The Presidency, on Saturday, said President Bola Tinubu is prepared to steer the affairs of Nigeria in the direction that will position the country as the leader in the African continent.

Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, Dele Alake, who told journalists this in Lagos, said President Tinubu recognises that Nigeria is being looked upon for leadership, and he is prepared to step up to the challenge.

The President had earlier in the day hosted President Umaro Sissoco Embaló of Guinea Bissau, who paid him a private visit at his Ikoyi, Lagos residence.

According to a statement by Director of Information in the State House, Abiodun Oladunjoye, Alake said while the visit was of a private nature, President Embaló took the opportunity to express his solidarity and willingness to cooperate with Nigeria under the leadership of President Tinubu.

He also highlighted that the visit allowed Embaló, who is the Chairman of the ECOWAS Authority of Heads of State and Government, to reinforce the fraternal relations between the two countries.

“President Embalo commended the laudable policy initiatives of President Tinubu in the last one month and added that everyone in the international community have been commending the giant strides of the Nigerian leader.

“He came to pay his solidarity and bond with a brother African head of State, in the first instance , and in particular as a brother Head of State in West Africa.

“This is a very commendable sign of things to come in the entire West African region in terms of the atmosphere being generated by Nigeria’s giant steps in the last one month, and the need for Nigeria to take its rightful place in the African affairs.

“Everybody is looking up to Nigeria, especially in Africa and the ECOWAS region and President Tinubu is ready to take up the gauntlet,” he added.

On the entourage of the visiting Guinea-Bissau leader were his Special Adviser Caramo Camara; Chief of Staff Califa Soares and Diplomatic Advisor Ambassador Alfredo Cabral and Image Operator Bonifacio Correia.

Those who joined President Tinubu to receive the Guinea-Bissau President were Lagos Governor Babajide Sanwo-olu; Chief of Staff Femi Gbajabiamila and Alake.

From tomorrow, July 3, 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will begin quote offers for naira-settled OTC FX Futures (NSOFF) contracts with tenors between 13 and 60 months until June 28, 2024.

The apex bank added that offer quotes for contract tenors between 13 and 24 months will be discontinued as the CBN focuses solely on the 25 to 60 months NSOFF contracts during this period.

To meet short-term hedging requirements, market participants can now turn to the FMDQ naira-settled Exchange-Traded FX Futures (NSEFF) contracts, to be introduced by FMDQ Securities Exchange Limited in the FMDQ Exchange-Traded Derivatives (ETD) Market on July 12, 2023.

Additionally, Futures Banks will soon provide quotes for NSOFF contracts with tenors ranging from one to 12 months, with the specific date to be communicated by the Exchange.

From July 3, 2023, NSOFF contracts with terms of maturity of 13 to 60 months will be valued based on the executable offer quotes provided by the CBN and Futures Banks on the relevant valuation dates.

NSOFF contracts with terms of maturity of one to 12 months will continue to be marked-to-market using the NAFEX rate as the reference. The bank said that the move is aimed at facilitating long-term foreign exchange risk hedging for market participants.

Naira-settled OTC FX Futures (NSOFF) contracts are financial instruments offered in the Nigerian financial market. They allow market participants to hedge against foreign exchange risks associated with fluctuations in the value of the Nigerian naira against other currencies.

The NSOFF market provides participants such as banks, corporations and institutional investors with a mechanism to manage their exposure to currency fluctuations.

By entering into these contracts, they can mitigate the potential adverse effects of exchange rate movements on their business operations, investments or financial positions.

The recent announcement regarding the resumption of quotation of offer quotes for NSOFF contracts signifies changes in the availability of these contracts based on their duration, aiming to provide market participants with more options for managing their forex risk exposures.

The NSOFF contracts are settled in naira, the local currency, and are traded Over-The-Counter (OTC), meaning they are not traded on a centralised exchange, but rather directly between parties.

These contracts have specific durations, typically ranging from 13 to 60 months, during which the parties agree to exchange a specified amount of currency at a predetermined price at the contract’s maturity.

[Guardian]

The Archbishop of the Enugu Province, Anglican Communion, Most Rev Emmanuel Chukwuma has urged the current Federal Government led by President Bola Tinubu not to engage in selective probe of the immediate past administration.

He said the probe should be thorough and all encompassing.

DAILY POST reports that upon assumption of office, President Tinubu ordered the removal of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as well as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, Abdulrasheed Bawa. Both of them are being interrogated by the Department of State Services, DSS.

Archbishop Chukwuma is of the opinion that the probe of the former President Muhammadu Buhari administration should go beyond the duo.

The Church leader also lamented that the government removed fuel subsidy without putting in place any measure to ameliorate its effect on the masses.

Chukwuma said this in an interview with journalists shortly after his last presidential charge as the Bishop of the Enugu Diocese Anglican Communion.

He spoke at the Synod of the Diocese ongoing at the Cathedral Church of the Good Shepherd, Independence Layout, Enugu.

He said the theme: ‘Continue in the Faith’, taken from Colosians 1:23 was prompted by the Holy Spirit in line with the happenings in Nigeria.

The Church leader lamented the government removed fuel subsidy without putting in place any measure to ameliorate its effect on the masses.

“The country is in a very difficult time and many people’s faith is being affected, particularly, even now that we are facing the issue of oil subsidy removal; people are suffering because of inflation, income is no more measurable to spending.

“And the government is not doing anything to alleviate or cushion the effect of the subsidy removal.

“The high cost of fuel, high cost of food, the cost of building materials, the high cost of transportation, frustration everywhere, unemployment, brain drain, the high exchange of Naira to dollar, all these things are affecting the faith of the people.

“As I am rounding off my episcopacy, I am encouraging our people not to allow these things to affect them, but they should continue in the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ. Do not look at the problems but look at God who will always provide for His people and even soften the heart of the leaders.

“When there is no faith, it leads to frustration, it leads to people committing suicide. But continuing in the faith will help people to survive,” he advised.

On anti-corruption, he said for the government to be taken seriously, all those who have one question or the other to answer must be called to account.

He added that, “There is wanton embezzlement of public funds; people are grabbing things of this country for themselves but the government is not probing the right people, but just scratching anti-corruption and probing on the surface.

“There is a need for equity where the Nigerians can now say ‘yes, there is a country that belongs to all’. But where there is no equity, where there is no justice, where there is no love, where there is nepotism, tribalism and religious bigotry, people lose faith in the country they belong.

“So my appeal is, let the government create an atmosphere of comfort, by cushioning the effect of subsidy removal, they should be sincere in governance, make sure that nobody is left out, inclusive governance.

“Nigerians should not lose hope, they should pray for the leaders to know that they have come to serve and not to sap.”

[DailyPost]

The list containing the names of ministerial nominees in the President Bola Tinubu administration is ready and undergoing final security checks, PUNCH reports.

The source, who did not reveal the names or number of those being considered for ministerial offices, said the Department of State Services and members of the Presidential Strategic Team were running final checks on the people who had been listed as possible ministers.

“They have the list already. Several names have been written against their respective offices. But they just have to find out and do some checks on a few of these names. That’s what is delaying the list. They are being very strategic with this,” the source said.

Should the Tinubu administration proceed with the appointment of ministers of state, 44 names are expected to be sent to the 10th Senate for screening and eventual approval.

The PUNCH had earlier reported that politicians had been flocking the President’s private residence in Ikoyi, Lagos, jostling for ministerial slots, especially during the Eid-el-Kabir holidays when Tinubu was in Lagos.

“I learned that Tinubu’s ministerial list is almost done. He kept a core of ministers to himself, heavily influenced by the kitchen cabinet of his special advisers. Politicians are in Bolekaja over the rest. It’s a slugfest now,” a source had disclosed to our correspondent on Monday.

In March, the then Special Adviser to the President-elect, Dele Alake, had said Tinubu would constitute his cabinet within one month of assuming office.

Alake said this was in line with the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution mandating presidents-elect and governors-elect to submit the names of their ministerial and commissioner nominees within 60 days of taking the oath of office for confirmation by the Senate or the respective state Houses of Assembly.

He had said, “I told you in an earlier interview that it didn’t take Asiwaju more than three weeks to form his cabinet as a governor. That was as at that time. I think 60 days is even too much.

“A month, maximum, is enough for any serious government to form its cabinet and put the structure of government in place after the swearing-in.”

However, Alake, who is now the Special Adviser to the President on Special Duties, Communication and Strategy, was unreachable at the time of filing this report.

Meanwhile, there are fresh indications that the President may send the list of his ministerial nominees to the National Assembly this week after the lawmakers resume from the Sallah break for their legislative duties.

The development is coming one week after the 10th Senate and House of Representatives adjourned their legislative activities to embark on recess till July 4.

This was confirmed in two separate interviews with a former coordinator in the dissolved All Progressives Congress Campaign Council, Dr Ene Ogbole, and Director of Publicity for the APC, Bala Ibrahim.

Speculations on who will make the ministerial list have generated heated debates and growing anxiety among Tinubu’s campaign members and party loyalists since he assumed office on May 29.

The President has, however, kept everyone guessing as he has clutched the list tightly to his chest and away from even closest allies.

Speculations were rife last week that some APC governors might be granted the liberty to nominate more than one person as ministerial nominees with the consent of the President.

According to a source, there is a likelihood that the ministerial list may be submitted to the Senate for confirmation this week and for the cabinet to be in place later this month.

Reacting to the growing anxiety over the list, Ogbole told our correspondent that she had it on good authority that the President would forward his ministerial nominees list to the Senate for screening shortly after the legislators return from their recess.

The former campaign director also urged Nigerians not to put too much pressure on Tinubu, saying he had another 30 days to do so in line with the new law signed by his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, which mandated him to unveil his ministerial list within 60 days of assumption of office.

Ogbole stated, “The ministerial nominees you talked about are still in the process. I, however, don’t think the President needs up to 60 days to unveil his cabinet.

“He’s trying to get the right things done. You know the 10th National Assembly has just come on board and they were on recess for the Sallah break. As the break is now over, I can assure you that you will begin to hear names being rolled out.

“Asiwaju is still on track. He is a man of his word. And I can assure Nigerians that he’s not going to do anything short of his promises. He has also signed two or three bills into law in less than 30 days in office. That is legendary.”

Bala also shared Ogbole’s sentiment and asked Nigerians to cut the President some slack.

The APC image maker also expressed conviction that unlike his predecessor, Tinubu did not need up to 60 days to announce those he intends to work with.

He stated, “The President still has time on his side to carefully choose his team. He is not under any kind of pressure. I don’t see any on his side. You can even see how the President extended his stay by moving from Paris to London.

“Does he look like somebody under pressure? If there is any pressure, he would have run back long before his arrival. However, we are optimistic that he will present his ministerial list after the Sallah break.”

The economy is in a bind, inevitably spurring the call by the Tinubu administration for sacrifice on the part of the citizenry to pull the nation out.

On his inauguration day, President Bola Tinubu removed subsidy on petrol that had cost the nation trillions of Naira as part of the sacrifice.

He has since followed up with the merging of the multiple foreign exchange rates, a situation that has led to the depreciation of the Naira at the official window.

The implication is not lost on the citizenry  who now have to cope with the attendant inflation.

And arising from the foreign exchange rates merger was the announcement last week that electricity tariff would go up as power distribution companies said the concession they were getting from the official window was gone and this would raise their cost of production.

The announcement has since been reversed but the hike is only a matter of time as the reversal came about because due process was not followed and the tariff had not been approved by the authorities

Also last week, indications emerged that vehicle owners will have to pay yearly for proof of ownership contrary to the outgoing era that makes the payment one-off in the life of a vehicle.

Other belt-tightening measures to free funds for government to meet its obligations may soon follow.

But amid the call on the citizenry for sacrifice to pull Nigeria out of the woods, many people are worried about jumbo cost of governance occasioned by what some call questionable budgetary allocations by government at different levels.

For instance, the Buhari administration made provisions of N11.92 billion for feeding and foreign trips of the President and Vice President in the 2023 Budget of the Federal Government which Tinubu and VP Shettima have now inherited.

A breakdown shows that N331.79 million would be spent on the President’s feeding while that of his deputy is N176.92m.

When put together, the nation would be spending N508.71 on food and refreshments for their President and VP at the end of the fiscal year.

Local and foreign trips for the President and his vice would cost over N3 billion.

N2.49 billion was earmarked for the office of the President while his deputy gets N846.61 million.

Also included are N1.58bn earmarked for aircraft maintenance and N1.60bn allocated for overhauling of Gulfstream GV and CL605 aircraft engines.

10 aircraft

Sunday Vanguard recalls that in the heat of the criticism generated by the huge budgetary allocation for aircraft maintenance during the Buhari administration, then spokesman, Mallam Garba Shehu, said there were 10 planes in the presidential fleet.

They include two AgustaWestland AW 139 helicopters, two AugustaWestland 101 helicopters, two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Sidley 4000, Boeing Business Jet, Boeing 737-800 or NAF 001, one Gulfstream 550, one Gulfstream V and one Gulfstream 500.

It could not be established if any aircraft was added to the fleet between when the former presidential spokesperson made the disclosure and now.

Economists argue that even rich countries like the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK) don’t feed their President and Prime Minister respectively, saying it is an anomaly for a poor nation like Nigeria to vote humongous funds to feed its leaders.

They also contend that very few countries across the world maintain as many as 10 planes in their presidential fleet as Nigeria does.

For instance, according to them, when the leaders of some of these countries use planes in the presidential fleet for personal purposes, they pay.

Nigeria’s bureaucracy is also seen as bloated, thus consuming a large chunk of government revenues.

For example, the National Assembly, NASS, in the 2003 Appropriation Act, was allocated N328.1 billion, the highest in 23 years.

A breakdown shows that the funds were tied to several purposes, with some still generating ripples.

One such is N16, 520, 653, 763 budgeted for Senators and members of the House of Representatives’ aides.

There is also N8.5billion for National Assembly liabilities, the details of which weren’t spelled out.

Also, N100 billion was approved for Zonal Intervention Programmes, ZIPs, otherwise known as Constituency Projects.

The money, which is for the 469 federal legislators, has been an issue of controversy as lawmakers are often accused of mismanagement of funds meant for such projects.

Only last week, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Tajudeen Abass, appointed 33 aides, bringing the number of his appointees to 35.

Abass argued that the appointments would ensure effective delivery of his agenda for the House. The last occupant of the office had no fewer than 33 aides.

In 2016, a NAN report pegged the number of legislative aides at 2,570.

According to the National Assembly Act, each lawmaker is entitled to five aides.

The Act says the Senate President is entitled to 45 aides, his deputy 30 and 20 each for principal officers.

For the Speaker of the House, the Act provides 35 assistants for him, Deputy Speaker, 15, and 10 each for the six principal officers.

Consequently, there are fears that by the time Senate President Godswill Akpabio and other principal officers of the National Assembly finish appointing their aides, Nigeria’s leaders at the NASS level may end up having over 1, 000 aides.

Now add this to the cost of running the Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) at the federal level.

State level

Across the states, the situation is not entirely different as new governors have so far retained the bloated bureaucracy of their predecessors.

All these are happening in a nation facing a N77 trillion debt crisis.

Only recently, the Debt Management Office, DMO, warned the Federal Government against additional borrowing, saying 73.5 percent of revenue generated this year would be used to service debt.

According to the DMO, the projected FGN Debt Service to Revenue ratio of 73.5 percent for 2023 is high and cannot support higher levels of borrowing, and is also a threat to debt sustainability.

Consequently, it advised government to focus on increasing revenue generation.

Slim government

Some concerned Nigerians told Sunday Vanguard it would be wrong for the Tinubu administration to tell Nigerians to make sacrifices and still ignore the urgent need for reduction in the cost of governance.

The authorities, drawn from key sectors including  the academia, however, suggested ways government can reduce the size of governance and plug leakages.

In an earlier interview with this paper, the Labour Party, LP, last Thursday, accused the ruling party at the federal level, the All Progressives Congress, APC, of showing early signs of continuing “the wasteful lifestyle” of its predecessor.

Acting National Publicity Secretary of the party, Obiora Ifoh, said it was an irony that the administration would ask Nigerians to “tighten their belts and make sacrifices” while living in opulence.

On his part, Chairman, HEDA Resource Centre, Mr. Olarenwaju Aregbabo, said there is no better time to reduce cost of governance but now.

Budget

Aregbabo said: “It is really a very serious issue that we must actually contend with. It is a concern. Unfortunately, we focus much on the Presidency, beyond what we also have at the state level. We have state governors who have allocations outside the security votes. At the federal level, apart from the budget for food in the President’s house, there is also an allowance given to the President and the Vice President to take care of whatever it is they have to take care of daily.

“In advanced countries, if a President is inviting anybody to lunch or dinner, it is from his or her pocket and not from the government purse. It is not for the President to create a situation where you have money going for everything.

“It is very important that we continue to bring this out in the open. A number of those who are meant to talk about this are not talking because they also benefit from it. So, for the few of us who are really concerned about it, it’s necessary that we keep raising questions.

Oronsaye Panel report

“As it is now, Nigeria cannot afford an increment in the salaries of public office holders, except government knows what most of us don’t know.

“I support to some extent, the implementation of the Oronsaye Panel report on merging of agencies. That is why many public servants can afford to stroll into the office and stroll out when they like. Most of them don’t have any purpose for being in the office. And, when you merge some of these agencies, they become better.

“There is a need for a complete and holistic assessment of the workforce in the country. The multiplicity of Ministries, Departments and Agencies creates room for ghost workers.

“There is a need to know the real cost of services because many parts of our budgets are heavily padded and this makes it possible for them to replicate what is in the budget every year without monitoring what was implemented and what was not implemented.

“If we can block the leakages and ensure  that the services we pay for are needed, they will improve.’’

Wasteful spending

Making his position known, Executive Director of Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, Auwal Rafsanjani, said: “If the new administration headed by President Bola Tinubu is committed to reducing the cost of governance in Nigeria, he must not repeat the mistake of wasteful spending and flamboyant governance in this country. We have suffered at the hands of some few political elites who have squandered the resources of this country at local, state and national levels. Therefore, if Tinubu is interested in reducing the waste and diversion of taxpayers’ money, he must cut wasteful spending.

“We expect that Tinubu will block those leakages and make governance more efficient by reducing the large number of unproductive political appointees. He must deal with this issue as quickly as possible so that government can deliver good governance to Nigerians. Doing this will make Bola Tinubu one of the best-performing Presidents.

“He has to minimize spending and make government effective as well as transparent. If he continues like the previous administration, it means there is no difference between him and the previous governments who failed to deal with these issues.

“For example, we do not need to have this flamboyant and large number of aides that are unproductive and without clear roles. Some state governments have thousands of aides. What we need is the creation of a viable economy and job opportunities for people to be gainfully employed. We have seen how a former Rivers State governor appointed several aides. Today, they have all lost their jobs. If he had used the resources to put in place infrastructure, create jobs, boost industrialisation and manufacturing, it would have been useful for Rivers State people and government.”

Unnecessary expenditure

On his part, Chairman of Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest and Development Law, NBA-SPIDEL, Dr Monday Ubani, said: “If we don’t change the idea of unnecessary expenditure on governance, we won’t have enough money to develop infrastructure. Currently, there is no standard road in Nigeria. One cannot take off from Lagos to the East on a smooth ride or Lagos to Abuja. The railway system is non-functional. There is no internet-connectivity. It is the same for electricity. The moment we don’t have money to make investments that would attract investors, we will remain where we are because the Dollar will always be higher than Naira.

“I thought this government would do something in terms of expenditure but I cannot see prudence. He has removed fuel subsidy, which has made prices of things skyrocket. The World Bank has also said that over 40 per cent of Nigerians will relapse into poverty due to the removal of subsidy. Our government has to be certain of what it does because a lot of people are living in abject poverty. Any position that has no relevance to our economic growth should be done away with.”

Economic analyst and Vice Executive Chairman, High Cap Securities Limited, David Adonri, said: “I am surprised that the cost of governance inherited by this administration has not been reduced and expenditure rationalised. If we intend to heal our economy or initiate a process that would enable it to recover quickly, the cost of administration has to be drastically reduced because policies that were recently introduced like the unification of exchange rate and removal of fuel subsidy are going to drive up inflation.

Financial stability

“The only means through which the Federal Government can manage the situation, especially as it affects its financial stability, is to reduce expenditure drastically. With inflation, government will have to pay more for a lot of goods and services. If expenses are not rationalized, government will go into debt, leading to an increase in economic deficit. The current administration needs to go back to the drawing board to see how it can cut costs in all areas.”

Lending his voice, a senior lecturer at Lagos Business School, Dr Austin Nweze, said: “Whatever thing a leader does is based on his personal value system. John Adams said there are two types of education: the first teaches a person how to make a living and the second teaches one how to live. The second type of education is based on one’s value system. If your value system is a life of opulence, it will show in your character, the same goes for being prudent.

“The government that we have is that of state capture, they are not interested in what happens to the economy and the well-being of the citizens. The cost of governance is high and people who invested in their elections want to recoup their money. To cut down the cost of governance, you have to invest it in health, education and entrepreneurship. Invest in those things that would generate wealth for the people, not what will take away wealth from the people. Currently, there is between 30 and 33 per cent adult unemployment and over 55 per cent youth unemployment. How does such an economy grow? By making sacrifices from the top, domestic production can be increased for the economy to take off. There has to be a deliberate attempt to revive the economy by cutting the cost of governance. The sacrifice has to come from the political class who live an ostentatious life or what I will also call a life of opulence.”

Don’t compound woes of Nigerians, CSOs warn

Meanwhile, some Civil Society Organizations, CSOs, who spoke to Sunday Vanguard, advised the current administration not to toe Buhari’s path.

Specifically, Convener, Nigeria Youth Coalition, NYC, and Yoruba Council Worldwide, YCW, Oba Oladotun Hassan, urged Tinubu to, as a matter of urgency, begin to stand by his campaign promises.

His words: “I will serve a strong note of caution that Mr. President shouldn’t go the same way his predecessor operated.

“And the reason we elected him is for him to heal our wounds. So, he should see himself as a healer, rather than adding more salt to our injuries. We need to reduce costs. The removal of subsidy is there and we are still bearing it because of his appeal for patience for us to be on the same page with him.

“He shouldn’t compound our woes. In as much as the out-gone President presented a budget, he should as a matter of urgency, review the budget as regards the cost of governance. ‘’

Also, the Convener, Concerned Nigerians, Deji Adeyanju, questioned why the President and political appointees spend so much money on things that do not improve the livelihood of Nigerians.

He said: “Nigeria is one of the poverty capitals of the world, which is very unfortunate. You saw the President’s convoy upon his return from London. Why should the President of the poverty capital be driving a 120-car convoy? It makes no sense.

“Why should we even be buying vehicles for politicians and civil servants in the country? Nigeria is too broke for our politicians to be living extravagantly. People are no longer going into public service for service. People are going into public service for luxury and leisure.

“Everything should be sacrificial. You should stop paying salaries to politicians. It makes no sense. We should not be buying official cars for public servants. Except maybe the Ministry of Health where they need an ambulance and police where they need patrol cars to chase armed robbers and the Ministry of Works where we should have heavy-duty vehicles to repair our roads”.

On his part, Professor, Williams Ijoma, said: “Nigeria’s present reality requires nothing short of a holistic reform of its governance structure, system and process. Such efforts must, of necessity, begin with drastic reductions in personnel and overhead costs. If we are to survive as a nation, we must turn this moment of profound crisis into an opportunity to make the hard choices we have long deferred but can no longer avoid.

“As part of the cost-cutting measures, federal and state governments should reduce the size of their cabinets through amendment of the constitution and limit the number of advisers and assistants. Bills pending before national and state assemblies seeking to set up new agencies of government should be rejected. The report of the Steve Oronsaye Panel should be revisited and strictly implemented.’’

The Nigerian women’s football team, Super Falcons, will today fly to Australia to step up their preparations for the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup.

The Nigeria Football Federation (NFF) announced the nine-time African champions will depart Abuja for a 15-day training camp in Australia, before the World Cup with their base at Brisbane, which is also the venue for two of their group matches.

The team were hosted to a farewell dinner last night at the Transcorp Hotel Abuja with the First Lady Oluremi Tinubu in attendance.

The World Cup, featuring 32 teams, will be hosted by Australia and New Zealand between July 20 and August 20.

Nigeria’s opening match is against Olympic champions Canada at Melbourne’s Rectangular Stadium on July 21, before matches against co-hosts Australia and Republic of Ireland on July 27 and July 31 respectively at the Lang Park in Brisbane.

[Leadership]

One area of quick wins for the Nigerian government: re-energise the security apparatus to restore normalcy in Nigeria’s towns, villages and forests. When economic activities are restored in those places, poverty will recede.

In those days when social order was the norm and life was predictable, it was normal for groups of hamlets to aspire to become villages someday; villages aspired to become towns (or, at least suburbs); and towns looked forward to the day when they would become cities in the fashion of the glitzy municipalities.

No one foresaw the day when, in the manner of children crawling back to their mothers’ wombs, thriving towns would start shrivelling, withering, shrinking, and reverting to the stature of rustic villages from whence they had originally emerged. It is a big leap into backwardness, a giant effort to undo countless seasons of back-breaking manual labour through which the locals tamed the environment.

All over Nigeria, if you look carefully enough, you will find former towns which are now villages and erstwhile villages which are now mere settlements— no thanks to the novel phenomenon of banditry, cattle rustling, kidnapping for ransom and other forms of criminality that have defied the government’s tepid response in the last decade. Today, I use Ifon, a town in Ondo State, as a point of contact with other Nigerian communities suffering similar afflictions.

At the turn of the last century, Ifon used to be a divisional headquarters. It lost that status later but came back to reckoning in 1989 when it was named as headquarters of Ose local government in ondo state.

Before the era of expressways, you had to drive through Ifon if you were going from the West to the Midwest or Eastern Region. Over time, the town and its surrounding communities prospered on account of bustling commerce. If that town were to continue on that trajectory, it would someday number among the significant urban centres in Ondo State. But that has not been the case. All the optimism about the area became dampened when tragedy gave the town a bear hug and refused to let go.

Ifon attracted national attention on November 26, 2020, when the town’s traditional ruler, the Olufon, Oba Israel Adeusi, was killed by unknown hoodlums on his way from the Council of Obas meeting in Akure. Killing an oba is taboo in Yorubaland. After that, the secretary of the APC, another indigene of Ifon, was killed along Imoru Road in the town. Then, a businessman based in Ifon, Mr. Ojo Emmanuel, was killed at Omi Alafa. Up till today, their killers are still at large.

Following the death of Oba Adeusi in such gruesome circumstances, Ifon has gradually become a ghost town. The elites have relocated to surrounding towns because of the security situation at home. Its vantage location of being a link to many towns and states in the Midwest and Eastern regions, which used to be a great asset, is now a handicap.

Ifon is the border town between Ondo and Edo states. When the police turn the heat on robbers in Edo State, they easily escape across the border into Ifon and other towns in Ondo State. The security situation is compounded by the menace of the cattle rearers who have taken over the forests and have been terrorising local farmers. The forest reserve in Ifon extends all the way to Edo State. Many farmers have reportedly been abducted in their farms and many of the townswomen raped by roving bandits.

The string of tragedies dogging the town is relentless. On April 23, 2023, the former chairman of ose local government, Hon. Bola Adelegbe, was abducted along Okeluse Road. Up till now, he has not been released— even after paying the ransom of N5 million demanded by his faceless abductors. No one knows whether he’s alive or dead.

As with many other rural communities in other parts of the country, the unending menace of herdsmen destroying farmlands and feeding their cattle with farm produce has led to several skirmishes between the herders and the indigenes of the town. The situation is now threatening food security in the area because farmers are afraid to go to their farms lest they are kidnapped.

The people were aghast two years ago when some of their community leaders were invited by the police to report in Abuja on the allegation that a cow belonging to the herders had been killed by an unknown indigene. There was no word about investigations into the killing of their Oba but the police were quick to issue an invitation over the alleged killing of a cow?

Hon. Olaniyi Eni-Olotu, a community leader, was one of those invited. According to him, “The police actually invited four of us indigenes to report in Abuja to explain what we knew about the dead cow. Imagine, our Oba was murdered and there had been no arrest of the perpetrators, but when a cow was reportedly killed, they invited us to report in Abuja!”

The saga of insecurity continues unabated. The highway’s terrible state of disrepair is a bonus for the bandits. Only last week, gunmen killed two commuters on their way to Ifon. It usually takes about 30 minutes to drive from Ifon to Owo. Now, it takes five to six hours because the road has broken down due to lack of maintenance.

The result is that while the motorist is busy navigating the craters and gullies on the road, bandits launch surprise attacks from the surrounding bushes. They shoot indiscriminately and swoop on those trapped in vehicles. They rob both the wounded and the dead. At times they abduct a few survivors to the bargain. It was bad enough when the road was motorable. Now, it is pure hell looking out with one eye for passable patches of laterite or tar and scanning the horizon for armed bandits with the other.

Even by Nigerian standards, that kind of situation must be considered as double jeopardy because the other ‘regular’ crimes such as bank robbery have all but shut down the town. The story is still told of a red letter day in 2017 when a 15-man gang of armed robbers invaded Polaris Bank in Ifon, killing the three policemen on duty and escaping with an undisclosed amount of cash taken from the vaults of the bank. The incident grounded social and commercial activities in the town. Today, Ifon, the town that produced the legendary musician Orlando Owoh, no longer has a bank!

One issue that the bank robbery brought to the fore was the matter of under-policing. Many people were of the view that if the police were well equipped and available in higher numbers, no gang of rag-tag robbers would just shoot its way to the vaults and cart away all the cash in the bank. As with many other towns in Nigeria, under-policing is clearly a problem.

Hon. Olaniyi Eni-Olotu wonders, “How can the government expect the police to be effective when they don’t have enough personnel and the necessary equipment to do their job? The police in Ifon don’t have patrol vehicles. How are they expected to monitor criminality? The police must be well provisioned before they can deliver.”

Insecurity is one of the negative ‘levellers’ in Nigeria. The bandits and robbers and sundry gunmen who are holding society hostage all over the country do not ask about the religion or tribe of their victims. They simply point their guns at helpless souls and terminate their lives.

If you have the courage to drive past Ifon, you will see rows and rows of cocoa trees untended by their owners who have been frightened away by robbers, bandits and herders. You will see food crops wasting away. You will see a town which is slowly but surely grinding its way back to villagehood. The modern order changeth, yielding place to antiquity. Without the government’s firm intervention, this will be another inexorable slide into prehistory where dog eats dog.

Without doubt, this could be an area of ‘quick win’ for Nigeria’s new federal administration. Just restore adequate security to Nigeria’s towns and communities and watch as the people gleefully pick up the pieces of their lives. Nigerians are not asking for too much when they demand protection. They have to be alive to be economic players. Dead men don’t pay tax.

For Raymond Dokpesi

“Trailblazer: Noun. A person who blazes a trail for others to follow; pathfinder. A pioneer.” That was Dr. Raymond Aleogho Dokpesi, founding Chairman of DAAR Communications, owners of Ray Power and African International Television. His life was a blessing to so many people, paving the path for himself and countless others. When the saints go marching in, I pray Raymond will be among the number.

Says 'I was thrown under the bus'

The standard bearer of the All Progressives Congress (APC), in Oyo, during the March 28 governorship election, Senator Teslim Folarin, on Saturday, said he lost his bid to govern the state due to what he termed “political arrangement” for the party to win the presidential poll for President Bola Tinubu.

Describing the APC as the strongest party in the state, having won the three senatorial seats of Oyo South, Oyo Central and Oyo North, including nine federal constituency seats out of 14, he declared that “I was thrown under the bus” as part of the high wired politics and intrigues of our party to secure victory during the February 25 presidential election.

Folarin made this disclosure in Idigbaro, Ologuneru area of Ibadan while addressing APC members during a reception and victory party held in honour of a member, representing Ibarapa/Ido Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Honourable Remi Abasi Oseni.

Speaking in Yoruba, he stated: “If we are talking about the strongest party in Oyo State today, it is APC. We won three senatorial seats and nine out of federal constituency seats. Our people are already in the election tribunal and I can tell you that we would win two more federal constituency seats. On the governorship election, we were thrown under the bus.”

According to Folarin, “In politics, if I am asked to choose between governorship and presidency, I will choose the latter. We have taken the presidency and our president, Senator Bola Tinubu is doing well. Things are hard now, but I want Nigerians to bear and exercise patience because better days are coming soon.

“Let us stand with this government because it is our government. This is because if there’s a problem in the future regarding governance, they will say we need to call the Yoruba to fix it. Two things are constant in my life, which are Islam and politics. My own level has passed the fact that I have to become the governor before thanking God.”

Speaking at the event, Oseni expressed his gratitude for the support and love he received during and after his election, just as he promised to provide qualitative representation to his constituency in the House of Representatives.

He posted: “Nigerians should be patient with President Tinubu because he has the capacity to address the nation’s challenges and turn Nigeria’s situation around for good. I’m pleading with you to give him maximum support for him to succeed.”

Dignitaries, who graced the occasion include, Senator Teslim Folarin, former deputy governors of Oyo State, Iyiola Oladokun, Moses Alake, Shina Alabi, chairman of the APC in Oyo South senatorial district, Honourable Mojeed Olaoya, former chairman of Ibadan North Local Government, Mr Ademola Omotosho, traditional rulers, clerics, among others.

Despite the complexity of managing expectations and priorities these days, another time has again come to reflect on this thing called federal character in the context of urgency of nation building.

Pop artiste Ahmed Ololade aka Asake is on cloud 9 at the opportunity to headline his concert at the prestigious O2 Arena.

The highly anticipated event, scheduled for August 20, 2023, will take place at the renowned London venue, capable of accommodating up to 20,000 fans.

Asake recently paid a visit to the illustrious O2 Arena to personally witness the grandeur of the venue and make necessary preparations for his upcoming concert.

During an interview conducted on-site, the budding artist expressed overwhelming joy and gratitude, emphasising that this milestone is a realization of a lifelong dream.

With excitement beaming from his face, the ‘Yoga’ crooner described the opportunity to headline at the O2 Arena as nothing short of a dream come true.

Asake said he had often envisioned this moment, and now seeing it transform into reality has left him in awe.

Looking ahead, the talented artist shared his ambitious aspirations.

He said that his ultimate goal after a successful show at the O2 Arena is to captivate an audience of 40,000 at a larger venue.

Asake expressed determination to eventually conquer the grandeur of Wembley Stadium, renowned for its capacity of 90,000 spectators.

The news of Asake’s upcoming O2 Arena concert has generated significant anticipation and excitement among his ever-growing fanbase.