Football fans are in for a blockbuster day of action across Europe’s top leagues today, with mouth-watering fixtures headlining the Premier League, La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga, and Eredivisie schedules.

In the English Premier League, title-chasing Liverpool host Arsenal in the day’s standout fixture at 16:30 GMT.

Earlier in the day, Newcastle United welcome Chelsea at 12:00, while Manchester United take on West Ham United.

Nottingham Forest face Leicester City, and Tottenham Hotspur clash with Crystal Palace, all scheduled for 14:15 GMT.

In Spain, the most anticipated La Liga tie will see fierce rivals, Barcelona and Real Madrid, square off at 15:15.

Other La Liga fixtures include Leganes v Espanyol (13:00), Athletic Club v Deportivo Alaves (17:30), and Real Betis v Osasuna (20:00).

In Italy’s Serie A, Inter Milan travel to Torino for a 17:00 kick-off, while Napoli face Genoa under the lights at 19:45. The day also features Udinese v Monza (11:30), Hellas Verona v Lecce (14:00).

Germany’s Bundesliga offers a major clash between Bayer Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at 14:30, followed by Eintracht Frankfurt v St. Pauli (16:30) and VfB Stuttgart v Augsburg (18:30).

In the Dutch Eredivisie, top contenders Feyenoord and PSV Eindhoven meet in a crucial fixture at 13:30.

The early kick-off sees PEC Zwolle take on Go Ahead Eagles (11:15), while FC Twente play FC Utrecht (13:30). The day rounds off with AZ Alkmaar v FC Groningen and Ajax v NEC Nijmegen, both starting at 15:45.

[Punch]

The Rockefeller Foundation has launched a Coal-to-Clean Credit Initiative (CCCI), which aims to support 60 projects by 2030 and help close coal-fired power plants in developing countries.

The Foundation announced that its new analysis shows that, supporting 60 projects by 2030 to close coal-fired capacity could unlock $110 billion in public and private investment, while preventing 9,900 early deaths and 640,000 lost workdays annually and generating 29,000 new permanent jobs.

“As more and more countries and communities choose to transition to clean energy sources, philanthropy has a unique role to play we can take risks where others cannot and catalyze momentum needed, The projects announced this week will do just that, offering real benefits for people living and working in these communities,” said Senior Vice President, Power and Climate at The Rockefeller Foundation, Ashvin Dayal.

As part of the first efforts of the new initiative, the Rockefeller Foundation will collaborate with ACEN Corporation, GenZero, Keppel, and Mitsubishi for a pilot project in the Philippines, the foundation said.

The Rockefeller Foundation, set up by John D. Rockefeller in 1913, said back in 2020 that it had decided to divest from fossil fuels and not make any new investment in the industry.

The Rockefeller Foundation has already launched programmes aimed at lowering the use of coal-fired power in Asia and speeding up the deployment of battery storage for renewable energy.

[Leadership]

The Tinubu presidency has shown utter disrespect for Nigerians. It is above all insensitive to the suffering and hardship of most Nigerians. Instead of rendering a sensible mid term account of its mandate, the administration is celebrating the onset of the 2027 presidential election race.  A clear two years to the end of its tenure, major political voices in the ruling party are already predicting a sweeping Tinubu re -election victory and his coronation as the king hereafter.

The administration has cornered public opinion and its vulnerable opponents into a mindset that the most urgent national challenge of the moment is the 2027 election. The central question of the polity is being recast as: who succeeds Tinubu? Of course, there is a truism that groundless optimism is the most common disease of political animals. Show me a politicians that is not optimistic of victory at the next election and I will point at a platoon of wise fools!

We are at the mid term of a tenure that promised Nigerians nearly every opposite of the Buhari interregnum. Mr. Buhari, easily the most disastrous leader of modern Nigeria before the Tinubu catastrophe, had run the nation literally aground before tenure expiration saved him from himself  and rescued the nation from what was clearly the world’s most tragic instance of bad governance. Mounting debts, incoherent policies, perennial absenteeism of the leader,  disastrous elocution, embarrassing aloofness and industrial scale corruption were the hallmarks of the Buhari era. In the history of Nigeria, never had a Central Bank Governor been charged with the magnitude of treasury looting as Buhari’s Godwin Emefiele.

Then came Tinubu on the wagon of one of the most disgraceful elections in national history. A mandate secured on a razor thin majority of less than 30% of registered voters ushered in what has so far turned out to be Nigeria’s most clueless dispensations. Tinubu promised nothing. He said little that any one found coherent. No one recalls making sense of his campaign gibberish, They said he promised to  right the wrongs of the Buhari era even though he was running on the same party ticket as his Daura friend. In all fairness, no one remembers what exactly Tinubu said he was going to do with power. His only mission was to pack into a rent free Aso Villa. But two years after, here we are with a presidency that has turned our lives into two years in purgatory. The only Nigerians who now harbor any hope of a reprieve from hell are the few partakers in the feast of pork and patronage in Abuja.

Nearly every indicator of hardship is on digital display in today’s Nigeria. The majority can ill afford the next meal. Hunger has emerged as a national epidemic for the first time in our history. Access to electric  power has shrunk to the extent that even the Presidential Lodge in Abuja can hardly afford to pay its power bills and now has to install a solar panel to save costs.

Insecurity  has enveloped the entire national space, compelling informed people to suggest that the Ministry of Defense should be scrapped and replaced with an omnibus  Ministry of  Internal Security as all available security infrastructure and personnel all over the country have been deployed to joint internal security operations with hardly any tangible results.

Bandits, kidnappers, serial abductors and sundry gun men and women rule the highways and streets while official security personnel have since been outgunned by non -state agents and vigilantes of unknown nomenclature. A supposedly modern Nigerian state with well funded armed forces and over decorated officers is now shamelessly enlisting the services of native hunters, medicine men and charmers to stave off the forces of insecurity across the land.

It is this myriad of afflictions and failures that threaten the existence of the Nigerian state. It is these threats to national existence and the integrity of the Nigerian state that those who voted in 2023 are demanding that Tinubu and his gang should account for. At this mid term hour, Nigerians are asking for affordable food, essential drugs, affordable building materials, access to affordable education in schools without leaky roofs and guarantee of basic safety in their daily lives. It is accountability for these pressing basic needs and problems that demand urgent attention as the Tinubu government marks two years in office. National political offices that were meant to go round and give us all a sense of belonging to one nation have been cornered into one corner of our commonwealth.

To ignore these basic needs of the people and shunt public attention to the 2027 succession political battle is the height of insincerity and political deceit. To jump from that fraud to speculation as to why Tinubu deserves a second term in office is worse than mass deceit. It can only be that the administration is investing more energy  in mass deceit and amnesia than the real grind of governance. The efforts of the government  seem to be geared more towards succession politics than real time governance on a daily basis.

The obstacle to this deceptive politics is perhaps the possibility of an opposition coalition to challenge the APC in 2027. To counter this obstacle, whatever fickle opposition there is in the political space is being squeezed into a survival mode. The Peoples Democratic Party and its mascot, Mr. Atiku Abubakar, have been reduced to an unsettled chaotic herd. No one knows which executive now runs the party as conflicting factions engage each other in either fisticuffs  or silly litigations in various courts across the land. Corrupt judges that have to adjudicate in these cases are having a ball with their bankers. The special squad of destabilisers led by the ubiquitous FCT Minister, Mr. Nyesom Wike, are having a busy time disorganising the PDP all over the country. If indeed the PDP survives between now and the eve of 2027, it will be a ghost of its former robust self.

The Tinubu taskforce on political ‘realignment’ is leaving nothing to chance. It recognises the potential danger posed by the Peter Obi–led Labour Party. An increasingly popular political movement led by a charismatic political ‘good man’ cannot be ignored. Obi’s Labour Party and its back-up Obidient Movement presented a veritable threat to Tinubu’s ascendancy in 2023. Therefore, two active factions of  demolishers are at work on the Labour Party.

One faction of thugs led by one Lamidi Apapa has been busy challenging both the legitimacy and very existence of the party in court. A slightly more targeted attack is being led from within by Mr. Abure who ordinarily would be the Chairman of the party. In a recent move, Mr. Abure and his fellow travellers have suspended a slew of high level party members including a senator and the only state governor on the ticket of the party, Mr. Alex Otti of Abia state.

Beyond these party based destabilization antics, the incumbent government and ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) has unleashed squads of recruiters all over the country who are busy attracting defectors and converts from other parties into the ruling party. So far, the results have been impressive. The most spectacular outcome has been recorded in Delta State where the incumbent governor and his immediate predecessor have defected to the APC. In addition, these political leaders decamped from the PDP with all their local government leaders. It is significant that Dr. Okowa, the immediate past governor of the state was also the vice presidential candidate of the PDP in the 2023 election. The Delta defection is therefore an arrow in the heart of the PDP in the strategic Niger Delta region.

There have been numerous other defections into the APC from other parties and political formations across the country. There is now a palpable fear in the political space that if the rate continues, the vast majority of politicians in the country would by the eve of the 2027 election be in the APC.

Fears have been expressed about the possibility of Nigeria ending up as a one-party democracy with other parties ending up as fringe minority parties. Former president Goodluck Jonathan has added his voice to those of opposition politicians like Atiku Abubakar in this regard. But some key opposition politicians have waved this possibility off, insisting that what is going on is the result of a political herd mentality.

Politicians are trooping to the ruling party where they think the bulk of patronage is flowing. Nigerian politics is principally about instant pork and patronage. Very few Nigerian politicians want to be left out in the cold of political wilderness.  The APC has deployed poverty to attract membership.

There is however an overriding political curiosity and worry about the gale of defections and mass migration into the APC in particular. At a time of grave national disquiet about worsening social and economic conditions throughout the country, it is curious that the mass of political followers should be tempted to join the very political party whose leadership has literally run the country aground. Clearly, there must be forces beyond naked political sentiments driving the entire movement.

The consequences are many and could be dire. An early start of campaigns for elections that are two years away  could lead to a vast dissipation of resources and political energy that would in fact make the fledgling opposition forces more attractive. The gathering of divergent political interests and tendencies in one inchoate ruling party could inject disequilibrium into the mechanism of the ruling party and lead to a pre-election implosion. A very large political party could prove difficult to manage and therefore come apart on its own weight.

This is not to under estimate the optimistic projections of Mr. Tinubu’s strategists and planners. On the more optimistic side, it is quite possible that what APC strategists are planning is for a 2027 race with little or no significant internal or external opposition movement. If most political voices were to be drowned inside one party, the choice of candidates, especially the presidential candidate, would be a serial ritual endorsement. In a more or less one party configuration, Mr. Tinubu would literally be returned unopposed as his party’s candidate at every party primary convention and be elected with minimal opposition. In line with that simplistic line of thought, Mr. Tinubu could head effortlessly to a coronation at Eagle Square.

There is a lazy trait in this line of thinking that conforms to Mr. Tinubu’s authoritarian mode of politics and leadership. He has railroaded the National Assembly into becoming a glorified rubber stamp conclave with literally no opposition on vital legislations like the reversion to the old National Anthem,  tax bills, successive national budgets etc.

More worrisomely, Mr. Tinubu has carried on more like an emperor than a democratically elected president. He identifies his interests in the system. He then gets people to convert these interests into legislative bills or projects. He then proceeds to procure a National Assembly rubber stamp or Executive Council approval. It is popularly speculated that each approval sought by the president has a price tag and once the transactional details are fine tuned, the road is clear either to railroad an unpopular legislation or the award of yet another Lagos to Calabar Alaskan highway contract.

The road to a second term coronation for the Tinubu presidency is however strewn with booby traps and political land mines. The assumption that all politically minded Nigerians will end up in the APC by the eve of 2027 is naïve and even a bit foolish. The vast majority of voting Nigerians will hardly become card carrying members of any party.

Irrespective of who is in the parties, the solid majority  of ordinary Nigerians remain the victims of the incompetence of this government. They are not about to join any parties and do not need to do so to reject an unpopular government at the polls. The greater the level of incompetence of the government, the higher their demand for voters cards and the greater their hunger to vote out the fraudulent bunch. We had a foretaste of this in 2023. The combined population of voters for both the Labour Party and the PDP overwhelmed the minority that voted for the APC.

It was the instrumentality of INEC’s dubious complicity and the division in the votes of the PDP and Labour Party that saved the APC thinly from deserved humiliation.

What is likely to abort the infantile projection of a Tinubu coronation in 2027 is therefore the continued rejection of the APC by the majority of the poor, deprived and angry Nigerians who do not care about formal party membership. The challenge of the next election is for INEC to expand its voter portal to accommodate all those who want to vote in 2027. And for the majority of Nigerians, the challenge of 2027 is not the mass migration of members into the APC. Party members are always a negligible variable in voter turnout. It is the mass of non- partisan voters that troop out to make their voice heard that matter most. They will decide who succeeds Tinubu, not the unthinking herd of “follow follow” party migrants.

Ultimately, then, the political destiny of the country still rests with the calibre of opposition coalition that the incompetence of the APC forces into existence. That opposition coalition must be everything that the APC has failed to be. We desire and deserve a credible, competent and coherent opposition with a clear national outlook. It must consist of persons of character with proven records. Above all else, we need a social democratic coalition that can carry the majority of Nigerians along a populist path to create and distribute Nigeria’s wealth for the good of all.

There was an outbreak of controversy recently over statements made by Mr Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party in 2023, about Nigeria at an international forum. Speaking at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the US, Obi compared poverty statistics in Nigeria to those of Vietnam and China. He said more people were getting poorer in Nigeria whereas the other countries had pulled millions of their citizens out of poverty. Obi said: “The question then is, what exactly did these countries do to be able to achieve the desired growth and development? That is where political leadership comes in. These nations, unlike Nigeria, have competent leadership.”

Many Nigerians kicked, pointing out that his statements at foreign events often paint the country in bad light. Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu of Lagos state angrily accused Obi of having a “disturbing pattern of behaviour” which “de-markets Nigeria” abroad. Sanwo-Olu said: “Obi made unflattering remarks not just about the incumbent Nigerian government, but also about Nigeria. I also find Mr. Obi’s pattern of behaviour disturbing. When prominent Nigerians go overseas, they ought to project Nigeria positively. They do not have to do that for the government. But we all owe a duty to market Nigeria on the global stage rather than de-market her. That is what true patriotism is about.”

Sanwo-Olu accused Obi of contributing to the poverty problem, adding: “I find it somewhat ironic that a man like Mr. Obi, who did not build a single school or a stand-alone hospital throughout his eight-year tenure as governor of Anambra, or sustainably provide credit facilities, would criticise the government of Nigeria which is actively doing that.” Obi has defended himself, maintaining that he was only telling the hard truth about Nigeria. “World Bank has just shown that 75% of Nigerians in rural areas are poor. Is World Bank demarketing Nigeria?” he fired back. Obi also pointed to UNICEF’s statistics which say Nigeria has the second-highest number of malnourished children in the world.

Interestingly, I very much understand Obi’s position as well as Sanwo-Olu’s reaction. I have a story to tell. While I was studying for a master’s degree at the University of Sussex in the UK in 2005, I had experiences that challenged my takes on Nigeria. My classmates were from all over the world — Ghana, Kenya, Mexico, Argentina, Italy, India, Estonia, the US, Japan and Azerbaijan. Holding seminars with students and teachers who had different worldviews and reading assorted academic essays by authors who had conflicting positions broadened my horizon and made me conclude that the world is actually not as simple as black and white. We tend to ignore grey and its many shades.

My first challenge was: how do I present my country to the world truthfully and wisely? Should I deceive myself by lying that everything was going well and we were on the right track? Should I tell the “hard truth” by washing our linen before foreigners, thereby further reinforcing the global cynicism about Nigeria? As time went by, I realised that my classmates, including the ones from other African countries, were discussing issues about their own countries with tact and optimism. They hardly uttered bad words about their countries even when we know they had serious challenges common to developing countries. They discussed their countries frankly but positively. I was amazed.

Until then, I had taken pride in highlighting all the bad things about Nigeria, particularly how corruption was stalling our development — all in an attempt to be “honest”. In fact, when I was about to choose a topic for my dissertation, my suggested topics revolved around corruption in Nigeria, but my supervisor, Professor Mick Moore, nudged me to write on something less sceptical, something that would contribute to the discourse on governance and development in my country. I came up with a proposal to do a research on informal sector taxation, with Lagos state as my case study. I got support from the Centre for the Study of the Future State, of which he was the director.

I had had a somewhat embarrassing experience during one of the seminars when I took a course on management of public finance. I was asked to make a presentation on tax reforms in Nigeria. The course conveyor was Charles Harvey, a professor of economics who had worked extensively in Africa. He helped in setting up Botswana’s central bank in 1975 and also lectured at the University of Botswana. He had enormous knowledge about Africa, having also worked in Zambia and Burkina Faso during his 30-year sojourn on the continent. I presented a case study of the reforms at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), then led by Mrs Ifueko Omoigui. I thought I did a decent job.

But after all my sweat, Harvey announced: “Your problem in Nigeria is corruption. You have no reason to be where you are.” Should I say he was lying, especially when I had just received a text message from home informing me of the sharing of N50 million bribes at the National Assembly to get support for President Olusegun Obasanjo’s third term bid? In my weekly column, I myself had often been writing about corruption. I went mute, unable to decide the answer to give Harvey. He went further: “Is it true that your crude oil is stolen every day in connivance with government officials?” Should I say yes? Should I say no? I tried to play safe by saying: “It’s not impossible.”

I went away feeling like a hypocrite. There was nothing Harvey said about Nigeria that was a lie. But having seen how my colleagues were not badmouthing their own countries to prove that they knew how to speak the truth, I was beginning to recoil into my shell and was becoming more circumspect about the things I said about my country before foreigners. I realised along the line that if foreigners want to hear the most negative things about Nigeria, it is Nigerians themselves that will tell them. They don’t need to go asking Ghanaians or Kenyans. On our own, we will download everything, even more than they asked for. Anytime I read Wikileaks on the US cables concerning Nigeria, I cringe.

Our own Eedris AbdulKareem sang “Nigeria jagajaga” to speak “the hard truth” about his country (and I did not detect any lie in that song). King Yellowman, the legendary Jamaican reggae DJ, sang: “Jamaica nice! Jamaica nice! Jamaica nice!” Bob Marley sang lovingly about Trench Town. Peter Tosh reminisced adoringly about Westmoreland. Till today, Jamaicans sing about their country’s beautiful beaches and lovely islands. As a teenager, I longed to travel to Jamaica and even wanted to live there based on these songs. It was much later I realised Jamaica was also in the grip of poverty, drug abuse, gun violence and political turmoil — some morbidities you find in many developing countries. 

While I was still struggling with how to present my country to foreigners during my time at the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, I attended a one-day conference at the Said Business School, University of Oxford, in May 2006. It was put together by Oxford Entrepreneurs. The first session I attended was addressed by Mr Aigboje Aig-Imoukhuede, then MD of Access Bank Plc. He spoke on the topic: “From Ideas to Profits — An Investors’ Guide to Africa”. He narrated how his team bought the bank and transformed it in just four years. This, he said, was an indication of what the African economy had to offer to those with the ideas and the right attitude.

What I found quite interesting in Aig-Imoukhuede’s presentation was that he took time to highlight Africa’s problems. He did not shy away from facing the truth. He listed the problems associated with the legal system, financial system, economic and social indicators, political stability, infrastructure, human capital and bureaucracy. At a stage, I was like: “Isn’t this guy discouraging investors?” But he was obviously setting the stage for how to transform the problems to prospects and prosperity. These same problems actually offer opportunities for the world to invest. He listed fertile areas for investment as infrastructure, agribusiness, telecoms, tourism, finance and natural resources.

“Africa, with a population of 800 million people, is the second largest continent,” he elucidated. “There is growing demand and limited competition. It is an emerging market, far from mature. Africa is a virgin market. It is untapped. Currently, only about 1% of the private capital in the world is invested in sub-Saharan Africa, yet African markets easily outperformed the world averages last year and over the past three years. Africa currently offers the highest returns on foreign direct investment of any region in the world and African stock markets have soundly outperformed the S&P 500 in last four years. Egypt topped the global table. Ghana’s stock market was the world’s third-best in 2005.”

Aig eventually narrowed down to Nigeria, citing the telecoms sector as a clear evidence of the “hungry” nature of African market. “Nigeria has witnessed tremendous growth in tele-density from about one million GSM subscribers in 2001 to about 22 million by December 2005. MTN is Africa’s (Sub-Sahara) fastest growing telco with nine million subscribers in four years. IBTC Equity Fund is Nigeria’s largest and most successful mutual fund with over 163% returns since 1999. Citibank Nigeria is most profitable Citigroup franchise in Africa. It accounts for 20% of Citigroup’s Africa operation,” he said. He ended his presentation with a battle cry: ignore Africa at your own peril!

As I boarded the train on the three-hour journey from Oxford back to Brighton, I was a happy man. I had finally found a way out of my dilemma. I felt I could now talk about Nigeria without being apologetic or deceptive. I wouldn’t pretend that there are no problems. We have plenty problems. Embarrassing problems. But I would also not be so negative as not to talk about our little progress and the plenty opportunities that abound. Indian, Lebanese and Chinese entrepreneurs are all over Nigeria exploring opportunities and making billions. This same country. Truly, we cannot all see Nigeria the same way. But my conclusion remains that the world is not always either black or white.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

FIRST OF ALL

The federal government has, once again, launched the “Nigeria First” initiative, making it compulsory for MDAs to prioritise locally made goods and services in all government procurements. It is only what is not locally produced that can be sourced abroad. If it works, it should improve local capacity, output and job creation. Virtually every administration launches “Nigeria First” in one form or the other and makes good noise about it before it peters out right before our eyes. I don’t want to be negative about this, so I would just advise that, for a start, government officials should start flying Air Peace — instead of British Airways and Virgin Atlantic — to London. Am I communicating? Simple.

RENT POLICE

Kogi state has joined Lagos in the rent control craze. The Kogi house of assembly is working on a bill to establish a rent control board and set up a rent control task force to enforce standard rates and compliance across the state. As I wrote last week, our lawmakers (and policymakers) often define an issue by the “solutions” they already have in their heads. They avoid sequential analysis of a knotty problem and bypass the rigorous thinking needed to solve it. The rent situation in Nigeria today is a result of the housing deficit and the fallen naira which affects landlords and tenants alike. Rent controls will only encourage willing landlords and willing tenants to trade in the dark. Inevitable. 

PINCH OF SALT

Pastor Chris Oyakhilome, founder of Loveworld Incorporated (you know it as Christ Embassy), is a globally renowned conspiracy theorist, hitting the height five years ago when he linked 5G technology to COVID-19. He has manufactured a new one: that Africans are being asked to avoid salt so that they would buy sodium-infused drugs. He asked his church members to “eat more salt”. In fact, nobody said Africans should not eat salt — the instruction is to eat less. Too much salt has been scientifically proven to be injurious to cardiovascular health and is implicated in high blood pressure, stroke and kidney failure. Fellow Africans, please proceed with sense. God will not shame us. Amen?

NO COMMENT

Mrs Ify Obinabo, the Anambra commissioner for women and social welfare, has raised the alarm over a prolific 18-year-old apprentice who has impregnated 10 girls (women?) in the last five months. He is so deft at this thing that his roll call includes the daughter of his boss. This earned him instant dismissal but did not end his promising career as he returned to his village to continue his mission, impregnating eight more girls in three months. This is no mean feat by global standards. At this rate, he will have fathered 84 more children by the time he’s 25. On a serious note, though, are we sure the young man is not targeting a place in the Guinness World Records? Impreg-a-thon. Hahahaha.

The Northern States Governors Forum convened a joint meeting with the Chairmen of the Northern States Traditional Rulers Council on Saturday, 10th May, 2025 at the Council Chamber of the Sir Kashim Ibrahim House, Kaduna.

The meeting was attended by Their Excellencies, the Governors of all 19 Northern States and Their Royal Highnesses, the Chairmen of the 19 Northern States Traditional Rulers' Councils.

Forum acknowledges the critical role of nonpartisan cooperation, collaboration, and peer review in effectively addressing the numerous developmental challenges confronting the northern region and the nation at large.

After exhaustive deliberations on matters of regional interest, particularly security, the Forum released the following communique:

1. The Forum commends Mr. President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR for his sustained commitment to addressing the security challenges and infrastructural deficits in Northern Nigeria.

2. The Forum resolved to liaise with the Nigerian Governors Forum to work out modalities of how to increase support to the Federal Security Agencies.

3. The Forum also resolved to strengthen peculiar local initiatives in combating all forms of security challenges.

4. The Forum also resolved to urgently set up inter-state platforms to coordinate surveillance on our joint borders.

5. The Forum reiterated its support for the creation of State Police and called on the National Assembly to expedite action on the enactment of the legal framework for its take off.

6. Forum's next meeting will hold on the 30th of August 2025.

Signed: 

Muhammadu Inuwa Yahaya, CON 

Governor of Gombe State/ Chairman, Northern States Governors' Forum

With deep sorrow but grateful hearts, we announce the peaceful passing of our beloved husband, father, grandfather, brother, uncle, cousin, in-law, friend, and patriarch, Dr. Chris Asoluka (Okwuruoha).

Surrounded by love and held in grace, Daddy transitioned from this world just before midnight on Friday May 9th 2025 with the calm dignity that defined his life. A man of unwavering principles, strength, generosity, rare intellect, and profound wisdom, he lived a life rooted in service, compassion, and an unshakable commitment to family, community, and country.

Though our hearts sag heavy, we take comfort in the fullness of his legacy — the values he instilled, the lives he touched, and the unmatched example he set. He was our anchor, our counselor, our lifetime inspiration. His earthly absence is profound, but his spirit remains — in every lesson, every memory, every story told, and every life shaped by his presence.

We are thankful for the glorious gift of his life and for the grace with which he completed his earthly journey. As we begin this season of remembrance, thanksgiving, and celebration, we ask for your prayers, support, and love as we honour a man who meant so much to so many.

May OkwuruOwere’s brilliant unforgettable soul rest in perfect peace.

Important Dates to Note 

Thursday 17th July 2025 – Service of Songs/Night of Tributes (Lagos)

Friday 18th July 2025 – Commendation Service (Our Saviour’s Church, Lagos)

Wednesday 23rd July 2025 – Service of Songs/Wake Keep (Ihiagwa, Owerri)

Thursday 24th July 2025 – Obsequies (Ihiagwa, Owerri)_

Sunday 27th July 2025 – Family Thanksgiving Service (Ihiagwa, Owerri)

– For the Chris Asoluka Family

Jamachi Chris-Asoluka (09081691729)

Do you still remember the story of my friend who said he loves women with big breasts? Each time a woman with full frontal endowment passed, he smacked his lips. He will not date a woman with less than 34DD specification. He can 'manage' if her southern region is not rich or even outright flat. As long as there is something full to cushion his stress after a long hard day. But his wife, yes, the Madam of the house, is almost flat-chested. Yet my friend is married, happily married. In fact, his wife is in charge of his businesses. The 38F or 36FF specs are for his side chics, not his wife. Madam is allowed to be barely breasted but when my friend wants the big big things, he knows where to go. 

Like he once confided in me, ‘Funke, you know my wife is my life, my everything. She is my prayer warrior, my prophetess and my spiritual mother. She is my pillar and she has always been more than just a  body since I knew her. Yes I love big breasts but what she means to me is way more than a curvy body. 

They say it is women that are difficult to understand but this my friend, like many men leave me confused many times. So he married a pillar of support but keeps a  harem of big-breasted side chics to satisfy his fantasy. There are also men which no matter how beautiful a woman is, if she cannot cook, they are put off. You will be shocked at the numbers of rich men who now eat meals prepared by chefs but actually married their wives for their cooking prowess. Maybe they did not know they will be rich eventually or their future lifestyles would include French and Spanish cuisine.  Their number one criteria when they were shopping for a wife 25 years ago is ‘she must be able to cook or else there is no deal’. 

There are men who love big backside. The rounder the better. Just sway and roll it in front of them and they will forget all the great manners their Momma taught them. Some men will do anything to date or bed a fair skinned woman, and those ones are many. Isn’t that the major reasons why too many women are bleaching even at deathly risks of their organs and future? Come to think of it, Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL), breast enlargement, tummy tuck, etc, are they not the handiwork or brain children of men to make or remake women into images that work for them? Women, we have suffered, right? We bleach for them, go under the knife to please them, change our ambition even to make men happy. Is something wrong with women or what? Then, the crux of the matter for today is, is it wrong for a woman to insist on marrying a man who has money?

‘I cannot marry a poor man’

‘He has to have some money’

‘I cannot marry a man who is a beginner. ’

‘He must be able to provide me a certain level of comfort’

‘I cannot even date a man who does not have a car. ’ 

This is the point where most men’s eyes are shooting daggers at this space. I can hear them. 

‘Materialistic women’

‘Selfish Delilahs’

‘Does her own  father have a car?'

‘Bloody gold diggers’

So what is wrong with a woman being a gold digger? What is she expected to be digging for, dust? The man who screens women for everything,  from cooking skills, humility traits to sexual compatibilities, what are those ones digging for? Clay? 

Why should a man have a marriage shopping list but a woman can’t? Come on guys, is that what you are teaching your sisters and daughters ? That they should not have criteria and benchmarks? How is the marriage institution supposed to survive and thrive if we are all pretending to be living in the 19th century? Why should a woman from whom the society expects so much from expected not to have expectations, goals,   for marriage and the kind of man she wants to spend the rest of her life with? Why does the society want her to pretend to be what she’s not? 

It’s okay for a man to want his bride to be beautiful and brilliant. She’s expected to be humble and a goal getter. She should be a woman who will support him when things get tough, pay the bill when he’s down and be a caring carer when he’s sick. But the woman cannot have marital ambitions and goals?

It is unfair really.  If a woman is going to be everything the society prescribes, to ask for just one thing,  one simple thing: that the man be not a poor man,  is only fair.  

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Re- 21 ejaculations per month, as how? 

Egbemode's question and answer was very instructive and succinctly dissected. Same question has been on my lips and many like mind. Thank God, her assertion from different angles will lay to rest those for and against especially  some males with excessive sexual drive and female folks affected by nymphomania syndrome rooting for it and justifying their position based on numerous bloggers and  YouTube doctors' recommendations without consideration of what becomes of a man thereafter.

It may interest us to know that some creatures had sex only once in a lifetime.  They  do so only when they are ready to give up the ghost, a supreme heavy price to pay for such pleasure which is death. But still for procreation to take place for their generation to continue it's compulsory they pay the price anyway. That's the world of Praying Mantis.

I wonder what would become of a man if we had to live the life of Mantis.

- Mr S. Aize 

Lagos 

Haiti Under the Duvalier’s, comprising “Papa Doc” and his son “Baby Doc”, ruled Haiti from 1957 to 1986 after Papa Doc won a controversial election. Their kleptocratic regime was marked by extreme corruption and systematic brutal plundering of national wealth. Under their rule, the economy deteriorated, poverty became widespread, and public funds were diverted for personal enrichment, leading to a severe decline in public services and a growing gap between the wealthy elite and the impoverished masses. They also led an extravagant lifestyle, contrasting starkly with the poverty of most Haitians, and invested minimally in education, healthcare, and essential services. The Duvalier era remains one of the most damaging periods in Haitian history to date! – (Papa Doc, Baby Doc: Haiti and the Duvalier’s).

Zimbabwe, formerly known as Rhodesia, gained independence from Britain in 1980, with Robert Mugabe becoming the country’s first Prime Minister and later President. Initially, Zimbabwe experienced economic growth and was considered one of Africa’s most prosperous nations. However, Mugabe’s tendencies and policies such as Corruption, Mismanagement, Increased Borrowing, Capital Flight,Inefficiency & Printing of Money led to economic decline, with the worst period being the 2000s hyperinflation crisis,when Zimbabwe’s inflation rate reached 89.7 sextillion percent (89,700,000,000,000,000,000%) per month making the Zimbabwean DollarWorthless and In 2009, Zimbabwe officially abandoned its currency and adopted a multi-currency system.(The Economic Decline of Zimbabwe: Neither Growth nor Equity​)​

As Nigeria hurtles towards the path of Haiti or Rhodesia or both, lets delve into the issues that will help us decide.

The VPs House
According to Worldometer (A United Nations real-time estimate data centre)., the current population of Nigeria as of April 11, 2025, is estimated at 236,413,198.The Centre for Affordable Housing Finance in Africa (CAHF), Country Profile for Nigeria, highlights the housing deficit as at 2023 to be28 millionhouses and growing,requiring an estimated sum of NGN35.5 trillion to finance the housing deficit.

On Friday, June 7, 2024, after 14 years, the official residence of the Vice-President was commissioned. The cost of this remarkable Heaven on Earth House is a staggering obscene amount of NGN21 billion, amidst a struggling populace, skyrocketing prices for basic utilities, electricity now rationed, often on an apartheid-like basis, a plummeting naira, and the removal of essential subsidies.
They said, providing a suitable residence for the Vice-President is not merely a matter of convenience, it is a symbol of respect for the office and the individual who occupy it.They also said, it is a commitment to transparency, accountability, and efficient resource utilization.

That’s how sadistic and morally bankrupt they are!
The 73rd Birthday Bash
No one, none at all has a hand in the presence of commercial crude oil in Nigeria yet they said they have removed subsidy from our God- given oil before 12 pm on that fateful day! And to add salt to injury, at “a sight to behold”73rd birthday party of the president they referred to him as courageous for removing the subsidy.

Now our question is ”is it culturally, morally and politically right” for a country’s president to use state resources for personal celebrations before or after removing subsidy from petrol and electricity especially with the current economic challenges where multitudes of citizens did not see food to eat that fateful day, while all that grace the occasion have foodstuff busting at the seams, in their houses. May be it is a State Event!

The True Value of Life and That of The Naira
To understand how the naira is becoming a Zimbabwean currency, let’s take a look at the report of the National Moon-sighting Committee of Nigeria, based on the value of gold as at March 28, 2025.

Zakat Nisab is NGN12,921,120​,00.To put it graphically, in Islam, a person that has NGN12,900,000.00untouched for a whole year, is poor and is not expected to pay zakat on that sum of money.

Theft Threshold is NGN161,514​.00.To illustrate, in Islam, a person that unjustifiably consume an amount/resource that belongs to someone or some people equivalent to NGN161,514.00upon conviction, is liable to have his/her hand cut off.
Blood Money (Diyyah) is NGN646,056,000.00.Also to illustrate, the cost of a life in Islam is over half a billion naira. Meaning any one that kills an innocent soul, upon conviction is liable to pay that amount to the family of the deceased.

The 2025 Budgetand the Excessive Borrowing
The approved budget for 2024 was NGN27.5 trillion (let’s assume it is not padded), and if we may dare ask, what was the budget performance in 2024?

The 2025 approved Nigerian Budget of Restoration (minus padding if any)isNGN54.99trillionfrom NGN49,7trillion earlier presented. Debt servicing is NGN14.32trillion. Meanwhile the projected deficit is NGN13.08 trillion, to be financed through borrowing!

The precise total borrowing by the present administration from May 29, 2023 to datecan safely be said, is none existent or at best it shows incompetency as neither theNational Bureau of Statistics (NBS): “Nigerian Domestic & Foreign Debt Q1 2024” report.and Debt Management Office (DMO): “Nigeria Public Debt Statistical Bulletin Q3 2023” can give one asensible figure.However,based on the latest complete breakdown (Q3 2023) and the total debt figure for Q1 2024, the Federal Government’s debt stock, excluding that of the sub-nationals, is estimated to be around NGN114 trillion as of the first quarter of 2024.This is aTicking Time Bomb.

The Erosion of Democratic Principles and Human Rights
The suppression of dissent, as exemplified by the #EndBadGovernance and other protests, highlights the government’s disregard for democratic principles and human rights. The use of excessive force and the fresh-in-our-mind arrest of innocent children yet to reach puberty and peaceful protesters are a grave violation of fundamental freedoms as stated in Chapter IV (Sections 33 – 46) of the Nigerian Constitution of 1999 (as amended) and Article 20 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).

The Naira-For-Crude Deal
​The Federal Executive Council (FEC) in July 2024 directed the NNPCL to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery in naira. This FEC directive is essentially more like a scam on Nigerians or the height of impunity of government.

In Nigeria, the use of foreign currencies for domestic transactions is generally prohibited, with specific regulations reinforcing the primacy of the Naira as the sole legal tender. This is anchored on the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) 2007 Act,Section 20(1), which stipulates that the Naira is the only legal tender in Nigeria. Any pricing or payment for goods and services in foreign currencies within the country contravenes this provision. ​Furthermore, Section 20(5) of the Act, criminalizesand stipulates that any person(s) who contravenes this provision is guilty of an offence and shall be liable on conviction to a prescribed fine or six months imprisonment. Additionally, the CBN has issued directives through its circulars, warning individuals and businesses against denominating or demanding payments in foreign currencies for domestic transactions. Violations are to be reported to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the CBN for appropriate action.

Certainly, a government official or officials who refused to abide by this law should face the consequences of his or their actions.

Dumping the National Power Grid for a NGN10bn Solar Grid
Nigerians, don’t forget, in late December 2022, someone promised Nigerians that, “If I don’t give you constant electricity for four years, don’t vote for me when I come back for second term.”

The abandonment of the national grid by the by the Aso Rock Occupants is nothing short of impunity, lack of accountability, opacity in government dealings and crude policies of government. It was a photo-shop opportunity when the clueless government proudly approved the removal of electricity subsidy, increase in electricity tariff and creation of ascam and apartheid banding system with the Villa finding itself in Band A. and to cap it all, the minister that mislead the president to increase tariff unnecessaryis still sitting pretty on his seat instead of facing the consequences of his actions.Our take here is that“finally, the chicken has come home to roost”.
ṢṢummun, bukmun, ‘umyun fahum lā yarjiʿūn

In line with their crude political exigencies towards the run-up to the 2027 elections, the government seem ill-equipped to stem the tide of economic decline and only obsessed with acquisition of pecks of office and directing government affairs to activities that benefits them only.

In the final analysis, what we see is government’s response and that of the legislature, which appears to be a flurry of additional naivety, impunity and decamping of elected officials that shows they are “deaf, dumb, and blind, as they are unable to return to righteousness.”

• Hon (Alh) Adamu Rabiu is a Monitoring & Evaluation Specialist on Policy, Finance, Risk, Politics, Good Governance & an Advocate for Sustainable Development and writes from Kaduna.

(A remark on World Press Freedom Day when the Editors and SERAP celebrated it)
On March 16, 2015 the then candidate Muhammadu Buhari told the NPAN officials: I won’t tamper with press freedom.

Buhari, who then said a change revolution was imminent in the country without firing a shot also assured the influential members of the Newspapers’ Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN) and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) at an interaction in Abuja: “I want to give you my full assurances that in this democratic dispensation, I will ensure that the Nigerian constitution is upheld. This includes respect for the media, respect for the right to free expression and freedom of speech….I have said elsewhere that I cannot change the past. But I can change the present and the future.  Dictatorship goes with military rule as do edicts such as Decree 4…However, I am a former head of state, note the emphasis on the word ‘former’– military ruler and now a converted democrat, who is ready to operate under democratic norms. “I give you my full assurances that the Nigerian media will be free under our APC government.”

In the end, the loose cannons and spokespersons in the administration gave the journalists of conscience the Jones-Abiri treatment: link them to terrorism and other related criminal activities, detain them and tell the human rights and international press bodies that the journalists are all criminals and scoundrels. 

Even when they report the truth, they can be charged with a dead law such as sedition and there will be court orders to detain them as they just did to Premium Times Samuel Ogundipe the police curiously detained and asked to disclose the source of his information about a police letter. 

Under the same Buhari we can recall the ordeal of Jones Abiri before The Guardian’s robust editorial exposed the lies of even a friend of the press then and a hit-man for government during the IPI’s first Convention in Nigeria. Recall that when the International Press Institute (IPI) asked for the release of Jones Abiri on 23 June 2018 when President Buhari was declaring the IPI’s first Conference in Nigeria open in Abuja, the Federal Government through the then Town-crier of “Fake News” and “Hate Speech’, the Information Minister, Lai Mohammed, said there was no such thing and the then Chairman of NJI Board of Trustees Ismaila Isa Funtua corroborated Lai Mohammed’s lie that there was nobody in detention.

Same for citizen Samuel Ogundipe: some local newspapers never published the detention of the Premium Times reporter just as some others curiously kept the story inside. Recall too that that the Inspector General of Police then who meretriciously responded to the Acting President Yemi Osinbajo’s directive to overhaul SARS that same day with just a name change and replacement of Commissioner in charge of SARS, ordered the arrest of three journalists of Premium Times that same day.

Remember that the same Buhari who assured the people as a candidate that he was born again got his pioneer DG,DSS Lawal Daura to evict a former DG, DSS from his Lagos home on December 2, 2015, also detained Jones Abiri for two years and denied it, raided the homes of Court of Appeal and Supreme Court Justices at dawn, broke into Akwa Ibom Government House’s cash vaults and claimed he carted away dollars never reported as exhibits anywhere. 

Remember too that barely four months after he was sworn in, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu also assured the officials of the same NPAN of freedom of expression. In a December 2023 interaction with the Newspapers Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), Tinubu was clear that his administration would always respect media freedoms and divergent views.

They always assure us that they will not tamper with freedom of expression, but as Idi Amin of Uganda, then a strong man, once noted, unfortunately, there would be no freedom guaranteed after expression. 

First, they came for the jugular of free and independent press when they collaborated with the federal legislature to introduce an anti- social media bill, sponsored by Senator Bala Ibn Na’Allah (APC, Kebbi State). 

The sponsor said then that the bill was intended to prevent unwarranted negative spotlight on public and political office holders. All stakeholders roundly rejected the hateful bill as a masked gag on the media. Then in March 2018, they came with another toxic one called “Hate Speech Bill” again sponsored by Senator Sabi Abdullahi (APC, Niger State), who said the bill, which carried a death sentence seeks “to eliminate hate speech and discourage harassment on the grounds of ethnicity, religion or race among others. According to a provision in the bill, “any person who uses, publishes, presents, produces, plays, provides, distributes and/or directs the performance of any material, written and/or visual, which is threatening, abusive or insulting or involves the use of threatening, abusive or insulting words, commits and offence”. 

The penalties are scary: a jail sentence of not less than five years or a fine of not less than N10 million or both and a death sentence “where any form of hate speech results in the death of another person”. Both bills are dead but the snake is only scotched, but not killed as Shakespeare noted. There is an anti-media bill in National Assembly now that has passed through some stages. We have to be vigilant.

The fear now
Data collected by Media Rights Agenda (MRA), a frontline press and freedom of expression advocacy organization indicates that 45 attacks on journalists have occurred in Nigeria since 2023. The MRA data spotlighted security agencies, which were responsible for 62 percent of the 45 cases of attacks documented, while hoodlums were identified as being responsible for 16 percent. Unidentified actor such as kidnappers, armed individuals, and others were reportedly responsible for 15 per cent. Further breakdown of the data by gender showed that 37 of the incidents were targeted at male journalists, representing 82 per cent while four of those targeted were female, representing nine percent of the total attacks.

In one of the disturbing cases in which freedom of the press, and the rights of a journalist were undermined under the current administration, Editor of First News online newspaper, Segun Olatunji was picked up by soldiers from his home on March 15, 2024. The arbitrary use of the military for the purpose of effecting the arrest of journalist in a democratic setting was widely condemned by press freedom watchdogs. Olatunji was held incommunicado for fourteen days until he was released following widespread calls by scores of press freedom advocates.

The story was similar for Daniel Ojukwu, a reporter for the Foundation for Investigative Journalism (FIJ), who spent 10 days in arbitrary detention after he was abducted in Lagos and flown to Abuja. It again took the intervention of civil society and press freedom organizations who organized a protest at the Police Headquarters before he was released.

Ojukwu’s ordeal in the hands of the Nigeria police followed an investigative report published by his platform, which exposed corruption in the office of the Senior Special Assistant to the President on the sustainable Development Goals. Even more challenging for journalists, is the emerging trend of law enforcement officers using the Cyber Crime Act to hound reporters blowing the whistle or putting the spotlight on issues of accountability in governance. Specifically, the Cybercrime Act, 2015, now the Cybercrime Act of 2024, after it was amended by the National Assembly and signed into law by President Tinubu, has become the law of choice for the arbitrary detention, persecution and harassment of journalists.

Government officials and politically exposed persons who are averse to critical media reporting on issues of corruption and lack of accountability in the use of public resources, have found a potent weapon of persecution using the law. It is pertinent to observe that the most prominent cases of arbitrary arrest of journalists since the onboarding of the Tinubu Presidency have affected reporters who put the spotlight on issues of use of public resources.

Section 24, which dwells on “cyber stalking” and the punishment of three years imprisonment or a fine of N7,000,000 has made the work of journalists across the one of high risk. Significantly, the apprehension within media and press freedom circles, is the notion that journalists can no longer merely rely on regular proclamations about the government’s readiness to protect press freedoms. President Tinubu in his days as a pro-democracy activist was an ally of the free press. It is quite ironical that on his watch, the press is having a raw deal.

Meanwhile, we are here to restate the role of the media as clearly spelt out in Section 22 of the constitution – to monitor governance and hold public officers to account. Only good and independent journalism can deliver this tough job. This is where people will feel that the news media actually promote public good. In other words, development agencies should not lose sight of this fact: that only a truly independent news media can monitor governance, lest they become lapdogs. That is why Sina Odugbemi, former Programme Head, Communication for Governance and Accountability Programme (CommGAP) at the World Bank (Institute) once observed in a (World Bank) publication titled, “Public Sentinel: News Media and Governance Reform” that, ‘A focus on strengthening institutions like the news media is not yet seen as a core business in many development agencies. That is therefore why opportunities to strengthen the news media will always depend on the situation in each country and will always depend on the interplay of forces within each country.

Odugbemi in the same vein believes that, ‘the political economic realities will always determine what can be achieved’. What that means is that those who want to improve media systems in their own countries must learn to build effective coalitions. That is where work is really needed. In that treatise, Odugbemi says nonetheless, it is possible to bring together what we know right now about how news media can contribute to good governance outcomes. Second, it is possible to draw the necessary policy implications. That is why the collaboration with SERAP and others is critical. This is where the political economy of a free press that has become a huge challenge is relevant in understanding why the economic policy of the present administration too is affecting press freedom.

To be continued…

This is an excerpt from remarks by MARTINS OLOJA, Former MD/Editor-in-Chief, The Guardian, Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors at the 2025 WPFD Press Conference by Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) & SERAP At Radisson Hotel. GRA, Ikeja. May 3, 2025