TUESDAY 30TH JANUARY 2024

Security, Constitution Amendment, Electoral Reforms Top Agenda as Lawmakers Resume Today Lament state of the nation, abduction, murder of innocent citizens

Juliet Akoje in Abuja

Security will be at the top of the agenda as the House of Representa-

tives resumes plenary today amid growing insecurity in many parts of the country.

Other issues of national importance

marked for consideration include constitution amendment, electoral reform, legislative oversight, public petitions, bill progression, state of the

economy, constituency outreach, and foreign policy.

A statement by the spokesperson of the House, Hon. Akin Rotimi, said the

above subjects would shape legislative proceedings and deliberations, and define the second half of the first legislative year (June 2023 - June

2024), as the lawmakers resumed from their four-week recess.

Continued on page 10

Tinubu, Buhari Congratulate Cardinal Onaiyekan on His 80th Birthday... Page 6 Tuesday 30 January, 2024 Vol 29. No 10520. Price: N400

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Nigeria Expresses Sadness Over Decision of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali to Exit ECOWAS... Page 6

Atiku, Makinde Trade Words over Ibadan Explosion Obi visits state, as Afenifere consoles governor, victims

Chuks Okocha in Abuja, Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan and Wale Igbintade in Lagos

Former Vice President Atiku Abuba-

kar and Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, yesterday, squabbled over alleged insensitivity of the former to the explosion that rocked the state some weeks ago.

Equally, yesterday, the presidential candidate of Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, paid a condolence visit to the state over the explosion, and Afenifere

commiserated with Makinde and the people of Oyo State.

A huge explosion occurred on January 16 at Dejo Oyelese Street, near Old Adeyi Avenue, Old Bodija

Estate, Ibadan, leaving more than five persons dead, 77 persons injured, and scores of houses partially or completely damaged.

Makinde, yesterday, came hard

on Atiku for failing to reach out and offer condolences to the government, victims, and people of the state Continued on page 10

To Stem Naira's Continuing Decline, CBN Clears Another $500m FX Backlog Tinubu transfers crude oil revenue receipts from NNPCL to CBN Move aimed at ensuring transparency, accountability

Deji Elumoye, James Emejo in Abuja and Nume Ekeghe in Lagos The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), yesterday announced that it had released an additional $500 million to address verified outstanding FX liabilities to various sectors of the economy. The announcement was obviously targeted at arresting the continuing decline of the Naira at both the official and parallel markets.

But it did not mitigated the naira's woes as it sustained its depreciation against the United States dollar on the parallel market segment of the foreign exchange (FX) market as it raced towards N1,500 to a dollar, to close at N1,460/$1.

That was as President Bola Tinubu approved, with immediate effect, the movement of revenue from crude oil receipts from Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited to CBN. The naira’s slide on the parallel market saw the country’s currency Continued on page 10

OBI commiserates with MAKINDE over ibadan explosion...

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde (left) and Labour Party, Presidential Candidate in last election, Peter Obi, during his courtesy visit to Governor's Office Secretariat, Ibadan, over the Bodija explosion

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T H I S D AY • TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024

Group News Editor: Goddy Egene Email: Goddy.egene@thisdaylive.com, 0803 350 6821, 0809 7777 322, 0807 401 0580

NEWS

COURTESY VISIT to LAMATA...

Special Adviser to the Governor of Lagos State on Climate Change and Circular Economy (OCCE) Mrs Titl Oshodi(left); Managing Director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA) Engr. Abimbola Akinajo and a consultant at LAMATA, Mrs. Kemi Williams, during the visit of Office of Climate Change and Circular Economy (OCCE) to LAMATA on Climate Change Advocacy and Circular Economy Development in Lagos, yesterday

Report Hints Exit of IOCs from Nigeria Could Reverse Oil Output Decline

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A report by Reuters has hinted that Shell and other oil multinationals’ exit from Nigeria's onshore oil sector may have raised hopes that local firms could reverse the output decline from the Niger Delta, quoting industry officials and analysts.

Shell is the most prominent Western company to exit the Delta, a region where there’s rampant pollution, oil theft and pipeline vandalism, which have for years stifled investment, hobbled production as well as government revenues.

The oil multinational recently announced the sale of its subsidiary, the Shell Petroleum Development Company (SPDC) to five mostly local firms, joining the ongoing trend of Western energy companies divesting onshore Nigerian oil fields.

Exxon, Italy's Eni, Norway's Equinor and China's Addax had struck deals to sell assets in the country in recent years.

Industry experts told Reuters that Shell, Exxon and other majors who hoped to divest were not putting much money into developing onshore assets – hastening production

decline.

"The majors reduced investments in the onshore for many years," said the Chief Executive of Nigeria's Seplat Energy, Roger Brown. He cited the combination of local issues and the fact that major oil companies must compete for cash with their assets in other regions, such as Guyana, that can often look more attractive.

"I think the independent companies will get production up more than the International Oil Companies (IOCs) will, because they do have the appetite to invest," Brown added.

Seplat is still awaiting regulatory approval of its own deal, announced in February 2022, to buy Exxon's assets onshore.

Nigeria's Minister of State for Petroleum (Oil), Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, recently said Shell's asset sale would be quickly approved once all paperwork was received, adding that local companies would be able to step up to fill the void.

Some local firms, including Seplat, First E&P and Heritage have managed to raise production and reduce oil spills on assets purchased from Shell. But it has not worked

for others, including Aiteo Eastern E&P and Eroton Exploration, which have struggled with leaking pipelines and oil spills.

"Nigeria has had well-established problems in policy in the oil sector, and the FX policy concerns have put constraints on investments. That's probably partially why you have seen the majors pulling out, and disinvesting to some extent," said a senior economist with Goldman Sachs, Andrew Matheny.

"It explains a significant portion

A report by the World Economic Forum (WEF) has urged political and corporate leaders in the world not to forget that 85 per cent of the world’s population identifies with a certain belief system, declaring that “meaningful cooperation with faith actors at a time of deepening polarisation and distrust in societies” must be prioritised.

The "Faith in Action" insight report was included in this year's WEF annual conference in Davos, Switzerland as a reflection on how religion and spirituality can make a difference in finding solutions to the world’s “polycrisis”.

“For most of the world today, religion and spirituality continue to inform what a good life is and how to best think about the challenges faced by families, nations and the world”, said the report.

According to it, political and corporate leaders must not forget that 85 per cent of the world’s popu-

lation identifies with a certain belief system, and therefore “meaningful cooperation with faith actors at a time of deepening polarisation and distrust in societies” must be prioritised.

It stressed that global leaders cannot afford to ignore the impact of religion and spirituality The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) plays a key role in preparing the report. One of the four co-authors, Chris Elisara, co-Director of the WEA’s Sustainability Centre, in Bonn, Germany, drafted five of the eight study cases of enterprises around the world led by “business leaders who are applying their faith fluency to explore innovative partnerships with faith actors”.

In the WEF report, the complexities of such partnerships and the “applicable lessons” were analysed.

Presenting the report, Elisara said: “Faith organisations, including many evangelical ones, are doing many innovative projects with businesses that are making

operations, it sends a perfect picture of the risk involved in doing business in Nigeria," said a senior analyst at security consultancy, SBM Intelligence in Lagos, Seyi Awojulugbe.

Ten years ago, Shell's share of production was as high as 300,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day (boed) in Nigeria. This fell to 131,000 boed in 2022, which the company blamed on sabotage and theft in the Niger Delta, according to its annual reports.

But the head of geopolitics at

London-based Energy Aspects, Richard Bronze, said local firms lacked the financial heft of oil majors, which could affect future output.

Still, Brown said that if oil majors aren't investing, their access to cheaper capital is irrelevant. Local banks, some international lenders, and oil traders, are also sources of cash for local companies.

"It will be available but it won't be cheap," he said. "But at these oil prices, indigenous businesses can afford to develop it," he stated.

EITI Hands Nigeria 15 Corrective Actions for Execution Before 2026 Validation Exercise Kicks against harassment of civil society groups in oil, gas space

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The global oil, gas and mining transparency organisation, the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) has handed down 15 areas Nigeria must improve

WEF: Political, Corporate Leaders Must Prioritise 'Meaningful Cooperation' with Faith Actors

Ndubuisi Francis in Abuja

of the decline in oil production in recent years," he noted.

President Bola Tinubu took office last May pledging to remove obstacles faced by producers, including ending crude theft and pipeline vandalism. But seven months into his presidency, the asset sales, which were well underway before his election, highlight the inexorable changes to the country's oil sector.

"If companies are now leaving the less capital-intensive onshore operations to focus on offshore

a difference. We hope that the case studies chosen will provide insights and inspiration enabling business leaders and faith-based organisations to achieve greater impact."

The report also includes “guiding questions” to help businesses interact with faith actors.

The World Economic Forum said it is in touch with around 100 faith groups and religion experts to have a “community of dialogue”.

The WEF annual meetings in Davos have often been surrounded by criticisms of those who say politicians and large corporations gathering in the Swiss alpine region are not making a difference in the life of real people.

For some, the WEF's messages are very much aligned with a liberal-progressive agenda.

Past themes addressed in Davos such as the 'Great Reset' had been portrayed by critics as a way of forcing unwanted lifestyle changes on the population.

upon if it intends to register any progress in its next validation due in January 2026.

In a document prepared by the Oslo, Norway-based 57-member country group, which seeks openness in operations in the extractive sector, the board determined that part of the “corrective actions and strategic recommendations”, must be alignment with requirement 2.2, which expects Nigeria to ensure that information on mining, oil and gas licence transfers are publicly disclosed.

It added that these information should include the identity of licences transferred and the process for transferring licences, and the technical and financial criteria assessed.

To strengthen implementation, the organisation said Nigeria should use the EITI to strengthen the oil sector regulator’s systematic disclosures of licencing information, including retention of historical data.

“The EITI board agreed the following corrective actions to be undertaken by Nigeria. Progress in addressing these corrective actions will be assessed in the next validation commencing on 1 January 2026.

“In accordance with requirement 1.1, Nigeria should ensure that the government is fully, actively and effectively engaged in and leading the EITI process.

“The government should ensure that the multi-stakeholder group overseeing the EITI process is consistently constituted in a timely manner and that there is sufficient

opportunity for the broader industry and civil society constituencies to nominate their representatives to the National Stakeholders Working Group (NSWG).

“The government should ensure that it has consistent oversight of the NEITI secretariat, including in its financial management and recruitment practices,” the group said.

It also urged Nigeria to demonstrate its commitment to resolving bottlenecks such as legal barriers to disclosures, outreach to stakeholders that are not members of the NSWG, use of EITI data and other information to promote public debate.

Among others, it explained that in terms of participation of civil society, Nigeria should ensure that it is fully, actively and effectively engaged in all aspects of the EITI process.

Civil society groups, it said, must be substantially engaged in the design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation of the EITI process, and ensure that it contributes to public debate.

“The federal government is required to ensure that there are no obstacles to civil society participation in the EITI process and to ensure that there is adequate civil society representation in the oversight of Nigeria EITI to represent the constituency’s diversity,” it stressed.

It urged the government to undertake measures to prevent civil society actors from being harassed, intimidated, or persecuted for expressing views related to oil, gas or mining governance.

According to EITI, the government, in collaboration with the NSWG, should document the measures it undertakes to remove any obstacles to civil society participation in the process.

Another area of concern, it said, is that the invitation to participate in the NSWG should be open and transparent.

“Each stakeholder group must have the right to appoint its own representatives, bearing in mind the desirability of pluralistic and diverse representation. The nomination process must be independent and free from any suggestion of coercion,” part of the corrective action read.

It further stated that the NSWG and each constituency should consider gender balance in their representation to progress towards gender parity.

It stressed that all EITI officeholders must respect the principle of value-for-money and be responsible in the use of funds dedicated to the EITI. “In accordance with requirement 2.3, Nigeria is required to ensure that dates of application and licence coordinates of each extractive licence and contract are publicly accessible for each active licence and contract in the mining, oil and gas sector.

“To strengthen implementation, Nigeria is encouraged to pursue its efforts to establish a modern cadastral management system for its oil and gas sector,” EITI added.

Continues online

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NEWS

Security Briefing...

L-R: Commissioner of Police, Edo State Command, Funsho Adegboye; Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, and Commander 4 Brigade Nigerian Army, Brig. Gen. Ebenezer Oduyebo, during a security briefing at the Solomon Arase Command and Control Centre in Benin City, Edo State... yesterday

Tinubu, Buhari Congratulate Cardinal Onaiyekan on His 80th Birthday President, Ex-president mourn General Abdulsalami Abubakar's sister

Deji Elumoye in Abuja President Bola Tinubu and former President Muhammaed Buhari have felicitated His Eminence, Emeritus Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan

who marked his 80th birthday yesterday, describing the cleric as an exceptional religious leader.

Onaiyekan was the Archbishop of Abuja from 1994 to 2019, and also served as president of the Christian Association of Nigeria, president of

the Catholic Bishops' Conference of Nigeria, and Bishop of Ilorin.

The President, in a statement issued yesterday, by his Media Adviser, Ajuri Ngelale, celebrated the exceptional religious leader who has used his calling not only

to preach the good gospel of Jesus Christ, but also followed his example by fighting for the downtrodden and speaking out against the ills in society, yet remains unbending in the pursuit of peace and unity in Nigeria.

Meter Manufacturers Urge FG to Address FX Fluctuations Impacting Availability of Device Peter Uzoho Members of the Association of Meter Manufacturers of Nigeria (AMMON) have called on the federal government to address challenges posed by the fluctuations in foreign exchange (FX) which they said were hampering availability of meters in the power sector.

The association also expressed its appreciation of the recent establishment of the Presidential Committee on Mass Metering, under the leadership of the Minister of Power, Chief Adebayo Adelabu, describing it as a bold step towards addressing the pressing challenges in the metering sector.

In its statement obtained by THISDAY, yesterday, AMMON said it was looking forward to collaborating with the presidential committee, maintaining that the foreign exchange fluctuations have impacted negatively on the operations in the sector.

The statement read: “AMMON has expressed her concern over the challenges posed by foreign exchange fluctuations as it impacts the continuous supply of electricity meters to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).

"As the demand for meters continues to grow, the association emphasises the urgent need for regulatory measures to address the issue of a fixed meter price when all input costs are affected by increasing inflation and foreign exchange movements. This attention is urgently required to ensure the seamless provision of meters across the nation.

“This strategic move would not only facilitate the sustainability of the meter manufacturing industry but also ensure that end-users have access to reliable and affordable electricity meters.

“As such, AMMON calls on regulatory authorities to consider the liberalisation of meter prices, allowing manufacturers to adapt to market dynamics and maintain a steady supply of meters."

The group warned that if urgent action was not taken, there would be a critical shortage of meters available for installation within the next 14 days.

It further warned that the impact of delayed intervention could exacerbate the existing challenges faced by the NESI and hinder the progress being made towards achieving widespread access to electricity meters.

Furthermore, AMMON called on the regulatory authorities and stakeholders to urgently prioritise and expedite measures to address the impending shortage occasioned by a three-month supply chain gap by their estimates.

"If this action is taken, it will ensure the continued and uninterrupted supply of meters to meet the nation's growing demand for reliable electricity services barring the short gap already realised," the association assured.

AMMON also advocated for a collaboration between the regulatory bodies and the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) to develop cost-effective meter specifications tailored to NESI requirements.

By working closely with NEMSA, the association said it believed that that could contribute to the development of standards that promote affordability without compromising quality and reliability.

The statement noted: “AMMON remains committed to supporting the nation's power sector and believes that these proposed measures will contribute to a more robust and resilient electricity metering ecosystem.

“AMMON looks forward to engaging with relevant stakeholders to implement these recommendations and address the challenges currently faced by the meter manufacturing industry in Nigeria.”

Tinubu thanked His Eminence for his sacrifices and efforts in peace-building in Nigeria over the years, assuring him that his hope and prayers for a glorious and united Nigeria will be made manifest.

He wished the reverred cleric more prosperous years in the Lord's Vineyard.

On his part, Buhari in a message also issued yesterday, rejoiced with Onaiyekan on his 80th birthday describing him as a bright light in the nation’s path to democracy and development.

According to the former President, Onaiyekan was always at the forefront in serving the poor and the deprived.

He said: "I will always remember Cardinal Onaiyekan in his support and partnership to make the nation a better place especially in on the issues of social harmony, universal brotherhood and inclusive development.”

Also yesterday, Tinubu and his predecessor mourned the younger sister of former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar.

Nigeria Expresses Sadness Over Decision of Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali to Exit ECOWAS Michael Olugbode in Abuja

Nigeria has expressed sadness over the decision of the three Francophone countries of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso to quit the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a regional bloc created on May 28, 1975 in Lagos.

The Nigerian government expressed its feelings about the decision of the juntas in the three countries, in a statement yesterday, signed by the spokesperson of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Fransisca Omayuli.

The statement read, “Nigeria expresses its sadness over the pronouncement by the military

authority in the Republic of Niger indicating that the Republics of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have withdrawn membership of their countries from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

“For half a century, ECOWAS has worked to promote peace, prosperity and democracy in the region.

Gunmen Kill Two Ekiti First Class Traditional Rulers, One Escapes Gbenga Sodeinde in Ado Ekiti

Two traditional rulers in Ekiti, the Onimojo of Imojo Ekiti in Oye Local Government Area and the Elesun of Esun Ekiti in Ajoni, Ikole Local Government Area of Ekiti State, have been killed by suspected gun men.

Eyewitnesses told THISDAY that the Alara of Ara in Ikole Local Government escaped when the armed men accosted them

Tinubu said he received the news of the demise of the younger sister of former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, Hajiya Salamatu Asabe, with heavy heart.

The President, in a statement issued by his Media Adviser, Ajuri Ngelale, commiserated with General Abubakar, the family, and all those who mourn this painful loss.

Tinubu prayed that her family is comforted by her legacy and the beautiful memories she left behind.

"General, please accept my sympathy and condolences. My prayers are with you at this time of mourning. May Almighty Allah grant Hajiya Asabe Aljannah firdaus," the President said.

Also, Buhari in a message said he and his family were. “deeply saddened by the passing of the General’s sister but we are grateful to Almighty Allah for what she was to her family and her community where she did everything she could to assist those in need.

“We pray for the repose of her soul and fortitude to General Abubakar and the family to bear the loss. “

and attempted to forcefully take them away.

The incident took place yesterday evening between Oke-Ako and Ipao Ekiti, located in Ajoni Local Government area, it was learnt. The traditional rulers were coming from a meeting when the incident happened.

“They were travelling together.

The armed herdsmen stopped them and rained bullets on them. They took their personal

belongings and dragged their bodies into the bush,” one eye witness told THISDAY. He said the Alara of Ara Ekiti escaped, explaining that they were coming from a meeting where security issues were discussed.

He said the attackers were suspected armed herdsmen men who had been operating in that area for the past five years.

“They fired many bullets at the Alara but he was lucky. He

escaped from the scene and ran away,” the source said.

Sources told our correspondent that as at press time, Amotekun operatives had been mobilised to the area.

An official of Oodua Liberation Movement (OLM) in Ekiti State said the armed Fulani men had for long occupied the forest between Ondo, Ekiti, Kwara and Kogi states, saying that the area is like their “Sphere of Influence.”

“Nigeria stands with ECOWAS to emphasise due process and shared commitment to protect and strengthen the rights and welfare of all citizens of Member States.

“Nigeria has worked sincerely and in good faith to reach out to all members of the ECOWAS family to resolve the difficulties being faced.

It is now clear that those seeking to quit the community do not share that same good faith.

“Instead, unelected leaders engage in a public posturing to deny their people the sovereign right to make fundamental choices over their freedom of movement, freedom to trade and freedom to choose their own leaders.

“Nigeria remains open for engagement with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger so that all the people of the region can continue to enjoy the economic benefits and democratic values that ECOWAS embraces. Nigeria further appeals to the international community to continue to extend its support for ECOWAS and the vision of closer partnership, co-operation and integration.”

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Afenifere visitS Makinde...

Governor Seyi Makinde addressing the Afenifere delegation, led by the Deputy Leader Oba Oladipo Olaitan and all the national officers in attendance Kabiesi Oba Oladipọ Olaitan, Chief Supo Shonibare, the Treasurer, Chief Sola Ebiseni; the Secretary General, Engineer Bayo Adenekan; the Secretary Afenifere Diaspora, Mogaji Gboyega Adejumo; National Publicity Secretary, Balogun Akin Osuntokun; National Caucus member, Basorun Segun Sanni; National Caucus member, Dr. Gbola Adetunji; and the Chair, Oyo State Afenifere Chapter, Chief Mrs. Bola Doherty, among others.

FG Plans Sanction Regime for Vessels Contravening IMO Sulphur Regulations Nigeria receives largest LNG-powered container vessel

Gilbert Ekugbe The Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, yesterday announced plans to sanction vessels that contravene the sulphur regulations implemented by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO).

The Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Gboyega Oyetola, stated this at the arrival ceremony of CMA-CGM Scandola largest container vessel (LNG-powered) to berth in Nigeria.

Oyetola who was represented by the Managing Director of the Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko, said the present administration has taken concrete steps towards the procurement of necessary tools to enhance the authority’s capacity for sulphur analysis.

Sulphur regulations refer to the limits set on the amount of sulphur content in fuels used by ships and vehicles. The regulation has been in force globally since January 1, 2020.

Vessels with exhaust gas cleaning systems installed are still allowed to use high-sulphur fuel.

"We will continue to support the NPA in its efforts at ensuring stakeholders’ compliance with the IMO sulphur regulation on Nigerian waterways.

“The driver of this change is the need to minimise the air pollution created in the shipping industry by reducing the sulphur content of the fuels that ships use. So transition

to the use of natural gas which is more environmentally friendly by vessels plying our waterways is a most welcome development," he said.

He said that the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy was convinced that shipping has a pivotal role to play in global decarbonisation efforts.

"This is why I will like to seize this moment to commend the management for the NPA’s compliance with the ministerial directive to take cognizance of global energy transition in its port modernisation project by deliberately factoring in measures that promote energy efficiency," he stated.

"Apart from its distinctive feature of eco-friendliness, Scandola ranks amongst the largest container ships to be calling in West Africa with 15,000 TEUs." He pointed out that Lekki Deep Seaport's natural depth of 16 meters added to its multifaceted efficiencies, state-of-the-art equipment and robust infrastructure which offers a capacity of up to 1.2 million TEUs in the phase 1 positions the port to serve as a mega transhipment hub, to Nigeria's neighbouring countries in the Gulf of Guinea and beyond.

"With shipping volumes promising to get higher, forward looking investments such as the one we are gathered here to celebrate will certainly have a big impact in the long run," he added.

This, he said, is driven by the larger national interest due to the

fact that Nigeria’s gas quality is reputed to be high and virtually without sulphur.

“I have said all of these to show that we align with the global discourse which posits that the reduction in the use of heavy hydrocarbons and increasing the use of LNG in maritime transport could help reduce carbon dioxide emissions and other pollution arising from international trade.

“This is a step in the right direction as we confront the challenges associated with climate change and air quality. Let me commend Lekki Deep Seaport for recording another remarkable first, in addition to being Nigeria’s first Deep Seaport and first fully automated port,” he added.

He reaffirmed that the administration of Bola Tinubu was poised to continuously support noble investor efforts in its concerted bid to optimise the rich blue economy inherent in the nation's maritime endowments.

Also speaking, the Governor, Lagos State, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, said the arrival of the vessel speaks to what the government is about and Nigeria's readiness for business.

He added that the Lekki port had put and enshrined Nigeria as one of the big movers of port transactions in the world.

"But more importantly for us in Lagos, is to say to you that we are excited that these are exciting times for us. We believe we still have capacity for a lot more. The sheer size of this country, the economy that

we want to grow and the president has challenged us and said that by 2030, we want to be close to a $1 trillion economy," he said.

"We are not going to achieve that by just a statement. We are going to achieve that by the work and the shared determination that all of us in this room, in different sectors and different spheres of endeavour put together," he added.

On his part, the Managing Director of Lekki Deep Seaport, Du Rougang, said that the berthing of the vessel was creating a new plan for Nigeria's ports.

"We want to ensure that Lekki

Port plays a major role in the nation's maritime industry, " he said.

The Managing Director of CMACGM Nigeria Shipping Limited, Hinelder Ferreira, said the container ship, which is a 366 Metre Length Overall (LOA) with capacity for 15,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) ranks amongst the first largest LNG -powered vessel to be calling in West Africa.

He said by deploying the biomethane and e-methane ready container ships, the CMA CGM group demonstrates once again its commitment to support West Africa's supply chains by increas-

In First Crude Import, Dangote Refinery Buys 2m Barrels from US' Trafigura Peter Uzoho

In line with its plan to source feedstock from both domestic and import, Dangote Refinery has reportedly ordered two million barrels of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) Midland from the United States-based oil trader, Trafigura Group, for delivery in February.

The latest signalled the increasing competitiveness of American crude in the global market.

Bloomberg quoted traders’ familiar with the matter to have

disclosed that Trafigura Group has sold two million barrels of WTI Midland to the Dangote Refinery for delivery by the end of February.

This marks the first time the refinery is buying non-Nigerian crude to keep the refinery that began production of diesel and aviation fuel recently in production.

The exponential growth in US oil supply over the past decade has reshaped the global market, extending its influence to regions like Asia.

Nigeria, whose economy heavily

SBC Equips 80 Business Owners with Guidelines for Positioning, Growth Leading beverage company, SevenUp Bottling Company (SBC), has said it equipped Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in Nigeria, through its recently convened first edition of the SME Scale-Up Boot camp.

The company, in a statement by Senior Public Relations Specialist, Ayomide Oriade, said the programme was carried out in partnership with Zenith Bank and United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO).

The boot camp, themed: “Dream Big, Scale Bigger” it said, was a two-

day workshop designed to empower chief executive officers of fast-rising SMEs on the intricacies of scaling businesses in the Nigerian ecosystem.

The event took place at the SBC’s Head Office in Ijora, Lagos State.

Addressing the participants, the Managing Director of the Seven-Up Bottling Company (SBC), Mr Ziad Maalouf, emphasised the significant contributions of SMEs to Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

He commended the enterprising spirit of Nigerians and stated that the boot camp was conceived to ensure more entrepreneurs are empowered

to scale up their businesses.

“I have lived in Nigeria for 17 years, this Scale-Up Boot camp is a way to give back to the economy in a way that has an impact. If we empower all the SMEs present here to scale up and grow to become billion-dollar enterprises, within 10 years, they will employ millions of Nigerians, and that way we can say we have paid back,” Maalouf said.

Maalouf, who is also the Chairman of the Food and Beverage Recycling Alliance, outlined 10 prerequisites for scaling SMEs. “Companies that must grow

ing deployed capacity, as well as the group’s role as a pioneer to decarbonise shipping and logistics’ in the region and worldwide.

Ferreira stressed that the vessel currently runs on Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), improving air quality by avoiding up to 99 per cent of sulphur emission.

He noted that once supply is available, the ships will be capable of using BioLNG (liquefied biomethane produced from biowaste), and e-methane (synthetic-methane produced from decarbonised hydrogen), a source of carbonneutral fuel.

must pay attention to these 10 things; the big idea, passion, cash, value, teamwork, strong business acumen, purpose, network, artificial intelligence and business transformation advice,” he said.

Providing participants with business loan consideration tips, Deputy General Manager, Head of Retail Banking at Zenith Bank, Lare Oladimeji, said business owners must have a good grasp of a loan product before opting for it.

“Know the type of loan, pattern of payment, cost of borrowing and payment period. Also endeavour to

know the business impact of the loan you are taking on your business.

Banks always want to know the purpose of you taking the loan, payment ability/cash flow and your existing obligation”, Oladimeji said.

While reeling out the different SMEs offerings of the bank, he highlighted key steps to boost their chances of accessing the funding.

“Be conversant with the five Cs of credit- and know that character is key. Have a business continuity and succession plan. Know the type of funding available to businesses in your sector.

relies on petroleum exports, is particularly impacted by these transatlantic deliveries.

The new 650,000 barrel-a-day oil refinery commenced operations earlier this month. Initially targeting a processing rate of 350,000 barrels per day, the refinery aims to gradually escalate production towards its full capacity.

While the $20 billion Aliko Dangote-owned refinery primarily sources domestic crude through a supply agreement with the trading arm of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), it had received its first and third shipment of one million barrels each of Nigeria’s crude from Shell International Trading and Shipping Company Limited (STASCO).

The other four million barrels out of the six million delivered came from the NNPCL. In addition to handling domestic feedstock, the facility is capable of processing various African crudes, along with supplies from distant sources such as the US and Saudi Arabia.

However, Dangote Group was yet to confirm the two million barrels of crude import from US' Trafigura as of the time of filing in this report.

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Again, Investors' Demand for Dangote Cement Push Stock Market Index across 104,000

Kayode Tokede

The stock market yesterday opened the new week on sustained bullish sentiment as increased investors' demand for Dangote Cement Plc pushed the major market index above the 104,000 basis points mark.

As the stock price of Dangote Cement gained 9.93 per cent or N68.90 per share from N694.10 to N763.00 per share, the Nigerian Exchange Limited All Share Index (NGX ASI) gained 2,272.79 basis points or 2.22 per cent to close at 104,674.67, from 102,401.88.

Consequently, the market

capitalisation gained N1.244 trillion to close at N57.282 trillion, from N56.038 trillion as Dangote Cement crossed N13 trillion in market capitalisation.

Precisely, the stock price of Dangote Cement gained N1.17 trillion yesterday, to sustained its trajectory since Mr. Femi Otedola bought into company on the Exchange.

However, as measured by market breadth, market sentiment was negative, as 24 stocks gained compared to 38 losers.

Oando recorded the highest price gain of 9.96 per cent to close at N13.80 per share. Dangote Cement

followed with a gain of 9.93 per cent to close at N763.00, while Tripple Gee and Company rose by 9.89 per cent to close at N3.11, per share.

Berger Paints was up by 9.81 per cent to close at N17.35, while Royal Exchange appreciated by 8.97 per cent to close at 85 kobo, per share.

On the other hand, DAAR Communications and Ikeja Hotels led the losers’ chart by shedding 10 per cent each to close at 81 kobo and N6.75 respectively. Cadbury Nigeria followed with a decline of 9.80 per cent to close at N20.70, per share.

NPF Microfinance Bank depreciated by 8.88 per cent to close at N1.95, while Ellah Lakes declined by 8.48 per cent to close at N3.02, per share.

The total volume traded rose by 32.84 per cent to 689.928 million units, valued at N25.938 billion, and exchanged in 15,887 deals.

Transactions in the shares of Japaul Gold & Ventures topped the activity chart with 83.865 million shares valued at N269.573 million. Transnational Corporations (Transcorp) followed with 42.804 million shares worth N690.449 million, while Zenith Bank traded

34.541 million shares valued at N1.462 billion.

Analysts at United Capital Plc had said they expected positive investors’ sentiments to dominate the local equities market as the full year 2023 earning season comes to full swing.

"This will essentially be subject to the financial performance of listed corporates in full year, 2023. We strongly anticipate impressive outings among banks given the impact of the Foreign Exchange (FX) revaluation gains and elevated interest rate environment in 2023.

“Thus, we expect an increased

Security, Constitution Amendment, Electoral Reforms Top Agenda as Lawmakers Resume Today

Rotimi said the country was currently experiencing rising security challenges in the form of kidnapping, banditry, and other criminal activities, hence, the need to rise to the occasion.

He stated, "Even Abuja, the federal capital territory, has not been left out, and has witnessed the abduction and murder of innocent citizens.

“The Plateau crisis, which elicited a statement from Mr. Speaker, among other security issues in the country, continues to put these issues on the front burner.

“Expectations are rife that the People’s House will take bold steps in addressing insecurity from a legislative standpoint.”

On constitution amendment, the House spokesperson said there had been increased calls from stakeholders on the need for the National Assembly to cure the 1999 Constitution of certain critical defects.

Rotimi said, "The efforts of previous assemblies, which have resulted in five alterations to the document between 2003 and 2023, is widely considered inadequate.

“Agitations for amendments to key areas have intensified, including calls for the establishment of state and community-led police structures; justice sector reforms; fiscal federalism; strengthening local government administration; and increased devolution of power, etc.

“As the House resumes, Nigerians would be looking to the Rt. Hon. Benjamin Kalu-led House Committee on Constitution Review to make progress in the efforts for further amendments to the 1999 Constitution (as amended)."

The statement also addressed the question of electoral reform. It said, “As preparations intensify for the off-cycle elections in some states of

the federation in the second half of 2024, the calls for electoral reforms will continue to dominate conversations in the country.

“Nigerians will be looking to the National Assembly for key reforms of the electoral process, as we promised in our legislative agenda, to, amongst other things, improve the transparency and credibility of democratic ritual of elections.

“Provide for stiff sanctions for electoral offences, and stem the judiciary’s influence on the electoral process, and ‘over-judicialisation’ of electoral outcomes in a way that undermines public confidence, and could erode the legitimacy of political leadership.”

On legislative oversight, Rotimi stated, “In line with the commitment to anti-corruption and improved legislative oversight under its Agenda One: Strengthening Good

Atiku, Makinde Trade Words over Ibadan explosion

following the explosion.

The governor, while receiving Obi in Ibadan, thanked him for visiting the state and prioritising the wellbeing of the citizens over political gain. He said Obi was unlike his own party, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), presidential candidate in the 2023 general election, Atiku, who had yet to visit the state.

Makinde stated that there were three major presidential candidates in the 2023 elections. He said President Bola Tinubu of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Obi of LP had reached out to commiserate with him and the people of Oyo State, while Atiku of PDP was yet to extend such sympathy.

The governor said, "I should use this opportunity on behalf of the good people of Oyo State to thank His Excellency, Peter Obi, former governor of Anambra State and also the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the last election.

"I thank you because politics didn’t sip into this; you came to commiserate with us over the explosion. Actually, investigation is still going on, it was simply illegal miners storing explosives in an environment where they shouldn’t be, a place meant for people to live, it’s not a mining site.

"So, all the lapses that allowed such to happen are being looked into. I’m particularly grateful because the president called me, we have three musketeers that went for that election.

"The president has reached out to me, you have reached out to me, but my own party candidate, not even a call or text message.

“I’m saying this openly so that our leaders would know that, yeah, you have time for politics, you have time for governance, and you have time for humanity. So, we want to say thank you so much. We appreciate this visit.”

But Atiku, in a statement by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, in Abuja, said, “With due respect to Governor Seyi Makinde, we wish to correct his expression about the response of His Excellency Atiku Abubakar to the recent explosion in the city of Ibadan.

“Atiku Abubakar made a condolence message about the Ibadan explosion, less than 24 hours of its occurrence, where he shared his commiseration and empathy with the good people and government of Oyo State over the incident.

“Perhaps, the governor has been too busy to take track of media reports on the incident. But we wish to put on record that on the 17th of January, His Excellency Atiku Abubakar did make a widely available message on the Ibadan incident, which reads as follows: ‘I wish to express my condolences to the good people and government of Oyo State over the explosion that rocked the capital city of Ibadan late yesterday night.

‘While the government continues to provide humanitarian support to victims of the explosion, I commiserate with the families of those who might have lost their lives and property to the explosion.’”

During the visit, Obi, who was accompanied by some of his supporters, including Aisha Yesufu, expressed his condolences to the victims and families affected by the Ibadan explosion, and prayed for comfort in their time of grief.

He commended Makinde for his swift response to the situation, saying, "It is necessary that when things like what happened here in Ibadan happen, and government responds in a manner government should respond, that everybody come

to participate and commend them for doing the right thing and that we all do the right thing."

Answering questions from journalists after the visit, Obi told the federal government under Tinubu that high cost of governance was unacceptable, because it had limited the capacity of the government to prioritise critical areas, such as education, health, and pulling people out of poverty.

Obi said, "All of us are now involved and all of us should work hard and make the necessary sacrifice to see that we turn around the situation. And that is why it is necessary when things that happened here happen, and the government responds in a manner government should respond, and everybody comes to participate and commend them for doing the right thing.

“It is a matter of sacrifice. Today, elections are over, governance is the key thing and what is required, for me, is to cut down on the cost of governance, especially at the federal level. It is unacceptable the way it is going. We need to prioritise critical areas, such as education, health, and pulling people out of poverty."

Afenifere, in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mogaji

Governance, the House streamlined the mandates of committees to avoid overlap and conflicts.

“It also rationalised the membership of committees to enable more informed decision-making, better management of workload, and improved legislative quality.

"On resumption, the House is expected to undertake more public hearings (including investigative panels) to probe a number of issues before the various standing committees.

“Between June and December 2023, the House constituted 30 ad-hoc committees to conduct investigative hearings and make recommendations on pressing national issues for necessary legislative action.

“With the reports of 25 already submitted and four considered, the reports of the other committees will occupy the front burner on

Adejumo, said the delegation led by Deputy Leader, Oba Oladipo Olaitan, representing Pa Adebanjo, visited Ibadan on Wednesday, January 24, to commiserate with Makinde and the people of Oyo State.

It stated that the leader of the delegation, Kabiesi Oba Oladipo Olaitan, delivered the goodwill message from the leader, Pa Ayo Adebanjo, to the governor, in particular, and to the good people of Oyo State, in general.

Olaitan spoke of the exemplary leadership qualities of Makinde as a true patriot, and his ability to handle situations capable of distracting lesser prepared leaders with distinction.

He extolled the virtues of Omoluwabi (a person of honour) in Makinde, who had led Oyo State with distinction.

In his response, according to the statement, the governor thanked Pa Adebanjo for raising the delegation that included all the national officers of Afenifere, and deeming it fit to identify with him and with the people of Oyo State in their trying moment.

The governor used the opportunity to explain his stand on many national issues, including the restructuring of the polity, which he said was of utmost importance to the Afenifere.

resumption."

Rotimi further explained that on public petitions, “The House since inauguration has received a hundred and fifty-three (153) petitions from various citizens across the country, which are receiving necessary legislative actions.

“The Rep. Mike Etaba-led House Committee on Public Petitions has quietly achieved commendable success in helping Nigerians get succour from the People’s House.

"The outcome of hearings on one of these petitions resulted in the payment of a compensation package amounting to Thirty Million Naira (N30, 000,000) for Citizen Tairu Quadri Adewale; an amputee electricity worker neglected for 15 years.

“Notably, the House of Representatives on Tuesday, December 5, 2023, facilitated the presentation of the sum as a Final Settlement of Liability Claims Cheque to him by the Nigerian Electricity Liability Management Company (NELMCO) management.

"Quadri, a 400-Level Electrical Engineering intern from the Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago-Iwoye, Ogun State, had suffered electrocution in May 2008, while on duty for the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in Lagos.

“The House, through its Committee on Public Petitions, will be engaged in facilitating more of such settlements as well as the resolution of more issues arising from petitions already submitted for its consideration. Similarly, more petitions from distressed citizens will be laid before parliament."

The statement said bills progression will also be given attention. It said, “In its first six months, the House received 962 bills, out of which 120 have passed Second Reading and are currently undergoing in-depth analysis at the Committee stage.

“These bills are intended to provide immediate relief and long-term solutions to the challenges that have plagued our society.

“With the resumption of the House, reports on a majority of these bills will be laid before parliament for consideration and adoption ahead of Third Reading and passage.

"More bills are expected to move through the various parliamentary stages and be presented for the

To Stem Naira's Continuing Decline, CBN Clears Another $500m FX Backlog lose N40 in one day, depreciating from the N1, 420 to a dollar it was all through the weekend to N1, 460 to a dollar yesterday.

However, on the official Investors and Exporters’ (I&E) window, the naira closed at N1, 348.62 to a dollar yesterday, which was the same figure it closed on Friday.

The data on the FMDQ website showed that yesterday’s daily turnover was $64.29 million, compared to $100.97 million recorded on Friday, indicating a 36.38 per cent decline.

The highest spot rate recorded was N1, 414.94/$1, while the lowest spot rate recorded was N701/$1.

The CBN's intervention came barely a week after it paid about $2 billion to settle outstanding commitments across manufacturing, aviation, and petroleum sectors.

CBN’s acting Director, Corporate Communications Department, Mrs. Hakama Sidi Ali, in a statement, said the apex bank remained committed to settling all legitimate foreign exchange backlogs within a short time frame.

Over the years, NNPCL had maintained sole control over crude oil sales, only rendering accounts to the federal government.

However, under the new arrangement, NNPC would submit receipts for crude oil sales to the central bank for vetting and documentation.

Reiterating the assurances of the CBN governor, Mr. Olayemi Cardoso, Ali said the bank had begun implementing a comprehensive strategy to improve liquidity in the Nigerian foreign exchange markets in the short, medium, and long terms.

She said, “As the governor said, the CBN’s focus is on addressing fundamental issues that have hindered the effective operation of the Nigerian FX markets over the years.”

Ali added that ongoing market reforms were designed to streamline and unify multiple exchange rates, foster transparency, and reduce arbitrage opportunities.

She expressed confidence that a stable exchange rate would boost

investors’ confidence and attract foreign investment.

The central bank urged all participants in the market to play by the rules, stressing that transparency in the market would enable the fair determination of exchange rates and, by extension, guarantee stability for businesses and individuals alike.

The bank had over the past few months released various sums in its effort to clear the backlog of foreign exchange liabilities.

Earlier this month, the apex banking industry regulatory body announced that it disbursed about $61.64 million to foreign airlines through various Deposit Money Banks (DMBs).

The bank stated that it further redeemed outstanding forward liabilities amounting to about $2 billion in the past three months.

CBN stated that the payments reaffirmed its commitment to eliminating the backlog of pending matured foreign exchange in banks as well as dousing pressure on the exchange rate.

Ali further explained that the initiative was part of the apex bank's efforts to decrease its outstanding liability to the airlines.

She said, "This underscores the CBN's commitment to the resolution of pending obligations and a functional foreign exchange market."

According to her, these payments consolidate CBN's ongoing efforts to settle all remaining valid forward transactions, with the aim of alleviating the current pressure on the country's exchange rate.

By the latest intervention, the central bank hoped to provide a considerable boost to the naira against other major world currencies as well as increase investors’ confidence in the economy.

The federal government recently received $2.25 billion out of the $3.3 billion foreign exchange (FX) facility from the African Export–Import Bank (Afreximbank).

The long-awaited credit support sought to ameliorate the acute FX shortage in the country, which had constrained economic activities and doused investors’ confidence.

Aliko Dangote appetite among investors for corporates in the financial services sector, particularly the Banks," they said. president’s assent. Through these bills, citizens will be better empowered, while peace, security and social justice will be enhanced."

Speaking to the “State of the Economy”, Rotimi explained, “In spite of major efforts by the federal government to boost economic growth, a lot still needs to be done to ameliorate the pains felt by constituents across the country.

“The House will continue to support the executive arm of government in the implementation of the ‘Renewed Hope Agenda’, and hold entities of the executive arm of government accountable. “Efforts in these regards will include ensuring efficient and effective deployment of public resources, especially through the use of hearings and oversight visits.

“The House will also enhance the sectoral debates started in November 2023, to promote transparency and accountability in government operations in line with our Legislative Agenda."

On “Constituency Outreach”, Rotimi stated, “With the 2024 budget now in place, supervision of the implementation of the budget will occupy a prominent place in the activities of Honourable Members.

“As part of the representative function of lawmakers, honourable members are primarily involved in influencing and facilitating projects and programmes in their respective constituencies.

“Honourable members are, thus, expected to also be occupied with more robust constituency outreaches, and supervising effective delivery of these initiatives for the benefit of our constituents.”

The House spokesman said, “In line with the legislative agenda, the House is expected to take key legislative actions on key foreign policy imperatives, including the need to address the current impasse in the ECOWAS region. This is because peace and stability in the region has implications on our domestic affairs.

"Year 2024 holds a lot of promises for the country’s future and it is imperative for all hands to move our country forward.

“Nation building is a joint task, and the 10th assembly is set with renewed vigour, to continue to play our own part in rebuilding our great country, Nigeria."

Earlier in December, Tinubu had assured Nigerians of his administration’s commitment to resolving the FX backlogs through injection of funds into the market.

It was estimated that there was between $7 billion and $10 billion in existing FX backlogs, which must be cleared to boost investors’ confidence, some of whom had already exited the country due to the persistent liquidity constraints bedevilling the economy.

It was further gathered that Tinubu was resolute in his commitment to implementing strategic reforms and restructuring key sectors of the Nigerian economy. The move to centralise control over crude oil revenue in CBN was seen as a bold step towards curbing potential financial mismanagement and ensuring greater transparency in the country’s economic dealings.

"So, crude oil sales no longer start and end with NNPC. CBN must have every record of sales and vet them to ensure all money comes to the government’s accounts," a source explained.

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STAKEHOLDERS MEETING ON CLIMATE CHANGE...

L-R: Secretary General, Nigeria Red Cross Society, Abubakar Kende; Country Manager, Nigeria British Red Cross, Karsten Voigt; National President, Nigeria Red Cross Society, Prince Oluyemisi Adeaga: Representative of the Photo : ENOCK REUBEN Minister of Environment, Dr. Iniobong Abiola Awe and Regional Climate Change Load, Red Cross Africa, Patrick Twala, during a stakeholders meeting on Climate Change in Abuja .... yesterday

48 CSOs Task Tinubu to Declare Emergency on Kidnapping, Other Terrorism Forms 2,423 killed, 1,872 abducted in eight months of president's administration 24,816 Nigerians murdered, 15,597 others kidnapped from 2019 to 2023

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

Forty-eight Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria under the auspices of the Civil Society Joint Action Group have called on President Bola Tinubu to declare a state of emergency on kidnapping and other forms of terrorism.

It added that there should be a timeline that the president should give to the security agencies to tackle insecurity.

The coalition lamented that at least 2,423 people had been killed, while 1,872 persons were abducted since the beginning of the Tinubu administration till January 26, 2024.

Addressing a press conference,

yesterday, in Abuja on behalf of the coalition, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, also called on the president to promptly prosecute the 400 sponsors of terrorism arrested under the Muhammadu Buhari regime.

It further urged the president to uncover and prosecute those responsible for the misappropriation of the $460 million earmarked for the provision of CCTV cameras in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).

The coalition lamented that over the past decade and a half, insecurity in Nigeria had spiraled due to a variety of violent phenomena, including but not limited to terrorist activities in the entire northern region of the country.

It also listed terror pillages otherwise known as ‘banditry’ in the North West, farmer-herder violence in the Middle Belt, including the Benue Valley, secessionist struggles in the South East, piracy in the southern coast of the Country, inter-communal attacks, political violence, cult-gang violence and kidnapping.

The CSOs noted that these forms of insecurity have jeopardised the security and wellbeing of Nigerians, and had progressively deteriorated over the years.

It pointed out that endemic insecurity has persisted over the last three administrations, including that of Buhari, who as a former military general, had gained public trust to

run as president by promising to curb the then fledgling insecurity.

The coalition stated: "Mass atrocities fatality tracking across the country

by Nigeria Mourns reveals that in President Buhari’s second term alone (2019 to 2023), at least 24,816 Nigerians lost their lives, and at least 15,597 persons were abducted.

"This alarming trend has continued in spite of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s assurance at the beginning of his presidency in May 2023 to tackle insecurity.

"It has now been eight months since President Tinubu took his oath of office and yet, things have failed to improve. Our tracking shows at least 2,423 people have been killed

NPHCDA Pledges to Bridge Immunisation Gaps in 100 LGAs HPV vaccination phase 2 to begin May

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja The federal government has said it would ensure that the number of children with zero dose vaccination in the country was reduced substantially in the next two years.

It also said the second phase of single dose vaccination of the Human Papilloma Virus vaccine (HPV) vaccine which commenced last October in 16 states and FCT would be rolled out in the remaining 20 states in May this year as planned.

Speaking in an interview with journalists in Abuja over the weekend, the Executive Director of the National Primary Healthcare Development Agency (NPHCDA) Dr. Muyi Aina, said the agency was going to intensify efforts at carrying out routine immunisation exercise, especially in about 100 Local Governments Areas that share substantial number of children with zero dose immunisation.

He said the routine immunisation services would be expanded to include mental health screening for Nigerians.

Aina said the agency had as at last year, identified about 100 local government areas in the country where children with zero dose vaccination are found.

He said states like Lagos, Kano and several others with high concentration of zero dose children were going to receive special attention.

The Executive Director said interventions carried out last year in some of the states, about half of the affected children were fully immunised.

"The plan is that over the next two years we are going reduce the number of these children that are not immunised substantially,” he said.

Aina also said the agency would be rolling out the vaccination campaign for the HPV vaccine in the remaining 21 states of the federation as planned in May this year.

He said the HPV vaccine was targeted at girls aged 9 to14 years.

He said the agency was making progress in efforts to tackle epidemic in the country, adding that substantial progress had been made in containing diphtheria outbreak.

Aina, further spoke on federal government's strategy in the health sector, saying that it was anchored on three pillars to make quality healthcare services easily available to Nigerians.

He said one of the strategies was to ensure that there were functional primary health centres across the country.

Aina, who spoke on the outcome of a top management meeting of the agency convened to take stock of activities so far and to proffer suggestions on way forward, said: "We have identified a strategy which seeks to make every Nigerian have access to the basic services they need wherever they may reside in Nigeria.

"The strategy is anchored around three pillars and one of them is to focus on making quality primary health care services available. This has a number of components.

"The first is having primary health centres that work. As you are aware Nigeria has thousands of primary health care centres that the agency

has been working with states and partners to try to support over the last several years.

"The federal government is determined to ensure that there is at least one functional primary health centre per ward across the country.

"In addition to this, the government has committed to doubling that number over the next four years to about 17,600 functional health facilities," he said.

He explained that government would take into account the population and health needs of an area in deciding where the health facilities would be cited. Aina said there are over 25,000 health facilities across the country at the moment.

He said: "We want to make sure that we invest in them, working with the states and our partners to have truly functional facilities.

“Right now, we have 8,300 primary health care centres that are being funded directly as part of the Basic Healthcare Provision Funds through the NPHCDA Gateway.

“Over the next four years, we are going to really be working to make them fully functional by making them have what they need to provide quality services.

"We will ensure that they have the workforce, the commodities and technical assistance to make good use of the resources that they getting through the decentralised facility financing and that have all the equipment and infrastructure including accommodation for the front line health workers that are working in the health centres.

Secondly, we are also going to be

expanding the number of facilities in Nigeria.

"As you are aware Nigeria has thousands of Primary Healthcare Centres (PHCs) that the agency has been working with states and partners to try to support over the last several years."

In addition, the NPHCDA boss said the agency was poised to achieving the revamping 17,600 PHCs and restoring them into a functional state within the next four years as pledged by government.

Continues online

in mass atrocities-related incidents and at least, 1,872 persons were abducted since the beginning of President Tinubu’s administration till January 26, 2024.

"We are particularly concerned about the upsurge in abductions, noting that at least 230 incidents, in most of which multiple victims were involved, occurred within the first 2 weeks of January 2024 alone," The coalition pointed out that several communities across the country, including the FCT were under siege, with entire families and in some cases, communities taken hostage.

It decried the fact that residents were being forced to flee due to repeated attacks by terrorists, kidnappers and other organised criminal groups. The coalition further lamented that kidnapping for ransom demands had become a disturbing norm, without appropriate response from the authorities.

For instance, it claimed that recently, 30 villagers were abducted in an attack on Tashar Nagule village of Batsari local government area of Katsina State.

This, it claimed, came on the heels of the abduction of 23 people in Kawu community in Bwari Area Council of the FCT on 11 January.

Similarly, it added that 50 people, including 36 women were abducted in an attack on Magizawa community in Kaura Namoda Local Government Area of Zamfara state.

The coalition stressed that over 400 people were killed in repeated attacks on communities in Mangu

Local Government Area of Plateau state, including the gruesome massacre of over 200 people in Bokkos and Barkin-Ladi communities in Mangu Local Government on the eve of Christmas in 2023.

It emphasised that road ambushes had made interstate travel more perilous, adding that reported incidents such as the abduction of 30 passengers near Katari along the Kaduna-Abuja highway and the kidnapping of 45 passengers in Orokam on the Benue-Enugu route underscored the gravity of the situation.

According to the coalition, even homes were no longer safe. Homes in rural communities in Northern Nigeria had for over a decade contended with terror pillages; and more recently, urban centers including the Federal Capital Territory, had witnessed a surge in invasions in which citizens were being abducted for ransom even within the confines of their homes.

Failed by law enforcement, it said families were resorting to publicly crowdfund to pay ransoms without interference from the government.

"We note that the same government was quick to freeze the bank accounts of donors and recipients of funding for #EndSARS, but fails to take concrete action to protect citizens against organised crime.

"We are equally dismayed by the willingness of some political leaders and politically exposed persons to publicly support ransom payments; and question their values and alliances.

Fubara Warns Against Sabotage, Swears in Ehie as Chief of Staff Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt

Rivers State Governor, Mr Siminalayi Fubara, has warned against any attempt by any person or groups to sabotage his government, saying that his administration and all challenges have been surrendered to God. He expressed the confidence that God will continue to intervene in a manner that will shock the world as it concerns his leadership.

Fubara gave the warning shortly after swearing in of Hon. Edison Ehie as the Chief of Staff, Government House and five Special Advisers at the Government House in Port Harcourt, yesterday.

The newly sworn in SAs are: Dr Darlington Orji, Solomon Abel Eke, Aminayanasam Fiberesima, Deeyah

Bariene and Ohia Prince.

Addressing the newly sworn in officials, Fubara said the purpose of governance is to render services even in the face of difficulties, stressing that their appointment serves as evidence that concrete machinery is being put in place to help solve the problems.

The governor urged them to see their appointment as a call to duty, rise to the occasion of adding value to governance and demonstrate that they are truly credible men.

"Let me add, don't use this position to antagonise anybody, even in your localities. I want to speak to you and I will continue to say it, what God cannot do does not exist.

"That you succeeded in battle is

not because of your power. It is the grace of God. When God says it will not happen again, whoever you are, it ceases from that moment. I am not appointing you today because I want you to go to your areas and start fighting. No. "We have surrendered our situation to God and God is going to solve it in a way that will shock the world for everybody to know that God is always God. Please, I don't want this position to be a platform for you to start stalking anyone.

Do what you know is right," he admonished.

To the commissioners sworn in last week, Fubara further warned that there will be consequences should they attempt to work against his administration to destroy it.

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politics

Acting Group Politics Editor DEJI ELUMOYE Email: deji.elumoye@thisdaylive.com (08033025611 SMS ONLY)

Security, Economy Top Agenda as Senate Resumes Plenary...

Issues bordering on nation’s security, economy may top agenda from today at the red chamber As senators resume 2024 legislative activities. Sunday Aborisade reports.

Akpabio

P

resident of the Senate, Senator Godswill Akpabio, had initially announced January 23, 2024 as the resumption date when the Senate adjourned plenary on December 30, 2023 but the date was shifted to January 30, 2024 while the senators were still savouring their holiday within and outside the country.

While the federal lawmakers were away from legislative functions, series of activities and events that had worsened the security situation of the country and the nation’s economy had happened.

For instance, the terrorists had intensified their evil activities in most parts of the North especially in Borno, Plateau, Kaduna, Niger, Zamfara and other parts where they are either protecting their sponsors’ illegal mining businesses or executing their inordinate selfish agenda.

Some security experts have identified the root causes of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria to include illiteracy, unemployment, poor leadership, porous borders, proliferation of arms, and non-compliance with the rule of law.

It is expected that senators from affected constituencies would move motion on the dangerous development to proffer solutions that might end the menace.

Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, has however called for the establishment of State Police, as a panacea to the current insecurity in the country.

Musa, who is representing Niger East Senatorial District, also advocated massive recruitment into the armed forces.

He also made a case for the adoption of new tactics in intelligence gathering to address the state of insecurity caused by multiple crimes, banditry and spate of kidnappings across the country.

The Senator urged the Federal Government to re-engineer the nation’s security architecture against the backdrop that the present one was not working.

According to him, all the tiers of government and Nigerians must recognise the fact that security remained essential for the survival and flourishing of any society.

He said it has become imperative that all hands must be on deck to ensure the protection of individuals, communities, and the entire nation against dangers and attacks.

Musa however, urged Nigerians to give President Bola Tinubu the needed support to do the needful in the nation’s quest for renewed hope.

Other parts of the country were not spared by the terrorists and some of their indigenous collaborators as the rate of kidnapping increased drastically with the military and security agencies appearing totally helpless.

The police had on a few occasions, paraded some suspects and claimed to have rescued some of their hostages but victims have countered such claims by insisting that their loved ones paid huge ransom to regain their freedom while insisting that the real kidnap lords were still walking freely on

Barau the streets of Nigeria.

The situation had also pitched the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike against the Senator representing the Federal Capital Territory, Ireti Kingibe, over the rising cases of kidnapping and other crimes in the nation’s capital.

Kingibe had condemned the situation and told journalists that the Senate would summon Wike upon resumption of plenary.

It is therefore expected that senators from crisis-ridden areas would most likely on resumption, either come up with motions or suggestions on to move the nation forward.

On the issue of the economy, the dangerous devaluation of the naira against major currencies experienced a major fall as a United States dollar was being exchanged in the black market for as high as N1,400 as at Monday afternoon.

The senators are also expected at plenary to come up with strategic and pragmatic ideas on how to further strenghten the Naira.

Also in the absence of the federal legislators, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced plans to move some critical departments to Lagos in order to decongest its offices in Abuja.

Specifically, CBN said it will relocate it’s department of Banking Supervision; Other Financial Institutions Supervision; Consumer Protection Department; Payment System Management Department, and Financial Policy Regulations Department.

Similarly, the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) made public, its intention to relocate its headquarters back to Lagos.

The plans by CBN and FAAN elic-

Bamidele

Ndume

ited condemnation from different quarters especially from northern apex socio-cultural organisation, Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Northern Senators Forum.

No fewer than 58 senators from the 19 Northern states last week alleged that projections and provisions in the N28.7 trillion 2024 budget, were lopsided and skewed against their region.

They also kicked against the relocation of the FAAN headquarters and some departments of the CBN to Lagos.

They nevertheless asked their constituents to remain calm and assured them that they were already engaging in dialogue with the executive arm of government led by President Bola Tinubu on the matter.

The senators threatened to explore legal and other constitutional means in case the dialogue fails.

The senators made these known in a statement signed by their spokesperson, Senator Suleiman Kawu Summaila (NNPP Kano South), and made available to journalists in Abuja.

The Senate Chief Whip, Senator Ali Ndume, also gave a boost to his colleagues demands by advising President Tinubu that there will be political consequences if he insists on moving some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) headquarters to Lagos.

He alleged that the President was being misled by a cartel he termed “Lagos Boys”.

Ndume argued that the so-called members of the cartel do not know how Nigeria works and will not be able to help the president when the repercussions come.

He also observed that if the offices were being moved due to congestion, the best place would be Nasarawa, Kaduna or Kogi and other states surrounding Abuja, for the sake of proximity, instead of far away Lagos.

His words, “Some of them think that they know better than everybody. But they don’t know anything. When you don’t know Ni-

geria, you only know Lagos, then you start doing things as if Nigeria is Lagos. Lagos is in Nigeria. That’s a wrong decision.

“We will not accept it. Besides, you know, they are not doing any favour to Mr. President, because this will have political consequence.

Yes. I’m telling you this.

“And these guys who are just sitting down there, trying to hang on to Mr. President will not be there to amend the political mistakes or even to correct it because they don’t know anybody. They only know their offices. And they only know that they have brains”.

He emphasised that it was not the votes from Lagos that brought Tinubu to office, advising him to jettison any plans to implement the relocation decision.

Ndume said there was a consensus in the North against the move by the President because there’s only one federal capital, which is Abuja.

He said, “All these Lagos boys that are thinking that Lagos is Nigeria are just misinforming or advising the President wrongly.

“The regulators or the financial institutions are supposed to be in Abuja. Now, you want them to move because you say Lagos is the commercial capital. This is one of the mistakes.

“And I’m sure the President will reverse it, because it doesn’t work. You can’t have two capitals or is the CBN governor going to be operating from Lagos and headquarters of the CBN is in Lagos?

“Do you say that because majority of our oil is extracted from South-south, you take the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) to the South-south or because Nigeria’s agricultural produce are more in the north, you take the Ministry of Agriculture to anywhere in the north.

“It doesn’t work that way. And that is one of the problems that is cropping up, but I’m very sure, I’m very confident that Mr. President will look at this because he’s a nationalist, not just a Lagos man,” the federal lawmaker said.

The ranking Senator insisted that Lagos does not represent the whole of Nigeria, explaining that there will not only be increase in cost of operations but risk to the lives of workers who will constantly be flying by air or on the road, if it eventually happens.

“This is a decision that is not well thought out. And I think the president will reverse it. I’m confident of that. And if that does not happen, of course, this is democracy and we know what to do”.

He urged the president to rescind the decision, stressing that he (Ndume) is neither Hausa nor Fulani, but a northerner and a Nigerian.

“CBN has offices that they can rent or build on their own to increase efficiency, but moving some departments to Lagos is not the best of ideas at all or moving any agency at all,” he added.

Some security experts have identified the root causes of banditry and insecurity in Nigeria to include illiteracy, unemployment, poor leadership, porous borders, proliferation of arms, and noncompliance with the rule of law. It is expected that senators from affected constituencies would move motion on the dangerous development to proffer solutions that might end the menace.

Chairman of Senate Committee on Finance, Senator Sani Musa, has, however, called for the establishment of State Police, as a panacea to the current insecurity in the country.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

22

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024 • THISDAY

polity Re: ABC Orjiako Peaks Seplat Stake: The Irony of an Interloper O Dan Aibangbe

n Sunday, January 28, 2024, I was enjoying my round of the dailies as usual, when I encountered a shocking ‘disturbia’ of sorts. It was presented in the article referenced “All-Round Increase: ABC Orjiako Peaks Seplat Stake” on the Feature page.

My shock emanated from certain inaccuracies contained in the article itself as well as the impression it conveys on the unwary. Incidentally, I have encountered a few articles in the past, which made me fully aware of the previous boardroom tussles that threatened the progress of the Nigerian titan of the oil and gas industry.

I am conversant with the facts and events that led to the exit of Dr ABC Orjiako from the Board and Management of Seplat Energy PLC, way back in May, 2022. I am fully aware of the proxy media and legal tussles that targeted the removal of the current Managing Director and other members of the Board and Management and how those subterfuge failed to yield any result.

For the avoidance of doubt, Dr ABC Orjiako resigned as Chairman in November 2021 and ceased to be the Chairman of Seplat in May 2022.

The event bordered around the requirements of the Code of Corporate Governance which stipulated the maximum tenure of Board Members. Even the current chairman is in the process of disengagement in line with the Corporate Governance Code of quoted companies of the stature of Seplat Energy PLC. The company is quoted on both the Nigerian Stock Exchange, NGX and the London Stock Exchange, LSE. The new Board that was formed upon the exit of Dr Orjiako embarked on activities that streamlined the practices in Seplat with the requirements of the Code of Governance and found that a juicy contract contrived for himself by the former Chairman cannot be sustained and was promptly terminated. This issue was the trigger of the war of attrition that ensued and lasted for almost a full year with the potential to hamstring the bright prospects of the Nigerian Multinational

ABC Orjiako Oil and Gas giant. The company has rightfully declared its mission as Leading Nigeria’s energy transition with accessible, affordable and reliable energy that drives social and economic prosperity.

The foregoing background is why I was

shocked to read the Sunday feature in which Dr Orjiako or the proxy writer appears to be gloating over the improved results of Seplat, which invariably translated to the increased commonwealth of Seplat stakeholders. I determined to put the

records straight by debunking the insinuations that Dr Orjiako was instrumental to the successes, when he was in fact playing the opposition.

He is merely benefiting from the residual yield on his investment, which is being judiciously husbanded by the same competent Board and Management he fought tooth and mail to scuttle.

On another note, my instinct suggests that the article might be a hatchet job by the author. For instance, the writer in one breadth referred to Orjiako as Chairman and later in same article acknowledged him as former chairman. In fact, I was at a loss as to the real intention of the writer, who singled out the success of Seplat and conveniently overlooked Dr Orjiako’s several failures in almost all other ventures he has been embroiled in. Dr Orjiako, with his magic fingers is currently unable to settle his indebtedness to Access Bank and AMCON. The Bank has had to confiscate his assets and Bank Accounts over trade disputes and unsettled exposures.

I am really curious as to how this inaccurate presentation beat the usually stringent editorial input of Thisday, who has been privy to the corporate history of Seplat Energy, even right from the inception and during the expired tenure of Dr Orjiako.

Reading the publication by Thisday in isolation presents the exact scenario that supports the opinion of the revered Prof Soyinka on why he does not bother to read Autobiographies.

He considers them mostly to be packs of lies!

Specifically, this article in Thisday appears to be a metaphor for ridicule rather than eulogy as was obviously intended. As such, I consider it a wasted effort.

The writer of that article will do better to always exercise the rigor of research in order to upgrade and update his contents, even when having to eulogize public figures such as Dr ABC Orjiako.

The general public can be better educated and entertained at the same instance where opinions are based on facts especially when they are freely available in public domain.

•Dan Aibangbe is a Media and Public Relations Consultant

NEWS

CP Accused of Connivance with Alleged Land Grabber to Attack Workers in Lagos Sunday Ehigiator

The Chief Executive Officer(CEO), of Kwawel Nigeria Limited, Mr Usman Emmanuel, has accused the newly promoted Commissioner of Police, State Criminal Investigation

Department (SCID), Panti, Lagos, Adedamola Ayilara, of connivance with an alleged ‘land grabber’, the Founder, Bafaj Investments Limited, Babalola Fajobi, to beat up his workers and destroy his properties worth over N100 million

over land dispute.

Speaking with THISDAY, Emmanuel said that sometime in 2019, he was contracted by the ancestral owners (Eletu Odibo family, Oluwo family and Saula lmmam family of Bogije

community) of about 600 acres of land, located at Ibeju Lekki area of Lagos State, to help clear, reclaim from swamp, and sand-fill the land.

“I immediately went to work.

So I have been carrying on

ActionAid Calls for Immediate Release of Detained Nasarawa Protesters

Michael Olugbode in Abuja

ActionAid Nigeria yesterday called for the immediate release of some Nasarawa protesters, recently arrested in Lafia, insisting that their continued detention and prosecution is an infringement on the right to peaceful assembly and expression.

Police were said to have arrested the persons who were alleged to have staged a public protest after the Supreme Court’s judgment upholding the election of Governor Abdullahi Sule.

ActionAid Nigeria which condemned the arrest and prosecution of the protesters called for their Immediate release,

disclosing that the number of those arrested was 38.

“In light of recent events in Nasarawa State, where the police command arrested 38 protesters in Lafia for alleged public disturbance following the Supreme Court’s judgment upholding the election of Governor Abdullahi Sule, ActionAid Nigeria strongly condemns any infringement on the right to peaceful assembly and expression.

“The right to protest peacefully is a fundamental human right and an essential component of any functioning democracy.

“We are deeply concerned about reports that 38 individuals, including five males and 33

females, were arrested, charged, and remanded at the Lafia Custodial Centre for expressing their grievances against the Supreme Court judgment.

“Suppressing dissent and peaceful protests undermines the democratic principles that our nation holds dear,” the organisation stated.

It urged the state government and the Nigerian police force to uphold the rights of the individuals to freely express their opinions without fear of intimidation or persecution.

The group urged the judiciary to ensure a fair and transparent process in handling the case of the arrested individuals, saying

that any denial of bail, if justified, should be based on clear legal grounds, and the judicial process should be conducted without prejudice.

It called for a thorough and impartial investigation into the arrests, considering the possibility of political motivations, and urged all relevant stakeholders to respect the rule of law and human rights.

ActionAid Nigeria said it remains committed to promoting and defending human rights, social justice, and the rule of law, promising to closely monitor the developments in Nasarawa State and continue to demand the protection of the fundamental rights of all citizens.

legitimate work of sand-filling and reclamation of the land for over four years, without any interference or intrusion and following the terms and conditions of the agreement executed between myself and my client.

“But sometime on October 9, 2023, while my staff were carrying on their legitimate work, the CEO of Bafaj Investments Limited, Mr. Babalola Fajobi stormed the property, in the company of thugs and gun-wielding officers of the Nigerian Police and went ahead to assault, harass, intimidate and caused grievous bodily harm to my staff and caused apprehension in the entire community.

“I was further informed that Mr Babalola Fajobi and the officers were particularly interested in the physical assault of my staff and the destruction of my properties.

One of my staff that was assaulted and inflicted with bodily harm, Mr. Bakare Thomas, was treated for his wounds at a medical facility for two days,” he said.

He therefore, demanded that the Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, use his good office to call Ayilara to order.

Reacting to the allegation when contacted by THISDAY, Ayilara re-

ferred our correspondent to speak with the force’s spokesperson.

According to him: “Emmanuel has written to everywhere including the Nigerian Police Authority, and several media houses who are all asking me for comments, but I will refer you to the PPRO, while I will meet him in court.

“More than 30 journalists have called me, but as I told them, he said he has taken the case to court. I expected him to wait for the court, but there was nothing I wanted to say.

“If he feels that he is telling the truth let us meet in court. This is a man who does not even know me and I have not even seen him in my life, and he is there with claims. But this is the nature of our job. I don’t have any grudge against him, but we will meet in court since he has said he will approach the court. I won’t talk much about it,” he said.

All efforts to get reactions from the Force Spokesperson, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, and also the Lagos State Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin proved unsuccessful as neither of them picked up their calls nor replied messages sent before the time of filing of this report.

LAWYER TUeSday, jANUARY 30, 2024

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weekly pullout

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Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN

“Nigeria’s Political Class Are Bad Losers”

II

TueSday, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

In this edition

R E Y W LA NUaRy TU eS day, ja

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30 , 20 24

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ON

llout weekly pu

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SaN i BadewOle, MRS OlayeM

Whether Appeal’s Dismissal for Failure to File Appellant’s Brief Can be Revisited Page IV

Barnabas and Abigail Igwe: The Truth Page V

l a c i t i l o P s ’ “Nigeria Losers” d a B e r A s s a l C Quotables ‘….It is a misrepresentation of facts to describe these needless and unprovoked attacks on our people as Farmer/Herder clashes, as has always been the traditional narrative. Let’s call a spade, a spade. This is simple genocide…..’ - Caleb Mutfwang, Governor of Plateau State, Federal Republic of Nigeria

‘The mandate is to secure our natural resources in mineral sites, the forests and the marine economy.’ - Dele Alake, Honourable Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Federal Republic of Nigeria

Dixy Oddiri, a Quintessential Bar Man Passes On Page V

Shipping Crude Oil to and Petroleum Products from Dangote Refinery: Matters Arising Page X

lawyer

onikepo braithwaite: editor, jude igbanoI: deputy editor, peter taiwo, steve aya: reporters

III The advocate

T H I S D AY • TueSday, JANUARY 30, 2024

CBN, the North and Nothingness Court of Appeal Judgement in the Plateau Lawmaker’s Case n Iteogu v LPDC 2018 LPELR-43845(SC) per Ejembi Eko, JSC, the Apex Court held inter alia that, once a court delivers its judgement, it becomes Functus Officio, but then went on to list the exceptional circumstances in which a court, including the Supreme Court, may set aside its decision, in the interest of justice. The circumstances are as follows: 1) When the judgement was reached per incuriam, that is, when the judgement was reached without due regard to the law or facts; or 2) where the judgement was erroneous in law or 3) where the previous judgement is contrary to public policy or occasioning a miscarriage of justice or perpetuating injustice.

The Court of Appeal decision in the above-mentioned Plateau Lawmakers’ case, seems to fulfil all three conditions listed in Iteogu v LPDC (Supra) as reasons why the Intermediate Court or any court, can set aside its seemingly perverse decision. The Court of Appeal decision appears to have been reached per incuriam, as the reasons for nullifying their victories bordered on alleged irregularities in connection to party nomination and sponsorship, matters that have already been settled by law and judicial precedent; unfortunately, the Intermediate Court chose to ignore the law and the established judicial precedent in that regard. The decision was not only erroneous in law, it was also contrary to public policy, as it totally truncated the will of the Plateau people who overwhelmingly voted for the Lawmakers, by declaring their votes wasted, based on a premise that has no foundation in law. There’s a plethora of Supreme Court decisions, particularly the most recent one of Plateau State Governor, Caleb Mutfwang whose case appears to be on all fours with that of the Plateau Lawmakers, that affirms the miscarriage of justice occasioned by the Court of Appeal decision in the case of the Plateau Lawmakers, complete with orbiter dicta in their favour. However, the Governor’s judgement was reversed on appeal to the Supreme Court, since unlike the Lawmakers, the Governor’s right of appeal didn’t terminate at the Court of Appeal. See Section 246(3) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended in 2023)(the Constitution) and the case of NEPA v Ososanya 2004 5 N.W.L.R.Part 867 Page 601 at 624 on perverse decisions that amount to a miscarriage of justice, as in the case of the Plateau Lawmakers.

The famous words of Chukwudifu Akunne Oputa, JSC in Adegoke Motors Ltd & Anor v Dr Babatunde Adesanya & Anor 1989 3 N.W.L.R. Part 109 Page 250 at 274 come to mind, that: “We are final not because we are infallible; rather, we are infallible because we are final”; because, in the case of the Plateau Lawmakers, the fallibility of the Court of Appeal became more glaring, by virtue of the decision of the Supreme Court in Governor Mutfwang’s matter.

Based on the aforementioned reasons, and in the interest of justice, ex facie (on the face of it), the judgement in the Plateau State Lawmakers case appears to be ripe for a review by the Court of Appeal - an application by the Lawmakers to the Court of Appeal, for the decision to be set aside, and there are several grounds available to support this application, including the Supreme Court decision in Governor Mutfwang’s case. However, some have also argued that because of the 60 day timeline stated in Section 285(6) of the Constitution, the time in which the appeal should have been disposed of at the Court of Appeal has elapsed, thereby, leaving the Lawmakers with no redress despite the injustice that they may have faced (see Section 1(1) of the Constitution on its bindingness on all throughout Nigeria). But, can Section 6(6)(a) of the Constitution which provides that judicial powers vested shall extend, notwithstanding anything contrary in the Constitution, to all inherent powers and sanctions of a court of law, avail the Lawmakers? The inherent powers of a court refers to the “authority possessed implicitly without its being derived from another”, that allow a court to take necessary actions to fulfil its constitutional mandate, which is the dispensation of justice. My dear colleagues, kindly, share your thoughts on this thorny issue. Thank you.

I

Much Ado About Nothing!

Good Governance vs Group Dominance Galatians 3:1“Èyin alainironu ara Galatia….” (O foolish Galatians, who hath betwitched you….”.

I thought this department/agency relocation issue, would have died a natural death by now. Alas!

I was wrong, as it is still raging on. I must say that I am appalled that, while for the past few years Nigeria has been tottering on the brink of collapse/being a Failed State, based on successive governments and their years of bad decisions and bad governance, and the focus now should be on how best to salvage our great nation, those who are part of the organs of government and should be occupying themselves with this urgent task of nation building, are instead, engaged in a fruitless venture

onikepo braithwaite onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive. com onikepob@yahoo.com

The

Advocate “…. we all must be reminded that, 100% of Zero is Zero….. if Nigeria collapses and fails, it will hit rock bottom - Ground Zero, and those who are searching for domination and threatening political consequences for moving a couple of departments around, will find themselves dominating Zero - nothing, but a Failed State” of spewing angry vitriol and spreading venom about the relocation of a couple of departments of Government to Lagos!

It is unfortunate that in Nigeria, election into office doesn’t necessarily depend on performance; if it did, methinks that Politicians would be constrained to spend their time more gainfully, in order to yield positive results that will boost their popularity and assist them in their bid for re-election, without which their re-election would be an impossibility, instead of wasting time on nonsense.

It has become as clear as a bell, that instead of playing their roles set out in Sections 4, 5 & 6 of the Constitution to achieve the goals set out in Chapter II therein for the betterment of all Nigerians, some are rather preoccupied with some zones or one group or the other being or staying in control of government and indeed, Nigeria, contrary to Section 1(2) of the Constitution, which prohibits any persons or groups of persons taking control of the Government of Nigeria. See the case of AG Abia State & Ors v AGF (2003) LPELR-610 (SC) per Salihu Modibbo Alfa Belgore, JSC (later CJN).

The Headquarters of CBN remains in Abuja, ditto for the Ministry of Aviation and all the other Ministries; what is the big deal if the Commercial Bank Supervisory & Examination Department is relocated to Lagos, when practically every Bank in Nigeria’s head office is in Lagos, because Lagos is the Commercial Capital/ Centre, the Financial Hub of Nigeria? Why would the CBN Commercial Bank Supervisory & Examination Department that supervises and inspects the Banks to ensure compliance etc be in Abuja, when the engine rooms and main systems of the Banks they are monitoring are in Lagos, with only back ups in Abuja? The relocation alternatives suggested by Senator Ali Ndume - Kaduna, Nasarawa or Kogi, shows his fixation on every Government agency being

CBN Headquarters, Abuja

in the North even if it is pointless or insensible, and a lack of understanding of the issues that necessitated the move. It appears that, a mountain is being made out of a molehill - much ado about nothing!

I think that it is at this point that, we all must be reminded that, 100% of Zero is Zero.

When we lose our focus and instead, choose to concentrate our efforts on irrelevancies and baseless rumours, while our country continues in the downward spiral that it has been in for years, if Nigeria collapses and fails, it will hit rock bottom - Ground Zero, and those who are searching for domination and threatening political consequences for moving a couple of departments around, will find themselves dominating Zero - nothing, but a Failed State.

Should this Not be of More Concern?

If not a Failed State, Nigeria has become rather fragile and dysfunctional, over the last decade at least. For starters, it would make more sense for those in Government to spend as much energy trying to strategise on how to secure the lives and property of all Nigerians, seeing as this is the primary purpose of Government (see Section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution), instead of scheming in advance for the 2027 election almost immediately after we have barely completed that of 2023!

I remember we started the New Year in 2018 with attacks that killed many people in Benue State. In 2024, we started the new year in Plateau the same way as Benue State in 2018; should this not be of more concern?

Should the issue of the monitoring of our porous borders not be of more concern, since there have been numerous allegations that violent, foreign criminals come in through them to kill and maim Nigerians? I read a news report that the Lagos State PDP Chairman was kidnapped on the

Lagos Ibadan Expressway a few days ago, while landmine explosions which killed several people, have recently rocked Borno State - an attempt to frustrate Governor Zulum’s efforts to rebuild communities and resettle IDPs. Should the recent spate of insecurity in Abuja, the country’s capital, and indeed, the general insecurity in Nigeria not be of more concern?

When the APC came to power on May 29, 2015, the black market exchange rate of the Naira to the Pound was less than N320 to £1; today it is hovering at about N1,780-1,800 to £1, and still on the rise.

Should that not be of more concern?

Our mineral resources are being mined illegally by the Chinese and others, instead of us harnessing our resources for the development and betterment of our country (see Section 16 of the Constitution), so much so that these clandestine activities are reported to have led to the recent explosion disaster in Ibadan, Oyo State recently. Our failure to harness our mineral resources and take advantage of the huge economic potential Nigeria has, has left the door wide open for marauders to enter Nigeria and plunder our resources. Should the issue of economic sabotage perpetrated by foreigners with the connivance of some unpatriotic Nigerians, not be of more concern? That revenue that should be coming into our Government coffers for our general benefit, is going into private, foreign and unknown pockets? Nigeria, once known as the giant of Africa, became the poverty capital of the world a few years ago; our people are truly suffering - should this not be of more concern?

I have said it before and I repeat myself - the amount of oil reserves that Nigeria has, cannot be compared to its gas. Yet, in Africa, Algeria appears to export more LNG than we do (it appears that our LNG production may have declined in the last few years), and we waste gas by flaring instead of harnessing it, thereby losing many millions of Dollars in revenue annually, while destroying the environment! This is what Yoruba’s call ‘Apa’ (Wastrel). Should this not be of more concern?

Successive governments have seen nothing wrong in cattle being herded on the streets of most cities in Nigeria, in broad day light for that matter, as if we are still living in the dark ages! Should this not be of concern? That the fact that Herders also take their cattle to graze on people’s farms thereby destroying their crops, has led to hundreds of unnecessary deaths. See the 2017 case of State v Haruna Usman, in which a 15 year old Herder was sentenced to death by the then Chief Judge of Kogi State, Hon. Justice Nasiru Ajanah, for stabbing one Happy David to death, contrary to Section 221 of the Penal Code, simply because the deceased warned him not to graze his cattle on his Parents’ farm, because a pesticide which could prove harmful to the animals, had been sprayed on the crops.

The other day we attended a funeral in Ondo, and I asked about cattle herding and open grazing there, and the Driver told us that now that Aketi (late Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, SAN) has passed away, they have started to see cows on the roads again.

Another problem of Strong Men and not-so- strong institutions. If we had strong institutions, the policy of prohibition of open grazing in Ondo State would not stop, because Aketi is longer with us. The good policy, would outlive him.

I have been to South Africa twice, once to Johannesburg and once to Cape Town. South Africa is known for its meat. They export meat. Yet, I did not see one cow on the road, on both trips. In civilised countries when cattle, sheep etc are observed wandering on the street, maybe having wandered out of a farm that may be in close proximity to the road, such incidents are immediately reported to the Police, so that the animal can be removed from the road! Should it not be of more concern, that instead of moving with the times, some people are hellbent of keeping us in the dark ages because of their own selfish interests, and we need to wrestle Nigeria from this regressive stranglehold as a matter of urgency?

Conclusion My point? A country doesn’t develop when most of its decisions are imprudent, instead of being based on exigencies of the country’s circumstances. I enjoin you all to read the article of Okey Ikechukwu on the back page of the ThisDay publication of last Saturday, in which, inter alia, he informs us that for example, in South Africa, while the Executive arm of Government is located in the country’s capital, Pretoria, Parliament is 1,453.2 kilometres away in Cape Town; the Supreme Court is in Bloemfontein and the Constitutional Court in Johannesburg. Who says that every government agency, must necessarily be in the capital city or its environs?

My last word is that, we are all Nigerians; let’s start to make decisions that are for the good of us all, not just a particular ethnic group, religion, sex etc. Aside from the fact that this is discrimination contrary to Section 42(1)(a) & (b) of the Constitution, many of such discriminatory decisions have proven to be counterproductive for the country.

IV law report

TueSday, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

Whether Appeal’s Dismissal for Failure to File Appellant’s Brief Can be Revisited

Facts The 1st – 10th Respondent instituted an action before the High Court of the FCT-Abuja, seeking inter alia, a declaration that the demolition of their shops was unlawful. They also sought compensation for the demolition, as well as loss of earnings. The trial court granted the reliefs in part. Dissatisfied with the refusal of the other reliefs, the 1st – 10th Respondent filed a Notice of Appeal at the Court of Appeal on 5th March, 2010. The record of appeal was however, compiled and transmitted outside the prescribed time. The 1st – 10th Respondent filed an application to regularise the late transmission of the record on 16th November, 2011. Subsequently, they filed their Appellants’ brief of argument on 29th August, 2012, together with a motion for leave to amend their Notice of Appeal.

Thereafter, they filed another motion dated 28th June, 2013 for leave to amend their notice of appeal. Both applications to amend their Notice of Appeal were subsequently withdrawn. They later filed a fresh motion for leave to amend their Notice of Appeal on 11th April, 2014.

Whilst the 1st – 10th Respondent’s applications were still pending before the Court of Appeal, the Appellant filed an application on 3rd December, 2014 seeking the dismissal of the appeal for want of diligent prosecution.

The Court of Appeal granted the application and dismissed the appeal, pursuant to Order 8 Rule 18 & Order 18 Rule 10 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2011, to the effect that where an Appellant fails to compile and transmit the records after the failure of the Registrar to do the same, or where an Appellant fails to file his brief within time, the Respondent may apply for the appeal to be dismissed for want of diligent prosecution. Subsequently, the 1st – 10th Respondent filed an application seeking inter alia, an order setting aside the ruling dismissing their appeal; an order to regularise the late transmission of the record of appeal; leave to amend their Notice of Appeal; an order deeming the amended Notice of Appeal filed with the motion as having been properly filed and served, and an order deeming the Appellant’s brief of argument dated 29th August, 2012 as having been properly filed and served. The application though opposed by the Appellant, was granted by the Court of Appeal. Consequently, the Court of Appeal restored the 1st – 10th Respondent’s appeal to its cause list.

The Appellant was dissatisfied with the decision; hence, it filed an appeal before the Supreme Court.

Issue for Determination The Supreme Court considered the following sole issue submitted by the Appellant, in its determination of the appeal: Whether the Court of Appeal has the jurisdiction to grant the application of the 1st – 10th Respondent, relisting their appeal which had been dismissed pursuant to Order 8 Rule 18 and Order 18 Rule 19 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2011.

Arguments Counsel for the Appellant argued that once a dismissal of an appeal is ordered pursuant to Order 18 Rule 10 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2011, the appeal so dismissed cannot be relisted; and so long as the court below relied on the said provision in dismissing the 1st – 10th Respondent’s appeal, the dismissal was irreversible by the same court. He submitted that the Court of Appeal’s reversal of its order of dismissal of the appeal and its relisting of the appeal amounted to the

and transmit record of appeal, the Court of Appeal has the discretion to restore and relist the appeal upon application by the Appellant, upon terms as the court may deem fit. Conversely, there is no such provision in relation to an appeal dismissed for failure to file Appellant’s brief pursuant to Order 18 Rule 10 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2011. Such dismissal is a dismissal on the merit, it is final, and the lower court is rendered functus officio in that it cannot restore the appeal, except under exceptional circumstances, such as where the order is a nullity, or made where there was a pending application for extension of time to file Appellant’s brief.

Honourable Adamu Jauro, JSC In the Supreme Court of Nigeria Holden at Abuja On Friday, the 27th day of January, 2023 Before Their Lordships John Inyang Okoro Amina Adamu Augie Adamu Jauro Tijjani Abubakar Emmanuel Akomaye Agim SC.86/2017 Between REFUGE HOME SAVINGS & LOANS LIMITED

APPELLANT

And ALHAJI UMARU GARKUWA & 12 ORS

RESPONDENTS

(Lead Judgement delivered by Honourable Adamu Jauro, JSC)

Court of Appeal sitting on appeal over its own decision. He submitted that the Court of Appeal had become functus officio at the point of the dismissal, and it is only the Supreme Court that could have validly exercised jurisdiction over a complaint against the Court of Appeal’s decision dismissing the appeal.

He placed reliance on A. D. H. LTD v AMALGAMATED TRUSTEES LTD (2007) ALL FWLR (PT. 392) 1781.

In response to the Appellant’s submissions, counsel for the 1st – 10th Respondent submitted that the Court of Appeal rightly set aside its initial order dismissing the 1st – 10th Respondent’s appeal, when it became clear to it that the order was made without jurisdiction. He argued that the Appellant’s application seeking the dismissal of the appeal was wrongly granted, as an appeal cannot be dismissed for failure to file brief, when the

“Such dismissal is a dismissal on the merit, it is final, and the lower court is rendered functus officio in that it cannot restore the appeal, except under exceptional circumstances, such as where the order is a nullity, or made where there was a pending application for extension of time to file Appellant’s brief”

record of appeal had not been transmitted and the appeal has not been entered. He submitted that while a court is not permitted to sit on appeal over its decisions, a court is not completely powerless to review and ex debitio justiciae set aside its null orders, and that it was for this reason that upon the application of the 1st -10th Respondent, the court below immediately appreciated that its order dismissing the appeal was incongruous and was made without jurisdiction, and held that good and substantial reasons had been disclosed to warrant the setting aside of the same. He cited the case of OKAFOR v ATTORNEY-GENERAL AND COMMISSIONER OF JUSTICE (1991) 6 NWLR (PT. 200) 659.

The 11th and 12th Respondent did not file any brief of argument, although they were served with all the processes in the appeal.

Court’s Judgement and Rationale In determining the appeal, the Court reproduced Order 8 Rule 18 of the Court of Appeal Rules, 2011 which deals with dismissal of an appeal for failure to compile and transmit the record of appeal and Order 18 Rule 10 of the Court of Appeal Rules, which makes provision for dismissal of an appeal for failure to file Appellant’s brief within the period prescribed by the Rules. The Court held that as a follow up to Order 8 Rule 18, Order 8 Rule 20 provides that where an appeal is dismissed for failure to compile

The Apex Court further held that the power for the dismissal of an appeal on the ground of failure to file Appellant’s brief, can only arise where the appeal has been entered. It is after the entry of the appeal, that time begins to run for filing the Appellant’s brief. The necessary implication of this is that, it is only when the record of appeal has been regularised and the Appellant has failed to file his brief within the 45 days prescribed under the Court of Appeal Rules, that the Respondent can then apply for the dismissal of the appeal for failure to file Appellant’s brief under Order 18 Rule 10(1) of the 2011 Rules. The Court found that in the instant case, at the time of the dismissal of the appeal for the purported failure to file the Appellants’ brief, the 1st – 10th Respondent as Appellants had a pending application to regularise the late compilation and transmission of their record of appeal. The application was yet to be heard, by the lower court. In essence, as at the time the court made the order of dismissal of the appeal, the record was not yet regularised and the appeal had not yet been entered. There was therefore, no basis for the lower court to dismiss the 1st -10th Respondents’s appeal for failure to file Appellants’ brief pursuant to Order 18 Rule 10 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2011, as the court was not yet imbued with the requisite jurisdiction to do so by reason of non-entry of the appeal. In other words, the order dismissing the appeal was a nullity.

The Court held that although a court generally lacks the power to revisit its order and after rendering its ruling, order or judgement, the court becomes functus officio and such an order can only be set aside on appeal. However, in certain instances, a court has the jurisdiction to set aside its own decision ex debitio justiciae. This power or jurisdiction may be exercised, where for instance, the judgement, ruling or order sought to be set aside is null and void ab initio, or there was a fundamental defect in the proceedings which vitiates and renders the same incompetent and invalid.

The Court referred to UWEMEDIMO v MOBIL PRODUCING (NIG.) UNLTD (2019) 12 NWLR (PT. 1685) 1.

The Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal was right to set aside its order of 12/2/2015 dismissing the appeal and to restore the appeal pursuant to Order 8 Rule 20 of the Court of Appeal Rules 2011, upon realising that it made the said order without jurisdiction, as its power to dismiss the Appeal for failure to file Appellant’s brief was yet to arise at the time it made the order.

Appeal Dismissed.

Representation Sylvester Okojie with Chris Ebare, for the Appellant.

Dr George Ogunyomi with Mr Ifeanyi Ndumnego and Miss Nguerese Tine Tur for the 1st – 10th Respondent.

F. S. Jimoh for the 11th and 12th Respondent.

Reported by Optimum Publishers Limited, Publishers of the Nigerian Monthly Law Report (NMLR)(An affiliate of Babalakin & Co.)

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TueSday, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

NEWS

Late Barnabas and Abigail Igwe

Late Dixy Oddiri

Barnabas and Abigail Igwe: The Truth

By Chief Wole Olanipekun, CFR, SAN

Former NBA President, Chief Wole Olanipekun, SAN has responded to Prof Chidi Odinkalu’s tirade on the death of former NBAOnitsha Chairman and his wife, Barnabas and Abigail Igwe.

In a press statement, Chief Olanipekun, SAN said “Just as the world was bidding the year 2023 farewell and gearing up to the uncertainties of the new year, my attention was drawn to a piece circulating on social media titled: “Juliana and Vincent Igwe: POTY 2023, by Chidi Anselm Odinkalu”, which was later published by various media, including ThisDay, Vanguard News, TheCable and Premium Times Nigeria. While a peek through the piece gave a clue that Prof Odinkalu’s acronymisation: “POTY” implied “Persons of the Year”, it took an even briefer glance to decipher that the content of the commentary is largely belied by its title. Ex facie, it took the appearance of a belated tribute to our late colleagues, Barnabas and Abigail Igwe, who, as a couple, were gruesomely murdered on 1st September, 2002, in the most callous manner, and an extolment of the virtues of Mr and Mrs Vincent and Juliana Igwe (the late Mr Igwe’s elder brother and wife, respectively) who, according to Chidi, assumed parental responsibilities over the children of the deceased Igwes.

“Had Prof Odinkalu terminated his brief at that or made do with accurate facts available to him, his narration might, perhaps, have turned out as a bona fide intellectual contribution to the course of humanity. However, the account was embellished with subtle suggestions of abandonment of the Igwes and an assortment of insinuations of a renege on the promises made by myself as the President of the NBA at the material time. The myriad of distortions contained in the article renders it a disservice to the sacred

memories of the martyred duo, and the foetus in the womb of Abigail. Much as I would naturally have let it slide while taking it in my stride as I have done in time past, I am constrained, at this instance, to set the record straight for two principal reasons, amongst others. First, because it touches on my humble stewardship at the NBA - an Association to which ‘I devoted my all as its President between 2002-2004 (22 years ago). Second, because I consider it a great deal of unfairness, not just to me, but also to the unsuspecting readers who fed on the treatise in the innocent belief that it is the truth and nothing but the truth. If the propaganda cliché often attributed to the Nazi Joseph Goebbels (“repeat a lie often enough and it becomes the truth”) is anything to go by, then, leaving Odinkalu’s skewed story again unattended, would cause the claims to be repeated, both by the innocent and mischievous consumers, such that it would one day usurp the status of the truth.

“It is no longer news that the murder of the Igwes was the first major crisis that greeted my tenure as the President of the NBA, having been sworn in just two days before the unfortunate incident. However, beyond this, I also inherited the controversy surrounding the equally gruesome murder of past Attorney-General of the Federation, Chief Bola Ige, SAN, who was murdered at his Bodija residence, Ibadan, about eight months before my assumption of office.

“Immediately the news of the dastardly murder of the Igwes was brought to my attention on Sunday, 1st September, 2022, I summoned an Emergency Officers’ Meeting at the NBA Secretariat in Lagos and, at the same time, reached out to the Onitsha branch to obtain a first-hand briefing on the gory incident. The report I got from Onitsha, pointed accusing fingers at certain powerful characters at the helm of affairs in Anambra State. The officers clinically examined all the facts presented, and resolved that a

LEGAL UPDATE Department of Commercial Law, University of Lagos to hold seminar on P&ID case.

Date: January 30, 2024 Time: 2pm Venue: Zoom/Faculty of Law University of Lagos Topic: A DIALOGUE ON THE PROCESS AND INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENTS LTD (P&ID) v FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA CASE Discussants: Prof Oyelowo Oyewo, SAN; Prof James Akanmu; Dr Akeem Bello, Dele Ogun; Dr Kemi Omotubora Moderator: Prof Abiola Sanni, SAN Meeting ID: 854 2320 4510 Passcode: 525485

World Press Conference was expedient, pursuant to which I addressed one at the premises of the NBA Secretariat, with all the National Officers present. At the Press Conference, not only did I point accusing fingers at the powerful elements in Anambra State Government, I also urged the Federal Government to declare a State of Emergency in the State. If Odinkalu had got his facts right, or even bothered to ask the right questions, he would not have sought to minify the countless statements that the NBA issued in reaction to the incident as “the obligatory and practiced statement”. Contrary to this very unkind phraseology, not only was I vociferous in my condemnation of the killings, but members of my Executive Council and I matched same with commensurate actions which we considered strategic and logical wards bringing the killers and their sponsors to book. These actions include my visit to the then InspectorGeneral of Police, Mr Tafa Balogun, on 11th September, 2002, where I made the unequivocal demand for an investigation into the heinous crime. I reiterated this demand to the IGP in my letter to him on 20th September, 2002, where I also intimated him of NBA’s readiness and willingness to cooperate with, and give the required support to the Nigeria Police for the investigation. I seized the opportunity to inform the IGP that the NBA would be setting up its own private investigation committee to expose the killers of our worthy colleagues, and that our report would be submitted to the government.

I announced 18th September, 2002 as a day of mourning to be observed by all branches of the NBA, and directed members of the

Bar to take to the streets in protest of their heinous murder by suspected agents of the State in Anambra.

Unprecedentedly, all branches of the NBA heeded my directive and observed 18th September, 2002 as a day of mourning. In my address to President Olusegun Obasanjo during our meeting with him on 11th November, 2002, I apprised him of how Barnabas and Abigail were brutally murdered, and I connected their killings to Barnabas’ consistent call for a responsive, responsible, just and fair governance in Anambra State, which even led to his issuance of an ultimatum to the State Government to pay the huge arrears of workers’ salaries.

I pleaded with President Olusegun Obasanjo to set up a Commission of Inquiry to unravel the several murders in the country (including the killing of Chief Bola Ige, SAN and the Igwes), while also stating that there was a frightening atmosphere of violence enveloping the country, as lives and properties were no longer held sacred.

“For the burial of the Igwes, the NBA, under my humble leadership, took charge, working together with the Onitsha branch. The burial ceremonies, including the Valedictory Court Session held on 4th and 5th October, 2002, were attended by over 2000 Lawyers from across the country, led by me. We were all clad in black-customised T-shirts provided by the NBA, bearing the photographs of the deceased couple. I recall the emotion-laden speech which I delivered at the funeral - It was a blend of eulogy and a frontal challenge to the sitting governments, both in Anambra State and the Federation. The Speech was contemporaneously rendered by all NBA

branches in the country.

During our preparation for the funeral, the Governor of Anambra State expressed his willingness to attend the events, but we turned down his request, stating categorically that we could not guarantee his safety, as his presence could provoke Lawyers. This was despite the fact that he was the Chief Executive, and Chief Security Officer of the State.

“Despite our heavy hearts and the various and spontaneous activities we undertook in the pursuit of justice, we maintained the presence of mind to appreciate the fact that the Igwes were a young couple whose untimely demise had left behind, vulnerable children who needed support to face life without their loving parents.

This sensitivity informed our setting up of a Committee to raise funds for the welfare of the orphaned children and open an Endowment Fund Account for that purpose.

Without being immodest, I made my humble contribution to the Fund, and a handful of Lawyers across the country followed suit. The N25million Endowment Fund alluded to by Odinkalu was an ambitious projection, which, unfortunately, proved a tall order. I recall that members of the Onitsha branch levied themselves N1,000 each, towards the Fund. Without any fear of contradiction and contrary to Odinkalu’s unfair innuendos, for the two years that I held sway as the President of the NBA, we were responsible for the welfare and education of the children of the Igwes.

Successive disbursements were made from the meagre contributions to the Fund to the children, through Mr Vincent Igwe, as occasions demanded, and after proper scrutiny by the NBA. Records do not lie. For example, in the

Minutes of the NBA-NEC Meeting held on 12th & 13th February, 2004, at the Confluence Beach Hotel, Lokoja, Kogi State, it was/ is recorded that: “The General Secretary briefed the House on the recent payment by the Association of the sum of N480,980.00 (Four Hundred and Eighty Thousand Nine Hundred and Eighty Naira Only) to Mr Vincent Igwe, the younger brother of late Barnabas Igwe, Esq. and the guardian of the deceaseds’ three children, through the Chairman of Onitsha Branch”. At the said meeting, the General Secretary and Treasurer informed NEC that the total amount outstanding to the credit of the NBA/Igwe Endowment Fund Account (before the disbursement of the sum of N480,980.00) was N2,646,400.00 (Two Million Six Hundred and Forty-Six Thousand, Four Hundred Naira Only). In paragraph 3.1 of my Valedictory Speech as NBA President on 23rd August, 2004, during the Annual Conference, I again reported the establishment of the Endowment Fund Scheme for the children of the Igwes, and posited thus: “For now, the NBA has been responsible for the upkeep and education of the children of the deceased.” The point must be made clear that accounts of all monies received were usually presented at every National Executive Council (NEC) meeting, including the mode and manner of disbursement to the family through Mr Vincent Igwe.

I also recollect a particular incident whereby the late Abigail’s sister residing in the United Kingdom, pleaded to take the children along with her. The NBAencouraged the move, Senator N.N Anah, SAN volunteered to procure their air tickets, while I opted to personally make some

funds available for their logistics.

However, Mr Vincent Igwe, in his wisdom, objected to the move, citing some Igbo customary inhibitions.

At the same NBA-NEC meeting in Lokoja earlier referenced, NEC mandated the third National Vice-President, Blessing Ukiri Esq., to broker a truce between the duo of Vincent and Abigail’s sister. In the disbursement of funds to the children, prominent members of the NBA within the locality were always consulted and carried along.

To the best of my recollection, one of such notable members is now a Justice of the Court of Appeal, another, a serving Judge of the Anambra State High Court, and one other, a Professor of Law at the Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Anambra State.

“I must mention that these benevolent deeds and acts of responsibility were not lost on good-spirited, well-informed and active players at the time, as I/ we received encouragement and commendations from various quarters."

"One of such, was a letter of appreciation from very respectable figures and leading lights of Onitsha extraction in the legal profession, including the Vice-Chairman and Secretary at the time, Chuka Obele-Chuka, Pete Chudi Obiorah, P.O. Balonwu, SAN, formerAttorneyGeneral of the Federation, Chike Ofodile, SAN, G.R.I. Egonu, SAN, P.G.E. Umeadi, SAN, Senator N.N. Anah, SAN, H.R.H. Eze Dr. Ejike Ume, SAN, G. E. Ezeuko, SAN, Chief Chidube Ezebilo, SAN, Nnamdi Ibeagu, SAN and Dr Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN. For the records, the letter read in part: “Your initiative coupled with your admirable courageous and intelligent handling of the matter, will remain indelible in our hearts.

Your indefatigable resolve to see that the perpetrators of this heinous crime are brought to justice has given our struggle a national focus, for which we remain eternally grateful.” It is only a fibber, whose witnesses are all domiciled in the empyrean domain.

As for me, it is gratifying that some of these actors and personae are still cont'd on page X

Dixy Oddiri, a Quintessential Bar Man Passes On The legal community lost one of its senior members last week, with the passage of Dixy Oddiri at the age of 79.

Born February 27, 1944, Mr Oddiri passed away in Lagos, on January 16, 41 days before his 80th birthday. He attended two secondary schools in the Warri area, Hussey College between 1956 and 1960 and later, Urhobo College, Effurun from 1961 to1962.

After College, Mr Oddiri

had a brief stint at the then Western Region Judiciary, working in Warri, Benin City, and Kwale. He caught the legal bug during this period, and subsequently proceeded to Holborn College London, from where he obtained the University of London LLB degree.

Dixy Oddiri returned to Nigeria in 1977, enrolled at the Nigerian Law School, Lagos and was called to the Bar in 1978.

After a brief career in the Federal Civil Service, first as a Pupil State Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, then in the Legal Advisers Unit in the Department of Customs and Excise, Dixy Oddiri went into private legal practice and set up his Chambers Dixy Oddiri & Co, in Western House, Broad Street, Lagos. From his Lagos base, Dixy Oddiri practised law in Lagos, Benin City, Warri and Abuja.

He was deeply involved in the politics of the NBA, at the national and State level in Lagos and Delta State. It was therefore not surprising that, in 1989, Mr Dixy Oddiri won the election to become the Secretary of NBA Lagos Branch. He also served as a member of the Nigerian Legal Aid Council Board.

Mr Dixy Oddiri is survived by his wife, children and siblings.

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coVER

Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN

“Nigeria’s Political Class Are Bad Losers” Is the legal profession in Nigeria, biased against female Lawyers? Or why is the number of female Senior Advocates of Nigeria (SAN), less than 10% of the total number? These issues have been subtly discussed over the past few years, in the legal community. Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN took up the gauntlet last week, in a very engaging chat with Onikepo Braithwaite and Jude Igbanoi, in which she bared her mind on a plethora of professional issues, including that of the abysmally low number of female SANs, complexities in the Plateau lawmakers’ case, Election Petition jurisprudence, discipline of Lawyers and the challenges of juggling motherhood with active legal practice

L

earned Silk, tell us about your journey from being a New Wig to the Inner Bar. Many have, over the years, expressed dissatisfaction that the number of female Lawyers who have so far taken Silk since the inception of the rank, is abysmally low. Is it more difficult for women to attain the rank? What were the challenges you faced along the way? What words of wisdom do you have for female Lawyers who wish to tread the path to taking Silk?

I was called to the Nigerian Bar on 10th December, 1991.

I agree that the number of female

Lawyers so far elevated to the Inner Bar since inception of conferment of the prestigious rank in 1975 is abysmally low, when compared with male Lawyers of the Inner Bar. However, I do not think the abysmal number, is due to the fact that it is more difficult for women to attain the rank. I would rather say that, it is a function of awareness and interest on the part of female Lawyers. This is because; as a legal practitioner, no matter how well qualified, you must make the requisite application to the Legal Practitioners’ Privileges Committee for conferment of the rank, before you are considered for elevation.

“I agree that the number of female Lawyers so far elevated to the Inner Bar since inception of conferment of the prestigious rank in 1975 is abysmally low, when compared with male Lawyers of the Inner Bar. However, I do not think the abysmal number, is due to the fact that it is more difficult for women to attain the rank”

If a female Lawyer works like her male counterpart, knowing the statutory requirements that would qualify her for consideration for conferment of the rank and she works at it, there should be no impediment for her when the time is right.

I must acknowledge that because of the peculiar socio-cultural status of a woman as child nurturer, homemaker and family builder e.t.c, combining active legal practice as a professional, with her socio-cultural roles is a challenge. This perhaps, may make it more challenging for women to attain the rank, but, it cannot deter a woman who enjoys active legal practice and who has interest in attaining the rank. Women by nature are wired to multitask, even within 24 hours of each day. I also faced the challenge; of juggling motherhood, child nurturing, home making and family building, with active legal practice.

The other challenge involved in qualifying for consideration for conferment of SAN, is the difficulty in having cases tried and appeals heard at the High Court and Appellate Courts respectively.

This is a herculean task foisted on

the judicial system. because Nigerians are highly litigious and they beseech the Courts for good, bad or no reason at all, thereby congesting the Courts.

For instance, High Court of Lagos State had over 7,500 new cases filed last year as at November 2023. Court of Appeal Ibadan Division had 411 new appeals lodged last year. The effect of the congestion is such that, no matter how hardworking a female Lawyer is, she needs to engage unique case management mechanisms that would enable her have a sufficient number of completed trials and appeals that culminate in judgements on the merit; which are needed to file application for conferment of the rank.

My advice to female Lawyers desiring the privilege of the Inner Bar, is that they should have confidence and build up their knowledge of legal practice, work hard consistently and diligently, they should be thorough in their case research and learn from other good senior Lawyers. Going to court should not only be for them to conduct their case(s); they should attend courts to learn from seniors and colleagues who have excelled in the profession. They should not be deterred by the imperfections in the court system, because they can only make their mark within the

TueSday, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

“Nigeria’s Political Class Are Bad Losers” same system by setting good and better standards themselves.

Would you say there is gender disparity in the legal profession in Nigeria today? If so, what could be responsible for this, and how can it be addressed? Or is it just a microcosm of the Nigerian society generally?

When you say gender disparity in legal profession, can we really say that there are differences in access to education, resources and opportunities within the legal profession, which favour male Lawyers and do not favour female Lawyers? Are there any differences between male and female Lawyers that are institutionalised through law, justice and practice of the legal profession or social norm? As far as I know, admissions into the Universities in Nigeria to study law are not gender based; qualifying examination for the Bar; making appearances in the Courts; filing Briefs of Argument and Pleadings etc, is not based on gender. So, it may be difficult to classify the current situation whereby there appears to be more male Lawyers in view than female Lawyers as gender disparity, because the institutions involved in producing Lawyers and through which Lawyers operate, are not gender sensitive.

An online publication reported gender disparity in our profession, and cited the example of only few female Attorneys-General amongst the 36 States of the Federation and few females on the Bench. There are no accurate records of the number of female Lawyers practising as inhouse Counsel/Solicitors, Company Secretaries, Corporate Administrators etc in the Corporate Sector. Again, it is more a function of how may female Lawyers applied for the position of Attorneys-General and judicial officers.

The appointing institutions, are not gender sensitive. Female Lawyers must do more by putting themselves forward, consistently too, for the appointments.

If for instance, there is vacancy for 14 judicial officers in a State, and 50 male Lawyers applied, whilst only 2 female Lawyers applied to fill the vacancy, a final selection of the 2 females and 12 male Lawyers may appear as gender disparity, whereas, in actuality, there was no gender disparity.

In Lagos State for instance, there are more female Judicial Officers on the State Bench. Lagos State has had no fewer than 6 females occupy the exalted position of Chief Judge of Lagos State. In addition, the Magistracy in Lagos State has more females sitting as Magistrates than male. The Court of Appeal currently has a female as President of the Court of Appeal; the Supreme Court has produced a female Chief Justice of Nigeria, whilst there are no less than three female Justices sitting at the Apex Court today (exclusive of those to be sworn in soon). At the Court of Appeal, many females are sitting there and head Divisions of the Court. As time goes on, I am sure that if more female Lawyers apply to the Bench nationwide, more will be evenly distributed at the three tiers of the Superior Courts of Record. This is because; there is clear indication that more female Lawyers are being called to the Bar than male Lawyers.

So, whilst you may say that there is

VII cover

Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN

gender imbalance, you cannot say there is gender disparity in the legal profession.

In the latest conferment of the rank in 2023, 5 female Lawyers were elevated amongst a total of 57 successful applicants. This is a function of how many female Lawyers applied for conferment.

I am optimistic that as more female Lawyers are being called to the Bar, more being elevated to the rank of SAN, more female Lawyers will apply and be elevated to the Inner Bar. How come Election litigation does not seem to have been well established after almost 24 years of democracy? For example, Lawyers ignore the law and judicial precedent, and still include pre-election matters like issues of party membership and sponsorship, or constitutional qualifications as part of their election petitions, or issues of non-compliance with the Electoral Act that they are unable to discharge the requisite burden of proof for? What do you think can be done to stem this tide of bringing frivolous petitions to the Tribunal, and wasting precious judicial time?

In my humble view, election litigation is well established in Nigeria. I can count more than few Lawyers who are election litigation specialists.

As far back as the case of Chief Obafemi Awolowo vs Shagari & Ors SC.62/1979, when judgement was delivered on 26th September, 1979, our Courts have established unequivocal judicial precedents on election issues. This is not to discountenance that subsequent amendments of constitutional provisions relating to election, Electoral Act and INEC

“Women by nature are wired to multitask, even within 24 hours of each day. I also faced the challenge; of juggling motherhood, child nurturing, home making and family building, with active legal practice”

Regulation and Guidelines for the Conduct of Election may generate novel decisions that will further enrich our election case law and jurisprudence.

The big challenge confronting our noble profession, is the application of the established judicial precedent by legal practitioners and the political class. For instance, the appellate courts have long settled the law on the distinction between pre-election and post-election matters, as well as the sacrosanct nature of time prescribed for instituting and prosecuting election matters.

In addition, Section 285(14) of the Constitution defines pre-election matters as relates to matters prescribed under the Section. The Supreme Court has also emphasised that issues such as nomination, sponsorship and qualification of candidates are pre, not post election matters and that circumstances under which qualification of a candidate may be questioned post election are circumscribed by constitutional provisions in Sections 66(1), 107(1), 137(1) and 182(1) of the Constitution. I have no doubt in my mind that specialist election litigation Lawyers, are aware of the provisions of the election laws and the judicial precedents. They cannot ignore them, as to do so would herald the peril of client and Counsel. It is a matter of professional integrity.

When a Lawyer writes or settles pleadings, addresses and briefs or addresses the court as an advocate, he must, barring human error, write, plead and make submissions that espouse the law. To do otherwise, would be self degrading and professionally suicidal. The foremost duty of a Lawyer is to uphold the rule of law, doing so as he counsels and advocates for justice to protect the rights of citizens in the society, including his clients. Do not forget that the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners makes it mandatory that a Lawyer “shall not handle a legal matter which he knows or ought to know that he is not competent to handle, without associating with him a Lawyer who is competent to handle it”.

What I am saying is that our

noble profession, which is the second most respected globally, should and does, have zero tolerance for professional incompetence. Lawyers ought not to include pre-election matters in election petitions; and because of the well-established principle of law/rule of evidence to the effect that he who asserts must prove, allegations of noncompliance with provisions of Electoral Act, which a Lawyer knows from the evidence available to him cannot be established, ought not to be pleaded in the petition.

The Political class, on the other hand, are bad losers who, when they win, they praise the courts, INEC and even the President, as if His Excellency were the Judiciary. When they loose, they abuse and curse the Courts, INEC and Lawyers. In addition, even when a Lawyer has given candid legal advice on the futility of proceeding to institute legal action, they insist on filing the action to stay relevant and visible in the political space. They are the ones who find accomplices in Lawyers, who on their behalf, file petitions that mock established judicial precedents.

If I may liken the relationship of the Bench and Bar to that of regulator and operator; when the court executes its duty to regulate proceedings according to law, be it in an election, criminal or civil matter, the courts must also ensure that legal practitioners conducting the cases before the courts comply strictly with the Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners. The court must not refrain from imposing punitive costs on Counsel and litigants in deserving cases. The courts should reprimand and sanction Counsel for infamous conduct and in deserving cases; the court should go as far as making pronouncements on record on the specific infamous conduct of Counsel, and refer Counsel to the NBA Disciplinary Committee for appropriate discipline. The disciplinary process must be speedy, transparent and conducted by people of high integrity who are proven role models of the legal profession. If a litigant is aware that he will incur huge costs if he files a frivolous action, the litigant is more likely to think twice before insisting that the action should be filed to keep him relevant in the political space.

If an erring Counsel engages in abuse cont'd on page VIII

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“Nigeria’s Political Class Are Bad Losers” cont'd from page VII

of court process to collate cases, such frivolous actions should not be counted as relevant when considering contested cases presented for consideration for conferment of the rank of SAN. By the time heavy sanctions and punitive measures are applied to Counsel and litigant, the number of frivolous cases being filed to congest the court will reduce.

As a follow up to the previous question, we see that some judicial officers may also be responsible for some of the problems being experienced in Election litigation.

Recently, we saw the decisions of the Court of Appeal in the Plateau Lawmakers and Governorship cases.

While the Governor was able to appeal the Court of Appeal decision at the Supreme Court, and get justice with the overturning of the lower court’s decision, the Lawmakers have no further right of appeal to the Supreme Court against the decision of the Court of Appeal, which has been proven to be somewhat perverse. Kindly, share your views on this? Can there be any redress for the Lawmakers?

The jurisdiction to correct a perverse decision by its reversal lies with the Appellate Courts; that is, the Court of Appeal and Supreme Court. However, by virtue of the provision of Section 246(3) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) to wit: “The decisions of the Court of Appeal in respect of appeals arising from the National and State Houses of Assembly election petitions shall be final.”, the Supreme Court cannot entertain an appeal from the Plateau State Lawmakers. As far as the appeal is concerned, the Court of Appeal is the terminal Court, and it would seem that there may be no redress. However, the matter may not be closed for Plateau State Lawmakers.

Bearing in mind that an obiter of the Supreme Court yesterday may become the law tomorrow, and that the decision of the Supreme Court is supreme even though obiter, the affected lawmakers may, on the premise of the positive pronouncements made in the Governorship matter, found a declaratory action at the High Court to obtain appropriate declaratory reliefs for their office. Based on legal principle ubi jus ibi remedium, even a declaration by the High Court confirming pronouncement of the Supreme Court as it pertains to the Lawmakers may propel the Lawmakers’ High Court case to the Supreme Court, which will let them have opportunity of making its obiter findings a ratio of the Supreme Court.

It is a wise saying that, a manifest wrong must be corrected by all legal means available to the aggrieved. That would be justice prevailing.

I must also add that seeking amendment of Section 246(3) of the Constitution is not a viable option, as that would further congest the election matters transiting to and terminating at the Supreme Court. Political matters currently terminating at the Supreme Court are a docket full; adding National and State Houses of Assembly election petitions, will compound the ease of dispensation of justice at the Supreme

Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN

Court.

In addition, notwithstanding the strong words engaged by the Supreme Court in describing the Court of Appeal decision affecting the Plateau State Lawmakers, the Court of Appeal should be seen as a Court comprised of human beings who are by nature not infallible.

Several subsequent decisions of the Supreme Court, for Election Petitions emanating from Ogun, Rivers, Taraba, Sokoto, Lagos, Delta and Nasarawa States amongst others affirming Court of Appeal Judgements in the Petitions, attest to the integrity of the Court of Appeal and soundness of its decisions.

Some believe that the Land Use Act 1978 (LUA) is a failure. Do you agree? That its implementation has been poor, especially in a place like Lagos that is a beehive of economic activities.

For one, that it takes too long to perfect a title in Lagos. Then maybe there’s what is seen as a contradiction or controversy, that while Section 1 of the LUA vests land within a State in the Governor, Section 44(3) of the Constitution vests the mineral resources beneath the land in the Federal Government. In fact, there are also areas within a State where ordinary land belongs to the Federal Government.

Do you think that its time that the LUA is amended to address its anomalies? Kindly, share your views on this. Do you have any suggestions on how to make the LUA work better, if you believe that its implementation is not up to par?

The Land Use Act, 1978 (“LUA”), like some other laws in Nigeria, is a good law requiring requisite amendments that will align the law with current realities. Its main objec-

“The Political class, on the other hand, are bad losers who, when they win, they praise the courts, INEC and even the President, as if His Excellency were the Judiciary. When they loose, they abuse and curse the Courts, INEC and Lawyers”

tive was to make land easily available to all citizens of Nigeria, and remove the menace of notorious Omo-onile.

In practice, State Governments all over the Federation have utilised the law to raise internally generated revenue, build housing estates and infrastructure. Citizens have also benefitted from implementation of the law by the State Governments, through government allocations of commercial and residential plots of land to them. In addition, under the Act, Local governments are vested with powers to grant customary rights of occupancy to any person or organisation for the use of land in the Local Government Area for agricultural, residential, grazing, and other purposes. See: Section 6 of the Act. In Lagos State in particular, allocation of State land under the Act and subsequent transactions in such allocated land by way of assignment, sub-lease, power of attorney or mortgage is a major revenue driver for the State. However, despite being a revenue driver, the process of perfecting such subsequent land transactions, known as processing Governor’s Consent has been variously described as cumbersome and overly expensive. The Act must be appraised, from the overall view of the achievement or non-achievement of its main purpose. One may ask whether it actually made land easily available, to the generality of Nigerian citizens? Whether the menace of the Omo-Oniles have been eradicated, and what is the cost of obtaining State land allocation and processing subsequent land transactions in the various States of Nigeria? A candid response to these questions, points to failure of purpose of the Act. Whilst the operation of the Act enriched the individual States, the same cannot be said of the citizens whose hard earned earnings are turned over to the States to either obtain land allocations from the States or regularise their respective land holdings by the States, or perfect their titles, or defend their State land allocations from land grabbers, etc.

In some cases, State land allottees have to incur additional expenses of compensation and settlement of Omo-Oniles periodically.

These are some pitfalls of implementation of the Act. Amendment

to the Act, must address the main objective of the Act, which has been replaced by revenue drive. It should also focus on how land will actually be made easily available to all citizens, regardless of their State location.

There is no contradiction in the provisions of Section 1 of the LUA and Section 44(3) of the Constitution, as regards the vesting of all land in the State in the Governor of the State to hold in trust and vesting of the entire property in and control of all minerals, mineral oils and natural gas in, under or upon any land in Nigeria or in, under or upon the territorial waters and the exclusive economic zone of all Nigeria in the Government of the Federation for their management as may be prescribed by the National Assembly. Notwithstanding the Latin maxim; quic quid plantator solo solo cedit, by virtue of the provisions of Section 1(1)(3) of the Constitution, and Section 44(3) of the Constitution relating solely to proprietary interest in all minerals, mineral oils and natural gas in/on/under land and in/under/ upon territorial waters overrides the rights of the State Governors as holders/trustees of land within the States. Furthermore, this should not be construed as a contradiction, in view of the fact that Mines, Minerals, Oil Fields, Oil Mining, Geological Survey and Natural Gas are matters under the Exclusive legislative list of the Second Schedule to the Constitution.

Are you satisfied with the state of the Nigerian Judiciary, the way judicial officers are appointed etc?

Or what do you think can be done to improve this? Some have argued that part of the reason for the condition of the Judiciary, is the poor remuneration and allowances paid to judicial officers, which today, cannot attract the brightest and best. Another complaint is how slow the wheels of justice roll, also no thanks to the fact that Judges are taken from their already heavy dockets and are made to serve on Election Petition Tribunals, thereby leaving scores of cases of litigants to suffer delays. Kindly, share your views on this The Judiciary , like the economy and other aspects of the Nigerian society cont'd on page IX

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require significant reform. Members of the Body of Senior Advocates of Nigeria (“BOSAN”), have a Committee that is working on the reform of the Supreme Court. I am sure BOSAN will make positive impact through the reforms they will recommend.

Appointment of judicial officers, should be based solely on merit and qualification. This should be one of the ways, of bringing about reformation in the Judiciary. Another way is to look at the remuneration of the Bench and upgrade it to appropriate standard, bearing in mind that Judges and Justices as public servants cannot engage in any other business. Again, what is needed is not just adequate remuneration; the Court Rooms, Chambers and Court Premises must be secure, serene and conducive for judicial exercise. When a Judge/Justice closes from the Chambers, how does he get home safely? And where is home for him? How does he prepare for retirement, and have a retirement home? If the conditions of service of judicial officers were improved, that sector will attract more good Lawyers.

It would also improve the ease of delivery of justice. Judges are saddled with heavy case dockets not because they created the cases, and I am sure Judges would be relieved and happy if the wheels of justice moved faster.

However, the cases in court are instituted

by Lawyers; never by laymen. The solution to decongesting the courts of heavy case dockets lies with Lawyers who are working in-house in whatever capacity and practising Lawyers. It is the collective duty of all the senior and junior Lawyers at the Bar. Lawyers must always give their employers, colleagues and clients candid legal advice and solution oriented counselling. If a client has the benefit of good legal advice and is made aware of the consequences of committing infractions or engaging needless litigation, I am sure he/she is likely to have a change of heart and avoid litigation. On the part of the Judiciary, new suits should be scrutinised by an Admin Judge who would candidly identify frivolous claims, and dismiss them summarily. Should such a case be repackaged and re-filed again with the same frivolous claim, a heavy penal fine/cost should be imposed on the litigant and Counsel, who presented the case in Court.

In essence, if it could be identified at early stages that a case as presented at the Filing Registry or Process Section lacks substance, such a case should not be approved for listing on the cause list.

However, in engaging this procedure, the Admin Judge must bear in mind and balance the citizens’ rights to have their day in court, with the necessity of weeding out frivolous cases in a consistently transparent manner that mirrors integrity of the court system.

Furthermore, the courts through the judicial officers must actively and positively make the judicial system work and be seen to be working efficiently, without fear or favour. The courts must avoid any form of influence, but must be seen to be quick, fair and just.

There is nothing wrong in Judges and Justices, presiding over Election Petition Tribunals. Election Petitions are seasonal and time bound, so not much time or rather predictable time is spent at the Election Tribunal. Election matters are also cases, which must be determined by the Judiciary, so they

Mrs Olayemi Badewole, SAN

should not be seen as cause of delay in quick dispensation of justice.

Virtual court proceedings are gradually catching on and being conducted more in Nigeria. How can this improvement be made more entrenched in our legal system, so as to curb the endemic delays which have plagued our justice delivery system for many years? Are Nigerian Lawyers and Judges really prepared for it, especially as it has been revealed that many of our colleagues and Judicial Officers know nothing about technology, not even the basics, to the extent that they are not even computer literate?

Virtual Court proceeding, is a good innovation in our justice delivery system. For one, it helps to beat the traffic and saves mobility costs. However, I do not think that it would be suitable for all proceedings. I do not think it would curb endemic delays in justice delivery system, but where the litigants, Counsel and judicial staff are technology smart, the proceeding could be adapted for complex cases involving witnesses and Counsel in different locations.

What are your thoughts on the discipline of Lawyers in Nigeria, and how can the profession be better regulated to steer away from mediocrity and quacks?

The Rules of Professional Conduct for Legal Practitioners makes it the duty of every Lawyer, to report any breach of the rules which comes to his knowledge to the appropriate authorities for necessary disciplinary action. By this singular provision, every Lawyer is a policeman of his learned friends within and outside the courtroom. Discipline starts with self-discipline; thereafter, we should politely correct our professional colleagues when the occasion demands it, and not hesitate to report glaring professional misconduct that could tarnish the profession whenever such infraction comes to our knowledge.

In addition, clients who are victims of Lawyers’ professional misconduct

“The Judiciary , like the economy and other aspects of the Nigerian society require significant reform”

have the opportunity of seeking redress from the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee. More of this, including instituting civil actions to recover damages from Lawyers for professional misconduct should be encouraged, to maintain discipline in the profession.

Even with the coming into effect of the Violence Against Persons Act 2015, the reported incidents of violence against women is embarrassingly on the rise. How can this law be made more effective, and given more bite to ameliorate these shameful acts and abuse of women? In fact, domestic violence is generally on the rise, as there is also an increase in cases of women assaulting their husbands too. Just like the Gospel Singer, Osinachi Nwachukwu’s husband who was alleged to have regularly abused her, stands accused of murdering her, Maryam Sanda was convicted of murdering her husband, Bilyamin Bello. What are your views on this?

Promulgation of the Violence Against Persons Prohibition Act 2015! is a good development. The Act seeks to eliminate violence in private and public life, prohibit all forms of violence against persons and provide maximum protection and effective remedies for victims and punishment of offenders.

The Act inter-alia, focuses on investigation of allegations bordering on rape, infliction of injury, intimidation, forceful ejection from the home, spousal battery, emotional, verbal and psychological abuse, incest and similar offences. The fact that there are more reported cases of violence against women, shows increased awareness among women of their right to seek redress for violations which hitherto, were wrongly condoned by the society.

There should be a deliberate drive at educating the public on the import of the Act, and ensuring that reported cases are promptly prosecuted, determined and given wide publicity.

With regard to domestic violence in marriages, whenever a crime is committed, spousal relationship of the victim and accused should only be considered as a factor if it establishes opportunity to commit the crime. It should not add any sentiment, or exonerate the crime. The society should find a way to educate adults of marriageable age not to die or kill

for marriage, and that couples should learn to walk away anytime they see signs of domestic abuse.

As a Nigerian, what are your expectations of the Tinubu administration vis-à-vis fighting corruption, insecurity and getting the Nigerian economy on the road to recovery?

Is the administration on the right track?

My expectations are high, because I want Nigeria to change positively in my lifetime. The positive change cannot be driven by the administration going by our political history. All of us must consciously drive the change, determined that there must be a turn around. This is because the richest man or company in Nigeria today does not feel secure, and there is no guarantee for good health, structure, justice, food and even water. This is because corruption has adversely affected the supply of genuine products and services. It is a disincentive for both local and foreign investments, it is anti-development; both government and the governed must galvanise efforts to turn around Nigeria, by consistently pointing out the ills in the society which we want to change and how. If the government is not performing, we must point out what it failed to do and demand that it be done, giving time lines and repeating the demand until government shifts.

Nigerians must bear in mind that, in corruption, there are always two sides, the giver and receiver. The venom has degraded every aspect of our nation, including the institutions. We must all agree that, enough is enough. I do not see any reason why the Government would, as they say, be shopping for FDI. Money within Nigeria and monies currently held by Nigerians here and overseas, can turn Nigeria around. The anti-corruption agencies such as ICPC, EFCC, NPC should be strengthened with a crop of intelligent officials who must be insulated from politics, and their appointment based on proven integrity. Nigerians who are arrested for corrupt practices should also determine to cooperate, and make recovery of the funds and dispensation of justice easy.

Finally, Government officials should live by example. Time will tell if the administration is on the right track.

Thank you, Learned Silk.

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Background rise News online reported on 10 January, 2024, that the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) supplied Six million barrels of crude oil to the $20 billion Dangote Petroleum Refinery since December 2023, and will supply it four crude oil cargoes from its February 2024 programme. I commend and congratulate Alhaji Aliko Dangote, GCON, on the successful completion of Dangote Refinery (DR) and the NNPCL for supporting it. DR will have multiplier effects on the Nigerian economy, especially its shipping sector.

Matters Arising However, some matters arising, like the compliance with the Cabotage Act 2003 (“the Act”) and NNPCL’s and Dangote’s engagements of ships owned, crewed solely

by Nigerians, built and registered in Nigeria, or bare-boat chartered to, or in 60/40% joint venture with Nigerians, in the carriage of the crude oil to, and petroleum products from DR should be addressed. Pursuant to the Act, only vessels wholly owned and manned by Nigerian citizens, built and registered in Nigeria can engage in the transportation of the mineral resources (“coastal trade”) within the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) of Nigeria, which is 200 nautical miles from the baselines. Since the Agbami FPSO from where the crude oil supplied to DR was transported to DR is 70 nautical miles offshore Nigeria and within its EEZ, then the crude oil is cabotage within the meaning of that word in the Act. It has been reported that the large ‘Suez Max’ ships engaged in shipping the crude oil to DR are foreign-owned, because no Nigerian owns similar ships. Every foreigner must comply with the laws of the country, in which they does business. So, did the foreign owners of those ships meet the conditions for Ministerial waivers and priority for obtaining, or obtain such waivers, from the Honourable Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, before transporting the cargo to DR as stipulated in the Act? Did the ships meet the conditions to be registered for participation in coastal trade, or were they issued restricted licence by the Minister to participate in coastal trade? Under the Act, a surcharge of 2% of the contract sum performed by a vessel engaged in coastal trade is payable to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and SafetyAgency (“NIMASA”), to promote the development of indigenous ship acquisition capacity by providing financial assistance to Nigerian operators in the domestic coastal shipping. Did the shipowners pay to NIMASA, the 2% surcharge? If the vessels and their owners did not comply with these provisions of the Act, should the vessels and their owners not be prosecuted under the Act, and if found guilty, be penalised as any foreign country would have done to any Nigerian ship or owner that violates its laws?

Some Intentions of the Cabotage Act These are questions worth investigating by NIMASA and the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, and prosecuted by the Chief Law officer of the Federation, if proven. The lack of political will and determination to enforce the Act that, for years, had deprived Nigerian ship owners and operators of the Lawmakers’ intended benefits of the Act, to the detriment of the Nigerian economy and shipping sector, should now be stopped under the President Tinubu Government. It will save the Nigerian shipowners from extinction, and have multiplier effects on the Nigerian economy.

The Renewed Hope Agenda of President Tinubu recognises that, because of its size, Nigeria should be a significant maritime player and that its under-utilised waterways should be better used. The Act sees the local shipping industry as a strategic industry, which, being in its ‘infant’ stage of development and not dominating indigenous shipping operations, seafaring, and ship ownership; in the interest of Nigeria’s economy and national security, requires some guidance, conducive environment, and protection from foreign competition to be nurtured into maturity, and develop through its acquisition and building of necessary capacities to become sufficiently commercially viable. Thus, the industry will first become very strong in and dominate domestic shipping, before venturing into regional or international shipping where it can then withstand competition from the highly subsidised foreign ships.

Other effects of the Act intended by the legislature include cargo support, increased domestic tonnage, financial assistance for ship acquisition, capacity building in the manning, building and ownership of ships by Nigerians, protection of national interest during economic crisis, national emergency, defence and security, increased revenue and conservation of foreign earnings, economic boom, safe shipping and clean marine environment.

The availability of cabotage cargo, is essential to the acquisition and survival of ships by Nigerians. Nigerian shipping companies, will invest in the types of ships that available cabotage will require for its transportation. If their ‘Suez Max’ sized ships will be assured of being engaged to carry the crude and petroleum products to and from DR, Nigerian shipowners can either alone or in joint venture with foreigners on 60/40% basis as allowed by the Act, acquire such large ships. If they lack the capital to acquire

Mike Igbokwe, SAN

Shipping Crude Oil to and Petroleum Products from Dangote Refinery: Matters Arising The two articles by Learned Senior Advocate, Mike Igbokwe, bring us up to speed on the recent developments in the Nigerian Maritime space. The first article places emphasis on the need for NIMASA to do the needful, and ensure that the 2% surcharge mandated by the Cabotage Act is collected from foreign ship owners that carry this domestic cargo, now that cargoes have started to be delivered to the Dangote Refinery, in order to promote the development of indigenous ship acquisition capacity by providing financial assistance to Nigerian operators in the domestic coastal shipping, while the second article highlights the advantages of Order 2 of the newly enacted Admiralty Jurisdiction Procedure Rules 2023 such Suez Max ships, Nigerian shipping companies that have the NNPCL/DR crude and petroleum products contracts, can charter them on bareboat basis. The Cabotage Vessel Financing Fund created by the Act should be immediately disbursed to indigenous shipping companies, to enable them acquire ships. The Minister should not wait until the twilight of the Tinubu Administration before attempting to disburse the Fund, as was done in 2023 during the Buhari Administration. As charity begins at home, NNPCL as the crude supplier, and DR, as the products supplier, should encourage and support Nigerian shipowners by engaging them to carry such cabotage cargo, so they can grow. It is not enough to say that, Nigerians do not have the capacity to own or run such large ships. They can build such capacity, if given the opportunity to carry the cargo.

Related to the above matters is the old argument that Nigerian shipowners and their ships are not allowed to transport NNPCL’s crude oil to foreign nations, because of the trade terms of lifting NNPCL’s crude oil and P & I coverage. In my opinion, NNPCL and Nigerian shipowners and their associations, can negotiate and agree on mutually beneficial terms of carrying the crude oil within our coasts in the interest of Nigerian economy, its shipping industry and in support of the Renewed Hope Agenda.

Admiralty Jurisdiction Procedure Rules 2023: Innovation

Order 23 rule 3 of the Admiralty Jurisdiction Procedure Rules (“AJPR”) 2011 provided that, the Chief Judge shall designate the Divisions of the Court where the Registry shall be located. However, Order 2 rule 1 of the recent AJPR 2023, made by the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court (“the CJ”) states that the CJ shall establish Admiralty Divisions for the Court. Order 2 rule 2 of AJPR 2023, stipulates that the CJ shall designate

“Under the Act, a surcharge of 2% of the contract sum performed by a vessel engaged in coastal trade is payable to the Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency….If the vessels and their owners did not comply with these provisions of the Act, should the vessels and their owners not be prosecuted under the Act, and if found guilty, be penalised as any foreign country would have done to any Nigerian ship or owner that violates its laws?”

Judges as Admiralty Judges, while rule 3 of the same Order provides that the CJ shall issue directions to establish the Admiralty Registry of the Admiralty Division of the Court.

In interpreting statutes, where the word ‘shall’, has been used in a statute by a Lawmaker, it is regarded that the Lawmaker intends the power or duty to be mandatory and not discretionary. This is the first time since the first AJPR was enacted in Nigeria in 1993, that by the AJPR, the CJ will go beyond merely designating the Divisions of the Federal High Court (“FHC”) where Admiralty Registry shall be located, and make it mandatory for the CJ to establish Admiralty Divisions, designate Judges as Admiralty Judges, and establish the Admiralty Registry for the FHC. Advantages of the New Order 2 AJPR 2023 The Nigerian Maritime LawAssociation that prepared a draft copy of the AJPR 2023 for consideration and use by the CJ and Admiralty Practitioners, had for a long time been clamouring for the establishment of such Admiralty Divisions with Judges that are trained and/or experienced in Admiralty law as Admiralty Judges, to hear and determine Admiralty matters, and a strictly separate Admiralty Registry to serve them. This is to ensure quick and fair hearing and determination ofAdmiralty matters which universally require expeditious hearing and determination, due

to the huge commercial claims and assets (ship, cargo freight etc) they involve. It will also prevent designated Admiralty Judges from being seconded to Election Petition Tribunals as has often been the case, thereby stalling the quick and urgent conclusion of Admiralty matters that have been creating losses to parties and reducing resort to FHC for the determination of Admiralty matters.

With the use of the word ‘shall’ in Order 2 AJPR, 2023, the CJ has made it compulsory for him to establish Admiralty Divisions, designate Admiralty Judges and create a separate Admiralty Registry for the FHC, failing which he can be sued by any stakeholder to compel him to do so.

Kudos to the CJ, FHC I give kudos to the CJ for this great innovation, which will quicken Admiralty justice delivery in Nigeria. I believe that it will send good signals to foreign investors and foreigners, that Nigeria, (or indeed the FHC), is ready to expedite the resolution of maritime disputes, and that it is needless for them to be resorting to foreign jurisdiction clauses and anti-suit injunctions to prevent admiralty disputes/claims from being resolved/entertained by the FHC in Nigeria.

I also hope the Chief Justice of Nigeria as the Head of the Judiciary, will respect the rules and discourage the appointment as members of Election Petition Tribunals, any designated Admiralty Judge. Since the AJPR 2023 commenced on 18 May, 2023, I urge the CJ to quickly implement Order 2 of AJPR 2023.

Mike Igbokwe, SAN

Barnabas and Abigail Igwe: The Truth – cont'd from page V alive to corroborate every point. If Prof Odinkalu had considered it worth the while to mine for empirical facts, he could have reached out to any of them, or even to my humble self, who is only but a phone call away.

“It is unfortunate that mudslinging has become the order of the day in the same profession into which I was initated about five decades ago…..While I have restrained myself, as much as possible, from being personal in this rejoinder, which has been forced on me by Chidi, my thinking had always been that I had a chummy relationship with him, which, ordinarily, should have warranted him to, at least, put a call across to me to crosscheck, verify, ascertain or authenticate the veracity of his information or outcome of his conceived claim before reducing it to a winter fiction, saturated with very unfortunate insinuations…..”

“While I must not be misunderstood as suggesting that the Igwes got the justice that we all anticipated and assiduously worked towards, the point must be made that all of us, borrowing the words of John Pepper Clark, are “casualties” of the systemic inefficiencies that characterise every facet of our national polity - a polity to which Prof Odinkalu, beyond mere rhetoric, is not a stranger. After all, he sat atop the National Human Rights Commission as its Chairman, between 8th December,

2011 and 8th December, 2015. In that position, he had the mandate of investigating all cases of human rights violation (including those of the Igwes) and assisting victims of such violations. With all respect to him, I am not aware of any effort that he made, while he held sway, to address this grievous violation to the most sacred of all rights meted on the Igwes. Interestingly, on 6th May, 2022, he was appointed by the current Government of Anambra State to head the Truth, Justice and Peace Committee, whose charge includes, seeking a restorative justice approach for truth-telling or real facts for the healing of the victims of the violence in the State right from 1999. Beyond coronating Juliana and Vincent Igwe as his ‘Persons of the Year’, I consider this a unique opportunity for Prof Odinkalu to demonstrate his loyalty to the slain couple and their family, as well as to the course of justice, by stoically facing his present assignment, and ensuring, amongst others, a restorative justice for the Igwe family…..”

May the Almighty God continue to repose the elegant souls of Barnabas and Abigail Igwe.

Chief Wole Olanipekun, CFR, SAN, LL.D, D.LITT, FCIArb., FCIMC, FNIALS, NBA President (20022004)

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INTERVIEW Babatunde Fashola: We Managed Power Ministry with Progress, Energy Supply Predictability Each time shared or spent with former Minister of Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Raji Fashola, is almost equivalent to a session in any higher institution of learning. This is because quite often, the takeaways are both incalculable and worth the time given. In this encounter with Olawale Olaleye, Fashola, who is breaking off from active public service after 21 unbroken years, shares some of his untold stories, the usually misunderstood development issues, the obnoxious culture of owning negative statistics about Nigeria and projects into the foreseeable future. Excerpts:

I

t’s been a long time coming. From being Chief of Staff, governor, and later minister, you were in public service for about 21 unbroken years. Did you choose this break, or is it an accident you have to deal with?

Well, I don’t know what you mean by choosing a break. As a minister, I served at the pleasure of the president. And when the tenure of the president ends, the term of the minister automatically too is over.

But when you look at it, I think all the elements converged together: First, I had done 21 unbroken years in public service in a career I didn’t plan. It just happened overnight. 16th of August 2002, I resumed as Chief of Staff, from there I became governor, from there Minister and, the coincidence then was that I was now sixty years old.

So, if I had been a regular public officer, that was the year to go. It was also the year it turned 35 years after I left school. So, either way, by public service rule, it was just auspicious that my 21 years in service coincided with my 35 years out of school and also coincided with the 60th anniversary of my birth.

“The journey of leadership is perhaps similar to steps, rather than an elevator.

You cannot go from zero to 60 floors within seconds.

There are various steps by which you learn a lot of things.” helped to make me the kind of governor I became because I was already in that space. And that is instructive for leadership preparation. The journey of leadership is perhaps similar to steps, rather than an elevator. You cannot go from zero to 60 floors within seconds. There are various steps by which you learn a lot of things.

What are you currently doing with your time, which you seem to have plenty?

I have plenty of time to do one thing, which is to sleep, and I am getting about eight hours of sleep now, since August. I was never an early sleeper even when I was in active law practice, but since August 16, 2002, when I became a public servant, I was averaging three to four hours of sleep a day for the last 21 years.

That takes its toll on your body. I am sleeping a lot more and I am also learning to eat and enjoy food. Before now, food was just fuel. ‘Eat and move’.

Of course, I also have time to plan around sports, exercise, and recreation, and also reintegrate myself back into my old societies, clubs, social events, and family, especially my immediate family.

There was a perception – true or false – that BRF the governor was different from BRF the Minister. Do you agree, and what are the distinguishing elements?

Clearly, being a governor and being a minister of the republic are two different responsibilities.

On the one hand, a state like Lagos is only one out of 36, and when you become a minister you are responsible for all of the 36 states. So, it’s the responsibility of the state multiplied in 36 places.

So, it’s a larger responsibility.

Secondly, at the state level, you are the chief executive. As minister, you are not the chief executive of the government. You are the chief executive officer of your ministry. Even then, the accounting officer of the ministry is your Permanent Secretary.

And then you are subject to some layers of consent or authorisation and there is a larger diversity of people to deal with, which you must respect, and must accommodate to be successful. So, I don’t know

Looking back and knowing that your principal then is very street-smart, would you say he probably had you in mind or had penciled you in as one of the likely persons to succeed him?

There was no such thing on the radar. There was nothing. I wasn’t actively involved in his politics.

The person who should have succeeded him was Yemi Cardoso. Because we were all looking at a point and thinking that Yemi Cardoso was to run with him for a second term.

Fashola

“I alluded to how some people think the Ministry of Power overburdened me. A ministry of less than 1000 staff. That was mere policy making. There was nothing left of it. It was a shell.”

what those perceptions of the difference are but those are some of the dynamics of the difference between operation at the state and operation at the national level.

Talking about your days as governor, what did you think stood you out and earned you the sort of admiration you got from the people?

I don’t know what it is but the only thing I can say is that I took my job seriously and I worked with a team and many players in that team had their presence and character.

Whether it was our Commissioner for Finance or Budget, or Health, or Environment, Home Affairs and Culture or Sport or whatever, the Commissioners – each one of them – could have been governor and they had their presence.

But we worked as a team where we depended on each other and coordinated activities together. Perhaps, it was the presence of more leaders, rather than one leader that allowed us to reach many more hearts, if you like.

Taking into account how you came into office, you could pass for an accidental governor. How did you pick up so well and so fast, in the discharge of your duties?

I had been part of that government as Chief of Staff in the Governor’s Office. There were a lot of things I learned, closely working with a very hardworking governor at the time, Governor Tinubu, who also worked long hours at his work – worked us very hard.

So, that was a learning curve. I think it

Your first appointment as Minister landed you three huge ministries – all rolled into one.

This was a debate on its own and it also earned you the appellation: “Super Minister’’. But some people thought you were overloaded and as such, didn’t live up to expectations. Were you really overwhelmed?

When you look at, first of all, the fact that as a minister you are responsible for all 36 states, even if it was one ministry, that is enough work.

But that wasn’t the problem with the perception of the public, because we didn’t have sufficient understanding of the mechanics of governance.

What was left in the power ministry? Traditionally, the ministry of Works and that of Housing had always been largely run together, so, there was nothing special in those two being together – traditionally from Alhaji Femi Okunnu’s time. So, the question to ask is: ‘What was the mandate of the Power Ministry?’

The ministry of power before 2013, when the privatisation was completed, would have been a real overload, because it had over 50 thousand staff before privatisation. All of what are now DisCos, GenCos, and TCN, were all assets and staff of the Ministry of Power.

But by 2015, when I became Minister of Power, the assets had been privatised since 2013, the staff strength of the ministry reduced from over 50,000 to less than 1000 – seven hundred and seventy-six.

More importantly, people perhaps didn’t bother to read what the Power Sector Reform Act provided for. It provided that the minister was essentially a policy adviser. He no longer has responsibility for the generation, transmission, or distribution of electricity.

The Ministry had become a Policy Ministry, and the Minister’s role was largely policy formulation

XIII

THISDAY • TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024

interview

What People Call Politics is Interference or Overreaching of Roles because the agency that’s responsible for sanctioning and coordinating performance is the Regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Just like the CBN of the Banking sector, NCC in the TELECOMS and National Broadcasting Corporation in the broadcast industry. It was essentially a policy Ministry.

That’s why some of the first things I did was to write an Energy Mix Policy for the country, to write a Mini-Grid Policy for the country, and to write a couple of other policies for the Energy Sector. So there wasn’t overwork.

Of course, it was my interest to interface with the stakeholders in the sector. That led to me visiting about 28 power plants around the country . I visited all eleven headquarters of the DisCos and some of their Regional operations.

I visited the National Control Centre in Osogbo. I had regular monthly meetings with all the operators in the industry in Nigeria, just to understand what the challenges were, because even if I was to make policy recommendations, I needed to know what the operators, for whom the policy was going to be made, wanted.

I can say this now, whatever people may say, one thing you could not take away was that, in those four years that I managed the ministry, there was progress and predictability about energy supply.

Breaking down the ministries each, how would you rate performance in the two others: Works and Housing?

There is a housing project in Abuja that started around the same time I was a minister. It’s a private sector project. As I speak to you today, they haven’t finished it. But in that period, a government that was supposed to be ‘inefficient’, completed housing estates in 35 states under the National Housing Programme. We completed housing projects through the Federal Housing Authority, some of which were commissioned before I left. We financed housing and built houses and completed some through the Federal Mortgage Bank.

In total, the national housing programme delivered about five thousand housing units or thereabouts.

There were about six thousand housing units with the Federal Mortgage Bank, under the Ministerial Housing Programme. And I think to the extent that we delivered, it shows that the government could deliver housing at the federal level.

But my understanding was clear, that the bigger supply is going to be felt by what the state governments do. Because that’s where the control of land is. That’s where the need is greatest. Many of the states also delivered. And, if you want to see the full picture, you need to aggregate what the states and the federal government did to assess performance and impact. We are proud that some people got housing.

“… We just own all of the negative statistics. That’s not the environment in which to raise people. We just have to come out and say, this thing doesn’t make sense.” didn’t know that electricity had been privatised. So, they were still looking up to the federal government to give them electricity.

People don’t consciously see solar power as electricity. They are still looking for electricity on the grid. They don’t see generators as electricity and it’s important to take account of all of that and decide on which one we want to keep and which one we don’t want to keep.

Another objective is to invest in, perhaps, a generation younger than mine with a resolve to challenge some of the things that are said as if they were dogma, when in fact they have no intellectual, logical, or factual basis.

Fashola

You served under a president that many Nigerians welcomed into office with staggering goodwill but left almost accursed. How do you feel when they talk about him in such derisive sense?

Since 1999, I have observed that we seem to love our presidents most after they leave office and just when they are coming in, but not while they are on the job. Those are things that I think should be the subject of research.

And if we have become displeased with them by the time that they are leaving office, the time has come for us to look in the mirror and ask ourselves: what do we want from them? Are we asking them to give us what is the irresponsibility?

Are we assessing them fairly? And that is why I delivered a lecture titled: “What can the president do for me?”

Are you not worried that some members of this government that even the former president helped to install, are coming out to blame him for the woes of the country?

I think it has become traditionally African, perhaps, to find somebody to blame for a problem. And that’s the way I see it. So, I am not worried. I think that

“So, if I am not politically active, what do you call these?

Those are party appointments.

I don’t cross lines. Having been elected governor, I can’t go and take the work of the chairman of the party, which is their responsibility.”

some members of our team also blamed the previous administration for some of the challenges that we faced. And, I remember that President Buhari then consistently used to have President Jonathan over, while some lower members of his own administration were blaming Jonathan’s administration.

It just tells you that the presidents don’t share those beliefs. They see leadership as a continuum, and so they get on with it.

It is not news that you are not serving in this government because you had actually served a notice. Not just that, you also said you didn’t need a title to serve. Are you, therefore, serving in any capacity – advisory or otherwise?

Of course, service to one’s country is an immense privilege, and it takes many forms. I am doing what I think is right and sensible to do to support my country and our government in the way that works best for me.

Public service is a different kettle of fish and politics is an Island on its own. While you are arguably a good administrator, some people say you have consciously stayed away from politics.

Why is that?

What is consciously staying away from politics? When we were having the merger of the parties, the first meeting of governors, where the then merger was announced, I hosted it at Lagos House, Marina.

Also, I was head of strategy, appointed by the party in that merger process. I was head of manifesto drafting, later I was assigned responsibility for fundraising. So, if I am not politically active, what do you call these?

Those are party appointments. I don’t cross lines. Having been elected governor, I can’t go and take the work of the chairman of the party, which is their responsibility.

Some of the things that some people

consider as being politically active appear to me as interference or an overreaching of role. In other jurisdictions, you won’t see them going to take over the role of the party chairman. That’s not your job.

Anytime that my party has called me to come and do something, I have done it dutifully and happily. And, of course, some of the things that are described as politics, I don’t believe that they are politics.

So, I don’t lend my support to some of those things, because the undertaking of politics is a noble cause for societal improvement and development. Nobody can fairly say that I have not been politically active and supportive of the party.

Are you considering a return to practice as a lawyer, more so, being a Senior Advocate of Nigeria?

I am not considering anything now. But I haven’t ruled anything out. Right now, I am just resting and I am enjoying my rest.

Going back to law practice means going back to work. I have to get back in the mood to want to work.

As I have told you, I have lived on three to four hours of sleep daily for the past 21 years. This is just how many months of resting. I haven’t even integrated myself into society; I haven’t done one year yet.

Let’s have some ‘Nigerian Public Discourse’. What informed the writing of this book and what is it all about?

It is about many things. But I think that you will find that it intends to stimulate intellectual rigour, to our discussionsabout developmental issues. I alluded to how some people think the Ministry of Power overburdened me.

A ministry of less than 1000 staff. That was mere policymaking. There was nothing left of it. It was a shell. But people didn’t understand it that way. And of course, people

When you say ‘Nigerian public discourse’, how are the issues you are interrogating connected to the ordinary Nigerian?

Okay, so, let us look at the census for example.

How many are we? Some people say we are 210 million, 230 million. It’s just whatever numbers you put out. That can’t be a basis to plan. If the census figures are wrong, planning will be wrong! If planning is wrong, implementation will be sub-optimal. If the implementation is sub-optimal, quality of life will be sub-optimal. That is how it affects people.

If two people are coming to my house, and I go and prepare for twenty, I have taken resources from another place to prepare for a non-event. That’s a waste! If twenty people are going to come, and I assume only that there are two, and twenty come, that’s a shortage.

This applies to the number of schools, hospital beds, classrooms, desks and chairs, energy per capita, water supply per capita, and how many people need water. So, we need to have near-accurate figures.

Then, we set ourselves impossible tasks by our hyperbole,exaggerations, negative exaggerations.

Some say we have a 17 million housing deficit.

Do you know what one million is? So, how many millions are we going to build, before we can have sufficient housing? That is not a rational way to address housing. It looks impossible. So, when a nation begins to set impossible tasks, it is depressing.

It diminishes hope!

Then we say we are the poverty capital of the world, who says that? And we just own all of the negative statistics. That’s not the environment in which to raise people. We just have to come out and say, this thing doesn’t make sense. Not just because we want to say so, but because, as a matter of fact, it doesn’t make sense, compared to other jurisdictions.

Ultimately, what do you intend to achieve with the book at the end of the day?

The first is to promote intellectual rigour. If we think better, we will act better and will be in a better place. Also to destroy some of the hyperbole and myths that have gained almost legendary validation when there is no substance in them.

To debunk those things and hopefully inspire another generation after me to say, “No, this is not us. On the contrary, this is who we are. A better people, who can solve our problems because we know this is not factual” This is your first book. Are there more in the works, including perhaps, a memoir?

Well, what I can promise now is that there will be a sequel to this. A memoir is a further ‘down the road’ thing.

At over 60, what does the future hold for you?

There are so many things that I am thinking of doing. One, of course, is mentoring people. I have been involved in a couple of local and international speaking engagements, and there is a possibility for more of that to happen.

I might teach if I find what interests me, but it would be around governance and public service, policy. Part of the future is to be healthy and also be moderate in my disposition now and enjoy my space away from public service as much as I can.

XIV

TUESday, JANUARY 30, 2024 T H I S D AY

business/MOnEYGUIDE

EDIB to Finance $27.29bn Escravos Seaport Industrial Complex Gilbert Ekwugbe

The federal government’s quest for blue economy has received a major boost as EDIB International Limited of Hong Kong has expressed its willingness to spend $27.29 billion on the Escravos Seaport Industrial Complex (ESIC) project.

The project located in Escravos (Gbaramatu Island/ Omadino) Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta State is a development project to be implemented through a Joint Venture Partnership (JVP) with a Nigeria firm Mercury Maritime Concession Company Limited (MMCC).

EDIB International Limitrd through their consultancy Blue Dot Wealth Limited (BDW), headed by Mr Alexander Takpi-Young, a Director of BDW, EDIB International Limited is seeking government security over its $27.29 billion funding of the ESIC project.

EDIB International Limited is requesting that the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN) and the Local Government provide written confirmation of the Free Trade Zone (FTZ) in the country to provide security and confirmation of the project to be financed by EDIB International Limited.

The security sought after is as a result of the 50 years concession deal to Build, Own, Operate and Transfer (BOOT) the ESIC deep seaport project. On the part of the federal government of Nigeria, they will ensure that the financier’s $27.29 billion investment is returned with profit.

The concession deal term is to be increased to 99 years for the ESIC project to secure funding from EDIB International Limited.

Under the ESIC project deal, the ownership of ESIC deep seaport sub–project of ESIC will revert to FGN at the expiration of the 99 years concession period to be granted to MMCC. The Chairman of Mercury

Maritime Concession Company Limited (MMCC), Rear Admiral Andrew Omaolo Okoja (rtd), told the media that the decision

by EDIB International to finance ESIC project is consequent upon the November 2020 provisional approval granted by the Federal Ministry of Transportation (FMT) to MMCC to develop the ESIC project and the reviewed FMT confirmation letter of August 2023 by the ministry.

“The decision was also consequent upon the May 2022 Delta State Government (DTSG) approval to lease 31,000 hectares of land located at Escravos to MMCC to host the entire ESIC project. ESIC project commenced in 2019 and aims to develop 31,000 hectares of project land in Delta State into a Deep Seaport, Crude oil refinery, Gas Complex, Free Trade Zone/Industrial Park, Independent Power Plant (IPP), Airport, Nature Conservation Park, etc, “he said.

L-R: Executive Director, Vetiva Capital Management, Oyelade Eigbe; Vice President, Financial Market, AFEX, Oluwafunto Olasemo; MD ADSR, Dr Afolabi Olowookere and MD AFEX Investment Limited, Samirah Sam-Adebiyi at the unveiling of the AFEX Commodities Outlook in Lagos…recently

MARKET INDICATORS

Oyo PAN Seeks Makinde’s Intervention over N5Tax Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan The Poultry Association of Nigeria (PAN), Oyo State chapter, has called on Governor Seyi Makinde, to save the association and poultry farmers from impending peril.

The association in a statement by its Chairman, Elder Oyekunle Omidokun, and tagged, “Save Our Soul (SOS),” followed the directive issued by the state Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development that stipulates a mandatory payment of N5 per chicken slaughtered and processed in privately owned chicken processing plants across the state.

The statement read in part, “We appreciate the effort of His Excellency, Governor Seyi Makinde in ensuring that farmlands in Oyo State are secured and his continuous effort in ensuring food security

in the state and Nigeria as a whole, while aligning with the mandate of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, President Bola Tinubu, who has designed policies that will create and sustain food security by creation of agricultural hubs to increase food production and engage in value-added processing and other best modern practices that will minimize perennial conflicts, with the overall goal of ensuring that food is abundant and less costly. We also appreciate the free distribution of maize and ongoing soft loan to poultry farmers by theExecutive Governor.

“We poultry farmers are still faced with enormous challenges of scarcity and unavailability of raw materials. Where cost of doing business has tripled in the last one year and forcing many of our poultry farmers to abandon the business and the

country for greener pastures, we find it very discouraging to hear that this burden of tax is about to be introduced by the Oyo State Government.”

The association further explained that the quantum effect of the impending policy implies that poultry farmers in the state would be at a disadvantaged position in the poultry market space where other chicken processors operating in other states are not burdened with such tax.

“We only want to rear, slaughter and process our birds without added pressure. We are in the food processing space and should not be treated differently from other food producers and processors by charging fees of N5:00k for every unit of raw materials used. Live birds are our raw materials used in chicken processing plants, “Pan said.

MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS (MILLION NAIRA) November, 24

Money Supply (M3)

72,014,274.74

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

1,245,804.25

Money Supply (M2)

71,331,641.40

-- Quasi Money

45,146,611.59

-- Narrow Money (M1)

26,185,029.81

---- Currency Outside Banks

3,081,255.46

---- Demand Deposits

23,103,774.40

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

32,212,549.50

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

58,300,995.27

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

39,801,725.20

---- Credit to Government (Net)

32,511,333.17

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

59,737,156.08

--Other Assets Net

4,720,308.20

Reserve Money (Base Money

22,908,392.34

--Currency in Circulation --Banks Reserves --Special Intervention Reserves

3,347,716.33 19,560,676.02 0.00

Hantec Africa Pays $5m in Single Client Withdrawal Oluchi Chibuzor Hantec Africa Limited has revealed it has paid a Nigerian foreign exchange trader on its platform $5m in a single client withdrawal in Nigeria.

This, according to the firm, shows client profitability while trading with them as the widest spread brokerage company in the country with over 34 years of experience of existence.

Speaking with journalists in Lagos at one day FX trading seminar, the MD/CEO, Hantec Africa Limited, Mike Fowope,

said now was the best time to teach more people about the financial market and FX trading.

According to him, the event with the theme, ‘Financial Empowerment 1.0’, was to teach people on how to trade and become profitable on the Hantec Market trading platform.

He said Hantec Africa, as the oldest in the industry and in Nigeria, showed its strength over other brokers by paying a single client who placed a withdrawal of his money.

“In fact there is no broker in Nigeria that paid a single client

$5 million withdrawal, Hantec did. We have evidence in 2022 and it is verifiable . We paid over N2 billion and in fact the guy’s account has to be frozen. The guy came to our seminar in 2017 and brought in $5000 and in 18 months flipped into $6.5 million . He placed the withdrawal and we paid” he stated.

For the Executive Director, Strategy and Operations, Hantec Africa Limited, Adegboyega Shitu, more Nigerians must learn how to trade on hard currencies to reduce huge pressure on naira and its depreciation.

CrownTakaful Insurance Secures NAICOM’s Approval to Commence Operations Kayode Tokede Barely three months after the issuance of approval in principle by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM), the management of Crown Takaful Insurance Limited December 18, received the operating licence from the industry regulator authorizing the company to commence business for the benefits of

Nigerians nationwide.

As a modern concept of ethical insurance, Crown Takaful Insurance is entering the risk-underwriting market as a solution provider offering technology-powered and valueladen products and services in creative and modified packages designed to meet the needs of millions of uninsured Nigerians and raise the level of insurance inclusiveness to a new level.

Speaking on the operating license and the launch of the firm’s products and services, the company’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Nasir Abubakar Song, explained that flagging off the company’s operations could not have come at a better time than now when we live in a World grappling with economic uncertainties and unpredictable risks.

• Source - CBN

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

December 2024

Inter-Bank Call Rate

16.99

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

18.75

Treasury Bill Rate

8.93

Savings Deposit Rate

5.28

1 Month Deposit Rate

7.24

3 Months Deposit Rate

7.56

6 Months Deposit Rate

8.42

12 Months Deposit Rate

9.75

Prime Lending rate

14.17

Maximum Lending Rate

26.62

• Monetary Policy Rate - 13%

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE As At 24th JANUARY , 2024

The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $81.30 a barrel on Tuesday, compared with $79.70 the previous day, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations.

The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basrah Medium (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

T H I S D AY •TUESday, JANUARY 30, 2024

XV

mARKET NEWS

Wema Bank Declares 105% Increase in PBT to N30.46bn Kayode Tokede Wema Bank Plc, yesterday announced on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) its unaudited result and accounts for full year ended December 31, 2024 with N30.46billion profit before tax (PBT).

This is 105 per cent increase from N14.88billion profit before tax reported in full year ended December 31, 2022.

The reported N30.46 billion profit before tax surpassed the management’s N18 billion target for the 2023 financial year.

From the profit & loss figures, the lender declared N23.36billion profit after tax, representing an increase of 106 per cent from N111.35billion reported in 2022.

The growth recorded further strengthened Wema Bank’s

P R I C E S MaiN Board

F O R DEALS

position as one of Nigeria’s leading financial institutions, giving substance to its reputation for dominating the innovation sector.

Wema Bank declared gross earnings of N214.7billion, an increase of 61.36 per cent from N133.05billion in 2022, driven by N181.87 billion interest income in 2023 from N108.04billion in 2022.

The group announced

S E C U R I T I E S Market Price

quantity traded

N2.298trillion total assets, representing an increase of 63.23per cent from N1.41trillion reported in 2022.

The group in total assets is driven by 54per cent growth in loans and advances to customers from N521.43billion in 2022 to N802.36billion billion in 2023, while deposits from customers grew to N1.87triilliion in 2023, representing an increase of 60.21per cent from N1.17trillion

T R A D E D

value traded ( N )

MaiN Board

A S O F

in 2022.

While commenting on the third quarter ended September 30, 2023 results, the managing director/CEO, Wema Bank, Moruf Oseni in a statement said the lender has continued to raise the bar and reset the standards, maintaining a commendable trail of progress and success over the years.

“For a bank that has exceeded every expectation and remained

J A N UA RY DEALS

steadfast in its commitment to supporting the goals of its customers, this financial upturn is no surprise,” Oseni said.

He believed that as 2024 unfolds, exceptional breakthroughs and milestones lay in store for the financial giant.

The financial institution December 29, 2023 closed its 8,572,103,573 ordinary shares of N0.50 each at N4.66 per share rights Issue.

/ 2 9 / 2 4 Market Price

quantity traded

value traded ( N)

XVI

T H I S D AY • TUESday JANUARY 30, 2024

FEatures

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email: chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com, 07010510430

Scorecard for the Lagos T.H.E.M.E.S+ Development Agenda At the first edition of the Lagos West Senatorial District Town Hall Meeting in 2024 , Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu reeled out the scorecard of the achievements recorded by his administration through the T.H.E.M.E.S+ Development Agenda. Chiemelie Ezeobi reports that while infrastructure and healthcare, security were some of the top gains of the first four years, the state government has pledged to double its strides to propel the progress of the state

Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu; his deputy, Obafemi Hazmat; Lagos reps and royal fathers at the recently held People's Lagos Townhall Meeting for Lagos West

"W

e have not rested on our oars since you the good people of Lagos State gave us the mandate to oversee the affairs of the state for another four years. I often like to describe this second term as our season of doubling. We want to move twice as fast as we did in the first term, and accomplish twice as much. Of course, our T.H.E.M.E.S+ development agenda will continue to guide and propel all that we do for the progress and development of Lagos State."

Those were the words of Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State at the first edition of the Lagos Town Hall Meeting of the Lagos West Senatorial District held at Balmoral Convention Centre in Ikeja, Lagos, last week Thursday.

Acknowledging God for the unique privilege to render an account of stewardship to Lagosians since they, alongside his deputy, Dr. Obafemi Hamzat were sworn in for a second term in office, he said despite the tough and arduous journey that ended at the Supreme Court a few days ago, "it has become evident that God bestowed on us the grace to surmount all the challenges to a victory given by the popular mandate of Lagosians.

"As a government, our commitment to the well-being of citizens and growth of our state is resolute and unwavering. We remain dedicated to the successful implementation of pivotal projects".

Townhall Meetings as Fora for Account for Stewardship Earlier, in his welcome address, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr. Gbenga Omotoso, said the meeting was all part of the open-door policy of the administration of Mr. Governor, Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, and his ever-reliable deputy, Dr. Kadri Obafemi Hamzat.

"The philosophy of the Sanwo-Olu/Hamzat Administration is that for democracy to maintain its essence, the active involvement of the people in governance must be encouraged and, indeed, deliberately courted. This is because the citizens are the bedrock of democracy.

"It is, therefore, in furtherance of this principle that we are gathered here today to further promote our agenda of running an all-inclusive government through the instrumentality of the THEMES Plus Agenda – the six-pillar development plan of the administration."

Noting that while the Lagos West Senatorial District leads the way, other senatorial districts will also take their turns to engage the people and give account of stewardship, adding that it gives room to render accounts and assure their army of stakeholders and shareholders that despite any turbulence that they may have

experienced, the ship of state remains steady because it is in the hands of a tested captain, who will listen and take feedback for implementation.

Transport Infrastructure On transportation and its infrastructure, the governor said they have marched on with strides in the development of traffic infrastructure after the historic launch of commercial operations for the first phase of the Blue Line of our Lagos Rail Mass Transit.

He noted that work is already in progress to ensure that the second phase, which is the extension of the rail line from Mile 2 to Okokomaiko, is completed during the life of this administration.

Sanwo-Olu also revealed that within the next few months there will be the formal launch and commencement of operations of the much-anticipated Red Line, running between Oyingbo and Agbado, with stops in between at Iju, Agege, Ikeja, Oshodi, Mushin, and Yaba.

"In the last two months, we have commissioned the Ikeja, Yaba and Oyingbo Flyovers’ component of the Red Line project. These flyovers have been built to significantly reduce the risk of accidents and collisions between trains and vehicles. They will also resolve vehicular congestion and delays along the Red Line corridor, and allow free movement of traffic.

"The Opebi-Mende-Ojota Link Bridge and other arterial roads connecting the bridge will also be ready for commuters by the Second Quarter of this year. Upon completion of the link bridge, major traffic issues along the Opebi-Allen axis will be solved as alternative routes will be available for motorists travelling from Toyin Street, Allen Avenue, Ikeja and Maryland to Ojota enroute Lagos Island.

"It will also decongest traffic on Kudirat Abiola and Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way. We are improving traffic management

for a more exciting commuter experience in Lagos and we are making access to modern infrastructure seamless. " As a result of the ongoing construction of Opebi-Ojota-Mende bridge, over 100 Nigerian engineers are gainfully employed. Students from various universities, and members of the National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) are also on-site, learning practical aspects of their courses, such as Geology and Civil Engineering," he added.

Stressing that all these projects being undertaken by the government was conceived to either improve connectivity between our communities or to make our public transportation more seamless and efficient, adding that this year also, they will roll out electric buses for passenger operations, following the completion of proof of concept on the feasibility of non-combustible engines as substitute for fuel-powered vehicles.

"Also, in the first quarter of this year, we will take delivery of an additional 100 units of Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) buses from the Federal Government for deployment on defined routes. The goal is to raise the fleet to about 1,000 units before the end of 2024. Rest assured that Lagos is making steady progress in its zero-carbon programme with the objective of becoming an emission-neutral city by 2050.

"Our project financing plan for construction of the Fourth Mainland Bridge is being finalised.

When completed, the project will be one of the longest bridges in Africa, providing a muchneeded alternative to existing routes while also opening up new parts of the metropolis.

"Plans are also in top gear on the Lekki International Airport, which is expected to take pressure off the Muritala Muhammed International Airport. It will sit on 5,000 hectares of land in the fastest-growing industrial zone in West Africa today, and is expected to cater to about five million passengers annually, traveling within and outside Nigeria," he surmised.

He further added that they also inaugurated the 1.6km Babs Animashaun Road in Surulere, which was also reconstructed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, from a single lane to a dualised four-lane carriageway. The road, completed with two bridge components, will improve traffic connectivity and journey time from Surulere into neighbouring

I often like to describe this second term as our season of doubling. We want to move twice as fast as we did in the first term, and accomplish twice as much. Of course, our T.H.E.M.E.S+ development agenda will continue to guide and propel all that we do for the progress and development of Lagos State

Ikate and Orile areas.

Boost for Healthcare Harping on the dividends of healthcare, the governor said he recently joined the Chief of Staff to commission the three-storey, 80-bed Femi Gbajabiamila General Hospital sited at Iyun Road in Aralile Community, Surulere, adding that the hospital, which was handed over to the state government for operation, will complement existing healthcare facilities within Surulere and surrounding areas, while raising the capacity of the state’s medical services.

In the health sector, he said: "We are building the largest children hospital in West-Africa: Massey Street Hospital, and also a 500-bed Mental Health hospital in Ketu-Ejinrin Epe. Plans are also ongoing to establish a Medical University in collaboration with Federal Ministry of Health.

"The approval process is already underway and being fine-tuned with the National Universities Commission (NUC). The medical institution is anticipated churn out 1,500 personnel yearly to enhance capacity in medical services."

MSMEs, Social Protection and Poverty Alleviation There is no gainsaying that Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) are the backbone of any economy, contributing to economic development and prosperity in many ways, chief among which is job creation of employment opportunities for people.

Given the aforementioned, he said they have continued to encourage vocational and skills acquisition as a pragmatic approach to alleviating poverty and promoting financial sustainability.

"This administration will not hold back investment in these programmes, believing firmly that lifting people out of poverty and setting them on the path to prosperity is the cardinal objective of government.

"A few days ago, beneficiaries of the Micro Enterprise Support Initiative, mainly youths, were empowered at LTV Blue Roof in Agidingbi with various start-off equipment that will aid their trade. Our 18 vocational centres have graduated over 16,000 youths.

"The graduands took vocational training in 19 skill development centres across the five traditional divisions in Lagos. The course fees were borne by the state government. The initiative was targeted at empowering the grassroots, while giving young people an opportunity to discover their innate potential for economic independence.

NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

23

THI S DAY • Tuesday, January 30, 2024

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET

A S

A T

REPO

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Email oriarehu.eromosele@thisdaylive.com

08056356325

J a n u ar y

S & P INDEX

2 2 , 2 0 2 4

S & P INDEX

EXCHANGE RATE

OPR

11.25%

CALL

19.12%

INDEX LEVEL

611.31%

1/4 to daTE

-0.07%

N795.28/ 1 US DOLLAR*

OVERNIGHT

11.50%

1-MONTH

16.25%

1-DAY

0.03%

YEAR TO DATE

0.48%

*AS AT Monday, July 24, 2023

3-MONTH

15.75%

MONTH-TO-DATE

-0.7%

Report: LPG Prices Soar Higher Despite 7.5% VAT Removal, Customs Duty Waiver

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja In spite of the federal government’s decision to withdraw the 7.5 per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) to crash the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG), also known as cooking in November last year, the rates Nigerians buy the product failed to drop in December, THISDAY has found.

Latest data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) showed that while LPG prices were expected to fall last month due to the policy, the amount for refilling a 12.5 kilogramme cylinder, rose 12.31 per cent year-on-year and 3.18 per cent month-on-month, from November.

After several months of public outcry by consumers and retailers, the federal government had finally in November last year, decided to withdraw VAT and customs duty to ameliorate the hardship faced by citizens during the last Christmas celebrations.

Acknowledging the rising prices, a month before Christmas, the Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Ekperikpe Ekpo, said that prices were fast going beyond the reach of Nigerians, explaining that plans were on to reduce the price of gas.

“With the exponential increase in the price of LPG, there is the need for the federal government to intervene,” he stated. Generally,

gas prices have increased from less than N500 a kilogramme a few years ago to over N1,100 now.

Aside contradicting Nigeria’s ‘Decade of Gas’ initiative which seeks to ramp up cooking gas penetration nationwide, rising prices also push users to dirtier alternative sources like firewood.

In November, after removing VAT, the federal government said customs duty payments from cooking gas imports was also withdrawn in a letter written to several government agencies.

The memo was signed by the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun and addressed to the Special

Adviser to the President on Energy, the Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), the Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), among others.

But the aim of the VAT and customs duty withdrawal appeared not to have impacted much on prices, according to NBS data.

According to the information, the average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder of LPG increased by 2.79 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N4,828.18 recorded in November 2023 to N4,962.87 in December 2023.

On a year-on -year basis, this increased by 8.70 per cent from

N4,565.56 in December 2022. On state profile analysis, Adamawa recorded the highest average price for refilling, with N5,725.33, followed

by Jigawa with N5,686.88, and Lagos with N5,671.05.

On the other hand, Ebonyi recorded the lowest price with N4,071.43, followed by Imo and Abia with N4,088.24 and N4,155.88 respectively.

In addition, analysis by zone showed that the North-east recorded the highest average retail price for refilling a 5kg cylinder, with N5,256.61, followed by the North-west with N5,144.50, while the South-east recorded the lowest retail price with N4,155.59.

“Also, the average retail price for refilling a 12.5kg cylinder of liquefied petroleum gas increased by 3.18 per cent on a month-on-month basis from N11,155.15 in November 2023 to N11,510.16 in December 2023.

“On a year -on-year basis, the retail prices rose by 12.31 per cent from N10,248.97 in December 2022.

On state profile analysis, Cross River recorded the highest average retail price for the refilling of a 12.5kg cylinder, with N13,572.22, followed by Edo with N13,265.63 and Delta with N13,041.67,” the report stated.

NOTE: The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

S&P: In Spite of Multiple Delays, Dangote Refinery Vital to Nigerian Economy Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja S&P Global has said that despite many delays, the recent partial commencement of operations by Dangote refinery remains very critical to the growth of the Nigerian economy.

In an update on Nigeria, S&P also said the massive Dangote oil refinery, from its analysis, may not achieve full complement of its operations until somewhere around the middle of 2025.

The global firm, which provides

financial market research and intelligence, stated that the introduction of the Dangote refinery in Lagos can help Nigeria fulfil its potential by reducing a debilitating dependence on foreign refineries.

Nigeria is Africa’s top oil producer, but the report added that the country is forced to export almost all its crude because state-owned refineries have been shut down for repairs.

The Dangote refinery, with a capacity of 650,000 bpd, it said, should help to end Nigeria’s dependence on the cycle of crude

exports and petrol imports when it begins to operate in full.

What makes the plant even more sophisticated, S&P said, is that the Dangote crude distillation unit was designed to process 12 crudes simultaneously and is optimised for Nigerian crude grades.

“Aliko Dangote, Africa’s richest man, announced plans for the Dangote refinery in 2013. The original production cost was projected to be $9 billion, but the project ended up costing over $19 billion and suffering repeated delays.

Food

“On May 22, 2023, former Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari inaugurated the refinery.

Despite the launch, the refinery did not produce any oil products due to a lack of domestic crude feedstock. Finally, on December 7, 2023, a crude oil tanker called OTIS unloaded 950,000 barrels of Nigerian Agbami crude at Dangote’s offshore crude receiving terminal.

“In the same month, privately owned Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC), which owns a 20 per cent stake in the

Commodities

name of commodity

Size

State

Price

name of commodity

Rice

100kg

Abuja

N65,000 – N70,000

Sorghum

50kg

oyo

50kg

Plateau (Jos)

Price

refinery, agreed to supply 6 million barrels of crude oil as feedstock.

“While Aliko Dangote celebrated these deliveries in public statements, S&P Global analysts does not expect that the refinery will reach full operating capacity until mid-2025, with further delays still possible,” the update added.

It explained that recent Nigerian economic data points to continued headwinds for the private sector, explaining that a renewed downturn in the fourth quarter of 2023 halted a period of recovery following the

cash crisis at the start of the year.

“Demand is waning, and a survey of firms in June 2023 attributed higher prices to fuel costs. Reports of higher fuel prices remained well above average levels into the final quarter of 2023. S&P Global Market Intelligence forecasts that consumer price inflation in Nigeria will average 24.3 per cent in 2023 and remain elevated at 18.5 per cent in 2024.

NOTE: The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

T o d ay

State

Price

name of commodity

Size

State

Price

100kg JIGAWA

N30,000

B EAN S

N50,000 – N60,000

Benue

N32,000

Maidu guri

N22,000 – N30,000

100kg

50kg bag

N50,500 – N60,000

100kg

Kaduna

N32,000

100kg Lagos

N36,000

50kg

kwara N24,000–N27,000

50kg

Enugu

N24,000

100kg

Kano

N35,000

50kg

Lagos

N60,000 – N70,000

50kg

Lagos

N26,000

50kg

rivers N50,500 – N60,500

Delta

N36,000

Delta

N35,000

100kg

100kg

50kg

sokoto

N60,000 – N70,000

100kg

Abia

N36,000

100kg

Abia

N35,700

Size

24

Tuesday, January 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

News

L-R: Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola; Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS), Bashir Adewale Adeniyi; Managing Director, Nigerian Ports Authority (NPA), Mohammed Bello-Koko and Director General, Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA), Dr Bashir Jamoh, during the International Customs Day Celebration in Lagos… recently

Nigeria Tops as Africa’s Electricity Use Per Capita Remains Stagnant for 30 Years Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The International Energy Agency

(IEA) has said that while electricity use per capita in India and Southeast Asia is rapidly

rising, it has been effectively stagnant in Africa for more than three decades.

Per capita consumption in Africa in a new report titled: “Electricity 2024,” showed even

declined in recent years as the population grew faster than electricity supply was made available.

“We only expect it to recover to its 2010-15 levels by the end of 2026 at the earliest, ”the report stated.

Thirty years ago, the IEA stated, a person in Africa consumed more electricity on average than someone living in India or Southeast Asia.

However, strong increases in electricity demand and supply in India and Southeast Asia in recent decades – which have gone hand in hand with a boom in economic development, the agency said, have transformed these regions at a spectacular pace.

“Meanwhile, Africa’s per capita electricity consumption in 2023 was half that of India and 70 per

AFEX Predicts Rising Food Commodity Prices in 2024 Gilbert Ekugbe The AFEX 2024 commodities outlook has predicted a consistent rise in the prices of domestic commodity prices in 2024.

It also projected that key export commodities like cocoa and sorghum would rise by 50 per cent and 20 per cent respectively due to declining production while key consumers’ commodities like maize and paddy rice were projected to rise by 25 per cent and 40 per cent respectively, despite a 4.0 per cent increase projection on production

of paddy rice.

The Vice President of AFEX for Financial Markets, Ms. Oluwafunto Olasemo, identified food inflation as one of the major drivers of inflation in Nigeria and advised the present administration to intensify efforts at combating post-harvest losses, which is responsible for over 50 per cent food losses in the country.

Olasemo said: “The purpose of the outlook is to provide information to the market as to the direction that these prices would go both from a global and local perspective while also putting in context the events

around the world that could have an impact on the prices of these commodities.

“Food inflation will continue to be high which invariably impact headline inflation, but looking at the position of the present administration in terms of placing high priority on agriculture and how to drive value in that space, I believe that the government is going to put a lot of resources to manage and bring food inflation on a downward trend.”

According to her, to curb food inflation, Nigeria has to increase its level of productivity to meet the ever

increasing net demand for staple commodities in order to curb food inflation.

“We are at a supply deficit meaning that if nothing is done to close that gap of supply deficit, food prices will continue to skyrocket.

There will always be pressure on food prices, so to address food inflation, there has to be a deliberate effort to addressing the key issues affecting productivity such as post-harvest losses where 40 to 50 per cent of food produced are lost affecting the volume available in the market, ”she said.

cent lower than in Southeast Asia.

Our forecast for Africa for the 2024-26 period anticipates average annual growth in total electricity demand of 4 per cent, double the mean growth rate observed between 2017 and 2023.

“Two-thirds of this growth in demand is set to be met by expanding renewables, with the remainder covered mostly by natural gas,” the Fatih Birol-led organisation stated.

The report saw Nigeria ranking top among the countries with major power shortages last year, along with Pakistan and Kenya.

It stated that insufficient power capacity, fuel supply challenges, and grid-related technical issues continued to cause significant power shortages in many regions across the globe.

United States Commits $9.5m to Drive Food Production in Africa Agric Ministry, NASENI Partner to Boost Food Security

Gilbert Ekugbe

The United States of America has committed a new grant of $9.5 million to support the Africa Development Bank’s (AfDB’s) Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) initiative (TAAT).

According to a statement obtained from AfDB’s website, the grant is a part of the larger US Government’s “Feed the Future” global hunger initiative that would be used for the second phase of the bank’s programme called TAAT II,

to help African countries increase food production, introduce climatesmart technologies and expand extension services.

Commending the US’s government for its support to the bank’s key agricultural initiatives, AfDB’s President, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, said during a visit by the United State Secretary of State, Mr. Anthony Blinken, in Abidjan at a pan-African centre of excellence for rice research, development, and capacity building that implements Bank agricultural programmes.

Adesina said: “I applaud the

work President Biden is doing for global food security. I am delighted with the partnership we have with the US Government to help us move forward on food security in Africa.”

He added that to date, TAAT has deployed climate-resilient agricultural technologies and fertilizers to 13 million African farmers in 40 African countries to help boost the continent’s food production and food security.

Responding, the United States Secretary of State, Mr. Antony Blinken, praised the AfDB for the

exceptional efforts it is undertaking to help Africa feed itself and the rest of the world.

Blinken said: “Extraordinary work is being done to get to a place where Africa feeds itself and a place where Africa feeds the world. I’m convinced that can happen.”

TAAT aims to double the productivity of staple crops, livestock, and fisheries, by making proven technologies available to more than 40 million agricultural producers by 2025. This will produce an additional 120 million tons of food.

IITA, NRCRI Unveils New Yam Variety for Nigerian Farmers Gilbert Ekugbe The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) have unveiled a new high-yield yam variety for Nigerian farmers in the new farming season.

The launch was made at the 33rd meeting of the National Committee on Naming, Registration, and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breed/ Fisheries held in Ibadan.

IITA said the new yam variety,

UMUDr36-SharpSharp is White Guinea yams (D. rotundata) variety, and pointed out that the new varieties originated from IITA and were released to farmers through NRCRI, Umudike.

According to IITA, the UMUDr36SharpSharp was released because of its remarkable attributes: early maturity, high yield, high flour production, and good boiling and pounding capabilities.

“In yams, drought stress in the late growing season impacts

yield significantly, so introducing early-maturing varieties is expected to help stabilize farmers’ income.

The noteworthy point of the new variety is its high potential yield of 33 t/ha, despite its earlier maturity period of 180-210 days compared to the varieties released last year (UMUDr33 and UMUDr34) with a maturity period of 230-270 days in Nigeria.

“As farmers introduce earlymaturity varieties, they can expect to implement yam production that is

Food name of commodity

Palm oiL

less susceptible to drought stress in the late growing season. The variety possesses some morphological characteristics, such as a green cordate leaf, vigorous and cylindrical tuber, intermediate tuber skin, and creamy white tuber flesh without oxidization. The following nutrients were identified as present in the variety: protein 1.44 per cent, fat 0.29 per cent, crude fiber 2.0 per cent, amylose 31.29 per cent, sugar 4.1 per cent, phytate 1.44 per cent, and CHO 88.2 per cent,” IITA said.

C o m m o diti e s

Size

State

Price

name of commodity

Size

Location

Price

100KG Kano

N20,500

ONIONS

100kg

Ibadan

N60,000

MAIZE

100kg

Oyo

N10,000

N24,000 – N35,000

100KG Benue

N27,000

100kg KANO

N30,000

100kg Enugu

N16,500

25cl Ibadan N22,000 — N35,000

100KG Lagos

N32,000

100kg BENUE

N65,000

100kg delta

N14,000

N45,000

Abia

N11,000

100KG Delta

N34,000

100kg

N24,000 – N36,500

100kg Plateau

IMO

100kg DELTA

N50,000

50kg

Lagos

N9,000

Edo

N20,000 – N35,000

100KG

Abia

N27,000

100kg LAGOS

N60,000

100kg Kano

N9,400

100KG Enugu

N23 000

100kg ENUGU

N45,000

50kg

N6,000

Price

25cl Lagos N20,000-N35000 25cl

25cl 25cl

PH

25cl Abuja N25,500 – N35,000

State

Groundnut

T o day

Price

State

Size

P r ic e

The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security and the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) have strengthened their partnership aimed at boosting food security in the country.

The partnership was cemented through an inaugurated committee set up by both agencies to fast track the adoption of new technologies in their quest to boost food production for local consumption as well as export.

Speaking during the inauguration, the Permanent Secretary of FMAFS, Mr. Temitope Peter Fashedemi, stated that strengthening collaboration and partnership between the ministry and NASENI is timely bearing in mind that the modern world is driven by the application of innovation and technology.

Fashedemi noted that the adoption and application of technology in the agricultural sector practices would guarantee the desire of the present administration of achieving food security, job creation, and industrialisation across the country.

He pointed out that the National Agriculture Technology and Innovation (2022-2027) is premised on 10 thematic areas, including stakeholders’ synergy and alignment, knowledge creation and transfer, rapid mechanisation, agricultural development fund establishment, extension service delivery revitalisation and livestock development.

Responding on behalf of the committee, the Director, Federal Department of Agriculture in the Ministry, Mr. Garba Abdullahi, pledged that the committee would work assiduously to achieve its mandate geared towards achieving food and nutrition security.

The committee was charged with examining the programs and projects of the relevant FMAFS’ departments and agricultural research institutes and relevant parastatals as regards the following NASENI specified areas of collaboration: technology transfer, rice storage project (waste to recycle for building materials), assembling of farm implements, spell–out the respective roles, responsibilities and benefits of the parties across the collaboration areas, among others.

name of commodity

Size

name of commodity

Gilbert Ekugbe

Benue

25

T H I S D AY • Tuesday, January 30, 2024

BUSINESSWORLD

Industry

Fostering Job Creation through Manufacturing Africa Initiative The Collaboration between McKinsey and the UK International Development has attracted over $800m FDI within four years, enabling African manufacturers to create sustainable jobs for Africa’s surging population, writes Dike Onwuamaeze

C

ould the manufacturing sector create enough jobs for the anticipated surge in Africa’s population by 2050? For the panelists that participated recently in the McKinsey’s Talk Operations on Manufacturing Africa initiative, the answer is yes. The panelists were made up of the Managing Director of LADOL Free Zone, Lagos, Dr. Amy Jadesimi; McKinsey Partner, Mr. David Meredith and McKinsey Alumnus, Kannan Lakmeeharan. According to them, the manufacturing sector could provide the needed jobs if it is developed in a strategic and resilient way. The believed that a competitive manufacturing sector in the continent could play a pivotal role in helping Africa reach its full potential in the global economy.

These panelists explored the transformative capacity of manufacturing, as well as the initiative’s objectives and its current impact.

Additionally, they highlighted the crucial role of production in Africa’s growth and development and the paramount importance of sustainable job creation.

In addition, there discussion centered on the opportunities the manufacturing sector could offer, what Manufacturing Africa entails, and how some of the trends in manufacturing are impacting this emerging market.

Manufacturing Africa is a program that is funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office of United Kingdom and supported by McKinsey. Its primary goal is to increase foreign-direct-investment (FDI) flows into the manufacturing sector in Africa, with a particular focus on green manufacturing.

Lakmeeharan revealed that the initiative, which started in late 2019, have supported over 126 real transactions across six countries, and over 25 have already closed. That means they’ve actually attracted investment and in some cases even completed building whatever they needed to build—the investments into equipment.

‘This has resulted in over $800 million of foreign direct investment in the sector and in those transactions already over 14,000 jobs (direct and indirect jobs without counting the value chain jobs).

“And when you look at all the transactions that we think are likely to close, we’ll hopefully hit over 100,000 jobs created without looking at the supply chain effect. So this is already the impact,” he said.

investment opportunities

According to Meredith, the initiative aim is to identify a pipeline of potential investment opportunities, where FDI could play a role.

It provides transaction facilitation to make those opportunities more investable and then creates opportunities for those investments.

So far, we’ve seen quite significant FDI flows into manufacturing off the back of that and a really significant increase in the jobs available.”

He added that McKinsey’s work primarily involves financial analysis, including modeling, marketing, business planning, and technical assistance—all necessary to make these opportunities investable.

Meredith pointed out that manufacturing has typically been the cornerstone of the economic transformation of countries and bedrock of a growing economy. It boosts productivity, unlocks economic growth, and creates jobs.

“When you look at the demographics in Africa, you see that the growing labor force will need something like 18 million new jobs a year to absorb that growth up until 2035.

And so, manufacturing will have to be a core part of ensuring that we have sustainable economies in Africa, and that will be a core part of ensuring that we have prosperity in Africa.”

Jadesimi said that LADOL is contributing to sustainable job creation by putting in place critical infrastructure that would have multiplier effect on job creation and the promotion of sustainable industrialisation.

She said: “We are a sustainable industrial special economic zone that plans to be net zero by 2035, and we started developing the zone out of an unused swamp, which was in the harbor and set aside for future development.

Within the zone, we built the entire usual terminal infrastructure like quaysides and warehouses. We undertake much specialised services that effectively enable industrialisation,

by carrying out aspects of the value chain that have never previously been done in other countries. For example, being able to do very heavy lifts and enabling work to happen 24/7 in a secure ecosystem where activities are uninterrupted.

“And the thing is: if you can support the most complex, challenging aspects of an industrial process in-country, then everything downstream of that happens automatically because it is advantageous to carry out all the activities downstream of that in-country. And this is not a new concept. Wealthy countries worldwide developed by having critical infrastructure like that built, which has a multiplier effect on job creation. So for every one job, five to 15 jobs are created as a result of that new role.

“In some ways, LADOL is an operator.

We operate the zone, and we operate the logistics and storage and heavy-lift activities in the zone. We’re also a platform to enable other people to operate inside this sustainable ecosystem that we’ve developed.”

Manufacturing Africa

Jadesimi said that the Manufacturing Africa is interested at the whole gamut of what LADOL is doing as a developer and an operator to its role as developer and supporter of a whole range of companies in a wide range of industries.

“And therefore, they support us in terms of defining and refining what we do to manage the zone, what we do to manage our own business, and how we can use our platform to serve a range of manufacturing companies, small and large.

“And the idea is for international companies to be able to come and operate close to one of the largest growing markets in the world: the West African market. And they’re doing so in an ecosystem that has all the financial benefits and all the regulatory benefits of being in any other free zone in the world, as well as the workforce, the know-how, that LADOL brings to the table.

“It’s also really important that the operations in LADOL are sustainable.

Sustainability to us is defined as the UN’s 17 Sustainable Development Goals.

And so, we have those goals embedded in our policies and procedures and our ISO (International Organisation for Standardisation) standards that we’ve achieved.

“And that is critical, because in lowincome, high-growth countries like Nigeria, we have the opportunity to develop sustainable industries. And a big part of doing that is having a strong transition strategy. Leveraging our commodity export businesses to finance the development of infrastructure, facilities, or equipment enables us to support a wide range of industries and manufacture not only locally but also sustainably.

“And the last thing is that this drive for sustainability is driven by the reality that sustainable businesses are more profitable businesses in the medium to long term. So we are not about sustainability because it is a gimmick or because it looks good or even because it is a good way of fundraising.

We are about sustainability because it is

the smartest, most effective, most profitable business strategy.”

She said that the important way to ensure that sustainable industrialisation is taking place is to recognise tha what is being funded is not net zero today but a transition strategy toward net zero tomorrow.

“What that means practically is that organisations like Manufacturing Africa can help to codify, benchmark, and validate people’s transition strategies to demonstrate how they are using the revenues they’re getting today to fund growth.

“It is hard to borrow money in Africa, unless it is clear and guaranteed that you are going to be able to pay it back. And most of the really big projects around that have to do with commodity exports.

“But there are companies out there that can demonstrate that they are using those revenues to invest into infrastructure and facilities that will transition them completely away from dependence on raw-commodity exports to a net-zero future. That is essential to enabling us to see sustainable industrialisation across the continent.”

Manufacturing and Africa’s Prosperity

Lakmeeharan agreed that manufacturing is critical to the prosperity of the African continent and advised that it is important that Africa should choose what to leverage on. “If you focus on primary goods, what can you do with them? How can you process them? There’s an element of import substitution for some of our critical needs, and we’ve identified potential areas in the countries where we work.”

He emphasized that digital and analytics are important in making manufacturing more efficient, safer, and more effective, learning from other countries but also leveraging digital and analytics to reduce the cost of the product or good and make it more affordable in a market where income levels might be lower—the affordability levels are low. So how do you get a minimum viable product that meets needs?

He also identified the shift toward electric vehicles as an area where digital and analytics technology could help get the product out to the consumers.

“Electric vehicles are one great example, as we’re looking at electric two-wheelers.

We’re also looking at the use of digital in health tech products, the use of digital and analytics in agro-processing, and getting goods to market and goods from producers. In all of these types of use cases, we’ve supported over 120 transactions now, and we’ve seen some interest in choices and

opportunities for the deployment of digital and analytics.

“What we’re learning is that you can focus on what’s really needed in different parts of the value chain. And in Africa, we really have the individuals or the capabilities to do that with some training. So we can fast-track capability building in a way that’s a leapfrogging opportunity and focus on what is really needed in parts of the value chain. And we’ve seen examples of that already.

We’ve also got to shift from just looking at qualifications to looking at capacity and capabilities to learn and deploy certain skills.”

Jadesimi acknowledged that Nigeria is inundated with people who are functionally numerate but might not have had the best educational opportunities and best work experience. Therefore, the “main thing we have to do is put a structure in place so that when someone gets in, they can effectively hit the ground running. And then what we find is that the learning rate is really quick, the uptake is really quick, and very soon you start to see staff training each other.”

Jadesimi: What I’m looking at in terms of my role as managing director of LADOL is solidifying the base we’ve built in the zone with revenues coming in from our specialized logistics business, working with our local and international partners in the zone, and then leveraging the significant operations we have ongoing in the zone to expand away from our commodities business into agricultural processing and green technology. And on that side of the business, we are leveraging our master plan.

Our master plan has at its core a circular economy. And bringing in agriculturalprocessing companies, for example, will enable us to use biomass for power, which will bring us closer to net zero by 2035. But the key is to also demonstrate that this is a blueprint that can be used for sustainable development across the continent of Africa and to remind people that sustainability equals profitability by demonstrating that on the ground.

26

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager.

Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return.

An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg.

Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange.

GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 26Jan-2024, unless otherwise stated.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors.

Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return.

NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS

AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 370.06 370.06 19.42% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 10.43% Nigeria International Debt Fund 331.68 331.68 1.49% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 108.27 108.27 0.49% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 13.11% AIICO Balanced Fund 5.69 5.78 12.26% ANCHORIA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@anchoriaam.com Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 0.00% Anchoria Equity Fund 251.00 253.94 29.65% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 1.31 1.31 2.12% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com info@anchoriaam.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 39.49 40.68 29.28% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 789.64 813.45 19.20% ARM Ethical Fund 63.85 65.78 17.10% ARM Eurobond Fund ($) 1.11 1.11 3.11% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.10 1.10 21.14% ARM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 10.10% ARM Short Term Bond Fund 1.01 1.01 8.86% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com; Tel 08069294653 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 107.08 107.08 788.00% AVA GAM Fixed Income Naira Fund 1,171.49 1,171.49 994.00% AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund N/A N/A N/A AXA Mansard Money Market Fund CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 2.25 2.25 10.61% CEAT Fixed Income Fund 3.71 3.81 286.38% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 1.02 1.02 8.41% CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapelhill Denham Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Paramount Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A Women's Investment Fund N/A N/A N/A CHD Nigeria Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A CHD Nigeria Dollar Income Fund N/A N/A N/A CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 10.02% Cordros Milestone Fund 186.51 187.93 7.86% Cordros Fixed Income Fund 108.29 108.29 7.65% Cordros Halal Fixed Income Fund 110.02 110.02 8.13% Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 114.91 114.91 6.17% CORONATION ASSETS MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com, Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 9.47% Coronation Balanced Fund 1.74 1.75 13.42% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.42 1.42 -206.59% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class A N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund Class B N/A N/A N/A EDC Nigeria Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A EMERGING AFRICA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmanagement@emergingafricafroup.com Web:www.emergingafricagroup.com/emerging-africa-asset-management-limited/, Tel: 08039492594 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Emerging Africa Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 13.09% Emerging Africa Bond Fund 1.11 1.11 2.82% Emerging Africa Balanced Diversity Fund 1.47 1.49 12.83% Emerging Africa Eurobond Fund 107.89 107.89 1.58% FBNQUEST ASSETS MANAGEMENT LIMITED invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FBN Bond Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Halal Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Dollar Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Smart Beta Equity Fund N/A N/A N/A FBN Specialized Dollar Fund N/A N/A N/A FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED fcmbamhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Legacy Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 8.08% Legacy Debt Fund 3.59 3.59 3.54% Legacy Equity Fund 3.60 3.68 30.10% Legacy USD Bond Fund 1.33 1.33 4.47% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral Balanced Fund 6,446.87 6,497.59 160.38% Coral Income Fund 4,021.64 4,021.64 8.08% Coral Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 11.81% FSDH Dollar Fund 1.20 1.20 0.00%

GUARANTY TRUST FUND MANAGERS LIMITED enquiries@investment-one.com Web: www.gtcoplc.bank; Tel: +234 812 992 1045,+234 1 448 8888 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Guaranty Trust Money Market Fund N/A N/A N/A Guaranty Trust Balanced Fund N/A N/A N/A Vantage Guaranteed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A Guaranty Trust Equity Income Fund (VEIF) N/A N/A N/A Vantage Dollar Fund (VDF) - June Year End N/A N/A N/A LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Lotus Halal Investment Fund 1.95 1.99 105.92% Lotus Halal Fixed Income Fund 1,201.66 1,201.66 -16.05% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: www.meristemwealth.com/funds/; Tel: +2348028496012 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 21.45 21.62 16.78% Meristem Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 11.94% NORRENBERGER INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED enquiries@norrenberger.com Web: www.norrenberger.com, Tel: +234 (0) 908 781 2026 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Norrenberger Islamic Fund (NIF) N/A N/A N/A Norrenberger Money Market Fund (NMMF) N/A N/A N/A Norrenberger Dollar Fund (NDF) ($) N/A N/A N/A PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 2.55 2.59 9.70% PACAM Fixed Income Fund 12.22 12.47 7.78% PACAM Money Market Fund 10.00 10.00 0.00% PACAM Equity Fund 2.75 2.78 27.49% PACAM EuroBond Fund 132.68 135.95 0.59% SCM CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SCM Capital The Frontier Fund N/A N/A N/A SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund N/A N/A N/A STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund 5,775.07 5,825.06 15.99% Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund 256.76 256.76 4.95% Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund 2.47 2.50 20.05% Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund 356.12 356.38 0.82% Stanbic IBTC Iman Fund 481.97 487.63 27.73% Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 11.23% Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund 22,011.14 22,277.14 21.34% Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) 1.47 1.47 7.69% Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund 128.93 128.93 6.69% Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund 126.88 126.88 10.28% Stanbic IBTC Absolute Fund 5,048.59 5,048.59 9.95% Stanbic IBTC Aggressive Fund 6,558.18 6,639.90 21.89% Stanbic IBTC Conservative Fund 5,775.35 5,806.31 9.31% UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD unitedcapitalplcgroup.com Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn United Capital Equity Fund 1.76 1.78 29.39% United Capital Balanced Fund 2.14 2.15 15.54% United Capital Wealth for Women Fund 1.73 1.75 21.85% United Capital Sukuk Fund 1.19 1.19 9.31% United Capital Fixed Income Fund 1.96 1.96 7.14% United Capital Eurobond Fund 124.79 124.79 5.30% United Capital Global Fixed Income Fund 1.09 1.09 9.73% United Capital Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 10.86% Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Zenith Balanced Strategy Fund 21.62 21.90 17.30% Zenith ESG Impact Fund 24.10 24.33 10.63% Zenith Income Fund 25.51 25.51 0.68% Zenith Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 11.61% VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD funds@vetiva.com Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund 10.02 10.12 1.41% Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund 14.46 14.56 0.07% Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund 37.87 38.07 0.58% Vetiva Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 10.51% Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund 53.18 53.38 -0.11% Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund 147.83 149.83 3.05%

REITS

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

N/A 59.99 101.79 11.31

N/A 0.27%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

31.47 900.00 950.00 25.50 44.17

34.78 900.00 950.00 25.90 44.64

140.10% 80.00% 32.50% 8.52% 17.23%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

N/A

N/A

Fund Name

SFS REIT Union Homes REIT Nigeria Real Estate Investment Trust UPDC REIT

EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS

Fund Name Lotus Halal Equity Exchange Traded Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund MERGROWTH ETF MERVALUE ETF

I N F R AST R U CT U R E F U N D

Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

0.00%

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

27

T H I S D AY • TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024

NEWS

FUBARA'S NEW CHIEF OF STAFF TAKES OATH...

L-R: The newly sworn-in Chief of Staff, Rt. Hon. Ehie Edison; Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara and the Deputy Governor, Prof. Ngozi Odu, immediately after the swearing in, in Government House, Port Harcourt, Rivers State...yesterday

Air Force to INEC: Pay Your Debts to Enable Us Serve You Better at Bye-elections Chuks Okocha in Abuja Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Hassan Bala Abubakar, has urged the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) to settle outstanding bills of some services rendered to the electoral commission, so it could serve the commission better during the

pending bye-elections.

Abubakar made the call yesterday in Abuja when he hosted a delegation of INEC management, led by the commission’s Chairman, Prof.

Mahmood Yakubu, who visited the Air Force Headquarters.

“I would like to seize this opportunity to remind the Chairman that there are some outstanding

bills, which are yet to be cleared

by INEC. The settlement of those bills will enable us to serve you better,” the Air Force Chief said.

He noted that INEC was the first governmental organisations to pay such visit this year.

He said Nigeria stood out as a shining example for other nations of the world and was renowned as

the largest economy and democracy in Africa due to the success of the nation’s democracy.

These, he said, were being underpinned by strong institutions like INEC, which worked tirelessly to allow all citizens enjoy the right to decide who should govern them in free and fair elections.

“The invaluable contributions of

France Builds Language Laboratory at Nigerian Defence Academy Michael Olugbode in Abuja France yesterday announced that it had financed the building of a French language laboratory at the Nigerian Defence (NDA) in Kaduna.

A statement from the French Embassy said the French Defence Attaché, Col. G Dujon, and his deputy in charge of the development of the French language learning programme in the Nigerian military, Lt-Col. R Chauvancy, were received in the state by Maj-Gen. JO Ochai on January 25, 2024 during the inauguration of the laboratory.

“The Defence Attaché inaugurated the Academy's new French language laboratory, financed by the French Directorate for Cooperation in Security

and Defence (DCSD), during a ceremony presided over by the Commandant of the Academy.

His principal staff officers, the French language teaching staff and delegation of cadets were attending,” it stated.

In his speech, Ochai emphasised the strength and importance of the existing relationship between France and Nigeria, both in the fields of economy and security.

He went on to stress that for the members of the Armed Forces of Nigeria, to learn French language was a key leverage to further develop the interoperability with its French-speaking neighbours and to strengthen its integration within international or regional organisations where French is used as an official language.

In response, Dujon reaffirmed

France's great interest in the most powerful country in West Africa, that is Nigeria, and reaffirmed the availability of France to support the development of Nigerian strategic and operational capability.

He emphasised his commitment

to support the development of a robust French language teaching structure within the NDA and beyond, enhancing the existing programme through the creation of new partnerships, for the benefit of all.

The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 general elections, Mr Peter Obi, has said that food insecurity remains a big threat to the nation.

Obi explained that solving the problem of food insecurity in Nigeria, which will help to eradicate hunger and combat food inflation, should be top government priority.

According to Obi, the worsening level of inflation in the country is occasioned by the obvious abandonment of agriculture resulting in food insecurity.

The LP standard bearer made the remarks in Ibadan when he visited the headquarters of the International Institute of Tropical

Agriculture (IITA), the organisation that engages in agricultural research for the development of sustainable and innovative farming practices aimed at solving the problem of hunger and poverty in the nation.

In a statement by Obi’s media aide, Michael Nwolisa, he expressed his appreciation to the management and staff of IITA for what he described as their very significant contributions to Nigeria's agricultural sector, especially in ensuring higher agricultural productivity.

He encouraged them to do more by working more closely with local farmers and agricultural stakeholders to enhance farming practices and agricultural productivity.

This, Obi said, will help IITA to ensure that their research outcomes

and reporting,” Abubakar said.

Earlier, the INEC Chairman congratulated Abubakar on his appointment as the 22nd Chief of the Air Staff and all other recently promoted officers serving at both headquarters and elsewhere.

He commended the NAF for its cooperation in the area of election security and logistic support for the timely delivery of materials during general elections, off-cycle elections, by-elections, supplementary elections and re-run elections.

“I want to place on record, the neutrality and professionalism of NAF in particular and armed forces in general in discharging your responsibilities. There has been no unhappy incidents or compromise on the part of your officers and airmen.”

NCAA Alerts Pilots, Airline Operators, Passengers to Expected Dust Haze Chinedu Eze

The Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) has advised pilots, airline operators to exercise caution over a three-day dust haze starting

on Monday to Wednesday, January 29-31, 2024 across the country.

In a statement signed by the acting Director General, Captain, Chris Najomo, the regulatory authority referred to the predictions by the

Food Insecurity Big Threat to Nigeria, Says Obi Chuks Okocha in Abuja

the INEC, distinguishes democracy as a form of governance unparalleled in its commitment to the people.

Furthermore, it lends credence to the slogan that democracy is the best form of government known to man.

“I would like to commend Mr Chairman (Yakubu) for the numerous initiatives, which have occurred under your watch. Some of which included continuous voter registration, introduction of new technologies, voter education and sensitisation and post-election reviews.

“Another laudable milestone achieved was the Electoral Act of 2022, which introduced reforms aimed at more timely organisation of pre-electoral processes and increasing transparency in results collation

and innovations are effectively disseminated and adopted, leading to tangible improvements in the agricultural sector.

Obi maintained that agriculture remains a very critical sector in Nigeria's economy and should not be neglected. "Our obvious neglect of agriculture is the cause of hunger and food insecurity, resulting in the high food inflation rate we have today," he said.

Lack of investment in agriculture, he argued, has resulted in the high level of hunger and poverty in the country today.

"In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, Nigeria ranked 109th out of the 125 countries measured, showing a serious hunger level in the nation. Our food inflation rate is currently at 33 per cent, signifying

that more concerted efforts need to be made in moving our nation from consumption to production, in the agricultural sector," he stated.

Speaking further, Obi stated that aside from achieving food security, Nigeria could earn huge foreign exchange from agriculture.

"I have maintained consistently that Nigeria could earn more from agriculture than it presently earns from oil. I have also said that the biggest assets of our nation are the vast uncultivated lands in the North. “ If we invest in agriculture and fully explore our fertile lands, we will not only end hunger and eradicate poverty but drive down inflation and earn huge amounts of foreign exchange through agricultural exports," Obi said.

Nigeria Meteorological Agency (NiMEt).

“This warning was contained in a statement by the Nigerian Meteorological Agency on weather alerting the public on the possibility of deterioration in visibility as a result of observed dust haze propagated into the country,” NCAA statement said.

It disclosed that NiMet’s weather outlook released on Sunday predicted moderate dust haze with horizontal visibility range from 2km to 5km over the North.

It envisaged moderate dust haze with a horizontal visibility range of 2km to 5km, and localised horizontal visibility of less than or equal to 1000m over the North-central.

NiMeT forecast dust haze over the inland of the South and the coastal region throughout the forecast period. ”For Tuesday, moderate dust haze with horizontal visibility range of 2km to 5km is anticipated over the northern region. Moderate dust haze with a horizontal visibility range of 2km to 5km, and localised horizontal visibility of less than or equal to 1000m is anticipated over the North central,

the inland of the South and the coastal region of the country throughout the forecast period,” NiMeT said.

According to NiMet, thick dust haze is expected over the northern region throughout the forecast period.

The agency anticipated moderate dust haze with horizontal visibility range of 2km to 5km.

It further anticipated localised horizontal visibility of less than or equal to 1,000m over the North Central, the Inland of the South and the Coastal belt of the country.

“Dust particles are in suspension; use face mask where possible. People with asthma and other respiratory issues should be cautious of the present weather situations. Special attention should be paid to your skin, eyes and lips. Moisturize your skin and lips as much as possible.

“Airline operators are advised to get updated weather reports and forecasts from NiMet for effective planning in their operations as the Authority urges all passengers to exercise patience and understanding during this period as their safety is of utmost importance,” NiMeT also recommended.

28

TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

NEWS

Cowries Arts Education Initiative Launch of Vision 2030...

L-R: UNICEF Representative in Nigeria, Cristian Munduate; Spanish Ambassador to Nigeria, Juan Ignacio Sell; and Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy, Hannatu Musa Musawa, during the Five Cowries Arts Education Initiative Launch of Vision 2030 held in Abuja ... recently.

Moves to Stop Ighodalo Thickens, PDP Chiefs Plot His Disqualification Chuks Okocha in Abuja

As the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) commenced the screening of its Edo State governorship aspirants, yesterday, there was strong indication of likely gangup against the perceived 'adopted' governorship aspirant of Governor Godwin Obaseki.

The gang-up was alleged to be the mastermind of a serving governor from the South West State, a former

governor from a South-south state and a serving South South zonal vice chairman, Chief Dan Orbih from Edo State.

Also, a new twist occurred yesterday as the national secretariat denied releasing venues for a purported primary election that would elect three man delegates that would elect the governorship candidate.

Some newspapers including THISDAY carried advertorials of the venues of the elections.

THISDAY gathered that the plot was heightened following a meeting by other eight governorship aspirants from the PDP in the state, insisting that Ighodalo was not qualified to contest as he allegedly joined the party in June 2023.

The aspirants met at a location on Sunday in Abuja, where they resolved that the adopted candidate should not be allowed to become the governorship candidate of the party in Edo State.

Their grouse was that Ighodalo was not qualified to aspire because he has not met the guidelines for the party to contest because he joined the PDP in June last year.

In a petition by Musa Aliyu, Owan East; Suleiman Braimoh, Etsako west; Victor Ikponwonsa, Ego; and copied to some officials of the PDP, they referred to the amendment in section 9, paragraph 3, of page 68 of the party’s constitution.

The provision states that, "There

Insecurity: FCTA Raids Central Business District's Tunnels for Bandits, Criminals Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA),yesterday, raided subways under bridges at the Central Business District (CBD), Maitama and Wuse, Abuja for providing shelter for bandits, robbers, pick-pockets and other undesirable elements in the nation's capital.

The operation was carried out by the Joint Taskforce on City Sanitation, coordinated by Mukhtar Galadima, as part of measures to rid the city of criminals.

It involved the security agencies, including the Nigerian Police, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), the DSS, the National Drug Law Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) and the Nigerian Immigration Service (NIS).

The team combed many tunnels and bridges around the three Arms Zone, in particular the Shehu Shagari Road, where the Police Headquarters, Ministry of Women Affairs Ministry, the Federal Secretariat and the Court of Appeal were located.

The extensive raid also spanned the tunnels and green areas beside Abia House, that connected River Plate Park all the way to National Mosque and Yar'Adua Centre.

The team also combed the Millennium and Chescon Parks in Maitama and Wuse respectively, where informal activities were taking place.

Three persons were arrested under the bridges for drug related issues, and were promptly

handed over to NDLEA for further investigation and profiling.

Galadima, who is also the Director, FCT Department of Development Control, said the operation was pursuant to the directive of the FCT Minister Nyesom Wike, following complaints from residents in the city about the misuse and abuse of such facilities.

He said drastic action was taken to mitigate further abuse of the facilities that had become appalling because of poor sanitation.

"The honourable FCT Minister directed that we should take necessary action and today we are on a fact-finding mission to know what is really happening under the bridges and subways. From today, we can come out with our plan of action on the next step to be taken.

"With what we have seen today, it is really unfortunate that these things are happening in the city, where informal activities are taking place under the bridges and subways as well as people of questionable characters, who are living there. We met some under 10 years kids under one the bridges," Galadima said.

He added that the findings were of great concern to the FCT Administration in the light of the security issues in the nation's capital, and that, they would not downplay the issues but take them up immediately.

"We have to step up our action on combing and monitoring these facilities and activities taking place there," he added.

Also, Secretary, Command and Control Centre, of the FCT Security Services Department, Dr. Peter Olumuji, recalled that residents of the capital city had been raising concern on how they were attacked by criminals hibernating in the bushes, who often snatched their phone and bags and robbed them of their valuables, even while in their cars, whenever they traversed those locations.

After such robberies, the criminals

would run into the tunnels and thicket around the bridges for cover.

"That is why we have decided to come and profile the canals and bridges within the capital cities.

And what we saw is absolutely disturbing.

"We have all the security agencies represented here in this operation, so what we will do now is to commence effective clamp down on these criminal elements under the bridges," Olumuji said.

shall be a minimum of two years membership span for a member to be eligible to stand for election into any public office."

A copy of the petition was sent to the Chairman of the screening committee, and Governor of Plateau State, Caleb Mutfwang, who is also the Chairman of the Edo State Gubernatorial election 2024 screening committee.

It read in part: "We, the undersigned, wish to bring to your attention a matter of critical importance regarding the purported waiver planned for the aspirant of the incumbent governor, Asue Ighodalo, in the upcoming Edo State Gubernatorial election of 2024.

"It has come to our notice that the planned waiver directly contravenes the party's constitution as amended in section 9, paragraph 3, of page 68, which unequivocally states that ‘There shall be a minimum of two years membership span for a member to be eligible to stand for election into any public office.’

“It is evident that the anointed candidate of the governor (Asue Ighodalo) does not meet this requirement as stipulated in the party's constitution.

"We believe that adhering to the provisions of the party's constitution

is paramount to upholding the principles of fairness and equality within our political processes.

“Granting a waiver that overlooks this vital membership requirement not only undermines the integrity of the democratic process but also goes against the fundamental tenets of our party's constitution.”

Meanwhile, in a statement by the National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, the party said "The attention of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has been drawn to a publication in a section of the media purported to have been signed by the National Organising Secretary as the list of venue for Edo State PDP 3 Ad-Hoc Delegate Congress for the PDP Governorship Primary election in the State.

"The PDP states in clear terms that it has not released any list of venue for Edo State PDP 3 Ad-Hoc Delegate Congress as claimed in the said publication.

"For the avoidance of doubt, the PDP is a Party of Due Process and will publish the authentic and official list of venue for the PDP 3 Ad-Hoc Delegate Congress through the appropriate channel of communication of the Party.”

Adamawa Guber: Fintiri, Binani Know Fate as Supreme Court Reserves Judgment Alex Enumah in Abuja

Within the next two weeks, the tussle for the governorship seat of Adamawa State would be finally laid to rest as the Supreme Court is set to rule between Governor Ahmadu Fintiri of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC's) governorship candidate, Senator Aisha Dahiru Binani.

A five-member panel of the apex court, yesterday, announced that it would deliver its judgment in the appeal by Binani seeking to upturn the declaration of Fintiri as governor of Adamawa, on a date that would be communicated to parties in the appeal.

While the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) had

declared Fintiri winner of the March 18 governorship election and April 16 rerun, both the Adamawa State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal and the Court of Appeal, had affirmed Fintiri's election, dismissing Binani's petition for lacking in merit.

At yesterday's proceedings, Binani's lawyer, Chief Akin Olujinmi, SAN, urged the apex court to invoke Section 152 of the Electoral Act, 2022 to declare Binani as the lawfully elected governor of Adamawa State.

According to Olujimi, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC), who pronounced Binani winner of the March 18, 2023, governorship election, had powers under the Electoral Act to do so.

It was his submission that as a staff of the INEC, the REC could not

be faulted for making declaration in the election he superintendent over.

But, Fintiri's lawyer, Damian Dodo, SAN, pleaded with the court to reject the arguments of Binani in its entirety for being baseless and against the clear provisions of the law.

Dodo argued that the REC lacked power to make declaration on election, adding that the only person vested with power to do so is the Returning Officer.

According to the senior lawyer, the REC, who made the alleged unlawful declaration refused bluntly to show up at the tribunal to give evidence and justify his actions and has since been on the run.

In addition, Fintiri's lawyer claimed that until now, the appellants had not produced or tendered

the results used by the fleeing Resident Electoral Commissioner to back up their claims of victory at the Adamawa governorship election.

After listening to all parties, Justice John Okoro, who led the five-member panel, announced that judgment had been reserved to a date that would be communicated to parties in the appeal.

The Court of Appeal, sitting in Abuja, had last December dismissed Binani's appeal against the election of Fintiri as Governor of Adamawa State.

The appellate court in a unanimous judgment dismissed the appeal for being incompetent and lacking in merit and subsequently affirmed the declaration of Fintiri as winner of the March 18 governorship election in Adamawa State.

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NEWS

Courtesy visit to AFRIMA’s Secretariat...

L-R: Cameroonian music star KO-C; Burkina Faso's Tanya; BridgeAfric President, Victoria Nkong; and President of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Mr. Mike Dada during the music duo’s courtesy visit to AFRIMA’s secretariat, Lagos, Nigeria... recently

Uzodimma Blasts Tinubu’s Critics over Relocation of CBN, FAAN Depts to Lagos Governor Hope Uzodinma of Imo State, has deplored the verbal attacks on President Bola Tinubu over the relocation to Lagos from Abuja, some departments of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and the Federal Aviation Authority of Nigeria (FAAN).

He said the criticisms against the president were either borne out of political mischief or ignorance since that action did not amount to moving the nation's capital back

to Lagos.

Uzodinma, who spoke as a guest of Channels Television, urged Nigerians to focus on the economic benefit of the exercise as it was meant to save cost and engender efficient productivity.

He dismissed the claims of some Northerners that President Tinubu was planning to move the capital of Nigeria back to Lagos, saying such insinuations were totally unfounded, as the president lacked

Onyebuchi Ezigbo in Abuja

commence this week, if nothing is done by their employers.

According to the union, the workers may be pulled out for an indefinite strike if after the warning strike, the employers still fail do something about their demand.

The construction workers accused the Federation of Construction Industry, (FOCI), of deliberately frustrating negotiations on the wage award, even after the involvement of the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment.

The unions said they had initiated talks on a likely wage increase even before the new government removed subsidy on petrol in May, 2023.

The workers urged the Construction and Civil Engineering Employers Association of Nigeria to respect the sanctity and spirit of the wage award agreement between the government and organised labour.

the powers to unilaterally effect such a fundamental change "It has been made clear that those departments need to be close to the banks CBN is supervising, which are in Lagos. We also know that Lagos is the hub of the aviation industry. So, I don't see anything wrong with what the President has done."

He noted that as a former Chairman of the Senate Committee on Aviation, he was aware of the huge resources expended in shuttling between Abuja and Lagos for the routine supervision talkless of some staff, who did that on a daily basis.

He, however, commended some Northern personalities and groups, including the Northern Senators

Forum and the Emir of Kano for supporting the planned relocation of those departments.

Describing the exercise as purely administrative, Uzodinma accused the opposition of blowing it out of proportion to score cheap political points.

He described President Tinubu as a first class patriot and nationalist,

who would never promote any policy to endanger the unity of Nigeria, and urged Nigerians to support the programmes and policies of the president.

On his plan for Imo State during his second tenure, Uzodinma disclosed that his achievements in the second tenure would dwarf those of the first tenure.

Shettima Canvasses More Support for Construction Workers Threaten 3-day FG's Job Creation, Food Security Agenda Warning Strike over N35,000 Wage Award Workers in the construction industry have asked their employers to pay them the N35,000 wage award approved for workers in the public sector or face shutdown of construction sites.

The workers, under the aegis of National Union of Civil Engineering Construction, Furniture and Wood Workers (NUCECFWW) and the Construction and Civil Engineering Senior Staff Association (CCESSA), said their employers have failed to negotiate the wage award meant to cushion the hardship brought about by the removal of fuel subsidy.

In a press conference addressed by the leadership of the two unions - National Presidents, NUCECFWW, Stephen Okoro and CCESSA, Ayodeji Adeyemo, the construction workers threatened a three-day warning strike, which may

Receives Tony Blair Institute’s global MD at Villa

Deji Elumoye in Abuja Vice President Kashim Shettima has charged development partners to provide more support for the President Bola Tinubu-led administration to deliver, especially in priority areas such as e-mobility, job creation, agriculture, food security and the power sector, among others.

According to him, delivering on the priority areas will help in addressing some of the challenges bedevilling the country, particularly the security situation occasioned by terrorism, kidnapping and banditry.

Shettima, who spoke yesterday while playing host to the Global Managing Director of the Tony Blair Institute (TBI), Mr Michael McNair, at the State House, Abuja, noted the commitment of the Tinubu government to delivering on the

Renewed Hope Agenda saying, “it is easy to talk but how to walk the talk is the most important component of leadership”.

Canvassing more support for the Tinubu administration’s drive to deepen the deployment and use of e-vehicles for public transportation, the vice president urged the TBI to make available its expertise in enhancing the adoption of the technology in Nigeria.

“I crave your indulgence to support us in e-mobility. We want your perspective and your input on the deployment and use of e-mobility, we want to adopt and adhere to global best practices,” he noted.

Shettima applauded TBI’s partnership with Nigeria, especially in the nation's effort to deepen the quality of governance and leadership in priority areas

of job creation, agriculture and food security, support for the power sector through the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) and the delivery unit that will track our efforts.

According to him, given the burden of Nigeria’s growing population with all of its implications, government must improve on the quality of governance.

"There is no magic wand beyond delivering the dividends of democracy to the people. Once we create jobs and engage the youths, the challenges of terrorism, kidnappings and banditry will be drastically curtailed,” he further stated.

Earlier in his speech, Global Managing Director of the Tony Blair Institute, Mr Michael McNair, commended Tinubu and Shettima's leadership, noting that the vice

president’s impressive outing at the World Economic Forum (WEF), particularly his commitment to Africa’s future, was indicative of the country’s direction.

McNair said he was in Nigeria to appraise the work started by the TBI team in the country, particularly in supporting the new administration to deliver on set goals, stressing that TBI’s success is in helping the administration to achieve its mandate across different sectors.

He said the institute is committed to supporting growth and development in Africa and Nigeria in particular in key areas identified by the administration, noting that the organisation is prepared to deploy additional resources to achieve target objectives in the country.

Again, Anti-graft Group Calls on EFCC to Probe Ayade over Alleged Looting of N4bn Kingsley Nwezeh in Abuja The Network Against Corruption and Trafficking Initiative (NACAT) yesterday called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to expedite the probe of former Governor of Cross River State, Prof Ben Ayade.

The group, had, last year, provided details of funds transferred from state government accounts to private accounts with the name of the banks and the beneficiary account holders which it said was contrary to the established financial regulations of the state government.

At a media briefing in Abuja by the Executive Director, Investigation, Tega Oghenedoro and

Operations Manager, Stanley Ugagbe, the group repeated its call on the anti-graft agency to commence the investigation of the former governor over alleged looting of N4 billion belonging to the state government.

"We are, however, concerned by the fact that, despite the plethora of facts and figures, audit reports and account statements which indict the former governor of Cross River State, as submitted to the headquarters of the EFCC, nothing tangible is seen to have happened.

"The NACAT is hereby calling on the EFCC for status report as the curious Nigerian public wish to know.

"In our submission to the EFCC,

we had asked salient questions which we believe are investigation worthy: Who received a pay-off of N2,653,318,536.38 on 12-June-2015 from CRSG Recurrent Exp (FAAC) Account No. 2017445579 in First Bank?", he queried.

"Who also received a pay-off of N1,400,381,417.48 from the same account on 8 June 2015? Who received the N200 million disbursed from account CRSG Consolidated Account No 2030459287 with First Bank Plc, on 8/16/2017?

And many more questions that are yet to be answered", it said.

NACAT noted that under Ayade, nothing worked, stressing that Calabar which was known for many years as the cleanest city in Nigeria, was taken over

by filth and became a breeding ground for reptiles and all forms of algae.

"The government owned factories which Ayade established including the chicken processing factory known as Calachika, the Cala Noodles factory, the Cross River Packaging factory and the Cross River Feedmill Ltd, all located at the Ayade Industrial Park in Calabar, which gulped billions of Cross River tax payers money are now moribund," it said.

Oghenedoro said the EFCC must respond to the petition, NACAT having been provided all the details and evidence of the financial malfeasance by Ayade.

"The EFCC owes the good people of Cross River state

closure for the accountability nightmare that befell them for eight horrible years of the worst kind of leadership.

"As an NGO, we have provided the entire Cross River State account details and how monies were approved by Ben Ayade recklessly and diverted. In the course of our private and detailed investigation, we highlighted the grey areas for the EFCC to focus on.

"Indeed the EFCC investigators commended us for such a diligent work, which has made their work easier. We therefore wonder why Ayade has not been invited, investigated and prosecuted. Has he bought his way out with the billions stolen from Cross River State purse?",

he queried.

The group, therefore, called on President Bola Tinubu to compel EFCC to effect the probe of Ayade without delay.

"We call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to consolidate on his renewed thrust for fiscal probity and governance accountability by compelling the EFCC to beam its searchlight on the horrendous financial activities perpetuated by the former Governor of Cross River State, Prof. Ben Ayade.

"We look forward to the kind and swift response of the presidency as well as all requisite government parastatal in order to avert unnecessary agitations that may degenerate to breakdown of law and order ", NACAT stressed.

TUESday january 30, 2024 • T H I S D AY

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NEWS

ARCON MEMBERSHIP CERTIFICATION……

L-R: Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Bodex Media/ Convener, Bodex Social Media Hangout, Ms Bodex Florence Hungbo(left), and Director-General, Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria (ARCON), Dr. Olalekan Fadolapo, when Hungbo was presented with an ARCON Associate Membership Certificate in Abuja…recently

Matawalle’s Hands Not Clean in Ogalla’s Ordeal, Group Alleges A pro-democracy group, Movement for National Patriotism (MNP), has queried the role of the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle, in the current ordeal of the Chief of Naval Staff, Emmanuel Ogalla, alleging that his (Matawalle) hands were not clean.

The group in a statement issued by its President, Farouq

Abdullahi, and Secretary, Olayemi Soetan, contended that from the moment the story was published, Matawalle’s body language had given him away as the key insider, who knew more than anyone else in the allegations.

According to the group, which said it was not going to pretend that there was no love

lost between the minister and Ogalla except for the pretence they often show in the public for the optics, its personal findings had shown that the minister might be culpable.

Laleye Dipo inMinna One person was killed and no

As part of the moves by the immediate-past Kogi State Governor, Yahaya Bello, to unseat Dr. Abdulahi Ganduje as the national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), his posters promoting him for the position of the chairman were yesterday seen in strategic places in Abuja.

The posters of the former governor were seen in major streets in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), especially around

the Federal Secretariat and on walls and fences of structures around the APC national secretariat along Blantyre Street, Wuse 2, Abuja.

The posters surfaced 48 hours after he left office as Kogi State governor with the inscription: ‘APC Next Level.

Alhaji Yahaya Bello as APC National Chairman. Leading the Change, Building a Stronger APC’.

Sources within the party said the move to unseat Ganduje was being orchestrated both within and outside the party.

dubious online news portal before expressly endorsing an investigation not authorised by the president.

“How does one educate this double-faced minister that the

approach to security matters is usually and always completely different from the hotchpotch manner in which political concerns are handled, especially in this part of the world?

Gunmen Kill One, Abduct 31 Others in Niger Community

than 31 other villagers mostly Ex-Kogi Governor, Bello Moves fewer women and children abducted in village, near Pandogari to Unseat Ganduje as APC Chair Jagaban town in the Rafi Local Government Adedayo Akinwale inAbuja

According to the group, “Isn’t it strange that the minister had refused to first explore internal mechanisms to check the veracity of the very terrible and damaging claims by the

of Niger State, last weekend.

The person that was killed was a middle aged man and father of four who attempted to escape but was gunned down by the bandits.

The Commissioner for Homeland Security, Major General Garba Abdullahi (rtd), confirmed the incident but did not give the

exact number of people that were kidnapped.

Abdullahi said that security operatives had been dispatched to the area to dislodge the bandits and rescue their victims.

However, it was learnt that about 50 heavily armed men

stormed the community in the night of Thursday and shot into the air to scare the villagers away.

It was in the stampede that followed that the 31 villagers were kidnapped while the middle aged man, who tried to escape, was shot dead.

Group Asks Soludo to Restrain Aides from Attacking LP Lawmaker A political group, Anambra State Progressive and Good Governance Association, has called on the state Governor, Prof Chukwuma Soludo, to restrain his aides from attacking a federal lawmaker of the Labour Party (LP), Prof Lilian Orogbu.

The group in a statement

signed by its President, Ifeanyi Nweke, said some of Soludo’s personal aides have been attacking Orogbu, the member representing Awka North and South in the House of Representatives, for daring to condemn the destruction of traders wares in Awka recently.

The group said the attacks

has caused distractions to the lawmaker, and may affect her in the discharge of her legislative functions at the lower chambers of the National Assembly.

Part of the statement read: “We have observed the coordinated media attacks by APGA members against the ebullient professor,

representing Awka North and South federal constituency, Lilian Orogbu.

“Ordinarily, we would not have joined issues with the warring parties; but as an independent body, we have verified most of the allegations against her, and find them to be false.

NDLEA Arrests 365 Drug Suspects, Convicts 174 in Adamawa Daji Sani in Yola

The state Commander of

total sum of N821,270 was also

methamphetamine (ice) and

at a press conference, and added that the state agency also seized 1,845,074 kilograms of various kinds of illicit drugs from the suspects.

He further revealed that the

exhibit forfeited to the federal government stands at N821,270.”

The NDLEA commander disclosed that cannabis sativa, tramadol, diazepam, rohypnol,

under review.

According to him, the prosecution and legal services of the state Command secured final forfeiture of three motor vehicles and one motorcycle.

the agency, Agboalu Samson, seized from the suspects. cough syrup were the most Police KillNotoriousSea PirateinRivers According to him, “Monetary prosecuted drugs in the year he orchestrated a reign of terror, The Nigeria Drug Law disclosed this yesterday in Yola Blessing IbungeinPortHarcourt The Rivers State Police Command has killed one John Togo, a suspected notorious criminal involved in sea piracy, kidnapping and arms trafficking in the state.

Briefing journalists on the development yesterday at the police headquarters on Moscow Road, Port Harcourt, the state Commissioner of Police, Olatunji Disu, said Togo was a significant threat to coastal communities in Rivers State, particularly along the Bonny-Port Harcourt, Okrika, and Andoni waterways.

Disu accused the suspect of leading an “Iceland Confraternity,

causing fear and devastation among residents and boat passengers.”

He said Togo operated illegal oil bunkering camps, engaged in arms trafficking, and was allegedly responsible for numerous heinous acts such as ambushes, murders, and robberies in the state.

Disu revealed that “John Togo’s criminal career began in the Borikiri area of Port Harcourt, where he initially engaged in cult-related activities.

Gradually, he graduated from petty crimes and evolved into a full-fledged kidnapper and sea pirate, assembling a gang of ruthless criminals along the way.”

Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) yesterday, while reading it scorecard for last year, said it has arrested 365 suspects and convicted 174 persons with illicit drugs in Adamawa State.

Kogi: Okun People Congratulate Gov Ododo, Pledge Unflinching Support Sunday Okobi

The people of Okun in Kogi State, through their foremost group, the Omo Okun Liberty Association (OOLA), have congratulated the newly inaugurated state Governor, Alhaji Ahmed Ododo, and his Deputy, Joel Salifu, on their

assumption of office.

In a statement issued, signed, and made available yesterday to THISDAY by the association General Secretary, Olufemi Peters, to express delight over Ododo’s swearing-in, the group Chairman, Chief Akere Amos Owoniyi, vowed to give their all to see

the governor succeed in office.

The Okun group leader noted in the statement that the fifth governor of Kogi State has kickstarted his service to the people of the state with the right foot by immediately announcing the nomination of members of his cabinet and other top aides.

According to him, “Governor Ododo and his Deputy, Salifu, who were sworn in on January 27, 2024, in Lokoja, the state capital, have started well, as during his inaugural speech, the governor announced the nomination of members of his cabinet and other top aides.

In a strategic move to bolster security in Plateau State, the state Governor Caleb Mutfwang, has officially launched 34 Hilux vans to reinforce community vigilance.

A statement signed by the governor’s Director of Press

vehicles were procured through the collaborative efforts of the 17 Local Government Transition Implementation Committee chairmen, as part of efforts to ensure a seamless deployment of security personnel across the

held yesterday at the Old Government House, Rayfield in Jos, the governor reportedly reiterated his administration’s unwavering commitment to secure lives and property, with a particular focus on

importance of security as the foundation for any meaningful development.

He said: “This marks the initiation of our commitment to reshape the security architecture on the Plateau.”

Army Hands Over 35 Rescued Insecurity: Plateau Launches 34 New Hilux Vans to Boost Community Vigilance and Public Affairs (DOPPA), Mr. local government areas. rural communities in the state, Kidnap Victims to Katsina Gov Seriki Adinoyi inJos Gyang Bere, revealed that the At the launching ceremony emphasising the paramount

The Nigerian Army has handed over 35 kidnap victims rescued from their captors in a Katsina State forest to the state Governor, Dikko Radda, yesterday.

Commanding Officer, 17 Brigade of the Nigerian Army, Katsina, Brig.-Gen. O.A Fadairo, handed the victims to the governor.

He said they were kidnapped by bandits in Tashar Nagulle and Nahuta in Batsari Local Government Area of the state.

Fadairo explained that the victims were rescued at Dumburum Forest after an intensive gun battle between soldiers and the bandits.

Responding Governor Radda thanked God for aiding the rescue operation which went without casualty either on the part of the victims or the security operatives.

He noted that success was being recorded in the fight against banditry in the state.

“Many terrorists in Katsina State have been killed and their camps dislodged and a lot of weapons recovered through the joint efforts of security operatives,’’ he noted.

He commended the army and other security operatives for their efforts in the fight against criminality in the state.

Edo 2024: No Need to Search for New Candidate, PDP Told A former Political Adviser to former Edo State Governor, Adams Oshiomhole, Mr. Charles Idahosa, has told the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) not to search for a new candidat that will fly the party flag because

one had been in the waiting since 2020.

He also cautioned the party leadership not to jettison the agreement the party had with a former member of the House of Representatives, Omoregie Ogbeide-Ihama, in the build-up

to the party’s primaries in 2020.

Ogbeide-Ihama represented Oredo federal constituency in the Green Chamber of the National Assembly.

Idahosa, now a chieftain of the PDP, spoke in Benin -city, the capital of Edo State, adding

that he decided to speak out because he was instrumental to Ogbeide-Ihama’s withdrawal from the 2020 gubernatorial race to pave the way for Governor Godwin Obaseki, who was shut out by the All Progressives Congress(APC).

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T H I S D AY • TUESDAY, JANUARY 30, 2024

TUESdaysports

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

AFCON 2023...AFCON 2023...AFCON 2023...AFCON 2023...

Super Eagles to Earn N1.157bn if They Beat Angola on Friday Duro Ikhazuagbe If Super Eagles beat Angola’s Palancas Negra on Friday in one of the quarter final matches of the ongoing 34th Africa Cup of Nations in Côte d’Ivoire, it will not only be a sweet revenge for stopping Nigeria from qualifying for 2006 World Cup in Germany, the Jose Peseiro wards stand to reap a bountiful $1.3million USD (about N1.157billion going by I & E window closing price on Monday).

Angola famously stopped Nigeria from reaching the 2006 FIFA World Cup finals, when the Super Eagles followed a 0-1 loss in Luanda to a draw 1-1 with the Negras in a sunny Sani Abacha Stadium in June 2005.

According to the prize money layout for this tournament by Confederation of Africa Football (CAF), the Super Eagles have earned $800,000 in prize money for getting out of the group stage while another win on Friday in their quarter-finals clash with Angola will raise their take-home to S1.3million.

At the last edition Cameroon 2021, Super Eagles returned home empty handed after an impressive group stage and an appalling Round of 16 they were ousted by Tunisia.

CAF admitted to having a 40% improvement in the prize money.

The continental body was equally gave a consolation bonus of $700,000 to the two teams that placed third in their respective groups but failed to make it to the Round of 16.

The two teams are Ghana and Zambia in Groups B and F respectively. The two teams that fail to go beyond the semi-finals

will each get $2 5million. The cup winner will get $7 million while the runners-up will take $4 million, a princely sum worthy for the players to fight for.

Meanwhile, Nigeria’s on-field Captain William Troost-Ekong has hinted that the match against Angola could prove to be the toughest yet for the Eagles, but that himself and

team mates are ready for the battle.

“We can no longer expect any easy games. In truth, there have not been easy games here. We have played Equatorial Guinea, Cote d’Ivoire, Guinea Bissau and Cameroon, and none has turned out to be a picnic. From the quarterfinals, it will be a lot tougher because all the teams will believe they are

good enough for the trophy.

“We are discussing among ourselves what we have to do.

There is no resting on our oars.

We saw Guinea eliminate Equatorial Guinea that emerged the best team of the group phase. Football is like that. We must be alert for the entire period and do our best to convert the chances that we create,” stressed

the central defender who plays his professional football with PAOK in the Greek league.

Nigerian football fans also recall with nostalgia how Eagles Star, Samuel Okwaraji died during a 1990 World qualifier against Angola inside the National Stadium in Surulere, Lagos. Nigeria won this return leg fixture 1-0 while the first leg ended 2-2 in Luanda.

AFCON RESULTS C’Verde 1-0 Mauritania Senegal 1-1 Côte d’Ivoire *(Côte d’Ivoire win penalty 5-4 to go through to quarter final)

Today

Mali v B’Faso Morocco v S’Africa

Minister of Sports, Enoh, Wades into Tanya Okpalla’s Saga

William Troost-Ekong (right) celebrating his goal from the penalty spot that earned Nigeria victory over host Côte d’Ivoire in the group stage. He has warned Angola won’t come easy

Minister of Sports Development, Senator John Owan Enoh, has reached out to the father of Nigeria’s former tennis sensation, Tanya Okpalla whose video went viral at the weekend, revealing her lamentable state.

According to Diana-Mary Tiku Nsan, the SA (Media) to the Sports Minister, Senator Enoh has contacted Tanya’s father and has been briefed on her current condition and the genesis of her problem .

It was learnt that Tanya’s father also confirmed to the Sports Minister that the Nigerian Tennis Federation paid for Tanya’s first rehabilitation many years ago when her condition became public knowledge but sadly the former tennis star relapsed after a while.

Tanya Okpalla was once a tennis player of repute who played in lots of tennis tournaments. She represented Nigeria and the African

continent and won laurels to her name. She was a tennis juniors champion who played at the highest level and was ranked number one at the time.

Senator Enoh also lauded the Governor of Anambra State for swinging into immediate action to remove the former tennis star from the streets.

“Let me thank the Governor of Anambra State, H. E Charles Soludo and his team for the swift intervention in the case of Tanya Okpalla. This is highly commendable,“ stressed the minister.

“As a Ministry, our six point agenda WAIFAR, has the W for activating and enabling a WELFARE system that caters for serving and retired athletes. As a ministry, we will take action in this regard as every athlete who has brought glory to our nation deserves appropriate welfare,” concludes the sports minister.

Yoke Solutions Triumphs Trojan /Ark, STL, Sublime Dangote Again as Ikeja Golf Club Hosts Dominate Opening Week 2024 Corporate Challenge Cup

The opening week of the 120th edition of the NPA/GTCO Lagos International Polo Tournament came to a befitting climax with Lagos Trojan Ark, STL and Kaduna Sublime Dangote teams sharing the top prizes.

Trojan Ark were the biggest winners clinching the Chapelhill Denham Open Cup after defeating Lagos STL 9-8 in a closely fought four chukkas final, while STL emerged the proud champions in the race for the Oba of Lagos Cup Cup. Dapo Ojora Memorial Cup went to the visiting Kaduna Sublime/ Dangote team scored a golden goal to defeat Open Cup record holder, Lagos Leighton sending a strong signal to the home teams as the prestigious polo festival enters its second week this week.

The 2024 NPA/ GTCO international polo festival that galloped off in grand style last week moves to higher gears this week with four teams including title holders Leighton Kings, Lagos Shoreline/Art Hotel team, Open Cup winners Trojan/Ark and the ambitious Abuja Rubicon jostling for the event's biggest prize, the Majekodunmi Cup. Tournament Manager, Mayowa Ogunnusi confirmed that defending champions Leighton Kings and visiting Abuja Rubicon team who are seeking their first Lagos major title in years, are billed to clash in the opening game of the Majekodunmi Cup series.

Three subsidiary prizes, the Governor/ Heritage Cup, the Independence Cup and the Italian Ambassador’s Cup are also on offer in this second week that will climax on Sunday.

N PA / GTC O L AG O S P O LO For another year running, the prestigious festival hosted a renowned and faithful collection of sponsors with GTCO leading others like Arbico, Vueve Clicquot, ChapelHill Denham, BUA, Metro Capital, MTN, among others.

Makanjuola in his opening

remarks during the world press conference heralding the event confirmed that for the first time in over a century and still counting rich history, the 120th edition of the prestigious Lagos polo festival would be decided over four weeks of high octane polo showpieces, making the

event the biggest polo tournament in Africa.

The third week will see teams vying for the Low Cup February 6 to 11, 2024, while the grand finale fourth and final week of the annual fiesta that is steeped in tradition and elegance, will see a crowd of equally matched low-goal team slugging it out for the Silver Cup from February 13 to 18, 2024.

Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu (right) and Managing Director of Chapelhill Denham, Bolaji Balogun, jointly present the Open Cup to the Captain of Trojan/Ark team, Folarin Kuku, during the closing ceremony of the opening week of the 120th edition of the NPA/GTCO Lagos polo tournament.

The prestigious fiesta enters its second week from today

Golfers representing Yoke Solutions successfully defended their title at the 2024 edition of the Corporate Challenge Cup hosted by the Ikeja Golf Club on January 26 and 27.

The golfers, Gbenga Ayodele, Arun Sharma, Babatunde Ojo, and Fawze Talal earned an aggregate of 241 scores over two days to emerge consecutive champions ahead of 25 challengers.

In second place was Metro Apartments which earned an aggregate of 236 scores over two days, while Krvk Agro emerged in third place after earning 227 scores over two days.

Speaking at the prize presentation ceremony on Saturday, the Ikeja Golf Club Captain, Mr. Sina Akinyemi congratulated the participants and the organising committee headed by the Competition Secretary, Mr Jenkins Alumona, for the successful tournament.

“I want to extend my heartfelt appreciation to each team for their unwavering commitment, dedication, and sportsmanship throughout the tournament. Your resilience and passion have made the event a remarkable success,” Akinyemi said.

Chairman of Yoke Solutions, Mr Zed Jituboh, expressed delight at the team’s consecutive victories in the tournament. He said: “I feel great that we were able to defend our trophy, but I also feel worried that the field is getting wider and the challenge is getting tougher. We will have to go back to the drawing board to ensure we protect our reign.”

Also speaking, Gbenga Ayodele, one of the winning golfers com-

mended the organising committee for a successful tournament and stated the team’s desire to make it three consecutive victories. He said: “I am so excited that we were able to defend the trophy, but it came as no surprise for me because, in the last five years, we have either been the winner or one of the runners-up. I want to commend the organizers for a good tournament and we will be back next year to defend our trophy.”

Meanwhile, the Vice President, of Ikeja Golf Club, Mr Babatunde Ojo solicited support from members for the ongoing landmark project, the Integrated Range and Car Park Project, disclosing that the sum of N35 million has been raised from donations for the project so far.

“I want to emphasize that when the Integrated Golf Range Project is completed, it will raise the standard of golfing in the club and make it more enjoyable, it will be an envy of its peers. I am inviting everyone to support this project,” Ojo said.

Participating teams at the Corporate Challenge Cup include Yoke Solutions, Flykite Productions, X3M Ideas, Metro Apartments, Krvk Agro Sacks Limited, Xpress Payment Solutions, Alpha Specialties, Alpha Pharmacy, ADL Solutions, Consolidated Hallmark Insurance, Justrite and ICMA Professional Services.

Others are ISO Black Concept, Oak Pensions, Adeco Project Engineers, Acutech Support Systems, Afkar Printing and Publishing Concept, Jite Projects, Q-Shop, Ubosi Eleh and Co, Heineken, 7Star Global Aviation, Nimasa and Oceanic Health.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

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Price: N400

MISSILE

NAFDAC to Customs Agents

“I understand the challenges of not making sales, especially after investing a significant amount of money...Nigeria has lost billions of Naira in trade that could have benefited our people. About 70 per cent of our exports are rejected, food products especially. All these rejected products did not go through NAFDAC regulatory assessment. It disgraces us as a country” --NAFDAC D-G, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, warns Licensed Customs Agents against stifling local firms.

TUESDAY WITH REUBENABATI abati1990@gmail.com

A National Emergency On Insecurity

T

he biggest problem Nigeria faces at the moment beyond the parlous state of the economy is the general insecurity in the land and it is about time government declared a national emergency on the challenge. Certainly, the phrase “national emergency” must be familiar with most Nigerians: it has been declared once too often by the Nigerian government to acknowledge that a particular aspect of national life is in urgent need of attention but once the spokespersons mouth the phrase, everyone soon moves on. Nothing is done. The problem persists. A classical case in point would be the declaration of an” immediate state of emergency on food insecurity” in July 2023 by the Tinubu administration. We were told that the government was “not unmindful of the rising cost of food and how it affects the citizens.” At the time Nigeria’s inflation rate was 22.41%. Food inflation stood at 24.82%. The plan was to deploy savings from the fuel subsidy removal into the agricultural sector, and bring “all matters pertaining to food and water availability within the purview of the National Security Council.”

Months down the line, the emergency has had no effect in the short or medium term. As of December 2023, headline inflation had risen to 28.9%, and food inflation was 33.93%. The situation is now so bad that average Nigerians are groaning under the terror of sharp rises, over a consecutive 20-month period, in the average prices of oil and fat, meat, bread, cereals, potatoes, yam and other tubers, with food prices as high as 44.73% in Kogi state, 41.33% in Kwara and 39.55% in Imo. The so-called savings from fuel subsidy removal is seen majorly in terms of higher allocations to states and the Federal Government, the removal of fuel subsidy itself has fuelled further distortions within the economy to the people’s disadvantage.

People are now eating from dustbins. Nigerians are depressed and angry.

The focus on food insecurity may have stemmed from the folkloric belief that once a people can feed themselves, then their poverty is significantly reduced. The reality is that more Nigerians have slipped into poverty and misery. Government may also have done well to recognize that insecurity is multi-dimensional even if it has not made any difference or showed any signs in that direction.

We have also seen that having your kinsman in power and office does not guarantee prosperity on the grounds of proximity.

But the big elephant in the room, it seems, is the complete dehumanization of the Nigerian person, the increasing worthlessness of lives and properties, the spread of violence and anomie in the land, in the face of an obvious and beguiling failure of the Nigerian state. The legitimacy of the modern state, beyond the controversies about sources and typologies inheres more in the connection between state authority and the people’s interests and how those interests are served through the deployment of state resources and infrastructure. In Nigeria’s 1999 Constitution, the purpose of government is defined as ensuring the security and welfare of the people. But the Nigerian government is detached.

The people are not sure if the government is for them or against them. What they see is the state apparatus at all levels being used to serve the people in power who merely mouth commitment to their primary assignment as convenient slogans.

The people do not feel secure, hence the resort to self-help by all manners of persons setting up ethnic militias, state militias, vigilante groups. The government having failed them, and the government showing persistently a lack of capacity to listen and act, Nigeria is a security nightmare. Nobody is safe, not even traditional rulers who used to be sacred persons within the community. Yesterday, in Ekiti state, two traditional rulers – the Onimojo of Imojo-Ekiti and the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti were killed in an ambush by armed men. Before now, there had

President Bola Tinubu been regular reports of the abduction of traditional rulers in the South East, the most recent victim was the traditional ruler of Orodo Autonomous Community in Mbaitoli Local Government Area of Imo State.

The problem is not new, but it has never been this bad in a literal sense. In 2014, the then emergent political Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV), that is the All Progressives Congress ran a campaign against the incumbent Goodluck Jonathan administration partly on the grounds that as a civilian, President Jonathan could not handle the country’s security challenges. The party sold the dummy to the electorate that a leader with a military background was the best bet for Nigeria. They advertised General Muhammadu Buhari, a civil war hero and former military Head of State as the messiah who would drive the bandits, the terrorists, crude oil thieves, insurgents and all kinds of criminals away from the shores of Nigeria. The people bought this false narrative and Buhari became President, with the additional promise that he will strengthen the economy and fight corruption. For eight years we kept hearing that the Buhari government had decimated the ranks of terrorists and bandits. But nothing was decimated. Under Buhari, criminals became bolder. Trains were hijacked and attacked.

Crude oil thieves in the Niger Delta had a field day. The economy failed, and that much has been confirmed by members of his own party who are now in charge in Abuja. No amount of deodorant can eliminate the stench of failure in those eight years.

The APC retained power at the centre after the 2023 general elections, in the person of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu who says he has a “Renewed Hope agenda.” Under him, Nigeria has now even witnessed some of the most shocking security breaches in recent memory. Nobody has come forward to say that this is so because Bola Tinubu is a civilian and not a soldier. Buhari had exploded the myth that a man who had donned the uniform is best suited to fight in an asymmetrical war. Leading troops in a fratricidal civil war is not the same as fighting groups of terrorists, bandits, Jihadists and criminals.

It must not be possible to fool Nigerians with such poppycock again. The Buhari administration indeed worsened the situation by sending wrong signals on the security situation. He would on several occasions direct the security forces to deal with terrorists, but at the same time his government actively sought to appease the same terrorists.

Terrorists were for the most part treated as agitators rather than as criminals. The Americans killed Osama Bin Laden, Al Baghdadi and Al Zawahiri, in Buhari’s Nigeria, the government pursued the task, so vigorously of rehabilitating Nigerian terrorists who had been identified as the fourth deadliest in the world. They were given money, food, clothing and chieftaincy titles. In 2021, the Buhari administration pardoned over 1, 000 Boko Haram fighters. The same government that talked about “Operation Lafiya Dole”, and “Operation Last Hold” was also the same administration that adopted Operation Safe Corridor for terrorists!

This policy incoherence merely emboldened the criminals. It did not help. In 2022, terrorists attacked innocent Nigerians travelling in a train between Abuja and Kaduna. They also attacked airports.

The government was helpless, if not complicit.

The Tinubu administration is facing the harvest of that failure. Criminal elements continue to dare his administration with such temerity that it is difficult to believe that Nigeria’s security agencies take the lion share of the country’s annual budget estimates. What exactly do they do with all that money? On Christmas Eve in 2023, bandits killed close to 200 persons in three local government areas of Bokkos, Mangu and Barkin Ladi in Plateau state. At the mass burial of some of the victims, a commander of Operation Safe Haven told the grieving community that it was the “work of the Devil.” The Devil has since returned to kill more people in Plateau and in other states like Zamfara, turning the Middle Belt and the North Central into the killing fields of Nigeria. As usual, the President condemned the killings, and gave the security chiefs marching orders to bring the perpetrators to book. Terrorists and kidnappers in Nigeria are so used to these sermons that they merely shrug off statements from Aso Rock and move on to the next target. Kidnappers in particular have put the Nigerian security establishment to shame. They operate at will, collect ransoms openly, and even that does not guarantee safety or the release of the abducted persons. In one shocking example, kidnappers went to a military estate, and made away with people. When policemen and soldiers cannot protect themselves, where does that leave the people? The government keeps feeding the people with the pill of hope and promises. Nigeria has a high rate of unemployment, poverty is rife.

Certain elements have found kidnapping to be a more enabling business ecosystem, so much, that there have been cases of persons who organized their own kidnap in order to extort money from family members! Desperate people resort to desperate means to survive.

But perhaps, The Economist magazine in its editorial of January 24 titled “Kidnappers are wreaking havoc in Nigeria, yet President Tinubu’s security plan is worryingly like his predecessor’s” placed its fingers on why the dilemma persists when it wrote as follows: “How much politicians in Nigeria care about national insecurity has long been correlated with how close it gets to their mansions in Abuja, the capital.” Is that leadership? And where does that leave the hapless people who live in places like central Nigeria who are slaughtered in their hundreds, and the security agencies respond only after damage has been done?

The Economist added: “At his inauguration last May, Mr. Tinubu declared security his “top priority.”

Yet more than 3, 600 people were kidnapped in 2023, the most ever, according to ACLED, a global monitor of conflict. The snatching rose sharply after Mr. Tinubu took office. And almost 9,000 Nigerians were killed in conflict last year.” Human beings oh, not animals! And hear this: “the government tends to splurge on fancy weapons systems that fail to tackle the roots of the problem which is poverty, poor education and anger at many atrocities…Another huge problem is graft in security spending…This is worsened by a system known as security votes,

whereby parts of defence spending are deemed too sensitive.”

What the newspaper did not add is that even the language of engagement has not changed.

The Defence Headquarters is always boasting that “perpetrators will be exposed” (for where?), when people have been killed, properties razed, the Police is always quick wake up from its slumber to announce a special operation to be led by an Assistant Inspector General of Police, and the President summons a National Security Council meeting and gives directives. The Service Chiefs for the past eight years have told Nigerians that they are working on Nigeria’s security architecture, or National Security Strategy which will deploy kinetic and non-kinetic measures. To tell the truth, when I hear anybody talking about “kinetic and non-kinetic” I simply conclude that some security chiefs are again looking for an opportunity to collect more money and do nothing. It is pure madness to keep doing the same thing and keep getting the same results again and again without any progress.

Nigeria needs new thinking, new ideas in security management. Hard questions need to be asked, more so as we are now at a turning point, even in the sub-region. The decision to withdraw, “without delay”, from ECOWAS by Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, this week, is bound to escalate the security crisis within the sub-region, and pose challenges for Nigeria. We share a border of about 1, 668 kilometres with Niger. Our borders are porous. Niger may see no further obligation to help fight terrorists within its own borders to prevent a spill-over. The only thing we can safely assume is that the Tinubu administration may not resort to the old practice of providing accommodation, clothes and food for bandits and terrorists. Or could that be why there has been an unprecedented resurgence of criminality in the country?

The new ideas that we call for cannot come from the Security Council or Defence Headquarters and the rest of the security establishment. It has been established that intelligence is a problem at the heart of Nigeria’s National Security Strategy. Even when actionable intelligence is made available to our security agencies, they are hardly ever pro-active.

Our recommendation is, as a starting point, the convocation of a National Summit on Insecurity in Nigeria to be attended by a broad section of society drawn from among stakeholders at all levels. The theme shall be strictly focused on insecurity and what needs to be done. A counter argument may well be that there is nothing new under the sun, and that even if the best ideas emerge from the summit, how can anyone be sure that the ideas will be implemented, and correctly too? There may be some merit in this. After all, there have been studies and recommendations on the crisis in the Plateau since 1994. But it is either the reports are not implemented or they are not even considered at all. Our leaders don’t care enough.

Insecurity is making everything else difficult; it discourages foreign and local investments. Farmers cannot go to their farms. It is an act of faith to travel in certain parts of the country. The country is under threat. Anomie is upon the land, and the risk is real, given the manner in which such factors as religion, ethnicity, attachment to land, the fight over resources and indigene/settler conflicts have turned Nigeria into a keg of gunpowder. With the security establishment at its wits’ end, all hands must be on deck to address the challenges urgently. Let the Federal Government declare a national emergency on insecurity. It needs not wait till the day when a sitting Governor is abducted, and kidnappers ask that ransom be paid before such a Governor and his family members are released. It would also not be enough to argue that some elements are out to sabotage the Tinubu administration. The time to act is now. Tinubu must take the security situation in the country more seriously. The solutions are within, not in Paris or London.

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