TheNewsGuru

Tag: Pius Mordi

  • Army’s continuing war on Okuama – By Pius Mordi

    Army’s continuing war on Okuama – By Pius Mordi

    More than nine months after 17 soldiers were killed at Okuama during a mission the Army is yet to explain to Nigerians, the revenge operation in the community which left the community completely devastated with the indigenes forced to seek refuge in surrounding forests is festering. Two of the community leaders who were arrested by the military were reported to have to died in army custody after spending months in detention without trial.

    Before leaving Okuama community having levelled it to ground zero, Sheriff Oborevwori, governor of Delta State, had on March 18 visited the theatre of operations after previously sympathising with the military over the killing. Unfortunately, the army refused him entry into the village. Despite the disrespect, Oborevwori has at all times been cooperative with the army authorities. He visited the military high command in Abuja to further engage with them on the unfortunate incident. But despite having to deal with the humanitarian tragedy that become the lot of Okuama people who became internally displaced, the task of rebuilding Okuama and resettling its people have been entirely left to him while the army continued its hostile disposition.

    President-General of Okuama community development association, Pa James Achovwuko Oghoroko and five other leaders – Prof. Arthur Ekpekpo, Chief Belvis Adogbo, Pa. Dennis Okugbaye, Pa Anthony Ahwemuria, and Mrs Rita Akata –  were arrested between August 18 and 20, 2024. It was a brazen move that undermines civil authority and paper over the underlying factors behind the so-called ‘peacekeeping’ mission of the soldiers that unilaterally stormed Okuama on the fateful day without recourse to the local authorities, including the Police and the local government council.This December, Pa James Achovwuko Oghoroko, the elderly president general of the town, passed on while still under military custody.

    The army authorities have used the genuine sympathy Nigerians felt for the fallen soldiers to sweep under the carpet the real crisis festering in oiling producing communities from the activities of oil thieves. There are networks of cartels involved in what has become a thriving industry that involves uniformed security operatives ostensibly deployed to curb the ceaseless breaching of the economic lifeline of the country.

    In Fisayo Soyombo’s exposé while investigating the prevalent thievery in the harnessing of crude oil, the founder of Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ) revealed what we have always known – that oil thievery cannot be checked because of the high level network of individuals involved in the business.

    Speaking on Arise Television after he was briefly arrested alongside oil thieves that was gleefully announced by the military, Soyombo said everything he told his interrogators was revealed to oil thieves within 24 hours.

    The carte blanche given the military to handle the investigation into the killing of the 17 servicemen was a grand betrayal of Nigerians. It was a farce. Its unlikely there was any genuine investigation beyond making the Okuama community the expendable pawns. And after two of the community leaders died while still under army custody, it is shocking that President Bola Tinubu is yet to stop the shenanigan going on within the military circle. He has not directed his Attorney-General to intervene and undertake a credible investigation into the saga. After Senator Ovie Omo-Agege called for an independent investigation into the circumstances that led to the death of the Okuama community leaders and Senator Ede Dafinone pleaded with the army to release the other detainees, the army said it would investigate the deaths. Do they really expect to taken seriously with their investigation?

    Okuama was not a war zone to make the community active combatants that could be treated as enemy combatants subject to only military jurisdiction. These civilians just got caught in the crossfire between highly placed godfathers of oil thieves. Whatever is the outcome the army’s ‘investigation’ cannot be taken seriously when they have failed to tell Nigerians the nature of ‘peacekeeping’ its personnel got into at Okuama ab intio.

    It’s already getting very late for civil authorities to step in and begin a credible investigation into the Okuama saga. If crude oil is said to be a curse, Okuama people are going through the hottest part of hell from the exploitation of the black gold within their land and their willful neglect by the federal government. Tinubu should save the oil producing community who are caught in a crossfire by powerful oil thieves. If the killing of the 17 servicemen is not utilised as an opportunity to restore a measure of sanity among security men deployed to protect oil platforms, sooner than later, another Okuama will happen somewhere else in the Niger Delta and the impoverished indigenes will be caught in the crossfire again.

    Postscript

    Yakubu’s farcical diatribe on Ghana elections

    Unlike his electoral umpire, Mahmoud Yakubu, President Bola Tinubu was effusive in his verdict on the recent Ghana elections where the incumbent government was voted out. While he called on other ECOWAS members countries to draw inspiration from the peaceful and credible conduct of the poll that saw the opposition candidate defeat the sitting vice president, the chairman of Nigeria’s Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmoud Yakubu, was unabashedly exultant.

    He strangely ascribed the success of the Ghana polls as what he invented to conduct the 2023 general elections in Nigeria that was ‘copied’ by Ghana. His claim bordering on hallucination has left critics wondering what the folks at INEC smoke or drink.

    If his tales of phantom technical glitch to explain the failure to declare and upload results right at the polling units as well as the result sheets being mutilated through crude and fraudulent alteration of numbers were not enough, his infamous ‘go to court’ verdict in the dead of the night unravelled him.

    In subsequent elections held in some individual states, Yakubu could not redeem himself. In that of Edo State particularly, it all came apart for him. Its difficult to imagine what he was thinking to blurt what he did on the Ghana election.

    But we should take solace in what Tinubu said in urging the rest of ECOWAS to study how that country was not only able to conduct a peaceful poll, but also make it credible that the candidate and incumbent Vice President of the government threw in the towel even before the counting of votes was concluded.

    Going by his statement, Tinubu wants other countries, including Nigeria, I presume, to study how Ghana did it. But he cannot waste the opportunity by still keeping Yakubu at INEC. Yakubu cannot learn it, if he can, he is incapable of organising credble polls. He had two opportunities in 2019 and 2023, but failed on each occasion.

  • Understanding Tinubu’s definition of ‘fake life’ – By Pius Mordi

    Understanding Tinubu’s definition of ‘fake life’ – By Pius Mordi

    He chose an academic gathering to define and redefine the lives Nigerians had been living before he became president. “Unfortunately, the good life we thought we were living was a fake one that was capable of leading the country to a total collapse unless drastic efforts were urgently taken,” he said at the combined convocation ceremonies of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) in Ondo state.

    In one swoop, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu blamed Nigerians for the “fake life” they had been living, absolved the government of which his own party had been in charge for over eight years and dubbed himself the Messiah. He did not explain what constituted luxury living for Nigerians save for the usual allusion to petrol subsidy and “subsidy” of the naira. But was there luxury living in Nigeria prior to Tinubu’s administration?

    It is a dubious acknowledgement of the travails the people are going through without taking responsibility. If the economy is much tougher now than it was 10 years ago, does it mean the standard of living then was characterized by luxury? At the time APC dislodged Dr. Goodluck Jonathan and his PDP from Aso Rock, the major strategy was anchored on leveraging on the what was described then as the poor living condition of the people. In Nigeria, in 2015 when APC came to power, the minimum wage was N18,000 ($91.4), dropping in 2023 when the wage was increased to N30,000 ($66). On the other hand, top oil-producing African countries pay far higher than Nigeria ever paid as minimum wage. Gabon, for instance, pays N376,000 while that of Ghana was N60,000. Countries like Liberia which even Nigeria classifies as a poor country pays $91 as minimum wage.

    By the time Tinubu increased minimum wage further to N70,000, its actual value fell to $44. If the extant minimum wage at different times could not let a worker afford a shuttle flight to Lagos or Abuja from other part of the country, if all he could afford was a 50kg bag rice as was the case before 2015, then what was the luxury Nigerian workers enjoyed at the time? At every stage of upward review of minimum wage, many manufacturers and entrepreneurs could not afford to pay the new minimum wage due to the high cost of production and running costs. When the minimum wage rose to N70,000 in July this year, only 21 states acknowledged their ability to pay their civil servants the new rate, a continuation of what had obtained previously.

    There is no framework for reviewing minimum wage to offset the inevitable increase in inflation as is the case with Vietnam where a five percent increase in salaries is routinely effected annually. Invariably, reviews in the past had never reflected on prevailing inflation rate but on how the labour leaders are were able to arm twist the government to accede to their demands.

    “As you are all aware, we took the baton of authority at a time when our economy was nose-diving as a result of heavy debts from fuel and dollar subsidies,” Tinubu said. This is a devious simplification of Nigeria’s debt profile. The President chose to ignore the fact that at some point, precisely in 2004, former President Olusegun Obasanjo had negotiated debt relief with the Paris Club after paying substantial amount of the debt en bloc, effectively freeing Nigeria from the debt trap.

    Umaru Yar’Adua, Obasanjo’s successor, took the external debt to $3.5 billion, while the domestic debt was at N5.62 trillion. Goodluck Jonathan added $3.8 billion to take the country’s total external debt to $7.35 billion, while the domestic debt was N8.8 trillion.

    But when Muhammadu Buhari and Tinubu’s party, the apc, took over, domestic debt rose from N8.84 trillion in December 2015 to N44.91 trillion in June 2023 while external debt increased from $7.35 billion in December 2015 to $37.2 billion in June 2023.

    Tinubu’s so-called “heavy debts from fuel and dollar subsidies” was essentially a mismanagement by his predecessor and party man whose borrow and spend mentality returned the country to the debt trap barely 20 years after Obasanjo did the unusual of weaning Nigeria from the Paris Club and western creditors. The characterisation of Nigerians as having been living in undeserved luxury is an attempt to blame the victim for his travails. As as long as Tinubu prefers to play the ostrich on the state of the economy and the living condition of the people, there can never be an altruistic pathway to giving Nigerians minimum comfort.

    First, Nigerians had never lived in luxury or fake life. They just barely managed to get by. By glossing over the point at which the debt burden was again foisted on the country along with the wanton looting that characterized the management of the loans, the administration showed it is incapable of evolving a working strategy to alleviate the suffering of the masses. For as long as the former governor of the Central Bank is cast as the scapegoat solely responsible for the ruining of the economy, for as long as the real perpetrators of the macabre despoilation of the country are shielded from accounting for their rulership, the attempt to make ordinary Nigerians, the victims of that era, now the people to blame, Tinubu has not got a road map to bring the country back from the brink.

    The true message from President Tinubu is that the real life suitable for Nigerians is the one his administration has plunged the country into. They will have to live with hunger, deprivation and a bleak future. After all, they had lived a luxury they had not earned upfront before he came to Aso Rock.

  • Wale Edun’s $20b paradox – By Pius Mordi

    Wale Edun’s $20b paradox – By Pius Mordi

    When Wale Edun, President Bola Tinubu’s Finance Minister, announced that $20 billion has been saved since the scrapping of the fuel subsidy regime, he may have expected Nigerias would be elated and applaud the administration. Rather, there is consternation on the propriety of the claim. Proclaiming that removal of fuel subsidy had recorded a tremendous success as to plough a whopping amount into the national treasury is confounding againstthe backdrop of worsening state of the economy. And with the impressive return from the revenue generating agencies, Edun’s claim became a tough sell.

    If there is $20 billion in the vault of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), why is it not reflecting on the strength of the naira in the foreign exchange market. More importantly, where is the money and what has it been used to do?

    From making the disclosure at an event in Abuja to mark the first 100 days in office of Mrs. Didi Esther Walson-Jack, Edun doubled down on his claim when he appeared before Senate Joint Committees on Finance and National Planning and Economic Affairs on the 2025-2027 Medium-Term Expenditure Framework/Fiscal Strategy Paper. He did not just defend the president’s request for approval to borrow additional $2.2 billion, but said the country needs to borrow more. Despite the huge debt overhang inherited from former President Muhammadu Buhari, Tinubu has the luxury of a compliant National Assembly with a garrulous Godswill Akpabio presiding.

    Unfortunately, the people do not have the corresponding luxury of a leader of lawmakers with the desire to seek explanations for the people. If only we had Senate President in the mould of Bukola Saraki! Just like his predecessor, Ahmed Ibrahim Lawan, who declared from day one that his job is to ensure anything Buhari asks of the Senate, Buhari gets, Akpabio did not need to make such declaration. A few days after his emergence as leader of the legislative arm of government, he gleefully attended an official ceremony with the insignia of Tinubu emblazoned on his cap. Of course, Tinubu himself was on hand to regale in Akpabio’s powerful statement.

    Even though Akpabio and his team were committed to giving Tinubu whatever he wants, they could have put up the semblance of a show akin to window dressing and still give their approval. Whenever issues that raise eyebrows come, Aso Rock resorts to sloganeering. The precursor to the loan application was Edun’s explanation on how it was determined that the removal of fuel subsidy saved over $20 billion.

    “An amount of five percent of GDP is what those two subsidies were costing,” Edun stated. “When there was a subsidy on PMS and on foreign exchange, they collectively cost five percent of GDP. Assuming GDP was $400 billion on average, five percent of that is $20 billion—funds that could now go into infrastructure, health, social services, and education” he concluded. And a few days afterwards, Tinubu himself unequivocally declared that he will grow the economy from $362 billion to $1 trillion by 2030. Apparently, the statement is to sweeten the loan application as something that will trigger an unimaginable growth in the economy within just six years!

    How can that projection(?) be achieved? In the 2024 fiscal year, N9.7 trillion constitute the deficit component of the N35.5 trillion 2024 budget to be funded by borrowing. Invariably, all the loans obtained by Tinubu since he became president have been devoted to funding budgets while personnel costs continue to baloon with multiple level appointments.

    Expectations that before approving the loan requests, Akpabio’s Senate would seek explanations on how the funds will be deployed. It is a spectacle that has left Nigerians more confused that relieved that the fuel regime is working. “We still need to borrow productively, effectively and sustainably all in the name to invest in a Nigerian economy”, Edun warned the senators during his session with them. It is a paradox: revenue collection agencies are making more returns; billions of dollars are “saved” from what would have been used to import refined products and payment of subsidies; foreign exchange reserves are rising; yet, the naira keeps losing ground against the dollar. The CBN keeps raising interest rest rate ostensibly to check inflation. But as the naira steadily tumbles in the market, inflation strengthens. Wale Edun has to open the books and tell Nigerians why the people can no longer make ends meet with the waning local currency.

     

     

    Postscript

     

    *Calling Dave Umahi*

    In a few days, December will be here. It is a special season of the year for the southeast. Many people from that part of the country embark on the customary return to their homes and villages for the Yuletide. That annual ritual begins from the first week of December, barely 10 days away.

    For over seven months, the major road leading to the East with its newly commissioned second Niger bridge has collapsed in Asaba, capital of Delta State. Its only a four-lane dual carriageway. The huge vehicular traffic on the road has wreaked a lot havoc on the inner city roads in Asaba as heavy duty vehicles join cars in avoid the collapsed federal highway. They were not built for such traffic and are beginning to fail in many sections as well.

    Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State, had deployed his men to repair the collapsed section, but Umahi’s men in the Federal Ministry of Works warned Oborevwori’s men off. The Governor was not bothered that the federal government will uphold its resolve not to refund to states any amount spent on rehabilitating federal roads. He just wanted relief for road users. Federal Works Ministry officials claimed that contract for the rehabilitation of the road has been awarded. Eventually, the contractor did mobilise to site. Barely.

    But the pace of work is so frustratingly slow that there will be no relief for travellers this Yuletide. We warned in this column that it has been a nightmare for road users going to the south east and south south. This time, it will be armaggeddon for travellers. That is unless the heart of Dave Umahi and his Works Ministry officials are touched to do the right thing. And save Asaba inner city roads.

  • The message from Tinubu’s men – By Pius Mordi

    The message from Tinubu’s men – By Pius Mordi

    Aso Rock’s media team is in overdrive. Not with a flurry of messages to acquaint Nigerians with the sterling accomplishments of their principal, President  Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Apparently, they have no such story to tell. What has preoccupied the now expanded team is the scathing remarks attributed to Chief Olusegun Obasanjo, former President, in far away United States at a Chinua Achebe Leadership Forum. Obasanjo is not an inventor or social scientist to have said anything extraordinary. He said Nigeria is teetering on the brink of chaos, expressing “deep concern” over the country’s worsening economic situation.

    He blamed it on leadership failure, stating that “the more the immorality and corruption of a nation, the more the nation sinks into chaos, insecurity, conflict, and underdevelopment”. Nothing new or special in what the former president said. In fact, many other prominent leaders and citizens had made even more damning statements.  But coming against the backdrop of the recent verdict from the World Bank classifying Tinubu’s reforms as having performed below expectations in a statement that stopped short of calling the reforms a failure as well as the venue of Obasanjo’s lecture – Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, USA – it stung deep.

    Obasanjo is a former president whose words are not taken lightly and commands global respect. There had to be a response from Aso Rock. And it came vociferously. Bayo Onanuga, the combative spokesman who recently won the fracticidal attrition battle with Ajuri Ngelale fired the first salvo. Afterwards, a coterie of associates and politicians have followed suit with a common theme: run down Obasanjo.

    Onanuga chose to prove his contention that Obasanjo is more of a failure than his principal.

    In his response, Onanuga equally had a scathing riposte for the first Fourth Republic president, accusing him of “brazen illegality and assault on the Constitution”.

    Highlighting a litany of Obasanjo’s misdeeds, the presidential spokesman spokesman accused him of neglecting national infrastructure, leaving federal roads in disrepair, and failing to address the country’s power crisis despite spending $16 billion on electricity projects.

    Sunday Dare, one of the people newly deployed to join Onanuga as presidential spokesmen, adopted the same strategy of strictly taking on Obasanjo. On account of what Onanuga listed as his failures and more, Dare said described him as a man with “tremendous capacity for mischief”. His parting shot is telling. “In this market called Nigeria, the man with the renewed hope agenda is the one that matters. Everything else is ariwo oja [market noise]”, the one-time Minister of Sports said.

    And that is the tragedy. In Onanuga and Dare’s responses, the common denominator was to show that Obasanjo was a poor leader as president. Dare summed up what matters to Aso Rock. In failing to address the issues raised by Obasanjo,  they told Nigerians that Tinubu is president and everybody should simply accept whatever he does. Looking back at the charges of treason levelled against the over 70 young men arrested during #EndBadGovernance protests after being held illegally for over three months without trial, one begins to understand the mentality of aides within the corridors of power and the fact that they go to bed easily and untroubled.

    As Dare himself put it, Nigeria is a market. The only one that matters is the man running the market, not the state of the market or the fortunes of other marketers.  That is dangerous merchantilism. Neither Onanuga nor Dare showed sympathy for the ordinary Nigerians or address any of the issues raised by Obasanjo. That the people are hungry and largely unable to feed themselves and meet other family and personal needs are not consequential to the presidential spokesmen. Arranging a coterie of chorus singers, including ethnic-based groups is not a tough exercise.

    It does not take a strenuous search to see the collateral damage being wreaked on the society by the incongruous outcome of the failed policies.

    A cursory look in the various social social media platforms shows that numerous adverts of charcoal stoves now abound on Facebook. The astronomical cost of gas which is still routinely flared as associated gas in the Niger Delta where gas in abundance more than crude oil has added a new dimension to deforestation. The social media adverts logically illustrate why it pays to switch to charcoal for cooking at only a fractionof buying gas. The charcoal does not come from Enugu coal mines which are no longer in commission. The charcoal come from felled trees at a time saner climes are combating climate change. Ours is more challenging. Desertification has been with us and steadily overrunning the North  and creeping down south. With kerosene already out of reach, ecological devastation will become the lot of the country. Coupled with the pollution that came with the tactless exploitation of crude oil in the Niger Delta,  Nigeria is on the cusp of unprecedented environmental disaster that will take decades after Tinubu’s time before remedial actions may be taken.

    For now, the people have to contend with the pervading poverty in the land while future generations will have to deal with the inevitable environmental disaster that lies ahead. What matters now for Aso Rock is that Tinubu in charge and should not be disturbed.

  • Another rudderless debate on Coast Guard – By Pius Mordi

    Another rudderless debate on Coast Guard – By Pius Mordi

    A combination of factors make Nigeria’s maritime status special. Its coastline of 853 kilometres, its over seven port complexes dotting the coastline and huge population, albeit now with very limited purchasing power, make its territorial waters a hub of maritime activities. In the not distant past, Nigeria’s coastal waters was notorious as the hub of piracy, second only to Somalia, a country that has not had a central authority for decades and governed by armed gangs.

    Last month,  Senator Wasiu Eshilokun (APC- Lagos), had tabled a bill to set up a Coast Guard, a fourth group in Nigeria’s Armed Forces after the Navy, Army and Air Force. According to him, the Coast Guard will “provide assistance in the enforcement of all relevant laws within the maritime zones in Nigeria’s jurisdiction. It is also to administer and enforce regulations for the preservation of lives and property within the maritime zones of Nigeria.”

    Beyond this vague description of the functions of the envisaged coast guard, every other activity to be associated with the guard is basically an adaptation of the functions of the Navy. The clearest indication of what may have inspired Senator Eshilokun is his allusion to having an agency that will maintain a state of readiness as a specialised service in support of the Nigerian Navy in war situations: There is Coast Guard in America, so we should have one here.

    This is the latest bid to emasculate the Nigerian Navy, the least equipped of the three arms of the military. With about 70 warships, the Navy is categorised as the fourth strongest navy in Africa in terms of numbers, after South Africa, Egypt, Algeria and Morocco. But most of the vessels are no longer seaworthy and will require extensive refitting and drydock to get them back to active service. However, with limited funds made available to it, the Navy has not been able to pull its weight as a blue water Navy. Rather, its diminished capability has compelled it operate mainly with the coastal area and with no offshore platform or foreign engagements, it seemed tolerable.

    The scheme to emasculate the Navy began much earlier than Sen. Eshilokun’s bill. In 2003, the Federal Government set up the Presidential Implementation Committee on Maritime Safety and Security (PICOMMS) to make up for the depletion of maritime security platforms following Nigeria’s involvement in efforts to end the Liberian civil war. From recommending the pathway to refitting the Navy and restoring its combat readiness, the committee sought to transmute itself into an independent arm of the military. Although the perpetrators did not want to be called the Coast Guard, it resisted propositions to have it operate as an adjunct of the Navy.

    When eventually the federal government decided to scrap the PICOMMS that came as a committee 19 years earlier, it had become enmeshed in various shady activities that led to the arraignment and prosecution of some of its top operatives. An alleged N6.5 billion fraud among other malfeasance, including an alleged bribe to get the National Assembly to approve PICOMSS’ transformation into a “Maritime Safety Agency” led the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to investigate and prosecute its leaders before its formal dissolution.

    Vice Admiral Dele Joseph Ezeoba (rtd), a former Chief of Naval Staff, condemned Sen. Eshilokun’s bill. He warned that it is a duplication of the Nigerian Navy’s functions that could lead to confusion, conflicts, and a weakened maritime security framework, arguing that the policies outlined in the bill do not address specific maritime challenges and could create more problems.

    “What it implies is complete anarchy in the maritime space. I doubt if a proper gap analysis was done,” Ezeoba said on Arise Television, adding that the Coast Guard’s responsibilities, as outlined in the bill, mirror those of the Nigerian Navy, making its creation redundant.

    For Mrs. Mfon Usoro, a maritime lawyer and pioneer director general of the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), it is strange that the creation of a new arm of the military as the Coast Guard Bill proposes is at the instance of a private bill. Normally, it should be an executive bill and the product of exhaustive evaluation, consultation and study, she said.

    “How is a branch of the armed forces established in our country? It accentuates the lack of coordinated cohesive policy-making process”, she said.

    “This bill is really not well thought of because how will the Marshall, the head of the Coast Guard who is supposed to be a serving naval officer, report to a civilian ministry? What happens to command and control where his primary employment is in the Nigerian Navy? There are lots of things, technically, that are not clear”, Usoro stated.

    Already, there is the controversial arrangement whereby private security organisations, including Tantita Security Services, is handling the provision of security of pipelines and combating of crude oil theft. But it serves the purpose of engaging young men in the main theatre of oil activities as well as providing support for the Navy.

    Not unexpectedly, when the bill came up for debate during its second reading on the floor of the Senate, members seemed carried away by the esoteric perception of their superintending over the establishment of fourth arm of the Armed Forces. None of the law makers raised fundamental questions on the imperative of having a new arm, its cost implications or if the buy in of the Aso Rock had been secured. Assuming the National Assembly passes the Coast Guard Bill, will President Bola Tinubu be obliged to set up an agency he may not have planned for? Rather than expend precious time and resources in this rudderless venture, the National Assembly should seek the strengthening of the Navy which is already becoming more effective given its collaboration with NIMASA that has seen Nigeria removed from the list of high-risk areas for shipping because of incidences of piracy and sea robbery by the International Maritime Bureau. In the midst of dwindling resources, undermining the Navy and setting up a rival arm will become a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth.

  • Remi Tinubu’s prayerton to save Nigeria – By Pius Mordi

    Remi Tinubu’s prayerton to save Nigeria – By Pius Mordi

    By the projections of the First Lady, Senator Remi Tinubu, 313 individuals will recite the Qur’an, culminating in the recitation of the Holy text 2,191 times for national stability over seven days. On the Christian side, “prayer warriors” [whatever that means] will meet at the National Ecumenical Centre for a week of intense prayers. The warriors will come from various denominations in the spiritual exercise focusing their efforts on the nation’s adversities.

    That is a massive outpouring of prayers through which “we believe that with God’s wisdom, our leaders and citizens will find the strength to confront our common enemies,” according to Chief Segun Balogun Afolorunikan, Director General of the National Prayer Forum (NPF). I thought the NPF acronym is supposed to be the exclusive of the Police just like their uniform. For daring to cross the red line without authorisation, Very Dark Man in his bid to create exciting content was said to have adorned himself in Police officer’s uniform without permission, is being prosecuted. Well, being that the wife of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is the spearhead of the current prayer venture, the Police will maintain their lane. For the NPF, a special platform with a hilarious theme, “Seeking the Intervention of God in Nigeria’s Affairs”, has been coined. I am not sure the organisers are implying that God has not been involved in Nigeria’s affair until they came up with their latest prayer venture. But with the involvement of the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, this prayerton is unprecedented and will be decisive.

    It is not like Nigerians are being summoned to pray for the country for the first time. General Yakubu Gowon, former head of state who led the country through a fracticidal civil war, left his well deserved peaceful life in retirement to convene Nigeria Prays in 1996 to, according to him, “put an end to the various problems plaguing Nigeria.”

    As desirable as prays are, even Gowon had to wade through some potential political landmines to engage in it. Late Sani Abacha was head of state then and he had to secure his buy-in before he and his group could pray.

    “I did not want to go to jail because at that time the situation in the country was not palatable. You never know what you could do that would lead you to jail. And I did not want to experience the mosquitoes in Kirikiri. That was why I had to get the nod of General Abacha because he probably would not understand why we had to pray and could in fact have read meaning to our prayers.”

    You see, prayers can be risky, even dangerous. Thankfully, there is no such concern for the NPF. All loopholes have been convered. Rather than have any fear, participants can consider the latest one bountiful and rewarding. The 313 people to recite the Holy Qur’an over seven days having a herculean task. They have to travel from their abode to the National Mosque in Abuja, get accommodated and fed over the period. For their prayer warrior counterparts, they have to be head hunted from various denominations first. The head hunters have to be impressed with their prayer prowess during auditioning, I guess.

    Like every labourer, the NPF brigade would have earned their pay after seven days. They should be paid. If not, and I hope not, it will be an incomplete exercise. As Godswill Akpabio, our Senate President admonished fellow Nigerians, whenever you see free food, go and chop there. On Akpabio’s advise, I am his full agreement. Free food is hard to find. I would love to be part of prayer bonanza given how expensive food is to find. But it will not take rocket science for the head hunters to disqualify me if I apply to be one of prayer warriors.

    My major handicap which I will be unable to disguise is that I do not believe in praying for leaders, not just Nigerian leaders. When I am in church and the presiding minister calls for prayers for leaders, I switch off or pray for us, the people, to strive to hold leaders accountable. Before a politician offers himself to ‘serve’ the people, I believe he already knows the challenges facing the country and the path to our redemption. Despite this fact, Nigerians vociferously pray for their leaders for God to guide them in doing what is right and just. But it is like the more leaders are prayed for, the worse they become.

    By 1996 when Gowon founded his Nigeria Prays, he thought the people were living through excruciating times. But the minimum wage at the time actually took workers home. People went to their farms and travelled across without fear of their safety. There was a thriving middle class and the average Nigerian who could read bought newspapers of their choice. About 28 years later, the president’s wife and the country’s National Security Adviser are so concerned with the state of affairs that they are asking God to directly take over the Nigeria.

    Since they consider the leadership incapable of getting the job done, they may have to tell God to create the tablet that will provide the guide on how to “confront our common enemies”. But first, the Moses that will go receive the tablets from God from wherever just as the biblical Moses did those days will have tobe so designated. Probably, they may ask God to name a new set of leaders to do God’s will. Whatever option they choose, the First Lady may not find it enobling. Will her husband,  the President, not be undermined? For the prayer warriors on both sides of the aisle, my advise is listen to Godswill Akpabio. Whenever they are done with the prayerton, their people will be waiting to get their own share of free food. They must bring food to their folks.

  • Leadership and the politics of ill-health – By Pius Mordi

    Leadership and the politics of ill-health – By Pius Mordi

    When King Charles of England was diagnosed with cancer, he quickly told his people. No one was left to speculate the nature of his health challenge. The action did not just earn him the respect and admiration of Britons but the entire world. He was applauded for his honesty, strength of character and for inspiring people. King Charles was seen as a brave leader and his people were with him while he took time off his official duties to attend to his health. For the nature of the diagnoses, people with similar challenges drew strength that if Charles could have such a challenge and go public with it, they should be at peace with it and give life their best shot.
    Elsewhere, when Lloyd Austin, US Defence Secretary, went AWOL over a medical condition without formally notifying his boss, President Joe Biden, and alerting the American people, he was roundly condemned and had to appologise.

    Indeed, leaders are expected to exude strength and inspire their people while in office. But the definition and perception of what makes a strong and good leader differs across cultures. In Africa, leaders understand a strong leader as one who shows physical strength. He is expected to be seen, heard and be everywhere. An African leader sees himself as the embodiment in the strength of his nation. He almost has the impression that unlike his people, he should not be ill or show failing health. There is equally the perception by the people that a leader with failing health may no longer be in charge and with a seeming power vacuum while a struggle for power and influence may ensue.
    Unfortunately, leaders, being humans, face health challenges. When there is no honest interface with the people as is often the case among African leaders, what may have started as a rumour eventually dovetails into a debilitating factor that can set off a needless succession struggle among political actors within the corridors of power.

    For Nigerians, tales of leaders carrying on while they tried to hide their illness was a strange phenomenon associated with other African countries with sit tight presidents. All that changed when Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua succeeded Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as president in 2007. Already in poor health while the campaigns for the presidential election was in full gear, it did not take long for the health issue to take the front burners in his nascent administration. It finally took the invocation of a hitherto unknown Doctrine of Necessity for governance to be retrieved from a cabal of proxy presidents that held the country hostage with fairy tales of president who they told Nigerians can govern from anywhere through them for Goodluck Jonathan to take over the reins of power.

    Yar’Adua’s episode has become a recurring decimal in Nigeria’s leadership architecture through President Muhammadu Buhari’s eight-year presidency and Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s emergence has accentuated the sequence. Explaining the attitude of Nigerian leaders in considering their health status a state secret opens a number of unrelated factors. Tinubu emerged as the product of conscious effort to have somebody of southern extraction succeed Buhari. He has embarked on numerous foreign trips which presidency media minders give strange nomenclatures. ‘Working leave’ is what they dubbed his latest trip to the UK where he moved over to France that was not initially announced as part of his destinations. With the rumour over Tinubu’s health, the latest ‘leave’ has triggered a fresh wave of speculation on his health. The common tread in all the opinions, informed and uninformed, is that the President is unwell.

    Given the political arrangement where Kashim Shettima, a northern, is vice president and next in line, Tinubu’s political machine cannot countenance a situation where power leaves their circle. For good measure, while embarking on his two-week working leave that ended up stretching to 18 days, the instrument for transfer of power to an acting president was not activated.

    As if on cue, the mystery surrounding the whereabouts of the Chief of Army Staff, Taoreed Lagbaja, is yet to clear. It took a post on X that he had passed on for the Army high command to acknowledge that he is ill and receiving treatment.

    In Cameroon, its government had to resort to a comical ban on media reports on the health status Paul Biya, its 91 year-old ailing president, to force a calm of the cemetery on rumours that his health has failed irretrievably. The embarrassing state secret surrounding the health of African presidents is one factor that will continue to impede the continent’s growth. Minders of a leader know their continued stay in office and the sustenance of their illicit activities are tied to the continued hold on power by their principal. They will contrive any game and strategy to maintain the façade of a powerful principal while the inevitable power struggle plays out to the detriment of development. Do we need a legislation to compel vital public office holders to make public their health status similar to the Doctrine of Necessity to curb the trend? The attitude is embarrassing and demeaning. There are enough exemplary conducts elsewhere to inspire African leaders. But the name of the game is to hang on to power.

    Postscript
    Tax men on the prowl
    After strenuous opposition from service providers, stakeholders and consumers forced Tinubu’s government to jettison an earlier attempt to introduce tax on telephone services, the tax men are back again. The government is planning a new five percent tax for GSM calls, SMS and data usage. Cumulatively, that will lead to an increase of 12.5% as the federal government also plans to implement a five percent inclusive excise duty on telecommunication services. This is coming at a time telcos are mulling increasing their call rates in tandem with the cost of providing services to Nigerians and a fresh attempt after an earlier tax proposal was dropped in September 2022.

    The worrying part of President Tinubu’s economic team is that only the tax men are taking all the initiative. Nigerians are on a cliffhanger under the prevailing hardship and are barely surviving. But for the tax hawks, their only recipe is for Nigerians to pay more tax. Where are the development economists in the team that should complement the tax drive by creating a clement environment for businesses to grow and thrive? And what about addressing the cost of governance so that the unbridled wastage and leakages in the machinery of government is curbed?

    Since the onset of the administration, the tax men have been having a field day burdening Nigerians with all manner of taxes to oil the machinery of government. The proposed teleco tax is an overkill when nothing has been unveiled to spur growth.

  • NNPC and the ‘Unoka’ syndrome – By Pius Mordi

    NNPC and the ‘Unoka’ syndrome – By Pius Mordi

    You have to feel for today’s generation. Of all the deprivation inflicted on them by the by the chain of failed leadership in Nigeria, the most severe is denying them access to the works of first generation literary giants Nigeria gave to the world. In my growing up days, we did not have to wait until preparing for WAEC before having to read novels that shaped our world view on leadership and lack of it. Before pivoting to the various areas of academic specialisation on moving to the old Class 4, every secondary student had to read great literary works like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, No Longer At Ease and A Man of the People. That is if other great works like George Orwell’s Animal Farm and numerous others are not factored in.

    I wonder if secondary school students are being given the privilege of reading such great literary works. Can the title of this piece resonate with them? Unoka was one of the less celebrated characters of Things Fall Apart. He was Okonkwo’s father, who died ten years prior to the opening of the novel. Although Unoka is not physically present in the novel, he played an important role in Okonkwo’s memory. Ever since he was a child, Okonkwo felt deeply ashamed of his father.

    Unoka was afraid of blood and violence and had no interest in gaining a title in his village. He was lazy and unwilling to work for a living. Characterized as a tall, thin man with a slight stoop, Unoka was Okonkwo’s father. He appeared “haggard and mournful except when he was drinking or playing his flute.” Unoka was an ill-fated man. He had a bad ‘chi’ or personal god, and evil fortune followed him to the grave, more like to his death, for he could not enjoy the privilege of being buried in a grave.

    A foil to Okonkwo, Unoka was not a successful or respected man and specialised in accumulating debt he never repaid. Achebe told of Unoka’s wall where he marked the loans he collected from his contemporaries. And when any of his creditors came to remind him of the debt he owed, he would point to the wall to prove to the creditor that he is not the only one he is owing or the first. The despondent creditor would be dismissed with the regular promise that the debt would be paid as soon as he got the money. Unoka never got the money nor paid his creditors.

    Unoka did not provide for his family and Okonkwo grew up without having enough to eat. Because of Unoka’s personality, Okonkwo grew to resent him.

    Unoka was irresponsible. He was poor, lazy, and neglectful of his wife, and he did not plan for the future. During his life, he never gained status or respect from the villagers. Bad fortune followed Unoka, even to his death. He died of swelling in his stomach and limbs — an affliction not acceptable to ‘Ani’, the earth goddess. He, therefore, could not be buried properly, so he was taken to the Evil Forest to rot, making Okonkwo even more ashamed of his father.

    Okonkwo lived the opposite of Unoka by being “a wealthy farmer and had two barns full of yams” and was hardworking. He was respected by elders and kings, and he considered himself their equal. While Unoka was a dream, Okonkwo was a man of action and worldly success.

    There is so much in common between Unoka and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). In the latest effort in dressing the failed state oil behemoth in borrowed robes, ‘Limited’ was added to its nomenclature in a deceitful arrangement that created the false impression that it is a limited liability company. At the time NNPC was established in April 1977, other oil producing countries also set up their own state oil companies. About the time NNPC was established, Saudi Arabia’s Aramco and Brazil’s Petrobras also came on stream with similar mandates.

    All three companies were the dominant players in their respective country’s oil sectors and are among the top three oil producing countries in each of their respective regions. However, this is where the similarities end, as Nigeria’s oil company has not been able to compete with these companies in terms of profits or to even refine and supply products to its citizens.

    Just like Unoka, NNPC has been irredeemably irresponsible, poor, lazy, and neglectful of its mandate, and never planned for the future. NNPC has never been successful or respected and specialised in accumulating debt it could ever repay. While its contemporaries – Aramco and Petrobras – blossomed, attracted investments, managed state-owned refineries and built additional ones while making refined products regularly available in their countries, NNPC presided over the progressive decline of Nigeria’s oil industry. Again, just as Unoka, NNPC has been unwilling to work for a living. It has not gained status or respect from the international community. NNPC has had a bad ‘chi’ and evil fortune stalking it and will ultimately shepherd it to its looming grave.

    Chief Olusegun Obasanjo usually tells the story of how he bought 19 new general cargo ships for the now liquidated Nigerian National Shipping Line (NNSL) as military head of state. When he returned years later as elected president, NNSL was no longer there. Sani Abacha had got exasperated with its poor state and liquidated it.

    Actually, NNPC has fared much worse. It superintended over the failure of four modern refineries built and handed over to the behemoth to manage. For more than 25 years, the four refineries in Warri, Kaduna as well as the two in Port Harcourt have been moribund. NNPC has bequeathed to Nigeria a fraudulent regime of petrol subsidy through which billions of dollars are fleeced out of the national economy every year being the sole importer of refine products.

    Now that the long expected refinery built by Aliko Dangote is on stream, NNPC wants to be the sole buyer for delivery to independent marketers so it can sustain its fraudulent pricing template. On the other hand,  its contemporaries have become global conglomerates involved in all chains of the oil industry.

    When Unoka died, from his ashes sprang a warrior, achiever, a man of honour in Okonkwo. NNPC has to die for Nigeria’s oil industry to survive and tread the path of growth. NNPC has been pampered for too long. It cannot and can never be productive. It is too steeped in the rot it created for itself. Bury NNPC. An Okonkwo may probably arise.

  • Land grabbing and Newton Jibunoh’s dire warning – By Pius Mordi

    Land grabbing and Newton Jibunoh’s dire warning – By Pius Mordi

    Newton Jibunoh is famous for his daring multiple crossing of the Sahara Desert. The first time was in 1966 at just 27 years when he drove solo from Lagos through Kano and on to the treacherous Sahara Desert to London. He did it again in 2000, again, alone. The third and final time was in 2008, this time he was joined by five young people.

    It was a daring adventure at a time the Sahara even though had not been overrun by bands of bandits and soldiers of fortune mainly of Tuareg extraction was reputed as the most inclement desert in the world. It the course of the Sahara crossings, Jibunoh saw the extreme nature of the environment, how many hundreds of square kilometers of land are lost to the desert yearly and what awaited the future. On each leg of the crossing, he saw bodies of people, not killed by bandits but those who lost their bearing and succumbed to the extreme desert weather.

    The experience inspired him to set up the foundation, Fight Against Desert Encroachment (FADE), his mission targeting desertification, climate change, poverty, migration, and conflict. The Desert Warrior, as he became popularly known, is now 86 years and still as fit as fiddle. What he saw of the devastating nature of desertification has triggered alarm bells in his environmentally knowledgeable mind. As an elderly community leader in his hometown, Akwukwu-Igbo in Oshimili North Local Government Area of Delta State, he is now overly worried by the indiscriminate expropriation of community’s lands in many states. Reminiscent of what obtains in other communities not just in Delta, thousands of acres of forests and farmlands are being bought up by speculators who entice the poor elders in the communities with money under the guise of setting up “housing estates.” Despite the fancy names given to such ventures, Jibunoh saw through the charade: it was sheer land grabbing, unbridled sales and expropriation of ancestral lands.

    In his own community, Jibunoh saw farmers being stripped of their farmlands as greedy elders were easily swayed by the cash the cash brought to the elders by the profit seeking groups and persons who usually have local collaborators. The dangers ahead are already manifesting. There is a gradual onset of reduced forests available for farming as the new owners fence off the lands for their “housing estates”, carve out numerous of plots and advertise them for sale. The plots are sold at ridiculously astronomical prices with the organisations raking millions as profit without adding any value to the land or providing infrastructure.

    “The land-grabbing crisis calls to mind the warnings about rising sea levels and land subsistence that have devastated various regions of Nigeria. The degradation that follows land-grabbing will have dire consequences in the next two or three decades, and by then, it will be too late for ordinary people to escape. Many individuals do not realize the consequences of their decisions, especially when lured by immediate financial incentives from these cartels”, he cautioned in a recent interview.

    He recounted instances where community members accepted small sums for their ancestral lands, only to witness those lands being resold for astronomical amounts.
    Jibunoh’s use of his hometown basically applies to all the communities in Edo, Kogi and Ondo states as well as Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross River states which are already beginning to contend with flooding and environmental degradation. Communities near the coastline are on the verge of being washed into the sea.

    In most communities facing almost violent disagreements, the contentious issues revolve around indiscriminate expropriation of forests and farmlands by elements among the elders and chiefs who collude with land speculators.

    At Ubulu-Uku in Aniocha South Local Government Area also of Delta State, a community that is yet to fully recover from the pangs of the killing of its monarch in 2016 by Fulani cattle herders, elements with the town’s leadership are alleged to have orchestrated a crisis within its community development association in a bid to create an acrimonious atmosphere that will make land sales less contentious. As if he had fore knowledge of what was coming, its young monarch, His Royal Majesty, Obi Chukwuka Noah Akaeze, in an address in New York to his subjects in the United States during their annual convention cautioned on land expropriation.

    Frowning at the indiscriminate land sales in Ubulu-Uku, he called for “strict guidelines” to be evolved to guard against unregulated sale of lands in the community for individual gains. Rather, land sales should be supervised to ensure that such transactions are in tandem with the interests of the community.

    “Lands”, he said, “are not just individual property, they represent our identity, culture and legacy. They represent the past, present and future of our people. It is therefore crucial to take decisive action to protect our lands from those that want to transact with it for their personal gains.

    “To secure our lands for current and future development, we must enact strict land transaction regulations. We need to create a transparent and accountable measures to ensure community lands are used for the benefit of the people”, the monarch stated.

    On account of the massive expropriation of farmlands, some people are calling on the government of Delta State to enact laws that will protect ancestral and community lands. The platform usually used for carrying out such scheme is the claim of building a “housing estate”. In truth, there is no estate built or facilities provided therein. The entire transaction revolves around buying ancestral lands and selling them at astronomical prices to buyers. The call for government intervention is in tandem with Agbogidi Chukwuka Noah Akaeze’s stance that strict guidelines be set to control land sales in his domain.

    Jibunoh is also in favour of guidelines and regulations. “These lands are reserves from the days of Western Nigeria. The details are available and you will see areas that are mapped out as well as the areas from Midwest to Bendel and now Delta State.

    “Show me your plan that will bring development, help employment, and stop people from exploiting the forests. I have asked them to show me their plan but none of the cartels and their agents have been able to do so. I am a conservationist and I know what goes with conservation all over Europe and even in some African countries. I just returned from Morocco. In that country, if you want to embark on development, all that the authorities will ask you is to ensure that there is a school, hospital, playground and other facilities in place. If you can package all that will benefit the community, bring it and we will look at it.

    “What most of the land-grabbers are doing is buying from the communities at cheap rates and then reselling to land-grabbers for millions. This is why they do not want to bring any plan they have for development”, the conservationist said.

  • The nightmarish state of federal roads – By Pius Mordi

    The nightmarish state of federal roads – By Pius Mordi

    By Pius Mordi

    This is not about any administration, certainly not about Bola Ahmed Tinubu. It is about how the repair and maintenance of federal roads in Nigeria has seemingly become a tool for cartel-like transactions. For decades, federal roads have been on a programmed decline with simple potholes allowed to degenerate to gullies and ultimately disaster areas.

    Most roads built and controlled by the federal government make up the artery for connecting the various states. Unfortunately, most of the roads are not just broken, but completely failed and impassable. Across the country, state governments have taken up the task of fixing collapsed sections of federal roads in their domain. The understanding is that on completion of the rehabilitation, applications are made to the federal government for refund of the cost incurred. The process of aplying for the refund, its approval and actual disbursement by federal authorities has sprung an industry of its own. Top officials in the Federal Ministry of Works regale in the situation. With their recommendation, the cost quoted by a state may be deemed outrageous or reasonable. Previously, the federal government was known to routinely refund the amount quoted by states.

    Muhammadu Buhari’s Information Minister, Lai Mohammed had in June 2022 said the Buhari administration had so far reimbursed about N447 billion for expenses incurred on construction and rehabilitation of federal roads and bridges to 24 states.  By the end of April 2023, the figure hit N860 billion. But in a fact sheet highlighting achievements of the Buhari administration published by the Presidency in May 2023, then Minister of Works, Babatunde Fashola directed states to desist from such interventions as the federal government would no longer offset such expenses. For effect, Lai Mohammed stated that  “Henceforth, if any state takes on federal government roads, it will not be paid. They will not get any refund. Even if you want to pay from your own pocket, you will still need the permission of the federal government and it will be supervised by the Federal Ministry of Works and Housing.” Tinubu’s current Works Minister, David Umahi, buttressed the stance when he visited Oyo’s Seyi Makinde in August 2023.

    The fact that the prevailing arrangement where Abuja held the bulk of federal resources that should enable it repair federal roads was not working was not lost on both tiers of government. Federal roads were not being repaired and had become obstacles on the path to commerce and inter-state transportation. It no longer mattered if a state governor is in the good books of the president as Nyesom Wike found out when he hosted then President-Elect Tinubu for the inauguration of the N80 billion Rumuokwuta/Rumuola Flyover in Port Harcourt. Wike who was still Governor of Rivers State after successfully delivering the state to the coming president was roundly rebuffed. Abuja was not inclined to embark on comprehensive repair of its roads. And securing approval from federal officials to enable states restore such roads may have been weaponised.

    Nowhere is the sorry state of federal roads in stark manifestation than in Delta State, home to most of the onshore oil infrastructure and a sizeable part of the maritime facilities.

    Delta is the gateway to the southeastern part of the country from the south west; the major connecting point to the rest of South south from the north as well as the major link to the southwest from the southeast and south south. In a country where there is no viable rail network, road transportation remains the only way for movement of people and economic activities.

    From the Benin-Asaba highway that links Onitsha and thencei the rest of the southeast; the roads from Agbor, Asaba and Onicha-Ugbo to connect the highway to Abuja as well as the Warri-Benin economic artery to Agbor-Eku Road, it is a tale of nightmare for road users and economic activities. They are all federal roads. The only clear exception is the Ughelli-Asaba highway which the Government of Delta State secured approval earlier to convert into a dual carriageway. The more than 112 kilometres road is almost completed and is the only bright light in the terrible state of federal roads in the state. Even this is now under serious threat from the failed sections in Asaba axis that link the Second Niger Bridge.

    The tragedy of the crippling state of federal roads in Delta is that despite repeated attempts by Delta State Government to fix the roads, officials of the federal Ministry of Works go to great lengths to frustrate the rehabilitation of the failed sections that have virtually crippled human and economic activities. The failed sections of the Benin-Asaba highway aptly illustrate this alarming attitude of federal officials.

    In the peak of the ongoing torrential rains, Governor Sheriff Oborevwori had directed his Commissioner for Works to effect immediate rehabilitation of the failed sections. As soon as the process began, officials from the federal Ministry of Works showed up to order the suspension of the exercise with the claim that contract has already been awarded for the rehabilitation. Sadly, no contractor has mobilised to site while the sections have turned into gullys and severed the ever-busy highway. Apparently, federal officials are more concerned that letting the Delta State Government to effect the repairs will deny them the perks that come with their handling of such contracts. The crippling of movement of goods and people under the asphyxiating economic challenges facing Nigerians is secondary to their peculiar interests in the contract process.

    Months after, no contractor is yet to mobilise to site while the nightmare has worsened.

    The brunt of the unusual and avoidable debacle is being borne mainly by residents and the business community in Delta State. This is unacceptable.

    Given the fact that the federal government is too detached to be able to address the anomaly not just in Delta but also in other states nationwide, a viable option for keeping main artery roads linking states should be evolved. The prevailing

    Mr. Umahi should propose a viable strategy for effecting prompt rehabilitation of failed sections of federal roads in collaboration with the states in whose domain the collapsed sections are domiciled. The politics associated with the unilateral stance of federal officials is insensitive while commutters and businesses suffer.

    While a comprehensive option is awaited, we urge the Works Minister to order his contractors to immediately mobilise to site in Delta State if truly the federal government awarded contract for the exercise. The sufferings of the masses is excruciating and avoidable.

    All politicians and leaders in all arms of government know the federal government is the main cog in the wheel of keeping Nigerians connected through motorable roads. But just as my friend, Abraham Ogbodo, one-time editor of The Guardian noted, “Almost always, we deliberately settle for the wrong choices and hope to mitigate our collective guilt and outright stupidity.”