The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Sa’ad Abubakar III, has directed Muslims to look out for the new moon of Muharram from today.

The Sultan, who is also the president-general of the Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs (NSCIA), gave the directive in a statement issued by the Advisory Committee on Religious Affairs Sultanate Council, Sokoto.

He said, “This is to inform the Muslim Ummah that Monday, July 17, which is equivalent to 29th day of Dhul-Qadah 1444 AH (Islamic calendar) shall be the day to look for the new moon of Muharram 1445 AH.

“Muslims are, therefore, requested to start looking for the new moon of Muharram 1445 AH on Monday and report its sighting to the nearest district or village head for onward communication to the Sultan,” the statement read.

The Sultan prayed to Allah to help all Muslims in the discharge of their religious duties.

It would be recalled that Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar and identified as one of the four sacred months of the year.

No fewer than 42.69 million poor Nigerians were excluded from the Federal Government’s N5,000 monthly cash transfer since its inception in 2016, according to findings by The PUNCH.

In June 2023 edition of the Nigeria Development Update, the World Bank disclosed that only 19.4 per cent of Nigerians benefitted from the programme.

With an estimated population of 207.25 million (based on World Bank estimates), this meant that only about 40.21 million Nigerians benefitted from the cash transfer programme.

The Washington-based bank noted that about 40 per cent of Nigerians (82.9 million people) lived on less than the national poverty line at the end of 2022.

On the poverty rate, the bank said, “The majority of Nigerians are either poor or economically insecure, just one shock away from falling into poverty. About 40 per cent of Nigerians—82.9 million people— lived on less than the national poverty line in 2018/19.13. An additional one quarter of the population—some 52.6 million people—were economically insecure, at high risk of falling into poverty. The overall poverty situation since then is unlikely to have improved given that GDP per capita has declined since 2019.”

Based on the poverty rate, it meant that 42.69 million poor people did not benefit from the Federal Government’s cash transfer programmme.

Despite the exclusion, the lending bank noted that an additional four million Nigerians became poor between January and May this year due to rising inflation.

With the recent fuel subsidy removal, it had been projected that about 7.1 million poor Nigerians would become poor if the Federal Government failed to compensate or provide palliatives for them.

This had further underscored the need for urgent assistance, especially to the poor and vulnerable in the country.

Nigeria underspends

The World Bank has said that the Nigerian government is not spending enough to address the issue of poverty and protect Nigerians.

In its NDU report, the bank stated, “Despite being exposed to frequent recent shocks, the majority of the population lacks protection to adequately cope with shocks financially. In 2021, Nigeria spent only 0.7 percent of its GDP on social safety nets. This is much lower than the average for SubSaharan Africa and lower-middle-income countries of 1.2 percent and the global average of 1.5 percent.

“Consequently, only 19.4 per cent of Nigerians benefitted from any safety nets programme, compared with 25 per cent regionally and 41 per cent globally. Even among those covered, benefit levels remain insufficient to keep households out of poverty. Thus, Nigeria needs to rapidly and comprehensively expand the coverage and adequacy of its social protection programmes to allow households to cope better with inevitable future shocks.”

The bank further noted that Nigeria had the capacity and infrastructure to deliver the necessary assistance needed.

It stated, “Nigeria has the capacity and the infrastructure to deliver immediate assistance at scale. In recent years, Nigeria has invested in building a robust safety nets delivery system that can provide immediate assistance to a large number of households. This includes the development of social registries that can be used to select households for support and a robust payment system that can deliver cash transfers in a safe, secure, and reliable manner.”

Call for Expansion
There have been calls for the expansion of the social safety net to cover more poor people.

In this regard, the World Bank said, “Building on earlier progress in expanding social protection to the poor and vulnerable, the government can leverage the phasing out of the petrol subsidy to establish a new social compact with Nigerians.

“Establishing a redistribution mechanism that uses a portion of the fiscal savings to protect lower-income households could minimise the negative impact on consumer welfare while still yielding a large net gain in government revenues.

“To build public support for phasing out the subsidy, and as part of a wider process of building trust, the government could propose a compact with Nigerian citizens that directly links the phased-out subsidy to compensatory cash transfers. It could publicize this compact (cash transfer amounts, eligibility criteria, transfer mechanisms, etc.), enabling the media and civil society to monitor compliance.”

Experts agree with the World Bank in not just expanding the coverage but making it more transparent.

Speaking with the PUNCH on it, The Managing Director, Cowry Asset Management Limited, Johnson Chukwu, said that the government needed to be transparent and make the database accessible to everyone for easy confirmation.

He said, “The government must have a register, and that register should be in public domain. It should be broken into states, local governments, districts, so that people can actually go to that register and confirm the genuineness of the people in the register.

“This way, you have genuine people who are in need in that register, So, it is just about the level of transparency and openness that the government has regarding the register.”

A former President of the National Accountants of Nigeria, Dr Sam Nzekwe, also stressed the need for accurate data to ensure that genuine poor people are the major beneficiaries.

“It is very important that we have open data,” he said.

President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, have told the Presidential Election Petition Court sitting in Abuja, to dismiss the petition of the Labour Party (LP) and its presidential candidate Peter Obi.

Tinubu and Shettima, through their counsel, Mr Wole Olanipekun (SAN) in his final written address against the petition of Obi and LP, described the arguments and testimonies of witnesses presented by the challengers as “frivolous, bogus and based on hearsay.”

In his written address, he urged the court to dismiss the petition as totally lacking in merit, substance and bona fide.

He argued that the “remote” contention of the petitioners that his client’s election should be cancelled for not scoring 25 percent or one-quarter of the votes recorded in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) is not backed by any fact known to the law as the use of “and” in the constitution is conjunctive and not disjunctive.

He argued, “This case clearly cries to high heavens in vain to be fed with relevant and admissible evidence.

“The appellant woefully failed to realise that judges do not act like the oracles of life, which is often engaged in crystal gazing and thereafter would proclaim a new Oba in succession to a deceased Oba.

“Judges cannot perform miracles in the handling of civil claims, and at least of all manufacture evidence for the purpose of assisting a plaintiff win his case.”

Uncertainty yesterday pervaded the All Progressives Congress (APC) following reports of Senator Abdullahi Adamu’s resignation as national chairman of the governing party.

There are indications that Adamu announced his resignation after mounting pressure from party bigwigs that he should do so.

A source within the APC who spoke in confidence on the development last night told LEADERSHIP that the embattled national chairman may have preempted the outcome of the national caucus and National Executive Committee (NEC) meetings billed for tomorrow and Wednesday.

“I am not surprised if Adamu has resigned because that is the noble part he should take if he does not want to be disgraced out of office. His refusal to support Senate President Godswill Akpabio and Speaker Abbas during the NASS leadership election sold him out as being anti-party.

“Don’t forget that he also threw his weight behind former Senate president, Ahmed Lawan, instead of President Tinubu during the party’s presidential primary last year. That he has been tolerated all this while shows how magnanimous Tinubu is as a leader,” the source who did not want his name in print told our correspondent.

But an online report had it last night that Adamu resigned purportedly on the orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

National secretary of the party, Iyiola Omisore, was also said to have tendered his resignation minutes after.

An online newspaper, Prime Business Africa, reported that it got affirmation from reliable sources within the party and the presidency that Adamu “resigned a few minutes ago on the orders of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.”

Another online newspaper, WesternPost, also reported that Senator Abdullahi Adamu has resigned as APC national chairman.

Although efforts to get key members of the party to confirm the authenticity or otherwise of the chairman’s resignation did not turn out, LEADERSHIP gathered from sources that members of the party’s National Working Committee (NWC) met at an undisclosed location to discuss pressing issues bordering on the fate of the party ahead of tomorrow’s national caucus meeting and the NEC meeting billed for Wednesday.

Why the NWC members opted to meet secretly outside the party’s secretariat when a meeting of the party’s NWC is billed to hold today was still a puzzle at the time of filing this report.

The APC had scheduled the same NWC, caucus and NEC meetings for last week but had to move it to July 17, 18 and 19 following protest from some NWC members over a financial report of the party presented for deliberation by Adamu, which they insisted was not detailed.

Prime Business Africa reported that information it obtained last night indicated that the NWC and the president’s meetings were postponed, purportedly at the request of Senator Adamu.

“It was also gathered authoritatively that all members of the NWC ” are on the same page” regarding the compulsory resignation of the National Chairman and his Secretary, Omisore.

“The NWC members are also said to be miffed by the alleged lack of transparency in the party’s 2022 Account audit, which they said was “surreptitiously secured and submitted without any of the members sighting it,” the online paper reported.

Quoting a source which it said was privy to the details of the resignation, another online paper, WesternPost, reported yesterday that “Adamu was forced out over many issues which included his non-support for President Bola Tinubu.

“According to the source, for the past two weeks, elements within the party have been calling for his resignation threatening to remove him at the next National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting if he fails to resign,” the online platform noted.

The paper further reported that Adamu caved in after Imo State governor and chairman of the Progressives Governors’ Forum, Hope Uzodinma, “told him that if he didn’t resign, they will remove him at the next NEC meeting”.

LEADERSHIP recalls that since March this year, the national vice chairman (North-West)mof the party, Mallam Salihu Lukman, has been calling for the resignation of Adamu and the party’s national secretary to balance the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket and save the party in Osun State.

Lukman had also dragged Adamu and Omisore to court, praying the court to compel them to give account of how party funds were spent in the previous year.

Speaking with journalists in Abuja last week, the former director general of the Progressive Governors Forum (PGF) said despite raking in over N30 billion from sale of forms, Adamu refused to give President Tinubu and other candidates financial support in the 2023 general election.

He said, “Talking of national budget, we are just coming out of elections whereby we were not able to sustain past precedence. What was the past precedence? Under Comrade Adams Oshiomhole in 2019, every candidate of the party received something from the National Secretariat. In this last election, no candidate of the party received a dime from the party.

“Talking of finances, in our constitution the NEC is supposed to approve some form of sharing formula. I am aware that each state chapter has received about N20 million out of the N30 billion. Put together, that is about N700 million less than a billion which is less than 3 percent of the total income that has been earned.

“Yet we want to sweep this under the carpet. We are having states, zonal, local councils and ward levels who are left on their own. The whole question of funding of the party has not been addressed”.

Asked in specific terms whether Tinubu got anything from the party or not, he said, “He didn’t get a dime from the party. I am making this public. Let them challenge me and contradict me.”

Lukman also faulted the party’s decision to send its budget to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC for scrutiny, arguing that it is the party’s NEC that has the constitutional power to approve the budget.

He said, “We are expected to present a proposed national budget to the National Executive Committee NEC for approval by the provisions of Article 13(3A)(14) of the APC constitution. I felt embarrassed when I heard the National Secretary (Omisore) say the budget of the party has been sent to the Independent National Electoral Commission INEC.

“INEC is not the approving authority of the budget of the APC. The approving authority is the NEC. Till today we don’t have a national budget. Yet we made over N30 billion from sales of forms.

“Till today as a member of the NWC and majority members of the NWC, maybe with the exception of the Financial Secretary, Treasurer and or the Auditor who may have inside knowledge of how much was expended on the renovation of the National Secretariat of the party, we have no knowledge of what is being expended”.

He recalled that former President Muhammadu Buhari got some level of support from the party when he was the party’s candidate in 2015 and 2019.

His words: “Look, in 2015, the party was truly a model party. President Buhari didn’t have money. People were assigned responsibilities to raise money. It is just like Asiwaju and you say Asiwaju has money. So there were people assigned with the responsibility of mobilizing money for the party. If anything was done in 2023 based on that, it would be the initiative of Asiwaju. I am not aware of it as a party.

“If you remember in between, we were busy causing distractions about what should be our roles in the Presidential Campaign Council. Unless if we are humble and honest to admit that these are things that ordinarily shouldn’t have happened and admit we need to correct them and reshape the relationship between us and the government that emerged, we would continue to have the problems we are having”.

Lukman further accused Adamu of disobeying the party’s decision on the choice of the leadership of the National Assembly by staying aloof from the position of the party.

According to him, instead of developing guidelines as directed by the provisions of Article 13 (4.6) of the constitution that would guide the emergence of the leadership of the National Assembly, the Adamu-led NWC approached it with a blank cheque.

A recent discovery of significant quantities of water-contaminated fuel within an aircraft has resulted in the Nigeria Civil Aviation Authority (NCAA) commencing an investigation across the country's airports and fuel suppliers to identify the root cause of this issue.

However, the NCAA has alerted airlines operating flights to and from Nigeria to be vigilant about refueling aircraft in order to ensure fuel quality is up to the industry standard.

The discovery of contaminated fuel

The issue was first discovered when a Max Air Boeing 737-300 earlier this month experienced the Auxiliary Power Unit (APU) shutting down due to fuel contamination. This happened while the aircraft was on the ground at Yola International Airport (YOL).

The Independent reports that fuel was dumped onto the airport apron, during which time multiple drums of water were collected from both aircraft tanks. Since the airline, prior to the discovery, had purchased fuel from Lagos, Abuja, and Kano airports, the NCAA requires fuel suppliers to carry out water checks.

Reports suggest that while the NCAA is investigating the source of the contaminated fuel, it will additionally examine the browsers and fuel procedures of Max Air to ensure the airline was following the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) in place.

Furthermore, it is reported that any party identified as having issues will have their license to operate suspended. As an additional precaution, the petroleum regulatory agency in Nigeria will also be consulted to ensure the problem has been solved.

Risks of water contamination

As noted by Acorn Welding, water is the most common cause of fuel contamination within aircraft fuel tanks. This poses safety risks to flight operations, increasing the chance of the water freezing, blocking fuel lines, and damaging the fuel pumps.

This is primarily because the fuel, unlike water, would be treated for use at various operational conditions and temperatures, resulting in the contaminated water freezing unexpectedly and affecting the operation of the system.

If the system gets blocked, the fuel supply to the engine could stop, resulting in the engine shutting down, which presents its own set of challenges during a flight. Ultimately, the presence of water in fuel will severely degrade the fuel quality.

IATA's Fuel Quality Pool

Aside from the checks carried out by regulators, airlines also inspect fuel. While airlines can individually check the fuel, they also have the option of joining IATA's Fuel Quality Pool (IFQP) program.

This program ensures that fuel facilities meet the regulatory requirements by sharing the workload of inspecting facilities among airlines jointly serving airports. This provides advantages for the airlines and the fuel suppliers as this program reduces repetitive inspection of fuel at airports, as all quality reports are shared among member airlines.

[simpleflying]

The governorship candidate of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in the 18th March 2023 governorship election in Enugu State, Mr. Frank Nweke Jr says he withdraw the petition filed against Governor Peter Mbah on personal reasons.

Mr. Nweke Jr., who was a Minister in the Chief Olusegun Obasanjo administration while speaking with newsmen said “i decided to withdraw the petition against Dr. Mbah for personal reasons.

It was reported that Mr Nweke withdrew his petition against the winner of the election and governor of the state, Dr. Peter Mbah, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Nweke, who came third in the governorship election with 17,983 votes as against Mbah’s 160,895 votes, announced the withdrawal of the petition at the Enugu State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal on Sunday, through an oral application by his counsel, R.A.C.E Achara.

Achara said it became imperative to withdraw the petition filed on 11th April 2023 in order to reduce the workload of the tribunal.

The tribunal consequently granted the wish and dismissed the petition accordingly.

[DailyIndependent]

The Senate has said that it is not ready to join issues with some misguided and mischief makers on the recently appropriated 70bn for the National Assembly was a gift from the Executive arm of government.

The Senate also said that the passage of the Supplementary Appropriation Act was part of the constitutional duties of the Senate to accommodate funding for the Federal Government's Palliative for the Nigerian public among other National demands.

The reaction of the Senate to the alleged padding of the Supplementary Budget as reported in some sections of the media was contained a statement issued by the Chairman,, Senate Committee on Media and Public Affairs, Senator Yemi Adaramodu and made available to newsmen in Abuja.

According to the statement, "after the passage of the Supplementary Budget to accommodate funding for Federal Government' Palliative for the Nigerian public, among other urgent national demands, the socio-political space has been inundated with spurious, inaccurate and irreverent misinterpretations. 

"Suffice to say that the passage is part of the absolute constitutional duty of the Senate. We would therefore, not wish to join issues with the mischief and misrepresentation that a portion of the just passed Amendment Act that appropriated 70b Naira was a 'gift' to the Legislators," the statement noted.

Senator Adaramodu stressed that "a visit to the Suites, offices and the general structures of the National Assembly complex would reveal a yawning and the need for exigent attention. Many Senators had to bring their chairs, tables and electronics and in many cases, do sundry repairs. 

"The so much debated allocation will not be paid to any Legislator. This will be managed by the National Assembly Bureaucracy. It's pertinent to also note that the National Assembly complex does not house only the Legislators. There are thousands of workers and service providers, whose working environment need a face-lift, and/with necessary tools.

" Since the Assembly Complex is not owned by Legislators who are merely political birds of passage, such allocation cannot be termed by anyone as a palliative to the Legislators. 

"The alleged padding of the palliatve Budget by the National Assembly only exists in the minds of those who are all out to discredit the 10th Assembly. There is nothing like padding as being alleged in some misinformed media outfits.

"We wish to urge fellow compatriots to see the National Assembly as partners in the progress of Nigeria.The National Assembly is the soul of democracy and the 10th Senate shall join hands with other arms of government and our forward looking Nigerians to sing new songs of progress, development, safety and all round economic recovery and growth.

There are over 9,000 licensed filling stations across the country that are fit for the co-location of facilities that dispense autogas fuel, the Federal Government has said.

It disclosed this in a communique issued by the Nigerian Institute of Transport Technology at the end of the stakeholders’ engagement forum on the provision of technical manpower and facility for the development and promotion of autogas as transportation fuel in Nigeria.

The conference, with the theme, ‘Autogas as an alternative fuel for transportation in Nigeria’, showed that there was a need for alternative options for transportation fuels such as Liquefied Natural Gas, Liquefied Petroleum Gas, and Compressed Natural Gas known as autogas, which should become widely used and accepted as an alternative automotive fuel.

The communique stated that Nigeria gas reserves were about 209 trillion cubic feet, adding that gas production was between 8.15 – 8.35 billion standard cubic feet/day, which was more than enough for the nation.

Providing updates on the implementation status of the autogas programme, the NITT said, “There are over 9,000 licensed retail outlets classified fit-for-purpose for co-location of autogas fuel nationwide.

“There are 50 conversion centres currently upgrading for mass conversion and training of technicians in the country. Auto assemblers are already producing fit-for-purpose dual-fuel vehicles in the country.

“The Nigeria Gas Expansion Programme had held extensive multi-sectoral stakeholder engagement and secured impressive programme support and buy-in. The government is supporting the deployment of over one million conversion kits for trucks and smaller vehicles.”

It said the government was supporting the optimal availability of all autogas fuel streams, and that the adoption of autogas technology was good for Nigeria in the short and long term.

The communique stated that the forum recommended that the Federal Ministry of Transportation should collaborate with relevant stakeholders and the private sector for research, development, and deployment of autogas fuel in Nigeria.

It said the Federal Government should provide incentives to motorists, especially in the public transport and road freights sub-sectors for the conversion kits acquisition as a way of cushioning fuel subsidy removal.

Wole Olanipekun, counsel to President Bola Tinubu and Vice President Kashim Shettima, has asked the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC) to dismiss the petition of Peter Obi and the Labour Party (LP).

Olanipekun in his final written address against the petition of Obi and LP, described the arguments and testimonies of their witnesses as “frivolous, bogus and based on hearsay”.

On March 1, the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) declared Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress (APC) winner of the 2023 presidential election.

Tinubu secured a total of 8,794,726 votes.

Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) had the second-highest figure with 6,984,520 votes, while Peter Obi of LP was next with 6,101,533 votes.

On March 20, Obi and LP filed a petition before the court, seeking nullification of the poll on grounds of non-compliance with the Electoral Act 2022.

Olanipekun in his final written address dated July 14 asked the tribunal to bar Obi from contesting in another election if the court voids the February 25 poll.

He said Obi’s name was not in the Labour Party membership register when he contested the election, noting that Obi was still part of the PDP.

“Obi is constitutionally barred from participating in any election, in the very unlikely event that the election of 25th February 2023 is voided, as the only candidates constitutionally prescribed to contest any subsequent election shall be Tinubu and the candidate of the PDP, Atiku Abubakar who came second, by scoring the next majority of votes in the highest number of States (19 States), to the 1st petitioner’s 16 States, and also coming second by plurality of votes, having scored 6,984,520, far and above 1st petitioner’s 6,101,533 votes,” Olanipekun said.

In his conclusion, Olanipekun said the presentation of the petition itself and the evidence presented glaringly shows it is a crass abuse of the court process.

“Based on the arguments and submissions contained in this address, we urge this Honourable court to dismiss this petition as totally lacking in merit, substance and bona fide,” he said.

“It has been glaringly shown and demonstrated by the presentation of the petition itself and the evidence presented by the petitioners, including the evidence of PW12, that the petition itself is not only frivolous but also amounts to a crass abuse of the process of the court.”