OTHERS' VIEWS
Rising cases of cybercrime in the banking industry is becoming a big headache to bankers, customers and law enforcement agencies in the country. With so many people highly skilled in hacking techniques desperate for quick wealth, cybercrime may soon be the biggest danger to banks and their customers. As we all know, cybercrime is a criminal activity that either targets or uses a computer or a computer network. In recent years, cybercriminals have been relentlessly attacking banks’ computer networks in order to steal money from customers’ accounts. As more and more Nigerians are taking to e-transactions – now estimated to be worth N30.2 trillion daily - cybercriminals are working hard to devise new ways to steal from them; and they have been successful.
Many banks and their customers have fallen victim. In June 2022, these hackers stole N1.755 billion from various customers’ account in Globus Bank and fraudulently transferred the money into various accounts in other banks. The bank was quick to recover N817.99 million, but is still fighting to recover N962 million from the fraudsters’ accounts. As a last resort, Globus has filed an action in a Lagos High Court against those banks holding the stolen funds. Resorting to court action is very expensive and underscores the difficulties lenders and their customers face in seeking to recover stolen funds. Why should it be so difficult to retrieve stolen monies from fraudsters’ accounts? Why is it even difficult to apprehend the thieves when all their details are available in the records of their banks? Globus officials are unwilling to speak about this experience. Its Executive Director, Nixon Iwedi, declined to comment when this writer contacted him, understandably so since the fraud was a very embarrassing experience for the young lender.
GT Bank is also in court with some of its big corporate customers from whose accounts hackers stole over N1 billion in foreign currencies. Again, the bank’s officials were tightlipped when I called. Heritage Bank is luckier. A viral story which turned out to be fake news had claimed that N49 billion was stolen from its customers’ accounts. It caused a considerable anxiety on the executive floor and unease among customers, prompting the bank to quickly issue a rebuttal, which described the story as ‘’wrong’’ and ‘’fictitious’’. Part of the statement reads: ‘’Heritage Bank began implementation of its long-term sustainability plans premised on restructuring the bank, ensuring cost efficiency, management of its assets and resources towards restoring the financial institution’’. Obviously, no bank the size of Heritage would lose this much from its balance sheet and still be standing. The bank deserve commendation for stoutly pushing back against the fake news.
Frauds do not only lead to loss of money and erosion of trust in the industry, they also constitute serious PR nightmares for the banks, with many affected institutions feeling too embarrassed to talk about it openly. I often have advised many banks that resorting to stonewalling and gaslighting when faced with crises is a bad strategy. It could exacerbate the problems. When an organization is dealing with uncomfortable situations and ensuing press inquiries, it is advisable for it to promptly issue a statement stating its own side of the story, including efforts being taken to minimize loss, protects its customers and forestall future occurrences.
Hackers are unrelenting in seeking various ways to attack banks. In addition to corporate customers, individual customers are constantly being bombarded with spurious phone calls from fraudsters who claim to be customer care officials of their banks. All they want is to trick unsuspecting individuals into revealing their confidential account details with which they can hack into their accounts. I was amused when I received such a call recently from a hacker on the Eid public holiday. The caller asked if I am a customer of a certain bank, and that he was calling from the bank. Perhaps, it didn’t occur to him that it was a holiday. I told him that all my money is at the World Bank. He couldn’t help laughing.
Although banks’ customers are understandably alarmed by the increasing risks of cybercrime in the industry, their chief executives are less worried. ‘’The problem is not as intense as the noise suggests’’, says the chief executive of one of the biggest banks. He noted that although hackers breach banks’ database often, ‘’it is nothing significant to give anyone significant concern’’. He continues: ‘’The risk is real and it happens quite frequently. Usually breaches occur when there is internal collusion so internal control and monitoring certainly helps to keep the incidents down’’. The chief executive reveals that the CBN is working through the Bankers’ Committee to create an industry Security Operations Centre (SOC) to manage cyber risks. That’s quite assuring.
Apart from the SOC of the Bankers’ Committee, the CBN had June last year rolled out risk-based cybersecurity framework and guidelines to other financial institutions (OFI). OFIs are made up of micro finance banks, insurance and others, apart from deposit money banks. The guidelines are very comprehensive and cover such areas as: Cybersecurity Governance and Oversight; Cybersecurity Risks management System; Cybersecurity Operational Resilience and Metrics, monitoring & Reporting, in addition to Compliance with Statutory and Regulatory Requirements.
All over the world, financial institutions are among the most targeted for cybercrime. With millions of customers and their sensitive data, our banks continue to face serious and persistent threats of cyberattacks every day. Each institution should invest heavily in robust guardrails and defense system while monetary authorities, regulators and the managers in the industry should stay ahead of the criminals. CBN’s recent requirements for customers to provide their social media handle as part of KYC is part of the initiatives to curb cybercrime. The Bankers’ Committee should develop simpler ways for individual customers to recover funds lost to hackers. I am often moved to tears by heartrending stories of small savers being asked to go from police stations to the courts to make reports and swear affidavits. The bank CEO I interviewed for this article had confirmed that internal collusion is also part of the problems. The banks should do more to scrutinize and supervise their staffs, especially the outsourced ones, who are more likely to collude with fraudsters.
[OPINION] A good obstetrician is not the brilliant, but one that delivers safely - Owei Lakemfa
AdminPresident Bola Tinubu is being praised to the high heavens for the alleged giant strides and courageous decisions he had taken in the first four weeks of his government. The international community led by the World Bank have also been full of praises, claiming that the confidence of international investors is being restored.
The triumphant song out there is that President Tinubu hit the ground running. I went back to see where he hit the ground and found some debris. Otherwise, the aircraft appears in perfect condition. So the debris might just be a few loose panels or bolts.
Personally, I would suggest to the Ashiwaju that while continuing his run full steam, he should ask the Accident Investigation Department to examine the site and ascertain if there is really a problem. The most obvious to me is the astronomical hike in the cost of fuel prices which pushed PMS from N189 to N530 per litre with obvious indications, that this will be the first increase in many to come.
Obviously, Tinubu is praised for being a tough and strong man who took an unpalatable decision even when his immediate team did not think it was a wise decision to take on the very day of his inauguration. But our President must calm down; he needs be told from onset that the President Nigerians need is not a strong, tough one, but one with empathy – which I used to know Tinubu for –and a team player which he promised he would be. In his inauguration speech the President made a sacred vow to the people: “Our administration shall govern on your behalf but never rule over you. We shall consult and dialogue but never dictate.” He needs to keep to this.
President Tinubu made a tragic mistake in listening to hawks, including local and international undertakers, and imposing the sharp fuel prices on Nigerians. This has led to what Fela would have called “Sorrow, Tears and Blood”. Tinubu is human and fallible and as a good leader, he needs to listen to the cries of the people in the street and take immediate steps by reviewing the astronomical fuel prices. This will portray him not as a weak leader, but a strong passionate one who listens to the people he leads.
For the compelling reasons why he has to act immediately, I suggest he listens to the viral video of Majeed Dahiru on the subject, and for the scientific analysis, he could cause his aides to summarise for him, the presentations of Professor Izielen Agbon which are available on the net.
On my part, I will tell a true story that buttresses my conviction that a good obstetrician is not necessarily the brilliant, but one that delivers safely.
The Union Bank of Nigeria was one of the three biggest banks in the country. Along with the UBA and the First Bank, they were known as the Solid Three. The bank itself was established in 1917, three years after the country was amalgamated. It was fittingly called the Colonial Bank before it was renamed in 1925 as the Barclays Bank DCO (Dominion, Colonial and Overseas.) The bank was one of those supporting the Apartheid regime in South Africa and was therefore taken over in 1979 and renamed Union Bank.
In 2009, the Central Bank revealed that the bank’s management had been undermining the bank, including giving collateral-free multi-billion dollar loans to “speculators”. To rescue it, a new management under a financial expert and leading banker, Mrs Funke Osibodu was appointed to rescue the bank.
When in trying to reposition the bank, the new management touched the Legacy contributory pension fund of the staff, there was a protest and the management dismissed 13 leaders of the staff union. When the Association of Senior Staff of Banks, Insurance and Financial Institution Employees protested against the sack, union branch leaders were punitively transferred across the country. The management banned the union, seized its offices and finances.
When labour protested , the management approached the National Industrial Court, NIC, which granted an injunction barring Labour from going on strike or obstructing the services of the bank in any way. The security services, including the police and the States Security Services, perhaps to enforce the NIC injunction, took over security on the bank premises. When the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, approached the Federal Ministry of Labour to get the labour issues sorted out, the bank, apart from getting some labour leaders openly aligned to it, also got the Ministry’s endorsement as the Labour Minister pointed out that a court order already existed and Labour itself was split.
As the triumphant management rose from the meeting with the Minister, I approached the Managing Director to beg her to avoid a collapse of the bank which can result if a labour strike occurs and customers, who were already weary of the viability of the bank, make a run on it. I suggested that she focused on reviving the bank and resuscitating it rather than risk being diverted and sucked into an avoidable, potentially bruising labour crises.
She listened to me, but her lawyers and officials were hailing her and asked her to ignore my appeals.
All the powers of government, including the security services, Labour Ministry and most labour leaders were on her side. In any case, she was the expert. However, her most senior official at our meetings, Mr. Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, the Executive Director, Information Technology and Development thought there should be some caution. We opened back channels trying to end the labour crises.
Eventually, on February 14, 2011, the staff and their labour allies sent Mrs Osibodu a valentine message by shutting down the bank. It was a gruelling struggle. The management did not recover from it, Mrs Osibodu had to leave the following year and the now tottering bank eventually collapsed and was taken over.
Mr. Shonubi, Osibodu’s Executive Director who thought the management should focus on its primary objective of reviving the bank rather than taking on the staff, has now been appointed by Tinubu as the Acting Governor of the Central Bank. The lesson in the Union Bank story is the need to listen to other persons rather than be carried away by accolades.
President Tinubu’s primary focus should be the security of the populace and the welfare of the long suffering people of Nigeria many of whom despite being one of the biggest oil producers in the world live in abject poverty.
I need not tell President Tinubu to beware of those who praise him for engaging in a sprint in the first four weeks of his administration when he is actually in a four-year marathon race.
It has been 30 days of the Bola Tinubu administration, and it has been a bustling and eventful one. President Tinubu has rightfully earned the ticket "Baba-go-fast" for the decisiveness, punctiliousness, diligence, and swiftness of his leadership. The past 30 days have been motion, movement, and acceleration. Good things happen when governance runs on the stimulus of hope.
"Hitting the ground running" has a walking and talking example in the President.
Upon assumption of office, he did the derring-do -- axing petrol subsidy; averting a national strike and giving the naira the muscle to find its fortune in the agora of trade.
According to JP Morgan, a US financial services firm, the naira is expected to appreciate, and trade at N600 to the dollar over the coming months.
The firm said: "While it will take a few days for USD/NGN spot to settle, we fully expect an initial overshoot towards the parallel market rate of -750 or higher, after which, we expect USD/NGN to settle in the high 600s over [the] coming months."
Bloomberg, an international news agency, reported that investors were excited about Nigeria owing to the president's swift reforms. It also reported that Nigeria's equity market witnessed a boom -- a corollary of the incipient policies, signalling a return of confidence in the market.
Reuters reported that investors were stunned by the quick reforms of the President. Reuters reports: "Nigeria's new president, in office, for less than a month, is pushing to put Africa's largest economy on a reform track that investors have eyed for decades, fuelling excitement that money could flow to the nation that many had deemed uninvestible."
Governance is not rocket-science after all. It takes courage. Audacity. Diligence. Purpose. And forthrightness. Bold decisions take bold leadership.
The President signed four seminal bills into law. The bill harmonising retirement age for judges and stipulating uniformity in pension rights for judicial officers; The Electricity Act which effectively decentralises power, empowering states, companies, and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute electricity; The Student Loan Act which allows students in tertiary institutions access to interest-free loans from the Nigerian Education Loan Fund, and The Data Protection Law which protects the privacy and liberties of citizens.
The President made some critical appointments as well. He appointed service chiefs cognising Nigeria’s diversity and geopolitical balance. He appointed Mallam Nuhu Ribadu as National Security Adviser; Maj. Gen. C.G Musa as Chief of Defence Staff; Maj. T. A Lagbaja as Chief of Army Staff; Rear Admiral E. A Ogalla as Chief of Naval Staff’; AVM H.B Abubakar as Chief of Air Staff’; DIG Kayode Egbetokun as Acting Inspector-General of Police; Maj. Gen. EPA Undiandeye as Chief of Defence Intelligence.
This clearly manifests sensitivity and attunement to the complexities of Nigeria’s unity.
In the past month, the President attended the New Global Financing Pact Summit in France where he made firm and bold declarations. He said his ongoing reforms -- removal of fuel subsidy and streamlining of exchange rate -- would be sustained for a more competitive economy that would attract Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) into the country. The President warned that ignoring Nigeria, with its vibrant population and economy, would be perilous for the world.
The President also reaffirmed Africa as the centrepiece of Nigeria’s foreign policy. He said at a meeting with President Patrice Talon of Benin Republic: ‘’We are ready to improve relations. Africa has been the centrepiece of Nigeria's foreign policy. I believe in Africa. We have the necessity to grow the continent. The world's economy is wobbling, and Africa has been left behind. On risk factors, Africa is always placed high, with higher interest rates on borrowing. We are always classified as high risk. We must work together for systematic recovery and growth."
Sustaining the current trajectory is, however, important. It is a fantastic start. ‘’Wailers’’ are becoming ‘’hailers’’; some ‘’Obidients’’ are becoming disobedient to their creed of vicious propaganda and malice, jumping ship, and supporting the government’s reforms. Citizens are buoyed by the clear direction of the government and the speed at which it is beginning to deliver on its promises.
The leadership has earned public trust and goodwill, which are not easy to come by for any government. Goodwill and public trust are sacrosanct and basic for driving plans and programmes; hence the leadership must work to keep it.
The sense of urgency to national matters, the mindfulness, the decisiveness, and the alacrity should be sustained.
The leadership should keep the arteries of communication alive, informing and educating citizens persistently on the essence of the reforms, and should keep dispelling misinformation and disinformation intelligently and aggressively when and where necessary.
It should guard against any form of complacency and should be pre-emptive about the possible exploitation of citizens' concerns by some misanthropes for inordinate political tolls.
The leadership should remain thirsty and hungry for governance.
It is essential that the current steam of hope is sustained.
In partial response to the perennial crises of inadequate funding and ASUU strikes in federal universities, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has signed the Students’ Loan Bill into law. Under this law, indigent Nigerian students will get interest-free loans to see them through their stay in government-owned higher institutions. Beneficiaries are expected to repay the borrowed sum once they start working, that is, two years after the mandatory national service. Potential beneficiaries will be expected to apply to the Chairman of the Bank through the Chief Executives of their respective institutions having a secured a place in the school. The law states that any student whose parents earn more than 500k per annum will not qualify for the loan. Certainly, this aspect of the law would need to be reviewed.
As is usual with such loan facility, beneficiaries will be expected to provide two guarantors with the requisite qualifications – a civil servant on level 12 and above or a clergy man! Also, a student whose parents had defaulted in loan repayments will not be eligible for the interest-free loan. Furthermore, students who had been convicted of a felony of any offence involving dishonesty or fraud, or who had been convicted of drug offences are ineligible for the loan. Repayment of the loan, as stated earlier, is designed to commence two years after completing the National Youth Service Corps. What is not clear to me is what will happen if after completing a first degree the beneficiary migrates from Nigeria to seek for greener pasture! But that is for the government to worry about!
No doubt, this is a welcome development. And the President should be commended for hitting the ground running because some background work was done even before he was elected to office. Some of the President’s actions suggest he came prepared for the job after many years of waiting. The model of funding tertiary education which we currently operate has failed woefully. We can see this with half an eye! It does not need a patch work. It needs a total overhaul. There is no where in the world where education is free. Somebody pays for it. If the federal government has decided to give loans to students to enable them to pay for tuition, no sensible person, union, or group should join issues with the government. What we should be bothered about are the conditions and how the process should net be hijacked by a cabal in the traditional Nigerian style.
Should there be a bank created for this purpose or we should adopt three to five big banks to warehouse and administer the funds on the condition that they donate a percentage to the funds? What will be the implications of creating a fresh bureaucracy to manage students’ loans? What guarantee is there that the students would repay the loans? What happens if a beneficiary is unemployed two or three years after graduation? In case of default, like if a beneficiary relocates abroad, what will the state do? Will beneficiaries be expected to deposit their certificates with the operators before NYSC? These are questions in the mouths of observers and compatriots. My response is that the government must have ready answers because they operate within the Nigerian geographical space and are familiar with our shenanigans.
The university system needs to be properly overhauled – from teaching methods to curriculum and learning outcomes. The wages of university professors must be reviewed immediately. An Assistant Lecturer, the entry point not academia, goes home with one hundred and ten thousand naira monthly. This salary has been so fixed since 2009. Students live in squalor, a far cry from the relative comfort of the university environment of the 1980s. If the universities charge the appropriate fees added to some grants from the government, academic staff should earn more. Laboratories will have more equipment. The libraries will have more books and journals. The students are more likely to take education seriously. Students will be more comfortable on the campuses. Besides, students will be more interested in their studies because they will be paying for their education.
President Tinubu is preparing the nation therefore for a new approach to education policy formulation and implementation. Our dear ASUU has been virtually emasculated by the courts after the last battle over payment of salaries after a protracted strike. The federal government used the court to deal a blow on the union and killed morale. Even within the university system, there are doubts whether ASUU still has the strategy to lead academics to the Promised Land. This is why the union must reinvent itself and restore confidence in the followership. In my view, ASUU’s objection to a Students Loan Board amounts to being a busybody! Interestingly, NANS officials paid a solidarity visit to the President to thank him for the initiative and requested that ASUU should be removed from the Board! Are these the students ASUU is fighting for? Let the welfare of academics be the primary and only focus of university unions. ASUU, kindly return to the drawing board while listening to your members!
President Tinubu should adopt other measures to reinvent tertiary education. For starters, he should direct that the gentleman’s agreement which then Speaker House of Representatives reached with ASUU be respected and implemented. Academics have been on the same salary provisions since 2009, and indeed, the take home pay of academics cannot take them home! The withheld salaries of ASUU members should be paid to show good faith. The funds which accrue from TETFUND should be given to universities as grants without apron strings from Abuja to meet their needs. That way, he would win over most academics to his side. Furthermore, the universities need full autonomy in managing its affairs. In my view, there should be no central body dictating academic programmes to the universities, thereby usurping senate functions.
The government must remember that school/tuition fees alone will not be sufficient to meet the obligations of the universities. In other words, government must not hand off funding education through grants and other forms of interventions. Education is too important a service to be commercialized.
Globally, subsidies, whether for food, transportation, energy or housing, are part of good governance. So, the issue is not subsidies but who benefits from them. In Nigeria, subsidies are primarily of the rich, by the rich and for the rich. I will highlight a few, how they are being manipulated and how huge sums of money can be recovered not just to subsidize fuel but also provide funds for development.
- Diversion of N40 billion from Federation Account
A company, Continental Transfert Technique, had been hired by the Ministry of Interior to collect the Combined Expatriate Residence Permit and Alien Card (CERPAC) Fee of $2,000 per annum from every expatriate in Nigeria. The revenue from 2019 comes to an average of N40 billion per annum.
This collection, which violates Section 162 of the Constitution and provisions of the Immigration Act 2015, is then shared on percentages of Federal Government, 30, Interior Ministry, 7, Immigration Service, and Continental Transfert Technique, 58 per-cent.
We challenged this illegality at the Federal High Court and won the cases. The court directed the NIS to collect the funds henceforth and remit the same to the Federation Account. But the contractor and the federal government appealed against the judgment and have continued to share the N40 billion per annum.
- Additional Revenue of $1.5 billion payable to Federation Account
In July 2015, I drew the attention of the Federal Government to the fact that the 15-year fiscal incentives given to the oil and gas companies operating under the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act had expired in June 2014.
When the Federal Government ignored our request, we drafted a Bill for the amendment of the law. The Bill which was adopted and sponsored by Senator T. Orji scaled the first reading in the Senate but was not passed before the dissolution of the 8th National Assembly.
However, the same Bill was modified and passed by both houses of the 9th National Assembly and assented to by President Buhari on November 4, 2019. In justifying the passage of this Bill, Senate President Ahmed Lawan announced that the new law would increase the revenue of the nation by not less than $1.5 billion per annum.
- Outstanding royalties of $62 billion
In campaigning for the amendment of the Deep Offshore and Inland Basin Production Sharing Contracts Act, I requested the Federal Government to collect outstanding royalties’ payable by the International Oil Companies under the Act. The Federal Government admitted that the country had lost a whopping sum of $60 billion. But my demand for the collection of the huge fund was ignored.
The governments of Rivers, Akwa Ibom and Bayelsa States then approached the Supreme Court which on October 20, 2018 ordered the Federal Government to collect the royalties for the past 18 years. The Federal Government confirmed that the outstanding royalty withheld by the IOCs is $62 billion but has refused to collect it.
- FG denied revenue of $500 million by a group of corrupt public officers
The international Cargo Tracking Note Scheme to protect international shipping and prevent the movement of dangerous cargo and arms shipments was introduced into Nigeria in 2010 via an agreement between the Nigerian Port Authority and TPMS, a private company.
Barely a year later, the agreement was suspended. When our attention was drawn to the illegal suspension of the Cargo Tracking Note system, we protested and the suspension was lifted on May 28, 2015 only to be suspended again in 2016.
In 2022, President Buhari issued an executive order which authorized a company to operate the Cargo Tracking Note. But 5 companies sponsored by top government functionaries overruled the President and hijacked the contract. The company that won the contract has since sued the federal government at the Federal High Court. Meanwhile, Nigeria has lost at least $500 million while the security of the nation has been compromised by a bunch of corrupt public officers.
- Sale of public assets and enterprises
Successive regimes have been selling assets and enterprises owned by the Federal Government to members of the ruling class in the name of privatisation. The buyers turned round to engage in asset stripping. According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises, between 2004 and 2002, the federal government sold 142 public enterprises to members of the ruling class.
The 10 per cent shares reserved for the staff of every privatised enterprise have been cornered by the so called “core investors” contrary to the provision of section 5(3) òf the Privatization and Commercialization Act.
- $7 billion fixed in 14 banks
Sometime in 2006, the CBN yanked off $7 billion from the nation’s foreign reserves and fixed it in 14 commercial banks in Nigeria. The deposit and the accrued interests were not recovered from the banks. When I reported the matter to one of the anti-graft agencies, the CBN claimed that it had forgiven “the forbearance”.
- Sale of Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank by CBN
The CBN took over Heritage Bank, Keystone Bank, Union Bank and Polaris Bank, spent trillions of Naira to revitalise them only to turn round to sell them under the table. For instance, CBN invested N1.3 trillion in Polaris Bank but sold it for N50 billion!
- Theft of Crude oil
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) has revealed that Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to crude oil theft between 2009 and 2020. Immediate past National Security Adviser, General Babagana said that Nigeria might lose $23 billion in 2023 to crude oil theft.
- Theft of gold and other solid minerals
The theft of the nation’s mineral resources is not limited to crude as solid minerals are equally smuggled out of the country by highly placed criminal elements. Former Minister of State for Mines and Steel Development, Dr Uche Ogah recently disclosed that private jets are being used by the rich for gold smuggling in Nigeria.
He stated this at an investigative hearing on $9 billion annual loss to illegal mining and smuggling of gold organised by the Senate Committee on Solid Minerals, Mines, Steel Development and Metallurgy. During his contribution at the hearing, Senator Orji Uzor Kalu disclosed that Nigeria lost close to $54b from 2012-2018 due to illegal smuggling of gold.
- AMCON is owed N5.4 trillion by the rich
A few years ago, commercial banks were going to collapse due to toxic loans taken by members of the ruling class. To prevent the impending economic doom, the Federal Government set up the Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) to buy off the loans with trillions of Naira provided by the CBN. AMCON has not been able to recover the loans of N5.4 trillion from about 370 corporate bodies.
- Indiscriminate import duty waivers
A few privileged members of the business community buy dollars at an official rate while they are allowed to import all manners of goods into the country. In the last 5 years, import duties worth N16 trillion were waived for them.
- Effort to track and monitor tankers conveying fuel sabotage by NNPC
On August 8, 2018, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the installation of technology monitoring schemes and structures under the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) for N17 billion.
The technology which was designed to track and monitor tankers conveying fuel and other petroleum products was not acquired while the N17 billion approved for it was diverted.
- N10 trillion diverted by CEOs of Government enterprises
The Buhari government revealed on December 19, 2018 that government enterprises including the CBN owed about N10 trillion in unremitted operating surplus as at August 2018. The details were provided. The said sum of N10 trillion remains unpaid.
- N6 trillion unpaid ground rents by buyers of Government properties
On March 29, 2023, the Senate noted that since 1992, over two million houses across the 36 states and the FCT had been built and allocated to beneficiaries by the federal government without evidence of payment of ground rent on the properties. Consequently, the Senate set up an Ad Hoc Committee to recover over N6 trillion unpaid ground rents from property owners in the country.
- Stolen crude oil valued at $29.17 billion
A group of lawyers engaged by NIMASA confirmed that 60.2 million barrels of crude oil valued at $12.7 billion of crude oil was stolen and illegally exported to the United States of America between January 2011 and 2014. This has not been recovered. Also, the House of Representatives investigated and confirmed that undeclared crude oil worth $17 billion was exported to global destinations during the same period. The affected companies are known but the government seems to lack the will to bring them to book and recover the sum of $29.7 billion being the value of the stolen crude.
- Oil theft of N16.25 trillion
The Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) revealed that between 2009 and 2020 Nigeria lost 619.7 million barrels of crude oil valued at N16.25 trillion ($46.16 billion) to oil theft. The security forces have not been able to stop the stealing and smuggling of crude oil from Nigeria.
However, Tantita Security Services Nigeria Ltd (TSSNL), a private company discovered pipelines through which crude oil was being diverted from a 40,000 barrel per day Forcados pipeline to the high seas for export. The indicted oil companies including an IOC involved in this grand theft are yet to be prosecuted.
- Deduction of collection costs by FIRS & NCS
The Federal Inland Revenue Service and Nigeria Customs Service are allowed by their enabling laws to deduct percentages of the taxes and duties collected by them as collection costs. Thus, the FIRS between 2016 and 2020 made N533.39 billion deductions while Nigeria Customs Service withdrew N128.64 billion as cost of collection in 2022.
The laws which allow agencies of the Federal Government to deduct collection costs are contrary and inconsistent with section 162 of the Constitution which provides that all revenues collected by the Government of the Federation shall be paid into the Federation Account.
- Diversion of $6.065 billion approved for turn-around maintenance of refineries
Between 1993 and 2016, successive regimes spent, through the NNPC, about $6.065 billion on the so-called turn around maintenance and rehabilitation of the four refineries at various times.
It is public knowledge that the turn-around maintenance of the refineries was not carried out. Therefore, the contractors should be invited by the EFCC and compelled to refund the said sum of $6.025 billion.
- Investment in Dangote refinery and rehabilitation of 4 refineries
The Federal Government has invested $2.7 billion in Dangote Refinery while the NNPCL will supply the refinery with 300,000 barrels of crude oil per day. Furthermore, the Government has awarded the contracts for the rehabilitation of the two refineries in Port Harcourt for $1.5 billion, as well as Kaduna and Warri refineries for $1.4 billion.
We are compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress to monitor the ongoing rehabilitation and upgrade of the 4 refineries.
- Special salaries for top public officers, security votes, and pension for governors
Top public officers have illegally taken themselves out of the general salary structure. For instance, contrary to section 70 of the Constitution which provides that the salaries and allowances of legislators shall be fixed by the Revenue Allocation Mobilization and Fiscal Commission the members of the National Assembly are paid emoluments ranging from N13 million to N15 million per month.
In addition to their salaries the 36 State Governors are paid security votes running into hundreds of millions per month. The largesse has since been extended to all senior public officers, including heads of ministries, departments, and agencies of the federal and state governments, as well as local government chairmen. The security votes paid to senior public officers are about N241 billion per annum.
As if such subsidy is not enough, state governors have been placed on scandalous pensions of billions of Naira. But due to public criticisms, the Lagos State Government has halved the pension for ex-governors while the Governments of Kwara, Imo, and Zamfara States have abolished the payment of the outrageous pension to former governors and deputies. We call on all other state governments to emulate the example of the aforementioned 3 state governments.
- Diversion of dividend and feed gas of $33 billion by NNPCL
Nigeria LNG Limited is jointly owned by Nigeria and the OICs. The 49% shares of Nigeria in the joint venture were paid for from the Federation Account in 1989. On March 29, 2021, former President Buhari disclosed that the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas (NLNG) had generated $114 billion in revenues, paid $9 billion in taxes, $18 billion as dividend and $15 billion in Feed Gas Purchase to the Federal Government. However, rather than pay the fund into the federation account as constitutionally directed, the $33.9 billion dividend and feed gas was diverted by the NNPCL.
- Diversion of trillions of Naira through fuel subsidy fund
Notwithstanding the allocation of 445,000 barrels of crude oil to NNPC per day for domestic consumption, it has been confirmed that the figures for fuel importation in Nigeria between 1999 and 2023 are as follows:
- 1999-2006 =N813 billion;
- 2007-2009= N794 billion;
- 2010-2014= N3.9 trillion;
- 2015-2023= N11 trillion.
Last week, the Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mr. Mele Kyari stunned the nation when he said that the federal government still owes the company N2.8 trillion in fuel subsidy payments. But the monumental fraud that has characterized the fuel subsidy scam has been confirmed by the Buhari regime.
Thus, on March 27, 2022, former Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Mr. Timipre Sylva publicly lamented the controversies surrounding the amount of petrol that the nation consumes daily, said the subsidy regime encouraged criminal activities like smuggling, which in turn impact negatively on the nation’s oil resources. He said that, “I am told the figure sometimes rise to as high as 90 or over 100 million litres. I don’t know how that happens. At this rate, I have said if anyone is looking at a criminal enterprise, look no further than the fuel subsidy.” The criminal enterprise ought to be probed by the Bola Tinubu administration.
Conclusion
It is crystal clear from the foregoing that members of the ruling class are heavily subsidized by the peripheral capitalist system while the masses are subjected to excruciating economic pains.
We are therefore compelled to call on the Nigeria Labour Congress and Trade Union Congress as well as the progressive extraction of the civil society to mount pressure on the federal government to stop the dollarisation of the national economy, indiscriminate grant of duty waivers, theft of crude oil, gold, and other mineral resources and recover the nation’s looted wealth. In other words, these ‘subsidies’ should be recovered while the nation’s refineries are fixed so that the country can provide genuine subsidies that can make life livable in Nigeria
Since well before Nigeria’s return to elective governance in 1999, the country has been overtaken by a progressive escalation of what Hannah Arendt in her classic ‘On Violence’ called “a massive intrusion of criminal violence into politics.” In contemporary Nigerianism, the word for this is “banditry”.
“Bandits” is a conveniently capacious bogeyman for insecurity in Nigeria that precludes necessary questions as to the provenance of the descent into lawlessness. It captures diverse elements that may include terrorists, cultists, herdsmen, kidnappers, criminal gangs, and militants.
Originally applied to the motorcycle gangs who perpetrate carnage in different parts of Nigeria’s north-west, bandits have now become the trope for an intolerable toll of destruction by mostly non-state entities as well as the inexplicable haplessness of Nigeria’s federal government that has never been known to cringe at the thought of exterminating significant numbers of its citizens. This lamentable situation compels a retrospective on how what the country now calls banditry evolved.
Since independence, successive governments in Nigeria have confronted variants of banditry. The evidence over time suggests a link between governance, its failures, and what is now called banditry. As a usage, it conflates two underlying crises – a government without consequences and ungoverned spaces.
In This Present Darkness, his history of organised crime in Nigeria, Stephen Ellis traces post-independence banditry in Nigeria to “shortly before the civil war, when government broke down in some parts of the Western Region and there was a blurred line between political violence, crime, and organized insurgency.” When the war ended in 1970, the military regime failed to manage demobilisation.
In Southern Nigeria, which comprises a mere 29% of Nigeria’s nearly 924,000 km² of landmass, urban banditry ensued. Armed robbery in built-up areas of the country was an early manifestation. An early exponent of this was Ishola Oyenusi, a high-school dropout who chose to be called “the Doctor” and terrorised Lagos at the end of the Civil War. In response, the military government introduced mandatory death by firing squad for convicted armed robbers. The first public executions took place in front of Bar Beach, Victoria Island, Lagos on April 26, 1971. Less than four and a half months later, on September 8, 1971, Oyenusi was executed at the same location.
The pace of public executions quickly escalated. By 1979, Nigeria had publicly executed over 500 armed robbers by firing squad. In 1984 alone, the regime of Major-General Muhammadu Buhari shot at least 355. In 1985, it killed another 301 by firing squad. In 12 years between 1984 and 1996, over 1,200 such executions took place.
In 1984, the response of General Muhammadu Buhari to the emergence of drug trafficking as a new dimension to outlawry in Nigeria was also the firing squad. Far from being mitigated, however, drug trafficking by Nigerians became more organised, more lucrative, and more violent.
In a little-noticed release on December 21, 2018, Nigeria’s then-defence minister, Mansur Dan-Ali, a retired one-Star General from Zamfara state, complained: “The issue of (sic) drug abuse, unemployment and governance amongst others contributes to the deplorable security situation in Zamfara state”. In the same month, the Buhari administration launched a presidential advisory committee on the elimination of drug abuse chaired by retired Brigadier Buba Marwa. The membership included the wives of both the president and the vice president. In the four decades that separated the beginning and end of Buhari’s two tours of duty as head of state, Nigeria’s response to organised drug cartels had evolved from firing squad to pillow talk.
It appeared that each succeeding decade saw an intensification of urban outlawry in different parts of southern Nigeria. In the 1980s, the poster boy was Lawrence Anini, another school dropout who concatenated indiscriminate violence with a touch of Robin-Hood in a peculiar form of advocacy for the downtrodden.
Anini’s reign of terror in the then Bendel and surrounding states was facilitated by the complicity of some senior police personnel who helped to provide his gang with intelligence and disappeared evidence against them. When two members of his gang were convicted in mid-1986 following effective police work, Anini turned his guns against the police in an intense rampage of mass killing, during which 10 police officers in Bendel state died between August and October 1986. That would prove to be his undoing.
Military President, Ibrahim Babangida, turned up the heat on then Inspector-General of Police, Etim Inyang, famously asking him during a meeting of the then-ruling military council in October 1986: “Where is Anini?” Two months later, in December 1986, the police arrested Anini and dismantled his gang, which included George Iyamu, a police superintendent. In March 1987, they were executed.
In the 1990s, Shina Rambo terrorised parts of south-west Nigeria with similar escapades. In south-east Nigeria, the Otokoto case in Owerri, Imo state, in 1996 revealed a netherworld of ritualised human sacrifice.
By the 2000s, political violence and assassinations would emerge as dominant forms of outlawry. With the introduction of online banking to minimise cash-in-transit, armed robbers began stealing human beings in order to get their money. Commercial kidnapping boomed. In Osisikankwu (Obioma Nwankwo) in Abia state and resource militants in the Niger Delta traded in this. In parts of south-east Nigeria, politicians and these organised crime gangs made common cause leading government to break down. In response, a bandit, vigilante horde, known as Bakassi Boys took over the streets.
Three additional factors collaborated in launching this new phase. First, public universities incredibly became fertile breeding grounds for outlaws. The story originated in competition among university-based confraternities, which forced the Pyrates’ Confraternity, the oldest of these confraternities in Nigeria, to leave the universities about 1986. The Supreme Eiye Confraternity (National Association of Airlords) emerged in Lagos around 1965 as a rival to the Pyrates. In Ibadan, the National Association of Sealords, better known as the Buccaneers, followed by 1972. The University of Calabar produced the Klansmen Confraternity and in the University of Port Harcourt, the Vikings emerged. These university cults “pursue their cause with brazen audacity and outright disregard for the laws of the country”.
The growth of these groups coincided with the emergence of articulate civic activism in the universities led by the National Union of Nigerian Students (NUNS), later known as the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS). Military rulers co-opted these cults to disrupt official student activism. Competing groups in the politics of university administration also found them useful. In the Niger Delta, Stephen Ellis recalls, they “became a factor in the region’s politics”.
Second, the mismanagement of natural resources exploitation in the country energised the transition from urban to rural banditry. Southern Kaduna, for instance, had always been rich in gemstones, including diamond, sapphire, quartz, ruby, tourmaline, and aquamarine. In the early-to-mid 1980s, this set off a mad rush of artisanal gemstone rustlers who invaded communities in Jema’a. The rustlers came from as far as Mali, Senegal and Sudan in search of shiny gemstones that the locals called “devil stones”.
In 1986, Newswatch Magazine’s Aniete Usen reported “cases of eliminating by kidnapping, the sudden disappearance of dealers and diggers and a whole range of other blood-chilling tales. The barons, agents and diggers became fanatically…. fully armed with automatic weapons”. The weapons they brought into Southern Kaduna would feature prominently in the first Kafanchan crisis in 1987. Their methods have been evident in the descent from artisanal mining to organized banditry in Birnin-Gwari and Zamfara three decades later.
Third, Babangida’s transition to a civil rule programme created a mutual support network between politicians, robbers and cults. In the Niger Delta, the military regime of General Abacha introduced guns to quell civic advocacy for resource justice. In 1994, they deployed the Joint (Military) Task Force. Three decades later, the guns are everywhere and the JTF is mired in an interminable mission.
By 2008, Mujahid Asari Dokubo, asked how the armed youths in the Niger Delta who traded in violence acquired their weapons, answered the Rivers State Truth and Reconciliation Commission presided over by former Supreme Court Justice, Kayode Eso, that “the guns were purchased with money disbursed by politicians”.
Quite clearly, successive regimes in Nigeria have found pockets of banditry useful in the enterprise of taking and keeping power. Unsurprisingly, politicians are mostly half-hearted in fighting it. During elections in 2023, for instance, banditry nearly vanished remarkably. Immediately after the vote, it resumed with full force. It seems rather evident that in Nigeria now, the bandits and the politicians are in bed with one another.
A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. A version of this article first appeared in December 2018 as “Banditry in Nigeria: A Brief History of A Long War”.
First Caveat: This piece might appear to be controversial or dumb but I invite you to read it with an open mind; if you have a superior or counterargument, I welcome you to bring it forward with an open mind as well.
Second Caveat: I am not homophobic neither is this piece; I have no problem with people being gay, you can choose to have sex with whatever tickles your fancy; be it with a tree, dog, water, fire or same-sex human, it is your body, (mind you, you may just be possessed by a demon and never born that way). What I have a problem with is you as a gay foisting yourself and your sexual orientation on other persons who ain’t gay and expecting everyone to relate with you, accept you and accommodate you even when you are acting nasty around the people; then playing the victim card by railroading anyone who dares resist you by accusing that person of being homophobic.
Just like the way you have the right to validly exercise your legal rights to being gay, someone else who is not gay and whose belief is against homosexuality also has the right to resist you or refuse to be associated with you. Both rights can exist, and stand side by side concurrently and they are both valid.
You cannot force a business owner whose belief system is against homosexuality to attend to you or service you; this was the crux of the recent Supreme Court judgment in the case 303 Creative LLC v. Elenis. You cannot force a priest whose belief is against homosexualism to officiate your wedding as a gay couple. You so-called gays doing that in the guise of gay activism are not just being gay, you are bullies and nuisance that you deserve no place in the modern society.
***********
The cliche “gay by birth” is a made up nonsense. People that use that phrase are either ignorant or just living in self-deception. There is no scientific proof wherever that proves that there is anybody that is born gay or born homosexual. In fact, a series of reputable scientific and medical publications/ journals have clearly stated that there is no genetic link or biological link to prove that any human is born to have sexual attraction towards the same sex; if you are not born that way then you must have learnt, acquired or adopted it from your immediate environment after birth or you are just possessed by demons. Either or all can be true.
Therefore, what causes homosexualism or gayness is all sociological and never biological; it is what you experienced, developed and fantasised, it was never innate or inbuilt.
Let’s ask ourselves, are animals gay or can they be gay? I have yet to see research that shows that an animal is displaying a sexual relationship towards the same sex, so animals ain’t gay because they have not been exposed or learnt to be gay unlike humans and humans are just higher animals. If animals can not be gay by birth then humans are not gay by birth.
Most of the world’s religions; Islam, Christianity, Hinduism, Judaism, and even Traditional religion etc frowns on being gay and sees homosexualism as an abomination. Each of these religions has principles or rules in their holy books that forbid humans from having sexual relationships with same-sex pairs. Enough of the religious principles? Even as a natural principle or natural law, the male sex is to pair with the female pair both for the purpose of pleasure and procreation and that is how nature has ordained it.
Since people are not born gay, these are some of the known ways a person can turn into homosexual after birth;
- Learnt through the media; either the mainstream media or social media
- Learnt from the immediate environment ie from a member of the family or friend who is a gay
- Sexual abuse of a child by a same-sex adult
- The urge to explore different sexual fantasies and yielding to the urge
- Possessed by demons etc.
Parents owe it as a duty to their children and to society to pay attention to their children; it may sound harsh but true that if your child turns gay you have failed as a parent and it is a shame.
Stan Alieke is a legal practitioner.
Nigeria has been rated as one of the most religious nations in the world and most religious leaders and politicians capitalise on this to play the people against one another, especially when they stand to gain something. A place where evil is camouflaging as righteousness. In Nigeria, the average person is religious at heart; it does not mean that he has a certain conviction but he will make sure he attends church service on Sunday and if he is a Muslim, attends Mosque on Friday. Yet, our level of religiousity did not prevent us from evil tendencies that signposts the beginning of where we are today as a nation.
Painfully, and as a matter of fact, a large number of the religionists and so-called "men of God" have keyed in on this by organising programs all through the week and Nigerians will abandon their works to attend these programs that are deliberately designed to control the minds of unsuspecting gullible followers excited about magic which on its own, is obviously a landmines of religious, ethnic and other chauvinistic tendencies including fake prophecies hidden behind personal aggrandizement and preference for what sits well with them. It should also be noted that envy can hide in support, jealousy can hide in compliments and hate can hide in love.
Before, going further, let me share with us the views of Thomas Hobbes, an English philosopher and a sixteenth century thinker. Thomas, profoundly posited: "Man will never and can never be satisfied. Man's existence is defined by his greed. Man is in essence a greedy being." Flowing from the views of Thomas Hobbes, I daresay that Nigeria is a place where greed, self-centered mindset and deceitfulness is prevalent. Paradoxically, though, when evil is trying to be righteous it find a fertile ground in fickle-minds many of them assumed that evil is righteous and desirable. Unsurprisingly, many people misconstrued self-righteousness for godliness. Sad realities of our beloved country-men and women alike.
Regrettably, there has been no Nigerian leader that is altruistic and dynamic enough to thinker with or challenge the falsehood, deceitfulness and rascality that has been prevalent in the political, religious and social spaces. It presupposed, that, there's a common goal, purpose, aim, objective and target which is how to grab power and control the levers of power whilst plundering our common wealth and joint patrimony - In order to keep themselves in power, they constantly play the religious and ethnic card making ordinary citizens across the country to view one another with suspicion, hatred and bitterness - as evidenced by the Olusegun Obasanjo's poisonous New Year letter with malicious gusto, subtle blackmail and pugnacious hypocrisy.
Likewise, former President Olusegun Obasanjo, in collaboration with his friends leading the cacophony of deceitful voices projecting Peter Obi as propagated by a section of the religious leaders. Admittedly, most of our people are vulnerable and gullible followers; we are not given to painstakingly questioning or investigating illusions when we are sold dummies - it is part of the reasons why we are were we are today. If truly we love God in the way we demonstrates it in places of religious worship, then, we should be able to have some level of hatred for evils not just by projecting what sits well with us alone at the detriment of others and spreading falsehood, deceitfulness and hatred. It is important for us to rejig the way we think as a people who love each other regardless of ethnicity and religion.
It is thus, imperative, that as a nation we need to begin to examine the roles and activities of some of our leaders. This is as exemplified by the editorial board of @punchng - the board profoundly posited: "...Citizens should constantly monitor, interrogate, and demand accountability from them. As they demand that Nigerians sacrifice more, the President, Governors, and lawmakers must make greater sacrifice and must be seen to do so. That is the true test of leadership."- Punch Editorial Friday 30, June. This is not the first time that a full-blown editorial dedicated to the well-being of the generality and good of the nation will be published by a national newspaper standing up for the masses as the conscience of the nation
Furthermore, my most recent article "Balancing Hope And Despair In Turbulent Times" attracted a lot of feedbacks. There was also numerous articles from far and near written by some of our senior citizens, opinion leaders, erudite and altruistic minds. Below are some of some of the examples of the pullout:
1. "....Senseless, right-wing, anti-people economic populism has become hegemonic in Nigeria as a direct result of careful, deliberate, sustained, artful, and largely unimpeded propaganda by out-of-touch and unfeeling World Bank/IMF ideologues in Nigeria such as Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Peter Obi, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Akinwumi Adesina, and others."- Farooq Kperogi. I align completely with the erudite scholar (Notes from Atlanta).
Overtime, I have taken similar position about the same characters, their stock-in-trade and imperialists mindsets. Thankfully, I have been vindicated.
2. “The government will have to move speedily to address the suffering of the people, undeserved pains inflicted on the people, because of the irresponsibility of the Nigerian ruling class,” he said. He noted that the fuel subsidy regime is a result of the irresponsibility of the government and its failed promises to reform the oil sector."- Femi Falana (FF).
3. Last but not the least. In the recent article of Simon Kolawole, 'Them Belly Full (But We Are Hungry)' He posited: "...For too long, we deceived ourselves that we were an oil-rich country. We lied to ourselves that we were a special breed of homo sapiens who should be treated differently from the rest of the world."
Flowing from the above, as much, as I aligned with the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Mr Dele Alake, who recently made it clear and said: "President Tinubu recognises that Nigeria is being looked upon for leadership, and he is prepared to step up to the challenge." The challenge is the steps towards such 'Noble Trajectory'. Yes, granted that President Bola Tinubu started well. From issues of fuel subsidy, financial improprieties and that of appointment of service chiefs ticks all the right boxes: Professional competence, ethno-religious balancing, and the right character. Thus, the burden of performance is squarely resting on the shoulders of the appointees, such as, turning our present situation around for our citizens to rejoice again instead of groaning in pains.
In conclusion, I like to conclude this contribution by admonishing us that the only way to love God is to hate evil and also to remind us that the master-key to peaceful coexistence is tolerance. In the book of Ecclesiastes 3:16 NCV: I took another good look at what’s going on: The very place of judgment—corrupt! The place of righteousness—corrupt! I said to myself, “God will judge righteous and wicked.” I have seen under the sun that in the place of justice there is wickedness and moreover I saw under the sun: in the place of judgment,
Wickedness was there; And in the place of righteousness, Iniquity was there.
Finally, in the book of, Isaiah 54:14 In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it shall not come near thee.
Odusanya a Mind Restructuring Enthusiast.
Man is created as the "Centre Piece" of the Supernal Glory of God, but most times behaves very animalistic, killing, maiming, wailing, and creating a daily atmosphere of gnashing of teeth.
Scientists, mystics, and others of sane persuasions say man and dogs, goats, cats, monkeys, baboons, lions, etc belong to the Animal Kingdom on Mother Earth.
We are though members of the same phylum but are slightly or greatly differentiated in modes of living, attitudes, and behaviors.
Some animals are pure herbivores or are herbivorous purely living on plants while several others are carnivorous such as in deep forests away from human habitats. Others of animal stock engage or/ and live their lives on plants and animals, but don’t ask me who they are, for man is mainly in this business of consumption and now the destruction of God’s created creation and creatures.
“What is Man that Thou art mindful of him, and Son of Man that Thou supporteth him?” goes the question raised by the Psalmist. The Psalmist concluded that Man was created a little lower than the Angels but again, the mystics in reverence and adoration to the ever-living God praise the Almighty Allah for letting the angels cling to the biddings of man.
Hmmm since Missy a pet dog was once adopted as a family member by my wife and kids against my inclination for a black cat with eyes like a lion to help ward off some troublesome friends, I could see and perceive love, affection, and bit of humanness in mere a dog. Dangling its tail on the arrival of the Son of Man, peacefully barking, speaking in tongues in happiness, and jumping all over one’s body as the massaging of love convinces me that other animals could prove God’s love for man better than man-to-man seem to be.
Missy would like to kiss with passion, but this height of love cannot be same reciprocated to it.
I do laugh aloud realizing a pet dog could be humane if immersed in an aura that emits harmony, love, and peace.
On the other side of the divide is man, created as the “Centre Piece” of the Supernal Glory of God but most times behaving very animalistic, killing, maiming, wailing, and creating a daily atmosphere of gnashing of teeth.
Man of today now seems a regret why God ever thought of creating him, a regret to other creatures including the man himself and to fully represent the “woman folk”, I say ” herself” all-in-all, ” Ourselves.”
Because man will always come to steal day and night, barking and devouring dogs abound in houses always pouncing on even harmless visitors and guests, such, rather than trained to love are to harass and bark at the intruders.
When man resorts to drugs and their abuses, dogs of Security status are imported and on the payroll of the Police, Army, and Federal Service Civil Defence Corp to sniff, arrest or maybe disembowel recalcitrant culprits all in an attempt to make humane the Nigerian animalistic humans.
We are in today’s Nigeria engulfed in an era of a dark age where barbarism is observed in some religious orders and cannibalism in materialism is the order of politics and politicians.
As humans which God has made us, should we always have to make kilishi of ourselves, roasted useless creatures of God, or try to learn how Humane cats and dogs could be when they play together according to the observation of Brother Bob Marley and the Wailing Wailers?
Destructions in Nigeria are daily getting heinous and ungodly and man-to-man is so unjust to such an extent no one knows who to trust. Who then are the enemies, and who are the friends?
In Missy our pet dog, I learned a lesson that lesser animals could be more humane than those humans who display animalistic behaviour whereas by our Creator’s design as the Psalmist claims, ” Man is created a little lower than the Angels.” Are You in Thoughts and Conducts? Think about it.
God bless Nigeria.
Taiye Olaniyi, a retired Postman of the Nigeria Postal Service, is based in Lagos
Sierra Leone’s ruling People’s Party, SLPP has retained control of the country’s 135-seat Parliament after winning 81 seats or 60% of the membership.
According to results of the 24 June elections released in Freetown on Saturday by the Electoral Commission for Sierra Leone (ECSL), the main opposition All People’s Congress (APC) won 54 of the seats or 40%.
The two parties, which have alternated the share of political power since the end of the country’s 10-year civil war in 2002, are also expected to share the bulk of the available 493 mayoral and local council seats from the 24 June elections.
Incumbent President Julius Maada Bio of the SLPP has already been sworn in after being declared winner of the presidential poll by the ECSL with 56.17% of the votes against 41.16% scored by his rival candidate Samura Kamara of the APC.
The APC has rejected the results of the general elections and called for a rerun, alleging irregularities in the process.
It has also accused the ECSL Commissioners and some government officials of bias and called for their resignations.
The APC has further urged development partners to impose travel bans on a number of government officials, including President Bio, his wife, some cabinet ministers and security Chiefs.
The ECOWAS Observation Mission to Sierra Leone for the 24 June elections led by Dr Mohamed Ibn Chambas and his counterparts of the AU, Commonwealth and the West Africa Elders' Forum, held several pre and post-election mediation meetings with major stakeholders aimed at dousing political tensions in the country.
Similar quiet diplomatic initiatives are still required to address the residual disputes and prevent Sierra Leone from relapsing into conflict after its bloody civil war that ended in 2002.
ECOWAS had deployed 95 Long- and Short-Term Observers in 15 of the country's 16 electoral districts for the 2023 elections.
Under the regional protocol on assistance to member States holding elections, ECOWAS had also provided Sierra Leone with five hundred thousand US dollars (US$500,000) to support the elections, the fifth electoral cycle with two successful transfers of power between ruling and opposition parties since the end of the civil war.
Sierra Leone, with an estimated 8.7 population is not only facing serious economic challenges characterised by high inflation and unemployment, especially among its radicalised youthful population, it is also politically polarised and highly ethnicized.
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There must be something about Labour Party anchorman, Peter Obi, that continues to confound those who stand in his way. What they pretend not see is just what makes him a celebrity within and without. Sierra Leone is trending.
While Obi was busy at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja, his name was all Sierra Leoneans heard as they prepared for their own elections. Chairman of that country’s Political Parties Regulation Committee (PPRC) Abdulahi Bangura implored presidential candidates to adopt the Obi Formula.
As David Adeleke, the famed music star pretended to be unavailable as the world spun around him over his latest sexual adventures, a political dimension to the marital infidelities of one of the country’s biggest musical stars began to emerge.
Indeed, by Friday afternoon, the issues flowing from the revelations about Davido and his alleged moral failures were dovetailing into an informal cultural war between Nigeria and America.
The controversy came after two ladies, the American, Anita Brown, and a French lady, Ivanna Bay in the space of days claimed to have been impregnated by Davido.
For most of the week, Nigerians and the world had entertained themselves with the perceived deficits in the marital bond of the David Adelekes. Indeed, some spiritual entrepreneurs even developed messages for Chioma, the wife.
Well, that was until yesterday morning that the alleged sexual eruptions of Davido began to take a political hue.
As many Nigerians know, Davido is not just an ordinary musician. He has along the way also espoused political ideas emitting from the inclinations of his family.
Davido comes from what one can describe as the most political family in Osun State. His paternal grandfather, Senator Raji Adeleke represented Oyo State in the Second Republic Senate.
Two of his uncles, Ademola and Isiaka followed up to be senators and also governors of present-day Osun State. Indeed, it is one family that has bettered the Sarakis, having produced one more governor to the three senators that the two families have each produced.
Indeed, the politics in the Adeleke family your correspondent understands, defies sexes. Indeed, the political powerhouse of the family is one of Davido’s aunties popularly referred to as Auntie Yemisi. She is the one who gives the political directions for the men to act!
When Senator Bukola Saraki and Governor Ifeanyi Okowa pushed the last-minute deals that helped Ademola to trounce the incumbent governor at that time, Alhaji Gboyega Oyetola in the 2022 governorship election, Auntie Yemisi was said to have been the fulcrum serving political instructions and also reportedly providing food as she is also said to be a good cook!
Besides defeating the then-incumbent governor who is a family relative of President Bola Tinubu in 2022, the Adeleke family was able to deliver the state to Atiku Abubakar in the 2023 presidential election.
Davido’s political frame is also further defined by his parentage. While his father is known to be Yoruba, his mother, the late Dr Victoria Adeleke was Edo, and his paternal grandmother, Mrs Nnena Adeleke from Enugu.
So, when Nigerians woke up on Friday morning to the rants of Anita Brown over her fallout with Davido, they continued to entertain themselves with the foibles of the musician.
That was until she ranted a collective insult on all Nigerians.
Miss Anita in her offensive tweet wrote:
“Evil ass Nigerians. Sacrificing babies and shit. I would never want part(s) in no demonic culture!”
The comment triggered a national outrage as reported by GWG.ng bringing Nigerians of different political shades to rally round the flag. It was not surprising that the caustic comments caused Anita Brown to lock her comment section.
One Twitter user noticing the unity among Nigerians on the issue pointed out how Anita Brown may have inadvertently helped to unite Nigerians irrespective of the failures of Davido.
He wrote: “You don’t drag Nigerians together. You’re supposed to pitch one tribe against the other. This way, at least you’ll have the support of one. But now, you don unite us.”
You could imagine if Anita Brown had castigated Davido as a poorly brought up Yoruba boy who lacks the spirit of Omoluabi. Twitter would have cheered if she slammed him for marrying an Ibo like his grandmother and inputted. Twitter would have overflowed with excitement.
Imagine she had said that Davido was a moral wreck who did not see marital fidelity of Bola Tinubu to one wife in Remi.
You could well have also imagined that such a comment would have caused on Twitter as many Nigerians would have taken sides either deprecating the president for his other gaffes or taking aim at PDP leaders over their own moral issues.
Indeed, unlike the united front that Nigerians brought against Anita Brown, you would have seen APC, PDP, and Obidient tweeps taking different positions with some backing Anita.
However, Anita’s failure to diagnose the cracks in Nigeria’s political landscape speaks much about her person. One tweep on Friday dismissed her as a common street girl. Others saw her as being like many Americans ignorant of the world beyond the west and east coasts.
Anita Brown failed to exploit the political divisions in Nigeria and as such suffered the indignity of the joint resolve of Nigerians that forced her to lock her comment section.
Indeed, this tells us that Nigerians if allowed to freely express themselves would do wonders. Only if the leaders will allow them.
One day a professor entered the classroom and asked his students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. The professor handed out the question paper with the text facing down as usual. Once he handed them all out, he asked his students to turn the page and begin. To everyone’s surprise, there were no questions, just a black dot in the center of the page.
The professor, seeing the expression on everyone’s face, told them the following, “I want you to write what you see there.” The confused students got started on the inexplicable task. At the end of the class, the professor took all the answer papers and started reading each one of them aloud in front of all the students. All of them with no exceptions described the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet etc.
After all had been read, the classroom was silent. The professor began to explain, “I am not going to grade you on this, I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot and the same happens in our lives. We have a white paper to observe and enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a gift given to us by God with love and care. We always have reasons to celebrate, nature renewing itself every day, our friends around us, the job that provides our livelihood, the miracles we see every day.”
“However, we insist on focusing only on the dark spots, the health issues that bother us, the lack of money, the complicated relationship with a family member, the disappointment with a friend etc. The dark spots are very small compared to everything we have in our lives, but they are the ones that pollute our minds. Take your eyes away from the black spots in your life. Enjoy each one of your blessings, each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a positive life positively!”
Now, to my admonition, Nigeria, Nigerians, we are a special breed, a special people, and when we say special, it all depends on what you call special. I am almost sure that for some, what we may recall as ‘dots’ would be the now forgotten phrase by the former President, Mr. Buhari in referring to a section of the country.
For a nation that fought itself fiercely at the last General Polls looking for a Messiah as president, it remains to be seen whether there is a sense of urgency to do what is right, or change our old ways. We are just special, in all our ways and manner, this nation of great men and women simply has too many dots.
It is that dot that we forget often when we discuss Nigeria, a dot that despite all the #ENDSARS drama, the loss of lives, and property both for civilians and the police, we witness as was the case in Edo only last week, again, police brutality, this time, a viral video which shows a police car running over a handcuffed man.
In the almost 20 seconds clip, a handcuffed man is lying on a road while a police vehicle – a Sienna car – runs over him. People screamed for the officers to stop while the handcuffed man was powerless beneath the vehicle. Immediately the car ran over the man; the angry crowd surged towards it. The driver stopped, opened the car door and fled the scene.
The Force spokesperson, Muyiwa Adejobi, described the incident as “unpoliced”, adding that he has contacted the commissioner of police in Edo State. “I don’t think a normal human being can do this. To crush a man with a car? This is unbelievable. We need to take urgent action on this. It is strange to me as a person,” he said in a Twitter post.
The police is an institution of dots… the dot on the white sheet is often too visible by their bad behaviour, have you seen what the police barracks look like across the nation?
Despite the poor and degrading nature of our prisons, most police barracks are not different from rehabilitation homes for juveniles. The police have been reduced to an agency of ridicule and hatred amongst the populace. The only robbers they shoot are ordinary citizens who refuse to give them the N20 toll. When they conclude an investigation successfully, it must have been that of a landlord and tenant or two- fighting at a bus stop.
Right from the days of Anini the great robber, the police rather than be the combatants of crime, has been partners in progress to armed robbers, robberies and all manners of social vices. It is that bad, if you have an encounter with robbers you are 70% likely to escape with your life intact and the same encounter with a policeman in possession of a pistol, you will have less than 30% chance of survival.
No equipment, poor funding, unavailability of logistics, the police resort to the very crimes they are supposed to protect us from. Divisional Police Offices are now banks; the Divisional Police Officers’ are branch managers waiting daily for ‘returns’ (bribe) from marketing executhiefs (Junior ranks).
The edifice called the police is a case of epilepsy, from the change of uniform, to increased recruitment of illiterates that can barely spell their names. The problem is not necessarily just that of the Nigerian police but that of a nation whose leaders have thrown their responsibilities to the gutters.
Talking about the police, it is interesting to look at the police from what it should be. Police are agents or agencies empowered to enforce the law and to affect public and social order through the legitimate use of force.
In our experience the police have contributed negatively to an increasingly disjointed social order in the nation. The Nigeria Police has failed the nation in its primary function of providing safety, ensuring public order, enforcing criminal law, traffic regulations, crowd control, criminal investigation etc.
In this manner, a mad man was assumed to be admiring the police parade at a nearby police post, the Divisional Police Officer walked to him and asked if he wanted to join the police and the mad man answered, ‘I dey mad’.
Like the teaching profession, these days’ people join the force as a last resort, so naturally they vent all the frustrations of life on the job. Bail is free on paper but in practice the price you pay all depends on the offense and the officer in charge.
I once narrated the tale of an officer who stopped the police commissioner in his state and asked for a bribe of N20 or else he was going to arrest him for driving at night alone when the roads were dangerous. How many times have we seen policemen disappear on occasion of an armed robbery, everyone wants to get to heaven, but none wants to die?
With our police everything is wrong, very few spaces are white, all black dots. There is a public apathy against the police so much that even if they wore white they would discrete the color.
Between an endless hope and a hopeless end, let us see hope in the horizon, though this is difficult to see. The situation is bad, let it not be said that we did not talk, write, and even beg the government to expand the white. And as I now say these days—May Nigeria win!
It’s now one month that Asíwájú Bola Tinubu has mounted the saddle as the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. One month in office may be considered too short a period of time for any objective assessment of the impact of the decisions and policy options of a government on the nation and the people, but the period can at least give an idea of where the government is headed, as they say, that the morning is a pointer to what the day may look like. The one-month of the Bola Tinubu administration in office has been marked by pragmatic solutions and ideas, decisive decisions and breath-taking actions at a fast pace such that some have nicknamed the President “Baba Go-fast”.
The media has been awash with reports of all the remarkable decisions taken by the government, notably the removal of the humongous fuel subsidy through which some greedy oil merchants were cashing out at the expense of the poor the subsidy was meant to help, the unification of the multiple exchange rates where arbitrage walked on all fours and the signing into laws of landmark bills like the new electricity and student loans legislation.
With the new electricity law, states, companies and individuals can now generate, transmit and distribute electricity, meaning this important power has been devolved down the ladder. Under the Student Loans law, indigent students will no longer drop out of universities on account of their inability to pay school fees. They will now be offered loans to pay their fees and repay the government later.
During the period also, the president granted audience to important dignitaries like former military Head of State, General Abdulsalam Abubakar, state governors (he even inaugurated the national economic council headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima), humanists and philanthropists like Bill Gates and Alhaji Aliko Dangote who came to discuss issues around polio and malaria eradication, among others.
On the global stage, President Tinubu has also represented the country remarkably well. On his first official trip outside the country after assuming office, he attended the New Global Financing Pact Summit in Paris, France, where he announced to the whole world that Nigeria is back and ready for business. His administration will ease the structures and processes of doing business and ensure investors can repatriate their profits home anytime they want to. The president sounded a note of warning to unscrupulous civil servants and business people and other wayward Nigerians that it would no longer be business as usual in Nigeria.
On the sidelines of the summit, he met with Afreximbank President B. O. Oramah and AfDB President Akinwunmi Adesina among others during which he extracted commitments from them about using facilities in their institutions to aid Nigeria’s economic development.
I have taken time to chronicle some of the giant strides recorded within just a month by the Bola Tinubu administration in order to underscore the significance of these initiatives and point out that these evidently important decisions and actions did not come about by accident or by chance. No, they were properly planned and designed. Though some were part of the promises the president made to Nigerians during the electioneering and enunciated in his manifesto christened “Agenda for a Renewed Hope for Nigerians,” I dare say that these actions were born of courage, conviction, clear vision and empathy on the part of Mr President.
The audacious courage and clear vision behind the solutions the president has offered in just four weeks and other remarkable decisions wherein he demonstrated good leadership remain largely clearly unstated by the media and it’s the focus of this piece.
For instance, only a bold and courageous leader with eyes on the country’s progress and economic development would frontally confront and remove the subsidy monster, which had sounded the death knell of at least one president and defied the seemingly tough posture of another. Tinubu made the removal of the subsidy a campaign promise, telling the people that if elected, he would yank it off and free the money for the development of necessary infrastructure for the people. Many political aspirants in our climes would never toy with subsidy, talk less promise its removal before the election for fear that it may work against them at the poll. On assumption of office on May 29, the president removed the subsidy albatross on the nation’s economic neck, which gulped a whooping N3.36 trillion in the first half of this year.
The government is now moving speedily to put in place compensatory palliatives to cushion the biting effects of the subsidy removal on the masses. Some people reckon that the president should move a step further by going after the unpatriotic oil merchants and cabals who had turned the subsidy funds into their personal ATM. It is noteworthy that despite the inevitable and undeniable hardships the inescapable imperative of fuel subsidy removal has exposed the vast majority of Nigerians to, the people have obviously decided to exercise faith in the Tinubu administration and to give it the benefit of the doubt that its policies will ultimately turn out to manifest in the greatest good for the greatest number of the people.
Indeed, appraising the policy options and initiatives of President Tinubu in just one month, the Reuters news agency said in a tweet during the week: “New Nigerian President Bola Tinubu has moved at lightning speed in his first one month in office implementing a raft of radical changes aimed at finally unleashing the full potentials of Africa’s sluggish economic giant”.
There are, however, other aspects where Mr President has demonstrated good leadership. One is in the appointment of the new service chiefs. When the appointments were announced, some unashamed ethnic jingoists, uninformed analysts and commentators had gone to town, particularly on social media, saying the southeast was left with no representation, implying this might be because the Igbo largely went with their kinsman, Peter Obi of Labour Party, during the election. But President Tinubu who knew he had done justice to all would not flinch. The new Chief of Naval Staff, Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla, hails from Enugu state, though some of his kinsmen now want to deny him his claim to genuine Igbo ancestry in the name of politics, claiming he is from the northernmost part of Igboland.
No less important in this regard is the appointment of the new Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Major-General Christopher Musa, a Christian from Southern Kaduna. News of his elevation reportedly elicited keen excitement and applause especially in Christian circles which, before the presidential election, had been misled into perceiving the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket as signalling an imagined ‘Islamization’ agenda should the Tinubu/Shettima ticket emerge victorious. And the appointment of the Acting Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, from the south-west, the Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice -Martial H.B. Abubakar, from the north-west, the Chief of Army Staff, Major-General Taoreed Lagbaja, from the south-west and the Chief of Defense Intelligence, Major-General E.P.A Undiandeye, from the south-south, the long expressed grievances at the perceived lack of balance in the composition of the country’s top security hierarchy has been laid to rest. The service chiefs will thus surely enjoy greater pan-Nigerian trust, confidence and support to succeed in their challenging assignments.
Two, and perhaps more remarkable, is the case of the new Acting Comptroller-General of Immigration, Caroline Wuraola Adepoju, because her case is intriguing. She had served meritoriously and waited patiently for her time to be CG to come, having enlisted in the service as deputy superintendent of the Immigration Service in 1988. One of her immediate-past bosses, Mohammed Bandede, was to have retired in September 2020 but he was left in office till September 2021. Isah Jere Idris who took over from Bandede (though a DCG Non-Operations) was to retire in May 2022, but was given an extension of tenure twice to remain in office until May 29, 2023. When Adepoju was eventually given a letter to become acting CG, it was a few days before her retirement and in fact, the Monday, May 29, 2023, she was to assume duty was also the day she was due to retire from service. That was the day President Tinubu assumed office.
When the matter was brought to his attention in his office that day, the president placed a call to the Head of Service of the Federation, Folashade Yemi-Esan, urging her to investigate the case of Adepoju. She was then granted a three-month extension. President Tinubu was apparently moved by empathy and the need to ensure a woman who had served her country excellently got a deserving icing on her career cake. It was also a service to the womenfolk and a motivation to others that all hope is not lost when you serve your country well. Needless to point out that by the president’s commendable gesture, Adepoju thus became the first from the south-west to emerge CG in the 60-year history of Nigeria’s Immigration Service. It is significant that all appointees of President Tinubu so far including those of service chiefs, special advisers and senior special assistants feature men and women with impressive academic credentials and the requisite rich cognate experience while also fulfilling the president’s pledge to actively involve women and youths in his administration.
There is no doubt that President Tinubu’s mastery of the political terrain including the strategies and tactics of alliance-building and networking played a key role in the ruling party’s ability to ensure that its preferred nominees emerged as the leaders of the national assembly. With Senator Godswill Akpabio and Senator Jubrin Barau, emerging as President and Deputy-President of the Senate, respectively and Honourable Tajudeen Abbas and Benjamin Kalu, as Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, the stage has certainly been set for a harmonious working relationship between the executive and the legislature in making and implementing of laws and policies for the benefit of the people.
The order given by the president right from his first day in office for men of the Department of State Services (DSS) to immediately vacate the premises of the EFCC in Ikoyi, Lagos, which the former had invaded and cordoned off, was an early indication that the new administration would not tolerate the kind of inter-agency rivalry and conflicts that had been prevalent in the past. In the same vein, the suspension from office of the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and the former executive chairman of the EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, pending investigations of serious allegations against them is a clear indication that in the new dispensation, public office holders will be kept on their toes and be held accountable for their actions and inactions at all times.
During the period under consideration, the president, apart from the former heads of state as well as former and incumbent governors mentioned earlier, has also played host to frontline politicians, students union leaders, repentant militant leaders, and civil society groups among others who visited him at the Presidential Villa. It has been an exceedingly busy and productive one month in office for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu (GCFR) and Vice President Kashim Shettima (GCON).
Rahman, former editor of Thisday on Sunday, is a presidential aide