Editorial
The media and the state of the nation
In modern day governance across the world, the issue of Good Governance has taken the front burner as an essential requirement for social, economic and political developments. However, good governance has continued to be elusive to most countries including Nigeria.
Interestingly, in its bid to ensure good governance, Nigeria had in the 1999 Nigerian constitution in Section 16 (1) a, b, c, and d, and Section 16 (2) entrenched some of the principles of Good Governance as a possible criteria for governance in the country.
Despite these constitutional provisions and the huge financial resources expended by successive governments, good governance continues to elude Nigeria. Other efforts have been put in place to enthrone Good Governance in the country. It would be recalled that not too long ago, Good Governance tours were organized where some officials of the federal ministry of information and some Journalists from various media outfits, traveled around the country to evaluate projects executed by the different agencies of federal and state governments.
The aim of that tour was for the media to assess the performances or otherwise of elected public office holders at various tiers of governments. Section 22 of Nigerian constitution made provision for such an exercise where it stated inter alia; “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the government to the people”
It is sad that the Buhari administration which rode to power on massive goodwill in 2015 has squandered almost all that goodwill largely due its inability to contain most of the challenges that has held Nigeria from soaring and attaining its potential.
Today, the nation is at a crossroad. Its democracy is still tottering and fragile, its economy is in comatose and the general well being of the nation is being threatened by the worst insecurity of our lifetime. All these factors and some more have brought this great nation to its knees as it gasps for breath.
The general mood of Nigerians is that of anger, depression, hopelessness and fear. From all indications, the Buhari administration is overwhelmed and unable to fulfill its primary responsibilities, which includes protecting and securing the lives and properties of the people of this country. Presently, Nigeria is drifting dangerously in murky waters. If nothing is done fast to steer it to the coast, the country might end up in the worst circumstances that may change its fortunes forever.
According to Henry Grunwald (former editor TIME magazine) “Journalism can never be silent: that is its greatest virtue and its greatest fault. It must speak, and speak immediately, while the echoes of wonder, the claims of triumph and the signs of horror are still in the air.”
While foreign based media outlets should be commended for their objective coverage of what is happening in the country, local media organizations with a few notable exceptions seem fatigued and are accepting the present state of the nation as the new normal.
The media over the years has been globally acknowledged as the watchdog of the society and its information/monitoring roles considered a sine qua non for democracy and good governance. Nigeria like most other democratic countries entrenched the principles of Good Governance as possible criteria for democratic governance in her 1999 constitution.
However, despite this constitutional provision as well as the enormous financial resources and huge potentials of the country, good governance continues to be elusive to Nigeria. The media in the country must reawaken with a renewed vigour to its responsibilities and ensure that the country is steered back to the path of peace and prosperity.
Our political leaders and all those who are saddled with responsibilities that are directly or indirectly connected with the well being of this country and its people should not only be reminded of the need to live up to expectation by doing the needful, but should be held accountable for laxities and failures. The media must consistently be effective at the task of exposing corrupt leaders. It must expose all activities that can place a wedge on the wheel of the progress of Nigeria.
The potential of the media in Nigeria to contribute to Good Governance depends on the extent that it reflects and enforces the principles of good governance as an institution. For the media to contribute effectively in enthroning good governance, it must as a matter of responsibility apply the basic principles of patriotism, accountability, transparency and objectivity in the discharge of its duties and uphold the sanctity of truth and fairness at all times.
The Nigerian media have been in the vanguard for the promotion and sustenance of the democracy we now have in the country. At this point, the media in Nigeria need to take up the responsibility of adequately engendering better governance in our democratic polity.
As the institution mandated to hold those in governance and leadership positions accountable, the Nigerian media can effectively achieve its mandate if it applies the basic principles of patriotism, accountability, transparency and objectivity in the discharge of its duties.
The Nigerian Coast Guard Bill is a well thought out legislative instrument that would take the nation to the next level of securing its maritime resources like any well organized countries of the world.
The vast marine resources of the nation cannot continue to be left on an ad-hoc system whereby the Nigerian Navy and the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency are the agencies administering the marine resources as Nigeria continue to suffer economic hemorrhage and lose billions of naira annually due to illegal exploitation of marine resources.
The establishment of the Nigerian Coast Guard is in consonance with the global best practices and would address a critical gap and enable Nigeria to fully leverage its maritime potential. The United Kingdom, India, United States of America, Australia, Canada and others, have long robust history of how Coast Guards changed positively the narrative of managing marine resources, hence, Nigeria need to wise up to join the community of well structured Coast Guard nations to its advantage.
The establishment of a coast guard aligns well with the recommendations of the International Maritime Organization, IMO, the United Nations agency dedicated to maritime affairs. The IMO guidelines highlight the necessity of having a dedicated maritime security agency responsible for implementing international standards for maritime safety and security.
On 5th December, 2024 during a public hearing on the now pending bill to “Establish Nigerian Coast Guard”, it was unfortunate that the Nigerian Navy could degenerate to selfishness by opposing the establishment of the Nigerian Coast Guard despite overwhelming advantages presented by experts in maritime industry like Dr. Olisa Agbakoba and numerous other stakeholders.
From the public hearing, it became clearer that the mandate of the proposed Nigerian Coast Guard and the statutory duty of the Nigerian Navy cannot in any way crisscross, as Navy’s duty is that of combat and defence, while the Nigerian Coast Guard is that of managing marine resources and prevention of illegal exploitation of the resources.
Objecting the bill, the Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Emmanuel Ogalla through his representative contended that there was no need for the establishment of the Nigerian Coast Guard, which the Nigerian Navy has been discharging for the past 40 years.
While we lend our strong advocacy to the establishment of Nigeria Coast Guard, integrating the Navy into the Coast Guard structure remains a viable option, like practices used by other countries. This arrangement would enable the Navy to lend its specialized skills and resources to support the Coast Guard’s operations, when needed while preserving the Coast Guard’s overall civilian mandate and organizational independence.
We urge the 10th National Assembly under the leadership of Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio to pass this very important bill into law as Nigerian Coast Guard would effectively address various maritime issues, with its primary responsibilities to include implementing maritime regulations, protecting Nigeria’s extensive economic resources, and enforcing the nation’s maritime laws, such as the Cabotage Act and the Merchant Shipping Act.
This specialized focus would enhance the enforcement of regulations, increase revenue generation, and improve the protection of Nigeria’s marine environment.
One could recall the many failures and total imperfections in elections conducted that snowballed into total conundrum of the nation’s democracy when the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Mahmood Yakubu appeared before the Senate and House of Representatives joint Committee on INEC on 5th January to defend INEC’s 2025 budget defence.
Mahmood who was appointed by the former President Muhammadu Buhari on 21st October, 2015 has never added value to the nation’s electoral process in barely ten years, hence, the conduct of elections under his watch has always been fiasco, confusion and utter disappointment to the political players and Nigerians who have long yearned for perfect elections.
Undoubtedly, perfect election has the potential to strengthen democracy, restore confidence and throw up well-meaning Nigerians to make themselves available to contest elections in the interest of development of the nation, but as it were, INEC under Yakubu remains a nightmare to politicians and not even their political rivals during elections.
It’s no gainsaying that humongous fund has been pumped into INEC through appropriation by the National Assembly in anticipation that if funds were judiciously utilized under the items listed, in previous years, electoral processes would have been sanitized much more to the advantage of electoral players, but it’s being a sad story from year to year.
When the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System and Permanent Voters Card were introduced by the INEC, with request for sufficient funding, Nigerians were upbeat and in expectation of a new way of conducting election in consonance with the best global practices, but with huge funds committed to the initiative, there are no good testimonies till date.
The very essence of BVAS ended in conduit pipe, the same way funds committed to it under Mahmood ended. The machine which was touted to be a device which would be used to isolate fake votes from genuine ones has never been so. A development that results of one Local Government has surpassed the entire 20 Local Government Council Areas for two electioneering times under the watch of Yakubu.
From State to State during general election, there were cases of INEC staff compromising election processes without subjecting them to in-house disciplinary action. Painfully, these staff of the electoral umpire walk around free and even go to court to defend the cases.
One wonders the questionable election results each year and how INEC’s agents would defend them as principal witness when the said results became subject of litigations. We believe that the 21st century digital age should have enhanced activities of the electoral umpire and not the other way we are seeing. Conducting election in Nigeria is not a rocket science, hence, decrying complications in conducting election in Nigeria as we saw during the budget defence last week by the INEC boss was completely an attempt to confuse the lawmakers.
The increase of INEC’s budget from N40 billion to N126 billion currently before the National Assembly for legislative action is too staggering, humongous and would be a waste if this fund is approved under the leadership of Godswill Obot Akpabio as Senate President.
The 10th National Assembly, it is believed, has wise men and women in Senate and the House of Representatives and Nigerians are counting on them to save the nation of waste of hard earned resources by not approving the sum of N126 billion for INEC. This is at the backdrop of the fact that nothing good could come out of INEC under the current structure.
Also, it will be an honour done to themselves as patriotic Nigerians and elder statesmen to decline approval of N126 billion proposal, even as items raised by the INEC boss for the proposal are not only feeble, there are also unrealistic.
The parliament should be seen to be doing all it could to curb financial leakages and retaining the N40 billion budget since 2025 is not the general election year would be appropriate. This will avoid the surge of INEC’s proposal to a trillion naira in 2027 general election if the current proposal of N126 is sustained.
If nothing is done to curb the menace of ‘yahoo boys’ immediately, Kogi State is about being the biggest hub of yahoo boys, given their activities and the large number of boys involved. These boys have relocated to Lokoja, Kogi State capital and are living a larger than life.
They are proudly cruising around town in very expensive vehicles worth over N50 million like lexus, venza and other brand of prado jeeps and are competing with themselves. Most of them ranging from age 19 to 35, could be seen wearing ear rings with dreadlock hairs.
In Kogi State, every property owner like buildings particularly in Lokoja want to have a yahoo boy tenant as they have resources to rent without bargaining the cost. Most of them lodge in expensive hotels, while others still in school rent costly apartments in Lokoja. They have good network among themselves, i.e yahoo boys in the Prince Abubakar Audu University, Anyigba know their group in Confluence University of Science and Technology and in other tertiary institutions which is easy for the group to flock together.
Civil servants can no longer afford to pay rents as rent has gone beyond the normal ceiling because of ‘easy money’ in hands of yahoo boys which they throw around. Notwithstanding, some reasonable yahoo boys have resorted to buying properties with the money which is believed among them that they don’t deal with cash as such, but transfers.
Yahoo boys in Kogi patronises herbalists and possesses voodoo laced with human blood used as ritual or dug from a graveyard at night which they believed hynotises their victims to part away money into their account and that is what has been their modus operandi.
If any of their member loses loved one, celebrating marriage or any kind of event, they are always there either in pure white or black attire to spray money.
In fact, Kogi is in gridlock of yahoo boys! And we demand a serious clamp down, security agencies should see Kogi as another challenge and not just the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission operatives. As the number of yahoo boys is multiplying so is the consequence on the society as their activities may likely snowballed into serious insecurity.
It is no exaggeration to say that the agony of losing money in bank accounts would be a child play, but money in hands very young boys could create another arms bearing gang posing security threat to the society as some desperate politicians could hijack them.
We call on the Inspector General of Police to create anti-yahoo unit in the Nigerian Police to tackle this ever spreading menace. A stitch in time saves nigh!
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