President Bola Tinubu extends his heartfelt congratulations to Justice Mary Odili, CFR, retired Supreme Court judge, on the special occasion of her birthday.

Justice Odili, an eminent jurist, was the Deputy Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC), serving as Deputy to the Chairman (Chief Justice of the Federation) at the nation's apex judicial commission.

She was also President of the National Association of Women Judges of Nigeria (NAWJN), and Chairperson of the Body of Benchers, where she led pioneering reforms, such as retooling the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee by constituting three panels, thus expediting their processes and ensuring efficiency, and reviving the Body of Benchers' mentoring programme for all young lawyers (0-7 years post call), among others. 

President Tinubu celebrates the legal savant not only for her outstanding achievements in her calling but especially for her work in uplifting the downtrodden and providing succour to the needy.

The President fondly recalls the many community development programmes and relief efforts of Mrs. Odili as the First Lady of Rivers State, some of which include, The Adolescent Project (TAP) where education, health improvement, social rehabilitation, and empowerment services to vulnerable adolescent girls were advanced, directly impacting over 500,000 citizens, and which went on to win the Global Health Council Award for Safe Motherhood in Washington D.C, in May 2001.

As Justice Odili marks this birthday, President Tinubu wishes the esteemed jurist and the Odilis many more years of service to the nation in good health.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale 

Special Adviser to the President

(Media & Publicity)

Nigeria’s late Professor Adebayo Adedeji and Togo’s Edem (Kodjovi) Kodjo would likely be turning in their graves in disappointment if not utter shock at what has become of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which they laboured with others to establish in 1975.

After its civil war of 1967-70 and the uncoordinated support from foreign powers, the then-Federal Military Government of Nigeria under the leadership of Gen. Yakubu Gowon, wanted to recalibrate the country’s foreign policy thrust based on the concentric circle model, driven by the axiom that charity begins at home.

As a young military officer then, saddled with the huge task of governing a complex country like Nigeria, Gowon, now arguably the only surviving “founding father” of ECOWAS bought into the idea canvassed by international relations experts that Nigeria must first master the art of “a big fish in a small river, before rubbing shoulders with the Big Boys at the global stage.”

Adedeji, a brilliant, full-fledged professor of Economics at age 36, as Nigeria’s Federal Commissioner (Minister) of Economic Development and National Reconstruction (1971-75), sold his boss, Gen. Gowon the idea of a regional body with Nigeria as the hegemon.

Adedeji passed on in 2018, but his legacy as a development pioneer lives on. Relating his experiences to an ECOWAS delegation, including this writer that visited him at his Ijebu-Ode home in Western Nigeria in 2013, he recalled the “marching order” given to him by Gen. Gowon to make ECOWAS a reality after he had convinced him about the need for an organization that would foster regional integration.

Given the cultural, language and colonial differences of countries in the region, Adedeji recalled the “shuttle diplomacy” he undertook to various capitals in his days as Minister and the pivotal roles played by Gen. Gowon and his Togolese counterpart Gnassingbé Eyadéma in the formation of ECOWAS.

The Anglophone-Francophone dichotomy and rivalry between France and Nigeria for regional influence dates back to the early post-independence period of African States, yet Eyadéma was the first convert to the Gowon-Adedeji idea of regional integration.

As Gowon did to Adedeji, Eyadéma volunteered Kodjo, who was his finance minister from 1973-77 and Foreign Minister from 1976-78 for the ECOWAS birthing project.

The two government ministers did not disappoint. According to Adedeji, thanks to their relentless shuttles and diplomatic suavity, the Lagos Treaty of 28^th May 1975 on the establishment of ECOWAS was one of the few Treaties signed by all Heads of State at a sitting.

Senegal’s then-President Sedar Senghor was eventually convinced to abandon his initial reservations and after much persuasion, involving facilitating his transportation from Abidjan to Lagos and the concession of making an Ivorian the first Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, President Felix Houphouet Biogeny of Cote d’Ivoire also “suspended” his opposition to the ECOWAS idea in preference to the formation of a France-Afrique Union and joined other regional leaders to initial the Lagos Treaty.

ECOWAS Member States grew to 16, until the year 2000 when Mauritania left but now wants to rejoin.  Other countries, even outside the region are also seeking ECOWAS membership.

However, like most inter-governmental organizations, ECOWAS has had its fair share of internal crises and divisions between and among Member States, but until recently, it had managed the conflicts, fault lines and differences effectively to record tremendous achievements as Africa’s trailblazer Regional Economic Community.

“This (ECOWAS) is the only region in Africa where citizens can visit and stay in a country other than their own for at least 90 days without a visa,” Adedeji had enthused in 2013, in a reference to the ECOWAS 1979 flagship Protocol on Free Movement of Persons, Rights to Residence and Establishment.

Moving forward, Adedeji had enjoined ECOWAS Member States to work toward the harmonization of policies, laws, and regulations to consolidate regional integration.

He and Kodjo were able to take their visionary and dynamic Pan-Africanist advocacy beyond the West African region.

Mentioned in a 2006 publication as one of the world's 50 influential thinkers on development, Adedeji after the setting up of ECOWAS advanced his integration campaign to the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) in Addis Ababa where he served as UN Under-Secretary-General and Executive Secretary for 16 years (1975-91).

His dynamism under the UNECA platform also resulted in the creation of two more Regional Economic Communities (RECs) - the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS) in 1981 and 1983, respectively. The professor will also be remembered for his other unique initiatives, such as the Lagos Plan of Action (1980), and the Final Act of Lagos (1980).

When the World Bank and the IMF hoisted the Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) on hapless so-called developing and least developed nations - many of which are in Africa - Adedeji and fellow pan-Africanist thinkers raised an alarm and developed the African Alternative Framework to Structural Adjustment Programme (AAF-SAP, 1989) followed by the African Charter for Popular Participation (ACPP, 1990), as legendary blueprints for the continent's home-grown development and governance paradigms.

Kodjo, before he died in 2020, had also served as Togo’s 3^rd Prime Minister from 1994-96 and before then, as finance and foreign minister (1973-77) and from 1978-83 as the 4th Secretary General of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was replaced by the African Union (AU) in 2002.

He called it quits with internal politics in 2009, but until his death, continued to profess his pan-African beliefs despite his several unsuccessful attempts to be elected Togo’s president, and his controversial romance with the regimes of the late Eyadéma and his son, current President Faure Gnassingbe.

In 2016, Kodjo served as the African Union's mediator in a dispute between the government and the opposition in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over the fixing of national elections. Kodjo also founded a magazine, Afrique (Africa) 2000 and in 1985 published a book, Africa Tomorrow.

The greatest tribute Africans can pay their departed great sons and daughters is to immortalise their pan-Africanist legacies, values, and selfless service to lift the people and continent from pervasive poverty, hunger, deprivation, backwardness, mismanagement, corruption, and underdevelopment.

However, it is doubtful whether Adedeji, Kodjo and their contemporaries would be proud of the present leadership of the AU and its eight RECs, including ECOWAS, which once received international acclaim for achievements, especially in conflict prevention, management, and resolution.

The same ECOWAS that ended the civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone and resolved conflicts in other Member States now appears spineless and even unable to issue a statement or take any effective actions against member States that violate its protocols/instruments.

Particularly worrisome is Nigeria’s palpable weakness and incapacity to play its role as a regional hegemon, despite its strategic position, quality of human capital and the size of its population, (more than 220 million out of Africa’s estimated 1.3 billion people are Nigerians).

The AU and its RECs require visionary and dynamic leaders to put Africa in its rightful place among the regions of the World. Those in leadership positions in Africa must be reminded that it is not about themselves, but the future of a continent and its people, who “labour like elephants but eat like rats.” Thousands of African youths are dying on perilous journeys to escape from the continent, endowed with abundant natural resources.

African rulers must change their ways; lead by example and educate themselves on the goals and objectives of pro-people Pan-Africanism. Africa is not poor, but badly managed/governed. Its present situation is unjustifiably unsatisfactory and must change for the better.

The citizens themselves must elect servant leaders and demand accountability from them.

In the same vein, given the hope pinned on Nigeria by Africans and Blacks worldwide, the country and its leadership must rise above internal crises or divisions to play its destined role as a regional hegemon, from ECOWAS to the continental level and beyond.

*Ejime is an Author, Global Affairs Analyst, and Consultant on Peace & Security and Governance Communications

The depreciation of the naira continued over the weekend as the currency traded at N1,510 to a dollar at the parallel market and 1,466.31 at the official market.

The dollar-to-naira exchange rate increased by N40 between Thursday and Friday, having earlier closed at N1,426 to a dollar, according to the National Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the official exchange market.

Following a string of reforms and interventions by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the naira had, in recent times, firmed up against the dollar, exchanging below N1,000.

The dollar exchanged at N1,450 Friday morning but closed the day with N1,510 at the black market.

A Bureau De Change operator who spoke to our correspondent yesterday said: “We have seen more demand in recent times, and this is what is causing the increase. I can tell you also that there is no enough dollar supply, and this is why the rate is increasing.”

Daily Trust on Sunday reports that the CBN had sustained dollar sales to registered BDC operators under the aegis of the Association of Bureau De Change Operators of Nigeria (ABCON).

It had on April 23, 2024 sold dollars at a discounted rate of N1,021 per dollar, the second time in the month and fourth time in 2024 as part of measures to stabilise the naira.

In February 2024, the CBN announced the sale of $20,000 to each BDC at the rate of N1,301/$. Subsequently, it reduced the allocation by 50 per cent and sold FX at the rate of N1,251/$1.

Other reforms by the CBN included substantially clearing foreign exchange backlog, including airlines’ trapped funds and taking action to stop speculation with the raids on unregistered BDC operators.

Despite the interventions, the crisis has persisted as the naira was rated the world’s worst-performing currency over the last month, according to a Bloomberg report.

BDCs say dollars not available, seek amnesty for hoarders

Speaking to Daily Trust on Sunday yesterday, the president of the ABCON, Aminu Gwadabe, said it was unfortunate that the gains of recent reforms and interventions by the CBN were being reversed.

He confirmed that the exchange rate was N1, 490 as at yesterday and blamed the depreciation on inadequate supply of the dollar.

He said: “The real issue is still the question of liquidity. The dollar is not available; and there is dollarisation of the financial system. People are really worried about the inflation rate that is hitting deep into the value of the naira. Some people say it is better to buy dollars now than to keep the naira.”

He called for amnesty for those hoarding foreign currencies in their homes to bring them out.

“There is a need for amnesty. A lot of people still have dollars in their houses. It is a crisis and stormy period. Sometimes we would not just remain at maximum compliance, voluntary compliance is key to effective regulations.

“Over regulation is toxic to effective compliance. People who keep dollars at home should be given amnesty, with less questioning to ensure liquidity,” he stated.

Gwadabe also asked the CBN to open up other channels of supply to BDC operators, especially the autonomous window against the direct supply by the apex bank.

He added: “I am happy the foreign reserve is going up, but it is unfortunate that the gains achieved have been reversed, although there was a kind of stemming of the volatility with some of the policies the CBN has taken. Recall that naysayers have predicted that it would have been around N3,000 to a dollar.”

Experts suggest solutions

The chief executive officer, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise, Dr Muda Yusuf, attributed the naira crisis to supply and demand imbalance.

According to him, as long as the demand outweighs the supply, the crisis will remain.

Yusuf, a former director-general of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) said: “The fundamental issue is still that of demand and supply. It is more of a supply issue. Also related to that is a confidence issue because if we are not able to supply consistently, it will affect confidence, and once confidence begins to weaken, speculative demand will kick in, and that will begin to pile pressure on the system.

“That’s why it is good to have a framework because exchange rate volatility is not good for any economy. We should not leave the currency to float completely. There should be a framework to stabilise it, even if it is at N1,500. Whatever it is, let’s have a framework to stabilise it.”

“We need to build the confidence that in the next three months, this thing is not likely to change much.”

He also said Nigeria must ramp up its oil production to take advantage of the current oil price.

An economist, Dr Oluseye Ajuwon, in an interview with our correspondent yesterday, said the CBN must trace the source of the foreign currency to track any illicit inflow.

He said: “It is purely a supply and demand issue. Once demand is more than supply, the price will continue to depreciate.

“The Central Bank should start doing what it needs to do by tracing money to know where it is coming from and where it is going.

“All the interventions of the CBN amount to just treating the issue at a surface level, it is not actually addressing the real issue.”

[DailyTrust]

President Bola Tinubu, through his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, has told the Minister of Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Nyesom Wike and others that he will not take sides in the ongoing crisis rocking Rivers State.

Ngelale said that anyone with the belief that President Tinubu would take their side in the political crisis would be disappointed.

The Special Adviser made the President’s position know during an interview on TVC, insisting that Tinubu won’t allow any attempt to frustrate the Rivers government.

“I believe that anyone who believes that by their actions, whether it’s from the Federal level, State level or the legislative branch in the State or the executive branch in the state, if they are banking on Mr. President to take sides on this matter, they’re mistaking and they’ll be disappointed,” he said.

“Mr. President will not do that. What he will do is to ensure that everybody has what they need in order to work.

“He will also ensure that any attempt to frustrate the operation of the Rivers State Government of conducting its affairs in a way that it would benefit the Rivers people, that’s obviously not going to be allowed by this President or anybody else.

“So, I think there’s a need for all stakeholders to understand that Mr President won’t take sides.”

[DailyPost]

President Bola Tinubu has asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to suspend the implementation of the controversial cybersecurity levy policy and ordered a review.

This followed the decision of the House of Representatives, which, last Thursday, asked the CBN to withdraw its circular directing all banks to commence charging a 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy on all electronic transactions in the country.

The CBN on May 6, 2024, issued a circular mandating all banks, mobile money operators, and payment service providers to implement a new cybersecurity levy, following the provisions laid out in the Cybercrime (Prohibition, Prevention, etc) (Amendment) Act 2024.

According to the Act, a levy amounting to 0.5 per cent of the value of all electronic transactions will be collected and remitted to the National Cybersecurity Fund, overseen by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Financial institutions are required to apply the levy at the point of electronic transfer origination.

The deducted amount is to be explicitly noted in customer accounts under the descriptor “Cybersecurity Levy” and remitted by the financial institution. All financial institutions are required to start implementing the levy within two weeks from the issuance of the circular.

By implication, the deduction of the levy by financial institutions should commence on May 20, 2024.

However, financial institutions are to make their remittances in bulk to the NCF account domiciled at the CBN by the fifth business day of every subsequent month.

The circular also stipulates a timeframe for financial institutions to reconfigure their systems to ensure complete and timely submission of remittance files to the Nigeria Interbank Settlement Systems  Plc as follows: “Commercial, Merchant, Non-Interest, and Payment Service Banks – Within four weeks of the issuance of the Circular.

“All other Financial Institutions (Microfinance Banks, Primary Mortgage Banks, Development Financial Institutions) – Within eight weeks of the issuance of the Circular,” the circular noted.

The CBN has emphasised strict adherence to this mandate, warning that any financial institution that fails to comply with the provisions will face severe penalties. As outlined in the Act, non-compliant entities are subject to a minimum fine of two per cent of their annual turnover upon conviction.

The circular provides a list of transactions currently deemed eligible for exemption, to avoid multiple applications of the levy.

These are loan disbursements and repayments, salary payments, intra-account transfers within the same bank or between different banks for the same customer, and intra-bank transfers between customers of the same bank.

Exemptions include other financial institutions’ transfers to their correspondent banks, interbank placements, banks’ transfers to CBN and vice versa, inter-branch transfers within a bank, cheque clearing and settlements, letters of credit, and banks’ recapitalisation-related funding.

Others are bulk funds movement from collection accounts, savings, and deposits including transactions involving long-term investments such as treasury bills, bonds, and commercial papers, and government social welfare programmes transactions.

These may include pension payments, non-profit and charitable transactions including donations to registered non-profit organisations or charities, educational institutions transactions, including tuition payments and other transactions involving schools, universities, or other educational institutions, and transactions involving the bank’s internal accounts, inter-branch accounts, reserve accounts, nostro and vostro accounts, and escrow accounts.

The introduction of the new levy sparked varied reactions among stakeholders as it is expected to raise the cost of conducting business in Nigeria and could potentially hinder the growth of digital transaction adoption.

‘Stop levy now’

Members of the House of Representatives on Thursday asked the Central Bank of Nigeria to withdraw the circular directing financial institutions to commence implementation of the 0.5 per cent cybersecurity levy, describing it as “ambiguous”.

The development was in response to a motion on the urgent need to halt and modify the implementation of the cybersecurity levy, moved by Kingsley Chinda.

According to the House, the CBN is to withdraw the initial circular, and “issue a more understandable one”.

Chinda had drawn the attention of the House to multiple interpretations of the CBN directive against the specifications in the Cybersecurity Act.

The House then expressed worry, that the Act would be implemented in error if immediate steps were not taken, to address the concerns around the interpretation of the CBN directive and the Cybersecurity Act.

However, sources with knowledge of Tinubu’s position on the issue told Sunday PUNCH that the President was aware of the economic burden on Nigerians since his hardline economic reforms began last May, adding that he did not want to risk adding to the burden with more levies.

A senior presidency official who preferred not to be named told our correspondent, “The President is sensitive to what Nigerians feel. And he will not want to proceed with implementing a policy that adds to the burden of the people.

“So, he has asked the CBN to hold off on that policy and ordered a review. I would have said he ordered the CBN, but that is not appropriate because the CBN is autonomous. But he has asked the CBN to hold off on it and review things again.”

Another presidency official who preferred to remain anonymous as he was not authorised to speak on the issue said these discrepancies prompted the President to order a review.

“If you look at it, the law predates the Tinubu administration. It was enacted in 2015 and signed by Goodluck Jonathan. It is only being implemented now.

“You know he (Tinubu) was not around when that directive was being circulated. And he does not want to present his government as being insensitive. As it is now, the CBN has held off the instruction to banks to start charging people. So, the President is sensitive. His goal is not to just tax Nigerians like that. That is not his intention. So, he has ordered a review of that law.”

Tax reforms not to frustrate Nigerians — Shettima

Meanwhile, the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, on Saturday, said the tax reforms undertaken by the Bola Tinubu administration were not aimed to frustrate Nigerians but to sustain the country’s investment friendliness.

The VP, represented by his Special Adviser on General Duties Dr Aliyu Umar, spoke at the close-out retreat of the Presidential Fiscal Policy and Tax Reforms Committee held at the Transcorp Hilton, Abuja. Shettima’s Spokesperson, Mr Stanley Nkwocha, revealed this in a statement titled, ‘Our tax reforms initiated for overall benefits of Nigerians – VP Shettima’.

He argued that contrary to speculations in some quarters, “we are not here to frustrate any sector of our economy but to create an administrative system that ensures the benefits of a thriving tax system for all our citizens”.

Levy suspension welcome development – PDP

Reacting to the decision of the President, the Peoples Democratic Party’s National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, welcomed the suspension of the cybersecurity levy policy implementation, noting that the policy should not have been introduced at all.

He said, “It was an anti-people decision from the beginning. It was an insensitive decision from the beginning. It was an ambush on the people who had already been frustrated by the multiple layers of taxes from the beginning. So, it was a very cruel introduction because you do not need to tax us to have cybersecurity.

“You do not need to tax the villagers or the people in the rural areas for cybersecurity. People who do not even have light. They don’t even have access to an internet connection. Well, if that is a show that the president is listening, then that is good. Then, he must now continue to listen more and begin to look at where the problem started and that is the issue of removal of subsidy without any cushioning of its effect. What will happen is that the president should go back further so that Nigerians can breathe by ensuring a policy that will reduce the hardship of the sudden removal of the subsidy.”

Also, reacting to the development, the Chief Executive Officer, Centre for Promotion of Private Enterprises, Dr Muda Yusuf, said the President’s decision shows he is a democrat, adding that the CBN should ensure that the reviewing process of the policy is very inclusive.

“The President’s decision is in line with the clamour by the people. There had been a lot of outcry about it and the fact that the president has responded shows that he is a democrat. It shows he is a listening leader. So we must commend him for listening to the voices of the people. It is a welcome development.

“The government should now look at the policy. I am sure it is not going to be only the CBN. Even the legislators should also look at it because they passed the law. But the key thing is that the policy needs to be reviewed. And the apex bank should take the review beyond the government level. It must consult the stakeholders and the organised private sectors. That is what will make the review very inclusive.”

Also speaking to Sunday PUNCH, the Director of Centre for Anti-corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said while President Tinubu should be commended for the decision, the Federal Government should consider a total cancellation of the policy instead of a temporary suspension.

He said, “This is the right step in the right direction. It further accentuates the fact that President Tinubu listens to the voice of the people. And maybe it is because he used to be an activist. He knows that the voice of the people is the voice of God.

“But then, the suspension of the policy is not enough. It should result in the total cancellation of the policy. All the taxes, rates, and levies that are being imposed on the people should be streamlined so that if we want to pay personal income taxes, we should know that that is what we are paying. It is not that the government will take off personal income taxes and we should now pay for every service that we should enjoy from the government. And the increase in micro-economic products like petroleum and others should be made cheaper and affordable for all Nigerians,” he stated.

 Also, a professor of Economics at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sheriffdeen Tella, cautioned the Federal Government against creating additional hardship for Nigerians. He said while the policy was not a bad idea, the timing was inappropriate.

He said, “There is nothing wrong with the levy but it was at the wrong time. The government should stop creating problems for itself. People are battling inflation and all sorts of inefficiency and you are imposing a tax on them. The president has done well by reversing it. It is not the right time to impose additional burdens on Nigerians. I commend the President for having the courage to do the right thing.”

SERAP threatens lawsuit

Meanwhile, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project threatened to file a lawsuit if the Federal Government did not withdraw the levy within 48 hours. The group stated that the levy “patently violates the provisions of the Nigerian constitution 1999 (as amended) and the country’s international human rights obligations and commitments”.

Labour rejects levy

However, the Nigeria Labour Congress stated that the cybersecurity levy and several other levies and taxes already imposed on the citizens had deepened the financial burden on the populace currently grappling with economic challenges.

A statement signed by the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, demanded the reversal of the directive by CBN, adding that the Federal Government should prioritise policies that alleviate the financial burdens of Nigerians. NLC said the move, which was ostensibly aimed at bolstering cybersecurity measures, could exacerbate the financial strain already faced by the populace.

•Says the beheading of one Alhaji sparked killings
•‘How sponsors of attack tried to eliminate me in prison custody
•Pleads for legal help to appeal the death sentence
•Miyetti Allah disowns latest mayhem

Eight years after the massacre of April 25, 2016, that left no less than 40 persons dead in Nimbo in the Uzo-Uwani local government area of Enugu State, the only person who was convicted for the mass murder, Mohamed Zurai, has confessed to his participation in the crime.

But he said he was complicit to the crime to the extent of video recording the killings and not killing anyone.

Zurai, a herdsman, told Sunday Vanguard that the Nimbo massacre was carried out because one Alhaji was beheaded by assailants in the Enugu community.

He spoke to our correspondent during an undercover operation in Enugu Correctional Center where he is waiting for the hangman’s noose.

Justice Anthony Onovo of the Nsukka Division of Enugu State High Court had, on May 17, 2023, pronounced the death sentence on him.

The murderer was among five suspects arraigned on May 9, 2017 for the mass murder in Nimbo on April 25, 2016.
They were charged with murder contrary to Section 274 (1) of the Criminal Code Cap 30 Vol II of the Revised Laws of Enugu State of Nigeria 2004.

Zurai was the prime suspect whose cell phone was found to have recorded the Nimbo killings.

Delivering judgment on the matter on May 17, 2023, Justice Onovo said, “In all, the only person who has been shown to have participated in the killing at Nimbo community on 25/4/2016 is the 1st defendant, Mohammed Zurai.

“He is hereby convicted as charged. The 2nd defendant (Alhaji Ciroma Musa) and the 3rd defendant (Sale Adanmu) not having been found guilty are hereby discharged and acquitted.”

According to him, many went for the operation but he used his phone to do a video recording of the killings in his image also appeared in the video as a selfie.

He disclosed that sponsors of the killings wanted to eliminate him while in prison custody, alleging that some persons were offered N300,000 to kill him so that he would not live to tell the story of what happened but that the request was turned down.

The murderer, who said there were over 20 that carried out the operation, however, denied killing anybody at Nimbo but said he was behind his colleagues and that his only job was to record the killings.

Zurai wondered why only he was convicted while his friends who were arraigned with him also participated in the operation but were freed.

He, therefore, pleaded for the telephone number of this reporter so that he could communicate with him afterwards since he agreed to help him get a lawyer who could appeal his death sentence.
Zuari looked 30 years old and fair in complexion.

MACBAN disowns fresh attack

Meanwhile, Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria, MACBAN, has dissociated itself from the suspected herdsmen’s attack on the Nimbo community around the anniversary of the 2016 incident.

The latest attack came on Sunday, April 28 2024 and killed four members of the community.

The attack, which occurred at Ugwuijoro community where villagers had gathered to mourn the dead, also left many injured.
Reports had it that a member of the community was also shot dead at the nearby Opanda community, three days before the Nimbo incident.

The people of Uzo-Uwani LGA allege that there are many herdsmen camps around Ugboda, Adani and Opanda in the council area because of the thick forests there.

Governor Peter Mbah described the attack as unacceptable, vowing that the government would track down and bring the attackers to book.

Mbah footed the medical bills of the wounded people and awarded scholarships and jobs to bereaved family members while the Nimbo community asked the state government to strengthen their neighbourhood watch group.

MACBAN, dissociating itself from the attack, accused native security operatives of killing their members in the South-East.
National Deputy Director General of the group, Gidado Siddiki, who made the allegation, said their members and livestock had been targeted while he exonerated herdsmen of any wrongdoing in the zone, blaming kidnappings and other crimes committed in the bush and farmland in the zone on criminals.

Sidikki lamented that their markets had been indiscriminately destroyed under the guise of rooting out criminality, with no evidence of wrongdoing found on them, stating that even in the remote areas where they graze cattle, they face increasing threats from criminals without a response from the government or local leadership.

He appealed to the state governments in the South-East and leaders of host communities to recognize them as strategic stakeholders and refrain from “unfounded” attribution of wrongdoing to every herdsman out there.

[Vanguard]

“I am surprised that lawyers can be so blind as to suffer the principles of law to be discredited.” — Ralph Waldo Emerson, The Fugitive Slave Law, 186 (1851)

There is a joke that when he or she wants an excuse to impress a client to finagle substantial earnings, a Nigerian lawyer resorts to Latin phrases. The objective is to make the lawyer sound profound beyond even their understanding and it is immaterial that the speaker, like the person whom he or she seeks to impress, understands nothing of what they say.

This is not surprising. Very few people practising law in Nigeria can lay claims to any grounding in the grammar of Latin or a sense of the origins of most of the Latin expressions with which they seek to hold putative clients in thrall. But the want of meaning or grounding has never stood between that tribe and Latin vibe. Indeed, many will argue that Nigerian law these days – irrespective of the language in which it is rendered – has become mostly devoid of meaning.

It was the Normans, conquerors of England in 1066, who invented precedent as their central legal method. As Michael Glennon helpfully explains, “judges looked to earlier cases that presented similar facts, inferred holdings from these cases, pieced together those holdings in a single principle, and applied the principle to the current facts” thereby rendering it “common”. So it was that the “Common Law” evolved.

As they travelled around the world on an imperial mission of adverse territorial expansion centuries later, the British exported the methods of the Common Law around their acquisitions. They left it behind as a colonial legacy when they beat their final retreat in the decades after the Second World War. In post-colonial Nigeria, one of the territories weaned on this system, precedent was a recognised method of judicial decision-making.

For this reason, law reports exist and law students, their teachers, practising lawyers and judges invest in them to divine the minds of judges and piece together principles of law based on which to advise clients and litigants. The assumption is that with awareness of these cases and the principles that they reveal, lawyers can advise those who seek the benefit of their skills, knowledge and judgement with reasonable confidence in their prognostications of what the inclinations of the law could be if it came to be tested.

On the evidence of many recent renderings by courts in different parts of the country, however, this assumption that underpinned the practice of law and decision-making by the courts in Nigeria can no longer be taken for granted.

On April 17, 2024, for instance, Usman Na’Abba, a judge of the High Court of Kano State in north-west Nigeria, issued an interim order without the benefit of hearing the side against whom the order was issued (ex parte) requiring Abdullahi Ganduje, national chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), to “stop parading himself as a party member pending the determination of the suit.” The court also restrained Ganduje in the interim from presiding over the affairs of the National Working Committee (NWC) of the party.

The effect of this order was, of course, that the man could not be expected to be chair of a party to which he did not belong as a matter of judicial reckoning. As egregious as it seemed, this kind of political sex work was not unprecedented in the annals of Nigerian judicial misconduct. The current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, successfully deployed it in August 2021 to oust the then-chairman of the opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP), Uche Secondus.

This time, a worried Abdullahi Ganduje mustered proverbial loyal forces in an audacious counter-attack. A mere five days after he issued the order without hearing one side, the same Usman Na’Abba, this time without listening to the side in favour of whom he had given the first order, issued “an order of interim injunction….staying the execution of the order of interim injunction contained in the ruling of this court delivered on the 17th of April, 2024.”

To translate this into language that is presumably intelligible, the judge, having first issued an ex parte order against Ganduje, suspending him from claiming to be a member of the political party of which he was national chairman, thereafter, issued another ex parte order against his first order using the second interim order to suspend the effect of the first one. In soccer humour, this would be a judge’s idea of a 1-1 draw!

But these kinds of excursions into the realm of judicial dystopian have become somewhat regular fare around the country. On April 5, 2024, Inyang Ekwo, a judge of the Federal High Court in Abuja, purportedly sat on three cases against some leading members of the PDP from Rivers state, including Celestine Omehia, whose election as governor of the state in 2007 was later overturned by the courts; Augustine Opara, former deputy speaker of the House of Representatives; and Uche Secondus who experience with Nigerian judicial Jiu Jitsu is already the stuff of legend. The claimants, who said they were members of the PDP in Rivers state, sought interim orders to restrain these three among others from requisitioning, attending, participating in or being allowed to do any of these in connection with meetings of the governing organs of the PDP.

Again without pretending to hear them, Inyang Ekwo issued dispositive orders (not even interim) granting all that the claimants asked for. Thereafter, the files in the cases reportedly disappeared. Despite lodging appeals, Messrs Omehia, Opara and Secondus cannot find the files to process the records of proceedings for transmission to the Court of Appeal. On 2 May, they lodged complaints with the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Olukayode Ariwoola, in his capacity as chair of the National Judicial Council (NJC), asking him to discipline Inyang Ekwo. The Chief Justice himself has, however, been voluble about his personal devotion to Nyesom Wike, the FCT Minister who is the undisguised hand behind the machinations which seek to weaponize the judiciary in this loathsome manner. How he can pretend to handle these petitions with disinterest is anyone’s guess.

The day after the petitions against the invisible records in the cases before Inyang Ekwo, another of his peers on the same Federal High Court, Peter Lifu, issued yet another set of improbable orders ex parte restraining the PDP or any of its organs from meeting to consider a replacement of its national chairman, Illiya Damagun, or from recognizing anyone other than him as its national Chairman.

The Code of Conduct applicable to judicial officers in Nigeria specifically requires that a “judicial Officer must avoid the abuse of the power of issuing interim injunctions, ex parte.” Judges who issue these kinds of orders; chief judges who keep assigning these kinds of cases to a narrow and predictable cast of judicial recidivists and keep protecting their careers; as well as the lawyers who institute them cannot pretend not to know that they are involved in a conspiracy to procure judicial transactions. As legal scholar, Tunde Ogowewo, once wrote in another context, “evidence of their guilt is furnished by the very decisions they gave.”

The only people rendered naked by these happenings are the lawyers whose claim to the discipline of the Common Law method of precedent is now in tatters. When Nigerian lawyers try these days to resort to Latin to describe the body of Nigerian law as corpus juris, the only word that can be used to complete that usage is “Abracadabra”.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Wale Ojo, Kehinde Bankole, Layi Wasabi, and Demola Adedoyin were among the winners at the 2024 Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA).

The annual event, which recognises outstanding performances in television, film, and entertainment took place on Saturday night at the Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos.

Bankole defeated Funke Akindele and Ireti Doyle to clinch the ‘Best Lead Actress’ category.

Ojo won the ‘Best Lead Actor’ category while Demola snagged the ‘Best Supporting Actor’ award for their roles in ‘Breath of Life’ respectively.

The award ceremony featured captivating performances from music stars such as Adekunle Gold, Chike, Seyi Sodimu, and Shaffy Bello.

‘Breath of Life’ was the biggest winner of the night, clinching six categories — including ‘Best Lead Actor’, ‘Best Supporting Actor’, ‘Best Supporting Actress’, ‘Best Director’, ‘Best Sound Design’ and ‘Best Movie’.

Below is the list of winners at the AMVCA 2024:

Best Digital Content

• National Treasure – Adebola Adeyela (Lizzy Jay)
• Medical Negligence – Isaac Ayomide Olayiwola (Layi Wasabi)
• Copyright Infringement – Isaac Ayomide Olayiwola (Layi Wasabi) — WINNER 
• Hello Neighbour – Elozonam Ogbolu, Lina Idoko and Jemima Osunde
• The Boyfriend – Maryam Apaokagi-Greene

Best Indigenous Language Film (West Africa)

• Mami Wata (CJ Fiery Obasi)
• Jagun Jagun (Femi Adebayo) — WINNER 
• Ijogbon (Kunle Afolayan)
• Orisa (Odunlade Adekola)
• Nana Akoto (Kwabena Gyansah)

Best Indigenous Language (East Africa)

• Where The River Divides
• Ormoilaa Ogol (The Strong One) — WINNER 
• Wandongwa
• Nakupenda
• Itifaki

Best Indigenous Language (South Africa)

• Service To Heart
• Uncle Limbani
• Motshameko O Kotsi — WINNER 

Best Multichoice Talent Factory Movie

• Grown
• Her Dark Past — WINNER 
• Somewhere in Kole
• Full-Time Husband
• The 11th Commandment
• Mfumukazi

Best Scripted M-Net Original

• Slum King — WINNER 
• Half Open Window
• Itura
• The Passenger
• Magic Room

Best Unscripted M-Net Original

• What Will People Say
• The Irabors’ Forever After
• Nwuyee Bekee (Foreign Wives) — WINNER 
• Date My Family Zambia
• Royal Qlique (Season 2)

Best Indigenous M-Net Original

• The Passenger
• Nana Akoto
• Apo
• Irora Iya — WINNER 
• Love Transfusion (Kiapo Cha Damu)

Best Short Film

• T’egbon T’aburo
• Broken Mask — WINNER 
• Eighteenth Year
• Man and Masquerades
• A Place Called Forward

Best Supporting Actor

• Alexx Ekubo (Afamefuna)
• Demola Adedoyin (Breath of Life) — WINNER
• Itele d Icon (Jagun Jagun: The Warrior)
• Gregory Ojefua (This is Life)
• Timini Egbuson (A Tribe Called Judah)
• Levi Chikere (Blood Vessel)
• Ropo Ewenla (Over the Bridge)

Best Supporting Actress

• Joke Silva (Over the Bridge)
• Fathia Williams (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
• Bimbo Akintola (The Black Book)
• Genoveva Umeh (Breath of Life) — WINNER 
• Eliane Umuhire (Omen)
• Tana Adelana (Ijogbon – Chaos)
• Ejiro Onojaife (The Origin: Madam Koi Koi)

Best Lead Actor

• Wale Ojo (Breath of Life) — WINNER ‎
• Stan Nze (Afamefuna)
• Marc Zinga (Omen)
• Gideon Okeke (Egun)
• David Ezekiel (Blood Vessel)
• Richard Mofe Damijo (The Black Book)
• Adedimeji Lateef (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
• Gabriel Afolayan (This is Lagos)

Best Lead Actress

• Segilola Ogidan (Over the Bridge)
• Lucie Debay (Omen)
• Omowunmi Dada (Asiri Ade)
• Ireti Doyle (The Origin: Madam Koi Koi)
• Adaobi L. Dibor (Blood Vessel)
• Evelyne Ily (Mami Wata)
• Kehinde Bankole (Adire) — WINNER 
• Funke Akindele (A Tribe Called Judah)

Best Cinematography

• MAMI WATA (Lílis Soares)
• Blood Vessel (Gideon Chukwu)
• Over The Bridge (KC Obiajulu) — WINNER 
• Breath of Life (Ola Cardoso)
• Jagun Jagun – The Warrior (Adeoluwa Owu)
• Ijogbon – Chaos (Adekunle Nodash Adejuyigbe)
• Omen (Joachim Philippe)

Best Editing

• Chuka Ejorh And Onyekachi Banjo (Over The Bridge)
• Holmes Awa (Breath of Life)
• Alex Kamau And Victor Obok (Volume)
• Dayo Nathaniel (Ogeere – Earth)
• Antonio Ribeiro (The Black Book) — WINNER 
• Nathan Delannoy (Mami Wata)

Best Sound Design

• Ava Momoh (Over the Bridge)
• Daniel Pellerin and Amin Bhatia (Kipkemboi)
• Grey Jones Ossai (Breathe of Life) — WINNER 
• Grey Jones Ossai (Blood Vessel)
• Samy Bardet (Mami Wata)

Best Art Direction

• Blood Vessel (Victor Akpan)
• Over The Bridge (Abisola Omolade) — WINNER 
• Breath of Life (Okechukwu Frost Nwankwo, Kelechi Odu)
• The Black Book (Pat Nebo and Chima Temple)
• Jagun Jagun: The Warrior (Tunji Afolayan)
• Mami Wata (C.J Fiery Obasi)
• Omen (Eve Martin)

Best Costume Design

• Demola Adeyemi (Over The Bridge)
• Bolanle Austin Peters, Ituen Basi, Folake Coker and Clement Effanga (Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti)
• Lola Awe (Jagun Jagun: The Warrior) — WINNER 
• Bunmi Demilola Fashina (Mami Wata)
• Daniel Obasi (Breath of Life)

Best Makeup

• Francesca Otaigbe (Over the Bridge)
• Campbell Precious (Mami Wata) — WINNER 
• Hadizat Gambo (Mojisola)
• Hakeem Onilogbo (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
• Feyisayo Oyebisi (A Tribe Called Judah)

Best Writing TV Series

• Skinny Girl in Transit (Season 7)
• Wura (Season 2)
• Visa on Arrival
• MTV Shuga Naija
•  Volume — WINNER 
• Masquerades of Aniedo
• Slum King

Best Writing in a Movie

• Breath of Life (BB Sasore)
• Over The Bridge (Tosin Otudeko)
• Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti (Tunde Babalola) — WINNER 
• Jagun Jagun: The Warrior (Adebayo Tijani)
• Afamefuna (Anyanwu Sandra Adaora)
• A Tribe Called Judah (Olufunke Ayotunde Akindele, Collins Okoh and Akinlabi Ishola)
• Mami Wata (CJ Fiery Obasi)

Best Documentary

• Ormoilaa Ogol (The Strong One)
• Lobola, A Bride’s True Price? — WINNER 
• Empalikino (Forgiveness)
• The Water Manifesto: Osun (Water for Gold)
• Sowing Hope

Best Scripted Series

• Volume
• Wura (Season 2) — WINNER 
• Slum King
• Itura
• Chronicles

Best Unscripted Series

• Lol Naija (Season 1)
• Nightlife In Lasgidi
• The Real Housewives Of Lagos (Season 2)
• Gh Queens (Season 2) — WINNER 
• Mutale Mwanza Unscripted (Season 1)

Best Director

• Moses Inwang (Blood Vessel)
• Adebayo Tijani And Tope Adebayo (Jagun Jagun – The Warrior)
• Bb Sasore (Breath of Life) — WINNER 
• Johnscott Enah (Half Heaven)
• C.J Fiery Obasi (MAMI WATA)
• Kayode Kasum (Afamefuna)
• Tolu Ajayi (Over The Bridge)

Best Movie

• Funmilayo Ransome-Kuti
• Breath of Life — WINNER 
• Over The Bridge
• Blood Vessel
• A Tribe Called Judah
• The Black Book
• MAMI WATA

Trailblazer of the Year

• Chimezie Imo

Industry Merit 

• Idowu Philips (Iya Rainbow)
• Richard Mofe Damijo

 [TheCable]

Ever since Sir Isaac Newton, the English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, and alchemist discovered the law of gravitation and established for the ages that, “any particle of matter in the universe attracts any other with a force varying directly as the product of the masses and inversely as the square of the distance between them”, the larger society has taken a cue from scientists that “what goes up must come down”.

In the same vein, man’s peregrinations in life are philosophically explained as “comings and goings”, or Departures which foreshadow imminent Arrivals. Thus, you have the name, “Enílolóbò” in Yoruba meaning “the person who went is the one who returned”, a testament to the cyclical nature of human existence as conceived by our forebears: Birth-Death-Return.

I was ruminating over that concept as I tried to unravel the link between the novel phenomenon, ‘Japa’, and its sibling, ‘Japada’. Japa is a Nigerian slang derived from the Yoruba language used to describe the act of escaping or fleeing from an unsavoury situation. The word, ‘Japa’, has now been adopted by Nigerians, especially the large youthful population, as the slang for the fad of relocating to a foreign country for greener pastures.

Manpower Loss
While the motive is usually economic, the trend has created gaps in manpower requirements, particularly in critical areas such as the medical profession. Frustrated by what they described as poor working conditions and low remuneration, Nigerian medical doctors have been emigrating to nations with better working conditions such as the UK, US and Canada.

In 2017, a polling agency, NOI Polls, in conjunction with Nigerian Health Watch, found that 88 percent of doctors were considering work opportunities abroad and that an average of 12 doctors per week secured employment in the UK. The trend has become a free for all as there is no calling that is insulated from what has now been dubbed the brain drain scourge.

Africa’s loss has been the gain of the host countries employing our professionals. According to the Mo Ibrahim Foundation, it costs an African country such as Nigeria between $21,000 and $51,000 to train a single medical doctor. Because 10% of doctors working in the UK come from African nations, the UK is saving about $2.7 billion by recruiting these doctors. A similar scenario plays out in other countries such as the US, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia where Nigerian doctors and other professionals can be found in huge numbers. One of the fallouts is that there is now a thriving medical tourism market involving wealthy Nigerians who travel abroad to seek specialist medical care. Ironically, in many cases, they are attended to by their compatriots, Nigerian doctors who had relocated abroad.

Even cultural exponents such as artists, musicians, actors and the like have also succumbed to the brain drain bug.

Nigerian immigrants typically take advantage of the merit-driven system to improve themselves educationally at every opportunity. It is not surprising therefore that the Migration Policy Institute (MPI) of Washington confirms that Nigerians in the United States are the most educated immigrant group, with 61 percent holding at least a bachelor’s degree, “Compared with 31 percent of the total foreign-born population and 32 percent of the US-born population.”

Annual remittances to Nigeria from the Diaspora is estimated at $22 billion. The Japa phenomenon cannot therefore be described as totally hurtful to Nigeria. It has helped a good number of our nationals who have emigrated to those countries to widen their professional coast and become a better version of themselves. Eventually, after a couple of decades, the relatively young Japa immigrant longs to return home. And he does so with all his newly acquired knowledge and international best practices, especially in corporate governance.

Reverse Brain Drain
That is the new ‘Japada’ or ‘Enílolóbò’ phase. It is called the “Reverse Brain Drain”, or the return of the professional pilgrims to give back to the original source whence they had emerged. Many countries have well designed programmes to encourage their professionals in the Diaspora to return home. In those days, African immigrants preferred to work and spend the rest of their lives abroad but these days, with the various improvements in many areas of public and communal life at home, and the rise of racism in some Western countries, many Africans are returning home after a few years or, at the latest, after retirement.

China took a giant leap in massive investment in the education of its young people with generous scholarships to reputable universities in Europe and America. Many of them were enrolled in science and technology courses. The local government of each student was involved in the system of rewarding the returnees with large bonuses from their home unit.

Universities and research centres competing for breakthroughs drew up a programme of juicy incentives for the returnees who, in turn, were quite happy to dedicate the rest of their lives to the intellectual pursuit for which their institution, and by extension the nation, was compensating them so handsomely.
Another ‘developing’ country, India, has also done well for itself in this regard. Actually, India can be said to have pioneered the reverse brain drain trend. Indian immigrants to the West used to be prepared to be culturally assimilated by their host country. Tens of thousands of them held highly valued information technology and engineering jobs in Silicon Valley.

It all looked so attractive until the dot-com bubble torpedoed the prices of stocks in the technology industry. Many high-skilled Indian workers were forced to return to their country especially because of security concerns after the 9/11 attacks when Indians were often discriminated against because they looked like Arabs. The Seattle Times estimates that there are more than two million Indians in Software Development who are now permanent residents of the US.

Pakistan and Mexico also have their own success stories in terms of return migration. Of particular significance is the media boom in Pakistan which prompted many overseas Pakistani journalism professionals to return to the country. Today, there are over 47,000 British nationals in Pakistan, many of whom are of Pakistani origin, who have returned to contribute to the economic development of the country.

In Africa,”There is a disconnect between Africans in the diaspora and on the continent”, says Ade Olufeko, a technologist, speaking about reverse brain drain challenges in 2017.

Nidcom’s Role
In order to prevent the permanent loss of the experts, Africa must design its own home-grown incentives to encourage those who have japa-ed to Japada. It is gratifying that the Nigerians In Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM) has mapped out some programmes that have the potential of encouraging immigrants to cast a favourable glance back home. One of such is the National Housing Programme (NHP) which NIDCOM has keyed into. Currently, the NHP has housing schemes comprising 1 to 3-bedroom bungalows and blocks of flats in 34 states in Nigeria. The application process is facilitated through an online Expression of Interest Form (EOI).

NIDCOM also assists Nigerians in the Diaspora with data capturing and registration under the National Identity Management Scheme, pension matters, medical and educational missions, establishment of businesses and link with the Bank of Industry and the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Agency of Nigeria (SMEDAN). Nigerians who are stranded abroad have also benefited from NIDCOM’s intervention.

Considering how invaluable the contributions of our returnees will be across various professions and businesses, every government department ought to have its own package of incentives in partnership with NIDCOM to attract immigrants who may want to return to help uplift the country. You never know, the package of incentives you dangle may be the difference between a Nigerian spending the rest of his years abroad or returning home to give back to society.

Putin is nearby. Precisely, Russia’s ambitious global influencer of  illiberal  order has docked next door. In Niger Republic to be exact. At the end of April, the military junta in Niger kicked out the American military advisers and tiny troop contingent from their country. Earlier, they had forced the U.S drone and surveillance base in Agadez to shut down. As part of a half-hearted diplomatic move to repair military relations with Niger, an American delegation went to hold talks with the regime in Niamey.

Almost on the same day, officials of the junta were reportedly showing a Russian military advance party around what used to be the American military base. The intent was obvious. The Russians were in the process of being handed the keys of what used to be a US base or at least preparing the grounds for an active security relationship with Moscow. Though the janitors are yet to hand over the keys of the former US base to the Russians, the signals are clear.

Earlier on, the military junta in Niger had chased away the French ambassador to the country, thus ending centuries of French influence in the country. Of course, the military dictators were towing the same line as their colleagues in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. A rushed end to French presence and influence in these former French colonies has since become the central foreign policy doctrine of the new autocrats in what used to be Francophone West Africa.

Official Moscow is still predictably silent on its intentions. But what is clear is Moscow’s preparations to replace the West, specifically the United State and France as the strategic influence in Niger Republic and its environs. And with the exit of both French and American military presence in Niger, the door has been thrown wide open for their replacement by Russia. Of course Russia’s interest in Africa especially West and Central Africa has never been disguised in recent times.

Prior to the demise of the bullish Yevgeny Prigozyn and the decline of his Wagner mercenary force, Russian commercial and security presence in these parts of Africa had been quite pronounced but diplomatically muted. Now what began as an expeditionary mercenary commercial interest is about to graduate into a full blown strategic military and security presence and interest from Moscow. 

The presence of US troops and the drone base coupled with the presence of a French protection force in West Africa remained  for a long time part of the international arrangement to keep jihadist terrorists from drifting towards the south of West Africa. Countries like Nigeria were prime beneficiaries of the US presence in Niger. It was more importantly part of an international strategic engagement to barricade the region from a rampaging Jihadist onslaught from the Sahel.

This logic of containment and protection remained the major plank of Western influence remained valid until the rapid  reduction of French presence and influence in the region by new military regimes. It all began with Mali which had earlier evicted French diplomats from Bamako. This was followed by the withdrawal of French protection troops from Mali and subsequently the other major West African former French territories now under military dictatorship: Mali, Guinea, Burkina Faso, Niger and possibly Chad.

There a historical context to Russia’s residual appeal in parts  of Africa. Instructively, in the wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the world was gripped by anxiety. On March 2nd, the UN General Assembly voted on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Of the 54 African member states, 28 voted against Russia while 17 abstained and 8 refused to show up. Towards Russia or more precisely the old Soviet Union, some nostalgia among an ageing generation of elite.

Many of these older African elite  recall the days of the Cold War and the old USSR’s identification with Africa’s causes especially anti colonialism and anti Apartheid. Ideological nostalgia towards the Red Empire is strongest in places like Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa where political parties that pioneered the independence and anti racist struggles were backed by the old Soviet Union.

At the present time, Russian influence in Africa remains sporadic and uncoordinated but cannot be ignored as a significant part of the strategic future of the continent. In 2019, the inaugural Russia-Africa Summit in Sochi was attended by 43 African countries. It was a forum for Mr. Putin to critique the West’s policies towards Africa.

Nonetheless, Russia’s  trade with Africa is only 2% of Africa’s goods trade with the rest of the world. A Russian bank VEB now under Western sanctions is a shareholder in the African Development Bank. Even then, Russia’s economic and military interest and roles in some African fragile states remains considerable. Russia is the largest arms supplier to African countries, a net extractor of mineral and other resources and a prop for fragile even if unpopular regimes. But with all its noisy presence in world affairs, Russia remains an unlikely agent of economic benefit for African countries.

The Russian economy is about the size of that of Italy. So, Russia is not in a position to act as an attractive agent of development in Africa. Russia is still a relatively poor country. Its companies playing in the African economic theatre are most extractive industry interlopers and state sponsored thieving entities. Russian infrastructure companies are still not interested in contracts in African countries. African tourist and business travel interests in Russia is next to zero. So, by and large any renewed Russian interest in parts of Africa will remain a matter of limited mutual convenience. Security assistance in return for opportunities for Russian rogue companies to come in and make some quick cash while the Russian state increases its foothold  and authoritarian leverage against the Western liberal order.

For Nigeria, the implications of the exit of two major Western powers from our immediate northern frontier are many and far reaching. Nigeria’s exposure in this regard are threefold. First, the security safe corridor  against jihadist terrorist expansion from the Sahel is instantly closed. Without American drones, intelligence and French troops on the ground, Nigeria is exposed. Our national security is further compromised. The jihadists are now free to roam free from centres in Niger into the troubled northern parts of Nigeria.

Secondly, the military presence of Russia in Niger and other parts of what used to be French West Africa immediately signals a decline of Western influence in the region and its replacement with an antithetical Russian influence. Russian security presence and strategic influence in an area now under military dictatorship effectively means the shrinking of the frontiers of freedom and democratic rule and its replacement with an authoritarian influence. Russian is not known to be a patron of democracy and freedom anywhere in the world. It cannot possibly export what it does not have at home.

Hidden under the above two meanings is a clear and present threat to Western influence in West Africa. The timing of this development in world history is fortuitous. We are in an era where the Cold War has been replaced by an increasing hemispheric war of nerves and rhetoric between Western democracies as we have come to know them and a rising authoritarian counter force. The counter force  is being guaranteed by the growing influence and fortunes of China.  Russia, North Korea, Iran and other client states of the same ilk are taking shelter under China’s bloated bank accounts to keep the West uncomfortable.

Nigeria’s political response to the developments in Niger have shown little of an enlightened national self-interest. At the time the coupists toppled Niger’s democratic government, Nigeria was in a position to  prevent the coup and its nasty consequences. Former president Buhari had a close personal relationship with the democratic leadership in Niger.

Even after Buhari’s tenure, his successor Mr. Tinubu woefully failed to use his position as the new Chairman of ECOWAS to neutralize the coup in Niger. Nigeria was in an eminent position to use its economic and military preponderance in the region to stifle the Niger coupists. We failed.

A few tepid diplomatic threats and fickle sanctions failed to deter the dictatorship in Niamey. The junta got stronger, compared notes with those in Burkina Faso, Mali and Guinea. They got stronger together and became a threat to ECOWAS from which they threatened a pullout. ECOWAS’s solidarity was broken. The bloc buckled. Its military weakness was on open display as they could neither effect an ultimatum to use force if necessary. Individual member nations reached out to the Niger and other dictators and made individual deals.

Nigeria’s resolve was broken. We shamefully restored electricity supply to Niger, lifted our limited and effete sanctions. And now the Niger junta has dug in and  has admitted a potential destabilizing force  into our immediate northern frontier. By creating room for the exit of the West from Niger and the tacit admission of Russian influence into the region, Nigeria has shot itself in the foot.

There is something more frightening in our political response to this development. The possibility that the United States and France could decide to pitch tent in Nigeria by negotiating military basing footholds here is far fetched. But even then, it is being opposed vehemently by some politicians instead of being welcomed enthusiastically.

In Nigerian political circles, the debate has been as to whether Nigeria should allow France and the United States to establish military bases in its territory. As is typical in our lazy politics of sectarianism, regionalism and divisiveness, the most eloquent voices of opposition to possible Western military bases in Nigeria have come from northern political voices. This is not only sad but also not backed by any iota of strategic insight and knowledge of basic national interests.

Ironically, the  North is the region immediately exposed to the  consequences of the withdrawal of Western forces from Niger. It has become the epicenter of national insecurity and instability of the kind associated with increasing jihadist activities. It is the home base of banditry. It is a free market for the spread of small and medium arms from the theatres of trouble in the Sahel, Northern Africa and the Middle East. It is the area where schools are being sacked and farming disrupted. It is the source of herdsmen turned into killers, armed robbers and kidnappers.

More pointedly, there is nothing that says that should Nigeria consider it strategically wise, Western military bases in the country must be located in any particular zone of the country.

Such bases can be located anywhere in the country. And they often have collateral economic benefits to the host communities as in places like Djibouti, South Korea and Germany where US military bases are part of the local economic life.

In the world of modern technology, possible Western military bases can be located anywhere in the country. Advanced intelligence gathering and surveillance systems now allow major world powers to gather intelligence, order operations and manage military outcomes from virtually anywhere. The drones that decimated Al Queda in Afghanistan and Pakistan emanated from drone command bases in the deserts of far away Nevada. Donald Trump ordered the drone assassination of Iran’s General Soliman at Baghdad airport from the comfort of the Oval Office in far away Washington.

The long term strategic and overall national interest of Nigeria are better served if we rise above petty regional narrow views of the developments unfolding in our Northern frontier. First, we need to protect the nation from the spread of jihadist insurgency and terrorism. We need to remain enlisted in the international effort to defeat Jihadist terrorism  decisively. We need to protect freedom and democratic rule as a heritage after more than four decades of military dictatorship in our history. Consequentially, we need to act in concert with the rest of the free world to discourage Russia’s active promotion and tacit marketing of authoritarianism and anti democratic ideas around the world.

Incidentally, among the salesmen of authoritarianism in the world, Russia is handicapped. Unlike China, Russia is neither an agent of economic development nor a model of cultural inclusiveness and universalism. Few free and happy people want to make Moscow their preferred holiday or business travel destination.