Notice: Function _load_textdomain_just_in_time was called incorrectly. Translation loading for the wordpress-seo domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home/bcm/src/dev/www/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6121 Stephen Agwaibor, Author at Zikoko! | Page 2 of 6
Here’s how politics generally works. A seat is up for grabs. Different candidates contest that seat. This process involves campaigning, lobbying, media appearances, endorsements, promises, and, of course, money. A political campaign, be it for newbies or career politicians, involves telling people about your past achievements and why it’d make a fine precursor for the goodies you have for them should they elect you to office. Naturally, not everyone will buy your story—you’re in a contest, after all.
Here’s how politics works if you’re Godswill Akpabio. You’re a lawyer and former two-term governor of one of Nigeria’s oil-rich states, Akwa Ibom. Despite raising controversy by decamping from the party that brought you into politics, you’ve done well for yourself and are now a serving senator. But you’re not content with just that. You want to be Senate President, and now you find yourself in a stiff contest as other politicians are eyeing that juicy position. So what do you do?
You get endorsements from former colleagues
While Akpabio hasn’t officially declared for the seat yet, the Cable reported earlier in May that Akpabio received endorsements for Senate President from 72 ex-senators. The outgoing governor of Kano State, Abdullahi Ganduje, also said it was a settled matter. His words:
“The senate president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria will come from the south-south, and it is no other person than the former governor of Akwa Ibom. The uncommon governor is the uncommon minister who will be the uncommon president of the Senate. So we have resolved that.
I am giving you assurance. We are waiting for the D-Day that he will be the senate president of Nigeria.”
If you’re Akpabio, that should be job done then, right? Not quite. Akpabio, more than anyone, knows how slippery Nigerian politics is. He was in the Senate when Bukola Saraki engineered an audacious coup that saw him emerge, against all expectations, as the eighth Senate President. Besides, he won’t be swayed by the assurance of Ganduje, who boasted about winning Kano State for Bola Ahmed Tinubu only to fall flat on his face.
[Before]
[After]
Lobby from outside your party
Akpabio has reached out across party lines to get support for his Senate Presidency ambition. On May 18, Vanguard reported that Akpabio held meetings with the leadership of the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP). The LP has eight senators, while the NNPP has two. The PDP, which he decamped from, has the second-highest number of senators, with 36.
Overall, the Nigerian Senate has 109 senators. Out of that number, the APC has 59 senators. To win, you need to earn the highest number of votes. However, because Akpabio faces competition from within his party, he can’t rely on just his party’s votes. This explains his intense lobbying.
Ask Nigerians to forgive and forget your recent past
Akpabio’s most recent gig was his appointment as Minister for Niger Delta Affairs between 2019 and 2022, when he resigned in his failed bid to run for president. Akpabio, however, doesn’t have fond memories of his time as minister. He wants Nigerians not to judge him based on his performance there. His words:
“I do know that I have not changed in any way. God has given me the opportunity to be an uncommon transformer wherever I go. I will not like to be judged by ministerial appointment for Niger Delta, which everybody knows is a problematic place. But I would like to be judged by my record as a lawyer of 36 years, commissioner of six years and a governor of eight years.”
Who will tell Akpabio that that’s not how politics works? And why do Nigerian politicians think they can wave a wand and expect us to forget their misdeeds? It’s giving Buhari, who wants Nigerians to remember him fondly while turning a blind eye to his failures in governance, security, and the economy.
In July 2020, Akpabio appeared before the House of Representatives Committee on Niger Delta in a forensic audit hearing of ₦81.5bn spent by his ministry. He was accused of misappropriating the funds. Akpabio, in his defence, said most of the people who benefitted from contracts from his ministry were National Assembly members. As soon as that revelation was made, a committee member interjected and told Akpabio on live TV to “off your mic.”
This is Nigeria anyway, so there’s no prize for guessing how that has played out. Ultimately, it’s in the public interest to know about the person who might become the number three man in Nigeria. And against the recommendation of Nigerian politicians, we won’t “off our mic” just like that on Akpabio’s past.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Itunuoluwa Awolu, a lawyer and the fundraising director at the Headfort Foundation, an NGO focused on providing free and easy access to justice to indigent and wrongly incarcerated inmates, victims of police brutality, and minor offenders. She shared her thoughts on the Nigerian correctional system and how it can be reformed.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss the Nigerian experience with little interference from individual opinions. While our editorial standards emphasise the truth and endeavour to fact-check claims and allegations, we are not responsible for allegations made about other people based on half-truths.
Icebreaker. Have you ever heard of Citizen and the work we do?
Yeah, of course I have. And I’ve gone through some of your stories and interviews. You guys like interviewing people about relatable occurrences or things affecting their communities. And that’s one thing I love about Zikoko Citizen, bringing the media to the people.
I think that’s crazy. It’s crazy in the sense that if you look at the work that we do at Headfort Foundation and the inmates for whom we’ve secured their freedom, the stories that are shared as regards their experience in prison make it unbelievable to think that amount of money is put into the correctional system.
How do we have that kind of budget and see people with different health issues when they come out of correctional facilities? You hear them complain about starvation. The food they receive is so poor that you wouldn’t even give it to animals.
The Minister of Interior must explain precisely how that money is spent. To think that that amount of money is put into feeding almost sounds too good to be true, but I’m not going to categorically say that it’s a lie because I’m not in the system. But from the reviews and reports we’ve gotten from inmates who have interacted with our foundation, it’s unbelievable.
Interesting. Do you want to tell us more about what Headfort does and how it started?
Yes, Headfort Foundation started in March 2019. We provide easy access to justice through different means, such as providing free legal services to poor people who can’t afford to engage the services of a lawyer.
We also integrate the rehabilitation process for inmates after securing their freedom. Also, we sensitise the Nigerian public about their rights. We raise awareness about the effects of police brutality, how to engage with police officers, police-community relations, and the consequences of crime. We adopt different practical approaches.
Since we started in 2019, we’ve secured the freedom of 445 persons for free. We also have a mobile app called Lawyers NowNow that connects citizens with lawyers. So if you’re in Lagos, for example, and require a pro bono lawyer, you can use the app to contact us. If you have a case at the police station or are due in court and need legal advice, you can contact us.
How does Heardfort Foundation help people who are unjustly arrested or facing incarceration? Please share the process. I’d like to know how you advocate for their rights and provide them with legal representation.
Every month, we go for prison visitations to take on cases of people who meet our set criteria because it’s not everyone we can take on—legal services must be paid for. But we try to optimise for people languishing in custody because they are poor, illiterate, or unjustly arrested. We ensure that we take up their cases and secure their freedom, which is our way of providing justice for them. Then we also have mobile offices in some courts in Lagos and Ogun states.
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Unfortunately, yes. And it’s not just peculiar to Nigeria. It shouldn’t be so, but when you look at Nigeria, some other African countries, and even across the world, the issue of over-congestion is a big deal. This is why we have different enactments regarding fundamental human rights. Fundamental human rights should be respected, such as the right to dignity. Inhumane and degrading treatments shouldn’t occur in correctional centres because they’re congested.
When you look at the percentage of inmates in correctional facilities creating this congestion, you’ll see that many of them are awaiting trial, or pretrial detainees, as they’re referred to in other climes.
Now bringing it back to Nigeria. This has been the reality for decades, and although the government has tried, the issue persists. A correctional facility was built to take 4,000 inmates but is housing 9,000. And if you check the category of these inmates, not all are convicts. Many of them are pretrial detainees. This means their trials haven’t even commenced in court; they’re just there languishing in custody, and no one’s sure they’d be found guilty.
From our work at Hertford Foundation, we’ve seen cases where people spent eight years, 11 years in prison. I think 11 years has been our highest number. Eleven years in custody without trial.
Wawu
Someone goes to the police station to report a case, or the police pick up people, and then, due to the high level of corruption, you see that people are taken to court over frivolous charges, and there’s no evidence to back it up. There’s no way to prove that this person has committed the crime for which they’re being charged. Then they remain in custody because there’s no way they’ll start the trial without evidence against them.
You find out that the justice system is a prolonged one in Nigeria. The judges are trying, but they’re also limited. You go to some courts and see judges with 40, 50 cases to adjudicate daily. When the judge gives an adjournment, it can last months.
So in a year, someone in custody may only appear three or four times before a judge. Before you know it, a person would’ve spent five or ten years awaiting trial.
My goodness
When the trial eventually commences, closing the case can take another five or 10 years. And this affects the entire justice system because the courts and wardens are overwhelmed while inmates suffer.
Imagine someone is charged with an offence punishable by one month of imprisonment, and then this person has spent three or four years. How’s that justice?
You’ve raised issues worth pondering. What would you recommend?
Importantly, correctional centres are made for rehabilitation and reformation purposes. As such, in Nigeria, we’ve been trying to lean towards that model to ensure that people aren’t kept just for the sake of custody. They should be reformed and reintegrated into the society. We’re still lagging here.
I recommend that now that we have the correctional service under the concurrent list, states can, hopefully, have the financial capacity to build and run their correctional service centres. This way, we’d solve this overcrowding problem, eliminating all these challenges of health issues among inmates. It would also address fears of hardened criminals influencing one-time offenders or innocent ones.
I also recommend the use of restorative justice and non-custodial sentences. Not every offender needs to go to a correctional centre. The system can then adequately cater to those who need rehabilitation and reformation.
Let’s talk about the issue of jailbreaks. We’ve had a spike in those recently, with escaped inmates unaccounted for. What are your thoughts?
With technological advancement happening in the financial system and other sectors, you’d find out that we’re still lagging in technology regarding the justice system and even our security agencies. This, in turn, affects the correctional service centres—there’s no data.
When you want to calculate the estimated number of part-time inmates in custody, the general public doesn’t have that data. Unless the Minister of Interior or their spokespersons say, we have 75k people and must work with whatever they say. So when you have a jailbreak, like in Edo State or Lagos State during the COVID-19 pandemic, where some facilities got burned, and data in files not backed up are lost, these questions come up. Many inmates in custody have their files missing.
Whew
These are the challenges. For example, the burned facilities have been renovated in Lagos, but can they regenerate the lost data? So when there’s a jailbreak and inmates escape, the lack of adequate data means it’ll be difficult to recover them. Those apprehended probably had issues finding a place to go or no money to transport themselves out of the state. It’s also easy for the authorities to pick up people wandering about. They’ll return them and say they were part of the escaped inmates. This happens because there’s no data to guarantee that these people picked up were the same as those who escaped.
We must inculcate technology into our data collection and stop making it secretive. This applies to law enforcement agents at correctional service centres who can be secretive. There’s secrecy around the available data they have, which even extends to when you go for prison visitation.
As much as we want to protect data, we should also be able to ascertain that whenever we need data for the inmates or for whatever legal purpose, we’ll access it.
The Nigerian Prison Service has changed its name to the Nigerian Correctional Service, suggesting a reformatory model. Yet Nigeria still practises capital punishment. Over 3,000 Nigerian inmates are on death row. What are your thoughts on this?
Beyond changing the name from the Nigerian Prison Service to the Nigerian Correctional Service, the Nigerian Correctional Service Act was also passed into law [in 2019].
One of the recommendations was to make a provision for inmates on death row to have their sentencing commuted to life imprisonment. This is for situations where a person has spent over 10 years in custody.
So if, after 10 years of sentencing someone to death, that person remains in custody, appeals have been made to either the Court of Appeal or the Supreme Court, and this person is awaiting execution, the Chief Judge of that state has the duty of commuting the death sentence to life imprisonment. That’s what that Act has done.
Hmmmm…
I understand that since we now have a correctional centre, people on death row should be forgiven and the death penalty removed. However, I think the death penalty remains necessary to instill fear in other people who are yet to be caught and to make them understand that the punishment for this grave crime is death.
I think that’s why the death penalty still exists. Most times, you rarely even see governors assent to the death penalty being carried out. So you see many people awaiting the execution of their sentences, but the governors are not ready to implement them. The essence of it is to deter. Although it’s also true that we’re still holding on to archaic and pre-colonial beliefs that instituted the death penalty, we still don’t believe that for grievous offences, the death penalty should be removed because it’s going to pass the message that the worst that can happen is remaining in custody for many years.
I think that if, after 10 years, the death penalty can be commuted to life imprisonment, why not just remove the death penalty? And let’s have life imprisonment as the maximum sentence. But I also understand the perspective of people who are victims of grievous crimes. When you see someone who’s killed, say, 30 or 40 people, it’s hard to argue to the victims’ families that such people are entitled to remain in custody, breathing and enjoying the right to life.
Robust response there. Tell us about female inmates. Do they suffer similar indignities as male inmates in Nigerian correctional facilities?
I’ll say no, they don’t. I mean, they don’t face the level of pain or degrading, inhumane treatment their male counterparts face. First of all, female prisons are rarely congested. In Nigeria, we have over 75,000 inmates in custody, and over 73,000 are male. And then we have like 1,600 or so who are female. So it means the female correctional facilities are not congested; they’ve been managed well. Because they’re a limited number, the staff can take care of them. Even if significant rehabilitation or reformation is not being done, they’re at least able to enjoy some rights better than their male counterparts.
They face fewer health challenges and get relatively better medical care than male inmates.
How does the Headfort Foundation raise funds, and how can we help?
Fundraising is still a significant challenge for us, especially considering the scale of our work at the foundation. We provide free legal services for many people with our limited resources. This means there’s also a limit to the number of people we can help.
Every quarter, we organise fundraising online, whereby we have donation links that we share on all of our social media platforms. We seek support from people to donate to us so we can continue to do our work. The operation is vital.
We also look for organisations and individuals to partner with us and help sponsor our projects. Headfort Foundation holds sensitisation programs, mentorship and rehabilitation programs, and vocational training as a means for our beneficiaries to gain employment. We connect them with employers and even provide scholarships for them. And for those with business ideas, we give them financial support to start up or continue from where they stopped before incarceration. We also provide accommodation facilities for some of them who have accommodation challenges.
As I mentioned, we go on prison visitations to support inmates and provide essential items like toiletries, food, and books. But none of these can happen without support from partners and everyday Nigerians like you. A little donation can go a long way.
[You can learn more about what the Headfort Foundation does here. If you’d like to support the Headfort Foundation financially, use the Flutterwave donation link here.]
On May 8, 2023, a Twitter user with the handle @GoziconC claimed that the lawyers defending Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the secessionist group the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) now in custody, are the same as those of Labour Party presidential candidate, Peter Obi, at the ongoing presidential tribunal proceedings.
The user followed up his claim with a photo of Obi in conversation with some lawyers in court. As of the time of writing, the tweet has been viewed over 412k times.
A self-acclaimed leader of the IPOB, Simon Ekpa, also tweeted on May 9, 2023, that Mike Ozekhome (SAN), who is Nnamdi Kanu’s counsel and appears in the photo above, is part of Obi’s legal team.
11th May is the court of MNK, Ozekhome is part of @PeterObi legal team, and Obi’s election tribunal is on the same date 11th May. I Hope Ejiofor will not be left alone to mess the case up again. I have ask this question internally and i am waiting for update.
On Wait First, we divide claims into three categories. A valid claim is a fresh banana. A false claim is burnt dodo. And a misleading claim is cold zobo.
Fact-checkers at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD-West Africa) examined this claim. Here’s what they found:
In January 2022, following his apprehension by the Nigerian government, Nnamdi Kanu appointed Mike Ozekhome as his lead counsel in his case against the FG. Ifeanyi Ejiofor, one of Kanu’s lawyers, also confirmed this.
Is Mike Ozekhome representing Peter Obi at the Election Tribunal?
“The election petition prepared by Obi’s legal team includes a list of the legal practitioners representing the petitioner. Mike Ozekhome’s name does not appear on the list.
“We, however, found Ozekhome to be among the legal team of Atiku Abubakar, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), which was inaugurated in March 2023. The team included his name in the petition that was submitted.
“Further investigation revealed that Ozekhome and Atiku have had a clientele relationship since 2017. He is also currently representing the latter in the alleged money laundering case filed by Festus Keyamo.
The claim that lawyers representing Peter Obi at the presidential election tribunal also represent Nnamdi Kanu is burnt dodo. It’s false.
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When you’ve figured out how to get recruited into the Nigerian Army, knowing the ranks is also important. The Nigerian Army is one of three components of the Nigerian Armed Forces responsible for safeguarding Nigeria’s land. The other two are the Nigerian Navy, which protects Nigeria’s waters, and the Nigerian Airforce, which maintains control over our airspace. They collectively ensure Nigeria’s territorial integrity and shield the nation from external and internal threats.
Let’s dig into how the army is ranked. In this article, we’ve compiled all you need to know about the ranks in the Nigerian Army.
History of Army ranks
The Nigerian Army has a fascinating history that can be traced back to 1863, when Lt. Glover, a British Naval officer, established “Glover’s Hausas.” This small group of runaway slaves played a crucial role in protecting British trade routes by embarking on expeditions into the hinterland. Over time, this led to the formation of the West African Frontier Force, which eventually gave birth to the Nigerian Army as we know it today.
The badges of rank in the Nigerian Army draw inspiration from their British counterparts, with one notable difference. Instead of the British crown, officers with the rank of Major and above proudly wear the Nigerian eagle from the Coat of Arms on their insignia. It’s a symbolic representation of the country’s identity and heritage.
While titles may be considered ranks in certain armies, they often signify specific appointments in the Nigerian Army. These appointments can range from ceremonial and honorary roles to positions of authority and responsibility within the organisation.
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Commissioned officers ranking
The Nigerian Army has commissioned officers who are graduates of military academies. There are 11 rankings for commissioned officers. They are below:
Second Lieutenant
[Second Lieutenant / Wikipedia]
The second lieutenant is the lowest commissioned officer rank in the Nigerian Army. Officers with this insignia bear one star.
Highest monthly salary: ₦187,159
Lowest monthly salary: ₦173,156
Lieutenant
[Lieutenant/ Wikipedia]
The next rank is the lieutenant. Officers on this rank carry two stars on their insignia.
Highest monthly salary: ₦218,400
Lowest monthly salary: ₦187,992
Captain
[Captain / Wikipedia]
The highest rank among junior officers. The rank of captain carries three stars.
Highest monthly salary: ₦232,484
Lowest monthly salary: ₦200,336
Major
[Major / Wikipedia]
This is a senior rank. Officers who are majors carry an eagle in their insignia.
A lieutenant colonel is a mid-level rank in the Nigerian army. Officers in this rank bear an eagle and a star in their insignia.
Highest monthly salary: ₦324,586
Lowest monthly salary: ₦282,573
Colonel
[Colonel / Wikipedia]
A colonel in the Nigerian Army carries an eagle and two stars aligned vertically. This is the highest-ranking senior commissioned officer and is typically in charge of army regiments.
Highest monthly salary: ₦352,631
Lowest monthly salary: ₦310,554
Brigadier General
[Brigadier General / Wikipedia]
A brigadier general is a flag officer and, as the name suggests, is in charge of brigades. This rank carries an eagle and three stars below arranged like a triangle.
Highest monthly salary: ₦677,895
Lowest monthly salary: ₦616,388
Major General
[Major General / Wikipedia]
The insignia of a major general carries an eagle with a baton and sword below it. A major general can command a division of 6,000 to 25,000 troops when appointed to a field command.
Highest monthly salary: ₦1,376,343
Lowest monthly salary: ₦1,003,245
Lieutenant General
[Lieutenant General / Wikipedia]
A lieutenant general is the third highest rank in the Nigerian Army. An officer of this rank can command as many as three army divisions with tens of thousands of troops. The insignia of a lieutenant general is an eagle, a star and a sword and baton, all vertically aligned.
Highest monthly salary: ₦1,486,451
Lowest monthly salary: ₦1,113,602
General
[General / Wikipedia]
A general is the second highest rank in the Nigerian Army. The insignia of a general is an eagle, two stars and a baton and sword arranged vertically.
Highest monthly salary: ₦1,724,83
Lowest monthly salary: ₦1,113,602
Field Marshall
[Field Marshall / Wikipedia]
The field marshall is the highest rank in the Nigerian Army. No one has attained this ranking yet. It’s a five-star rank typically given to a general after attaining an extraordinary military feat. The insignia is an eagle atop a crossed sword and a baton surrounded by a wreath of two branches.
Non-commissioned officers
The ranking of non-commissioned officers is as follows, from greatest to least:
Army Warrant Officer (Also called a Sergeant Major of the Army, Chief Warrant Officer or Force RSM)
Highest monthly salary: ₦171,793
Lowest monthly salary: ₦159,059
Master Warrant Officer (Former WO Class 1 – Also called a Regimental Sergeant Major)
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦165,697
Lowest monthly salary: ₦148,583
Warrant Officer (Former WO Class 2 – Also called a Company Sergeant Major)
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦101,974
Lowest monthly salary: ₦85,193
Staff Sergeant
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦87,119
Lowest monthly salary: ₦69,647
Sergeant
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦56,443
Lowest monthly salary: ₦69,261
Corporal
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦58,638
Lowest monthly salary: ₦51,980
Lance Corporal
Image source: CurrentSchoolNews
Highest monthly salary: ₦55,832
Lowest monthly salary: ₦50,326
Private(No insignia)
Highest monthly salary: ₦53,892
Lowest monthly salary: ₦49,412
Recruit(No insignia)
Highest monthly salary: ₦10,237
Lowest monthly salary: ₦10,237
This brings us to the end of our list. Hopefully, you’re now better informed about ranks in the Nigerian Army.
The name on everyone’s lips over the last four days is Hilda Baci. The 27-year-old self-taught chef from Akwa-Ibom has now eclipsed the Guinness World Record (GWR) of 87 hours for the longest cooking marathon by an individual. Although the GWR says it still needs to review the evidence, they wished her luck in her quest on Instagram. Hilda’s not stopping, regardless. Her eyes are set on the 96-hour mark.
Nigerians worldwide have shown Hilda immense support in their numbers, pushing her to the finish line in a physically and mentally exhausting feat. In his usual “Mr Predictable” manner, the Lagos state governor also showed up, even as some people suggest it’s PR.
Peter Obi and Bola Ahmed Tinubu also gave their shoutouts. Instead of them famzing, we came up with some suggestions for world records they can also break and set. Here are a few below:
Most liked tweet by a politician
On August 12, 2017, a white supremacist carried out a terrorist attack in Charlottesville, USA. This led to one death and 35 injuries. In response to this tragedy, former American President, Barack Obama, took to Twitter to quote the words of former South African President Nelson Mandela from his autobiography, “Long Walk to Freedom”. The tweet has received 3.9 million likes.
The first requirement for becoming president in Nigeria is to have bullion vans filled with money.
[Bullion vans in Bourdillion / ICIR]
But just how much would you need in your war chest to set the record for the most expensive election ever? The 2020 American presidential election holds the record for being the most expensive in history. Open Secrets said the election cost a staggering $14.4 billion, more than double the 2016 election. That’s about 40% of Nigeria’s gross external reserves. Nigerian politicians reading this should better not get funny ideas. Moving on.
Longest legislative speech
Patrick Obahiagbon has already made a name for himself in the Nigerian National Assembly for his crinkum-crankum speeches that can turn you insane. Yet, he’s still a learner.
According to the Guinness World Records, the record for the longest legislative speech belongs to Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a Zulu leader from South Africa. He addressed the KwaZulu legislative assembly between March 12 and 29, 1993. He spoke on 11 of the 18 days, averaging nearly 2½ hours on each of the 11 days.
However, Stewart Stevenson, a Scottish politician, may hold the record for the longest parliamentary speech at one stretch. In 2004, Stevenson delivered a speech lasting 23 hours and 51 minutes during International Suicide Prevention Week. He started at 5:21 PM on Wednesday, September 7, 2004, and completed it at 5:12 PM on Thursday, September 8, 2004. Even Obahiagbon would be impressed.
Countries with the most female heads of government
Nigeria has a notorious imbalance when it comes to female participation in politics. Only one woman out of 18 candidates contested the last presidential election. The numbers keep dropping alarmingly. The national average is 6.7%, which is very low compared to the 23.4% African average and the 22.5% global average.
Meanwhile, a few other progressive countries are leading women’s political participation. According to the GWR, excluding acting prime ministers, the countries with the most female heads of government are Finland, Moldova, New Zealand, Poland, and the UK, all with three. Nigeria is still yet to get one. God when?
Poorest president ever
No Nigerian politician ever wants to be on this table, but there’s a case to be made for having a frugal president for a country whose resources have been run to the ground by wicked leaders. Take a cue from Jose Mujica, the former president of Uruguay, whom the BBC has described as the “world’s poorest president.”
His story is fascinating. As president, he refused to live in the luxurious government residence and chose to live in his wife’s farmhouse. Only two police officers and a three-legged dog were watching over his house. He also donated 90% of his $12,000 monthly salary to charity—a very “unNigerian” thing to do.
[Jose Mujica / Getty Images]
No one realistically expects President-elect Bola Ahmed Tinubu to toe this path, but the least we can expect is that he declares his assets. Since he recently said he’d like to emulate former president Umaru Musa Yar’Adua, a public declaration of his assets would be a great place to start.
The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC), created in May 1973, is celebrating its 50th anniversary. To commemorate this, Citizen spoke to former and serving corps members. They shared their thoughts on whether the scheme should stay on or be scrapped.
Opinions were mainly divided among three camps. The “let it stay” guys argued that the NYSC remained relevant in fostering unity and job creation for Nigerians. The “let’s get it scrapped” folks said they didn’t benefit from the scheme and that it doesn’t serve the purpose it was created for. A third group, the “chill first” guys, said the NYSC should be revamped and given a fresh look.
In any case, Twitter gave us many smashing photos of young Nigerians who reminisced about their time in service. To feast your eyes, type “NYSC50” or “NYSCat50” in the search box. That said, I’d later stumble on an interesting tweet. I also had a conversation with a friend, both of which inspired today’s Navigating Nigeria topic. First, the tweet:
I spoke with a friend last night, and it occurred to me that she didn’t join in the WhatsApp frenzy of folks sharing photos of themselves dressed in Khaki. That was interesting to me because, knowing her, she’d be the first to jump on trendy stuff. So I asked why, and she told me like she was pleading her innocence, that she didn’t do it.
“Why, what’s the story there”? I asked. “Nothing”, she said. My journalistic instinct wanted to keep pressing her on the matter. Given her staccato responses, however, my head told me I was beginning to irritate her and would enter her block list if I continued. But she did manage to add, “I’ve always said I wouldn’t serve Nigeria.”
Now that we have some context let’s delve right in. What if I’m not interested in serving Nigeria? So what?
What the law says about NYSC
The National Youth Service Corps Act of 1993 specifies the Corps’ objectives and the service conditions for corps members under the Corps. Here’s what it says about the calling up of corps members:
This passage says that every Nigerian citizen must serve in the NYSC for one year unless exempted. The requirements for mandatory service include graduating from a university in Nigeria, graduating from a university outside Nigeria, obtaining a Higher National Diploma or other professional qualification as prescribed, or obtaining a National Certificate of Education. The service must be completed within one year from the date specified in the call-up instrument.
So what are the conditions for being exempted?
The section above says that starting August 1, 1985, certain people won’t be required to serve in the NYSC even if they meet the requirements stated in subsection (l) of the Act. These people include those over 30 years old, those who have served in the Nigerian Armed Forces or Nigeria Police Force for more than nine months, those who are staff members of certain security agencies, and those who have received national honours.
But I don’t want to serve; is it by force?
There are different arguments to consider here. The most important is the argument for patriotism and why serving is a civic responsibility as specified by law. It’s like paying taxes. You don’t have to like it, but you’re expected to do it. Give to Caesar what belongs to Caesar.
Another is that there are penalties for not taking part in NYSC. Just because they’re not strictly enforced doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Failure to report for service or refusal to make oneself available for service carries a fine of ₦2,000, imprisonment for 12 months, or both. Two thousand naira might be chicken change, but how does a one-year jail term sound? Think about it.
Before you retort that it’s not that serious and no one will arrest you, consider that if we want our leaders to uphold laws, we too must be willing to abide by those same laws, or else we’re only paying lip service.
Lastly, the law says that employers must demand either an NYSC certificate or a certificate of exemption from anyone who has obtained a first degree.
And as is common knowledge these days, aspiring to public office without an NYSC certificate—or worse, a forged one—can land you in soup. Someone like former finance minister Kemi Adeosun would tell you it’s a bad idea to do such a thing.
With these few points of mine, I hope I’ve made a case for why you should participate in the NYSC scheme. All that’s left is to forward this article to my friend while I wait with bated breath.
On May 8, 2023, a Twitter user with the handle @Gen_Buhar claimed that Peter Obi’s drug petition against Bola Ahmed Tinubu had been dismissed. This tweet has been viewed over 74,000 times at the time of writing.
On Wait First, we divide claims into three categories. A valid claim is a fresh banana. A false claim is a burnt dodo. And a misleading claim is a cold zobo.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT) of the All Progressive Congress (APC) winner of the presidential election held on February 25, 2023. INEC declared BAT the winner with 8,794,726 votes. However, several political parties, including the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party (LP), Action Alliance (AA), Allied Peoples Movement (APM), and Action Peoples Party (APP), filed petitions challenging the election results.
The pre-hearing of the presidential tribunal, which started on May 8, 2023, will address these petitions. Peter Obi filed a joint petition with his party raising five “prayers” against the declared winner, BAT, his running mate, the APC, and INEC.
One of the petitions Obi and his party filed focuses on BAT’s eligibility in the concluded presidential election. Obi alleges that BAT was linked to drug trafficking by a US court. This then led to his forfeiture of $460,000 to the American government. He argues that, as a result, BAT is not qualified to contest the Nigerian presidency.
This fact check aims to see if the claim that a court has dismissed the drug petition is valid.
Verification
We looked into this claim with support from our partners, FactCheck Elections. Here’s what they found:
“FactCheckElections findings revealed that the presidential elections tribunal commenced its pre-hearing on May 8, 2023, and made a sitting on the petition filed by Peter Obi and the Labour Party challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.
Channels reported that the Justice Tsamani-led panel announced it would commence its pre-hearing session with three petitions. They are the petitions by Action Alliance (AA) marked: CA/PEPC/01/2023; Action Peoples Party (APP) marked: CA/PEPC/02/2023 and Peter Obi & Labour Party (LP) marked: CA/PEPC/03/2023.
The Guardian reported the Tribunal on Monday dismissed the petition by the AA challenging the declaration of Tinubu as the winner of the presidential election after the AA withdrew its petition at the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja, prompting the dismissal. According to SaharaReporters, AA gave no reason for the withdrawal.
However, Premium Times, in its timed live update at the inaugural sitting, did not report the dismissal of any of Peter Obi’s petitions. The court announced an adjournment of the case till May 10, 2023. This was reported at around 1:00 p.m. on May 8, 2023.
No reputable news or media platform reported the news of the dismissal of any of Peter Obi’s petitions.”
The case has been again adjourned to May 17, 2023, “to enable parties to harmonise their processes.”
Verdict
The claim that Peter Obi’s drug petition against BAT has been dismissed is false and, therefore, burnt dodo. Hearings on the matter will resume on May 17, 2023.
To commemorate its golden jubilee, Citizen reached out to Nigerians serving in or who have passed through the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) to hear their views on whether the national youth programme should remain or be scrapped.
On May 22, 1973, decree No. 24 established the NYSC. It was created after the Civil War of 1967–1970 as part of a post-war policy formulated to reconcile and integrate young Nigerians across all regions of the country.
On its website, the NYSC says its primary objective is “to inculcate in Nigerian youths the spirit of selfless service to the community and to emphasise the spirit of oneness and brotherhood of all Nigerians, irrespective of cultural or social background.”
[NYSC members / BBC]
Our WhatsApp community has been discussing whether the NYSC programme should be scrapped or stay, with members sharing their thoughts and experiences about its relevance.
We’ve reached out to those in service of their country, Nigeria, and those who have passed through the system, so you don’t miss out on all they had to say:
Cynthia, 25
“I served at a firm in Lagos between 2021 and 2022. My Local Government Inspector (LGI) killed any hope I had left in Nigeria—not even the elections. She was the reason I had to indirectly offer a bribe for the first time in my life.
I believe it should be scrapped. It doesn’t address its initial objectives anymore. It could be remodelled since companies look out for corp members just for cheap labour—I’m only speaking about Lagos here. But this is like Jobberman or other online recruitment platforms. NYSC even has their recruitment platform; they made us sign up, but I don’t remember anything about it now.”
Nsikan, 23
“I currently serve at an IT firm in Ibadan, Oyo state. I think the NYSC should remain because it has helped me see a side of Nigeria I haven’t seen before. Having interacted with Muslims and Christians alike, I realise we’re all alike. We love the same and are caring. The ethnic divide we have is idiotic, stupid and self-inflicted.
During camp, I met a girl. We started talking and liked each other. She was from Kaduna.
I asked why she liked me back and that I was a Christian while she was Muslim. I felt we were supposed to be sworn enemies, but she explained everything to me and cleared up some nonsense myths about her religion. She was so nice and made me see the beauty in religious unity. I would have carried misconceptions about Muslims all my life if I hadn’t met her.”
Taiwo, 30
“I served at a privately owned radio station in Kaduna state between May 2021 and April 2022.
I believe that the NYSC should not be scrapped, it is serving many purposes now, and if it were to be scrapped, the ripple effect would be felt across the board.
NYSC provides the platform to gain a unique work experience for graduates that many would ordinarily not have. My work experience scaled up while serving at my Place of Primary Assignment (PPA), strengthening my application for a job after service.
At a time when Nigeria needs more cultural integration and unity than ever, scrapping the scheme will be going against one of the scheme’s core objectives. There might not be accurate data to back this up, but the NYSC Skills Acquisition & Entrepreneurship Department (SAED) program has helped launched several SME’s, leading to massive job creation.
Are there loopholes that need to be tied? Yes, because over the years, Nigeria has changed, and maybe it is time to revisit how the scheme is being run.
What NYSC needs right now is a better organisation and redefining and modifying its goals. Prospective Corp Members (PCM) should be able to choose how long they want to serve. They should be posted to relevant industries where their core skills will be used and developed.”
Ridwanullahi, 29
“I camped in Ogun State in 2020 but relocated to Lagos, where I worked at a broadcasting firm.
I feel that the NYSC is still quite much important. Apart from the fact that one gets to travel within the nation, one can easily build connections through it. However, the bad side or negative side I see is the posting of corp members who are not qualified—especially asking them to teach when we didn’t all read education courses.
I, for one, learned a lot during my service year as I was posted to my field, and it has helped me go back for my master’s degree program.
Thanks to NYSC, I’m more or less like a master when discussing issues relating to the field with my classmates, most especially group work.”
Korede, 28
“I served as a geography teacher at Lady Ibiam Girls Secondary School, Independence Layout, Enugu, in 2015.
It shouldn’t be scrapped. Instead, what it needs is an overhaul. Yes, the pressing concern of insecurity is a leading cause for it being scrapped. But how exactly does scrapping the NYSC solve the insecurity issue?
Elsewhere, as Nigerians, let’s move beyond blaming Lugard. The poor man is in his grave. Allow him to rest in peace.
To be fair, the scheme has exposed me to what Nigeria is. The good, the bad and the ugly altogether. Not leaving your immediate environment and believing stereotypes of other groups touches on the negatives of intergroup relations.
To have served in Enugu has changed my perception of Nigeria, particularly from the civil war background. More importantly, we must view the NYSC as a humanitarian and community-building effort. That doesn’t negate pursuing individual dreams or aspirations while in service.”
Lilian, 30
“I served in Ogun state in 2018. I’m 50/50 on whether the NYSC should stay or go. NYSC did nothing for me. So if it’s scrapped, I won’t feel bad, at least for upcoming corp members.
But then, many people saved up their allawee and used it to start a business, basically like a grant with no stipulations. So scrapping it will be bad for people who look forward to this.”
Tolulope, 30
“I was posted to Obubra in Cross River but redeployed back to Lagos for my social media job. This was between 2019 and 2020.
NYSC should be modified to allow people to choose their geopolitical zones, eliminating the insecurity fears people are showing towards the scheme. It shouldn’t be scrapped in any way because the benefits far outweigh the negatives.”
As Nigeria celebrates the golden jubilee of the NYSC, the debate on the programme’s relevance today in the country will continue, with some, especially those who consider it a key programme, continuing to advocate for its reform.
On March 17, 2023, President Muhammadu Buhari signed the Copyright Act of 2022 into law. Reactions to it have been largely positive, with Buhari assenting to a flurry of bills in the twilight of his presidential career. This contrasts sharply with his early days in office, where he seemed to drag his feet, earning the nickname “Baba Go Slow.”
The 68-page Copyright Act was gazetted on March 27. That’s a fancy way of saying the Act was officially made public. We looked into it and highlighted some of the interesting points.
The 2022 Copyright Act is an improvement on an older one
This means the Act wasn’t created from scratch. There already existed a Copyright Act from 2004, which was inadequate to address some of the modern changes that deal with intellectual property rights. So they repealed the old one and enacted a new one after the National Assembly ratified it. Buhari signed it into law.
The Copyright Act covers a wide range of work
The following are eligible for copyright protection:
(a) literary works;
(b) musical works;
(c) artistic works;
(d) audiovisual works;
(e) sound recordings; and
(f ) broadcasts.
But there are some caveats. Literary, musical or artistic work isn’t eligible for copyright unless you put effort into creating it to give it originality. Also, the work being done needs to be fixed in a way that can be seen, copied, or communicated using any technology that currently exists or might be invented in the future.
Not every work is eligible for copyright protection
Not all work is covered by the Copyright Act 2022. These include:
(a) ideas, procedures, processes, formats, systems, methods of operation, concepts, principles, discoveries, or mere data;
(b) official texts of a legislative or administrative nature as well as any official translations, except their compilations; and
(c) official state symbols and insignia, including flags, coat-of-arms, anthems, and banknote designs.
The Copyright Act confers moral rights on authors
Section 14 of the Act covers the moral rights of authors. It explains the rights of someone who creates works like books, songs, or paintings. They have the right to say that they made it and to have their name on it whenever it’s used. An exception is when the work is incidentally or accidentally included in a broadcast when reporting current events.
If someone tries to change their creation to make the creator look bad, they can sue. Also, if someone tries to take credit for something they didn’t make, the actual creator can object and say it’s not true. These rights can’t be given or sold to anyone else while the author is still alive.
However, after the author dies, rights can be given to someone else through a will or laws that decide who gets the rights. The rights last for as long as the copyright lasts. This means no one else can use or copy the work without the copyright holder’s permission.
Copyright duration
For literary, artistic and musical works that aren’t photographs, the copyright lasts for 70 years after the person who created them dies. For work derived from Section 7 of the Act, which deals with online content, the copyright duration is 50 years after the end of the year in which the work was first made available to the public.
If the work has not been made public within that time, it will be 50 years after it was created. The same applies to audiovisual works, photographs and sound recordings.
If someone creates a work under a pseudonym or anonymously, the copyright lasts for 70 years from when the work was first made public or 70 years from when it was created if it wasn’t made public. But if the actual author becomes known, the copyright lasts 70 years after the author’s death, like with other works.
If two or more people worked together to create something, the copyright lasts until the last surviving author dies, and then it’s protected for 50 or 70 years, depending on the type of work.
Copyright exceptions exist for the blind and visually impaired
While copyright laws state that you must seek permission from authors before reproducing work, there are exceptions to this in the case of people who are visually impaired or blind. For this class of people, it’s permissible to reproduce work without permission in a way accessible to them, as long as the distribution is limited to only affected individuals.
The National Copyright Commission (NCC) recently hailed this provision, calling it “blind-friendly and sufficiently balanced in so many other areas to meet the demands of rights owners and the needs of users.”
You can download the full version here if you’d like to learn more about the Copyright Act.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, I spoke to Morenike*, a University of Lagos (UNILAG) student. She’s 26 years old and makes footwear. She shared her experience of being exhausted by the struggles of life in Nigeria. Like so many other young Nigerians, she’s heard the phrase “Education is the key” so often that it’s lost all meaning for her.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss the Nigerian experience with little interference to individual opinions. While our editorial standards emphasise the truth and we endeavour to fact-check claims and allegations, we do not bear any responsibility for allegations made about other people founded in half-truths.
“I’ve never liked school. I don’t like reading”, Morenike tells me matter-of-factly. “I finished secondary school in 2013, then wrote JAMB, which I took six times.”
I’m listening to her, partly bewildered, as she recounts her struggles getting into school. She appears to have lost count of how many entrance exams she did as she ponders whether she applied six or eight times.
“I eventually got admitted into the Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech). When I finished there, I went to UNILAG in 2017.” She rationalises this decision by explaining the uncertain prospects of a person with a polytechnic degree.
“I didn’t have a business at the time. Imagine not having a business and relying on my National Diploma (ND) certificate to survive. It can’t work in Nigeria.” Her fears are valid. In December 2022, the federal government stopped polytechnics from awarding degrees and restricted them to only focusing on technical courses.
I asked her why she opted for UNILAG. “It’s because I live in Lagos. I can quickly dash home to get stuff and return to campus.” She tells me she wanted to study mass communication but didn’t have a credit in literature as was required. She’d failed to ace the course on multiple WAEC attempts. Morenike chuckles as she relays this to me. She considered political science because of her love for politics. But friends advised that a career path there would, at best, make her a political analyst.
Her options were limited because, as she admits, “I hate calculations.” This effectively ruled her out of taking a management science course. Her options were narrowed down to the faculty of social sciences, and she settled for social work. “I went for fieldwork occasionally and fell in love with the course. I’d found something I felt I could do.”
But things haven’t been rosy as she laments that she has been through various strike actions since her first year.
“Before I officially got admitted, the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) went on strike. We couldn’t do our clearance. The lecturers had to step in to do that. By the second year, we had gone on another strike.
“Then, in 2020, COVID-19 happened. I was in 300 level. We stayed at home from March 2020 till January 2021. There was yet another strike in February 2022. We only resumed in October.” As a result, Morenike feels left behind compared to her peers.
“My cousin, whom I wrote JAMB with, is done with NYSC. My peers who went to private schools have all graduated. Even some that went to state schools. I think about how ASUU can wake up on a whim to embark on an indefinite strike.”
Morenike is upset by her situation and explains that lecturers often vent their frustrations on students.
“Last semester, we wrote a test in the evening. The lecturer, a lady, just kept screaming at us and told us she’d pour her annoyance on us for not receiving salaries for seven months. How’s that our fault or business in any way? We’re also affected as well. We can’t get jobs.”
“Being at the same level for almost three years has traumatised me. I got a job offer that paid ₦250k per month, which was later rescinded because I was a student. I cried for days. Employers don’t want to take risks on people who might disrupt their goals due to ASUU’s unpredictability. Some place age restrictions on job openings. At 26 now, my options are getting limited”.
A momentary pause follows before she continues her narration. Morenike isn’t alone. Many young Nigerians are caught in limbo because, on the one hand, they want to start making money quickly in an economy where the unemployment rate is projected to soar to a historic high of 41 per cent. And yet, they can’t commit to work fully and abandon schooling. A university degree still serves as a fallback for all the deserved flack that the Nigerian educational system gets.
“The zeal to read is no more there”, Morenike says with a hint of sadness. “I entered the university at 20, I’m 26 now. I don’t like attending school anymore, but I must try. When we resumed after the last strike, which was depressing, we faced numerous tests and exams. The lecturers didn’t care about our readiness for them. When ASUU and the FG go to war, we’re the ones who suffer while they go scot-free. How’s it my fault I’m not finished with school at 26?”
There’s an air of resignation as Morenike brings her story to a close. She has a few regrets. She tells me about her secondary school group chat on Whatsapp, where she frequently sees news of her friends either going for their master’s degrees or graduating. “I see them and feel envious, asking God why I’m still here struggling to earn a BSc.”
Would she do things differently if she could afford tuition at a private university?
“I wouldn’t go to a private university even if I had the money because I’m not that smart”. Morenike feels she needs to clarify her statement. “Not that I’m not smart I’m sure if I read, I’d pass. But the truth is, I don’t like reading. Reading depresses me, I’m never happy reading a book. I just want to do my business.
“For me, school is plan Z for if all else fails — which I doubt. I won’t say school is a scam because it’s through school I’ve met people I sell my products to. School has helped my business, and I’ve been able to build a network.”
Regarding her education, the journey ahead remains unclear, and Morenike can’t say when she’ll graduate. Still, she remains grateful for her business which helps her get by. For a country designed to stifle the dreams of young people, she’ll take what little wins she can get.
*Name changed to protect their identity
On May 3, 2023, Twitter user @yeankhar claimed the House [of Representatives] (HOR) was passing a Bill to criminalise protests. The tweet has been viewed over 134k times at the time of writing.
On Wait First, we divide claims into three categories. A valid claim is fresh banana. A false claim is burnt dodo. And a misleading claim is cold zobo.
So, how valid is this claim?
Verification
We looked into news reports to see if any Bills banning protests had recently been passed. There were none. The Policy and Legal Advocacy Centre (PLAC), an NGO that promotes civic participation by, among other ways, tracking Bills being read at the National Assembly, had no report on this Bill. We also looked at the Twitter handle of the HOR. It has no record of this Bill.
We were, however, able to identify a news report by The Guardian from July 2021. It mentioned a Bill that claimed to propose a five-year jail term for unlawful protesters. This Bill, which generated controversy, was sponsored by Emeka Chinedu, representing Ahiazu Mbaise and Ehinihitte Mbaise Federal Constituency of Imo state. In an interview with Punch, Chinedu clarified that his sponsored Bill only condemned mob action, not protesters.
His words
“The caption of the Bill that went viral was never my intent or opinion. Neither was it an embodiment of the Bill I sponsored that passed the first reading on the floor of the National Assembly on Tuesday, July 6, 2021. Hence, a clear case of misunderstanding, misconception and misrepresentation of the facts.
“As a representative of the people, whose political idealogy is rooted in democratic tenets, I can never be a party to a system that seeks to stifle or cripple dissenting voices whose right to freedom of assembly, expression and protest is guaranteed by the combined effort of section 39 and 40 of 1999 Constitution as amended, as well as Article 11 of the African Charter on Human and People’s Right to assemble freely.
“While I urge Nigerians to imbibe the culture of reading beyond newspaper captions to comprehend the body of a message, it is imperative to put the record straight to douse tension and allay the concerns of my teeming adherents.
“The Criminal Code Amendment Bill, 2021, did not discuss criminalising protests or protesters in Nigeria. Rather, it is a Bill that proactively seeks to preserve life and protect the killing of the innocent through mob action, known as ‘jungle justice’ in our local parlance.”
Verdict
The tweet about a Bill to criminalise protests is based on events that happened in 2021 that have been debunked. The poster presented it as new information that no available evidence can support. The claim is, therefore, misleading and is cold zobo.
Did Peter Obi Pay a Visit to BAT, Gbaja, Sanwo and Dangote?
On April 28, 2023, a Twitter user @donortez shared a photo that appeared to show the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi, in company with the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), businessman Aliko Dangote, Speaker of the HOR, Femi Gbajabiamila and Lagos state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.
The poster claimed that the meeting took place after Jumat, which refers to the prayers by Muslims on Friday. This tweet which was still up at the time of writing, has been viewed over 95,000 times.
“The original photograph featured Aliko Dangote and BAT, but not Peter Obi. The photograph was taken during a previous meeting between the two men, which has been misrepresented by the person who manipulated the image.
“No credible evidence supports the claim that Peter Obi visited BAT recently. No major news outlet or credible source has reported such a meeting, and no photographic or video evidence has been produced to support the claim.
“Upon closer examination, it is clear that the photograph has been manipulated. The image of Peter Obi has been superimposed onto the photograph, creating the false impression that he was present at the meeting. This manipulation is common on social media, where users frequently create and share false or misleading images to gain attention or spread false information.”
Verdict
No evidence exists of any such meeting taking place between Obi and BAT. The photo has been dismissed as a doctored one. Therefore this is burnt dodo and should be treated as false.
If you love instant noodles, now might be a good time to pause and look at what you’re ingesting. The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), on May 2, 2023, issued a press release concerning the recall of a flavour of the Nigerian staple, Indomie.
PRESS RELEASE
Recall of Indomie Instant Noodles 'Special Chicken Flavour' by Health Officials in Malaysia and Taiwan Over Alleged Detection of Ethylene Oxide, a Carcinogenic Compound.#NafdacReleasepic.twitter.com/KAeFAKMUqx
The Indomie “Special Chicken Flavour” is being recalled due to health concerns. Here’s the gist.
Why is NAFDAC issuing a recall of the “Special Chicken Flavour”?
[Banned Indomie / Premium Times]
In the statement signed by the director general of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, she said NAFDAC has begun sampling and analysing other Indomie noodles flavours. This also includes their seasonings, as they’re testing for the presence of ethylene oxide.
Why’s ethylene oxide bad? Ethylene oxide is a colourless and odourless gas. According to the National Cancer Institute, “In smaller amounts, ethylene oxide is used as a pesticide and a sterilising agent. The ability of ethylene oxide to damage DNA makes it an effective sterilising agent but also accounts for its cancer-causing activity.”
The statement from NAFDAC read, “The Management of the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC is aware of the recall of Indomie Instant Noodles ‘Special Chicken Flavour’ by the Ministries of Health in Malaysia and Taiwan on account of the alleged presence of ethylene oxide, a compound associated with an increased risk of cancer.
“NAFDAC, as a responsible and responsive regulator, is taking swift actions to carry out random sampling and analysis of Indomie noodles (including the seasoning) for the presence of ethylene oxide, as well as extending the investigation to other brands of instant noodles offered for sale to Nigerians.
“We use this medium to assure the public that a thorough investigation of the products will be conducted both at the factory and market levels, and our findings will be communicated.“
Adeyeye also noted via Twitter that noodles are on the import prohibition list. They’re not allowed to be imported into the country.
The ban only affects noodles imported into the country, not those produced in Nigeria.
What can I do?
You can help spread the word so people don’t consume harmful food. Also, look out for where the noodles are made. If it shows that it’s an exported product, there’s a good chance it’s illegal. Worse, it might be carcinogenic — which could spell double trouble.
These are not the best times for the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT). In an exclusive report by Bloomberg, it has been revealed that BAT’s son, 37-year-old Oluwaseyi Tinubu, has gotten himself in the mud by acquiring property linked with fraud.
[Seyi Tinubu (L) with dad, Bola Tinubu (R) / Twitter]
What’s the gist?
According to corporate documents seen by Bloomberg, Oluwaseyi, a principal shareholder for Aranda Overseas Corp. —an offshore company— paid $10.8m to Deutsche Bank for a property in St. John’s Woods, north London, in late 2017. Buying property overseas is not in itself the issue. The trouble here is that the Nigerian government wanted to confiscate this particular one Seyi bought. Its former owner, Kolawole Aluko —an associate of former petroleum minister Dieziani Madueke— was suspected of having acquired it with proceeds from crime.
In June 2016, a federal judge in Abuja granted a request by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to seize more than a dozen properties that Aluko owned in Nigeria and overseas, including the one in St. John’s Wood. That forfeiture order was still in effect when Seyi bought the house 16 months later.
To provide a basic analogy, it’s like going to Computer Village in Ikeja to buy a phone. You have the option of buying from any of the registered phone dealers. Instead, you buy from a suspected thief the police are after, maybe because you think you’d get it cheap. But what complicates matters is you’re not just anybody — you’re the president-elect’s son.
Essentially, while Buhari’s government was, in the public eye, going after allegedly corrupt persons in the previous administration, behind the scenes, their properties were being reacquired in offshore deals.
Neither BAT’s, nor Seyi’s spokespersons responded to Bloomberg for comments. Aluko’s lawyer also declined, saying the matter was “sub judice”, i.e. a matter still in court and could not be discussed. Deutsche Bank also refused to comment. However, Bloomberg did note that this apartment was what BAT used to receive Buhari in August 2021 when the president came to visit.
Whether the president-elect or his son will respond to these allegations in the coming days remains to be seen. But we cannot overlook that BAT’s list of scandals is piling up by the day. Carrying that kind of baggage not only bodes poorly for him but for the reputation of Nigeria — if he gets sworn in. With 27 days left till May 29, we wonder what other controversies BAT has for us.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Nanretdeng, a Nigerian student who had to leave schooling in Nigeria for the Benin Republic after a lengthy ASUU strike. Her story shows that leaving Nigeria doesn’t always insulate you from trouble, as it can find its way back to you. Here’s the sad experience she and her colleagues are currently facing at the hands of a dubious man named Shehu. If this were a movie, it would be titled “The Good, The Bad, and the Shehu.”
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss the Nigerian experience with little interference to individual opinions. While our editorial standards emphasise the truth and we endeavour to fact-check claims and allegations, we do not bear any responsibility for allegations made about other people founded in half-truths.
My name is Nanretdeng. Let me tell you my story.
I used to study at the University of Jos (UNIJOS), but a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in 2020 disrupted my studies for almost a year. I started thinking about going to school outside Nigeria. Before the strike, I had a friend who left UNIJOS to study at École Supérieure de Management (ESM) in Cotonou, Benin Republic. So I asked her how she did it, and she referred me to this guy named Shehu, who was part of the AP Usman Foundation and had links with ESM.
When she referred me to Shehu, I had no idea that the foundation offered scholarships. All I knew was that he had helped my friend process her admission to the university. I contacted him, and he asked me to visit Jos’s AP Usman office.
I met him there, which was when he showed me my options. Before issuing a form, he asked me about the course I wanted to study and other relevant information. I still wasn’t aware at this point that this was a scholarship. I wasn’t honestly looking for that. All I wanted was enlightenment on attending school in Cotonou, but then Shehu later told me that the foundation had provided half scholarships for students applying.
That must have felt like good news at the time
The tuition was ₦430k thereabouts. The foundation promised to take on some of that fee while other colleagues and I were to pay ₦150k each with an additional ₦20k bringing the total payment to ₦170k. So that’s what I paid to the foundation. I still have the receipts. This was in October 2020. We were 14 and were told to prepare to leave either in December 2020 or, at the latest, by January 2021.
Instead, we went in February of 2021 since they kept postponing our resumption date. On the day we were to leave, a few of us were at the AP Usman office in Jos. We all took off from there and arrived in Cotonou.
When we got to Cotonou, we started school activities. Things were going okay until it was time for exams, and we needed clearance. We realised that we hadn’t received receipts from the school confirming that our tuition was paid. Shehu had only remitted about 60 per cent of the payments to the school, even though we thought it was all taken care of. I ended up tweeting about it to draw attention to our situation, and we found out that it was the school that offered the scholarship. Crazy, right?
[ESM Benin / Facebook]
Crazy
It came as a surprise to us all. We tried reaching out to him, but a back-and-forth amounted to nothing. The school was generous and let us write the exams and participate in other activities. They were aware that we had made payments to the foundation. We finished our first year with nothing productive coming out of the talks with Shehu.
Before the commencement of our second year, Shehu still reached out to people asking them to make payments. This was after he hadn’t remitted first-year tuition fees.
At the time, I’d resolved to make all payments directly to the school going forward. When the second year began, Shehu referred other students using the foundation as cover to pay tuition fees to ESM through him without remitting our outstanding payments.
That’s audacious
That went on for a while. At one point, the school admin that had been in touch with Shehu told us that Shehu had stopped responding to his messages and calls. Shehu had gone MIA. The second year rolled by with these issues unresolved.
In our third year, we agreed that no one would make any payments to Shehu or the AP Usman Foundation but to the school directly. At this time, I was the university’s president of the Plateau Students Union. I was picked for this because I was bilingual, and the Benin Republic is a francophone country. It helped, too, that I studied foreign languages at UNIJOS.
After our joint resolution, students from the union began making tuition payments to another bank account I own — different from my primary one. I was then remitting payments to the school from my end. The amount I paid to the school was around thrice what Shehu sent. Despite this, we still have some ground to cover, which explains why I put up that Twitter thread. There are some people among us who Shehu believed were only making a one-time payment. These people are stranded with no hope of getting financial support from home.
We need all the help we can get because we’re in the last lap. It’s a three-year degree. The school has been gracious enough up until now, but that can no longer last. I’m grateful that my story is getting enough traction. Hopefully, it translates to financial help to offset our outstanding bills.
Sounds like this Shehu guy is fraudulent. What has the school done about it?
The school has done their best. It has tried to maintain contact with Shehu. But the school is in Benin Republic while Shehu is in Jos. By the time Shehu decided to stop taking calls, there was nothing anyone from ESM could have done about it. When I returned to Jos, I tried to swing by the office only to find out it was no longer there. It’s not a lack of effort on the part of the school per se. I know the school’s various efforts to get Shehu to remit our fees. They’ve not been successful.
How do you hope this ends? Do you want to see Shehu apprehended, or are you content with settling the outstanding fees?
My priority as the student representative isn’t Shehu getting apprehended. I mean, that would be nice, but what I’m hoping for is that we offset all our debts. The means to that end don’t matter to me. Whether through crowdfunding, a donation, or a charity that notices us and decides to help, it doesn’t matter to me now. If Shehu gets caught and is made to pay, that would be the icing on the cake. But to be honest with you, I’ve taken my mind off of Shehu.
You probably know what “419” means unless you’re not from Nigeria. It’s the section of the Criminal Code that deals with fraud and obtaining property under false pretences, also known as the “advance fee scam.” In today’s news, the Nigerian government may have pulled off a massive scam for the ages, which even Yahoo boys would applaud. The FG has proposed suspending the removal of the fuel subsidy.
What’s the gist?
In November 2022, the Minister of Finance, Budget, and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced that Nigerians should prepare for the removal of fuel subsidies by June 2023.
[Zainab Ahmed / Businessday]
Fuel subsidies are a type of price control that makes fuel cheaper for consumers. The government pays the difference between the actual fuel supply cost and the consumer price, thus subsidising fuel.
This policy has generated a lot of controversy over the years. Businessday says fuel subsidies have consumed at least ₦7.3 trillion under President Buhari’s administration. What makes this funnier is that Buhari once claimed fuel subsidies were fraudulent, leading to the Occupy Nigeria protest in 2012. Ten more years of this expensive experiment led Buhari to see the light finally—or so we thought.
What happened next?
On April 6, 2023, Mrs Ahmed announced to Nigerians that we had secured an $800m grant from the World Bank. As we would later discover, this wasn’t a grant but another gbese.
But even more important was the reason for this loan. It was meant to be a palliative, distributed to 10 million households considered to be most vulnerable, to cushion the effect of the subsidy removal. So imagine the shock of Nigerians to learn that the National Economic Council (NEC) on April 27 proposed suspending the planned removal of subsidy by June because “it is not a favourable time for the action.” A rather convenient revelation to have after collecting $800 million.
They knew they were going to sustain the subsidy regime for a little while, yet they went ahead to obtain another loan of $800m from the world bank in the guise of wanting to cushion the effect of the removal, less than 10 days ago from making this decision.
It’s giving 419. We wonder how the World Bank is feeling after hearing this news.
What else should I know?
As Buhari’s government is winding down, we’re seeing cashouts at an unprecedented scale. We could point to the coming population census, which was initially budgeted for ₦198 billion but has now ballooned to ₦869 billion. There’s also the incredible tweet by the Minister of Aviation, Hadi Sirika, where he announced that he “commissioned” ten firefighting trucks at the cost of ₦12 billion.
We’re using this medium to beg Buhari to have some pity on Nigerians. Because at the rate his administration is going, 419 would become yesterday’s news, and we’d be forced to add a new number to the Criminal Code — the emergency number 911.
On April 19, 2023, a Twitter user with the handle @cbngov_akin1 claimed that the poverty rate increased while Peter Obi was governor of Anambra state. The tweet has garnered over 91,000 views as of the time of filing this report.
On Wait First, we divide claims into three categories. A valid claim is fresh banana. A misleading claim is cold zobo, while an outrightly false claim is burnt dodo.
So, how valid is this claim?
Some background
[Peter Obi / Africa Report]
Peter Obi, the Labour Party’s (LP) presidential candidate, had a staggered time in office as governor of Anambra state. In 2003, he contested for governor under the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA). Chris Ngige was declared the winner, but in a lengthy court battle, the victory was overturned at the Supreme Court. Obi was reinstated as the election winner and assumed office in March 2006.
Obi was impeached in November 2006 and reclaimed his mandate following another court ruling. He returned to office in February 2007. He was removed again after the 2007 election but was reinstated by the Supreme Court. Obi won reelection and served as a two-term governor from March 2006 to March 2014.
Obi’s performance as governor has come under intense scrutiny since he declared his intention to run for president, particularly as his campaign promises hinged on combatting poverty. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced him third in the presidential election with 6,101,533 votes.
Poverty is more than just a number. It’s a complex issue that affects many aspects of a person’s life. OECD data shows that poverty rates are measured by income levels falling below the poverty line. But poverty is not a one-dimensional problem that can be summed up with a single indicator. The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) is the go-to agency in Nigeria for collecting, analysing, and disseminating crucial statistical information that helps understand the socioeconomic realities of the country’s citizens.
“Findings by FactCheckElections revealed the (NBS) National Poverty Rates For Nigeria: 2003-04 (Revised) and 2009-10 (Abridged Report). The report showed that Anambra had 41.4% state-level headcount per capita poverty measure in 2003-04 and 53.7% in 2009-10.
“The National Poverty Rates For Nigeria: 2003-04 (Revised) And 2009-10 (Abridged Report) capture poverty rates across Nigeria with the Absolute Poverty Approach (using a per capita approach of assigning 3000 calories requirement for an adult).
[Source: NBS]
“FactcheckElection can find no official data report on the poverty rate between 2011 – 2018. Aside from forecasts and predictions, there’s no absolute poverty study in those years. According to a reply tweet by Dr Yemi Kale (former statistician general of Nigeria), ‘NBS has not conducted any absolute poverty study since 2009’.
So what’s the status of the claim? Based on data from the (NBS), Anambra’s state-level headcount per capita poverty increased from 41.4% in 2003-04 to 53.7% in 2009-10. Peter Obi was governor between 2006 and 2014. So the claim is partly true, and we give it a banana rating. However, no official data shows the poverty rate when he left office in 2014.
What comes to mind when you hear “Ponzi”? You’re probably thinking about the Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox, known as MMM. This infamous fraudulent scheme, which Sergei Mavrodi ran until he died in 2018, had a presence in over 100 countries, including Nigeria, before its inevitable crash in December 2016.
Many Nigerians lost their life savings in a scheme that promised quick and eye-popping returns on investment. Nigerians learned the hard way that there’s no free lunch. However, it seems the Nigerian government learned a different lesson from the whole affair and entered into a sovereign Ponzi finance scheme. What is this, and why does this spell serious trouble for Nigerians?
Ponzi schemes: An explainer
The name Ponzi comes from Charles Ponzi, an Italian con artist born in the 19th century. His scams were simple enough and were aptly described as “Robbing Peter to pay Paul”. He ran a scheme where he promised investors great returns on investment in a short time.
The scheme depends on getting as many people as possible to buy into it so that as new entrants come in, their contributions fund the payouts of older members. This is why Ponzi schemes are also described as pyramid schemes.
Pyramid schemes are mathematically doomed to failure because they eventually become unsustainable. There’d be way too many people waiting for new entrants to fund them, and when that doesn’t materialise, it becomes clear their investments are gone with the wind. This is when the scheme crashes.
The FG’s Ponzi financing scheme
So here’s what the Nigerian government did. Imagine a giant financial scam where the government tricks investors into buying bonds with promises of juicy returns on their investment. Sounds good, right? But here’s the catch: the government doesn’t use that money to invest in anything that could make a profit. Instead, they use it to cover everyday expenses like salaries and pensions.
When it’s time to pay back those investors, the government doesn’t have the money, so they issue new bonds to pay off the old ones. It’s like a never-ending cycle of debt that keeps getting bigger and bigger. Eventually, the government’s debt grows so large that it becomes impossible to pay back, leading to a catastrophic financial meltdown. That’s what’s called a sovereign Ponzi scheme, and it’s not pretty.
According to Proshare, Nigeria’s debt profile rose again after the Paris Club debt was cleared in 2005. However, debt up until 2014 was at least sustainable. In 2015, the national debt rose 22% to ₦19.4 trillion from ₦15.8 trillion in 2014. By 2020, the debt had spiked by 175% to ₦53.3 trillion.
Nigeria kept up the borrowing, and by the end of 2022, our debt had risen to ₦76 trillion. What makes matters worse is the borrowing didn’t translate to economic growth for us. The World Bank predicts slow growth for Nigeria and projects that 13 million more Nigerians will fall into poverty by 2025. As we said earlier, there’s no free lunch.
What’s the way out?
A few other countries have adopted the Ponzi financing model, leading to disastrous outcomes.
A cautionary example is Lebanon which, for many years, accumulated debt recklessly. Today, the country is fighting crippling inflation and has fallen into depression.
One way out, according to Proshare, involves approaching the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for a policy support instrument (PSI). In simpler terms, it refers to policy advice on issues like market reform, subsidy and the exchange rate. Regardless, it will involve some pain in the short term, but this is preferable to the looming crash ahead if we continue down this path.
Another option is debt restructuring. This is a process in which a borrower and a lender agree to modify the terms of a debt agreement. This is usually done when the borrower has trouble repaying the debt and needs to change the payment plan.
Improving efficiency in government spending is also necessary. No more white elephant projects and inflated budgets. The new administration must demonstrate to Nigerians its seriousness in reviving the economy and saving us from falling into a debt trap. Nigeria has a fighting chance of escaping the looming crash if it can implement these reforms.
On October 14, 2022, Ogun state governor, Dapo Abiodun, said about 36 investment portfolios worth over $1 billion came into the state.
He mentioned this at the inauguration of the Ogun State Investment and Facilitation Agency (OGUNINVEST).
“We have continued to reap bountiful harvests from our commitment as existing investments are thriving, and new investments are being attracted. As of today, we’ve been able to attract 36 new investments into Ogun State worth over a billion United States dollars and generated an estimated 40,000 jobs since the inception of OGUNINVEST,” he said.
This claim came up again leading up to the Ogun State governorship election. The National Association of Nigeria Students (NANS) referenced it without any evidence to back it up. This begs the obvious question:
Is Abiodun’s claim valid?
[Dapo Abiodun / PM News]
Verifying the claim
Our partners, Fact CheckElections, looked into this claim. Here’s what they found:
“The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) released ‘Nigeria’s Capital Importation’ data for the four quarters of 2022. Ogun State and twenty-six others did not receive foreign investment in 2022.
“Foreign investments in the country fell by 20.47 per cent ($1.37bn) from $6.7bn in 2021 to $5.33bn in 2022. Nigeria’s capital importation plunged to $1.06bn in Q4 2022 — down by 8.53%.
“According to the NBS, only five out of the 36 states and the federal capital territory (FCT) attracted capital investments in Q4 2022.
“For 2022, the report cumulatively showed that only Lagos and Abuja had investments of $billion at 3.61 and 1.63, respectively. Others were in the millions. Ogun had no investment in 2022, according to the NBS.”
In 2022, the state claimed to have signed an MOU worth $400 million. However, Statisense showed that Ogun attracted only a $30.5m investment in four years (2019-2022).” This is far from $1bn as claimed.
A civic organisation, Paradigm Leadership Support Initiative (PLSI), has ranked Ogun State 28th with a score of 18 per cent on the level of transparency and accountability operational in managing public funds and implementing public policies in the State.
Verdict
Abiodun’s claim that Ogun state attracted $1bn in investments during his first term in office is burnt dodo. There’s no evidence to support this claim.
Join us on Twitter on April 25 at 6 p.m. to discuss Nigeria’s worrying rise as a cocaine trafficking hub.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Pascal* and Folake* who told their stories of being mugged. For Pascal, staying calm while being robbed is the “smart” thing to do. Folake’s experience taught her that this is Nigeria, where you should “expect anything.”
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss the Nigerian experience with little interference to individual opinions. While our editorial standards emphasise the truth and we endeavour to fact-check claims and allegations, we do not bear any responsibility for allegations made about other people founded in half-truths.
Pascal*
I was a student at UNILAG at the time. This was in September 2015. My friend and I went to see a friend at the Radiography Hall. It’s a part of UNILAG but outside the school gates and much closer to the Yaba environs. She had thrown a small birthday party, and we turned up.
We left a bit late, around 9 p.m., but not “Lagos life late”, if you know what I mean. I remember telling my friend that we should take a bus back to school, and he was like, “Which bus? Let’s walk this thing, jare.” Because at the end of the day, that’s what my guy always does: he believes he can leg any distance. To be fair to him, though, waiting for a bus would have taken a lot of time, so I agreed and decided to walk.
We had passed underneath that overhead bridge at WAEC junction when my friend heard someone shout at him from a distance as though he had recognised him. It was dark, and it was a poorly lit road. We should have picked up the pace and made a run for it had we known what was coming, but my friend, thinking it was a case of mistaken identity, responded that they had the wrong person.
Big mistake
The next thing we knew, two guys were on us. I faintly recall one of them, fair-complexioned, in a white shirt and looking so haggard. He dipped into my friend’s shorts and picked up his phone while struggling with another assailant. I had a small iPhone then, but it looked like the thieves were in a hurry and didn’t hassle me much.
Another guy was walking along that road who looked like he was keeping watch, and I suspected he was among them. I had to tell my friend to let go when they held a broken bottle to his neck— he didn’t know.
My friend was still furious and was fighting them when the third guy joined them. I could tell he was reaching for something in his pocket, although I couldn’t say what, maybe a knife or a gun.
Or perhaps he was bluffing.
I’m naturally calm, and the way I read the situation, fighting there wasn’t worth the danger. So I convinced my guy to free the phone, which he did. It was late, and the road was lonely. Getting back to school safely was the priority.
I laughed when I replayed the incident in my head the next day. I was thinking, what if my friend had died that day? What would have been the story? That we went to see Babe and got stabbed on the way back? I was thinking of the narratives that could have come up, like how we should have stayed in school and not gone outside. This would’ve been funny because my friend and I were doing great at school, and the one time when we decided to take a break, we nearly paid dearly for it.
We joked about it for a long time, as guys do, but things could have gone sideways in an instant. Looking back, my reaction to the whole thing was fair and calm. Since it was at night and these guys were confident enough to mug us, letting go was smart.
Folake*
My mugging experience happened in Ajah around December 2019. I was heading for work at about 4:30 a.m. This was the best time to leave home to beat heavy traffic. I remember feeling very reluctant to go to work that day, but I had no choice as it was a weekday. I left home singing. On my way to the bus stop, I saw a group of boys ahead of me, but I thought they were regular people returning from a party. They were in my path, so I passed between them.
Immediately, one of them said, “Hey, come here”. I hissed because I thought they were teasing. Before I could even turn to see who called, I saw the other guys with knives telling me to give them my bag. I had to surrender my bag to them because I didn’t want to get stabbed.
Damn
They took my phone, which I had just bought, my ATM card, shoes and some money I planned to deposit at the bank that day. I was lost and confused for about five minutes. I saw them as they left. It took a while to dawn on me that they’d taken everything from me and that I had nothing left. I didn’t know when I started running. I ran to the bus stop. When I arrived, I began begging people to help me, telling them I had been robbed. Nobody responded. I went to the main road to cry for help; no one was willing to help.
I didn’t report the incident at the police station because I knew that if I did, they wouldn’t bother to do anything about it. You know the Nigerian police nau. They’ll ask you to write a statement and ask you to cough up money, and nothing will come out of it.
I returned home sad. After the incident, I felt terrible for two days. But then I told myself this is Nigeria, where you should expect anything. I later got a new phone and continued with my life.
*Name changed to protect their identity.
Join us on Twitter on April 25 at 6 p.m. to discuss Nigeria’s worrying rise as a cocaine trafficking hub.
On April 29 1998, the federal government of Nigeria awarded an Oil Prospecting Licence (OPL) 245 to Malabu Oil & Gas Ltd. for $20 million. The license covers a defined deep-water offshore area over 1,000 m below sea level and approximately 150 km off the Niger Delta.
As awards go, however, this has turned out to be a poisoned chalice. It’s been a constant source of litigation for successive governments due to allegations surrounding fraud and corruption in awarding the licence. The FG may have finally thrown in the towel based on the latest reports.
The Cable has reported that Abubakar Malami, the attorney-general of the federation (AGF) and minister of justice, has written a memo to President Muhammadu Buhari asking the federal government to end all cases relating to OPL-245 because it has little chance of winning.
The FG awards OPL 245 for $20 million to Malabu Oil and Gas. The company belonged to Dan Etete, an associate of the former head of state, Sani Abacha and a former petroleum minister who served between 1995 and 1998. Etete awarded the license to himself using false identities.
Nigeria is in its Fourth Republic under the administration of Olusegun Obasanjo. On behalf of Malabu, Etete pays $2.04 million for the OPL 245 licence out of the $20 million the company had agreed to pay.
March 2001
Shell signs an agreement to acquire a 40 per cent stake in OPL 245 from Malabu. The agreement was on the condition that Shell would pay the outstanding $18 million to the FG.
July 2001
The FG revokes Malabu’s OPL 245 licence. This sets off a series of litigations over its ownership.
May 2002
Shell informs Malabu that its contracts have been frustrated by the revocation of the licence. Shell is officially awarded 40 per cent of OPL 245. It starts exploration and appraisal work and later signed a production-sharing deal with the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC). Under the deal, Shell Nigeria Ultra Deep (SNUD) agrees to pay a $209 million signature bonus, placed in an escrow account until the Malabu dispute is resolved.
August 2002
Shell goes to the International Court of Arbitration (ICC) to file a case against Malabu based on terms of the March 2001 agreement.
May 2003
The House of Representatives (HOR) orders Shell to pay Malabu $550m for damages resulting from the revocation of the OPL 245 license. It also asks the FG to return the licence to Malabu. The FG refuses to comply.
November 2004
The ICC rules in favour of Shell.
November 2006
Malabu settles with the FG. It agrees to pay $218 million to the FG in return for the licence being fully reinstated to Malabu. Malabu, however, fails to pay.
April 2007
Shell (SNUD) commences Bilateral Investment Treaty arbitration against the FG for wrongful expropriation.
August 2007
The FGN promises Shell a new prospecting licence in other blocks, worth 50 per cent of OPL 245. Shell declines.
Mohammed Abacha, son of the former head of state, enters the ring. He launches a legal challenge arguing that Etete pushed him out of his partial ownership of Malabu.
2010
Eni proposes to Malabu and Shell to buy a stake in OPL 245. Malabu refuses.
April 29, 2011
Malabu, Shell, Eni, and the FG reach a resolution. Malabu agrees to hand OPL 245 back to the government for $1.092 billion. Shell and Eni agree to pay the FG $1.092 billion and a signature bonus of $208 million, bringing the total payment for OPL 245 to $1.3 billion.
[An oil rig / The Cable]
May 20, 2011
The $1.092 billion is placed in an escrow account opened by the FG with JP Morgan Bank. $875 million is transferred to Malabu bank accounts.
2011
A former Russian diplomat Ednan Agaev, claims Malabu owed him millions of dollars for arranging meetings with Shell and Eni.
2014
The HOR votes to cancel the OPL 245 deal.
December 2017
FG sues JP Morgan in London for its role in transferring the $875 million to Etete’s Malabu, alleging negligence.
May 2018
The main trial in Milan starts.
April 2019
A Nigerian judge issues arrest warrants for Dan Etete.
November 2020
A London judge rules that the Nigerian lawsuit against JP Morgan can go to a six-week trial.
March 17, 2021
A Milan court acquits all the defendants in the Italian trial.
What did Malami tell Buhari?
In the AGF’s memo to Buhari dated February 6, he listed a lengthy series of losses that the FG has faced over the OPL-245 matter. They included defeats in the UK, US and Italy, where the courts ruled in favour of Eni and dismissed any fraud cases against Eni and JP Morgan.
Malami asked Buhari to settle all civil and commercial cases between the FG and Eni and to convert the OPL to an Oil Mining License (OML), which, in Malami’s words, would help Nigeria take “advantage of the fast-disappearing opportunities in the oil exploration industry.”
What else should I know?
[Mohammed Abacha / Channels]
The case involving Mohammed Abacha hasn’t been resolved. The EFCC is recommending that Eni pays $500m to the Abacha family. A former AGF, Mohammed Adoke, in 2017 said that even if Abacha had a claim to the oil field, he had to forfeit them to the FG.
His words: “By Decree No 53, the (Abacha) family had forfeited all identified assets to the federal government. All undeclared assets were also forfeited.
“People should ask if, in a decent country, the children of Abacha could come out openly to say ‘we own OPL 245’ when their father awarded the oil block. Should they have been so confident to lay that kind of a claim?
“Why has the EFCC not gone after them to ask how they acquired an interest in OPL 245? If not that the political environment is conducive for them, they wouldn’t raise their head to be making such claims.”
It remains to be seen if Buhari will approve this $500m payment to Abacha or whether he’ll pass the ball to the new administration. Whatever the case, it’s a relief that Nigeria can have some closure over the controversial OPL-245.
A French saying goes, “The more things change, the more they stay the same.” A Nigerian might as well have originated this quote, and it’d still ring true.
A new administration will lead Nigeria on May 29, 2023. However, age-old problems remain, and as the latest World Bank report shows, things aren’t looking promising, as 13 million Nigerians are projected to fall into poverty by 2025.
We went through the report and highlighted key findings from it.
Nigeria’s macroeconomic stability is severely weakened
The “Macro Poverty Outlook for Nigeria” report disclosed what every Nigerian knows — that our economy is a shambles. The report reads, “Oil price booms have previously supported the Nigerian economy, but this hasn’t happened since 2021.
“Instead, macroeconomic stability has weakened amidst declining oil production, costly fuel subsidies, exchange rate distortions, and monetisation of the fiscal deficit. The deteriorating economic environment is leaving millions of Nigerians in poverty. Risks are tilted to the downside given the lack of macro-fiscal reforms, the naira demonetisation, and an uncertain external outlook.”
What does that mean?
To explain the jargon, the report says that Nigeria, which used to be heavily dependent on oil revenue, no longer gets enough money because its production capacity has dropped. Other issues like fuel subsidies, multiple exchange rates and high government borrowing have turned the economy upside down. The result? Nigeria’s future looks “uncertain”.
The infographic above shows macroeconomic indicators from 2014 and projected into 2024. That orange wavy line you see is oil price over the years. From 2015 there was a slump which picked up slightly in 2018 but fell in 2020, which, as you’ve guessed, was when the pandemic hit hard.
In 2021 there was a sharp rise due to the Russian-Ukraine war. Almost every oil-producing country reaped from the oil windfall as demand peaked. We say “almost” because Nigeria was the notable exception. The light blue line below the orange one is Nigeria’s revenue which tells its own story. As oil prices were soaring, revenues were dwindling. A truly astonishing feat that shows the Nigerian government’s uncanny ability to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.
[President Buhari / Daily Nigerian]
The dark blue line is our GDP growth which the World Bank says will grow by an underwhelming average of 2.9 per cent per year between 2023 and 2025.
The report describes Nigeria as “more fragile than before the late 2021 global oil price boom.” The World Bank reports Nigeria’s debt is over 38 per cent of GDP. In 2022, 96.3 per cent of our revenue was used to service debt.
Between now and 2025, our population is expected to grow, on average, by 2.4 per cent annually. Given that GDP growth will be at 2.9 per cent for that same period, that’s not encouraging. Our economic growth rate should be outpacing our population growth rate by far to have any chance of lifting Nigerians from poverty.
On poverty, the World Bank said: “With Nigeria’s population growth continuing to outpace poverty reduction and persistently high inflation, the number of Nigerians living below the national poverty line will rise by 13 million between 2019 and 2025 in the baseline projection.”
To provide a sense of where we are, the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS) said in November 2022 that 133 million Nigerians live in multidimensional poverty. That number is expected to rise by millions.
The World Bank said fiscal and debt pressures would increase if the petrol subsidy is not phased out in June 2023. It recently gave the federal government a loan of $800 million, which it’ll use as petrol palliative by disbursing cash to 50 million Nigerians. How effective that’ll be is anyone’s guess.
Way forward
Besides phasing out fuel subsidies, the World Bank has advised the following:
Increasing oil and non-oil revenues,
Tightening monetary policies to reduce inflation and;
Unifying the multiple FX windows and adopting a single, market-responsive exchange rate.
This heavy burden falls on whoever assumes office on May 29, and it’s one hell of a job. We wish them good luck as they’ll need every ounce of it.
On April 13, 2023, Adamu Garba, a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), tweeted an image of the Chair of Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NiDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, with the Labour Party (LP) presidential candidate, Peter Obi. He claimed that the APC had helped secure Obi’s release from detention in the UK after travelling with fake documents.
On Wait First, we divide claims into three categories. A valid claim is fresh banana. A false claim is burnt dodo, and a misleading claim is cold zobo. So what’s the status of this claim?
According to a report by Premium Times, Obi was detained in London by UK immigration officials for alleged impersonation. A statement by the Head Obi-Datti Media, Diran Onifade, confirmed that Obi was harassed by London immigration officials and placed in detention. Onifade said this was where Obi spent the Easter holidays.
“The LP presidential candidate arrived at the Heathrow Airport in London from Nigeria on Good Friday, April 7, 2023. He joined the queue for the necessary Airport protocols when immigration officials accosted him. They handed him a detention note and told him to step aside,” Onifade said.
Onifade said the offence means an impersonator could commit weighty crimes that would cause people to point fingers at Obi, causing embarrassment.
In his reaction to a report that the UK government apologised to Obi over the detention, Obi said he did not receive any letter of apology from the British government.
Verification
To verify Adamu’s claim, our partners, FactCheckElections, came across a report by LEADERSHIP . In the report, the federal government of Nigeria denied news that it intervened in Obi’s detention ordeal.
The spokesperson of NiDCOM, Abdur-Rahman Balogun, said the image attached to the tweet is a “stunt.”
He added that the NiDCOM boss, Dabiri-Erewa, was not in the UK and not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation
“Our attention has been called to the above social media stunt, which has gone viral. Aunty Abike Dabiri-Erewa is NOT in the UK and not in a position to secure the release of any Nigerian suspected to be under UK interrogation. So, members of the public should disregard the information in its entirety,” Balogun said.
Verdict
Adamu’s claim is false and therefore burnt dodo. Avoid the spread of misinformation, as it has the grave potential to cause public panic and harm.
Tragedy struck around 3 p.m. on Wednesday, April 12, 2023, when a seven-storey building under construction collapsed at First Avenue in the upscale area of Banana Island, situated in Ikoyi, Lagos.
In a viral video shared by Punch, the building appeared to give way without warning while construction workers were seen walking atop the uncompleted structure seconds before the collapse. Here’s what we’ve gathered so far.
Have there been any casualties?
Vanguard reported that an undisclosed number of people remained trapped underneath the rubble. Eyewitnesses said people jumped off the building before its collapse while kids walking around the area narrowly escaped death. The DG/CEO of the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) revealed on his Twitter page that rescue operations were ongoing.
According to Punch, seven people have been rescued while the search continues. However, an undisclosed number of people have suffered injuries to varying degrees.
Which agencies have responded?
The Lagos Fire Service and Rescue Service spokesperson, Amodu Shakiri, confirmed the incident. He said, “We got a call around 3:58 pm. We are currently trying to ascertain the claim that no one was under the rubble.”
The Deputy Director of Public Affairs, Lagos State government, Mukaila Sanusi, said:
“An unapproved seven-floor building under construction collapsed in Banana Island, Lagos State, this evening. “Few who sustained injuries are being treated. There is no fatality. This unfortunate incident happened while casting was being done.
“The Commissioner for Physical Planning and Urban Development, Engr. Tayo Bamgbose-Martins, was immediately on site to assess the situation and flag off an investigation.
“We ask members of the public to remain calm and expect further information from the ministry as we know more.”
In a statement, the Lagos State Ministry of Physical Planning and Urban Development said the collapsed building didn’t have a permit, suggesting it was built without regard to the state’s building code. LASEMA claimed the building collapsed because a truck ran into the building.
What next?
The Lagos state government has called for calm, saying there’s an investigation into the collapse. In the meantime, here is a list of Lagos state emergency lines should you know anyone directly impacted by the collapse. We will keep you updated as the story unfolds.
Join us on Twitter Spaces on Friday, April 14th, by 6 pm as we talk to historians to give us a perspective on an interesting slice of Nigerian history.
The unemployment rate is the percentage of the labour force that is unemployed but is actively seeking employment. According to the multinational consulting firm KPMG, Nigeria’s unemployment rate will likely hit 40.6% based on its 2023 projections. Another way to put it is, out of every five employable Nigerians between 15 and 64 years, two would be unemployed.
This would make Nigeria one of the countries with the highest unemployment rates globally.
[Highest unemployment rates 2021 / Statista]
How did we get here?
If you look at the screenshot above, Nigeria doesn’t feature in the top twenty. The explanation is that the Nigerian Bureau of Statistics (NBS), which releases official unemployment figures, has not done so since Q4 of 2020. As of then, Nigeria’s unemployment rate was an alarming 33.3 per cent.
KPMG’s report estimated that Nigeria’s unemployment rate rose to 37.7% in 2022. It expects it to rise even higher to 40.6% in 2023 based on their projections. Here’s what they said:
“Unemployment is expected to continue to be a major challenge in 2023 due to the limited investment by the private sector, low industrialisation and slower than required economic growth and consequently the inability of the economy to absorb the 4-5 million new entrants into the Nigerian job market every year.
“Although the NBS recorded an increase in the national unemployment rate from 23.1 per cent in 2018 to 33.3 per cent in 2020, we estimate that this rate has increased to 37.7 per cent in 2022 and will rise further to 40.6 per cent in 2023.”
KPMG said the coming administration would face weak and slow economic growth and trouble in the forex market. Inflation also affected Nigeria badly in 2022, maintaining an upward trend that has spilled over into 2023. Nigeria’s inflation rate in February rose to 21.91 per cent despite the Central Bank hiking the interest rate.
“Additionally, government revenue remains inadequate to support much-needed expenditure, leading to a high debt stock and high debt service payments”, the report said.
Is there any hope at all?
According to Punch, at the end of Q4 of 2022, Nigeria’s GDP growth rate was 3.52 per cent. This was a boost from 2.25 per cent in Q3 of 2022. On average, Nigeria experienced a 3.10 per cent growth rate in 2022.
KPMG said that Nigeria’s growth would be affected negatively in 2023 by Meffy’s disastrous naira redesign policy, the proposed subsidy removal and the budget deficit.
However, if Nigeria addresses security issues, KPMG expects some recovery in telecommunications, trade and the oil sector. The growth rate for 2023 is projected to be at a “relatively slow pace” of three per cent.
What can the incoming government do?
Every solution to arrest Nigeria’s economic decline feels like a bitter pill. We recently added an $800 million loan to our mounting debt. Let’s not forget the coming census projected to cost ₦869 billion. It should be apparent that a serious government would look to cut down on these high expenses.
There are also security concerns that, if left unattended, might worsen an already bad situation. A 40.6 per cent unemployment rate is a ticking time bomb as this means there are too many idle hands for the devil to employ.
Unemployment is a lagging indicator. This means it’s an indicator that changes after the economic variable with which it is correlated changes. If Nigeria has a poor economic outlook, unemployment will keep rising, while if it’s growing, unemployment will fall.
Therefore, the obvious solution is to get Nigeria’s economy to grow again. This could be by supporting the manufacturing sector, making Nigeria more attractive to investors, unifying our exchange rate and providing incentives to encourage local production. These things don’t happen overnight; it will take collective political will to turn things around. But as the saying goes, where there’s a will, there’s a way.
Join us on Twitter Spaces on Friday, April 14th, by 6 pm as we talk to historians to give us a perspective on an interesting slice of Nigerian history.
The UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) has released its Global Cocaine Report for 2023, which, without mincing words, is immensely worrying for Nigerians.
The 184-page report disclosed the trends in cocaine trafficking worldwide and noted that Nigeria played a “significant role in smuggling activities across West and North Africa.”
We went through the report and highlighted the big talking points from it. Here’s what you should know.
[Nigeria as a coke hub / SBM Intelligence]
Nigerians trafficked cocaine to 20 countries between 2018 and 2021
Based on the UNODC’s aggregated report, between 2018 and 2021, Nigeria was a primary origin of cocaine trafficking to 20 territories. The countries within West Africa were Burkina Faso, Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Niger and Liberia.
Transit countries in Africa were Morocco, Ethiopia and Algeria. In the Asian-Pacific region, destination territories were Australia, China, Sri Lanka, Hong Kong, India and Malaysia. The Middle East and South-West Asian destinations were Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The UK and Turkiye were the European destinations for cocaine from Nigeria.
The most common means of cocaine trafficking is through mules via a widespread trafficking network
Data on 52 specific cocaine seizures from 2019 showed that Nigeria also trafficked cocaine to neighbouring countries besides the primary destination. These include Benin, Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Libya, Cyprus, Italy and Spain. In April 2020, Saudi Arabia authorities disclosed that cocaine trafficked by air from Nigeria was “on the rise.”
Out of the 52 seizures, those outside Nigeria were trafficked by air using drug mules. Nigeria’s seizures were trafficked by mail, express parcel or commercial flights—a small number of these used vehicles.
In Brazil, in each year between 2018-2020 and the first four months of 2021, Nigerians were the most frequently occurring foreign nationals arrested at Brazilian airports for being drug mules.
The report notes, “The most prominent departure country for cocaine reaching Nigeria is Brazil. Thus, despite the established and well-connected presence of Nigerian traffickers within an international network of actors and counterparts trafficking cocaine (and other drugs), notably concerning trafficking by air, given the available seizure data, it is plausible that the volume of cocaine transiting Nigerian territory is a relatively modest share of the quantities reaching West and Central Africa.”
Cocaine comes into Nigeria via popular routes
According to the report, cocaine comes in virtually through all major airports, land borders, and seaports.
Cocaine arrives in Nigeria via various channels, including bulk carrier vessels arriving at seaports such as Apapa, Tincan Island, and Onne.
They also come in via passenger flights into airports such as Lagos, Abuja, Enugu, and Kano. They travel across land borders at various locations. These include Seme (border with Benin) and llela (border with Niger). Courier companies and postal services also delivered drug parcels.
Nigeria dominates the cocaine trafficking trade in Africa especially at dealer and mid-level
Nigeria leads in drug trafficking in Africa, followed by Morocco in North Africa, with a sizable presence of Nigerians involved in cocaine trafficking. However, the analysis by the UNODC suggests that the role of Nigerians is relatively vital at mid-level and dealer levels rather than large-scale trafficking.
[Source: UNODC]
Nigerian trafficking gangs have an established presence outside the country
Cabo Verde is a Lusophone country in Africa. It’s a stopover point for maritime vessels moving across the Atlantic Ocean towards North Africa or Europe. A 2021 report by the Dublin Group assessing the scale of the drug problem in West Africa said, “Nigerian criminal gangs are well established in Praia (the capital), Mindelo, and the island of Sal.”
Take Côte d’Ivoire as another example. Lebanese, Brazilian, Italian and Nigerian criminal groups control cocaine trafficking. The report warned about the spread of Nigerian cult groups involved in the trafficking trade in Europe and South America.
Addressing the trafficking problem
Ghada Waly, the UNODC executive director, warned that the potential for the cocaine market to expand in Africa is a “dangerous reality”. She asked governments to look into the report’s findings and provide solutions to these threats.
According to The Cable, in September 2022, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) seized 1.8 tonnes of cocaine said to be worth ₦194 billion in Lagos state. The confiscated drugs were suspected of belonging to members of an international crime syndicate.
While this is laudable, there’s still a long way to go. The UNODC report highlights a few challenges that still need to be addressed by the government. They include the porous borders through which drugs still pass. There’s also the problem of cultism which has not only exported itself but has now become entwined with the drug problem.
The connivance with security agencies, as has been alleged, needs to be addressed. Shipping lines that abet drug trafficking, as the NDLEA alleges, need to be identified and dealt with. High unemployment is a pressing concern as this drives young Nigerians to a life of crime.
Ultimately, the war against drugs is a long and arduous one. There are no quick fixes. To reverse this trend of Nigeria’s worrying dominance in drug trafficking, the government must proactively tackle the listed challenges head-on.
The image you’re looking at is a graph showing Google trend data between 2018 and 2023. Specifically, it focuses on how often Nigerians search online for passport and visa applications. Preamble, Citizen’s partner, provided the data. Over the next few weeks, we’ll use similar search trends to draw up infographics and explain the reasons for migration trends across Africa.
Passport and visa applications first spiked around June 2018, at the commencement of the 2018 FIFA World Cup, a major sporting activity.
Domestically, some political events also stood out, such as Amnesty International blaming the FG for increased wanton killings across the country. This happened during a herder-farmer clash that saw 200 people killed in Plateau state.
Between December 2018 and January 2019, there was another increase in demand for visas and passports. January was the month before the 2019 presidential election, with many Nigerians planning to leave the country in the aftermath.
The big story in that month was the suspension of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Walter Onnoghen, which many Nigerians criticised for its timing and as a brazen attack on the judiciary, especially on the eve of a controversial presidential election.
Between April and July 2019, renewed interest in visa applications was noticeable. This was a transition period as the Buhari administration was getting set to begin a second term in office amid protestations against the election outcome at the court by opposition challenger Atiku Abubakar of the PDP. Buhari was sworn in on May 29, and between then and July, there was a rise in the search for visas and passports.
COVID-19’s impact on travelling
In January 2020, demand for passports spiked again, although a similar spike did not match this in visa applications. By March 2020, the search for both visas and passports cooled off sharply, which can be attributed to COVID-19 and increased lockdown and travel restrictions across the globe.
According to reports, the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS) issued 9.31 million passports between 2015 and 2022. In 2019, 1,242,953 were issued. That figure dropped significantly by 37% to 780,047 in 2020, the lowest within the period. Because of COVID-19, international flights in Nigeria were primarily suspended between March and September 2020 when they resumed.
Between April 2020 and June 2021, there was a slow but steady rise in interest in passports and visa searches. The events of October 2020 can explain part of it, the EndSARS protests. However, travel wasn’t quite as robust as already demonstrated by the COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions.
Things began to pick up by December 2021, and interest in visas and passport applications surpassed the pre-COVID era. Explanations for this include worsening macroeconomic indicators like forex depletion, naira depreciation, government debt and high youth unemployment.
July 2022 marked peak interest in visa and passport searches on Google over the five years between 2018 and 2023. At this point, political parties had concluded their primaries. The leading contenders in the presidential race ahead of the 2023 election had emerged. The World Bank announced that Nigeria was suffering badly from inflation. Globally, it was among the worst-performing countries.
The NIS said it issued and processed 1,056,422 passports in 2021. That figure jumped to 1,899,683 in 2022 — a 55% increase from the previous year and the highest in the Buhari era. Based on the data, the high demand for passports and visas looks likely to continue.
During his presidential campaign, the president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), famously promised, among other things, that “farmers will make more money“. While he’s yet to be sworn in, another group of people — pensioners — have come to cash in early on that promise. Because what’s good for the farmer is good for the pensioner.
Pensioners in the South West of Nigeria under their union, the Nigerian Union of Pensioners (NUP), are demanding a 35% increase in their pensions. They’ve made this demand known to BAT and governors in the South West.
[Nigerian pensioners / The Cable]
What’s the gist?
At a meeting in Abeokuta on April 3, chairpersons and secretaries of NUP from Ogun, Oyo, Ondo, Osun, Lagos and Ekiti states said they want BAT to “show them love”. The SW NUP zone’s public relations officer (PRO), Olusegun Abatan, said the outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari “has done quite a lot for pensioners.”
In December 2022, the National Pension Commission approved the increase of retirees’ monthly pension to take effect in February 2023. However, the NUP alleges that governors in the SW still owe retirees huge sums in pensions and gratuities.
What else do pensioners want from BAT?
An increase in pension isn’t all the pensioners are asking. They also want BAT to create a separate ministry dedicated to pension-related matters.
What’s the FG’s latest response concerning pensioners?
On March 30, in an unprecedented turn of events, the federal government, through the director-general of the National Senior Citizens Centre (NSCC) Emem Omokaro, said the FG would “create a portal to engage older persons who wish to continue offering services after retirement.”
The portal will go live this month, April. Omokaro said, “The aim of the collaboration is also to assist the centre to create an online portal that would engage older persons who are professionals in their different fields of endeavour to tap into their wealth of experiences.” There’s no rest for the wicked and the elderly.
As seen from their Twitter responses, Nigerians have not taken this news kindly.
For a generation that claims we are disrespectful, see what they want to do to their elders https://t.co/DfiUwJFdgl
With Buhari already set to leave office, the burden of responsibility on this matter falls on BAT. Will he create a new ministry for pensioners? Will he send retirees back to work to “make more money”? These are questions only time can answer.
When the former director general of the Labour Party presidential campaign council, Doyin Okupe, was convicted on money laundering charges, we reported it. We explained why money laundering is a big deal.
When the now president-elect, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, was making waves on Twitter over asset forfeiture reports in the US, we explained in our newsletter what asset forfeiture means.
President Muhammadu Buhari and his VP, Yemi Osinbajo, are counting the days till they leave office. The code of conduct bureau (CCB) has announced that they should prepare to declare their assets after almost eight years in office. And it’s not just them; outgoing governors and ministers too. As before, we’ll explain asset declaration and why it’s crucial.
[Buhari (R) and Osinbajo / Premium Times]
What is asset declaration?
Asset declaration, as the name suggests, is the disclosure of all assets owned by publicly elected officials and government officials at all tiers to a body mandated by law to do so.
It guards against the accumulation of illicit wealth. This is achieved by allowing oversight of the financial activities of politicians and senior public officials;
To monitor and prevent conflicts of interest. Decision-making by officials, which should serve the public interest, can be undermined by several factors. They include secondary employment, the ownership of shareholdings or the receipt of gifts and hospitality.
Which body is in charge of asset declaration in Nigeria?
The CCB was created in 1979 and was empowered by the 1979 Constitution. It provided a code of conduct for publicly elected officials to follow. The Code of Conduct Bureau and Tribunal Act, Chapter 58 LFN 1990, gave the CCB the power to establish and maintain a high standard of public morality for government officials.
According to the Constitution, all public officers must declare their assets and liabilities when they resume office and end their tenure.
[Buhari receives asset declaration form from Chairman of (CCB), Prof. Muhammad Isah / Twitter]
The CCB has a form, and all public officers, whether elected, appointed, recruited, contracted, or by whatever name called, are mandated to collect and sign the form. They can pick it from the CCB office in any of the 36 states of the federation and the FCT.
Within 30 days of receiving the form, you must honestly declare your assets and liabilities, including that of your spouse (if married), who is not a public officer and children under 18.
Only assets and liabilities you own at the time of resuming office are required of you to declare, not those you anticipate. Doing otherwise constitutes an illegal act.
Properties owned outside of Nigeria must also be stated in the form and their values in their respective currencies. Then you go before a high court judge to swear your declaration.
Public officials elected into office must declare when they resume office and when they leave. Those under government employment must declare their assets every four years. The CCB has the responsibility of verifying those assets.
Have there been any famous examples of assets declared publicly in the past?
Public officials are not required by law to disclose their assets publicly. They’re only to do so to the CCB. Public disclosure is a matter of choice.
In 2007, fulfilling a campaign promise, former president Umaru Yar’Adua became the first Nigerian president to publicly declare his assets and liabilities. At the time, his total assets were worth ₦856, 452,892. These include a total of ₦19 million owned by his wife, Turai. His total liabilities were ₦88,793,269.77.
[President Yar’Adua and Goodluck Jonathan / Premium Times]
However, President Goodluck Jonathan, who came after Yar’Adua, refused to declare his assets publicly. His reason was that it went against his principles.
President Buhari and his VP, who came into power on the wave of an anti-corruption campaign, disclosed their assets publicly. Buhari claimed to have around ₦30 million in the bank, while Osinbajo had a balance of ₦94 million, $900,000 and £19,000 in his bank accounts. However, no mention was made of Buhari’s liabilities or his wife’s assets.
In 2019, the CCB said it could only publicly disclose the assets of former presidents and public office holders’ assets once it received their consent.
What happens if a publicly elected officer fails to comply?
According to the Constitution, the penalties for not disclosing assets to the CCB include either a conviction or:
Removal from office.
Disqualification from holding any public office.
Forfeiture to the state of any property acquired in abuse of office or dishonesty.
If you plan to seek public office, you should now understand all there is to know about asset declaration.
On March 19, 2023, Nigerian Twitter was buzzing with congratulatory messages for Aishatu Binanu, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in Adamawa state, on her victory at the polls held on March 18, 2023.
The mood was especially jubilant as she was said to be Nigeria’s first elected female governor. The outgoing British High Commissioner to Nigeria, Catriona Laing, and other notable Twitter users like Aloy Chife and J.J Omojuwa congratulated her .
The celebrations turned out to be premature. There were no credible news reports that announced the victory, and neither had the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). Although Binani had won seven local governments out of 18 INEC had announced, she was still trailing behind the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Fintiri, who had won 11. The lead margin was over 16,000, with three LGs still to go. So how, despite these, was the claim of Binani’s victory so easily believed?
The fact check agency, Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD West Africa), looked into the origin of the claim. Here’s what they found.
A parody account spreads misinformation
A parody account named @Binani4Governor on Twitter was the originator of this claim.
The handle had posted results purported to be from Adamawa at 5:39 p.m. on Sunday, March 19, with the caption, “Final results.” But CDD Election War Room was informed by a journalist that results collation at the state collation centre started at about 12:16 p.m. at the state capital, Yola.
A few minutes past 2 p.m., Fintiri had secured six LGAs, while Binani had four LGAs. Aliyu Hong, the state collating officer for the PDP, announced at the collation centre that thugs snatched the result sheet while INEC officials were collating election results from the wards in Fufore LGA of Adamawa. Regardless, at 6:13 pm, the handle posted a graphic showing Binani with the inscription, “Madam Governor”. But as of 7 p.m., when the collation officer announced another break, 18 of 21 LGAs had been reported.
Binani had 329,770 votes, while Finitri was in the lead with 346,103 votes. This was when the claim began to go viral on social media, with the “Madam governor” graphic making the rounds.
The aftermath
On Monday, March 20, INEC declared the state guber poll inconclusive, with results from one local government, Fufore, yet to be collated as thugs had reportedly snatched the results sheet of the LGA.
INEC has scheduled April 15 for a supplementary election in the affected LGA. Contrary to earlier claims, Binani has not won the Adamawa guber election. Any such claim is misleading and, therefore, cold zobo.
In Nigeria’s Electoral Act 2022, only INEC has the power to declare a winner at the federal and state levels. Protect yourself from fake news. Corroborate claims by checking out trusted news sources or from INEC itself.
“Thank God it’s Friday” is a phrase you might hear from working-class Nigerians happy to come to the end of a work-heavy week. For those in the champagne industry, however, this phrase holds a different meaning as that’s when they can expect to cash out from Nigerians looking to unwind at a bar by popping a bottle or two of their favourite champagne.
BusinessDay reports that champagne shipments to Nigeria from France have hit an eight-year high. Nigeria’s champagne import volume increased from 559,088 bottles in 2021 to 644,452 bottles in 2022, a 15.3% increase. The value of sales also rose by 17.8% to £25.3 million last year, according to data compiled by Comité Champagne.
You all like to say there’s “no money”, but bottles keep popping. So what’s going on?
A steady rise in demand post COVID
In 2014, before Buhari came into office, Nigeria’s champagne import was 768,131 bottles. Under Buhari, champagne consumption was at its lowest, particularly in 2020. Then, we only imported 304,199 bottles. It takes no genius to see the correlation between the COVID-19 pandemic and a sharp fall in demand.
However, things have been picking up ever since. Across the world, 326 million bottles of champagne were shipped in 2022, a 1.6% rise over the previous year. The top three biggest champagne markets are the USA (33.7 million), the UK (28.1 million) and Japan (16.6 million).
Nigeria also experienced a rise, moving up four places to 28 on the list of biggest champagne markets out of 192 countries. In Africa, we’re second only to South Africa, which registered 1.3 million bottles of champagne imported.
According to BusinessDay, “The return of consumer confidence post-COVID, plus stability in some sectors like financial services, oil and gas, and the consumer goods sector, may be responsible for the increase in champagne volumes.” But that’s not all there is to it.
Increase in political activities
Nigerian politics doesn’t always have to be war. Our drinking patterns suggest that the increased consumption of champagne may also have come from high-profile political events where dignitaries come around to not only discuss politics but to be merry, inflation and cash scarcity be damned.
However, the spike in demand is segmented. That is, not all Nigerians can afford the big-boy lifestyle. But the champagne orders don’t stop among the wealthy and the political class for whom every day is a Friday.
Social gatherings
Banky W sang, “there’s no party like a Lagos party”, and the data seems to support this. Another reason for the increase in champagne consumption is that more people are attending parties than during the lockdown, where there were curfews and movement restrictions.
Popular brands of champagne like Moet Moet Rose, Vurve Cliquote and Don Perignon cost between ₦50,000 and ₦200,000. However, not many people can afford luxurious champagne, so they opt for cheaper substitutes like wine.
According to Euromonitor, Nigeria’s wine consumption rose to 33.1 million in 2021, the highest since 2015, from 32.0 million in 2020.
Nigerians are effectively saying that no matter how tough things get, nothing will get in their way of having a good time. For better or worse, you’ve got to admire our spirit—no pun intended.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Yemi, media practitioner and part-time hobbyist. He shared his story about using a cargo company to transport his belongings from the North, down to Lagos. His experience made him vow never to use the company again and has made him “avoid playing nice” with Nigerians.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss the Nigerian experience with little interference to individual opinions. While our editorial standards emphasise the truth and we endeavour to fact-check claims and allegations, we do not bear any responsibility for allegations made about other people founded in half-truths.
Could you walk us through your experience?
Before this experience, I’d used ABC transport once, and it was because of proximity. It was the closest and most accessible transport available the first time trying in 2021. Then, I sent out a bag of books, and they delivered to my location within four working days, which they promised.
This time, I was moving from Abuja, in the North Central, to a new city in the South West. I visited several transport companies. I wanted to make a road trip, and I wanted to travel with a company that had robust bus services. I remember going to GIG Logistics. They said they could transport my belongings. The cost wasn’t an issue for me either.
The challenge I had with them was their route. What they had in mind was to go straight to Lagos. I wanted to head to Ibadan before going to Lagos, and their path wasn’t convenient for me. I wanted one company to sort out my baggage and movement.
So this was what led me to ABC Cargo.
The beginning of the wahala
At first, I carried one bicycle and three bags to them. The bags contained personal effects like my clothes, my books, cutlery, and all that stuff. This was on December 18. On December 19, I brought another bicycle I used to participate in a marathon. Then I went to book a ticket for my road trip on December 20. I recall that my bags were still at their office when I arrived.
I encountered a couple of problems that day. I was travelling with my cats. Their manager came to me and said I couldn’t travel with pets. They were inside a carrier, mind you. I was willing to pay for extra seats to avoid inconveniencing anyone, but this guy refused. He just kept shouting and yelling. It was a whole lot of back and forth.
So what did you do?
I called a private bus service that came to the park to meet me. I got a refund for my ticket right there. When I asked why they’d not sent my luggage ahead, they assured me they’d deliver in four days, per their policy, and told me not to worry. I took them by their word and left.
So imagine my surprise when my bags didn’t arrive four days later. I called them to understand the cause of the delay. They said things like, “ehn, it’s just four days; it hasn’t passed.” I had many plans for December, particularly road-tripping, and the delay affected them.
After the first week without getting my luggage, I still kept waiting. I had my brother check their office at some point which was when I discovered they didn’t have my bags.
What?
By the end of December, the company found one bag. But they told me they couldn’t release it to me because I sent all my luggage items as a bundle and wanted to ensure I got everything immediately, so they held on to that bag for a while.
In the first week of January, one of my bicycles arrived. It came in damaged. It was from that point I started showing them shege.
LMAO
I went to their office with some boys to threaten them to give me my things as fast as possible. They begged and said they were working on it.
Why not the police, as Nigerians like to do?
I did not go there to use force. I went there to let them know it was an option. Outrightly involving the police would have closed the door for negotiations, but I wanted them to have the benefit of the doubt.
I told them that the next time I’d show up, it would be with the full force of the law. That’s when they had someone from their headquarters call me. These were the same people I’d been calling that had been rude to me on the phone. They kept telling me they were on top of the situation.
Through January and February, I had many phone calls with them. I recorded them. They kept insisting that my bags weren’t missing. At some point, ABC Cargo said they’d compensate me with ₦100k. They said the value of the items I had with them was around ₦400k. So how do you have that estimate but decide to compensate me with ₦100k?
I told them that for me to consider compensation, they’d have to start with ₦500k. After that, I contacted the Federal Competition & Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC). I also warned that they’d hear from my lawyer if they didn’t do something after the governorship elections. That’s when they started taking me seriously. In March, they begrudgingly sent a Cheque for ₦400k.
Did you think that was fair compensation?
The compensation was not reasonable. I had just bought a suit, some jackets that were just two months old, and lots of new sweaters. These alone were definitely above ₦400k.
What’s your takeaway from the whole affair?
Don’t use ABC Cargo services. If you find yourself in a similar situation, reach out to the FCCPC, but also try to avoid playing nice with Nigerians. They have to understand you can go from “good morning, sir” to “you wan see crase” to “you’ll hear from my lawyer” as the situation evolves.
The Nigerian census, now set for May 3, is, at its core, a math exercise as it’d involve counting individuals and gathering spatial and demographic data like housing, migration and residents per household.
Yet, unless you’re new to Nigeria, you’d know Nigeria has a problem regarding numbers. To put it simply, Nigeria has a counting and accounting problem. Let’s start with the counting problem.
The counting problem: How many people does Nigeria have?
If you enter “Nigeria population” on Google, you’ll get numbers between 211 and 224 million. On paper, that’s a large number. Two hundred million of anything — from cash to people — is a lot.
In reality, the numbers have raised questions about its credibility. In 2018, Stears argued that Nigeria’s population wasn’t 180 million, as was the commonly quoted figure. No one knew for sure. The numbers used to determine Nigeria’s population are estimated.
Nigeria last conducted a census in 2006. While the official count was 140 million, there were questions about how the numbers were calculated. The president-elect, Bola Tinubu, who was Lagos state governor then, rejected the figures allocated to Lagos, which was nine million. The state conducted its “survey” and concluded that its population was 17.5 million — almost double the official figure.
The reason for manipulating census figures comes down to resource control. More numbers mean more allocation of resources from the federal government, which is good news for politicians. The incentive to conjure figures is strong because censuses don’t come up often. With the last one held 17 years ago, no one can say when the next one will come. These numbers are what the federal government will use to guide policymaking in resource allocation for the foreseeable future. As a result, there’s an incentive for data to get distorted.
Today, according to its 2023 budget, Lagos state claims its population is over 27 million, an astonishing 200% increase from 2006. It then leaves question marks on why a state with this many people had less than 1.2 million turn up at its governorship election. The math doesn’t add up.
The accounting problem: How much does it cost to conduct a census?
The other aspect of the numbers problem comes down to accounting. Exactly how much does it cost to conduct a census?
In September 2022, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo said the census would cost ₦198 billion. At the time, they earmarked ₦21 billion for mapping the country into enumeration areas. However, two months later, the National Population Commission (NPC) told the Senate that the census would cost ₦532.7 billion. This is a census that the NPC chair has described as “digital”, so how and why did the cost balloon so quickly?
But that’s not all. In its strategy document, the NPC said the census would cost ₦841.9 billion. That’s over ₦300 billion more than its previous estimate. Earlier this month, the FG said it’d need ₦869 billion to conduct the census. The numbers keep rising, and no one is being held accountable. Just like no one knows the actual size of Nigeria’s population, no one knows the real cost of conducting a three-day census.
Will the 2023 census be a true reflection of Nigeria’s population?
The NPC has repeatedly told Nigerians that the 2023 census would be “different.” Of course, the NPC is right as it’ll be the most expensive ever. The real bother is whether the outcome will justify the expense. Given how the Independent National Electoral Commission performed at the elections compared with its lofty pre-election promises, it might be wise not to get too excited about the NPC’s readiness for the census. Most recently, it has been pleading with Nigerians not to travel home for the census, which begs the question of whether they didn’t foresee this scenario.
The die is cast, and the census will hold one way or another. Whether the NPC is better prepared to learn from its shoddy history of conducting censuses and whether the numbers will be a true reflection of our population is anyone’s guess. The NPC has a rare opportunity to provide us with a credible count, unlike its sister commission, INEC. Will that happen? We’ll know for sure when the census ends on May 5.
When we think about structure in the political context, our minds instantly veer to political parties and the grassroots network they possess.
However, Nigeria itself is founded on structures that enable it to function. For instance, Nigeria became an independent country in 1960, but only a few people are aware that Nigeria became a republic in 1963. What does it mean to be a republic, and what structure is the Nigerian government built on?
Nigeria as a federal republic
[FCT/ The Guardian Nigeria]
Officially, Nigeria is known as the Federal Republic of Nigeria. But what does this mean? The term “federal republic” consists of two words. “Federal” refers to a federation of states. Nigeria has 36 of those and its federal capital territory (FCT).
A republic is a system of government where people choose representatives through elections to represent them in the public interest. However, a republic isn’t necessarily the same as a democracy, despite their similarities. One key difference is that democracy is a government of the majority, meaning it can impose its will on the minority.
A republic, however, allows for inalienable rights for everyone regardless of whether they belong to the majority or minority. In Nigeria, these rights are protected by the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, enacted on May 29, 1999 — the beginning of Nigeria’s Fourth Republic. Nigeria is both a republic and a democracy.
The Nigerian government operates on the doctrine of separation of powers. It has three arms. The executive arm is responsible for managing the country daily. The president leads the executive and is advised by the federal executive council (FEC). Mr President also chairs the FEC. But the president alone can’t be everywhere, which is where ministers come in. The president picks the ministerial cabinet that reports directly to the president and oversees anything from agriculture to sports.
There’s also the Nigerian Civil Service comprised of employees in government agencies other than the military and the police. The president holds the title of the Grand Commander of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (GCFR), and all military parastatals are under his command.
The president appoints the Inspector General (IG) of the Nigerian Police. Other commissions like the Nigerian Population Commission, Federal Civil Service Commission and the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission, among others, report to the president. These departments assist the executive in running the country.
The legislative
[The Nigerian Senate / Premium Times]
From the explanation so far, the president is very powerful. However, all power doesn’t belong to the President, fortunately. The legislative arm of government is the one in charge of making laws.
The Nigerian legislature is known as a bicameral legislature. That is, it’s divided into two separate chambers: the Senate (the upper chamber) and the House of Representatives (HOR) (the lower chamber). Together, they’re known as the National Assembly.
The National Assembly consists of 109 Senate members—three from each of the 36 states and one from the FCT. The HOR has 360 members, and they’re cut unevenly across federal constituencies. Lagos and Kano have the most, with 24 each, while the FCT has the least—two.
Their function includes scrutinising bills before the floors of the National Assembly. Before a bill can be made into law, the two houses must agree on it in their respective readings. The president also has to assent to it. However, the president can refuse to sign or override the bill. This is known as a veto. The National Assembly can overrule the veto in both chambers if they can get a two-thirds majority.
Beyond making laws, the legislative has special powers. The Senate, for instance, can impeach judges and officials in the executive. In the event of gross misconduct by the president, they can move a motion for impeachment. While this helps them check the president’s powers, the process, in reality, could be more rigorous and unlikely to happen.
The judiciary
[Supreme Court in session / Peoples Gazette]
If the function of the executive is to put laws into action and that of the legislative is to make laws, the judiciary’s work is to interpret them. The highest court of the land in Nigeria is the Supreme Court. It derives its powers from the Constitution and the Supreme Court Act. While there are other courts of jurisdiction like the appeal court, high courts and so on, decisions rendered by the Supreme Court are binding on everyone and final.
The Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) leads the Supreme Court. The president appoints them on the recommendation of the national judicial council and following confirmation by the Senate. Associate justices support the CJN, and there can be at most 21 justices. Currently, the Supreme Court has 13 members.
Altogether, these three arms are the structure upon which the Nigerian government is built. Ultimately, a functional democracy is one where these arms act as checks on each other while performing their primary responsibilities.
With President Muhammadu Buhari counting down to his Aso Rock exit, he’s been ticking off last-minute items on his bucket list. The latest was granting assent to 16 constitution amendment bills on March 17.
Buhari received 35 bills from the national assembly but only assented to 16. So what are these bills, and how do they concern you?
Bill No. 1
If you’re from Ebonyi state, you want to pay attention to this bill. This bill, titled “Fifth Alteration (No.1)”, is to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to change the names of Afikpo North and Afikpo South Local government areas (LGA). They’re now known as Afikpo and Edda, respectively.
Bill No. 2
This bill concerns people from Kano and is titled the “Fifth Alteration (No.2)”. It’s to amend the Constitution to change the name of Kunchi LGA. It’s now known as Ghari LGA.
Bill No. 3
Gather here if you’re from Ogun state. The “Fifth Alteration (No.3)” is a bill to change the names of Egbado North and Egbado South LGAs. They’re now known as Yewa North and Yewa South, respectively.
Bill No. 4
The Fifth Alteration (No.4) is to correct the name of Atigbo LGA; and for related matters. The LGA is in Oyo state. Its correct spelling is Atisbo.
Bill No. 5
The Fifth Alteration (No.5) is to correct the name of Abia/Akpor LGA to Obio/Akpor; and for related matters. If you followed the elections closely in Rivers state, this LGA might ring a bell.
Bill No. 6
Fifth Alteration (No.6) is a Bill that seeks to alter the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999, to provide for the financial independence of State Houses of Assembly (HOA) and State Judiciary and related matters. This means that state HOAs and state judiciary now have financial autonomy. That’s a good thing.
Bill No. 8
The Fifth Alteration (No.8) regulates the first session and inauguration of members-elect of the National and State HOA. This bill provides a procedure for how assembly sessions should go.
Bill No. 9
The Fifth Alteration (No.9) is to delete the reference to the provisions of the Criminal Code, Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Act, Criminal Procedure Code or Evidence Act from the Constitution. This makes the constitution less voluminous since these Acts are codified separately into law.
Bill No. 10
The Fifth Alteration (No.10) amends the Constitution to exclude the period of intervening events in the computation of time for determining pre-election petitions, election petitions and appeals, and related matters.
Essentially, periods in filing election petitions are sacrosanct, and no extenuating circumstances are considered. However, with this bill, pre-election petitions can now be excluded from the period if a party raises a preliminary objection or interlocutory issue (i.e. judgement given provisionally).
The Fifth Alteration (No.12) is to alter the Constitution to provide for the post-call qualification of the Secretary of the National Judicial Council; and for related matters.
Bill No. 15
The Fifth Alteration (No.15) Bill amends the Constitution to delete the item “prisons” in the Exclusive Legislative List and redesignate it as “Correctional Services” in the Concurrent Legislative List; and for related matters. While it may appear trivial, the name change is significant as it’s symbolic of what reform is, which is to correct behaviour and not necessarily punish for the sake of it. This bill also means states can now build correctional facilities instead of just the FG.
Bill No. 16
The Fifth Alteration (No.16) Bill is to move the item “railways” from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent Legislative List; and for related matters. As in the previous entry, states can now create railways—and earn revenue from them—just like the FG.
Bill No. 17
I like to call this the “Up NEPA Bill”. The Fifth Alteration (No.17) Bill alters the Constitution to allow states to generate, transmit and distribute electricity in areas covered by the national grid; and for related matters. Fingers crossed, many states will take advantage of this.
Bill No. 23
In Fifth Alteration (No.23), the Bill seeks to alter the Constitution to require the President and governors to submit the names of persons nominated as Ministers or Commissioners within sixty days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or State House of Assembly.
The days of “Baba Go Slow”, when Buhari had to wait till September 2015—after being sworn in on May 2015—to submit a ministerial list, are gone. Publicly elected officials need to hit the ground running. However, it remains unclear what the penalty is if they default.
Bill No. 32
The Fifth Alteration (No.32), the Bill amends the Constitution to correct the error in the definition of the boundary of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja, and related matters.
Bill No. 34
The Fifth Alteration (No.34) alters the Constitution to require the government to direct its policy towards ensuring Nigerians’ right to food and food security. More rights for us? Amen to that!
In breaking news, former Nigeria Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu, and his wife, Beatrice, have been found guilty of conspiring to traffic a Nigerian to the UK to harvest his kidney.
Ekweremadu and his wife were charged with conspiracy to arrange the travel of another person with a view to exploitation, namely organ harvesting, in June 2022. The kidney to be harvested was for the child of the former lawmaker.
Here’s what we know about him.
Who is Ike Ekweremadu?
Ekweremadu is a Nigerian lawyer and politician from Enugu state. He became Deputy Senate President (DSP) under the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He was in that position for three consecutive senate assemblies, the sixth, seventh and eighth. In June 2019, he tried again to run as DSP. He lost to Ovie Omo-Agege of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
How did Ekweremadu find himself in an organ trafficking scandal?
In June 2022, news broke that Ekweremadu had been arrested concerning organ trafficking in the UK. A jury found that Ekweremadu, his wife, Beatrice, and Dr Obinna Obeta facilitated a young man’s travel to Britain. He was a 21-year-old Lagos street trader whose kidney they planned to use for their daughter, Sonia, who suffered a kidney disease that made her drop out of a Master’s degree in film at Newcastle University.
[The Ekweremadus / The Guardian]
According to The Guardian, in February 2022, the unnamed man (for legal reasons) was falsely presented to a private renal unit at Royal Free hospital in London as Sonia’s cousin in a failed attempt to persuade medics to carry out an £80,000 transplant.
For a fee, a medical secretary at the hospital acted as an Igbo translator between the man and the doctors to help convince them he was offering his kidney willingly.
The prosecutor Hugh Davies KC told the court that the Ekweremadus and Obeta had treated the man and other potential donors as “disposable assets – spare parts for reward”. He said they entered an “emotionally cold commercial transaction” with the man.
The prosecutor argued that what the Ekweramadus did was “exploitation and criminal” and that it was not a defence to say he did it out of love for his daughter at the exploitation of someone in poverty.
Ekweramadu and Obeta denied the charges, arguing they fell victim to a scam.
WhatsApp evidence presented at the court showed that Dr Obeta charged ₦4.5 million to facilitate the procedure.
What next?
The court found the Ekweremadus and their doctor guilty. However, their daughter Sonia was found not guilty. The verdict is considered the first under the UK’s Modern Slavery Act. Sentencing will be passed on May 5, 2023.
That’s when we will know what their punishment will be. According to the Act, the couple could get anything between a twelve-month sentence to life imprisonment.
The presidential election may be done. But the outcome is far from concluded — going by the latest petitions filed at the Presidential Election Petitions Tribunal in Abuja.
In separate suits, four presidential candidates approached the tribunal on March 21, 2023, to nullify INEC’s declaration of the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), as the winner of the presidential election.
In law, a person who presents a petition to a court is known as a petitioner. The person against whom the petition is filed is known as the respondent. The four petitioners in this suit are Atiku Abubakar and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP); Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP); Solomon Okangbuan of Action Alliance (AA); and Chichi Ojei of the Allied People’s Movement (APM).
Here’s what we know about the petitions.
AA
The AA’s petition called on the tribunal to void the election. It claimed its candidate, Hamza Al-Mustapha, was excluded by INEC.
APM
The APM petitioned that BAT, at the time of the election, was not qualified to contest the election under the provisions of sections 131(c) and 142 of the Constitution and section 35 of the Electoral Act 2022.
Section 131 of the Constitution deals with qualifications for the president’s office. Section 142 covers the nomination of the vice president. For Section 35 of the Electoral Act, it covers the invalidity of multiple nominations. The APM claims that Shettima’s nomination as running mate is invalid because he was already nominated for a senatorial seat.
LP
The LP spokesperson Yunusa Tanko describing its petition, said, “We are challenging the qualifications of the candidate that was declared the winner. We are also challenging the processes that led to his declaration as the winner, among others.”
The LP’s 99-page petition asked the tribunal to grant it relief based on the following prayers, (prayers are what the petitioner wants the court to give them at the end of the case), the summary of which is:
BAT and his vice, Kashim Shettima, were not qualified to contest the election. The bases of this claim include BAT’s alleged links to narcotics. It also challenges Shettima’s running mate nomination while being the Borno Central constituency’s senatorial candidate.
Following the first prayer, the second respondent, BAT, received “wasted votes” because he wasn’t qualified to contest;
After removing these wasted votes, Obi scored a majority of votes and met the criteria of 25% of votes in two-thirds of the states in the federation and the Federal Capital Territory. According to INEC, Obi came third with 6,101,533 votes;
Because BAT didn’t get 25% of votes in the FCT, he shouldn’t have been declared the winner;
Alternatively, the court should disqualify BAT and order fresh elections in which BAT and Shettima will not participate;
The certificate of return issued to BAT by INEC is null and void, and Obi should be declared the winner.
The LP’s suit also claimed overvoting in ten states and faulted INEC for not uploading results directly from the polling units to IReV, which it claims contravenes the Electoral Act 2022.
Depending on where you stand, the petition is either very solid — as Obi supporters claim—
It’s not just the DEA that have a case with him. IRS, FBI would also be involved.
Deloitte would also have to give their testimony. University would also be summoned to testify.
A good media team would ensure this is frontline in all global media. It’s already a developing… https://t.co/x9T5vcZ7NI
—or easily dismantled, as BAT supporters would argue. Either way, the presidential election tribunal has a busy few weeks ahead.
PDP
PDP’s petition listed INEC, Tinubu and APC as respondents. Essentially, the PDP is also asking the court to nullify BAT’s victory.
Atiku, through his team of lawyers led by Mr Joe Kyari Gadzama, SAN, further argued that Tinubu’s election was invalid because of corrupt practices. Atiku applied for the withdrawal of the Certificate of Return issued to Tinubu by INEC because it was “invalid by reason of non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act, 2022”.
According to INEC, Atiku Abubakar came second, polling 6,984,520 votes. A date is yet to be set for when the petitions will be heard.
How has the APC reacted?
In a series of tweets this morning, the official spokesperson for the APC Campaign Council, Festus Keyamo, said the issues raised in the petitions will be “busted by law lords.”
We will update you on how this plays out in the coming days. Meanwhile, follow us on our WhatsApp channel below to stay informed about happenings within Nigeria’s political space.
Sports enthusiasts may be familiar with the term “flat-track bully.” It originally comes from cricket but has crept into regular usage. It’s a term that describes a sportsperson who dominates inferior opposition but cannot beat opponents of similar or higher standing. Football fans can relate to this very well, like when they call Cristiano Ronaldo “Penaldo” after he’s scored a couple of penalties against a small team but fails to turn up against a more formidable team. Or Lionel Messi being called “Pessi” for the same reason.
With this background, we’d like to introduce you to the latest flat-track bullies in town, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).
On March 7, 2023, the Nigerian police, via its official Twitter handle, put up a tweet condemning the use of dogs at polling units, citing the Dogs Act. The police described dogs as “offensive weapons.”
The “ratio” they got from that tweet tells you all you need to know. The police, being the flat-track bullies that they are, flexed their muscles over dogs while ignoring — forgive the irony — the elephant in the room (or their logo, whatever).
In any case, law experts have refuted the police as having misinterpreted the law.
Finally, the proper law that regulates the control of dogs in the public space in Lagos is the Animals Law of Lagos State, 2022. Sections 14, 16, and 17 of the law merely demand that dogs owners must leash, harness or muzzle their dogs when they are in public spaces
— Great Oracle Extraordinary & Plenipotentiary (@AbdulMahmud01) March 7, 2023
More importantly, however, this speaks to a Nigerian systemic disease, namely, the unusual focus on symptoms than the root causes. A brighter line of inquiry from the police should be, why do citizens prefer to carry dogs to their polling units?
Warning signs
Before the February 25 elections, there were signs that election manipulation would be rife. YIAGA Africa released a report showing states with a high risk of election manipulation based on six indicators. Lagos state alone presented a very high-risk level with five of these six indicators. They include INEC capture, tampering with the voter register, voter suppression, resistance to election technology and a history of election fraud. To varying degrees, these things played out.
We’ve called out INEC for the shambolic way it handled the elections, but it would be completely unfair to lay all blame at their feet. INEC, for example, can’t provide security detail to protect ballots. This is the work of the police, and it’s to their shame that they also performed poorly.
The Financial Times of London reported seeing, with their own eyes, party goons invading PUs and armed men removing a presidential ballot box in Surulere. In Oshodi and Elegushi, election materials were destroyed by thugs in open view. All these happened despite the police assuring Nigerians that they had “state of the art” equipment to suppress unrest anywhere.
In the face of these visible threats, the police and their “state-of-the-art equipment” abandoned their civic responsibility and pulled off a disappearing act that David Copperfield would be proud of. That’s a hallmark behaviour of a flat-track bully.
Will history repeat itself?
In the leadup to the March 18 governorship elections, we’ve seen reports of voter suppression and intimidation online and offline. Musiliu Akinsanya, the acclaimed ‘thug’ and Chair of the Lagos State Parks Management Committee, also known as MC Oluomo, has threatened Igbo voters, asking them to stay home if they don’t want to vote for the All Progressives Congress (APC). Dog-whistling, ethnic baiting and outright offensive campaign adverts have become the order of the day.
Curiously, the police spokespersons have been quiet on the matter.
Good luck and welcome to everyone on Twitter who's newly discovering who Ben Hundeyin is — someone who pontificates about a better Nigeria on Twitter only to turn a blind eye when supplied hard evidence about corrupt and brutal policemen.
I see the police hasn't said anything about MC Oluomo even though they were very quick to falsely and illegaly ask people to not bring their dogs to polling units.
Based on these, is it out of reach to expect citizens to defend themselves with dogs when the people entrusted with that responsibility have gone quiet? As Stears recently noted, Nigeria has, over the years, adopted a Bring Your Own Infrastructure (BYOI) model, which includes election results, electricity and, with the latest developments, security.
A call to action
It’s high time the Nigeria Police Force took some responsibility. Its slogan reads, “change begins with me.” The Nigerian police must be the change it wants for the better. One way to redeem its battered image is to ensure that troublesome elements who want to foment trouble on election day are clamped down on.
No more flat-track bullying, arresting and intimidating innocent protesters as we saw during #EndSARS and empty press releases that do nothing. The Nigerian police need to show workings, and it needs to do so immediately.
We’ll be bringing you special coverage of the governorship elections as they happen across the country. To get live updates, join us on our WhatsApp by clicking the image below:
For Navigating Nigeria this week, we look at the March 18 governorship elections and some key states to watch out for. While the February presidential and national assembly elections threw up some surprises, it’s anyone’s guess whether the status quo will be restored or if lightning can strike twice.
After a one-week delay, the 2023 governorship elections are upon us. On March 18, 2023, 28 states will vote for their governors. The reason all 36 states are not taking part is due to off-cycle elections. We saw this in Ekiti and Osun last year, where the states held their elections at different times.
The February 25 presidential and national assembly elections had some surprises, with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) losing national assembly seats. For example, in Nasir El-Rufai’s APC-led Kaduna, the PDP won all three senatorial seats. The APC had previously held two of those. The PDP also won ten out of 16 house of representatives seats in the state.
There were also surprising performances by the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP) in Kano and the Labour Party (LP) in Lagos. With the governorship elections two days away, it’s anyone’s guess about whether to expect more shocks or if the ruling party will re-strategise to reclaim some scalp. Here are five states to watch out for in the March 18 governorship election.
Kano
In Kano, the three leading candidates are Yusuf Abba Kabir of the NNPP, Gawuna Nasir Yusuf of the APC and Wali Mohammed Sadiq of the PDP. The NNPP won 38 out of 44 local governments in the presidential election with 997,279 votes. The APC won the remaining six, polling 517,341 votes. The margin of victory was over 470,000 votes.
The odds are long for the APC, led by the term-limited Abdullahi Ganduje, to retain power. But this is Nigeria, where miracles happen daily.
The LP swept through the South-East at the presidential election. In Abia state, currently led by PDP’s term-limited Okezie Ikpeazu, the PDP had a disastrous outing where it only managed 22,676 votes to fall a distant second to the LP, which polled 327,095 votes. Okpezie also lost his bid for the senate, marking a shocking decline in popularity.
Thirty-six people are vying for the governor’s seat, but the leading candidate is Alex Otti of the LP. If the LP repeats a performance similar to the presidential election, it will become the first time it leads the state.
Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of the PDP is the current governor of Adamawa. Atiku Abubakar of the PDP won the state at the presidential election by a distance, with 417,611 votes to beat his closest challenger, Tinubu, with 182,881 votes. However, the governorship election is likely to be a much tighter affair.
Fintiri is up against Senator Aishatu Binani of the APC. Binani is the first female governorship candidate of a major political party. She clinched the party’s ticket after defeating Nuhu Ribadu, former chair of the EFCC. No small feat as Ribadu was a former presidential candidate in 2011, finishing third with over two million votes.
[Aishatu Binani / The Sun Nigeria]
Binani’s journey hasn’t been rosy. She had to fight to reclaim her mandate after a federal high court nullified the primaries. She remains confident of victory against the incumbent. If she manages to pull it off, she’ll become Nigeria’s first-ever elected female governor. You can read more about her here.
Lagos
The state, which prides itself as the centre of excellence, will be the scene of a hard-fought contest on March 18. The incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu of the APC, is up against Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour (GRV) of the LP and Abdulazeez Olajide Adediran (Jandor) of the PDP.
[Sanwo-Olu, GRV and Jandor / BBC]
At the presidential election, Obi won Lagos with 582,454 votes, ahead of Tinubu, a former Lagos governor who got 572,606 votes.
The dynamics of the governorship election are different, however. The shock factor the LP had on February 25 is no longer there, and Sanwo has responded by going into overdrive in his campaign.
This one’s hard to call, but a repeat of the February 25 results would be seismic — at the risk of stating the obvious. It would be the first time BAT loses his grip on the state. Lagos is BAT’s prized possession, and while he’s achieved a lifelong ambition by emerging president-elect, it doesn’t look like he’ll let go of Lagos without a fight.
Rivers
Without beating about the bush, Rivers was the scene of electoral fraud at the just concluded presidential election. While BAT emerged victorious, there’ve been growing calls for the results to be investigated. That said, the state’s governorship election will be tightly contested. The LP, PDP, APC and Social Democratic Party (SDP) have strong candidates. Nyesom Wike, the state’s outgoing governor, will want to have his say on who emerges as his successor. Will the outcome of the February 25 election repeat itself, or will a different party emerge winner? Your guess is as good as mine.
[Nyesom Wike / Punch]
We’ll be bringing you special coverage of the governorship elections as they happen across the country. To get live updates, join us on how WhatsApp by clicking the image below:
The word “citizen” is defined as a native or naturalised person who owes allegiance to a government and is entitled to protection from it.
By this definition, you’ll see that citizens and the government they pledge allegiance to are locked in a social contract. One part of this contract is the citizen’s loyalty to the country to abide by its laws, while the other is an obligation by the government to grant certain rights to said citizen.
[Nigerian passport / Nigerian Scholars]
The Nigerian Constitution protects the rights of a Nigerian citizen. In particular, Section IV of the Constitution lists Nigerian citizens’ fundamental rights. What are these rights, and what do they mean to you?
Right to life
As Nigerians, the government has a duty not to kill you and to ensure your life is protected and not interfered with. But there is an exception:
“Every person has a right to life, and no one shall be deprived intentionally of his life, save in execution of the sentence of a court in respect of a criminal offence of which he has been found guilty in Nigeria.”
This section also provides some leeway which may excuse extrajudicial abuse.
“A person shall not be regarded as having been deprived of his life in contravention of this section if he dies as a result of the use, to such extent and in such circumstances as are permitted by law, of such force as is reasonably necessary –
(a) for the defence of any person from unlawful violence or the defence of property:
(b) to effect a lawful arrest or to prevent the escape of a person lawfully detained; or
(c) to suppress a riot, insurrection or mutiny.
Right to human dignity
This right says that all Nigerian citizens must be afforded human dignity. Nigerian citizens hold a unique value and must be respected regardless of birth, class, race, gender, religion, or abilities. To this end;
(a) no person shall be subject to torture or inhuman or degrading treatment;
(b) no person shall be held in slavery or servitude; and
(c) no person shall be required to perform forced or compulsory labour.”
Like before, there’s a caveat.
Forced or compulsory labour does not include:
(a) any labour served as a court order or sentence;
(b) any labour required of members of the armed forces of the Federation or the Nigeria Police Force;
(d) any labour required which is reasonably necessary in the event of any emergency or calamity threatening the life or well-being of the community; or
(e) communal service or NYSC.
Right to personal liberty
Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr, former US Supreme Court associate justice, once said: “The right to swing my fist ends where the other man’s nose begins.” The import of this saying is that while you’re allowed a certain degree of freedom, it must not intrude into that of others. Nigeria’s constitution borrowed a leaf from this.
The Constitution says no one should be deprived of personal liberty unless under a set of unique circumstances, like when being presented following a court order or for educational purposes — for persons who haven’t reached 18 years — among other circumstances.
This section also states that a person arrested must be issued a warrant and brought to court within 48 hours. If a person is detained unlawfully, they’re entitled to compensation and a public apology from the appropriate authority. Know your rights, folks!
Right to fair hearing
This is founded on the legal principle of the presumption of innocence until proven guilty. As a Nigerian citizen, you’re entitled to a fair hearing by a competent court, regardless of the crime — which we hope you won’t commit.
All Nigerian citizens are entitled to their privacy. The government has no business bugging your home or your phone.
Right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion
You’re constitutionally allowed to hold contrarian thoughts or conspiracy theories. You’re also free to change your religion as you see fit. But you’re forbidden from belonging to a secret society.
Right of freedom of expression and the press
Thankfully, Nigeria is a democracy, and its constitution guarantees freedom of expression and freedom of the press. That’s not to say you can make slanderous or libellous statements and walk away freely, though. There are laws against those.
Right of peaceful assembly and association
You can associate freely with whoever you want and belong to a political party. That doesn’t mean you should, in the words of Falz, join a bad gang.
Right to freedom of movement
The Constitution grants citizens the right to move freely anywhere in Nigeria.
Right to freedom from discrimination
No Nigerian citizen should be discriminated against because of their ethnicity, religion, disability, political opinion, place of origin, the circumstance of birth, sex and so on. In case we left anything out, the point is, don’t discriminate.
Right to own property
Nigerian citizens have the right to acquire and own immovable property. If the government forcefully acquires your property, you can claim compensation. You can also rightfully sue them in court. Other rights like access to education, healthcare and shelter can be claimed depending on the resources in a state. It’s important to note that while these rights exist, you may need to follow up on them if they’re infringed upon. Know your rights, but just as importantly, know a lawyer.
In William Shakespeare’s play Romeo and Juliet, we’re introduced to this unforgettable line by Juliet Capulet that goes: “What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.”
The rest of the world might side with Juliet here, but Nigerians might beg to differ. We have a very strong affection for names and their connotations. For example, in 2012, when former president Goodluck Jonathan decided to honour MKO Abiola by changing the University of Lagos to MAULAG, students of UNILAG protested and even sued the president, who eventually had to back down. In another example, Osun state has been in fisticuffs over the years following a proposal to change it to the State of Osun — weird, we know.
[Rauf Aregbesola, former governor of Osun / Vanguard]
Given that the naira scarcity has dominated discussions over the last few weeks, we decided to look into how our currency even got its name in the first place. If you already know, then chapeau to you. If you don’t, the answer may (or may not) surprise you.
A brief history of our currency
Between 1907 and 1958, Nigeria used the British West African Pound issued by the West African Currency Board that was set up by the British authorities. This was the currency used across British West Africa. At the time, the pound and the pound sterling were at parity; that is, one pound equalled one pound sterling.
[Twenty-shilling note / West African Currency Board]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) was established by parliament with the CBN Act of 1958. By July 1959, it began operations and started issuing the Nigerian pound, which was in use until 1973.
How the naira got its name
On January 1, 1973, the Nigerian naira was introduced. It was exchanged at ₦2 to £1. At the time, Obafemi Awolowo was the federal commissioner for finance. He had the honour of naming our currency, now fifty years old.
A firsthand account of what inspired the name comes from his daughter, Olatokunbo Awolowo-Dosunmu. Here’s what she said in a 2016 interview with Punch when asked how her father came about the name “naira”:
“He just took the name of Nigeria and collapsed it to Naira. That’s what he told us, and that was how he arrived at the name ‘naira’, and that was when he was the federal commissioner for finance.”
For this and his contributions towards the creation of the Nigerian state, he has been immortalised by having his portrait grace the ₦100 note. But that’s not all there is to it. He’s also said to have named the kobo. How did that one come about? Well, kobo is a corruption of the word “copper”, which coins were made of then.
As of today, March 13, 2023, £1 is now exchanged for ₦912. Crazy eh?
That said, could Awolowo have created a sexier name for our currency? Probably, lol. Would a sexier name have allowed the naira’s value to appreciate over the years? Clearly not, which was Juliet’s point all along.
