OTHERS' VIEWS
Without prejudice: information and opinions contained and expressed herein are personal legal opinions. They are merely presumptions of how the legal battle unfolding between Twitter Inc and Meta Inc may likely play out if the case ends up in court judging from my experience as an intellectual property lawyer. It may turn out differently but it will definitely not be far from what I analyzed here.
Meta Inc launched a social platform app called Thread on Wednesday, the 5th of July, 2023, in less than twenty-four hours after they launched, they were slammed with a pre action notice by X Corp, the company that acquired Twitter Inc for 44B USD in October 2022.
In the letter dated July 5 which serves as a formal pre action notice from Twitter signed by their attorney, Alex Spiro, Twitter accused Meta of the following;
1 misappropriation of trade secret
2 intellectual property theft
3 breach of non compete clause by Twitter former employees employed by Meta
4 Employment of Twitter’s ex-employees by Meta.
These are core issues that will be the focus in determining in court if Twitter has a clear case against Meta but how far and how possible can Twitter make their case against Meta especially establishing the allegation of intellectual property theft against Meta?
Let’s address these issues raised one after the other; one of the allegations leveled by Twitter is that its formal employees breached their non-compete agreement by joining Meta Inc to build a Twitter similar app.
What does the law say in this regard;
Section 16600 of the California Business and Professions Code states thus; “Except as provided in this chapter, every contract by which anyone is restrained from engaging in a lawful profession, trade, or business of any kind is to that extent void”. This provision means that a non-compete clause is null and void as it is generally unenforceable in California where both Twitter and Meta base and carry out their operation. Therefore, it is illegal in California to enforce non-compete agreements that put limits on an employee’s future job prospects.
North Dakota, Oklahoma, and Washington DC are some other states of the US where non compete clauses are unenforceable. In these States like California, an employee cannot be prohibited from working with another organization that is in the same line of trade as the previous employer.
Therefore, on the issue of breaching a non-compete clause, raised by Twitter the issue will not fly in court.
The subsequent issue raised by Twitter in their pre action notice which will form the bases of their upcoming lawsuit is the issue of misappropriation of trade secrets by its former employees which was utilized in the building of the Threads app.
The primary purpose of a non-compete clause in the contract of employment is to protect trade secrets, confidential customer information, or intellectual properties so that an employee who leaves the organization will not utilize this information or disclose this information to competitors. This issue of misappropriation of trade secrets will be subsumed under a non-compete clause. Since we have established that the non-compete clause issue will not fly therefore this issue of misappropriation of trade secrets will not fly either.
The next issue raised by Twitter against Meta is the employment of their ex-employees. A company is not under any restriction or prohibited from employing staff that was fired from a competing organization. An ex-employee can legally move to another company if he so wishes. This was made legal in the state of California by the unenforceability of non compete clauses. Therefore, this issue will as well be trashed out in court.
The final issue raised by Twitter against Meta which tends to be the most critical issue is the allegation of intellectual property theft. It will be a herculean task for Twitter to legally prove to the satisfaction of the court that Meta stole their intellectual properties in the building of threads. That an app shares similarities with another app does not mean that the latter app stole the intellectual property of the formal.
In determining intellectual property theft or infringement, what the court looks at is if the latter app is trying to pass off the formal’s product as theirs; if there are so many similarities either in name, design, logo, etc that users won’t be able to distinguish or differentiate the later app from the formal app.
These questions will be answered in the negative as there are no close similarities in name, logo, design etc that will make users mistake Threads for Twitter.
The state of California generally encourages competition hence why cases of allegation of intellectual property theft amongst tech companies in the state rarely fly and there is a high standard of proof a claimant in suits like these do undergo so as to satisfy the court to give judgment in his favor.
Stan Alieke Esq is a legal practitioner.
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We must tread with circumspection. We must follow reason. Why are we inclined to misadventures? Why are we not having conversations on how the south-east can work with the federal government to improve the infrastructural standing of the zone, and how we can take advantage of the decentralisation of electricity; revive industries and inland ports? Why are we lost in a jive of the mundane, lamentations, finger-pointing, blame-shifting, and denial?
It is concerning that a section of the south-east is not, in the immediate, prioritising needed public ingredients and development convenience for the zone. The dominating interest appears to be securing the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the outlawed Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). A cluster of the region’s citizens seems to have abandoned elemental conversations of development critical to the growth of the zone for this lone vocation in their entreaties to the government.
It appears the priority item the south-east seeks is securing the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu. This is while other zones are having seminal conversations on how to mushroom development.
At a time other zones are tabling critical interest and matters pivotal to their development, the south-east’s appears to be pursuing the solitary cause of securing the freedom of a man whose industry led to the brutal murder of many Nigerians, including that of the husband of the late Dora Akunyili, former minister of information, in the crimson streets of Nkpor in Anambra.
Conversations on the south-east in the past eight years have not changed. It is a new administration, but the same conversations have been reacquainted and sounded as the commanding and defining motif of the next four years. When are we going to start discussing the fundamentals of development as they relate to the zone?
Some say the release of Nnamdi Kanu will bring peace to the south-east. How could this be? Is this the only option for peace? Seeking peace on bended knee? But we forget that Kanu was released at a time with guarantees from prominent Nigerians from the south-east and traditional rulers from the zone, but he reneged on all pledges after his release and unleashed a monstrosity of evil belched from the bowels of hell on the people.
It is important to pursue peace, but it is more important to pursue it from the bearings of strength. It is injustice to those killed, and those still being killed to seek the release of the progenitor of the barbarism while their blood still colours the ground red. Really, I doubt that the release of Nnamdi Kanu will bring peace to the south-east. What are the guarantees?
The security agencies had succeeded in decimating IPOB. At the close of 2022, security agencies had succeeded in degrading the capacity of the insurgents to launch attacks, pulverising their camps, and arresting their leaders. The insurgents were becoming but whispers in a noisy concourse. Peace was returning at last. However, a wraith of fear hovered around the region – residents still observed the abominable sit-at-home every Monday.
What some governors of the zone failed to do at the time – on the success of the security interventions -- was to seize the moment and build residents’ confidence in the capacity of the government to protect them. I recall Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra state, took initiative, seized the moment, and launched a campaign to retake citizens’ trust and confidence. I see this is what Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu state, is doing now – with his public ban on the ludicrous sit-at-home oppression. This is also what Ifeanyi Ubah, senator representing Anambra south, seems to be doing in Nnewi at the moment, with the campaign against the sit-at-home criminality.
The IPOB-hostage situation in the south-east will need, principally, the residents’ commitment, sincerity, and courage to break. A gang of routed insurgents cannot keep a people in its thrall in perpetuity. When the people are willing to rise and break free; the troublers of the nation will retreat into the void.
Today, the insurgents are re-emerging from oblivion and defeat. On Monday, they reportedly attacked a public place in Ebonyi; on the same day, they were reported to have attacked a school in Enugu, where they assaulted some pupils. What could be responsible for this resurgence?
The trenchant cry for the release of Nnamdi Kanu could be emboldening his insurgents to seize the zeitgeist and press for the same demand in the language of violence. To them, it is now a bounden duty; a righteous cause since prominent citizens are demanding the same of the government. They feel justified in their actions. It is a tightrope to walk.
It is disturbing that the leader of IPOB whose hands are darkened by guiltless blood is being framed as a victim who is unjustly held by the government.
It is important for us as a people to re-assess our priorities. If the overarching priority of the south-east is to secure the freedom of Nnamdi Kanu; then so be it. I am only but a voice calling for reason, tact, and deep reflection on our choices.
There are items I believe should be of top priority at this time for the zone – particularly infrastructure. Again, how do we take advantage of the decentralisation of electricity? How do we bring back the industries – as over 60 percent of them have shut down in the zone? The railways? The inland ports? How do we work with the federal government to improve the general infrastructure of the south-east?
My advice is that we must tread with circumspection on this matter.
By Fredrick Nwabufo, Nwabufo aka Mr OneNigeria is a media executive.
Tope, my trophy wife friend, ended in hospital and in trouble. No, she’s not ill. Her husband, Otunba, was rushed to the hospital about 2.a.m a few days ago, panting and gasping. He lost consciousness on the way to the hospital but was luckily resuscitated. He, however, still ended in the intensive care unit where he spent four days with one leg on earth and the other in the land of his ancestors. It was a trying time for not just Tope but her co-wives. Oh yes, Tope is Otunba’s third wife, his young sweet potato, in whose arms he almost died. Of course, the older two wives were agitated, scared that they were going to become widows though their utterances sounded more like gloating than fear.
‘This is what you came to do, abi, to kill him so you can inherit his money.’
‘You have failed. You will not achieve your aim. The ‘chi’ of our children will not allow one childless witch to bring sorrow to this home.’
‘It is Magun. She went to sleep with her young young boyfriends and one of them must have laced her with magun to kill our husband.
‘You must confess, you gold-digger.’
‘If he dies, we will show you hell.’
‘If he dies, you will know that God does not have tribal marks.’
Well, Tope was already in hell, watching her husband fighting for his life. She prayed all night, fasted all day. She regretted not cautioning him enough about his desperate, bad habits that led them all to the sorry bus stop. She knew if he died, the magun and gold-digger story would have ended her. You know how the social media is. Google does not forget. Luckily, God answered her prayers, Otunba survived and now Tope can tell her side of the story and redirect her co-wives’ angry, gloaters’ narrative.
Otunba is in his late 60s. He is hypertensive but was determined to be a stallion in bed to impress his young wife. Bad decision, all the time, the kind that men who should retire take against sane advice. I’ll restate the advice anyway. You cannot be a former stallion and still be today’s champion. A former champion is a former champion. All he can and is allowed to be is an elder statesman. Any other ambition will lead him to death in the ring. But men, they want to be all-time champion in bed. They don’t want to admit that there is a time for everything under the sun, including the male libido.
That is why an astute businessman like Otunba didn’t know when his third leg should accept it had reached retirement age behind closed doors. And that is why we have seen and discovered too often, sadly, that a boardroom guru can turn out to be a bedroom dummy. I’m sorry to repeat it here, again, today that too often when a man’s zipper is opened, his brain falls out. Or why would a 65-year-old man think he is still the champion that he was at 35? I hear it’s got to do with a need for revalidation and trying to feel young again. Well, somebody needs to tell these grandpas that it’s a bad feeling, indeed a deadly dangerous one.
No matter how much a firebrand a man starts out as, the fire gradually goes down with the passing of each year. A man who starts out as one who could cruise through three women in one day will eventually need help to start his engine. It is a given. The ones doing threesomes today will one day need more than one hour to persuade their ‘wetincall’ to rise up to the occasion. When men know this, there will be lasting peace in the kingdom. But it is a difficult subject to teach a certain class of men. There is this class of men who are determined to live twice. This is the class of men who want to give command performance more than once on one show. They marry at 32 after thoroughly playing the field and sowing wildly. Then they go on to use their wives deeply and so badly that the poor women are left with no second-hand value. You understand that kind of sole-proprietor usage, right? Now, you’ll think men like that would look forward to retirement after a meritorious service, that they would take their pension and enjoy their twilight years in peace, sipping red wine. But no, they want to live again, all over again. What do they do? They go hunting again, this time for younger women, many times, a lot younger women whose needs they can’t match or meet. Like a 65-year-old man and a 25 –year-old woman. Like a 70-year-old man and a 30-year-old bride. The young woman’s juices are raging hot, while Baba’s libido is in retirement mode. Totally unequal yokes. What is worse, the man is determined to bring back his youth. He actually believes he can repeat the miracle of resurrection by waking his once-upon-a-time sleeping giant. Of course, nature and age are there waiting for him and when he finds out that ‘Make the Dead Walk’ is merely the title of a novel by James Hardly Chase, he resorts to self-help. Sex self-help can be very mean, one with a tendency to end badly for older men. Like Tope said, Otunba’s determination to remain the ‘current champion’ in his old age was what led him to death’s door.
‘While our short courtship lasted, I didn’t know Otunba was using performance-enhancement drugs. You know we were not living together and sex was not a daily thing. All I knew was he always gave an impressive account of himself. For a man his age, he didn’t give me any reason to worry about the physical side of our relationship. It was when I moved in as his wife that I noticed that he ‘prepped’ himself before getting into bed. It worried me because I had heard many stories of how those performance enhancers can lead to heart attack or even death. I begged him to stop. He did but I noticed there was a world of difference between when he ‘prepped’ himself and when he didn’t. It left him frustrated and me unsatisfied. So, I looked the other way occasionally to keep both of us happy. There was always a spring in my husband’s step each time he was able to wear me out or I had to beg him to stop. I can’t really find words to describe how happy it made him. Until that fateful day. He had just given me one of the best times of my life when I noticed he was sweating too profusely. Before I could get him a glass of water, his breathing changed as he clutched his chest. I threw on a kaftan, called the doctor and screamed for the driver and his P.A. It was the scariest night of my life. The long wait before the doctors came out to tell me he would be fine, his other wives’ threats and insults, the fear of him dying because he wanted to satisfy me in bed…’
Now imagine if Tope was a runs-girl, an ‘olosho’ who simply took to her heels at the first sight of Otunba in distress. Imagine the man dying alone, his body unfound for hours, even days. His family, to cover the shame would have told the world he died in his sleep, or peacefully passed on in his sleep. Chai. He probably would have had to explain to his angry ancestors how he ‘arrived 20 years earlier than scheduled.’ Avoidable death. Death by greed. Departing via the same route you arrived. Why do some men not mind returning to their maker in between a woman’s legs? Why do men like to die in active service?
Those who should know say unbridled use of performance-enhancement drugs, whether herbal concoctions (those bottled mixtures with interesting names) or Viagra and his little blue siblings can lead to a stroke or heart failure. When all the blood meant for the whole body is forced to relocate to a man’s penis, his other organs will shut down one by one. The saddest conclusion of such stories is the woman he died trying to impress will be inherited by another man, most likely a younger, stronger performer. What then shall it profit a man if he returns to his maker the same way he came, in between a woman’s legs? My sincere advice? When a man reaches a certain age, he should just be satisfied with his yam boiled or fried because old men who insist on 'pounded yam' are liable to die in the kitchen.
I have said my own.
Even before the submission of ministerial nominees to the Senate for final screening, names of those likely to make the list have been a subject of heated debate and prognosis. The matter has dominated the social media, leading to a rebuttal by the presidential spokesman, Mr. Dele Alake, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has concluded plans to submit the list of the ministerial nominees to the Senate.
Having appointed new security chiefs on June 19, attention has now been drawn to the quality of Nigerians to be appointed as ministers. Not a few have applauded and commended President Tinubu’s choice of security chiefs. So far, the resolution by the new security heads to frontally confront criminal groups has given hope for citizens of a nation that has suffered irreparable damage by gunmen. Not many are in doubt that the country is set to roar against blood-thirsty monsters. Considering the fact that the newly appointed security chiefs have demonstrated an unprecedented commitment to smoke out criminals from their caves and bring them to justice, the list of ministerial nominees must be devoid of politicians whose sole interest is advancing national development.
If the appointment of new security chiefs is anything to go by, citizens are full of excitement and looking forward to good quality men and women to be nominated as ministers. To ensure they are not left behind, politicians, mostly governors, are leaving nothing to chance to ensure they breast the tape. While whopping sums of money are being allegedly deployed to recruit people who have the ears of the president, certain desperate elements, among a horde of office seekers, are not resting on their oars to pass through the eye of the needle.
Unlike in the past where presidents had no option but reciprocated the generosity of political sponsors for their electoral victory, the Tinubu presidency did not come about through sponsorship of his presidential ambition through imprecise forces and some nebulous members of the private sector. This is the first time in the history of Nigeria that a presidential candidate walked through the fiery furnace of campaigns without resorting to influential politicians or moneybags for funding.
Allegations of funding presidential campaigns and their sponsors have always dominated national discourse in the past. This time around, the Tinubu-led campaigns were not distracted with such insinuations as, this time around, he was said to have doled out funds to politicians, including serving governors. There were reports in some states where some of these governors refused to avail critical stakeholders of funding in order to frustrate the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential campaigns.
For Tinubu to appoint security chiefs without recourse to some previous forces controlling levers of power reveals his independence and commitment to ensure only competent military officers with the capacity to deliver within available deadlines were chosen. Succumbing to the sense of entitlements as practised by politicians was completely absent, thus giving the president the chance to recruit firm military officers as security chiefs.
Before the 2023 polls, democracy had been hijacked by the club of governors. Former President Olusegun Obasanjo made efforts to checkmate their rising excesses. Subsequent presidents found these serving and former state executives uncontrollably powerful with vast financial muscles capable of torpedoing any political system.
Over 24 years since the return of this unbroken democracy, the rising influence of these powerful governors has mostly undermined democracy and turned them into controllers of election outcomes. These governors not only turned the states into fiefdoms and farm houses, some of them continue to unleash incredible heists on their citizens to foot their greed avarice.
As Tinubu is set to appoint ministers to assist his administration in driving his dream of providing a renewed hope for our country, the president should avoid some of these governors whose divisiveness has driven Nigeria down the slippery slope of self-destruction. Also in the list of governors to be rejected are those who have plunged their states into irrecoverable foreign debt holes.
For some of the governors, whose only qualification to be included on the ministerial list is their long stay in the corridor of power; let their hope continue to be a mirage. Most of these governors left despairing footprints in their collateral powerlessness to uplift the living standards of their state citizens as they remain the butts of public cynicism on the prospect of how not to use the ballot government to work for the good of majority electorates.
President Tinubu should beware of those who play disruptive politics and are eternally afraid of being thrown into the pit of oblivion if they don’t make the ministerial list. These politicians, who are always in love with the klieg lights to boost their ego and for selfish interest, should not be included as ministerial nominees. Our president should be cautious of politicians who wake up drinking 40-year old whisky at public expense. Those who claim to have paid foreign terrorists to stop the decimation of Southern Kaduna communities and killing of innocent and defenceless citizens should no longer be allowed to occupy public office.
Trust is a huge burden, and anyone whose loyalty cannot be trusted should not be on the next ministerial list as public office is about trust. Professional politicians, who still have their eyes fixed on future presidential elections, should be totally avoided. Recycling these dead old woods into the next cabinet should never be contemplated at any level of government.
Some of these former governors, who were unable to tackle insecurity in their states, are quick to regale the public with several tales behind their embarrassing failures; President Tinubu should treat them with utter contempt and disdain. If they failed in the past to perform as governors, there is no assurance that they will act differently in the future by providing renewed hope for the citizens of a nation that is being threatened.
The past eight years have been horror-ridden for our traumatised citizens. Apart from the massacre of over 60,000 people across various parts of our nation, particularly Zamfara, Plateau, Kaduna, Benue, Katsina and Niger, among others, the subtle use of religion to compromise our collective unity became institutionalised.
What Nigeria needs now is the recruitment of our best technocrats and experts to assist the new government tackle security and developmental challenges that have festered for many years. President Tinubu should only appoint patriotic politicians who possess competence and not to recycle old faces that see public office as their birthrights in order to brighten their chances ahead of the next polls.
It is obvious that some of these former state executives and other professional politicians, who see politics as self-serving, have constituted themselves into an albatross. Appointing some of these governors is akin to giving them another opportunity to continue undermining the country and creating a platform for their survival. While serving as governors, they forgot where they were coming from as they violated valid judgements of the courts to punish and dehumanise the Nigerian people.
Democracy is globally recognised as the popular form of government that seeks the overall good above personal interest. In Nigeria, the government of the ballot has become the triumph of greedy politicians whose only objective is to perpetually dominate the political space for themselves and their cronies. The only way to save our democracy from the stranglehold of these political power-seekers is for President Tinubu to deny them and their Men Friday another opportunity to concretise their hold on power.
For leaders, essential communication strategies in the public sector help ensure a message or programme is understood and gets through to the target audience with as much clarity and conciseness as possible. These strategies can directly impact different elements of a programme’s success and operation, making them vital to develop as best as possible, this is participatory governance and is the order of sane and working democracies across the globe.
The more informed the citizens are about the policies of their government, the more they develop an interest in participating either in support or against it. So many policies of government have been attacked by the masses simply because they were not well informed or involved in the processes that led to the formulation and implementation of those policies. After all, it is a common parlance that what people do not understand they tend to ignore or attack. Thus it is of utmost importance for the masses to ‘flow’ with their government and this is something the presidency of Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu has promised to take seriously.
Renewed hope in itself is a message. According to Woodrow Wilson: “The ear of the leader must ring with the voices of the people” and vice versa. Apart from being explicit about programmes and policies, it is also very crucial to reach out to the masses with messages of hope and inspiration whenever the pulse of the populace indicates a trust deficit even though this must be beyond rhetoric. For instance in 1984, under the military, there was a television commercial by NTA featuring a character called Andrew who bemoaned the hardship occasioned by lack of basic amenities like power, roads and water and wanted to leave Nigeria for greener pastures abroad saying to his listeners: “I’m checking out” but he was persuaded to stay back that there was hope. The jingle became the most popular back then in what will be referred to today as “viral”. It was such that whenever anyone experienced some frustrations about life in Nigeria then, what usually followed was, “I’m checking out” in what is today known as ‘japa’. That commercial in itself was not just a tool for mass enlightenment but for awakening patriotism and belief in one’s country.
The government of the day must attempt to constantly match communication with real-time actions as the policies roll out because the world today is over-informed from various sources 24/7. So our own government must be alive and deliberate at pushing through the necessary and productive awareness to its citizens. This means public leaders must communicate the concerns, needs, and goals of all constituents, even to those who may not embrace a certain programme or initiative at first. Public policy leaders can construct effective policies by building this mutual path of understanding through strong communication, not just about stating facts but conveying facts in a manner that fosters a sense of trust and responsibility to the public, so it doesn’t come off as manipulative spins.
Our government need to design a clear two-way relationship with an effective engagement strategy which can yield several benefits, for instance, proper representation through direct engagement with people within heterogeneous communities can ensure policies are shaped holistically and not geared toward a smaller but vocal communal segment. Secondly, with a better understanding of needs, our leaders can more effectively dive into the minutiae of public policy issues based on hearing how they specifically impact people within a community. Thirdly, with a deep sense of community ownership, more engagement with a community can allow its members to provide a deeper insight into a proposed policy based on a community’s historical and cultural context since informed and engaged citizens are better partners.
Our nation has experienced some turbulence in the past decade due to improper management of information leading to crisis. Going forward, the occurrence of such must be curtailed to the barest minimum through swift and strategic dissemination of information by the most capable hands in the land in synergy with relevant security agencies. This not only involves getting the word out at the earliest possible outset of a crisis but also constantly and clearly communicating data to the public as the crisis evolves.
Effective public leaders will fully understand how to adjust their communication strategies to directly address different situations. Regardless of the goal or situation, good public leaders have the leadership and critical thinking skills to build a strategy that optimises information. Once this crucial data is gathered, leaders need to pare it down in a way that conveys the most essential information to the public in a clear, unambiguous manner even in languages that are native to citizens. Doing so gives the public its best chance of fully grasping the information that can impact them the most.
It’s all about information dissemination, engagements and buy-in/ building trust between the led and the leader after all according to HE Luccock ‘No one can whistle a symphony. It takes a whole orchestra to play it.’
In conclusion, since “the art of communication is the language of leadership” according to James Humes, this government under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is aimed at getting it right because as a leader whose backbone is the people and whose message of renewed hope resonates with where the citizens are as they look forward to a prosperous nation.
Bello (PhD), a publicist, policy analyst, and a member of the public affairs directorate of the 2023 APC Presidential Campaign Committee writes from Abuja
The family and friends of Barrister Ahmad Muhammad slaughtered by terrorists in Zamfara State on Tuesday are still in shock. One of the numerous bands of terrorists ravaging the North-west invaded Muhammad’s home in Kwatarkwashi, Bungudu LGA, abducted and later killed him. His offence? He was actively involved in the resistance against terrorism in Kwatarkwashi.
Let’s flip to last week’s daring abduction of seven residents of Yewuti village in Kwali Area Council of Abuja. They were snatched from the house of the late Chairman of Kwali Council, Alhaji Mohammed Gimba. The terrorists are demanding a N7 million ransom. As at press time, the abductees had not been freed.
These are just a few recent pieces of evidence showing that terrorists are still very much active nationwide. They are moving around freely in the South-east, North-west, North-east and the North-central, killing, abducting and maiming, notwithstanding the emergence of a new government, with new security chiefs. The most traumatic was the killings by Fulani militias in Barkin-Ladi and Riyom LGAs of Plateau State last June. Over 120 people were sent to early graves.
I’m worried that within the first 30 days of the Tinubu government, no fewer than 237 persons were killed in different attacks across the country by terrorists. This is an average of eight people per day. I’m talking about human lives here; and these are the reported cases. There are scores of unreported cases during this period under review. Tinubu has been silent about killings under his watch. He did not deem it fit to even visit ravaged communities and families in Plateau, Sokoto, Zamfara and the rest. This is a story for another day.
Today’s piece is directed at the Chief of Defence Staff, Maj. Gen. Christopher Musa; Chief of Army Staff, Maj. Gen. Taoreed Lagbaja; Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla; Chief of Air Staff, AVM Hassan Abubakar and the Acting Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun. These new guys need to note that the biggest drawback to the war against terrorism in the last 14 years is the unending lies by their predecessors. These precursors, whose opinions would have helped this country to tackle terrorism, became merchants of lies, rolling out imaginary security achievements. They also showed frightening ineptitude and enjoyed showboating while the country was on fire. That was why killings and abductions by terrorists became a daily occurrence under them with no part of Nigeria spared.
Terrorists are very much alive and kicking all over Nigeria. This is the truth that must be told. It is the truth that must be faced head-on by these new service chiefs. Only this truth can set Nigeria free from the servitude of terrorists. All the lies by previous security chiefs that terrorists had been degraded must be pushed aside by our new security chiefs. Even in Borno State, ISWAP and Boko Haram are very much alive. Just three weeks back, the terrorists killed eight youths across communities in Mafa and Jere LGAs. Fifteen farmers were also killed in Molai and adjacent communities in Konduga LGA of the state. This war against terrorists can’t be won with lies.
Our military lacks the capacity to end the war against terrorists but previous service chiefs refused to face this fact. It is pertinent to state that technology, intelligence, quality equipment and quality manpower are necessities for taming terrorists. Use of drones for intelligence gathering and attacks is also vital. Our security agencies lack these. They obviously lack the capacity to effectively monitor the movement of terrorists. This is why these guerrillas move around in hundreds undetected.
The advanced world is in an era of fighting with drones. The drone that destroyed late Muammar Ghadaffi’s convoy was fired from a station in Alabama, United States. Our security agencies are not in any way close to this. Our gallant soldiers are doing their best but they need to be assisted. So, this country needs help from climes that can provide these military necessities and manpower. Nigeria’s previous security chiefs won’t admit this because of ego and personal gains.
The immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, retired General Lucky Irabor, left me depressed with his rejection of the clamour for the engagement of foreign military contractors (mercenaries) to support the military in the fight against the terrorists. The fact that he completely ruled out engaging military contractors shows there are things we are not being told about this unending war. Irabor presented mercenaries as an army of occupation. This is not true. They are engaged by countries for specific purposes, with deadlines. It is not a crime to have military contractors joining a standing army to tame terrorists.
Even the United States engaged military contractors for its war in Iraq and some other locations. Is Irabor not aware of this? A people-oriented government will seek help from anywhere to protect its people against terrorists. We can all see the sloppy result of Irabor’s claims that the military can do the job alone.
The new service chiefs must seek help from climes that have successfully tamed terrorists. This country must seek assistance from private military contractors from these climes. I will always recommend Israeli military contractors. This is the way forward for Nigeria.
The killings of soldiers by terrorists without consequences have persisted for so long; the new security heads must tame this. There are so many examples of such killings. I can’t forget how terrorists in 2022 killed 30 soldiers in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger State, a direct assault on Nigeria, without repercussions. The then Commander-in-Chief, Muhammadu Buhari vowed that the attackers would not go unpunished. The killers were never apprehended.
Also last year, terrorists killed 22 soldiers when they ambushed the convoy of the then Kebbi Deputy Governor, Sama’ila Dabai in Kanya, Danko/Wasagu LG of the state. Nothing happened in terms of ensuring the killers pay a heavy price.
One of the deadliest massacres of Nigerian soldiers by Boko Haram took place in Metele, Borno State, in November 2018. Scores of soldiers were killed at 157 Task Force Battalion in the town. The exact casualty figure is still a closely-protected secret. The commander of the battalion, Lt. Col. Ibrahim Sakaba was also killed during the attack. The terrorists that carried out the operation were never smoked out and slaughtered. I will also not forget the massacre of soldiers in places like Sasawa, Magumeri, Malam Fatori, Gashigha, Rann, Kanama, Gamboru-Ngala, Mafa, Kunduga, Pridang-Bitta and the rest. The leadership of the military did not respond lethally.
The new service chiefs must consistently avenge the killing of Nigerian soldiers. When terrorists kill security agents, the standard is for commanders to send forces after them and take their heads off. By this, they will drive a clear message to the terrorists that there is no room for nonsense. This will also hinder the remaining guerrillas from further atrocities. This is what I’m expecting from our new service chiefs.
The new IG must do the same for his men. Scores of policemen have been killed by IPOB/ESN in the South-east without consequences. Similarly, early in 2022, the Divisional Police Officer of Nasko Station in Magama LG of Niger State, CSP Umar Dakingari, and six of his men were killed by terrorists without consequences. About the same time, the terrorists attacked a tomato processing company in Ngaski LGA of Kebbi State and killed four policemen. These happenings are really depressing and must be stopped.
Morale is evidently low among officers and men on the war fronts. They often struggle for allowances and equipment. Many of them have overstayed on the war front, contrary to the rules of engagement, yet, they are not rotated. The new service chiefs must end these negatives.
I also expect the new service chiefs to improve response to distress calls from communities when terrorists strike. Sometimes soldiers respond after the deed must have been done. In most cases, they don’t respond at all. For example, when terrorists attacked Kagoro Chiefdom, Kaura LGA of Kaduna State in December last year, they spent almost a whole day in Malagum and Sokwong communities, killing and maiming.
These two communities are supposedly covered by a special military task force called Operation Safe Haven. But the terrorists were not in a hurry to leave because they were very sure they would not be repelled by security agents. By the time they eventually left, 39 people had been killed and the two communities left in ruins. The military failed to respond to distress calls. So, the terrorists confidently burnt almost all the buildings in Sokwong. These failings must be addressed by the new security chiefs.
Still on Calamity Governor Yusuf
Abba Yusuf was sworn in as Kano State Governor exactly 41 days ago today. Yet, we are not seeing moves to address pressing challenges of the state. There are challenges of child begging, drug abuse, illiteracy, poverty, maternal mortality and unemployment. It’s a long list. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, this state has over three million out-of-school children, the highest in Nigeria. No fewer than 10.5 million residents, representing 66.3 percent of the population, are poor. I thought Yusuf would, from day one, frontally start tackling these diverse problems confronting Kano State. It is depressing to note that nothing is happening in this direction.
Yusuf is only interested in destroying anything and anybody with links to former governor Abdullahi Ganduje with his Executive lawlessness. That was why the Kano governor, fresh from his inauguration, revoked ownership and allocation papers of buildings overnight without due process. He was not interested in anything called the rule of law. Yusuf was reckless. I was shocked that in his inaugural speech, he directed the police to immediately take over all land and properties supposedly illegally sold to “cronies and agents” of Ganduje. Instantly, he started demolishing private and public property.
My dear Yusuf, we are in a democracy which is anchored on law and due process. You must act within the laws of our land. Besides, these demolitions can’t add any value to the lives of the good people of the state. All demolitions must end. I will like to see you concentrating on the pressing problems of the state listed earlier in this piece. A word is enough for the wise.
Tajudeen Abbas and His 33 Aides
There is so much pain in the land; we are regularly told to stomach it. Nigerians are constantly told to endure the pains of President Tinubu’s economic policies and cut expenses. Unfortunately, those in government are living big amid the burdens of Nigerians. They are not expected to cut any cost to help this country but to add more. One of such is the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass. This man cares less about cutting the cost of governance.
Abbas has so far appointed 33 aides with all sorts of comical portfolios. He says the appointments are for effective delivery of his legislative agenda. What nonsense! This is why Nigeria is rated one of Africa’s worst-governed countries (based on the cost of governance), ranking 37th of 52 countries on the Mo Ibrahim Index of African Governance. This waste must not continue. Abbas must drastically trim this huge retinue of aides in order to reduce the cost of governance.
Over the last few days, I recoiled in horror and disgust as the fairly straightforward case of JAMB exam result fraud by 19-year-old Mmesoma Ejikeme of the Anglican Girls Secondary School in Nnewi, Anambra State, unwarrantedly intensified Nigeria’s preexisting primordial fractures, deepened a sense of persecution complex among a demographic group, and hardened phobias and hate on social media. It didn’t have to be that way. Here are three lessons from this saga.
One, evidence-free imputation of ulterior motives to the declarations of non-political, non-partisan institutions like the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB) is always a slippery slope that will lead to both real-life and rhetorical wrecks. There was no logical reason to presume that JAMB as an institution had a vested interest in denying the genuine claims to a superlative performance by a poor, unknown candidate like Ejikeme.
If the West African Examination Council, for example, says a result that some nondescript person parades is fake or genuine, it’s best to assume that it probably is—until we have firm, indisputable evidence to doubt the truth of its declaration.
A Facebook lawyer friend by the name of Dorcas Amina Miango (who goes by Ciroman Miango) captured this sentiment best. “If an institution says a document is not theirs, there is a presumption of authenticity in their favour until it is proven otherwise,” she wrote. “That is the law, it is simple. You can make moral arguments but that is not the law.”
The second lesson flows from the first, and it is that not everything is reducible to the politics of ethnicity and religion. It was starkly obvious that the ballyhoo over Miss Ejikeme’s Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination (UTME) result was refracted through the prism of ethnicity, religion, and partisan politics. Most of the people who threw logic, evidence, and caution to the wind in defense of an obvious fraud by Ejikeme did so because they share the same ethnicity, religion, and region with her.
The enduring divisions in the polity in the aftermath of the last presidential election also influenced how certain people approached the young lady’s exam result fraud. People who have been persuaded that a candidate with some political presence in only 16 of Nigeria’s 36 states (and almost zero presence in 20 votes-rich states) won a national electoral “mandate” that was “stolen” extended their delusions to Ejikeme’s fraudulent claim.
It didn’t matter that the actual best student whose feat JAMB had announced weeks ago shares the same state of origin as Ejikeme. Or that Ejikeme isn’t the only one whose false claim to superior performance in the UTME has been impeached by JAMB.
JAMB’s spokesperson Dr. Fabian Benjamin told the gripping and audacious story of a candidate by the name of John Ifesinachi Chinedu, 19, from Enugu who, in 2021, also claimed to have scored 380 when he actually scored 265.
Like Ejikeme, he falsified his result, accused JAMB of altering it, and hired a well-heeled Enugu lawyer by the name Ikeazor Akaraiwe who demanded that JAMB set a fresh UTME for Chinedu and pay him 1 billion naira in restitutive damages. After JAMB unfurled unimpeachable, foolproof evidence against him, he collapsed like a pack of cards, confessed his fraud, and asked for forgiveness. He was handed over to the police.
Premium Times of July 5 reported other cases such as Kingsley Unekwe, 18, who, in 2019, altered his score from 201 to 269 but was outed by a JAMB investigative panel; an Adah Eche, 18, who fudged his UTME score of 153 to 290 and wrote to JAMB demanding it “correct” his score; a Cletus Kokowa who changed his score from 162 to 206 and later confessed to having paid N10,000 to a crime syndicate to help him electronically alter his score; and a Rejoice Mordi, 19, who changed her score from 164 to 264 and later confessed to getting help for her fraud from WhatsApp through someone identified as Iyanu Oluwa.
Had the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) not convincingly shown in a July 4 investigative piece how Ejikeme used a free Google Play app called “JambFun-Fake Jamb Result Maker” to simulate the UTME result she paraded as hers, the debate over her “innocence” and JAMB’s villainy would probably still have been raging.
Unfortunately, even after FIJ has shown how you can create a fake UTME result in a few minutes— and several hilariously fake UTME scores have proliferated on social media using the JambFun-Fake Jamb Result Maker” app— former minister Oby Ezekwesili who stuck out her neck in defense of Ejikeme, tweeted on July 5 that “it should be clear to any reasonable person who cares about Exam Integrity in Nigeria, that more needs to be done to unearth how she obtained the 362-score result which @JAMBHQ disavowed. The Public needs to know these facts through an Independent Technology Investigation.”
An “Independent Technology Investigation” (whatever in the world that means) to find out how Ejikeme downloaded the “JambFun-Fake Jamb Result Maker” app on her phone to generate a fake UTME result? Ha! And this lady was an education minister! It’s true what they say: prejudice distorts what it sees, deceives when it talks, and destroys when it acts.
Ejikeme clearly only forged the UTME result because she wanted to deceive individuals and her state government into funding her university education. No investigation is needed to unearth that. We learned that after getting Innoson Automobile Company to award her a ₦3 million scholarship, she approached the Anambra State government to demand both a recognition of her “feat” and a scholarship.
This was a low-level fraud that had the blessing of her parents—and later the witting and unwitting support of millions of people who share her primordial characteristics. It’s exactly why corruption will be difficult to stamp out in Nigeria.
The last lesson in this, for me, is to learn to never make judgements solely on the basis of surface impressions. A lot of people assumed the innocence of Ejikeme on the basis of her age and looks. Several people also presumed the guilt of JAMB on the basis of their preconceived prejudices about JAMB registrar Professor Is-haq Oloyede.
Oloyede is a professor of Islamic Studies whose first degree is Arabic. This fact became like a red rag to a bull for a lot of commentators. But the truth is that Professor Oloyede, by all accounts, is the most transformational registrar JAMB has ever had in its existence. Throughout his tenure as registrar, he has ensured that the conduct of UTME every subsequent year is invariably better than the preceding year.
I have never met the man. I am also always reluctant to vouch for people in public office because the intoxication of power and authority can cause people to change without notice. But most people who know the man attest to his unflinching commitment to fairness and justice for everyone irrespective of their faith, ethnicity, or politics.
I have also been told that he is a compulsively methodical, organized, self-critical, and forward-looking person. That was why he had a successful tenure as Vice Chancellor of the University of Ilorin even though he is from Abeokuta in Ogun State—in a time when “outsiders” are not allowed to be VCs of even federal universities. His tenure saw the dramatic rise in the profile of the University of Ilorin.
He has brought that same spirit to JAMB. I am sure he has his foibles, like everyone else, but to judge him on the basis of what he studied and taught and ignore his record is both unfair and unproductive.
Urges Sanwo-Olu not to demolish Igbo properties or inflate taxes against them
Other tribes should invest in Igboland as Igbo’re doing in theirs
President General of apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Dr. Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, is in Lagos for a three-day visit during which he will meet with Igbo leaders and Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu to address issues affecting Igbo in the economic capital of the country.
In an interview after one of the engagements with Igbo leaders in Ikoyi, on Wednesday, he spoke on issues around his emergence as Ohanaeze leader, his agenda for Igbo, the blowing wind of insecurity in the South-East and how the Federal Government can arrest it among others.
On issues surrounding his election as Ohanaeze leader
Some months ago I was elected leader of all Igbo, which is the President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. Frankly speaking, at over 80 years, it was a very difficult thing for me to accept, although I saw that my people were very passionate about having me serve them. All the leaders came to me expressing their support and confidence in me. All the five governors of the South-East also came to me saying they were with me.
All the seven presidents of Ohanaeze in the various states – Rivers, Delta, Imo, Abia, Enugu, Anambra and Ebonyi came too. All these made me realise that I had no choice. It is my belief that any gift possessed by an individual is from God. Therefore, if your people call you to serve them at any time and you fail, you are not fair to God the creator who has given you the gift.
Opposition from his nuclear family
My wife and children didn’t want me to accept it. However, I had to convince them. Some said I would die, but I told them that if I die at 80 it is not too early.
First official tour of South-West
Where am I today? I am on my first official tour to South-West Nigeria. I have come to meet Igbo in the South-West. I met the elders last night (Tuesday) in what we call Ime-obi, which is where we meet in Igbo culture to make far-reaching decisions. We had a meeting in the house of one of our elders, Cmdr. Ebitu Ukiwe, retd. It was a very successful meeting.
As I arrived at the airport, my people gave me a wonderful reception. All the Ezes and town union presidents lined up. I have just finished a meeting with the Ezes because we have a system that demands that we organise ourselves wherever we are. Every success that Igbo have achieved over the years is because we have the capacity to come together at a short notice. The town union is part of our structure,
The people I have met here today are very important people in the lives of Igbo. Wherever I go, I meet with these people, and they whisper the condition of things to me. I am here essentially on my first official tour to South-West and I have been very well-received. I am very happy because my people have shown a lot of trust and confidence in me. I have made up my mind and I pray to God Almighty to give me the capacity to serve them and to help me so that I do not fall below their expectations.
What are your plans for the Igbo?
I have studied the map of Igboland and I have carried out a very comprehensive study on agriculture, our mineral resources or natural endowment and intellectual capacity. Based on these things, I am quite convinced that we have a lot of prospects. I am bent on transforming Igboland; I believe that by the plan that I am making, I will transform agriculture, the industrial base and commerce because our people are trade-inclined, which is a major part of our wealth.
Without fear of contradictions, when you talk about Gross Domestic Product, GDP, in Nigeria today, I think Igbo contribute more to the GDP than any other group because we are there in every local government. There is no local government in Nigeria today where you won’t see Igbo. Wherever they are, they carry out their businesses which could be trading in one commodity or the other, even farming. Whatever they do, they pay taxes, build houses and live peacefully with the people there. I believe they are doing well for Nigeria.
We are very proud that our people are contributing positively to Nigeria. Many patriotic Nigerians appreciate it.
There is a lack of clarity on the President of Ohanaeze in Lagos State. Is Chief Sunday Ossai the president?
We have our constitution. Professor George Obiozor was the chairman before he died. Ambassador Okey Emuchay is the Secretary General. They handed over Sunday Ossai to me as the President of Lagos branch without informing me of any dispute. The report I had was that the former man, Solomon, who I don’t know and I have never met, had completed his four-year tenure. This man, because he probably believes that some powerful people are going to support him, wants to destabilise Ohanaeze. This is the impression that I get from people. I want to make it clear that the former President General of Ohanaeze handed over Sunday Ossai to me as the President of Lagos branch.
We have had a very unfortunate experience recently. Out of personal interest, some people are doing everything to undermine Ohanaeze, which is the hope of Igbo. It is our hope of development and unity. You see a small boy jump up to say he is the Secretary General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo. The Secretary General is Okey Emuchay, who has served Nigeria in various capacities. He is a man with impeccable academic credentials and civil service credentials. Ohanaeze Ndi Igbo cannot just pick anyone as its Secretary General. For Publicity Secretary, you have Dr Alex Ogbonnia. All these scoundrels who mislead the public should be reported to the police for fraud.
Are the Ezes in Lagos recognised?
The concept is part of Igbo culture. Igbo have always believed in leadership. We believe that if you don’t come together with a leader, the problems of life cannot be fought. The problems could arise from humans, society and the economy. What has saved Igbo wherever they live either in Nigeria or outside is that wherever they go they come together. It has helped us in many areas. As President General, the Ezes are part of the people who have supported me and they have confidence in me. Their position is unchallengeable because we need their leadership, we need their position.
As the President General, how do you intend to ensure that the Igbo are well-protected in Lagos?
Before 1914 when Nigeria was amalgamated, Igbo had started coming to Lagos. When Igbo started coming to Lagos, there was no Ikoyi, most of Ikoyi was riverine. There was no Victoria Island, there was no Lekki.
Igbo are part of the development in Africa and Lagos. Right from the time the first railway lines were built, Igbo were here. There is no way anybody can talk about the development of Lagos with all honesty and exclude Igbo.
When you talk about Lagos, some Igbo have lived in Lagos since their grandparents began living here, which is as far back as 1914. The truth about this thing is that we have a character in Igboland which makes us different. We know that we have a home and our home is in Eastern Nigeria. Wherever we go, we know we are visitors, and we have never gone anywhere to claim their land. Every Igbo man who owns a property in Lagos does so legitimately.
We have not come to preach a sermon that God gave us the land in Lagos. We paid for it. People from Igboland have not only developed lands, they have built houses. If you go to Lekki, Victoria Island, Lekki, everywhere, these things were built by humans. Lagos is Lagos because people, like the Igbo, came and invested. They include northerners and those from other tribes. Igbo came, invested and developed the place without forgetting the fact that they are visitors. Every Igbo man is told from home to obey the law of his host community and Igbo have done that all through history.
Recently, we started hearing all these stories, I think we can solve the problem and we are only appealing to them because asking people to leave is a new phenomenon. We are not worried about it because I have discussed with top indigenes of Lagos. Leaders in Lagos are not in support of this view. I want to let you know that Ohanaeze under my leadership is working with the five South-East governors on this issue. Hope Uzodimma told me that South-East governors would meet with their colleague (Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu). I was pleased that they had a good meeting with the governor of Lagos State where they came up with a communiqué. Lagos State governor did very well. In fact, people are happy.
During the election, Ohanaeze Ndigbo supported Peter Obi in the election because we believed that it was our turn based on the zoning arrangement. We have nothing against Tinubu as a person. We supported Peter Obi because we believed that it was our turn and we believed that he is capable. Today, Tinubu has been sworn in as the President and we have many Igbo in the All Progressives Congress, APC, who cannot be stopped.
Peter Obi is in court and the decision isn’t ours to take but the judiciary. I learned that the governor is in Abuja, I will try to see him, but even if I don’t see him, I am quite satisfied that Governor Uzodimma has seen him. What we don’t want is the demolition of properties belonging to the Igbo or to inflate taxation against them.
A lot of rumours are flying all over the place but I don’t believe these things are true because I don’t believe any right thinking government can do that. I can tell you that at the moment, we have no problem. I have told the Igbo that I have discussed with top Lagosians. I have also told the Igbo that they are safe and they have no problem in Lagos State, Igbos are happy and they are going to stay.
What programme do you have for other tribes who live or intend to move to the South-East?
I have a programme. I am going to create more towns, business centres in Igboland. We want other tribes to come and invest in Igboland. We have helped to develop Lagos and other parts of Nigeria. During my tenure as President General and the leader of Igbo, I am calling on other people to come and reciprocate. They should come and develop Igboland. If they have any problem, they should report to Ohanaeze. We will intervene and ensure that entrepreneurs interested in investing are given land and encouraged to invest.
Don’t you think insecurity and Mazi Nnamdi Kanu’s issue will be a hindrance to potential investors?
We don’t have security problems in the South-East. We have said ‘release Nnamdi’ because the young people are supporters of Nnamdi Kanu, which is an excuse that they give.
When we look at it seriously, we have not seen any offence committed by Kanu. In fact, the court has said he should be released. As Igbo leaders, we do not see the reason he is being kept in detention. These people are giving it as an excuse for their sit-at-home. We believe that keeping Nnamdi Kanu in prison is an effort to collaborate with some elements who want to destroy the economy of states in the South-East. We are appealing to the Federal Government to release Kanu because if he is released, we can now know those who are proper criminals and agitators.
I believe that President Tinubu will be able to release Nnamdi because we have not been told he committed any offence. He is being detained even though he was not caught carrying AK-47. Nnamdi Kanu is sick and if he dies in prison, it will create a lot of problems for us. Every Igbo leader has talked about his release including the five South-East governors.
I think if any Nigerian leader has respect for the Igbo, he will release Kanu because once he is released the security problem will be reduced. I want to tell you that South-East or Igboland is not worse than other places.
Security is bad all over the country but release Nnamdi Kanu, let him be free and let us attack our own insecurity. There are people causing insecurity in the North and they have even gone to the prison in Abuja to release everybody, yet nobody has put anyone on trial.
They had even kidnapped people in the train and they negotiated with them. Nnamdi Kanu has never been involved in any of these things.
In many countries, those who are interested in the management of public affairs join political parties to actualise their career in the public domain. Usually, the political parties profess distinct appoaches, which make people qualify them as either progressive or conservative. The classification notwithstanding, parties usually have programmes they intend to execute in furtherance of public good. That is called manifesto. It is same in Nigeria as in other parts of the world.
But here, one of the indicators of our stunted development since flag independence is that there seems to be a wide chasm between what the politicians come up with, which they execute while in office, and what the people REALLY need to live better lives. That explains why today, there are very few states left in the country that do not have an airport. Many state governors continue to embark on airport projects, irrespective of the fact that they may not be commercially viable.
The widening chasm between what politicians do in office and what the people expect and/or need came to the fore earlier in the week just ending, when the Secretary to the Federal Government, Senator George Akume, hinted that in the future, government will reciprocate Chinese goodwill to Nigeria by seeing to it that faculties where Chinese languages will be taught will be established in Nigeria universities. He was receiving a Chinese delegation led by the Chinese Ambassador to Nigeria, Cui Jianchun, in Abuja. Let me quote Akume:
“We appreciate the fact that you have given scholarships to our students studying in various universities in the Peoples Republic of China and some have graduated. We want to appeal that you step up the issue of scholarship and give us more. You won’t regret it, before you know it, you find many Nigerians speaking your language. We look forward to the time we will also establish faculties in Nigerian universities where Chinese language would be taught to students,” he said.
I do not think Akume said the right things to the Chinese delegation that visited him, and also do not think that teaching Chinese language in Nigerian schools is the way to reciprocate Chinese goodwill. The best way, in my book, to say thank you to the Chinese is to use whatever loans we took from them for the purpose they were taken, and repay, according to the terms.
In 2020, African countries with the largest Chinese debt were Angola ($25 billion), Ethiopia ($13.5 billion), Zambia ($7.4 billion), the Republic of the Congo ($7.3 billion), and Sudan ($6.4 billion). As far back as 2018, China bidded to take over the Kenneth Kaunda International Airport should the Zambia Government fail to pay back its huge foreign debt on time.
We should not be as remiss as some of our fellow African countries, who risk losing control of key infrastructure to the Chinese because of loan defaults. It will be nightmarish for us to have the Chinese managing the Nigerian Railway Corporation, or the Murtala Muhammed and Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airports and others, for which loans were taken by the Buhari government to refurbish and upgrade.
As for teaching Chinese language, SGF Akume should withdraw that as it is simply a NO-NO. If you set up departments of Chinese language in Nigerian universities, you’ll have to import Chinese to come and teach the language, and that will come at huge cost in terms of foreign exchange. Besides, it will open a new vista of re-colonisation by a fast-rising Asian power, while we are still struggling with the effects of European colonialism. I am one of those who believe fervently that much of the ingredients needed for the greatness of Nigeria in all fields of human endeavour remain locked in our languages. We will truly be on the path to national development and greatness when we start delivering educational instruction in our languages. What SGF Akume should bother himself with is how to get the educational system to start teaching Mathematics, Physics, Biology, Chemistry and other STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) subjects in our languages. I know the Russians, Germans, Japanese, Koreans, and other developed non-English speaking countries educate their people in their languages. That is easy to confirm. Graduates of German universities are plenty in Nigeria, and will testify that you go to language school, first, and pass, before continuing with the course you were originally admitted to study.
So, if tomorrow, we find ourselves cozying up with the Russians or Ukrainians and start getting Russian credit, we would reciprocate by teaching Russian? Or Ukrainian?
In reality, Nigerians have endured enough torture trying to use other peoples’ languages to get on in the world. The new government headed by President Bola Tinubu, in which Akume is SGF, should begin earnestly to look inwards for local solutions to the things we spend huge resources to procure from foreign lands. There is bountiful talent in Nigeria; what remains is how we use them for the greater good of all.
Undoubtedly, Nigerians have been swamped and wearied by a barrage of policy pronouncements by the new Federal administration in the country in the past one month. Unexpectedly, these new policies or ‘reforms’ have left the economy worse off than in the first five months of the year. Indeed Nigeria’s economic situation has become a subject of global interest, attracting analyses, reviews, critiques and ‘warnings’ from nations and institutions across the world. Multilateral financial institutions like the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund (IMF), African Development Bank (AfDB) among others, have all in various forms and manners expressed their views about the ‘supersonic’ pace of ‘reforms’ ongoing in Nigeria.
In line with this trend, Bank of America (one of the world’s leading financial institutions), a few days ago, warned that Nigeria’s hyper-inflation rate may hit 30 per cent by the close of this year. In an interview with Bloomberg, the Bank’s sub-Saharan Africa Economist, Tatonga Rusike said “at the current trend, inflation may quicken to 30 per cent by the end of the year from 22.4 per cent in May.” He advised that “the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may need to increase interest rate by at least 700 basis points before the end of the year to curb inflation.” Rusike then warned that “if this decision is not taken, foreign investors might exercise caution before investing in the country.” In sum, he said “if the negative real interest rate is not reversing, then it is less likely to see foreign inflow coming into the country,” and raised a doubt that “it is less likely the CBN will do such level of interest rates increases.”
These admonitions by the Bank of America (BoA) largely contain all the pains and hardships so far unleashed on Nigerians by the economic ‘reforms’ of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration in the past one month. Run-away inflationary trend, impoverishment of the populace, low/diminishing foreign investment inflow, quantum Naira devaluation, rattled apex bank that is muzzled by political expediency, etc., have all become features of the economy since May 29, 2023. Although desirable, the sudden removal of petrol subsidy immediately led to skyrocketing prices of goods and services beyond the reach of majority of the citizenry. The purchasing power of the masses (especially, salary earners and others on fixed incomes) as well as their standard of living dropped very sharply. Many businesses (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, MSMEs) were forced to close shops owing to escalating costs—rooted in high prices of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) which powers their operations.
As these ugly unintended consequences were unfolding, the Tinubu administration, apparently driven by heroism or playing to the gallery, forced the merger of exchange rates to happen. The CBN, already cowed by the suspension of its (former) boss few weeks earlier, did the puppet’s job of not only forcing the merger of the exchange rates but also dismantling ‘every support’ for the local currency. By every economic consideration, the closeness of petrol subsidy removal and exchange rates unification and ancillary actions amounted to a ‘suicide’ of sorts. A country in pursuit of an export-led economic growth can devalue its currency to make its goods and services attractive.
But clearly for Nigeria, an almost wholly import-dependent and largely mono-product economy—a wholesale floating (or devaluation) of its currency is certainly counterproductive to economic progress. From time immemorial, a large proportion of the citizenry have preference for foreign goods and services; manufacturers import machineries and raw materials; Nigerians in their numbers go for foreign degrees and certificates as well as medical tourism—all paying in hard currencies. This culture and preferences have existed side-by-side with shortage of dollar and other foreign currencies over the years. As a largely mono-product economy—depending almost entirely on earnings from crude oil export, Nigeria has no substantial foreign exchange inflow from the export of non-oil items. Indeed, successive administrations had over the years paid only lip service to diversification of the national economy.
Unfortunately, oil and gas sector—the mainstay of the Nigerian economy—is consistently bogged with motely intractable problems: crude oil theft, to which the country loses over seventy per cent of her oil output; widespread vandalism of oil installations and assets; outright sabotage, among others. All these have whittled the nation’s oil production capacity—leading to inability to meet her OPEC-allocated quota for a long time now. Again, all these have led to diminishing earnings (forex inflow) from crude oil sales. And only a minuscule comes from non-oil exports!
In a manner of throwing away the baby with the bathe water, the Tinubu administration’s ‘reform hurricane’ also pulled down the well-packaged non-oil export drive/incentives put in place by the CBN early last year. Tagged ‘RT200’, the initiative with its bouquet of incentives for non-oil export promotion had gained the buy-in of stakeholders in the past on year. Within the period, it had recorded substantial foreign exchange inflow—an addition to crude oil sales. But the CBN has been ‘forced’ not only to cancel this effort but also to liberalize access to domiciliary accounts by their owners—with authorization to withdraw cash to a maximum of ten thousand dollars daily. So far, the result of all these has been lingering acute shortage of foreign exchange in the forex market: gross undersupply of forex vis-à-vis huge rising demand. And the Naira keeps crashing in value against the dollar and other foreign currencies.
The continued weakening Naira translates to (high) cost-push inflation as producers of goods and services factor in huge (unplanned) volume of the local currency for forex procurement. The more Naira they commit to acquiring forex, the higher their overall cost of production, ultimately. In turn, worsening forex scarcity translates to more Naira per dollar—now standing at about N760/$, up from N460/$ a month ago! This collapsing Naira value—and implied inflationary pressure—translates to declining purchasing power and impoverishment of many citizens. This trend is yet likely to be worsened by the Federal government’s plan to license more companies to import PMS, rather than the fast-tracking of the re-streaming of the existing local refineries.
The PMS importers will obviously utilize volumes of dollar, and thus add pressure to the already scarce forex, and their (selling) prices will surely reflect the high exchange rate. This will likely keep pushing up the prices of goods and services in the polity—in the form of the runaway inflation as warned by the Bank of America. But beyond the dreaded high inflation, Nigeria’s overall investment climate is anything but attractive. Widespread insecurity, barrage of new policies, multiplicity of taxes and levies, ever weakening consumer demand, deeply entrenched corruption, among others are serious disincentives to investors—local or foreign.
Indeed, Nigeria remains uncompetitive in the world of investments; it is only hope for a better future that keeps some optimists going—businesses and individuals alike! They are looking forward to the Eldorado that may never come, because in the words of the revered Economist, Maynard Keynes: “in the long run, we are all dead.” In truth, the Tinubu administration is yet to place before Nigerians and the entire world, its full economic development roadmap. What is happening now is more of a whimsical arbitrariness and staccato disruption of the economy. Some kind of ‘dismantling’ of perceived ‘ugly’ past, in the face of uncharted future pathways. We hope it doesn’t end up as a mere grope in the dark!
- The author, Mr. Okeke, an economist, sustainability expert and consultant on business strategy lives in Lekki-Lagos. He can be reached at: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
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Sunset at dawn on a dark day, 7th of July, 1998. Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola, Nigerian entrepreneur, philanthropist and politician exit to the great beyond. It was five years and 25 days after the military annulled the June 12, 1993 presidential election and incarcerated the acclaimed winner, the charismatic businessman and politician, Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola. The symbol of Democracy and African version of Martin Luther king Jr (MLK) died in a very controversial circumstances in the hands of the military adventurists.
MKO, was a man of pan-Nigerian vision and ambition, who went into politics to give the people hope, to unite them and lead them out of poverty. His campaign manifesto was instructively titled “Hope 93 — Farewell to Poverty: How to make Nigeria a better place for all.” Bashorun was a Pan-Africanist Par-Excellence not an ethnic champion. The pillar of sport in Africa laid down his life for DEMOCRACY. He was larger than life: Let me mention one aspect of him that makes him standout: in my opinion, his quest to see majority of the black population go from illiterate to literate and from rags to riches hasn’t been matched till date by any Nigerian or African rich man. As a lover of literacy, as at 1993, he had already built 41 libraries across 24 states in Nigeria. Don’t get it twisted, it was unlike the ‘packaged fraud’ Bashorun Abiola was the issue; the real thing about Nigeria is the MKO’s mandate ‘June 12 and the controversial circumstances of that dark day 7th July 1998.
Before, going further, let me share with us part of the revelations or confessions within the corridors of power on that dark day: Zadok returned, he met Major Aliyu, who told him that Abiola fell down after taking a cup of tea.
“I quietly went inside,” said Zadok, “and I saw Chief M.K.O Abiola lying on the floor facing down.
“I called him for the first time; he answered and I lifted him up, and turned him upside, and called him again for the second time; he did not answer.”
Aliyu informed Abdulsalami minutes after Abiola was confirmed dead.
Fifteen years after this chain of events, Akhigbe died on October 28, 2013, without revealing all that he knew about Abiola’s death.
It is on record that Akhigbe was the only highly-placed member of the Abubakar junta that openly admitted that Abiola was indeed murdered. Even though he insisted that his convenient presence in Aso Rock on the day Abiola was murdered was an “unfortunate coincidence.
Unarguably, MKO was richer than a country. He was influential and powerful. Bashorun controlled virtually everything in his lifetime; from business, communications, politics, international affairs, reparation issue and even sports in Africa. MKO had virtually everything he wanted; fame, connection, and influence. He was even elected President of one of Africa’s freest and fairest elections. Although, he was robbed of his mandate under enigmatic circumstances.
Thankfully, June 12, Democracy day celebration, without any iota of doubt, is M.K.O Abiola’s day of glory. It is akin to Martin Luther King’s national holiday in America. Abiola is the single most important architect of the modern democracy. He won the June 12 presidential election in 1993 fair and square. But it was annulled. In pursuit of his mandate, he paid the supreme sacrifice. The struggle to actualise that mandate, prolonged and sometimes vicious, eventually resulted in the return to democratic dispensation on May 29 1999 with political power ceded to the South West, the home region of Abiola.
In conclusion, I like to join our compatriots home and abroad in standing with the family members of the pillar of sport in Africa Bashorun Moshood Kashimawo Olawale Abiola (MKO) in celebration of life and times of the African soldier. And also to salute the demonstration of courage, determination and resilience of our great leaders who stood their grounds for DEMOCRACY. The likes of our current President Asíwájú Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Prof Wole Soyinka (WS), Ayo Opadokun, Femi Falana (FF), Yele Sowore (SOS), Col. Umar Dangiwa RTD, Ebitu Ekiwe, Ndubuisi Kanu, Frank Kokori, Kunle Ajibade, Bagauda Kaltho, Kudirat Abiola, Pa Alfred Rewane Anthony Enahoro, Beko Ramsome-Kuti, Gani Fawehinmi and many others too numerous to mention.
Richard Odusanya a Mind Restructuring Enthusiast.
Italy, the beautiful south-central European country that juts into the Mediterranean Sea and embraces the Alps, giving mountainous hugs to Switzerland and France, is one of the earliest human civilizations. So civilized that its animals are protected in the country’s constitution and have fundamental rights such as the right of a dog to be walked out in the streets, at least thrice weekly. Animals kept for farming purposes have the right to food, water, satisfactory environmental conditions and right to free movement.
If animals can be so well regarded how much more humans? However, that is the basic issue. While the Italian state treats its citizens with dignity, it has laws on migrants headed for its shores that states clearly that their lives are not only worth less than that of a dog or rabbit, but that they do not even have a right to life.
In its Piantedosi Act passed on February 24, 2023, if a charity vessel carrying persons rescued at sea comes across a vessel in distress, a shipwreck or persons drowning in the turbulent waters, it must not rescue them. Rather, such a ship must first sail to a designated port, no matter how far, discharge its passengers, do necessary paper work before seeking to return to the disaster scene. The new Italian sea law criminalises multiple sea rescues. The captain or owner of any vessel which breaches the new law is liable to a fine of between 10,000 and 50,000 euros ($53,355) while the vessel can be impounded for up to two months or even confiscated.
Pathetically, the Italian government claims the new law is to protect immigrants. Its Deputy Interior Minister, Nicola Molteni, told the country’s upper Senate that “if immigration is not controlled, it creates exploitation, forced labour, illegal labour”.
The new law is a fine-tuning of the Italian government’s 2022 policy of blocking humanitarian ships from accessing its ports because it is not the duty of Italy to take in people rescued from the seas.
In implementing the new law and ensuring drowning people are not quickly rescued – if they are rescued at all – the Italian government designates faraway ports for rescue vessels. This not only increases the operational costs of the vessels, but also reduces the time for possible new rescue. Although Italy claims its coast guard rescues vessels in distress, but the complaint is that it is only when a distress vessel reaches the Italian search-and-rescue zone on its own, before the coast guards begin to respond. Even at that, it is not an immediate response as the vessel may be left on its own to tug on to an Italian port before rescue is carried out. Until then, the distressed vessel and its occupants are on their own.
The Italian government’s action against the rescue vessels in the name of stemming migration, is not logical. This is because statistically, the overwhelming number of those migrating to Italy, do not come across the Mediterranean Sea, they come from Eastern Europe. For instance, in 2020, 16 per cent of the migrants came from Romania, 7.6 per cent from Albania, 7.1 per cent from Morocco; Ukrainians accounted for 4 per cent and China for 3.7 per cent. This means that of the bulk 38.4 per cent of migrants only 7.1 per cent came from Africa and the Middle East.
In 2022, 90 per cent of the 105,000 migrants who arrived in Italy did not come through the vessels; they were migrants mainly from Eastern Europe. Only 10 per cent came over the seas.
So, the new Italian law is primarily designed to make the rescue of human lives in the seas very difficult, expensive and criminal.
The Italian government is already putting its new anti-human law into practice. A German rescue ship, Sea-Eye 4 was heading to the port of Ortona, in the central region of Abruzzo after rescuing 17 persons in the Libyan search-and-rescue zone when it got a distress call. It was from a boat carrying over 400 people. It decided to turn back go to its rescue. The Italian government on June 2, 2023, found the ship guilty of violating the new law, and clamped a 20-day detention on it.
A similar sanction was imposed on a sister rescue vessel, Mare*Go. The 104-year-old, four-metre-long pleasure craft with 36 rescued persons on board, was directed by the Italian authorities to head to the port of Trapani, on the west coast of Sicily to dock. But the vessel warned that it could not cover that distance. So it was sanctioned. The Mare*Go in a reaction said: “This current new law is another tool to let more people on the move drown at sea.”
The Italian government also accused the Geo Barents vessel, owned by the Doctors Without Borders ,MSF, of withholding some information after it rescued 48 migrants and ferried them to the Adriatic port of Ancona. For this alleged criminal act, Geo Barents was blocked for 20 days and MSF fined 10,000 euros.
The Italian authorities had apparently been on the lookout for the MSF vessel which had on Tuesday, January 24, 2023 rescued 61 persons. However, as it headed for the La Spezia port as instructed by the Italian authorities, it received a distress call and turned back. Then, it received a third distress call from another vessel, thus engaging in three rescue operations and saving 237, including 73, unaccompanied minors, UAMs. It is such spectacular rescues, the new law wants to stop. The Italian state would rather the lives perish at sea than be rescued.
In human history and practice, when a distress ‘Mayday’ call which indicates that that a vessel is in grave danger and needs immediate assistance, goes out, all vessels and humans within the area rush to its rescue as it may be sinking or there is fire on board. It is this sense of oneness and value for human life the Italian government is trying to obliterate.
The new Italian law violates the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, UNCLOS, which makes it obligatory for a ship captain to render immediate assistance to people in distress. Also, the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, OLAS, imposes on countries a legal obligation to provide assistance to those in distress, including, if necessary, carrying out multiple rescue operations. This is also part of the European Union law – REGULATION, EU, No 656/2014) – which binds Italy. But who can call Italy to order? It is not listening to the UN, EU, international organisations or the Vatican.
Italy prefers to be lawless and treat human life with the type of levity it does not treat even its animals.
“The man is in the hands of the authorities. Something is being done about that. They will sort themselves out.The financial system was rotten. Few people were making away with our money…that is gone now; the man (Emefiele) is in the hands of the authorities,”-President Bola Ahmed Tinubu
The extant grooming of the Nigerian public to focus its angst on the former central bank, CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, serves the purpose of making the banker a scapegoat for the bigger culprit, former President Muhammadu Buhari, on whose desk, the buck stops. Moreso, in this specific instance, when the bank was effectively reduced to the status of an Aso rock villa annex. At the level of generalisation, this is a universal political phenomenon in which deniability is a strategic component of reducing the vulnerability of presidents to hostile inquiry in and out of office. Deniability is plausible and effective when it is minimally deployed, not when it becomes the raison d’etre of the totality of a benighted presidency.
In the instant, we are led to believe that Buhari is a daft empty minded sovereign who sees no evil, hears no evil and does no evil.That his minions and proxies, from top to bottom, are the ones exploiting the leadership vacuum, to wreak havoc on Nigeria. A misrepresentation is all but summed up in the frivolous exculpation that Buhari is not personally corrupt. What are the parameters for making the determination that a president is not personally corrupt? Would a president be deemed personally corrupt or not corrupt if he, by omission and commission, set up his family and friends to serve as fronts? What would be the implicit utility of the billions allegedly accumulated by the likes of Tunde Sabiu and the eighty two years old nephew of the president, Maman Daura?
If a president’s cronies took a cue from their principal’s body language to gorge themselves senseless with public resources, would this exculpate Buhari from being judged personally corrupt? How much was his security vote and how was it expended? For what reason would a president resolutely retain so called juicy appointments for ethno regional confederates, if not a dog whistle of a tacit acquiescence to plunder as they wish.
Hobbled by a number of circumstances, the regret is that his successor, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, cannot be realistically expected to avail the Nigerian public of the extent to which his predecessor is personally not corrupt. There is the constraining intervening variable of intra-party succession made worse by the fact that the party itself is corruption personified. It is the rule globally, much more so in Africa, that the inclination to probe a predecessor positively corresponds to the degree of the ‘hostile takeover’ by a successor. Were Jonathan to have been succeeded by a Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, president, it is improbable, his government would have been subjected to the public show trial conducted by his All Progressives Congress, APC, successor.
This partisan abetment is reinforced by the implication of Tinubu in the story of institutional corruption in Nigeria. As such he is not expected to readily don the toga of anti-corruption crusader, were he to be otherwise persuaded, in the first place. There is the additional hamstring of anticipatory or aspirational corruption in which a government turns a blind eye to prior acts of corruption and tamps down on anti-corruption rhetoric (in the interest of its own potential fignalling with the public till).
President Tinubu bore witness to this scenario when he publicly identified a personal opportunity for corrupt enrichment in the legacy of the hitherto two tier window of dealing in foreign currency. “I could afford to share the benefit by participating in the arbitrage, but God forbid! That’s not why you voted for me,” he said. There are, even now, reports of incoming public officials swearing to ownership of fictitious trillions in their declaration of assets as alibi for what they intend to steal from public coffers, going forward.
There is a morality tale for the president here. In the Nigerian corruption perception index at the inception of their presidency, Tinubu is the opposite of Buhari. At that stage, the latter enjoyed national and international acclaim as an anti-corruption crusader. At the time, this seemed a fair albeit generous assessment
Eight years of his presidency to the bargain, the man had launched a grenade to explode the myth of his abstemious integrity. Never call a man great until the end of his life, cautions the bard. To the contrary, Tinubu is coming to office with the baggage of a deserved reputation as ‘a corrupt political fixer’. Now, he has an opportunity to make amends and poked the middle fingers at the sceptics. Personally my prayer is that like Buhari, he would undo this earned reputation.
Beyond the unravelling of Buhari’s reputation as a man of integrity, the myth of his naive innocence is controverted by his freudian slip declaration of intent he let loose in faraway Washington at the early days of his presidency. He solemnly swore to adopt parochial discrimination in favour of those who gave him ninety-seven of their votes. He then proceeded to double down on this policy with his request from the World Bank president, Jim Yong Kim. “In my very first meeting with President Buhari the president specifically said that he would like us to shift our focus to the northern regions of Nigeria and we’ve done that,” said Mr. Kim.
On his penchant for literally zoning the office of the chief of army staff position to the pan Islamic North, this was his revealing rationalisation. “People who have been there for 18 years or even for 10 years, they trained in Zaria or in Abeokuta, they come through the ranks.“And because they served under all the circumstances, the crises and everything and they gradually rise to that status and you think you just pick somebody just to balance up? These positions have to be earned”.
So here was Nigeria’s commander in chief making the dubious claim that, of the lot of Nigerian army officers of Christian North and Southern Nigeria origins, none merits appointment as chief of army staff. It did not occur to him that were this truly the case, the Nigerian army will willy lilly stand accused of the practice of apartheid in the upward mobility of officers. This is not the language and logic of a man blissfully unaware of the world around him. It is the mindset of a cunning mischief maker set on an ulterior agenda. If this segment of the Nigerian army were so lacking in qualification, where, then, did his successor find the newly appointed chief of army staff.
To further prove the point of his malicious capacity for full engagement with selective policy issues was his ideological agitation over IPOB and Biafra. “IPOB (said the purportedly empty minded simpleton) is just like a dot in a circle. Even if they want to exit, they will have no access to anywhere. And the way they are spread all over the country, having businesses and properties, I don’t think IPOB knows what they are talking about. In any case, we say we’ll talk to them in the language that they understand. We’ll organise the police and the military to pursue them.”
From what we know of Nigeria’s power politics and how it impacts the tenure of appointees from outside the ranks of the exclusive favoured captive enclave, Emefiele should be reckoned to have compensated for his retention in office with a sworn oath of servitude to the Buhari writ large cabal. He remained in office at the sufferance of a president loath to tolerate any strategic office holder not bearing a pan arabic northern identity. Thus sworn to mindless sycophancy to the Buhari cabal, it was how high he would jump whenever self-enrichment requests to compromise his office were made from the Villa.
There is absolutely no reason to doubt that pervasive corruption was the order of the day during the pendency of Emefiele at the CBN but such comitance was coterminous and coextensive with the agenda of his principal. With specific regards to the monetary policy that got the goat of then candidate Tinubu, (the currency redesign policy), the vested interest fingerprints of Buhari are boldly implanted all over the policy instrument. Such indicators are ‘”President Muhammadu Buhari has approved the appointment of Ahmed Halilu as the Managing Director of Nigerian Security Printing and Minting Company, NSPMC Plc, DAILY NIGERIAN reports. Halilu, an elder brother of First Lady Aisha Buhari”. “I am aware that this new monetary policy has also contributed immensely to the minimization of the influence of money in politics,”
Former governor and former minister of aviation, Isa Yuguda, may not have had Buhari in mind when he went public with his committee report on the Nigerian national petroleum corporation, NNPC. Inter alia he said “I am sad to let Nigerians know what I saw; we came across situations where subsidy was claimed on pipelines that never existed. They (NNPC and Marketers) just claim that they have pumped X amount of either finished products or crude”
“Those that claimed to pump the products and those that are in the subsidy scam, they just fill papers, invoices and they claim subsidy on it” When asked again if it was indeed the NNPC that was making these claims, Yuguda replied in the affirmative. “Who else is doing it,”. Yet, Buhari was the minister of petroleum.
And in the spirit of the Bulkachuwa confession culture, the former president pointedly unveiled his culpability in the subsidy scam a week ago. Playing dubious politics with the lives of Nigeria, he confessed “Finally we must be politically honest with ourselves. My administration in its last days could not have gone the whole way in removing the subsidy because the APC had an election to win. And that would have been the case with any political party that was seeking election for another term with a new principal at its head. Poll after poll showed that the party would have been thrown out of office if the decision as envisaged by the new Petroleum Industry Act was made”.
From our standpoint, the sum of the Buhari personae is his mastery of the art of hypocrisy, convenient memory lapse and looking the other way pretending to be unaware of the Nigerian fire he relentlessly stoked. This, for me, is his primary DNA to which incompetence, incapacity and ignorance of arrogance are adjunct genetics.
The London-based Economist magazine has often acted as a conservative Anglo-American establishment mouthpiece. Its recent leader (“How Not To Repair America” June 10, 2023) and the accompanying main article (“The Tide Goes Out”, 10 June 2023) on the reparations debate in the United States, exposes both its illiberal ideology and consistent misreading of race issues in America. The British-based magazine crudely caricatures this important issue, making lazy arguments that are often put forward by conservative analysts: reparations are unpopular and backed by only 30% of Americans; most living whites played no part in Jim Crow segregation and so none can be held responsible; black Americans are not the only disadvantaged group in America; resources are finite, and should go towards better schools and health for all Americans.
The argument that reparations are not popular, however, needs to be disaggregated. Explaining complicated historical issues to voters also requires strong and courageous leadership, as America’s partisan media space is often deluged by stereotypical arguments presented by conservative outlets such as this Economist perspective. Many Americans tend to think differently once this issue has been sensibly explained as a structural one in which the country benefited from 400 years of unpaid labour which facilitated America’s industrialisation, using 450,000 enslaved Africans who only won their basic voting rights in the 1960s. Such an approach would also note that, as the Economist itself concedes, the lingering effects of this legacy remains with America today, with many of the victims still alive as heirs who have inherited these socio-economic disadvantages. The Economist itself observes that the median net worth of black families in 2019 was 13% that of white families.
Such gross racial inequalities are also evident in the lower levels of life expectancy and health, as well as continuing discrimination against African Americans. During the recent COVID/19 crisis, black Americans accounted for 30% of deaths, despite constituting only 13% of the US population. Today, members of this group are less likely to have healthcare; are more prone to police brutality; while 26% of black men have been incarcerated in what scholar-activist, Angela Davis, dubbed America’s “prison industrial complex.” Many African Americans also live in ghettos, suffering more the effects of bad housing, bad diet, and bad schooling, with 34% of black children born on or below the poverty line. These stark realities all constitute the continuing legacies of four centuries of slavery.
In terms of the Economist’s argument that African Americans are not the only group discriminated against, this is scarcely an argument for not paying reparations. After the Second World War in 1946, the US government’s Indian Claims Commission paid $1.3 billion (worth $20 billion today) in reparations to indigenous Americans who had historically been victims of widespread land dispossession and genocide. Japanese Americans incarcerated in concentration camps during the Second World War were also compensated through a $1.2 million payment (worth $18 million today). Though the Economist cites the Japanese case, attempts to repair historical crimes should not be turned into a hierarchy of suffering. Historical injustices with far-reaching and continuing consequences should be repaired regardless of the groups involved.
The Economist’s argument that no living whites are responsible for slavery ignores the structural issues of those who continue to benefit from four centuries of free labour, in stark contrast to those who continue to suffer from it. This statement is akin to saying that no one is responsible and should be held accountable for America’s contemporary racism, which was consolidated over 400 years of black exploitation, dehumanisation, and disenfranchisement. Governments in Canada, Australia, and Germany have paid reparations for crimes committed against indigenous populations and European Jews for which many of their living citizens were not directly responsible. The governments of Germany and the Netherlands have recently announced similar reparations for past crimes. Regarding, the Economist’s argument of resources being finite, the fact that Washington continues to spend more on its military than the next 10 countries combined is the clearest sign of the distortion of socio-economic priorities through its lobbyist-fuelled legislative process of legalised corruption. America can thus clearly afford to pay compensation to repair its past.
The Economist then cites the case of two commissions in the “Golden State” of California which recently recommended reparations for descendants of American slavery, as an example of how “it is impossible to create an actuarial table of injustice…to determine how much cash is owed and to whom.” The reparations commission recommended that the maximum cost of reparations per African American should be $1.2 million as a down payment, while a similar reparations commission in San Francisco suggested $5 million per person. The Economist notes that California is focused more on repairing current racial disparities which the magazine concedes remain considerable across the country. It further cites 2016 figures showing that black Angelenos had 1% of the wealth of their white compatriots in Los Angeles.
The Economist then suggests that the sum of the proposed reparations would cripple the state’s finances. However, its own British government had paid the country’s slave-owners – and not the exploited slaves themselves or their descendants – £20 million (equivalent to £17 billion in 2016) for the loss of their “property” after Westminster abolished slavery in 1833. This sum was fully paid out just eight years ago in 2015. If the British government could take out a loan worth 40% of its Treasury’s annual income and 5% of its GDP at the time, to make perverse payments to 46,000 slave-owners and their descendants over a 182-year period, why can the government of California not have the ingenuity to devise a similar long-term compensation scheme for a more just cause? The Economist’s alternative suggestion that race-neutral anti-poverty programmes be put in place instead of reparations, seems utterly insensitive given that the institution of slavery itself had been based solely on race. The magazine’s suggestion that the governor of California, Gavin Newson, and mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, oppose cash payments is also mean-spirited.
In seeking to nuance the Economist’s views, I consulted two mainstream American newspapers. The Los Angeles Times noted that California had been requested by its reparations commission to issue a formal apology for the persistent damage of slavery and discrimination, an important fact that the Economist omitted in its rush to discredit the case for reparations. The California-based newspaper further explained that monetary losses for the descendants of enslaved African Americans had been calculated based on the three categories of health disparities, mass incarceration and over-policing, and housing discrimination, making these sums less arbitrary than portrayed by the Economist’s superficial analysis. The New York Times also nuanced the 30% of Americans that the Economist noted are opposed to reparations, by citing disaggregated figures from the same Pew Research Centre survey: 77% of African American adults support reparations, as do 39% of Hispanics, 33% of Asians, but only 18% of whites. Unsurprisingly, the main beneficiaries of slavery are the most opposed to its redress, while the main victims of this crime against humanity are the most supportive. Significantly, the New York Times also exposed the ideological disparity in this debate, with 50% of Democrats backing reparations, in contrast to 8% of Republicans: a camp into which the Economist falls.
The Economist – not renowned for its cultural diversity, and notorious for a Eurocentric gaze on the non-Western world – tends to view race relations in America through the jaundiced lens of its own British society which is often in denial about widespread prejudices against black and brown people, despite clear evidence of institutional racism in its policing, public health, and more recently, its cricket. A magazine living in a London glass-house is clearly throwing stones.
Professor Adebajo is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa.