The 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi, says the constant power outages in many parts of Nigeria and the expensive cost of petroleum products may push many entrepreneurs out of business and sink more Nigerians into poverty.

Many Northern states have been thrown into a blackout for several days now as a result of vandalism of the Shiroro-Mando transmission line. The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said work has commenced to restore power.

In a Sunday post on X (formerly Twitter), the former Anambra State governor said the continued power outages in many parts of the country “have remained a cause of grievous concern”.

“The negative impact of the continued power outage on businesses, especially small businesses, who depend primarily on public power supply to sustain their businesses as a means of livelihood, is unimaginable.

“This power crisis, when combined with the present high cost of petroleum products and a harsh operating environment, remains a lethal recipe for widespread business failure and increasing poverty in the country,” Obi said.

He said solving Nigeria’s power and energy crisis is not rocket science as many of Nigeria’s peer nations have demonstrated the possibility of sustainable power for their citizens.

“Our African neighbour, Egypt, for example, invested aggressively in their power sector, which resulted in the establishment of a sustainable power infrastructure by way of many power stations.

“Today, Egypt has revolutionized power and energy production in the country, providing sustainable power to millions of small businesses, which account for over 90% of active enterprises in the country and contribute to over 80 per cent of their GD,” he said.

Obi called on the government to ramp up efforts and provide immediate and long-term solutions to the challenge.

The Guild of Medical Directors (GMD) has sounded the alarm over the growing financial strain on Nigeria's private healthcare sector, revealing that more than 50% of private hospitals have shut down, with those remaining barely staying afloat. 

President of the GMD, Dr. Raymond Kuti, explained in an interview that many hospitals are struggling to manage soaring costs of essentials like electricity and medical supplies, leaving them on the brink of closure.

“Averagely, three out of six private hospitals are shutting down every month in Nigeria, primarily due to the challenging economic environment,” Dr. Kuti said. He highlighted that operational costs, particularly for energy and imported medical consumables, have skyrocketed by up to 500%, significantly impacting Band A hospitals.

Dr. Kuti, also the Chief Medical Director at Prisms Health Care Limited, told Punch that declining patient patronage and the “japa” trend—where young healthcare professionals emigrate in search of better opportunities—have intensified the crisis. This has led to severe staffing shortages and forced many people to delay seeking medical care, often opting for self-medication or local remedies due to financial constraints.

Calling for urgent intervention, Dr. Kuti emphasized the critical need for government support to sustain private hospitals. “We need the government to recognise the challenges we face and provide the necessary support to ensure that private hospitals can continue to operate and serve the community,” he urged, stressing the vital role these facilities play in Nigeria’s healthcare system.

Air Peace has refuted a viral claim that it has raised the price of its one-way flights from Lagos to Abuja to N200,000.

Recall that a post recently went viral indicating that Air Peace’s one way flight would now cost N200,000 from November 1, 2024.

However a check on the website of the airline showed that a one-way Lagos-Abuja flight on Air Peace is far less than that.

As of the time of doing this report, a one-way flight for November 1 is around N114,000.

In a statement debunking the viral post, the Airline said the post suggesting 100% fare increase with the image of Chairman, Mr. Allen Onyema, is false and did not emanate from the airline.

The statement said, “We would like to categorically state that this information is false and did not originate from Air Peace.

“We have not released any official statement regarding a fare increase as described, and any announcements regarding our pricing would only be made through our verified channels.

"We encourage our valued customers and clients to rely exclusively on our above platforms for accurate updates and information on fares.”

Leo DaSilva, a former Big Brother Naija housemate, has handed out some words of advice to young men.

The reality TV star advised young men to consider getting married by November due to the anticipated rise in the U.S. dollar exchange rate. 

In a tweet, DaSilva warned that the dollar’s value could skyrocket in December and January, likely making goods and services even more expensive. 

DaSilva’s statement reflects growing concerns over Nigeria’s economic situation, as fluctuations in the dollar exchange rate continue to affect the cost of living. 

The Nigeria Police Force, Nasarawa State Command has apprehended a suspected kidnapper and recovered the sum of five hundred and forty-seven thousand Naira.

Ramhan Nansel, the Nasarawa State spokesperson of the Command, made this known to journalists on Sunday.

According to Nansel, the said amount is part of the suspect’s share of the ransom collected for the kidnapping of one Cironman Fulani at Arugbadu village of Nasarawa Eggon LGA of the state.

“On 27/10/2024 at about 1130hrs, police operatives attached to 38 PMF Akwanga in collaboration with men of the Nasarawa Eggon Division arrested one Abdulkarim Zakari of Konba village, Wamba Local Government Area of Nasarawa State in connection to a case of kidnapping undergoing investigation.

“Upon interrogation, he confessed to being part of the syndicate that kidnapped Ciroman Fulani at Arugbadu where they collected a ransom of five million Naira, N5m, and was given his share of one million and two hundred thousand Naira only N1.2m, ” Nansel stated.

He further said that the Commissioner of Police, Umar Shehu Nadada has ordered a manhunt for the other fleeing members of the syndicate.

Nadada also commended the officers for sustaining the onslaught against criminals in the state.

Niger State Governor, Mohammed Umar Bago has ordered the immediate suspension of the Vice Chancellor of Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai (IBBUL), Prof. Abu Kasim Adamu.

The suspension follows reports of ongoing clashes between the Vice Chancellor and university staff, although specific reasons for the action were not disclosed.

It's been alleged that Prof. Adamu’s suspension may be linked to allegations of high-handedness and insubordination, which have reportedly strained relations with faculty members and union bodies. The internal friction has reportedly intensified as the Vice Chancellor’s tenure was due to end in two months.

Governor Bago directed Prof. Adamu to hand over his responsibilities to the next most senior academic, Deputy Vice Chancellor Prof. Hassan Ibrahim, who will now serve as Acting Vice Chancellor.

The World Bank has said that the reports submitted by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) to the Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC)  were inconsistent, and lacked necessary details on its operations.

This was revealed in the bank’s Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms (ARMOR) Report for May 17, 2024.

According to the WB, in addition to reduced net oil revenues, the opaque governance of NNPCL has significantly undermined the transmission of oil revenues to the federation.

“Non-transparent reporting to the Federal Ministry of Finance (FMF) and the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC), make it difficult for the authorities to oversee NNPCL’s performance, calculate anticipated oil and gas revenues and determine the difference between revenues received by the Federation and NNPCL’s total revenue.

“The reports submitted to FAAC by NNPCL are inconsistent and lack information such as details on pledged revenues, the tradeable value of crude oil, actual payments, and receipts from global trade, among others. As highlighted in the Nigeria Public Finance Review (2022),7 financial reporting is opaque due to quasi-fiscal activities such as in-kind revenues in the form of crude oil, and costs directly deducted from revenues that would have otherwise been transferred to the Federation Account,” the report said in part.

NNPCL is governed by the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021

The world’s apex bank cited a case where the NNPCL pledged 35,000 barrels of crude oil per day to the owners in exchange for a 20 per cent stake in the privately owned Nigerian Dangote Refinery.

WB said although the total value of the contractual investments for pledged oil revenues was estimated to be worth US$5.8 billion at end-2022, the amount eventually declared by NNPCL was below expectation.

“All production sharing contracts signed by NNPC state that all fiscal payments shall be made in-kind by allowing the NNPC to lift tax oil, royalty oil, and profit oil. In joint venture operations, in which the Federation owns 55 per cent or 60 per cent of the equity oil and gas, the NNPC handles crude oil and natural gas receipts on behalf of the Federation.

However, the share of oil production in these contracts amounts to more than two-thirds of the total oil production in Nigeria.

“Nigeria’s dependence on oil and gas revenue is a source of fiscal vulnerability. During the commodity-price boom of 1996-2014, the revenue-to-GDP ratio was 12 per cent, (albeit considerably lower than the Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) average of 21.5 per cent at that time), while a decade later, revenue-to-GDP was just 7.7 per cent in 2023.

“ Despite a 116 per cent increase in international oil prices between 2020 and 2022-2023, net oil and gas fiscal revenues transferred to the Federation fell in the same period from 2 per cent of GDP to 1.8 per cent of GDP due to falling oil production and the retention of fiscal transfers to finance the gasoline subsidy.

“Oil production fell from 1.8 million barrels per day (mbpd) in 2020 to 1.4 mbpd in 2022-2023 due to insecurity and a lack of investment and adequate maintenance. The cost of the gasoline subsidy increased over this period from 0.9 to 1.6 percent of GDP, deducted directly by the Nigeria National Petroleum Corporation Limited (NNPCL)5 and reducing the net oil revenue transfers to the Federation Account.”

Additionally, WB said the NNPCL has retained oil and gas revenues for projects such as a gas pipeline to Morocco.

“NNPCL also entered contractual arrangements that pledge future oil and gas revenues to business partners in lieu of cash payments,” the report added.

FG Eyes Fresh $750m W’Bank Loan

The Federal Government is also pressing for a $750m loan from the World Bank.

This loan project is a part of the broader $2.25bn approved by the World Bank for Nigeria on June 13, 2024, to bolster Nigeria’s economic stability and support its vulnerable populations.

The other second part of the loan package was for the Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation, Development Policy Financing Programme project.

Already, an agreement for the loan has been signed between Nigeria (through the Ministry of Finance) and the World Bank.

The agreement document read in part, “The bank agrees to lend to the borrower the amount of $750,000,000 as such amount may be converted from time to time through a currency conversion (“Loan”), to assist in financing the programme described in Part 1 of Schedule 1 to this Agreement (“Programme”) and the project described in Part 2 of Schedule 1 to this Agreement (“Project”, and together with the Programme, hereinafter jointly referred to as the “Operation”).

“The borrower may withdraw the proceeds of the loan in accordance with Section IV of Schedule 2 to this Agreement. All withdrawals from the loan account shall be deposited by the Bank into an account specified by the Borrower and acceptable to the bank.”

According to the Disbursement Linked Indicators set out in the loan agreement, the loan will only be released upon achieving measurable progress in key areas.

These include raising VAT collection through improved regulations, increasing excise taxes on health and environmental products, and boosting corporate tax compliance through enhanced digital infrastructure.

Central to the ARMOR programme is the government’s plan to increase VAT rates and expand taxpayer compliance.

Some of the loan targets include increasing VAT collections to 1.8 per cent of non-oil Gross Domestic Product, unlocking $105m of the loan.

The WB said despite recent reforms, Nigeria’s non-oil tax revenues underperform due to low tax rates, poor compliance, a narrow tax base, and high tax expenditures.

Reforms introduced in 2020-2021 increased non-oil tax revenues from 2.3 per cent of GDP in 2020 to 3.7 per cent of GDP in 2023 due to a rise in Value-Added Tax (VAT) rates, improvements in tax digitalisation, and the unification of the exchange rate in 2023.

“Despite this increase, tax revenues in Nigeria remain very low compared to peers (Figure 2). Unlike most developing countries, Nigeria has yet to tap VAT (a federal responsibility to collect while sharing VAT revenues) as a significant source of revenue. In 2022, VAT revenues were only 1.2 per cent of GDP while VAT tax expenditures were estimated at 1.98 per cent of GDP in 2022 (latest available data).10 The current VAT rate of 7.5 per cent is the lowest rate in Africa, and well below the SSA average of 15.8 per cent. Under the VAT legislation, the tax operates like a sales tax, since firms are unable to recover input VAT on purchases of fixed assets, services, and general administration costs.

“Meanwhile, Corporate Income Tax (CIT) has a very narrow tax base, and although collections have increased in recent years, they represented just 1.6 per cent of GDP in 2023. By comparison, poorly designed and sometimes discretionary CIT expenditures were estimated to cost 0.4 per cent of GDP.11 Excise rates are exceptionally low by global standards, and revenues were less than 0.1 per cent of GDP in 2023.12 Personal Income Tax (PIT) is assigned exclusively to the States, where challenges persist in collection due to tax evasion and underreporting: only 13 per cent of the workforce is registered for PIT (2018) and only 2 per cent of those are reported as active.

The bank advised that the tax and customs administrations need modernising to improve efficiency.

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga says that his principal, President Bola Tinubu, is not unfeeling as painted by some persons on social media. 

Onanuga said the President feels the pain of Nigerians and has assured them that better days are nearer than before.

The presidential spokesman, who spoke on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics, said his principal is not T-pain, as “mischievously” nicknamed on social media.

Onanuga said Tinubu has not come to inflict pain on Nigerians but to “repair the economy”.

He said “the President is aware that the citizens are going through some difficulties” but said Tinubu is not aware that some persons have labelled him T-pain on social media as “the President does not read what is on the social media”.

Onanuga said, “Some people have also responded and called the President a different name. So, as far as I am concerned, it is a non-issue.

“Some people out of mischief just say somebody is a T-pain, He (Tinubu) is not T-pain.

“The President has never shied away from telling Nigerians that he feels their pain and he is working very hard to make sure that he gives them some relief so that things will get better and this country will get more prosperity.”

He said despite galloping inflation, “we are experiencing economic growth, despite inflation, revenues have increased”.

Nigerians are grappling with the weight of unprecedented food inflation, and energy prices which have quadrupled in the last year. Many people have blamed the twin policies of petrol subsidy removal and unification of forex rates for the high living costs that have assailed the middle class.

Citizens have staged two major protests to drive home their grievances against the Tinubu administration and pressured the All Progressives Congress (APC) government to reverse its “reforms” but the current administration has insisted that its policies are necessary and won’t be reversed.

Presidential spokesman Bayo Onanuga said contrary to popular opinion, his principal, President Bola Tinubu, did not acquire a new official jet but a refurbished one.

“It’s not President Tinubu’s plane, it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it is our property,” Onanuga said on the Sunday edition of Inside Sources with Laolu Akande, a socio-economic programme aired on Channels Television.

He said some jets in the presidential fleet like a 19-year-old Boeing B737-700 purchased under ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo are all in bad condition, and their maintenance costs were outrageous. Hence, instead of spending a bogus amount of money on aircraft maintenance, the President sought the approval of the National Assembly for a refurbished jet still in good condition.

Onanuga said the refurbished Airbus A330 would save Nigeria high maintenance costs in servicing the old aircraft.

Onanuga urged Nigerians to prioritise the President’s safety, noting that the newly acquired plane is Nigeria’s property, not Tinubu’s.

The presidential spokesman said Tinubu won’t take the just-acquired jet with him when he leaves office. Onanuga said the jet would also benefit Tinubu’s successor.

Onanuga said, “The president did not buy a new jet; what he has is a refurbished jet – it has been used by somebody else before he got it but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used.

“The one President Buhari used was bought by President Obasanjo some 20 years ago.

“There was a time the President went to Saudi Arabia, that plane developed some problems and the President had to leave with a chartered jet to The Netherlands.”

‘Prioritise Tinubu’s Safety’

The presidential spokesman said he spoke with the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu, on the faulty plane and he said the maintenance costs because of the age of the plane were exorbitant hence the need for another plane.

“People should try to prioritise the safety of the president. I’m not sure anybody wishes our president to go and crash in the air. We want his safety so that he can hand over to whoever wants to take over from him,” Onanuga said.

While the Presidency has continued to defend Tinubu’s action to purchase the refurbished Airbus A330, the move has been criticised by many Nigerians and some of his contenders in the 2023 election, who felt the President was unfeeling to the plight of poor Nigerians grappling under the weight of unprecedented food inflation, and energy prices which have quadrupled in the last one year.

The health state of the Presidential Air Fleet has been a source of concern of late. In May, a faulty presidential jet stopped Vice President Kashim Shettima from attending the 2024 US-Africa Business Summit hosted by the Corporate Council on Africa.

Last December, a presidential aircraft, Falcon 900B, was put up for sale, with the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) asking interested persons to submit their bids for the purchase of the aircraft.