OTHERS' VIEWS

OTHERS' VIEWS

SUNDAY 1-DEC

 

Hearn confirms Joshua’s 2025 return date
https://reubenabati.com.ng/sports/hearn-confirms-joshua-s-2025-return-date

Why Nigeria Needs Tax Reform – Oyedele
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/why-nigeria-needs-tax-reform-oyedele

Okpebholo, APC Jittery Over Exposure Of Systemic Rigging In Edo, Lies To Cover Fraud – Obaseki
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/okpebholo-apc-jittery-over-exposure-of-systemic-rigging-in-edo-lies-to-cover-fraud-obaseki

CBN tells Nigerians to report cash withdrawal issues from December 1, banks to face penalties
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/cbn-tells-nigerians-to-report-cash-withdrawal-issues-from-december-1-banks-to-face-penalties

Local Government Autonomy….Concerns Mount Over Non-execution Of Supreme Court Ruling
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/local-government-autonomy-concerns-mount-over-non-execution-of-supreme-court-ruling

Tinubu Tax: North’s anger grows as youths attack Deputy Senate President
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/tinubu-tax-north-s-anger-grows-as-youths-attack-deputy-senate-president

OAuGF report reveals huge financial infractions in NNPCL, NUPRC, NMDPRA
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/oaugf-report-reveals-huge-financial-infractions-in-nnpcl-nuprc-nmdpra

Rivers: N27bn IGR behind Fubara, Wike rift, INEC now APC member – Adeyanju
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/rivers-n27bn-igr-behind-fubara-wike-rift-inec-now-apc-member-adeyanju

‘I Am Against Tax Reform Bills, It Gives Some States More Advantage’ – Ningi
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/i-am-against-tax-reform-bills-it-gives-some-states-more-advantage-ningi

[STATE HOUSE PRESS RELEASE] President Tinubu Congratulates New NUJ President And Executive Team
https://reubenabati.com.ng/news/state-house-press-release-president-tinubu-congratulates-new-nuj-president-and-executive-team

[PRESS RELEASE] President Tinubu Approves Funds for UNESCO Media and Information Literacy Institute in Nigeria
https://reubenabati.com.ng/news/press-release-president-tinubu-approves-funds-for-unesco-media-and-information-literacy-institute-in-nigeria

Trump threatens 100% tariff on BRICS countries over currency plans
https://reubenabati.com.ng/news/trump-threatens-100-tariff-on-brics-countries-over-currency-plans

‘From Secular To Sacred’ - Filmmaker, Mike Bamiloye Reflects On Transformation To Gospel Drama
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/from-secular-to-sacred-filmmaker-mike-bamiloye-reflects-on-transformation-to-gospel-drama

Darey Art Alade and wife Desola mark 18th wedding anniversary
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/dare-art-alade-s-wife-deola-celebrate-18th-wedding-anniversary

Sokoto NLC Suspends Planned Strike Over ₦70,000 Minimum Wage
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/sokoto-nlc-suspends-planned-strike-over-70-000-minimum-wage

Nigeria needs collaborative leaders for national progress - Peter Obi
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/nigeria-needs-collaborative-leaders-for-national-progress-peter-obi

How Tinubu’s fiery critics became spokespersons, loyalists
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/how-tinubu-s-fiery-critics-became-spokespersons-loyalists

2027: Atiku, Obi deny joint presidential bid after reunion
https://reubenabati.com.ng/feature/2027-atiku-obi-deny-joint-presidential-bid-after-reunion

Tax Reform Bill: Atiku Calls For Transparency, Inclusivity In Debate
https://reubenabati.com.ng/news/tax-reform-bill-atiku-calls-for-transparency-inclusivity-in-debate

 

Human beings naturally resist change. When comfortable where we are, we find it extremely difficult to embrace an uncharted path or seek greater glory. Those who are risk averse often don’t want to venture out to embrace unfamiliar territories no matter how tempting the possible reward may appear. We should not, however, be so imprisoned by the fear of the unknown not to explore new possibilities because we find our present circumstances satisfying enough.

Since the public debate around the Tax Reform Bills started, the strongest push back against it has come largely from the north. Borno State Governor, Professor Babagana Zulum has become the face of the resistance for the reasons he has pushed forward, even when some of them didn’t speak to the facts and provisions of the bills.

If Governor Zulum and other voices of resistance who think the states will be shortchanged had actually taken time to examine the four executive Bills, they will see how progressive and transformative the Bills are. They will also discern the thought behind them which is primarily to make both the Federal and sub-nationals fiscally stronger and buoyant.

In his public presentations and the most recent being the Channels TV Town Hall moderated by Seun Okinbaloye Monday evening, Chairman of Presidential Committee on Tax and Fiscal Policy Reforms, Taiwo Oyedele and other panelists again made convincing arguments for the passage of the Bills before the National Assembly.

 

Here are the 10 ways the Tax Bills will serve the states better and enhance their capacity to earn more revenue:

1. The federal government will cede 5% out of its current 15% share of VAT revenue to states.

2. The Bills will transfer income from the Electronic Money Transfer levy exclusively to states as part of stamp duties.

 

3. The Bills seek to repeal obsolete stamp duties law and re-enactment of a simplified law to enhance the revenue for states.

4. Under the new dispensation the Tax Bills will usher in, states will be entitled to the tax of Limited Liability Partnerships.

5. When passed by the National Assembly, the Tax Bills will enable the state government to enjoy tax exemption on their bonds to be at par with federal government bonds.

6. Under the proposed tax reform, states will enjoy a more equitable model for VAT attribution and distribution that will lead to higher VAT income.

 

7. Integrated tax administration will provide tax intelligence to states, strengthen capacity development and collaboration, and scope of Tax Appeal Tribunal to cover taxpayer disputes on state taxes.

8. The proposed tax laws grant powers for Accountant General of the Federation to deduct taxes unremitted by a government or MDA and pay to the beneficiary sub-national government on personal income tax of workers of federal institutions in states.

9. Framework to grant autonomy for states internal revenue service and enhanced Joint Revenue Board to promote collaborative fiscal federalism.

10. Legal framework for taxation of lottery and gaming and introduction of withholding tax for the benefit of states.

 

From the aforementioned, it is clear that the Tax Bills are not in any way injurious to the states. Apart from streamlining the tax system in Nigeria and catalysing economic output, the tax and fiscal policy reforms provide incentives for states to become economic powerhouses. The challenge for governors will be to put on their thinking cap by investing in manpower and critical social and physical infrastructure in their states that will support businesses and socio-economic activities to flourish.

Ajayi is the senior special assistant to the president on media and publicity

The controversy surrounding the proposed adjustment to the formula for sharing the states’ portion of the Value Added Tax (VAT), especially the derivation component, in the tax reform bills submitted to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu is yet to abate. What I find interesting is that many readers are asking for my take on the issue. When I respond with ‘Tinubu, Wike and the Politics of VAT’ published on this page on 16 September 2021, everyone to whom I have forwarded the column replied that it is worth publishing again because it addresses many of the issues that are currently in the public domain. As I wrote in the column almost two years before he became president, the VAT battle was ignited by Tinubu as Lagos State governor. But is he handling the issue well now that he is president of Nigeria?

Before I draw my conclusions on this vexatious issue, let me also state for the benefit of those who do not know me and may not be familiar with my writing that I am not the author of a piece being circulated on WhatsApp credited to one Olusegun S. Adeniyi. Aside the fact that Kwara State, from where I hail, is in the northern part of Nigeria, I don’t subscribe to unhelpful and divisive rhetoric. Now to the slightly abridged column of September 2021, before I conclude with my take on the current logjam.

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In September 2018, there was an interesting exchange in Premium Times between Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and his ‘illustrious predecessor’ (as he described him), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar. The issue in contention was restructuring of the country. The latter had taken on the former on his postulation that what Nigeria required was “managing resources properly and providing for the people properly.” To Atiku, Osinbajo failed “to appreciate the connection between Nigeria’s defective structure and its underperformance.” Defending his stance, Osinbajo argued that “good governance involves, inter alia, transparency and prudence in public finance,” before throwing this punchline: “Surprisingly, Alhaji Atiku leaves out the elephant in the room – corruption. And how grand corruption, fueled by a rentier economic structure benefits those who can use political positions or access to either loot the treasury or get favorable concessions to enrich themselves.”

 However, the bit that is relevant here is where Osinbajo explained “the issue of deeper fiscal federalism or restructuring” and “how the then Lagos State Government, led by Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, decided to fight for greater autonomy of states.” Osinbajo then listed sundry issues on which he, as Attorney General of the state, took the federal government to court, before concluding: “Years later, we also filed an action at the Supreme Court arguing that the Value Added Tax, being a consumption tax, should exclusively belong to the States.”

I have spent considerable time in the past week investigating the VAT case under reference and my findings are quite revealing. In the statement of claim filed at the Supreme Court, the LASG under Tinubu had stated: “The House of Assembly of Lagos State of Nigeria is the body entitled, to the exclusion of any other legislative body, to enact laws with regard to the imposition and collection of tax on the supply of all goods and services within Lagos State of Nigeria and that Lagos State of Nigeria, or any agency of the State, is the body entitled, to the exclusion of any other body, to assess and collect such tax, and that the revenue of the Lagos State Government has been and continues to be affected by the enforcement of provisions of the Value Added Tax Act.”

Based on this claim, Lagos then urged the Supreme Court to determine “Whether upon the coming into effect of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, the said Value Added Tax Act is an existing law within the meaning of Section 315 of the said Constitution, being a federal legislation, which is deemed to be an Act of the National Assembly.”

Apparently mindful of the implications of the case against the background of some earlier rulings, the Supreme Court counselled Lagos to seek a political solution on the issue. That was understandable. A few years earlier, when the state challenged the powers of the federal government to grant licenses and permits to erect structures in Lagos without prior knowledge or consent, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the state. The apex court held that any item “not expressly mentioned in the Exclusive Legislative List or Concurrent Legislative List is Residual and within the legislative competence of the state government.”

Knowing it had a solid case on VAT, Lagos refused to toe the suggested line of political solution. Eventually, the federal government filed a preliminary objection on technical point, asking the supreme court to strike out the case on grounds that there was no dispute between it and Lagos. The authority being challenged by Lagos, according to the federal government, was that of the Federal Inland Revenue Services (FIRS) hence the suit ought to have been filed at the Federal High Court (FHC). The federal government averred: “The Plaintiff’s cause of action relates to acts of a federal organ and cannot form the basis of invoking this Honourable Court’s Original Jurisdiction to entertain this suit; and the entire suit constitutes an abuse of court processes.”

In determining the case, the Supreme Court held that based on the affidavits filed, the grouse in question was about “…a dispute pertaining to the operation of an agency of the federal government.” With that, the Supreme Court concluded that it was the FHC “that was imbued with jurisdiction to the exclusion of any other court in civil causes and matters relating to the revenue of the government; connected with or pertaining to taxation of companies and other bodies; the operation and interpretation of the constitution in so far as it affected the federal government or any of its agencies.”

There were arguments at the time that the Supreme Court deliberately chose a clever route since Lagos was challenging the VAT Act enacted by the National Assembly and not FIRS as claimed by the federal government. But Lagos was left with the option to take the matter up at the FHC. Somewhere along the line, the state that had for 16 years been in opposition suddenly found itself in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2015 and decided not to pursue the matter any further.

However, apparently taking a cue from Lagos, Rivers State under Governor Nyesom Wike filed a case against the FIRS at the FHC. And in his judgement, Justice Stephen Pam declared that FIRS “has no constitutional authority to enforce and administer taxes not expressly stipulated under Items 58 and 59, Part I, Second Schedule to the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.” Following that decision, the Rivers State House of Assembly quickly enacted VAT Law No. 4 of 2021 to end the authority of the FIRS to administer, collect and enforce the VAT Act, 2007 in Rivers State. Lagos State that had pretended to be sleeping on the issue also jumped in with the accelerated passage of the VAT bill “in line with fiscal federalism that we have been talking about.”

I have always suspected that the VAT law would unravel one day. In a 2016 interview, former president of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria (ICAN) and respected tax consultant, Mr Emmanuel Ijewere (he passed away last December), explained the mandate General Ibrahim Babangida gave the committee (which he chaired) that came up with the VAT law in 1993. “What was happening at that time was that there was a sales tax in several states, and there was no particular rule as to what they were charging. It was being used as a source of creating confusion, so the government now said let us standardize it.” Ijewere said his committee was told that “whatever money was collected in a state belongs to that state” while the VAT tax commission would retain 5% for administration. “Somewhere along the line, the federal government took it over, pushed the states aside, and that defeated the whole thing. It now turns out that the states that are generating a lot more VAT are not getting the commensurate amount of money from their economic activities and that was the unfair part of it.”

While the intention behind the 1993 VAT decree may have been altruistic, it has created more problems than it attempted to solve. But we cannot blame Babangida for that. Although he enacted the VAT decree before leaving office, implementation started on 1st December 1993 by which time General Sani Abacha was in power. Now, what is the issue? VAT, in a nutshell, is a consumption tax imposed on the supply of all goods and services, except those specifically exempted in a Schedule to the Act. The main challenge is that there is a near unanimity of opinion that the unjust sharing formula in VAT Act creates an impression of ‘robbing Peter to pay Paul’. That has always been the problem.

It is difficult to fault Wike’s argument that it makes no sense that Rivers State generated N15 billion VAT revenue in June this year but got N4.7 billion (about 30%) in return, while Kano generated N2.8 billion in the same month and got the same N2.8 billion back (100%). Meanwhile, Lagos State that generated N46.4 billion in the same month, was allocated N9.3 billion (about 20%). “Sometimes, you don’t want to believe these things exist,” Wike said. But while the Rivers Governor may have championed the recent fight, Tinubu was in the forefront before the APC came to the centre.

Meanwhile, the FHC judgement in favour of the Rivers State Government has thrown up issues about the nature of our system. If we were running a proper federation, the federal government would have jumped at it; being the biggest beneficiary if we disaggregate the VAT components. But many of the states would suffer and that is where the interest of the federal government comes in. With Wike talking tough against the background of the mismanagement of our diversity by the current administration, the VAT issue has provoked another North-South brouhaha. I want to deal with a few of them before I conclude.

Since everybody is talking about alcohol, including those who don’t drink, let us start from the VAT derived from it. In addressing the unholy wedlock between religious pulpit and political podium in Nigeria in my September 2019 column, I referenced the issue, following the destruction by the Kano State Hisbah Board of 196,400 bottles of beer in its effort to ensure a “sane, peaceful and sharia-compliant society.” I wrote: “this is the sort of hypocritical decisions that makes many to question the viability of our federal structure. The issue of VAT revenue is one of the strongest points being canvassed by proponents of restructuring the country. It is also one of the arguments made by Atiku before the last general election. ‘If a state is opposed to cattle tax or bicycle tax or alcohol tax, or pollution tax, for instance, it should not expect to share in the tax proceeds from those items,’ Atiku said in 2017.”

So, I align myself with those who say states that ban alcohol cannot benefit from VAT derived therefrom. But the notion of a ‘Parasitic North’ and ‘Productive South’ that forms the basis of most narratives when discussing the contradictions of Nigeria is not supported by any empirical evidence. While we cannot discount the argument of the Niger Delta whose people have for decades borne the brunt of oil exploration without much to show for the resource, the oil money for which some people deride others is rent rather than “any rigorous productive activity,” as Alhaji Bashir Ibrahim Yusuf reminded some of us in a chat group during the week. “The most hardworking Nigerians are the farmers who feed the nation with iron age tools without a fair reward for their labour.” And you find this class of Nigerians everywhere in the country.

As I have consistently argued on this page, the saber-rattling about North and South is a distraction from the real issue which is that Nigeria is not working for majority of its citizens. Now that the system is creaking beneath all of us, we must begin to fix it by bringing to the table the productive capacities of every citizen which means we need to wean ourselves of this distributive mentality that oil has foisted on our collective psyche. When the federal government argues for the retention of the status quo on VAT, it is to protect at least 30 of the 36 states which are both in the north and south. But it is also now clear that the market is over for these states that must begin to generate their own economic activities. The days of taking begging bowls to Abuja that is neck deep in foreign debts is gradually but surely coming to an end.

This VAT crisis therefore comes with a huge opportunity to address fundamental issues in an economy that is already in dire straits and perfect our skewed federal structure. As I argued in my ‘Platform Nigeria’ presentation with the theme, ‘Is Devolution of Powers the solution to Nigeria’s Problem?’ in May this year (2021), the fiscal imbalance in which the federal government controls disproportionate power and wealth has become a huge problem. The current regime of ‘sharing the national cake’ is also unsustainable. “We should actually be thinking in terms of getting the people to directly fund their government, not gathering to share oil money, and the laziness, lack of accountability and tension associated with it. We should be moving from an extract and share economy to one funded by taxpayers.”

In practical terms, there is value in a centrally collected tax and the current VAT regime has its own merit. We may need to change the name, increase derivation components, reduce the cost of collection by FIRS and allow states to retain 100% taxes on certain items (like alcohol) that some may have issues with. We may also need to tweak the sharing formula such that only a certain percentage will go to the central pool for sharing. But asking each state to keep all the VAT it generates will be difficult to implement under the current circumstance.

If, for instance, the court upholds the current ruling, each state will have to create its own VAT law to plug the hole that the centrally collected and distributed VAT will create in their already troubled finances. Different rates in different states will make it difficult to do business across the country. Things exempted from VAT could also be brought under such law (like food and agricultural products, for states that don’t have other things they can immediately tax.) The implication will be higher prices and inflation. Besides, since most states don’t have the capacity that FIRS has, they may deploy commissioned consultants and motor park touts to do the job of tax collection. We all know that would result in an open invitation to anarchy.

At the end of the day, we have two major problems. One, we have a revenue problem across the board. Without necessarily raising rates or creating new taxes, we need to bring more people into the tax net and be more efficient in collection. Two, we need to spend the accrued revenues more prudently. No point taking taxes from the people and expending such proceeds on frivolities or having some mummy and son fight over millions of Naira after daddy had ‘disappeared’ the dollar component into his Babariga!

ENDNOTE: From the foregoing, it is clear that I saw this problem coming more than three years ago. I also suggested the way forward. “From my reading of the whole situation and given the experience of Lagos on this issue, a political solution appears the surest bet to the VAT imbroglio,” I wrote at the time. “For that to happen, President Muhammadu Buhari must show leadership. He can delegate Vice President Yemi Osinbajo to use the instrumentality of the National Economic Council (NEC) which he chairs to negotiate with the states.”

Not surprisingly, Buhari did nothing. And in dealing with the issue, his successor has compounded the problem. Not only did President Tinubu discard the NEC recommendation to withdraw the bills before the National Assembly to pave the way for more comprehensive consultation with key stakeholders in the country, he also dismissively told the council, headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima and comprising all the 36 governors, to direct their reservations to the National Assembly. That statement was in bad taste.

Considering recent Supreme Court rulings which suggest a stance to uphold the federal nature of our constitution, presidential handlers may feel that the law is on their side on this matter. But that will be a myopic reading of the situation in a country like ours. The Waziri Adio-led Agora Policy, a think tank focused on development and governance, has done extensive work on the tax bills and their implications in practical terms. The main takeaway from their interventions is that there will be losers and winners on the VAT issue, and it will impact revenue in many states. You don’t handle a policy like that the way this administration has gone about it.  

For instance, Agora Policy’s disaggregation of the ‘percentage gains and losses on actual and proposed VAT for states for October 2024’, indicates that no fewer than 14 states will suffer revenue deficit with ten of them from the North if the proposed VAT formula scales through with adjustment. But that does not even tell the whole story. Of the 22 states that will ‘gain’, only nine are from the North, and if you remove Kano (42.32%) and Kaduna (35.24%), the accruing benefits for the other northern states are marginal. In fact, my state (Kwara) would gain only 1.16%. Meanwhile, 13 of the 17 Southern states are projected to witness a massive revenue jump with an additional VAT revenue of 86.17% going to Delta, 62.43% to Ogun, 53.58% to Imo and 50.09% to Anambra. Such fundamental changes in fiscal outlook in each of the 36 states (for better or worse) cannot be treated in such a cavalier manner.

When the stakeholders (federal government, 36 states and 774 local governments) gather each month to share the proverbial ‘national cake’ at the meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), the main source used to be from Statutory Revenue: oil and gas plus solid minerals and all other taxes/levies from the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS). Not anymore. On 24 November when they last met to share accrued revenues for the month of October, for instance, only N206.32 billion came from that source (after sundry deductions, which is another story by itself). Meanwhile, that N206.32 billion from Statutory Revenue is about 15 percent of the net sum shared, raising questions about the management of the Federation Account. In contrast, of the N1.411 trillion shared at FAAC for the month, the VAT component was N622.3 billion!

Like the two policies of the current administration on fuel subsidy and Naira exchange rate, the motivations behind them may have been good but their reckless implementation has negatively impacted the people, to put the situation mildly. The same could happen with the tax bills, which ordinarily are not a bad idea. Because most states rely on money shared at FAAC to fund their budgets, it is no surprise that we now have a political crisis that has divided the country along sectional lines. I continue to urge President Tinubu to dialogue with the governors on this issue. If he bullies his way to get the laws passed by the National Assembly without the buy-in of critical stakeholders across board, the consequences may be too difficult to manage in a fragile country like Nigeria.

Six months ago a friend I go on daily runs with took ill on a Monday evening. It was sudden and by the time I saw him hours later at the hospital, he was lying there very sick, very frail and hooked up to machines.

The diagnosis was sepsis and we were all surprised. The morning before he took ill, we had gone on a 6km run. That was 2km more than our usual but there was a reason. We had gone to a party on Saturday and some damage” had been done. So that Monday morning we had agreed to run the “foolishness” out of our system.

Sepsis is a major killer in the UK and is described as “a life-threatening condition by  The UK Sepsis Trust which says it “can lead to shock, multiple organ failure and even death if not recognised and treated promptly.”

Statistics from the NHS are more sobering. Sepsiskills five people every hour and accounts for about 50,000 deaths per year in the UK alone.”

 

So, my friend was lucky to have listened to his body and gone to the A&E where he wasprescribed a cocktail of drugs that included powerful antibiotics as well as hydrocortisone, vitamin C, thiamine and lots of intravenous fluids.

That incident came to mind as I read the Keynote Address delivered by Olayemi Cardoso, Governorof the Central Bank of Nigeria at the 59th Annual Dinner of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) on November 29, 2024.

Nineteen pages long, it was expansive, insightful, comprehensive, wide-ranging, bold and visionary in acknowledging the myriad of issues they met on ground, the challenges encountered so far in fixing them and strategy for the future. It was like a Job Description and a set of Key Performance Indicator(KPIs) rolled into one.

 


Reading through, the image that loomed before me was 
of my friend on that hospital bed. When we met in the morning, he was bubbly and rearing to go with none of us the wiser about the bacteria ravaging his system. By evening the bacteria had won and it would have been a different story if doctors had not given him that cocktail of medicines.

The financial system Yemi Cardoso and team met on ground was being ravaged by an unseen bacteria and leading to a system collapse. The prognosis was bad – high inflation, multiple exchange rates, unchecked subsidy and rampant arbitrage, lack of access to international capital markets, poor investor confidence, waning foreign portfolio inflows, declining exchange reserves and decreasing diaspora remittances, huge FX backlog, excessive money supply growth at 13% annually, fiscal crisis from unprecedented Ways and Means advances to the FG of N22.7 trillion and many more.

Yemi Cardoso was like a doctor who came to the quick realization that urgent action was required to stem the tide and steer the financial ship to a safe port.

What he did, he told the CIBN, was attack with a cocktail of “targeted policies, transparent market operations, effective coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities, and a commitment to rebuild trust.”

 

What did he think success would look like after this cocktail of policies has been implemented? Cardoso told his audience that what the CBNexpects in 2025 and beyond is a regime that will see the CBN “stabilize the exchange rate, curb inflation, strengthen banks’ capital buffers, and foster an environment conducive to the success of both businesses and individuals.”

These are already happening and OlayemiCardoso was not shy in pointing out areas where progress has been made.

External reserves which fell to $33.22bn in December 2023 have grown back to $40bn the highest level in 3 years and “the equivalent of eight months’ import cover.”

That is a reflection of rising investor confidence evident in the 72% growth in foreign portfolio inflows and increase in diaspora remittances from a monthly average of $300m to $600m with a monthly target of $1bn set by the CBN.

 

This is being buoyed by the integration of the Nigerian diaspora into our financial system by initiatives like the introduction of the non-resident BVN registration. At the time of writingthis piece, news of an oversubscribed Eurobond issue of $2.2bn filtered out from the Debt Management Office (DMO).

The fiscal crisis from excessive Ways and Means which was the equivalent of almost 11% of our GDP in 2023 before Cardoso and team took over at the CBN has been ended with the backlog of over $7 billion in unfulfilled commitments cleared.

 

The FX market has been stabilized with a tightening contraction in the gap between the official and parallel markets and more sanity is expected with the take-off on December 2, 2024 of the electronic FX matching system. Analysts are already forecasting that the naira will end the year low.

A regime of transparency has led to regular andimproved financial stability reports, balance of payments data, and FX market updates, datasharing, the launch of a new website and technology driven innovations intended to “strengthen the CBN’s credibility and public trust in our policies.”

 

Speaking at that dinner, Cardoso summarized his ultimate destination as “price and exchange rate stability, catalyze sustainable economic growth, and protect the livelihoods of millions of Nigerians.”

While all these are cause for cheer, challenges remain. The naira is still taking a beating something Cardoso has attributed to buyer’s desperation and a distorted view of the value of the naira relative to the greenback. This will hopefully be solved in 2025 and beyond by “the introduction of the electronic matching system” which will correct these distortions by enhancing the price discovery process.”

 

Inflation remains a thorny issue at 33.88% despite efforts to “contain inflation and restore stability” by “raising the Monetary Policy Rate by 875 basis points to 27.5%”. The inflation target of 21.4% is yet to be achieved.

But Cardoso is upbeat: “Our tight monetary policy stance has altered the previous dire trajectory, and we expect a downward trend in 2025. Inflation remains unacceptably high, but the signs are encouraging, particularly given that the full effects of monetary policy typically take 6-9 months to impact the consumer sector.”

To conclude one must ask whether Cardoso and his team have factored in the coming of Donald Trump into their plans for 2025As Cardoso noted in his keynote, the pandemic, global geopolitical tensions and inflation have had a deleterious effect on emerging markets in the form of “withdrawal of capital flows” thus creating new challenges for economies like ours.”

Speaking further he noted that “Major central banks are gradually easing their monetary conditions and this shift is slowly reopening access to international capital markets for emerging economies.”

But for how long? Recent comments from Donald Trump in reaction to plans for dedollarisation by the BRICS nations deserve attention from the CBN as the apex bank looks to the future.

This is important because in October this year, Nigeria formalized its romance with the BRICS bloc by becoming a partner as reported by The PunchBRICS has officially expanded its alliance, adding 13 new nations as partner countries, though not as full members…The countries are Algeria, Belarus, Bolivia, Cuba, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Malaysia, Nigeria, Thailand, Turkey, Uganda, Uzbekistan, and Vietnam.

High on the agenda of the BRICS nations and their partners is to establish “a unified currency or bolster bilateral trade agreements that bypass the dollar. These efforts aim to reduce reliance on the U.S. dollars” reports Global Financial Digest

Trump has reacted to this by threatening 100% tariffs on imports from the BRICS nations. As President, Donald Trump’s plans to entrench his America First doctrine and the dollar’s hegemony will hobble plans for de-dollarisation of economies in the BRIC bloc as well as the emerging markets of the global south which remain vulnerable to tectonic shifts in the larger global economy.

This is something that could have repercussions for the Nigerian economy described by Cardoso as a “resource-intensive” country.

Kan is a PR/crisis management expert and financial analyst.

The leader of the Labour Party and the 2023 Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi has called for transparency in the proposed tax reform of the federal Government.

Obi, writing on X handle on Monday, said that carrying out tax reform is not bad but must be done carrying the populace along and should not be done with the government as the sole beneficiary.
'Tax reform is a critical issue, and there is nothing wrong with pursuing it. However, such reforms must be subject to robust public debate.
"A public hearing on tax reform is essential, allowing Nigerians from all walks of life to engage meaningfully. This is how we build public trust and ensure inclusivity in policymaking.

"Matters of this magnitude require extensive deliberation and careful consideration—they should never be rushed. Public hearings must be conducted to allow for diverse opinions and inputs.

"When considering tax reforms and similar issues, it is insufficient to focus solely on the benefits to the government, particularly in terms of increasing revenue collection. We must also take into account the overall impact on the nation and the sustainability of all its regions.

"Furthermore, the government must sensitize the people and secure their buy-in for any policy changes. Trust and legitimacy are the foundation of effective governance, and without them, even the best-intended reforms may fail.

"Let us prioritize transparency, deliberation, and public engagement in charting the path forward. This is how we build a truly participatory democracy.
A new Nigeria is possible!

Ibrahim Umar
POMR SPOKESMAN

A lecturer at the Federal University Oye-Ekiti (FUOYE) by the name of Dr. Anthony Agbegbedia is in the eye of the storm of an outrageous sexual harassment scandal not just because of the damning consistency of his preying on female students like a ravening, sex-starved wolf but also because the institution’s vice chancellor, Professor Abayomi Fasina, appears intent to shelter him and grant him free rein to continue to terrorize more vulnerable female students.

Agbegbedia, a lecturer in the Department of Peace and Conflict Studies, has spent years using his position not to educate but to extort, not to mentor students but to disturb the peace of, and inspire conflict in, female students under his tutelage. 

His name has become a byword for abuse, entitlement, and unchecked power at FUOYE. He uses his position to raven female students by dangling their academic futures as leverage.

With remarkably irrefutable evidentiary facts, such as the record of his WhatsApp chats with female students, Sahara Reporters and the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) have meticulously documented and exposed his consistent demand for sexual favors from female students in exchange for grades.

 Yet, the university’s response to Agbegbedia’s  widening and deepening dossier of accusations has ranged from tepid warnings to a promotion. Yes, a promotion! If irony could be weaponized, this would be an airstrike.

 Agbegbedia’s alleged modus operandi is chillingly straightforward: advance sexually, fail students if they repel, repeat. Several students have recounted to Sahara Reporters and FIJ stories of intimidation, academic sabotage, and relentless pursuit after rebuffing his sexual overtures. 

The case of a final-year student by the name of Ramota Olahanloye was what brought Agbegbedia’s unconscionable predation of female students to the forefront of national attention.  

He failed the student and delayed her graduation for refusing his advances. She got a passing grade in his courses and eventually qualified to graduate only after her script was remarked by a neutral party in response to her father’s impassioned intervention and righteous rage.

 This was not an isolated whisper. It’s only a small, visible part of a disturbing pattern of Agbegbedia’s excesses, which FUOYE has inexplicably ignored.

In the aftermath of being found guilty of sexual harassment by an FUOYE panel, the university administration’s remedy was a mere “warning” for “unethical behavior,” which smacks of both bureaucratic doublespeak and complicity. 

Worse still, Agbegbedia was promoted to the rank of Reader (equivalent to associate professor in the American system) amidst this turmoil. One can only wonder what message this sends to other would-be sexual predators. 

I won’t mince my words. The university’s decision to elevate him, despite the weight of these allegations, sends the message that academic predators will not only be tolerated but rewarded, as long as they know which strings to pull and know how to be protected by the invisible armor of patronage.

This protection isn’t accidental. Agbegbedia’s impunity stems, at least in part, from his cozy ties to the upper reaches of the institution’s administrative hierarchy, insiders say, and a system rigged to silence victims. 

The institution’s claim that it “takes sexual harassment seriously” is belied by its actions. 

It is a damning indictment of our system when a man with multiple accusations — bolstered by chats, student testimonies, and even confirmed tampering with examination results — is treated not as a pariah but as a prince.

FUOYE’s regulations unequivocally classify sexual harassment as gross misconduct. According to Section 8.3 of the university's "Revised Regulations for Senior Staff," gross misconduct is defined as "a specific act of very serious wrongdoing and improper behaviour which is inimical to the image of the service and which can be investigated and, if proven, may lead to dismissal." Sexual harassment is explicitly listed as one such act under this section.

The prescribed penalties for gross misconduct, including sexual harassment, are either dismissal or termination of appointment. There is no provision for a warning in such cases.

 This aligns with precedent within the same university, where Dr. Desen Mbachaga, a lecturer in the Theatre Arts department, was accused and found guilty of similar misconduct in 2021, which caused his appointment to be terminated.

 Agbegbedia's previous record, including a formal warning for embezzling departmental dues belonging to students during his tenure as Head of Department, further underlines the need for strict disciplinary action, as repeated misconduct indicates a pattern of behavior detrimental to the university's integrity.

Moreover, consistent enforcement of disciplinary standards is critical to maintaining the university's credibility. Other Nigerian universities have set strong examples. The dismissal and imprisonment of a professor at Obafemi Awolowo University for sexual harassment, among many other examples, demonstrate the severity with which such offenses are treated nationwide. 

This is a challenge for Senator Ndoma-Egba, the incoming Pro-Chancellor of FUOYE, who is known for his strict stance on such matters. I hope he will uphold the integrity of the disciplinary process at Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, as he did at Federal University, Lokoja, where three lecturers were dismissed for similar offenses.

Sexual predation in academia thrives on silence and inertia. Each time a predator like Agbegbedia gets away with his crimes, a precedent is set, which emboldens others to follow suit. 

The university, rather than being a sanctuary of learning, becomes a hunting ground for ravenous sexual wolves like him. The repercussions are profound. Students lose faith in their institutions, potential whistleblowers are silenced, and predators grow bolder. They prowl the campus and pounce down on female students with impunity.

FUOYE’s leaders must confront this festering crisis with urgency and integrity. Agbegbedia must be fired—not merely for the sake of the women he has tormented but as a warning to every would-be predator lurking in academia. Anything less than termination is complicity. 

The stakes here extend beyond FUOYE. Across Nigeria, lecturers who exploit their power are emboldened by a culture of silence and weak enforcement. For every Agbegbedia exposed, countless others operate in shadows, their crimes obscured by shame, fear, and institutional inertia.

 FUOYE has an opportunity—and an obligation—to set an example. Justice for these students isn’t merely about punishing one man; it’s about reclaiming academia as a haven for learning, not a site for sexual predation.

 Agbegbedia must be dismissed—not warned, not transferred, not gently reprimanded, but fired. His firing should be accompanied by a public acknowledgment of his misconduct and a transparent account of the investigation’s findings. 

To the university’s administrators, I offer this: your reputations are on trial as much as Agbegbedia’s. If you fail to act decisively, history will record your inaction as betrayal. Do not let the ivory tower crumble under the weight of your cowardice.

Finally, the Vice-Chancellor must reflect on his role in this debacle. Leadership is not a refuge for neutrality. If Professor Fasina cannot bring himself to expel a man whose actions have caused untold harm, then perhaps he too is unfit for the position he holds.

“Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise” - Victor Hugo (in "Le Hus Miserables").

Is Biafra an idea whose time has come? Victor Hugo (26 February, 1802 - 22 May, 1885) says “Nothing else in the world… not all the armies… is so powerful as an idea whose time has come”. Another variant of the same quotation says: “There is one thing stronger than all the armies in the world, and that is an idea whose time has come” (Hugo in "The Future of Man").

How does this work? An idea whose time has come is a “historical moment where the idea or concept (which takes on a spirit of its own) is perfectly received by a cultural movement that surrenders to its utility as dictated by historical necessity” Note that a cultural movement is more powerful, more encompassing and more demanding than a political movement, although it encompasses the latter. An example is Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution in China.

When Hugo made his statement, he did not have Biafra in mind. In fact, he was talking of Literature and not even of politics, nationalism or war. He said the time had come to abandon the conventional approach to literature, which he reasoned left it mangled and mutilated. But, today, that statement is more famous with those trying to upturn the existing social order in pursuit of nationalist goals.

Is the resurgence of a sovereign State of Biafra such an idea? I got sufficiently puzzled to ask this question because of recent developments. Everyone who thought the arrest and detention of Simon Ekpa in Finland signalled the end of resurgent Biafra’s deadly activities must have a re-think. The same way it was thought that the rendition of Nnamdi Kanu and his incarceration would silence Biafra - but it did not. Instead, a more vicious Simon Ekpa filled the void.

Now, one lady has come forward to claim to fill the void created by Ekpa. I watched her blab and blurt out gibberish - and they said she was a Dr.! Is it a medical doctorate, an academic Ph. D. or honoris causa? That, however, is a topic for another day but whichever, she did not demonstrate intelligence. She seemed more intent on displaying masculinity or macho than intelligence; and more brawn than brain. But that is not even my worry here today.

My worries include: Who are those behind the push or agitation for the sovereign state of Biafra? Assuming they get Biafra today, will they be willing to leave their investments in Nigeria behind and retreat to what former President Muhammadu Buhari once derogatively described as a tiny dot in the middle of nowhere? Have they counted the cost (Luke 14:28)? Or they think they will still be allowed to roam about and loom large all over Nigeria they would have exited?

They should ask Britain after BREXIT! When they draw the map of their imaginary Biafra Republic, they include people who have been vociferous in denouncing them and their Biafra project. How do they intend to handle that? A clearly defined boundary is one of the indispensable criteria for statehood.

It is necessary to begin to cross the t’s and dot the i’s of the likelihood of an independent Republic of Biafra if they are not to cause monumental havoc to themselves and their immediate neighbours. How will a sovereign State of Biafra respond to neighbours not willing to submit to their authority? Apply diplomacy? Or pacify them by levying war? Which of these two do you think is in Biafra’s DNA?

FEEDBACK

RE: Abike Dabiri versus Kemi Badenoch

"Tan’fe-ani" is the bane of the critics of Kemi Badenoch! Hopefully, Nigeria shall, one day, experience an "accidental leader" who will address her endemic corrupt tendencies - a major factor that propels the “Japa” syndrome in her youths. I pray and hope that Kemi Badenoch succeeds in becoming the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in her bid! -Taiwo Lasisi, President, Ta'awun Political Forum, Lagos.

If corruption is the reason for "japa", then, some of the people involved are even more corrupt because they were still collecting salaries that they did not work for! Also, money stolen from Nigeria is wharehoused overseas! So, those foreign leaders don't have the moral right to call Nigerians fantastically corrupt. I would rather describe the Nigerians as corrupt but the Whites as fantastically corrupt! - Kola Oloye.

I knew Prof. Femi Badejo and his friend, the late Dr. Remi Anifowose, at UNILAG. He has every right as a Nigerian and as an intellectual to his opinion. I am afraid, however, that he is in the minority on this matter. The truth is that there are many Nigerians who are doing far better in all spheres of human endeavor than Kemi. They have not disgraced Nigeria as Kemi has done. It is on record that she grew up in Surulere, Lagos; attended Staff School at UNILAG, and her father was an upper middle class person; so, where was Kemi fetching water from the stream and firewood from the bush? Abike did not just go to the press; it was the press that asked if she had reached out to Kemi. As for Nigeria being fantastically corrupt, all the monies stolen in Nigeria are warehoused in London and other Western countries! - Kayode Abegunde.

Abike Dabiri lamenting that Kemi Badenoch did not give her audience lacks diplomatic competence. She should not see Kemi Badenoch as a Nigerian, even though she has Nigerian roots. Otherwise, she would not have been elected as the leader of the Conservative Party. She has so many things to grapple with and top notch in her political agenda now (is not) giving audience to a low-level Nigerian government official. Doesn’t Dabiri realise that Kemi Badenoch is today the opposition leader in the British parliament and, thus, a potential British Prime Minister if her political permutation goes well? Coming to Fani-Kayode, he can not claim, and neither can his roots claim, to love the Yoruba. He was a child during the “Opreation Wet-ẹ̀” in the Western Region to know that his father, wearing a short knicker with a jerry can of petrol in his hand, was the master-mind of “Wet-ẹ̀”, which gave birth to political thuggery in Yoruba land, an evil that has refused to vacate our political space till date. Neither he nor Abike Dabiri can measure up to the political status of Kemi Badenoch. - Pst. Jube Olawole.

This is not complicated at all! Some people evidently underrated Kemi! I am quite certain, and I think it is now obvious, that Kemi has it all worked out in her mind - she has to be a brilliant thinker to be a computer engineer! To boot, and in support of those credentials, she is now Leader of The Opposition and Shadow Prime Minister in Britain, and the first Black African to lead a major party in the United Kingdom. Anyone who thinks she is stupid or irresolute should blame themselves for not being smart! From all the indicators which Kemi is setting off, she is, and she considers herself Yorùbá, like her father, but she is also British and refuses to be 'Nigerian', unlike her father! She has said that for the umpteenth time - and we are all aware of it - that she does not want Britain to become like 'Nigeria'! Is that not clear enough? And what can be bad with that? As a matter of fact, we the indigenous nations who are grossly unfortunate to be roped into the monumental scam known as 'Nigeria' can turn that against the British, its infamous inventors, and ask them to cooperate in the dissolution of the misfortune known as 'Nigeria'. As the official Leader of The British Opposition, even Kemi Badenoch says it! Her mother, who knows her better than anyone else, says she is a chip off the old block in her father, Dr. Femi Adegoke! - Demola Akintoye.

Why do we celebrate excellence in the Diaspora but prefer mediocrity at home? - Emmanuel Chiadi.

Kemi Badenoch was right in her response to Abike Dabiri-Erewa and the others. Could it be the ‘pull her down ’ syndrome or what exactly was the problem with those attacking her? Could they be using her to gain relevance and cheap favour from the government of the day? Why are we making a parody of our existential failure? We are living in sad times! - Ezekiel Odeyemi.

Please take time to help your readers know that whatever name they call the apparatus that Abike Dabiri has carved out for herself is unconstitutional and only possible in a corrupt country called Nigeria. She can use her “good offices” to bag an ambassadorial position to any country of her choice but she should please stop using that aberration organization of hers that has consistently undermined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Anyone with proper self-esteem and (who is) knowledgeable about proper governance will distance themselves from the misnomer arrangement she has put together. - Adewunmi Alabi.

Nigeria’s system rewards crooks and condemns the saints. That’s part of the reason for the impunity we all witness today. Profligacy, political instability, citizen alienation, terrorism, and violence define the Nigerian crime scene. Unarguably, Nigeria is a crime scene. Nigeria is a criminal enterprise for those in power and their friends in the corridors of power. But like the Evil Forest in Chinua Achebe’s magnum opus,  Things Fall Apart, the Nigerian criminal enterprise kills a man on the day that his life is sweetest to him.
 
Nigeria’s political landscape, from the Federal to the local levels, presents a reward system that appears to encourage profligacy recklessness, and thieving by public officeholders. For example, the “temporary” forfeitures of various assets by the former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emeifele and of course the $153 million looted by the former minister of petroleum, Diezani Allison-Madueke to the Nigerian government, and many other criminalities of public officers, once again point to the mindset of terrorists in our beloved country Nigeria.
 
Furthermore, criminality has become the norm everywhere, aided firmly by the crooked systems embedded in the skewed and iniquitous unitary constitution running the amorphous political structures of Nigeria. It is such that only very few people still believe in building a nation where good legacies are feasible for all of us to see.
 
Unfortunately, Nigeria, as constituted, can’t even be described as a Nation that could earn the loyalties of the citizens and various groups and therefore everyone harbors the mindset to steal from the system. The greater shame is that even women are now very much involved in this monumental heist and crime against humanity. The very recent case of Betta Edu, which may have been “swept under the carpet” and many more is very disheartening, to say the least. In addition, Nigeria’s financial system is not only corrupt in practice, it is also deeply entrenched in corruption by design as stated earlier above.
 
Following from the above, it is pertinent to mention that, the tragedy of Nigeria today is Corruption. I have written extensively about corruption, profligacy, recklessness, and thieving by public officers with the intention of checkmating these tendencies. For example, I wrote several articles including #CurrencySwap: Emeifele And The Burden Of History Published by Sahara reporters and many other media organizations.
 
Additionally, some other articles are: #Mockery of Religion: Emeifele in Many of Us #Emeifele/Malami: Public Servants With The Mindsets Of Terrorists. Published while they were still in office. These are just two out of the numerous times that I wrote on the subject of promoting decency in our system. At this point, I would like to share with my readers one of the many feedback from one of my readers:
 
“There is no sound reason for anyone who considers himself or herself educated to continue to antagonize Emefiele and completely and thoroughly absolve his boss, Buhari. And as it is, Buhari himself has not condemned Emefiele, bearing witness to the fact that Emefiele has his boss’ blessings. To continue to single out Emefiele for the failure or success of the #NairaSwap is nothing but malicious.”
 
In light of many of the feedback, I wish to conclude this contribution about Nigeria’s Silent Tragedy/The Vicious Circle of Corruption with an African proverb that goes thus: To circumcise a leopard is not the thing, the thing is: Who will hold him down? Meaning: that sometimes the biggest challenge lies not in the task itself but in the associated risks and obstacles.
 
Finally, I will recommend or suggest a comprehensive restructuring of the very system operating in Nigeria in such a way that we can build INSTITUTIONS that will be self-regulating and immune to the manipulations, whims, and caprices of the very few amongst us who suffer the diseases of excessive greed, selfishness, covetousness, and kleptomania.
 
Fundamentally, it is pure madness to think a corrupt system will birth good governance. A bad system will beat a good person anytime, anywhere. When we were reading about the concept of “primitive accumulation” by heartlessly corrupt people in books, majority of us wouldn’t have understood it, except now that we are seeing and feeling it! EFCC recover estate in Abuja measuring 150,500 square metres and containing 753 Units of duplexes and other apartments. This is the single largest asset recovery by the EFCC. The Estate rests on Plot 109 Cadastral Zone C09, Lokogoma District, Abuja.
 
Maybe, just maybe, we might get a more decent management structure in which we put all of us in check because, in the final analysis, all men are unruly creatures and only strong systems and structures keep us in the best of manners. This is evidence of a former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, owns the large estate in Abuja with 753 duplexes forfeited to the Nigerian government through the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), in a court ruling on Monday.
 
Human rights activist and convener of the #RevolutionNow Movement, Omoyele Sowore, confirmed the development in a post on his Twitter.

The furore raised by Dr Abati’s commentary has unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, led to the usual ethnic finger pointing, with very few commentators making any effort to go beyond the emotionalism that beclouded the issue.  What T.O.S Benson was reported to have said is a common accusation or stereotype against the Igbos.

I am, of course, assuming that he did not deliberately present ‘alternative facts’ or  misspoke  and that Dr Abati did not mishear. Based on these assumptions, I would argue that Dr Abati did not really say anything new to warrant some of the personal attacks he received and some of the counter-ethnic insults by his defenders. 

Though some commentators have variously claimed that T.O.S Benson’s in-laws actually gifted him a parcel of land contrary to his purported claim, or that he probably harboured some malice, those refutations, on their own, are insufficient to douse the lingering perception that the Igbos do not sell land to foreigners. In the same vein, even a validation of that story would still not be sufficient to conclude that it is a general practice among the Igbos.

 
 

One needs a study which would show the number of applications for land allotment from non-Igbos in Igboland and the number that were denied based on the applicant’s ethnicity or ‘otherness’ before one can generalise one way or the other. Such a study, to the best of my knowledge, does not exist. The only pieces of evidence we have in this conversations seem to be isolated examples, hearsays and anecdotal evidence which belong to the realm of grapevine talks.   

The truth is that there is in every culture and even subcultures, elements of fear of the foreigner, especially when their population is substantial enough to affect a town’s demography or when such migrants constitute what Amy Chua, the Chinese-American Professor of Law at Yale University, would call “market dominant minorities”. These are a set of migrants who would move into an area and within a short time try to exert disproportionate influence in the local political economy. If some “migrants” are tolerated or spared profiling, it is often because their number and influence in the area are not seen as threats. Have we not all heard of landlords who would not rent to Ijebus, Igbos, Hausas or Muslims? 

If I were in a place where T.O.S Benson was said to have made the remark, I would have asked him why he wanted to go to his wife’s state and village to build a house for her and her daughter. This is different from a son-in-law offering to build a family home for his in-laws if he has the means or feels that his parents-in-laws deserve better than what they have. In most patriarchal societies, once a woman is married, she changes her maiden name to that of her husband, and becomes part of her husband’s family and community. This means that in most Igbo communities, a request by T.O.S Benson to buy land to build a house for his wife and daughter would be seen as an anomaly and would be viewed with utmost suspicion, including on whether it was a ploy to cunningly divorce their daughter. 

 I noticed the same anomaly in 2022 when Betty Anyanwu-Akeredolu, wife of the then governor of Ondo State, Rotimi Akeredolu (now late),  who, with the support of her husband, wanted to contest for a senatorial seat in the 2023 elections in her parents’ Imo East Senatorial district rather than in her husband’s senatorial district in Ondo State. In most parts of Igboland, once a woman is married and changed her surname to that of her husband’s, she has become virtually a visitor in her father’s home and community – unless she is divorced. 

As we interrogate stereotypes we should also interrogate glorious attributions. These are ego-massaging statements that have been repeated so often that they are now taken as self-evident truths. For instance, during the said night of tributes for Senator Ifeanyi Ubah, Senate President Akpabio repeated one of such glorious attributions about Igbos: they are very entrepreneurial or ‘mercantile’; if you go to any place and do not see an Igboman, pack your things and go home because “there is nothing there”, and wherever the Igbos go, they build homes and help to “develop” the place.

The main problem with the above glorious attributions is that they are often framed in a manner that wrongly suggests that other ethnic groups are less industrious than the Igbos. While it is true that the Igbos are very visible in commerce and are literally to be found in every nook and crevice of this country (and even outside the country), the narrations are often denuded of the historical and cultural explanations for  these tendencies.  The truth is that with one of the highest population densities in West Africa, many in traditional Igbo society could not survive on farming and therefore took to a number of non-farming vocations such as trading, which naturally took them to other parts of the country. For instance while  Dr Nnamdi Azikiwe was born in 1904 in Zungeru, in the present day Niger State,  most of his contemporaries   in the struggle for independence were born in their ethnic homelands. With time, commerce and living in other parts of the country became part of the Igbos’ ‘achievement-oriented’ culture. This was reinforced by a certain belief that an Igbo person who lives ‘abroad’ (outside the town or community), would be accorded higher respect than the person who lives within the community. Following from this, the Igbos tend to have two homes – one tied to their ancestral communities, and the other tied to where they earn their livelihood. However, since this is not a shared norm among other ethnic groups, we cannot conclude that being visible or dominant in commerce or in living outside one’s ethnic homeland makes the Igbos superior or more industrious than others. In cultural studies, no culture is superior to others, hence we do not talk of hierarchy of cultures but of cultural relativity- each culture serves its members, and there are always elements that are appealing and others that repel in every culture. 

The above explains Senator Akpabio’s quip that while the Igbos who come to his state build homes and houses, members of other ethnic groups generally do not. Unlike the Igbos, the traditional Yoruba and many people from the North, with their abundant fertile land, had no need to take to commerce in the same magnitude as the Igbos did and still do, and therefore were less inclined to move outside their enclaves to look for economic opportunities. In addition to land surplus, the Yoruba had very early contact with the Europeans: Lagos was a Crown colony as early as March 1862, meaning that it was governed directly by the government of England at the time. Partly because of this, by 1872, Lagos had already become a cosmopolitan trading centre with a population of over 60,000 as it attracted all and sundry looking for greener pastures, including a number of the freed slaves from America, Caribbean and Britain who were settled in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Many of these were professionals who assimilated into the Yoruba culture of the 18th and 19th centuries and in turn influenced the cultures of the Yoruba not just in Lagos but also in the contiguous areas. Since people are influenced and socialised into the vocation of their forebears, this again partly explains the dominance of the Yoruba in the professions. Similarly, the people from the North, which has abundant fertile land, became dominant in agriculture, and therefore were on average less likely to settle outside their enclaves in the North. 

Another glorious attribution that is worth interrogating is that the Yoruba are the most accommodating of all the ethnic groups in the country. I do not know the metrics used for measuring this. If it is because you have more non- Yoruba living in Lagos and its environs, then this cannot be a valid metric because all major cities, including the state capitals, pull people towards them because of the enhanced opportunities they offer. In fact, in almost all the state capitals in this country, non-indigenes outnumber the indigenes without this being an issue. In fact, if the Yoruba are called the most hospitable because they “allow” people to live in Yorubaland, what do we call the original indigenes of Abuja and the indigenes of all the state capitals in the country?  

It is important to emphasize that just as talents are not evenly distributed in any federation, there is also ‘ethnic socialisation’’ by people who operate from the other side of the moral divide. For instance when we mention drug dealing, credit card fraud, ‘Yahoo Yahoo’, religious fundamentalism, prostitution abroad or militancy, accusing fingers would be pointing in different ethnic directions. This means that despite what the Internet Warriors would want us to believe, no ethnic group should pretend to occupy the moral high-ground or feel better or worse than others.

Seven, while living in Europe I saw myself as an Africanist, and used my publishing firm and my writings to challenge theories or innuendos that maligned Africa or ruled out development and democratic possibilities for the continent. However, as I get older, I tell people that I am no longer an Africanist but a humanist. This is because with age and experience one realises that every race, ethnic group, community and even kindred, is an embodiment of the good, the bad and the really horrible.  As the American writer and historian, James Tuslow Adams, would put it:  “There is so much good in the worst of us, and so much bad in the best of us, that it ill behoves any of us to find fault with the rest of us.”

*Jideofor Adibe is Professor of Political Science at Nasarawa State University, Keffi.

Nigeria and South Africa have a prolific history together. Nigeria was in the vanguard of the campaign against apartheid and spearheaded the adoption of the pivotal 1989 UN Declaration on Apartheid and its deleterious corollaries in the country.

Both countries formally established diplomatic relations in February 1994, and this year makes it 30 years since the bilateral nuptials.

In 1999, the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC), a flagship instrument of constructive and strategic engagement between both countries, was forged. It is 25 years of this compact today.

Nigeria and South Africa have maintained robust relations with about 34 agreements and memoranda of understanding currently between both countries — the two largest economies in Africa.

 

These relations have witnessed even more fecundity with President Bola Tinubu leading the way for broader and stronger African partnerships. President Tinubu has always emphasised collaboration and inclusiveness as critical ingredients to achieving global food security, addressing collective challenges, and driving innovation across a chain of interests for a more stable and prosperous Africa and the world.

In a show of good fellowship, on May 29, 2023, President Cyril Ramaphosa of South Africa attended the inauguration of President Tinubu. President Tinubu returned the visit during the inauguration of President Ramaphosa for a second term in office in June 2024. This is not only symbolic for cooperation but also for solidarity and comradeship.

The 11th session of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission meeting began on November 28 in Cape Town, with senior officials, followed by the ministerial session on December 2, and the presidential session on December 3. The meeting between the two leaders is taking place at the Presidential Office, Tuynhuys, Cape Town.

 

The areas of cooperation between Nigeria and South Africa are broad and encompass economic, technical, scientific, social spheres, as well as tourism. South Africa is one of Nigeria’s major trading partners, with Nigeria accounting for about 64 percent of the total trade of the Southern African nation with West Africa.

At the meeting, President Tinubu made resounding remarks and recounted the role of Nigeria in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa.

“My enthusiasm for this event is born of the storied and proud history of the Nigeria – South Africa relationship, which has been strong since the end of apartheid and the the birth of true democracy in this great country.

“Nigeria’s contributions to that epic struggle represent noble and outstanding moments in our foreign policy and in the evolution of our role as a leading nation on this continent. We did what we had to do because it was just and because you are our brothers and sisters who deserved freedom and justice, not the discrimination and suppression to which that terrible, unjust and oppressive system subjected this excellent people.

 

“Nigerians from all walks of life mobilised in unison with the illustrious people of this country out of a firm conviction that apartheid was an evil to be swept away not something that should be countenanced and legitimised through inaction or half measures.

“It was for us a historic responsibility that we discharged with pride and determination. As was expected, our efforts put Nigeria on a collision course with some powerful countries. Nigeria is proud to have shared the burdens of her brothers in South Africa during such critical times.

“This is the essence of the brotherhood we seek for this continent; to stay side by side, shoulder to shoulder for liberation, nondiscrimination and for democratic good governance in support of the best and legitimate aspirations of the people. Just as we stood with you, we shall always bear in remembrance how South Africa was with us at critical moments of our struggle against military rule,” the President said.

The President also emphasised the indubitability of cooperation, stating thus: “We must ensure that the spirit of collaboration and cooperation between our two leading countries in Africa will intensify and deepen under our leadership of our respective nations. This is not a matter of choice but of a destiny that includes a historical responsibility that we owe the African people.”

 

While highlighting the many memoranda of understanding signed between Nigeria and South Africa, President Tinubu sounded a note of caution, saying: “Let us not count our successes by the number of MoUs and agreements signed. They will be mere papers until we implement them. This is the job of our senior officials and I must implore them to redouble their efforts in this regard.”

The President did not fail to address the concerns in the relationship between Nigeria and South Africa. He said persistent irritants in the relations between both countries must be dealt with appropriately.

 

President Tinubu also relayed Nigeria’s interest to join South Africa and the African Union in the G20 “so as to strengthen the African voice in the group and globally”.

“As South Africa assumes the presidency of the G20, we urge that the position be leveraged for the development of our continent.

 

“This high-level strategic partnership between South Africa must become a model of leadership and shared vision that will inspire and take our people into a brighter and greater future of prosperity and development, an Africa That We Want,” the President said.

In his remarks, President Ramaphosa underlined the strong bond between Nigeria and South Africa, called for the strengthening of relations.

 

“We are two countries united in purpose and vision. We will remain forever grateful to Nigeria for its leading role in the international campaign to end apartheid in South Africa.

“As we mark 30 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations, we see a bright future for our relationship. Our strong bonds of friendship provide a firm foundation for more meaningful economic cooperation. Nigeria is host to a number of South African companies.

“South Africa has always been open for Nigerian business, reflected in a number of investments and operations established in this country. But there is much more we need to do. We need to remove the remaining constraints to greater investment, just as we need to address some of the challenges that companies have experience.

“We are encouraged by the actions being undertaken under your leadership to further strengthen and foster a business environment in Nigeria that offers assurances to investors, including from South Africa. Our government continues with its efforts to improve the ease of doing business in South Africa,” President Ramaphosa said.

The strengthening of relations between Nigeria, South Africa, and other African nations betokens stability, peace, and prosperity for Africa. It is a new order of friendship, collaboration, and progress.

Fredrick Nwabufo is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement

As Nigeria and South Africa hold the 11th session of Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission, in Cape Town, on Tue Dec 3, 2024 it is trite to establish the contours of their relationship and to thank President Tinubu for keeping faith with Africa’s other big brother.

The radar on Nigeria again shifts to South Africa witnessing three weeks of unprecedented shuttle political and economic diplomacy.

President Bola Tinubu’s co-chairmanship of the 11th Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) alongside President Cyril Ramaphosa marks a significant diplomatic step towards fostering stronger bilateral ties.

This meeting, which coincides with the 25th anniversary of the BNC, underscores the importance of high-level engagements between Africa’s two largest economies.

As Nigeria and South Africa convene the 11th session of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) in Cape Town on Tuesday, December 3, 2024, it is imperative to reflect on the historical and evolving contours of their relationship. This milestone session, coinciding with the 25th anniversary of the BNC, serves as a testament to the resilience, ambition, and shared vision of Africa’s two largest economies. It is also a fitting moment to commend President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for his unwavering commitment to fostering robust ties with Africa’s other “big brother,” South Africa.

In the wake of three weeks of intense shuttle diplomacy spanning political and economic arenas, Nigeria’s radar is again fixed on South Africa. These engagements underscore a mutual recognition of their intertwined destinies in shaping Africa’s future.

As leaders, policymakers, and stakeholders converge in Cape Town, the air will be laden with both expectation and nostalgia—a poignant reminder of a partnership that has endured triumphs, challenges, and moments of historic significance.

 

One cannot but recall May 1990, when Nelson Mandela, few months after his release from Robben Island, embarked on a state visit to Lagos. That moment, etched in the annals of African solidarity, rekindled the bond between Nigeria and South Africa, catalyzing a renewed era of collaboration. It was a symbolic bridge, uniting the aspirations of two nations whose struggles and victories have defined the narrative of Africa’s journey toward liberation and unity.

This week, Cape Town becomes the stage for another chapter in this storied relationship. With the BNC serving as a platform for dialogue and cooperation, the two nations are poised to reaffirm their roles as co-architects of a continent driven by shared prosperity, peace, and purpose. Their ability to navigate the currents of history while embracing the opportunities of the future demonstrates that this partnership is, indeed, coming of age.

Established in 1999, the Nigeria-South Africa BNC is a structured platform aimed at enhancing cooperation across political, economic, and social sectors. Over the years, the commission has evolved into a key mechanism for dialogue, addressing shared challenges, and fostering sustainable development.

This year’s session, encompassing eight working groups, highlights both nations’ commitment to addressing mutual priorities: These key priorities include political consultations (ensuring stability in regional and global contexts), consular and migration Issues (addressing concerns such as xenophobia and facilitating smoother relations), banking and finance (exploring avenues for economic integration), defence and security (trackling transnational crimes and terrorism), as well as manufacturing and trade (including strengthening intra-African trade under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement, AfCFTA). Also covered are mines and energy (leveraging natural resources for mutual benefit, social sector development (promoting education, healthcare, and culture), and trade and Investment (expanding business opportunities for both nations).

 

The philosophical underpinnings for the BNC embodies principles of Pan-Africanism, Ubuntu, and liberal institutionalism, emphasizing unity, collective progress, and institutionalized cooperation. As Nelson Mandela aptly stated, “The greatest glory in living lies not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.” This captures the essence of overcoming historical frictions to achieve a united African future.

President Tinubu’s leadership in this context is pivotal, reflecting Nigeria’s strategic role in Africa’s socio-economic and political landscape.

A discussion of the ongoing efforts would be incomplete without referencing philosophical concepts that accentuate its significance.

Rooted in the works of W.E.B. Du Bois, Kwame Nkrumah, and Julius Nyerere, Pan-Africanism emphasizes the solidarity of African nations to combat external domination and promote socio-economic progress. The BNC reflects this ideal by uniting Nigeria and South Africa as pillars of African development. As Kwame Nkrumah once said, “The forces that unite us are intrinsic and greater than the superimposed influences that keep us apart.”. This quote underscores the importance of Nigeria and South Africa overcoming historical challenges, such as xenophobia, to focus on collective progress.

 

The BNC’s deliberations and MoUs can be seen as an extension of this principle. According to Aristotle, “The good of the people must be the great aim of government.” The Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu, often translated as “I am because we are,” aligns with the spirit of the BNC. It emphasizes interconnectedness, mutual respect, and the collective good. Ubuntu offers a philosophical lens through which Nigeria and South Africa can navigate shared challenges and opportunities. As Desmond Tutu once reflected: “We can only be human together: hence, the essence of collaborative efforts in fostering a united African front.

Beyond these, the Dependency Theory, associated with scholars like Andre Gunder Frank, critiques the global economic system’s perpetuation of underdevelopment in the Global South. By strengthening intra-African trade and reducing reliance on foreign powers, Nigeria and South Africa can challenge these structures through platforms like the BNC. Joseph Stiglitz’s words that “Development is about transforming the lives of people, not just transforming economies,” aligns with the BNC’s goals of translating economic growth into meaningful societal impacts.

 

The pragmatic effort to address specific issues in trade, security, and development stresses the responsibility of both leaders to focus on concrete outcomes over rhetoric. More importantly, it refects the basic principles of African Renaissance. Championed by scholars like Cheikh Anta Diop and Thabo Mbeki, the African Renaissance envisions a continent reclaiming its rightful place in global affairs through unity, cultural revival, and economic development. The BNC is a practical manifestation of this vision. Certainly, Tinubu and Ramaphosa are evoking the shared identity and destiny of Nigerians and South Africans in fostering an African Renaissance. The BNC serves as a practical example of liberal institutionalism, fostering dialogue and collaboration in a structured manner. As Martin Luther King Jr once stated, “We must learn to live together as brothers or perish together as fools.” This underscores the imperative for sustained collaboration through institutions like the BNC.

Constructivism suggests that international relations are shaped by ideas, identities, and shared values rather than mere material factors. Therefore, the symbolic 25th anniversary of the BNC is a reflection of the shared identity and history of Nigeria and South Africa. According to John Maynard Keynes, “The ideas of men, their dreams and visions, are much more powerful than material forces.” The role of shared visions in shaping Nigeria-South Africa relations cannot be over-emphasized.

 

Shared History

The history of Nigeria-South Africa relationship runs through the period of Anti-Apartheid Solidarity of 1960 – 1965, through Post-Apartheid Engagement that started in 1999. Nigeria was a leading supporter of South Africa’s liberation movement. Between 1960 and 1995, Nigeria committed substantial financial and diplomatic resources to the anti-apartheid struggle, offering refuge and education to South African exiles like Thabo Mbeki.The Bi-National Commission, established in 1999, institutionalized bilateral cooperation. However, relations have faced challenges, including xenophobic attacks in South Africa and trade imbalances.

 

The current nature of the two countries’ economic relations shows that Nigeria’s oil exports and South Africa’s industrial expertise complement each other. Opportunities under AfCFTA and energy collaboration highlight the untapped potential of this relationship. Looking ahead, it is rather easy to see that with strong historical ties and shared visions, Nigeria and South Africa are well-positioned to lead Africa’s socio-economic transformation.

From Anti-Apartheid Solidarity to Economic Collaboration

The Nigeria-South Africa relationship is a tale of resilience, solidarity, and transformation, deeply rooted in shared historical, political, and economic narratives. As Africa’s largest economies, the two nations have carved distinct yet intertwined paths that highlight their roles as both leaders and collaborators in shaping the continent’s destiny. From Nigeria’s pivotal support during South Africa’s anti-apartheid struggle to their evolving economic partnership, this relationship embodies the essence of African unity. Yet, it has not been without its challenges, marked by moments of friction and unresolved tensions.

The forthcoming 11th session of the Nigeria-South Africa Bi-National Commission (BNC) in Cape Town provides a fitting occasion to reflect on this storied partnership. With the backdrop of the 25th anniversary of the BNC, it is an opportune moment to examine how the two nations have evolved from their shared fight for justice to becoming co-architects of Africa’s economic and political renaissance.

The roots of the Nigeria-South Africa partnership lie in the era of apartheid, where Nigeria emerged as one of the most steadfast allies of the African National Congress (ANC) and other liberation movements in South Africa and Nigeria’s key contributions cover:

• Diplomatic Advocacy: Nigeria was a vocal opponent of apartheid on global platforms such as the United Nations and the Commonwealth, pushing for sanctions and isolating South Africa’s apartheid regime diplomatically.
• Financial and Material Aid: Under initiatives such as the “Mandela Tax,” successive Nigerian governments provided significant financial and logistical support to the ANC. Over the decades, Nigeria is estimated to have spent over $61 billion in its efforts to dismantle apartheid.
• Educational and Cultural Solidarity: Nigeria welcomed South African exiles and offered scholarships to ANC members, including figures like Thabo Mbeki, who studied and lived in Nigeria during apartheid. Nigerian universities served as sanctuaries for intellectual and political development for many South African activists.
• Civil Society Advocacy: Nigerian artists, intellectuals, and activists utilized literature, music, and advocacy to raise global awareness of the atrocities of apartheid and rally international solidarity.

Nigeria-South Africa relations in the post-apartheid era reflects collaboration, along with some measure of frictions. With apartheid dismantled in 1994 and Nelson Mandela’s election as South Africa’s first democratic president, the dynamic between the two nations transitioned from solidarity to collaboration. However, this new era was also punctuated by moments of tension.

Collaborative Achievements

• Institutional Frameworks: The establishment of the Bi-National Commission in 1999 formalized a structured approach to bilateral engagement.
• African Leadership: Both nations played pivotal roles in initiatives such as the African Union (AU) and the New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), advancing the African Renaissance.
• Economic Ties: South African corporations such as MTN, Shoprite, and Multichoice became prominent players in Nigeria’s economic landscape, fostering trade and investment.
Sources of Tension
• Xenophobia: Recurrent xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa have strained relations, spotlighting socio-economic grievances and perceptions of competition.
• Diplomatic Disputes: Occasional policy disagreements, such as South Africa’s visa denial to Nigerian officials during Goodluck Jonathan’s presidency, have highlighted gaps in mutual understanding.
• Trade Imbalance: While South African businesses thrive in Nigeria, Nigerian firms face significant barriers in South Africa, fueling perceptions of unequal benefits.

Pragmatic mutual exploration of trade and economic potentials has since taken over. As Africa’s two largest economies, Nigeria and South Africa are uniquely positioned to lead the continent’s economic transformation.

Current Dynamics

• Trade Composition: Nigeria primarily exports crude oil and natural gas to South Africa, while South Africa exports machinery, manufactured goods, and processed foods.
• Investment Landscape: South African firms dominate in sectors like telecommunications (MTN), retail (Shoprite), and media (Multichoice).
Opportunities for Growth
• Intra-African Trade: The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) presents opportunities for deeper trade integration, particularly in technology and industrial goods.
• Energy Partnerships: Nigeria’s energy surplus and South Africa’s demand create possibilities for collaboration in oil, gas, and renewables.
• Shared Regional Leadership: Joint infrastructural and developmental initiatives can drive economic growth across Africa.

A Vision for the Future

Despite historical and contemporary challenges, the Nigeria-South Africa partnership remains a cornerstone of African diplomacy. The 25th anniversary of the Bi-National Commission serves as an opportunity to recalibrate their relationship and unlock its potential for mutual and continental benefits.

As Thabo Mbeki poignantly remarked:

“We share a common destiny as Africans. Only through unity and cooperation can we rise above our challenges and achieve greatness.”

This sentiment captures the essence of Nigeria-South Africa relations—a partnership poised to redefine Africa’s trajectory toward peace, prosperity, and global relevance.

Dare is special adviser to the president (media and public communications).