The Human Rights Writers Association (HURIWA), yesterday, said with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s recent approval of the nomination of Olayemi Cardoso to serve as the substantive Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), some 48 hours after appointing Zachaeus Adedeji as the acting chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), president appeared to be pushing an unseemly pro-ethnic agenda.
In a statement by its national coordinator, Emmanuel Onwuniko, the group said, “With a little over 100 days on the saddle, the president’s appointments have shown he appeared to have special consideration for people from his South-West region, especially those with links to Lagos State.
“If President Tinubu’s appointment of new services sparked new hope and drew deserved plaudits in that it recognised the nation’s diversity, his subsequent appointments curiously depart from that template.
“That the disastrous, previous administration of General Muhammadu Buhari, rtd, towed a visionless, divisive path, in the overwhelming tribalistic appointments it made, should never excuse this course that fundamentally degrades the legitimate dream of a new, progressive, inclusive Nigerian state.
“Today, the stakes are extremely high and Nigerians are mindful that a failure to achieve democratic stability, through a meritorious, transparent, inclusive governance process may imperil the country’s future as a coherent state. Mere political rewards and seeming ethnic nationalism should not drive the national journey. It is a perilous, avoidable option.’
“We recall here that the central driving mantra and foundational philosophy on which the ruling All Progressives Congress sold its presidential candidate Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, now President, to Nigerians, was ‘Renewed Hope’. Nigerians bought into it and voted the Asiwaju and APC to power because it deeply resonated with the populace. But what is the reality?
“Key appointments traversing the nation’s crucial security, judicial and economic sectors are now unabashedly cornered by the South-West region. A quick, non-exhaustive check-list would include: Petroleum Minister: Bola Tinubu; Chief of Staff: Femi Gbajabiamila; Minister of Justice: Lateef Fagbemi; Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr. Wale Edun; Acting Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Folashodun Shonubi who now gives way to a substantive CBN boss Olayemi Cardoso.
“Others include: Minister of Marine & Blue Economy: Bunmi Tunji-Ojo; Minister of Communication, Innovation and Digital Economy: Bosun Tijan; simultaneously, the Chairman of Senate Committee on ICT, Afolabi Salisu, and that of House of Representatives, Adedeji Olajide Odidiomo are both from the South-West; Minister of Power: Adebayo Adelabu; Minister of Transport: Adegboyega Oyetola; Minister of Solid Minerals: Dele Alake; Chief of Army Staff: General Taoreed Lagbaja; Police IG: Kayode Egbetokun; Comptroller-General Customs: Adewale Adeniyi; Comptroller-General Immigration: Adepoju Carol Wura-Ola; FIRS Chairman: Zacchaeus. Adedeji, et cetera, “HURIWA stated.
Also, another civil society group, South West APC Support Groups (SASG), hassaid, “This unfolding pro-ethnic gambit is not surprisingly provoking pushbacks from regional organisations, including the ‘favored’ South-West.
“Some S/West APC stakeholders under the aegis of South West APC Support Groups (SASG) earlier in the day alleged that states in the zone are being sidelined in the appointments of presidential aides announced so far, as only the ‘Lagos boys’ are snatching the slots.
In a statement signed by its National Coordinator, Otunba Dele Fulani, the SASG expressed worry that the trend might be extended to ministerial and board appointments for MDAs if not addressed immediately.
Besides Ohanaeze Ndigbo’s objections to its zone’s alleged peripheral action by the Tinubu administration, the Arewa Economic Forum also recently accused Tinubu of ethnic bias in the selection of appointees into crucial economic sectors.
“We are afraid to state that a situation whereby the appointees in crucial economic sectors are not only from the Southwest but also connected to the Lagos axis suggests a deliberate ‘Yorubanisation’ and ‘Lagoslisation’ of the polity,” chairman of the forum Ibrahim Shehu Yahaya, recently said.
Suspended CBN Governor May Face Trial
Why Deputy Governors Were Dropped
There were hints yesterday that the suspended Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Governor Godwin Emefiele and other top officials of the bank may face trial after all.
This follows the stalling of the plea bargain move between the Federal Government and the embattled apex bank boss.
It was learnt that Emefiele and the affected officials of the apex bank have “not made substantial concessions on some refunds expected from them.”
Sources said that trillions of naira were being tracked by a federal agency but only a few billions of naira was offered as refundable by some of those linked to the suspicious transactions.
Emefiele is being held by the Department of State Service (DSS).
It was gathered that some interceding forces and Emefiele have not made progress on the plea bargain terms.
Despite Emefiele’s offer to step aside in August, the other aspects of plea bargain process were “not substantially met.”
It has also been confirmed that the four deputy governors were dropped because of their alleged complacency when Emefiele was in the saddle at the apex bank.
The Presidency was shocked by the “massive scale of fraud and flagrant violations of the CBN Act,” it was learnt.
It was also learnt that following interventions, the government’s investigation, initially coordinated by a security agency, had recommended plea bargain option with Emefiele, who wanted it.
Apart from Emefiele offering to step aside, other terms were the withdrawal of court cases against the government and the refund of substantial cash allegedly linked to him and others.
But there were strong indications that the plea bargain option may have suffered a setback.
The source said: “Where trillions were being queried, some of those affected have offered to refund about N32 billion only.
“The engagement of the Special Investigator has also uncovered more mismanagement of resources and questionable expenditures in CBN than what some security agencies dug up.
“The findings of the Special Investigator have uncovered a massive rot.”
A source within the Presidency, said the CBN was stinking. He declined to volunteer information on the plea bargain dimension.
The source said the government might prosecute anyone indicted.
He said: “I don’t know whether plea bargain has collapsed or not. I don’t even know if that is on the table to start with. But I know the CBN Governor and the Deputies have been removed.
“The investigations across board are going on and Iam sure the govt will prosecute anyone who has compromised the country.”
Investigation confirmed that the four deputy governors were replaced because of their alleged complacency.
The Presidency source said none of the deputy governors complained when Emefiele was allegedly mismanaging the CBN.
“Most of the DGs “actively collaborated with Emefiele on policies and decisions not in line with the CBN’s mandate,” he said.
Those affected were Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi (Deputy Gov Operations and Acting Governor); Aisha Ahmad (Deputy Governor, Financial System Stability): Adamu Lamtek (Deputy Gov Corporate Services) and Kingsley Obiora (Deputy Governor, Economic Policy).
The source added: “Investigation is still ongoing. The special investigator sure uncovered a lot of rots which implicated the Deputy Governors.
“There is no way the Deputy Governors would have remained with the scale of corruption, poor corporate governance and complacency that happened under Emefiele.
“Allowing them to remain will mean the government has condoned all that went down under their watch.”
Court Halts Notes Redeeming Efforts
The Federal Government has made moves to block the redemption of about 62 promissory notes issued to consultants/contractors engaged by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) and the Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to retrieve their shares of the Paris Club refunds.
The Federal Government, while faulting the procedure for the issuance of the promissory notes, has prayed a Federal High Court in Abuja to void the notes already issued.
In the suit, now before Justice Inyang Ekwo, the Federal Government and three others, listed as plaintiffs, want the court to, among others, set aside all the promissory notes and issue an order of perpetual injunction restraining the defendants and their agents “from exercising any proprietary rights” over the promissory notes.
Listed as defendants in the suit are: FSDH Merchant Bank Limited, Ned Munir Nwoko, Gregory Nangor Lar, Riok Nigeria Limited, Prince Orji Nwafor Orizu, Olaitan Bello, Dr. Ted Iseghohi Edwards, and Panic Alert Security System Limited.
Other plaintiffs in the suit are: the Attorney General of the Federation, the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, and the Accountant General of the Federation.
The 62 promissory notes, valued at $418,953,668, were issued to the defendants on September 27, 2021 by the Debt Management Office (DMO) following judgments and orders of mandamus obtained against the Federal Government and the Minister of Finance by the defendants, who were said to have been engaged by the Federal Government and ALGON.
The plaintiffs are contending, among others, that the promissory notes are invalid, having been wrongly issued in violation of relevant laws.
They added that although the promissory notes were executed by the then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the Director General of the DMO, the notes were not signed as required.
The plaintiffs argued that “the promissory notes in issue were wrongly and unlawfully changed on the assets and revenues of the federation instead of the assets and revenues of the states and local governments, who incurred the applicable loans/debts”.
A Principal State Counsel in the Federal Ministry of Justice, Mr. Oyinlade Koleosho, stated in a supporting affidavit that the promissory notes were wrongly and invalidly issued against the assets of the federation.
The lawyer averred that sections 314 and 317 of the Constitution have separated the assets of a state or local government from the assets of the federation or the Federal Government of Nigeria.
Koleosho added that the 62 promissory notes issued to the defendants are invalid because they were charged on the assets of the Fed Govt, who is not indebted to any of the defendants (contractors/consultants).
The plaintiffs also claimed that the Federal Government of Nigeria did not engage any of the defendants, saying there is no valid consideration for the promissory notes issued to them (defendants).
According to court documents, FSDH Merchant Bank Limited was issued 10 promissory notes for the total value of $67,925,661.00, at the rate of $6,499,561.00 per note (allegedly for the benefit of Nwoko).
Gregory Nangor Lar, who is described as Nwoko’s agent, was issued two promissory notes “for the account/benefit of the second defendant (Nwoko) for the total value of $732,511.00 at the rate of $366,256.00 per note”.
Riok Nigeria Limited was issued 10 Federal Government of Nigeria promissory notes issued for the total value of $142,028, 941.00, at the rate of $14,202,895.00 per note.
Prince Orji Nwafor Orizu was issued 10 promissory notes for the total value of $1,219,440.00 at the rate of $121,944.00 per promissory note.
Olaitan Bello is said to have been issued eight promissory notes for the total value of $215,195.00 at the rate of $21,524.00 per promissory note.
Dr. Ted Iseghohi Edwards is said to have got 10 promissory notes for the value of $159,000,000.00, at the rate of $15,900,000.00 per note.
Panic Alert Security System Limited was also issued 10 promissory notes for the value of $47,831,920.00 being the total value of the 10 notes, with a value of $4,783,192.00 per note.
SERAP Sues Tinubu Over ‘Failure To Stop Wike, Umahi, Others From Collecting Retirement Benefits’
AdminSocio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has filed a lawsuit against President Bola Tinubu over “the failure to stop the former governors who are now serving as ministers in his administration from collecting life pensions and other ‘retirement benefits’ from their states while they serve as ministers.”
The ministers mentioned in the suit are: Badaru Abubakar; Nyesom Wike; Bello Matawalle; Adegboyega Oyetola; and David Umahi. Others are: Simon Lalong; Atiku Bagudu; and Ibrahim Geidam.
SERAP said, “the ministers are to be joined in the suit as Defendants.”
In the suit number FHC/L/CS/1855/2023 filed last Friday at the Federal High Court in Lagos, SERAP is seeking: “an order of mandamus to direct and compel President Tinubu to instruct the former governors who are now serving as ministers to stop collecting life pension, and other ‘retirement benefits’ from their respective states.
SERAP is seeking: “an order of mandamus to direct and compel President Tinubu to instruct the former governors who are now serving as ministers to forthwith return any pensions and ‘retirement benefits’ collected by them since leaving office to the public treasury.”
SERAP is also seeking: “a declaration that the failure by President Tinubu to publicly instruct former governors who are now serving as ministers to stop collecting life pensions, exotic cars, and other ‘retirement benefits’ from their states while serving as ministers is a violation of his constitutional oath of office.”
In the suit, SERAP is arguing that: “Compelling and directing President Tinubu to stop the former governors from collecting any ‘retirement benefits’ while serving as ministers would serve the public interest, especially given the current grave economic realities in the country.”
SERAP is also arguing that, “The appointment of those who collect life pensions and other ‘retirement benefits’ as ministers is an arbitrary and unlawful exercise of discretion and presidential power of appointment.”
According to SERAP, “While many pensioners are not paid their pensions, former governors serving as ministers get paid huge severance benefits upon leaving office, and are poised to enjoy double emoluments on top of the opulence of political office holders.”
SERAP is also arguing that, “The Tinubu government has constitutional and international legal obligations to stop the former governors from collecting any ‘retirement benefits while serving as ministers.”
The suit filed on behalf of SERAP by its lawyers, Kolawole Oluwadare and Andrew Nwankwo, read in part: “The appointment of former governors who collect life pensions while serving as ministers is implicitly forbidden by the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] and the country’s international legal obligations.”
“Constitutional oath of office requires public officials to abstain from all improper acts, including collecting ‘retirement benefits’ while serving as ministers. This is clearly inconsistent with the public trust and the overall objectives of the Constitution. A false oath lacks truth and justice. The oath statements require the oath takers to commit to uphold and defend the Constitution.”
“Stopping the former governors from collecting double emoluments would ensure that the country’s wealth and resources are used for the common good and benefit of the socially and economically vulnerable Nigerians rather than to satisfy the opulent lifestyle of a few politicians.”
“Compelling President Tinubu to stop the former governors from collecting any ‘retirement benefits’ would ensure that the exercise of presidential power of appointment is entirely consistent with requirements of the Nigerian Constitution and the fundamental principles of integrity and honesty.”
“The following former governors are now ministers in the Tinubu administration: Badaru Abubakar (former governor of Jigawa State and Minister of Defence); and Nyesom Wike (former governor of River State and FCT Minister).”
“Others include: Bello Matawalle (former governor of Zamfara State and Minister of State for Defence); Adegboyega Isiaka Oyetola (former governor of Osun State and Minister of Transportation); and David Umahi (Minister of Works).”
“Others are Simon Bako Lalong (former governor of Plateau State and Minister of Labour and Employment); Atiku Bagudu (former governor of Kebbi State and Minister of Budget and Economic Planning); Ibrahim Geidam (former governor of Yole State and Minister of Police of Affairs.”
“The states currently implementing life pensions and other ‘retirement benefits’ for former governors reportedly include Jigawa, Kebbi, Jigawa, Ebonyi, Yobe, and Rivers. These states owe workers’ salaries and remain the poorest in the country.”
“Several of the pension laws in these states include provisions for six cars every three years, a house in Lagos worth N750 million, and another in Abuja worth N1 billion, unrestricted access to medical attention, and pensionable cooks, stewards, and gardeners.”
“Other provisions include 100 per cent annual salaries of the incumbent governor, security operatives and police officers permanently assigned to former governors.”
“In President Tinubu’s inaugural speech as president, he promised that his administration would be guided by ‘the principle of the rule of law, a shared sense of fairness and equity’, and that ‘Nigeria will be governed according to the constitution.’”
“These commitments are consistent with the constitutional duties under sections 5, 130 and 147, and oath of office, under the Seventh Schedule to the Constitution of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).”
“By the combined reading of these provisions, the Tinubu government has a legal obligation to appoint as ministers former governors whose conduct is entirely consistent and compatible with constitutional and international legal requirements.”
“The country’s international legal obligations especially under the UN Convention against Corruption also impose a legal commitment on public officials to discharge a public duty truthfully and faithfully.”
“Life pensions for former governors serving as ministers are entirely inconsistent and incompatible with the Nigerian Constitution and the country’s obligations under the UN Convention against Corruption.”
“The convention specifically in paragraph 1 of article 8 requires the Tinubu government to promote integrity, honesty and responsibility in the management of public resources.”
“Furthermore, Justice Oluremi Oguntoyinbo in a judgment dated 26 November, 2019 also indicated that double emoluments for former governors are unacceptable, unconstitutional and illegal. Indeed, former governors collecting ‘retirement benefits’ while serving as ministers would clearly amount to taking advantage of entrusted public positions.”
“‘Public function’ means activities in the public interest, not against it. The alleged collection of ‘retirement benefits’ by former governors now serving as ministers amount to private self-interest or self-dealing. It is also detrimental to the public interest.”
No date has been fixed for the hearing of the suit.
Operatives of Anambra State Police Command have arrested a man, Chinedu Ezeudu, for allegedly selling nude pictures and videos of a woman on social media.
Ezedu, a native of Ndi Ikpa village Ezinato community in Awka South Local Government Area of Anambra State, was accused of leaking the materials after attempts to get money from her through blackmail failed.
He allegedly sold the nude videos of the young woman to persons who requested it for N3,000.
The suspect was arrested after the victim made a report to the office of the Commissioner for Women Affairs and Children’s Welfare, Mrs Ify Obinabo.
The Media aide of the commissioner, Miss Chidinma Ikeanyionwu, who confirmed the incident, shared the nude after the victim refused to pay the ransom demanded.
“The victim said she lost her memory card in March 2023 but was later chatted up by the suspect in June, with a request for a huge amount of money in order not to leak the nude videos.
“When she refused to pay, the suspect threatened to post the video on all social media platforms but was confronted by the husband of the victim and asked to delete the video. Before then he had already duplicated it.”
She said despite the warnings, the suspect released the video on Facebook, WhatsApp and other social media platforms, and sold them to those who requested.
Ikeanyionwu said, “When the incident was reported to the office of the commissioner for women and social welfare Anambra State by the victim accompanied by Hon Ejike Okechukwu, the suspect was quickly arrested by the Anambra State Police Command.”
She stated that the suspect would be arraigned before the Children, Sexual and Gender-Based Violence Court in Awka once the investigation is concluded.
Gas retailers have warned that the price of 12.5kg cooking gas may hit N18,000 by December if the Federal Government does not restrict the activities of the terminal owners.
The President, Nigerian Association of Liquefied Petroleum Gas Marketers, Olatunbosun Oladapo, told The PUNCH on Sunday, that the price of Liquefied Petroleum Gas also known as cooking gas has “gone astronomically high at terminals as a result of a sudden increment from between N9-N10m per 20 metric tons to N14m per 20 metric tons.
“There is a ridiculous hike in gas prices going on right now, and I am afraid that if the Federal Government does not step in to checkmate the activities of these terminal owners, price could reach as high as N18m per metric tons by December. This means that a 12.5kg could go as high as N18,000.”
According to him, terminal owners were “hiding under the guise of high foreign exchange to increase price to further increase the suffering of the masses.”
Olatunbosun said there was no justification for the increment, as the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas Limited still supplied the market.
He said, “NNPCL currently takes 59 per cent of the gas produced by NLNG, although NLNG has also increased its price from N6m to N8m. Now, because NLNG has increased price, NNPCL and terminal owners have increased price to N14m.
“The increase in price that would take effect is not the fault of retailers. It is the fault of NLNG and terminal owners. Even NNPCL is hiding under the guise that they are now privatised to increase prices. As of last week, 1kg was N800 at the terminal, now it is N1,200, and could reach N1,500 by December if care is not taken.”
He added, “Now, the ordinary man would not be able to buy gas. How many minimum wage earners can afford gas now? Everyone is turning to firewood and charcoal. The surprising thing was that they visited President Tinubu last week, and promised to work together with his administration to make life better. Now they have come back and started doing something else. Where are all the palliatives and busses they promised to donate? We have not seen anything.”
The PUNCH had reported an intended hike in cooking gas prices in August. Prices had since shot up, with 12.5kg cylinder of cooking gas going as high as high as N10,000.
Although gas terminal owners did not have a visible association, spokespersons for NavGas, Friday Agwu, and Nipco Plc’s Askay Kumar, blamed the hike on forex and the international market.
“No one is selling at N1,200/kg. I have not heard such high price yet,” Kumar told The PUNCH via a telephone conversation on Sunday. He however declined to respond when asked how much the landing cost was.
Friday blamed the price on forex and raise in price of crude oil at the international market.
“Flat price increase and forex challenges, and LPG responding to crude price increase at the international market,” he said via a whatssap message to The PUNCH.
The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo has released a 5-point agenda which he hopes to achieve over the next four years.
Keyamo released the agenda on Sunday through his social media handle.
Keyamo was appointed by President Bola Tinubu as the minister for the aviation sector which faces a severe foreign exchange crunch and high cost of aviation fuel.
He said his first agenda is to “Ensure strict compliance with safety regulations and continuous upward movement of Nigeria’s rating by ICAO. “
He also promised to “Support the growth and sustenance of local airline businesses whilst holding them to the highest international standards in the aviation industry.”
According to him, there would be“Improvement of infrastructures in the aviation industry and development of human capacity within the industry.
“Optimizing revenue generation for the federal government.”
Since Keyamo took over, he has taken several decisive actions to reset the aviation industry. He suspended the Nigerian Air project of the Muhammadu Buhari-led government and ordered probe into the matter.
The minister ordered the shutdown of the Murtala Mohammed International Airport, Lagos from October 1, 2023, for total maintenance work at the airport.
He has also begun works on the second runway of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport in Abuja.
However, the airline operators believe the Nigerian government favours international airlines at the detriment of local airlines.
Allen Onyema, the Chairman of Air Peace said, “The local airlines also have trapped funds with the Central Bank, not just the foreign airlines. So, the AON, we don’t want a situation where the foreign airlines are threatened in isolation. We have a case too. Just as they have trapped funds in Nigeria, we also have. These monies are in their bank accounts. They can change it though the I&E window, they can go through the Central Bank.
“We support that Nigeria should pay airlines of foreign origins their money but at the same time, the government should look into what is happening in the Nigerian government funds. Most of us have naira and dollars with the CBN and they have not given us our naira or dollars.”
The Federal Government has again invited the Nigerian Labour Congress for a dialogue over its intended nationwide indefinite strike action.
The Organised Labour had warned that the 14-day ultimatum given to the FG would elapse on Thursday, September 21, and if its demands are not met, there will be an indefinite strike action.
In a bid to avert the strike, the Ministry of Labour and Employment has scheduled Monday, September 18, 2023, for both parties to dialogue.
This was contained in a statement signed by Labour Ministry Director of Information Olajide Oshundun on Sunday.
Recall that the ministry had earlier invited the NLC for a dialogue, of which both parties could not reach an agreement.
The statement reads, “The Minister of Labour and Employment Simon Bako Lalong has again invited the Nigerian Labour Congress, NLC for another meeting over its planned indefinite strike.
“The Minister who directed the Department of Trade Unions Services and Industrial Relations to convene a meeting with the leadership of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) for Monday 18th September 2023 said it was important that the Unions sit with Government to resolve all pending matters to avert further disruption to the economy.
“According to the Minister, the administration of President Bola Tinubu will always engage the organized labour and respond to its concerns after due consultation and negotiations to guarantee industrial harmony which is critical to the attainment of the Renewed Hope Agenda.”
The rise in the cost of crude oil, coupled with the depreciation of the naira against the United States dollar, might lead to a hike in the pump price of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, oil marketers stated on Sunday.
It was also gathered that the sharp rise in crude oil price to about $94/barrel and the crisis around forex, had warranted a gradual increase in the amount being quietly spent as subsidy on petrol by the Federal Government.
Dealers in the downstream oil sector explained that the cost of crude oil and the exchange rate of the dollar accounted for over 80 per cent of the cost of PMS.
Brent crude, the global benchmark for oil, rose to $94/barrel on Sunday, the highest figure in 2023. Oil had started the year at about $82/barrel, dipped to $70/barrel in June, but traded above $92/barrel in the past week.
Also, The PUNCH reported on Thursday that the naira weakened to N950/dollar as forex scarcity worsened.
The report stated that the naira fell further against the dollar the preceding day (Wednesday), after closing at 950/$ at the parallel market.
Bureau de Change operators had told The PUNCH that the naira, which earlier closed at 930/$ at the close of operations on Tuesday, was bought and sold at 935/$ and 950/$ on Wednesday.
Although the Federal Government and its Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited had insisted that subsidy on petrol had ended, following the deregulation of the downstream oil sector, operators insisted on Sunday that the government was implementing quasi-subsidy.
They explained that with the latest rise in crude oil price, the cost of petrol was meant to increase, stressing that if the government insists on leaving the commodity at N617/litre, then subsidy on PMS had been returned quietly.
The marketers explained that in July when the cost of petrol was raised to N617/litre, crude oil traded around $82/barrel, while the the exchange rate was not as high as N950/$ at the parallel market.
The Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners corroborated the concerns of marketers, as it stated that the price cap on petrol had made it tough for marketers to comply with the demands of NARTO with respect to increasing the cost of transportation for petrol.
“The Group Chief Executive Officer of NNPC, in one of his statements, had pointed out that as long as the dollar continues to rise, Nigerians should not expect petroleum products prices to be pegged. The cost of crude oil is also on the rise and it impacts on petrol price, because PMS is derived from crude.
“So in this price deregulation regime, once the dollar increases, automatically it means that the cost of importing petroleum products will also increase. And the cost of every other related service will rise,” the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Chinedu Ukadike, stated.
He added, “So the fuel we are buying today at N617 or N596 depending on where you buy it and based on the nearness to depots, is actually below what the price should really be, going by the rise in dollar and crude oil price.”
Ukadike stated that though the rise in crude oil price would increase Nigeria’s foreign exchange earnings, the forex was being used to import refined products.
“I said earlier that what we are experiencing now is quasi-deregulation. The rise in crude oil price has both positive and negative effects on Nigeria. It is positive because it increases our generation of dollars when we sell the crude.
“But it is negative in the sense that we still use that dollar that we have got to import the finished products of crude. That is the problem. For if Nigeria is refining products, then there will be a windfall, but since we import with the dollar that we make, then it makes no sense.”
On whether the rise in oil prices would warrant further hike in the cost of PMS and other finished products, thereby increasing subsidy on petrol particularly, Ukadike replied, “Yes, of course.
“The gap is becoming too much. Also, the exchange rate gap between the official and parallel markets is widening. And these gaps have to be filled by the government through quasi-subsidy on petrol.
“You also know that most of the investors who tried to import products when it was announced that the subsidy on petrol had been removed, are now finding it very difficult to do so.
“This is because after buying the dollar in the parallel market, they cannot recoup what they have invested. So the government must be transparent with this subsidy removal thing. It should apply it to the fullest, so that competition can set it.”
On his part, the President, Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria, Billy Gillis-Harry, said though the cost of crude had been rising lately, the NNPCL should be able to manage it for the benefit of Nigerians, with respect to petroleum products prices.
“Crude oil is selling at a higher price and that price should impact positively, because the major importer of petroleum products is the NNPC and they do that on a swap basis, unless they are telling us that the swap is not efficient.
“For if it is efficient, they should have more money for the size of crude oil they sell, which should impact on the price they pass on to Nigerians. Yes, today it is a commercial company, but it is still owned by Nigerians and is a sovereign company.
“And the fact that Nigerians must benefit from their natural endowment by God should be reflected in the pricing of products by NNPC. That is all I’ll say about this issue,” he stated.
Earlier, the National Secretary, IPMAN, Chief John Kekeocha, had asked the Federal Government to come out clean with respect to fuel subsidy, instead of mandating oil marketers not to dispense the product above a stipulated band.
In August, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, had told State House correspondents that President Bola Tinubu had instructed that the cost of petrol should not increase.
“Mr. President, wishes to assure Nigerians following the announcement by the NNPC limited just yesterday (Monday) that there will be no increase in the pump price of PMS anywhere in the country. We repeat, the President affirms that there will be no increase in the pump price of PMS.”
NNPCL had also in August stated that it was not raising petrol price.
“Dear esteemed customers, we at NNPC Retail value your patronage, and we do not have the intention to increase our PMS pump prices as widely speculated. Please buy the best quality products at the most affordable prices at our NNPC Retail stations nationwide,” the company had stated.
NNPC Retail is the downstream subsidiary of NNPCL that retails refined petroleum products for the group.
Kekeocha had told our correspondent that the decision of the Federal Government to put a cap on petrol price meant that subsidy on petrol had been reinstated.
He said, “The government is not being very transparent with this issue. When you say you have removed fuel subsidy, you don’t come again and moderate prices. Is like speaking with the two sides of the mouth.
“Removal of subsidy means you have removed your hands and the prices have to follow demand and supply. So if the NNPC says it is getting forex (foreign exchange) to import products and reduce prices for marketers, are they going to do the same for other importers? Remember the government gave import licenses to about seven marketers?
“Are they still going to moderate prices for those people when they bring in the products? No! You don’t blow hot and cold at the same time. There is no way they can bring in products and reduce the price and peg it for marketers to sell at a certain level, it means they are indirectly bringing back subsidy.
“If they want to bring back subsidy, let them say it openly, that ‘we are going to come back to subsidy because of the pains the country generally is going through.’ This is because the initial things they are supposed to do they did not do it. We have always been clamouring, let the refineries work.”
NARTO raises concern
The National President, Nigerian Association of Road Transport Owners, Yusuf Othman, said despite the high cost of operations in the downstream arm of the oil sector, the government had stopped increasing the pump price of PMS.
He noted that since marketers could not raise their pump prices for petrol, it had been impossible for them to increase their costs for the transportation of PMS, stressing that this had made the cost of doing the business unbearable for transporters.
“NARTO is complaining that the high cost of diesel is unbearable. Even if you discuss it with the oil marketers, all they tell you is that government has fixed the pump price (of petrol) at N617/litre, that since they cannot increase pump price, they cannot increase the fare for us. So we are in trouble,” Othman stated.
He said the government should look into the pump price of PMS in order to enable marketers consider raising the transportation price for transporters.
“This is because without looking at the pump price, marketers cannot increase transportation price. And if they do not do that we have no choice than to continue to park. And if we continue to park it will create unwanted disruption of supply and we don’t want that,” Othman stated.
NNPCL appoints EVPs
This came as the NNPCL, on Sunday, announced the appointments of three new Executive Vice Presidents.
It named Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan as the new Executive Vice President, Upstream; Olalekan Ogunleye, Executive Vice President, Gas, Power, and New Energy; and Adedapo Segun, Executive Vice President, Downstream.
The announcement, which was posted on the company’s X (formerly Twitter) handle early Sunday, stated that the appointment of the new EVPs was with immediate effect.
This leads to the compulsory retirement of the company’s three former Executive Vice Presidents, including Abdulkabir Ahmed, Gas, Power and New Energies; Adokiye Tombomieye, Upstream; and Adeyemi Adetunji, Downstream.
In July last year, the national oil firm, formerly known as Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, transited fully into a commercial entity, becoming the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.
[Punch]
OUTRAGE, yesterday, greeted the justification of jumbo pay for National Assembly members and political office holders by the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission, RMAFC, which said the lawmakers do not earn outrageous salaries.
RMAFC Chairman, Muhammed Shehu, told NAN in Abuja that it was untrue that public officeholders were getting jumbo salaries, saying: “I want to disabuse the minds of Nigerians. It is not true that people are getting jumbo salaries.“
Last June, the RMAFC boss had said the salaries of politicians, judicial and public office holders would be increased by 114 per cent.
He said the salary of President Bola Tinubu was less than N1.5 million, while ministers earn less than N1 million.
“I know of an average CBN worker that is not even a director, who earns more than a minister. People in NNPC, NCC, Ports Authority earn huge salaries. What is the salary of a governor? What is the salary of a legislator?
Shehu said what was considered outrageous earnings were statutory office running costs, which should ordinarily be managed centrally by the National Assembly Service Commission, NASC.
“I know some people will say members of the National Assembly get up to N10 million or N11 million monthly. Those are not salaries, they are like operating costs of running their offices which in other societies the legislator does not have to see because there is a structure.
“Once you get elected, you make that structure from your constituency office to computers to logistics to the size of your constituency. Wherever you have constituency office, the workers you hire, it is the National Assembly Service commission that is supposed to take care of that.”
However, Shehu clarified that the 114 per cent review had been postponed due to economic challenges, adding that the last time the review took place was in 2007 and that political office holders do not earn outrageous emoluments as speculated by Nigerians.
“From 2008 till date, there had not been any single review. Last year, some individuals took the federal government to court. These were some activists concerned about the salaries of judicial officers.
“In the court, the judge ruled that a judge should be paid about N10 million a month, that was the court ruling.
“We are Nigerians, we are not going to start talking about reviewing salaries of political office holders now because of the challenges that the government is facing.
“As a commission, we are going to do our work but we are not going to say we will do it now. We will do it when the climate is right and then we will take it forward to the stakeholders for them to decide on what to do.”
In spite of Shehu’s clarification, outrage heralded his justification of salary increment for NASS members and other political office holders.
Among those who spoke on the issue are the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, NECA; Labour Party, LP, Rights and Niger-Delta Activist, Annkio Briggs; and former Member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Abdul Oroh.
It’s unjustifiable, unacceptable —NLC
President of NLC, Joe Ajaero, said pay raise for public office holders was unacceptable and unjustifiable in a country where everybody was crying over the high cost of governance.
His words: “High cost of governance was one of the issues we raised at our June 5, 2023 meeting with government, to the extent that one of the sub-committees set up on that day was on the cost of governance.
”Unfortunately, the government has messed up the whole thing. We have been complaining about the jumbo pay and other unjustifiable allowances the Federal Executive Council, FEC, members are earning to no avail.
”We are talking about ministers, their several aides and hangers-on. The same thing is applicable to the members of the National Assembly whose salaries and allowances cannot be justified under any circumstances, let alone a struggling economy like ours.
“We have continued to question the reason politicians seek political positions in this country. Every of their action and inaction has continued to justify the argument that they seek political positions for self-aggrandizement.
”For them, political office is not about service, it is not about the people of Nigeria and Nigeria. It is about them and nobody else. We have been asking for wage awards and other measures to cushion the effects of the petrol subsidy removal but the government has been paying deaf ears to our demands.
”How can you justify a jumbo pay for ministers with their uncountable aides as well as members of the National Assembly and numerous aides and hangers-on? We cannot accept this. When it comes to the workers and other Nigerians, there is no money, the country is broke and the country cannot afford subsidies on petrol. It is unacceptable and unjustifiable.”
It’s disheartening —NECA
Also reacting, the Director-General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde, said: “While it is important to pay political office holders well to reduce the pressure or propensity for corrupt practices, it is our candid view that in allocating salaries, the principles of justice and equity should also hold sway.
“It is disheartening that at a time the national minimum wage is N30,000 per month, the disparity in wages and salaries in the public sector keep widening.
‘If the government can make provision for the increase in salaries and allowances of political office holders, there is no justification why the same cannot be done for civil servants.
”The current huge disparity is a recipe for de-motivation, which could lead to other challenges in the polity.”
It’s heartless – Annkio-Briggs
On her part, Annkio-Briggs said it was horrifying that jumbo pay for political office holders could be contemplated at a time the exchange rate of the Naira for the dollar and pounds had passed the N1000 mark, foreign debts are in trillions of Naira without means of paying back, the citizenry is suffering and many of them cannot feed or send their children to school.
Noting that some of the senators and members of the House of Representatives were from the Niger-Delta which generates the bulk of Nigeria’s foreign revenue from oil and gas, she said it was sad that the government was not looking at the suffering of the people.
Her words: “We have leaders who are not prepared to make one of the sacrifices they are asking the people to make it. The government is owing the NDDC trillions of Naira. The Federal Government is not giving enough allocation to the Niger-Delta ministry. It is owing the Amnesty programme.
“We have representatives of the Niger-Delta in the National Assembly. If they are asking for a 114 per cent increase, what exactly are they doing? What if there is no longer revenue from oil and gas?
”Niger-Delta people have no reason to be poor. What are senators and members of the House of Representatives from the 36 states and FCT doing on behalf of their people to justify salary increments?
”It is heartless. One day the people will wake up and those sleeping in air-conditioned rooms cannot sleep again.”
It is insensitive —LP
Similarly, the National Publicity Secretary of Labour Party, Obiora Ifoh, said: “The commission, under paragraph 32b is empowered to determine the salaries of political office holders and judicial workers in the country. So, we have undertaken work on it, we have revised it but we are looking at the situation for now.”
Ifoh noted that it was sad that the same administration which was preaching to Nigerians to embrace belt-tightening measures and calling for patience was the same administration pushing for increases in the perks of office for political office holders.
“This is happening at a time when ordinary Nigerians, especially hard-working citizens under the umbrella of the Nigeria Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, are demanding living wages without a positive response.
“This is also at a time when the ill-conceived and ill-timed removal of fuel subsidy has increased hardship among ordinary Nigerians.
”We should be talking about improving the quality of lives of ordinary Nigerians and cutting waste in government.”
I support a living wage for all — Oroh
Also speaking, Mr Oroh, a former executive director of the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, a journalist and federal lawmaker, said: “I think there should be a living wage for everybody whether public office holder or elected person because poor pay is one of the reasons for corruption.
Noting that commissioners, permanent secretaries and judges earn less than N400,000, he said there was no reason for those in the NNPC, NPA and other revenue-generating public corporations to earn more than other public servants.
“There should be a review of wages so that people can live on their wages. There is no social security in Nigeria. The private sector should be encouraged through tax rebates to pay living wages to their workers. We should review it in a way that it will not bankrupt the treasury.
“I agree with RMAFC that there is a need for a review. It is necessary to review wages of public servants, Army, police, and elected officers to reduce corruption. It will also serve as an incentive for hard
[Vanguard]
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On Sunday, President Bola Tinubu nominated Jamila Bio Ibrahim and Ayodele Olawande as the minister of youth and minister of state for youth, respectively.
The position of minister of youth became vacant after the president redeployed Abubakar Momoh to the ministry of Niger Delta development.
The two nominees, if confirmed by the senate, will be among the youngest ministers in the cabinet of President Tinubu.
Here are a few things to know about them.
JAMILA BIO IBRAHIM
Jamila Jummai Bio Ibrahim was born on February 7, 1986. Her father is Ibrahim Isa Bio, a former minister of Nigeria, who hailed from Baruten LGA, Kwara state. He was appointed minister of transportation by the late Umar Musa Yar’Adu’a in 2008 before he was reassigned to the ministry of sports following a cabinet reshuffle.
Jamila Ibrahim attended NEPA Staff School in New-Busse, Borgu LGA, Niger state, for her primary education. She proceeded to Federal Government Girls’ College, Bwari, Abuja where she had her secondary education, and graduated in 2002.
She obtained a bachelor of medicine, and bachelor of surgery (M.B.B.S) from the University of Ilorin in 2010, and moved to the University of Washington for a six-month course on health management and leadership.
After her brief study stint in the US in 2017, Jamila Ibrahim established a non-governmental organisation (NGO) named Yon Seno Foundation in November of that same year. She was then named a member of the think-tank of the national policy summit in 2017.
She volunteered on the presidential committee on the north-east initiative (PCNI) established by former President Muhammadu Buhari to serve as the primary national strategy, coordination and advisory body for all humanitarian interventions, and transformational and developmental efforts in the region.
According to her resume, she worked with the PCNI for two years and “carried out an assessment of the major health facilities in Maiduguri, to ascertain the level of preparedness and identify the gaps in terms of manpower and mass casualty response”.
Shortly, she was named the secretary of the subcommittee on health, women’s affairs, population and environment of the transition committee of AbdulRahman AbdulRasaq, governor of Kwara, in 2019.
After completing her assignment in AbdulRasaq’s transition committee, she was appointed the senior special assistant to the governor on sustainable development goals (SDGs) a year later. She became Kwara’s focal person for both the National Human Capital Development Programme and the African Union Development Agency-New Partnership for Africa’s Development (AUDA-NEPAD).
She was also the secretary of the Kwara state “tractorisation” programme and was thereafter named the national vice president of the All Progressives Congress Young Women Forum (APC-PYWF) in June 2021.
Ahead of the 2023 elections, she was appointed a member of the APC presidential campaign committee on sustainable development.
Jamila Ibrahim is an avid fan of Polo and a non-executive director of the Emirates Equestrian Club, Ilorin.
AYODELE OLAWANDE
Olawande is a seasoned grassroots political youth leader who worked in the office of Ife Adebayo, special assistant on innovation to the former vice-president Yemi Osinbajo.
He attended Christ School, Ado Ekiti, Ekiti state, for his secondary school education before proceeding to Federal Polytechnic, Ado-Ekiti, for higher education. Olawande then studied at the Federal University of Technology, Akure, Ondo state.
He tried his hands in business ventures for a while before making a foray into politics. He was the founder of the Action Youth Movement (AYM) and the ICT director for Ondo APC.
Olawande is the coordinator of the All Progressive Youth Forum (APYF) in Ondo and also a general administrator at The Way Project.
[TheCable]
Dr Peter Mbah, governor of Enugu state, has promised to disrupt the state’s incremental growth and grow it sevenfold in his time as the chief executive. On the sideline of an investment summit where his administration’s ambitious economic roadmap was interrogated, he spoke with GEOFF IYATSE on how he intends to leverage a creative finding model in the phase of fiscal challenge to turn the state into an investment destination.
What has been your experience as a chief executive considering where you are coming from?
It’s been quite an exciting journey. Nothing has happened that has taken us unawares because we did an expensive study of the situation. We knew what we were coming to meet. When we made promises to our people, we gave timelines. The reason we backed our promises up with timelines was because we were aware of the things we needed to deal with and we knew the timelines we committed to were sacred, we were not going to deviate from them. We did promise we were going to have an investment forum or round table within 100 days in the office and today we have kept the promise. It is not just about the symbolism or making a promise and keeping it, but it is essentially the substance; the fact that there are huge takeaways and huge successes from what we have done today.
You recall that we got the mandate of the Enugu people entrusted into our hands based on all the promises we made. One of them was to grow the economy from $4 billion to $30 billion. We also said to them that the growth will be driven by the private sector but enabled by the government. We were deliberate because we knew that for us to tackle unemployment and generate wealth, we need private-sector investment. It is not going to come from the public sector.
For the private sector to invest, they also need the government to do certain things. You can hear a lot about the risk in investment. It is not even the emphasis on ease of doing business, which is providing infrastructure, security and the ease of obtaining your business permit as well as construction and property permit. It is beyond that. It is the understanding of how projects are structured. How do you make a project attractive to the private sector? So, you have to identify the aspects of the project that you must de-risk, whether it is the technical risk or commercial risk. This is because businesses are more than happy to take financial risk, but they are not interested when it has to do with political, technical or commercial risk. Those risks are not really what the private sector wants to take. Of course, some businesses can undertake to embrace such risk but most of the time they do not. Since we would want an influx of businesses, we want the state to be the preferred destination for businesses, investments and tourism. That means we have to go the extra mile, which is essentially what the summit underscores.
You have many programmes and projects lined up. What are the priority areas you want to focus on? When you talk about financing, are you thinking about bond issuance?
Our strategy is to have a creative alternative financing model and that is quite broad. The creative alternative financing model means that the current financing model, which focuses on revenue from the federation account, is suboptimal. It is not going to work with this current model. So, we all have agreed that this current model cannot serve us if we want to intervene across critical sectors.
First, you have to look at what you have control over. You have control over mobilising your domestic revenue and your domestic resources. You need to identify how to optimise internally generated revenue. What are those impediments that are stopping you from optimally collecting revenue from the service or the businesses of the MDAs or from expanding your tax net? I am not saying increasing your tax rates but expanding your tax net.
We have done that already in the first 90 days in office. What we have done in our revenue enables the ministry to elevate the service levels to meet the collection of payments and the services people receive. Now, you can, in the comfort of your home, assess whatever service, particularly with the land administration and management. We have automated the systems there so that you can, within 72 hours, apply for your C-of-O and obtain them. You can access almost all the services you need within the land ministry, whether it’s search or registration via digital means. Of course, registration and construction permits can also be done online. We have automated those systems. What does that do to our revenue? We are now able to track payments because payments are no longer collected in cash. You have to assess and pay online and it goes to the state’s treasury single account. There are a lot of things we have done to begin to mobilise domestic revenue.
Now in terms of other financing options. By the way, the projects we have created are very deliberate. There may not be enough time to give a detailed analysis. One of the speakers talked about our area of comparative advantages. And that is the truth. If you look at agriculture, the areas we have focused on are areas we have almost four times factor productivity. Our advantage, our rate of productivity in those areas is four times better than what you have in any other state. If you take soya beans for example, which is one crop that we are interested in, our factor of productivity in soya beans is almost four times. So, the yield you get from planting soybeans on our land is four times more than the yield you get in any other state, even in the north.
We have identified those areas of comparative advantages and those are the areas we’re focusing on. The same thing goes for cassava, palm products and other specific areas we are focusing on. On the value chain, beyond just scaling up our production, we must get involved in processing. That is why we are talking about the special agro-processing zones, which we hope to do at least three across the three senatorial zones.
In terms of harmonisation of our land tenure, which one of the speakers raised; we plan to de-risk land and increase access to land. As an investor, you have absolutely no business worrying about interfacing with the communities. This is because we’ve earmarked about 300,000 hectares of land for agriculture and we are providing access roads to those lands. We have isolated them to different sizes. You have 1,000 or 5,000 depending on the appetite of the investor and how big we have profiled the investor.
There are several initiatives, multiple initiatives we have deployed in the areas of ease of doing business. There are a whole lot of them. In infrastructure, we are also doing a lot because we know that businesses have to make profits. So, you don’t want to burden them with the provision of roads or water. We are providing water, roads and bridges. There is a whole lot we are doing to make. When we say Enugu is going to be the number one destination for businesses and people, we know what we are saying. And as business owners and those with backgrounds in business and entrepreneurship, we understand and know what it takes to invest. Hence, we make sure that the ground is well watered.
Policy summersault is a challenge in Nigeria. What frameworks are you putting in place to reduce political risk and give assurance to investors that the policies that attract them will not be reversed when you leave office?
Out of the three-pronged approach we have taken, our strategic objective is strengthening our institutions. We are not just building this around us as individuals, we are also building the institutions. These are policies that will outlive anyone. At the end of the day, if you have strengthened the institutions through policy frameworks, it will not be easy for one single person to come and reverse that because it is entrenched and that is essentially what we are doing. We are strengthening our public service sector by ensuring that a lot of what we are doing has regulatory and legal frameworks. They are all embedded in the regulatory framework.
We get the buy-in of the lawmakers. We have retreats with them, we have workshops with them to get them to understand the policy direction of the government, and then we will build systems around this. That makes it almost impossible for any one person to reverse the policies. So, we are doing things that are bigger than us, things that would outlive us.
We have seen private sector individuals who started the way you have started but lost track along the way. How courageous are you going into this? Do you have the courage to step on your toes to get the job done?
What may help you to know I dare to just do a check on my background. I came into a sector where we were regarded as late entrants. We were just regarded as one other oil company. Fast forward to 14 years, we became the market leader, having 23 per cent market share with the next company having just five per cent, in a sector that was already mature. That is the oil and gas downstream sector. So, it is not like a nascent market where new players are struggling for market shares. We came in as late entrants in 2008. By 2021, we were the market leader. You don’t go from starting from point zero to becoming a market leader without courage.
When I was going around talking to the people of Enugu about my plans for the state, I used phrases like ‘disruptive innovation’, ‘quantum leap’ and leapfrogging. That is essentially what we are here to do. We are going to disrupt the sub-optimisation. We are going to disrupt the status quo. And we are going to do things differently. Not necessarily better, but differently. Because it will take us from basically shifting the paradigm for us to essentially achieve these goals. We’re talking about ambitious goals.
If you look at the pattern of growth we have had in the last 24 years, we have been able to grow the economy incrementally. We have grown marginally over the last 24 years. But that is not what we have proposed. We have not paid attention to the pattern or the trends. If we did, we would have used the same rates of growth to measure ourselves. But what we have done is to say, look, we are going to grow sevenfold in the next four to eight years. That means exponential growth. It means you have to come up with disruptive innovation. You have to do radical things. Disruptive things. That is why we talk about the creative alternative financing model we have talked about.
But there are structures that we put in place to make sure that our cash flow is not impeded. Yet we are still able to finance major projects. We know we need about N2 trillion in the next four years to achieve the sort of infrastructural development and cutting-edge social services that we want to provide for our people. If you look at the revenue from the federation account, even if you take everything to do a capital project, it is not up to 400 billion in the next four years. From that, you will fund recurring costs. We’re even talking about a slice, a very tiny slice of it. We’re not reckoning with the current financing model. It won’t work. We have to be creative. We have to be innovative. We have to be disruptive, positively disruptive. That is why we talk about this massive infrastructural development and investment flow that we would attract to Enugu. Of course, growing the economy exponentially too.
[Guardian]
Nobel Laureate, Prof Wole Soyinka, has said the electoral victory of President Bola Tinubu was aided by the presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, who parted ways with his erstwhile colleague, the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar.
The Nobel Laureate said this, according to a statement on Saturday, during a dialogue organised by ‘Africa in the World,’ in Stellenbosch, South Africa.
According to the statement, Soyinka urged politicians to learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices.
He said, “The mistake we all continue to make is our insistence on regarding the recent Nigerian elections as an adversarial thriller. The contrary is the truth. The ballot tally accurately reflected what happens when a political party splits itself in two, especially so critically close to an election.
“What promised to be a spectacular contest is transformed into a Feast of Voluntary Donation of the spoils of war. That, however, is not always the ultimate destination – the re-gifting may continue, prodded by a sudden surge of regret. There remains, lurking in the background, a far more potent beneficiary.
“In this case, we easily recall it as the unregistered but loudly canvassed IPP – the Interim Peoples Party, usually to be found in bed with the military. The notorious Datti interview, menacing, intimidating and unambiguous, sets the scene for such re-entry. Then, history repeats itself over and over again, as currently manifested along the West African sub-region. The ‘call to arms’ is made literal by those whose trade is precisely that of arms.
“Barring such abrupt ‘patriotic intervention,’ however, the last word belongs to the Supreme Court. Until that conclusive hour, wherever and whenever the subject turns to the Nigerian elections, my contribution can be taken for granted in advance: Peter Obi did not win the Nigerian 2023 elections. Jointly with his erstwhile colleague of the PDP, Abubakar Atiku, they donated the outcome, even before the voting.
“Let politicians and their cohorts learn to take responsibility for the consequences of their choices within democratic options.”
During his speech at the event on Wednesday, the Nobel Laureate had accused the Labour Party of attempting to deceive Nigerians about the outcome of the February 25 election.
Meanwhile, the National Publicity Secretary of the Labour Party, Abayomi Arabambi, has said Soyinka’s recent disclosure that Obi never won the election was nothing but the obvious truth that resonates with Nigerians.
Arabambi added that the party saw the reaction of its factional Chairman, Julius Abure, through his personal media aide, Mr Obiorah Ifoh, to Soyinka’s statement as nothing but an “affront and abuse from a rude boy to his grandfather.”
In a statement made available to the Sunday PUNCH, Arabambi said, “As a party, we knew that Professor Wole Soyinka was right in his submission because how does anyone claim to have won an election based solely on pejoratives, assumption, vague rhetoric and zero evidence pointing to such being the case?
“It was all on the expectation that the actual winner would be disqualified and by some stroke of black magic, the candidate in the third place will suddenly be declared winner without any proof of having scored the majority vote is absolute judicial madness on display by Peter Obi, Julius Abure and their blind allies.
“We know we lost that election, it was true Obi and Abure wanted to do gbajue because ab initio, even when the presidential campaign council was formed in the north, Peter Obi used Igbo as state coordinators while a northerner remained their deputy.”
Tinubu Breached CBN Act In Appointing Cardoso To Replace Emefiele As Governor – Lawyer, Frank Tietie
AdminFrank Tietie, the Executive Director of Citizens Advocacy for Social and Economic Rights (CASER), has accused President Bola Tinubu of contravening relevant laws in the way he removed the former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Godwin Emefiele, former deputy governors of the bank, and appointed replacements.
Tinubu on Friday named Dr. Olayemi Michael Cardoso as the new CBN Governor, pending approval of the Senate.
Tietie alleged that there is no concrete evidence to suggest that President Tinubu sought the approval of the majority of the Senate, as enshrined in the CBN Act and other relevant laws, to remove Emefiele.
President Tinubu had suspended Emefiele in June, citing the need for a thorough investigation into his tenure.
Nearly two months later, on a Friday, President Tinubu nominated Cardoso as the new governor of the apex bank.
Additionally, he put forward the names of four individuals to serve as deputy governors of the CBN: Mrs. Emem Nnana Usoro, Mr. Muhammad Sani Abdullahi Dattijo, Mr. Philip Ikeazor, and Dr. Bala M. Bello.
Tietie, however, described the entire scenario as a constitutional error, asserting,”The recently announced removal of the embattled Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele and the Deputy Governors of the Bank by the fiat of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is not in compliance with the provisions of the Central Bank of Nigeria Act, 2007. Therefore, it is illegal!
“Whereas Section 11 of the CBN Act provides for several grounds for the removal of the CBN Governor or Deputy Governors, whenever such removal is based on the decision of the President, as in this reported case of Emiefele and his deputies, it can only have effect where the President has first sought and obtained the approval of a two-thirds Senate majority.
“Clearly, there is no evidence that the President indeed sought and obtained the required two-thirds majority of the Nigerian Senate before announcing the formal removal of Governor Emefiele with his deputies and the All appointment of a new Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria.
“Consequently, the president is in error, and all his recent actions in removal and appointment of a Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria can be set aside by the courts,” he stated in a statement made available to THE WHISTLER on Saturday.
Tietie, while recognizing President Tinubu’s constitutional powers, called for the respect of the rule of law to preserve the democratic tenets of the country.
“According to the Court Appeal in the case of Olotu v. President of Federal Republic of Nigeria & ors, it held that: It is a trite point of law that when a statute dictates a certain mode of doing something, then that method and no other must be employed in the performance of that act. Put differently, where a legislation lays down a procedure for a thing, there should be no other method of doing it_
“Nigeria operates a Presidential-Federalist system of government with a high concentration of political and executive powers in the person of the President.
“Therefore, this infraction of the CBN Act by the President on the removal of the CBN Governor may pass without any censure of the National Assembly or review by the Judiciary.
“But it is such disregard for plain provisions of the law by the President who is supposed to set the example of legal compliance, that creates the usual incipient negative impact on constitutional democracy which rests on the rule of law.
“Therefore whenever an administration starts glossing over express provisions of the law that serve to guarantee order, peace, good governance and economic prosperity of Nigeria, the culture of disregard for court order and widespread violation of human rights begins to cascade down the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government together with all the other strata of government across the states and local governments.
“This has been the bane of Nigeria’s stable development in all spheres and the recipe for corrupt abuse of political power and violation of human rights. That’s why military junta often truncated national democracies. May that be far from us!
“The Nigerian state spends huge financial and human resources to maintain its democratic structures. Therefore, the National Assembly and its leadership must stand up at all times to live up to their responsibilities in upholding the principles of democracy and separation of powers to avoid tyrannical acts of the executive by requiring strict compliance to every law that mandates its approval on such matters the President is required to apply for.
“Therefore, when the National Assembly indeed discharges its roles in the political equation of checks and balances with the President and the Judiciary, there will be less of interventions by self styled but well-meaning activists and civil society organisations who are often referred to as busybodies but are determined to seek judicial review of executive actions to ensure the rule of law and a stable Nigerian society,” he said.