Many Nigerians were caught unawares by yesterday’s revocation of the license of Heritage Bank by the CBN, but among many industry operators, it was widely known that the bank has been severely distressed in the last five years. Under Godwin Emefiele, the CBN did not have the appetite to close down a bank, and so Heritage was under life support for a long time, relying mostly on borrowing from the CBN and the interbank market to support its businesses. But Yemi Cardoso is taking the apex bank in a different direction. He’s trimming the workforce, streamlining functions and divesting it from noncore regulatory duties. Heritage has therefore become the first bank since the 2005 consolidation to be allowed to crash. There have been a few sick ones since then – notably Intercontinental and Diamond – but they were not liquidated. They were purchased by a healthier one. So, why was Heritage not purchased by one of the stronger banks?

According to CBN’s Revocation Order signed by Cardoso, dated June 3 and seen by this writer, Heritage Bank contravened Section 12 (1) of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA) 2020 in five different ways: It has insufficient assets to meet its liabilities; conducted its business in an unsound manner; failed to comply with specific obligations imposed upon it under BOFIA, 2020 and the Central Bank of Nigeria Act as well as rules, regulation, guidelines and directives made under both Acts; is critically undercapitalized with a capital adequacy ratio below the prudential minimum applicable to its license category; and its financial performance and condition constitute a threat to financial stability.

 Based on Heritage Bank’s 2021 audited (but qualified) Statement of Accounts and Annual Report, its net interest income (that is interest income less interest expense) was in the negative. Net interest income measures the profitability of a bank and is a major source of income for a bank. It is the difference between what a bank earns as interest on loans and what the bank pays out to depositors as interest on their deposits. Heritage was paying out more to its depositors (mostly interbank lenders and CBN) than what it was earning on loans. This is largely because the bank’s non-performing loan (NPL) ratio was as high as 81.2 per cent. In other words, Heritage had too much bad loans in its books and so was not earning enough interest income. Out of every N100 it gave out as a loan, N81.2 was bad and unrecoverable. This is a recipe for disaster for any bank.

In addition, the bank’s operating expenses were also higher than its interest income, and so for the 2021 financial year, the bank recorded a loss of N82.928 billion and an accumulated loss of N459 billion. It is the largest loss recorded by any bank in this country in the last 30 years. Heritage Bank’s shareholders’ funds were -N230 billion (Negative N230 billion). At 81.2 per cent NPL, accumulated losses of N459 billion and Negative Shareholders’ funds of N230 billion, Heritage was a dead bank in the world of the living. There was nothing to do to revive it. Just imagine putting a cadaver in a shop and claiming that it is the shopkeeper!

You can now understand why no other bank was willing to buy Heritage. A distressed bank is bought for the value it would add to the purchaser despite its ill health. It could be the large branch network; size of customer base or its retail franchise with considerable savings and current account balances. Diamond Bank was distressed when Access Bank bought it in 2014, but it was an attractive investment because it had a lot of retail customers which Access didn’t have then. Intercontinental was very distressed too (I wrote a lengthy article on this in February), but Access went into it because it had a wide branch network which Access didn’t have then. And so, because of these two acquisitions, Access automatically became the nation’s biggest bank by assets and customer base.

Heritage had nothing to offer any potential buyer apart from its long and complicated history which might have been its Achilles heel. It was founded in the 1970s as Société Générale Bank (SGBN), a subsidiary of a French Bank, by the late Kwara politician, Dr. Abubarkar Olusola Saraki. He was the leader of the Senate in the Second Republic under the NPN, and his son, Bukola Saraki, a medical doctor like the father, was Kwara State governor in 2003 and senate President in 2015. In 2006, the CBN closed down SGBN after the Soludo consolidation for failure to meet the N25 billion minimum capital requirement. But SGBN successfully challenged the closure in court.

 In December 2012, the CBN reissued SGBN promoters a regional banking license and with new new owners, the bank was rebranded as Heritage Banking Company Ltd. It opened for business under the new name in March 2013. Heritage was eager to grow inorganically, and so it acquired Enterprise Bank, a distressed bank formerly known as Afribank, from AMCON (Asset Management Corporation of Nigeria) in 2015 for N56.1 billion. A rebranded distressed bank buying another rebranded distressed bank! The Holy Book says ‘‘when the foundation is weak, what can the righteous do?’’ (Psalms 11:3).

Now, the NDIC has its job cut out for it. It should move quickly to take possession of whatever remains of Heritage, liquidate it and pay off the insured depositors. There are a few lessons to learn from this, and we shall explore it in the next article.

The latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) indicate that the average national petrol price has risen by 176.02 per cent year over year (YoY), from N701.24 per litre in April 2024 to N254.06 per litre in the same month of 2023.

On a month-to-month, or MoM, comparison, there was a 0.64 per cent increase from N696.79 per litre in March 2024.

Naija News reports that in the last few months, the price of foodstuffs and other commodities has skyrocketed due to the high cost of fuel across the country.

This development has further worsened the country’s economic challenges, as some businesses find it difficult to cope with the price changes, though recently, the price of petrol dropped.

However, there are indications that the price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), commonly known as petrol, has increased significantly year-on-year. In May 2024, the landing cost of PMS rose by 46.8% to N1,026.71 per litre, compared to N545.83 per litre in the same period of 2023.

It is important to note that the landing cost does not include additional expenses such as depot-related charges, transportation logistics, and marketers’ margins.

When these costs are taken into account, the total cost of delivering petrol to filling stations is estimated to be nearly N1,052.39 per litre, assuming an exchange rate of N1,510 to a dollar (resulting in a differential of N458.71 per litre).

These findings contradict the federal government’s claim that petrol subsidies have been eliminated under the Bola Tinubu administration.

Sources within the oil marketing industry have informed Energy Vanguard that the landing cost for June is expected to increase further due to worsening factors that contributed to the rise in May.

Furthermore, foreign exchange scarcity and a deteriorating exchange rate have been highlighted as major concerns. Additionally, the cost of fuel imports has risen in response to recent increases in international crude oil prices.

According to Vanguard, a transactional analysis conducted recently by a major operator revealed that marketers are currently paying a total direct cost of N1,052.39 per litre.

The breakdown reveals that the product cost per litre is N1,026.71, with additional costs such as freight (Lome-Lagos) at N10.37, port charges at N7.37, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) levy of N4.47, storage cost at N2.58, Marine insurance cost at N0.47, fendering cost at N0.36, and miscellaneous expenses at N0.06, along with a finance cost totalling N28.04.

The detailed analysis indicates that the landing cost of 28,000 metric tons of imported petrol exceeds $25 million, encompassing the total product cost, total direct cost, and total finance cost.

This could potentially yield sales revenue of over N39 billion, highlighting a loss of more than N19 billion.

In light of these findings, marketers have expressed concerns about the lack of profitability in importing at the current pump price, especially with the absence of a guaranteed free float of pump prices by the government.

Consequently, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) remains the sole importer of the product.

The situation is further exacerbated as Nigerians grapple with the rising cost of living due to increased transportation expenses, leading to higher prices of goods and services nationwide.

Nigeria Still Paying Fuel Subsidy

In a recent chat with journalists, the Managing Director/CEO of Pinnacle Oil, Robert Dickerman, mentioned that Nigeria is currently spending approximately N1 trillion each month on petrol subsidies.

He highlighted the significant subsidy that is still in place, which results in the product being sold at a lower price and leads to smuggling activities to neighbouring countries.

He added: “The consequences of this subsidy are: the cost of gasoline in Nigeria is the lowest in Africa by far, which encourages smuggling out, further depriving Nigeria of value. Smuggling causes Nigeria to subsidize neighbouring countries even while our economy struggles. The cost is hurting the entire budget, federal and state, as critical programs cannot be funded to pay this subsidy. It is currently calculated to be about 1 trillion Naira/month.”

In the meantime, the Nigerian government has quietly reinstated the payment of subsidies on petrol, also known as premium motor spirit (PMS), as reported by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The IMF recently released its Post Financing Assessment report on Nigeria, highlighting its concerns over the government’s decision to set price limits for fuel at retail stations.

To ensure efficient governance, the global financial institution advised President Tinubu’s administration to cease all subsidies on petrol, emphasizing that this practice disproportionately benefits the wealthy at the expense of the less privileged.

Indigenous people of Lagos State have said they will never be part of the Western Region or Province, should a purported Bill seeking Nigeria’s return to the regional government system turn out to be true.

The natives, under the aegis of the De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, said this in a statement released by Prince Adelani Adeniji-Adele.

The statement was reacting to a proposed Bill seeking approval of the National Assembly to return Nigeria to an already defunct regional system, which it said is set to be considered by the House of Representatives. 

Although the National Assembly has distanced itself from such a Bill, the group insisted that Lagos State people will not go with the Western Region.

The purported Bill which went viral on social media was titled: “A bill for an act to substitute the annexure to Decree 24 of 1999 with a new governance model for the Federal Republic of Nigeria.”

According to the group, the purported Bill was said to have been drafted by an individual, who is reportedly not a federal lawmaker and from whose mouth it slipped that “if Nigeria could return to the old national anthem, why should it not also return to the regional state system of government?”

But De Renaissance Patriots Foundation, unconvinced by the denial, insisted on its position informed by the experience of its leaders in the character of South West people who are now finding it difficult to own up to their plans after they were exposed and what they planned to do with the bill, for reasons best known to them, has been revealed before the plan is hatched.

The group said, “This bill that is being proposed or suggested spells an ominous sign to us from Lagos State. It is a further attempt to subsume our aspiration into a larger group that is antithetical to whatever we believe in as indigenes of the state. The first and most important is that vast consultations were not held on the matter to find out if being submerged into another subgroup is a thing we desire. It cannot be generally assumed. Generally, and since Lagos and its environs became a colony, we have always maintained that we prefer a stand-alone status and not be part of any Western Region or Province.”

[Leadership]

The Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Mr. Adewale Bashir Adeniyi has raised an alarm over alleged moves by some people he described as “faceless individuals” to distract him from his duties by attempting to spread misleading information about his record of service.

Adeniyi made the allegation while reacting to an enquiry by the Daily Trust on his record of public service since leaving school, based on some documents made available to this newspaper, including his academic qualifications, and records of his days at the Nigeria Railway Corporation (NRC) before joining the NCS.

Asked whether there were some irregularities in his records as alleged by some individuals, he said that he had nothing to hide, saying that he was aware that certain individuals (not named) were out to distract him from carrying out his lawful duties.

He said that he rose to the pinnacle of his career through hard work, dedication and sacrifice, with unblemished record of service, adding that “when you set out to fight corruption in a clime like ours, corruption will always fight back”.

The Customs CG said together with his team, he is dedicating his energy and expertise to helping to actualise President Bola Tinubu’s agenda of building a stronger and more virile economy for the country. 

“I want to assure you that I will not be distracted at all,” he said.

One of the documents made available to Daily Trust indicated that in documenting for the Customs job, Adeniyi did not carry forward his years of service in the NRC.

Those who made available the documents alleged that he ought to have eased himself from the public service, as he had attained the retirement ceiling both by age and his years in service.

According to the documents, the Customs CG was born on January 19, 1964, and he reached 60 years of age on January 19, 2024, by which time he should have retired based on public service rules.

Another document showed that after graduating from the Modakeke High School, in 1979, when he wrote the West African School Certificate, he was employed into the service of the Nigerian Railway Corporation in 1981.

It indicated that he was with the NRC as a casual worker up till 1990, when he was employed into the service of the NCS as an officer. 

Daily Trust confirmed from some sources that it was midway into his engagement with the NRC as a casual worker that Adeniyi applied and secured permission to pursue further studies to foster his chances of upward mobility in public service.

He was admitted into the Obafemi Awolowo University, where he read International Relations from 1984 to 1988, after which he returned to continue work until his employment in the Nigeria Customs Service in 1990.

Thereafter, he bagged a Master of Arts Degree in Communication Science at the Universitaire Svizzera D’Italiana (USI) – Lugano-Switzerland, in November 2013.

A summary of his career profile showed that he was a deputy comptroller-general with cognate experience in Customs administration covering strategic and operational responsibilities.

“He possesses a deep understanding of the complex and constantly evolving international trade landscape. He has a strong command of customs regulations, laws, and procedures as well as the ability to navigate and adapt to changing policies and regulations. 

“He has demonstrated excellent communication and leadership skills responsible for leading teams of customs officials, working closely with stakeholders across a variety of industries,” it said.

His record of service showed that he won former President Muhammadu Buhari’s admiration for bursting an attempt to smuggle $8.07 million out of the country sometime in February, 2020, through the E-Wing of the Murtala Muhammed International Airport’s tarmac, while he was Comptroller at the airport.

President Tinubu, on Monday, 19 June 2023, appointed Adeniyi as the new Acting Comptroller General of the NCS.

He was appointed alongside other service chiefs. He succeeded Col. Hameed Ali (Rtd).

In a statement issued by the then Director of Information, Mr Willie Bassey, on behalf of the Office of the Secretary to Government of the Federation, the appointed service chiefs including that of the CGC, were in acting capacity pending their confirmation in accordance with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

It said Adeniyi joined the Customs Service over three decades ago, and had served in different capacities, including being the longest-serving National Public Relations Officer from June 2003 to May 2011; he also served as Commandant of the Nigeria Customs Command and Staff College, Gwagwalada, Abuja,” the statement had said. 

Subsequently, on October 20, 2023, President Tinubu confirmed Adeniyi as the substantive Comptroller General of Customs.

[DailyTrust]

Kylian Mbappe is likely to wear the No.9 shirt at Real Madrid, with his two preferred shirt numbers not available.

Los Blancos’ No.9 shirt has remained vacant since Karim Benzema left last summer.

But according to Le Parisien, that is just a temporary solution for Mbappe, who has become synonymous with No.7 at club level and No.10 at international level during his career.

Vinicius Jr currently dons the No.7 shirt for Madrid, while Modric has the no.10.

With Modric looking to sign a one-year contract extension, Mbappe might only have to be a little bit patient.

Therefore, come the 2025/2026, Mbappe should be Madrid’s new No.10, following in the footsteps of players like Luis Figo, Clarence Seedorf, Ricardo Gallego and Ferenc Puskas.

[DailyPost]

The recent policy decision by the Tinubu administration to revert to Nigeria’s old national anthem has generated lots of furors on social media and in the public space. And this is for obvious reason. Many Nigerians are wondering as to the appropriateness of such a decision at a time when the governance indices are all seemingly on the downward spiral. The questions being asked include: why is this policy necessary now? What does it add to the urgency of articulating good governance policies around inclusive growth and sustainable development that can positively affect the lives of Nigerians? Even if we are to change the national anthem, why adopt one with colonial burdens?

I agree that these are genuine concerns. No one can fault majority of Nigerians eagerly awaiting the dividends of democratic governance. And the Tinubu administration has set itself up as the harbinger of renewed hope that most Nigerians expect to have started yielding tangibles. And within the curves of this expectations, changing the national anthem is the least of the least of what Nigerians want to be saddled with. And the rate at which the new policy about an old issue degenerated into the butt of jokes and memes on social media seem like an indication of how many Nigerians thumped the nose of government for such an ‘inconsiderate’ policy. However, derisive comments by the citizens do not always come close to aggregating the best reactions to government decisions. We need do more to be able to situate one policy against the others in the grand architecture of what governance entails.   

Nation-building is not a business that can be conducted with peripheral analysis. Or with social media mudslinging. It is a very serious business that demands both the government and citizens to explore intricate and nuanced implications and consequences of considered policy choices. And there is, as usual, no one single story as to what could or should have been done within the general architecture of governance policies. Governance is a complex business and the government of the day has to juggle so many seemingly contradictory policies that needed to be attended to even if the citizens do not think so. And many of us, as citizens, are only open to the outcomes of policies without a deep understanding of what goes on behind the curtain. This is the way all governments work, even the most transparent of them all. I take two issues to be crucial to democratic government: trust and transparency. Due to its representative nature, democratic government must necessarily be about trust. Citizens elected their leaders with a modicum of trust, especially with regard to certain policy choices. But then the government also owe the citizens a level of transparency that must often draw the latter into the policy design process.

This brings us to the national anthem issue. Part of that nuanced analysis is that government everywhere need symbolic gestures and policies that might not immediately have any relation to the tangible matter of economics and development. And such policies also require that the citizens trust the government. The key issue about governance is simply that government cannot always be unilinear in its focus. While the fate of most nations is determined by economic policies and decisions, such policies are not mutually excluded from being side-by-side with non-economic intangible policies—like changing the national anthem. It might seem inconsiderate at this time to introduce this legislation, but it does not seem so if government needs an arsenal of ideological weapons around which to ground its developmental progress. And the national anthem is one such potent template for focusing the patriotic energy of the citizens.

The second issue for me is what the government has the capacity to make of whatever it has inherited. In this sense, I see the old national anthem the same way I see the civil service institution and the English language, Nigeria’s lingua franca. These are all colonial inheritances. The discourses about the civil service structures and the English language still rage on in public administration and African cultural studies. And yet, we have made some national senses of these two structures. My point is that the old national anthem is equally a colonial inheritance that could be fashioned to suit our national ideological design. It was rejected by the Obasanjo administration in 1978 in the fervor of nationalism immediately after independence, and not for any other reason. And so, the fact that it originated from the British is a weak argument against its readoption. If the old anthem captures our national longing better than the current one, nothing stops us from re-adopting it.

This argument therefore demands a serious philosophical analysis of the content of the old anthem. From the analyses that I have read so far, two items seem offensive to many—“Our own dear native land” and “Though tribes and tongues may differ.” The first two have been considered to possess the racist connotation that justified Britain’s colonial enterprise. I agree that given the provenance of the song, the term “native” would evoke the unsalutary connotation it accrued through colonialism. However, “native” has a simple lexical sense; that which belongs to a particular place by birth. And that is what we want to make Nigeria, a place where we all can call ours—a country we collectively built by dint of civic loyalty and unstinting patriotism despite all odds. The word “tribe” suffers the same racist connotation, unfortunately. But over time, we all use this word freely and have adapted it to our sense of ethnic identity. Both “tribe” and “native” have both been re-semanticized in ways that ought to dissuade us from the angst about colonial tutelage or overlordship. We can even further argue that the reference to “Our sovereign Motherland” and “In brotherhood we stand” constitutes a subtle lexical canceling out of any gender derogation that anyone might read into the old anthem. But even making this argument should not blind us to the lexical fact that both “brotherhood” and “motherland” are used to shorn off their gender connotations.   

Outside of these two words, and the fixation on colonial burdens in our national affairs, the old anthem, like the current, is a fine piece of national projection. I even make bold to argue that the re-adoption of the old one portends a subversion. Scholars like Prof. Biodun Jeyifo have argued that English is now an African language (and demonstrated by Chinua Achebe), and I among public administration scholars have joined others in the long discourse over the reform of the colonial civil service system. This is the same subversive way the old national anthem can also be made ours through a deconstructed piece of national ownership that enable us to align the values and imageries embedded within the anthem to our understanding and aspirations about who we are as a people. Given the Tinubu administration’s drive to transform the Nigerian situation, grounding that renewed hope agenda on a national anthem that many excoriate for being a colonial fabrication would be a governance and symbolic coup of the century for Nigeria. That will be one way of saying we can reinvent ourselves as a people even through the structures and institutions that were meant to subjugate us. It further implies that we are by ourselves owning and molding our destiny in our own unique way by insisting that colonialism can no longer be blamed for what is wrong with us. 

Overall, a dispassionate analysis demonstrates that this old anthem possesses an aspirational sense that could rally Nigerians towards the understanding of our collective identity as Nigerians. Taken holistically, and outside the anxiety about self-flagellation, the anthem possesses all the key lexical items that could carry the burden of valuating our collective desire to build one nation that would no longer be saddled with the albatross of colonialism and underdevelopment. While the current anthem is a call to action and a prayer, the old one is both an aspiration and a prayer. The first two verses speak to values and visions of what a great nation Nigeria can turn out to be if we dare to renew the hope that Nigeria’s founding nationalists had at independence. We hail a nation that is still a work in progress; a projection of unity in diversity. We hail a nation whose cornerstones would be truth and justice. We hail a nation where the politicians would develop generational proactiveness that govern with future generations in mind.   

If there was once a country as Chinua Achebe lamented in his last lamentation of that same title, then there can still be one that we all can agree to build together—a nation where, with the concerted efforts of the government and the governed, “no man is oppressed/And so with peace and plenty/Nigeria may be blessed.” Whether we retain the current anthem or re-adopt the old one, the issue of colonialism should no longer feature in our collective will to make of Nigeria what we all together have patriotically decided to. We can make of Nigeria something all of us and posterity can be proud of.       

• Why CBN revoked bank’s licence
• Reps step in

Payment to depositors with liquidated Heritage Bank having N5 million and below will begin on Monday, the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) said yesterday.

Depositors with more than N5 million will wait for their balance until assets of the liquidated bank are disposed off and money generated, before they are paid.

The Central Bank of  Nigeria (CBN) yesterday revoked the operating licence of Heritage Bank.

According to the apex bank, Heritage failed in its obligations.

A statement by CBN spokesperson Hakama Sidi-Ali said: “The bank’s Board and Management failed to improve its financial performance, posing a risk to the financial stability of the country. Despite various supervisory measures taken by the CBN to help the bank recover, Heritage Bank continued to struggle without any reasonable prospects of recovery”.

NDIC Director of Communication and Public Affairs Bashir Nuhu, confirmed that payments to depositors will begin on Monday.

Nuhu said Heritage Bank customers with alternate accounts in other banks will be paid up to the insured amount of N5 million per depositor.

Payments will be facilitated using the depositors’ Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) to identify their alternate accounts. Those with deposits exceeding N5 million will receive additional payments, known as liquidation dividends, after the bank’s assets are sold and debts are recovered.

To facilitate this process, the NDIC and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) are working this week to identify depositors with alternate bank accounts, ensuring they receive their funds promptly starting on Monday.

Nuhu emphasized that depositors with verified BVNs and alternate bank accounts do not need to visit their banks or the NDIC to receive their payments.

For depositors without alternate bank accounts, Nuhu advised them to visit the nearest branch of Heritage Bank with proof of account ownership, a verifiable means of identification (such as a driver’s license, permanent voter card, or National Identity Card), and their BVN.

They can also file their claims online by visiting the NDIC website, downloading the claims form, and upload the required documents.

Creditors of Heritage Bank are also advised to visit the nearest bank branch or use the online platform to file their claims. Payments to creditors will begin immediately after all depositors have been paid.

Debtors of Heritage Bank who have not yet completed their loan repayments have been instructed to contact the NDIC’s Asset Management Department (AMD) and visit the NDIC website to fill out the required documents. Assets recovered from these debtors will be used to pay depositors and creditors of Heritage Bank.

The NDIC reassured the banking public of its commitment to protecting depositors’ funds in all licensed banks. Depositors are encouraged to continue their banking activities without fear, as banks with valid licenses remain safe and sound.

Last month, the NDIC announced an increase in deposit coverage from N500,000 to N5,000,000, now fully covering 98.98 percent of depositors.

NDIC’s Managing Director Bello Hassan stated that the corporation collects premiums annually to fund the deposit insurance system, maintaining over N2 trillion in these funds.

This increase in insured deposit coverage was as a result of factors such as inflation, exchange rates, and per capita GDP. Ensuring swift payment to depositors, often within seven days has become a global best practice.

Hassan clarified that the increase in coverage will not necessarily lead to higher premiums for banks. The NDIC has moved to a risk-based premium framework, where banks managing risks effectively will pay the base rate of 35 basis points, while those with higher risk profiles could face premiums up to 65 basis points.

The NDIC’s actions is meant to ensure the stability and confidence in Nigeria’s banking system, providing a safety net for depositors and maintaining public trust in the financial sector.

Reps to engage CBN, NDIC, stakeholders

The House of Representatives committee will look into the liquidation of Heritage Bank by the CBN to provide necessary support to mitigate any potential negative impact on the public.

Spokesman  of the House, Akintunde Rotimi said in a statement that “the House of Representatives is aware of the revocation of the licence of Heritage Bank (under liquidation) by the CBN and the appointment of the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation (NDIC) as the liquidators, in accordance with the provisions of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA).

“We assure the public, particularly depositors and stakeholders of Heritage Bank, that the House is committed to carrying out its constitutional oversight functions to ensure that this development does not negatively impact Nigerians.

“The relevant House Committees on Banking Regulations; and Insurance will be up to their duty, thoroughly examining the circumstances surrounding this decision and the subsequent steps taken by the NDIC.”

The Organised Labour has called on its members to remind them that the strike which commenced yesterday will continue today pending the outcome of a meeting with the tripartite committee on the new national minimum wage by 10am.

Labour whose leaders had a successful meeting with the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, SGF, George Akume,  and other government officials on Monday reached a resolution that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is committed to a new minimum wage higher than N60,000.

Vanguard had reported how Organised Labour negotiators had walked out of the meeting for a third time, over the refusal by the government to make a new offer beyond N60,000.

It was gathered that the negotiations hit a brick wall when the government and the organized private sector, OPS, remained adamant on the N60,000 offer they made earlier on last week.

In view of the above, FG through SGF resolved that it would offer a new minimum wage higher than 60,000 proposed earlier.

However, reminding its members that the strike continues today, Labour via its X Platform, said: “Until we hear from Our Organs at our Meeting scheduled for today 4th June , We are still on Strike”.

Recall that banks, schools, markets and other business activities across the country were grounded yesterday due to the nationwide strike declared by the Organised Labour.

Like the Portuguese phrase “A luta continua; vitória é certa”, meaning “The struggle continues; victory is certain”, Labour hopes to be victorious in its quest for a living minimum wage for all Nigerians.

[Vanguard]

The Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) says the strike which began on June 3 and paralysed government and commercial activities nationwide will enter its second day today.

Labour had declared the strike over a new minimum wage and the recent hike in electricity tariff for Band A customers.

On Monday night, the federal government and organised labour reached an agreement on a new minimum wage that will be “above N60,000”.

The statement from the meeting was however silent on the duration of the strike and electricity tariff hike.

“The President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria is committed to a National Minimum Wage that is higher than N60,000,” the statement from the meeting reads.

“II. Arising from the above, the Tripartite Committee is to meet everyday for the next one week with a view to arriving at an agreeable National Minimum Wage;

“III. Labour in deference to the high esteem of the President, Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, Federal Republic of Nigeria’s commitment in (ii) above undertakes to convene a meeting of its organs immediately to consider this commitment;

“IV. No worker would be victimized as a result of the industrial action.”

The agreement was signed by representatives of government and leaders of organised labour.

On Tuesday, the NLC announced on X that the strike was still on.

“Until we hear from Our Organs at our Meeting scheduled for today 4th June, We are still on Strike,” the post reads. 

“Until we get Consent from our NEC meeting, We are still on strike.”

The strike by labour has affected health services, the power sector, the national assembly and airport operations.

[TheCable]

Wole Soyinka, arguably Africa’s best known writer, has once again stirred the hornet’s nest by his proclamation that Peter Obi, the 2023 Presidential candidate of the Labour Party is not fit to be President of the country.  He was quoted as saying that Obi’s failure to reign on his supporters from attacking others with opposing views online was a pointer that he is unfit to lead a country like Nigeria.

Soyinka’s intervention raises a number of interesting issues:

One, there are two heavy burdens most famous writers, activists and public intellectuals bear: the first is that they are expected to be permanently anti-establishment even when they have friends and family members in the establishment. In fact, Camilo Cela, the 1989 Spanish Nobel Laureate in Literature, helped to popularize this notion when he declared that a writer should be a denunciation of the times in which he or she lives. The second burden is that there is often a failure by critics to take into consideration the fact that such activist writers and public intellectuals (like all living systems) evolve and may have consciously or unconsciously moved away from their earlier convictions. The point is that critics often make the mistake of abstracting and freezing a period from a writer’s or public intellectual’s career trajectory and insist on using that to define such a person. For instance, is the Soyinka of the Man Died (1972), The Telephone Conversation (1963), The Trial of Brothers Jero (1963), Ake: The Boyhood Years (1981) the same as the later Soyinka whose anti-establishment activism seemed to have stopped in 2015 when the APC came to power? One of Soyinka’s harshest critics is Adamu, the immediate past Minister of Education and one of Nigeria’s finest prose writers (though I disagree with most of his views which I find too conservative and too hard-line). Adamu Adamu consistently accused Soyinka of paganism and nativism even in his literary works.

Two, what people call an ‘insult’ is often subjectively determined.  While no one wants to promote the use of rude language, the truth is that insult – defined as an offensive language that provokes one to anger –  is protected speech in several jurisdictions including the USA. This is contrasted with what the US Constitution calls ‘fighting words’, defined as words “which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace.” While rude language is protected speech in several jurisdictions, fighting words are usually criminalized as they pose “real and immediate” danger of triggering violence. Some have in fact argued that just as anger is an art form, rudeness is also an art form. There is also the notion of ‘righteous incivility’, that is, rudeness motivated by moral concerns or the quest for justice by a weaker party in asymmetrical exchanges. Usually, if supporters of any candidate feel there is a deliberate attempt to de-market their candidate by a powerful person, some will invariably resort to ‘righteous incivility’, to also de-market the purveyor of such a hatchet job, hoping that through the aphorism of ‘the messenger is the message’, the impact of the attack on the person they support will be mitigated. This is probably one of the reasons why rudeness is never regarded as defamatory in any jurisdiction.

Three, most people who complain of being insulted by ‘social media warriors’ are ‘powerful’ people who throw the first punch and when their victims or their supporters respond, they turn around to play the victim. For instance, when the respected Soyinka called supporters of Peter Obi ‘fascists’ or declared that Peter Obi was not fit to rule the country, did he not realize that such were also insults? Certainly anyone who does not want to be insulted by people online can simply block such people from sending messages to them or refrain from throwing the first punch. In essence, most of the people claiming to have been insulted by social media activists want to use such allegations to achieve an ulterior end – usually to de-market a candidate through de-marketing the candidate’s supporters – which I honestly believe was what Soyinka set out to do despite masking his intentions in Soyinkarist obfuscations and demagoguery.  Any honest political observer knows that the supporters of the three main political parties are equally guilty of whatever anyone can accuse one group of. Therefore, to isolate one group of supporters and pretend the others are saints is a clear give-away of the person’s partisanship.

Four, during the 2023 elections, the likes of Bayo Onanuga and Femi Fani Kayode used fighting words, clearly criminalized in most jurisdictions, to weaponise ethnicity in Lagos State (of course there are also people on the other side who did the same but they are not of interest here since their party is not in power).  Yet, despite Onanuga openly proclaiming himself a Yoruba irredentist, the Tinubu government rewarded him with a frontline position in his government, suggesting an endorsement of his abominable actions during the elections. Similarly, one Reno Omokri, who in the run-up to the 2023 presidential election constantly translated into Hausa language issues that he knew were capable of inciting Northern youths against the Igbo, and who recently seemed to have been commissioned to attack Peter Obi and by innuendo the Igbo race, appear to have been embraced by the Tinubu government. He not only had a photo-op with Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, but the government also sent a congratulatory message to him on his birthday – even though his highest accomplishment in life seemed to be the minor role he played in the Jonathan government. The well-respected Soyinka saw no evil and spoke no evil.

Five, from identity studies we learn that identities that are perceived to be under threat are the ones most vociferously defended.  For this, when Wole Soyinka attacks Peter Obi in a barely concealed partisan manner, many people who share the same ethnic identity with Obi will feel also attacked by innuendo. The same also goes when Soyinka is attacked by the Igbos – several people who share the same Yoruba ancestry with Soyinka will similarly feel insulted by innuendo. The consequence will be an exacerbation of the already problematic relationship between the Igbo and the Yoruba. Soyinka ought to have been mindful of this fact. Not surprising, whenever Soyinka or Achebe is dragged into the Igbo-Yoruba rivalry, a concomitant question of who ought to have won the Nobel Prize that Soyinka won in 1986 would also crop up. I think such a debate is irrelevant as Soyinka and Achebe play in different arenas of literature – Soyinka is primarily a playwright while Achebe is primarily a novelist. JP Clarke and Christopher Okigbo were dominant in poetry.  Again, while Soyinka is regarded as probably Africa’s best known writer (a term broader than literature), Achebe is by far Africa’s most read novelist (a term narrower than literature).

Six, many people are attracted to Soyinka not necessarily because of his literary works but more because of his activism, self-assuredness that borders on artistic mischief, originality of thoughts, defiance and even what some called his elevation of rudeness as an art form. For instance, at a conference in Berlin in 1964, Soyinka famously dismissed the self-promotion of the Negritude movement with this inimitable quote: “A tiger does not proclaim its tigeritude. he pounces.” In his prison notes, The Man Died (1972), he told us that “in him who keeps silent in the face of tyranny, the man dies”.  Recently, I watched Soyinka in a TV interview warning the ‘Obidients’ that if he ever met them in a blind alley, they would feel the strength of his 90-year-old fist. It is difficult to resist chuckling as I imagined Soyinka, who would be 90 years old on 13July 2024, in a fisticuff with the youngsters that could be his grandchildren. But it is vintage Soyinka.  Even at his age, he remains strong and intellectually alert – to the glory of God!

Between 2007 and 2010, my publishing firm, Adonis & Abbey Publishers (www.adonis-abbey.com), incubated and published the journal, African Performance Review, for the African Theatre Association, which listed Wole Soyinka as one of its patrons. Many members of the Association were ardent Soyinka ‘disciples’ and they regaled me with stories of Soyinka’s reported ‘artistic mischiefs’. Let me share just a few: Soyinka reportedly said that several women kept pestering him to have children with him in the hope that they would beget geniuses. He was said to have told them, “whenever I can, I help’. In another story, he was reportedly asked why he did not try to get a PhD, given his obvious brilliance. He was said to have retorted, “But who would mark it?”.

Let me mention that while my firm was publishing African Performance Reviews for the African Theatre Association, one of Soyinka’s most ardent ‘disciples’, the late Esiaba Irobi, was pressurizing me to start a journal, which he called the ‘Soyinka Journal’. Apart from my discomfort in having to deal with Esiaba’s famed ‘artistic temperament’, I pleaded with him that an academic journal built around the works of one scholar would not be sustainable. I favoured a journal of African literary studies which would deal with the works of several African writers. We were still having the conversation when Esiaba transited on 3 May 2010, aged 50.  Probably inspired by that conversation, several years later, precisely in 2020, I honoured that discussion by setting up the Journal of African Languages and Literary Studies, which in December 2024, was accepted for indexing by the highly regarded SCOPUS, one of the two dominant global benchmarks for measuring the standard and impact of academic journals.

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Jidofor Adibe is Professor of Political Science and International Relations at Nasarawa State University and founder of Adonis & Abbey Publishers (www.adonis-abbey.com). He can be reached at: 0705 807 8841 (WhatssApp and Text messages only).