The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has disassociated itself from a circulating report in the media alleging the release of a list of 58 ex-governors, under investigation for corruption, to the tune of N2.18 trillion.

In a press statement on Sunday, the EFCC clarified that it has not issued any such list nor discussed the investigation of the former governors with any media outlet.

According to the statement signed by EFCC spokesperson, Dele Oyewale, the report titled ‘EFCC Releases Full List of 58 Ex-Governors that Embezzled N2.187 Trillion,’ was “a phantom report,” deemed “false and mischievous.”

“The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, feels obliged to dissociate itself from a phantom report circulating in sections of the media, claiming it has released a full list of ex-governors being investigated for alleged corruption.

“The report headlined ‘EFCC Releases Full List of 58 Ex- Governors that Embezzled N2.187 Trillion,’ in one of the news outlets, is false and mischievous as the commission neither issued the said list nor entertained discussions on the investigation of ex-governors with any news medium.


“This invariably means that the so-called list is a disingenuous fabrication designed to achieve motives known only to the authors,” the statement read.

Oyewale urged the public to disregard the report and advised the media to verify information regarding ongoing investigations directly with the commission, to prevent the spread of false and inaccurate information.

The EFCC had said it would consider the fresh petition it recently received over the alleged N70 billion corruption case of Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle.

The EFCC’s acting Director of Public Affairs, Wilson Uwajuren, stated this while addressing protesters under the aegis of the APC Akida Forum who were at the commission’s headquarters in Abuja on Friday to demand the reopening of the pending case.

On May 18, 2023, the EFCC, through its Director, Media and Publicity Affairs, Osita Nwajah, had said it was probing corruption activities, award of phantom contracts, and diversion of over N70bn allegedly carried out by the minister during his tenure as Zamfara State governor between 2019 and 2023.

AFTER three months of bootless committee meetings in the comfort of air-conditioned offices at the cost of one billion naira (President Bola Tinubu approved 500 million naira to “start with… first”) and about a month after the expiration of the last minimum wage approved in 2019, the Tinubu government has not been able to approve a new minimum wage for Nigerian workers even when it wastes no time to approve policies that inflict maximum suffering on poor people. 

On May 1, I woke up here in Atlanta to the news of an increase in the minimum wage of workers, which would be backdated to January 1st. Although it’s the legal thing to do, I was impressed nonetheless, not only because I’ve significantly scaled back my expectations about what the government can do but also because I know most Nigerian workers could use the relief that the increase and the arrears would bring.

So, I started looking for the exact amount of the new minimum. I scouted social media platforms and news websites. I had no luck.

It turned out that I was mistaken. The national minimum wage has not been increased even though the current one expired on April 17, which is frankly untenably criminal.

All that had happened, I later learned, was that the federal government had approved an increase of between 25 per cent and 35 per cent in the salaries of certain civil servants, according to the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC). 

“They include Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS), Consolidated Research and Allied Institutions Salary Structure (CONRAISS) and Consolidated Police Salary Structure (CONPOSS),”NSIWC’s spokesman by the name of  Emmanuel Njoku said in a statement on April 30. “Others are: Consolidated Para-military Salary Structure (CONPASS), Consolidated Intelligence Community Salary Structure (CONICCS) and Consolidated Armed Forces Salary Structure (CONAFSS).The increases will take effect from January 1.” 

That’s some impenetrable mumbo jumbo for those of us who are not civil servants or who are not tutored in the tortured, tortuous ways of the civil service. It’s obvious, though, that this is not the new minimum wage. 

A 25 percent increase on the existing minimum wage, that is, 30,000 naira,would amount to a mere additional 7,500 naira, and a 35 percent increase is a mere additional 10,500 naira. That’s lower than Edo State’s new minimum wage of 70,000 naira.

This is both exasperating and unconscionable, especially given that this government, since its inception, has understood its role as consisting of merely conceiving, initiating, and implementing policies that squeeze the hope and life out of poor and middle-class folks.

The originative signal of the intensity of the hardheartedness of this government came from the precipitate, ill-conceived, thoroughly unjustified announcement of the removal of petrol subsidies on President Tinubu’s inaugural day.

He followed this up with the disastrous “floating” of the naira, which wiped out trillions from the economy, hemorrhaged existing foreign investments, and made nonsense of the pittance workers collected as salaries. 

Not done, the government chose to hike tariffs on electricity (that’s barely there to start with) to amounts that regular people can’t afford. Fairly regular electricity will now become the exclusive privilege of people and companies that can pay extortionate amounts for it.  This will, of course, exacerbate the existing cost-push inflation in the economy that was ignited by the removal of petrol subsidies. 

Now life has become an unwinnable daily war for most people as a result of these policies. But President Tinubu brags that these life-sucking policies represent “courage.” By that, it is obvious he meant that these policies are so soulless, so callous, so predatory that normal people would violently revolt against them but that he damned that prospect and did what he did anyway.

He should be lucky that his predecessor, Muhammadu Buhari, laid the foundation for the current mystifying docility of Nigerians, for the emergent national culture of toleration of injustice without a fight, and for the absolute death of critically collective democratic citizenship.

As I pointed out in a previous column, preying on vulnerable members of society who have lost the will to resist injustice is no courage. It’s moral cowardice. And there’s no better example of the deceit and cowardice of the government than its inability or unwillingness to implement a basic minimum wage for workers after realizing trillions of naira from the removal of petrol subsidies (which has devalued the worth of the existing minimum wage by several folds).

The government has never ever needed a committee to implement policies that hurt the poor and the middle class. All it usually needs is Tinubu’s cowardly and preposterous presidential “courage.”

It only needs committees—which sit for extended periods because every sitting is a money-making venture—when any issues concern giving just a little welfare to beleaguered workers. Although the government is obligated by law to conduct nationwide public hearings as a precursor to increasing electricity tariffs, according to Femi Falana, the government chose not to be distracted by such pesky legalities in its haste to do what it seems to love to do best: make poor citizens squirm in torment and cry.

Accountable and socially responsible governments all over the world preoccupy their minds with finding ways to assuage the existential injuries that life episodically throws at citizens. But like the Buhari regime that preceded the current government, there appears to be a single-minded obsession by people in government with making life more miserable than it already is for everyday folks every day.

It seems to me that this government’s reason for being is to inflict pain and misery on Nigerians. It is what gives it its highs and delectations.

I get the sense that the strategists and tacticians of the government spend their time brainstorming on the next sadistic agony to visit on Nigerians. When they are out of ideas, they might choose to remove subsidies on the air Nigerians breathe, the land Nigerians walk on, and even the saliva Nigerians gulp.

By the end of this month, the Tinubu government will be one year old. Can it honestly point to a single thing it has done that has brought even a smidgeon of relief to our people, that has given ordinary people a reason to smile?

In less than one year, the Tinubu government has built a public image as a government that invests all its energy and resources into devising ways to hurt the people and to being a passive, unresisting servant of the IMF and the World.

We know that historically the IMF has always been opposed to increases in minimum wages. Last year, for instance, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the planned minimum wage increases in many countries in Central, Eastern, and South-Eastern Europe (CEE) should be stopped because the “increases will result in more persistent inflation or lower employment, especially given relatively weak productivity growth in the region.”

The IMF always encourages, even compels, governments in Third Word countries to totally remove all subsidies that benefit the poor but warns them against increasing minimum wages.

Could the reluctance by the Tinubu government to increase the minimum wage of workers be inspired by its fear of the IMF, its lord and savior? I don’t know, but it’s worth exploring.

Well, as I pointed out in a previous column, Nigeria’s elite have a personal incentive to obey the IMF. The increased financial burden that IMF’s policies impose on poor Nigerians helps to keep them in check and renders them more docile and controllable. The poorer people are the less strength they tend to have to resist oppression and the more likely they are to be esurient for crumps from their oppressors.

So governance by sadism is rooted in the desire to keep the vast majority of the people dirt poor, miserable, ignorant, and therefore more manipulatable.

he Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has disclosed banks reduced loans to the private sector to N71.21 trillion in March.

Credit to the private sector describes monetary resources given to the private sector, such as advances and loans, purchases of non-equity securities, trade credits, and other accounts receivable, which create a claim for repayment.

According to the CBN’s money and credit data, the current figure represents a month-on-month decline of 11.93 percent or N9.65 trillion drop, compared to N80.86 trillion recorded in February.

However, on a year-on-year basis, credit to the private sector rose by 65.57 percent compared to N43.01 trillion recorded in the corresponding period in March 2023.

In January, credit to investors was N76.29 trillion.

Also, data obtained from the CBN showed credit to the government decreased to N19.59 trillion in March from N33.93 trillion in February — representing a month-on-month decline of 42 percent.

On a year-on-year basis, CBN reported that credit to the government rose by 28.8 percent against N27.52 trillion in March last year.

Credit to the government stood at N36.18 trillion in January.

The decline in credit to the private sector and government follows CBN’s monetary tightening.

CBN has raised interest rates 10 consecutive times since May 2022 — a move that has increased the cost of borrowing — to tame inflation.

Also, in line with its monetary tightening, CBN announced a downward review of the loan-to-deposit ratio (LDR) from 65 percent to 50 percent on April 17.

LDR is used to assess a bank’s liquidity by comparing its total loans to its total deposits.

An increase in the loan-to-deposit ratio allows banks to expand their credits to businesses and individuals, however, a decline in LDR reduces their ability to loan customers from depositors’ funds.

Veteran journalist, Dele Momodu has accused the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, of “misfiring” in the ongoing case against former Kogi governor, Yahaya Bello.

Momodu said the EFCC failed to do due diligence during their investigation against Bello.

Speaking during an Instagram Live, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, chieftain faulted EFCC’s claims of Bello using government funds to pay his children school fees upfront before the expiration of his tenure.

He faulted EFCC’s conduct in its attempt to prosecute Bello, stressing that the commission’s Chairman, Ola Olukoyede should have learnt from the cases of his predecessors, who he said were “booted out ignominiously”.

According to Momodu: “When they brought in the new chairman, I thought oh, you will have the benefit of learning from your predecessors.

“All of them were booted out ignominiously and if I were in the shoes of the current chairman, what I will simply do is make sure I do my job as meticulously, as professionally, as efficiently as possible. And, you will never go wrong if you obey the rule of law.

“I watched the EFCC chairman, I think either last week or the week before the last, I was almost crying because the way he went on and on..if I don’t do this… spitting fire and all.. you don’t have to do media trial.”

Asked if the EFCC was lying about Bello, Momodu said: “I have no idea, I don’t work for EFCC but from all the things that I have read, a lot of them, they misfired. That is the honest truth. They misfired. They didn’t do their due diligence.

“When you said a man took out money and paid for his children’s school fees, just as he was about to leave power, and you go and check the documents and you see that these things started happening from 2021, 2022 (laughs); I am not an illiterate.”

The EFCC had accused Bello and three others of alleged money laundering to the tune of N80.2 billion while he was governor.

Olukoyede also accused Bello of withdrawing $720,000 to pay for his children’s school fees before leaving office.

This, the former governor denied.

The impeached deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, has expressed plans to reunite with the former Governor of the state, Adams Oshiomhole.

Naija News reports that Shaibu made this known in an interview with PUNCH, stating that he is not ready to support the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) gubernatorial candidate, Asue Ighodalo.

The former deputy governor said he would not support Ighodalo because, despite several attempts to know his plans, the latter failed to open up to him about his governorship ambition.

Shaibu noted that he has consistently apologised to Oshiomhole. However, he does not regret his past actions because the former Governor led them to fight against godfathers.

He said, “First, I am not ready to support the governorship candidate of the party, Asue Ighodalo, and until the PDP does the needful, I may not be able to answer the question. I cannot support him because he didn’t open up to me about his ambition despite asking him several times, including at my house. The last time I asked was in November. So, I was taken aback when he spoke on TV that he was being pushed to run.

“I called him and asked who was pushing him to run, but he told me to ignore the report and that it was a social media thing. But his younger brother, Pastor Ituah Ighodalo, said that the move to make his elder brother the governor of Edo State started two years ago. Edo State needs a “homeboy” to govern them, not people who will rent houses during their tenure and leave as soon as it ends. We need people who we can relate to and understand the challenges of the people. The PDP governorship candidate is more of an Ibadan man than an Edo man.

“I am ready. I have also consistently apologised to Comrade, and I am using this avenue to do so again over what happened in 2020, especially the language I used during that period. I look at some of the videos and the only thing I can do is apologise. However, I don’t regret the action I took because Oshiomhole is the one who led us to fight against godfathers. I felt what he was trying to do at that time was wrong. Reuniting with him will be interesting. Even amid the fight, I have maintained that he is my father. I will reunite with him sooner or later. He is also my mentor. So, a lot of things that I do, I learnt from him.”

Warns them to work with FG tripartite c’ttee

‘We are generous with N615, 000 demand’

Organised Labour, at the weekend, fires back at state governors, warning them against inflammatory utterances that could set the nation’s industrial space on fire over the new national minimum wage, NNMW.

It faulted the statement credited to the governors through the Nigerian Governors’ Forum, NGF, that they were working on what individual states could sustainably pay.

Labour contended that the governors must work within the 37-member committee saddled with the responsibility of fashioning out a new national minimum wage for the country.

According to the Organised Labour, it is being magnanimous with N615,000 new minimum wage’ demand because, based on the socioeconomic indices on the ground, it would have demanded much higher which the governors “are more than able to pay”.

Recall that in a statement, last Thursday, by the NGF Chairman and Governor of Kwara State, Alhaji AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq, at the end of NGF’s virtual meeting held Wednesday night, the governors said, among others, “As members of the committee, we are reviewing our individual fiscal space as State Governments and the consequential impact of various recommendations, to arrive at an improved minimum wage we can pay sustainably.

“We remain committed to the process and promise that better wages will be the invariable outcome of ongoing negotiations.”

Misquoted

Reacting to the statement, Deputy President of the Trade Union Congress of Nigeria, TUC, and President of the Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria, ASCSN, Dr Tommy Okon, told Sunday Vanguard, yesterday, that Organised Labour believed the governors were misquoted.

“They can’t say that they are working on what individual states can pay. I think the governors may be talking about what they can add to the minimum wage at the end of the day because what will be agreed upon is the baseline which nobody should pay less than”, Okon said.

“But they can pay higher than that. I think that is what they are saying. 

“They cannot be telling us that they are reviewing or setting up a committee to work on what they can pay individually. Two committees cannot be working on the same issue.

“The governors are members of the tripartite committee on the New National Minimum Wage, so they cannot set up another committee or work independently from the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government.

“Maybe the governors are talking about implementation. It is right for the governors to set up an implementation committee. They need to know their staff’s strengths and sources of funds to implement the new wage
“But to say that they are working on what individual states can pay outside the committee that the Federal Government has set up cannot be correct.

“Do not forget that the governors are members of the tripartite committee set up by the Federal Government. So, they cannot do anything outside the committee.

“If what is reported is correct or if the governors own up to the statement as reported, it is a recipe for serious industrial unrest.

“And no nation can accept that because any nation that works like will face unprecedented industrial unrest and can never grow. No nation grows amid industrial chaos.

“We think the governors will tread with caution and avoid inflammatory utterances. We still believe the statement was not from them.”

Negotiation table

On its part, Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, declined a response, saying it has made a demand before the tripartite committee on the minimum wage and whatever the governors want to say should be brought to the negotiation table since they are members of the committee on the new minimum wage.

However, an official of NLC, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Sunday Vanguard that the governors are treading on dangerous ground that could set the nation’s industrial space on fire.

“You cannot be talking about reviewing what individual state can pay sustainably outside the committee set up to look out will be the baseline or minimum”, he said. “Whatever opinion you have is what you should bring to the negotiation table. You come to the negotiation table and argue your opinion.

“We do not want to trade words with the governors because they are members.

“(But) they are treading on a dangerous ground that can set the nation’s industrial space on fire.

“We have made our demand which is a very generous one from the breakdown we released on Thursday on the N615,000 demand.
“You can see that we have been very magnanimous. Several expenses, including basic things like recharge cards, entertainment, extended family and others, are missing.

“Don’t forget that this demand was a product of questionnaires we sent out to states and local governments. We did not manufacture it.

“Again, take the issue of electricity which we allocated N20,000 a month. At the time we did it, the electricity tariff had not been adjusted by about 300 per cent. With the adjustment, it has affected nearly every other thing in terms of inflation.

“We know the governors can do much more than what we are demanding. We have passed through this road before.
“The problem with the governors is that they place their aggrandizement far above public good and workers’ welfare.

“That many former governors are facing prosecution by the nation’s anti-graft agencies, especially the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, is a pointer to the fact that governors have the resources to pay much higher than our demand.”

‘How we arrived at N615, 000’

NLC had, on Thursday, given the breakdown on how Organised Labour arrived at its demand of N615,000 as the new minimum wage, and also countered the government on the commencement date for the proposed new minimum wage.

The Minister for State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, had, on Wednesday, while addressing workers at the May Day celebration in Abuja, said the new minimum wage would take effect from May 1, 2024.

But the NLC is arguing that it will take effect from April 19, 2024. 

In a statement, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, said: “It has become imperative at this point that we inform Nigerians who may not have known already the foundations upon which our initial demand for a N615, 000 new National Minimum Wage is based.

“The figure was a product of a painstaking effort through which we captured the cost of living of Nigerian workers and masses in all parts of the country.

“It was essentially an outcome of independent research conducted by the NLC and TUC on the cost of meeting the primary needs of an average family around the country.

“Our research was based on a family with both parents alive and four children without the burden of having other dependents with them.

“A questionnaire was designed and sent to all the State Councils of NLC and TUC from where these questionnaires were sent to our members in all the local government areas in the country to gather the monthly cost of living for the average family as described above. 

“Below is a summary of our findings and we hope that this will enable Nigerians understand what propels our demand so that better clarity is made to create better engagement around the ongoing National Minimum Wage Negotiation process.

“A cursory look at the table above shows that we have deliberately removed certain elements from the basket used in calculations of this nature.

“However, it should also be noted that we have not included things like expenditure on calls and data, offerings in churches and Mosques, community dues, entertainment, savings and security etc.

“These are therefore just for the bare necessities.

”It should be noted that we arrived at this figure before the increase in electricity tariff and the recent scarcity of petrol across the nation leading to the appearance of long queues with attendant increased transport fares. 

“Any figure below this amount becomes a starvation wage and condemns Nigerian workers and their families to perpetual poverty.

Commencement date

”We have to remember that the old one has expired on the 18th day of April 2024, and a new one is expected to have come into effect on the 19th day of April 2024. “However, because of the government’s inability to comply with the law that demanded negotiations for a new national minimum wage to have begun six months before the expiration of the existing one, concluding the new one has become unfortunately delayed.

”We are sure that our social partners would see our demonstration of understanding, sacrifice and reasonableness in our demands and thus accept this figure without much delay.

“We also enjoin all well-meaning Nigerians to implore the government and employers to meet our demands for the sake of justice, equity and national development.”

Cristiano Ronaldo has said that he was not bothered about scoring another hat-trick but cares more about his team.

The veteran Portuguese forward scored his 66th hat-trick of his career and it’s 52 goals in 52 games this season.

Ronaldo reduced his tally to just 10 goal to reach 900 career goals as Al-Nassr beat Al-Wehda 6-0 in the Saudi Pro League on Saturday at Al-Awwal Stadium. 

The Portuguese icon scored his 50th goal of the season with his first one in the match along with netting his 66th career hat-trick.

He, however, said his priorities lie with the team rather than individual achievements.

“I don’t care about scoring a hat-trick as much as I care about the team,” the 39-year-old said after the game.

Ronaldo is just 10 goals away from 900 career goals and when asked about that post-match, he said:

“I always say, numbers come naturally, so I don’t attach numbers, they come.”

Super Eagles head coach, Finidi George has said it is important for the Super Eagles to qualify for the 2026 FIFA World Cup.

Finidi insisted that he will do his best to ensure the Super Eagles didn’t miss out on a place at the mundial for the second consecutive edition.

Recall that the Super Eagles failed to qualify for the last edition of the global soccer fiesta hosted by Qatar.

The three-time African champions face a tough task of making it to the 2026 World Cup finals after drawing their opening two matches against Lesotho and Zimbabwe.

The Super Eagles will face South Africa and Benin in their next two games in the qualifiers.

Finidi said he would need the prayer and support of all Nigerians to succeed on the job.

“The World Cup qualification matches against South Africa and Benin Republic is a collective responsibility for all Nigerians.

“I know I am in charge now and the heavy responsibility is on me to win the two world cup matches,” Finidi told reporters during his visit to Nigeria Football Federation’s office in Abuja.

“I will do my best to ensure success and qualify for the World Cup. I am also in touch with the players and they are ready and willing to give their all having missed out in the last edition held in Qatar.

“In terms of having knowledge of our opponents, I have been following them.

“The world today is a global village, one can monitor anything in the comfort of his/ her sitting room.

“We need prayers and support from everybody, this is our own, we can do it and do it well. I watch our players weekly as they play in their various clubs.

“Honestly my target is to win the two matches and not to be judged with the two international friendly games played.”

Finidi’s appointment as Super Eagles head coach was confirmed by the NFF last week.

The President General of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Emmanuel Iwuanyanwu, has said that the Igbos will not apologise for the murder of Sir Ahmadu Bello and Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa during the 1966 coup.

He dismissed claims by the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) that he plans on apologising to the Fulani ethnic groups.

He declared that Ohanaeze Ndigbo would never apologise for something they did not do.

Iwuanyanwu stated this in Owerri, Imo state, last weekend.

He said, “I was shocked to read a voice mail message which was circulating all over the country and all over the world alleging that we held a meeting in Enugu and that the meeting was poorly attended where the decision was taken that we are going to Sokoto to apologise to the Fulanis over the death of Ahmadu Bello and Tafawa Balewa and other Northerners. They abused me and insulted me. I read it and I was sad. I don’t expect that somebody or a Christian will come out and tell a completely false story against me. I never said anything like that.”

He explained that the recent retreat in Enugu was a meeting of committees established for the development of Igboland, and the issue of apologising to the Fulanis was never discussed.

“Igbos didn’t kill anybody or leader but the Igbos were killed. So, as far as Ohaneze Ndigbo is concerned, Igbo did not have any business with that coup, that coup was purely a military affair like other coups that occurred in the country,” he added.

Petroleum marketers have said the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, has opened its reserves across the federation to end the lingering fuel scarcity.

The National President of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola and Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Hilly-Harry, disclosed this in a separate statement after meeting with NNPCL on Saturday.

Fashola said his members will meet on Monday to join NNPLC to end the fuel scarcity.

He further urged Nigerians not to engage in panic buying of fuel as the product will be available nationwide.

“We are officially meeting with other marketers on Monday. We are working closely with NNPC.

“The Monday meeting is for our National Executive Council. After the meeting, we will reach out to the NNPC. We talk with them every day.

“The meetings we have been having with the NNPC are in collaboration, which we have been doing.

“If you notice, yesterday (Friday), NNPC opened up their reserves in all the depots throughout the federation. We are working with them to ensure that everywhere is wet so this thing (scarcity) can disappear,” he said.

On his part, Hilly-Harry said the meeting between NNPLC and marketers had helped present a solution to the fuel scarcity.

According to him, queues have started easing off in Abuja during the weekend.

“The good news is that this is a new reality. It will bring better solutions because the result will be fantastic when you have NNPCL doing what they must do, and we also do what we must do.

“If you go to Abuja today (Saturday), you will see that the queues have eased off”, he stated.

DAILY POST recalls that for weeks, Nigerians had continued to battle fuel scarcity despite NNPCL’s assurance of the product availability.