A New Zealand coroner has formally linked four deaths to the sale of “suicide kits” bought online from a former Canadian chef, according to findings published Monday.

Coroner Alexandra Cunninghame found that three students, aged 18 to 21, and one 40-year-old personal trainer killed themselves after buying kits from businesses linked to Canadian Kenneth Law.

Canadian police believe Law sent as many as 1,200 “suicide kits” to people in more than 40 countries between 2020 and his arrest last year – specifically targeting vulnerable people online.

Canadian prosecutors allege the kits contained a food additive that can kill if misused.

Law was arrested in May 2023 and charged in Canada with 14 counts of murder and a further 14 counts of aiding and counselling suicide.

He has denied the charges.

Alerted by Interpol, several other countries have launched investigations.

In Britain, at least 272 people purchased products from Law’s websites and 88 of them died, police there have said.

In Italy, nine buyers have been identified and at least one victim has died.

The Canadian victims were both male and female between the ages of 16 and 36, according to police.

New Zealand’s Suicide Prevention Office has asked internet service providers to block Law’s website in New Zealand, the coroner added.

PUNCH Online reports that a suicide kit typically refers to a collection of items intended to assist an individual in ending their own life.

These kits can be controversial and raise significant ethical, legal, and moral issues. They often include various substances, tools, or instructions designed to facilitate self-harm or suicide.

AFP

Governor Charles Chukwuma Soludo, CFR, has one straightforward advice for members of his team in the Anambra state executive council (ANSEC): “Be that one man”. The essence of this is to aim for excellence in any role they find themselves. All drivers of the ministries, departments and agencies of government ought to be at the top of their games and must never be found wanting.

Governor Soludo gave the charge after the highly successful presentation of the book, The Power of One Man: How the Soludo-Engineered Consolidation Transformed Nigerian Banks to Global Players, written by Ray Echebiri.

Soludo was that one man who had the courage of his conviction to bring about the 2004 banking revolution in Nigeria with the support of his principal at that time, President Olusegun Obasanjo.

History was made by Soludo on both fronts as an economic adviser and CBN governor. He put to work his charge from the very beginning – to be that one man! And against the unimaginable manner of threats to his safety, he eventually succeeded in transforming the system for good. So when he recently called on his team to be “that one man” he did so out of personal experience — that it is only with that level of commitment by all, that Anambra state can become the liveable and prosperous homeland we yearn for.

As Chinua Achebe, after whom Governor Soludo renamed the Anambra Airport, wrote in his famous classic, The Trouble with Nigeria, “The trouble with Nigeria is simply and squarely a failure of leadership. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian character. There is nothing wrong with the Nigerian land or climate or water or anything else. The Nigerian problem is the unwillingness or inability of its leaders to rise to the responsibility, to the challenge of personal example which is the hallmark of true leadership.”

Ray Echebiri, in his preface to the book, “The Power of One Man points to the significance of leadership recruitment, and the need to get it right in Nigeria. It is a sturdy allusion that if we can have other Nigerians transform the maritime industry, manufacturing industry, insurance industry, capital market, health sector, education sector, the oil and gas industry, etc. just the way Soludo did the banking industry, Nigeria will become the country of our dream, a land flowing with the proverbial milk and honey.”

Let’s recast our minds back in time to understand that the banking revolution that has come to be hailed as the “Soludo Shuffle” was not a piece of cake. It took utmost courage and derring-do for the struggling 89 banks then existing in Nigeria to be reduced to 25 global banking institutions competing on the world stage.

Before the coming of Soludo, Nigerian banks had been the laughing stock of comedians who joked about how Nigerians were reduced to carrying mats to sleep in banks because of delays. The inimitable comic actor, Lomaji Ugorji of “Icheoku” fame, was fond of asking “Where is my tally number?” as a mockery of the numbers then assigned to banks’ customers.

It’s indeed noteworthy that barely one month after then-President Obasanjo appointed Soludo as CBN governor in June 2004, the daring man who was destined to be that one man of change met the Bankers Committee and promptly released a 13-point agenda designed to turn around the country’s financial sector.

Before consolidation, all of the banks in existence in Nigeria put together could not match one South African bank. Through the efforts of Soludo, Nigerian banks were able to go global. The banks opened up offshore branches, thus becoming truly global players in the financial world. New York, Paris, London, and sundry capitals of African countries now count Nigerian banks and bankers among the top players.

Soludo’s revolution came at a personal price as he reveals: “At a personal level, undertaking the banking revolution in Nigeria came with 19 written threats to me and my family, including physical attacks.” He was forced to relocate his family abroad when the threats became unbearable. But his late father was not so lucky. The old man was abducted, beaten and left for dead. He survived but lost one eye to the brutal encounter.

Having demonstrated what a determined man can achieve, one can then imagine what a team of men can do. And that is the context of Soludo’s charge to his commissioners and heads of agencies.

To be that one man, or woman, therefore, it is necessary to heed Azu Ishiekwene, the book reviewer’s advice: “…to succeed and succeed outstandingly, one must be prepared to blow against the wind.”

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Nwosu is the commissioner for information in Anambra state.

Minders of Ahmed Usman Ododo, the governor of the confluence state of Kogi, flung him into the public square of opprobrium and derision last May. Ododo by the way was the auditor general in charge of local government under Bello. The orchestra of sycophants he inherited from his benefactor and predecessor, Yahaya Bello, eager to ingratiate themselves with him articulated a ‘First 100 Days In Office’ programme for him. These included Ododo having to name his specific achievements within his preliminary months on the saddle. Ododo’s meeting with Nuhu Ribadu, the National Security Adviser, (NSA); a civic reception organised in his honour in Okene, his hometown, and his participation in a meeting of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) in Abuja, were listed as his notable achievements.

Within the period, Ododo alongside his colleagues from Ondo and Taraba states, Lucky Aiyedatiwa and Kefas Agbo, had a meeting with the minister for agriculture and food security, Abubakar Kyari. This perfunctory obligation was also recorded as one of his feats within his first 100 days.

Days and weeks thereafter, Ododo was a cadaver for analysts and public scholars, scandalised by the newcomer governor’s ludicrous yet proudly publicised report card. Many people from Kogi became the butt of jokes by those who believed the state was capable of better quality brand ambassadors. Ododo’s case was not helped by the fact of the circumstances of his emergence as governor and successor to Yahaya Bello. The latter’s hellish and brutish, eight-year sojourn in Lugard House, Lokoja is best forgotten.

Ododo emerged courtesy of a benefactor who visited so much malevolence and meanness on the polity. This credential easily blighted his candidature and acceptability. Bello’s current travails in the hands of the nation’s foremost anti-graft agency which has made a scurrying fugitive of the man who patented himself the “white lion” during his virtual monarchy, is largely construed as karma come to justice. A successor installed by such a character must of necessity share his DNA, was the understandably popular belief.

I have, in the course of duty over the decades, encountered and engaged robustly with all but two military and civilian governors of Kogi state since the inception of the state. From the foundation military administrator in 1991, Colonel Danladi Zakari, through Abubakar Audu, (the departed pioneer civilian governor of the state) who appointed me director of information and public affairs in 1992, I was intertwined with the evolution of the state. Paul Omeruo, also an army colonel who succeeded Audu in 1993, appointed me his chief press secretary in 1995. He passed me on to Bzigu Afakirya, (of blessed memory), his successor in 1996. I didn’t get to meet Augustine Aniebo who replaced Afakirya in 1998. I also had varying degrees of latter-day relationships with Audu who returned as democratically elected governor in 1999, and his successors Ibrahim Idris and Idris Wada.

I had a fleeting encounter with Bello back in 2017 while I pursued state assistance for the young family of my colleague, brother and friend, Onukaba Adinoyi-Ojo, who tragically passed earlier that year. Bello was inaccessible to the two-man delegation empanelled by the board of trustees of the Adinoyi-Ojo Onukaba Endowment Fund, to follow up with him on possible state assistance for our fallen compatriot’s family. Maxwell Gidado, SAN, OON, professor of law and my good self constituted that team. My chance meeting with Bello in Lokoja, in mid-2017, was at an event organised by the Kogi state chapter of the Nigerian Union of Journalists, (NUJ) which invited me. I graced the high table with Bello at the event and he promised to get his chief of staff to fix a meeting on the subject. He never did. That was my first ever, and only encounter with him.

Beyond glimpses of him on television and in photographs of media reportage on him, I’ve never set my eyes on Ododo. He doesn’t know me either. Except if he’s been following my work as a media practitioner, who comes from his state. Ododo may yet surprise many, however, judging from his much-spoken-about humanistic performance thus far. He may be gradually trying to carve an identity for himself, despite the backstage encumbrances of his erstwhile boss. Ododo, we are hearing, is humble, unassuming and sensitive. He is said to have prioritised workers’ welfare thus far. They tell you he began by paying a markedly improved 80% of salaries compared to his benefactor who undermined his constituents with unbelievably mendicant sums. Ododo now, however, is said to pay 100% emoluments to his constituents. Kogi state remains a “civil service” entity. It is nowhere near your Lagos, Ogun, Rivers, Delta, Oyo, which are blessed with sundry producing and manufacturing concerns which impact their domestic economies. The local economy of Kogi state is powered by the spending capacity of civil servants. Whatever impacts the wallets of bureaucrats therefore takes a heavy toll on their capacities to patronise the open markets, shops and pharmacies.

Kogi state was notorious for state-induced violence and insecurity under Ododo’s former principal. Political top shots were alleged to have cultivated and sustained “private armies.” The streets were ruled by substances, machetes and automatic weapons. These combined to scare indigenes of the state and indeed risk taking investors from the state. It is suggested that the air in Kogi state these days is more temperate. Ododo was reportedly on the front foot when some miscreants terrorised student communities in Adankolo, Bassa, Crusher and Felele districts of the state capital in March. Three suspects were arrested and have since been arraigned in court. Ododo equally made vociferous appeals to the nation’s topmost security commands when students of the state-owned Confluence University of Science and Technology, (CUSTECH), were abducted weeks ago.

Helicopter-backed special detachments were swiftly deployed to comb the forests and thickets of Kogi, including the state’s abutments with Kwara and Ekiti states. Kogi state, by the way, is bordered by nine states in the North Central, South West, South East and South-South zones. Not forgetting its close proximity to the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). This geographical reality therefore makes the state susceptible to infiltration from different entry points. Working with ground troops, local hunters and vigilantes on the recent operation, some kidnapped victims were rescued and some of their ransom-seeking abductors were summarily apprehended. That episode is said to have sent a clear message to criminal venturers that Kogi state is a forbidden zone for mischief. It also rekindled the belief of the people that the incumbent leadership in the state can protect its own after all.

The Ododo dispensation has also embarked on an ambitious infrastructural renewal effort at the local level. Internal roads in major communities in the state are at various levels of completion. These include roads in Egbe, (Yagba West); Aiyetoro-Gbedde, (Ijumu); Mopa (Mopamuro); Felele-Agbaja (Lokoja LGA); Oguma (Bassa LGA); Idah, (Idah LGA); Abejukolo, (Omala LGA) and Anyigba (Dekina LGA). Instructively, this first list of communities which will benefit from a gradual community rebuild programme precludes any community in Ododo’s homestead in Kogi Central. Internally generated revenue (IGR) in the state, recently posted a remarkable leap towards a monthly average of ₦2 billion. For a state like Kogi, this means a lot. This upward ascent of the state’s IGR may be a result of increasing transparency in the revenue collection process, just maybe.

About 200 tractors, we hear, are being recalled by the Kogi state government for rehabilitation. This is just as the Ododo administration is reported to be tapering towards the prioritisation of agriculture. The government is launching a “Wet Season Agricultural Intervention Programme” to this effect towards ensuring food security. The agenda also involves making agriculture attractive to the teeming youth population as against the subsisting craze for “political involvement.” Farm locations have been identified in 76 communities, in the 21 local government areas in the state. The government intends to prepare 7,000 hectares of land for farming in the first instance. This may seem a far cry from the one million hectares which Umaru Bago, the Niger state governor, has prepared in his state. But every journey, the old saying reminds us, begins with the very first step. Farmers will be provided with free seeds and chemicals towards the actualisation of this project. Three crops, cassava, maize and rice, are being emphasised in the experimental endeavour.

At harvest, the state government hopes to buy back the produce, concede 60% of the earnings to the farmers and take the smaller 40%, as an incentive to ambivalent farmers. If Ododo is thinking and acting in the directions we have identified above, he could be said to have set about on the right course. Kogi state has lost substantial segments of its nearly 33 years of existence to laggards and loafers in the name of helmsmen. He needs to do much more though to rekindle the faith of his constituents in the committed sensitivity and service of his era to have their backs round the clock, round the calendar. History is ever in the firm grips of the neck of the pen, as an evergreen assessor and unforgettable retainer of institutional memory. Kogi state must awaken from perpetual sedation. And now is the time.

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Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors (FANA).

Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, says he is willing to sell his oil refinery to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited.

Aliko spoke in an interview with Premium Times on Sunday.

The billionaire’s statement comes amid a dispute between the refinery and Nigeria’s regulatory authorities in Nigeria.

“Let them (NNPCL) buy me out and run the refinery the best way they can. They have labelled me a monopolist,” Dangote said. 

“That’s an incorrect and unfair allegation, but it’s okay. If they buy me out, at least, their so-called monopolist would be out of the way.

“We have been facing fuel crisis since the 70s. This refinery can help in resolving the problem but it does appear some people are uncomfortable that I am in the picture.

“As you probably know, I am 67 years old, in less than three years, I will be 70. I need very little to live the rest of my life.

“I can’t take the refinery or any other property or asset to my grave. Everything I do is in the interest of my country.

“So, I am ready to let go, let the NNPC buy me out, run the refinery. At least the country will have high-quality products and create jobs.”

In May 2023, the billionaire’s refinery was inaugurated. The 650,000 barrel-per-day sits on a 2, 635 hectares of land located in the free zone area of Ibeju-Lekki, Lagos.

The facility began the production of diesel on January 12, but petrol supply is billed for August after numerous factors — including crude supply challenges and a fire outbreak at the facility — stalled production.

The constraints on accessing crude feedstock from international oil companies (IOCs) in Nigeria forced the company to import crude from countries like Brazil and the US to bridge the meet supply.

At the inauguration, Dangote refinery had announced that it has a supply deal with the NNPC and previously agreed to a 20 percent equity participation.

The refinery later said only 7.2 percent had been fully paid for before the deadline issued to the company to acquire the stake.

 

‘FRIENDS ADVISED ME TO NOT INVEST IN NIGERIA‘

According to the Premium Times report, Dangote also said the obstacles his refinery is facing seem to have vindicated friends and associates who advised him to tread with caution as he pumped billions of dollars into the Nigerian economy.

“Four years ago, one of my very wealthy friends began to invest his money abroad,” Dangote added.

“I disagreed with him and urged him to rethink his action in the interest of his country.

“He blamed his action on policy inconsistencies and shenanigans of interest groups.

“That friend has been taunting me in the past few days, saying he warned me and that he has been proven right.”

On June 4, Dangote said some IOCs were struggling to supply crude to his refinery.

Speaking on Arise TV on July 15, Gbenga Komolafe, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) described the claim as “erroneous”, noting that the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) has provisions that guide willing buyer-willing seller transactions.

But a few days later, the management of Dangote Industries Limited insisted that the IOCs were frustrating its request to purchase crude feedstock for the refinery.

On July 18, Farouk Ahmed, chief executive officer of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA), said local refineries, including the Dangote refinery, were producing inferior products compared to imported ones.

 

[TheCable]

WOLE Soyinka, WS. Our own WS as distinct from the British WS, William Shakespeare, was 90 on July 13, 2024. As a 31-year-old, he was charged with one of the most audacious seizures of a radio station. On October 15, 1965, a bearded six footer, clutching a beretta pistol had stealthily stolen into the studios of the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation, NBC, Ibadan. He seized the taped recording of a scheduled 7.14pm broadcast by then Premier of the old Western Region, Chief Samuel Ladoke Akintola, and substituted it with his own tape.

Soyinka was brought before Justice Kayode Esho charged with robbing the radio station. In court, one is required to ‘say the truth, nothing but the truth’; Soyinka’s truth was that he was far away in Enugu, 528.1 kilometres away when the robbery occurred. A main prosecution witness, Professor Axworthy, told the court that he had been at the same meeting with Soyinka two hours before the robbery and he was clean-shaven. So the crux of the matter was how could a clean-shaven man have grown beards within two hours? He was therefore discharged and acquitted.

Fifty-five years later, a team of journalists from TheNEWS led by its Director, Kunle Ajibade, sat Soyinka down, and asked him to come clean on the matter. It was in 2020 and Soyinka was turning 86. A pointed question was: “How did you get into the studio?” Soyinka responded: “Look, I was acquitted and you are talking as if I was the culprit. I was acquitted. I stood trial and I was acquitted. Why do you keep saying you, you, you? What’s your problem?”

Four years later, at 90, while answering questions from children on his life experiences, a similar question popped up. Soyinka this time said: “I never broke into a radio station, but sneaked in. The radio station was holding on to something that belonged to the people, and I decided to retrieve it.”

So, is this the final truth? On the day of the Nobel Laureate’s 90th birthday, the Wole Soyinka Media Centre founded by the super investigative journalist, Dapo Olorunyomi, held a symposium in his honour. The title was ‘The Death of Truth?’ It examined: ‘Realism, literature and journalism in an age of disinformation’. But can the truth really die or is it a phoenix which is imbued with immortality?

Appropriately, Emeritus Professor Biodun Jeyifo, BJ, gave the Keynote Address. He had, since youth, been relentlessly in pursuit of the truth. This means BJ knows what many may not know: the Truth is not dead, it is alive!

In 2005, BJ published The Truthful Lie: Essays in a sociology of African Drama. So can lie be truthful? I had tried to explore this in my January 21, 2019 column titled: “The truth as a Lie.”

One of the panellists at the symposium was the genius, Odia Ofeimum, a book industry who has authored over 40 books. His first poetry collection, titled: ‘The Poet Lied’, set off a fire storm in the Nigeria literary world. One of his books in cultural politics is: Impossible Death of the African Author.  So, with his previous interrogation of lies, truth and death, he was equipped to answer the theme of the symposium: ‘The Death of Truth?’

Incidentally, in December, 2018, I walked into a telephone conversation between Ajibade and Odia. As I entered his house, the latter asked me the difference between the truth and what is factual. I had answered: “The truth can be subjective, but what is factual is objective and verifiable.” At the symposium, it was Ajibade who made an authoritative introduction of BJ. Amongst the truths he recalled was that the Academic Staff Union of Universities, ASUU, with BJ as founding President was able to serve its members more effectively due to “the democratic nature of its decision-making and the honesty and total commitment of its leaders.”

So, what happened to the truth? BJ told the allegorical story: “In a period of truce from war between Truth and Falsehood when there was even hope that there could be an armistice between them and each could live in and with the ambiguity that clothes them both most of the time, Falsehood invited Truth to take a dip in a shallow well with him. She accepted and they both jumped naked into the well. But no sooner had Truth settled down into what she thought would be a pleasant swim did Falsehood run away with the dress of Truth in which he then clothed himself. In vain did Truth plead and plead for her dress to be returned, thinking that Falsehood was playing a prank that he would soon tire of. But when it finally dawned on her that this was no prank and Falsehood would never return her dress, she came out of the well in her nakedness. What she experienced that day has persisted to this day: as soon as people saw her and her nakedness, people ran away from her either in fear or disgust, taking her for a potentially dangerous lunatic or a fool. And indeed, how many people care to be confronted with naked Truth?”

BJ’s second story about the fate of the Truth, is chilling. He said it came across Falsehood and they had a fight in which the latter drew out a hidden machete and severed Truth’s head. But: “With one superhuman pull, he (Truth) yanked off the head of Falsehood and placed it on his own body. And that is why from that day, we have had that grotesque mismatch: the body of Truth and the head of Falsehood.”

BJ said hypothetically: “Just imagine when Truth has been killed off, we will no longer be bothered with not having ever to tell the truth and we can then tell all the lies we want – as both Elon Musk and Donald Trump want all life on our planet to be…” The literary giant then declared: “Truth is not dead. For if truth is dead, we are dead, too.”

Proclaiming, like an itinerant missionary, that Truth is indeed alive, Odia argued that the nature of truth is “a basis for social regeneration”. However, he warned that: “Truth is not about choosing between an aspect, a fraction and the whole…The Truth is supposed to be the Truth everywhere as there are many opinions but only one paradigm representing community”.

The submissions of BJ and Odia that the Truth is not dead corroborate my lunar sightings of the Truth. Based on these, I had titled my September 6, 2021 column: “The Truth walks on crutches of Lies.” So, if you see the Truth walking towards you, know that its crutches are lies.

 

AT the end of July 2017, the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime, UNODC, and Nigeria’s National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, issued a joint report on the public experience of and response to bribery in Nigeria. Among its findings, the report ranked several institutions with reference to public perceptions or experience of demand for bribes from officials at the point of service delivery. With a score of 46.4%, the report ranked the Nigeria Police Force highest in public perceptions of bribery. The report also noted that “at 33 per cent the prevalence of bribery in relation to prosecutors is the second highest, closely followed by judges and magistrates, at 31.5 per cent.”

It took a little while before the National Judicial Council, NJC, could dignify the report with acknowledgement. When it did, it was not to show institutional contrition for the serious findings contained therein or indicate what it would do to address it. Rather, in a release issued 18 days after the report, the NJC took issue with its content and rankings, complaining that it found the conclusions of the report “not only subjective but speculative”. Tellingly, the Council acknowledged that “there are a few bad eggs in the judiciary, like in every other arm of Government”, but rhetorically asked how many of the 1,059 judges and about 4,000 magistrates had been “caught receiving bribe”. With a touch of institutional insouciance, the NJC thundered: “How many Judges or Magistrates have been arrested and/or prosecuted and convicted of corruption till date?” 

To the extent that it telegraphed the dispositions of the NJC on the question of judicial integrity, the contents of this release were staggering in many respects. First, for an institution lacking in direct electoral legitimacy, the NJC did not appear to be particularly bothered about the foundations of the pedestal on which the judicial institution whose authority it is supposed to guarantee, oversights the elected branches or brings to the resolution of disputes. Instead, it appeared to be entirely comfortable to compete with the average politician or bureaucrat in the grubbiness league tables. 

Second, the Council put forward an implausible threshold for judicial accountability, confining it only to when a judge is actively caught in the act of bribery. If this were to be the standard of accountability applicable to judges, it would place them well below the average criminal, in terms of credibility. For the record, the applicable standard at common law is not whether or not a judge has been caught in the act of receiving a bribe but that nothing is “done which creates even a suspicion that there has been an improper interference with the course of justice.” 

Third, in querying how many judges and magistrates had been successfully prosecuted for such issues, the Council clearly diminished the role of judges in bringing about success or failure of accountability for the failure of judicial integrity, placing the burden for that outside the realm of judicial responsibility. 

The month preceding the UNODC-NBS report that drew its ire, at the beginning of June 2017, the NJC had announced the “recall” of six of the eight judges, whom it had previously suspended from judicial duties. The EFCC was also interested the case of one of them(names withheld) until the Appeal and the Supreme Courts cleared him without acquitting him.  

This sequence of complicit jurisprudence effectively killed any fantasies of judicial accountability in Nigeria, all but clothing judges with impunity for acts and crimes that no one would brook if committed by lesser mortals. Despite the clear findings of its own committee of investigation, the NJC allowed the judge and many of his ilk to return to judicial functions. The consequences of this sequence have not been slow to advertise themselves. 

Seven years after their first report of 2017 that roiled the NJC, at the beginning of July 2024, the UNODC and NBS issued the report of their third survey on corruption as experienced by the population of Nigeria. This 170-page report contains 15 references to judges none of which is particularly flattering. Among its many findings, the report deadpans that “among all types of public official for which there was sufficient data, with an average of NGN 31,000, the largest cash bribes were paid to judges and magistrates, followed by Customs or Immigration Service officers (NGN 17,800) and members of the armed forces (NGN 16,600).” 

It is a fitting coda to the tenure of outgoing Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, that the judiciary that he will leave behind has toppled both the Police and Customs services to reach the top of the institutional corruption grease pole in Nigeria. That is not a mean feat. The report finds a close relationship between corruption and nepotism, noting that “around 60 per cent of public sector applicants in Nigeria were hired as a result of nepotism, bribery or both – about 1.2 times the share found in the 2019 survey.”

When he retired as a Justice of the Supreme Court 20 years ago, Samson Odemwingie Uwaifo feared that the appellate courts “may soon be infested if not already contaminated with” the vice of judicial corruption. Today, his fears appear to have come true to an extent that even he would find frightening. That has been made possible with the baleful benediction of the National Judicial Council under its current leadership. In 2017, it took the Council 18 days to finish reading the first UNODC-NBS Corruption Experience Report. We will hopefully find out soon enough how long it will take the Council to digest the 170-page-long successor to that report in 2024. 

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has demanded for an increase in the lump sum payment on retirement to 50 percent under the Contributory Pension Scheme, CPS, to enable retirees begin a comfortable retirement life.

This is as NLC raised several questions agitating the minds of retiring workers.

President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, at a programme on retirement in Abuja,said “Many Questions fill the minds of workers as they retire ; such as will my pension be paid immediately after I leave service? What will I survive on after my last salary in service? What will the real value of my pension be in terms of purchasing power? Will it be sufficient to cover my basic needs? Will I receive it regularly as expected? Will it be adjusted to keep pace with inflation to maintain its value?

“Will my pensions be sufficient to service my mortgage? Will my health challenges be sufficiently addressed by my pensions? etc These are fears that our pension system should address, yet, unfortunately, it often exacerbates them. Retirement, which should be a period of joy and rest, is too often perceived as a daunting prospect as a result of some of these.

“Nigerian Workers before and at retirement are confronted with life-changing challenges which include; Inadequate Pension Benefits Many retirees face, insufficient pension payments that fail to meet basic living expenses, Inflation and rising living costs erode the value of fixed pension incomes over time.

“For example, those who had saved up to N10 million in their Retirement Savings Account, RSA, before 2023 have seen this value dropped to around N3 million in real terms – a situation that is unacceptable. Pension schemes often lack proper indexation to adjust for cost of living increases due to inflation.

“Delayed Pension Payments; Inconsistent Policy Implementation and paucity of Support for Informal economy still persist thus necessitating the need for inclusive policies that integrate informal workers into the pension system.

“We demand the strengthening and reforming of the pension systems to ensure timely and adequate payments, make Pension governance more transparent to reduce looting. 

“There is the need to introduce policies to index pension benefits to inflation and cost of living, expand social support systems to include affordable healthcare, housing, and community services, enhance financial literacy programs for retirees to help them manage their funds better.

“There should be policies to integrate informal sector workers into the pension framework, streamline and standardize pension policy implementation across all sectors and regions.

“More importantly there is urgent need to increase the percentage of lump sum payment on retirement to 50 percent and expand the investment windows available beyond housing via mortgage arrangements to allow for more investment options for workers to use their RSAs while in service.”

Vanguard News

Nigeria is a complex and multifaceted country that elicits various thoughts and viewpoints. Yet, there is some order in disorder. My recent journey through books about contemporary Nigeria or autobiographies of Nigerians brought this reality to light. I have read many books, and in the spirit of Barbara Tuchman, I feel that “books are the carriers of civilisation and without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.” Of the many books on Nigeria’s nature and essence I have read recently, four stood out as rich in insights into what makes Nigeria and Nigerians unique. 

One of the books is “Made in Aba: A Life of Coincidences” by Enyi Abaribe. The title reflects the author’s journey from his birthplace to his current position as a Nigerian senator. 

Another is “A Polity in Transition: A Chronicle of Nigeria’s socio-political and economic development 1914–2014” by Ahmed Tijjani Abubakar, with a title that signifies Nigeria’s evolution over a century. There is also Onyeka Onwenu’s “My Father’s Daughter”, a title that symbolises the author’s relationship with her father and  her country.

The fourth book is Ademola Adebise’s “The Transformational Leader: The Journey of a Tech Bro turned CEO”. It captures the author’s transformation from a tech entrepreneur to a corporate leader. Each book follows a different trajectory but converges at the intersection between Nigeria, promises, the glorious past, and the chequered present. Each book contains lessons about Nigeria, but I will highlight only a few for each book.

“Made-in-Aba” is an autobiography spiced with essays on critical national issues . The author weaves snippets of his life in Nigeria, covering over five decades and interspersing various regions and multi-ethnic dichotomies with significant events that shaped Nigeria’s sociopolitical and economic life. Despite the circumstances of one’s birth, poor or rich, amid man-made obstacles of leadership failure, with iron-steal determination, character, and focus, one can still get to the top in Nigeria. Senator Abaribe’s journey is a testament to the resilience and determination of Nigerians.

Abaribe describes the Nigerian civil war as catastrophic, emphasising its profound human and material costs,and its lasting impact on national consciousness. He criticises the tendency among the elite to avoid discussing the war. However, Abaribe argues that a significant impact of the war is that it exposes our fault lines, and politicians across the breadth and width of our nation have magnified them to humongous proportions, and these fault lines have stubbornly remained with us. Besides, the book teaches us that Nigerian politics is crude and not for the faint-hearted. Any sane mind can never fathom the twists and turns. Those who want to participate must “beware”.

One enduring legacy of our past is the lack of fairness and equity in our shared national patrimony. This is evident in our federation, the massive divide between the haves and have-nots, and the nature and make-up of leadership in all ramifications – agency, structural and systemic.  Since independence, we have struggled to ensure fairness and equity in allocating government offices and projects. In the last ten years, it has risen to the level of marginalisation, discrimination, subordination, and nepotism. Enyi Abaribe’s book highlights this succinctly and how this is a disincentive to hard work and the spirit of excellence.

“A Polity in Transition: A Chronicle of Nigeria’s Socio-Political and Economic Development” chronicles Nigeria’s rapid decline from its hopeful beginnings at independence in 1960 to its current economic, social, security, and democratic challenges. This book serves as a stark reminder of the importance of learning from history. Even with low internal cohesion, when post-independence political leaders first took control of the government in 1960, there was great hope for Nigeria’s future both within and outside the country. Given the size of its market and the presence of oil resources, Nigeria had a robust, diversified economy with significant growth potential. 

One lesson from the book is that the successor generation of Nigerian leaders abandoned the founding fathers and any dreams they had for the country. Another important lesson is that conducting free and fair elections over the years in Nigeria can be compared to a camel passing through the proverbial eye of a needle. To date, it does not appear to be a priority for us as a nation, while it is evidently at the root of our problems.

Adebise’s ‘The Transformational Leader’ shows that Nigeria’s issue with inept leaders can be reversed with visionary and prepared leadership . This is one lesson we can easily munch from Adebise’s book. According to the book, Ademola Adebise led two critical business model revolutions that established him as a transformational leader. The first was captured in Chapter 5 of the book. Segun Oloketuyi, Moraf Oseni, and the author midwifed the launch of ALAT, the first fully digitalised bank in Nigeria, in 2016. The message is clear: vision, innovation, and disciplined execution will propel you beyond mediocrity. 

The second big lesson from the book is that prepared leaders are critical to an institution’s or nation’s success. Adebise was prepared for leadership, and this enabled him to lead Wema Bank through three crises: EndSARS, COVID-19, and the Naira reconfiguration cash crunch, back-to-back, all of which resulted in the bank emerging strong. The takeaway is that Nigeria is on a free fall because we need prepared, selfless, and visionary leaders. There is something fundamentally wrong with our leadership recruitment process and the transaction mindset of those in leadership positions. This underscores the urgent need for visionary leadership in Nigeria.

Onwenu’s memoir is a thought-provoking firsthand account of the Nigerian civil war. Her human-centred account shows our political elite’s insensitivity in the face of citizens’ sense of helplessness. “Given the political chain of events unfolding up until then, no one needed to be told that war was imminent,” she narrates on page 115 of the book. It is easy to draw a parallel to the fact that, to date, our leaders are still insensitive to the cries of the people. 

Another perspective she captures is that during a war, lives, property, peace, values, and innocence are lost and never found. In our current political experiments, this is a path we must avoid at all costs. Civil disturbances that lead to civil breakdown and unrest are evil winds that do us no good. We all are casualties of such devastation, both the victors and the vanquished.  

It is indisputable that books have the potential to shape, challenge, and change our perception of our country. These books will provide you with “new eyes” and reasons to reflect on where and how we went wrong. A nation’s history and challenges often find expression in the life stories of its most exposed citizens. Thus, the memoirs of prominent national elite members highlight a nation’s life journey so far and its road ahead. 

Carl Sagan posits that “books are the repositories of the world’s knowledge. They allow us to travel through time, to tap into the wisdom of our ancestors, and to shape our understanding of the present and future.” The books here examined lead us into Nigeria’s past and present. They also light the way forward through outright suggestions. They inadvertently leave us with a ghost: how to tackle the significant social, political, or economic issues confronting us. By learning from these narratives , we can understand the root causes of Nigeria’s challenges and inspire future leaders to build a more equitable and prosperous nation.

ABUJA, JULY 20, 2024: A total number of 58 new set of Nigerian women and children were rescued from Human Traffickers in Ghana thus bringing the total number of rescued Nigerians in Accra in the last three months to 105.

Chief Callistus Elozieuwa, Chairman NIDO Board of Trustees in Ghana disclosed this to the Chairman/CEO, Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) Hon. Abike Dabiri-Erewa when she stopped by to visit the trafficked victims at their location in Accra.

A statement by the Commission's Head of Media and Public Relations, Abdur-Rahman Balogun on Saturday,
gave the breakdown of those rescued as
Kano 47, Katsina 5,
Jigawa 2 and Kaduna 4.

Apart ftom the newly rescued ones, 11 more girls, earlier rescued and in the care of NIDO BOT Chairman, Chief Callistus Elozieuwa and the Acting Nigerian High Commissioner in Ghana, Amb. Ifedayo Adeoye have also been repatriated back to Nigeria.

A total of 105 have so far been rescued in the last few months.

The statement added that some of the suspected agents have equally been apprehended and handed over to security agencies and NAPTIP for necessary profiling and prosecutions.

Dabiri-Erewa, commended NIDO Ghana, under the leadership of the Board of Trustees Chairman, Chief Callistus Elozieuwa and his team and Acting Nigerian High Commissioner to Ghana, Amb. Ifedayo Adeoye and his team as well as
Ghanaian law enforcement agencies, for their cooperation.

The rescued women and children are on their way back to Nigeria where they will be properly profiled and counselled, by NAPTIP, reunite with their families and rehabilitated by their various state governments

E-signed
Abdur-Rahman Balogun
Director of Media, Public Relations and Protocols,
NIDCOM
Abuja.

The leadership of organised labour have been commended for their patriotism and understanding towards the resolution of the minimum wage crisis.

Immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria (VON) Mr. Osita Okechukwu, who made the commendation while speaking to journalists on Sunday in Abuja, thanked the Labour Unions for their sacrifice.

He said the labour leaders remembered the blood and tears compatriots shed decades ago enroute our return to democracy, hence saving our baby-democracy and by extension avoiding the unintended consequences of street brawl of indefinite strike.

While identifying the pragmatism and patriotism that played out during the negotiations, Okechukwu said it was remarkable that the labour leaders discovered “the nexus between reality and affordability consequent upon our less than healthy economy.”

He stated: “Paucity of funds and competing demands, not cruelty per se as being alleged, made it impossible for government, especially the sub-nationals and private sector to agree to pay a commensurate living wage earlier proposed by labour.

“Recall that early in June 2024, I had appealed to organised Labour to desist from the danger of throwing away our Baby-Democracy with Bathwater.

“Let me also commend our President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for his statesmanship and professional intervention as an accountant to calm down the high temperature the minimum wage impasse generated.”

Okechukwu however appealed to the President to, as a matter of urgent national importance, retool his Renewed Hope Housing scheme by adding mass housing for the uncommon patriotism of workers, to other family stabilisation social infrastructures like the Students Loan and CNG vehicles.

“Rent, which is one of the items in Abraham Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, is tearing the hair of workers nationwide, as workers spend one third of their disposal income on shelter-related matters.

“Mr President house ownership for all workers will generate unimaginable happiness in homes as rent, is one of the major headache of over 80% of workers nationwide,” Okechukwu remarked.

On concerns that the issue of funding will be the main obstacle to the implementation of an ambitious mass housing scheme for workers, the founding member of All Progressives Congress (APC) disagreed.

He argued that workers over the years have been contributing 2.5% of their salary to the National Housing Fund (NHF, stressing that all that is needed to the seed money is supplement by Federal, State, LGA and organised private sector.