I spent the last few days trying hard to understand the ongoing rebasing of the Nigerian economy starting with the rebasing of the consumer price index. I watched the statistician general of the country explain on television that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which measures the rate of change in prices of goods and commodities declined to 24.48 per cent year on year in January. Nonetheless, the Director-General of the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) added that this does not mean prices have declined from the previous rate of 34.80 per cent which was the case up till the end of December last year. It simply means the numbers have been rebased from 2009 to 2024, brilliant explanation, I guess. To reassure the sceptics, he told us all countries regularly rebase their economies by updating the reference year used to gauge price levels in the country and by essentially changing the basket of goods and services used to measure inflation, to better reflect current consumer spending patterns and ensure the inflation data accurately reflects the economy’s current state. It was reassuring to know that all countries tinker with their numbers, not to lie with statistics, but to make their numbers look better and more real so let’s leave it at that, after all, the people do know how much suffering they are undergoing from inflation.
As I was trying to understand rebasing, I did feel that my country was being debased when I heard the Chief of Defence Staff complain of being denied a visa to visit Canada to watch the Invictus games. I thought that was supposed to happen to only ordinary citizens like myself especially when I heard the National Security Adviser, Nuhu Ribadu, publicly declare in anger “To hell with Canada”. I did wonder however whether a nicer, more quiet diplomatic way could not have been found to address the issue. Maybe not, what else could we have gossiped about during the week.
Well, there were other items. The announcement by the American Congressman, Scott Perry that USAID has been sponsoring terrorist organisations including Boko Haram in Nigeria was sobering. It is well known that decades ago, the American government sponsored Islamic terrorist organisations in Afghanistan and other countries so there would be no surprise if they were repeat offenders. The problem however is that it is very difficult to tell when the regime is being truthful or is engaging in presenting “alternative facts”, the new word the Trump former Adviser Kellyanne Conway coined for lies in 2017. What is known is that the regime is determined to dismantle USAID and heaping all the negatives in the world on them at this time is a good tactic to erode their reputation. I will wait and see.
ALSO READ AGRA, Green Climate Fund partner on $105m food loss reduction initiative
Maybe the most debasing event of the week was the storming by security agents of the Lagos State House of Assembly to take sides in the ongoing internal strife following the impeachment of the once-powerful Speaker of the Assembly. I don’t know enough about Lagos politics to decipher which of the Abuja-based powers had the strength and opportunity to send federal forces to Lagos to support their faction. Nonetheless, it is always distressing to see the abuse of federal power as it is weaponised to interfere with and mess up local-level politics.
Yesterday, the Senate plenary was temporarily disrupted after Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, representing Kogi Central Senatorial District, protested the relocation of her seat without prior notice. The session, presided over by Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, was underway when Chief Whip Senator Mohammed Ali Monguno raised a point of order, drawing attention to what he described as Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan’s “improper sitting position.” Before Monguno could conclude his point, Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan engaged in a heated exchange, demanding explanations for the sudden change of her seat. The situation escalated into a shouting match, prompting the intervention of the Sergeant-At-Arms, who attempted to restore order. Trust the defiant Senator, she would always fight for her rights. As is his usual strong-arm tactics towards her, Senate President Akpabio became furious and ordered the Sergeant-At-Arms to take Natasha out of the chamber, but the Kogi Central Senator remained adamant, accusing Akpabio of deliberately silencing her voice and asserting her right to fully represent her people. Fight on Senator.
Also yesterday, over three decades after the annulment of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, General Ibrahim Babangida, the former military president, has finally told his side of the story. In a memoir launched yesterday – ‘A Journey in Service’, said he was in Katsina when the annulment of the election, won by MKO Abiola of the Social Democratic Party (SDP), was announced by the press secretary of his second-in-command without his knowledge or permission. So now we know it was not the fault of the boss, his subaltern was the guilty one. Babangida, who did a national broadcast on June 24, 1993, to officially announce the annulment of the election, said Abacha had become a major force in a “factionalised” military and it was difficult to remove him when he stepped down from power. The June 12 election has always been considered a missed opportunity for the military to redeem their image of deliberately and “endlessly” prolonging the transition process so that they could continue in power while pretending to be working hard to transfer power to elected civilians.
In a series of well-planned trickery, the journey to the June 12 annulment had begun two days before D-Day when a judge granted an injunction stopping the electoral management body from going ahead with the election. A group known as the Association to Better Nigeria (ABN), led by Arthur Nzeribe, had filed the lawsuit. Babangida was said to have admitted in the memoir, published by Bookcraft Ltd, that Nzeribe was close to him, but denied supporting the activities of ABN. The Babangida story is that on June 23, he left Abuja for Katsina to commiserate with the Yar’Adua family over the death of their patriarch, Musa Yar’Adua, former minister of Lagos affairs and father of Umaru, the late Nigerian president who died in office in 2007. It was while he was giving his condolences that it was whispered to him that the elections had been annulled. Sign. Is a military dictator, not a dictator? And to think we had to wait thirty years to hear this story. Sigh.
