Protocol.

Gentlemen of the Press.

Someone asked me what I would do if I lost my election petition appeal at the Supreme Court. In response, I said that as long as Nigeria wins, the struggle would have been worth the while. By that, I meant that the bigger loss would not be mine but Nigeria’s if the Supreme Court legitimizes illegality, including forgery, identity theft, and perjury.

If the Supreme Court, the highest court in the land, implies by its judgment that crime is good and should be rewarded, then Nigeria has lost and the country is doomed irrespective of who occupies the Presidential seat. If the Supreme Court decides that the Electoral umpire, INEC, can tell the public one thing and then do something else in order to reach a corruptly predetermined outcome, then there is really no hope for the country’s democracy and electoral politics.

Obviously, the consequences of those decisions for the country will not end at the expiration of the current government. They will last for decades. I am absolutely sure that history will vindicate me. We now know what the Supreme Court has decided.

At critical points in my political life, I always ignored the easy but ignoble path and chosen the difficult but dignified path, the path of truth, of morality, of democracy and rule of law.

I always chose freedom over servitude, whatever the personal discomforts my choice entails. When I joined politics, the critical challenge was easing the military out of power so that civilian democratic governance could be restored in Nigeria. It later became a very defining struggle, and, as one of the leaders of that struggle, I was targeted for elimination.

In one incident, nine policemen guarding my home in Kaduna were murdered in an attempt to assassinate me. I was also forced into exile for nine (9) months. In addition, my interest in a logistics company that I co-owned was confiscated and given to friends of the military government. As Vice President in the civilian government that succeeded the military, I, again at great personal cost, chose to oppose the extension of the tenure of the government beyond the two four-year terms enshrined in our constitution.

In response to the official backlash against me, I instituted several cases in the courts, which led to seven landmark decisions that helped to deepen our democracy and rule of law. At the current historic moment, the easier option for me would have been to fold up and retreat after the mandate banditry perpetrated by the APC and INEC.

But I went to the Nigerian courts to seek redress. I even went to an American court to help with unravelling what our state institutions charged with such responsibilities were unwilling or unable to do, including unravelling the qualifying academic records of the person sworn in as our President and by implication, hopefully who he really is.

I offered that evidence procured with the assistance of the American Court to our Supreme Court to help it to do justice in this case. I give this background to underscore that what we are currently dealing with is bigger than one or two presidential elections and is certainly bigger than Atiku Abubakar. It is not about me; it is about our country, Nigeria. It is about the kind of society we want to leave for the next generation and what kind of example we want to set for our children and their children.
It is about the reputation of Nigeria and Nigerians in the eyes of the world. We showed incontrovertible evidence that Bola A. Tinubu was not qualified to contest the Presidential Election because he forged the qualifying academic certificate, which he submitted to INEC. In fact, a simple check of Tinubu’s past records in its possession would have shown INEC that Tinubu broke the law and should not have been allowed to contest the election.

We showed irrefutable evidence of gross irregularities, violence, and manipulations during the elections. We showed incontrovertible evidence that INEC violated the Electoral Act and deliberately sabotaged its own publicly announced processes and procedures in order to illegally declare Tinubu elected. The position of the Supreme Court, even though final, leaves so much unanswered.

Even the rebuke by retired Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad is a confirmation from within the apex court that all is not well with the Supreme Court. The court and indeed the judiciary must never lend itself to politicization as it is currently the norm with nearly every institution in Nigeria. By the way, the strong rebuke of the apex court by the revered Justice, who had meritoriously served for more than four decades, should not be swept under the carpet.
The alarm raised by Justice Muhammad and recently, former INEC Chairman, Prof Attahiru Jega, offer Nigerians an explanation into why the electoral and judicial system have become the lost hope of the common man.

Judges are no longer appointed based on merit but are products of the interplay of politics and nepotism. Worse still, the appointment of electoral officials has also been hijacked by the ruling party as seen in the latest nomination of Resident Electoral Commissioners where card carrying members of the ruling party and aides to politicians in the APC are being appointed into INEC. When two critical institutions like the court and the electoral commission are trapped in an evil web of political machination, it becomes next to impossible for democracy to thrive.

As a stakeholder in the presidential election of February 25, I, along with other well-meaning Nigerians have done my bit in ensuring that our democratic process enjoys the privilege of full disclosure of the character deficiencies of the current political leadership. I also believe that even if the Supreme Court believes otherwise, the purpose of technology in our electoral system is to enhance transparency and not merely as a viewing centre. We have to move with the world and not be stuck in time.

Implications of PEPC and Supreme Court judgments
I leave Nigerians and the world to decide what to make of the Supreme Court’s unfortunate decision. But here’s my take. The judgments of the PEPC and the Supreme Court have very far-reaching grave implications, including the following:

One is the erosion of trust in the electoral system and our democracy. Nigerians witnessed as the National Assembly changed the electoral law to improve transparency in the process. Of particular importance was the introduction of modern technology to help eliminate the recurring incidents of electoral manipulation, particularly during the collation of results. Nigerians and the world also witnessed as the leadership of the INEC, especially its Chairman and National Commissioner for Voter Education reassured Nigerians on national television multiple times that the use of that technology would be mandatory.

Yet that same INEC undermined the use of that technology during the elections and collation process and declared as winner someone who clearly did not win the Presidential election. They then went further to take sides in the courts in a dogfight to defend their illegality. Who would convince the millions of Nigerians to vote in future elections after they suffered endlessly on queues to register to vote, to collect PVCs and to vote, based on INEC’s assurances only to see their votes stolen and given to someone they did not vote for?

When people lose trust and confidence in elections, democracy is practically on life support. And by affirming and legitimizing the continued lack of transparency in our electoral system the courts are continuing to usurp the rights of voters to elect their leaders. The other grave implication is that contestants in Nigeria’s elections should do whatever is necessary to be declared the winner. That includes identity theft, impersonation, forging of educational and other documents, perjury, and violence.

And, as they do so, they should ignore whatever the law says and whatever assurances from the leadership of the electoral umpire about what the law says and what they would do in compliance. And they would do so knowing that our courts would approve of their behaviour or at best pretend not to take any notice of it. The third is that if you are robbed of victory, do not bother going to court for redress because your glaring evidence of the robbery will be ignored in favour of the mandate bandit.

Also, your lawyers, however distinguished and accomplished, may be ridiculed by the judges who may also go out of their way to make even a stronger case for the so-called “winner” than even their own lawyers were able to do. These are clearly self-help strategies and actions bereft of the law and constitutionalism. Only lawlessness and anarchy will result from such, with violence, destruction and implosion and loss of our country likely to follow.
I believe that we still have a small window to prevent these from happening. I still believe that we can rescue this country from the strange imposters that have seized it illegally and are holding it by the jugular. Let me caution that the leaders of those African countries that have completely collapsed into chaos never came together one day and agreed to collapse their countries. Rather their countries collapsed because of the incremental and compounding individual and collective utterances and actions of those leaders.

Nigerians know more about the person sitting in office as their President and how he got there, and the dangers that it portends for them and the country. It is for them, especially the younger generation whose futures are to be shaped by that man, to decide what they want to do with the knowledge.

Now, let me give a historical perspective to the constitutional evolution that gave birth to the 1999 Constitution. In the build up to the current democratic dispensation, agitation was rife amongst members of the political class and a large number of civil society bodies to envision a constitution that would operate a democracy in a functional order after the nasty military regimes. These agitations and necessities of the circumstance of that time led to the convocation of the 1995 Constitutional Conference, which I was privileged to be a part of, alongside other prominent political actors.

The Constitutional Conference was expected to create the frameworks upon which a new constitution would be built in order to make the dreams of a democratic society. A number of far-reaching reforms and recommendations were made, which drew from our past experiences and aimed at safeguarding the new constitution from the mistakes of the past.

One such headline recommendation was the concept of rotational presidency anchored on the principle of 6 years single term among the 6 geopolitical blocks. Even the notional idea of delineating the country along geo-political blocks was a creation of the 1995 conference. Another thematic recommendation at the conference was that the Federal Capital Territory should be given the democratic opportunity to elect for itself a mayor who shall emerge from popular franchise. These two recommendations were part of the landmark reforms that were submitted to the military government that convoked the Constitutional Conference.

However, and rather disappointingly, the government that midwifed the current democratic dispensation and enacted what is now known as the 1999 Constitution, expunged these two recommendations from what eventually became the body of legislation to govern our fledgling democracy.

As for me and my party this phase of our work is done. However, I am not going away. For as long as I breathe I will continue to struggle, with other Nigerians, to deepen our democracy and rule of law and for the kind of political and economic restructuring the country needs to reach its true potential. That struggle should now be led by the younger generation of Nigerians who have even more at stake than my generation.

So, let me make a few proposals that I believe will help. We can urgently make constitutional amendments that will prevent any court or tribunal from hiding behind technicalities and legal sophistry to affirm electoral heists and undermine the will of the people. Our democracy must mean something; it must be substantive. Above all, it must be expressed through free, fair and transparent elections that respect the will of the people.

Firstly, we must make electronic voting and collation of results mandatory. This is the 21st century and countries less advanced than Nigeria are doing so already. It is only bold initiatives that transform societies.
Secondly, we must provide that all litigation arising from a disputed election must be concluded before the inauguration of a winner. This was the case in 1979. The current time frame between elections and inauguration of winners is inadequate to dispense with election litigations.

What we have currently is akin to asking thieves to keep their loot and use the same to defend themselves while the case of their robbery is being decided. It only encourages mandate banditry rather than discourages it.

Thirdly, in order to ensure popular mandate and real representation, we must move to require a candidate for President to earn 50% +1 of the valid votes cast, failing which a run-off between the top two candidates will be held. Most countries that elect their presidents use this Two-Round System (with slight variations) rather than our current First-Past-the-Post system.
Examples include France, Finland, Austria, Bulgaria, Portugal, Poland, Turkey and Russia, Argentina, Brazil, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Namibia, Mozambique, Madagascar and even Liberia where a run-off is expected to hold in the coming days.

Fourthly, in order to reduce the desperation of incumbents and distractions from governing and also to promote equity and national unity, we need to move to a single six-year term for President to be rotated among the six geo-political zones. This will prevent the ganging up of two or more geo-political zones to alternate the presidency among themselves to the exclusion of other zones.

@inecnigeria

should be mandated to verify the credentials submitted to it by candidates and their parties and where it is unable to do so – perhaps because the institutions involved did not respond in time – it must publicly state so and have it on record.

A situation where a candidate submits contradictory credentials to INEC in different election cycles and the electoral umpire accepts them without question points to gross negligence, at best, or collusion to break the law by the leadership of the INEC, at worst. The submission of contradictory qualifying documents by a candidate as well as those found to be forged or falsified should disqualify a candidate even if the falsification or forgery is discovered after the person had been sworn into office.

The burden of proving that a document submitted to INEC is forged should not be on the opposing candidates in the election. It is never the responsibility of an applicant for a job to prove that the person who eventually got the job did so with forged documents.

In addition to these proposed constitutional amendments, the Electoral Act should be amended to provide that, except where they explicitly violate the Constitution and other laws, the rules and procedures laid down by the electoral umpire and made public for the benefit of the contestants and the voters will be treated as sacrosanct by the courts in deciding on election disputes.

A referee cannot be allowed to set the rules for the game only to change or ignore them when one side has scored a goal or is about to win the match. We must restore confidence in our electoral system which the current leadership of INEC has completely eroded and undermined. Also, we need well-thought out provisions in the legislation and regulations to reform the judiciary, including the introduction of an automated case assignment system; transparency in the appointment of judges; a practice directory that stresses that the goal of judges in election cases should be to discover and affirm voters’ choice rather than disregarding voters’ choice for the sake of technicalities.

There should also be publicly available annual evaluation of the performance of judges using agreed criteria. By improving the transparency of the electoral process and reducing the incentives to cheat, in addition to transparency in the appointment of judges and other judicial reforms, the number of election petitions as well as corruption in the judiciary will be significantly reduced. More importantly, we would have succeeded in taking away the right to elect leaders from the courts and return it to the voters to whom it truly belongs.

Gentlemen of the Press, I thank you profoundly for listening. May God bless you, and may God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Being text of a World Press Conference on the Presidential Election Petition Judgement by Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Waziri Adamawa, former Vice President of Nigeria (1999-2007) and Presidential Candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 Election, at the PDP Headquarters in Abuja on Monday, 30th October, 2023.

I organise this event as a major landmark in our push for the making of a new Osun State. Our administration is using this gathering to prove to the world that a new Osun is possible. The main purpose is therefore to unveil a Multi-Billion Infrastructure plan to address the huge deficit the state is experiencing.

Sound infrastructure is a condition for economic growth and development. The difference between a growing economy and a dormant one has to do with how developed the state infrastructure is. In the case of Osun, I have used the last 11 months to address the over 90 percent infrastructure deficit our administration inherited. But more still needs to be done, hence the ambitious plan to launch this infra plan that covers roads, health, water , schools among others.

Osun as the cradle of Yoruba nation must move quickly on the ladder of development. We can and must surpass those presently leading among comity of states. We should carry first in new age sectors like digital economy, sound infrastructures and others. We must overcome our inherited burden and chart a path of 21st century growth for our people.

By today's event, our administration is building the confidence of the investing public. Osun state is ready and open for business. By investing so much in infrastructure upgrades, we are laying the foundation for effective public private partnership. We are getting set to key into infra financing opportunities as long as it will not add to the financial burden of the state.

Let me declare here that the infra plan I am about to unveil is purely state sponsored without any loan from financial institutions. I must also add that we are hitting the ground running immediately after this launch. We are complying with all procurement laws and due process.

Very importantly, our administration is ensuring localisation in the implementation process. Local content in terms of sourcing of materials and workforce are key to transfer skills and economically empower our people. This is in line with the five point agenda of our administration which seeks to boost the local economy. High local content is married with a strong maintenance plan to ensure the sustainability of the infrastructure.

With the flagoff of today’s infrastructure development, we are poised to further boost the State Economy as 95% of the Projects shall be executed by local content. Osun Money will be spent in Osun. We are determined to eliminate capital flight as witnessed in the past.

Before unveiling the infra plan, I invite you to watch what we have done in some critical sectors in the last 11 months.

We could show you more but for time constraints. You saw the schools before and after. You saw the medical outreach and how several thousands benefitted. Of course, the roads were captured. You saw the boreholes and how they are serving our people. After showing you a glimpse of what we have done within the infrastructure sector in the last 11 months, it is my honour to unveil new projects and infrastructure for the state.

1. Rehabilitation of 345 Health Centers in the 332 Wards in Osun State: Rehabilitation will include, Provision of Potable water, new toilets, and bathrooms, Beds, Mattresses, Bedsheets, renovation and painting of buildings, new curtains, and Solar panels/Inverters for 24 hours electricity etc. Our approach is to take medical services to the doorstep of our people wherever they may be.

2. Phase two of Portable Water Provision in 332 wards of Osun State. Which includes, Overhead Tanks, dispensing taps, generators, or solar panels. Under Phase One as you have seen, 332 water projects were completed. They are all functioning. Under the new plan, another set of underserved areas across the 332 political wards will be served with water projects.

3. Phase two of rehabilitation of 31 schools in the 30 mother local governments of Osun and Area Council. This includes portable water, new roofs, new toilets, renovation and painting of buildings, and Provision of desks and chairs. As you have seen in phase one of the school rehabilitation, our approach is to take a school and completely rehabilitate the buildings completely with desks and other learning facilities.

4. As a follow up to the completed rehabilitation of selected schools, the government has commenced the process of recruiting new teachers to address teachers' shortage in our schools. Currently, a need assessment is ongoing to determine the teachers' requirements across subjects and schools. This will help to determine the number of teachers to recruit.

5. Construction/ Rehabilitation of 45 roads of at least one kilometer in each of the 30 mother local governments, making a total of 45 Kilometers. As you saw in the preview, we have earlier completed about 45 kilometers of roads across the LGAS. These new roads are fresh projects for phase two.

6. Dualisation of Roads: In a bid to ease traffic jams and reduce road accidents, we are dualising some roads in some major towns to start with. The listed towns include Osogbo, Ede and Ilesha.

7. Construction of five Flyovers to ease traffic accidents and traffic jams. The identified projects are as follows:

● Osogbo - two namely Okefia and Lameco junction
● Ikirun- One
● Ife- one, Mayfair
● Owode Ede- One

8. Street Lightning: We are to install street lights in all major towns, especially Osogbo as the State Capital. This is important to enhance security surveillance and boost the night economy.

9. Imole Medical Outreach

Two medical outreaches were conducted in two locations in each of the three Senatorial districts in the last ten months. Various surgical procedures, including cataract eye surgeries, were done during the outreaches. The outreaches will be conducted once per quarter in the years ahead

Ladies and Gentlemen and my good people of Osun, all these projects shall be completed within 12 months by the grace of God.

It is therefore my honour and privilege to flag off the multi- Billion Naira Infrastructure Development of Osun. I implore the good people of the State to cooperate with the Contractors that will be handling these projects with the best of hospitality.

For further technical details on these infra plans, I will now call on team lead for each of the sectors to speak on costing and other requisite details

● Senator Ademola Adeleke,
Executive Governor of Osun State delivered his speech at the unveiling of the multi billion naira Osun State Infrastructure plan.

The frank, candid and compelling valedictory statement made by retiring justice of the Supreme Court, Hon. Justice Musa Dattijo Muhammad, last Friday highlights once again the importance of open and honest conversations in the development of the society and promotion of good governance. Justice Dattijo was bold, direct and convincing in talking about corruption and nepotism in the judiciary, the depletion of the membership of the apex court and its impact on justice and equity and abuse of the Office of the Chief Justice of Nigeria.

He accused the CJN of abuse of office and dictatorial practices and noted that with his retirement, the Supreme Court has been depleted to only 10 members from the maximum number of 21 in 2020. The South East and North Central are now unrepresented at the Court. Dattijo said the CJN is too powerful as he is saddled with too many responsibilities and so he is prone to be corrupt. Said Justice Dattijo

‘’As presently structured, the CJN is Chairman of the National Judicial Council (NJC) which oversees both the appointment and discipline of judges. He is equally Chair of the Federal Judicial Service Commission (FJSC), the National Judicial Institute (NJI), the Legal Practitioners Privileges Committee (LPPC) that appoints Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

‘’In my considered opinion, the oversight functions of these bodies should not rest on an individual alone. A person with absolute powers, it is said, corrupts easily and absolutely. As Chair of NJC, FJSC, NJI and LPPC, appointments as council, board and committee members are at his pleasure. He neither confers with fellow justices nor seeks their counsel or input on any matter related to these bodies. He has both the final and the only say. The CJN has power to appoint 80 percent of members of the council and 60 per cent of members of FJSC. The same applies to NJI and LPPC. Such enormous powers are effortlessly abused. This needs to change. Continued denial of the existence of this threatening anomaly weakens effective judicial oversight in the country’’.

Justice Dattijo said that although he was the Deputy Chairman of NJC by virtue of being the second longest serving justice of the court, he was never consulted by the CJN in any of his decisions. Justice Dattijo said the depletion of the Supreme Court is not only a breach of the Constitution, but a problem to the remaining 10 members.

‘’We are in an election season where the Election Tribunals and appellate courts are inundated with all manner of petitions and appeals. The Supreme Court is the final court in the Presidential, Governorship and National Assembly election appeals. Yet, there are only 10 justices left to determine these matters. Constitutionally, each of these appeals requires a panel of seven justices to sit on them. When a panel of seven justices is constituted to sit on a particular appeal, only three justices are left out. Even when regular appeals are being heard in the Supreme Court, a panel of five justices is required to sit’’, he said. He affirmed that the non-representation of all the zones at the Supreme Court is antithesis to justice and transparency.

Justice Dattijo also raised the issues of corruption in the judiciary which manifests in different dimensions, one of which is nepotism. The practice of justices and judges swearing in their children and relatives as judges and magistrates is one of the dark spots in our judiciary. Another dimension of corruption which the learned jurist mentioned is that the increasing budgetary allocations to the NJC have not been transparently spent for the benefit of the judiciary. He also talked about the shameful judgements in the court, mention in particular the Senator Ahmed Lawan and Hope Uzodinma cases.

In the audience as Justice Dattijo spoke were the former Head of State, Gen. Abdulsalami Abubarkar under whose regime he was appointed to the Court of Appeal. Abubarkar’s wife, Lami ( aretired judge), the Chief Justices of the Federation, Hon. Justice Ariwoola and other justices and important dignitaries were also present. I do not know how the CJN received Hon. Dattijo’s remarks, but it is obvious that the weight of responsibility on him is heavy. I call on the CJN to discard further lamentations on the weaknesses of the court and set off the processes for reforms and appointments of more justices in the court.

I must commend Justice Dattijo for his frank and honest speech which has in the last few days given the nation something to talk about. Mr. Olisa Agbokoba described the speech as the frankest valedictory he has heard in his over 40 years at the bar. Honest and frank conversations promote development, democracy and authenticity by encouraging individuals to be their true selves. When leaders engage in open and honest dialogue, it sets the tone for citizens and team members to feel comfortable sharing their perspectives, experiences and challenges. Honest and candid conversations help us to deal with our hopes, fears, insecurities, dreams, strengths and weaknesses. But it takes a lot of courage to speak truth to power, and a lot more courage for the power to take the messages to heart without being offended.

In recent months a few other former public officials like Laolu Akande who served in the Buhari Presidency as a media adviser have been speaking out on many issues of national importance. His colleague, Femi Adeshina, is currently writing a book on the Buhari administration. Soon after the former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele was arrested, Akande spoke publicly about the ills of the dual exchange rates operated by Emefiele’s CBN, pointing out that the former Vice President had consistently raised this matter with President Buhari. It is bewildering that Buhari did not heed to the wise counsels to stop Emefiele. I hope Adeshina’s book will touch on this.

We need more of these frank and honest talks from former and current public officials to help in building our country and deepening its democracy. With their wealth of experience, a retired permanent secretary, former minister or governor is in a good position to shape public policy, influence national dialogue and mould opinions. I acknowledge, however, as former Transportation Minister, Rotimi Amaechi recently pointed out, that the lack of commensurate progress in the country could be a disincentive for robust discussions. This is quite true for some of us who engage in regular punditry. But I would rather have a country of average citizens who routinely engage in lively discussions than one filled with dumb rich people.

There is a deafening silence in the land over the state of the economy. No right-thinking person can take this silence or mood of the nation for granted. This eery silence is invariably linked to a cost-of-living crisis, exchange rate crisis, uncanny economic uncertainties and other unfavourable economic variables hovering over Nigeria like an ominous overcast and has turned the table against the average Nigerian citizen. Today’s economic realities are the byproduct of many decades of squandered opportunities and mismanagement. We are at the point where we have no choice but to get things right and bring about positive change in the renewed hope agenda of the current administration. One tool to give people hope and economic direction is the national budget, and the 2024 version of this essential national document is ripe to be laid before the National Assembly (NASS) and for NASS to do justice to it according to law and the current challenges facing the nation. This ‘budget of Renewed Hope” must depart from the norm if we are earnest about getting things right in Nigeria. However, the systems and structures that made our budgets ineffectual are still there and may succeed in pushing this new budget towards the path that destroys the essence and soul of the budget.

In ordinary times, the national budget should reflect our values, priorities, pursuit of economic stability and broad growth anchors. This is even more important in a crisis period. In the recent past, this has not been our experience. National budgets have served purposes other than the one it is meant for – starting from unrealistic budget formulation, budget padding, duplication of projects, allocation of projects to agencies outside its mandate, the deliberate creation of multiple pipelines for corruption purposes, and underspending to unsatisfactory budget implementation. But these are no ordinary times. The budget must reflect the mood of the nation. People are hurting from devastating economic hardship, and the 2024 budget must be the first blueprint and anchor of hope for millions of Nigerians looking for solutions to their many problems. My ordinary expectation is that the Executive arm would put up a budget that focuses on sectors of urgent national concern;social welfare, education, health, transportation, power, agriculture, and internal security. The budget will show the direction of this government in the next year, and the president will expect NASS to keep to the spirit and letter of the budget and not deviate from it to help him champion his renewed hope agenda.

Analysing the Nigerian budget over the last decade provides insight into the country’s economic trends, government priorities, and overall fiscal management. A critical review of these budgets highlights some of the negatives that have led us to our economic quagmire, and we must keep such negatives from creeping into and affecting the 2024 budget if we want it to be fit for purpose. The Nigerian budget is often influenced by factors such as oil prices, internal security challenges, infrastructure development, and social welfare programmes. However, as dynamic as the Nigerian circumstances are and the complexities that define our economic realities, our bane comes more from structural decays and ineptitude than from the content, spirit and intentions behind the budget or the known trends that inevitably affect them. Some of these known trends are outlined below.

First, Nigeria heavily relies on oil revenue, which has led to budget volatility due to fluctuations in global oil prices. During high oil prices, the budget tends to increase, leading to ambitious spending plans. However, during oil price slumps, the government often faces significant revenue shortfalls and struggles implementing planned projects. Second, Nigeria ran a deficit budget for over a decade. Nigeria’s debt profile has risen in the last decade as the government has resorted to borrowing to bridge revenue shortfalls and finance infrastructure projects. The increasing debt burden has raised concerns about the country’s debt sustainability, particularly in servicing these debts. Third, Nigerian budgets pander towards recurrent expenditure rather than capital expenditure and infrastructural development. Besides, these insufficient capital and infrastructural projects have been fraught with challenges such as corruption, inadequate project planning, and implementation delays that have hindered the successful execution of these projects. Fourth, most budgets during Buhari’s eight-year tenure have a significant slant towards social welfare, focusing on poverty alleviation, job creation, and social empowerment but the impact and effectiveness of these initiatives have been a subject of debate and scrutiny. Fifth, past budgets showed increased efforts to diversify the Nigerian economy away from oil dependence, focusing on sectors such as agriculture, manufacturing, and technology with minimal result to show for it. 

Overall, the Nigerian budget in the last decade reflects a mix of challenges and opportunities, highlighting the need for improved fiscal management, transparency, and sustainable economic reforms to foster inclusive growth and development. However, the most significant difficulty with our budgets is the corruption around the budget both at the formulation and implementation stages. ICPC alleged that civil servants padded 2021 and 2022 budgets with projects duplication worth over N400billion. BudgIT, a non-governmental civic organisation, also alleged that there were insertions of  6,576  “strange”projects by federal lawmakers in the 2022 budget, which bloated the budgets of different federal ministries, contributing further to a breach of the budget ceiling safeguards announced by the Budget Office of the Federation on August 19, 2021. On poor implementation of budget due to inadequate budget formulation, data collated by BudgIT has shown that only 13 out of the 36 states in Nigeria implemented 80 per cent of their budgets for the 2022 fiscal year. And the federal government has never attained 60% implementation in recent times. Most of the underspending is on Capital expenditure. Besides, for ten years, from 2012 to 2022, we have consistently earned less revenue than we budgeted, meaning we always chose the option of debt financing. The same applies to budget performance, we have always spent less than budgeted. Unrealistic budgeting has created credibility problem for Nigeria’s budget. This is even worse by the over-bloated prices for projects that bring little relief to the people.

Invariably, four constituencies have lofty expectations from this 2024 budget. The citizens of Nigeria, especially the majority going through rough economic times, expect this budget to be a turning point for them. To them, it is a budget of hope – a renewed hope for a better future and a better Nigeria that Mr president promised them during his campaign. However, the citizens must show a keen interest in the budget-making process. Citizen participation in the budget-making process leads to a responsive budget allocation by the National Assembly, enhances good governance, and improves the delivery of public services. The international community is waiting for the budget to see whether we are serious about shifting direction and doing things differently. They will have to judge whether it is business as usual or whether Nigeria has taken a stand to match rhetoric with actions in its bid to become an economic giant. Students of history and economics are waiting to see if this budget will be the start of a new epoch that will mark on the sands of time indelibly that this set  of leaders will transform Nigeria forever. The last constituency is the National Assembly, and it behoves them to perform their oversight functions properly during the budget implementation phase and leave up to their mandate. 

Over the past decade, there have been concerns about the actual disbursement and effective utilisation of budgeted funds, leading to challenges in achieving developmental goals and meeting the population’s needs. Ensuring effective budget implementation and accountability has been a persistent challenge in Nigeria. Corruption, mismanagement of funds, and weak institutional frameworks have hampered the efficient utilisation of budgetary allocations, undermining the country’s development efforts. The Nigerian Executive and NASS have a responsibility to get things right with the new budget. If not, we are on a long road to perdition.

Nigerians have expectations of the Executive and NASS regarding the 2024 budget formulation, ratification, implementation, and accountability. We expect a workable and realistic budget. We expect a cut down on the cost of governance. We expect less deficit, reduced or elimination of waste, and reduced debt profile. They must eschew all forms of budget padding, intentional duplication of projects, and deliberate creation of multiple pipelines for corruption purposes. The 2024 budget must lay the foundation for the economic growth of Nigeria by at least starting the process of diversifying the economy, addressing unemployment, and tackling poverty. We expect patriotism to drive the budget formulation process to the advantage of Nigeria and Nigerians and not the benefit of a few. We are in an economic ocean; we must either swim or sink. And swim we must!

Governor Alex Otti of Abia State on Sunday said that his administration initiated measures to cut down the cost of governance to the barest minimum and save money.

Otti made this known at his monthly media interactive session held at the Government House, Umuahia.

According to the governor, the money saved from frivolous spending by past administrations had made it possible for his government to pay salaries and pensions and also mobilise contractors to site for the ongoing major developmental projects.

“We have been able to save money from FAAC by stopping frivolous expenses such as paying a certain amount of money to ‘stakeholders’.

“In the new Abia, if you want to get money, then you have to work and earn money,” Otti said.

Otti said that the present administration was focused on financial reengineering to ensure that the resources of the state were properly handled by professionals for best results.

The governor assured the people of the state that their money is in safe hands.

[DailyPost]

President Bola Tinubu has condoled with the government and people of Kogi State on the passing of the revered traditional ruler, His Majesty, Dr. Ado Ibrahim, the Ohinoyi of Ebiraland.

The President said the death of the Ohinoyi is a painful loss, describing the late monarch as peace-loving, affable, and cerebral.

"The Ohinoyi of Ebiraland was in a class of his own. He was highly respected and admired for his deep insights, wisdom, and sophistication. He had a masterful way of handling issues. He was very knowledgeable and wise.

"May Almighty Allah grant His Majesty Aljannah Firdaus," the President prayed.

President Tinubu asked the good people of Kogi State to take solace in the legacy of peace and fellowship left behind by the late monarch.

Chief Ajuri Ngelale

Special Adviser to the President

(Media and Publicity)

October 29, 2023

Ekiti State Governor, Mr Biodun Oyebanji, has approved the disbursement of N136.26m as a car loan to 368 civil servants in the state.

The Commissioner for Finance, Mr Akin Oyebode, said amounts ranging from N80,000 to N1.5 million would be disbursed to the beneficiaries of the loan scheme depending on their grade levels.

Oyebode said that the governor also approved the injection of N200m to recapitalise the loan scheme.

The commissioner, in a statement in Ado Ekiti, on Sunday, reiterated the commitment of the Oyebanji administration to workers’ welfare.

He said, “The governor, in addition, approved payment of N174.39m outstanding deductions from salaries to cooperative societies, Federal Mortgage Bank and others.”

Highlighting details of the disbursement of the car loan, Oyebode said, “Twenty-two benefiting officers on grade levels 02-06 would get N80,000 each while 180 beneficiaries on Grade Levels 07-10 would receive N250,000 each.

“One hundred and fifty workers on Grade Levels 12-14 would be given N500,000 each; 13 personnel on Grade Levels 15-17 would get N750,000 each and the three beneficiaries on consolidated salary would take home N1.5m each.”

While noting that the government in December 2022 disbursed N130.7m car loans, the commissioner said the Oyebanji administration would continue to prioritise workers’ welfare.

Senator Ali Ndume has called on President Bola Tinubu to sign an executive order on unexplained wealth.

Ndume, who is the lawmaker representing Borno South under the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), made the remark in the wake of a comment by retired Supreme Court Justice Musa Muhammad Dattijo over the level of corruption in the country’s judiciary.

While saying there are laws in the UK and other parts of the world to tackle such issues, the lawmaker said he attempted to introduce some bills in that regard.

“I have tried several times but you know, there were excuses here and there,” he said on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics. “I think the best way to get this across is when the bill comes from the executive or in the interim, the current president should sign an executive bill on unexplained wealth.”

According to Ndume, the level of unexplained wealth in the country especially among politicians and civil servants requires some laws to combat.

“I know of civil servants that live in houses that not only their income, their salaries, or their life pension – assuming they would live in this world for 90 years or 100 years – cannot buy.” Senator Ndume added.

“The same thing with some of our politicians especially the politically exposed persons like ministers, you find as you rightly said, some of them come to the National Assembly, and suddenly [there is so much money].”

Reiterating that politicians are public servants, he called on the public to hold them accountable.

“Well, I will partially accept what you said,” Ndume said when asked if the lawmakers have failed to pass bills to curb the trend of unexplained wealth in the country.

“The public are those that are supposed to put us on our toes to represent them and account for our actions,” the senator added.