₦airaland Forum

kunle4toyeyaho:
Did he state Government college in his INEC form? That argument would be trashed effortlessly

Misterone:
😆😆😆😆😆😆 una no dey tire! From he did not attend the university to he did not attend secondary school 😆😆😆😆😆😆 una just dey jump from pillar to post 😃😃😃😃😃 cornfused folks 😃😃😃😃 next will be his ass has white hairs 😃😆😆😆😆 rubbish! Litigation must have an end. If una like, find out rubbish, the courts will throw them away like plague. 😆😆😆😆😆😆

aminulive:
Chicago State University has resolved the controversy surrounding President Bola Tinubu’s academic background by confirming the authenticity of his records and certificates, as revealed in a collection of documents obtained by this newspaper.

The Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Presidential candidate in the 2023 election, Atiku Abubakar, had subpoenaed the university to provide records of Tinubu’s graduation in 1979.

In compliance with a US court order, the university submitted the documents to Abubakar’s legal team on Monday. However, since the submission, numerous reports have circulated, insinuating that the President forged his certificates or had a forged identity.

Nevertheless, the full transcripts of the deposition given by the university’s registrar, Caleb Westberg, have vindicated the President and put the controversies to rest.

During the deposition, which lasted over two hours, Westberg provided details on how the university authenticated Tinubu’s documents, including a replacement certificate. The 125-page deposition obtained by this newspaper revealed that Westberg mentioned the university had been receiving inquiries about Tinubu’s records for the past 20 years, ranging from five to 30 requests per day.

Validation

The CSU Registrar affirmed that Tinubu graduated from the institution in 1979, majoring in Accounting under business administration. He also verified that the certificates presented by the university in 1979 bore similarities with the replacement diploma Tinubu obtained in 1999.

The university had provided other replacement diplomas with the same design, font, and logo as the one presented to Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Confirming Tinubu’s certificate, Westberg noted that the institution possessed a reordered copy of the President’s replacement diploma. He also clarified that the university held copies of the President’s transcripts as additional evidence of his scholarship.

“In general in the US, the diploma is a ceremonial document. In other countries, it is a more official document. For us, it is not,” he noted.

Gender Argument

Central to the controversies was the speculation that some of the documents addressed Tinubu as a female.

Examining Westberg’s testimony, Abubakar’s attorney, Angela Liu, asked, “So how are you sure that Bola A. Tinubu, listed here as female, is the same Bola A. Tinubu, who is President of Nigeria?”

Addressing the discrepancy, Westberg stated that the university was not confused about Tinubu’s gender.

“The university is not confused about that. We issued an admissions letter to Mr. Bola Tinubu. He applied as a male student. That is a part of the record,” he said.

Regarding the review of the SSN (social security number) on the document being circulated as showing Bola Tinubu as female, the registrar stated that it was clearly an error.

“Human errors happen,” the official commented.

When asked how the university concluded that President Tinubu was the same as the Bola Tinubu who attended the school in the 1970s, Westberg noted that the school reviewed materials, including Tinubu’s student file, addresses, names, fields of study, and other relevant details.

“The university would have reviewed all of these materials when we received them,” he stated in response to a question from Tinubu’s lawyer, Henderson.

https://politicsnigeria.com/full-documents-how-csu-authenticated-tinubus-records-and-replacement-diploma/

Many petroleum products depots are currently deserted due to lack of products caused by foreign exchange rate volatility, as the landing cost of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, has increased to N720/litre, oil marketers said on Thursday.

Petroleum products’ dealers also stated that filling stations were shutting down daily in large numbers, as it was becoming increasingly tough to run the business. They said this could lead to widespread fuel scarcity in coming months.

It was further gathered that the landing cost of PMS into Nigeria had increased to N720/litre, up from N651/litre in August this year.

Speaking at the National Executive Council meeting of the Natural Oil and Gas Suppliers Association of Nigeria, in Abuja on Thursday, the National President, NOGASA, Benneth Korie, said a lot of depots were presently dried up or out of stock.

He said, “Depot owners are so terribly affected by the increasing cost of crude oil and exchange rate, to the extent that many depots are practically deserted as their owners are unable to secure bank loans to fund their business due to high-interest rates.

“Banks are not willing to guarantee funds release to stakeholders as a result of the difficulty, instability and galloping rates of foreign exchange and high cost of the dollar. Many depots are presently dried up or out of stock, and this is no gainsaying as it is evidently verifiable.”

He added, “Worst hit are filling stations whose owners find it extremely difficult to secure funds to procure products for their retail outlets. Both the independent and major marketers are so terribly affected.

“As of today, filling stations are shutting down in great numbers on a daily basis and dealers are going out of business, with many more on the verge of bankruptcy because of their inability to secure funds to facilitate orders for their stations.”

Korie said the government must therefore urgently come to the aid of the industry as quickly as possible to save it from an impending colossal collapse, which would result in a more devastating blow to the economy at large.

The PUNCH further gathered that the landing cost of petrol has risen to N720/litre from N651 in August.

The Chief Executive Officer, PETROCAM Trading (Nig) Ltd., Patrick Ilo, during an interview session with The PUNCH, said 52,000 metric tonnes of petrol imported by the company on Tuesday was already N720/litre without subsidies.

According to him, if the landing cost was already N720, the pump price should be around N729/litre in Lagos State if the Federal Government had truly stopped subsidising the product.

“This is the second time I am bringing in my vessel. But after bringing it in, I am trapped. I can’t sell it because I landed my own product at N720. And if you add transportation from depot to station, the value today should be N729/litre at the pump.”

He blamed the price hike on high foreign exchange rate, adding that the Federal Government was still subsidising petrol through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

The foreign exchange rate of the Central Bank of Nigeria as of Wednesday was around N766/$1, while it hovered around N990/$ at the parallel market.

He said.”Yes, PETROCAM has an import license, and we have products in Nigeria. I want to say this out loud that I brought (in product) 52,000 metric tonnes of PMS today, which I borrowed about sixty-something million dollars to import.

“But I cannot sell. Why? Because of the price NNPC is selling. NNPC to my mind, they are still subsidising. NNPC is quietly subsidising the market. And I don’t blame the government. It is when we have a stable government that there could be prosperity.”

Ilo added, “As of today, NNPC is subsidising these products. And I’m talking about a subsidy of more than N100/litre. Because if you need to sell today, I landed my own product at N720. So how do you look at it? You look at it from the perspective of how much is diesel”

Taiwo Oyedele, the Chairman of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee, has said that the National Assembly has spent over N10 trillion on the country’s refineries, yet they do not work, he said this during the Platform Nigeria symposium held on Monday, October 2 in Lagos.

According to him, the refineries are better off sold.

He said:

“Nigerians would say if only our refineries were working, then we will be fine. Nothing can be farther from the truth than that. In fact, Nigerians should come together and say please make sure that our refineries do not work. We should sell them.

“The National Assembly said we have spent over N10 trillion maintaining our refineries even when they have not produced anything
“If Nigerian refineries process crude oil unless we deal with our inefficiency, one litre of petrol will be the most expensive in the world. You would have succeeded in replacing the subsidy at the pump with the subsidy for the refineries.”

N11.3 trillion: Status quo

Indeed, in August 2023, the National Assembly announced that it would probe the alleged N11.3 trillion expenditure by the Federal Government on Nigeria’s refineries’ turn-around maintenance between 2010 and 2020.

According to the House of Representatives Committee Chairman on Public Accounts, there is concern over the deplorable state of Nigeria’s refineries despite the significant amount of money spent on their maintenance over the past decade.

He emphasized that there should be consequences for wasteful spending.

Meanwhile, the Buhari administration kickstarted a process of another round of refinery rehabilitation for the Warri, Kaduna and Port Harcourt refineries which are still ongoing under the Tinubu administration, and it has been announced that between December 2023 and 2024, all the refineries will be active, this is according to the current Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri.

A supporting argument

As noted by Oyedele, the imperative to address inefficiencies mandates serious consideration of selling off the refineries, unless the country is fully prepared to confront these challenges.

This perspective is echoed by oil and gas analyst, Dan D. Kunle, who emphasized the government’s struggles with inefficiency within the public sector.

Kunle stressed that for effective management and operation, the oil and gas sector should be entrusted to the private sector. He contended that the sector’s multitude of challenges stems from the government’s pervasive involvement in various aspects.

Kunle underscored that the private sector has demonstrated superior efficiency in operations compared to its public sector counterparts.

Thus, he advocated for the downstream sector to be entrusted to private entities, highlighting their capacity to deliver optimal efficiency.

Previously, Mr. Kunle lamented the lack of activity and underutilization of vital components within the Warri refinery, such as the petrochemical plant and the black carbon plant.

These facilities, designed to produce crucial raw materials for Nigeria’s tire industry, have remained inactive for years under government control.

Phantom233:
Same story the dead man called Buhari told us for complete 8yrs. Now this same man callt Tinubu was the brain behind Buhari's administration. I wonder why he's not blaming Buhari for his woes.

The wife of the President, Senator Remi Tinubu, has urged Nigerians to have faith in her husband to turn the country around.

Tinubu, who said her husband isn’t a magician, noted that her husband would work “brick-by-brick” to better the lots of the citizens.

She spoke at the inter-denominational church service held to commemorate the Independence Day celebration in Abuja on Sunday.

Tinubu said her husband would not heap blame on past administrations, adding that he would toil to transform the country.

She said, “We just came back from UNGA; it was successful for us as a nation. The world awaits Nigeria, and investors are teeming. We came back with good news. All we inherited are things that happened many years ago. We are not here to put the blame on any administration, but to fix what has been damaged.

“My husband is not a magician. He is going to work brick-by-brick, and I believe and have hope that you will have faith in this administration. The best is yet to come.”

As the nation marks her 63rd Independence Day Anniversary, the First Lady appealed to Nigerians to celebrate the unity that defines our diversity.

She urged Nigerians to look beyond the current realities on the ground and have hope in her husband’s administration.

She said, “Nigerians must look beyond their current realities and embrace hope anew. If we do not have hope, how do we become part of this greatness that God has started in the nation? We find through the love of Christ a deeper message of hope, especially in the theme for this year’s celebration, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.

“Good governance can only be impactful if we all follow the example of Jesus Christ, our Lord, who embodied the fruit of the spirit, including love, joy, peace, long suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance and forgiveness. ”

Quoting Matthew 11 vs. 28, she said the challenges bedeviling the nation could be surmounted.

She said, “There is no challenge, obstacle, or difficulty that we cannot overcome or surmount if we imbibe the nature of Christ, who said in Matthew 11: 28; come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and lean on me, for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest with your souls. In times like these, all we do is keep our hope alive, the lively hope that Jesus Christ has birthed in us.”

BoldBrainz:
Ologunagba should have given this statement to Atiku's media spokesman to write. Na Phrank dey sabi coin menacing statements give these APC bastards.

Press Statement

CSU: Lawyers Plea Inconsistent with @officialABAT’s Academic Assertions, Says @OfficialPDPNig

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) charges the All Progressives Congress (APC) @OfficialAPCNg to come clean on the desperation by its lawyers in the United States to conceal certain vital details regarding the academic records of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu at the Chicago State University (CSU) from the public.

The PDP states that the Application by the lawyers urging the US District Court of Illinois not to release the said academic details are in direct conflict with the public declarations by President Tinubu that his academic records are impeccable.

The PDP recalls that President Tinubu had in a public function openly asserted to Nigerians that “I was one of those most recruited graduates of my university, multiple honours, First Class Degree and I have the reference point”

In view of the above assertion, the PDP therefore holds that the plea by the lawyers that the details of his academic record should not be released is a great disservice to President Tinubu in particular and Nigeria in general.

This desperation to conceal vital information is consistent with APC’s penchant for trickery and underhand dealings in their transactions with Nigerians which has heightened under the Abdullahi Ganduje leadership.

By appointing Dr. Ganduje as its National Chairman, despite the malodorous corruption and bribery allegations against him in the public domain, the APC further confirms itself as not only being a cesspit of corruption but also as irredeemably given to concealment and condonement of depravity, sleaze and mendacious acts.

Moreover, it is curious that the APC has remained silent on allegations and public apprehension of sabotage in the Monday, September 25, 2023 fire outbreak at the Supreme Court, which is suspected to have been an arsonist attack with the intent to cripple and frustrate the Supreme Court in the handling of the Presidential Election Appeals pending before it.

The APC must in the least acknowledge the desirability and moral duty placed on it to encourage, insist and ensure that it is transparent with Nigerians and indeed the world. Failure to discharge this duty to Nigerians is condemnable.

The litany of probes, inquiries and investigations which were instituted on various matter without reports under the APC since 2015 validates the above.

It is clear that the APC is a major threat to our Nation’s Democracy. The PDP calls on all men of goodwill across our country and beyond to stand firm in the defense of Democracy, Transparency and the Rule of Law in Nigeria, especially at this critical time.

Signed:

Hon. Debo Ologunagba
National Publicity Secretary

naptu2:
1

seunmsg:
American Obidient, Jeffrey Gutterman and US based Atiku supporter, Jackson Ude attacks each other on X formerly known as Twitter over publication of fake news. Gutterman is a well know Tinubu hater while Jackson Ude is a well known fake news merchant who is wanted in Nigeria over criminal defamation of former Minister of Works and housing, Mr. Raji Fashola.

Cc: Mynd44 nlfpmod

Several Nigerian businesses that rely on imports have been cut off by their foreign suppliers who are rejecting letters of credit (LC) and refusing to deliver goods without payment as foreign currency shortages worsen in Africa’s biggest economy.

A letter of credit is a mode of payment used for the importation of visible goods. It is a written undertaking given by a bank at the request of its customer, in which the bank obligates itself to pay the exporter up to a stated amount within a prescribed time frame upon presentation of stipulated documents in exchange for goods.

Foreign suppliers are now demanding cash transfers into escrow accounts in place of LCs as faith in the Nigerian banking system wanes owing to the dollar shortage.

“Nigeria is bad credit today,” a banking source familiar with the matter said. “If the central bank can not honour obligations, why take any risk on a bank from Nigeria?”

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) sold what is called forward contracts to several Nigerian businesses with the promise of dollars at an agreed price in future. The banks opened LCs on the back of the forward contracts, which were then used to buy goods from the foreign suppliers.

“The CBN has however not settled the contracts since February 2023 which means there’s a backlog of around $3 billion,” another source familiar with the matter said.

Worried by the growing backlog and with no assurance of when it will be cleared, correspondent banks are pulling the plugs on local Nigerian banks.

A correspondent bank acts as an intermediary or agent, facilitating wire transfers, conducting business transactions, accepting deposits, and gathering documents on behalf of another bank.

Correspondent banks are most likely to be used by domestic banks to execute transactions that either originate or are completed in other countries. Domestic banks generally use correspondent banks to gain access to foreign financial markets and to serve international clients without having to open branches abroad.

Bankers say the CBN’s failure to clear the dollar backlog has put them in a very tight FX liquidity position and has forced them to suspend several transactions including school fees and Personal Travel Allowance applications.

In the meantime, businesses are getting hammered and are turning to the black market to get dollars at a premium of over 20 percent to fund critical imports.

The persistent recourse to the black market is pushing up the cost of business, with severe implications for inflation.

The August inflation figure rose for an eighth straight month from July’s 24.08 percent, compounding a cost of living crisis worsened by President Bola Tinubu’s reforms.

The last time Nigerians experienced this level of inflation was in August 2005.

“The inflation data in our view reflects only in part the lifting of the subsidy. Much of the pre-existing pressure came from Nigeria’s monetary policy stance in the months that preceded this outcome, and the continued naira depreciation on the parallel market,” Razia Khan, Standard Chartered managing director and chief economist, Africa and Middle East, said.

The naira pared some losses to trade at 995 per US dollar on the streets on Monday after crashing to a new low of N1,050 last Friday. The official rate opened at N747 per US dollar. The gap, which disappeared in the first two days of the CBN’s reform in June, has reopened due to the scarcity of dollars in the official market.

Liquidity in the official market has collapsed to a daily average of $99.81 million, down from $295.58 million between May and June 2023 and $318.46 million between January and May 2023, according to data compiled by BusinessDay.

“The dollar illiquidity in the official market is why the rate in the black market is soaring and the gap between the official rate has reopened,” said Muda Yusuf, CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise. “That is why the new CBN governor must prioritise clearing the backlog in order to save manufacturers and other businesses.”

Read also: Drawings on letters of credit decline by 73.1% on CBN’s FX directives

The CBN, last June, following Tinubu’s victory at the polls, allowed the naira trade at a market rate by shifting to a willing buyer-willing seller arrangement after eight years of exchange rate controls.

But the CBN is proving that old habits die hard and has started unduly influencing the rates once again, stifling the market and draining the confidence that built in the early days of the reform.

All eyes are now on Yemi Cardoso, the new CBN governor, to see how he deals with the foreign exchange crisis that is threatening the economy.

President of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), Prof Emmanuel Osodeke, has warned that 40 to 50 per cent of students will leave school in the next two to three years if the federal government fails to stop the arbitrary increment in school fees by the universities.

Prof Osodeke gave the warning while speaking on the current situation in the education sector in Nigeria on Channels TV Sunday night.

The union leader, who accused universities of arbitrarily increasing school fees, posited that the government should rather be attracting more students to school by its education policies.

“Today, universities are arbitrarily increasing school fees. Is that correct in an environment today where the minimum wage is N30,000 per month when you have to pay rent, pay heavily for transportation and you are enforcing it on the students?

“If nothing is done about these heavy fees being introduced by schools all over the country, in the next two or three years, more than 40 to 50 per cent of these children who are in school today will drop out,” he said.

Prof Osodeke also warned that the country would be in trouble when its large youthful population are out of school.

He said: “When they drop out, they will become a big feed for recruitment for those who want this country to be ungovernable.

“This is what we are saying, create the environment we have in the 60s and 70s. When I was a student, the government was paying me for being a student. Let’s have an environment where the children of the poor can have access to education.

“School fees of N300,000, how can the children of someone who earns N50,000 a month be able to pay such a fee?”

He called on the government to increase budgetary allocation to education to at least 15 per cent of the total budget sum.

He lamented that the 3.8 per cent allocated to education in the last budget was nothing to write home about, saying with an increase in budget allocation to education, parents would be relieved of the burden of paying high fees for their children.

The union leader punctured the student loan policy of the government, saying there were no signs it would work.

Prof Osodeke said: “When you are talking about student loans, you have to be comprehensive. There is nothing to show that it would work.

“There is a need for a review. Check what happened in the past and see how we can move forward. But for us, our idea is that instead of calling it a loan, let us call it a grant.

“If you look at the conditions, 90 per cent of the students will not have access to that loan. The condition that you must have parents who earn less than N500,000 per annum [is harsh]. How many people earn less than N500,000 per annum?”

Islie:
My ex-classmate Usman Oladipo ‘languishing’ as general manager in Nigerian mediocre bank: Shettima



Mr Shettima’s recent remark cements his reputation as a politician who lacks tact in communicating an opinion without denigrating others.



https://gazettengr.com/my-ex-classmate-usman-oladipo-languishing-as-general-manager-in-nigerian-mediocre-bank-shettima/

Nlfpmod

The Presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the February 25 elections, Atiku Abubakar, has condemned the abduction of female students in the Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State,

The former Vice president said in a series of tweets via his handle on X (formerly Twitter) on Sunday.

Abubakar, who described the abduction incidents as “unfortunate,” added that Nigerian citizens have continued to live in fear despite the “huge investment in national defense.”

He tweeted, “The news of the invasion of the Federal University of Gusau and the abduction of a number of students by bandits who were also said to have invaded the Sabon-Gida community in the Bungudu Local Government Area of Zamfara State is very unfortunate.

“It is equally regrettable that despite the huge investment in national defense, Nigerians have continued to live in a state of insecurity as terrorists, militants, and bandits have continued to ride roughshod over our communities.”

Abubakar showed sympathy to the victims of the incident while urging security agencies to rescue those remaining in captivity, by putting an end to the acts of “barbarism, banditry and brigandage.”

He added, “The recent kidnap is one incident too many. While I sympathise with the victims of this incident, I commend the security agencies for being able to rescue some of them. I also charge the security agencies to step up efforts to rescue those still in captivity and put an end to these acts of barbarism, banditry and brigandage that has continued put our compatriots in a state of perpetual fear and anguish.”


President Bola Tinubu on Sunday had ordered security operatives to rescue the remaining Zamfara students.