YESTERDAY, the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests ran its full gamut. In the days, weeks, months and years to come, pundits, critics and analysts will continue to discuss, review, critique and draw useful lessons from it. Did it fail? Did it succeed? Have lessons been learned on both sides of the divide? Will the protagonists as well as antagonists of the protests organize and behave better in future? The answers will depend on who is providing them! One thing is certain, however: No one will forget the protests in a hurry, just like we have not forgotten its precursor #ENDSARSNOW protests years after – the organizers; families, friends, loved ones and comrades of the victims; the government itself; those who had their hands smeared with the blood of the innocent, as well as those who d their conscience permanently seared in that episode – many are those who will go into their grave with their memories haunted by whatever role they played in the gory event of the massacre of defenceless Nigerian youths fighting for a better future for themselves and their fellow citizens.

Lives have also been lost needlessly in the follow-up #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests. Those who genuinely meant well with the protests; the opportunists who took advantage of the honest grouse of patriotic citizens to stoke the embers of chaos and anarchy; those who, for selfish and self-serving reasons have an axe to grind and who stayed in their comfort zones home and away while instigating others to bring the roof down our head; the genuinely aggrieved, impoverished and long-suffering hapless Nigerians run ragged by insensitive and oppressive government policies; the illiterate, uninformed hoi polloi always acting in a self-destructive manner; those who, in these protests, suffered unmitigated losses for no fault of theirs; and the government itself always caught flat-footed time and time again – all will reflect on the events of the last 10 days for a long time to come.

One of such reflections is printed here today. Titled “Grinding poverty and endless protests in Nigeria”, it is written by my comrade and classmate at “Great Ife”, Wale Olajire Ajao. Enjoy it! “In Nigeria today, grinding poverty co-exists with endless protests and agitations. Why? Precisely because the Nigerian Government has become notorious for generating poverty – from independence on October I, 1960 till today. How? In the sense that the government since independence has not diversified the economy; corruption-cum-mismanagement has also continuously been on the rise. Till date, Nigeria remains a mono-cultural economy that relies on income from the sale of crude oil in the world market. The Government all these years has not diversified its major source of revenue. The poor performance of this mono-product economy has been compounded by the steadily rising scourge of corruption unleashed on the country by its political as well as business class.

The first major shock to the economy came in 1980 under the civilian government of  President Shehu Shagari when we suffered a sharp drop in revenue due to the fall in the price of crude oil in the global oil market. On December 29, 1983, the Shagari administration declared austerity measures aimed at restoring the fortunes of the economy. In the first half of 1986, we witnessed another drop in the price of crude oil at a time the country was heavily indebted to international finance organizations. Military president Ibrahim Babangida devalued the Naira under what was code-named Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) which, actually, was the foundation of the economic hardship we suffer today. From that time, we have ceaselessly battled with the very tough impact of currency devaluation. The long-run effects of currency devaluation and unending kleptomania in government over the years have resulted in the consistent co-existence of poverty and protests in the country, such that, by 2006, poverty had reached an incredibly high level.

Millions of street urchins, almajiris, area boys and miscreants were produced by the system. Corruption has become endemic to the extent that, by 2015 when the immediate past president, Muhammadu Buhari, assumed office, our country was on top of the global corruption index published by Transparency International (TI), a non-governmental organization that profiles global corruption. Also, by 2015, the total number of out-of-school children in Northern Nigeria alone had risen to ten million. All over the country during the same period, the total number of out-of-school children was not less than twenty million; with these constituting themselves into a menace, always hijacking otherwise peaceful protests and agitations and turning them into golden opportunities to loot and commit arson. The eight unbroken years of rudderless leadership under Buhari further aggravated our economic woes.

Under Buhari, youth unemployment rose to an unprecedented level. Insecurity became heightened and multi-faceted. Buhari succumbed to ethnic chauvinism as he condoned the atrocities of his kinsmen-herdsmen, noticed at first in Benue and Plateau states but this later spread all over the country like bushfire in the harmattan. The painful result of the criminal activities of the

Fulani herdsmen and a few retaliatory attacks by farmers is the drastic reduction in food production all over the country, which has now been compounded by fuel subsidy removal, electricity subsidy removal and floating of the Naira, despite the fact that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu ought to know that as an import-dependent mono-cultural economy, a combination of these policies in a single stretch without carefully-prepared palliatives already put in place would unleash unimaginable hardship on the citizenry. His hopes, and pleas, were that as time went on, significant economic improvement would compensate for the period of hardship. Unfortunately, one year later, there has been no respite as inflation is on the rise everywhere and life has become harder for the vast majority of our people day after day.

From May 29 last year, Tinubu has rolled out palliative measures after palliative measures, following his harrowing International Monetary Fund(IMF)-induced policies. Aside from the fact that the conception and manner of implementation of the palliative measures look like an after-thought, that the palliatives also suffer diversion by highly-placed political actors has made matters worse. By 2020 when the #ENDSARSNOW protests were embarked upon by the youths, youth unemployment nationwide had neared an alarming 40 percent; illiteracy was as high as 45 percent while poverty level hovered around 60 percent, in the midst of constant police brutality unleashed mainly on youths; eventually culminating in the #ENDSARSNOW protest which, as usual, was later hijacked by millions of hopeless and helpless bad boys and girls produced by the Nigerian system. Having impoverished and neglected millions of our children and youths, should we expect normal behaviour from them? Until we give them the right training and proper upbringing, they will continue to remain a menace to society.

Therefore, it was tragic that the President’s speech on Sunday, August 4 said nothing about this group of young persons. Given his pedigree as an anti-military dictatorship activist, one was surprised that Tinubu repeated the mistakes of previous leaders. What mistakes? Reacting to the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests the same way Buhari and the Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, had reacted to the #ENDSARSNOW protests. Thus, the predictable cycle of protests, looting and arson followed by the concomitant police brutality we are all familiar with, is unleashed on our psyche again and again. Everyone goes home after a peaceful protest has turned violent and our children have been killed by our own policemen who usually justify their action with the cliche “Government cannot fold its arms while the enemies of government destabilize the country!” This unending vicious cycle is what has played out since August 1st when the #ENDBAD GOVERNMENT protests broke out across the country.

Rather than put strong preventive measures in place, the authorities waited until miscreants and anti-protest forces joined the fray before the security forces started shooting live bullets and firing tear gas indiscriminately, to the extent that even journalists going about their legitimate duty of reporting the protests and innocent, peaceful protesters and passers-by got engulfed, with many losing life and limbs to the bargain. At this juncture, it must be said that the passivity of citizens is equally a hindrance to positive development, just as the looting and mismanagement of our resources by the political actors. Had millions of adults come out to join the peaceful protests, they most likely would have, by their sheer population, made it impossible for hoodlums to hijack the process. Had the police, too, strategically positioned themselves in front of our very important assets one week before August 1st when the protests began, maybe the story would have been different.

We must, as a matter of urgency, part ways with the colonial legacy of seeing peaceful protesters as enemies of the government. Our insincere pursuit of democracy will continue to put us on a permanent track of convoluted crises if we do not. It is in this context that I consider the president’s broadcast as a little late and also inappropriate. He ought to have made the broadcast three or four days before August 1st, while the security forces ought to have been fully armed and taken positions days before the protests began in front of our vital assets as a preventive measure to make it impossible for hoodlums to invade or burn those assets.

Let our leaders understand that, by suppressing citizenship activism, which must manifest in a democracy in the form of peaceful protests, they are inhibiting the emergence of viable democratic governance. As long as we keep having high-level illiteracy in the midst of equally high-level corruption and mismanagement, along with embarrassingly high-level of poverty and endless neglect of out-of-school children and the so-called miscreants and Almajiris, we will not get out of the ugly cycle of poverty, of endless protests and agitations and of the endless killings on both sides of the divide. We will permanently keep heaping disgrace and shame on ourselves in the eyes of the international community.

It is not too late for President Tinubu to re-orientate the people working with him and for himself as well to rebuild his own mindset as he summons the courage to return to the fold of campaigners for true federalism and the restructuring of the polity. Let there be strict adherence to the rule of law and respect for fundamental human rights of all citizens, irrespective of background, religion or status. Let him reinvigorate the anti-corruption campaign. He must subscribe to the ethos of responsive governance that sees the people as partners in progress, not abject subjects to be ruled and intimidated from time to time. One way of showing a commitment to return to his original base or camp of the progressives is for President Tinubu to take a second look at the demands of the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protesters, especially their economic agenda, and see how some of those demands can be met with a view to doing something concrete immediately to reduce youth unemployment, high cost of living, and high cost of transportation. He must also commit to waging a more vigorous battle against insecurity. Working together, we shall achieve peace and justice in our country”.

Well said, comrade! But someone volunteered that President Tinubu is still too engrossed in the fruits, plums and perquisites of office – sacking this, hiring that – to have any inclination yet for anything restructuring or true federalism! Another said if all the #ENDBADGOVERNANCE protests achieved was frightening the daylight out of President Tinubu and his cohorts, that it is worth the effort. But I say, if we think we have survived this scare, let’s fear the rage next time!

How does a Nigerian from the south of the country convince his northern compatriot that he means well when he analyses the problems in the North and their implications for the country?

I honestly don’t know. But having spent the last 25 years in the geographical north of Nigeria and having had the privilege of travelling round the states that make up the former Northern Region in the company of some of my most trusted friends who happen to be northerners, I believe that I am well positioned to write this friendly memo to my brothers and sisters in Northern Nigeria.

Children Bearing Children

The spectacle that confronts a first-time visitor to many of the major cities in the North in terms of how underaged children are treated is scandalous. Hiding under contrived religious injunctions, the society accepts what an outsider would consider as marriage between children. Or how else would you describe a marital union between a 16-year-old boy and a 10-year-old girl?

In many cases, the boy grew up on the streets, having been sent to an Islamic teacher from an early age as an almajiri. Some of the almajiris are as young as five years old. The mallam himself needs material succour and he uses the children under his care as street beggars. There are millions of such children all over the major towns looking unkempt, undernourished and desperate. It is from their ranks that politicians recruit underage voters during elections and ‘protesters’ for various causes.

The girl child who is married off at the age of 10 or 12 always holds the short end of the stick because, more often than not, she ends up having Vesicovaginal fistula (VVF). The elite who are in a position to legislate against it are firmly opposed to such a move.  So, babies continue to beget babies. Poverty is compounded by destitution and incontinence.

This wasn’t how the North was administered during the time of Sir Ahmadu Bello, the legendary Premier of the Northern Region in the First Republic. Ahmadu Bello prioritised education and ensured a balance between religious activities and educational pursuits. The Northern region became famous for groundnut pyramids, cotton, tin mining, and massive production of staple food items. The late premier instituted scholarships for children of the North without ethnic or religious discrimination.

The ever-prescient Premier of the West, whose greatest legacy was the provision of free and compulsory education in his region, looked ahead and warned his fellow politicians who felt that he was wasting too much money on education that it was in their interest to do so because “The children of the poor you refuse to train (educate) will never let your children have peace.” His prediction is played out at the #EndBadGovernance protests as gangs of youthful vandals went from street to street, smashing cars and frightening the daylight out of the children of the elite.

The sense of entitlement which the Northern elite have had over the years has made them believe that the federal government ought to pick the bills of parenting the almajiris while the elite continue their life of luxury. No other part of the country is breeding children and calling on the federal government to raise them. It is a simple case of irresponsible parenting.

Beggars Everywhere

The present system of bundling the beggars to the South in droves has not had a dramatic effect as expected. How many more thousand beggars can southern cities accommodate before they start screaming? And with the present economic crunch, are the almsgivers of the South themselves not in need of help now?

The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) has expressed concern that Nigeria has the largest number of out-of-school children globally, with only 63 percent of primary school children regularly attending school. It lamented that a staggering 10.2 million primary school-age children and an additional 8.1 million at the junior secondary level are out of school in Nigeria.

Assessing the situation in an article on Newsdiary Online, Rashidat Yusuf writes: “The shocking revelation to some of us who hardly go far north is the level at which the almajiris (children) have grown up to adolescents and yet are left to wander on their own aimlessly… Little wonder there is so much kidnapping and banditry in this part of the North.”

It is gratifying that some of the northern elite, notable among whom is Prof Usman Yusuf, have risen up to the challenge of campaigning for the rights of the underprivileged, especially the almajiris, and have put the problem squarely at the doorsteps of the state governors and local government chairmen who are best positioned, together with the religious authorities, to mount region-wide advocacy for responsible parenthood and carry out a skill acquisition programme to give the almajiris a future.

Prof Yusuf also wants northerners to realise that they have to share power if Nigeria is to survive. He drew attention to the cabinet positions which northerners currently hold in the Tinubu administration and thinks the spread is fair:

Northern Ministers

Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development; Minister of Budget and Economic Planning; Minister of State, FCT; Minister of State, Water Resources and Sanitation; Minister of Agriculture; Minister of Education; Minister of Police Affairs; Minister of Foreign Affairs; Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare; Minister of State, Steel and Development; Minister of Steel and Development; Minister of Information and National Orientation; Minister of State, Police Affairs; Minister of Special Duties; Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation; Minister of State, Agriculture and Food Security; Minister of Arts, Culture and Creative Economy; Minister of Defence; Minister of State for Defence; Minister of State, Education; Minister of Housing and Urban Development.

The North also has the Vice President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the National Security Adviser, the Chief of Defence Staff, the Chief of Air Staff, and highly coveted positions in the oil industry and important federal parastatals.

Protests Sponsored?

Last week, Senator Shehu Sani revealed that most of the protesters in Kaduna were sponsored by disgruntled Northern politicians against Tinubu.

*”If anyone tells you that those protesters in the North brandishing flags were out because of hunger, it’s a lie. I can say boldly and credibly that those boys were offered money and flags to stage a revolt against the government to instigate a coup. Take it from me: there is a deliberate attempt to overthrow the Tinubu’s government by some folks in the north here, who hid under the hunger protest to do what they plotted with the flying of Russian flags in Kaduna, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa States.”

According to ancient tradition, a wind from the South means a good harvest, while one from the East means a good year for fruit, but a wind from the North foretells a year of storms.

If the Tinubu administration comes to grief through undemocratic means (tufiakwa 10 times), those who think they’re pursuing a northern agenda today may find that they have played into the hands of separatists and unwittingly proclaimed new nations into existence — goodbye Nigeria!

My humble advice to my brothers and sisters in the North: bend down and do the hard work that will make the North great again!

Fela Anikulap-Kuti, the inimitable Nigerian musician, was a trail-blazer in many parts. He created the music genre called Afrobeat; he rendered the lyrics of his popular tunes in pidgin English, and he deployed his music to fighting social ills and the government’s oppressive policies. He had a running battle with the Nigerian police, more than any other establishment. As their regular guest, he must have visited police detention centres over a hundred times in his chequered life. 

After one of his controversial arrests and detention at Alagbon Close, a cul-de-sac of a street in Lagos Island that served as the police criminal investigation facility in 1974, he released a song called Alagbon Close, with lyrics that lampooned the police for maltreating him. The popular refrain…uniform na cloth, na tailor dey sew am…mocked the police for being inhuman, just because they were putting on uniforms that any tailor could sew. 

Uniforms are not the only clothes that change the status and circumstances of men. Flags are even more so. Though simply a piece of cloth, or pieces of clothes sewed together, flags symbolize things of different meanings; it is an instrument of authority and it symbolizes the status of sovereignty. 

So when the #EndBadGovernance protests got underway 11 days ago, it was expected to be a show of public disapproval of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s handling of the socio-economic affairs of the country. In less than 15 months, his administration has shown great incompetence in managing the nation’s economy. While it embarked on questionable expenditures, some of the major projects are either self-serving or have no significance to the needs of the poor. 

Tinubu set the wrong foot forward from day one. While many agreed on the need to remove the subsidy on petroleum products which was guzzling humongous amounts of our resources, the manner it was arbitrarily removed at the inauguration ground, without first studying the books, consulting with industry stakeholders and emplacing social safety nets for the people whose life and livelihoods revolve around the industry, was fatal. 

There were other neo-liberal policies like the much-criticized floating of the Naira which plunged the nation’s currency into a tailspin it has not recovered from till today. Unable to survive in the harsh operating environment, over 12 major multinational companies have exited Nigeria within the period, while countless local business concerns have folded up. In nearly all sectors, production has plummeted and food insecurity has added to the general insecurity ravaging the country. 

In the midst of all the adversity, the Tinubu administration and the National Assembly that enables its every financial request rides the wave of luxury. The presidential air fleet that boasts 5 aircraft recently welcomed one more super jet; convoys of officials in the executive got longer with more shinning vehicles; the legislators use the latest SUVs from Japan’s Toyota, and the Vice President has moved into his mansion that cost a princely N21 billion to complete. Even the presidential guest house in Dodan Barracks, got about N5 billion for another face-lift, just in case the president may want to spend a few minutes there while in Lagos.

If that is not profligacy, Nigerians wonder what is?

In the build-up to the protest, Tinubu showed nonchalance, Senate President Akpabio taunted the poor masses the more while Police IG Egbetokun talked tough. The protesters must have thought a mere demonstration against the pervasive profligacy was not enough since no official of any consequence appeared to be losing sleep. 

The idea of the Russian flags must have been a brilliant idea to draw attention and frighten security personnel out of their slumber. So, after a violent first day of the protests in Kano during which buildings and cars were torched and offices and shops looted, they arrived the streets of Kano the next day with Russian flags.

A year after Nigeria’s northern neighbours, Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger expelled the French authorities and entered a security understanding with Russia, the sight of Russian flags on the streets of Nigeria was not just embarrassing, it was scary. Have the Sahel nations that spurned Nigeria and the ECOWAS headed by President Bola Tinubu become a route through which our sovereignty could be threatened?

All attention turned to Kano. Has the state with two ‘governors’ and two ‘emirs’ for one emirate, also split into people of two nationalities?

For a moment, the security chiefs who had been scare-mongering about a possible foreign sponsorship of the protests, appeared to have hit the bulls eye on intelligence. Though the Russian government – through its Embassy in Nigeria – denied any involvement, our security analysts seized the stage with extrapolations on the wider ideological battles the two major world powers were turning Nigeria into. To say that it was a frightening scenario is to put it mildly, especially when some of the protesters were calling for regime change, a senseless and outrageous proposition. 

But after three days of doomsday analyses, and a national broadcast that some people say was forced on the President by the dire circumstances in Kano, the chips finally came down to one tailor called Ahmed. 

The Directorate of State Security announced that it has apprehended Ahmed, the tailor that made the Russian flags. The picture of Ahmed appeared with pieces of clothing materials in the colours of the Russian flag. Could this haggard-looking man be the source of the events that caused the nation so much scare and discomfort? If he is, then the reports of massive infiltration of Vladimir Putin’s supporters from neighboring countries may have been exaggerated or totally off-point.

As it turned out, the flags that some people were prepared to swear were first soaked in the communist chambers of the Kremlin, were actually produced in the dingy backstreets of Gyadigyadi in Kano City by one ‘Obioma’ tailor.

The result of investigation by security agencies is not out yet, but one question comes to mind: was Ahmed the tailor aware of the consequences of his treasonable acts? I wager he didn’t but it doesn’t count for an excuse. Any 100 level law student will tell you that ignorance is not an excuse in law. He may jolly well be a pawn in the hands of some more enlightened sponsors. Or like the tailor in Fela’s ‘Alagbon Close’ who innocently sew the uniforms that turn the mere mortals in police uniforms to beasts that delight in the ill treatment of fellow citizens. 

As the nation awaits the outcome of investigations, the fact is that flags – even the Russian flag – is, after all, mere pieces of clothes that any tailor can turn into an instrument of national scare.

Sheddy Ozoene, Editor-In-Chief of People&Politics, is Vice President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors. 

An American immigration officer caught me unawares with a probing question. I was doing a research on five oil-producing countries on a comparative scale with Nigeria to draw out lessons for our leaders on policy environment, windfall management, upstream-downstream linkages, local content, and operations of national oil companies. I had travelled to Washington, DC to use the libraries of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). In my hand was a book, ‘The Paradox of Plenty: Oil Booms and Petro-states’,  authored by Terry Lynn Karl who explored why the oil boom of the 1970s produced disappointing outcomes in some countries, Nigeria inclusive.

“So, what do you think Nigeria’s problem is?” the immigration officer, who obviously saw the book, asked me. I was not expecting that. Until 2006, my answer to every question about “Nigeria’s problem” had always been “corruption”. I never had to think twice. The evidence was everywhere. However, upon deeper reflection — after studying the development trajectories of many countries across the world — I had come to realise that as big a problem as corruption was, incompetence would give it a run for its money. That was how I began to develop and peddle my pet theory that for Nigeria to break out of underdevelopment, our leaders must be BOTH patriotic and competent.

“Umm,” I stammered a response to the officer. “I think it is—”

He cut in, with a smile: “Let me help you. Some countries have political problems. Some have economic problems. Nigeria has both political and economic problems.” What a summary!

The recent (or ongoing) protest in Nigeria reminded me of this conversation. There were clearly two aspects to the protest: there were those complaining about the economy and there were those playing politics. It was very glaring. Those interested in the economy were complaining about the price of garri and the cost of running government. Those playing politics were waving the Russian flag (ignore the lie that it was the flag of the Nigerian military) and calling for President Vladmir Putin to help overthrow President Bola Tinubu’s government. Some of the protesters said Tinubu should resign and hand over to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, who came second in the 2023 presidential election.

Governor Uba Sani aptly captured this about the violent protest in Kaduna, his state. “When you see children within the ages of nine, 10 and 14 now raising the flag of another country, you will agree with me that it’s well designed, sponsored by some elements who are calling for anarchy in their own country. They took advantage by using the psychology of those children, knowing fully that here in Northern Nigeria, our people are close to our neighbouring countries, such as Niger Republic, making them to believe that what happened in Niger Republic can happen in Nigeria; what happened in Burkina Faso can happen in Nigeria and what happened in Mali can happen in Nigeria.”

I read several comments in WhatsApp groups and the platform formerly known as Twitter. Some suggested that the north was ganging up against Tinubu and would do anything to regain political power in 2027. One commenter argued that northerners never protested over economic hardship under President Muhammadu Buhari but have suddenly found their voice because a southerner is president. The central theory, from what I can glean, is that some northern forces are moving against Tinubu because they cannot control him. Well, I am not a fan of conspiracy theories so don’t expect me to jump on the bandwagon. In any case, I also have my own issues with Tinubu’s leadership style.

However, there is nothing happening so far that surprises me. I am well aware that the political and economic history of Nigeria did not start in 2023 or 2019 or 2015 — as you could be misled to think if you spend too much time on social media. Nigeria has always been complicated; the mistrust and competition between the north and the south has always been there. We went to war in 1967 basically as an aftermath of the 1966 coup which pitted a part of the country against another. More so, there is nothing strange about mutual suspicion in a multicultural society. Even in societies that are seemingly monolithic, there is still room for rancour. There is no perfect society in the world.

I am not suggesting that all conspiracy theories are false. Some things are too striking to be coincidental. Some of the protests and violence in the north are definitely politically motivated and have nothing to do with the inflation rate. Why would protesters invade the Kano government house? The state is governed by the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), not the All Progressives Congress (APC), so why should Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf be the target of protesters when the macro-economic policies are orchestrated by the APC-led government in Abuja? Why should Tinubu be asked to resign and be replaced by Atiku when the constitution is clear on who succeeds him?

Being president of Nigeria is no tea party. Challenges must come. Conspiracies must surface. Let us look back a bit. When President Olusegun Obasanjo was in power, he faced quite a number of crises in his early days. Perhaps, the biggest was the introduction of Sharia criminal code by 12 northern states. Shari’a had always been for civil affairs, but it was being scaled up to criminal matters which had been the exclusive preserve of our criminal laws. Zamfara state, which in 2000 became the first to adopt the Sharia criminal code, amputated the hand of Bello Buba Jangebe, a cow thief, to show that it meant business. Two women were sentenced to death for adultery in other Shari’a states.

Obasanjo’s initial response was to fiercely condemn and threaten the Shari’a states but having seen the brick wall ahead of him (there were unconfirmed rumours that the Supreme Court was going to rule in favour of the states), he decided to calm down. It seemed to me that he realised, and accepted, that it was a political challenge that he needed to handle with tact. He changed rhetoric, saying that there was the “real Shari’a” and the “political Shari’a”. He predicted that the “political Shari’a” would soon fade out. Today, it appears only Kano is still operating Shari’a in a newsworthy format with the frequent breaking of bottles of beer and mass arrest of “immoral” mannequins.

It was not easy for Obasanjo. The Shari’a riots between 2000 and 2002, mostly in the north-west, claimed thousands of lives. It was bloodshed upon bloodshed. As if this was not enough trouble, Jos, Plateau state, exploded. The riot of September 2001, sparked off by some seemingly innocuous development (they said one Christian lady walked past a Muslim praying ground or one Muslim politician got a political appointment ahead of a Christian — all sorts of theories), led to the deaths of at least 1,000 persons. Jos has not known peace since then. Obasanjo also faced an impeachment process in 2002. His supporters blamed his travails on northerners who wanted power back in 2003.

It may also interest us to recall that some anti-Obasanjo protesters called for the military to overthrow him, although they did not fly the Russian flag. Rather, pro-Osama bin Laden and “Death to America” rallies were common in Kano. When people make it look like Obasanjo had an easy time in power, I tend to think time has erased our memory. He had it rough and tough, some of his own making and some out of political intrigues. He survived and somehow got a second term. But he managed to unite almost the entire country against himself with the ill-fated third term agenda. Overall, he played the complicated politics of leading Nigeria and implementing economic reforms.

Tinubu is now facing his own baptism of fire. How will he handle it? Will he play the regional card by insisting it is a northern conspiracy against him in order to gain the sympathy of southerners, most of whom voted against him in 2023? Will he engage in pragmatism — “give a little, take a little” — in order to keep his northern friends onside? There is no card he plays that will not come with a price. The regional card can backfire and make Aso Rock hotter for him (President Goodluck Jonathan definitely has a story to tell about this) but some southerners will be happy if it will eventually lead to balkanisation. The pacification card will require changing his style but it may hurt his ego.

Running a delicate country like Nigeria requires a lot of tact. Many presidents discover this too late, to their own hurt. As the US immigration officer told me, we have both economic and political problems. These are hefty weights. Fixing the badly broken economy is a monumental challenge on its own, but at least it is largely a technical issue. Managing political interests in a complex polity is another thing altogether. It requires a different skill set and mindset. What did Obasanjo get right (or wrong) when he faced his own baptism of fire in the games of policy, power and politics? What did other presidents get right (or wrong)? I am curious to see how Tinubu will handle his own baptism.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

MISS CHIEF

Ms Chidimma Adetshina, born in South Africa to a Nigerian father and a Mozambican mother, found herself in a nasty situation when she decided to contest for Miss South Africa. She ordinarily should qualify to be a South African — having lived there all the 23 years of her life so far — but she was branded a “foreigner” and now, one of her parents is being investigated for allegedly obtaining citizenship through identity theft. This is not a coincidence. We may talk all the legal jargons, but the fact is that this is indisputably another episode in the senseless cold war between Nigeria and South Africa, or should I say between Nigerians and South Africans. MTN, Multichoice and all that. Silly.

CAMPAIGN PAIN

Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi state aimed hot shots at President Tinubu on Wednesday in what may be an effective kick-off of the 2027 presidential election campaign. Commenting on the nationwide protest, Mohammed — who was minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) from 2010-2015 and is a staunch member of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) — took aim at the government of the All Progressives Congress (APC). “It’s their programmes that have caused all these problems. If Tinubu continues like this, in 2027, I will invite him to be our campaign director because everywhere would be PDP, and we are going to win because it is self-inflicted injury,” he fired. Ouch!

HAMMER BLOW

I watched in pains as Ms Annette Echikunwoke represented the US in hammer throw at the Paris Olympics. It is not strange for athletes to fly “a flag of convenience” and win medals for their adopted countries. But Echikunwoke’s case is different and painful. Born in the US to Nigerian parents, all she wanted to do was represent her ancestral country where her heart was. But we messed her up. Because of an administrative lapse, she was disqualified from the 2020 Olympics over Nigeria’s failure to comply with the out-of-competition testing (OCT) requirement. Echikunwoke had already set the African record by then. Nobody can blame her for deciding to jump ship. Heartbreaking.

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A state in the Federal Republic of Nigeria has not recruited into its civil service in 25 years. Those are not my words — they belong to Mr Erasmus Ekpang, commissioner for information, Cross River state. Governor Bassey Otu has now lifted the embargo. “As we speak, the state civil service is almost depleted and we are indeed happy that the governor has considered it necessary to recruit at this point in time,” Ekpang said. A quarter of a century? A whole generation? Civil service is the engine of government. It is where policies are formulated and implemented. Entries and exits are critical to keeping the wheel running. You mean a state has not replenished the stock in 25 years? Wonderful.

In a way, the #EndBadGovernance or #EndHunger protests have not panned out exactly the way the organisers had planned. A few cities—notably Abuja, Lagos, Bauchi, Maiduguri, Kano and Kaduna—were grounded for a few days, and the president was dragged into making a national broadcast. But weariness and complications crept in, most citizens expectedly hurried back to their normal businesses, and the protests petered out.

Having weathered this storm—without sustaining more than a mere scratch—the President Bola Tinubu administration could be led to think that its containment strategy worked well, that it has developed a good template for handling future iterations, and that all is well and good. That will be a wrong lesson to take from these protests. As long as the underlying reasons for the protests remain or even worsen, all cannot be said to be well and good. The country will remain a tinderbox, and be vulnerable to the slightest spark.

A few complications helped the government in taking the heat out of the hunger protests. The most obvious one is that the protests were quickly infiltrated or hijacked by those whose agendas went beyond the cost-of-living crisis: those calling for a coup and for regime change; those trying to relitigate the outcome of the 2023 elections or positioning ahead of 2027; those calling for the president to resign and be replaced by one of his competitors in the last election; and those flying Russian flags and asking Vladmir Putin to intervene in Nigeria. Then, there was the looting of public and private property, and there was the fact that the protests were more pronounced in certain parts than others.

It became clear these other dimensions were clearly well-orchestrated and that some bad-faith actors were pulling the strings behind the scene. Not a few had to reconsider their stance and avoid becoming mere pawns in the high-wire political chess game they didn’t sign up for. This twist created a dilemma for even some of the leaders of the protests, divided the larger populace, and weakened support for the cause. Unwittingly, these became a boon to the government.

However, it will be a mistake for the president and his team to think they will always be presented with such a luck. The right approach will be for them to understand why many Nigerians were willing to participate in or to support the call for street protests that started on social media, how this administration contributed to that willingness from even among some ardent supporters of the president, and where and how the government needs to make quick course correction.

The simple truth is that even when most Nigerians have had it rough for a while, their suffering has been of a higher concentration in the past year or so.  Times have become extremely hard—most Nigerians are struggling to feed themselves and straining to afford other key necessities of life. There is hunger mixed with angst in the land. The angst is so thick you can slice it.  

So, this is not the time for the administration to congratulate itself on successfully sitting out the first major confrontation with the masses. The urge to declare victory may be tempting, but it will be clearly wrongheaded. If the status quo subsists, it is just of a matter when, not if, the next and the next confrontations will happen, and there is no guarantee that things will not turn out in a totally different way. The administration will help itself and the country by taking this slight brush as a wake-up call, and as a major opportunity for rigorous introspection and for a step-change.

As said earlier, things were not particularly rosy when the president assumed office on May 29^th, 2023. Headline inflation was 22.41% while food inflation was 24.84% as at May 2023. Inflation rate above 20% is a danger sign that should keep policymakers constantly awake and worried. Nigeria crossed the 20% barrier in August 2022 when headline inflation hit 20.52%, and has kept a steady climb since.

But things have got rapidly and remarkably worse in the 14 months of the current administration. As at June this year, headline inflation had jumped to 34.2% and food inflation had soared to 40.87%, up from 22.41% and 24.84% respectively when the president assumed office. And by the way, the inflation rates are aggregate figures, and as such are not fully representative of the extent of the hit that Nigerians have taken in their pockets and in their savings. Prices of some commonly used or consumed food items have tripled or even quadrupled. According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), the prices of brown beans surged by 252% and tomatoes by 320% between June 2023 and June 2024. The corresponding months of the two years indicate this is not about seasonality. A country with such rapid hikes in food prices is just an orange-pip-spit away from trouble.  

To be sure, there are different drivers of the current high prices in the country. But the major culprits are the after-effects of the signature reforms of the Tinubu administration: removal of petrol subsidy and floating of the Naira. Both reforms are necessary and should have been implemented long ago, as I have submitted here on many occasions. For instance, Nigeria splurged $10 billion on petrol subsidy alone in 2022, a year when debt service consumed more than 80% of Federal Government’s retained revenue. The country was simply burning the money it didn’t have and was hurtling towards a thinly-disguised ditch. So, petrol subsidy was unsustainable and an unwise way of allocating scarce resources. It needed to go.

However, while the president still deserves applause for having the guts to take on the subsidy that most Nigerians have become passionately wedded to, he cannot be absolved of the charge that he undertook this significant reform without adequate thoughts and provisions for those that would be disproportionately affected it, especially the poor. It is well documented that petrol subsidy removal would lead to a hike in the costs of transportation and food, two things that the poor spend almost all of their incomes on. More than a year after what has come off more like an impulsive than a considered policy action, we are still discussing how to cushion the effects of subsidy removal on the poor, and petrol subsidy, clearly, has crept back because of the next thing the government did.

On 14^th June 2023, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), with a clear nod from above, introduced another major shock: the floating of the Naira. This can be termed the most egregious step taken by the administration so far. The gap between the official and parallel exchange rates has narrowed and forex-denominated revenue of the government has swollen to the extent that exchange gain is now the third highest component of revenue shared by FAAC (after statutory revenue and VAT). But Naira has experienced a massive plunge, losing 53% at the parallel market and 71% at the official window. In an economy that imports a lot, businesses and individuals are reeling from the double and persistent whammy of price hikes and instability.

One of the things that the president and his team say so often these days is that the pains from the reforms are unavoidable. No, that is not exactly accurate. Yes, reforms come with pains, and delayed adjustments are accompanied by a higher order of anguish. But there is nothing inevitable about the quantum or the calibration of the misery inflicted through the reforms, especially the forex reform. One, floating the Naira was totally ill-advised. The CBN could have gradually devalued the Naira to what is now considered the fair value of our national currency. With that a dollar would still be below N1000 by now.

Two, floating the Naira without first securing adequate supply of forex to meet pent-up demands and muster enough firepower against speculators is a recipe for the rapid depreciation that we are living through. And three, floating the Naira shortly after removing petrol subsidy amounts not only to introducing double shocks simultaneously on a long-suffering people but also to ignoring that there is a limit to the amount of pain the human body can tolerate. Pacing or sequencing is a key element in reform management. But it seems the reform team, if there was any, missed that memo.

So, it will be important for the Tinubu administration to acknowledge that it tried to do the right thing but in the wrong way or in the wrong order. It needs to own its mistake, make reasonable adjustments, and ensure that future actions are more carefully considered and undertaken with clear and robust strategies and plans. In terms of needed adjustments, it might be necessary, for example, to move from a free float of the Naira to a managed float. It is also worth considering freezing the forex rate used for imports or adjusting it on a quarterly basis. That will make for better planning and less fluctuation.   

There are some areas where the government needs to take a hard look at itself. The first is its speed of response. Measures to cushion the effects of petrol subsidy removal should have been frontloaded or fast-tracked. There was a vacuous debate about the social register because some governors want to control the paltry sums meant the poorest households. In July, the Federal Government announced some consequential actions against soaring food prices. Those were good, emergency and time-barred moves that could have come at least three to six months earlier. Precious time had been wasted by key government officials in looking for scapegoats for high food prices. It is important not just to act, but also to act on time.

The second is the need for the government to actively model the time we live in and take the lead in demonstrating the sacrifice that it is asking of or imposing on the citizens. Neither the pattern of budgetary allocations nor the way public officials carry themselves suggests that Nigeria is passing through a tough period. With the business-as-usual approach to budgeting in the main appropriation, with the mind-boggling extravagance in the budgets of the government-owned entities, and with the talks about new presidential jets, the government either doesn’t get it or doesn’t care or is just plain insensitive. You can’t be inflicting pains on your citizens and be coasting around in obscene convoys, be prioritising new cars and new buildings, be fielding huge delegations to international meetings and be running a bloated, and mostly lacklustre, cabinet.

Third, the president needs to adopt a more inclusive, less alienating and more practical approach. He seems too eager to reward his Lagos loyalists with key appointments, without due sensitivity to the need for national spread. He is alienating key individuals and major sections of the country. Ruling a country, as with politics, is a game of addition, not subtraction. It is strange that this seems lost on someone regarded as a master political strategist. The triumphalist edge to his politics overlooks the point about the harm that a growing army of the alienated can do, especially in moments of real or concocted crisis.

President Tinubu, unexpectedly, has enjoyed a long honeymoon. But all honeymoons are like weekends: they don’t last forever. It is safe to assume that with the protests, Tinubu’s extended honeymoon has lapsed or is about to. He should brace himself for more confrontations. The right lesson for him to take from the protests this time will not be how to continue to win against those who confront or oppose him. But about the need to significantly address the underlying conditions that can make it easy for the genuinely hurting masses and various interested parties to join forces.  

I will Recommit to People's Welfare -Erelu Adeleke

Governor Ademola Adeleke has called on traditional rulers to deepen unity among their ranks even as he spoke on his plans for the agricultural sector.

The Governor represented by the Commissioner for Agriculture, Hon Tola Faseru made the call at the coronation of the wife of the Governor, Her Excellency, Erelu Ngozi Adeleke as the Erelu Soludero of Erinmo Ijesa.

The paramount ruler of Erinmo land, His Royal Majesty, Oba Odunayo M. Ajayi, Arowotawaya II had this Saturday conferred the prestigious title on Mrs Adeleke who was already the Erelu Soludero of Oke Ila in Ifedayo Local Government.

Governor Adeleke expressed heartfelt appreciation to his royal highness for conferring this prestigious title on my wife, Erelu Ngpzi Adeleke, adding that “This is an open demonstration of affection and love for my family and the entire Adeleke dynasty.

“I must congratulate my dear wife for this honour conferred on her and the family. This chieftaincy title symbolizes the sustained efforts of our government and the Adeleke family to bring succor to the people of the state. I thank Kabiyesi for honoring my wife. This will propel us to do more for the people of Osun state”, the Governor posited.

While congratulating the royal father on his coronation anniversary, the State used the opportunity to affirm the importance of royal institutions, submitting that “ the contributions of our royal institutions to communal and state development cannot be brushed aside. 

“In the turbulent art of governance, our royal fathers provide invaluable counsellings and moral support which steadied the ship of state and facilitated good governance.

“Our government will continue to accord traditional rulers their rightful place in the scheme of things. We will continue to consult and tap into the fountain of wisdom for which our fathers are made of. 

“In this collaborative effort for the good of the people, our government will not abandon its responsibility to deliver dividends of democracy and to lift our people out of poverty and under-development.

“I must however plead with our royal fathers to revive and deepen the old spirit of unity across the traditional councils. We must avoid actions and inactions that breed disunity and fragmentation. 

“A united traditional council across the local government will strengthen the capacity of our royal fathers to influence government policies. The increasing sign of fragmentation is worrisome and constitutes a threat to the sanctity of our traditional institutions”, Mr Governor advised.

On state governance , Governor Adeleke told the gathering that his government is implementing several initiatives in the agriculture sector. 

According to the Governor , “We are specifically pursuing expansion of activities within such sub-sectors as cocoa, cashew and rice value chains. We will support provisions of facilities for paddy rice processing as well as further incentives for farmers in that sector. 

“We are extending similar back up to farmers for other cash crops as a deliberate strategy to expand the state economy and deepen the state Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

“In the next few days, our government will be unveiling and distributing several farm equipment and inputs including tractors, fertilizers and seedlings. This is a golden era for our farmers. We are determined to raise Osun into an agro-industrial state with excellent infrastructure for economic sustainability”, Governor Adeleke narrated.

I will Recommit to People's Welfare -Erelu Adeleke

Responding to the coronation, Erelu Ngozi expressed appreciation to the royal father and the entire people of Erinmo Ijesha , pledging to "redouble her efforts towards development of the town and realization of the aspirations of the young and the old in the state.

" I will push ahead with a vision of an Osun State where every citizen is empowered, embraced, and equipped to reach their full potential. I envision a future where compassion, integrity, and innovation drive our efforts to create inclusive opportunities for all.

"Together, we will champion education, healthcare, and sustainable development, ensuring that no one is left behind. With unity and determination, I will build a legacy of resilience, prosperity, and hope for generations to come", the new Erelu told the gathering.

Erelu Ngozi Abeni Adeleke founded the Esther Adeleke Humanitarian Foundation, an NGO dedicated to providing healthcare services, food aid, and education to those in need.

She is affectionately known as “Mummy Triplets” for her unwavering commitment to supporting families blessed with twins and triplets in Osun state. Through her foundation, she is providing care, support, and financial assistance to four sets of triplets and three sets of twins and still counting.

The Erelu has earned many honours and awards in recognition of her immeasurable contributions to the well being of children, women and less privileged members of the society.

The event was attended by the Ooni of Ife, Oba Enitan Ogunwusi, the Chief of Staff to the Governor , Hon Kazeem Akinkeyeand his wife, members of the State Executive Council, Hon Ibukun Fadipe, and other dignitaries from home.and abroad.

Signed:

Mallam Olawale Rasheed,

Spokesperson to the State Governor.

The month of August is typically filled with celebrations in my household – a wedding anniversary and two birthdays; but this year, there’s additional reason for a drink. It is the 40th anniversary of my debut as an opinion writer. It was in August 1984 that my first opinion piece appeared on the op-ed page of The Guardian newspaper – beginning what has turned out to be a lifelong passion. Titled ‘’The way we are’’, the piece was a piercing review of the insincerity within the Buhari military government. The Nigerian Prisons Service had taken out several pages in newspapers to advertise for tender for the supply of firewood to prisons across the country, essentially undermining a national campaign against deforestation, launched earlier in the year by the same government, to check desertification in the North and erosion in the South. In my young mind (I was only 23, going to my final undergrad year), I could sense internal conflict within the government that had prided itself as a no-nonsense disciplinarian out to correct the ills of the society.

How could a government launch and fund such a massive campaign, asking citizens to plant trees and protect environment, and at the same time, a department in the same government is seeking contractors to supply firewood to be used for cooking food for millions of prisoners. From where would the firewood come? The article, I understood, caused some dismay within the Buhari/Idiagbon government and triggered a search for alternative cooking fuels in the prisons.

Since that first outing, I have been writing regularly, virtually on every subject under the sun - apart from religion - asking questions, criticizing, analyzing, proffering solutions and taking leaders to task. I have found no other art more innervating than writing. It is, indeed, one of God’s noblest gifts to humanity and it has given me a voice to refine my ideas and reach out to the world.

A lot has happened since then. The ownership, composition and structure of the media have changed considerably, just as the character of the newsroom and the production processes of news have also been transformed. But the most fundamental change was wrought by the Internet and subsequent births of the social media and online publications. The media now includes a wide range of electronic platforms, while journalism has a new variant known as ‘’citizen journalism’’, which is practiced by anybody with a handheld device. As a citizen-journalist, you don’t have to possess a formal or on-the-job training on the rudiments of journalism before you create a sensation. This variant has done a great disservice to the profession because it has little or no regard to ethics and standards.

Social media has also diminished kingdoms and dethroned emperors. When I wrote my first piece, the publisher was worshipped as an emperor and the editor venerated as a king. That era is long gone. The influential person is no longer a publisher or the editor with a daily print run of 400,000 copies. We now have young social media ‘influencers’ with over five million followers on Instagram or Tiktok. Brands flock to them for endorsements, while newspapers scrounge for obituaries to survive.  

Writers and readers now have bigger access to national platforms. When I debuted, it was hard for the editorial page editor to accept your work for publication. The copy had to be typed double-spaced and posted (or hand delivered) to the newspaper, addressed to the Editor. I posted mine at Uyo post office. Hundreds of such mails were received daily and you would be both lucky and outstandingly good to be chosen for publication. Today, there are many online publications to write for and any piece, whether good, sensational or simply fake, could go ‘viral’, reaching millions of readers. The tyranny of the publisher and his editor has been broken!

 With the growth of social media, a new ‘industry’ has emerged within the media: the production and distribution of unsubstantiated information. Whether it is disinformation, misinformation, malinformation or fake news, these materials are created and deliberately spread by competitors, divorced spouses, jilted lovers, aggrieved former employees or other persons to damage reputation of certain persons, brands or destroy businesses. Even the dead are not spared! Fake news makes truth hard to find and could also be one of the leading sources of danger to personal security and health. The ongoing violent riots in the UK were caused by the spread of fake news! Thankfully, the traditional media and some reputable online publications have remained impenetrable to fake news; and so, they are important source of news and information to the few that controls the most.

Forty years ago, columnists, opinion writers and pundits were fewer in number, but more influential than they are today. The military generals in power then, ever so eager to gain legitimacy, were attentive to what the pundits wrote. They read everything, and sometimes, responded harshly. But these days, I wonder whether our ‘democrats’ even read newspapers. While the military administrators were scared of negative public perception that could trigger a revolt within and outside the barracks, today’s ‘democrats’ are not bothered by our opinions because they do not owe their legitimacy to public acceptance. Many of them did not even get into office through a legitimate electoral process, and so the peoples’ voice doesn’t matter.

Reflecting on the essence of my maiden article, I marvel at how unchanged the character of the Nigerian government has been these past 40 years. It is still full of duplicity, hypocrisy and deceit. Officials inflict hardship on the people; ask them to tighten their belt and make sacrifices, while they revel in opulence and luxury, living large on the treasury. The way we are!

Former presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, has said since Nigerian politicians took over from colonial masters, they have only contributed wickedness.

Peter Obi said most of the resources managed and maintained by the colonial resources were left to waste. He said he often doubted the essence of independence and how things were allowed to be wasted.

The former governor of Anambra State, in an interview with Why Not Afrika, while speaking on the economic opportunities in that Onitsha area of River Niger.

Obi recalled that the Onitsha area of River Niger used to be a beehive of economic activities. He explained that the colonial masters built so many resources in the area that generated revenue for the country, but all were left to ruin by the Nigerian leaders.

He noted that the River Niger, if harnessed like the River Nile of Egypt, can help the entire logistics system of the country. He regretted that every wealth created out of River Niger was left to waste.

“It is wasted resource. If you check the contribution of Nile to Egypt and you ask yourself what is the contribution of River Niger to Nigeria. So if two people have similar resources but one of them is yielding something and another is not.

“Since colonial masters left, everything they built was allowed to destroy, because nobody cares about the society, nobody cares about the people. There are so many resources we have that they have never cared about.

“You won’t know the amount of waste in this country. This alone if properly utilized can help the entire logistics system. All transportation for farm products used to go through this facility.

“They were all built by the colonial master. Since they left, it has been a waste. That is why I ask the question the essence of independence because the black man has not contributed anything except wickedness,” Obi said.

[NaijaNews]

Dangote Group’s subsidiaries have emerged as major recipients in the latest Retail Dutch Auction conducted by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), purchasing at least $105.33 million in successful foreign exchange (FX) bids. 

This allocation represents about 13% of the $876.26 million that the CBN distributed among qualified banks. 

Zenith Bank, Access Bank, Providus Bank, Union Bank, and Sterling Bank were the primary banks that secured the most FX for Dangote’s firms in the latest CBN Retail Dutch Auction. Four of these banks are also on the list of the top 10 banks that got the most FX from the CBN’s auction. 

These banks played vital roles in facilitating the importation of essential raw materials, spare parts, and equipment, crucial for maintaining the operational efficiency of Dangote’s diverse industrial empire. 

Dangote Sugar Refinery got the most FX 

• Among the firms owned by Africa’s richest man, Aliko Dangote, Dangote Sugar Refinery led with $87.42 million FX bids. Dangote Sugar Refinery received significant allocations for the importation of Brazilian cane raw sugar. For example, one transaction involved the import of 16,000 metric tons of raw sugar, with a single bid amounting to $10.96 million. 

• Dangote Cement PLC, a dominant force in Africa’s cement industry, had a successful bid amount of $9.03 million. Several smaller allocations were directed toward the procurement of spare parts for cement plant machinery, particularly by Dangote Cement PLC. 

• The Dangote Oil & Gas Company Limited received $5.33 million from CBN’s auction. Dangote Oil & Gas Company Limited received substantial FX for the purchase of gasoil and low-pour fuel oil (LPFO), essential for energy production and industrial operations. The largest single bid in this firm amounted to $2.5 million for the purchase of 15,000 metric tons of gasoil. 

• Dangote Industries Limited was allocated $2.5 million, while Dangote Agro Sacks Limited received $941,600.96. The $2.5 million secured by Dangote Industries Limited was for the importation of a set of gas turbines. 

• Smaller allocations were made to Dangote Sinotruk West Africa Limited and Dangote Coal Mines Ltd, with $7,161.50 and $104,568.68 respectively.  

A significant portion of the foreign exchange allocated to Dangote’s firms was for importing spare parts for various manufacturing and industrial processes. For instance, Dangote Agro Sacks Limited’s FX bid was for spare parts needed for textile machinery and manufacturing equipment.  

What you should know 

Nairametrics earlier reported that companies under the Dangote Group lost about N1.21 trillion of their market capitalization in July 2024, as they all experienced a double-digit share price decline during the month.   

Dangote Cement, Dangote Sugar Refinery, and NASCON Allied Industries are the three subsidiaries of Dangote Group listed on the NGX. These companies’ share prices declined by 10%, 13.6%, and 19.8% respectively in July.  

The market losses by these companies during the month had an impact on the net worth of the group’s President, Aliko Dangote.  Dangote who is Africa’s richest man directly and indirectly through Dangote Industries Limited owns an 86% stake in Dangote Cement Plc, a 72.2% stake in Dangote Sugar Refinery, and a 62.19% stake in NASCON.  Hence the losses posted reflected a N1.02 trillion (~$680 million) hit to Dangote’s personal fortune.

According to the Bloomberg Billionaires’ Index, his net worth as of July 1, 2024, was about $14.8 billion. However, at the end of the month, it declined to $13.6 billion.   

The bulk of Dangote’s assets are his publicly quoted companies. However, his private assets such as the Dangote fertilizer plant were valued at $5.1 billion. The flagship of Dangote’s assets, the Dangote Refinery, is not yet valued amidst a myriad of controversies that have plagued the plant over the past month.  

The Federal Executive Council recently approved President Bola Tinubu’s proposal to sell crude oil to Dangote Refinery and other upcoming refineries in Naira. The landmark announcement by the federal government may help stabilize fuel pump prices and the dollar-naira exchange rate. 

[Nairametrics]