By Samson Ezea

Why is it that despite the redoubled and impregnable efforts of the Enugu State Government and security agents, which include redeployment of additional security personnel such as that of the Direct Rapid Response Squad and others to secure the notorious Ugwogo-Nike-Opi road, security hitches have continued to occur on the road? Does it mean that the barber doesn’t know how to barb or the blade is not sharp?

The latest of such intermittent security breaches along the road is the recent attack on Chief Ikeje Asogwa’s convoy, which only God and his security personnel know how he, alongside his friends, survived the criminal onslaught.

Of note and worrisome about the ugly incident according to eye witnesses’ accounts is that the attack was launched on him almost within the Opi community by men who appeared in police uniforms, who mounted what looked like a routine roadblock almost in front of a petrol station along the road, immediately one descends from Opi Junction, heading to Enugu.

This is incredible and suspicious, considering that there is no way such gang of criminals can freely operate in that axis without the cooperation and collaboration of the some criminal elements among the locals and by extension security agents. It is not possible. It is an axiomatic fact that crimes, especially kidnapping, which has become recurring along Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road is usually aided by accomplices and collaborators, who are making living out of it.

There is no doubt from the outset of his administration, Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah of Enugu State made security of lives and properties a top priority, knowing full well that it is the major primary responsibility of government. That was why Governor Mbah didn’t hesitate to take on the non state actors and enforcers of the Monday IPOB sit at home and banned the order immediately.

As the residents and people of the state savour and relish the gains of the recovery and reclaiming of their very important Mondays and the defeats of the promoters and enforcers of the illegal order, it is not surprising that some of the remnant recidivists, criminal herders and their collaborators, who have been dislodged from their strongholds and hideouts by Governor Mbah’s government in collaboration with security agents have relocated and regrouped in some targeted soft spots and fringes in some parts of the state, thereby heightening the security situation in the state.

Having been dismantled, rendered ineffective and stopped from operating within the metropolis and its environs, it is not unexpected of these criminals and daredevil kidnappers to risk the last struggle of a dying horse that will not keep them afloat at last as the security agents and state government have continued to intensify efforts and measures to clampdown and eliminate them from the state.

It can be seen that stopping them from striking or operating in Enugu metropolis since Governor Mbah assumed office is giving them and their promoters and sponsors nightmares. Hence, they are trying to fight back. The concerns being raised by some residents and indigenes on the heightened activities of kidnappers in some parts of the Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road is in order and expected. But that does not mean that the security agents and Governor Mbah’s government are not working hard to tackle the menace and eradicate it completely. This is so because it is antithetical, a great impediment, and at variance with Mbah governance’s visions.

Evidence of Governor Mbah Government and security agent’s efforts in that direction abound, hence it will amount to narcissism, cynicism, and hypocrisy for anyone to be completely critical and dismissive of the glaring efforts of Mbah’s government and security agents in tackling insecurity in the state since assuming office.

Nevertheless, the situation along Nike-Ugwuogo-Opi road calls for introspection, retrospection, and change of strategy. While it is a fact that security issues and strategies are not for public discussions or debates to curb sabotage, there is a need for the top security hierarchies to profile their personnel on duty in that axis. A situation where there is increased presence of security personnel along the road and kidnappers are still striking or operating calls for more questions and thorough investigations.

Why I will not agree hook,line and sinker the social media rumours making rounds that security personnel and locals living around the axis are confidants, collaborators and accomplices of the kidnappers operating on that road, it would be suicidal, retrogressive and counterproductive gloating and glossing over such weighty allegation and rumours.

This is because where the child is crying and pointing at if his father is not there, the mother will be there. Before now, some surviving victims of kidnapping along the road have made similar allegation while sharing their experiences with the kidnappers.

Intense surveillance, proper profiling and thorough investigation of the activities of security personnel on duty and locals along the road will help the security agencies and Governor Mbah’s government to unravel the mystery surrounding the incessant kidnapping for ransom along the road, despite government’s concerted and unrelenting efforts alongside security agents in the state.

It is becoming obvious that what is happening along the road is not ordinary and more than what the eyes can meet. Sabotage, conspiracy and complicity may not be out of it, hence the onus lies on security agents to deal with it decisively, especially as Governor Mbah’s administration has provided them with the necessary and adequate logistics and other incentives to function optimally.

Continous security hitches and breaches along Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road or any part of the state in the face of Governor Mbah administration’s massive and unprecedented investments and support to security agents in the state is an indictment on the security agencies.

It is not expected of Governor Mbah or any of the state government functionaries to embark or engage in security work to secure the state.

What is expected of them is to provide support and motivation to security agents, which Governor Mbah’s administration has provided like never before.

Apart from the construction and equipping of the capital- intensive and novel Security Command and Control centre in government house, setting up of a high profile security trust fund committee, installation of artificial intelligence surveillance cameras across the metropolis and its environs, Governor Mbah is set to hand over 131 additional and security gadgets-equipped brand new vehicles to security agents in the state ahead of the Christmas celebration. The ongoing dualisation of Ugwogo-Nike-Opi Road by Governor Mbah’s administration, when completed will also eradicate completely crimes in that axis.

Even in the face of this, Gov. Mbah and the security agencies deserve the support and cooperation of Ndi Enugu to secure the state.

Finally, it is not hyperbolical to say that despite the recent pockets of security breaches along Ugwuogo-Opi-Nsukka road, which the security agents and Mbah’s government are already tackling, Enugu remains one of the safest and most peaceful state in the state. This is in consideration of the security situation in the country, particularly in Southeast region, where if the level of insecurity and killings that happened and are happening in the neighbouring states happens in Enugu, people and residents won’t even know what to say or do.

Photo: Brand New Patrol vehicles procured by Governor Peter Mbah administration for the police for effective policing of the state. 

THE national grid collapsed three times last month and twice this month. This year, it has collapsed at least 11 times. This underscores our long-standing struggle to have a consistent power supply, even if not for the whole nation, at least for those fortunate enough to have access to the few megawatts produced by the so-called “Giant of Africa.”

While last week, Niger Republic was able to add no fewer than 18 megawatts to its national grid in just four months, Nigeria, with an installed capacity of 16,348MW, achieved only 5,313 megawatts as of September this year.

Our travails with power generation and distribution are not only limited to the continuous and confusing changes in the names of the power regulatory authority but also concern complex and convoluted financial deals and outright fraud, as the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) chairman, Ola Olukoyede, hinted when the House of Representatives Committee on Anti-Corruption and Financial Crimes visited the Commission’s headquarters in Abuja last week.

In 2016, the House of Representatives instituted a probe into allegations that former President Olusegun Obasanjo spent $16 billion on the power sector with no tangible result.

That probe, which President Muhammadu Buhari hinted at re-opening, remains closed. Many Nigerians would not be overly shocked if the file had developed wings. After all, we are in a country where serpents and monkeys have raided safes and made away with money, and nothing happened to the bearers of such tall tales.

Anyway, nothing has been done about it, and from all indications, nothing will happen. And Nigerians, ever the people with short memories and limited attention spans, have moved on—not asking why, not caring how, and not giving a hoot about the implications of accepting everything as “business as usual.”

But this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

We are witnesses to the continuous collapse of the national grid. So far, in October this year alone, the national grid has collapsed three times and at least twice this month. This year, it has collapsed 11 times and 27 times in the last three years, with nine collapses in 2022 alone and four in 2023. Have we quantified the losses to the nation in terms of lives and finances?

First, hospitals and clinics have critical areas that require a constant electricity supply. Vaccines, medicines, blood (and its products), and other laboratory processes must always be refrigerated at regulated temperatures to maintain potency. Likewise, some machines and instruments require an uninterrupted electricity supply. Even if lives were not lost, how many people in Intensive Care Units (ICUs) and Special Baby Care Units (SBCUs) have suffered damages, some irreparable?

Can we quantify the man-hour losses in workplaces where electricity is a mandatory factor of production? These are the majority. What about financial losses? Had we a proper database and an effective financial tracker, we would have arrived at figures in the billions or trillions that must have been lost due to the frequent grid collapses.

To solve this problem, our state governments can set up power-generating and distributing franchises individually or in partnership with other states and/or entrepreneurs. Yet, one must still ask: What will happen to those responsible for the embarrassingly recurrent collapse of the national grid?

According to the EFCC chairman, the frequent collapse of the national grid is linked to fraud in the electricity sector, especially in the use of poor and substandard materials. “Nigerians would weep if they knew the monumental fraud in the electricity sector,” he quipped.

Well, he should tell us because we have wept enough for Nigeria that, for some of us, our tear glands have dried up. We have become so accustomed to the vagaries of our people in high places that nothing shocks us anymore.

But will he tell us? No. Will anyone be made to pay for the continued national grid collapse? Again, no. But this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

This is why I am not surprised that those who gave false, unprofessional reports to the Borno State Government, claiming that the Alau Dam would not collapse—only for it to burst three days later, killing hundreds, displacing thousands, and destroying properties worth billions of naira—are still sitting comfortably in their offices, running state affairs as “business as usual.”

Nobody has been made to pay for their reports that killed people and destroyed properties. And nobody will pay for it, I can tell you. Those who died have gone, and that is the end of the matter! Those who gave the false reports are likely now involved in distributing “relief materials,” and even there, it will be business as usual. Relief distribution is another honey pot.

But this is Nigeria. But is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

Taking Nigeria’s problems to heart and carrying them on your head can and will break one down—perhaps never to rise again.

Therefore, to keep your sanity, one must find ways to release bottled-up tension, frustrations, and anxiety. In Nigeria, we are never short of them. Anything that happens in other countries that could break hearts and possibly bones and lives, in Nigeria, we find ways to turn into banter.

Now, what is trending is the escapades of the ‘Superman,’ the libidinous Baltasar Ebang Engonga, derogatively called The Banger. The man has placed his country, Equatorial Guinea, in deplorable international limelight, consigning to the background the fact that its President, Teodoro Obiang Nguema, is the longest-serving president in the world and that it is the only country with a father and son as president and vice-president!

His memes, skits, new dancing steps, and greetings—all in his “honour”—have taken over social media and provided some comedic entertainment.

Sadly, this is Nigeria. However, is that how we have always been? Perhaps. Or perhaps not. But here we are.

LEST I FORGET
The late Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Taoreed Abiodun Lagbaja, received a farewell salute from his Commander-in-Chief, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who was present at his funeral ceremony. The former Chief of Army Staff, late Lt. General Ibrahim Attahiru, who served from 28 January 2021 to 21 May 2021 and died in the 2021 NAF Beechcraft B300 King Air 350i crash near Kaduna International Airport, did not receive that privilege from President Buhari, who is a general himself.

President Tinubu’s action is impressive and commendable; it went a long way towards boosting the morale of the military personnel, who now know they have a caring commander-in-chief.

• Hassan Gimba, anipr, is the publisher and CEO of Neptune Prime

By Bonaventure Phillips Melah

It is the responsibility of government to initiate and execute policies and programmes for the overall wellbeing of citizens. It is for that purpose that governments across the world, create many institutions and agencies, each with defined functions or roles, towards achieving that purpose.

However, while some agencies strive to achieve the set goals and objectives for which they were created, others end up disappointing the people, by way of low-quality service delivery; and that has been one of the reasons Nigeria and many other countries of the world are facing so many challenges.

While it is true that many agencies and institutions of government and even the private sector, are grossly underperforming, there are others that are delivering topnotch services to the people; and that is where leadership comes in.

According to Dale Carnegie- “Leadership is not about a title or a designation but impact, influence and inspiration.”

Recently. the Pension Transitional Arrangement Directorate (PTAD), implemented the new pension increment from January 2024 to August 2024 bringing joy and laughter to the affected senior citizens who have paid their dues in the service to fatherland.

The promptness with which PTAD implemented the new increment is another shouting testimony of the Directorate’s work approach- to do the right thing at the right time.

Since the Federal Government established PTAD eleven years ago, the Agency has been blessed with committed and visionary leadership that have worked faithfully to make the life of pensioners under the Directorate much easier.

In the past six years, especially, PTAD has become an agency that is known for astonishing achievements, thanks to the strategies adopted by its management team, led by Dr. Chioma Nnenna Ejikeme, the Executive Secretary/CEO.

One of the greatest revolutionary innovations by the federal government in recent years, is the “I Am Alive” Platform, an initiative of PTAD. It is a digital process that ensures continuous update of pensioners’ database to ascertain verified pensioners that are alive and should continue to receive their monthly pensions.

The “I Am Alive” platform has brought a 100 percent relieve as it makes it possible for pensioners to update their records within a matter of seconds by just pressing the App on their phones or computer, without the need to travel out of their homes.

Apart from the ease with which pensioners complete the process, it has also proved to be the most potent and transparent strategy to ensure that only eligible pensioners who are alive are paid from government coffers, making it a positive deviation from the corruption-riddled past, when billions of Naira was paid to ‘ghosts,’ in the name of pensioners, even years after their death.

The “I Am Alive” innovation is just one of the many policy revolutions initiated and being executed by the management of PTAD, under the leadership of Dr. Chioma Nnenna Ejikeme.

It must be a combination of these innovative policies, spiced by the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, and the very receptive and courteous behavioural pattern of PTAD’s staff, especially desk officers, towards pensioners, that the Agency has been described by many as the best performing government institution in Nigeria.

Apart from testimonies by pensioners, PTAD has continued to receive accolades and awards from many national and international institutions for its high-quality service delivery which complies with international best practices and the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, GCFR.

A few months ago, the House of Representatives Committee on Pensions commended Dr. Chioma Ejikeme and the management of PTAD for the wonderful work they are doing and promised to support the agency to ensure it gets all that it requires to do more for the benefit of pensioners and Nigeria in general.

The Committee gave the commendation when its Chairman, Hon. Hussaini Mohammed Jallo, led members on an oversight visit to headquarters PTAD in Abuja.

After receiving them, Dr. Chioma Ejikeme updated the lawmakers of the many achievements recorded by PTAD over the years, some challenges facing the Agency and plans to improve the welfare of pensioners under the federal Defined Benefit Scheme as mandated by the Pension Reform Act, 2014, especially with regards to Harmonisation of pensions, and the statutory pension increment as stipulated in the 1999 constitution.

For lack of space, let us look at a few of the many achievements which have combined to endear PTAD to pensioners and other stakeholders from within and outside the country.

Right after its establishment, PTAD carried out field verification exercises across all the operational departments of the Directorate, namely: the Civil Service Pension Department; Police Pension Department; the Customs, Immigration and Prisons Pension Department; and the Parastatals Pension Department. The aim of the verification exercises was to ascertain eligible pensioners under the Defined Benefit Scheme, enroll eligible ones who were hitherto not on the Directorate’s Payroll, while promptly removing the unqualified.

The Directorate then built from scratch (1st of its kind) a digitized, centralized, comprehensive and credible database of pensioners and their pension records under the Defined Benefit Scheme in Nigeria; Automated Computation (Calculation) of Pension Benefits using computation software and recovered N17.85bn Legacy Pension Assets from Boards of Trustees and Underwriters of Treasury Funded Federal Parastatals which was applied to pay -off inherited outstanding pension arrears.

In addition, PTAD has achieved the Repatriation of ₤26.5m pension funds from the Crown Agents Investment Managers Limited, United Kingdom which was used to defray the inherited arrears of defunct agencies in December, 2021 and paid inherited liabilities amounting to over ₦40 billion including the 33% increment arrears owed pensioners in the Parastatals Pension Department since 2010; Completion of the one-off payment to 1,031 verified ex-workers of the Aluminum Smelter Company of Nigeria (ALSCON); Completion of the one-off payment to 1,596 ex-workers of Savannah Sugar; one-off payment to 661 ex-workers of the Nigerian Aviation Handling Company (NAHCO); Payment of ₦1.1bn pension arrears and gratuities to 303 pardoned War Affected Police Officers and Next -Of kin of deceased officers; Added 251 ex-workers of Assurance Bank to the payroll and paid their 69 months arrears and paid over ₦8.5billion as arrears of Pensions and Gratuities to Civil Service Pensioners and the Next-of-Kin of deceased pensioners.

The Directorate also completely paid arrears arising from the consequential adjustment to pensions as a result of the increase in minimum wage of April 2019 to the four operational departments in the Directorate; Completely liquidated the 126 months outstanding liabilities due to 287 ex-workers of Nigeria Reinsurance Corporation; Completes the payment of the 219 months of inherited liabilities to 509 Ex-workers of New Nigeria Newspaper Limited; Liquidated 92 months arrears owed 522 ex workers of the Nigeria National Shipping Line and placing them on the monthly payroll; Completed payment of the 100 months of inherited liabilities to 1,046 Ex-workers of NICON Insurance’ achieved complete payment of the 96 months of inherited liabilities to 3,657 Ex-workers of Delta Steel Company (DSC) and implemented the 9.7% increment to Ex-PHCN workers with ₦6.9bn paid as arrears.

The Agency also paid a total of 49 months of the 84 months inherited arrears owed NITEL/MTEL pensioners in December 2022, leaving a balance of 35 months for complete liquidation.

Other landmark achievements of PTAD include embarking on a special project in December 2023 to look into non-payment of gratuity to some pensioners and death benefits to Next-of-Kin of deceased pensioners across all departments.

It is noteworthy that as at July 2024, over N395 million has been paid as death benefits and Gratuity to 238 Next-of-Kin and pensioners.

As at today, the Directorate has 12 liaison offices across the 6 geopolitical zones which has helped in great measures in bringing pension service closer to DBS pensioners with mechanized file storage facilities for pensioners files.

The task of building a dream-nation is not the responsibility of one individual called the president, governor or minister. It requires that citizens play their own part, in whatever capacities they find themselves.

It is true however, that the burden is greater for those who sought for, and got elected or appointed into leadership positions in public service, as they have a duty to utilize the resources allocated to them, to impact the society positively and leave indelible footprints on the sands of time.

This is therefore a wakeup call to other agencies of government, to emulate PTAD by keying into the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, so that together, we can make Nigeria overcome its challenges and take its rightful place among the comity of nations.

Bonaventure Phillips Melah is an Abuja-based journalist and author. Bonamelah123@gmail.com