Viewpoint
Sahil Bloom
The Cantillon Effect is the most important economic concept you’ve likely never heard of.
Here’s a simple breakdown of the Cantillon Effect—what it is, how it works, and why you should care.
Background
Richard Cantillon was an Irish-French economist and philosopher born in the 1680s.
He is something of a mystery man—not much is known about his life. Early in his career, he achieved material success as a banker and merchant—success that historians have attributed to the formidable political and business connections Cantillon made through his family and employer.
This fact would prove relevant to his work later in life. At a young age, he had learned of the impact and importance of proximity to power...
In the early 1700s, Cantillon is believed to have accumulated significant wealth through speculation in a variety of ventures, including John Law’s infamous Mississippi Company (which would collapse spectacularly).
Around 1730, influenced by his experience to date, Cantillon wrote a paper—Essai Sur La Nature Du Commerce En Général (translation: Essay on the Nature of Commerce in General)—today considered a foundational work in the study of the political economy. It is a broad, overarching paper with significant contributions to the study of economics.
While it achieved wide circulation in manuscript form, it was not published until 1755, well after his death in a house fire in 1734.
The Cantillon Effect
While recognized for a variety of insights and contributions, Essai is most well known for its discussion of the distributional consequences of new money creation and the concept of relative inflation.
In the paper, Cantillon posited that the early recipients of new money entering an economy will benefit more significantly than those it trickles down to.
In other words, the "flow path" of the new money through a system matters.
In 18th century terms, Cantillon effectively observed that those closest to the king—the source of money and power of the era—benefitted first when new money entered the economy. In the 18th century, proximity to money and power really mattered.
Broadly speaking, Cantillon noted that new money creates disproportionate effects based on where it enters the system.
The Cantillon Effect was born...
A Simple Illustration
To bring this theory to life, let's walk through a (very) simple story to illustrate Cantillon's central point.
Imagine you live in a tiny, enclosed island society.
One morning, you wake up to find a small package on your doorstep. You open it up and gasp—it has $1 million in it.
Great! But now what?
No one else knows you received this package. You now secretly have $1 million new dollars. Naturally, you start spending it (and maybe investing it) quickly. Prices are still low, because no one knows these new dollars exist yet!
Your standard of living improves rapidly. You buy yourself the nicest house, the most beautiful clothes, and a bunch of land.
But now, the other island inhabitants start to see and feel this new money flowing through the system. Prices begin to rise as demand surges but supply has yet to "catch up" to the new consumption. It takes time for supply to ramp.
So while the money improved your life, it didn’t benefit others in the same way:
The sellers of the goods—who received your cash—now face rising prices when they consume.
The workers who produced the goods—who earned wages from the sellers—similarly face rising prices (despite stagnant wages).
You benefitted materially from the new money, but they didn’t. There were distributional effects—the flow path of this new money mattered!
This is—quite obviously—an ultra-simplified example, but it gets at the essence of the problem that Cantillon highlighted almost 300 years ago: Proximity to the source of new money is relevant—the entry point and flow path have distributional consequences.
But why should you care about all of this today?
The Cantillon Effect in Action
Well, with the "money printing" activity of central banks globally and an ever expanding wealth inequality problem, mentions of the Cantillon Effect have accelerated.
It's a useful framework through which to evaluate the monetary and fiscal response to Covid (and any future inevitable crises).
The simplistic view of what I see today:
The Federal Reserve's escalating asset purchases have an injection point at the top.
Direct stimulus checks—on the other hand—have an injection point at the bottom.
The former was much larger $$$ than the latter—$4.5 trillion vs. $400 billion.
The asset purchases—and rock-bottom interest rates, among other things—generally benefit asset owners (the wealthy). Those with a significant portion of their net worth in equities, real estate, or similar assets have benefitted tremendously over the last 18 months.
Wage earners—who received some degree of support via direct stimulus but did not benefit in the same way from the asset appreciation—are seemingly getting the short end of the stick.
Inflation—particularly across food and energy prices—will have a disproportionate impact on their standard of living.
Conclusion
By now, everyone has heard that inflation is running hot in the U.S. But perhaps more importantly, it's also running disproportionately hot.
So what do you think? Was Cantillon right? Are there clear distributional consequences to these new money policies that must be considered? And if so, what can we do about it?
I hope this piece provides you with a solid foundation of understanding on the Cantillon Effect.
My goal is for this to be educational, not political. In my view, this should not be a political debate—it should be a grounded discussion we all have when we consider the impact of various monetary and fiscal policies proposed by our leaders.
Kalu Aja
Between 1956 and 1967, groundnut was one of Nigeria’s most valuable export crops. There were groundnut pyramids in Kano by 1960; Nigeria was the world’s largest exporter of shelled groundnuts, with a 40% global market share.
Today, Nigeria has a 0% market share. Specifically, groundnut exports fell from 502,000 tons in 1961 to 291.000 tons in 1970 to zero by 1980.
Why did the groundnut pyramid disappear from Nigeria? Sure there was the Aflatoxin contamination that affected the groundnut exports. Why could the Northern region not just fumigate and fix the contamination? Why did it just allow exports of this cash crop to cease?
The story is similar in Palm Oil. In the year 2020, Indonesia made $18.45 billion from exporting palm oil. This is more than the entire 2020 budgets of the states in the South-East, South-South, Lagos, and Ondo combined. A Center for International Forestry research paper dated 2017 and titled “A short history of palm oil in Indonesia,” authored by Alice Baudoin, Pierre-Marie Bosc, Cécile Bessou, and Patrice Levang, states “the African oil palm, Elæis guineensis, originates from West and Central Africa. The first seeds of the oil palm were brought from West Africa by the Dutch and planted in the Bogor Botanical Garden (Java Island) Indonesia in 1848 (Wahid et al. 2004)”.
In 1832, 75% of the global palm oil export came from Nigeria. Between 1961 and 1965, world oil palm production was 1.5 million tons, with Nigeria accounting for 43% of that production. According to a report by PWC, Nigeria ranks behind Malaysia and Indonesia in palm oil output, accounting for less than 2% of the total global market production of 74.08million MT. See Figure 1. They are also crude oil-producing nations; they have crude oil.
Why has agriculture collapsed? Well, everyone says crude oil, but that’s a bit simplistic; why didn’t exports of Palm Oil and Groundnut expand when crude oil prices fell? From 1960 to 1973, crude oil prices were sold below $3 a barrel. Why did Nigeria not return to exports of palm oil?
In the same decade, palm oil saw a steep decline in production and exports from Nigeria.
To summarize, from 1960 to 1965, Nigerian crude oil revenues to total revenues were zero. By 1970, Nigeria’s crude oil revenues as a share of total revenues jumped to 26%, but crude oil was sold at below $3 a barrel from 1960 to 1972. Also, in the same period, Nigeria’s palm oil exports fell from 167mt to 8mt, same for groundnuts, 502mt in 1961 to 291mt in 1970. By 1975, crude oil share was at 77%, but crude oil prices were $10 on average a barrel.
Crude oil did not eclipse palm oil. Instead, palm oil exports fell, and oil became the most significant contributor to revenues for Nigeria. Central Bank of Nigeria is quoted as saying, “if Nigeria had maintained its market dominance in the palm oil industry, Nigeria would be earning approximately $20b annually from cultivation and process of palm oil as at today (2019)”.
If palm oil had continued to be exported, Nigeria would have earned from palm oil alone, the equivalent of the 2020 budgets of Lagos, all South East and the South-South States combined.
Crude oil is not the problem; the problem is how Nigeria has structured its fiscal federalism. I explain.
Below is the progression of the fiscal allocation formula.
1953 Sir Louis Chick: The penultimate revenue allocation formula for Nigeria was done by Sir Louis Chick.
Export duties were 50% to the State of origin of export.
1958 Raisman; Commissioner Raisman amended Sir Chick formula.
Export duties were 100% to the State of origin
1963 constitution….
Export duties maintained at 100% of the state of origin
1970 Decree no 13, the Military steps in. the States lose fiscal autonomy, maintain derivation. The Distributable pool was gone
1975, Decree 6: the military further reduced derivation to 20%.
1977, Aboyade Commission. The military created the Federation Account. Derivation abolished. Export duties are now 0% to the State of origin.
Thus in 13 years, Nigeria took Regional/States share of export proceeds from 100% to 0%. Groundnut exports never recovered when States in the North lost the export revenues of agriculture after 1970.
There remains NO incentive for state governments in Nigeria to encourage agriculture. States own the land where the land is commercially farmed. Still, the companies that run commercial agriculture pay Corporate income taxes to the Federal Government (FGN) when the cash crops are exported. The states are left with nothing. The states receive a share of these taxes via Consolidated Revenue Fund, but not according to the derivation principle. During this period that states lost derivation right in the fiscal federalism framework that commercial agriculture crashed in Nigeria.
What did the Federal Government do with crude oil and non-oil export proceeds revenues? The FGN shared it back to the States and Local Government according to a formula. States got on average 32%, Federal 47%, LGAs 15% (*note there are statutory transfers to Ecology, Agric development, etc.)
Export and corporate income taxes remain 0% to states by derivation except for solid minerals like gold. This means states do not retain as revenue to their budgets the export duties on cash crops produced within their states like palm oil. They only get PAYE on worker salaries.
But wait, there is more;
That 31% the FGN shares to states, is it shared equally? No, the sharing formula is called the horizontal revenue allocation formula. The critical sharing heads are:
Equality 45%,
Population 25%,
Landmass 5%. Lets pause here
This means that just being a state in the federation with a high population guarantees 65% of the allocation to states from the federation purse.
The FGN took the mineral and non-oil export earning to a central account, retained 47% of that account, then returned 51% to the States and LGAs but determined it will be shared out based on “equality” and “population”… not derivation, i.e., where the income was generated. Thus all States now focus on their population figure, not agriculture. Population and “equality,” not exports or derivation, determine how states receive revenues from the 51% allocation.
Palm oil, for instance, can be farmed in 24 states in Nigeria, including Kaduna. Specifically in Abia, Akwa Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Bayelsa, Imo, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, Delta, Edo, Ondo, Ogun, Osun, Oyo, Ekiti, Benue Kwara, Kogi, Nassarawa, Plateau, Taraba, Adamawa, and Kaduna…but why should a state bother incentivizing the planting palm oil? If groundnut export revenues still went to Kano State 100% via derivation, there would still be groundnut pyramids in Kano today. Kano lost the export proceeds funds to FAAC, thus no incentive to support planting groundnuts by the State.
Solution?
Reward what you want to improve; if you wish for safer drivers, you reward drivers with zero car scratches. Unhook states from crude oil-funded FAAC by giving them a derivation share of their export proceeds from their agriculture cash crops. Return to the states the fiscal principle of derivation on agricultural exports. That will mean states see a direct relationship between commercial farming and IGR, which will spur agriculture investment. Governors will seek out agriculture investors the same way and vigour they seek out Shoprite Malls.
If States retained even 13% derivation on income taxes and export duties on agricultural produce just as they enjoy with solid minerals, they would see the incentive to attract companies to come to their states and push non-oil exports.
Derivation on agriculture is also fair. All states have land; all states farm, graze or fish. Agriculture is still a significant contributor to Nigeria’s GDP growth, and it still employs millions of Nigerians. A fiscal amendment to give states even 13% export earning can have two massive impacts. In the short term, it makes agriculture attractive, and in the long term, it makes all states fiscally viable.
The problem with agriculture in Nigeria is not crude oil but Nigeria’s faulty fiscal federalism (FAAC).
Nairametrics
BY FAROOQ KPEROGI
A marginal, inconsequential news blog by Nmodu Danlami, an Abuja-based journalist who reported for the guerilla media of the 1990s, is being used to maliciously besmirch the Peoples Gazette, which I described in a forthcoming book chapter as “an up-and-coming, uncompromisingly hard-hitting, evidence-based, digital-native investigative news reporting outfit headquartered in Abuja.”
Relying on the resources of his febrile imagination-- or the premeditated propaganda materials supplied to him by a third party--Nmodu’s blog libeled Peoples Gazette’s editor in what seems like a gratuitous smear campaign but that may actually be a sponsored political hit job by the usual—and perhaps unusual— suspects.
Nmodu never bothered to reach out to the Peoples Gazette editor to get him to respond to the injurious falsehoods against him, never spoke to the EFCC and the DSS, which have been pretty open to the press lately, and capped it off with a last paragraph that dripped wet with intentional propagandistic fraud, which gives a hint of the source of his libel.
Nmodu said the Peoples Gazette editor whom he recklessly libeled left Premium Times after he was accused of “ethical misconduct.” I have some familiarity with the circumstances of his voluntary resignation from Premium Times, and I can confirm that he committed no ethical misconduct.
Read my May 3, 2020 article titled “Dangote, Premium Times, and Journalistic Ethics” to get the context. The man, along with his colleague who still reports for the Premium Times, got a credible memo that signaled unfair labor practices in Dangote Group.
But, as is now routine, company executives dismissed the memo as “fake” even it was clearly legit, and Premium Times editors “killed” the story on the basis of the company executives’ dismissal of the memo as “fake.”
The reporter then publicly ruminated on Twitter about the growing trend of dismissing unfavorable but credible news as “fake news.” Premium Times editors argued that by publicly talking about a story they had killed, he violated their social media policies, which they actually didn’t have.
If there was anyone who was unethical, it was the Premium Times editor who went to Twitter to publicly throw his reporter under the bus.
Danlami Nmodu, whom I’ve known since the late 1990s, should be ashamed of himself for making himself a willing tool in the campaign to discredit one of Nigeria’s most credible muckraking news sites.
Peoples Gazette publishes my Saturday Tribune column, and its editor is well-known to me. Up to this moment I have zero reasons to call his credibility and probity into question. I would never knowingly associate with anyone or any organization that is immersed in fraud.
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says over 12 million Nigerians are experiencing hunger owing to insecurity and the Covid pandemic.
David Tsokar, FAO communications officer, said this in a statement on Friday.
Tsokar said FAO arrived at the conclusion based on an analysis conducted in October in 20 states.
According to him, about 19 percent of affected households are in Borno, Adamawa and Yobe states because of the insurgency in the northeast and the lingering economic impact of Covid-19.
“The analysis, known as the Cadre Harmonise, conducted in 20 states and the FCT revealed that approximately 12.1 million people are expected to face food scarcity through December,” the communications officer said.
“The provisional result of the report showed that the number of people in critical or worse phases of food insecurity might increase to about 16.9 million.”
Tsokar said this would be the reality unless measures, including humanitarian aid, are put in place.
In Borno, Adamawa and Yobe, 2.4 million people are said to be currently facing hunger and are in need of urgent assistance.
Tsokar said an estimated 2 million people in the emergence phase, even with humanitarian aid, are facing extreme food deficits, resulting in very high acute malnutrition or excessive mortality.
According to him, this number is projected to increase to 3.5 million at the peak of the 2022 lean season between June and August.
Tsokar said at this time, the number of people anticipated to be in the emergency phase could double to 4.6 million.
“Another 13.6 million people were anticipated to experience catastrophe-like conditions in some of the most inaccessible localities,” he added.
The Cable
Time is the biggest asset of all, and entrepreneurs can have more than 24 hours a day if they buy it from others.
Entrepreneurship is a calling that not every person is meant to answer. For those who do, there are many rewards and many achievements to be had. However, with each opportunity for success, there are risks of failure and downfall, and there are easily avoidable mistakes that can have a huge impact on their businesses.
Many major errors go unnoticed, leaving business owners unaware that the choices they make are having negative consequences on their organization. Thankfully, once the issues have been identified, there are easy solutions to return to growing a thriving business. Here are a few common mistakes and solutions.
1. Not time blocking
We wear many hats, which can lead to many minor tasks and errands that take up most of the day. Without compartmentalizing time, those simple tasks get sporadic, build-up, become disorganized, and ultimately very little gets done. Think of all the drafted emails that never got sent because you answered a text. Think of all the unanswered texts because your partner needed help with something. Think of all the broken promises because your client asks why the email wasn’t sent. The vicious time vortex goes on and on.
Time mapping is the solution. This technique allows entrepreneurs to enjoy balance and the necessities in their life while helping ensure that the majority of the day is dedicated to their work.
Time mapping gives you a 30,000-foot view of where your time is actually going. To time map correctly, create a spreadsheet of your day broken down into 15-minute intervals, and spend 30 minutes in the morning mapping out your day. Then spend the remainder executing on it—color coordinate different types of tasks like work, relationships, essentials, personal, etc.
2. Too many phone calls
Yes, that one-hour phone call could have been a 5-minute email. Yes, those three team members in your Zoom call just sitting there not saying a word could be better spending their time elsewhere. And yes, the whole event was a colossal misuse of time and energy.
The old saying goes, "People need to like you, know you, and trust you before wanting to do business with you.” The only purpose of a call or Zoom is to check off these boxes as fast as possible with new clients. If clients are upset or team members aren’t performing, this may justify a call to readjust expectations or problem solve. Otherwise, everything else can be answered by email or organized by a CRM. These systems are essential for teams.
3. Not having a personal assistant
Many first-time entrepreneurs think they can handle everything on their own. Most also think that they have an incredibly tight budget that doesn't allow for additional help. This leads to them being disorganized and ineffective.
By hiring a personal assistant, entrepreneurs learn to really value their time. Even if you don’t think you can afford an assistant, hire one anyway. You’ll make more money in the long run if you invest in the right help. Personal assistants can help hold you accountable and give you a sounding board for your ideas.
Many great ideas stay stuck in an entrepreneur’s head, but an assistant allows you to voice your thoughts to someone you trust and get a reaction. You can even treat a personal assistant like a business partner (without handing out equity) and gather feedback and suggestions to improve your company.
4. Not doing enough outreach
While everyone wants to be a millionaire, few put a plan in place to do so, and even fewer ask for it. Many entrepreneurs avoid the outreach stage of sales and biz dev. While they should be constantly asking for help by sending direct messages to clients, investors, talent, service providers, and others who can offer assistance. In other words, A.B.D.M (Always Be DM'ing).
DMs are a lot faster and easier than calls and are easily accessible in the digital economy we have today. Make sure you follow up on your DMs and try using voice memos to send your thoughts rather than a formal typed message to make your DMs personal and authentic.
5. Forgetting to have a larger-than-life personal brand
Entrepreneurs are so focused on creating value for others, they totally forget their own personal brand. By investing heavily in PR, TV, online publications and magazines, you'll receive massive social media growth. And with the features and large following, you’ll establish authority and credibility, which is so important to new sales and partnerships and growing your business.
If Kylie Jenner's Instagram account suddenly reset to 1,000 followers, she wouldn't get back 275 million, and her sales would plummet. The majority population (or bandwagoners we call them) would move on to something else. And so would the media.
These “vanity metrics” are far more important than people once thought. And when Warner Music purchased Daquan, a meme page on Instagram, for $85 million, it became apparent these pages are valuable digital assets.
6. Forgetting that holding cash will make your broke
Some entrepreneurs think that money in the bank is a sign of success. However, the opposite is true. With the rate that inflation is increasing over 4 percent this year combined with government bailouts, money in the bank actually means you are in big trouble.
The cost of goods and living is going up, and your team is constantly going to want higher wages to match those growing rates. You need to invest your company's earnings in stocks and real estate and use a small amount to invest in cryptocurrency and small businesses. You need to hedge yourself and try and multiply your diminishing dollars.
7. Forgetting to go digital or go extinct
The pandemic has propelled us forward a decade into the digital age. The ways that companies work and do business are rapidly changing. Many employees within the same business haven’t met each other, and many clients haven’t met their service providers, but that doesn’t stop people from working or buying.
This allows you to experience unlimited creative power to build digital opportunities and companies. Kids will one day laugh at the idea of going to work in an office, and SaaS products are quickly replacing the functions that once took an entire department to handle. The scalability of these types of services is unbelievable.
If you don't get with the times and format your business for the digital era, you'll quickly find yourself biting the dust.
Entrepreneur
Let me start by confessing that I am a fan and admirer of Tiwa Savage. I appreciate her vocal prowess, softness, artistic profundity and hitherto scandal-free career until her marital crisis erupted in 2016 which threw her into the league of single moms, now available and searching for love again.
Tiwa is a well exposed artiste. She presented herself as a home-groomed and a typical Yoruba woman steeped in esteemed cultural and societal values until she started having messy encounters after her failed marriage. Watching her from a distance, I don't know if she actually merits the 'good girl' impression I have about her as only her family members and close friends can confirm that. In my days as a music critic, it was not my style to write about private life of artistes. I focused on their works. I did critical appraisals of known and upcoming artistes in a constructive manner that would enhance their performances and improve the quality of their productions. If Tiwa Savage had surfaced at that time in the 1980s and 1990s, she would have earned some positive reviews in my “Sound Judgment” column as a performing artiste because of her flexibility and dexterity being an accomplished singer.
When her marriage broke up, not a few Nigerians empathized with her. Part of the issues that characterized the crisis was accusation and counter-accusation bothering on infidelity. Scandalous rumours started making the rounds that she had serviced the bedrooms of her producer and notable contemporaries in the music industry. Notable names were maliciously rumoured as taking turns in having romantic moments with her. Much later, the rumour turned out to be a farce. The dignified silence of celebrities and star artistes mentioned in the rumour punctured the lies in the narrative.
Meanwhile, Savage, 41, went loose shortly after. She started rollicking with 31-year-old Wizkid; an affair some fans justified as a sting on her estranged husband, Tunji Balogun (Tee Billz), who allegedly messed her up. Despite excessive and shamefaced display of erotic scenes both in Wizkid's musical video and hangouts, the public tolerated Tiwa rationalizing her actions as a part of 'healing process' from her broken marriage. The adventure was short-lived. Wizkid moved on when he was done leaving love bemused Tiwa stranded and lonely. Whatever happens, life has to move on, hence, she launched into the ocean of love as a single and searching woman.
My observation is that Tiwa prefers younger men to older men or guys in her age bracket believing that younger dudes possess the youthful energy to satisfy her in bed. The craze for macho dudes have subconsciously instituted a cult of gigolos who are always available to service the 'big girls', single corporate women, the wives of the rich and top political office holders who rarely have time for their women due to endless trips, meetings and romantic adventures away from home. Highbrow locations in Lagos and Abuja are the hubs of the rich psychedelic and nymphomaniac babes. Incidentally, many celebrities especially women are involved in this crave. Even some married women do keep the "baby boys" by the side for sexual satisfaction.
Tiwa's boyfriend, simply identified as Abolo, a much younger dude, is allegedly turning to a blackmailer in quest to turn the "My Darling" crooner to an ATM from where money could be sourced at anytime. That is the stock-in-trade of such guys.
Having made her choice, Tiwa should have been more discreet in her affairs. As she goes about catching fun, she ought to know where to set the limit. No matter how exciting and ecstatic her sexual intimacy might be, she should never have allowed anybody to record both the audio and video of her private moments. Since she's yet to remarry, it shouldn't be allowed. Like I noted in the last edition of this column, husband and wife are at liberty to do whatever they choose to do with themselves in their closets.
Back to the sex filmmaker, recording sexual intimacy without the consent of the partner is wrong. And in case where there's consent, making it public or using it as a blackmail item is actionable in the court of law. Somebody should be made a scapegoat to serve as a deterrent to the others. Blackmail is an offence. In other climes, what we tolerate here could make some people rot in jail. Henceforth, blackmailers should be made to pay for their crime.
I read a story on WhatsApp about a Slay Queen who hooked up with a man she met on Facebook. They chatted and agreed to meet in a hotel. They met and she was paid for her service but unknown to the man, she secretly recorded him naked. A few days later, she was threatening the man using the video as a tool of blackmail by asking him to pay her N15 million but the man refused. She then released the video on Facebook. The man reported the matter to the DSS and she was arrested and charged to court. Her bail alone was N5 million plus a landed property. I saw her photographs in handcuffs as she alighted from a Black Maria. The incident was said to have taken place at Yenagoa, Bayelsa State. She's reportedly cooling her heels at the Okaka Prison as you read this column.
Bursting the internet last week, Savage's leaked sex tape went ingloriously viral. As explicit as the 10 seconds clip is, the scene did not do any credit to the public image of the star singer at all. Knowing what he was up to, the guy did not show his own face. Apart from filming the private parts, he swirled his device to show her face to ward off possible denial by the time it gets to the public. The guy didn't talk, it's only the moaning of Tiwa Savage that filled the ecstatic atmosphere.
Trust Nigerians, diverse comments and opinions over the video flooded the social media space. Someone requested Tiwa to please send the full version to her. I read of another who was said to have wept and apologized for viewing the tape. This is in addition to heaps of insults, reprimands and defence Tiwa received from the public. I feel for her even though it is good that it happened as it would tame her excesses and also serve as a deterrent to her ilk.
I do advise adults especially women to avoid intimate affairs with men that have nothing at stake or names to protect. Just as we have women of easy virtue, we likewise have men of low esteem. These two categories of people are risky to be involved with especially in intimacy. They could turn out to be enemies in seconds. To betray, slander, blackmail and viciously exploit the confidence reposed in them is their stock-in-trade. It is this caliber of guys that usually engage in blackmail and image smearing deals.
It is often said that gigolos and 'baby boys' servicing rich women and celebrities do perform under the influence of hard drugs to enhance their energetic sexual performances. And sometimes, some of the women, too, do get so 'high' on drugs or get tipsy on wine or liquor intake in order to maximize the moment. Looking at Tiwa Savage's scenario closely, one could observe that she was 'lost' in ecstatic mood while moaning loudly with her eyes firmly closed. Her partner did the recording possibly without her knowing. She couldn't deny the video because the clip shows her face. Whether Tiwa was actually 'high' on drugs or drinks as being argued by some people, it is left to her to confirm. Besides, the scenario appears to be a quickie, probably in a car as the setting suggested that it must have been a fling.
Tiwa needs to lie low, be calm and stop incessant outbursts or self-defence in the media; instead, she should focus on her career while embarking on a strategic damage control and image laundry campaign by engaging an experienced media or public relations consultant.
In conclusion, I want to align with the counsel of a popular online minister and worship leader, Olubukola Adediran aka Sister Bukky, who offered a godly perspective to the scandal. She condemned the act but not the actors involved. She appealed to believers to pray for the salvation of her soul; stating that God loves Tiwa Savage as much as He loves everyone else. At some point in life, “we all have done things we are not proud of.” She then urged the public to cease condemning her but they should look at her positive side by appreciating Tiwa as a great talent and a woman of destiny.
From the Mailbox
Re: Sex Video: Tiwa Savage's Romantic Misadventure
Yes! This kind of joke must stop. Sexual madness must cease! Private things must remain private! Those who feel that taking video is part of the deal whether with a partner or spouse should know that it should be done by consent, otherwise anyone doing this should be sued. - Simeon Ajueyitsi
In 2017, Aisha Yerima shocked her family when she willingly returned to Boko Haram captivity after she had been freed by the military.
Four years on and the 30-year-old has now escaped and returned to her parents' home in Maiduguri, the capital of Borno state.
She was kidnapped by Boko Haram at the age of 21 from a town Southeast of Maiduguri and went on to marry one of the group's commanders, whom she said won her heart with romance and gifts.
He had gone off to battle when the military attacked their camp in the Sambisa Forest, rescuing Aisha and dozens of other wives.
The women were all put through a one-year de-radicalisation programme, but barely four months afterwards, Aisha decided that life with Boko Haram was better.
"It was hard for me to make a living," she told me. "Things were tough and I had to depend on my parents."
She also found it difficult to feed her two-year-old, rescued along with her, the son from her marriage to the commander.
"I phoned my husband and he was very happy to hear from me," said Aisha.
"He told me when next he would be coming to Maiduguri to purchase some fuel and gas, and we agreed that I would join him," she said.
On the agreed day, she left her parents' home with her little son, telling no-one and taking just a few possessions.
Gunfire celebrations
She met her husband at a secluded location and he gave her some money to shop for new clothes. She re-joined him at around 19:30 at a separate location where he was waiting with about 20 militants in a bus.
"They were all heavily armed with guns," she said.
They then began the long drive towards the Sambisa Forest, abandoned the bus at a remote garage from where it was to be picked up by a man from whom the militants had hired it, and continued the rest of the journey on foot.
"When we arrived at our camp in the forest, there was celebration. Everybody was happy to see me back and they were firing guns in the air," she said.
Aisha immediately resumed life as a commander's wife - treated with respect, with other captives assigned to her as slaves, and more than enough for herself and her son to eat.
Shortly after returning, she was glad to discover herself pregnant, but the child died at birth.
When she was two months pregnant with another child, her husband was killed in battle.
The militants believed that her unborn child was entitled to a portion of its father's wealth and so waited until the baby was delivered before dividing the inheritance.
"They wanted to see if it was a boy or girl because a boy is entitled to double the portion of a girl," Aisha explained.
Her baby turned out to be a boy, but tragedy struck again. He died at birth. Aisha was devastated.
Forced to remarry
Her share of the inheritance allowed her to continue to live well - though this made others jealous.
"They started asking why I should be enjoying and living on my own. I didn't want to marry anyone else but they forced me to."
Her new husband was equally wealthy, a businessman responsible for supplying goods to Boko Haram, which entailed regular trips to Maiduguri. When she got pregnant with his child, Aisha was terrified of losing yet another baby in the forest.
"I begged him that we should move to Maiduguri, but he refused," she said.
Her desire to leave became more urgent when the military intensified attacks, with regular bombings that forced the militants and their families to be constantly on the move.
In addition, bitter infighting had led to Boko Haram splintering, with the two factions increasingly attacking each other. Afraid for her life and that of her unborn child, Aisha decided to escape.
At 03:00 one morning in August, she set off into the forest with her son and with two other wives who desired a different life.
But they were all captured along the way by Boko Haram, and returned to their camp. To keep her from attempting to run off again, Aisha's husband and the militants seized her six-year-old and took him away to an unknown location.
"While they were dragging my son away, he was holding on to me and screaming: 'Mama, please, don't leave me here! Please, don't leave me here!'" Aisha said.
For several days, she begged the militants to return him and tried searching for him. It eventually dawned on her that her efforts would be fruitless. She decided to escape without him when another chance came.
Escape and kindness
For a price, a militant who knew a clandestine route through the forest was willing to assist her and more than a dozen other women who wished to flee.
Aisha gave him all the money she had. A week later he led them away from the militants' base, past remote towns and left them at a point where they were able to continue on their own to a military post.
"The soldiers were very kind," Aisha said.
"They praised me for being bold enough to escape and contributed money to put me in a vehicle to take me home to my parents. They didn't think there was any need to escort me."
When they got to Maiduguri, she had to ask the driver to stop so she could call her mother and ask for directions as the city had changed so much in her absence: "There were new flyover bridges and tarred roads everywhere."
The entire family was waiting when the oldest of eight siblings walked through the front gate. They rushed towards Aisha and hugged her.
Everyone had been kind and supportive since she returned, Aisha told me, with some neighbours contributing money for her upkeep. But the baby she gave birth to in early October has died.
So far, Aisha has not heard from the husband she abandoned in the forest. She learnt from some women who escaped more recently that he was apprehended by an opposing faction of Boko Haram, with his fate unknown.
Determined to create a new life for herself, Aisha hopes to raise funds to begin trading in perfume and incense.
"I pray to Allah to rescue my son, but I will never go back to Boko Haram," she said.
BBC
Every year thousands of women are trafficked to European cities and put to work having sex with men. Jewel, a young Nigerian who had expected to become a carer, eventually managed to escape thanks to two chance meetings.
"I just saw light. It's very often dark where I come from because there's no electricity… But everything here was just blinking - it was very beautiful."
Jewel - not her real name - is describing her arrival in Denmark.
"I was thanking God for the opportunity to be in this country. I was looking forward to starting work."
Jewel caught a flight from Nigeria thinking she was going to work with old people.
"People who get trafficked go through Libya and usually take buses and boats. But this was so well organised that it wasn't suspicious at all," she says.
The International Organisation for Migration has estimated 80% of Nigerian women travelling overland, then attempting to cross the Mediterranean, are trafficked into the European sex trade. Jewel knew of women who had suffered that fate after making the perilous journey, so when her trip began at Lagos airport, she was reassured.
In Copenhagen, she was met by a Nigerian woman, who took her the following day to Vesterbro, Copenhagen's red light district.
"I was looking around for some sort of hospital," Jewel remembers.
They walked the streets for a while, Jewel being told to take note of her surroundings.
Then the woman dropped a bombshell.
"She said, 'This is where you're going to be working.' I looked round to see if she was pointing at a building I hadn't noticed. But no - she meant where we'd been walking. That's when she told me I was going to be a prostitute, and this was where I'd be hunting for customers. Then the whole of Denmark just crashed down on me…"
Jewel had one fortuitous meeting that night that would later be important - Michelle Mildwater from HopeNow, an NGO supporting trafficked people in Denmark, spotted the tiny, timid, 20-something woman and gave her a card with a contact number on it.
Jewel's Nigerian boss - her "madam" - told her not to trust this English woman with a bike. Then she quickly found Jewel her first customer.
"The man gave her 4,000 kroner (£450 / $620) to take me home, and then my madam just walked away," says Jewel.
"He drove me for what seemed like forever. I didn't speak the language at the time and I had no idea what he was saying - we had to use Google Translate to communicate. It was scary."
In the months that followed, selling sex did not become any easier for Jewel.
"I wasn't good at it. I was that shy one in the corner. But I always got found because the regulars know when a new person arrives, and they wanted a piece of the new person."
In the most recent figures released by the EU, more than 14,000 trafficking victims were registered in 2017/2018 - but this will be the tip of the iceberg, because they represent only identified cases. Half were from outside the EU, with Nigeria one of the top five nationalities.
Sexual exploitation continues to be the main purpose of trafficking, according to the European Commission, and in a single year the criminal revenues derived from it are estimated at a staggering 14bn euros (£12bn / $16bn).
The women who earn this money are told they owe their traffickers huge sums for travel and accommodation.
"They are debt-bonded," says Sine Plambech, a senior researcher in the Department of Migration at the Danish Institute for International Studies.
"Nigerians are one of the migrant sex worker groups with the highest debt. It could be between 10,000 and 60,000 euros. And when you have that kind of debt, you need to make a lot of money fast. And if you don't have papers that allow you to work, the fastest way to earn money is in the sex industry."
Jewel's traffickers said she would have to pay them 42,000 euros, in regular instalments. To underline their point they summoned her to a frightening meeting in a cemetery, the day before she flew out of Nigeria.
"I was forced to take an oath that I was going to pay the money no matter what, and that I was not going to reveal who trafficked me. If I did, so many bad things were going to happen to me and my family."
Once Jewel was in Denmark, the traffickers menaced her family in Nigeria.
"People just came into the house and they wanted my grandmother to talk to me about not having any ideas about reporting them to the police, or not paying the money. So every time I called her, she was always crying on the phone and reminding me that I had made this deal with these people - I had to pay or something would happen to them."
Jewel was under immense pressure so did not feel she could be discriminating about the clients she serviced inside and between parked cars on the streets of Vesterbro, or in their homes.
"You cannot say no. You have to say yes, because there are 10 or 15 other women looking at that same guy wanting to make some money that night," she says.
But going with a customer to his home could be enormously risky.
"I could have died that night I was forced to remain in the bathtub," she remembers, still traumatised.
"The man I had to go home with asked me to get in the bathtub. And I thought, 'OK - he wants me to clean up or something.' Then he went out and came back with two buckets of ice. And he started pouring this ice on me in the bath. And I was in there naked and it's in the middle of winter…"
'Impunity of perpetrators'
In April this year, announcing a new strategy to combat human trafficking, the European Commission admitted that 10 years of efforts to tackle the problem had largely failed.
"The impunity of perpetrators in the EU persists, and the numbers of prosecutions and convictions of traffickers remain low," it said, making trafficking "a low-risk and high-profit crime".
Attempts to reduce demand for the services of exploited victims had also flopped, the Commission added.
The UK government says that in the year to March 2020 police recorded 7,779 modern slavery crimes (including labour exploitation and sexual exploitation), but fewer than 250 people were charged in 2019.
The UK's support services for victims of modern slavery are run by the Salvation Army. It says 610 non-British survivors of sexual exploitation joined its programme in the year to June 2021.
Vesterbro's main street, Istedgade, with its bars, clubs and sex shops, is noisy and brightly lit on a Saturday night. Groups of men, often unsteady on their feet from the effects of alcohol, prowl up and down. The women selling sex - most of them from Nigeria and Eastern Europe, their hair and make-up immaculate - are dressed in figure-hugging, comfy gym gear. They sport trainers you can run in - there are few pairs of high heels, and no stereotypical "sexy" outfits.
Michelle Mildwater, who has supported foreign prostitutes in Denmark for more than a decade, still does the rounds here - giving out her card to women like Jewel, offering help and counselling. She is very aware how perilous street life is, and remembers several violent incidents in one of the district's hotels.
"We had a number of rapes in there," she says. "There were times when a woman ran out with blood all over her."
At weekends, Danish NGOs run services for the women selling sex. One, Reden International, has a café where they can rest, recuperate and get a snack between clients. And in one of the side streets, a group of volunteers host a harm reduction initiative like no other.
It is called the Red Van, because that is what it is - a vehicle with a bed in the back lit by fairy lights, and a ready supply of condoms and wipes. It is a private space where sex workers can bring a client instead of going somewhere potentially unsafe. Throughout the night, a steady stream of women arrive - men in tow - to use the van's facilities, while the volunteers stand a respectful distance away but close enough to hear if a woman is in trouble. It may be used up to 28 times in a four-hour shift.
One of the Red Van's volunteers is Sine Plambech, the academic researcher.
"These women have a problem they're trying to solve - debt, poverty, family, children. They need to work. They're going to sell sex whether we like it or not, so we provide a safe space for them while they're doing what they would do anyway," she says.
"Most women wouldn't sell sex if they didn't have to. You can have all these moral ideas about what's good for them, but they need to make money."
Buying and selling sex in Denmark is not illegal, but you do need a work permit. The precarious migration status of many of the women selling sex in Copenhagen makes them more vulnerable - and far less likely to report any abuse or violence against them to the police.
Denmark's policy is to deport irregular migrants. Even if women are identified as victims of human trafficking, they are expected to return to their home countries after a short period in a government-sponsored safe house.
After four months on the streets, desperate, depressed and tempted to take her own life, Jewel too was reluctant to report to the authorities. She still had a massive debt, and was fearful for her safety and that of her family in Nigeria.
Then her life changed. It sounds corny - like a fairytale even - but Jewel met a Danish man and fell in love. On their first date, after a romantic meal, she told him everything.
"That's a burden he's had to carry," she says now about the man who became her husband.
Jewel stopped working on the streets, and he helped her make her weekly repayments to her madam. But the couple needed advice. Did Jewel know anyone who could assist them, her boyfriend asked?
Jewel had kept the card Michelle Mildwater had given her that first night she sold sex in Vesterbro.
Michelle counselled Jewel, helped her to confront her demons, and gave her the confidence to stop paying her madam. And fortunately, there have been no violent repercussions for her or her family - perhaps because her trafficker did not belong to one of the large transnational criminal networks.
Now Jewel is awaiting the outcome of her application to remain in Denmark. Meanwhile, her Danish has become fluent and she has had a baby. Jewel and Michelle have become firm friends. And when Jewel got married, the NGO worker from HopeNow was her Best Woman.
"That's one of the proudest moments of my life - that someone walked me down the aisle, and it was Michelle who did that," says Jewel.
Jewel hopes one day she will go to business school. She also wants to do voluntary work helping women on the streets.
Just before lockdown, Michelle Mildwater, who is a former actor, encouraged Jewel to develop a play - the story of a trafficked woman - and perform it for an audience in Copenhagen. Jewel called it The Only Way Out Is Through.
"That was therapy. When I was doing the show I was kind of… out of my body. It was like I was part of the audience, and I was very touched by what I saw," Jewel says.
"Because this is not just a story - this is people's reality."
BBC
Onaolapo Ademola is one of the 12 associates of Yoruba Nation agitator, Sunday Adeyemo, aka Sunday Igboho, recently released on bail from the custody of the Department of State Services. In this interview with KAYODE OYERO, Ademola narrates how the secret police raided the Ibadan residence of Igboho in a Gestapo style in the midnight of July 1, 2021, killing two associates and arresting him and other Igboho’s aides
Please tell us about yourself.
I am Onaolapo Ademola by name. I am 32 years old. I’m a solar inverter expert. I deal in land and real estate and also have an online television.
What is your relationship with Sunday Igboho?
I am his ‘son’ and a follower. I am the director of his foundation, Sunday Adeyemo Foundation, for the past two to three years now. I also happened to be one of his media aides before we started the journey of Yoruba Nation.
How many years have you known Sunday Igboho and have been working with him?
I have known him for over 10 years.
Can you narrate what happened in the midnight of July 1, 2021 at Igboho’s residence in the Soka area of Ibadan?
It is an unforgettable day in the history of the Yoruba people because when everyone else was greeted, ‘Happy new month!’, we were greeted in a way we never expected; we were greeted as if we were in a battlefield. We woke up to find ourselves in that mess; it was a misuse of power by the present government of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. I’ve been minding my speech about the event of that day because a lot of us are still suffering from psychological trauma because what happened that day alone can take one’s life.
How did it all happen?
My house was not far from Igboho’s house and being a father to me, I have access to him and he has to me. He did call to see me anytime to run errands for him. I was in my personal house around 12am but I had a message to pass across to him which I could not deliver by phone. I moved from my house to his residence at exactly 12am and met with him. We discussed till around 1am and were outside with some of our people till around 1:30am.
In his house, I have a chalet he allocated to me as one of his associates. At exactly 1:30am, he moved into his building, others retreated into their own apartments and I also moved into my own. But at exactly 1:35am, I started hearing gunshots and I wondered what was happening. My chalet is directly facing the main gate and I opened the window to peep to see what was happening outside. To my greatest shock, I couldn’t see anybody but I heard sporadic gunshots. Whenever I heard, ‘Fire!’, they would shoot at the building.
As a Muslim, I started reciting different verses of the Quran believing it might be the end of my life. While still peeping through the window, I could see two DSS personnel inside the house – they came through the fence because they could not force their way in through the main gate from outside. So, some of them jumped the fence and came in to open the gate for the others. When they opened the gate, I saw that they were dressed in black and were putting on helmets. They were dressed like they were on a battle ground, facing Boko Haram. I heard them calling themselves, ‘Come in two-two!’ I immediately woke the boy that was with me and told him that we needed to start preparing for our burial because there was no way to escape.
They were more than 100 personnel inside the building comprising the DSS and soldiers. They shot sporadically everywhere. When they got to any chalet or any of the rooms, they fired directly. I started praying and I’m thankful that God saved my life.
The shooting continued for three hours. When they got to my chalet, I opened the door for them. They marched on my head on the floor. I had collected around N300,000 from Igboho, which I wanted to use to buy something the following morning. One of the soldiers picked up the money. They demanded my gun and I told them, ‘Do I look like someone who can shoot? Do I look like someone who can operate a gun?’ They marched my head still and I was handcuffed. They then took me to the gate to lie down there with others.
At the gate, to my greatest shock, I saw one of my very good brothers, Saheed Oladams (Adogan), the Chief Executive Officer of Oladams Motors in Osogbo, in a pool of blood. Likewise Alfa. We were still together around 12:30am but the two of them were already gunned down.
After we had been handcuffed, and laid on the floor, they (security operatives) started destroying the vehicles in the compound, threatening to burn down the house and saying all sorts of things. They also made a roll call of the people in the house. That was what happened. But to the glory of God, here we are today.
The DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, said Igboho men engaged the operatives in a gun duel before you guys were overpowered after two of Igboho’s aides were gunned down. Who among you were firing at the DSS men?
Nothing of such (happened); nobody retaliated, nobody exchanged gunshots with them. You know the Nigerian military, if anybody had retaliated by exchanging gunshots, you know what would have happened. Those they killed didn’t exchange gunshots with them (security agents). Alfa was an innocent man. He was killed in the waiting room of Igboho while he was praying. He was a cleric and he could not see; he was blind. On getting to the waiting room, they (security operatives) just fired straight and gunned him down. Also, Adogan did not, in any way, exchange gunshots with them. He was shot in the bathroom where he was hiding.
What about the narrative that the security agents used a mortar to smash Adogan’s head when he refused to die after being shot?
Nothing of such (happened); he was shot in the bathroom.
As an eyewitness to the event of that midnight, exactly how many people died?
Two people died – Alfa and Adogan.
Where are their remains?
When we were being taken to the DSS office in Abuja from Ibadan, we got to Ekiti together with the two corpses. At the DSS office in Ekiti, we noticed that they took the corpses of Adogan and Alfa away in a Hilux vehicle. So, I believe their remains are with the DSS.
How many of you were arrested?
They arrested 22 people; 12 males and 10 females. When we got to Ekiti at the entrance of the DSS office, they freed nine of the ladies, after asking everyone, ‘Who is Lady K?’ So, they only took Lady K with the men to Abuja. Out of the 12 men, one of us was a police officer, an escort of Adogan. The officer was not paraded in Abuja. Instead, 12 of us, including Lady K, were paraded.
Has the officer been released?
Yes, he was released before us.
There were reports that the DSS picked up some cats found in Igboho’s house, CCTV brain box, among other things. What are the things the DSS took from Igboho’s house that night?
They took gold, money, our phones which are still with them. They went away with the CCTV, and one of the cats after killing about four or five cats. They went away with a big MP3; they went away with a lot of things. They went away with the cat, believing Igboho turned to the cat.
The DSS also claimed in a statement that they recovered some guns and ammunition from Igboho’s house that night. How true is this?
They (the DSS) are in a better position to explain where they got that from. But there was a police officer in the house and he had a gun, maybe they took the gun of the police officer.
Was Igboho at home during the raid?
Yes, he was at home. The DSS saw him; they can’t deny that because that night, they came with three herbalists. After shooting at so many corners of the house, all of a sudden they couldn’t see him again, so they believed he was hiding, not knowing he was in the building. Igboho is not an ordinary man; he is the Akoni Oodua of Yorubaland and a real son of Oduduwa.
When the DSS could not find him, they brought in their herbalists and they started chanting incantations wanting him to come back. The herbalists later told the DSS that Baba (Igboho) had turned to a cat. That was when they started killing the cats. I believe they know he has metaphysical powers, that was why they came in with herbalists to get him at all costs but God was not ready to put his life in the hands of the DSS.
How did you recognise the ‘herbalists’; were they donning amulets and charms?
They wore ordinary clothes, not traditional attire but when the DSS could not find Igboho, they called them in and the herbalists started chanting incantations.
What is the number of security operatives that came for the raid?
The DSS operatives were more than 20 and most of them were from Oyo while the soldiers were more than 200. I could count about 87 vehicles when they were taking us away. They came with ambulances too, believing they were going to a war zone.
How did you know most of the DSS operatives were from Oyo State?
After they took us from the house, the number of DSS operatives that followed us to Abuja was reduced drastically.
Were the police also involved in the raid?
No, only the Nigerian Army and the DSS came that day.
If there were these many security operatives during that raid, as you have said, how was Igboho able to escape, while you, his aides, could not?
I am not fortified with anything but I believe in the Almighty God. Igboho is a human being like everyone but he is a special creature. No one can face what he faced that night and escape. There was a lady in one of their vehicles that was saying, ‘Get him dead or alive!’
From Ibadan, you were whisked to Abuja the same day you were arrested. Can you briefly narrate your ordeal while with the secret police?
I was there for 62 days. It was part of the sacrifice, no going back. It was dehumanising to be in custody without seeing the sun or the moon for months, being maltreated, given food that a dog could not eat, sleeping on bare floor for 62 days, eating in the same place where I defecated, the same place where I urinated, the same place where I observed my prayers. We were given N20 Cowbell (milk) and a loaf of bread of less than N50 to eat per day. There was no access to lawyers, no access to family members. It was hell. It was a terrible experience which I do not wish for even my enemy.
In the DSS custody, what were the offences the secret police said you committed?
Offence? Even if I had committed an offence, is coming in the dead of the night to kill us the solution? I did not commit any offence.
When you were interrogated in the DSS custody, what were the questions they asked you?
They asked me personal questions and my purpose of being in Igboho’s house. They also asked for my bank accounts, Facebook name, my village address, they asked me a lot of questions. They asked me to tell them how long I had known Igboho and I told them. I cannot disown him, no matter the situation.
Were you kept in an underground cell in DSS custody?
The first place we were kept for the first two days in the DSS custody was an underground cell where if anything happened, we couldn’t know. From there we graduated to another cell where we had access to Fulani, Hausa detainees who don’t understand English language. Some of them were suspected bandits and Boko Haram members. There were others who were not Hausa but suspected IPOB members.
How many detainees were kept in a single cell with you?
Three. It’s a small cell with useless settings for three people, one had to sleep by bending.
Were you kept with your associates or strangers?
We, the Igboho 12, were scattered into various cells. I was detained with Kanuri and Hausa suspects. We didn’t understand our individual languages. All that bound us together was Muslim solat. We couldn’t communicate. It was hell. It got to a time that those of us arrested in Igboho’s house couldn’t sleep at night, we prayed all through; the Muslims observed Tahjud, midnight prayers, while the Christians held vigils.
How did the Igboho 12 pray together when you were in separate cells?
We prayed by raising our voices, both Christians and Muslims. We shouted to communicate when it was time for prayers. Of course, we recognised our different voices.
In all of this, do you have any regrets at all?
I suffered for my fatherland and I want my people to be liberated. This is a tyrannical government that has no respect for the rule of law.
Have you undergone any medical treatment after your release?
I would have died if I hadn’t undergone any medical treatment after my release. You can never be in DSS custody and come back without seeking medical attention.
How do you feel that you have been released on bail?
There is nothing like freedom. Even if you don’t have money but can move around, you should be grateful to God for that. So, I am grateful to God that I have been released.
Some three weeks after your arrest, your boss, Igboho, was also apprehended at an airport in neighbouring Cotonou in Benin Republic on July 19, 2021 and has since been behind bars. How do you feel about this development?
It is a sad development for us, his followers, that Igboho, a man of honour and a philanthropist par excellence, was arrested but there is nothing we could do about it.
You claimed Igboho is not an ordinary man, which was why he was able to escape the DSS raid in Ibadan but he was subsequently apprehended in Cotonou. What do you think went wrong?
God understands everything.
Do you still believe in Igboho despite all that has happened?
I’m 100 per cent with him.
Do you still believe in Yoruba Nation agitation?
No going back, the struggle continues.
Punch
Nigerian Army has countered an article by The Economist, which criticises the federal government on the security challenges in the country and describes “many” soldiers as “ghosts”.
The article, published earlier on Saturday, had made references to security agencies such as the army and the police, noting that the government needs to do more improve security.
“When violence erupts, the government does nothing or cracks heads almost indiscriminately. Nigeria’s army is mighty on paper. But many of its soldiers are “ghosts” who exist only on the payroll, and much of its equipment is stolen and sold to insurgents,” the article reads.
“The army is also stretched thin, having been deployed to all of Nigeria’s states. The police are understaffed, demoralised and poorly trained. Many supplement their low pay by robbing the public they have sworn to protect.”
The article, however, makes recommendations for improved security, adding that “to stop the slide towards lawlessness, Nigeria’s government should make its own forces obey the law”.
But in a statement issued hours after the article was published, the army criticised the position of The Economist on the efforts of the military, describing it as a report done “without due diligence”.
“Even as the real intention of the otherwise respected Economist magazine in publishing such toxic concoctions weaved up as report on Nigerian Government’s response to the multi-faceted security challenges assailing the country is yet to be unraveled, the source of the article is very clear. It is one of those deliberate falsehood and noxious narratives orchestrated by a network of detractors and coven of dark forces working very hard to adorn the Nigerian Army in an unfitting garb of infamy,” a statement by Onyema Nwachukwu, army spokesman, reads.
“The vile report which the Economist chose to offer its platform for publication, spared no effort in trying to vilify and rubbish the image, character and reputational standing of the Nigerian Army, but failed woefully.
“As a professional, hard-fighting and globally respected institution that has continued to occupy deserved glorious position in the comity of global defence forces, the Nigerian Army is certainly not what the so-called report by the Economist tried to characterise it. Even more ludicrous was the embellishments of the said report by the notorious unprofessional media outlets that were quick to republish the obvious falsehood.
“How is it conceivable that an international magazine worth its name and professional reputation would agree to lend its medium for a hatchet job of an article without as much as committing little effort to finding out the real truth about the Nigerian Army? How is it imaginable that the Nigerian Army that has distinguished itself as a worthy contributor to global peace and security through regional, continental and international peace keeping and peace support operations would be characterised as “Mighty on paper”? How can the Nigerian Army that has restored democracies, brought peace to troubled lands and stabilised the sub-region through the dint of hard work, commitment to duty, discipline and professionalism be so denigrated?
“Is it the ‘ghost soldiers’ of the Nigerian Army that have weathered the storm of terrorism and insurgency of Boko Haram and Islamic State of West African Province Terrorists (ISWAP) in the north eastern part of the country and parts of the Lake Chad region?
“In case the Economist magazine and those who fed it all the lies it published do not know, the Nigerian Army working in a joint environment, has been able to stop ISWAP, a very formidable international terrorist organisation in its tracks, in spite of all the obstacles, including arm sale blackouts on its way. The Economist and its ilk ought to have known that the Nigerian Army has long distinguished itself as a professional force that does not toy with accountability nor shirk from its statutory responsibility of defending Nigeria from external aggression or internal insurrection.”
The army added that despite the content of the article, it remains “undeterred, undistracted and totally unfazed by the harebrained assertions contained in that silly report”.
The Cable
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Little more than six decades ago, as Nigeria was nearing independence, even those who were soon to govern Africa’s largest country had their doubts about whether it would hold together. British colonists had drawn a border around land that was home to more than 250 ethnic groups. Obafemi Awolowo, a politician of that era, evoked Metternich, fretting that “Nigeria is not a nation. It is a mere geographical expression.”
The early years of independence seemed to prove him right. Coup followed coup. Ethnic pogroms helped spark a civil war that cost 1m lives, as the Southeastern region calling itself Biafra tried to break away and was ruthlessly crushed. Military rule was the norm until 1999. Despite this inauspicious start, Nigeria is now a powerhouse. Home to one in six sub-Saharan Africans, it is the continent’s most boisterous democracy. Its economy, the largest, generates a quarter of Africa’s GDP. Nollywood makes more titles than any other country’s film industry bar Bollywood. Three of sub-Saharan Africa’s four fintech “unicorns” (startups valued at more than $1bn) are Nigerian.
Why, then, do most young Nigerians want to emigrate? One reason is that they are scared. Jihadists are carving out a caliphate in the Northeast; gangs of kidnappers are terrorising the Northwest; the fire of Biafran secessionism has been rekindled in the oil-rich Southeast. The violence threatens not just Nigeria’s 200m people, but also the stability of the entire region that surrounds them.
Readers who do not follow Nigeria closely may ask: what’s new? Nigeria has been corrupt and turbulent for decades. What has changed of late, though, is that jihadism, organised crime and political violence have grown so intense and widespread that most of the country is sliding towards ungovernability. In the first nine months of 2021 almost 8,000 people were directly killed in various conflicts. Hundreds of thousands more have perished because of hunger and disease caused by fighting. More than 2m have fled their homes.
The jihadist threat in the Northeast has metastasised. A few years ago, an area the size of Belgium was controlled by Boko Haram, a group of zealots notorious for enslaving young girls. Now, Boko Haram is being supplanted by an affiliate of Islamic State that is equally brutal but more competent, and so a bigger danger to Nigeria. In the Southeast, demagogues are stirring up ethnic grievances and feeding the delusion that one group, the Igbos, can walk off with all the country’s oil, the source of about half of government revenues. President Muhammadu Buhari has hinted that Biafran separatism will be dealt with as ruthlessly now as it was half a century ago.
Meanwhile, across wide swathes of Nigeria, a collapse in security and state authority has allowed criminal gangs to run wild. In the first nine months of this year some 2,200 people were kidnapped for ransom, more than double the roughly 1,000 abducted in 2020. Perhaps a million children are missing school for fear that they will be snatched.
Two factors help explain Nigeria’s increasing instability: a sick economy and a bumbling government. Slow growth and two recessions have made Nigerians poorer, on average, each year since oil prices fell in 2015. Before Covid-19, fully 40% of them were below Nigeria’s extremely low poverty line of about $1 a day. If Nigeria’s 36 states were stand-alone countries, more than one-third would be categorised by the World Bank as “low-income” (less than $1,045 a head). Poverty combined with stagnation tends to increase the risk of civil conflict.
Economic troubles are compounded by a government that is inept and heavy-handed. Buhari, who was elected in 2015, turned an oil shock into a recession by propping up the naira and barring many imports in the hope this would spur domestic production. Instead he sent annual food inflation soaring above 20%. He has failed to curb corruption, which breeds resentment. Many Nigerians are furious that they see so little benefit from the country’s billions of petrodollars, much of which their rulers have squandered or stolen. Many politicians blame rival ethnic or religious groups, claiming they have taken more than their fair share. This wins votes, but makes Nigeria a tinderbox.
When violence erupts, the government does nothing or cracks heads almost indiscriminately. Nigeria’s army is mighty on paper. But many of its soldiers are “ghosts” who exist only on the payroll, and much of its equipment is stolen and sold to insurgents. The army is also stretched thin, having been deployed to all of Nigeria’s states. The police are understaffed, demoralised and poorly trained. Many supplement their low pay by robbing the public they have sworn to protect.
To stop the slide towards lawlessness, Nigeria’s government should make its own forces obey the law. Soldiers and police who murder or torture should be prosecuted. That no one has been held accountable for the slaughter of perhaps 15 peaceful demonstrators against police abuses in Lagos last year is a scandal. The secret police should stop ignoring court orders to release people who are being held illegally. This would not just be morally right, but also practical: young men who see or experience state brutality are more likely to join extremist groups.
Things don’t have to fall apart
Second, Nigeria needs to beef up its police. Niger state, for instance, has just 4,000 officers to protect 24m people. Local cops would be better at stopping kidnappings and solving crimes than the current federal force, which is often sent charging from one trouble spot to another. Money could come from cutting wasteful spending by the armed forces on jet fighters, which are not much use for guarding schools. Britain and America, which help train Nigeria’s army, could also train detectives. Better policing could let the army withdraw from areas where it is pouring fuel on secessionist fires.
The biggest barrier to restoring security is not a lack of ideas, nor of resources. It is the complacency of Nigeria’s cosseted political elite—safe in their guarded compounds and the well-defended capital. Without urgent action, Nigeria may slip into a downward spiral from which it will struggle to emerge.
The Economist
In October 2020, Nigerians started what can be termed the biggest campaign against police brutality in the country.
Although the campaign started on social media, Nigerian youths eventually took to the streets in some parts of the country to protest against the now-disbanded special anti-robbery squad (SARS), a unit of the Nigerian Police Force.
In the course of the protest, tagged #EndSARS, donations were made from different parts of the world.
Feminist Coalition — a group set up by about 14 women — said it received N147,855,788.28 as of October 22, 2020 through crowdfunding and spent part of the money on legal services for those protesters who were arrested, to pay medical bills for those wounded, to provide private security at protest points and daily refreshments.
The group said the rest of the funds were used to provide support, including mental health counselling, for victims of police brutality and the families of those who died.
Following the protest, Mohammed Adamu, former inspector-general of police (IGP), disbanded SARS.
However, the protest continued, with activists issuing a five-point demand which include:
Immediate release of all arrested protesters.
Justice for all deceased victims of police brutality and appropriate compensations for their families.
Setting up an independent body to oversee the investigation and prosecution of all reported police misconduct within a period of 10 days.
Carrying out psychological evaluation and retraining of all disbanded SARS operatives before they can be deployed (this should be verified by an independent body).
The government should increase police salary and they should be adequately compensated for protecting lives and property of citizens.
In addition to the dissolution of SARS, the federal government on October 13 accepted the five-point demand of the #EndSARS protesters.
One year on, what is policing like without SARS?
‘SARSLESS’ POLICE
Upon the disbandment of SARS, a new squad, Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) unit was formed.
According to Frank Mba, force public relations officer, the “mandate of the new TACTICAL team is strictly restricted to; response to robbery attacks, response to scenes of weapon-related crimes, rescue operations, [and] special operations involving high profile criminals”.
He also gave the assurance that no personnel of the defunct SARS will be selected to be part of the new TACTICAL team.
However, a year after, the unit is yet to commence operations.
Although Muhammad Dingyadi, minister of police affairs, said officers of SWAT team have been deployed in state commands, Alkali Baba, IGP, said SWAT is yet to commence operations.
Baba also said the vacuum created by SARS has made it difficult for the police to tackle most of the violent crimes in the country.
On the planned recruitment of 10,000 new police personnel, TheCable reached out to the Police Service Commission (PSC) which is the body in charge of police recruitment, promotion, and exercising disciplinary control over the police.
Ikechukwu Ani, spokesperson of the commission, said: “The commission and the police are already meeting. Very soon, there will be an announcement to conclude the 2020 recruitment that was done after the appeal court judgment in 2020.”
On psychological evaluation for officers which is one of the demands of the protesters, Ani said: “Details are being worked out. It is not yet defined but I know that we must obey the president’s directive.”
THE POLICE BECAME VULNERABLE TO ATTACKS
In May, The Punch reported that more than 25 police stations were attacked in parts of the south-east and south-south between January and May.
Reports also showed that over 127 policemen and other security personnel were killed during the attacks.
These attacks occurred in Abia, Imo, Anambra, Enugu, Ebonyi, Cross River and Rivers state.
The IGP said the morale of police officers in the country has been low since the protest in October 2020.
DID EXTRA-JUDICIAL KILLINGS BY POLICE STOP?
Did the disbandment of SARS curb the rate of police brutality and extra judicial killings in the country?
Citing a report by Global Rights, an international human rights organisation based in Washington DC, THISDAY reported that despite the #EndSARS protest against police brutality, Nigeria recorded 164 cases of extra-judicial killing between January and September 2021.
According to the report, with this rising trajectory, the country may record more cases of extra-judicial killing in the current year than the 271 incidents documented in 2020.
The report claimed that there were 14 cases of extra-judicial killing in January; three in February; six in March, six in April, nine in May; 12 in June, 23 in July; 14 in August and 77 in September.
Besides cases of killing such as the case of Monsurat Ojuade, an 18-year-old girl, who was shot on September 10 at Mogaji street, Ijesha, Surulere, Lagos during a raid by operatives of the state criminal investigation and intelligence department, several videos posted on social media show police officers threatening citizens for failing to give a bribe.
UPWARD REVIEW OF SALARIES
President Muhammadu Buhari in 2018 approved an enhanced salary structure for officers of the Nigerian Police Force.
In line with one of the demands of the protesters for an upward review of salaries of officers, the president directed the National Salaries, Income and Wages Commission to finalise the new salary structure for members of the force.
However, to date, there are no indications that it has been implemented.
The police public relations officer said he was too preoccupied to speak when contacted by TheCable.
PROTESTERS STILL IN CUSTODY
Many protesters were arrested during and after the EndSARS protest. With mass sharing of information on social media, some were able to secure bail with the support of other protesters. Some others detained for months, including Kemisola Ogunniyi, an 18-year-old girl. Kemisola who said she was not part of the protest in Akure, Ondo state, gave birth to a baby while she was in prison for eight months.
Still, there are claims that more people are still in detention over the protest.
Gavel, a non-governmental organisation that advocates citizens’ rights, told TheCable that at least 33 persons are still being detained in Lagos alone, over the protest.
“At the moment, we can authoritatively confirm that there are at least 33 defendants languishing in Kirikiri Correctional Centre since the #EndSARS period which Gavel is working on. This information, however, is subject to change as there may be more undocumented cases in Lagos and across other states,” the NGO said.
#EndSARS JUDICIAL PANELS OF INQUIRY
In response to one of the #5For5 demands, the National Economic Council (NEC) chaired by the vice-president directed the establishment of judicial panels of inquiry by state governors in Nigeria to investigate complaints of police brutality and extra-judicial killings.
In compliance with the directive, 29 states and the FCT set up judicial panels of inquiry with over 2791 petitions received.
However, despite the directive, seven states — Borno, Jigawa, Kano, Kebbi, Sokoto, Yobe, and Zamfara States — did not establish the panels.
Over the past one year, 25 states — Abia, Adamawa, Akwa Ibom, Bauchi, Bayelsa, Cross River, Delta, Ebonyi, Edo, Ekiti, Gombe, Imo, Kaduna, Katsina, Kwara, Lagos, Nasarawa, Niger, Ogun, Ondo, Osun, Oyo, Plateau, Rivers and Taraba — have concluded sittings. But only Abia, Bayelsa, Cross River, Ekiti, Ondo and Nasarawa state judicial panels of inquiry have submitted and publicly presented reports to the state governments for the implementation of their recommendations. Bayelsa, Ekiti and Ondo are the only states of which reports are available to the public.
Four states — Anambra, Benue, Enugu, Kogi, and the FCT — suspended sitting for reasons that could not be independently verified by TheCable, causing delay in justice and leaving many petitioners stranded.
COMPENSATION OF VICTIMS BUT NO PROSECUTION OF CULPABLE OFFICERS
Monetary compensations have been awarded by the judicial panels set up in different states to victims of police brutality.
However, some petitioners have complained that the sums are paltry compared to the ill-treatment they suffered.
A petitioner who was awarded the sum of N7.5 million had caused an uproar at the panel sitting, saying the money was not enough.
The petitioner, who is a shop owner at Alaba international market, had told the panel how officers of the now-disbanded SARS came to his shop in 2018 and threw him from a two-storeyed building, leaving his spinal cord damaged.
Only mobile with the aid of a wheelchair, the petitioner said he spent more than N30 million to treat himself, adding that his shop has become empty.
According to a statement issued by Laolu Akande, spokesperson to the vice-president, at a meeting held on Friday, National Economic Council (NEC) said the federal government and states will set up modalities for the settlement of compensations awarded to victims of police brutality.
The council also directed state governors to immediately forward copies of final reports of the panels to their attorneys-general for prompt arraignment and prosecution of all indicted persons.
However, a source who was a member of one of the judicial panels told TheCable that tracking down some of the indicted police officers has been difficult. He said while some petitioners cannot identify specific officers who brutalised them, the police also could not provide the whereabouts of some of their officers.
The Cable
When Adesola heard about the shooting at the Lekki toll gate in Lagos on October 20, 2020, she immediately thought of her son who had earlier left home to join the hundreds of young people protesting against police brutality at the site.
In a blind panic, she called his phone, but there was no answer. She immediately hailed a passing motorcycle taxi, known locally as an Okada, and raced to the scene.
But nothing could have prepared her for the harrowing scenes she witnessed when she got there, she said.
"While I was looking for my son... I saw people running and someone was in the gutter and had an iron bar in his eye. The person was already dead," she recalled.
One year on from the shooting by security forces that quashed Nigeria's fledgling youth protest movement, known as #EndSARS, Adesola (not her real name) is speaking to CNN on the condition of anonymity, for fear of recriminations.
We have also withheld her son's name at her request.
"We got there around 5 or 6 am," she said in her first sit-down interview. "We saw a lot of people. There was a child holding a Nigerian flag lying dead, there was a bullet wound on the side of his body.
"He was a small boy and there were a lot of people there," she told CNN from a makeshift wooden structure where she ekes out a living selling cold beverages.
'He died in my arms'
As Adesola surveyed the scenes of chaos and stepped over the hastily discarded belongings of panicked protesters, she spotted a familiar figure lying in a pool of blood on the ground, wearing just one shoe.
"When I saw my son, I shouted and held him... The blood was too much, there was a bullet wound on his chest. His clothes were torn and the bullet had come out of his back," she said, weeping as she recounted the painful moment.
Despite his injuries, she discovered her son was still alive.
"I saw other people carrying their relatives, so I tried to carry him because he was still breathing at that moment. I called for help and people came to help me put him in a vehicle," she said.
"He was looking at us while we were carrying him. He was just screaming 'ah, ah,' in pain."
They tried desperately to revive him in the car, but he didn't make it, she told CNN.
"He died in my arms," Adesola said. "I was shouting and I couldn't keep calm."
Her son was buried almost immediately in line with Muslim burial rites.
He was 32 and left behind two children, 14 and nine, who had also lost their mother in undisclosed circumstances a few years earlier.
No official death toll
Adesola says she is thankful she was able to find her son's body. Others were not so fortunate.
CNN spoke to several families during an investigation last year who were yet to locate the bodies of their missing loved ones -- protesters at the toll gate -- who dozens of eyewitnesses say were shot at, first by members of the Nigerian army and then hours later by police.
Wisdom Okon's relatives told CNN last year he went missing after he went to the toll gate. He is still missing.
Witnesses told CNN that ambulances were stopped from entering by Nigerian authorities.
There is no official death toll, but an Amnesty International investigation found that at least 12 people died at Lekki toll gate and another site on October 20.
Eyewitnesses told CNN they saw the army remove a number of bodies from the scene.
The CNN investigation pieced together what happened when the Nigerian army and later the police opened fire on civilians as they protested police brutality.
It used time stamps, video data, and geolocation to analyze hours of video shot by protesters -- tracking the army's movements to the Lekki toll gate where protests had been taking place for almost two weeks.
Video shot by an eyewitness appears to show the army shooting toward the crowd. The Nigerian government threatened to sanction CNN for its report.
The Nigerian Army's account of what happened has shifted over time.
In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the army denied any involvement, describing reports of the incident as "fake news," before backtracking and saying that soldiers were present but fired their weapons in the air and used blanks.
It said that hoodlums were mixed into the crowds of protesters.
On November 14, during a judicial inquiry into the shooting, army representative Brigadier Ahmed Taiwo (who has since been promoted to the rank of major general) admitted that the soldiers at the scene had live rounds but continued to deny that anyone was shot.
"There's no way officers and men will kill their brothers and sisters. I repeat no way. We have those who constantly seek to drive a wedge between us and between the citizens of Nigeria...," he said at the time.
Protesters and witnesses posted several videos in which bullet casings were displayed which they say were recovered from the scene.
At the time of the incident, police denied shooting anyone.
CNN has made renewed attempts to obtain comments for this latest report from the Nigerian armed forces, police, and the federal government, but has received no response.
A protest movement silenced
The #EndSARS protests lasted for nearly two weeks in October 2020 before they were silenced by the shooting at the Lekki toll gate.
Angry young Nigerians took to the streets, blocking major roads across cities in Africa's most populous nation, in largely peaceful protests. They marched in tens of thousands chanting "Enough is Enough" against police brutality and violence.
Their initial demands were for a notorious police unit known as the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, or SARS, to be shut down, but the marches morphed into protests campaigning for police reform and an end to bad governance in the oil-rich country.
During the protests, participants erected tents and DJ booths at various sites across the country and held multi-faith prayer sessions as well as a "festival of lights," to honor the victims of police brutality, held at the now-infamous Lekki toll gate.
Adesola questions why the protesters were dispersed with such brutal force that night.
"Even if the government wanted to chase them from the place, they were not supposed to shoot. They could have asked them to stop and not shoot. Everyone could have found their way."
Adesola says her son took part in the protests as "a concerned Nigerian," and in what would be their final phone call, he described a scene of calm where people were protesting peacefully and had come prepared to camp overnight.
"All his mates had been going there and when he came back from work on that day, he said he was going to join his friends. When he got there, he called me and said a lot of people were there. Some were sleeping there with their mattress and had brought their cooking gas. If the soldiers did not come, things would have gone well without any problems," she said.
No accountability
One year on from the Lekki toll gate shootings, and no one has taken responsibility for what happened that night, nor has anyone been held to account.
In a short report released Tuesday, titled "Nigeria: A Year On, No Justice for #EndSARS Crackdown," Human Rights Watch said: "The prospects for accountability remain inconclusive and bleak. Nigerian authorities should take concrete and decisive steps to ensure that those implicated in abuses against protesters are held accountable."
The judicial hearing set up in October 2020 by the Lagos state government to look into cases of police brutality -- and the now-disbanded Special Anti-Robbery Squad -- and to investigate the tollgate incident has been beset with delays and other issues.
Last month, it abruptly suspended sitting, saying it did not have enough time to complete its reports on the cases, including the Lekki shooting. It reopened briefly a few weeks later to hear additional testimonies and ended its sitting Monday. However, its report is still being prepared.
"Nigeria's authorities should take effective steps toward accountability to show victims that their loss, pain, and suffering is not in vain," said Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch.
"Anything less will worsen distrust of the government and reinforce the perception that the lives of citizens do not matter."
Many Nigerians believe the issues that drew the protests 12 months ago still persist -- and those who were there that fateful night are still seeking justice.
DJ Switch, a local musician whose real name is Obianuju Catherine Udeh, was at the protest and live-streamed much of the evening on her Instagram page.
A year later she recalls how she thought they were all going to die. "I thought it was the end for all of us there. You know, I mean when you sing the national anthem and wave your flag, your Nigerian flag, and the shooting doesn't stop, you only have one thought left in your mind," she said.
Soon after the shootings, DJ Switch says she had to flee Nigeria, afraid for her safety, and she hasn't been back since.
"Justice is there waiting to be done, who's going to do it? Young people are asking every day for accountability, who's willing to be responsible -- to take responsibility," she said.
Now Adesola is picking up the pieces after her eldest son's death.
Asked what she would say if she could talk directly to the Nigerian government, she said: "I will say to them the same thing I am saying to you.
"I cannot be lying about my child's death. I will show them his grave."
CNN
We tend to think innovators should fit a certain profile, one that looks suspiciously close to the innovators we most admire, write about, and study. We’ve seen Jeff Bezos with his clean-shaven head and shades or Steve Job’s signature black turtleneck and jeans. Richard Branson upset corporate suit culture with his relaxed, casual attire. It may seem that a world class innovator is supposed to challenge the status quo, care little about what others think of them, and act like a larger-than-life character.
But the truth is actually far different. If you are not the kind of person who likes to break things, wear hoodies or black turtlenecks, or who likes to jump out of planes, worry not. The habits and profiles of true innovators are likely to look a lot more like you.
I studied every academic paper I could find that showed a statistically significant correlation between an individual’s character traits and their success at innovating. These studies focused particularly on intrapreneurship because, research shows, intrapreneurs are the source of 70% of society’s most impactful innovations.
Six traits emerge. They paint a picture of an innovator who is surprisingly different than the person you might expect. In fact, they may look a lot like what you see in the mirror.
How employee innovators differ from entrepreneurs
Intrapreneurs aren’t just entrepreneurs who get their paychecks from a larger organization. The specific challenges you face while trying to launch innovative new ideas at work differ in a few significant ways:
You likely have two (or more) jobs, not one. You’ll need to continue your ongoing responsibilities while setting aside time and focus to pursue new opportunities.
You have one investor (your company), not forty. Entrepreneurs can shop their idea around to different investors to seek funding. You have only one funder to impress, and you’ll need to understand the types of ideas your company will support, choose the best option, and pitch it to them perfectly.
You may not be involved in the start to finish process of your business idea. Entrepreneurs lead the effort from conception to realization. You’ll probably run one leg of a relay race and pass the baton.
You can scale more quickly. Entrepreneurs might move nimbly to launch ideas, but they often struggle to scale. It may take the intrapreneur longer to get their idea approved, but then they have the resources to grow it much faster.
What it takes to successfully launch ideas
What is it about the best employee innovators that make them successful? Research supports that, first and foremost, they are people who seize opportunities. They do so by doing four things well:
Discover new opportunities
Evaluate and choose which opportunities to pursue
Act autonomously to move on those opportunities
Find the capital and talents needed and rally those resources
What kind of person does it take to do those things well? What makes a successful innovator, and can their qualities be learned and emulated? A few of today’s leaders in innovation offer some crucial advice:
Research shows that traditional entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs share three critical attributes:
1. Innovativeness: They explore new approaches and solutions rather than following the accepted way of doing things. According to David Schonthal, clinical professor of innovation and entrepreneurship at Northwestern University and coauthor of the upcoming book, The Human Element, this is the most important quality. “One’s ability to spot opportunities and new paths, especially in the face of constraint, will always be a durable competitive advantage,” he says.
2. Market and competitive awareness: They keep the pulse on their competitors, customers, and industry and have a drive to help their company win. World-renowned business advisor, author, and speaker, Ram Charan, explains “There are three questions [business leaders] are asked continuously: What is the future opportunity? What is it [customers] need? And what is it they do not have? After re-evaluating and discussing, they decide where to devote their energy and where to take risks.”
3. Proactivity: They take action on their own before anyone asks or tells them to. These individuals view challenging events as opportunities rather than obstacles. Successful intrapreneur, Jean Feiwel of MacMillan Publishing, told me, “It’s not that I don’t see the problems that could happen, it’s that I see more of the opportunity.”
So in these three ways, entrepreneurs and intrapreneurs are similar. But the same body of research shows successful intrapreneurs exhibit three other characteristics that differentiate them from entrepreneurs and make them uniquely qualified to take on the challenge of innovating within an organization.
4. Strategic approach to risk: It’s no surprise that entrepreneurs are risk seekers. Just like Elon Musk sold PayPal and invested nearly all of his wealth to launch SpaceX, they’re willing to risk their capital and reputation on the innovations they believe in. But internal innovators think differently—they are actually very deliberate about the risks they take. They excel at analyzing their surroundings and then taking calculated risks.
In his new book, David Schonthal offers advice on persuading organizations to accept risk. “One way to overcome the ‘anxiety of the new’ (risk) is to shrink the size of the problem you are addressing,” he says. He shares the story of Public Digital, a UK-based consulting firm that helps large, legacy organizations transition to the digital era. “How does a firm like Public Digital get legacy organizations to modernize? Their secret is to start small. Rather than asking organizations about their goals for ‘digital transformation,’ which implies sweeping change, Public Digital consultants ask them only about the next important thing they would like to accomplish. Then they use that small project as an opportunity to demonstrate the value of taking a new, digital-first approach.”
5. Political acumen: A study of 100 “serial innovators” found that the key trait that separated successful internal innovators from frustrated ones was that they view the political challenge as an exciting part of the problem-solving process. I interviewed author and corporate innovation expert, Tendayi Viki, who warns against taking a disruptor or rebel approach. “A lot of corporate innovators adopt those behaviors from the entrepreneurship culture and bring them into the corporate space, but it doesn’t really work. It creates unnecessary hurdles.” He suggests keeping it simple: “Create something customers like and sell the idea. You don’t need to add extra hurdles of people that are actively rooting for you to fail because you carry yourself around like Elon Musk… It’s more important to be collaborative; build bridges and that increases the likelihood of success.”
6. Motivation: Even the greatest internal innovators will face significant barriers along the path of innovation. Sometimes these barriers are so discouraging that people simply give up. Others keep going, finding a way around each obstacle. Successful innovators draw upon their passion, purpose, and drive to pursue their ideas. Performance expert, Lindsay McGregor, breaks down an employee’s ‘total motivation’ into three direct motives: “The play that you feel in your work, the purpose you find in it, and the potential you see for outcomes like career advancement.” Improve your motivation score by focusing on these three areas.
These six qualities may not be obvious at first glance, but they make all the difference in whether an employee has the potential to generate and execute their best creative ideas. To bolster your chances of success, carefully consider the extent to which you embrace each of these characteristics and determine which areas you might improve.
Fast Company