By Tunde Olusunle* 

The lobbies and lounges of the *Nicon Hilton Hotel* (now *Transcorp Hilton)* and *Sheraton Hotels and Towers,* (now *Abuja Continental Hotel)* were very boisterous in the early days of the Olusegun Obasanjo/Atiku Abubakar administration in 1999. Both hotels were the biggest and best, those years and they accommodated the cream of the political class who gravitated to the federal capital territory, (FCT) at the outset of the Fourth Republic.

First, it was proposed that appointees at the level of minister and adviser were entitled to two aides, a “Special Assistant” at the level of Deputy Director on Grade Level, (GL) 16, and a “Personal Assistant” at the level of a “Chief” in the civil service on GL 14. But for the insistence of senior and influential members of the emerging Obasanjo administration, the civil service would have had its way. For an Obasanjo who is famous for frugality, whatever governance model which would conserve resources for government, suited his desires. The President was, however, reminded that the minimum compensation that could be accorded the foot soldiers who made his ascension possible, was to avail some of them positions in the new government. 

Obasanjo was also admonished about the fact that democratic governance as different from an insular military government, should expand the space for qualified and competent Nigerians by way of sustainable engagement. Members of the national assembly agreed mutually that they should each have five legislative aides, who were of necessity drawn majorly from their home constituencies for obvious reasons. With a total of 469 in both chambers of the federal parliament, over 2000 jobs had thus been created. If Obasanjo’s cabinet was to be composed of 42 members and each of them took two people from the unemployment market, such tokenism will at least keep many hands from becoming workshops of devil.

Since Obasanjo was a newcomer to popular politics who was still undergoing demilitarisation from his erstwhile professional fixations, the new President was also reminded he could seek reelection in 2003, as provided for by the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. If he nursed any such ambitions, the real groundsmen at the grassroots in the polling units, the wards, the local government areas, the federal constituencies and so on needed to be practically cultivated. If they were not physical appointees themselves they will be glad enough that they have their eyes and ears where decisions concerning them were being made. Obasanjo consented and to a substantial extent, his prototype was in place until the expiration of his rulership in 2007. In several instances, qualified loyalists of the party were also appointed and deployed to departments and agencies under the supervision of various ministers.

Obasanjo’s equally frugal successor, Umaru Musa Yar’Adua inherited and ran with his benefactor’s template. Yar’Adua by the way, purportedly appealed to Obasanjo as baton-changer among other reasons, because of his predilection for thriftiness. In the course of Obasanjo’s state visit to Katsina State Yar’Adua’s erstwhile address as governor in 2002, the former Nigerian leader was delighted with Yar’Adua’s good works as with the impressive balance sheet of the state. Obasanjo has also noted elsewhere that he was also swayed in the direction of Yar’Adua because of the absolute loyalty with which Umaru Yar’Adua’s elder brother, Shehu, served him when he was military Head of State. He desired to honour the memory of a colleague who died desiring the democratisation of his country and on whose political platform he largely profited en route the presidency. Atiku Abubakar was Yar’Adua’s de facto Number Two man in the Peoples’ Democratic Movement, (PDM). He it was who led that critical political tendency to coalesce with other groups, to become the bedrock of Obasanjo’s success in the 1999 presidential poll and thereafter.

A certain liberalisation of the preexisting archetype of engagement of personal aides by top appointees began to take root during the administration of Goodluck Jonathan. He succeeded Yar’Adua who passed away in May 2010 and was somewhat soft on certain goings-on in the governance apparachik, his gaze trained on a shot at the presidency on his own steam in 2011. Call cards in the public domain during that era reportedly alluded to new coinages in the Jonathan milieu hitherto unheard of. His police aide-de-camp in his years as Vice President, Matthew Jitoboh, for instance gave way to a military officer, Ojogbane Adegbe, following Jonathan’s concurrent designation as President, Commander-in-Chief. Rather than report to the Inspector-General of Police, (IGP) for redeployment to regular police duties Jitoboh transmuted into a “Chief of Personal Security to the President” under Jonathan’s watch! What with the numbers and diversity of security personnel who hitherto secured the seat of government? Every such needless creation, pitched for operational resources thereby diminishing government capacity to provide basic services and infrastructure.

Things went on a perverse descent with the advent of Muhammadu Buhari as President in 2015. Buhari was never famous for hands-on leadership, a fact which soon became very evident as his rulership began. Ministers, advisers and so on were at open-ended liberty to populate their schedules with as many aides as they desired. Some public officers indeed fancied a whole bureaucracy of personal aides which could include a Chief of Staff! There could also be: Special Advisers; Special Assistants; Technical Assistants; Personal Assistants; In-house Consultants; Resource Persons and so on, engaged by top government officials. Buhari, renowned for never being *awia* of goings-on around and about him, was not in a position to check or moderate such excesses. Sadly but interestingly, government at sub-nationals like the local government level, equally ape existing precedence at the higher rungs. They cram up the space with all manner of frivolous appointments. Local government chairmen also have their chiefs of staff and a retinue of preposterous aides all remunerated from resources transmitted from the centre. It got so bewildering in my local government at some point that the “wives of councillors” were allegedly paid a month’s stipend of N50,000 monthly, for being “first ladies of their wards!”

Government finances are strained by these overloads which come with specific fiscal requirements. Emoluments have to be paid to those purportedly offering services to government; residential quarters or hotel accommodation has to be provided for them; means of travel have to be provided or paid for. Where such officials are allocated official vehicles and there is a shortage of chauffeurs in the pool, new drivers are hired, the costs consolidated on the hunchback of government. The entourage of our modern-day big men on local or foreign travels ballooned with appropriate *per diems* or estacodes, imperative. Officials themselves concot all manner of trainings, conferences and similar offshore engagements, flying in comfy classes. They savour the best hospitality facilities in their global junketing at our collective expense and the discomfiture of our already be-laboured resources. 

Despite this dampening scenario, unfeeling officials prefer foreign destinations for such mundane convergences as interactive workshops and meetings. Early March this year, the Accountant-general of the Federation, (AGF), Oluwatoyin Sakirat Madein herded Commissioners of Finance from the 36 states and FCT to the United Kingdom for an early-in-the-year rendezvous, in the name of a week-long workshop! The theme of that engagement was “Public Financial Management International Public Sector Accounting Standards,” (IPSAS). The AGF who should be better apprised than the rest of us about the country’s most disturbing fiscal situation was the orchestrator of yet another pipe-leak in the name of a foreign engagement for the nation’s exchequers. 

Last April, governors of 10 Nigerian states congregated in the United States to discuss security issues ravaging their various states! All governors from the North West: Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Jigawa, Kaduna, Kano and three states from the North Central, Benue, Niger and Plateau, participated in the three-day parley. If their homes have become metaphorical furnaces in the grips of bandits, kidnappers and similar miscreants, couldn’t they have moved over to another state, say Akwa Ibom which would provide the necessary serenity and security for engagement? The resource persons with whom they engaged in the United States could as well have flown to Nigeria.

Public officials are not sparing a thought for the sustainable rehabilitation, upgrading and operationalisation of our existing touristic capital and other facilities which should easily earn foreign exchange for the country. What happened to the *Obudu Cattle Ranch* and the *Tinapa Resort,* both in Cross River State? The state indeed opens the window to a myriad of other pristine treasures including the *Slave History* and the *Old Residency* museums; the scenic *Tortuga Island,* not forgetting the archival home of the famous female Scottish missionary, *Mary Slessor.* What have we done with the *Yankari Game Reserve* and the *Kainji Wildlife Park* in Bauchi and Niger states, which harbour some of the world’s rarest fauna? How about the *Lekki Conservation Centre* and the *Badagry Coconut Beach* overlooking the regal Atlantic ocean, both in Lagos State? 

Under President Obasanjo, Abuja became the unofficial “conference destination” in Africa. It subtly displaced Cairo, Johannesburg, Nairobi, even Kigali in the contest for this designation. Back in 2003, Nigeria very competently hosted the *18th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Commonwealth of Nations, (CHOGM),* which was attended by the Head of the Commonwealth, Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II at the time. Fifty one out of the 54 Commonwealth member countries attended meeting, a measure of the global regard with which Nigeria was viewed. Today, however, our senior officials are ever pliable in flashing cigarette lighters to our very scarce resources, in their oftentimes frivolous gallivanting. They don’t seem disposed to helping to build our own endowments to the world class standards which will compel the world to come probing. 

Last January, Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s President directed the reduction of the number of officials on his entourage to foreign destinations to 20. This was in response to public outcry about Nigeria’s typically overblown delegations to offshore events. This cutback was also extended to the travels of his deputy. In March, Tinubu issued a presidential order restricting foreign travel by government functionaries for an initial period of three months, starting from April 1, 2024. While these measures are commendable, government needs to take a holistic view of the question of unsustainable public spending particularly in a milieu when government is gasping for fiscal oxygen. 

All arms of government are directly or indirectly guilty of various infractions on the national till. Justices of the Supreme Court of Nigeria mid-2022, petitioned the Chief Justice of Nigeria, (CJN), Tanko Muhammad. Led by the incumbent CJN, Olukayode Ariwoola, the judges correspondence stopped short calling out seething malfeasance under Muhammad’s watch. Nigeria’s parliamoent remains the most pampered anywhere in the world, presumably operating a most opaque accountability regimen. Mammoth sums are voted for the procurement of bulletproof, luxury automobiles for leaders and members of Congress. The President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio is said to have dozens of aides servicing his office in the name of “inclusiveness.” He never probably met most of them and may never do. We are told inexplicable provisions are made for “constituency projects” which are directly overseen by the legislators themselves. This subhead is said to have become a conduit for the pilferage of public resources. 

Wasn’t Abdul Ningi, a ranking congressman representing Bauchi Central recently suspended for playing the whistle-blower on the expenditure proclivities of the same parliament to which he belongs? Undocumented allowances are made for the various breaks and holidays of parliamentarians, the type described as “prayers” by the Senate President the other day. Let’s not forget the jumbo millions in foreign exchange which the federal government annually votes for some agencies of government, a part of which was found cooling off under uninterrupted air-conditioning in a flat in highbrow Ikoyi, in Lagos, a few years ago. In that 2017 incident, $43.4m; £27, 800 and N23.2m, totalling N13 Billion at the time, were discovered in that singular instance!

Pointed and pragmatic pruning down of government expenditure transcends piecemeal orders and instalmental directives. Government should ideally declare a “state of emergency” on public expenditure which should bring all the arms of government at various levels of administration to a roundtable. More than ever, it is necessary for us to lay the issues bare, agree on subsisting profligacy in governance and administration, and deploy the scalpel without sentiments and biases. We must agree we’ve been collectively profligate. We must concur to the fact that there are services and developments we can avail our people without the humongous budget paddings which have become the norm. We must re-commit to serving the mass of our citizens to whom we are primarily obliged. We must re-dedicate to working for this country with every altruism. We must be resolute in exerting ourselves for its sustainable growth, to the standards of other forward-looking nations.

*Tunde Olusunle, PhD, is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (FANA)*

By Halimah-Sa’dia Nuhu Sanda

As a predominantly healthy biological phenomenon and the most universal and peculiarly womanly experience, menstruation should not be a barrier to education or hinder a girl’s ability to participate fully in daily life. Yet for millions of women and girls in Nigeria, it does.

In fact, every month, thousands of adolescent girls and women in the world struggle to cope with their monthly periods.

For many girls, the first experience of menstruation is associated not with knowledge and understanding of the normal biological process but with confusion, shame, and a poor quality of information on how to deal with it. Even today, the menstrual process is heavily stigmatised in Nigeria, preventing girls from engaging in regular activities.

A lack of decent sanitation and menstrual hygiene facilities in schools creates barriers to attendance even for girls who can afford supplies at home. Every girl deserves the opportunity to pursue her education and develop to her full potential without the restrictions that her biological cycle imposes.

With a combination of frequent, embarrassing leaks, a susceptibility to recurrent infections, the stigma surrounding menstruation, and the lack of proper information and sanitary materials available, millions of girls and women experience their monthly period as something that prevents them from engaging in daily life, often compelling girls to miss school or discontinue their studies entirely. In a nation where education is broadly accepted as a form of empowerment and socioeconomic growth, the implications of menstrual inequity are particularly insidious.

The bottom line is this: menstruation should be a normal fact of life, not an ailment that steals girls’ futures. However, ensuring menstrual equity for the emerging generation of Nigerian girls and women is more than just a question of rights; rather, it is one of the most dynamic investments Nigeria can create in its development, economics, and human capital. But perhaps the most essential component is that the hideous ripple effects of period poverty on girls’ education amplify gender inequalities and inequities across all spheres.

In January 2020, the Nigerian government took a significant step toward achieving menstrual equity. Sanitary towels, pads, and tampons were exempted from the value-added tax as part of the new Finance Bill signed by then-President Muhammadu Buhari.

According to the statement of the Office of the Vice President, the Nigerian government said, “In a bid to ensure that the cost of living does not rise for Nigerians because of the changes in the Value-Added Tax, several basic food items, locally manufactured sanitary towels, pads have been added to the exemption list.”

This act on the part of the government aimed at relieving financial burdens on women and girls, especially those from economically disadvantaged backgrounds, was an acknowledgment of the natural entitlement to manage periods in decency. Girls and women have a human right to menstrual dignity, and no government should be able to tax our periods by making feminine hygiene products a luxury. For too long, the combined costs of sanitary products and taxes have placed an unfair financial burden on Nigerian girls and women simply for being female.

While the introduction of lower prices for sanitary products is commendable, the harsh reality persists: far too many girls are still unable to access basic menstrual hygiene products due to the financial constraints it imposes. UNICEF estimates that one in ten girls in sub-Saharan Africa misses school during her period; at the same time, as much as 20 per cent of the school year is missed as a direct result of menstrual poverty.

The 2013 National Demography and Health Survey data (NDHS) says about 60 per cent of the 10.5 million out-of-school children in Nigeria dropped out due to period poverty. When adolescent girls are forced to miss weeks of school each year simply for experiencing their periods, their academic performance deteriorates, their economic prospects become bleak, and the resulting ripples can throw their whole future trajectories off course.

The World Bank’s report “A Better Future for All Nigerians: Nigeria Poverty Assessment 2022” estimates that nearly two out of five citizens live below 1.90 U.S. dollars per day as a national poverty line. In contrast, 2019 data from the National Bureau of Statistics shows that 40 per cent of the population in Nigeria—almost 83 million people—lives below the national consumption poverty line, which is N137,430 ($134.73) per annum.

With an average pad price of N550 and the current economic crisis, which has exacerbated the socioeconomic vulnerabilities faced by the poor on all fronts, including the menstrual hygiene crisis, this crisis has never been more pressing.

Studies have shown a correlation between infant mortality and maternal education in developing countries. A 2013 study found that an increase in maternal education could reduce infant mortality rate by 51.2 per cent. According to UNICEF, children of uneducated mothers are 2.8 times more likely to die before the age of 5 compared to those whose mothers have a secondary education.

 Another 2019 study in India revealed that infant mortality was 51 per cent higher among children of uneducated mothers. Meanwhile, the 2018 NDHS showed that infant mortality is at 67 deaths per 1000 for mothers with no education, compared to 36 deaths per 1000 for mothers with secondary or higher school education.

This overwhelming evidence indicates that increasing access to education for girls is an effective way of saving the lives of infants in developing countries. An educated mother is less likely to have high-risk pregnancies, more likely to practice essential newborn care, and better prepared to make informed choices about her sexual and reproductive health. If we help our girls and women manage their menstruation easily while keeping them in school, we empower them to become society’s driving forces of change. Quite simply, educated women raise healthier societies.

Many individuals and organisations have undertaken various initiatives to tackle this problem. In 2018, UNICEF, with financial assistance from Canada, trained 40 girls from four senior high schools in Osun State on the production of reusable sanitary pads. There are organisations such as the Pad-Up Foundation and Pad A Girl Foundation. Yet much more funding and nationwide scale are needed to deliver menstrual equity as a norm, not an exception, across the country.

Although the VAT exemption was a step forward, it’s time to redouble our efforts on guaranteeing menstrual dignity to all women and girls. As things stand, there are still systemic barriers preventing the country’s poorest menstruating populations from achieving it.

Experience in other countries has shown that free provision of sanitary pads and tampons in schools, alongside menstrual health education, can be both revolutionary against period poverty and keep a whole lot more girls at school. Subsidizing local production of low-cost, reusable sanitary pads can make them more affordable and sustainable while also giving women entrepreneurs an economic opportunity to create some wealth.

With tight budgets and a lot of development needs, some people may question if sanitary products deserve our top priority, and critics may even argue that handouts create dependence. It is imperative to realise that menstrual equity is not only a woman’s issue; it is a social matter that demands urgent attention.

Every girl has the right to study and the ability to achieve her potential, free from the restrictions imposed by her biology. Therefore, it should be viewed as a right of humanity, not charity. It is an investment in human capital that will appreciate, producing generations of healthier, better educated, and more economically productive Nigerian women.

Half the earth’s population is born with this biological characteristic. By treating period poverty as equally important to public health as other key social determinants, Nigerian leaders will be striking a powerful chord for gender equity. With affordable sanitary protection and education, Nigerian girls will no longer have their dreams and futures derailed each month by something as fundamental as their own biology. The future productivity, wealth, and empowerment of Nigerian girls and women merit such an investment.

Halima Sanda wrote from Kano

By Chidi Anselm Odinkalu

Josiah Majebi is the fifth Chief Judge of Kogi State (in north-central Nigeria) in four years and the fourth to exist almost entirely in the pocket of the state governor. He has been in office as substantive Chief Judge since the beginning of February 2023, having acted in that role since 26 June 2022 when his predecessor, Richard Olorunfemi, retired.

The last Chief Judge of Kogi State who attempted to hold that office with dignity and independence, Nasir Ajanah, paid with his life, un-mourned and exiled from the state.

At the beginning of April 2008, the Kogi State House of Assembly, defying an order of the state High Court, adopted a resolution asking the State Governor to remove long-serving Chief Judge of the State, Umaru Eri. On that basis, then acting governor, Clarence Olafemi, promptly announced the sack of the Chief Judge on 2 April 2008 and designated another judge, Sam Ota, to act in his place.

In his defence, Umaru Eri claimed that his crime was that he had declined the request of the politicians to act as go-between in bribing the election petition tribunal on behalf of the then state governor whose election was in dispute. On 16 May, 2008, Alaba Ajileye, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, reversed the sack and reinstated Umaru Eri.

Eleven years later, on 18 June 2019, Alaba Ajileye presided again in deciding a case that seemed uncannily to reprise issues in his earlier decision. As with the 2008 decision, the claimant in 2019 was another Chief Judge of Kogi State, Nasir Ajanah with his Chief Registrar, Yahya Adamu. The defendants included the Kogi State House of Assembly, its Speaker, and the State Governor, Yahaya Bello.

At the directive of Governor Yahaya Bello, the Secretary to the Government of Kogi State wrote on 14 November, 2018 to Chief Judge Nasir Ajanah, asking him to provide “the payroll of judicial staff for the ongoing pay parade of civil servants in the state.” At the time, the Governor was a defendant in the court of the Chief Judge, so the Chief Registrar responded to the letter and explained that the judiciary was a self-accounting and co-equal branch of government supervised by the state Judicial Service Commission.

An affronted Governor Yahaya Bello wrote under his own name to Walter Onnoghen, then Chief Justice of Nigeria and Chair of the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking the NJC to find the Chief Judge guilty of misconduct and requiring that he “step aside and (an) Acting Chief Judge allowed to take his place.”

While his petition was still waiting for the attention of the NJC, Yahaya Bello resorted to political self-help. He referred the perceived effrontery of Nasir Ajannah to the State House of Assembly, which promptly constituted an investigation committee. The Chief Judge sued. While his suit was pending, on 2 April 2019, the State House of Assembly adopted a resolution asking Yahaya Bello to remove the Chief Judge and also requiring disciplinary action against the Chief Registrar.

On 18 June 2019, Alaba Ajileye sitting as the High Court of Kogi State in Kotonkarfe, determined that the Kogi State House of Assembly and the Governor acted unlawfully in seeking to remove the Chief Judge.

The reaction of the governor was bestial. He first went after Alaba Ajileye, a man of courage and learning whose judicial record was unblemished. With a doctorate degree in law, Alaba Ajileye was an expert in the rarefied subject of digital evidence. Following this judgment, however, Yahaya Bello’s government made it known that they could no longer guarantee his safety.

Yet, when he was put forward for elevation to the Court of Appeal, the same Kogi State government actively blocked it. A man who would easily have adorned the Supreme Court with distinction, Alaba Ajileye retired from the High Court in February 2023 and has since then forged a career as a scholar and academic.

Turning to the State Chief Judge, meanwhile, Yahaya Bello made life unbearable for Nasir Ajannah. He began by banishing the man from official state functions. When Chief Judge Ajannah attended the swearing in of the new Grand Khadi of Kogi State on 21 May 2020, the Chief Security Officer to Yahaya Bello informed him that “the governor gave a directive that he should not be allowed to attend the function.”

In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Yahaya Bello made Nasir Ajannah persona non-grata in the state. As a result, he was forced into internal displacement in Abuja, where his personal arrangements were worse than transitory. While in hiding in Abuja, Nasir Ajannah contracted COVID and died in isolation in Gwagwalada in the Federal Capital Territory on 28 June 2020. His death went unacknowledged and even the institutions of the judiciary were reluctant to mourn his passing.

The men who followed Nasir Ajannah in the office of Chief Judge of Kogi State learnt to stoke the vanities of Yahaya Bello and avoid his anger. Ahead of his departure from office at the end of eight years as governor of Kogi State in January 2024, Josiah Majebi as Chief Judge and Chair of the Kogi State Judicial Service Commission, prepared a list of candidates for nomination as judges of the High Court of Kogi State.

At the top of the list was a wife to Yahaya Bello the basis of whose claim to the nomination was the dutiful fulfilment of the duties of connubium in Yahaya Bello’s bedroom. For the Chief Judge, it was also proof that he had truly abjured any pretensions to a mind of his own.

Alarmed at what they saw as perversion of the system of judicial appointments, a group of seven Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SANs) from the State wrote to Josiah Majebi to dissuade him from this course of action. In January 2024, they sued challenging his judicial nominations. Pending the outcome, the NJC suspended the process of appointment to the Kogi State judiciary.

On 18 April 2024, James Omotoso, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja many of whose judgments usually have something of a smell problem about them, implausibly ruled that these SANs had no legitimate interest in the process of appointment of judges in their state and that, in any case, the discretion of the NJC in appointment of judges was effectively not open to review.

It was the day after Yahaya Bello’s chosen successor and blood relative, Usman Ododo, chose to turn his predecessor into a fugitive from legal process and two days after Mr. Ododo opened his case in the petition questioning the lawfulness of his election as governor of Kogi State.

As a bungling Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) waited to arrest Yahaya Bello in Abuja, one I.A. Jamil, a judge of the High Court of Kogi State, issued an order claiming to restrain the Commission from doing its job.

According to the order of the judge, the case which was filed over two months earlier on 8 February, was hurriedly assigned while the siege was on going in Abuja, argued, heard and decided and the judge quickly signed the order and handed it to Governor Ododo to take with him to Abuja from where he spirited his cousin away from legal process in a blaze of gunfire. The court was almost assuredly disingenuous about the date of filing. In all likelihood, the case was filed same day on 17 April and then back-dated.

The EFCC now claims it has declared Yahaya Bello a fugitive but the real question will be how a compromised and complicit judicial leadership will now treat the nomination of his unqualified wife as a judge and the petition against the declaration of his violent cousin as governor of Kogi State. The judges who currently control Nigeria’s criminal politics now must show how much they owe Yahaya Bello.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu in can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu