It’s been over three weeks since the military junta led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani sacked the administration of democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum of Niger Republic – our next door neighbor – on July 26. During the period, leaders and heads of governments in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) have held two extra-ordinary summits in Abuja to agree on what to do next, especially defending democracy in the sub-region.

Bazoum and his family have been under house arrest since the Presidential Guard launched the coup. No one is sure of Bazoum’s fate but it has been reported that he is held under inhumane conditions. Bazoum’s daughter, Zazia, 34, who was on holiday in France when her father was overthrown, told The Guardian of London that electricity supply to the presidential residence was cut off. They also don’t have clean water, and their gas oven is running out of fuel, she said.

If anything, the military junta is likely to infringe on Bazoum’s human rights. For the avoidance of doubt, military coups in the region have not helped anyone; instead, they are a bloody waste of time and plundering of resources. They inflict more pain on the people, retard their progress and increase multi-dimensional poverty.

This explains why the international community condemned the coup in Niger. ECOWAS, the United States, the European Union, the UN and the Africa Union have all spoken with one voice: this coup is unacceptable.

But observers are not surprised neither are they impressed that Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea declared support for the Nigerien junta – they are birds of the same feather. The Interim President of Mali, Colonel Assimi Goita, has been in charge since the night of May 24, 2021. Elections that were supposed to hold last year were suspended by Goita. Who can challenge the military strongman after announcing that the transition to democracy will be delayed for two years?

In the case of Burkina Faso, the story is not different. On September 30, 2022, a coup d’état that removed Interim President Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba took place, and he was replaced by Captain Ibrahim Traore as the new interim leader. Damiba who was also the beneficiary of a military takeover eight months earlier, was sacked over his alleged inability to deal with the “security situation” in the country.

President Alpha Conde of Guinea was captured in the capital Conakry by the country’s armed forces in a military coup on September 5, 2021. Special Forces commander, Mamady Doumbouya, released a broadcast on television announcing the dissolution of the constitution and government.

Even in Sierra Leone, a coup attempt was foiled recently. If we look at the evolving playbook of instability and military takeovers in the West African sub-region, Chad will not be exempted for its own self-inflicted wounds ranging from repression of dissent, food insecurity, humanitarian crisis, corruption, violence and endemic poverty. 

The seed of instability was planted by Chadian President Idriss Deby who died on April 20, 2021 in a military action while commanding troops in the Northern Chad offensive. He was both politician and military officer, and he became president of the country in 1990. He was succeeded by his son, Mahamat, a four-star general.

On the UNDP’s Human Development Index, Chad is ranked miserably at 187th out of 189 countries. This is a country that links central and western Africa with Sudan and the Maghreb. Isn’t it a shame that most countries on the west coast of Africa do not appreciate what they have in terms of strategic locations and the resources that they are endowed with?

Suddenly, ECOWAS believes the disturbing pattern of coups must end, but how does the regional body intend to go about it? Interestingly, all the so-called interim leaders in the Francophone coup-prone countries with outdated one-way allegiance to France cite the same reasons for staging coup d’états: widespread insecurity, electoral malpractices, corruption and bad governance.

As the Chairman of ECOWAS, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is wearing two caps, and he must have experienced awkward moments in deciding the course of action with his colleagues. The seven states in Northern Nigeria bordering Niger whom he hosted in Aso Villa are opposed to any act of aggression. 

This position is similarly canvassed by opinion leaders and other stakeholders from that section of the country. They see Nigeriens as their kith and kin with whom they have shared a common ancestry and heritage over several decades. 

The other matter is that the Nigerian Senate turned down President Tinubu’s request to use military force in Niger. It is evident that the optics do not favour war that could escalate, in spite of the bluff from the military junta in Niamey.

The dilemma of ECOWAS is that the initial ultimatum for the military junta in Niger to restore constitutional order and bring back Bazoum as the country’s leader within seven days was hasty and wrong-headed; it was not a strategic decision.

With the military leaders in Niger digging in and forming a government, they have sent a strong message to ECOWAS that they mean business.

At the second ECOWAS meeting in Abuja after the ultimatum lapsed, President Bola Tinubu explained that the regional body would explore all diplomatic means to engage the Nigerien junta, adding that the use of force should not be ruled out.

However, military intervention in Niger by ECOWAS has been trailed by unpopular sentiments in Nigeria and Niger. Some analysts believe it is a face-saving gesture by ECOWAS leaders. But the military junta is over-reaching itself by snubbing emissaries from Nigeria. It is certainly not a good idea and it is in their best interest to embrace dialogue and discuss a democratic order.

But who will pay for the military confrontation in Niger? Wars cost money and Nigeria is not in a position economically to play any “big-brother” role in the sub-region. In terms of military might, Nigeria is way ahead of Niger and other countries in the sub-region but it is important to note that it is ECOWAS – not Nigeria – that has a dog in the fight.

Why is Alassane Quattara, the President of Cote d’Ivoire, asking for the use of force against Niger instead of pushing for a diplomatic resolution? Quattara has been in office since December 4, 2010 and if he did not engineer a constitutional amendment in 2016 that paved the way for his third term, his two-term limit of five years each would have ended three years ago.

Quattara described those behind the coup in Niger as “terrorists,” but he has no moral authority to speak on the crisis in Niger. Coup plotters point to sit-tight leaders like him as the reason for their military interventions. 

As we have seen in the last three years, such military actions instigate political violence and armed conflict in the sub-region. The Ivorian president must admit that he abused constitutional democracy in his country and apologise to his people.

Going forward, ECOWAS should be clear about their next line of action. Are they pursuing dialogue and diplomacy or the use of force? What is the “standby force” all about? While I concede that ECOWAS should continue to defend democracy and promote peaceful resolutions as much as possible where there are conflicts, the body should avoid war and continue to apply sanctions on Niger and force the junta to the negotiation table.

The mere fact that the USA, Russia and France have boots on the ground in Niger is a clear indication that a “proxy” war is inevitable. These countries, as always, would protect their strategic interests in Niger and other countries where they have presence.

If coup d’états are becoming fashionable in West Africa with “interim presidents” that refuse to leave office, shouldn’t we be worried about the coup in Niger that is in our backyard? Is that why ECOWAS is considering a military option? Is President Tinubu also inclined to go to war to teach the military junta a lesson?

As we search for answers to these questions, there are useful lessons that we can learn from the Russia-Ukraine war that has dragged on for 18 months with significant casualties on both sides and avoidable humanitarian crisis before we embark on a military action in Niger.

Braimah is a global public relations and marketing strategist. He is also the publisher/editor-in-chief of Naija Times (https://ntm.ng) and Lagos Post (https://lagospost.ng), and can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

In a bizarre and unexpected event, a British Airways flight from Lagos, Nigeria, to London on July 29, 2023, witnessed an incident that left both passengers and crew astonished. An overweight passenger found himself trapped in a first-class seat on the Boeing 777-300ER aircraft during the 6-hour journey.

Seated in the capacious 1A first-class seat, known for its luxurious amenities including 78 inches of legroom and a generous seat width of 22 inches, the passenger unknowingly became ensnared by the seat’s structure.

The flight touched down at London’s Heathrow Airport at approximately 05:00 local time. However, it was upon arrival that the passenger discovered the problem, prompting swift action from flight attendants who helped him out of the seat while keeping him calm.

As the situation proved more challenging than anticipated, an unconventional engineering solution was devised to facilitate the passenger’s extraction. The decision was made to remove the door of the suite housing the first-class seat and employ a hoist mechanism to carefully disentangle the passenger from his snug but inconvenient position in seat 1A.

An airline spokesperson revealed, “The passenger was mortified. It’s astonishing because the seats are the most spacious available. It was as embarrassing as it can get for him — especially when a door in the cabin had to be removed.”

[airlive]

The Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation has described the three months administration of President Bola Tinubu-led All Progressives Congress, APC, as 76 days of gross darkness.

Director General of the Obi-Datti Campaign Organisation, Balogun Akin Osuntokun,.said this in a lengthy article, in Abuja, on Sunday.

According to the organisation, Nigerians have over this period been at the receiving end of an i’ll prepared leadership which has unleashed a series of i’ll-thought out policies that have led to the loss of livelihoods, business, jobs and increased poverty.

He said, “After over seventy-six days in office, what are Nigerians getting and how are they faring: unplanned and ill-thought removal of fuel subsidy and unification of exchange rates; uncoordinated and confusing policy announcements; exponential increase in the prices of all goods and services especially food and other basic consumables; decline in National Savings Rate and erosion of disposable incomes of Nigerians, increasing poverty and insecurity.

Osuntokun argued that all this was happening along side “unimaginable extravagance and exponential increase in the cost and waste of governance exemplified with interminable appointments of litany of ministers and aides, and then a most unexamined desire to go to a clearly avoidable war with our very close neighbor and brother, Republic of Niger. “

According to him, the list is unending, confusing, most unfortunate, and lamentable.

He stressed that there is a clear lack of grasp of the undergirding ethos of good governance predicated on short, medium, and long-term stimulus strategies and policies. 

Nigeria, he pointed out can ill afford this experimental leadership approach and foray into governance by stealth with no imagination, deep thinking, substance, and concrete ameliorative policies.

The DG stated that, “In their own words, the APC-led government admitted their error of declaring subsidy removal and currency unification without adequate plans to mitigate the potentially huge consequences, as Nigerians are now witnessing in anguish.

“For APC and their leaders, who claim to have long been prepared for the job of presiding over Nigeria’s administrative affairs, to commit such a blunder, at this critical troubling period of our nation’s history, is inexcusable.

“The magnitude of such mistake which has debased and threatens to wipe out businesses with unprecedented worsening of the living conditions of Nigerians cannot be wished away with mere promises without adequate plans.

“Given their unrelenting lies and blame games, some clarifications are imperative. Do Nigerians deserve to have subsidies?

“ Yes, they do as governments all over the world including in advanced countries offer subsidies to their citizens in various ways. Should the subsidy be removed in Nigeria?

“Yes, it should because it has been grossly mismanaged in an organized crime cartel manner with unparalleled corruption, official malfeasance, and embezzlement of taxpayers’ money. “

Our plan on petrol subsidy removal

He explained that the Labour Party and its candidate, Peter Obi, campaigned and promised to remove subsidies with a clear cut plan on how to go about doing so.

Osuntokun said, “In line with our belief and promise to create and lead a New Nigeria, That is Possible, the Labour Party campaigned for the removal of petrol subsidies principally to end the criminal appropriation of our national resources by a privileged few and their connected cronies.

“This was to be achieved through a gradual process including the effective repairs and functioning of our refineries and activation of compressed natural gas (CNG) opportunities to avoid dramatic increases in fuel prices, inflation, and pains for Nigerians.

“Nigerians should recall that the genuine efforts to remove the subsidy and end the associated embezzlement of our common resources in 2012 by the then government of President Goodluck Jonathan were strategically thwarted and stopped by the current APC Chieftains in their characteristic deceit to endear themselves to Nigerians and attain power.

“Lamentably even after deceptively and most unfortunately taking power from PDP in 2015, the then APC government refused to remove the subsidy and even used it to sabotage the 2023 elections thus affirming their unwillingness to stop the looting of Nigeria as they are part of the looting cartel themselves.

“Not only did they fail to stop the looting through the removal of the subsidy, but they also expanded it through all kinds of expenditures leading to our current debt crisis of over N77 trillion naira up from about N15 trillion when Buhari took over.

“As they were looting Nigeria dry in the guise of subsidy and other frauds, our dear Nation, Nigeria, acquired the dubious distinction of becoming the poverty capital of the world with over 135 million Nigerians now classified as multidimensional poor, unemployment skyrocketed to over 35%, insecurity escalated to a frightening level never seen before in Nigeria and all other socio-economic development variables all negative and heading south.”

 APC rigged itself back to power

The campaign DG further said, “Most unfortunately again, even after being rejected by the majority of Nigerians in the 2023 elections, they egregiously colluded with INEC and rigged themselves back to power being naturally unfit and unprepared for effective and good governance, they most recklessly and suddenly announced the removal of subsidy and unified the exchange rates,  consequently causing Nigerians a most avoidable traumatic pain and misery with unprecedented resultant fuel price hike of over 300%, a dollar exchanging for almost a N1000 and exponential increase in the price all goods and services especially food.

“If the APC gang had not been inordinate for power and had allowed the petrol subsidy to be removed in 2012, Nigeria would have saved over N50 trillion that would have been used as a safety net and cushion but also used to eradicate poverty, improve education, health and security, create jobs, build an efficient transport system and make Nigeria truly the giant of Africa through a shift from consumption to production. These are the real subsidies Nigerians truly and urgently need.”

 What Tinubu, APC should do

He also demanded that the ruling party should apologies to Nigerians and at least provide good governance while it still had little time to do so.

Osuntokun stated that, “With their continued failures in providing the required leadership, the appropriate thing APC led government should do is to apologize to Nigerians particularly President Jonathan and members of his 2012 economic team as advised by many Nigerians.

“After apologizing, they should (in their temporary stay in power), at least seek to provide good leadership and governance by engaging the people, especially the workers, and fashioning out a clear strategy to manage their inconsistent, confusing, and annihilating policies.

“In addition, they should launch an investigation into NNPC management of the subsidy regime, the huge oil theft, and corruption that have caused Nigeria a serious financial crisis with a determination to effectively prosecute all those involved in the subsidy perfidy and fraud.”

[Vanguard]

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) says its investigation into the Point of Sale (PoS) operators’ service charge price increase is not a collaborative or coordinated.

Mr Babatunde Irukera, the Executive Vice Chairman of the Commission, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Sunday in Abuja.

Irukera said the commission came to that conclusion after its surveillance and spot checks on members of the Association of Mobile Money and Bank Agents in Nigeria (AMMBAN).

According to him, what we have learnt is that this coordinated approach to proceed increase did not occur.

NAN reports that FCCPC had threatened to prosecute members of AMMBAN over collaborative price fixing in accordance with the FCCPAct 2018.

The commission also entered an Order and Notice to AMMBAN to desist from the conduct that constituted an infringement of the law.

”I understand price increases are not uniform or coordinated with each other which is what we insisted on.

”We met with the association some days ago, and our people have been embarking on aggressive surveillance and spot checks.

”What we have learned is that this coordinated approach to proceed increase did not occur.

”National executive members of the association also noted that they did not and would not engage in that conduct.

”It will be interesting to discover if this really happened,” Irukera said.

On protecting bank customers from incessant bank charges, Irukera said Banks and other Financial Institutions Act (BOFIA), empowered only the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) to regulate banks.

”Under BOFIA, CBN regulates banks to the statutory exclusion of FCCPC,” he said.

[DailyPost]

The Serving Overseer of the Citadel Global Community Church, Pastor Tunde Bakare, told his congregation on Sunday that he warned against the “Emilokan” kind of politics.

Emilokan, a Yoruba saying, meaning ‘It’s my turn,’ became very popular when it was used by President Bola Tinubu during his 2023 pre-election campaign.

Bakare, during a State of the Nation broadcast, at the church in Ikeja, Lagos, said ’emilokan’ was a tendency of authoritarianism.

During his speech themed ‘Vice, Virtue & Time: Three Things That Never Stand Still,’ the cleric said, “I’m reminded of the warning that I sounded to Nigerians in January 2023 in my address titled, ‘Bridging the gap between politics and governance.’ 

“I warned that the politics of entitlement; the ’emilokan’ type of politics would breed an imperium presidency, one that would slide towards dictatorship and would be intolerant of dissent.”

Bakare’s comments were regarding the arrest, detention and prosecution of the suspended Central Bank Governor, Godwin Emefiele, as well as the detention of the former boss of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, Abdulrasheed Bawa, by the Department of State Services.

The DSS arrested Emefiele in June, which according to the spokesperson of the security agency, Peter Afunanya, “was on the strength of suspected fresh criminal infractions/information, one of which forms the basis for his current prosecution.”

The Federal High Court in Lagos, last Thursday, fixed August 15 to hear an application by Emefiele seeking to halt his trial by the Federal Government through the DSS.

Reacting, Bakare said, “The actions of the DSS have raised concerns about professionalism and adherence to the rule of law. The reported invasion of the premises of the EFCC and the handling of the case of Emefiele have sparked discussions regarding the need for due process and equitable application of justice.

“The handling of the Emefiele case has sent a signal to the world and the current President’s disposition to the war against corruption.”

The cleric said the war against corruption by the present administration was like making some people scapegoats by virtue of them being “political adversaries while various other major enemies of Nigeria remain untouched.”

He said Emefiele if found culpable, should be prosecuted, adding that the suspended CBN governor might have made a wrong call in the management of the monetary affairs of the country, but he should not be made a scapegoat because he could not have acted without presidential authorisation.

[Punch]

161 days after the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) picked a winner in Nigeria’s presidential election at the beginning of March and 72 days after the inauguration of a new administration, the Senate on August 8, 2023, transmitted to the presidency the names of 45 persons whom it had cleared for appointment as ministers, including some politicians, described as some of “the most violent, corrupt politicians the country has ever seen”.

Azu Ishiekwene –a columnist who is not unsympathetic to Bola Ahmed Tinubu– writes about the in-coming cabinet that “a few nominees…. make the legend of Robin Hood look like a child’s play” and raises informed doubts about the “integrity of the nominees’ list”. This is an insult to Robin Hood who is reputed to have accomplished some good with his plunder.

This raises two legitimate questions about the cabinet list. The first concerns its provenance. On this, Leadership newspaper alleged that an original list of cabinet nominations had been “tampered with”, laying responsibility for this at the feet of the chief of staff and former speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila. The new chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and immediate past governor of Kano state, Abdullahi Ganduje, claimed that neither he nor the president knew anything about a female nominee from his state who was subsequently stood down from the list of nominees, before being replaced.

The second question goes to the strategy that informs the list. For an answer to this, we must look at the composition of the cabinet list. Eight of the 45, representing 17.78%, are women. This is a marginal improvement on the seven women (16.67%) who made Muhammadu Buhari’s 42-member cabinet in 2019 but considerably less than the 13 (31%) in the 41-member cabinet of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2011. Three of the eight women are from the southeast zone, which gets the least number of ministers. Two are from the north-west, which has nearly double the number of ministers from the south-east.

The final list that returned to the presidency also features eight former governors and a similar number of former or serving legislators. With a ministerial list largely comprising a majority of former elected officials or senior political office holders, the screening felt like a mutual admiration club mostly bereft of both seriousness and purpose. What passed for ministerial screening for most of the nominees was a process of ritualised bowing, after which the senate set them free to go.

In response to what has become known as “bow-and-go”, columnist, Nosa Igbinadolor, complained that the “Senate has turned its screening powers into a laughable jamboree that ensures that incompetent and corrupt former governors and unproductive MDA chiefs walk boldly through the process to become ministers because they are not being sufficiently asked critical questions”.

For playing their part excellently in this ritual, Senate President Godswill Akpabio, himself also a former governor and former minister, announced to the senators with some initial relish at the end of the process, that they were the proud recipients of a “token” to see them off to their holidays. When some fastidious officials called his attention to what appeared to be a faux pas, Senator Akpabio upgraded the token to “prayers”. This was a mere fortnight after he appeared to take equal relish in joking about the contagion of poverty in Nigeria. The appearance of a self-absorbed senate leadership was not lost on Nigerians.

As they departed for their holidays after the screening, some senators at least appeared to share that feeling. Senators reportedly let it out that the “token” sent to them from the Senate President was a mere N2 million. Some of them could not hide their disappointment at the “paltry sum” while others appeared to be clearly upset that the senate president had gratuitously exposed the fact “that they received bribe money from ministerial screening”.

Premium Times computed the sum of money administered among senators for this “token” at N218 million, a figure ostensibly arrived at by multiplying the number of senators (109) by two million. It is claimed that the money was part of a pot of N1 billion contributed by or on behalf of the ministerial nominees to facilitate the screening process. If so, then it seems clear that some members of the senate would have received more than just N2 million and that the sum of N218 million is only a fraction of what got shared out, unless the senate president was overcome by an uncharacteristic affliction of selflessness.

Sources in the senate compare this with the sum of $30,000 which was the reported capitation for each senator after the conclusion of a similar process four years ago. If that figure is correct, it was nearly fifteen times the size of the “token” administered this time around to the senators.

If, however, the suggestion that the screening process was underwritten by a deferred quid pro quo turns out to be true, it could go a long way in explaining why the process felt like a mutual back-slapping festival enacted with parliamentary circumstance. For instance, the senate failed to account for the fact that at least two of the nominees, a male from Lagos and a female from Katsina, do not appear to have done the mandatory National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) scheme. The NYSC Act, which is entrenched in the 1999 constitution, makes national service mandatory for eligible persons. Those who fail to undertake it are ineligible for employment assuredly in public service or political office.

In 2018, Kemi Adeosun, whose NYSC discharge certificate turned out to have been invented, was forced to resign as finance minister. Five years later, the 10th Senate under the leadership of Senator Akpabio appears to have decided to retrench the NYSC Act into a statutory artefact without any need for a formal parliamentary process.

For some reason that remains still undisclosed, however, the senate at the point of voting through the confirmations, failed to extend its forbearance to three nominees. One of the three is the former minister of the Federal Capital Territory and recent governor of Kaduna state, Nasir el-Rufai. Neither the senate nor the presidency has issued any formal reason for the failure the confirm El-Rufai besides the unspecified claims of delayed “security clearance” or “suppressed animosity” from the presidency.

El-Rufai’s first ministerial screening in 2003 was nearly scuppered after he accused some senators then of bribery. This time around, his nomination appears to have been sunk by “allegations of human rights abuses, unguarded public utterances, and a purported flood of petitions” masterminded by some well-connected persons.

In a quarter of a century in public life, he has got into what has been delicately described as a “romance with controversy”. In 2016, El-Rufai gloated as state governor that he had paid identified killers in Southern Kaduna to stop killing. Ahead of the 2019 general election, he threatened international observers, warning them that they would “go back in body bags”.

Shortly thereafter, El-Rufai went to Lagos, the political home of Tinubu, to attack him as a political godfather who needed to be defenestrated. He has been viciously intolerant of criticism and one of his foremost critics as governor, Dadiyata, has been missing for over four years. This record forced the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA) in 2020 to cancel an invitation to him to address their annual general conference.

After the senate declined to vote through his nomination, El-Rufai remembered that he is a doctoral student in the Netherlands and stood down so he could return to school. It is not inconceivable that his record as governor will attract attention if and when he reports to Europe to pursue his doctoral research.

In the interim, Muhammad Pate, an accomplished doctor in both medicine and academia and one of the few experts in the world on health systems, emerged as one of the few bright spots on the ministerial list. Another bright spot on the list is the talented Yusuf Tuggar, Nigeria’s current ambassador to Germany. Both Yusuf and Muhammad, coincidentally, are from Bauchi state.

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