A lack of clarity over cryptocurrency’s status in Nigeria could make it challenging to collect newly-introduced taxes, experts told Decrypt.

The 2023 Finance Act, signed into law by Nigeria’s outgoing president Muhammadu Buhari, introduced sweeping changes to the nation’s revenue drive, including the introduction of a 10% capital gains tax on profits made in the disposal of digital assets from May 1, 2023. The country’s Security and Exchange Commission (SEC) clarified that digital assets encompass cryptocurrencies, security tokens, and non-security tokens.

It marks another step in the slow march to official recognition of cryptocurrency in Nigeria, which is ranked 11th on the 2022 Global Crypto Adoption Index by Chainalysis.

But experts say getting crypto traders to pay the tax may be difficult. “It is difficult to understand the stand of Nigeria on the issue of cryptocurrency,” said Timi Olagunju, a policy consultant who specializes in technology law.

Olagunju explained that since cryptocurrency transactions cannot be monitored like bank transactions, tax authorities will be at the mercy of crypto traders to self-report their profits on which tax could be levied.

A tax officer with the Lagos state government in southwest Nigeria, who spoke to Decrypt under condition of anonymity, said that the “opaque nature” of some crypto transactions and an aversion to self-reporting taxes in the country will cut deep into possible taxes the government will record from digital assets.

“The government has to hope that digital assets traders report their profits and pay taxes willingly,” the source told Decrypt. “But I’m not optimistic that will happen a lot.”

As of 2021, only 41 million Nigerians had registered to pay taxes, according to the Federal Inland Revenue Services, which collects taxes for the Nigerian government.

Crypto’s uncertain status

The issue is further complicated by the uncertain status of cryptocurrency in Nigeria. In 2021, the country’s central bank, the CBN, ordered banks in the country to immediately cancel their services for customers who buy, sell, or trade cryptocurrencies. It subsequently clarified that while individual citizens are free to trade crypto, Nigerian banks are prohibited from dealing in crypto-assets or—crucially—facilitating payments to and from crypto exchanges.

At the time, the CBN expressed concerns that the anonymity afforded by virtual currencies could foster fraud, terrorism financing—two of the biggest problems the country faces—and volatility.

The effect of the bank ban has been to force users to resort to OTC deals and an informal peer-to-peer market. “Basically, the ban only forced the fiat channels underground,” Danny Oyekan, CEO of investment firm Dan Holdings and social payments app Coins App, told Decrypt at the time.

The SEC reiterated its view on cryptocurrency earlier this month. “Nigerian investors are hereby warned that investing in crypto-assets is extremely risky and may result in total loss of their investment,” said the SEC in a June 2023 circular directed at a fraudulent company using the name of crypto exchange Binance.

With no formal recognition and the government hounding banks that facilitate the exchange of crypto transactions, the new tax may damp down interest in digital assets, said Emeka Ezike, the vice president of Stakeholders in Blockchain Technology Association of Nigeria (SiBAN).

He insisted that taxation without a long-term plan will “dwarf” the potential contribution to the country’s struggling economy.

“But the opportunity here is that the federal government recognized the sector, and that gives it a running ground to negotiate with policymakers for a more friendly process to ensure the market thrives,” Ezike said.

[decrypt.co]

President Bola Tinubu, has renamed some federal airports after several prominent Nigerians.

The renaming of the airports was announced in a memo released by the Federal Ministry of Aviation dated June 1, 2023, and signed by Mrs Joke Olatunji for the Director of Airport Operations on Monday.

The statement noted that the President renamed the airports “as part of reforms of the Aviation sector.”

The Maiduguri Airport was renamed after the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari and the Port Harcourt Airport after the late nationalist Obafemi Awolowo, while the Nasarawa Airport immortalised the late founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Usman Dan Fodio.

Also, the Benin Airport was renamed after the late Oba of Benin, Oba Akenzua II, Ebonyi Airport after the late Senate President Chuba Okadigbo, and the Ibadan Airport after the late Premier of the old Western Region, Ladoke Akintola.

See the full list below:

1. Akure Airport – Olumuyiwa Bernard Aliu

2. Benin Airport – Oba Akenzua II

3. Dutse Airport – Muhammad Nuhu Sanusi

4. Ebonyi Airport – Chuba Wilberforce Okadigbo

5. Gombe Airport – Brigadier Zakari Maimalari

6. Ibadan Airport – Samuel Ladoke Akintola

7. Ilorin Airport – Gen. Tunde Idiagbon

8. Kaduna Airport – Hassan Usman Katsina

9. Maiduguri Airport – Gen. Mumammadu Buhari

10. Makurdi Airport – Joseph Sarwuan Tarka

11. Minna Airpor – Mallam Abubakar Imam

12. Nassarawa Airport – Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio

13. Osubi Airport – Alfred Diete Spiff

14. Port Harcourt Airport – Obafemi Jeremiah Awolowo

15. Yola Airport – Lamido Aliyu Mustapha

[Vanguard]

The All Progressives Congress (APC) and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu will next week open their defence in the petition challenging the outcome of the February 25 presidential election.

Tinubu secured 8,794,726 votes in the election to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had 6,984,520, and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 6,101,533.

Subsequently, Obi, Atiku and their parties filed petitions before the tribunal.

The Allied Peoples Movement (APM) also filed a petition and closed its case after calling one witness on Wednesday.

While Atiku and the PDP closed their case after calling 27 witnesses, Obi and the LP presented 13 witnesses before closing their case on Friday.

At the last tribunal session, counsel to all the parties told the court that instead of opening defence on June 31, as stated in the pre-hearing schedule, they had agreed that it was better to adjourn further hearing until after the Muslim holiday.

“My lords, all of us took into consideration some salient factors, especially the fact that some of us will love to travel to celebrate with our families and loved ones,” Wole Olanipekun, counsel to President Tinubu, said.

“Moreover, there is likely to be a two-day public holiday next week (this week). We will, therefore, plead your lordships to adjourn the case till after the Sallah celebration.

“We also want to assure your lordships that on our part, we will not exceed the days allotted to us.

“We will start and close our case the same week.”

The five-member panel of justices, led by Justice Harunna Tsammani, granted the request and adjourned to July 3 for continuation.

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is expected to open its defence first.

“You would think that a people who went through all that experience of horror would learn. No. If the wise taunts you to a fight, respond with tact and wisdom and patience. If you don’t, he will send his fox to ensnare you. The Igbo believe that Nigeria regularly trims the stems of their Iroko. Why? Everyone suffered Buhari but the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria believe that it was not just Buhari but Nigeria itself that has not been fair to them. They call what they suffer from the rest of us marginalization. But I soon learnt that even among themselves, they discriminate; they marginalize. I had thought they were one until the news of the appointment of new service chiefs broke last week. Given what they suffered while Muhammadu Buhari was in power, the question on every sensible lip was whether an Igbo person made the list. The initial answer to that question was negative. From their names, it was not difficult to determine the ethnicity of the heads of the army, the air force, the police and the Chief of Defence Staff. The internet soon caught fire that there was no one from the South-East on the list. That was not good enough after eight years of Buhari’s exclusive government of northern Nigeria. But a certain Rear Admiral E.I. Ogalla was announced as the Chief of Naval Staff. Who is he? Where is he from? It turned out that he is Igbo, from Enugu State. His full name is Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla. But while Nigerians from other parts of the country rejoiced with the East, Igbos were loud on the social media; they said Ogalla is not an Igbo name. I told an Igbo man online to stop following the monkeys of that narrative to plunder the farm of reason. I told him that the man’s middle name is Ikechukwu. He politely told me to stay off the discussion. The appointee, he said, is from Enugu-Ezike, the northernmost part of Igboland, and therefore was not of the stock of his super race. I felt utterly disappointed. I called another Igbo friend who hails from that Enugu-Ezike but currently lives in Enugu town: “Jude, is it true you are not Igbo?” My friend answered in anger that I should not mind them. “We are more Igbo than them.” He told me he had been tackling the narrative and those pushing it “since the CNS appointment was announced.” A Tribune reporter from Ebonyi State told me that “even me, they say I am not Igbo enough. They call us Wawa.”

There was a time in Nigeria’s media history when a certain Ebenezer Williams was arguably one of the country’s best newspaper columnists. But that popular name was a pseudonym, a fictitious identity. The masquerade donning that beautiful costume was Abiodun Aloba, colonial and post-colonial Nigeria media genius. He died in 2001. In the Daily Express of April 18, 1970, three months after the Nigerian civil war ended, and thirty-one years before the man died, he did a post-mortem of the Nigerian civil war and a character portrait of the Ibo (now called Igbo). Read him slowly, carefully: “They are too ebullient in victory, too sullen in defeat. They are too mechanical in a technology world …They are too bookish; they are too much of crowd, jumping just where the leader had jumped…”

Ebenezer Williams believed that if the Igbo had won the civil war, all, and that included their friends and foes, “would have all had it.” Three weeks after Ebenezer Williams wrote the above, the quote was deemed too instructive that it found its way into Tai Solarin’s Nigerian Tribune column of Monday, May 11, 1970. Solarin, whose piece carried the title, ‘I’ll speak for the Ibos’, declared that Ebenezer “was dead on” in his assessment of the Ibo and that thousands of non-Ibo Nigerians shared Ebenezer Williams’ belief of how the Ibo would have behaved if they had won the civil war. Solarin noted that when other non-Ibo Nigerians “do not have the courage of Ebenezer Williams to write it down, they sip their beer or palm wine over it as they rub their hands together prayerfully and in self-congratulation.”

Solarin was a friend of the Ibos; he wrote several articles on the Biafran war, its aftermath and the imperative of a proper re-integration of the Ibos if Nigeria would progress in peace. In February 1970, a month after the war officially ended, Solarin went to the then East Central State. He came back to his base in the West and wrote in his column in the Nigerian Tribune of March 2, 1970: “I saw a lot of things, but it seems I remember more the things I did not see. A single lizard, I did not see. A single rat, mouse, our bush rat, I did not see. I did not see a single snake. I did not see a single goat or sheep…” Where did they all go? A proverb should explain it: When what one eats is not available, one shifts to that which one does not eat. Solarin, however, saw many other things. He saw bicycles without tyres: “Half of the bicycles in the town of Owerri had no tyres on. When I saw a man pushing a heavily loaded bicycle that moved on the bare metal wheels, I was sure he would not go on top of it. I was wrong. He sprang on it as soon as the hill tapered off…” (see Nigerian Tribune, March 2, 1970, page 5). That was war. May we not see it again. But we should stop scratching our nose with the adder’s head. Those who think the Nigerian question must be answered with war should examine the ramifications of their project. History is there to guide every road taker.

You would think that a people who went through all that experience of horror would learn. No. If the wise taunts you to a fight, respond with tact and wisdom and patience. If you don’t, he will send his fox to ensnare you. The Igbo believe that Nigeria regularly trims the stems of their Iroko. Why? Everyone suffered Buhari but the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria believe that it was not just Buhari but Nigeria itself that has not been fair to them. They call what they suffer from the rest of us marginalization. But I soon learnt that even among themselves, they discriminate; they marginalize. I had thought they were one until the news of the appointment of new service chiefs broke last week. Given what they suffered while Muhammadu Buhari was in power, the question on every sensible lip was whether an Igbo person made the list. The initial answer to that question was negative. From their names, it was not difficult to determine the ethnicity of the heads of the army, the air force, the police and the Chief of Defence Staff. The internet soon caught fire that there was no one from the South-East on the list. That was not good enough after eight years of Buhari’s exclusive government of northern Nigeria. But a certain Rear Admiral E.I. Ogalla was announced as the Chief of Naval Staff. Who is he? Where is he from? It turned out that he is Igbo, from Enugu State. His full name is Rear Admiral Emmanuel Ikechukwu Ogalla. But while Nigerians from other parts of the country rejoiced with the East, Igbos were loud on the social media; they said Ogalla is not an Igbo name. I told an Igbo man online to stop following the monkeys of that narrative to plunder the farm of reason. I told him that the man’s middle name is Ikechukwu. He politely told me to stay off the discussion. The appointee, he said, is from Enugu-Ezike, the northernmost part of Igboland, and therefore was not of the stock of his super race. I felt utterly disappointed. I called another Igbo friend who hails from that Enugu-Ezike but currently lives in Enugu town: “Jude, is it true you are not Igbo?” My friend answered in anger that I should not mind them. “We are more Igbo than them.” He told me he had been tackling the narrative and those pushing it “since the CNS appointment was announced.” A Tribune reporter from Ebonyi State told me that “even me, they say I am not Igbo enough. They call us Wawa.”

Chinua Achebe is the Igbo greatest of all time. His daughter, Nwando, did her doctoral work on the people of northern Igboland. She later published ‘The female king of colonial Nigeria: Ahebi Ugbabe.’ That king was of Enugu-Ezike; she was not a man, she was a female but history speaks of her as king, not queen; Nwando Achebe describes her as a female man. Her recorded exploits enrich Igbo history and culture; scholars say materials written on Ahebi and her people have helped grow the field of Igbo studies. That is the community that produced the new naval chief whom the ethnic purists are rejecting. It is interesting.

When Bola Tinubu announced his security appointments, the first narrative was ‘he did not give us anything’, but when an Igbo was identified among the chosen, the tale became ‘the person he gave us is not one of us.’ No matter how good you are, you cannot satisfactorily sweep the home of the witch. The Igbo, in this instance, is that witch. Where I come from, dialectical differences do not put the knife in alájobí, our common Yoruba identity. Even circumstances of birth don’t. From the northernmost part of Yorubaland in Kogi State to the coasts of Lagos, there are variants of Yoruba language that I do not understand but that would not make the speakers of those dialects less Yoruba. What binds a family together should be enough armour against base divisive tendencies. We do what Toyin Falola described as “cooperation for integration” and I will add integration for strength and survival.

When a man is more sinned against than sinning, let that man reexamine himself. First, the blame was colonialism. The Igbo man said he could no longer act like one because the white man has “put a knife on the things that held us together and we have fallen apart” (see Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, page 166). The same Achebe would, in later works, acknowledge what he described as his people’s “hubris, overweening pride and thoughtlessness which invite envy and hatred…” Yet, he would accuse other Nigerians of harbouring deep-seated hatred for his people and that they would “probably achieve consensus on no other matter than their common resentment of the Igbo,” because of Igbo’s “unquestioned advantage” over other Nigerians “in securing credentials for advancement in Nigerian colonial society.” Today, the Igbo accuse Nigeria of treating them as a peripheral group in national affairs but the greatest cause of their organ failure is the sepsis of the self-hate that defines their in-group interactions. Within their walls, they choose original and fake; the significant and the insignificant among the various clans. That is what we’ve just seen in the appointment of the new Chief of Naval Staff. They say the man’s Igbo is too close to the borders with the Igalla. It would appear that it didn’t start today. Indeed, 14 years ago, Achebe railed against it. As the guest lecturer at the 2009 edition of the annual Ahiajoku Lecture series, Achebe spoke forcefully against any form of division among his people. He spoke particularly against discrimination along the lines of tongue and dialect: “Igbo is Igbo,” Achebe cried out and added that “that is what unites the Igbo anywhere they are. We are not allowed to tell anybody who is speaking in a different dialect that they are not Igbo. Igbo people have spoken their languages for centuries and millennium without going to war. It is these languages, though the same meaning but different dialects, that keep the people together among the Igbo speaking people of Nigeria.” I do not think anyone listened to the giant from Ogidi. There was a disconnect between the hunter’s flute and the hunter’s dog.

It is true that there is no one who does not like soup with meat in it but a child of the house does not crave that soup at the expense of the family’s health. The senate presidency was zoned to the Igbo in 1999. That opportunity soon became a crabs-in-a-bucket struggle; a war of depletion. Occupiers of the post got changed in per-second soil like baby diapers. Fish must eat fish to get fat. That was the philosophy. The other parts of the country watched with interest and horror. A number of concepts come to mind here: Cultural anthropologists would say it is self-marginalization; social psychologists would say it is self-sabotage; they would also say it is self-denigration and self-destruction. You appreciate the appropriateness of these tags when you remember that for about two years now, the Igbo of Eastern Nigeria have been staying off work every Monday. You remember what the Wagner gunmen did in Russia at the weekend and the mayor of Moscow’s no-work-on-Monday declaration. Imagine that disruption as the permanent feature of a people’s life. That has been happening in Igbo land month after month and there is no end in sight. They call it sit-at-home; a ruinous daylight curfew imposed on them by their homegrown Wagner group. They are softly killing themselves while claiming that they are protesting the detention of their Mazi Nnamdi Kanu by the Nigerian state. I look at the situation and see that these people are addicted to being the victim of the self. Good people among them are helpless; even the governors and their governments are powerless in the face of the regional acquiescence to arrogant evil. The new governor of Enugu State, Peter Mba, recently took some steps to unlock their Mondays. The consequence was a reported fire attack on his petrol station last week.

Fifty-three years after the civil war, the Igbo have remained what Ebenezer Williams said they were in 1970: “too ebullient in victory, too sullen in defeat.” Buhari ran a regime that saw and pronounced the Igbo an insignificant dot in a circle; a mere five percent. Then it set up and took off with a war cabinet. If we were not going to fight a war, why would the heads of the army, air force, police, SSS, NIA, Customs, Immigration, Prisons, etc and etc, and the NSA be chosen from the Commander-in-Chief’s backyard? That era has happily ended with the belligerent regime worsted. Tinubu’s appointment of security chiefs was fair enough. He is a Yoruba man. There is a Yoruba lineage with an oríkì that emphasizes equity and fairness in the sharing and distribution of communal goods and privileges: pín in re, làá a re; ìkan ò gbodò jù kan… (share it well; divide it equitably; one must not be bigger than the other).

There was a government in Nigeria between 2010 and 2015, the Igbo elite enjoyed it. While the axe of that regime unjustly did injustice to the Yoruba tree, the victim did not spend eternity remembering, sulking and whining. If I were the Igbo, I would see the very exit of the Buhari regime and its tendency as my victory over disease and death. I would doff my gab of “hubris, overweening pride and thoughtlessness.” I would celebrate my elevated sons and daughters in today’s fresh air. I would then draw a line, get properly united as a people and reappraise my engagement with the Nigerian state in a decisively strategic way.

FORMER Minister of Interior, Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola, weekend, tackled his predecessor, Mr. Gboyega Oyetola, for reversing the education policy he introduced in Osun State during his tenure.

Aregbesola, however, said he is fulfilled, having been in a position of leadership three times and having left indelible footprints on his paths.

The former Minister spoke during a reception organized in his honour by the Old Students Association of Akoko Anglican Grammar School, Arigidi-Akoko in Ondo State.

His words: “I am happy and fulfilled. It is by the grace of God and a great privilege to have been in a position of leadership three times and to have left indelible footprints on my paths and be celebrated in this manner.

“I thank God for enabling me to serve with distinction, honour and integrity as Minister and returning home to these receptions and tumultuous celebrations.

“The outpouring of love by the people, friends and associates filled me with the deepest emotions and never ceases to draw tears from my eyes.”

On the education policy reversal, Aregbesola noted that the quality of education he received while growing up, stimulated his education reform when he was the governor of Osun State.

He said: “The 4-5-3-4 policy introduced by Obafemi Awolowo was aimed to bring, to the fore, the importance of education to the society and to ensure that no child of school age is excluded from getting a quality Western education.

“All governments must know that no matter how attractive private schools may be, they will never be able to displace government-funded public foundation education schools.”

The Sokoto State Governor, Ahmed Aliyu has reacted to the mob killing of a butcher in the state over alleged blasphemy against Prophet Muhammad.

The Governor in a statement signed by his spokesperson, Abubakar Bawa said his administration would not condone any act capable of degrading the Prophet, particularly in a state like Sokoto which is predominantly Muslim.

He however warned the residents against taking the law into their own hands but to remain calm and law-abiding as the matter is receiving due attention from relevant authorities.

Naija News recalls a butcher identified as Usman Buda, was killed on Sunday by extremist Muslims over an alleged blasphemous comment.

The incident was confirmed in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the Sokoto State Command, ASP Ahmad Rufa’i, who revealed that a team of policemen was led to the scene by the Commissioner of Police, Area Commander Metro, and DPO Kwanni, only to find the mob had dispersed and Buda left unconscious.

He was transported to Usmanu Danfodio Teaching Hospital Sokoto (UDUTH), where he was later confirmed dead.

Reacting, the state Governor said while acts of disrespect to the Prophet would not be condoned, the people of the state must also understand the Islamic religion does not permit them to take laws into their own hands.

“Dr Aliyu said that Sokoto people have so much respect and regard for Prophet Muhammad SAW, hence the need for all the residents to respect, protect his dignity and personality.

“I want to call on the people of Sokoto State to avoid taking laws into their own hands and instead report any alleged crime or blasphemy to the appropriate quarters for necessary action.

“Our religion does not encourage taking laws into one’s hands, so let us try to be good followers of our religion,” he appealed in the statement.

Bawa added that the Governor has warned the people against fomenting trouble as his administration would guarantee the safety of lives and property.

He said, “He added that the present administration will not take the issue of blasphemy lightly, and will deal decisively with anyone found guilty of any act aimed at degrading the personality of Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him, in line with the provision of Islamic laws.

“The governor assured the people of the state of his administration’s commitment to guarantee the safety of lives and property of all law-abiding citizens.

“The governor also warned would-be troublemakers to have a change of mind, adding that Sokoto is a wrong place for them.”

Federal Government officials, along with leaders from the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria (TUC), are set to resume talks today to discuss measures to mitigate the impact of the removal of the petrol subsidy.

This meeting aims to kick off the eight-week timeline that was set last week for concluding discussions on the issue.

During the previous meeting, a Presidential Steering Committee was formed to oversee technical sub-committees focusing on various aspects of the matter.

The Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, Femi Gbajabiamila led the government’s team and agreed that all labor demands should be addressed within the eight-week period.

Negotiations will continue with the five sub-committees: Cash Transfers, Social Investment Programme (SIP), Cost of Governance, Energy, Mass Transit and Housing. Today’s meeting will confirm the members of these sub-committees and define their working templates.

The Cash Transfer committee, for instance, is expected to devise a strategy for increasing income from the government to vulnerable Nigerians.

One anonymous source that spoke with The Guardian revealed that the NLC plans to promote a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) revival process in Nigeria, as part of a move away from oil to gas.

The goal is to provide alternative energy options to Nigerians to alleviate the burden of the fuel subsidy removal.

When asked if the eight weeks are feasible for the committees to complete their task, he said: “It may not be feasible, but what I see happening, going forward, is that the committees on their own will request an extension to deliver benefits to Nigerians, so that at the end of the day, we can break the vicious cycle of gang up, exploitation and under-development against Nigerians by the ruling elites.”

He revealed that Nigerians should be expectant, as the NLC wants to drive a Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) revival process in Nigeria, a movement away from oil to gas.

The source said it is a project NLC is hoping to prioritise, so that the elites, who want to use Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) to oppress Nigerians, would not have the opportunity.

The source said, “We will make alternative provisions for Nigerians, which is one of the key things we asked for. How can you hand over a monopoly to someone who has never helped with his prior monopoly in cement? Rather, we have to pay more for a bag of cement than our neighbours in West Africa.

“We plan to move away from the oppression, so that we can rely on gas. If the government doesn’t want to drive the process, we will.

“We are planning a CNG fair in Nigeria, where all stakeholders will come, partner with major car entities, research institutes, marketers and producers of conversion kits, technicians and artisans for capacity training across Nigeria, to ensure we have places where they can take their equipment and convert to gas immediately. We are also partnering with energy providers to have a distribution network, where gases will be made available to Nigerians.”

Also, TUC Secretary-General, Nuhu Toro, expressed optimism that the presidential steering committee set up to look into demands put forth by TUC would come up with ideas that would lead to fruition.

Renowned Constitutional Lawyer and Rights Activist, Dr. Kayode Ajulo OON, has described the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu and immediate past speaker of the House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, as an exceptional politician on his 61st birthday. 

This is contained in a felicitation statement made available to the press by the lawyer on the occasion of Mr. Gbajabiamila's birthday on Sunday, in Abuja. 

"Rt. Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila CFR is a pragmatic public administrator who is not just a lawyer but a very great one at that. An exceptional, versatile, spectacular and experienced lawmaker who believes in professionalism and is a good listener to the people. These are the qualities he has always represented." Ajulo said. 

He said the former lawmaker has displayed excellent capacity since being appointed the Chief of Staff to the President, saying his choice for the position indicates that the present administration of Bola Tinubu is working in the right direction. 

"Some of the accolades the President get for the right steps he has taken in his few weeks in office especially after he had made his first set of appointments should also go to some present members of his cabinet and Hon. Gbajabiamila should be the first as the Chief of Staff who is advising the President genuinely in the right direction.

As a lawmaker who has served in different governments, he would bring his rich experience to bear in discharging the duties of his new office and one result of that is witnessed in the student loan bill recently signed by the President. His appointment is a great choice for Nigeria and I know he would perform more than he did as a lawmaker. Nigeria is in safe hands." The lawyer said. 

Ajulo prayed for sound health for the former speaker, also strength and wisdom as he carries about his duties as the Chief of Staff to the President.

It is no longer news that the just concluded national bi-annual convention of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, NGE, which held in Owerri, Imo State capital, produced Eze Anaba, editor of the Vanguard newspaper as the new president. In the next two years, he and 15 other officers will run the affairs of the elite club of Nigerian editors. It is not going to be an easy task but editors are confident that the Anaba-led team will deliver.

It turned out to be a Guild election like no other, with difficulties more fundamental than the normal schism that characterises every struggle for power. Since the NGE was founded on May 20, 1961, at the old National Press Club in Lagos by Alhaji Lateef Jakande, who also emerged as its first president, the 2023 election was perhaps the most toxic.

To be sure, the NGE is not immune to crisis. Though the Jakande-led executive that included other veterans such as Babatunde Jose(vice president), Abiodun Aloba (secretary) and Nelson Ottah (assistant secretary), had the vision of advancing the interests of the media profession and deepening editors’ relationships with their various publics, including the government, the political crises of the 1960s became a clog in the wheel of progress. The 1966 coup and the 30-month civil war led to the sacrificing of the journalistic principles of objectivity, credibility and accuracy on the altar war propaganda.

But even in the heady era of sundry military juntas after the war, Nigerian editors jealously guarded the independence of the media, so much so that when General Olusegun Obasanjo’s junta promulgated a Press Council Decree to muscle the media in 1977, the NGE rejected it. The NGE also pushed back against civilian governments that wanted to skyjack its leadership.

Anaba being congratulated by Gov Hope Uzodimma

Thus, at the 1982 convention in Minna, Niger State, when the Alhaji Shehu Shagari-led National Party of Nigeria, NPN, government through Alhaji Umaru Dikko, the Minister of Transportation, tried to take control of the Guild by sponsoring the campaign of Alhaji Ibrahim, the Director General of the Nigerian Television Authority, NTA, who only became a registered member at that conference, members revolted and thwarted the move.

Such push-backs were possible because the founding fathers designed an exclusive club of professional news managers where editors as the ultimate gatekeepers on media content could interrogate issues of professionalism. Since then, it has remained true to its calling, working in collaboration with other journalistic bodies across the world to preserve the standards of journalism practice, strict adherence to ethics and advocacy for press freedom and democracy.

Nigerian editors under the NGE aegis have played their watchdog role conscious of the clear provisions of Chapter 2 Section 22 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), that: “The press, radio, television and other agencies of the mass media shall at all times be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in this Chapter and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.”

How then can the media hold the government accountable if the practitioners become subservient to the government like the Ninth National Assembly headed by Senator Ahmad Lawan?

Sadly, 62 years after those great journalists founded the NGE, some editors wanted to ride on the back of the asinine 2023 politics of ethnicity to win the Guild presidency. They insisted that it would augur well if the NGE was embedded in the presidency, perhaps as a parastatal rather than the Fourth Estate of the Realm as envisaged by the Constitution. That was a fallacy. And fortunately, Nigerian editors saw through the heresy.

Never in the history of the NGE was ethnicity considered a relevant factor in the election of its leadership. Competence and character always trumped such primordial considerations.

Since its revival in 1992 by Chief Onyema Ugochukwu, the NGE has had presidents – Biodun Oduwole, Garba Shehu, Oluremi Oyo, Baba Dantiye, Gbenga Adefaye, Femi Adesina, Garba-deen Muhammad, Funke Egbemode, and Isa Mustapha – who nobody cared where they came from. The only consideration was that they were editors with track records of achievements.

So, what changed? Nothing other than the fact that those who profiteered from the ethnic profiling of fellow Nigerians in the 2023 general elections thought they could export the same condemnable template to the Guild. So, rather than selling their policies to fellow editors, they were busy promising guaranteed access to Aso Rock if elected. In running this nefarious and harebrained campaign, they were backed to the hilt by those who made incendiary comments against fellow Nigerians for no crime other than their electoral preferences which did not agree with theirs.

For daring to contest the presidency of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Eze Anaba was branded an Indigenous People of Biafra, IPOB, member simply because he is Igbo. These characters, without qualms, called to threaten and abuse fellow editors for going around with an Igbo to campaign in an election a Yoruba was vying for the same position.

Yet, if the expression “true Nigerian” means anything, Eze Anaba embodies that truth. The only thing Igbo about him is his name. Son of the late Mr. Josiah Anaba, who hailed from Umuota, Obingwa, Abia State and mother, late Mrs. Rosaline, an Ishan (Esan) from Ubiaja in Edo State, Eze and his siblings were born and raised in Lagos. Over 70 per cent of his friends are non-Igbo, including those who suddenly realised that he is Igbo and not qualified to aspire to lead a professional body like the NGE. His wife, Itoro, one of the most hardworking women in Nigeria today, hails from Akwa Ibom State.

Eze speaks Yoruba better than he speaks Igbo. He has worked and thrived in an organisation owned by one of the doyens of journalism in Nigeria today, Uncle Sam Amuka, who is not Igbo. In his capacity as Editor of the high-flying Vanguard newspaper, he manages colleagues from all the nooks and crannies of this vast country without any complaints from any quarters.

But why did they try that nonsense? Didn’t they know they were dealing with members of an elite club who know what the real issues were and what was at stake? Impunity is the answer. It has a way of beclouding people’s senses. But what was at stake was the very soul of the Guild. And when it mattered most Nigerian editors, just as they did in 1982 in Minna, made a resounding statement in Owerri on June 16 by rejecting tendencies that divide rather than unite us. When the votes were counted, Eze Anaba polled 250 to defeat those who labelled him IPOB. They only managed to garner 81 votes. It was real shellacking.

In repudiating the idiocy of ethnic and religious politics, Nigerian Editors have once again demonstrated to politicians that politics could do with some decency and elections can be transparent, free, fair and credible.

The Maimuna Garba-led election/screening committee that had Isaac Ighure, a Fellow of the Nigerian Guild of Editors, Yusuf Abdulssalam, Mary Atolagbe and Felix Nwadioha as members did a job that INEC Chairman Mahmoud Yakubu proved incapable of doing.

It is not about numbers. It is all about political will to do the right thing and fidelity to the Constitution and country. Indeed, Nigerians have something to learn from the Nigerian Guild of Editors who made a loud and unambiguous statement in Owerri on June 16 that their conscience can never be purloined.

Ikechukwu Amaechi, former Editor of Daily Indepepndent, is Publisher of The Niche, an online newspaper. 

Mr Osita Okechukwu, the Director General of Voice of Nigeria, VON, is from Enugu State, South-East Nigeria. He is a foundation member of the All Progressives Congress, APC. Okechukwu is an ardent supporter of the immediate past President Muhammadu Buhari. In this interview with DAILY POST Editor, Emmanuel Uzodinma, he bares it all on the past administration and makes projections on the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu government. Excerpts!

As a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress and a Buharist, what would you say were the major achievements of the immediate past administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, particularly in areas of infrastructural development and security?

Without being immodest, as a Buharist, one wishes to start with what ex-President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR, did from day one that most people have forgotten which made a tangible impact in our lives. One is that before he even presented his cabinet members to the Senate, he carefully perused through the federal and state files which led to his shock that some states were owing workers and pensioners humongous debts ranging from 3 – 27 months.

Federal files were also dotted with huge debts to workers and pensioners dating back to police officers who participated over 50 years ago in the Biafra-Nigeria civil war. He ended up expending about N3 trillion on these debts. Secondly, were implementation of Treasury Single Account (TSA) and sundry applications, which aided the anti-graft war. Foundations were also laid in the development of vast and dynamic Internet-of-Things.

Why was the defraying of workers’ salary and pensioners’ debt Buhari’s top priority?

Thank you very much my dear. One recalled that in one such meeting, I proposed to the meeting that if N1 trillion of that amount was used to construct federal roads at N50 million per kilometre, that we would have instantly about 5,000 kilometres completed. Buhari then paused and asked me why and I preferred the publicity advantage to workers and pensioners’ plight.

I argued that construction of roads will accord more publicity premium to the young regime than expending such huge funds on public servants who are not up to 15% of our population? He countered by narrating the negative consequences of non-payment of salaries on not only workers but the pensioners. That the negative multiplier effect goes down to the shopkeeper, barbers, pharmacist, et al in the neighbourhood of those workers. He posed the question, how can you talk of anti-corruption when you don’t pay pensioners? Buhari’s pension compliance records are outstanding. If you are in doubt, please cross-check with PTAD and Pencom.

Buhari’s administration also implemented various policies and reforms in the agricultural sector, such as the Anchor Borrowers’ Program and the Green Alternative initiative. Do you think these had impacts on food security and rural development in Nigeria?

I was going to add the standard Western Corridor Rail Line, 2nd Niger Bridge, Loco/Owete Bridge and over 8,000 federal roads as the visible milestones before his huge investment in agriculture.

On your question, the truism is that Buhari invested more than any other federal government post 1970 on agriculture. I dubbed it Buhari’s Agrarian Revolution, notwithstanding that insecurity blurred it. Insecurity was the issue which hampered farmers’ production. He failed to act with immediate effect when the Herders/Clash erupted, it was a grave unforced error.

The Buhari administration had a strong focus on diversifying the economy away from oil dependency. However, with the state of the economy as handed over to President Bola Tinubu, in your own thinking, did the former President achieve his desired plan for the economy? Many think the government failed in the area of economy.

Economic development is a process and a continuum like every government. There was bad weather, as some of us he appointed didn’t share his vision. Unfortunately, he never applies Key Performance Index (KPI) to evaluate us. Suffice it to end on the truism that there are big pluses and minuses of the Buhari’s administration.

However, on infrastructure and agriculture; I can bet that President Bola Tinubu or whichever regime that comes in the next 50 years is bound to follow his pattern, in the bid to diversify our economy, whether you call it Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) or Back to Land, it will be akin to the advert – glucose or glucode.

On the Green Imperative Project (GIP), it is a very patriotic project meant to mechanise forever our agriculture. For it’s proven that every kilometre in our 923, 000 square kilometres’ landscape is arable to one crop or livestock. The Brazil-Nigeria government to government GIP was halted when Chief Audu Ogbe was unceremoniously yanked off as the minister of agriculture.

The two ministers who succeeded Ogbe killed the tempo. One hopes President Tinubu accelerates the project which is its final relay; luckily, the officer in charge is still on seat waiting anxiously.

The €995m GIP project provides a veritable solution to food sufficiency and food export. Imagine what will happen when multiple modern farm implements, including ranch machines are installed under public private partnership, with service centres in 774 local government areas and 6 Area Councils of FCT, dotted with Agro-Processing Plants.

This is one of the solid foundations Buhari had laid for harvesting to feed ourselves and generate funds to defray our huge debts. The Russian-Ukrainian war has left a huge wheat grain void in the international market, beckoning for countries like Nigeria to fill.

Looking at the poverty rate in the country, which is put at over 133 million, how would you rate the various social intervention programs – the N-Power scheme and the Conditional Cash Transfer initiative?

My rating of the Social Investment Programme is above average. For it’s just a palliative and short term measure. It’s not medicine to cure all illness, as in any multi-dimensional poverty scenario, the healing or mitigation process differs from one strand of poverty to the other. I know for instance that when we submitted names for N10,000 each, some of the beneficiaries any time I am back in the village will troop to thank, whilst those who didn’t get, still bear grudges up to date. They always ask, when are people coming again, especially on the school feeding program.

All one can propose is that agriculture provides a veritable way out, plus hooking youths up to the good digital fin-tech works National Information Technology Development Agency (NITDA) has embarked upon.

Insecurity worsened in the South-East under the Buhari era, with unknown gunmen taking over the streets, what should the Tinubu government do differently?

Insecurity in the Southeast and albeit generally in Nigeria is regrettable and very unfortunate. Like every coin there are two sides to the coin. As I hinted earlier, it was an unforced error that our leader didn’t pounce with immediate effect when the Herders/Farmers’ clashes erupted. Methinks that could have erased ethnocentrism out of the imbroglio.

On the other hand, one keeps on advising my people and every Nigerian to gradually weed ourselves of the ethnic toga all of us wear. We are all tribalists in one way or the other, which is unfortunate. This is why when Buhari offered Ndigbo the Olive branch in 2003 and 2007, they wittingly or unwittingly rebuffed him. This was when he nominated Rt. Hons. Chuba Okadigbo and Edwin Umezoke, respectively, as his vice presidential candidates. This is the laurel President Tinubu graciously inherited.

Is that why he marginalised Ndigbo in his appointments?

Methinks he didn’t marginalise Ndigbo in physical and social infrastructure. For me I would prefer if President Tinubu embarks on infrastructural development in the Southeast more than on the so-called juicy appointments. To me the 2nd Niger Bridge, rehabilitation of federal roads, universities, dams, internet broadband penetration, Standard Eastern Corridor Railways, et al are more important than juicy appointments.

We are entrepreneurs and hard working people being hindered by infrastructural development. I beg the food-is-ready politicians to pardon me. Most of them are today hovering at Abuja, lobbying President Tinubu and his kitchen cabinet, even those who blackmailed APC with a campaign of calumny.

One appeals to Ndigbo to learn from the Japanese and Germans who after World War II, despite the bombardment of Nagasaki, Hiroshima, Berlin, etc, rested the matter and moved on with the Americans.

What has been the experience as the Director General of Voice Nigeria?

To be sincere, Voice of Nigeria (VON) is a new school of Nigeria for me. New school in the sense that I met some brilliant and passionate Nigerians who are ready to give their best, but are handicapped by inadequate funding by the system.

This funding handicap is as a result of the dynamic nature of broadcasting, bombarded by technological changes in the ever changing broadcasting industry.

VON took off in 1960 as the external department of Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation with Professor Chinua Achebe, an international icon of blessed memory, who was the first Director.

VON commenced broadcasting in the Short-Wave (SW) Modem Frequencies, capable of long range, reaching any location globally. The Shortwave has its advantages of freedom of news crossing both friends and enemies borders and the disadvantage that many countries use little or no Shortwave again.

With the dynamics of the broadcasting industry enhanced by digital broadcasting, the relevance of ShortWave comes under stiff competition.

We are in an era where the future of shortwave is threatened by the rise of power line communication, internet of things – website, YouTube, WhatsApp, Facebook and sorts of Broadband over Power Lines (BPL), which uses data streams transmitted over unshielded power lines.

My greatest challenge is to successfully install and run effective Visual Radio, which offers our audience audio and visual and still maintains our Shortwave Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM).

[DailyPost]