NEWS
Beyond the Northern Security Trust Fund Board
By Sani Danaudi Mohammed
Long before the colonial borders, the North of Nigeria was the heartbeat of commerce in West Africa. From Kano to Katsina, Zaria to Sokoto, our cities were not just centers of learning and faith, they were the engine rooms of the trans-Saharan trade.
Caravans loaded with leather, textiles, kola, natron, and gold moved north to Tripoli and Cairo, and returned with books, spices, and silver. The North didn’t beg for wealth. It produced, processed, and traded. Our markets were disciplined, our guilds were organized, and our reputation for quality was continental. That was our first security: prosperity.I speak to you as a Fulani herder who has lost cattle, family, and peace to the unrest that has torn the North apart and endangered the very bond of our coexistence. I welcome this initiative and I applaud the governors for this important and strategic planning, and for trusting men like Gen. Agwai and Alhaji Yayale Ahmed to lead it.
Let us not deceive ourselves: the North almost sank itself when we abandoned production for politics, when we let our markets, our ranches, and our schools collapse while chasing handouts.If this Trust Fund is to be different from the Bank of the North that died quietly, then it must protect not just the towns, but also the herder in the bush, the farmer on his field, and the child in the classroom, so that we can rebuild trust, secure our livelihoods, and never again allow greed and neglect to drown the North.
That prosperity was built on three values we have since lost: production over consumption, processing over export of raw materials, and trust over extraction*. The ancient Kano dye pits didn’t just sell indigo. They added value. The Sokoto leather industry didn’t just sell hides. It made shoes, saddles, and bags that were sought after across the Sahara. Even our cattle economy was circular. Milk, meat, hide, and manure all had a market. We understood value chains 500 years before the term existed. What we sold was not just what the land gave us, but what our hands and minds had improved.
We lost those values when oil made us lazy and insecurity made us fearful. We stopped processing tomatoes and started importing paste. We stopped tanning leather and started exporting raw hides. We stopped organizing trade routes and started paying bandits to let trucks pass. The trans-Saharan spirit of enterprise was replaced with a palliative mindset: wait for allocation, wait for intervention, wait for Abuja. As a result, the same land that once financed empires now finances ransom. The same young men who would have been apprentices in a tannery or a mill are now foot soldiers in the bush. We didn’t just lose trade. We lost identity.
We must also confront our history with honesty: the Bank of the North died a natural death not because the North lacked capital or vision, but because it was starved of political will, hijacked by politics, and killed by poor governance and zero accountability. It started as our pride, a vehicle to finance northern enterprise, but ended as another monument to good intentions without structure.
So the hard question today is this: what assurance do we have that the Northern Nigeria Security Trust Fund will not suffer the same fate? Unless this Fund is insulated from politics, run with transparent quarterly audits, tied directly to measurable outcomes in lives saved and jobs created, and governed by the discipline that Gen. Agwai and Alhaji Yayale Ahmed represent, we risk repeating history, collecting ₦1bn monthly only to fund meetings, allowances, and another legacy of waste.
The Northern Nigeria Security Trust Fund can be the bridge back. With leaders like Gen. Martin Luther Agwai and Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed at the helm, we have the credibility to revive what worked. Revival means going back to the trans-Saharan model, but with modern tools: agro-processing zones instead of dye pits, meat and dairy factories instead of open grazing, mining corporations with community equity instead of illegal pits. It means rebuilding trust through data, infrastructure, and justice. If we recommit to production, processing, and trade, the North will not only defeat banditry. It will once again become the commercial gateway of Africa, just as our forefathers did.
The appointment of Gen. Martin Luther Agwai (rtd) and Alhaji Mahmud Yayale Ahmed as co-chairmen of the Northern Nigeria Security Trust Fund Board is a bold and timely move by the Northern States Governors’ Forum. Inaugurated on Wednesday at Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna, the board sends a clear signal: the North is tired of waiting and is ready to take charge of its own security destiny. The choice of these two patriots reflects both gravitas and experience, and for that, the governors deserve commendation.
Gen. Agwai is not just a former Chief of Defence Staff. He is a soldier’s soldier who commanded at the highest levels, led Nigeria’s contingent in Sierra Leone, and served as Joint Special Representative for the UN-AU Mission in Darfur. He understands counter-insurgency, civil-military relations, and the human cost of war. Alhaji Yayale Ahmed, former Minister of Defence and former Head of Service of the Federation, brings the rare blend of bureaucratic mastery, political reach, and national security policy experience. Together with a board packed with ex-COAS Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya, ex-IGP Usman Alkali
Baba, ex-SGF Boss Mustapha, and other retired generals and security chiefs from the 19 northern states, they are coming with a fantastic team.
But we must say it plainly: security alone cannot cure what ails the North. The governors’ resolution that each state and its LGs will contribute ₦1bn monthly for 12 months is well-intentioned. That is ₦19bn from states, and more from LGs, in a year. Yet when measured against the scale of banditry, terrorism, kidnapping, and cattle rustling across a region larger than many countries, it is a drop in the ocean. Without addressing the economic roots of violence, we risk funding an endless emergency response.
This is a policy problem, not just a security problem. For too long, our budgets have prioritized guns over growth. We buy more trucks, more drones, more allowances for operations, while leaving idle the greatest assets the North possesses: land, cattle, minerals, and people. A region that feeds Nigeria cannot feed itself out of poverty. A region that sits on gold, limestone, tin, and coal cannot export raw poverty and import finished wealth. That must change, and it must change now.
First, agriculture and its value chains must become the centerpiece of the northern response. The North accounts for over 70% of Nigeria’s food production, yet post-harvest losses run as high as 50% because we have no storage, no processing, and no markets. We should establish agro-industrial processing zones in each geo-political zone of the North. Think tomato paste factories in Kano and Katsina to end the annual tomato glut and importation. Think rice mills in Kebbi, Niger, and Nasarawa operating 24 hours. Think maize and soybean processing for poultry feed to crash the cost of food. Ethiopia turned agriculture into a growth engine through clusters and cooperatives. We can do the same.
Second, we must industrialize cattle. The North has over 20 million cattle, yet we export live animals and import beef, milk, and leather. That is economic suicide. We need modern abattoirs and meat processing plants in Maiduguri, Sokoto, Jos, and Kaduna that meet export standards. We need dairy collection centers and milk processing plants so Fulani families earn from milk daily, not just from selling a cow in distress. We need tanneries and leather goods factories in Kano to revive what once made “Made in Kano” shoes famous worldwide. Brazil earns over $7bn annually from beef exports because it moved from herding to industry. The North can too.
Third, mining must be formalized and localized. The North is sitting on gold in Zamfara, Niger, and Kaduna; limestone in Gombe and Sokoto; tin in Plateau; coal in Kogi and Benue. Today, artisanal miners dig and smuggle, bandits tax them, and the value leaves our borders. We should create Northern Mineral Development Corporations, with community equity, to partner with investors, enforce standards, and build processing plants. Australia built entire towns around mining value chains. The DRC, despite its challenges, is leveraging cobalt for global battery supply. The North has no excuse to remain a pit and a passage.
Fourth, intelligence and security must be married to livelihoods. A young man with no farm, no job, and no hope is the easiest recruit for a bandit. The Trust Fund should therefore earmark at least 40% of its resources for economic resilience: irrigation schemes, rural roads, solar-powered cold rooms, and vocational training. Security operations must be judged, as Chairman Yahaya said, by protection of lives, not meetings. But lives are protected when there is something to protect and something to lose.
Fifth, traditional institutions must be funded to lead community policing and early warning. The endorsement by the Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, is crucial. Emirs, chiefs, and district heads know every compound. They should be equipped with communication tools, data systems, and stipends to coordinate with the new board. Kenya’s Nyumba Kumi and Rwanda’s community policing models show that trust is the cheapest and most effective security technology.
Sixth, we must fix the corridor economy. Banditry thrives on highways where there is no light, no patrol, and no commerce. The governors should prioritize 10 critical economic corridors linking farms to markets and mines to ports. Light them, secure them, and insure trucks that ply them. When goods move safely, prices fall and jobs rise. When goods don’t move, desperation rises.
Seventh, education and deradicalization must run parallel to kinetic action. Almajiri reform, girl-child education, and out-of-school children programs are not “soft” issues. They are hard security. The board, with members like Prof. Usman Tar from Borno who understands the insurgency’s ideological roots, should push for a Northern Education Emergency Fund to get 10 million children into classrooms within 3 years.
Eighth, data must drive us. The board should build a Northern Security and Economic Observatory that maps attacks, drought, grazing routes, mining sites, and poverty in real time. Without data, ₦1bn monthly becomes politics. With data, it becomes precision. Morocco’s agricultural and security planning uses satellite and ground data to target interventions. We have the capacity.
Ninth, regional trade must be unlocked. The North borders Niger, Chad, and Cameroon. Instead of closing borders during crises, we should formalize cross-border cattle, grain, and mineral trade with standards and tariffs that benefit our people. The Sahel is a market of 150 million people. We are treating it like an enemy instead of an opportunity.
Tenth, accountability must be ruthless. The Trust Fund must publish quarterly reports: money in, money out, projects delivered, lives saved. It must not become another meeting club. Credibility is its only currency. The people of Katsina, Zamfara, and Benue are watching, and they are tired of promises.
Eleventh, climate adaptation must be central. Farmer-herder clashes are climate conflicts. We need grazing reserves with water and fodder, ranching pilots with private investment, and massive tree planting to combat desertification. The Great Green Wall cannot remain a slogan. Senegal and Burkina Faso are showing that green infrastructure reduces conflict.
Finally, let this be the moment the North chooses production over palliative. ₦1bn a month per state will help, but it will not end the war. Only jobs will. Only factories will. Only value chains will. Gen. Agwai and Alhaji Yayale Ahmed are coming with wisdom, networks, and discipline. If the governors match that with economic courage, the North will not just be safer. It will be prosperous.
The gun can secure today. Only the farm, the factory, and the mine can secure tomorrow.
Danaudi, Writes From Bauchi Via danaudicomrade@gmail.com
NEWS
Beyond Minimum Wage Increases: Towards A Better Strategy For Improving The Welfare Of Nigerians
By Professor Gesiye Salo Angaye and Dr. Preye Angaye
If government really wants to improve Nigerians’ lives, it needs to look far beyond the pay cheques of public servants
Nigerian workers, through Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) have reopened wage negotiations, demanding a “living wage” ranging from ₦100,000 to ₦250,000 with some union factions demanding up to ₦1,000,000 per month.
Nigerian Governor’s Forum has proposed ₦100,000. At the state level, Imo State has unilaterally raised the minimum wage to ₦104,000, while Lagos and Rivers States have raised it to ₦85,000.00The National Minimum Wage Act of 1981 fixed the minimum wage at N125 per month. Successive reviews raised the wage to N18,000 in 2011, N30,000 in 2019, and N70,000 in 2024.
When President Bola Tinubu signed the new ₦70,000 minimum wage into law on 29 July 2024, it was hailed as a turning point for Nigerian workers. Labour leaders celebrated. State House aides called it a promise kept. But almost two years on, a harder question is worth asking: has doubling the minimum wage actually made Nigerians better off?
The honest answer is: not much, and not for long and for most Nigerians, not at all. A closer look at the numbers shows that a wage increase, however well-intentioned, cannot by itself lift a nation out of hardship. Without matching reforms in productivity, inflation control, and public investment, a bigger pay cheque for some can quickly become a bigger problem for everyone.
A RAISE THAT VANISHED INTO PRICES
The timing tells its own story. The new wage was agreed just months after the government removed the petrol subsidy and let the naira float freely, two decisions that had already sent the cost of living soaring. By the time Tinubu put pen to paper on the Minimum Wage Act, inflation had already crossed 34 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics. Food prices, the thing that matters most to ordinary households, were rising even faster, touching almost 40 per cent by December 2024.
Economists have a name for what tends to happen next: the wage-price spiral. Government raises wages. Landlords, sensing that tenants suddenly have more naira in their pockets, raise rents. Transport operators raise fares. School proprietors raise fees. Traders raise the price of garri, rice and tomatoes. Private employers, under pressure to keep pace with the new public sector benchmark, raise their own costs and pass the difference on to customers. Within months, much of the extra ₦40,000 that public servants gained on paper has quietly disappeared into a higher cost of living.
“A pay rise that isn’t matched by more goods and services on the shelves rarely stays a pay rise for long. It becomes a price rise instead.”
This is not simply theory. Nigeria has been here before. Similar patterns followed the wage reviews of 2011 and 2019: workers cheered a higher number on their payslip, only to watch it lose much of its value within a year or two as prices adjusted around them.
THE NINE IN TEN NIGERIANS THE LAW DOESN’T REACH
Perhaps the bigger problem is who the minimum wage law simply cannot help. According to the NBS Labour Force Survey, roughly 93 per cent of employed Nigerians work in the informal economy as market traders, commercial bus and okada riders, artisans, tailors, hairdressers, smallholder farmers and small business owners. Only about one in ten Nigerians holds a formal wage job of the kind the minimum wage law actually covers.
For that vast informal majority, the ₦70,000 minimum wage changes nothing directly. No employer is legally bound to pay them more. Many already earn far less than ₦70,000 a month, some scraping by on ₦40,000 or less. Yet when rents, transport fares and food prices rise in the wake of a nationally publicised wage increase, these Nigerians feel every bit of the pain without a matching gain. In effect, a policy designed to help workers can end up quietly squeezing the very people it was never designed to reach.
A NATION OF UNEQUAL STATES
Then there is the question of who can actually afford to pay. Nigeria’s states are not equal. Lagos alone generated over ₦815 billion in internally generated revenue (IGR) in 2023. Rivers followed with over ₦195 billion. At the other end of the scale, states such as Taraba, Yobe and Kebbi generated barely ₦11 billion to ₦12 billion each, a fraction of what wealthier states raise, and often not enough to cover salaries, let alone build roads, schools or hospitals.
It is little surprise, then, that implementation of the new wage has been patchy and, in places, openly contested. More than a year after the law took effect, trade unions were still reporting that around 20 states had failed to pay the ₦70,000 rate to local government workers and primary school teachers. In the Federal Capital Territory, teachers went on strike four times in four months, shutting down schools in protest at unpaid wages.
This is not simply a story of unwilling governors. Many state governments genuinely cannot afford a wage bill designed with Nigeria’s richest states in mind. A national wage floor that ignores these vast differences in fiscal capacity all but guarantees that poorer states will either default, borrow, or starve other essential services of funding to keep up appearances.
A SMARTER WAY TO SET WAGES
None of this means Nigerian workers do not deserve better pay, they clearly do. But it suggests the current one-size-fits-all approach needs rethinking. Rather than a single national figure imposed uniformly on 36 states with wildly different resources, government could set a national wage floor affordable to most states, while allowing states with genuinely limited revenue to negotiate a transparent, publicly disclosed phase-in period, instead of the current pattern of quiet, unexplained non-payment. States would also need real support and pressure to grow their own revenue base, so that affordability improves over time rather than remaining a permanent excuse.
POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS: TOWARDS INCLUSIVE AND SUSTAINABLE WELFARE IN NIGERIA
The foregoing analysis suggests that while the national minimum wage remains an important instrument for protecting workers, it should not constitute the principal strategy for improving the welfare of Nigerians. Lasting prosperity requires a comprehensive policy framework that promotes productivity, inclusive growth, and efficient public service delivery.
The following recommendations are therefore proposed.
- Maintain a National Minimum Wage as a Social Protection Measure
Nigeria should retain a statutory national minimum wage to protect workers against exploitation and extreme poverty. However, future wage reviews should be guided not only by inflation but also by labour productivity, economic growth, government revenue, and fiscal sustainability.
- Link Wage Growth to Productivity
Governments should introduce programmes that improve productivity throughout the public service. Better training, digitalisation, performance evaluation, merit-based promotion, and stronger accountability should accompany future salary adjustments. Higher productivity should justify higher wages, thereby reducing inflationary pressures.
- Give States Greater Fiscal Flexibility
While maintaining a national minimum standard, governments should recognise the differences in the fiscal capacities of Nigeria’s states. Through dialogue with organised labour and other stakeholders, states should have reasonable flexibility to negotiate wage structures that reflect their economic realities, provided that workers’ basic rights are protected.
- Invest More in Human Capital
Greater public investment should be directed towards free, high-quality basic education, vocational and technical training, healthcare, nutrition, and skills development. These investments strengthen human capital, improve productivity, and increase long-term national income. Improved education will produce a more productive workforce capable of earning higher incomes throughout life.
Roughly seven in ten Nigerians pay for healthcare entirely out of their own pockets, and fewer than one in ten have any form of health insurance. A single hospital bill can push a family into poverty overnight. Expanding the new National Health Insurance Authority scheme, particularly for the poor and informally employed, would protect millions from exactly the kind of shock that no wage increase can cushion.
- Improve Infrastructure
Reliable electricity, potable water, efficient transportation systems, digital connectivity, and modern communication infrastructure should become national priorities. Lower production costs will encourage private investment, expand employment, and raise living standards.
- Modernise Agriculture and Strengthen Food Security
Government should expand access to agricultural credit, improved seedlings, fertilisers, mechanisation, irrigation, extension services, storage facilities, and rural roads. A more productive agricultural sector will improve food security, reduce inflation, and increase rural incomes.
- Support Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
Small businesses are the backbone of Nigeria’s economy. Easier access to affordable finance, business advisory services, digital technologies, and simplified regulations would enable these enterprises to expand, employ more Nigerians, and contribute more significantly to economic growth.
- Strengthen Fiscal Responsibility
Governments at all levels should manage public finances prudently. Recurrent expenditure, including personnel costs, should not crowd out capital investment in schools, hospitals, roads, water supply, and other productive infrastructure. Sound fiscal management is essential for sustainable development.
- Promote Progressive and Fair Taxation
Tax policy should ensure that individuals and corporations with greater ability to pay contribute fairly towards financing public services. At the same time, government must improve transparency and accountability so that taxpayers can see tangible improvements in public service delivery.
- Place Quality of Life at the Centre of Public Policy
The ultimate objective of economic policy should be to improve the quality of life of all Nigerians. Government performance should therefore be assessed not only by wage increases but also by measurable improvements in education, healthcare, employment, housing, infrastructure, environmental quality, security, and the overall well-being of citizens.
TOWARDS A NEW SOCIAL CONTRACT
Nigeria stands at an important moment in its development. The country possesses abundant human and natural resources, yet millions of its citizens continue to experience poverty, unemployment, and inadequate public services.
The time has therefore come to redefine the relationship between government and the people. Citizens rightly expect more than periodic salary reviews. They expect competent governance, prudent management of public resources, equal opportunities, and public services that enhance their daily lives.
A new social contract should rest on three pillars: productive employment, efficient public institutions, and improved quality of life. When these foundations are firmly established, higher wages will emerge naturally from a stronger and more productive economy rather than from repeated emergency responses to inflation.
Such an approach offers Nigeria the best prospect of achieving inclusive, equitable, and sustainable national development.
From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa
The Acting Amayanabo of Okpoama Kingdom in Brass Council Area, High Chief Nathan Egba-Dienegha has called on Government at all levels to join hands with Development partners to grow the multibillion naira blue economy in the Niger Delta region for the benefit of the people.
Chief Dienagha stated this during a sensitisation programme tagged Empowering Women through Blue Economy with focus on leadership, sustainability and economic inclusion held in Okpoama-Brass, Bayelsa State and organized by African Maritime Environment Susttainability Initiative and Urgent Action Fund Africa.
Chief Dienagha who was represented by the Amayanabo of Isele-ama, His Royal Highness, Boute Levi Felagha said the Federal Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy should undertake the rolling out of policies and programmes that would provide livelihood for women and youths.
Earlier, the Founder and President of the African Maritime Environment Susttainability Initiative, Dr Felicia Mogo who spoke through Zoom said this phase of the initiative was an intervention to strengthen the involvement of women in coastal communities in Blue Economy with initial focus on the Niger Delta.
Dr Mogo expressed delight at level enthusiasm shown by the women and urged them to form co-operatives to advance their involvement in blue economy, adding that she would work with them to improve their livelihood.
In his presentation, the facilitator of the programme, Tarinyo Akono urged the women to promote the sustainability of the marine ecosystem while harnessing the resources of the of the sea.
He said using chemicals, dynamites and dumping of refuse in the rivers does not promote sustainability and called on the leadership of the various communities to provide a refuse dumping sites.
Akono noted that Brass is a major fishing hub that deserves the attention of the Federal and State Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, adding that experts should be contacted to fashion out programmes and projects to advance the sector.
In their remarks, the Women Leader of Okpoama Kingdom, Madam Obibinate Ikaye and the Secretary of the CDC, Inko Tariworio thanked the African Maritime Environment Susttainability Initiative for the sensitisation programme.
NEWS
APWEN Bayelsa Marks 2026 World Menstrual Hygiene Day at Tarakiri Community Secondary School, Anyama
From Mike Tayese, Yenagoa
The Association of Professional Women Engineers of Nigeria (APWEN) Bayelsa Chapter has commemorated the World Menstrual Hygiene Day by empowering female students of Tarakiri Community Secondary School with practical knowledge on menstrual health.
The APWEN team led by the chairman, Engr.
Amalate Ann-Jonathan Obuebite Ph.D FNSE taught the girls on period tracking, helping them understand their cycles with confidence.They also gave practical tips on personal hygiene and staying healthy, and comfortable in school all month.
Finally the APWEN BAYELSA members distributed One Hundred and Fifty (150) APWEN BAYELSA Customized Menstrual Kits because dignity should never be a barrier to education.
Speaking on the exercise, the Chairman of APWEN,Bayelsà noted that the energy in the hall was electric. Questions flowed. confidence grew. Myths were broken and over 150 girls left with confidence, knowledge on menstrual health and hygiene as well as the customised menstrual kits.
She expressed appreciation to the To Principal and staff of the Tarakiri Community Secondary School, Anyama for making the interaction with the students possible,”This is APWEN Bayelsa living our mandate: _Engineering solutions, building girls, serving community.”
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