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Appraisal by Entitlement:The Enugu Case.

Published

5 years ago

September 16, 2020

By Reuben Onyishi (Ugoachataberu)

One thing that education does is dig deep into the muck of the human mind and liberates the beast of self-tied therein. Human beings are naturally self-centered. Man tends to consider self-first in all things and when the human mind is not developed above the level controlled by what Sigmund Freud in his Psychoanalysis calls the Id, the tendency is for man to remain at that unthinking level that naturally makes him an animal that he is.

At this animal level, acting on impulse and emotions becomes a natural guide to behavior and relationships.

It, therefore, takes a more than the natural state to subdue the Id and confine it to the legislation of the superego or the conscience by means of exposure to ethical values and mental development.

This is the level attained when one ceases to think self but takes into account the state of one’s social and physical environments as necessary appurtenances of one’s existence.

This is the state when empathy takes place in the realization that we share a common humanity and the understanding that the plight of one is the plight of all.

It is a point when such thoughts that a slave who watches another slave being cast into an abyss should know that when his own time comes he shall thus be cast come to the human consciousness.

Human wants are insatiable and the resources are scarce. This economic truth seems to stir the beast of self in man. The tendency to acquire all for self-guides his thinking and drives his actions. Under such consideration, it ostensibly appears abnormal to place others before self. It takes extraordinary power of the mind to have others first and negate the self.

In the developed nations of the world, the understanding is that the environment has got to be repositioned to serve the common purpose of man. Citizens have this orientation that the larger society has got to get it right and so self-consideration is relegated below the common good of the society. That perhaps has input in the thinking of J. F. Kennedy, one-time president of the United States of America, when he said that citizens should not think of what the state would do for them but should rather be bothered with what they could do for the state. If the state prospers, its people will prosper as well.

This manner of thinking presumably seems absent in Africa. Could that account for our underdevelopment? We suffer the deprivation of the economies of scale that go with synergy when we go picking crumbs emanating from individual efforts.

When Joseph Conrad in his “Heart of Darkness” portrayed African as a land of savages, men like Chinua Achebe rose in defense of Africa, claiming that Africa was not one long night of savagery from which the Europeans acting on God’s behalf delivered them. So, Achebe wrote his novels especially those set in the past to teach this: that the foibles to which Conrad exclusively attributed to Africa are common to man. To what extent Achebe’s texts taught these lessons remains a critical question yet unresolved. Achebe had had to reject a national honor done him in his lifetime because in his Anambra State, leaders behaved as savages in the name of politics.

In Nigeria, the thinking of self-pervades our socio-political life. The political structures have refused to gel together by the anti-viscuous sense of tribalism.

Many have blamed Lugard for hobbling together nations that share no socio-political and cultural affinities for British imperialistic interest. This criticism has been sustained by the secessionist Biafra apologists who cry marginalized in the scheme of things in Nigeria. Evidence of nepotism and clannish politics of irridentism having historical practices in Nigeria abound. The division of Nigeria into six geo-political zones around which power was agreed to rotate was seen as a solution to the marginalisation of some ethnic groups. Yet the situation has remained unabated. All this is a sign of the stirred beast of self in Nigerian leadership.

The question of self is not just a national problem in Nigeria, it also finds expression in states, local governments, and towns. That perhaps accounts for why zoning arrangements are adopted by some political parties to make for equitable rotation of power across the identified structures within these levels of government.

Zoning has a wrong sense in which it seems to be appropriated in our clime. It does not just make for a sense of belonging as it does arouse a spirit of entitlement in the perceived and so-called owners of the leader. The zone from which the leader emerges would want to claim his ownership completely. The people feel entitled to everything that belongs to the state. Entitlement is some bottomless abyss of expectations.

Since 2015 when Dr. Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi was elected the governor of Enugu State, following the zoning of the governorship seat to Enugu North Senatorial Zone, governance began to take shape in an altruistic manner.

Governor Ugwuanyi seems to view governance from a different prism, a prism from which Enugu State is seen as a whole. The mantra, ‘enye ndi ebe a; enye ndi ebe a’ couched in Igbo became a guiding principle for the development of the state. Projects are equitably distributed in such a way that no zone is left in the lurch.

Ugwuanyi is so sound that he has a clear understanding of governance as something that should divest itself of clannish cleavages and the thinking of self. This is a clear sign of sound knowledge and exposure to the ethics of good governance founded on the liberation of the mind from the beast of self. Appointments into his cabinet are done on merit and not on where anybody comes from.

But the sense of entitlement on the part of some folks from Enugu North has become the parameter for judging good governance.

At the outset, these few persons from Enugu North had fumed and flounced over who occupied certain positions in the Ugwuanyi administration. They had argued that because such positions were occupied by the governor’s kinsmen in previous administrations of the state, such positions should naturally be occupied by Governor Ugwuanyi’s kinsmen. They feel entitled to these positions and until this sense of entitlement is gratified, Ugwuanyi has not performed well. This thinking is natural but takes some sort of extra human dimension of understanding to appreciate what His Excellency is doing, something that should earn him commendations; that should make the Nsukka man proud, for their son blazing the trail in leadership and good governance devoid of nepotism.

This performance appraisal by entitlement also creates an insatiable demand for more projects without any acknowledgment of the ones done and the ones being done. At this second tenure when the cabinet reshuffle meant inadvertently seems to have met their self-entitled positions, they now turn to projects, demanding that because Ugwuanyi is from Nsukka Zone he should leave the other zones and concentrate state projects within Nsukka zone. They claim that the essence of rotation of power within the party is for whoever becomes the governor to face his zone. Such an unheard-of level of incredulity is laughable.

Unfortunately, some of those given to this wrong appraisal tool fell into the hands of political hawks who had thought to use them to diminish Ugwuanyi’s performances and create a sense of poor performance in the people.

When they cry for one thing and you point them to that for which they cried, they would cry more for another. Before now it was a case of no roads but when you point them to the preponderance of roads constructed, reconstructed and the ones being reconstructed across the length and breadth of the Nsukka zone, they would cling to hospitals. You point them to the upgrade of general hospitals at Nsukka and at the various zones of the state, as well as the ESUT medical college being relocated to Nsukka, they would cling to schools and ask that all the institutions in Enugu be relocated to Nsukka. When you draw their attention to the relocation of the Faculty of Agriculture of the Enugu State Polytechnic Iwolo to Nsukka, they would tell you that is not a university of Agriculture. When you also draw their attention to the stadium being built at Nsukka they tell you that is not an airport.

Demands are made insatiably to ridiculous ends. Their abyss of entitlement is bottomless and swallows all met demands insatiably, thereby rendering its hawkers ingrates. This is a sign of the beast of self to which we refer as the bane of good governance?

On the other hand, some sponsored critics from the Awgu axis are crying over what they call the Nsukkanisation of Enugu State. To them, everything in Enugu State has been Nsukkanized( whatever that means). This insincere cry meant to curry favor for the inordinate plans to truncate the tradition of zoning of the governorship seat within the PDP in order to satisfy the ambition of one man elicited this allegation. Meanwhile, Nsukka people are crying wolf. It seems His Excellency is torn between the devil and the deep blue sea if not that he clearly knows his onions and would not pander to such false claims.

True achievement evaluation should be founded on the whole and not on the part, for the part cannot be greater than the whole. This sense of entitlement and nepotistic cry for the part to be made bigger than the whole are poor assessment or appraisal criteria for true governance.

Caveat Emptor!

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Presidency Refutes Afenifere’s Deceitful Statement on President Bola Tinubu’s Midterm:

Published

4 days ago

June 5, 2025

The Gleamer

Chief Sunday Dare

The statement from a factional Afenifere group raises serious concerns about a penchant and deliberate attempt to find faults and trade in deceit instead of objectivity. The group has found it challenging to accept that under the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s comeback story is firmly underway.

The rebellious Afenifere claims that President Bola Tinubu’s administration’s performance over the past two years has witnessed a regression in human development, economic mismanagement, and democratic backsliding.

This is a jaundiced view, echoing the view of opposition politicians, one of whom the group supported in the 2023 election.

A balanced assessment based on available data reveals a more objective and progressive picture, with significant achievements amid the challenges expected from a country like Nigeria with decades-old problems.

Beyond its confounding conclusions based on prejudice, the statement raises the following issues. With the ensuing point-by-point clarification, it will become clear that the group’s position is neither grounded in facts nor logic.

Economic Reforms and Their Impact

The factional Afenifere’s claim that Tinubu’s economic reforms, particularly the removal of fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, have led to “unmitigated sufferings” and “economic deforms” seeks to draw attention to some of the challenges but overlooks the macroeconomic gains. The removal of the fuel subsidy, announced on May 29, 2023, saved the government over $10 billion in 2023 alone, reducing fiscal strain and redirecting funds to other sectors. Unifying the foreign exchange market and the naira’s floatation aimed to address distortions in the currency market, boosted foreign reserves to $38.1 billion by 2024 and achieved a trade surplus of N18.86 trillion for the country.

Under the Tinubu administration, Nigeria’s annual inflation rate fell to 23.71% in April 2025 from 24.23% in the prior month. Food inflation, the most significant component of the inflation basket, remained elevated but moderated to 21.26% from 21.79%

While these figures indicate stabilisation, the immediate impact on ordinary Nigerians is not lost. The government’s cash transfer programme, which provides funds to the poorest households and benefits over 5.7 million households, is a credible outreach.

However, dismissing the twin policies as “unforced errors” ignores the unsustainable nature of the previous subsidy regime and multiple exchange rate systems, which were draining public finances. A more balanced critique would acknowledge the necessity of reform while emphasising the need for better-targeted social safety nets.

As of today, the Tinubu administration has recorded over 900,000 beneficiaries of the Presidential Loan and Grant Scheme, over 600,000 beneficiaries of the Students’ Loan Scheme, NELFUND, N70,000 minimum wage, NYSC monthly stipend increase from N33,000 to N77,000, Free CNG kits distributed to thousands of commercial drivers across Nigeria with CNG buses rolled out in partnership with state governments, leading to a significant drop in transport costs. The administration also recorded over $10 Billion FX debt cleared, Federal account allocation to states growing by 60%, enabling more local development projects, N50 billion released to end the perennial ASUU strikes, and over 1,000 PHCs revitalised nationwide with an additional 5,500 undergoing upgrades.

The administration also disbursed N75 Billion in palliative funds to states and LGs for food distribution and cash transfers, over 150,000 youths are being trained in software development, tech support and data analysis under the 3 Million Technical Talent (3MTT) project, over 20,000 affordable housing units under construction under the renewed Hope cities program launched across Nigeria, N200 Billion in Loans to farmers and agro-processors. Other gains: over two million Nigerians are now connected to new digital infrastructure and community broadband hubs and public WiFi projects, 3.84% GDP growth in Q4 2024 (highest in 3 years), over $50 Billion in new FDI Commitments, Net Foreign Exchange Reserves up from $3.99 Billion (2023) to $23.11 Billion (2024), over $8 Billion in new oil and gas investments unlocked, and over $800 million realised in processing investments in solid minerals in 2024 and inflation as at April was down to 23.17%.

It is now pertinent to inquire from opposition leaders about alternative strategies they would propose in contrast to this administration’s extensive list of significant achievements currently benefiting Nigerians in real-time.

Cost of Governance and the Oronsaye Report

The assertion that the Tinubu administration has failed to implement the Oronsaye Report and instead increased governance costs is inaccurate. The Oronsaye Report, which recommends the merger or scrapping of government agencies to reduce expenditure, has not been fully implemented and has drawn criticisms; it must be noted, however, that the administration has made some efforts to improve fiscal discipline. The fiscal deficit was reduced from 5.4% of GDP in 2023 to 3.0% in 2024, and the debt service-to-revenue ratio dropped from nearly 100% in 2022 to under 40% by 2024. The government also recorded over N6 trillion in revenue in Q1 2025, partly due to removing Ways & Means financing and fuel subsidies. These steps demonstrate fiscal prudence and will eventually translate into immediate, tangible relief for citizens. The administration is working earnestly to address these optics and prioritise cost-cutting measures, including implementing the Oronsaye Report, to restore public trust.

Allegations of Prebendalism and Corruption

Afenifere’s claim that the administration favours “the privileged and connected” through corrupt palliative distribution and mega-project allocations is questionable. Reports of palliatives being mismanaged or distributed through unverified channels have no doubt surfaced, raising concerns about transparency.

The administration has taken steps against corruption, such as suspending Humanitarian Affairs Minister Betta Edu in January 2024 over alleged fund diversion, signalling some commitment to accountability. Critics may argue that more systemic action is needed, but dismissing all the efforts as propaganda overlooks these initial steps.

Without abusing Presidential powers, the administration is working on expediting action on all pending investigations and prosecution of corrupt practices. At the same time, critical agencies are collating credible evidence on ongoing corruption litigations. It must, however, be noted that in 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) secured a record-breaking 4,111 convictions, marking its most successful year since its inception. They recovered over N364 billion and significant amounts in foreign currencies, including $214.5 Million, $54,318.64, and 31,265 Euros.

The EFCC achieved its single most significant asset recovery in 2025, with the final forfeiture of an Abuja estate measuring 150,500 square meters and containing 725 units of duplexes and other apartments. The EFCC concluded the final forfeiture and handed the estate to the Ministry of Housing in May 2025.

Democratic Concerns and Centralisation

Afenifere’s accusation that the Tinubu administration is pursuing a “one-party state totalitarianism” and undermining democratic institutions is unsupported and lacks merit. The claim of neutralising the legislature and judiciary is also a false alarm.

The public should note that the Supreme Court has upheld opposition victories in states like Kano, Plateau, and Abia, suggesting judicial independence. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has faced criticism for allegedly appointing individuals said to be ruling party affiliates, but no evidence confirms these appointees are card-carrying APC members.

The allegation that the Tinubu government cracks down on peaceful protesters is primarily unfounded. It is a regurgitated rhetoric deployed under previous administrations as a reflection of broader challenges in Nigeria’s democratic culture.

The issue of the State Police is more complex than the oversimplified approach of the factional Afenifere’s statement. Every administration policy is subject to security impact assessment before implementation, and there is a difference between the State Police being widely advocated and a Police State that critics may blame the Federal Government for if implemented without caution.

Security and Social Welfare

Contrary to the impression created, the administration’s security record is impressive. Over 13,500 terrorists, bandits, and insurgents have been neutralised and 7,000 arrested in the past year, though there is still some news of abductions and violent attacks. The administration’s proactive response to security-related matters has paved the way for more farmers to return to their farms, impacting food production and supply.

The administration also embarked on agricultural initiatives, including tractor procurement, fertiliser distribution, and increased mechanisation.

The government has also not relented on its Regional Development drive as the administration succeeded in establishing Development Commissions across 6 Geopolitical zones (South West, North West, North Central. North East, South East and the Niger Delta) to empower communities and accelerate developments.

Political Climate and 2027 Elections
The claims of government-sponsored conflicts within opposition parties lack concrete evidence and should be ignored.

Economic reforms are undoubtedly laying the foundation for long-term stability, with GDP growth at 4.6% in Q4 2024 and a Fitch B credit rating upgrade as evidence. Moody’s Investors Service’s latest upgrade of Nigeria’s rating from Caa1 to B3, with a Stable Outlook, indicates that the Tinubu administration is on the right path.

The government is not oblivious to some discontent and difficult times among Nigerians. There is an urgency to deliver more tangible results, which is guaranteed given the impressive performance of the administration in just two years.

Afenifere’s statement saw the cup as half empty. On the contrary, it’s half full. Under President Tinubu’s administration, some of Nigeria’s hydra-headed problems are being tackled headlong.

The administration has achieved fiscal improvements, such as reduced deficits and increased revenues, which will eventually translate into meaningful microeconomic relief for most Nigerians in the short term, even as the government moves to address these issues with greater empathy and transparency.

The administration’s demonstrable priorities are securing the nation, fixing the economy, and improving human capital development.

Responsible citizens and political leaders must work collaboratively with the administration to address the challenges and counter disinformation, as highlighted in the admonition against fake news and deceptive AI videos.

Under President Tinubu’s leadership, Nigeria is turning the corner. From stabilising the naira and curbing inflation to reducing debt burdens and

expanding access to education and health, the administration delivers bold reforms with actual results. With improved security, regional inclusion, anti-corruption measures, and institutional rebuilding, Nigeria’s comeback story is not yet complete — but it is firmly underway.

– Sunday Dare is the Special Adviser to Mr. President on Media and Public Communications.

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