Justice dispensation under the Mango tree

THE situation whereby a High Court of Justice in Urualla, Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State sits openly under a Mango tree is bizarre. The circumstances that necessitated the development are clearly unacceptable and should be promptly addressed. To condone such a situation amounts to making a mockery of the court and the judiciary as a whole.

Presided over by a female judge, Justice C. A. Ononeze-Madu, the High Court is reported to have resorted to sitting in the open following the deplorable state of facilities in the court building. Naturally, lawyers have expressed their embarrassment at the situation and called for action to reverse it. It is unconscionable that the authorities allowed the degeneration in the first place.

The picture of the court's setting was expressly contemptuous of a state organ that is supposed to embody law and order. At a recent session, lawyers and court clerks sat in the open at the premises while the judge took shelter at the garage of the dilapidated building. She reportedly used her official car as chambers and dressing room. Three mango trees and an umbrella tree provided shield for lawyers, litigants and court officials.

Again, it is no surprise that such a court could not make meaningful progress in dispensing justice, let alone accelerating it. In one day, seven cases on the cause list were called, but lawyers in the various cases could only hurriedly seek adjournment, in the light of the discomfort of the environment. The building housing the court - which was donated by the community - is so dilapidated as to constitute a death trap.

In addition, the building's roof has caved in, it is also leaking. Due to the neglect, reptiles are said to have turned the place into their lair. There is no electricity or toilet facilities even for the judge and court staff, and no functional furniture, as available desks and chairs are in bad shape.

Reportedly too, many judges and court staff who had been posted to the court considered their deployment to the court as a punishment and had consequently rejected the posting. This necessitated the transfer of cases meant for the court to the Orlu High Court. Apparently, entreaties made through letters to the authorities, including the two local governments close to the court building, were unsuccessful. The situation has remained unchanged.

It would appear that the court decided to sit in the open out of frustration, and perhaps in protest against the unpleasant situation in the court building. The development calls for serious questions as to the responsibility and commitment of the Imo State Government to the judiciary. Is the government aware of the deplorable condition? Is its inaction deliberate or negligent? Is the Urualla situation a misnomer or does it represent the standard picture of other courts in the state?

The public certainly needs an urgent explanation from the Imo State government, which has demonstrated a tendency to advertise what it has supposedly achieved in the past one-and-a-half years. If indeed the government has performed well, why is such performance not reflected in the judiciary?

As the third arm of government, the judiciary in Imo State, as in other states and at the federal level represents a check and balance institution between the executive and the legislature. Besides, it is the last hope of the common man in matters of law and governance. Such an organ of government deserves more respect and a much better treatment than that accorded the Urualla High Court.

The Imo State Government must demonstrate that it is not out to despise the judiciary or ridicule judicial officers. It can only do this by promptly addressing the problem in Urualla and other courts that may be suffering similar fate in the state.

In this regard, government should give assurances that it is not deliberately under-funding the courts. If there is a case of misappropriation, this should be properly established and investigated.

It is sad that while governments all over the country boast of spurious achievements to justify huge expenditure, the judiciary, a vital institution, has suffered accumulated neglect. The scenario in Urualla is not limited to Imo State. Other states are guilty, at varying degrees. Yet, incidents of this nature largely contribute to the low development index of Nigeria, in Africa and the world.

It is time for governments to have a change of heart. Nigeria needs genuine and sincere development efforts to be simultaneously replicated in all areas including the judiciary. There is currently unacceptable deterioration in education, health, transportation, housing, roads, electricity supply and the provision of other basic infrastructure.

Incidentally, this is a direct consequence of corruption and greed among top public officials. The country cannot experience real development as long as officials put themselves first, before the nation. Perhaps Imo State can take the lead by immediately rectifying the anomaly in Urualla and its judiciary.

Sycophancy & Niger Delta struggle

The Federal Government shouldn’t play the scrooge on the Niger Delta issue and our so-called leaders in the Niger Delta should avoid being seen as scroungers who work on the aegis of the Niger Delta leaders.

Prince Tonye TJT Princewill, the leader of Action Congress (AC) in Rivers State and a member of the Niger Delta Caretaker Committee was it who said that the Niger Delta issue could be a lifetime one if the art of sycophancy is not tamed among the frontrunners of the region’s cause. In an interaction with journalists in Port Harcourt, the dude extolled the humility in President Musa Yar’Adua and thanked God for giving Nigeria Vice President Goodluck Jonathan whose only sin Princewill said is trustworthiness and he happens to come from the Niger delta extraction. So, we are blessed.

Without sounding alarmist, many people have died in the Niger Delta cause, and a lot people have been strangled to death. The Niger Delta problem can’t be won if self-assuming people in our midst don’t turn a new leaf. We don’t always need violence to achieve our aims, what we need is unity of purpose.

Our youths should moderate their activities, and checkmating the youths could endanger ones life. Youths are a people of different philosophy and ideology due to their exuberance. We should abrogate the talk that Niger Delta is for the Niger Deltans alone; It is a global issue.

Princewill condemns any attack on the president of Nigeria and the VP. He sees them as sensitive people. They have been responding to the Niger Delta situation and shouldn’t come under fire. They should be encouraged because it is not easy to achieve good from bad. He believes that nothing good comes easy.

Our people should stop making derogatory statements! Our people should stop playing sycophants. We should be together like the broom, and not like the withered leaves scattered everywhere by the wind. Errant Niger Delta people should send such behaviour on errand. We have to dine and wine on one table and with one cup. No Niger Deltan is superior to the other. In all, it is not time to tread blames on individuals from our region that may have derailed as humans. We have to encourage ourselves for the betterment of the Niger Delta issue than playing the sycophants.

Against compromise diplomacy

At the dawn of the 21st century the Nigerian foreign policy must take turning point for the betterment of its expanding graving population living within and out of the auspices of its territorial margin.

In as much as Nigeria and Cameroon exhibit firm diplomatic ties over four protracted decades as well as cultural links, this does not mean that the Nigerian foreign policy should be too relaxed to its famous eastern neighbour.

The reasons for a tit for tat foreign policy are not so far-fetched. It is a truism that over seventy percent of Nigerians living in Cameroon were born and bred in the country in question. These Nigerians are subjected to human rights abuse. They are liable to pay huge sums of money as resident permit to Cameroon.

Even some as young as fourteen years of age are exposed to this ‘indemnity’ despite the unpleasant economic hardship playing the nation. The resident permit has not been used only as a source of income, but as an alternative to eject Nigerians from the country.
Moreover, their policy has made it extremely difficult for diplomatic mission to yield any meaningful dividend. This is attributed to the fact that any report filed by the diplomatic mission must pass through the Ministry of External Relations. This is a trick to slow down action.

It is not in doubt that the Cameroon government has done little to guarantee of these Nigerians. Morestill, Nigerians who are born and bred in Cameroon are totally excluded in the job market. They are not allowed to enroll into professional institutions as well.

This unwelcome attitude has being carried over from generation to generation. Moreover, the judicial system has never worked for fair and impartial justice for Nigerians inclusive striking examples include Damion Madu, Peter O. Ebenezer all based in Cameroon.

Furthermore, the traders too are subjected to harsh and uncompromising treatments by Cameroon officials. Traders are liable to pay excess taxes. Meanwhile their Cameroonian counterparts are exempted from the exercise. The aim is to oust Nigerians from business. Besides the above, no Nigerian is allowed to drive a business vehicle or passenger cars. This has made life very uncomfortable to number of Nigerians.

This explains why each year, thousands of Nigerians are bound to return home under poverish condition. Hence, adding more salt to the injury on the economy. The government of Cameroon has made life very uncomfortable to bona-fide Nigerian fishermen who are liable to pay the sum of N750,000 naira as tax on annual basis. The aim is to eject them from the exercise.

Audit of Federation Account

The directive by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts to the Auditor-General of the Federation, Mr. Robert Ejenavi, to audit the federation account and financial books of selected government agencies is, indeed, timely.

It is in keeping with constitutional requirements.
Section 85, subsections (2) and (4), demand for a periodic audit of public accounts, and empowers the Auditor-General of the federation to conduct such checks of all government statutory corporations, commissions, authorities and agencies established by Act of the National Assembly.

Specifically, the corporation, parastatals and agencies listed for audit by the Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Accounts, Ahmed Lawal, include the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA), the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) and Universal Basic Education (UBE).

We welcome the audit of the accounts of these aforementioned corporation and agencies, not only because of the constitutional mandate given to the auditor-general of the federation, but because, in the main, every nation is as good as its public institutions. This can be measured to a large extent by the level of transparency, or otherwise, in the eyes of the general public. As a matter of fact, the extent of transparency and accountability of these public institutions can go a long way to either strengthen or weaken democratic institutions in that country. Only last week, President Umar Musa Yar’Adua restated how these public institutions have become vital to his government’s policy thrust.

Unfortunately, despite the critical role of these public institutions, many of them have fallen short of the transparency test, as scams have become their second nature. And the nature and depth of such sleaze are sometimes unimaginable, indeed scary. Three key public institutions – NNPC, NCS, and NEMA have been making the headlines lately, all for the wrong reasons.

Recently, NNPC was indicted by renowned chartered accountants and auditors, Akintola Williams Deloitte and Muhtari Dangana & Co. for failing to remit N374 billion to the Federation Account for the months of October – December 2007. According to the auditors’ report, fixed assets account in the NNPC ledger sharply disagreed with the fixed assets registers and schedules. Also, in 2006, NNPC was indicted for withholding the princely sum of N310 billion from the federation account accruing from oil mineral receipts.

Disclosures of mind-boggling financial malfeasance pervade many of our public institutions such as the Customs and Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA). While the federation account is seeing red, few individuals are feeding fat on the finances of these public institutions. Such is the loss of public confidence in our key public service institutions that currently, the United States government is prosecuting some of its citizens involved in high-profile crude oil scam where some top staff of NNPC have been implicated. One of such scams involves N180 million from the Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) project executed from 1994 to 2004.

Had periodic auditing of the accounts of these public corporations and agencies been carried out, and had the necessary legislative oversight been done diligently, there would have been a steady rise in public confidence and trust in our institutions by both the citizenry and potential investors. Therefore, the consequence of failure of audit of accounts of public institutions erodes the essence of accountability and public service.

We urge the auditor-general of the federation to carry out this directive by the Senate Committee on Public Accounts with utmost sincerity of purpose. Also, we ask all the institutions slated for this audit - NNPC, NCS, FERMA, NEMA and UBE to open their books without let or hindrance. This is the time to probe what goes beyond the walls of these key public institutions. Our democracy cannot flourish if these essential institutions are riddled with sleaze as a result of lack of transparency and due process.

Nigeria Economy

THE World Economic Forum in a recent report ranked Nigeria 50th out of 52 countries. A World Bank-International Finance Corporation survey showed that Nigeria dropped from 108th position last year to 118th this year on the Doing Business Index. These should cause the managers of the nation’s economy sleepless nights and should disturb the rest of us too.
For more than two years, the Central Bank of Nigeria , CBN, has engaged in self-congratulations over the success of the bank consolidation exercise. Nigerian banks have been receiving awards from various global institutions and three or four Nigerian banks now rank among the biggest 1000. Nigerian banks are going global in every direction. All these, we were led to believe, constituted clear evidence that the global community gives the reforms in the financial sector a pass mark.

Apparently, we have been deceived or the managers of our economic policy have been self-deluded. Quite clearly, size, while a necessary condition for attaining global status, is not a sufficient condition. Quality of service and the consolidation of trust are also very important.

We have no idea how Nigerian banks operate abroad, but if a recent survey were to be believed, Nigerian banks are rapidly losing the trust of depositors in the domestic market. Many feel strongly that banks cheat their customers and are slow to redress grievances even when errors are proved to them.

For many customers, the use of Automatic Teller Machines, ATM, is a nightmare, which is nevertheless forced on them. If the ATM is representative of the quality of other services, then from all indications, consolidation might have resulted in bigger banks but those banks are turning off depositors. The customer has been lost to the race over size.

Banks pay mere lip serve to the customer who is hardly informed of the bases of the charges that banks make on his account. Few banks provide meaningful explanations for the deductions.

When perceived poor banking services are added to low ranking on the Doing Business Index, it is easy to see why Nigeria is still not the preferred destination for Foreign Direct Investment except in oil and gas and telecommunications. Even the investment in hydrocarbons is being redirected elsewhere gradually, as Nigeria fails to tackle issues related to stable supplies to the international market.

These call for a sober re-assessment of our real position. Clearly, the self-congratulation must stop because it is wearing thin and becoming less credible given the reports from more credible sources.

We certainly will not make the top 20 global economy not only in 2020 but for a long time after. South Africa, Botswana, Egypt, Senegal, Burkina Faso and Morocco all beat us repeatedly on all the important indices. Our claim to being the giant of Africa is the result of self-deceit; it insults others.

It is true we have come a long way, but there is a longer way still ahead of us - we must forge ahead more decidedly, to attain global relevant.

Police Try To Impress

VARIOUS police formations around the country are trying too hard to get the attention of the authorities. They want to show that they are working hard, or are they hardly working? The Inspector General’s announcement of promotions for police personnel who exhibit bravery and commitment to their duties could be behind the laughable efforts that the police make, sometimes actually giving criminals the advantage.

Last week, the police in Lagos paraded some suspects – a practice that abridges the rights of those arrested, as they have not been charged to court – for stealing mobile phones, loitering at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport and siphoning 25 litres of aviation fuel.

The police boasted about how these arrests would serve as deterrent to others. Hashimu Argungun, Commissioner of Police, Airport Command said at the event, “We have realised that Nigeria will be better if the data of criminals are released to the public. The public will be able to know who the criminals are. It will be easier for the public to know who are fit to hold public offices. I believe if Nigeria had been doing this, many evil perpetrators would have changed”.

We expect that Mr. Mike Okiro, the Inspector General of Police, who is a lawyer, should call his people to order. Suspects are not criminals, only a competent court can determine the status of a suspect, the police are not a court.

It is also surprising that Mr. Argungun has such a simple view of what should change Nigeria. Those suspects are unlikely to have electoral ambitions, even if they do, there are opportunities for the police to investigate their past, a task that the police routinely neglect.

How are unauthorised people able to gain access to critical areas of the airport? Is it not too effortless for the police to reason that someone who steals aviation fuel wants to use it as substitute for kerosene? Would the police even be interested in locating his collaborators? Did the possibility of a syndicate, operating in other airports strike the police? Was any thought given to the dangers of aviation fuel being in places people gain unlawful access to it?

Are there no chances that the aviation fuel could be contaminated through this practice? Does fuel contamination not pose dangers to the aviation? The police have succeeded in scaring away those who should be answering these questions.

Obviously, the issues are larger than a man fetching 25 litres of aviation fuel, off an aircraft or from a storage tank. If he had no collaborators, he will not succeed. He must have buyers, to venture into this high-risk enterprise. These matters should bother the police.

It is becoming the norm to parade suspects before the media and release them a little after. The police can and should do more. Nine years after they made all the right noises about Clifford Orji – the police called him a cannibal – the case was quickly charged to court and the matter has been on hold.

Proper funding for INEC

Recent reports that the activities of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) are being hampered by paucity of funds are disturbing. This is because the smooth operation of the commission is very crucial to the growth, survival and flowering of democracy.

According to reports, the commission’s operations have been affected adversely by the recent mop-up of about N400 billion from Federal ministries and agencies. It was also reported that of the about five billion Naira which the commission requested for its operations, it got just about one fifth of the sum.

Scenarios such as this are clearly not good for a body that has an arduous statutory responsibility that borders on the conduct of elections, among other related functions.

There is no doubt that proper funding of INEC is a necessary requirement in a polity that aspires to democratic ideals. That is why the Electoral Act, 2006, made special provision for the funding of INEC. The Act establishes for the commission a fund to be known as INEC Fund. The fund is for carrying out its functions and purposes under the Constitution and the Act. It requires that the commission establishes and maintains a separate fund from which there shall be defrayed all expenditure incurred by it.

Apart from the functions reserved by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, for the commission, the Act goes ahead to assign it more roles such as the conduct of voter and civic education, promotion of knowledge of sound democratic election processes, and conduct of any referendum required to be conducted in line with the provisions of the 1999 constitution, among others. It is in recognition of the centrality and indispensability of these functions that the Electoral Act made allowance for the establishment of a special fund for the commission.

Under the present democratic order, the electoral commission led by Prof. Maurice Iwu has been undertaking these statutory responsibilities. Apart from the conduct of elections, particularly the landmark elections of 2007, it has undertaken voter registration and conducted voter and civic education at various fora.


At moment, the commission is carrying out the onerous task of delimitation of electoral constituencies across the country. These are money-gulping ventures which can hardly succeed without ready availability of funds.

The need for the commission to succeed in this regard is made even more imperative by the fact that ours is an evolving democratic order which requires that we plug any loophole that is capable of hampering our march towards a stable polity. There is therefore the need for INEC to be properly funded so that it will be in good stead to meet these all-important constitutional and statutory imperatives.

Regardless of the reservations in certain quarters, the present leadership of INEC has demonstrated commitment and readiness to bring about the needed changes in our electoral system. Apart from weathering the storm that attended the 2007 elections and even the repeat elections that followed in some States, it has gone ahead to seek the enthronement of equity and balance in the delineation of electoral constituencies. The latter exercise is still on-going.

These responsibilities come with a lot of challenges. But it is reassuring that INEC is confronting them with determination and utmost sense of patriotism. The progress which the commission is making in this regard must not be hampered by paucity of funds.

The Presidency should therefore take a good look at the statutes establishing INEC, especially as it concerns its funding, and act accordingly.

For a commission which holds the key to free and proper conduct of elections, the need for its protection through proper funding cannot be overemphasized. A properly and adequately funded INEC is less likely to be prone to the manipulations and machinations of governments and political marauders. It is therefore gratifying that we have in place the Electoral Reform Committee which is working hard to produce a blueprint with which our electoral system can be elevated to a more acceptable level. Proper funding of INEC should be one of its concerns.

Those who always find a whipping boy in INEC should also spare a thought in this regard. Criticizing the commission is not enough. Seeking realistic and selfless ways out of its handicaps and shortcoming is a more noble preoccupation.

Surveillance cameras in banks

Jolted by the ever increasing armed robbery attacks in banks and financial institutions across the country, the Inspector-General of Police (IGP), Mike Okiro, has issued an ultimatum to these institutions to install surveillance cameras in their banking halls and premises.

The warning came on the heels of the recent armed robbery attack on a new generation bank in Ibadan, Oyo State, in which some policemen were killed.

To this effect, the IGP has given these institutions up to January 1, 2009 to comply with the directive or risk the withdrawal of the services of the Nigeria Police. Okiro had, while giving the warning at a meeting with the executives of the financial institutions at the Force Headquarters, Abuja, explained that the decision was borne out of the need to protect police personnel posted to such outfits for official duties. To underscore the seriousness of the order, the IGP has directed all Commissioners of Police nationwide to ensure that police personnel are posted to only financial institutions that have complied with the security directive after the deadline.

It is not in doubt that the global trend in security now is greatly in favour of the use of Closed Circuit Television (CCTV) and other surveillance gadgets and monitors. In our own case, it has become more compelling to use these novel techniques to secure banking operations in view of spates of bank robberies in recent times.

The idea to introduce the surveillance cameras in the nation’s banking halls and premises of financial institutions is long overdue because their absence further exposes these banks to higher risks of robbery attacks.

There is no doubt that the introduction of the cameras is going to significantly improve the security situation in these banks and assist in keeping the robbers at bay.
While lauding this crime-bursting technique in our land, we also suggest that these financial institutions should link the gadgets to the nearest police stations for effective crime monitoring and prevention. The gadgets should be installed in such a way that the robbers would not have access to them or tamper with them.

This also brings to the fore the need for internal security in these banks. We say this because it is now common knowledge that most bank robberies these days take place with the active connivance of an insider. It is also largely the case that a robbery operation in a bank will hardly succeed without insider collaboration. It therefore behoves these financial institutions to know who their staff really are. The need for proper screening of employees during recruitment exercise has become instructive more than ever before in view of insider sabotage.

If the banks and financial institutions are able to solve the problem of insider dealings, then the war on bank robberies would have been partially won. Besides, the country is now ripe for the installation of surveillance cameras at strategic locations in our urban cities to help nip crimes in the bud. The time has also come for the police to have a data bank of identities and finger-prints of Nigerians as part of general crime prevention and control measures.

The security agencies should also evolve clever and scientific methodologies of curtailing armed robbery operations in the country. Beyond this, let the government step up efforts to create jobs for the teeming army of unemployed Nigerians. There is no way we can divorce the upsurge of criminal activities in the country from the general poverty and unemployment in the land.

Abuja Streets and Our Heroes

Any society that overlooks the contributions of its past heroes finds it difficult to make meaningful progress. This is because it kills role models from whom contemporary and future leaders should learn. It also discourages patriotism and selfless service. So, most people, given the opportunity, would rather grab whatever they could from the commonwealth as a form of self-reward than wait for any national reward after they might have retired or expired.
Such is the case with Nigeria where our skewed national reward system for past heroic efforts tends to portray us as a patently ungrateful people.
In a ground-breaking move last Wednesday, the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Alhaji Aliyu Modibbo Umar announced the naming and renaming of some major streets and roads in the FCT after national icons whose contributions in various ways to the country’s socio-economic, political and cultural development were widely acknowledged by the public, but were not so recognised by government.
Names of such great Nigerians as the late Sir Dennis Osadebey and the late Nwafor Orizu, both First Republic Senate Presidents, Dr Joseph Wayas, Second Republic Senate President, Professors Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe, both literary giants, late Prof. Claude Ake, renowned social scientist, late Prof Chike Obi, renowned mathematician, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, Bishop David Oyedepo, late Sheikh Abubakar Gumi, the late Pa Michael Imoudu, the late Dr. Tai Solarin, the late Dele Giwa, late Babatunde Jose, Malam Turi Muhammed, Abubakar Imam, Ali Ciroma, Kanu Nwankwo, Austin Jay Jay Okocha, Mary Onyali, late Sam Okwaraji, Comrade Hassan Sunmonu, late Mrs. Margaret Ekpo, late Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, late Sonny Okosun, Mamman Shata, among others, will now adorn Abuja streets.
Hitherto, most of the streets used to bear the names of events, institutions and people that have little or no historical, political, geographical or sociological relevance to the country.
This move, coming auspiciously on the nation’s 48th independence anniversary, is a worthy and commendable recognition of the heroic deeds of these citizens. It is a double-edged sword, by which the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA) not only gave honour to those who deserve it, but also corrected the anomalies of previous street naming exercises in the FCT. In particular, the FCT Minister should be commended for correcting the misnomer in the naming of streets in the Apo Legislative Quarters. Before now, most streets in this bastion of our fledgling democracy were curiously named after military personnel. The minister has, however, corrected this with the renaming of streets in and around Apo after Nigerians with democratic credentials.
It is, however, noteworthy that the list of honorees is not exhaustive as it omits the names of some prominent Nigerians whom we think are also deserving of such honour. For instance, we consider people like the late Chief Bola Ige, assassinated former Attorney-General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Anthony Cardinal Olubunmi Okogie, the late Rev. Fr. Tansi, the first African Catholic Bishop to be beatified and the late Sheikh Muhammed Kamaldeen, the late founder of the Ansarul-Islam worthy of having streets named after them in Abuja, the nation’s symbol of unity. And definitely, it would not be a bad idea if the late Ogoni rights activist, Ken Saro-Wiwa was included in the list of honorees, if only to heal the wounds of his execution by the Abacha regime.
President Umaru Yar’Adua and his deputy, Vice President Goodluck Jonathan were also included in the list of honorees, but, according to the FCT Minister, both turned down the gesture on the basis that it should take a succeeding administration to name things after them if they are found worthy. This, to say the least, is a mark of the duo’s modesty and a subtle lesson that such honors should not be dispensed as a mark of obsequious handouts to incumbents.
In the same regard, we expect the Federal Government to stop the growing trend in which award of the annual national honours is done, as if it is an automatic entitlement of people.
People should be rewarded for landmark achievements made and not merely for holding a political office, which, in any case, is often abused by many.

Nigeria and the Malaria Scourge

The World Bank has once again delivered a damning indictment on Nigeria over the country’s handling of the malaria scourge. Speaking recently during the United Nations special session on the Millennium Development Goals in New York, the Bank’s Group President, Mr Robert Zoellick said Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of Congo account for 30 to 40 per cent of all deaths arising from the disease, adding that it would be difficult to attain the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Africa if malaria was not fought and eliminated in the two countries.
Malaria is a serious health problem. Caused mainly by mosquito bites, it affects mostly children under the age of five and pregnant women in sub-Sahara Africa resulting in a death rate of nearly 3,000 every day. Most countries have successfully fought the scourge and drastically reduced the mortality rates therefrom. A World Health Organization (WHO) statistics shows that out of the 1.2 million people that died from malaria in the world last year, one million were from sub-Sahara Africa, with Nigeria alone recording one third of the cases.
It is baffling that malaria, which has been identified as a scourge in Africa since the pre-colonial era, remains the number one killer more than a century after the continent had contact with modern medicine and about 50 years after most African countries gained independence.
The deleterious damage wreaked by this scourge is not only in its notoriety as the number one killer, but also in the fact that it is responsible for much of the squalor and backwardness in sub-Sahara Africa. It contributes in part to the elusiveness of foreign investments, as many tourists and potential investors shy away for fear of being infected.
The World Bank’s Group President painted a grim picture of the vicious circle created by malaria when he said the disease “preys on the poor and keeps them poor”. He pointed out that “poverty makes many people vulnerable to malaria infection, as they could not afford bed-nets to prevent malaria and medicine to cure it”. He added, “when people are struck by the disease, parents miss work, children miss school, and malaria emergencies plunge families into debt from which they can’t recover”. It’s so pathetic. This is a largely preventable and curable disease. That Nigeria is still listed among the worst malaria-endemic countries in the world ought to be really embarrassing to our leaders. What has happened to the efforts, especially the huge yearly budgetary allocation, to combat the disease and the oft-celebrated insecticide-treated mosquito net scheme? It implies that all past efforts at combating this scourge have not been successful. So, what could have been the problem? It is either we have not been seriously committed to the battle or that our efforts have been continuously sabotaged by an insincere bureaucracy. Either way, what is needed is a renewed commitment on the part of our policy makers to frontally attack this scourge and rout all impediments to total victory.
A first step towards tackling the scourge is to solve the basic hygiene and environmental problems confronting majority of Nigerians. Gutters and drainages in urban centres should be regularly cleared while rural dwellers should be encouraged to always keep their surroundings clean. This would go a long way in dislodging the disease-carrying mosquitoes that breed in those filthy places. With that done, the battle is half won.
Effort should also be doubled at popularising the use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets by making it affordable and generally accessible to the majority of the people. The rural poor who are the most vulnerable victims of malaria are mostly neglected.
Malaria drugs should also be made affordable for majority of the people, as most deaths from this disease are due to the victims’ inability to buy prescribed drugs.
So, it will not be out of place to suggest a policy review that will make the treatment of malaria-related ailments free in all government hospitals, as is currently the case with tuberculosis, another killer disease.
One of the reasons for Nigeria’s inability to win the malaria war is, like in the other areas of national development where we have failed in the face of huge yearly resource allocation, our inability to win the war against corruption in high places. Money voted for live-improving projects often finds its way to the private purses of government officials.
We expect therefore that all funds allocated to combat the malaria scourge, including Nigeria’s share of the fresh World Bank’s $1.1 billion grant to tackle the scourge in some African countries, would be judiciously used.

The Hackers Challenge

Much as information technology has helped global interaction by reducing it to a global village, it has brought with it a pack of discomfort and pain. One such pain is brought by the activities of those who secretly invade the privacy of others on the internet. Otherwise called hackers, these co-users of the internet, put their superior knowledge of the Internet to mischievous use.
The recent case of a strange e-mail on President Umaru Yar’Adua, sent to some media houses purportedly under the internet platform of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), may be just one of the many examples of the evil hacking has come to present. NAN has denied sending such an e- mail from its platform. Unless otherwise revealed through investigation, what possibly happened was that hackers had invaded the NAN internet domain and sent the mail, all to achieve mischievous ends.
In the same way, one of the major newspapers in the country also had its platform invaded recently. The hackers had declared that they were “a group of hackers in Nigeria” and boasted of having seized the CMS (Content Management System) of the newspaper’s site in such a way that the hackers’ message that displaced the newspaper’s stories could neither be edited nor scrambled.
That the information highway in Nigeria is porous and vulnerable is no longer in doubt. Indeed, the “group of hackers in Nigeria” had berated the Nigerian government for not doing enough to secure and protect the Nigeria-based internet domains.
For a nation striving to encourage electronic transactions - registrations, financial transactions, and communication - the need to protect the “internet integrity of the nation,’ cannot be over emphasized. Left unprotected and not maximally secured, there is no gainsaying that the nation and indeed all businesses in the country are in grave danger over the harm hackers can cause in the system.
It is perhaps in the full realisation of this danger that the Senate is presently considering a Bill aimed at containing the activities of these internet criminals.
The Bill has proposed a 14 years jail term or Five Million Naira fine (or both) for those involved in any category of the listed internet crimes, including those who send viruses to wreck the computer systems of others.
The hackers who often operate like mercenaries can indeed shut down the information system of institutions, conglomerates and indeed vital agencies of a nation. The enormity of the harm these hackers can cause should make the senators speed up the bill. It must not be one of those bills that spend eternity in the chambers without becoming laws.
Experts have however argued that a better means of protecting the nation is by signing on to uncommon internet portals like Nigeria’s customized.ng domain. The experts explain that common portals like Yahoo, Hotmail, and Gmail are more prone to hackers’ mischief, notwithstanding efforts by organisations to shield themselves from hackers through system upgrade.
While it is crucial that the government takes urgent measures to protect the country from the activities of these criminals, entrepreneurs must also invest heavily in anti-hackers’ softwares and facilities as a way of protecting the soul of their businesses.
Even at that, the human element as a factor in all of this cannot be underestimated. Technical personnel placed in charge of such sensitive posts in various organisations must be people of impeccable character who will not compromise nor sabotage the integrity of their organisations.
It is also important for Nigerians to be aware of this menace, and particularly for security personnel to consider it as a lead in their investigation of cases as the one that caused untold embarrassment to NAN and Channels Television. Governments, businesses and organisations in Nigeria must wake up to this new wave of crime.

Nigeria’s Anti-Bunkering Campaign

For a nation that has oil as its mainstay, it is to be expected that no effort would be spared in protecting oil facilities from vandals, economic saboteurs and plain crude oil thieves. It is against this backdrop that President Umaru Yar’Adua recently raised the alarm at the global forum of the 63rd session of the United Nation’s General Assembly, where he vowed that Nigeria would lead the global campaign against oil theft.
He had argued that proceeds from stolen oil are “Blood Oil” as it was with “Blood Diamond” in Angola, Sierra Leone and Liberia.
Illegal bunkering, also known as crude oil theft, is a crime that came with the discovery of oil in Nigeria. Often, the crime is committed with the active connivance of two parties-- local and foreign saboteurs.
While the foreign crime partners provide the huge capital outlay, logistics and operational facilities needed to perpetrate the crime, the local partners provide the guide and protection needed for a successful operation. The proceeds of the crime greatly enrich the criminals, albeit, illegally.
That the activities of the crude oil thieves have had a negative effect on the earnings of the country from oil is to say the obvious. Coupled with the unrest in the oil-rich Niger Delta, which has adversely affected production output, this evil has all but shrank the financial health of the nation. That should explain the determination of President Yar’Adua in seeking global co-operation in taming the criminal trend. One less discussed problem is the environmental pollution the theft causes from resultant oil spills and fire.
The international community which has often expressed concern over the mismatch between Nigeria’s enormous oil resources and the widespread poverty in the country should support these efforts the best way they can.
While we commend the fresh initiative at fighting bunkering on a global platform, it is necessary to remind the government that much more work needs to be done at home if the campaign is to yield the desired result. Indeed charity must begin at home. The nation must be prepared to deal decisively with the local collaborators in the bunkering business, before expanding the frontiers of the battle to the global front.
Though the government has often lamented the losses suffered to crude oil theft, it has hardly come down heavily on arrested suspects. Too often, much show is made when a group of high profile crude of thieves are caught, but no sooner had the arrests been made, than the case is forgotten. This has fuelled the strong suspicion that certain “powerful forces” are behind the criminal act in Nigeria.
For instance, three months ago, a group of 14 Filippinos were arrested on board a vessel with 150-160 metric tonnes of stolen crude. They even confessed to their crime, giving details of how their principal based in Greece directed the operation with the assistance of local partners. But till date, not many Nigerians know what became of the case. We are not aware of any conviction as a result of illegal bunkering.
In the past three years alone, the Navy and JTF have arrested 260 ships. What happened to them? Regularly, there are allegations of how even military personnel posted to guard oil installations collude with crude oil thieves to illegally sell off our commonwealth. The military authorities have, however, often denied this.
Along with the violence in the Niger-Delta region, oil bunkering has accounted for the loss of one-fifth of the nation’s production out put, and has indeed, reduced daily output to less than 2 million bpd. This should compel the nation to be firmer in applying the laws against these saboteurs. Treating them with kid gloves can never curb the crime. Worse still, foreign collaborators will never take the nation seriously if it continues to pay mere lip service to the campaign against oil theft.
The plan to launch a global war against oil bunkering is thus laudable as long as the nation is prepared to decisively deal with her own criminals in this respect.
Luckily, experts say the oil in Nigeria has its own peculiar character, finger print, and thus can be identified in the global market. That should further help in the anti-bunkering war.
But the worry is which global anti-bunkering police that can stop these thieves in their tracks at the international market? In order to succeed, Nigeria must thus work out an elaborate scheme of weaving together a tight network of surveillance that can help reduce the incidence of oil theft in the country and also be seen to have punished arrested crude oil thieves..

Before we crucify Okereke-Onyiuke

ONE of the major issues that have dominated public discourse in recent times is the activities of a group of professionals under the aegis of Africans for Obama 2008. The leading dramatis persona is the indefatigable amazon of the Nigerian Stock Exchange, Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke. Haven listened to her position on the Obama candidature I think that the harmless lady was only being excited about the rising profile of the black race in a strong economy like the United States, taking into consideration what could be seen as its ripple effect for a growing economy like Nigeria.

Taking into consideration the fact that Nigerians are a very sensitive lot, given the various intervening variables that condition their reactions, the Obama issue should be seen as a mere pedestrian discourse that fits into the game plan of a segment of the disgruntled elites who see Okereke-Onyiuke's records with awe and envy .

The thesis of her comments was that Africans for Obama 2008 is not a Fund Raising Organization for Senator Barack Obama. The United States Electoral Law does not allow foreign nationals to donate money to an American candidate for the purpose of election. She explained that the aim of Africans for Obama 2008 was to sensitie and mobilise Africans of voting age in Diaspora and other Americans to exercise their voting right. She never urged them to vote for Obama but simply said, "Go out to Register and vote".

Professor Okereke-Onyiuke was not the only speaker, her Vice Chairman of the group, Dr. Erieka Bennett and two other African Americans reinforced her thesis with emphasis on the need for Africans in Diaspora and indeed other eligible voters in the United States to vote. The forum presented an idyllic setting as journalists and other guests had an interactive session. All questions and observations about Africans for Obama 2008 were discussed fully and the session ended with an announcement of dinner the following week.

The climax of the press briefing was when Professor Okereke-Onyiuke told the relaxing audience that she had about five years ago come across Obama. It was the day of glory when she won a prestigious award from congressional Black Caucus. She is the first winner of this award in Africa. Everybody at the hall wanted to take photograph with her. Senator Barack Obama was on the queue. The man queued for one hour before it got to his turn. He told Professor Okereke-Onyiuke that he had a scheduled meeting but had to cancel the meeting because he was very happy to identify with this prestigious award.

She showed the audience at the conference the photograph she took with Obama. It is interesting to note that Obama was not a world figure as at that time. But uneasy lies the head that wears the crown. The moment she heard that Obama is now a front runner for the White House, she took it as an historic challenge on how best she could mobilise all Africans in Diaspora and other American eligible voters to exercise their voting right. We can see a case of passion in the candidacy of Obama.

Against the background of initial explanation of the basis for initiating Africans for Obama, why then is the controversy dogging this group? I think it is more of sentiment than facts. The Dinner / Concert was publicised in National Dailies and Television apparently to avoid injurious speculation. The target were the elites that believe in Obama's vision and have the wherewithal to pay without coercion.

The media cannot claim any credit for getting the ticket rates because it was public knowledge. Why did a section of the media twist the whole story into "fund raiser" despite the initial World Press Conference and the Dinner / Concert that was covered by virtually all electronic media including NTA, Silverbird, CNBC etc?

It appears to me that most media reports on the controversy over-dramatized the issue at variance with the organisers' intention. The role of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in the reporting style of the media raises a big question mark on the way the media were reporting the story. After a telephone invitation for a chat, why must the EFCC contact the media on phone on the same subject leading to speculative reporting that she has been detained, quizzed, arraigned etc. Virtually, all the media reports that published the story quoted the EFCC spokesman, Mr. Tunde Babafemi. It may be necessary for the EFCC to appreciate the way Nigerian media report news, especially when it comes to sensationalism. How ethical is it to say that EFCC quizzed or arraigned someone invited via telephone?

The letter purportedly written by the Director General of Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Mr. Musa Al-Faki; requesting for clarification of Professor Okereke-Onyiuke's role in Africans for Obama 2008 developed wings and flew to all media houses before it was "dispatched" to the recipient". This casts a shadow on internal communication between the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and The Nigerian Stock Exchange (NSE) which are supposed to work towards the same goal. This brings into memory some previous issues published by the media before The Exchange received SEC's letter. This is not an encouraging style of communication by the apex regulatory body.

I have read the statement signed by The Exchange's President, Dr. Oba Otudeko, OFR, stating that Professor Okereke-Onyiuke's involvement in Africans for Obama is a purely private affair and she has her inalienable rights so far it does not conflict with her official duties. Similarly, I took time to digest the statement signed by Professor Okereke-Onyiuke where Africans for Obama restated its position in terms of not raising funds for the Obama campaign. I do not think there is any diametric difference between the statement by Obama's campaign group and the position of Africans for Obama.

The latter has never claimed that it is an affiliate and neither has it stated that it raised funds for the Obama campaign. At this juncture, we need to locate Professor Okereke-Onyiuke on the prism of personality. Those who are close to her believe that she is a very pleasant lady with many track records of academic and professional laurels.

She has a strong background of a father who was a Barrister at Law (now late) and a fearless Speaker of House of Assembly in the then Eastern Region. Her mother was a strategic board guru while she is surrounded by a team of highly educated brothers and sisters. These must have partly shaped her world view.

She schooled in the United States where she stayed for 14 years; including her University Education and robust stewardship at the New York Stock Exchange before she was poached by Sir Mobolaji Bank Anthony who was excited to see a Nigerian holding a managerial position in the New York Stock Exchange. Unconsciously, aunty Ndi, as she is fondly called attempts to domesticate American life in Nigeria. She needs to appreciate that the openness of America is far ahead of contemporary Nigeria. If a father imposes corporal punishment on the child in America, the child can call the Police. If a child does that in Nigeria, people would think he is a bastard or has brain tumor or remote control of enemies at work. Like any human being, she may have her own frailties. But on the scale of balance, those who are close to her find her an amiable, hardworking and always ready to make an impact.

Regardless of controversies dogging her activities in the national and international politics, nobody can underestimate her success stories on The Nigerian Stock Exchange. She has put the market on the global map and the records are there forever.

All her activities in the national and international arena being referred to by some groups and individuals were done with good intention. Just peep at her contributions to sports and the role she is playing currently for Nigerian Universities Games (NUGA). She just need to constantly appreciate that the Nigerian environment is different from the United States of America in many regards. We all pray that Senator Barack Obama wins. The same people that are calling for the heads of Professor Ndi Okereke-Onyiuke, other Nigerians and African Americans that share a common vision of Obama would be the first to troop out and identify with their African brother. Let Obama take his seat at the White House, critics of these professionals would be the first to request for Obama to put Africa, nay Nigeria on the priority list of his economic policy.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn

IN June 1974, or thereabout, a Ghanaian friend of mine presented me with a book, Letter to Soviet Leaders, written the year before by Alexander Solzhenitsyn. The book was translated from the Russian original by Hilary Sternberg and published by Index on Censorship. It was distributed world-wide by Fontana Books, London. Coming three months before the appearance of Solzhenitsyn's The Gulag Archipelago, the letter was a bitter and holistic denunciation of the Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (or the Soviet Union, or USSR): its philosophy, ideology, economics, politics, state system and foreign relations.

The Ghanaian friend who gave me Letter to Soviet leaders, by post, was a foundation graduate student of Computer Science at the University of Lagos. This was in the early days of my socialist consciousness and involvement in organised socialist politics. The reason for his book gift to me was patronising: to open my eyes to the "evils" of what I was getting into. I was angered by his patronising attitude, but I thanked him and read the book.

Ten months after this book gift, I was given another book authored by Solzhenitsyn. But the circumstances were different. I had been detained in January 1975 by General Yakubu Gowon's military government for "subversive" agitation. In April, I requested my jailers for books to read. After a long consideration, I was given two books: The Holy Bible and Solzhenitsyn's The First Circle. I was familiar with the former, but I was seeing the latter for the first time. The message of my jailers was clear. I read both of them. The First Circle is a fictionalised account of prison experience in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin (1879 - 1953) and - to some extent-under his successors. Upon my release I obtained my own copy of The First Circle and a Soviet response titled The Last Circle. I scribbled my own comment: Neither First Nor Second Circle (unpublished).

Since these early days, I have read a couple of other fictions and essays written by Solzhenitsyn. They have added to my knowledge of the Stanlinist brutality and irrationality, as well as Russian history. Beyond this, I can testify that Solzehnitsyn, who died in Moscow on August 7, 2008, at the age of 89, was a fine writer, well-read in Russian history, philosophy and literature. He must have been a brilliant army officer, having been twice decorated during World War II. He was a courageous man with a very strong spirit. He was undoubtedly a Russian patriot, as distinct from a Soviet patriot. In spite of all these attributes, however, I am not a "follower" of Solzhenitsyn for reasons I shall provide below.

Many tributes have been paid to Solzhenitsyn since his death. The internet is loaded with them. He was given a semi-state burial in Moscow, and this was shown live by the leading international cable televisions. The limited aim of this piece is to refute some glaring errors, distortions and deliberate misinformation about him and his career-especially by Nigerian media commentators. I shall do this by invoking his Letter to Soviet leaders. After all, this letter was almost his last critique of the Soviet system before his expulsion from the Soviet Union - an act that cannot be defended now as it could not be defended then. But before this, I may sketch, as preface, the trajectory of the great man's life. More copious essays on this can be found in the internet and the world media.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn was born in Russia in 1918, the year after the Russian socialist revolution. His father, a retired army officer, died shortly before he (Alexander) was born. The young Solzhenitsyn was, therefore, brought up by his mother who encouraged him to study widely - mathematics, history, philosophy and literature. He was raised in the Russian Orthodox faith. He took a degree in mathematics. He became a member of the youth wing of the ruling Communist Party and edited several of their publications. He fought in the Society army during World War II, and rose to the rank of Captain.

It was towards the end of that war that his trouble began. His letter to a friend, in which he bitterly criticised Stalin and his conduct of the war, had been intercepted. He was charged with "anti-Soviet propaganda" and "founding a hostile organisation", found guilty and sentenced in July 1945 to "eight-year term in a labour camp, to be followed by permanent internal exile". In March 1953, following the death of Stalin, Solzhenitsyn was given a conditional release. He renounced Marxism and "Communism" during this period. Solzhenitsyn wrote several books during his "labour camp" years, and continued writing after his final release. Some of his books were published in the Soviet Union. In 1970 he received the Nobel Prize for Literature which was given in absentia because he was not allowed to travel to Sweden. In February 1974, Solzhenitsyn was deported from the Soviet Union.

I may now turn to Solshenitsyn's Letter to Soviet leaders which he completed on September 5, 1973, and sent to a number of Soviet Union's leaders of state and party. I shall use that book, as a source of refutations. And for these, I refer only to the article "Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Russian liberation" (The Guardian, August 13, 2008), contributed by my friend, Professor Emmanuel Eseimokhai, the Academic Chancellor, Basas International Law Bureau, Abuja. I am selecting Eseimokhai because he is at home with the subject. I agree with much of what my friend wrote, but not when he said: "It is not true that Solzhenitsyn hated communism, as some ill-informed scholars have said. He was a communist cadre but disagreed with the Soviet Communist Party on ideological issues".

Not so, Emmanuel. Yes, Solzhenitsyn was a communist cadre. But he renounced Marxism and Communism fundamentally and in their totality - not just their Soviet variants - before he left the prison camps. Solzhenitsyn hated Marxism and Communism with a passion whose ferocity I have seen only in very few personages of his historical stature. Hear this: "Marxism is not only not accurate, not only not a science, has not only failed to predict a single event in terms of figures, quantities, time-scales or locations. Only the cupidity of some, the blindness of others, and a craving for faith on the part of still others can serve to explain this grim humour of the twentieth century; how can such a discredited and bankrupt doctrine still have so many followers in the West!" (Letter, page 43).

Just before this passage, Solzhenitsyn had claimed: "This ideology that fell to us by inheritance is not only decrepit and hopelessly antiquated now; even during its best decade it was totally mistaken in its predictions and was never a science. A primitive, superficial economic theory, it declared that only the worker creates value and failed to take into account the contribution of either organisers, engineers, transport or marketing systems". He then went on to list specific instances where, according to him, Marxism had been "mistaken". Beautiful language; but wrong, pathetically wrong. He was wrong when he wrote his letter in 1973. He is wrong today. But it is not my intention to refute Solzhenitsyn here. I only wish to correct misconceptions about him.

Solzehnitzyn's Letter to Soviet Leaders was essentially a call on Soviet leaders to abandon the ruling ideology. Leave it to other nations and peoples who may want it, he admonished. He blamed all the ills and problems of the Soviet Union on the ideology. He vehemently rejected suggestions that Russian history might, in part, explain some specific structure and practices of the Soviet State, including the labour camp system, internal exile, deportation, secret police, etc. He overlooked the fact that these features of the Soviet system existed in Tsarist Russia. For instance, Leon Trotsky, the field commander of the Russian revolution, was sent on internal exile to Siberia under the Tsar. Ten years after the revolution, he was sent by Stalin on internal exile to Kazakhstan; and then deported to Turkey.

Solzhenitsyn urged Soviet leaders to abandon internationalism. Hear him: "Let's leave the Arabs to their fate, they have Islam, they will sort themselves out. And let's leave South America to itself. Nobody is threatening to take it over. And let's leave Africa to find out for itself how to start on an independent road to statehood and civilisation, and simply wish it the good fortune not to repeat the mistakes of uninterrupted progress. Our people are not going to live in space, or in South-East Asia, or Latin America: it is Siberia and the North that are our hope and reservoir" (Letter, pages 28-29). Abandon "world revolution", he urged. Surrender "communism" to China, and the danger of a terrible war with that country would vanish, he pontificated. Solzhenitsyn was also anti-Jew, cynically and suggestively drawing attention to what he saw as the preponderance of Jews in the leadership and membership of the ruling Communist Party.

I mentioned Solzhenitsyn's courage and patriotism. Let me illustrate with the concluding paragraph of his Letter: "I have amply demonstrated that I set no store by material wealth and I am prepared to sacrifice my life. To you such a vision of life is a rarity - but here it is for you to behold".

Missed targets as opportunity

ONE does not need to be a cynic to suspect that target dates are set to be missed. And that is why I was mightily baffled by the uproar that attended the revelations about the interesting happenings in the power sector. Why were we so shocked? It is not only in the country that things don't always turn out the way that those in power and of power promise they will. Did that eminent organisation, the United Nations not promise us that most of the world's problems would be matter of a memory by the year 2000?

We are all witnesses to what happened. The year 2000 came and vigorously disclaimed responsibility for the failure of the trumpeted certitudes of the bureaucratic and scientific clairvoyants. The lesson: Predictions fail. Targets can be missed. And heaven will not fall. So the grey Eminences at the U.N did the most sensible thing in the circumstances: they ambushed another decade's end on which to hang the world's expectations. Why then should we, in this little corner of the world, demand the heads of our target-missers just because the power sector's performance lags behind our expectations?

Why are we all pretending? We know that our problem is that we would rather take the longer route to arrive at the nearest destination. Even when we know there is a short cut to solving the power problem in the country, we have refused to take that road. And this road is the only one to take us out of the tunnel to luminous light. Forget about reforms. Forget about probes. Give your technical experts a pat on the back or wherever, and banish them out of sight. Enough of precious time squandered using an axe to split a broomstick.

What we really need to do is persuade the National Assembly to approve, as a matter of urgency, the financial instrument to provide funds for the purchase of generator sets for every identified Nigerian citizen, those without emigration on their minds. Consequent upon this noble and historic national recovery intervention, the next natural step is to change the name of the country. That should not be difficult.

Now at last, we have something in common which the new name should celebrate: Generators. So we rename our country Generatoria. We have a choice of two names to call ourselves: Generatorians or Generatese. Should the majority decide in favour of the latter - having had enough problems with the one ending in ".. ria" - we can then advertise our new identity to the international community.

As a mark of maturity and in recognition of the existing good relations between our nation and our former colonial master, we can return the old name, Nigeria, to any surviving relative of that distinguished builder of the British Empire, Captain Frederick Lugard and his wife, Margery. Hopefully, this gesture will be seen as our expression of gratitude to the couple, the madam especially, for coining a name for the disparate cultural and geographical areas cobbled together to add to the white man's burden. It would not be a day too soon. Few will miss a name that has done not much good either to the geographical space or those who occupy it.

And there are other gains. We will all be rid of the Green passport, that pernicious travel identity document that assures its carrier neither welcome nor dignity at foreign land borders, air or seaports; an international legal document of self-recognition that has turned out to be an embarrassing possession. It will be a welcome relief to change the discredited green colour to the colour of crude oil: dirty grey. Should there be objections from the aesthetic in our midst, why, we could settle for the golden glow of the refined product, petrol itself.

Another gainer will be the poor national flag, our unremarkable and uninspiring symbol of nationhood. There is absolutely no more excuse or logical reason we should retain the prominent green segments of the flag. Let's face it, we have long ceased to be an agricultural country! We are, proudly, an oil-producing country! So, no symbolism will be lost by substituting the green of the flag with gold. With luck and international goodwill, a flag that has always suffered from non-recognition among flagpoles at venues of international conferences may begin to compel attention to itself.

Perhaps, the greatest gain of all is that those nations that have hitherto, out of envy or from whatever motive, grudged us our greatness or refused to acknowledge it will be convinced, beyond reasonable doubt, that the one and only indisputable power house of the African continent has finally arrived. Just imagine, over one hundred and forty million generators - corporate and personal - of varying capacities, sourced from all corners of the globe chugging and clanking and whirring round the clock from Sokoto to Sapele, from Badagry to Yenagoa! How could any doubt the evidence of their aching ears and burning eyes?

And there is the possibility, too, that this happy development, this national re-branding, may yield dividends of inspiration to our creative talents. I can imagine a gifted poet of the future forcing the word Generatese that will henceforth designate you and I, to rhyme with words like Grease or Sleaze. So missing out on the target date or dates for generating the power requirement for the nation may turn out to be a blessing in disguise afterall.


Aiyegbusi lives in Lagos.

Joint Tax Board and the National Tax Policy

THE Joint Tax Board recently conducted regional sensitisation workshops on the proposed national tax policy and invited memoranda from the public. The draft document proclaims that "the overriding objective of the Nigerian tax system is to achieve economic growth and development. For Nigeria to pursue an active development agenda or to even carry out the basic functions of government, its tax system should be able to generate resources for government to provide basic public goods and services".

And citing the all- round poor infrastructure which makes investment projects costly, the JTB seeks to try and compensate for poor infrastructure by proposing a new tax system that allows companies higher post-tax profits as a means of ensuring higher domestic investment that will lead to higher economic growth.

The document is essentially an admission of the poor administration of the existing tax system because direct taxes, as JTB explains, are difficult to collect. Nonetheless, even at the low level of tax administration over the years, the apparent contribution of roughly 80 per cent of annual budget expenditure by oil receipts since 1974 (with four consecutive years to date purportedly posting excess crude earnings) and the sizeable amounts of non-oil revenue are proof that the tax system has successfully provided government with ample resources. In view of the purported current excess revenue, does government still require further increases in non-oil tax revenue before settling to play its part as the JTB advocates?

Several aspects of the draft document are contradictory and inconsistent with the stated overriding objective. For instance, one, the JTB proposes wholesale subsidy of firms "by using revenues from Nigeria's oil wealth to alleviate the tax burden on companies in order to diversify the economy". Such a policy will on the contrary render firms inefficient and uncompetitive and dependent on government thereby defeating the set goal of boosting non-oil revenue for government use. Interestingly, except for complaints against multiple taxation which is a symptom of the inequitable sharing of collected revenue, the current level of company income tax has not attracted any protests since it is comparable to relevant tax levels in serious economies.

As a matter of fact, any reduction in any tax with respect to foreign investors will transfer tax revenue forgone to the investor's home government under subsisting double taxation avoidance arrangements. Also the related plan to reduce personal income tax will institute a less progressive tax regime which has adverse implications for aggregate consumption thereby stifling production and economic growth contrary to JTB's advertised goal.

Two, whereas JTB's insistence on reserving tax collection for career civil service tax collectors is well-founded, its call at the same time for tax authorities to retain 10 per cent of total revenue collection at once is selfish and evinces lack of full appreciation of the extent of government responsibilities.

The plan will create a class of overpaid civil service tax officers in place of the rightly rejected private tax consultants, a development that will lead to a restive civil service with different professional cadres spoiling for inflated and matching salaries. Will such turmoil and ensuing inflation promote the promised rapid economic growth?

Three, the planned deliberate shift from direct to indirect taxation for the sole reason of ease of collection betrays reprehensible indolence. The proposal will considerably reduce the workload of tax agencies and result in cuts in the work force, an undesirable spin-off. As if to give the lie to JTB's proposals, the steadily improving administration of the existing tax system by Lagos State has, in the words of JTB Chairman, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, "now culminated in making Lagos State the only State in Nigeria where revenues from taxes surpass incomes coming from the Federation Account on a monthly basis". That achievement was in spite of the fact that huge revenues generated by the various ports, and the many industrial and commercial establishments based in the State accrue directly to the Federation Account.

Four, JTB proposes to make VAT the major source of non-oil revenue by in the first instance tripling the current VAT rate of 5 per cent. To raise VAT is inflationary, which dampens demand thereby stifling industrial production. The plan contradicts the set goal of the proposed new tax system. And given the country's healthy revenue position coupled with the established fact that a high VAT rate works against the national interest, it becomes untenable for JTB to push the argument about some overarching national commitment to match the high VAT rates in ECOWAS countries that happen to lack other major sources of revenue.

Five, purportedly to increase tax collection efficiency, the draft policy seeks to make the Ministry of Finance the sole authority on tax policy formulation and also to convert JTB into a policy making body for those taxes whose administration is split across states by the 1999 Constitution. The long and short of this prescription is to centralise the collection of non-oil revenue just like oil revenue. But true to the ingrained character of a cheating federation, the proposal will merely reinforce Abuja as centre for sharing revenue booty literally forcibly taken by federal might from a few states, which are dispossessed and left pauperised to drift into violence, while states that contribute little or nothing to the Federation Account gorge themselves with the lion's share of the public income.

Nigeria has come to rue such purportedly good-intentioned centralisation - it was the vogue in the 1970s - in all spheres of our national life because political and economic progress has eluded the country these past three decades. Militancy in the Niger Delta can be traced to the centralisation and unfair disbursement of oil revenue. We should therefore not wait for centralised collection of non-oil revenue to begin to breed urban guerrillas in states stripped bare of their plentiful non-oil revenue before casting away JTB's wrong-headed and retrogressive national tax policy.

What is needed is a national tax policy that focuses on the efficient implementation of the revenue prescriptions of Section 163 of the Constitution. In addition to the planned unique taxpayer identification number system, the JTB should oversee the development of guidelines for the various tax authorities to collect all taxes levied under national and state laws without any attempt at imposing uniform tax rates throughout the federation. It is proper and desirable for citizens and businesses to freely move and locate in any part of the country to exploit any differences in benefits offered by various state tax laws.

While Item D of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Constitution enjoins the tax authorities to avoid double taxation among states, the vexed problem of multiple taxation in a state (which the unacceptable centralised tax collection was also meant to eliminate) will hardly arise if fair and appropriate levels of derivation principle give back to entitled states from the Federation Account adequate funds for tackling the peculiar problems that face high revenue-yielding areas. The absence of a federal legislation on this issue almost one decade into the democratic dispensation is unfortunate indeed. It should also be noted that proposing centralised tax collection to resolve multiple taxation problem is unwarranted because in a democratic setting, genuinely elected state and local government representatives, who are closer to the people than federal agencies, cannot but be responsive and amenable to the preferences of the tax-paying public regarding what specific taxes and tax rates to levy and apply.

Amidst our vast resource endowment, it is extremely painful to observe that the Federal Government and its agencies would rather dither endlessly, side-track obvious solutions and contrive untested policies which have kept our dear country down for so long. Government should have a rethink.

Joint Tax Board and the National Tax Policy

THE Joint Tax Board recently conducted regional sensitisation workshops on the proposed national tax policy and invited memoranda from the public. The draft document proclaims that "the overriding objective of the Nigerian tax system is to achieve economic growth and development. For Nigeria to pursue an active development agenda or to even carry out the basic functions of government, its tax system should be able to generate resources for government to provide basic public goods and services".

And citing the all- round poor infrastructure which makes investment projects costly, the JTB seeks to try and compensate for poor infrastructure by proposing a new tax system that allows companies higher post-tax profits as a means of ensuring higher domestic investment that will lead to higher economic growth.

The document is essentially an admission of the poor administration of the existing tax system because direct taxes, as JTB explains, are difficult to collect. Nonetheless, even at the low level of tax administration over the years, the apparent contribution of roughly 80 per cent of annual budget expenditure by oil receipts since 1974 (with four consecutive years to date purportedly posting excess crude earnings) and the sizeable amounts of non-oil revenue are proof that the tax system has successfully provided government with ample resources. In view of the purported current excess revenue, does government still require further increases in non-oil tax revenue before settling to play its part as the JTB advocates?

Several aspects of the draft document are contradictory and inconsistent with the stated overriding objective. For instance, one, the JTB proposes wholesale subsidy of firms "by using revenues from Nigeria's oil wealth to alleviate the tax burden on companies in order to diversify the economy". Such a policy will on the contrary render firms inefficient and uncompetitive and dependent on government thereby defeating the set goal of boosting non-oil revenue for government use. Interestingly, except for complaints against multiple taxation which is a symptom of the inequitable sharing of collected revenue, the current level of company income tax has not attracted any protests since it is comparable to relevant tax levels in serious economies.

As a matter of fact, any reduction in any tax with respect to foreign investors will transfer tax revenue forgone to the investor's home government under subsisting double taxation avoidance arrangements. Also the related plan to reduce personal income tax will institute a less progressive tax regime which has adverse implications for aggregate consumption thereby stifling production and economic growth contrary to JTB's advertised goal.

Two, whereas JTB's insistence on reserving tax collection for career civil service tax collectors is well-founded, its call at the same time for tax authorities to retain 10 per cent of total revenue collection at once is selfish and evinces lack of full appreciation of the extent of government responsibilities.

The plan will create a class of overpaid civil service tax officers in place of the rightly rejected private tax consultants, a development that will lead to a restive civil service with different professional cadres spoiling for inflated and matching salaries. Will such turmoil and ensuing inflation promote the promised rapid economic growth?

Three, the planned deliberate shift from direct to indirect taxation for the sole reason of ease of collection betrays reprehensible indolence. The proposal will considerably reduce the workload of tax agencies and result in cuts in the work force, an undesirable spin-off. As if to give the lie to JTB's proposals, the steadily improving administration of the existing tax system by Lagos State has, in the words of JTB Chairman, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, "now culminated in making Lagos State the only State in Nigeria where revenues from taxes surpass incomes coming from the Federation Account on a monthly basis". That achievement was in spite of the fact that huge revenues generated by the various ports, and the many industrial and commercial establishments based in the State accrue directly to the Federation Account.

Four, JTB proposes to make VAT the major source of non-oil revenue by in the first instance tripling the current VAT rate of 5 per cent. To raise VAT is inflationary, which dampens demand thereby stifling industrial production. The plan contradicts the set goal of the proposed new tax system. And given the country's healthy revenue position coupled with the established fact that a high VAT rate works against the national interest, it becomes untenable for JTB to push the argument about some overarching national commitment to match the high VAT rates in ECOWAS countries that happen to lack other major sources of revenue.

Five, purportedly to increase tax collection efficiency, the draft policy seeks to make the Ministry of Finance the sole authority on tax policy formulation and also to convert JTB into a policy making body for those taxes whose administration is split across states by the 1999 Constitution. The long and short of this prescription is to centralise the collection of non-oil revenue just like oil revenue. But true to the ingrained character of a cheating federation, the proposal will merely reinforce Abuja as centre for sharing revenue booty literally forcibly taken by federal might from a few states, which are dispossessed and left pauperised to drift into violence, while states that contribute little or nothing to the Federation Account gorge themselves with the lion's share of the public income.

Nigeria has come to rue such purportedly good-intentioned centralisation - it was the vogue in the 1970s - in all spheres of our national life because political and economic progress has eluded the country these past three decades. Militancy in the Niger Delta can be traced to the centralisation and unfair disbursement of oil revenue. We should therefore not wait for centralised collection of non-oil revenue to begin to breed urban guerrillas in states stripped bare of their plentiful non-oil revenue before casting away JTB's wrong-headed and retrogressive national tax policy.

What is needed is a national tax policy that focuses on the efficient implementation of the revenue prescriptions of Section 163 of the Constitution. In addition to the planned unique taxpayer identification number system, the JTB should oversee the development of guidelines for the various tax authorities to collect all taxes levied under national and state laws without any attempt at imposing uniform tax rates throughout the federation. It is proper and desirable for citizens and businesses to freely move and locate in any part of the country to exploit any differences in benefits offered by various state tax laws.

While Item D of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Constitution enjoins the tax authorities to avoid double taxation among states, the vexed problem of multiple taxation in a state (which the unacceptable centralised tax collection was also meant to eliminate) will hardly arise if fair and appropriate levels of derivation principle give back to entitled states from the Federation Account adequate funds for tackling the peculiar problems that face high revenue-yielding areas. The absence of a federal legislation on this issue almost one decade into the democratic dispensation is unfortunate indeed. It should also be noted that proposing centralised tax collection to resolve multiple taxation problem is unwarranted because in a democratic setting, genuinely elected state and local government representatives, who are closer to the people than federal agencies, cannot but be responsive and amenable to the preferences of the tax-paying public regarding what specific taxes and tax rates to levy and apply.

Amidst our vast resource endowment, it is extremely painful to observe that the Federal Government and its agencies would rather dither endlessly, side-track obvious solutions and contrive untested policies which have kept our dear country down for so long. Government should have a rethink.

Joint Tax Board and the National Tax Policy

THE Joint Tax Board recently conducted regional sensitisation workshops on the proposed national tax policy and invited memoranda from the public. The draft document proclaims that "the overriding objective of the Nigerian tax system is to achieve economic growth and development. For Nigeria to pursue an active development agenda or to even carry out the basic functions of government, its tax system should be able to generate resources for government to provide basic public goods and services".

And citing the all- round poor infrastructure which makes investment projects costly, the JTB seeks to try and compensate for poor infrastructure by proposing a new tax system that allows companies higher post-tax profits as a means of ensuring higher domestic investment that will lead to higher economic growth.

The document is essentially an admission of the poor administration of the existing tax system because direct taxes, as JTB explains, are difficult to collect. Nonetheless, even at the low level of tax administration over the years, the apparent contribution of roughly 80 per cent of annual budget expenditure by oil receipts since 1974 (with four consecutive years to date purportedly posting excess crude earnings) and the sizeable amounts of non-oil revenue are proof that the tax system has successfully provided government with ample resources. In view of the purported current excess revenue, does government still require further increases in non-oil tax revenue before settling to play its part as the JTB advocates?

Several aspects of the draft document are contradictory and inconsistent with the stated overriding objective. For instance, one, the JTB proposes wholesale subsidy of firms "by using revenues from Nigeria's oil wealth to alleviate the tax burden on companies in order to diversify the economy". Such a policy will on the contrary render firms inefficient and uncompetitive and dependent on government thereby defeating the set goal of boosting non-oil revenue for government use. Interestingly, except for complaints against multiple taxation which is a symptom of the inequitable sharing of collected revenue, the current level of company income tax has not attracted any protests since it is comparable to relevant tax levels in serious economies.

As a matter of fact, any reduction in any tax with respect to foreign investors will transfer tax revenue forgone to the investor's home government under subsisting double taxation avoidance arrangements. Also the related plan to reduce personal income tax will institute a less progressive tax regime which has adverse implications for aggregate consumption thereby stifling production and economic growth contrary to JTB's advertised goal.

Two, whereas JTB's insistence on reserving tax collection for career civil service tax collectors is well-founded, its call at the same time for tax authorities to retain 10 per cent of total revenue collection at once is selfish and evinces lack of full appreciation of the extent of government responsibilities.

The plan will create a class of overpaid civil service tax officers in place of the rightly rejected private tax consultants, a development that will lead to a restive civil service with different professional cadres spoiling for inflated and matching salaries. Will such turmoil and ensuing inflation promote the promised rapid economic growth?

Three, the planned deliberate shift from direct to indirect taxation for the sole reason of ease of collection betrays reprehensible indolence. The proposal will considerably reduce the workload of tax agencies and result in cuts in the work force, an undesirable spin-off. As if to give the lie to JTB's proposals, the steadily improving administration of the existing tax system by Lagos State has, in the words of JTB Chairman, Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru, "now culminated in making Lagos State the only State in Nigeria where revenues from taxes surpass incomes coming from the Federation Account on a monthly basis". That achievement was in spite of the fact that huge revenues generated by the various ports, and the many industrial and commercial establishments based in the State accrue directly to the Federation Account.

Four, JTB proposes to make VAT the major source of non-oil revenue by in the first instance tripling the current VAT rate of 5 per cent. To raise VAT is inflationary, which dampens demand thereby stifling industrial production. The plan contradicts the set goal of the proposed new tax system. And given the country's healthy revenue position coupled with the established fact that a high VAT rate works against the national interest, it becomes untenable for JTB to push the argument about some overarching national commitment to match the high VAT rates in ECOWAS countries that happen to lack other major sources of revenue.

Five, purportedly to increase tax collection efficiency, the draft policy seeks to make the Ministry of Finance the sole authority on tax policy formulation and also to convert JTB into a policy making body for those taxes whose administration is split across states by the 1999 Constitution. The long and short of this prescription is to centralise the collection of non-oil revenue just like oil revenue. But true to the ingrained character of a cheating federation, the proposal will merely reinforce Abuja as centre for sharing revenue booty literally forcibly taken by federal might from a few states, which are dispossessed and left pauperised to drift into violence, while states that contribute little or nothing to the Federation Account gorge themselves with the lion's share of the public income.

Nigeria has come to rue such purportedly good-intentioned centralisation - it was the vogue in the 1970s - in all spheres of our national life because political and economic progress has eluded the country these past three decades. Militancy in the Niger Delta can be traced to the centralisation and unfair disbursement of oil revenue. We should therefore not wait for centralised collection of non-oil revenue to begin to breed urban guerrillas in states stripped bare of their plentiful non-oil revenue before casting away JTB's wrong-headed and retrogressive national tax policy.

What is needed is a national tax policy that focuses on the efficient implementation of the revenue prescriptions of Section 163 of the Constitution. In addition to the planned unique taxpayer identification number system, the JTB should oversee the development of guidelines for the various tax authorities to collect all taxes levied under national and state laws without any attempt at imposing uniform tax rates throughout the federation. It is proper and desirable for citizens and businesses to freely move and locate in any part of the country to exploit any differences in benefits offered by various state tax laws.

While Item D of Part II of the Second Schedule of the Constitution enjoins the tax authorities to avoid double taxation among states, the vexed problem of multiple taxation in a state (which the unacceptable centralised tax collection was also meant to eliminate) will hardly arise if fair and appropriate levels of derivation principle give back to entitled states from the Federation Account adequate funds for tackling the peculiar problems that face high revenue-yielding areas. The absence of a federal legislation on this issue almost one decade into the democratic dispensation is unfortunate indeed. It should also be noted that proposing centralised tax collection to resolve multiple taxation problem is unwarranted because in a democratic setting, genuinely elected state and local government representatives, who are closer to the people than federal agencies, cannot but be responsive and amenable to the preferences of the tax-paying public regarding what specific taxes and tax rates to levy and apply.

Amidst our vast resource endowment, it is extremely painful to observe that the Federal Government and its agencies would rather dither endlessly, side-track obvious solutions and contrive untested policies which have kept our dear country down for so long. Government should have a rethink.

Nowhere Is Safe

WHEN armed robbers attack ordinary Nigerians, the news dies to its ordinariness. The attitude seems to be that the poor are entitled to more troubles, so that they would remain poor, or possibly decrease in number. On the other hand, the news of two robbery attacks last week presses home the fact again that security in Nigeria is simply lax.

The first account was of robbers invading a section of the office of the Delta State Governor. They must have known their target, the accounts section, which they vandalised and took some money away. How were they able to succeed? It was more intriguing to hear that they gained access to the office through the roof.

We had taken it for granted that such offices would be well guarded by men and fortified with appropriate security gadgets. What type of robbers were endued with such confidence that they could perch on the roof of that building, at an odd hour, without fear of detection?

As if that was not embarrassing enough, robbers struck at the Katsina home of the President. They entered rooms in the building. The President’s mother lost some valuables to the thieves who concluded their assignment undisturbed, and did not bother to disturb her sleep.

We are wondering how they got in and left without being noticed or stopped. Their confidence is stunning. The web of security round the President and his family should be such that those who have no business around him cannot get close to his private or official residence. Is that no longer the situation?

These two incidents partially tell the story of the insecurity in the country. The worse part of it is that the security agencies seem to have lost their investigative and intelligence gathering abilities.

If robbers can strike in these places what hope is left for the ordinary people, who look up to the authorities to provide security? How would the police explain their failure to guard these places? Is any explanation acceptable in these circumstances?

Had the intruders planned anything more sinister, they would have succeeded. The failure of security in the two incidents is glaring. It also exposes the fact that most of the places we think are under security could be porous, placing government officials, as well as official documents in grave danger.

With whom did the robbers plan these operations? Should these be among the cases the police would tell the public that they are still investigating? In some places, the officers concerned with the security of these places would have resigned in embarrassment. Things are so different here.

Incidents like these make Nigerians lose hope in the ability of their governments to protect them. If the authorities cannot take care of their own personal security, how can they think of the security of others?

How the two governments react to these embarrassments could be the defining indications of the importance government attaches to security. Any indecisive moves can only embolden the criminals

Banks: Mega Profits, Poor Services

AS several banks release their profits, which have increased dramatically over the previous years, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Governor in particular should to some extent justifiably feel that the optimism that consolidated banks will generate better results and provide reassurance has been vindicated. Even if the economic performance in other sectors of the economy failed to match the heady performance of the banking sector, the fact remains that the sector has been the major driver of the Nigerian economy in the past two years.

In the period under review, three Nigerian banks have emerged among the top 1000 in the world unlike 2006 when no Nigerian bank was in that category.

However, with the unprecedented growth in earnings, virtually all around, it is too soon to allow complacency to set in. There are warning at home and from abroad that the sector still has a long way to go before confidence can become unshaken.

For instance, Standard & Poor’s Ratings Services in a recent report, classified the Nigerian banking sector as a high risk one in a global context. Among the reasons given for this low assessment of our banks are high operational risks, a weak judiciary, poor corporate governance, internal security problems and infrastructural deficiencies. It also listed low wealth as well as poor development levels as factors militating against Nigeria’s economic growth, which could make the current profit levels unsustainable.

Internally, banks are coming increasingly under suspicion by customers for what a growing number of depositors consider shady deals and illegal charges bordering on outright fraud. Customers are not aware of charges banks make on their accounts for transactions. Banks think it is only big customers they owe explanations in this direction.

Perhaps the most distrusted bank service today in Nigeria is the ATM card, which was designed to reduce over the counter transactions and speed up payments. It has become the most contentious product of banks.

Where disputed withdrawals occur through ATM cards, it is almost impossible for the customer to get redress. The bureaucracy laid before the customer simply tells him to forget the issue. There are frequent complaints in the media of complaints that have remained unattended in more than a year.

Banks have also concentrated their services in the urban centres. Some streets in Lagos have more bank branches than the total number of bank branches in some States. The vastly under-banked rural areas include most of the local government headquarters, which have their monthly allocations from the Federation Account delivered to them through bullion vans.

Nigerian banks are also victims of the poor infrastructure. They provide virtually all their own power, security, and IT connections at costs, which foreigners can only imagine. Thus, the cost of banking business in Nigeria like anything else is higher than in most countries of the world.

Still, banks must strike a balance between huge profits in the short run, which could undermine their ability to sustain the profitability in the long term and improved services, which are necessary for long term growth.

Banks should urgently address improved services and stem flagging consumer confidence in the sector.