In the last one-week since President Bola Tinubu clocked 100 days in office, commentators and analysts, political observers and politicians have busied themselves, dissecting the President’s performance in office, particularly his major decisions and policy options. Many have also commented on the achievements recorded and the areas that require improvements. 

The newspapers and electronic media have been awash with many lauding the giant strides recorded within just three months and a few days in office. Some top politicians like former Zamfara State governor, Senator Abdulaziz Yari representing Zamfara West, and the Minister of Interior, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, for instance, bought the front pages of some newspapers to celebrate the President, his exemplary leadership and well-thought out economic policies in just 100 days. Some others, particularly the opposition, behaving like sore losers that they are, however, refuse to acknowledge the gains achieved, even amid the prevailing challenges.

Assessing a President’s performance in 100 days in office seemed to have become the norm from the days of 32nd US President Franklin D. Roosevelt who in his inaugural address on March 4, 1933 indicated he wanted to move with unprecedented speed to address the problems facing the United States of America, yet it was acknowledged even at the time that to judge an incoming President on the accomplishments of his first 100 days in office is to hold him to an impossible standard. 100 days in the life of a nation may appear like a drop in an ocean. Yet a lot was achieved within that space of time under the Tinubu presidency such that it would be very appropriate to talk about them.

The achievements recorded, which included resetting the economy by removing the ruinous fuel subsidy, thus freeing for development activities money that would otherwise have illegally gone into a few pockets, unifying the many exchange rates that paved the grounds for arbitrage, the humongous amount now being raked in ensuring that the Federal Government and the sub-nationals now have more money to share from the Federation Accounts, the compensatory palliatives now coming from the states as a result of the increased allocation, the gradual return of Nigeria’s preeminent status on the international stage, and many more, are worth talking about and repeating.

For instance, unwittingly drawing attention to the huge amounts states now receive from the Federation Accounts, the Nigerian Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative, in a 2nd quarter 2023 Federation Account Statutory Revenue Allocations Report, disclosed that the 36 states of the federation received about N1.51 trillion or 34.5% of the total N4.37 trillion shared by the three tiers of the government between January and June 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, the report showed that when compared with the corresponding period in 2022, allocations to the State Governments from the Federation Account in 2023 grew by about 11.2% to N1.42 trillion from N1.26 trillion,” the report said. Not a few economic watchers would know the bulk of that money came in June 2023 alone when around N1trillion was distributed.

This intervention is not really about these accomplishments, which are very remarkable by all standards within just 100 days. It’s about President Tinubu’s acts of leadership. The untold stories of courage, the boldness and audacity he has brought into governance, the ability to accept mistakes and make correction, the empathy he has demonstrated, how he engaged youths in government, the vision behind it and the way and manner he carried it about. Stories abound about all of these, which are either not properly highlighted or remain largely unreported. The true test of a leader’s capabilities emerges when his actions and utterances are gauged in those moments he lets down his guards, oblivious that he is being watched. These are the stories told in this article.

The first is about the empathy President Tinubu has brought into governance. The President lived in his Asokoro, Abuja residence for around two months or so, while the Presidential Villa accommodation was being readied, before he eventually moved in. Sensing that the main residence at the Villa was going to take much longer to be fully repaired, he caused the 3-bedroom apartment, popularly called The Glass House, which will take a shorter time to be put in good shape for use, to be worked on. However, in the meantime, before that Glass House got ready, and uncomfortable that he was causing the people around his Asokoro house some discomfort by his daily movement to and fro the Presidential Villa, he instructed his staff to print a letter of apology, circulated in and around Asokoro, appealing to the people for understanding and urging them give him a little time to sort out himself. That was awesome and humbling in my view.

Secondly, while not dwelling so much here about his boldness in removing the twin subsidies- the one on fuel and foreign exchange- even as he acknowledged that there would be some accompanying difficulties, you would recall that the President at every turn kept urging Nigerians to be patient and to know that the pains would be temporary. He even made a broadcast to the nation on this. Appealing for patience and understanding, he had said in the broadcast:

“I understand the hardship you face. I wish there were other ways. But there is not. If there were, I would have taken that route as I came here to help not hurt the people and nation that I love.”

He would say the present pains could be likened to birth pangs and that the moment the baby is born, the pains disappear and that the ultimate joy of a woman is in seeing her baby.

Thirdly, in 100 days, President Tinubu demonstrated his ability to accept mistakes and make corrections, which is rare among many leaders. The President, on further reflection, dropped a ministerial nominee he felt was not up to the billing to be the minister representing conservative Kano. He also reshuffled and readjusted the portfolios of some ministers even before they took office, accepting some mistakes were made and correcting the errors. He effected changes in the composition of the Board of the Niger Delta Development Commission with respect to the nominations of Ondo and Cross River States representatives. In my view, it is an act of good leadership and courage to accept mistakes and to correct them.

Fourthly, appointing young persons like 37-year-old renowned surgeon and former Cross River State Commissioner for Health, Dr. Betta Edu, former House of Representatives member, Hon. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, and tech expert, Mr. Bosun Tijani as ministers is commendable. President Tinubu, however, upped the ante when he went ahead to pick 32-year-old entrepreneur and another tech-expert, Khalil Halilu, as Executive Vice Chairman/CEO of National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI). As he assumed office, Halilu pledged to use STI to drive the President’s socio-economic priority areas.

But the real story here is about the Minister of Communications, Innovation and Digital Economy Bosun Tijani. Visiting the Presidential Villa to thank President Tinubu for his appointment three weeks ago or so, just before the inauguration of Ministers, he met the Chief of Staff, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, Minister of Solid Minerals Development, Mr. Dele Alake, this writer, and one or two others in the President’s Office that fateful day. And then one of us in that office mentioned something about how Tijani in the heat of exasperation with the country excoriated his fatherland and upbraided the governing APC. President Tinubu promptly shut the person up, saying what Bosun did in the heat of anger was understandable and should be forgotten, adding that he too had at one point during the dark days of the military frustratingly condemned the country. That was a forgiving and fatherly leader on display in that statement. Any need to tell more stories that President Tinubu, like many people had remarked, is indeed an appropriate man for the present time given his leadership experience, temperament, unique skills, competence, international exposure and extensive contacts which are required to take Nigeria to the next level.

It's been four months since President Bola Ahmed Tinubu took office; in that interval, he has spoken and acted on a variety of issues. He has removed fuel subsidy and has brutally devalued the Naira, both policies with dire consequences for all and sundry. He has fired; he has also hired. He has made his first trip overseas as president and both the United Nations and the United States’ president are eagerly waiting to receive him. But we are yet to hear from him on the unsettled business of ASUU. If Tinubu or anyone else thinks the Muhammadu Buhari administration effectively settled the ASUU matter before leaving office, such a person only deceives himself. What Buhari did was to leave a smouldering fire on his rooftop while he fiddled like Rome's King Nero.

Tinubu is expected to handle the ASUU issue, like he is doing with so many other issues that Buhari left unresolved. Three months is enough time for him to have done something – or at least said something - on ASUU. But he is yet to! Maybe he is leaving the matter for his ministers in charge of education to handle. Now that those ones have taken office, let them speak quickly on ASUU. As another academic session knocks on the door, we have started to hear rumblings of another ASUU strike action if nothing is done speedily.

The university system cannot afford another ASUU strike; not so soon after the last one that dragged on for eight months. No one has yet fully recovered from its debilitating effects – not parents, not students, not the lecturers themselves and not the university system as a whole. With the time bomb of increase in school fees also loading on another level, we must not allow thunder to aid bombs on this matter. Time to act is now. So, today, I have decided to revisit the matter by reprinting excerpts of my “Tinubu: Time to listen to ASUU” published on Wednesday, 12 July, 2023: It reads:

"Readers of my columns – ON THE LORD’S DAY in the SUNDAY Tribune and TREASURES in the New Telegraph newspaper on Wednesdays and also online – will recall that I was strident in my criticism of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) in their recent eight-month strike not because the strike action was not justified but because of what I considered as their hare-brained approach to a very important issue that could make or mar not just ASUU and their students but the university system itself and the country’s entire education system. Up against a deaf-and-dumb, he-that-is-down-needs-fear-no-fall, inept, corrupt, clueless, and insensitive Muhammadu Buhari administration, I had felt ASUU and its leaders ought to have been more imaginative, creative and circumspect in the way they handled a King Nero like Buhari.

Just like Nero fiddled while Rome burned, Buhari picked his teeth while Nigeria skidded towards the edge of the precipice. Buhari was the typical proverbial I-don't-care who has nothing doing and nowhere going but will not allow those who will to do so. You need brain and not brawn to handle such a fellow; unfortunately, ASUU demonstrated little of that. ASUU’s good cause, thus, was reduced to bragging rights between them and Buhari; the one who carries a pot of oil on his head foolishly began to contest the right of way with another who carries a pot of sand. I am sure you know the end result!

If ASUU got anything out of that strike, I am certain its loss dwarfed it. To start with, ASUU went into battle with a divided house, having been polarised or fractionalised into ASUU, CONUA (Congress of Nigerian University Academics) and NAMDA (National Association of Medical and Dental Academics). All three factions/fractions profess to be “academics” but how “academic” are academics who could not understand the age-old truism that “United we stand; divided we fall”? When they chant the “Aluta” anthem of “Solidarity forever”, does it not now ring hollow in their heart? Dogs don't eat dogs is what I hear them say but our academics’ birds eat one another’s intestines and injury to one is no longer injury to all!

That was the pitiable state in which the egg-heads went to war with a two-star Army general and two-time Head of State and Commander-in-Chief. Any surprise that Buhari made a mince-meat of them? But for the then Speaker of the House of Representatives now Chief of Staff to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Mr. Femi Gbajabiamila, whose intervention, though largely a deceit, gave ASUU leaders a face-saving exit, only God knows how the battle of two unequally matched foes would have ended.

What was lost to that strike was monumental. The time lost on all sides can never be regained; the neck-breaking speed with which ASUU members have rushed their students ostensibly to regain lost ground can only result in producing half-baked graduates. Parents lost money. Many developed high blood pressure and even died. Students died due to road carnage on the way home and or back to school. Lecturers who were denied their salaries for months on end suffered irreparable damage to their health and or economic well-being. Campuses were littered with obituaries. Many sold properties to keep body and soul together in the hope that they would recover lost ground when salary arrears are eventually paid but that, for many, is yet to materialise. Car owners now have to make do with foot-wagons.

The economy of host communities that relies heavily on student patronage took a beating. Unable to pay back loans and harassed by shylock creditors, some committed suicide. ASUU and its members lost face. The Nigerian university system was exposed to opprobrium before the international community. What university system is this that can keep its doors shut for eight uninterrupted months, and what kind of lecturers and researchers can be off work for such a long period? Serious university systems elsewhere must have marvelled at the kind of university system we run here! But is that not why we are Nigerians, noted for notoriety – and, interestingly, flashes of ingenuity - everywhere!

May affliction not rise a second time! But to be forewarned is to be forearmed! We must, from a very safe distance, take heed of that menacingly protruding branch of a tree if we will avoid it piercing us in the eye. In the last few weeks ASUU has had cause to complain twice about policies that, ordinarily, should enjoy their blessing, meaning that their head must have been shaved behind their back. That is a sure recipe for disaster; if not now, then, certainly in the near future.

The first is the Student Loan (Access to Higher Education) Bill, which President Tinubu signed into law. Criticisms have trailed the Law, one of which is that it is a scantily-concealed commercialisation of education, the type that led to the Ali Must Go student crisis of 1978 during the Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo military junta. With the proviso that only those whose parents earn less than N500,000 per annum can assess the loan, even a minimum wage earner (N30,000 per month/N360,000 per annum) will not qualify once Tinubu honours his promise to review salaries to cushion the deleterious effects of fuel subsidy removal. And if, as envisaged, the loan is a precursor to institutions of higher learning’s liberty to freely fix school fees, then, ASUU will be right that we are about to witness the pricing of education beyond the reach of the poor.

To make matters worse is the fact that the loan covers only tuition! What of accommodation, where university hostels are grossly inadequate and the majority of students live off-campus at the mercy of shylock landlords? What of feeding where subsidized university cafeterias have been abolished and cost of living have shot right through the roof? This is not to talk of the cost of books and other learning aids! Then, if we must ask, the private university students excluded from this loan: are they not Nigerians and will the Nigerian system not benefit from the knowledge and skill they are studying to acquire? Or is it the assumption that anyone with a child in a private university is capable? Many go there because there is a lack of carrying capacity in federal and state universities.

Besides, the government will have to amend the relevant sections of the 1999 Constitution before tuition fees can be charged in federal institutions of higher learning. The student loan law is, therefore, good intention but work in progress, to put it mildly... Interestingly, apart from the Student Loan Act, which we can say is addressed at youths for the obvious reason of the #ENDSARSNOW back-lash, Tinubu is yet to make any profound statement or announce any policy targeted directly at the education sector. Maybe he is still consulting!”

Let the president act now rather than wait to begin to fight another ASUU fire soon!

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Programme: CITY TALKS WITH REUBEN ABATI

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Topic: "Artistes, Stardom Challenges and Mental Well-Being"

Date: 16th September, 2023
                         
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I finally got a chance to read the verdict of the Presidential Elections Petitions Tribunal. Being completely emotionally uninvested in the outcome of the last presidential election (because on the issues that really matter— such as subsidies for the poor—Bola Tinubu, Atiku Abubakar, and Peter Obi are indistinguishable), most of the tribunal’s judgment was unsurprising.

Because the conduct of elections in Nigeria are typically shambolic and inept, as with everything else in the country, I think it’s valid to question the credibility of electoral outcomes. It’s equally legitimate to suspect the independence of the judges who hand out verdicts, including the current one, more so that the first certified true copies of the judgement that circulated had a header that read “Tinubu Presidential Legal Team.”

In any case, in an August 29, 2020, column titled “Aso Rock Cabal’s Judicial Cabal on Election Petitions,” I exposed confidential information that a high court judge shared with me about the sodding moral hideousness of electoral tribunal judgements. The judge said there was a cabal of judicial bandits in Buhari’s Aso Rock who wrote election tribunal judgements.

“The actual writing of the judgments is usually done by a consortium of justices and legal practitioners,” I wrote.“This subversion of justice by a conclave is a low-risk-high-reward undertaking. Members of the judicial cabal are routinely compensated with promotion and financial reward.” So, it isn’t far-fetched to accuse judges of the PEPT of wheeler dealing.

Nonetheless, no neutral, independent-minded person would fail to see that Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi had really weak cases. If a judicial cabal wrote the PEPT judgement, Atiku and Obimade the job easy for the cabal.

The centerpiece of the electoral petitions against Tinubu’s victory was that Tinubu should be disqualified from running for the last presidential election because of a whole bunch of things they alleged against him, most of which revolved around questions of his irrefutable moral turpitude. Unfortunately, immortality isn’t always illegality.

The petitions were high on emotions,conjectures, moral posturing, grandstanding, logical absurdities (such as insisting that candidates must win 25 percent of the FCT to win a presidential election thereby making Abuja more important than every part of Nigeria, that Tinubu should be disqualified for a voluntary civil forfeiture of drug money in the US more than three decades ago, that Tinubu should be disqualified because of false and ignorant claims he didn’t graduate from Chicago State University, or for perjuries he committed more than 20 years ago, etc.) than on legally sound, substantive arguments about the election itself.

They didn’t present foolproof, unimpeachable evidentiary facts, like Atiku did in 2019, to show that their actual votes were higher than INEC gave them—and thereby higher than Tinubu’s actual votes.Wishful thinking, online bullying,tendentious accounts of events, and coarse, primitive, illiterate invective against people who have different opinions are not substitutes for substance. Neither are mass delusion and blind political cultism guarantees of electoral victory.

The evidence for electoral irregularities they presented to the tribunal were, for the most part, inept, tangential, weak, and easily disputable. Plus, they are also guilty of these irregularities in their own areas of popularity. It isn’t enough to allege; you should prove your allegations beyond all shadows of doubt, beyond merely providing libidinal raw materials for the wet dreams of your worshipful supporters.

You don’t need to be a lawyer to know that the petitions had not a snowball’s chance in hell of upending Tinubu’s victory. Only self-indulgent, illusory hope would dispose people to expect to get anything out of the petitions.

Obi’s wildly Trumpian dissimulation is the most mystifying for me. It beats me how, with a narrow electoral focus, he thought he won a “mandate” that was “stolen” and how he could somehow have been declared the winner of an election in which he finished third without first asking the tribunal to invalidate the votes of the second-place finisher.By what logic would the tribunal have declared Obi the winner without first nullifying Atiku’s votes, which Obi didn’t ask for in his petition?

In other words, the petitions weren’t as much about the vote as they were about who Tinubu was and wasn’t (most of which made more moral than legal sense) and why Tinubu should be disqualified, and a rerun ordered that would exclude Tinubu. That doesn’t strike me as a serious challenge.

The petitions are predictably heading to the Supreme Court where they will get a final legal burial. But I am glad that the appeals will help get us legal closure on two thorny issues once and for all: the electoral worth of the Federal Capital Territory and the intent of the framers of the 1999 constitution when they barred dual citizens from running for elective positions.

It’s apparent to anyone with even a basic understanding of the English language that the constitution merely regards the FCT as equivalent to a state for the purpose of determining the geographic spread of votes cast during a presidential election. It would be absurd for the constitution to confer supernumerary electoral value to the votes of the residents of the FCT by requiring that winning 25% of votes there is a precondition to be declared president.

It makes neither logical, linguistic, nor political sense to isolate a small part of a whole and arbitrarily elevate its electoral value above others. The verdict of the Supreme Court will bury this nonsense forever.

The tribunal’s ruling on the challenge to Tinubu’s alleged dual citizenship is its worst, and I hope the Supreme Court will give us clarity on it. Sometime last year, I had an impassioned dialogic exchange about dual citizenship with a newspaper editor who has a law degree. It was from him I first became aware that I had been misinformed about the issue.

Full disclosure: I am a dual citizen of Nigeria and the United States. I thought I could never run for an elective office in Nigeria, but wondered why former Senate President Ahmed Lawan, former House of Representatives Speaker Femi Gbajabiamila, former Senate President Bukola Saraki, and several others who are dual citizens held elective offices.

Well, it has turned out that there are preexisting court judgments that basically say dual citizenship is disqualifying only if Nigerian citizenship is acquired through naturalization.

In a 2004 case between Dr. Willie Ogebide and Mr. ArigbeOsula, for example,Justice Walter Onnoghen held that “… it is clear and I, hereby, hold that the acquisition of dual citizenship by a Nigerian per se is not a ground for disqualification for election… particularly where the Nigerian citizen is a citizen by birth. That is the clear meaning of the provisions in sections 66(1) and 28 of the 1999 constitution when taken together.

“The only Nigerian citizen disqualified by the said sections is one who is a citizen of Nigeria by either registration or naturalization, who subsequently acquires the citizenship of another country in addition to his Nigerian citizenship…”

Similarly, in 2022, Justice Oghohorie ruled that the dual citizenship of Cross River State deputy governor Peter Odey didn’t invalidate his eligibility to run for office because his Nigerian citizenship was acquired at birth.

However, in spite of these precedents, the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt invalidated the candidature of Rivers State APC governorship candidate Tonye Cole on account of dual citizenship. Our courts obviously have no respect for precedents, but I hope the ruling of the Supreme Court on the matter will establish once and for all whether people who were born Nigerian but acquired another citizenship later in life are disqualified from running for elective offices.

Of course, it would also be reassuring if the Supreme Court grants legal protection to the technological safeguards that INEC spent billions to acquire in order to assure voters that it would run a credible poll but whose use the tribunal said was optional and discretionary.

Founder of Peace House, Bro Gbile Akanni has sent a stern warning to the newly installed Soun of Ogbomosho, Oba Ghandi Afolabi Olaoye.

According to him, the new monarch must refrain from marrying more wives while advising him not to be materialistic in his new position.

Akanni gave the warning while preaching at the first public appearance of Oba Olaoye on Thursday, September 14.

The event which was monitored online by our reporter garnered large turnout who watched as Bro Akanni stood in front of Oba Olaoye preaching the gospel of Christ.

His words; “God has brought you here to be a blessing to the people. Here is the word of God to you. This is not the word of man. God is saying the king must not acquire wives. That is what God is saying.

“The king must not acquire silver and gold. If the blessings come, let it be for the people of the town. We pray that the people of Ogbomoso will experience something new in your time.

“Those who are hungry will be fed during your time. God who blesses us abundantly will rain his blessing on us.”

Nasir el-Rufai, ex-governor of Kaduna state, says the second term of former President Olusegun Obasanjo was the “most successful” in terms of economic growth, job creation, and inflation rate in Nigeria.

From 2003 to 2007, Obasanjo completed his second term in office, after a preceding four-year tenure.

El-Rufai said Nigeria returned to “proper integrated planning and we also got lucky” at the time.

The former governor spoke on Friday during a session at the Africa In the World conference in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

He emphasised the need for proper planning to aid the economic growth of any country.

“We have a planning commission in Nigeria but it has not been as effective,” the former governor said.

El-Rufai said planning committees are “absolutely relevant” in most developing countries.

“If you look at Nigeria’s economic trajectory, the most successful four to five-year period of economic growth, job creation, and reduced inflation was the period of the second term of President Obasanjo in 2003 to 2007, when for the first time, the country went back into proper integrated planning and we also got lucky,” he said.

“Oil prices began to rise but we did not waste the windfall because we had planned. We had an excess crude account (ECA) that was based on fiscal rule that any surpluses above a certain benchmark price of crude oil goes to that savings account.

“And with that, we were able to get rid of all our foreign debt.”

El-Rufai said Nigeria’s fiscal health was at its best in 2007, such that when the global financial crisis took place in 2008, “Nigeria did not feel anything”.

“Nothing was felt in Nigeria because Nigeria had a big savings account; we had huge reserves and we were able to absorb the shock without any internal problems unlike most countries,” he said.

To achieve accelerated economic growth, el-Rufai said long-term and coordinated planning as well as the inclusion of all stakeholders are crucial.

With a kickoff date scheduled for October 4th, the United Kingdom (UK) Home Office has announced an extraordinary increase in visit visas to the UK for less than six months for £115 (about N111,878.28) as opposed to £15 (14,592.70).

The new fees, which are subject to parliamentary approval, translate to about a 667 percent increment.

According to The PUNCH, the student visa fee has also been increased from £127 (N123,537.58) to £490 (N476,677.59), representing a 286 percent increment.

The UK government noted that the increase in visa fee would enable it to pay for ‘vital services and allow more funding to be prioritised for public sector pay rises,’’ adding that the review would take effect on October 4.

The UK government made this known in a statement, ‘New visa fees set to come into effect next month,’ published on its website, gov.uk, on Friday, following legislation being laid in parliament on Friday.

“The changes mean that the cost for a visit visa for less than six months is rising by £15 (N14,592.70) to £115 (N111,878.28 ), while the fee for applying for a student visa from outside the UK will rise by £127 (N123,537.58) to £490 (N476,677.59), to equal the amount charged for in-country applications,” the statement partly read.

The statement added, “Income from fees charged plays a vital role in the Home Office’s ability to run a sustainable immigration and nationality system. Careful consideration is given when setting fees to help reduce the funding contribution from British taxpayers, whilst continuing to provide a service that remains attractive to those wishing to work in the UK and support broader prosperity for all.”

Recall that in July, the government announced a 15 percent increase in the cost of most work and visit visas and an increase of at least 20 percent in the cost of priority visas, study visas, and certificates of sponsorship.

The new changes include fees for up to six months, two-, five- and 10-year visit visas.

The majority of fees for entry clearance and certain applications for leave to remain in the UK, including those for work and study, were also increased.

Also increased were the fees for indefinite leave to enter and indefinite leave to remain; convention travel document and stateless person’s travel document; health and care visa; fees in relation to certificates of sponsorship and confirmation of acceptance for studies; the in and out of country fee for the super-priority service and the out of country fee for the priority service.

It noted that the settlement priority service would be reduced to align with the cost of using the priority service. Applications to register and naturalize as a British citizen and the fee for the User Pays Visa Application service were also increased.

The governorship candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the forthcoming election in Kogi State, Dino Melaye, has declared that no sane resident of the state would vote for All Progressives Congress (APC) in November.

Naija News reports that the former lawmaker made the assertion while receiving the report of the PDP policy document for the state at a brief ceremony at the PDP national secretariat in Abuja on Friday.

Melaye said the Kogi people have suffered so much and are in the den of the evil forest due to Governor Yahaya Bello-led government of gross maladministration and injustice meted out on them.

He also lamented the insecurity ravaging the state, with many people kidnapped at night and in broad daylight.

Speaking on infrastructure, Melaye said the state has been completely bastardized, and the economy is in shambles.

He said, “There’s is no sane person in Kogi State that will vote for the APC in Kogi State. We have suffered so much in Kogi State, we are in the den of the evil forest in Kogi State.

“As I speak Kogi is the only state where a serving permanent secretary is taking Okada to the office, in Kogi a level 16 officer is taking 16 thousand salary. There is a state of decadence, poverty, corruption in Kogi State, these are people with families.

“The present administration undertook a needless civil service exercise, retrenched, sacked and kept some people hanging. Some others died for travelling from far places to the state capital for screening and accidents happened.

“In the history of the state, we have the largest number of missing persons in Nigeria, even the PDP Chairman of Okene local government area for four years we are still looking for him.

“You can only imagine the number of missing persons in Kogi State, not to talk of those murdered in broad daylight. Two months ago 27 people were killed in Ejule in one day.

“These shows that we have a lot of work to do because the state has been completely basterdized, the economy is in shambles, hospitals are mere consulting clinics, no roads, the great water works done by former governor Ibrahim Idris, today it is eleven months, no water in lokoja the state capital. That is the type of state we are going to inherit.”

Speaking about his level of preparedness for the task of governance, Melaye said among all the candidates and parties, only the PDP is working on a policy document.

According to him, the PDP policy document was a product of scientific research on the sections of the state economy requiring urgent attention in order to revive the economy and set the state on the path of growth.

He said, “Among all the candidates and parties participating in the governorship election in Kogi State, only the PDP is working on a policy document.

“We promised when we got the mandate of the people that we are going to do things differently.

“What we are doing here is to announce to Nigerians that the incoming government in Kogi State, by the grace of God will do things differently.

“No any other party is talking about policy document apart from the PDP and by the time i have looked at this document, i have read it, it is not only robust but a solution book.”

The Chicago State University has released President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s academic transcripts.

The documents seen by Naija News on Friday (today) negate the speculations that the former governor of Lagos State did not graduate from the university.

Recall that the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 presidential election, Atiku Abubakar had requested the varsity to make Tinubu’s academic records available to him as he pushes further his petitions against All Progressives Congress (APC) candidate at the Supreme Court.

The documents, however, released by the Chicago State University showed that Tinubu indeed graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree at the institution.

Below is Tinubu’s Academic Transcripts as released by the Chicago State University

Statement On Tinubu’s Student Records

Earlier, the Chicago State University (CSU) released a statement to confirm that President Bola Tinubu attended the university.

The institution also revealed that the former governor of Lagos State graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree. CSU’s stand was disclosed in a statement issued by the University to CBS Broadcasting Inc., generally referred to as CBS News.

The school said, “As an educational institution, we are sometimes asked to provide information related to student records.”

The school, however, explained that there is a federal law, known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, FERPA, which protects the privacy of student records and limits what an institution can make public.

It further stated, “In August 2023, a request was made to the U.S. federal court for the university to provide information related to educational records concerning Bola Tinubu, the President of Nigeria, and a former CSU student.

“The university has confirmed Tinubu attended CSU and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor’s degree. Federal law, however, prevents us from providing any further information without consent or unless allowed to do so via court order.

“CSU is confident in the veracity and integrity of our records regarding Tinubu’s completion of graduation requirements and degree certificate. The university is not a party to the Nigerian legal proceedings that spurred this request, and a U.S. federal judge will determine whether the university will provide further requested information.

“Our response to the request for Tinubu’s academic records has been entirely consistent with our practices, policies and federal law. We would respond in exactly the same manner for any request for any student information by a third party.”

Governor Peter Mbah of Enugu State, on Friday, signed into law, the Enugu State Electricity Bill, describing it as a major step towards economic growth and making the state the premier destination for investment, business, tourism, and living.

Speaking at the event, which took place at the Government House Enugu, Mbah said the quest by his administration to build Enugu State’s economy from $4.4 billion to $30 billion would translate to a pipe dream without adequate and stable power supply, hence the need for the Electricity Law, which Bill was transmitted to the House of Assembly about a fortnight ago.

He equally commended the leadership and Members of the House of Assembly for the expeditious passage of the Bill and for their partnership with the government across party lines for the good of Enugu State.

“As you know, following the Constitutional Amendment and the Electricity Act of 2023, electricity is now on the concurrent list. This will now enable us to play in the value chains of the electricity industry.

“So, Enugu State has spared no time in making sure that we create our own electricity market. That is the crux of this law.

“We are now able to play in the generation, transmission, and distribution segments of the electricity market.

“We are also, through our regulatory commission, which this Law has given us the power to create, going to be able to regulate the activities of these players – the generation, transmission, and distribution companies that will flow from it.

“So, this is a significant and very important Law towards the achievement of the Enugu of our dreams because the development and growth of Enugu will all be predicated on the platter that this law has created. You cannot talk about industry or private sector investment if you don’t have electricity or power.

“Enugu, under our administration, is designed and indeed prepared to be the premier destination for investment and this law is part of the enablers.

“Therefore, we thank Members of the Enugu State House of Assembly for the expeditious way they treated this Bill, which has become Law today by this assent”, the governor stated.

The signing was witnessed by the Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Hon. Uchenna Ugwu, represented by the Deputy Speaker, Hon. Ezenta Ezeani; the Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Dr. Kinsley Udeh; the Secretary to the State Government, Prof. Chidiebere Onyia, among other state functionaries.