Blockchain can be applied in SME financing, supply chain, mobility

Nigeria has ranked among the top 10 countries for adoption of crypto across the globe. This was according to a report, titled ‘State of Web3.0 in Africa’, unveiled at the weekend and prepared by Emurgo Africa, in strategic partnership with PwC.

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The report provided an expansive and insightful analysis of the emergent influence of blockchain and Web3.0 technologies within Africa, the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

It cast a spotlight on pivotal rise of blockchain investment within Africa. It noted that blockchain funding soared by a stunning 1,668 per cent in 2022, compared to the preceding year, accumulating a total of $91 million in countries like Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, heralding Africa’s burgeoning presence within the global blockchain arena.

It noted further that blockchain funding raised in Africa grew from $5.165 million in 2021, compared to $91 million in 2022. The report noted that blockchain technology could be applied in areas including SME financing; supply chain; governance; digitising trade infrastructure and title deed registration.

Other areas are verification of education credentials and mobility smart contracts for informal markets, among others. Illustrating the progress and latent potential of blockchain and Web3.0 technologies across Africa, the report painted a picture of Kenya’s forefront role in blockchain adoption and digital innovation. It showcased Kenya’s speedy growth in implementing blockchain solutions that stimulate economic development in East Africa. In South Africa, the report indicated the escalating adoption of Web3.0 and blockchain technologies that are revolutionising industries via secure and transparent data management in Southern Africa.

The report also highlighted Nigeria’s high-ranking position in the top 10 worldwide for crypto adoption, emphasising the country’s role in propelling financial inclusion and nurturing innovation in the digital currency sector in West Africa.

These findings underline the transformative effect of blockchain and Web3.0 technologies in Kenya, South Africa and Nigeria, establishing them as major contributors to the digital revolution unfolding across Africa.

The MENA region, concurrently, has been identified as the fastest-growing crypto market from 2021 to 2022, leading the digital revolution among users, regulators and crypto investors alike.

On the global stage, crypto regulation is evolving, with 40 per cent of the 35 nations surveyed having instituted regulatory frameworks, 34 per cent actively developing them, and a scant nine per cent enforcing outright prohibitions on cryptocurrencies.

Despite the fact that Africa has, thus far, received a mere 0.5 per cent of global blockchain funding, the continent’s commitment to Web3.0 technologies and digital currencies is poised to recalibrate its technological and financial landscape, paving the way for unprecedented financial inclusion and innovation.

Weakening local currencies, coupled with fragile economic backdrops have created rapidly growing demand for USD-pegged stable coins on the continent, as consumers protect their asset values from free falling, and owners of SMEs seek cheaper and efficient ways of payment.

This development is a testament to the burgeoning adoption of digital currencies and blockchain technology as practical solutions in economically volatile environments.
Chief Executive Officer of EMURGO Africa, Ahmed M. Amer, emphasised: “Web3.0 technologies are already redefining the African digital landscape, offering innovative solutions to long-standing challenges and empowering individuals and communities across the continent. This report presents an in-depth exploration of the potential of these technologies to drive positive change, while highlighting the importance of fostering a collaborative environment between stakeholders, policymakers, and regulators to unlock the full potential of Web3.0.”

[Guardian]

On July 17, 2012, Peter Obi, then governor of Anambra State, swore in five new commissioners. One of them was Chike Okoli, whom he assigned to the Ministry of Science and Technology where he would serve as commissioner until the expiration of Mr. Obi’s governorship tenure in March 2014. Two months later, around May 21, 2014, Chike set out from the state capital in Awka to Nanka, his village in Orumba South Local Government Area, LGA, of the state. He never got there.

Somewhere in Agulu, not far from Nanka, Chike’s car was reportedly intercepted by men in a sports utility vehicle, SUV, who abducted him. Despite having much of their ransom demand of N16 million met, Chike has not been seen or heard from since then. It was widely reported at the time that Chike was “abducted by unknown gunmen”.

Forty-one days before Chike Okoli’s abduction, then Inspector-General of Police, Mohammed Abubakar, went to Awka, where he declared that the state was the safest it had been in five years. Five years before this revelation by the Inspector-General, in April 2009, a campaign of violent crime leading to the death of over 30 persons in lethal fortnight, forced the House of Representatives to hold an urgent debate at the end of which it adopted a resolution expressing alarm at and asking for urgent measures to address the activities of “the men of the underworld in Anambra State”.

In the first six months of 2009, violent crime killed over 60 people in Anambra State alone. Abia, Anambra and Imo states in the South-East were among the top five in the kidnapping league table compiled by Nigeria’s security agencies in 2009. A report by the Voice of America in December 2009 attributed these trends in the South-East to “criminality and violence from the proliferation of armed gangs”. One year later, in the last quarter of 2010, Aba, the commercial centre in Abia State, was reported to be “in the firm grip of kidnap militia”.

Transnational crime gangs were the suspects when unknown gunmen attacked St. Phillip’s Catholic Church in Ozubulu, in Ekwusigo LGA in Anambra State, shooting indiscriminately at worshippers in an incident that killed at least 13 persons and injured many more in the early hours of August 6, 2017.

These instances do not by any means pretend to scratch the surface of the patterns of atrocity violence in South-East Nigeria. But they illustrate some features that have been lost as the situation has become the stuff of a bifurcated, single narrative. Internally in the region, one prong to this narrative claims that the sources of insecurity in the South-East are external, caused mostly by armed herders. Externally, outside the South-East, much of the country perceives insecurity in south-east as the handiwork of the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra, IPOB. Both claims are blinkered.

The latter prong of this single narrative has much of its origins in two developments and one tendency. One was the designation of the group as a terrorist organisation by an ex parte court order at the instance of the former Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, in 2017. The tactical objective, it seemed, was to isolate the group. The actual consequence was a strategic metastasis.

A second was the decision by National Security Adviser in his inaugural Annual Security Threat Assessment in 2017 to take a federal character approach to security threat analyses and boil down a resilient problem of insecurity in the South-East into an IPOB problem, putting the group on the same footing as Boko Haram.

These two developments derive from the tendency to turn every problem of insecurity in Nigeria into a revenue source for those supposed to manage them. The result is that no theatre of insecurity in Nigeria ever gets better. The Joint Task Force, JTF, in the Niger Delta, for instance, has been in existence since 1994. It was meant to be temporary.

These developments were foreseably wrong-headed. Contrary to urban legend, atrocity violence in the South-East had been on the rise since the return to elective governance in 1999. In his 2007 book on Political Assassinations in Nigeria, Shehu Sani, the former Senator from Kaduna State, details over 50 crimes and victims of political murder which occurred in Nigeria in the first eight years following the return to elective government in Nigeria in 1999. The South-East and South-South easily out-ranked the other geo-political zones of the country with the highest number of assassinations.

As the disappearance of Chike Okoli in 2014 shows, the “unknown gunman” is not a recent moniker. When unknown assassins set upon the then chairman of the Nigerian Bar Association, NBA, in Onitsha, Barnabas Igwe and his wife, Abigail, brutally killing both around September 1, 2002, IPOB was not in existence. Three years later, the former Governor of Anambra State, the recently deceased Chinwoke Mbadinuju, walked free on charges of having procured the double murder of Mr. and Mrs. Igwe. Their killers remain unknown.

In his 2023 Annual Security Threat Assessment, the National Security Adviser claims that IPOB attacks “led to the death of 77 civilians” in 2022, with 54% of reported incidents credited to the group being directed, however, at security agencies. Clearly, 77 persons killed is 77 too many, yet, this statistic should put perceptions of IPOB as an insecurity proposition in perspective.

By comparison, Obosi, the ancient town in Anambra State which shares part of the commercial hub widely referred to as Onitsha, has been overtaken by an orgy of cult killings which claimed the lives of nearly one hundred young men over the same period. The Obosi killings have not merited the attentions of the NSA even though they have a much longer history; are much more deadly; involve more sophisticated weapons; and are linked to organised crime. The reason is simple: Obosi killings do not fit into the single narrative of separatism.

Of course, the violence in the South-East is not exclusive to non-state actors or gangs. The month before the Ozubulu Massacre, scores of bodies of young men were found floating on the Ezu River in Anambra State in a mass liquidation that appeared to bear the hallmarks of the Special Armed Robbery Squad, SARS.

At the beginning of a pattern that would define the millennium for many in that part of Nigeria, in the early hours of February 7, 2001, over 150 armed men of the Police Mobile Force attacked what was believed to be the national headquarters of the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra, MASSOB, in Okigwe, Imo State, shooting at will at hundreds of unarmed activists. It was reported that dead “casualties of the raid littered everywhere”. In May 2008, MASSOB released a list of 2,020 of its members allegedly killed by Nigerian security agencies.

A major inflection point was the prison break in Owerri in April 2021, which freed over 1,844 prisoners, many of them violent and dangerous, from a facility not far from the office of the state governor who was reportedly not far from the vicinity of the prison as the incident occurred. Quite miraculously, no prison officers suffered any casualties in the break. The aftermath of the prison break would witness an indiscriminate escalation in the South-East on a scale suggesting the partisan weaponisation of insecurity.

The Buhari regime approached insecurity in South-East Nigeria with peculiar prejudices, which did not much bother itself with knowledge or evidence. With the region excluded from strategic leadership in the security services, much of the decision making about how to manage exposure to insecurity in that part of the country lacked the benefit of informed insights.

Far from being helpful, the interventions by the Buhari lot did much to hinder efforts to find solutions to insecurity in the region. To be fair, the South-East was not the only region mismanaged under the Buhari misadventure. Over eight years, Muhammadu Buhari left every part of Nigeria worse than he met them.

As the country turns the page on a toxic eight years, there is an opportunity to re-think the metrics and methods by which it manages insecurity. In Nigeria, those who should end insecurity seem committed instead to making it durable. That must end.

*A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Bill Gates, the American with a trophy as one of the World’s richest men, came visiting Nigeria last week. He publicly visited the Presidential Villa twice; first to meet President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the second, to meet Vice President Kashim Shettima Mustapha and our governors who came before him with begging bowls for health aid.

Despite Nigeria being one country, each governor had a separate health agenda and request, all expecting the former husband of Melinda French to grant their wishes. Although the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has a $50 billion endowment, out of which $7 billion has been earmarked for polio eradication, how do the governors and the Federal Government expect Gates to grant their separate requests, more so as Nigeria is just one of 196 countries in the world? If we must beg Gates for health hand outs, why can’t it be consolidated, or should we also have lined up the 774 local government chairmen before him?

I reflected that it would have cost us a fortune to gather the governors and their entourage in Abuja given the fact that most would have flown down while those coming by road would have burnt fuel at N500 per litre. Such money, if spent on healthcare, would have helped.

A day before the meeting, Gates had indicted Nigerian political leaders for poor investment in the nation’s health sector. He said government spends only $10 (N6,900) per Nigerian on healthcare annually compared to $31 in sub-Saharan Africa. He admonished that: “Leaders need to make a much bigger financial commitment, focusing most on improving primary health systems. Making sure clinics are well-staffed and supplied, making sure children get the vaccines they need.”

What Gates was saying is that the primary challenge is not in begging for assistance, but what is Nigeria doing with the healthcare system? Part of the answer was given a day before the June 22, 2023 Gates-Nigerian Governors meeting when some 400 health practitioners met under the umbrella of the Nigeria Union of Allied Health Professionals, NUAHP. The theme, ‘Alarming Brain Drain In Nigeria’s Health Sector: Need For Emergency Rescue’, summarised the state of our healthcare.

Former Ondo State Governor Olusegun Rahman Mimiko, a medical doctor, had introduced a medical revolution ‘Abiye’ in the state; building and equipping emergency medical facilities within five weeks and striving for zero fatalities during childbirth. To achieve this, his administration had made a cost of taking care of a woman from conception to delivery and how to meet it.

In his analysis why governments are not making much of an headway in healthcare delivery, Mimiko said: ”It is not the bricks and mortar that matter; it is the delivery. We spend so much on non-functional structures.”

He posited that no nation develops until it takes the health of its citizens serious and that life expectancy reflects the development of every country.

Mimiko, a two-term Governor and former Federal Minister for Housing and Urban Development, argued that health is a major investment and any government that is not making serious investment in health, is not serious.

In arguing that subsidising the healthcare of the citizenry should be a basic commitment of any government, he said the United States which is the father of capitalism takes healthcare so serious that the sector is the biggest employer while in Britain, the National Health Service, NHS, is a second religion. He said many never realise how poor they are until they are required to produce money for healthcare.

In making a case for the urgent equipment of health facilities and treatment of health practitioners as a special cadre, Mimiko warned that if the current rate of migration is not checked in the next five years, Nigerians may be at the mercy of traditional doctors.

On the professional harvesting of Nigerian health practitioners by foreign countries, Mimiko posited that there should be bilateral agreements such that if the United Kingdom, UK wants 1,000 nurses from Nigeria, it should contribute to producing another 1,000 Nigerian nurses.

In agreeing with Mimiko, Comrade Festus Osifo, the President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, said if health practitioners are not provided the conducive atmosphere, any bill brought to the National Assembly to stop them from migrating, would be dead on arrival.

Dr Godswill Chikwendu Okara, the Registrar, West African College of Medical Laboratory Science, in his forensic analysis submitted that health professionals are leaving the country in droves due to mass unemployment, poor salaries and work conditions, mass poverty, religious, communal and political crises. He said between April 1, 2022 and this March, over 3,300 Nigerian nurses and midwives trained in the country, were licenced to practise in the UK, while by March 31, 2023, 10,639 of them were practising in UK alone.

Dr Okara’s solutions include a guaranteed peaceful environment, improved economy, access to competitive and fair paying jobs, better cost of living, strategic talent management, proper funding of tertiary education and allocation of more resources to education generally.

NUAHP President, Dr Obinna Ogbona, said COVID-19 was the “most traumatic, challenging and calamitous period of monumental proportion (as it) claimed the lives of some health workers and infected several others who were carrying out their duties to save lives in various hospital facilities and isolation centres in the country”. He regretted that the brain drain is depriving the country of the best talents to provide healthcare needs.

Former Minister of State for Environment and current Emir of Nasarawa, Ibrahim Usman Jibril, said most strikes, including in the health sector are due to the poor implementation of Collective Agreements, adding that in the first place, some agreements entered into by the government are not realistic. The health practitioners, he said, must develop team spirit to be able to serve the people.

Begging Gates or other donors will not fundamentally improve our health system; in any case, such funds can easily be frittered away. First, like Gates advocated, the system must be funded rather than have left over bones thrown at it. Secondly, we must return to the First Republic system of preventive medicine; the period we had active health inspectors fumigating gutters and checking the environment we lived. Back to those days when incinerators were provided in various areas rather than now when in most parts, refuse is not cleared. The country also has to return to the building and promotion of the primary healthcare system as was under Professor Olikoye Ransome-Kuti when he was Health Minister. Our leaders also need to discourage medical tourism by developing a health system that would be good enough to treat them as was the case in the First Republic. These are some of the gates to adequate healthcare in Nigeria.

…. .Ajulo Asks Tinubu to Caution DSS Operations

A renowned Constitutional Lawyer, Rights Activist and National Honouree of Officer of the Order of Niger, Dr Kayode Ajulo OON, has asked the Department of State Services, DSS, to respect the rule of law in pursuing the case against the suspended Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission, EFFC, Abdulrasheed Bawa and others, and not infringe on their fundamental rights.

The lawyer said it is unlawful to keep Mr Bawa in detention longer than when the law stipulates. He asked President Tinubu to caution the operations of the men of the DSS concerning the matter and ensure that the rule of law prevails.

Read the full statement;

ATTENTION MR PRESIDENT: ILLEGAL AND LONG DETENTION OF MR ABDULRASHEED BAWA & OTHERS BY THE DSS AND THE IMPERATIVENESS OF THE COURT TO DECIDE THEIR FATE

I once again present my warmest and most sincere compliments to our dear President, His Excellency, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR. Hearty kudos for the months, weeks, days, hours, minutes and seconds spent in power and for taking bold, pragmatic and egalitarian steps to assent several bills into law in a bid to boost and revive the country’s economy amidst other strata. I unreservedly salute your Excellency for the developments thus far but would however beseech and appeal that several of the bills passed should be professionally reviewed further to ensure that better amendments are made to some of them but I would, however, dwell less on this path as that is not the locus and focus of this press statement.

Your Excellency would recall that on May 29th, 2023 during your swearing-in and in your inaugural speech, you said,

_*“Our constitution and laws give us a nation on paper. We must work harder at bringing these noble documents to life by strengthening the bonds of economic collaboration, social cohesion, and cultural understanding. Let us develop a shared sense of fairness and equity”.*_

Further in defining the principles that would guide your administration, Your Excellency then said:

_*“Nigeria will be impartially governed according to the constitution and the rule of law”.*_

However, before this time Mr President you have displayed your trust in and advocacy for the rule of law as enshrined in the speech you directed to the former President Olusegun Obasanjo in 2004, about 19 years ago, during the Christmas Eve event at Island Club in Lagos. You said:

_*”Federal government has a responsibility. They are the leader of moral persuasion. The number one law implementer must obey the rule of the land. You cannot be junketing around the world looking for investment for this country- you want to create employment opportunity, you want people to come and invest in Nigeria. The investors will ask you can I come in and if I find anything wrong can I go to your judiciary, will you obey the rule of law?”*_

The first principle on the list, though brief and concise but entails and embeds a lot in its simplicity. Therefore, the same cannot be said casually without work done towards upholding and adhering to it.

Your Excellency, let me also remind you that one of the fundamental ills of the past administration headed by former President Muhammadu Buhari which was vehemently rebuked by many Nigerians was his failure to comply with the provisions of the Constitution regarding issues of unlawful detention as many suffered abuses to their Fundamental Rights as provided for in chapter IV of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria(as amended), particularly provisions of Section 35 relating to rights to Personal Liberty and further recognized by the provisions of Articles 6 & 9 of the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights as well as Articles 3 & 9 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Consequently, in impartial governance according to the constitution and rule of law, issues of rights of individuals and citizens should be paramount and all measures, actions and procedures to correct aberrant personnel should be done by the provisions of the law and nothing below such standard counts as same contradicts the principles with which your administration sets out to govern the Nation.

…Only NNPCL still importing fuel

…As ex-depot price rises to N505 per litre

Barely a month after deregulation, operators in the downstream sector have not been able to import petrol into Nigeria, due mainly to a lack of license and foreign exchange.

Checks by Vanguard, weekend, indicated that many oil marketers that applied for license are still waiting for the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, to release it.

It also showed that the six companies, including Eterna, which got the license have not started importing the product into the country.

The checks further indicated that despite the floatation of foreign exchange rates by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, many oil companies still find it difficult to go into business.

A visit to many private depots in Apapa, Lagos, showed that the oil marketers are not contemplating importation in the coming weeks because of uncertainties currently staring oil marketers in the face.

This means the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited is the only entity still importing fuel into the country.

We have not started importing fuel — oil marketers

The national president, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, Elder Chinedu Okoronkwo, could not be reached for comments, yesterday.

But in an interview with Vanguard, yesterday, the national operations controller of IPMAN, Mike Osatuyi, who noted said the oil marketers have not yet commenced the importation, said: “The cost of importing petrol has tripled because of subsidy withdrawal.

‘’We now need more funds to put into the business than before. Remember the exchange rate of the naira has also increased from over N400/ a dollar to over N700/per a dollar.

“This means that a lot of funds are needed than before. it is not easy for a single company to bring out that level of money. So, we are discussing with the banks.

‘’It will take some time to conclude the various discussions before securing funds for the importation. The price of petrol may be high at the initial period, but it would drop later as many oil marketers begin to import the product.”

Ex-depot price rises to N505 per litre

Already, he said the ex-depot price of the product has increased from over N400 per litre to N505 over the weekend, thus forcing the independent marketers that lift the product from private depots to sell at different prices, ranging from N510 -N530, depending on location, to recover cost.

It takes time to get license —Applicant

A chief executive officer, who pleaded anonymity, said: “We have applied for license to import. We are waiting on the regulator. We also need huge foreign exchange at a competitive rate because it cost billions of naira to bring a mother vessel into the country. This has to be done in an environment of certainty.

“We cannot dabble into fuel importation at this time. Adequate caution is required from everyone, including the banks that will provide the funds, to ensure that such investment could be recovered at least with minimal profit.

‘’It is a business that one can easily get his or her fingers burnt. We are currently watching the investment landscape and will import at the right time.”

Regulator keeps mum

The Authority Chief Executive, Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, did not respond when Vanguard reached out yesterday

Transporters charge high fares

Meanwhile, transporters, including Uber, have increased their fares by more than 100 per cent on all routes.
For instance, it now costs over N2,000 for commuters to move from Ikorodu to Mile 2 in Lagos, a distance that used to be below N1,000. 

It also cost more than N1,500 to travel from Marina to Ajah, a distant that used to be less than N1,000.

A former Minister of Aviation, Osita Chidoka has asked President Bola Tinubu to take quick steps such as removal of bank charges and reduction in the monthly contributions to pension schemes by workers to ameliorate the biting effects of the removal of fuel subsidy on the masses.

Chidoka, a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and ally of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, stated this on Channels Television’s Sunday Politics.

“We need to think beyond politics. When he (Tinubu) took a decision to remove subsidy and he removed fuel subsidy and the fuel prices rose by 100 and something naira to 500 and something naira in a day. What are the immediate measures that can be taken to make sure there is more cash in the pockets of people who go to work every day?” he queried.

“If I was thinking with him, I would have said immediately: remove the charges for bank transfers in Nigeria, the N26 and the N56, cut it immediately. That money goes to the banks and they are just enriching themselves… or make a flat rate of once a month, you can charge N100 for IT (Information Technology) support. So, that puts more money in the hands of people.

“Second one is that our pension scheme has accumulated a lot of money and that pension scheme now requires people to pay 12% of their salaries from the employers’ side.

“So, I’m think you can reduce the amount the people are contributing for a one-year period or six months to allow more money.

“That way, immediately from the next month salary, another N10,000, N5,000 as the case may be, enters into the pocket of the people who goes to work every day. They are able to pay their transport fare because they need to go to work tomorrow. We can’t wait till when you take a decision (on ministerial appointments) to ameliorate the suffering,” he said.

‘$3bn Owed Fuel Importers’

The ex-minister also said the minimum wage needs to rise from the current rate of N30,000 to reflect the current economic realities and inflationary shocks.

According to him, though the Tinubu government removed subsidy from its day one in office, the administration inherited $3bn debt to be paid to fuel importers.

“The past is already facing him (Tinubu) because there is about $3bn owed to the fuel importers. The four major companies importing fuel to Nigeria has a debt of over $3bn and they haven’t been given enough crude to pay for those debt. So, he (Tinubu) has to pay the backlog of those debts,” Chidoka stated.

‘Brutality Violated’

Furthermore, the PDP stalwart noted that the All Progressives Congress has not shown sensitivity to the Federal Character Principle bin the last eight years.

He said the Federal Character Principle was “brutality violated in the past eight years”, saying that 18 military and paramilitary bodies were headed by people from a region of the country during the Muhammadu Buhari administration.

“I find it objectionable for people who did not say a word when this country was brutally harangued by a government to now talk about issues of appointments and sensitivity in four weeks. I feel that that is a violation of decency,” he added.

‘Fair But Unimportant’

On the distribution of the new service chiefs appointed by the President, Chidoka acknowledged that Tinubu has been fair in the distribution of appointment across the six geopolitical zone in the last four weeks in office but that matter is unimportant.

He describing the euphoria and reactions trailing the appointments as being spread across the six geopolitical zones as based on the “trauma suffered during Buhari’s tenure”.

“I think they’ve been fair in trying to (spread) appointments across the country. I think it’s being largely fair but it’s unimportant,” Chidoka stated.

Demands INEC Chair’s Removal

He asked the President to remove the Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Mahmood Yakubu just as he suspended the Governor of the Central bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele.

“It would have been totally unimportant if he faced what I considered the critical issues about Nigerians making their choices. For the kind of uproar that the election caused, the way he went after the CBN governor is the way I think he should have set up a panel to look into INEC,” he stated.

THE Lagos State Deputy Governor, Obafemi Hamzat, has refuted an allegation that he once renounced his Nigerian citizenship.

The controversy arose when a United States immigration lawyer, Olubusayo Fasidi, informed the Lagos Governorship Election Petitions Tribunal that Hamzat had taken an oath of allegiance in the US renouncing his Nigerian citizenship.

Fasidi had appeared as a witness for the Labour Party (LP) governorship candidate Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour in his petition against the election of the state governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu.

Reports of Hamzat’s alleged US citizenship had caused a lot of stir online.

However, Hamza, in a statement through his media office on Saturday, June 24 labelled the claim as “misleading and inaccurate.”

The Lagos state deputy governor said the viral report did not accurately reflect the proceedings at the tribunal.

According to him, the witness presented two documents as evidence — an empty US naturalisation application form and an empty oath of US allegiance document, identified as forms 8CFR/337 and N400.

The tendered documents were accepted and marked as exhibits by the tribunal.

He explained that the witness, when confronted with the fact that her claim was based on blank documents, admitted to downloading them from the official website of the US Embassy.

He said that the witness was unable to produce the actual documents specifying the jurisdiction of the US or the date when he allegedly applied for naturalization or took the oath of allegiance.

The statement read, “She equally admitted that she had not attended the ceremony admitting Dr Hamzat as a citizen of the United States of America.

“During her cross-examination by counsel to the 4th respondent (APC), the witness admitted to the fact that the American constitution recognizes dual citizenship with particular reference to the 14th amendment to the constitution of the United States ratified on July 9, 1868.

“The witness was challenged further that the documents she tendered support the process of application for naturalisation which ultimately culminates in the issuance of an American passport and nothing more.

“The witness, in reaction to additional questions, confirmed that she did not need to obtain a Nigerian visiting visa because she entered the country with her Nigerian passport.

“With respect to the question whether the witness was aware that Dr Hamzat fully disclosed the details of his American citizenship in the Form EC9 submitted to INEC, the witness answered in the affirmative.”

Hamzat urged the public to disregard the “deliberate falsehood” being spread, asserting that the credibility of the witness’ testimony was severely challenged.

Ade Adetimehin, the chairman of the All Progressives Congress in charge of Ondo State, has urged the populace to keep praying for Governor Rotimi Akeredolu, who has recently struggled with health concerns.

What the people of the state currently need, according to Adetimehin, is prayers for the governor to recover swiftly, accusing the opposition parties of allegedly politicking the governor’s health situation.

This was said by the chairman on Sunday in Akure, the state’s capital.

He claimed that the governor’s health problem did not preclude him from resuming his official duties as the state’s governor.

He said, “Some individuals and groups have taken it upon themselves to spread false news and rumors about his (Akeredolu’s) death. It is disheartening to see that some people would wish death upon a fellow human being. Such actions are unfair and should be condemned by all well-meaning individuals.

“The opposition has also been quick to malign the governor’s family, accusing them of not doing enough to take care of the governor’s illness. Such accusations are falsely disrespectful, flippant and callous.

“What Arakunrin Akeredolu and the family requires at this period is our support and prayers for the full recovery of their family patriarch. Arabinrin Betty Akeredolu and her children have been doing their best in taking care of the governor.

“We must continue to pray for the governor’s recovery and stand by the family in these difficult times. Akeredolu is a good man who loves the downtrodden and deserves all the support and prayers for a full recovery from his illness.”

In Kebbi State’s Argungu Local Government Area, quelea birds reportedly raided farmland over the weekend and caused losses to at least 100 farmers.

Quelea birds are harmful parasites that may completely destroy a farm in a day or even a few hours.

Locals said that during the weekend, the hazardous birds devastated roughly 75,000 hectares of rice farms.

According to reports, the red-billed birds moved from the nearby Niger Republic.

Kebbi has been the only state affected so far by the menace of quelea birds. However, experts in agriculture are advising farmers in the northwest and northeast to be on the lookout for invading birds.

They, however, suggested that the only way to combat the menace of quelea birds is to conduct research and produce pest repellent that works without causing any damage to crops.

Former Speaker of the Federal House of Representatives, Rt. Hon. Yakubu Dogara has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to muster enough courage, fight subsidy cabals and bring them to book.

He said the removal of the fuel subsidy by the President was fantastic and a departure from the past, but the President must do all within his powers to recover the looted funds from the subsidy Cabals.

He spoke to journalists during a Thanksgiving church service to mark the successful completion of a 6-year tenure as Evangelical Church Winning All (ECWA) General Secretary of Rev. Yunusa S. Nmadu Jnr in Kaduna.

Dogara said president Tinubu has so far demonstrated leadership quality and should be commended by Nigerians.

“We stand by him on the subsidy removal but he must be courageous to pursue the subsidy Cabals and recover all the stolen monies from them and prosecute them accordingly,” he said.

He said, the President had also demonstrated leadership by carrying every region along in the appointment of Service chiefs, regardless of party, ethnicity and religion and should also be commended.

Also, Senator representing Southern Kaduna, Senator Sunday Marshal Katung commended President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on the appointment of the new Service chiefs which he described as a demonstration of equity and justice.

Katung urged the new Service Chiefs to address issues of insecurity ravaging the country particularly the northern region holistically and urged the President to provide palliatives to cushion the effects of the fuel subsidy removal.

The ECWA President and also Vice President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Rev. Dr Stephen Baba Panya commended President Tinubu on the fuel subsidy removal and the appointment of Service chiefs, saying the President was making deliberate efforts to avoid lopsided appointments like it was witnessed in previous administration.