The Kogi State Executive Council has reaffirmed its commitment to grassroots development, economic sustainability, and infrastructural growth following its latest meeting held at the EXCO Hall, Government House, Lokoja.

Governor Ahmed Usman Ododo charged government officials to remain close to the grassroots and ensure constant engagement with the people, noting that such connection is key to responsive governance.

“We are in government to serve the people, and that means staying connected to their needs and aspirations,” the Governor was quoted as saying during the meeting.

As part of efforts to boost the local economy, the Governor also directed all government officials to wear Made-in-Kogi fabrics as a show of support for indigenous industries. He encouraged Kogites to take pride in local products and lead a cultural and economic renaissance from within.

Briefing journalists after the meeting, the Commissioner for Information and Communications, Hon. Kingsley Femi Fanwo, said the administration is committed to making governance more visible and impactful.

“Governor Ododo is driving a government that listens, learns, and leads from the grassroots. His directive on Made-in-Kogi fabrics is a strategic move to grow our economy and export our identity,” Fanwo said.

On infrastructure, Fanwo disclosed that perimeter fencing at the Confluence University of Science and Technology (CUSTECH), Osara is 90% completed, while both male and female hostels have been completed and are already housing students. Similar projects at the Kogi State University, Kabba, are progressing satisfactorily.

To improve public safety, the Council also approved a bill to restrict the movement of heavy trucks during peak hours. Another bill was approved for the establishment of the Kogi State Agency for Climate Change as part of a forward-thinking response to global environmental challenges.

In a separate briefing, the Commissioner for Finance, Budget and Economic Planning, Mukadam Asiwaju Asiru Idris, announced that the Ododo administration has fully liquidated N98.8 billion in debts inherited from previous administrations within just 15 months.

The breakdown includes:

 • N8 billion in bonds from the Idris Wada administration.

 • N50.8 billion salary bailout from the last administration.

 • N10 billion ECA-backed infrastructure loan.

 • N15 billion infrastructure loans from Zenith Bank and another N15 billion from UBA Plc.

“This is a landmark achievement. His Excellency Governor Ododo has demonstrated fiscal discipline and commitment to economic recovery. Within 15 months, we have cleared N98.8 billion in inherited debt,” Idris said.

He added that Fitch Ratings has upgraded Kogi State’s credit rating from ‘B-’ to ‘B’, with a stable outlook, citing prudent financial management. As of September 30, 2024, the state’s debt profile stands at N40.5 billion, placing it on a strong path to debt sustainability.

My generation met him famous. His first novels he wrote as an undergraduate. One of them is the hugely popular ‘Weep Not, Child’; another is ‘The River Between.’ He was James Ngũgĩ, then he became James Thiong’o Ngũgĩ, then he stepped out fully and became Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o.

The African writer from Kenya who died last week worked really hard to repudiate everything that he thought oppressed him. He took out his scalpel and cut open the name he bore. He dropped the foreign and picked a labyrinthine label from his ancestral pouch. The language of his art was next. With the English language, he wrote himself to fame, then he dropped English and started writing in Gikuyu. If you thought Gikuyu wasn’t global enough, you could translate his works to English or whatever European language you wanted. Ngugi was rigid in his conviction. Was his muse playing with irony or contradiction or what figure of speech best describes his experiment with life? He dropped everything the oppressor brought to Africa. Yet, when death came last week, it met him in the very land that epitomises those things he ran away from – the United States.

Some forty-something years ago, ‘Weep Not, Child’ was prescribed for our school certificate exams. Some of us soon found in it much more than what WAEC said it was. It is a book of light; a writ of struggle and liberation. We ate and chewed and swallowed and digested it. From that story and the next and the next, I read in Ngugi an optimistic soldier of justice. He believed in the inevitable victory of light over darkness. ‘Weep Not, Child’ took its title from Walt Whitman’s ‘On The Beach At Night’. It is in that poem that the challenged child is told not to weep because “The ravening clouds shall not long be victorious” and “shall not long possess the sky.” But how long is not long enough? That book was written over 60 years ago. The sky is still possessed by the clouds.

The writer loved his country and gave it his all. But his ‘free’ country soon showed him the taste of pepper. ‘Independence’ has remained what it parades: an exchange of foreign oppression for domestic repression. Jomo Kenyatta is knighted in ‘Weep Not, Child’ as the hope of the oppressed. He became president and blighted the tall and the short who placed their hope in him. Ngugi was a victim. His recollections say: “writers were not spared. In 1969, a leading poet, Abdulatif Abdalla, was imprisoned for writing a pamphlet entitled Kenya twendapi? (‘Kenya, where are we heading to?’) It was my turn in 1977 for my play, ‘I Will Marry When I Want’, and novel, ‘Petals of Blood’. I was in a maximum security prison in 1978 when Kenyatta died and his vice-president, Daniel Arap Moi, took over. Though I was happy that Moi released me three months after his ascension to power, I soon realized that he had emptied the jails of hundreds of Kenyatta’s political prisoners to make room for thousands of his own. Where Kenyatta had imprisoned me for my writing, Moi sent three truckloads of armed policemen to raze to the ground the community theatre where I worked, eventually forcing me – and many others – into exile.”

That was his Kenya; and it was not just his Kenya. It was and is Africa. Dark Africa has “Two laws. Two justices. One law and one justice protects the man of property, of wealth and the foreign exploiter. Another law and another justice silences the poor, the hungry, our people.” No darkness could be darker than what is described here by Ngugi in ‘The Trial of Dedan Kimathi’. Yet, throughout his life, the man kept talking about light defeating darkness.

Even as dusk approached and he was going, going, Ngugi still wrote optimism in 2020. He said that Wanjikũ, his Gĩkũyũ mother, used to tell him: Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa: No night is so Dark that, / It will not end in Dawn, / Or simply put, / Every night ends with dawn./ Gũtirĩ ũtukũ ũtakĩa…”

Language frees and can also enslave. Ngugi said it contains the seed of life. It is a sword of freedom and can be a tool in the hand of the oppressor. The writer believed so and I agree with him. He says: “If you know all the languages of the world and you do not know your mother tongue, the language of your culture, that is enslavement. On the other hand, if you know your mother tongue, the language of your culture and you add all the languages of the world to it, that is empowerment.” He also spoke about labels. Addressing a group of young Africans, he interrogated ‘tribe’ as a lexical item of racial interest. “Tribalism is a colonial invention”, he said, and asked: “Why would 250,000 Icelanders be called a nation and ten million Yorubas are called a tribe, and not a nation?”

Ngũgĩ wrote seven novels, at least five plays, more than four memoirs, over eight collections of essays, and several children’s books. You are very familiar with ‘Weep Not, Child’ (1964), ‘The River Between’ (1965), ‘A Grain of Wheat’ (1967) and ‘Petals of Blood’ (1977). Yet the man almost denied us the benefit of some of his critical stories. His ‘Devil on the Cross’, published in 1980 was originally in Gikuyu as Caitaani Mutharaba-Ini. ‘Matigari’, another novel published in 1986 was also written originally in Gikuyu; the same with ‘Wizard of the Crow’ originally in Gikuyu as ‘Mũrogi wa Kagogo’. Why did he do that? “When you use a language, you are also choosing an audience …. When I used English, I was choosing an English-speaking audience…” He said in a February 1996 interview in India. A global citizen sits in the US and writes in a Kenyan language! What kind of rebellion informed that? What Kikuyu audience was the writer targeting in America? I wished I could ask him to provide answers to those queries.

The challenges he faced were matched by the sheer strength of his character, his resilient spirit. To him, “Life, struggle, even amidst pain and blood and poverty, seemed beautiful.” His life mirrored the blistered feet on Africa’s sherd roads, stubborn and untired. In ‘The River Between’, we encounter Ngugi’s river, the Honia, which he says, “meant cure, or bring-back-to-life.” That river never dried and “seemed to possess a strong will to live, scorning droughts and weather changes. And it went on in the same way, never hurrying, never hesitating.” I think that says something prophetic of the tardy black man as he soon became marooned between the drought of the past and the pestilence of the present. For most of his 89 years, Ngugi stood at the bank of River Africa watching “as it gracefully, and without any apparent haste, wound its way down the valley, like a snake.”

‘Darkness Falls’ is the title of a critical part of ‘Weep Not, Child’. For Ngugi Wa Thiong’o, writer of light, dusk dawned last week. As he ebbed away, one could imagine the horror in his eyes as he watched Africa’s inheritors do what the rains did in ‘The River Between’: “Carrying away the soil. Corroding, eating away the earth. Stealing the land.”

Africa’s predators are audacious; they do their thing right in the open marketplace. He cried out: “How do you satirise their utterances and claims when their own words beat all fictional exaggerations?” He asked in his ‘Decolonising the Mind: The Politics of Language in African Literature.’ But he was still full of hope that light would drive out darkness.

Hope appears to me his greatest asset. Till his canary stopped chirping, he never stopped asking the African child not to weep. He insisted that kisses of spoken and written words would soon birth a dawn of justice. In spite of all the death and destruction we see all over, he still believed that “This darkness too will pass away” and that “We shall meet again and again /And talk about Darkness and Dawn / Sing and laugh, maybe even hug…In the light of the Darkness and the new Dawn.” I do not know the peg on which his optimism was anchored. What we see is every new decade bringing darker misery. But we must listen to him. He was an elder who saw far even while seated. So, I ask him: Ngugi, before you cross the river, tell us: when is the new Dawn? And, where is the light you predicted? May your soul Rest In Peace.

If you think there are too many beggars on your street, please take heart. A trending video is showing a massive throng of Nigerian children and women being deported from Ghana where they were found doing street begging. They are said to be part of thousands of West Africans on Ghanaian streets. About 10,000 are said to be involved. Is there anything too shameful that we can’t and won’t export? 

The person who ran the commentary spoke in Hausa, a hint at where the beggars hailed from. I took a few minutes to read the video. I do not speak and do not understand Hausa, but I can read the face of sorrow when I see one. I saw exactly that in the worn-out faces and the sunken eyes of girls and women in that video. For them, living is obviously a punishment. 

It looks like what we see today is generational and a proof that Nigeria failed its people yesterday and today, and will likely do so tomorrow. 

A Ghanaian academic visited Zaria some 50 years ago and wrote of his shock at the swarm of child beggars on the street. His report, published in 1984, reads as if it speaks of today: “The stranger from another cultural milieu visiting Zaria for the first time may, depending on his historical experience, wonder or even be shocked at the sight of so many little children going about begging in the town. But as time passes, and with increasing familiarity with the sight, the critical thoughts which followed the initial shock are likely to give way to a gradual acceptance of the unusual experience as a normal condition.”

The study of the begging population throws up the following statistics: “Nearly half (45.5 %>) of the sample of beggars indicated that their parents were not beggars, for quite a sizable proportion (39.7 %>) both parents could be shown to be themselves beggars like their children. In a few cases, only fathers (6.2 %) or only mothers (2.8 %) of beggars were reported as being beggars as well. In much the same way, in 35.2 % of the cases, brothers and sisters of beggars were reported to be also beggars…” Those beggars of the 1970s and 1980s, where are they today? Could they be the parents of today’s beggars, including those traumatised kids deported from Ghana? 

‘Child Beggars in Nigeria’ is the title of a July 2022 report by Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW). The report starts with the personal tragedy of an 11-year old Amina who was forced to beg on the streets because of insecurity in her village. It then dwells extensively into “how northern Nigeria’s economic crisis is bringing more children to large cities such as Lagos, where they end up asking for money on the streets.”

In February 2022, the newspaper I edit carried the story of some women and children from the North who migrated to Ibadan to make a living for themselves and their families through begging. Nafisa Shehu and her mother were among the beggars found on the Ojoo Bridge. Nafisa sat among other begging children and from that point calmly told the reporter that her dream was to become a medical doctor. Nafisa’s story was published, it went viral, and a school in Ibadan contacted the reporter and offered Nafisa a scholarship from primary to medical school. 

If you thought her dream of becoming a medical doctor was becoming real, you missed it. It never happened. A meeting was arranged between the school and Nafisa’s mother, with the reporter present in Moniya, Ibadan. Some meddlesome interlopers who called themselves local Hausa leaders made sure they were present also. Proceedings were very positive. But the tragedy started from that point: Nafisa and her mother disappeared from the street shortly after the meeting. The only condition the school gave Nafisa was that she would be a full-boarding student. That was a huge problem for her mother who wanted her to beg while in school.

We still thought we could help. I told the reporter not to give up on that girl. And she did not. After several follow-ups, the reporter was told that Nafisa and her mother had travelled back to Katsina State where they came from. Fourteen-year-old Nafisa was being prepared to be married off. She must be a mother somewhere now, and possibly begging. 

So, you can see that shame of deportation from Ghana and harassment elsewhere won’t prevent the begging population from growing. There are rivers feeding the dam; the dam feeds the flood. Until we tackle the source of the disaster, it will continue to question the humanity of Nigeria, particularly northern Nigeria and its leaders. 

The Basic Health Care Provision Fund (BHCPF), established under Section 11 of the National Health Act (NHAct) of 2014, is a foundational pillar of the country’s healthcare system. The Fund was designed to deliver a sustainable, decentralized, and accountable trove of resources for citizens’ healthcare at the community level through a functional PHC system. Passage of the NHAct was expected to usher in new hope for the achievement of Universal Health Care and for expanded National Health Insurance coverage. Despite the efforts and investments of donors, government, and health advocacy civil society NGOs, the early years of the BHCPF have failed to deliver on expectations. Research by the dRPC identifies 12 core donor grants and loans from USAID, the World Bank, the Gates Foundation, and the FCDO aimed at improving the performance of the BHCPF. Fifteen NGOs in the dRPC’s anchored and Gates foundation-funded health advocacy project, PAS, worked tirelessly to monitor, track, and document performance gaps in the Fund’s early days.

Suboptimal, late, and ill-timed releases coupled with inefficient and ineffective use of disbursements were identified as some of the challenges to the Fund’s performance. As of August 2022, only N89 billion of the cumulative sum of N638.64 billion allocated between 2019-2022 was released, and only N56 billion or 63% was actually disbursed to 36 states and the FCT. In 2023, N51.64 billion was allocated and N37.00 billion released.

By 2024, however, change seemed to have come to the BHCPF architecture. Under the supervision of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Prof. Muhammad Ali Pate, allocation to the BHCPF in 2024 increased by 143% from ₦52.6 billion in 2023 to ₦125.7 billion in 2024. This upward trend continued in 2025 with N298.42 billion or a 44% increase in allocation over the previous year, 2024. The story of releases in 2025 is also a good one. For the first 5 months of 2025, the release of ₦32.80 is almost as high as the total amount released in 2023, and more than the total amount allocated for the full year of 2020.

Basic Health Care Provision Fund Allocations and Releases 2014-2025

Sources: State of Health Reports; Budget Office; Official Reports of the FMoH

With increased funding to the BHCPF, PAS NGOs, still active in the space, framed new advocacy messages around the need for decisive action to address the challenge of effective and efficient utilization of funds. The government responded with the launch of the National Health Fellows program to foster sustained improvements within Nigeria’s healthcare system. Response also came with the rollout of the Performance and Financial Management Officers (PFMOs) program. The PFMOs initiative is implemented as part of the Nigeria Health Sector Renewal Investment Initiative using the SWAp of the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare. Consistent with the government’s decentralization logic, PFMOs were recruited through a rigorous selection process. They were then taken through a two-day (May 20-21, 2025), 5-module intensive training program. The training was followed by a week of technical tuition on the use of the PFMO Analytics Platform (PAP), a hand-held device for monitoring, checking, tracking, and surveying the whole value chain of funding flows, procurement procedures, processes, human resources, and systems in BHCPF facilities. From 2nd June 2025, PFMOs are expected to be turning up at BHCPF-supported facilities to capture data and evidence as a first step in an innovative blended model of health accountability, supportive supervision, and technical assistance.

For the PAS NGOs, in the trenches monitoring and advocating for accountability and transparency of the BHCPF for more than five years, the new model of the current government presents an opportunity for achieving the goals of the Fund, which they worked to operationalize in 2019. As PAS advocacy CSOs pass on the baton to the new PFMOs, the Project Directors (PDs) met to review experience and offer words of wisdom and encouragement to the PFMOs:

For Gen Obashina Ogunbiyi, mni rtd, PAS, PD, Lagos; Association of the National Institute Alumni, “The PFMO initiative builds on our many years of advocacy for transparency. Stay resilient, leverage community partnerships, and use data to drive impact.”

For Mr. Sarki Zakari, PAS PD, National, the Association of Community Health Practitioners of Nigeria: “We commend this forward-looking initiative that has recently been put in place. This change will come with challenges, but it will also support us on the frontline in achieving our desired health outcomes.”

For Hajiya Halima Ben Umar, PD, PAS/ Kano, Women in Media: “Be diligent because transparent systems empower communities to demand quality care and ensure no one is left behind.”

For Dr Stanley Ilechukwu, PAS PD, National, the South Saharan Development Organization, “Your role is important, especially as direct foreign investment funds dwindle; efficiency is needed now more than ever to help transition from donor dependency.”

For Alhaji Baba Shehu, PAS PD, Niger, Centre for Communication and Reproductive Health Services: “PMFOs should remember that accountability in health financing is not just a process, it is the foundation for trust and equity in healthcare delivery.”

Alhaji Mustapha Jumare, PAS PD, Kaduna, Initiative for Integrated Grass Root Empowerment and Support: “For effective services at the PHC level, particularly with the BHCPF…, strong capacity building for the PHC staff and management of PHCs is needed for accountability, transparency. Supervision is essential.”

The development Research and Projects Centre (dRPC), the Nigerian non-profit which mobilises knowledge on innovations-for-impact and also anchored PAS for 8 years, views this new model of health accountability, supportive supervision and technical assistance as a uniquely Nigerian innovation, with global public health resonance for countries challenged by the need to deliver high quality effective, efficient and responsive primary health services in a context of dwindling public revenue flows.

[DailyTrust]

No fewer than 15 parishes under the Makurdi Catholic Diocese in Benue State have been shut down due to repeated attacks on host communities by suspected armed herders.

The disclosure was made on Sunday by Rev. Fr Joseph Beba, Chairman of the Nigerian Catholic Diocesan Priests Association, NCDPA, Makurdi Diocese, during a press briefing at the Catholic Cathedral in Makurdi.

Fr Beba said the affected communities, Tse Orbiam, Ahume, Jimba, Nagi-Camp, Aondoana, Yelewata, and Abegana, have witnessed coordinated violence in the past two weeks, resulting in the deaths of over 50 residents, including women and children.

“More than 15 parishes have been shut down because their host communities have been completely displaced. In places like Jimba, Mbalom Yelwata, and Aondoana, both priests and parishioners have fled,” he said.

He alleged that the escalation in violence, particularly in Gwer West Local Government Area, followed the testimony of the Bishop of Makurdi Diocese, Most Rev. Wilfred Anagbe, in the United States and Europe on the persecution of Christians in Benue and Nigeria.

“These attacks are not random. They are a direct response to Bishop Anagbe’s international testimony on the systematic persecution of Christians. The Church is under siege,” Fr Beba declared.

He criticized the Nigerian military for what he described as a lack of response, even when attacks occurred close to their checkpoints.

“We are dismayed by the low energy and response from security forces. The attack on Rev. Fr Solomon Atongo on May 24, 2025, happened just 3km from Naka and less than 500m from an army checkpoint at Tse Orbiam. There was no intervention,” he said.

Fr Beba called on President Bola Tinubu and Benue State Governor Hyacinth Alia to declare war on the armed herders, noting that Governor Alia had previously identified the attackers as non-Nigerians.

He also urged youths to be vigilant and defend their communities: “The right to self-defence is inalienable. We call on our young people to be ready to defend their faith, their farmlands, and their way of life.”

[DailyPost]

If your JAMB score falls between 140 and 180, don’t lose hope..You still have a strong chance of gaining admission into a Nigerian university. One of the most strategic moves you can make is to take advantage of the JAMB Change of Institution option.

This option allows you to switch from a university with a high cut-off mark to one with a lower or more flexible cut-off. Many federal and state universities accept students through this route and are known for having high acceptance rates for candidates who make them their new choice during the change of institution process.

Here are some top universities with high acceptance rate for change of institution

1. Federal University, Dutse (FUD) – Located in Jigawa State, FUD is known for its transparency in admission processes and accepts students with scores from 140 and above for certain courses.

2. Federal University, Birnin Kebbi (FUBK) – This institution in Kebbi State is one of the most welcoming federal universities for students seeking admission through the change of institution.

3. Kebbi State University of Science and Technology (KSUSTA) – Offers science and technology-focused programs and often considers candidates with JAMB scores from 140 upward.

4. Sokoto State University (SSU) – Known for accommodating change of institution applicants with relatively low JAMB scores.

5. Taraba State University (TSU) – Offers a wide range of courses and is open to students with scores between 140 and 180.

6. Adamawa State University (ADSU) – Located in Mubi, ADSU has a good track record of accepting candidates via the change of institution window.

7. Bauchi State University (BASU) – BASU is a viable option for students with moderate scores and has consistent admission flexibility.

8. Abia State University – A reputable state university that welcomes a high number of transfer and change of institution students annually.

9. Akwa Ibom State University (AKSU) – A top choice in the South-South region, AKSU offers quality education and accepts many students through change of institution.

Read Also: JAMB: Another Nmesoma breaks UTME record in Anambra school

10. Ondo State University of Science and Technology (OSUSTECH) – Particularly friendly for students in science-related fields with modest JAMB scores.

11. Plateau State University (PLASU) – Based in Bokkos, PLASU offers a wide range of undergraduate programs and is known for being flexible with JAMB scores.

[TheNation]

The All Progressives Grand Alliance has faulted claims by the governorship candidate of the All Progressives Congress in the 2025 Anambra governorship election, Nicholas Ukachukwu, that President Bola Tinubu has mandated him to deliver Anambra to the APC.

Ukachukwu, who was hosted to a welcome reception at the Chinua Achebe Airport, Umueri, Anambra State, on Saturday, after his recent visit to President Tinubu, had reportedly made the claims when he told the APC supporters that the President had mandated him to connect Anambra to the centre.

He also used the reception to unveil his running mate, Senator Uche Ekwunife, to his supporters.

He said, “We met with the president in Abuja, and he said to us ‘go and get me Anambra State and connect Anambra to the centre’. That is a mandate, and I want to give you the same mandate to go and gather your people so we can connect Anambra to the centre.

“I and my running mate, Uche Ekwunife, are capable of the task, but we need your support to do it. Take this message to the grassroot. No one should deceive you any longer.”

However, reacting to the development in a press statement released on Sunday, the National Coordinator, APGA Media Warriors Forum, Chinedu Obigwe, said Tinubu never gave such mandate, insisting that Ukachukwu is not the spokesman of the President and not in a position to relay the President’s message to Nigerians.

Obigwe said, “delivering Anambra” to the APC is an impossible mission that cannot be accomplished by Ukachukwu because the state governor, Prof. Chukwuma Soludo will defeat him by a wide margin during the election on November 8, 2025.

The statement read in part, “Ukachukwu is still floating on the murky waters of Anambra politics and that he will continue floating until after the declaration of Soludo as the winner of the November 8, 2025 governorship election.

“To start with, Nicholas Ukachukwu is not the spokesman of President Tinubu, and in that regard, he is not in a position to relay President Tinubu’s message to Nigerians. The person that has the right to do that is Bayo Onanuga, the Special Adviser on media to the President and others that are media aides to the President.

“Ukachukwu should have been plain in telling Anambra people that he is eyeing the job of Bayo Onanuga and Daniel Bwala. Another thing is that what Ukachukwu is claiming that the President told him to do is a herculean task.

“He was unable to deliver himself in Anambra South Senatorial election when he contested against the late Senator Ifeanyi Ubah in 2023 and that is to say that mandating him to deliver Anambra to APC is sending him on an impossible mission.

“So, even if the President told him to deliver Anambra to APC, he is sending him for an impossible mission.

“Soludo will defeat Ukachukwu with a wide margin on November 8, and Anambra electorates will resist Ukachukwu’s rigging plot with the last drop of their blood.”

According to him, Anambra electorates will vote for Soludo and defend their vote for the governor to continue transforming the state to the envy of other States in Nigeria.

“With Soludo, Anambra is already aligned to the centre, and that is to say Ukachukwu talking about aligning Anambra to the centre is tantamount to him beating around the bush.

“When President Tinubu visited Anambra, he approved all the requests made by Soludo for the betterment of Anambra State, and that is evidence to show that Soludo is enjoying a good working relationship with the President administration.

“The President in his message to Anambra people attested to the undeniable fact that Anambra is rising under the able leadership of Governor Soludo that is his friend. As long as the forthcoming November 8 governorship election is concerned, there is no vacancy in Anambra State. It is Governor Soludo for Governor till March 17, 2030, or nothing,” the statement added.

[Punch]

The bazaar  of  partisan politics is in open swing. The ruling All Progressives Congress, APC,  which has been attracting opposition politicians to itself like magnet, held its National Summit  on May 22, 2025 inside the Aso Rock Presidential Palace.

The venue is symbolic of the President’s powers and could not  be a conducive atmosphere for free debates that should attend a political party summit. The main resolution, which was doubtlessly why the summit held,is the APC declaring “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu as the Sole Presidential Candidate of the APC.” The haste to consecrate the President is  indecent and an assault to  probity and democracy. First, the President had not even gotten half way to his four-year tenure. Short of clairvoyance, how did the party assess the Tinubu  administration’s future performance? I know in the past, pools betting was popular in Nigeria; so, is the APC returning the country to some gambling tradition?

Secondly, the party by its decision, closed the door to all other possible contestants. What type of democracy is that? Thirdly, what is the message? That Tinubu is the alpha and omega of the APC and is therefore not only infallible, but also unchallengeable? As I scanned the summit, the participants appeared more like shareholders of  a privately quoted company waiting for company souvenirs like umbrellas, tea mugs and brooms to be shared before breaking for a promised lunch. But let me be fair to the APC as it has displayed far more gumption than its great Chairman Abdulahi Ganduje who, with a  mischievous smile playing around his lips, had declared ahead of the summit that there is no vacancy in Aso Rock come    2027 when the country goes for  constitutional general elections.    

In a sane  polity, such treasonable utterance should have resulted in Ganduje resigning  and being hurled before the courts.  But not in Nigeria where bottles of champaign might have been popped open to celebrate  such inanity. By the way, did the APC pay for the use of the Presidential Palace? If it did, can the Presidency please show Nigerians the receipt? If it did not, then for a  level playing  field, the place should be left open for other political parties that want to follow the APC footsteps in holding their party summits. Also, another thought crept  into my mind. When the APC endorsed Tinubu as its 2027 presidential candidate, I didn’t hear it mentioned that  Vice President Kashim Shetima  is also getting an automatic ticket. Perhaps the consecrated Tinubu would have the freedom to appoint his running mate.

Doubtlessly, we are not in  a healthy democratic state.  But the solution does not lie in any of the main political parties.   They all are complicit in the sorry state we find ourselves. They are all represented in the   National Assembly where it is ‘yes’ to  the President’s  desires.   Although we can reach a consensus that the vegetative eight years of President Muhammadu Buhari were an unmitigated disaster compounded by the   poverty-inducing policies of the Tinubu administration, we must not forget that the foundations of our socio-economic crises and state of insecurity were partly laid by the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP.   The bulk of the opposition politicians today were or are in the PDP.  

The fact is that the biggest and best investment in Nigeria is government. So, most politicians outside government are like orphans. Therefore, they are fighting  tenaciously to unseat the Tinubu administration. For this, they are employing  all sorts of subterfuge, including injecting vegetative political parties with steroids to revive them for coalition politics. A few weeks ago, self-acclaimed opposition   politicians met and one of   their main spokesperson was Senator Ishaku Elisha Abbo who had been shown the way out of the Senate in disgraceful circumstances. It was the usual verbiage: Tinubu is running a “government by exclusion and economic insensitivity”, and, of course, the ethnic card: that he is “neglecting the North”.

Then, there is the other major opposition party, the Labour Party, LP. The party  is of good parentage. I know this because I was one of its midwives. But unfortunately, it has always been used and dumped, UAD. In the past 20 years, the LP has been the refuge of politicians who could not secure the ticket of their parent, or preferred parties. Admittedly this has not been for free. Today, the LP has three persons claiming to be legally married to it. Doubtlessly, the strongest is His Excellency Peter Obi who rode it through the 2023 presidential election. He has not expressed any long term interest in it as he is busy registering his Obedient members which would serve him in good stead in case he needs to move out or consolidate his grip.

Whatever the case, the likeable Obi’s primary ambition is to be a presidential candidate in the  2027 presidential election. It is a personal ambition. He personally explained this  in an address to his young supporters in the last week of May, 2025. He said: “I believe we should have a retirement age for politicians. By 2027, I will be 65. If the presidency goes back to the North in 2031, it may not return to the South until 2039 — by then, I will be 77. I wouldn’t want to run for office at that age. It would make a mess of everything.” So, for him to realise his ambition to be President of Nigeria, he must be a candidate, and win. The ideology,   principles and policies of His Excellency are not different either from that of President Tinubu nor the PDP from which he had broken to pick the LP ticket. The only thing he offers that is different from other  politicians is style and a verbal promise to be prudent in the use of resources.  

As Nigerians, we have no business fighting ourselves over which of the mainstream politicians should lord it over us in 2027. It is not our duty to carry out propaganda on their behalf or chorus their singsong. We should learn from the history of slavery, especially in the Americas; that it   is unwise to debate which slave master is better or treats his slaves better. We should simply work to throw away our shackles and embrace freedom. Even if it is not possible for us to build a peoples’ party that can change the course of our history in 2027; we should at least be able to build a consensus on our irreducible minimum demands of any party or anybody that wants to rule.   It is clear that what we had on October 1,1960, when the British colonialists symbolically  left, was some political independence. We need another independence movement. If you agree, please contact me.

The Federal Capital Territory (FCT) minister Nyesom Wike has hit back at his political critics, particularly those seeking his expulsion from the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), saying he has not seen anyone who will nullify his membership.

The minister made the declaration on Monday in Abuja during a media parley.

Details later…

[Vanguard]

Who doesn’t know her? She needs no introduction – absolutely none. Her signature brand and classic style is unmistakable and often does not go unnoticed – chic outfit of different shades and colours of Ankara attires clad in simple but nicely done headgears, with the same Ankara material. “Mama Africa,” some call her. Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is globally recognised for her outstanding impact on the world stage. A woman with a strong presence and personality, who has brilliantly succeeded in what some people would call a “man’s world” – her ability to navigate and overcome barriers and her unwavering strength and consistency are second-to-none, solid as the Rock of Gibraltar. 

As she’s fondly called in some quarters, NOI became the first woman and African to lead the World Trade Organisation when she assumed office as the Director General on March 1, 2021. A tenure of four years, which ends on 31 August 2025. The General Council of the WTO agreed by consensus of the 166 members to reappoint her for another term, which is set to start on 1 September 2025.

Her reappointment showcases the massive support for her leadership, emphasised by the Chair of the General Council, Ambassador Petter Olberg, who praised her accomplishments and was quoted to have said, “The General Council commends Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala for her outstanding leadership during her first term.

Amid significant global economic challenges, she strengthened the WTO’s ability to support its members and set a forward-looking agenda for the organisation. Her leadership was instrumental in securing meaningful outcomes at pivotal moments, including the 12th and 13th Ministerial Conferences (MC12 and MC13), where major milestones were achieved.”

We cannot say her first term has not been without a couple of trade problems. However, she has succeeded in managing the risks and is steering the organisation away from the murky waters. While attempting to lead, for another four years, a troubled organisation that has been low in terms of reaching new agreements due to increasing tensions between the biggest players – the US, the EU, China, Japan, India, UK, etc, her attitude has been crystal clear: that all the major global trade players should approach all the issues constructively and creatively. Her disposition: “Avoid any kind of disputes that would be detrimental to the functioning of the world trade system.”

While insisting on the “importance of rules-based global trading”, she has pledged to work harmoniously with all the dominant stakeholders and the world leaders, especially with Donald Trump, whose economic reforms and steps taken to restructure the US bilateral trade relationships and agreements have been criticised by several global leaders as putting gasoline on the world economy with a potential to tank it, and whom a few experts think may not want to be on the same page with her – “I look very much forward to working with President Trump… I am eager for it.” Nevertheless, many observers suggested the decision of the General Council to speed up the process of her reappointment was essentially to avoid Trump-America from blocking her candidacy just the same way he did in his first term. Keith Rockwell, a senior research fellow at Hinrich Foundation and a former WTO spokesman said, “The unstated objective was to accelerate the process, because they did not want Trump’s team to come in and veto her as they did four years ago.”  And the decision hasn’t gone unnoticed by the Trump team. A former trade official under Trump 1.0 criticised it as “completely politically tone deaf.”

Just like with the World Health Organisation (WHO), which the US recently pulled out its membership from, Trump has not hidden his disdain for some of the policies and operational methodologies of the WTO, especially on what he alleged as its softness on China’s wolfish economic practices against its competitors and the classification of the Communist China as a developing country. You get a sense that in Trump’s view, the WTO’s purported squishy treatment of China and a few other members may be responsible for much of the trade malpractices – particularly the bulk of the non-tariff operations.

The global stage was inundated by what can be called the sensational events that greeted the declaration of the WTO chief’s candidacy in her first term. While she received an overwhelming support from member countries across board for her candidacy, America under the Trump 1.0 did not. This blatant and vehement opposition, which sparked widespread reactions, resulted in many experts trying to offer the probable reasons for the resistance. Quite a number of commentators believe it may likely be hinged on performance. The Trump’s team believe that being a development economist even with a profound track record spanning about a quarter of a century at the World Bank and as Nigeria’s Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, she knows little to nothing on trade. This position was underscored by Trump’s former trade representative, Robert Lighthizer who said, “His stated view was that Ngozi doesn’t know the WTO and is not a trade person.”

If the fears of her performance and delivery on the job was actually the reason she was not supported by Trump, then it is untenable now and goes without saying as her first four years have stood in sharp contrast to that, demonstrating over and over again that she is no fluke and does not fit the bill of a non-performer. It is clearly a smoking gun that even her deadliest critics cannot refute that she has done phenomenally well. In her current term, she has driven policies that allowed members to forge stronger trade and economic ties, and until a few months ago, the world had lived out a period of tranquillity and progress as far as trade relations were concerned.

Beyond doubt, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala has been unapologetically trade-centric as the WTO Chief, against the speculations, which are legendary, of many that she would stonewall the smooth implementation of trade relations. She has proved them wrong as she has not ground the gears of global trade to a halt and her time at the helm of affairs of the WTO has not whiplashed the foreign trade community. Her masterstrokes, all of which are intricately intertwined, have been how she sustained and deepened trade alliances across geopolitical regions, easing tension and pushing for the de-prioritisation of the national interests of individual members on trade, instead, pushing for the consummation of trade transactions in the interest of global unity and prosperity – incentivising cooperation to minimise protectionism, a sticking point to seamless global trade.

To others, nonetheless, Trump’s penchant for racially-motivated rhetoric, considered discriminatory and offensive by a section of people of a specific race, may have influenced his decision not to back Dr. Okonjo-Iweala in her first term. Many folks believe his alleged remarks about the African continent, which at times have been nothing short of uncomplimentary, may have been responsible for his refusal to support her. Whatever it was, I strongly think the dynamics in his second presidency should take a whole new twist. In line with the assertion of Martin Luther King Jr, the WTO Chief’s time in office should not be judged by the colour of her skin but the content of her character, and I dare say too, that it should be evaluated by her achievements and profound credibility.

The ongoing unease in global trade relations, which has created apprehension and a feeling of restlessness for many countries as far as trade is concerned, is playing an enormous part in driving the WTO Chief to actively and passionately pursue collaboration with the heavyweights in foreign trade to relieve the concerns which are palpable and avoid getting into acts that would jeopardise the survival of the international trade community – a case of simply avoiding a situation of here today, gone the next.

Beyond question, the global trade network is looking forward to a monumentally successful second term of the WTO under the strategic leadership direction of Dr. Okonjo-Iweala. In all of this nonetheless, I am optimistic, cautiously though, that the biggest competitors in the global trade structure would not put a heavy thumb on the WTO but would be equitable, fair and balanced. It is equally hoped that the two largest economies in the world – the US and China, would close trade ranks and choose a path that will be uniquely focused on leading the pack and getting on a little bit better with the WTO under an African-American woman, who herself has not been sleeping on the wheels in her quest to provide unparalleled leadership needed to forge a new and prosperous future for all members and key stakeholders.

In conclusion, it is like a potter working on a clay pot, which ends up in a mess, as is often the case. The solution? The potter simply makes a fresh start using the same clay to make another pot. In like manner, there is a growing push to see a fresh, glowing start not just among the biggest global trading partners, but more importantly, these super powers enhancing their partnerships with the WTO to guarantee the success of the multilateral trading system. It is anticipated that for example, the attitude and disposition of Trump’s America in the second term of Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will be dramatically upended. One would hope: he deploys the same amount of energy and resolve in opposing her candidacy in her first term to fully, unequivocally collaborate with her over the next four years and as the leader of the free world, demonstrate strong leadership required to obliterate any noticeable rifts that shape global trade patterns which normally arise due to wavering global priorities.

Ande, a financial and political economy analyst, writes from Lagos and can be reached via eyitayoande@gmail.com