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On March 3, 2023, the Supreme Court ruled on the Central Bank of Nigeria’s (CBN) naira redesign policy. It noted how the president flouted its February 8 order asking the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN) not to end the recognition of old naira notes as legal tender and described it as a hallmark of a dictatorship.
Here are the words of Justice Emmanuel Agim, who read the lead judgement:
“The rule of law upon which our democratic governance is founded becomes illusory if the President of the country or any authority or person refuses to obey the orders of courts. The disobedience of orders of courts by the President in a constitutional democracy as ours is a sign of the constitution’s failure and that democratic governance has become a mere pretension and is now replaced by autocracy or dictatorship.”
[CBN governor Godwin Emefiele / Channels]
The Supreme Court ordered that the old ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1,000 notes should remain in circulation until December 31, 2023. This was a week ago. While some banks have started issuing the old notes, it’s unclear whether compliance is universal because cash is still scarce.
A CBN spokesperson recently said the old notes are now legal tender. Still, the CBN hasn’t issued an official statement, and the federal government has maintained an unusual silence.
Citizen spoke to some Nigerians to hear their thoughts on this issue. Here’s what they had to say.
Elizabeth
“I see the step taken by the CBN to reduce the naira in circulation to conform people to digital money as a welcome development. This is because many transactions and businesses have been bypassing taxes for years. This will help to audit most of their records properly.
“Also, I see it as a means to reduce corruption and undocumented payment. As a citizen and civil servant, it has helped me curb avoidable and unnecessary expenses. It has saved me from billing — the usual ‘drop something’ when you go to offices and other departments.
“I mainly use naira notes for transportation purposes (when I am not driving). It also helped me to review my expenses, especially when I go on market errands.
“Regarding the charges, I use non-traditional bank apps and cards to pay, so instead of paying charges, I earn interest for using their cards to make purchases.
“The CBN governor hasn’t said a thing about it because he is trying to salvage the policy, maybe looking for means and ways to make it work. The Supreme Court has given an order. Based on the verdict, I think the Supreme Court told the FG to return the old notes than telling the CBN. The president’s silence is obviously because he still supports the policy. As far as I’m concerned, I’m 70% ok with the naira scarcity.”
Layi
“Malls are packed because it seems it’s the way people can buy things via e-channels. You’ll find 30-minute queues at Spar and Shoprite. Cards are failing, so you have to transfer and wait. It’s been very time-consuming, which is ironic.
“Regarding the Supreme Court ruling, I’m not a lawyer, but I don’t think the ruling is useful per se. If it’s legal tender, people should accept it. No one will have confidence in the notes if the CBN says nothing.
“Also, the ruling makes it look like the court is in charge of the money supply — which is wrong. As you can see, the CBN can still frustrate the whole ruling by not circulating old notes, not printing more notes etc.
“It’s a cashless policy — that was clear from the start, and it’s another attempt to get Nigerians to dump cash. It wasn’t Buhari’s place to intervene in the matter in the first place but the CBN’s. Perhaps, the faulty implementation made him speak, but it didn’t concern him. If all went well, no one would need his input.
“You don’t call Buhari when banks hold your money, and you rarely call the CBN except you need a firmer hand to put your bank in check. So Buhari doesn’t have to say anything, and the CBN ideally still has control of the legal tender, so what do we do with the ruling? At best, banks accept the notes again, which can solve the problem. I can accept the notes if I know banks would accept them from me.”
“The ruling has changed my purchasing experience. I now use Justrite Store more than I ever had. I only use cash for transport. The CBN won’t say anything till after the elections. They don’t need to since you can only spend the money if they release it. The policy has destroyed volumes of fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG). We are bleeding volumes massively.
“On Buhari, he can’t openly disobey the Supreme Court order, so I expect him to be mute.”
Bolaji
“For me, pardon my language; it’s pure BS. To even collect old notes from the banks is hard. To enter the bank, problem. I have failed POS transactions that they haven’t refunded. When I try to purchase stuff, sellers ask me to put ₦50 or ₦100 as an extra charge. What if what I want to buy is ₦400, and there’s ₦420 in my account? How do I wing it? I have to reduce whatever I want to purchase. It makes no sense.”
Victor
“The primary way this policy has affected me is to reduce my purchasing power. If I want to buy things like Suya or table water which the informal sector of the economy thrives on, I have to think twice because I don’t have an abundance of cash and transfers aren’t reliable. Who wants to wait for a Suya seller to confirm whether a ₦500 transaction has gone through?
“Everyone knows Godwin Emefiele is a yes man. At this point, the CBN doesn’t even have an opinion and is waiting on Buhari. Buhari himself appears confused. I think that’s why the CBN hasn’t said anything yet.
“Do I expect Buhari to speak on this issue? Yes, but not anytime soon because he has a lot on his plate with the controversies surrounding the conduct of the elections. He’s dealing with the transition as he’s tired of the office. The CBN is supposed to say something about it. When? I don’t know, maybe next week. That guy operates on vibes.”
Wunmi* was an ad-hoc staff in Lagos at the just concluded presidential and national assembly election. She spoke to Citizen about the experience and how expectations differed wildly from reality. She’s calling it quits with INEC, who expect her to turn up for the gubernatorial elections on March 18. She says the pay is peanuts and not worth being “treated like trash.”
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss policies and politics 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.
What to expect in this episode:
Where INEC ad-hoc staff sleep
How much INEC pays (guess)
How INEC staff are exposed to compromise
Walk us through your experience
TL;DR – Have a backup plan for working with INEC because accommodation isn’t guaranteed.
I got a call from a relative who works in the local government (LG) that they need people who’ll work for INEC. He said they’d pay us ₦25k; I told him I was interested. He also asked me to inform any of my interested friends. I was like, “ok, cool money for one day’s work”.
I started calling my friends, and they all showed interest. They told us that INEC would contact us, but we didn’t receive any call. On the morning of February 24, a Friday, he sent me a document with all our names. The list had about a thousand and five hundred names on it. They arranged us in groups to different locations, which were our polling units.
He told us to head to the LG to verify our names and get any needed information. That was all he told me. At 3 p.m., I was at the LG. I’d told some friends to come so we didn’t miss out on any info. Because they were all coming from different places around Lagos, the plan was for them to all converge at my end after we got the relevant info since my place was close to the LG. I asked my relative about accommodation during the election, and he told us they’d provide somewhere to sleep if we worked very late and couldn’t go home. My friends would follow me to my house if the accommodation weren’t conducive.
Ok, good plan so far
However, they didn’t attend to us in time, and there was a curfew that day. I decided to run home and get food, bedspreads and mats for myself and my friends. We were seven. When I got back, there was a crowd of people. Nobody was saying anything, so we didn’t know what to do. We saw some people checking a list of names posted on the boards, but it didn’t click that we were supposed to do that to know who our Presiding Officers (PO) were. None of us knew what POs or Assistant Presiding Officers (APO) were. Eventually, using the numbers attached to our names, we located our POs.
(Editorial note: A presiding officer is an official in charge of a polling unit. In Nigeria, this responsibility usually falls on corp members trained by INEC.)
Progress, finally
TL;DR – LG offices of INEC can be places of fun and chaos in equal measure.
At 10 p.m., nobody said anything to us. The same thing happened at 11 p.m.
We knew we were on our own. Inside the LG was a DJ playing music with speakers and a microphone. Some women cooked food too. It was like a mini-party although the food wasn’t for us. The LG was congested, so we had to lay our mats on the pavement opposite the LG office.
Around 1 a.m., we heard again that they were calling names, so we all ran inside. Someone was trying to address the crowd. The man on the microphone asked us to locate our Supervisory Presiding Officer (SPO). At the time, I had no idea what that meant.
It was a disorganised process with plenty of confusion. You had to ask questions to understand what to do, like locating the number of your Registration Area Centre (RAC), aka ward. I saw several buses outside the INEC office, which I’d discovered were to convey election materials to the polling units. Most of us were lucky to be in the same RAC, so we were still together till 5 a.m. We couldn’t sleep and couldn’t return to that pavement because it was empty outside, and we felt unsafe.
Meanwhile, not all of us in that compound were INEC ad-hoc staff. Some were party agents. By 5 a.m., they started calling RAC 1, where I belonged. It was also the closest ward to the LG. We assembled, along with our PO, inside the office. At this time, I realised election materials were within that building. I thought they were going to bring them from elsewhere.
The POs started picking their materials according to their materials. They gave them activated Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) machines for data capture. They also provided a SIM card to log in with their details. The POs were corp members, and I assumed they got trained on how to go about the process. We, the ad-hoc staff, didn’t get any training.
Yikes
TL;DR- You learn quickly that you’re on your own during an election period. Be prepared for long periods without bathing or food while working for INEC.
Funnily, when I met my PO hours earlier, she asked me if I knew how to navigate proceedings, and I told her I didn’t. INEC had trained them, after all, and I wasn’t. If she wasn’t sure of what to do, how could I?
In any case, we marked an attendance sheet and a log sheet to tick the materials we received in a bag. It was my first time seeing ballot papers before elections. We didn’t tamper with it. All we did was count and record the materials we received.
It was around 6:30 a.m now.
People were looking for how to brush and freshen up. There was nowhere to bathe. The toilets at the LG needed fixing. We started to go our separate ways. My friends and I agreed to reach out should we experience any issues on the field. I was in polling unit 2 (PU), so we were among the first set of people to leave. We found our driver, who wasn’t even sure where the PU was. He only had an address and had to locate its whereabouts.
For example, the PU would be somewhere, but there’d be no number, so you have to scan for yourself to know exactly where the PU should be. I called my SPO to give us a landmark to describe where we should be, but even he didn’t know. He told us to ask around.
O.Y.O
We located the PU, but we had a new problem. There were no chairs or tables on the ground for us to set up. I called my SPO again, but his line was understandably busy because he got calls from other people. When I finally got through to him, he told me to be patient and that the chairs and tables were coming.
We got to the PUs some minutes past eight. As of 9:00 a.m., nothing was on the ground. There was a man around who had some experience with elections that guided us on what to do. So we started posting our banners and posters and setting up the voting cubicle. Some minutes to ten, people had begun gathering around. I helped some of them using a list I had to direct them to their PUs. We were supposed to paste this list publicly, as they later told us. There were arguments that the list should have been placed days before and not on election day.
The register has two copies, in coloured and in black and white. After I confirmed with my SPO, we placed the black and white posters on the wall with the help of the voters. All these things delayed the voting process. When it was close to eleven, I had to call again for tables and chairs because we couldn’t commence without those. The SPO raised his voice at me and told me that the chairs and tables he said were on their way were meant to be provided by party agents.
Wahala
TL;DR- Nothing prepares you for what you’ll meet on the field. A calm head is required to navigate the tough life of an election official.
This was new and unexpected information. I had to inform the impatient voters that party agents had to deliver the needed tables and chairs. Arguments ensued. I was scared because I’d never done this before. I kept begging them to calm down. We got a table, but it was too high. Eventually, we found a workaround by asking food vendors to provide us with their benches and tables. This was how we were able to begin the accreditation process.
Phew!
We still had other issues. We forgot the covers of the ballot boxes in the early morning rush to get to our PUs. The voters refused to vote until we had the covers in place. They volunteered to drive one of us down, along with a security agent, to pick up the covers at the LG office. That was how we settled that. When they returned, I climbed on a pedestal to address the crowd that voting was about to commence. I was an APO 2. I’d read the voting guidelines for INEC officials, which I relayed to them, explaining voting procedures.
We noticed that not all parties had representation on the ballot papers for the senatorial and house of representative elections. My guess was they didn’t have candidates for those positions. I explained this to the crowd.
Eventually, at about 11:30 a.m., the voting process started. As you can imagine, there was a long queue. For the first fifty or so voters, the process was seamless. However, after some time, the BVAS started having network issues.
Another headache
TL;DR – For polling officials, elections don’t end on the afternoon of election day. There’s a whole new world of stress ahead after counting ballots. Brace yourself.
We improvised by connecting with a hotspot. The issue occurred at intervals, and we had to take turns using our phones to connect to the BVAS. Some people couldn’t find their names on the list we placed but swore that they were in the right PUs because they’d voted there for years. We checked their PVCs, and for most of them, they’d changed their PUs to somewhere else. This frustrated many voters and affected turnout because many had gone around and couldn’t vote.
By 1:00 p.m., about 100 people had voted, and the queue had significantly reduced. But we were exhausted. We hadn’t brushed, bathed, or had any water or food. By this time, we had established a cordial relationship with the voters and party agents who provided us with water. Someone ordered gala for the crowd, and people scampered around to get their share. A kind stranger brought three for myself and my colleagues, although I couldn’t eat mine because I was busy.
Pele
The number of registered voters at my PU was 750, but only 106 voted. No one came around till 2 p.m. The party agents were still present, but the security agents had gone. The agents kept asking us for their food, which they claimed they had paid for. But we didn’t have any. We were starving too.
At 2:30 p.m., the security agents returned. This was when we decided to do the sitting and counting of votes. In my PU, the APC won by a wide margin. The party agents signed the result sheets, and I also took pictures. I called my SPO, who sent a driver to our location to pick us up. The bus went around a couple of other PUs to pick up some of us who had finished our duties. Together, we headed for the collation centre.
We learned there that we had to cancel out unused ballot papers. We had a lot of sheets to cancel because only 106 people voted across the presidential, senatorial and house of representatives elections. Party agents were making videos of us cancelling, which was annoying. My colleagues and I cancelled over 2,000 sheets while our PO tried submitting our results sheet to the collation officer.
That’s a lot of work
TL;DR: Did you know Wunmi didn’t get 25k as promised? Wait till you read what she earned after the work she put in.
At my collation centre, the collation officer refused to collect the BVAS until we had uploaded the results. He directed us to the RAC technicians (RACTECH), who handled any technical issues with uploading. We also had to tie the used ballot papers with a rope and keep them sealed. It was close to 7 p.m., and we were all drained by this time—still no food.
Our PO hadn’t successfully submitted her results sheet, and the whole place had become chaotic. Party agents were on our necks as though the delay with uploading was our fault. We had to beg them to stop harassing us.
At 8:00 p.m., we were still at the collation centre. We contacted our SPO to ask him if our driver would still be coming around to transport us back to the LG office. He said he didn’t know and referred us to the electoral officer (EO). It looked like we were on our own. I was angry and frustrated. I’m an ulcer patient, and the only thing I’d had all day was water. My uncle had to drive down with some mama put rice, but I couldn’t eat it.
Hugs
Before we completed the collation, it was midnight on election day. It was only then we received ₦4,500. We discovered then that our pay wasn’t even ₦25,000 but ₦17,500.
Ahh
They told us they’d send the balance of ₦13,000 to our bank accounts. Till today we’ve not received the balance. We don’t know the year that will happen. Some people told us they’d pay after a month or at a time of INEC’s convenience. Some guys got angry and wanted to cause chaos with all the added information regarding the sealing and tying of ballot papers. They refused to because they didn’t inform them about it earlier.
There was tension everywhere. Some people walked to the LG office from the collation centre. Eventually, all my friends got attended to.
We left the collation centre around 1:30 a.m. It rained that night, and we couldn’t sleep on the pavement like before because the ground was wet. We were lucky that we had someone who volunteered to drive us. He was a Surulere resident, so he dropped us all at my home before he departed for his end.
What’s your takeaway from this experience?
Almost every one of us broke down from this experience. They admitted one of us to the hospital. I’m getting admitted today. INEC hasn’t paid our balance, and they expect us to return for the governorship election. I’ve decided that I’m not going. I can’t go ahead because of the peanuts they want to pay to get treated like trash.
*Name changed to protect their identity
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has now made available a partial list of legislators-elect based on the February 25 National Assembly (NASS) election.
The NASS comprises two legislative houses. The upper house is the Senate, with 109 seats: three for each of the 36 states of the federation and one for the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
The lower house is the House of Representatives (HOR). There are 360 available seats in the HOR, varied unevenly across constituencies. Lagos and Kano have the most seats, with 24, while the FCT has the least; two seats.
By May 29, when a new administration takes office, they too will reconvene to constitute Nigeria’s tenth national assembly. Here are a few things to look out for:
Fewer ex-governors than usual
[The Nigerian Senate / Arise]
The Nigerian senate is perceived as a retirement home for term-limited governors. Since 1999, many past governors have found the senate a lucrative cash cow to fund their baby boy lifestyles. However, that trend is about to change.
Something's shifting in Nigeria's political landscape! Only 2 out of 9 sitting governors including some of the G-5 Governors vying for Senate were elected during the last federal election, a significant departure from past elections.#EnoughIsEnough2023pic.twitter.com/3Xiy4PeIDL
Several outgoing governors lost their bids to transfer to the senate, including Ben Ayade of Cross Rivers, Simon Lalong of Plateau, Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia and Samuel Ortom of Benue. Only two out of nine outgoing governors successfully transferred to the senate.
Upsets in the national assembly
There were a few shocks from the national assembly elections. The All Progressives Congress (APC) chair, Abdullahi Adamu, who vacated his seat (Nasarawa West) upon assuming the position of party chair, lost his senate district to Aliyu Wadada of the Social Democratic Party (SDP).
[APC chair, Abdullahi Adamu / Vanguard]
The senate spokesperson, Ajibola Basiru, a former attorney general of Osun representing Osun Central at the senate, lost to the People’s Democratic Party’s (PDP) Fadeyi Olubiyi.
In the HOR, the deputy chief whip, APC’s Nkeiruka Onyejeocha from Abia, lost her re-election bid as she bowed out to Amobi Ogah of the Labour Party (LP).
Fewer women seats
While INEC is yet to release a full list of legislators who won seats in the national assembly, we can infer, based on the ones seen so far, that women’s representation in Nigerian politics still has a long way to go. Only three women made it to Nigeria’s senate.
It’s disheartening as 378 women contested for office at the national assembly. We can only hope results from the March 11 elections boost better returns for women running for elective offices at the state level.
Oshiomole and other familiar faces make their senatorial debut
Former labour union chair, Edo governor and APC chair, Adams Oshiomole, has completed the quadruple as he clinched a seat at the senate. Oshiomole defeated the PDP incumbent, Francis Alimekhena, by some distance to earn a seat in the red chamber.
Oshiomole is not the only new entrant. Ned Nwoko of Delta North district, who has had his fair share of controversy, defeated the APC incumbent, Peter Nwaoboshi, who finished third. Jimoh Ibrahim, another controversial businessman representing the Ondo South district, is another new entrant to the senate running under the APC’s banner.
Labour Party makes significant inroads into the national assembly
[Labour Party Supporters / Bloomberg]
Off the back of the Obidient movement, the LP can count itself as one of the big winners at the just concluded general elections. While the top position didn’t materialise, yet, the party can boast 40 out of 469 seats in the national assembly. These include six in the senate and 34 in the HOR. This is an impressive feat, given that the LP won zero seats in the 2019 elections. The tenth assembly is taking on a different structure now. Let’s see how it performs over the next four years.
Millions of Nigerians, us included, believed the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) when it said it would adhere strictly to the Electoral Act, deploy the use of the BVAS and upload results in real-time to the INEC Result Viewing Portal (IReV).
[INEC chair Mahmood Yakubu / Punch]
What played out was the opposite. Across the country, results were not uploaded in real time as promised. Nine days after the general elections, results are still being uploaded to IReV, calling INEC’s competence and integrity to question as it has already declared a winner.
INEC’s failings have led to an atmosphere of distrust and may have the effect of creating voter apathy. There’ve even been reports of people destroying their Permanent Voters’ Cards (PVC).
Destroying your PVC is the wrong approach. In a few hundred words, we hope to convince you why you should still use your PVC to vote on March 11.
You are in the majority
There’s a common expression, “majority carries the vote.” It means that in a democracy, the people’s choice of a leader should reflect whoever gathers the most votes. While the president-elect, Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has been declared the winner, the victory is disputed in court following protests by the opposition parties over election irregularities.
[President-elect, Bola Tinubu]
Opposition votes combined outnumber the winner by nearly 6 million. The importance of this should be evident. It sends a message that despite irregularities, the people can still have their say with their ballots. Abstaining from elections because they don’t go as planned is the equivalent of cutting your nose to spite your face. Remember, the matter is still in court. Whether you turn up or not, elections will proceed.
Higher voter turnout reduces the chances of rigging
You’ve heard this one before, and it’s true. The more people turn out, the less likely the possibility of rigging elections. The saying that there’s strength in numbers carries more weight than you realise.
The 2019 elections had a 35% voter turnout. This meant 65% of eligible voters didn’t vote. When INEC planned the election, it did so with the assumption that everyone would come out to vote. Millions of unused ballot papers are susceptible to manipulation when the majority don’t come out to vote.
[Ballot papers / Guardian Nigeria]
If, on the other hand, voter turnout is in the high eighties or nineties, there’ll be fewer available ballots to swing the election in favour of any one candidate.
Higher voter turnout is also a thug’s nightmare. A determined voter populace keeping watch at their polling unit will be tough to intimidate because how many people you fit beat? Besides, citizens are better informed and prepared based on how things played out in the February 25 election. So don’t be afraid. Go out and vote.
Dear Dog Owners, on Election day, come out with your dogs to your various polling Units and be on guard. 🦮🦮
Let's see how they will snatch ballot box this time around.
State elections are more important than you realise
All eyes were on the February 25 elections, and understandably too. It’s the top job, and you want whoever gets that seat to merit it because leading Nigeria today is not a job for the fainthearted.
However, it’s a mistake to think it all starts and ends with who gets to be president. Arguably, governorship elections are just as important. Your governor can wake up one morning and ban okadas rendering thousands of people jobless. Governors can increase tuition fees of state universities on a whim. They can decide that local government elections won’t hold.
They are also, as we’ve seen now, very capable of using the powers of their office to sway elections in “interesting”ways. As citizens, it’s in your best interest to vote for candidates not based on ethnic considerations but also based on their character and competence. If a candidate has a history of owing salaries or pensions, for example, a vote on March 11 will make clear that such impunities will no longer be tolerated. Coming out to vote on March 11 will send a message that citizens won’t be dissuaded.
We’re all learning lessons from the conduct of our elections, but the critical point is that regardless of everything, you should come out to vote on March 11. It’s hard, but it’s necessary. You won’t get this chance again for another four years.
The presidential and national assembly elections are now over and the public mood isn’t “giving” due to the election being marred by intimidation, harassment, suppression, and vote buying.
We’re already hearing rumours that some of you might japa because what INEC promised was different from what it delivered.
Virtually every close friends have Japa finish.
It’s well, make we watch how the election go be then we go know which way.
While we’ll be sad to see you go, we must remind you that taking up citizenship in another country has pros and cons. Here, we look at dual citizenship and what it could mean for you.
What is dual citizenship?
Dual citizenship refers to the state of being a citizen of two countries simultaneously in line with the laws of those two countries. So, suppose your japa country of choice is somewhere in Europe (no names so you don’t get any ideas). You could concurrently be a citizen of both countries if you meet their requirements.
Does Nigeria allow dual citizenship?
Yes. Nigeria is one of 64 countries that allow dual citizenship, so hurray for your japa plans. But the condition for holding dual citizenship is that you must have acquired it by birth. Section 28 of the Nigerian Constitution says that only those who are Nigerian citizens by birth can afford to hold dual citizenship. Otherwise, you must forfeit your Nigerian citizenship to get another one.
We already wrote about the types of citizenship in Nigeria and how to acquire them. There’s a good chance that you’re a Nigerian citizen if you’re reading this, but if you aren’t sure, read up on it here.
What are the pros of dual citizenship?
Security
Do you know how they say two heads are better than one? Well, having dual citizenship and, in essence, two passports is better than having just one. There’s the security of knowing that if a fire is burning in one country you’re a citizen of, you can always japa to your backup country.
Property rights
Many countries allow dual citizens to hold property rights along with the benefits that come with them. Who no want better thing?
Exposure
New culture, new friends, new food and new experiences. What’s not to like about having dual citizenship?
Work permits
People that have had to apply for work visas know how complicated the process can be. The right to work in another country without restrictions is a benefit that comes to citizens. Imagine having those rights in two countries of your choosing: more money and double blessings.
What are the cons of dual citizenship?
Double taxes
Benjamin Franklin, the guy on the $100 bill, famously said, “In this world, nothing is certain except death and taxes.” My dear, you must pay taxes in those two countries if you decide to hold dual citizenship — everything na double double, including blessings and responsibilities.
Complications with running for public office
Anyone with a primary citizenship that isn’t Nigerian has to let go of it before they can run for public office. Basically, if you plan to acquire your Nigerian citizenship by naturalisation or registration, you automatically lose your claim to dual citizenship. However, if you are a citizen of Nigeria by birth and you acquire a citizenship of another country, you’re still eligible to run for office.
The procedure can be stressful
Just because you plan to acquire dual citizenship doesn’t mean it’ll be a straightforward process. In some instances, the country you want to apply to for a second citizenship might have restrictions.
For example, citizens of all countries can apply for Turkish citizenship by investment. However, the process involves opening a bank account in the country and/or buying real property there. If you’re from Cuba, Syria, Armenia, North Korea and Nigeria, you’ll find out that the process can be “highly problematic.”
There you have it. Now you know what dual citizenship is and what to expect if you acquire it.
The journey to Nigeria’s presidency has been long, starting with the presidential primaries in May 2022.
On March 1, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu (BAT) of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of a tumultuous electioneering process marred by pockets of violence across the country.
While many young Nigerians are still absorbing the outcome of this news, it might be helpful to understand what the coming days will look like for Nigerians and the president-elect.
The transition committee
On February 14, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Boss Mustapha, unveiled the presidential transition committee. This followed an executive order signed on February 7 to facilitate and manage the presidential transition.
This committee is responsible for facilitating the handover process. They also provide security briefings and set up personnel for the president-elect and his transition team.
INEC will issue a certificate of return today, March 1, to the APC flag bearers BAT and his running mate, Kashim Shettima. INEC chair Mahmood Yakubu declared earlier that the duo “satisfied the requirements of the law and are returned elected.”
Swearing in on May 29
May 29 used to be Nigeria’s Democracy (and swearing-in) Day because it was when Nigeria returned to democracy in 1999 after years of military rule. In 2018, President Buhari changed Democracy Day to June 12 in honour of MKO Abiola, who was widely regarded as the annulled June 12, 1993, presidential election winner.
Still, on May 29, 2023, a new president will be sworn in after being administered the oath of office by the chief justice of the federation.
This is officially the beginning of the new president’s tenure.
[Buhari taking the oath of office in 2015 / Nigerian Observer]
Change of guard
The president is heavily protected by a set of guards across military and intelligence services attached to him. However, as the outgoing president leaves, the incoming gets fresh protection.
In 2015, it took a month after Buhari’s swearing-in to have a new set of bodyguards. According to a report by Vanguard, 150 bodyguards were rendered redundant as they were all posted out of Aso Villa following Buhari’s emergence.
Setting up of ministerial cabinet
Buhari earned the title “Baba go slow” for his slowness in naming his cabinet. He was inaugurated into office on May 29, 2015, but only had his ministerial cabinet ready by September. We hope the new president doesn’t take a leaf from Buhari’s playbook and, instead, hits the ground running.
Now you know what happens after a winner is declared.
Thank you for following the Zikoko Citizen live coverage of the presidential election. Tune in to our web page and WhatsApp for coverage of the gubernatorial elections on March 11, and tips on how to hold the new President’s agbada through his tenure in office.
Up until this week, many Nigerians never knew the name Mahmood Yakubu. In the last few days, though, he has taken centre stage. Yakubu has been cast as a villain for what may go down yet as Nigeria’s most controversial election.
[INEC Chair, Mahmood Yakubu/Punch]
If anyone doesn’t know, Mahmood Yakubu is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) chairperson. The position of the INEC chair is sensitive, and it’s a requirement that whoever holds that office must be nonpartisan. Typically, and for reasons unclear, INEC chairs tend to be academics.
One then begins to wonder how he got there in the first place. Here’s how.
What the Constitution says about appointing the INEC chair
The Nigerian Constitution guides how an INEC chair is appointed. We start with section 153, which provides the basis for such an appointment. Fourteen federal commissions and councils are backed by law under this section, including, among others, the national judicial council, the council of state and INEC. Make a note of the last two.
Section 154 goes into detail on how the INEC chair is selected. Here’s what the Constitution says in subsection 3:
“In exercising his powers to appoint a person as chairman or member of the Independent National Electoral Commission, National Judicial Council, the Federal Judicial Service Commission or the National Population Commission, the President shall consult the council of state.”
Is that it?
Not quite. After the president picks their nominee following consultations with the council of state, the president’s nominee is subjected to the Senate for screening. Only after they pass the screening are they confirmed for the position. The screening process can be tough as it often requires bi-partisan support for nominees to scale through.
This is usually the case if the ruling parties and opposition have equal representation. You want to make sure whoever you’re picking has no political allegiances. Former INEC chair, Attahiru Jega, faced tough scrutiny before securing the position.
Remember, the president has the power to appoint the INEC chair, but only after consulting with the council of state — before the Senate confirms. So who makes up the council of state?
Council of state
The council of state is an organ of the government whose role is to act in an advisory capacity to the executive, that is, the presidency. It comprises the president, who is the chair, the vice president who is vice-chair, former presidents and heads of state, senate president, speaker of the house of representatives, minister of justice, attorney general of the federation and all state governors.
The whole house. But remember, the president is the chair of this council, so their say is final.
Should the president have such powers?
It’s clear now that being president of Nigeria is a big deal. This explains why 18 people are vying for a seat that can only take one person.
[Seat of the president. The Cable]
That said, there have been debates in the past on whether the president should hold the power to appoint the INEC chair. The chief argument against it is that INEC, by definition, should be independent. It is, therefore, unfair if the president sets the chair of this commission, especially when they can still contest. It’s like a football team getting to pick the referee that officiates their match.
Then again, a counter-argument was made in 2015 when Attahiru Jega, the INEC chair handpicked by President Goodluck Jonathan, oversaw the election that kicked Jonathan out of office.
Ultimately, it comes down to the president’s will and generosity in allowing the INEC chair to perform their duties without undue interference or pressure. As the Nigerian Constitution allows, the president reserves the right to appoint or replace the INEC chair as they see fit.
[countdown date=”Feb 25, 2023 7:00:00″]
Barring any last-minute changes — like in 2019 — the 2023 general elections will go on as scheduled on February 25, 2023. The elections, especially for the top job of the president, are seen by many as crucial and likely to set the direction of Nigeria for years to come.
Without wasting time, here are a few things to expect in the 2023 elections.
Higher voter turnout than in 2019
2019 recorded historic lows, with only 34.75% of registered voters showing up at the polls, less than the 50.96% historical average.
The three states with the lowest voter turnout were Lagos (18.95%), Abia (20.16%) and Rivers (21.09%). On the other hand, the three states with the highest voter turnout were Jigawa (55.67%), Katsina (50.74%) and Sokoto (50.13%).
Nigeria has an unwritten agreement of alternating the presidency between the North and the South. Two of the frontrunners in the 2023 presidential race are from the South. Therefore, expect a much-improved turnout from the southern states.
The looming possibility of a runoff
Nigerian elections typically get decided on the first ballot. This is due to the duopoly between the leading parties, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC). However, the emergence of a third force in the Labour Party (LP) and the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) means there’s a good chance the big two won’t dominate as they usually do.
The constitutional requirement for winning the presidency is not just a simple majority but winning with a spread of at least a quarter of votes in two-thirds of Nigerian states. Many people interpret this to mean 25% in 24 states. If nobody meets these requirements, then a runoff happens, which INEC will conduct within 21 days of the first round of balloting. We wrote everything you need to know about that here.
Heavy security presence
First-time voters may be surprised by the presence of heavy security officers during the polls. To ease your mind, they’re only there to ensure the smooth conduct of the election.
Neither the military nor the police will interfere with the democratic process — unless you go out of your way to be a nuisance. The Electoral Act empowers presiding officers to call on the police to arrest voters who may be impersonating. Underage voting is also not allowed.
Free flow of traffic
This is what Ikorodu road in Lagos looked like on election day in 2019.
[Empty Lagos roads on election day. AFP]
It’s best to sort out your needs before this Saturday’s polls. If you had Owambe planned, you should revisit your calendar to postpone because polls will severely restrict traffic during voting hours. Please don’t say we didn’t do anything for you.
Party agents
There are over 176,000 polling units in Nigeria. On election day, each of them will be monitored by party agents. These are people accredited by political parties and INEC to watch proceedings during the voting process. You would see them wearing tags indicating the parties they represent.
Party agents can call the attention of election officials if they suspect someone isn’t who they claim to be, that is, an impersonator. Per the Electoral Act, they can also challenge a count at the end of polls if they believe the presiding officer made an error. The presiding officer must do a recount, but only once.
Party agents are pretty observant. During the counting process, if they notice that a voter’s choice isn’t clear on the ballot paper, maybe because of smudged ink that leads to a vote cast for two different parties, they’ll object loudly. So as not to have your ballot voided, shine your eyes when voting. We did a video explainer on that here.
What else should I know?
If you need help determining where your polling unit is, click the link here to confirm or follow the prompt in the screenshot below.
We also did an explainer here on how to survive election day. Our election tracker goes live on February 25. Get yourself up to date with verified results from across the country by visiting this link.
[countdown date=”Feb 25, 2023 7:00:00″]
It’s not the best time for students of the University of Lagos (UNILAG). Particularly, students of the College of Medicine (CMUL). Many of them are now in dire straits as it’s likely they’ll be shut out from exercising their voting rights on February 25 due to an order from above.
On February 9, the Nigerian University Commission (NUC) issued a directive to all Nigerian universities. It mandated them to close up shop and suspend academic activities between February 22 and March 14 due to security concerns relating to the election.
In a memo signed on February 20, the UNILAG management ordered students to vacate the premises. However, aside from teaching, the university staff will continue their duties for that period.
How are students reacting to the directive?
Students of CMUL, aka Medilag, are unhappy with the directive. The key reason for their displeasure is that many have polling units (PU) within the school premises. The college is in Idi-Araba, and there are at least seven PUs within the premises of the Lagos University Teaching Hospital.
These include the Staff Quarters, LUTH, Engineering Department LUTH, School Of Nursing LUTH i, School of Nursing, LUTH ii, Student Hostel LUTH i, Student Hostel, LUTH ii and Student Hostel, LUTH iii.
Citizen spoke to some of them who chose to stay anonymous. Here’s what they had to say.
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Ajoke*
“I’m a student at CMUL, where hundreds of students registered to vote because the LUTH/CMUL campus has seven polling units. The school is now using the NUC directive to close hostels, disenfranchising several students due to supposed security concerns, even despite students’ willingness to sign indemnity forms.
“During the 2019 elections, students successfully voted on the campus. Because of that, many students retained their polling units here while others newly registered for hostel polling units. CMUL students register in school because our hostels are typically open year-round, as some departments do not run a semester programme. Even during strikes, student hostels are usually left open. Last year’s strike was a surprising exception.
I hope publicity about the school management’s decision could sway them. It’s untenable that they’ll disenfranchise so many Nigerians.
“Our union, the College of Medicine and Pharmaceutical Science Students’ Association (COMPSSA), through the student body, reached out to the Provost and College Secretary, but it was futile. Please keep me anonymous. I don’t have my degree yet.”
Dare*
“I’m a registered voter, and my polling unit is within the school premises. I understand that the school wants to protect itself but at what cost? We’ve always been able to vote in school. There are seven polling units in LUTH. It would’ve been nice to know much earlier if there was any inkling of the hostel’s closure during the elections.
“Most people would have been able to change their polling units. When we were on strike, people travelled to Mushin to register their Permanent Voter Cards (PVC) there because they assumed they’d be voting in school as usual.
“Because they’ve done it this way, the gesture seems malicious. Like they intentionally don’t want us to vote en masse, which I hope is not the case. This should have been my first time voting, and I was very excited to perform my civic responsibility.
“It was crucial for me to have a say in deciding the people to rule the country next. I’ll have to leave that to everyone else.
“The school should’ve tried to figure out what percentage of people registered to vote in school versus those who registered to vote at home. They should’ve made their decision based on that.
“I want them to allow those registered to vote in school to stay in the hostel until the election ends. Some people may be able to squat somewhere nearby, but I won’t. I’m going straight home.”
Jennifer*
“I have my voter’s card and am not the only student affected. Students were allowed to vote in LUTH PUs during the last election. That’s why newly registered voters in school also chose LUTH as their PU, and we’re all students. Some people registered long ago, and LUTH’s also their PU.
“Some students submitted letters to the department of student affairs (DSA), but they still told us to vacate the hostels. They’re not saying anything about it.
“They should’ve informed us about going home when we could still change our PUs. Not now when we can do nothing about it. We want to vote.”
Rotimi*
“I’m a registered voter, and my PU is within LUTH. Nothing has been said to us directly, but they’ve pasted memos asking us to vacate the hostels. I live in a private hostel inside the school, so it wouldn’t affect me because I was here all through the strike. But I have another friend whose PU is in school and stays in the school hostel.”
Ogbonna*
I’m a registered voter, and my PU is in LUTH. We received a directive via a broadcast (BC) asking us to vacate the hostel by February 22. I was in school for the last election and could vote, so I don’t know why this time’s different. I want the school authority to keep the hostels open so students can vote.
“There’s a petition going around right now to alter the directive but to be honest. I don’t think they’d do anything.
How has UNILAG responded?
Citizen contacted the UNILAG communications department to hear their side of things. They said:
“Thank you for contacting the University’s Communication Unit, via email. As regards your inquiry, please note that:
“All students of the University of Lagos are to vacate the university campus, particularly halls of residence, between 12:00 noon, Wednesday, February 22 and 12:00 noon on Friday, February 24, 2023.
“This is in line with the federal government’s directive that students of higher institutions across the country should vacate their schools ahead of the forthcoming 2023 general election.
“The university will re-open its doors to students from Tuesday, March 14, 2023, even as further updates would be provided as the need arises, in the coming days.”
*Name changed to protect their identity
On February 16, 2023, Nigerians were all over the place regarding a claim made by the House of Representatives Majority Leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Alhassan Doguwa.
Doguwa, speaking after a meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari, addressed the issue of the scarcity of the new naira notes.
[Alhassan Doguwa, to President Muhammadu Buhari’s right. Channels TV]
He said, “A member of the House of Representatives is expected by law to have not more than ₦70 million to conduct his elections and whatever logistics and other things. ₦70 million cash, by law.”
On the Wait First flagship, we rate claims into three categories. We rate a valid claim as fresh banana. We rate a false claim as burnt dodo. A misleading claim is cold zobo.
What’s the status of this claim?
To answer that, let’s look at the Electoral Act 2022, which guides the conduct of elections in Nigeria.
The relevant section that pertains to campaign financing is Section 88, titled “Limitation on election expenses.” See the screenshot below:
The part that concerns us is subsection 4. “The maximum amount of election expenses to be incurred by a candidate in respect of Senatorial and House of Representatives seat shall not exceed ₦100,000,000 and ₦70,000,000 respectively.”
However, there’s nowhere in the Act that says a candidate must have “hard copy” cash to do this.
Verdict: The law provides a ₦70 million limit for campaign expenses related to House of Representatives positions, that is, from the commencement till the end of campaigns. However, Doguwa’s claim that it must be in cash is misleading. You’ll not find colder zobo anywhere else.
Did the Finnish government issue a letter to Simon Ekpa regarding the Nigerian elections?
A viral letter made the rounds recently on social media. It claimed to have come from the Finnish government. The letter targeted Simon Ekpa, a Nigerian secessionist based in Finland. Ekpa has links to the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB). It said the Finnish government would charge him with terrorism if he didn’t cease a sit-at-home order in the South East on election day.
The fact checkers at the Centre for Democracy and Development (CDD West Africa) looked into the letter. Here’s what they found:
“CDD War Room contacted the Finnish Embassy in Nigeria, and we were informed that the letter is not an official correspondence of the Finnish government.
“An official spokesperson of the Finnish government in Nigeria said the embassy has contacted Twitter to remove the letter from the micro-blogging platform.”
Verdict: Do you still need us to spell it out? Na burnt dodo. We hope you didn’t fall for it.
Nigeria might not be “giving” now, but that should change soon for several reasons. There’s the general election scheduled just eight days from now. We hope to finally see the back of Buhari and, more importantly, get a new administration that will bring in a breath of fresh air.
There’s also the projection that by 2050, Nigeria will become the third most populous country. Among the top ten, we have the fastest-growing population rate. So brace yourself. Being a Nigerian citizen might be the hot cake in a few years.
To prepare you ahead of any last-minute rush — the same way we warned you ahead of the late rush to turn in your old naira notes — we’ve decided to explain the types of citizenship in Nigeria. There are three ways to acquire Nigerian citizenship.
Citizenship by birth
The document that defines citizenship in Nigeria is the 1999 Constitution, as amended. According to the Constitution, you can become a citizen of Nigeria by birth. But even this has special conditions. It’s simply not enough to be born here.
If that were the case, Hugo Weaving, who famously played the role of Agent Smith in The Matrix Trilogy, would be a Nigerian citizen because he was born at the University College Hospital in Ibadan.
Here’s what section 25 of the Constitution says. The following persons are citizens of Nigeria by birth namely;
(a) every person born in Nigeria before the date of independence, either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents belongs or belonged to a community indigenous to Nigeria:
Provided that a person shall not become a citizen of Nigeria by this section if neither of his parents nor any of his grandparents was born in Nigeria;
(b) every person born in Nigeria after the date of independence either of whose parents or any of whose grandparents is a citizen of Nigeria; and
(c) every person born outside Nigeria or either of whose parents are a citizen of Nigeria.
(2) In this section, “the date of independence” means the 1st day of October 1960.
So sorry, Agent Smith, but are your parents or grandparents indigenous to Nigeria? If not, don’t quit yet. Let’s try another way.
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Citizenship by registration
The other way of becoming a Nigerian citizen is citizenship by registration. This is covered in section 26 of the Nigerian Constitution. Here’s what it says:
(1) Subject to the provisions of section 28 of this Constitution, a person to whom the provisions of this section apply may be registered as a citizen of Nigeria if the President is satisfied that;
(a) he is a person of good character;
(b) he has shown a clear intention of his desire to live in Nigeria; and
(c) he has taken the Oath of Allegiance prescribed in the Seventh Schedule to this Constitution.
(2) the provisions of this section shall apply to;
(a) any woman who is or has been married to a citizen of Nigeria; or
(b) every person of full age and capacity born outside Nigeria or whose grandparents are a citizen of Nigeria.
This section summarises that citizenship by registration is available to a woman married to a Nigerian citizen.
It’s also open to a person born outside Nigeria with any of their grandparents being Nigerian citizens. It looks like this option isn’t for you, Agent Smith. Let’s try the third one.
Citizenship by naturalisation
Citizenship by naturalisation is covered in section 27 of the Nigerian Constitution with the condition that you meet requirements in section 28. Here are the requirements to become a citizen by naturalisation.
You must be of full age and capacity. (18 and above)
You should have good character. (Agent Smith was a bad guy, but only in the movie) A minimum of two people must testify to this, and one must be a religious minister.
You must clearly desire to reside in Nigeria and meet the residential requirements needed to become a citizen.
You should be capable of contributing to the well-being of Nigeria and its citizens – for example, by being a regular taxpayer.
The governor of the Nigerian state you want to apply to for citizenship must confirm that the community you’ll reside in welcomes you with open arms.
It would help if you took an Oath of Allegiance prescribed in Schedule 7 of the Constitution.
You must have lived in Nigeria continuously for 15 years before the application date. If you’ve constantly lived for 12 months in Nigeria, then over the next 20 years lived in Nigeria intermittently for periods totalling not less than 15 years, you can also apply if you meet the other requirements.
Before we forget, if you want to acquire Nigerian citizenship by registration or by naturalisation, you must first renounce your citizenship of any other country you may have previously, unless the citizenship was acquired by birth.
There you go. Now you know the Nigerian citizenship types and how to acquire them. Please don’t say we didn’t do anything for you, Agent Smith. You’re welcome.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Samson Itodo. Itodo is a lawyer and the founder of YIAGA Africa, an NGO dedicated to promoting democratic norms across the continent. He famously led the #NotTooYoungToRun campaign to lower the minimum age for elective office in Nigeria. Itodo touched on several issues, including youth participation in the democratic process, unfair competition in Nigerian politics, resistance towards BVAS, reforming the campaign financing model and why he believes you don’t need a PVC to vote.
YIAGA Africa has monitored elections over the last decade and achieved notable milestones. In what way is the 2023 election different from previous ones?
This election is different for different reasons. The first one is that compared to other polls, this election is regulated by a new set of laws. The new Electoral Act will handle this election, but it’s not just the Act; it’s the provisions of the Act.
For this particular election, the Act permits the electronic transmission of results. It wasn’t part of the electoral process previously. Electronic accreditation now has the force of law. Look at things like timelines for specific activities. This cycle, we had early primaries. Primaries started in April 2022 till June. Previously, primaries would begin around September or October. So parties have had five full months of intense campaigning. This is one way things are different.
Another one is the number of registered voters. Compared to previous electoral cycles, we’ve increased the number of registered voters by over ten per cent. We’ve added 9.5 million new registered voters to our voter register. In 2019, there were 84 million registered voters. Now there are 93 million. What that means is it increases the cost of elections.
That’s an understated point
This election is notably different regarding the actors because it’s transitional. There’ll be a change of guard. The incumbent in the presidential election isn’t running. His party has fielded a different candidate. The actors are different, but in some cases, it’s still the same actor. Some parties have fielded the same candidate for two or three election cycles, depending on the political party.
For this particular election, it’s the fact that there seems to be a third force which is the third difference from other polls. Previously, the election was between the two main parties, but now, we have a third force, and young people drive it.
Yay for Gen Z
One last thing that is different is the level of insecurity. For two to three electoral cycles, we’ve always grappled with insecurity, but now, there’s a multidimensional insecurity that we’re grappling with. It’s banditry, farmer-herder crisis, kidnapping, insurgency and unknown gunmen. The same discussion we had in 2015 on insecurity is the same we’re having. But now, every part of the country has its security challenges.
These are some of the differences. On the whole, you can sense on the part of Nigerians that this is an opportunity to elect leadership that can fix our challenges.
As we head into the election in a couple of days, there’s naira and fuel scarcity simultaneously. This new monetary policy introduced in the buildup to the polls changes the entire dynamics.
For some people, the level of suffering will push them to go and vote. It’ll influence how they vote. Some others may feel the hardship is too much and stay away from voting. It could go either way.
You mentioned the third force. Can they shake things in the coming elections?
Nothing is happening now that hasn’t happened before. What you see happening now is what happened in 2015 that led to the alternation of power. What’s different is young people have decided to look for alternatives outside the two traditional political parties. It behoves young people and Nigerians in this third force to galvanise. Because it’s about the number of people you can get to the polling units to vote — and not just vote — but vote for you as a candidate.
This hype and enthusiasm will come to nought if people don’t attend elections. We could have performed better as a country regarding turnout for elections. In 2019, the turnout was 35 per cent, which could be a lot higher. Out of that 35 per cent, the number of young people that showed up for the election was poor. Fifty-one per cent of young people were on the voters register, and only 29% came out to vote.
Over 40 per cent of young people are on the current voters register. But the big issue is, will these young people show up for the elections?
Hmm. A drop from 51% in 2019 to 40% in 2023. Doesn’t this burst the myth of youth participation in the political process?
No, it doesn’t. The reason is that — and this is where INEC needs to review its classification — in 2019, they classified young people as 18 and 35. Surprisingly this time, it’s between 18 and 34. So even INEC’s data is questionable, and we’re currently in talks with INEC to review that age classification because the age classification is 18 and 35, not 18 and 34.
You recently tweeted about disinterest in fair competition. Can you talk about that?
YIAGA Africa is part of a cohort of civil society organisations, and we released the election manipulation risk index (The report covers the period between February 2019 and January 2023). It’s a tool that scans election manipulation in the buildup to the elections. Nigerians must know that election manipulation isn’t limited to what happens on election day. They can manipulate them even before.
Wow
We’re tracking that information, and we’re tracking six variables that we see as a pattern for manipulation. One is INEC capture, two is resistance to the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS), three is voter suppression, four is frivolous election mitigation, five is a history of election manipulation, and lastly, the tampering of the voters register.
When we looked at these threats, we clustered states into high-risk, medium, and low-risk. It is high risk if we find three or more variables in a state. When we ran the analysis, 22 states were considered high risk for election manipulation.
When you look at the pattern, it’s clear that most political actors aren’t interested in credible elections. They want to subvert the process to secure power at all costs. Let me put it in street language; they want to rig this election at all costs.
Chilling stuff
That’s why I said in that tweet that there needs to be more interest from most political actors to have credible elections. You can see them doing everything possible to undermine the process. Most politicians don’t care about democratic principles or credible elections. All that matters to them is to be declared winners. It doesn’t matter how they procured the victory and forced themselves on people, and that’s very sad.
We’ll publish a second iteration report by February 20. We hope that some of these high-risk states, the ones in red, will go to yellow and that the medium ones stay high.
You look at the data on voter suppression, and it’s disturbing. We’ve been receiving reports, confirmed by the police, that politicians are buying off PVCs. When you do that, those people can’t vote. Politicians are going to opponent strongholds and buying off PVCs in those locations, thereby suppressing their votes.
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Thirty-two states have this element of voter suppression which is very disturbing. If you look at states with a history of electoral manipulation there’s either falsification of results, overvoting or vote buying during elections. We have to keep an eye on these states.
We’re publishing this to inform the electorate and prevent rigging the 2023 elections.
Kudos to YIAGA Africa for this extensive report. In light of recent events in Osun state, how confident are you in INEC’s ability to conduct elections using BVAS and IReV?
I’m very confident. The BVAS is a remarkable and innovative tool that limits multiple voting, election rigging and voting by proxy. Now that it has the force of law, politicians are scared of the BVAS and the INEC Election Results Viewing Portal (IReV). These two technological tools are game changers.
I urge Nigerians to support using the BVAS because it will limit election manipulation.
Let’s talk more about these tools
The BVAS is a device, while IReV is a web portal. We need to make a distinction between these two. For me, issues like the Osun judgment raise the salience and even add more credibility to the BVAS. Here’s why.
The BVAS identifies and tracks multiple voting or overvoting. The BVAS contains the voters’ register in a particular polling unit on election day. You need to register to vote. It verifies your biometrics — fingerprints, and facial identity. We talked about overvoting in some polling units (PU) in Osun because there was the BVAS. There’d be no way to track overvoting if it weren’t available. You can’t follow overvoting using manual accreditation. That’s one.
Interesting
Two, what happened in Osun, which Nigerians need to know, is that when the BVAS concludes accreditation, the data uploads to INEC’s server. The thing with uploads is they happen at different times. They occur in days. Sometimes when the network is unreliable, it won’t upload the data to the cloud.
There are over 3,000 PUs in Osun and over 3,000 BVAS machines. One of the parties applied for a report just after the election. INEC issued them the report, but it was incomplete because all the figures had yet to be uploaded on INEC’s server. The mistake INEC made was that the report should have indicated that it was provisional, but INEC didn’t. After the whole upload was concluded, INEC issued a final report which it tendered at the tribunal.
Three, the tribunal asked INEC to present all the BVAS used in the over 700 PUs contested. They brought the BVAS. The court checked them one after the other and compared what was on the BVAS with what was in the final report. Both of them were consistent. The big question is, what is the primary source of accreditation data? The primary source of accreditation data is the BVAS. If you will rely on something other than what was uploaded online, at least rely on the device. The figures in the BVAS and the final report were consistent, so why did they rely on an incomplete report to deliver their judgment? In any case, you should read between the lines.
Hehehe
The other thing the public should know, which the law is clear on, is where there’s overvoting, you cancel the votes in that PU, and you don’t apportion votes. When you cancel, you need to declare the election inconclusive. Then you conduct elections in those affected PUs, provided the total number of people who collected their PVCs in those affected PUs is higher than the lead margin. They ignored that particular provision in the law and ruled in the way they wanted, which is unacceptable. It’s an attempt to cast doubt on the BVAS.
The public must also know that BVAS is an electronic device for accreditation. But, someone has to copy the figures from the BVAS into the result sheet. That process has human interference because it’s a manual process. When there’s a manual process, there may be errors in copying figures. This is why young people voting in the elections should be vigilant at the PUs when elections have ended. They should ensure and verify that the number on the BVAS is recorded on the result sheet because politicians can compromise officials and have them record false figures. This leads to overvoting, cancellation and declaring results inconclusive.
See scope
That’s something Nigerians should be mindful of. The BVAS has its limitations, but it’s a tool that’ll deepen the integrity of our elections.
A BBC investigation raises the problem of misinformation by influencers in Nigerian politics. How’d you think Nigerians can protect themselves?
The first thing is to verify, verify, verify. Only trust some information that comes your way because many are fake. That’s one. Two, determine your source of information and stick to those credible platforms. If you check how those fake news purveyors work, sometimes they clone website addresses of credible media and news platforms. You have to check.
Refrain from consuming news in haste. Self-regulation is the best way to deal with issues around fake news.
The third thing members of the public can do if they’re looking for information on election results, it’s that INEC has the power to declare results. INEC has provided the IReV portal. Go and sign up. Create an account, and you can download the result on your own.
We at YIAGA Africa are also working with a TV station in Nigeria. We have the election results analysis dashboard (ERAD). So for Nigerians who don’t have email accounts, stay glued to your TV sets. We’ll provide you access to real-time results as they come, primarily because of the ERAD and the IReV. We’ve done this in the Ekiti and Osun elections.
We must be careful about how we share information, especially on WhatsApp. Just know that this is a political season, and politicians have their “infrastructure” as part of their campaign strategy to continue to dish out propaganda.
You have to decide, a personal effort. There are also reporting platforms for fake news. Platforms like Meta and Twitter have tools where you can report fake news. Counter it immediately if a piece of information is circulating and you know it’s fake. Don’t wait for anyone to tell you to do that. Counter it and provide accurate information out there.
The Electoral Act limits campaign financing, but it’s hard to see how they enforce them with blatant vote buying occurring. Thoughts?
Politicians don’t want to regulate political finance reforms. They are the culprits. In all these attempts at limiting the influence of money, who makes the law? These same politicians believe so much in money. Some of them know the only power they have is money. They’re not popular in their communities, so they buy votes.
Just look at the primaries. How many of the political candidates were elected out of the free will of the members of their parties? A lot of them bought their nomination. They procured delegates. When you procure delegates to elect you, that’s not an election. I look forward to the post-election period. Let’s discuss political finance reforms.
Fingers crossed on that one
But it’s essential to make a distinction. First, if you want to run elections, you have to spend money. The conduct of elections is a logistic operation, and when you have those, you’re going to spend money. You’re going to host meetings, give people refreshments, recruit agents to keep watch over elections, train them, move them around, run campaigns, use technology, procure data, etc.
So, elections involve spending money. We have a problem with this obscene commercialisation of the process where everything’s just determined by money. The leadership selection process is based on the highest bidder rather than one with the qualifications, competence and character to run for office.
No loud am
You have the introduction of dirty money into our politics. That’s where we need regulation. So you look at the current Electoral Act and see why politicians aren’t interested and are just gaming the system. On the one hand, the Act says INEC can impose limits on contributions. Contributing to a party or candidate, it’s ₦10 or ₦50 million, and it mustn’t exceed that. But another provision in the law says you can donate more than ₦50 million as long as the party can show and demonstrate the funding source.
But you also say, on the other hand, that INEC has powers to impose limitations. So you give INEC power with the left and take it with the right.
LMAO
You see this sort of inconsistency, and it’s deliberate. Politicians don’t want limitations on spending. They don’t want to limit money’s influence because it means retiring from politics, and they don’t want to be retired. I can think of a few things to do.
One, INEC has the power to audit and sanction political parties because it’s the regulatory body based on the provisions of the constitution and the Electoral Act. How many political parties have been audited? How many reports have been made public, and how many parties have been sanctioned?
The second is parties need to rethink their revenue generation mechanism. This is where maintaining an accurate and authentic register of members is critical. Members of parties aren’t paying dues because they don’t see the value in doing so. Political parties are owned by individuals who have the money to run the affairs of parties.
Why’s that? Isn’t it shameful that state party leaders are in the governors’ pockets? It’s the governor that funds the political party structure. The governor pays the salaries of party officials, which is unacceptable.
So when the primaries eventually come, the governor already has the entire party structure under his control. How do you expect internal democracy to flourish in those political parties? Parties need to think about ways of generating income.
One of the parties says it has over 40 million members. Imagine if those 40 million people pay ₦1000 as annual dues. Think about how much money they could raise. You don’t need to charge nomination forms of ₦50 million or ₦100 million. These are some of the things to consider.
I didn’t see this question coming, haha. Where did you get that from? There are a few things we need to change within our electoral process. It’s challenging to be a voter in Nigeria. You show up to INEC (at least) three times in Nigeria.
First, you show up to register. Second, you show up to collect your PVC. Third, you show up to vote. Now, that’s a lot of time. Yes, it’s a sacrifice, but we can still do things differently. Any commission should first consider itself as a service provider. As you’re providing services to the people who are your clients, they are king. In business, the customer is king.
If you ask me one thing, I want people to vote anywhere they find themselves. Two, you don’t need a PVC to vote. Once you have your National ID and you’re 18, go cast your vote. Ultimately, it’s about the voters. Democracy is about people, and how they express their choice is central to democracy. When you say democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people, it connotes that people are at the centre of deciding. That process of decision-making is critical to the success of any democracy.
This thing where we make it difficult for people to express their right to vote is something we need to address, and if you do that, you’ll be shocked by the number of Nigerians voting during elections. You’ll also make voting fun and exciting for people. Don’t make it stressful. Yes, several things account for the stress, but we have all it takes to make voting more straightforward. Any commission should set that as its target. How do we serve the Nigerian voter effectively?
A popular anonymous account on Twitter, now retired, had these words written on their bio: “This is Nigeria, anything you see you just have to take it like that.” Every passing day in Nigeria reinforces this quip.
The latest news is the Supreme Court has adjourned hearing on the status of the old and new naira notes. The case is a joint suit filed by ten states against the federal government. Today, February 15, 2023, was supposed to be the moment of truth after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said the deadline to turn in the old naira notes was February 10.
Instead, we’re back in limbo again. It’s aluta continua as the Supreme Court has adjourned the case to February 22, 2023. As it stands, we live to fight/die another day.
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So what happened?
According to Channels, the Supreme Court was filled with governors of Kaduna and Kogi, Nasir El-Rufai and Yahaya Bello, in attendance, along with other senior advocates of Nigeria.
Zamfara, Kogi and Kaduna filed the original suit against the FG. Other states joined in, including Niger, Kano, Ondo, Bayelsa, Edo, Lagos and Ekiti. You know it’s a serious matter when you can get El-Rufai away from campaign duties to be seated in court.
[Governors Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State (left) and Yahaya Bello of Kogi State (right) at the Supreme Court on Wednesday. Credit: Ameh Ejekwonyilo]
Justice John Okoro led the seven-person panel. He said Nigerians shouldn’t “lose sight of the case and its intention as it affects the suffering of Nigerians” before adjourning the matter. This has left us hanging with regards to when, or if, our suffering would end.
In an earlier article, we asked if the Supreme Court could force the CBN to postpone its deadline. This adjournment shows the Supreme Court can do more than that. It can delay a ruling required to make the CBN postpone its deadline. A powerful reminder that it’s the Supreme Court’s world, and we’re all just living in it.
What could this mean for Nigerians?
Without mincing words, an adjournment of the ruling till February 22 — just three days shy of the general election, is ominous.
The current Naira scarcity is affecting trading, creating hardship, and causing protests across cities like Ibadan, Abeokuta, and Benin. It’s difficult to predict how this may force an election postponement or encourage low voter turnout on election day.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has already debunked rumours that the election will be postponed and insists it’ll proceed as planned.
FAKE NEWS ALERT Our attention has been drawn to a fake report circulating on the social media with the title: “INEC May Postpone Feb 25 Election by a week or two”
The Commission will not and is not contemplating postponing the 2023 General Election. Nigerians should disregard it pic.twitter.com/KcTlhpcSEn
For others, it’s uncertainty in financial transactions as people do not know if old notes are legal tender across the board until the Supreme Court gives a verdict.
Once again, we wait to see how things play out. But as you do, don’t forget those poignant words from earlier, “this is Nigeria, anything you see you just have to take it like that.”
On February 13, 2023, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) announced that 240 polling units (PU) nationwide would be excluded from voting. However, don’t worry. It’s not for the usual reasons.
The commission explained that there’d be no elections in these 240 PUs because between June 2021 and July 2022, when the Continuous Voter Registration (CVR) was on, no single voter chose those polling units as their preferred voting point. There was also no transfer to these affected PUs.
Which polling units are affected?
The polling units cut across 28 states of the federation. INEC shared the complete list via its Twitter page. Here are a few screenshots of some of the excluded PUs.
What else should I know?
The INEC chairman Mahmood Yakubu explained that polling units increased in 2021 from 119,973 to 176,846, adding over 56,000 PUs to the existing number. This process is called delimitation.
In simple terms, this refers to the drawing of electoral boundaries by dividing them into wards and polling units. The last time such a thing happened was in 1996.
The chairman also spoke on the mock accreditation exercise on February 4. He said the feedback INEC got from it was that many Nigerians weren’t aware of the location of their PUs. He promised that a phone number would be available soon for people to send texts to confirm the location of their PUs.
INEC also said voters whose PUs have been changed would receive text messages from them.
How can I locate my PU?
If you’re a registered voter unsure where to vote, visit this link here. All you’ll be required to provide is your name, date of birth, and state and local government of registration. Oh, there’s a captcha test too, but that’s easy. Alternatively, you can locate your PU using your voter identification number (VIN).
A comprehensive list of PUS by name, code number and their locations by state, local government and registration area will be made available by INEC soon.
You should also sign up for our Game of Votes newsletter. We help you make sense of news jargon and keep you up-to-date, especially with election news. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
In a press release on February 10, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) came out guns blazing to tell Nigerians that news of it being unable to distribute the new naira banknotes due to the mint’s shortage of printing materials were false.
Part of the statement, signed by its spokesperson, Osita Nwanisobi read, “we are alarmed at the extent to which vested interests are attempting to manipulate facts and pitch the public against the bank.”
The new scourge plaguing the Nigerian economy isn’t inflation or economic mismanagement. To the contrary, it’s a shadowy group of individuals described as “vested interests” by the CBN, or if you prefer Nasir El-Rufai’s version, the “cabal.”
While those in charge point fingers and abdicate responsibility for the current naira scarcity, we shouldn’t be distracted. Every Nigerian should ask: what’s the value of the new naira notes the CBN issued?
A house divided
On October 26, 2022, the CBN governor Godwin (Meffy) Emefiele took Nigerians by surprise when he announced he’d retire the big boy naira denominations of ₦200, ₦500 and ₦1000 notes to give them a facelift.
Meffy gave several reasons for this move. He said Nigerians were hoarding too much cash. Then there was that one about fighting counterfeiters and, our favourite — to choke kidnappers.
A couple of days later, we heard from the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, that she wasn’t consulted on it and received the news about the same time as we did. Granted, the CBN and the ministry of finance have different areas of remit. Still, the fact that a decision of this magnitude was taken without even briefing a related ministry was an early sign that the CBN was doing its thing, haters be damned.
At the time, we wondered if the redesign was just banter but Meffy has not stopped pressing our necks.
On November 23, 2022, the new notes were shown to the public for the first time, spawning questions about which Snapchat filters were used to redesign them. On December 15, the new naira notes entered circulation but were scarce. The House of Representatives summoned the CBN to explain the reason. They asked the Deputy Governor of the CBN how many new notes were printed. Her initial response was that she didn’t know, lol.
Only after continued grilling did she say the CBN ordered 500 million new naira notes for printing. Keep this number in mind.
Rumours and chaos
The CBN initially fixed a deadline for January 31, 2023 for the old banknotes to stop being used. It then extended it to February 10, 2023. The CBN remained adamant on this new deadline despite pleas from several Nigerians and even the International Monetary Fund (IMF), asking for an extension.
The scenes which played out over the naira scarcity nationwide include protests, riots and even vandalism. Some banks have had to shut down their branches because of the security threats posed by angry customers starved of cash. The CBN’s silence on the issue has created a hotbed of rumours. Some have accused commercial banks of hoarding money, and the banks have refuted those claims.
Dear @icpcnigeria, The allegation of a discovery, as presented in the narrative, is inaccurate and misleading. It must be noted that no cash was “stashed” in the vault of the regional office, and for emphasis, Sterling Bank has complied with all the guidelines#FactsOnlyhttps://t.co/aF4nMM78DJ
What’s the exact value of the naira notes that the CBN released?
According to BusinessDay, there’s some secrecy surrounding the exact volume of new naira notes in circulation. This is unusual. In 2019, 3.05 billion banknotes were produced. For 2020, the CBN released 2.52 billion banknotes. In 2021, 2.5 billion banknotes were produced at a cost of ₦58.6 billion. BusinessDay estimates they’d spend around ₦77.6 billion printing those 500 million banknotes, with another ₦6 billion to distribute across the country.
According to Punch, the total value of the new ₦1,000, ₦500 and ₦200 notes printed amounts to ₦500 billion. That figure varies with another source saying it’s ₦400 billion. Who do we believe?
Time for the CBN to open up
No one knows anything for sure, a blame that lies squarely on the CBN. Instead of issuing bland press releases that don’t address the issue, the CBN must, as a matter of transparency, tell us the monetary value of the new notes that have been printed. It should also tell us how they’re disbursed to the commercial banks in the country. That way, we’ll know who to drag.
In the meantime, the February 10 deadline has elapsed. However, some state governors dragged the CBN to court over the naira fiasco. The Supreme Court will rule on the matter on February 15.
For now, we’re in limbo, and no one’s quite sure how to proceed even though the federal government has said it’ll await the court’s ruling. We all look forward to the February 15 ruling with bated breath.
Regardless of the outcome, we must continue to ask: what’s the value of the new naira notes the CBN released in circulation?
You should also sign up for our Game of Votes newsletter. We help you make sense of news jargon and keep you up-to-date, especially with election news. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
Wait First is a flagship founded on a simple premise — everybody lies. Humans are lied to between 10-200 times a day while we tell one to two within the same period. And it’s so, so easy to do. All that’s needed is some burnt dodo stepped down with cold zobo, and breakfast is served.
While a lie’s a lie, all lies are not of equal standing. I mean, who hasn’t told a lie to get out of an awkward situation? Let’s see your hands. No hands? Figured.
On a larger scale, particularly during an election season like we’re in now, many people make claims which turn out false. Sometimes it’s unintentional. Sometimes they are deliberate. Unfortunately, social media is an amplifier, and fake news travels halfway around the world before facts wake up.
If it wasn’t already obvious, fake news is bad because it can spread wide-scale panic, which can cause harm and undermine the democratic process.
Fake news comes in various formats like fabrication, manipulation, advertising and propaganda. The European Parliamentary Research Service, classifies fake news into three categories.
Mal-information: Information that’s based on reality, used to inflict harm on a person, organisation or country.
Dis-information: Information that’s false and deliberately created to harm a person, social group, organisation or country.
Mis-information: Information that’s false but not created to cause harm.
For today’s launch of Wait First, we’ll look at recent claims that have made the rounds to check just how true, false or misleading they are.
A true claim is fresh banana, an outrightly false claim is burnt dodo while a misleading one is cold zobo.
Are Votes in Anambra the Size of an LG in Kaduna?
On January 2, 2023, the governor of Kaduna state, Nasir El-Rufai made an interesting claim in a TV interview. He was speaking on the chances of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party. El-Rufai said Obi was polling poorly and couldn’t win.
He claimed, “The number of votes in Anambra is the size of one local government in Kaduna state. So all states are not equal.”
The good people at the Centre for Democracy and Development West Africa (CDD) fact-checked this claim. Here’s what they found.
“The evidence does not support El-Rufai’s position. As of February 6, 2023, INEC had not released the breakdown of registered voters per local government area.
However, the total number of registered voters in Anambra state is more than the total number of registered voters in the most populous local governments in Kaduna.
“By Kaduna’s own data, published by the Kaduna State Independent Electoral Commissioner (KADSIEC) in 2019, the local government with the highest number of registered voters is Kaduna South, which had 361,357 registered voters.
“The number of registered voters in Anambra state is more than that of the most populous LGAs in Kaduna. According to the National Population Commission (NPC), the most populous LGAs in Kaduna are Igabi, Kaduna South, and Zaria.
“These highly-populated LGAs in Kaduna have less than 700,000 people each, less than the 2,656,437 eligible voters in Anambra.”
Verdict: El-Rufai’s claim is false and therefore burnt dodo.
Did the Supreme Court give a unanimous judgment in the Lawan vs Machina case?
On February 6, 2023, Channels TV political correspondent Seun Okinbaloye broke the news that the Supreme Court ruled unanimously in favour of Senate President Ahmed Lawan. The long-drawn legal battle between Lawan and Bashir Machina was over who the rightful senatorial candidate representing Yobe north is.
Okinbaloye tweeted,” Senate President Ahmed Lawan is back on the ballot after (an) intense legal battle with Mr Bashir Machina. Machina lost to Lawan at the Supreme Court in a unanimous judgment in the contest for the ticket of the party as Yobe North Senatorial Candidate.”
So what’s the verdict on this claim?
While it’s true the Supreme Court ruled in favour of Lawan, the verdict was not unanimous. The Supreme Court had five justices rule on the matter and came to a split decision. They ruled 3-2 in favour of Lawan. This claim by Uncle Seun is, therefore, cold zobo.
You should also sign up for our Game of Votes newsletter. We help you make sense of news jargon and keep you up-to-date, especially with election news. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen had a chat with Abdul-Hameed Adeshina. He’s a media and public relations expert and a proud card-carrying member of the APC. He spoke on a lot of things including his party’s scorecard over the last eight years, BAT’s gaffes, the fuel and naira scarcity and why citizens — not the government — should protect government property.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss policies and politics 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 that are founded in half-truths.
Are you familiar with Zikoko Citizen?
Unfortunately, today’s the first time I’m hearing about you guys.
We hope you take the time to check us out. You claim to have been a long-time member of the APC. Why should young Nigerians vote for your party at the polls?
Young people from the age of 15 should choose the APC as their sure banker. Reason’s that the APC is progressive. We’re a party that cares for the young and the aged. The party has a structure in place for the betterment of not only youths but all Nigerians.
We have a lot of young men in our party, in governance, that are doing well in life ever since they joined. We have a good template for the betterment of every youth in the country.
This view you hold, is it a consensus as a member of the APC, or a personal one?
We have many political parties in Nigeria. The APC, PDP, LP, APGA, and NNPP. Now, look at all these states. Which party produced the youngest governor in Nigeria? It’s APC and that person is Yahaya Bello of Kogi state. Lagos state is one of the largest economies in Africa led by Babajide Sanwo-Olu. You can categorise him as a youth. He joined us, I think, at the age of 32. He’s among the best-performing governors in Nigeria today.
So when I say APC has a structure for the youths, I’m not saying it to promote my party. I’m backing it with facts and figures. Go to Kogi state and see what Yahaya Bello is doing.
How would you rate the APC’s performance over the last eight years?
We have a scorecard. When talking about infrastructure I’ll rate the APC 100/100. On security which hasn’t really been fair, I’ll say 60/100. On jobs, 85/100.
100 per cent in infrastructure?
Before we came on board, Goodluck Jonathan said he’d be the first president to construct the Second Niger Bridge. Funds were allocated for that project. We came on board, said we’d do it and we’ve done it. That’s number one.
Lagos-Ibadan expressway was started and funded by the OBJ administration. They did nothing. Our administration has taken it to almost 95% completion.
The last time the Minister for Works, Babatunde Fashola, gave updates on that expressway, he said the project would have been completed if not for some conflicting projects being done by Oyo state governor, Seyi Makinde.
We have federal and state roads. Fashola spoke to Makinde to inform him that it’s his projects that are delaying them. We know what that road was like in 2015, so 95% is what I’d give.
Hmm. Besides these two projects, what else?
Funding universities, building roads, and provision of jobs. Recently, the president came to commission a rice mill in Lagos making it the largest producer of rice. The Kaduna-Abuja expressway is there.
When the PDP was there we travelled by road. Now we have railways working perfectly. Our administration brought back the lost glory of railways.
You’re bringing up a narrative of some people sabotaging the nation. Government and the people have duties. It’s for the government to provide social amenities, and it’s for the citizens to protect government property. We’re taught this in the first year of university. It’s the citizens that should be blamed for this.
I tweeted that God’ll judge the people doing this evil to us. We cannot say because people are sabotaging government efforts we then put the fault on the government. No, it doesn’t work that way. It’s our promise that we’ll do something and we’ve done it. There’s a difference between “we will do it” and “we’ve done it”. We’ve done it.
Security is also part of our success story.
How?
When we came on board we all knew how rampant kidnapping and banditry were. In April 2014 nearly 300 girls were kidnapped in Chibok under the PDP-led administration. In 2015 we told Nigerians to vote for us on two basic issues. For a prosperous economy and to fight insecurity. Before we came on board, 13-14 local governments were under Boko Haram. Today, it’s a thing of the past.
At every level, there’s a different devil. We’ve fought the devil of bandits, of terrorists, but now we still have the devil of kidnappers which I believe will be resolved before May 29, 2023.
We experienced increased herder-farmer clashes under the APC. Are you satisfied with how this government handled this issue?
On this herdsmen issue, they’re not Nigerians.
They operate in Nigeria
That’s it. They’re not Nigerians but they’re terrorising our people. I don’t want to use the narrative that they’re Fulani herdsmen because there are instances where security operatives arrested them and they’re not Fulanis. You could just term them kidnappers. There’s nothing like Fulani herdsmen. We have Yorubas as herdsmen, we have Igbos as herdsmen.
But I never mentioned that
Ok. When was the last time you heard about this?
So you’re saying the government intervened?
Not only the government, we the people. Citizens should also be given kudos for being supportive towards the men in uniform.
BAT has spoken in recent times about fuel and naira scarcity. Do you think this will affect your party’s chances at the polls?
It will not and it cannot. Do you know why? In 2015 there was no fuel scarcity like this, all the way till 2021. Before, we experienced fuel scarcity during festive periods but people gave us kudos for how we managed it under this administration. There was no fuel scarcity three to four months ago. Why’s it now, close to elections, that we’re experiencing this?
Yes, Abuja could be experiencing fuel scarcity but not as it is now. Practically every state in Nigeria is experiencing fuel scarcity and we have fuel. There’s enough fuel. The NNPC director said it. Punch published this article that some people are sabotaging government efforts to make life easy for people. You’re collecting fuel from the NNPC, why are you hoarding it? It’s not the fault of the government. It is our own evil agenda towards ourselves.
It’s not the fault of the government. There’s fuel, people are hoarding it. There are filling stations that have fuel 24/7 and sell as low as ₦180 per litre. Why’s the price of others different?
The new naira design is a good approach but the timing is what I’m personally against. The APC governors met with the president who told them to give him seven days to review the decision.
The reason for this naira redesign is to stop kidnappers from operating. We’ve tried using the National Identification Number (NIN) and tracking them with SIM cards but it doesn’t work. Ok, they collect cash ransoms. What if we try a cashless policy? How would they receive ransom when they know cash isn’t in circulation? That’s what brought about the policy, as well as to reduce the amount we use in printing money.
Nigeria is not that developed in terms of technology to use the cashless policy. The pepper and flour sellers don’t know what technology is.
Kenya has M-pesa, a cashless policy initiative that has appeal among the classes of people you describe. Don’t you think the implementation is the issue here?
I’ll use this medium to apologise to Nigerians that are feeling the pain. Like I said in one of my tweets, I’ve separated myself from any policy that brings pandemonium and hardship to the people that elected us.
BAT has made several gaffes prompting laughs on social media. Do you think this could affect his chances, and whether he’s fit to lead?
Lots of questions but I’ll answer every one of them.
Hahaha
Let’s talk about the gaffes. Asiwaju is a politician and wants to be the talk of the town. In his recent one, he said, “vote for me, your eight years (in school) will be eight years.” Honestly, I don’t think that should be a matter of discussion in the public because this is Nigeria and we’ve seen a lot.
Let me now tell you something. You can’t be working 24/7 and not make mistakes. Could be when you’re working, walking or even eating. Asiwaju was in Osun and left around 9:50 p.m., got to Ekiti where they wrapped things up and moved on to Nasarawa. It’s not easy.
But other candidates are moving around as well
They’re making the same mistakes. There’s no top presidential candidate that hasn’t made a funny mistake. Is it Atiku, or Peter Obi, who? Was it not Peter Obi that went to Nasarawa and said it was a very big country? How’s Nasarawa a big country? People don’t talk about that.
Atiku that’s telling us he’s strong went to a state and told his supporters to vote APC. There’s none of them that haven’t made such errors because they’re all working hard. If you’re supposed to sleep for six hours in a day and you sleep for two, your head will be hot. Your thinking might even be different. You might be pressing your phone and dozing off. One can’t cheat nature. You can’t use these things as factors to determine who Asiwaju is.
Lol. A former member of the APC presidential campaign council Naja’atu Mohammed, has said BAT isn’t fit for office. What’s your take on this?
If you’ve read Hajiya Naja’atu’s profile you’ll know she’s not a doctor and has never worked in the health sector before. So her comments on Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu are false. She’s in no position to know who is or isn’t fit. The only person who can speak authoritatively about my state of health is my doctor.
She left our camp for Atiku and she said Yemi Osinbajo was her choice. If Osinbajo believed her she wouldn’t have left our camp for the opposition. It’s a paid job. When you see a paid job you’ll know.
We can talk about one of the former aides of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, showing the world how corrupt Atiku is. Nobody’s talking about that.
Well, that has been discussed a lot on social media
This is 1-1. Someone left their camp and came to ours because they believe in us. Likewise, someone left our camp and went to theirs. Our political ideology is quite different from others. If someone brings us any evidence we show it to the world and back it up with the law. If she believes BAT isn’t fit let her come up with evidence. All she’s doing is just public relations (PR). I’m a PR expert.
You’re based in the UK. Some might say your support for the APC is only possible because you’re not in Nigeria
This isn’t the first time I’m hearing this. Let me tell you something. I was supposed to go to Onward Primary School, a private school. I was given money to purchase a form but misplaced it. It was then I settled for a public school, Methodist Primary School in Iragbiji, Osun state. My secondary school was Iyana Community School in Oyo state. I went to Community Grammar School, Sasha. Then I went to the Federal Polytechnic, Offa. I also went to Kwara State University.
Now, tell me. What’s wrong with me coming overseas for another degree? I’m not the first person to come to the UK to live or study. Why’s my case different? They’re talking about suffering. I schooled in Kwara. I had classes around 8 a.m, I’d leave Oshogbo around 5 a.m, take a bus from Otefun to Ilorin. From Ilorin to Malete.
I’m not an ajebutter, we’re in it together. I don’t see the UK as paradise. What I’m telling you is that in Nigeria people are enjoying themselves more than in the UK.
How so?
Let me tell you. If I fail to go to work tomorrow, I might become homeless in the next three weeks. Do you know why? If you don’t go to work you don’t get paid. If you don’t get paid how can you have electricity? Water? Transport? You have to work. Unlike in Nigeria where in some places it’s difficult for NEPA to disconnect you from power. People just make assumptions.
This young man talking to you is coming home to vote. When I was in Nigeria I did giveaways on Fridays on my Twitter and Instagram.
So you’re coming to Nigeria to vote?
Insha Allah. I’m just waiting for permission from my manager. Once I get it I’m coming home to vote. Let me say that ever since I’ve been in this game of politics I’ve never, in my life, received a penny from any political leader. This is going all the way back to Rauf Aregbesola who I worked for, day and night. Same with Gboyega Oyetola, never collected a penny.
Reno Omokri came to the UK the other day to disrupt Asiwaju’s speech at Chatham House. I know what I brought on the streets (to counter him). All the things I’m doing fall under professional PR work and people pay millions for it. I do it for free, for my country. And I’m not the only one.
There are other people overseas who are paid millions to support Atiku and Obi and they’re not coming home to vote. Why’s my case different? It’s only when I’m campaigning for BAT that people say I’m enjoying the good life. If I’m enjoying the good life are my parents at home enjoying? We’re middle-class people and I can support my party anywhere I want. That’s my submission on that.
One of Buhari’s legacies is the Electoral Act which he’s received commendation for. Do you think BAT will improve Nigeria’s electoral system if he gets in?
Asiwaju, despite not being president, has fought for democracy. Asiwaju wasn’t president when he fought the PDP in Osun state when Aregbesola was being cheated. He wasn’t president when he helped a PDP governor reclaim his mandate in Oyo state. He doesn’t care what party you belong to, he just wants the rule of law. He’s the only man alive who fought the president for eight years and won.
Are you referring to his time as Lagos state governor and his spat with President Obasanjo over federal allocations?
Yes, with Baba Obasanjo then. Asiwaju respects the law which is why till today there’s no case of corrupt practice against him. I can say this anywhere.
Corrupt practices he’s yet to be found guilty of, you mean
Yes. He was charged by the code of conduct tribunal but they found nothing. Don’t forget this was when OBJ was in power, if he was guilty they’d have nailed him with whatever they had.
One criticism against the APC is nomination forms are very expensive which makes it hard for youths to take part
At the beginning of this year the party leadership offered a discount. Any youth from 25-35 would get a 50% discount on nomination forms. We also made it free for women contesting. In some instances, some didn’t pay. We have the consensus and direct primaries and depending on whatever’s used some people might not even pay.
Does the APC have confidence in INEC’s ability to conduct free and fair elections?
President Muhammadu Buhari has provided everything needed for INEC to conduct free and credible elections. In terms of security, the president has pledged to do his best. We experienced it in Ekiti and Osun. So come February 25, I urge everyone to come out and cast their vote. There won’t be any form of intimidation, violence or ballot snatching. I have 99% trust in the leadership of INEC led by Prof. Yakubu.
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I bet the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) can’t wait for the elections to be over. The pressure on them has increased several notches with the elections less than three weeks away. From having to extend PVC collection deadlines more than once to allegations of misconduct with the use of BVAS and, recently, calls for the removal of one of its resident electoral commissioners (REC).
But the last hasn’t been heard of controversies involving INEC. The latest that has tongues wagging is that the Lagos chapter of INEC might enter into a partnership with the notorious MC Oluomo. What could go wrong, eh?
What’s the gist?
On February 7, 2023, INEC held a consultative meeting at its Lagos office. The Lagos REC, Olusegun Agbaje, disclosed that it had no option but to work with Musiliu Akinsanya (aka MC Oluomo) to distribute election materials on election day. His reason was that the Lagos state government had banned road transport unions.
[MC Oluomo. SocietyNow]
These include the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW) and the Road Transport Employers Association of Nigeria (RTEAN). As a result, he said he had no choice but to work with the Lagos park management system and the National Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO), alleged to have links with MC Oluomo.
Naturally, members of the opposition aren’t happy with the development.
Before we get into why there’s opposition to this move, what possible “benefits” could INEC get from working with the Oluomo-led parks management committee?
Pros of working with transport workers
Caveat: this isn’t an endorsement
For starters, movement is heavily limited on election day. The only vehicles permitted to ply public routes are security vehicles, observers, and those with special status to transport sensitive and non-sensitive election material. Here’s where transport workers come in.
[Empty Lagos roads on election day. AFP]
They belong to the transport union and understand the terrain. This means they can swiftly dispatch materials on election day faster than usual by taking shortcuts and avoiding troublesome areas. They are also practical, logistically speaking. Ride-hailing services are obviously out of the question, bikes are banned, and even if they weren’t, they wouldn’t be suitable. INEC doesn’t have enough vehicles to dispatch to over 13,000 polling units in Lagos.
Based on personal experience from the last election, what often happens is that INEC works with select members of the transport unions to move these materials. They assign buses to wards, and the drivers work with the supervisory presiding officers, who transfer several presiding officers to these buses. One bus could carry ad-hoc INEC officials to polling units within the same vicinity, saving time.
As a rule, the buses must be accompanied by security agents wherever they go. The same applies to reverse logistics after elections have been conducted and the materials are being transported for collation.
Cons of working with transport workers
Yo, it’s MC Oluomo. TheMC Oluomo. Here’s a guy notorious for thuggery and has claimed to be mentored by the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT).
[Remember when Teni said she’d call MC Oluomo for your case?]
The optics aren’t great for INEC, which is supposed to be an unbiased umpire. Although INEC has said it’s not dealing with him in particular, it’s not very reassuring and raises fears that trouble might be brewing ahead.
INEC should address these concerns publicly because Lagos will be contested keenly in the coming election. Security agencies must remain on high alert to stem any potential threats of violence. This means INEC’s policy of attaching security agents to these vehicles must be followed strictly. The names of these drivers must be publicly available so they can be identified if they try anything funny.
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On February 6, 2023, the Supreme Court stunned Nigerians when it ruled that Ahmed Lawan was the All Progressives Congress (APC) senatorial candidate for Yobe north instead of Bashir Machina.
[Senate President, Ahmed Lawan. Daily Trust]
This was shocking because Machina had won APC’s ticket at a primary where Lawan was absent. A High Court and Court of Appeal upheld the victory. But the Supreme Court has dashed Machina’s hopes at the 2023 polls.
There were divided opinions on the issue on social media, and even we couldn’t make much sense of it, so we spoke to a couple of experts who provided insight.
Franklin Ofodeme, Lawyer
“Machina lost today mainly on the grounds of technicality. The Supreme Court believes that Machina’s suit at the federal high court ought to have commenced using a writ of summons. However, Machina used originating summons. It’s that simple.
“When you commence an action using originating summons, you’re merely asking the court to interpret a question of law. But when there are allegations of fact, you initiate the suit using the writ of summons so that you can call witnesses to prove your case.
“So, on technical grounds, Machina lost because the suit that gave rise to the appeal at the Supreme Court was commenced using the wrong originating process.”
[Bashir Machina. The Guardian Nigeria]
Festus Ogun, Constitutional Lawyer
“I’m surprised by the judgment of the Supreme Court. Interestingly, the decision was a split one, 3-2. Three justices of the apex court judged that the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan, is the rightful candidate of the APC. Two other justices based their judgment on the fact that the election that produced Lawan was illegal and was conducted in violation of the Electoral Act 2022.
“From the information publicly available, the basis of the majority decision of the Supreme Court was that the matter commenced by originating summons. Given that there were allegations of fraud by Bashir Machina, they ruled that they should have started with a writ of summons.
“In my respectful opinion, I don’t subscribe to that view. The simple reason being that the matter before the court was an issue relating to the interpretation of the Electoral Act and whether APC’s action in submitting the name of another candidate — after it had conducted a primary election earlier where Machina emerged as a candidate — is valid in the eyes of the law.
“It’s expected that issues of fact will arise. They can be resolved using affidavit evidence, as far as I know. Interestingly, the federal high court pre-election practice direction 2022 by virtue of section 4, subsection 1, states that pre-election matters should be instituted by originating summons. The Supreme Court is saying the lawyers shouldn’t have initiated the action by originating summons but by a writ of summons.
[Supreme Court of Nigeria, Abuja. BusinessDay]
“He (Lawan) didn’t participate in the earlier election. He withdrew his candidacy from the primary election conducted in May in pursuit of an ill-fated presidential ambition. If another election was conducted after a validly nominated candidate had emerged, then there isn’t much to be substantiated, even with an originating summons which requires the calling of witnesses.
“Tall and short, I align myself with the view of the (two) dissenting justices of the Supreme Court. For me, theirs represents the actual position of the law. But then, all I’m saying is academic because, under the law, the majority decision of the Supreme Court represents the true position of the law. There’s nothing we can do about it.
[Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola. Premium Times]
“As a people, we must understand that equity follows the law. Equity won’t look at the form but the substance of the matter. The majority decision of the Supreme Court, which puts form over substance, adheres to a barren technicality.
“Beyond this judgment, many people have lost faith in our justice system. Because it’s porous, slow and largely inefficient — this is without prejudice to the Supreme Court ruling. Many of our people no longer see the judiciary as the last hope of the ordinary person. This is why some of us have advocated that we must fix the rot in our justice system for our country to move forward.
“The elite in this country make our laws. They find a way to get away with things and don’t, in the real sense of things, respect the law. They know that the inefficiencies in our laws are fertile enough for them to get around it, and they have the resources to get the best lawyers to manoeuvre their way.
“I’ve read the Electoral Act, which is good legislation. I’ve written a lot about it. However, this judgment relating to Ahmed Lawan and Bashir Machina is a bad precedent. We must refrain from taking technicality over substantial justice. That’s the way I see it.”
Verdict
Machina lost his position because of a mistake his lawyers made. However, the Supreme Court’s position remains controversial, although it is the biggest court in Nigeria and, thus, binding.
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In case you missed it, February 5, 2023 was the “final” deadline for collecting permanent voters cards (PVC) ahead of the general election. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) twice extended this deadline from January 22 to January 29 and, most recently, February 5.
It’s unclear if there might be another extension. So far, INEC has been silent on whether there’d be another extension, but word on the street is not many Nigerians are thrilled about this.
[Crowd at a PVC collection centre in Abia state. The Sun]
Citizen spoke to a couple of young Nigerians asking why they hadn’t gotten their PVCs, and we got some interesting responses ranging from apathy to frustration with the process.
[PVC collection survey summary. SBM Intelligence]
Here’s what they said.
Deborah*
“I don’t have a personal voter’s card and did not register for one during the registration period. I suffer from an intense form of voter’s apathy, unconcerned about the electoral process and its likely outcomes. Perhaps, I hold a pessimistic attitude towards Nigerian elections, but I have no faith in the system to provide the leadership that Nigeria requires.
“I find all the candidates who are currently forerunners to be largely underwhelming. There’s the APC candidate with his failing health, there’s the PDP candidate clueless and capitalising on the goodwill from past positions held, and there’s the Labour Party’s candidate whose claim to fame is his appeal to millennial and Gen Z voters.
“If these are my options, I’d rather sit the elections out. Whatever the results — and it is one of the hardest to call in the history of elections in Nigeria —, we will live with the consequences. Above all, I pray for a peaceful transition of power. We deserve to catch a break.”
Feyisayo
“When the announcement first came out for PVC registration, I registered on my browser. I even asked around about how to go about it and in the beginning I was dedicated towards getting my PVC. I was in Akure when I started my registration.
“Unfortunately I wasn’t sure where I’d be during the election period, I had relocated to Lagos and had to think about the process involved with transferring my PVC or even registering again at another local government. I settled for Kosofe local government at the time. I took time off work to go there to register.
“The INEC officials had given me an exact date to come around and I thought it would be better organised because I had an appointment. But when I got there, I saw a crowd of people. I was like, ‘no way.’ The last time I did this was during NYSC and I’m not subjecting myself to this hassle without knowing anybody at INEC. That was basically what discouraged me. I don’t think I waited more than 30 minutes before I went back home.
“Now though, I kinda regret it. I feel bad and maybe I should’ve waited for a few hours to get my PVC.”
Vera
“God knows I tried. I couldn’t get my PVC because it wasn’t found physically at the INEC office even though it reflected on INEC’s portal that it was available. Between November and February I went to their office in Oshodi ten times. Of course I feel bad I couldn’t get my PVC but I know I tried my best so my conscience is clean.”
Tolu
“After I finished my online registration I was supposed to go to the local government office on a given day. Unfortunately, I couldn’t go and I just lost track of the whole thing. The process seemed too complicated and wasn’t easy so I just didn’t bother anymore. I don’t feel anyhow about not getting my PVC. I don’t know if that’s the right answer but I just don’t feel anything.”
Korede
“I registered online early last year in Abeokuta. I went to the INEC office once to ask about my PVC. They told me it wasn’t ready. I asked a contact at their office to help me confirm the status of my PVC and he kept telling me it wasn’t ready. I was surprised, how can it not be ready? I’ve registered since. I feel bad that I wasn’t able to get my PVC but life goes on. We go still vote, anyhow.”
*Respondent chose to remain anonymous
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For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Ndi Kato, a spokesperson of the Labour Party. She’s also an activist, political analyst and the executive director of Dinidari Africa. She spoke on various issues including the Labour Party dominating in three geopolitical zones at this month’s presidential election, her party’s stance on subsidy and why some leaders in the South East are against Peter Obi’s candidacy.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss policies and politics 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 that are founded in half-truths.
Peter Obi has trended on Twitter and gathered huge online support. Do you think this will convert to votes on election day?
Social media is representative of the larger picture. It’s representative of the larger community. It’s not robots that are here but human beings. I always say that one online [person] represents the thought processes of ten other persons who may not be here.
If other parties have plenty of supporters then they too should be on social media, it’s not as if when Jack launched Twitter he made it exclusively for Obidients, there was no conversation like that. It’s random people who are on social media, normal Nigerians who are on social media who have become supporters of this movement.
So those other people who say they have that many supporters, let them come on social media because this place is representative of the larger society. This will translate to votes. I’m not saying we’re going to get the highest number of votes everywhere, but we’ll get the highest number of votes in at least two regions. Na we go dominate. In fact, three regions. We’ll get plenty of votes in their regions.
Is this part of our interview, because Zikoko, the way you guys move? Hahaha.
Yes it is, lol
We have the South East, the South South and a good chunk of the North Central. And then we’d balance out in places like the South West. We’re not saying we’re going to get everything in the South West but we’ll have quite a good outcome there. That’s Tinubu’s base but we’re going to make a dent there. And with these new campaigns, you’re seeing the inroads we’ve made in the North. We’re beginning to see that 25% in some of these places is quite possible. So we’re moving, we’re moving.
We understand your candidate has support in the South East, but Tinubu also had a following when he campaigned in Enugu
Do you know how far they had to go to get people to come with their buses? See, once you attend a rally and you begin to see people in uniform, like people wearing green berets, just know that mobilisation has happened and it’s not organic. If you see people come as they are then that’s an organic rally.
If you come to my village and you tell people you’re going to give them ₦10,000 to enter a bus, in this economy that they’ve weaponised poverty, you think they won’t enter?
After the New Year, I was in Imo state. I can tell you that among the gathering there was only one guy that wasn’t with the Labour Party. And the way that guy had to defend himself? At some point, he asked to be left alone. He had no arguments to make anymore. They even have a song, once you mention Obi they respond with kererenke.
But the South East has two APC governors and even Soludo has said he won’t support Obi
God help them. The more these people talk, the more they have to backtrack. Remember when Ihedioha spoke against Obi? The pushback was so strong he had to apologise.
He did say he was taken out of context
Isn’t it good that he quickly came out to say he was taken out of context? When Peter Obi went to Imo state what happened? The governor came out to welcome him because he doesn’t want wahala. He doesn’t want the pushback because he wants to win a second term — if he can stand a chance to win it. And that’s wisdom.
Some of these people are pushing back because they’re wondering “why Peter Obi?” They believe that if power should come to the South East it should be them because they’ve been building their careers [from way back] and if Obi gets it then it means they won’t stand a chance to get it. And I understand. Doing everything they think is right, sucking up to the system and hoping they’d be the one and then this very simple man who doesn’t suck up to the system and always does what his mind tells him — which is for the good of the people to be honest — ends up being the one who gets this organic love. It can be painful.
Still, my guy. I’ve seen people in the South East who are serving in government, commissioners who have told their governors that as far as the presidential election is concerned, they’re voting for Peter Obi.
Well, all of that’s hearsay
It’s not hearsay. I know these people myself. I’ve worked with these people.
If they could come out to publicly say these things then that would confirm what you’re saying
You can see them sponsoring billboards. Have you gone to put mics in their mouths and they said no? That’s their method. You go to some of these places and you see these billboards where they say ‘for governor vote this party, sponsored by so-so person’. Same with other positions and for president, Peter Obi’s name will be there.
The Labour Party and the Nigerian Labour Congress have sat on different sides of the subsidy issue. How does your party hope to reconcile this?
If the party hasn’t settled this issue, the candidate won’t be speaking about it. You know, the last time I heard the candidate speak about subsidy and it being criminal itself and having to be removed, was right in front of the chairman of the party in Karfanchan. And the chairman of the party didn’t have anything against the removal of fuel subsidies. He’d have raised this to say “excuse me.”
I was there and to the best of my knowledge, no such thing happened. So yeah, the fuel subsidies will be removed. We cannot continue to pay that huge amount of money to a few individuals. It is organized theft, our candidate has said so repeatedly in front of party members and we stand by it.
You’ve said the LP would win the South-South. Aren’t you worried that the region is led by elected officials from the PDP?
My answer to this will be the same answer I have for the South East which is, they have the political class but we have the people. The people have decided to rise up and we’re seeing the people organising themselves and that should be recognised. When the people are organising themselves the political class [are just individuals] and they’ll be reduced to one person.
When the political class has the upper hand, they hope for voter apathy, they hope for things that will make voters not come out so that they can use their power to move things, you know, use the power of incumbency, buy votes here and there.
But when the people rise it’s a whole different ball game entirely. And so, again, my answer to all of this is they have the politicians, we have the people and the people are overwhelmingly larger in number.
You were once with the PDP, the same with your principal. What led you to make a switch? And how do you respond to those who say it’s hypocritical?
Politics is, hopefully, a conduit to good governance. It’s not something everybody likes to participate in. I’m not a fan of politics but it’s a necessity. It’s an uncomfortable necessity you have to participate in, in order to be able to deliver good governance to the people and many people do participate on that note. Peter Obi is one of those people.
He’s a successful businessman with so many other things to do and here he is participating in this because he feels it’s the best way to deliver good governance and bring about change for the people.
Unfortunately in Nigeria, you can’t run as an independent candidate, you have to join a political party. At some point, you’ll have to join a party that’s most viable to run with. But when push comes to shove, you have to take the bull by the horns. There’s nothing wrong in saying you want to step into one of the other political parties and run from there. I don’t see what’s hypocritical about that.
You once made a run for office in Kaduna. What was your biggest takeaway from that experience?
We need to do more for women’s political participation. We need quotas. Quotas are a good stepping stone to women’s political participation. We need to push for laws that will help women’s political participation. We need to push for laws that provide equal rights for women. The gender and equal opportunities bill has been on the floor of the House for quite a while and we need to push that. The special seats Bill too. Calls for special seats. One hundred and eleven special seats for four election circles.
I’m hoping that bills like that get in. Within political parties, gender-friendly policies are needed to help women’s political participation. I run an organisation, Dinidari Foundation, and there are other women-led organisations working on that. So more needs to be done and more attention needs to be paid to women.
There have been videos online about Labour Party supporters complaining about not being paid mobilisation fees for rallies. Could you confirm if your party pays for these things?
How do you suggest supporters get to the venues of the rallies? Buses need to move.
That’s your answer?
That’s my answer.
Does the Labour Party have full confidence in INEC’s ability to conduct the elections?
We’ll continue to put INEC on their toes. Our job’s to make sure we continue to put pressure on INEC to do the right thing and hopefully, INEC does the right thing at the end of the day.
You don’t sound confident
It’s the office of the citizen. The job of that office is to put pressure on and make sure those in charge do the right thing. When you do your own part, you hope that they do theirs and that’s where we’re at. We’re putting pressure anywhere we see that INEC is lapsing.
What’s your advice for young people looking to get involved in politics?
The best way to participate is to participate. Register with a political party. Many young people should know they’re already participating in politics by canvassing for votes for their candidates. They’re already participating in politics and that’s a good step, take the next step to register.
If the election doesn’t go the Labour Party’s way, is there any chance it would take it up in court?
I think we’ll leave it till then.
Do you plan to run for office in the future?
As of now, I can’t answer that question.
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On March 11, 2023, Abia state residents will cast votes in the governorship election to pick a new captain to steer the state for the next four years.
[Abia State. BusinessDay]
Thirty-six people are vying for the governor’s office in Abia state. However, based on opinion polls, a few candidates are ahead of the pack. These include Alex Otti of the Labour Party (LP), Uchenna Ikonne* of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Gregory Ibe of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), Ikechi Emenike of the All Progressives Congress (APC) and Eyinnaya Nwafor of the Young Progressives Party (YPP).
Abia’s current governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, is a PDP governor in his second term and, therefore, ineligible to contest in 2023. He’s famous for being part of the breakaway group of governors known as the G5, who oppose the presidential aspiration of a fellow party member, Atiku Abubakar. His tenure expires on May 29, 2023.
[Okezie Ikpeazu: Vanguard]
Abia state’s house of assembly consists of 24 members elected into 24 constituencies. The PDP overwhelmingly dominates the assembly. Its current speaker is Chinedum Enyinnaya Orji.
In December 2015, when the current administration had been in office for seven months, its debt stock was ₦41.7 billion. As of March 2022, Abia state’s debt stood at ₦91.4 billion — more than double the state’s debt in 2015.
Did you also know that the latest multidimensional poverty index (MPI) released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) ranks Abia the third least poor state with less than 30 per cent of its citizens in multidimensional poverty? Only Ondo and Lagos post better MPIs.
[Screenshot of MPI by state. NBS]
What do Abia residents think of the coming governorship election?
Amarachi
“I reside in Umu Agu, Umuahia North local government area (LGA). I’m hoping that the coming governorship election is free and fair. I have no idea who I’ll be voting for because the person I’d have supported, Prof. Uchenna Ikonne, is deceased.
“What I want whoever’s coming in to prioritise above other things are the roads. Although the present government has already done major parts that connect to the city, there’s still more to be done.”
Kingsley**
“For now, based on the latest happenings, I think the PDP has lost their grip. It’d be hard for them to be victorious in the forthcoming election. For me, the race is between the LP, YPP and APGA. I didn’t include the APC because they’re dealing with an internal crisis with two candidates, Ikechi Emenike and Uche Ogar, claiming to represent them.
“I see it as God’s way of liberating the state, although it’s unfortunate it came at the cost of an innocent man’s life because Ikonne was a good man. What I think this state needs is someone who has no links with godfatherism, which is what Abia state suffers from.
“I hope whoever wins focuses on paying unpaid pensions and salaries as well as building infrastructure.”
Adaku
“I live in Aba but I’m not really into politics. But as a citizen, I hope the people’s choice gets elected. To be honest I’ve never voted before. If I’m to vote, my choice would be Eyinnaya Nwafor. The reason is that he’s an engineer and Aba needs a lot of reconstruction. I believe this can only be done by a professional.
“There are so many things I hope get prioritised when the next administration comes in. One is the construction of the roads. Roads in Aba are terrible, people are suffering. Secondly, the construction of markets. There’s so much chaos in the markets we have. People are paying so much money in tickets but are not getting anything in return. Hawkers are paying as much as ₦1,000 daily for tickets, they should look into this. Also, we need good public hospitals. The private hospitals are very expensive.
“Electricity is an issue. For the past six months we’ve not seen light where I live. These are things I hope the coming administration will take care of.”
**Respondent chose to remain anonymous
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In his book, The Trouble With Nigeria, Chinua Achebe concluded that “the only trouble with Nigeria is a failure of leadership.” This is as true today as it was 40 years ago when it was first published.
Yesterday, the question on everyone’s lips was, how many people need to die before the government does something about the avoidable accidents on Ojuelegba bridge? Today, the question is, where are Nigeria’s missing people?
Nigeria has the highest number of missing persons in Africa
Regardless of who you cite as a source, the number of missing people in Nigeria is alarming. According to Beacon Consulting, which runs the Nigeria Security Incidents Tracker, 7222 Nigerians were killed between January and July 2022; 3,823 people were kidnapped in that period.
In August 2022, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), said Nigeria had the highest number of missing persons in Africa. It noted that 25,000 out of 64,000 missing persons reported are from Nigeria. The whereabouts of 14,000 Nigerian children remain a mystery.
This number only accounts for those reported missing, as others go unreported, and the actual figures could be much higher.
One way to look at this is: out of every ten people reported missing in Africa, four are from Nigeria.
[Family members of the kidnapped Nigerian Chibok girls, Nigeria, October 18, 2016. AP Photo/Olamikan Gbemiga]
What is government action towards solving this issue?
Nigeria has a leadership crisis and it’s why, despite the numbers, the government has no official database of missing persons. What it has though are agencies like the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) whose purview includes fighting for the rights of missing people.
In 2021, the Nigerian police in partnership with a tech company, developed an app, Missing Persons Platform. It’s supposed to help citizens report cases of missing people. However, this isn’t an exhaustive database. It’s also not clear how effective it is. No one knows how many missing persons have been found using the app.
Only last week, the federal government said “plans were afoot” to create a national database.
What else has been done about missing persons?
Organisations ranging from nongovernmental organisations (NGO) to the media have taken active steps towards addressing the issue of missing persons. Enough is Enough (EiE), a Nigerian NGO, has partnered with intelligence agencies like SBM to compile a database of missing persons. Similarly, HumAngle media has a dedicated dashboard for persons missing primarily due to extremism in the northern part of Nigeria.
[Dashboard screenshot of missing persons. HumAngle media]
HumAngle has also extensively reported missing persons in Borno state. In Borno, missing persons by gender are in the ratio of 43.5% to 56.5%, male to female. Its report noted that men are often forcefully conscripted by nonstate actors while women are frequent victims of abductions by terrorists. Still, the responsibility of safeguarding lives lies with the government and so far it’s not lived up to expectations.
What can you do?
Section 90 of the Nigeria Police Act says you have a duty to report a missing person to the police within 24 hours. However, the steady rise in missing persons suggests that reporting isn’t the issue but finding the missing.
Online, a petition has started urging the government to stop paying lip service to the matter and build a national database for missing people. You could lend your support to the cause. We’ve also written about how to stay safe in Nigeria; you can read more about it here.
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Now’s not a good time for Davido, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) and supporters of Ademola Adeleke. An election tribunal sitting in Osun state on January 27, 2023, annulled the governorship election result of July 16, 2022, in which the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) subsequently declared Adeleke winner.
The initial victory, which came over the incumbent All Progressives Congress (APC) governor, Gboyega Oyetola, saw Adeleke win with 403,371 votes to defeat Oyetola, who got 375,027 votes — a 3.5% margin of victory.
However, the three-person tribunal led by Justice Tetsea Kume voted 2-1 to overturn the result.
What was the ruling?
The tribunal declared that INEC did not comply substantially with the Constitution and the provisions of the Electoral Act. The tribunal ruled that there was “overvoting” and declared that Oyetola won the election, polling 314,931 votes, while Adeleke got 290,266.
Justice Kume ordered INEC to withdraw Adeleke’s certificate of return and issued another to Oyetola, who he declared the lawful winner.
How did things play out in court?
Emmanuel Ujiadughele, a source in court when the ruling was read said:
“The tribunal ended its proceedings today after the petition was filed on August 5, 2022. There were five parties to that petition. The first and second petitioners were the APC and Gboyega Oyetola. The first, second and third respondents respectively were INEC, Ademola Adeleke and the PDP.
“There were three grounds on which the APC challenged the election. The first was that Adeleke wasn’t qualified and that he forged the certificates he submitted to INEC when he contested in 2018. The tribunal ruled that although forgery was proven especially with his secondary school certificate issued by Muslim High School in Osun state — at a time when the state hadn’t been created— his other accompanying certificates exonerated him from the issue of forgery. The tribunal ruled in favour of the respondent.
“The second however, was on grounds of overvoting. The third was on grounds that INEC didn’t conduct elections in compliance with the Electoral Act. The tribunal ruled that overvoting occurred as stated by the petitioner. It also said that both parties benefited from overvoting. The tribunal ruled that INEC’s actions amounted to tampering with official records by producing multiple results and manipulation of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation (BVAS) machines.
“According to the tribunal, INEC’s defense was erroneous. This was in respect to the terms of the sections of relevant laws they quoted. APC had challenged the results in 749 polling units in 10 local governments of Osun state.
“After deliberations, the tribunal deducted from places where there was overvoting. Former governor Oyetola scored 314, 931 votes while Adeleke scored 290,266 votes. The tribunal ruled that Adeleke didn’t score enough votes to be declared the lawful winner of the election. It ordered INEC to withdraw the certificate of return issued to Adeleke.
“There was a minority judgment which noted that the petitioners failed woefully to prove their case and ruled in favour of the respondent.”
What does this mean?
History appears to be repeating itself, and it’s two times unlucky for Adeleke against a familiar foe. In March 2019, a three-person tribunal declared Adeleke winner over Oyetola after a September 2018 governorship contest that Oyetola narrowly won. However, the victory was nullified by a court of appeal, and Oyetola was reinstated.
The silver lining for Adeleke is that he can challenge this ruling in court and hope for Oyetola’s good fortune. Still, this spells even bigger worries for INEC, who initially basked in the success of BVAS in conducting the election. A claim that overvoting still occurred is a reality check for INEC, with presidential elections less than a month away.
Adeleke has called for calm. All’s not lost yet. Perhaps they could get a favourable ruling at a higher court and hopefully, look forward to a better time.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
Starting next week (January 31st, 2023)
For Navigating Nigeria this week, Citizen spoke to Ose Anenih, son of former minister and chairman of the Board of Trustees of the PDP, Anthony Anenih. He’s a member of the PDP presidential campaign council and deputy director for polling. He spoke on various issues including his party’s chances, the breakaway G5, PDP fumbling the bag, and why he thinks Peter Obi’s campaign would’ve never taken off without EndSARS.
Editorial Note: Navigating Nigeria is a platform for Nigerians to passionately discuss policies and politics 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 that are founded in half-truths.
Icebreaker. Have you ever seen any of Citizen’s work?
I have. I feel like I’m Daniel walking into the lion’s den because of your work and because of your audience. Most of your readers might see politicians as the antithesis of everything they stand for. I’m hoping you guys will be gentle.
Haha. Off the bat, could you answer whether you have any relations to the late Chief Tony Anenih, a legend of Nigerian politics?
He’s my dad, yes.
Wonderful. Your dad was a former minister under President Obasanjo yes?
Former minister of works. My dad and Anthony Enahoro — who moved the motion for independence — come from the same community. There must be something in the water.
Lol. Tell us, what was growing up like?
We always grew up around politics. My mum is a politician and a former minister of women affairs as well. One of my earliest childhood memories was during a meeting held in our living room in Benin. I peeked out the door and saw Shehu Shagari, the then president. He had come to Benin for a visit and we hosted him.
Bragging rights
I’m from a polygamous home and we grew up politicking. Politics is in my blood. I’m, however, more than just a politician. I’m a hotelier and businessman. My brother and I run a property development company which pays the bills while we go about trying to convince people to vote for us.
Before your dad passed, he was chairman board of trustees (BOT) of the PDP, correct?
He was chairman in 2015. After we lost that election, he stepped down and adopted an elder statesman role.
Did your dad influence your journey into politics under the PDP?
Yes and no. I say yes and no because on one hand you have to join a political party. It could have been NNPP, LP or APC. On the other hand I know a lot of these people because I interact with them across divides. I feel a sense of fellowship with them and know what they believe in. So in deciding what party to belong to I asked myself which community I’d like to work out of and I picked the PDP.
I like the PDP’s ideology. We’re progressive and pro-business. I’m a firm advocate of free speech which is something my party also believes in so it was natural for me to work with the PDP.
We made some mistakes in the past but looking forward, our party’s Nigeria’s best choice for prosperity, security and growth.
Supporters of other parties won’t agree with this assertion. Why should Nigerians give your party, not just your candidate, another chance at leadership?
I’m a fan of Kingsley Moghalu and I read his books. He’s one of the best presidential candidates I’ve ever seen. I’ve interacted with him and interrogated his ideas and he’s solid. But, he always seems to pick parties that don’t appreciate what he brings to the table or stand no chance of winning. I say this to highlight that you can’t separate a candidate from its party.
When we took over from the military in 1999, we had an almost negative GDP growth. We grew it to 15 per cent in 2002. I can point to that to say we’ve been in a similar situation as we are now where we’re bankrupt, there’s insecurity and skyrocketing inflation. The PDP fixed that then and did it within three years. One of the stewards of that success, Atiku, is vying for the top office today.
We did some stuff that was great, but we also made mistakes. The beauty of Nigerian democracy is that in 2015 Nigerians clearly showed they can punish bad behaviour. However, they were only able to do that because the PDP produced a candidate that allowed free and fair elections.
Jonathan signed a presidential amendment to the Electoral Act a few weeks before the election and it was that same amendment that kicked him out of office.
My worry going into the 2023 election is, on one hand we have a ruling party that doesn’t have a democratic bone in it and on the other hand a divided opposition who if they don’t band together, will find it difficult to unseat a ruling party desperate to hold on to power.
But Buhari signed the Electoral Act into law which has benefited your party. For example, governor Adeleke’s emergence in Osun. What do you say to that?
If Buhari had signed it in 2018, my applause for him would’ve been more enthusiastic. Right now he has no skin in the game as he’s not contesting. He did it in pursuit of a legacy. He wants to be remembered as the president that advanced our democratic process. If he was sincere he’d have signed it in 2018. All he’ll get from me is a one-handed clap.
You spoke of mistakes your party made. One which many people have talked about is the emergence of Atiku who’s of Fulani ethnicity to replace Buhari who’s also Fulani. How do you respond to those who say it’s unfair?
I ran for the PDP primaries to contest for the House of Representatives (HOR). Bro, if you see my manifesto ehn? I had a beautiful manifesto. I had a campaign team which was structured off of Obama’s when he ran in 2008. We were everywhere on social media including Twitter and WhatsApp. My constituency has 21 wards and we covered everywhere. Went to the markets and broke kola with everyone.
Omo, on the day of the primaries hahahaha. That day the conversation wasn’t about manifestoes. It was about what was in the best interest of my community. I was running for HOR and my community also had someone running for Senate. My delegates, people for whom I hired a bus to take to the venue, decided that they were better off having someone in the Senate than in the HOR.
Chai, that must have hurt
That’s the dark underbelly of politics. In the end these things come down to negotiations. You may not like it but as a democrat you should accept it. I wasn’t rigged out.
I say this to answer your question. Democracy isn’t perfect. The PDP presidential primaries had Wike, Atiku, Saraki and a host of others. There was a lot of horse-trading and in the end the delegates said Atiku was the best choice. The primaries weren’t rigged. Delegates across the nation came together to form a consensus on Atiku.
I hear people talk about fairness a lot and it makes me cringe. When you begin to have these ethnic arguments under the guise of equity and fairness it becomes problematic. Because you’re setting a precedent that we’d put ethnicity and religion over character, competence and a track record. The threats we face today from insecurity, displaced people, out-of-school children are markers of state failure. Ethnicity or religion won’t solve this.
So to answer the question of if it’s fair my Twitter bio reads, “It’s not fair, it’s politics.”
That’s interesting, because Atiku himself has slammed the APC’s Muslim-Muslim ticket and called for a “balanced” ticket. Doesn’t this contradict your previous point?
Speaking for myself now, let’s not deceive ourselves. Tinubu is a Yoruba Muslim. How can he pick a northern Christian if he’s serious about winning an election? Elections have historically been determined by bloc votes from the northeast and northwest. When Tinubu is looking for a running mate will he aim for competence or for the person most likely to deliver him the most votes?
So you’re saying Tinubu sacrificed competence for the sake of winning elections?
What I’m trying to say is, Tinubu was hamstrung from the get-go. Nigeria still has these conversations about where you’re from and who you pray to and Tinubu knows this. If it was a smaller party you could get away with a Christian-Christian or Muslim-Muslim ticket and no one would bat an eye about it. I’m deputy director of polling for the PDP and what shows up in our polls is that people tend to vote along ethnic and tribal lines. So I understand Tinubu’s decision. It was a cold and calculated move although I don’t think he’ll get far with it but I wish him well.
In 2019 you wrote that the next Nigerian president should be Igbo and you even mentioned Obi. So what changed? Why aren’t you supporting him?
The arguments I made in that piece are still valid, which was about recognising Nigeria’s diversity. I penned it around calls for secession at the time by Nnamdi Kanu. The thrust of it was that a certain section of the country felt they were still being punished for events from the Civil War which made them feel like they didn’t belong and couldn’t aspire to the highest office.
These issues aren’t anecdotal, they’re systemic. For instance, the North-East Development Commission (NEDC) was established because of the Boko Haram devastation as well as the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) to deal with the issues in the south-south. You don’t have anything similar in the southeast. This is a region which was the theatre of the Civil War and you don’t have anything set up to fix the infrastructural and physical damage they suffered. That was the background in which that article was written.
If you’re from the region — my mum is from the southeast — you’ll see how the state pushes back at you or doing tokenistic projects like the Second Niger Bridge. If after eight years the only thing you can give back to an entire region is a bridge, then it’s tokenistic.
But the PDP ruled for 16 years, how come they didn’t at least deliver on what you say is a tokenistic project?
That’s a brilliant question. We talk about bubbles of national sentiment and during Jonathan’s time the South-East didn’t feel they were being persecuted. Even though there was Nnamdi Kanu he was more like an irritant. There wasn’t a full blown agitation to leave the country. That only began to rear its head when Buhari got to office and made the “97 per cent, five per cent” remark.
Fast forward to 2023. Nigeria’s problems have gone beyond giving a certain section of the country a sense of belonging. Yes that too is important, but there has to be a Nigeria before anyone can hope to get a sense of belonging or anything like that. I mentioned earlier that to my mind, Nigeria’s at the edge of state failure. We need to fix that before addressing subnational agitations that are ongoing.
This brings us back to Obi
The good thing about the Peter Obi candidacy is it addresses part of that agitation and I absolutely love it. I’m up and about in Abuja and I see people in their isi agu outfits and you can feel the general sense of pride in being Igbo because they’ve put someone who for me is a great candidate. His candidacy has also, to a large extent, doused tensions in the South-East. Agitations have shifted from ”we want to leave” to “this is our guy” which is amazing.
So I don’t think overall my position has changed. I just think there’s a list of priorities now brought about by the APC’s bad governance. As a result other more pressing issues have overtaken the sentiments expressed in that article.
Given the growing support Obi has gathered in the race, do you think the PDP fumbled the bag by not fielding him?
I think it’s a disservice to your audience to ascribe what’s happening to just Obi, instead of being the result of a protest movement of young, energised, organised and mobilised Nigerians.
Even you could’ve picked up a ticket and if that movement had gotten behind you, we’d be talking about you the way we’re talking about Obi. It’s not about the LP either, which literally doesn’t exist.
In my village, Uromi, people who contested under the PDP platform and failed to get a ticket were the ones that took up the LP ticket.
I don’t think it’s quite the same thing comparing me with Obi, a former governor with experience running a national campaign under the PDP
I’m saying that between 2019 and 2023, several people have been posturing for president. Wike, Seyi Makinde and even people like Tony Elumelu, Atedo Peterside and Pat Utomi were making the right noises. So it’s not just Obi. Without EndSARS there’d be no Peter Obi.
Please explain
We’ve seen youth involvement in politics before. Young people were involved in Buhari’s presidential campaign. What we hadn’t seen before was organised young people working together on a large scale and with efficiency. The first time we saw young people band together to push a political agenda — even though they say it wasn’t politics — was during #EndSARS.
Young people across the nation said they were tired of police brutality and were demanding police reform to the point where the president thought there was a plot to overthrow him.
I was out of the country on October 20, 2020 and I saw the evil this government did. My heart broke and I worried they’d crushed the spirit of Nigerian youths. So to see that spirit re-emerge now is a brilliant thing to watch even though I’m with the PDP. Although I think they’re backing the wrong horse, the engagement they’ve promoted in our political space has made it worth the while — whether Obi wins or not.
So I’m saying that if young people hadn’t led campaigns outside of the LP structure, Obi’s movement wouldn’t have gained any traction at all because the LP is struggling to even hold rallies. I’d rather give credit to young people instead of Obi who only left us in May. Obi’s one of us, he’s an old breed politician and not new.
He just happens to be the tip of the spear of a rebellious movement that wants to transform the country for the better. And I envy him for that. I wish we’d been able to draw that attention to our campaign, we haven’t been able to.
So is this you admitting the PDP fumbled the bag?
If the PDP fumbled the bag it’s not about Obi, it’s that we didn’t appeal enough to the youth demographic. Even the young people say that this isn’t about Obi but about them and their future and I 100% agree.
You’re part of the PDP presidential campaign council. Give us the amebo, how’s the PDP dealing with the agitations of the breakaway governors of the party, the G5?
As e dey pain them, e go dey sweet us. Let’s talk real politics. I think they made a tactical error in showing their hand too early. Because it allowed us to ask ourselves how we’d manage if we lost any of the five PDP states. Can we chart a path to the presidency without these states? We spent the last four months developing that pathway to victory.
That’s why you still see confidence in our campaigns. Even if we don’t get those states back, we stand a good chance of competing and winning the election. If they’d waited a bit longer and caught us unawares then things would have been different.
Can you speak more on the grievances of the G5?
The G5 are saying they aren’t happy because the party appears to be top-heavy. They’re saying the presidential candidate is from the North, national chairman from the North, campaign DG from the North which lacks equity and justice.They want the chairman to step down so a southerner can take over.
The problem with that is it’s a disingenuous argument. Governor Wike is a lawyer and he knows the PDP constitution. Because of past issues regarding replacing chairmen who step down, we inserted a clause in the constitution. If I, Ose, from Edo state, steps down, someone from my zone will have to replace me.
We have a national chairman, Ayu, a deputy chairman one from the North and a deputy chairman two from the South.
Here’s the point to understand, Ayu is a middlebelt Christian. Forget the fact that he’s called a northerner. Wike is saying Ayu should step down so that a northerner, a Muslim from the northeast would take over as chairman. How does that address Wike’s agitation?
Or will Wike also lead another campaign for the deputy chairman one to step down so the next person becomes chairman? It doesn’t work. The proposal made to him was a simple one. We recognise your grievances and we’ll address them as soon as the candidate emerges as president. The chairman will step down.
There are six principal offices that parties share that are mapped out to the six geopolitical zones. The president, vice president, senate president, speaker of the house, secretary general of the federation and the national chairman. Okowa is already VP and from the south-south. Any imbalances that exist will be addressed when Atiku wins the presidency.
If…
Like I explained, our constitution makes it impossible to give him what he wants. Unless he’s asking us to hold another national convention. The irony is, Wike was among those who conducted the last national convention and financed Ayu’s campaign. He was also among those who moved against the former chairman, Secondus, his kinsman.
Governor Ortom was a part of the committee that insisted the contest be thrown open without zoning. So it’s all, for want of a nicer word, somehow.
Hmm
I’m a politician and I’ve been blessed enough to have personal security when I travel. How many Nigerians can afford that? How many can travel without being kidnapped? I get a huge amount of DMs soliciting help. However, you can’t crowdfund governance or healthcare. So when I see my leader like Wike acting in a manner that allows the APC to continue in office, it concerns me. I also ran for office and lost. The pertinent question is why? I ran to help my people and was willing to set aside my ego and act in a manner that yields positive outcomes. Can you honestly tell me the way Wike is acting is going to help Nigeria? It’s not.
That’s your opinion
Well, Wike came to Lagos and endorsed Sanwo-Olu. Let’s be serious. I keep saying that you shouldn’t be involved in a democratic conversation if you’re involved in what happened at Lekki Toll Gate. So how do you come to Lagos and say someone anointed by a godfather and imposed on Lagosians deserves a second term? I don’t get it.
How do you go and meet with Tinubu? After the last eight years how are they still an option? You asked if we made mistakes, I said yes. 2015 was a referendum on PDP’s 16 years in power. Nigerians said they wanted more and voted us out.
As a PDP member do you consider this unforgivable?
Forget my partisanship. I think as a Nigerian it’s a bitter pill to swallow. Beyond the theatrics a lot of us loved Governor Wike because he’s very hardworking. When you have someone you hold in such high regard acting in an emotional, scorched-earth way, it’s a dangerous game to play. It’s the politics of attrition with the lives of 200 million Nigerians.
What’s the PDP’s plan to woo back young Nigerians disillusioned with the party’s conduct of in-house elections? Case in point, the Banky W experience
Banky’s an example of how you should take part in politics. His candidacy was initially disputed but he fought for it. He took his case to every single member of the party leadership. Fresh primaries were conducted and he won.
A lot of people think because they have good plans or went to Harvard they’re entitled to power. Nobody gives you power, you have to take it. That’s why this election is different. Young people are no longer sitting on the fence or waiting for the PDP or APC to cede power to them. They’re going for it.
On our internal primaries, I think we should adopt direct primaries. Once you have delegates you’re creating a captured structure. Independent candidacy has to become a thing too. If we get into office that’s one of the reforms we’d try to push.
Is this a promise?
Yes it is, hold me to that. And not just independent candidacy, diaspora voting as well. We’ve committed to it in our manifesto. It makes no sense that you work abroad, send money here but can’t vote because you’re geographically displaced.
I want to say because of the youthful audience, that I appreciate their involvement in this conversation. I’m on this platform because I recognise the importance of speaking to that demographic. This isn’t necessarily an appeal to vote for our candidate, I think by this time lots of minds have been made up.
This is just to encourage young people to say they’re doing an amazing job. We have lots of youths in our campaign as well. Regardless of the outcome, an Atiku-Okowa presidency will prioritise young people.
Are you confident in INEC’s ability to conduct free and fair elections this time around?
Real talk, there’ll be violence. I believe the ruling party will deploy violence in areas they aren’t strong. There’ll also be lots of vote-buying. But, the new Electoral Act and BVAS means this election will be the most transparent and most reflective of public opinion we’ve ever had. On that score I’m confident that regardless of the outcome, it’ll be representative of the will of the people.
So kudos to Buhari right?
Kudos to the INEC chairman. Because BVAS isn’t in the Electoral Act, it’s in INEC’s guidelines. So let’s keep praying for him. As long as BVAS stays in place, I’m confident that we’ll have a free and fair election.
Does this mean if the outcome doesn’t favour the PDP it won’t seek redress in court?
You saw what happened in 2015. We lost the election and there were issues with it. But you always have to look at the greater good. I think it was important for us to reinforce not just confidence in INEC but confidence in the electoral process.
We could’ve challenged it but the president decided not to and I belong in that school of thought. But I’m speaking for myself, not my candidate. And we don’t know what might happen between now and February 25. But fingers crossed, it all comes good.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
In 2022, Nigeria experienced its worst flooding crisis in a decade. More than 30 states were affected, with states like Kogi and Bayelsa, bearing the worst brunt.
The federal government was criticised for its late and lacklustre response, which led to substantial physical and economic losses.
The jury’s still out on whether lessons have been learned going forward. Meanwhile, the Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMet), which is responsible for tracking rainfall, on January 24, 2023, released its 2023 Seasonal Rainfall Prediction (SRP) with serious warnings on unusual rainfall and floods.
What did the report say?
The report warned Nigerians to prepare for an earlier-than-expected onset of rainfall in most parts of Nigeria. Starting on or around March 2, the coastal areas of the south-south comprising Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa-Ibom will see heavy rainfall. Southern inland cities should see precipitation in April, while central states will see rain in May.
An extended rainfall season is predicted to occur in Gombe, Kaduna, Kwara, Enugu, Anambra, western Ogun, and Lagos states.
The northern states of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno will have an onset of rain between June and July. Peak rainfall would be between July and September.
NIMET’s Director-General, Prof. Mansur Matazu, said there’d be flash floods in cities, while people living in flood-prone areas would experience worse situations.
NiMet is working in partnership with the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), which provides expert analysis on disaster risk implications and produces disaster early warnings. NEMA has said it’s taking proactive measures like capacity development to manage future emergencies better.
#DGNEMA Mustapha Habib Ahmed has advised stakeholders in disaster management to take advantage of capacity development opportunities facilitated by the Agency to prepare for emerging disaster challenges in the country for proactive risk management and efficient disaster response pic.twitter.com/XVSuCr9p6F
Despite this, it’s in your interest to look out for yourself, mainly if you live close to areas at risk of flooding. Especially with the elections taking priority over other matters.
[Image source: NEMA]
How can you protect yourself?
As much as the government may promise to protect you from imminent flooding, you should still take practical steps to avoid being a victim. The government can do more by way of improving drainage systems. It can also partner with local authorities to create barriers to stem flooding in communities that are at risk. Structures that obstruct the flow of water should be demolished.
However, the devastating effects of climate change mean that riparian areas will suffer heavily when the rainy season commences.
If you live around these flood-prone areas, it’s time to start considering relocation far away from there. You can also try moving further inland.
Based on NiMet’s forecast, you have a head start of about a month.
For those who are resigned to staying put, we already did an explainer on how to protect your health in the event of a flooding emergency. We’ll keep you updated with any other information needed to keep you and your loved ones safe.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
It’s one month until the presidential election. Almost everyone’s giddy about the prospect of choosing Nigeria’s next President.
So it’s fascinating to learn that the two leading parties, the All Progressives Congress (APC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), have commenced court proceedings seeking the disqualification of their opposing principals.
This led us to ask, what needs to happen for a candidate to be disqualified from contesting for president? But, before we answer that, let’s see if something like this has happened.
Is this the first time this is happening?
No. In the lead-up to the 2015 presidential election, the current president Muhammadu Buhari was at the centre of a certificate scandal.
Subsection (d) reads, “A person shall be qualified to the office of President if he has been educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent.” The problem was, despite Buhari’s claim at the time that his school leaving certificate (WAEC) was with the military, they initially denied having it. After much back and forth, Buhari’s academic records were released to the public. However, their authenticity remains an open question.
What are eligibility requirements to become president?
The essential requirement needed to be President, not stated in the Constitution or the Electoral Act is money. Lots of it.
Beyond being a joyful spender, section 131 of the Constitution provides four personal requirements, namely;
You must be a Nigerian citizen by birth
You must be at least 40 years old
You must belong in a political party and sponsored to the office of the President
You must be educated up to at least school certificate level or its equivalent
So what needs to happen to be disqualified from becoming president?
Section 137 of the Constitution provides grounds for disqualification to the office of President. Unlike the qualification requirements, this one’s a longer list. A person shall not be qualified for office of the president if they;
Have dual citizenship, although this is subject to the provisions of Section 28 of the Constitution.
Served two terms as President already which excludes Buhari and former president Olusegun Obasanjo.
Have been declared to be a lunatic or of unsound mind by any law in Nigeria. Sounds fair. Nigeria’s hard enough as it is and we don’t want to worsen things by electing a mentally unfit person.
Are under a death sentence, or sentenced to prison for fraud.
Are convicted of fraud or dishonesty less than ten years before the election date.
Have been declared bankrupt. Because someone who can’t manage their own affairs shouldn’t be trusted to manage that of a country.
Haven’t resigned from any public office at least 30 days before the election.
Belong in a secret society. Because why?
Have been indicted for embezzlement or fraud by a judicial commission or tribunal.
Present a forged certificate to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
How likely is it for anyone to be disqualified at this point?
There have been allegations of corruption and forgery levelled against the top two parties both within and outside. Aspirants have the right to challenge the results of primaries as provided in Section 29 of the Electoral Act.
However, INEC, as an umpire, has limits on how it can intervene. For example, in 2019, a federal high court in Abuja in a case between the Social Democratic Party (SDP) in Kogi State and INEC, ruled against INEC saying it had no power to disqualify a candidate that its party has cleared.
There’s good reason to believe that despite court cases springing up this late, the presidential candidates may still have to slug it out at the polls on February 25.
Ultimately, the people will pass judgment with their ballots.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
There’s a saying that truth is stranger than fiction, and Nigeria — more than any other country — epitomises this.
This week, the Nigerian government will be on trial in London over a deal that has dragged on since 2010. If the court rules against us, we’d have to cough up an eye-popping $11 billion. That’s almost one-third of our foreign exchange (forex) reserves.
Nigeria’s already crumbling under a staggering ₦77 trillion debt. Another $11 billion (or over ₦5 trillion using a conservative exchange rate) would make a bad situation worse. What’s more annoying? The payment’s being enforced for doing literally nothing. Here’s the gist.
The gas flaring problem
According to Stears, Nigeria, up until 2008, flared its gas. That means we just burnt the gas that was given off during oil extraction. This practice made the Niger Delta an environmental mess.
[Environmental degradation from gas flaring. Source: Behind the Logos]
Eventually, someone asked, “why can’t we use this flared gas to power gas plants to provide electricity?” So that’s what the government tried to do. Unfortunately, not many high-profile oil companies were interested. One of the companies that agreed to take this up was an unknown company called Process and Industrial Development (P&ID). In 2010, Nigeria agreed with P&ID. This turned out to be a grave error.
The deal
Here’s what both parties agreed to. First, P&ID would refine — for free — the flared gas known as wet gas into lean gas, which is suitable for electricity production. Nigeria pledged to provide infrastructure to move the gas to P&ID’s gas processing facility (GPF). P&ID would then make their money from selling byproducts of the refining process while Nigeria gets electricity. This agreement was supposed to be binding for 20 years.
Here’s what happened. Nigeria didn’t lift a finger to build the infrastructure, and the P&ID guys didn’t do anything either because they couldn’t act until the FG did. As it turned out, P&ID was a shell company, and one of its founders, the late Michael Quinn, had a dubious history of running procurement scams.
So how have things played out?
Long and short, P&ID in 2012 took the FG to an arbitration panel in the UK on the grounds that it had invested $40 million for some groundwork and that the profit it would’ve expected from the deal hadn’t materialised.
The arbitration panel ordered the Nigerian government to pay $6.6 billion in damages. This was in January 2017. If you’re wondering how that number swelled to $11 billion, that’s because of interest which stands at 7 per cent. Nigeria claims the whole deal was a sham led by “vulture funds” that offered bribes before the contract was signed. The FG is looking forward to fighting this case in a UK court.
How does it affect you?
In 2019 when a court ruled that Nigeria must repay over $9 billion, the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed said “This award is unreasonable, an assault on every Nigerian and unfair.”
Notice how she subtly dragged “every Nigerian” into it? When the deal was signed, nobody invited us to the table. Now that all the pipes have burst, they want us to join hands in cleaning the mess.
To be fair, the deal wasn’t signed during the Buhari administration. Yet, Buhari’s posture on the matter suggests he has no interest in paying such hefty fees, not when he’s at the tail end of his tenure. P&ID, too, have no interest in backing down as they smell a huge payday ahead. Meanwhile, the damages keep rising.
If Nigeria loses the case and continues to default, they could seize our assets overseas which would be another embarrassment. As a citizen, you should ask whoever you plan to vote for how they plan to resolve this wahala. Because, like it or not, this debt has to be cleared, and you may have to chip in to do so, one way or another.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
On January 17, 2023, Open Doors, an organisation that monitors Christian persecution across the globe released its World Watch List for 2023. The jarring report notes that Nigeria accounted for 89 per cent of Christians that were martyred worldwide. To put it another way, 89 out of every 100 Christians that were killed for their faith across the world came from Nigeria.
[Ruins of a church destroyed by terrorists in Garkida, Adamawa state. Source: ICIR]
What’s in the report?
The report covered the period from October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022. Out of a total of 5,621 Christians killed for their faith during this reporting period, Nigeria alone recorded 5,014 deaths.
The report also noted that Nigeria ranked joint second highest behind China where churches were attacked or closed the most.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) in its 2022 report recommended that Nigeria be added to the Country of Particular Concern (CPC) list. This list is a designation by the United States Secretary of State of a nation guilty of particularly severe violations of religious freedom.
Nigeria currently ranks as the sixth worst country for Christians to live in on the World Watch list, with a score of 87.93/100. Its persecution level is classified as “extreme persecution”. The worst five are North Korea (97.7), Somalia (91.62), Yemen (89.26), Eritrea (88.78) and Libya (88.46).
Out of the top 50, 19 are in Africa, 27 are in Asia, and four are in Latin America. Nigeria’s the only one with a roughly 50-50 split of Christian and Muslim populations.
What were the reasons for persecution?
The report highlighted reasons why Christians were persecuted in these countries. They include:
‘Islamist’ oppression
The main source of oppression in 31 of the 50 most persecuted countries is Islamic oppression.
Dictatorial paranoia
Nine countries suffered persecution chiefly by being under dictatorial governments.
Communist and post-communist oppression
Four countries suffered persecution mainly due to communist ideologies.
Religious nationalism
Three countries suffered persecution primarily because of religious nationalism.
Organised crime and corruption
The chief source of persecution for two countries on the watchlist came from organized crime and corruption.
Christian denominational protectionism
One country, Ethiopia, suffered Christian persecution due to denominational strife.
What can be done?
Nigeria suffered persecution from several sources. The primary one being Islamic oppression (very strong). Others were ethno-religious hostility (very strong), dictatorial paranoia (very strong) and organised corruption and crime (very strong).
Reversing this worrying trend requires that we become more tolerant of our religious faiths especially in hotbeds across the country where religious violence is rampant. This is work that requires cooperation across all quarters including the government, security agencies, clerics, local community leaders and individuals. Increasing awareness campaigns and programs designed to encourage interfaith interactions could also help.
Ultimately, no one’s truly safe until everyone’s safe.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
With about five weeks left until the 2023 presidential election, Citizen went through the Electoral Act and found some interesting things. The Act was signed by President Muhammadu Buhari on February 25, 2022 — exactly one year before D-day. For Navigating Nigeria this week, we present some key things to know.
A party’s logo on the ballot paper can’t bear the portrait of a person, living or dead
For many voters, next month would be the first time they’d lay their eyes on a ballot paper. This sensitive election material contains a list of all the parties participating in the elections and their logos. In 2019, 73 parties participated, which of course made the ballot papers unusually long.
Dear voter, this is the SAMPLE ballot paper for the Presidential elections. As you prepare to vote, take note of the logo of your choice party; use the roll & flatten method in folding your ballot and ensure you deposit your marked ballot paper in the right box #WatchingTheVotepic.twitter.com/3anksXLWwo
An interesting point to note is that the logos never bear the portraits of individuals, living or dead. The Electoral Act 2022 provides dos and don’ts on how parties should go about selecting their logos. See section 79, subsection 4c(vi).
Political parties are banned from receiving anonymous donations
As a way to audit and monitor campaign financing, political parties are banned from receiving anonymous donations. It’s not clear how enforceable this has been despite the Electoral Act’s provision.
Political parties aren’t allowed to use masquerades for their campaigns
Section 92 subsection 4 prohibits the use of masquerades during campaigns. Even though it can be said the law isn’t always followed, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has it clearly stated.
It’s illegal to operate an army in support of any political candidate
INEC may need to step up to curb the excesses of political parties that flout its rules. Having an “army” — no matter the intention — goes against the Electoral Act, as can very clearly be seen in Section 92, subsection 5.
The penalties for taking part in any of the two acts above are a maximum fine of ₦1,000,000 or imprisonment for a term of 12 months for candidates. For a political party, a fine of ₦2,000,000 in the first instance and ₦1,000,000 for any subsequent offence.
Party agents can have original copies of ballot papers for inspection on election day
Election materials like the ballot paper and smart card reader are sensitive. Ordinarily, you wouldn’t be able to touch them until you’re about to vote. However, a particular class of people (outside electoral officers) are exempted. These include accredited election observers and party agents. These agents are those selected by the respective parties and approved by INEC to monitor proceedings at various wards. This can only happen before polls officially begin.
If you mark your ballot paper, it’ll be rejected
Your finger will be marked with indelible ink before you cast your vote. The ballot paper isn’t classwork that you’re marking. Only a fingerprint is recognised. Anything else will be rejected when votes are counted.
Polling agents can challenge your right to vote
As mentioned earlier, polling agents will be at polling units to monitor how elections are conducted. Polling agents can flag you as suspicious if they have any reason to believe you’re ineligible, maybe because you’re underage or impersonating someone.
If that happens, that’s wahala for you, and you could get arrested.
At the close of ballot, votes can be recounted but only once
After polls have closed, the presiding officer counts the ballot. If there are any objections, a party agent could ask for a recount but only once.
There are other interesting provisions covered in the Electoral Act. If you want to know more about the regulations guiding the conduct of Nigerian elections, click here to download the Electoral Act.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
In October 2022, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), led by Godwin “Meffy” Emefiele, announced it’d launch a domestic card scheme in January 2023. If the last few months are a pointer, you’d know the CBN doesn’t play with its announcements.
On January 16, the CBN officially launched the scheme. If it all sounds odd to you that the CBN is distributing ATM cards, that’s because it is. Let’s get into the gist of it, along with other exciting policies Meffy has introduced since his appointment in 2014.
Debit cards and why the CBN wants to issue them
The CBN is now distributing debit cards, that much is obvious. But why? In October, when it was first announced, the apex bank identified a couple of reasons for this move.
One, it wants to boost financial inclusion and transition to a cashless economy by operating a credit card scheme that is significantly cheaper than what traditional banks offer.
All interbank payments done in Nigeria use an infrastructure known as the Nigeria Inter-Bank Settlement System Plc (NIBSS). NIBSS is a shared-service e-payment infrastructure company owned by both the CBN and all licensed deposit money banks (DMBs) in Nigeria. The new cards will be issued through NIBSS.
Two, it wants to enhance what it calls “data sovereignty.” Common cards in use in Nigeria include Visa and Mastercard, both foreign-owned. The CBN hopes to compete with those and become the card of choice for Nigerians.
A scheme like this isn’t new and is already in place in India. However, there are worries that this might create unfair competition with the CBN being a player and regulator. We’ll see how that plays out.
Anchor Borrowers’ Programme
In November 2015, President Muhammadu Buhari, in conjunction with the CBN, launched the Anchor Borrowers’ Programme (ABP). Essentially, it’s a scheme that allows smallholder farmers to receive loans at low interest from the CBN through banks, to help them boost production.
Much money has gone into this scheme, as much as ₦2.1 trillion. And while there have been some benefits, like improved local rice production, it’s hard not to wonder whether it was worth it.
There’s also the fact that most of these loans have turned out to be awoof. Many farmers who got the loans were discovered to be “ghost farmers.” Sometimes, people just opened accounts to collect their share of the national cake, never to be seen again.
While we won’t dare accuse Meffy of having the anti-Midas touch, the CBN governor has a knack for experimentation which often has weird consequences — to put it mildly.
Take your pick from asking banks only to include 200 notes in ATMs, placing limits on withdrawals and, of course, the ugly naira redesign. Yet, we can’t forget the e-Naira launched in 2021.
E-Naira is a Central Bank Digital Currency, a digital form of money widely available to the public, made using blockchain technology — the same tech that powers bitcoin.
The CBN launched it following a crackdown on cryptocurrencies, which declared them illegal. The problem is e-Naira is pegged to the naira, which is notorious for its wild fluctuations. Who wants semo when there’s pounded yam?
In November, Meffy announced that after a year of its launch, e-Naira was a “success” having recorded 700,000 transactions worth ₦8 billion. “Success” is doing heavy lifting in that sentence. That’s less than 2,000 transactions a day for a banking population of at least 68 million people.
The jury’s out on whether the CBN debit cards will gain wide acceptance. But given Meffy’s mixed record with policy implementation, we wouldn’t hold our breaths.
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
These are exciting times for young Nigerians. Unless you’ve been disconnected from the modern world, you’d know that a lot of activities — or what some people would term “distractions” — stand in the way of voters as we approach the 2023 general elections.
On January 15, 2023, we were treated to the latest of them, the Big Brother Titans. The reality show which is hosted by Multichoice on DStv has found popularity among young Nigerian audiences, especially within the Gen Z age bracket. Without much ado, let’s get into the gist of these so-called distractions.
Football
The beautiful game is loved by millions of Nigerians. Lots of us follow the big European leagues like the Italian Serie A and the English Premier League. As title challenges get tougher, so does the decision to select Nigeria’s next President.
Let’s face it, you won’t always watch your team play. Either because you’re unavailable or in some cases — like Chelsea fans will tell you — your team isn’t fun to watch.
You can stream the highlights later while you dedicate election weekends to voting. Suspend watching football or even playing football so you don’t disenfranchise yourself as a registered voter.
Netflix (and chill)
2023 will see lots of great shows featured on your favourite streaming services like Netflix, Prime and Showmax. There’s also the chill component which should be more than enough to distract you from any pressing issues, including elections.
We ask that you take two days off — February 25 and March 11 — to exercise your civic duties. The elections come once in four years. You can always return to Netflix, so chill.
TGIF
Everyone looks forward to the end of a work week, which makes Friday everyone’s favourite day. Trouble is, you could party too hard on Friday and get completely hungover on Saturday which is election day.
We’re not saying you shouldn’t be a baller, we’re only saying you shouldn’t forget to mark February 25 on your calendar. Let’s get out there and vote the right people in so we don’t become mechanics.
BBTitans
BBTitans is a reality show that brings together housemates from two countries, Nigeria and South Africa. It’s the first time this is happening. The original shows in the respective countries are Big Brother Naija (BBN) and Big Brother Mzansi. This merger will see the best — and worst — of both cultures battle it out over 72 days for the grand prize of $100,000.
The show’s title alludes to the fact that the two countries are the continent’s economic titans vying for supremacy.
Meanwhile, Nigerians on social media have held interesting opinions regarding the show’s timing. One account referred to the organisers as part of an “organized crime syndicate.”
Then there’s this guy below concerned about the “over 20 housemates” that will determine the outcome of the 2023 elections. An election with over 93 million eligible voters.
While these are no doubt comical, there’s nothing that says you can’t have the best of both worlds. Go out and vote for your candidate during the day and then vote for your favourite housemate up for eviction in the evening.
Social media
Twitter is a fun place to be for banter and the occasional dragging. It’s also a place to get lost in, same as other social media platforms around like TikTok, Facebook or YouTube.
While we’re all for having fun, don’t do it at the expense of missing out on voting on election day. It’s the least you owe yourself if you truly want Nigeria to get better.
In summary, there are enough distractions to go around — those are unavoidable. You shouldn’t, however, use them as excuses to not exercise your civil rights. Big Brother, football, Netflix or Twitter will always be there. The polling booth on the other hand will be closed for voting by 4pm on the election days.
So the ultimate question is, would you rather trade a moment of inconvenience for four years of suffering?
We write the news and track the 2023 elections for citizens by citizens in our weekly newsletter, Game of Votes. Make the subscription of a lifetime here.
Say you were on the hot seat of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, and had a ₦1 million question to answer. (please play along here, I know for some of you, that’s chicken change)
What’s the current price of petrol in Nigeria? What’s your answer going to be?
The question looks easy enough on the surface, but it’s tricky to answer. For ₦1 million, you’d have to think deeply and here’s why.
In July 2022, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) quietly approved the increase of fuel from ₦165 to ₦179 per litre. With this information, you might be tempted to settle for option A — but not so fast.
Then again, the latest reports in the news say that oil depots across the country are selling at ₦240 per litre, with fears of scarcity looming till June 2023. Option D is looking sexy now, isn’t it?
Hold that thought for a bit because Citizen spoke to a couple of Nigerians who aired their minds on the ever-fluid price of fuel. It shouldn’t surprise you to hear that in some places it goes as high as — or even higher — than option C, ₦280 per litre.
In short, no one knows the actual cost of fuel in Nigeria. Here’s what some of our respondents said.
The thing with Abuja is, the fuel price is the same, ₦185 per litre. The issue is, would you see it to buy without joining a long queue? No.
You’d have to queue. You have filling stations that sell between ₦280 and ₦290. Those are the ones we call the “black market filling stations.” They always have fuel. I suspect that the depots that sell at ₦185 provide fuel for these filling stations who then sell at ₦285. The excess profits are then split among themselves. Because when you ask them why they’re selling at such a high price they’d say it’s because of the amount they got it which simply isn’t true.
On how it has affected me, well, thankfully, we’ve had stable power. Some days it’s up to 20 hours.
For my water production business, most of my vehicles run on diesel. The last time I got diesel was at ₦900 per litre. I’ve had to scale down on production because the cost of diesel keeps skyrocketing. I’m now thinking of more efficient ways to sell water. So, to sum up, there’s fuel — but there’s no fuel if you catch my drift.
Toyin, Osun
I bought fuel last night at ₦270 per litre. Of course, that’s on the high side, but what can we do? Man has to survive, and it’s not funny.
Today, I had to take public transport to work. What used to be ₦100 is now ₦200. Some transporters even went as high as ₦300. Life’s hard.
Tunde, Oyo
I run a logistics business in Ibadan, and we are deeply impacted, especially our bikes. We buy fuel from between ₦250 and ₦300 per litre. Very few stations sell at ₦185 — maybe two or three of them. And the queues there are unimaginably long.
Our customers want us to deliver to them on time because that’s the selling point of the business. So obviously, we can’t join these queues when we run out of fuel. This means we’re forced to buy at these high prices. This has also increased our delivery fees.
Not all customers understand, but what can we do? It’s a spiral effect that harms small businesses like us. I also had to increase the salary of my workers too. The current situation is annoying and frustrating.
Olayiwola, Lagos
Before, when I filled my fuel tank, either the SUV or jeep, it used to go for ₦10k. Now that the cost of fuel has gone up, filling your tank requires almost double the amount.
It’s not as if there aren’t places to get fuel at ₦185 per litre, but the consequence is waiting in long queues. I’m an entrepreneur and time’s money for me. Also, there’s no guarantee that you’d get fuel when it’s your turn.
Now I have to get at ₦250 or ₦260. But what’s even ridiculous is that recently, it’s been hard to get fuel at these places. Even at the inflated cost, you may not easily see fuel to buy without queueing. The major impact is that I’m forced to work from home. There’s almost no justification for going to the office.
In the first issue of Navigating Nigeriafor 2023, Citizen spoke to Vera, a part-time student and sales executive. She told us about her wild experience dealing with extortion at the hands of the Lagos State Task Force. For her, Navigating Nigeria requires having friends in high places.
Could you walk us through your experience?
My most eventful experience with Nigerian security agencies was the day I encountered the Lagos State Task Force. The notorious ones are attached to one of their offices at Bolade; they call it LASAC — Lagos Safety Arena Complex.
The centre is quite large, and they impound all vehicles there: buses, bikes, cars. They’ll threaten to auction your vehicle if you don’t play ball.
It was a Saturday, some six months ago. I was driving to Abule-Egba from Iyana-Isolo. To enter the Lagos-Abeokuta expressway, you’d need to go through Isolo and navigate your way from the DHL bridge through Mafoluku to come out at Brown Street, which links to the expressway.
I wasn’t familiar with the route, so I used Google Maps. As I got off the DHL bridge, I drove on the service lane heading for Mafoluku. However, I missed a left turn. Unknown to me, every road ahead was one-way as I skipped that left turn. I kept driving, looking for the left turn I was supposed to make based on my map’s directions. Not long after, I saw one agbero making hand gestures and frantically trying to grab my attention. He kept pointing forward, but I didn’t get what he was saying. It was at that point that I slowed down.
This was when you knew you were in soup
I opened my windows to hear what he was saying. Unfortunately, the moment I slowed down, members of the task force jumped out of nowhere and surrounded my vehicle. They told me to park. Next thing they started shouting at me and harassing me. “Don’t you know that this is one-way?” Of course, I didn’t. I explained to them that I wasn’t familiar with the area and had mistakenly missed my turn.
I thought that these officers would at least issue a warning and ask me to turn back. Instead, they asked what I was doing and searched my vehicle. They also told me to follow them to their office, where they’d impound my car before charging me to a mobile court. I started pleading and begging. At this point, they hadn’t even started talking about money. I went on my knees and started crying. They didn’t even answer me. They just kept pushing me around. One asked me to meet one person who was his oga. The oga asked me to meet another person who was his oga, and on and on it went.
So sorry
It was very upsetting. At some point, the Oshodi agberos stepped in to plead on my behalf. Still, they refused to budge. We were like this for over an hour. They told me to release my car keys to them, but I declined. I wanted to settle the matter there and then. How could I give my keys to people who had already threatened to impound my car? That would be another round of wahala.
So what they did was call their towing truck. When the truck arrived, it became apparent that they weren’t playing. I had to relent and submit my car keys. They then took me to their Bolade centre, which I described earlier.
When we got there, they refused to enter. I think their general boss was there, and they wanted to keep the racket within themselves and not loop their boss in on his share.
Lol
We were outside the gate. That was when they demanded ₦100k from me. I told them I didn’t have that kind of money to give them and that I was a student. After another round of pleading, they cut it down to ₦50k. They said it was the lowest they could go. I kept begging them and even showed them my bank account balance. I asked them to collect ₦20k from me and let me go. I had some drinks in the boot of my car; they seized them. They also took some merch I had, like shirts and other customised items.
Sigh
I don’t know why they did that, but I was like if it would solve our problem, go ahead. Despite that, they still insisted on ₦50k. Mind you, they stopped my vehicle around noon. I was with them at their centre till past 2pm, which was over two hours.
Eventually, I called my office. I didn’t want to do that at first because I knew I was at fault for entering one-way and couldn’t explain that away. But at this point, I had reached my limit. I called, and someone at my office reached out to the commissioner of police. The commissioner called me, and I explained my situation. He asked me to pass the phone to the officers, which I did. As soon as he introduced himself to them, their expression changed. It was like a sudden turn of events. All I kept hearing was, “Yes, sir”.
Power pass power
In front of me, they lied to the commissioner that they had released me since and that they didn’t know what I was still doing there. These were people that, until a few moments earlier, I had asked them to take ₦20k to let me go.
Me having to “show power” wasn’t necessary. They could have just collected the bribe and let me go. After the call, they returned my car keys. As I was about leaving, they asked me, “Aunty, you no go find something for us? We don dey with you for long nau.”
The audacity
I was so upset. I just sped off from there. It was a terrible experience because I was alone and subjected to profiling and extortion.
What’s your take on how this played out?
My biggest takeaway is to know people in high places in Lagos. It’s survival 101. It was an honest mistake, and they could’ve let me go with a standard fine if they were genuinely doing their jobs or even with a warning based on empathy.
Road laws in Lagos are shabby. If a road is one-way, I expect bold red signs to show it is, not that it’ll be hidden for sinister reasons.
Everyone loves the good life. This explains why many Nigerians are very eager to japa to get it. There’s just one developing problem — Nigeria’s passport index is really low.
So while you may be on the verge of escaping, it’s worth pondering: is Nigeria really done with you?
What’s the passport index?
You know how there is a rule of law index which measures how countries uphold the rule of law? Or a corruption perception index that measures the perceived level of public corruption? There’s a passport index too. It measures the strength of a passport based on how many countries will issue it a visa on arrival.
The Henley Passport Index for 2023 was recently released and it ranks Nigeria 97. If you’re wondering whether that’s a good or bad thing, let’s just say the last country on the index is Afghanistan and it’s ranked 109.
Nigeria is dragging with Ethiopia (a country that was at war in 2022) with a score of 97. The 46 you see beside our name represents the number of countries that will grant a visa on arrival. 25 countries will grant Nigerian passport holders visa-free access. That means that Nigerians cannot access over 181 travel destinations without a visa, visa-on-arrival or e-visa arrangement.
The data for this ranking comes from the International Air Transport Authority (IATA). It is also updated using extensive in-house research and open-source online data.
Now compare Nigeria with the world’s most valuable passports.
How does Nigeria compare with other West African countries?
As far as West Africa is concerned, we’ve carried last. Gambia and our jollof rivals, Ghana, have found new reasons to raise their shoulders at us. Our low index means that even if you want to japa, your visa options are pretty limited. These are the only countries your Nigerian passport can give you visa-free access to outside Africa.
Look at that list again and tell me it doesn’t make you shake your head.
How can Nigeria improve on the passport index?
Most passport indices focus on global mobility which is how well you can travel from one country to another. There are other factors that influence this. One of them is the quality of living. The countries that tend to rank high are the ones with higher qualities of living standards. So if your country is doing fine, more countries will grant your citizens visa-free access.
There’s also the investment ranking. How easy is it for one to invest in a country and get their earnings without any government wahala? How dynamic is the economy and its purchasing power? Nigerians already know the answer to that. If we can improve on these things there’s a good chance the Nigerian passport will gain more acceptance. One way to do this is by ensuring we have the right leaders. And the only way to get the right leaders is by voting them in.
So if you want the disrespect to end, vote right on February 25, 2023.
What if I told you that since the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) released the new naira banknotes on December 15, 2022, I’m yet to get my hands on them? This is a subject I write about frequently and even I have only ever seen them once physically.
As it turns out, there are many Nigerians like me who haven’t seen them either. This is abnormal because according to the deputy governor of the CBN, Aisha Ahmad, 500 million pieces of the new notes were ordered. It’s also alarming because the old notes will no longer be recognised as legal tender by January 31. So why are the new banknotes so scarce?
No more over-the-counter withdrawals
To start with, the CBN on January 7, ordered banks to stop giving the new notes to customers over the counter. Anyone who wants to go to the bank to exchange notes shouldn’t bother anymore.
The exact reason for this policy change wasn’t stated but one possible reason might be fears that the new banknotes are being hoarded. Instead, the CBN directed that banks load their ATMs with the new notes for customers to withdraw. But that has created another wahala.
ATM machines don’t recognise the new banknotes
According to Punch, one challenge that the new naira banknotes bring is that the ATMs don’t know them.
Banks are having to reconfigure their ATMs so they can recognise the new naira banknotes.
Apparently, one bank claimed that only one denomination was accepted. This forced banks to mix up new notes with old ones which if we’re honest, defeats the purpose of the policy.
One economic expert believes the CBN is not forthright on exactly how much new notes have been printed because it would have to explain how much it cost to do so. For comparison, the CBN in 2021 spent ₦58.6 billion to print 2.5 billion naira notes. Assuming constant cost — which is impossible — that’s around ₦12 billion to print the 500 million new notes.
What is being done to address these issues?
The Nigerian Senate on December 28, urged the CBN to extend the deadline for phasing out old notes from January 31 to June 2023. The CBN doesn’t send the Senate. It maintains that the deadline won’t be extended.
While the CBN and the Senate are playing a game of who’s who, please don’t slack. The deadline ends in exactly three weeks. Maybe between now and then some of the challenges are resolved and the new notes fully circulate. Or maybe the CBN backs down and extends the deadline. We’ll continue to observe how things play out.
On October 19, 2022, the All Progressives Congress (APC) launched the Tinubu/Shettima Presidential Campaign Council (PCC). The council was chaired by President Muhammadu Buhari and included other APC heavyweights like the Kaduna State governor Nasir El-Rufai, Kano State governor Abdullahi Ganduje, Minister for Works Babatunde Fashola and the Senate President Ahmed Lawan.
One big name was missing from the list. The vice president and former protege of Bola Ahmed Tinubu (BAT), Yemi Osinbajo. In June 2022, Osinbajo contested against BAT and 12 other aspirants at the APC Presidential primaries. BAT won with 1271 delegate votes ahead of Rotimi Amaechi, who finished second with 316 votes and Osinbajo, who finished a distant third with 235 votes.
While the APC primaries were a coronation for BAT, Osinbajo didn’t leave without taking shots at his boss. Nigerians who followed the primaries will remember that speech.
This speech by VP Osinbajo is one of the best I listened to in 2022 even as we draw close to the general elections. Nig can't be great through prayers & desires alone, we have to be intentional about those we give power to & play our part in building the Country of our dreams. pic.twitter.com/En3mKJncoj
Campaigns have been going on since October, but neither Osinbajo nor several other contenders at the primaries have been seen with BAT on his campaign trail. Notable absentees include Rotimi Amaechi, Tunde Bakare and Rochas Okorocha. For Osinbajo, though, it has been a bit of a cat-and-mouse game.
In October 2022, BAT speaking in Kano said he had forgiven Osinbajo which suggests there was some beef. However, both of them have subtly ignored each other. For instance, at the conclusion of the APC primaries, BAT saluted other APC members but skipped Osinbajo. He shook hands with him following the prompting of House Speaker Femi Gbajamiala.
Osinbajo must have kept that snub in mind and retaliated a few months later. At the burial ceremony of the mother of Ondo State governor, Rotimi Akeredolu, high-profile APC politicians were in attendance, including BAT. Osinbajo also ”forgot” him when paying respect to the dignitaries before acknowledging his “error”.
On December 21, 2022, Osinbajo visited BAT in Abuja. It was the first time outside public functions that the duo met since his defeat at the primaries. The meeting was described as not being a political one but in the spirit of the Christmas season.
Regardless, Osinbajo has continued to stay away from BAT’s campaign.
So where are Osinbajo and the others?
Osinbajo has mostly been ‘focused’ on his work, travelling for functions and heading Nigeria’s energy transition plan. Anything to keep him far away from BAT.
He’s not alone, either. No one has heard from Rotimi Amaechi, who was Buhari’s campaign director-general for the 2015 and 2019 elections. There are rumblings that Amaechi has not been “treated fairly” by BAT.
Bakare still believes he’ll be Buhari’s successor or “number 16” following his prediction that he’d be Nigeria’s 16th president. We don’t know how, as he scored zero votes at the APC primaries, but one can never say never.
Nigerians and strikes are five and six. You can’t honestly claim to have had the full Nigerian experience if you’ve not taken part in one, or been affected by them. If you’ve passed through the public school system then ASUU must have wiped a cord around your neck. And if you’ve had to buy fuel, you must have seen shege waiting your turn at a filling station.
On that last point, it looks like things are about to get pretty rough as oil tanker drivers in the country have threatened to go on strike. And it’s not for the usual reasons.
What’s the wahala this time?
The truckers who transport fuel to depots across the country have a union. It’s called the “Petroleum Tanker Drivers branch of the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers” aka PTD-NUPENG.
On January 5, 2023, it was reported following a press briefing in Abuja that PTD-NUPENG planned to go on strike over the highhandedness and harassment by security agencies. Its national chairman, Lucky Osesua, said that men of the military task force in Port-Harcourt burnt two of its trucks carrying High Pour Fuel Oil, otherwise known as black oil, on Tuesday night.
The excuse for burning the trucks was that they allegedly carried crude oil. PTD-NUPENG said the drivers politely presented documents showing that they weren’t carrying crude oil. The task force was like…
Sigh. What else is there to the gist?
Beyond the point that burning oil is wasteful as well as bad for the environment, a fight between truck drivers and security agencies isn’t good for Nigerians. Fuel is scarce and expensive to get in many places across the country. So this fight simply makes a bad situation worse.
On social media, Nigerians are anticipating that it might escalate which could lead to hoarding and ultimately, longer queues.
We hope the government steps in to resolve this issue quickly. We have enough wahala as it is, let’s not add another strike to it.
On January 3, 2023, the presidency announced that the 2023 budget has been signed into law, along with the Supplementary Appropriation Act. Ordinarily, news of this should prompt excitement. And it has indeed — but for all the wrong reasons.
So what’s in this budget that has Nigerians in panic mode?
A very high budget deficit
Unless you have a passion for all things finance, budgets are often very boring documents to read and when you’re compiling a budget meant to serve 200 million people, it can turn into a snoozefest.
This one’s different though. The first thing that stands out is that it has a very high budget deficit.
The budget which is themed “Budget of Fiscal Sustainability and Transition” is in fact, a joke. A budget with a deficit of ₦12 trillion cannot, by any understanding of the word, be defined as sustainable.
Let me add some context:
This is like saying as a person, all you "hope" to earn between Jan and Dec 2023 is N900k but you have laid a plan to spend N2.1million. How do you plan to survive?
Think about that and like she said, start going to INEC office to pick your PVC.
In its initial executive proposal, total expenditure was set at ₦20.51 trillion. The ratified one which was signed into law by Muhammadu Buhari has an increase of ₦1.32 trillion. This brings total expenditure to ₦21.83 trillion while revenue remains at ₦9.73 trillion.
The government has defended this increase, saying it is in response to the havoc caused by the floods that affected infrastructure and agriculture sectors. Others are sceptical, saying that the budget is being padded.
Huge debt servicing
A sizable chunk of Nigeria’s revenue in recent years has gone towards the servicing of debt. According to Bloomberg, Nigeria spent 80 per cent of its revenue to pay debt in the first 11 months of 2022. The trend looks set to continue.
More than 90 per cent of the deficit will be financed by local borrowing. Borrowing means more debt, more debt means more debt servicing which is the interest the government pays when it borrows money. ₦6.55 trillion out of the ₦21.83 trillion total expenditure has been set aside for debt servicing in 2023.
We hear you screaming omo and we are too.
In the third quarter of 2022, the Debt Management Office (DMO) put Nigeria’s debt at ₦44.06 trillion. On January 4, 2023, the Director General of the DMO, Patience Oniha, breaking down the 2023 Appropriation Act said:
“Once it is passed by the national assembly, it means we will be seeing that figure (ways and means financing) included in the public debt. You will see a significant increase in public debt to ₦77 trillion.”
If you go through the fiscal parameters — that is, assumptions made about the budget such as what the price of crude oil will trade at, inflation rate and so on, — a couple of things stand out that should set the alarm bells of Nigerians ringing.
Based on the initial budget proposal sent to the national assembly last year, the audit firm KPMG, broke down some of the assumptions. The graphic you’re about to see makes a comparison between the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years. Check out the percentage change for each item to give you a sense of the wahala that is brewing.
[Budget Assumption: KPMG]
No one knows for sure how the 2023 election will play out as that could also affect how the budget is implemented. One thing’s certain though — whoever’s coming in has work to do, and it’s not pretty.
A happy new year to you all. While you’re adjusting to life after Detty December, now’s a good time as a registered Nigerian voter to make it your new year resolution to pick up your Permanent Voters Card (PVC), before January 22, 2023.
What’s so special about that date? Well, that’s the last day set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for anyone to get their PVCs, no extension. We did an explainer here on how to collect your PVC.
That leaves you with just 18 days to get your PVC if you haven’t already.
Here are a few things to know.
6.7 million PVCs are yet to be collected across 17 states.
According to a report by Punch, 6.7 million PVCs are locked up in INEC safes across 17 states and the FCT. That’s a lot and INEC is begging you all to go and claim them.
On December 29, 2022, INEC disclosed that in Lagos State, 5,816,528 PVCs have been collected while 1,693,963 PVCs remain unclaimed.
In the same time period, Edo state had 661,783 voter cards uncollected. Ondo and Ekiti states had 300,000 and 205,127 unclaimed as at December 8.
Other states with a high number of unclaimed PVCs include Oyo, 700,000; Osun, 437,454; Kwara, 120,602; Ogun, 400,000; Cross River, 409,604; Kogi, 160,966; Imo, 300,000, Gombe, 231, 900; Anambra, 132,623; Niger,150,988 and over 200,000 in Adamawa.
Borno and Plateau States have had decent collection rates with only 80,117 and 49,000 PVCs unclaimed respectively.
Ride hailing apps are offering 50% off on rides to and from PVC collection centres.
If you’re in the urban centres of Lagos, Abuja and Port Harcourt, Uber is still in Detty December mood.
Between January 6 and January 15, PVCs can be picked up at RACs
The way INEC has designed the collection process is to have PVCs picked up either in all the 774 INEC local government offices, or in the 8,809 registration area centres (RAC), aka wards, in the country.
From January 6 to January 15, 2023, PVCs will be available for collection at the RACs. After then, pickup reverts to the LG offices till the deadline on January 22, 2023. A list of all RACs nationwide is available here.
So there really is no excuse for you. If you decide not to get your PVC because the process is “stressful”, then you’ve lost the right to complain if the wrong people take charge of Nigeria. Choose your stress wisely.
