He sacrificed national interest for selfish benefits —Nigerians

He’s Nigeria’s most ethnic-chauvinist president—Ex-minister

Winning election more important to him than national interest —Prof Ezeibe

Tinubu must probe Buhari’s administration —Prof Madubuike

In a stunning admission on Monday, former Nigerian president, Muhammadu Buhari, revealed that the withdrawal of oil subsidy was not motivated by the country’s economic interests but rather as a political move to benefit the All Progressives Congress (APC) and its then-presidential candidate, leader, Bola Tinubu, in the February 25, 2023 elections.

This revelation, which came through a press statement by former presidential media aide Mallam Garba Shehu, has ignited a firestorm of criticism, raising broader questions about how national interests were prioritized throughout Buhari’s tenure and shedding light on a range of pressing issues that plagued Nigeria during his time in office.

Former President Buhari’s reported confession regarding the withdrawal of oil subsidy also triggered a wave of public outrage. Nigerians from all walks of life are now questioning whether their ex-leader’s decisions had been guided by a genuine commitment to serving the nation’s interests or instead driven by political calculations.

The decision to remove the subsidy has been met with widespread backlash, as it led to an immediate increase in fuel prices, exacerbating the economic challenges faced by ordinary citizens.

The former President’s admission further raised concerns about the governance ethics under his leadership. Critics argue that his alleged inaction or turning a blind eye to corrupt practices within his administration allowed a culture of impunity to thrive.

Voodoo contracts, oil theft, and massive stealing became rampant, further eroding public trust in the government’s ability to tackle corruption effectively. The lack of accountability contributed to the country’s economic woes and hindered its progress.

Another troubling aspect of Buhari’s presidency was his perceived inaction in addressing the escalating violence perpetrated by Fulani herdsmen.

The President’s ‘body language,’ as some critics put it, was seen as encouraging these attacks, which resulted in countless lives lost, kidnappings, and disrupted farming activities. The failure of the military to respond adequately to these atrocities added to the growing sense of insecurity and instability in affected communities.

Reactions

In light of President Buhari’s confession, Nigerian leaders from various sectors and civil society organizations have come forward to express their concerns and demand accountability.

National interests compromised during Buhari’s tenure —Isa Yuguda

Former Governor Isa Yuguda of Bauchi State described the delayed removal of the fuel subsidy as a clear indictment of the President’s lack of political will, suggesting that national interests were indeed compromised during his tenure. Yuguda emphasized, “The issue of subsidy removal had been talked about so much under the previous government that it is comparable to motion without movement. It had been just a talk shop while the government lacked political will. Implementing policies, especially when vested interests and a cabal exist, can be very frustrating. It is similar to the issue of illegal oil bunkering and theft. It can be stopped, but the political will to do so is not there. There are so many interests involved, and that is what is leading Nigeria to where we are today. The subsidy regime should have been abolished back in 2012. Anyone who makes excuses against subsidy removal is a selfish person connected to the scammers that are harming this country.”

Other prominent figures, such as Prof. Charles Nwekeaku, Secretary of Igbo Elders Consultative Forum led by former Anambra Governor, Chief Chukwuemeka Ezeife; the Executive Director Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC), Head of Transparency International Nigeria and Chair Board of Trustees Amnesty International Nigeria, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani; and former Chief Imam of National Assembly Legislative Quarters Mosque, Shiekh Muhammad Nuru Khalid, echoed similar sentiments, calling for a thorough investigation into the allegations.

Politicians must not sacrifice the nation for their selfish political interests —Sheikh Khalid

Sheikh Khalid, who spoke to Saturday Vanguard from Saudi Arabia where he is currently observing the Hajj pilgrimage rites, emphasized the need for accountability, stating, “Former President Buhari’s admission is a wake-up call for all Nigerians. We must hold our leaders accountable for their actions and demand transparency in governance. Our democracy cannot thrive if political interests consistently take precedence over the welfare of the people. Politicians must sacrifice for the nation and not sacrifice the nation for their selfish political interests. This lack of accountability has undermined our country’s development and left ordinary Nigerians suffering.”

His confession represents a high level of irresponsibility —Prof. Nwekeaku

In a similar conversation with Prof. Nwekeaku, scribe of the Igbo Elders Consultative Forum, he expressed his disappointment, saying, “Nigerians trusted Former President Buhari to make decisions that would benefit the country, but this revelation shows that the trust was misplaced. How can we have faith in a government that sacrifices our well-being for political gain? In governance, national interest overrides every other interest. You don’t solve a problem by postponing it. His (Buhari’s) confession represents a high level of irresponsibility, lack of commitment, and insensitivity to the feelings of the people. It also confirms what many of us suspected all along—that corruption was given a free pass under his watch.”

Buhari’s government had been lying, deceiving, misrepresenting facts to Nigerians —Rafsanjani

For Rafsanjani, who heads Transparency International Nigeria and chairs the Board of Trustees of Amnesty International Nigeria, there was a disconnect between what the former president was doing and what his aides were saying to Nigerians. He said, “Firstly, Garba Shehu, the former presidential spokesman who reportedly made the confession about the reason behind the fuel subsidy removal could have done that to seek attention because he has always been contradicting himself. However, the former president had been docile and didn’t care about his public image and reputation, he allowed Shehu to be flippant in a disrespectful manner. The implication of Shehu’s confession is that Buhari’s government had been lying, cheating, deceiving and misrepresenting facts to Nigerians and did not mean well for the nation. On the other hand, now that we have succeeded in stopping the payment of fraudulent fuel subsidy, we don’t want another set of looters to emerge.”

Nigerians must probe Buhari’s administration —Prof Madubuike

Two-time Minister of Education and Health respectively, Professor Ihechukwu Madubuike, said the ex-President unlike any other President since the history of Nigeria, placed the interest of his ethnic Fulani above any other consideration. The former lawmaker and Commissioner for Finance in the Old Imo State, further said he would not be surprised if Buhari sacrificed national interest at the alter of ethnic, party or personal interests in some of his actions and in-actions while in office.

His words: “Buhari was, and is still an ethnic bigot. Everything Fulani was his interest. Anything that would advance the fortunes of the Fulani he would do, and he achieved that through his party. At the end of the day Nigeria must rank him as the most ethnic-chauvinist President that the country has ever produced. If Nigerians can have the courage to investigate the eight years of Buhari’s leadership, then the outcome will determine what the next step will be”. Professor Madubuike who regretted that Nigeria was under state capture under ex-President Buhari, wished the authorities would be courageous enough to probe the former President’s administration.

Winning election more important to APC than national interest —Prof Ezeibe

Also reacting, the Chairman, Board of Trustees of a Think Tank, Professor Madubuike Ezeibe, said by Buhari’s confession, the ruling APC, was ready to undermine national interest to protect party interest.

He said that such confession was suggestive that the party might have directed the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, to compromise standards provided the party’s interest was served. According to him, “if APC has confessed that winning election was more important to them than the national interest it is clear the party encouraged INEC to neglect the Electoral Act and election regulations including real time transfer of results (from polling units to IReV) just to ensure they ‘won’. This was the same attitude the defunct National Party of Nigeria, NPN, exhibited which was the reason Buhari, Babangida and Abacha gave for truncating the second republic.

“Disaffection from elections also led to the crisis in the Western region which led to the truncation of the First Republic. The actors usually boast that nothing will happen but Nigeria has always been torn apart by this attitude of sacrificing National interests for personal and partisan interests. The only difference is that in the 2023 election, efforts to divide Nigerians along tribal and religious lines failed. That is the reason INEC chose to avoid transparency.

“Everybody should encourage the judiciary (our last hope) to collate the results from polling units so that if APC won the election, their government can have legitimacy but if they did not win, whichever party Nigerians chose would be declared winner so that we can have peace and progress.”

Buhari never wanted Tinubu to win —Coalition of Northern Groups

Also reacting, the Spokesperson of the Coalition of Northern Groups, Abdul-Azeez Suleiman said “The confession by the former President Buhari did not come as a surprise to us at the CNG. If anything, it is a confirmation of what we have been pointing out throughout the eight years of that citadel of poor governance, indifference, insensitivity and unprecedented plunder that was the Buhari presidency.

“We however disagree slightly with Buhari because everyone is aware by now that he never wanted Tinubu to win, and never worked for his victory. Instead, he supported policy directions and encouraged actions that clearly aimed to subvert it. The failure of the Buhari administration to announce the removal of the fuel subsidy was merely one out of the several indecisions, lack of courage and political will to tackle national issues around security, the economy and reintegration that characterized an administration wrapped in the crude cover of crass political opportunism and breathtaking ineptitude.

“It is part of the burdens of the shared legacy of the Buhari administration in the bombs and bullets of insurgents, bandits, and the deteriorating standards of living as politicians and top government officials fleeced the poor of resources to develop, officials whose personal greed and ambitions remained tied to the continuation of decay and destruction of a nation and a people.

“He treated as enemies those of us who tried to wake him up to the magnitude of the humanitarian disaster that criminal activities have created with about five million of our fellow citizens internally displaced with hundreds of thousands of orphans, hunger and malnourishment, previously unknown in our land becoming alarming features of existence.

“Buhari’s confession is part of the unfortunate eight years under a leader who had spent a large part of his life asking all Nigerians to trust him to lead, but ended up getting the nation critically endangered by officials who failed to lead with justice and sensitivity to its plural nature and the limitations of our political process.

“Buhari’s confession had only proved that the nation was not wrong when it insisted that his image and vision were not being served by the quality and competence of almost all of the people he assembled to work with him and see the nation through its most difficult period.

It is a vindication for those of us who were labelled enemies for insisting that the Buhari administration could do much better in managing the economy, in the all-important fight against corruption within the laws of the land, and in rebuilding a nation united around the values of justice and honest enterprise.

It is a vindication for those of us who reminded him daily that hunger was stalking millions of homes, inflation was making life difficult by the day; people were losing jobs, businesses closing down, and infrastructure was decaying. It is also a belated admission that in the last eight years, he led an administration that had acquired the reputation of being the worst in the history of our nation in terms of any capacity to generate confidence in achieving credible national goals.

Our constitution was set aside for selfish interest — Rev Joseph Hayab

In his own submission, Rev Joseph John Hayab, Chairman, Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Kaduna State Chapter, said, “During Buhari’s administration, most of the decisions and actions taken were from a political lens and for their political successes regardless of how the citizens felt and what happened to them and the country. Nigerians have not yet heard the whole stories of the poor and inhuman decisions that the Buhari administration took when they were in power. The honeymoon will soon be over and we will hear more from both those who benefited from the system and those who were sidelined but could not speak due to fear. Governance is about the people and national development, but sadly Buhari and members of his team brought every good thing down to the level that even outside this country people were wondering if we, the citizens have brains and what happened to our eyes that we could not see the many atrocities committed in our country. Our constitution was set aside for selfish interest. Those in authority were only doing what they liked as against our common agreement. What they are telling us today should not be mentioned even in a zoo but because they have divided citizens along religion, ethnic and sectional lines and we cannot team up to fight them, that is why they are now speaking out without shame.”

Other political analysts and experts have also commented, highlighting the damaging impact of prioritizing political gains over the welfare of the nation. They argue that such actions not only erode public trust but also hinder Nigeria’s development and progress. The need for stronger institutions, checks and balances, and a commitment to transparency and accountability has become even more apparent.

Dr. Chidi Azubuike, a renowned political analyst, commented, “President Buhari’s admission reveals a deep-rooted problem in our political system. It highlights the urgent need for comprehensive reforms to ensure that our leaders prioritize the interests of the nation over personal and party gains. It is time to strengthen our institutions and establish a culture of good governance that places the people at the center.”

Chris Kehinde-Nwandu, a member of the UK’s Chartered Institute of Arbitrators, said: “The fact remains that even the election (ex-President Buhari referenced) is still being disputed. Many still believe that the election was flawed. The fact that he came out to say he delayed the removal of subsidy is no news because it was supposed to be removed long ago, but he delayed it until the tail end of his administration.”

Mnena Kwaghor, a victim of Fulani herdsmen violence, tearfully shared her harrowing experience, saying, “I lost my husband in a brutal attack by Fulani herdsmen. Thinking about the former president’s confession, it breaks my heart to see that he may not have taken decisive action to protect innocent lives because of political interests. How could Nigerians have trusted a government that failed to prioritize the safety and well-being of its citizens?”

Conclusion

Former President Buhari’s recent admission regarding the withdrawal of oil subsidy has opened a Pandora’s box of questions about how national interests were handled during his time in office. The confession underscores the need for a critical examination of government ethics and the impact of political considerations on the welfare of the nation.

As Nigeria moves forward, it is crucial to learn from these experiences and ensure that future leaders prioritize the interests of the country above all else. It is a call for Nigerian citizens to remain vigilant, demand accountability, and actively participate in shaping the future of the nation.

By holding their leaders responsible for their actions, Nigerians can strive for a more transparent, inclusive, and prosperous Nigeria, where national interests are safeguarded, and the well-being of the people takes precedence.

The path to a better Nigeria lies in learning from the past and working towards a future where governance serves the people’s interests, uplifts the nation, and fosters unity and progress.

The Chief of Defence Staff and service chiefs, who were retired by President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, June 19, 2023, are to get bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicles, personal aides, guards and other perks of office, including generous allowance for medical treatment abroad, as retirement benefits, Saturday PUNCH has gathered.

The affected senior military officers are the immediate past Chief of Defence Staff, General Lucky Irabor; Chief of Army Staff, Lt. Gen. Faruk Yahaya; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Awwal Gambo; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Isiaka Amao.

The Harmonised Terms and Conditions of Service for Officers of the Armed Forces of Nigeria 2017 (revised), which was exclusively obtained by Saturday PUNCH and marked as “Restricted”, listed the benefits of the retired Generals upon leaving the respective services.

Section 11.8 of the HTACOS 2017, a revised version of the HTACOS 2012, listed the benefits of a retiring CDS and service chiefs to include one bulletproof SUV or equivalent vehicle to be maintained by the service and to be replaced every four years; Peugeot 508 or equivalent backup vehicle; and five domestic aides made up of two service cooks, two stewards and a civilian gardener.

Each of them is also entitled to an Aide-de-Camp/security officer; special assistant of a lieutenant/captain or equivalent, or personal assistant of the rank of warrant officer or equivalent; and nine standard guards of nine soldiers.

The immediate past CDS and service chiefs are also entitled to three service drivers; one service orderly; escorts to be provided by the appropriate military units/formations as the need arises; and free medical cover in Nigeria and abroad.

They are also to retain all military uniforms and accoutrements to be worn for appropriate ceremonies, as well as personal firearms. However, such firearms shall be retrieved by the relevant services upon the death of the beneficiaries. 

Section 11.19 of the HTACOS 2017 also listed the retirement benefits of a Lieutenant General for the Nigerian Army, Vice Admiral for the Navy and Air Marshal for the Air Force to include two Peugeot 508 cars, or one Toyota Land Cruiser, two cooks, two stewards, four residential guards, one service orderly, two service drivers, free medical treatment in the country and abroad to the tune of $20,000 yearly.

Meanwhile, many Major Generals and equivalence in the Navy and Air Force are expected to apply for voluntary retirement latest by Monday following the appointment of a new CDS and service chiefs by the President.

In the HTACOS, however, the retirement benefits for a Major General in the Army, Rear Admiral in the Navy and Air Vice Marshal in Air Force, who are two-star officers, include one Peugeot 508, a cook, a steward, two residential guards, one service orderly, one service driver, free medicals in Nigeria and abroad to the tune of $15,000 per year.

Their one-star officers who are Brigadier Generals, Commodore and Air Commodore upon retirement are entitled to one Peugeot 408, a service driver, two residential guards, one service orderly and free medicals locally and abroad to the tune of $10,000 each.

For Colonels, Captains and Group Captains in the Army, Navy and Air Force, respectively, each of them is expected to go with a Peugeot 301 or another car of the same value and free medical cover in the country.

The harmonised conditions of service, however, provided that for Major Generals, Brigadier Generals, Colonels and their equivalents in the Navy and the Air Force, all the benefits could be monetised for the retiring officers.

In comparison, the 2012 version of the HTACOS made provisions for one security car to be maintained by the respective service and replaced every four years; retention of all military uniforms and accoutrements to be worn for appropriate ceremonies, as well as personal firearms, which shall be retrieved by the relevant services upon the death of the beneficiaries; three domestic civilian aides (cook, gardener and steward), or cash in lieu; Aide-de-Camp/security officer; six standard guards; one service driver; and one service orderly for retiring Generals, CDS and service chiefs in Section 09.17.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that the HTACOS was reviewed in 2022 in accordance with the five-year review period, but it was not signed due to rumblings that the senior generals were taking good care of themselves at the expense of the rank and file.

It was learnt that to become operative, the HTACOS would be signed by the CDS with the permission of the President as the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.

The current HTACOS in use specifies that the CDS and service chiefs must be four-star Generals and can hold the positions for a continuous period of two years and that the Commander-in-Chief can extend such appointments for another period of two years from the date of the expiration of the initial two-year period.

However, Section 11.09 leaves the tenure of the CDS and service chiefs open and at the discretion of the President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces, stating, “The foregoing notwithstanding, the President, C-in-C reserves the prerogative to extend the tenure of a CDS/service chief irrespective of his age or length of service.”

Former President Muhammadu Buhari relied on this provision to retain the services of Chief of Defence Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin; Chief of Army Staff, Lt-Gen. Tukur Buratai; Chief of Naval Staff, Vice Admiral Ibok Ekwe Ibas; and Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Sadique Abubakar, who were appointed in 2015 but were not replaced until January 2021 even though there were calls for them to be sacked based on the rising insecurity in the country.

 ‘Too many generals’

A former spokesman for the Nigerian Air Force, Group Captain Sadeeq Shehu (retd.), said the country had too many generals, which he noted had led to difficulties in appointing service chiefs in the military.

Shehu stated this on Friday in an interview with Arise TV, which was monitored by one of our correspondents. 

He said, “The retirement is going to include the Generals in the Army, Air Force and the Navy. What is important is not the effect that this retirement will have on security, because we have enough Generals. If these people go, they will be replaced.

“However, it is important to note that it is not normal for the military anywhere in the world to retire about 100 Generals, and by my own estimate, we have close to 133 Major Generals in the Army, Rear Admirals in the Navy and Air Vice Marshals in the Air Force, that are leaving. We also have to remember that this is not the first time. When the last set of service chiefs retired in 2022, we had another batch of about 100 who left.

“The issue here is when you look at the money that is spent on training these people, whether it is foreign courses or the ones here, the experience we are losing and the money we are wasting on these people and then telling them to go is not good for the national economy.

“On the individual level, I must put the premise that our President and Commander-in-Chief, according to the constitutional requirement in Section 217, has the right to appoint service chiefs and the constitution does not tie his hands that in appointing service chiefs, he must pick either the most senior or the middle senior or the most junior. It is completely within his right to do that.

“But President Bola Tinubu came and met about 350 Major Generals across the services, so to be honest with you, his work was not even easy in picking his service chiefs. I think there is a problem that started long ago. We should not be having 350 Major Generals for the President to pick from. The services themselves or the superintendents in the Ministry of Defence approved that number.”

Shehu added, “When you join the military, they will tell you that the military is a pyramid. Now to maintain that pyramid, the lower bottom of the military should be higher than the next higher level. You are supposed to have a large base of Second Lieutenants who came out of the Nigerian Defence Academy in the Navy, Air Force and Army and as they progress into their second rank, which is full Lieutenant, it is almost automatic unless someone dies.

“But from Lieutenant rank, when you are moving to captain that is when the process of filtering starts coming in such a way that you have like 80 per cent, and from Captain to Major, you have like 70 per cent. Towards the end, at the top which is the General, the ideal is that you have like two per cent and a maximum of three or five per cent. But what do we have in Nigeria?

“According to the research I made, there are some courses that since they went out of the NDA, about 44 per cent of them became Major Generals. This is not a good way to go about it. So, I think the failure has to do with a well-coordinated and modern military personnel management system.

“So, I think the problem was not made by the President himself, but the military as an institution with the strict supervision of the Ministry of Defence should be able to follow this filtering process so that only the best become Generals in line with global practices. Unfortunately, that filter has not been working.”

The former NAF spokesman stated, “Those of us that studied these things as far back as 2012 noticed this tendency of promoting too many Generals. There are too many Generals. I know the times are not like when I joined the military, but I remember in 1984 when I joined the military in Kaduna, you could hardly see a Brigadier around. But what do we have now? We have too many Generals.

“We need to listen to our elders. General Ishola Williams, as far back as 2020, gave us this warning that we are having too many Generals and too little field troops. In the long run, it is the country that loses.”

 Experts weigh in

Shehu added that ex-military Generals worked for their pay and that service chiefs who are made to retire suddenly, often leave the military unprepared.

 He stated, “The issue is that when you continue doing this, people who leave, not really unprepared but you know what the military promises them, they are not going to attain it. So it is not a win-win situation for everybody. You lose vibrant young men, they leave unprepared and then you have a bloated military structure. And what does a bloated military do? It costs a lot of money.

“Let us be frank, there is no money you can pay somebody for his life. Whatever you pay a General after serving 35 or 30 years, he is worth it because they are in the bush and stay awake while others sleep.” 

 A security expert, Kabiru Adamu, said the appointment of service chiefs was political as well as professional, adding that they should benefit from what their counterparts in other parts of the world were enjoying.

He said, “There are a lot of things that are wrong with our security structure at the moment. For example, the position and role of our service chiefs is somewhere in between political and professional, and this has put them in a very difficult situation that sometimes they have to dance to the dictum of politicians.

“As an example, when they are appointed, their tenure is not clearly stated. If they are professionals, their appointments should be based on certain professional codes. Why I am saying this is to indicate that because their role is not entirely professional; it also has a political undertone; they’re entitled to benefit from the largesse of any political administration.

“By that, I mean any benefits that political appointees will get, they should get. Is this the best way to run a government, especially where the cost of governance is one of the factors affecting our economy? No. It is not, but I don’t want us to isolate them. It is something that is general with civilian administrations and sadly over time, the problem has deepened. “

Brigadier General, Bashir Adewinibi (retd.), said, “I don’t know what the service chiefs are entitled to but we have terms and conditions in the armed forces and I believe that whatever they will be entitled to would have been stated there and it will be implemented to the letter. It is their entitlement and nothing can be done to it except it is not in the harmonised conditions of service. “

On his part, Colonel Saka Foluso (retd.), said, “I don’t think there is anything too much for Generals who have put their lives on the line for over 35 years. Political appointees, who have not done what the Generals have done, get more than that for say the eight years they have served. There is nothing given to them (military officers) that is too much.

“What they will be given has been stated already, which includes driver, car and what have you; they are not too much. They have made sacrifices for these. Do you know how many joined the service with them who are no more?  If you are complaining about the economy, let us block the leakages elsewhere. Curbing oil theft is one of the ways we can generate more money.” 

A former military governor of the defunct Western Region, Maj. Gen. David Jemibewon (retd.), said the retirement benefits earmarked for the outgoing service chiefs and other military officers were well deserved.

He stated that it showed that the country was now paying better attention to the welfare of the “persons who have served it meritoriously and retired.”

Jemibewon said, “I don’t think there is anything wrong with the retirement packages for these men, who have served the country meritoriously and retired.

“This is evidence that the country is making positive progress towards the stabilisation of professions and recognition of efficient performance in one’s position.

“It will also, perhaps, promote higher and satisfactory performance among the serving chiefs in that they know that they will be highly rewarded for good service to the nation.

“It was not like that when I retired. This is why I said it was an improvement. The country is making a lot of progress. It was not as detailed as it is now. It is a welcome development.”

However, the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Armourcop G. Security Systems Limited, Mr Timothy Avele, said he did not see how the purchase of bulletproof vehicles for the retired service chiefs would look to the common man who can barely feed at this time. 

In a message to one of our correspondents, Avele said, “I don’t see the benefits of purchasing bulletproof vehicles for the retired Generals, especially now that even the common man cannot feed. I think the government just wants to appease them, otherwise, it is a drain on the economy.”

Former Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) General Lucky Irabor has warned politicians not to play politics with the military which enjoys unity and bond not found in any other sectors.

Irabor gave the warning while speaking at a reception organised by the Defence Headquarters after his Pulling-Out-Parade from service on Friday in Abuja.

The immediate CDS said the friendship and unity that existed within the armed forces could not be found anywhere else.

Irabor described the military as an institution that had people from the 774 Local Government Areas of the country being represented.

“The military is a family for those who may not know and I have answered so many questions on we being given an injection.

“What is that injection? There is no injection. The injection is training and discipline.

“They also said we operate like a cult, the process alone there is nothing wrong if I say we are in a cult but it is a good cult.

“In the training establishment when I was a cadet, we spend three years but two years later, it became a five year programme.

“When it was three years, the admission was every six months and when it became five year, the admission became every year.

“For you to finish a three year programme means that you will have five sets of your senior and five sets of your junior.

“The bonding that comes with it, you can’t find it in any other place and that is why you think is a cult.

“The values and traditions are transmitted from one generation to the other and when you get to the field you see yourself as brothers,” he said.

Adeyeye Adeola, a talented Nigerian chef, has embarked on a remarkable culinary journey to set a new Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon (individual).

Adeola’s cook-a-thon began on Friday, June 30, 2023, in the Ile-Oluji/Okeigbo Local Government Area of Ondo State and is scheduled to conclude on Thursday, July 6, 2023.

This is coming after another Nigerian chef, Adeparusi Damilola, also known as Chef Dammy embarked on a 120-hour cook-a-thon in Oye Local Government Area of Ekiti State.

Chef Dammy, a 26-year-old student at the Federal University, Oye-Ekiti, aimed to push the boundaries of culinary endurance.

The PUNCH reports that another Nigerian chef, Hilda Baci, currently holds the Guinness World Record for the longest cooking marathon.

Baci’s certification announcement, best-ever performing tweet — Guinness World Records
Baci’s record-breaking attempt took place from Thursday, May 11 to Monday, May 15, during which she cooked over 100 pots of food over four days.

In an official statement on its website, the Guinness World Records confirmed Hilda Effiong Bassey, also known as Hilda Baci, as the record holder for the longest cooking marathon (individual), with an impressive time of 93 hours and 11 minutes.

The GWR in a statement on its website, said, “Following a thorough review of all the evidence, Guinness World Records can now confirm that Hilda Effiong Bassey, better known as Hilda Baci, has officially broken the record for the longest cooking marathon (individual), with a time of 93 hours 11 minutes.”

However, Adeola’s 150-hour cook-a-thon if achieved will break Hilda Baci’s record and also set a new world record for the longest cooking marathon by an individual.

Nigerians eagerly await the outcome, hoping to witness Adeola’s extraordinary achievement in setting a new Guinness World Record.

The Federal Government spent $62.66m to service railway-related debts in the first quarter of 2023, according to Nigeria’s external debt service payments report by the Debt Management Office.

Between January and March 2023, The Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Idu-Kaduna Section) took $23.1m

The Nigeria Railway Modernisation Project (Lagos-Ibadan Section) gulped $15.49m.

The PUNCH also learnt that the Nigeria Abuja Light Rail Project gulping $24.07m.

The total amount spent in Q1 2023 is a slight increase from the $61.73m spent in Q1 2022.

The rising railway debt servicing costs occurred as the government struggled to generate revenue from the railway sector.

The National Bureau of Statistics disclosed that rail transportation passengers declined by 53.65 per cent from 953,099 in the first quarter of 2022 to 441,725 in the first quarter of 2023.

The statistics body noted that a total of 59,966 tonnes of goods were transported in the first quarter of 2023, compared to 39,379 tonnes reported in the same quarter of 2022.

In terms of revenue generation, N768.44m was received from passengers over the period, a decrease of 63.02 per cent relative to N2.08bn in the same quarter of the previous year.

A professor of Economics at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Sheriffdeen Tella, recently said a number of factors, such as insecurity, among others, affect the patronage of train services in the country.

He said, “It’s being affected by insecurities, the cost of transportation, i.e., fare compared with other modes, and maintenance of the facilities, i.e., maintaining a standard of operation.”

There is a rising anxiety over the worsening scarcity of tomatoes and peppers in most parts of the country, with consumers and sellers adducing different reasons for the scarcity.

While traders lament low patronage, consumers lament the scarcity and high prices.

Farmers and traders who spoke with Saturday PUNCH highlighted the ravaging Tuta Absoluta, popularly known as tomato ebola; fuel subsidy removal and its effect on transportation; and the rainy season as major reasons behind the scarcity of the commodity and its sudden disappearance from markets.

A tomato seller in Mowe, Ogun State, Mrs Abiodun Farayola, who spoke with one of our correspondents on Friday, said although the scarcity of tomato and pepper was relatively an annual experience, the removal of the petrol subsidy and increased fuel price had made them more expensive.

She said, “Tomato and pepper are now expensive because of the high fuel prices as a result of the removal of fuel subsidy. These food items are transported from the North to the South and the transporters make use of trucks which are dependent on fuel, so they added their fuel expenses to the cost of transporting tomatoes and pepper.

“Almost every year, there is usually a period where tomatoes go out of season and become scarce. That one is normal. But this year, things have been different because of the fuel hike which has led to an increase in food prices.

Similarly, traders in the popular Mile 12 market in Lagos, explained that the subsidy removal and rainy season contributed immensely to the disappearance of the commodities.

A trader, Abdullahi Musa, who sells tomatoes and pepper in baskets in the market, said, “It is not our fault that tomatoes are expensive now. Transportation from the North to Lagos has doubled, more so the rains damage most of the produce harvested, so the quantity coming into the state is limited.

“The rainy season has caused us great losses as harvested tomatoes and pepper perish once they come in contact with water. There is nothing we can do until the season passes.”

Another seller at Ojodu, Lagos, Bilikis Oluyode, lamented that the subsidy removal was choking her business. She said a bowl of tomatoes which was formally sold to her at N3,500 at a local market in Ibadan had increased to N6,000.

She added that patronage had also reduced over time as customers’ demand for tomato and pepper had dropped.

Saturday PUNCH gathered that a basket of tomatoes was now selling for N40,000 as against N23,000 at the beginning of the year.

A crate of tomatoes sold for N24,000 as against the initial N7,000, while a paint bucket size had risen to N4,500 from N1,000.

Scotch bonnet pepper, popularly called ata rodo, were shaded in small bowls, each was sold for N1,000 as against N500 a few months ago.

Meanwhile, on Lagos Island, Saturday PUNCH gathered that a paint of tomato sold for as high as N5,000 in Lekki and N8,000 in Victoria Island.

At the Jakande market, a basket of tomatoes sold for N50,000 while a plastic of scotch bonnet pepper sold for N3,000 as against N1,000 at the beginning of the year.

Some traders, who sold the commodities, said they had not been able to restock because of the price hike.

Another tomato seller at Magboro, Ogun State, Mrs Bumi Jadesola, blamed the price hike on the disease that had ravaged tomatoes in the past five months.

She stated, “The prices of tomatoes and pepper initially increased early this year due to the Tomato Ebola that affected the produce in the North. After a while, the prices came down and peaked again in May. This disease has led to many losses in the last five months and many farmers are avoiding investing in the fruit.

“This week, a basket of tomatoes that used to be between N22,000 and N24,000 sold for N78,000 and above because of the Sallah celebration and it has made patronage slower than it used to be. People are struggling, where is the money?”

Corroborating Jadesola, a tomato farmer in Kano State, Abdullahi Wabe, stated that the infestation had led to the scarcity of tomatoes in the last two months.

He said, “Tomatoes are just coming back into the market. I don’t know why it was not noticeable, but this scarcity has been going on for a long time. Farmers lost over half of their produce to the tomato ebola.

“Personally, I get about seven trucks of tomatoes from my farm but I could barely get three when the infestation happened and this was the same experience of many other farmers over here.”

Commenting on the impact of the subsidy removal, he said, “The recent removal of subsidy also affected us because we were already facing an infestation, then we had to transport our products at a ridiculously high amount to different parts of the country.

“There is no way we won’t have a hike in the prices of tomatoes this way. The other option for us is to not make profits, which is impossible because we have to continue farming.”

Wabe, however, noted that the market was returning to normal compared to previous weeks, explaining that there would be a drastic improvement in the supply of tomatoes across the country because “the infestation is being dealt with.”

Furthermore, a tomato and pepper supplier at the Ketu Fruit Market in Ikosi, Lagos, Mr Aminu Dachet, said the outbreak of the tomato ebola disease had reduced harvest from farms.

He stated, “The farms are not even producing as much as they can. The tomato ebola is really affecting farmers. It has been very hard for them. For instance, one farmer I buy from in Kwande village, Qua’an-Pan, could not even supply anything to me.

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“The other farmers were just harvesting in baskets, and the output has been measly. The tomato balls always turn out small.”

Dachet added that the subsidy removal had played a major role in the current scarcity.

He noted, “I buy directly from farms in Jos, Shendam and Qua’an-Pan, Plateau State. It has been really difficult for us to transport these goods across cities. Remember we also buy the fuel for our lorries at the same price as the rest of Nigeria. So, it has been a struggle for us.”

He added that suppliers in the market now team up to bring in tomatoes from the North.

Meanwhile, a housewife, Mrs Kehinde Kosoko, lamented that she bought five small balls of tomatoes for N1,500 on Wednesday.

She added, “Sometimes, you go to the market and you don’t even see tomatoes to buy in the market. It has been terrible for us. I have to use other peppers and canned tomato paste to support my cooking these days.”

An elderly woman in Festac Town, Lagos, Mrs Theresa Ugo, said the scarcity of tomatoes in her area had pushed her into using tomato paste with blended peppers and onion for her stew dishes.

“Even if the tomato is expensive, we can still manage to buy what we can afford, but in my area here, we don’t even see tomatoes to purchase. I have to send somebody all the way to Mile 12 to buy and they usually come back with small amounts for ridiculous amounts of money,” Ugo added.

Tomato association reacts

The President, Tomatoes and Orchard Producers Association of Nigeria, Mr Bola Oyeleke, who spoke with one of our correspondents, attributed the scarcity of tomatoes to the disease outbreak, fewer tomato farmers and high temperatures in the North.

He added that farmers were yet to recover from the loss they suffered during the cash crunch when most of them sold their produce at giveaway prices.

Oyeleke said, “During the rainy season, only a few farmers venture into the production of tomatoes, due to financial constraints. The rains came early this year but in the North, there was intense heat which affected the plant. The continuous rain also comes with a lot of bacteria and fungi diseases that affect the plant.”

The TOPAN president further decried farmers’ inability to access loans and grants, saying it was the reason why small-scale farmers were pulling out from the production of tomatoes this year.

Oyeleke added that the tomato ebola experienced earlier in the year also contributed to the scarcity. He noted that the price of tomatoes from the North on Friday sold between N27,000 and N32,000, adding that it would remain so until next month.

“We need government intervention and private and individual partnership in the sector,” Oyeleke added.

The Presidential Amnesty Programme is sponsoring 75 pilots and aircraft engineers to South Africa and France for type-rating as part of its aviation training scheme, the Interim Administrator of the PAP, Major General Barry Ndiomu (retd.), said on Friday.

He also said that sanitary measures carried out on the PAP database revealed that certain beneficiaries and ex-agitators had multiple accounts linked to their BVNs.

“Further verification of the payment list revealed that certain beneficiaries had multiple accounts linked to their BVNs. In total, 513 beneficiaries had 1,370 accounts on the payment list linked to their BVNs. Other anomalies were that of certain accounts not linked to their BVNs, this group had a total of 2,601 accounts.

“To rectify those irregularities, a portal was created, (_stver.osapnd.gov.ng) by PAP for the affected beneficiaries to log in and those with multiple accounts linked to their BVNs were to choose just one account in order to have their payments regularised. A total of 1561 have been cleared and paid in full to date and presently, multiple account fraud has been eradicated from the payment list,” he said.

According to him, a total of 847 delegates are currently undergoing training in the National Information Technology Development Agency in various ICT specialised fields.

The delegates would be certified in digital marketing, e-mail marketing, social media marketing, computer appreciation, search engine optimisation as well as technical and computer writing.

The Special Assistant (Media) to the PAP CEO, Freston Akpor, in a statement, said from vocational training centres to opportunities in Federal Government agencies and incentives for viable SMEs, the innovative ideas initiated by Ndiomu would guarantee the socio-economic sustainability of ex-agitators and young people in the Niger Delta.

He said enormous windows of employment opportunities had been provided for ex-agitators in the oil-rich Niger Delta region to thrive.

Point of Sale agents in Lagos State will soon begin to charge customers N500 for N10,000 cash withdrawals.

This is after the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria, Lagos Chapter, announced a new price list for PoS transactions on Channels Television’s Business Morning programme by the Public Relations Officer, Lagos Chapter, Stephen Adeoye on Friday.

According to him, the association’s price list is to eradicate price discrepancies in the industry. He said, “Let me tell you the price list, N1000 – N2,400 will be N100 for withdrawal. N3500 to N4000 will be N200; N4,100 to N6,400 will be N300; N6,500 to N7,900 will be N400; N8500 to N10,900 will be N500; N11,000 to N14,000 will be N600; N14,500 to N17, 900 will be N700; N18,000 to N2000 will N800 for withdrawal.

“Like we said, depending on your location, you can also step it down for people depending on the circumstances. But it should not go more than this.”

He further stated that for deposits and transfers, agents can now charge N100 for N1,000 to N4,900; N200 for N5000 to N10,900; N300 for N11,000 to N20,900; N400 got N21,000 to N30,900; N500 for N31,000 to N40,000; and N600 for N41,100 to N50,000.

Adeoye said the chairman of the Lagos chapter of the association, David Abiodun, recently released the new price list to excos at a symposium. He noted that the purpose of the list was to curb the activities of agents that ate still overcharging their customers.

He said, “Although, we agreed that depending on one’s area, they can lower the charges. But it should exceed these new charges. This is why we expect everyone to paste it in their locations so that customers can see it.”

Commenting on how the association intends to enforce its price list, the PRO states that it will leverage its relationship with the police and a task force in their area of operations.

Adeoye explained, “To enforce this new price list is easy because we have a good relationship with the Lagos State Command, Police Force, and all the DPOs in the area. Very soon a task force will be set up in each zone so that they will work along with it.

“Today, someone can get a PoS and start working, but we would soon get to everyone. Registered members have a number and certificate, and we have a good collaboration with the CBN both in Lagos and in Abuja. AMMBAN is part of meetings around financial inclusion.

“So, enforcing this will be easy for us. We have zones in almost all the local governments. So, our task force in each zone will locate those who are there. We also have our website, and everyone has to register.”

In January, National President, AMMBAN, Victor Olojo, told The PUNCH that the association did not have any plans to increase its service charges. In February, the Central Bank of Nigeria released emergency telephone numbers where Nigerians could report PoS agents charging above N200 for withdrawal of amounts up to N10,000.

The Police Service Commission (PSC) has approved the appointment and deployment of eight Commissioners of Police to State Commands in the country.

In a statement by its spokesman, Ikechukwu Ani, the Commission also commended the acting Inspector General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun for adhering to its latest policy on gender sensitivity in his recommendation.

The Commission however expects that the Inspector General in his subsequent proposals will include more Officers from the North-East and South-East geopolitical zones that have yet to record the benchmark of 15 percent as decided at its last plenary meeting.

The newly appointed state commissioners of police include Godwin Aghaulor, now CP Borno State Command; Adebola Ayinde Hamzat, CP Oyo State Command; and Samuel Titus Musa, CP Kebbi State Command.

Also appointed were Aderemi Olufemi Adeoye, CP Anambra State Command; Stephen Olarewaju, CP Imo State Command; and Alamatu Abiodun Mustapha, CP Ogun State Command.

Meanwhile, the two female police commissioners are CP Adelesi E. Oluwarotimi for Kwara State Command and CP Augustina Ogbodo for Ebonyi State Command.

The Commission’s Chairman, Dr. Solomon Arase, CFR, a retired Inspector General of Police, said the postings as recommended by the acting Inspector General of Police were, on average, fair and commended the IGP for the inclusion of women.

Dr. Arase advised that the acting IGP consider the disadvantaged geo-political zones while forwarding subsequent proposals for the Commission’s ratification.

The six conservative justices on the Supreme Court ruled that President Joe Biden’s student loan debt forgiveness plan is unconstitutional on Friday.

The 6-3 decision written by Chief Justice John Roberts means that the 26 million Americans who signed up for the debt forgiveness program will no longer have their debt partially or fully wiped away.

Biden announced his plan to forgive up to $20,000 in student loan debt for more than 40 million loan holders in August 2022. The plan authorized $20,000 in relief to Pell Grant recipients and $10,000 in relief to other borrowers who made less than $125,000 a year in 2020 or 2021. In authorizing the forgiveness plan, Biden cited his authority under the 2003 HEROES Act, passed in the wake of 9/11, to “waive” or “modify” student loan debt terms during a national emergency ― in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic.

But the court disagreed. Roberts’ opinion ― joined by conservative Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett ― declared that Biden lacked the authority under the HEROES Act to eliminate student loan debt.

“We hold today that the Act allows the Secretary to ‘waive or modify’ existing statutory or regulatory provisions applicable to financial assistance programs under the Education Act, not to rewrite that statute from the ground up,” Roberts wrote.

“The authority to ‘modify’ statutes and regulations allows the Secretary to make modest adjustments and additions to existing provisions, not transform them,” he added.

Roberts further stated that the “modifications” to student loan payments were not “moderate” or “minor,” as his definition of “modify” required. Instead, “they created a novel and fundamentally different loan forgiveness program.”

The ruling also declared the debt forgiveness plan to be in violation of the court’s so-called major questions doctrine.

This doctrine allows the court to declare an executive branch policy that the court thinks wasn’t authorized by Congress to be unconstitutional if a majority of justices agree that it is too “major” a policy. Its application is highly subjective.

The major question doctrine acts as a “get-out-of-text-free card” that conservative justices make “magically appear” whenever they see an executive branch policy that goes against their ideological “goals,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in a dissent in the 2022 case of West Virginia v. EPA.

While the HEROES Act rather plainly states that the president may “waive” or “modify” the terms of student loan debt held by the government, the court’s conservatives decided that Congress did not mean that the president could forgive debt. The plan to provide debt relief was unconstitutionally “major.”

The court concluded “that ‘[t]he basic and consequential tradeoffs’ inherent in a mass debt cancellation program ‘are ones that Congress would likely have intended for itself,’” Roberts wrote, quoting from the West Virginia v. EPA decision.

In dissent, Kagan ― joined by liberal Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ketanji Brown Jackson ― ripped the majority opinion for exceeding “its proper, limited role in our Nation’s governance.”

“Some 20 years ago, Congress enacted legislation, called the HEROES Act, authorizing the Secretary of Education to provide relief to student-loan borrowers when a national emergency struck,” Kagan wrote.

That law allowed the secretary to “do only what was ‘necessary’ to alleviate the emergency’s impact on affected borrowers’ ability to repay their student loans,” she added.

The secretary could “waive or modify any statutory or regulatory provision” and “replace the old provisions with new ‘terms and conditions,’” Kagan wrote.

“That may have been a good idea, or it may have been a bad idea,” she noted. “Either way, it was what Congress said.”

But instead, “the Court substitutes itself for Congress and the Executive Branch in making national policy about student-loan forgiveness,” Kagan wrote.

“The majority’s cardinal error is reading ‘modify’ as if it were the only word in the statutory delegation,” Kagan said. Rather, it must be read as “one part of a couplet: ‘waive or modify,’” with “waive” meaning “eliminate.”

“Would Congress have given the Secretary power to wholly eliminate a requirement, as well as to relax it just a little bit, but nothing in between?” Kagan asked. “The majority says yes. But the answer is no, because Congress would not have written so insane a law.”

In applying the major questions doctrine, Kagan declared that “the Court puts its own heavyweight thumb on the scales,” by questioning “‘who has the authority’ to make such significant calls.”

“The answer, as is now becoming commonplace, is this Court,” Kagan wrote.

The major questions doctrine as deployed by this majority, Kagan stated, makes the court “the arbiter—indeed, the maker—of national policy.”

“That is no proper role for a court,” Kagan wrote. “And it is a danger to a democratic order.”

Roberts strenuously disagreed, arguing back at Kagan: “The dissent is correct that this is a case about one branch of government arrogating to itself power belonging to another. But it is the Executive seizing the power of the Legislature.”

Kagan also argued that the court should not have issued a decision in the case at all because the state plaintiffs could not prove a harm from the debt relief plan and, therefore, lacked standing to sue. The majority opinion, however, granted standing to Missouri after it argued that the student loan debt servicer MOHELA would not be able to make certain payments to state government coffers due to the relief plan.

The Biden administration has so far refused to put forward a “Plan B” in case the court invalidated the program. After the decision came down, the White House announced Biden would speak about further actions to protect student loan borrowers.

In a separate opinion on a challenge to the policy brought by two students, the court dismissed the case for lack of standing.