By Sylvester Odion Akhaine

Good morning, Mr President and dear readers. Although I took two months off to attend to other academic matters, I realise it was not enough. No rest at all. Pen-pushing all the way.  During the period, I reviewed the NADECO story authored by Ayo Opadokun. It was a major event chaired by our own Wole Soyinka, the Nobel laureate. During the same period, I have had to attend to my PhD students and guide some to their viva voce. Apart from routine teaching, I had to deal with my new book, Political Power in Nigeria, published by Palgrave Macmillan last month. I recommend this to political gladiators and their loyal followers for insights into Nigerian politics, in the hope of enlightening themselves while tempering their expectations. Mr President, you also need to read it.

I am back. In this piece, I overview issues I missed and will return to a comprehensive treatment of some of them. Among the developments in the polity in the last two months are increasing insecurity, the prohibitive price of petroleum products, and the consequent impact on cost of living, the expanding debt loop, and the issue of state police.

Insecurity, to begin with, the killing of Major-General Rabe Abubakar by the Kachallah-led terrorists operating in Katsina state traumatised many sentient Nigerians, including me. Kidnapped alongside his wife, humiliated and killed after several days in captivity, with a bold demand by the terrorists on the state to the effect of swapping the couple for their detained group members is the height of impunity and mortification of a sovereign state. We heard the state government making a case for the terrorists to the extent that General Abubakar died from some comorbidities without an autopsy. Also, it received the corpse of the dead general from the terrorists’ emissaries without consequence. I do not really know how to describe my sense of outrage. The Nigerian army is not the one I used to know. Those whom Major Gideon Orkar qualified as having the penchant for domination of the country in eternity have taken over the army for the goal of national conquest. They should perish the idea because they will not succeed.

While Abubakar was still in captivity, the terrorists whom the Chief of Defence Staff described as “our children” struck again in Oyo State. They abducted school children and their teachers, one of whom was beheaded to draw attention, while making outrageous demands on the state—sums of money in ransom and adoption of sharia law in the state. To date, there is still a stalemate in the rescue effort, with the children and their teachers going through hell. Abductions had happened in Borno, Zamfara, and Kebbi states of the country. We shall not surrender our country to the terrorists, no matter the cost. My warning, Mr President: failure to act decisively would sound the death knell of the Nigerian state. Mark my words.

The missile rain in the Gulf, occasioned by the U.S.-Israel war on Iran that began on February 28, upped energy prices globally. In Nigeria, it manifested in an increase in the pump price of petrol, diesel, and kerosene, with a domino effect on goods and services. At the Lagos State University campus, where I teach, students are forced to pay a 50 per cent increase in the cost of the campus shuttle. Personally, I spend about N260, 000 to fuel my car in a month on commuting to the workplace only, over one-third of my monthly pay.

Nigeria has 37.01 billion barrels of crude oil reserves and 215.19 trillion cubic feet of natural gas reserves. Yet the citizens groan under the excruciating cost of energy and living. Should it be so? Olaseinde Arigbede’s theory ought to be the central logic of policy here: a man who produces yams, for example, must satisfy his subsistence requirement before conceding to exchange value. Some may argue that we are constrained by the OPEC quota. But for citizens’ well-being, we could quit OPEC.

The sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, had advocated this policy direction in the Second Republic.

Now that the Strait of Hormuz is open to shipping traffic, the profiteers in the Nigerian downstream sector have refused to bring down their prices at the same speed that they adjusted their pump price. This is plain market repression, over which the Nigerian economy is classified as “Agbero” or “Kalo-kalo” economy, defying market principles, while embracing greed. Mr President, a country that cannot manage fuel prices can hardly manage terrorists with sophisticated military hardware.

Mr President, your penchant for loans is becoming alarming. It defies the principles in your co-authored book, Water from an Empty Well. That work speaks of self-reliance and freedom from neocolonial cleavages. The numerous loans have not impacted the people.  Put in the popular parlance, they have yet to taste the “dividends of democracy”. It is claimed that your administration has put more money in the hands of governors. If it is true, what logic drives the loan binge? A balanced budget, Mr President, is to be preferred to indebtedness in an environment that is fantastically corrupt. Take heed of the ironic caution from IMIFI JUJU, which is the IMF. Apologies to the inimitable Comrade Jonathan Ihonde.

The state police, which is part of the agitation for what some have called true federalism, is becoming a reality. The control mechanisms, though they look good, might need to be tightened to protect citizens from power-drunk governors. The governors in the prevailing Fourth Republic have turned out to be Tsars and must be hedged by appropriate provisions.

On a final note, thank you, Mr President, for the honour bestowed on me and others, for our humble contribution to the birth of Nigeria’s democracy in this year’s Democracy Day. I am always ready to contribute to its consolidation and to inspire hope in our people.

Akhaine, a fellow of the Academy of International Affairs, Nigeria, is a Professor of Political Science at Lagos State University.