The investigations carried out by agencies may include interviewing relevant witnesses and reviewing documents. Some investigation may include scientific testing.

In Nigeria, some regulatory agencies are usually partisan while conducting their investigations, thus such anomaly requires an urgent cross-examination by the apt authority.

Furthermore, after the investigation, the agency would make a decision, demand any corrective action if necessary as well as impose any appropriate penalty on the offender as authorized by the law.

It’s noteworthy that a firm or an individual possesses a right to appeal any decision made by an agency. Most times, an agency’s decision is appealed through the agency that rendered the decision, which is known as an administrative appeal. Sometimes, such appeals can be handled by the effort of a special court.

It was the late great philosopher Socrates that said “An unexamined life isn’t worth living”. Taking a painstaking study of the federal and state governments’ agencies in Nigeria, particularly the former, it’s needless to reiterate that most of these agencies or commissions, especially those established to exercise regulatory functions, are seriously crying for a compelling review or reexamination towards achieving a more effective and efficient productivity. This is where the prime essence of the above topic lies.

To this end, it’s high time the concerned authorities domiciled in Nigeria reviewed most of the laws guiding these agencies so they could make amends if need be.

Aside the conventional agencies, the regulatory ones such as, but not limited to, the National Drug law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), and the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) were set up to assist the government in the enforcement of severe laws that otherwise could not be properly enforced.

However, it’s appalling and pathetic to note that most of these agencies, rather than doing the needful, end up doing otherwise in the long run owing to corruption.

Nigeria could boast of an agency like the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), still, plagiarism prevails in the country and is currently on the rampage. This sounds not unlike a paradox, but it’s real.

It’s not anymore news that most of these agencies have been characterized by several uncalled-for factors including partisanship, favouritism, mediocrity, and what have you.

These constituted bodies are meant to be independent in the discharge of their lawful duties, but on the contrary, in most cases you would observe they dance to the tune of most influential Nigerians or corporate organizations, thereby abusing the laws or principles on which they were founded.

Inter alia, some similar federal agencies like the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related crimes Commission (ICPC) alongside the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) and the Standards Organization of Nigeria (SON) are meant to be merged headlong, respectively.

On the other hand, a few others currently incapacitated or no longer in vogue ought to be scrapped or better still, embedded in other related agencies, towards enabling space for creation of new ones presently needed by the country to function effectively.

Currently, Nigeria is arguably yearning for establishment of bodies to include commission as well as tribunal for electoral violence that would tremendously assist the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in fighting crimes occasioned by political unrest.

In the same vein, agencies like the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) ought to be strengthened or even scrapped. For instance, the Skill Acquisition and Entrepreneurship Development (SAED) programme currently taking place in the scheme should be made compulsory by the management, especially at this point the country is deeply concerned about uplifting entrepreneurship among her young ones or the citizenry at large.

It’s worthy to note that most of the corps members dodge the said programme in the process, thus the management of the agency needs to deploy a device toward ensuring every corps member participates actively in the programme.

Above all, there’s a need for the leaders of all the existing federal agencies in Nigeria to regularly read the riot act to their entire staff or personnel, so they would be conscious of the rules at all costs. The state owned ones should also follow suit.

More so, in their oversight functions, the legislatures of both the federal and state governments, as the case may be, are expected to from time to time, summon the leadership of any agency to their chambers whenever skepticism arises or if they sensed any foul play.

The time is conspicuously ripe to holistically review these existing agencies in Nigeria toward greater nationhood. 

This is a borderline short for me on Tekedia. I was thinking it was too simplistic and maybe just deserved direct to LinkedIn, but, here we are!

I had recently contributed online to a post by a recruiter, Inez Willeboordse holistically serving the African Market. The issue pertained to start-ups.

This caused me to divert to considering the thought processes individual investors go through when considering where, and with who, and what, to invest with.

Clearly there are obvious things, such as whether they intend to be an active or passive investor, and if active, how the prospect sits within their own expertise.

I then began to think about a program called ‘Dragons Den’ which is a global franchise with different versions running in different countries. The one I seem to get to see most regularly is the UK based one.

One theme that seems to surface again and again, is when ‘Dragons’ find there has been investors that got in earlier and more ‘cheaply’.

I’m copying a fairly ‘calm’ episode here, but there have been previous episodes where Dragons have used the word ‘insulted’ to describe situations where ‘early investors’ have got ‘more for less’, or so it may seem.

The reality is however that investment is consummate with reward/ROI timetable and risk.

It isn’t reasonable to compare the risk taken by ‘wing and a prayer’ angel investors, with ones that are later supplied with some level of data around revenue and market traction.

Peter Jones: You’ve already given these guys 15% for 75k (pounds)!

Entrepreneurs: That was at the very first stages… we have significantly de-risked it since.

Albeit that the Dragons Den program is to some extent similar to things like X Factor and The Apprentice, (50% reality but 50% theatre) but at the end of the day, investors are still playing with their own money.

But we all know there is a difference between seed/pre-seed, angel, series A series B and other types of investors.

It is important that investors understand the stage of development a business opportunity is at, regardless of whether on or off camera. They should not try to compare themselves with investors that entered during different ’rounds’, with different data, and less convincing data to support the case for investment.

The illustration by Kunal Shah says it all. Just substitute ‘Nike Shoes’ with ‘Investment’

Mr. Obinna Iyegbu has been actively winning the love and support of the public through his philanthropic acts recently; shutting up his critics asking him that  he ought to have used the money he lavished and squandered in his mother’s burial to engage in a venture that will benefit the general  public the most.

It made the news at first that he gave a million Naira each to a huge number of youths in his village to support their businesses and hustles.  He also built and dedicated a church, a mansion of a building for his community. He also picked an interest in a boy hawking sachet water but was gracious enough to share money out of the little he had to prisoners in transit. 

The last news trending of Obi Cubana’s philanthropy is the building of the “Afor Oba Road” linking the city center to his village. 

Recall that Mr. Obinna Iyegbu, the founder and chief executive officer of the Cubana Group, a conglomerate that engages in entertainment and hospitality business and also real estate and hotels became the subject of public discuss for the whole of second quarter of 2021 after he hosted the burial of his later mother. Since then, he has been both the subject of praise and admiration and also the subject of criticism and investigation.

He has been and is still being investigated for financial fraud and money laundering by the men of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), he is still a subject of an ongoing investigation for drug trafficking and running of a drug empire by the men of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA).