₦airaland Forum

By Wole Mosadomi, Minna


An unidentified aircraft has reportedly bombed Galadima Kogo community in Shiroro Local Government Area of Niger state on Tuesday, killing vigilante members.

The Commander of the vigilante group and several others were also said to have been injured.

Vanguard reliably gathered that the local vigilante men were preparing for a counter-operation against bandits, when the aircraft attacked them.

The bandits had raided the community on Monday, kidnapped several villagers and made away with large number of cattle.

One of the community leaders in the area confirmed the incident on phone.

“The development is unbelievable. As at now, I cannot say how many people have been killed, but I know they are many,” said the leader who wished to remain anonymous.

“What I know is that two Hilux vans have evacuated the dead from the camp.

“It is the vigilante men that have been protecting us against these bandits and now that many of them have been killed, we are at the mercy of the gunmen,” the source declared.

The Commissioner for Internal Security and Humanitarian Affairs, Mr. Emmanuel Umar, when contacted, confirmed the incident, but could not say the exact number of those killed or where the aircraft came from.

“Government is already on top of the incindent as we are battling with the survivors and injured and how to restore peace to the community,” the Commissioner remarked.

In the past few weeks, bandits have been ravaging Shiroro, Paikoro and Munya Local Government areas, during which a councillor was killed on Sunday, while others escaped.

The immediate past governor of Adamawa state, Jibrilla Bindow has dumped the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) ahead of the general elections in Nigeria.

Bindow, who confirmed his defection to SaharaReporters on Tuesday, said he took the ‘painful decision’ because of the need to salvage the nation.

In a formal letter addressed to the chairman of APC in his Kolere ward, in the Mubi North Local Government Area of Adamawa, Northeast Nigeria, Bindow said, "The need to salvage is above all personal interests."

Bindow added, "The painful decision was taken after deep prayers and wide consultations with family members, stakeholders and faithful followers within and outside Adamawa state.”

The former governor has declared his support for the Peoples Democratic Party presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar and the incumbent governor, Ahmadu Finriri, who defeated him in 2019.

He noted that "it's time to abandon politics of bitterness in the interest of the nation."

He added, "The unfortunate event of the 2019 general election and the 2022 Governorship primaries among many reasons remains the main crux of why I’m resigning from APC.”

Bindow expressed worry that the lack of genuine reconciliation with aggrieved stakeholders within the party in Adamawa state since the last primaries also explains why he no longer feels at home in the APC.

His resignation has laid to rest rumours that he was leaving the APC in the buildup to the 2023 general elections.

The formal letter obtained by SaharaReporters quoted Bindow as saying, “While thanking you and the party, I wish to also inform you that my faithful supporters will be joining me across the state in leaving the party so as to champion a cause of building a harmonious Adamawa state that will enshrine unity in our diversity toward a collective development as a people."

A transgender woman was on Tuesday convicted of raping two vulnerable women while living as a man.

Isla Bryson was known as Adam Graham when she carried out violent sex attacks in 2016 and 2019 after attacking the victims she originally met online.

The 31-year-old who claimed to have had gender issues since the age of four but began transitioning from a man to a woman in 2020 - had denied the accusations, Daily Mail reports. She told jurors any sex was consensual although insisted she did not like sleeping with women and they made the 'first move'.

The first victim recalled repeatedly stating 'no' as her 'muscular' attacker raped her when the then man got into bed beside her in 2016. The second woman was raped at a flat when they were planning to watch the film Mean Girls in 2019.

Bryson was today found guilty of the two rape charges following a six-day trial at the High Court in Glasgow. She denied the charges, saying in evidence she 'would never hurt another human being'.

Bryson had been on bail but was today remanded in custody by judge Lord Scott until sentencing on February 28 in Stirling. It is not yet known if she is being remanded in a male or female jail.

She first appeared in the dock in July 2019 as Adam Graham with a Mike Tyson-style face tattoo. In high court papers dated 2020, the rapist was then referred to as Annie Bryson.

This was around the time Bryson told jurors she first made the decision to 'transition' from a man to a woman.

At this trial, she was then known as Isla Bryson with jurors told Adam Graham was now her 'dead name' one 'a transgender person was given at birth and no longer uses upon transitioning'.

She had attacked the first victim at a flat in Clydebank, West Dunbartonshire having met on the Badoo dating site while known as Adam.

This was immediately after Bryson's marriage to a woman had ended.

In her evidence, Bryson claimed she had effectively used the 30-year-old for somewhere to stay.

But the victim told how she had been 'head over heels in love' with Adam. However, she soon suffered as Adam went from 'caring' to flying into a rage at trivial matters.

The rape occurred on September 16, 2016 after Bryson locked the door and got into bed beside her.

In pre-recorded testimony played to jurors, the victim said: 'I thought Adam had came for a cuddle and - at that moment - everything felt weird and wrong.

'I did not know what was going on.'

The woman recalled repeatedly stating 'no' as a 'muscular' Adam forced himself upon her.

The ordeal only ended when the victim's mum turned on a light in the hall.

The second woman was raped at a flat in Drumchapel, Glasgow on June 27, 2019.

Bryson told jurors how she had shared her 'sexuality issues' with the 34-year-old having met on the social media site Bigo.

The court heard the pair were together at the flat planning to watch the film Mean Girls.

The victim recalled feeling 'crushed' as the attacker she knew as Adam forced himself on her.

She stated: 'I told him to stop and he did not. He kept going. That is when I closed my eyes and let him do what he wanted to do.'

In her own evidence, Bryson - who said she was 'scared' in the witness box - often became emotional as she refuted the charges.

She said: 'I would never do that. I would never hurt any woman.'

Bryson did admit 'cheating' on the first victim adding: 'She loved me. It kills me because I hurt her like that.'

Regarding sexual contact with the second woman, she told jurors: 'I did not make the first move. I can assure you.'

The House of Representatives, on Tuesday, resolved to invite Deposit Money Banks, also known as commercial banks, on Wednesday over the scarcity of new naira notes.

The Managing Directors/Chief Executive Officers of the banks, under the auspices of the Bankers’ Committee, are to meet with an ad hoc committee of the House to be chaired by the Majority Leader, Alhassan Ado-Doguwa.

The House, at the plenary on Tuesday, resolved that the banks should be invited to explain the alleged supply shortage from the Central Bank of Nigeria, after which the lawmakers would invite the leadership of the apex bank for questioning.

The House further resolved that the window for swapping the old notes with the new ones be extended by six months.

The resolution followed the unanimous adoption of a motion of urgent public importance moved by a member of the House from Katsina State, Sara Soli, at the opening of the session.

Soli noted that the CBN was insisting on the January 31 validity deadline for the new N1,000, N500 and N200 notes despite that Nigerians have limited access to them.

The PUNCH had reported on Monday that eight days to the January 31 deadline, banks’ Automated Teller Machines in Lagos, Abuja, and other parts of the country were still dispensing the old notes.

Despite the CBN and depositing banks’ assurances that Nigerians would begin to receive the new naira notes from ATMs across different platforms, findings as of Sunday showed that many ATMs belonging to the financial institutions were dispensing the old notes.

The House had in December summoned Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, over the latest policy by the apex bank which, among others, set limits to cash withdrawals from banks and other financial institutions.

After Emefiele failed to appear before the House on two occasions, the lawmakers had instead grilled Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability, Central Bank of Nigeria, Aisha Ahmad, who led the Committee of Governors before the lawmakers.

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja


Kano State Governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, has explained that the Ruga Settlement established by the federal government failed, because was conceived out of misconception.

He contended that mass criticisms that trailed the policy resulted in the suspension of the project in which contracts had already been awarded.Ganduje stated this yesterday in Abuja during the inauguration of a committee to organise a national conference with the aim of providing a lasting solution to the constant herder-farmer conflict across Nigeria.

The conference committee headed by a former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Attahiru Jega, was also mandated to look into all the issues surrounding the plan to ease conflicts associated with livestock and the need to reform the sector.The governor said the decision to host a national conference on “Livestock Reforms and Mitigation of Associated Conflicts in Nigeria” underscored the recognition that the primary business of government was law and order.

Ganduje recalled that in 2019, the federal government launched a 10-year National Livestock Transformation Plan to curtail the movement of cattle, boost livestock production and control the country’s deadly herder-farmer conflict.He decried the fact that, inadequate political leadership, delays, funding uncertainties and lack of expertise derailed the project, while COVID-19 pandemic intensified the challenges.

“It is regrettable that deficient political leadership, popular misperceptions about its purpose and widespread insecurity hindered its progress. There is also a clear sense which I think must be appreciated, that the federal government cannot dictate to states what to do with their land.“This is so because the Land Use Act of 1978 puts land under the control of governors on behalf of their states. Even for use of federal lands in the states according to the Supreme Court, building or development control permit must be sought from the governors of the states.

“I am a strong proponent of restriction of herders’ movements into Nigeria from neighbouring countries as part of solution to tackling herder/farmer clashes. However, another issue worth taking into account is the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol, which Nigeria signed in 1998.“This guarantees free movement to pastoralists, herders across the sub-region. As signatories to that protocol, Nigeria is obliged not to restrict the movement of herders and their cattle from other ECOWAS countries. This is an issue to be looked into.

“This has added a further complication to the problems we already have. Besides most foreign herdsmen are exposed to the firearms market and are unknown to the local farming populace,” he stated.The Kano governor said his administration since inception has led the way and has been pioneering the initiation of development-oriented interventions at reformation of the livestock sector to mitigate farmer/herder conflicts by tackling the issue headlong.

He said, “You may wish to know that until our intervention, activities of cattle rustlers such as rape, killings, abduction and banditry had paralysed economic activities in communities particularly, in Sumaila and Doguwa Local Government Areas, which left a lot of cattle farmers in a state of despair.”Ganduje said it was against this background that the government mobilised security agencies, resulting in the formation of a Police Anti-Cattle Rustling Squad, Ambush Squad and Tactical Observation points along the Falgore Forest.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited yesterday increased the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at its filling stations to N194 per litre from N179 per litre.

This came after weeks of petrol scarcity resurfaced across the country as long fuel queues erupted at many filling stations.

Though no official notice was seen, LEADERSHIP checks reveal that NNPC filling stations across Abuja metropolitan had changed their price boards to reflect N194 per litre.

However, in Lagos, NNPC filling stations visited displayed N184 per litre for PMS.

When contacted, the group corporate communications officer of the NNPCL, Mallam GarbaDeen Muhammad said the firm does not determine the pump price of PMS.

“Kindly find out from the NMDPRA what the approved pump price is. That should answer your question. NNPC Ltd does not determine the pump price of PMS,” he said.

However, the Nigerian Midstream Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) the agency responsible for regulating activities in the midstream and downstream sectors, kept mum over the development as phone calls and text messages to its spokesman, Kimchi Apollo were not responded to.

LEADERSHIP checks showed that there were long queues at filling stations across the Federal Capital Territory, yesterday, raising fears of yet another round of petrol scarcity in the nation’s capital, Abuja.

Specifically, checks around the city centre showed that most outlets operated by both major and independent marketers were shut while queues were observed at Conoil and Total filling stations opposite NNPC Towers. Queues were also noticed at NNPC Mega station as well as two stations in the Wuse area of the city.

Similar long queues were observed in Lagos and environs, yesterday, as the independent marketers were seen selling the product over N250 per litre while the major marketers and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company sold it at N170 and N169 per litre respectively.

LEADERSHIP checks showed that there were long queues at filling stations across the Federal Capital Territory, yesterday, raising fears of yet another round of petrol scarcity in the nation’s capital, Abuja. Long queues were observed at Conoil filling stations opposite NNPC Towers, while the Total filling station was shut.

Queues were also noticed at NNPC Mega station as well as two stations in the Wuse area of the city.

Similar long queues were observed in Lagos and environs, yesterday, as the independent marketers were seen selling the product over N250 per litre while the major marketers

In Lagos and Ogun states, fuel price in Magboro by Prayer City behind were varied. The three filling stations inside Magboro, Amuf NIPCO and Feromem filling stations sell between N300 and N450 per litre,

NNPC Retail Outlet around Ile-Epo Oja in Alimosho Local Government area of Lagos State is selling at N184 per litre.

TechnOil at Hamadiyyah, Lagos Abeokuta Expressway was selling at N220.

With these developments it appears the federal government may have commenced gradual removal of the petrol subsidy as pump price of the product simultaneously rose to above N185 per liter on Thursday.

Government had earlier announced implementation of the withdrawal in April 2023, about three months ahead of the initial plan to effect a complete stop to the expenditure.

Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Mrs Zainab Ahmed, had on Tuesday hinted during an interview with ARISE TV on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that subsidy removal appears to be the position of all contestants to the leadership of the country in their political campaigns for next month’s general elections.


She stated: “What will be safer is for the current administration to, maybe at the beginning of the second quarter, start removing the fuel subsidy, because it’s more expedient if you remove it gradually than to wait and move it all in one big swoop”.

After an 18-month extension, the federal government plans to spend N3.35 trillion on petrol subsidies from January till June 2023.

The extension, however, generated widespread debate on the expediency of such expenditure as it will increase the budget deficit of the FG which would be financed through additional borrowing and hence further rise in the nation’s public debt which stood at N44.06 trillion as at end of September 2022.

But LEADERSHIP finding yesterday showed that government has begun the subsidy withdrawal urging marketers to adjust their pumps.

However, efforts to get reactions from marketers was unsuccessful as key marketers association were considering on how much could be applicable.

Equally, leadership of Independent Depot Owners were not ready to discuss the matter.

However, a competent source in the industry with knowledge of government new directive to marketers confirmed the development to our Correspondent.

Our source said, “Marketers have been officially directed to change pump price of petrol. Go to stations operated by major marketers you will confirm what I have told you. But I think it shouldn’t be above N185 a liter. I can tell you too that depot owners are not expected to raise their prices but they have been asked to recover their costs by adjusting their prices.”

The cost of fuel pump increased from N87 per litre as of December 2015 to N194 per litre currently, which is an increase of more than 100 per cent according to the Fuel Pump Price Per Litre – Average (PMS) data from the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, enjoys monopoly the sole importer of petrol in Nigeria in 2016 after the Federal Government introduced the price modulation mechanism, which saw the pump price of the commodity rise.

However, in May 2016, the value of crude oil in the international market soared, while the value of Nigeria’s currency, the naira, slid to almost N500/dollar, from about N197 to the dollar.

This unfortunately hit back at the landing cost of petrol, which rose steeply, and the country not willing to hike the pump price of the commodity again, soon returned to subsidising the product.

Consequently, the fuel subsidy gulped N306.92bn in 2015, and in 2021, the NNPC said fuel subsidy gulped N1.43trillion, indicating that the cost of fuel subsidy rose by 365.92 per cent within the six-year period.

The NNPC called the subsidy payments under-recovery and deducted it from the proceeds of its domestic crude oil sales, before making remittances to the Federation Account.

The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund have decried the continued spending by the Nigerian government on the petrol subsidy, urging the government to end the subsidy regime.

However, the Nigeria Labour Congress and other pressure groups and trade unions had threatened nationwide protests against the removal of the fuel subsidy.

Although the Federal Government had planned to eliminate the fuel subsidy by June 2022, but changed the plan and extended the subsidy regime by 18 months.

The Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, had equally described the decision of government to suspend its planned petrol subsidy removal as an election strategy.

Also, the NNPC has said a total of N4tn from the Federal Government is required to fund the fuel subsidy in 2022.

According to the NNPC, fuel subsidy gulped N675.93bn in the first quarter of 2022.

The NNPC informed that fuel subsidy gulped N210.38bn, N219.78bn, and N245.77bn in January, February, and March 2022 respectively.

A cashier with the Kano State Sharia Court Division, Hussaina Imam and 14 others, including judges and registrars have been arraigned before a magistrates’ court in the state for allegedly diverting the sum of N500 million meant for orphans.

When the case came up on Wednesday, before Chief Magistrate Mustapha Sa’ad Datti, the defendants were accused of committing an offence bordering on criminal conspiracy, joint act, and criminal breach of trust by public servants, theft and forgery.

The offence is contrary to sections 97, 79, 315 and 289 of Penal Code Law.

According to the first information report (FIR), the defendants, Bashir Ali Kurawa, Saadatu Umar, Tijjani Abdullahi, Maryam Jibrin Garba, Shamsu Sani and Hussaina Imam sometimes in 2020/2021 committed the offence in which Imam reportedly used her official position as the cashier in the Kano State Sharia Court of Appeal and conspired with the aforementioned persons.

She allegedly forged the letterheads of Sharia Court of Appeal, signatures of the two signatories to the Stanbic IBTC Bank account 0020667440 belonging to Kano State Sharia Court of Appeal and stole money to the tune of N484,067,327:07 by fraudulently authorizing the bank to transfer the said amount to various bank accounts without the knowledge and or consent of the authorized body or person.

In a separate charge, the defendants were arraigned for the alleged offences of criminal conspiracy, joint act, criminal breach of trust by a public servant and theft by a clerk or servant contrary to section 97, 79, 315 and 289 of Penal Code, that on 29th August, 2021.

“An official complaint was received by the Commission from Kano State Ministry of Justice that sometime ago, in the year 2018 to 2021, you Sani Ali Muhammad, Sani Buba Aliyu, Bashir Baffa, Garzali Wada, Hadi Tijjani Mu’azu, Alkasim Abdullahi, Yusuf Abdullahi, Mustapha Bala Ibrahim, Jafar Ahmad, Adamu Balarabe, Aminu Abdulkadir, Abdullahi Suleiman Zango, Garba Yusuf, Bashir Ali Kurawa and you Hussaina Imam, criminally conspired, breached the trust in you as a public servant, acted jointly and create 15 fake civil servants’ death benefit files and fraudulently siphoned funds to the tune of N96,250,000.00 that was remitted by the Kano State Pension Fund Trustee to the bank accounts of Kano State Sharia Court Appeal and stole the said amount through eight Sharia Courts under the Kano State Sharia Court Appeal without the consent and knowledge of the authorizing authority,” the FIR reads.

However, all the defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges and the counsel representing them applied for the court to admit the defendants on bail.

In their submissions separately, Barrister Garzali Datti Ahmad, Sani Yakubu Ibrahim, Mubarak Mai Wada, Bashir Ahmad and Mustapha Hussein urged the court to exercise its jurisdiction judicially and judiciously.

They argued that the application was brought pursuant to sections 35 and 36 of the constitution of tge Federal Republic of Nigeria, (1999 as amended) and sections 168 and 172 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law 2019 of Kano.

In his response to the bail applications by the defense counsel, Barrister Zaharaddeen Kofar Mata urged the court to consider the huge amount involved in the case while granting the bail.

The trial magistrate, Mustapha Sa’ad Datti, adjourned the case to February 1, 2023 for hearing and ordered the remand of all the defendants in a correctional centre.

Speaking to journalists after the proceeding, the Acting chairman, Kano State Public Complaints and Anti-Corruption Commission, Barrister Mahmoud Balarabe, said the Commission during its investigations on the matter had recovered vehicles, jewellery, landed properties and other valuable property, including N8 million from the defendants and would be used as exhibits.

President of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Comrade Ayuba Wabba, yesterday, engaged in fisticuffs with the chairman of NLC/TUC Good Homes Scheme, Chief Emeka Anuna, threatening to sack his wife from the International Labour Organisation (ILO), now known as International Trade Union Congress (ITUC).

Anuna and a handful of federal civil servants had protested in front of the NLC headquarters in Abuja over their N1 billion investment in a housing scheme at Apo Mechanic Village in Abuja.

According to Anuna, the civil servants had met all the requirements for the land but the Federal Government in conjunction with the NLC and an estate agent, known as Good Homes, refused to give them the houses.

The chairman of NLC/TUC Good Homes told Daily Sun that some of the civil servants borrowed money from the banks and co-operative societies in their offices since 2012 to pay for the houses.

He said that 10 years after the payment, they neither got the houses nor their money. While some had died without getting their houses, others had retired or posted out of Abuja without getting their houses.

This, he said, was against the promise that they would get keys to their houses six months after a 10 per cent payment.

“We were meant to key into a housing scheme at Apo Tafia (mechanic village) which is powered by the Federal Government and given to NLC and TUC. Most of our members have met all the financial requirements. The delivery period was for six months. This is 10 years and nothing has happened.

“Some people paid the full financial obligations. Some paid N46 million. Some, N12 million, some paid N12. 4 million for three-bedroom house. Some paid 10 per cent of the total sum. The agreement was that if you pay 10 per cent, in six months you’ll get your keys. It was a virgin land and all interested civil servants bought into it” he said

The workers had earlier protested at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister’s house between 8 am and 9 am before going to the NLC’s headquarters between 10 am and 11am.

After staging their protest, the NLC president ran after them, held the workers’ chairman by the jugular and hotly engaged him in a fight.

He later instructed his securitymen to bundle the chairman to his office but the other workers with him stoutly resisted the securitymen.

While Ayuba Wabba and Anuna engaged in hot altercation the thugs on the side of the NLC were busy snatching and smashing journalists’ cameras and phones which the journalists used to record the event.

ABSURDITY often reigns in Nigeria. About 12 years after the Federal Government initiated the restructuring of its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, the Senate is bent on derailing it by proposing to establish more MDAs. Currently, there are 376 bills to establish new MDAs in various stages of completion in the parliament. In this period of stagflation, the Senate is acting recklessly.

The PUNCH reports that the Ninth Senate is seeking to establish 376 new parastatals, agencies, and commissions. They include universities, polytechnics, colleges of education, and specialised institutions. This newspaper reported 48 bills for new universities undergoing passage in the National Assembly, most of them initiated during the eight-month-long strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities in 2022. This is not rational. Nigeria currently owns 51 federal universities, 40 polytechnics and 27 COEs that it could never adequately fund even before the country entered its long-running revenue crisis.

The Federal Government’s inability to service a memorandum of understanding of N1.2 trillion with ASUU triggered the eight-month strike last year. Senators, without any cogent reason other than attracting a project to their district, are irresponsible on this score.

In this, the senators demonstrate that they are out of touch with economic reality, and plainly ignorant of the consequences of their recklessness. That is a shame because that upper chamber of the parliament ought to be peopled by mature, knowledgeable persons. Back in 2011, the erstwhile Goodluck Jonathan government had taken steps to reduce the cost of governance by rightsizing the MDAs.

To attain the goal, he empanelled the Steve Oronsaye committee. The panel made far-reaching recommendations when it submitted its report in April 2012. Of the 541 MDAs then, it recommended that 263 of them should be reduced to 161; with 38 agencies abolished outright, 52 merged and 14 reverted to their ministries as departments.

Unfortunately, bureaucracy, change of government, insincerity of purpose, incompetence, and lately the cavalier attitude of federal lawmakers, have derailed the lofty objective. Instead of acting expeditiously, Jonathan vacillated, neglecting the outcome of the white paper he ordered. Bizarrely, the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), ordered another white paper on the report in November 2021, which has also been submitted. This is just a waste of time and money.

Twice, in 2022, Buhari vowed that the report would be implemented. Nothing happened. With this, the implementation might not see light of day as Buhari’s tenure ends in May.

The Senate’s plan to create these new MDAs stands logic on its head. Plainly, the upper chamber is suffering from internal dissonance, as in December, while considering the 2023 Appropriation Act of N21.83 trillion, its Finance Committee resolved to scrap 400 of 541 MDAs, citing the government’s insolvency.

Both the NASS and the executive are biting off more than they can chew. In their lunge for cheap populism, they are further pauperising Nigerians by diverting resources that should be deployed in the provision of social services and infrastructure to be wasted on parasitic bureaucratic agencies. Most of the 376 proposals are downright frivolous. The promoters of the bills just want these agencies in their senatorial districts to boost their political egos. While the legislators are mostly concerned about attracting MDAs to their constituencies, the Federal Government says it wants to increase the allowances of civil servants and public officials. Both proposals are egregious.

Plainly, the economy is out of sorts. In the past seven years, Nigeria has been living dangerously, economically speaking. Amid low revenue inflow, high indebtedness, huge recurrent versus low capex, import dependency and debt service estimated at 90 per cent of income, it recorded a deficit of N6.59 trillion from a budget N10.59 trillion in 2020. It fared worse in 2021: with revenue of N4.39 trillion, budget deficit was N7.3 trillion, CBN data stated.

After NASS approved a supplementary budget of N819.54 billion in December, the 2022 deficit swelled to a record N8.14 trillion in a budget of N17.12 trillion. That means a deficit-to-GDP ratio of 4.43 per cent. By September, Nigeria’s debt profile was N44.06 trillion, or 20.2 per cent of GDP. ‘Ways and Means’ is N22.7 trillion, the government says. A World Bank study says a high debt-to-GDP ratio is undesirable for a country, as a higher ratio indicates a higher risk of default. It warned that a high ratio for an extended period may result in an adverse impact on economic growth.

While salary increment is desirable, other economic factors also need to be critically considered. Therefore, the NASS and the Buhari regime are toeing a path to ruination by their ill-timed acts. These proposals on increasing the size of government are bad economics. They should pull the plug on them.

Governance cannot succeed on mere good intentions. Liz Truss, the immediate past British prime minister lost her job last October because her populist intention to cut income and corporate taxes to the tune of £45billion to be funded by more public borrowing ignited a fall in the pound, and higher borrowing cost.

Instead of increasing civil servants’ allowances or creating new MDAs, the two arms of government should first stabilise the economy. They should tie all spending to identifiable sources of income; that is the global best practice. The bureaucracy should be drastically pruned and the 376 bills thrown out.

The first and urgent assignment is to collaborate to repeal some of the laws hindering economic growth and privatise the commanding heights of the economy. The pressing ones are the Railways Act 1955, and the privatisation of the Ajaokuta Steel Complex, the four moribund refineries, the airports, and seaports.

These will impact significantly on Nigeria’s flagging foreign direct investment inflow that recorded a high of 5.8 per cent of GDP in 1994, 2.9 per cent in 2009, but only 0.8 per cent in 2021, jobs, and tax income. The NASS and the government should act quickly, and responsibly.

The National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC), says it will start the process of reviewing the national minimum wage on January 23.

President Muhammadu Buhari signed the minimum wage act that approved N30,000 for both federal and state workers in 2019.

Speaking in Abuja on Sunday, Emmanuel Njoku, the spokesperson of NSIWC, said the commission had held a series of training and meetings in preparation for nationwide monitoring of the act.

“The exercise will enlighten the public and private employers and organisations on the economic benefits of adhering to the payment of the national minimum wage,” he said.

“It will also help in obtaining baseline data on remuneration policies and practices of private sector organisations to enrich the commission’s data bank on staff compensation.

“The monitoring exercise will cover the 36 states of the federation including the federal capital territory.”

In October 2021, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), called on the federal government to look into reviewing the current minimum wage, citing increment in prices of goods and services.

Ayuba Wabba, NLC president, who spoke on Workers Decent Work Day said: “N30,000 cannot buy a bag of rice, and we know how the cost of goods or services has gone up. In fact, the worst is that when you retire, you have to struggle to get your benefits.”

The Labour Party presidential campaign office has reacted with a false claim to a PREMIUM TIMES’ report on the dissolution of Next International (UK) Limited, a company that was owned by the party’s presidential candidate, Peter Obi.

On Wednesday, PREMIUM TIMES exclusively reported how the company was removed from the UK Companies House register in September 2021 following a first and second gazette notice of a “compulsory” strike off of the entity by authorities in the UK.

Our report revealed that Next International (UK) Limited failed to submit its annual accounts for the year 2020, hence, the company was struck off and dissolved in 2021.

However, a statement by the Head of Obi-Datti Media Office, Diran Onifade, claimed that “owners of the company voluntarily liquidated the firm as it was no longer in operation.”

Mr Onifade added: “When our principal insists that you go and verify facts about him and the information he dishes out, he didn’t say go and falsify facts.

“For the record, the entity was 99 per cent owned by Next Nigeria International Ltd and established as its buying office in the 90s and Peter Obi as its CEO.

“At the time Peter Obi became governor of Anambra State in 2006, his wife assumed management of the winding down of the company and about one year ago requested that the company be dissolved under the voluntary strike off of the entity on grounds of dissolution and being inoperational, which is normal in winding up an entity.”

However, Mr Onifade’s claim that the company was voluntarily dissolved is a lie, contradicted by official documents.

First, a voluntary strike-off in the UK is when a company director voluntarily requests that their company is struck off the register by submitting a DS01 form to Companies House and paying the appropriate administration fee, according to UK Liquidators.

“A notice will be placed in the Gazette declaring your intention to dissolve the company, and following two months – supposing no objections have been received – the company’s name will be removed from the register held at Companies House and it will cease to exist as a legal entity,” the financial consulting firm explains.

Also, documents obtained from the Companies House show that Mr Onifade’s claim is not correct as Next International was “compulsory struck off” and “dissolved” and there is no record of voluntary liquidation.

To confirm the company was struck off compulsorily, a first official notice was issued to the firm on 22nd June 2021, warning that a failure to file its annual report will lead to its removal from the Company House Register.

Two months later, on 31st August 2021, the company, founded by the ex-governor of Anambra, received a second and final notice to submit its annual account. When the Companies House didn’t receive any reply to its letters, a final gazette to dissolve the entity was issued on 7th September 2021.

Running foul of UK laws

Before its final dissolution, records show that at various times, UK Companies House had to always issue a warning for “compulsory strike-off” before Next International filed its annual report.

In one instance, the Registrar of Companies gave notice on 1oth September 2013, saying “unless cause is shown to the contrary, at the expiration of three months from the above date, Next International (UK) Limited will be struck off the register and the company will be dissolved.”

On 18th September 2013, a week after receiving the above notice, the officers of the company filed their annual report with the Companies House. Consequently, a notice was issued to discontinue the strike-off action.

“Cause has been shown why the company should not be struck off the register and accordingly the Registrar is taking no further action under section 1000 of the Companies Act 2006 pursuant to the notice dated 18th September 2013,” the gazette read.

Then, for four consecutive years (2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020) authorities had to always issue a warning of removal from the Company House Register before the entity filed its annual accounts, records show. Immediately after a warning was issued, the company would submit its annual report and a gazette would be issued to discontinue the compulsory strike-off action by the Company House.

A private limited company, Next International, was incorporated on 16th May 1996. Mr Obi was listed as a director while his wife, Margaret, served as secretary. Next International (Nigeria) Limited (with 999 ordinary shares) and Mr Obi (with one ordinary share) were listed as shareholders.

Records show that the company was registered as business “agents involved in the sale of a variety of goods” in England and Wales. The firm reported taking a mortgage from Lloyds TSB Bank Plc for a property on 53 Clyde Road, Croydon.

Mr Obi resigned as a director of Next UK in 2008, more than a year after becoming a governor, thereby violating Nigeria’s code of conduct law for public officers.

The presidential candidate of the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has said whoever works against him in Kano in the forthcoming 2023 presidential election will regret it.

Ganduje had recently told party supporters in the state that Kano will repeat what happened in the 1993 presidential election when it supported a southern candidate (late MKO Abiola) and rejected a citizen of the state (late Bashir Tofa), in a reference to voting massively for Tinubu against Kwankwaso.

But responding days after, Kwankwaso said, “I had a rally not long ago, which was one of the best rallies. I had one in Wudil, the southern senatorial district. I had one in Bichi, northern senatorial district. I opened my office in Kano Central and one of the best rallies because, you can’t compare it with the ones by some of the candidates who had crowds that came to Kano from neighbouring states and so on.

“Now, you see, I don’t want to talk about that man. I don’t know whether he said it or not. But the reality is that, anybody who work against NNPP or Kwankwaso in 2023, one day, he will regret it, that he made a mistake.

“Anybody who knows me, who knows my antecedents believes that, if I win this presidential election, Kano will have maximum benefit, of course northern Nigeria will benefit and of course the country.

“So, I am surprised if you go and say I should hold a rally. Rally, I have done many rallies in Kano. In just recent months, January and December in Kano, in all the three senatorial districts. So, what is the problem about holding rally in Kano?”

As the world moves from fossil-fuel cars to electric cars, the federal government has been strongly advised to formulate deliberate policies to control the exploration, mining, production and exportation of lithium in Nigeria.

Chairman of the Board of the Solid Minerals Development Fund (SMDF), Uba Sa’idu Malami, who made this call during a press briefing in Abuja yesterday, said lithium will soon replace oil as a strategic economic resource across the world, and formulating such policy would enable Nigeria to be in full control of the entire lithium value chain in order to make maximum benefit from the scramble for Nigerian lithium that is already in the offing.

Malami, a co-founder of the Geological Society of Nigeria (GSN), said: “Lithium is the new oil that could significantly control global wealth and economy of nations in the coming decades,” adding that the new economic order will be largely dictated by the ability of nations to take advantage of emerging opportunities afforded by lithium resources.

Discussing the strategic importance of lithium in modern technology and global economy, Malami said, “Diesel and gasoline were the energy source of cars for decades. Now, cars have migrated from the hydrocarbon to battery-charged cars, otherwise known as electric cars. So, the energy required by cars are the batteries, while lithium is the key component of batteries.”

He revealed that the price of lithium has risen from $500 to $5000 within three years adding that “Lithium is too strategic to be left open for exploration without control, especially as it is in global demand.”

According to him, the current regime where a company gets a licence and starts mining lithium without proper control and regulation is not in the best of the country.

The COMEG-certified geologist and businessman, who served on the Boards of some notable companies in the extractive industry before his appointment as SMDF Board chairman, said: “Any foreign investment in lithium must be controlled in a way that prioritises the political and economic interest of the country.

”We must be jealous and quick to develop very intentional policies that will protect this prime mineral resource (lithium) like we did for oil and gas decades ago. If this is not done, it is a disservice to the nation and the continent of Africa.”

The SMDF board chairman noted that Nigeria should lead the way for the governments of African nations to take advantage of this opportune moment in history, and said if Nigeria controls local and foreign investments in lithium with patriotic fervor, it will attract enormous wealth to the country and strengthen her position in the emerging global economic order in the way as crude oil.

Malami commended the minister of Mines and Steel Development, Arc. Olamilekan Adegbite, for protecting the interest of Nigeria while responding to Tesla’s bid to mine and export lithium from the country.

“Arc. Adegbite told the car manufacturing giant – Tesla – that he would not grant permission for their mining bid in Nigeria unless they will establish a lithium battery manufacturing plant in Nigeria,’ Malami said.

LEADERSHIP reports that Nigeria is home to commercial quantities of lithium spread across states of the federation, but mined by artisanal miners in Nasarawa, Kogi, Kwara, Ekiti and Cross River states.

The SMDF board chair called for the establishment of a special-purpose fund for the exploration of lithium in the country saying: “We must be ready and deliberate in developing funds for lithium exploration and exploitation in Nigeria, just like we have the Petroleum Technology Development Fund (PTDF). A special purpose fund for lithium exploration and exploitation must be urgently made available to relevant authorities in order to ensure that Nigeria is positioned to occupy its prime place in the comity of nations in near future.

The geologist also called for a deliberate marketing strategy that will help the country control the rush for lithium that will come upon Nigeria and, in fact, Africa, so that they can attract the deliverables of the emerging global rush and trade with regards to lithium.

Malami who first made the call for strict control of lithium mining in 2019 after the discovery of high-grade lithium ores in the country said: “If we are going by numerical facts, there are millions of cars in use today in the world and the number may well be on the increase. These cars are in millions; they will require lithium as a source of energy.”

He explained that advancement in technology shows that the world is progressing to a future where diesel engines and petrol will be phased-out and replaced with cars that are powered with lithium batteries.

“When this happens, you can imagine how much lithium resources will be required to fire the electric vehicles that will be in use across the world!” he said.

Malami recalled the Climatic Resolutions of the 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference (commonly referred to as COP 26), noting that the Resolutions passed by the nations aim to safeguard the environment.

He said: ‘The COP 26 resolutions called for the production of lithium battery-powered cars that will gradually replace the hydrocarbon engines,’ adding that “by various ways, lithium is the new oil.”

Malami who has been on the forefront of the advocacy for patriotic development of Nigeria’s mineral resources, further said he foresees the scramble for Nigeria’s lithium among developed economies.

‘The Chinese are here for lithium; the Americas are here, too, and even the Europeans. They are all here for Nigeria’s lithium resource. We must safeguard our future even though we desire foreign investment. We need to control foreign investment so that we don’t embrace investments that will take away our mineral wealth while impoverishing our people and country,” he added.

Kukah stated this while featuring on the Channels TV programme, Politics Today on Wednesday.

The Catholic Bishop of Sokoto Diocese, Most Rev Matthew Kukah, says that no Nigerian should be undecided about the candidates to vote for in the February presidential election, considering the abundance of problems facing the country at present.

Kukah stated this while featuring on the Channels TV programme, Politics Today on Wednesday.

The cleric stressed that there should be a vigorous battle among Nigerians to overcome cynicism.

He said, “Why would anybody be undecided about hunger? Why would anybody be undecided about insecurity? Why would anybody be undecided over the fact that they don’t seem to know where the next meal is going to come from?

“Why would anybody be undecided over the fact that there are no jobs? Why would anybody be undecided about that? So, there needs to be a vigorous battle to overcome cynicism."

Kukah advised Nigerians to lower their expectations on political choices and opined that there is no such thing as “the right candidate” in elections, as that might be a projection of one’s emotions.

According to him, the real challenge should be how prepared the people are to engage with the politicians after they have been elected into office. He said this is where civil society, trade unions, town unions, groups, media and religious bodies are needed.

Kukah asserted that without engagements, politicians will always take the people for granted. He argued that the Nigerian situation is made worse by the fact that those in power cripple institutions.

On the provision of adequate security during the election, the cleric stated that Africa is known for violence during elections, insisting that such activities are almost inevitable.

He said the automatic change and improved quality of life of politicians after assuming office make them fight tooth and nail to win elections just for the pecks of the office.

Kukah said if it is all about service, most politicians canvassing for votes might have been doing something else that would give them better income.

By Dirisu Yakubu


Ahead of the February 25 presidential election, the Peoples Democratic Party has confirmed that talks are ongoing with 11 other parties who have approached the party for a working alliance.

This came 24 hours after similar talks took place between the ruling All Progressives Congress and other smaller parties.

Speaking in a telephone conversation with our correspondent on Wednesday, the party’s Deputy National Publicity Secretary, Ibrahim Abdullahi, said the party has commenced talks with close to a dozen parties and welcomes more groups to come on board.

He said, “There are a good number of them, but it will not be wise to publicly list them out. At the last time I checked, we were in talks with over 11 of them.

“They approached us to express their willingness to partner with us towards ensuring credible elections in 2023. That is the way they put it, but you and I know what that means.

“These are parties with candidates who are not strong enough. I can confirm to you that there is a working arrangement, and we want to see more of such parties or groups. Together, we will salvage this country.

“They know the strength of the PDP and the pedigree of its presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar.”

The PUNCH reports that in the 2019 election, the Peoples Coalition Party and the All Grassroots Alliance similarly endorsed Atiku when he first ran for the Presidency on the platform of the PDP.

A former senator, represented Kaduna Central at the 8th Senate, Shehu Sani, tweeted on January on Saturday, saying the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Rivers State paid N95 million for a campaign venue.

The tweet was republished by some blogs and online sites.


Full Text:

The tweet reads: “Ninety Five million Naira for a campaign venue in Rivers; this is unprecedented in the history of our country. It will continue to be a reference point for Governors who want to emasculate the opposition. What’s the cost of renting the Abuja Eagle square?,”

The tweet as at the time of this report had gathered over 70,000 views, 564 likes, 78 retweets and 8 quote tweets.


Verification

Findings by Daily Trust showed that although the said amount was paid by the PDP in Rivers state, it covered 19 venues which the party intends to use for its campaign in the state, and not for a venue as the former senator claimed.

The payment was in compliance with the precautionary requirement of N5 million per venue stipulated by Executive Order 21 signed by Governor Nyesom Wike in 2022. As such the N95m is a lump sum payment for 19 different venues at N5m per venue.

Executive Order 21

Wike had signed Executive Order 21 prohibiting the use of public schools for political parties without approval from the Ministry of Education.

Wike said applicants would also deposit the sum of N5m caution fees in case attendees destroy facilities in the schools.

He also said the application for approval must be submitted at least two weeks before the date of the campaign, stressing that a local council chairman had the right to stop any rally if approval was not sought.

The governor threatened that any head of school that connived with political parties to hold rallies without approval by the state government would be dealt with.

Wike also reiterated his stance against the use of hotels and other leisure spots as meeting points by hoodlums and cultists ahead of the 2023 elections.


Verdict

The claim by Sani is misleading as the N95m is a lump sum paid for 19 different campaign venues and not a single venue.

The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico has denied popular Instagram auto dealer Adesuwa Ogiozee’s request to remove electronic monitoring devices as a bond condition in her internet fraud case, documents seen by Peoples Gazette showed.

Judge Martha Vazquez rejected Ms Ogiozee’s request on December 13, 2022, for failing to comply with the court’s order to provide her financial and employment information while on home detention for her involvement in the multimillion-dollar fraud, including a romance scam of about $560,000, with four other co-conspirators.

After her arrest on September 16, 2021, and her first appearance in the Eastern District of Missouri on the following day, she was released on a $25,000 bond and placed on home detention, with the privilege of spending three hours per weekday outside of her residence in Missouri.

While on home detention, the self-proclaimed No1 car broker in Africa was to avail her pretrial officer of information on her whereabouts and lawful employment, but documents said she failed to comply with the court’s orders.

“Defendant was to inform her pretrial services officer of her whereabouts, and she remained on the location monitoring program. The defendant was also required to provide her pretrial services officer with ongoing proof of lawful employment on a weekly basis and any other financial documentation requested by pretrial services. All other imposed conditions of release were also to remain in place.

“Defendant has been on home detention for the last eight ( months, but has not complied with this court’s order that she provide proof of lawful employment and other financial documentation requested by her pretrial services officer,” Ms Vazquez said, according to documents in the case.

The judge subsequently stated that the court would consider Ms Ogiozee’s renewed motion upon compliance with the court order and fixed February 5, 2024, as her trial date.

When contacted by The Gazette for comments on the federal judge’s decision on her failure to provide the required documents, Ms Ogiozee claimed she was never required to tender such.

U.S. federal agents had arrested Ms Ogiozee, an accounting graduate from the Delta State University Abraka, and her other co-conspirators, Kayode Adeniyi, Gbemileke Bello, Abel Adeyi Daramola, and a 37-year-old Nigerian based in Atlanta, Olutayo Sunday Ogunlaja, for charges bordering on conspiracy to commit wire fraud and wire fraud, after bilking $560,000 from a female victim resident of Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Initially, federal agents alleged that she received $12,000 from the romance scam, with which she procured a Mercedes Benz for herself. However, following further investigation, it was soon discovered that Ms Ogiozee committed more “extensive” financial crimes and was the leader of a syndicate fleecing people on the Internet.

Federal authorities alleged that the auto dealer, who was first indicted by a grand jury on December 2, 2020, moved more than $3 million in suspicious transactions through her American bank accounts and falsified form 1040 tax claims to the Internal Revenue Service between 2015 and 2019.

However, Ms Ogiozee, despite court documents, repeatedly denied her involvement in the fraud case, claiming she had no case to answer because someone bought a car from her with the proceeds of a scam. She, however, failed to explain why millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions were traced to her bank accounts, including several that were closed by American banks for fraud.

At least two of her lawyers have dropped her case after discovering that she had lied to them repeatedly about her involvement in the fraud and failed to cooperate, claiming FBI and prosecutors charged her because of her race as a black woman. She also claimed The Gazette was being fed the story by her imaginary enemies in Nigeria, even though her arrest was first reported by an American media outlet in St. Louis.

Meanwhile, Mr Adeniyi, one of Ms Ogiozee’s co-conspirators in the Internet crime syndicate, was sentenced to three and half years imprisonment after pleading guilty to FBI charges before Judge Kea W. Riggs on December 12, 2021.

Ms Ogiozee is the latest Nigerian to be charged for involvement in multimillion-dollar fraud in the U.S. while pretending to be a legitimate entrepreneur. Obinwanne ‘Invictus’ Okeke and Ramon ‘Hushpuppi’ Abbas were amongst those recently convicted of vast Internet fraud and handed long prison sentences after spending years parading themselves as business professionals on the Internet and in social circles.

ADEFEMOLA AKINTADE


Again, the Nigerian passport has been ranked the 20th worst-performing travel document in the world for the third time in a row, according to The Henley Passport Index, a recognised authority in rating passports from countries worldwide.

Japan, whose citizens can access 193 countries without obtaining a prior visa, ranked first in the global passport ranking.

Singapore and South Korea placed second as bearers of their passports can easily enter 192 nations without a visa.

The Henley Passport Index relies on data collated from the International Air Transport Association (IATA) with essential travel statistics from 199 different passports and 227 travel destinations.

Holders of Nigerian passports can access only 46 nations, mostly in Africa, with the green-hued document visa-free or visa-on-arrival policy, earning it the 180th position among 199 countries.

Other countries among the 20 worst-performing passports are Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, South Sudan, Somalia, Yemen, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Libya, Pakistan, and Syria.

Afghanistan, however, ranked the worst-performing passport as its holders are limited to accessing only 27 nations without a visa.

Nigeria has had a string of poor rankings since 2006.

By Samuel Bolaji


Hackers have reportedly disrupted access to the websites of Denmark’s central bank and seven private banks in the country this week, according to the central bank and an IT firm that serves the industry.

The websites of the central bank and Bankdata, a company that develops IT solutions for the financial industry, were hit by Distributed Denials of Service, which directs traffic toward targeted servers in a bid to knock them offline, according to a Channel News Asia report.

The central bank said its website was working normally on Tuesday afternoon, adding that the attack did not impact its other systems or day-to-day operations.

Access to the websites of seven private banks was briefly restricted on Tuesday after the DDoS attack on Bankdata, a company spokesperson said, according to CNA’s report.

The affected banks included two of Denmark’s largest, Jyske Bank and Sydbank, the report says.

Sydbank confirmed on its Facebook page that access to its website had been restricted on Tuesday. A Jyske spokesperson confirmed some customers had experienced problems accessing its website on Tuesday.

ON Monday, the death of a middle-aged man simply identified as Kehinde Fadayomi, who slumped and died during an alleged sex romp with a lover at a hotel in Ikere-Ekiti hit the air waves.

Multiple sources in Ikere-Ekiti, headquarters of Ikere Local Government Area of Ekiti, revealed that the deceased, a native doctor popularly known as Ejiogbe in the community had lodged in the hotel with his lover, whose identity could not be immediately ascertained.

It was alleged that the woman is a wife of a cleric in one of the fast-growing churches in the town.

According to one of the sources,“the man died in the hotel room after having sex with the woman said to be spiritually laced with thunderbolt (magun).

“The woman raised the alarm immediately the man collapsed which made the manager of the hotel and some other members of staff who were around to run to the scene.

He was immediately rushed to a nearby hospital where he was confirmed dead.”

The Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Ekiti State, ASP Sunday Abutu confirmed the death of Kehinde, adding that investigations had commenced on the circumstances surrounding his death.

Married women suspected to be promiscuous are usually laced with thunderbolt popularly known as magun in Yoruba parlance.

This is aimed at exposing and disgracing both the woman and her lover and punishing them.

Some parents, it is gathered, lace their female children with this charm to discourage them from indulging early in sexual activities.

It’s common to hear of a man who suddenly collapsed and died during sex in a hotel room.

It is also common for such cases to be attributed to thunderbolt. But in real life, sexual activity very rarely causes cardiac arrest.

Sexual activity in human relationship is beneficial because it promotes sound health among other things.

According to Dr Surajudeen Adefabi Ogunyemi, a Consultant Cardiologist at the Obafemi Awolowo University Teaching Hospitals Complex, Ile Ife, Osun State, there are instances when sex-related stroke and cardiac arrest are often taken to be magun (literally meaning  ‘don’t climb’ in Yoruba language). Dr Ogunyemi said autopsy reports of some sex-related deaths indicate that the victims have enlarged hearts due to age-long uncontrolled high blood pressure.

Also, in some cases, autopsy reports also find massive bleeding into the brain, which is medically termed stroke.

The cardiologist explained that there is the possibility of sudden death occurring when an enlarged heart stops beating or a blood vessel bursts in the brain in someone with high blood pressure during sex due to the intensed activity.

“I have managed two or three cases where the patients developed stoke as a result of sex, and these were young couples.

“For people who have coronary heart disease, exertion can also spur a heart attack, and we have seen instances like this.

“We are trying to document and publish some of these,” Ogunyemi stated.

Ogunyemi added that COVID-19 obviously took its toll on the nation’s economy thus leaving many without a good source of livelihood.

These resorted to drugs, alcohol-based drinks and aphrodisiac herbs to enhance their sexual ability.

Aphrodisiac herbs are prepared in different forms.

There are local variants such as a mixture of local gin and herbs (Agbo gbogbonise, sepe or paraga). There are also well packaged industrially made variants in packets of pills, or tablets such as “Spanish fly, Enpulse, Vimax, Virillis, M-Energex, High T, Male X “and those in liquid forms such as Alomo bitters.

“Unfortunately, many men will resort to these mixtures of local gin and herbs, including the bitters to improve their sexual performance.

“For a man that is hypertensive, the exertion can spur severe hypertension and then a heart attack,” he said.

Dr Ogunyemi urged individuals to know their blood pressure values, adding that, “Majority of these cases are linked with blood pressure and heart problems like heart failure and arrhythmia.

“We can liken such a case with that of a person playing football, who suddenly collapsed and died. sex is similar. Sex is an extreme exertion.”

While sex-related cardiac arrest is rare, Dr Adebowale Adewunmi, a consultant Nephrologist at Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH), Idi Araba, Lagos, stated that some deaths which people linked with magun or voodoo, might be sex-related cardiac attack or stroke.

According to him, “in such an instance, the heart was only looking for an excuse to fail. Already something was going on in the heart. If it was a good heart, then no problem would have arisen during sex.”

Dr Adewunmi said that to avoid sex-related cardiac arrest, men are usually advised to have a regular cardiac evaluation in situations they needed to take sex-enhancing pills to improve their libido.

“It is also for this same reason that people were asked to undergo cardiac tests like ECG and ECHO when registering at the gymnasium,” he added.

Moreover, Professor Razak Adebayo, also a consultant cardiologist, OAUTH complex, Ile Ife, said there are no studies to ascertain the number of sex-related cardiac arrests in Nigeria, although anecdotal evidence suggests that some cases of magun are actually the sex-related cardiac failure in individuals with hearts that are not healthy.

According to Professor Adebayo, when heart attacks suddenly occur during or after sex, they almost always involve older men engaging in extra marital affairs with younger women. They die having sex with younger women who are not their wives, typically in a hotel room and/or after eating and drinking heavily.

A sudden cardiac arrest occurs when an electrical impulse goes awry and the heart suddenly stops beating, halting blood flow to the brain and other vital organs. It usually causes death, if it’s not treated within minutes.

Unless it is treated with cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), it can be fatal. This is different from a heart attack, where blood flow to the heart is blocked.

Researchers said that despite the benefits of sexual activity outweighing the risks, more men die during sex mixing sex-enhancing pills with alcohol, using equipment to enhance sexual pleasure, through sensitivity to latex condoms and joystick/manhood captivus.

Joystick/manhood captivus is a rare occurrence during intercourse when the muscles of the vagina clamp down on the penis much firmer than usual, thus making it impossible for the man to withdraw.

A new study reassuringly reports that overall, sex is linked to only one per cent of all cases of cardiac arrest that occur in men.

Researchers analysed information from more than 4,500 people who experienced sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2015 in Portland, Oregon, United States.

The 2017 study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology found that among these cases, less than one per cent of cardiac arrests occurred during or within one hour of sexual intercourse.

Also, in the rare instances in which sex was linked with cardiac arrest, almost all of the cases -94 per cent- were in men. Moreover, among men, about one in 100 cases of cardiac arrest were linked to sex, compared with just one in 1,000 cases among women.

In the study, people who experienced a sudden cardiac arrest during sex tended to be slightly younger, around 60 years old on average, than those who had a sudden cardiac arrest at other times, who were about 65 years old on average.

But those who had a sudden cardiac arrest during sex were just as likely to have a heart condition or be on heart medication as those who had a sudden cardiac arrest at other times.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), yesterday, released the final list of presidential and National Assembly candidates of all the political parties contesting the February 25 elections.

The publication of the final list of candidates for national elections (presidential, senatorial and federal constituencies) was pursuant to section 32(1) of the Electoral Act 2022 and item 8 of the Timetable and Schedule of Activities for the 2023 General Election.The publication of the full names and addresses of all nominated candidates followed the conduct of primaries and completion of the nomination exercise by political parties’.

It was also sequel to the display of the personal particulars of all nominated candidates in their constituencies nationwide as provided by section 29(3) of the Electoral Act.INEC National Commissioner in charge of Information and Chairman, Voter Education, Festus Okoye, had earlier said validly nominated candidates had the opportunity to voluntarily withdraw their candidature by notice in writing and personally deliver such notices to the political parties that nominated them for the election.

Okoye said, “Thereafter, political parties substituted such candidates under section 31 of the Electoral Act for which the last day was 15th July 2022 for national elections and 12th August, 2022, for state elections as clearly provided in item 6 of the Commission’s Timetable and Schedule of Activities.“Thereafter, no withdrawal or substitution of candidates is allowed except in the event of death as provided in section 34(1) of the Electoral Act or pursuant to an order of a Court of competent jurisdiction.”

The list published contains the names of candidates validly nominated for national elections at the close of the parties’ primaries and the period earmarked for withdrawal and substitution of candidates.The presidential candidates of PDP, Atiku Abubakar; APC, Bola Tinubu; Labour Party, Peter Obi; and New Nigeria Peoples Party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, were on the final list.

Similarly on the presidential list were Oluwafemi Adenuga, presidential candidate of Boot Party (BP) and the running mate Turaku Mustapha; Daberechukwu Nwanyanwu, presidential candidate of Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) and the running mate, Ramalan Abubakar; Dumebi Kachikwu presidential candidate, African Democratic Congress (ADC) and his running mate, Ahmed Mani; Hamsa Almustafa, presidential candidate, Action Aliance (AA) and his running mate, Chukwuka Johnson, among others.

The list published contained the names of Senator Goodwill Akoabio from Akwa Ibom state and Senator Peter Nwaobishi of Delta State as well as Bashir Machina, who replaced the senate president, Ahmed Lawam.Akpabio replaced former retired Deputy Inspector General of Police, Ekpuudom, while Nwaoboshi, who was convicted for seven years by the Court of appeal in Lagos, is also on the list.


48 Million Out of 93.5 Million Eligible Voters are Youths, INEC Reveals

INEC disclosed that youths formed the highest number of registered voters who would vote in the February and March elections. National Commissioner at INEC in charge of Information and Voter Education Committee, Mr. Festus Okoye, stated this during the commission’s engagement with identified groups on the role of the youth ahead of the 2023 general election.

Okoye said from INEC’s records, the youth held all the aces to determine the outcome of the 2023 elections.He said out of a total of 9,518,756 valid newly registered voters between June 28, 2021 and July 31, 2022, those aged between 18 and 34 years of age were 7,286,871, representing 76.56 per cent.

Disclosing further that the total of registered voters for the general election was 93.5 million, Okoye said of the 84 million registered voters recorded for the 2019 general election, the youth population, which included males and females, was 51 per cent.He urged the youths to ensure that they cast their votes on election day, emphasising that it is only when they do so that they would determine who would lead them.

Okoye explained that the electoral process would be strictly technology-driven, adding that the commission has already deployed technology in all its processes.He said, “The commission had already taken delivery of the full number of the Bimodal Voter’s Accreditation System, for the conduct of the election in the 176,846 polling units across the federation. Additional BVAS for contingencies would be deployed to the 8,809 registration areas across the country.“The BVAS were designed to function offline, and, that only accredited voters would be allowed to cast votes on the day of the polls.“Only registered voters, who present their Permanent Voters Cards at the polling unit, would be accredited to vote.

“Over 1.4 million ad-hoc election staff had been engaged by the commission for the conduct of the 2023 general election, and insurance policy had been secured for them against hazards of the election, especially possible attack.“Punishment for any act of electoral offence against electoral officers has been made stiffer in the current 2022 Electoral Act (as amended) than the provisions in the previous 2010 Electoral Act (as amended).”

Okoye advised any ad-hoc staff who might not be ready to resist the temptations of election rigging antics to withdraw from conducting the exercise.Earlier, Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) in charge of Anambra State, Mrs. Queen Elizabeth Agwu, urged the youth to brace up for the challenges of ensuring that the election was conducted free of thuggery and any other electoral malpractices.

The recent meeting between the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress, Bola Tinubu and the five aggrieved governors of the Peoples Democratic Party has fuelled speculations that the former Lagos State governor will trade-off the APC candidates in the five PDP states to realise his life-long ambition, writes Adedayo Akinwale

In January 2022, when the presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Tinubu informed President Muhammadu Buhari of his ambition to contest the 2023 presidential election, he told whoever cared to listen that being the president of Nigeria was his life-long ambition.

At the time, even though Tinubu said he was consulting, he made it categorically clear that he had not set a parameter of limitation to the extent of how many people he would consult.

However, in July 2022, after the Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike lost the opportunity to be the running mate to the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Atiku, who nominated the Delta State Governor, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, three South-west governors visited Port Harcourt, Rivers State to meet with Wike to woo him.

The three governors were: The then governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi; Rotimi Akeredolu of Ondo State and Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos State. They were believed to be emissaries of the APC presidential candidate.

This move, however, did not go down well with the APC stakeholders from the South-south region, who saw it as an affront on party leaders in the region.

Against this background, a former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of APC, Yekeen Nabena, in a statement said the leaders of the party in the South-south region were not involved in the move to seek the support of Wike ahead of the next presidential election.

He specifically mentioned former Rivers State governor and immediate past Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi; former Bayelsa State governor and Minister of State Petroleum, Timipre Sylva and Deputy Senate President, Ovie Omo Agege as amongst those who were not happy that they were kept in the dark on the alleged move to woo Wike to work for the APC.

He said: “So, this is a warning to the Lagos State governor, Sanwo-Olu and his co-travellers that the APC South-south leaders are aware of their game plan in Rivers State, but it will not work because on election day, we will vote APC in all boxes; from President, National Assembly, governor and state House of Assembly. This will also apply in other states across the country. The era of voting APC for president and vote PDP for governor is over.”

Without mincing words, Nabena noted that the only way out for APC as a party was to respect leaders in every state and zone, and not just think they could “arrogantly arrange your boys to install leaders anywhere like they tried to do in Bayelsa, Kogi and Rivers states by some paper weight governors from the west who solely rely on Asiwaju to win the election.”


The APC chieftain warned that in party politics, everyone matters, and therefore called on Tinubu to caution his men whom, he said, were already thinking of installing leaders across the state with full assurance that Tinubu would be the next President and they would be in charge of the party structures across the states, saying this must be addressed quickly.

Despite the fact that Tinubu’s romance with the five aggrieved PDP governors was already creating bad blood within the ruling party, the former Lagos State governor, it was reported, met with the PDP G-5 governors – Wike, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Samuel Ortom of Benue State, and Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State in London.

Reports had it that the aggrieved governors had finally decided to work for Tinubu as well as his counterpart in the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi.

Investigation revealed that while Wike and Makinde decided to work for Tinubu, Ortom was too worried by the unintended consequences of such a move, which he feared might affect the governorship candidate of his party in Benue State. But Ikpeazu and Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State were said to have agreed to work for the APC presidential candidate quietly for fear of repercussions in the South-east.

To douse the apprehension among the APC supporters in the five states, Tinubu in a statement by his Media Office, which was signed by Mr. Tunde Rahman described the purported meeting with the rebel governors as false.

Expectedly, Tinubu’s determination to dine with the aggrieved opposition governors was already causing ripples in the five states. For instance, in Oyo State, there are indications that the alliance between Makinde and Tinubu might scuttle the ambition of the APC governorship candidate, Senator Teslim Folarin.


It would be recalled that in October 2022, while speaking through his deputy, Bayo Lawal at the reception of Tinubu by the leader of Afenifere, Pa Reuben Fasoranti, Makinde said they were for Tinubu.

Analysts see the alliance between Tinubu and the PDP G-5 governors as a trade-off of APC candidates in the five states to achieve his life-long ambition. They described the alliance as an act of desperation on the part of the former Lagos State governor.

Nevertheless, Kaduna State Governor, Nasir el-Rufai apparently flew the kite recently when he declared it would be difficult for the APC to defeat Makinde in the next governorship election.

The governor said this at the send-forth ceremony organised for Nteranya Sanginga, the outgoing Director-General of the International Institute for Tropical Agriculture (IITA), held at the IITA Conference Centre, Ibadan.

“We’ll do our best to defeat you. But I know it will be tough because you’ve been a good governor,” he reportedly told Makinde.

Meanwhile, Atiku’s Special Assistant, Public Communication, and member of the PDP PCC, Phrank Shaibu, accused Tinubu of lying that he never met the rebellious governors, when in actual fact he met them to fine tune a deal to undermine PDP.

Shaibu said while the news of the meeting was trending, two spokesmen for the APC presidential campaign, Festus Keyamo and Femi Fani-Kayode, took to the social media to celebrate the support Tinubu would be getting from the G-5.

He further disclosed that on Facebook, Fani-Kayode had specifically stated, “The endorsement and declaration of support that Bola Ahmed Tinubu will get from at least six (not just five) governors from the PDP this January will finally put to rest the delusion that Atiku will stubbornly harbour about winning the 2023 presidential election.”

He said, “It is funny that it took three whole days after reports of the meeting before Tinubu decided it was time to put out a statement denying it was ever held. It is also awfully coincidental that the G-5 and Tinubu all decided to travel to London at the same time and departed at the same time with Tinubu proceeding to Saudi Arabia and the other governors returning to Nigeria.


“Incidentally, Tinubu had also in August denied plans of meeting the G-5, only for Wike to later issue a statement confirming that they, indeed, met with Tinubu and other candidates separately. Tinubu’s latest denial should, therefore, be discarded as another lie,” Shaibu explained.

Shaibu claimed that Tinubu demied meeting the governors because the details of the meeting were too messy and the APC candidates in the five states were fighting back.

According to him, there is a fight back from the APC governorship and National Assembly candidates from the affected states where the G-5 Governors hold sway. According to him, in Oyo, Senator Teslim Folarin is reportedly angry at a proposed treacherous deal to trade off his mandate as the APC governorship candidate. The situation, Shaibu explained, is not different in Abia, Enugu, Benue and, of course, Rivers State.

“This desperation was brought to the fore in 2011, when Tinubu removed the rug from under Nuhu Ribadu of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) and made a deal with the federal government to ensure that President Goodluck Jonathan wins.”

Shaibu believed that all the machinations would end in failure for Tinubu, because Nigerians have decided that their future would not be put in the hands of a man who is willing to trade their destinies for a mere “porridge or agbado (corn).”

It is now clear that what the aggrieved five PDP governors are fighting for is mere personal interest, but whether Tinubu would throw APC candidates in the five states under the bus to achieve his life-long ambition still remains unclear.

By Dalhatu Liman


No fewer than 1,800 truckloads of livestock leave the northern part of Nigeria to the southern part every month, says the Chairman of the Association of Sheep and Goat Sellers of Nigeria, Alhaji Mustafa Ali.

Ali, who doubles as the National Auditor of the Amalgamated Union of Foodstuff and Cattle Dealers of Nigeria (AUFCDN), said extortion in Benue and Taraba states remained their major headache.

He said, “Based on our estimation, every month at least 1,800 trucks ferry livestock from different parts of the North to Lagos, Port Harcourt, Uyo, Delta, Calabar, among others. They include cows, goats, sheep and camels. A trailer carries at least 4,000 goats or sheep, but for cows, it carries 35 or more.”

He explained that Lagos topped the list of the livestock destinations in the South, followed by Rivers, Delta, Akwa Ibom, Enugu, Abia and Bayelsa states.

He, however, expressed dismay over the current economic crunch, saying, “Unlike what we experience in recent years, from November or two weeks to Christmas, you would see the business booming till January. But now the animals are costly from our end, same thing at the point of sales. Although we thank God as it keeps moving, though not as sharp as it was.’’

On the potentials associated with the livestock value chain, he said the business was blessed with huge prospects which began from the point of buying the livestock to the final merchant.

He said, “The chances are abundant, most especially during festive periods, as the value chain creates many job opportunities for youths and opthers.”

The National Organising Secretary of AUFCDN, Alhaji Ayuba Umar Rano, recently explained to our reporter how multiple extortion under the pretext of taxes by non-state actors in some states are affecting their profits.


He explained that the extortion varied from state to state, lamenting that Benue was the most awful as illegal tax collectors mounted over 40 toll gates.

Rano said, “Take Taraba and Benue states for example, most especially Benue; there is no state in Nigeria where we are overtaxed illegally by non-state revenue collectors like Benue. There are more than 30 toll gates mounted by rascals to extort our members. At each toll gate a truckload of cattle pays N50,000 as tax. We had a meeting with their revenue service which mandated us to pay N50,000 for a trailer if the cattle were not taken on board within the state and N25,000 for the ones bought in the state.

“Both state governments are not unaware of this issue. The worst part is that the tax accrued from us is not remitted to either federal or state governments—it ends up in the pockets of these rascals. I can tell you that the number of these toll gates is uncountable.’’

He, however, said the situation was not the same on some routes, especially for cattle dealers from Mubi in Adamawa State, Gombe, Kano, Kaduna and Niger states to Lagos as “they don’t spend a penny along that route.”

He noted that, “We only encounter minor extortions from the security agents on these routes. They are very lenient towards our members. They may demand a token from only N200 to N1,000. But on the Benue route, in some instances at one toll gate they demand from N2,000. They would even split themselves into three groups – whereby all of them can tax you. That is how they subject us to unwarranted suffering.’’

Speaking on other challenges associated with the business, Rano said they were enormous in view of how valuable cows and cost of transportation were.

He said, “Recently, we loaded cattle from Maigatari to Owerri; after they passed Benin some miscreants popped up from the bush, beat the people in the truck and took away eight cows. Each of the cows costs no less than N800,000.

“If you want to ferry cows from Mubi to Port Harcourt, you will spend not less than N500,000 on the road. As I am speaking to you, there is a truck that left Gombe to Port Harcourt; they called to notify me that they spent more than N580,000 even before they reached Port Harcourt. The challenges are immeasurable.

“Due to the high cost of gasoline, we hire a trailer for N1.5m to 1.6m; this is apart from other expenses on the road. Before a cow reaches its destination in the South, its expenses could be around N75,000 to N80,000, unlike what we spent those days in which a cow cost us just N30,000 – this is from its transport fare to food and taxes on the road. Now, besides the cost which you bought it at the market, you must add up at least N80,000 on top.

“Again, if you are selling it to a ready-buyer, they would not buy the cow at the rate you can realise a reasonable profit; only if you sell it on balance, where you will collect your money in piecemeal. Only then can you realise some equitable profit. Issues like these are causes of major concern to us. Only a few of us make money out of the business, especially these days.

“Our main concern is these rascals who extort us just like that. A man would just come and squeeze you to pay him a sum of N40,000 without a commensurate service rendered to you.”

The National Assembly’s proposed N30.17bn severance package exceeds the Revenue Mobilisation and Fiscal Allocation Commission’s provision by about N27.36bn, Sunday PUNCH has learnt.

Earlier, it was reported that the Senate President, Ahmad Lawan; the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila and other lawmakers in both chambers of the National Assembly would get N30.17bn as a severance package.

A severance package or gratuity is the money paid to lawmakers after their four-year tenure in office.

The provision was contained in the 2023 Appropriation Bill the National Assembly passed and signed by the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd).

However, Sunday PUNCH checks indicate that the National Assembly members were allocated about N2.81bn, with senators getting N664.94m while House of Representatives members would be paid N2.15bn.

The president of the Senate would receive N7.45m, the deputy senate president, N6.93m and the other 107 senators would get N6.08m each.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives is expected to receive N7.43m, the deputy speaker N6.86m and the 358 members N5.96m each.

The severance package of the lawmakers was collated from a document obtained from the website of the RMAFC.

According to the RMAFAC, political office holders were entitled to 300 per cent of their annual salary as a severance package.

Going by RMAFC’s recommendation, the lawmakers were supposed to receive N2.81bn instead of the N30.17bn budgeted by the National Assembly.

However, The PUNCH observed that the severance allowance was separate from other financial packages, which may be in place as retirement benefits or pensions for some of the political office holders.

The ninth National Assembly’s severance package was N7bn higher than what was approved by the Senator Bukola Saraki-led eighth assembly.

At the twilight of the Saraki-led assembly, the sum of N23.68bn was approved as a severance package for lawmakers at the time.

However, Lawan and Gbajabiamila claimed the N30.17bn would also cover the inauguration of the 10th assembly.

The sum of N10 billion was earmarked for the construction of the National Assembly Service Commission building and N2.5bn was set aside for the completion of the National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies headquarters located along Airport Road in Abuja.

In the N967.48bn statutory transfers, the Senate got N33.27bn and the House of Representatives got N51.99bn.

In a statement in October, RMAFC said it would begin the process of reviewing the remuneration for political, public and judicial office holders in the country.

In a telephone conversation with our correspondent, the commission’s spokesperson, Nwachukwu Christian, said that the Commission would consult with stakeholders with a view to reviewing public office holders’ pay.

He said that the agency would engage critical stakeholders to determine if the remuneration for political, public and judicial officeholders should be increased or decreased.

In June last year, the former Chairman of RMAFC, Elias Mbam, said the commission had completed plans to begin the review of the revenue allocation formula.

The review was targeted at the equitable distribution of the accrued revenue into the Federation Account to the three tiers of government and it was to be concluded before the end of 2021.

However, the commission failed to meet its deadline in 2021 and ended up submitting its report of the review of the vertical revenue allocation formula to the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), in April last year.

In the report, the proposed vertical revenue allocation formula was 45.17 per cent for the Federal Government, 29.79 per cent for state governments and 21.04 per cent for the local governments.

The vice chancellor of the University of Calabar, Prof. Florence Obi, has approved the suspension of four students of the institution identified in a viral video and found culpable of partaking in an unlawful act of water ritual on a fellow female student.

The announcement of the suspension is contained in a release signed on Saturday in Calabar by Gabriel Egbe, registrar of the institution.

Mr Egbe said that the unlawful act was carried out by the four students during the last matriculation ceremony of the institution on December 2, 2022.

Mr Egbe mentioned the affected students to include Stephen Usen, a student of Accounting Department, year 4, and Aniefiok Idorenyin, a student of Computer Science, year 2.

Others are Miracle Adeyemi, a student of Political Science, year 2 and Blessing Queen, a student of Genetics and Biotech, year 4.

“Management deliberated extensively on the report of the committee on Gender-Based Violence and the strength of its findings and has accordingly directed the affected students to proceed on suspension with effect from the 2020/2021 academic session.

“Deans, Heads of Departments and other relevant officers of the university have been tasked with the duty of full compliance with the given directive,” Mr Egbe said.

NAN

Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Candidate, has lambasted Atiku Abubakar, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential Candidate, calling him ‘Mr. Privatize’

Tinubu said this while campaigning in Akure, the Ondo State capital, on Saturday.

He also referred to Peter Obi, Labour Party’s flag bearer as ‘Mr. Stingy.’

“He doesn’t want to do the brave and hard work required to build a better nation. Instead, he would rather sell your birthright to the highest bidder and run off with the proceeds.

“He cares little that his policies and actions will impoverish you and leave you with nothing.”

On Obi, Tinubu said the former Anambra State governor had a chance to show how progressive he could be when he was governor of Anambra State.

He said, “All he could do was boast that he saved money. But I tell you it is a wicked parent that holds money in his hand yet allows his children to starve.

“Likewise, it is a heartless governor who holds back money when people went hungry, and schools, road, and clinics went into disrepair. Neither the city-dweller nor farmer prospered under him.

“In the end, he refused to save the people because he preferred to save the money. And he claims to be the party of labor. You will have to be laboring under a terrible delusion if you think he will do better for the nation than he did for Anambra State. Buyer beware of salesmen selling fake merchandise.

“The truth of the difference between my leadership and that of Mr. Obi lies in one observation. Although Lagos is crowded and Anambra has ample space, more people left Obi’s Anambra seeking a better life in Tinubu’s Lagos than left Lagos believing Obi had established a blueprint for growth in Anambra.

“My people, you cannot entrust your future or that of our nation to Mr. Sell Everything Atiku or Mr. Stingy Obi. But you can trust Mr. Progressive Good Governance Tinubu! ”

AUTHOR:Jemilat Nasiru


“Nigeria is a rich country with a booming population of over 200 million people. While this richness is an advantage, the country’s human development has, however, been severely impacted by multidimensional poverty” — Clem Ikanade Agba (2022)

The above statement is the first sentence of the National Multidimensional Poverty Index (2022) report’s foreword written by Clem Agba, minister of state for budget and national planning.

Pay attention to the italicised words and let’s assume we are in literature class. What figure of speech is at play?

In summary, Agba says:

Nigeria is a rich country;

Nigeria’s richness is an advantage;

Yet,

Nigeria is multidimensionally poor; all in one sentence.

If you are asking — how does a rich country become poor 25 words apart? How do you describe a country of 200 million people with 133 million multidimensionally poor people as rich? Was the minister trying out his oxymoron skills?


WHAT IS MULTIDIMENSIONAL POVERTY?

Multidimensional poverty encompasses deprivations experienced by poor people — such as poor health, lack of education, inadequate living standards, and living in environmentally hazardous areas, among others, according to the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative.

According to the MPI report, released in November 2022, 63 percent of Nigerians are poor due to a lack of access to health, education, and living standards, alongside unemployment and shocks.

This implies that three out of five Nigerians live in poverty.

The report said 65 percent of poor people — 86 million – live in the north, while 35 percent — nearly 47 million – live in the south.

Yet, the minister says Nigeria is a rich country.


Incredible!

By Israel Arogbonlo


A yet-to-be-identified pastor’s wife who reportedly engaged in sex romp with a native doctor that eventually died during the act has been arrested by Police Command in Ekiti, Tribune Online can authoritatively report.

Recall the deceased identified simply as Kehinde died on Monday, January 2, in the hotel room where he had visited with his female partner.

Reacting, Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO) in Ekiti, ASP Sunday Abutu said that investigation has commenced on the circumstances surrounding the death of the man.

”Yes, we can confirm the death of the man in one of the hotels at Ikere-Ekiti on Monday. His corpse has been retrieved and deposited at the morgue.

“Let me quickly tell you that the woman in question is with us already as we commence investigations to unravel the cause or otherwise of the man’s death, ” the PPRO told Tribune Online.

Nigerian doctors have taken online to share alarming stories of how they were being attacked while on duty.

The doctor with the Twitter handle @Sports_Doctor2 had started a thread of how he was almost lynched to death in the course of discharging his duties.

This comes on the heels of the murder of one of his colleagues, Dr Uyi Iluobe, by gunmen who attacked his hospital, Olive Clinic, at Oghareki, in the Ethiope West Local Government Area on New Year’s Eve.

In his case, he was almost beaten to death by an aggrieved family who accused him of killing their daughter following his intervention.

He described the experience as a terrifying moment of his life claiming that Nigerian doctors have no future practicing medicine in Nigeria.

“The day I knew I didn’t have a future practicing medicine in Nigeria was the day I was almost beaten by a patient relative in children’s emergency after their daughter died.

“It took the quick thinking of the matron to use her body as shield to save me that night. What happened?

“It was a Saturday morning and I was on call in Children’s Emergency.

“I arrived my happy self, cracked jokes with the matron on call and did a brief ward round with the consultant, and Senior Register on call. We came to this baby girl that was looking seriously sick.

“She looked like a ske*** as she was severely malnourished, this also caused her to have severe sepsis (infection).

“My consultant noticed the antibiotics she was placed on weren’t working as she was still having fever, changed it, and told me to write a referral to Dietitians.

“The dietitians came reviewed and wrote out a diet plan for the child. Now if you see the parents of this girl, they both were looking healthy with the father looking like a weight lifter.

“The mum was told to go get the new drugs outside as it wasn’t available in the hospital.

“Now from just looking at that child, you would know she’s been sick at home for a long time but her parents didn’t bother to bring her to the hospital up until now her situation is critical. It was evening and the mother had not gotten the drug until her child entered “crisis”.

“We resuscitated her, that was when the consultant shouted at her and she left to get the drug immediately.

“The matron called me to come and administer the drug which I did after calculating her dose using her weight (Children’s drugs are given according to their weight).

“It wasn’t up to 30-45mins, the matron started shouting, “Doc, Doc”, we all rushed down only to see the girl having another crisis. We tried everything but the girl didn’t make it this time and while we were doing this, I saw the wife pointing at me and talking to her husband.

“Immediately we told them the girl is dead, the hefty looking husband with his brothers rushed to grab me, the matron blocked them and my chiefs took me inside the Resident call room and locked the door. I could hear them shouting they will kill me, I was TERRIFIED!!!

“I had to be smuggled home the next day. They believed the drug I gave a severely malnourished child with severe sepsis killed her when I did my absolute best to save her. Now, this is the plight of every average Nigerian doctor, your life is ALWAYS at risk if a patient dies,” the tweets read.

A user @krativity said it was an ugly experience for a doctor (name withheld) who almost got killed by some family members who lost their mother in 2013.

“At a big hospital in Abuja in 2013, some family members jacked a doctor & were trying to throw him down from 2 storey building because their mother passed on & they insisted the doctor must continue to try. It took the help of securities to safe the doctor from dying that night,” the user disclosed.

@Winietreasure said she was almost accused of murder after administering Patient Care Management (PCM) on an aged patient who passed away a few hours later.

“When I was serving as an auxiliary nurse, I administered PCM to an aged patient; two hours later, he passed, and his children came to look for me at the nursing station. They said I was the last person that attended to him. They were almost accusing me of murder,” she tweeted.

Another user @KeepMuving while lending his voice said medical practitioners were almost beaten after a guy died in an undisclosed hospital in the area.

“This makes me remember that year when one hospital in my area was destroyed because a particular guy in my area died there. Boys rushed in, beat any doctor, nurse and workers they set their eyes on. Burned down some parts of the hospital that year. Some elderly men tried to stop,” the tweep replied.

“This almost happened to me but I thank God because I was already withdrawing the injection just to inject the man and he started convulsing and he died! Had it been he convulsed after injecting him, what will be my fate?” a user with the handle @Dolcezza111 tweeted.