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Tag: Pius Mordi

  • Playing Russian roulette with pension fund – By Pius Mordi

    Playing Russian roulette with pension fund – By Pius Mordi

    All eyes are always on the Pension Funds. For workers, it is the key for assured wellbeing after retirement. The huge accumulated funds holds a different allure for the government. It is a source akin to the conveyor belt, always rolling with regular flow of valuable goods. More remarkably, it is not only huge but cheap. But the framers of the Pensions Act were quite imaginative in protecting the fund, weaving a set of obstacles for it to be acccessed by government or for investments by Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs).

    In a nation with a long history of poor treatment of pensioners, retirees spend as much as seven years before their entitlements are paid. That was not how the Fund was designed to function. In some states, the Funds were accessed under circumstances that affected the prompt payment of retirees as envisaged by the Fund. Even then, payment is only delayed but guaranteed. In announcing Abuja’s intention, Edu did not give details of the deal that elicited fierce criticisms. Only after the backlash did he volunteer more information in a bid to douse the tension. With the Fund bursting to the seams with about N20 trillion, the initial explanation that utilising the fund to execute infrastructural projects will attract foreign direct investment into the country sounded hollow.

    Since the Pension Reform Act came on stream in 2004, and further strengthened by the 2014 amendment, there was has been a measure of stability in its management through the Contributory Scheme and the PFAs. The hornet’s nest was ruffled on May 14, 2024 when Wale Edu, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, announced that the federal government was going to raid the Pension Fund to finance its infrastructural projects.

    According to him, the initiative to deploy the pension funds was aimed at stabilising the economy amidst elevated inflation and interest rates. “And so in conversation, in consultation, collaboration and cooperation with the private sector, we are now able to announce and with the full knowledge and support of all parties, that there will be an initiative to fund growth through investment in infrastructure, including housing provision of mortgages, long term mortgages, 25-year mortgages at relatively low interest rates”, he explained.

    It has got organised labour and other stakeholders worried. And politicians have waded in as well.

    Although the regulatory framework administration of pension funds provides for investments into viable facilities, there is a ceiling on how far government can go. This much was leveraged on by former Vice President Atiku Abubakar when he waded into the controversial bid by the federal government. In the revised Regulation on Investment of Pension Funds Assets issued by the National Pension Commission (PenCom), the federal government is exhorted to not act contrary to the provisions of the extant Regulation on investment limits to which Pension Funds can invest no more than five percent of total pension funds’ assets in infrastructure investments.

    In explaining that the federal government will play by the rules, Edun sought to allay Atiku’s and others fears of foul play in raiding the fund. “There are rules, limitations about what pension money can be invested in and what cannot be invested in. The federal government has no intentions whatsoever to go beyond those limits or go outside those bounds which are there to safeguard the pension of workers”, he said.

    Generally,  the use of Pension Funds to drive investments in infrastructural development on face value is not unprecedented nor is it a bad idea. But there is a huge trust deficit the federal government has not bothered to address. At a time of unprecedented inflation and the middle class virtually decimated, the presidency has rather sustained a spending spree fueled by the allocation of huge but scarce resources for the execution of unnecessary luxury projects and provisions for the ruling class. When N1.9 billion is allocated for the acquisition of sports utility vehicles for the office of the first lady that has no place in in the constitution, N90 billion to subsidise Hajj while only N5 billion is set aside to fund the Students Loan Scheme albeit only for students in federal universities, the sceptism became strident. In addition, N15 billion was approved for the renovation of the Vice President’s residence, another N40 billion for the renovation of the Senate’s building while N10 billion has been approved for their car park. Juxtaposed with the fact that only N1 billion was approved for the building of hostels in 12 federal institutions, all talks by Abuja that it act lawfully and would deploy the funds appropriately is a tough sell.

    The trust deficit has seen Nigerians believe that the federal government lacks prudence  diligence but also does not show transparency in the management of stare resources. The burden of not being a trust worthy manager of funds for the common good is one that mere rhetorics and propaganda cannot change. The allusion that the projects to be funded from the raid on the pensions will precipitate foreign investment is being seen in the same light as previous claims of foreign investment that turned out to be false. The Maersk episode and the initial claims on Emirates Airlines resuming directs flights to Nigeria are still sticking out like a sore thumb. Those false claims created the impression that Aso Rock conducts its quest for foreign investors as a propaganda tool.

    Atiku’s verdict resonates more with Nigerians. “This move must be halted immediately! It is a misguided initiative that could lead to disastrous consequences on the lives of Nigeria’s hardworking men and women who toiled and saved and who now survive on their pensions having retired from service”, he declared.

    There are too many cases where the trust of the people have been betrayed and the thought of what may happen to retirees if their life savings are squandered are toscana to gamble with.

    Postscript

    *Minister Adelabu’s tarrif ‘Band(itry)’*

    Trust Nigerians to make a light work of serious policy issues. When the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, unveiled his infamous discriminatory four-band electricity tariff that initially increased the rate for Band A by 300 percent, there was confusion on who is where. Unable to understand where the different consumers fit in, many opted to call their own band as “Bandit”.

    In reaction to the general outcry, Adelabu doubled down on his package and even threatened that the power sector will collapse if the increase is not effected. Ultimately, he reduced the rate increase for Band A to 200 percent.

    Now, the reality of the rate hike is dawning on some organisations. The organised provate sect (OPS) in a statement said the tariff increase which is coming on the heels of macroeconomic instability, infrastructure deficits and other supply-side constraints limiting the performance of the productive sector may force over 65 percent of private businesses in Nigeria to close down.

    Against the backdrop of the picketing of the Distribution Companies the Federal Ministry of Power and the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) by organised labour that locked down the organisations, no decision has been taken to address the position of labour. The impact is already showing in the least desired area.

    The President of Save A Life Foundation, Dr Richard Okoye, lamented the huge electricity bill he recently got from the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution on his Rivers State hospital.

    Okoye said his monthly energy  bill increased to N25,300,000 because he was on Band A.

    According to him, the Federal Government’s decision to increase the band’s tariff, which he described as a “Band A tariff epidemic”, to N225 kilowatt per hour from the current N66 would destroy the healthcare system of the country, adding that hospitals only render essential services and should not be seen as business centres.

    “By reason of us (the hospital) being in Band A, our monthly power bill is now shooting up to N25,300,000. That’s crazy; hospitals are not business centres but only render essential services to society. This Band A tariff epidemic is bound to destroy the country’s healthcare system”, Okoye said.

    The solution to the looming crisis will have to begin with saving Minister Adelabu from the nightmare he has created by giving him another job.

  • Goodness gracious! Its all tax, no wealth creation – By Pius Mordi

    Goodness gracious! Its all tax, no wealth creation – By Pius Mordi

    By Pius Mordi

    Margaret Thatcher, the late Conservative British Prime Minister, was the archetype exponent of private sector-led management of economies. Against the rigid position of organised labour which believed in state running the commanding heights of the economy, she drove a privatisation process that was not only successful but also caged the enormous powers and influence of labour. In fact, she crushed the labour unions.

    After extensive privatisation of the public sector during Thatcher’s administration, there remained few statutory corporations in the UK. By the time she was done with the privatisation programme in the 1980s, notable organisations affected included the Central Electricity Generating Board, British Rail, and even Royal Mail.

    Yet, she was reported to have made the oft quoted statement that “no nation ever grew more prosperous by taxing its citizens beyond their capacity to pay.” It was a market driven economy with not just a human face but a practical and logical approach.

    Shortly after the knee jerk announcement of the removal fuel subsidy in his inaugural speech, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu effected what he called the floating of the naira. The combination of overnight massive hike in the price of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) and tanking of the value of the local currency triggered an unprecedented inflationary trend that some observers insist the inflation is out of synch with the market.

    To be fair to Tinubu, he never really articulated his economic policy to Nigerians in the lead up to the presidential election apart from the promise to end fuel subsidy. After the former President Muhammadu Buhari’s regime of borrowing to spend to sustain his officials’ lavish lifestyle, majority of Nigerians had bought into the end subsidy payments mantra. But nobody envisaged the sudden and planless approach Tinubu adopted. The high cost of governance and maintenance of the convoluted bureaucratic machinery is what Nigerians expected to be addressed. Every year, more than 60 percent of yearly budget goes for recurrent expenditure fueled by the high ostentatious lifestyle of top political officials in both the executive and legislative branches.

    From borrowing to spend that characterised Buhari’s administration, Tinubu ordered more cheque books as he took over last May. His first budget, a supplementary budget of N2.17 trillion increased the 2023 expenditure profile to N28.17 trillion. It was devoted to acquiring luxury items and embaking on grandoise projects. The office of the First Lady which has no place in the constitution was allocated N1.9 billion for the acquisition of SUVs!

    Similarly, the federal government earmarked N2.9 billion for the purchase of SUV vehicles for the replacement of “operational pool vehicles”. The quest for luxury living for the new occupants of Aso Rock saw the setting aside of N4 billion for the renovation of residential quarters for the president as well as N2.5 billion for upgrade of Aguda House, the official residence of the vice president.

    The spending spree included N200 million for the “computerisation and digtalisation of the State House”, construction of office complex within State House at N4 billion,

    renovation of Dodan Barracks, official Lagos residence of the president and a corresponding N4 billion for the renovation of official quarters of vice president also in Lagos. The list of projects to provide luxury for top Aso Rock officials is endless.

    The most unimaginative demonstration of the rabid distribution of the people’s common wealth by a few came from Godswill Akpabjo, Senate President on August 9, 2023 when announcing a month long holiday for the senate after they had sat for barely two months after their inauguration. “In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the Senate President has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return,” Akpabio announced to his embarrassed colleagues to correct his earlier gaffe on live television that money had been paid to them for the adjournment of plenary.

    The 300 percent increase in tariff for public power supply coming at a time food inflation had risen to 40 percent and general inflation at a new record 33 percent finally jolted organised labour, civil society and students out of lethargy. Unfortunately, the Tinubu administration seems to have lost touch with the crippling poverty in the country and still considered introducing new taxes and enforcement of previously dormant ones. In a memo, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) ordered all commercial banks to impose a 0.5 percent levy on some electronic transactions. The fund is supposed to be transmitted to the Office of the National Security Adviser for the purpose of cyber security. Invariably, ONSA has become a revenue generating agency!

    The Cybersecurity Levy came against the backdrop of a muted proposition to further increase Value Added Tax (VAT) from the present 7.5 percent to a minimum of 10 percent. In fact, the presidential committee on fiscal policy and tax reforms led by Taiwo Oyedele proposed 15 percent as the new rate saying there is a need for the increase to enable the federal government fund its fiscal deficit and debt service obligations.

    All the new taxes and increase are being effected at a time the minimum wage remains N30,000 with Abuja hedging in reaching agreement with the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) on a new minimum wage, high food inflation and general inflation that keeps breaking new grounds. The fixation with generating revenue through the taxing of the people beyond their capacity to pay has triggered a chain reaction of poverty, hunger and abysmal purchasing power. The warehouses of the beleaguered real sector are bristling with unsold goods while production capacity for those still staying in business has dropped to less than 30 percent. Others have quietly opted to relocate to other climes with a more conducive ambience for business.

    It is no rocket science to agree with Margaret Thatcher that people cannot be taxed beyond their capacity. That is the point Nigeria is in now.

    Without a vibrant population with limited capacity to generate disposable income, the poverty level will only deepen. I am not sure acceding to labour proposal of N600,000 minimum wage, a very shot, can change anything. Afterall, how many people are engaged in the public sector and productive private organisations? In the absence of a paradigm shift from taxing to spend to wealth creation, something will have to give sooner than later.

    Postscript

    The other side of pension

    At a recent event in one of the federal universities, a lecturer warned of the impact the uncertainty surrounding pension administration is having on the integrity of the university system. The poverty that comes with retirement due to poor pension and the mode of payment of benefits is compelling lecturers to circumvent the system, he said.

    According to him, lecturers and other workers are inclined to corrupt the system in other to ensure a better future for themselves after retirement.

    “The best way to guarantee a better future is to venture into politics. But how many can do that comfortably? The scourge of age falsification and corruption of public service will deepen as things get tougher”, he warned. To him, what is going on among politicians and the political class is a recipe other people are bidding to copy.

    The scepter of multidimensional poverty is sparing no sector of the Nigerian society.

  • The thing around our NERC – By Pius Mordi

    The thing around our NERC – By Pius Mordi

    “The only thing worse than being blind is having sight, but no vision. Although the world is full of suffering, it is also full of overcoming” – Helen Keller (1880-1968), American author, disability rights advocate, and lecturer.

    The story about Nigeria’s electricity sector is characterised by the abject state of deficiency, corruption and potential that define it. And in every electoral cycle, it provides a talking point for politicians aspiring for public office. Somehow,  despite all the money pumped into the sector through different programmes to boost power supply, available electricity has hardly ever been more than 4,000 mega watts.

    In the lead up to the 2015 general elections, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu as national leader of the then opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) told Nigerians that the path to having constant power supply lay in voting out then President Goodluck Jonathan and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). In his words, within six months, his candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari, will change the story and there will be regular electricity supply.

    That was 10 years ago and having taken over power himself as President, Tinubu appointed, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, to drive his agenda in solving the power challenge. As with the oil subsidy issue and wholesale importation of refined petroleum products while the four local refineries remained comatose, Adelabu’s recipe was to increase tarrif.

    In an amazing demonstration of lack of vision and absence roadmap, the Minister unveiled his package which had nothing to do with getting reprieve for consumers burdened with the payment of overly high estimated bills for limited services rendered by the Distribution Companies (DisCos). At a time electricity consumers were seeking fair bills for the very poor supply from the DisCos, Adelabu opened the window for further exploitation of consumers. Operating through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), a pseudo consumer protection agency for the sector, a dubious four-band tarrif structure was unveiled. At the apex is Band A where consumers who enjoy up to 20 hours of electricity everyday have their tarrif raised by 300 percent. At the bottom is Band D, those whose access to public power supply is less than five hours daily, for which the tarrif remains unchanged.

    As demoralising, defeatist and unimaginative as Adelabu’s idea of resolving the power sector challenge is, he ended up opening a seemingly legitimate window for the DisCos to deepen their exploitation of consumers. Who will monitor the actual supply of electricity to consumers and affirm that the advertised 20 hours was met? It is only the DisCos that will make such claim and given that they have the yam and the knife, consumers are helplessly at their mercy.

    This 2024 alone, the national grid has collapsed more than five times and plunged the entire country into darkness. Remarkably, every stakeholder in the country has bought into the idea that the nature of federalism for the running of the country courtesy of the 1999 constitution is different from unitary system of government only in name. The argument is that Nigeria is too large and diverse to be governed by an all powerful and overreaching centre. It is the argument driving the quest for devolution of powers from the federal government to the states. The same points were also extended to the ongoing but strident calls for powers to given to states to set up their own Police. Crime, they say, us local and the solution is also local.

    It is true that the just before leaving office, former President Buhari signed an amendment of the constitution that removed electricity from from the exclusive to concurrent list of Legislative powers. With that in the bag, Adelabu was expected to evolve fresh strategies to make national power supply more effective by unbundling the ineffectual national grid. His reform, no, revenue generation strategy, has left the humpty dumpty national grid in tact. He does not even hope to improve power supply. Its not part of his game plan. Rather, it is an obsession with removing any vestige of “subsidy” once the Bretton Woods institutions say so.

    Without efficient power supply, there will be no industrialisation. For any investor to venture into the real sector, he must factor generating his own independent power supply first. The earlier removal of fuel subsidy has made access to diesel to power heavy duty generators astronomical and such businesses unproductive. Why does Adelabu prefer to build a house from the roof? With some measure of inventiveness and creative approach to reforms, reliable and steady power supply is achievable in Nigeria.

    NERC, as earlier conceived, was supposed to protect the interest of electricity consumers by ensuring that distributors play by the rule. The agency is supposed to curb the tendency by DisCos to shortchange consumers when their bills do not reflect the quality and duration of power supplied. Adelabu has turned NERC into a conduit for further exploitation and he has become the thing around our NERC.

    Postscript

    Mamman’s minimum age for university admission

    In December 2020, the National Assembly Joint Committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) recommended that married underage girls be recognised as eligible voters.

    Nigeria’s constitution currently pegs the eligible age for voting at 18.

    Kabiru Gaya, then chairman of the Senate committee on INEC, said the recommendation is a unanimous decision by the joint panel. According to him, “the joint committee has proposed that if a lady who is not up to 18 years is married, she should be considered to be mature enough and be eligible to vote.”

    Fast forward to four years later, President Tinubu’s Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, says the federal government plans to review and peg the minimum entry age into tertiary institutions in the country at 18 years.

    The minister advised parents against pushing their children and wards “too much,” to allow them to attain some level of maturity to be able to better manage their affairs.

    “The other thing which we notice is the age of those who have applied to go to the university. Some of them are really too young. We are going to look at it because they are too young to understand what university education is all about.

    “That’s the stage when students migrate from a controlled environment where they are in charge of their own affairs. So if they are too young, they won’t be able to manage properly. That accounts for some of the problems we are seeing in the universities.

    “We are going to look at that. Eighteen is the entry age for university but you will see students, 15, and 16, going to the examination. It is not good for us. Parents should be encouraged not to push their wards, or children too much,” he said.

    Really? When it’s about voting, an underage girl, some as young as 13, are “mature enough” because they are already making babies. And religion provides adequate logic for that.

    For education, Mamman says the same child who could marry at less than 18 should not be admitted into university in today’s world. If that is the Minister’s roadmap for revamping education, Tinubu should save him the trauma and relieve him of the task. He is not fit for the job. Simple.

  • Army’s new Okuama outpost – By Pius Mordi

    Army’s new Okuama outpost – By Pius Mordi

    By Pius Mordi

    When on October 7, 2023, Hamas militants breached Gaza’s boundary with Israel and killed over 1,200 Israelis, mainly civilians, it sparked global sympathy for the Jewish state and corresponding scorn for Hamas. Benjamin Netanyahu rode on the wings of the global outrage and vowed to avenge and decimate Hamas. The world understood his anger.

    But Nathanyahu over did it. From hunting the militants,  Israeli embarked on indiscriminate killing of Gazans, mainly civilians, women and children. The ongoing war on Gaza has so far cost over 33,000 Palestinians lives. So indiscriminate was the Israeli onslaught that just as quickly, the tide shifted away from Israel. The offensive was seen as an overkill and indiscriminate with little regard for the safety and well-being of civilians who bore the brunt of the killing game.

    Just as Israel, the Nigerian Army had its Gaza moment of national sympathy when on March 14 this year, 17 of its officers and men were gruesomely murdered at Okuama by yet to be identified gunmen when, according to the statement by the Army high command, they had gone for a “peace keeping mission”. There was overwhelming national outrage over the bestial nature of the killing. Generally, Nigerians demanded that the perpetrators should be made to answer for their crime while some, not uncharacteristically, called for the levelling of Okuama.

    As strange as the latter call was, it was not unknown in Nigeria. Odi, Umuechem and Zaki Biam are still fresh in national psyche where the military visited hailstorm on the communities for infractions bordering on alltacks on security operatives. The Army duly obliged. And as in the case of Israel’s reaction to the October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas, the army copied from the Udi and Umuechem play book.

    Having first condoned off Okuama, they made sure nobody gained entry into the community, including Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, Governor of Delta State and the chief security officer as designated by the Constitution when he visited on Monday, March 18, 2024.

    Thankfully, the hard stance of the Army seem to have thawed when they eventually allowed Governor Oborevwori to enter the community. What emerged from Sunday’s visit through pictures and videos were sickening and predictable. Okuama had been completely reduced to ground zero. The rubble of the destroyed buildings were unmistakable. There was nobody for Oborevwori to address. All the inhabitants had evacuated the community and become part of the rapidly growing legion of internally displaced persons in Nigeria.

    It took over six weeks since the killing of the soldiers for the military to allow access into the village.

    It was a frustrating spectacle for Oborevwori who had invested a lot of efforts to avoid any dispute between Okuama and Okoloba, both oil producing communities. And both are also bastions of crude oil stealing dubiously called oil bunkering by the high and mighty. Despite dominating the media space with its “peace keeping mission” story, some groups with knowledge of the dynamics of “oil bunkering” have called for a wholesale investigation of the March 14 ill-fated mission and killings. The fact that a peace deal brokered by Oborevwori between Okuama and Okoloba had on February 7 been signed by their leaders raised eye brows on the issue. Again, until the killings, neither the Delta State Government, the Divisional Police Office or the Commissioner for Police in the area knew about the mission or got prior notification.

    Although the military high command has set up a panel to investigate the incident,  its composition is flawed. Its exclusively made up of serving officers of the armed forces with David Ajayi, an air vice marshall, as chairman. As a board of inquiry, its membership is supposed to encompass every stakeholder group, including the Delta State Government, leaders of both communities and civil society groups. This flaw may deny the board the credibility it should have to earn the cooperation and respect for its findings and report.

    Mr. Mike Ejiofor, a former director of the Department State Services (DSS), pointed out that this may cast a dark pall on the panel in an interview with Channels Television.

    “The federal or state government should be involved in the investigation. The state government ought to have its representatives in the board. Same applies to the federal government to form a very high-powered, independent investigation that will come up with an objective report of what happened, because as it is now, people are scampering, some people that might be indicted in this investigation will be comfortable with what we have now. A lieutenant colonel and two majors cannot on their own just move out on a peace-keeping mission into a community. There is so much to this incident that must be found out,” he stated.

    “The military”, the retired DSS boss pointed out, “is an interested party, they cannot undertake such investigation. By now, the Federal Government or the state government must have set up an investigative panel to look into this matter because time is running. We need to get to the root of this matter to know what really happened,” he said.

    Already, Urhobo Progress Union (UPU) Youth Wing as well as  Urhobo Youth Leaders Association (UYLA) have warned that they will not cooperate with the board.  “We will not participate in the Military Board of Inquiry investigating the tragic events of March 14 at Okuama, Ewu-Urhobo Kingdom, Ughelli South Local Government Area, Delta State, until specific conditions are met”, the groups stated in a joint statement. The conditions centre on the perceived lopsidedness of the panel.

    “The Nigerian Army, being a party involved in the matter, cannot impartially conduct an investigation or adjudication. More so, when the Army has already taken a position by declaring eight persons wanted without inviting them for proper investigation. This fundamental principle of natural justice prohibits biased entities from presiding over cases where they have vested interests” they noted. They want responsibility for the investigation transferred to an independent body “capable of ensuring a fair and impartial process.”

    Although the Delta State Government has pledged to make a presentation to the military panel, the high stakes of the saga may impact on the integrity of panel. The inquiry should not be an exercise exclusively for the military because their personnel were killed on March 14. Then we have learned nothing and the cycle of instability in the oil industry will continue.

     

    Postscript

    *Gangsters in Govt House*

    You have to give it to Ahmed Usman Ododo, the man installed by Yaya Bello to succeed him as governor of Kogi State. They both pulled of a stunt Hollywood would have been proud of when operatives of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) tried to arrest Bello over allegations of fraud and money laundering to the tune of N80.2 billion.

    On April 17, EFCC operatives had laid siege on Bello’s Abuja home after obtaining a warrant for his arrest. Bello had also obtained his own legal reprieve from the Kogi State high court barring the anti-graft agency from arresting him. The subsequent stand off was as hilarious as it was entertaining. Somehow, Ododo was allowed into Bello’s compound and got him extracted. As much the EFCC is touted to be an independent agency, could the move on a man who delivered his state to the ruling party have been made without a green light from “above”? I don’t think so.

    Yet Ododo took Bello out in full glare of the EFCC. The reaction of the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, was no less hilarious. Bello’s security men, all armed policemen, were withdrawn by the IGP. Some people have wondered why the policemen were not asked to effect the arrest. That would denied us the entertainment in the saga. Now, Bello has been declared wanted. In effect, the Police has actually joined the EFCC in searching for the former governor.

    Come on, Nollywood. Make the movie!

  • Gaza-nizing Okuama – By Pius Mordi

    Gaza-nizing Okuama – By Pius Mordi

    By Pius Mordi

    The gruesome and mindless killing of 17 servicemen at Okuama has occasioned the reenactment of the traumatic events of some years ago in Zaki Biam and Odi when the sins of a few sons of lucifer were visited on many innocent people. A similar thing was enacted in Gaza when some hotheads among Hamas killed 1,200 Israelis and abducted hundreds.

    The response by Israel has divided opinions within the international community. Seven months after Hamas struck, the IDF is still executing its agenda to decimate the militant group. In the process, over 31,000 civilians in Gaza are said to been killed in the course of Israel’s operations. Here in Nigeria, there was no shortage of voices of condemnation of Israel just as there are many that support the IDF.

    One of such vocal voices is that of Bashir Ahmad, one of former Muhammadu Buhari’s spokesmen who wholeheartedly condemned Israel for among other things overreacting and recklessly inflicting much havoc on the civilian population.

    But after the terrible killings in Okuama happened, Ahmad who supported the mob killing of Deborah Samuel in a Zamfara school for alleged blasphemy against Islam became an apostle of indiscriminate retaliatory military operation at Okuama so that “to treat the people in the language they understand” in his tweet. Unfortunately, this was a common denominator in the response of Nigerians to the killings. The mass hysteria generated by the killing has had the effect of handing a carte blanche to the military to seek revenge on the community. When such things happen, only a small circle of people are usually involved in its conception and execution.

    Just like the October 7, 2023 killing of Israelis by a section of Hamas militants where the people of Gaza had no fore knowledge of the operation or its execution, the people of Okuama were not consulted by the people that carried out the dastardly act nor was any endorsement given even after the killings.

    In the aftermath of the hysteria, Okuama has become Gaza-nized. When Delta State Governor, Rt. Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, visited the area on Monday, March 18, 2024, he could not access the community. Similarly, the state Commissioner of Police, Olufemi Abaniwonda, admitted that he has been denied access to Okuama by the military since the incident took place. In fact, there was no Okuama to visit because it has become a war theatre. The military has condoned off the area with its retaliatory operation already on. The search for and smoking out of the perpetrators of the heinous killings is what Nigerians want. They should be fished out and made to face justice. But in demanding that the killers be made to account for their action, every care must be taken to avoid a wholesale decimation of Okuama.

    By every means that does not endanger the civilian population, the military should apprehend those that carried out the killings. It is not an easy task but engaging in indiscriminate bombardment of the community is not an option or ought not to have been. For Okuama people, their story is that of having become displaced persons. Their community has been razed, many killed and the end of their nightmare is not in sight.

    Right now, the people of Okuama need help. They have become internally displaced persons with nowhere to lay down their head. The cessation of the military operation may not bring any succour to them. When they eventually return to their community, there will no homes to welcome them back.

  • Kenneth Gbagi: When a serial abuser and fugitive becomes sanctimonious – By Pius Mordi

    Kenneth Gbagi: When a serial abuser and fugitive becomes sanctimonious – By Pius Mordi

    By Pius Mordi

    When a man who allegedly insulted, assaulted and dehumanized people that worked for him and had the guts to seek power through elections; when a man allegedly stripped his workers, including a married woman and mother naked, paraded them in front of a camera and distributed the video on the social media because they allegedly accepted voluntary monetary tips from clients that stayed in his hotel and comes out to complain about crime in the society, that society has lost its soul.

    Olorogun Kenneth Gbagi, a fugitive from the law, a serial abuser of rights of his workers, a man that took delight in dehumanizing another man’s wife, a man that allegedly filmed and distributed the video of four women, including a mother and wife of another man he stripped naked ought to be behind bars to answer for his crime.

    Audaciously, he sought to be voted the governor of Delta State under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Of course, the party obliged. However, seeing that he had long unraveled himself as unfit for leadership, Gbagi withdrew from the free and open primary election of the party and sought refuge in the Social Democratic Party (SDP) where he became the sole proprietor.

    But for Nigeria’s dysfunctional institutions, he ought to be serving time. In a report published by an online journal, Gbagi seemgly derided the judiciary when he spuriously alleged that a gazette admitted in evidence and accepted by judges, including the erudite justices of the Supreme Court is fake. Invariably, he is flaunting his air of invisibility to ridiculous level. Indeed, it was an audacious insult on the judiciary for Gbagi to allegedly insinuate that all the judges accepted an official gazette only he himself has deemed as forged.

    But for the absence of strong and independent institutions as well as the fact that all the institutions of law enforcement are under the control of the Federal Government, Gbagi should have been explaining before the court his decision to allegedly abuse the rights of his workers. Having been legally declared wanted by the Nigeria Police in September 2022 over his shameful alleged abuse of his workers, including a married woman he stripped naked, he became a fugitive and hid from summons sent to him by the Police.

    The people of Delta State knew long ago that Gbagi is unfit to be their governor and in PDP, they found a platform for making that clear as he got less than 5,000 votes in the governorship election.

    Gbagi and his ilk are the problem with our society. He has taken advantage of the failure of our institutions and continues to corrupt the society.

    For a fugitive from the law, Gbagi should quietly defend himself on the suit filed by his former employees seeking N1 billion compensation and apology from him for the harm he visited them. He will seek reprieve from the same law courts he just derided.