₦airaland Forum

Sheuns:
It is 2025, 10 years after this post, the Blue line still hasn't gone past Mile 2. They took billions in loans to build a rail line for well over 20 years.

chisomkachy:
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has withdrawn the alleged money laundering suit it filed at the Federal High Court against Lagos Speaker Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa.

Naija News understands that the anti-graft did not give any particular reason for its application for withdrawal.

Following the application to withdraw, Justice Nicholas Oweibo discharged the ‘lien/Post No Debit’ placed on Obasa’s three accounts in Standard Chartered Bank.

The accounts are (US Dollars) 0001852063; (Current) 0001852056 and (Saving) 5002309624.

The judge also set aside the ex-parte orders he made on September 15, 2020, which led to the freezing of the accounts.

Recall that the court on September 15, 2020, granted an interim order freezing Obasa’s accounts following the EFCC’s application in a suit marked FHC/LCS/1064/2020.

The agency had said it was investigating the Speaker for the alleged offences of conspiracy, diversion of funds, abuse of office and money laundering.

But Justice Oweibo, on August 16, 2023, heard the application to unfreeze the accounts in his chamber.

During the hearing, the EFCC was represented by Mr. Sulaiman I. Sulaiman, while Obasa was represented by Mr. Adeyinka Olumide-Fusika (SAN).

The EFCC lawyer told the court that the application to unfreeze the accounts was pursuant to Section 44(2)(K) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended) and Sections 26, 29 and 34 (1) of the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, and under the court’s inherent jurisdiction.

Section 44 of the Constitution concerns constitutional rights to property.

Justice Oweibo held: “It is hereby ordered that an order is hereby granted to the respondent/applicant setting aside the ex-parte orders of this court made on the 15th day of September 2020 upon the ex-parte motion of the Applicant/ Respondent in relation the funds of the Respondent/Applicant domiciled in the accounts stated in the following schedule:

“ACCOUNT NAME, FINANCIAL ACCOUNT INSTITUTIONS, TYPE OF ACCOUNT, 1. Mudasiru Ajayi Obasa, Standard Chartered, (US Dollars) 0001852063 2. Mudasiru Ajayi Obasa, Standard Chartered (Current) 0001852056 3. Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa, Standard Chartered (Saving) 5002309624.

“Issued at Lagos, under the seal of this Honourable Court and by the hands of the Presiding Judge this 16th day of August 2023.”

https://dailytimesng.com/obasa-efcc-withdraws-suit/

Previous Threads:
https://www.nairaland.com/5877642/obasa-64-bank-accounts-linked#89878603

https://wap.nairaland.com/6167844/lagos-assembly-speaker-obasa-efcc#94728150

https://www.nairaland.com/6168612/obasa-court-orders-efcc-freeze#94741534

Buhari’ll reduce petrol to N40/L —David-West

FORMER Minister of Petroleum and Energy, Prof. Tamunoemi David-West, said that Nigerians should expect sharp drop in petrol price from the current N87 to about N40 per litre, saying, “the president-elect, Gen. Mohammed Buhari, will reduce the fuel pump price to N40 per litre.”

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2015/04/buharill-reduce-petrol-to-n40l-david-west/

NLCreator666:
Lagos Resident Laments Economic Hardship, Hunger Under Tinubu, Confesses To Beating Elderly People, Others To Make Tinubu President

A Lagos state resident has lamented his inability to get petroleum despite beating people including the elderly to vote for President Bola Tinubu in 2023.

In a video posted on social media, he narrated how life had been hard for him despite all he did to ensure Tinubu became Nigeria’s President.

He said, “We wanted to buy fuel but we have been unable to get. They even beat us at the petroleum station. I was among those that beat people at Idi-Oro.

“We went from house to house, asking people to vote for you (referring to Tinubu). You emerged as the President and now you are destroying our lives. Getting food to eat is difficult for us.”

He noted that despite the hardship, different agencies in the state have kept milking them through taxation.

"I voted for Jagaban, I was among those that flogged people we refused to vote Tinubu at Idi-oro. We went from House to House attacking people who didn't vote for Jagaban, Today I am regretting”.

He said, “We are suffering in Nigeria, we have become lazy even in our own father’s land. We are drivers and that’s how we survive. LASTMA (Lagos State Traffic Management Agency), VIO (Vehicle Inspection Office) all collect money from us. Please Tinubu, do something about this hardship.

“We are the same people that beat up others so you could become the President. Some of them people we beat were our father’s mates, but we beat them up. We did that just because of you so you could become the President, and we kept saying it was our turn.

“Look at it now, the outcome is suffering, we cannot even buy rice again. You cannot buy N1000 food and be okay. I bought food of N1200 today and my kids have not eaten at home.”

He also expressed worry that he would be beaten for the comments he was making about Tinubu.

“I know that what I have said now, they will still come to beat me at home. I know that for sure,” he said.

https://saharareporters.com/2024/09/05/lagos-resident-laments-economic-hardship-hunger-under-tinubu-confesses-beating-elderly

ijustdey:
Nigeria will pay an interest of 11.85 percent per annum on the $3.3 billion “pre-export finance facility” (PxF) facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd and arranged by Afrexim Bank, TheCable can report.

Until now, the fine details of the transaction, which has a five-year tenor, had been withheld by all parties involved.

A similar cocoa-backed $800 million facility arranged for Ghana by its cocoa marketing board attracts an interest of 8 percent per annum.

Bilateral lenders, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would typically charge 1-3 percent with a longer tenor.

In the details seen by TheCable, Nigeria pledged a total of 164.25 million barrels of crude oil — at 90,000 barrels per day — starting from 2024 to repay the loan through Project Gazelle Funding Ltd, an “orphan” special purpose vehicle (SPV) incorporated in Bahamas for the PxF.

Effectively, the NNPC has pledged 38.58 percent of five years’ worth of tax and royalty oil to secure the loan.
>
>
>
‘DOLLAR LIQUIDITY TO STABILISE THE NAIRA’

The national oil company announced in August 2023 that the PxF was to support the federal government “in its ongoing fiscal and monetary policy reforms aimed at stabilizing the exchange rate market”, describing it as “a relief for the naira”.

It called the facility “crude oil repayment” with an upfront cash loan “against proceeds from a limited amount of future crude oil production”.

At the time, the dollar exchanged for an average of N775 in the official market and N885 on the streets.

The rates have now moved to N1,035/$ (official) and N1,230/$ (parallel).

https://www.thecable.ng/exclusive-nigeria-to-pay-11-85-interest-on-3-3bn-afriexim-nnpc-loan-pledges-164m-barrels-as-security/amp

pendy79:
Lagos State Governor, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, on Sunday evening boasted that he could provide uninterrupted power supply to Lagos residents between six and eight months.

Fashola spoke at the commissioning of 8.5 megawatts Lekki Independent Power Project (IPP), the fifth of such power projects in the last five years in the state.

The governor said the addition of the Lekki IPP was a testament to the fact that stable power does not require rocket science to achieve in the country.

While challenging power distribution companies in the state, Fashola said, “Let the Eko DISCOs sign a contract with me, giving part of their concessioning to the state government, in about six to eight months, there will be power in all homes in Lagos State,” Fashola said.

He added, “So, let no one say that he has no money to deliver power for the entire country. This is the limit to which the law allows us to do, but we have done this to make a statement that power can be generated. So, when they come with lies that power is impossible, you can tell them that we have power here; we make it possible”.

The project, courtesy of the state government, in partnership with Heritage Bank, is to serve Lagos State Water Corporations in Lekki Phase 1, Oniru, Victoria Island and Ikoyi, as well as over 25km of public lightening in the Lekki axis.

http://dailyindependentnig.com/2015/03/can-provide-stable-power-eight-months-fashola-boasts/

ijustdey:
Nigeria will pay an interest of 11.85 percent per annum on the $3.3 billion “pre-export finance facility” (PxF) facilitated by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd and arranged by Afrexim Bank, TheCable can report.

Until now, the fine details of the transaction, which has a five-year tenor, had been withheld by all parties involved.

A similar cocoa-backed $800 million facility arranged for Ghana by its cocoa marketing board attracts an interest of 8 percent per annum.

Bilateral lenders, such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), would typically charge 1-3 percent with a longer tenor.

In the details seen by TheCable, Nigeria pledged a total of 164.25 million barrels of crude oil — at 90,000 barrels per day — starting from 2024 to repay the loan through Project Gazelle Funding Ltd, an “orphan” special purpose vehicle (SPV) incorporated in Bahamas for the PxF.

Effectively, the NNPC has pledged 38.58 percent of five years’ worth of tax and royalty oil to secure the loan.

Nigeria pledges over $12 billion worth of oil
At the beginning of 2024, a barrel of Nigerian oil was sold at the international market at $77.93 per barrel, according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) data.

At $77.93 per barrel, the 164.25 million barrels of oil pledged by Nigeria equals $12.8 billion — about three times more than the facility taken.

Pre-2014, the national oil company used to remit an average of $3 billion from oil sales every month.

Officially, Project Gazelle Funding Ltd (PGFL) is the borrower while the NNPC is the “sponsor” and will pay with oil to the SPV to liquidate the loan.

To make the repayment, the NNPC will forward-sell 90,000 barrels per day of Nigeria’s share of offshore crude oil under the production sharing contract (PSCs) with the oil companies.

Under PSCs, the companies usually pay royalties and taxes by giving the oil equivalent to the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) and the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) respectively.

The NNPC in turn exports the oil on behalf of NUPRC and FIRS and remits the proceeds to the agencies.

This is part of the revenues paid into the federation account and shared by the three tiers of government.

But under the PxF, the revenue from 90,000 barrels per day will be used to service the loan in the next five years.

The loan arrangers will get a commission of $66 million or 2% of the facility, TheCable further learnt.

Nigeria will pay 2 percent penalty per annum in the event of a default.


‘DOLLAR LIQUIDITY TO STABILISE THE NAIRA’

The national oil company announced in August 2023 that the PxF was to support the federal government “in its ongoing fiscal and monetary policy reforms aimed at stabilizing the exchange rate market”, describing it as “a relief for the naira”.

It called the facility “crude oil repayment” with an upfront cash loan “against proceeds from a limited amount of future crude oil production”.

At the time, the dollar exchanged for an average of N775 in the official market and N885 on the streets.

The rates have now moved to N1,035/$ (official) and N1,230/$ (parallel).

Nigeria’s outstanding forex liabilities are currently thought to be over $7 billion.

In an explainer after announcing the PxF last year, the NNPC said its exposure is very limited, “covering just a fraction” of their entitlements and that “there are no sovereign guarantees tied to it”.

It said it “will also equip the Federal Government with the necessary dollar liquidity to stabilize the Naira, with limited risk”.

A strengthened naira as a result of the initiative, it said, “will lead to a reduction in fuel costs. This means that if the Naira appreciates in value, the cost of fuel will drop and further increases will be halted”.

It also ruled out subsidies, maintaining that a stronger naira “will result in lower prices from the current level, making subsidies unnecessary. The deregulation policy remains unchanged”.

Critics questioned NNPC’s involvement in getting loans to boost forex reserves when it should be concentrating its efforts on bringing in more oil revenues.

There were also questions over the decision to pledge the tax and royalty oil belonging to the entire federation to secure the loan.

Analysts also queried why the details of the deal were never made public.

https://www.thecable.ng/exclusive-nigeria-to-pay-11-85-interest-on-3-3bn-afriexim-nnpc-loan-pledges-164m-barrels-as-security/amp

TimeManager:
The Federal Government has revealed that the elimination of the petrol subsidy under President Bola Tinubu has resulted in savings of over $84 billion, which are now being channelled into the construction and rehabilitation of 40 key road projects across the country over the past two years.

This was disclosed in a policy brief released by the National Orientation Agency (NOA), titled “Two Years Later: Key Benefits of Subsidy Removal,” and made available to journalists over the weekend in Abuja.

The report, which reviewed the outcomes of the subsidy removal since May 29, 2023, noted that the policy averted a looming economic crisis.

It also enabled the Tinubu administration to clear long-standing financial liabilities, increase capital investments, and support the financial stability of state governments.

https://businessday.ng/news/article/84bn-saved-from-petrol-subsidy-now-financing-40-key-roads-report/?amp

anonimi:
I’m still suffering for failing to stop Tambuwal from becoming Speaker in 2011 — Jonathan

President Goodluck Jonathan has expressed regrets at his inability to stop Aminu Tambuwal and install a South West politician as Speaker of the House of Representatives in 2011.

He said he is still suffering for failing in that enterprise.

Speaking on Friday at the Yoruba Unity Summit themed: ‘National Development: Wither the Yoruba,’at the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Mr. Jonathan attributed his failure to the selfishness of some Yoruba leaders

In 2011, Aminu Tambuwal, who is from the Northwest, had defeated Mulikat Akande, a Yoruba from the South West, to emerge the House Speaker.

President Jonathan said he is still suffering from that decision by the Lower House.

“One of the problems I faced in the National Assembly is that I felt the right thing should be done because our party, the PDP, has a formula,” said Mr. Jonathan, who was the special guest of honour at the event.

“We have six geo-political zones in the country and when the President emerges from one of the geo-political zones, the Vice-President emerges from another geo-political zone, the rest core offices, the Senate President, the Speaker, Secretary to Federal Government, the chairman of the party must come from different geo-political zones.

“The idea is that, whenever we are distributing board positions and some of these appointments, whenever we are appointing ministers, all these people sit to take decisions. In that case we want all the geo-political zones to be in the inner caucus that take critical decisions.

“The last time, it was difficult for me because I insisted that the Southwest must get the Speaker. Of course, I couldn’t go through with it because some of us within the Southwest didn’t want it, based on some personal reasons. I am still suffering from that till today.”

https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/172091-im-still-suffering-failing-stop-tambuwal-becoming-speaker-2011-jonathan.html

RealityKings1:
This is a 2014 news you are bringing into 2025.
That's 9 years ago.

That aside, when yoruba elders went to meet Jonathan to plead with him not to sideline the Yoruba people, we all remembered what you people said.

You said Jonathan should have thrown the Yoruba elders outside the door.

Princecalm:
Jul 29, 2015

The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation has announced that the Port Harcourt and Warri refineries have been successfully re-streamed after a nine-month rehabilitation exercise conducted by its in-house engineers and technicians.

The corporation, in a statement, noted that both plants commenced preliminary production of petroleum products after successful test-runs, adding that while PHRC was ramping up its operation to about 60 per cent of its 210,000 barrels per day capacity, WRPC production was projected to hit 80 per cent of its installed 125,000bpd capacity.

The NNPC said the Port Harcourt refinery was projected to boost the nation’s local refining capacity with a product yield of five million litres of petrol per day, while Warri refinery would contribute 3.5 million litres of petrol.

Providing insight into the rehabilitation exercise, the NNPC noted that it had to adopt the phased rehabilitation strategy after the Original Refinery Builders, who were initially contacted for the project came up with unfavorable terms.

It said, “Though a decision was taken in 2011 to rehabilitate all the refineries using the ORB of each of the refineries, we were impelled to switch strategy after the ORBs declined participation and nominated some partners in their stead who came up with outrageously unfavorable terms.”

The NNPC stated that the nominated partners, as sole-bidders, came up with humongous price offers after two years of thorough and exhaustive scope of work definition and price negotiations.

It added that the proxies were also unwilling to provide post rehabilitation performance guarantees.

The corporation said, “The phased rehabilitation strategy which entailed phased and simultaneous rehabilitation of all the refineries using in-house and locally available resources in line with the spirit and letter of the Nigerian Content Law, also involved the use of Original Equipment Manufacturer representatives to effect major equipment overhaul and rehabilitation.”

The national oil firm said the phased rehabilitation programme, which started in October 2014 after the required funding stream was established, created a 70 per cent reduction in costs which helped largely in mitigating the financing challenges of refinery rehabilitation.

It observed that with the successful re-streaming of the PHRC and WRPC, attention has now moved to the 110,000 barrels per day Kaduna Refining and Petrochemicals Company which was billed to come on stream soon.

http://www.punchng.com/news/pharcourt-warri-refineries-commence-preliminary-operations-nnpc/

saintopus:
Dec 06, 2024
The PH Refinery ships its first export of petroleum products to Dubai.

The company is expected to load the cargo in the coming days onboard the Wonder Star MR1 ship, signalling the commencement of operations at the plant and the exportation of petroleum products.

The ship will load 15,000 metric tons of the product, which translates to about 13.6 million litres.

Although the volume coming from the NNPC into the global market is still small, the development has the potential to impact the Very Low Sulphur Fuel Oil (VLSFO) benchmarks in the future while changing the market realities for Atlantic Basin exporters into Nigeria and other regions.

The sulfur content of the export by NNPC stands at 0.26 per cent per wt and a 0.918 g/ml density at 15°C, according to Kpler, a data and analysis company.

The cargo was reportedly sold at an $8.50/t discount to the NWE 0.5 per cent benchmark on a Free on Board (FOB) basis.

Kpler reported that the development would help displace imports from traditional suppliers in Africa and Europe, as Nigeria’s falling clean product (CPP) imports are already decreasing, dragging imports into the wider West Africa region lower as well.

https://guardian.ng/energy/nnpc-begins-export-from-ph-refinery-as-dubai-firm-buys-first-cargo/

Lanrelagboi:
Lagos has now crossed the 3 Trillion Naira annual budget mark. Crossed 2 Trillion in 2024.

Memory Lane: the first full-year Lagos State budget (Year 2000) in the 4th Republic was in the region of 40-something billion Naira. And it was described as “unprecedented” back then.

InvertedHammer:
/
It is by far better than Enugu.

500 gallons of water go for N20k. Multiply by 4 in a month, that's N80k. By extrapolation, that's N960k in a year on water alone. Why? Because the governor believes that clean and accessible water is the least of his worries. Yet they prance around like Enugu is Abuja even though the red muddy soil will have residents looking like they went tomb-raiding at night.

But then, considering where it was before Peter Mba, one can understand the accolades being that he moved the town from 16th Century to 17th Century but not anywhere near 20th Century. 21st Century is a stretch. EEDC? The worst of all.

/

fergie001:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g5v-F81hNTs

The Permanent Secretary, Office of Drainage Services and Water Resources in Lagos State, Mahmood Adegbite, has said that people drilling borehole in the Lekki axis of the state is probably drinking ‘’shit water.”

While speaking at a stakeholders meeting in the state recently, Adegbite noted that contaminated boreholes in Lekki pose health risk and added that treatment of waste water would eradicate any form of disease that may arise from it.

He said, “On waste water treatment, I will say that everyone digging borehole within the Lekki axis is probably drinking what I will call ‘shit water.’

https://punchng.com/video-everyone-digging-borehole-in-lekki-is-probably-drinking-shit-water-lagos-govt/?fbclid=IwQ0xDSwMABDJjbGNrAwAEK2V4dG4DYWVtAjExAAEewOd7728C0FSKQJNWar4yKRxNpNKt1owSlw47y57FKAux2QxvQL24Iu18rtw_aem_3kB5Sd2GjpdqjN6zFuIs7w

HenryThegreat1:
•Students are dropping out — Parents

January 18, 2024

Most tertiary institutions in the country have hiked their fees by over 150 %, putting serious strains on the finances of parents and guardians who also have to contend with the poor state of the economy which has reduced purchasing power and savings.

Checks by Vanguard Learning in public universities across the country show that the increment in obligatory fees, which started late last year is continuing, as a new session starts in some schools this January.

Only on January 6, this year, for instance, the Federal University of Technology, Akure, FUTA, Ondo State came out with a proposal to hike fees by over 100%.

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/01/parents-groan-as-institutions-hike-fees-by-over-100-per-cent/

gabydaniels:
Aug 25, 2016
The Vice President, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, has disclosed that the federal government has so far saved the sum of N1.4 trillion for not paying oil subsidy.

He also assured Nigerians that very soon, the foreign exchange market would stabilise going by some radical policies already introduced by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The vice president who spoke in Kano yesterday during the third day of the 15th Joint Planning Board and National Council on Development meeting, urged Nigerians to restore confidence in President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration, insisting that soonest, the current economic problems would become a thing of the past.

“With the deregulation of the downstream petroleum sector, there has been a significant increase in the availability of petrol throughout the country for the savings of N1.4 trillion on subsidy payments alone,” he said.

“Also, a more flexible exchange rate regime, we will have to decrease the pressure on the external reserve. In the short run of course, there should be consequences for inflation. We expect that with greater priority we have seen in the implementation of the policy by the CBN, the foreign exchange market will stabilise and confidence will be restored.

http://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2016/08/26/osinbajo-we-have-saved-n1-4tn-by-not-paying-fuel-subsidy/

dukie25:
Fed Govt to give N10,000 to traders 2 weeks before Osun election

Am still in shock after I saw this on my twitter timeline today. VP Osibanjo went vote buying in Osun State yesterday. In a brazen act, Osibanjo launched "trademoni" which I believe should be bribemoni.
If it's not bribe, why then did they choose Osun state with governorship election 2weeks away? Why didn't they choose Ekiti, Katsina, Abia or Adamawa?

This is not done anywhere in the world except in totalitarian states.

anonimi:
World Bank offers Nigeria forex rate advice, as Tinubu eyes N200/Dollar rate

April 23, 2023

The President-elect said he would work with the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to *bring down the exchange rate to N200 in his first term.*

“My administration will collaborate with the Central Bank to harmonize the fiscal and monetary policy to achieve immediate stabilization of the value of the naira against the US dollars and other currencies and in the short term, strengthen the naira by boosting the supply of foreign currency and moderating demand.

“The short-term goal is to achieve a naira/dollar rate of 300 naira/US$ and gradually achieve a less than 200 naira rate over the next four years, Tinubu stated.

https://www.ripplesnigeria.com/world-bank-offers-nigeria-forex-rate-advice-as-tinubu-eyes-n200-dollar-rate/?amp
>>>
>>>

Muhammadu Buhari, presidential candidate of the All Progressives Congress (APC), has promised to ensure that the naira would be equal to the dollar in value if voted into office.

NAN reports that Buhari said this on Monday during the south-east presidential rally of the party at Dan Anyiam Stadium, Owerri.

“It is sad that the value of the naira has dropped to more than N230 to one dollar. This does not speak well for the nation’s economy,” he said.

He urged the people to vote for APC, noting that he would ensure that corruption was tackled headlong if elected.

https://www.thecable.ng/ill-make-naira-equal-dollar-says-buhari/amp

NaijaRoyalty:
…Says Buhari doesn’t have my kind of money

However, Buhari doesn’t have the kind of money I can steal neither does he have the money I can collect. He doesn’t even have the money for Lagos votes. So, whatever I promise, it’s for real and is coming from my pocket. It’s not until I go to Alausa before I get money to give you.”

Addressing APC supporters on the need to deliver votes, Tinubu said handsome cash rewards await those who can deliver votes for the party.

He said he would not make mistakes of the past where people would collect money in advance and not deliver on election day.

Tinubu added, “Those of you that say you come to Bourdillon for mobilisation, it is mobilisation that we are doing here or don’t you understand? Definitely, if you know people in your neighbourhood, our members, how we used to do.

https://punchng.com/i-said-i-was-richer-than-osun-state-tinubu-admits/

anonimi:
May 12, 2016
Former governor of Lagos, Bola Ahmed Tinubu has expressed his immense support for President Buhari’s decision to remove the fuel subsidy.

In a statement released on Thursday in Lagos, Jagaban said that the Buhari administration made a prudent decision in the removal of the fuel subsidy. The statement read;

“We all want fuel at a cheaper price. under the subsidy, we got the right price but not the fuel. Meanwhile, some were getting rich on the common man’s predicament. They were laughing to the bank while the rest of Nigeria waited in the petrol line. This is not the way to democratic development. It is a recipe for creating a class of economic predators that would feed off the people and in time gain such power and wealth that they would seek to buy and control if not own government as well.

President Buhari has with this decision put an abrupt and just end to this assault against our economy and political system. He has made a courageous and prudent decision. It is time to end the fuel subsidy and to begin to subsidize the true needs of the people.
To Mr. President, I say congratulations for having the courage to remove the subsidy. The President has taken this tough decision in the interest of the present and future generations of Nigerians.

For some time, I have been a proponent of this action. I believed ending of subsidy was the only sure way to put to sleep the myriad demons that had invaded the subsidy process, sucking the blood of Nigeria, swallowing much of our needed money.

http://dumebiifeanyi.com/fuel-subsidy-removal-tinubu-backs-buhari/

Francis5:
04.27.155:18 AM ET

Nigeria’s Next Leader’s Ties to a Heroin Ring

General Muhammed Buhari’s political partner is a former bagman for two heroin traffickers. But that’s just business as usual in Nigeria.

Nigeria’s election last month was celebrated as an unlikely victory for democracy in an African country with a tenuous record of free and fair representation. But the man most responsible for midwifing General Muhammed Buhari’s ballot triumph over current President Goodluck Jonathan has a spotty CV. Former Lagos provincial governor Bola Tinubu, affectionately nicknamed the Jagaban, is today seen as a shrewd if not “deeply Machiavellian” Svengali in Nigeria’s politics as well as the architect of a hugely successful anti-corruption platform. But 20 years ago he had to forfeit nearly half a million dollars to the U.S. Treasury Department after being named as an accomplice in a white heroin-trafficking and money-laundering ring that stretched from West Africa to the U.S. Midwest.

Although his case has been bandied about the Nigerian press for years, Tinubu’s involvement in a federal drug and racketeering investigation waged jointly by the DEA, FBI, and IRS has gone unreported elsewhere, even after his ascendance to Karl Rove-like status last month. A recent gauzy Financial Times profile of him, for instance, neglected to mention that two decades ago Tinubu was identified as a bagman for two Nigerian heroin movers who operated out of Chicago and Hammond, Indiana. They were Adegboyega Mueez Akande and Abiodun Agbele, Akande’s nephew, who was exposed to law enforcement after selling white heroin first to Lee Andrew Edwards, another dealer later jailed for trying to murder a federal agent, and then to an undercover cop.

In a 1993 court docket from the U.S. District Court in the Northern District of Illinois, which The Daily Beast obtained from Sahara Reporters, a Nigeria-focused news outlet, IRS Special Agent Kevin Moss said that Akande had run the white heroin ring in the late 1980s until 1990, when he handed off the U.S arm of the business to his nephew, who had arrived in 1988. Akande then returned to Nigeria but continued to oversee the operation from abroad with the help of others at home and in the United States, including his relatives. One of the individuals identified in his cartel by Moss was Tinubu, then a Chicago State University-educated accountant working as a treasurer for Mobil Oil Nigeria Ltd, a subsidiary of energy giant Mobil Oil, which was still a few years shy of its famous merger with Exxon in 1999.

In the biography section of his official website, Tinubu is described as having emigrated to the United States in 1975 “in search of the proverbial Golden Fleece with a heart brimming with unrelenting determination to achieve his visions.” This is certainly one way to describe his tenure stateside.

In 1989, Moss said in an affidavit, Tinubu established an individual money market account, into which he deposited $1,000 in traveler’s checks, and a negotiable order of withdrawal account (NOW) at First Heritage Bank in Country Club Hills, Illinois. The address Tinubu gave the bank was the same as the listed headquarters of Globe-Link International, the front company owned by Akande and his relatives.




“There’s a trend of various Nigerian politicians at the highest levels involved in dodgy business deals around the world, in property and cash.”

Bank employees told Moss that Akande had personally introduced them to Tinubu in December 1989 when who also opened a joint checking account with his wife, Oluremi Tinubu, who already kept a joint account with Akande’s wife at First Heritage. Five days after the NOW account was opened, $80,000 was wired into it from a bank in Houston maintained by one of Akande’s relatives. Tinubu would later use the NOW account to buy a $10,000 Certificate of Deposit for an $8,000 car loan, listing Akande as his cousin on the application.

At the time, Tinubu’s take home as a Mobil Oil Nigeria executive was a mere $2,400 a month and he claimed not to have any other revenue streams. Yet he still managed to deposit $661,000 into his individual money market account in 1990 and then another $1,216,500 a year later. He also opened more accounts with Citibank in its worldwide personal banking unit, transferring over half a million dollars from his First Heritage money market account into one of them in early 1991.

Mobil Oil Nigeria told Moss that Tinubu’s role at the company never involved transferring large sums of money between banks and that it didn’t keep deposits in any institutions in the south suburbs of Chicago, where First Heritage was based. Moreover, although Tinubu moved back to Nigeria in 1983, he neglected to file U.S. income tax returns after 1984 despite having sizable, interest-generating deposits in American banks. All of this was enough to persuade a magistrate judge of the Northern District to issue seizure warrants for Tinubu’s First Heritage and Citibank accounts. Collectively, more than $1.4 million belonging to the Nigerian was confiscated.





Tinubu gave differing accounts for his wealth to Moss. In one phone call from Nigeria, shortly after the U.S. Treasury seized his money, he admitted to wiring $100,000 to Akande’s Houston bank account and to receiving the $80,000 from Akande into his First Heritage account. Tinubu also said that apart from one other account in Fairfax, Virginia, he had no other money stashed in U.S. banks.

Except that there were other accounts. Citibank has a worldwide banking division known as Citibank International where Tinubu stashed an additional $550,000. He also controlled an entity called Compass Finance and Investments Company Ltd., of which Akande and Agbele were directors. Still another nexus of money transfers was uncovered by federal investigators, with cash moving from First Heritage to Citibank to Citibank International, where it wound up in Tinubu’s personal accounts and in those belonging to Compass Finance and Investments. In a follow-up exchange with law enforcement officers, Tinubu changed his story. Just days after conceding that he’d sent and received money to and from Akande, he insisted that he had no financial or business dealings with Akande or Agbele.

There’s no evidence that Tinubu was ever indicted for any crime. He eventually settled with the district court, turning over $460,000 of the seized $1.4 million, with the remainder released back to him. The Beast tried repeatedly to contact Marsha McClellan, the U.S. attorney who prosecuted the case, but was unsuccessful.

“I’m not surprised at all,” said Virginia Comolli, a specialist on Nigeria and author of Boko Haram: Nigeria’s Islamist Insurgency. “There’s a trend of various Nigerian politicians at the highest levels involved in dodgy business deals around the world, in property and cash. Even ones who seem fairly clean turn out to have some dark histories.” The perfect case in point is Tinubu’s political project and new president-elect of Nigeria, General Muhammed Buhari, who in 1983 helped overthrow a democratically elected government in a military coup d’etat on the grounds that the government was undisciplined and corrupt. “He resorted to brutal methods, beating up people for not queuing properly and imposing limitations on the media,” Comolli said. “I think a lot of the votes Buhari got were anti-Jonathan rather than pro-Buhari.”

But no doubt, many also came from a savvy fusion of political factions. In February 2013, Tinubu successfully merged his own influential Action Congress party with Buhari’s Congress for Progressive Change, resulting in the All Progressives Congress. The marriage united Nigeria’s most populous northwest and southwest regions and the ensuing campaign was billed by Tinubu as a “commonsense revolution” against a corrupt and venal incumbency which, in its five years in power, had seen the terrorist group and newly-minted ISIS affiliate Boko Haram thrive. Buhari swept the election with 2.7 million more votes than Jonathan.

Even before that trouncing, however, Tinubu had a relatively positive reputation in Nigeria, according to former U.S. ambassador to Nigeria John Campbell. “He is widely regarded as having been a highly successful governor of Lagos state,” he said. “Together with Tinubu’s handpicked successor, Babatunde Fashola, Lagos has seen dramatic improvements in everything from practical stuff like garbage collection to the collection of taxes and the provision of public services,” Campbell told The Beast. Though even here, the ex-diplomat admits, Tinubu’s good governance has been clouded by controversy. “He established a company to do the tax collecting in return for a cut and, at one point, Tinubu and Fashola appeared to be splitting over the percentage of Tinubu’s cut.”

Drug charges do indeed appear to be the sine qua non for Nigerian high office. The year 1993, when Tinubu’s assets were seized, was a turbulent period for Nigeria following the cancellation of a national election and the establishment of a military dictatorship. Moshood Abiola, the rightful winner of that election, was accused of narcotics trafficking. So too is “Prince” Buruji Kashamu from the People’s Democratic Party, who has faced extradition back to the United States since 1998. Kashamu was indicted by a federal grand jury in Chicago for being the elusive “Alaji,” a globetrotting drug kingpin who smuggled heroin into O’Hare International Airport from Europe and Asia. Piper Kerman, the memoirist who inspired the Netflix series Orange is the New Black, famously worked for Alaji. Kashamu denies the charges and insists that he was purportedly a counterterrorism informant to the U.S. government before and after 9/11, and that the real trafficker was his now-deceased brother.

Despite his party’s general loss to the All Progressives Congress, Kashumu was elected in March as senator of the southwest Ogun state. In what appeared to be a magnanimous gesture to the winner, he took out an advertisement praising Tinubu as a role model. The Jagaban was distinctly unimpressed. He trashed the comparison in a statement signed by his media adviser, claiming that for Kashamu “to liken himself to Bola Tinubu is for a small rut to call itself a mountain.” Tinubu instructed the “false praise singer” to go face the music in the Windy City before deigning to talk to him.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/04/27/nigeria-s-next-leader-s-ties-to-a-heroin-ring.html

iwaeda:
Wike Boasts Of Helping APC Use Judiciary To Kill Osun LG Funds Case, Warns Party Leaders Against Ingratitude

Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, has openly boasted that he assisted certain elements within the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in deploying the judiciary to frustrate the Osun State local government allocation lawsuit.

In a video now circulating widely on social media and obtained by SaharaReporters, Wike made the claim while addressing a crowd in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.

The former Rivers governor accused the APC National Secretary, Senator Ajibola Basiru, of benefitting from judicial actions against the Osun State Government without knowing those who did the work behind the scenes.

The suit in question led to the withholding of local government funds in Osun State, a development widely seen as targeting the administration of Governor Ademola Adeleke as opposition in the state.

Wike, who spoke angrily, suggested that the court action supporting the APC’s position against the Osun government did not happen by chance, boasting that powerful political forces worked quietly to ensure the outcome.

“Don’t take our support for Mr President for granted,” Wike warned, in an apparent message to APC leaders defending Rivers State Governor Siminalayi Fubara. “You have to be careful about the statements you make. You have to be very careful.”

He accused Basiru of political ingratitude, claiming the APC was enjoying in Osun State without understanding who engineered their advantage.

“Today, you are enjoying in Osun. You don’t know those who did the work,” Wike said. “You are opening your mouth to talk about Rivers State.”

https://saharareporters.com/2026/01/08/wike-boasts-helping-apc-use-judiciary-kill-osun-lg-funds-case-warns-party-leaders

Minister Wike has warned the National Secretary of the APC, Ajibola Basiru to stay clear of Rivers State.
Lol 😆 https://t.co/sNKjJfb8qn pic.twitter.com/E9SgSwASil

— Emma ik Umeh (Tcee )🇳🇬 (@emmaikumeh) January 5, 2026