Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has insisted that Nigeria doesn’t have debt problem. “On the positive side, the economy continues to grow with GDP growth at 3.54% in the 2nd quarter of this year. Non-oil revenues have similarly continued to improve due in part to strategic revenue initiatives, including the annual Finance Act.” “But it is still our revenue challenges that heighten the notion that we have a debt problem, which is really not the case, given that our debt/GDP ratio is just 23%.” Professor Osinbajo, who spoke today, November 14 on behalf of President Muhammadu Buhari, at the opening event of this year’s National Economic Summit, said that though the country’s current debt service to revenue ratio is high, but that “unlike in the past, when we were not keeping a close eye on debt matters, the creation of the Debt Management Office means that we are better able to adopt strategies to manage our debt, including using more concessional loans, spreading out our debt maturities and re-financing short-term debt with longer-term debt instruments.” “This is why increasing revenues should engage most of the attention. “We have already seen real improvements in our non-oil revenues, but our focus must now be on productivity or encouraging value addition. Productivity and value addition means creation of traceable value; it means jobs, opportunities, and more tax revenues.” “To increase productivity, we must free up our environment for business, make local and international trade easier by fixing the ports, effecting the National Single Window, revamping our Customs processes and Tariff codes to reduce delays and arbitrariness, removing needless restrictions on imports to enable value added processes.” Professor Osinbajo emphasized that Nigeria must also press its advantage in renewable energy, noting that “the future are the jobs and opportunities from the green economy.” “Solar Power Naija programme launched under the Economic Sustainability Plan which is designed to achieve 5 million solar connections impacting over 25 million Nigerians will contribute in this regard. But the impact includes opportunities in manufacturing and maintaining solar equipment and facilities.” He also highlighted local security and economic challenges, global turbulence on the political, economic and social fronts, including the Russia-Ukraine war and global tensions, which he noted “is impacting Africa, including through higher food prices and disruptions to democratic governance.” The Vice President said that with global economy still recovering from the effects of COVID-19, as well as the challenges posed by climate change, which has caused flooding in several states in Nigeria, “it is clear that our work is cut out and we have to choose our priorities going forward very carefully.
“There are a whole gamut of things that require our attention and many are well captured in the National Development Plan 2021 to 2025.” On the volatility of the country’s exchange rate, Professor Osinbajo said that the discussion that “we must have, shorn of sentiments, is how best to manage the situation by finding a mechanism for increasing supply and moderating demand, which will be transparent and will boost confidence.” The Vice President emphasized the need for urgent action to reduce inflation, noting that inflation is both a tax on the poor and disrupts long term growth. In addition to the monetary measures being taken by the Central Bank of Nigeria, Professor Osinbajo said: “we would need to increase domestic production of food and ensure that it gets to the market.” “In this regard, we must pay closer attention to the institutional insight of the Agriculture for Food and Jobs Programme of the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP), which sought to support small scale farmers by guaranteeing uptake of their production through enabling bigger farmers, suppliers to manufacturing companies and commodity exchanges to support them across every stage of production.”
It must be their way or the highway to hell. These are intellectual indigents who have secured residence on different social media platforms. They maul and bludgeon anyone who differs from the herd. According to them, death is the penalty for differing. But this insidious mob can have their say; they cannot have their way.
While Bola Ahmed Tinubu, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has steadied his campaign on critical issues – economy, security, education, healthcare and the like – some other presidential candidates have been dutiful in advancing hate and fake news.
It is dispiriting that some young people enlist themselves into morbid mobs to tear down divergent voices for some assumed political messiahs. Patriotism is defined around the choice of candidate, and not on allegiance to national ideals. It is very unfortunate.
Youth unemployment should be a critical issue this season. The current unemployment rate is put at 33 percent. It is really concerning. There is no doubt that this is a vector of a spectrum of social anomalies. With a youth population of over 120 million, it is imperative that young people are at the heart of policymaking in Nigeria.
In his Action Plan concepted as ‘Renewed Hope’, Tinubu delineated seminal elements to harnessing youth potential. He says, as president, the youth will not be exploited to do the bidding of the government. He says his administration will aim to cut the youth unemployment rate in half within four years through entrepreneurship and job creation as well as through social and political empowerment.
On the entrepreneurship and job creation plank, Tinubu says his government will work with the CBN to develop suitable incentives to encourage commercial banks to target low-cost loans towards a given quota of youth-led enterprises. He says commercial banks will also be encouraged to ensure their loan application processes are simplified and give greater priority to young people with marketable ideas, and that federally owned and affiliated banking institutions will immediately be mandated to develop similar schemes for young entrepreneurs.
The APC presidential candidate says there will be an increase in intergenerational, business mentoring and cooperation with two million volunteer entrepreneurs and professionals across the nation committed to working with the youth to find employment, hone job skills and create businesses.
This is clearly a plan and an antiserum to the contagion of youth restiveness and delinquency. It is disturbing that young people on the internet resort to promoting ethnic and religious prejudices, and passing sentences, threats, and curses on those whose political choice is at variance with their preference.
Concerning are the chronic onslaughts by supporters of Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), against citizens from the south-east who do not support his bid. They threaten to cause harm, curse, and use every vile instrument in Frankenstein’s toolbox to drive fear and intimidate differing voices. Such hate and prejudice should not be found among well-meaning citizens.
Chukwuma Soludo, governor of Anambra state, became a casualty of the Obi Red Army when he only confirmed the obvious. In an interview in 2018, Peter Obi had claimed he invested $20 million in International Breweries on behalf of Anambra state while he was governor. This is a company he has interest in.
But Soludo said Peter Obi’s purported investments in Anambra are worth next to nothing.
He said: “I think there was something I read about somebody speculating about whatever investment. With what I’ve seen today, the value of those investments is worth next to nothing. So, let’s leave that aside.’’
It is disturbing that despite the promise of issue-based campaigns by contending political parties, the entire political expedition is dissolving into a free-for-all with divisive methods, slander and fake news deployed, particularly by opposing parties.
The rippling of a fake statement purportedly emanating from the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) alleging a probe of Tinubu is a clear breach of the sanctity of the campaigns. Although INEC quickly torpedoed the fake statement, the attempt underscores the predatory and sinister complexion of our politics.
As I often say, if we divide the country during the campaigns, we will have to live with the consequences of presiding over a divided people. If the purpose of seeking power is for the good of all, then we must begin by keeping the campaigns clean. What is the good of power when the next government will spend the next four years struggling to mend fences and manage diversity without success? We will only be reinventing a parlous wheel. If we sow hate during the campaigns, we will reap hate afterwards. The travails of the past years should teach us not to make campaigns about ethnic and religious prejudices, threats, curses, slander, and fake news.
The parties going down this scorched and serpentine path, must beat a retreat.
Fredrick Nwabufo, Nwabufo aka Mr. OneNigeria is a writer and journalist.
The Special Intelligence Squad of the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has smashed a notorious fake dollars syndicate which specialises in printing, sales and distribution of fake United States Dollar notes.
Director, Public Relations at the NSCDC headquarters, Olusola Odumosu, who made this known today, November 14 in Abuja, said that the syndicate had been operating for the past 10 years around ‘Heart Plaza,’ Mararaba under bridge in Karu Local Government Area of Nasarawa State before luck ran out on them.
The report sai that members of the Syndicate had swindled many individuals of millions of Naira under the guise of being black market operators exchanging Nigerian Naira to US Dollars, thereby issuing fake dollar notes to the unsuspecting victims.
The suspects were smoked out of their hideout in a sting operation by the security agents, which saw personnel trying to exchange the sum of N250,000 for US dollars. “Two members of the syndicate arrested were found in possession of a total of $15,400 fake US Dollars.
They are 65 years old Ya’u Muhammed, from Warji LGA, Bauchi State and 29 years old Lamido Usman from La’u LGA in Taraba state.
Other items recovered from the suspects include one First Bank ATM card, one screw driver and original $100 dollar note.
The suspects are currrently undergoing preliminary investigation after which they would be handed over alongside the exhibits to NSCDC Nasarawa State Command under whose jurisdiction the arrest took place, for further action,” Odumosu said.
Newsdiaryonline, an Abuja-based newspaper has once again suffered a major cyber-attack.
The Publisher and Editor-In-Chief of the online newspaper, Danlami Nmodu, mni, in a statement today, November 14, said that the attack, which occurred in the early hours of Sunday, November 13, rendered all posts on the site inaccessible.
Nmodu said he was on hospital admission when he received the news of the attack from his IT staff, who battled to restored the site.
“All posts on the site have been wiped off during the attack.”
He said that the webmaster succeeded in restoring the site using multiple backup security measures in place after Newsdiaryonline’s first major experience.
Recall that the Management of Newsdiary Communications Limited, publishers of Newsdiaryonline had on April 2, 2017, announced the resumption of the online newspaper after it came under malicious cyber attack.
Nmodu had expressed gratitude to the Almighty God and the wizardry of the company’s IT professional.
“We also thank all those who called us or sent messages of solidarity and encouragement through social media platforms
“It was the worst attack we have suffered since we started publishing Newsdiaryonline in 2008.”
Recall Newsdiaryonline started operation in Lagos before its headquarters moved to Abuja in 2010.
Nmodu noted in 2017, “We are also careful not to point accusing fingers because we know cyber attacks have become a widespread phenomenon in our global village. .. Just as we know institutions can target whatever they wish, we also know there are freelance attackers.”
The Defence Headquarters of the Nigerian Army has declared 19 terrorists wanted with N5 million bounty placed on each of them. The details of the 19 terrorists are contained in a poster released by the Director, Defence Information, Major General Jimmy Akpor, today, November 14 in Abuja. The information on the poster revealed that the N5 million cash reward is for anyone who can provide information that can lead to arrest of one wanted terrorist. The wanted persons were described as notorious bandits/terrorists that have been terrorising Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara States. The military authority listed the names of the wanted terrorists as follows: Sani Dangote who hails from Dumbarum Village in Zurmi Local Government Area (LGA) of Zamfara Bello Turji Gudda from Fakai in Zamfara Leko from Mozoj Village in Mutazu LGA of Katsina State Dogo Nahali – Yar Tsamiyar Village in Kankara LGA of Katsina State Halilu Sububu from Sububu Village in Maradun LGA of Zamfara Nagona – from Angwan Galadima in Isa LGA of Sokoto State Nasanda from Kwashabawa Village in Zurmi LGA of Zamara Isiya Kwashen Garwa from Kamfanin Daudawa Village of Faskari in Katsina State Ali Kachalla, aka Ali Kawaje, from Kuyambara Village in Dansadau Maru of Zamfara Abu Radde from Varanda Village in Batsari LGA of Katsina State Dan-Da from Varanda Village in Batsari LGA of Katsina; Sani Gurgu also from Varanda Village in Batsari LGA of Katsina Umaru Dan Nigeria – from RAFI Village in Mada District of Gusau Alhaji Ado Aliero from Yankuzo Village in Tsafe LGA of Zamfara Monore from Yantumaki Village in Dan LGA, Katsina State Gwaska Dankarami from Shamushele Village in Zuri LGA of Zamfara Baleri – from Shinkafi LGA of Zamfara Mamudu Tainange from Varanda Village in Batsari LGA of Katsina State Nagala from Maru LGA of Zamfara. The Army called on anyone with any information on the wanted terrorists to call 09135904467. Source: NAN.
Top spokespersons at the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), converged on the 18th All-Nigerian Editors’ Conference, organized by the Nigeria Guild of Editors (NGE) in Owerri, Imo State at the weekend. They are, from left: Mrs. Nnena Ukoha, Head, Corporate Communication; Mustapha Isa, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE); Reuben Muoka, Director of Public Affairs and Dr. Omoniyi Ibietan, Head of Media Relations Management all at NCC.
The Executive Vice Chairman (EVC) of the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), Professor Umar Danbatta, has challenged Nigerian media to set agenda for peaceful and credible elections that will usher in new government across the country next year.
Danbatta, who spoke today, November 13 at the 18th All-Nigeria Editors Conference, organised by the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) at the Concord Hotels in Owerri, Imo State, said that he “believes the editors will leave the conference with resolutions setting clear, unambiguous and very robust parameters to guide the role of the media in the forthcoming elections in a fair, objective and balanced manner.
“Beyond and above the traditional routine role of the media in information-sharing, education and entertainment, the media is a social agency constitutionally charged to watch those of us in public office from derailing from the pursuit of the social contract and the social good. No other agency of the civil society is so positioned to influence social progress.”
Professor Danbatta, whose message was delivered by the Commission’s Director of Public Affairs, Reuben Moukai reiterated the importance of the roles of the journalists, before, during and after the 2023 elections.
He expressed the confidence that the vibrant Nigerian media, credited with its sterling performance from the history of struggle for the country’s political independence, where Nigerian nationalists, who were good journalists made “brilliant and courageous outing”, will work in the interest of the nation.
Speaking on the theme of the conference: “2023: Political Landscape, Credible Elections and the Role of the Editors,” NCC boss said that good journalism is critical to sustainable democratic culture as political stability is enhanced by conduct of successful elections.
He informed the gathering that the Commission is dedicated to the implementation of the Nigerian National Broadband Plan (2020-2025), and the National Digital Economy Policy and Strategy (2020-2030), among other regulatory instruments, with a view to enhancing connectivity and social cohesion in the land. Hence, he said befitting infrastructure, including the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, are all aimed at improving availability and accessibility and affordability.
He said there is no doubt that the availability of telecommunications infrastructure will enhance credibility of elections.
Professor Danbatta expressed gratitude to the Nigeria media for trusting the NCC and supporting its efforts to fulfil its mandate right from the beginning of the transition from “state-dominated telecommunication operations to a deregulated, more liberalised market.”
He recalled that NCC’s friendship and partnership with the media have been very mutually-fruitful, as the Commission has leveraged on the media for increased awareness by the public of NCC’s activities, programmes and achievements.
He commended the journalists covering the telecom sector as well as other communication professionals for supporting the Commission all the way by giving adequate and prominent coverage to its successes in consumer protection, improvement in infrastructure, adoption of new technologies, most recently, the launch of the Fifth Generation (5G) networks, and reportage of challenges facing the telecom industry.
The Presidential Campaign Council of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has asked Nigeria police to investigate forged document of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) with which fake news about the party’s Presidential candidate, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu was churned out to Nigerians.
In a statement today, November 13, Director of media and publicity for the Campaign Council, Bayo Onanuga said: “we also call on the police to investigate the circulation of the forged INEC statement and serve justice to those responsible.”
He said that the party’s Presidential candidate had consistently said that he will make this campaign about issues that affect the lives of Nigerians and how to proffer workable and enduring solutions that will improve quality of life of our people who are looking for leaders at all levels to improve their lives and sow them seeds of prosperity in our country.
“He has demonstrated this resolve by publishing an 80-page manifesto tagged Action Plan for a Better Nigeria, which he has been selling to strategic sectoral groups in the country.
“We had hoped anyone aspiring to lead our country at this time will be a natural subscriber to this noble and higher goal.
“It is clear the opposition parties and purveyors of fake news have other negative ideas: they want to make this election cycle more about muckraking and mudslinging.
“While we want to stay above the fray and stand by our commitment to inspire our people and restore their faith and confidence in the immense goodness and greatness of our country, we want to serve notice to all the agents of disinformation and their collaborating media platforms, that our campaign organisation stands ready to confront and fight all libellous and defamatory publications against Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu.
“We shall no longer allow the prevailing recklessness and utter disregard for professional judgment to continue unchallenged.”
Onanuga said that the APC Presidential Campaign Council is not surprised by the antics of the sinking opposition parties, saying: “what we found shocking was how quickly some compromised media organisations gulped the falsehood, hook, line and sinker, without attempting to verify.
“We understand why they did so: the forgery and its narrative fit their mindset of throwing overboard every known virtue of ethical journalism and professionalism, as they work in cahoot with the opposition to defame Asiwaju Tinubu.
“This inglorious path has been taken before since 2003 and in the run-up to the primaries of the ruling APC that produced Asiwaju Tinubu as the presidential torch bearer. Those who took this damned path of infamy lost their bet because Asiwaju Tinubu stands rock solid and indestructible.”
Two unrelated pieces of information prompted the writing of this piece. First was the statement from the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Bello Shehu, when he paid a courtesy visit on the chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in his office in Abuja.
He said the commission had concluded arrangements to review, upwards, of course, the remuneration of public officers in Nigeria. The last time such was carried out for these categories of Nigerians “was in 2008, which makes it even overdue for review,” he stated.
The second was the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign the ₦200, ₦500, and ₦1000 notes by December 15, 2022. The apex bank said the existing notes will no longer be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.
Justifying the development, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, in an announcement made on October 26, disclosed that 85 per cent of the currency in circulation is being hoarded by Nigerians and that redesigning the notes would help to curb counterfeiting, as well as frustrate ransom collection by terrorists and kidnappers.
The plan is for the redesigned naira notes to start circulating from December 15 and be used alongside the old notes until January 31, when they will be phased out.
On his side, the RMAFC boss lamented what he described as the poor remuneration of public, political and judicial office holders, “which has exposed them to corrupt tendencies.”
His move, he said, was underpinned by paragraph 32(D) of part 1 to the third schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, which empowers the Commission to determine the remuneration appropriate to political, public and judicial officeholders in the country.
On the other hand, Emefiele’s move has the strong backing of the president. When the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, countered Emefiele on the proposal during a 2023 budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Finance, no less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari came out to throw his weight behind the apex bank’s decision.
As things stand now, none of the above measures can be stopped because of the firm belief in the most powerful office in the land that their time has come. Whatever people will say may not be enough to reverse the decisions already taken – what the Hausa man will call ihun ka banza. And so, this is just to put things down on record for the sake of posterity.
But Shehu’s statement did not just come out of the blues. It was like icing on the cake – after putting sugar in the mouths of other workers. In August, the president had said there was a need for an urgent salary review in the federal civil service owing to the high inflation rate across the world. The country’s inflation rate surged to 19.64 per cent in July 2022, up from 18.60 per cent in the previous month, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
And on August 31, Ekpo Nta, chairman of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, issued a circular to the effect that the president had approved an increment in duty tour allowances (DTAs) for ministers, permanent secretaries and civil servants on grade levels one to 17 with effect from September 1.
According to the circular, duty tour allowances applicable to permanent secretary/equivalent moved from N20,0000 to N70,000, while those for minister/SGF/HCSF/equivalent rose from N35,000 to N80,000. The raise went down all the way to level one officers.
A duty tour refers to an official trip embarked upon by a public servant.
Nigeria has seen many commissions set up even before independence to consider the nation’s pay structure to arrive at an enduring one befitting of an income policy.
The major ones were the Hunt Commission (1934), the Bridges Committee of Enquiry (1941), the Tudor Davies Commission (1945), the Harragin Commission (1946), the Miller Commission of 1947, the Gorsuch Commission (1955), the Newns Commission, the Elwood Grading Team (1956) and the Mbanefo Commission of 1959.
Others were the Morgan Commission (1963), the Adebo Commission (1970 – 1971), the Public Service Review Commission (Udoji Report) (1974), the Cookey Commission (1981), the Fatai Williams Committee (1990), the Commission on the Review of Higher Education in Nigeria (Longe Commission), the 1994 Review Panel on the Civil Service Reforms (Ayida Panel) (1994), the Vision 2010 Committee Report (1997) and the Committee on Harmonisation of Remuneration in the Public Service (1998).
What this portends is that there will be a considerable increase in monthly cash flow. The recipients have more money coming in, meaning more money to spend. The people involved will now more easily meet their financial obligations. This increased purchasing power in many hands will galvanise production and improve the overall economy.
Productivity, as a consequence, will get a boost because the worker who gets a pay rise will be motivated to embrace his work with the seriousness it deserves. Thus, there would be more efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace, ultimately leading to increased productivity.
However, in Nigeria, once there is a salary increase, the price of everything goes up, and nothing that has gone up ever comes down again, going by experience, perhaps except for just one time – when the late President Musa Yar’adua reduced the pump price of petrol in 2007.
In 1972, when the Udoji Commission recommended, among others, a Unified Grading and Salary Structure (UGSS) which embraced all posts in the Civil Service from the lowest to the highest, the naira was stronger than the dollar at about ₦60/$100. The commission increased the annual minimum wage from ₦312 to ₦720, the equivalent of $1200. As of the time of writing this, $100 was nudging ₦90,000!
Today, $1200 will be close to ₦1,080,000. What this means is that the Udoji Commission’s minimum wage of ₦60 ($100 then) had more purchasing power than today’s minimum wage of ₦30,000 ($33 now). Then, just imagine $100 as the basic monthly salary today! That’s some tidy ₦90,000. ₦1 million as minimum wage will help no one as long as the naira is weak. Period.
Therefore, rather than increase salaries, the government should do all it can to strengthen the naira. A very strong naira will see market forces pushing down the price of commodities, thereby strengthening the purchasing power of Nigerians. The salaries being currently received will then look very okay.
But if salaries must be increased – and the government will do it anyway because it is a populist one and elections are around the corner – the government would do well to explore the idea of price control. While the advantage is that it may lead to lower prices for consumers, the consequence is that it may lead to lower supply and a reduction of quality. However, price stability helps to avoid both inflation and deflation.
Another idea that the government must explore is a drastic cut in salaries and allowances of public officers, especially those of elected officials, political appointees and heads of MDAs, rather than increasing them. After all, Nigeria does not have the money to pay university lecturers decent salaries. The saved money can be used to finance the salary increase. This way, the negative consequences will be mitigated.
Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.
This article first appeared in The Nation newspaper, edition of September 4, 2020. It was published as a presentation of naked facts against the incessant falsehood with which Nigerians have been perennially fed through untenable propaganda shamelessly mounted by certain Nigerian media irritants who are well known for exhibiting gullible bigotry.
Facts are as much constant as they are sacred.
Four major and fundamental points should be well noted in this article for historical records as well as for posterity. And, the four points are quite verifiable.
The Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) was established in 1969 with Nigeria as a foundation member.
Contrary to the wide spread misinformation in Nigeria, it was General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian Head of State, and not General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, a Muslim Head of State, that took Nigeria into OIC.
Four Nigerian Presidents have attended OIC Summits so far. They are Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo (Christian), Umaru Musa Yar’Adua (Muslim), Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (Christian) and Muhammadu Buhari (Muslim).
About 30 African countries, none of which can claim to be an Islamic State, are, like Nigeria, members of OIC and their citizens are not in any frivolous noise of Islamization.
This is Nigeria’s time of digital facts. And to reveal those facts as succinctly as they are and not as they are deceptively and mischievously presented in Nigeria media, is to appropriately create an indelible archive of digital facts for posterity sake. Falsehood of any form, in any place and at any time, is like a blind horse which may run berserk in its hurried bid to convey its rider to his/her presumed destination. Should that horse, in its blindness, mistake a dungeon for its rider’s destination, the trip in question may become ‘a journey of no return’.
Time flies. It has been 34 years already since Nigeria’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) sparked off a wild, national brouhaha in Nigeria’s local communication den of rental criers called Nigerian media.
That unwarranted brouhaha over this country’s membership of OIC was an open evidence, either of the blatant ignorance with which most Nigerian journalists practice journalism as a profession or as a deliberate mischief of some political/business charlatans who have been perennially masquerading in the cloak of religion or both. For such charlatans, religion is a silhouette through which they can call a dog a bad name in order to hang it.
The Organization of Islamic Conference popularly known as OIC, was established in September 1969 when General Yakubu Gowon, a Christian from today’s Plateau State, was Nigeria’s Head of State. Nigeria was then embroiled in a civil war that raged fiercely from 1967 to 1970. In his desperation to win that war, General Gowon, as Commander-in-Chief of Nigerian Armed Forces, took certain steps that later turned out to be generators of unbridled controversies in Nigerian history. One of such steps was to take Nigeria into the then newly established international Organization called OIC. Another was the ceding of Bakasi area of today’s Cross River State to Cameroon in exchange for the latter’s support in a bid to win the civil war and to prevent the emergence of a rebellious region named Biafra as a separate country. But our immediate concern here is more about Nigeria’s membership of OIC which led to the coinage of the word ‘Islamization’ as a religious blackmail in Nigeria by certain business Christian charlatans who are parading themselves as clerics.
While the brouhaha in Nigerian media continued to reverberate ceaselessly over the country’s regularization of her membership of OIC in 1986, only a few, well educated and civilized Nigerians, knew the role played by General Yakubu Gowon in the historical episode that ushered Nigeria into that Organization. And, as a charismatic statesman that he is perceived to be in certain quarters, one would have expected General Gowon to openly come out to tell Nigerians about his role in that controversial venture.
It was during Nigeria’s civil war years (1967-1970) that Yakubu Gowon, a Northern Christian General in the Nigerian Army and the country’s Head of State, approached the then Egyptian military Head of State, General Gamal Abdul Nasir, who later transformed himself into a civilian President in that country for help. General Gowon asked that Egyptian President for assistance in winning the then ongoing Nigerian civil war in the spirit of Pan Africanism which President Nasir championed along with the then President Kwami Nkruma of Ghana at that time. And, in addition to helping General Gowon with some sophisticated military wares, President Nasir also introduced him to OIC, which was established in September 1969, in the belief that Gowon could get further help from other member States of the Organization. After all, seeking foreign help internationally was not peculiar to Gowon or Nigeria as a country. The leader of the then rebellious Eastern region, Lt. Colonel Odumegwu Ojukwu, also sought and got military and financial assistance from some countries like France, Germany, Portugal, Israel and others in his bid to succeed in pulling his region out of Nigeria by all means.
Thus, by participating in the very first meeting of of that Organization in 1969, Nigeria became a member of OIC from its inception.
For 17 years (1969-1986) after joining OIC at its inception, Nigeria remained an observer member of that Organization until 1986 when her membership was regularized.
As a Deputy Foreign Editor in the now defunct Concord newspaper, at that time, yours sincerely was one of the only two Nigerian journalists that covered that event in Fez, Morocco in January 1986. The other Nigerian Journalist that was in attendacne to cover the conference was Alhaji Liad Tella, the then News Editor of the same Concord newspaper.
Before 1986, Nigeria had been severally pressurized, by the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), to regularize her observer membership status. That observer status had embarrassingly become a matter of suspicion to other members of the Organization. And in 1985, Nigeria was given an ultimatum of one year (1986) to either regularize her membership of that Organization or pull out of it. At that point, if Nigeria had failed to regularize her membership of OIC in the following year (1986), she would have been disgraced out of the body and that would have amounted to a public diplomatic ridicule in the comity of nations.
One of the loudest allegations of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria in recent times is from a dubious, self-appointed Christian body that names itself National Christian Elders Forum (NCEF). Besides OIC membership, that mischievous body has also severally referred to another Muslim Conference called ‘Islam in Africa Conference’ which was hosted by Nigerian Muslims in the city of Abuja in 1989. That was the year that the Nigerian National Mosque, in Abuja, was officially commissioned. Many African Muslim leaders who attended the commissioning of that Mosque were so impressed that they fortuitously proposed an annual conference under that name, which could unite African Muslims in the practice of their religion as a way of checkmating any act of fanaticism that could breed terrorism. Perhaps if that proposal had materialized, the mence of terrorism that is rampant in Africa today would have been minimized.
The 1989 Islam in Africa Conference (IAC), held in Abuja was not exclusive to Muslims. Many African Christian leaders including some members of the now so called NCEF were invited and they participated in it with the expression of their opinions and advice on various religious issues in Africa. If the conference was truly aimed at ‘Islamizing’ Nigeria as mischievously alleged by NCEF and CAN, would Christian leaders have been invited? And knowing very well that Nigerian media was heavily dominated by Christian journalists, at that time, would those journalists have been allowed to cover the event?
In its solo or chorus voice, the song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria can be heard only from mischievous brigands who are parading themselves as religious clerics or Priests.
About 16 years before General Gowon took Nigeria into OIC, a Christian West Africa Synod was held in Ghana. Many Nigerian Christian clerics who attended that Synod did not participate in it as ordinary members but as vocal leaders. Yet, Nigerian Muslims did not raise any senseless noise that could engender unwarranted religious rivalry on it by tagging that Synod as a venture of Christianizing Nigeria. Nevertheless, Nigerian Muslims are not oblivious of the problem with NCEF, CAN and some other Christian bigots in who are constantly and monotonously shouting the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria as if they have the monopoly of such provoking noise. That the trumpeters of that owlish noise do not see it as a dangerous phantasm, which may cause un-foretold consequences, is a conspicuous evidence of blatantly dangerous ignorance on the part of the so-called NCEF and even CAN.
Seven years before Nigeria’s independence, a West African Christian Synod was held in the Gold Coast (now Ghana) with active participation of certain Nigerian Christian leaders, some of whom are still alive today. No Muslim was invited to that Synod.
Synod is a conference of Bishops and other Christian topmost Priests at which fundamental decisions are taken which would become the basis of Church operations in evangelism. It was at that 1953 Synod in Ghana that a resolution to use Western education as an instrument of Christian evangelization in the West African sub-region was adopted. By that resolution, any Muslim child that wanted to acquire Western education in a Christian Missionary school must be converted into Christianity in spite of his or her payment of any charged fees. The fear of the Christian conferees at that Synod was that despite all efforts made by the then available Churches to stop the spread of Islam, that divine religion kept spreading spirally to the greatest amazement of the Christian evangelists in the sub-region. And, to curb such a trend, only an evangelization policy through the use of Western education as a magnet could work like magic. Thus, incorporation of educational system into African Continental evangelism became a fundamental policy through which the trend of religious preaching in Africa could favour the growth of Christianity.
It was by that policy, which had the tacit backing of the Colonial masters, that the use of Western education as an instrument of evangelism became possible. Through that policy, Muslim youths whose parents were eager to see their children educated in the Western way had to adopt Christianity as their religion.
One of the objectives of the policy formulated at the 1953 West African Synod was to indoctrinate all converted school children in a way to sow in their hearts the seed of hatred towards their parents for sticking to the religion of Islam and thereby force those parents to psychologically jettison their religion and embrace Christianity or to renounce their children who would then become the foot soldiers of Christian evangelism.
With such a resolution, as mentioned above, that was backed up with a White Paper which became a permanent policy of the Christian Mission in Africa, Christianity, according to the Synod’s plan, would become such a formidable rival of Islam that within just one half of a century, Islam would have been completely effaced from the surface of African continent and thereby relegated to a second class religion especially in Nigeria. Thus, most of the vocal antagonists of Islam in Nigeria today are men and women with Islamic background who fell into the dragnet of that tendentious plot of the 1953 Synod.
It is the seeming failure of that plot that is now pushing the sour song of ‘Islamization’ of Nigeria into the mouths of the Christian archers.so
The front line advocates of that plot are thinking that like their Synod, Muslims too might take a decision which could be devastating to Christian evangelism in Africa.
Now, from all indications, the era of falsehood in religious sphere may be fast approaching its end in Nigeria as it once happened in Europe, since Nigeria’s lifestyle, as a colonial country, is based on the template of that of Britain that colonized her. And, when that happens, the monotonous sour song of ‘islamization’ being echoed almost daily with irritating reverberation will become a faint solo without any chorus.
In the article entitled ‘Whenever the Sultan Speaks’ published in this column last Friday, August 30, 2020, some errors were inadvertently made which need to be corrected here, for records purpose.
The appointment of Brigadier-General Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar as Sultan of Sokoto was announced on November 3, 2006 and not his installation as stated here last Friday. His Eminence’s installation as Sultan and his assumption of office was in March 2007.
Please, let these facts be noted for record purposes. God bless you all!
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It must be their way or the highway to hell. These are intellectual indigents who have secured residence on different social media platforms. They maul and bludgeon anyone who differs from the herd. According to them, death is the penalty for differing. But this insidious mob can have their say; they cannot have their way.
The Special Intelligence Squad of the Commandant General, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), has smashed a notorious fake dollars syndicate which specialises in printing, sales and distribution of fake United States Dollar notes.
Why Salary Increase May Cause More Harm Than Good, By Hassan Gimba
Two unrelated pieces of information prompted the writing of this piece. First was the statement from the chairman of the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Bello Shehu, when he paid a courtesy visit on the chairman of Nigerian Governors’ Forum, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State in his office in Abuja.
He said the commission had concluded arrangements to review, upwards, of course, the remuneration of public officers in Nigeria. The last time such was carried out for these categories of Nigerians “was in 2008, which makes it even overdue for review,” he stated.
The second was the decision by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to redesign the ₦200, ₦500, and ₦1000 notes by December 15, 2022. The apex bank said the existing notes will no longer be regarded as legal tender by January 31, 2023.
Justifying the development, the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, in an announcement made on October 26, disclosed that 85 per cent of the currency in circulation is being hoarded by Nigerians and that redesigning the notes would help to curb counterfeiting, as well as frustrate ransom collection by terrorists and kidnappers.
The plan is for the redesigned naira notes to start circulating from December 15 and be used alongside the old notes until January 31, when they will be phased out.
On his side, the RMAFC boss lamented what he described as the poor remuneration of public, political and judicial office holders, “which has exposed them to corrupt tendencies.”
His move, he said, was underpinned by paragraph 32(D) of part 1 to the third schedule of the 1999 constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, which empowers the Commission to determine the remuneration appropriate to political, public and judicial officeholders in the country.
On the other hand, Emefiele’s move has the strong backing of the president. When the minister of finance, budget and national planning, Hajiya Zainab Ahmed, countered Emefiele on the proposal during a 2023 budget defence session with the Senate Committee on Finance, no less a person than President Muhammadu Buhari came out to throw his weight behind the apex bank’s decision.
As things stand now, none of the above measures can be stopped because of the firm belief in the most powerful office in the land that their time has come. Whatever people will say may not be enough to reverse the decisions already taken – what the Hausa man will call ihun ka banza. And so, this is just to put things down on record for the sake of posterity.
But Shehu’s statement did not just come out of the blues. It was like icing on the cake – after putting sugar in the mouths of other workers. In August, the president had said there was a need for an urgent salary review in the federal civil service owing to the high inflation rate across the world. The country’s inflation rate surged to 19.64 per cent in July 2022, up from 18.60 per cent in the previous month, according to the Consumer Price Index (CPI).
And on August 31, Ekpo Nta, chairman of the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission, issued a circular to the effect that the president had approved an increment in duty tour allowances (DTAs) for ministers, permanent secretaries and civil servants on grade levels one to 17 with effect from September 1.
According to the circular, duty tour allowances applicable to permanent secretary/equivalent moved from N20,0000 to N70,000, while those for minister/SGF/HCSF/equivalent rose from N35,000 to N80,000. The raise went down all the way to level one officers.
A duty tour refers to an official trip embarked upon by a public servant.
Nigeria has seen many commissions set up even before independence to consider the nation’s pay structure to arrive at an enduring one befitting of an income policy.
The major ones were the Hunt Commission (1934), the Bridges Committee of Enquiry (1941), the Tudor Davies Commission (1945), the Harragin Commission (1946), the Miller Commission of 1947, the Gorsuch Commission (1955), the Newns Commission, the Elwood Grading Team (1956) and the Mbanefo Commission of 1959.
Others were the Morgan Commission (1963), the Adebo Commission (1970 – 1971), the Public Service Review Commission (Udoji Report) (1974), the Cookey Commission (1981), the Fatai Williams Committee (1990), the Commission on the Review of Higher Education in Nigeria (Longe Commission), the 1994 Review Panel on the Civil Service Reforms (Ayida Panel) (1994), the Vision 2010 Committee Report (1997) and the Committee on Harmonisation of Remuneration in the Public Service (1998).
What this portends is that there will be a considerable increase in monthly cash flow. The recipients have more money coming in, meaning more money to spend. The people involved will now more easily meet their financial obligations. This increased purchasing power in many hands will galvanise production and improve the overall economy.
Productivity, as a consequence, will get a boost because the worker who gets a pay rise will be motivated to embrace his work with the seriousness it deserves. Thus, there would be more efficiency and effectiveness in the workplace, ultimately leading to increased productivity.
However, in Nigeria, once there is a salary increase, the price of everything goes up, and nothing that has gone up ever comes down again, going by experience, perhaps except for just one time – when the late President Musa Yar’adua reduced the pump price of petrol in 2007.
In 1972, when the Udoji Commission recommended, among others, a Unified Grading and Salary Structure (UGSS) which embraced all posts in the Civil Service from the lowest to the highest, the naira was stronger than the dollar at about ₦60/$100. The commission increased the annual minimum wage from ₦312 to ₦720, the equivalent of $1200. As of the time of writing this, $100 was nudging ₦90,000!
Today, $1200 will be close to ₦1,080,000. What this means is that the Udoji Commission’s minimum wage of ₦60 ($100 then) had more purchasing power than today’s minimum wage of ₦30,000 ($33 now). Then, just imagine $100 as the basic monthly salary today! That’s some tidy ₦90,000. ₦1 million as minimum wage will help no one as long as the naira is weak. Period.
Therefore, rather than increase salaries, the government should do all it can to strengthen the naira. A very strong naira will see market forces pushing down the price of commodities, thereby strengthening the purchasing power of Nigerians. The salaries being currently received will then look very okay.
But if salaries must be increased – and the government will do it anyway because it is a populist one and elections are around the corner – the government would do well to explore the idea of price control. While the advantage is that it may lead to lower prices for consumers, the consequence is that it may lead to lower supply and a reduction of quality. However, price stability helps to avoid both inflation and deflation.
Another idea that the government must explore is a drastic cut in salaries and allowances of public officers, especially those of elected officials, political appointees and heads of MDAs, rather than increasing them. After all, Nigeria does not have the money to pay university lecturers decent salaries. The saved money can be used to finance the salary increase. This way, the negative consequences will be mitigated.
Hassan Gimba is the Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Neptune Prime.