Pan-Yoruba group, Afenifere, has called on the Federal Government to save Nigeria, expressing concern over what it described as the near collapse of the nation since the administration of President Bola Tinubu took over.

In a communique by its Deputy Leader, Oladipo Olaitan and the Deputy Secretary General, Alade Rotimi-John after a regular quarterly meeting held in Ogun State, Afenifere maintained that the state of the nation has left the people perplexed.

According to the group, the Nigerian people are sorely troubled by the pervasive hardship, crippling hunger, unremitting insecurity in the land, runaway inflation, and massive unemployment all of which have left the people worse off than they were at the beginning.

It also observed the reckless, obstinate and indifferent attitude of the government to the long-term effects of the lack of forethought or purpose regarding the handling of the public revenue.

Afenifere, therefore, rued some of the Tinubu administration’s profligate predilection or inclination to waste resources, stating that $100m or N 240 billion as the purchase price for an Airbus A330 jet for the President and a further $50m to retrofit it was uncalled for.

In addition, Afenifere noted that N950m each as purchase price of a new set of armoured Cadillac Escalade Limousine SUVs as befitting vehicles for the President, N21 billion for renovating a new mansion for the Vice President, N90 billion as subsidy for religious pilgrimage and N10 billion to renovate the Presidential Lodge at Ribadu Road, Lagos, among others, gave an insight of a wasteful nature of the administration.

“Afenifere is scandalised or shamed by the odium and poor international or global image which have attended these profligate or prodigal expenditures.

“We are puzzled that a government can be so masterful at diversionary tactics just to lull the people to sleep and confuse them as they wake amid grave national circumstances and of a strident or sustained debate of its desultory or unmethodical handling of governance,” the group stated.

[DailyPost]

The Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) has expressed commitment to ensure that the judgement of the Supreme Court on Local Government administration in Nigeria yields positive fruits for citizens, especially those at the grassroots.

ALGON National President, Hon Aminu Muazu Maifafa said the association would work with all relevant stakeholders to develop strategies to enhance the implementation of the judgement.

Maifafa spoke at a One-Day meeting organised by ALGON with support from Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), a UK, Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office (FCDO) programme.

The meeting was attended by ALGON state chairmen across the country, members of Civil Society Groups and other stakeholders including the Nigeria Union of Local Government Employees (NULGE), Nigeria Union of Teachers (NUT) and Local Government Health workers.

Maifafa said all ALGON members are determined to ensure that the judgement aids good governance and enhances service delivery to people at the Local Government level across the state.

According to him, “We have the seal and the passion to ensure the success of this autonomy for local government so that our people at the local government level can be proud of us and that the efforts of all stakeholders towards this local government autonomy would not go in vain.”

The Team Leader of the Partnership to Engage, Reform and Learn (PERL), Engage Citizens, Dr. John Mutu said Nigerians would benefit when there is good governance at the local government level.

He said, “With ALGON and other stakeholders, it’s for us to reflect together on the judgement, the implications on the local government and to collectively identify challenges that may limit the implementation of the judgement and to collectively agree on strategies to ensure that the judgement is not just well implemented but that serves are delivered to the citizens.”

“And a lot of issues have emerged from the conversation from NULGE, the local government workers, the NUT, as regards to primary and basic education on what they see as challenges and recommendations have been made on what to do through constitution amendment process and through administrative processes.

If carefully done, we believe that the local government will be able to complement the efforts of the state and federal government  to deliver services to the people that they are meant to serve”, Mutu said.

The FCDO Senior Governance Adviser, Chris Okeke harped on the need to ensure that local government funds are utilised judiciously to deliver services to the people at the grassroots.

[TheNation]

•Two-third of ministers underperforming – Opposition

Strong indications have emerged that President Bola Tinubu is planning to rejig his cabinet to ease out underperforming ministers.

Tinubu has been facing increasing pressure from within and outside his party, the All Progressives Congress, to sack ministers some of whom appeared to have been inactive.

The President had last year set up the Result and Delivery Unit, headed by the Special Adviser to the President on Policy Coordination, Mrs Hadiza Bala-Usman, to measure the performance of ministers and other top government officials serving in his administration. He warned that any minister or aide that underperformed would be sacked.

Last week, Tinubu replaced the directors-general of the National Intelligence Agency and the Department of State Services after the heads of the agencies resigned their appointments.

Sources in the Presidency told Sunday PUNCH that a cabinet reshuffle was imminent.

The officials, who requested anonymity because they were not authorised to discuss the matter, revealed that some ministers would be dismissed, while others would be reassigned to other ministries for improved effectiveness.

However, the sources did not disclose the ministers likely to be affected.

“What I can tell you is some (ministers) will go. A few will swap positions, then new people will be brought on board. But the President will be focused more on capacity now; on people who can easily add value to his government”, a source stated.

Another source disclosed that Tinubu’s close associates agreed that the President required a stronger cabinet to implement his policies effectively.

The source stated, “The general concern among some of his aides, friends, and even the public is that the cabinet can be far better than this. There is a consensus among his (Tinubu) close friends that he needs a stronger cabinet to push through with his policies. It is one thing to announce policies and it is another thing for your ministers to deliver the outcomes you want. Oftentimes, it is the capacity of your cabinet members and heads of agencies that determines how you will deliver on those outcomes.

“If you look at the editorial by Financial Times earlier this week, it was not palatable at all. And what they were saying is that, yes, he has taken bold decisions, the reforms are good, but he has a weak cabinet that cannot help him to deliver on those reforms. That is why it appears like we are wobbling. So, he needs to bring in people with more energy and expertise, who are more patriotic and willing to roll up their sleeves and work for Nigeria and turn things around.

“If the past one year has not been eventful, he cannot afford to waste another year. This next one year is very critical. It is the next one year that will define the government.”

‘We expect nothing good from Tinubu, APC’

Meanwhile, opposition political parties have said they are not expecting anything good from the APC-led Federal Government.

Speaking to Sunday PUNCH, Yunusa Tanko, the campaign spokesman for a former Labour Party Presidential candidate, Peter Obi, said the party was more concerned with improved electoral reforms.

He said, “We are not really interested in whether Tinubu changes or sacks his ministers. One of the major areas we thought there would be an improvement in is our demand for electoral reform. If we have an improved electoral reform, it will inevitably give us a good opportunity for credible elections to take place.

“Sacking or replacing your cabinet with new people is an extension of state capture. He will only be replacing them with his loyalists which we know will be a strategy ahead of 2027. But if he is really serious about improving the performance of his governance at the moment, he can start considering reshuffling his cabinet. Quite a number of the ministers are not measuring up to expectations.”

On his part, the Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the People’s Democratic Party, Ibrahim Abdullahi, attributed the ministers’ woeful performance to Tinubu’s lack of empathy for Nigerians.

Abdullahi said, “It is not about changing the cabinet. When you acquire power through fraudulent and desperate means, it would take a million efforts, programmes, and policies to correct it because something cannot stand without a foundation. So what is the foundation of his presidency? That is the crux of the matter. As PDP, we are not expecting anything good during this period of divine grace, that God will keep him in power.”

The National Secretary of the Coalition of United Political Party, Peter Ameh, cautioned Tinubu against making the same mistake as his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, by keeping his ministers for eight years.

He said CUPP was not surprised by the failure of Tinubu’s ministers, adding that a responsible government would have dismissed them long ago.

Meanwhile, the Executive Director of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, said only less than 15 ministers had met the expectations of Nigerians with their performance.

He argued that for Tinubu to succeed, he must “weed out” ministers underperforming and merge ministries and agencies performing similar functions.

He listed some of the underperforming ministers to include: the Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman; Minister of Health, Muhammad Pate; Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Ekperikpe Ekpo; Minister of Transportation, Sa’idu Ahmed Alkali; and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu.

Adeniran described some of Tinubu’s appointments as “jobs for the boys” and called on the President to urgently implement the recommendations of the Steve Orosanye report to reduce the size and cost of government.

“Most of the ministers are not performing; they are just noise makers and they seem not to understand the job they have been appointed to do. From our assessment, few of the ministers, less than 15 of them are performing.

“The President needs to weed out more than two-third of the crowd he put together as his cabinet. If he has 48 ministers, we are saying that he should weed out a minimum of 36 of them, so that we will know those that are the performing ministers.

“If he (Tinubu) continues with these people, many of them are pulling him back on what he calls his mission in office and that is why Nigeria is in problem today. Weeding them (ministers) out will stabilise his administration more and make those that will remain to be focused. When he weeds out that two-third, he should not replace them with another, he should just merge the ministries with other ones and supervise others directly”, Adeniran said.

Also speaking, the Secretary of the Joint Action Front, Abiodun Bamgboye, attributed the poor performance of the ministers to the anti-people policies of Tinubu, saying even if the President sacked and replaced them with angels, they would fail.

According to him, the President is trying to save his face by planning to sack underperforming ministers, adding that the poor performance of the ministers was a reflection of Tinubu’s leadership.

“When you look at the current economic situation of the country, it does not suggest that any minister has performed to the expectations of Nigerians, but is not the question of ministers, it is the economic policies that this regime adopted,” Bamgboye said.

An economic expert, Aliyu Ilias, argued that holding ministers accountable by reducing their numbers could serve as a check on performance and improve governance.

Ilias stated that the current administration’s decision to maintain a large number of government officials was misguided.

He said, “We have not seen them sacking or reducing ministers. Rather, we see them praising them by saying that there is a livestock ministry again. This doesn’t make sense. Let’s give the President the benefit of the doubt. Sacking underperforming ministers will help this government and this will be like a check and balance on them to perform well.”

The drafters of the Nigerian constitution also known as the wise men had two posers, they were not immediately able to solve. The first was what to do with the lofty objectives in chapter two of the constitution titled ‘Fundamental Objectives and Directive Principles of State Policy.’ The thrust of what the chapter required government to do was to implement ideals such as free education and free health for all etc.

It was obvious that in reality, those objectives were rather unattainable in the first few years of government in a developing society. So, it was agreed that the objectives be captioned‘non-justiciable’ meaning they cannot be enforced by the courts. Put differently, nobody would be allowed to go to court on the subject because as ideal objectives, government should be given the discretion to determine which objective to deal with and to what extent at a given point in time.

The second poser was what to do with any government that abuses the discretion by totally ignoring the objectives which could impede societal growth and development. This was what gave birth to Section 22 of the constitution which mandated the media to hold government accountable to the people. It was expected that the media which harassed the colonial master in favour of Nigerians would similarly be able to use their powerful organs of mass communication to push government to be pragmatic about attaining many of the fundamental objectives. No one expected that Nigerian politicians would design and legalize strategies to completely neutralize the nation’s journalists from meeting the clear mandate given to them by the constitution. One of the things our politicians did was to introduce the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention Etc)Act 2015.

Although the Act had in mind serious crimes concerning digital electronic messaging that could undermine national security, politicians at state level immediately domesticated the Act to make it impossible for the state government and its official to be made subject of any media investigation. They assumed that since the world had progressed to the digital age of technology any journalist could be held under the Act because everyone now uses computers. Ebonyi State was one of those that introduced its own Cybercrimes Law under which any political opponent who criticized government was immediately arrested as having breached the law. In 2022 however, the federal high court in Abakaliki quashed the law when it became obvious that it was enacted in secret without public knowledge and quickly accented to by the governor merely to criminalize political dissent.

The most unfortunate part of the law was that those arrested were not given an opportunity to open up on the grave allegations concerning corrupt practices by officials of government especially governors and their relations. In Cross River State, a journalist Agba Jalingo was detained for accusing former Governor Ben Ayade of diverting N500 million from the state treasury. Rather than give the journalist an opportunity to prove his allegation for the good of society, he was charged with treasonable felony, terrorism, cultism and disturbance of public peace. Within a month, Joseph Odok, another journalist and critic of the same governor was arrested over an allegation of terrorism. It became obvious that the charges of terrorism were made by the police to justify the detention of the critics while the facts of the criticisms were covered up.The practice is yet to end.

Only last week,Shafi’u Umar Tureta, a social media critic was hastily sent to prison in Sokoto for posting a viral video featuring a lavish birthday party hosted by the wife of the state governor. The video also allegedly showed the celebrant virtually abusing the naira by spreading money on the ground during the party. Another media report said the social critic also allegedly shared a video of the governor struggling to construct a sentence in English. He was also alleged to have posted the governor’s senior secondary leaving certificate which stated that the governor failed the examination and also earned F9 in English suggesting that the governor was incapable of speaking the language fluently. This case no doubt opens up several issues worth considering starting with the supposed birthday celebrant.

To start with, was there such a birthday party? If yes,nothing is wrong with holding a party. Many people do that often and the fact that a lady is married to a governor should not bar her from holding a birthday party. Second, did the governor’s wife spread money on the ground during the party? If yes, it means the report is correct but she probably would not be asked to account for abusing the naira because of her status. But if the story is only an imagination of the accused, then he could be described as mischievous. In the case of the governor, if the school result reportedly shared was correct, then it is a valid report. Again, did he score F9 in English and did the video show him struggling to construct a sentence in English? All these must be false before the critic can be said to have a case to answer.  Even at that,is imprisonment the first step to take? In fact, who authorised the police to imprison the accused before charging him to court?

It was also reported that Fatima Hassan, the Magistrate before whom the accused was arraigned barred reporters from covering the court proceedings. What was the reason for such a decision on a matter of public interest? Here, we need to return to S22 of our constitution which mandates the media to hold government accountable to the people. If the judiciary is the third arm of government, is Magistrate Hassan not part of government? If she is, how will the media hold her accountable to the people where her court holds secret sessions? This is probably a political case in which everyone is wrongly answerable to those in power. Some two years ago, the situation would have been different because the accused in this case is said to be a passionate follower of the former governor of the state, Aminu Tambuwal now a senator. It is perhaps the different political camps to which the parties belong that seems to explain the importance of the case.

It is however worrisome that a case such as the one before us whose facts are clearly verifiable is sufficiently remarkable enough to warrant what the accused has gone through. Let us assume that some of the allegations if not all are wrong, why order an accused to be held in a correctional centre for as long as September 6 as the magistrate directed? Is that not more than enough punishment before the case starts? From history, we know that the case will end up with nothing to write home about because as usual the authority offended may not be anxious to follow the case to its logical end; the goal in essence,is just to punish the accused. The case would however join other notorious ones that continually dissuade anyone from exposing the misapplication of public funds. While the police ought to obey those in authority, they should also have an idea of what the law says about an offence. If the governor and his wife thought their image was damaged, the accused would still be free to establish his innocence because in a case of defamation, truth is critical in favour of the accused

The point that must be made is that whether it is Cybercrimes Act or any other issue that those in authority hope to hide under, we cannot develop if our leaders are allowed to use other strategies to overwhelm the constitution. Any person who decides to hold public office must recognise that he has opted to be the servant of the people. In other words, it is wrong for a governor who has chosen to be a servant to seek to lord it over the same people that are his masters. No person in government should seek to use his office to punish a journalist that the constitution has mandated to make him answerable to the people. This is because on the authority of S22 of our constitution, the media can compel those in authority to fall in line since governance objectives in Chapter 2 of our constitution cannot be taken to court.

•Suppliers unwilling to sell on further credit
•Credit trading not peculiar to us — Spokesman

Global suppliers of petrol are no longer enthusiastic about supplying the product on credit to the Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) due to piling debts, Sunday Vanguard has learnt.

Competent industry sources told our correspondent last night that NNPCL, which solely imports the product using supply agents, is apparently weighed down by over $6 billion in debt, which the firm has not settled over time.

The setback, according to informed sources, is apparently responsible for the lingering hiccups in fuel supply in recent weeks, our correspondent gathered.

One of the sources familiar with the PMS importation into the country revealed that, at the moment, no fewer than five vessels which were primed to supply petrol to Nigeria have refused to discharge the product to NNPC due to fear that they would not be paid cash on delivery.

The insider pointed out that the mounting debt has heightened the pressure on the petroleum company, which has now resorted to rationing its stock and appealing to its long-term suppliers to not cut off supply.

A senior official at the NNPC, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the company is struggling to supply dealers due to a shortage of products at its disposal.

The official lamented: “Bulk sales of ships and trucks to depot owners have slowed down in the last five days due to shortage of supply”.

The source added that no bulk sales had taken place since Tuesday, resulting in the scarcity in the downstream sector.
Another NNPC staff told this newspaper that fuel shortage, which resulted in the long queues being experienced in the last two months, was principally caused by the reduction in supply of products by suppliers who are being owed by the Nigerian oil firm.

The top official admitted: “I was aware that at some points in mid-August, the Federal Government had to come in by giving money to NNPC to defray some of the outstanding liabilities and boost the confidence of the suppliers to continue.

“However, what was paid was about $300 million, which only helped us get some reprieve for about a week before the queues fully returned,” he said.

Credit transaction common in the oil business – NNPC

Responding, the Chief Corporate Communications Officer of NNPCL, Mr Femi Soneye, said it was a common practice in the global oil industry to trade on credit but would not say more than that.

Soneye said: “In the oil trading business, transactions are often carried out on credit; so it is normal to have outstanding balances at certain times.

“Additionally, through our subsidiary, NNPC Trading, we maintain open trade credit lines with several traders.”

But when asked to confirm the exact amount the company owes its PMS suppliers, the spokesperson declined, saying, “I will need some time to provide you with the exact amount”.

Vanguard News Nigeria

Erling Haaland scored a hattrick as Manchester City defeated West Ham United 3-1 in their English Premier League (EPL) clash at the London stadium on Saturday.

The late kick-off saw Haaland continue his scintillating start to the season, scoring all three goals against an attacking side that troubled the EPL champions but could not make the most of their impressive performance.

Haaland put City ahead in the 10th minute when he slid in to convert Bernardo Silva’s pass but West Ham responded with the equalizer nine minutes later, Ruben Dias scoring an own goal.

The Norwegian striker restored City’s lead with a fierce shot that flew into the roof of the net in the 30th minute before putting the game to bed seven minutes from time with another well-taken goal.

The hattrick is Haaland’s 11th of his Man City career — eighth in the EPL. He has scored seven goals in the opening three matches of the season as Pep Guardiola’s side continues their 100% start to the season.

In earlier matches, Brighton held ten-man Arsenal to a 1-1 draw in a match Declan Rice was dismissed for a second yellow card for time wastage.

Everton, however, surrendered a two-goal lead with three minutes of regulation time remaining and lost 3-2 to Bournemouth at Goodison Park.

However, Aston Villa held on to win 2-1 at Leicester City.

RESULTS
Arsenal 1-1 Brighton & Hove Albion
Ipswich Town 1-1 Fulham
Leicester City 1-2 Aston Villa
Everton 2-3 Bournemouth
Brentford 3-1 Southampton
Nottingham Forest 1-1 Wolverhampton Wanderers
West Ham United 1-3 Manchester City

[TheCable]

The Nigerian politician is a most futuristic animal. He is above all else a most distractive creature, forever creating political outlets and ventilations. While our civil society remains reactive, our political class is eternally ahead in terms of setting an agenda for distracting the attention of the polity for purposes of keeping itself busy in terms of the direction of what happens next politically. Check: 2027 is literally four years away. Check: the Tinubu presidency is a little over a year old. Check: all the calamities that  hell holds in stock for bad places on earth has converged on Nigeria. The possibility that Mr. Tinubu and his rabble assembly of a government is likely to solve any of our serious crises remains an illusion. Yet, politicians must remain active and relevant.

Four years to the end of the Tinubu tenure, some politicians are gearing up for what happens in the next election, in 2027. Overwhelmed by the present realties of a state that is literally at a halt, some politicians would rather overlook the present so that public attention can skip present difficulties and focus on 2027.

Creative and futuristic as always, our politicians have found a way to keep busy and get the people politically engaged. The specter of 2027 has been fast -forwarded. It is as though the next election is next year. No need to worry about bandits and the endless flow of blood all over the land. No need to worry about the elongating unemployment queues. No need to worry about how many baskets of useless Naira notes you need to buy a miserable US dollar.  Forget what the market women are telling you about high prices of food items. They are all killjoys who are hell bent on spoiling the party of the Tinubu renewed hope mandate party. Just listen to the new song from the politicians or better chant the new old national anthem.

Mr. Bode George, a constant gadly and overgrown child of South-west political rabble rousing, has been busing engaging Atiku Abubakar in recent times.  He has advised Mr. Abubakar who aspired to be the next president to prepare instead for the 2031 presidential elections instead of even the 2027.

Worse still, several groups of serious politicians from the northern hemisphere of the nation have lately been meeting. There is no secret about their agenda. They are prepping for the 2027 presidential election. Their agenda is simple and straightforward. They are united by two things. They got left behind by the Tinubu gravy train and now  all crave for the centre stage next time around. They cannot wait. More importantly, they have nothing tangible to keep them busy between now and 2027.  For now, they are united by a curious consensus to recruit ex- President Goodluck Jonathan to contest the 2027 presidential election to ensure that Mr. Tinubu does not have the chance of a second term in the Villa. By this rough script, the political North wants to snatch the presidency from Mr. Tinubu who has not shown good faith or sufficient gratitude to the region in spite of his Muslim-Muslim ticket and inheritance of the former Buhari throng of voters.

The strong argument is that the Northern hemisphere of our political space in the APC supported his emergence of Mr. Tinubu in the Presidential Villa in compensation for the clueless Buhari whose most important object was political recompense to Mr. Tinubu. The aftermath of the Tinubu victory is looking more skewed to the northern political mind.  It is not just the sharing of pork that is at issue. The region is in a poor shape, perhaps worse than since the creation of Nigeria.

Security in the north is nasty,  brutish and almost non existent. The distribution of the gravy content of ‘renewed hope’ in the region is not quite as generous as was expected. The handouts to interest groups in the region do not seem as generous as it was even under the xenophobic Mr. Buhari. Bandits are helping themselves to the spoils of war instead of waiting to be served by willing political actors. So, what to do? Support the apparently harmless Mr. Jonathan to complete his entitled one term  so that presidential power can return effortlessly to the north.

The quest for the return of Jonathan is strictly not about better governance for Nigeria or indeed the beleaguered northern hemisphere. The power arithmetic is not about the quality of governance or what could make Nigeria a more manageable federation away from its present dilapidated state. The gathering political distraction is not about how to understand the dynamics of power and the current social and economic forces that have made the north such a dangerous place or even made the whole of Nigeria a bad place. It is a rehash of the same old North-South nonsense that has left Nigeria damaged and destroyed. The impending distraction is just another chapter in the bad chapter of Nigeria’s unending tragic tale of disastrous governance. We are still waiting for the political class that sees beyond region, religion and axis on the national compass.

In the renewed distraction, there is hardly any thought about imparting skills that will work for Nigeria as a whole. There is no discussion about functional education, economic empowerment, population control, urgent modernization and investment in education, agriculture and a different work ethics that prioritizes entrepreneurship, grueling hard work and productivity for better self actualization and overall national development. It is all about North-South, Muslim-Christian balancing. It is all about feeding the same old insatiable and unproductive political elite that has left the majority of the people stranded and abandoned. It is the feathering of the nest of the same runaway elite that has abandoned the people and relocated to villas in Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Abuja, Lagos and Cairo.

Meanwhile, the hapless Mr. Jonathan is busy attending every available social event around the country in an unstated gathering campaign for what he does not quite fully understand. Himself a prime beneficiary of Nigeria’s politics of entitlement and allocation, Mr. Jonathan may have garnered quite some experience and exposure after office in his countless international democratic engagements. It is also quite possible that he has had time to reflect on his work experience as president to be better equipped for a retrial run. But the Jonathan proposition is a politically convenient distraction from the crushing  urgency of the tasks that call us all fiercely.

On his part, Mr. Tinubu who understands mostly the language of political survival has responded to the hints of his eventual ouster. In response to the imminent distraction, the Tinubu incumbency has found both a convenient political distraction and  veritable challenge. It is urgent. Mr. Tinubu has just settled into a cozy world of luxury jets, lush villas, endless motorcades, sweetheart contracts and endless junkets to all ends of the universe.

Tinubu is first and foremost a power monger and political entrepreneur.  His is an ultimate political entrepreneur, a merchant of power in the mot Machiavellian sense. Every power has a price tag and nearly every political outcome is a transactional.  Political survival is his foremost prerogative. He clutches to no ideal, rules by no principles or set of ideas. His prime objective is to be president of Nigeria by all means, which he has achieved. The other two entitlements are to hold the oil and gas cheque books and the key to the Central Bank. He has all these imperial booties in his clutch plus endless air miles on a fleet of luxury presidential jets.

All these would mean little if indeed Nigerians could see a clear purposive governance in place or in progress. Not quite sure. A gravy train is on the rail, coasting down  a sloppery slope almost unstoppable gradient. Now comes a bunch of killjoys who have declared their intent to stop Tinubu midstream. And he is not likely to turn a blind eye to this distraction.

Yet for whatever it is worth, the protection of his incumbency and its possible  tenure elongation into a second term is an urgent political  challenge which no incumbent president can leave unattended. In response to the PDP- based maneuvres on the Jonathan proposition, the Tinubu political machinery has reportedly swung into action to counter what may be its most consequential political threat. Counter groups have been mobilized. Internal APC  work groups have set up with a mandate to thwart the moves of the derailers. What lies ahead is therefore a battle royale. The political back and forth between the two sets of political forces is likely to  be the grand distraction of the season. 

The grand historic question is whether the Tinubu presidency will consign the urgent task of national salvation to the counter force of the battle for supremacy in 2027. The possibilities are ominous and frightening. The forces poised against national survival as themselves gruesome and determined. The forces of anarchy fuelling banditry, serial kidnapping, senseless murders in high places and sheer lawlessness are mindless and unhinged. No one is certain that the Nigerian state in its present state of disrepair will prevail over its traducers.

Yet we are at the moment of decision and prioritization. National survival must precede and supersede the survival of any individual power regime or calculus. The guarantee of a second presidential term sounds like a political expediency. In the nature of nations. Existence precedes essence. No matter how fanciful its format may be, a nation must exist before it manifests its goodness. The very survival of the Nigerian nation is the more pressing urgency. Without a nation to call home, there will be neither a presidency nor a tenure to elongate or argue about. It is only by reinforcing the pillars of national existence and ensuring good governance and a fair society that tenure elongation can be placed on the table. The basic ingredients of national prevalence are the same basic existential issues that today haunt the entire Nigeria: food, shelter, poverty, costs of living in the open market and some hope that basic safety of lives and property can be guaranteed by the state.

First, credit where it is due. NNPC Limited (NNPCL) deserves commendation for releasing its 2023 audited financial statement on time and for continuing the recent tradition of opening itself to public scrutiny. The first time the company publicly disclosed its audited accounts was in 2020. That was 43 years after the organisation came into being. Within four years, NNPCL has released its audited accounts for 2018 to 2023. That’s six financial years already. Though the 2022 financial statement was released late (in January 2024), the company’s commitment to transparency in this wise is worthy of praise. Mr. Mele Kyari, NNPCL’s group CEO, and his colleagues have earned their stripes for starting and sustaining this desirable tradition.

However, the regularity of the disclosure should be matched by its comprehensiveness. While NNPCL scores high marks on the former, it has started falling short on the latter. The 2023 audited account that NNPCL released on its website on 20 August 2024 is quite bulky at 120 pages. But bulkiness is not exactly the same as exhaustiveness. Four of the six audited statements released by NNPCL so far included separate accounts for the group and its subsidiaries. For the 2021 financial year, for example, the company released 21 different reports. But for the 2022 financial year, NNPCL released only one report, a practice that it has carried into 2023. This is not good enough.

Without stand-alone audited reports on the subsidiaries, it will be difficult to have a full view of how the different components of the company are faring or know the value they add to their shareholders (who, in this case, are all Nigerians). This is more so because NNPCL has stopped publishing the monthly financial and operations reports that Dr. Ibe Kachikwu started in 2016 when he became the GMD of the organisation. The last NNPC monthly financial and operations report released was for August 2021. No reason was given for discontinuing this granular and useful report. Unlike its peers, NNPCL does not accompany its audited financial statements with comprehensive operational reports that lay its operations bare to all in a comprehensible and well-visualised manner. It is difficult to make a compelling case for why the corporation that transformed into a company will opt for less disclosure instead of more.

But there are even more fundamental issues and questions arising from the 2023 audited accounts. It is important to state upfront that these questions do not necessarily suggest wrongdoing or coverup on the part of the management of the company or its auditors. Between the numbers and the notes, audited financial statements should be self-explanatory and should provide a good window into the operations of the entity. Where there are questions without obvious or adequate answers, then someone has dropped the ball. Whether accidental or deliberate, such gaps or inadequacies invite doubt and distrust. This is not good for any organisation, especially one with a rich, dark history.

The first set of questions is about the ballooning of the total assets of the company. NNPCL claims that its total assets increased from N58.49 trillion in 2022 to N246.82 trillion in 2023. This is an exceptional growth of 322% from a year to the other. The natural question to ask is: what explains a four-fold expansion in total assets between two consecutive years? As provided for in the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA), joint venture oil and gas assets belonging to the Federation were transferred to NNPCL in return for dividends. So, it is understandable that the company’s assets grew from N16.27 trillion in 2021 to N58.49 trillion in 2022. But what was the exceptional event that occurred in 2023 that led to increase in total assets by more than 300%? Were newer assets transferred to NNPCL? This is doubtful. The massive increase cannot be explained by exchange rate gains alone, as the difference between the rates used by the company to calculate its assets in the two years—N907.11/$ in 2023 and N448.55/$ in 2022—does not fully capture such significant disparity. Something doesn’t appear to add up here.    

The relationship between the current and non-current assets of the company in 2022 and 2023 invites a question of its own. In 2022, NNPCL’s non-current assets amounted to N36.89 trillion while current assets were N21.39 trillion. But in 2023, non-current assets at N74.18 trillion were completely dwarfed by current assets at N172.64 trillion. The logical question to ask is what happened or what is going on here? But it gets more interesting. Under non-current assets, Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) shrank from 54% of total assets in 2022 to 27% of total assets in 2023. As a capital-intensive company, NNPCL’s assets should tilt more towards non-current assets, especially its PPE. So, what explains the shrinking of both the PPE and the non-current assets in 2023? For context, PPE normally constitutes more than 50% of the total assets of global oil companies, private and public. So, what is going on with NNPCL?

There is a partial hint in what happens to be the major component of the current assets for the financial year under review. Trade and Other Receivables (what NNPCL was owed) grew from N17.7 trillion in 2022 to N162.96 trillion in 2023, an increase of 820%. Again: what explains this significant jump in two consecutive years? Also, Trade and Other Receivables rose from 30% to 66% of total assets from one year to the other. This suggests that in 2023, NNPCL looked more like a trading company than an oil production company if two-thirds of its total assets are in what it was owed as opposed to what it owned.  

Notes 24 on page 80 has a breakdown of the Trade and Other Receivables. This shows that Other Receivables alone amounted to N108.44 trillion. Note 24.3, also on page 80, has a disaggregation of the Other Receivables, and this indicates that Sundry Receivables accounted for N108.15 trillion or 99.7% of Other Receivables. Then, Note 24.3.1 on page 81 defines Sundry Receivables as: “mainly recovered but yet to be settled debt, receivables from defunct bank and deposits for letters of credit, joint venture receivables and strategic alliance receivables.”  That was all the explanation offered for assets worth about $120 billion (based on the N907.11/$ conversion rate used by the company for its assets). By all standards, $120 billion is a significant sum that deserves fuller explanation.

This scanty level of disclosure is duly replicated on the liability side, in a more perfunctory manner.  According to NNPCL, its Trade and Other Payables (basically what it owed others) increased from N25.03 trillion in 2022 to N163.73 trillion in 2023. This means that Trade and Other Payables increased by 554% from one year to the other. Trade and Other Payables also constituted 66% of the Total Equity and Liabilities of the company for the year as against 43% of the previous year. The natural question to ask again is: what is going on here or why is this so?

But this is not the catch. Note 38 on page 96 has a disaggregation of the Trade and Other Payables. This reveals that Other Payables alone accounted for N112.58 trillion. This is further broken down in Note 38.3, on the same page, which shows that Accrued Expenses alone amounted to N104.13 trillion. In 2022, Accrued Expenses amounted to N442.58 billion in 2022. This means that there was a whopping increase of 23,427% in Accrued Expenses from one year to another. Is that not amazing? Again, it is logical to ask: what’s going on here?

Note 38.3.2 on page 97 simply explains Accrued Expenses as consisting of “retention fees, legal fees accruals and audit fees accruals.” That’s all the explanation for N104.13 trillion or $115 billion (based on the N907.11/$ conversion rate that the company used for its assets). That is it? NNPCL and its auditors (PWC, SIAO, and Muhtari Dangana & Co. and their partners that signed the statement) can surely do better than just state, in a rather flippant manner, that the company had accrued expenses of $115 billion in just 2023. The scanty way that $120 billion and $115 billion were treated as Sundry Receivables and Accrued Expenses seems to suggest a deliberate design and betrays a grave lack of respect for Nigerians. The treatment clearly doesn’t meet the significance threshold. The quality of disclosure here should clearly be of interest to the Financial Reporting Council of Nigeria.

According to the audited financial statement, NNPCL’s total assets was N246.82 trillion in 2023. This news should gladden the hearts of all Nigerians. Assuming this represented a true reflection of the total assets of the company, this should make the current administration deliriously joyous. Using NNPCL’s conversion rate for assets for the year, this means that the company had total assets of $272 billion as at 31^st December 2023 (a magical increase from $129 billion of 2022 when the company used N448.55/$ as the conversion rate for its assets).

Total assets of $272 billion in 2023 put NNPCL in the league of the biggest oil companies in the world by assets. In 2023, NNPCL had assets bigger than those of national oil companies and global international oil companies such as PEMEX ($136 billion), Equinor ($143 billion), Petronas ($179 billion), Petrobras ($217 billion) and Chevron ($261 billion). NNPCL’s assets in 2023 amounted to 72% of ExxonMobil’s ($376 billion), 67% of Shell’s ($406 billion) and 41% of Saudi Aramco’s ($660 billion). Is that not amazing?

This is more fantastic news than NNPCL’s ‘gravity defying’ profit and other pretty spins it has put on its 2023 financials. With such supposed assets, NNPCL can be more useful in addressing the forex liquidity challenge that has led to the serious undervaluation of the Naira after the free float compounded by the drying up of the forex from crude oil that accounts for more than 80% of Nigeria’s exports. If NNPCL’s assets are as disclosed, the company can easily attract a valuation above $100 billion. Listing 20% of the company on a foreign stock exchange will bring greater relief to the country than the recent habit of pledging future crude oil for some paltry loans. It will thus be important to fast-track the promised Initial Public Offering (IPO) on major stock exchanges. Let’s just hope the total assets are really as stated.  

There many other things that should get eyebrows raised in NNPCL’s 2023 financials. Some of these include: the value that the company provided to the country for the N669 billion it got as management fee from 30% of profit oil alone and whether that portion of the PIA should not be looked at again; whether the company is adequately flogging its assets and deriving enough profit from its revenue, when compared to its peers.

Other issues include: the size of and the increase in related-parties loans between NNPCL and its subsidiaries and the sundry things such loans are used for; the logic of declaring profit of N3.3 trillion while carrying liabilities of N8.7 trillion in taxes and royalties; and the rationale for the multitude of Funding and Technical Service Agreements (FTSAs) entered into by NNPC Exploration and Production Limited (NEPL), which not only constrain the crude oil available to the company and the country, but also raise questions about the technical and financial capacity of the E&P subsidiary of the company and the need for independent assessment of the worth of such agreements to the country, and evoke the spectre of the discredited Strategic Alliance Agreements (SAAs). There are other questions and concerns depending on how you look at the report and where you look.

While some of these questions arise because of the woolly nature of some of the disclosures, others are based on the need for better and more accountable stewardship of a national patrimony.  It is worth restating that these questions do not impute or establish wrongdoing yet. A company that received more than half a trillion Naira from just managing Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs) alone can sure do better with the quality and depth of its disclosures. It should also be held to, and should expect, a higher level of scrutiny. Disclosure seemingly for the sake of it, or just to appear to fulfil all righteousness, will not suffice. It will not pass muster.

The Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, has vowed not to allow anyone to take over the Peoples Democratic Party structure in Rivers State.

The former Rivers State Governor vowed to cause a political crisis in their states if any PDP governor tried interfering in the party’s affairs in the South-South state.

PUNCH Online reports that the PDP governors, who met in Taraba State on August 23, weighed in on the crisis rocking the party in the state and reiterated their support for Governor Siminalayi Fubara.

The PDP Governors’ Forum, in a communique read by its Chairman and Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed, called for a review of the party congress outcome to restore Fubara’s leadership role in the state.

Speaking at the PDP secretariat in Port Harcourt, the state capital, on Saturday during the party’s state congress, Wike urged the PDP governors to stay clear of the party’s affairs in Rivers.

He said, “Let me assure all of you, not while we live will anybody take away the structure of the PDP from us. But let me tell people, I hear some governors who say they will take over the structure and give back to somebody.

“I pity those governors because I will put fire in their states. When God has given you peace, you say you don’t want peace – anything you see you take.

“Because I heard they got some money from a signature bonus, and so their heads are getting big that you will put a hand in my own state. Prepare because I have the capacity to also do the same thing in your own state.

“Whether you are from Bauchi, I don’t give a damn, whichever state you are from, as far as I know, that you are trying to put yourself in Rivers State, your hand will get burnt, and you will never sleep in your state.”

The Rivers PDP has been in crisis following the fallout between Wike and his predecessor, who was absent at the congress.

In attendance alongside the minister were some serving and past lawmakers at both federal and state levels, former council chairmen, and other party faithful.

A few days ago, a new coach was hired for the Super Eagles, the national football team of Nigeria.

Under normal circumstances, it would be considered too soon to start any controversial discourse on the man. However, the shrouded process of the appointment, the timing of it, and the calibre of the person engaged following one of the worst periods in Nigeria’s football history, have raised a lot of eyebrows. To be silent would be tantamount to lazy journalism.

He is foreign, a German. His name is Bruno.

The only famous Bruno in sports that I know of are Fernandez of Manchester United FC, and the British boxer. In coaching, not any of the known names in international football that would have silenced critics and sceptics avers to hiring any more foreign coaches in Africa in 2024 after all the previous failures.

So, Bruno who?

The appointment of a Bruno Labbadia, therefore, came as a complete surprise to everyone (except, of course,those that must have been behind the deal). There must be some kind of deal in this new arrangement. That’s the only way to understand the rationale for a football administration to dare at this time to present to Nigerians a totally unknown coach, straight from the blue, completely outside the radar of even the most ardent football followers.

Bruno’s choice immediately attracts interest. The current relatively subdued debates on the issue are a result of the ‘shock’ of the audacity of the NFF administration to present, without clear reasons and motivation, a low-level foreign coach without international recognition or solid credentials after the unconvincing performances by several foreign coaches with better credentials, including Jose Paseiro, to Nigerians.

This is not even good to stick to the doctrine of a foreign coach given the outcry over previous dismal failures marked by a desert of trophies. The impression most Nigerians had after Paseiro’s ouster is that any new appointment would pass through microscopic lenses and scrutiny. For any foreign coach to be hired would as difficult as a ‘camel passing through the eye of a needle’. I had assumed that an unknown foreign coach would never again be unleashed on Nigerians. I now humbly concede naivety.

There are too many boxes that any prospective new coach would have to tick.

The person must be renowned internationally; must have clear and solid records of achievements to show in football; must be grounded in African football and footballers, either as a coach or even as a player; must have the reputation as a former player or as a coach to earn the immediate respect of the big superstars in the Eaglesand the critical Nigerian public.

Does Bruno Labbadia tick any of the boxes?

The Super Eagles are a very troubled team.

The team has not done well for several years in all competitions. The last AFCON in January/February this year was a punctuation mark with performances, since then, that make their commendable achievement look like a fluke. At AFCON 2023, they defied all the odds, rode on the back of some decent performances and got to the finals of the African Championship.

Since then, however, there has been a huge slump in performance, disturbing to the extent that the coach of the team, even after being lavishly celebrated and rewarded (prematurely it now seems), was sent ‘packing’ with the refusal to renew his contract.

The Super Eagles now face many challenges. The most glaring is that the team lacks depth in quality of players that can lift it above the present plateau where the team has remained for well over a decade, unable to win any major trophies, and not convincing anyone of its once-undisputed status as a giant in African football. Smaller countries that the Super Eagles used to devour for ‘breakfast’ have suddenly become their Nemesis. Some have even defeated the Super Eagles on their home turf, something that was once considered ‘impossible’!

With this new appointment of Bruno, my feeling is that the NFF has taken on a big gamble.

The expectation was that any new coach must start to win from Day One, and that there will be no excuses or time for a honeymoon. Nigerian coaches were not given any such luxury.

As Bruno Labbadia resumes and takes charge, his previous ‘record’ of never winning any trophy in his almost 30 years career as a coach, amounts to nothing. It will not serve as an acceptable excuse should he fail to deliver by defeating the Cheetahs of Benin Republic next week in a 2025 AFCON-qualifying match to be played in Uyo, Nigeria. The match has tension and grudge written all over it.

Gernot Rohr, the last German coach that was sacked by Nigeria some years ago, now leads the Cheetahs for this sequel against the Super Eagles.

He came a few months ago and inflicted the defeat on the Super Eagles that fast-tracked Jose Paseiro’s exit from Nigeria. That defeat was one of the worst and most humiliating in Nigerian football history. It must not happen again!

Unfortunately, even as the team list for the match was released during the week, it showed that Bruno would still be working with most of the same set of players that could not lift Nigerian football higher in the past decade. Is there some ‘magic’ that he would perform with the players within the one week that he has before the match?

There is also a second match within days against Rwanda in Kigali, another mountain that the new coach will have to climb to clear the cloud before the eyes of Nigerians about a certain coach from ‘nowhere’ leading their prized Super Eagles.

These two matches are critical for Bruno’s survival as the coach of the national team, and for the NFF itself as a board. Nigerians are waiting and watching.

Meanwhile, for academic reasons only, it will be interesting to know the value of Bruno’s contract, the duration of the contract, the target(s) set for him, who pays his wages between the sports ministry and the federation, foreign assistants (will he make use of local coaches), and so on.

The more I look at all this matter of Bruno Labbadia, the more I see it as one huge gamble by the NFF.