It is widely said that Nigerian judges are overworked and grossly underpaid. Senior lawyers have described the conditions of service of judges in the country as “a disgrace”. So poor indeed is their remuneration that in October 2023, the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) doorstepped the federal government asking that the salaries of judges in the country be increased by at least 300%. But some lawyers think this is even too low.

Judicial salaries, it is said, have depreciated to nothing since they were last reviewed in 2008. Since then, allegations of judicial corruption appear to have escalated almost in inverse proportion to the loss in value of judicial pay, leading to suggestions of correlation, if not causation, between the state of judicial remuneration on the one hand and judicial corruption on the other.

Gani Fawehinmi, a senior advocate of Nigeria (SAN), who died in 2009, in fact linked this to judicial mortality, lamenting the fact that many Nigerian judges “die in office under circumstances that are related to the barbaric conditions in which they work.”

Every president since Goodluck Jonathan has promised to address this situation without, in fact, doing anything about it. In his first three months in office, the current incumbent, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has — like his recent predecessors — repeated the promise.

Unwilling to wait any longer for politicians whose promises are notoriously fickle, the judges appear to have decided to resort to self-help. On May 4, 2022, Osatohanmwen Obaseki-Osaghae, a judge of the National Industrial Court of Nigeria, issued a judgment declaring that “since 2008 is embarrassingly too low and unrealistic, given the current socio-economic and other realities existing in Nigeria and the current global comparative salaries and allowances paid to Judicial Officers of the same or similar cadre.”

She ordered the government to institute a new remuneration structure that would guarantee minimum salaries ranging from N84 million per annum for judges of customary courts of appeal, khadis of Sharia courts of appeal and of the various high courts in the country to at least N120 million per annum for the chief justice of Nigeria.

In reaching this judgment, the judge reasoned that “the downturn in the economy and devaluation of the Naira has completely eroded its purchasing power since 2008”. She claimed that in the 14-year period between the last review of judges’ salaries in 2008 and the judgment in 2022, the exchange rate of the naira to the dollar had depreciated in value from N117.74 to N415.83.

Among the many problems with it, the orders in this judgment were directed at institutions in the executive and legislative arms of the federal government, including the National Assembly; the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC); the Attorney-General of the Federation; and the National Judicial Council, (NJC). Preoccupied very much with the politics of elections since then, these agencies did not appear to have taken note of the judgment since it was handed down.

Stuck for options, it seems the higher-ups in the judicial hierarchy decided in the interim to sort themselves out by dealing with judicial appointments in a manner that entirely unravels their claims about judicial salaries. At face value, the widespread complaints about judicial salaries in Nigeria totally denude the office of a judge of much respect or appeal, or so most rational people would think. Surely, few parents would want to inflict on their much-loved children a job in which the remuneration and conditions are described in the form of expressions routinely used to describe judicial conditions of service in Nigeria.

Yet, despite all the complaints, the senior-most judges in the Nigerian judiciary have “turned the judiciary into premium job racket for family members.” The latest advertisement for this trend is — not for the first time — the recruitment into the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). At the end of January 2024, the Chief Judge of the FCT High Court Husseini Baba-Yusuf, who comes from Kogi State, having secured permission from the NJC, requested nomination of suitable candidates to fill 12 judicial vacancies in his court. The request specifically named the states from which it sought candidates. These are: Bauchi, Bayelsa, Enugu, Imo, Kogi, Kwara, Lagos, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers, Taraba, and Zamfara

Kogi, Bauchi, and Oyo States, which were invited to send forward candidates, are already well represented on the bench of the FCT High Court. They just happen to be the states of origin of the chief judge of the FCT High Court; of the immediate past CJN, and of the incumbent CJN. The chief judge of the FCT runs the court system and will shepherd the nominations through the NJC, where the CJN holds sway. What better way to guarantee safe passage of the preferred nominees of the FCT chief judge than by sweetening it with a candidate allocated specifically to the CJN?

So, of the 12 slots on the list, it appears three are already spoken for, with one daughter or daughter-in-law of the CJN, his predecessor and the chief judge of the FCT apparently guaranteed seats on the list of appointees.

For senior judicial figures, the opportunity to plant a child on the bench as a parting gift has become something of a ritual, with judicial appointments timed to coincide with high-profile judicial retirements. For those who were unable to accomplish generational replacement for themselves on the bench before their retirement, arrangements are made to retrospectively cure the oversight.

Hence, for instance, the proposal to translate a daughter of the immediate past CJN, herself currently a relatively junior magistrate in the service of the FCT judiciary, to the high court bench.

This facility is also used to build bridges with political heavyweights. As he was about to retire at the end of his eight-year term as governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello, immediate past governor of Kogi State, got the magnificent gift of a judicial nomination for his beloved wife, Amina, to become a judge of the High Court of Kogi State. Her only qualification for this nomination, apart from having notionally been a lawyer for up to 10 years, is that she is the wife of the state governor.

Madam Amina is not a magistrate, a court registrar, an academic or a legal practitioner. But that did not stop the Kogi State Judicial Service Commission, headed by Chief Judge Josiah Majebi, from turning her judicial nomination into a parting gift for her husband. After leading SANs from the state sued the NJC, accusing it of blithely disrespecting its own rules in the Kogi State nominations, the NJC was forced to suspend the process of High Court appointments in Kogi.

It is not only children and spouses of judicial and political higher-ups who get planted into judicial sinecures in this way. Mistresses and other partners whose only qualification is intimate genital relations with people connected with politics or judicial appointments routinely get nominated too. This is not merely a debasement of high judicial office and the vocation of the judiciary or a clear violation of the Judicial Code of Conduct; it also is a very clear rebuttal of the case for improvement in judicial salaries.

Therefore, one may ask: if the job is so poorly remunerated, as they would have us believe, why would a sane and highly placed parent choose to hose-in their child into a dead-end position guaranteed to blight their lives over the course of a tenure that could last over 35 years?

There can only be two possible reasons. One is that the parent wishes the child ill. This is most improbable. The other is that the office of the judge has become so corrupt that the gazetted remuneration really counts for nothing. In the words of an infamous proverb from Conakry, once the child gets into the position, they will follow in the footsteps of their parent or paramour and feed off the fertile offerings within the perimeter of the judicial leash. If that is so, we may ask, why bother?

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu

I had planned to write on leadership lessons from the late General Murtala Muhammed who was assassinated 48 years ago. Tuesday this week is the anniversary of that sad memory. I had wanted to remind our leaders in Nigeria who are beginning to blame their predecessors for their poor leadership after eight months in office that the great leader, Hurricane Murtala spent only six months in office and was able to achieve three significant things we can’t easily forget.

The three remarkable things include incredible creation of a brand new capital for the federation. He set up a powerful panel comprising all the experts and stakeholders to recommend a site. He accepted the panel’s report and proclaimed a new capital for the Federation where our present leaders are blaming opposition for leaking a document, which contained a whopping N1.8 billion worth of recommendation for a panel to discuss appropriate wage review details for public servants.

Yes, Murtala who also led the whole of Africa to proclaim to the powerful West that indeed “…Africa has come of age…” at an extra-ordinary session of the then OAU on Sunday, January 11, 1976 had in a broadcast to the nation on February 3, 1976 proclaimed Abuja as the Nigeria’s new capital. He legalised it and also proposed Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Lagos as regional capitals of some sort, he designated “Special Areas”, for strategic reasons.

I had wanted to deconstruct the leadership style of Murtala and recommend some lessons from his proactive strategy without which we might not have had one of Nigeria’s major achievements in history – building a new capital. We will return to this important beat and other details in honour of the iconic Murtala someday.

I hope we can take away something significant here for our leaders: that Murtala was in power for only six months and the panel he set up to recommend a new capital reportedly travelled to several capitals around the world including Camberra in Australia, Washington DC, United States, and they didn’t spend hundreds of millions, according to the late Dr. Akinola Aguda I interviewed for Abuja Newsday in 1989.

Now to the brass tacks today, leadership lessons from football (management). Some of our leaders are likely to be in Abidjan to watch the epic AFCON final between Nigeria and Ivory Coast today. This isn’t new. Most world leaders do that whenever their countries get to finals. The female leader of Croatia, Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic wore the team shirt and cheered her team at the 2018 World Cup final between Croatia and France in Moscow, Russia.

At the 2023 World Cup final in Doha, Emmanuel Macron was right there when France lost to Argentina. Macron was seen consoling Kylian Mbappe who was depressed by the loss to Argentina. And so as our leaders watch today’s final, let us also entertain them with some facts about sport and indeed football leadership, which will be useful to them.

First, our leaders should see the quality of stadia the sports leadership in another West African country has provided for the very successful competition that ends today. But much more than mere provisions of facilities for the beautiful game that normally unites our people behind our national team, there are more significant lessons that our leaders can borrow from football management model.

Why the lessons?
It seems to us from the fumbling and faltering we experience daily, that our leaders are just leading us by intuition; as their weak spirit leads them. Most of our leaders seem unprepared for leadership challenges as we are beginning to perceive again. They need some reflections and lessons on what leadership is all about: security and welfare of the people, which they can’t provide at the moment.

As I noted here in 2016, 2017 and 2022, I would like us to discuss again some points about business models that can affect governance and nation building in global context. Most of our political leaders may not know that they actually need to go to good business/management and leadership schools to manage their politics and development well. General knowledge is good, but with the way the world is witnessing some convergence between politics and business, it is important that leadership lessons and models that modern leaders need should include some modules in business and management schools.

It is sad that most of our leaders in Nigeria do not understand that we regard them as mere wasters. They gamble with the destiny of a great nation for four to eight years. They do not record significant achievements for eight years that most of them spend in office. They just take oath of office, enjoy themselves very well and just take a large portion of the state resources and go away in a culture of impunity where even anti-corruption managers too are corruptible and no institution to prosecute them.

And as soon as our dealers we call leaders leave office, the memories we have of them begin to fade away from even the week they leave office. That is why it is important to advise those who wish to seek public office next time that modern leaders need some empowerment called “dynamic capabilities” through proper education in business and political management. What is the nexus between business management education and success in politics? Here is the thing: good political leaders in modern governance system should begin to see people as customers to satisfy every day.

Leaders at all levels need to read the constitution contextually. For instance, the 1999 constitution, sections 130 (2) and 176 (2) actually provide that the president and governors are, and should be regarded as “chief executives” of the federation and states respectively. The services they should deliver, therefore, ought to be treated as if they were goods and services to be delivered to the customers called the people. As I was saying, so they should seek to treat service delivery as a brand whose equity should always be improved upon so that return on investment (ROI) to the owners will be tangible and robust.

The way most of our leaders see government money is something to be spent anyhow without accounting for it to the owners – the people. In this regard, there is an urgent need for curriculum reform in our local business and management schools to reflect realities of these times. Leaders of tertiary institutions and their regulators should note.

In this milieu, we still maintain Faculties of Business Administration and Public Administration instead of Business/Management School and Governance/Government School. These schools and faculties should be reformed and rebranded as leadership training institutions where would-be leaders should be trained on critical governance issues such as “Project Management”, Managing Finances/Management Accounting, Emotional Intelligence, Culture and Value Studies, Organisational and National Culture, etc.

In modern governance system, medical doctors who have got degrees in the science of medicine need to acquire science of management before setting up their businesses/health centres. There should, therefore, be many of them in management and business schools for science of management (of their clinics and hospitals). In modern times, management and leadership are taken very seriously beyond reading motivational speakers’ books that fill our bookstores and shops.

According to experts such as Margaret Weathley, to discover order in this chaotic world, we need to go back to school to discover case studies on “leadership and the new science”. The point here is that business owners all over the world headhunt chief executive officers who can manage their firms to make profits to shareholders. And these well paid CEOs work hard to make profit and if they don’t, they are fired. That is the way our leaders should think to make impact on the lives of the people that employ them.

My friends and colleagues at work know that I have been following Real Madrid so fanatically for about two decades now. I have just some interest in Barcelona because of the artistry of some of their icons such as Lionel Messi. But I follow Real Madrid in and out of seasons as a business model that is unique. Which is why I have often used the two Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona as examples of how to invest and manage talent, which I have also quoted sources to say can be overrated using again, Messi and Ronaldo as a case study. The two icons made their name and impact at the Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Recall that in the first year anniversary of the Buhari administration, I had on May 28, 2016, written on this page an article titled, “Buhari: Anniversary

Real Madrid’s Brazilian forward #11 Rodrygo celebrates after scoring his team’s second goal during the Spanish league football match between Real Madrid CF and Granada FC at the Santiago Bernabeu stadium in Madrid on December 1, 2023. (Photo by OSCAR DEL POZO / AFP)

Lessons from Real Madrid & Barcelona”.
I had then observed that in the last few years (about eight years) these two clubs have been producing the World Footballer of the Year (Ballon d’Or). Not only that, one of them, Real Madrid was then the richest (Manchester United had just then taken over), according to Forbes. Manchester United (England) was the third on the rich list in 2015. Bayern Munich (Germany) was fourth while Arsenal (England) was the fifth. Let’s stop at the sixth, Manchester City. I had then discussed the enterprise spirit in the investors in Real Madrid and Barcelona within the context of strategic human resource management (SHRM) model that leaders could borrow from. I still maintain today that the two players of the two selected teams, Lionel Messi and Christiano Ronaldo remain the discussion points every week after soccer competition. They remain the most frequently discussed in the world in soccer excellence, even in contextualising talent and training.

It is said that Messi now playing in the United States, is a raw talent while Ronaldo now making wave in Saudi Arabia is a reconstructed phenomenon through robust training. Now a former Barcelona manager, Pep Guardiola is turning Manchester City to another Barcelona in England. Only good world-class coaches are employed to maintain the brand equity of the top clubs that always produce excellent results.

This again is to draw the attention of our leaders at all levels to the point earlier made that you cannot rise above the quality of your team members or workforce. This is the model that a businessman called Perez Florentino, current President of Real Madrid has taught the world of business and leadership. The Spanish investor does not brook mediocrity in HR framework. He believes that only the best players can win big for Real Madrid that has won European Champions League back to back, (three times) first in the modern era of the tournament. Real Madrid has the highest number of CL trophies in Europe. He believes that you cannot recruit mediocre footballers to win La Liga and Champions League.

Therefore, if you want to be a high-flying organisation, economy or ruling party or government, you have got to aim for the best brains that can deliver services to the people in the manner Real Madrid have been doing and Manchester City are beginning to do. And this is the contextual issue here: The quality of your team should not be compromised on the altar of ethnicity and religion. Like Real Madrid, get the best anywhere to achieve results.

“Baba-Wole! Whether you like it or not, it is my duty to carry your bag into the plane today”, insisted Aketi, as we threw banters on the queue at the Ibadan Airport en route Abuja. I yanked my bag from his hands but he promptly reclaimed it. Our mutual friend, Bisi Ogunbadejo, who was also travelling, flashed a knowing wink, having gotten used to witnessing countless Great Ife theatrics between many of our alumni.

It was two weeks to Aketi’s electoral victory. I joked with him that, on second thoughts, it was probably fitting that he should carry my bag into the aircraft because it was likely to be the last time I would be seeing him as an ordinary citizen. He replied, matter-of-factly, that he would remain the same old Aketi we all knew and that power could never change him. It turned out to be prophetic: I didn’t have any physical interaction with Aketi again till he answered the final home call seven years later.

LEADERSHIP INCUBATION

Rotimi Akeredolu, a.k.a. Aketi was one of a kind. Way back at the University of Ife, he had been the Vice-President of the Students’ Union during the presidency of another patriot, John Olakunle Mabayoje, alias Awe. It was that position that honed him for future challenges because it brought out the latent goodness in him, especially his extraordinary ability to be empathetic. Aketi never went into any battle half-hearted. He always threw everything he had into the fray. As far as he was concerned, any battle worth waging was worth waging well.

That was the background that moulded his performance later in life as the President of the Nigerian Bar Association and later as Governor of Ondo State. Mabayoje traced Aketi’s trajectory from Ife to government house in a tribute he wrote when he learnt of the demise of his trenchmate:

“Emperor Aketi” as he was known at the University of Ife, started his political career at the University of Ife where, from being an activist, he successfully ran for the office of Vice President of the Students Union at a time when our dear country was at a crossroad following the removal of General Yakubu Gowon from office to end agitations which we all participated in between 1974 and1975 under my predecessor in office, Ayo Olukotun. 1975-1976 proved to be indeed a watershed year in the Nigerian academic community and the country as a whole. Rotimi was an integral member of the body of student leaders of that time. Courageous and savvy he was blessed with courage and wisdom beyond his years…”

Aketi’s demise brought to the fore the importance of vision and tenacity as necessary qualities for success in any worthwhile endeavour. There are leaders and there are dealers. Some people stumble into positions of power unprepared. True leaders, on the other hand, are armed with both vision and an action plan. More importantly, they demonstrate that rare quality of empathy, being one with the people in season and out of season; in good times and in bad times.

LITMUS TEST

There are many landmark projects that were executed during the stewardship of Aketi as governor of Ondo State. What captured the imagination of the world, however, was the way he handled the tragic loss of scores of worshippers in his native Owo town when a band of armed terrorists attacked St Francis Catholic Church in the town during Sunday Mass  on June 5, 2022. The entire Owo community and sympathisers all over the country were unconsolable. As governor, Aketi  didn’t play Tarzan. He showed that human blood flowed in him. When he made his way to the pulpit amid wailing indigenes, he, too, broke down in tears. That picture is etched in the minds of many people as they fondly recall how their governor rose to the occasion in those dark days.

He swore that never again would Owo be a sitting duck for any group of killers to take pot shots at. He said he would ensure that the dead had not died in vain by preventing the possibility of such a massacre in future. It was not surprising therefore that he was the arrowhead of the founding of the Western Nigeria Security Network (WNSN) codenamed Operation Amotekun. Those who chose to misunderstand the governor’s intention and who wanted to characterise the security outfit as a tribal army were shamed as Amotekun made one giant stride after the other.

To calm the frayed nerves of those tagging the Amotekun corps as a regional army, Governor Akeredolu took time to explain: “The Western Nigeria Security Network, Amotekun Corps, as a response, is now not just the first line of defence, but the ultimate bulwark in the protection of a way of life and of a civilisation. The efforts of our determined and valiant Amotekun personnel since inception must be underscored, encouraged and highly commended. We must all rise at this time to acknowledge their efforts.”

Other states outside the Southwest have started copying the idea. That is one everlasting lesson that people have learnt from Aketi’s stewardship. Power is not just about fancy clothes and sirens and assemblage of dark-goggled security guards. It is about caring, about holding the hands of the bereaved, about showing through words and deed that their governor has their back.

In a way, Aketi defined his era. A man may not know his worth until he takes his last breath. Positions of power attract favour-seekers like bees and nectar. The truth about a man’s worth is told after he expires. Is the funeral train purchased like party supporters paid to attend rallies? Or did they rise early in the morning to join the queue to do honour to their beloved leader? It is clear that Aketi bought himself a place in the hearts of his people. The currency he paid was love, diligence, honesty of purpose and brutal frankness.

Teach us to number our days, Lord, so that the preacher at our funeral would not have to lie about some phantom goodness which none but the liar saw in the deceased.  The outpouring of grief since Aketi’s death testifies to the fact that he has positively touched many lives and the human community is poorer without him.

When the story of this era is told, Aketi’s stewardship will be chronicled as one of the brighter moments in people-centred governance in Nigeria. His tenure certainly lived up to the words of the Great Ife anthem: “Conscious, vigilant, progressive, a luta against all oppression…”

Adieu, Aketi. May the celestial rewards reserved for those who positively impacted the lives of their fellow men and women never pass you by.

The Last Dance

(For Jimi Solanke, 1942-2024)

His artistic gift was of elephantine proportions,

So, to each encounter-er, Jimi Solanke was at once  the compelling thunderclap amidst the loudest of silences  the coarse hair of Àjànàkú’s tail mounting sentry behind an otherwise hairless mass

Those piercing eyes conveying visions from unshared secrets

— Lamp posts of an aerobicised body

Ernest and persistent, commanding and pleading…

If six blind beggars are telling different tales

About the same mass

It is because they feel the elephant from different sides.

Is it the ivory of the tusk that tickles your fancy?

Or the rough tarpaulin of the body?

Or the four pillars with which it pounds the earth?

Or the trunk— nature’s straw

Enabling the slaking of thirst?

The elephant lies down like a hill On its deathday

Carvers bearing cleavers gather…

The last question on the elephant’s mind Is, “Who will mourn my demise when I expire?”

The heavens and the earth know

That Father Time’s unseen eyes do bear witness

To Lákátabú’s connection of the dots

Between the cradle and the grave

And they lead the cortège…

Yes, they do  to attest that this funeral blurs the line

Between a requiem

And an alleluia

As Bàbá Àgbà does his trademark bata dance

Into ancestor-hood.

On Wednesday, Justice Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa of the federal high court, Lagos, ordered federal government to fix the prices of milk, flour, salt, sugar, bicycles, motorcycles, motor vehicles, and their spare parts. This looks like a judicial attempt to address the biting inflation and the harsh economic climate caused in the main by naira devaluation. My mind instantly flashed back to 1984 when the military government of Major Gen Muhammadu Buhari announced price controls for essential commodities, also known as “essenco”. The military had overthrown the democratically elected government of President Shehu Shagari on the back of untold economic hardship and corruption.

The hardship started in 1982 but Shagari papered over the cracks obviously because a general election was approaching. Crude oil prices were falling — from an average of $34 in 1981 to $32 in 1982 and $29 in 1983. Our foreign reserves, which stood at a decent $10 billion in 1980, had crashed to just $1 billion in 1983 as oil revenue dwindled. Before the oil boom of 1973, our foreign debts totalled $420 million. With the deceit of “unlimited” oil wealth, our debts had ballooned to $14.7 billion by 1982. We earned $22.4 billion from oil exports in 1980 but just $9.6 billion in 1982. The dramatic fall ruined the economy. Still thinking we were rich, we failed to make key adjustments.

We had become hopelessly addicted to imports because of what we celebrated as a “strong currency” — even though it was clearly propelled by oil revenues which are eternally volatile and unreliable. We insisted on keeping the naira at par with the dollar. We still refer to this as the “good old days”. With companies unable to access forex for raw materials and spare parts, they started folding up or sacking workers. Civil servants were being owed salaries, some for three to four months because, simply put, government was broke. Oil wealth has a way of making you live above your means until the day breaks and you realise your tummy has expanded beyond your feeding capacity.

As Nigeria could not import enough basic stuffs like rice, sugar and milk because of forex shortage, Shagari decided to introduce “import licensing” by issuing permits to a closed group of “importers” and allocating the little dollars in the kitty to them. We set up a presidential task force to import rice to sell at “control prices”. Many of those who got forex — using their connections with Shagari’s government — were not even importers or manufacturers and did not really need the allocations. They were believed to have diverted the scarce currency to the streets, and that was apparently the origin of the street trading in dollars which we have now given the fancy name of “parallel market”.

Shagari’s government went into absolute turmoil. It tried to keep Nigeria afloat through an emergency “stabilisation plan” that cut spending, reduced imports and hiked duties. There was still no relief. As we say in Nigeria, “water don pass garri”. Prices of goods and services went through the roof. Unemployment was unforgiving as retrenchment became the order of the day. The opposition parties came hard on the ruling party, the National Party of Nigeria (NPN). This was the condition of Nigeria when then-Brigadier Sani Abacha announced the overthrow of Shagari’s government on December 31, 1983. We all celebrated the coup, expecting a better economy and lower prices. 

Buhari did the “right thing” for “the masses”: he ordered price controls for essential commodities. Soldiers took over the streets, invaded warehouses, shops and markets and started dictating the prices at which goods should be sold. I recall vividly how soldiers came to our village’s central market and started forcing traders to sell goods below the prices at which they themselves bought from wholesalers. “How much is Omo?” a soldier, with a horsewhip in his hand and a rifle on his back, asked an old market woman.  “Fifty kobo,” she replied. “It should be 30 kobo,” he decreed, brought out three 10 kobo coins and paid. He went on and on and on. The poor woman was distraught.

When the soldier had bought three to four items, the woman pleaded with him to move to the next stall. We were kids and bystanders and were somehow enjoying it. We believed prices were too high and thought traders and hoarders were the problem. We knew nothing about costs of production and transportation and other pricing mechanics. All we wanted was cheaper sugar, milk and Omo. How it was achieved was none of our business. My grandmother, a trader, miraculously escaped the raid by the soldiers. She later told me that what the soldiers were doing was wrong. “I cannot sell my goods for less than the cost at which I bought them. It is as I buy that I sell,” she explained to me.

Despite the highhandedness of the military enforcers, prices did not come down. In fact, things got worse as traders began to hoard the goods to avoid being forced to sell at a loss. They only sold whenever the soldiers were not around (and, in any case, how many shops and markets across the federation could they police closely?) I would later take economics in my fifth form in secondary school. We were taught that when supply is below demand, prices would rise. We were also taught that you cannot control prices if you do not have excess supply. If you are in charge of supply and you can meet demand, you can decide to lower your prices. They don’t teach this in military schools.

Now that Lewis-Allagoa has ordered federal government to fix the prices of sugar, flour, vehicles, etc, we are celebrating again. It is a pro-poor judgment, isn’t it? But we’ve been here before, haven’t we? The logic behind price control, as canvassed by its proponents, is that inflation is caused by traders and hoarders who are profiteering at the expense of the masses. There should be an element of truth to this, but that is probably 0.00001 percent of the reason for inflation. Don’t take my word for it: order a used motorcycle or spare part directly from the US and do the math. It is common sense prices will rise as component costs rise. If transportation cost goes up, the price of tomatoes will rise.

How do we enforce this judgement? We import sugar. At what point are we going to fix the price? Should we go to Brazil and order their exporters to sell to us at a particular price? Or is it when the importer has brought in the commodity — after buying dollars at N1,200 or higher — that we will order her to sell at a fixed price? Or is it at the point that the importer sells to the distributor? Or when the distributor sells to the wholesaler? Or when the wholesaler sells to Iya Mufu at Oke Arin market? I guess police will be ordered to use horsewhips to force her to sell at N50 what she bought at N100. Even locally produced goods are at the mercy of rising production and transportation costs.

Apparently, there is an outdated law called Price Control Act that was enacted by the military in 1978 during the oil boom era when petrodollars launched us into a subsidy binge, including paying for meals and laundry for university students. Those were the “good old days” of subsidising consumption instead of production. According to Mr Femi Falana, the senior lawyer and human rights activist who instituted the price control suit, a Price Control Board is saddled with the responsibility of fixing the prices of goods, preventing hoarding of goods, and protecting customers from exorbitant prices. The goods listed in the law include bicycles, matches, salt and sugar.

What better time to “fix” the prices of these all-important items than now when cost of living has gone haywire and Nigerians are in severe pains? Sure, you can keep prices below cost through subsidies. No problem. But when the bubble bursts, you will be more than sorry. Venezuela did it for a long time with petrodollars and Venezuelans thought they were on top of the world. Under President Hugo Chávez, they barely paid the market price for anything. Petrodollars subsidised all. When oil revenues crashed and funding the mammoth subsidies became impossible, the inflation did not have Part Two. Since 2015, over 7.5 million Venezuelans have gone on a “japa” spree.

The solution to our current economic woes is not artificial price controls. It will only worsen the scarcity, empower black markets and raise prices. The solution is not border closure either, as suggested by Alhaji Abubakar Kyari, the minister of agriculture and food security. He obviously learnt nothing from our previous border closure in 2020. He should please ask the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) for data on food inflation for that year. Those who benefit the most from these knee-jerk policies are the security officers at the borders. We always avoid the hard work when it comes to policy thinking. The real challenge is: how can we reduce associated costs and boost supply?

Every economic reform must factor in safety nets for the poor. There are rational measures that can be taken in the short-run to reduce the pains. As Waziri Adio, one of Nigeria’s leading public policy analysts, proposed in his column last week, President Bola Tinubu can take urgent steps to address the food inflation by reducing tariffs on key items for a limited period of time. Releasing grain reserves can also help stabilise prices by boosting supply. This is a more sensible and realistic route to “price control” instead of using horsewhips and guns. If Iya Mufu buys a bag of flour at N40,000, how on earth can government force her to sell to consumers at N35,000? I mean, who does that?

Tinubu’s directive that grain reserves be released to boost supply and, hopefully, tame food inflation is a welcome step. Let’s hope the grains would not be diverted to hoarders. This is Nigeria. While the price control judgment has to be appealed and the law eventually amended, the truth is that Nigerians are suffering and they need to breathe. I have witnessed episodes of economic hardship since I was a kid but I have never seen anything of this dimension. I know Tinubu is clinically implementing tough reforms — which, I must agree, is inevitable if we are to have an economy — but I hope it does not end up as a case of “the surgery was successful but we lost the patient”.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

GO FOR GOLD!

Displaying more of grit and less of panache, the Super Eagles are one match away from winning Nigeria’s fourth Africa Cup of Nations title. I believe I am speaking on behalf of millions of Nigerians when I say we are aiming for the trophy against Côte d’Ivoire today, having painfully lost four finals before. The way Nigerians of all “tribes and tongues” have been celebrating our outings once again confirms my bias — that we really love this country. We do not hate one another. It is just that our leaders have politically mismanaged our emotions. We are united by sport, Afrobeats and Nollywood but divided by politicians. Imagine how great Nigeria would be with quality leadership. Unstoppable.

AFRODEMOCRACY AGAIN

Senegal, one of the most politically stable African countries with no history of military intervention, is on the verge of a debilitating crisis with the strange conduct of President Macky Sall, who is due to step down as president this year after serving two terms. It is very clear that he wants to handpick his successor and is afraid of a strong opposition candidate being elected. In the typical behaviour of African leaders who have no respect for the liberal principles of democracy, he had been clamping down on opposition leaders and has now postponed the election, the first time ever, to “resolve” the crisis he orchestrated. And to think this man came to power as an opposition leader! Nauseating.

RIP, KT

I lost a dear friend on Wednesday. Kayode Tijani, the sports journalist and archivist, died at 55 after a prolonged illness, dating back to the Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt in 2019. He went there whole and returned in bad shape, never to recover. KT, as we called him, was one of the most knowledgeable sports journalists in Nigeria and had an incredible trove of videos on the country’s sporting history dating back to the 1960s. He worked at a number of reputable media organisations home and abroad. He was one of the major supporters of TheCable, the online newspaper I founded 10 years ago. I pray that his family, friends and fans will be comforted at these difficult times. Devastating.

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Something to celebrate: The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited says it has commenced oil production from the Akpo West field in Port Harcourt, Rivers state. This will add 14,000 barrels per day to our production. It may look small — compared to 250,000bpd from Agbami — but given the various mortgages on our future oil production, this is better than nothing. The NNPC said the new production “is in line with President Bola Tinubu’s directive”. Have you noticed that many statements from government agencies these days start with “in line with President Tinubu’s vision” or “renewed hope agenda”? Is it a standing order or the signature tune? Wonderful.