Feature/OPED
Is Being Nigerian a Misfortune?
By Omoshola Deji
Nigerian is reminiscent of someone destined to be king, but becomes a slave in the king’s palace. The nation’s situation chronicles the life of Wazobia: a boy destined to be a lawyer, but grows up to become a roadside mechanic.
Wazobia is blessed with the qualities of a legal luminary. He is a smooth-talker, provides a well-articulated defense, good at arguments and his favourite colours are white and black. These qualities manifest so much that people nicknamed him “D law”. Despite Wazobia’s abilities, the truth remains that he is a mechanic, not a lawyer. Why is Wazobia a roadside mechanic despite his potentials?
Wazobia’s parent may be illiterates who neither value education nor make effort to get him schooled. His parents may have the will, but lack the wherewithal. Wazobia may have lost his parents and got nurtured by an uncaring guardian. Life may have been so unfair to Wazobia that he had no opportunity to become a lawyer. But that is not the case.
Wazobia failed to discover himself and underutilized his potentials. He has all it takes to be a lawyer, but had mismanaged his life, time and resources. He lavished his school fees on show-offs and spent his time partying, snap-chatting and twittering, when his mates were studying. Sadly, Wazobia is not the only one suffering for his misdeeds and lack of foresight. The people he should be defending as a lawyer are being disrespected, cheated and jailed. His entire household that should be enjoying are terribly suffering. Of what gain is Wazobia? He has failed. The character Wazobia is the Nigerian State.
Nigeria is blessed with enormous human and natural resources, but majority of her population suffers amidst surplus. The oil rich nation cannot boast of any meaningful achievement after 58 years of independence. Successive leaders were visionless, clueless and unbothered about development. They built personal empires instead of infrastructure. Basic amenities are either unavailable or dysfunctional. In the 21st century, Nigerian campaign manifestos are still based on promises of providing the essentials when other nations are making giant strides in technology and inventions.
Nigerians are forced to seek greener pastures in nations that once ran to them for help. The then apartheid ridden South-Africa that Nigeria assisted is now better off. Nigerians now go there to hustle at the risk of losing their lives to xenophobic attacks. Sometimes ago, Nigerians said “Ghana must go”, but today, a significant portion of our population are leaving Nigeria to seek opportunities in Ghana. Prominent figures such as Dele Momodu lives in Ghana. Asari Dokubo is a naturalized Beninese.
Malaysia’s economy was on the verge of collapse after Singapore seceded decades ago. The nation had almost nothing. Malaysians had to come to Nigeria to negotiate the importation of palm seedling to their country. Malaysia is now making substantial earnings from the exportation of crude and processed palm-oil, while the Nigerian agricultural sector is unyielding. Front to back, Nigerians are now trooping into Malaysia for tourism and study. Nigerian government spends millions of dollars – under the Tertiary Education Trust (TET) Fund scheme – sponsoring her lecturers to study in Malaysia.
Sadly, the Nigerian education sector remains undeveloped, underfunded, and runs archaic curriculums that produces unemployable graduates. Even the firms that could have hired the graduates and youths are either collapsed or non-existent. What is being Nigerian to students unable to study because of strike, while the children of politicians are studying at the best universities abroad?
Look at yourself and look around you. The only stumbling block to some person’s progress is being Nigerian. People are configured to fail by default. There is no pathway to success and the system is unrewarding.
Famous political thug, MC Oluomo is living large and well-connected than most Professors. Inventions and brilliancy do not often get patronized or celebrated. Frustration has turned many university graduates into motorcycle riders, prostitutes, kidnappers and fraudsters. The billions of dollars government failed to invest on the youths are now being used to fight crimes committed by the youths. The ruling elites’ greed and incompetence is impeding national growth, crushing creativities, burying potentials, and changing destinies.
Oh poverty and underdevelopment, why hast thou made Nigeria thy dwelling place? Pastors have cast and bind thee, Imams have recited the Quran against thee, herbalists have cast out thy spirit, but thou hath refused to depart Nigeria. This is because thy antidote is not prayer. Other nations conquered thee by properly utilizing their human, material and natural resources. We are praying rather than working, when the principle of success says work (first) and pray.
The gap between the rulers and the ruled in Nigeria is as wide as that between the ground and the sky. The ruling elites live like they are more Nigerian than we the masses. They are under heavy security, we are insecure. We die on bad roads, they fly in the sky. They waste food and resources, we are starving. They have all, we have nothing. Yet we are not united. We allow them set us against ourselves and divide us along political, ethnic and religious lines. They feast on our disunity. Our pain is their gain.
Other nations are progressing while Nigeria is retrogressing. Why is our yesterday better than today? Some years ago, electricity was more constant than it is now, the roads were better, foreign exchange rate was lower, and getting a visa was easier than it is now. Bombing was alien to us, kidnapping was a taboo, and Nigerians were more united. Disheartening, we are now more dependent than we were during independence. We cherish anything west; commend them as original while Aba made goods are derided as artificial.
Successive Nigerian rulers were bad managers and the current set of politicians in the ruling and main opposition party are middlebrow men. They lack the ideas and commitment to move Nigeria forward. US President Donald Trump allegedly called President Buhari “lifeless” not because he is old. Trump too is a septuagenarian. His comment is apparently based on President Buhari’s inability to stand up to him during diplomatic talks. While that is unfortunate for Nigeria, there is really no single way of measuring intelligence. In effect, Trump’s intelligence assessment is based on the extent of his own intelligence. One may also rate Trump as unintelligent because he speaks uncouthly.
But if truth be told, most Nigerian leaders lack foresight and intellectual insight. The drastic turnaround the nation needs is not within their faculty. Their major concern is retaining or regaining power; the efficient running of the country is secondary. The only barrier between most people and their success is being Nigerian. Else, why do Nigerians fail at home but succeed abroad? Being Nigerian is nothing other than a misfortune to many. You may be one of the few privileged individuals not so affected, but before you discard this, think: What is being Nigerian to those pushed into the sea while migrating to Europe and those being sold as slaves in Libya because of their nationality?
What is being Nigerian to the agrarian Ogoni populace whose land and marines have been degraded by oil spills, denied resource control, and abandoned by the government? What is being Nigerian to the fallen soldiers whose government failed to provide adequate weapons to fight Boko-Haram, but paid the terrorists to ceasefire and release abductees?
What is being Nigerian to citizens whose government spent $16 billion on providing power, but still lives in darkness? What is being Nigerian to the poor and uninfluential persons being harassed, extorted, maimed and unjustly killed by the police, but never gets justice?
Does Ibrahim El Zakzaky – the Shia Muslim cleric who was granted bail, but detained by government – feels fortunate to be the citizen of a country that violates human rights, disregard the rule of law, and disobey court orders? What is being Nigerian to MKO Abiola who won a free and fair presidential election, but denied the right to rule by the Babangida led military regime? Buhari recently honoured Abiola and apologized on behalf of Nigeria, but with their irrecoverable loss, can the Abiola family ever feel fortunate being Nigerians?
What is being Nigerian to the unarmed IPOB members that were declared terrorists and killed for demanding secession while murderous Fulani herdsmen operate unchecked? What is being Nigerian to citizens whose government vows to fight corruption, but protects corrupt politicians working for the President’s re-election?
What is being Nigerian to poor honest persons when then President Jonathan said stealing is not corruption? What is being Nigerian to the hardworking youths seeking opportunities abroad when President Buhari told world leaders that they are lazy? Which country will issue visa, scholarships or employ youths confirmed lazy by their President?
What is being Nigerian to Sambo Dasuki, the former national security adviser who was arraigned for mismanaging public funds, granted bail by several courts, but still being denied freedom by government? Does Dasuki and millions of people whose rights are being violated daily feel fortunate to be a Nigerian?
Be that as it may, Nigeria is not all about misfortune and downs. There are quite a number of things and people that still makes one proud of being a Nigerian. World Heavyweight Boxing Champion, Anthony Joshua is making many proud of being Nigerian. Welterweight Boxing Champion, Larry Ekundayo is also making Nigeria proud. Dr Oluyinka Olutoye, a Nigerian, who delivered the baby that was born twice in the United States made us proud. Olutoye removed the baby from her mother’s womb at 23 weeks, performed an operation, returned her to the womb, and delivered her at 36 weeks without any complication.
Five students from Regina Pacis Model Secondary School, Anambra State also made Nigeria proud by winning the 2018 Global Technology Challenge in the US. Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka and Novelist Chimamanda Adiche have also projected Nigeria positively to the world. While these persons signify that Nigerians are blessed and a blessing to nations, it is unfortunate that the Nigerian government virtually contributed nothing to their success. Most of them fought their way to the top independently. What is being Nigerian to the son of a taxi driver who is losing the fight to become a doctor because he could not afford the school fees or get an education loan? For every Soyinka you see, thousands of similar potentials have been wasted.
God has been kind to Nigeria, but Nigerians are a problem to themselves. The nation’s problems are man-made. Nigeria is not troubled by natural disasters such as earthquake, volcanic eruption, cyclonic storm, avalanche or tsunami. The flood we’re experiencing is the aftereffect of an inefficient waste disposal mechanism. The nation became the world poverty capital on account of the leaders’ mismanagement and corruption. PDP squandered the treasury while the APC that promised change changed the promise after winning election. It is a misfortune that a blessed nation like Nigeria has been successively led by middlebrow men. Nigeria keeps falling because the leaders keep failing. The electorates need to stop reinforcing failure with their votes. Nigerians would work for all when the leaders lead well and the citizens act right.
Omoshola Deji is a political and public affairs analyst. He wrote in via [email protected]
By Luke Kyohere
The global payments landscape is undergoing a rapid transformation. New technologies coupled with the rising demand for seamless, secure, and efficient transactions has spurred on an exciting new era of innovation and growth. With 2025 fast approaching, here are important trends that will shape the future of payments:
1. The rise of real-time payments
Until recently, real-time payments have been used in Africa for cross-border mobile money payments, but less so for traditional payments. We are seeing companies like Mastercard investing in this area, as well as central banks in Africa putting focus on this.
2. Cashless payments will increase
In 2025, we will see the continued acceleration of cashless payments across Africa. B2B payments in particular will also increase. Digital payments began between individuals but are now becoming commonplace for larger corporate transactions.
3. Digital currency will hit mainstream
In the cryptocurrency space, we will see an increase in the use of stablecoins like United States Digital Currency (USDC) and Tether (USDT) which are linked to US dollars. These will come to replace traditional cryptocurrencies as their price point is more stable. This year, many countries will begin preparing for Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), government-backed digital currencies which use blockchain.
The increased uptake of digital currencies reflects the maturity of distributed ledger technology and improved API availability.
4. Increased government oversight
As adoption of digital currencies will increase, governments will also put more focus into monitoring these flows. In particular, this will centre on companies and banks rather than individuals. The goal of this will be to control and occasionally curb runaway foreign exchange (FX) rates.
5. Business leaders buy into AI technology
In 2025, we will see many business leaders buying into AI through respected providers relying on well-researched platforms and huge data sets. Most companies don’t have the budget to invest in their own research and development in AI, so many are now opting to ‘buy’ into the technology rather than ‘build’ it themselves. Moreover, many businesses are concerned about the risks associated with data ownership and accuracy so buying software is another way to avoid this risk.
6. Continued AI Adoption in Payments
In payments, the proliferation of AI will continue to improve user experience and increase security. To detect fraud, AI is used to track patterns and payment flows in real-time. If unusual activity is detected, the technology can be used to flag or even block payments which may be fraudulent.
When it comes to user experience, we will also see AI being used to improve the interface design of payment platforms. The technology will also increasingly be used for translation for international payment platforms.
7. Rise of Super Apps
To get more from their platforms, mobile network operators are building comprehensive service platforms, integrating multiple payment experiences into a single app. This reflects the shift of many users moving from text-based services to mobile apps. Rather than offering a single service, super apps are packing many other services into a single app. For example, apps which may have previously been used primarily for lending, now have options for saving and paying bills.
8. Business strategy shift
Recent major technological changes will force business leaders to focus on much shorter prediction and reaction cycles. Because the rate of change has been unprecedented in the past year, this will force decision-makers to adapt quickly, be decisive and nimble.
As the payments space evolves, businesses, banks, and governments must continually embrace innovation, collaboration, and prioritise customer needs. These efforts build a more inclusive, secure, and efficient payment system that supports local to global economic growth – enabling true financial inclusion across borders.
Luke Kyohere is the Group Chief Product and Innovation Officer at Onafriq
In a heartfelt statement released today, the Conference of Nigeria Political Parties (CNPP) has extended its warmest congratulations to Ghana’s President-Elect, emphasizing the importance of learning from Ghana’s recent electoral success as Nigeria gears up for its 2027 general elections.
In a statement signed by its Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Comrade James Ezema, the CNPP highlighted the need for Nigeria to reclaim its status as a leader in democratic governance in Africa.
“The recent victory of Ghana’s President-Elect is a testament to the maturity and resilience of Ghana’s democracy,” the CNPP stated. “As we celebrate this achievement, we must reflect on the lessons that Nigeria can learn from our West African neighbour.”
The CNPP’s message underscored the significance of free, fair, and credible elections, a standard that Ghana has set and one that Nigeria has previously achieved under former President Goodluck Jonathan in 2015. “It is high time for Nigeria to reclaim its position as a beacon of democracy in Africa,” the CNPP asserted, calling for a renewed commitment to the electoral process.
Central to CNPP’s message is the insistence that “the will of the people must be supreme in Nigeria’s electoral processes.” The umbrella body of all registered political parties and political associations in Nigeria CNPP emphasized the necessity of an electoral system that genuinely reflects the wishes of the Nigerian populace. “We must strive to create an environment where elections are free from manipulation, violence, and intimidation,” the CNPP urged, calling on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to take decisive action to ensure the integrity of the electoral process.
The CNPP also expressed concern over premature declarations regarding the 2027 elections, stating, “It is disheartening to note that some individuals are already announcing that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock in 2027. This kind of statement not only undermines the democratic principles that our nation holds dear but also distracts from the pressing need for the current administration to earn the trust of the electorate.”
The CNPP viewed the upcoming elections as a pivotal moment for Nigeria. “The 2027 general elections present a unique opportunity for Nigeria to reclaim its position as a leader in democratic governance in Africa,” it remarked. The body called on all stakeholders — including the executive, legislature, judiciary, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), and civil society organisations — to collaborate in ensuring that elections are transparent, credible, and reflective of the will of the Nigerian people.
As the most populous African country prepares for the 2027 elections, the CNPP urged all Nigerians to remain vigilant and committed to democratic principles. “We must work together to ensure that our elections are free from violence, intimidation, and manipulation,” the statement stated, reaffirming the CNPP’s commitment to promoting a peaceful and credible electoral process.
In conclusion, the CNPP congratulated the President-Elect of Ghana and the Ghanaian people on their remarkable achievements.
“We look forward to learning from their experience and working together to strengthen democracy in our region,” the CNPP concluded.
By Kenechukwu Aguolu
The proposed tax reform, involving four tax bills introduced by the Federal Government, has received significant criticism. Notably, it was rejected by the Governors’ Forum but was still forwarded to the National Assembly. Unlike the various bold economic decisions made by this government, concessions will likely need to be made on these tax reforms, which involve legislative amendments and therefore cannot be imposed by the executive. This article highlights the purposes of taxation, the qualities of a good tax system, and some of the implications of the proposed tax reforms.
One of the major purposes of taxation is to generate revenue for the government to finance its activities. A good tax system should raise sufficient revenue for the government to fund its operations, and support economic and infrastructural development. For any country to achieve meaningful progress, its tax-to-GDP ratio should be at least 15%. Currently, Nigeria’s tax-to-GDP ratio is less than 11%. The proposed tax reforms aim to increase this ratio to 18% within the next three years.
A good tax system should also promote income redistribution and equality by implementing progressive tax policies. In line with this, the proposed tax reforms favour low-income earners. For example, individuals earning less than one million naira annually are exempted from personal income tax. Additionally, essential goods and services such as food, accommodation, and transportation, which constitute a significant portion of household consumption for low- and middle-income groups, are to be exempted from VAT.
In addition to equality, a good tax system should ensure equity and fairness, a key area of contention surrounding the proposed reforms. If implemented, the amendments to the Value Added Tax could lead to a significant reduction in the federal allocation for some states; impairing their ability to finance government operations and development projects. The VAT amendments should be holistically revisited to promote fairness and national unity.
The establishment of a single agency to collect government taxes, the Nigeria Revenue Service, could reduce loopholes that have previously resulted in revenue losses, provided proper controls are put in place. It is logically easier to monitor revenue collection by one agency than by multiple agencies. However, this is not a magical solution. With automation, revenue collection can be seamless whether it is managed by one agency or several, as long as monitoring and accountability measures are implemented effectively.
The proposed tax reforms by the Federal Government are well-intentioned. However, all concerns raised by Nigerians should be looked into, and concessions should be made where necessary. Policies are more effective when they are adapted to suit the unique characteristics of a nation, rather than adopted wholesale. A good tax system should aim to raise sufficient revenue, ensure equitable income distribution, and promote equality, equity, and fairness.
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