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Category: Opinion

  • Their regional development commissions

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    THE first take is to dismiss the six regional development commissions birthed by Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and the All Progressives Congress [APC] political party, as at best, a waste and a drain pipe, and at worst as partisan political set ups and money laundering channels ahead of the 2027 elections. They might as well be all the things at the same time. There might actually be seven development agencies since there’s no publicly available evidence that the Niger Delta Development Commission [NDDC] established about 20 years ago by the administration of Gen.[rtd] Olusegun Obasanjo has been wound up. In other words, the NDDC could be operating alongside the South South Development Commission [SSDC]. Since there’s no budgetary provision yet for the SSDC, it would be safe to assume that the SSDC and the NDDC are one and the same. So NNDC may hence forward operate under the name of SSDC to align with similar commissions in the other five geopolitical zones.

    Early last month [that’s May], the president was reported to have forwarded a letter to his senate requesting it to screen and confirm nominees for the boards and managements of the South West Development Commission [SWDC], North Central Development Commission [NCDC], and the SSDC. The request was to complete the establishment processes for all the commissions across the country. In broad terms the regional commissions are being established to accelerate infrastructural development, stimulate economic activities, and improve social welfare in their respective geopolitical zones. Each commission is expected to operate with legislative oversight from the national assembly [NASS]. This NASS is not good at anything it has done thus far in the past two years of its existence. What this means is that the regional commissions have failed in the area of oversight. Instead of making operatives of the commissions to deliver on their mandates, the NASS members will focus on how much can be extorted from the agencies. The history of the extortionist proclivity of our senators and representatives is in the public domain. And legendary. There will be no need for receipts. The sitting senate president was a key dramatis personae in a televised public hearing on the sordid activities of the NDDC. He was then the supervising minister of the agency.

    NDDC is the precursor to the current plethora of development commissions.  Before NDDC there was a similar interventionist agency which name we cannot readily recall. It was set up to play a similar role like NDDC’s. Obasanjo created the NDDC on June 5, 2000, 25 years ago this month. It was established to develop the oil-rich Niger Delta region comprising about nine states. Its mandate includes addressing environmental issues in the region, tackling poverty and lack of social services. It has as its core mandates infrastructure development, human capital formation, economic empowerment, and battling ecological and environmental degradation caused in part by crude oil exploitation. The jury is out on whether the commission has substantially delivered on its mandate. It should be admitted, however, that the NDDC has positively impacted some of the communities it was created to serve. But the truth remains that the NDDC is better known for its notoriety- corruption, fraud, abandoned projects, contract inflation, abuse of power by elements in its leadership cadre, sexual harassment, accusations and counter accusations  between its leadership and members of the NASS at public hearings, among others. In 25 years there’s no evidence that the NDDC has helped to significantly transform any of the states under its coverage. The poverty/misery index in NDDC states is no better than that of any of the other states outside the purview of the agency. That should question its raison d’etre. Instead the federal government has opted to replicate and reinforce failure by creating five more agencies in the mold of the failed NDDC. This government must have other motivations for the path it has chosen.

    The total budget allocation in 2025 to five of the six development commissions [NCDC is yet to be provisioned for] is approximately N2.49 trillion with the NDDC getting the Lion’s share of N776.5 billion for it to focus on environmental and social economic challenges in the Delta region; NWDC, N585.9 billion to target security, infrastructure, and economic development; SWDC, N498.4 billion for infrastructure upgrades and economic empowerment programmes; SEDC, N341.3 billion to rebuild critical infrastructure and foster resilience; and NEDC N291 billion to rebuild communities devasted by insurgency and promote economic recovery. The mandate of the upcoming NCDC will not be significantly different from the ones that have been constituted. There’s nothing in the charge assigned to these commissions that is not the responsibility of local and state governments. The charge that the state governors are corrupt, emperors and not accountable will not suffice. The creators and operators of these commissions are not, and will not be, less corrupt and dictatorial. What the federal government has done is to create entities to counter the powers of the governors, agencies to launder money for personal benefits and slush funds for political campaigns, a bridgehead for foot soldiers for electoral heists, among other sinister purposes. The boards and the managements of the commissions are populated with APC partisans and apparatchiks instead of technocrats. There’s no suggestion here that there are no technocrats in the ranks of the APC. No. But in this instance, the primary loyalty of the appointees is to the president and their political party, not to the regions, certainly not to the majority of suffering Nigerians. If the motivation is to impact people at other levels of government, the country would have been better served with a rejig of the revenue allocation formular in favour of states and local governments. We agree that there would be strong and cogent arguments against this thinking given the financial recklessness in the other tiers of government. But these arguments can only be valid and sustained if financial recklessness and impunity do not obtain at the centre. We dare say that they are worse in the government of the federation.

    Since the era of President Goodluck Jonathan which set up the Oronsaye panel on the restructuring of the operations of the federal government, every regime has avoided implementing the report of the team which recommended, amongst other things, the pruning of federal ministries, departments and agencies [MDAs]. Instead more agencies and ministries are being created and the bureaucracy expanded. Since the Oronsaye Report federal ministries have jumped from about 45 to 50. The same for departments and agencies. The report which was submitted to government in 2012 and which implementation was projected to save government about N1 trillion and make its operations more efficient, was stalled until 2024 when the extant regime ordered its full implemenation. The irony is that the regime that demanded the full implemenation of the Oronsaye Report is busy expanding the bureaucracy by creating ministries and regional development commissions. The other alarming thing is the suggestion that large portions of the budgetary allocations to the development commissions will go into salaries, emoluments, overhead and ancillary considerations to the detriment of capital projects. Indeed, one of the commissions in the north has committed to importing thousands of electric tricycles to improve transportation in the north east. What that commission is planning to do, that’s if it had not done so already, is to export jobs from Nigeria and import inflation into the country. This is not to shame that commission because others may not do any better.

    We can justifiably argue that similar commissions and agencies had worked in the past in this same country. However, such claims should be made in context. There was the Eastern Nigeria Development Commission [ENDC] in the first republic. There was also Northern Nigeria Development Commission [NNDC] in the north, and the Oodua Group of Companies in the Western region. These commissions worked wonders. They had to their credits the establishment of thriving government businesses including farm settlements, hotel chains, palm, cotton, groundnut, cocoa, and rubber plantations across the regions. In their portfolios were other profitable companies in diverse fields. They were efficiently and effectively managed such that there was healthy rivalries between and amongst the regions. If it worked then, why is it not working now. It would be because, among other things, the structure of the country has changed for the worse, and the values of the people have deteriorated. This could come across as harsh and exaggerated, but the fear and suspicion is that not many Nigerians are currently honestly and wholeheartedly invested in the country and its prospects for the future. Those who can are voting with their feet. Those who can’t have resigned to their fate. And those who are privileged and in the ruling elite are having a ball. Who needs a crystal ball to see where Nigeria is headed?

    Ugo Onuoha, a veteran journalist was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited

  • Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s futile quest for immortality

    Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s futile quest for immortality

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    HE will never get it. But that should not stop those who consider him a stain and an aberration on the presidency of this country. He will spend his four years or eight years or any number of years at the helm of our ruling structure seeking validation and genuine acceptance. He won’t get it. Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, will spend the rest of his life attempting to fill holes that he has created in his pilgrimage thus far on this side of eternity. He has lived for over 70 years. Officially. Even the seven decades we have benchmarked with are riddled with controversies. His controversies are serial and debilitating. That’s the life of the man. He is like no other Nigerian. That ordinarily should be a compliment. But here, it is not. He is unique but for all that’s repulsive and atrocious and abominable. We will illustrate. Former president (1999-2007), Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, and Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka are from Ogun state, and they are generally regarded as childhood mates. Soyinka has a generally accepted and recognised birth record which shows that he is currently about 90 years old. Obasanjo does not have such and so has consistently admitted that he doesn’t know his birth date. At the last check Obasanjo is reportedly slightly younger than Soyinka, though in some quarters there’s a joke that in their younger days, Soyinka and others in their playgroup used to defer to Obasanjo as their senior.

    But somehow along the way, Soyinka overtook Obasanjo and became his (Obasanjo’s) elder brother on record. Elder brother or not, at least Nigerians have a fairly good idea of how old Obasanjo is. More importantly, he has not fought shy of saying that he doesn’t know when precisely he was born. There’s little or no controversy hovering over his person on this issue. That’s not the same with Tinubu. He has no settled state of origin even though his ‘traducers’ award Osun state to him. He does not have publicly or privately known brothers, sisters, cousins, nephews, father or mother. He had no agemates and playmates from Osun state. He claims to be from Lagos state. Here also he had no agemates and no playmates either. If he were to be like Obasanjo or Soyinka, Nigerians would have used his mates in the mosque where he worshiped as a child or a young adult or the school which he attended, and who have birth records to determine the age group he could be assigned to. With Tinubu there are no such benchmarks. It’s one of the gaping holes in his life which needs to be filled. We are, however, minded to treat this matter as a minor issue though in the character count of every man nothing should be overlooked. Often, the building of character flaws start from the insignificant, from the little, until it becomes a full blown fraud.

    Tinubu is Nigeria’s president but he’s a haunted and troubled man. Look beyond the bravado and the strongman posturing. He is weak. He is vulnerable. He is constantly looking back. When you have holes in your life as he surely does, you will never stop to seek for things that would serve as veneers to cover up the yawning gaps. So those who take umbrage at Tinubu’s obsession with seeking validation and the company of decent people and society and immortality are gravely mistaken. In a sense Tinubu can be likened to some of us who are obsessed with titles. Part of the obsession is that we feel at every point that there’s something missing in our lives. And we believe that prefixes and/or suffixes will fill the void. Yes, those who have walked the straight and narrow path for almost all their lives have good reasons to treat Tinubu and his co-travellers with scorn and disdain, the offices they occupy notwithstanding. But they should also be treated with understanding. In the realm of conjecture, there’s a possibility that given another chance some of these monstrous transgressors and human scums may opt for a different path in their next incarnation. But we will never know.

    It’s the emptiness and the fear of ultimately amounting to nothing in spite of being created as the president of Nigeria that drives Tinubu in his cravings for moments, memorials, and monuments in his name. He lives behind a facade, if not outright lies, through and through for much of the 70 years or even 80 years of his life. He had to battle through multiple fronts to attain the presidency – in Nigeria and abroad – over the schools he allegedly attended, his national youth service corps certificate, the diplomas he was alleged to have been awarded, monetary forfeiture in the United States in connection with a suspected drug trafficking ring in Chicago, US, alleged identity theft, litigations in Nigeria and the US, and sundry odiums. The man still lives under a cloud of whether or not he has an adverse and incriminating record with the Intel (Intelligence) Community of America while he lived there in the 1970s. He is also perennially under the weight of his cover being fully blown as an asset of the US. It’s neither inconceivable nor unique but it should be concerning that the ruler of the biggest black country on earth might just be a mere agent or pawn of a foreign power, available to be manipulated, used and dumped. Former president of Panama, Manuel Noriega, once lived under that shadow. He was an asset of the US even while he was the president of his country. Later, the same US toppled him, moved him to America, tried and jailed him for drug trafficking. It takes courage to go to bed every night and wake up every morning with this knowledge playing in the back of his mind.

    It is not for nothing that Tinubu is unlike any president before him since the independence of this country 65 years ago next October 1. No past president or prime minister comes close in terms of controversy, shadowy identity, disputed names, forged schools and “Oluwole” certificates, wealth without enterprise and cult/mafia-like political hegemony. Any man like Tinubu will crave for recognition and acceptance, and where none comes forth he will conjure them. Fortunately for him he has the power “to do and undo” as we say here on the streets. It’s only the naive who will not understand why the president is in a hurry to name monuments after himself. Those who believe that the frenzy of naming institutions and monuments after Tinubu were the handiwork of his overzealous supporters and acolytes are living in a fool’s paradise. Tinubu is at the centre of the naming spree and self masturbation. He is at the sunset of his life given that life expectancy in our country is barely 55 years. In the nature of things those who are way younger than him could die before him. So, nothing untoward or morbid is being suggested. He is in a hurry to fill the many holes in his less than enviable journey through life. Being president alone will not make up for his many flaws and failings. He needs to create distractions by pasting and implanting and embedding his life into our collective subconscious through state structures emblazoned with his name. He will do so much to bury the baggage he carries but he will not succeed. History is not on his side.  Equity is not on his side either. Karma cannot be his friend. He will get reprieve and refuge only from death. That’s his only hope. We will all eventually die, anyway.

    The more Tinubu names or renames the country’s institutions and monuments after himself, the more the cracks in his poor and troubled life will be on full display. Within one year of his two years on the saddle, he has set the record of naming or renaming public facilities and infrastructure after himself. Eight. And counting. That will be about one such naming ceremony every one and half months. In March 2024, he caused the Abubakar Imam airport in Minna, Niger state, to be renamed Bola Ahmed Tinubu International airport. Before the name change the airport had been in existence for about 40 years. Dr, Abubakar Imam, 1911-1981, after whom the airport was originally named, was described as a distinguished Nigerian writer, journalist and politician from Kagara in Niger state. He was, among others, the first Hausa editor of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, the pioneer Hausa-Language newspaper in northern Nigeria. ‘Magana Jari Ce’ is one of Iman’s literary works. The book is regarded as a classic Hausa novel and considered one of the most important works in Hausa literature. His name was consigned to the dustbin of history to satisfy Tinubu’s vanity. Niger state governor, Umar Bago said at the time that he sought and got approval from Tinubu for the name change. And that he had compensated for it by naming a nondescript school after the late revered scholar.

    This was in March of 2024, less than one year of Tinubu’s accession to the presidency. That marked the opening of the floodgates. The rest in the theatre of the vulgar and vanity followed in quick succession. There has been Bola Ahmed Tinubu Army Barracks, Asokoro in Abuja; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Technology Innovation Complex, Abuja, which used to be the Nigeria Immigration Service tech centre; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Polytechnic, Abuja; proposed Bola Ahmed Tinubu University in Abia state; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Library & Resource Centre (formerly National Assembly Library; Bola Ahmed Tinubu Way (erstwhile Abuja’s Southern Parkway); Bola Ahmed Tinubu Road (access way to the Dangote refinery), Lagos; and the latest for now, Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre, Abuja. Except for the Abuja polytechnic which is still a forest, none of these projects on which Tinubu has affixed his controversial name on was initiated, built and completed by him. He merely splashed a fresh coat of paint on them, yanked off the old name and affixed his name. The story of the International Conference Centre (ICC) was different. He splashed N39 billion to spruce it up to make it fit to bear his name. That edifice was erected from start to finish with N240 million in 1991 by military president Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. The reality is that Bola Ahmed Tinubu has not started and completed any project of note in the 49 months of his presidency. When Tinubu is not appropriating any project for himself, he will paste on that project the name of a Yoruba matriarch, Alhaja Abibat Magaji, who he said was his mother, as in the case of the ICT wing of the Maryam Babangida National Centre for Women Development, Abuja.

    As I wrote this last weekend I stumbled on a provocative post by the irreverent cartoonist Mike Asukwo. It was mockingly titled “Mike Asukwo is feeling peaceful” and sub titled “Honour well deserved”. In the background of the cartoon was a signpost proclaiming SPECIAL CEMETERY, BENUE STATE, and tombstones each with a sign of a cross. A decrepit bungalow provided a backdrop. Speeding by the side of the cemetery was a commercial motorcyclist with a female passenger. As they passed by, the woman quipped ruefully: “This is where they buried my husband and brother killed by murderous herdsmen this year”. The apparently sympathetic rider responded swiftly. He said to his passenger – “Sorry madam. The place is looking abandoned already. I think the governor should renovate it and name it after the president”. Does this not sound like a great idea?

    UGO ONUOHA, a veteran journalist was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited.

  • Dr. Alex Chioma Otti: The titan of Abia’s rebirth

    By

    Romanus Ike Azuka

    Government, in its noblest form, is a sacred trust, ordained to uplift the governed, as John Locke decreed: “The end of government is the good of mankind” ( Two Treaties of Government). In Abia, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti redeems this covenant, reigning as the state’s apotheosis, a sui generis steward whose two years have sculpted a New Abia from the ruins of neglect. With Promethean zeal and an economist’s precision, this hors concurs governor has paved roads and lit skies, transmuting despair into a citadel of hope. As Abraham Lincoln declared, “The best way to predict the future is to create it” ( attributed). Otti, architect of Abia’s destiny, forges a future where faith in governance is reborn. For me, a diaspora son of Anambra whose heart beats for Aba, his feats are a personal redemption. My frequent sojourns in Aba and Port Harcourt; summers lost in Ariaria Market’s frenetic bustle, dodging Ngwa Road’s treacherous craters, navigating nights cloaked in Osisioma’s oppressive darkness, revealed a city strangled by misrule. From abroad, I marvel at Otti’s alchemy, conjuring resources for structural magic that shames Nigeria’s profligate elite. His love for Abians, etched in every asphalt vein and electric pulse, ignites a political awakening, daring us to ask: could Nigeria’s leaders, blessed with abundant means, restore the nation’s glory, yet choose to plunder its soul? Behold the marquee of excellence, a presidential beacon whose legacy restores Aba to glory.

    Roads: Paving Pathways to Prosperity

    Abia’s roads,once a labyrinth of ruin,now gleam as Otti’s testament to progress. As Nelson Mandela averred, “A leader is like a shepherd…letting the most nimble go out ahead”( Long Walk to Freedom). Otti, Abia’s shepherd, declared a road emergency on May 29, 2023, unleashing a renaissance. Over 40 roads shine anew, with Aba’s Port Harcourt Road—-where my treks to Eziukwu Market and my travels to Port Harcourt faltered amid axle- snapping potholes—-reborn under Julius Berger’s mastery. Cemetery Road, Umuimo Road,and MCC/Old Express Road boast smooth asphalt,while Ossah Road in Umuahia,aglow with solar lights, rivals global capitals. Beyond Aba( my Enyimba City), Umuahia-Uzoakoli and Umuokomiri-Obehie knit communities together. My memories of Ngwa Road, where traders cursed rutted paths, haunt me; Otti’s roads erase that shame. Unlike past Abia governors, whose 24- year PDP reign left 50 roads forsaken, Otti’s 16 rehabilitated and six new projects dazzle. Compared to Nigerian leaders, whose vows dissolve, Otti embodies Machiavelli’s dictate: “A Prince must build on solid foundations”( The Prince). His roads are arteries of commerce, binding Abians to dignity.

    Electricity: Illuminating Abia’s Future

    Otti’s conquest of darkness crowns Abia a beacon of power. As Ronald Reagan proclaimed, “Government’s first duty is to protect the people”( Inaugural Address,1981), and Malcolm X affirmed, “A man who stands for nothing will fall for anything”(Speech,1963). Otti stands resolute,protecting Abians from years of darkness through the Abia Electricity Law,seizing 60% of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company’s assets. The Alaojii Power Station revival energizes Aba, while the Geometric Power Plant, ignited February 26, 2024, delivers 141 megawatts to nine local governments. Solar initiatives, like Solar for Health, light hospitals, and Independent grids ensure steady supply. I recall Aba’s nights, where kerosene lanterns cast flickering shadows over Osisioma’s stalls; Otti’s 24-hour power banishes that gloom. Past governors let Aba’s industries wither, but Otti outshines their inertia. Unlike Nigerian incompetent leaders, mired in power quagmires, Otti’s electric pulse is a love letter to Abians, fuelling dreams.

    The Alchemy of Resources: A Political Awakening

    How does Otti conjure funds for this structural magic? Abia’s revenue soared from N19.8 billion in 2022 to N24 billion in 2023,fueled by transparent e-taxation. He cleared N72 billion in debt, paid arrears,and axed ghost workers, borrowing only for progress. Unlike predecessors who plundered,or Nigerian political leaders whose budgets vanish, Otti heeds Immanuel Kant: “Act so that you treat humanity—-always as an end and never as a means only”( Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals). His fiscal wizardry stuns,raising Rousseau’s query: “Why are the people so often deceived by their leaders?”( The Social Contract). As a boy from Anambra, my frequent sojourns to Aba saw Ariaria’s chaotic stalls, Eziukwu’s traders haggling under dim lamps, Ngwa Road’s ruts jolting my steps; Otti revives those hopes. From abroad, I see his transparency —- publishing budgets,scrapping ex-governors’ pensions—- shame Nigeria’s political elite. Otti’s governance, rooted in love, stirs a political consciousness,echoing Marcus Garvey: “A people without the knowledge of their past…is like a tree without roots”( Philosophy and Opinions). He proves Nigeria’s salvation lies in will, not wealth

    Governance: A Meritocratic Maestro

    Otti’s meritocracy—- appointing technocrats,irrespective of state of origin,not kin—-defines his administration,unlike Tinubu’s nepotistic plunder. His court, wise and bold, echoes Lee Kuan Yew’s advisors, shaming Nigeria’s political and professional sycophants. His 2023 Road Revolution, rebuilding Port Harcourt Road with Julius Berger, sparked no scandal, unlike Tinubu’s Rivers State charade. Montesquieu’s maxim, “The spirit of moderation should be that of the legislator”( Spirit of the Laws,1748),exalts his integrity. My Anambra heart, stirred by Port Harcourt Road’s beauty, rejoices in his virture, like Trump’s brash accountability.

    A Legacy of Glory

    Age is no barrier to leadership,for wisdom may crown the old or vigor the young, as history attests. Abia’s governor, Dr. Alex Chioma Otti, a political titan at 60, proves brilliance transcends time. He soars where his Nigerian political contemporaries stumble. Aristotle declared, “Excellence is never an accident”(Nicomachean Ethos); Otti embodies this, his vision a lodestar for Nigeria’s political firmament. Unlike lesser men, he joins political giants like Konrad Adenauer, rebuilding Germany at 87; Lee Kuan Yew, forging Singapore at 42; Javier Milei, slashing Argentina’s deficit at 54; Nayib Bukele, securing El Salvador at 40; Ibrahim Traore, defying empires at 37.

    A Legacy of Love and Leadership

    Dr. Otti is Abia’s cynosure, his roads and lights a hymn to his people. As Rotimi Amaechi lauded, his works are “incredible”(The Guardian, June 7, 2025). Unlike past governors, whose legacies are potholes, or Nigerian political leaders chasing headlines, Otti builds with purpose, embodying Winston Churchill’s maxim: “Success is not final…it is the courage to continue that counts”(Speech,1941). My Aba memories: Ariaria’s pulse, Eziukwu’s lanes, Osisioma’s dark nights, Nnamdi Azikiwe’s neglected Road—-once spelt decay; Otti’s Abia is glory reborn. His structural magic indicts Nigeria’s political wastrels, proving, as Martin Luther king Jr said, “The ultimate measure of a man is […] where he stands at times of challenge”( Speech,1963). Otti stands tall,a presidential titan, beckoning Nigeria toward a boundless future.

    Romanus Azuka is a law graduate and Sociologist.

  • Budget of barbarians, for brigands, by buccaneers

    Budget of barbarians, for brigands, by buccaneers

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    THE first thing that the legislative and executive branches of Nigeria’s government do every year is to break the law – to violate the 1999 Constitution as amended. This is not peculiar to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) political party. It has been the norm almost without exception since the advent of this republic 26 years ago. However, is it possible to rape a document that some people have insisted was founded on an egregious lie from the get-go, the preamble. “We the people…” in our Constitution laid the marker for who and what we intend to be. That significant part of the document’s preamble outlines the fundamental purposes and guiding principles of that Covenant. Permit us to reproduce it here.

    “We the people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, having firmly and solemnly resolved, to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation under God, dedicated to the promotion of inter-African solidarity, world peace, international cooperation and understanding; and to provide for a Constitution for the purpose of promoting the good governance and welfare of all persons in our country, on the principles of freedom, equality and justice, and for the purpose of consolidating the unity of our people. Do hereby make, enact and give to ourselves the following Constitution:* Many of the claims in the preamble of our grundnorm are as aspirational as they are untrue and dubious. They fail in the area of aspirations because we have not shown any appetite to attain the goals. The other claims that have been disputed included “We the people…” . Some people argue that we do not have a fit-for-purpose people’s constitution, instead what we are operating is a decree by the military dressed as a constitution. The contention is that the phrase: ”We the people” is a misrepresentation since the constitution is not autochthonous, which means that it was not written by the people of Nigeria themselves. It was a document framed to suit the then head of a military junta, the late Gen. Sani Abacha, who was set to shed his khaki for ‘agbada’. He died suddenly and mysteriously.

    Another contentious issue is the claim of “Having firmly and solemnly resolved to live in unity and harmony as one indivisible and indissoluble sovereign…” If the constitution was not written by the people and given to themselves, the point of resolving “to live in unity and harmony” becomes mute. You can’t live in unity and harmony in an environment of imposition and oppression and deep, mutual distrust. The preamble also declared that the country is an ”indivisible and indissoluble sovereign nation…”. Here, the constitution gives itself away as a product of coercion. The claim of a ”nation” is laughable because Nigeria is not a nation, and there’s no indication yet that it is aspiring to be one, not with lingering government – promoted divisive policies. How do you promote a sense of oneness and belonging when rulers say that sections of the country which did not vote for them in elections will be deprived of whatever is due to them from the commonwealth. And the rulers proceed to do so. Or when appointments are so blatantly nepotistic. Or when Nigerians are reminded to write in official forms that they are from Anambra or Kebbi or Ekiti state in spite of where they have been residing, doing business, paying taxes, and raising families. A nation cannot be forged in an environment where you remain a stranger in a place where you were born, where you lived all your life, and where you died and was buried.

    The point to note is that where some of the key claims of the grundnorm of any country is open to contestation, it should be expected that some people will be tempted to operate at the fringes, and indeed to break the law. This is especially so for those who wield state powers and control the instruments of coercion. And that’s partly the reason why our rulers in the legislative and executive branches start every year by breaking the law, and flouting the constitution. In the case of what we erroneously call our national budget, these arms of government start breaking the law from the last quarter of the preceding year. The 1999 Constitution set the fiscal year for January 1 – December 31. It also stipulated that the executive branch should deliver the fiscal document at least 90 days before January 1, so that the lawmakers would have sufficient time to scrutinize the budget. This constitutional prescription has been observed in the breach from the beginning. Even the wiggle room which provided that the national assembly can, through law, make the commencement and end dates flexible is usually ignored.

    Section 318 of the Constitution defines Nigeria’s financial year as a 12-month period starting from January 1- December 31, or any other date prescribed by the National Assembly (NASS). In line with this the president is expected to present the budget to NASS at least 90 days before the end of the financial year so as to allow lawmakers time to do the needful. The NASS is mandated to pass the budget ahead of the new financial cycle, while the president should sign or withhold assent within 30 days of receiving the money bill. If the president declines to sign for whatever reasons, the bill can still become law if passed by a two-thirds majority of the senate and the house of representatives. If there had ever been a contemplation of overriding a presidential veto of a bill, it has certainly not been in the current NASS that declared from the onset that their raison d’etre is kowtowing to the whims and caprices of a president with unmistakable imperial tendencies, an aspiring Supreme Leader. And the very public romance between the executive and legislative branches of government, and possibly the judiciary, is taking a toll on Nigerians, and stunting the development of the country. In local parlance, what the branches of government are doing in terms of budgets and in other areas of pretences at governance is “rub my back I rub your back”. The tragedy is that even if diligence is applied to preparing our budgets, and their implementations are driven by altruistic motives, they will still not move the needle towards national development and economic growth given the size of the budgets in terms of available money. For a country that is lacking in so many areas, both the money available and the one borrowed are significantly inadequate to make a dent on the developmental aspirations of Nigerians. The situation becomes worse when the intentions behind our budgets are dubious.

    This has been the problem of our country for years. And at no time has the desire to mindlessly steal from the people been more brazen and daring than this year as manifested in the 2025 budget. As if to mock Nigerians it was tagged ‘Budget of Restoration’. Restoration to whom? Certainly not the long suffering and hapless citizens. Our rulers are having a ball at our expense. If it were not so, the man who passes as the president of the senate, Godswill Akpabio, would not be singing at a public forum, and in the presence of Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who he set out to humour that things are getting better in this country where people are dropping below the poverty line every hour, and some are committing taking their own lives in the face of hopelessness. In spite of rigging the figures in the guise of rebasing, inflation is running at double digits, unemployment is massive, energy deficit is pervasive and its cost is prohibitive, manufacturers are groaning, while our rulers are living in obscene luxury. By the way, the clown who says that ‘things are getting better’ in Nigeria is not able or willing to explain to compatriots why our country has stubbornly remained the poverty capital of the world since 2019, and why more than 150 million of our citizens are dimensionally poor?

    This same man, Akpabio, presided over the most fraudulent appropriation bill so far in the history of Nigeria. In cahoots with Tinubu and other collaborators they have foisted on Nigerians a swindle sheet in the name of a budget. And weeks after BudgIT Foundation, a civil society group, exposed the fraud that was signed into law on February 28 as 2025 budget of restoration, neither the executive nor the legislature has bothered to speak to the mind boggling revelations of criminal insertions and baffling costs of executing the projects secretly and unconscionably smuggled into the budget. Armed with irrefutable receipts BudgIT reported that the NASS inserted 11,122 projects worth about N7 trillion into the 2025 budget. It said that this should be concerning because of the potential for budgetary abuse and diversion of resources from critical national development needs. Some of the notable and curious insertions are 1,477 streetlight projects worth N393.29 billion; 7,138 boreholes for N114.53 billion; 2,122 ICT-related projects amounting to N505.79 billion; and, the appropriation of N6.74 billion for the empowerment of traditional rulers. From these allocations Nigerians are supposed to accept that, for instance, the installation of one streetlight will cost a minimum sum of N266 million while one borehole will be sunk with N16 million. As has been jocularly said in social media posts, we do not need this gigantic sum of money even if our aim was to become the light of the world. And to strike water for a borehole in the Sahara desert will not cost anything close to N16 million each. It has been my contention that the APC regime under Tinubu holds Nigerians in utter disdain and contempt. Otherwise, how do we explain that weeks after this perfidy was placed in the public domain, and in spite widespread outcries, nobody in the executive or the legislature has thought it necessary and proper to address the daylight robbery where appropriations for road construction are allocated to research institutes and digging of boreholes to drive-by fast food joints? We may be on a long journey to nowhere in this increasingly and seemingly benighted country.

    Ugo Onuoha, Veteran Journalist, was Managing Director/Editor-in Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited

  • NAFDAC, Onitsha and an agency’s terrorism

    NAFDAC, Onitsha and an agency’s terrorism

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    NOTHING in, of, and from Onitsha comes in a small package. In many respects that town located on the fringe of Anambra state in the Igbo nation has a reputation for being big, bad and ugly. Interestingly, some who live there will not exchange it for anywhere else in this country, and probably in the world. Conversely, there are some Nigerians including the Igbo who will never be caught dead living in Onitsha irrespective of any incentives that could be on the table to lure them. [By the way, Nigeria’s political gadfly and the conscience of the country, Mr. Peter Obi, lives there]. For some travelers, passing through Onitsha whilst on a journey is a prospect that paralyzes their thoughts, makes their heart beats skip, and cripples their body. Their fear is palpable. But there’s no small measures for the majority of the people who live and work in that sprawling settlement on the banks of the River Niger. The houses in Onitsha are big and sometimes bogus [I really mean bogus as in false]. The people are boisterous, boastful, and loud. Its crowd is maddening and frightening. When it produces an armed robber, the terror of such a person with felony conviction is etched for life in a victim’s memory. Ironically, two of our country’s urbane personages live in Onitsha – Peter Obi as I said earlier, and the town’s traditional ruler, Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Ugochukwu Achebe, a former executive of the oil giant Shell Petroleum Development Company [SPDC] of Nigeria.

    Onitsha used to be described as the biggest market in Africa. I was no longer sure of this status at the point of writing this on Sunday. So I asked Meta AI if Onitsha was still the largest market in West Africa? It said: “Onitsha Main Market is indeed considered one of the largest markets in West Africa and even Africa as a whole. Located in Onitsha, Anambra state, Nigeria, it’s a commercial powerhouse that attracts merchants from the ECOWAS sub-region, including Accra [Ghana], Abidjan [Côte d’Ivoire], Duala [Cameroon], Niamey [Niger Republic], and Cotonou [Republic of Benin]. The market’s vast size and volume of goods have earned it recognition as the largest market in Africa…” It will be no hyperbole to say that you can get anything and everything in Onitsha because the town’s markets have grown beyond specific places and locations. Every building and every structure and every shanty and every shed and every road and every park [for vehicles and leisure seekers] in Onitsha has become a buzzing marketplace for jewelry and clothing, household and industrial equipment; foodstuffs and sundry articles; timber and building materials; and, electrical and motor spare parts; as well as, medicines and health-related products in “Ogbo Ogwu” or depot for pharmaceuticals. And it is this last place – ogbo ogwu – that’s of immense interest to us given what has been happening there since the beginning of this year.

    NAFDAC Raid

    On February 9, the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control [NAFDAC] officers raided the ‘ogbo ogwu’ section of the Main Market in Onitsha, where they claimed to have uncovered 10 trucks of fake drugs with a market value in excess of N1 trillion. The team was led by the agency’s south east zone director, Martins Iluyomade. That arm of the market was subsequently shut down about a week later while the alleged fake drugs were reportedly destroyed at a dump site in Awka, the Anambra state capital. For the following three months NAFDAC kept the market shut for it [NAFDAC] and its personnel to negotiate ransom payments by all the traders in ogbo ogwu. Estimates put the number of affected shops in ogbo ogwu at anywhere between 1000 and 3000. In our country we have between seven to 10 dependents for every bread winner. So if we multiply three thousand shop owners by 10 dependents, we will have about 30,000 hapless citizens who were being subjected to punishment by NAFDAC. The agency ignored all pleas to do the right thing in its regulatory functions. As the shut down lingered the traders claimed that the food and drugs control agency asked each shop owner to pay N700,000 to a designated central bank account for their shops to be allowed to reopen. Some traders allegedly paid the ransom money, others went to court while the market remained shut.

    As the impasse continued the stories kept unravelling. NAFDAC said that in addition to fake and adulterated drugs, the storage conditions in that market did not meet acceptable standards. And that reasonable fees to lift the siege on the market were imposed but that they were nowhere close to the figures being bandied by the traders. On their part the traders showed social media influencers what they claimed was evidence of the payments of an alleged N700,000 each into a CBN account with the name NAFDAC Project. The battle raged in both the court of law and the court of public opinion. While it lasted, the affected people, their businesses and dependents suffered in this cruel Tinubu economy. Now let’s get it right. The issue of fake and adulterated drugs is real and pervasive in Nigeria. The former head of NAFDAC, the much beloved Dora Akunyili, almost paid with her life while she battled the merchants of death. Yes, that’s what they are – merchants of death. They are not selling medicines, they are selling poison and killing people including their own. Those who sell fake and adulterated drugs deserve neither respite nor mercy. They are evil who have no qualms with making and living off blood money. They should not be spared when caught. They should be made to suffer to the fullest extent of the laws.

    But that does not appear to be what the NAFDAC was doing in the ‘ogbo ogwu’ case. By shutting down the whole market the agency gave the impression that all the traders in the market were involved in the perfidy. But it could not establish it. We are not acquainted with any parts of the laws of Nigeria that prescribed collective punishment for any alleged crime. And that was what NAFDAC did in ogbo ogwu for three months – punishing the alleged guilty merchants of death along with the innocent business people. That, to us, is problematic, unacceptable, and unjust. Among others, collective punishment leads to injustice, resentment and suspicion of the motives of government agencies, demoralisation of those who walk the straight and narrow path, and lack of accountability by the real criminals and outlaws. Blanket punishment makes it attractive and profitable for all the traders in ogbo ogwu in Onitsha to join the bandwagon of evil doers and the merchants of death. The right and sensible approach would have been to identify those responsible in all the medicine markets that were raided in Onitsha and Lagos, and hold them accountable. The likely argument would be financially costly, painstaking and inconvenient cannot justify collective punishment.

    Crime prevention is cheaper than raiding the hideouts of criminals, arresting and detaining them. But in our country there’s little evidence, if any, of collaboration and liaison between agencies with overlapping functions. It’s a known fact that some fake, substandard and adulterated medicines are compounded in Nigeria by unconscionable business people, but the truth is that much of such drugs are imported into the country through formal and informal routes. In both routes from where the deadly merchandise comes into the country, the relevant officers with the mandate to stop the flow are at best incompetent, and at worst collaborators with the merchants of death. They are partakers and beneficiaries of blood money. There’s another reason why the flow of killer drugs into Nigeria seems unstoppable. Relevant government agencies are under pressure to become profit centres. So, many public agencies have become revenue generating outposts to the detriment of their core mandates. For instance, the Nigerian Customs Service is measured for performance by the billions or trillions of Naira it brings to the coffers of the federal government than its primary mandate of ensuring national security and trade facilitation between Nigeria and other countries. The same yardstick applies to the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board [JAMB], an examination body which is now better known for remitting billions of Naira to the federal government. JAMB does not think that it is unconscionable to charge pauperized parents huge examination fees every year and tax candidates, only to remit the excess money to a notoriously profligate government. JAMB is not alone. If other examination bodies are not making returns to the government, it will only be because their leaders are stealing the excess funds as was the case with JAMB under previous registrars or heads. Many things are going wrong in the country but our rulers are not really bothered. They are incapable of enlightened self interest as obtains with the ruling elite in some other climes.

  • May 29: victory lap by callous hegemons

    May 29: victory lap by callous hegemons

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    THE victory lap is on. It has actually been on since May 29, 2023, when this regime assumed office. We are 48 hours away from the regime of Nigeria’s president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, clocking two years in office. For all practical purposes, he is halfway through his tenure. He is constitutionally qualified, in the Nigerian context, to seek a second term in 2027. Though not supported by the evidence before us in terms of delivery of promises, the chorus from his echo chamber has been that the next presidential election will be a no contest, a walkover or a stroll in the park. But some other Nigerians are insistent that Tinubu, in spite of defections, deflections and contrived bandwagon by some opposition politicians, will end up as OTP or one term president. This group says that their conviction about OTP for Tinubu is borne out by his glaring failures midway into his tenure. While the pro-Tinubu camp is pinning their hopes on his reelection on his bogus achievements and contrived popularity, as well as the notorious recurring electoral heists in our country, the opposing team believes that it cannot be business as usual and that the president must swim or sink on the strength of his performance in four years. And if the midterm scorecard is any yardstick then Tinubu should be prepared for a fierce headwind in the run up to the 2027 general election.

    Victory lap comes in different dimensions and contexts. For our purposes today and with particular reference to the rulership of the All Progressives Congress (APC) political party we will dwell on the cultural angle. The cultural angle of the ongoing awkward victory lap by the APC is supposed to symbolize achievement, triumph, and hard work. It might as well be for the APC apparatchiks. But is that the experience and reality of the majority of our people? I will leave that judgement call to Nigerians as individuals. Another cultural significance of a victory lap is the celebration of successes so as to inspire others to strive for similar achievements. What achievements in this midterm report card is the ruling party celebrating that are worthy of emulation – poor and deteriorating public utilities and infrastructure; debilitating energy deficits; worsening insecurity; in-your-face pillaging of the public till (including the recent announcement of the shutting down of the Port Harcourt refinery for maintenance barely six months after re-streaming it and after expending $1.5bn on repairing the same refinery); failed educational system which high-point is the about 20 million out of school children, deepening poverty, among other troubling indexes of the country.

    Ostensibly, as part of the victory lap about 22 governors, (ironically about the same number of the then ruling PDP governors endorsed former President Goodluck Jonathan ahead of the 2015 election which he eventually lost), of the APC including governors who shamelessly absconded with the mandate of the electorate which they received on the platform of another political party, converged on Abuja last Thursday to adopt Tinubu as their sole presidential candidate for an election that’s still about two years away. To be sure the congregants acted within their rights. But by so doing they also betrayed anxiety that all is not well in the APC in spite of the bravado of their invincibility. We have witnessed similar posturing in the past. A former ruling party, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), once vowed that it would remain in power at the centre for a minimum of 60 unbroken years. Where’s the PDP today barely 10 years after losing power? Nowhere. It is castrated. It is impotent. It is gasping for breath. It is fractionalized. Its governors who are the funders of the party given our peculiar political party structure are leaving the party in droves for the ruling APC. It is alive only in name, and remnants of its once imperial glory. The self-styled largest political party in Africa is virtually extinct. It’s a shell which has been hollowed out. If the PDP which at inception remotely resembled a proper political party is currently facing this tragic fate, it will only be left to the imagination what will become of the APC which was a special purpose vehicle (SPV) cobbled together to deliver the presidency of Nigeria to Tinubu. Yes, I can hear you say that it first delivered the presidency to a once eternal presidential candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, who turned out to be a blight on the country. But I know that you know better than that. APC was for Tinubu. Still is. Buhari, the affliction of Nigeria, was used to test the vehicle because of his provincial cult following, and to smoothen the rough edges of the SPV. So the test of the APC will be after the tenure of its owner, Tinubu, in 2027 or 2031 or whenever Nigerians say that they have had enough of the apostle of “emi lo Kan”, a corrosive and corruptive slogan that has become the USP (unique selling proposition) of this regime.

    The APC hegemons and sundry subscribers know, or should know what governance is, but we will remind them since they have chosen selective amnesia. For good governance to be acknowledged in a democratic jurisdiction of which we pretend to be one, there must be a manifest presence of a responsible and responsive leadership, efficient and transparent management of resources, credible institutions, and policies that promote the well-being of citizens. Leaders, (in contrast to rulers), and institutions should be seen to be accountable to citizens for every action and decision; decision – making processes and information about same should be open, transparent, accessible, and understandable; citizens should have opportunities and platforms to participate in decision – making processes and contribute to policy formulation and their implementation. And also critical to good governance is the upholding of the rule of law over and above individuals and institutions no matter how highly placed they may be. Good governance promotes equity, fairness, and justice as well as ensures that all citizens have reasonable access to resources and opportunities. If these are a few manifestations of good governance, then how does the APC measure up in the last 10 years it has been in power at the centre, and in a majority of the sub-nationals? And to drill it down, how well has the regime of Tinubu performed halfway into his tenure? In the four years of the immediate past administration of the US president, Joe Biden, his government created over 16 million jobs. I will be the first person to accept that this will amount to an unfair comparison given the level and sophistication of the American economy against Nigeria’s. However, the expectation is that “nwanza ga agba obara nga oha”. Instead of creating jobs, no matter how little, Tinubu thus far and through his ill-digested policies and programmes, has presided over millions of job losses and the fleeing of transnational corporations from our country. Some estimate that the APC has presided over the killing of between 4-7 million companies in Nigeria in its decade-long rule or better still misrule.

    At his inauguration in 2023 after a fiercely disputed and controversial election and its voodoo result, Tinubu promised, among other things, that the funds that would be saved by removing petrol subsidy which he did that day would be channeled into better investments to improve public infrastructure, education, healthcare, and job creation. Specifically on jobs, he promised to create one million new jobs in the digital economy for Nigerian youths. At the midterm junction and in spite of his bogus victory lap, there’s no evidence of any such achievement. The only thing remotely close to digital job is the creation or retention of a ministry that has digital attached to its name. He also vowed that security would be at the top of his agenda. According to him, neither prosperity nor justice could prevail amidst insecurity and violence. But in spite of the posturing of the national security adviser, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, the security situation of the country has further deteriorated on Tinubu’s watch. Terrorism has moved from the streets to our homes. Nigerians live in perpetual fear for their, and dear, lives. In addition, this regime has exacerbated the country’s faultlines and has put a severe stress on national cohesion through its brazen nepotistic appointments to key offices in the security, economic and financial sectors. And this is despite the fact that at inauguration Tinubu had called for national unity and healing from previous feuds. He had promised that his administration’s mission would be to nurture humanity and encourage compassion toward one another. So, measured on the strength of his promises, Tinubu so far has failed. And he cannot do any better because he is fully immersed and invested in the politics of reelection to the detriment of governance. Or whatever was construed as governance in the first two years of his happening to Nigeria.

    Part of the dubious achievements of this regime so far is the art of borrowing from our children. The irony is that the regime is adept at projecting. Some weeks ago, this regime claimed that part of the problems it was confronted with was that the previous administrations did not spare any thoughts for the well-being of future generations of Nigerians. Really? This came from a president who is in the forefront of borrowing from our children. And borrowing in a manner that gives the impression that borrowing was about to go out of fashion. In the lifespan of this regime thus far Nigeria’s public debt has soared from N87.38 trillion in the second quarter of 2023 to approximately N135.5 trillion as at December 31, 2024. The additional debt stock for the first five months of this year has not been included. We must say that one of the things Tinubu should not be accused of is providing leadership and governance for Nigeria. Because he has not done so. He runs Nigeria as a personal business and treats Nigerians as customers. For him governance is buying and selling. If the government is not making profit from the sale of petrol, impose tax at the pump head. If the cash register is not raking in surplus revenue to the government from public power supply, tax the consumers and categorise them into meaningless bands. If the regime is low on revenue, expand the tax net to squeeze water from stone by making unprofitable businesses and unemployed individuals pay to subsidize a profligate regime.

    Everybody is supposed to make sacrifices and tighten their belts except our rulers. They indulge in luxuries and hedonism. Tinubu sets the tone with a well appointed presidential jet and an armour – plated US custom-made Escalade limousine. The occupant of the office of the first lady which is not known to the constitution cruises around in foreign made SUVs worth billions of Naira. At our expense. The same applies to lawmakers at all levels. For them domestic substitutes for their official vehicles are infradig and degrading and unacceptable. Even some local government chairmen have joined the bazaar. For this regime optics count for nothing. And that’s simply because our rulers hold us in utter contempt. They will roll out the drums for celebrations because we do not matter. The most important score is the one they award themselves no matter how unseemly and grotesque it looks.

    Ugo Onuoha, veteran journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited.

  • Arabic agency diploma versus WAEC, NECO certificates

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    SURREPTITIOUS! This appears to be the mode of operation of Nigeria’s successive rulers since 1999. But it has been specially so since the All Progressives Congress (APC) political party happened to rulership in our country about 10 years ago. Virtually nothing is thrown open for engagement, debate, conversation and contestation by critical stakeholders. The dominant practice is for a few persons, many or all, with jaundiced and sectarian views, to huddle in what could pass as a coven, to make weighty decisions and foist the same on the rest of us as a fait accompli. Some of those issues do not enjoy needed national consensus nor widespread buy-in. Often, some of those decisions and impositions arouse suspicions and stir bad blood across the population segments. For some persons who are determined to foist their sectarian agenda on the rest, nothing is sacred. And the potential cost to the fabric of the country is immaterial to them. That perhaps explains why in the 1999 constitution of Nigeria as altered so far, there are disproportionate mentions and provisions in the document in favour of Islam than Christianity. This is happening in a so-called secular or multi-religious country. Of course, some Muslims especially from parts of the north of our country do not accept the secularity of Nigeria. Not in the past. Not today.

    Those in this group regard Nigeria as their heritage and inheritance. Are they misguided? Not really, if we recall the long-standing vow and obvious commitment of the offspring of Uthman Dan Fodio to transport the Qur’an from the scorching environment of the sahel region and dip the same in the Atlantic ocean of the cool rainforest. That commitment has not waned. In spite of denial, it was the hidden reason behind the 2023 Muslim – Muslim presidential ticket. Also the zeal to dip the Qur’an into the Atlantic ocean, which is really about violent conversion of so-called unbelievers through Jihad, is at the core of the low intensity and lingering civil war in Nigeria manifesting in the terrorism of Isamist groups such as Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISWAP, among others. It’s also this desire that drives the bloody sackings of indigenous communities in Plateau and Benue states, and other places and the occupation of their ancestral lands by the armed invaders. The recurring attacks on military formations in parts of the north by the Islamists are parts of the larger plans to instill fears in the hearts of the people, especially non-Muslims, and weaken their resistance to making Nigeria a Muslim country.

    There’s a profound saying that if you want to cripple a country, attack its education. And those who are hell bent on the dominance of Muslims and their religion, Islam, have turned their attention to the education sector. Education is already an Achilles heel of our country. Depending on who you reference, there are between 15-20 million children who are out of school, arguably the highest figure in the world. In addition, no segment of Nigeria’s education is settled and fit for purpose. Indeed, last week there was a national uproar over a rigged mass failure in a qualifying examination for entry into universities by the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB). In the wake of the disaster, the board perfunctorily claimed that the mass failure was due to candidates’ lack of seriousness. But as it turned out and after an audit by people in the know who worked with JAMB officials, it was found that the board was responsible for that disaster. A teenager who was shocked by the result awarded to her reportedly took her life in the aftermath of the incident. Apart from the recent JAMB saga, the truth is that our country’s educational system is in tatters. It’s virtually devoid of useful content. Teachers at all levels of public schools are not well prepared, they are ill-equipped and unmotivated. Failed and failing infrastructure are the hallmarks of our schools. The picture is gloomy and depressing. And the implications for the future of the country are dire and foreboding.

    It is in the midst of all these that a surreptitious attempt is ongoing to introduce a clearly sectarian qualifying certificate to rival the West African Examinations Council (WAEC) school certificate (WASC) and the National Examination Council (NECO) certificate for entry into tertiary institutions. The certificate is being promoted and issued by the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies (NBAIS). Our attention was drawn to the unfolding situation when we sighted the draft (the petition has since been formalized and published) of a letter titled An Emergency Petition To National Education Regulators: The NBAIS Certificate Policy-A Direct Threat To Nigeria’s Educational Integrity, by persons who identified themselves as members of the National Prayer Altar. The National Prayer Altar comprises over 100 Christian groups.

    …we recall the long-standing vow and obvious commitment of the offspring of Uthman Dan Fodio to transport the Qur’an from the scorching environment of the sahel region and dip the same in the Atlantic ocean of the cool rainforest. That commitment has not waned. In spite of denial, it was the hidden reason behind the 2023 Muslim – Muslim presidential ticket. Also the zeal to dip the Qur’an into the Atlantic ocean, which is really about violent conversion of so-called unbelievers through Jihad, is at the core of the low intensity and lingering civil war in Nigeria manifesting in the terrorism of Isamist groups such as Boko Haram, Ansaru, ISWAP, among others. It’s also this desire that drives the bloody sackings of indigenous communities in Plateau and Benue states, and other places and the occupation of their ancestral lands by the armed invaders. The recurring attacks on military formations in parts of the north by the Islamists are parts of the larger plans to instill fears in the hearts of the people, especially non-Muslims, and weaken their resistance to making Nigeria a Muslim country.

    It has been said repeatedly by those who should know that one of the easiest ways to cripple a country is to infect its educational system with a debilitating virus. There’s little doubt that the imposition of this sectarian NBAIS certificate as an alternative and acceptable entry requirement into our tertiary schools, to rival the widely recognized and accepted WASC and NECO could prove a death nail on the flailing education sector of our country. It could be disputed but it is fairly widely recognized that the quality of the products of our education started suffering from reversals when entry requirements into higher institutions of learning were manipulated through the establishment of schools of remedial studies in parts of the country especially the north. Candidates who failed the school certificate examination were shepherded into schools of basic studies with affiliations to universities. Schools of basic studies with suspect facilities and teaching staff became pipelines into tertiary institutions. Quality was sacrificed so that many of the students in the north would catch up with those in the south. And it has been a slippery slope ever since to the detriment of the country.

    The alarm raised by the National Prayer Altar (NPA) should be seen for what it is – a patriotic call to save this country from a clear and present danger. For the avoidance of doubt, NBAIS has been in existence in the country since the 1960s, but it had operated largely as a non-governmental agency. It was not until about 2011 that it was controversially adopted as a government institution. Its doors were slightly opened to allow non-Muslims on its staff register and then for candidates of other religious persuasions to sit for its examination. Obviously, these were cosmetic changes to hoodwink the unsuspecting public. Discerning members of the public and the NPA were not deceived, hence the ongoing public outcry on the dangers of equating NBAIS with WAEC and NECO. The argument of NPA in their petition to the regulators of Nigeria’s already shambolic education on NBAIS’s certificate was logical and surgical. So, we will be generous in extracting excerpts from their letter of warning to those who want to destroy this country. NPA rightly said that the “most effective way to destroy a nation (ours is a country, anyway) is not through sophisticated weaponry but by lowering the quality of its education. When education collapses, every pillar of national life – governance, economy, justice, health, and ethics – begins to be eroded. A compromised education sector does not just fail the students (as in the case of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board, JAMB, last week), it fails the nation”.

    The NPA and other Nigerians do not have any rights to deny the sectarian examination body the quest to train and certify its own so long as its certification was not thrown into the mix to pollute the system. Again  we reference the NPA alert to buttress the danger. It said: “Whereas we do not begrudge NBAIS for its efforts in producing and certificating candidates for its related religious and cultural services, whereas we do not question the integrity of that Board and its specialist but culturally and religiously exclusive (and we dare say, partisan) education, we worry that the policy is not just ill-conceived but pokes daringly at the religious and cultural diversity of the Nigerian state. It is a dagger in the heart of national unity and a potential catastrophic blow to any hope of restoring credibility to our broken education system. Our position (and that of the countless other individuals and institutions that support our concern) is non-negotiable: the policy (of NBAIS certificate as the equivalent of WASC and NECO) must be terminated immediately”. The Arabic certificate is neither an international or regional certificate which is awarded by recognized regional educational bodies benchmarked by global agencies including the UNESCO, ECOWAS, and AfCFTA. NBAIS enjoys no such accreditation

    In addition, as NPA said, the Arabic certificate lacked a standardized STEM ( Science, Tech, Engineering, Math)? rigour. It has no balanced and tested humanities and civic education, nor an inclusive cross-cultural, and secular academic structure. To allow NBAIS to play at the level of WAEC and NECO will be to institutionalize religious and cultural discrimination against other Nigerians of different religious and cultural persuasions. It will be provocative and potentially explosive. The NBAIS certificate policy is discriminatory to the extent that it provides additional entry options into higher institutions for certain candidates whilst others struggle with two. As NPA poignantly posited: “Someone from one part of Nigeria has to have WAEC and/or NECO to be admitted to study medicine, law, engineering, accountancy, Christian Religious Knowledge, or mathematics, whereas someone else in a different part of the same country only has to speak their native language and recite their traditional creed to win the same spaces that everyone else rigorously competes for“.

    Over the years, and since this dispensation, our rulers have hidden under the guise of reforms to introduce religion to our education. NBAIS certificate is yet another manifestation of this dangerous trend. The other time the country was wracked by what should be the acceptable dress code for students at the primary and secondary school levels. In Osun state, for example, some Christian students had to don choir robes to counter the hijab and flowing gowns allowed for Muslim students. While we fight over inanities in defence of our largely shallow faith, nobody worries about the contents of our education, the structure of the curricular, instructional materials, infrastructure in our schools, the quality of the teaching staff and their motivation, access to education in terms of affordability, and other critical mandates. There are no interrogations about how the federal government or the subnationals are striving to meet the minimum prescribed annual budgetary allocations to education, or even whether the miserly allocations are put to good use or stolen by the many sharks in our educational system and their collaborators.

    There are many challenges confronting our educational system. This quest to make the obviously sectarian and dubious NBAIS certificate an equivalent of WAEC and NECO certificates for entry into tertiary institutions, or for job placements in government institutions will do this country no good. Perish the idea for the sake of “ndu mmiri, ndu azu”, or for the good of all.

    Ugo Onuoha, Veteran Journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited

  • Hedonistic rulers and ‘Nigeria First’ distraction

    Hedonistic rulers and ‘Nigeria First’ distraction

    By: Ugo Onuoha

    WE will start with the unusual by copiously quoting an online entry (Artificial Intelligence, AI) characterization of a hedonist. We do so to see whether many of Nigeria’s rulers in the past, and more so currently fit the descriptions. We are doing so in light of the recent Nigeria First ‘policy’ of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria’s president, and his All Progressives Congress (APC), and whether the pronouncement is worth the paper on which it was written. Or even whether as usual the ruling political party which has become a scourge on Nigerians is at it again with its propaganda, and pulling wool over our eyes. It has been the trademark of the APC since the days and years of the retired Maj.- Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, the affliction of Nigeria, from 2015-2023. They were the years of the locusts. Unfortunately, two years after he departed the presidency in a whimper and shame, the siege of the locusts has not abated. To the majority of our people their situations have become much more dire, and life-threatening.

    Meta AI says ‘a hedonist is someone who prioritizes pleasure, comfort, and self-indulgence in their life’. Does this characterisation ring a bell as it pertains to our succession of rulers? To elaborate, the online entry goes ahead to outline the characteristics of a typical hedonist as a pleasure – seeking person who prioritizes activities and experiences that brings him pleasure including fine dining, travel, or entertainment. A hedonist is also likely to be prone to self-indulgence, overindulging in luxuries, comforts, or vices, such as excessive spending, substance abuse (psychotropic substances and vintage expensive wines in the case of our rulers), or other forms of self- gratification. Again, as special species, hedonists are more likely to prioritize short – term pleasure over long-term consequences. In Nigeria, our hedonistic rulers pay scant regards to any consequences or responsibilities or indeed pushback or adverse reactions from the citizens. We are in a place where citizens fear the rulers instead of the other way round. Hedonists are more disposed to disregarding societal norms and mores in the single – minded pursuit of their own pleasures and desires. They lay emphasis on their personal satisfaction and put their happiness above other considerations.

    The entry talks about the different types of hedonism which includes epicurean hedonism, the type which emphasizes the pursuit of moderate pleasures and the avoidance of physical pain and mental distress. Nigeria’s hedonistic ruling elite do not pursue their pleasures in moderation but they avoid pain and any type of distress. There’s also Cyrenaic hedonism. Our rulers congregate in this region where they emphasize pursuit of immediate physical pleasure and sensual experiences. Many of them are sexual harassers and predators. Excessive hedonism where a preponderance of Nigeria’s ruling elite can be found comes with consequences including addiction, neglect of responsibilities, and imbalanced life. Overindulgence often leads to addiction, while prioritizing pleasure over responsibilities leads to neglect of important duties and obligations. Finally, excessive focus on pleasure can lead to an imbalanced life, neglecting other important aspects such as relationships, personal growth, and positive contributions to society, country and humanity. Hedonism and many of our rulers are one and the same. And the receipts are in plain sight.

    Any ruling class which luxuriates in hedonistic indulgences is incapable of driving change, inspiring hope not to talk of renewing hope, and pulling the people up by their bootstraps. And the online depiction in preceding paragraphs fully captured the essence of Nigeria’s ruling elite. So its preachments of prioritizing things Nigeria, going forward, are just that – preachments. They are hollow and designed to hoodwink. Like some other previous rulers and political parties, Alhaji Tinubu and the APC are contemptuous of the country and Nigerians. Therefore, they are not equipped, and are incapable of doing much to benefit this country and its citizens. They don’t even care. What good do you expect from a dispensation that was founded on a corrupt and corrosive premise of “emi lo Kan”. Their recent proclamation of Nigeria First ‘policy’ on government procurements and sundry activities is a ruse. The greatest enemies of patronizing anything Nigeria are the governments at all levels, and their top functionaries – from the president down to the councillors in the local governments. Majority of Nigerians are already practicing Nigeria First, though it may not be out of choice, but because they are condemned to doing so due to government policies that have limited their options. If some ordinary folks have developed a voracious appetite for consuming foreign goods, it would only be because our rulers failed to create the objective conditions for them to appreciate and patronise Made in Nigeria products.

    A casual scrutiny, (can you actually casually scrutinize), of the highlights of the Nigeria First ‘policy’ will tell you immediately that there was no sincerity behind it. Coming at this time it is obvious that the Nigeria First ‘policy’ is yet another political gimmick ahead of the 2027 election when Tinubu will be seeking a second term. It’s meant to be a talking point to fill a void created by the non-performance of the extant regime. Whenever an incumbent is due for a possible reelection the common question to be asked the governed is whether their lot was better than when the ruler assumed office. In the case of Nigerians as of today, the answer should be self – evidently a resounding no. The lives and living standards and conditions of Nigerians have deteriorated from a bad dream during the era of Buhari to a nightmare in this season of Tinubu. In this dispensation human misery has increased; many more citizens are dropping below the poverty line; corruption is widespread; accountability by public office holders no longer exists (which explains why, for example, a humanitarian affairs minister who was sacked over one year ago on allegations of stealing has yet to be tried); insecurity has gotten worse with new terrorist groups springing up almost on a daily basis; kidnapping for ransom continues unabated; and, in your face impunity by ranking public officers the order of the day. Financial corruption is just one arm of the malaise besetting our country. There’s also political corruption which now manifests in politicians including serving and former governors, lawmakers, councilors, and others moving in droves into the ruling APC. The flight would have been understandable if the APC had proved its bonafides in the 10 years it has been in power at the centre. It has not. Instead it has made a bad situation worse.

    With the obvious weaponization of the anti-graft agencies of the federal government, the fleeing politicians are seeking safe havens to avoid accountability in the fullness of time. Under Buhari, a former chairman of the APC who is currently a senator, Adams Oshiomhole, had said that any, and all rogue politicians, who joined the party would be forgiven of their sins. And since then the APC has become a refuge for scoundrels, not that it was not from the onset. And the scandals and criminal testimonials of some leading lights of the APC run from the very top to the rock bottom. For them criminality is a badge of honour. Its current chairman was, as governor of Kano state, once accused of accepting wads of dollar notes as bribes from contractors with alleged video evidence. He denied the allegations. In the wake of fears of Nigeria becoming a one-party state the same man, Alhaji Abdullahi Ganduje, said that a multi-party system was an irritation. And hinders development. He said that after all China, a one-party state, is making tremendous progress. Ganduje is right. But he has no right to pick and choose about China. He needs to be reminded that in China also the penalty for stealing from the public till is death by firing squad. He probably won’t be alive today if political corruption had not been in the way of the process that would have convicted or vindicated him on the allegations of taking bribes and stuffing the wads of notes in his flowing gowns.

    Optics are critical in leadership. So how will the Nigeria First ‘policy’ of this regime gain traction when the honchos of the administration across board – Executive, Legislature, and Judiciary – are widely perceived as being tainted. Indeed, the man on whose desk the buck of Nigeria is supposed to stop has been claimed by the US as their asset. Any barely literate Nigerian knows what it means to be described as an asset of a foreign country. How can such a person concentrate on delivering for Nigeria while under lingering threats of exposure of possible wrongdoings. The threats of exposure have become a recurring decimal and a moving target. The new date is end-May 2025. The head of the national assembly (NASS), Godswill Akpabio, assumed the presidency of the senate under a thick cloud of allegations of financial malfeasance in his earlier role as governor of Akwa Ibom state. It was in the public domain that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had a dossier on him. And were about to afford him his day in court. He has no immunity beyond that afforded him within the chamber of the senate, and yet he has not been held to account for his alleged financial crimes. Apart from being associated with controversial and suspect judgments not much is known about the head of the Judicial arm, Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, beyond allegations that she may be in the no-visa deny-list of the United States. However, it’s generally perceived that many of our justices and judges hide institutional rot of the judiciary behind or even inside their black robes.

    Tell me, how will a man who bought with public money a presidential jet without prior appropriation in the midst of half – a – dozen existing presidential aircraft preach about Nigeria First? If you remind me that Nigeria does not manufacture aircraft, what about the purchase of a presidential limousine, an American Escalade, about the same time. Imagine the message that would be passed if one or two of our domestic car manufacturing firms had been challenged to produce a customized and befitting vehicle for the president. That should be the standard practice for the president of a country that deludes itself with the tag of ‘giant of Africa’. Except in a few places, everybody in the government who is entitled to it drives imported and expensive Sport Utility Vehicles (SUVs). The last time around lawmakers in NASS insisted on imported SUVs because, according to them, they are more durable and they can withstand the stress of Nigeria’s bad roads. If the lawmakers are not contemptuous of Nigerians, they would not have said such things publicly. But hedonists do not care especially where there are no consequences as in our country. At the end of the day the Tinubu and APC Nigeria First ‘policy’ will be: Do as I say, not as I do. Perhaps, the preceding sentence should have been the headline of this article.

    Ugo Onuoha, Veteran Journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited

  • Older People abuse and presidencies of power without presence

    Older People abuse and presidencies of power without presence

    By: UGO ONUOHA

    THE abuse has been on since May 29, 2015. First, it was Maj.-Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, an old retired officer of the Nigerian army who acceded to the presidency after three previous failed attempts. His political party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), achieved a feat by ousting the ruling People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from the central government in Abuja. By then the PDP had ruled for sixteen years with a vow to remain in office for additional 44 years at the minimum. That party had claimed it was the largest political party in Africa, and touted its invincibility. Today, the PDP is in tatters, so much so that it is losing its heavyweights including councillors, national and state lawmakers, state governors, presidential running mates, among others to the ruling party. One of its apparatchiks and once its primary funder, Nyesom Wike, is serving in the ruling party, APC, as the governor (really minister) of the federal capital territory (FCT). First, Wike corralled two other governors to mount an insurrection within the PDP when he lost the presidential ticket for the 2023 election to the eternal contestant, Atiku Abubakar in the primary election contest. He has become the nemesis and the nightmare of the floundering party. For now, there’s no indication he’s planning to leave the party and fully join the APC which he had in the past severally described as a political party suffering from stage four cancer. But he will not let the party be. And for whatever reasons, the party leaders appear to be scared to expel him. Indeed, it has been severally claimed that Wike is the godfather of the acting national chairman of the PDP, Iliya Umar Damagun and the embattled national secretary, Nnaemeka (Samdaddy) Anyanwu. The truth is that Wike is like “odudu bere n’amu” of the PDP-a tsetse fly that perches on the scrotums. There’s a danger in smashing to kill it. There is also a greater danger in leaving it to its devices.

    But we digress. Back to the older people abuse and other malaise. Buhari was an old man when he reportedly won the presidency. There’s nothing wrong with being old. On the contrary it’s a blessing and almost everybody prays to be old. So it was not a disqualifying factor. But he was sick, very sick, to the extent that the former governor of Ekiti state, Ayo Fayose, took out a full page advertisement in a national newspaper that suggested that Buhari may drop dead at any moment. He did not die in office like former president, Umaru Yar’Adua of the PDP. But he was debilitated to the point of being incapacitated. Indeed, at a time during his presidency, Buhari spent 103 consecutive days hospitalized in London. By the time he returned to Nigeria, he publicly confessed that he had not been sicker all his life. Again, sickness is not a crime but it should be a disqualifying factor for those aspiring to lead a country that was, still is in dire straits, and longing for fast-paced development. And a president who is present. Buhari was not, and now Tinubu has not been either. To be present is beyond physical presence.

    Because Buhari was sick for much of his presidency, and also because he was an old man, the country suffered immeasurably. His two terms of eight years became the years of the locust. An economist who was once governor of the central bank of Nigeria (CBN) said that the eight years of Buhari took the country back by 30 years. His statement was not made in a void. It was not whimsical given that this latter day critic was an avid supporter and promoter of the Buhari presidential candidacy in 2014/2015. In 2019 this supporter pulled back citing an islamic injunction that said something to the effect that it would be more beneficial to the people for a not too pious person to assume leadership position than for a man who is perceived to be pious but totally clueless to lead. His statement about Buhari taking Nigeria’s economy back by at least one generation was backed up with sobering and damning data. Buhari’s deputy, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, a relatively younger person was, for all intents and purposes, castrated and sidelined. He was put in charge of visiting public places to hand out cash in the name of ‘tradermoni’ and ‘marketmoni’. These were the best strategies that the regime could design to supposedly lift Nigerians out of poverty. The poverty of those contraptions was debilitating. That regime’s brain boxes ensured that television cameras were trained on the professor of law vice president whenever he was in the markets handing out petty cash to traders, some handouts as meagre and miserable as N20,000 (twenty thousand Naira) only. Osinbajo was deliberately ridiculed, demeaned and diminished. That probably partly explained why when he contested in the APC primary election for the presidential ticket in 2022, a party chieftain who is now the country’s vice president, Alhaji Mohammed Kashim Shettima, said that Osinbajo would be more useful to himself and the country if he were to aspire to be an ice cream vendor.

    So Buhari was physically changed by old age and ill-health, and Osinbajo was shackled by the cabal in Buhari’s presidency of 2015-2023. The ship of state became rudderless, and the country drifted. The young crooks in that regime took full advantage and introduced what has become known as ‘older people’ to the presidency. In broad terms, older people abuse will involve physical mistreatment, emotional harm, financial exploitation, neglect, psychological and sexual abuse of an old person. But in the case of the Buhari presidency, it was the usurpation, use and abuse of presidential powers by well-placed aides without the knowledge and approval of the president. Often, such powers are deployed for personal benefits. Members of the kitchen cabinet who were mainly from the northern parts of the country, and who were mostly Muslims went rogue. They were not elected but they wielded enormous life and death powers of the president. The common refrain from Buhari while he reigned and his aides ruled while things were happening around him was: “I am not aware”. It was common then to hear and read about resistance to Osinbajo’s leadership by ministers and sundry top officials during the frequent foreign trips of Buhari. The situation did not improve much even during the rare occasions when Buhari formally transmitted presidential powers to the vice president. One of the highpoints was when Osinbajo, as acting president, effected changes in the leadership of the secret police. It was resisted, and eventually reversed when Buhari returned. It was a sad spectacle and a take down of the vice president who was acting as president.

    When last week in this column we described the current vice president, Shettima, as a ghost worker, it was in relation to the lingering treatment of a vice president as a non-person by the regimes of the APC. The president, Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has never felt obligated to formally or informally transmit presidential powers to Shettima. Even with his official age of 73, Tinubu is an old man in a country where life expectancy is barely 55 years. As we said earlier, growing old should be coveted. Like Buhari, Tinubu also cannot be said to be in excellent health. Before he was declared as the president in 2023, France was said to be his preferred destination for medical tourism. In less than two years in office he has been to France at least six times. If my recollections are correct, one was a state visit, another a private visit, while others were dubbed working visits. None was listed as being prompted by health reasons. So, again Nigeria is saddled with an old man as president whose health condition is shrouded in secrecy. But he is widely believed to be infirm, and a younger vice president who has been made a ghost. And the country is experiencing a deja vu or Buhari 2.0. Though Tinubu is touted to be an astute politician, the refrain in town is that again, presidential aides have seized the presidential powers, and are wielding them for personal benefits. It has been suggested in many quarters that in spite of his obviously exaggerated political sagacity, Tinubu has since become another victim of old age abuse by his aides. They do things in his name including appointments which he may not be aware of but lacks the  candour of Buhari to publicly admit his lack of knowledge of such things. And often his aides abuse and bungle relatively simple use of presidential powers. But in spite of obvious old age abuse Tinubu owns everything that’s happening in his presidency, warts and all.

    What this means is that for about 10 years the country has been ruled and ruined by cabals. In addition, for so long also we have had, still have, presidents who longed and lusted for power for power’s sake but have been incapable of being present for the people. For 10 years Nigerians have not been fortunate to have a president who is readily available to listen to their concerns and needs; who engages with them, understands their issues, and actively works to address them; a president who is accountable, transparent in decision-making, and responsive to the people’s needs; a leader who demonstrates genuine empathy, acknowledges their struggles and challenges; and, a president who provides effective leadership, and makes informed decisions that benefits a majority of the people. The implications of a presidential presence is that the people are more likely to trust such a leader and his government which will help the president to make informed decisions for the good of the vast majority. A president being present for the people will ensure that his leadership will enjoy increased legitimacy, build trust, promote good governance, and ensure that the government serves the needs of the citizens. Presidential presence has been absent for 10 years in our country. And it is not about to end. It has been a tortuous decade. And a nightmarish one at that.

    Ugo Onuoha, veteran journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited

  • Osinbajo/Shettima: between ice cream vendor and ghost worker

    Osinbajo/Shettima: between ice cream vendor and ghost worker

    By

    UGO ONUOHA

    ALHAJI Mohammed Kashim Shettima is the nominal vice president of Nigeria. He is one pair of the retrogressive Muslim – Muslim ticket that was awarded the Nigerian presidency two years ago, last March. It will be material to explain my use of ‘nominal’ for the current vice president. In this context, I really mean the everyday usage of the word. Nominal here means that Shettima as vice president is small and insignificant in amount and degree. He’s a token and a symbol, neither substantial nor significant in the scheme of things in the regime of Alhaji Bola Ahmed Tinubu and a section of the Yoruba nation. Shettima speaks well in the context of the low bar set for public speaking in our country. The bar is stunningly and embarrassingly low. He is said to be intelligent and possibly a public intellectual. He was a bank executive in his earlier incarnation and later became a two – term governor of Borno state.

    He has some legacies to his credit. Many of them are not ennobling. And one of his legacies is that he was the sitting governor when Boko Haram, a violent and murderous Islamist group, drove thousands of kilometres into Chibok in the heart of Borno state, abducted about 300 mostly Christian female students, and vanished into thin air. Shettima was alleged to have been warned to relocate the students who were preparing for the West African School Certificate Examinations (WASCE) following intelligence reports about the activities of the insurgents. He ignored the intelligence and the girls were plucked off. This was in April 2014, eleven years ago. Almost 100 of the stolen girls are still not accounted for after a decade and one year. On the score of security of life, Shettima failed as a governor, and the punishment for his failure to secure his people whilst he was governor was to promote him to the position of vice president of the country. Indeed, one of the credentials he flaunted while campaigning for the vice presidential ticket was that he was battle-hardened because he had been in the theatre of war for years. We will come back to this shortly.

    He was not remarkable as a surrogate to the then presidential candidate, Alhaji Tinubu, in the run up to the 2023 election. But he stood out like a sore thumb on at least three occasions. Maybe four. One such occasion was through his spoken words when he deprecated the incumbent vice president, Yemi Osinbajo, who is a professor of law. He said that Osinbajo would have been more successful as an ice cream vendor than seeking to be the president of Nigeria. The other remarkable occasion was when he represented Tinubu, his running mate, during the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) annual conference prior to the election. His sartorial inelegance was striking and befuddling. Ribs were cracked. He cut the image of a cartoon caricature in his ill-fitting off colour pair of trousers, a tieless shirt, a shriveled jacket, and a pair of trainers. He was probably not properly briefed that lawyers are generally conservative in their dress codes. But it should be a given that a man of Shettima’s assumed standing should know that. If he forgot the requirements of the occasion his handlers should have known better. They didn’t or they didn’t care. Well, Shettima had a soulmate in an inappropriate register on Saturday when the President of the United States, Donald Trump, appeared at the funeral of Pope Francis in Rome in a blue suit as against the dress code of black suits worn by other world leaders at the occasion.

    The third event was at his public presentation to Nigerians as the vice presidential candidate. He also cut a sorry picture in the midst of emergency bishops’ and sundry ‘priests’ created overnight by the All Progressives Congress (APC) to reassure skeptical citizens, especially Christians, that the Muslim – Muslim (some referenced it as MuMu) ticket was not a prelude to something more sinister for the country by the pair, the so-called planned Islamisation of Nigeria. The APC bishops were handed their regalia at the precincts of the venue of the event, and their cash reward was paid immediately after the ceremony, also outside the venue of the unveiling. The perpetrators were captured on camera in spite of the best efforts of the schemers and scammers to blindside journalists and cameramen. The likelihood was that many of the APC bishops were not born when the inimitable Afrobeat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, sang the prophetic and provocative “Uniform na cloth na tailor dey sew am” in 1973  or thereabouts. I believe the album was titled Alagbon Close, a notorious government security complex in the heart of Lagos island. If only Fela were to be alive to witness that desperation and charade in 2023, 50 years after the track was released. And the quest to capture political power by hook or crook.

    While we are at it Shettima, also in 2023, promised to lead the war on insecurity in the country from the front if their ticket was awarded the presidency. He said he had been baked in the furnace and oven of battling insurgency for years as Borno state governor, and that nobody was better suited and equipped for the job. He said his running mate or principal was a thoroughbred economist who would be saddled with reviving the national economy which had been run aground by their party, the APC and Tinubu’s man, Buhari. When Shettima appropriated the role of the head of the security arm, he apparently did not factor in the fact that the vice president is not the commander-in-chief of the armed forces nor in-charge of the national security agencies and architecture. Two years on, next month, none of the self assigned roles have been delivered. If the truth be told, Nigeria’s security situation has almost completely collapsed. Nigeria has become a killing field, the type we have not witnessed in 65 years since independence. In spite of the established genocide committed by Nigerian troops against the Igbo during the civil war, including the Asaba Massacre of innocent civilians in 1967, at no other time had so much blood been shed in this seemingly benighted country. And the man, Shettima, who said he would lead the war against insurgents, bandits , and Islamist terrorists has become a ghost. He appears like a comet from outer space once in a while as in last week when he chaired the national economic council (NEC) meeting. That contraption is a talk shop where nothing of note is discussed. It was bad in the era of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), deteriorated under Muhammadu Buhari’s APC, and then became completely unfit for purpose in the extant regime of Nigeria’s Sole Administrator Tinubu.

    Tinubu, the man that Shettima and other cheerleaders sold as an economic wizard, has since been demystified as an emperor without clothes. He has turned Nigeria’s bad economic situation into a nightmare. He removed the so-called petrol subsidy and ‘deregulated’ the Naira, and left the economy on a tailspin. The so-called deregulation of the economy was supposed to free up resources but the regime immediately embarked on aggressive borrowing from the domestic and international money and bond markets. Tinubu and his henchmen have been behaving in a manner that suggested to them and some onlookers that borrowing will soon go out of fashion. Even some of the lending institutions have started crying out that prudence is not in the DNA of the Tinubu band of rulers. Some weeks ago, Tinubu and his spin doctors tried to gaslight Nigerians by saying that the country’s past leaders had mindlessly frittered away the inheritance of the future generations of Nigerians. And his solution to that problem is to borrow from our children and children’s children, and leave the future generations of Nigerians in a certain debt peonage.

    It’s a crying shame that this country spent about N20 billion recently to complete a vice president’s Mansion for a ghost worker. That’s who Shettima is. The other day he strove very hard to dismiss media reports that he was shut out of the presidential villa. Who cares? What’s important is that ghosts are not allowed to roam around, and about freely. Shettima’s situation is pathetic. He’s the nominal vice president who’s completely outside the power vortex. He’s an orphan. He is Kanuri. The Kanuri are said to be the creators of Boko Haram. He is not trusted. He is not part of Tinubu’s kitchen cabinet. He’s a pariah which explains why in spite of the frequent foreign travels of President Tinubu, he has never been allowed to act in the stead of the president. Shettima was even ignored in the innocuous ceremony of inaugurating one nondescript team on the population census when the president, as usual, was away in France, and later London recently. But we are persuaded that Shettima is biding his time, playing the vulture, that patient bird. His marabouts may have assured him that the scenario in Ondo state about two years ago may yet play out on a bigger scale. Before Ondo it happened in Abuja. And it was widely expected to happen again in Abuja a second time during the immediate past regime. It failed to materialise. The Mahdi left the presidency looking younger instead. A suggestive newspaper advertisement taken out by a former governor of Ekiti state early in the life of that ancient regime came to naught. If the assurances of Shettima’s marabouts fell through, the expectation is that this ghostly vice president will not be on the ticket for the 2027 presidential contest. His ghost will be laid to rest. The joke will not be on that former vice president who Shettima said would be more useful as an ice cream vendor.

    Ugo Onuoha: Veteran journalist, was the Managing Director/Editor-in-Chief, Champion Newspapers Limited