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Senator Abdul Ahmed Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central) is a ranking member of Nigeria’s National Assembly. He has been a member of that Assembly since the return to democratic rule in 1999, first as a member of the House of Representatives - elected in 1999, re-elected in 2003 and re-elected again in 2007.  In 2011, he continued his legislative career as a Senator of the Federal Republic representing Bauchi Central. He was re-elected in that capacity in 2015, 2019, and 2023. In the course of what is an obviously rich and fulfilling time in the National Assembly, Ningi has served as either Chairman or member of many committees including the Niger Delta Committee, Solid Minerals, Teachers Education, and NAFDAC Committee of the House. Between 1999 and 2002, he was Chairman of the Nigeria Football Association. He would later become House Majority Leader, 2003 – 2007, and Chairman of the ad hoc committee on the Niger Delta crisis, the committee on Jos crisis, and the Constitutional Review Committee. In 2011, he won election into the Senate and emerged as the Deputy Majority Leader, the Senate was then dominated by the PDP. He has been in the Senate since then. 

 

Thus, as far as experience goes, Ningi is one of the most experienced and most durable lawmakers in Nigeria today. His continual re-election shows that he is well appreciated by the people of Ningi, his constituency and Bauchi Central in general. As a person, he is a friendly, avuncular fellow with friends across the landscape and a charming sunny disposition. He is what you can call a very nice guy. But over the weekend, it would appear that Senator Ningi put a stain, perhaps inadvertently, on his otherwise sterling legislative credentials, when he alleged in his position as the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF) that (i) President Bola Tinubu is implementing a version of the 2024 Budget that is different from what was passed by the National Assembly, and (ii) that budgetary allocations for projects and social infrastructure were skewed against the North in favour of the South. Was Ningi speaking for himself, or for Northern Senators as a group? Ningi alleges that the Budget that was passed in December 2023 was padded with N3 trillion, a budget of N25 trillion that suddenly became N28 trillion, and that out of the total, the Senate President inserted projects worth N4 trillion into the Budget, with “huge damage” done to the North. It will be recalled that President Tinubu presented a budget estimate of N27 trillion to the National Assembly on November 28, 2023.  The National Assembly eventually passed a Budget of N28.7 trillion, effective January 1, 2024. 

 

Four Senators have since dismissed Ningi’s claims as baseless and unfounded - Senator Sunday Karimi (APC, Kogi West), Titus Zam (APC, Benue North West), Kaka Shehu (APC, Borno Central) and Senator Ibrahim Jimoh (APC, Ondo South) who insist that Ningi is misinforming the public. The Chairperson of the Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu has also issued a statement to the effect that there was no budget padding, no varied execution, and the budget is a public document. Further, there are indications that when the Senate meets today, Tuesday, March 12, Senator Abdul Ningi would be called upon by his colleagues to defend his allegations, failing which he may be suspended under Order 67(4) of the Rules. Indeed, it is necessary to ask Senator Ningi to prove his own claims and provide relevant evidence, before his own colleagues. He is said to have back-tracked with an explanation that he was misquoted. He has to prove how that happened. It is a trite principle, and this needs not be explained to lawmakers that he who alleges must prove. Besides, the allegations are so weighty and capable of throwing the country into chaos and strife, that the Nigerian people need to know. 

 

In one broad stroke, the statements attributed to Senator Ningi call the integrity of the National Assembly, the Senate, and the Tinubu administration into question. The Budget is a creation of law, that is why it is called the “Appropriation Act”. If the National Assembly made two different laws detailing the fiscal map for the year, one of which is unknown to the people, that would not only be illegal, it would be criminal. Where did the N25 trillion Budget come from and how did it become N28 trillion? Where was it discussed? Who signed it into law?   And what are the details of the implementation of that secret Budget? Senator Ningi owes us a duty to unveil that which is unknown. He says the Budget was padded. How? It is the duty of lawmakers to receive the Budget and go through it line by line, item by item, before approving it. What is called budget padding is actually a way of saying that both the Appropriation Committee and the entire Senate are made up of idiots. It amounts to self-indictment. And where was Senator Ningi when the Budget was being padded as he claims? Was he asleep or awake at the time? And why he is just speaking up now? 

 

He says “huge damage” has been done to the North in the Budget. He must be made to prove how. This kind of statement is potentially divisive and capable of causing chaos. It is even careless in the extreme for Senator Ningi, an opposition politician, to play such a divide and rule card. Even when politicians disagree with the government of the day, they must be careful not to burn down the country. This is the key lesson here.  Experience may not necessarily mean maturity. There was once a Senator in Nigeria who went about preaching the importance of commonsense. Opposition politicians must learn to play the politics of commonsense. The general elections ended in 2023. We are now in the season of governance, when we must all put Nigeria first. Politicians must be careful what they say. Ningi may want to discredit the Tinubu administration but he must do so, based on empirical facts and not in a manner that puts the same country that has been so generous to him, at risk. We are told that tension has gripped the Senate: the very reason why Ningi’s claims must be investigated and he must be made to prove his allegations in the open court of the Senate. His allegations cannot be covered by privilege, and must not be swept under the carpet. 

 

Other members of the Northern Senators Forum, a body that we assume includes other members from both the ruling party and the opposition also have a duty to tell us what exactly transpired. Is Ningi speaking for them or is he just on his own? One by one, every member of that body must tell us where he or she stands! For them, it must be a matter of honour. Senator Ningi granted an interview to BBC Hausa and he spoke in Hausa. After a fashion, he may come forward to say that what he actually said was lost in translation or that he was quoted out of context by journalists. One of the crass games that Nigerian politicians play, even in the face of overwhelming evidence, when they are caught out, is to blame the media.  Ningi’s statements in BBC Hausa must be played on the open floor of the Senate. Language experts, and other speakers of the language must be asked to review it. Nigeria is too important to be derailed on the basis of partisanship or rumours. If it is then established that Senator Ningi spoke out of mischief, every Senator not being entitled to immunity under our laws, the appropriate punishment for the Senator should not be under the Senate Rules – Order 67(4). When Senator Ovie Omo-Agege was suspended for 90 days under that same rule, he went to court, and he won. Just in case Senator Ningi is found to be fibbing, and unable to prove his grave allegations, he an Abdul, and an Ahmed, lying in the Holy Month, should be punished under the laws of the Sharia which apply in his home state of Bauchi, and whatever punishment the Court deems fit, should be applied publicly and televised! Even if he insists that he was misquoted, that too should be investigated. I don’t want to imagine what indictment or punishment may come the Senator’s way under the Sharia, for he is all things considered, ordinarily, a nice guy. But this is a matter that concerns us all.

 

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When Justice Olukayode Ariwooola, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) retires from the Bench in 2024, upon the attainment of the statutory, mandatory retirement age of 70 years, he would be able to count among his legacies, as CJN, the singular fact that it was under his watch that the Supreme Court achieved the full complement of 21 Justices as required by law. Section 230(2) (b) of the 1999 Constitution states that “the Supreme Court of Nigeria shall consist of such number of Justices not exceeding 21 as may be prescribed by an Act of the National Assembly.” By February 2020, the number of Justices left on the Supreme Court was 13. One after the other, their Lordships retired: Justice Paul Galumje retired in 2020, Justice Sylvester Ngwuta died while still in service in March 2021, three weeks to his 70^th birthday, Justice Olabode Rhode-Vivour, retired in 2021, Justice Mary Odili in 2022, Justice Ejembi Eko in 2022, Justice Tanko Muhammad resigned abruptly in 2023, Justice Amina Augie retired in 2023, and Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammed, 2023, Justice Chima Cletus Nweze, due to retire in 2028 died in July 2023.  By October 2023, the number of Supreme Court Justices had dropped to an unprecedented, all-time low number of 10. Those vacancies have now been filled. It is a historic, welcome development and beyond the Bench itself, an achievement for the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. 

 

The extant Revised NJC Guidelines and Procedural Rules for the Appointment of Judicial Officers of all Superior Courts (2014), and the 2016 National Judicial Policy define the processes for the appointment of such officers - nominations from a broad spectrum of persons and officials are required but for some reason, there was never a full complement of Supreme Court Justices under the Buhari administration.  Sometime in 2019, President Buhari had in fact asked the then acting CJN, Justice Tanko Muhammad to initiate the process of filling the vacancies on the Supreme Court Bench. This caused a little furore, the nomination of judges not being the function of the Executive. The integrity of the process was the issue. When the NJC went ahead to obey the Presidential directive and recommended the appointment of four new Supreme Court Justices, and sent the list to President Buhari, a civil society group, Access to Justice went to court. We need not allow the history of the relationship between the Buhari administration and the judiciary to detain us in this present enquiry, however. It is enough to say that at those times, 2015 – 2023, the relationship between the judiciary and the Executive arms of government were in turns adversarial and complementary. Buhari was the first President to allocate the largest amount of funding to the judiciary, but it was also in those days that it became common for the houses of judges to be raided at midnight. Justice Walter Onnoghen was suspended as CJN, and forced to retire before his time. His replacement, Justice Tanko Muhammad was also forced to retire prematurely. The Buhari administration routinely disobeyed court orders and violated the rule of law. In 2016, two Justices of the Supreme Court were appointed under the Buhari administration -Justices Ejembi Eko and Amina Augie, and in 2020 four Justices - Tijanni Abubakar, Mohammed l. Garba, Abdu Aboki and Mohammed M. Saulawa but at no time since 1999 did the Supreme Court reach its full complement. 

 

This has now happened with the swearing in, a week ago, of additional 11 Justices of the Supreme Court: Haruna Tsammani (North East), Jamilu Tukur (North West), Abubakar Umar (North West), Jummai Sankey (North Central), Mohammed Idris (North Central), Stephen Adah (North Central), Moore A. Adumein (South South), Chidiebere Uwa (South East), Chioma Nwosu-Iheme (South East) Obande Ogbuniya (South East) and Habeeb Adewale Abiru (South West). These were the 11 that made it to the Supreme Court out of the 22 that were originally shortlisted and screened by the National Judicial Council on 28^th November 2023, divided then into priority and reserved candidates. The final list has 10 of the priority candidates and one that was reserved - Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme. It is most appropriate to congratulate their Lordships on their elevation to the apex Court. It is a great honour and an accomplishment of no small measure to sit on the highest court in the land. The CJN underlined this when he told the 11 Justices that they should see themselves as “God’s representatives on earth.” He told them that they should not seek to please everyone: “the only deity you can fear is the Almighty God. Once your judgment is in consonance with what God expects from you, and is also in accordance with the Constitution, you should consider yourself the happiest and freest person on earth. Your moral uprightness, integrity and respect for the constitution and other extant laws in operation, must be unwavering and unassailable. Any judgement given at this level can only be upturned in heaven.”  

 

In those words, CJN Olukayode Ariwooola reminded the JSCs of the role of the judex, and the high responsibility upon their shoulders. They are expected to be above board like Caesar’s wife, to dispense justice without fear or favour not minding whose ox is gored. These 11 Justices are taking their seats on the Supreme Court Bench at a time when the reputation of the Nigerian judiciary, including the apex court has received so much bashing, and there is a lot of cynicism about our judges among the populace. Today, not many would agree with CJN Ariwoola that Nigerian judges at any level are God’s representatives on earth, or that they have any clue about what God expects from them. The CJN could have offered his guidance without dragging God into the matter. But he was right to have suggested that all eyes will be on the apex court, especially the eyes of Nigerian politicians who think that part of their mission should be to steal the votes and also influence the judges. The eyes of lawyers will also be on the new Justices, who are already known, but in terms of how their elevation and having a full complement of the judex on the apex Bench would affect the dispensation of justice and enrich jurisprudence.  

 

The key concern about the depletion of the apex court was that the dockets were full, the court was over-congested with cases, and the Justices, so few in number, were overworked. They were also underpaid and under-resourced as Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad pointed out in his somewhat histrionic valedictory speech in October 2023. With the apex court now having 21 Justices, it means more cases can be heard and there can be a better rate of performance and efficiency. But for this to happen, however, the administrative processes at our Supreme Court also need to be overhauled and modernized. There is too much clumsiness that is advertised up there. Many cases that need not go all the way to the Supreme Court show up there. This should be a proper policy court, not an “orisirisi court”. It must be possible to have a strong, pro-active Registry of the Supreme Court that rejects cases that do not belong there. The Supreme Court’s original and inherent jurisdiction should be clear enough. Many lawyers have had to go to the Supreme Court only to be told that the Justices are away for another function, or that the matter should not have been brought there in the first place. In the age of telephony and modern communication, that is scandalous. The Supreme Court must become a 21^st Century Court by deploying technology to aid its processes and by learning the best lessons from other jurisdictions. Any counsel that files any incompetent or frivolous matter or tries to waste the time of the court must be promptly sanctioned. These days, there is too much indiscipline by lawyers that is condoned by the Bench at all levels. 

 

The 11 new Justices were said to have gone through screening by the Department of State Services (DSS). I think it is scandalous that potential Justices of the Supreme Court have to be screened by the DSS, which in the books has absolutely no role in the nomination or appointment of Judges. The very suggestion that the Nigerian judiciary can throw up any persons who can rise through the system and act as judges for years, only to be investigated for any form of wrong-doing at the point of elevation to the apex court is scary. But in any case, all the Justices reportedly passed the test and they were unanimously cleared by the Senate of the Federal Republic via the instrumentality of a voice vote. I think the rubber-stamp role of the Senate in the process should also be reviewed. In other jurisdictions, such as the United States, justices don’t just get to the Supreme Court. They are subjected to rigorous public scrutiny and may be rejected or withdrawn. Public hearings are held, the nominees are interrogated. Their previous judgements are scrutinized to determine their scope, ideological bent and contributions to Constitutional doctrine. Their academic qualifications are carefully re-examined too. Students of comparative legal systems will remember the case of Justice Clarence Thomas and the sexual harassment testimony of Anita Hill in 1991, as well as the objection of Democrats to Justice Robert Kavanaugh, and the febrile public hearings that attended his screening in 2018. There is also the recent case of Ketanji Brown Jackson, the first Black woman to serve as a Justice of the United States Supreme Court. She did not get there because of her colour or gender. Her confirmation hearings were heated and contentious.

 

Here in Nigeria, once you make the NJC final list, you are already on the Bench. We need to review the process and allow public hearings. In the course of the review of litigations after the 2023 general elections, questions were raised about the work of at least two of the 11 Justices who are now on the Supreme Court Bench: Justice Moore Adumein in the 2023 Kano Gubernatorial election case, and Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme whose nomination was openly questioned by Senator Elisha Abbo. It would have been good for their Lordships to be asked for example to respond to the allegations and insinuations about their professionalism. 

 

It is also not a good thing that elevation to the highest judicial seat in the country has been reduced to geography and promotion. There has been some talk about how the appointments show diversity - that is geography. Every geopolitical zone is now well represented at the Supreme Court Bench.  It must be said that Supreme Court Justices are not quota representatives. They are to be chosen on the basis of merit, character and proven contributions to law. The notion that Justices of the Court of Appeal are entitled to be promoted to the highest court in the land is wrong. I find strong merit in the recommendation that the Supreme Court Bench should be made open to Senior Advocates of Nigeria of great distinction and academics to deepen the knowledge and expertise base of the court. The Supreme Court must not be turned into a secret society or a retirement zone for Justices of the Court of Appeal. In 2017, the Nigerian Bar Association nominated nine of its members for the Supreme Court seat but they were ignored. The appointment of judges must be reformed. And that would not be new: Justices Teslim Elias and Augustine Nnamani got to the Supreme Court through academia and the Bar. In Canada, this widening of the pool that we recommend is standard practice. 

 

The big elephant in the room is jurisprudence. One of the major concerns about Nigeria’s Court of Appeal is that it had become a court of technicalities, with the judex determining cases on convenient technical grounds rather than the higher ground of judicial activism. With the new Justices of the Supreme Court coming directly from that court, it is hoped that they would not bring their over-reliance on technicalities to the Supreme Court. Once upon a time, especially during the golden era of Justices Kayode Eso, Chukwudifu Oputa, Augustine Nnamani, Ayo Irikefe, Anthony Aniagolu, Andrew Obaseki, Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Alfa Belgore Muhammadu Uwais, Mohammed Bello … Nigeria witnessed some of the most rigorous applications of the law and the delivery of justice, even under the military, and court judgements by their Lordships were profound exercises in law, language, philosophy and wit. Over the years, the standards collapsed, as court judgements were reduced to a simple summary of pleadings and a casual pronouncement of decisions – a frightening indication of how robust craft and sound reasoning had disappeared from our courts. Most students of the law would like to see a return to the good old days not just at the apex court, but within the entire judiciary, which in itself is in urgent need of reform. 

 

With the current talk about reconfiguration, decentralization and restructuring, whichever phrase suits our fancy, the Nigerian judiciary is also in urgent need of reconfiguring. There is too much power in the hands of the Chief Justice of Nigeria who in addition to being CJN, is also Chair of the National Judicial Council (NJC), Chair of the National Judicial Institute (NJI), Chair of the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) and Chair of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC). The military after a fashion may have imagined that the head of the country’s judiciary should also be an overlord like them, but that has to change: the office of the CJN must not possess the powers of an Emperor or what Yorubas call “Kabiyesi”, that is a traditional monarch, who represents God on earth!  The NJC should be unbundled. The CJN must be a democrat within the system. It should also not be the duty of the NJC to appoint and discipline judges or to appoint Chief Judges of the states. There have been calls as well for the de-centralization of the Supreme Court for more effective administration of justice, with the apex court having divisions in the country’s six geopolitical zones like the Appeal Court. 

 

While the pros and cons of that suggestion may be a different kettle of fish altogether, the immediate expectation is that a full Supreme Court would have all its court rooms functioning and that the new Justices will enrich our jurisprudence and help the apex court achieve its full potential. Even with these new appointments, more Justices of the Supreme Court will also soon retire. There should be no delays in filling whatever vacancies may arise. At an individual level, each one of the Justices has a duty and a responsibility to prove his or her mettle. Welcome on board, your Lordships… 

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“Hunger is the cry of a god and two gods do the humans worship – the head and the stomach ...We know the body will survive without head Sustenance, but the Stomach, the god that rumbles and thunders when sacrifice is late, this God cannot be slighted” – Wole Soyinka

 

 

Salutations to the Gut is the title of an 84-page essay published over 40 years ago by Nigeria’s Nobel Laureate in Literature, Wole Soyinka celebrating the splendour of Yoruba cuisine and gastronomic hedonism, how “the true hedonist has felt in every morsel the soul of the open kitchen”, a witty, whimsical essay about the importance and the culture of food, indeed life itself.  Soyinka wrote that “It is sad - daily the business of the world becomes more hurried, and the few who still possess leisure lack true poetry of food.” How so true, not just for the Yoruba race, but for the whole of humanity. It is not for nothing therefore that the Yoruba also have a popular saying that “the path to the stomach is the path to Heaven.” Where there is no true poetry of food and hunger persists, not only is paradise lost, hope is trampled upon, anger reigns, poverty stalks the landscape. This is summarized in a local saying that “ebi ki n wo inu, ki oro mi wo be”, which means literally that a hungry man is not ready for any kind of communication, because he is angry. 

 

This explains perhaps why some of the major crises in human history have been woven around the search for food, and the expression of frustration around the lack of same, explained with different phrases: hunger, famine, poverty, scarcity or derivation.  Historically, the scarcity of food, or the non-availability or non-affordability, has often resulted in riots or revolutions. In 1648, there were riots on the streets of Moscow because government imposed a salt tax, which drove up the cost of salt. One of the reasons for the French Revolution was in part because the ordinary people could not afford to buy bread. In 1789, the market women of France marched on the Versailles, and the protest was quickly taken over by revolutionaries who no longer wanted the Monarchy. In 1846, in Ireland, there was the famous Great Famine which led to food riots. During the American Civil war, in 1863, Southern women looking for food organized protests in places like Boston and Richmond, taking over the streets and plundering warehouses where they could find them. The problem was hyper-inflation. During World War I, there were potato riots in Europe, and rice riots in Japan, as the people looked for food to eat. Hunger was also one of the causes of the February 1917 Revolution in Russia. In more recent times, we have had the Egyptian Bread riots of 1977 – food became so expensive, Egyptians rioted; in 1981 – there was the Bread riots in Casablanca, Morocco, and in 1984, the Moroccan Hunger Uprising. There have also been food riots in Venezuela, South Africa, Sri Lanka, the UK, Zambia, France, Haiti, Bangladesh and anywhere else in the world where the god of the stomach rumbles, after being slighted by scarcity, and ignited to rebellion by hunger. When the god of the stomach rumbles, there are casualties. 

 

What is common in all the narratives is that people become desperate when they cannot feed themselves. Food prices trigger political instability as seen in the Russian and French Revolutions, the Great Depression and during the Arab Spring. The politics of hunger is oftentimes triggered by poor leadership, including corruption, or in other cases by failures in agricultural production such as crop failure or post-harvest losses, and a crisis in one place can translate into further crisis in other states, given the existence of an established global food supply chain. When food prices rise beyond the people’s purchasing power, social unrest is never too far away. This is the tough lesson Nigeria is confronting at the moment. It is sad that this is happening in a country that once advertised agriculture as the mainstay of its economy, and whose leaders still believe that deepening agricultural production could rescue the country from the mono-cultural, oil dependent ditch in which it has found itself. Today, the country faces a “food intifada”, the same country with an arable land area of about 36.9 million hectares, where there were once cocoa plantations in the West, rubber plantations in the Mid-West, rice pyramids in the North, as well as aquatic splendour and a fluorescent blue economy along its coastlines. In living memory, Nigerians talked about “Operation Feed The Nation” (1979) and the “Green Revolution (1980)”, and indeed it was in this same country that a certain Umaru Dikko, Minister of Transport, and Chair of the Committee on Rice Importation, under the Shehu Shagari administration once scandalized the public when he quipped that there was no hunger in Nigeria because no one was yet eating from the dustbin, and that Nigerians should be grateful because government was paying salaries without borrowing – a big favour! Dikko would later become famous for the botched attempt by the succeeding military regime to kidnap him from the UK in July 1984. He died in July 2014. If he were alive today, he would have lived to see that Nigerians now eat from dustbins, and that hungry and angry Nigerians are telling their government that they are “hungry”. And that the government goes a-borrowing and a-sorrowing. 

 

There have been protests in Minna, Niger State, Ota, Sagamu and Abeokuta in Ogun State, Oyo and Ibadan in Oyo State, Kano in Kano State, Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Sokoto in Sokoto State, Lokoja in Kogi State, and in Lagos, the country’s commercial capital. The reports of the various protests clearly underline the people’s desperation in the face of hunger. In Lagos, we saw reports of people practically falling over themselves, and being beaten as they struggled to buy loaves of bread at a discounted price. Also in Lagos, a Good Samaritan had provided a truck load of tubers of yam to be given out for free. The people didn’t wait for the tubers to be distributed. Chaos ensued as they seized the initiative and grabbed the tubers of yam in a classical, Darwinian, “survival of the fittest” scramble. The Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) also tried to intervene by offering to sell seized, contraband bags of rice at a discounted price to the public. It made good on its promise. But at its Yaba depot in Lagos, over 10, 000 people showed up, scrambling, struggling. To cut a long story short, seven persons reportedly died. The initiative has been suspended. In Katsina, villagers and hoodlums besieged an accidented truck bearing grains, and looted the commodities. In Rivers state, aggrieved women added another twist to the matter when they asked the government to address their suffering because they had become sex-starved as their husbands no longer attended to their conjugal duties due to excessive heat in the other room on account of epileptic power supply and confirmed loss of libido because of the psychological pressure induced by the high cost of living! 

 

In Ibadan, the protesting youths and market women told President Tinubu: “This is no longer Emilokan. This is Shege!.”  In Osogbo, the people chanted: “We can’t cope again”.  In Sokoto, they said: “We are being pushed to the wall.” In Ogun, the people told the government, “We are in pains”. In Lagos, they said: “Baba Tinubu Nigerians are Hungry, Rescue Us”. On February 10, in the midst of all this, the Nigeria Union of Pensioners announced that its members will go naked on the streets in protest. As of January 2024, Nigeria’s headline inflation had risen to 29.90%. Food inflation was over 35.4%- much higher in some of the states. In practical terms, a measure of rice is now N2,000 and a bag of 50kg rice – N70, 000, a bag of maize is as high as N60, 000. People can no longer eat three square meals per day, certainly not those pensioners who receive as low as N450 per month. The country’s minimum wage in the face of hyper-inflation cannot feed one person not to talk of a family. 

 

It would have been strange if the Nigerian government did not respond to these developments, with the god of the stomach and the gut wreaking havoc across the land having been so badly bruised, and the people so disconcerted. In July 2023, Nigeria’s President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu had in fact foreseen the food crisis that the country was likely to face. He declared food insecurity a national emergency, set up a Committee on Food Emergency and moved the assignment to his office and the office of the National Security Adviser. This was understandable. Food inflation was rising. Farmers could not access their farms. The country’s Food Belt had become a theatre of terror and insurgency. But as the harvest became real, and protests showed up in parts of the country, with the people of Lagos even directly confronting the President screaming: “Ebi n pa wa” (“We are Hungry”) as the President went for Friday worship in Central Lagos, and other Nigerians screaming for help, government just had to be seen to be doing something. The Emergency Committee on Food Insecurity met, and the people were told at the end of the deliberations, that the Federal Government would provide 102, 000 metric tonnes of grains - 42, 000 from the National Grains Reserve and another 60, 000 to be provided by big farmers. In the event that this would not be enough, the Federal Government would import grains. 

 

The big tragedy is that the government appears completely overwhelmed, confused even. Students of Policy Evaluation would readily agree that a government does not announce a state policy on an ad-hoc or impulsive basis. It must be thought through from beginning to the evaluation, in the interest of the people. It looks like the Tinubu team failed the test. About one month later, nobody has seen the promised 102, 000 metric tonnes. As recently as the last National Economic Council meeting held a few days ago, they were still talking about partnership with major fertilizer companies, and promises to make grains available. Nobody has seen any grains. Nobody is even sure that there is anything in the National Grains Reserve. At one point, we were told by the Vice President, that the government will introduce a Commodities Exchange Board. The President showed up later to say that there will be no Commodities Board and that his government will not control prices, nor will it import food. In that breath, the President openly contradicted his own Minister of information, his Vice President and dismissed a court judgment by the Federal High Court, sitting in Lagos, (re: Femi Falana SAN vs AG federation) which had ordered the Federal Government to fix the prices of goods and petroleum products in seven days in line with the Price Control Act, 2004 per Ambrose Lewis-Allagoa, J.  

 

Confusion galore… and nothing could be more confusing than the Presidency summoning a selected team of 16 stakeholders over the weekend and setting up what they called a “tripartite” Economic Advisory Committee to solve Nigeria’s tripartite problems: a national currency on a free fall and foreign exchange crisis, hyperinflation, and the high cost of living. I suspect that someone in government has suddenly discovered the word “tripartite” and so everything has become “tripartite” including the setting up of a “tripartite” 37-member committee to review the national minimum wage. The optics may look good to the extent that government appears as if it is trying to do something, whatever that is, at least to show the people that “we are trying.” The problem is that the same advisers that Tinubu has invited, with the exception of two or three, were the same people who have been advising government since 1999, as investors and stakeholders – what new thing do they have to offer, apart from the privilege of their access to the corridors of power?  What happens to the National Economic Council (NEC), a constitutional body chaired by the Vice President? And why has the President not appointed a Chief Economic Adviser whose task is to help the President link all possible loose ends between the monetary and fiscal sides of things? Nigeria needs one, and preferably a properly educated Economist.

 

The biggest response to the confusion referred to parenthetically above, has been the announcement of a two-day warning strike by Organized Labour, led by the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), beginning from today. NLC has been abandoned by the Trade Union Congress (TUC), its partner-union with which it originally gave government a 14-day ultimatum to honour a 16-point Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signed in October 2023, or face a strike. In a confusing twist to the tale, TUC now says NLC is acting unilaterally. A total of 64 other groups have reportedly pulled out of the planned protest. Even the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) told the leadership of the NLC to seek dialogue with the Nigerian Government and shelve its strike. NLC says it would go ahead. Femi Falana, NLC Counsel has written the AG Federation to affirm the constitutionality of the right to protest and the ineffectuality of the two interlocutory injunctions ordered against the NLC by the National Industrial Court in the light of an extant Court of Appeal decision on the right to protest. Again, so much confusion. It is nonetheless important to state that peaceful protest is legal, valid and constitutional and whether or not the NLC succeeds or fails with its two-day warning strike, the key point is that there is disquiet in the land about inflation, the rising cost of living and the hardship that the people face. The people want tangible results not talks, promises, preachments, or optics. 

 

Many of the states, notably Lagos, Ogun and Borno have introduced palliative measures to help their people. These are welcome interventions. The Federal Government cannot do it alone. The people must see that their home governments care for them and have empathy for them as they experience what for many is the nightmare of a lifetime. The nightmare is so serious that the Federal Government in an attempt to show empathy, and to be seen “to be trying” has now announced that it will implement the Steve Oronsaye Report. I hope someone has read that report and tried to understand it properly. The Report recommends a lean, pruned down, more efficient government, shorn of waste, fat and duplication. President Tinubu does not need months or “a tripartite” committee to implement that. No further confusion, please.

“Bros, how body? Have you seen what I have seen?”

“No. How do you expect me to see what you have you seen, when my eyes are different from yours? I use my own eyes. The evidence of my own ocular facility, not what other people see in a country where most people are either depressed, half-blind, hungry or sick. Every man for himself or herself.” 

“Ok. Ok, if you would just allow me to talk. You always think you know it all. But there are certain things other people see, and hear that you may not be aware of.” 

“Okay. What? I am all ears”

“Can you believe that in Pakistan, one man who was declared winner of an election in Karachi, Pakistan, in the recent elections in that country on February 8, turned down the victory, and said he was not the rightful winner of the election because it was rigged? Hafiz Naeem of the Jamaat-e-Islami Party insisted that the votes of his opponent were reduced and his increased to give him an illegitimate victory. He says he disagrees.” 

“Don’t believe everything you read on the internet, particularly when it comes to elections. Democracy is under threat universally. This year alone, there are more than 64 elections worldwide, including the ones that have taken place already and the ones to come, and the big threat is technology.  People will use technology to manipulate anything - especially Artificial Intelligence (AI) to misinform, disinform, mislead and do all kinds of things. When you get any piece of information, you have to really double-check. Technology has become a threat to democracy. And the Pakistan that you mentioned. Pakistan is a country of very corrupt leaders, both civilian and military and that is why they are finding it difficult to form a government after the recent general elections.”

“But when we see what looks like a good example from another part of the world, we should throw it up as a good example.” 

“I don’t get your point.” 

“I am saying that is it ever possible in Nigeria that a politician will reject his own declared victory on the grounds that the election was rigged in his favour?”

“I don’t want you to think that anybody in Pakistan is better than any other person in Nigeria. I ask you to check the story behind the story before you begin to put down your own country and your own people.”     

“Whatever the story behind the story is, I can bet that no Nigerian will ever give up an election victory on the grounds that an election was rigged in his or her favour. In this country, politicians would rather win by hook or crook. Win first and let others be the ones to complain. Rig. Steal. Grab the INEC certificate and let the aggrieved go to court. There is zero integrity in Nigerian politics. The politicians are no different from bandits, terrorists and insurgents, and kidnappers. Every electoral event is a kidnapping event.  They kidnap the process, the voters, the officials, and the results.”

“Calm down. Stop condemning what you don’t know. Are you a politician? You will just read one or two sensational stories on social media, and Google and you will start sounding like an expert. Armchair expertise is the biggest problem we have with public affairs analysis in this country, and I see that it is becoming a very attractive and profitable enterprise. Can people learn to be humble?”

“You always like to water things down. Somebody will be going North; you will just take the conversation to the South. Okay, forget about Pakistan. Think of what happened in Edo state last weekend when after the All-Progressives’ Congress (APC) conducted its party primaries for the September 2024 race for Osadebey House, four different persons were declared winners. Nigeria’s ruling party could nor organize its own primaries. Ballot boxes were snatched. Journalists were attacked. There was vote rigging, open violence. As of this moment, all the gladiators and their supporters are claiming victory, trading blames and threatening that there would be more recriminations.”

“The matter will still be resolved. The gladiators will cancel themselves out. Those who can be bought will collect cash and agree to shut up. Whoever proves stubborn will be reminded that whatever the party decides at the end of the day is supreme and binding. You are referencing one politician in Pakistan, don’t be surprised if at the end of the day a member of the Edo APC Gubernatorial race comes forward and says he, as a loyal party man has agreed to respect the decision of the party and that he would rather support a former opponent. Politicians are the same everywhere.  You should know the story before you draw conclusions.” 

“But my point still stands. No Nigerian politician who has been declared winner, would on his own, on moral grounds, reject the victory. He will cling to it.” 

“So, what is the moral of this your Paki story?”

“That politicians must have integrity. And I don’t know what is wrong with them in Edo APC. They have disgraced their party. They are disgracing the ruling party at the centre.” 

“Calm down. They are not alone. The PDP is also disgracing itself in Edo State.” 

“I hear Governor Godwin Obaseki is the problem in Edo PDP. They say he is the one who wants to determine single-handedly who succeeds him.”

“They say, they say… but the man himself has not said anything.”

“They say he wants to turn himself into the next Godfather of Edo State. He wants to choose and impose his own successor. I am afraid that when the EDO PDP organize their own primaries, this week, the chaos may be more than what we have seen in the APC.” 

‘Dem say. Dem say. The only thing I know is that he has made it clear that his Deputy, Philip Shaibu who has been disrespecting and insulting him will not be Governor after him. It looks like that is his singular project, and the way he looks and even grunts when Shaibu tries to greet him in public, it looks like stopping Shaibu is a do or die affair for him.” 

“But is that politics? Should people play the politics of hate and conflict?” 

“You will have to mount the pulpit in a church to raise such questions, and you may do so to your heart’s content until you realize that the politics in churches and mosques is even far worse than what you see on the open field. The do-or-die politics in Nigerian places of religious worship is enough to make God wonder why he created Nigerians”. 

“I understand that even the Labour Party in Edo State is divided. What is wrong with these Edo people?” 

“Be careful. Nothing is wrong with Edo people. Watch what you say before the Oba of Benin declares you are an enemy of the Palace.” 

“Oba gha to kpere. Ise!, Ise o, Ise o”

“The Nigerian politician is the problem, that is what you can say. Our politicians have not learnt any lessons, despite all the electoral reforms resulting in the Electoral Act 2022. They don’t care.  They are still snatching ballot papers and deploying violence. What we are seeing in the off-cycle elections is actually a dress rehearsal for the 2027 elections.” 

“Are you now a prophet?”

“No. But I can tell you that I am better than all those Nigerian prophets who predicted that Nigeria was going to win the top prize at the African Cup of Nations in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. The prophets lied. No one could even predict the outcome of the final game. But tomorrow, the same prophets will claim to know tomorrow, and Nigerians will believe them. Yahoo prophets! Some of them told us the Labour Party would be the alternative party in 2023. Look at what is happening to the Labour Party, not just in Edo State, but even at the national level.” 

“I agree with you on this one.  A big scandal. A terrible disappointment. This is a party that Mr. Peter Obi practically built up, revived and turned into a platform of desire, with his energy, goodwill and resources. He galvanized and mobilized Nigerian youths to believe that a new, different Nigeria is possible and many bought into the vision: “Obi ke ke renke Obi, Obi Nwan nem… Elu uuu Pee”. Remember the Obidient Movement. They told us to be Obidient and Yusful. But look at the Labour Party today. It has been reduced to Julius Abure vs. Lamidi Apapa, Julius Abure vs Oluchi Oparah. I even hear they are looking for money. They are fighting over money. Please tell me, how are they different from APC and PDP?”    

“The parties are all the same. But you left out Maria Labeke vs. Julius Abure. The former Acting Chairman of the Party, Maria Labeke says Abure forged her signature. Poor Peter Obi. He has had to call for a proper audit of the party’s accounts.”  

“It probably looks like the APC is a better party after all. At least they are in power at the centre.”

“How is the APC better? In less than one year of the Tinubu Presidency, Nigerians are groaning and weeping and gnashing their teeth as a result of the high cost of living. Average price levels have risen. Families can no longer feed. Inflation is 30%, food inflation is over 34%, the Discos are threatening to increase electricity tariffs and the cost of meters. National Road Transport owners are threatening to stop lifting petroleum products because they can’t agree on affordable freight rates with major oil marketers. Landlords are hiking rent. Foreign exchange is a source of daily nightmare with the Naira devalued by more than 60% since January. If I must tell you something, housewives, side chicks and prostitutes have all conspired to punish Nigerian men. They all now quote black market rates. These people have destroyed the culture of leisure”. 

“I don’t know what you call leisure. Leisure is different from sin. When you are made to pay for your sins, don’t drag the government into that.”

“So, is it a sin to be a Nigerian? Because that is how many Nigerians feel right now. Even the price of beer has gone up.”

“You don’t have to drink beer. Drink water.”

“The last time I checked, this is supposed to be a free country. But there are food protests all over the country. The cost of staple foods has gone up. People cannot afford to buy bread. The other day in Lagos, people were struggling to buy subsidized loaves of bread for N100. Another day, a good Samaritan provided free tubers of yam, people were ready to die to get their hands on just one tuber. In Niger State, the state Governor has had to warn other Nigerians not to come to Niger State to buy food.”

“The Federal government says it will release 102, 000 metric tons of grains to Nigerians.”

“Grains to be fed to goats and hungry chickens right? Nigerians have become animals?” 

“But the government will not import food. They wanted to, but they have changed their minds.”

“Confusion. Policy incoherence.” 

“And there will be no commodity boards. No fixing of prices.” 

“They have no clue”

“They say the problems they inherited are too many, too much and the people should learn to be patient, especially Organized Labour, NLC, TUC, threatening to go on strike by month-end.”

“I have my doubts about those ones, please. Nigerians must be used to the perpetual scare-mongering by Labour now. They will hold one or two meetings with the government, and they will call off their strike and our suffering will continue. Please.” 

“The Government says you people must have hope. Every person associated with the government, including Tinubu’s son, Seyi says Nigerians must have faith”

“Who is that?”

“Tinubu’s son. He says Nigerians must endure.”

“Seyi Tinubu has the audacity to put his mouth into this matter? Does he think this is a family affair? What does he know about endurance?  Can he just focus on his omo Baba Olowo, akebaje, lifestyle?” 

“Even his brother-in-law has been appointed Managing Director of the Federal Housing Authority. And the sister, the Iyaloja-General of the Federation, says we should all be patient. The President is trying his best to carry everybody along.” 

“God! God! God!”

“Indeed, it is only God who can help us. In Borno State, Governor Babagana Zulum has asked the entire state to embark on fasting and praying and to call on God to help resolve the crisis of rising food inflation and insecurity. Yesterday, in Borno state, the people fasted and prayed. O ye men of little faith.” 

“We have a government in place and we are looking for Manna from Heaven? In 2024? Can someone please pinch me?” 

“The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso, and the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume have just told doubting Thomases like you at the Catholic Bishops Conference a few days ago that there is hope. Serious hope. Wake up, my friend.” 

“Audio, my brother audio oh. Where is the hope?  The Naira is practically becoming worthless. Who is still preaching hope to the Gentiles?”

“The CBN Governor said that the economic reforms introduced by the Tinubu administration are working, and that if Nigerians do not see this, the IMF has seen it. Rating agencies like Fitch have seen it.”

“Very good. Good to know that our CBN Governor is suggesting that Nigerians are blind people. Nice compliment. But can someone tell him and other merchants of hope that, we, the Nigerian people do not see what IMF is seeing? We live here. We feel it. We are the ones involved in it. And we know that things are tough in this country. Life is hard. That is why there are food protests on the streets of Abuja, Ota, Kano, Kaduna and Ibadan.”  

“They say the problems were caused by the Buhari administration.”

“Not Jonathan again? I thought they said it was Jonathan.”

“President Jonathan is now a hero. When he left the government in 2015, the foreign exchange rate was N150 to the dollar. Today, it is about N1, 650 to the dollar. By Easter, it may get to N2,000 to the dollar. Even state governors are now saying they cannot function, they cannot deliver services because of inflation and the exchange rate fiasco.” 

“You are quoting PDP Governors who are looking for visas to Venezuela. They are part of the problem too”. 

“So, from whence will our help cometh, O Lord??” 

“In a democracy, what you wish for is what you get. Have you forgotten? Emi lokan.  Awa lo kan.  Eyin lo kan. Come on, e lo fokan bale.”