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Nigerians in throes of biting starvation as financial disaster pushes many into poverty

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Nigerians in throes of biting starvation as financial disaster pushes many into poverty

GODFREY GEORGE writes on the impact of the worsening economy and the rising prices of food and important items on the underprivileged

Six mouths, excluding hers, are what a petty trader and single mother, Comfort Soso, has to feed every day. She wakes up early every morning before the rest of her family, buried in her thoughts.

Her husband, whom she said had been married to her for over 24 years, left the house shortly after the birth of her last child, Anchor, and had since not returned.

“Many said he (my husband) was with another younger woman in Cross River State. Some said he travelled abroad but, since March 2019, I have not set my eyes on him,” she said, looking forlorn.

For years, the couple had been having some issues over unfaithfulness. Comfort had alleged that her husband was cheating. The husband, our correspondent learnt, lamented to several sources that his wife did not respect him and was used to insulting him because he did not have enough money to take care of the family.

A family friend, who said he only wanted to be identified as Eze and connected our correspondent to Comfort, said he had known them for over 15 years.

He said Comfort was a tailor when she got married but had to stop the job at her husband’s orders as he wanted her to concentrate on taking care of the family.

“I can tell you that life for this family has been a living hell. She has five biological children. Her first child, Gab, was from her previous relationship before she entered the marriage. Her husband was aware. It is just sad that things turned out this way,” he added.

Comfort, further speaking, said in her first year of marriage, she used to have a lot of issues with her husband, ranging from emotional to physical abuse.

She also alleged that the man was fond of absconding from responsibility.

“When I had my first child, he left home for months. When he came back, the child had almost stopped breastfeeding. We go through a lot.

“This period where the price of food is at its highest, you cannot imagine what I am going through as a single mother.

“My business has closed. What I call business was a food store people contributed money for me to open. We kept on eating out of the capital for the business until it folded up.

“My first child, who is around 21, still lives with me; he is a teacher in a private school. His salary is N24,000. His younger sister is a salesgirl with a clothing store and her salary is around N20,000.

“The other one is trying to start schooling. She just took the West African Senior School Certificate Examination last year. She recently got admitted to a polytechnic but there was no money to pay, so he had to forfeit the admission.

“The others are still in secondary school. I pay their fees. I pay for their transport. Life is just so difficult and there is really nothing I can do.

“The other day, Anchor (one of my children) was so sick that I thought he was going to die. I tried all I could but I couldn’t afford the medications needed. I tried the local (herbal) option and it made matters worse. His system was not used to it,” she lamented.

Comfort further said her family members consumed half a container of rice now worth around N3,500 at one go.

“We buy a ‘paint’ of rice now at around N7,000 or N7,500. All of us, at one go, can finish half a ‘paint’ of rice. If we don’t finish it, then the next time we are to eat, it would just be the last three (children) who would manage the remaining.

“Garri, which used to be a saviour then, has also become really expensive. I bought a ‘paint’ of yellow garri for N3,000 the other day, but when I went back, the seller said it had increased to N3,500.

“If not for a good Samaritan at the market who paid the additional N500 for me, I would have returned empty-handed. Life is hard; the food crisis has made things even worse,” she added.

Like Comfort, like Aminat

Aminat Saheed, a single mother of four young children, left Lagos three months ago for her hometown in Osun State.  She said she had to leave since her rent expired and she lost her business at the market where she sold peppers and tomatoes to a government take-over.

“One day, we were just selling when some task force members came and told us to vacate the premises in three days, hinting that the government wanted to use it for something else. We had been managing ourselves at the mini market and we only had to pay some levies from the local government. But, with the takeover, my family and I had to move back to Osun. My husband is still in Lagos; he comes once every month.

“He works as a labourer. Anywhere there was construction, he would go there, get a daily job, and just help do some mixing, heavy lifting, and all that for a fee. That is what he has been doing for years after he survived a motor accident that almost took his life.

“If I begin to narrate how we suffer in this period of hardship, you will begin to wonder why we have not died. My four children, most times, go a full day without any meal at all. They just drink water.

“The one that can beg will beg and see whatever they can eat. It is terrible for me as a mother watching my children beg but what will I do? The eldest is just 12; the last one will clock four in July.”

Hunger, pain, despair

Every morning, Aminat wakes up before dawn, her weary eyes heavy with exhaustion, and sets out in search of odd jobs to earn a meager income. From washing neighbours’ clothes to cleaning homes, she did whatever it took to make ends meet.

But despite her tireless efforts, the income was never enough to cover the basic needs of her family.

Her kids faced their own struggles in the face of poverty. They watched with wide eyes as their mother toiled tirelessly, her shoulders stooped with the weight of their collective burden. Hunger gnawed at their stomachs, and the constant fear of not having enough to eat loomed over their heads like a dark cloud.

As Aminat trudged through the dusty streets of Osogbo, her children trailed behind her, their small feet struggling to keep up with her pace. They knew better than to complain or ask for more, for they understood the gravity of their situation all too well. Instead, they silently endured, their innocence marred by the harsh realities of poverty.

Despite their tender years, Aminat said her children often had to forgo basic necessities to make ends meet.

She said, “The phone I am using to talk to you now belongs to my neighbour. She told me that a journalist wanted to talk to me, and I had to wait for her to return from work before I could do this interview. Is this life?”

Lagos slum kids

In the heart of Lagos, a tiny slum town in Ikosi, popularly known as Gbola, sat. Children there wore hunger on their faces. Undone hair, rough feet, and tattered clothes, the kids ran barefoot, their faces etched with the premature lines of hardship.

Yet, despite their struggles, they wore a happy smile, as they played in the scorching hot day, grinning from ear to ear.

When our correspondent arrived in the community with a few packs of noodles, the kids scampered around, having recognised our correspondent, who had been there a year before for a story.

A young girl, Toyo, whose eyes beamed with excitement, requested a pack of noodles. Soon, the crowd swelled so much that the noodles were barely enough to go round.

A mother, who did not give her name, said she cried every night before bed, and that every morning when she woke up and saw her children suffering, their once bright eyes grew dim with exhaustion, and their laughter faded into silence.

They longed for simple pleasures that other children took for granted – a full meal, a warm bed, a chance to play without worry.

As the weather became hotter and her daughter clung to her side, her tiny hands gripping hers tightly, the woman said the hardship and rising cost of food items were putting her family into deeper poverty.

While describing how hard life has been for her, she said, “I know we are poor. I used to sell in Alapere before. I have sold in Mile 12, too. But, somehow, I have found myself here. I just need the government to look at people like us in pity.

“The other day, I heard the Customs were sharing rice or something and we ran there to see how we could buy, but there was no road; everywhere was blocked. It is not our fault that we are poor. If we had our way, we would also want to be rich like everyone else but look at us.”

 As she spoke, her daughter, who could barely talk began to cry, her eyes heavy with fear and despair, uncertain of where her next meal would come from.

The woman further lamented that noodles which used to be her go-to in times of lack had gone beyond her reach.

“How can a pack of noodles be sold at N500? We used to buy a cup of rice for N400 in 2021. How did things get this bad?” she queried.

She further lamented how the rising cost of living in Nigeria posed a formidable challenge to her efforts to provide for her children. Although she refused to talk more about the father of the kids, she said, “Their father is not here. He is also trying.”

Rising inflation

For months, the cost of goods and services has soared in the country, pushing prices of essential goods beyond the reach of ordinary citizens.

Basic commodities such as rice, beans, and cooking oil have become luxuries that people like Aminat cannot afford.

Many food sellers have lamented how their once bustling business centres have become deserted, their shelves near-empty.

A man who sold tomatoes and onions at the Magboro market, Ogun State, Mohammed Isah, said he recorded more losses in the last four months than he recorded in an entire year.

“Most of my tomatoes just get spoilt because who will buy them? It is getting worse by the day. I come out every day and just sit down here listening to music. The market does move the way I want it to, the way it is supposed to.

“The other day, I had to slash the prices of most of my goods so they would not spoil. I just sold them at the cost price so I would be able to go to the market and purchase another one. It is really crazy,” he said.

Some other food sellers at the market shared the same sentiments, lamenting that they had to use the profits made from the previous batch of goods bought to pay for the next batch because the prices of goods had continued to increase.

“Imagine buying a bag of beans for more than N100,000. Where are we going as a country?” a foodstuff seller, who did not give her name, asked when our correspondent approached her for an interview.

“I have children, too. I have a family. Despite my best efforts, my children sometimes go to bed hungry because there is nothing I can do.

“I cannot steal. If the market does not move, I will not steal. Most of the things you see here, I bought on credit. It is really tiring,” she lamented.

In December, Nigeria’s annual inflation rate rose to 28.92 per cent from 28.20 per cent in November, the  National Bureau of Statistics said.

The statistics office said the December 2023 headline inflation rate showed an increase of 0.72 per cent points when compared to the November 2023 headline inflation rate.

The NBS said on a year-on-year basis, the headline inflation rate was 7.58 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022, which was 21.34 per cent.

“This shows that the headline inflation rate (year-on-year basis) increased in December 2023 when compared to the same month in the preceding year (i.e., December 2022),” it said.

Also, the bureau said on a month-on-month basis, the headline inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.29 per cent, which was 0.20 per cent higher than the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.09 per cent).

This, it said, meant that in December 2023, the rate of increase in the average price level was more than the rate of increase in the average price level in November 2023.

In recent years, food prices have been on the rise across Nigeria. The situation deteriorated due to the impact of government policies such as the removal of the fuel subsidy, amongst others.

President Bola Tinubu had, in July 2023, declared an immediate state of emergency on food insecurity to tackle the increase in food prices.

He also directed that “all matters pertaining to food and water availability and affordability, as essential livelihood items, be included within the purview of the National Security Council”.

Food inflation

The food inflation rate in December 2023 was 33.93 per cent on a year-on-year basis, which was 10.18 per cent points higher compared to the rate recorded in December 2022 (23.75 per cent).

The NBS said the rise in food inflation was caused by increases in prices of bread and cereals, oil and fat, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish, meat, fruit, milk, cheese, and egg.

“On a month-on-month basis, the food inflation rate in December 2023 was 2.72 per cent, this was 0.30 per cent higher compared to the rate recorded in November 2023 (2.42 per cent),” it said.

It explained that the rise in food inflation on a month-on-month basis was caused by a rise in the rate of increase in the average prices of oil and fat, meat, bread and cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, fish and milk, cheese, and egg.

“The average annual rate of food inflation for the 12 months ending December 2023 over the previous 12-month average was 27.96 per cent, which was a 7.02 per cent points increase from the average annual rate of change recorded in December 2022 (20.94 per cent),” the report said.

Customs stampede

The sale of 25kg bags of rice by the Nigeria Customs Service to Lagos residents at a discounted price turned tragic in their office when seven people were reported killed while struggling to buy the confiscated rice being sold by the NCS to the public as an intervention in the current economic hardship and hunger.

The stampede was said to have occurred due to poor crowd management by the Customs, as hundreds of people tried to force themselves into the venue to buy the 25kg rice sold the price of N10,000 at the Customs zonal office on Harvey Road, Yaba, Lag, os on Friday, February 23.

Giving an account of his experience on TV360 Nigeria, a Lagos resident, Ahmed Isah, said when people were struggling to gain access to the Customs zonal office in Yaba, some who fell in the process were trampled on.

The father of six said two people died at the entrance gate while four were already lying on the floor when he eventually gained access to the zonal office.

“There were a lot of people who fell in the process and many fainted alongside with no one knowing their fate,” he said.

Consequently, the national public relations officer of the Customs, Abdullahi Maiwada, told journalists that the agency had put the sale of rice in Lagos, which was in its pilot phase, on hold.

The situation further underscored the level of poverty in Nigeria, with over 133 million multi-dimensionally poor people, according to official figures. Forty million households, according to the World Bank, are poor and lack access to several resources, including food and water. Many of these Nigerians were part of the many who trooped into the Customs facility to purchase the ‘cheap rice’ which led to the stampede.

Looting reigns

Two weeks ago, some youths were reported to have stolen food items from trucks stuck in traffic along the Kaduna Road in the Suleja area of Niger State.

On Sunday, hoodlums attacked a warehouse belonging to the Agricultural and Rural Development Secretariat of the Federal Capital Territory Administration located in the Dei-Dei area of the capital city and looted rice, grains, and other relief items.

But for the intervention of some soldiers, a private warehouse in the Idu Industrial Estate, Jabi, Abuja, would have suffered the same fate when a group of persons made an attempt to steal food items from the warehouse.

Although the Minister of State of the FCT, Dr Mariya Mahmoud, said the looting of the FCT agric secretariat on Sunday was not motivated by hunger, several experts said the hunger in the land was becoming unbearable.

Speaking during an assessment of the looted warehouse, according to a statement by the Special Adviser Media to the minister of state, Austin Elemue, on Monday, she said the FCT administration would reinforce security across all government-owned warehouses in the nation’s capital.

The development came as the police, through the spokesperson for the FCT Police Command, Josephine Adeh, in a statement Sunday night, said they arrested 15 suspects, including two local security guards employed by the warehouse management, in connection with the attack on the warehouse.

On Monday, hoodlums were reported to have attacked a truck conveying raw materials from the Dangote Cement Plant in Ibese along the Ofada-Owode area of Ogun State, at about 6 pm on Sunday.

A police source said the hoodlums, who were armed with guns and machetes, allegedly attacked the truck which was en route to Obajana in Kogi State.

 It was further reported that the three occupants of the truck with registration number LSR 670 AS, including the driver, sustained varying degrees of injuries as a result of the attack. Confirming the incident on Monday, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola, said the police in the Owode division had begun an investigation into the incident.

Similarly, the Kaduna State Police Command on Monday confirmed the looting of a food truck in Zaria on Saturday, adding, however, that no arrest had been made in connection with the incident.

The food truck was said to have been hijacked and looted by suspected hoodlums at Dogarawa in the Zaria area of Kaduna State, shortly after the driver parked it on the Zaria-Kano Expressway to observe his prayers.

In a video circulated on social media, a group of people were seen carting away cartons of spaghetti from the truck before a team of police officers was later deployed to the scene of the incident.

Reacting to the incident, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mansir Hassan, explained that the command had deployed its men to protect road users in the area.

 “There was no arrest yet but we have deployed our men to safeguard the lives and property of the vehicle and other motorists plying the road,” he added.

FG distributes grains

Perhaps, disturbed by the incidents, the Federal Government, on Wednesday, announced that it would distribute the 42,000 metric tonnes of grains approved by President Bola Tinubu to poor Nigerians at no cost.

This came as Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, also announced over N5bn intervention plans which he said would go a long way to help the residents of the state stay afloat under the biting effects of the country’s struggling economy occasioned by the rising inflation and currency devaluation.

Abiodun revealed that the intervention was a direct reaction to the fact that the government was never oblivious or insensitive to the hard times Nigerians were going through.

The governor said that the intervention plans would cover education, health distribution of food as well as deliberate welfare packages for the workers.

He said that whatever the country was experiencing, necessary sacrifices had to be made to ensure a greater tomorrow.

Meanwhile, the Federal Government also announced that the Department of State Services and the National Emergency Management Agency had been engaged in the distribution process of the 42,000MT of grains approved by Tinubu to ensure that the commodities got to the targeted citizens nationwide.

The Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Abubakar Kyari, who disclosed this at a ministerial press briefing in Abuja, further revealed that the government would be supporting 500,000 farmers to cultivate and produce one million metric tonnes of rice.

He said this would increase Nigeria’s rice production from the current seven or eight million tonnes annually to a new level, adding that the government would offtake the 60,000 metric tonnes of rice being produced by millers.

On February 8, 2024, President Tinubu directed the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security to release about 42,000MT of maize, millet and other commodities from the national strategic reserves to address the rising cost of food in Nigeria.

Explaining how the grains would be distributed at the press briefing on Wednesday, the minister said, “This 42,000MT is going to the needy free of charge. It will be directly to the needy at no cost.”

Asked to state how the government would identify the needy, Kyari replied, “We’ve met with NEMA and DSS to give us the index. These are where to gather intelligence reports on where it is needed the most. And we are going to look at those indices.”

Impact of inflation severe on the poor – Economists

An economist and tax expert, Dr Ade Dayo, said it was imperative to acknowledge the dire situation of hunger and inflation in Nigeria, particularly how it disproportionately affected the poor who lacked sufficient resources to weather the storm.

He said inflation, fueled by various factors, including supply chain disruptions, currency depreciation, and government policies, had led to a sharp increase in the prices of basic goods and services, exacerbating the already precarious living conditions of many Nigerians.

“The rising cost of living, coupled with stagnant wages and high levels of unemployment, has pushed millions of Nigerians into poverty, leaving them struggling to afford even the most essential items such as food, shelter, and healthcare. For those living below the poverty line, who often spend a significant portion of their income on food, the impact of inflation is particularly severe, as it further reduces their purchasing power and pushes them deeper into hunger and deprivation.

“Inflation also has ripple effects across the economy, affecting various sectors and industries. Businesses face higher operating costs, which may lead to layoffs, reduced hours, or even closures, further exacerbating the unemployment crisis. This, in turn, creates a vicious cycle of poverty, as unemployed individuals and families struggle to meet their basic needs.

“The consequences of hunger and inflation are especially devastating for vulnerable populations, including women, children, and the elderly, who are often the hardest hit by economic hardships. Children, in particular, are at risk of malnutrition and stunted growth, which can have long-term implications for their health, education, and prospects,” he said.

Another agric-economist, Usman Musa, said it was crucial to advocate for policies and interventions that address the root causes of hunger and inflation in Nigeria.

This, he said, might include measures to stabilise the economy, such as fiscal and monetary policies aimed at controlling inflation and promoting economic growth.

He noted that investments in social safety nets, such as cash transfers, food assistance programmes, and job creation initiatives, could help mitigate the impact of inflation on the most vulnerable.

“Ultimately, addressing hunger and inflation requires a multifaceted approach that tackles both the immediate needs of the poor and the underlying structural issues driving economic instability. As economists, we have a responsibility to use our expertise to advocate for policies that promote inclusive growth, reduce poverty, and ensure that all Nigerians have access to the necessities of life,” he added.

However, the President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Gabriel  Idahosa, said the current economic hardship was ushering in anarchy. According to him, the attacks could worsen the problems of companies and lead to their shutdown.

Idahosa said, “The chickens are coming home to roost. The government has asked the people to be patient, but the stomach cannot be patient even if the head wants to be patient. In a state of anomy, it will lead to a state of anarchy.

“There is no distinction between public and private in a state of anarchy. When the government allows chaos to happen, chaos does not know whether it is government or private property. When it rains, it doesn’t rain only on government or private property.

“The looters are not concerned whether it is government or private property. They just want food, anything that looks like food, they will go after it. This is why concerned observers have asked the government to look for concrete measures to reduce the state of hunger in the land.”

Eulogies as Akpabio, govs, others bid Wigwe, spouse, son farewell

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Eulogies as Akpabio, govs, others bid Wigwe, spouse, son farewell

It was the gathering of who is who in Nigeria on Saturday in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State, as the remains of former Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Dr Herbert Wigwe, his wife Doreen Chizoba, and son, Chizzy, were committed to mother earth.

Their remains were brought in separately in Mercedez Benz vehicles in a motorcade to the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Isiokpo at about 11 am. They were carried inside the church for a funeral service which lasted for almost three hours amidst speeches from Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, and others.

The mood of the community from the popular Isiokpo junction to 10 communities, including Omoeke, Wigwe’s hometown that makes up Isiokpo, depicted that tragedy had befallen the people.

Shortly after a funeral service, the remains of Wigwe, his wife, Doreen Chizoba and his late 29-year-old first son, Chizzy were buried in a private tomb inside the Wigwe University, which he had built in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of the state.

The bodies of the trio were moved from the RCCG, Isiokpo, to the private mausoleum and committed to Mother earth at about 2:45 pm.

The final home call at the graveside witnessed mainly by family members and a few others reawaked a sea of tears as all who wore mournful looks broke down in tears, as their bodies were lowered into the grave.

As expected, a huge presence of operatives, especially the tactical police unit and mother special commands, were stationed at strategic places leading to the venue of the burial, even as the state Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, was present at the occasion.

Some of the early arrivals were Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, his Rivers State counterpart, Siminalayi Fubara, and former Delta State Governor, James Ibori.

Speaking during the funeral service, Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, who spoke on behalf of the Federal Government and the National Assembly eulogised the qualities of the late Wigwe, even as he described the burial as ‘abnormal’ due to tragedy that claimed the trio.

Akpabio stated, “Let me thank you for the opportunity to lend the voice of the Federal Government of Nigeria to the bereaved family, to Rivers State, to the business community, the global community and to all Nigerians.

“It is not a normal occasion. This is a very abnormal occasion. We will continue to grieve after this. I want to extend the condolences of Mr President, Bola Tinubu, his governor, the National Assembly I’m privileged to be the chairman and all members of the legislature in Nigeria to the bereaved family, to Access Bank, particularly my brother, Iyke Imokhede, the co-founder, the remaining members of the family.

“That is why it is not a normal occasion. Normally the wife would have been here. If the wife was not here, the first son would have been here. But as God pleases none of them is here. They are all here in front of us. May their souls rest in Perfect Peace.”

While noting that it has been almost a month of mourning, he described Wigwe as an iconic figure and a global citizen who impacted many lives within and outside Nigeria, adding that he had an uncommon human relationship.

He stated, “There is nothing that we can do than to continue to express our heartfelt condolences, our sadness over the demise of this family.

“Herbert was an iconic figure. He was the people’s person; I believe he was a friend and brother to all who came across him. Together with his brother, they raised Access Bank to a level of among the first five top banks in Nigeria. Considering their ages, you can see that their hard work paid off.”

 Recalling the last time, he was with the late banker and philanthropist, Akpabio said, “The last time he called me was almost 11:30 pm, and he said I should rush down to meet him for a late dinner, and I think my brother Dangote was also there.

“We met there; he was full of life. Nobody would have expected this. As the man of God pointed out, ‘it is a journey all of us will one day make.’ My prayer is that God should enable us to be ready before we make this journey.”

Speaking earlier, Governor Fubara sent the commiserations of the government and people of the state to the bereaved family, even as he said the event underscored man’s helplessness in death and the need to live an impactful life.

Fubara stated, “I have this question always in my mind. What is life all about? Yesterday (Friday night) we sang a hymn that said, ‘Fading away from the sun in the morning’, and I concluded that life is not the one million years that we lived, but even if we spend an hour, let the hour be impactful. He has made a great contribution to humanity.

“Here lies our brother, his wife and his son. Everyone has come to celebrate them, it means even in the short period that he lived, he lived an impactful life.”

He also admonished politicians to realise the futility of their struggles and desperation for power and control, saying, Wigwe was not a politician through his ingenuity and hard work had an influence on many politicians and achieved wealth.

“Is it not enough to ask ourselves what we are struggling with? Why are we not making an impact in the lives of our people? Please, political class, go home with that question and begin answering it in our mind and reflecting it in what we do.”

Nigerians ought to embrace humour to deal with hardship – Prof of psychiatry

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Nigerians ought to embrace humour to deal with hardship – Prof of psychiatry

A professor of psychiatry at the University of Jos, Plateau State, and President of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria, Taiwo Obindo, speaks to VICTORIA EDEME on the effects of economic hardship and insecurity on people’s mental health

What are your thoughts on the current economic hardship being faced by Nigerians today?

It is a known fact that things have largely fallen apart concerning the economy. The indices are there. Inflation is hitting almost 29 per cent and the cost of living is skyrocketing. The standard of living is plummeting and people are losing their jobs. The costs of transportation and taxation have been high. For insecurity, there is banditry, kidnapping, and armed robbery. When we look at all these indices, it is obvious that Nigerians are going through a harrowing experience that they were unprepared for. The economic hardship is a result of the removal of fuel subsidy and the deregulation of the naira. These challenges go beyond the regular stresses that people are meant to go through and would surely impact people’s mental health. It’s a stressful experience for virtually every Nigerian irrespective of their status.

What are the effects of economic hardship on mental health?

The World Health Organisation defines mental health as a state of the well-being of every individual, in which case the individual can realise or attain their potential, face normal stresses of life, work productively, and contribute to society. Looking at the hardship in the country, with the increased cost of school fees, how many Nigerians can achieve their goals of attaining their full potential? What Nigerians face are not what can be described as common stresses or general stresses that everyone is used to. Banditry, kidnapping, farmer-herder clashes, and armed robbery are more rampant these days. So Nigerians are going through more-than-usual stresses of life. It’s not only those who face insecurity that are affected by these stresses.

A lot of people are not able to travel due to high transport fares and some are even afraid to travel on the road. There is an increasing number of people whose mental health is being impacted by all these challenges. When one’s monthly pay is insufficient to sustain the family, one can become over-worried and over-disturbed. A lot of people are in distress. Distressed people do not have mental health conditions but they are under some pressure and can show symptoms of insomnia, restlessness, lack of concentration, difficulty in feeding, and weight loss, which are symptoms of mental health conditions.

So there are likely to be more new cases of mental health conditions. Some are already ill and are planning to receive care only to find out that their money may not afford their hospital care. They may develop mental health issues as they are not able to access care. People are sitting on a ticking time bomb. Some youths are going into substance abuse and this also impacts on the mental health of the young Nigerian population.

What mental health disorders could be caused by economic hardship and insecurity?

Any mental health condition can arise based on the challenges we’re facing. People may have a genetic predisposition to developing mental health conditions, so the environment must be conducive. The commonest among them are anxiety disorders, which include post-traumatic stress disorders. A lot of people may find it difficult to go out. By 3 pm or 4 pm, everyone is rushing home because, in Abuja, people are reported to be at high risk of kidnapping or entering one-chance buses once it’s late in the evening. So people are afraid and living under tension. In 2022, I had people coming into my house and taking me away. But I thank God that the Operation Safe Haven troops of the Nigerian Army were able to rescue me. My wife and daughter were there when it happened and it took us all a long while to settle down. When we hear noises or dogs barking, we are afraid that they may attack again.

People who have been kidnapped live under such tension as they re-enact the situation and become tense. They may also have recurring thoughts. Depression is also one of the mental health conditions associated with hardship as people become unhappy, lose interest, are easily fatigued, unable to concentrate, have difficulty sleeping or eating, and see or hear things that others can’t see or hear. Also, there may be increased incidences of people taking their lives, cases of suicide, or attempted suicide. That is also a major challenge.

A lot of people have difficulty coping with what they are going through and may embrace psychoactive substances. They embrace alcohol and marijuana just to feel some sense of relief. No matter how much you drink, it will not change your situation, so people should not go that route at all. Increased incidence of substance use disorder may also occur because people are finding a way to cope with what they are going through and it could affect them. Schizophrenia and other disorders can happen. Adjustment disorder could happen when people lose their jobs and they have difficulty adjusting to their new realities, especially for those who just lost their jobs.

What coping mechanisms can Nigerians adopt during this economic hardship and insecurity?

The major one is to resort to hope. People should be hopeful that this tide will change and things will turn around. People may need to exercise to get rid of some kind of energy that may be caused by thinking. You should avoid the use of substances. You need someone to discuss with and express yourself to. This helps to relieve you. They may not offer you a solution but because they have a listening ear to what you are going through, it can also be helpful. We should also see the funny side of things. We can use humour to handle some things. Don’t take things to heart; laugh it off.

There are some chemicals in the body that are released when you laugh. Nigerians should embrace humour because it’s one of the good ways to handle stressful situations. Laugh things off and look at the positive side of things so you do not allow situations to overwhelm you. That helps a lot. Your faith must also be strong in whatever you believe in, that God can change situations. Your spiritual inclination can help in coping. Never resort to the use of substances no matter what the situation is. It has never helped and it will not help.

At what point should one visit a psychiatrist during a mental breakdown?

You have to visit a psychiatrist once you notice that things are getting out of hand. Let’s take the mood, for example, you may find out that each time you wake up, you’re not happy. You find yourself even crying because of the challenges but instead of finding solutions, you are always weak. You can walk into the doctor’s office and say you are ill because you’ve not been happy and have been crying. It doesn’t mean that the diagnosis must be a mental health condition; because that’s the fear of most people. When you come in for medical help, you may just need psychotherapy, counselling, or motivational help. Medications can be administered. If you notice that you’re becoming too anxious and your pulse rate is continually increasing, your blood pressure is going high despite using your medication, or there is no adequate control of sugar if you are diabetic, then you definitely must see the doctor.

Behind virtually all illnesses, there must be an emotional part to it, and when the emotional part is not attended to, there can be challenges. Somebody who hears the voices of people he cannot see or even people he can see but neighbours around cannot see, such a person will need to seek the services of a psychiatrist. If you’re not able to sleep for one or two days, do not resort to buying drugs that could cause cancer because of lack of sleep. When people use sleeping tablets, they become dependent on such drugs. So in addition to whatever diagnosis they have, they have a dependence on sleeping tablets as a second diagnosis, which will make the matter worse. So at this point, they should seek the right help.

How can people prevent the adverse effects of economic hardship on their mental health?

The adverse effects of mental health can be prevented by the individuals, those around them, and the government. We need to realise that there is nothing new in the world. Nigerians should believe that these hardships will surely end one day. We should have hope that sooner or later, there will be a solution, answer, or reversal of the situation. When one loses hope, the chances of mental health conditions are higher. If there are symptoms that you notice that are disturbing, you need to seek help as individuals. When you start hearing voices, experience a lack of sleep for a while, or eat but lose weight, you need to seek help from professionals.

You can discuss with the right set of people. They are psychiatrists, psychologists, and religious leaders who can help. You can discuss it with them. I’ll advise religious leaders that if the issue goes beyond what can be prayed for, they should refer them to professional help. As for other individuals, if you notice that your neighbour is under stress, is not eating, or having challenges, please try to extend a hand of help to them. We are all in this together. If somebody comes to you and shares their challenges with you, you should help such a person by referring them to the right place where they can get help.

What can the government do to mitigate the effects of hardship and insecurity on the mental health of citizens?

At the level of the government, we look at the hospital facilities and budgetary allocations. We have a Mental Health Law that has been passed, so policies must be put in place to mitigate the challenges that people are facing. People are leaving the country because of poor remuneration, insecurity, inability to fund themselves and their children, high transportation costs, etc. As the petrol subsidy was removed, cheaper transport means should be provided. Something should also be done for citizens to get better access to foodstuffs. The Mental Health Law was signed in January 2023 and till now, we’ve not heard anything concerning the implementation.

A department of mental health should be set up and there must be guidelines for setting up facilities. If there is a department that will accredit the establishment of mental facilities, such should be organised. Mental health needs more attention now than ever before. Mental health should be fully integrated into the primary healthcare system. Sixty to 65 per cent of Nigerians live in rural areas and for them to access mental health care, they may need to travel about 6,000 kilometres. There must also be a policy on medication and that’s where the National Health Insurance Scheme comes up. People do not have to pay out of their pockets. If people have to pay 10 per cent of the cost of care, then they should be able to afford treatment.

Therefore, more people need to be captured in the scheme. The cost of drugs must also be looked into. Most drugs are imported and their costs have tripled in the last six months. There must be a policy to subsidise the cost of drugs and assist the companies that distribute drugs to have a waiver or rebate to help push down the cost of drugs. Some can’t afford the drugs and the chances of relapses are high.

There’s currently a heat wave across the nation. What are the effects of heat waves on mental health?

Heat is a stressor and puts every individual under some form of stress. Being a stressor, it impacts the health of individuals. Stressors stimulate the release of some chemicals in your system, which can lead to mental health conditions. Heat waves can cause dehydration and when people get dehydrated, they also have some degree of stress in their system. Stress is the way the body wants to respond to the situation and at times, the body gets overwhelmed during its response. So heat waves can cause stress, and dehydration, which can make people fall ill.

Do you think Nigerians often misunderstand the issue of mental health?

What people call mental illness is a microcosm – a small portion of what mental health conditions are. There are so many mental health conditions and they vary. Most health conditions have an emotional and psychological part. For holistic management of such a condition, we have to look at mental health management. There are myths about mental health and all those myths shape the way people look at mental health conditions. People have a wrong notion about mental health that it is inflicted by drugs, a consequence of wrongdoing, or as a result of the use of substances. Another myth is that mental health conditions are a result of poison. These myths are not true. There is interplay between genetic disposition and the environment in which the individual lives. For example, let’s look at women who just put to bed. Some such women tend to have mental health conditions. They could have personal blues, postpartum depression, and postpartum psychotic disorders. Therefore, the understanding of such issues needs to be improved.

How can more awareness be created concerning mental health?

There must be increased awareness of what mental health conditions are, what services are available, and where they can be obtained. If treated, people with mental health conditions can do better. Some people have mental health conditions and have won Nobel prizes, and ruled nations. Even in the Bible, there were people with mental health conditions who did very well. So we need to change our notion about mental health conditions.

Police falsely accused me of being a cultist – Ogun graduate

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Police falsely accused me of being a cultist – Ogun graduate

Ogun State varsity graduate, Abiola Oluga, 28, tells ABDULLATEEF FOWEWE how policemen arrested him and accused him of recording their activities, and later declared him a cultist while having a phone conversation with his friend

Can you provide some information about what led to your detention?

I’m Abiola Oluga; I’m 28 years old. I was born in Abeokuta, Ogun State. I recently graduated from the Department of Mathematics of the Federal University of Agriculture, Abeokuta, and I work as a full-stack web developer. However, the detention occurred just eight days after my graduation, as I returned home to assist my father, who is a widower and retired civil servant. On Sunday, February 4, 2024, while chatting with a friend on WhatsApp outside my father’s house after returning from church, I was unexpectedly arrested and physically assaulted by some policemen, who falsely claimed that I was recording them on video. My father attempted to speak with the Divisional Police Officer of the Ibara Police Division, Lateef Balogun, and his team to seek clarification, but they were extremely rude and unhelpful.

The police officer didn’t show any respect to the elders of the community and even threatened my father with a gun. I was deeply saddened by the disrespect shown in public, not only to me but also to my father. Other innocent individuals who were arrested were taken to the Lafenwa Police Station and detained for three hours before being paraded throughout Abeokuta by the anti-cultism unit. This exposed us to public humiliation before reaching the Ibara Police Station, the nearest one to our area; their vehicle returned at exactly 5.30 pm, accompanied by the Area Commander of Zone 2, Abeokuta.

Despite our efforts, my family was unable to bail me out on Sunday and had hoped to do so on Monday. However, the DPO did not grant me bail; it was claimed that only three persons would be granted bail and that only the state commissioner of police had the authority to grant me bail despite not having committed any offence. The DPO informed my brother that he heard that I was a graduate of Mathematics and that I was intelligent, but not brilliant, and promised to use me as an example. One of the officers involved in my case informed my brother that those arrested were not members of any cult and suggested that my relatives contact the state command since the DPO was unable to grant me bail.

What happened after that?

This led to a harsh second night in detention at the police station. I was horrified to be listed as a suspected cultist in news reports in connection with the Abeokuta killings on Tuesday morning. The report was attributed to the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Omolola Odutola. Consequently, I was transferred from Ibara to the state headquarters at Eleweran on Tuesday; when I got there, I was transferred to the anti-cultism section and spent another unjust night in detention at the Eleweran Police Station. My family came to the police station on Wednesday with a lawyer to bail me out.

Were you permitted to see your lawyer?

No, despite the lawyer and my family’s gentle and polite approach, the assigned investigating police officer refused to let our lawyer see or speak to me. It seemed they were trying to cover themselves as they realised I was not guilty and was suffering unlawful detention. They did not allow my lawyer to see me until I was bailed out, most likely because they knew they had detained me illegally. They later searched my phone and found nothing incriminating in it.

Did you pay before you were released?

Yes, I was released after paying N30,000, which was the lowest amount paid by anyone arrested that day. However, they did not provide a receipt for the payment.

How did you feel while in detention?

It was a very traumatic experience that I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. I was deeply depressed and emotionally scarred.

How would you characterise your behaviour in the community?

I am relaxed in manner and character; I’m not usually worried about other people’s behaviour or things that need to be done in person, and I don’t have any friends in the community because my childhood friends have all moved away from that area.

Did you try to discuss the legality of your detention with the officers?

Yes, the IPO informed me that I was being charged as a suspected cultist and would be transferred to Eleweran, the State Criminal Investigation and Intelligence Department, for further investigation. However, I suspected that my detention at the Lafenwa Police Station was premeditated, as I was questioned about my involvement with cultists for three hours. So, after refusing their request, my phone was taken from me and it was thoroughly searched, but they found nothing incriminating on it. Their actions seemed intended to implicate me, and it became clear that they planned to charge the detainees as suspected cultists at the Lefenwa Police Station before transferring us to the Ibara Police Station.

Were there any consequences you faced following your detention?

To be honest, I felt deeply saddened when I discovered that my name had been mentioned in national newspapers and on television. It had a significant emotional impact on me. When I inquired with the command’s public relations officer, she denied that the statement, which included my name, originated from her office. Furthermore, my lawyer asked her why she provided the suspects’ names to journalists, but suddenly the PPRO distracted the lawyer and prevented him from asking any further questions. As a result, I am still feeling unwell. Perhaps seeing a revised report about me in the national newspaper will provide some relief.

Were you subjected to physical abuse by the police while in custody?

During my time in custody, I did not experience any maltreatment or physical abuse from the police. However, I was assaulted at the location where I was apprehended because I refuted the accusation made against me.

Have you ever encountered problems with the police at the Lafenwa station previously?

I have never had any issues with the police. This visit to the police station was a first for me. I suspect that they were under pressure from their bosses that they must apprehend cultists terrorising the community that day, which might explain their attempts to implicate me.

Did you attempt to seek redress or accountability for being detained without a reason?

Indeed, we made an effort, but our last interaction with the state PPRO ended with our lawyer being persuaded by her tactics. It seems our lawyer lacked the assertiveness of others in his profession. Following our departure from the station, he tried to persuade my family, who had already decided to let the matter go. I had no choice but to respect their decision. Even the commissioner of police advised my father to influence my decision not to take action to seek justice, as only my father could dissuade me.

My father recommended dropping the case due to the current state of affairs in the country, suggesting that pursuing justice could drag on for up to five years, potentially derailing my prospects. He believed it was best to move on, considering that I had much ahead of me.

How has this ordeal changed your view of the legal and criminal justice system?

The experience was profoundly negative, highlighting a lack of due diligence in the police investigation before I was labelled and publicised as a suspected cultist. What worsened the situation was the media’s failure to verify the claims or request evidence before reporting.

Were you provided with any form of psychological support or counselling after your ordeal in police custody?

No, the only support came from my family, who played a crucial role in securing my freedom. Beyond that, there was no professional counselling; it was up to me to manage my mental well-being. Since the incident, I haven’t engaged in any advocacy or activism against police misconduct, mainly because my family advised against any further actions, and my reliance on them means I can’t proceed without their approval. Alone, I feel powerless to fight this injustice, but with adequate support from the public, I will consider hiring a capable lawyer to pursue the case

What measures do you believe can enhance the justice system to avert similar incidents in the future?

Ensuring that every accusation is backed by a comprehensive and intelligent investigation before making any public announcements or detaining suspects will improve the justice system. Additionally, securing swift and decisive judgments, along with penalties for those who contribute to wrongful detentions, can prevent future occurrences.

Did you encounter any obstacles when attempting to report or document the wrongful detention?

Indeed, I faced difficulties as my means of communication were confiscated, and they didn’t even read the statement I provided. The investigating police officer did not even bother to review what I wrote.

How did the community react to what happened to you?

My community showed strong support. Members made numerous visits to the police station on my behalf. They endeavoured to communicate my true character and vouch for my integrity to the police and also emphasised the mistake in detaining me.

What guidance would you offer to someone who may experience a similar ordeal?

Individuals should not treat such situations lightly, but should promptly inform relevant bodies and individuals such as journalists, media outlets, human rights organisations, and the police complaints response unit. It’s an occurrence that can easily destroy one’s life.

Have you suffered any lasting consequences or psychological trauma from your time in detention?

Yes, I faced some challenges but thankfully, I’ve been recovering gradually with the support of social media, as well as my family and friends.

In what ways do you think the police training could be improved to prevent incidents of wrongful detention?

The government should implement continuous training emphasising the negative impacts of wrongful detention of individuals and methods to prevent such practices.

Since your release, have you observed any improvements in police procedures or attitudes towards detention?

Indeed, I’ve noticed that the police now conduct more thorough investigations before releasing information to journalists.

How has this experience influenced your views on civil rights and individual freedom?

The experience was eye-opening, highlighting that while the police are expected to handle crime and maintain order impartially, there are instances where their actions contradict these expectations.

What measures do you believe lawmakers should adopt to enhance police accountability and conduct?

Lawmakers should ensure that the police are provided with adequate welfare benefits, as I believe this will significantly reduce instances of misconduct and improve their overall effectiveness. However, it will be Nigerians’ priority if the government can promote community policing strategies that build trust between law enforcement agents and the communities they serve. The lawmakers should encourage initiatives that involve community members in policy development, training programmes, and oversight. They should also instruct police departments to collect and publicly report data on stops, frisks, arrests, use of false incidents, and deaths in custody. Transparency in these areas can help identify patterns of misconduct or bias, and the implementation of laws that require all law enforcement officers to wear body cameras and equip police vehicles with dash cameras. There must be strict policies regarding when these cameras should be put on, and penalties for non-compliance must be established.

Excessive costs of supplies might ship sachet water producers out of enterprise– Affiliation president

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Excessive costs of supplies might ship sachet water producers out of enterprise– Affiliation president

National President, Table Water and Beverage Producers Association of Nigeria, Prince Adeniyi Olukoya, talks to BANKOLE TAIWO on the continued fall in the value of the naira and its impact on the business

For how long have you been in this business?

I am the National President of the Table Water and Beverage Producers Association of Nigeria. This is a body that represents most water producers in the country. We process and package sachet and table water for the needs of the populace. We all know the importance of water, particularly very clean and germ-free water in our daily activities. I have been in the of processing and packaging water for about 22 years and we are still going strong despite the obvious odds of our nose-diving economy

How lucrative has the business been?

Well, in the past you could confidently say that at the end of the day that your labour had not been in vain, but that cannot be said to be the situation of things now because we are now subsidising what we produce and running at a loss.

What do you mean?

The forex crisis, which is hitting our economy so terribly, has affected our cost of production. We have some consumables like water filters and treatment plants and other things that we must use to enhance the quality of our products; quacks in the industry who are cutting corners may decide to do otherwise, but we can’t do that. Let me start with the least of them, the water filter that we use in our machines for filtration; the 11-inch type as of last year was N350, but it is now between N1,000 and N1,100, while the 22-inch type that was about N700 is now over N2,000.

A kilogram of printed rolls, which is the sachet that contains the water, as of last year was N1,400 but it is now N3,900. The bags that we normally use to pack the sachet water was N4,400, but today, it is as expensive as N17,000. The diesel we were buying at N600 per litre is now N1,600, while petrol that was N192 per litre is now N650, that is even if you are lucky to get it without having to queue. For the vehicles we use to distribute the water, the fairly used mini truck like Dyna 100 or 150, which was between N4m and N5m, is now between N9m and N11m; likewise the exorbitant prices of tyres and other spare parts. There is this mini bus called ‘Korope’, which we also found so useful and quite economical in distributing our products which as of last year was around N670,000, but it is now N3m.

The epileptic power supply is another problem entirely, so you are mostly running on generators using diesel or petrol for your production. The submersible pumping machine we were buying for N60,000 last year is now N240,000. Last year, the surface pump that will distribute the water around the compound was going for between N8,000 and N13,000 depending on the quality you’re buying, but today the least you can get is N150,000. So, how do you talk about making profit in this volatile situation? I won’t want to say we have been working at a loss, but rather say that we have somehow been subsidising the production just like the government was subsidising fuel, but we can’t continue to run the business this way.

So, where do you and your members go from here?

We are constrained to raise the prices of our products; the price hike is a child of necessity if we must remain in business. I forgot to inform you that the salaries of our workers too have to change considering how much they have to pay for transportation now as well as the continued rise in the prices of goods, most especially food. So, after a lot of deliberations, we have decided to increase the price of our bag of sachet water containing 20 sachets from N300 to N500, while our packs of water containing 12 bottles, which formerly was N1,300, now go for N1,500. It is painful but it is what we have to do to remain in business and make marginal profits to keep running the business and serve the people and of course not to throw out our workers.

The people should please bear with us and we are assuring them that once the prices of these things come crashing down, once this dollar galloping like a wild horse is tamed, it will definitely reflect in our pricing too. We are not shylocks and we can feel the pains of the people too in this hard time but if we must keep serving them and remain in business, we have to adjust the prices of our products.

Are you not worried about quacks taking advantage of the increase in price to further engage in sharp practices by offering untreated water even in bigger packages to unsuspecting members of the public?

Thank you for reminding me of this critical aspect of our discussion. Recently, in Ogun State, the Ministry of Environment announced the outbreak of cholera in a part of the state but when they went to do the analysis of the products of our members, we were not found culpable. Truly, there are many quacks out there who don’t care about water treatment to make it safe and germ-free. There are some that we have caught and reported to NAFDAC. These quacks will get the water from the borehole and just package it with no treatment; that is the water that comes in larger packages to attract people to buy.

NAFDAC approved that sachet water should come in a 50cl package, but you find these quacks packaging theirs in 60cl or 70cl. These people are indulging in these sharp practices because they want to sell at all cost, but we shall be on the lookout for them and report them to the appropriate quarters; our people too should be careful and wary about patronising these quacks. We may not be able to eliminate all the quacks, but their activities can be curtailed if we see something and say something.

Is there another association for sachet and table water producers in the country and do you compare notes?

Yes, we also have the Association of Table Water Producers, but we don’t compare notes; we are two independent associations with different constitutions and agendas.

How will you describe the contribution of members of your association to the country’s economy?

Our contributions are numerous; we are a major employer of labour by engaging the services of drivers, loaders, motor boys, packers, operators, and cleaners. We also contribute to the health sector by providing potable water; we contribute hugely to reducing communicable water borne diseases to the barest minimum, thereby saving the government huge sums of money; we employ so many vibrant youths and take off the streets those constituting nuisance to the public and law enforcement.

Is this the first time you have increased the prices of your products in the last year?

We had restrained our members from increasing prices all along, hoping that things would improve; the nylon producers have increased prices over 10 times, diesel prices have changed over eight times, and soft drink prices have gone from N100 to N350 over the same period.

In the face of the biting economy, what is your message to President Bola Tinubu?

The President should please be very aware that things are getting so tough for Nigerians; we are being driven towards the precipice; a lot of us are quite surprised with the way things are turning out. Yes, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has some laudable programmes but the implementation of these initiatives calls a lot to question. My suggestion is this, let’s take a look at the food crisis in each of the 774 local government councils. We should create a market where people can register and get to buy food that has been subsidised by the government at cheaper prices. Now that the subsidy on fuel has been substantially removed, let the government begin to subsidise food. The President must as a matter of urgency help tackle this issue of hunger because a hungry man is an angry man.

Our governor, Dapo Abiodun, should help to bring succour to the people; the truth is that things are tough here. I heard the other time about two weeks ago when he said that his government had purchased 100 truckloads of rice to be sold at subsidised prices, but we have not heard anything about this laudable initiative again. Things like this should not be delayed because people are hungry; people need all the help that can be rendered now to douse the tension. After all, the report out there is that the Federal Government’s allocation to the state had jumped up since the fuel subsidy removal, so let the governor help the residents too with food palliatives.

But people are asking how long will the government distribute food palliatives, what about investment in agriculture?

I know that the Federal Government has deployed a lot of resources to boost food production but these are not what we can get on time. The fastest of these crops that we can get in three months is maize; yam is about seven months; cassava is within nine months to a year, so all of these food palliatives are just stop gap interventions pending when those being planted will be ready. This is the time to give serious thought to diversifying the economy; we have neglected agriculture for too long, and we need to go back to the basics. We must begin to encourage farming on a large scale; I am talking of mechanised farming to boost food production. We can no longer run away from this truth.

What other challenges are your members facing?

The issue of raw materials is quite critical because of the dollar that is now galloping away like a wild horse that needs to be tamed. A dollar now exchanges for between N1,600 and N1,700, and the effect is the skyrocketing prices of goods. The President and his team must rise up to the occasion; the rate at which the naira is suffering devastating devaluation is really a concern to everyone; something drastic should be done to make the naira bounce back.

How about power?

Another challenge is the epileptic power supply; it is sad what we are witnessing in this nation. I am even beginning to suspect that we might be dealing with some saboteurs as far as the issue of power is concerned because the generation that was around 7,000 megawatts has now come to below 1,000 megawatts; something is wrong somewhere. South Africa is generating over 40,000 megawatts, Egypt is generating around 70,000MW, even Libya with all the turmoil is generating sufficient megawatts, and so what is wrong here? We can’t lay everything at the doorstep of the government, we must be ready to be our brother’s keepers; when you see something, especially about those sabotaging the efforts, and we should blow the whistle.

I also want to suggest that we introduce the death penalty for economic saboteurs and let this be implemented diligently. I remember the days of the War Against Indiscipline during the military days of (Tunde) Idiagbon and (Muhammadu) Buhari; everyone adjusted because they were quite sure of getting punished if they flouted the decrees. When you got to the bank at that time, you knew that you had to join the queue to be attended to, not that you wanted to do things as you wished. We should just be ready to do the right thing and things will begin to fall in their right places.

If the naira fall continues with the attendant rise in the prices of things, will it not send small-scale business owners like those producing sachet and table water out of business?

With the current huge disparity between the value of the naira and actual economic activities, whatever little gains are recorded by small business owners are eroded, leaving us with no choice but to spend part of our capital to meet domestic obligations. With this development, most small business owners are at risk of losing their businesses to inflation. This is causing palpable fears among us.

IMF unusual capsule to treatment worsening financial disaster

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IMF unusual capsule to treatment worsening financial disaster

Daniel Adaji examines some of the suggestions of the International Monetary Fund to the Federal Government and their contributions to Nigeria’s economic woes

Nigeria’s economy has suffered severe stagnation since the 1980s. There are two schools of thought to Nigeria’s poor economic situation; while Eurocentric literature blames the civil war and poor leadership in the country, the Afrocentric literature dates Nigeria’s economic distress to the era of colonial suppression and economic exploitation.

However, none of these thought lines relates the policies of the International Monetary Fund to Nigeria’s failing economy.

There is a common saying that he who pays the piper calls the tune. The same can be said of the interference of the International Monetary Fund with Nigeria’s economy and policies. The IMF is the world’s focal organisation responsible for international monetary cooperation. It is otherwise seen as the United Nations autonomous and specialized agency saddled with the responsibility of fostering stability and economic growth globally.

Conceptualized in the UN-sponsored Monetary and Financial Conference in Breton Woods, New Hampshire, it was created in 1946 with 46 members. The IMF has incorporated 193 countries as of the last count.

It was birthed to prevent another strike of the great economic depression that occurred in the 1920s and 1930s.

Nigeria’s journey to agency

In March 1961, Nigeria joined the IMF train, a development that occurred just a few months after its independence.

IMF mandates

The IMF handbook declares it has six mandates geared towards the economic stability and prosperity of its member states.

One of the key roles of the IMF is the surveillance over members’ economic policies, financing temporary balance of payments, combating poverty in low-income countries, mobilising external financing, strengthening the international monetary system and increasing the global supply of international reserves, building capacity through technical assistance and training and dissemination of information and research.

Expectedly, the IMF is to lead economic reforms by promoting prudent macroeconomic policies, structural reforms in areas such as exchange rate and tax policy, and issues related to fiscal management, budget execution, fiscal transparency, tax and customs administration.

“The policy of the IMF is of two folds; policies mandatory for members, and assistance policies. Policies mandatory for members are those rules every country must observe as a member which include the IMF Articles of Agreement, quota subscriptions, refrain from restrictions on exchange of foreign currency, and openness in economic policies affecting other countries,” the handbook stated.

The assistant policies include loans or conditional lending and providing economic advice.

Some economists have argued that the content of the conditionality has been the most controversial output of any intergovernmental organisation.

A professor of Political Economy and Sociology, Alexandros Kentikelenis stated that “for the first four decades of its operations, IMF’s conditionality included a set of predictable reforms that focused almost exclusively on budget deficit reductions, restrictive monetary policy, and exchange rate devaluations.”

The IMF has embarked on several programmes and the most common among them are the Standby Arrangement, 1952, and the Extended Fund Facility, 1974, both of which were designed to provide short-term-balance of payment assistance to member countries.

Economists Robert Barro and Jong-Whan Lee stated, “The IMF replaced the SBA (Small Business Administration) and EFF with the Structural Adjustment Facility 1986 and the Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facility 1987 owing to the shortcomings of the former.

Agency’s programmes in Nigeria

In Nigeria, the IMF has adopted and implemented a policy and programme referred to as the Structural Adjustment Programme otherwise known as (Washington Consensus) with its consequent loan conditionality. Although Nigeria has been a member of the IMF since 1961, it is believed that it was only in 1986 that the IMF established a stronghold in the country and began the policies that have been hazardous to the country.

Nigeria, the chorused giant of Africa, was purely an agrarian economy until the discovery of oil in Oloibiri, the present Bayelsa State by the mid-1960s and fully dependent on crude oil by the 1970s. This new wealth led to the neglect of the other sectors like agriculture, which had hitherto sustained the economy.

By the 1980s, oil sales dominated the economy accounting for about 80 per cent of the Federal Government’s revenues and 95 per cent of foreign exchange earnings. However, the wide oil glut that occurred between 1980 and 1986 caused a sudden price fall that reduced forex in Nigeria.

An economist, Imimole Benedict said, “The fall in world oil price and the sharp decline in petrol output, the latter resulting from a lowering of Nigeria’s OPEC quota in the early 1980s also brought the country’s economy to the verge of collapse. Against this backdrop, the sudden oil price shock created a balance of payment deficit in Nigeria’s economy.”

He added, “Ranging from her inability to meet her domestic financial obligations to difficulties in servicing her foreign debt, the Nigerian economy shrank. It is this economic difficulty that led to the intervention of IMF in 1986 together with its Structural Adjustment Programme.”

SAP is a set of economic reforms that a country must adhere to in order to secure a loan from the IMF and/or the World Bank. Structural adjustments are often a set of economic policies, including reducing government spending, opening to free trade, and so on.

Prescriptions good on the surface

Experts have argued that the IMF policy recommendations to Nigeria look good on the surface but have dragged the country into deeper and more abject poverty.

An economic expert, Abdulrauf Aliyu, noted, “Accepting the IMF conditionalities implies economic difficulties; its rejection will as such lead to a parlous economic situation. Indeed, this was no easy choice.

“The IMF handbook stated that SAP is based on a policy of privatisation and commercialisation of public utilities, removal of subsidies, liberalisation, and self-reliance. It is an economic measure aimed at revamping the economy.

“SAP’s objectives in Nigeria, according to the IMF, are to restructure and diversify the economy by curtailing Nigeria’s over-reliance or dependence on the oil sector thus stimulating the development of non-oil sectors; to curtail inflationary growth to the economy by removing all barriers to effective and efficient trade; to attract foreign direct investment to Nigeria through the adoption and implementation of deregulation and privatisation policies; to create employment opportunities for Nigeria and to reduce public expenditure and entrench prudent financial management of the economy.

“The handbook noted that the IMF prescriptions required fiscal discipline which was lacking among its economic managers. In other words, the conditions became the necessary procedures that were to be adopted by the Nigerian government, and its implementation was supervised and monitored by IMF officials.

“The IMF prescriptions were attached with many stringent conditions which accompanied the SAP. These conditions include the rule of the market; cutting public expenditure for social services; deregulation, commercialisation, and privatisation; elimination of public goods; removal of petrol subsidies and the abolition of agricultural marketing boards; devaluation of the naira; staff rationalisation in government ministries, parastatals, and agency.

“It is also possible that the harsh conditions were intended by the IMF to make the military regime in Nigeria unpopular thereby forcing a regime change. Certainly, the loan was a devil’s alternative, and devaluation of the Nigerian currency, was an additional economic burden. Industries, exchange rate, currency devaluation, employment, banking and finance, and oil subsidy were the areas worst hit.”

Recall that the naira devaluation was not a one-time incidence, but rather had been on constant and precarious scales of devaluation. In 1985, the naira exchange rate to the dollar was 90 kobo to $1. However, by 1986 after SAP was introduced, the exchange rate of naira to dollars had increased to N2.02, and by 1999 it had reached N22 to $1.

The naira further depreciated to dollars, falling to N320 to $1 by 2016. The Nigerian economy further contracted in December 2017 when the naira was exchanged at N360 to $1 and recently in February 2024, the dollar was exchanged at N1600/$. This devaluation of the naira as one of IMF’s loan conditionalities led to high inflation rates and lowered purchasing power of many Nigerians.

Abdulrauf added, “The IMF policies escalated the balance of payment deficit which led to horrendous local currency costs of imported raw materials and intermediate capital goods that in turn orchestrated inflation and necessitated a decrease in living standards.

“The same aftermaths were also present owing to the removal of subsidy which further compounded the problem as subsidy removal increased import bills. This also worsened the position of manufacturing industries which were largely dependent on imported machinery, spare parts, and raw materials.

“Due to currency devaluation and subsidy removal, the Nigerian government had to ban the importation of agricultural goods like rice, maize, wheat, and vegetable oils. Although by obstructing import, there was a slight increase in local output production; significantly in rice, poultry, and fishery products, but these were less profitable because of high costs of imported inputs incurred due to subsidy removal and currency devaluation.

“This resulted in more economic hardship for the ordinary people. An inclusive economic system will in the long run benefit the country more than the previously held stand of extractive economic system. Additionally, deregulation, commercialisation, and privatisation initially compounded the unemployment crisis and enthroned mass poverty. Its socio-economic costs on people could be gleaned from the below.”

He added, “Also, through staff rationalisation of public institutions, many civil servants lost their jobs with an accompanying concomitant cataclysmic consequence of social dislocations: as many breadwinners in families lost their jobs without any social welfare scheme provided by the Nigerian government.

“It also led to civil unrest, riots, and a rise in crime rates. Apart from civil unrest, riots, and a rise in crime rates, privatisation lowered life expectancy and literacy rates among middle and low-income Nigerians.

“Privatisation is to be considered the hallmark of capitalism. This is a pointer to the fact that capitalism is indeed profit-inclined. Once privatised, schools, hotels, firms, and hospitals began to charge unaffordable fees. Due to the high costs of health care and education, many were discouraged from seeking health care in hospitals and furthering their education. This situation led to the proliferation of quack doctors and fake drugs as many could barely afford good hospitals and drugs.”

In its latest ‘Post Financing and Assessment Discussion and Staff Report’ for Nigeria, the fund suggested a series of measures to be implemented over the next six to 12 months aimed at stabilising the economy and fostering growth.

One of the primary recommendations is to raise the monetary policy rate at the upcoming Monetary Policy Committee meeting to achieve a positive real interest rate.

“Raise the monetary policy rate at the next Monetary Policy Committee meeting to make it positive in real terms over the next six-12 months. This will be a key signal of the direction of monetary policy despite limited transmission. The pace of tightening and the terminal rate can be calibrated from meeting to meeting considering incoming data,” the report stated.

An economist, Femi Oladele, said he believed that Nigeria’s economy would rebound if the country sought indigenous solutions to its economic challenges. He added that external communities couldn’t proffer solutions to problems endemic to the country.

“I believe Nigeria’s failing economy will rebound with ‘insights from the inside’. African solutions cannot be rightly proffered from the outside,” he said.

Lending his voice to the matter, a financial expert, Prof John Alabi, said while the IMF recommendations might appear good from the outside, it had sparked crises in nations of the world and must be thought of critically before embracing and implementing them.

“You’ll realise that because of the universal nature of the IMF prescriptions, it doesn’t consider the local economy. So, nations of the world would have to think twice before implementing their recommendations. While some countries of the world have accepted their recommendations, others have vehemently rejected them.

“Where policies are recommended, countries should look at the local conditions and see how best they can be implemented, otherwise the prescriptions are violent and can spark up crisis in nations of the world; it can even engender military coup where the military takes over the government,” he said.

He added, “Currently, what we have in Nigeria is an inflationary crisis. The IMF will ask for a free-fall economy, but no country in the world will just leave their economy to experience a free fall. Even in the United States and other developed nations of the world, there are unseen hands that control what happens in the economy.”

Alabi suggested guided deregulation like the introduction of the commodity board, saying, “We cannot just allow the naira to fall freely; the forces of demand and supply cannot just drive the economy. So, the policies of the IMF, as good as they are, must be studied and domesticated in line with the situations in Africa and other developing countries.”

In its latest but harsh recommendation to the government, the fund asked the Federal Government to completely phase out electricity subsidy in the country.

The IMF made the recommendation while advising Nigeria on pathways to restoring macroeconomic stability in its ‘Post Financing Assessment’ report.

Nigeria’s electricity has been subsidized; hence, the power sector is currently not allowed to charge a cost-reflective tariff due to a subsidy paid on electricity by the government.

Up till the third quarter of 2023, Nigeria has spent N204.59bn on electricity subsidy and plans to expend an additional N1.6tn in 2024 to enable citizens to access power at a low cost.

The IMF noted that fuel and electricity subsidies are costly, do not reach those that most need government support “and should be phased out completely.”

However, taking a look at the impact of the fuel subsidy removal, and the lack of preparedness on the part of the government to cushion the impact on citizens, experts have criticized the move and have said, Nigeria needs to properly study the recommendations of the IMF before implementation.

The Chancellor of the International Society for Social Justice and Human Rights, Jackson Omenazu, said the IMF policies were aimed at impoverishing Africa, adding that the call for electricity subsidy removal was to the advantage of the West than it would benefit Nigerians.

He called on the Nigerian government to resist the IMF and its policy recommendations and develop local solutions to the country’s problems.

“In the current world order and the last 40 years, IMF’s recommendations have not favoured Africa and Nigeria inclusive. It has rather helped in impoverishing the region and enriching Europe and America.

“We don’t need policies from the IMF to run our economy. The recent call on the government to remove electricity subsidy is uncalled for. It is the IMF’s way of making Nigerians import alternative energy should they not be able to afford the new bill. They (the IMF) are banking on the ignorance of the leadership of the nation to carry out the policies to their advantage,” he said.

Jonathan, Buhari not brave to implement Oronsaye report – Ex-minister

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Jonathan, Buhari not brave to implement Oronsaye report – Ex-minister

Former Minister of State for Works and National Coordinator of South-West Agenda for Asiwaju, Prince Dayo Adeyeye, shares his thoughts with AYOOLA OLASUPO on President Bola Tinubu’s adoption of the Stephen Oronsaye report, the current hardships faced by Nigerians, among other issues

Nigeria has been experiencing a continued rise in the prices of goods since the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira in 2023. Do you think the economy can continue to carry the heavy burden of that subsidy removal in the face of competing national priorities like education and healthcare infrastructure?

Is subsidy removal important? When you have a subsidy that means you will have the burden and it is what led us to this. Lack of courage from successive governments is what led us to this dire strait. It is a huge burden to subsidise the price of fuel and that is a burden on the economy of Nigeria. It is the burden put by President Bola Tinubu, and of course, it has its consequences, which is the increase in prices of foodstuffs and some other items. In Nigeria, when prices go up, they never come down. Yes, but this is not a new experience. We have had it before. The thing is that it was practically impossible to begin to subsidise fuel.

Let’s face it. At the time we were buying fuel at N180, in our neighbouring countries a litre of petrol was selling for nothing less than about N950 and there was huge smuggling of petroleum products across borders. I travelled across West Africa last year with my wife, and we saw this practically. So, it was not sustainable; it was particularly impossible to continue like that because the NNPC and the Federal Government were broke. So, the thing is that the fuel subsidy has been removed and people are working around the issue to make sure that life is better for Nigerians.

Firstly, we have to make sure that the economy does not collapse completely. Like Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State said, by the time Tinubu took over, Nigeria’s economy was like a dead horse. It was already dead. It was just put there standing, and there was no economy. That was the truth. The money in Ways and Means, money you did not earn, is what is fueling inflation now. Nobody does that in the world. The price of the dollar has continued to go up even though the government has removed fuel subsidies. This is what is going on, but the economy will get better. However, the policies that the government is putting in place cannot have flexibility. It’s like when you plant a seed, it’s not immediately you get it to grow up, you need to give it time. That’s why I am saying Nigerians should give the presidency a little more time so that the effects of the policies that have been put in place will come to a full stop. I am optimistic that things will be better around the corner.

You mentioned price control while talking and you said that when the prices of things go up in Nigeria, It never comes down. How do you think the government can address the situation?

It is the present situation where the price is artificially up. It will still come down. Compressed Natural Gas is an alternative for powering vehicles, particularly for vehicles that move goods: trailers, and others. The cost of transportation will come down drastically. You find people coming to build the ground by way of local production of those items because for example, if you import toothpicks, which we are still importing, and it costs like N300 per toothpick, and I think that there are 60 per cent of chances in my place that I can produce this toothpick for less than N130. I will do that. So, as imports become more expensive, the locally produced food items become super.

Therefore, you have to increase production locally. These are common sense economics, and I wish we applied it in the case of Nigeria. When I said the price is going up, what I meant is that naturally when there is a normal increase in price, it doesn’t come down like that in Nigeria, but in this present situation that we are going through, these prices will come down because they are artificially induced.

There are insinuations that the interventions from the Federal Government were marred by the lack of accountability and poor feedback mechanism, which is not robust enough to send the right signals that the process adopted, is not delivering the maximum result. What is your thought about that?

I have said again and again that those interventions are short-term decisions, and you know the Nigerian family situation. Yes, the President eased the tension, and he has released a lot of money. Now, all the state’s and local governments’ allocations have doubled, but we have not seen the effects. To alleviate the suffering of the masses in the interim, please take some measures; pay the pensioners and the minimum wage. Some of them have not yet balanced the payment of salaries. Make sure that you have, in terms of transportation, found a way to subsidise the movement of goods, especially agricultural products to the cities.

Do that by calling the transporters and saying, ‘I’m going to give you this amount of money because we have more money now’. If you give them, then they can move these goods cheaply to the areas where they are needed. So, we need to hold the local governments and state governments more accountable because the Federal Government doesn’t have a particular territory by the law that it controls. It just sits up there and if it wants to do anything, it is through these local and state governments. When you pass this money to them and they are not carrying out what they are supposed to do with the money; of course, you will not see the development in society. So, they need to be held more accountable. There should be more pressure on them to do more for the masses.

You claimed that President Bola Tinubu’s administration has not favoured the South-West. Many Nigerians will not agree with you on this. Why did you say so?

How has he favoured the South-West? If you look at the statistics about the last government in the last eight years, then check all the power centres. President Bola Tinubu is only trying to balance things, and he is balancing it with all Nigerians. He was accused completely of favouring one side, then you will begin to see people complaining that he is favouring only his side. President Tinubu is favouring all Nigerians. The appointments are balanced in my view. In the South-East, we know how many they got in the past, but today, you have many of them who have been given important parastatals.

Even in terms of the ministries today, we have people in charge of science and technology compared to what they had in the past, and then we have the South-South too. Most Nigerians can feel a sense of belonging now under President Tinubu. He is not favouring any particular side of the country. I think the appointments are well-balanced, but Nigerians will just jump to a conclusion. He has a high sense of fairness. President Tinubu is more than just a person. The appointments are well-balanced if you do a thorough analysis. I know what I was saying when I said he didn’t favour the South-West. I didn’t even elaborate on this to this level in that study. Do they still want the South-East to get more appointments? They said President Tinubu is favouring the South-West. I said, ‘Give me the facts’; and they couldn’t give the facts.

Even if you look at all the ministries, Tinubu has been fair in sharing the appointments for all Nigerians. I was a national secretary of Afenifere; I had the authority to issue statements, which were authorised by our leaders. We had the reason to complain that former President Olusegun Obasanjo was not doing anything to revamp the situation because he didn’t want to be accused of favouring his area, and they did everything to ensure that the South-West did not get anything. You can remember that under the Obasanjo regime, the Lagos/Ibadan was in bad shape and was never touched. He didn’t even do anything to his place in Sango-Ota. He did nothing in the South-West because he didn’t want to be accused of favouring the South-West. Now, you want to blackmail President Bola Tinubu to do the same thing so that the South-West can suffer. We want him to be fair to all Nigerians and we don’t want him to subject the South-West to a bad situation.

Recently, the Senate asked the Federal Government to distribute food stamps, which can be exchanged for food to people on low income as part of its measures to cushion the current economic hardship. Do you think that is the best way to go at this moment?

It is good to say these things but what about the implementation? You are asking me that many ideas have been put forward, but they are not working and now you are talking about food stamps. It is nonsensical for the President to leave his seat and start distributing it to the markets. These are the issues, and I don’t think food stamp is the solution for us in Nigeria. Just by the level of wealth of America which is at least worth $1tn to that of Nigeria, people still suffer hunger and still have to rely on food stamps which until recently, I believe Nigerians didn’t need to have food stamps before they would eat.

As Nigerians, we must realise that the economic hardship here is so bad and it is not in Nigeria alone. I even saw a video where people are queuing for food, the same thing happens in other European countries, even in Japan too. So, it is not limited to Nigeria, there is worldwide inflation partly as a result of COVID-19, which people have not recovered from. I don’t want to support food stamps; I believe in local production, and better distribution of local food, which is the most important thing. I believe that the food stamp is not the solution to improve the local production of food. We produce enough food in this country. What we need is to put them into effective use. I do not eat any foreign-produced rice. I eat the rice produced in my state, Ekiti. That’s what I eat, and most people can testify to that. That has happened for more than 10 years now. I think people must realise that we need to eat our rice. Even when I go abroad to see my children, they will always say if it is possible, bring some rice for us, and that is Ekiti rice. I’m saying that the programmes put in place by President Tinubu are the right ones for the country and that means the policies can be effective.

As a former Minister of State for Works, what interventions should come from the government to stop the frequent national grid collapse across the country?

The first thing is that we need to rethink our power sector policy completely. We need to decentralise. There is too much concentration of things in Nigeria and that’s why I support restructuring and devolution of powers. I don’t believe that one authority should be responsible for supplying power to all Nigerians. I don’t believe in it, and I think that should be decentralization. That’s why I applaud what happened recently in Abia State, where they completed the power plant, the light-up project that they did, which is going to supply power to about nine local governments in Abia State. That should be the way forward. The way forward is for every state, local government, and university to begin to think of how they can generate their power.

Solar, wind, hydropower, and build gas supplies on their own, and supply their utility and be out of the grid. I’m surprised that a lot of people who are building estates in Nigeria today can’t think imaginatively to say, ‘These estates we are building will not be connected to the national grid because we’ll make everything solar’. We have an abundance of sunlight in Nigeria. When I went on a visit to Israel, I saw it there. Some estates in Israel are self-sufficient. They built their solar panels on the rooftops and generated their power. They don’t have to be on the national grid.

But the Federal Government has also planned to increase the power capacity to 20,000 megawatts from the 12,522 MW projected within the next three years. What impacts will this have on the economy?

It will have an impact, but I can still believe that even with that, there will be a lot of decentralised management of that power sector. That will be the solution. Allow organisations to generate their power, transmit and supply. I think the Constitution has to be amended now to allow that. I expect the private sector and the state governments to sit and see how they can generate their power and be self-sufficient in that sector. That’s the way forward because even if we generate more megawatts, we are still going to deal with bureaucracy, with the same set of situations. We must allow the private sector to come in. I believe that because of the nature of Nigeria, the Federal Government inherited this, and it is not in a position to manage this efficiently.

The nation is currently facing multiple challenges of insecurity, and it is believed by security experts that the national grid collapse helps criminals to perpetrate their activities under the cover of darkness. What is your thought about this?

The national grid collapse is more of sabotage. Maybe the tactics are even responsible for that. If the bandits know that they cannot put the whole nation in darkness and that it can only affect one or two areas, when you decentralise, they will rethink. You know under the cover of darkness; they can perpetrate more atrocities. Though they do perpetrate atrocities in broad daylight, the effort of the government, I will also say, is commendable in the area of security because people testify that the incidents of banditry are reducing. We still hear about it, but it is reducing. People can travel from Kaduna to Abuja more freely now, but we still have great challenges and I believe that with time, the government will be able to tackle these issues.

The NLC said it suspended the two-day national protest meant to fight against the high cost of living, inflation, insecurity, and hardship in the country. Do you think the protest and the minimum wage request of N1m by Labour are justified?

They are not justified. That guy is just playing politics with the Labour thing. Why is he using the NLC to nurture his political agenda? N1m minimum wage in this economy! So, for somebody on Level 8, the minimum wage will be N1m; are you saying some companies will be able to let go of N1m? You just want to ruin the economy because he is an unreasonable person, and he is doing politics with it. The same thing he did in Imo State the other time. A week before the election, he went to Imo State and said they had not implemented one thing or the other and he said he was going to lead a demonstration.

You saw the result there. People there attacked him; only God saved this guy. The guy should be reasonable and that’s why I want to commend the President and the leadership of the Trade Union Congress who are more reasonable. You have made your demands to the Federal Government and if they will be met, it is not in a day. All you need to do is give time. For some of these demands, there is no way they are going to mature after another one or two years but the ones that are implementable now, the government is making efforts to implement them, and then you are saying N1m minimum wage. Is it not the purchasing power that matters?

So, how much do you think should be the minimum wage considering the current economic realities?

I am not the one to determine what the minimum wage will be. People in charge of it will look at all the parameters, factors, and resources of the country, and everything will come out with a stable figure, but in Nigeria, you should not go and dream that if you have a minimum wage of N1m, then you are rich. People will die because of the N1m minimum wage because what they are buying today for N10,000 will increase. The inflation will spiral up. It’s not the amount of money that matters, it’s what the money can buy and not even about the N1m.

The NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said the protest was suspended due to intimidation and threats from the government. Do you think threats and intimidation against peaceful protests are necessary in a democracy?

When he went to the National Assembly, nobody threatened him there. Why is the man playing politics with the leadership of the Labour union? The man has a hidden agenda to force Peter Obi on Nigerians so that the Labour Party can have its way. Should everyone be following him like sheep? He carried out a protest and nobody was arrested even though I saw the video where policemen were helping them to distribute water and providing security for them. So, where is the harassment and intimidation? It is not true and there is no evidence of it.

How will you react to President Bola Tinubu’s directive that the Oronsaye Report should be fully implemented after its submission 12 years ago?

This is why I campaigned for President Bola Tinubu. I see that he is a man of great courage, who is not afraid to take the hard decisions that are necessary to put Nigeria on the right foundation and the path of development. That’s why I voted for him. This is what has been lacking, especially in Nigeria. The bureaucracy was too large. The recurrent expenditure was taking almost 80 per cent of the budget of Nigeria. So, former President Goodluck Jonathan came up with an idea on how to reduce our bureaucracy and be more efficient so that we can have more allocation of resources for capital development. Ninety per cent of the country’s development will remain only 10 per cent to do roads, build bridges, and some other infrastructure. There is no way you can develop with that. The report was submitted to former President Goodluck Jonathan, but he didn’t implement it. For eight years former President Muhammadu Buhari was here, he didn’t have the courage to implement it.

As a man of great courage, who is not afraid to make high decisions, and a man of great vision, he said he would do it. I just hope that he will carry out that vision. There were about 350 MDAs in Nigeria at that time, and it was said that we needed to free up more resources for capital development. Since our recurrent expenditure, which was just to run these agencies and pay salaries was mopping up almost 80 per cent of our budget, allowing new development to take less than 20 per cent of the budget. That was the situation and that was what Jonathan thought about to see how these agencies can be streamlined through this panel. Oronsaye submitted his report to President Jonathan. Buhari came into the office and the report was there as part of his handover notes. And for eight years, he did nothing about it.

At the time that Orosanye and his panel did their job, Nigeria had about 350 agencies, which they would now streamline to about 150 but the number of agencies is no longer critical. We now have about 1,300 agencies and departments. It’s no longer 350. So, I don’t know if this has been brought to the attention of President Tinubu. We can’t even begin to implement the Oronsaye report fully now because it is obsolete, it is outdated. What I think the President should do is ask Oronsaye to come back with his members on the panel and ask them to look at these 1,300 MDAs and see how they can be streamlined into something more manageable.

Every year, since Oronsaye submitted the report, we continue to create commissions and agencies and that is putting extreme pressure on our recurrent expenditure, which has now gone up to about 90 per cent of the total budget. So, I support the reaction of President Tinubu to this situation, but I think if we just go home now and dust off the report as he wants to implement it, we won’t be serving justice to ourselves. What we need is to review it to see how we can reduce these commissions and agencies drastically and to put a moratorium on the creation of commissions, agencies, and departments for quite some time.

The Oronsaye report recommended the merger of some Federal Government ministries, departments, and agencies, and the scrapping of others. While the Federal Government said there would be no job loss, Labour insisted that there would be massive job losses. What do you think about it?

The Labour people have to be reasonable. The Federal Government said there would be no job losses. All these agencies will keep on employing people every year if they remain independent but if they are merged now, for some time, at least there will be no unnecessary commitments to those agencies. I support the idea that there will be no job losses for agencies because of the economic situation.

Married celebrities face a number of stress – Teco Benson

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Married celebrities face a number of stress – Teco Benson

Veteran Nollywood filmmaker and actor, Teco Benson, speaks to VICTORIA EDEME on the controversies, divorce, and infidelity allegations that mar celebrity marriages

As a celebrity, how did you determine it was the right time to start a family when you did?

Right from my secondary school days, I gave myself a target that I wanted to get married at the age of 30. Before I got to 30, marriage was not on my list at all because I already had a plan to get that done at 30. The moment I got to 30, I activated the search button. During my search, I reflected and remembered that when I was younger, I encountered someone whom my spirit said I’d get married to. So I flashed back to those moments and remembered the person. She was in the East then, because I lived there before I came to Lagos. I then made a move, travelled to the East, and began the search. Searching and getting her was another journey. The summary is that we got to meet and the rest is history. We’ve been married for 23 years now.

How would you describe the 23 years of your marriage?

It’s been beautiful.

How many children do you have?

I have five boys and just last month, we welcomed our first daughter. I have six children now.

How long have you been in the Nollywood industry?

I’ve been in the industry for 30 years.

Did you at any point feel that your marriage would interfere with your career?

I planned my life from the beginning. When I was going into marriage, I did a lot of research and saw a lot of frustration and conflicts that people encounter in marriage. I went in consciously and carefully, with a decision to make mine work. There are ups and downs and misunderstandings, but people who are not strong-willed may fall by the way, give up, and start trying alternatives. After trying those alternatives, they may discover that the same situation may play out again. That’s why you see that some may divorce 10 times and remarry 10 times. With wisdom and information, you can make yours work. It is for better or worse. I was already in the industry and when I wanted to settle down, I didn’t marry someone in the industry. Everybody has the templates that work for them, but I didn’t want to marry someone in the industry.

Why didn’t you want to marry someone in the entertainment industry?

It was my choice. Being in the industry has a lot of distractions. I was a renowned producer and director at the time I got married and didn’t have time to rest. After filming, sometimes I would sleep in my office. I have a studio for shooting and editing. Because of timelines and deadlines, I keep late nights. Sometimes, I work all through the night. I had a policy of supervising my work during post-production. I went through my work even though I had an editor. So the work kept me away from home. Getting a wife who will also be away from home may have a negative impact on the family. Marriage is about creating an institution where the children are also part of the family.  When considering the interest of your wife, you have to also plan for the children that are going to come out of the union.

You need to take care of them and train them to become someone in society. These are some of the things I thought about and decided to go for someone who is not in the industry. I’m happy I made that decision. It’s not that I don’t encourage people to marry in the industry. Some are in it and are thriving. Some have found their way around it and it’s working for them. But for me, what made me happy was the fact that I found someone who wasn’t even interested in the industry at all. We got married at a time when almost every woman was crazy about acting and I got someone who was not interested. I’m so glad I got what I wanted. My wife is into business.

What are your thoughts on celebrities who marry fellow celebrities?

It’s their choice. It works for some while others may fail because of the clash of interests. Both the husband and the wife are in the field and the family suffers. There could also be mistrust and scandals when you’re in the public eye. As a celebrity, the media reports our activities. So one of the parties may make a wrong move and it becomes reported. As a popular person, people may walk through a path and go free but when you do, everybody knows that it’s you. Once you’re a celebrity, you must be careful with your life because society is looking at you as a role model. As human beings, nobody is infallible and people are bound to make mistakes. Any small mistake you make can easily be detected and reported to your partner and that may spell doom to that union.

I’m not saying that people should stay away from such unions. Some people are there and are happy. One of my mentees married an actress and they have a wonderful marriage. They have ups and downs but still rise together. The marriage is working for them and they are happy. So it depends on the individuals and their choices. As for me, I’ve made mine. Sometimes, it’s not wonderful to get married to someone from your industry. It’s always beautiful to have someone from another industry so that you respect each other for what you are.

How do you perceive the impact of the entertainment industry’s lifestyle on marriages?

Celebrity lifestyle puts the marriage in the eye of the public and the stakes become very high. As a celebrity, you can’t afford to take the back seat because everybody expects you to be high up there. So it puts you under pressure because they are trying to meet societal expectations. Your children or family are not safe. In school, once your children introduce themselves, their names stand out. Aside from the advantages, there are also disadvantages. It’s just for the person in the eye of the storm to be conscious of all these and live a very careful life. To some extent, it’s even good because it keeps them on their toes, knowing that people are watching.

A person who does not have the searchlight beamed on them might be very careless. Most people in the entertainment industry are very careful with their lives. They work hard because they can’t afford to live below the threshold. They have to send their children to befitting schools and make sure they maintain their vehicles. Their vehicles cannot be rickety, so they have to work hard to put up with their celebrity status. These are pressures that take a strong person to navigate.

What are your thoughts on divorce, infidelity, and controversies surrounding childbirth outside wedlock common among celebrities?

Fame has its negative sides. Celebrity status comes with a lot of things. The society also creates problems. A lot of male celebrities with multiple baby mamas are sometimes put in trouble by women and female fans, who are sometimes carried away when they see these male celebrities. Some of these women throw themselves at the male celebrities and some of the celebrities fall for them because they are humans. Some celebrities live the kind of lives they live not by choice, but by circumstances. I was in London in 2003 to receive an award with my co-celebrities. I remember that one of the stars went into the restroom to ease himself and one female fan rushed into the male toilet, hugged him there, and wanted to have a quickie.

For a man who cannot control himself, the pressure comes; the man may just fall and we may hear that the girl becomes pregnant. Later, it will be reported that the actor now has a child in London. It’s not always the celebrities going after these people. Some of them also used their celebrity status to take up everything that comes around them. These situations relate to men, so we can now imagine how it will be for female celebrities. The females are also faced with lots of pressure. Some men may come in and offer them duplexes, big cars, and millions of dollars to woo the ladies. So it takes a very strong person to stand and not fall into these traps. Sometimes, we may blame celebrities but when you look deeply, you see that fame comes with a lot of pressure and celebrities need to be very strong to survive in the entertainment sector.

Many believe it is difficult for celebrities to keep stable homes without drama. How true is this?

Celebrities can keep stable homes. We have a lot of responsible people in the industry. We have men and women who are faithful in the entertainment space. In nature, there are individual differences. Some people are weaker than the others. When faced with temptations, some people fall and others stand their ground. Celebrities can maintain stable homes. As a celebrity, you must have God, because without God, you cannot survive it. The lifestyle requires God for you to maintain a good family and decent living. It is not something you can do on your own because the pressure is too much that as a mere mortal, you may not survive it. So it’s possible to maintain a good home. It’s your choice. Understanding and godliness are important. Conscience guides you and makes a man or woman in the industry survive and keep a home. Any wrong move could be seen, reported, and become a scandal.

Aside from destroying your name, it could also destroy your children or affect them negatively. Nobody wants a broken home or goes into marriage with the intent of divorce, but we see marriages that crash after months. People should be prepared before they go into marriage. They shouldn’t just look at the aesthetics, beauty, and fun that come with the wedding. There is much more than that. If you want to get married, you must look at the intricacies. If you’re a man, you should know that women are the weaker vessels.

There may be misunderstandings and you may encounter some issues that may not be the way you want, but you should be able to bend and understand that you can’t get your way all the time. Marriage is give and take because it involves two people coming from different backgrounds. No matter how superior you think your own opinion is, you have to come down to the level of your partner so that you can reason together. Your partner may be wrong, but because you want peace, you may just let it slide.

What are your thoughts on celebrities who drag themselves on social media during divorce?

That’s the biggest mistake divorcees make. Negative news sells and once those things happen, the media will always come for them. Most divorces are due to irreconcilable differences and both parties claim to be right. Each party wants to rush out there to present their positions so that they can be seen as the good person and their spouse as the demon. That’s the reason for the rush to go to the media. Even if you catch the woman in infidelity, she will leave the infidelity and rush to escalate domestic violence online. Meanwhile, she was caught red-handed in infidelity. If she keeps quiet and the whole world hears the other side, it will affect her negatively and she may never even settle down with another person again as men may now feel that she is not the type that can be married.

In marriage, two people become lovers, but in divorce, they become enemies. When they become enemies at the inception of the divorce, they forget that they will still be relevant in each other’s lives because they will still have to meet each other if they have children. They will have to keep up that good image because of their children. Even if the children are in the custody of the woman, the law will still permit the father to have time with the children and vice versa. So the best thing for couples is to resist the initial temptation. Divorce should call for sober reflection and quietness. The couple should go back to their shell to reflect and think. They shouldn’t be in a hurry to destroy each other online because those words cannot be taken back, especially when they have been used in the paper or carried by the media. Those words will be there forever to haunt the children.

Sometimes, after exchanging those words, they may still resolve and remarry themselves, but those words still linger. Sometimes, some people may have the feeling to come back, but when they remember what they have said to each other, they stay back. The truth is that God likes marriage and he established the institution. But in the new world now, it seems like divorce is becoming more fashionable and there are broken homes and broken children all over the place. As civilisation is increasing, the rate of divorce is also increasing. In summary, couples during divorce should refrain from such negative comments against each other because those differences can be taken care of and you may want to come back to each other.

‘No contact’ with Klopp about Germany job, says DFB

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‘No contact’ with Klopp about Germany job, says DFB

German FA (DFB) managing director Andreas Rettig said Saturday there has been “no contact” with Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp about taking over the national team.

Speaking with German magazine Focus, Rettig said the DFB was trying to respect Klopp’s wishes to take a break once his tenure at Liverpool ends in the summer.

“There has been no contact. He has given himself a break. I don’t know whether we should be giving him travel tips on how to enjoy his free time.”

With current Germany coach Julian Nagelsmann’s contract running until the end of Euro 2024, to be held on German soil, the DFB has been looking for a long-term replacement – with Klopp at the top of the list.

“He wants a break and that’s why it is not an issue,” Rettig said.

Klopp stunned the football world in January when he announced he would step down as Liverpool boss at the end of the current season, citing exhaustion.

He has been linked with a number of jobs, including that of the German national team, but has said repeatedly he would take at least a year off before returning to coaching.

The hosts have struggled in the build-up to the Euros, leading to the sacking of Hansi Flick, the first Germany coach to be fired in the federation’s history.

Germany won just three of 11 matches in 2023, including just one of four under Nagelsmann.

Rettig said the DFB backed Nagelsmann’s side to perform strongly in the summer and hoped he would stay on after a successful tournament.

“You don’t send a successful coach away.”

Late January 2024, Liverpool announced that  Klopp would step down at the end of the season.

AFP

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5 die in Ondo street crash

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5 die in Ondo street crash

No fewer than five people lost their lives while several others were injured in a fatal road accident that occurred along the Benin-Ore-Shagamu Expressway in the Akinfosile area of Okitipupa Local Government Area of Ondo State on Saturday evening.

According to the state Police Public Relations Officer, Mrs Funmilayo Odunlami, the accident involved a Toyota Hiace bus with the number plate FKG 405 FX from Akure en route to Lagos.

The bus was said to have swerved off the expressway and somersaulted several times before landing in the bush.

The PPRO said, “The police have moved injured victims to the nearest hospital, while the dead have been moved to the mortuary of the same hospital.

“Investigation is ongoing to unravel the cause of the accident, while effort is on to contact the families of the passengers involved in the accident.

“She advised members of the public to reach out to their relatives who left for Lagos from Akure on Saturday to check on them to ascertain their status, and those in doubt of the whereabouts of their families should reach out to the police at Igbotako Division.”

Similarly, the state sector commander of the Federal Road Safety Corps, Mr Ezekiel Son’Allah, also confirmed the incident, confirming that 13 people were involved in the accident.

He stated, “The number of people involved is 13, six females, and seven males. Five of them died, while eight were injured. The accident was caused by a speed limit violation.

“The FRSC commander also advised the drivers to always be cautious of excessive spending and always.”

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