Nigeria’s currency, the Naira, depreciated marginally against the dollar at the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market (NAFEM), the official market, but gained at the parallel market.

According to FDMQ data, the local currency dropped to N854. 61/$1 on Wednesday, compared to the Tuesday’s close of N844.85/$1 to a dollar at the close of trading.

Meanwhile, there is respite at the country’s parallel market as the Naira recorded a gain by strengthening marginally to N1, 228/$1 on Wednesday as against N1,238 traded the previous day.

Similarly, the Naira appreciated against the Great Britain Pounds (GBP), closing at N1,560/£ on Wednesday compared to the closing rate of N1,570 to the GBP exchanged on Tuesday.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso, speaking on Wednesday last week before the National Assembly joint committee on Banking and Insurance, said the country’s exchange rate pressures are expected to reduce in 2024.

“Exchange rate pressures are also expected to reduce significantly with the smooth functioning of the foreign exchange market,” he said.

Since 14 June, when the apex bank introduced FX reforms, Naira has continued fluctuating in the forex market.

The Supreme Court has reserved judgement in the appeal filed by the Kano State Governor, Abba Yusuf, challenging the verdict of the Court of Appeal and the State Election Petitions Tribunal, which removed him from office.

The five-member panel, led by Justice John Okoro, reserved the judgement after the parties adopted their brief of arguments.

At the day’s proceedings of the hearing of the Kano Governorship Appeal, Justice Okoro urged counsels involved in the matter to meet and agree on which of the nine appeals and cross-appeals that should be heard, with the outcome binding on the remaining eight.

A consensus was reached by all the parties to make the main appeal which shall be heard by the apex court, with cross appeals such as that questioning the membership of Abba Yusuf abiding with the outcome.

Counsel for the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Abubakar Mahmoud, began by stating that the key witness whose testimony was the ground for deducting the 165,616 votes of Yusuf deemed unlawful were subpoened to give evidence.

He said that his testimony was inadmissible for not being front-loaded along with the main petition at the Tribunal and as such his testimony and exhibits tendered are therefore incompetent.

INEC’s counsel informed the court that the said contested 165,616 ballot papers were authentic and originated from INEC and not elsewhere. He said it is not the duty of a voter, on the day of the election, to check if a ballot paper is signed or stamped and without the date of the election, adding that’s the task of a party agent.

Mahmoud further informed the court that the recounting of votes was done privately at the tribunal chambers after the deduction of the contested 165,616 votes.

He added that even when they were brought to the Court of Appeal they weren’t demonstrated.

INEC’s counsel further told the apex court panel that only a portion of the unlawful ballots were examined at the tribunal.

Mahmoud clarified that he is not taking sides except concerning the correct interpretation of the law.

On Yusuf’s membership of the New Nigeria’s Peoples Party (NNPP), he stated that is an internal affair of the political party concerned and not for an external body, citing previous decisions of the apex court.

He added that it is not a constitutional matter as being claimed by the All Progressives Congress (APC) which relied on Section 177(c) of the Constitution, as amended, and Section 77 of the Electoral Act.

Mahmoud faulted the practice of political parties that seek to use the Court as an “arena” to get victory after the voters had decided.

He informed the apex court that the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) submitted the name of Abba Yusuf as its candidate for the governorship election and that if the APC had anything against Yusuf’s candidacy, it should have done so after INEC published the names of candidates.

Counsel to Governor Yusuf, Wole Olanipekun, faulted the nullification of his electoral victory on grounds of the INEC presiding officer failing to sign or stamp the ballot papers.

Wole Olanipekun argued that that has nothing to do with the Electoral Act, insisting it is on INEC’s guidelines and as such not sufficient grounds to deem the votes unlawful, warranting nullification.

Olanipekun further told the court that based on the evidence given by an expert witness during the Tribunal stage of the matter, only about 1,800 ballots were not signed or stamped and that those are insignificant figures and as such insufficient to void the election.

On the membership of Yusuf, Olanipekun stressed that it is the internal affair of the party concerned, with the courts therefore lacking jurisdiction to decide on the choice of a political party’s candidate. He therefore prayed the court to upturn the decision of the Appeal Court which affirmed the decision of the tribunal sacking the governor.

Counsel for APC, Akin Olujimi, insisted that Section 177(c) of the Constitution is a key determiner of the Kano matter and that the matter being a constitutional issue gives it jurisdiction to decide on it.

On November 13, the Court of Appeal upheld the verdict of the tribunal. In its ruling, the Appeal Court agreed with the judgement of the tribunal, ruling that the fielding of Abba Yusuf was in breach of the Electoral Law as he was not qualified to contest that election.

In September, the tribunal nullified the victory of Yusuf, the candidate of the NNPP in the March 18 governorship election.

The tribunal also affirmed Nasiru Gawuna of the APC as the duly elected governor of Kano.

The Senate on Thursday confirmed the nomination of the 11 Justices of the Supreme Court.

The upper chamber confirmed them during plenary after a debate by the lawmakers who advocated for augmentation of the judiciary budget and also stated the impropriety of leaving a vacuum in the Supreme Court for an extended period before making the appointments.

The Senate Committee on Judiciary, Human Rights, and Legal Matters chaired by Senator Tahir Munguno, screened all 11 nominees on Wednesday and brought the report of the exercise before the lawmakers. Thereafter, approval was given after the Senate dissolved into the committee of the whole.

Among the newly confirmed judges is Justice Haruna Tsammani (North-East), who chaired the 2023 Presidential Election Petition Court.

Others are Justice Moore Adumein (South-South), Justice Jummai Sankey (North-Central), Justice Chidiebere Uwa (South-East), and Justice Chioma Nwosu-Iheme (South-East), etc.

Thursday’s move is a sequel to their recommendation by the National Judicial Council and President Bola Tinubu’s letter to the lawmakers seeking their confirmation.

The Port Harcourt Refining Company in Rivers State has recommenced operation in line with the Federal Government’s promise to ensure the production of refined products at the facility in December 2023.

The development is coming after many years of underperformance and turnaround maintenance of the facility. Four of Nigeria’s refineries in Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna have a combined capacity to process 445,000 barrels per day (bpd). But they were shut down in 2019.

However, in August, the Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Oil) Senator Heineken Lokpobiri, said the Port Harcourt refinery will recommence operations in December.

Lokpobiri said this during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation work at the PHRC Ltd. plant

“Our objective in coming here today is to ensure that in the next few years, Nigeria stops fuel importation. From what we have seen here today, Port Harcourt Refinery will come on board by the end of the year,” he said in August.

The recommencement of operations at the Port Harcourt refinery comes over two years after the Federal Government approved funding of $1.5 billion (1.2 billion euros) to repair one of its biggest oil refineries.

The government chose an Italian firm Maire Tecnimont to carry out the repair work at the Port Harcourt facility which has a capacity of some 210,000 bpd.

“We are happy to announce that the rehabilitation of productivity refinery will commence in three phases,” the then-Minister of Petroleum (State) Timipre Sylva told reporters.

“The first phase is to be completed in 18 months, which will take the refinery to a production of 90 percent of its nameplate capacity,” said Sylva, adding that the second phase would be completed in 24 months and the third in 44 months.

Despite being Africa’s number one oil producer, Nigeria has relied on imports of petroleum products because of a lack of domestic refining capacity. Fuel shortages are commonplace.

But as part of moves to overhaul the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), the government has been working to improve capacity at the country’s under-performing state-owned refineries.

It is hoped that the resumption of refinery activity in the facility and the commencement of a similar exercise at the Dangote Refinery will improve the supply of fuel in Africa’s largest oil producer and allow the country to make savings on refined fuel and other petroleum products.

With the removal of subsidy on fuel, the move is also expected to impact on the cost of the product.