The Office of Adviser does not exist in a parliamentary system. It became part of the Nigerian political process with the adoption of the presidential system. It is fraught with a lot of unanswered and even unanswerable questions. Advisers are the personal staff of their principals. They are not subject to the scrutiny of the party or the legislature. The principal appoints them to advise him/her on the critical programmes of the administration. The appointment of advisers is a critical pointer to the seriousness of any principal. Any principal at whose table the buck stops and bears the burden and responsibility of any decision is well advised to appoint advisers that can add value to his/her performance and political future.

It is for this reason that the rule is relaxed to enable the principal to scout for, screen and appoint advisers that can deliver. Ideally, an Adviser is a professional in his/her field set apart for his neutral technical competence. He may or may not have a loud party affiliation but must believe in the mission and vision of his principal. Partisanship may colour his/her advice negatively or, to put it more bluntly, affect his/her professionalism.

 In fact, for advisers who are licentiates of professional bodies, their poor performance may jeopardize their professional standing and/or licence. The post of Adviser is not for novitiates. It is not a field for trial and error because errors at that level are too expensive both for the principal and for the system. An error in the national public advisory system could be tantamount to mass murder. Unfortunately, policy errors in the public domain are difficult to reverse and, if ever reversible, costly in time, effort and credibility of the administration. Advice must therefore be professionally targeted. Advisers must, therefore, not only be sharp-shooters but also great marksmen. Anything less than that is a policy liability or even a disaster. Nigeria has witnessed a gross abuse of advisers over the years in terms of quality and quantity. First, there is the alibi that there are no set constitutional or statutory qualifications for advisers. The principals therefore unfortunately solely decide the qualifications which have turned out to be, in most cases, a potpourri of sorts inadequate for the governance of human beings.

Normally, advisers constitute an elite corps of professionals at the core of governance. They are to augment, supplement and complement the elected officers whose qualifications may be as low as being ‘educated up to school certificate level’. It is not impossible that some of them may not even be that endowed. Even if the elected principal is a universal genius, he would be so distracted in office that he needs the assistance of less pressured people. It is therefore a disservice to both the principal and the system to appoint family members and friends who cannot add value such posts. It is not an uncommon experience in Nigeria that Principals advise their Advisers. It is an orchestrated redundancy.    

Who are Advisers?

Political Advisers are people appointed by elected public officeholders to guide them to initiate, fine-tune, monitor and/or re-order public policy for the maximum political advantage of the principal and the welfare of the electorate. The political adviser is therefore a political image maker and a vote maximiser. Without saying so, he is a technical expert to apply the mechanics of public policy to add value to social service delivery to the electorate and thus enhance the electoral prospects of the principal. No matter what fields they cover- economy, energy, security, legislative relations, intergovernmental relations, they are all, broadly speaking, political advisers. They must have basic education in the respective fields and be professionals in their own right. For peer recognition, approval and credibility, they must, before appointment, attain a level of professional and social visibility. Their status will also be enhanced if they engage in continuing education within their area of expertise because currency in theory and praxis is critical to the investment of political trust. Readers are leaders because they are knowledgeable in comparative political best practice and success case-studies.

Furthermore, the adviser must not only be proficient in his field of practice but equally able to equip his principal to convince and influence the public. He must be a proficient communicator with ability to transmit the kernel of policy to his principal because the reception of policies is not only based on quality but also on presentation, delivery and timing.

The practice of political advising requires not only continuing education but also a multi-disciplinary exposure. Policies are by nature polygonal and polycyclic. The adviser must therefore be a psychologist, a social historian, a logician, an experimentalist, a behaviorist and a visionary to be competent in the analysis of complex public issues.  

More importantly, the adviser must understand the basics of national politics, regional sensitivities and professional proclivities. Although he is not a politician, he must be able to smell politics from a distance and analyze politics in an apolitical fashion even though policy is ultimately political. The Adviser must be conversant and agree with the project vision which he must align with project scope as well as human and material project targets. It is important to inform or advise advisers that they are not bosses whose words are laws. Their advice may be turned down. The success of an Adviser is a function of the quality, the timeliness and the persuasiveness of the presentation of his advice bearing in mind that it is the Principal that takes the flak and the praise. Official advice may also be turned down in favour of the advice of unofficial and informal advisers who have more political weight. Such unofficial advisers must not be underrated because they are ‘suya’ spot paddies, fellow old boys or business associates. That is reality in the political world.

Methodology of Political Advice

An adviser must be a competent researcher with a good mastery of archival, primary and secondary sources. He must also be able to tease out relevant information through interviews, questionnaires, focus group discussions, participant and non-participant observations. Any method of getting relevant and useful information must be employed because information is the most critical input of policy. It is also important for the Adviser to obtain information from all strata of relevant stakeholders because the electorate is a composite group with varying and even conflicting needs. The interaction of needs within the electorate generate demands. For example, salary awards for a section of the electorate has a tendency to spike demands in other classes of the electorate. The reality is that the electorate is not monolithic.

The adviser must therefore be aware that the various classes of the electorate   are connected and interconnected. Even if the electorate were monolithic, the solution proffered by a policy creates a new problem either in its details, content, context or application. An Adviser must devise anticipatory positive insulation techniques to avoid or counter a resultant chain of demands and/or complaints arising from any and all policies. No matter how good a policy may be, an Adviser must expect and be alert to its consequences. He must, therefore, be adept in policy consequence management (PCM) because poor or careless consequence management can fracture or even frustrate the best policy. Policy consequence anticipation is part and parcel of policy design architecture. A policy should be simulated ahead of its finalization. The simulation takes place in a social incubation laboratory where, according to Murphy’s  law, whatever can go wrong will go wrong. Failures at the level of simulation afford the policy adviser a golden opportunity to either backtrack/retreat or review the policy itself. Policy simulation is confidential and performed out of public view. In the case of policy failure at that point, there are neither individual nor systemic casualties. Simulation is a policy cost-saving device as well as a technique for minimising public damage. In addition to simulating a policy, the policy adviser can also trouble-shoot in the process of deciding on a policy. Trouble-shooting is an experimental process of thinking outside the box to ascertain what can work as well as what the prospective end-users think. It is an embedded consultative system of sampling people’s opinion. A more explicit method is conducting focus group discussions (FGD) as a form of opinion sampling and the initiation of policy ownership through informal consultation. The two methods of trouble-shooting and focus group discussion are aimed at the saturation of critical constituencies.

A policy must not be abandoned after it has been made. Even abandoned children grow lean. Any policy, must therefore be monitored, nurtured and managed to conclusion. The monitoring and management of policies can start with a test run which is usually a small scale experimentation. The system seeks to discover the strengths and weaknesses of a policy in actual operation. The test run provides a final opportunity to put the policy to test in action before its public launching. It also affords the policy Adviser the opportunity to correct or edit out errors and weaknesses that manifest in the trial operation of the policy. All the above steps are necessary and should be painstakingly taken because a public policy error is very expensive to both the people and the political regime. In fact, it may be very critical to the electoral survival of that regime.

One of the weaknesses of the policy advisory system is the fact that Advisers hardly coordinate their activities or see the need for coordination or cooperation. It is very important that the policies of a regime should be synchronized for effect. Advisers must cooperate to align policies for synergy because the policies of a regime must not work at cross-purposes. Advisers must work together as a team because administrative departmentalization is merely for convenience rather than for functionality. The ultimate target of all policies is unitary i. e. the people. It is in fact advisable that a regular meeting of Advisers be convened for experience sharing and general policy coordination. Advisers must come to the understanding that they serve the same principal.

The advisers of the President and the advisers of the ministers must meet periodically to deliberate on and synchronise the policies of the federal government. The advisers of the Ministries must not only meet when there is a crisis. To all intents and purposes a strike is not just an issue for the Ministry of Labour. It is a cross-cutting. Their meetings should address the inevitable process of policy interaction which they can manage through the process of policy triangulation. This will lead to proper policy integration issuing from the same government. The advisory system in Nigeria at the federal and state levels by the same party lack coordination as they cannot be identified as having the same pedigree. Presently, there is no meeting point for the advisers to the President with the advisers to the various ministers. This lacuna has a tendency to occasion leakage of funds, policy overlaps or duplication and gross under-capacity utilization. These issues call for attention.

Appointment of Advisers

Advisers, when carefully selected, are essential for effective governance. There are however many socio-political constraints in the recruitment of competent Advisers. Some constraints inhere in the personality of the principals while others are systemic, statutory or constitutional. A principal who is not given to standards is likely to opt for mediocrity either by being nepotistic or clannish. Incompetent principals cannot recruit competent Advisers. What determines the quality of recruitment by a principal comes under the minimax rubric, namely that the principal who makes his own level of efficiency and competence the minimum requirement for recruitment of Advisers will recruit excellent people. On the other hand, a principal who makes his own level of efficiency and competence the maximum requirement will invariably recruit mediocre and sycophants. Such a principal will be comfortable with such officers because they meet his mark. In such cases where the criterion of recruitment is not competence, it is illogical to expect competent performance incompetent officers.

The recruitment of Advisers is also affected or even dictated by systemic factors. In a plural society, members feel that their protection, welfare and share of public amenities is a function of their representation in government. This mindset is a product of ethnic mutual distrust that no ethnic unit can be an honest trustee of another ethnic group. The result is that government is divided for the people by the people such that the people think that the interest of each ethnic group can only be protected by members of that group. Sometimes this feeling is so deeply ingrained that it is written into the statute books and even into the constitution. That is the case of Nigeria.  In local parlance, Nigerians want it implemented by demanding government presence in their localities. In Nigeria, therefore, the people perceive the Federal Government as the product of what the relevant invisible mental ethnic slice represents. In this sense, therefore, the Federal Government is local. While the abstract division of government along ethnic lines ostensibly sets out to ensure social equity and determines the location of the individual in the polity, it is responsible for the sub-optimal performance of government. Every appointment is located in the mental construct of the ethnic slice of the federation.  

The above constraints notwithstanding, the principal still has to recruit personnel into these and other positions. As President Tinubu is now poised to recruit personnel into offices, he must carry out the functions to the best to the best of his ability in the best interest of the country and mindful of the fact that he is not immune from blame. The late Timi of Ede, HRH Tijani Oyedokun, Agbonran II summed up Palace 101 for me in one sentence: “The Palace is a refuse dump”. All and sundry, rich and poor, young and old throw, and are entitled to throw, refuse into the palace. That is also a defining right of democracy. What reduces the dumping of refuse is doing what is right rather than what is good. Right and good have their appropriate occasions.

Another antidote and consolation is that: “Abuses do no break bones”. The Principal must therefore not be tempted or driven to the other extreme which my first year Political Science teacher, Prof James O’Connell, summed up in another sentence: “Once a king receives the staff of office, he no longer gets good advice”. Good or bad, everybody praises the king’s actions. Unfortunately, when the King falls, everybody says “We warned him!!” It is power that makes people powerful. Nobody makes way for a former horse owner. The principal must always remember that it is the Adviser that is rich in options, adds value and honestly speaks truth to power, that is the sincere, competent and loyal adviser.

·      Ayoade, an Emeritus Professor of Political Science, writes from Ibadan

The Ondo State Government said it has set up a nine-man committee on palliatives that will work out the strategies to cushion the effects of fuel subsidy removal in the state.

The government said the constitution of the committee was part of the decision taken at the state executive council meeting held on Thursday in Akure, the state capital, presided over by the state Acting Governor Mr. Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

The state Commissioner for Economic Planning and Budget, Mr Emmanuel Igbasan, disclosed this after the meeting.

According to the commissioner, the committee on the palliatives was set up to cushion the consequential effects of the fuel subsidy removal on the citizenry.

Igbasan promised that government will continue to place importance on the people’s welfare in the 18 local government areas of the state. He noted that the government was aware of the hardship caused by the fuel subsidy removal.

He said, “There would be a quick intervention in no distant time.”

Igbasan also disclosed that the committee will be headed by the Chief of Staff to the governor, Chief Olugbenga Ale.

“We took a look into the issue of the subsidy removal and its consequential effects on our people and the council decided to constitute a state committee on palliatives under the chairmanship of the chief of staff to the governor.

“Other members are the head of service and the commissioner of finance, among others. We commiserate with our people over the hardship they are facing due to the removal of the oil subsidy.

“The chairman will soon convene a meeting of the committee, the fiscal surplus and what will accrue to the state from the Federal Government from the palliative of N500 billion proposed by the president,” he said.

A traditional ruler and Chairman, Bayelsa Traditional Rulers Council, His Royal Majesty Bubaraye Dakolo, has alleged that the Cameroon-bound stolen crude oil-laden vessel intercepted on Escravos sea in Delta State was burnt to prevent the “real oil thieves” from being brought in for investigation.

The monarch, who spoke on Arise TV’s The Morning Show on Wednesday, faulted the burning of the vessel, calling it a waste of Nigeria’s resources.

The PUNCH had reported that security agencies, on Tuesday, set ablaze a vessel laden with 150 metric tonnes of stolen crude oil earlier intercepted on Escravos sea in Delta State.

Tantita Executive Director on Technical Operations, Captain Warredi Enisuoh, told journalists that:”The whole idea of destroying the vessel is to send a strong message to all would-be investors that this is what they are to face if they do this type of business.”

But faulting the claim, the Bayelsa monarch argued that the vessel was burnt in order to shield the oil thieves.

Dakolo said, “I can tell you for free that that vehicle (vessel) was burnt because it was cheaper to burn it than to bring in the oil thieves that (are) behind it all.

“Usually, what Nigeria has done in the last several decades is to parade a young, helpless, improperly-educated, jobless youth from the Niger Delta as the typical thief. But I argue that such a person shouldn’t be called a thief, he should be rehabilitated. He belongs to a place where you have to educate him, re-orientate him, and make him a patriotic Nigerian. He is a victim of oil thieves.”

He added that “the real thief of oil is someone who has a yacht, someone who has a golf course; it’s someone who cannot sleep a night in the Niger Delta because of mosquitoes and insecurity. It’s someone who has property in London, in Banana Island, in Abuja, in Frankfurt, in New York City. Those are the thieves.”

The monarch alleged that “everyone that is in authority knows them (the oil thieves).”

“They’re well-known. Those in authority, I can bet you, they know who does it and who does not do it. And the reason why they prefer to present the face of a young uneducated, unemployed person from the Niger Delta as a thief is to distract the world.”

He said it was economically unwise to burn the vessel.

“To put it clearly, that is about 1.6 million barrels, and that amount to around $100m which runs into billions of naira. That is the amount or value of what was inside there (the intercepted vessel).”

King Dakolo further alleged that the Nigerian authorities and security agencies were aware the loading of the crude oil, stressing that it was not possible to load such volume of crude without the knowledge of the authorities.

“That is approximately what Nigeria produces in a day – about 1.8 million barrels. It takes a while to load the whole of that volume. And, so, definitely it must have been loaded somewhere that is an authorised loading bay.

“So, the authorities of the NNPC were supposed to know, and I think they know. And, then, of course, usually in all of those places there are law enforcement (agents) at the terminal. So, definitely all of these agencies knew that this was taking place,” he said.

The Kano State Government has faulted the distribution of the Federal Government’s allocation of N500 billion through the Bank of Industry to support small-scale industries across the country’s geopolitical zones.

Governor Abba Yusuf made the complaint during a meeting with representatives from the Kano Cooperative Society at the Government House on Thursday evening.

He revealed that the distribution was heavily skewed, with Lagos State receiving 47 per cent of the allocation, followed by the South-South Zone with 17%, and other regions receiving significantly lower percentages.

Yusuf described the distribution mode as “unfair, unconstitutional, and illegal”. He called on relevant authorities and members of the National Assembly to rectify the situation and take appropriate action against those responsible.

He said the state government would support Cooperative Societies in their efforts to alleviate poverty and regain their influence.

The meeting was held as part of activities to commemorate the 2023 International Day of Cooperatives.

Yusuf, represented by his Deputy, Aminu Gwarzo, reiterated his administration’s primary goal of eradicating poverty in Kano state.

In a statement on Friday by the deputy governor’s spokesman, Ibrahim Shuaibu, Gwarzo emphasized the importance of Cooperative Societies as vehicles through which citizens can improve their lives and contribute to the overall development of their community and the nation.

President of the Kano Cooperative Society, Musa Aikawa, who spoke on behalf of the delegation, emphasized the significance of cooperatives in enhancing the lives of their members.

He disclosed that the state has over 2.8 million cooperative members, primarily consisting of young people.

Aikawa requested the intervention of the state government to develop strategies for reducing the high rate of unemployment in the state.

Yusuf announced that the state government would engage cooperative societies in designing poverty eradication and sustainable development programs.

“Furthermore, committees would be established to review the activities of Cooperative Desk Officers in each Local Government Area, while desk officers would be introduced in major markets such as Dawanau, Kantin Kwari, Yan Lemo to guide and support cooperative activities,” he said.

The Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Solid Minerals, Mairo Danbatta, encouraged the youth to embrace cooperative business ventures as a means of progress and reducing unemployment in Kano.

The meeting was attended by several dignitaries, including government officials and representatives from educational institutions related to cooperative activities in Kano.

The United States has announced a hike in fees by 15 per cent for certain non-immigrant visa applications (NIV).

The US Department of State disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

According to the statement, the hike in the affected NIV fees was implemented after a review of the country’s costs of providing these services.

The hike also affects the border crossing card (BCC) for Mexican citizens aged 15 and over.

The department of state is committed to facilitating legitimate travel to the United States for both immigrant and nonimmigrant travelers.

The statement partly reads, “These increases were published in the federal register on March 28, 2023, and will be effective on May 30, 2023.

“The fee for visitor visas for business or tourism (B1/B2s and BCCs), and other non-petition based NIVs such as student and exchange visitor visas, will increase from $160 to $185.

“The fee for certain petition-based nonimmigrant visas for temporary workers (H, L, O, P, Q, and R categories) will increase from $190 to $205. The fee for a treaty trader, treaty investor, and treaty applicants in a specialty occupation (E category) will increase from $205 to $315.

“NIV fees are set based on the actual cost of providing NIV services and are determined after conducting a study of the cost of these services. The department uses an activity-based costing (ABC) methodology to calculate, annually, the cost of providing consular services, including visa services.

“The fees for most non-petition based NIVs were last updated in 2012, and certain other NIV fees were last updated in 2014.”

“Other consular fees are not affected by this rule, including the waiver of the two-year residency required fee for certain exchange visitors,”

The fee information is contained on the bureau of consular affairs website, travel.state.gov, and on the websites of US embassies and consulates.

The cleric posited that N8,000 palliative will be a total waste of time because it won’t work for its purpose due to corrupt practices that will mar the process.

‘’The N8,000 palliative is corruption, I see nothing in the palliative and it will not reach out to the poor masses. Despite the fact that Mr President has signed it, it will not make any impact. The governors will use it for their selfish needs. The poor will not enjoy it at all.

‘’It will not be a blessing to the majority, the palliative is just a waste of time and energy, it cannot work for its purpose,’’ he asserted.

On the alternative, he advised that minimum wage should be increased to N100,000 if indeed the government has the people at heart.

Primate Ayodele asserted that an increase in minimum wage will have a direct impact on the people.

‘’If truly the government is concerned about the masses, the minimum wage should be increased to N100,000. It will go a long way in cushioning the effects of subsidy removal and inflation. Minimum wage increase will have a direct impact on the people than N8,000 palliatives,’’ he said.

The take-home pays of civil servants in Ebonyi state will be subjected to upward review by the state government.

The salaries of the government workers in the southeastern state will be increased by N10,000, the state governor Francis Nwifuru announced on Friday.

The announcement was contained in a statement signed by the governor and shared on his verified Twitter handle.

Nwifuru said that the increase was ratified by the State Executive Council (EXCO) at its meeting on July 13, 2023.

The governor noted that the increment became imperative in light of the rising cost of living occasioned by the subsidy removal.

He said that the increase underscored his administration’s commitment to improving the welfare of civil servants.

Nwifuru also announced that EXCO had approved the employment of 1,454 new civil servants into the state’s civil service.

The statement reads:

EMPLOYMENT OF CIVIL SERVANTS AND INCREMENT OF WORKERS’ SALARIES

The State Executive Council Meeting of July 13, 2023 received a report from the Head of Service on areas we need to employ Ebonyians into various Ministries, Departments, and Agencies of the State Civil Service.

Accordingly, EXCO has approved the employment of 1,454 Ebonyians into the State Civil Service. Additionally, EXCO has as well approved the increase of salaries of our Civil Servants by Ten Thousand Naira (N10,000.00), each.

The governor’s announcement comes at a time when civil servants across the country are facing increasing financial hardship due to the removal of fuel subsidy.

The removal of fuel subsidy by the Bola Tinubu-led federal government has led to a sharp increase in the price of petrol, which has in turn led to an increase in the prices of other goods and services

Another FCT High Court sitting in Abuja has nullified the arrest, detention, and interrogation of the suspended CBN Governor Godwin Emefiele by the Department of State Services (DSS); barely 24hrs of similar judgement were delivered by another court.

In a judgment upon an Originating Motion on Notice brought before the Court by Mr Emefiele against Incorporated Trustees of Forum for Accountability and Good Leadership, the Attorney General of the Federation, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Inspector General of Police, State Security Service and the Central Bank of Nigeria, the presiding Judge held that the arrest, detention, and interrogation being in violation of the subsisting judgment and orders of Justice M. A. Hassan in Suit No. FCT/HC/GAR/CV/41/2022.

Mr Emefiele, through his Counsel, Mr Peter Abang, had asked the court to set aside, quash, invalidate, and nullify the arrest and detention of the Applicant for being illegal and a nullity in view of the subsisting judgment of Justice M A Hassan delivered on 29th December 2022.
In another prayer granted by Hon. Justice Bello Kawu, the Court made an order setting aside, voiding, quashing, invalidating, and nullifying any warrant of arrest obtained or procured by the respondents, especially the DSS for the arrest, detention, and/or interrogation of Mr. Emefiele in connection with the allegations of terrorism financing, fraudulent practices, money laundering, round tripping, threat to national security before or from any court since the date of the judgment of Justice M A Hassan.

Furthermore, the Court granted an injunction restraining the respondents, particularly the DSS, from arresting, detaining, further detaining or proceeding against, breaching, or interfering with Mr. Emefiele’s personal liberty and freedom of movement or taking any other steps against him in connection with any allegations of terrorism financing, fraudulent practices, money laundering, round tripping, threat to national security before or from any court since the date of the judgment of Justice M. A. Hassan.

The Court finally granted an order of injunction directing and mandating the respondents, particularly the DSS, to forthwith release and unfetter Mr Emefiele from any arrest, detention, custody, interrogation with regard to allegations of terrorism financing, fraudulent practices, money laundering, round-tripping, the threat to national security before or from any court in view of the subsisting judgment of Justice M A Hassan.

In his reaction to the judgement, Counsel to Mr Emefiele told newsmen that beyond the release of his client, Nigerians must celebrate the fact that Nigerian judges, despite several acts of intimidation by security agencies and some unfavourable conditions under which they work, are bold to dispense justice not minding whose ox is gored. He called on the DSS to immediately comply with the orders of the court and release his client so that he can go and look after his failing health, aggravated by over one month of illegal and unlawful arrest and detention.

This judgement is the third favourable judgment the former CBN helmsman is getting against the DSS yet he has remained in detention for over a month.

A fraud case against the former Governor of Imo State, Senator Rochas Okorocha, has been dismissed by a Federal Capital Territory High Court sitting in Abuja.

Naija News reports that the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) had filed a suit against the former Imo federal lawmaker.

Giving a judgement on Thursday, the presiding judge, Justice Yusuf Halilu described the EFCC’s charges of fraud and abuse of office as an abuse of the judicial process.

Justice Halilu premised his judgement on the fact that the EFCC had filed a similar charge against the former Imo State governor at the Federal high court, which case was decided upon in favour of the former governor in December last year.

NASCON Allied Industries Plc, the salt-making arm of the conglomerate Dangote Industries Limited, will contemplate a business combination with two other food companies in the group during a meeting of its directors’ board later this month.

The marriage is expected to unite the salt-maker with Dangote Sugar, owners of sub-Saharan Africa’s largest sugar refinery, and Dangote Rice into a single entity, according to a regulatory filing on Thursday.

Both NASCON and Dangote Sugar are listed in Lagos, while Dangote Rice is not quoted yet. Dangote Industries Limited is the holding company for a raft of firms majority-owned by Africa’s wealthiest man Aliko Dangote.

The planned merger is coming months after the group’s fiercest rival, BUA Group, announced a similar move consolidating its food businesses – rice, sugar, flour, edible oils and flour – into a new company known as BUA Foods.

BUA Foods would go on to list on the Nigerian Exchange and is currently Nigeria’s biggest consumer goods company by market value, worth over N2.4 trillion as of market open on Thursday and N649.6 billion in total assets as of 31 March.

BUA Group is controlled by Abdul Samad Rabiu, Nigeria’s second-richest person and Africa’s fourth-wealthiest.

Dangote Sugar and NASCON opened trade respectively on Thursday at a market capitalisation of N329.8 billion and N70.2 billion.

The two had total assets estimated at N558.9 billion and N59.2 billion as of the end of March.

Dangote Group’s biggest bet is the 650,000 barrels per day oil refinery in Lekki, Lagos, commissioned in May and said to have cost $19 billion.

BUA Group is also building a refinery in Akwa Ibom State with a capacity to process 200,000 barrels of crude daily, expected to come on board by 2025.