assets and decentralized finance.

It is important for the judiciary officers to be continuously trained on all facets of our economy and the financial sector. An efficient judicial system helps to strengthen confidence in our economy, which is an important factor in attracting both domestic and foreign investments. Such investments help to reduce pressures on our foreign reserves, enhance monetary and price stability and reduce exchange rate volatility. Investors are more willing to invest in jurisdictions where the rule of law takes prominence in shaping business and investment decisions. The judiciary also ensures that all parties adhere to legal and ethical standards, and individuals and businesses can seek relief through the law courts on violations of agreements. Investors can also be sure that disputes would be treated swiftly and fairly in accordance with the law.

With regular trainings, our judges and justices will better understand the issues affecting the financial sector and this will greatly help in the resolution and adjudication of related matters. Judicial officers will also learn a lot in such areas as legal instruments governing digital financial challenges and the judiciary’s role in ensuring compliance and safeguarding the interests of all stakeholders.

From football to jollof rice, and other sundry striving like music and acting, I love the healthy rivalry between Nigeria and Ghana. But truly, Ghanaians know which is the giant of the two countries just as Nigerians know that the tattered singlet of Musa at the gate is worthier that the starched khaki of the brain-lazy, woebegone retired Major-General.

Though farther than Benin Republic, Togo, Niger and Cameroon in terms of geography, Ghana is closer to Nigeria in terms of shared experience and colonial language.

“Imagination is better than knowledge,” I agree with this wisdom of Einstein, who expatiates that, “Knowledge is limited to what we know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there will ever be to know and understand.”

Through the trickery of the Tortoise, Nigerian folklore imagines connectivity between the dead and the living, weaving together a world of equality, freedom and dignity, where intelligence trumps force.

Similarly, Ghanaian mythology imagines the world through the labyrinth of the silk-spinning Spider, whose squishy body contrasts with the carapace of the Tortoise but both creatures’ legends secure a place for the weak in the society.

However, comeuppance awaits the Tortoise or the Spider whenever either wishes to take advantage of the vulnerable through wit and cunning.

In the worldview of African forebears, before things fell apart, intelligence always triumphs whenever brute force runs naked, making the Yoruba say, “Ogbon ju agbara lo,” wisdom is greater than power.”

The story of former President Muhammadu Buhari and incumbent President Bola Tinubu is similar to the Ghanaian myth about Nyame and Anansi.

Anansi is a spider who wants to be the owner of all the stories known in the world, but all stories belong to Nyame, the sky god. Anansi tells Nyame of his wish to buy all the stories from him but Nyame tells the spider the price is unaffordable.

When Anansi insists, Nyame attempts to outfox him, saying Anansi could have all the stories of the world if he could capture the four most dangerous creatures in the world. An excited Anansi assures Nyame that he would capture all the four creatures, and even offers his own mother, Ya Nsia, to boot!

The four creatures include Onini, the python; Osebo, the leopard; Mmoatia, the Fairy; and a hive of Mmoboro Hornets.

Anansi has a beautiful wife, Aso, who is super cunning, and whom he listens to. With his wife’s advice, Anansi beguiles all four creatures, one after the other.

To capture Onini, his wife devices a plan, and they both set out for the brook where Onini lives. There, they began to argue loudly about Onini’s length. Onini comes out and Anansi tells him about their argument.

Onini brooks no contest with the majesty of its length, it quickly stretches out beside the branch which Anansi brought with him. To get an accurate measurement of Onini, Anansi advises that one end of the python be tied to the palm tree branch while the other end should be tied against the other end of the tree branch.

After tying the head of the snake to the branch, it was easy to persuade the snake to have its tail tied to the other end of the stick. And the python became more vulnerable than a sitting duck.

To capture the leopard, Anansi digs a hole in the ground along the path which Osebo treads, covering it up with brushwood. Returning home after dark, Osebo falls into the pit. Anansi, the Good Samaritan, offers to get Osebo out of the hole through his web. But when the leopard got out of the hole, he remained a prisoner in Anansi’s web and was subsequently carried to Nyame’s palace.

The spider entraps the Mmoatia Fairy by making a doll covered in glue and placing it in the prairie where the fairy plays. She sees the doll and got attracted to it, touches it with both hands and becomes glued.

Anansi lures the Mmoboro hornets into his gourd by pouring water on himself and telling the hornets that a dangerous rain that had beaten him in another community, was fast approaching. He advises them to get into his gourd for safety. They obliged and became Anansi’s victims.

The Spider goes to Ya Nsia, his mother, and reminds her about the promise he made to the Sky god. Ya Nsia agrees to go with Anansi to Nyame.

Boxed in by the Spider’s achievements, Nyame summons the elders and his army, tells them about Anansi’s conquests, which no one else or kingdom could do, and thus pledges all stories to Anansi, the Spider. So, every story became known as a Spider story.

I’m almost sure scaling the hurdles wouldn’t have been smooth sailing for Anansi. There might have been moments of despair and frustration when he angrily shouted, “E gbe awon stories yi wa, EMI LOKAN!”

Unlike the world of Buhari and Tinubu, the world of Anansi was a law-abiding world, where crime was punished, and virtue rewarded.

It was a world, where the elephant, though mighty, couldn’t usurp the rights of the ant, and the lion, despite being the king of the jungle, dared not take what didn’t belong to him.

It was a world that would ‘open the calabash’ of death to a brainless, callous and nepotistic king who recently plundered the land for eight years of misgovernance – just like they ‘opened the calabash’ for wicked kings in the old Oyo Empire.

In the olden days when the Tortoise and the Spider counted among the wise men, people voted without let or hindrance, and their votes counted. The electoral umpire, even if it was the glasses-wearing YAK, dared not fail to upload the results of the presidential election as ARTICUlated in the electoral law.

During the days of the fabled Tortoise and the Spider, Umpire YAK dared not cause disaffection within the polity, as he did yesterday, without being summoned to the king’s palace, and bagging an outright banishment to the Evil Forest or the severance of his head from his neck at Imogun, the Place of Skulls.

If Yak followed the electoral process through, the Articulate and the Obidients would probably not go to the Court of Judges to lay their grievances over why the Bat was crowned the king without announcing his victory through the Kakaaki, as required by the law of the land.

Things have turned upside down today. Thorns have grown on the throne in Ife, and the king can no longer sit on the stool of his forebears but go about looking for plastic chairs in Owambe parties, allowing Pete, Tom, Dick and Harry to hug him.

In those days of the Tortoise and the Spider, when the blind Baba Fakunle predicted in Ola Rotimi’s ‘The gods are not to blame’, that King Odewale would marry his mother and kill his father, it came to pass.

Today, Christian and Muslim clerics have turned the church and the mosque into casinos, where forecasts are churned out like locusts in flight, with none coming to pass.

A cleric predicted that he was the incoming President Number 16 and that Buhari would hand over to him. Another one warned witches and wizards not to come to Abuja – as if witches and wizards ever amounted to anything or as if they are the problems of Nigeria.

Many Nigerian pastors and imams are fake men of God who brag about power over all infirmities but none has ever cured either a cough or a headache, not to talk of HIV/AIDS or COVID-19.

The removal of petroleum subsidy is a step in the right direction but the President must not behave like the Tortoise who got all the wisdom of the world in a gourd, which he tied to his neck, without knowing how to get the gourd to the top if a tree. Tinubu must exhibit cleverness and be be prepared to go to war against the oil cabal.

Online reactions trailed the presence of President Tinubu’s wife, Remi, for being present at an official meeting the president held with some officials on Wednesday.

Did Aso, the wife of Anansi, not help her Spider husband solve his riddles? If you don’t know the meaning of presidential monarchy, go to court.

Against all odds, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu was sworn in as Nigeria’s 16th president on Monday. It is an event that should not surprise any realist conversant with the Nigerian situation. The 2023 presidential election came with many irregularities, without a doubt, but it also presented significant shifts in Nigeria’s electoral configuration. Two of such dislocations are that politicians can no longer take Nigerians for granted and that if we maintain fidelity to technology’s opportunities, the people’s votes will be increasingly impactful. But I digress.

Tinubu’s victory in the elections was hardly surprising. Unlike the precipitous Peter Obi revolution, which shook Nigeria to its roots, Tinubu worked hard for his medal from the outset. For instance, the presidential primaries of the All Progressives Congress (APC) were the most keenly contested. When they went to the field on June 6, 2022, 13 other people, including the then Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, slugged it out with him.

Although candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party also had a battle, the stakes were higher in the APC because its status as the ruling party gave its aspirants more impetus.

Peter Obi of the Labour Party and Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso of the New Nigerian Peoples Party, the two other leading candidates, had their tickets on a silver platter literally. While three opponents who went into the primaries with Obi stepped down, Kwankwaso was the sole aspirant in his party.

During electioneering, Tinubu put in tireless work. Despite concerns about his health, he traversed the whole country, travelling to many states—two, three, even four times. While the PDP, which could give him the actual fight, called the bluff in five of its 15 state governors, the Labour Party had limitations in most northern states, where ultimate winners of national elections usually get their haul of votes. Tinubu was efficient on all fronts. Most altercations in the APC were resolved before the elections, regardless of the cost. In cases where reconciliation was impossible, he made overtures to enemies of his enemies, turned them into friends, and received bountifully from people like Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State. Tinubu worked so hard at these elections that he took almost nothing for granted!

Yet these last few months were only the tipping point of a lifelong preparation for Nigeria’s presidency. When he ventured into politics in 1992, the presidency seemed like the end goal for the man widely known as Jagaban.

But from 1999 on, keen observers of the polity were left in no doubt about the mission Tinubu had in sight. Every friend, enemy, and political associate he made and every step he took, including aligning with former President Muhammadu Buhari to form the APC in 2013, were towards the end we see today. It would be a disaster unforetold if a man who has prepared for this office all his life got in there and made a mess of it! This is more so if he is humble enough to draw lessons from the uninspiring performance of his predecessor.

Regardless of how much he thinks he has prepared; however, President Tinubu must consider himself extremely lucky to be in that seat today. Why? He is not the first to desire, prepare for, and qualify for that position.

Compared to someone like the late First Republic Premier of the Western Region, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, any qualifications Tinubu may parade would pale into insignificance.

Awolowo, who released his first book, Path to Nigerian Freedom, in 1947, just after he was called to the Bar in London, was not just a politician; he was an intellectual and philosopher, the first man who postulated that federalism was the way to prosperity for Nigeria and Nigerians. He joined those who fought for Nigeria’s independence, and evidence of his six-year leadership of the western region still exists in the human capital, physical infrastructure, and even economy of the states in western Nigeria.

It was upon Awolowo’s death that the late Chief Emeka Ojukwu wrote: “He was, for a long time, the only Nigerian leader that enunciated principles and played down personalities… He was loved and feared, but above all, he belonged to the people he professed to lead. At his death, I had the singular honour of proposing for him this epitaph that has endured — he was the best president that Nigeria never had.” Despite his overwhelming qualifications, preparation, and efforts, the late sage did not make it to the presidency. Tinubu has! 

There was also Moshood Kashimawo Abiola, a business mogul, politician, and philanthropist extraordinaire. MKO, as he was known, built relationships amongst every stratum of Nigeria before contesting an election in which he defeated his opponent, the late Alhaji Bashir Tofa, in his native Kano atate.

The election Abiola participated in was so free that Tinubu and many other Nigerians put their freedom and lives on the line for its actualisation. The great MKO saw victory coming his way, but he was lowered into the grave instead of occupying the seat that Tinubu sits on today.

Then there is Abubakar Atiku. The former vice-president was one of Tinubu’s opponents in the 2023 election, and he has been at it since 1992! In those 30 years, Atiku has moved from God knows how many political parties of convenience to the other such that he would pass as the most desperate for that office in today’s Nigeria. Yet, in this last election, he lost to Tinubu on the latter’s first attempt.

This victory is not because the president is more intelligent or endowed than any of these three great men mentioned earlier. Those who believe in God will say that power comes from Him and that He gives it to whoever He wishes. If so, the president must see his victory as a divine assignment, which failure will disappoint God and the good people of Nigeria.

Why would Tinubu allow this to happen to him at his advanced age? No matter what has happened or not happened in the past, the president must put the past behind him, roll up his sleeves, and work for Nigerians. Finding himself in that place he always dreamt of, Tinubu should make the most of the opportunity to leave a performance legacy that his generations would be proud of. What’s more, for a man who has seen it all.

It will be a testy time for the new president. He will not have it easy with his friends in the elite class, who have become leeches on the already ruined national economy. He will also need to earn the trust and confidence of Nigerians, who have been on the receiving end of bad governance forever. A man who wins Nigeria’s presidency with only 36 per cent of the total votes cast must know that he has a lot of work to do.

Good enough, he started well with some sound bites he left after his inauguration. However, governance is more than speeches; it is about matching action with the poetry of campaigning and inaugural speeches.

What Nigeria needs Tinubu to do is like what Franklin D. Roosevelt did when he became president of the United States of America after the Great Depression in 1933. Move swiftly to right as many wrongs as possible; always put the people first, communicate with them and build consensus; be fair to all and sundry; make the best use of the resources (human, natural, technological etc) at your disposal, and trust God to see you through.

Years of poor governance have driven Nigerians to despair, where they have lost faith in the government and themselves. This loss of confidence is why fault lines now define who we are. Redefining the essence of government by putting the people first can bring Nigeria back to that place of pride; this is what Tinubu must do. He cannot afford to fail.

Adedokun can be reached via Twitter@niranadedokun

When I heard the news last Monday of the passing of Dr. Raymond Dokpesi, I remembered an occasion in 1996 when he paid a courtesy call at the New Nigerian Newspapers’ head office in Kaduna. I was Deputy Editor of New Nigerian then and our managing director, Dr. Abubakar Rasheed, received him. Dokpesi was then best known as the proprietor of Raypower FM and had just acquired the license to start African Independent Television, AIT. He told us how he hit on the Raypower idea when he visited Stevie Wonder’s radio station in Los Angeles. He asked how much it would cost to set up the station and was given an estimate of $1.5million, which he said his wife immediately wired to him.

Dokpesi told us the story of his background and childhood. His father was from Agenebode in present day Edo State but his mother was from the present-day Adamawa State. His father had many wives and many children, he said, and when it came time to go to school, Dokpesi said his father decided not to send him to school since his mother was a Northerner and “Northerners have no aptitude for education.” However, he said, his mother sent him to school and paid his way through petty trading.

When he completed secondary school, Dokpesi said he saw an advert in the newspaper, where the Nigeria Ports Authority (NPA) was looking for school leavers to be given scholarships to train abroad. He applied, was successful and was sent to Poland. When he finished his studies many years later, he could not get a ticket to fly back home despite many trips to the Nigerian Embassy in Warsaw. He therefore took up a teaching job at a Polish university.

The story now got more interesting. In 1977 when military Head of State General Olusegun Obasanjo visited Poland, the Poles included Dokpesi in their delegation that held talks with the visiting Nigerians on mutual cooperation. Dokpesi said throughout the meeting, Obasanjo kept glancing at him and during the tea break, he went close to him and said, “I didn’t know they have blacks in Poland.” Dokpesi said he replied, “I am a Nigerian.” “What!?” Obasanjo asked. When he heard the full story, he ordered the embassy to provide him with a return ticket to Nigeria and that he should come and see him on getting back home.

But once back home, Dokpesi couldn’t get to see the military ruler. He went to the gates of Dodan Barracks but soldiers drove him away. He finally hit on an idea. He sat down and wrote a letter to Obasanjo, went to the Post Office and posted it. Lo and behold, Obasanjo got the letter and sent Dokpesi to Alhaji Bamanga Tukur, managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority, whose special assistant he became.

Raymond Dokpesi’s name however hit the headlines in 1983 when he became Director General of Bamanga Tukur’s BMT (Bamanga Mohammed Tukur) organization, which carried out a ruthless campaign that won for him the NPN’s gubernatorial nomination for old Gongola State and subsequently, the election. Dokpesi became Governor Tukur’s Chief of Staff. It was explained at the time that he was a Gongola State indigene because his mother was from the state. As fate would have it, they ruled for only three months before the Second Republic was overthrown. Dokpesi told us another story, that on the day he heard the coup announcement on December 31, 1983, he was so traumatized that he drove out of the Government House in Yola but could not find his way to the guest house where he stayed even though it was a short distance away!

In March 1993, I was a reporter for Citizen magazine at the National Republican Convention’s (NRC) convention in Port Harcourt. Dokpesi arrived with a colourful dancing troupe in tow; he was the Edo State NRC’s “favourite son” presidential candidate under the Option A4 scheme. He lost to Alhaji Bashir Tofa at that convention.

In later years, the rise of AIT at one time to a leading position in the private broadcast industry made Dokpesi an increasingly important person in Nigeria, in addition to his prominent roles in politics, plus not a few scandals. May his very enterprising soul rest in peace.

Mr Bayo Onanuga one of the spokespersons of Tinubu’s administration is not happy with the  stand of the Nigerian Labour Congess NLC headed by its President  Joe Ajaero.

From Onanuga’s Twitter handle he wrote:

“NLC President Joe Ajaero has asked workers to go on strike next Wednesday over the removal of petrol subsidy, despite being privy to the distressing financial figures, which justified why subsidy ought to have been scrapped a long time ago. My advice to the perceptive workers and the Nigerian populace is simply to ignore Ajaero and his ilk. He is playing politics and is actually acting the script of the opposition Labour Party, out to destabilise the young Tinubu administration.
Besides, one wonders whose interest Ajaero is championing, when he did not oppose the position of his Labour Party and presidential candidate, who campaigned with the promise to scrap subsidy from Day One, if elected.
NLC and TUC leaders knew since last year November that subsidy will be scrapped from July 1 as no provision has been made in the budget for it, beyond this date. The Federal Government which already commits 96 percent of its revenue in servicing debt is not in any position to continue selling subsidised fuel, most of which is smuggled across our borders for criminal and obscenely unpatriotic profit.
Subsidy of fuel is no longer unsustainable as the FG is virtually broke. Apart from its N77 trillion debt, it also owes the NNPC Limited about N2.4trillion for past subsidies.
The Nigerian people and workers should support the government as it works out new wages and rolls out other interventions, as promised by President Tinubu, to mitigate the effects of new fuel price.
Let’s not make ourselves pawns in the hands of the politically biased and tainted NLC and TUC. Ajaero is no more a labour leader. He is a politician and leader of Labour Party. He is no more representing all the Nigerian workers.”

It’s either President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his inner circle didn’t read my April 29 column titled “Six Agenda Items for Tinubu’s Success” or they did but dismissed it as the impractical, high-flown, indulgent musings of an idealistic diasporan Nigerian. The fifth item on my list concerned petrol price hikes amid the current agonizingly biting poverty in the land.

I wrote: “I know that there is now an artfully manufactured consent, particularly among the gilded classes in Nigeria, about the undesirability of ‘fuel subsidy.’ I don’t care what it’s called, but any policy (call it deregulation, subsidy removal, appropriate pricing, etc.) that results in an arbitrary and unbearable hike in the price of petrol without a corresponding increase in the salaries of workers and an improvement in the living conditions of everyday people will sink Tinubu.

“Resuscitating existing refineries and creating conditions for robust private sector investment in building new ones are obvious, well-worn solutions to the existing order, which have been floating around for years. Any serious government would make this happen.

“No responsible government shies away from subsidizing the production and consumption of essential commodities for its people. I have lived in the United States, the belly of the capitalist beast, for nearly two decades, and I can tell you that governments at both federal and state levels heavily subsidize petrol consumption—in addition to agriculture.

“When gas prices increased dramatically a few months ago here, both Joe Biden and state governors granted tax holidays to oil companies so they could lower the cost of petrol. Biden tweeted daily about the reduction in gas prices that his policies enabled. Americans call high petrol prices ‘pain at the pump’ for a reason.

“The surest way for a government to lose legitimacy here is to allow petrol prices to go up without doing anything about it. That’s why America’s 50 states collectively spend $10 billion a year to subsidize petrol consumption.

“I know Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi said they would ‘remove fuel subsidy’—a code for they’ll increase petrol prices— if they’re elected president, but I can assure Tinubu that if petrol price hikes deepen people’s misery, he’ll have a tough time governing.”

America and Nigeria share one thing in common: they both lack a well-developed, subsidized public transportation system. America’s lack of a public transportation system is informed by the rugged individualism of its culture (in my university, for instance, 99 percent of students have their own cars even though the university has an intra-campus shuttle service), the territorial vastness of the country, and the relentless lobbying of airlines and car manufacturers.

Nigeria’s lack of a public transport system, on the other hand, isn’t a choice. It’s a consequence of deliberate neglect by successive governments who don’t give a thought to the comfort and well-being of the poor in society.

Nevertheless, the effect of high petrol prices is similar in both countries: it ignites inflationary conflagrations, wrecks the economy, deepens misery, and inflicts several negative domino effects. 

That is why, in America, politicians are often acutely sensitive to fuel price hikes and go out of their way to keep prices low—even at the expense of other priorities. A January 3, 2012, TIME magazine report noted, for example, that American “politicians’ refusal to increase gas taxes in line with inflation and construction costs starves needed infrastructure of funding.” 

Sounds familiar? The recurrent excuse governments in Nigeria advance to increase fuel prices is that the government needs money for “infrastructural development.” But no sensible government starves its people to death because it wants to build infrastructure. Only the living use infrastructure.

At N550 per liter, the price of petrol is now officially lower in many states in the United States than it is in Nigeria. Nigerians are now paying nearly the equivalent of $4.70 per gallon of petrol (using the official exchange rate). If we use the black market exchange rate, it’s much higher than that.

In the state of Georgia where I live, the average cost of gas per gallon is $3.4, about a dollar cheaper than it is in Nigeria. Given that the federal minimum wage in Nigeria is still a miserable N30,000 per month, which is equivalent to about $65 per month, I don’t see how this makes sense. Plus, transport fares and the cost of goods have already skyrocketed to unmanageable degrees as a direct result of the new petrol price regime.

But I’ve stopped bothering myself about this. There is now a decided discursive shift in Nigeria in favor of endlessly higher petrol prices. I won’t take Panadol for other people’s headaches. If Nigerians think higher petrol prices are the way to go, or that eliminating subsidies is a bold and commendable decision, so be it.

Even if Tinubu hadn’t been president, the two other alternatives to him said they would “remove subsidies” on “day one,” as Tinubu did. So, Atiku and Obi supporters lamenting Tinubu’s action are being two-faced.

 The Nigerian Labour Congress that’s threatening to go on strike to protest the removal of “subsidies” is even more duplicitous. It never opposed Peter Obi, the candidate that ran on its platform, when he espoused extreme neoliberal policies, including saying “fuel subsidy is an organized crime” that he will remove “immediately, if I am elected president.” Had Obi won and removed petrol subsidies, what would NLC have done since it didn’t oppose his manifesto?

 In 2016 when Buhari increased petrol prices, his supporters actually came out to protest in support of the increase and against those who were opposed to it. For the first time in Nigerian history, there were no strikes or protests in response to the increase—and subsequent ones. I called it self-annihilating stupidity then. 

Perhaps I was wrong. It’s probably better to call it rational stupidity— on the model of “rational ignorance.” Maybe, just maybe, people are tired of the ceaseless elite blackmail that tells them they do not deserve being shielded a little from the negative consequences of the unchecked rapacity of the market. 

And this is the cumulative result of sustained government propaganda over the years. People in power have gone on rhetorical overdrives to demonize “subsidy,” to make it into what American scholar Richard Malcolm Weaver, Jr called a “devil term.”

When you demonize a good word, strip it of all its affirmative associations, you prepare uncritical minds to accept actions that are inimical to their own interests. In their book Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media, Edward S. Herman and Noam Chomsky perceptively show how the ruling elites in the United States contort the English language to blackmail the poor.

 Institutional benefits for the poor are ridiculed, and terms like “social welfare” are now invariably said with a tone of disapproval. But welfare packages for the rich and the powerful are called “bailouts” and have a tone of approval about them.

Just like the American ruling elite have deployed the media to demonize “welfare,” the Nigerian ruling elite have succeeded in manipulating the public into seeing “subsidy” as unalterably bad, as an “organized crime,” to quote Peter Obi.

But what’s wrong with “subsidy”? At its root, subsidy, derived from Anglo-Norman French subsidie (ultimately from Latin subsidium), means “assistance.” In modern usage, it means “a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive.” According to Investopia.com, “subsidy is usually given to remove some type of burden and is often considered to be in the interest of the public.” What’s wrong with that?

Up until Muhammadu Buhari came to power, “subsidy” used to be a positive word in Nigeria. In fact, during the 2012 mass revolt against petrol price increase, a protester in Kano inscribed these pithy, profound words on the back of his shirt: “Subsidy is my soul.” 

Of course, subsidies are the soul of poor, struggling people, not just in Nigeria but all over the world. Every government in the world, especially in the West, subsidizes basic goods, including petrol and agricultural products.

One of the sneaky ways Nigerian political elites hoodwink people into thinking that subsidies are bad for them is to associate subsidies with corruption. But that’s a false association. There is nothing in subsidies in and of themselves that makes them corrupt. Corruption is incidental to subsidies and can be eliminated if there’s a will to do so. 

Jettisoning subsidies because it is riddled with corruption is similar to the proverbial throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Any government that can’t eliminate corruption and ensure that people who need subsidies get them has no reason to exist. But, apparently, many Nigerians think otherwise. So, let’s see how, to quote J.M Keynes, “the nastiest motives of the nastiest men somehow or other work for the best results in the best of all possible worlds.”

Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as Amended), sections 4 (1) & (2): (1) “The legislative powers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria shall be vested in a National Assembly for the Federation which shall consist of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

(2)  The National Assembly shall have power to make laws for the peace, order and good government of the Federation or any part thereof with respect to any matter included in the Exclusive Legislative List set out in Part 1 of the Second Schedule to this Constitution.”

Come June 13, 2023 or thereabout, the leadership of the National Assembly will be up for a change, the present set having been elected on June 11, 2019, with Ahmed Lawan (APC) and Femi Gbajabiamila (APC) in charge as President of the Senate and Speaker of the House of Representatives respectively. They were anointed to take over the leadership of the National Assembly in 2015 following the victory of their political party at the general elections, but that was not to be, as certain influential members of the APC lobbied the opposition lawmakers to upset the applecart, thus throwing forward Bukola Saraki and Yakubu Dogara as leaders instead. The lobbying in the present dispensation has been very intense, with all manner of permutations and calculations, from zoning to merit, being bandied to canvass support for certain interests. Some have posited that zoning, faith and gender should play major roles in the recruitment process, given the composition of the leadership of the major political parties. Deliberately and without mincing words, the framers of the Constitution established the Legislature as the First Arm of government, because law is needed to define all other aspects of human existence. It is thus expected that through its additional powers of approval and oversight functions, the legislature will work to curb the excesses of the executive arm of government, especially in situations where retired politicians have hijacked the democratic process, having in their prime tasted power and are not unwilling to hand over to others. These factors have shot the legislature into national focus, especially the leadership.

The National Assembly is a bicameral legislature consisting of 109 members of the Senate and 360 members of the House of Representatives, modelled after the federal Congress of the United States and meant to guarantee equal representation. In the current 9th National Assembly, the APC has 66 seats in the Senate, PDP 38, NNPP 1 and YPP 1 whilst in the House of Representatives, the APC has 227 seats, PDP 121, APGA 4, NNPP 3, ADC 1 and PRP 1. Three seats are vacant in the Senate while one seat is vacant in the House of Representatives. In the 10th National Assembly that will be inaugurated in June, APC has 59 senators, PDP 36, LP 8, SDP 2 NNPP 2, APGA 1 and YPP 1. In this composition, the ruling party has 59 senators whilst the opposition parties altogether have 50, which gives renewed strength for diversity. In the House of Representatives, the APC has 162 seats, PDP 102, LP 34, NNPP 18, APGA 4, ADC 2, SDP 2 and YPP 1. What this has shown is that it is not possible for the ruling party to foist any candidate upon the National Assembly, even though the same scenario played out in the 9th Assembly with the opposition parties unable to pull their weight when it mattered most.

Notwithstanding the seeming plurality of representation, the 9th National Assembly has not been able to assert itself as an autonomous institution, preferring rather to treasure political party affiliation over and above the national interest. In that dispensation, the executive arm of government was always certain of maximum support and approval of all proposals and requests, no matter how unpopular, injurious or backward. In the jurisdiction for which our legislative arm has been patterned, there is the robust system of separation of powers and the doctrine of checks and balances. The three arms of government are expected to operate independently and complimentarily, not dependent upon or patronizing, in the manner that the 9th Assembly has carried on. No doubt it is good to have a responsible legislature for the purpose of harmonization and development but when it gets to the level where the executive is always right, then such level of dubious cooperation should worry all lovers of true democracy. A legislature that cannot supervise and check the excesses of the executive is not worth its name at all. Truth is, such an assembly of persons cannot claim to represent anyone, when the chips are down. They represent only themselves, only their interests and their stomachs. However, the 9th Asssembly was able to conclude the process of the amendment of the Constitution and it also gave us the new Electoral Act, with all its booby traps.

Owing largely to the independent mode of its leadership recruitment, the 8th National Assembly under Saraki and Dogara turned out to be one of the best ever, at least in taming the monstrous executive arm. You can imagine what would have happened under Saraki should the Central Bank of Nigeria dream of the calamitous project of Naira redesign or the needless loans that the federal government has embarked upon in its dying days. It was not business as usual in the National Assembly under Saraki and Dogara, as the legislators asserted their powers to the fullest and held the executive down to follow due process, at all times. As an appointee of the President, you would have to prepare very well for your screening, and ministries and other government agencies had to sit up to defend their budgets and actions. They were very daring, courageous and they took steps to protect the people from an overbearing executive. It was little wonder then that the ruling party did all its best to ensure that most members of that collective did not return to the 9th National Assembly. But Nigeria has paid dearly for that selfish agenda as the 9th National Assembly operated more like a weeping institution, a clearing house and a reporting Chamber, where elected representatives of the people stoop to beg directors of parastatals to attend public hearings, at times issuing empty threats without any follow-up action and granting virtually all the requests of the executive. Having succeeded in installing its cronies in positions of authority at the National Assembly, the executive has since then embarked upon mindless borrowings, putting our nation at the mercy of shylock imperialists, who whimsically drafted contracts that threaten even our cherished sovereignty, at times in their own language. Yes, it is a National Assembly that prides itself in ‘reporting’ errant serving ministers and heads of parastatals who defy its summons, to the President.

As elected representatives of the people, the National Assembly is expected to assert the will of the people by invoking the relevant provisions of the constitution in the discharge of their statutory responsibilities of law making, supervising the executive arm and also to prevent waste and corruption. Lawmakers who scramble for constituency projects cannot be in the best position to make laws that will impact the people positively. So much has been invested in the National Assembly in order to guarantee optimum performance and so the leadership of such a crucial organ should not be a matter of political patronage or reward for perceived electoral support. We cannot afford the misfortune of parading elected representatives who are whipped along the lines of executive preferences, all the time. There has to be a balance of power and of forces, for our nation to ever dream of attaining the expected growth that our leaders have touted so often.

In choosing the leadership of the 10th National Assembly therefore, the most important criteria should be competence, which can also include experience, qualification and indeed reputation. As the saying goes, the fish gets rotten from the head, so the kind of leaders to be entrusted with the management of the National Assembly is key to our national development. Of course we need to be sensitive to issues of gender parity, faith and indeed zoning, all of which could be accommodated in the primary consideration of merit as indeed it is possible for the right candidate to possess all these features all at once. Although the tradition is for the ranking members-elect of the political party with the highest number to produce the leadership of the National Assembly, it does not have to be along party lines, given that the laws governing the choice of leadership is internal to the legislature. For instance, the opposition parties, either in the name of “the Greater Majority” or any other forum, can swing the tide if they remain united. In this regard, legislators should be allowed to vote according to their convictions, not vote buying. The news filtering that certain candidates for the leadership are campaigning with dollars to garner support should be a disqualifying factor, if at all it is true. Security agencies should beam their searchlight on the members-elect to monitor their activities, especially their finances. We cannot afford to reduce the next leadership of the National Assembly to commercial ventures to be sold to the highest bidders, as once corruption has been laid upon the foundation of that hallowed institution, then we can all predict what would happen in the next four years. Members-elect are thus enjoined to discountenance the APC contraption of leadership by zoning. I vote for an independent, vibrant and active National Assembly.

Adegboruwa, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN),  writes from Lagos

QUOTE

So much has been invested in the National Assembly in order to guarantee optimum performance and so the leadership of such a crucial organ should not be a matter of political patronage or reward for perceived electoral support. We cannot afford the misfortune of parading elected representatives who are whipped along the lines of executive preferences, all the time. There has to be a balance of power and of forces, for our nation to ever dream of attaining the expected growth that our leaders have touted so often.

I made acquaintance with a lady, Yeye Akilimali Funua Olade, about 1990. A few months later, my wife and I visited her in Ila Oragun where she was running a rural library, the African Heritage Research Library. She was an American who had studied at Fisk University from 1963 -1965, earned a Bachelor’s degree in African- American/Black Studies from the San Francisco State University, and a Master of Library Science from the University of California.

So what was she doing in such rustic circumstances? She said she had three children, including two girls and all around the American communities she lived, aggressive forces of lesbianism were on the rise. So, with the agreement of her African American husband, Ayantuga Olade, she fled the United States. Unfortunately, the forces she ran away from in North America, four decades ago, are on the move in her adopted continent, Africa in the guise of campaigning for workers and human rights.

A drama played out this week when on May 29, 2023, the Speaker of the Ugandan Parliament, Anita Among, announced that President Yoweri Museveni had signed into law the new Anti-Homosexuality Act 2023 which punishes the financiers and promoters of homosexuality. The law while generally providing prison terms for violators, also prescribes the death penalty for those who engage children in homosexual acts or spread deadly diseases like HIV/AIDS.

The United States immediately revoked the visa of the Speaker. It did not clarify why she was being punished for the new law; is it for presiding over the parliament, failing to stop about 400 parliamentarians from passing the bill or daring to announce the birth of the new law? In her reaction, a dignified Speaker Among said: “As Uganda’s Parliament, we have listened to our people’s concerns and legislated to protect the sanctity of the family, in accordance with Article 31 of the Republic of Uganda’s Constitution. As stated in Objectives 19 and 24 of our national objectives and directive principles of state policy, we have stood firm to defend our people’s culture, values, and aspirations.”

The US had through its Vice President Kamala Harris warned Uganda of consequences if it dared pass the new legislation. On March 27, 2023, while on a visit to Ghana, our African American sister insisted Africa must support homosexuality because it is a matter the US considers “ to be a human rights issue and that will not change… I feel very strongly about supporting freedom and supporting and fighting for the equality of all people.“

The US message is very clear: that Uganda as an African country has no right to sovereignty; no right to taking democratic decisions even if backed by its people; no right of dissent from the position of the US and that it must accept the culture of America otherwise, it will be subject to sanctions. The African people, as far as the US is concerned, have no right to choose a different cultural orientation, not even sexual. This was one of the main reasons why President Robert Mugabe was harassed and hounded internationally. There were even attempts to arrest him for rejecting the culture of homosexuality.

It is also instructive that while the US is sanctioning Uganda for its new law, it did not take similar actions against its allies such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Pakistan with worse anti-homosexual laws.
The issue arising from the US sanctions against Uganda is not so much about punishing it for daring to enact a law against homosexuality, but trying to recolonise the African continent. In this wise, this is not a challenge against Uganda alone but the entire African people. Therefore, African countries need to unite and collectively sanction the US. At the very least, every African country should be asked to revoke the visa of at least a dozen or two Americans.

What is clear is that some Western countries view Africa as a collection of weak states on which the culture of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer or Questioning, LGBTQ, can be imposed. Just as we were colonised at gunpoint, so is the dictation of LGBTQ being forced on us under threats of severe socio-economic and political sanctions. Just as the religion was used to lure us into surrendering to colonial bandits, so have funds and positions been used to lure our youths to being evangelists of LGBTQ.

I woke up to this reality in the Trade Union Movement in 2011 when I discovered that some Western trade unions were offering positions and funds to those who will declare and flaunt claims of being gays, lesbians and bisexual. In one case, I put my foot down that as Acting General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, such campaigns will not be encouraged. Now, some of our young unionists and activists, for economic reasons or to guarantee the crumbs being passed to them by some organisations, are busy campaigning for LGBTQ as workers’ rights. Far from the truth; workers, at least in Africa, want guaranteed employment, good conditions of service, social protection, guaranteed pension and settled family life. Their concern is not who is sleeping with who. In Africa, sex or people’s preferences are closet affairs, not what you call press conferences about.

When the West colonised Africa, it did so partly under the pretext of ‘civilization’. They assumed that a continent like ours which taught the fathers of Western Civilization like Plato, are not civilized. Some of their fathers who knew we built the magnificent pyramids which housed mummies, still claimed that Africans live on trees like monkeys. Today some of them still think they are on a mission of civilization by presenting LGBTQ as human rights.

They conveniently forget that there are collective socio-economic, political and cultural rights which supersedes individual rights. The United Nations recognises individual and group rights and the former cannot be imposed on the collective. The individual comes from the community, therefore the rights of the community are primary and those of the individual are secondary.

What some Western countries want to do is force the African people into a birth control scheme aware that a marriage between a man and a man or a woman with a woman is unlikely to produce children. It was the same way a drug, Depo Provera, whose approval in the United States had been refused first in the 1960s, and again in the 1970s, was imposed on African women, especially in Nigeria where the women were used as guinea pigs for a dangerous all-cure drug that was widely imposed as a contraception. While Africans respect the values, traditions and cultures of other peoples, the least we expect is that they should also respect ours.