Tahir Mamman, Minister of Education, took office following President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s inauguration.

Recall that the president swore in 45 Ministers at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

Flanked by the Minister of State for Education, Yusuf Sununu, said:

I am going to work like a bricklayer.

Explaining how a bricklayer works, he said:

He goes to the sites every day and he is faced with hundreds of blocks to lay and by the end of day he wants to see that the building has come up to a certain level everyday so by three to six months the house is done.

While being welcomed by the Permanent Secretary, David Adejo, he stated that education is the foundation of all other sectors and the basis for everything they can do to help the country develop.

The new minister stated that he had spent ample time working with both the government and the private sector, admitting that there are constraints but promising to do what is best for the sector.

Sununu stated that he has been in the education field for a long time because all of his courses are education-related from beginning to end.

He said:

We will overcome all the challenges and make history. We are going to respect constituted orders as well.

Earlier, the Permanent Secretary welcomed the ministers and pleaded with the staff to help them deliver service to Nigerians.

The Senior Special Assistant to President Bola Tinubu on Public Affairs, Ajuri Ngelale, has said that Nigeria spends about $10 billion a year on foreign exchange earnings to the refiners and partners to get crude refined to fuel. He also said during an interview on TVC News, said that more refineries in Nigeria would not lead to lower fuel prices. He stated that people often say that if Nigeria’s refineries were working, fuel pump prices would be cheap.

He, however, added that nothing could be farther from the truth. Ngelale said: “That is a myth, it does not happen anywhere in the world, even if we had the most refineries producing the most PMS in the world, you would find that the most prolific PMS producers with their refineries do not charge different from the countries without refineries. I am not saying that we should not have refineries, but there are benefits to having working refineries. “This is why phase one of our Port Harcourt Refinery is coming on stream in December 2023 and phase two by the end of 2024. Dangote Refinery is already up and is going to start dishing out products very soon. “BUA 200,000 bpd refinery is coming up in Akwa Ibom, we are going to have an excess supply that we can export internationally.

“The point I am making on this is that the reason why the price at the pump will not go down irrespective of what our refining capacity is as a country is that nobody spends tens of billions of dollars on building a refinery because of charity or corporate social responsibility, they do it to make money.” He added: “So that is why you find that no matter how many oil marketers you have, bringing the product into the country, no matter how many refineries you have producing mass amount of PMS (fuel), the price is dependent on an international benchmark of what the crude oil per barrel is. What the cost is. When the oil prices are high, the prices of the pump will go up and when the oil prices go down, the prices of the pump will go down.

“These are market fundamentals that are determined, not in one country but on the international stage. The benefit of having refineries in the country is not that you will have cheap fuel. No. The benefit is that you would have saved the country millions of dollars in transportation and logistics costs that we are spending on an annual basis of having to put refined PMS from an international refinery on the water to come to Nigeria’s shores we will have to offload and send to our distribution centres. You save that money.

“In addition to that, you save about $10bn per year on foreign exchange earnings that we are having to pay out to our refiners and partners to get that product exchanged from crude to refined PMS. We saved all that money within the Central Bank as a result of having a local refinery. So there are benefits, big benefits but one of them is not having cheap fuel.

THE Organised Labour, under the aegis of the National Union of Chemical, Footwear, Rubber, Leather and Non-Metallic Products Employees, NUCFRLANMPE, yesterday, urged the Federal Government to come up with policies to cushion the removal of subsidy on petrol, saying Nigerians, especially workers are suffering.

The union urged the Federal Government to create local policies that would improve the economy and lives of citizens.

President of NUCFRLANMPE, Mr Babatunde Olatunji, who spoke at the opening ceremony of its 31st annual industrial relations seminar with the theme ‘Social Dialogue as a Vehicle for Promoting Decent Work and Industrial Harmony’, lamented that the removal of fuel subsidy had impacted on the citizens, especially workers.

Olatunji said: “We plead with the government to hasten up and come out with policies to lessen the suffering Nigerians, especially workers are going through because of the removal of subsidy on Petrol. Nigerians are suffering.

“It is time to revive the local refineries, build infrastructure such as road networks and electricity supply as well as develop the iron and steel sector which is key to economic growth.

“Insecurity should be tackled, multiple taxation, rent and charges should be regulated to allow manufacturing companies survive and promote Gross Domestic Products in Nigeria.”

Olatunji noted that economic issues in the nation were affecting industrial relations saying “One of the effects is job losses arising from factory closure and redundancy. Some managements have devised strange practices such as outsourcing and contract staffing which are odd to normal employment practices.”

…Says Tchiani’s 3yrs plan to reinstate civil rule provoking

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, said yesterday it was more likely to use military force to restore constitutional order in Niger Republic, if the military junta, led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, was hell-bent on his three-year transition plan before returning the country to civil rule.

Fielding questions on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, also dismissed insinuations that ECOWAS was acting under the influence of a foreign power.

He explained that the community’s chances of using military force to restore constitutional order in Niger were very likely.

He said: “Right from the 1960s, I have never seen a coup that has not enjoyed continuous support from the people.

“The support can be engineered; you can rent crowds; that does not imply that people are unconcerned about their future.

”The high level of youth unemployment is a factor; mismanagement of our resources is a factor, but is the military a better sort of governance of our economy? Empirical data in our region never demonstrate that. So is that the right way to go about trying to change the system?

“A few years ago, you could not even talk of an incumbent president being defeated in an election. Since about 1992, we have seen alternations of power where sitting presidents were defeated and where ruling parties were defeated, whether in Ghana, Senegal, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, or even Liberia. So there’s already progress.”

On the plan by ECOWAS to pragmatically restore peace to Niger after the crisis, he said: “What plans does the coup led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani have for the country?

”They are now embarking on a blind experiment, saying they are going to have a three-year transition, they are going to consult people, so they themselves came without a plan.

”Now that they have overthrown a democratically elected government, they are thinking about alternatives.

“We have seen that where coups have occurred, we have not seen any major alternative better to save the population the military claim to save in those countries.

”So before the coup, ECOWAS had identified the cascading terrorism moving from Burkina Faso to coastal countries as an existential trend that threatened the livelihood of West African citizens and was an impediment to economic development.

”Let’s first remove that obstacle and put in place a regional plan for governance, which is already there. So there are rules and engagement for developing the country through regional and economic integration and increasing intra- and West African trade.

”All these are there, but they take time to bear fruit, and the military is not an alternative. We are just talking about West Africa as if it were an island. All these challenges we are talking about are global.

”Even in most advanced countries, ordinary people are suffering, and they have not chosen to take part in overthrowing their governments. So why here? The inflation in the US, UK, and other parts of Africa is not better than what we are seeing in West Africa today.

“In terms of ECOWAS reinstating constitutional order, it starts with consultation with all the active forces in the country, including political parties, the labour movement, and civil society organizations, they all have a say in it.

”So at the regional level, ECOWAS is already in the process of developing the economic and social council, which is the interface between civil society and policymaking in the region. The main driving slogan of ECOWAS is transforming the region from an ECOWAS of states, driven by the decisions of heads of state to an ECOWAS of the people. The process is ongoing.”

Asked on a scale of 1-10 how likely ECOWAS would deploy force in Niger, Amb Musah said: “Personaly, my wish is that it should be at zero, but I think given the posture of the regime, I will put it at 7, because if they continue to frustrate the non-violent proposal to reinstate constitutional order and then give an unacceptable timetable for return to constitutional order, they make the use of force more likely.

”At least, they have come forward to say they have an intention to return the country to constitutional order, but ECOWAS does not agree with the time frame, so even that agreement in principle is a move forward by the junta, but we will continue to consult to know the minimum, which would be the decisions by the authority of heads of state.”

Asked if ECOWAS was fixated on reinstating President Mohamed Bazoum, he said: “ECOWAS is asking for the release of Bazoum and his reinstatement. So we are calling on the junta to be reasonable because the three years they are talking about are nothing less than provocation to the ECOWAS community.”

ECOWAS denies influence of ‘foreign power

Amb Musah also disproved claims of manipulation of external powers in its efforts to resolve the political instability in Niger Republic.

While noting that foreign support was not part of the consideration of the West African body, he said: “We’ve never discussed our plans with any foreign power, whether they are on the ground, they are in the air, they are in their countries – ECOWAS is taking an independent autonomous decision.”

He noted that ECOWAS had not given any consideration to the complexities of the nationals and multinationals who had given a foot on the ground.

“I’m just coming from Accra where the chiefs of defence staff finalised their preparation for a potential military intervention in the country – foreign support was never part of the country at all.

“We are in with our contingent, own equipment, and our resources and we are not asking anybody for support, that is the position of ECOWAS,” he said.

If there is anything the Federal Capital Territory needs to recover from the manifestations of poor and substandard leadership delivered by most of the past ministers of FCT since 1999, it is that simple, but powerful word ‘ORDER!’

Except for the interlude of purposeful leadership by Mallam Nasir El-Rufai from 2003 to 2007, the lack of necessary respect for and adherence to the principle of ‘order’ in the development and management of FCT has been the bane of actualizing the lofty vision of the territory.

Throughout his time in office, the singular fight of Minister Nasir El’ Rufai was to restore order and establish the culture of order. He fought the high, the mighty and the powerful like an angry wolf to restore the distorted Masterplan. He fought aggressively to restore order in contract allocation and implementation. One of the many victories of the small but mighty minister was the section of Olusegun Obasanjo way from Bolingo Junction all the way to Wuse Zone 7 junction. On paper, the road was a four lane dual carriage way, but in real life, it was a two lane single carriage way. El – Rufai insisted the right thing must be done, and it was done.

Asides from the hefty distortion in the Masterplan violation that saw state of the art houses, malls, churches and mosques sitting pretty in wrong places, one of the greatest areas of disorder in the FCT before El – Rufai’s revolution was in the area of land administration. Thousands of cases of double allocations and cloned land documents abound because the system was not computerized. The system was so messed up then that some of the civil servants in charge of land administration allocated lands to themselves in the names of generations of their babies and grandchildren that were still in heaven waiting for wombs they will be assigned to by the Almighty God. Some civil servants and their friends and families have up to 100 lands allocated to them in fictitious names while hundreds of thousands applications were dumped away untreated. Land grabbers were having a field day in partnership with corrupt civil servants in the Ministry. El – Rufai introduced order to sanitize the system by establishing the Abuja Geographical Information System (AGIS) to promote full computerization of the land registry. In all he determined to do to set the FCT in order, President Olusegun Obasanjo stood behind him like the rock of Gibraltar. This emboldened Mr. Fix it to do his work without fear.

Although the mortal and inperfection nature of man didn’t allow the Minister to fix all that should have been fixed by him, he doubtless did so much work that he became endeared to majority of people in the FCT.

The signature of order being restored to FCT by the ‘good minister’ was beginning to take real shape all over the place when the tenure of President Olusegun Obasanjo came to its end and Nasir El – Rufai’s revolution came to an end on the 28th of May, 2007.

Aliyu Modibo Umar (2007 to 2008) and Adamu Aliero (2008 to 2010) were appointed by President Umar Musa Yar’ ‘ Adua to take over from Nasir El – Rufai in that order. Their performance in office combined showed that the shoe Nasir El – Rufai left behind was too big for them to wear. As it was for Adamu Ailero, so it was for all the other ministers of FCT since 2007 till date.

The order El – Rufai established in 4 years have been significantly overturned since Modibo Umar took over in mid 2007 and the territory has danced backwards since then in many areas into lawlessness and bastardization of systems by the privileged people in the governing class and their cronies.

The greatest battle the new Minister of FCT, Barr Nyesom Wike must begin with therefore is that of restoring order and institutionalizing it.

What is order? Oxford dictionary describes order as “the arrangement or disposition of people or things in relation to each other according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method.”
The existence of order or it’s absence in any clime is not difficult to notice. All you need to do is simply open your eyes and engage them in active watching or surveillance.

Whatever the type of surveillance or observatory gaze anyone with seeing eyes choses to take towards Abuja – be it casual or cursory, careful or consistent – the fellow won’t look too far before he or she locates the absence of order in both it’s connotative and denotative imperatives.

From the office of the bureaucrats managing the city to the highways and byways; from the fledging urban slums to the poorly maintained, abandoned or rapidly deteriorating infrastructure, Abuja is crying for order as the desert is crying for rain and as the dying is yearning for life.

The Federal Capital City was envisioned from the outset to be Nigeria’s most functional city of purpose. Lagos, the capital city of Nigeria since independence was congested and orderly development was becoming a herculean task. Lagosians spent hours in traffic jam daily and the attendant chaos became a huge snarl on the economy, governance and the general well-beign of Lagosians and the visitors.

To remedy the Lagos situation, thousands of houses will have to go and compensation that will have to be paid will be humongous. The government of late General Murtala Muhammed therefore felt it was better to go ahead and build a new Federal Capital City which General Yakubu Gowon’s government had also being thinking about. A committee headed by Justice Akinola Aguda was set up by General Muhammed in 1976 and at the end of the Committee’s work, the vision of FCT was born.

The Federal Capital Territory occupies a landmass of over 8,000 square kilometers and was carved out of the old Kwara, Niger and Old Plateau States. The indigenous inhabitants of Abuja are the Gbagyi (Gwari), the Bassa, Gwandara, Gade, Dibo, Egbira, Nupe and Koro.

Forty seven years after the development of Federal Capital Commenced and thirty years after the seat of government moved to Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory is sadly still struggling for order needed to become what is was designed to be. There is a significant and glaring dis-alignment in the disposition of the administrators of the territory and the people in relation to progress, development and public administration according to a particular sequence, pattern, or method that would reflect best practice and excellence.

Organized sequence, pattern and method are essential components of a city’s character. They are the foundation of organic development. They are the anchor of sustainable progress and the enforcer of responsible citizenry. Introducing order and institutionalising it needs a good driver leader who knows what to do, is determined to do it, is willing to do it with the right team and willing to communicate why it needs to be done to the people effectively. It is only when the people are willing to accept the reign of order as the best culture that true progress and sustainable development can be made to happen.

It is sad to say today that over 90% of the order Mallam Nasir El – Rufai introduced to FCT in 2003 to 2007 have been eroded and washed away by poor leadership and general indiscipline amongst the citizens. Land grabbing is back now and the perpetrators are prominent amongst the movers and shakers in the territory. Vehicles (including governments official vehicles) drive recklessly against traffic on highways all over the city; drivers disobey traffic lights at will without the fear of being punished and commercial cyclists and Keke operators drive around the city like outlaws without obeying traffic rules.
Beggars and street traders are running their empires in the city as they desire. Buildings that ought not to be approved because they simply didn’t make sense are springing up all over the city. Make shift, unsightly and rowdy bus stops are littered everywhere they ought not to be. They impede free flow of traffic in many cases. The reckless abuse of waterways and green areas in many parts of the city is promoting flooding every year and leading to loss of precious lives. Properties worth trillions of naira are lost to these floodings too. The prevailing behaviour and character of the leadership and followership in FCT worrisomely reflect a hopeless surrender to disorderliness and chaos.

Order is established by human beings for all human beings to embrace and for the society to function peacefully, effectively and efficiently. No man is above order.
The biggest place for order to begin therefore is in the corridors of power in the FCT, the territory’s public service, it’s agencies and in the lives of men and women lawfully assigned to carry out the duties of the state. A disorderly individual occupying a position of leadership can’t in good conscience promote order. Lopsided appointments, nepotistic assignment of positions and favouritism in the promotions of personnel in the bureaucracy will create a toxic environment where order will be stifled and caged.
FCT bureaucracy needs sanitization to make room for the culture of order to permeate the system.

Promoting order in FCT must commence from the office of the Minister and flow to the entire FCT Public Service. The Public Service through effective and efficient performance by every staff will make dispensing of order to the nooks and crannies of the territory effortless and impactful.

The pain of lack of commitment in orderly development in FCT is felt more by the poor people in the satellite villages. Unfortunately, many of these villages have never had the honour of being visited by their elected representatives or the Minister and his leadership bigwigs. The chaos in the system makes it hard for the voices of these poor villagers to reach the seat of power and receive prompt and orderly attention.
With a tone that is too faint to be heard, the soul of FCT is crying for order like a hungry suckling babe wailing out of the pang of unbearable hunger for the breast milk of the mother. From Abaji to Abuja Municipal, from Gwagwalada to Bwari and from Kwali to Kuje, the Federal Capital is looking for a strong, visionary, courageous and determined leader who will take the gavel of governance and hammer a loud ORDER! to herald a new beginning. Let’s wait and see what Nyesom Wike will do.

President Bola Tinubu has directed the Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong to immediately take over negotiations with the organized labour in order to arrive at amicable resolutions that will make workers overcome the current pains.

The Minister of Labour and Employment, Simon Lalong disclosed this while addressing directors, heads of parastatals and agencies under the ministry and the entire staff immediately he assumed office.

The Minister also said that the administration of President Bola Tinubu shall not spare any effort to protect the Nigerian workers and guarantee their dignity at all times.

Lalong, flanked by the Minister of State, Labour and Employment, Hon. Nkeiruka Onyejecha said under his stewardship, the ministry will fulfil its mandate of ensuring decent work for all Nigerians and making sure that citizens particularly the youth and women get opportunity to deploy their energy, creativity, talent and gifts to the development of the nation.

He also assured that the government through the ministry shall work closely with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, the Trade Union Congress, TUC and their affiliates towards ensuring that all pending industrial disputes are settled amicably.

The Minister said the government will be addressing with strong determination the new minimum wage and other palliatives arising from the removal of fuel subsidy.

He said that his appointment and that of the Minister of State is a call to service and promised that they shall do everything within their power to give their best in assisting the President fulfill his Renewed Hope Agenda for a better Nigeria.

According to him, “Nigerians have trusted President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima with their mandate, and therefore expect a better nation where their dreams and aspirations will be fulfilled.

“The President has, in turn, mandated us to handle the very important aspects of Labour and Employment, which are critical to national development and prosperity.

“The task is certainly enormous but achievable, especially with the abundant human resources Nigeria is endowed with. We therefore need your support and understanding to succeed.

“Under my stewardship, the Ministry of Labour and Employment will fulfill its mandate of ensuring decent work for all Nigerians and making sure that our citizens particularly the youth and women get the opportunity to deploy their energy, creativity, talent and gifts to the development of the nation.

“We shall therefore mobilise and deploy all the resources of the Ministry towards ensuring that the matters relating to Labour and Employment are galvanised across relevant MDAs and sectors of the economy in line with the Renewed Hope Agenda of Mr. President. Our workers must get value for their labour and operate in safe and conducive environment.

“Because of the level of unemployment, underemployment, and challenges associated with the work environment, we have been mandated by Mr. President to ensure that Nigerians get decent employment and are adequately remunerated for their labour both in the public and private sectors.

“We shall not spare any effort to protect the Nigerian worker and guarantee his dignity at all times.”

The Minister said the administration will escalate the relations with the private sector, development partners, international agencies, NGOs among others to make sure that unemployment and underemployment is reduced to the barest minimum according to the plan of the Tinubu administration.

He further said, “On the relationship with the organised Labour, the Government through the Ministry shall work closely with the NLC, TUC and their affiliates towards not only ensuring that all pending industrial disputes are settled amicably, but also addressing with strong determination the new minimum wage and other palliatives arising from the removal of fuel subsidy.

“I use this opportunity to specially convey the appreciation of Mr. President to the organised labour and Nigerian workers in general for exercising tremendous understanding and patience with the current situation.

“The Government does not take this for granted and Mr. President has directed that we move on with negotiations to arrive at amicable resolutions that will make our workers overcome the current pains.”

He said that the Ministry shall leverage on technology, skill acquisition, entrepreneurship, agriculture among others to open up more employment opportunities for all Nigerians.

“This is in addition to current Safety Net Jobs and new ones that this Government will initiate within the coming weeks and months, ” he said

On the expectations of Nigerians, he said, ” In the coming weeks, we shall unveil detailed plans of President Tinubu’s vision for Labour and Employment and also spell out the role that the Ministry and its agencies, development partners and Nigerians in general will play in actualizing it.

“We shall be engaging all relevant partners and receiving briefings towards a robust performance.”

In her brief remarks, the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Hon Nkeiruka Onyejecha, said her appointment was not by her might or power, rather by the grace of God.

He advised staff of the ministry to put in their best, stressing, “Whether we like it or not, there will be a time we will give account of our activities.”

He urged the staff to help Tinubu’s administration to implement all the promises he made to Nigerians.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris Malagi has promised Nigerians that his duty, as mandated by President Bola Tinubu is to tell the citizens the truth about the government and its policies.

The Minister said under his watch, there will be no room for lies or fake news about government activities and policies, promising to operate an open door policy.

Naija News reports Magagi stated this on Monday during an official reception, organized in his honour by the ministry on Monday in Abuja.

The new Minister said the President has given him the mandate to tell Nigerians the truth about the government and as an experienced practitioner with about thirty years of experience, he is reporting for duty.

Malagi vowed that under his watch the Ministry would be reinvigorated and repositioned.

The Minister made the pledge in the company of his Arts, Culture and Creative Economy and Tourism counterpart who were also part of the official reception by the ministry.

In his words, ‘‘For me, I am actually a reporter reporting for duty, and I meant it with every sense of the word. The President has asked me to come and tell you, this is a brand new ministry of Information and National Orientation. This is a ministry that is set to be re-positioned like never before. I have been in the industry for nearly three decades and I should know where the shoe pinches.

“Today is not for policy announcement but a day to familiarize ourselves with all the stakeholders in the ministry.

‘‘We are poised to ensure that the Renewed Hope of Mr President gets serious traction. Mr. President has sent me to come and say it the way it is, Mr. President didn’t send me to come and lie, and this is the new covenant with you and Nigerians.

“We are going to say it as it is, Mr. President is somebody who is truthful, honest, transparent, he has said that when we come, we should own up where there are mistakes, we should own up where we erred, we should not be shy to say, No this is wrong and we are going to correct it. The ministry will be at the core of its job, the job of info dissemination.’’

The Minister in his speech also assured media practitioners that the Ministry will be open and transparent. He promised answers would be provided for everything they want to know as much as possible.

‘’The ministry is going to be open, transparent and accountable to Nigerians. There will be no hold back here, everything you want to know, you will get to know. Please ask your question, we will let you know, if you don’t understand, go and seek clarification. If we are wrong we will apologize. We must ensure that transparency is the watch word in this ministry. Join us in helping Mr President in building enduring legacy for our dear nation, that’s why we are here,’’ Malagi added.

The Kaduna State Government has announced that it will reduce the price of school fees for all its state-owned tertiary institutions.

The State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, announced that the downward review of the fees is in tandem with the rise in the cost of living in the country, especially following the removal of fuel subsidy by President Bola Tinubu in May this year.

According to a statement signed by the Governor’s Chief Press Secretary, Mohammed Shehu, Governor Sani made the announcement while speaking to the media at the government house on Monday.

In the statement, Kaduna State University fee was slashed by 30 per cent from the current fee of N150,000 to N105,000.Nuhu while the Bamalli Polytechnic was reduced by 50 per cent from N100,000 to N50,000.

The College of Education, Gidan Waya was also reviewed downward from the current fee of N75,000 to N37,500, which is a reduction of 50 per cent.

For Shehu Idris College of Health Sciences & Technology, Makarfi, the fee for HND Courses was reduced by 30 per cent from N100,000 to N70,000 while for National Diploma, it was cut from N70.000 tp N52000.

The statement read in part, “On assumption of office on May 29, 2023, we made a solemn commitment to the citizens of Kaduna State to run a people – centred, all-inclusive administration that shall leave no one or any part of Kaduna State behind.

“In response to the public outcry over the current fees being charged by tertiary institutions in Kaduna State and its effect on school enrolment and retention, I directed heads of tertiary institutions in conjunction with the Ministry of Education to obtain relevant information on the extant fees regime in state owned tertiary institutions.”

“This downward review of the extant fees regime aligns with the KDSG’s commitment to offer palliatives to cushion the effect of general rising cost of living in the polity, especially in the wake of recent petrol subsidy removal in Nigeria.

“The welfare of the people remains this administration’s topmost priority and the Kaduna State Government shall continue to take all measures necessary to ensure access to free and qualitative education for every child in Kaduna State from primary to secondary school.”

The development comes at a time where tertiary institutions across the country, public and private, are raising their fees to keep up with rising costs of goods and services.

Bayero University stated that it had to increase it fees because of the high cost of running a university, stating that it spends N75m on diesel and electricity supply monthly.

Similarly, students of Babcock University had taken to social media

A combination of foreign exchange forwards, securities lending, currency swaps, and outstanding contracts has weakened Nigeria’s net external reserves to an all-time low of $3.7 billion as of the end of last year, according to JP Morgan.

The American multinational financial services firm noted in an August 17 report that Nigeria’s net FX reserves are significantly lower than previously estimated.

The external reserves stood at $33.88 billion as of August 10, down from $37.08 billion at the end of last year, according to data from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

“We estimate that CBN’s net FX reserves were around $3.7 billion at the end of last year, from US$14.0 billion at end-2021,” JP Morgan said.

In arriving at the estimate, JP Morgan made a few assumptions: “FX forwards ($6.84 billion), securities lending ($5.5 billion) and currency swaps ($21.3 billion); and estimating currency swaps by backing out FX forwards and outstanding OTC Futures balances from an overall aggregate published in the financial accounts.”

The report noted that Nigeria’s low net FX reserves mean continued FX market pressures, “but the CBN still has the ability to source FX at commercial and semi-commercial rates”.

“Nigeria’s exchange rate market remains fragmented. Since the adjustment of USD/NGN at the Investors and Exporters window a few weeks ago, interbank FX liquidity has not improved as much as anticipated, partly due to the re-introduction of de-facto controls limiting local trades and loose monetary policy conditions,” JP Morgan said.

It said Nigeria’s apex bank continues to intervene in small amounts at a rate of around N740-N750/$, without clearing the backlog of unmet FX demand.

“Given the highly profitable nature of the currency swap arrangements between the CBN and domestic commercial banks, we expect these to continue for some time, albeit in smaller sizes and arguably more punitive rates,” JP Morgan said.

The global investment bank noted that Nigeria is upping its game to unlock $17 billion from asset sales, a move aimed at relieving pressure on the country’s struggling FX liquidity.

“The authorities are in the initial stages of identifying assets for sale, which may provide some medium-term relief,” it said. “For example, the President’s policy advisory council has recommended the government sell down its stake in the most joint-venture oil and gas assets, a proposal that is estimated to bring in up to US$17bn.”

On Monday, the naira remained flat as FX dealers in the parallel market bought and sold dollars to customers at N855 and N860.

Investors said Africa’s biggest economy is in desperate need of dollars to boost its declining external reserves and prop up the value of its currency.

“JP Morgan has come out to confirm. The President really needs to address this thing and tell Nigerians the truth. Everyone knows he inherited a mess, but admitting reality is the first step to salvation,” Kelvin Emmanuel, CEO of Dairy Hills Ltd, said.

The lack of clarity on Nigeria’s external reserves worsened after the apex bank audited reports revealed it has a standing $14 billion loan obligation to entities including to American investment bankers, JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs.

“The CBN reports suggest that some of its loans were used to bolster Nigeria’s (Caa1 stable) foreign exchange reserves. Should this be the case, and given the liabilities’ short tenure, our assessment of Nigeria’s foreign-exchange reserve adequacy would weaken,” Moody’s Investors Service, a global financial rating agency, said in its note published on August 18, 2023.

The CBN’s audited report showed that it owes JP Morgan $7 billion and Goldman Sachs $500 million, while $6.3 billion is owed as foreign currency forwards.

Moody’s noted that assuming that the CBN borrowed the whole $14.2 billion to bolster foreign reserves, “we would roughly halve the 2022 year-end gross reserves of $30.3 billion to $16.1 billion”.

“Similarly, our External Vulnerability Indicator, which measures short-term external debt plus maturing long-term external debt and non-resident long-term deposits relative to official foreign reserves, would worsen to up to 200 percent from its 2023 forecast level of 100 percent,” it added.

Apart from Moody’s, JP Morgan also raised concerns on the recent news around the potential re-introduction of fuel subsidies at some level.

The global investment bank noted that Nigeria’s high debt-servicing needs and relatively lower net FX position make it imperative to continue on the reform path to attract FX flows.

“While Eurobonds only start maturing from 2025 onwards with continued maturities from 2027, Nigeria still has to service close to $2.5-$4.5 billion of public and publicly-guaranteed debt over the next few years,” it said.

To change the narrative, it said Nigeria would need foreign direct and other portfolio investments to attract FX inflows.

“Thus, in our view, continuing on the reform path would be imperative to allay concerns on the external side,” JP Morgan said.

Former Governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike, has claimed that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gave him the green light to accept the ministerial position under the Bola Tinubu administration.

Wike, who described the PDP leaders as reggae dancers for threatening to sanction him, said the party was well informed before he accepted the position.

The former governor also said that Tinubu wrote the 36 state governors, including those of the PDP, who, according to him, gave 10 names to the president to appoint as ministers.

“Can you even mention who is my enemy? Can you even mention one person that is my enemy?” Wike said at his first press briefing as a minister of the Federal Republic in Abuja on Monday.

“See, people carry propaganda. Let me use this opportunity to tell you that I don’t like people who don’t tell the truth.

“They said they’re going to sanction me because I accepted the appointment. I don’t have any clause.

“The president wrote to the 36 state governors to bring names of people to appoint, didn’t PDP governors submit names?

“Every PDP governor wrote a letter and nominated ten persons to be appointed by this government.

“But the one they talk about is Wike. Before this appointment came, I wrote to the national chairman. I wrote to the minority leaders of the House of Reps and Senate.

“I wrote to the zonal chairman of the party and my state chairman. I wrote to my governor and all of them wrote me back and said “accept.”‘

“I have my evidence documented. Forget these reggae dancers. I call them reggae dancers because when you’ve lost your opportunity, you’ve lost your opportunity because of arrogance and impunity.”