G NEWS SPLASH: NIGERIA RANKED AMONGST CORRUPT COUNTRIES IN THE WORLD

• As Nigeria drops to lowest point on corruption index since 2013 • Buhari deserves credit for diminishing corruption, says Presidency • ‘War against corruption requires participation of all citizens’ Transparency International (TI) has, again, passed a damning verdict on Nigeria’s anti-corruption war, ranking the country 149th on its yearly Corruption Perception Index (CPI) after it picked 25 points, the worst since 2013. With the rating, Nigeria dropped three points from its last (2019) ranking when it sat 146th on the table. The 2020’s index was co-led by New Zealand and Denmark after they polled 88 points individually. They were followed by Finland, Switzerland and Singapore (a country that emerged from a stinky official corruption history under the late Lee Kuan Yew) in that order.In the latest assessment, Nigeria picked the same point with Cameroon, Mozambique, Madagascar and Tajikistan for the 149th position out of 179 countries surveyed. Nigeria ranks ahead of Somalia, which sits at the bottom, South Sudan, Sudan, Congo, Chad, Burundi, Guinea Bissau and a few other African countries. It, however, falls short of its peers such as Angola, Egypt, Algeria, Kenya and many others. Stakeholders have described the latest rating as an open testimony of President Muhammadu Buhari’s inability to tame corruption in fulfillment of his electioneering promises ab out six year ago. The Centre for Democracy and Development, Civil Society Legislative and Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), the Chartered Institute of Taxation of Nigeria (CITN), Budgit Nigeria and other stakeholders are worried that the government’s inability to stem the tide is pushing the country to the extreme. They have also noted that corruption has continued to manifest in the handling of COVID-19 relief disbursement, appointments and promotions in public offices, growing bribery and extortion in the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), lack of commitment to framework that would enable anti-graft agencies to succeed, poor justice system and lack of commitment to implementing reports on cases of corruption by public officials. President of the CITN, Dame Gladys Olajumoke Simplice, told The Guardian that rising cases of official corruption “makes the jobs of professionals very difficult” and the investment market unattractive to foreigners. She said “it is most unfortunate and sad” that the government appears helpless. “There is no sanction for wrong doing. If people know that if they steal N1 billion they will be able to bribe their ways through with N500 million and get away with the balance, they will continue to steal. This is taxpayers’ money. How do you then encourage the people to pay their taxes?” she asked. Also speaking, a former Vice-President of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), Monday Ubani, described the TI ranking as a true reflection of the government’s handling of pending corruption cases. He recalled that the government has failed to take a firm and fair position on the case involving the former Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ibrahim Magu. Stressing that it makes no difference if the country agrees with the rating or not, Ubani said: “TI assessed all the previous administrations. When the All Progressives Congress (APC) was in opposition, it agreed with the rating. So, they must agree with it this time.” The Executive Director of CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, referencing data from the World Bank, said impacts of the prevailing challenges could force Nigeria into a decade of economic backwardness and where it was in the 1980s. Rafsanjani, who said the government has been tackling civil society organisations instead of addressing the deteriorating corruption in the country, stressed that growing cases of kidnapping, standing at 2,860 between 2019 and 2020, 27.1 per cent unemployment rate and other issues are direct consequences of corruption. A Senior Officer with CDD, Austin Aigbe, noted that there is a lack of transparency in the emergency response of government on the COVID-19, adding that the processes were fraught with “incessant flouting of procurement guidelines, hoarding of relief materials and diversion of items for personal use.” He also raised alarm over growing nepotism in public service appointments and promotions, pointing to the controversies that followed the decision of the National Judicial Council (NJC) when eight of 33 judges recommended for appointment were children and relatives of current and retired justices of the Supreme or Appeal courts as a classic case of high-level corruption. Commercialisation of employment into public offices, extortion and other issues were also, according to him, reasons Nigeria’s corruption perception is deteriorating. Manager, Open Government and Institutional Partnership, BudgIT Nigeria, Tolulope Agunloye, lamented the inability of the administration to stop corruption in the security sector.He decried the bribery and extortion in the Police, citing the recent protest against police brutality as direct implications of decades of corruption in the force. A public policy expert and Principal Partner at Nextier, Patrick Okigbo, said the country is not yet ready to fight corruption. “When we are ready to fight corruption, many of the pragmatic ideas to adopt are well documented,” Okigbo told The Guardian. A development economist, Dr. Chiwuike Uba, described the cost of rising corruption is “immeasurable”. “It has economic, social, financial, and even cultural and spiritual implications,” he said. Uba, who is also the Board Chairman of Amaka Chiwuike-Uba Foundation (ACUF), continued: “The financial costs include the direct stealing of money that would have been deployed to the provision of public goods and services – quality and accessible healthcare, good education, human capital development, good roads, and other facilities.

G GLOBAL INFO:THE WAY YOUR BRAIN FUNCTIONS MAKE YOU DIFFER FROM OTHERS

Humans have evolved a unique form of intelligence, with cognitive complexity unseen in other species. This has been the secret behind our agricultural, scientific and technological progress. It has let us dominate a planet and understand vast amounts about the universe. But it has also brought us to the brink of catastrophe: climate change looms and a mass extinction is already under way, yet there is little sign of a concerted effort to change our ways. Our troubles could be compounded by the fact that human genetic diversity is abysmally low. “One small group of chimpanzees has more genetic diversity than the entire human species,” says Michael Graziano of Princeton University. It’s not unthinkable that a global disaster could wipe us out. For this, we have an awkward double-act to blame. Metzinger argues that we have reached this point because our intellectual prowess must still work alongside hardwired primitive traits. “It is cognitive complexity, but without compassion and flexibility in our motivational structure,” says Metzinger. In other words, we are still motivated by some rather basic instincts, such as greed and jealousy, and not by a desire for global solidarity, empathy or rationality. And it’s unclear whether we will evolve the necessary social skills in time.

G GLOBAL INFO:THE HISTORY OF EUROPE

In the Iberian Peninsula the impetus of the counteroffensive against the Moors carried the Portuguese to probe the West African coastline and the Spanish to attempt the expulsion of Islam from the western Mediterranean. In the last years of the 15th century, Portuguese navigators established the sea route to India and within a decade had secured control of the trade routes in the Indian Ocean and its approaches. Mercantile interests, crusading and missionary zeal, and scientific curiosity were intermingled as the motives for this epic achievement. Similar hopes inspired Spanish exploitation of the discovery by Christopher Columbus of the Caribbean outposts of the American continent in 1492. The Treaties of Tordesillas and Saragossa in 1494 and 1529 defined the limits of westward Spanish exploration and the eastern ventures of Portugal. The two states acting as the vanguard of the expansion of Europe had thus divided the newly discovered sea lanes of the world between them. By the time of the Treaty of Saragossa, when Portugal secured the exclusion of Spain from the East Indies, Spain had begun the conquest of Central and South America. In 1519, the year in which Ferdinand Magellan embarked on the westward circumnavigation of the globe, Hernán Cortés launched his expedition against Mexico. The seizure of Peru by Francisco Pizarro and the enforcement of Portuguese claims to Brazil completed the major steps in the Iberian occupation of the continent. By the middle of the century, the age of the conquistadores was replaced by an era of colonization, based both on the procurement of precious metal by Indian labour and on pastoral and plantation economies using imported African slaves. The influx of bullion into Europe became significant in the late 1520s, and from about 1550 it began to produce a profound effect upon the economy of the Old World.

G NEWS SPLASH:SOUTH-WEST GOVERNORS CONCLUDE TO GET RID OF HERDSMEN

Rising from a meeting with South-West governors in Akure, yesterday, the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) agreed to work with governments in the region and security agencies to curb insecurity. The meeting followed the tension generated by a seven-day eviction notice issued by Ondo State Government to unauthorised herdsmen to quit the state’s forest reserves, which expired on Sunday. South-West governors in attendance were Dr. Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti State), Seyi Makinde (Oyo State), Gboyega Oyetola (Osun State) and Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State.Other dignitaries included security chiefs in the South-West region led by the AIG Zone 11, Olufemi Agunbiade, former Deputy Governor of Osun State, Senator Iyiola Omisore; MACBAN state and national officers and others. They met to find lasting solutions to incessant killings, kidnapping, and clashes between herdsmen and farmers in the region. Governors of Jigawa State, Muhammad Abubakar and his Kebbi State counterpart, Abubakar Bagudu were also present at the meeting while the Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu and the Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun were absent.In a communiqué issued after the meeting, the governors and MACBAN agreed that the order of the Ondo State Governor was misconstrued and misrepresented and that he only ordered those occupying the forest reserves in Ondo State illegally to quit. It added: “Criminals should be apprehended and punished, no matter their origin, class or status. Security agencies have been trying to stem the tide of criminality in the country but must step up their efforts in the fight. “There is the need to build partnership for peace and security with MACBAN and jointly wage war against criminality. No one had sent anyone away from any state or region but all hands must be on deck to fight criminality.”The governors and other stakeholders affirmed that MACBAN should embrace and be committed to modern breeding process by creating grazing reserves, practising ranching to prevent cattle roaming about. According to them, there is need to set up a standing committee in each state where there is none comprising farmers, MACBAN and the government representatives to ensure synergy and result. NORTHERN Elders Forum (NEF) has, in its reaction, advised President Muhammadu Buhari to meet with state governors to douse tension in the country. Director, Publicity and Advocacy, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, made the appeal in a statement made available to journalists yesterday in Abuja. The forum noted that events in South-West were assuming national dimensions and needed national solutions.The elders appealed to Nigerians to exercise great restraint in their comments and actions in these trying times and urged leaders at all levels to contribute to solutions to developing threats. CHIEF Olu Falae, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), whose farmland was attacked a number of times by herdsmen, decried sentiments attached to the issue of herdsmen/farmers’ rift across the nation by the Federal Government. “The Federal Government reacts to cattle issues as if the cattle belong to the FG. Cattle belong to the Fulani and the Federal Government is not Fulani. They should be reminded that it is Federal Government of Nigeria not of Fulani of about 10 million people. “So, the cattle belong to private individuals not to the government, what’s their interest? When cattle and the Fulani went to my farm to destroy it, why didn’t they show concern? It is absolute nonsense.” Falae, who was kidnapped by Fulani herdsmen on his 77th birthday in September 2015, said the FG should assist the herdsmen to set up ranches in the north, “where cattle is indigenous. Let them run as private business without harassing anybody and anybody harassing them.” He said: “The time has come for Nigeria to do what the rest of the world has done, which is to move away from this ancient free grazing of cattle and move into modern cattle ranching which is what the whole world is now doing.”

G NEWS SPLASH:COURT DROPPED CASE ON FOUR #ENDOFSARS PROTESTERS IN NIGERIA

A court in Nigeria’s capital, Abuja, on Monday, discharged four out of six protesters arrested in November for demonstrating outside the National Assembly. Last year, Africa’s most populous country was swept by weeks of widespread protests sparked by anger over brutality from the police’s loathed Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). The government disbanded the unit and pledged reforms but still struggled to contain the largest challenge to Nigeria’s governing elite in decades. The six defendants were arrested on November 8, 2020, and charged with unlawful assembly.Defence lawyer Henry Akwaji requested the case be dismissed because the prosecution team was absent from court on Monday. The court agreed and dismissed the case due to a lack of diligent prosecution.Defendants, Olutosin Adeniji, Abdusalam Zubarur, Paul Akinwumi, and Devour Chomo are discharged and the complaint against them dismissed,” magistrate Musa Eneye ruled. The remaining two, Yasidu Bashiru and Kabiru Garzali, were absent from court due to illness. The case against them was adjourned until March 24.

G NEWS SPLASH: YORUBA ELDERS CONDEMNED THE BURNING OF SARKIN FULANI'S RESIDENCE

Elders in the South West under the aegis of Coalition of Oduduwa Elders have condemned Friday’s attack on Sarkin Fulani in Oyo State, Alhaji Salihu AbdulKadir and his family, where houses and 11 cars were burnt and livestock killed. The elders, who stated their opposition to the action, attributed it to some criminals, led by a secessionist, Sunday Adeyemo also known as Sunday Igboho, and said the development was inimical to the country’s unity, which they stand for.Expressing shock that such ugly development could happen in Yoruba land, which they noted had been at the forefront of a united Nigeria, the elders tasked security agencies to immediately swing into action to arrest the culprits, so they can face the wrath of the country’s law. In the statement signed in Abuja, yesterday, by the National Coordinator, Dr. Tunde Aremu, and National Secretary, Barr. (Mrs.) Folake Ajasin, respectively, the elders said the action did not represent the Yoruba people. The statement partly read: “We received with utmost shock and disbelief the burning down of the residence of Sarkin Fulani, Oyo State, his livestock and 11 cars, by some suspected criminals in Yoruba land, allegedly instigated by one Sunday Adeyemo, otherwise known as Igboho. This action is unacceptable to us. It is criminal, barbaric, and uncivilized, and we call for the immediate arrest and prosecution of Sunday Igboho and all the perpetrators of this dastardly and unwarranted act.“While we acknowledge the criminal activities of some suspected Fulani herdsmen in the state, we must state that the attack of the Sarkin Fulani Oyo is madness taken too far. “The Sarkin Fulani has lived in Oyo State for a very long time and has been known to be very peaceful. He has spoken publicly and privately against the criminal activities of some of their deviant youths and tasked security agencies to go after them. The Sarkin Fulani Oyo deserves commendation for his actions against the few criminals masquerading as herdsmen in Oyo and not this kind of evil and injustice meted on him by some criminals in our region… “We call on our Fulani and Northern brothers not to see this as an act of Yoruba people, but a clear act of criminality perpetrated by some misguided youths that will be brought to book in no time…”

G SPORT: ABRAHAM'S HAT-TRICK UPGRADED CHELSEA TO FA CUP

Tammy Abraham eased the pressure on under-fire Frank Lampard as the Chelsea striker’s hat-trick sealed a 3-1 win against Luton in the FA Cup fourth round on Sunday. In just his second season in charge at Chelsea, Lampard is fighting to avoid the sack after a wretched run in the Premier League. An embarrassing FA Cup exit against Championship opposition would have pushed Lampard closer to the axe, but Abraham’s clinical display gave his manager some much-needed breathing space.Abraham scored twice in the first half before Jordan Clark got one back for Luton after yet another blunder from Chelsea keeper Kepa Arrizabalaga. Luton gave Lampard some nervous moments after that, before Abraham finally sent Chelsea through to a last 16 tie at second tier Barnsley. Lampard will know that Chelsea, who were FA Cup runners-up last season, are still a long way from the finished article. One of his biggest headaches has been the poor form of Timo Werner and there was more bad news for the Germany striker as he missed a late penalty.After notoriously demanding Blues owner Roman Abramovich bankrolled a £200 million spending spree in the close-season, Lampard was expected to mount a title challenge. But a dismal run of five defeats in their last eight Premier League games has left Chelsea languishing in ninth place. Amid talk that Lampard will be sacked if Chelsea don’t finish in the top four or fall completely out of contention, former Paris Saint-Germain boss Thomas Tuchel and ex-Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri have been linked with his job. Clever Abraham Lampard insisted this week that he is a “fighter” capable of dragging Chelsea back into contention for the Champions League places.But as snow blanketed west London, leaving the Stamford Bridge pitch with a white dusting at kick-off, the potentially treacherous conditions must have alarmed Lampard, who made seven changes from the midweek defeat at Leicester Standing huddled in a thick winter coat and hat on the touchline, Lampard’s fears were initially assuaged as Chelsea made the perfect start. Abraham was denied by Luton keeper Simon Sluga and Kurt Zouma ahead over before Chelsea scored in the 11th minute. A quick throw caught Luton napping, with Nathan Jones’ side complaining that two balls were briefly on the pitch at the same time.Chelsea took advantage of Luton’s loss of concentration and Werner’s deflected cross reached Abraham, who slotted a composed low finish into the far corner from 10 yards.Abraham’s movement was too clever for Luton and the striker netted again six minutes later. Reece James hooked a cross into the Luton area and Abraham got in front of his marker to power an unstoppable header over Sluga for his 10th goal of the season. Luton were gifted a lifeline in the 30th minute when James Bree crossed towards Clark and his scuffed shot crept past Kepa’s woeful attempted save.