Economy

Projecting into the mindset of a potential president of Nigeria that would be the new occupant of Aso Rock Villa in 2023 is what l have set out to do by writing this essay. And l would like to state upfront that I am not by any means engaging in clairvoyance.
That is why all l want to do is leverage trend analysis as a tool, look back into the past and also project into the future to figure out who out of the motley crowd of presidential candidates would end up calling the shots in Aso Rock Villa in 2023 and is savvy in economic and financial matters.
Although there are at least fifteen (15) presidential candidates that have met independent National Electoral Commission, INEC eligibility conditions, and deadline, l have narrowed the number down to mainly two, and to a much lesser degree, a third in the unlikely event that the much-hyped youth revolution occurs and only one political party benefits from it.
As the saying goes, by their fruits we shall know them.
So, for the purpose of this discourse, fruits can be substituted for antecedents.
And relying on their antecedents,l can wager a bet that the three presidential candidates, of which one of them would willy nilly be propelled into Aso Rock Villa seat of presidential power next year, are in the persons of Asiwaju, Bola Tinubu, the flag bearer of the ruling party at the center, APC and Turaki Atiku Abubakar, the standard-bearer for the main opposition party, PDP, and Mr. Peter Obi, LP candidate, in the unlikely event that a miracle happens.
At the risk of appearing to be presumptuous, nothing much has changed in the Nigerian political space except the current wave of youth activism in the political space triggered by the reformed electoral Act 2022 which has conferred fidelity on our electoral system currently igniting unprecedented political consciousness in our youths.
It is amazing and heartening at the same time that 60% of potential voters in Nigeria which the youth demography represents, and who had hitherto been neglected or dormant, are now highly charged and motivated members of a society anxious to exercise their civic duty of voting with the sole aim of seizing power from those they have branded as old generation politicians that must be shoved aside in 2023, and replaced with their purportedly newly found idol-Peter Obi and his running mate, Datti Baba-Ahmed when president Mohammadu Buhari and Yemi Osinbajo exit Aso Rock Villa next year.
As l have asserted in previous interventions, such a radical prospect of ousting the old politicians with alacrity by our youths, bothers on, at best, idealism, and perhaps youthful exuberance, if one were to be less charitable.
And for the reasons above, my sincere admonishment to our youths, as l had done in my previous media interventions is for them to decode the coded message in the conventional wisdom and idiomatic expression: ‘If wishes were horses, beggars would ride’ and ‘old horses never die, they just find new horses to win’
To be clear, my point is simply that the 360 degrees of change that the youths are seeking would not materialize as fast as they would expect. But it would happen if they remain tenacious.
So, although the youth generation would make a significant impact in the 2023 elections, as l had enunciated in my media intervention widely published on 21 June 2022 titled: Converting Youth Bulge To Positive Force For Politics in Nigeria, my prognosis then is that either Turaki Atiku Abubakar or Asiwaju Bola Tinubu would prevail in the upcoming presidential contest. And that position has undergone further adjustment.
In any case, one of the three of them would be the one to receive the handover notes from president Buhari on 29th May 2023.
And l can foretell what the policies and programs of the duo, perhaps a trio, would look like when one of them takes over the reins of governance.
Basically, most of what is known about them and which l will rely on in my analysis are derived from their period of stewardship or time in public office.
With respect to Tinubu, he served for two terms as governor of Lagos state from 1999 to 2007 and left footprints with respect to spreading his political tentacles nationally after he co-founded the now-defunct Action Congress of Nigeria, ACN, and he has made significant efforts at providing infrastructure that has steered Lagos state towards becoming a mega city, which remains unsurpassed.
Regarding Abubakar that was Vice President to former President Olusegun Obasanjo, who also served from 1999 to 2007, he has giant imprints on both the terrains of politics and the economy nationwide.
Leveraging the network of the People Democratic Movement, PDM, inherited from his mentor, late Shehu Musa Yar’adua, he is easily one of the most widely known political actors in Nigeria. Apart from serving as Vice President, 1999-2007, he has contested for the presidency of Nigeria a whopping five (5) times with significant impact nationwide.
For that reason, the PDP candidate is believed to already have in his kitty about 13 million voters which he earned during his last contest for the office of president in 1999 with the incumbent president, Mohammadu Buhari who received a couple of millions more votes than him.
I will not dwell much on Peter Obi because everything about his service in public office, including documents that are supposed to be classified, plus the ones concocted by the denizens swirling around in his orbit or netizens that have colonized cyberspace on behalf of Obi is already over exposed in the public domain.
So, without further ado, it is pertinent that we get down to the brass tacks by shining the light on the private sector background of the likely candidates that would become president of Nigeria next year.
In any case, with the economy and security likely to occupy the left and center of the political debate when the Independent National Election Commission, INEC, officially opens the space for campaigning on 28th September, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar who are thankfully not economic illiterates would be going head-to-head.
Remarkably, the terrific and encouraging thing about the candidates is that both the APC and PDP candidates, Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar respectively, plus the LP candidate Peter Obi can read the balance sheet because they are all business savvy, having been private sector practitioners.
While Tinubu is an accountant, with an interest in tax collection, Atiku is an astute entrepreneur with investments in oil/gas as well as education, while Obi is a commodity trader.
For lack of space and time, we will not be going into granular details about their businesses.
Now, Tinubu’s supporters would aver that it is his blueprint for the development of Lagos state that has remained the playbook that has been subsequently been relied upon by three governors-Babatunde Fashola, Akinkunmi Ambode, and Jide Sanwo-Olu-for the advancement of the state.
By the same token, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar shares in the credit for the giant developmental strides taken in our country under the presidency of Olusegun Obasanjo for eight (8) years. It was during that period that Nigeria’s debilitating debt burden of about $30 billion(which has reportedly sadly tanked up to an estimated $90 billion under the present regime) was substantially written off ($ 12 billion) by the Paris Club of creditors. It was also a time that Nigeria witnessed economic reforms including the privatization of public utilities such as the telecommunications sector that ushered in the current mobile telephone revolution.
And there are credible reasons to believe that if president Obasanjo had succeeded in serving a third term (as pundits aver that he was desirous of doing) the petroleum sector would also have been privatized.
That means that Nigerians would not have been going through the agony of paying for the commodity literally through their nose, and basically going through hell and back to even find the commodity to purchase, an ordeal they are currently grappling with.
So inevitably, the candidates that would likely emerge as president are pro-private sector and therefore likely to be able to pull the Nigerian economy out of the abyss where it is currently mired due particularly to the monumental and unprecedented levels of insecurity in the country and poor economic policy decisions, especially petroleum subsidy which is expected to gulp about four (4) trillion naira in budget 2022, broken down as approximately N600 billion naira monthly expenditure, and still counting.
Before dwelling further on the likely economic policies of the potential Aso Rock Villa occupant after president Buhari exits next year, it is appropriate that we underline the qualities that Nigerians expect in their next president.
During the launch of my new book: Becoming President Of Nigeria. In a Citizen’s Guide, the keynote speaker, professor Mike Ikhariale, a Harvard University-trained constitutional lawyer, outlined some qualities that an ideal president of Nigeria is supposed to possess in addition to the requirements in the 1999 constitution of the federal republic of Nigeria.
The expert in constitutionalism laid it bare by leveraging the work of authority in constitutionalism, James Barber.
Here is how he put it:
“According to James Barber in his studies generally referred to as “Barber’s Research”, he laid out about 10 essential qualities which a President must possess in order to be successful. They include:
a. A strong vision for the country’s future supported by a plan of action.
b. He must have the ability to put his own reign in historical perspective.
c. A president must be a communicator who knows the importance of the so-called ‘Bullying Pulpit’.
d. He must be prepared to make unpopular decisions, someone who is able to move beyond the orthodoxy and purposefully innovative.
e. Must have crisis management skills, not passing the puck but accepting realities.
f. Must be a person of remarkable character and integrity.
g. Even though he has the constitutional power to hire and fire, he must make his key appointments wisely in such a way that he can use his employment prerogative to bolster his own political reach. This is modern times would mean gender balance and in the particular case of Nigeria, the requirements of the Federal Character principle. He must avoid cronyism and nepotism.
h. Must have the ability to relate with the Legislators, 
i. Needless to say, that charisma and a welcoming aura are great assets for a President.”
Having arrayed the qualities of an ideal president, the question now is: does the antecedents of the two candidates of the ruling party APC – Bola Tinubu, and the main opposition party, PDP -Atiku Abubakar, and the distant third candidate, Peter Obi of LP, who are the front runners in the race to Aso Rock Villa, indicate that they possess most or all of the qualities enunciated in ‘Barber’s Research’ earlier cited by professor Ikhariale?
If readers would indulge me, l would like to respond to the forgoing poser against the backdrop of the public official records of the candidates that l earlier highlighted.
As l pointed out ab initio, it is Tinubu of APC that successfully steered Lagos state into becoming a functional mega city and of which a coterie of his protégé has continued to hold sway.
On the other hand, it is Abubakar of PDP that set the agenda for leapfrogging the economic growth of Nigeria when during their first tenure in Aso Rock Villa, then president Olusegun Obasanjo, entrusted him with the management of the economy during which the privatization of the telecommunications sector,(held up as a global model for privatization) led to the introduction of GSM telephony amongst other positive phenomenons that occurred in the Obasanjo/Abubakar era.
It is also worthy of note that both Tinubu and Abubakar have the knack for identifying talents, by spotting and reaching out to them, even if they are in the private sector. Hence the duo often achieved commendable levels of success in leadership in their assignments in public office.
As for Peter Obi, he attracted a brewery to the Anambra state and took a stake in it as well as saved N75 billion naira which he left behind for his hand-picked successor, Willie Obiano in banks, one of which is fidelity bank, where he is a major shareholder, and Obiano was once an executive director before Obi made him governor of Anambra state in 2014.
While being cognizant of the blithe characters of both Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar based on recent scathing reports by Financial Times of London and Bloomberg news that alleged that they have been indicted for corruption in the USA; it is noteworthy that the frontline presidential candidates were never convicted of the crimes that they were alleged to have committed.
Nonetheless, there has been a lot of buzzes locally about their character flaws which frankly, can not be discountenanced.
But at the same time, we must recognize that no man is perfect.
Personally, if l am faced with the option of choosing between an economic illiterate who would do nothing to grow the economy because he is not trained to do so, and rather dissipates a lot of energy in chasing perceived corrupt people to no avail; or save up the income of government in bank accounts instead of investing it in employment and tax-generating ventures that would boost the GDP and living standard of Nigerians: l would choose the alternative which is an enterprising personality that would seek out all possible legitimate ways to improve the economy and also make our country a better place, prosperity wise and socioculturally for harmonious co-existence of the multiple ethnic and religious groups.
The mindset expressed above is underscored by the parable of the three talents in the Holy Bible? Those familiar with the parable would recall that the story is about three servants who were entrusted with talents (funds) by their master prior to embarking on a long trip. And the two who invested their talents wisely were commended by their master upon his return.
But the one who dug up the ground to hide his own talent, so that he would return the same to his master was chided and the talent was taken off him and given to those who invested the funds left in their care.
In the light of the above, if a personality with the ability and capacity to robustly grow the beleaguered economy of our beloved country has engaged in the risky venture of trying to stimulate growth via transactions and has in the process been accused of graft in the past, both here in Nigeria and abroad without conviction, so be it; because regardless of their past, so long as such candidates are not ex-convicts who the Nigerian constitution excludes from running for public office,l would choose the latter than the former.
As we all may be aware, by and large, the risk is an integral part of business or transactions and graft is always in the mix. Accordingly, the most efficacious panacea to graft is to set up robust institutions to prevent it.
Certainly, not of the hue of EFCC and ICPC, thank you very much.
Incorporating measures to eliminate corruption is akin to organizations, (particularly banking institutions) building firewalls around their databases to fend off cyber criminals that are constantly seeking ways to breach the security of corporations in order to gain access and steal vital data of targeted organizations.
So it behooves the legislature and judiciary to enact and enforce laws that would prevent corruption. That is what is obtainable in advanced democracies.
And l make bold to state that the position that l have espoused above would not be far from the mindset of private sector practitioners most of whom are already echoing such sentiment because it is in tandem with their belief that the economy should be unshackled especially by ending petrol subsidy.
We need not be rocket scientists to figure out that the reason for seeking a president that has a business attitude is that the better part of seven years of this administration invested in anti-corruption misadventure has pulled, not only the economy of our country into a black hole but the fabric of unity of our country has also been shredded to the extent that it would take a very long time to mend.
And that is not a good thing, no matter how spin doctors working for the government try to whitewash the dire atmosphere in our country which is basically comparable to the experience of a patient in an Intensive Care Unit, ICU of a hospital where life is so precarious that it is only a tiny thread separating life and death.
So, despite the false claim that our country is better off than what it was seven years ago, the majority of Nigerians recognize such revisionism as sheer farce and deceit of the electorate, as such they are resolved to effect change, if the current activism by our youths engaged in Permanent Voters Card, PVC registration and collection, is anything to go by.
Although somehow unorthodox, my nonnihilistic or liberal assessment of both Bola Tinubu and Atiku Abubakar as well as Peter Obi is guided by the truism and conventional wisdom, ‘ there is no paean without pain.
That broadly implies that sacrifices must be made in order to achieve success.
Buoyed by that reality,l am convinced that Nigerians are willing to vote for the candidate who would move the nation forward into the orbit of progress and prosperity than those that would lead them into a blind alley and quagmire where the ship of state is currently anchored and waiting too, at the slightest stress test, tip over or remain moored in a cul de sac where it is currently located, rudderless.
In that regard, and for sure, Tinubu, Abubakar, and Obi will receive caustic criticisms when emotions start running high as the campaigns begin on 28 September which is basically a couple of months from today.
But one thing we must recognize is that things are never as bad as they first seem or as good as they first seem.
So, after the anticipated hurly-burly, one of them would end up in Aso Rock Villa on 29 May 2023 and that person will be adept at reading and understanding profit and loss accounts a skill that is critically needed for the robust management of our country, especially at a point like this when it is on the verge of bankruptcy.
And l would like to urge skeptics who hold a contrary view to the assertion above, to recall the gale of criticisms that were visited on then-candidate, Mohammadu Buhari when he was a presidential candidate in 2015. Yet, he won the presidency, simply because there was a pervasive sanctimonious attitude of ‘anyone but Goodluck Jonathan’ prevailing in Nigeria at that point in time.
It is trite to state that a similar sentiment is currently prevailing in Nigeria’s political space, as Nigerians are craving a rebirth or reset in 2023.
Apart from the candidates of APC and PDP that are besmeared, Peter Obi, candidate of Labor Party, LP, who is a two-term governor of Anambra state also had corruption toga tied to his persona. That is if the huge cash running into hundreds of millions of naira (about N250m )allegedly found in a vehicle in the governor’s mansion Awka during his tenure is taken into account. And it is in addition to the alleged malfeasance arising from his patronage of offshore tax heaven that reportedly helped him hide some of his wealth that he failed to disclose, to avoid tax in Nigeria.
Similarly, the presidential candidate of the newly minted party, New Nigerian Peoples Party, NNPP Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, who is a two-term governor of Kano state, ex-defense minister, and senator of the federal republic of Nigeria has also at one time or the other been tarred with the black brush of malfeasance which was brought to the fore in the course of his duel with his predecessors and successors as governor of Kano state, Ibrahim Shekarau, and Abdulahi Ganduje.
But most of the candidates have gone to the law courts and shorn themselves of such moral liabilities.
My point is that unlike in 2015, anti-corruption will not be the centerpiece of any candidate’s campaign, since it has been demystified as campaign rhetoric that would resonate with voters. In any case, most of the candidates have shed the negative toga of corruption by discharging themselves of the allegations in courts of law.
In short, right now, there is fatigue in the fight against corruption because those who are supposed to be fighting it in the current dispensation have become more corrupt than those they are supposed to prevent from dipping their hands into our common treasury.
That is reflected by the allegations against Ibrahim Magu, the anti-graft tzar who was recently sacked as the EFCC chairman, and the immediate past Accountant General of The Federation, AGF, Ahmed Idris who got dismissed on account of bilking Nigeria of N80 billion naira diverted illegally from the treasury that he is supposed to be the custodian.
Also in the mix is Abdulrasheed Maina, the jailed chairman of the Pension Reform Task Team, PRTT with responsibility for reforming the corruption-ridden pension funds system and he ended up re-looting the multi-billion naira funds that he was assigned to recover.
Be it Omoyele Sowore, the presidential candidate of Africa Action Congress, AAC, Dumebi Kachikwu, candidate for the presidency on the platform of Africa Democratic Congress, ADC or Young Progressive Party, or YPP presidential candidate, Malik Ado-Ibrahim, all of whom are running on the platforms of fringe political parties, not one presidential candidate is a saint by any stretch of the imagination as they all also have scandals, not particularly of fraud or corruption dimensions, hugging them.
And from 28 September, all of them would probably be literally stripped naked simply because muck raking goes with the territory of politics.
As salvaging the economy and reining in insecurity are obviously the most pressing needs of Nigerians in these present times, projecting into the development mindset of the next occupant of Aso Rock Villa’s seat of power as president in 2023, l am pretty convinced that if there were to be a three-point agenda as a fulcrum or policy plank of the incoming government; one of them would be pulling our country out of economic doldrums which has seen government borrowing money from local banks to pay public servants salaries and utilizing about 98% of its income for debt servicing, and which by some accounts is in excess of ninety (90) billion dollars borrowed from local and international lenders.
Also, restoring the security of lives and properties by the government thus freeing the masses from the rule of bandits such as religious insurgents, herdsmen militias, and unknown gun men currently be-spoiling Nigeria from the north, all the way down to the eastern corners of Nigeria, as precious lives are being decimated with reckless abandon on a daily basis, would be the second in the agenda.
The third in the agenda would be to drastically cut down corruption which has become so entrenched in our political space and business environment that it is looking like it is embedded in our DNA and therefore part of our culture. Of course, that is a false narrative that must be erased from the psyche of Nigerians.
Now, PDP presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar had picked his running mate shortly after the primaries.
Although his choice of the delta state governor, Ifeanyi Okowa has been tempestuous, largely because the preferred candidate of PDP leadership and follower-ship appears to be governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, who although is the presidential aspirant that garnered the next highest vote after the winner; and a veritable pillar of support for the PDP in the past seven years; got passed over for appointment as Abubakar’s running mate. That anomaly has precipitated the rumble that has culminated in the ongoing resistance by southern governors and key stakeholders in the main opposition party which still persists to date.
And that glitch could slow down the otherwise fast-moving train that had gathered the momentum for PDP to return to Aso Rock Villa after its unceremonious exit in 2015.
PDP’s case is not as bad as that of the ruling party, APC where its candidate has taken more or less one month (8th June to 10th July) to pick a running mate.
Tinubu took long in choosing his running mate, Kashim Shetima, former Borno State governor and a fellow Muslim owing to the dilemma of being a southern Muslim who must nominate a running mate from the north, where incidentally, Muslims are in the majority.
With a Muslim-Muslim ticket, Tinubu and the ruling party have a monumental and Herculean task of convincing southern and northern Christians to vote for him as president in 2023. That standpoint is simply derived from the fact that Christians have long been feeling marginalized under President Buhari’s watch, which although had a Christian Vice President in the person of Yemi Osinbajo, yet suffered exclusion from governance. How much worse would it get, if no Christian would be at the table inside Aso Rock Villa’s seat of presidential power from 2023, they may wonder. Tinubu seemed to have been left with no better option. The devil or deep blue sea.
And it is the type of choice dilemma that Bukola Saraki could have been faced with if was to have won the presidential primaries in PDP.
Of all the major political parties, only the LP and its presidential candidate seem to have gotten the ethnic and religious balancing equation right.
That is simply because Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the party, a Christian from Anambra state has picked Datti Baba-Ahmed a Muslim from Kaduna state. It is such a perfect combination in the ethnoreligious calculus reminiscent of the Shehu Shagari and Alex Ekwueme combination in 1979 that it looks like a de-ja-vu.
Much as the pairing of President and Vice Presidential candidates of the labor party is an ideal combination,it is not really a critical factor, but it matters.
That is why a Muslim-Muslim ticket that Bola Tinubu has settled for is rubbing off roughly on members of the other faiths.
Applying the analogy of a game of gulf, the APC Presidential candidate, Tinubu’s dilemma can be likened to a player who has hit the ball and it has fallen into a stream in the golf course which is a major bogey; while Abubakar’s situation is like that of a player whose ball was struck with the club but it has landed in a bunker or bogey; just as LP’s candidate, Obi looks like a player that has made a powerful hit of the ball and it has landed out of the range of the hole, such that it is highly unlikely to be successfully potted into the hole in the number of times required by the rules of the game.
In conclusion, my take is that the PDP candidate, Atiku Abubakar has a better chance of potting the ball out of the bunker into the hole, if he is able to calm the brewing Wike storm swiftly and dexterously. PDP situation is still better than the circumstances in which APC candidate, Bola Tinubu finds himself. He is highly handicapped as his ball has landed in a stream and he will likely not be able to retrieve it.
That simply means that his presidential quest may be in jeopardy of being dead on arrival after choosing his running mate since a Muslim-Muslim ticket worked in 1993 when Moshood Abiola,a Muslim philanthropist from the southwest, like him, paired up with Babagana Kingibe, also a Muslim from Borno state to win the presidential contest in 1993 that is acclaimed to be the fairest and freest in the annals of Nigeria’s electioneering process.
Today, in light of the polarization of the country along ethnic and religious divides in the past decade or so, such a prospect now looks like an anathema in Nigeria where a stanza in the old national anthem “ … though tribe and tongue may differ, in brotherhood we stand … appear to be so quaint and such an anathema due to the elevated level of politics of religiosity and ethnicity that have engulfed the political space and obfuscated the brotherhood spirit of yore.
For the reasons above, APC and it’s Presidential torch bearer, Bola Tinubu have a perfect storm in their hands and Atiku Abubakar and PDP baring any more goofs or gaffes may be on the verge of singing joyfully into Aso Rock Villa.
Magnus Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, development strategist, an alumnus of Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA, and a former commissioner in Delta state government, sent this piece from Lagos.
To continue with this conversation, pls visit www.magnum.ng

Well alright. A few interesting personalities have emerged on the political scene, especially for the presidency. We are hoping that they don’t think this is another photo opportunity. Whoever is going to inherit this country from Buhari has inherited a dead pheasant (oku aparo). The Yorubas say whoever inherits such has inherited problems. So, you must really be headstrong to dare this. Every indicator on the national dashboard is showing crimson red. We are way overborrowed. We are not generating enough revenue and our people are averse to chipping in – not even our rich. We have nothing on the ground pointing to an elite consensus. Our currency is about to be further debauched. We relied so heavily and irresponsibly on borrowing our way out of trouble in the last many years.  Funders have developed cold feet towards Nigeria – even the Chinese. We may be stuck with dozens of white elephant projects. We have not developed internal capacity for anything whatsoever. Our poverty, unemployment, inflation, and illiteracy levels continue to rise. Terrorists stare down the country. so many crimes and insecurity everywhere.  We could call the last 10, 20 years two wasted decades. Nigeria faces the most difficult time in its history, no thanks to a totally ineffective, deluded, bumbling leadership that alienated the people and everybody else.

I fear that an unraveling may be around the corner. Nigeria is being pushed to deregulate all ‘deregulate’ not minding the trouble that may portend. If we should deregulate petroleum and prices rise to say N900 per litre, inflation will easily hit 200% and we will be faced with a Weimar Germany post-World War 1 situation. This means that many more millions of our people will go really hungry, and crimes will rise further, as even people with jobs may no longer be able to even feed with their salaries. Companies will close down and turn able-bodied men and women on the streets. All we need is one more stupid decision. All we need is to delay a very urgently-needed elite consensus by which the Nigerian rich invests their wealth in this country by paying their fair share of taxes and other dues to save the soul of this country. All we need is for us to continue for a little longer along our corrupt, wasteful, careless, greedy, immature, insane little ways by which we loot our nation dead. We are almost there and what we see everywhere is hypocrisy and cynicism. One on hand is those who wish that the nation collapses because they are imbued with some superiority complex about their tribe or clan, or they think they have a smart plan, with enough stashed somewhere. But the best-laid plans do go awfully wrong often. In his book; ‘Surviving the Peace’, Cyprian Ekwensi reported his many got wasted after the Nigerian civil war in the hands of crazed former soldiers who still retained their weapons.

For now, what we hear from many of our presidential contests – especially those who are coming from the outside – is the litany of woes. The idea is just to point fingers and farm out the blame. This is grossly irresponsible at that level. Note that people often become victims of the trouble they whip up. Many of the presidential candidates are building tigers in whose bellies they may end up. Whereas we may not be able to avoid defining the problems that Nigeria faces, it is cheap to only dwell on our woes while seeking votes. You must answer the question of exactly how we got to this point. And you must engage your imagination clearly as to how we get ahead. Some people have said candidates may keep their strategies until they become president – may be so that others do not steal them. That will be very unpatriotic and counterproductive. If you have the ideas, put it out there. In my time, I was neither shy, not afraid, not parsimonious with my ideas. I dumped them all in the open and I can report that a few of them were taken. I recall meeting the DG, Budget, Ben Akabueze at the airport one of these days and I was surprised he knew me by name. He said he reads me, and I wasn’t surprised to see that he started talking about how small our federal budgets are. The CBN governor does read a few of my articles and I saw that the bank took the palm oil sector very seriously. Even the Lagos State Governor, Sanwoolu, not too long ago, mandated engineering students of LASU, UNILAG, and others to embed with the builders of the Lagos Metro. Maybe these guys just thought about these on their own, but there are also chances that the ideas germinated from some of my humble interventions.

We want to know the how. How do we move ahead?  How do we save ourselves?  In engaging that subject, the leader must think hard and engage his team. If they cannot find a logical way through, they are better off dropping their ambition, otherwise, even if they win, they will be consumed in the smoldering hell that will come. Suggested solutions to Nigeria’s problems must be well-rooted, broad-based, realistic, and show where everybody plays a role. For example, thinking you can borrow some more from IMF or World Bank is no solution. Chasing so-called foreign investors is no solution too. Privatizing all privatize is no solution. Continuing with the already overused small and medium-scale business (SMEs) strategy which has not been delivered, is not a solution too. We must understand that our problems will not take easy, pedestrian solutions anymore. They just won’t work. Presidential candidates can no longer just come and mouth off platitudes. We know which one has good intentions by their promises. Some just want to be president to add to their CVs, but we need thinkers; philosopher kings.

And the trick is in how that leader understands how we got here. We didn’t get here in the 7 awful and foolish years of Buhari – a man who conned the whole of Nigeria but only came to relax and travel. It is bad. But let us not put that forward as a tribal issue. It is a Buhari issue. Something may have happened to him when he became ill or immediately after he won the elections, that made his brain freeze up. The next leader must be very careful of this. Nigeria cannot afford another Buhari. For those who think it’s about age, they are mistaken. Yar’Adua was in his mid-50s and had good, great intentions for this country. What happened to him? Do you think you can explain his demise away based on media reports? He was sick before? You are a medical doctor and you have thoroughly analyzed his medical history? Again, our inattention has been used against us and we are not attempting to free our minds.

In analyzing why we got here, we will see the leader with a small or large mind and who understands responsibility. A responsible leader who will make a change will acknowledge his own part in what became of Nigeria, not just reel out the laundry list of woes to young people such as to make them angry and prepare them for the next round of destruction of the infrastructure of which we are lacking. Imagine an importer-billionaire who says we are a consuming nation performing below Morocco and Egypt after he has made his billions from imports? Imagine a PDP candidate saying only APC caused Nigeria’s near-demise? Imagine an APC candidate still pointing to PDP’s so-called locust years? Imagine a former military man absolving his constituency? Or a civilian trying to dump it all on the military? It will not even be tenable to a younger person to say the old people failed. Did all the old people fail? Is such a statement not devoid of a proper understanding of history? Does anybody know that one in three Nigerian presidents has died in office? 33%. That is scary. What kind of leader was Tafawa Balewa, Murtala Muhammed, Umaru Ya’Adua, and Ironsi? Were they not patriots? So, what we need is an understanding of complexity. There are no textbooks to read to know how to successfully run this country.

A thorough understanding of history and social psychology is needed from Nigeria’s next leader and we will know from the campaigns. This understanding will transcend Nigeria and be conversant about how other nations have evolved. There must be no attempt to confuse Nigerians by making you and your own side look good only. Like the great Sarduana of Sokoto was reported to have told the great Zik of Africa, ‘the idea is not to forget our differences, but to understand them’. Diversity management and indeed diversity cultivation is the reason why the USA sits on top of the world today. We could almost say that a nation that discourages diversity as we are set to do – will evolve suboptimally. We must therefore embrace diversity and understand that we have gone too far in our quest for homogeneity – of tribe and religion – in our definition of proper nationhood. I admit it is difficult just to ‘understand’ our differences and then sit on hands to see what happens next. There are established international standards to which we must adhere. Nowhere is it admissible, before man and God, on God’s earth, to breed children without a plan for them to be responsible citizens. Nowhere is it progressive to just have an overdose of religiosity that robs people of their money and their minds and/or precludes them from adding their productivity to the nation.

We hope to see a president – and indeed presidential candidates – that doesn’t bore or scare us to death about our many cringeworthy woes (including the fact that we are the most despised country on earth with the worst reputation for political corruption, fraud, and yahoo-yahoo, prostitution, drug trafficking, and other sundry crimes for which we are known, not only in Nigeria but in every rough high street almost the world over. We want the leader to also paint a vivid great future for us – a future of high, contributory productivity, collective sacrifice, total public and indeed private accountability, and responsibility to our unborn children from whom we borrowed this patch of earth and the resources within. We want a leader that can energize us about the potential that we have as dignified people. Someone who will redefine this space away from mediocrity. Any leader that tries to absolve him/herself has only started out on the deceptive path and will never depart from it. Our issues are complex, many times self-inflicted, sometimes foreign-imposed. The old people contributed because they didn’t rein in their excesses on time. They basked for too long in the non-existent euphoria that they had arrived. They wasted many resources on awarding scholarships, free houses and cars, and all that to themselves. If they had a long-term vision they would have been modest. Some of them also fell under ideological influences in the Cold War era. The middle-aged (like myself), contributed to it with our foreign orientation about everything – in the food we eat, the clothes we wear, and what we respect. We also neglected politics to charlatans for too long.

And the young have contributed to the vices and crimes that some of them have committed at home and all over the world. The bad reputation unfortunately hurts them more than any other demographic. There are many beneficial sites about progress for the youths, where Nigerian Internet addresses have been permanently blocked, many trade websites where Nigerians are not included, and many countries where Nigerians are almost totally excluded. Thousands of Nigerians in hundreds in jails everywhere in the world. We have the worst reputation of any nation on earth. It is not enough to complain about how the old folks have not been provided jobs. What about youth impatience? What about normal youths sent to schools here who believe that the best idea is to join violent cults? What about those who are simply just wicked, stupid, or ignorant?  All of us must own our bit of the wreckage called Nigeria. We must stop this race to the bottom, whereby every opportunity – including campaign seasons – is used to bring us down further into the abyss. We must find upsides to this problem and see just how beautiful, prosperous, full of opportunities, blessed, and with great potential for growth, this land is. Otherwise, at this rate, one day soon, and as I’ve always said, people who are smarter than us will one day chase us out of here and take over our land.

The next leader must be a unifier, someone who is able to inspire and bring people together from different walks and persuasions. He/she must be a visioner, who can imagine how we can dig ourselves out of debilitating deficits and create wealth, and create positives, not merely someone with an internal control perspective. We do need to block leakages and deal indeed ruthlessly with violators whomever they may be. But I believe the biggest investment and where the leadership test is to imagine the upside. We may only begin to rise in 2023, or we perish.

Nigerians like to quote Lee Kuan Yew and the successes of Singapore ad nauseum. No seminar or campaign speech is complete with quotes from the gentleman. Every Nigerian loves to brag about having read his fat book, From Third World to First. And the more cerebral ones will tell of his references to Nigeria in 1961 as a nation that was unlikely to head anywhere due to the choices we made – especially waste and corruption. Kuan Yew also spoke about Ghana and the fact that many of those who went to Europe from Black Africa in those days studied things like Classics or the History of colonialists. Mr. Yew felt we should have been more spot on in studying, AND PRACTISING subjects that would hasten our development. And he was not very popular in his time. He was at best a benevolent dictator. He held Singapore in a vice grip until they ‘received sense’ as we say here. He had a vision and rallied – even clobbered his people to sign on or ‘bugger off’. Some of his kinsmen reported him to the Western countries, but for some reasons, he wasn’t engineered out as some like him were. Yew was on the streets showing examples of how clean he wanted his tiny nation to be. Singapore, the small fishing village that was excised from Malaysia, was derided as a society that could never make it. Eventually, through this focused, unrelenting leadership, one man showed the way, with help from a very small team of patriots.

General Hsieng Park down the road in South Korea, came along a little later through a military couple, but no less a strong vision. I understand that once he seized power, he first hauled many of Korea’s business moguls into jail for a few weeks, just so they know who’s the boss. Upon their release, he commandeered these entrepreneurs to go find what makes the western countries tick and ensure that their companies grew and could compete. He found the odd idea called crony capitalism, by which a few of these same entrepreneurs were supported by the Korean state and even diplomatically pushed abroad. They are called the Chaebols. That is how LG, Daewoo, Hyundai, Samsung, Kia, Ssanyong and others were born. He would later be overthrown and hauled into jail himself. Many say he was not a good man; he was a control freak. But South Korea should thank their stars that someone like that came along for them; for they would have remains a raw rice exporting nation. Their economy, which was at par with ours in 1960, would have just been like ours today, not 15 times richer ($2,100 per capita income in Nigeria versus $31,000 in S. Korea).

I have never been to South Korea before, but Singapore I have. Upfront, I didn’t like their food. It was too watery. So, one day I decided to hustle to some Nigerian restaurant I was told was around the corner. I missed my way and got lost. For some reason, my enemies followed me to Singapore and though I had heard that Lee Kuan Yew, who died in 2010 hated and banned chewing gum, I took some gum to Singapore and decided to pop one to keep my breath fresh after waiting to catch a cab back to my hotel. I noticed that the taxis shied away from picking up black men and when I eventually found one, after a minute he turned to look at me and asked ‘you wearing mint cologne’? I stopped chewing immediately after the question. I know that he was entitled to drive me to a police station for chewing gum. Prime Minister Lee got involved very deeply even in personal issues about how Singaporeans should conduct themselves. He was very clear about how they should look, the professions they should get into majorly that could help their society and economy, how they should dress, speak to their neighbors, treat public property, and spend their times productively. The Singapore Metro which I entered in 2013 was spick and span even though it had been launched decades earlier. No graffiti or scratching the cabins, like in EuroAmerica. Like the Dubai Metro, there was no eating or drinking on the metro. Absolutely no stupidity or yobbery or placing your shoes on the chair. No nonsense.

But in Nigeria – a country which was noticed not to be heading anywhere in 1961 and which has rather gone into reverse by 2022 – even those who quote Lee Kuan Yew are not ready for the hard work, focus, sacrifice, perseverance, focus, productivity, cooperation, moderation, vision, self-control, patriotism, nationalism, courage that is required to get the heart of Nigeria to start beating again. Let’s even forget about excelling for now. Nigeria lay prostrate and trampled by all of us and all we want to do is point fingers. Nigeria’s situation is all of our work. Leaders, politicians and civil servants wantonly, recklessly, and carelessly load every contract because they have been inflicted with insanity that turns the process of public management into a huge joke. People manning our airports and seaports and land borders believe their roles are to extract money from every foreigner and local alike to build their cursed stack with which they build ugly houses. I recently learnt of a dead ‘permsec’ whose children found over N1billion f caked up bad money in his room.  He just kept stashing what he could never spend. Those who are not in position to steal – according to a theory by Pini Jason – increase the din of their complaint in proportion with how far away they are from the stealing. Give them an opportunity and absolutely will change. Why? Because psychology is the same. It is the same Nigerians we are talking about – desperate, vain, unpatriotic, tribal, religiously bigoted, short-sighted, of below-average Intelligent Quotient in the comity of nations, and most likely of zero emotional intelligence. No apologies.

And so, we line up daily struggling hard to destroy our nation. People from other countries are looking at us in disbelief as we destroy a perfect country. Because we don’t read any history – ours and others – we carry around in our oversized cranium, fantastic stories which are so utopian it is laughable. No matter how many times we are reminded that every… I mean EVERY nation on earth was formed by internal or external conquerors or manipulators, we just don’t wanna hear. We repeat so often that something is wrong with this nation, that it is now obvious to all that it is WE that have something wrong with us. Our youths daily do everything to wreck the country through their many actions and what they put out on social media which their peers in other countries read. They don’t know that they put themselves down and lose respect and business in a globalized world. There are many platforms where Nigerians have been banned, where Nigerian IPs (Internet Protocols), have been permanently blocked. Many nations where we have bee n excluded for visas.  It is beyond sad. But what can I do but to write and lament about this? My heart bleeds. I weep inside me at the situation we have found ourselves. I blame leaders, but I remember that today’s leaders were just followers yesterday. And we don’t have enough patience and intelligence to navigate this problem. Everything points to a time of great conflict coming right up ahead. The economic depression that will soon hit us will throw the whole nation out of kilter. But we must know that only cowards, lazy bums, unthinking fools choose the path of violence rather than sensibility. Those who will sell ammunitions to us are right around the corner.

I should have known. When Buhari clocked 100 days in office, I had cause to take issue with one article written by his media adviser, Garba Shehu, in which he extoled his boss, and very foolishly said his Buhari was better than Lee Kuan Yew and Narendra Modi PUT TOGETHER. It was the age of foolishness and unfounded cockiness. I don’t think the Buhari government spent one day without taking very foolish decisions. Look at us today, dear Nigerians?

These issues were on my mind when I ran into a Facebook posting of Femi Otedola’s first daughter, DJ Cuppy, traipsing cheaply in one carnival where she DJ’ed in the UK. I knew she announced several years ago that she was a DJ by profession. I had really never seen her do her DJ thing, but when I saw what it was all about, I was sincerely disgusted. I commented that well, she may continue doing what she liked, but she needs to get another – or perhaps an additional – job. I hate to see waste. I hate to see laziness where there could be great productivity. I am always busy myself, writing articles for four newspapers every week, while running my 4 or 5 organizations, running about everywhere to get the accounts to balance. I’m not successful in all instances, but by God, I give things a great shot. I saw Cuppy like my own daughter and my comment was sincere advice. Not all of us will do hard work, but A LOT MORE OF US NIGERIANS should be doing serious, visible, productive and hard work where we can find one. And people should consider taking on more than one vocation because we need to move this country forward and grow in double digits just to save ourselves from impending perdition. It will sound hollow on the day that trouble comes, for youths to say well, the older folks killed the country. We all have a chance to save the nation by our daily, hourly contributions. All great nations have evolved in this manner. Many of our folks who traveled abroad are combining two or three jobs because there’s no space for idleness or what some call ‘smart work’ here. I recently attended a seminar where young Nigerians talk about the age of ‘networking’ where people make billions without producing or anything. I looked in pity as hundreds of hungry-looking Nigerians were regaled with how some small boy in America was richer than Dangote who produced so many things. I swore if I ever get into government I must find ways of harvesting these millions of minds away from those who are confusing them daily. Here we are, training our upper-class children with hard-to-find dollars only to watch them fart around with their lives. It cannot be sensible, or fair. Many of the children of our top and most intelligent people are pining away in non-productivity in a world where people have gained so much unbelievable capacity.

My advice to Cuppy remains. She should please work harder on herself. Get fitter. Don’t go in a direction from which you’ll find it hard to retrieve yourself one day in the future. The DJ business is also very tricky as you have to be a nightcrawler, and always be around funny characters. Drugs, alcohol and sex are standard fare. I believe she is strong enough but even the strongest do slip and fall. Best to avoid a constant barrage of temptations. Should I apologize ahead to those who may not agree? And by the way, it is not about who makes money. It’s about value-add and genuine impact on their nation.

A NATION IN NEED OF MODERN-DAY PHILOSOPHERS

People like Kuan Yew, General Park, our own Awolowo, Zik, Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa, including a few all-time greats like Fela Kuti, were philosophers in their time. Philosophers get involved in shaping society based on principles. The world has made all these advances because of the roles of philosophers. Imagine all the things we enjoy today, products of innovation and deep thinking. They exist because philosophers insisted that it was important to dare the odds, to dare nature and push boundaries. If we think we will continue to enjoy all those things without contributing our quota and getting serious, we will continue to suffer, and our children unborn will suffer too, in fact unto our own destruction and extinction. This is not about God forbid! It is what it is. We are not showing that we understand how the world works at all. We probably believe that we can chance our ways through. We will be punished even more than we have been punished already. And we will continue to be profiled as people who cannot do anything else but run, dance, sing, party and enjoy.

Are we really here to be entertainers to the world? Musicians? Dancers? Comedians? Entertainers? Event planners? Owambe organizers? The jolly people of the world who do not produce the shirts on their backs or even the FOOD that they eat? When will anybody ever take us serious abroad when all we show prowess in are these naturally-occurring phenomena? Even the sports that we used to do well, we dropped off the radar due to idiotic corruption and an inability to do anything right for any period of time. And the entertainment that we say we are good at, very little, if anything, of the proceeds come back to our country. the remain abroad. One musician said recently that he doesn’t care if Nigeria is destroyed because he owns two houses in America. He forgets that if he lived in America he will be looked down upon, he and his assets. Nigeria – our country – is the only place where we can contribute to current affairs and be regarded as something from whichever slum we live in’; where our voices are taken serious. We are kings and queens here but we are trying to wreck our palace.

We have to be worried that we are not producing much in tangible terms. We import our food, our technology and every machine from abroad. We are even unsearchable in terms of serious intellectual contributions. We have loads of Ph.D holders but most of them cannot be referenced on any subject. What I think we should be doing is work, work, work… for our unborn children. There is a time for hard, back-breaking, unrelenting work. This is the time for us.  We need to be planting the trees under which shade our children will bask. We cannot sing and dance and joke our ways to greatness. If Lee Kuan Yew was a Nigerian, I’m sure this is what he will teach us. It’s blindingly obvious. And he will break a few heads while at it. We need a national ethos of productivity and a sense of urgency. We are merely drifting as it is. The western world says their own problem is same sex marriage and transsexualism and we too carry the same issue on our head like pure water hawkers. Can’t we think for ourselves? How come we cannot define our own priorities? What sort of underdeveloped brains do we parade around? And when it comes to showing off with things we cannot produce, we are upfront there, buying, acquiring, stocking, wasting, showing off, while the world laughs at us.

The very scary thing is that the rest of the world continues to power on in innovation and productivity – in ways we cannot imagine as they don’t show us everything. They almost pulled the rug off our feet and rendered us totally stranded around that Covid-19 era. If that disease had caught on here, they wouldn’t have cared if all of us died in piles upon ourselves. They will just come here and stack us into mass graves and take over the super-fertile land, while our corpses add even more manure.

There is a war going on out there – a war of productivity and economic sustainability. And what we have as our army, is weak. Too weak.

I think we should spend a moment to think hard about the choices we face as a society lest we drift into Hades. The last 13 years have been about drift. The last 7 have been a great disappointment and let-down. We have no slack again at all.  Our leaders should develop some grit and live by example. There is a video of his circulating on social media presently where Lee Kuan Yew said if they didn’t make some decisions that bordered on people’s personal choices, they wouldn’t have achieved anything. We must be bothered with personal choices which aggregate to national choices if we must save ourselves.  This is a memo to the next Nigerian government.

Weeks after the All Progressives Congress (APC) won the elections in 2015 and amid all the euphoria of the times, the party organized the first and only economic summit at the Hilton Hotel, Abuja. As a supporter of General Buhari, I attended. I noticed that there were many professors of Nigerian descent invited from abroad. The atmosphere was optimistic. We thought we had finally got it right. But many of the professors, as well as the captains of industry who were invited only, came to lament the scarcity of funds for economic development. A lot of the professors also came up with dating ideas, and I recall, in one of the breakout sessions, former Minister Bolaji Abdullahi having a hard time convincing them that basic education was a better investment than university education, with the scarcity of funds earlier alluded to. Someone like me was rather out of place there, because the conveners already had their famous and favorite intellectuals to call on. I recall trying to get the attention of Governor Fayemi on a personal basis and being brusquely brushed off by him too. In that season, I made friends with Okoi Obono Obla and Senator Olorunnimbe Mamora.

But it was in the last plenary I attended that I got the inkling that we may have missed it again. It was question and answer time, and try as I may, I was not called. But a white lady almost in front of me was recognized to be speaking. She got up and said, “I’ve heard many people say that you do not have financing for your projects.” I’ve been to many countries in my time. Nigeria is the only country where you don’t get charged for over-speeding. How then do you intend to get finance for your budgets? ” As a professional, she sat down after this short and direct question. She looked like a diplomat of sorts. But the organizers totally ignored this question, much to my dismay, and moved on to another question. The average Nigerian has no time for small fry like overspeeding tickets. Chances are that the lady was equally disappointed. But for me that day, that was it. After about 10 minutes, I got up and left. I lived in London, and I know how things work. I also understand the power of aggregating, from a large number of people, small fines, fees, duties, rates, rents, levies, and taxes. I know that you may not succeed as a government if you ignore what you think are the little things. Of course, the Buhari administration is closing in as one of the worst in our history. Not only have we seen two recessions in 7 years, there is a chance we will see another one within the next few months, making it a record 3 under the same administration. Put that down to bad luck, but we also lost whatever was left of our societal discipline, and too many of our people have become belligerent and destructive. And we are stuck with one of the lowest government revenue to GDP ratios in the entire world.

One unspoken reason behind our low revenue compliance and capability problems is that our elites are not yet ready to reach a consensus to use their wealth to reboot this economy. I recall the Vice President some months back, before the election frenzy, speaking about elite consensus. But he never followed up. At his 2019 colloquium, Asiwaju Tinubu also emphasized the need to be more aggressive in getting government revenue up. He even offered himself as a sacrificial lamb by saying if he was not paying enough taxes he should be approached. I have noticed, however, that our finance ministers would rather not rock the boat, and our tax collectors are such that they don’t understand just how dedicated to their jobs they should be. Some of them always take sides with taxpayers, helping to rationalize why people shouldn’t pay taxes. When an IRS man begins to say things like, “Hey, you know, they bought their own generator and did their roads,” you know you have a problem. A tax collector must have a single-minded approach to his job and only rationalize at the highest level. A trainee tax collector should do his job strictly, not assume the position of adjudicator for us taxpayers. A culture of tax and other revenue compliance must be achieved in Nigeria if we are to make progress. And hey, I am less particular about taxes than I am about other areas of government revenue, such as:

1. Duties
2. Rates
3. Rents
4. Levies
5. Fines
6. Fees

Among others.

Back to the lady’s question: Why do we not collect fines for overspeeding in Nigeria? It is just because we refuse to be organized. We are also uncontrollable. And any society that is uncontrollable, where everyone and anyone does things the way they like, will never make real progress. Our uncontrollability is the reason why people now see Nigeria as a pariah nation—a place to be avoided. Not only have foreigners stopped coming here, they are also sealing us out of their country. They are only interested in our best brains, whom they hope to be able to reform. They have given up on us organizing ourselves, and even we have since given up. With EndSARS and other recent upheavals, our people have become even more uncontrollable. A lot of Nigerians would rather make a big scene and cause trouble if they are asked to pay a fine for overspeeding. They will put it on Instagram live and attempt to ridicule the law enforcers. Law enforcers too will rather just collect a small bribe and let the culprit go – money that should go to the state for, well, executing the budget. And then our professors will come to summits such as the APCs and lament how we don’t have the money to execute their brilliant ideas. Our government will also give up on getting organic revenues up and choose to borrow instead. Now we are in deep trouble, as we owe very close to $100 billion. In 2006, when we were in debt and begging forgiveness from the Paris and London clubs, we owed only $35 billion. The Buhari administration alone has contracted almost $50 billion in new loans, plus the devaluation of the currency effect. The Jonathan government, with Mrs. Okonjo-Iweala as a coordinating minister, left our loans at $53 billion.

Perhaps a more serious and intractable issue facing us in this regard is that we have too many “big men” who run for free. There isn’t anyone born of a woman in Nigeria who can stop the Nigerian big man and ask him to pay for overspeeding or for running traffic lights. Yet, these guys are the biggest culprits. They just don’t give a toss about things like this. They are also the ones driving motorcades of many luxury cars, paid for by the taxpayer. Yes, the poor, disappearing, unfortunate taxpayer.

Another administration approaches

If we are not careful, the next administration, if it is populated by the usual mindset, will also complain about having no money to finance its otherwise lofty ideas. Already, I’ve heard many people – a lot of the young folks – wondering where the funds will come from to run some of the ambitious projects of say, President Tinubu. I haven’t heard very ambitious ideas from the rest, who are basically trying to shrink public goods and pursue market-determined prices for everything. And so, I was just thinking about this issue the other day and decided to explore just one item; vehicle taxes, or road taxes, or car taxes; call it whatever you wish.

I discovered that Pakistan had recently doubled the car tax on any car beyond 1600cc horsepower, and tried to look at the revenue implications of a similar tax in Nigeria (even if collected at the state and local government level). Let’s start small. Assume an N10,000 annual car tax on small cars. There are about 15 million cars in Nigeria, but we use more SUVs than many countries around the world if not all. So, let’s say 50% are small. 7.5 million small cars multiplied by N10,000 equals N75 billion.7.5 million large cars at N30,000 each = N225 billion. This is the yearly potential collection on this tax line alone. We could start very small and scale later. And if the government can show integrity, fidelity, and example, this country can be transformed and GDP can grow in double digits. We are coming from a negative position anyway. I believe that we can transform this country without this reckless borrowing that mortgages our unborn children.

The world is changing rapidly. Nigeria has only been left behind because of the attitude of the people—leaders and leaders. We have a tendency to believe that development will fall into our laps, or that God will ignore other people in order to help us. Sometimes, we also believe we can borrow our way out of underdevelopment or that the white man will gift us technology. It is that simple. We act like people with simple minds, make all the wrong assumptions, and complain later. Development is hard. Development is difficult. Development is long-term and requires pain, planning, and perseverance.

I recall the day I paid 1,600 Dirhams in Dubai for overspeeding. Some eight years ago, Dubai, which had transformed its economy away from crude oil and into tourism, also got smart and installed speed cameras everywhere. One day, on my way from Al Ain, I was just ‘blowing my speed’ normally, doing a modest 120kmph, not knowing they had dropped the speed limit to 80kmph in some areas. What I paid that day alone is equivalent to N250,000 today. And that was not the only time that I was caught by the speed camera in Dubai, even in Umm Al Quwain. Nigerians are in Dubai, paying this every day. However, the purpose of this type of tax is not only to raise funds for the government but also to maintain social order. Abuja, our Federal Capital, is today the most unruly, most undisciplined, and, of course, the most corrupt city-state in Nigeria. Nobody has respect for traffic lights, not even the good old local taxis (they just don’t care anymore). On a few occasions, traffic police make brisk business for their own pockets. Of course, if we cannot make Abuja sane, there is no hope for anywhere else. Shame on the Buhari government, but things must change.

It is the seriousness around tax collection that makes South Africa’s budget 7 times our budget in dollar terms for her people, while we can only budget peanuts. The SARS (South Africa Revenue Service) gets at least R1.54 trillion every year. In Nigerian Naira, multiply by 26 to get N40 trillion Naira. Our entire federal budget is a mere N17 trillion, despite all the push from folks like me who have insisted that we budget higher for our people. At the current level, our per capita budget is a mere $200 per person, while SA’s is as high as $3,000 per person. In Europe and the USA, this number is around $25,000 on average. Why would any other country then have respect for us? We are not taking ourselves seriously and we have consistently allowed funds that are due to the government to flow instead into the pockets of individuals and gangs. This must change. Even tax havens like the Arab countries have embraced change. Whereas parts of Nigeria (particularly the north and east) are very resistant to taxation, even the Arab countries have introduced VAT at 5% (2017 in Dubai and 2018 in Saudi Arabia). Taxation in the new age is good unless you want to enter a serious economic crisis.

The challenge for our government is how to show fidelity to the people. How do we show that the government is not merely collecting from people to spend freely on their fancies? I believe this can be done. This was done in Lagos, under Governor Fashola. Signposts littered Lagos, showing what taxes were used for and encouraging residents to pay more. People found themselves complying more. This must be done nationally. And why not? We are now in serious trouble and a crisis, using 95% of our meager revenue to service interest on our $100 billion debt. Our Federal Inland Revenue Service now collects close to N7 trillion as against the N40 trillion collected by SARS of South Africa. We cannot continue like this. Certainly not. Nigerians should rally around to save their country and invoke the wrath of Hades on that public servant who wishes to usurp their sweat.

The Nigerian economy is currently structured on an unfair status quo model where elites protect their big privileges while the poor get the crumbs. This decades-old elitist model is now emitting signs of collapse, hit by repeated economic crises after short booms.

The case of Sri Lanka shows that global turmoil that cuts our low remittances and export base may trigger a currency and, thus, an economic collapse. That may be very chaotic for a 200 million-plus oil and gas producing nation facing extremism, internal threats, ethnic strife, and religious intolerance.

Nigeria needs a new economic model that ends our perennial issues of low growth, twin deficits, and inequity. The main state models are East Asian (export-led), Scandinavian (welfare), American (large domestic economy), Gulf states (natural resources), Caribbean (tax havens), North Korean (reclusive), and some criminal states. The last four are not possible or desirable. But by linking parts of the first three, we may devise an innovative ‘poor-led progress’ model.

Many of our development economists now support pro-poor or inclusive growth as poverty harms not only the poor but also national progress via conflict and small economic size. But going beyond such models, the proposed “poor-led progress” model sees investing in the poor not just as an ethical or anti-conflict concern but actually as the main driver of national progress and prosperity. Undeniably, there are some liberal-minded Nigerian economists who may oppose policies that penalize the rich and cause capital flight. But with the “poor-led progress” model, Nigeria may be able to reduce poverty and inequality, thereby igniting win-win growth that also benefits the rich.

Our internal market is small, despite a large population, given the low incomes of the majority. Increasing citizens’ incomes expand the market size and profits for producers and attracts investments. This in turn expands jobs and incomes for the poor and ignites a virtuous cycle of national progress and prosperity. The poor spend more on local goods than the rich, benefiting local producers and the external account. So, investing in the poor, largely seen as a moral aim, can actually be the main national growth engine under trickle-up economics that puts those at the bottom at the top.

The proposed “poor-led progress” economic model is guided by a seven-step approach (COMPASS) that goes beyond giving out only cash handouts, such as trader moni and other unsustainable cash transfer schemes.

One, governments at all levels must, with a sense of urgency, expand the poor’s ownership of assets. This includes land reforms, key to East Asian progress. Two, governments, in collaboration or partnership with financial institutions, must also design innovative means with which to expand easy credit for the poor. Three, the government, in partnership with private sector players, must also expand the access of the poor to appropriate skills and technology. Four, the government—at all levels—must ensure the rule of law to protect citizens from economic and physical abuse, e.g., evictions, false cases, and labor abuse. Five: Locally devolved quality education, health, and other social services for the poor must be expanded. Sixth, governments must support community-based organizations that mobilize, connect, and advocate for the poor. Seven, increasing the bargaining power of the poor in markets is key. Minorities, women, and people in far-flung (rural or semi-urban) areas must be prioritized. All this may require the Nigerian state to invest a trillion-plus naira yearly in the poor, which it can do by increasing agriculture, property, retail, transport, and wealth taxes; and cutting state enterprise losses, elite subsidies, and defense outlays, and tax evasion.

The proposed “poor-led progress” economic model, if adopted, will give our economic growth, fiscal balance, and equity. But the external deficit will still be a challenge. Thus, expanding exports through special economic zones but also, where possible, by supporting small and medium export units of non-elites will be key. Leftists often advocate the delinking of poor states from the global economy to avoid its vagaries. That has failed, as in North Korea. But strategic, selective delinking in three key areas that expose them most to such vagaries and external deficits may help food, fuel, and finance.

It means more food self-reliance by increasing agricultural output via small-/medium-sized farms; more fuel self-reliance via wind, solar, micro-hydel units, fuel-saving, etc.; and light curbs on hot money inflow. All this is especially doable for us, but only if the Nigerian state builds a mostly missing unified progress strategy that ties fiscal (tax and outlays), industrial, labour, social, gender, trade, environment, debt, and investment policies cohesively to achieve these aims and escape the IMF and World Bank’s clutches forever.

The proposed “poor-led progress” model needs a new social compact and bargain among the strong and weak that alone can bring peace and progress in today’s Nigeria. Despite the value the model may bring forth, some rich and very powerful elites may oppose it, as it is not just reform, but societal restructuring. Political action by activists, at the risk of getting intimidated, will be key to mobilizing Nigerian citizens and confronting such interests, especially those who have made us an insecure state and are all-in-one security, landed, real estate, and corporate super elites.

Following the sack of Walter Onoghen as Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, in 2019 and particularly in the twilight of the first term of the outgoing administration, under circumstances that are still befuddling to the uninitiated, the judiciary began convulsing. And it appears to have remained in the sick bay thereafter.

In his first public statement after his ouster, the immediate past CJN said the following during a book launch in 2021: “Prior to my suspension, I was confronted with no allegation. There were rumours that I met with Atiku in Dubai. As I am talking here today, I have never met Atiku one-on-one in my life.

As if that was not enough, I was also accused of setting free high-profile criminals, whereas I ceased to be a High Court Judge as far back as 1978.

“In the Supreme Court, I did not sit alone. We sat on a panel. In all these rumours and outright accusations, I was not given the opportunity to defend myself.

Let me make it clear that the office of the CJN was not for Onnoghen but for all Nigerians who had sworn to guide and protect the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

“To say the least, the period of my ordeal was the darkest era in the history of the Nigerian judiciary.”

Perhaps, as a fallout of the cold treatment meted to ex-CJN Onoghen, the Supreme Court, which is the apex judiciary institution in our country, appears to have been struck by a debilitating disease that is manifesting the symptoms of cancer.

And it might as well be a cancerous infection as being suspected because that strange disease that has infected the system since 2019 seems not to be responding positively to treatment. 

Instead, the infirmity, which by all intents and purposes is self-inflicted, appears to have metastasized. Hence, it has not only degenerated into an open revolt of fourteen (14) justices against the current Chief Justice of Nigeria, CJN, Tanko Mohammad, via a petition letter written to him and leaked to the public about the deplorable welfare condition of the senior members of the Judiciary who are supposed to be crème de la crème and thus entitled to premium privileges, but they are getting a raw deal via denial of most of the perks and appurtenances to which they are entitled. 

It is not only in the dirty internal fight which has spilled into the streets that the rot in the judiciary is manifesting. But the toxic state of affairs in the third arm of government has also taken a dramatic turn in the literary and common sense of the word. 

While the dust was yet to settle on the blithe created by the spat between the justices in the apex court, a parody of the recent Supreme Court judgement legalizing the wearing of hijab by Muslims to school and as they deem fit, a human rights lawyer, Malcom Omoirhobo, whose religious faith is African traditional worship, appeared in the hallowed chambers of the apex court decked out in Oluokun worshippers’ attire akin to a native doctor’s costume. 

It is needless to state that turning up in court in such an outlandish outfit did not only cause a stir, but it was a powerful unspoken statement against the mixing up of religion and politics, which the Supreme Court has via the ruling put its imprimatur on, wittingly or unwittingly. 

In justification of the protesting lawyer’s action, he made the assertion below:

“I am very grateful to the Supreme Court. Just last Friday, they made a very resounding decision that promotes Section 38 of the constitution. That is our right to freedom of thought, conscience, and religion.

“That we are free to express our way of worship in our schools and in our courts.” That decision was reached on Friday, and that has encouraged me.

“Because I am a traditionalist and this is the way I worship.” Based on the decision of the Supreme Court, this is how I will be dressing henceforth in court because I am a strong adherent to ‘Olokun’, the god of rivers. “

Clearly, his statement is tongue in cheek and a sort of mockery of the somewhat convoluted and jaundiced justice system that has found a foothold in our country, and he got the attention that he desired via the drama. The adage “action speaks louder than words” applies here.

The embarrassing level of absurdity currently bedeviling the Supreme Court, in particular, and the judiciary in Nigeria, is disconcerting and unacceptable because it is the third arm in the political leadership triumvirate comprising of the executive, legislative, and judiciary, which is a typical feature in a democratic system of government that Nigeria is practicing.

The incumbent CJN, Tanko Muhamad, has denied any wrongdoing and defended himself by stating that the judiciary arm, like the other two arms of the government, is suffering from a paucity of funds to meet the expectations of the justices, despite the N110 billion reportedly allocated to the judiciary in budget 2022.

But the offensive by the justices venting their spleen on the CJN exposes the level of decadence in the temple of justice where those who have the privilege of sitting there are supposed to be, in more ways than one, super humans. 

That is by virtue of the fact that they sit in judgement over the rest of the members of society who are considered lesser mortals. And that being the case, they are meant to be above board and do not have the luxury of descending into the arena of less mortals by washing their dirty linens in public, as the highlighted absurdities besetting the judiciary evince.

Apparently, I am not alone in worrying about the descent of the judiciary from the high pedestal where it deservedly sits to mingle with ordinary mortals in our country who have been reveling in everything vile. And it is the reason a former British prime minister, David Cameron, at a cocktail on the sideline of a global anti-corruption conference, with President Mohammadu Buhari of Nigeria in attendance, whispered into the ears of the Queen of England, Elizabeth, that our president is the leader of a fantastically corrupt country. That is in spite of President Buhari’s avowed intolerance for corruption. 

In his autobiography, All Will Be Well, which was released on May 12th, he dwelled on the pervasive corruption crisis that recently caused a ruckus in the judiciary to the extent that it triggered a hiatus in the top echelon of the court system, particularly concerning some Supreme Court justices who were arrested in gestapo style by men of the Directorate of State Security, DSS, and arraigned largely for being in possession of huge sums of foreign currency

Just before the current crisis rocking the judiciary burst into the open, I had just scanned through the aforementioned book by the respected professor Sagay, who dedicated a whole chapter titled, THE JUDICIARY AND JUSTICE IN A DEVELOPING SOCIETY LIKE NIGERIA, to his concerns about the sordid state of affairs in his primary constituency-the legal profession.

I was particularly drawn to the content of a topic in the book which he aptly subtitled “Corruption, Abhorrent to Judicial Culture”.

Let us hear it directly from Sagay as he espouses and articulates his thoughts in the excerpt below, which has a bearing on the despicable events now wracking the judiciary.

“In a modern civilised state, members of the legislative and executive branches of government can afford to be corrupt without dangerously affecting the development and survival of the state, but not so the judiciary. A modern state cannot survive large-scale judicial corruption. That will bring chaos, confusion, and anarchy.

He argues further that “Even during the pristine, hallowed, and much lamented First Republic, major political figures were accused and tried for corruption.” A Commission of Enquiry was even set up to enquire into the alleged corrupt acts of a major political figure. He resigned his high political position as head (Premier) of a Regional Government. Parliament was dissolved. An election followed in which his party was returned with a bigger majority in the relevant House of Assembly and that was that. “

According to him, “The point being made here is that the fabric of society was not shaken to its foundations amidst the political fervor, excitement, and disagreement that followed this and other less earth-shaking developments.” Why? Because the judiciary was intact, above the frenzy, noble, detached, unruffled, neutral, the epitome of integrity, nobility, and honour. “

He then backed up his assertions above with landmark cases in the annals of Nigerian jurisprudence, which I could not resist sharing here.

“As Justice Nnaemeka-Agu declared in Ezekiel Hart v. Ezekiel Hart20, the judiciary is the ultimate guarantor of state stability. They are the third arm of government, considered by the makers of constitutions to be the third in importance and by the same But is that true? In 1985, Justice Kayode Eso delivered a Convocation Lecture at the University of Benin on January 31st, in which he claimed that the Judiciary was not only the most important arm of government but was also, in fact, the grundnorm of the country. This assertion was met with some credulity and skepticism at that time. But with the passage of time and with hindsight, I have increasingly appreciated the point being made by the late legal colossus.

Consider these facts:

(i) The judiciary is the official oversight institution of the other two arms of government.

(ii) Whenever there is a dispute between any of the other two arms of government, the judiciary precedes and decides which of them is right or wrong. This applies to disputes between the federal government and any state; between states themselves; and between governments (federal and state) and individuals, both corporate and natural.

(ii) The judiciary can uphold the validity of any action or law or invalidate it with an order of nullity.

(iv) It is the judiciary that decides what is law and what is not law.

(v) To my knowledge, the judiciary has once been asked to determine the sex of a party in a case before it. In Corbett v. Corbett [1971] p. 83, the petitioner was born a man but had undergone a sex change operation to become a woman.

Thereafter, she lived as a woman, worked successfully as a female model and was recognized as a female for passport and insurance purposes. She got married to a man, and later petitioned for the dissolution of her marriage. It was argued that since it was not a marriage between a man and a woman, it was void and should simply be annulled, not dissolved. The judge had to decide whether to nullify the marriage as a void one or dissolve it as a valid one. This was before same-sex marriages were allowed. It was held that the marriage was void because the petitioner was still biologically male by gonadal, genital, and chromosomal tests. Therefore, the petitioner remained a male person.

(vi) It is only the judiciary that can order that life be taken by condemning a person to death. “

As a man who does not take prisoners, and as such, unafraid to call a spade what it is, Professor Sagay unabashedly reminds readers of the elevated position of judges and courts in society.

“The organization and arrangement of a courtroom tell it all. The judge is seated on a high-backed chair on a raised platform, high above the rest of the court. Lawyers, clients, and court officers all look up at this embodiment of authority high above them.

A judge is the incontrovertible master of his or her court. There is no pretense of democracy in any judicial proceedings. The lawyers apply, pray, urge, move, and submit. The judge rules and decides in every case. “

Professor Sagay continued to express his candid opinions about judges, courts, and the rest of society.

Only one word strikes me when I enter the courtroom setting, either as counsel or litigant – AWE! That is what the position of a judge is supposed to be – awe-inspiring.

And it is not all empty awesomeness. The judge is equipped with the power to assert his authority by sending anyone to prison, lawyers included. We are meant to respect judges and view their office as sacrosanct because they represent the source of society’s ultimate stability and, as we also say, they represent the last hope of the common man. “

Lamenting the decadence currently wracking the judiciary, the professor of law and octogenarian, who recently clocked 80 years of age and has been both a teacher and practitioner of law, traveled down memory lane to recall the exploits of awe-inspiring judges: “Their power and authority arise, not from the Constitution or any law, but from their honor, integrity, detachment, and the mystery surrounding a masquerade.”

The ultimate weapon of a judge is his high moral authority, more potent than any statutory power. This is the weapon wielded by our judges even as late as 1999. The advent of the Fourth Republic has come with its own culture of debasement of our judiciary.

When we look at the list of judges who graced our judicial benches in the First and Second Republics, we wonder whether they were colossuses from a distant world. Let me mention some names:

Louis Mbanefo, J.I.C. Taylor, Adetokunbo Ademola, Dadi Onyeama, Baptist Coker, Udo Udoma. They ruled the waves of the judex. It was the era of when they spoke; it was done.

After celebrating iconic legal luminaries of yore in the referenced topic in his revetting book, the very erudite legal authority continued in his treatise with his exaltation of fellow high legal minds by expounding his views in a manner that could be mistaken for pontification: “Even the second generation of Nigerian judges exercised this unquestioned authority and power.” This group includes Kayode Eso, Muhammed Bello, Chike Idigbe, Adetunji Adefarasin, Mason Begho, Andrews Otutu Obaseki, Michael Ajegbo, Chuba Ikpeazu, Anthony Anyiagolu, Chukwudifu Oputa, Atanda Fatayi-Williams, Chukwunweike Idigbe, Augustine Nnamani, Adolphus Karibi-Whyte, Philip Nnaemeka-Agu, Umaru Kalgo, Michael Oguntade, Pius Aderemi and such great names as those.

The learned professor Sagay then posed a poignant question: “Could any renegade lawyer have had the temerity to carry a bag of dollars into the chambers of these men?” Certainly not!

Why, how, and when did some of our judges so lower their guards that some miscreants in the legal profession have been able to approach them to tempt them into committing the original sin of their order? “

While not relenting in his admonition of current members of the judiciary, the learned silk reminded them that “When a judge, who should be next to God in our hierarchy of authority, sanctity, and awesomeness, accepts a bribe, the masquerade is disrobed; the myth is demystified; the small god steps down from his temple and joins the rest of us, rolling and roiling in the mud.” “The sanctity is lost, the aura is gone, and they become subjected to the travails and humiliation suffered by ordinary men, as we saw on the night of November 20, 2016.”

And he did not end without pointing out that “A god who descends from Mount Olympus to frolic with ordinary men should not be shocked if he is treated like an ordinary man.” But this is a national tragedy that we should avoid at all costs.

Some have said, after all, judges are Nigerians and we should not expect judges to be different from the rest of society. That is blasphemy! They are different from the rest of society. Judges must not abandon their high pedestal to come and dwell with the rest of society. They are the judges. They judge the rest of us. Society is doomed if judges behave like the rest of us. We would have reverted to the state of nature. “

To underscore the exalted position of judges in society, which Professor Sagay argues is next to God, he referenced the holy Bible and buttressed his argument thus: “Of all the administrative inventions of man, the emergence of judges is the highest evidence of civilisation and the ascent of man.” That is why in the Bible, Moses, the greatest prophet of the Old Testament, was also the Chief Justice of the Israelites. He appointed more junior judges to man courts and tens of hundreds of litigants and sat at the final court of appeal over these cases. “

Continuing with his indignation, which antagonists can characterize as being sanctimonious, the very outspoken legal icon who was literally thrown out of the University of Benin, ostensibly for his active involvement in activism, went into historical archives of religion to exhume records that show that political leaders were also judges. “You will all recall from the Book of Judges that for a long time, the political leaders of Israel were also judges.” Right up to the time of Jesus, the head of the temple was also the Chief Judge of the Jewish Society.

Although judges have since shared off their political and executive powers, they are still the last resort for peace, order, and good governance in any society. “

Aside from drawing from biblical canons, Sagay’s narrative also establishes that monarchs were also judges. “Coming closer to our times, the Kings of England were for centuries also judges.” The Court of the Chancellor, now Chancery, developed from the King’s Palace. Common law, which is superior to common law, developed from the Chancellor’s Court.

Wearing his anti-corruption cap, of which he is the current Chairman of the Presidential Advisory Committee Against Corruption (PACAC), he did not mince words about his disdain for corrupt people.

“The public servants and politicians who conspire to bribe and corrupt our judges deserve especially harsh punishment.” The worst culprits in this sad and sorry state of affairs are the lawyers, mainly senior advocates, who shamelessly approach judges to introduce them to this demeaning and shameful culture. These senior advocates deserve the harshest punishment of all.The EFCC, ICPC, and the police must monitor and investigate the activities of lawyers who receive a share of the proceeds of crime as their fees. They should be treated as accessories after the fact, because they share in the proceeds of the crimes of politically exposed people, and once paid from that stained loot, it becomes their life’s struggle to protect and shield the primary criminals from the consequence of their crime. “

The duty to accept a brief does not exonerate a lawyer who, convinced or suspecting his client’s guilt, urges him to enter a plea of “not guilty,” which he then goes on to defend vigorously.

Such a lawyer would be grossly in breach of the ethics of the legal profession. “

The former Dean of the faculty of law at the University of Ife, later Obafemi Awolowo University, who happened to have been a teacher to a legion of Nigerian lawyers, offered lawyers the following advice:

“Where a lawyer is convinced, after studying the law and the facts, that his client is guilty of the crime for which he is charged, it is his duty in such a case to ask his client to plead guilty and to set out the extenuating factors, if any, and plead for mercy for his client.” Any other course of conduct is gross misconduct and a breach of the ethics of the profession. In the worst cases, we now have the complicity of lawyers in their clients’ crimes. “

Although professor Sagay’s intervention is lengthy, I couldn’t help but share the wisdom it contains by using it as a linchpin for my intervention in our highest temple of justice, the Supreme Court.

As the saying goes, a word is enough for the wise. 

Sadly, the mess threatening to wreck the judicial system in Nigeria is a reflection of the state of anomie that now reigns supreme in the entire gamut of government in Nigeria, which could ultimately lead our beloved country into more perdition and ruins than it is in already. 

Does the current state of insecurity in our country not echo the days of the Vikings, with its origin in the Scandinavian countries that ruled over most of Europe for centuries in a manner that promoted survival of the fittest as a doctrine? 

Although it took a long time after the horrific rule by the Vikings, Europe is today a model of peace, harmony, and progress and is beckoning to Nigeria and the rest of Africa. So all hope for a better tomorrow for Nigerians is not lost, as we await a rescuer in 2023 to mount the presidential throne and reset our beloved country from top to bottom, as the problem with Nigeria appears to be with the leadership, not the followers.

When I drew the attention of a very senior professor of law from one of the best universities in the USA and indeed the world to the drama at the Supreme Court staged by the lawyer who attended the apex court in his native doctor regalia, here is how he responded:

Honestly, I don’t blame the attorney despite the unsightly optics. The SCN has been dancing naked in recent times, what with the ongoing open altercations between the CJ and his fellow Justices over office money. You would have also noticed that the court has been churning out rulings that are unfounded in logic, jurisprudence or due process lately, especially disputes with political coloration. Corruption has found a berth there. Sad”

Putting all this together, the shenanigans and chicanery that have been suffocatingly dogging the judiciary are not without implications and future consequences.

The dimension and potential catastrophic effect of the revolt of the 14 justices and the melodrama by the lawyer in the hallowed chambers of the supreme court may not be phantom-able right now.

But the fallout that may presently be latent could be simmering like molten magma underneath an active volcano that is likely to erupt without warning. 

So the National Assembly and NASS should take more than a passing interest in the matter, as they are currently doing via the investigation being conducted on the conflict by the relevant committee.

As the lawyers would say when concluding a matter before a judge: “The rest of my case.”

Magnus Onyibe, an entrepreneur, public policy analyst, author, development strategist, alumnus of the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, Massachusetts, USA and a former commissioner in Delta state government, sent this piece from Lagos.

To continue with this conversation, please visit www.magnum.ng