The Federal Government has warned security and law enforcement agencies against the use of torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment of detainees in their custody.

The warning was issued, yesterday, by the Solicitor General of the Federation (SGF) and Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Justice, Beatrice Jedy-Agba, at an event organised by the National Committee Against Torture (NACT) to mark the 2023 International Day in Support of Victims of torture.

The SGF, who doubles as the chairperson of the committee, equally called on stakeholders, both in the public and private sectors, to speak with one voice against the perpetrators of torture, and for all who suffer in their hands, in order to build a better and more humane society for all people everywhere.

She said: “We wish to use this opportunity to encourage our law enforcement agencies to continue to take measures in combating torture in their detention centres.

“I admonish you to continue to give the NCAT necessary support whenever the committee members reach out as every action taken by the committee is with a view to rooting out torture and ensuring that Nigeria complies with its international obligations.

“We are, indeed, partners in this journey and NCAT will take deliberate proactive steps to sensitise, engage and train our officers on prevention of torture.”

The United Nations’s (UN) International Day in Support of Victims of Torture is annually observed on June 26 to remind people that human torture is not only unacceptable, but also a crime.

The convention, which came into force on June 26, 1987, gives everyone a chance to unite and voice their opinions against human torture.

In 1997, the United Nations General Assembly decided to mark this historic date and designated June 26 each year as the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.

The first International Day in Support of Victims of Torture was held on June 26, 1998. It was a day when the United Nations appealed to all governments and members of civil society to take action to defeat torture and torturers everywhere. That same year marked the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which proclaims that “no one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.”

In fulfilment of its international obligations against torture that the Federal Government in 2009 established the National Committee Against Torture as Nigeria’s National Preventive Mechanism in line with the Optional Protocol to the Convention Against Torture (OPCAT).

NCAT was re-constituted in September 2022, drawing membership from law enforcement agencies, civil society organisations, academia and other stakeholders, with a view to making the committee more effective.

Members of the reconstituted committee were drawn from the Federal Ministry of Justice, National Human Right Commission, Nigeria Police Force, Legal Aids Council, Nigeria Correctional Service, Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps, Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Department of State Services, the Nigerian Army and Nigerian Bar Association.

The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio has approved the appointment of Barrister Sylvester Okonkwo as his Chief of Staff.

A statement from the Media Unit, Office of the Senate President, also announced Dr Saviour Enyiekere as Deputy Chief of Staff.

The Chief of Staff, Chief Okonkwo attended Dennìs Memorial Grammar School Onitsha and he is also an alumni of the University of Nigeria, Enugu campus where he bagged a Bachelor Degree in Law. (LL.B. Hons. B.L) jcrr.

He hails from Ojoto in Idemili South LGA of Anambra State, South East region of Nigeria. A corporate lawyer and an astute politician spanning more than two decades, he was a senatorial aspirant on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in 2019.

Until his appointment, Okonkwo was the CEO of Chinto Technologies Limited, an ICT and telecommunications outfit.

The Deputy Chief of Staff, Saviour Enyiekere(PhD) hails from Ika Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State.

He is an alumni of the University of Calabar and the deputy Director General of the Godswill Akpabio Senatorial Campaign Organisation.

Enyiekere was a former two term Executive Chairman of Ika LGA, former Senior Special Assistant to Akwa Ibom State Government on Boundaries and Conflict Resolutions, former Board Member, Akwa Ibom State Road Maintenance Agency, former student leader and former Senatorial Aspirant, Ikot Ekpene Senatorial District.

He is member, Nigerian Environmental society, Fellow Institute of Chartered Economist of Nigeria and Professional fellow, Emergency Crisis, Risk and Safety Management Institute of Nigeria.

Former Kaduna Central lawmaker, Shehu Sani has reacted to the Inspector General of Police (IGP), Olukayode Egbetokun promise to effect the withdrawal of Police Mobile Force personnel from VIP escort/guard duties.

Recall that the acting IGP said that it was necessary to make the move so as to ensure enough security personnel to combat crime in the country.

He said, “We shall effect the withdrawal of PMF personnel from VIP escort/guard duties. While the protection of dignitaries remains paramount, it is imperative that we realign our priorities to address the escalating security challenges faced by the nation as a whole. By relieving the PMF of VIP escort and guard duties, we can redirect their focus and efforts toward addressing critical security concerns that affect our communities at large.

“To support the foregoing strategic plan and make needed manpower available for frontline duties, the withdrawn PMF officers will be replaced by officers of the Special Protection Unit only where necessary.”

Reacting to the IGP’s submission via Twitter, Sani noted that all new IGPs always announce the withdrawal of policemen from VIPs but often go back on their word.

He, however, hope that this would lead to a different outcome.

He wrote, “All new IG of Police do this two things;Withdrawing Policemen from the VIPs and removing Checkpoints;months later,the police will return to the VIPs and the Checkpoints will return too.I hope this one will be different.”

The Federal Government through the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited has said it paid N1.82 trillion as subsidy payments in five months, and arrears on the payments hit N3.73 trillion.

In its monthly presentation to the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) meeting on June 22, 2023, the national oil company said it paid N307.408 billion as petrol subsidy payment in May 2023.

NNPC said from January 2023 to May 2023, petrol under-recovery totalled N1.828 trillion — 55 percent higher than the amount paid in the corresponding period of 2022.

It also disclosed that subsidy payments gulped N274.769 billion in January 2023, N477.742 billion in February, N415.381 billion in March, and N353.130 billion in April, respectively.

Meanwhile, under-recovery arrears amounted to N3.735 trillion and has been “carried forward”, the state oil firm said.

It said: “The May 2023 subsidy amounted to N307,408,874,345.82, thus, the outstanding balance carried forward is N3,735,689,387,761.22 as of June 2023 FAAC.

“The sum of N495,497,600,000 was recovered from FGN/CBN subsidy support.

“The recovery consists of N400 billion from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and federal government subsidy support as well as “$220,000 (80 percent of $275,000) Nigeria liquefied natural gas dividend.”

According to the NNPC, the NLNG dividend is converted at N434.08/$1, which is the FAAC-approved exchange rate for May 2023.

The national oil firm also revealed that it raked in N47.57 billion as domestic production sharing contract (PSC) crude oil and gas revenue in May 2023.

Meanwhile, FAAC has claimed that the NNPC did not remit money into the federation account in May 2023 from crude sales, royalties, and taxes.

The Committee made the claim in a statement issued by the Director, of Press and Public Relations of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Stephen Kilebi.

A report has emerged that President Bola Tinubu is almost done with the compilation of his ministerial list.

Naija News gathered that the President was discreet about the selection of the list, as he was said to have closely held consultations with his special advisors.

While the long awaited list is almost done, this platform reported last week that the lobby for ministerial appointment intensified as party sources revealed how some former governors and lawmaker who lost in the 2023 general election were hovering at All Progressive Congress (APC) national office in Abuja

It was also learnt that most state chapters of the ruling party have completed their nominations to be forwarded to the President for ministerial appointment.

However, a source close to the Presidency told The Punch that the President kept a core of ministers to himself.

The source said “I learned that Tinubu’s ministerial list is almost done. He kept a core of ministers to himself, heavily influenced by the kitchen cabinet of SAs.

“The politicians are in ‘Bolekaja’ over the rest. It’s a slugfest now.”

Meanwhile, another source confirmed that Tinubu is scheduled to fly in from London today ahead of Eid-el-Kabir celebrations.

This platform reported yesterday that a source close to the presidency disclosed that the President will be arriving Lagos today ahead of Sallah celebration.

Corroborating this, the source said Tinubu would be returning to his private Ikoyi home in Lagos later on Tuesday to observe his first Sallah celebration as President.

It was also gathered that he will join other dignitaries for the Eid prayers at the Obalende Muslim Prayer ground located at Dodan Barracks, the former seat of the Nigerian government on Wednesday.

The source also revealed that the President is not likely to return to Abuja until Sunday or Monday, even though the festivities end on Thursday.

The source said “I am are certain that he will return to Lagos tomorrow (Tuesday), not Abuja. That’s where he will observe Sallah.”

It is not today that Nigerians began to regret the abolition of slave trade. When an extraordinarily stupid opinion is expressed on social media, you would often see people regretting abolition. The holder of such opinion, if the ugly trade was still in vogue, would be sold outright. A man, in one of such outrages against public stupidity, was valued at a good bottle of whisky. Another would have gone for a head of tobacco. The brutal wisdom running through this line of reasoning is that the transatlantic slave trade enabled a community get rid of its worthless and senseless sons. It was not altogether bad after all.

Asari Dukubo, at present, is the loudest jester in Tinubu’s court. In his remarkable exertion for recognition, Asari has been over-passing himself, to borrow from Warri boys. After a visit to Tinubu, he ensconced himself and launched an unbridled tirade against Nigeria’s military. He charged the army with stealing oil and other high crimes. Asari took credit for the return of peace to the Kaduna Highway. A friend in whose company I watched that “press briefing” had laughingly wondered if Asari is angling to be appointed head of the Nigerian army. You better not laugh this off.

Asari has always been a loose cannon but the sidelining he suffered under Buhari may well have gotten the better of him. He has shown super-interesting contradictions and done shameless about-faces, typical only of men who are a little queer in the head. In a viral video, now very popular among Nigerian comedians, he opined that Biafra was the only choice for Southerners.It was not long before he tried to steal the leadership of IPOB. The resistance he met would again make him renounce his citizenship of Biafra. The moment Tinubu was announced flag-bearer for the APC, Asari got a new lease of life. He was not only prepared to be friends with the government, he bent over backwards, unashamedly ingratiating himself to Tinubu. Hindsight compels him to let go of the offensive. The old gimmick of badgering the Federal Government and threatening to burn down the Niger Delta has demonstrably ceased to be effective. Bum-sucking is the new magical trick.  

And how best do you announce your loyalty to the Nigerian power? Certainly, by showing thorough-going contempt for the Igbo. Asari, of all the political jobbers trying to deploy this trick, has been the nastiest and the least intelligent. Before the inauguration of the president and his vice, Asari went to Abuja with a collection of famished urchins, purportedly to fight off some Igbo people who were preparing to disrupt the ceremony. The purpose of this opinion is not to chronicle Asari’s contradictions and half-insane eccentricities. You should nevertheless be worried that such a character gets audience at the highest level of government. It is a moral disgrace.

Now to my story. It is curious how Africans are in the habit of taking pride in olden-times atrocities.They gleefully own them as part of the glorious exploits of their illustrious ancestors. Loud-mouthed Asari, I would come to this, would be over the moon if it is historically accurate that his ancestors sold human beings during the slave trade. As bad luck would have it for him, it is the other way. Here, in taking pride in evil, he does not stand alone.

The other time, Joe Igbokwe, waxing belligerent against his IPOB traducers boasted that he belongs to a village in Nnewi which says to others; “Get out, you are Osu,” and threw his head sideways, like a proud turkey. I remember that I was the only one who called for outrage. Reno Omokri peddled a pseudo, error-ridden, grossly inaccurate, and intentionally dishonest history where he said his Itsekiri people sold Igbos during slave trade. Behind the veneer of pseudo intellectualism, was a doubly criminal attempt to take pride in slavery. This attitude among seemingly educated Africans is despicable. You don’t want to think of what would happen if a German, as an example, openly takes pride in what Hitler did, or a Briton in the looting and carnage committed by the British Empire all over the world.

I have read many reactions to Asari’s preposterous rambling. An excavated old interview of his showed him freely confessing that his great grand father or suchlike ancestor was sold by Arochukwu slave-dealers. I was disappointed that all the opinions were united in rather strenuously trying to prove that Asari is a descendant of slaves. One columnist called him a second-class slave, since his great grand father was not sold by a free a man, but by a man who was himself a slave. In all, I did not see any of them condemn slavery. They were all fighting for the place of their fathers in infamy.

This is no longer the tradition across the world and for good reasons. Christopher Hitchens told a story of how he was forced to stop using the word, “niggardly.” He had used it in an academic conference, and as he said, “It hung in the air.” He would subsequently go for its synonyms like parsimony, illiberal or stingy. Scholars and writers no longer use the word, “Nigger.” When it is completely impossible to avoid, it is represented as the “N-Word.” The word, modern wisdom judges, is offensive and insensitive. It is redolent of the dark time in human history when innocent black people were enslaved and tortuously labored by white owners.

Two centuries ago, or even later, this caution was not necessary. Writers freely used these historically poignant words. They even called people savages, barbarians or heathens. A work of Joseph Conrad, the chapter three of which has been called the summit of English prose by academic assessors was titled; “The Nigger of Narcisus.”When it was to be republished in America, the publishers struck out the original title. The world is clamping down on practices and expressions which appear to honor memories of old injustices. If your ancestors enslaved people, you should be ashamed and sorry, not chest-beatingly proud.

When the monuments of Robert Lee and Stonewall Jackson, two notable Confederate Generals who fought to keep slavery in America were being thrown down and removed from public places, white supremacists kicked viciously. They bemoaned it as an attack on the history of America. Donald Trump was in the vanguard of the protest to keep the odious legacies of slavery. But the question which intelligent people asked was why monuments should be built in honour of remorseless slave-dealers. As a storm brewed, a descendant of Robert Lee spoke to the media and admitted that his ancestor was on the wrong side of history. “We are not proud of him,” he said, almost teary. In this important journey to a more just world, victims of historical injustice need empathy and reparation where necessary, not further inferiorisation. No friend of progress and education should take pride in acts which amounted to man’s inhumanity to man. Asari deserves our empathy.

Ezugwu Okike — a Lawyer, Writer and Public Policy Analyst writes via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In the battle for the Senate’s minority leadership position, ex-governor, Aminu Tambuwal has won the support of Atiku Abubakar, the standard-bearer of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).

Meanwhile, the G-5 group, spearheaded by former Rivers State Governor Nyesom Wike, backs Senator Jarigbe Jarigbe.

Wike’s push for Jarigbe is perceived as a way to retaliate against Tambuwal over past presidential primary elections.

Tensions have risen within the PDP’s minority camp since Wike’s marathon meeting last Thursday with Senate President, GodsWill Akpabio.

Despite these mounting pressures, both Senate and House of Representatives leadership are treading carefully.

A source who spoke with Punch on Atiku’s choice said, “Tambuwal is Atiku’s choice as the PDP Senate leader while Wike is also pushing for Jarigbe as minority leader. Wike is looking for an opportunity to get back at Tambuwal over the presidential elections primary elections.

“He is still bitter. But the party would not allow him to try the same thing he did during the national elections with the National Assembly.”

A source indicated that Wike is determined to make one of his loyalists a principal officer.

The source noted, “Having assisted APC to win the presidential election in Rivers State in February and supported the aspirations of the now elected four presiding officers of the 10th National Assembly, making one of his loyalists a principal officer is his next plan.

“He is very serious about the plan and he is getting the required support from the leadership of the National Assembly as well as membership of the other minority political parties in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.”

An anonymous lawmaker confirmed that the PDP is focused on endorsing Tambuwal for the Senate leadership role.

The lawmaker said, “His Excellency, Senator Tambuwal is the one that the party has chosen as the Senate leader. The party at this time needs someone who can play the role of opposition very well and he is experienced having been a former Speaker of the House of Representatives. The party wants a competent person for that position and no doubt, he is one.”

Paul Ibe, Media Adviser to Atiku speaking on the battle, explained that Atiku’s backing of Tambuwal aligns with the party’s position.

He noted, “The position of the minority leader of the Senate should be taken by the biggest opposition party which is the PDP. The PDP will naturally vie for the role in consultation with other opposition party members in the Senate. This is how the minority leader will emerge.

“If the party is backing Tambuwal and Atiku Abubakar happens to support this, there is nothing wrong with that. It is the prerogative of the party to decide who they think can champion the interest of the party in the hallowed chamber. Normally, they will support someone whose competence they can vouch for.

“If Atiku and the PDP are on the same page on this, it is merely a coincidence because the former Vice President has always been a party man.”

Confirming his former principal’s stance, Nathanial Ikyur, ex-Chief Press Secretary to former Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, said that Ortom would back Wike’s choice.

He said, “Ortom will support Wike and I can tell you that for Wike to identify with Senator Jarigbe, that means the man (Jarigbe) is the choice of the G-5. The group is intact and they make decisions together. All five of them are together. Seyi Makinde, Okezie Ikpeazu, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, Ortom, and Wike are together. They resolved to always stand together before, during and after the elections. Nothing has changed even after the elections.”

A former party official added that the G-5 remains united in opposing Tambuwal’s bid for a Senate position.

One Ifechukwu Makwe, a Federal Bureau of Investigation impostor, has been arrested for allegedly defrauding a Spaniard of €5.7m.

Makwe was apprehended by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, on Monday.

The Head of Media and Publicity at the anti-graft agency, Wilson Uwujaren, made this known in a statement.

He said Makwe used different identities to perpetrate his fraudulent activities and swindle the unsuspecting Spaniards.

Court Upholds FRSC’s Power To Impound Vehicles, Fine Defaulting Motorists
He added that he was arrested in the Guzape area of Abuja following credible intelligence about his fraudulent internet-related activities.

“Upon arrest, it was discovered that the suspect, bearing many aliases including Fahad Makwe, Senator Tompolo, Tom Makwe, Dr Bran, defrauded a Spaniard of €5.7million,” the statement said.

The statement explained further that Makwe, who allegedly claimed to be a US Federal Bureau of Investigation agent and a diplomatic solicitor, succeeded in defrauding his victim using fake identities.

“The suspect allegedly started defrauding the victim in 2013 when he first met her on social media, “ the statement added.

Uwujaren said the suspect would be charged in court as soon as the investigations were concluded

The Election Petition Tribunal in Jos has ordered Prof. Mahmood Yakubu, Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), to produce the voter register and Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) used in selected polling units during the state’s governorship election on March 18.

The order was issued by the tribunal’s chairman, Irele-ifeneh, yesterday during the start of hearings on the petition filed by Dr. Nentawe Yilwatda, the All Progressives Congress (APC) governorship candidate in the March 18 election.

At the tribunal, the APC candidate is contesting Governor Caleb Mutfwang of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)’s victory.

The order was issued as a result of INEC’s failure to produce all certified true copies of documents as required by the tribunal’s subpoena to the INEC chairman and Plateau Resident Electoral Commissioner.

Salisu Aliyu, a senior system analyst from the INEC ICT department, and Festus Aisien, an assistant director at the INEC voter registry department, appeared in court on behalf of the INEC chairman, telling the court that their appearance was in response to the subpoena issued to the INEC chairman to submit certified true copies of accredited data extracted from the INEC backend server and form EC8A from the INEC Result Portal (IREV).

The chairman’s representatives only produced true certified copies of accredited data from BVAS and a portion of the list of voters required from the voter register in hard copy, while the remainder of the list of voters was in soft copy.

Due to the bulkiness of the BVAS machines and the remaining voter register, Aliyu and Festus stated that they were unable to bring them to court.

However, the petitioner’s counsel, Kayode Olatoke (SAN), objected to their submissions, claiming that all items listed in the subpoena must be presented.

Following the petitioner’s submission of counsel, the court ordered INEC to produce all documents and items listed in the subpoena within one week.

The tenth anniversary of Planet FM - the first privately-owned radio station in Akwa Ibom and Cross River States – offers me an ample opportunity to reflect on the importance of the independent media in the promotion of democracy and free speech in our country, and reminds us, once again, that risk-taking is a major ingredient of entrepreneurship and success. Located in Ibiaku-Uruan, a village about 10 kilometers from Uyo city centre, Planet has greatly influenced the politics and culture of Akwa Ibom people, and motivated the birth of over 18 other private broadcast outfits in the two sister states. I send my best wishes to the founder of Planet, Tony Afia, and his team on this very propitious occasion. But this celebration is a bit dampened by the death of the founder of the first privately-owned radio station in the country. My condolences to the family, associates and friends of Dr. Raymond Dokpesi. Both Planet and Raypower have been important influence on many Nigerians.

The license for Planet FM was issued by NBC in 2010; test transmission began on April 28, 2013 and full commercial broadcast began on Sunday, June 9, 2013. Before then, the government-owned radio and TV were the only broadcast outfits in Akwa Ibom and neighbouring Cross River. As is common in government-owned media houses, 100 percent of their contents are all about the government and the governor. Those who do not belong to the governor’s political party are never allowed access to stations. In 2013, Gov. Godswill Akpabio had only two years left in his eight-year tenure and his transition programme was beginning to gather momentum. Udom Emmanuel had just been brought in from a bank, where he was an executive director, to serve as the SSG as a prelude to being anointed the preferred governorship candidate. Emmanuel replaced Mr. Umana Umana (immediate past Minister of Niger Delta Affairs) as the SSG, a substitution that set of a dramatic chain of events who reverberations are still being felt in the state. Umana and the then Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bassey Albert (who later became a senator and is currently embroiled in a legal tussle with EFCC), also had gubernatorial ambitions. Others were warming up to enter the field.

So, Planet FM was born into a very politically tempestuous moment in the state. Whether this was planned or fortuitous is not clear, but looking back, I think this was the best timing for the business, a clear case of preparation meeting opportunity. Those who are familiar with Akwa Ibom State should by now attest to the vibrancy of our politics, and the Akpabio era was exceptional. In the first half of 2014, Planet was already making waves in the social and entertainment scene, practically eclipsing the state-owned broadcaster. In late 2014, Umana, sensing that he stood no chance of pursuing his ambition under the PDP, had decamped to APC, causing considerable political dislocations, and soon, he was its governorship ticket. The battle line was drawn between the PDP and the APC.

By now, I had teamed up with Umana as a member of his media team, and Planet has become very popular, with signals being received in Cross River and other neighbouring states. Its music was modern and urban, their OAPs (on-air personalities or announcers, as they were called before Internet was invented) were flawless and, overall, the 24-hour programming was superb. Folks stayed up all night to listen to music. AKBC, the government-owned mouthpiece, was almost dead by then.

To our pleasant surprise and utter discomfiture of the government, Planet opened its doors to opposition politicians to reach out to Akwa Ibom people through its various interview programmes, news bulletins and talk shows. ‘’The People’s Parliament’’, the morning phone-in programme that focuses mostly on politics, was an instant hit. Callers call the host ‘’Mr. Speaker’’, just like in the House of Assembly, and they were free to express their opinions and talk about anything, provided the caller was polite and the language decent. Other programs like ‘’People in History’’, which profiles important historical dignitaries across the world, command huge following.

As a member of the media team, it was my lot to drive over 15 kilometres from home to Planet practically every week (or sometimes more often) to be a guest on its interview programmes and speak for the APC and its governorship candidate. Other members of the team also took turns and went to the studio to push our agenda. We put the governor and his candidate on the spot, criticized the transition programme and the administration’s records. The Commissioner of Information then, Mr. Aniekan Umanah (who had recently set up his own radio station), had a hectic time driving up and down to Planet to rebut some of our claims and make the case for his boss and their governorship candidate, Udom Emmanuel.

Somedays, as we would be leaving the studio, Aniekan would be storming in to respond to what we had just said. We occasionally bypassed each other on the potholed village roads leading to the studio. The joke in town was why the commissioner was not going to AKBC to make his points. Why did he abandon the state-owned radio over which he superintended in favour of one founded by a private citizen? We were often warned that the government was not happy with us, and that we could be waylaid and attacked on our way to Planet by thugs. Thankfully, it didn’t happen. It was one of the most exciting moments in my PR career. If The Guardian newspaper had given me a national platform to hone my skills in journalism, it was Planet that offered me my first experience in live-radio punditry and prepared me for an exciting career in advocacy. At this point, I remember Miss Cleo Tao, the then Head of Programmes, who died tragically late 2017. She was a star and a good friend of mine who loved the job dearly and knew how to do it.

Like many good fortunes, the idea for Planet came out of a frustrating experience. Sometime in 2005, Afia had paid money to the state-owned radio to run advertisements to promote his sister’s restaurant business. But it was the governor’s birthday, and Afia’s ads were crowded out by numerous goodwill messages to the Big Man that were broadcast daily. The main purpose of the ads, which was to promote the restaurant, was defeated. Disappointed, Afia began to think of setting up a private radio that would be insulated from political influences. At the anniversary dinner two weeks ago, he skirted around this experience. He said, ‘’The decision to establish the first private radio station in Akwa-Cross region was born out of the desire and need to provide our people an independent platform for constructive engagement in governance and other spheres of human endeavour. We wanted to establish a platform to be used how people do their businesses or even socialize. The aim was to engender a paradigm shift and use the platform to contribute actively to the collective efforts aimed at building a better society for our people’’.

Planet has been so successful that last year, Lagos Business School adapted its story into a case study for a class discussion for its students. Incidentally, Okey Nwuke, one of the two persons who prepared the case, was one of my bosses in the bank. In the last ten years, another radio station, an all-vernacular FM known as Tang sio (speak out) and TV, Spectrum TV, have emerged from the Planet stable. Over 18 other privately-owned FM stations have sprouted out in the two states. Planet founder, Afia, believes that his efforts are the main inspiration for their birth. I am, however, worried that most of the new ones are owned by active politicians, apart from two owned by religious leaders and one by the University of Uyo; and because it is a pioneer, Planet has lost a lot of its core staffs to the new stations. It is a price forerunners pay all so often. The emergence of Planet FM opened up the space for opposition politicians; helped in the phenomenal growth of APC; encouraged our people to appreciate the importance of free speech; deepened political debates and enriched our entertainment and culture in Akwa Ibom State. 

Congratulations to Planet FM.