Since assuming office, Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, the minister of interior, has made multiple commitments, especially as it concerns passport issuance and the operations of the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

One of those commitments was the issuance of passports within two weeks of application. In a September 5 interview, Tunji-Ojo said the ministry was creating a portal on its website to enable citizens to lodge complaints and track their passport if it had yet to be issued to them in the two-week timeframe.

He said the page was being created and would be up in two weeks, and that delays traced to any officers would bring about repercussions.

“I assure you that it is not going to be business as usual. Part of what we are doing at the moment is creating a page on our website. I believe in the next two weeks it should be up. And within the next couple of days, the social media platforms will be up,” said the minister.

“What it means basically is that any Nigerian, if you apply for your passport and it goes beyond two weeks before your passport is issued to you, you can send us your enrollment number and the specific passport office. There are officers now that have been delegated to that responsibility.”

It’s been over a month, and there is no such page on either the Ministry of Interior or NIS’ website.

Passport collection time has also not been made to reflect the two-week timeframe for processing and issuance, and money is still the only language to use to be treated to an efficient process. FIJ found all this in a visit to NIS’ Alausa office on Wednesday.

Tunji-Ojo has, no doubt, recorded some success since his assumption of office. On September 7, he issued a directive to clear the 204,332 passport application backlog in immigration offices across the country in two weeks. While they were unable to meet the stipulated deadline, by the fourth week, the NIS announced that the backlog had been cleared.

“91,981 passport booklets have been collected so far. There are 112,351 others not yet collected,” they announced, urging citizens to go pick up their passports.

On Wednesday, FIJ visited the NIS Alausa office. As usual, it was crowded with people looking to register, capture data and collect passports, and although staff said the crowd was not as bad anymore, it did not make it any easier for applicants who waited under the sun for hours.

“I thought that if I came early, I’d be attended to quickly. I’ve been here since 7 am just to collect my passport. It was supposed to be ready in August, but it wasn’t until October,” one lady said, before adding that she wished she hadn’t submitted her slip.

“I would have paid somebody to fast-track the process for me, but I have already submitted my slip. It is faster if you know somebody or pay them.”

She was not wrong. I met a young man who only applied for a passport last month and was issued it yesterday. How is your passport ready? I asked, to which he replied, “I had to pay.”

“If you pay, you can get it faster. I paid N25,000, which is why I was able to pick it up in such a short time. My friend, who applied in January, only just got his. He didn’t pay.”

Two more people who spoke with FIJ and collected their passports also said they paid to fast-track the process. Those who didn’t waited months, some as long as eight months, to be issued, and when they finally arrived to pick it up, they stood long hours in a queue as preference was given to those who paid to fast-track the process.

Confirmation Slip Given to Passport Applicant on Wednesday, September 11 With Collection Date in Six Months’ Time

PASSPORT COLLECTION DATE: SIX MONTHS POST-APPLICATION

On Thursday, FIJ called NIS to inquire about the implementation of the two-week passport issuance policy. The officer who responded said that, like other Nigerians, the NIS had only heard the information.

“The implementation, I’m yet to see. They say things that they want to do, and we as Nigerians are waiting to see. Already, there is a programme on ground that says that when you are doing a renewal, it’s for three weeks, and if you are doing it fresh, it’s for six weeks, and then if you are doing a change of data, it’s for three months,” he said.

“For the old process, I know. For the new process, I don’t know. We can only quote what the minister said.”

FIJ was, however, able to sight the confirmation slip of an applicant whose data was captured on Wednesday, and the collection date stipulated was six months’ time, in March 2024.

When FIJ told the officer about this, he advised the applicant to return to the immigration office and confirm. “It must have been a mistake,” he said. Fresh passports take only six weeks, and renewal takes three weeks, he repeated.

FIJ is convinced that this was not an error, as multiple other applicants who received their confirmation slip at the Alausa office on Wednesday received similar timelines.

Furthermore, FIJ called the Ministry of Interior to inquire about the two-week application turnaround time and report the six-month issuance timeline recorded at the NIS Alausa office, but the representative redirected us to the NIS for information.

There are strong indications that the federal government is considering a fresh subsidy for the electricity generation companies to cushion the effects of the recent hike in gas price by the producers.

Eighty per cent of Nigeria’s power plants are powered by gas.

This has made it impossible for the federal government to look away from their plights.

Currently, the GenCos are owed over N1 trillion by the electricity distribution companies through Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET).

The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) alone is owing a whopping sum of N198 billion. The company is the largest generation company in Nigeria with 4,000MW to the national grid.

It was learnt that the industry regulatory body, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) alongside top players in the sector are putting finishing touches to the new deal for the sector.

The federal government’s subsidy to the electricity sector has fallen by about 80 per cent between 2019 and 2022, an analysis of the sector regulator’s latest report shows, as power companies ask for an increase in power tariffs.

Managing director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Chiedu Ugbo had told LEADERSHIP in Lagos that the major challenge the GenCos are facing is that the gas the plants are consuming is denominated in dollars that mean $2.18 cents paid for a cubic feet is paid for in equivalent in naira.

“Before now, we were paying at the official rate, which is around N440 to a dollar now it has gone up to N700 to a dollar due to fluctuation of the market; before it wasn’t fluctuating like that. What this means is that if you allow the market to determine the price, the tariff will go up at more than 70% of the current rate. So that price increase has not happened and it cannot happen because it will be a huge burden on the consumers in the country.

Recall that Ugbo had recently appealed to the gas producers to have a rethink in the current practice of pricing domestically produced natural gas in foreign currency.

He frowned at the selling of domestic gas in dollars.

He explained that the recent unification of the exchange rates had led to a hike in the cost of gas used to run power plants.

“If we can find a means to reduce the cost of gas, at least, for domestic consumption that would help a lot. Gas should not be denominated in US dollars and then be exposed to vagaries in the forex market,” Ugbo said in a statement issued in Abuja by the NDPHC.

According to the NDPHC boss, electricity producers need gas to fire their power plants.

“We should find a reasonable means to supply gas for domestic consumption. IOCs (international oil companies) have gas, but they are unwilling to reserve gas for the domestic market. I understand their position about the illiquidity of the domestic market, but there is a need for a good handshake between the gas regulator and electricity regulator for us to harmonise interests,” he noted.

In its third quarter report, the NERC said that government support for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) fell from N49.50 billion in 2019 to N10.17 billion as at the fourth quarter of 2022.

“The N10.17 billion per month support represents a major reduction in the size of government subsidy support to the NESI which peaked at around N49.50 billion per month in 2019,” the commission said in its report.

Government’s support to the electricity sector largely goes to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET), the operator in the electricity value chain that pays all others.

The distribution companies (DisCos) had in June this year insisted on hiking electricity tariff by July 1, 2023 due to factors including the increase in exchange rate, which was about N785/$1 then, inflation rate at 22.41 per cent in May 2023 among others should be reflected in the tariff as the last tariff increase was benchmarked on N400/$1 being the official exchange at the time.

Each of the 11 discos had made separate request for tariff review application to NERC in pursuant to Section 116 (1) and 2(a&b) of the Electricity Act 2023 and other extant rules.

The request for rate review is premised on the need to incorporate changes in macro-economic parameters and other factors affecting the quality of service, operations and sustainability of the companies.

“That price increase has not happened and it cannot happen because it will be a huge burden on Nigerians. The regulator is working out something. We are expecting an official statement from the regulator”, a top industry source told LEADERSHIP.

NERC in its Market Competitive Report had argued that end-user tariff subsidy in Nigeria is pro-rich as the top-income group consumes more electricity than the low-income group, thereby benefiting more from subsidy than the lower income earners.

It added that the end-user tariffs vary by each DisCo and depicted a general increase between 2019 and 2022.

The real end-user price of electricity (adjusted for inflation) continues to decline in Nigeria; end-use tariff in Nigeria is lower than end-use tariff in 11 of the 16 ECOWAS countries partly due to the tariff subsidy provided by the federal government and the relatively cheaper gas price in Nigeria; and generation costs constitute the major components of end-user tariffs/bills in Nigeria, about 49 per cent of end-use tariff in 2022.

Meanwhile, Ugbo has said that the installed and generation capacities of the power plants connected to the grid have continued to increase from 2015 when GenCos were handed over to private investors. As at December 2022, 28 power plants were operational in NESI. The high number of generation plants and the opportunities created by various regulations allowing DisCos and large consumers to contract bilaterally and supported by the proposed exit of NBET from the market, have somewhat improved the level of competition in that segment of the value chain. The installed capacity in NESI grew by 7.95 per cent from 12,132MW as at December 2015 to 13,097MW as at December 2022.

During the same period, however, the average available capacity decreased by 2,324MW from 6,401MW recorded in 2015 to 4,059MW in 2022 due to deteriorating plants/units’ capacities, poor maintenance due to liquidity challenge and access to FOREX, non-binding contracts and delay payment; and the introduction of stringent regulatory measure against wrong declaration. It is also noteworthy to mention that during the period Gbarain NIPP was out of operation till date. The non-availability of this plant may have also overstated the reduction in available capacity linked to the old plants.

By Afeez Hanafi


There are strong indications that Nigerians may feel the economic effects of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas in the coming days if the crisis persists.

Global oil prices have spiked since the fight erupted amid speculation that the conflict, which has claimed about 2000 lives on both end, could affect energy production in the Middle East.

In what appeared to be renewed hostilities, Palestine’s Hamas had invaded homes and public places, including a festival jamboree in Israel Saturday morning, killing more than 900 people.

Israeli forces have since launched a reprisal, heavily pounding Gaza – a densely populated suburb where Hamas and over two million Palestinians reside – with airstrikes that have killed about 700 people so far.

Amidst the war, global benchmark Brent Crude rose by 4.2 percent to $88.15 a barrel on Monday, while US benchmark West Texas Intermediate rose by 4.3 percent to $86.38 per barrel, Al Jazeera reports.

Although both Israel and Palestine are not major oil producers, markets have been jolted by fears that the conflict could lead to wider instability in the Middle East which is home to some of the world’s biggest major oil producers, including Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Notably, an increase in crude price worsened by a free fall in naira against dollar has caused a rise in the cost of refined petroleum products imported into Nigeria as local refineries remain moribund.

Experts warn that a further rise in crude price occasioned by the Israel-Hamas war might push up the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit otherwise known as petrol in Nigeria, thereby compounding the widespread hardship in the country.

Petrol currently sells between N568 and N620 per litre, up from N480-N520/litre when President Bola Tinubu announced subsidy removal during his inauguration on May 29. The announcement saw a steep jump in fuel price from N187-N190.

“If the price is going up in the international market, it will affect the pump price, since we are importing,” a seasoned economist, Professor Sheriffdeen Tella, said.

Millions of Nigerians have been seriously impacted by the subsidy removal as prices of food and transportation costs continue to hit the roof. The impact has spread to every sphere of the economy leading to an increase in school fees, especially in private schools, among others.

“If the war lingers, it will affect us shortly, not in the long run because those who are selling to us will sell at whatever price the international market dictates. The government will have to look for a way to cushion the effects,” Prof Tella warned, adding that “we should pray for the war to end in time.”

“Neither of the two (Israel and Palestine) are producing oil, but they have a role to play because all these things are linked together as they are supply routes. The price has been rising partly due to that war.

“If the NNPC has some reserve, that could assist, but if it doesn’t it will affect us in the short-run. It is either the domestic price (pump price) will rise or the government will have to pay some subsidy,” he said.

A Professor of Financial Economics at the Amercian University of Nigeria, Yola, Prof Leo Ukpong, maintained that the war would have direct and indirect effects on Nigerian economy, noting that crude oil market would be primarily affected.

He said, “If the oil producing countries around the Middle East, such as Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, are drawn into the war, global oil prices will likely spike upwards. Increase in oil price will benefit Nigeria in the sense that our foreign reserve will experience an increase, everything else held constant.

“However, since Nigeria depends on import for refined oil products (petrol, diesel, kerosine, jet fuel, etc.), the increase in global crude oil prices will also lead to an increase in the price of these refined products and manufactured goods. In turn, the increase in refined crude products will likely wipe out any benefit we should have enjoyed from the rise in crude prices.

“When our high foreign debt servicing bills is factored into the picture, I doubt Nigeria’s economy will derive any net positive benefit from a rise in crude oil prices because of this war. Based on our recent past experiences, it is more likely that our economy would experience a net negative benefit.”

The don explained that until Nigeria build the refining capacity to meet domestic demands of refining crude products, the country would find it difficult to benefit from an increase in global oil prices.


War may disrupt flights

Beyond imminent hikes in oil price, fears are ripe that the crisis could disrupt international flights, including those from Nigeria, if it persists. On Monday, the Lagos State Government suspended the trip of the second batch of intending pilgrims scheduled to be airlifted to Israel on Tuesday.

The Board Secretary of the Lagos State Christian Pilgrims Welfare Board (LSCPWB), Mrs. Florence Gbafe, who announced the suspension in a statement, said the decision was as a result of keen observation of security situations in Israel.

“To all on the second batch of pilgrimage to Israel, kindly note that the pilgrimage is now on hold due to the war situation in Israel. Further information will be communicated as and when due please,” she had said.

Though flights between Nigeria and Israel have yet to be disrupted as Ethiopian Airlines and Qatar Airways continue to run flight operations to Tel Aviv Airport in Israel, there is an imminent reduction in flight frequencies.

“People still go to where they want to go and do what they want to do where there are no problems and come back. That is why there has been no announcement of flight cancellations to Israel. It is only when it gets to the extent that all their borders are closed that they cancel flights. If their border is not closed, flights will still go.

“The only thing that would happen is that they may reduce frequency because people will have reservations about travelling. If this happens, traffic will reduce and airlines will reduce frequencies,” the President of the National Association of Nigeria Travel Agencies, Susan Akporiaye, said.

The Federal Government has said it will soon release a six-month report of revenue that accrued from the removal of fuel subsidy.

Chairman of Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, who disclosed this to Daily Sun in Abuja, said that the report will include the amount disbursed so far to the three-tiers of the government, how much was collected and shared as well as how much was deducted.

According to him, the report has already been forwarded to the president for approval.

“We are coming out with a six- month report of what has been generated in the last six months for this year. what has been disbursed, to all the three tiers of governments. We have officially forwarded it to the leadership the president and the stakeholders. But by next week you are going to have those figures. How much was collected, how much was shared, how much was deducted, the cost of collection by the revenue generating agencies; any outstanding liabilities and some other things,” he said.

While rating the performance of some revenue-generating agencies, Shehu noted that while some agencies did not meet their target, others surpassed theirs. Specifically, he listed Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) as agencies that performance well.

“Obviously, there are agencies that did very well especially the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS). They actually exceeded their target for this year. One agency that didn’t do very well is Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPR NURPC failed to meet its targetC). They were hovering around 43 per cent or 53 per cent.

“Of course, the solid mineral sector that is still at an infancy stage in terms of the amount of money that comes into the federation account. Obviously, it’s not as much as expected. Customs performed well but they did not do as well as FIRS,” he said.

Shehu further deposed that not only that the government was subsidising for Nigerians, it was equally subsidising for the entire West African sub-region. “The nation can no longer afford that kind of money to be given in and out. It’s going to run us into bankruptcy. It’s not only in Nigeria that we have been subsidising but the entire West African sub-region.

And if you look at the consumption rate it has been brought down by about 10 per cent. Over the years, about 30 per cent to 40 per cent of whatever is produced from Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) is taken outside to Cameroon, Niger and Benin.

So, people were making money. So, the subsidy that is removed will free some money for various projects in Nigeria. One of the greatest problems of Nigeria is infrastructure deficit– no good roads, rail lines, schools, hospitals. After the removal of subsidy, there would be more money for sharing not only to local governments and states but even to the Federal Government. That will allow the system to do more projects. So, in terms of revenue generation, obviously there will be more revenues to be shared among the three tiers of governments,” he explained further.

President Bola Tinubu is considering recalling a 71-year-old former Justice of the Supreme Court from retirement to serve as the chairman of the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), PREMIUM TIMES has reliably gathered.

Abdu Aboki, who hails from Kano State, north-west Nigeria, exited the Supreme Court bench after clocking the mandatory retirement age of 70 on 5 August 2022.

Presidency sources, who asked not to be named to discuss a yet-to-be-public state matter with PREMIUM TIMES, said Mr Tinubu has penned down Mr Aboki’s name to replace the incumbent ICPC chair, Bolaji Owasanoye, whose five-year tenure remains about six months.

If Mr Aboki is eventually named as the next ICPC chair, his appointment will be a return to the tradition of picking the head of the commission from among relatively aged, retired jurists of the appellate courts.

Mustapha Akanbi, who voluntarily retired as the President of the Court of Appeal in 1999, was 68 when he was appointed the pioneer chairperson of the commission in 2000. He served out his five-year tenure in 2005.

He was succeeded by Emmanuel Ayoola, who retired as a Justice of the Supreme Court when he clocked 70 in October 2003. Mr Ayoola was appointed the chair of the commission in September 2005, about a month before his 72nd birthday.

I what appeared a break from the convention of appointing aged, retired jurists, Ekpo Nta, a lawyer who had held various political appointments, succeeded Mr Ayoola on 17 October 2012 at age 60.

The incumbent chair, Mr Owasanoye, a lawyer and Senior Advocate of Nigeria, was 55 years old when he was appointed as the chair of ICPC on 4 February 2019. Born on 15 May 1963, the professor of Law will still be under 60 by the time his tenure as ICPC chair ought to end on 4 February 2024.

Mr Aboki’s appointment will deviate from the new trend of showing a preference for the relatively younger generation to head the anti-corruption agency.


Is Aboki qualified to be ICPC chair?

Founded in 2000 by President Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration to tackle official corruption that had blighted the image of Nigeria which was just out of military rule, the ICPC has had four substantive chairpersons.

To be qualified to be an ICPC chairperson, the candidate must be qualified to be a judge of Nigeria’s superior courts of record.

Section 4 of the law establishing the anti-graft agency, the ICPC Act 2000, says, “The (ICPC) chairman shall be a person who has held or is qualified to hold office as a judge of a superior court of record in Nigeria.”

The law in section 6 further says, “the chairman shall and other members of the commission shall be persons of proven integrity,” and shall be appointed by the president subject to Senate confirmation.

This means that any person with “proven integrity” and who has been called to the Nigerian Bar for at least 10 years, the minimum qualification to be appointed a judge of a superior court of record in Nigeria, is qualified to be the ICPC chairperson.

Mr Aboki is, no doubt, qualified for the position, unlike the candidate Mr Tinubu is considering for the sister anti-corruption agency, the EFCC, Olanipekun Olukoyede, who does not have the number of years of cognate experience required by the EFCC Act to chair the agency.

But some observers have shared their concerns with PREMIUM TIMES about Mr Aboki’s age. They say appointing a relatively older person from retirement to head a key anti-corruption agency like the ICPC is out of sync in an era of fast-changing dynamics of corruption trends that require innovative strategies to tackle.

The tenure of Mr Owasanoye, the youngest to have ever led ICPC, offers the difference a relatively younger and tech-savvy person with a deep understanding of modern corruption trends in the global space can make as the head of an anti-corruption institution.

Mr Owasanoye, since becoming the ICPC chair, has introduced innovative accountability measures such as the tracking of constituency projects nominated by federal lawmakers, as a veritable anti-corruption tool. The project has been successful considering the quantum of fraud it has exposed and the recoveries it has recorded. However, the ICPC under Mr Owasanoye has been criticised for being mild on corrupt officials such as asking focusing on recoveries instead of prosecution of indicted lawmakers.

Some also argue that Mr Aboki’s age and experience across the hierarchy of the Nigerian judiciary would be an asset for an ICPC chairperson, who has to contend with legal issues and difficulties of prosecution of corruption suspects, especially the high-profile ones, in court.

But whatever the case, Mr Aboki’s appointment as ICPC chair or that of Mr Olukoyede as EFCC chair, will not likely add any value to the perception that Mr Tinubu is uninterested in fighting corruption, or improve public perception about his anti-corruption profile.


Profile of Mr Aboki

Mr Aboki, whose wife, Dije, is the chief judge of Kano State, began his journey on the bench 38 years ago when he was appointed a High Court judge in the state judiciary in 1987.

Before his judicial roles, Mr Aboki, a graduate of Law from the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, partook in the compulsory NYSC programme in old Gongola State between 1977 and 1978.

He attended the Nigerian Law School in Victoria Island, Lagos, and was called to the Nigerian Bar in 1977.

He was appointed a state counsel, Ministry of Justice, Kano State, in 1978.

To hone his legislative drafting skills, the jurist enrolled at the University of Washington Law School, Seattle USA, where he obtained a certificate in 1982.

He rose through the ranks at the Ministry of Justice, Kano State, to become Solicitor General/Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Justice, from 1983 to 1984.

Mr Aboki, who had a stint as the Director of Public Prosecution in the ministry, later served as the Chief Registrar, of the High Court of Justice, Kano State, from 1985 to 1987.

He began his journey on the bench when he was appointed as a judge of the same court in 1987.

He served on some election petition tribunals across Nigeria during his time as a High Court judge, but one stands out, which was when he was the chairman of the legislative and governorship election petition tribunal in Lagos State in 2003 when Mr Tinubu was governor of the state.

He was elevated to the Court of Appeal bench in 2006.

In November 2020, Mr Aboki, after serving on the Court of Appeal bench for 14 years, was appointed to the Supreme Court bench alongside five others.

At the valedictory ceremony to mark his retirement from the Supreme Court in September 2022, Mr Aboki touched a raw nerve when he called for transparency in the expenditure of funds belonging to the judiciary.

In his speech titled, ‘My valedictory messages to the nation and judiciary in particular,’ the jurist admonished “those in charge of administering the funds allocated to the judiciary” in Nigeria “to be prudent, transparent and accountable.”

There have been futile calls for the judiciary to disclose details of its budgetary allocations and expenditures.

On the judges’ appointment, he advised the National Judicial Council (NJC) to “place a greater premium on merit than national character and other primordial considerations.”

In his parting shot, Mr Aboki advocated for a constitutional amendment to reduce the number of appeals that go to the Supreme Court. This, he said, would lessen the workload of the apex court.

READ ALSO: Assembly confirms Justice Aboki as first female Chief Judge of Kano
Lauding him for his accomplishments, the current Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Olukayode Ariwoola, once described Mr Aboki as a “man of dignity and distinction” whose “mastery of the law stands him out.”

Mr Aboki became a Fellow of the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, from the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada in 2006.

He served on several boards and judicial panels including presiding judge, ‘Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and other related offences Court for Kano State 2001.

After he retired from the Supreme Court, Mr Aboki was appointed to chair an investigative panel of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), probing an allegation of an elaborate secret abortion programme operated by the Nigerian military in the North-east.

If appointed to lead the ICPC, Mr Aboki will be the third justice of Nigeria’s appellate courts to become the chairman of the commission.

The pioneer chair of the commission, Mustapha Akanbi, who died in 2018, was a retired President of the Court of Appeal, and his successor, Emmanuel Ayoola, was a retired Justice of the Supreme Court before their appointments.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has rejected overtures by the head of the military junta Niger Republic, General Abdourahamane Tchiani, to have direct access and discussion with him.

This came amidst renewed efforts to resolve the crisis in the West African country

According to an online platform, Empowered Newswire, diplomatic sources said that consenting to such direct one-on-one talks is both an assault on democratic governance in the region and a disrespect to the still detained Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum.

The sources close to Niger’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York confirmed that President Tinubu was approached with Tchiani’s request by a group of Muslim Ulamas who had met with him in Abuja about a month after the Niger coup.

The Ulamas conveyed the request of General Abdourahamane Tchiani to have a direct one-on-one interaction with the Nigerian President who is also the chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government as a possible way to resolve the crisis.

In the meeting held in Abuja on August 24, the sources said President Tinubu point blank ruled out any such interaction with the head of an illegal government that came to power through a military coup.

Nigerian government sources also confirmed that indeed President Tinubu’s position is that having a direct interaction with Tchiani would improperly legitimise a coupist whose government is not even recognised by ECOWAS.

“The president outright rejected the overture, insisting that ECOWAS leaders would be disappointed besides the fact that such an interaction would send the wrong signal about democratic governance in the continent.”

While many in the African diplomatic community are of the view that President Tinubu’s rejection of a direct talk with Tchiani at this point would indeed be a bad signal, with the impasse over the Niger crisis persisting without much hope of resolution.

Diplomats say a concerted front among President Tinubu and other ECOWAS leaders remained an imperative in dealing with the military takeover.

But Niger diplomats in New York also argued that sending envoys from the Nigerian government who are themselves former military government beneficiaries to the coupists in Niger is itself a conflicting signal, although the Niger military junta eventually interacted with them.

It would be recalled that former head of state, General Abdusalami Abubakar and the Sultan of Sokoto His Eminence Sa’ad Muhammad Abubakar had visited Niger to discuss a possible resolution on August 19, few days before the Niger Ulamas discussed with President Tinubu. Before the visit to Niger by both Abdusalami and the Sultan, the former head of state had travelled to Niamey but was not able to meet with the leaders of the new military junta.

Former Minister of Sports and Youth, Solomon Dalung, has accused President Bola Tinubu of falling prey to fuel subsidy criminals.

Dalung said this in a recent interview with Trust Radio, while giving a review of the current administration.

“He goofed full-time by playing into the hands of subsidy racketeers, by making the statement that subsidy was gone. And Nigerians have not recovered from that trauma,” Dalung said.

He, however, said Tinubu should reintroduce 50 percent if it is necessary to remove subsidies.

The ex-minister also said that Tinubu must defend Naira, “because allowing the Naira to float, is just like sending a soldier to go to war naked”.

The former minister urged the president to save the lives of Nigerians and redeem his name as they can no longer sacrifice for the future, due to his economic policies that “doesn’t have a human face”.

Dalung argued that people are in hardship and dying of hunger due to current hardship facing the nation that needs to be addressed.

He said, “The promise that Nigerians can sacrifice for the future is unattainable, and it makes him look like a wicked leader, he must redeem his name because people are dying of hunger and you are asking them to sacrifice. So if they sacrifice and all die, who will see the future?”.

“He needs to save lives first, before he talks about economic policies, His economic policies should have a human face. Otherwise he will end up like Buhari,” he said.

By John Alechenu, Abuja


In this interview, the Chairman of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Mohammed Shehu, defends plans for upward review of emoluments of the President, Governors and political office holders which has been interpreted in many quarters to mean ‘jumbo pay’. Shehu also speaks on some other issues of national importance. Excerpts:

Some Nigerians mistake the functions of your Commission for that of the Salaries and Wages Commission. For the benefit of such people, what are the functions of the Revenue Mobilization, Allocation and Fiscal Commission?

We are an agency of the Federal Government of Nigeria that oversees the revenues accruing to and the disbursement of such funds from the Federation Account to the federal, states and local government areas. We also ensure that there is conformity and equity in the nation’s revenue allocation formula. We are empowered by law to, among other things, determine the remuneration of political office holders such as the President, Vice President, Governors, Deputy Governors, Senators, members of the House of Representatives, Ministers and Heads of Federal Government agencies like Directors General as well as judicial officers. We also perform other functions such as advising states on how to improve their sources of revenues. We are also empowered to look into the revenue profiles of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), the Nigerian Customs Service and the Federal Inland Revenue Service, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the Ministry of Finance and all other revenue generating agencies of government. We don’t just look at their books, we also look to see whether they remit the revenues they generate into the Federation Account as required by law. We also perform other functions assigned to us from time to time by the executive and the legislature.

Only recently, your Commission is said to have increased the emoluments of political office holders. Is this justifiable considering the hue and cry by citizens that these categories of officers are already over paid?

First, let us clear a misconception. No Minister of the Federal Republic of Nigeria earns more than N1, 000, 000 a month. If you put that together, all 48 of them do not earn a cumulative N50, 000, 000 a monthly. Multiply that by 12 months which totals N600, 000 annually; multiply by four years that gives you N2.4bn in four years. This amount represents what they are paid as salaries and allowances including what they pay their personal staff, housing and all. If you look at their salaries as Ministers it ranges between two hundred and four hundred thousand Naira. What makes the amount up to about N1 million are the housing, personal staff salaries/allowances. If you recall, not too long ago, once a person was appointed Minister, he was given accommodation, [b]a cook, a driver and a fleet of cars. This was under the former arrangement but by 2007 to 2008, a new policy changed all that. It was agreed that these things be monetized. During the President Muhammadu Buhari administration, I knew of a serving Minister who lived in Karu, a suburb of Abuja, because he could not afford to pay the rent in the City Centre. Furniture allowance is paid out once in four years and once you’ve finished serving, you are paid a severance package once which is not more than N6 million. Even the President, after four years, his severance package is not more than N12 million. What I said before is that I know public servants who after serving for four or five years they could receive up to N500 million or more as severance package. Some officers in the National Communications Commission, Central Bank of Nigeria especially some of the Deputy Governors that were recently retired are going to receive packages that will surprise Nigerians. This is not to talk of those who are in the NNPC[/b]. This is why I am saying an increase in the emoluments of political office holders and judicial officers among others are not emoluments that should attract public anger.

Besides, the last time we made an increase for this category of public servants was 2008.

Why is this so?

Well, it is the situation with the economy and the matter wasn’t really looked into and because of the way the Nigerian Labour Congress and human rights groups were looking at it. People go with the erroneous belief that political office holders are overpaid, it is not true. Now, look at Supreme Court Justices who receive a little over one million monthly. The President’s salary is not up to one million five hundred Naira monthly, that is the law. This includes his salary and allowances, the same applies to the Vice President, the same applies to Governors and their deputies, senators, members of the House of Representatives and their counterparts in state assemblies. But I want Nigerians to understand that the salary paid to legislators is not up to one million naira monthly but they have what they call running costs. RMAFC is not involved in the disbursement of these funds because it is unknown to the law establishing our Commission. They are the ones who allocate these funds to themselves using their legislative powers. We hear some of them receive sums of up to N10 million but they are saying they don’t put it in their pockets but use to run their offices in their various constituencies. Take for instance, you are representing Kaduna North as senator, take a look at Zaria. Zaria is a big place, you have like seven local government areas in Kaduna North, you are required to have offices in Zaria, Ikara, Soba, Kudan, Makarfi, and other places, you will recruit staff, buy office equipment, pay security men and others. They retire such funds in accordance with the law. But in other countries of the world, this is different. In Indonesia, Malaysia and to some extent India, even though India operates the parliamentary system, even in America, legislators don’t have a business running constituency offices in this manner as senators or congressmen. They have a system where offices are built and staffed in the various constituencies and these staff members work whether or not a particular congressman wins or loses an election, the constituency office belongs to the constituency irrespective of who occupies the office as elected official. Staff members of these offices are paid by the Senate or Congress as the case may be without the congressman receiving these funds on their behalf. If Nigerians are to apply pressure for this system to be brought to Nigeria things will be done differently. The offices can be permanent and the occupants can differ.

Where do our lawmakers get these funds from?

You see, under a democratic setting, there is what is called separation of powers. You have the executive, the legislature and the judiciary. These arms exist to provide checks and balances in order to prevent the concentration of these powers in the hands of a single individual. The legislators will tell you they represent the people at all levels, and, as such, when the executive comes with a proposal to spend X amount of money, they can say they are in the legislature as representatives of the people and so this is what they want to spend. If the executive decides to oppose this, it could lead to a shutdown of government as you see in the United States of America every now and then. Government could be shut down for a week or two before the matter is resolved. You find a situation like “if you don’t do such for us, we will not do such for you”. This is how democracy is, Nigerians should be patient unless they want to see things done differently; they can approach our lawmakers and push for a change.

Why is there a wide gap in the emoluments of political office holders and public servants in some agencies and parastatals such as the CBN, NCC, NNPC and the like?

Well, for us in RMAFC, our statutory responsibility is the category of public officers I mentioned earlier. There is a separate agency which is the Salaries and Wages Commission. It is responsible for the salaries of other categories of public servants and those working in the places you mentioned. When some of these agencies were established, the nature of the services they rendered was taken into account. It was decided that staff most of whom are specialists should be remunerated in such a way as to retain their services. The CBN for example oversees the fiscal policies of government. It was during the tenure of former CBN Governor, later Emir of Kano, Sanusi II, that some of these adjustments were made to improve the workings of the CBN; this was done with the understanding of the executive and the legislature. I think that was the reason. But let me tell you, in this country today, like the former Minister of Labour, Chris Ngige, said, there are about 17 or 19 different salary structures in Nigeria. Take the Ministry of Finance for instance, a Director in the Ministry earns a little over N400, 000 monthly as salary but his counterpart in the CBN earns between one and two million Naira monthly.

When is the new salary structure for political office holders expected to come into effect?

We are not looking at that at the moment because of the current economic situation in our country. A new President has just taken over, he removed fuel subsidies and all citizens are going through a lot trying to adjust. And government is looking for ways to provide palliatives for Nigerians, the Nigerian Labour Congress is threatening to go on strike and they are also demanding increased salaries. We have no choice but to put any planned increase for political office holders on hold. We are Nigerians and we are sensitive to all that is happening. We have to wait to see what government will do in terms of adjustments. When the necessary adjustments are made and revenues improve, then we can consider.

Has your Commission’s proposal for an upward review been approved?

During the last administration, former President Muhammadu Buhari gave us the go ahead to carry out a review of the emoluments of the judicial staff. Some people went to court and got a judgment that judges should be paid N10 million monthly. However, other stakeholders met and came up with a position which was taken to the President, he agreed in principle but referred them to us, and we were working on that when we were told to include that of political office holders. We completed our task but between when our work was completed and the expiration of his tenure were just one or two months. So, there was no time to consider our report. The report has not been implemented. If you recall, some media houses reported that we’ve increased the salaries of President Tinubu and other political office holders, it is not true. Our prayer now is for our economy to improve then we can look at this issue. The last time a review was carried out, the minimum wage was less than N10, 000 monthly. It is the same market all of us go to. We are looking forward to such a time that the economy will improve and more people pay their taxes to improve revenues to enable the government to meet its obligations such as construction of roads, rail tracks, schools and hospitals to improve our lives.

Foreign investors ignored 28 states as the value of capital importation into Nigeria fell by 30 percent to $2.16 billion in the first half of 2023, from $3.11 billion in the same period last year.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) disclosed this in its latest capital importation report for the second quarter (Q2) of 2023.

Nigeria’s capital imports for the first half of 2023 totalled $2.16 billion, with $1.13 billion imported in Q1 and $1.03 billion in Q2.

According to the NBS report, the 28 states that failed to attract foreign investment in H1 2023 include:

Abia
Bauchi
Bayelsa
Benue
Borno
Cross River
Delta
Ebonyi
Edo
Enugu
Gombe
Imo
Jigawa
Kaduna
Kano
Katsina
Kebbi
Kogi
Kwara
Nasarawa
Osun
Oyo
Plateau
Rivers
Sokoto
Taraba
Yobe
Zamfara


LAGOS: A GlOBAL DESTINATION FOR FOREIGN INVESTORS

In the period under review, Lagos took the lead, outshining others — and the federal capital territory (FCT) — to top the list of states that attracted the most investments.

Analysis by TheCable Index shows that the country’s major commercial city attracted $1.48 billion, representing 69 percent of the total capital inflow into Nigeria.

Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, recently assured investors that the state is the right place for investments and “the crown subnational jewel of the African economy”.

He said Lagos was ripe for investments in financial technology, education technology, health technology, business process outsourcing (BPO), talent training and placement, or physical infrastructure like data centres, among others.

According to the NBS report, the FCT emerged as the second top investment destination with $604.55 million — representing 28 percent of the total capital inflow in the country in the first six months of the year.

Other states that attracted foreign investments in the half-year period are Akwa Ibom ($39.1 million), Adamawa ($4.5 million), Anambra ($4 million), and Ogun ($26.1 million).

Niger made the list with $1.50 million, Ondo had $200,000, and Ekiti secured $25,500.

As part of his avowed commitment to restore the status of Abuja as the Federal Capital Territory, the FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, recently announced an end to open-grazing of cattle.

There have been several efforts in the past to reposition Abuja and put it on the world map.

Difficult to contend with is the bad odour and the ugly sight of dung from animals, dropped at every corner of the city which attract flies, putting residents at risk of contracting diseases.

The dangers attached to open and unrestricted grazing, not only in the Federal Capital Territory, cannot be overemphasised.

DAILY POST reports that a former Chairman, Senate Committee on FCT, Dino Melaye, had vowed to end the movement of animals in the FCT and had once directed the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Alhaji Mohammed Bello, to slaughter cows found in the city centre.

Melaye had noted that the herdsmen have continued to move their cattle in the Abuja metropolis despite several warnings to their owners by the authorities.

“Honourable Minister, the Senate as an institution is not happy at how Fulani herdsmen continue to move their cows across the city centre, which we are aware you have given directive against some time ago.

“From now, get knives and ask your men to slaughter cows found in the capital city or prosecute herdsmen seen with cows in the city centre with a fine of N50, 000 per cow. This order must be carried out,” Melaye said.

However, whatever effort the former Kogi Senator and others put to end open grazing in the FCT did not come to fruition.

But Wike has now taken the gauntlet.

Few hours after his swearing in, he declared, “I will step on toes, the big and mighty; I will step on your toes if you are doing something wrong,” insisting that herders can move their cattle outside the city but would no longer be allowed to graze on the grasses used for the beautification of the city.

Now the question is, how does the Minister intend to drive the herdsmen out of the city centre without putting in place measures that would ensure they continue doing their business and earning their livelihood as legitimate citizens.

And experts suggest that it would create a similar situation to the ban on Okada, street hawking, and demolishing of shops in Abuja without providing alternative measures to the affected people.

It could also be compared to the removal of fuel subsidies without proper consultations and preparation to cushion the effect.

A concerned citizen remarked that stopping herdsmen from moving their cows around the FCT could be a herculean task for the new FCT Administration and so, it requires that serious planning and proper consultation with the appropriate stakeholders are made.

The Minister was rather more subtle when he talked about the issues last weekend.

Wike said, “We will consult with the herdsmen to see how we will stop [open grazing] because we cannot allow cows inside the city.

“They can be outside the city because the grasses are outside the city. The grass in the city was planted to beautify the city. It is not that one that they would eat. so, we will discuss…”

Speaking with DAILY POST, the National President of Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), Baba Othman Ngelzarma, said they are looking forward to meeting the FCT Minister in order to table before him some of their challenges, which among them are the large dysfunctional grazing reserves.

“The minister has said that he would invite the cattle owners before making a decision. That he would not do something that someone will come out to say they were not contacted.

“So this is the situation that we always want. We know Abuja is a city and cows are not supposed to move around or roam about the city. It’s very embarrassing. We are all civilised people.

“Even during the era of the former Minister, we had a series of discussions on this. We had an agreement that no cows should move in the central city area. But in the periphery, in the sahel they can move because all the grazing reserves they have have been taken over from them by the farmers.

“We have grazing reserves in Abuja here that have been taken over by farmers. So we need someone of Wike’s disposition to come and settle this once and for all.

“We have about four grazing reserves around Abuja here but they require development, they require other things in them before you stop these guys from moving around.

“Because the whole of Abuja is a grazing reserve that was taken over by the Federal Capital. But this does not mean they have the right to move because it is Federal Capital Territory and the pride of every Nigerian; it is so embarrassing in the central city area.

“This is the agreement we have with the former Minister. But they can go around in the rural areas because the grazing reserves are not developed and there’s no pasture in it and farmers are gradually encroaching on them.

“This is why we want to have interaction with Wike himself because we know he is a gentle man and that he understands the dynamics and that this will give us the opportunity for the grazing reserves to be developed.

“And we know Wike will develop them. He will recollect our grazing lands and develop them. We are yearning to interact with him. We want to have a discussion with him on how we can seek out these problems. It’s very wrong for cows to roam in the city, we know.

“But mind you, not all the cows roaming the city belong to the local pastoralists. Some of these cows are owned by big men in the city who are employing the pastoralists to graze for them but that’s notwithstanding, whatever it is, cows are not supposed to roam in the central city area.

“But because the grazing reserves are not developed we have to consider the pastoralists too. There are places reserved for them to graze their cows but those places are not developed.

“No water, grazes or any form of infrastructure. They deserve to be developed for the interest of pastoralists and for the sake of justice and fairness.

‘We know Wike. He is the one to do this job for us because he’s the aggressive type and with his disposition, he’ll return and develop our grazing land for us. Whenever he invites us, we’re ready to come and meet him and sort out this problem once and for all,” he declared.

However, a sister organisation to MACBAN, the Miyetti Allah Kautal Hore, has a slightly different view about the movement of cows in the FCT or any other city in the country.

The National Secretary of the body, Saleh Alhassan Kubah, who spoke to our correspondent, said nobody can drive the cows away or stop them from grazing anywhere in the north.

According to him, the former Rivers State Governor should rather focus on how to develop the city of Abuja instead of talking about cows.

He said that until the government is able to make available grazing areas for cattle, it would be a futile move to uproot herders from the FCT, adding that most of the cows seen around Abuja belong to the city elites.

“Where is the grazing land in Abuja? Is it inside the building they will graze? The thing is, Wike is not consequential. We have seen Ortom come and go.

“So we don’t want to engage Wike, who has to take ‘Ogogoro’ [Alcoholic drink] before he goes to the office every morning.

“You’ve not heard it before? He said it himself. Let him deliver services in the FCT. We are waiting to see the good works he will do. You know he’s working for our party, so I can’t criticise him.

“He’s our minister. So I don’t want to start fighting our minister. It’s not consequential because there’s no grazing area in Abuja.

“All those cattle you see there belong to the elite there, so he’ll find a way for them. Wike doesn’t merit our responses. Let him deal with the massive abandoned buildings.

“Let him collect tax from all those houses nobody is occupying. Let him develop the city. Let him take care of the indigenous people that have been neglected, the Gwari people.

“He’s from Port Harcourt, an Ikwerre man. He knows how they behave in Port Harcourt. If the Gwari people give him 10 percent of how Ikwerre people behave in Port Harcourt, he will know how to deal with them. Let him develop the rural areas, the satellite towns and give them amenities. Power is transient.

“No matter how it is, he will leave very soon. We can’t engage him. He can’t get new information from us. He’s an attention seeker. Is there any grazing land around the Villa?

“Or, is it the sight of cows that people don’t want to see? Are cows not the beauty of the Northern geography? You want to eat cows but you don’t want to see them, is it not contradictory?

“If there are no cows in the northern geography what you will be seeing is a crisis caused by the spirits of the land. The land won’t be stable [because the cows need to move for the spirits to be happy]. It is their environment.

“He can’t chase the cows away. Who will chase the cows away in the northern territory? Nobody can chase them. We’re going nowhere.

“Let him revoke the lands in the FCT, why is giving them more time? I thought he would just revoke them at once.

“In the Abuja development plan, there’s no grazing area in the FCT or AMAC area council…

“Let him handle the issues of insecurity in Abuja. We’re not and will never be his problem.”

And in an interview with DAILY POST, the Director, Animal Husbandry Services in the Agricultural and Rural Development, FCT, Hajiya Umma Abubakar, outlined the plans already in place to settle the herders in comfortable zones.

According to her, the establishment of the Grazing Reserves is not only aimed at resettling the Fulani pastoralists but to provide the enabling environment for them to engage in livestock activities that are comparable to the best anywhere in the world.

According to her, plans are already in place to not only develop the four grazing reserves in Abuja, but turn them into economic hobs for both the herders and their communities.

She said that the Minister of the FCT and the Minister of State for the FCT are all very much interested in settlement of herders in the nation’s capital city.

She explained that, “To address the issues of compensation and bringing an end to the incessant clashes between the Fulani and the local communities, the Secretariat embarked on a comprehensive enumeration exercise to identify the genuine inhabitants that will be compensated to ensure that no member of the community is left out.

“The plan of the FCT Administration in development of the grazing reserves will no doubt be complimented by the Special Agricultural Processing Zone (SAPZ) Project which the Africa Development Bank (AfDB & the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB) are co-funding.

“I can assure you that the SAPZ Project is going to address the issue of open grazing because one of its components which is called Agriculture Transformation Centres (ATC) focuses on building the capacities of all the groups in different aspect of the Livestock value chains, such as production of quality feeds, milk processing etc.

“Water will also be provided at the centres to ensure that they are able to conveniently fatten their animals without them moving outside the reserves.”

Speaking on how the government intends to identify and differentiate between indigenous herders from migrant herders, especially those from outside the country, she added that, “The profiling that we are conducting on a regular basis is to help us to identify new and old Fulani herdsmen.

“We are working with security agencies, as well as the communities who know those that are engaged in genuine activities without constituting any form of threat to the society.”

On the issue of continued resistance from some host communities who are against the establishment of the grazing reserves, the director said, “We are working closely with the host communities on the need for peaceful co-existence.

“We equally have been engaging the groups to sensitise them on what they all stand to benefit from the development of the reserves.

“Livestock activities do not only involve the Fulani. Even the crop farmers can engage in numerous production activities such as livestock feed while they can equally benefit from the byproducts of the cattle as manures.

“The plan by the Honourable Minister of the FCT to meet with all the stakeholders will give an impetus to achieving the desired objective.

“In the same vein, the minister of State for FCT has assured that she will provide the necessary support in making sure that the development plans for the four grazing reserves in Abuja are implemented and improved upon.”

Kano State governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, has hired renowned legal luminary, Chief Wole Olanipekun (SAN) to lead the charge to regain his mandate at the Court of Appeal.

Daily Trust reports that the Kano State Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal last month sacked Yusuf and declared his opponent, Nasir Yusuf Gawuna of the All Progressives Congress (APC) as the winner of the March 18 gubernatorial election.

Challenging the decision of the tribunal, Yusuf filed a 42-ground of appeal before the appellate court asking the court to set aside the judgment of the tribunal and also striking out the petition of the APC.

In a copy of the notice of appeal sighted by Daily Trust on Friday, Olanipekun, who led the legal team of President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal (PEPT), is now the counsel for the Kano state governor.

Also on the legal team of the governor is: Bode Olanipekun (SAN), Ibrahim G. Waru and Akintola Makinde, with Wole Olanipekun & Co as the legal firm handling the appeal, while Chief E.O.B. Offiong (APC) remains the counsel for the APC.

Henceforth, foreign nationals coming into Nigeria to make money, but whose countries fail to remove all bureaucratic barriers hindering Nigerian businessmen and others from getting visa-on-arrival in their countries, will no longer enjoy the Visa-on-Arrival (VOA) privilege into Nigeria.

The minister of interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, who revealed that the lopsided practice was not in the public domain, said the country was set to commence the execution of the principle of reciprocity in international relations.

While insisting that equity and reciprocity must be invoked and observed, forthwith, Dr. Tunji-Ojo said, “It is rather irksome, pugnacious and indeed humiliating to an average Nigerian business person to be subjected to the rigorous visa application processes at the same countries whose nationals enjoy Nigeria Visa-on-Arrival Policy ( VOA)

Tunji-Ojo vented out his anger at a news conference in Abuja on Wednesday, stressing that “Nigeria cannot be offering visas on a platter to nationals of some countries who are coming to the country to make money, and yet such countries would not reciprocate the gesture to Nigeria’s travelling public who go to such countries to spend their money.

According to him, past political leaders may have been entirely oblivious of this awesome and enviable status of Nigeria in the comity of nations, but that will be no more.

“Enough is enough. Compare and contrast these attractive qualities that Nigeria possess with other African nations; you will be amazed what clear difference there is,” he added.

The minister lamented further that the issue was not just humiliating to an average Nigerian business person to be subjected to the rigorous visa application processes at the same countries whose nationals enjoy Nigeria VOA but also to the country.

He said most times, before these Nigerians are considered, lengthy period of time may have elapsed.

“Nigerians go through hell to go to some countries, for instance, even though a large percentage of them go there to import goods running into millions of dollars. This is quite a paradox, an incomprehensible thing to any right-thinking person. Hundreds of dollars are paid to secure letters of invitation, and including a certain coded letter from the Foreign Affairs Ministry, and the provision of these do not yet guarantee expedited processing or ultimate application approval.

He said, “We have set up a committee chaired by the Permanent Secretary to review our passport and Visa policy. The director, Joint Services is the secretary and Nigeria Immigration boss, is a member among others.

The committee has about two weeks to submit its report. Once we enforce this principle of reciprocity, people will call us to talk too because most of these people who come to Nigeria come to make money and yet we go to their own countries to spend money. Yet, they make it difficult for Nigerians. We are working with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on this”.

Visa is based on reciprocity everywhere in the world, even by international conventions, and that is why we are seriously looking at this our Visa on arrival policy.

Employees of banks have enjoyed a pay rise ranging between 9 to 52 percent in the wake of the removal of fuel subsidy by the Federal Government, a report by KPMG Nigeria has revealed.

The report titled 2023 Survey on Employers’ Response to Fuel Subsidy Removal in Nigeria was published in September.

In the general economy, the report observed that employers have implemented pay increases of between 19 per cent and 40 per cent in 2023, in response to the fuel subsidy removal.

During his inaugural address at Eagle Square, Abuja, President Bola Tinubu, declared “Subsidy is gone.” The president said there was no provision for subsidy in the national budget from June 2023 and, therefore, it stands removed.

His declaration immediately resulted in a hike in the prices of fuel and fuel queues across the nation. The development also took most, if not all employers by surprise.

KPMG said that due to the suddenness of the announcement, most employers were uncertain of their response, especially given business challenges within prevailing economic circumstances.

Following the subsidy removal, the pump price of petrol has increased from between N189/litre and N194/litre1 as of May 2023 to between N577/litre and N617/litre presently, depending on location within the country. This represents an increase of between 205 per cent and 218 per cent.

According to National Bureau of Statistics, the average cost of intra-city bus transportation in Nigeria has increased from N649.59 in May 2023 to N1,285.41 in June 2023, representing about 979 per cent increase, largely due to the increase in pump price of petrol.

In the months following the subsidy removal, Wema Bank PLC increased salaries of employees to cushion the impact, Guaranty Trust Bank PLC also increased salary for junior and contract staff with cleaners earning between N70,000 and N80,000, while drivers earn between N140,000 and N150,000 per month.

Zenith Bank PLC also increased salaries across the board, ranging from 25 per cent to 50 per cent, depending on staff level, with cleaners and drivers now earning between N80,000 and N120,000.

In addition, KPMG said that Fidelity Bank PLC, GTB and Zenith Bank commissioned more staff buses to ease the burden of commuting employees.

Following the subsidy removal, the Federal Government announced a N5bn palliative for each state of the nation including the Federal Capital Territory, the release of five trucks of rice to each state for onward distribution to citizens and indicated a willingness to review upward the wages of public sector workers among other measures.

Some state governments also offered palliatives to their workers in the form of salary increases, conditional cash transfers to the needy, free bus or reduced rate of transport fares and more.

The report based on 164 submissions comprised about 55 per cent FMCG; ICT, Payment Systems & E-Commerce; Consulting; Oil and Gas (Retail, Marketing & Services); and Financial Services (Banking Institutions) companies. 97 per cent of the respondents are private sector organisations, while the balance of three per cent are public sector entities.

About 18 per cent of respondents have a staff strength of at least 2,500, while about 69 per cent have strength of 500 employees and below.

According to the report, employers across different sectors who were involved in this survey had implemented palliatives in the form of salary increases, transport/car/fuel allowance or voucher reviews and work from home.

To fund the palliatives, the report said that some businesses plan staff rightsizing, increase in sales volume, price increase, reduction in other HR costs such as training, cutting operating and administrative costs and absorption of cost by the company via reduced profit margin. Others include donations/grants, budget reallocation; reassigning cost, increase in productivity, etc. while some other businesses were undecided about the funding mechanism.

Former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar has fixed a World Press Conference for Thursday.

Dele Momodu, one of the campaign spokespersons of Atiku, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the February 25 election, announced this on Wednesday night.

The agenda is not yet clear but it might not be unconnected with the newly released certificates of President Bola Tinubu by Chicago State University (CSU).

Atiku had requested the documents to back his allegation of forgery of CSU certificate against Tinubu.

The allegation of forgery was one of those dismissed by the presidential election court in the suit Atiku filed to challenge the election of Tinubu.

Despite the court’s ruling, Atiku continued his case at the US court, hoping to get official documents to back his claim and possibly include them in his appeal at the Supreme Court.

Through his lawyers, Atiku sought these key things – an example of a CSU diploma issued in 1979; Tinubu’s diploma issued in 1979; example of a CSU diploma that “contains the same font, seal, signatures and wording” as Tinubu’s diploma issued in June 1979 and CSU documents certified and produced by Jamar Orr, an associate general counsel at CSU at the time.

Although the certificate issue has dominated the headlines in the last 48 hours, Atiku has been silent about it.

Meanwhile, some organisations and individuals, especially critics have called for the resignation of the president over the saga.

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria (HURIWA) called on the Supreme Court to disqualify Tinubu or compel him to resign over alleged identity theft and certificate forgery.

National coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said the apex court has a duty to uphold justice and protect integrity of the electoral process and democratic values of Nigeria.

The content of the report of Mr. Jim Obazee, Special Investigator examining the books of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) may be causing some discomfort in the Presidency, ahead of the submission of a report any time from now.

Sources familiar with the work of the Special Investigator told our correspondent on Wednesday, that highly placed aides of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu may have been indicted in the report.

“I can tell you that some very, very close aides of the President are not finding the prospects of the submission of the report funny at all,” one source said.

“The former CBN governor apparently kept very extensive dossiers of his disbursements, especially in the last days of his tenure when politicians were threatening him with arrests and all that. Those involved know they’re in for a hard time.”

It would be recalled that during his October 1 national broadcast, President Tinubu had said Nigerians would be shocked at the content of the report and that he was expecting it to be formally submitted in a matter of days.

Obazee, who gained a somewhat iconoclastic reputation from his earlier encounter with overstaying corporate CEOs and heads of faith groups over the implementation of the Companies and Allied Matters Act (CAMA), was appointed in July to investigate the CBN.

Already, initial fallouts of his investigation have, among other things, led to the removal of the four deputy governors of the bank.

Sources said others that may well be in firing range are a few top politicians in Tinubu’s administration and even a few media houses as well.

“You will recall,” one source said, “that at the height of COVID-19, the CBN created a special fund for media houses, disbursed through NISRAL. That fund has come under Obazee’s forensic audit, and it’s not looking good for those who have not repaid.”

The source added that discussions to allow former CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, enter a plea-bargain to return N50billion were stalled after an angry push-back by the President.

Meanwhile, attempts to get the Presidency react to the development were rebuffed on Wednesday evening as media handlers of the President were not willing to confirm or deny the report.

The leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) has revealed its plans to negotiate the new minimum wage to either N100,000 or N200,000.

This is coming hours after the organised labour announced the postponement of its nationwide strike for 30 days which was initially scheduled to commence on Tuesday, October 3.

Recall that the NLC and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) had last week announced the commencement of a nationwide strike over the failure of the government to yield to its demand as a result of the removal of the fuel subsidy.

Announcing the suspension, the NLC President, Joe Ajaero on Tuesday said the strike was suspended to give the Federal Government the opportunity to fulfil its part of the agreement that had been reached with organized labour.

He also mentioned that the N35,000 wage award, which is part of the government’s offer, is not a new minimum wage and suggested that the new minimum wage could potentially be as high as N200,000.

Ajaero speaking on Channels TV said, “So, it is not a minimum wage but it is a wage added to the minimum wage. So, should we in March, April, or before that time negotiate the new wage to be N100,000 or N200,000, it would be inscribed as minimum wage law which should be the law in existence.

“Certain things would come into play when we discuss it – inflation, cost of living. Every other thing would come into it.

“We would not go to ask for N65,000. We would go for a realistic amount because N65,000 is about $70 which is not up to minimum wage.”

According to him, for a new minimum wage to take effect, the National Assembly will play a crucial role.

Ajaero added, “The minimum wage is a product of law. Until it is legislated in the National Assembly, it is not a minimum wage.”

Deputy Speaker of the house of representatives, Ben Kalu, on Tuesday threatened to suspend a member, Solomon Bob (PDP, Rivers), who had an altercation with him during plenary session

Bob, a ranking member, had an altercation with Kalu, during the debate on a motion on Nigeria’s Independence Day celebration.

He criticised the deputy speaker, who presided over the session, for preventing some members from contributing to the debate.

During the debate, Kalu had said the House could not afford to allow everyone to speak but selected few.

However, Bob raised a point of order, noting that he was disappointed in the deputy speaker for preventing all members who wanted to speak from doing so.

The Rivers lawmaker was subsequently overruled by the deputy speaker. He, however, continued to protest the ruling of the deputy speaker.

“My point of order is that this is a very important subject, and everyone that wants to speak should be allowed to speak,” he said.

Shortly after the incident, a lawmaker, Inuwa Garba (PDP, Garba) moved a motion on privilege and called for an apology from Bob for disrespecting the presiding officer and the House.

Garba, a former speaker of Gombe State House of Assembly, said Bob should be given three days to apologise or be suspended for three months.

“While the speaker was discharging his constitutional responsibilities, our colleague showed a sign of disrespect to this honourable chair and the House. Honourable Solomon Bob, in front of all the cameras, the whole world is watching said he is disappointed with the action of the speaker and the House. I think that it is unethical and unlawful.

“We have to show examples for others to see. I want to move that from now to the end of this week, the honourable member should come to the floor and put it in writing, apologise to the speaker, apologise to the House and all the honourable members for his action because we are here because we have a law.

“If he refuses, he should be suspended from all activities of the House for three months,” Garba said.

In a bid to prevent the situation from escalating, the Minority Leader, Kingsley Chinda (PDP, Rivers), said the comments made by Bob did not warrant the call for suspension as suggested by Garba.

His intervention failed to quell the situation, as the deputy speaker insisted that Bob must apologise or be suspended by the House.

He stated that Bob, who was not on the floor at the moment, must apologise before the end of the plenary.

About one hour after the ultimatum was issued, Bob returned to the chamber and apologised. His apology was accepted by the deputy speaker.

The Chicago State University (CSU) yesterday released the academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in compliance with the order of the District Court of Northern District of Illinois, Eastern Division.

The court had, on Saturday, ordered the CSU to release the academic records of Tinubu to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku Abubakar, Tinubu’s main challenger in the 2023 general elections.

The development came after a U.S Judge, Nancy Maldonado, in a memorandum of opinion and order, adopted all the ruling of Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert of the U.S. District Court.

Tinubu, the candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), had objected to the Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Gilbert ruling ordering the immediate release of the academic records by the CSU.

The president had said releasing the documents with deposition would cause him severe harm because they were private to him and would not be admissible in the ongoing petition against him in Nigeria.

But Atiku had filed another appeal, leading to the judge ordering that the documents be released within 48 hours.

“The Court overrules President Tinubu’s objections to Magistrate Judge Gilbert’s recommended ruling, and therefore adopts the ruling in full. Mr Abubakar’s application is therefore granted,” the judge had ruled.

CSU, in a certificate of service signed by its counsel, Michael D. Hayes, stated that: “I hereby certify that on this 2nd day of October, 2023 the forgoing response to the Applicant’s Revised Subpoena to Produce Documents was served on all counsel of record by electronic mail.”

Details of the released documents sought by Atiku showed that CSU complied with his request for a true correct copy of diploma for Bachelor of Science degree issued in 1979 and Bates labelled as CSU 0001 through 0007 with an obscured student’s name which the university said was for privacy reasons.

The university, however, said it could not locate a true and correct copy relating to the diploma it issued in 1979 to Tinubu.

The university said, “CSU does not in the ordinary course keep copies of student diplomas, and after diligent search cannot locate a copy of the original diploma it prepared for Mr Tinubu in 1979, hence has no documents responsive to this request.

On Atiku’s request for any of the university’s diploma other than that issued to President Tinubu that “contains the same font, seal, signatures, and wording which purports to be a CSU diploma issued to the president on or about June 22, 1979, the university said after diligent search it located and Bates labelled them CSU 0008 through CSU 0010 and obscured the student’s identity for privacy reasons.

“The students’ names on these diplomas have been redacted for privacy reasons. CSU is also producing Bates labeled as CSU 0011 and CSU 0012 diplomas prepared for other CSU students (with their names redacted for privacy) which match the format of the Tinubu replacement diploma dated June 27, 1997,” the university said.

The university also released documents demanded by Atiku on the correct copies of the documents earlier certified by Jamar Orr in Exhibit D to Uwais Declaration and Bates labelled same CSU 0013 through 0032. But the institution said the communication to CSU between August 1, 2022 and August 1, 2023, was not produced because the objection to them was sustained by the court.

The releases followed an order on Saturday by Judge Nancy Maldonado, in overruling Tinubu’s objection to Judge Gilbert’s earlier approval to Atiku’s application.

She ruled that Atiku’a requests met the threshold and requirements under 28 U.S.C S 1782 as Tinubu’s submission of his CSU diploma to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and its relevancy outweighs his privacy interests.

She further noted that Atiku made the request for the documents as a candidate in the February 25 presidential election to enable him tender them in his appeal at the Supreme Court in Nigeria in support of his claim that Tinubu was as of the time of the election not qualified to contest.

When contacted on the telephone last night for a reaction to the release of Tinubu’s academic records, a spokesperson to Atiku, Phrank Shaibu, said he would get back to Daily Trust, but as of the time of filing the report around midnight, he did not do so. Neither did he reply a text message sent to him.

Controversy had trailed the details of credentials submitted by Tinubu to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).

Pregnant woman, son of owner, about-to-wed lady died in Rivers illegal refinery inferno

The Rivers State Commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) Basil Igwebueze has confirmed a pregnant woman, the son of the illegal refinery owner and an about-to-wed lady were among victims of fire that engulfed an illegal refinery at Ibaa community in Emohua Local Government Area.

He said while the owner of the illegal refinery identified as John Bodo sustained severe injuries, his son, Uche Bodo, who just graduated from a tertiary institutions died at the spot.

Basil said: “The fire outbreak started at a very late hour hence 18 victims were burnt beyond recognition while 25 injured persons were rescued.

From our preliminary findings it was gathered that the inferno was caused by a local refinery cooking pot constructed close to an oil reservoir which contained combustible materials.

“The burning temperature eventually became too high and the environment gutted fire. We also gathered that the cooking pot belong to one Mr John Bodo who sustained severe fire injuries while his son, Uche John Bodo a fresh graduate died on the spot.

“It is also lamentable to relay that most of the victim were youths; then a pregnant woman and a young lady getting ready for her marriage ceremony next month were all casualties”.

Basil condemned the activities of economic saboteurs engaging in Vandalism of oil pipelines and operations of local refineries in the State.

He decried the unrepentant nature of those dealing illegally in petroleum products through construction and operation of local refineries.

He said he he command had made meaningful efforts by destroying a good number of illegal oil bunkering sites and oil dumps across the state.

He said: “In collaborations with sister security agencies we have identified through sustained intelligence certain areas where local refineries were constructed and such illegal sites have been taken over by our Antivandal Squad to prevent further operations by perpetrators.

“it is, however, disheartening that the more we dismantle these illegal refineries the more people engaged in such unscrupulous activities. Recall that the Command antivandal Squad recently took over and dismantle a local refinery under construction at Umuechem in Etche Local Government.

“Thus, the fire disaster which occured in Ibaa community is highly condemnable and uncalled for; there is need for conscious effort and stronger collaborations with the traditional institutions, community youths, religious leaders amongst others to fight against oil bunkering activities in our various communities and this begins with giving credible Intelligence and information to the NSCDC who remains the lead agency in the fight against vandalism of oil pipelines and protection of critical national assets and Infrastructures in Rivers State”.

While condoling with the affected families; the NSCDC Rivers State Commandant warned those operating local refineries in some communities across the State.

A London court, on Monday, granted bail to a former Nigerian Minister of Petroleum Resources, Diezani Alison-Madueke, who faces bribery charges filed against her by the United Kingdom (UK) government.

District Judge Michael Snow granted her bail in terms and conditions including a curfew that ordered her to stay indoors between 11 p.m. to 6 a.m., according to Reuters.

The judge also ordered her to always wear an electronic tag, and imposed a 70,000-pound surety to be paid before she could leave the court building on Monday.

According to Reuters, the former minister, during her Monday’s appearance at Westminster Magistrates Court, spoke only to give her name, date of birth and address.

The charges against her were read out in court, but she was not asked to formally enter a plea. Her lawyer, Mark Bowen, told the court she would be pleading not guilty, the news agency also reports.

She is scheduled to have her next court appearance at Southwark Crown Court, which deals with serious criminal cases on 30 October.

Mrs Alison-Madueke, who was Nigeria’s petroleum minister between 2010 and 2015, was charged with bribery offences in August, following a National Crime Agency investigation.

She allegedly received bribes as Nigeria’s petroleum minister in the form of cash, luxury goods, flights on private jets and the use of high-end properties in Britain in return for awarding oil contracts, Reuters reports.

The prosecutor, Andy Young, accused her of accepting a wide range of advantages in cash and in kind from people who wanted to receive or continue to receive the award of oil contracts said to be worth billions of dollars in total.

The advantages, according to the prosecutor, included a delivery of 100,000 pounds ($121,620) in cash, the payment of private school fees for her son, and the use and refurbishment of several luxurious properties in London and in the English countryside.

They also included the use of a Range Rover car, payment of bills for chauffeur-driven cars, furniture, and purchases from the upmarket London department store Harrods and from Vincenzo Caffarella, which sells Italian decorative arts and antiques.

Mrs Alison-Madueke, aged 63, who also served as president of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was a key figure in the Nigerian government between 2010 and 2015.

The former minister, who has subsisting criminal summons issued against her by a Nigeria’s federal court in Abuja, was arrested in London in 2015, shortly after stepping down as minister.

Nigerian dimension

Activities of Ms Alison-Madueke’s Ministry of Petroleum Resources and the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) which she served as its chair, were often cited by the Buhari government as part of the worst forms of corruption that took place during the Jonathan administration.

The former minister quickly became a subject of intense investigations and legal proceedings in Nigeria as soon as the new government settled down.

A court document revealed that the suspended chair of EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa, who was appointed to head the team investigating Ms Alison-Madueke and her allies, once travelled to the United Kingdom to interrogate the former minister but could not gain access to her.

EFCC’s investigations culminated in the money laundering charges filed against her in 2018. The commission also targeted high-worth assets it believed she acquired with proceeds of crimes for forfeiture.

Activities of some officials of the agencies linked to her ministry were also subject of corruption charges.

Some electoral officers have also been jailed for funds they allegedly received from NNPC on her watch to manipulate the results of the 2015 elections.

On different occasions, the Federal High Court in Abuja had issued a warrant of arrest against her as part of the process of bringing her to Nigeria to face charges.

The EFCC blamed the United Kingdom government for shielding her from trial.

Muyiwa Adejobi, the public relations officer of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), says it is ridiculous for Nigerians to believe that officers can not afford expensive phones.

Adejobi, while responding to a query on his X handle, on Saturday, said netizens need to be “straight and be objective” when questioning police officers’ source of income.


HOW IT STARTED

On Friday, Adejobi posted a picture of one David Victoria, a deputy superintendent of police (DSP) and secretary to the inspector general of Police (IGP), who appears to be holding a Samsung Galaxy Fold 2 and a diamond-branded watch around her wrist.

“We have beautiful and intelligent ones in the force. This is DSP David Victoria, secretary to the IGP. Happy weekend. Ire o,” Adejobi wrote.

Netizens, who reacted to the post, asked for a disclosure of the officer’s salary that could afford a cellphone worth N1 million.

An X user also requested that Victoria’s account statement be printed out to track her cash inflow claiming her salary cannot afford such an expensive gadget.


DSP Victoria


“Her cellphone, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold, is worth over a million naira. I don’t wanna talk about her wristwatch, which is also not cheap. Where did she get the money from, and how much is her monthly salary that she was able to afford all that?” the social media user wrote.

In response, Adejobi said police officers are not paupers, while he asked the X user to withdraw his statement.

“Police officers are not paupers. Withdraw your statement. It’s ridiculous to us to say a DSP can’t use Samsung fold 2…. you need to reason straight and be objective. Do you know what it is to be a DSP?” Adejobi said.

Checks by TheCable showed that a 256GB Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2 price ranges from ₦700,000 – ₦750,000 based on location. Also, for a 512GB Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 2, the price ranges from ₦800,000 – ₦850,000.

The US court on Friday in a notification of docket entry stated that “it will not consider any third-party or ex parte submissions.”

The United States District Court in the Northern District of Illinois has stated that it has received “extensive email communications” from many third parties in relation to the case brought y Nigerian former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, concerning President Bola Tinubu’s Chicago State University records.

The US court on Friday in a notification of docket entry stated that “it will not consider any third-party or ex parte submissions.”

“The court understands the significant public interest in this dispute, but the court will not consider any third-party or ex-parte submissions. Rather, the court’s review will be limited to the parties’ briefing and the official records on the docket,” the court notification said.

SaharaReporters had during the week reported that Atiku filed a fresh motion urging the US Court to overrule Tinubu’s request to stop Chicago State University from releasing his (Tinubu’s) academic record.

Atiku had earlier secured an order from a US magistrate for CSU to make Tinubu’s academic records available to his legal team.

The magistrate, Jeffrey Gilbert, had last week ordered Tinubu’s alma mater to provide all relevant and non-privileged documents to Atiku’s legal team within two days.

Atiku is currently challenging Tinubu’s emergence as the winner of the February 25 presidential election.

The matter is currently before the Supreme Court in Nigeria.

The documents sought by the PDP candidate, through his counsel, Angela Liu, include Tinubu’s record of admission and acceptance at the Chicago State University, dates of attendance as well the degrees, awards, and honours obtained by Tinubu from the CSU.

But as the deadline given by the magistrate drew nearer, Tinubu’s lawyers approached the US high court, arguing that the earlier decision by the magistrate needed to be reviewed by a district judge.

The request for a review and delay of the magistrate’s order till Monday was eventually granted by the US district judge.

Tinubu’s application, filed by his New York-based lawyer, Oluwole Afolabi, advanced two reasons.

First is that his academic records in issue are not useful in Nigerian courts as claimed by Atiku because “the Nigerian election proceedings and the Nigerian courts have explicitly been unreceptive to the discovery.”

His second reason is that Atiku’s request “is unduly intrusive because it allows the applicant (Atiku) to conduct a fishing expedition into the intervenor’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.”

But Atiku, in a fresh response filed on Wednesday, in Chicago, Illinois, urged the court to overrule Tinubu’s request in its entirety.

Atiku’s counsel, Angela Liu, appealed that “If the court overrules the objections, the applicant respectfully requests that it enter an order requiring production of documents no later than October 2, 2023, and the deposition scheduled no later than October 3, to allow time for transcripts to be finalised, and the discovery obtained to be sent to Nigeria (which is six hours ahead) by October 4, so that such evidence may, in turn, be filed with the Supreme Court by October 5, which is when applicant’s Nigerian counsel intend to submit any new evidence to the Supreme Court.”

Atiku’s lawyer explained that contrary to Tinubu’s “inflated rhetoric”, he is not seeking “to conduct a fishing expedition into Tinubu’s private, confidential, and protected educational records.”

The health condition of the Minister of Tourism, Lola Ade-John, is shrouded in uncertainty.

Some reports had claimed that the minister was hospitalised at the Federal Medical Centre, Jabi, Abuja after experiencing acute poisoning.

The reports said she was rushed to the hospital shortly after she started manifesting symptoms of poisoning, adding that she had spent four days at the facility as of Friday morning.

The report was, however, debunked by a source in the ministry, which claimed that the minister is only attending to malaria and nothing else.

The source, which refused to disclose the hospital where Ade-John is receiving treatment, said the minister was responding to treatment.

It stressed that the minister, who just returned to the country following her appointment by President Bola Tinubu, has been struggling to acclimatise to the Nigerian environment.

Dispelling the fear of acute poison, the source said Ade-John was only receiving treatment for malaria, adding that nobody in Nigeria is immune to the disease.

“The minister only has malaria. She is responding to treatment and she is in stable condition,” the source said.

“Don’t forget that malaria is a common sickness in Nigeria which everyone is prone to. But I can assure you that it is not more than that.

“She is still trying to acclimatise after many years outside the country.”

Some media reports also quoted the Assistant Director Press in the ministry, Emem Mariam Ofiong, as debunking the claim that the minister was poisoned, saying that she only had malaria, was treated and had been stabilised.

“It is not true that the Minister was poisoned. She only had malaria and had been treated and is now stable,” Ofiong was quoted as saying.

The embattled former Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, is set to be released from the detention of the Department of State Services (DSS) after his plea bargain with the President Bola Tinubu’s administration has been concluded, SaharaReporters has learnt.

SaharaReporters further gathered that the non-prosecution plea bargain for Emefiele was being premised upon the former governor’s willingness to return N50billion which he had corruptly amassed.

SaharaReporters understands that the Minister of Justice and Attorney-General of the Federation (AGF), Lateef Fagbemi, has signed the non-prosecution plea bargain and it is waiting for Tinubu’s approval.

SaharaReporters had in August reported that Emefiele faced 20 counts of conspiracy and procurement fraud levelled against him by the Nigerian government. He had on August 17, 2023, been brought to court under tight security.

“The exclusive deal has been finalised awaiting Tinubu’s order. Tinubu is expected back in Nigeria this weekend after a medical visit to France. The DSS traced N72billion to a series of accounts which Emefiele had planned to use for his Presidential run. Also, $70million he hid with a couple who specialised in helping him to do round tripping was discovered,” a top source revealed to SaharaReporters on Friday.

“The federal investigators have traced ownership of Polaris bank to Emefiele. As well as several other banks he used people to set up,” the source revealed further.

SaharaReporters had reported that the couple, Aminu Yaro, and his wife, Saadatu Yaro, were arrested by the DSS since July 12, in connection with investigations into Emefiele’s infractions.

Alongside his wife, Yaro, described as the Sarkin Hausawa of Lagos and Chairman of the Council of Chiefs, was arrested at their home in Abuja in the early hours of 12 July.

The arrest of the couple had concerned investigations into a case involving Emefiele — which bothered on forex differential fraud.

SaharaReporters had in August reported how the fundamental rights enforcement suit filed against the DSS and the AGF at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) by two brothers of Emefiele was withdrawn.

The court’s vacation judge, Justice Emmanuel Okpe, had struck out the suit after the applicants through their lawyer informed the court of their decision to discontinue the case.

SaharaReporters had reported that the suspended CBN governor’s siblings - George Emefiele and Okanta Emefiele, had filed separate ex-parte motions at the court seeking order of the court to enforce their fundamental rights.

It had also been reported that the trial of Emefiele was stalled at the High Court of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) following his plan to enter into plea bargaining to get soft-landing.

SaharaReporters had learnt from lawyers involved in the case that Emefiele opted to enter into plea bargaining with the prosecution team.

"The matter is not coming up; they are finding another way to resolve the matter and give him soft-landing," one of the lawyers had said.

"They are moving to negotiate plea bargaining."

Director-general of World Trade Centre, Dr Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala has called on Southeast governors to eschew bitterness, and embrace togetherness to boost the economy of the region.

Okonjo-Iweala made the call yesterday when she addressed stakeholders as the keynote speaker at the ongoing Southeast summit on economy and security in Owerri, the Imo State capital.

The WTO DG who joined the meeting via zoom, lamented that lack of unity among the governors but commended them for daring to change the narrative.

She said Igbo have high human resources even as a huge number is scattered across the world and excelling.

The former Nigerian finance minister called on the Southeast governors to convene an investment forum to examine the cause of blockages within the zone and how to address them, saying they should eschew bickering and work together.

She also asked the governors to open discussions with pharmaceutical companies, and vaccine producers on how to create a market chain in the zone saying it can be achieved since power had been privatised.

The WTO boss further appealed to the governors to maximise the huge Ndigbo human resource to support professors to develop high-quality schools, and diaspora doctors to build quality hospitals saying all will bring people.

A former Senate President, Chief Anyim Pius Anyim, who was the chairman of the summit, lamented that the rising spate of insecurity may be a result of the inability of Igbo leaders to make a strong statement and define their position in the Biafran agitation.

He charged the Igbo leaders to engage the agitators in a robust discussion to find a lasting solution to the problem.

Anyim regretted that the once peaceful zone had turned into a war zone where safety was no longer guaranteed.

The Obi of Onitsha, Igwe Alfred Achebe called for the restoration of Igbo values to drive economic goals.

Governor Hope Uzodimma of Imo state welcomed his brother governors to the state and declared commitment to the Ndigbo cause.

Governors Chukwuma Soludo of Anambra State, Alex Otti of Abia State, Peter Mbah of Enugu State, and Francis Nwifuru of Ebonyi State all declared their readiness to work for the unity and safety of Ndigbo and the zone.

On his part, founder of Zinox computers, Chief Leo-Stan Ekeh called for the release of the leader of the proscribed Indigenous People of Biafra, Mazi Nnamdi Kanu saying it will help to reduce criminality in the zone masked as agitations.

The event was attended by serving ministers, national assembly members of the zone, traditional and religious leaders, and several others. The summit continues today.[/b]

Nigerians may soon be paying different prices in different states for calls, data, SMS, and other telecommunication services, telecommunication firms have said.

According to the telcos, this measure is to mitigate against multiple taxation and business environments across different states.

They stated that it was no longer appropriate for Nigeria to continue to have one national tariff since the cost of providing service across the states was different.

The Chairman, Association of Licensed Telecoms Operators of Nigeria, Mr Gbenga Adebayo, disclosed this in Lagos during his goodwill address at ‘The Nigeria eGovernment Summit 2023’ themed, ‘eGovernment: Pathway to a prosperous nation,’ on Thursday.

He said, “We have been talking about multiple taxation for many years. It may not be appropriate to continue to have one national tariff because if the cost of providing services in one region is high, services in that region should reflect the cost of service provision.

“If you have a state that has introduced 50 different taxes for the operator, the telcos need to pass it on to the subscribers there. Otherwise, we would remain on this issue for many years to come.”

Expanding on the issue further on the sidelines of the event, the Chairman of the umbrella association for telcos revealed that the Nigerian Communications Commission is aware of this new demand. He stressed that it is the way forward for the telcos.

Adebayo said, “We are providing the NCC with data to back up this demand, but it is a direction that we must go. It is the only way to mitigate against the multiplicity of taxes that exist because in some cases cost of rolling out services is more expensive.”

He said that the current pricing regime for telecom service was unfair to states that provided a bright and friendly business environment.

According to him, “It will be unfair on states that provide a bright friendly business environment to pay as much as states that have high hostility against service providers. And we believe that the time has come. It is not done anywhere in the world.

“Across different geographical regions, tariff varies. If you leave Lagos for Benin for instance, you will pay a different tariff. It is the same telephone service, but it is because regulations and rules in these regions differ. This is why end-user rates differ. So, we are saying that the time for a national tariff is gone. Today’s reality needs a new approach.”

When implemented, this move will ensure that tariffs for telecom services across Nigeria will vary, making the price of calls higher or cheaper depending on location. Adebayo noted that this move was dependent on the NCC’s approval and would be implemented if and when it is given the nod

The telecom association chairman noted that the industry (telecoms) was expected to meet with the new Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy, Dr. Bosun Tijani, in the next couple of days to discuss his agenda.

Michael Olayemi Cardoso yesterday began his tenure as the 12th Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) governor following his clearance for the position by the Senate.

He promised to provide transparent and focused leadership with full adherence to the rules and return the apex bank to its core monetary policy responsibility.

He also pledged to work in synergy with the fiscal authorities in the overall interest of the economy in the short and medium term.

Cardoso, 66, a former chairman of Citi Bank, was Lagos State Commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning.

He spoke during his screening alongside the four deputy governors by the Senate. All of them were cleared.

The deputy governors are: Mrs. Emem Usoro, Mr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Mr. Philip Ikeazor and Dr. Bala M. Bello.

The deputy governors also responded to some of the questions posed by senators, including Senate President Godswill Akpabio.

All the nominees left the senators in no doubt about their capacity and capability.

Cardoso said for 12 years, between 2010 and 2022 he had the privilege of serving as the chairman of Citi Bank where: “I dedicated myself to enhancing both the financial and non-financial operations of the institution.’’

He told the Senate that the issue of exchange rate of the Naira to other currencies was worrisome.

“For the type of economy that we want, we need to have an exchange rate that is stable and we must apply short and medium term measures to achieve this,’’ he said.

Cardoso added that CBN’s new management team would evolve rules that were open and transparent and comprehensible by all players in the finance business.

“We cannot expect serious foreign investors and portfolio investors who have an impact on the market to do so if we do not have a transparent system that everybody understands and can rely on,’’ he said.

On inflation, he said: “There is the need to significantly revamp the infrastructure at the central bank with respect to data and to ensure that our data gathering capacity is significantly enhanced.

“This is necessary so that we can make decisions based on stellar data. This is crucial in measuring inflation,’’ he stressed.

He added that reliable studies showed that in the past 10 years to 15 years, at least 50 per cent of inflation resulted from money supply and deficit financing.

“This is a big problem; at least it certainly has been over a period of time and it is something we have to face frontally.

“You have been hearing a lot of complaints. There are various measures to be taken and some of them are already being taken like the removal of fuel subsidy and fast-tracking the collection of taxes,” he said.

Cardoso added: “In refocusing CBN to its core mandate, there is need to pull the CBN back from direct development, finance interventions into more limited advisory roles that support economic growth. These advisory roles would include, for instance, one, act as a catalyst in propagation of specialized institutions and financial products that support emerging sectors of the economy, facilitate new regulatory frameworks to unlock enormous capital, accelerate access to consumer credit, and expand financial inclusions to the masses.”

He assured the Senate that the CBN under his watch will not be hijacked or used by politicians.

He said: “This is a position of great trust and with that it comes with huge responsibility to meet up that trust …and my idea is to do what is right and how it is right. We have seen the effect of not doing what is right and we do not intend to go that route.

“Secondly, on the issue of not obeying the hallowed chambers’ summons for conversation, frankly, I have absolute no doubt that that has got to be part of the engagements that I spoke about earlier.

“Part of that is that the law specifies that such dialogue should take place twice in a year and as I said in resetting the Central Bank, we must ensure that we do not run foul of the law.

“It goes back to the issue of culture of compliance. We are going to ensure we maintain a culture of compliance in the CBN. There will be zero tolerance for non-complying with orders and I can assure you that that tone would be fully set from the top.”

He added: “What is important to us is the element of economic growth. Our feeling is that in identifying the important issues with economic growth, we believe very strongly that size matters.

“The economic policy proposal of the administration has identified a set of fiscal reforms and growth patterns that will achieve $1trillion GDP within eight years.

“In reviewing selected growth targets that can achieve $1trn GDP, selected countries with large population and similar characteristics as Nigeria, it is interesting to identify micro-economics indicies that points to Nigeria’s economic trajectory, being faithful to implementation of the proposed economic reforms.

“In economies bigger than $1trillion, these indices include moderate inflation, sizeable foreign reserves and capacity to creating rebound from economic downturns.

“In other words, to the extent that the administration has defined such a bold target for the country, it is our feeling that achieving this is very critical to achieve the stability that we require in various economic indices.

“It is not the only thing, but it is very important. So we believe that this is the right way to go.

He insisted that the immediate issues his team would address at the CBN include both Operational and Systems.

He added: “It is what I will term uncorrelalational issues. We are aware that there are unsettled obligations by the CBN. Whether it is $4b, $5b or $7b I don’t know but definitely the immediate priority is to ascertain the extent.

“We need to find a way to take care of that. It will be naive for us to be expecting to succeed if we are not able to handle that side of the foreign exchange market.

According to him, the medium term measures in reviving the economy “have to do with balance of payments over a period of time like the sort of things that are being done already with respect to ensuring that we are getting more from petroleum resources with the removal of fuel subsidy and diversifying the economic base of the country.

“That I believe will continue by the present administration and of course it will take time. I think we should take that as a medium term measure than the immediate.”

Many financial experts rated the appearance of the CBN governor and his deputies high, especially their pledge to return the apex bank to its core responsibilities.

The Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress have resolved to ground activities nationwide from October 3, 2023, following what the Labour Unions tagged as the “failure” of government to successfully implement policies to alleviate the sufferings of Nigerians following the removal of the subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, The PUNCH exclusively gathered.

The PUNCH reports that the NLC national president, Joe Ajaero, during a virtual National Executive Council meeting which was held on Zoom, Tuesday told members of NEC that a meeting was held with the officials of the TUC to deliberate on ways forward. Ajaero noted that it was resolved that the two centres work together to make their stance known to the government.

A source who was present at the meeting noted that some members of the NLC initially objected to the development of the NLC working together with the TUC.

“Initially some members did not want us to work with the TUC but as of now, we don’t have a choice. The government has not been proactive. So it is going to be a definite action this time around.”

The PUNCH reports that the 21-day ultimatum given by the NLC ended last week. The national president of the NLC, Joe Ajaero had complained that “none of the demands put before the Federal Government had been addressed.”

The union first observed a two-day nationwide warning strike on September 5 and 6 to show its readiness for the indefinite strike later in the month.

Among other things, the NLC and the TUC are asking for wage awards, implementation of palliatives, tax exemptions and allowances to public sector workers and a review of the minimum wage.

President Bola Tinubu had on June 19 set up the Presidential Steering Committee and various sub-committees to discuss the framework to be adopted on the palliatives.

Though the FG made a commitment to restructure the framework for engagement with organised Labour on palliatives, the eight-week timeframe set for the conclusion of the process expired in August with no action taken.

The committees were given eight weeks to conclude their assignment and hasten the implementation of the framework in cushioning the effect of petrol subsidy removal on Nigerians but weeks after the timeframe expired, the sub-committees had yet to meet or actualise their mandates, leaving the NLC and TUC leadership frustrated.

Governor Dauda Lawal, on Tuesday, said the Zamfara State Government has enough facts to expose the agents of the Federal Government behind the secret negotiation with bandits.

The governor, who had consistently ruled out the option of negotiating with bandits, had earlier raised the alarm that the Federal Government had entered a secret dialogue with the criminals.

But the Minister of Information and National Orientation, Alhaji Mohammed Idris, accused the Zamfara Government of politicising security.

However, in a statement Sulaiman Bala Idris, his spokesman, issued on his behalf, the Governor said he had evidence exposing some Federal Government agents involved in the negotiations with bandits in Zamfara.

He added that the Minister of Information should have conducted a thorough investigation before discrediting the State Government.

The statement read in parts: “We sought clarification from the Federal Government regarding the sneaky negotiations with bandits carried out by some of its agents without recourse to the State Government and heads of Security agencies in the State.

“We have facts and evidence on what had transpired between these agents of the Federal Government and the bandits during the negotiations in several places across Zamfara.

“It is disappointing that the information minister discredited our claim without verifying it first. What is expected of him as a professional is to collaborate with relevant authorities to substantiate the claim’s authenticity.

“Zamfara State Government respects protocol and established authority. We would not come out in the media to start exposing the names of the Federal Government agents involved in the covert dialogue with bandits.

“We want to clarify that those individuals leading secret negotiations with bandits in Zamfara are politicising insecurity, not the State Government.

“The Information Minister’s statement claiming that there were no negotiations between government officials and bandits in Zamfara requires further clarification. We have already exposed a few locations where such talks were held with bandits, such as Birnin Magaji, Maradun, Mun Haye, Ajah, Bawo, and Bagege.

“Negotiating with bandits in Zamfara is a grave mistake we cannot afford to make. It is not the solution to the problem and only encourages and emboldens the criminals. We urge the Federal Government to take a firm stance against such activities and investigate the motives of those who engage in them.”