By Prof. Jibrin Ibrahim

The Strike by the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress set for this week has been postponed. The labour unions were ready to go on unlimited strike following the inability or unwillingness of the Government to introduce significant palliatives that would assuage the intense suffering of workers confronted by a cost of living crisis that has made feeding, transport, medical care, etc. almost impossible for the working class. When I listened to President Tinubu’s Independence Day address, the main message I heard was that he is aware of the suffering of the people and is acting to address it. What workers are saying is that they do not see any evidence yet of what is being done to alleviate their suffering. It is not clear what deal was done with the labour aristocrats leading the unions to stop the strike for the moment but the reality is that if the cost of living crisis is not addressed in a substantive way very soon, the explosion would be coming and it may not even be from wage earners.

The World Bank says say that only 12% of the working class earn a formal wage in Nigeria. The vast majority are farmers or informal workers who have no unions, voice, or structure to articulate their interests and they are even more affected by the cost of living crisis.

I was listening to a radio programme interviewing keke and motorcycle taxi operators and their stories were pathetic. Essentially, they cannot increase their charges at the same rate as the increase in fuel cost for the simple reason that their clients actually have less money than they used to have so when the rates went up they simply ran out of clients. They therefore have to reduce their margins to the lowest possible level which means they often are unable to even replace the cost of fuel the implication of which is that they find themselves operating at a loss. They describe every ride as a challenge as clients haggle, beg, and cajole them to reduce the fares. Fights are also on the increase as they take clients who have no money and still take a ride that is settled by a fight or clients running away. As if all these are not enough, the authorities are after them and seizing their vehicles to completely drive them out of business. Their woes are never heard by the constituted authority because they have no organizational structure and no voice. As you go through the various occupations in which poor Nigerians hustle for survival in our cities every day, the stories are similar. The informal economy is crumbling and hustling to survive is getting tougher.

The stories in the rural areas are worse. Gangs of armed criminal enterprises have turned the kidnapping of farmers into a very lucrative activity for the warlords. When a farmer is kidnapped, it is not only his family that is in trouble. All relations are taxed to make up the ransom payment. As most people have no cash, they have to sell their assets – animals, land, and petty possessions to get the cash, often at giveaway prices. Kidnapping is therefore deepening rural poverty. Many farmers have given up farming altogether and moved to towns living as destitute. Others decide to negotiate with the gangs and pay protection tax to be allowed to farm. These ones are also not finding it easy because they pay so much upfront that have no more resources to buy fertilizers and make something reasonable from the farms. The pressure on more and more of the youth is to join the gangs. As the gangs grow larger, there are fewer farmers to roquette so the gangs would need to move to the major roads and cities and smoke out the middle classes from their homes.

As these miseries deepen, Nigerians are also very concerned about the politics of the country. The drama played out over President Tinubu’s certificate saga this week is bringing shame on Nigerians. Why should there be such profound questions about fake and true certificates, gender identity, and possible identity theft around our President? Why are we unable to produce a political class composed of people with clear traceable itineraries and integrity? Meanwhile, the concern of Nigerians is the capacity of the judiciary to deliver justice in the numerous cases where power and money appear to determine outcomes rather than truth. My fear is that the combination of suffering from economic woes and injustice from the courts might tilt the balance in provoking explosive anger from the people. The judiciary should know that it is itself on trial in the people’s court.

The distance between Nigeria’s irresponsibly affluent political class and the people has become extremely wide. They are having the best times of their lives at a time in which even the middle class is becoming pauperized and forced to sell its assets to survive. As Allister Cooke, the late BBC letter writer from America once explained, POWER CORRUPTS AND ABSOLUTE POWER IS ABSOLUTELY DELICIOUS. The problem will be when it bursts there will be no winners. Nigeria’s ruling class is incapable of acting in its enlightened self-interest so we might just have to wait for the explosion. What is clear is that the social contract between the people and the ruling class is broken, public trust has disappeared and transactional politics is approaching its limits. If someone in government happens to come across this column, think about it and consider the reality that the immediate self-interest of those in power cannot in a country like Nigeria be the sole purpose of government. The security and welfare of the people is the constitutional purpose of government.

By Abiodun Komolafe

In a nationwide address last Monday, President Bola Tinubu announced some palliatives to
mitigate the impact of the high cost of living brought about by the fuel subsidy removal.
Great speech! Excellent delivery! So, kudos to Mr President! However, a section of Nigerians
frowned at the speech because ‘it was one-sided’.

According to this group, the president only
pleaded with the masses to persevere without telling Nigerians what the elite and the privileged
clique would be sacrificing to make Nigeria great again. Though Nigerians have never doubted
Tinubu’s capacity to be to Nigerians what Prophet Elijah was to the widow of Zarephath, they
had expected him to talk about, say, a certain percentage of the emoluments and the privileges of
the ruling class – beginning with the president, to the governors, the judiciary and other
politically-exposed persons – that would be going into a certain purse in favour of Nigeria’s
rescue mission. “The president spoke eloquently to appease the masses; but what about the ‘elite
of the elite’ who put us in this situation? Won’t there be a probe?”

Well, it is no longer news that the fuel subsidy removal has opened up many wounds, including
the worms of scams and inefficiency in Nigeria’s governance system. All the same, that Nigeria
is in dire need of an escape route from her present financial and socioeconomic predicament
cannot be overstated. A situation where annual budgets are hugely dependent on foreign
borrowings, always running on alarming deficits; and where monetary authorities only present
unrealistic balance sheets is not healthy for a country that’s already on tenterhooks. Sad that our
economic expertise no more generates predicted results, and Nigerians continue to gnash their
teeth in deeper pains. Nigeria’s economy needs urgent surgery; otherwise, the future is in for a
serious mess.

Tinubu is known as a revenue driver. He knows all the tricks in the business of governance. I
have also argued elsewhere that Zacchaeus Adelabu, his Special Adviser on Revenue, is a man
of unimpeachable pedigree. I stand by my words! As fate would have it, the Oyo State-born
technocrat is the man chosen by the president to help him find reasonable solutions to that very
important aspect of governance. The bitter truth is that the task before Adedeji and his team is as
enormous as it is unenviable. But while our president expects Nigerians to empathetically
persevere in the face of the agonizing pains, he also needs to bear in mind that, until the
superrich are prepared to play major roles in this cause, the troubling chapter of Nigeria’s history
will remain a tale too difficult to tell.

Living in penury amidst plenty! Nigeria is in trying times and all eyes can see it! According to
the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), nearly 133m Nigerians are multi-dimensionally poor.
Of this figure, 86.1m (i.e., 65%) live in the North while the rest (i.e., 35%) live in the South.
Approximately 70% of Nigeria’s population is said to be living in the rural areas; yet, these areas
are home to 80% of poor people. The intensity of poverty in rural areas is also higher, at 41.9%,
compared to 36.9% in urban areas.

As if these are not enough, 4 out of 10 Nigerians are said to be experiencing monetary
deprivations but “more than 6 out of 10 are multi-dimensionally poor”. As at June 2023,

unemployment stood at 33.3%; underemployment at 22.8%; youth unemployment, 42.5%; and
youth underemployment, 22.0%.

Once upon a time in Nigeria’s recent history, the social media platforms were awash with the
videos of young men who, in their hundreds, were reportedly undergoing paramilitary training in
insurgency in selected camps. Unfortunately, the government of the day watched helplessly as
some misguided elements acted recklessly. Now, the chickens have come home to roost, with the
Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and the Eastern Security Network (ESN) as the culprits; and
Nigerians are living with the consequences. 

But Nigeria can’t continue like this! To get out of this mess, let there be a comprehensive and
sincere economic summit. Let the leakages in our revenue generation be fully identified and
solidly blocked. Let oil theft and smuggling be confronted with renewed vigour, without giving
room for any sacred cows. Beyond the rules of engagement associated with the destruction of
illegal refineries, let there be innovative ways through which seized vessels and their products
can add value to the sources of revenue for the country. From Ilesa in Osun State, to Maru in
Zamfara State, let all issues relating to illegal mining be decisively addressed and scapegoats
made, where necessary. Most importantly, let the roles of non-state actors in the protection of our
pipelines and mining sites be reviewed in the overall interest of Nigeria.

We need to fix our hospitals with adequate resources and cutting-edge medical technology that
will help patients to diagnose diseases and get healed. Agriculture (mechanized farming) and
food security must be vigorously pursued while education sector and skills acquisition
programmes must be adequately funded.

At the heart of economic growth is electricity supply. With a population of 223,804,632,
Nigeria’s power generation capacity is below 5,000 megawatts. South Africa, with a population
of 58,048,332, generates 63.28 megawatts while Egypt, with a population of 109,546,720, has
60.07 megawatts to her credit. So, how did Nigeria arrive at this pass? Queen Elizabeth of
England was once reported to have recommended an electric firm that would give Nigeria
sustainable power supply, instead of paying the $12 billion reduced debt, which the Olusegun
Obasanjo-led government said must be paid back as loans acquired by Nigeria. For reasons best
known to him, ‘Balogun Owu’ never agreed to the Queen’s proposal. Instead, he went on a
turbine-building expedition. And, since society couldn’t sanction him, the former president
started pontificating, never to be satisfied!

Wait a minute, why has Nigeria become a dumping ground for electric generators? Again, what
are the roles of estimated billings and what are the steps being taken by the government to put a
stop to this despicable act? Until these and other pertinent questions are answered, improvement
in electricity generation may continue to be a fantasy in Nigeria. Until all houses, even military
and public institutions are prepared to do the needful, there will be no stop to hike in electricity
tariffs.

According to experts in Tax Administration, tax evasion is a crime that can distort the overall
economic, political, and social systems of a country. Economically, it affects fair distribution of
wealth for the citizens. Socially, it creates different social groups motivated by tax evasion,

thereby leading to unfair and unhealthy competition. So, it is a criminal offence in the eye of the
law, and it is punishable by facing criminal charges bordering on money laundering.
In sane climes, tax evasion is another serious economic crime known as sabotage, which no law-
abiding citizen would like to commit. In the USA for example, former President Donald Trump
is still battling with it, in addition to several other offences hanging on his neck. But here in
Nigeria, the rich and the powerful are deliberately evading tax without proportionate
consequences. Starting with public institutions therefore, the focus should be on the rich while
the middle and lower classes are expected to key into 'pay-as-you-go.

Lastly, with the new drive to raise revenue by making individuals and companies to be corporate
responsible, fightback is imminent! Therefore, communication becomes of paramount
importance to enlighten and educate those concerned to make them responsible.
May the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world, grant us peace in Nigeria!

Komolafe writes in from Ijebu-Jesa, Osun State, Nigeria (ijebujesa@yahoo.co.uk)

Many organizations are seeking ways to offer their products and services to customers in an efficient way in order to save time, ease the processing of the orders and provide the highest quality of delivery as at the expected time.

One major opportunity that most start-ups are not taking advantage of is the availability of data in the public domain as well as the internal data they are gathering to make business intelligent decisions.

Organizations are drowning in an overwhelming amount of data and know little or nothing about gaining insights from the data and turning them into actionable goals and objectives.

The purpose of data is to act with precision and less assumption which makes it possible for a business to thrive by reducing the probability of making errors to the barest minimum.

How To Gain Actionable Insights From Data

Data gathering
Gathering of data is the most rigorous step as without data, the ability to make decision is hampered. Assumptions would thrive and there would be much gap in the margin of errors. Before collecting data, the scope of the project in terms of questions to be asked in the survey, the duration of the project and field enumerators to be used as well as medium for gathering the data should be known. These tools are for gathering data Surveymonkey, Google forms, Microsoft forms, Hubspot and Google analytics.

Data Cleansing
Data cleansing or wrangling is the art of removing unwanted items not needed in working with the data collected such as symbols, extra spacing, grammatical error etc.

Data Analysis
To analyze any form of data that has been collected, these tools are the most comprehensive tools in the marketplace, they include Microsoft Excel, SPSS, STATA, Python, R programming, MATLAB, E-views.

Data Visualization
Data visualization is the art of representing data in the form of charts in order for comprehension by stakeholders. Examples of tools for data visualization are Power BI, Tableau etc

Business Intelligence
The action taken having seen the feedback hidden in the data collected is called business intelligence (BI). This is the most important aspect in order to act with precision.

What is Predictive Analytics?

Predictive Analytics is a form of using records from past data collected over a period of time to determine what the future holds in the form of forecasts. Predictive Analytics is a branch of data analysis that helps to make decisions in the business world.

Tools for Predictive Analytics

There are free and paid tools for predictive analytics and they are numerous in the form of software applications. They can be utilized by anyone who has competence in gathering data from customers through surveys or from a database and knowledge of which tool is applicable to best analyze certain data.

Non-coding tools
§ Microsoft Excel

§ SPSS

§ STATA

Coding tools
§ Python

§ R Programming

Application of Predictive Analytics

Stock Control
Staff Utility
Price fixing
Managing of Peak Times
Determining call rates

The future of business will be driven by African start-ups that can use the data gathered to study behavioural tendencies of customers and how to serve their needs with a greater level of efficiency.

Emmanuel Otori has over 9 years of experience working with 100 start-ups and SMEs across Nigeria. He has worked on the Growth and Employment (GEM) Project of the World Bank, Consulted for businesses at the Abuja Enterprise Agency, Novustack, Splitspot and NITDA.

He is the Chief Executive Officer at Abuja Data School.