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  • The Youth Party Is Fighting INEC for Its Life And Winning

    When young Nigerians rallied together to form the Youth Party, it seemed to be the long-awaited third force to challenge the old order of politics. But suddenly, to most people, it disappeared into thin air after the 2019 general elections.

    However, what many don’t know is the Youth Party has been fighting for its survival and its main opp is the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

    What actually happened?

    The Youth Party commenced the process for its registration in 2016 but couldn’t complete it till August 2018 due to INEC’s red tape. The late registration prevented the party from fully participating in the 2019 general elections.

    What happened next?

    With registration sorted, you’d think the Youth Party’s woes were finally over, but INEC had even more cards up its sleeves.

    After the general elections in 2019, INEC threatened to deregister parties that underperformed. In January 2020, the Youth Party filed a case against the commission at the Federal High Court, Abuja to prevent deregistration. But INEC went ahead anyway to deregister the party and dozens of others in February 2020.

    In October 2020, the court ruled in favour of the Youth Party and condemned INEC for enforcing deregistration while the case was in court. The commission appealed the decision at the Court of Appeal, but the Youth Party won there too in an unanimous judgement on May 11, 2021. The court ruled the party’s deregistration as “illegal, null and void”.

    Still unsatisfied, INEC  refused to list the party as registered on its website and appealed the judgement again at the Supreme Court. The continuous drag prevented the Youth Party from proper preparations for the 2023 general elections. 

    And at this point, we can’t help but wonder if INEC’s beef with the Youth Party is personal. 

    When the Supreme Court delivered judgement on December 2, 2022, the court handed the Youth Party another resounding victory that finally closed the chapter on this battle because there’s no court left to appeal to. 

    What does this mean for the Youth Party?

    Hopefully, with this judgement, INEC’s witch hunt of the Youth Party is finally over, and the party can field candidates for the 2023 general elections. 

    Tolu Omotesho

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  • What Is Happening With Nigerian Traders In Ghana?

    Nigerian traders in Ghana have being complaining of unfair treatment and the forceful closure of their shops in the country.

    The video above, recorded by a Nigerian trader in Ghana is a good place to begin. For the past few days, Nigerian traders have been appealing to the Nigerian government, claiming that their shops are being locked up by Ghanaian authorities, and that the latter are hell bent on forcefully closing up their business, despite evidence of company registration, tax payment and legal business dealings.

    $1 Million Foreign Equity and 31,500 Cedis Registration Fee

    But that appears not to be all of the story. Chukwueka Nnaji, President of the Nigerian Traders Union in Ghana had said shops belonging to Nigerians were locked by an Inter-Ministerial Task Force which went round on August 10, requesting their registration of business taxes, resident permit, standard control and the GIPC (Ghana Investment Promotion Council) Registration.

    Nnaji explained that Nigerian traders could not afford the requirements of the registration which they were given two weeks to pay. The GIPC (Ghana Investment Promotion Council) Law allows for general trading of people who are not members of GUTA ( Ghana Union of Traders Association), but with a requirement of $1 million cash or foreign equity and registration fee of 31,500 Cedis.

    Nnaji further added the law requires Nigerian trader’s to employ a minimum of 25 skilled Ghanaian workers and they must not trade in commodities that Nigerian traders have applied in.

    Boakye Boateng

    But Boakye Boateng, Head of Communications in Ghana’s Trade Ministry has defended the regularisation exercise, stating that it would be unfair of Nigerian traders to complain of insensitivity by the Ghanaian government.

    He added that Nigerian traders had been served notice for over a year, and we’re pardoned in December following the intervention of President Nana Akufo-Addo. He added that the security officials in the ‘regularisation exercise’ only went to inspect shops, and that they were given 14 days to ensure that all their necessary documentations were complete.

    Future of African Trade

    It is clear there are still a lot of challenges with Intra-African trade, especially due to Xenophobia and related reasons. African governments must work together to facilitate trade and migration amongst different countries. We’ll keep hearing stories of this nature until that is fixed.

    Doyin Olagunju

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