Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, has revealed that the House is deliberating on a bill aimed at reserving special seats for women in parliament.

Kalu made this announcement at the 2nd Women of Divine Destiny Initiative Inspiring Women Summit (2024) in Owerri, Imo State.

The summit, themed “Illuminating the Power of an Inspired Woman,” focused on empowering women to achieve their dreams.

WODDI, a non-profit organisation, was founded by the wife of former Imo State Governor, Dr. Nkechi Rochas Okorocha.

The Deputy Speaker highlighted that the bill, titled the “Seat Reservation Bill,” was recently introduced in parliament and is co-sponsored by himself and several colleagues.

The proposed legislation seeks to amend the 1999 Constitution to allocate special seats for women in the legislature. Kalu emphasized that, if passed, the bill would significantly advance women’s representation in politics.

“We must acknowledge, however, that in a society striving for equitable development, addressing fundamental issues like gender equality and inclusiveness is imperative.

“In Nigeria, where women and girls constitute 49.32% of our population, representation in institutions and governance needs urgent attention. Presently, the House of Representatives is considering a bill to improve the representation of women in our legislative institutions, sponsored by myself and other colleagues,”  Kalu stated.

He also highlighted the efforts of the Peace In South East Project, a social development initiative prioritizing gender issues.

He praised Dr. Nkechi Rochas Okorocha for organising the summit and urged participants to fully unleash their potential, now that they have been rightly motivated.

[Punch]

•Says action won’t end until Minimum Wage agreement is signed

•Oil, electricity, maritime, financial, and other critical sector unions warm up 

Less than 24 hours after to start of the nationwide strike over a new national minimum wage and hike in electricity tariff, the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has directed its state councils across the country to ensure total compliance.

This came to light on a day unions in the oil, electricity, financial and other critical sectors pledged total support for the indefinite strike declared by NLC and its counterpart, the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC.

Recall that the two labour centres, last Friday, announced an indefinite nationwide strike from tomorrow (Monday) over the government’s failure to agree on a new national minimum wage and reverse the recent hike in electricity tariff.

NLC and TUC leaders had, on Workers Day, celebrations given the Federal Government a May 31 deadline to conclude the negotiations on a new national minimum wage or risk nationwide industrial unrest.

The tripartite committee on a new National Minimum Wage set up by the government failed to make a decision on a new national minimum wage after about four meetings.

Labour leaders had walked out of the meetings three times after rejecting government and the Organised Private Sector, OPS, offers.

Incidentally, the last walkout on Friday happened on a day the deadline labour gave the government to conclude a new minimum wage lapsed, as the old minimum wage of N30,000 that was signed into law by former President Muhammad Buhari on April 18, 2019, expired on April 18, 2024.

Earlier on May 31, organised labour negotiators had walked out of the meeting for a third time, over the refusal by government to make a new offer beyond the N60,000 it put forward.

It was gathered that the negotiations hit a brick wall when the government and the organised private sector, OPS, remained adamant on the N60,000 offers they made earlier on Tuesday.

Recall that organised labour’s negotiating team had, Tuesday May 28, for the second time in two weeks, walked out of the committee meeting after the federal government increased its offer to N60,000 from the N57,000 it offered on May 22.

Labour’s negotiating team had, on May 15, walked out of the tripartite committee meeting after the government offered N48,000 and Organised Private Sector, OPS, offered N54,000, against the N615,000.

Directive to state councils

NLC, in a circular by its General Secretary, Emmanuel Ugboaja, to all its state councils, among others, said “This is to inform you of the commencement of the proposed indefinite nationwide strike beginning on Monday, June 3, 2024, as a result of the failure of the Nigerian state to agree on a new national minimum wage and subsequently pass it into law before the end of this month as they were notified; Reverse the hike in electricity tariff without consulting the stakeholders as required by the law to N225/kwh back to N66/kwh and Stop the apartheid categorisation of Nigerian electricity consumers into Bands.

“We kindly request all State Councils to mobilise all their affiliates and members across the state to stay away from work commencing Midnight, this Sunday to ensure a comprehensive closure of all workplaces.

“Do please, set up joint Action Committees with the Trade Union Congress in your state for effective coordination of the strike action. We would be glad to receive continuous updates of your effort. Do remember that the success of this action is dependent on our collective determination and resolve.”

No agreement, no end

Also speaking on whether organised labour will call off action should government call and offer a higher amount, President of NLC, Joe Ajaero said: “Government can only call for a continuation of the negotiation not by an award. They can’t say come, we are giving you this. We have to sit down and negotiate from where we are today. It is like calling us tomorrow to say let us continue with the negotiation. Now we will negotiate from there, but not to call us to say we are giving you N10 or N20, that will be out of the concept of negotiation.

“Calling us does not mean agreement. Until we sign an agreement on what is mutually agreeable by the parties, action will be on. But action is not such that we will not equally negotiate, because the two parties are now going to negotiate under duress. We are under pressure. That is the meaning of this. So the earlier we resolve it, the better for us.”

On mobilisation at the state level, Ajaero said: “When you hear the National Executive Council, NEC, of any labour centre, it comprises all the states and all the unions. That is the situation, and that is where we got this mandate.

“You equally witnessed it on May Day when all workers gathered nationwide, and this pronouncement was made. In fact, it was a public one. it is not like there were two or three people. It was mass based.

“As of today, there is no minimum wage for Nigerian workers. Technically, the minimum wage had expired on the 18th of April. As of now, we are operating without any law backing up the minimum wage. They were talking about a 100 per cent increase. That is what they have offered, but the 100 per cent increase amounts to one loaf of bread per day for 30 days .They are not looking at the quality or the value of what they are offering to us.
“Those are the issues that we are looking at and all of us must address it because it is tight. There is nobody that can move on with this arrangement being done with inflation and devaluation. Everything is open.

“If we take even the N600,000 we are proposing today, by next week, it will not make any impact. So, we have to look at them holistically and see what we can do to save the working class in Nigeria. We are not doing a strike that will be one month without a bite. I’m not sure where you have labour centres in a country embarking on a strike for one month and you don’t listen to them.

“What we will be praying for is for the people who are suffering so much because they are some of our people. That was why we were reluctant. That was why we were virtually telling them to let us find a solution.
“When we were in the meeting today (yesterday) we told them we have to be here and allow you to go and get a mandate. We are ready to sleep here to allow you to get a mandate to come back to this meeting. They said no, we should just allow them whenever they get a mandate. That it is difficult to see even the President and that they do not have access and all that. Then they did not come out with anything. We found ourselves in a helpless situation. So, that is where we are now. Everybody should be patient with us.”

Critical sector workers

Meanwhile, Nigeria Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers, NUPENG, National Union of Electricity Employees, NUEE, Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria, MWUN, National Union of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institutions Employees, NUBIFIE, and other critical sector unions have already written to their members to ensure total compliance.

NUPENG

In a circular to all levels of the union leaders, NUPENG’s General Secretary, Afolabi Olawale, said: “We bring you fraternal greetings from the National Secretariat of our great union.

“This is to notify all our members and branches in all oil and gas installations, operations and services including distribution and marketing of petroleum products, that our great union is fully committed to ensuring total compliance with the directive of the Nigerian Labour Congress issued on Friday, May 31, 2024, for an indefinite nationwide strike commencing from Monday, June 3, 2024. “As a union, we are deeply concerned and disturbed with the insensitive and irresponsive attitude of the federal government to the very critical issue of negotiating a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers in view of the various social economic policies of this administration that have impoverished the working people of this country.

“Leaders of our great union at all levels, from the units, Zones and Branches, should immediately put all processes in place to ensure total compliance with this directive Our solidarity remains constant because the union makes us strong. The struggle continues. And we shall overcome.”

NUBIFIE

Similarly, NUBIFIE, in a directive by its President and General Secretary, Abakpa Sheikh, said: “This is to inform all NUBIFIE organs that NLC has directed all its affiliates to commence an indefinite strike beginning from Monday, June 3, 2024. The import of the strike is to compel the federal government to agree on a new national minimum wage and subsequently pass it into law before the end of this month as they were notified, reverse the hike in electricity tariff without consulting the stakeholders as required by the law to N225/kwh back to N66/kwh and Stop the apartheid categorization of Nigerian electricity into Bands.

“In total compliance with the directives from the NLC, you are hereby directed to mobilize for effective participation in your respective Zonal Councils/Domestic Committee and ensure total compliance.

Electricity workers

Also, a notice by the President and Acting General of NUEE, Adebiyi Adeyeye and Dominic Igwebike, said “With reference to the circular from NLC dated May 31, 2024, we are to mobilise and embark on an indefinite nationwide strike starting Monday, June 3, 2024, by 0.00hour due to the following failure of the Nigerian government to implement and sign into law the new national minimum wage on or before 31st May 2024, Non-reversal of the electricity tariff which was hiked from N65/kwh to N225/kwh without consulting the stakeholders as required by the law and Apartheid categorization of Nigeria electricity consumers into bands.

“Given the above, all National, State, and Chapter executives are requested to start the mobilization of our members in total compliance with this directive to ensure the Government does the right thing as stated above.
“You are encouraged to work with the leadership of State Executive Councils (SEC) of the Congress in your various states to have a successful action. The withdrawal of services becomes effective Sunday 2nd June by 12.00 midnight.”

Maritime workers

In the same vein, the President-General of MWUN, Prince Adewale Adeyanju, in a statement through the union’s head of Media, John Ikemefuna, directed members in the nation’s ports “to comply with the directive of both NLC and TUC to join in the indefinite total lockdown of the country commencing from Monday, June 3, 2024.
“The indefinite nationwide strike has become very imperative, given the failure of the federal government on the logjam and the inconclusive national minimum wage negotiation and refusal to reverse the hard biting hike in electricity tariff.

“Given the foregoing, the Maritime Workers Union of Nigeria has directed its members in all ports nationwide, jetties, terminals, oil & gas platforms to effectively ensure the total compliance of the strike as directed by the NLC and TUC. This is also to serve as notice to all our concerned stakeholders in the Maritime sector.”

[Vanguard]

In January 2024, the federal government inaugurated a 37-member tripartite committee to review the National Minimum Wage. As of today, the committee has not agreed on the new rate but, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have given the federal government a deadline of May 31 to develop a new national minimum wage.

What is interesting about the discussions about minimum wage has been the tension within the employer group, particularly within the public sector. In recent years, the state governments have argued against higher minimum wages because they believe they cannot afford them. On the other hand, the federal government always proposed a higher rate than the State Governments.
According to the Awolowo Foundation, Late Awolowo ” introduced and successfully implemented the first minimum wage policy in Nigeria and paid to Western Nigerians from October 1954 a minimum wage that was double the amount paid to workers of the same level in some other parts of Nigeria.” So, before independence, Awolowo had introduced a minimum wage to the Western Region. While the Western Region paid 5 shillings and six pence as minimum wage to workers, workers in the North earned only two shillings and eight pence.

The Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo, as President of Action Group and Premier of Western Region in June 1959, complained about “…the refusal of the Federal Government to introduce a policy of 5 pounds Minimum Wage”. He said this “has led to anomalies which must be most depressing and shattering to those concerned. Federal workers employed in the Western Region, for instance in the Post and Telegraphs and the Moor Planation, who work side by side, live in the same sort of houses and buy from the same markets with Western Region workers, get less in wages than the latter independence. ”

Late Chief Obafemi Awolowo made the fixing of a National Minimum wage a campaign issue. Speaking at a Press Conference held in the Premier’s Office, Ibadan, on Thursday, June 4, 1959, Chief Obafemi Awolowo said, “The Action Group and its Allies will terminate this inhuman and uneconomic state of affairs during the first six months in office and in any case, well before the day of independence. All workers employed by the Federal Government will be paid five pounds Minimum Wage with effect from October 1, 1959. At the same time, a law will be enacted by the Federal Parliament stipulating a National Minimum wage not below 5 Pounds, which must be paid by all employers of Labour in Nigeria.” Chief Obafemi Awolowo lost in the 1959 elections to Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa KBE PC, Nigeria’s first and only Prime Minister. The Prime Minister didn’t do anything about the Minimum wage law, delaying the dream of a National Minimum wage. So, before Independence, the federal government didn’t support a national minimum wage, but the regions pushed for it.

The first National minimum wage law was signed into law by the Late President Shagari in September 1981. This law was prompted by the advocacy of the Nigerian Labour Congress, which was led by the late Hassan Sunmonu. This new law covered all full-time workers except seasonal workers and those who worked in enterprises employing fewer than 50 workers. The wage was 125 naira per month. Using the exchange rate of US$1 = 0.61 naira as of 1981, this wage was about US$204. At the 2024 exchange rate, that amount paid as minimum wage in 1981 would be equivalent to about 265,000 naira (going by the current exchange rate of about US$1 = 1,300 naira). The current national minimum wage is N30,000 (US$24) a month. So, the minimum wage in 1981 was over eight times more than the current minimum wage.

Fixing the minimum wage is a constitutional issue in Nigeria. The current constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria made fixing the national minimum wage an item in the Exclusive list. Therefore, it can only be legislated upon by the National Assembly and not the state assemblies. So, while the Western region started a minimum wage, we have transformed this idea that was a regional initiative into one that only the Federal Government could determine. Are we the better for it?

From 1981 to 2018, Nigeria’s minimum wage changed three times. In 2000, it was increased to N5500. In 2011, President Goodluck Jonathan signed a new National Minimum Wage into law. The new law increased the minimum wage from N7,500 to N18,000. This new law applied to public or private sector employers with a workforce of about 50 persons.

The Government started the review of the National Minimum Wage in 2019. The unions demanded N30,000 per month as the National Minimum wage, the Federal Government proposed N24,000 and state governors N20,000. In January 2019, the National Council of State approved the sum of N 27,000.00 as the minimum wage, but the Governors counter–offered the sum of N 22,500.00. The NLC rejected the offer, but later proposed the sum of N30,000.00 (Thirty Thousand Naira). This amount was accepted by the Federal Government, leading to the enactment of the National Minimum Wage Act 2019 in March 2019. The new national minimum wage was approved and signed by former president Muhammadu Buhari. The new law increased the national minimum wage from N 18,000 to N30,000 monthly.

In 2024, discussions about a New Minimum wage are ongoing.
I want to draw these conclusions based on the history of minimum wage reviews in Nigeria.

First, most wage reviews happened under democratic rule, as opposed to when Nigeria was under Military rule.

Second, the states or regions usually view minimum wage differently from the federal government. In 2019, the Chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum NGF and Governor of Zamfara State, Abdulaziz Yari, said: “We made it clear that we are not against the upward review of salary, we are in tandem with the NLC to get the minimum wage reviewed but the problem we are having is the capacity to pay what is agreed. As at today, most of the states are struggling to pay the N18,000 minimum wage. Some states are paying between 35 to 50 percent of the minimum wage and some states are owing salary. …it is not about only reviewing it but how we are going to get the resources to cater for it.”.

Third, negotiations on the minimum wage take a long time.

Fourth, while the Labour Unions ask for a minimum wage based on the economic realities of the time, the government proposes the minimum wage using the ability-to-pay principle.

Fifth, while the Private sector participates in the negotiations, it has a limited role compared to the others.

Sixth, local governments are not represented in the negotiations about the minimum wage.

Seventh, there is rarely an agreed amount that all parties commit to pay. In January 2019, the Zamfara State Governor, Abubakar Yari, also the Nigerian Governors Forum Chairman, warned the National Assembly against passing a new National Minimum Wage that would be difficult for states to pay because it was not realistic. He said, “It is easy to call figures, but when it comes to implementing in the field, it becomes a problem. Only Lagos can afford the N30,000 as minimum wage, not even Rivers can afford to pay that much.”

Eight, while the Minimum Wage Act always has an enforcement mechanism, nobody cares about enforcing the wage. Sections 9, 10, and 15 of the Act listed various offences. Section 10 (2) of the Act states that “an employer is liable upon conviction of such offence to a fine not exceeding N75,000.00 (Seventy-Five Thousand Naira) and an additional penalty of N10,000.00 (Ten thousand Naira) or less for everyday that the offence continues”. Offenses in section 15 of the Act attract a maximum fine of N250,000.00 (Two Hundred and Fifty Thousand Naira) or imprisonment for a term not exceeding 6 (six) months or both. In Section 11 of the Act, The Minister may authorize any officer to enforce the provisions of the Act. Section 12 empowers the Ministry of Labour and Employment and National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission to monitor the implementation of the NMW in line with the provisions of the Labour Act and the National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commissions Act. Section 13 of the Act empowers an aggrieved worker, trade unions, and the Minister to enforce any part of the Act. But I am not aware that anyone has enforced the law. Perhaps the worst culprits are the state governments. As of October 2023, BudgIT stated that 15 states did not pay the N30,000 minimum wage fixed by the Muhammadu Buhari administration in 2019.

Ninth, some states have announced a new minimum wage for civil servants. For example, the Governor of Edo State, Godwin Obaseki, approved a new wage of N70,000 to take effect on May 1, 2024. Also, since January, the Lagos State Government has been paying civil servants an N35,000 wage award directed by the Federal Government. While Lagos claims it has not increased the minimum wage, Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu said: “The civil servants and all public officers, they know that since January we have continued to pay the wage allowance of minimum of N35,000 over and above what they were earning before. People that were earning a minimum of N35,000 to N40,000 before, they are now earning over N70,000. ”

Ten, Chief Awolowo introduced the Minimum wage in Nigeria. It was a regional idea, and the regions paid better than the Federal Government.

Nigeria is currently negotiating a new minimum wage. However, we are still using similar templates, processes, methods, and negotiation styles to fix the National Minimum wage to what we have used in the past. This raises the question: will we get any better results? Would we get a wage that will make a real difference to workers?

We need to have an honest conversation about the Minimum wage. Do we want to fix any amount as the minimum wage, or do we want a wage that will be affordable to employers and reasonable enough to improve the livelihood of the workers? Until we resolve this question, we will keep fixing minimum wages that many employers will refuse to pay, and even when they pay, the wage will make no difference to most workers.

In Africa, when a man loses his virility, he is subject to scorn, ridicule and disdain. Male impotence or infertility is not only disdained but tabooed. In a continent where child-making is almost an obsession, Africa couched some hurtful epithets for one who loses his virile member. Failure to get this critical member to stand up leaves sour overtones of frustration, pain, social ostracism, stigma, marital instability, discomfiture and even sometimes, suicide.

Among the Yoruba, virility victims are named Okobo. The rural Shona tribe in the Mhondoro-Ngezi area of Zimbabwe could not stand the virility challenge. To ward off this evil spirit from their tribe, they deployed socio-cultural intervention strategies to ward it off. To do this, they devised indigenous systems of monitoring signs of impotence during infancy, puberty and even after marriage.

Moyo Stanzia of the University of Zimbabwe, Harare, in her “Indigenous knowledge systems and attitudes towards male infertility in Mhondoro-Ngezi, Zimbabwe” (Culture, Health & Sexuality, 2013 Vol. 15, No. 6, 667–679) attempted a study of the Okobo in this Zimbabwean village. One of her informant interviewees, 69-year-old Ruzvidzo, volunteered his experience thus: “Traditionally, our uncles and grandfathers would take us away from home to a river with clear water. We were forced to masturbate and ejaculate our sperm in the clear water, one after the other. This was done to test the quality of sperm. It was understood that fertile sperms would sink in the water. However, if the sperms floated, it meant that the individual was weak and could be infertile – a problem regarded as requiring strategic intervention.”

Ousmane Sembene’s XALA (1975) film, considered one of the most successful films by the Senegalese writer and filmmaker, also explored the thematic preoccupation with the Okobo. Sembene uses sexual zero virility as a metaphor. Situated among Black Africa’s growing middle class of Senegal, Sembene weaves their challenge into the projection that they are doomed to lose their power unless they delink the Western world and identify with Africa and its masses. The film’s protagonist, El Hadji Abdoukader Beye, a successful middle-aged polygamous businessman, is preparing to take a third wife. On his wedding night, he suddenly discovers he cannot get his member up. Attributing this to a spell cast on him, he consults witch doctors. El Hadji’s Senegalese society ties social prestige to status symbols, which collectively speaks to the ability to show manhood. This means satisfying one’s wife sexually and economically. Zero virility leads to El-Hadji being expelled from the Chamber of Commerce and confiscation of his most prized possessions. He finds out that a Dakar beggar he cheated on several years back laced him with the spell. The beggar agrees to remove the spell only if he strips naked and he (the beggar) and his friends spit on him.

In a piece I wrote that tangentially discussed male virility, (Atiku Abubakar and the sexual history of the Nigerian presidency, February 6, 2022) I related how rumours once had it that Zimbabwean former Prime Minister and presidential candidate, Morgan Tsvangirai, suffered “a nasty blow from below,” euphemism for zero virility. The news spread like bushfire. At about the same time, the virility-restoring prowess of Emmanuel Makandiwa, a ‘miracle-working’ Pentecostal prophet, froze the stratosphere like snowflakes in winter. The estranged wife of Tsvangirai, Elizabeth Macheka, had lit the fire. In an interview, she granted The Herald, entitled, Why I ditched Tsvangirai: Wife, Macheka said she separated from Tsvangirai due to ‘sensitive personal issues’ and that this was known to her and Tsvangirai alone and only the two of them could resolve it.

For a Zimbabwean public that salivated by riveting gossip and rumours in high and low places, Macheka’s statement was the confirmation it needed for a high-quality rumour. In whooshing whispers and mouth-to-ear transmission, the former prime minister was said to have been afflicted by an “under-neath,” below-the-trousers problem of ‘erectile dysfunctional disorder.’ The Herald did not also help matters. It immediately tagged what Macheka dubbed ‘sensitive personal issues’ as ‘a medical one.’ Thereafter, Fungai Machirori, Zimbabwean journalist and blogger, did a salacious piece on the issue she entitled, Of Penises, Politics and Pentecostalism in Zimbabwe, an essay which she called an “exposé of trouble in the un-paradise that is Tsvangirai’s love life’’

Among the Yoruba, the Okobo is the butt of crude jokes. He is also called the Akura, one whose member had died. One of Akura’s characteristics is hyperactivity. If a man, like one on steroids, does the job of ten people at a go, Yoruba wonder if he is an Akura. When there is a trust deficit between two people, and every action becomes suspicious, my people find a way to drag the Okobo into the conversation. So, they say, what we demanded of the sexually sterile is to penetrate but he boasts that, in a twinkle of an eye, he could make a thread penetrate 200 needles in the dark. In its rawest form, they render this as, “nkan ti won ni ki Okobo bo, ko bo; igba abere l’olohun le bo l’okun.” In a chapter I wrote in the book, Indigenous African Popular Music, Vol 1 edited by Biodun Salawu and Israel Fadipe, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022) which I entitled, “Corpus of Prophecy, Philosophy and Crusading in Ayinla Omowura’s Music,” I explored the Okobo theme in the music of the late Yoruba Apala musician. In one of his vinyl, while trying to denounce charges of piracy of songs levelled against him by his colleague musicians, Ayinla magisterially replied that the mockery of a man afflicted by the venereal disease, gonorrhoea does not lie in the mouth of the sexually sterile. Only a virile man can contract gonorrhoea. He sang, “abosi alatosi ko si l’owo okobo…”

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Last Wednesday, the rumour became real. President Bola Tinubu signed into law the bill to revert Nigeria to its old national anthem. By the way, even Tinubu’s supporters clothed themselves in sackcloth and ashes last week. They were probably reinventing the old Jewish response to devastating news concerning their race. It is the Jewish practice of showing intense grief and distress. The Tinubu supporters’ valiant war hero, who they boasted that, at each of his dancing steps while returning from a war of conquest as eight-year governor of Lagos state, the crowd dashed him slaves (ajogb’eru), to their chagrin, now dances and all he gets is miserable cornmeal (ajogb’eko). As our elders say, to find out how melodious or sour the rhythm of the Bata drum is, we should ask the Sango deity devotee whose god is the totem of the Bata drum. So, opinion samplers, recognising that Nigerians are the Sango devotees and Tinubu, the Bata drummer, approached the common people to rate the melody of Tinubu’s one-year drumming. The opinion moulders didn’t go to the IMF. Nor to the Nigerian elite who, like bedbugs, drain quality blood from the Nigerian body.

One such opinion sampler was the Africa Polling Institute (API). It did a Citizens Assessment Report of Tinubu’s one year as president. It reported that there was a stark reality of hunger, poverty and mass dissatisfaction. 84% of people overwhelmingly expressed profound sadness with the Tinubu presidency, 81% felt Nigeria under him is headed in the wrong direction, 36% identified hunger, 28% inability to meet basic needs, 13% riled against unemployment, 9% insecurity and 5% poor electricity as the bane of his government. All in all, they agreed that the last year has been one of misery, pain, lies and grandstanding. In earlier pieces I did, I alerted Nigerians that some qualities were exclusive preserves of the typical Lagos Boy. He is bold and brash, rather than courageous; he is dismissive of others’ feelings and believes he can wangle his way through the toughest of all calamities by deploying subterfuge.

Amid a plethora of Nigerian people’s agony, last Sunday, the Lagos Boy flew into Lagos. It was the flag-off ceremony of the highly demonised Lagos-Calabar coastal highway. Many commentators have concluded that, in the ₦15 trillion road construction, you do not have to drill too deep down to see an army of maggots wriggling their milk-coloured bodies to the Bata drum being beaten by Tinubu and his Gilbert Chagoury business associate contractor. Rather than join the Nigerians in this sackcloth and ashes week, that Sunday, Tinubu dismissively looked into the eye of the camera and pronounced, “Today is my day to boast. My bragging day. Today, I hold the bragging right.” Now, I pray thee – apologies to students of the biblical Old Testament – which leader brags when his people go to bed hungry?

The president then capped this contempt for the longsuffering people of Nigeria with the signing of the National Anthem Bill. To the people, ipso facto, he instantly became that proverbial Okobo who boasted that he could insert thread into 200 needles in the dark. On the streets of Nigeria, the people’s disgust with Tinubu’s hyperactivity and the supersonic speed with which he signed the bill made him that sterile man. Against the general wish that he should consummate the relationship with Nigerians, President Okobo boasted that he could get the thread to penetrate the eye of the needle.

Let’s be clear, national anthems are a people’s property. They keep the goals of heroes alive. This is done by transmitting culture and history to new generations, as well as establishing a close connection with the people’s ancestors. Anthems espouse passion, look into the people’s past and rally them into the future. It is a people’s identity symbol unique to them, specifying their way of life, their culture and worldview. Anthems also create bonds, and for citizens, they reinforce national goals. To some scholars, anthems even do more. They serve to embody collective memories of heroes who died to have a nation and the values they left behind. The wordings of anthems are carefully and emotionally constructed in such a way as to ensure that they can boost collective identification of a country’s self-identity, national history, values, bloody memory of war, heroism and victory. It could be memories of colonisation or (de)coloniality but they clearly distinguish one nation from another.

You can know what makes a people thick by looking at the lyrics, rhythms and themes of their anthems. Anthems define the core values and convictions of a people. Adopted at independence in 1960, Nigeria’s first anthem, which Tinubu just legislated back to recognition, has become a subject of high national rage. Written by Lillian Jean Williams in 1959 and composed by Frances Berda, the anthem, which began with “Nigeria, we hail thee,” was replaced in 1978 by another that was themed around patriotism. Having its verse beginning with “Arise, O Compatriots,” this 1978 anthem’s music was said to have been composed by Benedict Elide Odiase, director of music of the Nigerian Police Band.

Historically, national anthems began in 14th-century Britain. The Netherlands is reputed with the oldest anthem composed in 1568. Its music was from a popular French tune. Those who composed Britain’s “God Save the Queen/King” and Russia’s “God Save the Czar” in 1744 and 1745 respectively were not known because those compositions were regarded as sacred.

While Nigerian independence was a collective fight against Britain for freedom so that the people’s customs, rituals and the like could survive, alongside their diverse tribes, cultures, languages, and religious groups, the “Nigeria we hail thee” anthem reflects this. Many people have however deplored the derogative reference to Nigerians as “natives” in that anthem. They claim that, in the year 2024, what Nigeria needs most is the patriotism of the “Arise o compatriots” and not tribes and tongues that differ. This, in the people’s submission, has, in 64 years of independence, become a given. While both anthems are important bonding icons, one mirrors political sovereignty more than the other. The 1958 anthem, written by a Briton, does not rally citizens for the task of showing loyalty to the state. This is a trait that has disappeared among Nigerians. The anthem however underscores servile abidance. All over the world, governments devise means through which citizens can show loyalty and patriotism to the state. Methinks, if patriotism is what the Tinubu government demands of Nigerians, there was no need to do away with “Arise o compatriots.”

The stark reality that confronts Nigerians is that successive leaders have made the country such that, rather than hail Nigeria, the country is wailed, according to a poet, “for (Nigeria’s) fallen fences eaten by termites and (her) lifeblood sucked dry” by politicians and soldiers. It is a country in the hands of embezzlers of national patrimony, corrupt officials and a post-independent Nigerian state where endemic poverty, starvation, fear of disintegration, and false and feigned freedom from colonialists, reign.

In the words of famous Oyo state broadcaster, Edmund Obilo, it is not the national anthem that makes a nation great. It is the integrity, vision and selflessness of its leadership. A corrupt, wicked and uninspiring leadership cannot conjure patriotism, no matter how eloquent the lyrics of its anthem. Let Tinubu and his economic henchmen not continue on this path of the Okobo by leaving leprosy and seeking to cure eczema. Let them make life livable for the people; embody the values of transparency, accountability and justice, in the words of the inimitable broadcaster. Nigerians cannot see these values of leadership anywhere in Aso Rock. They see a bizarre anthem reversal as the usual antic of a fiddling Nero in a burning Nigeria.

Aso Rock inside Kudeti River

The poor governance of the last year is getting at President Bola Tinubu. He needs our collective pity. It is making him depressed, enough to enter into what lawyers call forum shopping. Today, Aso Rock is clutching at straws. Its case is akin to that of the proverbial man inside raging waters which have overwhelmed him. The tidal wave is angry and is threatening to envelop the non-initiate, the Ogberi who jumped into the Kudeti River assuming it was a mere steady flow of run-off water. To overcome the anger of Kudeti, Tinubu throws tantrums, accusations and all-what-ought-nots as straws to salvage his drowning.

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Last Thursday, the president met Northern leaders, the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja. As things later turned out, the meeting was aimed at concretising, in the minds of Nigerians, the suit instituted by the federal government against the 36 state governors at the supreme court. Specifically, Tinubu wanted the leaders to pressure their state governors to account for their responsibilities. Fantastic. Like a grumpy schoolboy boxed to a corner, the president told the Northern elders that, while he was doing his utmost to raise the nation’s revenue, sub-national governments must make the needs of the locals the centrepiece of their governance.

“We are running a constitutional democracy. I will appeal to you to summon the governors. I am doing my very best to enhance the revenue base of the country. They must equally be sympathetic, and they must urgently consider the needs of the local people. People reside in the local communities. That is where they work, farm, and live. If the local governments are not effective in delivering services; as leaders, we must not hang on to the numbers. We have 774 local government areas, but are they truly effective? Do they solve problems for Nigerians? Do they coordinate development programming with the state and federal governments?” he asked, throwing rhetoric into the debate.

The president also asked for accountability in the performance of the 774 local governments. “Maybe we should look at recalibrating. What was good four years ago may not be good today. When we want the votes, we go to the locals; when we get the votes, we move to and focus on Abuja,” he said pleadingly.

Since 1999, Nigerians have confronted sub-national governments that they accuse of performing beneath their optimal level. They also, in fact, accuse them of tampering with the stupendous cash that goes into their tills. Heads of those governments have even been jailed for filching their people’s patrimony. So, Tinubu’s cry of the matricidal wife (ekun ap’okoje) is not novel.

Last week, the FG instituted a legal action against the 36 governors at the supreme court. In it, it alleged misconduct in the administration of local government areas. Filed by the attorney general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, Lateef Fagbemi, the suit seeks full autonomy for all local government areas in the country. It also specifically prayed the court to issue an order prohibiting governors from embarking on unilateral, arbitrary and unlawful dissolution of democratically elected local government leaders. In the same vein, it asks for an order that will permit funds standing to the credits of local governments to be directly channelled to them from the federation account. Another request was for the supreme court to stop the governors from constituting caretaker committees to run the affairs of local governments because this is against the constitutionally recognised and guaranteed democratic system.

On the surface, we must commend this federal administration for this yeoman role. It goes without saying that governors are alleged to have asphyxiated the 774 councils. As an Ogun state former council chairman confessed recently, council bosses are even, in some cases, made to swear oaths to the various vindictive deities never to reveal the dirty details of governors’ heists.

However, we should tarry awhile and look at the intendments of the Lagos Boy. It should interest us that Tinubu, on this road to Tarsus, has morphed from Saul to Paul. This was the same man who fought Olusegun Obasanjo to the hilt in defending his rights to a sizeable portion of the patrimony of the local governments of Lagos state. When such a man suddenly becomes an apostate of that conviction, society should be wary of him. My major hunch is that the Lagos Boy wants to decimate the 36 state governors, elevate local governments and build a new outpost of command for himself. His gambit could be to castrate the stiff-necked states, and project and promote Superman in his conjured 774 new pseudo-centres of power. With humongous money coming to the councils, the 774 LGs would be his battle axe to fight the governors. More importantly, the councils would be vulnerable to federal blackmail. Whatever the newly curated Leviathan asks the new kids on the block to do, including becoming his poster boys for the 2027 election, they will glibly do. Borrowing from that ancient proverbial quip, the Osanyin deity will thus become the slave.

It goes without saying that from 1999 to date, all Nigerian presidents have had issues with governors and have sought one way or the other to cut them to size over the issue of financial autonomy of local councils. We ordinarily should clap for a president who is poised to use the law to neutralise our enemy governors who have wasted our sub-national funds without any visible impacts. But, let us tarry awhile and ask ourselves how safe our cherished democratic government will be after the conquest of Napoleon. Does Napoleon, the Leviathan, have the pedigree of a people’s fight as the one he just entered into, without self-motive? Lest it turn out to be the proverbial case of the Iwofa who was mandated to take a thirsty horse to the riverside. When this happens, the Yoruba, in their infinite wisdom, say money (the Iwofa) is going after money (the horse). The Iwofa is not equivalent to slavery. It is a system of pawnshop or peonage, otherwise known as debt slavery. Extracted from two Yoruba words, iwo (the act of entering into) and efa (six), in traditional Yoruba society, when a person owes money, he could volunteer his son as an Iwofa, ‘a recurrent six-day service’ agreement with the person he owes, to cancel out the debt.

In this rash race to demonise the sub-national governments and their heads and hand the states and local governments over to the Leviathan, we must remember that this cherished object we call democracy is incompatible with the rule of one man. Adolf Hitler began from the same harmlessness, you remember?

The federal government says the N494,000 minimum wage proposed by organised labour is “unsustainable”.

In a statement on Saturday, Mohammed Idris, minister of information, said the demand by organised labour amounts to a N9.5 trillion bill for the federal government annually.

The minister added that the proposal of organised labour would increase the existing workers’ wage bill by 1,547 percent.

BACKGROUND

In 2019, former President Muhammadu Buhari approved N30,000 as the national minimum wage for workers.

Recently, the federal and state governments, organised labour, and the private sector commenced discussion over the new minimum wage.

Initially, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) had proposed N615,500 as the minimum wage, citing the high cost of living.

However, the federal government rejected the N615,500 proposal and offered N48,000.

On May 15, the NLC and TUC rejected the N48,000 minimum wage offered by the government.

On May 21, the federal government increased the proposed minimum wage to N54,000, which the labour again rejected and described as “unacceptable”.

Again, the federal government proposed N60,000, and it was rejected.

On Friday, NLC and TUC declared an indefinite strike over the federal government’s refusal to increase the minimum wage from N60,000.

The planned strike is expected to kick off on June 3.

‘FG CONCERNED ABOUT 200M NIGERIANS’

The minister said organised labour is fighting for the interest of 1.2 million workers, while the federal government is concerned about 200 million Nigerians.

“The federal government’s new minimum wage proposal amounts to a 100% increase on the existing minimum wage,” the minister said.

“Labour, however, wanted N494,000, which would increase by 1,547% on the existing wage.

“The sum of N494,000 national minimum wage which labour is seeking would cumulatively amount to the sum N9.5 trillion bill to the Federal Government of Nigeria.

“Nigerians need to understand that whereas the federal government is desirous of ample remuneration for Nigerian workers, what is most critical is that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will not encourage any action that could lead to massive job loss, especially in the private sector, who may not be able to pay the wage demanded by the organised labour.”

[TheCable]

Good God, we are madly in love with yesterday, aren’t we? We are always looking forward to yesterday. You know, the good old days. The days when we had three regions and “true” federalism. The days when the regions “competed” with one another, when the Western Region would set up a TV station and the Northern and Eastern Regions would follow suit. The days when one region would build a stadium and the rest would construct theirs. The days when the North stood tall with the groundnut pyramids, when the West was a huge forest of cocoa and when the East swam in palm oil. The days when we ran the parliamentary system and every region self-governed and had a premier.

The good old days when our national anthem was ‘Nigeria, We Hail Thee’. With the speed of light, a law has just been passed by the National Assembly returning us to the old national anthem with immediate effect. We were not even given a transition period to learn or re-learn it — unlike in 1978 when the military government gave us one-month notice. While the serious corners of the world are already living in tomorrow by focussing on artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, cancer vaccines, biotechnology and smart cities, Nigerians are being held hostage to yesterday with meaningless symbolisms. In the absence of good governance, diverting attention is such an easy thing to do.

Many disgusted Nigerians have been asking if the new old anthem would resolve the hunger in the land or put an end to insecurity. I asked a similar question before, but I am no longer interested in pursuing that line of inquiry. I have since realised that even if we do not backslide to the old anthem, there will still be inflation and insecurity. Meanwhile, the old national anthem is “service to Nigeria”, in the words of President Bola Tinubu. It will return Nigeria “to glorious days”, Philip Agbese, a member of the house of reps, said. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, arguably Nigeria’s most prolific sycophant, said it is Tinubu’s “most profound act”. So profound I was moved to tears.

By the way, Nigeria is not the first to tamper with its anthem. Anthems are sometimes changed when something significant happens — independence, “revolution” and such like. South Africa, Burkina Faso, Libya and Zimbabwe, among others, have made fundamental changes to their anthems when entering new eras. There are also minor consequential changes: Britons started singing ‘God Save the King’ when King Charles III succeeded Queen Elizabeth II in 2022 and ‘God Save the Queen’ had to be amended. Nigeria, however, has just done the unusual by reverting to an old anthem. We have not composed a new one to signify a new era; we only did some archaeological work to dig up the past.

What next? It has been repeatedly suggested that we should change the name “Nigeria”, which was apparently coined from “Niger Area”. Proponents say the name was given to us by foreigners. A critic once said a change was necessary because it was a British journalist and Lord Lugard’s “girlfriend”, Flora Shaw, that christened us. Therefore, the time has come for us to cut off from our colonial past by giving ourselves a new name — although I must regret to add that we have just dumped an anthem composed by full-blooded Nigerians for the one written by a British expatriate in 1960, but never mind. Pre-Independence, we used to sing ‘God Save the Queen’ as British colonial subjects.

The proposed change of name for Nigeria is, I hope, going to launch us into a new age and grow our GDP by a minimum of 10 percent per annum. Chief Mike Ozekhome, a senior lawyer, was ecstatic when we reverted to the old anthem, recalling how he moved the motion at the national conference in 2014. I remember him also saying the country’s name should be changed. He proposed that it should be spelt backwards: “Nigeria” would become “Airegin”. Federal Republic of Airegin, that is. That aligns perfectly with our backward thinking. I would struggle to pronounce “Airegin”, but I also struggled to say “shokolobangoshe” when I was a little boy and I would say I am doing just fine today.

Many countries have changed their names. The Democratic Republic of Congo used to be Zaire. It was a case of “potato, potahto” as Zaire is another name for the Congo river. It was called Republic of the Congo at Independence in 1960, changed to the Democratic Republic of Congo in 1965, rechristened Republic of Zaire in 1971, and (when the strongman Mobutu Sese Seko was overthrown by Laurent Désiré-Kabila in 1997) reverted to DR Congo. In the main, the country has remained poorly governed, riddled by abject poverty and armed conflict — with over six million killed since the last name change. Yet, it is one of the most resource-rich African countries. So much for symbolisms.

What else? I am enthusiastically expecting a bill to change our national currencies to pounds and shillings. I don’t know if it would be the next most profound thing to be done by Tinubu, but, by some logic, when Nigerians were spending pounds, the economy was bubbling, there was no Boko Haram, there were no yahoo boys and there were no potholes on Nigerian roads. The refineries were working efficiently and we never had to import fuel. Bad things started happening when we changed our national currencies to naira and kobo. The solution, according to the logic of the Yesterday Movement, would be to go back to the past. Who knows, we may soon change to left-hand drive.

There is this song by the Carpenters, the former American sibling duo, that I love so much. It is titled ‘Yesterday Once More’. They made the song five decades ago but I still listen to it as if it was released this morning. Old school is something I love when it comes to music, so I can understand the fixation with Nigeria’s past by the nostalgic sections of the political elite. Members of the old order have passed on the received wisdom to their descendants that a return to yesterday is the gateway to our future. I am, thus, not surprised or bemused by the sustained campaign to return Nigeria to the things we used to do in the 1950s and 1960s. Going back to ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’ is true to type.

When are we returning to regionalism, another super solution to Nigeria’s problem? This is a hot item on the bucket list of the Yesterday Movement. The argument is that our golden era was when Nigeria was in regions. It doesn’t matter that 36 states, as against three regions, are now competing. It doesn’t matter that we now have more stadiums and more TV stations. It doesn’t matter that many states are now big on rice, cassava, maize, sorghum, sesame seed and gum arabic. No. We must revert to three regions and return to groundnut pyramids, cocoa and palm produce. The only way forward is for three or six regions to compete. Competition among 36 states is unacceptable.

In fact, the most popular argument is that we should collapse the 36 states into six regions, along the line of the current six geo-political zones. That way, there will be only six governors, six regional governments and six houses of assembly — thereby saving the treasury the enormous bureaucratic costs of running 36 “unviable” states. If the six-zone proposal scales through, Akwa Ibom, Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers and Cross River will become conjoined under one governor. If we adopt the almighty 1963 constitution, Abia, Akwa Ibom, Anambra, Bayelsa, Cross River, Edo, Delta, Ebonyi, Enugu, Imo and Rivers will be reunited under one governor. This promises to be super interesting. Bring it on!

You cannot accuse the Yesterday Movement of lacking a sense of history, although you may say they tend to circumcise the facts. The expansion from three regions to 36 states was not done without reason: there were strong agitations by ethnic and political minorities who felt marginalised. The Midwest Region was created in 1963 to satisfy the yearnings of the people of today’s Edo and Delta states who felt overwhelmed by the Yoruba majority in the Western Region. Every state in Nigeria today is a product of yearnings by those who felt marginalised even within their own ethnic groups. Many are still campaigning for new states. But, hey, let us return to yesterday and hail Nigeria.

There is also an ongoing campaign to ditch presidentialism and return to the parliamentary system “as practised in the first republic”. By the way, I love parliamentarism. I wrote a whole article to make my case (‘A Vote for Parliamentary System’, December 16, 2018). I like the reduced cost of electioneering since parliamentary polls are local to constituencies. I like the potentially reduced cost of running government since most ministers will be picked from the parliament. I love the culture of debate, particularly the Prime Minister’s Question Time. A dumb leader cannot be PM: opposition is constantly asking hard-hitting questions on the floor of parliament. There can be no hiding place.

However, my support for parliamentarism has nothing to do with the fact that we practised it in the first republic. No way. It will not turn water into wine. The secret of the successes of Nigerian regional leaders — such as Dr Michael Okpara, Sir Ahmadu Bello and Chief Obafemi Awolowo — in the 1950s or 1960s was not regionalism or parliamentarism. It was not ‘Nigeria We Hail Thee’. The secret was that they were competent and patriotic leaders. They had vision and values. They were not insanely greedy. They were committed to good governance. Though imperfect, they put their people first. That is the yesterday I look forward to, the yesterday I long for. Yesterday once more.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

LAST TRUMPET

Former US President Donald Trump has been found guilty on all 34 counts of falsifying business records — the first time an American president, former or serving, has been convicted of a crime. But no constitution is perfect, so Trump has a loophole and will still run for office later in the year. No law bans a convict from becoming president in the US. The founding fathers of American democracy never thought a day would come when an individual like Trump would defy shame and stretch the constitution to the limit. I keep thinking Trump was meant to be a Nigerian politician but he found himself in the wrong country. If he wins, American democracy will become a butt of jokes. Awkward.

SPOX VS SPOX

Presidency treated Nigerians to an extraordinary spectacle on Tuesday over President Tinubu’s “state of the nation” address to the National Assembly. While Mr Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to the president on information and strategy, announced that Tinubu would address the legislators on May 29 to mark his first anniversary, Chief Ajuri Ngelale, special adviser to the president on media and publicity, issued a counter statement, describing the information as “false and unauthorized”. My interest is not in the facts of the matter but how such heavy words could be issued on a presidential spokesman by a fellow spokesman. Something is wrong somewhere. State of the nation. Indeed.

CYBER CRY

It would appear that every week in Nigeria, a journalist is arrested under the Cybercrimes Act. Let me be clear: I do not support the use of journalism to terrorise people. I do not condone reckless journalism. However, the newfound love for the Cybercrimes Act — which treats what should be civil libel as a criminal case to be prosecuted by the police — is a clear and present danger to journalism. They started using the law against obscure online outlets but it will gradually get to the traditional newspapers, who also have online presence. This is the time for free speech campaigners to move for the amendment of the Cybercrimes Act to decriminalise libel. Nobody is truly safe. Pressing.

NO COMMENT

The new old national anthem says “in brotherhood we stand” — written in an era when gender justice was a joke, when everybody was a “man”, and when a woman’s place was in the bedroom, not boardroom. The world has moved on, but Nigeria has returned to “brotherhood”. Anyway, we have never elected a female president, VP or governor. Elected and appointed public office holders are overwhelmingly standing in “brotherhood”. The third stanza of the anthem says “a nation where no MAN is oppressed”. Sorry, women, your oppression is officially back to the good old days. On a brighter note, the new old anthem ends with “our sovereign motherland”. Sweet mother. Wonderful.

It is a puzzle that the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration has dragged the 36 state governments to court to compel them to respect the autonomy of the 774 local governments, often touted, though erroneously, as the third tier of government and the government that is closest to the grassroots. That Tinubu has seemingly chosen the path of strengthening the existing Nigerian political structure or system contrary to the avalanche of cries for restructuring will baffle many.

It may appear that Tinubu is negating, nay, rubbishing, the very battle he waged - successfully - against President Olusegun Obasanjo when he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos State (1999 - 2007). After conducting a referendum and getting the endorsement of the state House of Assembly, Gov. Tinubu in April 2004 announced the creation of 37 additional local governments in Lagos, bringing the number of LGs to 57. The constitutionally-recognized local governments in Lagos State hitherto had been 20.

Obasanjo would have none of it. Yet, Tinubu would not back down. Obasanjo seized the Federally-allocated funds for Lagos state local governments. Tinubu took a step backward by designating his new local governments as “Local Government Development Areas” subsumed under the constitutionally-recognized 20 local governments. Obasanjo was not assuaged. Tinubu went to court and the matter dragged up to the Supreme Court. In the end, Tinubu won but Obasanjo would not be persuaded to let go of the Lagos State local government funds he had placed a lien on.

Tinubu was, thus, forced to ingeniously search for means to increase Lagos State’s internally-generated revenue. It remains to his eternal credit that he succeeded in doing that, setting the pace for Lagos to wean itself from dependence on federal allocation. The bad belly generated between Obasanjo and Tinubu as a result of that tango remains to this day. It was the government of President Umaru Yar’Adua, who succeeded Obasanjo, that obeyed the courts and ordered the release of the seized Lagos State LG funds - amounting to N10.8 billion - in July 2007.

Lessons learned include that of putting to test the principles of federalism or constitutional democracy. One is that the Federal Government (or the Centre) may not dictate or breathe down the neck of its constituent parts or federating units on matters concerning local administration.

Two: That the same system of local government administration cannot be imposed on a heterogeneous society like Nigeria, where there are over 370 nationalities with different languages, cultures, traditions, ways of life, economic and political systems, religions, etc. Even the colonial powers recognized and respected this basic fact in the system of government they imposed on the conquered peoples of Nigeria for the period they bore rule over them.

Three: that the command-and obey structure or unitary system of government imposed on Nigerians by successive military leaders, beginning with the first military coup of 1966, and which Obasanjo, himself an erstwhile military dictator, appeared to favour, could not be tolerated in a supposedly civilian federal system of government.

What, then, has changed since he stepped down as a two-term civilian governor of Lagos state that has made Tinubu to now step into the shoes and assume the same position as Obasanjo? Why seek to strengthen a local government system that is as oppressive and wasteful as it is unjust to a large section of the Nigerian polity? The present local government system is an aberration, to say the least. It is unitary in concept as well as in its implementation.

The same system cannot be expected to work uniformly all over the federation. Each segment of the country is unique and should be allowed to formulate, fashion out, and administer a local government system suitable to it. What the Tinubu administration seeks is an imposition and must be discarded for a truly federal system to emerge; to do otherwise is to enhance illogically.

The question many are also asking is whether Tinubu as governor of Lagos allowed the local governments the kind of autonomy he is seeking for them now as the President! It is on record that Tinubu as governor took the Federal Government of Obasanjo to court on many occasions over this or that issue, testing the constitutionality of Obasanjo’s efforts to arm-twist the States. No other governor was that audacious against President Obasanjo. Will Tinubu stomach the same treatment from any of the governors? Shall we have at least one State governor able and willing to do unto Tinubu what he did to Obasanjo?

The present local government system is not the only incongruous creation of the military that must be done away with. To start with, the 1914 amalgamation of the Northern and Southern protectorates of Nigeria by Lord Lugard to form what is now known as Nigeria was an imposition. There was no referendum or plebiscite allowed for the people under the two protectorates to determine whether or not they wanted the amalgamation. It was a “diktat”, pure and simple, imposed by the British colonialists for their own selfish reasons.

The agitations for self-rule by Nigerians, over which a civil war was fought, and over which some have, again, taken up arms, must now be respected. Let Nigerians decide whether or not they want a continuation of the Lugardian experiment, as some have described it, or they want a break-up; be it a “velvet divorce” along the lines of erstwhile Czechoslovakia or the USSR, Yugoslavia, and Sudan model.

Nigeria’s Constitutions, especially after those of 1960 and 1963, have been described as a fraud - and appropriately so - because they make claims that everyone knows to be patently false. They all started by saying “We the people (of Nigeria)” made those constitutions for ourselves when we did not. Our first military ruler, JTU Aguiyi-Ironsi, destroyed Nigeria’s federalism with his Unification Decree Number 34 of 1966; since then, all the states created by fiat by our military rulers cannot be regarded as “federating units” properly so-called but are mere “begging bowls” as my sister, Funke Egbemode, once described them.

Virtually all the states are weak and are not economically viable. In many cases, strange bedfellows have been lumped together and birds of a feather separated, giving rise to perpetual acrimony and animosity. One reason why we do not, and cannot, see the kind of economic development witnessed in the First Republic is because the states as we have them today are a far cry from the Regions of old.

Why restructuring is not top on President Tinubu’s agenda - seemingly - should baffle many; for that has been canvassed as the panacea to the myriad problems bedeviling the country. Professor Akinyemi Onigbinde’s position on the issue of federalism titled “Granting autonomy to Local Governments undermines federalism principles”, aligns with mine.

Hear the erudite professor: “In a federal system of government, such as the one we claim to be running, granting autonomy to local governments undermines the principles of federalism. Successive military leaders from certain sections of Nigeria have used their power to create local government areas in their regions, giving them demographic and fiscal advantages over other sections which provide the bulk of the fiscal resources that all tiers of government rely on. This autonomy is a subversion of federalism and should be rejected by all who value democracy within a federal system.

“In a true federal system, regions, provinces, or states are the federating units that create a central authority to achieve specific mutual benefits. Local government areas, which are created for administrative convenience, do not qualify as federating units and should not draw administrative costs from the federation account. In principle, they are unknown to the central authority as established by the federating units.

“While efforts should be focused on repairing our feudalistic unitary system disguised as federalism, we are instead dismantling the political architecture of the federal system by undermining the states' authority over local governments. The argument that governors are misappropriating local government funds from the federation account does not justify dismantling the federal system. The neglect of local roads and other responsibilities of local governments is not solely due to state governors’ controlling funds, but also due to politicians' general disregard for the welfare of the people and their tendency to prioritize personal gain.

“Even if local government funds were distributed directly to them, there is no guarantee that local government chairmen would not emulate the governors' corrupt practices. This could lead to further fragmentation, with each political ward or village demanding direct allocations from the federation account.

“The issue of underdevelopment in local government areas is more about the politicians' lack of accountability than the governors' control over funds. Constituents must mobilize to hold their local leaders accountable, regardless of political party affiliations. Furthermore, while state governors are criticized for mismanaging funds, there is little concern about the federal government's handling of its share of the federation account, which affects national infrastructure and services like policing.

“As part of our journey towards a restructured federal system that allows states or geographical zones to flourish socioeconomically, we should consider dissolving existing local government areas. States should delineate their own local-governing areas based on demographics, administrative needs, and available financial resources. The current proliferation of local government areas, driven by military rulers from the North, was primarily to receive funds from the federation account without considering viability.

“Granting local government areas direct funding from the central purse has serious implications for rural lands. Local government chairmen in rural areas, dependent on federal allocations, may be pressured into relinquishing land for projects that serve the political or personal interests of the central authority. The RUGA project under former President Muhammadu Buhari exemplifies the potential dangers of such autonomy, which could have led to significant land loss for communities if local governments had been autonomous.

“The Yoruba people in the South-West are still not free from the threat of land subjugation, even with their son in power. It is important to avoid supporting policies simply because they are pushed by someone from one's own group. While President Bola Tinubu may have good intentions for local government administration, we must be wary of the potential misuse of rural lands by future presidents from other geopolitical zones. The idea of RUGA remains alive in the consciousness of herdsmen in Nigeria, and local government autonomy could provide a legal basis for similar projects in the future”.

I agree no less with Professor Onigbinde! From experience, creation of LGs have not led to development at the grassroots; if anything, it has only democratized corruption, taking it from the top (FG) through the middle (State Governments) to the bottom (LGs) of the country’s leadership ladder! In Lagos where I work and live, don’t we see how LG chairmen live large, abandoning their localities and relocating to VGC or Banana Island? Don’t we see how they compete with governors to send their children to the most expensive schools and acquire choice properties abroad?

I have received yet another disheartening news of the killing of five soldiers by suspected militants of the proscribed terrorist organization, IPOB.

The slain soldiers were on peacekeeping duty in Aba, Abia State on Thursday when they were murdered, just two months after a similar tragic incident happened in Okuama in Delta state.

These unwarranted barbaric and evil acts stand condemned and should never be condoned and tolerated in our country.

Our soldiers and the police have the onerous duty to protect all of us from aggressors and non state actors. Hundreds of them have paid the ultimate price in fulfilment of their duty, while some have experienced the indignity of being manhandled by the people they protect.

They surely do not deserve the mindless attacks by unruly elements in our society.

The federal government will come down heavily against those who have made it a habit to needlessly attack the officers and men of our armed forces.

On no account should anyone, under any guise, have the audacity to kill agents of state.

I want to make it clear that the government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and the armed forces have the capacity to crush violent non-state actors, making our communities unsafe.

I urge security agencies not only to fish out the masterminds and perpetrators of the Aba attack, but also those calling on people to stay at home. Their action is nothing but a treasonable offence.

The fact that the security forces are exercising necessary restraints should not be mistaken for weakness.

We are working to build a peaceful and harmonious society, but nobody should be under any illusion that the government will not act appropriately when the lives of our officers and men are wantonly taken.

While my condolences go to the families of the five slain soldiers, their colleagues and the leadership of our armed forces, I urge other men and women on peacekeeping duty not to be discouraged by the unfortunate incident in Aba.

Bola Ahmed Tinubu

President and Commander-in-Chief, Federal Republic of Nigeria

June 1, 2024

The attention of WAEC Nigeria has been drawn to a notice of the Commencement of Indefinite Strike by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trades Union Congress (TUC) effective, Monday, 3rd June, 2024.

The Council shares the concerns of both Unions and the generality of Nigerians, however the West African Senior School Certificate Examination (WASSCE) for School Candidates which is currently going on in all member Countries is an international examination and as such the Nigerian Child should not be put to a disadvantage of missing the examination.

As a result of the aforesaid reason, WAEC Nigeria will continue with the conduct the examination as scheduled on the timetable.

All School Principals, Supervisors, Parents, Candidates and the general public should please take note and make adequate arrangements for their candidates to sit the examination in all centers in Ogun State as scheduled.

Thank you.

Ayobami L. Suberu
Branch Controller
For:Head of National Office

Aba Power Limited, Nigeria’s youngest electricity distribution, has given out over 22,000 smart prepaid meters since last November when it initiated its Mass Metering campaign.

“Much as our stakeholders are satisfied with our speed since we rolled out the programme”, Aba Power managing director, Ugo Opiegbe, told select journalists in Aba today, “we will do much more in the next six months and achieve a far greater target after that”.

It is estimated that meter installation for some 200,000 registered customers in the Aba Ring-fenced Area will cost at least N32 billion.

Aba Power commenced commercial operations in September 2022 and provides electricity to nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State.

To reduce the financial burden on the power distribution company, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) directed it to work in conjunction with meter vending companies which now charge customers between N129,000 and N147,640.01 for a single-phase meter and N227,207.76 and N241,875 for a three-phase meter, from N88,124 and N154,624 for single-phase and three-phase meters, respectively.

“We regret these increases in these difficult times for the Nigerian people, but they are inevitable because of the depreciating value of the naira against the dollar”, Opiegbe explained.

“The good news is that the customers will recoup the payments over 10 years through electricity credit”

The power utility executive disclosed that Aba Power is currently working with two meter vendors., though it is considering increasing the number as soon as possible to end the practice of estimated meter readings completely.

“Estimated bills are a no-no to us because it does not encourage accountability and transparency”, Opiegbe stated.

“They do not give confidence to our customers, so they cannot be satisfied”.

He revealed that some of the vendors Aba Power negotiated earlier but couldn’t hire because of issues of quality and integrity may be engaged now because they have made amends and “are willing to meet our standards, which must be international”.

There are unconfirmed reports that some agents of the vending companies were illegally charging money to individuals and businesses. The Aba Power MD declined to comment on the allegation.

The utility is currently working with Holley Metering Ltd and the KAYZ Consortium to install smart prepaid meters to all businesses and individuals in its coverage area.

The Aba Power MD said that his company has 31 feeders, making it difficult to provide smart prepaid meters to the people on all the feeders simultaneously.

“We are providing prepaid meters feeder by feeder”, he stated.

“We have covered four feeders in the last six months, namely, Aba Township, Aba East, Ehi Road, and the World Bank.

“We are about to start on the fifth feeder, and our chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji, has asked us always to prioritize manufacturing firms because they are the foremost group that brought Geometric Power to Aba, a key industrial city.

“We give them priority so that they can reduce the cost of doing business, which will, in turn, make their products more affordable and thus benefit the common man”.

Dike Ejike, an engineer and electricity consultant in Enugu, commended Aba Power for giving priority to industrialists.

“Manufacturers are going through a rough phase in Nigeria, and they must be encouraged to retain their staff, otherwise their collapse will have a cataclysmic effect on not just the economy but Nigerian society as a whole”.