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OPINION: Tinubu, Scrap The Scam

Published

2 years ago

January 9, 2024

By Suyi Ayodele

It is not enough to suspend that minister who (attempted) to post half a billion naira public funds into a private account. Sacking her won’t even be enough. Put another person in that ministry, you will get the same result. The thing to do is to stop the bleeding by scrapping the ministry and its associated tributaries. They are a scam, designed to be so. I am a good student of the 18th century poet, Alexander Pope. In one of his ‘beatitudes’, the poet pens: “Blessed is he who expects nothing, for he shall never be disappointed.” This is exactly my attitude to the statement by the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu would take appropriate action “to ensure that any breaches and infractions are identified and decisively punished, in line with the administration’s commitment to public accountability and due process”, in the corruption-infested Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. Rather than wonder when President Tinubu began to wear the garments of “public accountability and due process”, I would rather ask, like the people of yore asked their deity that could not save them from disasters, that this government scraps the scams known as the National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA), and the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. If the deity cannot help us, it should leave us the way it met us (oosa boo le gbe mi, fi mi sile b’ose ba mi).

My biggest ‘New Year Resolution’ for the year 2024 is to answer the name Falana; and pay more attention to my personal issues. But, like the elders of my place would say: omo buruku o ni je ka gbagbe oro ana – a bad child will always remind one of a better forgotten past. Honestly, the year is far too young for me to break my ‘New Year Resolution’. We are just in the second week of the year. Even at that, the bad children that dominate our political landscape are at it again. They have taken us back to the avant-garde Orwellian year, 1984, where everything is the opposite. Nigeria has become a huge crime scene, especially with the rudderless leadership of more than a quarter of a century the nation has had. The Nigerian masses have been turned to the proverbial pitiable and helpless woman, who is at the mercy of a serial rapist with the biggest of phalluses, ever. When gripped and devoured by the merciless rapist, the best the female victim could do is to groan and grunt. To worsen the situation, there appears to be no help or helper in sight.

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The last four days have been very interesting. Our new husband in Abuja and his gang of serial economic rapists have shown that no matter how thoroughly a housewife washes the local ebolo vegetable, the aroma it produces after it is cooked is that of the bush. Nothing has changed, nothing is changing, and nothing will ever change. It is going to be business as usual; it may even be worse than we experienced under the self-acclaimed Mai Gaskiya (the honest one), General Muhammadu Buhari, whose eight-year leadership of the country, promoted corruption to its very zenith. Those who are disappointed with the current happening in Abuja, as it relates to the novel move by Dr Betta Edu, the Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation, to move the sum of N585, 198, 5000, to a private account of a member of staff of the ministry, Bridget Oniyelu, are the very people who invested their hope, trust and confidence in the ability of the present men of power to chart a new direction for the nation. And, in all honesty, I must give kudos to the new set of “wailing wailers”, for having the courage to speak out in loud groaning, the pains the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government is inflicting on the people. For those of us who, right from day one, came to the conclusion that omo ejo, ejo ni – a snakelet is also a snake -, we don’t have to beat our chest and ask: “did we not warn you?” The agony in the land is like the rain. The rain spares nobody. Again, the Scripture is also complete. When the unrighteous suffer, the righteous too are not spared. Could that be what our forebears described as what affects the eyes equally affects the nose – ohun to ba oju, ti ba imu?

Everything about Nigeria is always in the opposite direction of the happenings in the sane countries of the world. Like the George Orwell’s 1984, the Nigerian Ministry of Information does nothing but misinform the people. Our Justice Ministry and its departments dispel injustices in full measures, just as the ministry and agencies saddled with the responsibilities of alleviating and eradicating poverty in our land engage in activities that will only promote and sustain the same maladies they are established to cure. The Humanitarian Ministry in the last eight and a half years has become the most inhuman government department. It is a ministry that steals from the invalid and robs the dead! Everywhere we turn to for help, the rain keeps beating us; drenching us down to our inner ibante (pant). When my people from Ijeshaland are asked to sum up our situation, they have only one exclamation: eshio, ka bi a tia bere – where do we start from!

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Why do we have the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation in the first instance? The ministry was established by the same elite class which has weaponised poverty as an art, to hoodwink the people into believing that they actually care. Anyone can argue this: there has been nothing shoved down our throats by the rogues in power in the name of social welfare that is not a scam. Not just a scam, but a big one! It is only in our clime that the government shares money to “the vulnerable” without any data of who the beneficiaries are. In the first instance, how does a nation which has not been able to put an accurate figure to its population, and without any demographic boundary, arrive at the number of those below the poverty level? What parameters is the government using to determine who is entitled to its social welfare packages? Where are the records? Till the second coming of the Saviour, Nigerians will never get to know how many school children were fed during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdown, and how much was expended on the misadventure, nor would they ever guess right, the actual amount of money given out as tradermoni in the last regime! What about palliative materials? How many beneficiaries can you identify in your neighbourhoods? Even in response to emergency situations like ameliorating the pains of victims of natural disasters like rainstorms, has our government ever given us an account of how much it spent and what is remaining on the balance sheet?

This is why I refuse to join the fray in castigating Dr Betta Edu in her recent request to the Accountant General of the Federation (AGF), for the sum of N585, 198,5000 to be paid into Bridget Oniyelu’s account for disbursement to “vulnerable Nigerians”. While my unwillingness to join the fray is not because I approve of her conduct, I restrained myself because I know that Nigerians are only talking because someone somewhere decided to “leak” the request memo. Have we asked how many of such memos had been written and approved before that of Edu became a public issue? How many of such memos is this administration still going to approve because the government has learnt its lessons now, and would always ensure that such a sickness does not affect another child under its watch again? When President Tinubu won the February 2023 general election, many of his supporters assured us that we should wait for him to unveil the “technocrats” that he would appoint into his cabinet. Can any of those supporters point out an individual in the Tinubu cabinet who appears to have a faint idea of what he or she is doing in the ministry assigned to him/her? Who is the technocrat in this government that has appeared to have the basic aptitude for the jobs assigned to him? Which technocrat would request that more than half a billion naira be paid into an individual’s account for a government project, when the same ministry has numerous bank accounts? Who does that?

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And while pondering on that, what has been the response of the appointing authority, President Tinubu, to the scandal? Oh yes; he directed a probe of the ministry! How do you probe a minister and her ministry when the same minister is still in her office directing affairs? Who, among the members of staff of the ministry, would have the effrontery to appear before the ‘probe panel’ to testify against a sitting minister? What should come first, if not the immediate suspension of the affected minister so that the paddy-paddy panel can have a semblance of objectivity and freedom in the discharge of its assignment? So, why should we bother ourselves as a people when we already know that the pregnancy of the panel asked to do “a thorough and comprehensive investigation” would only result in stillbirth? How do we even expect a hen to eat the entrails of another hen? What happens to class solidarity? Is the president ordering “a thorough and comprehensive investigation” aware that Dr Edu has never denied ever raising the scandalous memo? What else does the president want? Belatedly, President Tinubu, has announced the suspension of Minister Edu. Shall we then clap for the president for putting the cart before the horse! Would he have taken that afterthought decision if there were no public outcry?

The very day I gave up hope on our redemption from the hands of the locusts in our national field was the very day the All Progressives Congress (APC), came to power in 2015. It would have been better if in chasing away the ruinous People’s Democratic Party (PDP) from power, Nigerians did not hand over to the worst of humanity, who populated the APC! With the APC in power, and its victory in 2019 and the retention of power in 2023, decency took flight in Nigeria. Don’t forgive my pessimism here. But I say this without qualms: for as long as the APC retains the leadership ladder at the centre, Nigeria can kiss opposition politics good bye! Where is the PDP in the scheme of things now? Where is the man who lost the centre power to the APC in 2015, Goodluck Ebele Jonathan (GEJ)? What efforts has he made to help the party out of its present coma? What about the ‘OBIdients’? Were the lawmakers elected under the banner of the ‘redemption party’ not part of the shenanigan of N160 million Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), as official vehicles for federal legislators? Who is asking this government questions? Who is holding it accountable? If the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, can serve in an APC government, what is remaining of the opposition?

I read the PDP’s response to Edu’s scandal and I laughed. What a party-in-opposition? Can we just imagine if Alhaji Lai Mohammed were to lead the opposition in a situation like this! The PDP in its statement as endorsed by Debo Ologunagba, its National Publicity Secretary, on the N5.8 billion scandal, said, among other things that the earlier N44.8 billion scandal in NSIPA, and the N585,198,500 in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation “is just a tip of the iceberg in the unprecedented treasury looting, unbridled stealing and plundering of resources going on in the President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress (APC) administration”. Then it followed up with the usual plodding demand of “immediate sack and prosecution” of the minister concerned! Nothing more! You may wish to ask if that was how APC acted while in opposition such that GEJ and his party were retired from Aso Rock? The bitter truth this government needs to know is that Nigerians can do better than the Bettas of this administration and its poverty escalation policies! From what we can now see, it is better life for Betta Edu and her ilks at the expense of the so-called ‘vulnerable Nigerians’

News

[OPINION] House Agents: The Bile Beneath The Roof

Published

4 hours ago

September 17, 2025

Editor

By Israel Adebiyi

I had tried, for months, to keep this subject at arm’s length. After all, The Nation’s Pulse has, by tradition, stuck its gaze on the big picture of national polity. But last week, my colleague, Joseph Kanjo, the ever-blunt Ijaw man, reminded me with his usual candour: “Israel, forget it. This matter has swum into national waters. You’ve got to discuss it on air.” And so here we are.

From Lagos to Abuja, Port Harcourt to Benin, in every major Nigerian city, there exists a tribe of middlemen who have turned the simple act of finding a home into a nightmare theatre of deceit, extortion, and despair. They call themselves “agents.” But tenants, with good reason, now call them Shylocks.

Nigeria is living through one of its most pressing social problems, a housing deficit of over 20 million units. As urbanisation outpaces construction, the scramble for shelter has grown more desperate. The result? An inflated rental market where landlords demand one, sometimes two years’ rent upfront, and tenants are left calculating survival in instalments.

In this scarcity, agents found their goldmine. They became gatekeepers, the ones you must pass through before seeing the landlord, the ones who “hold the keys.” And, like Shakespeare’s Shylock demanding his pound of flesh, they squeeze tenants until every drop of naira is bled dry.

Take Chinyere, a young nurse in Abuja, who shared her ordeal with me. After months of searching, an agent finally led her to a one-bedroom apartment in Kubwa. The rent was ₦600,000. By itself, already steep. But then came the add-ons: 10% agency fee, 10% agreement fee, inspection fee, caution fee, and a mysterious ‘legal’ fee. By the time she finished calculating, her total outlay stood at ₦850,000 – nearly ₦250,000 more than the agreed rent. “When I asked what the ‘legal’ fee was for,” she said, “the agent laughed and said, ‘Madam, that one na normal. No legal o.”

Or consider Osatohamwen, a factory worker in Benin, who parted with ₦50,000 as “inspection and commitment” fee just to secure a viewing. The agent vanished, phone switched off, house nowhere to be found. Such stories abound, whispered in frustration and traded in bitterness by Nigerians across class divides.

What deepens the irony is that many of these agents take you to houses even they themselves would not live in. Dilapidated structures with cracked walls, leaking roofs, toilets that smell of neglect, and kitchens that could host cockroaches for dinner. Yet, they pitch them with salesmanship worthy of a Broadway stage: “Madam, this one na hot cake. If you no pay today, tomorrow e go don go.”

It is the cruelest part of the deception, dressing up misery as opportunity, knowing full well that desperation will silence protest.

The tragedy is not just that tenants are extorted. It is that housing, one of life’s most basic needs, has become a gamble. Instead of safety and stability, many Nigerians now associate house-hunting with anxiety, loss, and betrayal. Families uprooted because a landlord suddenly doubled rent. Students stranded because an agent promised a “self-contained” that turned out to be a room with shared facilities. Newlyweds spending their honeymoon nights on relatives’ sofas because the house they paid for was given to someone else with “better money.”

The bigger shame is that Nigeria’s regulators look the other way. The housing sector remains one of the most unregulated spaces in our economy. No clear codes for agents. No enforceable penalties for fraud. No safeguards for tenants. In the vacuum, chaos reigns and the Shylocks thrive.

The comparison is sobering: in developed countries, property agents are licensed, their fees capped, and their conduct regulated. Here, anyone with a key ring and a contact on WhatsApp can become an “agent.” And Nigerians, desperate for shelter, must play along.

Let’s be clear: agents are not the disease; they are the symptom. The disease is a deep housing crisis that leaves millions without roofs, and those with roofs perpetually at risk of eviction. The cost of cement rises, urban planning is chaotic, mortgages are inaccessible, and public housing is virtually non-existent. In such a system, desperation breeds exploitation, and agents merely mirror the larger dysfunction of the state.

But it need not be so. Shelter is not a luxury. It is a right. And like food and water, it must be treated as such. Nigeria must wake up to the urgency of reforming its housing sector by building more affordable homes, regulating agents, and protecting tenants from predatory practices.

Until then, the Nigerian tenant remains trapped between the landlord’s demands and the agent’s extortion, forever paying pounds of flesh in a market where survival is traded for profit.

So, when next you hear the phrase “house hunting,” don’t imagine a hopeful family searching for a new home. Picture, instead, a weary Nigerian, pockets drained, dignity bruised, whispering under their breath: What’s up with Shylock house agents?

News

Textile, Garment And Tailoring Workers Assault Journalists In Edo

Published

14 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Some members of the National Union of Textile, Garment and Tailoring Workers of Nigeria (NUTGTWN), Edo State branch,
on Tuesday, assaulted journalists who were invited to their secretariat to cover their meeting.

Deputy General Secretary of the NUTGTWN, Comrade Emeka Nkwoala, invited the journalists to the secretariat of the body to get the outcome of a meeting he was directed to hold with them following the resignation of the branch chairman, Mike Ochei from the Caretaker Committee, and the suspension leadership of the union in Edo State over his resignation.

The Caretaker Committee was set up by the leadership of the Nigerian Labour Congress (NLC) to resolve the crisis and conduct election into the state leadership of the Congress.

Ochei, while resiging was quoted to have said that he was coerced into the membership of the caretaker committee, hence his resignation.

Trouble, however, started, when, after the journalists introduced themselves inside the hall, and as Nkwoala about to talk, some of the members of the body started shouting ‘we don’t need press,’ it is an internal affair, they must leave,’ which was followed by some of the union members physically assaulting the journalists. One of the members poked his hands into the eyes of one of the reporters, while they used derogatory words on them.

Addressing journalists after the uproar that followed the meeting, Nkwoala said Ochei was contacted and informed before he was nominated to serve in the NLC committee, stressing that it was, therefore, wrong for him to have claimed that he was coerced into the committee.

He, thereafter, apologised to journalists who were harassed by some members of the union.

Nkwoala said: “I want to apologise on behalf of our union, we are a matured union, we hold the press in high esteem and we relate very well with the press. From the inception of our union, our past leaders didn’t joke with the press. Is it Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Comrade Issa Aremu or the current General Secretary Comrade Ali Baba? We don’t joke with the press. We apologise for the embarrassment that our members caused you. We are not known for such.

“The state of our union right now in Edo State is that we have suspended the Mike Ochei led state exco. They are on suspension till further notice. That was the resolution we reached with the various chairmen of the zones in Benin City today, it was also the resolution of our National Administrative Council (NAC) of our Union via our zoom meeting yesterday (Monday). So they cannot represent the NUTGTWN anywhere in whatever capacity.”

On the way forward for the crisis in Edo NLC, he said: “Our allegiance is to the national leadership of the NLC ably led by Comrade Joe Ajaero and the Professor Monday Igbafen led caretaker committee. We believe that the leadership of the NLC has machinery in place to deal with some of these issues, for us we are part and parcel of the NLC and we will continue to pay our allegiance with the leadership of congress led by Comrade Ajaero.”

News

Edo Deputy Gov Tasks Lab Scientists On Research, Vaccine Production

Published

17 hours ago

September 16, 2025

Editor

Deputy governor of Edo State, Hon. Dennis Idahosa, on Tuesday, urged the Association of Medical Laboratory Scientists of Nigeria (AMLSN), to go into deep research, and channelled scientific findings to boost public health.

Idahosa also urged the scientists to set up a vaccine manufacturing company in Edo State.

The deputy governor spoke when he played host to the state chapter of AMLSN, saying “as we speak, we still do not have a vaccine manufacturing company or industry in the whole of Nigeria. That, to me, is worrisome.”

Idahosa, who hosted the scientists on behalf of Governor Monday Okpebholo, added: ” This is the heartbeat of the nation. I think we should roll up our sleeves and do what other states in this country have not done before. Let Edo be the beginner.”

He appreciated the laboratory scientists on the courtesy visit, just as he commended them for their contributions and medical interventions, which he said had given a boost to the public health sector delivery system in the state.

Making reference to the campaign manifesto and five point SHINE Agenda of Okpebholo, Idahosa affirmed that, “after security, health is number two. We are laying so much emphasis on health. Edo State is going to be happy with what we are going to do with the health sector.”

Idahosa assured the scientists that he was going to work closely with “the think tanks in the health sector based on raised areas of needs,” as “government would look at the best way to proffer solution to some of these challenges.”

State Chairman of the AMLSN, Dr. Ekhaguere Ehigie who earlier congratulated the Edo State Government for victories at the polls and in court, highlighted issues that plagued laboratory practice in Nigeria.

He advocated the setting up of modern molecular laboratories and use of Nano technology to boost disease diagnosis, accurate laboratory results and monitoring/surveillance of public health.