Refers suspended NWC members to disciplinary committee Anyanwu’s faction fights back, suspends Damagum, others Chuks Okocha in Abuja
The crisis rocking the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) further degenerated
yesterday when the National Working Committee (NWC) suspended the National Legal Adviser, Kamaldeen Ajibade (SAN); National Secretary, Senator Samuel Anyanwu; Deputy National Legal Adviser, Okechukwu Osuoha; and National
Zenith Bank, Four Others Surmount Turbulent Macroeconomic Environment, Post N3.58tn Profit Before
Nigeria Protects Citizens of all Faiths, Will Never Encourage Religious Persecution, Tinubu Replies Trump
Rejects designation of Nigeria as ‘Country of Particular Concern’ Claims of Christian killings in Nigeria gross exaggeration, says Onanuga
Deji Elumoye, Michael Olugbode and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja President Bola Tinubu yesterday declared that the Nigerian government protects citizens of all faiths and will never encourage religious persecution. Similarly, the Special Adviser to President
Tinubu on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, also dismissed reports suggesting that thousands of Christians
are being slaughtered in Nigeria, insisting that such claims were grossly exaggerated.
This is just as a former Senate Leader and senator
Trump in Tweet, Threatens Military Action against Terrorists Killing Christians in Nigeria
United States President, Mr. Donald Trump, yesterday said he had ordered the Department of War to prepare for possible military operations in Nigeria over the killing of Christians.
He also threatened to immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria.
He added that the US would carry out military action against the country to completely wipe out those he described as the Islamic terrorists responsible for the killing of Christians.
This is just as the US
Continued on page 5
LAGOS FASHION WEEK AT NGX…
L-R: Chairman, Lagos Fashion Week, Mr. Tokunbo Akerele; Group Managing Director Group, Nigerian Exchange Group, Temi Popoola; Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Chairman, NGX, Alhaji Umaru Kwairanga; CEO, Lagos Fashion Week, Omoyemi Akerele; and American singer, Ciara at the NGX… Friday.
Festus Akanbi in Lagos, Deji Elumoye and Michael Olugbode in Abuja
Zenith Bank, Four Others Surmount Turbulent Macroeconomic Environment, Post N3.58tn Profit Before Tax in Nine Months
Kayode Tokede
Despite a turbulent macroeconomic environment, Nigeria’s five biggest banks have posted a combined profit before tax (PBT) of N3.58 trillion for the nine months ended September 2025.
The figure, drawn from their unaudited financial statements, represents a 10.4 per cent decline from the N3.99 trillion declared in the same period of 2024, reflecting the weight of elevated costs, rising impairments, and uneven recovery across African markets where these lenders operate.
Some of the banks include:
Zenith Bank Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), Access Holdings Plc, and United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA).
The results came amid cautious monetary policy adjustments across Sub-Saharan Africa, as central banks began to ease off from aggressive tightening following a gradual softening in inflation.
In Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) trimmed the Monetary Policy Rate to 27 per cent from 27.5 per cent, marking the first hint of monetary relief in over a year. Inflation, however, remained high, driven by lingering
exchange rate pressures, import costs, and volatile food prices.
However, Nigeria’s headline inflation moderated to 18.02 per cent in September 2025 from 24.8 per cent in January, supported by easing food costs. The economy showed resilience, with second-quarter GDP expanding by 4.23 per cent year-on-year, though slightly below expectations.
Zenith Bank retained its position as the country’s most profitable lender with a N917.4 billion profit before tax, representing an 8.5 per cent decline from N1 trillion a year earlier.
GTCO followed closely with
N900.8 billion, down 26 per cent from N1.22 trillion reported in the same period of 2024. Both banks attributed the decline to higher impairment charges and increased operating expenses.
Zenith’s impairment charge surged 64 per cent to N781.52 billion, while its operating expenses rose to N762.67 billion, up from N656.07 billion a year earlier. GTCO also reported a 24 per cent rise in operating costs to N364.98 billion, compared with N294.35 billion in the corresponding period of 2024.
Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of Zenith Bank, Dr. Adaora Umeoji, described the bank’s
performance as evidence of resilience and adaptability.
“Our robust performance is an attestation to the resilience of the Zenith brand, our result-driven strategy, and the adaptability of our people in an evolving operating environment. We have fortified our capital base, reset our asset quality, and are well-positioned for sustainable and profitable growth,” she said.
Group Chief Executive Officer of GTCO, Mr. Segun Agbaje, said the group’s thirdquarter performance reflected the “consistency and resilience of our diversified financial services ecosystem.”
TRUMP IN TWEET, THREATENS MILITARY ACTION AGAINST TERRORISTS KILLING CHRISTIANS IN NIGERIA
Secretary of War, Pete Hegseth, in his reaction, said the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria and anywhere must immediately come to an end.
In a related development, Senator Ted Cruz also vowed to advance legislation aimed at tackling the enforcement of Sharia and blasphemy laws in Nigeria, following Trump’s redesignation of the country as a “Country of Particular Concern”.
Trump had on Friday designated Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular Concern,’ citing alleged widespread killings of Christians and rising religious intolerance.
“Christianity is facing an existential threat in Nigeria,” Trump posted on Truth Social.
“Thousands of Christians are being killed. Radical Islamists are responsible for this mass slaughter. I
representing Borno South, Ali Ndume, has urged President Tinubu’s administration to deploy Nigeria’s most experienced diplomats and international statesmen, such as Chief Emeka Anyaoku, Professor Bolaji Akinyemi, Ambassador Babagana Kingibe, Professor Ibrahim Gambari, and Amina Mohammed, to lead the engagement with Washington.
Trump had on Friday designated Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular
am hereby making Nigeria a ‘Country of Particular Concern’— But that is the least of it,” he added.
The ‘Countries of Particular Concern’ is a list of nations the US considers to have engaged in religious freedom violations.
The list includes: China, Myanmar, North Korea, Russia, Pakistan, among others, according to the State Department website.
The US President emphasised that action must be taken when people are persecuted for their faith.
Barely 24 hours after designating Nigeria as a “Country of Particular Concern,” Trump, in a remarkable twist last night, threatened military action against Nigeria.
He ordered the US Department of War to prepare for possible military action
Concern,’ citing alleged widespread killings of Christians.
Barely 24 hours later, the American leader, last night, threatened military action against Nigeria.
Reacting to the US president's earlier designation of the country as a ‘Country of Particular Concern’, President Tinubu, in a six-paragraph statement, explained that "Nigeria stands firmly as a democracy governed by constitutional guarantees of religious liberty.
against Nigeria.
"If the Nigerian Government continues to allow the killing of Christians, the U.S.A. will immediately stop all aid and assistance to Nigeria, and may very well go into that now disgraced country, 'guns-ablazing,' to completely wipe out the Islamic terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities," Trump posted on social media.
"I am hereby instructing our Department of War to prepare for possible action. If we attack, it will be fast, vicious, and sweet, just like the terrorist thugs attack our CHERISHED Christians!" he added.
While reacting to the development, US Secretary of War Hegseth said the killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria and anywhere must immediately come to an end.
"Since 2023, our administration has maintained an open and active engagement with Christian and Muslim leaders alike and continues to address security challenges that affect citizens across faiths and regions.
"The characterisation of Nigeria as religiously intolerant does not reflect our national reality, nor does it take into consideration the consistent and sincere efforts of the government to safeguard freedom of
In a tweet on his X handle yesterday, he added that his Department of War was preparing for action to protect Christians from Islamic terrorists.
Hegseth stressed it is either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or the US would kill the Islamic terrorists who are committing what he described as “horrible atrocities”.
“The killing of innocent Christians in Nigeria - and anywhere-must end immediately. The Department of War is preparing for action. Either the Nigerian Government protects Christians, or we will kill the Islamic Terrorists who are committing these horrible atrocities,” the tweet read.
Also speaking on the issue, US Rep. Riley Moore
religion and beliefs for all Nigerians.
"Religious freedom and tolerance have been a core tenet of our collective identity and shall always remain so.
Nigeria opposes religious persecution and does not encourage it.
"Nigeria is a country with constitutional guarantees to protect citizens of all faiths.
"Our administration is committed to working with the United States government and the international community
(R-WV) affirmed President Trump’s threat to take military action against Nigeria.
He said, “President Trump has provided a forewarning that if you do not correct the current state of inaction to stop the killing of our brothers and sisters in Christ in your country. The days of the US looking the other way are over—it will never happen on Trump's watch.
“I urge you to cooperate with us in preventing this atrocity that worsens every day. We want your people to live in peace - all of them, especially Christians.
“‘The President has been clear. I would not test his resolve. Many have tried and all have failed.
“We will not allow the gates of hell to prevail against the faithful.”
to deepen understanding and cooperation on the protection of communities of all faiths."
In its reaction, the federal government, through the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Kimiebi Imomotimi Ebienfa, explained that Nigerians of all faiths have long lived, worked, and worshipped together peacefully.
The federal government also stated that the Tinubu administration remains committed to fighting
According to him, “we are seeing steady, sustainable growth across our banking and non-banking businesses, supported by disciplined execution and a strong focus on operational efficiency. The improvements we have made to our digital and payments infrastructure are enhancing customer experience, deepening engagement, and driving greater integration across our ecosystem. Looking ahead, our focus remains on advancing our competitive edge through innovation, operational excellence, and a commitment to superior customer outcomes.”
Meanwhile, United States Senator Cruz has vowed to advance legislation aimed at tackling the enforcement of Sharia and blasphemy laws in Nigeria.
In a statement released on his official website, Cruz, a Republican senator from Texas, said the move aligns with his long-standing efforts to protect Christians allegedly facing religious persecution in Nigeria.
“I am deeply gratified to President Trump for making this determination,” the statement read. “I have fought for years to counter the slaughter and persecution of Christians in Nigeria, and this year introduced legislation that will lock in the designation made today.”
terrorism, strengthening interfaith harmony, and protecting the lives and rights of all Nigerians.
Appreciating the global concern for human rights and religious freedom in Nigeria, the federal government, however, rejected Trump’s tag of a “Country of Particular Concern” on Nigeria, insisting that the claim of genocide against Christians does not reflect the situation
PDP’S LEADERSHIP CRISIS DEEPENS AS PARTY SUSPENDS NATIONAL SECRETARY, ANYANWU, THREE OTHERS
Bature, for one month.
However, the suspension has plunged the party deeper into crisis as fresh divisions have emerged within its leadership, with Anyanwu’s faction, backed by the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, announcing the suspension of the Acting National Chairman, Ambassador Umar Iliya Damagum, and five other
members of the NWC.
The suspension of Anyanwu and other members of the NWC comes on the heels of the judgment of the Federal High Court on Friday, which stopped the party’s planned national convention.
Disclosing this while addressing journalists, the PDP National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, said the decision followed an
emergency NWC meeting held yesterday at the party’s office, Legacy House, Maitama, Abuja.
Ologunagba stated that in line with Section 36(2) of the PDP Constitution, the Deputy National Secretary, Setonji Koshoedo, will assume the role of acting National Secretary, while the National Director of Legal Services, Jacob Otorkpa, has been assigned to manage
the affairs of the Legal Department.
He stated: “The NWC has reviewed the party’s activities, especially in the recent past, and some decisions were taken. You will recall that on August 8, 2025, the party issued a reprimand to members over anti-party activities, and from then till now, the party reviewed the activities of some members working
against the party, and the NWC reached the following decisions today.
“For all these anti-party activities as contained in the constitution of the party vis-à-vis the activities of those individuals, what we have identified as majorly constituting the offences under our constitution is anybody who breaches any part of the constitution or manifesto, or says or does
anything under Section 58; any member that says or does anything that will bring the party to disrepute, hatred, or contempt, disobeys or neglects to carry out lawful directives of the party or any organ or officer of the party, or engages in any conduct likely to cause disaffection among members of the party, or likely to cause disaffection in the conduct of the business of the party.
US Senator Ted Cruz Pushes Bill against Sharia, Blasphemy Laws in Nigeria
The Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, has reaffirmed the federal government’s commitment to sustaining ongoing economic reforms and deepening inclusive financing as key drivers of accelerated growth beyond four per cent.
This is just as the Chairman of the Committee of Bank CEOs and Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Oliver Alawuba, commended the coordinated efforts of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Ministry of Finance, noting that their recent policy measures have significantly eased pressure on the foreign exchange market and restored investor confidence.
Meanwhile, Edun and the Minister of State for
Finance, Dr. Doris UzokaAnite, have reaffirmed the federal government’s determination to remove structural distortions, multiple extortions, and policy bottlenecks that continue to stifle business growth and investment in Nigeria.
Speaking yesterday at the 2025 Fellowship Investiture of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN) in Lagos, Edun lauded the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) for maintaining monetary discipline under its current policy stance, describing the measures as critical to curbing inflation and safeguarding the stability of the financial system.
He noted that while significant progress had been recorded since the reform agenda commenced on May 29, 2023, the next phase must prioritise inclusive growth, particularly through expanded credit access for
Don’t Let Foreign Interests Divide Us, Baba-Ahmed Tells Nigerians on Trump’s blacklisting of Nigeria
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
A former aide to President Bola Tinubu, Dr. Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, has cautioned Nigerians against internal division following unconfirmed reports that US President Donald Trump is considering imposing sanctions on Nigeria over the alleged persecution of Christians.
Baba-Ahmed, in a post shared on his verified Facebook page yesterday, said if the speculations turn out to be true, it would mark a troubling move by the American leader, who appears to have been misled by distorted narratives about religious killings in Nigeria.
He stated that the reported decision, allegedly tied to claims of genocide against Christians in Nigeria, ignores the complex reality of insecurity in the country, which affects both Muslims and Christians alike.
According to the former presidential aide, “If these reports are true, then we can only say Bismillah, because it means foreign interests are being stirred up against us.”
Baba-Ahmed wrote.
“The truth is that those killing Nigerians do not distinguish between Muslims and Christians. Ethnic and communal conflicts in Nigeria have claimed the lives of both.”
young entrepreneurs and small businesses.
“Monetary policy under Cardoso (CBN governor) has stabilised the financial system in a most commendable way. We recognise and thank his efforts. Of course, it is a team effort, and those eye-watering interest rates have to be paid by the fiscal side, but the fight against inflation is one that we all have to participate in; so, we understand those tight monetary policies,” Edun said.
He emphasised that economic growth must translate into opportunities for Nigeria’s youthful
population, adding that over 400,000 graduates enter the labour market annually.
“We now have what I would say is our President’s agenda, rapid growth accelerating above 4 per cent, well above 4 per cent, and we look forward to continuing. We have sustained efforts on reforms since May 29, 2023. We have stayed the course, but we need inclusivity. That inclusivity means good-paying jobs for our young people,” he said.
The minister further charged the financial sector to play a more active role in
driving grassroots growth.
“The finance and banking industry, we have more work to do because we must finance their ideas, we must deepen the capital markets and banking credit markets down to small SMEs. They should not have to go to Silicon Valley,” Edun added.
Also speaking, Chairman of the Committee of Bank CEOs and Group Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Alawuba, commended the coordinated efforts of the CBN and the Ministry of Finance.
He noted that their recent
policy measures have significantly eased pressure on the foreign exchange market and restored investor confidence.
“We also thank the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, and indeed the Governor of Governors, the CBN governor. We have seen the difference. Thank you for the way you have rescued Nigerians,” Alawuba said.
According to him, the economy has shown remarkable improvement in the past year, especially in the foreign exchange market.
Ahead of 2027 Presidential Election, Akpabio, Abbas, Akume Launch Tinubu Support Group in Benue
The Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume; Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio; and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Abbas Tajudeen, at the weekend inaugurated
the President Bola Tinubu Support Group 2027 in Makurdi, Benue State.
Senator Akume, represented by Senator Jacob Gyado at the event, commended the group’s Chief Convener and Coordinator, Mr. Mathias Byuan, for taking the initiative to rally support for the president ahead of
the next general elections.
According to Akume, President Tinubu has already secured the confidence of Nigerians through the implementation of policies and projects that directly impact the people.
He expressed optimism that Benue and the entire North-central region would overwhelmingly support Tinubu for a second term in 2027.
“The Tiv people, too, must have a political leader; let the youths wait for their time. You can’t start school today and become a professor today. When the time comes, we will speak with you,” Akume said.
NIGERIA PROTECTS CITIZENS OF ALL FAITHS, WILL NEVER ENCOURAGE RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION, TINUBU REPLIES TRUMP
on the ground.
The statement reads:
“The Federal Government of Nigeria notes the recent remarks by U.S. President Donald J. Trump alleging large-scale killings of Christians in Nigeria and calling for the country’s designation as a 'Country of Particular Concern.”
“While Nigeria appreciates global concern for human rights and religious freedom, these claims do not reflect the situation on the ground.
Nigerians of all faiths have long lived, worked, and worshipped together peacefully.
“Under the leadership of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Nigeria remains committed to fighting terrorism, strengthening interfaith harmony, and protecting the lives and rights of all its people.
“Nigeria will continue to engage constructively with the Government of the United States to deepen
mutual understanding of regional dynamics and the country’s ongoing peace and security efforts.”
US senator Ted Cruz had proposed a bill seeking to protect “persecuted” Christians in Nigeria.
But President Tinubu said allegations of religious genocide in Nigeria were unfounded, noting that the country is built on the faith and resilience of its people.
The Minister of Information and National Orientation,
Mohammed Idris, had also faulted some US lawmakers for relying on what he described as “inaccurate and misleading data” to accuse Nigeria of carrying out a Christian genocide. On October 14, the Nigerian Senate set up a 12-member ad hoc committee to develop a comprehensive position paper in response to growing international concerns over alleged state-backed persecution of Christians in Nigeria.
George Okoh in Makurdi
L-R: Chairman, Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and Other Financial Institutions, Senator Adetokunbo Abiru; Leader of the Senate, Senator Opeyemi Bamidele; Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Barau Jibrin; Chairman, Senate Committee on Senate Services, Senator Sunday Karimi; Chairman, Senate Committee on Communication, Senator Ikra Bilbis; Chairman, Senate Committee on Public Procurement, Senator Olajide Ipinsagba; and Chairman, Senate Committee on Local Content, Senator Thomas Joel-Onowakpo, during Bamidele’s installation as the Oluomo of Iyin Ekiti Kingdom at Iyin Ekiti, Ekiti State…yesterday
STRENGTHENING EFFECTIVE COLLABORATION…
2027: Northern Elders, Politicians Push for United Front, Mull Regional Unity Summit in Early 2026
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Ahead of the 2027 general election, key northern stakeholders on the platform of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF) and the National Political Consultative Group (NPCG), have initiated moves to forge a united political front for the region, with plans to convene a Northern Unity Summit in early 2026. The plan, according to the conveners, will rally traditional rulers, religious leaders and political actors
across the 19 northern states to promote unity and collective political action reminiscent of the late Premier of the Northern Region, Sir Ahmadu Bello’s era of inclusiveness.
Speaking at the NPCG expanded meeting held yesterday in Abuja, the Director General of the Northern Elders Forum NEF, Prof. Doknan Sheni, said the first step towards restoring the region’s strength lies in addressing both internal and external factors responsible for its
disunity.
Sheni, who spoke on the theme “The Imperative of Northern Unity Ahead of 2027 Elections,” warned that unless identity-related issues are properly managed, “the North, and by extension Nigeria, may continue to slide into deeper ethnoreligious fragmentation.”
He urged northern leaders to launch massive enlightenment campaigns ahead of 2027 to reorient voters toward ideology, principles and credible party manifestos rather
than emotional or sectional sentiments.
“If the north is to prepare and unite for the 2027 elections, there must be massive enlightenment programmes among the electorate so that the citizens vote based on ideology, principles and real manifestos of parties and candidates and not based on sentiments.
“There must be training of INEC staff, particularly the ad hoc staff, to know how to use the gadgets used in voting. INEC must build
confidence in the populace in how they conduct and transmit election results. They must ensure there is transparency on how elections are conducted”, he said.
Calling for a Northern Leaders’ Summit in the first quarter of 2026, Sheni said the event would harmonize ideas and produce a Northern Development Blueprint, with representatives from each state contributing to a shared vision for political and economic advancement.
“For the north to unite towards the 2027 elections,
there should be a summit of northern leaders sometime in the first quarter of 2026 or thereabouts to harmonize ideas and plan for the elections. The two major operating factors that influence voters’ election patterns – religion and ethnicity – must be addressed at that summit,” he noted.
Sheni cautioned against external manipulation of internal divisions, warning that political actors from other regions could exploit northern disunity to weaken its influence in national politics.
Tanzania’s electoral commission has declared President Samia Suluhu Hassan winner of the disputed election.
According to the results announced early yesterday, she won with nearly 98 per cent of the votes.
The election had set off violent protests across the
country, with around 700 deaths, according to the opposition.
A spokesperson for the Chadema opposition party, John Kitoka, told Agence France-Presse (AFP) that hundreds of people had been killed.
“As we speak, the figure for deaths in Dar es Salaam
is around 350 and for Mwanza it is 200-plus. Added to figures from other places around the country, the overall figure is around 700,” he said.
He added that the toll could be much higher because killings could be happening during a night-time curfew that was
imposed from Wednesday.
A security source told AFP there had been reports of more than 500 dead, “maybe 700-800 in the whole country”.
Amnesty International said it had received information that at least 100 people had been killed.
Atiku Decries Arrest, Prolonged Detention of Niger Student, Accuses Governor Bago of Abusing Power
Chuks Okocha in Abuja
Former Vice President Atiku Abubakar has condemned the arrest and prolonged detention of a postgraduate student of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL), Abubakar Isah Mokwa, for criticising Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State, describing it as an abuse of power and a dangerous sign of Nigeria’s
shrinking civic space.
Atiku, in a statement he personally signed yesterday, said it was disturbing that the student had been detained for over a week simply for expressing his opinion about Governor Bago.
“It has come to my attention that Abubakar Isah Mokwa, a postgraduate student of the Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai
(IBBUL), has been arrested and detained for over a week for merely expressing his opinion about Governor Umaru Bago of Niger State,” Atiku said.
The former presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) said the development reflected the growing intolerance and repression in the country, where citizens’ rights are trampled under the guise of enforcing
the Cybercrimes Act.
“This development,” Atiku said, “is both outrageous and unacceptable. It is a dangerous sign of how far our country has descended into intolerance and repression,” where citizens’ rights are “trampled and dissenting voices are silenced under the guise of enforcing the so-called Cybercrimes Act,” he said.
Bokku Mart Apologises for Anti-Igbo Advertisement, Claims Offensive Publication Originated from External Influencer
Dike Onwuamaeze
Following the backlash that greeted its recent marketing campaign that profiled the Igbo ethnic group as cheats, the management of Bokku Mart has apologised, claiming that the content originated from an external influencer and was published by a third-party media firm without prior review by the company.
In a statement released over the weekend and titled "Bokku! Mart Stands for Unity and Respect," the management said: "We are deeply saddened and disturbed by a video recently shared online that contained offensive and hurtful language.
"The language used in the video was unacceptable and deeply misaligned with Bokku’s values."
It added: "We have since strengthened our content approval and vendor oversight processes to ensure such an incident never happens again. Bokku Mart is more than a retail brand; we are a proudly Nigerian company built on love for our people and communities.” The offensive advertisement, which indulged in price comparison, said: "Just a girl. One random day, I walked into Bokku, and it was like, wait, this cannot be real.
"Bama sold for N2,450 in Bokku but N2,700 at the market. Gino Party JOLLOF is sold at N209 in Bokku but N250 at the market.
It said: "While the content originated from an external influencer and was published by a thirdparty media firm without prior review by our team, we take full responsibility for its appearance on our platforms."
L-R: Chairman, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria South-east Zone and Chairman Keystone Bank, Ada Chukwudozie; former Senator representing Anambra Central and Chairman, Minaj Group, Senator, Mike Ajegbo; Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzor Anite; Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu; Chairman, Chisco Group of Companies, Dr. Chidi Anyaegbu; Chairman, Nepal Oil and Gas, Mr. Ekeoma Eme Ekeoma; and Chairman, Chicason Group of Companies, Chief Alexander Chika Okafor, during a courtesy call on the governor at State House, Marina…weekend
DELIVERING DEMOCRACY DIVIDENDS…
FG to Release N11.995bn Within 72 Hours for Payment of Arrears of Accoutrement Allowance, Others to Doctors, Others
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The federal government yesterday said it would release N11.995billion within 72 hours for the payment of outstanding arrears, including accoutrement allowance, to doctors and other health workers across the country.
This was contained in a press statement issued by the Federal Ministry of Health and Social Welfare in Abuja and signed by the Deputy Director and Head, Information and Public Relations, Alaba Balogun.
According to the ministry, the move is part of ongoing efforts to resolve welfare
concerns raised by the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) and other unions.
The statement said the assurance was reiterated during a high-level meeting led by the Minister of State for Health and Social Welfare, Dr. Iziaq Salako, between the top management of the ministry and the leadership of NARD, following the association’s recent agitations over welfare and professional concerns.
The assurance comes amid a nationwide strike that began yesterday, involving about 11,000 resident doctors across 91 healthcare facilities.
The striking doctors are
Osinbajo: Technology, Data Should Serve as Tool of Empowerment, Not Control
Sunday Ehigiator
protesting unpaid arrears, delays in allowances, and other welfare-related issues despite earlier assurances from the government.
The President of the NARD, Dr. Muhammad Suleiman, had on Monday said the federal government owes doctors and other health workers across the country an estimated N38billion in
accumulated allowances.
Meanwhile, the statement noted that the government remains committed to ensuring that the welfare, motivation, and stability of the nation’s health workforce serve as the foundation of all health policies and programmes.
“In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Finance,
the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare commenced the payment of seven months’ arrears of the 25–35 per cent upward review of the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure and the Consolidated Health Salary Structure to all categories of health workers, with N10bn paid in August 2025.
“Following the approval
of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for these arrears owed to health workers, including members of NARD, to be paid expeditiously, as of Thursday, October 30, another sum of N21.3bn has been moved to the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Information System account, and payment has commenced.
NSITF Accuses Oil and Gas Operators of Violating Employees’ Compensation Act, Invoking Complex Joint Venture Contracting Arrangements to Evade Registration
Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja
The Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) has said that many operators in the oil and gas industry - particularly in the upstream and servicing sub-sectors, have yet to fully comply with the statutory obligation to the Employees’ Compensation Scheme.
operators still evade registration and fail to make statutory remittances in compliance with the ECS Act.
and evasion by private sector players, Faleye said that many operators - particularly in the upstream and servicing sub-sectors, "have yet to fully comply with the statutory obligation to remit ECS contributions.
it comes to social protection.
“Some of the key challenges include: difficult and hard to reach terrains, especially offshore work locations".
The former vice president commended CIPM “for the giant strides it has made over the years in regulating people management practice in Nigeria,” noting that the institute had become a critical voice in ensuring that innovation and ethics coexist in the modern workplace.
Osinbajo’s comments come amid growing global debate over the ethical implications of artificial intelligence, automation, and data-driven decision-making in the workplace. Experts have raised concerns that while digital tools can enhance productivity, they also pose risks of job displacement, privacy breaches, and workplace surveillance if left unchecked.
A former Vice President, Prof. Yemi Osinbajo, has urged human resource professionals and policymakers to ensure that technology and data are used to empower people rather than control them, stressing the need for ethical responsibility in the rapidly evolving world. According to a statement signed by the President and Chairman of the Governing Council of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria (CIPM), Ahmed Gobiri and issued yesterday after the closing ceremony of the 57th International Conference and Exhibition of the Chartered Institute of Personnel Management of Nigeria in Abuja, Osinbajo said, “Data should serve as a tool of empowerment, not control.” Osibanjo added, “AI has transformed everything about the world. The future of work is already here, shaped by rapid digital transformation and our youthful population. We must continue to reskill and upskill to meet the opportunities of the new world of work.”
While accusing the companies of invoking complex joint venture structures or “offshore” contracting arrangements to evade registration, NSITF said that despite its interventions, these
Managing Director of NSITF, Oluwaseun Faleye, who was represented by General Manager in charge of Abuja Region, Mrs. Bridget Ashang, at the Annual Labour Conference of the Labour Correspondents Association of Nigeria (LACAN) in Abuja, argued that safety is not optional in the oil and gas industry, where pressure, heat, chemicals, and heavy machinery intertwine. Speaking on non-compliance
He said: "Despite the clarity of the law, enforcement within the oil and gas industry remains one of the most challenging frontiers for the NSITF.
"We confront, daily, the paradox of high-profit enterprises operating within a low-compliance culture when
NSITF boss said the Fund has established a service delivery centre in Bonny for ease of accessibility to the workplaces in Bonny and its environs, for the sake of employees.
According to Faleye, some of the operators usually invoke complex joint venture structures or “offshore” contracting arrangements to evade registration.
Insecurity, Democracy Crises Derailing Regional Integration, Says ECOWAS President
Michael Olugbode in Abuja
The President of ECOWAS Commission, Dr. Omar Touray, has said that West Africa is currently facing security and democracy crises, which have threatened to derail the sub-region’s integration agenda.
He made this known at the African Public Square (APS) Second Continental Edition Conference at the weekend in Abuja, with the theme: Future Proofing
Regional Integration in Africa: ECOWAS @50.
APS is a platform that was created to instigate debates on African peace, security, and development among African public intellectuals of diverse backgrounds.
Convened by Amandla Institute and African Leadership Centre, the event brought together leaders, policymakers, and academics to examine how ECOWAS can redefine its integration framework amid growing
political, economic, and security challenges.
Touray, represented by ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, said the commission had commenced a series of introspective talks toward addressing ECOWAS’ entire integration framework.
According to him, the process is citizens-led and the outcome of all deliberations will end up in a draft pact that will determine the path
that ECOWAS will take in the next 15 years.
“I would argue that we have a crisis of security, and then we have a crisis of democracy in West Africa today.
“We have to navigate between a lot that has been said about terrorism, violence, terrorism, and others.
“Democracy is also in crisis. It is in crisis today in West Africa, and it doesn’t seem like leaders have learned their lesson,” he said.
L-R: Ekiti State Commissioner for Works, Mr. Sola Adebayo; Deputy Governor, Mrs Monisade Afuye; Governor Biodun Oyebanji; and first civilian Governor of the state/ Special Guest of honour, Niyi Adebayo, during the inauguration of Ara-Isinbode-Ikole Road at Ikole as part of activities marking the third anniversary of the governor’s administration…yesterday
Tinubu Commends Kaduna Governor, Sani’s Peace Efforts, Says Kaduna Now a Model of Unity
Southern Kaduna now with APC, says Speaker Abbas
John Shiklam in Kaduna
President Bola Tinubu has commended Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, for fostering peace and inclusiveness in a state once defined by deep ethnic and religious divisions.
Speaking through his Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, during the defection of some Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) lawmakers to the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kafanchan yesterday, the president described the event
as a reflection of a new spirit of unity taking root in Kaduna.
The ceremony, which saw the formal defection of senators and members of the House of Representatives from the opposition PDP, was held in Kafanchan — a predominantly Christian area in Southern Kaduna — and was attended by party leaders, traditional rulers, and community stakeholders.
He debunked the claim by the US President, Mr. Donald Trump that Christians are being killed in Nigeria, saying the claim was false.
To Strengthen Collaboration with Lagos Govt, UzokaAnite, South-east Business Leaders Meet Sanwo-Olu
Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja
The Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris UzokaAnite and prominent business leaders from the South-east region have paid a courtesy visit to the Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide SanwoOlu in order to strengthen collaboration between the government and private sector investors.
Uzoka-Anite, who lauded Sanwo-Olu's leadership and the remarkable strides his administration has made in
advancing the development of Lagos State.
She said, "It's always a pleasure to be in Lagos, a city that truly never sleeps, and one that continues to lead the way in innovation, enterprise, and economic growth."
Uzoka-Anite stated that her visit was to first bring warm greetings and deep appreciation from the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun for "your outstanding leadership and for the remarkable strides your
administration continues to make — not only in advancing the development of Lagos State, but also in supporting the broader national agenda for economic growth and fiscal stability in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led Administration."
According to her, the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu particularly values the strong spirit of collaboration and partnership that Lagos has consistently shown towards the
federal government through its pragmatic governance, forward-thinking reforms, and active cooperation on key initiatives such as the Lagos Green Line Metro Rail Project.
A statement issued by the Director, Information and Public Relations, Federal Ministry of Finance, Mohammed Manga said the minister commended the governor, adding he had demonstrated that when the federal and state governments work together, progress is both achievable and sustainable.
Democracy Has Come to Stay, Says Bago as Niger Conducts LG Polls
Police arrest youths for burning voting materials
Laleye Dipo in Minna
Niger State Governor, Umaru Bago, has urged Nigerians to continue to actively participate in the electoral process because democracy has come to stay in the country.
This is just as the police in Minna, the state capital, have confirmed the arrest of some youths in connection with the burning of election materials in Nasko, Magama Local Government Area (LGA).
The governor said this shortly after he voted at his Tswashagi Raba polling unit in Landzun ward in Bida yesterday during the local government elections in the state.
“We give thanks to the President, Bola Tinubu, for insisting that sub-nationals obey the constitution and conduct credible elections across all the Local Government Areas in the country.
“Niger today is having its own Local Government Council
elections, and everybody is out here to cast their votes.
This is the experience that is going to show the acceptance of democracy in the country.
“The turnout is unprecedented; even at the general elections, we don’t have this number. It simply demonstrates the faith Nigerians have in the system,” he said.
Also, the All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate for Bida Local Government Area, Hon. Muhammed Usman-
Manko, expressed delight with the turnout of voters.
“I can’t believe this massive turnout of voters in this community, irrespective of the harsh weather conditions.
“We are also very grateful to the almighty Allah for a peaceful exercise. I also heartily appreciate the farmer governor, Muhammad Bago, for his continuous support. I also appreciate the entire community for this wonderful show of support.
Tinubu, while welcoming the defectors, said their decision to join the ruling party was a signal that Nigeria’s unity could no longer be undermined by divisive narratives. He dismissed claims that Christians were being targeted in Nigeria as unfounded, saying the gathering was proof that peace and political collaboration were thriving in one of the country’s most diverse states.
He urged the defectors to mobilise their communities to sustain the prevailing peace, noting that stability was essential for continued development and investment in Kaduna and across Nigeria.
Speaking at the event, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Tajudeen Abbas, declared
that the Southern part of Kaduna State has now joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), owing to the exemplary leadership demonstrated by President Bola Tinubu.
The speaker, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Musa Krishi, said President Tinubu has prioritised the development of Southern Kaduna by bringing some laudable projects to the area. Abbas, who went down memory lane, said, “for all its history since 1999, Southern Kaduna has been considered the stronghold of the PDP. For decades, they claimed ownership of your loyalty, your dreams, and your destiny. But today, that claim has ended.
Edo is Completely for Tinubu in 2027 Presidential Election, Okpebholo, APC Leaders Declare
Edo State Governor, Senator Monday Okpebholo, at the weekend led a coalition of All Progressives Congress (APC) leaders, where he formally endorsed President Bola Tinubu for re-election in 2027.
A statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Fred Itua, noted that the endorsement, which took place in Edo Central, brought together key political figures, including the Deputy Governor, Hon. Dennis Idahosa; Senator Adams Oshiomhole, and the Minister for Regional Development, Hon. Abubakar Momoh, among others.
The event also featured the official reception of prominent decampees from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP)
into the APC, signaling a renewed sense of unity and momentum within the ruling party ahead of the next general election.
Among other dignitaries present were the Speaker of the Edo State House of Assembly, Hon. Blessing Agbebaku; former Deputy Governor, Chief Pius Odubu; Senator Mathew Urhoghide; Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu; APC State Chairman, Jarret Tenebe; and Edo Central senatorial leader, Major-General Cecil Isegaigbe (rtd.).
Governor Okpebholo, while addressing party faithful, expressed profound gratitude to President Tinubu for his continued support of the Edo people, particularly in infrastructure development.
Minister of State for Finance, Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite (left), and the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun, at the inaugural Government–Private Sector Dialogue Series (GPS) in Lagos…yesterday
SPORTS DEVELOPMENT…
L–R: Executive Director, Strategy, Business and Asset Management, TotalEnergies Exploration and Production Nigeria, Abiodun Afolabi; President, Nigeria Football Federation, Alhaji Ibrahim Musa Gusau; Managing Director, TotalEnergies Marketing Nigeria Plc, Dr. Samba Seye; and Chairman, National Sports Commission, Shehu Dikko; during the viewing event for the
AFCON 2025 Trophy Tour in Lagos...weekend Photo: Abiodun Ajala
Air Chief Charges Personnel to Remain Vigilant, Professional in Upholding Democracy
The Chief of Air Staff (CAS), Air Marshal Sunday Aneke, has charged the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) personnel to remain vigilant, professional, and committed to democracy.
Aneke gave the charge at the combined graduation ceremony of Basic Regiment Officers Course 20/2025 and Basic Regiment Airmen/Airwomen Course 33/2025 at the Regiment Training Centre (RTC), NAF Base Kaduna over the weekend.
He said, “At a time of national challenges, remain vigilant, professional, and committed to democracy.”
The Air Chief was represented by Air Officer Commanding (AOC), Air Training Command, Air Vice Marshal Ahmed Dari.
Aneke said the centre has continued to uphold its reputation as a hub of excellence in ground combat training, embracing innovation to address evolving asymmetric security challenges.
“Today’s occasion marks another milestone in producing highly skilled manpower for the Nigerian Air Force (NAF).
“A total of 483 personnel comprising 34 officers and 449 airmen/airwomen are graduating after completing the Basic Regi-
Ihejirika to Armed Forces: Patriotism, Unwavering Commitment to National Unity, Non-negotiable, Sacrosanct
Oghenevwede Ohwovoriole in Abuja
A former Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt. Gen. Azibuike Ihejirika (rtd), has told soldiers and officers of the Armed Forces, who stand as the bastion of the nation’s collective safety, that the values of discipline, patriotism, loyalty, and unwavering commitment to national unity are non-negotiable and sacrosanct.
He also disclosed that success in the war against insurgents was tied to the quality of officers prosecuting the war.
Ihejirika, who was the COAS under the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan, spoke at the TY Buratai Literary Initiative (TYBLI) Young Adult Literature Prize 2025 Award ceremony yesterday in Abuja.
He noted that his success against Boko Haram insurgents as then Nigeria’s Chief of Army Staff was because he had quality officers like Gen.Tukur Buratai (rtd).
“Reflecting on my tenure as Chief of Army Staff, the success of our mission hinged on the quality
of the officers under my command.
“In the Brig. Gen. Buratai, I saw a man of exceptional discipline, competence, and commitment.
“His appointment as Commander of the 2 Brigade in Port Harcourt was a strategic decision, and he exceeded all expectations, demonstrating exemplary leadership and raising the bar for those after him,” he said On national security, Ihejirika said, “I feel compelled to speak to the current security challenges facing our nation. To the military officers and soldiers of ourArmed Forces, who stand as the bastion of our collective safety, I offer this counsel: the values of discipline, patriotism, loyalty, and unwavering commitment to national unity are non-negotiable and sacrosanct.
“I wish to state that much of the solutions to our insecurity lies not only withthe government at the national and sub-national levels, but with all of our leaders, well represented in this gathering. We must therefore continue to actively support the government’s efforts in creating an enabling environment for our youths to thrive.”
ment Officers Course and Basic Regiment Airmen/Airwomen Course and Force Protection in Complex Air-Ground Environment (FP-CAGE) training conducted at the Regiment Training Centre.”
He said NAF has continued to uphold its reputation as a hub of excellence in ground combat training, embracing innovation to address evolving asymmetric security challenges.
“The training has built the regiment’s capacity for coordinated and effective security operations, with a focus on force projection and force protection,” Aneke said.
He said NAF has advanced in both, but that there is a continuous need to strengthen protection to safeguard bases and air assets.
Aneke said, “Our nation still faces militancy, herder farmers clashes, banditry, cattle rustling, insurgency and terrorism, creating insecurity and unrest.
“The Nigerian Air Force must therefore continue to protect its assets and other national assets to sustain air power.
“NAF is committed to optimizing its force structure and establishment for enhanced operational effectiveness and
deliberate training and missionoriented force development.”
He said NAF’s vision was to build a sustainable and functional Air Force capable of operating independently or jointly, with a focus on national security and development.
Aneke said, “The NAF’s mission is to safeguard lives and property, protect national assets, and support national development.”
He urged the graduating students to embody the values of loyalty, honesty, fitness, teamwork, courage, and discipline, and to remain vigilant.
Aneke said in line with government priorities under President Bola Tinubu, the NAF had adopted enhanced accountability and judicious use of resources.
Earlier, the Commandant, RTC, Air Commodore Caleb Olayera, said the training, which lasted for six months, focused on enhancing proficiency in force protection, base defence, and weapon handling. Olayere said, “The graduands have been equipped with advanced capabilities to excel as vanguards of force protection in the Nigerian Air Force.”
In Nationwide Enforcement Drive, NAFDAC Destroys over 80 Containers of Fake Drugs, Food Items
Sunday Ehigiator
The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has disclosed that more than 80 containers of fake and substandard medicines and foods are currently being destroyed as part of its nationwide enforcement drive.
The Director, Investigation and Enforcement, Chairman Federal Task Force, NAFDAC, Dr. Martins Iluyomade, made this known at a press briefing yesterday to hint the public about a recent attack on its officials at the Trade Fair
Market in Lagos.
He said, “Currently, we are destroying over 80 containers of fake and substandard products.
The moral decadence in Nigeria is so much and a lot of people benefit from this illicit trade and the rate is alarming.
“We will continue to mop up these markets in our bid to reduce the level of substandard to the barest minimum.”
He described the incident, which occurred on Thursday, October 30, 2025, as a serious threat to enforcement operations, saying that, “enforcement has become
dangerous for our officials, but someone has to do it.
“About 10 operational vehicles worth over 25 billion were reportedly vandalised during the attack.”
Iluyomade lamented the alarming rate of fake and substandard products in Nigeria, particularly in major commercial hubs, noting that a lot of people benefit from this illicit trade.
He commended the Nigeria Customs Service, led by Comptroller General Adewale Adeniyi, for ongoing collaboration and for handing over several containers
Seven Killed, One Injured as Bandits
John Shiklam in Kaduna
Seven people have been reportedly killed while one person shot following an attack by bandits on Damakasuwa community in Chawai Chiefdom, Kauru Local Government Area, Kaduna State.
The criminals were said to have invaded the community around 8:00 p.m. on Friday, shooting sporadically and forcing residents to flee into nearby bushes for safety.
Residents said the attack threw the entire community into panic as gunshots echoed for several minutes without any immediate
response from security personnel.
A resident said the villagers were either retiring to bed or still engaged in evening activities when the bandits came.
The Paramount Chief of Chawai, Alhaji Yahaya Muhammad, who confirmed the incident, said five persons were killed on the spot, while two others who sustained serious injuries from gunshots later died on the way to the hospital in Jos, Plateau State.
The traditional ruler said incident heightened tension among residents, adding however
of fake medicines to NAFDAC for destruction.
He confirmed that several cartons of fake, banned, and unwholesome products were confiscated during the operation, in line with the Counterfeit and Fake Drugs and Unwholesome Processed Foods (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act, Cap. C.34 LFN 2004.
The agency thanked the Nigeria Police and military for their professionalism during the raid and assured Nigerians of its continued commitment to protecting public health.
Attack Kaduna Community
that normalcy has since been restored to the community due to the presence of military personnel.
“We’ve urged our people to remain calm and allow the security agencies to carry out their diligent work to ensure the perpetrators are apprehended,” he said.
The residents appealed to the Kaduna State Government and security operatives to intensify patrols and surveillance to prevent further attacks.
The spokesperson of the Kaduna State Police Command, Mansir Hassan, could not be reached on telephone.
Kauru LGA has come under frequent attacks by bandits in recent times.
On October 28, bandits attacked Farin Dutse community, killing a pastor of the United Church of Christ in Nigeria (UCCN) and abducting 20 people.
In a statement on Thursday, President of HEKAN, Rev. Amos Kiri lamented the persistent attacks on the community and called on the federal and state governments to take urgent steps to stop the bandits from unleashing terror on the people.
John Shiklam in Kaduna
TotalEnergies
GREAT ACADEMIC FEAT….
United Nigeria Airlines to Kick-off Regional Flight Service with Flights to Accra from Abuja, Lagos on November 10
Nigerian carrier, United Nigeria Airlines (UNA), is set to record a new milestone in its growth trajectory with the commencement of inaugural regional flight operations, a direct, non-stop service from Abuja and Lagos to Accra, Ghana, on Monday, November 10, 2025.
The airline announced that Flight NUA 0590 would depart the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, at 10:35 a.m., and arrive at the Kotoka International Airport, Accra, signalling a new chapter for United Nigeria Airlines and a significant advancement in West African air connectivity.
The domestic operator, which started scheduled flight service in
2021, described its first regional flight as a historic operation, which represents a direct capital-to-capital service between Abuja and Accra operated by a Nigerian carrier.
“It underscores United Nigeria Airlines vision of fostering stronger regional integration, enhancing trade and tourism, and promoting cultural exchange across West Africa. The Accra service also marks UNA’s first international operation since the airline began commercial flights in February 2021,” the airline said.
The Accra route is believed to be a natural progression of United Nigeria Airlines mission to “unite” communities and economies across Africa.
“The launch of the Accra
Ooni’s Wife Challenges Young Women to Harness Tech Skills for Africa’s Growth
dreams into reality.
Her Regal Majesty and Deputy Convener of the HopesAlive Initiative for Africa (HAI), Dr. Olori Temitope Enitan-Ogunwusi, at the weekend, appealed to young women to believe in themselves, pursue excellence, and continue to break barriers in their chosen paths.
She made this known at the SheLevate Tech Digital Empowerment Bootcamp graduation ceremony in Lagos, themed,’ Empowered to Lead: Women Shaping Africa’s Digital Future’, The initiative, organised under the Hopesalive Initiative for Africa (HAI) and supported by the French Embassy in Nigeria through the FEF-OSC Grant, trained 60 participants in UI/UX Design, Frontend and Backend Development, Data Analytics, WordPress Web Design, and Digital Marketing.
Olori Temitope EnitanOgunwusi commended the resilience of the graduating ladies, describing them as the best the world has ever produced. She encouraged them to take bold steps and turn seemingly impossible
“Go out there and do as many impossible things that people think cannot be done. You can do it. You have the knowledge , it’s been imparted into you. Keep shining,” she stated Expressing gratitude to her husband and Chief Convener of HAI, His Imperial Majesty, the Ooni of Ife, Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi, she lauded his commitment to humanitarian causes and his unwavering support for women and youth empowerment.
She described him as the brain behind HAI, noting that his passion for serving humanity inspires her and many others within the initiative.
“Sometimes I tell him he’s doing too much, and he tells me, ‘This is the essence of my birth.’
I’m grateful that God blessed me with a crown that understands my purpose and vision to serve humanity,” she added.
The Project Manager of SheLevate Tech, Mr. Akapo Olusegun, described the event as not just the close of a programme, but the beginning of a movement built on courage, resilience, and transformation.
route reflects United Nigeria Airlines commitment to our mission statement, ‘Flying to Unite.’ With this expansion, we reinforce our core values as a
unifier of people, businesses, and opportunities across the region and beyond.
“This inaugural regional flight is not merely a business
expansion; it is a bridge between nations. United Nigeria Airlines is proud to play a role in deepening economic, social, and cultural ties within West Africa. Our pledge
remains to deliver safe, reliable, and world-class service as we continue to expand our footprint across the continent,” the airline explained.
At Project Inauguration, Adebayo Promises to Lead Oyebanji’s Re-election Campaign
Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado ekiti
The first civilian Governor of Ekiti State, Niyi Adebayo, has pledged to lead Governor Biodun Oyebanji’s re-election campaign train for the 2026 governorship election in appreciation of the governor’s superlative performance, which has positively impacted the state.
Adebayo, who governed Ekiti State under the defunct Alliance for Democracy (AD) between 1999 and 2003, averred that he won’t be leading the campaign on account of party affiliation, but on the premise of Oyebanji’s scintillating performance and fidelity to Ekiti citizens since 2022.
The former Minister of Trade, Industry and Investment, said this in Ikole Ekiti, at the weekend, while commissioning the
20-kilometre Ikole-Ara-Isinbode road constructed by Governor Oyebanji’s administration, as part of the activities commemorating the third anniversary of his government.
Appraising Oyebanji’s government in the last three years, Adebayo scored the government high in road and power infrastructure; health care delivery, agriculture, and human capital development, among others.
He also thanked Governor Oyebanji for standing by him while he was governor between 1999 and 2003 and for the honour he has always accorded him ever since.
The former governor said he felt pain that he couldn’t construct the Ara- Isinbode- Ikole road during his tenure due to
financial impediment.
This, he said, made the project very impressive and dear to his heart. He said he felt highly fulfilled coming around to commission the same road years after.
Adebayo said he was proud of Governor Oyebanji’s superlative exploits in all sectors of the economy, urging the electorate to massively vote and retain him in power till 2030.
“If you look at our governor, he is a great son. God is using him for Ekiti. I am always very enthusiastic about his issues, because he is special to me.
“When I came to Ekiti in 1998 to begin my political journey, Governor Oyebanji was the first person to join
me. He worked with me and we won that election.
“Even when I lost reelection in 2003, he stood by me and we still maintain that cordial relationship up to today. I am grateful to you for your loyalty and steadfastness to the Ekiti people.
“When the campaign starts for your reelection in 2026, I will be at the forefront, because you have not disappointed us”. In his submission, Governor Oyebanji, who went down memory lane, revealed that he undertook the road project because it was part of what pained Adebayo most.
The governor added that the former Governor Segun Oni also took steps to reconstruct the road, but couldn’t due to unforeseen circumstances.
Aiyedatiwa Hails Pensioners’ Sacrifices, Releases Over N7bn for Gratuities
Fidelis David in Akure
Ondo State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, has reaffirmed his administration’s commitment to the welfare of retirees in the state, describing pensioners as the “custodians of collective memory” and “silent architects” of the state’s public institutions.
The governor stated this in Akure during the 2025 Pensioners’ Day celebration organised by the Nigeria Union of Pensioners (NUP), Ondo State Chapter.
Aiyedatiwa, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Mr. Olusegun Omojuwa, assured that all requests presented by the pensioners, including the rehabilitation of the road leading to their secretariat, would receive prompt attention.
“Pensioners are the custodians of our collective memory, the
teachers who model minds, the health workers who save lives, the administrators who keep the wheels of governance turning. We owe you not just gratuity, but gratitude, respect and remembrance,” Aiyedatiwa said.
The governor emphasised that his administration has, from inception, pursued a deliberate policy to restore the dignity of retirees by ensuring regular pension payments and clearing accumulated arrears of gratuities.
“From day one, we took a solemn stand to bring humanity into governance. Every pensioner deserves peace of mind and a regular income after years of selfless service. That is why we’ve made prompt payment of pensions a permanent culture,” he said.
Aiyedatiwa disclosed that his government has released 2.396 billion for the payment
of gratuities to verified retirees of 2016 and 2017, in addition to 2.2 billion disbursed in 2024 for 2015 retirees. Two weeks ago, the state also released over 2 billion to settle the backlog owed to local government pensioners.
The governor further revealed that his administration approved an additional 30,000 monthly allowance for pensioners to cushion the impact of subsidy removal on senior citizens.
“These payments are not acts of charity but of justice and compassion,” he noted. “Every naira represents a lifetime of service.”
He added that under his administration, pensioners in the state now receive their entitlements promptly, without delays that could subject them to unnecessary hardship.
According to him, the state government, through the Ondo
State Contributory Health Commission, is expanding access to quality healthcare for senior citizens, with plans to fully integrate all registered pensioners into the scheme. He also hinted that ongoing road projects across the state are designed to improve accessibility and ease the movement of all citizens, including the elderly.
In his remarks, the State Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Pensioners, Comrade Johnson Osunyemi, praised the governor for what he described as unprecedented commitment to pensioners’ welfare, declaring him “the pensioners’ loving governor.” Osunyemi said Aiyedatiwa had rescued retirees from years of neglect, noting that, before he assumed office, pensioners had been receiving irregular, percentage-based payments, as well as unpaid gratuities.
Chinedu Eze
Funmi Ogundare
L-R: Dr. Michael Inalegwu; Lecturer, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Akwa, Professor Chukwudi Nwaizugbo; Dr. Rita Odiba; Edo State Commander of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, Dr. Mitchell Ofoyeju; and Head, Faculty of Administration and Management Sciences, Benue State University, Professor Avenenge Faajir, after the defence of their PhD dissertation at the Benue State University, Makurdi…yesterday
Revocation of Visas in International Relations: The Case of Prof. Wole Soyinka and Individuality
Revocation of visas in international relations is an important subject because it involves many rights bothering on sovereignty, human rights, national and international security, individuality, and self-estimation. As a subject of sovereignty, every state has the right of issuance of a visa to the exclusion of any other sovereign state. Both the issuance and revocation of a visa is necessarily reactive in character. For instance, the issuance of a visa is the other side of the issuance of a passport in which the visa is issued. While the holding of a passport is a manifestation of the recommendation by the issuing state of the holder of the passport to the would-be visa-issuing state to consider the holder of the passport for possible issuance of a visa, the visa-issuing authority accepts the recommendation, considers the application, and issues the visa on the basis of the information made available.
However, the issuance of a visa is not yet a guarantee for admission into the visa-issuing country. It is still a recommendation to the border authorities at the port of entry. This practice is so because there might have been new developments in between the time of issuance of a visa and the time of arrival of the holder of the visa. The frequent reasons often considered for entry-refusal include discovery of administrative errors, misinformation by the visa holder, and the quality of sappearance at the port of entry. Appearance is not simply about dressing and mania of response to the questions raised by the immigration officials, but essentially about the personal physiognomic evaluation by the immigration official. Even if there is no problem with the visa documentation, it is sufficient for the immigration official not to like the face of the visa holder to refuse the grant of visa or entry into a country. The reason for visa refusal or denial of entry into a country does not have to be given. This is a resultant of the right of sovereignty. It is against this background that the revocation of the visa issued to Africa’s Nobel Laureate by the US government in an unbefitting fashion raises more questions than answers.
Revocation of Visas in Diplomatic Practice
Let us begin by noting that annulment of visa is different from revocation of visa. Annulment means the recipient of a visa should never have been issued the visa, often because of fraud in the first instance. Revocation of a visa implies that the visa has been invalidated and therefore, it can no longer be valid for entry or re-entry. For people already in the visa-issuing country, either as an immigrant, student, or worker, etc., the immigration status is necessarily queried, travelling out of the country may be difficult when attempting to return. In fact, a new visa application may be required.
As reported by Favour Osah in the Vanguard Newspaper of October 29, 2025 there are ten official dynamics for revocation of US visa. A basis for revocation of visa exists if there is evidence of violation of any of the ten conditions. First is criminal activity. Osah reminded us of the Miami University International Student Office that considers any involvement in a criminal act by a student as a basis of automatic revocation under US consular policy. A second dynamic for revocation is working illegally contrarily to the status of the visa. Visa is always categorised. Student and tourist visas do not generally permit working. Working without authorisation is considered as a serious infraction. A third reason is not maintaining the visa status, that is, when students fail to register for full-time educational enrolment, or when workers lose their jobs, or when tourists overstay their visa permit.
It is important to note here that many visa holders do not understand the classification of their visas. When a visa is issued for two years, it simply means the life of the visa, or the expiration date of the visa. There is always a difference between the permitted time of stay and permitted duration of the visa which is two years. The common practice is three or six months of permitted stay short-visit or business visas.
: 0807-688-2846 e-mail: bolyttag@yahoo.com
Visas can carry a single entry or a multiple-entry status. If a multiple visa is issued for a duration of two years, the holder can travel several times within the period of the two years. I remember when I was issued a student visa to go to France in 1973, it was a long-stay visa, 12 months. However, it was clearly stated on the visa that the holder of the visa should report within the first eight days of arrival in France to the nearest prefecture to my place of residence. I complied and was issued with a Carte de Séjour (Residence Permit), renewable yearly. Several times holders of visa often ignore the informational content of their visa. Most times, because the information is also coded, they bother less. When people overstay, it may be as a result of ignorance of the implications.
Security concerns are listed as a fourth reason for possible revocation of already issued visas. Security concerns are about anyone having any affiliation with terrorism or espionage in whatever ramification or association with organisations that are considered threats to the national security of the United States. All countries of the world take security concerns very seriously. No country issues a visa to anyone that is a potential threat to national security.
The fifth dynamic is ineligibility under US Immigration Laws, Section 221(i) of the Immigration and Nationality Act which makes cases of immigration fraud, smuggling, and health issues as reasons for revocation and ineligibility for admission. In other words, it is only a clean person, people of impeccable character that are generally wanted and considered eligible for the issuance of a visa. If information about a recipient of a visa with a tainted record is not known at the time of issuance
But before then, as shown above, revocation of visas has largely been as a result of derogatory information or fresh intelligence providing information that disqualifies or makes the issuance of a visa invalid. Revocation of visa can arise if it had been improperly issued. It can also be revoked in the interest of national security or for other discretionary considerations. We posit here that none of the conditions applies to Professor Soyinka. Even the two infractions considered by Professor Soyinka as likely rationales for the revocation of his US visa are not as germane as the fact that he is a Nobel Laureate. Donald Trump is not one. He wants a Nobel Prize for peace and to be seen as an internationalist, as a global peace maker but he did not qualify to be so honoured. This is very painful to him. Secondly, Donald Trump wants a regime change in Nigeria. Professor Soyinka actively supports President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who had visited Beijing but not Washington. Quest for regime change cannot but also require declaring his close collaborators persona non grata in the US. Donald Trump is well known to be a transactional dealer, a transactional president that contests criticisms but wants good things for himself and not for others. The revocation of Professor Soyinka’s visa has more to do with the fact of his international standing, his being a Nobel Laureate from Nigeria that had the audacity to reject the unwanted convicted Venezuelans proposed to be hosted by Nigeria. Nigeria is neither Eswatini nor Rwanda that have accepted to host unwanted convicted criminals in the U.S. Donald Trump should have the courtesy of relating properly with impeccable people of Africa
of the visa, the moment new facts emerge, revocation of the visa should be expected.
There is also the sixth reason: Public-Charge or Visa-Purpose Misuse. What is interesting about this condition is not simply that it is about using a visa for a purpose inconsistent with the visa classification, but essentially that the condition overlooks what may be responsible for the use of a visa inconsistently with the classification. The US government underscores nonacceptance of permanent employment while on a status of a tourist visa. We have little qualms with this. We only have qualms with the issue of a public charge.
True, no country wants a visitor to become a landed liability. No one wants to bear the financial brunt for the medication of a tourist. However, even with medical insurance, if a tourist falls sick as a result of force majeure and has to be attended to at the point of death, why should this be considered as a misrepresentation of intent and violation of visa conditions? The alleged misrepresentation is not intentional. Whatever is the case public-charge is a reason for visa revocation.
A seventh reason for revocation is derogatory information discovered after issuance of a visa. This appears to me to be the most critical condition because of the ambiguous character of what constitutes a derogatory information. Derogatory information about what? Criticism of the United States in terms of political governance? Does criticism of President Donald Trump’s mania of Making America Great Again constitute a derogatory act? Does the criticism make someone an adversary of the United States? Does singing in praise of the United States make the singer a friend of the United States? The point being made here is that many, if not most, of the revocation of visas are prompted by this seventh reason. I make this observation, not on the basis of statistical data, but on the basis of the many people I know and whose visas have been revoked but who have been a friendly critique of the United States.
The eighth reason is administrative error in the evaluation of issuance of visa, that is, if issuance of visa is based on mistake. Revocation of visa will be justified on the basis of the provision of the US Foreign Affairs Manual (9FAM 403.11) which allows consular officers to revoke visas. The ninth reason is the automatic or provisional revocation under which visas can be revoked if the holder of the visas do not comply with updated systems like the electronic visa update system (EVUS). The revocation can be reversed the moment there is compliance with the required updating. The tenth, and perhaps more importantly, is the discretionary or prudential revocation. The point of interest in this tenth condition is that visas can be revoked ‘even without a specific legal violation.’ It is because the Department of State has prudential power to revoke visa for discretionary reasons, especially in sensitive or security-related case. Even though it is argued that visa revocation does not imply permanency of the revocation, the bitter truth is that it is very tainting. It is an instrument of political governance. It is an instrument to cover up inefficiency and ineffectiveness of diplomatic administration. More importantly, it is an instrument for regime protection and reciprocity when leaders are criticised and the leaders are helpless and do want to silence their critics. It is a truism that Donald Trump is very vindictive in character. This appears to be the case with the revocation of the visa of Professor Wole Soyinka.
Based on the foregoing ten conditions for visa revocation, there is no condition that can be applicable to him, except the seventh condition on derogatory information. Professor Soyinka has a personality of integrity. He criticises at home and abroad on the basis of objectivity of purpose. And true enough, he has criticised US President Donald Trump who has zero tolerance for domestic criticism, not to talk about foreign critics coming from Africa which he sees as a continent of shit holes. My contention here is that the revocation of Professor Soyinka’s visa is not mainly because of the aforementioned ten reasons but for another reason that cannot be far-fetched.
Prof.
Wole Soyinka and Individuality
On October 23, 2025 the US Consulate General in Lagos revoked the non-immigrant visa of Professor Wole Soyinka in a letter of the same date. On October 28, 2025 Professor Soyinka, in a press interview, confirmed the revocation and agreed with the US Consulate that visas are a privilege and not a right. For various reasons ranging from expression of support for pro-Palestine protests, support of terrorism and to legal violations, visas have been revoked globally. The US Department of Stated is on record to have said that more than 6,000 student visas had been revoked globally. Several Nigerian professionals and frequent flyers have had their visas revoked as well. Does or should Professor Soyinka fall into this category of revocations? Revocation means the visa should not have been issued ab initio.
In our view, there is no reason to suggest that Professor Soyinka has taken his visa as a matter of right. It is true that a holder of any visa, regardless of its type, cannot and must not see it as a right, but as a unique privilege. As a privilege, it must not be abused, and there is nothing to suggest any abuse on Professor Soyinka’s part.
•Soyinka
Editor: Festus Akanbi
08038588469 Email:festus.akanbi@thisdaylive.com
Soaring Rents Pushing Families to the Edge
Across Nigeria’s major cities, rent has become the new nightmare, rising faster than salaries and beyond regulation. From Lagos to Abuja, families are being priced out of their homes as the absence of effective housing oversight fuels arbitrary rent hikes and deepens the urban housing crisis, writes Festus Akanbi
When mrs. Kemi Adeyemi packed her belongings into cardboard boxes and left her two-bedroom flat in Lokogoma last year, she wasn’t just moving homes; she was surrendering to an economy that had priced her out of her own city.
Her rent had leapt from N1 million to N2 million “in one breath,” she recalls, forcing her to relocate to the outskirts of Zuba, where accommodation is cheaper but daily life is tougher. “I saved on rent and lost on life,” she sighs, a sentiment now shared by countless tenants from Surulere in Lagos to Gwarinpa in Abuja.
Across Nigeria’s urban centres, the story is painfully similar. rents that once crept up modestly now surge unpredictably, doubling or even tripling within a year, with no clear rule, oversight, or justification. The result is an unregulated rental market where landlords dictate prices, tenants bear the shock, and the government looks on. behind the drama of eviction notices and last-minute house-hunting lies a deep structural failure: Nigeria’s housing sector is effectively lawless, a free-for-all where market forces, speculation, and weak regulation conspire to make shelter a luxury.
House of Reps to the Rescue
In the midst of this storm, the House of representatives recently proposed a seemingly bold idea: to cap rent increases at 20 per cent nationwide. The proposal, it said, would rein in arbitrary hikes and give tenants some breathing space. but Nigerians are asking questions: What kind of intervention is this? Is the House seeking to make another law for the shelves, or one that can actually be enforced? And shouldn’t it be thinking of broader, more practical solutions, like tackling inflation and expanding affordable housing, rather than enacting a rule that may never see daylight beyond Abuja?
When Shelter Becomes a Gamble
The average Nigerian tenant now lives in a state of constant anxiety. Inflation has eroded wages, while rents gallop beyond logic. In Lagos and Abuja, the twin epicentres of the housing crisis — the absence of effective rent control laws has allowed arbitrary increases to become the norm. Some landlords raise rents simply because “the neighbour did something,” or
because the road has just been tarred. A lack of uniform tenancy regulations means that each state, sometimes each landlord, sets their own rules.
Critics have long argued that without a regulatory framework to moderate rent escalation, the urban housing market has turned into a speculative playground. Developers and property owners, unchecked by valuation standards or oversight, peg rents to inflation or even the dollar, a bizarre practice in a naira-based economy. The result: tenants pay the price for everything from exchange rate volatility to cement costs, even when the building was completed years ago.
Rising Construction Costs, Absent Oversight
It’s true that housing costs are also driven by rising input prices. A 50kg bag of cement now sells for N8,000–N10,000, up from less than N3,000 just a few years ago. Steel, tiles, fittings, and labour have all followed the same upward trend, amplified by exchange-rate instability and logistics bottlenecks. Developers respond by raising rents, often indiscriminately. but in the absence of regulation, there is no oversight to determine whether such increases are reasonable, proportionate, or simply opportunistic.
In more structured economies, rent increases are subject to review boards, cost analyses, or statutory caps. In Nigeria, they’re subject only to the landlord’s mood and the tenant’s desperation. “I had to shut my shop for two weeks just to raise the new rent,” says Chike Nwosu, a tailor in Yaba, whose landlord raised his rent twice in eighteen months. “Nobody cares if your income grows, they just tell you the price and give you a deadline.”
Broken Institutions and Moribund Programmes
The housing crisis also reflects years of failed mortgage and finance policy. The National Housing Fund (NHF), the Federal mortgage bank of Nigeria (FmbN), and state-led initiatives like Lagos’ rent-to-own scheme were conceived to democratise home ownership. Yet they have been hobbled by bureaucracy, weak enforcement, corruption, and low public confidence. Few workers even understand how to access NHF contributions, while many developers avoid formal channels altogether.
The FMBN, despite recent reforms, still faces credibility issues. Loan processing remains slow, and disbursement volumes remain negligible
compared to the scale of national demand. State housing programmes, though well-intentioned, often end up catering to middle-income earners, not the working poor they were meant to serve. The result is a vacuum , a policy void that allows private landlords to dictate market realities unchecked.
How Lack of Regulation Fuels Arbitrary Rent Increases
At the heart of Nigeria’s housing chaos lies a regulatory black hole. The country lacks a unified rent control or valuation framework that could check exploitative practices. State tenancy laws, where they exist, are either outdated or poorly enforced. Lagos, for instance, has a Tenancy Law meant to protect tenants from arbitrary increases, but implementation is weak, and most residents aren’t even aware of their rights.
This lack of regulation has turned public infrastructure upgrades into rent triggers. A newly paved road, a nearby supermarket, or a fresh coat of paint in the neighbourhood becomes justification for landlords to raise rents overnight. Developers and agents exploit this legal vacuum, often colluding to set prices that reflect speculative gains, not actual value. Without a regulatory body or rent tribunal to arbitrate disputes, tenants are left with one option — pay or pack out.
real estate professionals have repeatedly called for a national regulatory authority, such as the proposed real estate regulatory Council, to bring sanity to the market. but legislative inertia and vested interests have stalled the bill. In the meantime, unregulated developers, speculators, and informal agents continue to dictate the fate of families.
Both Sides Squeezed, but Tenants Bleed More
To be fair, landlords are not immune to economic strain. many face soaring maintenance costs, higher property taxes, and rising interest rates on construction loans. but while landlords can transfer these costs through rent hikes, tenants have no such escape route. They absorb every shock, from inflation to fuel subsidy removal, through dwindling disposable income. The unregulated market ensures that landlords’ pain becomes tenants’ burden. This imbalance, experts argue, is precisely why regulation is necessary. Without oversight, a market designed for shelter becomes an engine for inequality. The absence of valuation benchmarks
means that property prices, and by extension rents, are dictated not by cost or utility, but by speculation and greed.
What Must Change reform must begin with a clear, enforceable regulatory framework. Nigeria needs a National Tenancy and Rent Control Policy that harmonises state laws, defines fair rent adjustment mechanisms, and establishes rent tribunals for dispute resolution. Caps on annual rent increases, tied to inflation or cost indices, could protect tenants while giving landlords predictability.
The Federal and State Governments must also revamp moribund housing programmes. The NHF and FMBN should be digitised, decentralised, and made transparent, allowing contributors to track payments and access lowinterest mortgages easily. Lagos’ rent-to-own and similar schemes in other states should be redesigned to truly reflect affordability benchmarks for low- and middle-income earners. equally critical is the need for a regulatory council to oversee real estate developers, agents, and transactions. Such a body would set professional standards, curb speculative pricing, and ensure transparency in rent and property valuations. If properly enforced, it would bring discipline to a sector that currently thrives on opacity.
Finally, government must confront construction cost inflation head-on, by supporting local material production, stabilising forex access for manufacturers, and incentivising mass housing projects through tax breaks and land access.
A Nation on the Edge
For now, the housing market continues its unrestrained drift. Families like mrs. Adeyemi’s and mr. Nwosu’s live one rent cycle away from displacement, their lives balanced on the whims of unregulated landlords. The cost of inaction is more than economic, it’s social dislocation, mental stress, and eroding trust in government’s ability to protect its citizens. Nigeria’s rent crisis is not just a story of inflation or population growth. It is a story of weak regulation, failed institutions, and policy neglect, a cocktail that has turned the right to shelter into a speculative gamble. Until regulation brings order, families will keep paying the price for a system that values property more than people.
A housing estate in Lagos
Nigeria’s Manufacturing Sector Still Gasping for Breadth
Nigeria’s manufacturing sector is in crisis, with falling output, closed factories and rising imports, endangering jobs and the nation’s economic independence. Without urgent intervention, the decline could deepen poverty and erode national resilience, writes Festus Akanbi
At a time when Nigeria’s leaders speak glowingly of reforms and renewal, the numbers emerging from the manufacturing sector tell a sobering story, one of steady decline, diminishing capacity, and a gathering storm that could threaten the country’s economic independence. once the backbone of industrial growth and mass employment, manufacturing in Nigeria is fading fast. Factories that once hummed with activity now operate below capacity or have shut down entirely. The nation that prided itself on “made in Nigeria” goods is now increasingly dependent on imports. economists warn that if unchecked, this decline could cost millions of jobs, deepen poverty, accelerate brain drain, and erode national resilience.
Mounting Pressure
President of the manufacturers Association of Nigeria (mAN), Francis meshioye, captured the mood bluntly: “In 2024, Nigeria’s manufacturing sector encountered a myriad of macroeconomic and infrastructural challenges that severely impacted its performance.”
“We faced mounting pressure from high inflation, a depreciating naira, rising interest rates, escalating electricity tariffs, record-low sales, a multiplicity of taxes and levies, and serious security concerns. The sector has been under siege,” he told THISDAY.
Worrisome Data
Data from MAN confirm the distress. The industrial sector’s share of Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) has fallen from about 27.6 per cent in 2010 to 21.1 per cent under the 2019 rebased structure. between 2019 and 2024, manufacturing recorded an average five-year growth rate of minus 0.76 per cent, meaning the sector has been shrinking in real terms. In the first half of 2024 alone, manufacturing’s contribution to GDP slipped from about 16 per cent at the end of 2023 to just under 13 per cent.
The human toll is no less striking. mAN estimates that the sector lost thousands of jobs in 2024 as plants folded or scaled down production. by the end of the year, unsold goods worth about N1.4 trillion were stacked in warehouses across the country, an outcome of high costs, weak purchasing power, and disrupted supply chains.
“You can imagine what it means for a business to produce goods that consumers can no longer afford. It becomes a vicious cycle. The more costs rise, the fewer people buy, and the fewer jobs can be sustained,”meshioye said. energy, a long-standing albatross, remains the biggest drain. Following a hike in electricity tariffs of more than 250 per cent, many manufacturers say their energy bills have become unbearable. Those who rely on diesel-powered generators spend up to half their operating costs on fuel.
“Power alone is a tax on productivity. You cannot talk about competitiveness when your factories run on self-generated power at four or five times what producers elsewhere pay,”lamented mAN’s Director-General, Segun Ajayi-Kadir.
Counting the Losses
The implications of this industrial decline go far beyond balance sheets. They touch every aspect of national life, including employment, innovation, foreign exchange, and even social stability.
manufacturing, by its nature, is a powerful engine of job creation. It absorbs skilled
and semi-skilled labour, drives demand for local raw materials, and stimulates linkages across agriculture, transport, finance, and services. Its retreat, therefore, means fewer opportunities for Nigeria’s restless youth population, already battling unemployment and underemployment.
Analysts warn that the shrinking industrial base also fuels Nigeria’s most painful export, its people. “brain drain is not just about doctors and nurses,” noted economist bismarck rewane, Ceo of Financial Derivatives Company. “It’s also engineers, machinists, designers, and technicians who no longer find meaningful work locally. The collapse of manufacturing translates directly into a collapse of opportunities for technical talent. When people cannot create value at home, they take their skills elsewhere.”
For Nigeria, the timing could not be worse. The country is struggling with sluggish growth, persistent inflation, exchange-rate instability, and an ever-widening trade deficit. Manufacturing should be part of the solution, but its decline has become part of the problem. every additional container of imported goods exerts pressure on foreign exchange reserves and weakens the naira further. The more Nigeria consumes from abroad, the less it produces at home, and the harder it becomes to break the cycle of dependency.
Ajayi-Kadir agrees. “The rebasing of Nigeria’s GDP may have shown that the economy is statistically larger, but it also exposed the structural weakness within our productive sectors,” he said. “We have become a service-heavy economy that does not produce enough. An economy that consumes more than it manufactures is an economy living on borrowed vitality.”
Analysts fear that this hollowing-out of industry could soon become irreversible. With each factory closure, the ecosystem of skills, suppliers, and local content fragments is disrupted. machinery becomes obsolete, supply chains collapse, and institutional memory fades. reviving such sectors later can be far more costly than preventing their decay now. but there are glimmers of hope. mAN and
the United Nations Industrial Development organisation (UNIDo) have been collaborating on a “Nigeria First” initiative to promote local patronage, domestic value addition, and export competitiveness. The policy encourages both the government and the private sector to prioritise Nigerian-made goods in procurement and consumption. meshioye describes it as “a call to action to rescue the nation’s productive capacity before it’s too late.”
“This policy,” he told THISDAY, “is not about protectionism. It’s about patriotism and economic common sense. every naira spent on a locally made product multiplies within the economy, sustaining jobs, stimulating suppliers, and boosting government revenue. When we spend on imported goods, that value leaves our shores instantly.”
UNIDo’s representative to eCoWAS and Nigeria, Jean bakole, shares this perspective. Speaking at a recent industry roundtable, he said: “No country ever achieved sustainable development by depending on others for its essential goods. Industrialisation remains the surest route to structural transformation. Nigeria has the population, the raw materials, and the entrepreneurial spirit; what it needs now is policy consistency and infrastructure.”
Inconsistency
Indeed, policy inconsistency has been the bane of Nigerian manufacturing. over the years, abrupt reversals, conflicting import tariffs, unstable exchange-rate regimes, and overlapping taxation have left investors disoriented. one administration bans a product: the next lifts the ban. Some policies encourage import substitution; others open the borders overnight. The result is a climate of uncertainty that discourages long-term investment. meshioye believes this inconsistency must end. “manufacturing is a long-term endeavour. Investors need to plan for five to 10 years. but when policies change every quarter, or when customs tariffs contradict Central Bank directives, or when taxes multiply without consultation, investors simply lose confidence. That is why you see more capital flight than inflow,” he said.
Infrastructure, too, remains a major obstacle.
Decaying roads and port congestion inflate logistics costs, while erratic power supply continues to cripple productivity. “We cannot industrialise on generators,” said Dr muda Yusuf, Director of the Centre for the Promotion of Private enterprise. “every government that truly cares about industrialisation must treat power and transport as national emergencies, not routine projects.”
Yet government alone cannot save the sector. The private sector must also raise its game. Large conglomerates, analysts argue, should commit to sourcing raw materials and packaging locally wherever possible. Quality assurance must be a priority, ensuring that “made in Nigeria” stands for reliability, not compromise. Consumers also have a role to play by supporting local products and holding producers accountable for their standards.
The stakes are enormous. If current trends persist, Nigeria could witness further factory closures, deeper job losses, and a widening gap between the skills its schools produce and the jobs its economy offers. The social implications could be grave, from rising unemployment and crime to continued youth migration. but if the country seizes the moment, invests strategically, and protects its productive base, it could spark an industrial renaissance that powers inclusive growth.
In fairness, the federal government has shown some awareness of the challenge. The minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Dr Doris Uzoka-Anite, recently assured stakeholders that President bola Tinubu’s administration is working to improve the business climate, tackle infrastructure bottlenecks, and harmonise taxes.
“We are determined to make Nigeria the preferred destination for manufacturing in Africa,” she said. “That requires not just policy reform but also a cultural shift toward valuing our own.”
Ultimately, saving manufacturing means preserving jobs, skills, and hope. It means ensuring that Nigeria’s young, energetic population has something meaningful to create and somewhere meaningful to work. It means building an economy that earns its pride, not imports it.
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CHRISTOPHER KOLADE: SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE OLUSEGUN AGANGA pays tribute to Christopher Kolade, a beacon of integrity
See Page 20 FROM SYMBOLISM TO SUBSTANCE
How Nigeria can turn gestures into good governance, writes MAJORITY OJI
See Page 20
There is no faith-based violence in Nigeria, argues GIMBA
KAKANDA
A READING OF PRESIDENT TRUMP’S STATEMENT ON NIGERIA
Perhaps comprehension, just like objectivity, has become a casualty in this debate, but I find it difficult to understand how anyone can claim that U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent statement on faith-based violence in Nigeria aligns with the sectarian agenda advanced by certain groups. Two points stand out clearly in his comments. First, he deliberately avoided describing the situation in Nigeria as “genocide,” instead using the phrase “existential threat to Christians.” Secondly, and crucially, he identified “radical Islamists,” not the Nigerian state, and certainly not Nigerian Muslims, as the perpetrators of violence. These distinctions matter greatly, as they contradict the divisive rhetoric being promoted by those seeking to pit one faith community against another.
This is not the first time President Trump has raised concerns about alleged one-sided violence against Christians. During former President Muhammadu Buhari’s visit to the White House on April 30, 2018, President Trump remarked, “We’re deeply concerned by religious violence in Nigeria, including the burning of churches and the killing of Christians.” In response, President Buhari, while framing the violence as indiscriminate, acknowledged the challenge of violent herdsmen and cross-border recruits from Libya and the Sahel, and stressed that his government was doing its best to stabilise the situation.
There is a reason that moment remains instructive. Rather than amplifying a narrative of state-sponsored sectarian extermination, the U.S. side identified religious violence as one of several security concerns. The Nigerian side responded by framing the violence as part of complex socio-security dynamics, not as a conspiracy of Muslims against their Christian compatriots.
It also bears reiterating that the claim of “genocide” against Christians in Nigeria does not meet the legal definition established under the 1948 Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The Convention defines genocide as acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial, or religious group as such. There is no credible evidence that the Nigerian government is masterminding the destruction of Christians. The origins and dimensions of violence in Nigeria are unmistakable. They are rooted in terrorism, banditry, communal conflicts, resource competition, and, admittedly, weak governance over the decades. This does not amount to the state-directed and systematic campaign that the term “genocide” presupposes.
President Trump’s statement, while emotively focused on Christian victims, does not mirror the propaganda promoted by some far-right commentators who claim that the Nigerian government turns a blind eye to attacks on Christians or that Nigerian Muslims are complicit. On the contrary, he singled out radical extremists. This distinction aligns with the Nigerian government’s own position and reflects the sacrifices of its multifaith armed forces in confronting terrorism across the Sahel and West Africa.
The diplomatic steps ahead for both countries will be guided by President Trump’s directive to certain U.S. lawmakers— Congressman Riley Moore, Chairman
Tom Cole, and members of the House Appropriations Committee—to investigate the matter and report back to him. This also presents an opportunity for the Nigerian government, through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, to proactively engage the U.S. side and provide a comprehensive, three-dimensional perspective on the country’s security realities. Such diplomatic engagement will help ensure that any congressional inquiry is informed by facts, not filtered through advocacy groups with narrow interests.
What may also work to Nigeria’s advantage is that a balanced interpretation of the situation has been echoed at the highest levels of the U.S. government. Massad Boulos, Senior Adviser to the U.S. President on Arab and African Affairs, has publicly dismissed claims of religious persecution and targeted genocide against Christians in Nigeria. During his discussions with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in Rome, Boulos clarified that terrorism in Nigeria affects individuals of all faiths and ethnicities indiscriminately and noted that groups such as Boko Haram and ISIS have, in fact, killed more Muslims than Christians.
Boulos not only described the allegations of religious persecution as misguided and inconsistent with the complex realities of Nigeria’s security terrain but also commended Nigeria’s renewed counter-terrorism initiatives under President Tinubu. He emphasised ongoing U.S. cooperation in intelligence sharing and regional security and underscored that Nigeria’s challenges are not rooted in religion but in broader socio-economic and regional dynamics.
The line between NGO activism and
diplomatic engagement is clear. Activism draws its energy from outrage, while diplomacy thrives on dialogue. In this regard, the response of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs exemplifies the restraint and statesmanship required in such a situation. It acknowledges the concerns raised, reaffirms Nigeria’s commitment to religious freedom, and emphasises partnership with the United States in tackling violent extremism, which is the central theme of President Trump’s statement.
This is reminiscent of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s masterclass in diplomacy during his Oval Office meeting with President Trump when Trump made claims about alleged killings of white farmers in South Africa. Ramaphosa refused to be provoked and chose to engage with facts. That act of composure shielded South Africa from further reputational harm and potential economic consequences. Such measured diplomacy is not weakness; it is wisdom.
Nigeria, as Africa’s largest democracy, operates in a subregion where democratic governance has faced severe strain in recent years. It cannot afford the luxury of an antagonistic posture toward a strategic partner like the United States, and it is reasonable to believe that U.S. authorities are equally aware of this. There are no winners in a diplomatic standoff between Abuja and Washington, only losses for both nations. What must prevail now is reason.
Kakanda is the Senior Special Assistant to the President of Nigeria on Research and Analytics in the Office of the Vice President.
OLUSEGUN AGANGA pays tribute to Christopher Kolade, a beacon of integrity
CHRISTOPHER KOLADE: SIMPLY UNFORGETTABLE
Ireceived the news of the passing of our Life Patron, Dr Christopher Kolade, ace broadcaster, administrator, business leader, diplomat and teacher, with a profound sense of loss and sadness. Widely revered as one of Nigeria’s most principled and visionary leaders, his influence on the Nigerian Leadership Initiative (NLI) Community, which he helped shape through his mentorship and values-driven leadership, was not just profound but transformative. His passing has therefore left us with a big vacuum, but his legacy of integrity and service to the Fatherland will continue to inspire us.
As the High Commissioner to the United Kingdom two decades ago, Dr Kolade guided the Nigeria Leadership Initiative’s mission to cultivate values-based leadership among emerging Nigerian leaders. His emphasis on character, competence, and service to the nation and humanity became the bedrock of NLI’s ethos. And his mentorship has reached over 400 Senior Fellows, Fellows, and Associates across all public, corporate, and non-profit sectors, with a global reach.
The influence of Dr Kolade is evident in the impactful roles these mentees have taken up in leading national, multilateral, corporate, and non-governmental organisations within and beyond Nigeria. Significantly, many of these mentees, representing diverse backgrounds and experiences, have actively nurtured the next generation of leaders, thereby creating an ongoing legacy.
While Dr Kolade’s passing marks the end of an era, his legacy lives on in the institutions he built, the leaders he mentored, and the values he championed. The tribute sent to the family by the NLI reflects both a deep gratitude and renewed commitment to continuing his work—creating a Nigeria led by integrity, vision, and service. As has been attested to by many Nigerians, he led by example and was a paragon of integrity. He preached what he believed and practised what he preached. We are committed to upholding his work and ensuring his legacy endures.
From quiet moments of encouragement to bold acts of generosity, Dr Kolade has been a guiding light. His strength has inspired us, his compassion has comforted us, and his integrity has set a standard we strive to uphold.
He generously gave us his time, energy, and heart; we are profoundly grateful. We will never forget his contributions, and we deeply respect and appreciate them. Dr Kolade stood firm in every challenge and shared freely in every joy; his spirit shines through in every memory we hold dear. He taught us that greatness is not measured by accolades but by the lives we touch and the love we give.
At the Nigeria Leadership Initiative, we join Dr Kolade’s vast network of friends, colleagues, associates, and well-wishers across Nigeria and the globe in mourning his loss. We share in his family’s grief and offer them our deep and sincere condolences. As we declare our commitment to continuing with the good work he started, we pledge to sustain his legacy by dedicating a fitting and sustainable project in his honour as a mark of our gratitude and appreciation.
We delightfully recall our unforgettable experience with Dr Kolade in 2006, when he joined the pioneer class of NLI Senior Fellows for four days of intensive leadership seminar led by moderators from the Aspen Institute, Colorado at The Grove, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom. He was a consummate educator— knowledgeable, passionate about Nigeria and
values-based leadership, and deeply skilled at translating complex ideas into meaningful insights for experienced professionals. We also remember the sumptuous dinner Mrs Beatrice Kolade gave the Senior Fellows afterwards. The pioneer Senior Fellows class included foremost Investment banker, Bayo Ogunlesi, CON; banking icons - Jim Ovia, CON; Tony Elumelu, CON; Mallam Nuhu Ribadu; Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, CON; Professor Jacob Oluponna (Harvard University), Professor Tayo Akinwande (MIT), Professor Femi Oyebode, Ambassador Ayo Oke, CFR; Bishop Mathew Kukah, Mrs Bola Adesola, Mr Olusegun Adeniyi, Mr Asue Ighodalo, Mr Dele Olojede, Mr Oye Hassan Odukale, Professor Reuben Obaro, Dr Seyi Solebo, Mrs Ndidi Nwuneli, Mr Jimi Morgan, Dr Festus Dada, Dame Bridget Itsueli, Mr Gboyega Delano, Dr Lola Oni, MBE, and Mr Jide Zetlin. The subsequent classes of Senior Fellows included former Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, GCON; Mr Moyo Ajekigbe (NLI Board), Dr Titi Banjoko (NLI Board), Mallam Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim (NLI Board), Mr Udo Udoma, CON; Mrs Maryam Uwais, MFR; Mr John Momoh, Dr Reuben Abati, Dr (Mrs) Sarah Alade, OON; Mr Taiwo Oyedele, Dr Okey Enelamah, Prof Chidi Odinkalu, and Professor Tunji Olaopa. Professor Muhammed Ali Pate, the current Coordinating Minister of Health, Mr Balarabe Mahmoud, SAN, Prof. Tayo Adeleke, Mr Gbenga Oyebode, Mr Folusho Philips, Mr Gbolade Oshibodu, Mrs. Clare Omatseye, Mrs Funke Opeke, Mrs Sola David-Borha, Ms. Hauwa Magoro, Mr. Tajudeen Ahmed, Mr. Fela Durotoye, Mr. Aminu Umar-Sadiq and Dr. Tunde Ajia. The Fellow and Associate Classes have distinguished Nigerians who are in leadership roles in Nigeria, Europe, US and Asia.
On a personal note, I have several profound memories of Dr Kolade, but one stands out. Shortly before Dr Kolade left the UK as High Commissioner in 2007, I hosted a dinner in his honour. Those who attended included the Archbishop of Canterbury at the time, Baron Rowan Douglas Williams; former Commonwealth Secretary General, Chief Emeka Anyaoku; Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps in the Royal Household of the Sovereign, Sir Anthony Figgis; Conservative politician, Baroness Lynda Chaulker and several others. And they all paid glowing tributes to Kolade. But it was Lord Brian Griffith, a senior director at Goldman Sachs at the time, who shared an anecdote that many found striking. He was in New York, United States, and had taken a cab whose driver turned out to be of Nigerian descent. When they got talking, Brian asked the driver whether he knew anyone called Christopher Kolade.
FROM SYMBOLISM TO SUBSTANCE
How Nigeria can turn gestures into good governance, writes MAJORITY OJI
When a government learns to reason with its critics instead of railing against them, when it exchanges the cudgel for conversation, it begins, perhaps unwittingly, to lay the foundation of legitimacy.
In recent months, the air of Nigeria has been heavy with grievance: from the turmoil over ASUU’s agitations to the uproar surrounding presidential pardon, from the quiet fleecing of citizens by telecom giants, DSTV, and banks to the inflated costs of imported goods and essential commodities. These are not scattered outcries because they echo one basic truth, which is the revelation that the social contract between state and citizen has frayed.
The recent reversals and conciliatory tones from the government suggest an awakening, but symbolism alone cannot suffice. The time has come to transmute gestures into governance, rhetoric into reform, and promises into performance.
Few unions have borne the moral cross of Nigeria’s educational decay as steadfastly as the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).
For decades, ASUU has played Cassandra to a deaf state. ASUU has been warning, pleading, striking, all in pursuit of what should have been obvious: adequate funding, infrastructural renewal, and respect for agreements solemnly signed yet repeatedly breached.
The ritual is drearily familiar. Government negotiates with pomp, pledges with passion, and defaults with precision. Then follows the inevitable strike, resulting in students being stranded, lecturers vilified, and the nation poorer for its own neglect. Yet ASUU’s agitation has been less rebellion than a reminder to all Nigerians that the nation which toys with its teachers toys with its future.
It was great news that ASUU called off a warning strike through dialogue rather than decree. It hinted at a new temper of reason over repression. But this must not be mistaken for closure; it should be the opening line of a new chapter. To restore faith, the government must ensure it provides what it promises. Government at all levels must release funds, publish timelines, and institute transparent monitoring. It is only when agreements are honoured and accountability enforced will the long night of strikes begin to give birth to a new beginning.
Presidential clemency, too, has stirred unease. Mercy is a solemn prerogative meant to temper justice with compassion, yet when it appears to embrace the unrepentant, it risks becoming mockery. President Tinubu’s recent act of pardoning a cohort of convicts, some reportedly guilty of grievous crimes sparked outrage that reverberated across the nation.
The Constitution may have empowered the President to forgive, but not to forget the public trust. To wield mercy without moral calibration is to corrode confidence in justice.
The subsequent review and suspension of the pardon list were, in themselves, victories for civic vigilance, a reminder that public outcry can still correct official missteps. However, the winner in this instance is the Federal Government, with a gold medal hanging around its neck. Its review and reversal of the errors found in the mercy list mark the beginning of a race toward a new national rebirth that is just beginning to dawn.
But the lesson must run deeper: the process of pardon should not be shrouded in executive mystique. It must be transparent, consultative, and just. Let clemency be guided by principle, not patronage, lest the altar of mercy become a sanctuary for impunity.
Beyond the grand theatres of politics lies a quieter agony, the daily attrition of citizens’ wallets. Telecom operators, DSTV, and the banks have perfected a modern art of invisible extortion through arbitrary deductions, maintenance fees, ‘inactivity’ penalties, and vanishing airtime that
evaporates like dew under the sun.
The Senate has in the past accused GSM operators of ‘daylight robbery’ over dropcall deductions, yet the menace persists. It appears the Senate only used the warning to shine light on itself rather than put a stop to the charade. Thus, DSTV’s subscription model, banking levies, and digital transaction fees all feed into a labyrinth of opaque billing that spells death by a thousand deductions. Government must step in not as a spectator but as a sentinel. The Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection (FCCPC), and the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) must enforce transparent billing, mandate refunds for wrongful deductions, and legislate caps on arbitrary charges. No citizen requires a degree in accounting to discover why 15 naira must disappeared from his account because he made a first call of the day.
Meanwhile, the price of survival in Nigeria has become a daily crucifixion. Inflation stalks every market stall, fuel prices fluctuate like a fever, and transport fares soar without wings. While officials would quickly point in the direction of global trends, a deeper rot festers as importers pad invoices, explore customs loopholes that reward excess, and skillfully navigate a currency regime that invites exploitation.
Social commentator Martins Vincent Otse known as Very Darkman Man, recently spotlighted the culture of inflated import costs, an investigative work that resonated across Nigeria because it captured what citizens already know about importers’ culture of mischief that treat regulation as suggestion. Fuel, too, is ensnared in a vicious web of subsidy distortions, opaque pricing mechanisms, and the heavy hand of foreign exchange volatility. What should be a lifeline for productivity has become a labyrinth of profiteering where multiple intermediaries feast on arbitrage and the consumer bears the cost. Each tweak in policy seems to birth a new distortion, while the promise of a good life embedded in deregulation drifts farther away from the reach of the common man.
To ease this burden, the government must act with surgical precision: tighten customs oversight, audit import cost declarations, cap handling surcharges, rationalize fuel distribution chains, and introduce targeted reliefs to cushion impacts on ordinary citizens. Inflation is not a ghost that is beyond control; it is the offspring of negligence and systemic greed.
The recent ASUU engagement and the pardon reversal prove that the government can listen, but listening is only the first step toward redemption. To earn the trust of a weary populace, Nigeria’s governance system must evolve from episodic reaction to enduring reform.
Oji is a Professor of Mass Communication, Delta State University, Abraka Aganga, CON, former Minister for Trade and Investment and NLI Founder.
2, 2025
Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA
Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com
THE ANAMBRA GOVERNORSHIP POLL
Come Saturday, the people of Anambra State will go to the polls to elect their governor for the next four years. While it is a contest between incumbent Chukwuma Soludo of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) and a plethora of candidates from 15 other political parties, what adds significance to this election is that it is the first to be conducted by the new Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) Chairman, Joash Amupitan. Expectations are therefore high that the commission will use the Anambra poll to test its preparedness for the 2027 general elections.
Already, the Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has announced the deployment of 50,000 policemen to the state for the election. No one knows how many soldiers and other security assets that will be deployed. We must caution against a situation in which security and other personnel swamp and frighten away voters as that could lead to an unintended low turnout, as we have seen with some recent elections. On a positive note, Amupitan, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), has rejected a situation in which the tardiness of the electoral body has shifted election verdicts to the courts.
May the best candidate win
political differences, is rampant in the state. We therefore hope that the security agencies will be alive to their responsibilities during the election in which candidates from 16 out of 19 registered political parties in the country will participate. But one fact about the Anambra gubernatorial election, which also is true with all Nigerian elections, is that it is not going to be fought on ideological platforms. None of these 16 parties whose candidates are jostling for power can be described as ideology-driven by any stretch of the imagination. It is therefore important that politicians in the state allow the people to decide their destiny for the next four years without any form of coercion or violence.
The new INEC leadership has a huge burden to defend the integrity of our electoral system and reassure the world that democracy indeed has a future in Nigeria
SUNDAY NEWSPAPER
editor DAVIDSON IRIEkpEN
deputy editors FESTUS AkANBI, EJIOFOR ALIkE
However, what Amupitan must understand is the logistical nightmares that are now associated with off-season gubernatorial elections. For now, eight states conduct such gubernatorial elections. Incidentally, they all started in Anambra State after Peter Obi, then of APGA, successfully challenged the election of Chris Ngige, then of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) through a court process that lasted for three years. Since the constitution says a governor is entitled to four years, Obi was sworn in for a fresh period of four years from the day of his court victory in 2006. Most of the other off-cycle elections followed the same trajectory.
Anambra presents a peculiar problem. Recourse to violent to settle scores, including
Managing director ENIOLA BELLO
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editor nation s capital IYOBOSA UWUgIAREN the oMBudsMan kAYODE kOMOLAFE
THISDAY NEWSPAPERS LIMITED
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This election would be a test of how far democracy can overwhelm existing insecurity. But the real burden is still with INEC. There were some glitches during the recent mock accreditation exercise in the state, as part of the measures to test the efficacy of the Bimodal Voter Authentication System (BVAS). The technology, introduced during the 2023 general election, is designed to authenticate voters biometrics and transmit results electronically in real time via the IReV portal. Although Amupitan assured stakeholders at the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election (ICCES) last week that the commission is ready for the poll, public attention will be on IReV portal. In its post-election report, INEC confirmed that “the glitch experienced in uploading the scanned images of polling unit presidential election result sheets on 25th February 2023 was due to the inherent complexity within the system, which was difficult to anticipate and mitigate.”
While we hope that these issues have been addressed, the new INEC leadership has a huge burden to defend the integrity of our electoral system and reassure the world that democracy indeed has a future in Nigeria. That is why the spotlight is now on the Anambra State gubernatorial poll. May the best candidate win.
Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief(150-200 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (950- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive. com along with the email address and phone numbers of the writer
LETTERS
CLIMATE CHANGE AND THE FARMER’S CRY
The Sahel region of West Africa, stretching from Senegal to Chad, was once known for its vast grasslands, rich soil, and rhythmic cycles of rain and harvest. Today, that landscape is changing dramatically. The once-predictable rains now come late, fall irregularly, or fail altogether, leaving farmers at the mercy of an unpredictable climate. In many communities, dry winds have replaced cool breezes, and cracked earth has replaced fertile farmland. The story of the Sahel is no longer one of abundance but of survival — a desperate struggle to adapt to the harsh realities of climate change. Across villages in Niger, Mali, and northern Nigeria, farmers wake each morning not knowing whether the day will bring rain or ruin. The shifting climate has become more than an environmental problem; it is a humanitarian crisis that touches every aspect of life.
In communities across the region, farming is not just an occupation — it is a way of life, a legacy passed from generation to generation. But
that legacy is now in jeopardy. Crops that once grew effortlessly, such as millet, sorghum, and maize, are failing under the weight of extreme heat and drought. For many farmers, the decline in agricultural productivity has meant shrinking incomes and food insecurity. Families that relied on harvests to feed their households and pay school fees now find themselves struggling to survive. Some have turned to alternative livelihoods like petty trading or migration to urban centers in search of work. However, even cities are not immune to the effects of climate change, as rising temperatures and resource scarcity trigger new forms of economic pressure. The consequences are deeply felt, eroding not only livelihoods but the cultural identity of farming communities that once thrived on the rhythm of the seasons.
Scientific studies show that the Sahel is one of the fastest-warming regions on the planet, with average temperatures rising about 1.5 times faster than the global average. This acceleration
has brought frequent droughts, flash floods, and desertification that threaten both crops and livestock. The Sahara Desert continues to creep southward, swallowing grazing lands and displacing entire communities. Environmental experts warn that without swift action, the Sahel could become uninhabitable for millions within the next few decades. Climate change has blurred the line between the wet and dry seasons, making traditional farming calendars unreliable. In places like Borno and Kano, Nigeria, farmers who once planted crops confidently in May now wait anxiously, unsure when the rains will begin. The rhythm of life has been disrupted, and adaptation is now a necessity, not a choice. Yet, amidst the challenges, stories of resilience and innovation are emerging. Across West Africa, farmers are learning new techniques to survive in a hotter, drier world. In Burkina Faso, communities have revived ancient waterharvesting methods, digging “zai pits” — small holes that trap rainwater and concentrate
nutrients around crops. In Niger, farmers are practicing agroforestry by planting droughtresistant trees alongside crops to prevent soil erosion and retain moisture. These techniques, though simple, have proven powerful in restoring fertility to degraded lands. Nongovernmental organizations, such as the Great Green Wall Initiative, are working across borders to plant millions of trees and halt the march of desertification. This continental effort has become a symbol of unity, hope, and determination to reclaim the land from the encroaching desert. Despite these positive efforts, the scale of the problem demands more than community action. Many rural farmers lack access to climate information, modern irrigation systems, and financial support.
Hadiza Ibrahim Ba’aba, Kashim Ibrahim University, Maiduguri
2027: Imperatives of Dasuki’s Message for Tinubu, Atiku
Last week, the member representing Kebbe/ Tambuwal Federal Constituency of Sokoto State, Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki, spoke the minds of ordinary Nigerians, especially lovers of true democracy.
The federal lawmaker had announced that he would not be seeking re-election and indeed will not participate in any elections from 2027 so as to pave the way for younger persons to gain leadership experience and contribute their quota to Nigeria’s development.
Dasuki had after reflecting on his 14-year political experience that includes terms in the State House of Assembly, House of Representatives, and the State Executive Council, declared his resolve to retire from electoral competition.
This writer believes that Hon Dasuki’s declaration was an indirect message to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his long-time political ally, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, particularly when he described his decision as a personal sacrifice to give more younger Nigerians a chance to serve.
I am particularly inspired by Dasuki’s two bold declarations. First, he stated that “The Nigeria we yearn for is only possible through sacrifice.” Then to cap it all, he declared: “As I step aside, I wish to bequeath a new legacy in Nigeria’s political history, one that showcases leaders, who know when to exit, paving the way for a fresher generation.”
It should be noted that Dasuki is still within the youth age bracket, but he pointed out: “After due consultation with my team, our leader, my family, and my conscience, I have decided not to seek re-election to the House of Representatives in 2027. This is not born out of fatigue or disillusionment, but a higher calling — a decision rooted in belief, in hope, and in a future we all desire to see.”
To be very frank, I spent a greater part of the last week reflecting on this noble gesture from Hon Dasuki. And that development actually redirected my mind to my earlier calls on President Tinubu and Atiku to reconsider their intention to participate in the 2027 presidential election.
Truth be told the continued participation of Tinubu and Atiku in electoral contests is at the root of the political pressure and tension in the country.
After contesting the presidential
election in 2019 and 2023, Atiku still insists on struggling for space with his grandchildren, something Dasuki said is preventing Nigeria from the “future we all desire to see.”
Then, what happened last Friday, when the Federal High Court decided to put spanners in the works for Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) planned national convention, epitomises President Tinubu’s desperation to ensure that he contests the 2027 poll unchallenged.
Without doubt, what is currently happening in various political parties leaves the impression that the Presidency wants to emulate the late Sani Abacha in the effort to have all political parties queuing up behind his second term ambition. For this, the tension in the country is increasing and very palpable. It was therefore based on the foregoing that I decided to ruminate on Tinubu’s 2027 options, whether a statesman’s exit or a nation’s fall. My take is that history rarely announces its turning points. They arrive quietly, cloaked in the mundane, disguised as routine
decisions. Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s presidency was never foretold in the stars of Nigeria’s political firmament. It was the improbable outcome of a thousand compromises, a thousand silences, and a thousand miscalculations mostly abetted by those who got power on a platter and were consumed by it. Yet, here he is, at the helm of a nation teetering between rebirth and ruin.
Tinubu’s rise was not destiny. It was disruption. A twist in the tale. A jarring turn in Nigeria’s story. An “unknown unknown,” as Donald Rumsfeld once described the kind of anomaly that reshapes the arc of history. And now, against all odds, he holds in his hands a rare and fleeting gift: the power to choose how history will remember him.
Will he be the man who broke the cycle? Or just another name in the long, weary list of leaders who mistook power for permanence?
Nigeria is tired. Tired of promises that curdle into betrayal. Tired of reforms that never reach the people. Tired of leaders who mistake governance for feast, and longevity for legacy, when it should be about service and sacrifice.
Yet, Tinubu, precisely because of the improbability of his presidency, can offer Nigeria an unexpected gift. A chance to do what no one expects:
Fashion Intersects with Arts in LasGidi Exhibition
Art doesn’t live in one dimension and definitely not in Lagos aka LasGidi, a place where every corner reveals another story, another style, another way of seeing things. Whether it’s the hustle and bustle or the panache, you would hear things like “Eko for show”.
Contemporary African art is evolving astronomically and LasGidi is a hub, expressed in several media that refuse simple categorization. Our culture is
multifaceted, layered like the city itself, each stratum revealing new treasures, new truths, new ways of being bold.
This Lagos Art Week, Ini Gallery presents LASGIDI, an exhibition where art and fashion intersect in ways that inspire. Tola Wewe, Victor Ekpuk, Anthony Nsofor, Jamila Okubo, Fola David, Anjoreen Couture and Idera Oyeneye showcase rare and unique pieces that boldly express the depth, complexity, and unapologetic brilliance of African
creativity across paintings, wearables, and sensory experiences . These artists understand what Lagos has always known: that true expression requires layers of meaning, of technique, of courage. From traditional motifs reinterpreted through contemporary lenses to wearable art that transform everyday adornment into powerful statements, each piece in this exhibition invites deeper engagement. Look once and see beauty. Look again and discover philosophy. Look closer still and find revolution.
Each work is a layer. Each artist, a voice !
to walk away in dignity. To say, “I came, truly delivered on credible electoral reform. Who refused to be swallowed by the machinery that made him. Who broke the spell of sit-tightism that has haunted African democracies for decades.
This is not a decision for his inner circle or cabal. It is not a decision for the loyalists who see power as inheritance and opportunity to stuff their pockets and stomachs. This is a decision for a man alone with his conscience. A man who knows that the applause of today can become the curses of tomorrow.
This was the opportunity that presented itself to President Buhari, but he failed to seize it. Today, he is remembered only as another failed past president. If Tinubu chooses the path of other African strongmen, to cling, scheme, suppress in order to force a second term, Nigeria may not survive him. The center is too fragile. The people too weary. The institutions too hollowed out. And the collapse, when, not if it comes, will not only be loud but irreversible.
But, if he chooses the path of the statesman, he will become something rare in Nigerian history: a leader who left the stage before the curtain fell. A man who understood that sometimes, the most powerful act is to relinquish power.
Let him be the one who turned the tide. Let him be the one who proved that Nigeria is not doomed to repeat herself. Let him be the last of the old, and the first of the new.
Already, while many are scrambling for another term, Hon. Abdussamad Dasuki representing Kebbe/ Tambuwal Federal Constituency, reportedly announced that he will not seek re-election in 2027. If true, it’s a quiet, but profound gesture. A signal. A whisper of change. And Tinubu should listen. Because, the people are watching. And they are ready.
As for those urging him on, let them look across the fence and see Nepal. Look at the unfolding situation in Cameroon, Tanzania. Reports say Kenyans are also warming up. The signal is clear: Africans are tired of failed leadership and her young people are rising with resolve.
2027 is not just an election year; it is either going to be a statesman’s exit or a nation’s fall. There are few choices for him in between. Already the polity is heating up and Nigerians increasingly appear to be seeking solutions beyond the ballot box.
* Dr Ezeh, a frontline entrepreneur, writes from Abuja
Ezeh Emmanuel Ezeh
Tinubu
Atiku
AFRIFF Renames Herbert Wigwe Award
• Shettima, Mbah, Oyelowo, Okunola to be honoured
Vanessa Obioha
As part of the activities for the 2025 Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), the organisers have renamed the Herbert Wigwe Trailblazer Award, which was introduced last year in honour of the late banker and grand patron of the festival.
The honour will now be known as the Herbert Wigwe Award for Excellence. According to AFRIFF founder Chioma Ude, the change reflects the festival’s intention to recognise exceptional individuals beyond the creative industry.
“Herbert believed deeply in the power of African talent to compete globally. Through this award, we’re honouring that vision by recognising creative leaders who are breaking barriers, redefining African storytelling, and inspiring new generations to dream bigger.”
On the opening night of AFRIFF, Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Kashim Shettima, and Enugu State Governor, Peter Mbah, will each receive the Herbert Wigwe Award for Excellence for their immense contributions to growth, innovation and excellence in their respective fields. The closing night will also honour Nigerian lawyer and distinguished technocrat, Hakeem Muri-Okunola and internationally
acclaimed actor David Oyelowo.
This year’s AFRIFF seeks to explore the intersection between music, film, and culture, particularly the continent’s most popular genre Afrobeats. Thus the theme “Rhythms of the Continent: The Afrobeats Film Movement.”
To do justice to the theme, the festival will open with ‘3 Cold Dishes.’ The PanAfrican film is co-executively produced by the self-proclaimed African Giant, Burna Boy and actress Osas Ighodaro. The closing films also include a short documentary by highlife sensation Flavour.
Also launching at this year’s festival is AFRIFF Film and Content Market (AFCM). The AFCM will serve as a business hub connecting filmmakers, distributors, and investors, furthering AFRIFF’s mission to build a sustainable ecosystem for African content creation and monetisation.
Alongside screenings, masterclasses, and workshops, AFRIFF 2025 will screen over 100 films from across Africa and the diaspora, showcasing the diversity and creativity that define African cinema today.
The 14th edition of the festival kicks off today, November 2, and will run till Saturday, November 8, 2025.
‘My Father’s Shadow’ to Open Film Africa 2025
British-Nigerian filmmaker Akinola Davies Jr. will open Film Africa 2025 with his debut feature, ‘My Father’s Shadow,’ when the festival runs from November 14 to 23 in London.
Co-written with his brother Wale Davies, the film is set in Lagos during the 1993 Nigerian election crisis. It follows a father, estranged from his two young sons, as they navigate a city on the brink of unrest while trying to return home. Starring Sope Dirisu and real-life brothers Chibuike Marvellous Egbo and Godwin Egbo, the screening will be followed by a Q&A with the director. The film also serves as the UK’s Oscar submission for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards.
The festival will close with ‘Katanga: The Dance of the Scorpions,’ by Burkina Faso’s acclaimed director Dani Kouyaté, marking its UK premiere. A reimagining of Shakespeare’s
tragedy in an African kingdom, the blackand-white film follows a general haunted by a prophecy that he will seize the crown or die trying. Blending Shakespearean drama with West African mythology, ‘Katanga’ has earned 10 nominations at the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA).
Presented by the Royal African Society, Film Africa is the UK and Europe’s leading festival celebrating African and diaspora cinema. This year’s edition will feature over 50 films and special events, including documentaries, shorts, and features, from more than 20 countries. “African cinema is entering a period of tremendous creative expansion,” said festival curator Keith Shiri. “We are seeing bold experimentation in form, genre, and distribution, with filmmakers blending realism, mythology, and futurism in entirely new ways.
FilmAfrica’s role is to support this evolution, not only as a showcase but as a network that connects artists, institutions, and audiences.”
Other highlights include a tribute to the late Souleymane Cissé, the Malian filmmaker who redefined African cinema; a BAFTA masterclass with Nigerian director Kunle Afolayan; and a symposium on African Cinema and Liberation, featuring Sir John Akomfrah and Billy Woodberry, exploring cinema’s power to reclaim agency and resist colonial narratives.
‘Nigeria House of Commons’ Renewal Confirmed
Iyke Bede
Nigeria’s first political reality TV show, ‘Nigeria House of Commons’, has concluded its debut season and confirms renewal.
Created by Africana League, a civic platform dedicated to strengthening youth participation in governance, the show brought together young Nigerians from across the country to simulate the House of Representatives through 13 episodes. Each episode explored national issues including the removal of the fuel subsidy, food price regulation, the Disability Act 2018, social media control, health workforce migration, and state policing.
Beyond the screen, ‘Nigeria House of
Commons’ evolved into a movement that inspired young people to view leadership as service. Since its launch, the show has drawn over 6,000 YouTube subscribers and recorded more than 20,000 total views.
Speaking on the success of the first season, Glory Ukwenga, Executive Director of Africana League, said the show was created to close the gap between young Nigerians and governance.
“What we saw this season confirmed that young people rise to the challenge when given a platform to express themselves and engage meaningfully.”
Preparations are underway for the second season.
Ebuka Launches New Podcast MENtality in Lagos
Lagos glittered on Tuesday, October 28, as media personality Ebuka Obi-Uchendu unveiled his new podcast, MENtality with Ebuka, at an exclusive screening that brought together some of Nigeria’s most prominent entertainment figures.
Hosted by Deji Osikoya, the event drew celebrities including Tobi Bakre, Nancy Isime, Adesua Etomi-Wellington, and Timini Egbuson.
A She Tank Studios production— under The She Tank, a global culture lab dedicated to shaping women’s power and gender futures—the podcast is executiveproduced by Blessing Omakwu and Ebuka Obi-Uchendu, produced by JM Films, and created in partnership with Empire Mates Entertainment (EME).
MENtality with Ebuka dives deep into masculinity with empathy, humour, and heart.
Co-executive producer Omakwu described MENtality as “a platform through which gender equality can truly thrive,” emphasising men’s role in advancing equality.
“True equality is impossible without men’s active participation. We’re proud to partner with people courageous enough to start conversations that many avoid.”
One of the night’s highlights was the “Women Talk Back” segment featuring Gbemi Olateru-Olagbegi and Tolu ‘Toolz’ Oniru-Demuren, who unpacked podcast clips on love, identity, and the financial pressures men face. Their witty, candid
remarks drew laughter, snaps, and lively reactions from the audience.
Speaking at the launch, Ebuka said the podcast aims to challenge outdated masculine ideals and create space for honest conversations.
“With MENtality with Ebuka, we’re creating a space where men can speak honestly about who they are; their struggles, fears, and growth, without shame.”
Co-host Banky W added that the podcast aims to “reshape the conversation around manhood,” moving past stereotypes to present “a more balanced, honest, and hopeful view.”
The debut season features candid chats with
and
and
My Father’s Shadow
Clockwise: Shettima, Mbah, Okunola and Oyelowo are the 2025 recipients of AFrIFF’s Herbert wigwe Award for excellence.
ebuka
Seun Kuti, Johnny Drille, Timi Dakolo, Hermes Iyele, Noble Igwe,
others. MENtality with Ebuka premiered on October 31, 2025, on YouTube, Spotify, Apple Podcasts,
other major platforms.
Vanessa Obioha
Nigeria House of Commons
Angelique
Journey from Stage to Crown
She’s a Ventriloquist Queen, a New York-born entertainer who turned her art into a bridge between worlds, swapping the Hamptons for a throne in Nigeria’s ancient cocoa kingdom of Eti-Oni, Osun State. Queen Angelique Monet Gureje-Thompson’s story sounds like a fantasy, but it’s entirely real. Adedayo Adejobi writes
Monet
The afternoon light slants softly through gauzy curtains in her Ilupeju residence, turning the air gold. The hum of Lagos traffic fades behind thick walls, replaced by the soulful sound of her upright piano and the pale aroma of cocoa and jasmine. Queen Angelique Monet GurejeThompson, poised in flowing Aso-Oke, a beaded crown resting lightly on her head, leans forward with a storyteller’s ease. On a nearby armchair, her puppet, Baby, sits quietly, its impish grin frozen midperformance. For now, the stage is her living room, and the story is her own.
Before she ever became a queen, Angelique was a performer who turned ventriloquism into poetry. “The room falls silent before the music begins,” she recalls with a laugh, describing her shows. “Then Baby says something silly , and everyone’s laughing.” In that laughter, she says, she found connection—a language beyond accent, beyond culture.
Tall, graceful, and soft-spoken, Angelique first captivated audiences not in a palace, but on stage.
Born and raised in the Hamptons, New York, she carved a niche in American entertainment through her pioneering blend of music, monologue, and puppetry. Her show, Voices of Love, explored empathy and healing through laughter—a kind of therapy disguised as theatre. The Times of London called her “the Nigerian queen bringing a singing cow to the Fringe,” long before her coronation made that title literal.
She smiles at the memory. “It’s funny, isn’t it? Life has a way of foreshadowing itself,” she enthused.
Her path from artist to African royalty feels cinematic—an improbable merging of stage and statecraft. Yet as Angelique tells it, the transition was less about destiny than about purpose.
In the early 2010s, her humanitarian ork took her frequently to Africa. Through her Fountainhead Tanzania project, she used art to promote peace and mentalhealth awareness.
“Art isn’t just what we see, it’s how we choose to heal,” she says.
It was during one of these crosscultural missions that she met Oba Dokun Thompson, the traditional ruler of Eti-Oni in Osun State, Nigeria’s historic cocoa kingdom. What began as a professional exchange—her offering creative education programmes, him advocating heritage preservationevolved into something deeper.
In a tone both serene and certain, “we connected through a shared love for humanity,” she recalls.
Their union, sealed in the sacred rites of Yoruba tradition, crowned her, Her Royal Highness Queen Angelique Monet Gureje-Thompson, Olori of Eti-Oni. At that moment, the performer stepped into history. Across from her, sunlight glints off the polished wood of her coffee table, where a porcelain teacup sits untouched. She pauses, as if searching for the right words. “Becoming queen wasn’t an ending,” she says softly. “It was an evolution—from telling my story to helping others tell theirs.”
“I’ve had to learn what it means to serve rather than to perform. In the theatre, you tell your story; in the palace, you become part of everyone else’s,” she adds.
That learning curve wasn’t without resistance. When she first entered the traditional institution, Angelique faced scepticism and even ridicule. “Some thought I was too foreign, too different,” she admits. “But I chose compassion over confrontation. You don’t fight misunderstanding—you educate it.” Her quiet resolve eventually won hearts across the Eti-Oni community.
Today, she moves seamlessly between two worlds—the creative corridors of New York and the cocoa groves of Osun State. At Eti-Oni’s annual Cocoa Festival, she presides beside her husband, welcoming farmers, artists, and diplomats alike. She has expanded the festival’s vision beyond agriculture, transforming it into a platform for global collaboration.
“Cocoa connected Africa to the world,” she says. “Now we use it to
Journey from Stage to Crown
reconnect humanity to itself.”
Her advocacy extends through the Fountainhead Tanzania Initiative, the Day of Love Festival, and her work with the Eti-Oni Development Group—all focused on education, women’s enterprise, and creative therapy.
“Royalty must mean relevance,” she insists. “A crown doesn’t isolate you; it connects you to purpose.” Even her art continues to serve that mission. Ventriloquism, she notes, is about giving voice to the voiceless.
“That’s what I try to do as a queen too—help others speak, be heard, and heal.”
Her puppet Baby remains a familiar companion at community events, teaching children lessons about kindness, heritage, and environmental care. “Baby,” she laughs, “has become a bit of a local celebrity.”
With a presence both regal and theatrical, when she performs, you sense the throne in her voice. Angelique sees no contradiction there. “Performance teaches empathy,” she explains. “And empathy is the heart of leadership.”
Behind her poise, though, is a story of
solitude. She speaks candidly of the isolation that sometimes shadows both fame and royalty. “There were days,” she says quietly, “when I wondered if I belonged anywhere. America saw me as exotic; Nigeria saw me as foreign. So, I had to define home within myself.”
That introspection fuels her creative and humanitarian work. Her films explore identity and belonging; her workshops teach children the same values she learned through art.
In Eti-Oni, she is affectionately known as Ayaba Itunu—the Queen of Comfort. Her palace doubles as a learning centre, where local youth study storytelling, drama, and filmmaking. “If a puppet can speak to a child about kindness,” she muses, “then surely a queen can listen.”
Her feminism, though unspoken, shines through her philosophy. In a society where queenship is often ornamental, Angelique embodies a participatory model of leadership. She attends global peace
summits, mentors women entrepreneurs, and continues to perform selectively, channelling her artistry into advocacy.
“Titles mean nothing without purpose,” she says. “A true queen lifts others.” That conviction finds its expression each year at her Soirée for Peace in New York—a glamorous blend of fashion, music, and dialogue designed to foster unity. “It’s not about status,” she explains. “It’s about creating spaces where love and legacy can meet.”
Her journey, in many ways, feels like a dialogue between continents. A Black American woman who found belonging in African royalty; a performer who turned her craft into a tool for diplomacy; a ventriloquist who teaches that true power lies not in the voice we keep, but in the ones we help others find.
A gust of wind stirs the curtains, and for a moment, the room fills with golden light. Angelique rises to adjust them, moving with the unhurried grace of someone who has learned to balance two worlds. Baby, still perched on the armchair, catches the light too—its painted eyes glinting mischievously. She glances at it, amused.
Outside, the Lagos evening deepens. Somewhere beyond the walls, a muslim calls, blending with the rustle of trees and the fading rhythm of city life. The Queen sits again, serene, her gaze steady but faraway—perhaps already thinking of Eti-Oni, where cocoa trees sway in the dusk and children await her return.
“When everybody has a voice,” she says finally, echoing one of Baby’s lessons, “that’s peace.”
The laughter that follows is light but resonant, filling the quiet Ilupeju room with the same energy she brings to global stages—a sound at once royal and profoundly human.
In that laughter lives the essence of Angelique: an artist who became a queen, a queen who remains an artist, and a woman who continues to prove that grace can indeed be revolutionary.
S Monet
Monet Monet and her husband, Oba Thompson
HighLife
How Omisore
Became the People’s Choice in Osun
Politics in Osun rarely forgets its old hands. And as the 2026 governorship race begins to hum, one name keeps circling back: Iyiola Omisore, the engineer-turnedpolitician whose career has survived both scandal and silence. Now, he is again the talk of the state. On a bright day in Osogbo, the former deputy governor and APC national secretary stood before a cheering crowd to declare his bid. The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has set the party primaries for late November, but Omisore sounded ready. He spoke of 90 per cent support within the party. His tone was both confident and practised.
Omisore’s roots go deep. Born in IleIfe into a royal family, he carries the quiet privilege of lineage and the polish of global education, from Reading to Brunel to Harvard. In a state that prizes pedigree as much as performance, that mix matters. His early life as an engineer gave him a technocrat’s edge; his years in the Senate taught him the patience of politics.
Still, experience alone does not explain his resurgence. After years in the political wilderness, Omisore appears to have found his rhythm again, especially as he is aided by an APC base that sees him as the bridge between factions. All 332 ward chairmen have endorsed him. That kind of consensus, rare in Osun’s fractious politics, gives his campaign a head start.
The timing also plays in his favour. Rumours swirl that Governor Ademola Adeleke might defect to the APC, unsettling the field. Within that uncertainty, Omisore’s loyalty to both the party and President Bola Tinubu has become currency. Insiders describe him as the “steady hand” the national leadership can trust.
Yet politics in Osun is never purely arithmetic. The state remembers its dramas, its grudges, its old scores. Omisore will need more than endorsements to convince voters who have seen his name on too many ballot papers. Nevertheless, as the political landscape is defined by memory, perhaps Omisore’s extended survival is his message. After all, few in Osun have lost so often or lasted so long.
with KAYoDe ALFreD 08116759807, E-mail: kayflex2@yahoo.com
...Amazing lifestyles of
Nigeria’s rich and famous Good News Across the Sea
It is not often that a billion-dollar announcement lands like a sea breeze. Yet in Lagos last week, the air around Apapa and Tin Can Island felt charged with promise and a rare note of optimism from Nigeria’s waterfront, where gridlock and decay have long defined the skyline.
The federal government has approved $1 billion (N1.4 trillion) to modernise the two Lagos ports, the country’s busiest gateways. The project was awarded to ITB Nigeria, a subsidiary of the Chagoury Group, and aims to replace chaos with capacity. For once, it seems, Nigeria’s trade arteries may get the unclogging they’ve begged for.
Minister of Marine and Blue Economy Adegboyega Oyetola announced the approval at a logistics conference in Lagos, describing the plan as the cornerstone of a paperless, technology-driven future. The goal:
shorter vessel turnaround times, less corruption, and an end to the Dickensian delays that have long frustrated shippers and traders. The Chagoury name is hardly new to Nigeria’s infrastructure story. Gilbert Chagoury, the Nigerian-Lebanese billionaire behind ITB, has spent half a century building the country’s concrete dreams, from Eko Atlantic City, the futuristic enclave rising from reclaimed land, to the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. His latest venture repositions him, once again, as Lagos’s unofficial builder-in-chief. This port upgrade dovetails with Nigeria’s larger maritime revival. Lekki Deep Sea Port, now operational, is pulling in vessels too large for Apapa to handle. Together, these projects could make Lagos the region’s trade capital, drawing cargo from ports in Benin, Togo, and Ghana.
If all goes well, Nigeria could reclaim its long-lost title as West Africa’s logistics leader. Still, the sea remembers. Port reform has sunk before under the weight of bureaucracy and bad roads. The real test will come when the dredgers leave and the customs officers stay. For now, a billion dollars signals intent and, possibly, the first ripple of renewal.
What is Governor Umo Eno’s Legacy Project?
After two years in office, his administration has built many things: roads, compassion homes, and tracking committees. But there is no clear legacy that bears his name.
Governor Eno, a pastor-turned-politician, has lately seemed more absorbed in politics than policy. His effort to steady both the PDP and APC in Akwa Ibom has stirred confusion even among his allies. Cleric Nyeneime Andy, once YPP chairman, recently told him bluntly on Facebook: “You cannot control two parties at the same time.” The warning sounded less like prophecy, more like frustration.
The charge is simple: Eno inherited power on a borrowed structure and is now trying to build his own. Since defecting to the APC, he has struggled to keep both camps calm while dismissing boards, reorganising ministries, and tightening political control. His aides hail him as a unifier; his critics see a man rearranging chairs on the deck of indecision.
Meanwhile, his supporters insist the
Segun Runsewe: Pillar of Nigerian Tourism and Culture
Some people fade from public life with a handshake and a plaque. Not Otunba Segun Runsewe. He seems to prefer an encore. Therefore, his farewell tour, if one can call it that, looks more like a standing ovation: a calendar of banquets and citations celebrating a man who has spent three decades making Nigeria’s culture impossible to ignore.On October 23, at the Sheraton Lagos Hotel, the Association of Nigerian Journalists and Writers of Tourism (ANJET) crowned him “Pillar of Nigerian Culture and Tourism.” The ballroom hummed with nostalgia as industry veterans gathered to honour the figures who built Nigeria’s cultural backbone.
Runsewe, former Director-General of both the Nigerian Tourism Development Authority and the National Council for Arts and Culture, was the evening’s main story.
He thanked ANJET with the measured tone of a man who has seen too many conferences produce nothing. “There’s too much talk in
tourism and little action,” he said, urging Nigeria to see tourism not as leisure but as a trillion-naira industry. He spoke, too, of the late T.B. Joshua’s religious gatherings—how private jets once lined the tarmac in Lagos—and wondered aloud how a nation could overlook such potential.
Runsewe’s influence stretches back to the early 2000s, when he turned slogans into soft power. His campaign “Tourism is Life” took Nigeria to Madrid, Berlin, Dubai, and London, putting its art and culture on the world’s map. At home, he revived NAFEST, the onceforgotten National Festival of Arts and Culture, turning it into an annual pilgrimage of unity. Few public servants have mixed marketing flair with missionary zeal quite like him.
His career has weathered both applause and ambush. In Abuja, he famously fought off “powerful interests” who tried to seize the Cultural Market, a 2.5-hectare property he later restored as a national tourism hub. The episode
ARISE Project, his administration’s signature monitoring scheme, is proof of progress. It tracks roads, schools, health centres, even “compassion homes” for people experiencing poverty. Officials call it transparency; sceptics call it paperwork with a PR budget. Unlike Udom Emmanuel’s Ibom Air or even the controversial Akwa Ibom Worship Centre, nothing in the ARISE folder yet defines a generation.
This absence is striking in a state accustomed to spectacle. Udom gave the people an airline; Godswill Akpabio gave them flyovers and a stadium. Eno, so far, gives them committees, compassionate grants, and photo-ops. Maybe the governor is waiting for the perfect project. This is optimism. Bare-faced facts imply that politics might have consumed the space where purpose should be.
Governance, like faith, rewards evidence. And in Akwa Ibom, where even gratitude needs structure, a legacy cannot be declared by loyalty. It must be built—brick, policy, and vision at a time.
burnished his reputation as a stubborn patriot, the kind who courts trouble for the public good. Now, as awards pile up like souvenirs, Runsewe insists he is not done. “It’s a privilege to be celebrated while alive,” he said. Perhaps that’s the point: Nigeria’s culture never really retires, and neither, it seems, does he.
Much Ado About Okpebholo and His Chorus
Some governors take office with an agenda; others, with an anthem. In Edo State, Senator Monday Okpebholo has found both, though the anthem seems louder. It’s looking more and more definite: every new public appearance comes with a soundtrack of praise singers chanting his name like a campaign jingle that never ends.
They call him Apako, the light of Edo, the king of the South-South, even “the first son of Jesus Christ.” Videos from rallies and visits sound the voices of his praise chanters as they follow behind him, punctuating every gesture. Sometimes, he smiles faintly, basking in it; sometimes, he raises a
hand, half in greeting, half in permission.
But it is not just the praise singing that has raised eyebrows. At an October swearing-in ceremony, Okpebholo reportedly ordered his new commissioners to prove loyalty to President Bola Tinubu by wearing branded Asiwaju caps. The state party chairman, Jarrett Tenebe, took it further: any commissioner who disobeys, he warned, would face suspension. “No Asiwaju cap, no Exco,” he said plainly.
Critics say this kind of ritualised loyalty turns governance into a spectacle in which symbolism trumps service. Supporters argue it is party discipline, not theatrics. Yet, with Nigerians tired of sycophancy, the optics are hard to ignore: a governor who governs with
a choir, dressed in matching caps and echoing one man’s name. Okpebholo, a businessman-turnedpolitician, is barely a year into office. His tenure began with a court summons over conflicting birth records and now finds rhythm in political choreography. His defenders call it cultural exuberance; his opponents call it misplaced worship. Still, there’s something almost operatic about it all: the chants, the colours, the cap decree. Power in Nigeria often loves performance, so it is not surprising that Edo has become its stage once again. But here’s the question observers are asking: when the music stops, will governance begin?
oyetola
okpebholo
omisore
runsewe
In Akwa Ibom these days, the most popular question at political gatherings is what, exactly,
will Governor Umo Eno be remembered for?
Ogun Indigenes Called… Dapo Abiodun Answered
Noisy road repairs rarely make for good politics, but in Ogun State, they’ve become the soundtrack of governance. Governor Dapo Abiodun seems intent on proving that asphalt
is policy, and that potholes, not press releases, will define his time in office.
The governor, who returned for a second term in 2023, has promised that no part of the state will be left behind. From Ifo to Idiroko, construction crews work across federal and state roads, some of which had been neglected for decades. His office lists a dizzying roll of repairs: the Sango-Ijoko-Agbado-Oke AroLambe-Akute road, the 140-kilometre Sango Ota–Abeokuta stretch, and nearly two dozen other arteries crisscrossing the state.
Critics call the pace selective, accusing the administration of political bias in its project choices. Abiodun’s team insists otherwise. “We inherited a massive infrastructure deficit,” his spokesman said recently, urging patience and warning against “opposition mischief.” The government claims that about half the projects are already completed or near completion, weather permitting.
To his supporters, Abiodun is finally answering the calls of Ogun’s long-suffering
How Genuine is Nestoil’s Reassurance?
The gates of Nestoil’s Lagos headquarters were sealed last Tuesday, police cars flashing outside a once-bustling tower of energy ambition. Inside, the air of crisis was thick, though the company’s message to the public was calm: all is well.
A Federal High Court had ordered the takeover of Nestoil Limited and its affiliate, Neconde Energy, following a billion-dollar debt dispute with FBNQuestMerchant Bank and First Trustees. Justice D. I. Dipeolu’s ruling authorised the seizure of assets worth more than $1 billion and N430 billion. It was a corporate jolt that echoed far beyond Lagos. By afternoon, Nestoil’s statement was circulating: the matter, it said, is purely commercial, before competent courts, and under control. Its Corporate Communications Department insisted that all operations remain active across oil, gas, power, and infrastructure projects. “Our business continues without disruption,” the Group assured.
In Ondo politics, denials have become their own kind of language. The Minister of Interior, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, says there’s no quarrel. The governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, insists peace reigns. Yet their supporters whisper a different tune, one of rivalry, quiet but real.
The flashpoint came after weeks of chatter online. Social media accounts loyal to both camps spoke of cold shoulders and veiled power plays. At a medical outreach in Ikare-Akoko, TunjiOjo dismissed it all as fiction. Represented by an aide, he said politics was local, and his only concern was promoting the president’s vision.
“There is no fight between me and the governor,” he said. “What matters is that we work together to project Asiwaju’s achievements.” His words were calm, measured, perhaps too measured for a state that can smell political tension miles away.
A day earlier, a council of party elders met in Akure. The Ondo Mandate Elders Forum gathered, urging reconciliation
Being steady, almost soothing, the company’s tone was deliberate. For a firm that built its reputation over three decades as a symbol of indigenous engineering success, reassurance has become its own strategy.
Nestoil described its engagement with lenders as “constructive,” projecting confidence in a fair resolution that preserves its legacy of compliance and resilience.
Its founder, Dr. Ernest Azudialu-Obiejesi, who was named among those affected by the order, has faced crises before. Nestoil’s rise through Nigeria’s volatile oil economy required precisely the kind of patience it now preaches: stay calm, trust the process, keep the rigs running.
Still, the symbolism is striking. Police outside a flagship energy company suggest weakness in an industry built on scale and leverage. Yet Nestoil’s statement ends in the same composure with which it began. “We remain financially strong and strategically focused,” it declared, calling for restraint and verified reporting.
Gentle Feud in Ondo
residents. In Ota, traders whisper thanks for smoother rides to the market. In Agbado, the new drainage channels are proof that someone in Abeokuta is listening. Whether these improvements outlast the photo ops remains to be seen.
It helps that Abiodun isn’t a newcomer to management. A former oil magnate and power investor, he has run Ogun like a sprawling enterprise: focused, pragmatic, occasionally aloof. His “Building Our Future Together” agenda, anchored on infrastructure, welfare, and youth empowerment, has earned him national awards, including Forbes’ “Best of Africa” honour for industrial revolution.
Still, the question lingers: will the governor’s many roads lead to a lasting legacy? For now, Ogun’s residents seem willing to keep faith, content to measure progress in kilometres rather than headlines. After all, when the people called, Abiodun, at least, answered.
Obaseki in His Anonymous Cocoon
Nobody disappears quite like a Nigerian ex-governors. One day, they’re at the ribbon-cutting dais; the next, they’re in transit spiritually, politically, or just literally.
Godwin Obaseki chose the last. Nearly a year since leaving Edo State’s top job, he’s been spotted nowhere near Benin City. And that, his allies insist, is precisely the point.
before the whispers hardened into factions. “We cannot watch things degenerate into crisis,” said facilitator Demola Ijabiyi. “Both men are our sons. We will insist on peace.”
The elders’ tone suggested concern rather than panic. Their meeting, however, confirmed what many already suspected: there is enough smoke to justify a bucket of water. The party, they warned, cannot afford a distraction with 2027 around the corner.
Behind the denials lies an awkward reality. Aiyedatiwa controls the machinery of state; Tunji-Ojo commands a growing federal profile and seems closer to President Bola Tinubu. Still, each carries loyalists, expectations, and ambitions that cannot remain invisible forever.
For now, the official story remains tidy: no quarrel, no tension, no cause for alarm. Yet in Nigerian politics, what everyone denies is often what everyone believes. Perhaps that is Ondo’s quiet sport: watching its leaders smile through their teeth while the ground beneath them shifts.
Tokunbo Wahab: Sanitation With a Business Plan
In Lagos, waste is everywhere, but that is not a disadvantage because Tokunbo Wahab sees opportunity in every heap. To him, the city’s 13,000 tonnes of daily refuse are not a symbol of decay; they are an untapped economy waiting to breathe.
As Commissioner for the Environment and Water Resources, Wahab’s mission sounds simple: make Lagos cleaner and create jobs while doing it. Backed by Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, he has overseen the recruitment of 1,400 new officers into the Lagos State Environmental Sanitation Corps, the city’s army of uniformed enforcers in the war against filth.
Yet Wahab’s real campaign happens beyond uniforms. His “Trash for Cash” initiative, run by the Lagos Waste Management Authority, invites residents to trade waste for cash every Thursday across the state’s five divisions. Plastic bottles, cans, and scraps are weighed,
priced, and paid for on the spot. It’s sanitation with a business plan.
He calls it building a culture, one where Lagosians stop seeing waste as a nuisance and start seeing it as a resource. The shift, he insists, must begin at home. “The blue bin, the black bin, the green bin,” he says, recalling the habits of cleaner cities. “We can do the same here.”
Part of that vision is structural. Lagos has signed a deal with Zoom Lion to convert 4,000 tonnes of waste daily into compost and recyclables. Cart pushers are out; organised waste collection is in. And companies like Lafarge are already turning refuse into power, creating a circular economy from the city’s chaos.
The approach has side benefits: cleaner streets, fewer flash floods, and jobs for thousands. It’s the closest Lagos has come to turning its environmental crisis into a commercial ecosystem.
Still, habits die hard in Lagos, so culture
change may be the toughest cleanup of all. But Wahab seems undeterred. For him, the dirt is only proof that Lagos is alive and worth saving, one plastic bottle at a time.
They say he’s not hiding. He’s hibernating, a self-imposed exile designed to give his successor, Governor Monday Okpebholo, the space to breathe. Obaseki, they explain, left Edo just before handing over on November 12, 2024, and hasn’t returned since. He’s now on a fellowship abroad, studying and reflecting, with no political ambitions in sight.
His former aide, Chris Nehikhare, paints the absence as a courtesy, not an escape. “His presence would make Okpebholo uncomfortable,” he told reporters. “Edo people would judge the new government daily against Obaseki’s record.” That record, Nehikhare insists, includes more than a thousand kilometres of roads and a clutch of institutional reforms.
Still, the timing invites speculation. The state government has just ordered Obaseki’s onetime deputy, Marvellous Omobayo, to return official assets or face arrest, a move some read as part of a broader reckoning with the last administration. Meanwhile, whispers about possible EFCC interest hang in the air, despite denials.
The PDP, Obaseki’s party, calls the talk petty. “If the EFCC wants him, they can write,” Nehikhare said again. “He will answer.” What bothers them more, they say, is the “obsession” of the Okpebholo government with its predecessor. “They can’t stop looking back,” another spokesman added, “it’s the Obaseki Derailment Syndrome.”
Perhaps Obaseki’s silence is a strategy. By retreating, he feeds his mystique, letting friends defend him while critics search for him.
Or maybe he’s just tired after eight years of fighting his own party, his deputy, and the politics of potholes. Whatever the reason, the former governor’s invisibility has become his latest act of control: ruling the conversation by leaving it.
Abiodun
Azudialu-Obiejesi
wahab
Tunji-Ojo
Obaseki
Perhaps the real performance lies not in the courtroom or the newsroom, but in the steadiness of tone. In Nigeria’s oil patch, confidence is currency. And for now, Nestoil speaks the language fluently.
w ole Soyinka: That’s the w ay It is
Prof. reportedly said that they have cancelled his visa. Welcome to the club. They had cancelled my own too, almost five years now. Just like Prof, I got an email from them saying they had come into possession of new information and, as such, were cancelling my visa and that I should reapply. Of course, I respected myself and did not go back. Five years later, I went back, and it was “gbas gbos” that I met from the beautiful American who attended to me.
Well, I am not a Nobel laureate, and the thousands who have experienced such humiliating acts are not of international stature either, like the Prof who called a press conference to express his surprise at the turn of events.
Well, my dear Papa Kongi, you should not be surprised at your own o.
It is my own and the thousands of Nigerians who did not tear their green card that should be surprised over.
You’re thinking those ones are like our government, who will fall on their backs like puppies, letting you nibble their nipples while they squirm from hypocritical pleasure. But those ones don’t joke. When Trump won his first term, you were reported to have torn your green card over something that did not concern you. Are
you an American? Did you vote? Are you paying their taxes? Those ones voted for the person they wanted, and you siddon for Abeokuta, tear their Green card, and you expect that one day that action will not come and bite you?
Why are you now acting surprised? Shebi you called the man all sorts of names the first time he came, and now you’ve gone to collect a visa to go to his backyard.
To do what, exactly? The man just bit you, and you’re shouting “surprise!”
You know I am your fan, but on this one, I will not stand with you. Your case is not genuine because it is self-inflicted. It’s like that time you took your Nobel Prize status too seriously and behaved like you were Ban Ki-moon, the former UN Secretary-General, and went to tear up your Green card. Mbok, for what purpose and to achieve what? Abi, you think those elections are like these ones that have ushered in your co-compatriots, who are now using “agbado” to show us pepper?
Mbok, redirect your energies and show surprise in the right place – Nigeria, where we are being beaten black and blue by your fellow co-refugee.
This is where your surprise should be directed, master. Come and beat me.
If you sit beside this my brother on a TV panel, you will have to sit very far away, otherwise the power of his evocation will blow you away o. Just as I was wondering what exactly is wrong with the people who are recommending this prerogative of mercy to the president, with the way the whole thing is doing like “jangrova”, my brother smashed all the tables on ARISE NEWS TV while still pouring plenty of spit. So, the Presidency or whoever has reviewed the list after a barrage of public angst. The first list looked like a “who’s who” in crime in Nigeria. So, as a listening government, they went back to look at the list, reviewed it, and came up with what looks like a saner list, but Frank no gree o. He came out blistering that the president, by this action, is arrogating to himself powers that he did not have. Only the judiciary can reverse a pardon once it has been signed. I am not a lawyer and cannot really put my mouth in this matter, so let me just ask questions. Mbok, when the list was announced,
was it already signed off on or just recommendations that made the press? Because if it were just a recommendation, then the president has not done anything wrong. Secondly, even if it was already signed and delivered, why can’t the president reverse himself na, like so many other policies, where he can and always reverses himself? Why can’t he reverse himself on this matter? Abi according to Mr. Tietie, is the president now supposed to go to court and say – ema gba mi, KekereEkun, I mistakenly gave pardon to Duke of Shomolu. I want to catch him again. Please help me reverse my own decision, because I do not have the power, according to Mr. Spitfire Tietie, to reverse myself, and I have already signed the paper. I just tire for this man’s position o. So the president cannot sign something, then the next day look at the paper and tear the “yama yama” thing because of a typo, and say, “Mbok, Gbaja, help me retype this thing?” He must rush to court to seek permission to tear the paper with a mistake?
Me na illiterate in these things; please, those who know should put
emIr mUHAmmAD SANUSI
My favourite traditional ruler has come to decry sycophancy in government. In a speech, he expressed his disgust at government officials who have turned themselves into praise singers, saying this is worsening the leadership crisis we face in the country. I agree 100%. Did you guys see a video of some top people praising the Governor of Edo State? Mbok, you will pardon me, because I find it difficult to spell his name. As he was moving towards his vehicle, two hecklers appeared. They were well-dressed, and the ease with which they got very close to the governor, despite the tight security cordon, suggests they were part of either the government or the political inner circles.
“Monday, you are angel Gabriel,” they shouted, “Monday, without you, no Edo, Monday, you are the best thing since Afang.”
As they hailed him, the governor
looked visibly shaken, bowed his head, and ran to his car, wondering what he had done to warrant all these high praises.
Even he himself is an offender with his childish declaration that all his commissioners must wear Asiwaju caps or be kicked out of exco meetings.
My dear Emir, we are in an Owambe government, and praise-singing is a critical part of this type of governance, abi you have not watched Wike’s band – Pepper Dem Band?
BABAjIDe SANwo-olU: wHo IS THe FATHer?
The Lagos State Government has enacted a one-sided law. What I have learnt is that a law has been promulgated that stipulates that once a man impregnates a woman and refuses to take care of the woman and child, he can be convicted or something to that effect.
In the face of it, this would be a very positive development if only they added the caveat that the pregnancy must be variably tagged to the man in question.
With the way people are failing DNA
AN INTereSTINg VIewpoINT BY FrANk TIeTIe
mouth and explain these things better. Thanks.
: leT
Soyinka
emir Sanusi
Sanwo-olu
Tietie
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tests and the low morale quotient in society, it will really be very unfair to convict a man who is still scratching his head and doing the maths- this pregnancy is three weeks old. By that time, my pardon had not been signed by President Tinubu, and since they no longer allow conjugal visits after the Bobrisky wahala, how can I now be responsible?
So, while the man is still struggling with that, Sanwo-Olu will now send LASTMA to arrest me for abandoning a woman.
Mbok, if the law has not been balanced with the need to verify ownership scientifically, it will not be accepted by men.
I will lead a protest, and not that kind of Sowore own that will see rubber bullets and run into a brothel, but real-life “agidi” protest to Alausa to make sure that the clause for verification of ownership, complete with certificate of ownership issued by relevant authorities, is promulgated before you come for me.
Good direction by the Lagos State Government in its bid to protect vulnerable women, and this must be commended, but to secure our support, it must be robust in its entirety, covering all bases. Thanks.
THIS IS A problem for mUDASHIrU obASA
Not sure how this one is Obasa’s problem, but the report I saw said that the report of the profligacy at the local government levels in Lagos was submitted to him.
With the very commendable third tier of government reforms fostered by President Tinubu’s administration, local government authorities in Nigeria are now awash with funds, as they receive their allocations directly from the federation account.
But ever since, it has been a nightmare for Nigerians as Local Government Chairmen and their people have embarked on an orgy of profligacy. The case of one in Osun stands out. The madam reportedly spent over N400m of the excess N500m allocated to the local government just a few days before her departure, leaving only N20m for her successor.
Another report shows that over 700 local governments in Nigeria do not even have websites, despite the deluge of funds.
I think two things have to happen very immediately – EFCC should start opening offices in these councils so they can move in and ensure the “capture” of these thieves masquerading as LG chairpersons and councillors – not sure there is immunity at that level. Secondly, stringent capacity-building initiatives should be carried out for them by the top tier of government and other non-governmental organisations, such as Aigboje’s own. You know that at that level, there is a dearth in capacity, and when the kinds of funds that are being thrown at them arrive, it is a feeding frenzy.
KUNle SoNAme: A DAY wITH THe mAN
Kunle is decidedly quiet. He wants to be silent —not to be seen —but for his work to walk the talk. It was Kwam 1, the plane catcher, who now wanted to expose all of that when he went to attempt to stop one of Kunle’s planes physically.
In the midst of all that wahala came
a phone conversation from the aviation ambassador, shouting that he would deal with Kunle Soname. It was at that point that those who didn’t know began to ask, “Who is Kunle Soname?”
Kunle is the chief promoter of many multi-trillion naira brands. From Bet Naija to ValueJet and Optimum Bank, the man is quietly forging a revolution in the markets, creating jobs, improving infrastructure, and opening our economy to international engagement. His imprint is more evident in sports, as his Remo stars continue to be
the darlings of the local league. His world-class football academy in Ikenne is renowned as an incubator for budding talent, and what many people do not know is that he also owns a European football team. I met up with him the other day with my partners, and as usual, left him in awe. His humility, quick brilliance and ease of engagement will always disarm anyone.
I know he will kill me on this one because the man abhors publicity, but then again, can you keep a candle flame under the bed?
AlIKo DANgoTe: A SArcASTIc TUrN
At the press conference announcing the increased capacity of the Dangote refinery from its present 650,000 mbpd to 1.4 mbpd, one cheeky journalist asked Oga: Instead of increasing this one, why not buy government ones?
In my estimation, that was a very “stupid” question to ask – apologies, my egbon Femi Fani-Kayode – because this is a man that is being accused of being a monopolist, and now you are asking him to go and buy the remaining refineries in the market.
In a sarcastic turn, Alhaji asked them to tell DAPMANN, his main opponent, to go and buy na, and where that failed, the people who are “more liquid than us” should go and buy na.
Shebi, one person, just donated N10 billion to his state’s Security Trust
Fund. Let that one build a consortium and go and buy. Shebi, we just heard that his townsman moved N11billion to his former oga and, as a result, has entered trouble with those investigating the attempted putsch. Instead of using their money for good and buying refineries, it is this one that this Baba has put his blood and tears into that we are coming to be taunting. Mbok, let me even talk about something better. I have seen a report saying Alhaji has clocked the $30billion mark, and I am very happy for him o. What is even surprising to me is that I will leave my own net worth, which is about N20,000 as I write, to go and hail Alhaji each time he moves up on the Forbes list. This is what you get when you are an inspiration. Well done, my Oga, keep the flag flying.
NYeSom wIKe: A fATHer AND HIS SoNS
Wike and his sons are in Dubai, and social media is mad. Well, when the first pictures of Oga and his handsome sons began to circulate, I was initially quick to join the bandwagon of critics. But then again, I calmed down and looked at it again. What is wrong with giving your children practical experience as you groom them into leadership? As long as it is not on a public purse and confidential information is not released or compromised, I don’t see anything wrong o.
The only issue here is that given how things are in Nigeria, that part of public funds will remain suspect, so, in that regard, I may still join the other side.
Once we are clear of the two issues— public funds and state secrets —there is really nothing wrong with giving them the platform to intern.
Another angle is that, since Wike has decided to be a mentor, he should also open up space for other young aspiring leaders. He should do it as an initiative, so deserving young people can flow through his doors as they prepare for future public sector leadership.
The giant elephant in the room is now: what kind of mentor is Wike? The answer? Mbok, make una leave me to go and eat my afang in peace.
THIbAUT boIDIN: A DrINKINg SUrge
This is the Managing Director of the giant Nigerian Breweries, and they have just announced top-line profit exceeding N1 trillion. Although costs and other inputs rose sharply, the profit surge remains anything but impressive.
This is more remarkable, especially given that at the inception of this administration, the firm had declared losses. So, this new showing is nothing but a testament to the reforms this administration has brought to place, which in itself has thrown up a contradiction.
It has always been known in the marketplace that communications and drinking ramp up during economic downturns, and this is the case in point. From this result, it shows that Nigerians are drinking away their sorrows as they are buffeted by economic headwinds thrown up by the same policies that seem to be giving the brewery company the lifeline they have grabbed.
Anyways, let me just congratulate Nigerian Breweries on this excellent result, knowing fully well that this will impact jobs and other allied sectors of the economy, even as I pray that this massive economic fallout that is helping them should quickly trickle down to the masses so that we can drink more beer.
IfUre UfforD-Azorbo: ToAST To A woNDerfUl ScHolAr
Let me quickly congratulate this academic who just got promoted. She is now a professor of theatre. A versatile performer and scholar, she has made a significant impact in the field, and her well-deserved elevation by the University of Uyo is a testament to her contributions. Here I am, just saying, well done, and many more garlands to this charming and brainy scholar. Watch out for her new play, which I am producing, ‘Makamba.’ It offers a different perspective on the women’s uprising in Akwa Ibom State, which directly led to the Aba women’s riots. Thank you.
Dangote
Without a doubt, Adama, one of the daughters of billionaire businessman and Chairman of Oriental Petroleum Oil, Mohammed Indimi, is strikingly beautiful. She is one of the few ladies whose beauty would make any full-blooded man drool.
Despite her beauty, it took the graduate of Lynn University, Florida, US, a long time to settle down. In fact, tongues wagged from different
What Next for Adama Indimi?
corners before she finally settled with her now estranged husband, Prince Malik Ado Ibrahim. Interestingly, Adama was never in short supply of men who wanted her as a partner. But most of the dashing and successful men whose paths crossed hers reportedly parted ways with her on account of her alleged haughtiness.
It will be recalled that her wedding introduction with a son of a Niger State top politician was reportedly cancelled at the last minute when the young man could no longer cope with her excessiveness. Though she was distraught over the development, she soon came to terms with it and moved on.
Adama was also romantically linked to hip-hop star Dapo Adebanjo, otherwise known as D’Banj, and to so many other men. Still, none could walk her down the aisle until 2020, when she married billionaire Prince Malik Ado Ibrahim.
Despite the lockdown occasioned by the deadly COVID-19 pandemic, the buzz, as well as the glitz and glamour of the wedding, was so loud. It brought together two northern aristocrats, Borno oil magnate, Dr. Muhammadu Indimi and the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland in Kogi State, late Dr. Ado Ibrahim.
Sources said they dated for about a year before deciding to take their relationship to the next level. But the marriage did not stand
Kessington Adebutu’s Mind-blowing Donation for 90th Birthday
the test of time before it finally collapsed like a house of cards.
Many believe that the beautiful woman would take another shot at marriage soon, after getting over the present predicament.
Her sister, Meram, is now married to a Turkish billionaire, Yakup Gundogdu. She was previously married to politician Baffa Abdulkadir. They tied the knot in 2018 at a fairytale wedding ceremony that shook the bustling city of Maiduguri, but unfortunately, they fell out of love soon after.
The cracks were instantaneous then, as just two weeks into the marriage, Meram stunned many when she dropped a hint on social media about how difficult it was for her to move from her dad’s place into her matrimonial home. As if that flag wasn’t red enough, a year into her marriage with Baffa, Meram took to social media again to open up about her struggle with depression and anxiety. Shortly after, Meram and Baffa went their separate ways. But three years later, she started a new chapter in her life with Yakup, her Turkish beau, and they welcomed their first child together last September.
Meram is one of the three gorgeous Indimi sisters — the others are Adama and Mairama — from Samira Indimi, the half-Swiss, halfChadian second wife of the billionaire.
Banking and boardroom guru, Tony Elumelu, is no doubt a colossus in the sector.
Over the years, the Chairman, United Bank for Africa (UBA) has succeeded in positioning his business among the top in the world.
As proof of his success, Forbes Magazine featured him among the richest in Africa.
Elumelu, who doubles as Chairman, Heirs Holdings, is a great thinker and orator. He is said to have showcased these God-given talents on different occasions.
Last Tuesday, the well-established banker got a standing ovation when he delivered a powerful keynote speech at the Business and Investment Expo organised by Abuja Investment Company Limited at the Bola Tinubu Conference Centre, Abuja.
He mesmerised his audience with his address, titled ‘Empowering sustainable growth: Unlocking potential in emerging markets,’ showcasing his vast knowledge and grasp of Africa’s economy.
Grace, divine favour, benevolence, all these have been generously showered on billionaire businessman and Chairman of Premier Lotto, the Odole of Yorubaland, Sir Kessington Adebutu. The nonagenarian has joined the distinguished list of continental trailblazers, cementing his reputation as one of Africa’s most influential corporate leaders.
For a man born under the proverbial lucky star, life has been perfect. The man fondly known as ‘Baba Ijebu’ is endowed with the proverbial Midas touch, as all he has ventured into has thrived so well with outstanding rewards to show for it.
While it’s no longer news that the billionaire businessman recently celebrated his 90th birthday in grand style, it is worth repeating that the high-octane celebration, which set the internet on fire, is still the talk of the town, as high-net-worth individuals and top dignitaries attended it.
However, what was underreported was Baba Ijebu’s extraordinary act of generosity.
It was revealed that over N10 billion was lavished on humankind.
Society Watch gathered that, as part of the 90th birthday celebrations, the Odole Oodua commissioned the Kessington Adebukunola Adebutu Medical Research Centre, valued at N5 billion, at the Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH).
The monumental project stands as a testament to Chief Adebutu’s lifelong commitment to advancing healthcare, supporting medical research, and improving lives across Nigeria.
Dignitaries, medical professionals, and well-wishers gathered to honour a man whose generosity continues to touch lives and strengthen the nation’s healthcare system.
The lotto magnate also announced a donation of N1billion each to Sagamu and Ikenne Local Government Areas, as well as his hometown, Iperu-Remo, for enhanced socio-economic and community development.
Tony Elumelu’s Articulacy Between Alaafin of Oyo and Businessman Habeeb Okunola
The keynote speaker urged African governments to focus on developing infrastructure, ensuring policy stability, and strengthening public-private partnerships to promote sustainable growth, while commending the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, for the ongoing infrastructural advancements in the nation’s capital.
He also noted that Africa’s future lies in the hands of its entrepreneurs. “When we empower our young people, support small and mediumsized enterprises, and provide access to electricity, education, and digital tools, we unlock the true potential of our continent,” he said.
Elumelu also highlighted the role of the private sector in addressing challenges, such as unemployment, poverty, and inequality, stressing that inclusive growth can only be achieved when both the public and private sectors work collaboratively.
He stressed that Africa’s private sector must lead investment in skills and skill development to empower Africa’s youth, champion sustainability and green growth as we industrialise, build value chains that bring small enterprises and rural communities into the growth story, and drive digital transformation to unlock productivity and competitiveness.
After his speech, the boardroom guru received a deafening applause for his contribution.
When he ascended the throne of his forebears, one of the pledges made by the Alaafin of Oyo, His Imperial Majesty, Oba Abimbola Owoade, was to bring together the sons and daughters of Yorubaland for the unprecedented development of the region.
That the monarch is fulfilling this promise is an understatement; he is indeed walking the talk.
Last week Tuesday, the monarch, accompanied by his wife, Olori Abiwunmi Owoade, made a significant courtesy visit to one of the most respected Yoruba chiefs and billionaire businessman, High Chief Habeeb Okunola, the Akosin of Yorubaland.
The meeting took place at Okunola’s large expanse residence in Lekki, Lagos. This visit underscored the intention to strengthen collaboration between the Alaafin and his chiefs to foster development in Yorubaland.
During the visit, Okunola reflected on the historical significance of the occasion, noting that the immediate past Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, also visited him and offered prayers and counsel.
He expressed gratitude for the new Alaafin’s visit, seeing it as a pivotal moment that heralds a fresh chapter in the partnership between himself and the Alaafin throne.
The implications of the meeting as gathered, extends beyond mere formality; it symbolises a renewed commitment to fostering development and empowerment for the people of Oyo and, indeed, all of Yorubaland.
High Chief Okunola emphasised that he shares a vision that aligns with the Alaafin’s mandate for
Adebutu
Adebutu announced while speaking at a symposium themed “Odole Oodua: Symbol of Wealth Creation and Catalyst for Sustainable Development,” organised by the Iperu Akesan Development Association to kick-start the celebration of his 90th birthday.
the advancement and prosperity of Yoruba land. He maintained that his long-standing efforts, through the Habeeb Okunola Foundation, dedicated to community development and empowerment, will be invigorated by the discussions held during this visit.
“This engagement strengthens my resolve to work toward the greater good of our community,” he added.
In response, Alaafin Owoade articulated the importance of the visit, highlighting that Chief Habeeb has been a steadfast supporter since he acceded to the throne.
“My visit to Chief Habeeb’s residence brings me immense joy. His insights have been invaluable to me, and our discussions have addressed critical issues facing our communities. This meeting is an opportunity to deepen our bond and enhance collaboration aimed at promoting development throughout Yoruba land,” the Alaafin added.
As a gesture of respect and tradition, the Alaafin offered prayers to his ancestors by breaking kolanuts, bitter cola, and alligator pepper, seeking divine blessings for peace, growth, and prosperity across Yoruba land.
This visit is poised to mark a new era of partnership between the throne of Alaafin and its chiefs, signalling a mutual dedication to uplifting the Yoruba people and fostering a progressive future for their rich cultural heritage.
Indimi
Okunola
A publicAtion
Modernism Speaks with a Nigerian Accent
alluring in scope and audacious in intent, the Nigeria
Modernism exhibition at London’s Tate Modern redraws the world map of modern art, inscribing Nigeria into its canon with quiet authority. okechukwu Uwaezuoke reports
For once, the story of global modernism lifts its gaze beyond Paris and New York to those who shaped it from Lagos, Zaria and Nsukka. Nigeria Modernism, now showing at Tate Modern until May 2026, feels less like an exhibition than a longoverdue act of restitution—a righting of the record that has lingered too long in the wings. It might just as well be called a revolution—albeit one waged in silk gloves and hushed confidence. This is no riotous insurgency but a velvet mutiny: a movement that drifts through museum doors, charms the canon with a conspiratorial wink, then, almost mischievously, rewrites the script of art history with effortless grace. Unfolding through a partnership between Access Holdings Plc, Coronation Group and Tate Modern, the exhibition traces a golden arc from the 1940s to the 1970s—decades brimming with artistic ferment and post-independence fervour. Fifty artists and more than 250 works collectively dismantle the fiction of modernism as Europe’s private invention. Here, modernity dances to a different beat: it sways in aso-oke, hums in pidgin, and converses with Picasso not as pupil but as peer.
At the heart of the exhibition stand seven wooden sculptures by Ben Enwonwu, commissioned in 1960—the year Nigeria drew its first independent breath—and now part of the Access Holdings Art Collection. Their poised figures rise like sentinels of reclaimed memory: elegant, unbowed, and quietly triumphant. Returned to London not as colonial trophies but as cultural envoys, they embody history’s most graceful reversal—Nigeria, once studied, now doing the teaching.
Moored in Enwonwu’s steady brilliance are kindred spirits who helped give modern Nigerian art its many dialects. Uzo Egonu abstracts memory into geometry, turning exile and belonging into delicate negotiations of colour and form. Ladi Kwali, the potter-queen of Abuja, shapes clay into quiet theology—each vessel a tribute to patience and poise. Circling them are Bruce Onobrakpeya, Uche Okeke, Yusuf Grillo, Demas Nwoko, Aina Onabolu and Kolade Oshinowo: artists who forged a visual language in which spirituality and experimentation converse with the ease of old friends. Together, they built a modernism that expanded rather than erased tradition—one that spoke to the world, yet never forgot the timbre of home.
Measured in equal parts diplomat and visionary, Enwonwu embodied the dual temperament of Nigeria’s modernism—its outward confidence tempered by inward reflection. If he negotiated with empire through poise and brushstroke, Bruce Onobrakpeya acted as its alchemist, fusing folklore, theology, and printmaking into a luminous alloy of faith and form. Yusuf Grillo’s indigo saints, serene and meditative, hold the stillness of stained glass, while Uche Okeke’s line drawings pulse with mythic urgency. Together with Demas Nwoko, Aina Onabolu, and Kolade Oshinowo, they forged a distinctly Nigerian idiom: a modernism that embraced tradition without surrendering to it, speaking to the world while retaining the cadence of home.
To call it a milestone would scarcely suffice. For Tate Modern, Nigeria Modernism represents the most comprehensive survey of Nigerian modern art ever staged in Britain; for Nigeria, it is a declaration of rec-
lamation—an assertion that its modernists were never latecomers, but active interlocutors in the global avant-garde. “Seeing our art on the walls of Tate Modern filled me with indescribable pride,” remarked Amaechi Okobi, Chief Communications Officer at Access Holdings. “It felt as though home had travelled—Nigeria itself being celebrated in the heart of London.”
That sentiment rippled through the opening, described by Ngozi Akinyele of Coronation Group as the largest in Tate’s 25-year history. “We are stewarding a renaissance,” she said, “in art as in music, film, and fashion—a renaissance that restores dignity and belonging.” Her observation resonates with striking clarity: if Afrobeats has already colonised the world’s playlists, Nigeria’s painters and sculptors are now remapping the museum, staking their claim on walls once thought beyond reach.
Both Access Holdings and Coronation Group extend the partnership beyond the hushed galleries of Tate, sponsoring student tours and culturaleducation programmes that keep the conversation alive back home. Access continues to expand its corporate collection and mentorship schemes, while Coronation’s galleries sustain a dialogue between modern and contemporary African art. The collaboration feels less like corporate branding than a form of aesthetic diplomacy—where commerce and culture meet with the ease of old friends, and influence is exercised with unassuming grace.
Inside the exhibition, the atmosphere tilts toward the transcendent. Kwali’s clay radiates quiet conviction, each vessel a tribute to patience and poise. Grillo’s indigo blues hum with devotional serenity, holding the stillness of stained glass in their luminous depth. Onobrakpeya’s prints murmur with encoded myth, intricate and alive, conjuring a world where folklore and modernity entwine. Together, these works generate their own weather—vibrant, electric, insistently Nigerian. Here, modernism speaks not as borrowed vocabulary but as mother tongue, fluent in tradition yet unafraid of reinvention.
“This is not just Nigeria on display,” remarks one curator. “This is Nigeria taking its place in world history.” After decades of being sidelined in art-historical narratives, Nigeria’s modernists now occupy the centre—not as curiosities but as co-authors of modernity. Nigeria Modernism also gestures toward a subtler, deeper restitution. Beyond the ceremonial return of bronzes, it restores narrative agency: the power to define one’s own modernity. It reminds the viewer that Nigeria’s artists were never waiting for permission to be modern; they were merely waiting for recognition.
Shimmering in the subdued light of Tate Modern’s galleries, that recognition glows. Modernism here speaks in Yoruba cadence, hums in Igbo idiom, and keeps time to the earthy percussion of Gwari clay. It is confident, complex, and gloriously self-possessed.
As the Thames drifts past the museum’s concrete flank, the works inside radiate something larger than art: reclamation, affirmation, and the quiet jubilation of a history finally heard.
Ben Enwonwu's sculptures from Access Holdings collection
Acrobats by Ben Enwonwu.
Bruce Onobrakpeya's triptych surrounded by a suite of works based on biblical themes
In Lagos, the Quilt That Crossed Oceans Berths
WhenÒwú.Fil.Faden. Thread. opened at CCA Lagos on october 29, it arrived not so much as an exhibition but as a culmination — the Lagos chapter of a two-year continental relay stitched together with memory, politics, and sheer aesthetic nerve. The travelling quilt project has already looped through vienna(Austria), bregenz (Austria), St. Gallen (Switzerland), Dakar (Senegal), and berlin (Germany), gathering histories and fabrics like souvenirs. by the time it touched down in Lagos, it had become something of a textile nomad — part artwork, part archive, part provocation.
Developed at the Academy of Fine Arts vienna under the Austrian Science Fund’s Arts-based research (PeeK) programme — an initiative as academically rigorous as it is creatively restless — the project is a long-form meditation on the entangled histories of textiles, trade, and colonial encounter. The title, rendered in Yoruba, German, and english — Òwú. Fil. Faden. Thread. — is both translation and metaphor, suggesting the intertwined threads of language, labour, and legacy that bind its story. over 18 months, artists and researchers worked in a choreography of making that spanned continents: field trips to the Austrian
town vorarlberg’s lace factories, Dakar’s textile hubs, and Lagos’s dye pits. Through dyeing, stitching, spinning, and cutting, they pieced together a quilt that feels less like a static artwork and more like a sentient fabric — an accumulation of gestures, resistances, and reclaimed textures.
In each city, the exhibition shapeshifts according to local context. bregenz revisited its
lace-boom nostalgia; St. Gallen folded the project into europe’s quilt canon; vienna staged a cerebral homecoming. Lagos, however, feels like an emotional one. Here, the project turns its gaze toward reclamation — toward the fabrics that once travelled north as raw material and returned south as luxury commodity. The city itself becomes a metaphorical loom, weaving together the ghosts of global trade and the defiant pulse of postcolonial artistry.
At CCA Lagos, the installation reads as both an elegy and an act of defiance. The quilt,
monumental yet intimate, becomes a site where cloth performs memory: lace murmuring of empire, damask carrying the hush of migration, cotton remembering its own extraction. It’s a work that refuses to stay flat — rippling with the spectral weight of history and the quiet persistence of craft.
The Lagos programme unfolds with tactile verve: a two-day indigo-dyeing workshop led by Yusif Sani Said, a fifth-generation master from Kano’s legendary Kofar mata dye pits (November 13–14); a screening of Lace relations at the J. randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History (November 1); and a suite of artist talks and closing reflections through late November. The accompanying Pattern book doubles as a conceptual field guide — a printed choreography of hands, stories, and stains, documenting the process of making as a form of thinking.
Supported by CCA Lagos and the revolving Art Incubator, Òwú. Fil. Faden. Thread. arrives at a moment when the politics of material culture feel especially urgent. What emerges here is less a nostalgic nod to textile traditions than a sly, sophisticated reckoning with how those traditions were unraveled — and how they might yet be rewoven. The result is a show that thrums with intelligence and irony, deftly reminding viewers that fabric is never just fabric; it’s history made tangible, empire rendered wearable, and resistance beautifully stitched.
At Lagos Photo 2025, Artists Present 50 Shades of Incarceration
Yinka Olatunbosun
The 15th edition of the LagosPhoto Festival has opened across multiple venues in Lagos and Ibadan, bringing together about 50 artists and collectives under the thoughtprovoking theme “Incarceration.”
organised by the African Artists’ Foundation (AAF), the 2025 edition opened on october 25 and runs till November 29, marking a new era for Nigeria’s foremost international photography festival. Now staged biennially, LagosPhoto has deepened its curatorial scope while expanding regional collaborations and global participation.
This year’s festival unfolds across the African Artists’ Foundation, Nahous Gallery, Didi museum, Freedom Park, and Alliance Française in Lagos, as well as the New Culture Studio in Ibadan.
Curated by Courage Dzidula Kpodo, robin riskin, maria Pia bernadoni, and Kadara enyeasi, under the direction of Azu Nwagbogu, founder and director of AAF, the exhibition probes how photography and lens-based practices can interrogate systems of control while reclaiming visibility and narratives of freedom.
“The festival calls on audiences to examine the
many forms of incarceration—imposed by the self or by others—that continue to threaten subjugated peoples in their efforts to shape their futures. It is an invitation to explore pathways toward freedom, and how images can enact and reimagine liberation,” the curatorial statement reads.
True to its tradition of expanding the definition of photography, LagosPhoto 2025 embraces a range of media including film, performance, sound, installation, textiles, and archival material.
Lead curator Courage Dzidula Kpodo noted that this year’s edition introduced a more democratic process through an open call for submissions, enabling artists from around the world to participate.
“This year was quite different,” Kpodo explained. “We put out an open call, so even someone in a remote corner of Asia could send in an application. Through this, we discovered remarkable works we might never have found otherwise.”
one such discovery is Johis Alarcon, an artist of Andean and African descent from ecuador, whose work investigates the overlooked history of African enslaved descendants in South America.
Across the festival’s venues, the exhibitions are
organised into thematic clusters addressing identity, gender, violence, and archival memory.
“At AAF, we explore how incarceration can even be self-inflicted—how individuals, shaped by past traumas, may internalise confinement,” Kpodo said. “At Didi museum, the works deal more with gender, violence, and archival research, while the Ibadan section focuses on architecture and the afterlife.”
Curator Maria Pia Bernadoni reflected on the festival’s intellectual evolution, linking Incarceration to ongoing conversations about mobility, borders, and human limitation.
“Every edition grows from reflections on what’s happening around us,” she said. “In 2019, we explored Passports and the limitations imposed by nationality. Incarceration continues that thought— how borders, prisons, technology, and even social media shape our freedoms and our minds.”
The choice of venues amplifies the dialogue between history and space. The reopening of the AAF space after two years—alongside exhibitions at Nahous Gallery (within the historic Federal Palace complex where Nigeria’s independence was declared), Didi Museum (the country’s first private museum), and Freedom Park (a former colonial prison)—offers a layered backdrop for artistic engagement.
In Ibadan, the New Culture Studio, designed by Demas Nwoko in 1970, hosts installations that engage with architecture and the metaphysics of confinement—extending the festival’s conversation beyond photography into the terrain of spatial and spiritual inquiry.
Nigeria Picture Book Project Redefines Future
Yinka Olatunbosun
The drive to revolutionise children’s literature in Nigeria has received a major boost with the official unveiling of the Nigeria Picture book Project, an ambitious initiative to produce 100 high-quality children’s books by 2027.
Launched recently at The ouida Place, Ikeja ogba, Lagos, the project is a collaboration between the book buzz Foundation and the european Union, under the ongoing book Storm Project, which began in 2023.
Described as a first-of-its-kind creative and capacity-building programme, the project aims to promote authentic Nigerian storytelling that reflects the nation’s diverse cultures, languages, and values. It also seeks to empower young writers and illustrators, helping them create picture books that children can easily relate to.
Speaking at the event, the Head of the european Union Delegation to Nigeria and eCoWAS, Ambassador Gautier mignot, who attended with delegates from member states, said the initiative would help professionalise
FESTIVAL BOOKS
the children’s book industry in Nigeria.“The project will train Nigerian children’s book illustrators with the support of experts from different parts of the world,” Mignot explained.
“There is no better way to love reading than starting with books rooted in a familiar setting. These books will help children build confidence and curiosity while promoting positive values.”
He added that the european Union’s involvement in creative partnerships across Africa also extends to supporting policy development, festivals, and artists—with a focus on building sustainable creative economies.
Lola Shoneyin, founder of the book buzz Foundation, reaffirmed her organisation’s commitment to producing 100 quality picture books by 2027. “So far, we’ve published 11 books, and several more are in the pipeline,” she said. “We are working with young Nigerians between the ages of 21 and 30, training writers and illustrators from all six geopolitical zones. All classes will be held virtually to ensure nationwide participation.”
Storytelling
forming creative duos that will work together to produce culturally relevant stories for children. She noted that the project builds on the success of past literary initiatives such as the Ake Arts and book Festival, the Kaduna book and Arts Festival, the Sharjah Festival of African Literature, and the Lagos International Festival of Illustration (LIFI).“representation matters deeply,” she said. “our children deserve to see faces like theirs, names they recognise, and worlds that reflect their realities. When a child reads a story that mirrors where they belong, they learn to dream without permission—and that is how nations grow storytellers and leaders.”
The launch also celebrated Nigerian illustrators Kayode onimole and Chiamaka Chukwu, who were recently recognised by the bologna Children’s book Fair for excellence in illustration and storytelling.
other notable guests at the unveiling included mazzi odu, author of Get rid of Your Phone, mummy, and Tonye Faloughiekezie, author of Ugo and Sim Sim, I Don’t Like the birthday Song, and Simsim Goes to the Salon—works that promote inclusion and autism awareness through storytelling.
Founder, Book Buzz Foundation, Lola Shoneyin and Head of the European Union Delegation to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Ambassador Gautier Mignot at the event
Exhibition View Òwú. Fil. Faden. Thread. Vorarlberg Museum
According to Shoneyin, six illustrators and six writers will be selected from each region,
One of the works featuring at the festival
IN THE ARENA
For Anambra Guber, All Eyes on Amupitan
If the adage which says that a child’s first steps determine his future holds true, then the November 8, 2025, governorship election in Anambra State will serve as a litmus test for the new Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, and his commitment to credible elections, Davidson Iriekpen writes
On November 8, 2025, the people of Anambra State will head to the polls to elect the next governor, who will oversee the state’s affairs for the next four years.
The responsibility of conducting the poll rests squarely with the new Chairman of the Independent National electoral Commission (INeC), professor Joash Amupitan, who assumed office penultimate week after being sworn in by president Bola Tinubu.
Under the immediate past INeC leadership led by professor Mahmood Yakubu, the commission had become a scourge, which drastically made Nigerians lose interest in the country’s electoral process.
Acknowledging these frustrations, Amupitan, while speaking at the INeC headquarters in Abuja during his inaugural meeting with directors, vowed to uphold the integrity of Nigeria’s electoral process, describing it as “non-negotiable.” He pledged to deliver free, fair and credible elections that will reflect the true will of Nigerians.
Amupitan re-echoed this promise during his screening by the Senate on October 16, when he said that under his watch, losers would congratulate winners after elections. He promised to demonstrate his commitment to credible polls with the November 8 Anambra State governorship election.
“The eyes of the nation are upon us, and it is our duty to rise to that occasion. Credibility in our elections is paramount, and we must ensure that every voter feels confident that their vote will count. Because that is a constitutional task,” he said, emphasising the need for unity.
He continued: “Let us restore the confidence of every voter that whenever there is an election, their vote will count, so that we can address this issue of voter apathy in our nation. Let us break down silos. I must stress that we should not compromise our values or processes, as that could have consequences. The integrity of our elections is not even something we should negotiate.”
Amupitan admitted that the upcoming Anambra State governorship election is not just another electoral exercise, but a pivotal opportunity to demonstrate the commission’s commitment to free, fair, and credible elections. He noted that all eyes of the nation would be on the commission, urging every staff member to rise to that occasion.
Describing his appointment as a divine call, the new INeC chairman said he is ready to play his role in ensuring the birth of a new Nigeria anchored on democracy and transparency. He said that many people he had met recently had said they pitied him and did not envy his
new position.
Also, while addressing participants at the 56th Annual Conference of Nigerian Association of Law Teachers (NALT) in Abuja last Monday, Amupitan equally said elections must be won and lost at the polling units, adding the country could no longer afford a situation where the courts would continue to decide winners of elections.
while promising to curb the rising tide of pre-election litigations, which he said “have long burdened Nigeria’s electoral process” he pointed out that if necessary reforms were made, losers in elections would not hesitate to congratulate the winners.
He further used the occasion to again reaffirm his commitment to uphold integrity, fairness, and transparency in Nigeria’s electoral process.
Indications that Amupitan has no reason to disappoint Nigerians in his duty had emerged when president Tinubu who appointed him, publicly tasked him with ensuring that the forthcoming Anambra governorship election serves as a model of credibility and transparency. Charging him ahead of the governorship election, the president said the poll would be a “litmus test” for his leadership and the commission’s commitment to credible elections. He urged him to discharge his duties with integrity, dedication, and a sense of patriotism.
Tinubu emphasised that the election’s credibility must be beyond doubt, adding that transparency, non-violence, and fairness should define every stage of the process, noting that credible elections are essential to sustaining public trust and deepening democratic governance.
“I therefore charge you, professor Amupitan, as you take on this important assignment to preserve the integrity of our elections and electoral process and strengthen the institutional capacity of INeC,” the president stated.
Since 1999, Nigeria’s democratic journey has been marked by moments of promise and peril. each electoral cycle brings with it a mix of hope and frustration. From the heavily disputed elections of the early 2000s to the relative improvements witnessed in 2011 and 2015, Nigerians have remained firm in their demand for a process that genuinely reflects their will.
However, the 2023 general election and all the subsequent off-cycle polls, though technologically ambitious with the introduction of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) and IreV portal, exposed deep operational and institutional flaws.
This made the former chairman of the commission, professor Attahiru Jega, to warn recently that Nigeria’s democracy risked collapse
p OLITICAL NOT e S
Soludo’s Act of Desperation
Governor Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State last week set off a fresh round of controversy by promising a ₦1million cash reward to any ward that delivers victory for his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), in the upcoming 2025 governorship election.
SpeakingduringAPGA’scampaignrallyinUmunze, OrumbaSouthLocalGovernmentArea,thegovernor announcedtheincentivewhileurgingpartymembers to intensify their grassroots mobilisation ahead of the November 8 poll.
“For November 8, any ward that wins again will receive ₦1million, while the first three performing wards will get ₦5million, ₦2million, and ₦1million respectively,” Soludo declared to a cheering crowd. However, the governor’s statement has created
outrage among opposition parties and political observers, who view it as a subtle form of votebuying.
Though APGA officials have defended the pledge, insisting it is a legitimate way to motivate party loyalists and reward hard work at the grassroots, manyhavedescribedthepromiseas“aclearsignthat Soludo’s administration has lost public confidence and is resorting to questionable tactics to retain power.”
Many believe that Soludo knows that his promise is nothing but vote-buying.
For a governor who has on many occasions boasted that he did very well in office and has been flaunting his achievements on infrastructure and other areas of governance, such an act of despera-
unless urgent measures were taken to restore integrity and public trust in the electoral process.
In a keynote address entitled, ‘electoral Integrity as a panacea for Democratic Development in Nigeria,’ at the ninth Convocation Ceremony of National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies (NILDS), Jega, who oversaw the 2011 and 2015 elections, said democracy could not thrive where elections are manipulated, institutions are compromised, and citizens lost faith in the process that determined their leaders.
He lamented that 25 years after Nigeria’s return to civil rule and the country’s democratic journey have remained “challenging, if not disappointing,” because the electoral process has consistently failed to inspire confidence or produce truly representative leadership. According to him, elections that lack integrity undermine democracy, weaken public trust, and lead to governance failure. He warned that when politicians are allowed to manipulate the process, the outcome inevitably produces unresponsive leaders, who would fail to deliver good governance.
Though Amupitan inherited a burden of disillusionment, nevertheless, as the man in charge of Nigeria’s electoral commission, many expect him, based on his much-touted integrity and credibility, to use the Anambra elections to address the credibility deficit that followed previous elections, and avoid further voter apathy and civic disengagement. It is not enough for him to make lofty promises; he must demonstrate, through concrete actions, that he understands the magnitude of his responsibility. He must use the Anambra election as his foremost task to rebuild trust.
The INeC chair must know that trust, once broken, is not easily restored. Nigerians must see in him a man committed to the sanctity of the ballot, not a servant of political interests. His background as an academic and legal scholar should serve as a guiding compass for impartiality and adherence to the principles of due process.
Finally, Amupitan must also prevail on INeC officials to ensure that they do not in anyway sabotage the process. In recent times, Nigerians have continued to witness the biases exhibited by the commission’s officials during elections, thereby tainting the polls and embarrassing the nation. Democracy is not all about casting ballots; it also includes those who manage the process, their level of credibility, and integrity.
Democracy thrives when arbiters remain neutral, courageous, and consistent in the face of political pressure. Nigeria’s democratic future and socio-economic development depend on bold and unbiased decisions.
tion is uncalled for.
This questionable incentive of rewarding voters with financial inducements after the election has the same effects as inducing voters during the election as it will definitely spur members of APGA to desperately deliver their wards in a die-or-die manner.
Only a sitting governor who has run out of public goodwill would so openly resort to cash for votes, in direct violation of Sections 121 and 127 of the Electoral Act, which criminalise voter inducement of any form.
This is a new level of desperation, wrapped in impunity, and it is expected that the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and legal expertsmusttakenoteofthisdangerousprecedent.
Amupitan
Soludo
BRIEFING NOTES
Is Gov Mutfwang Heading to APC?
IsGovernorCalebMutfwangofPlateauState’srecentrevelationthatheisunderpressuretojointheAllProgressives Congress a hint of his possible emergence as the first northern governor elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party to defect to the ruling party since the 2023 general election? ejiofor Alike asks
Since the wave of defections by the governors elected on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 general election hit the main opposition party, only southern governors of the party have defected to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Governor Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta State opened the floodgate of defections of the PDP governors in April 2025 when he dumped the major opposition party.
Barely two months later, Governor Umo Eno of Akwa Ibom State defected from the PDP to the ruling APC.
Four months later, Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State also dumped the PDP and defected to the APC in October.
Last month, Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri, formally announced his resignation from the PDP, emerging as the fourth southern governor to dump the main opposition party since the 2023 general election.
Though Diri has kept sealed lips on the party he and his supporters are moving to, there are strong indications that he would join the APC.
With the defections, the PDP is now at its weakest position since 1999, controlling only eight of Nigeria’s 36 states — Bauchi, Oyo, Adamawa, Osun, Plateau, Taraba, Zamfara and Rivers.
The non-defection of any of the five PDP governors from the north has fuelled suspicions on the possible regional alignments ahead of the 2027 general election.
However, Governor Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State’s recent revelation that he is under pressure to join the APC may erase these suspicions as it may be a hint of his possible emergence as the first northern PDP governor to defect to the ruling party since the 2023 general election.
Governors Agbu Kefas of Taraba State, Ahmadu Umaru Fintiri of Adamawa State and Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State are also said to be under pressure to join the APC.
Speculations about Lawal’s possible defection spread after 15 key officials of the PDP in the state, including his close allies and supporters defected to the APC.
The dismissal of the reports of his possible defection by his spokesperson on Media and Communications, Mustafa Kaura, did not douse the speculations.
On the part of Fintri, the rumour about his possible defection gained traction after the governor held a closed-door meeting with the National Security Adviser (NSA),
Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, at the Government House, Yola, in May.
Though Governors Mutfwang, Kefas, Fintiri and Lawal were said to be under pressure to join the APC, only the Plateau State governor publicly admitted being under pressure, leaving the case of the other three governors in the realm of speculation.
Speaking recently on the pressure at the Government House Banquet Hall in Jos, Mutfwang, who is seeking re-election in 2027, said only God and the people who elected him had the authority to decide his political future.
Mutfwang said: “It is not a lie that they are putting pressure on me. But I told them that only two people would authorise me to change my party. One is the God of heaven, and the other is you, the people.”
The governor asked the audience, “Have you asked me to go anywhere?” And the crowd responded with a thunderous “No.”
“So, those who are rejecting me for what I did not seek are only hiding their desires,” he added.
However, many still believe that the Plateau State governor’s revelation is an indication that his possible defection is in the cards.
Analysts argue that the next stage of the
defection process is for him to announce to Nigerians that he is “consulting God and the people.”
Also, just as in the case of other governors who faced opposition against their defections, the APC leaders in Plateau State, who fear that the governor will sideline them when he defects and automatically becomes the leader of the party in the state, have mounted a fierce campaign against his joining the APC.
In a statement by its acting Publicity Secretary, Shittu Bamaiyi, the APC in the state described Mutfwang as “living in self-denial”.
“If he truly meant well for his supporters and the state, he should have courageously named those pressuring him and explained why.
“Whatever the case, it is a big minus for a sitting governor when the opposition openly objects to his joining its ranks, even when that party’s goal is to win future elections,” the statement said.
APC leaders in the state had earlier publicly rejected any attempt to admit the governor into the party.
At a meeting attended by APC National Chairman, Prof. Nentawe Yilwatda, former governors Simon Lalong and Joshua Dariye, and other leaders, the party described talk
of Mutfwang’s entry as “unfounded,” and unanimously adopted a motion moved by a former Deputy National Secretary of APC, Festus Fuanter, opposing the governor’s possible defection to the APC.
In the motion, Fuanter stated, “I move the motion against accepting Plateau State Governor Caleb Mutfwang into the APC.”
But in a dramatic twist, the North Central APC Forum rejected the resolution passed by the leaders of the party in the state against Mutfwang’s defection to the party.
The forum argued that those resisting Mutfwang’s possible defection were acting out of selfish interest rather than for the good of the party.
The forum’s chairman and a member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council in the 2023 elections, Alhaji Saleh Zazzaga, in a statement, reaffirmed their call on Mutfwang to dump the PDP.
Zazzaga said, “It is not just about gathering to reject Governor Caleb Mutfwang. The real issue is who can win the governorship seat for the party. Among those so-called stakeholders that gathered to reject him, only a few are genuine, capable members.
“For instance, in the previous election, the APC governorship running mate lost his polling unit and ward to the PDP. He got 2,800 votes in his ward, while the PDP got 10,600. Yet, he is among those opposing Mutfwang joining the party.
He stated that it was only the APC National Chairman, Yilwatda, that won his local government for President Tinubu. Zazzaga insisted that the forum was advocating for members who could add value to the party rather than those driven by personal gain.
He reaffirmed the forum’s call on Mutfwang to join the APC, citing the crisis in the PDP.
“Those rejecting him cannot even win their polling units. We want to join hands to win the Plateau State for Tinubu. It is not about personal interest now; only when you win elections can you talk about interests,” he added.
Mutfwang’s media aide, Gyang Bere, had boasted that the governor had the capacity to win re-election “without switching parties.”
But many believe that the governor’s public revelation of being under pressure may be an indication of his possible emergence as the first northern PDP governor to join the APC since the 2023 general election.
what’s Gov Abiodun Doing About Ota roads?
For residents of Ota in Ogun State, the recent protest by the town’s branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) over the deplorable state of roads in Ado-Odo/Ota Local Government Area (LGA) of the state was simply commendable.
In fact, for too long many were wondering for how long would the people in the area remain silent before they cry out.
The protest, which commenced in the early hours of October 25, 2025, saw the lawyers marching through major streets to the popular Sango market where part of the dilapidated flyover had collapsed.
The lawyers demanded urgent attention of the Governor Dapo Abiodun-led government.
NBA Chairperson, Mrs. Kelubia A. Ajose, further described the situation as “intolerable and danger-
ous,” lamenting that residents and motorists have continued to suffer due to years of government neglect.
She appealed to Governor Abiodun, and his deputy, Mrs. Noimot Salako-Oyedele, to intervene without delay.
She added that they would continue to use every lawful means to ensure the voices of Ado-Odo Ota residents are heard until these roads are fixed.
The NBA chair specifically mentioned the Ota–Idiroko Road, Oju ore Area, Atan–Agbara Road, and Sango–Ota Road as priority areas requiring immediate attention. She noted that the poor condition of these roads has caused untold hardship, leading to lost man-hours, economic stagnation, and a spike in criminal activities.
In truth, anybody would go through Ota and
not wonder why the city is so chaotic. There is no sign or a resemblance of government - state or local - presence in the area. The roads are in total disrepair—endangering lives, damaging vehicles, and crippling business activities daily. In fact, it is a nightmare for everyone.
Ota is supposed to be a major industrial town, but it has been neglected and ignored for too long to rot. What is really annoying to many is that with the huge population and economic activities in the town, huge revenue is generated by the federal, state and local governments.
That the roads in the area are in a deplorable condition when the state and local governments are generating huge internal revenue and receiving huge allocations from the federal government is depressing.
Mutfwang
Abiodun
Insecurity: Can the New Service Chiefs Make Any Difference?
The recent appointment of new service chiefs raises the question of whether they will succeed where their predecessors failed, writes wale Igbintade
Following their confirmation by the Senate, President Bola Tinubu last Thursday decorated the newly appointed Service Chiefs with their new ranks of four-star and three-star generals respectively, charging them to demonstrate urgency, courage, and innovation in addressing the nation’s security challenges and restoring lasting peace.
The new security helmsmen are: Chief of Defence Staff, General Olufemi Oluyede; Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Waidi Shaibu; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Idi Abbas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Kelvin Aneke.
Tinubu reminded them that their task was not ceremonial but existential: to reclaim peace, contain the spread of armed groups, and protect the nation’s fragile stability. He warned against the rise of new armed groups in parts of the country, stressing that such threats must be swiftly contained.
The president used the occasion to again emphasise that security remains the foundation of national development, noting that no meaningful progress could occur without peace.
Tinubu ordered the new officers to “flush out’’ terrorists and other non-state actors in all zones of the country. He told them it was time to defeat the enemies, adding that Nigerians need results, not excuses.
The president gave the officers tips on how they could effortlessly achieve the task, saying, “Be pre-emptive, innovative and courageous.’’
He further said Nigerians are in a hurry to celebrate peace, describing security as an essential element without which everything is rendered meaningless. He further tasked the service chiefs to embrace technologydriven warfare, strengthen inter-agency collaboration, and stay ahead of evolving threats.
“Today’s ceremony is beyond the symbolism of decoration. It marks the beginning of our renewed effort to ensure the peace and security of all Nigerians. Each of you has been carefully selected for this critical task,” the president stated.
“Let’s stay ahead of those who seek to threaten our peace, freedom and stability,” he added. “We cannot allow the crisis that began in 2009 to persist any longer. It is time to defeat the enemies.”
The president also pledged his full support to the military leadership, assuring them of the resources required to fulfill their mandates.
Responding on behalf of the newly decorated officers, General Oluyede pledged the military’s readiness to deliver on the task, defend the Constitution and protect the nation’s democracy. He assured the military’s resolve to eliminate all forms of criminality and called on Nigerians to support the armed forces, stressing that security is a collective responsibility.
“We will do our utmost to ensure that we rid Nigeria of all forms of criminality and make Nigeria safer for socio-economic activities to thrive. Without the support of Nigerians, we can hardly achieve anything. So I urge citizens of all backgrounds to support us; together, we will make Nigeria safer,” he later told journalists.
But for many Nigerians, such words have become a familiar refrain. Over the years, successive administrations have made similar pledges, only for the violence to persist.
Nigeria’s insecurity situation has continued to worsen over the years. Reports indicate that nearly 5,000 people have been killed across the country this year alone. The North remains the most afflicted, though the ripple effects are now felt in the South.
While the country has been contending with Boko Haram and Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorist groups for over 15 years in the North-east geopolitical zone, a new group,
Mahmuda, has come up in the North-central states of Kwara and Niger.
In parts of the North-west, the Lakurawa and Ansaru groups have gained notoriety, killing people and rustling cattle.
There is also al-Shabaab, whose members invaded Owo town in Ondo State and massacred over 40 worshippers.
In all of these, there are marauding bandits who pose a significant security threat. They are notorious for their brutality, as they attack villages, kidnap residents for ransom, and loot properties. All of these show how Nigeria’s map of insecurity keeps expanding.
This widespread instability has caused the displacement of entire communities, farmlands abandoned, and highways turned into danger zones. For travellers, road journeys that once represented adventure now evoke dread. For many families, each day brings news of abductions, raids, and killings.
Since 2009 when insecurity started in Nigeria, successive service chiefs have disappointed Nigerians. Each time a new set is appointed, many would be full of expectation and high hope that they would tackle the menace only for their hopes to be dashed.
The current set stand as symbols of yet another renewal of hope but the question now is whether they can break the cycle and achieve what their predecessors were unable to do.
Beyond the marching orders by the president, many have called on the political class, including President Tinubu, state governors and the local government to prioritise good governance as a solution to insecurity. They argued that for insecurity to be tackled, good governance, justice, and development at the grassroots level are crucial.
For instance, former Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa (rtd), while in office, had consistently reiterated the critical role of good governance in the fight against insurgency, citing poverty, hunger, and lack of infrastructure as key enablers for extremist recruitment. But this important was ignored, further exacerbating
and escalating the problem.
In one of the fora, General Musa described dire conditions in many affected communities, where residents lack access to basic amenities such as roads, water, and“Forelectricity. us to have a final solution (to insurgency), we must have the backing of good governance. Good governance is important, because when we get into some of these communities, a lot of them don’t even know anything about government. You go there, and there are no roads, no water and no electricity and as long as we have poverty and hunger, these are tools they use to bring them into the fold, and that is why they recruit so easily.
“I can tell you that on a weekly basis, we are taking them out, as many as possible. But the more you do that, the access they get from these other countries into Nigeria, movements of small arms and all into Nigeria.”
Musa also stressed the importance of functional local governments, effective governance by state leaders, and improved education systems to eliminate illiteracy.
“Our local governments must work well; our governors must work well. We must have food; we must have schools so that we would remove illiteracy. We also realised that their commanders are living larger than life across the border because they are surviving in a no-man’s land between Nigeria and these other neighbouring countries. That is why it is important we work with these countries,” he said, highlighting the need for grassroots development.
President Tinubu has pledged his full support to the new Service Chiefs — but Nigerians are not looking for more promises. Each day another life is lost marks a failure of leadership. Until government at all levels turns speeches into sustained action, insecurity will remain Nigeria’s most stubborn adversary. Nigerians cannot continue to perish in the hands of marauders while the president and other leaders sleep peacefully.
For now, the country watches and waits to see if this latest chapter in the fight for peace will finally be different.
Oluyede Shaibu
Aneke Abbas
Thinking through the Tempests
Waziri Adio
The last five years have been defined by tumults and transitions. We have witnessed these at the global, national and industry levels. The COVID-19 pandemic brought the world to a strange territory, a halt even, and at some point, it seemed the end was nigh. Geopolitical tensions and flareups have been ample, constantly reminding us of how the space between the global, the local and the sectoral has significantly shrunk. Our immediate neighbourhood of West Africa has been anything but quiet. At home, we have had the intimation of social upheaval as well as a historic election, and consequential reforms with serious economic, social, and maybe political, implications. Sector-wise, the transition away from fossil fuels accelerated, then lately seems to be abating; and Nigeria’s oil and gas sector has produced historic highs and lows.
When thrust into tempests, rational humans don’t just throw up their arms. They try to make sense of what is going on around them. They take a pause, then activate their agency. They reflect; they deliberate; they project. They try to master and navigate the moment, using knowledge and thought as their compass. This, it appears to me, is precisely what the esteemed members of the Centre for Petroleum Information (CPI) have been doing: to, as a collective, make sense of, and ultimately master, their rapidly evolving operating environment. Through different fora such as the Petroleum Policy Roundtable, the Energy Finance Forum, the Industry Public Symposium, the Oil and Gas Law Forum and others, CPI has been offering its members the compass to navigate through the tempests of the time. For an organisation whose vision is “creating value through knowledge and networking,” this is quite apt and a fitting tribute as it marks its silver jubilee and contemplates the next chapter.
But CPI, in my considered view, has done something even more significant. It has ventured beyond creating enduring private value for its members to producing a desirable public value. CPI has done this by distilling the knowledge and the wisdom emanating from its various convenings into a book, which I think will be an invaluable resource to its members and, remarkably, to a much wider audience. Titled “Energy Insight Nigeria (Vol 2.)—A Review of Half a Decade,” the book is a necessary and logical sequel to the first volume published in 2020 to mark CPI’s 20th anniversary. Combined, these two books offer a rare illumination of the contours, the challenges and the promise of the petroleum sector, which is still—and will continue to be—a significant and strategic component of Nigeria’s economy, even when its share of government’s revenue and GDP are falling, and are expected to decline even further.
I have always argued that the petroleum industry is a sector that Nigerians across the board need to understand more and that policymakers need to fully optimise. My position is simple: for decades, the petroleum sector has been the mainstay of our pollical economy but a blessing that we have failed to deploy optimally for the benefit of the generality of our people. We need to govern this common(wealth) better, and well-distributed knowledge will be indispensable in this task. Through these books, CPI has made an immense contribution to improving public understanding of this still strategic sector and to facilitating better natural resource optimisation in a country that is in dire need of it. This is why I see this particular effort as a public value, which to me is the highest form of value (because it incorporates private value but goes beyond it).
A delightful blend of explainers, case studies, analyses and think pieces, this second volume is a selection of the presentations made on CPI’s platforms between July 2020 and May 2025. These presentations have been turned into chapters, organised into sections, and interspersed with epigrams, updates and section summaries, which all add up to make the book a pleasing read. Edited by Mr. Victor Eromosele (a veteran himself and the Executive Director of CPI), the book is divided into five sections, and contains 30 chapters, 20 boxes/vignettes, and an appendix. I will wager that it is difficult to find a more comprehensive and compelling compendium on contemporary issues in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector than this book. The 432-page book stands out in the breadth of its coverage and in the intimidating rollcall of
its authors, from industry grandees and thought leaders to regulators and foremost experts from other but related fields. It is to the credit of the writers and the editor that despite the technical nature of the petroleum sector, the book remains comprehensible. The language is elevated yet accessible, which is not what one can readily say of many technical books. Kudos to all involved.
The book’s five sections follow a sequential pattern, the first laying the foundation and the last pointing to an inevitable future. The first section is titled “Upstream and Industry Contemporary Issues”; it has seven chapters and touches on topics such as declining oil production, divestments by IOCs, and how some indigenous oil companies are making the most of their inherited assets. The second section, the longest, is on “Policy, Regulations and Legal Issues”, and zeroes in mostly on the implications of the 2021 landmark petroleum law, which we shall return to. The third section is titled “Downstream, Gas and Power” and in five chapters, it looks at the issues around petrol subsidy, deregulation, local refining and the power sector. Section Four also has five chapters and it lays out the dynamics of “Financing a Changing Industry”. And the last section, “Energy Transition and Low-Carbon Future,” examines Nigeria’s preparation for the green economy, the role of solar energy and electric vehicles, and the adjustments that our public refineries must make.
Despite the near linear arrangement, readers can peruse the chapters in ways that serve their purpose. Some of the chapters are in conversation with one another, as in the questions and concerns raised in one chapter are answered in a subsequent chapter, take for instance chapters 4 and 5, 12 and 13, 21 and 22 etc. A few authors have more than one entry. These include Sir Egbert Imomoh (chapters 4 and 27), Engr. Anthony Ogbuigwe (chapters 19 and 29); Engr. Afolabi Oladele (introduction and chapter 25) and Mr. Victor Eromosele (preface and chapter 30). It is also noteworthy that lawyers are judiciously represented in the book. I counted at least ten authors identified as lawyers. There might be more.
The dominance of lawyers may be explained by the fact that a sizeable portion of the book is devoted to the provisions of and matters arising from the Petroleum Industry Act, which was signed on 16th August 2021 by late President Muhammadu Buhari. The prominence of the PIA in the book is also not surprising. The law came to pass after many failed attempts and after nearly 20 years in the making. The PIA is, by a country mile, the most consequential development in the petroleum sector in the last five years. It can be likened to a tectonic shift. It created new institutions, new fiscal regimes, new rules of engagements, and new expectations. This also means that there are many things to unpack and some grey areas in the omnibus law. While there was a universal celebration of the eventual passage and signing of the law, the logical question for industry players was and still is: what does this mean for our operations and viability? The authors did justice to the issues, including pointing out some design flaws, which is to be expected since there is no perfect law. Some of the subsequent regulations and executive orders have provided clarity while some of these have also thrown up their own challenges. That is the nature of things. While we should always aim for perfection, we should not make the perfect the enemy of the good. The investments and the time lost while we wandered endlessly on the PIB would probably not be regained. The world waits for no one, not even for Nigeria. We need to constantly bear this in mind in the way we approach regulation generally or in how we go about the proposed amendments to the PIA.
For me, this important book re-affirms certain things and throws up some critical issues. The first is the value of knowledge production as part of the project of development. This book is a testimony to the fact that some Nigerians in different arenas are busy thinking and discussing about their
fields and their country. It is not everyone that is just complaining or cursing; some are actually tapping deep into their reservoir of knowledge to generate ideas and solutions that should produce better outcomes for the country. This is commendable and should be encouraged. If the countries that have resolved most of the existential challenges that we face are still thinking their way through, we cannot afford to give up on knowledge production and in the search for enduring solutions. In fact, we need to become more of a thinking society.
However, a legitimate rebuttal can be that the problem of Nigeria has never been the lack of good ideas. True, the uptake of good ideas has been lean. This leads to my second observation. Good ideas will not naturally rise to the surface. They are actually mostly drowned out by bad ideas. So, good ideas have to be pushed, marketed even. The fact that an idea is sound does not mean that its value will be obvious to everyone or that it will not be resisted for different reasons. And even when accepted, the good idea-to-action pipeline is either clogged or broken. This is not peculiar to Nigeria, and this is a challenge that all those working in the realm of ideas and the arena of change have to continue wrestle with. Even after taking into account the fact that ideas (especially good ones) have a gestation period, it is simply not enough to throw up good ideas and expect everything else to fall in place. They rarely do. CPI thus needs to devise and implement a strategy for engaging the policy process more systematically, and for the long haul. This organisation, more than most, has the leverage and the reach to positively shape policy outcomes.
The third point is that policymakers, especially industry regulators, obviously need to consult more with key stakeholders in making and reviewing critical decisions. This book is replete with examples of policies that are deficient in rigour and that could benefit from the realism of those on the frontline. Here, I am reminded of the quote by John Dewey, an American political philosopher: though we need the shoemaker to make a shoe, but we need the shoe wearer to tell us where it pinches. The fourth point is that the death of the oil age is a bit exaggerated, and I
am not saying this because “drill, baby, drill” has recently become a new anthem. Demand may wane, but we have certainly not seen the end of the oil era. The question then is how do we make this new lease count not just for a few but for the generality of Nigerians and how do we reverse the counter-intuitive narrative of resource curse, of which our country is a prime example.
The fifth point is related to the last one, and it is derived from the appendix. At first, I was wondering why the appendix covered a period of 25 years when the book’s scope is five years. I am sure the editors gave a good thought to this, and I am glad that they finally settled for the quarter-of-a-century horizon. I noted, with a profound sense of sadness, how the remarkable strides recorded in the first decade of this century gave way to what you can term a secular decline of our oil production in the last few years. It is another stark reminder that collective greatness is actually not beyond us but that we have also made a habit of regressing. There are two options for us from here: we can be content with looking back at that period as a golden era of our oil history or we use it as inspiration to aim for even higher heights. The question is: which option are we going to take?
In conclusion, I find this book to be thoughtprovoking, insightful, enjoyable, and enriching. The expositions are lucid, the diagnoses are insightful, and the prescriptions are practical. This is not surprising, given the wells of experience and expertise that the writers drew from. Though a few chapters still feel like talking-points or leave you wanting more, but on the whole, this is an important and indispensable resource, an invaluable reference material, a great addition to knowledge. I eagerly recommend it to industry players, policymakers, researchers, journalists, public intellectuals and others who are interested in getting a handle on Nigeria’s still strategic petroleum sector.
*Adio,formerExecutiveSecretaryofNEITI and founder of Agora Policy, delivered this reviewattheunveilingofthebookandthe25th anniversaryofCPIheldattheLagosOriental Hotelon17thOctober2025.
Postscripting the Panic Lokoja ‘Endorsement Rally’
tunde Olusunle
President Bola Tinubu’s body language very evidently is sending frills and jitters to sections of his party faithful in Kogi State. Those who know Tinubu well know that he is not given to garrulity, or verbal frivolities. Say all you care and he simply supports his chin with his hand taking in the lines and hysteria. He seems rather more inclined to introspection and action, than verbal effusions. He has elected a strategic siddon look approach to domestic politics in the “confluence state.” All politics should ideally be local. But those with the self-entitled belief that they should hear from the lips of this god but are not, have plunged into a staccato of blunders and frenzy of missteps.
Saturday, October 11, 2025, a group which tagged itself “Stakeholders of the All Progressives Congress (APC)” from Kogi West Senatorial Zone congregated in Kabba, the political headquarters of the district. The assembly comprised in the main of past and present benefactors of Yahaya Bello, the immediate past Governor of the state. There were past and present state parliamentarians, the state executive council and party leaders. In a senatorial zone with three national assembly members notably Senator Sunday Karimi, the Member Representing Lokoja/Kotonkarfe in the House of Representatives, Danladi Suleiman Aguye, and his counterpart for Kabba-Bunu/Ijumu, Salman Idris, were absent. The body, without evident and discernible concurrence from the Eastern and Central Senatorial Zones, “endorsed” President Tinubu and the Kogi State Governor, Ahmed Ododo, for second terms. Ododo is barely 21 months in office by the way.
One week later on October 18, 2025, a supposed statewide “endorsement rally” was staged in Lokoja the Kogi State capital to validate the position earlier taken in Kabba concerning the inviolability of the Tinubu/Ododo 2027 return tickets. Those who monitored the event described it as a circus, a charade. A particular commentator said on his social media page: “I was in Lokoja yesterday. I was close to the venue of the stage-managed endorsement rally, held at the Old Lokoja Stadium. It was hugely boycotted by the foundation members of APC Kogi, the Abubakar Audu/Abiodun Faleke political family. Even Audu’s son, the Minister for Solid Minerals, Shaibu Audu, was noticeably absent. There was no political figure of substance at the event. It was a grand failure.”
Followers of politics in Kogi State have posited that the “endorsement” scam scheme is the holistic orchestration of Yahaya Bello. Since his recalcitrant miscalculation of running against Tinubu at the 2022 APC presidential primary even when more formidable aspirants stepped aside to clear the pathway for the president, there has been seething disaffection against Bello by Tinubu’s henchmen. At various strategy meetings of the president’s team, video clips of Bello’s preelection indiscretions and foibles were reportedly reviewed and analysed. In one particular video clip, Bello stormed out of meeting called by former APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, admonishing presidential aspirants at the time, to rally behind a particular aspirant. He threatened to address the press and stated that “no Jupiter” could dissuade him from pursuing his ambition to a successful conclusion.
There is yet another video clip, where Bello prosecuted a disdainful mimicry of Tinubu’s famous adjustment of his flowing agbada, the day he made the historic emilokan declaration in Abeokuta the Ogun State capital. The internet is nemesis. Bello attempted to atone for his lack of depth and circumspection in the immediate aftermath of the APC presidential
primary, when he relinquished his erstwhile presidential campaign headquarters in Abuja to the Tinubu project as convening hub for youth mobilisation. Adherents of Kogi State politics, however, noted that Bello’s exuberance was at play again when the position of National Chairman of the APC was zoned to the North Central last July, following the resignation of Dr Abdullahi Ganduje a month earlier. Whereas Bello reportedly believed it was time for him to be “rewarded” by Tinubu being from the North Central, Tinubu favoured a more sober, less tempestuous university scholar, Prof Nentawe Yilwatda from Plateau State, hitherto Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction.
Buffeted by ongoing judicial inquest into allegations of the theft of hundreds of billions of naira under his watch as governor between January 2016 and January 2024 in which Tinubu has refused to meddle, Bello is substantially at sea. He is therefore inclined to commit to everything and anything that will ingratiate him to Tinubu. Didn’t this very same Bello tell Nigerians back in 2016 on the occasion of his very first visit as governor, to former President Muhammadu Buhari, that he would happily jump into a furnace of fire on Buhari’s orders because Buhari made him? Bello therefore desires the overarching canopy of President Tinubu for his political self-preservation by putting himself forward as chief campaigner for the President in Kogi State.
Alongside this, he craves the perpetuation of Ododo, who he singlehandedly handpicked to run in the November 2023 governorship poll in Kogi State, in office for a second term. There are loud insinuations that both men, and a few other kinsmen, hold the knife to the mutton of state resources. According to the com-
mentator earlier cited on the Lokoja rally, the tragi-comedy relied on very reluctant participants. Attendes were predominantly monetarily-induced and literally dragged to the venue of the hoax, just to give an optical illusion of popular participation. Sadly, Bello did himself no favours when he threatened the Kogi State electorate with violence should they be inclined to other candidates than those he has prescribed for them. Bello the self-styled “white lion” of Kogi politics vowed that the people of Kogi State will cower when he roars.
Bello, who was fingered in untoward electoral practices as governor, including the animalistic novelty of procuring a helicopter to fire live bullets at voters on queue in his quest for reelection in 2019, has been roundly chided for threatening electoral mayhem come 2027. Murtala Ajaka who contested against Bello’s man Ododo in the 2023 poll, and Senator Karimi, are on the same page with the coming success of President Tinubu in 2027. They are unanimous in their conviction that he has acquitted himself substantially in Nigeria’s peculiarly difficult social, economic and political circumstances and deserves the overwhelming nod to complete his good run. But they don’t agree with Bello’s warmongering rhetoric in a state whose customary calm, charm, serenity and stability, has been unsettled by insecurity in recent months.
For the avoidance of doubt, a civilised endorsement rally was held in Lagos Tuesday October 21, 2025. It had in attendance all three of Tinubu’s successors: Babatunde Raji Fashola, Akinwumi Ambode and the incumbent, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. The state legislature led by the long-serving Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, the traditional institution, leaders and elders of the state featured prominently at an event which was interactive and seamless. Typical Lagos-style, it broke into a carnival, without anyone professing his “tigritude”, without swear words, invectives and intimidation. Nobody was chanting “ekwechi” or “echane” battle songs. As my senior colleague and kinsman of blessed memory, Prof Ayo Olukotun would have put it while effecting a coinage from a Yoruba expression the Lagos event was
a “jelenkeist” outing, easy and smooth. This is why there must be decisive official reaction to Bello’s incendiary talk, beyond the cautionary notes already served by well-meaning political leaders in the state. Between the national leadership of the APC and the security superstructure, Nigerians expect some reprimand for Bello’s potentially combustive utterances. We live, rather sadly, in a country where order, sanity, integrity have been thrown to the dogs. Elsewhere, Yahaya Bello, an accused person, would not be the headliner of Tinubu’s reelection campaign. Not in John Dramani Mahama’s neighbouring Ghana. Tinubu indeed has demonstrated resolve when it mattered, to keep in abeyance those whose conduct is capable of impugning his reputation and that of his administration.
Tinubu booted out Betta Edu, Yilwatda’s predecessor from the federal executive council on allegations of corruption in January 2024, and showed the door to Uche Nnaji his Minister for Science and Technology for certificate forgery, weeks ago. Nyesom Wike, Tinubu’s Minister incharge of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), did not irritate the nation’s ears last month, with his typical self-serving live television interviews during which he fritters public funds insulting and casting aspersions on others. He has most probably been put on leash. This Tinubu doesn’t seem to like “idoti,” as we allude to dirt, garbage and rubbish in Yoruba.
Bello should be assisted to spend his time in sober reflection and retrospection, regularly engaging with his attorneys on his variegated pendency before the courts. He should be more active on his prayer mat, penitent about his past, and prayerful about ongoing legal proceedings. Make no mistakes, there are precedents of former Nigerian governors who underwent extended, after-office “vacations” within the walls of our custodial centres, following verdicts about their times in office. Let him ask Jolly Tanko Nyame and Joshua Chibi Dariye, former governors of Taraba and Plateau states.
• Olusunle, PhD, Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, is an Adjunct Professor of Creative Writing at the University of Abuja
•Tinubu
ENGAGEMENTS
Economics and Madness
Aconclave of diverse economists have recently been crowing about the prospects of recovery in the Nigerian economy. It is not strange. Professional economics is a variant of madness. A mad man may have no compass indicating where he is coming from or where he is headed. But he keeps going somewhere all the time. Professional economics takes its direction and tangent from where currently stand except when prompted to make back reference to where we are coming from or where we are likely to be heading. When economics cries disaster, it is from where you stand now. If it crows recovery, it is also from wherever you stand now. When in a bad situation elite economists and key government officials begin to sound alike, it is time to wake up to something uncanny in the horizon. If social and economic conditions remain dire and nasty and economists and economic managers begin to spew figures that indicate things are getting better, it is time to take a second look. It is then that the similarity between economics and madness becomes tempting. It is time to invoke the unorthodox equivalence between professional economics and the madness that sends some men and women out into the open streets in stark nakedness. Otherwise, how does any one explain or understand the new wave of statistical optimism that has invaded the discourse of economists about the Nigerian economy. Major elite media abroad and official channels in Nigeria are indicating that the Nigerian economy is responding positively to Tinubu’s ‘reform’ measures. The economy grew by 4.3% by the second quarter of 2025, a development driven by an increases in the service and oil sectors. Nominal GDP stood at $188 billion by end of 2024. Inflation has dropped from a frightening 33.2% to 18.02% in September and still falling. Real GDP growth rate is now 4.2% as at the first quarter of 2025. Food inflation is falling but remains high. The exchange rate has remained erratic, the country’s external reserves have inched up. somewhat stabilized but remains unsteady at its all time high rates. With this flutter of erratic figures, key Western media and agencies have sounded an optimistic note that Nigeria is on the way to general improvement and even recovery. When asked when improved statistics will translate into better living conditions for the people, silence is the answer. The World Bank , IMF and their affiliate banks in Washington and Wall Street have carried the message of conditional optimism. Whenever I sense the discord between the optimism of these economists and the bleak conditions under which most Nigerians are living, I heave a sigh of relief that I never became an economist. When your profession dictates that you tell a different set of lies to earn a living but return home everyday to face your family who have to endure a persisting hardship, your life becomes either a comedy or an exercise in day to day lies. . Ordinary Nigerians cannot understand what the government and its client economists mean in their latest optimistic chorus. Food
remains unaffordable despite some relief from emergency importation. The price of gasoline remains too high and therefore transportation costs remain too high. An avalanche of taxes have been unleashed on the populace while a new barrage will be rolled out by the year’s end.
The unemployment figures remain beyond imagination even though economist have based and rebased the indices of unemployment. A Gen Z revolt remains an ever present prospect in Nigeria after what has been experienced in Kenya, Algeria, Bangladesh, Tanzania and Nepal. Protests fueled by hunger and hardship in Nigeria are being periodically and systematically smuggled into existing popular struggles like police brutality, release of Nnamdi Kanu and bad governance. Young Nigerians are asking for better living conditions, jobs for themselves, welfare for their parents and grand parents as well as better education, healthcare and increased safety.
The mood of the nation is still one of utter hopelessness. Between the government’s sloganeering around the theme of ‘renewed hope’ and the situation on the ground, there is a yawning
gap. The general question on most lips is simply this: how can this bleakness nurture hope? Only the insane can harbor hope in this wilderness of want and deprivation. How can people who are hungry, homeless, sick and dirt poor commit to a future of renewed hope. Add to this the insecurity which has become endemic and systemic. On the highways and urban precincts, on village farm routes, uncertainty and violence is everywhere and the security and law enforcement agencies have no convincing response. There is no consequence even for the most heinous crimes and offences. In most parts of the country, armed bloody conflicts have torn communities that used to live together in harmony apart. The community next door is enemy territory as small fights over grazing fields and farming space have often degenerated into bloody communal conflagrations with economic and religious colourations. There is nothing in the conduct of the state and its key officials to support the optimism of official economists except the political contests over the 2027 elections. The incumbent administration wants to be seen as performing. It is desirous to see Tinubu’s tragic policy gambles as evidence of well intentioned reform. On its part, the political opposition wants to say that the nation has been defrauded by a ruling party that has wasted ten years driving the nation under
a broken bus. What has deepened the crisis of hardship in the country is the inability of state and local governments in most of the country to translate the increases in revenue from the fuel subsidy removal and foreign exchange deregulation into socially beneficial services and infrastructure.
In bad economic situations, governments can court increased foreign direct investment as an impetus to increase family incomes through increased employment. The rate of inflow of such investment into Nigeria remains bleak as Nigeria continues to make bad international news. Currently, the major political news is the uncovering of a coup plan by military officers aimed at dethroning Mr. Tinubu and his friends from power. That news of political instability cannot encourage investors to head for Nigeria. Add to that the latest categorisation of Nigeria as a hostile environment for Christians. The Trump administration has issued a declaration to that effect, thereby increasing Nigeria’s economic burden.
The favourite proviso of all economic projections- “all things being equal”- hits the rock in every direction in Nigeria. Nothing is ‘equal’ or rational in this place. What remains constant however is the ceaseless bungling of government and the relentless devaluation of the lives of ordinary people.
•Edun
email:duro.Ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com
Iwobi, Bassey, Chukwueze in Action as Fulham End Losing Streak at Wolves
Arsenal continue impressive start to the season, go seven points clear preMIer LeAGUe
Duro Ikhazuagbe
Nigerian Internationals, Alex Iwobi, Calvin b assey and Samuel Chukwueze were in action as Fulham ended their four-match losing streak with a 3-0 win against Wolves on Saturday evening.
While bassey was in action all 90 minutes, Iwobi was substituted by Adama Traore in the 89th minute while Chukwueze who is enjoying his role supplying passes from the wing, came on as a 77 minute replacement for one of the scorers, Harry Wilson.
ryan Sessegnon opened the scoring for Fulham in the ninth minute then on 36 minute emmanuel Agbadou was sent off for Wolves. Fulham capitalised and doubled their lead on 62 minutes through Harry Wilson before an own goal by Yerson mosquera made it 3-0 in favour of Fulham.
The win took Fulham to 11th position on the league table while Wolves with Super eagles striker Tolu
Arokodare remain bottom with no win after 10 games.
At Selhurst Park Chrisantus Uche and Frank onyeka were benched in Crystal Palace’s 2-0 win against brentford.
The win moves Palace to seventh on 16 points whole brentford are in 12th spot on 13 points. elsewhere, Premier League leaders Arsenal continued their impressive start to the season with a comfortable 2-0 win at burnley to make it nine consecutive victories in all competitions.
Goals from viktor Gyokeres and Declan rice sealed the win - their fifth in a row in the league - as mikel Arteta’s side moved seven points clear at the top, albeit having played a game more than some of their rivals.
At the Nottingham Forest’s City Ground, manchester United were forced to a 2-2 draw by the host. The red Devils were cruising to another win in the Premier League when their former player, Amad Diallo, scored the equalizer with nine minutes to end of the game.
In the first game of the day, brighton and Hove Albion spanked Leeds United 3-0.
NPFL: Remo Stars Crash in Kwara, Warri Wolves Hold Insurance
The hangover of failing in continental campaign this season appears to still be affecting the form of NPFL defending champions, remo Stars as the Ikenne side lost 3-1 against host Kwara United in Ilorin on Saturday.
The NPFL match-day 11 encounter saw Junior Aimufua score a brace for Kwara with babatunde bright scoring the third goal. Jabbar malik got the consolation goal for remo Stars in stoppage time.
The win moves Kwara United to fifth position on the log with 16 points from 11 games. elsewhere at the Samuel ogbemudia Stadium in benin City, bendel Insurance were held 1-1 draw by neighbors Warri Wolves.
Alex oweilayefa gave Insurance the lead after nine minutes while othuke egbo restored parity for the visitors four minutes before the break.
Today, there will be eight games across the country in the Nigerian topflight with the rivers United versus
leaders Nasarawa the star fixture in Port Harcourt. At Ibadan, Shooting Stars will be home to Katsina United while el Kanemi will battles rangers. Lagos team, Ikorodu City will play host to Kun Khalifa. It will be clash of familiar foes as former champions enyimba take on Kano Pillars in their new home in Katsina. barau FC will host Wikki Tourists with Niger Tornadoes laying ambush for Abia Warriors.
In North London, Joao Pedro ended his 10-game goal drought to give Chelsea a deserved 1-0 victory as Tottenham were booed off after another dismal home performance.
The 24-year-old brazilian has been struggling for both fitness and form but confidently chipped in the winner after persistent pressing by moises Caicedo forced defender micky van
de ven into a mistake inside his own box.
Pedro could have scored three by half-time but for two fine saves by Italian keeper Guglielmo vicario who saved low to his right
and then reacted quickly to tip away a volley. but in the end, that solitary goal was enough to beat a Spurs side that lacked creativity and registered just three shots on goal.
NNPCL/TEPNG Kickoff 2025 Football Tournament for OML58
Blessing Ibunge in port
Totalenergies (eP) Nigeria Limited in partnership with the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) has kickoff the 2025 football tournament for OML58 host communities in rivers
Host Communities in Rivers
State.
This year’s tournament hosted at obite Civic Centre in egi clan, ogba/egbema/ Ndoni Local GovernmentArea of rivers, is the 22nd edition of the annual football competition organised for the youths of the OML58 host communities.
The participating communities include; Abarikpo, Akabta, Akabuka, Amah, ede, erema, Ibewa, Idu, and Ihuaje. other participating communities include; obagi, obiyebe, oboburu, odiemerenyi, og-
bogu, rumuekpe, Ubarama, Ubeta and Ubio.
In his opening speech, the executive Director, Jv Asset, mr obi Imemba, said the competition which began in 2002, is one of the ways the NNPCL/ TePNG Jv promotes inclusiveness and fostering harmonious relationship among the youths of her host communities.
represented by Dornu Kogam, General manager, Community Affairs, Projects and Development, Imemba noted that the tournament
has lived up to its expectation as the greatest sporting event in the OML58 area, and ONELGA at large
He explained that in line with United Nation Sustainable Goals, SDG 4 - Quality education, the Joint venture is determined to further develop through quality professional football training combined with rigorous academic exercise in one of the best football academies in Nigeria the best talents that would be identified in the competition.
Speaking on the theme of this year’s tournament “Playing for Peace and Promoting Talents”, Imemba said the tournament demonstrate the joint venture’s determination to give back to the host communities and the country at large.
He urged the communities to sustain the peaceful atmosphere of the area, stressing that no community can develop without peace.
“Last year, we contracted the service of ‘Talent Hunters’ to identify good potentials among the players, three players were discovered and are undergoing training in professional football in an academy.”
He said this year, more beneficiaries would be sent to the academy, while they continue to explore other opportunities for improvement.
Harcourt
Alex Iwobi (left) and Calvin Bassey (right) were in action on Saturday as Fulham ended four-match losing streak against Wolves
A cross section of some of the participating teams ready for the NNPCL/TEPNG JV 2025 football tournament for OML58
Oweilayefa
Genocide, Selective Perception and Framing
On December 25, 2011, when the Boko Haram terrorists bombed St Theresa Catholic Church in Madalla, Niger state, killing 37 worshippers, did you view it as an act of genocide against Nigerian Christians? Yes? No? On November 28, 2014, when they hit the Great Mosque of Kano during Juma’at prayers, killing over 100 worshippers, did the phrase “Muslim genocide” cross your mind? Yes? No? When the terrorists bombed non-religious places in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), such as Nyanya motor park, Emab Plaza, UN building, THISDAY offices, and police headquarters, killing hundreds of people, did you deem the attacks as a joint genocide against Muslims and Christians?
Your answers to these questions will say a lot about how you perceive insecurity in Nigeria. The questions came to mind recently after an American comedian, Bill Maher, made global headlines with his comments on “Christian genocide” in Nigeria. “I’m not a Christian,” the atheist said, “but they are systematically killing the Christians in Nigeria. They’ve killed over 100,000 since 2009. They’ve burned 18,000 churches. These are the Islamists, Boko Haram. This is so much more of a genocide attempt than what is going on in Gaza.” US President Donald Trump has now redesignated Nigeria as a “country of particular concern” over the genocide claims. He did it previously in 2020.
The UN Convention on Genocide of 1948 defines genocide as any of five acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial or religious group. They are (a) killing members of the group (b) causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group (c) deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part (d) imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group (e) forcibly transferring children of the group to another. The UN General Assembly had, by its resolution 96 (I) of December 1946, declared genocide as a crime under international law “that shall be punished”.
In the Christian community, there is still some caution on the use of the G word concerning Nigeria. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state, said the killings affect not only Nigerian Christians. “We should also recognise that many Muslims in Nigeria are themselves victims of this same intolerance,” he said. “These are extremist groups that make no distinctions in pursuing their goals. They use violence against anyone they see as an opponent.” Rev Wale Oke, national president of the Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN), told PUNCH: “Our position is that genocide exists, but it is not just about Christians. Our concern is that whether Muslim or Christian, stop the killing...” These measured comments did not go down well with the proponents of the genocide claim, especially on social media. Some insist that only Christians are victims of terrorism, banditry and ethno-religious violence in Nigeria. Fair enough, the proponents got the full support of Bishop David Abioye, founder of the Living Word Conquerors Global Assembly and a former pastor at Bishop David Oyedepo’s Winners Chapel. Abioye declared: “There is a lot of distortion going on, people claiming there is no genocide of Christians in the nation. Information with facts can never be thwarted. You see people buried in hundreds, and you say there is no genocide. What a wicked set of people!”
I am aware that this is a delicate topic — emotive issues are like that. For one, there is no doubt that Christians and churches in parts of the north are targeted. Christians in certain states also complain of marginalisation. Any attempt to deny these facts would be absolutely dishonest. But it would even be more disingenuous and criminal to suggest that Muslims and mosques are not targeted too. In fact, I am cocksure that the number of casualties of terrorism and banditry among Muslims is far more than that of Christians.
Trump
If, on the basis of verifiable evidence, Muslims and Christians have been casualties of violence and insecurity, why then is the narrative being carved as Christian genocide?
In trying to understand the religious genocide narrative, I posed some questions to myself. Whenever the largely Christian Berom and the mainly Muslim Fulani communities in Plateau state clash, is it religious or ethnic? In Benue state, are Fulani herders killing Tiv villagers and Tiv villagers killing Fulani herders because of religion or dispute over land and grazing? When Christian villages and Muslim communities in Kaduna state fight, is it about religion? Remarkably, when Tiv and Jukun communities, both predominantly Christian, fight in Taraba state, how do we classify that since they are of the same faith? When are killings to be classified as ethnic, religious, economic, or political?
At this point, it may also be useful to countenance the fact that certain areas of the north are prone to violent conflicts which are, by default, categorised as religious even when religion has nothing to do with the context. There are many of such violence-prone communities in Kaduna, Benue and Plateau states. To complicate matters, Muslims and Christians tend to take sides on the basis of religion whenever things flare up. This is indeed very common. But there are also many states in the north — such as Kwara, Kogi, Gombe, Niger, Nasarawa and Adamawa — where there is a good mix of Muslims and Christians but hardly do we witness conflicts, much less violence. What explains that?
The peculiar situation has got me thinking. The first thought that came to my mind is the “framing theory” in mass communication. It proposes that how information is presented to the audience influences how they process it. That is, presentation structures meaning. This is part of the agenda setting theory of the media. For instance, when people are killed in clashes between Hausa farmers and Fulani herders in Jigawa and Zamfara states, it is not presented as genocide or Islamisation. Why? The conflict cannot be so framed because Hausa and Fulani are socially constructed as similar or assimilated ethnic groups. Thus, the conflict will be presented simply as a farmers/herders clash.
Similarly, if Tiv and Jukun villagers clash over land, religion will not be emphasised because both groups are mostly adherents of the same religion. Yet, the reason for the conflict might be strikingly similar to what obtains in Jigawa and Zamfara: a clash over land and livelihood. Conversely, if Tiv were to be Muslims, the framing would be different because of the historical animosity between
Muslims and Christians in the region. This framing is not limited to Nigeria. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, it was not framed along religious lines since both are Muslim-majority countries. But when the US started bombing Iraq to “liberate” Kuwait, Muslims interpreted it as a war on Islam.
I strongly suspect most conflicts in the north are communal and not religious — but political framing plays the key role. I have seen pictures of mass burials in Zamfara, Sokoto, Niger and Katsina states, as well as Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. I reasonably presumed they were mostly Muslims. Why? Because the attacked communities are mainly Muslim. They are victims of the brigandage against hapless citizens, most of them farmers and rural dwellers. I have also seen pictures of mass burials in Benue, Plateau and Kaduna states. I reasonably presumed them to be Christians and Muslims. Why? Because since precolonial times, they have been locked in wars of aggression, attrition and reprisal.
I now move to my second thought on the genocide narrative. In psychology, there is a concept called “selective perception”. It is how people unconsciously select, filter, and interpret information based on pre-existing beliefs and attitudes. They ignore or discount contrary information. This cognitive bias is often at play when we analyse conflicts. If Boko Haram kills 90 Muslims and 10 Christians in an attack, those with this bias will count only the Christian casualties because their belief is that only Christians are victims of terror. If 10 mosques and five churches are burnt in the same attack, they will select only the bit on churches. It may not be deliberate — it may just be unconscious bias.
In February 2014, Boko Haram attacked the Federal Government College, Buni Yadi, Yobe state, and killed 59 Muslim boys in their sleep. There was no talk of “Muslim genocide”. Two months later, when hundreds of schoolgirls were abducted in Chibok, Borno state, someone cynically asked me if northerners really went to school in those numbers, much less study science. But when the Borno government named the victims and it emerged that most were Christians, the conspiracy theorists changed tune. They finally accepted there was an abduction and agreed that northerners could indeed be science students — but then said they were kidnapped only because they were Christians.
It must be noted that while many proponents of the genocide narrative may be genuinely worried about targeted killings, some are deliberately pursuing a mischievous agenda. They are consciously framing the issues through selective perception. Their ultimate purpose is to score a political point. Some know that the framing is wrong but would rather look away or comment on something else because they are eyeing the next elections. There are also “activists” targeting dollars from Christian bodies to campaign against “Christian genocide” in Nigeria. And there are potential asylum seekers who hope to benefit by claiming to be from a country of concern. They all know what they are doing.
Still, genocide or no genocide, Nigerians desire and deserve to live in a society where they feel safe, secure and happy. We would not be discussing genocide if the state had always demonstrated the capacity to protect the lives of its citizens — men, women, children, Muslims, Christians, animists and atheists. But this major failing created the room for this narrative. The onus is on the state to step up its game and make Nigerians feel at home anywhere they are in the country. There must also be a deliberate, sustained and effective programme of peace-building in the divided communities so that those utilising the power of framing and selective perception will not have the last laugh.
And Four Other Things…
PDP PALAVER
If there was any doubt that the prolonged crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is not natural, the last-minute court order stopping its convention should finally settle the matter. This was a convention meant to reset the party so that it can finally put its house in order. The court injunction baffled me because the Supreme Court recently ruled, in another matter involving the same PDP, that the courts should not be interfering in the internal matters of political parties. And now this. The judiciary has, regrettably, sloped to the level of “anything goes”. Courts are increasingly delivering judgments and making orders that do not make sense in matters of law or justice. Inconsistency.
DEMONSTRATION OF CRAZE
Paul Biya became president of Cameroon in 1982. Now 92, he has just won his eighth term in office. He will have spent 50 years in office when his new seven-year term expires in 2032, when he will be 97. Alassane Ouattara, 83, has been re-elected as president of Cote d’Ivoire after he amended the constitution and disqualified his opponents from the contest. In Tanzania, President Samia Suluhu Hassan, once celebrated as an icon for being the second female president of an African country, is doing everything to exclude opponents from the ballot. The late Prof Claude Ake, eminent political scientist, once summed it up this way: “You cannot build a democracy without democrats.” Apt.
PARDON THE MESS
President Tinubu has significantly whittled down the pardon list, removing persons convicted for kidnapping, drug trafficking, human trafficking, fraud, and unlawful possession of firearms from benefitting. The pardon is a show of federal government’s prerogative of mercy. I must say I was very happy with the way Nigerians tore the list apart, pointing out why some of those pardoned did not deserve it and why it could send the wrong message. The whole thing was messy. I am glad Tinubu retraced his steps. While the president can claim that he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy, we need to set measurable, predictable standards for the pardon process. Mortifying.
NO COMMENT
Another week, another bill to set up another agency. Hon Fuad Laguda, a member of the house of reps, has proposed a bill seeking to establish the Fintech Regulatory Commission. Laguda said the commission will oversee and regulate “the rapidly growing fintech industry” in Nigeria as if the CBN complained to him that the job is too much. We publicly mouth cutting down on big government and do exactly the opposite. I have lost count trying to keep tabs on the proposed new agencies — to be funded from public purse, of course. I am still trying to understand the science behind policymaking in Nigeria. What next? A bill to set up Roadside POS Operators Regulatory Commission? Hahahaha.
