₦airaland Forum

The political trajectory of Nigeria in the next four years will be initialised this Saturday – as the two leading political parties (the APC and the PDP) select candidates for the 2023 presidential election. The fate our nation rests in the whimsical repository of a few deciders. We can divine the future possibilities and challenges of our country from the outcome of these presidential primaries. It is a make-or-mar fixture.

Nigeria is at a precarious time in its evolution. As I wrote in a previous column, Nigeria’s next president will be coming at a time the country is agonisingly sundered along ethnic and religious contours; at a time of seething anger and great uncertainty; when the economy is in shreds; corruption at the apogee; at such a perilous time when Nigerians cannot commute from one part of the country to another for fear of being killed and kidnapped; at such a vulnerable time when a dollar is N600 at the parallel market, and when over 13 million children are out of school. Nigeria’s next president will be coming at a time of anomie.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/tinubu-atiku-fayemi-wike-and-other-presidential-probables-by-fredrick-nwabufo/

The 2023 general elections in Nigeria is just by the corner and has become a major factor in the implicit and explicit realities of the state as it is today. Going from there it is pertinent to point out takeaways from the politicking around the 2023 elections today; both old scripts and new story lines:

Political space heated up

Child play or intense chess

The power of hope or consensus bait

Voters remain the same; powerful and powerless

Both major parties are confused – APC even more

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/7-things-to-know-about-the-2023-elections/

Liverpool manager Jürgen was voted Premier League 2021-22 manager of the season ahead of close rival Pep Guardiola. The 54-year-old German tactician who also won the League Management Association (LMA) Manager of the season joined Liverpool in 2015 from Borussia Dortmund and has since then inscribed his name as one of the best managers ever to coach the club.

Klopp lost the league to counterpart Pep Guardiola by a point difference on the last day of the season. Both managers have shown resilience since joining the league. Pep Guardiola, who is still in search of his first UEFA Champions League triumph since the 2010-11 season, has dominated the domestic league winning 11 trophies since he arrived in 2016.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/liverpool-manager-jurgen-klopp-has-been-voted-premier-manager-of-the-season/

Anambra State Governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo on Tuesday described the May 20 killing of pregnant Harira Jubril and her four children by unidentified assailants as barbaric and unacceptable.
Harira Jubril hailed from Adamawa State, along with her kids, was killed for no reason.
The eldest of the children was nine years old and the others aged between two and 7 years.
Soludo, in a statement signed by Mr Christian Aburime, his Chief Press Secretary on Tuesday vowed to fish out the perpetrators and ensure they were dealt with according to law.
He said that all law-abiding Nigerians, irrespective of tribe or religion, were entitled to reside and or do business in any part of the country, including the Southeast and in Anambra without fear of unlawful harassment, molestation or attack of any kind, under any guise by anyone or group.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/soludo-vows-justice-for-slain-adamawa-woman-4-kids-insists-no-targeted-ethno-religious-killings-in-anambra/

Simbi Wabote, Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB), claimed that the rehabilitation of NNPC refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna is expected to yield roughly 400,000bpd, with target performance of not less than 90% of nameplate capacity.
Wabote also stated at the Nigerian Continent Midstream-Downstream Oil and Gas Summit in Lagos that the current administration's refining roadmap, which includes four focus areas such as the rehabilitation of the country's existing four national refineries, co-location of new refineries, construction of greenfield refineries, and construction of modular refineries, is expected to increase the country's combined refining capacities to more than 1.4 million bpd in the next five years.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/rehabilitated-refineries-are-expected-to-operate-at-90-capacity-fg/

President Muhammadu Buhari Tuesday called on executives of banking institutions in West Africa to forge a closer collaboration to tackle economic challenges confronting the sub-region.

Receiving a delegation from the West African Bankers Association (WABA), led by its President, Thierno Seydou Nourou Sy, the President noted that the sub-region must find a common understanding and ground to address low access to financial services and recovery from post COVID-19 pandemic.

President Buhari told the association, founded in 1981, and which brings together over 250 commercial banks and 15 institutions from across West Africa, that ,for many centuries, African countries have traded with one another without a formalized and structured system.

He, however, noted that over time, global trade has become more complex and organized.

The Nigerian leader expressed confidence that the rollout of the African Continental Free Trade Area would be a turning point in how African countries trade with each other.

''More importantly, we will turn the page in ensuring that we deepen and expand our industrial capabilities by making sure we export less of what we have been endowed with in primary or raw form, and convert larger portions of these resources into finished materials.

''That will allow us to benefit from the revenue earned from the added value of exporting a finished product,'' he said.

Speaking further, the Nigerian leader declared: ''Our ability to overcome the current phase of our development lies  in our resolve to work jointly via our regional and  sub-regional organizations where we can all reach a common understanding to fight against a common enemy.

''This is one of the reasons I am delighted with the strides ECOWAS has been making towards unanimity and forging alliances with a goal to resolve issues that confront the sub-region.

''I believe that this is also the approach that is being followed in the West African Bankers’ Association and the West African Monetary Union.''

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/president-buhari-calls-for-closer-collaboration-to-tackle-economic-challenges-in-west-africa/

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State has today dissolved the state executive council. The Governor instructed all the former members of the State Executive Council to hand over to the most senior officers in their respective ministries.

His chief of staff, Emeka Woke and his Senior Special Assistant on Protocol, Harold Koko, were also relieved of their duties.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/just-in-wike-dissolves-entire-cabinet-sacks-senior-aides/

The Anambra State Police Command on Monday said it has recovered the headless body of the Member representing Aguata Constituency Two in the State House of Assembly, Hon. Okechukwu Okoye, who was kidnapped last week.

The late lawmaker was allegedly abducted alongside his aide, Cyril Chiegboka on 15th May, 2022 at Oraeri in Aguata LGA of Anambra State.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/police-recover-body-of-beheaded-anambra-lawmaker-as-gov-soludo-places-n10-bounty-on-killers/

Sir Winston Leonard Spencer Churchill, KG, OM, CH, TD, DL, FRS, a British statesman, soldier and writer who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1940 to 1945, during the Second World War, and again from 1951 to 1955, once said that "Many forms of Government have been tried, and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all-wise. Indeed it has been said that democracy is the worst form of Government except for all those other forms that have been tried from time to time". Unarguably, Churchill's disposition on the subject of democracy cannot be faulted.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/1999-22-is-nigeria-advancing-or-regressing-in-its-democracy/

The seeming hide and seek game former President Goodluck Jonathan is playing with the undying speculation of his interest in succeeding President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023 is not going down well with Pan Niger Delta Forum (PANDEF).

The group wants Jonathan who has been rumoured to have defected to President Buhari’s All Progressives Congress (APC)  in a bid to perfect his return bid to the Presidential Villa, Abuja, to consult them first if he really wants to succeed Buhari in 2023.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/2023-presidency-dont-mess-with-us-pandef-warns-jonathan-as-mosiend-seeks-akpabios-probe/

The Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB on Thursday advised the General Overseer of Deeper Life Bible Church, Pastor Williams Kumuyi against hosting a planned crusade at Aba, Abia State in Southeast Nigeria.

A statement by the Media and Publicity Secretary of IPOB, Comrade Emma Powerful, advised Pastor Kumuyi to take note of the security situation in the South East as he comes to Aba for his gospel crusade.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/stop-your-planned-crusade-in-aba-ipob-urges-kumuyi-over-insecurity/

Following the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu, numerous questions have been raised. Those who killed her accused her of blasphemy, which has led to the question of what the punishment of blasphemy in Islam is? According to Deborah's killers, she insulted the much-revered prophet of Islam and deserved to be stoned to death and burnt to ashes. While some Muslims have publicly displayed their support for Deborah's killers, others have condemned their action as Un-Islamic. In the opinion of the latter, whether Deborah blasphemed or not is not the issue here. Instead, the point is that there is no justification for murdering a human being in cold blood. As Farooq Kperogi succinctly puts it, “The sanctity of human life shouldn’t be up for debate.”
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/how-much-does-a-nigerian-life-cost/

Governor Chukwuma Soludo on Thursday presented the revised 2022 budget of N170 billion to the Anambra State House of Assembly.

The budget tagged ‘Taking off from the blocks’ represents a significant increase from the N141.9 billion approved budget presented by former Governor Willie Obiano in October last year, christened ‘Continuity, Sustainability and Development of a New Anambra’.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/soludo-revises-obianos-anambra-2022-budget-from-141-9bn-to-170bn/

‘’Why is Dababy not having a one-on-one with local Nigerian rappers? No meet-and-greet? No hailings?
‘’We need the culture to respect Nigerian Wrappers.’’
‘’You rappers should go and drag Davido na. Since entitlement is usually your first name.
The tweet however, denoted some sense of sarcasm as it was subtly directed to M.I Abaga who once expressed his distasteful experience during a performance where he shared stage with JayZ, Rihanna and Usher. This was after the Nigerian rapper and the likes of Ycee, Vector and many more were not invited to the Rick Ross Live in Lagos concert back in April.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/mi-abaga-blows-hot-at-music-journalist-for-disrespecting-nigerian-rappers/

Nigeria’s imports of crude palm oil have consistently decreased over the previous three years as domestic output has increased.
Nigeria initiated the backward integration program in 2011 in an attempt to reclaim its lost position among global palm oil producers, but it wasn’t until 2018 that it gained traction.
PZ Wilmar, Dufil Prima Foods, Agric Palm Limited, Presco, and Okomu Oil Palm Company, among others, have made significant investments in establishing backward integration projects.
There are currently no credible numbers for palm oil output and imports in Nigeria.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/nigerias-palm-oil-imports-are-falling-due-to-a-policy-of-backward-integration/

He stated that he was awaiting facts "to support [the] calculation that spam/fake accounts do indeed comprise less than 5% of users."
Mr. Musk has been outspoken about the need to eliminate spam accounts.
Analysts believed that he may be attempting to renegotiate the price or perhaps walk away from the acquisition.
Twitter shares plunged as much as 25% in pre-market trade after Mr Musk's remark.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/elon-musk-has-placed-the-twitter-acquisition-on-hold-due-to-bogus-account-information/

President Muhammadu has directed ministers with presidential ambition to resign latest May 16, 2022.
The question of this administration’s appointees resigning their portfolios due to political ambitions has generated quite a heat for some months now since the electoral bill was signed into law.
The President gave the directive Wednesday at the Federal Executive Council meeting.
He also asked those with other ambitions or contesting for various positions to resign.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/breaking-buhari-orders-ministers-to-resign/

Former senate president and one of the presidential aspirants for the 2023 general elections, Ken Nnamani, today in an interview with Arise TV spoke on sundry issues in the country and his candidacy as a presidential aspirant.

He began by lamenting the fact that Nigeria has a history of unprepared leaders which has not gone well and so the trend of groups buying presidential forms for individuals to run for presidency and other political positions is not a good omen for the future leadership of a country as complicated as Nigeria is, especially with the current travails it faces on several fronts. What Nigeria needs for him is a prime time leader who is prepared to lead the nation.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/nigeria-doesnt-need-unprepared-leaders-ken-nnamani/

A pastor, identified as Segun Adebisi has been found dead in an uncompleted building in Kubwa, Abuja after going missing for days.

According to the reports, his corpse was found on Saturday morning, May 7, during a thorough search by the residents of the area.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/abuja-missing-pastor-found-dead-in-uncompleted-building/

Nigeria is ranked the richest country in Africa over and above the industrial giants like South Africa, Egypt and Algeria. The Gross Domestic Product of the most populous black country in the world is said to be above four hundred billion Dollars! Besides, the richest man in Africa and the black world is Nigeria's Aliko Dangote. Again, in the Forbes billionaires rich list as it concerns Africa Nigerians register some good number including Mike Adenuga, Femi Otedola, Tony Elumelu etc.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/the-pursuit-of-happiness/

The Nigeria Red Cross Society (NRCS) on Sunday, advocated urgent end to the spate of insecurity in the country, to stem the emerging humanitarian crisis.
The Chairman of NRCS in Anambra State, Prof. Peter Katchy, made the call in his address during a Press Conference to mark the 2022 World Red Cross Day held at the state NRCS headquarters in Awka.
World Red Cross Day is celebrated May 8 of every year to commemorate the birthday of its founder, Henry Dunant, a Geneva traveller who lived between 1828 and 1910.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/humanitarian-crises-on-the-increase-in-nigeria-due-to-insecurity-red-cross/

Nigeria now has a new target of 1.772 million barrels per day (mbpd) for June 2022. Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) raised the country’s oil production quota from the 1.735 mbpd target approved in May 2022 to the new level.
OPEC in a statement said it took the decision at its 28th OPEC and non-OPEC Ministerial Meeting despite Nigeria missing its approved target for April 2022 by 40,000bpd.
The new target is 19,000 bpd higher than the approved quota for May 2022. OPEC also adjusted upward the monthly overall production by 432,000bpd for the month of June 2022 with a target production of 42.558mbpd.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/oil-nigeria-gets-approval-for-1-8-million-barrels-per-day-for-june/

A final year student of a Nigerian University has disclosed that while the strike of the Academic Staff Union of Universities was ongoing, she had an unprotected sex with her boyfriend and she is now pregnant.

According to her, the pregnancy took her unaware as she is not ready for marriage yet and her boyfriend doesn’t want her to abort the baby.

In a post shared on Facebook by social influencer Fegor Chime, the student who preferred anonymity, is now asking her online in-laws to counsel her on how to handle the situation.

She wrote: I am in my final year in the university,I’m 23years of age.and it happened that during the strike I had sex for the first time in my life with my boyfriend. Mummy I just found out I’m pregnant.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/how-ASUU-strike-made-me-to-get-pregnant-final-year-student-laments/

The Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) has come out in stout defence of the Commandant of the Police Academy, Wudil, AbdurRahman Ahmad, who has currently been under siege from critics. The Islamic human rights organization accused his traducers of Islamophobia, witch-hunting and Muslim-bashing.

MURIC spoke through its director, Professor Ishaq Akintola, on Monday, 9th May 2022.



Akintola said, “We are not surprised that the Commandant of the Police Academy, Wudil, AbdurRahman Ahmad, has come under a barrage of criticisms. It is in the character of the Lagos axis of the Nigerian media and the Christo-Western elites to find faults in Muslims in public positions.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/leave-police-academy-commandant-alone/

The founder of Living Faith Church Worldwide, Bishop David Oyedepo recently made headlines when he broke the news that the Catholic Church has the most organised structure on earth. The clergyman who made the disclosure on 24 March, 2022 at the afternoon session of the Built to Last Church Growth Conference revealed that: "The Catholic has done a good job in terms of structure. An extremely good job. Amazing good job. Where you can sit down and pull out materials of 50-60 years ago, in its original form. How many of us in ministry today can pull out materials from 10 years?"

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/what-catholics-must-never-take-for-granted/

Governor Chukwuma Soludo has said the position of the media is strategic in the kind of disruptive change his administration is bringing in the state.

Governor Soludo was speaking on Thursday during an Anambra Media Executives Summit organized by the Nigeria Union of Journalists, NUJ Anambra State Council.

The forum which has as its theme, ‘Objective Reporting and Unionism in a Digital Era’, had as its participants Heads of Media organizations and News Managers across the outfits.

Soludo who was represented by the State Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Chief Paul Nwosu acknowledged that a lot of positive changes his government is bringing that will help rebuild the state, may give temporary discomfort to some people.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/at-anambra-nuj-media-executives-summit-soludo-seeks-media-partnership-to-achieve-disruptive-change/

The head of the African Development Bank, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, met with Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in Abuja on Tuesday to discuss the impact of the Russia-Ukraine war and the Bank’s strategy to avoid a food crisis in Africa.

Adesina informed President Buhari that the African Development Bank has designed a $1.5 billion Africa Emergency Food Production Plan to support countries to rapidly produce around 38 million tonnes of food to mitigate the effect of the war on food prices. This will include 11 million tonnes of wheat; 18 million tonnes of maize; 6 million tonnes of rice; and 2.5 million tonnes of soybeans.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/nigeria-top-priority-under-african-development-bank-africa-emergency-food-plan/

The trial reached an impasse as a result of the absence of a prosecution witness, Bamidele Olusegun, a police officer, as lead attorney for the prosecution, OA Oluwafemi, explained that the scheduled witness was unable to appear in court due to health problems.

“Unfortunately, my lord, he called me…. that she got sick during the night and was on her way to the clinic. … We sincerely apologize for the state of affairs and humbly pray that the matter be adjourned,” he said.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/again-chidinmas-trial-stalls-due-to-witness-absence/

In Osun state, a 70-year-old Imam of Alaguntan village in Orile-Owu, Aiyedaade Local Government has been shot dead by a hunter who mistook him for an antelope.

The Police command in Osun has however arrested the suspect and would be charged to court upon completion of the investigation.

According to Vanguard the Osun state command’s spokesperson, SP Yemisi Opalola, made this disclosure during the parade of criminal suspects at the state police headquarters in Osogbo on Tuesday, April 26.

https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/osun-hunter-kills-78-year-old-imam-over-doubts-gets-arrested/

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, on Tuesday confirmed that ten out of the eleven herdsmen allegedly kidnapped over the weekend at Ogbene, Ochuche in Ogbaru Local Government Area of Anambra State, have been found and rescued.

Southeast Chairman of the Association, Alhaji Giddado Sadik who disclosed this in a chat with TNC correspondent, also said some of the over 300 cows taken were also recovered while others may have strayed in the forest.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/10-out-of-11-kidnapped-herdsmen-in-anambra-released-miyetti-allah/

The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) has threatened to extend its ongoing strike. The rollover strike which has entered its 10th week is supposed to end in two weeks, but the union hasn’t gotten a positive feedback from the Federal Government. ASUU has condemned the Federal Government for not handling the strike as priority, says it has been nonchalant towards the industrial action.

Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, while featuring as a guest on Channels TV told the union to meet with Benimi Briggs Committee, saying the decision to suspend the strike could only be taken by the union.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/ASUU-to-extend-strike-displeased-over-ngiges-statement/

In sixty years of swimming in crude oil, Nigeria, the Giant of Africa has been able to successfully weave a delicate tapestry of paradox, petrodollars and privation. The pulse of the paradox is that while the pipe of petrodollars into the country as a result of oil largely remains unclogged, privation has remained the portion of many Nigerians. In one of fates most savage salvos, it is even the case that in Nigeria, it is the Niger Delta – the golden goose that lays the golden eggs – that has known the gravest privations. This is in spite of the depredations visited on its immediate environment in the quest to fetch theblack gold’.
https://www.thenews-chronicle.com/abaezi-and-the-albatross-of-oil-theft/