I have noticed some deliberate and well-orchestrated efforts by some persons to blackmail me into conforming to some of their nefarious agendas. Their dubious moves have led to the false circulation of a video from my recent keynote speech at the installation of Rotarian Professor A. U. Nnonyelu in Anambra State. They have twisted the video to suit their motive to suggest that I declared war on Northerners when, in fact, I spoke about declaring war on economic stagnation, insecurity, and corruption.

Another video circulating online, supposedly showing me leading a protest in Abuja, is also false. The video was actually taken during my visit to the Labour Party HQ, where I mediated a clash between the Labour Party and the NLC.

The video was conveniently edited to create a false narrative, and those responsible have been paid to spread this misinformation. This kind of misinformation has no place in our democracy, where truth and honesty should prevail.

This misrepresentation is part of a larger narrative of blackmail, aimed at fitting me into their malicious agenda. I remain committed to a new Nigeria where justice, equity, and caring for the citizens will prevail over the greed of a few.

Similarly, and deeply disturbing, I have read genocidal threats on X against the Igbo tribe, calling for their relocation. Let me pointedly warn that such rhetoric threatens our unity and is fundamentally opposed to our Constitution, which guarantees every Nigerian the right to live and work freely anywhere in the country. Those in authority must show leadership and urgently speak out against such divisive rhetoric.

Immediate action should be taken to investigate, arrest, and prosecute those behind this heinous agenda, serving as a deterrent to others who might consider pursuing similar paths that threaten our national security and unity.

I urge all Nigerians to stand united against this divisive rhetoric and to champion unity, tolerance, and understanding. Our future depends on our ability to live and work together harmoniously.

The government and security agencies must act swiftly to protect this fundamental principle and ensure that every Nigerian can live free from fear of discrimination or persecution. We must not allow our present challenges to drive wedges among us.

We can only overcome our national challenges if we act together as one people United under God.

#PeterObi 

The Chairman, the Federal Civil Service Commission ( FCSC), Prof. Tunji Olaopa, has listed ways HR practice can be viable in the Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions.

The former permanent secretary spoke on Wednesday as the chairman of the investiture of Mal. Ahmed Ladan Gobir, FCIPM, as the President and Chairman of Governing Council of CIPM, in Lagos.

The seasoned bureaucrat who spoke on the topic "IPM and the Unfinished Business of Reform in the Public Service" disclosed that his significant relationship with CIPM spanned many years.

According to him, CIPM is one organization he counts as a partner in the struggle for transforming the public service system in Nigeria.

"This is why I am more than delighted to be witnessing, and chairing, this investiture of the new President and Chairman of the CIPM Governing Council. CIPM is strategic as the key umbrella body—the community of practice—for administering HR practice in Nigeria. Since its founding in 1968, it has consistently continued to push the frontiers and boundaries of the HR profession as well as being in the vanguard of HR management praxis in ways that have consolidated the status of its members, and its own status as a global organizational brand", he said.

He was hopeful that as a distinguished Nigerian, a formidable HR thought leader, astute corporate lawyer and a management professional par excellence, Gobir's work was already clear to him " within the challenges that CIPM might be currently facing, and how the organization could be positioned as a significant stakeholder in the overall task of institutional reform in Nigeria."

Lauding preceding presidents, and especially the administrative and visionary efforts of Mr. Olusegun Mojeed, the immediate past president of CIPM, for a most remarkable tenure filled with spirited strides, innovations and commendable achievements and legacies, Olaopa said that no avid watcher of Nigeria’s public administration, and CIPM’s role, could be in any doubt as to the depth of clarity amongst CIPM’s thought-leaders regarding what was the next level for CIPM, especially at this momentous time in the profession’s annals, " a time when the world of work is witnessing profound rethinking and reformulation to institutionalise the post-Covid new normal, and, at that, as we navigate the unfolding Fourth and Fifth Industrial Revolutions."

According to Olaopa, one issue that is integral to HR rethinking and the vision of the future across all sectors of the Nigerian economy is the fact that at no time has the people factor in organisations and human capital been so core critical to development prospecting and national productivity.

Drawing lessons from comparable experiences around the globe on how nations have transformed from abject poverty to increased national income growth, and technological cum institutional advancement, Olaopa observed that all high-performing economies without exception, gave greater prominence to knowledge, human capital and governance.

"In raising the quality of governance, we came to the conclusion that the rate of progress that Nigeria will achieve will depend in part upon the degree to which political power is matched with policy and managerial intelligence.

"This is consistent with HE President BA Tinubu’s aspiration to emplace a government of national competence. In all of this, it was clear to us that public administration, leadership sophistication, competent national change management strategy and reprofiled national value system, will be critical success factors at play to unlock the binding constraints that have constrained successful translation of the many transitions of the past and the present to sustainable national structural transformation and development", he said.

Olaopa highlighted "some issues of concern that require our joint spirited intellectual and practical interrogation first by the public administration community of practice with CIPM filling in for the core professions elements".

He listed these as the recognition that while HR function should be professionalised, HRM is no longer the exclusive responsibility of HR departments, as line managers also need significant people management skills for overall systems’ effectiveness.

He said: "HR function must necessarily transition from a preoccupation with passive role of administering on the bases of rules, regulations, and procedures, to developing and pursuing policies in manner that extract performance results and productivity bargain from people and processes. HR innovations are required to restore government as preferred employer of labour, which will demand significant systems changes so the public sector can attract and retain top talents in an increasingly competitive labour market.

"The public service must raise its game as it anticipates and manages the fresh new orientation of that the Millennial and Gen Z generations of managers for example to the workplace, especially their preference for workplace flexibility and flexi-working so they can pursue other rewarding interests.

" The public sector also needs to raise its game so it can optimise PPPs contracts at its higher maturity curve and levels, which demands that it builds advanced acumen in public officials in commercial skills, knowledge of international business practices and labour laws, multicultural sensitivities and multiple language, to name just a few.

"It should also recognise that the transition from being primarily administrative expert to being change agents and strategic partners has automatically relocated the HR function from the back office that it still occupies to the front office.

"While the extent to which artificial intelligence, robotics, etc. are transforming the way we do things is growingly becoming clear to thought leaders, what is uncertain is how well we can cope with the speed of change and how to convert the uncertainties it creates into real opportunities."

He continued: "The public sector in building on past reform gains and current commendable initiatives, must recognise that the Weberian ‘I am directed’ managerial model and tradition that was developed for the use of paper-based, top-down pyramidal structured control and procedure-oriented organisations with segmented way of delivering services requires a whole paradigm rethinking so the much bandied performance-based systems can take shape.

"The new performance-managed HR model will however necessarily be customer-centric with HR partnering with line managers to refocus HRM from just efficiency concerns and due process compliance to effectiveness within framework of a new productivity culture.

"Besides, HR managers as change leaders in the public sector requires deepening of HR skills with respect to their role in risk management. In so doing, they will not just support MDAs reforms, they will become the sponsors of change while at once driving the change.

"This suggests the need to deepen action research as a component of management cum operation research and organisation development (OD), to enable HR institute a learning culture through challenging of the status quo as champions of cultural transformations directed at translating desirable culture and public service values into public managers behaviour.

"The known public service employment policy emphasis on job security and guaranteed lifetime career then calls for rethinking, to create a distinction between career-based and position-based employment system. Central personnel governance will also need reprofiling to align the three defining trends namely, deepening of current practice of delegating HR powers to line managers, simplifying of rules, procedures and guidelines that underpin the shared powers and responsibilities.

"Ditto with centralised industrial relations governance and collective bargaining in the context of fiscal federalism, which tends to create unsustainable and intractable downstream problems that increasingly disempower the discretion that employers reserve to negotiate at operational levels, a dimension that requires deep-seated reform.The current practice of staff performance appraisal in the public service which creates the as yet resolved confusion about what is being assessed and rewarded, between results, competences, behaviour, knowledge or staff potential with associated problem of subjectivity, in a measure that focuses appraisal as means rather than the ends of performance assessment, is also core critical."

The moment it was announced that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu was going to enlist the collaboration of the Supreme Court in seeking financial autonomy for the 774 local governments, I knew it was game over. What we know of the relationship between the Nigerian judiciary and President Tinubu is of the dimension that if he requested the court to jump, the response would be how high. 

My experience (of fulfilling all righteousness in seeking judicial redress of the INEC subversion of the last Presidential election) is quite baffling in an important respect. The Judges, all the way to the Supreme Court, were not just overtly biased against the complainants, they were outrightly malicious as evident in such verbal assaults as ‘how dare you bring this unworthy evidence and witness..”.

In a conspiratorial demonstration of guilt conscience, the Chairman of the Appeal Court Tribunal actually acknowledged as such in his closing remarks. He winked at the lawyers caught on the wrong foot of the judgement that there is enough room for compensation in the post election season. The Supreme Court panel fared worse. 

The status of the Nigerian Judiciary today is that the greatest weapon any appellant can get in winning cases at the Supreme Court is the nod of the Nigerian President. Talk of the prevalent phenomenon of ‘state capture’. This typical subversive government behaviour is complemented by the short attention span and instant gratification syndrome of many Nigerians. The inability to reconcile short term, mid term and long term perspectives. This predisposition often renders many Nigerians easy prey to populist political predators. And so, the purveyors of a return to ‘True Federalism” excitedly became the choristers of Local Government autonomy. 

An averagely talented political strategist knows that the Nigerian State Governors are sitting ducks for the deflection of the boiling angst of Nigerians against the elected government. And so when Tinubu, in desperate need of a respite, threw a shrouded poisonous feed into the fish pond, unguarded Nigerians swooped on the poison as if their lives depended on it. 

Totally consumed with venom at the targeted despised state governors, they hollered that a totally disreputable INEC should usurp the role of the state electoral commission in the conduct of elections into the local governments, the constitution be damned. As Saint Bernard is quoted to have said, “the road to hell is often paved with good intentions”. They are the kind of compelling temptations that are brandished by Satan to lure unsuspecting victims to his kingdom. As in a Yoruba repartee, enu okere, ni okere fi npe olode (the squirrel is given to summoning the attention of the hunter with its uncontrolled heckling).

In a recent commentary on Nigeria, the Financial Times of London noted ‘It does not help either that the state is implicated in the wholesale theft of oil, depriving the nation’s coffers of billions of dollars’. Yet as we speak, I do not know of a single Nigerian who has been held accountable for the worst scandal in the history of Nigeria. Not only has anyone been held accountable, the key figure at the centre of it all namely Mele Kyari has been commended for a job well done hence his reappointment as the Group Managing Director of the NNPC for another five years tenure. 

The Nigerian President had no qualms directing two hundred million Nigerians to seek atonement for the sins of people like Kyari and his accomplices have largely perpetrated. Where then is the logic in hounding former Central Bank Governor Godwin Emefiele if Kyari is held not to have committed any crime?

I have just read that the President has signed the N70000 minimum wage bill into law. The question arises, does this amount include housing and transportation allowance? Does it take into account the potential health bill, electricity bill and school fees?. If it does not, can we in good conscience, blame any of these victims were they to seek recourse to extra legal measures to make ends meet? Should we not worry at the mentality of a Nigerian President, who, in the thick of the existential challenges Nigeria confronts, chooses to prioritise an inexplicable fiddling with the National anthem?. 

General Muhammadu Buhari may be the worst President in the history of Nigeria but he is easily one of the most politically effective politicians to emerge from the Northern region. Have you wondered why a man once reputed as the avenging Angel of corruption turned out to have run the most corrupt government? 

No matter how false his anti-corruption reputation is, he must have come early to the realisation that Nigeria is a lost cause (as it stands today). Hence the need to make hay (for his people) whilst the sun is still shining. Given its free fall, there is hardly anyone in a position of authority today (including otherwise good people) who is not mentally and realistically predisposed towards personal exploitation of office. 

The quick learner that he is, his successor has comprehensively followed in his footsteps. You can rightly guess that the main intra Yoruba political argument today is between those who realistically believe that we should stand behind Tinubu and join the multitude to do the Buhari evil and those who do not. 

To quote the Financial Times once again, ‘Nigeria’s elite learnt a lesson that was toxic to the nation’s prospects: why produce anything when you can make a killing through arbitrage?’ What the London publication is telling us is that for Nigeria to endure and prosper there has to be the acculturation of the ethic of a positive correlation between productivity and reward. The prevailing Nigerian status quo ethos is nearly the exact opposite of this ethic.

In the liability for corruption and the damage it does to the country, many will find it difficult to believe that the civil servants often tower over political office holders. Both of them view any capital expenditure of the government from the standpoint of how they individually stand to benefit, how much capital projects are prone to corruption and personal enrichment. Moreso the former. 

Sundry projects have been sabotaged, stalled and killed the more impervious they are to graft. It was within the cesspool of this culture that the National Independent Power Project, NIPP of the President Olusegun Obasanjo government found its Waterloo. Obasanjo domiciled the execution of the project in an inter-agency task force not solely the Ministry of power. 

Nonetheless, the Ministry was charged with the provision of the blueprint of the logistics of delivery, especially the conveyance of the imported power turbines to the permanent sites. The turbines duly arrived on schedule only for the suppliers to discover that many of the access road bridges to the different destinations could not withstand the weight of the turbines. Hence they were stranded in Lagos for years. In prior full knowledge of this incapacity, the staffers of the Ministry of power simply looked the other way.

The theoretical and practical response to the menace of corruption is the dual instruments of incentives and deterrence measures. The deterrence consists of rigorously applied punitive measures for those apprehended of corrupt practices. But you do not need to look far to see the extraordinary failure of lawfully prescribed deterrence measures in Nigeria today. Just go and take another look at the record and reputation of the man who sits atop the Nigerian parliament as Senate president. 

At the moment of his election to the exalted office no one had a worse and active case of corruption culpability before the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC.

The dictionary meaning of incentive is “a thing that motivates or encourages someone to do something”. In contemporary Nigeria, is there any better incentive than leading by example and sharing empathy with the toiling masses whose miserable standard of living has been further degraded? Economic recession is not the problem of Nigeria. It is routine stuff for all societies and individuals to go through periodic crisis and challenges. So the prevailing economic crisis of Nigeria is nothing peculiar. 

What matters most at the end of the day is the willingness and ability of the leadership to grapple with the challenge, to mobilise the citizenry behind the effort of the government. When Ghanians saw the publication of a shirtless Jerry Rawlings driving a tractor to cultivate a farm, they were more than happy to line up behind their leader regardless of whether or not they were able to obtain three square meals a day. Whereas in Nigeria, four hundred and sixty parliamentarians were buying two hundred million naira worth of luxury SUVS for each one of them while their country was rated as the poverty capital of the world.

Let Dangote Be

“The Pipeline Infrastructure at the Dangote Petroleum Refinery is the largest anywhere in the world, with 1,100 kilometres to handle 3 Billion Standard Cubic Foot of gas per day. The Refinery alone has a 435MW Power Plant that is able to meet the total power requirement of Ibadan DisCo*.

“The Refinery will meet 100% of the Nigerian requirement of all refined products and also have a surplus of each of these products for export”. 

I do not dismiss nor trivialise the reservations about Dangote but they are inevitably exaggerated. Right now in Nigeria, he personifies, warts and all, the Peter Obi political vision of moving Nigeria from ‘consumption to production’. It is the reason I’m a fan of the Max Weber thesis of ‘the protestant ethic and the spirit of capitalism’, especially the inference of attitudinal dedication to money-making and rational self control as sine qua non to capitalist development. 

Like many others, I was struck by the video clip of a home video practitioner, who, in a burst of prescience, accurately predicted the fate that lies ahead of the Dangote refinery, way back in 2015. The sum of it was that it was fated to become the victim of a devious Nigerian dysfunction. That no matter its conspicuous utility it stands to be sabotaged. We can begin to decode the prediction when we factor the vested interest of the oil import cabal with tentacles at the highest echelon of government. 

The likelihood is that a similar vested interest cabal is at the root of the perennial failure of Nigeria to meet ten percent of its electricity power requirement. Let us hope that the panacea recently proposed by the Nigerian President to solve the contrived obstruction against Dangote would be allowed to work. 

Within the past 431 days the breeze has blown in terms of governance across the 36 states of Nigeria and exposed the rump of state governors. Post-May 29, 2023, some of the first term state governors succeeded in hitting the ground running. Others had the uncomplimentary fortune of wriggling through political disputations either with their predecessors or burdening themselves with the excesses of their godfathers.

Although the media have helped Nigerians to guestimate and project the performance of some of these first term state chief executives, in Enugu State certain interesting patterns have emerged. This author had mounted an observatory to, not only monitor the lead up to the March 18, 2023 gubernatorial election, but also gauge the progress of governance in the state.

As one citizen who has kept close tab on the politics, governance and developmental goings on in Enugu State, I make bold to state that Governor Peter Mbah has kept faith with the deliverables in his manifesto and mandate. The lofty vision contained in Mbah’s manifesto aroused curiosity of cynics and pernicious critics, particularly his promise of leap-frogging the state’s economic threshold from $4billion to $30billion.

Apart from economic growth, the governor had set for himself another lofty baseline in the area of provision of critical infrastructure and social amenities, particularly supply of pipe borne water and construction of high quality access roads across the state.

This intervention was not intended to celebrate the achievements of the Enugu State governor, but to bring into national consciousness how far self-motivated sub-national leaders could go to remake governance trajectory in their domains.

Further, the decision to write this piece was propelled by Governor Mbah’s recent high water mark offerings in the areas of agricultural productivity and provision of much needed security of life and property to make life worth living for the people.

It should be registered as a remarkable feat. The determination of a state governor to embark on signposting measurable outcomes of his administration’s policy options. From what have been seen after the new administration took root in the Coal City State, it is apparent that Governor Mbah made his campaign manifesto a scheme of work or course outline. Against that background, he has been religiously implementing the components in a comprehensive manner to achieve set targets.

One recalls vividly how during a three-day executive leadership retreat for senior political appointees, in September 2023, Governor Mbah fired up his aides. He assured them that transforming Enugu State to a $30 billion economy in a space of eight years is doable if only they could believe in it and put themselves to achieving that.

Governor Mbah actually showed that he meant every bit of what he was saying. He also demonstrated his seriousness to properly equip his appointees to buy into the can-do spirit and positive energy he radiates around his vision and mission.

The caliber of resource persons arrayed for the retreat was a pointer to the governor’s determination to bring his private sector experience to bear on his mandate delivery.

With eggheads like the Acting Chief Economist of African Development Bank, Ibukun Awosika; Driver at Synthesia, Mr. Joseph Urama; Joe Abah; Linus Okorie and Sam Onyia, among others, nobody was left in doubt that Mbah, a former playmaker in the Downstream Oil and Gas industry, meant business.

Of course, the Secretary to Enugu State Government, Chidiebere Onyia, had explained that the retreat was programmed to enable the senior appointees of government “to digest the governor’s vision and map out strategies for achieving the targets across the various Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs).”

Stressing the need for his disruptive action plan, Governor Mbah had declared that “applying the hands-on knowledge gained at the event was a sure pathway to disrupting the status quo, which, he said “was no longer acceptable.”

It was possible that some of those that listened to Governor Mbah’s remarks at the closing ceremony of the leadership retreat may have taken his bold declarations with a pinch of salt, based on the broad imperatives of his vision.

But, 14 months of his taking up the mantle of leadership of Enugu State, it is left for all to weigh his words against the works done by his administration in the period under review.

The Enugu State chief executive had stated: “Development history is replete with countries, sub-nationals, and cities where the people have come together and agreed that they would change the narrative, the pattern of growth, and they committed themselves to it, and it happened.

“So, nobody should tell you that what we want to do in Enugu is impossible. With our can-do spirit, we can achieve a $30 billion economy in the next eight years. We can achieve a great city.

“We can achieve access to the best quality education that any child can have access to in the world. We can also have access to high-quality healthcare services in this state.

“We can build 10,000 kilometres of road. We can restore water to Enugu in the next two months as promised by our people and also make access to clean water happen for our people across the state in no distant time.

“We can also achieve zero poverty headcount, eradicate poverty from our state and deliver on every promise we made.

“Indeed we can make Enugu the premier destination for business, investment, tourism, and living. We are already thinking about the future that we want to bequeath to our children, and history beckons on all of us to do something. If we believe in it, if we have the can-do spirit, then we can make it happen.”

Scanning through my random jottings and notes on the quiet renovation and remodelling going on in Enugu State, I saw an entry on May 16, 2024, which read: “I had just returned to the University of Nigeria, Nsukka after going to visit my mum in the village. I was marvelled by what I saw as I drove through Enugu while heading back.

 “It is not that some of us who lined up behind the governor during the last governorship poll are surprised. But, truth be told, we never imagined that in a space of 12 months he will turn the state into a huge construction site.

“He gave us water as he promised and cleaned up the city of filth. The governor upgraded our school system with the smart school initiative and up-scaled the provision of quality healthcare.

“The one that forced me into indenting this post concerns the ambitious bus terminus and interchange that not only promises to modernise Enugu, the Coal City and Nsukka, the second largest city in the state, but also cement the fact that Tomorrow is here in Enugu State.

“Indeed, Governor Mbah is demonstrating courage, vision and commitment to mission, which are the hallmarks of primeval leadership. It would seem patronising to call him the father of new Enugu yet. But, Dr Mbah is enhancing our confidence in his capabilities and competence.”

I was compelled to make these findings public following reports that the Enugu State governor has, apart from targeting N100 bilion from livestock production, but also has a first veterinary hospital in view.

The establishment of a veterinary hospital is the agricultural equivalent of the Governor’s milestones in the education sector, where his smart school initiative has garnered huge mileage in retooling teachers and revising the teaching and learning methods. All these are turning out as part of the expected outcomes that culminate in remodeling and populating the society with better citizenry.

Without making noise about it, Governor Mbah has solved the challenge of funding through increased subvention to higher institutions, particularly the State University of Medical and Applied Science (SUMAS) and its Teaching Hospital.

Coming at a time when the issue of herder-farmer crisis is joining to tossing food security in Nigeria, Mbah has demonstrated surefootedness in his determination to boost the economy and scale up the capacity of farmers in animal husbandry.

The governor made the assertions when the National Project Coordinator, Sanusi Abubakar, led a delegation from the Livestock Productivity and Resilience Support Project (L-PRES) to Enugu for ribbon-cutting of the first Regional Enugu Model Veterinary Hospital in the state.

 The governor disclosed that his administration discovered the need to start putting in a robust policy or a legal framework that can support his agricultural policies, stressing that Enugu has a market size of over ₦100 billion.

He noted that the veterinary hospital was coming at a time the state was focused on scaling up meat and dairy production, adding that the Enugu State Ranch Management Agency Law was conceived to unlock economic opportunities for the state.

This, he declared, would create employment opportunities in the livestock space and contribute to the growth of the Gross Domestic Product from $4.4 billion to $30 billion.

When taken together, Mbah’s policy options, programmes and projects have shown his administration is involved in a contest of measurable outcomes. It is a record, which if governments set for themselves, it makes it easier for the people to reap the benefits of their mandate, thereby ensuring inclusivity.

No doubt, Enugu State has emerged on the front row of promising constituencies of ennobling governance strategies that would in the long run rekindle public confidence in Nigeria’s democracy and responsible governance.

-Prof Ujam writes from the University of Nigeria, Nsukka.

Folalumi Alaran reports that Information and National Orientation Minister, Mohammed Idris, on Wednesday reeled out specific interventions of the President Bola Tinubu’s government especially in the area of youth development in the last one year.

The last few weeks have not been the best of times for the administration of President Bola Tinubu. The government at the centre in recent times had contended with various issues requiring urgent attention.

One of such issues has to do with the notice given by some aggrieved Nigerian youths to proceed on peaceful protests nationwide over rising cost of living in the country from August 1 to 14, 2024.

At various fora, government officials including President Tinubu had appealed to the organisers to give government some time to address the key issues raised by the youths.

On his part, Information and National Orientation Minister,  Mohammed Idris on Wednesday invited Editors and Bureau Chiefs of media houses to a media parley where he laid bare programmes and activities of government targetted at the youths. He was in the company of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, Finance Minister and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun and Budget and Economic Planning Minister,  Atiku Bagudu and some other Ministers.

He traced the present administration to May 29, 2023 when Tinubu was sworn in as President and Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. His inauguration marked the beginning of a new era, one aimed at addressing the nation’s longstanding challenges and ushering in a wave of reforms that promise to reshape Nigeria’s socio-economic landscape.

The Minister spoke about the N70,000 new minimum wage bill which the President signed into law on Monday ending months of deliberations between government authorities, labour unions, and the private sector.

The President signed the bill into law at the State House in Abuja days after the National Assembly had passed the Minimum Wage Act, 2019 to increase the National Minimum Wage from N30,000 to N70,000.

Also, the Nigerian Educational Loan Fund on Wednesday disbursed the sum of N850M to institutions as fees.This was apart from the over N1.7 billion that has been disbursed to about 20,000 students.

The Fund’s Managing Director, Akintunde Sawyer, who.made this disclosure said “the sum of N850 million will be leaving the account of NELFUND Today to institutions. This is apart from the N1.7 billion that has already been disbursed.”

He revealed that the Fund had disbursed institutional fees to 20,000 students through their institutions while noting that a total of 260,000 loans including institutional fees and upkeep have been approved. No fewer than 1.2 million students are expected to benefit from this cardinal programme of President Tinubu’s administration.

The President  had earlier on April 3, 2023, approved N35bn for the take-off of the scheme after signing the law backing the scheme.

With rising food inflation and shortages posing significant challenges, Tinubu’s government took urgent action to ensure food security. The distribution of 42,000 metric tons of food nationwide and the promotion of agricultural mechanization were key steps in this direction. These measures are intended to boost agricultural production and empower young farmers, thereby strengthening the agriculture and food value chain.

Also recently, the Tinubu government sent 20 trucks of rice to each of the 36 states of the federation and the Federal Capital Territory for distribution to the most vulnerable  in the society to cushion the effect of rising cost of food items.

From the beginning, the Tinubu Presidency made it clear that economic reform would be at the heart of his administration. His decision to remove the long-standing fuel subsidy was one of his first and most controversial moves. This policy, which had cost the government approximately $10 billion annually, was seen as a drain on public finances and a breeding ground for corruption. By eliminating the subsidy, Tinubu aimed to free up resources for investment in critical sectors and reduce the fiscal deficit.

The immediate aftermath of the subsidy removal was turbulent. Panic buying and skyrocketing fuel prices led to nationwide strikes and protests. However, the administration’s steadfast negotiations with labor unions and strategic communication helped to stabilize the situation.

The World Bank hailed the move, acknowledging its potential to strengthen Nigeria’s economy by curbing wasteful spending and stimulating private sector investment in the oil industry.

In line with subsidy removal, Tinubu’s administration also embarked on unifying the exchange rate. By floating the naira, the Central Bank of Nigeria aimed to balance the official, investors, exporters, and parallel market rates. This bold step was intended to attract foreign investment and stabilize the economy, despite initial shocks to the currency’s value.

[Thisday]

The African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has approved a loan of N750 billion ($500) million to Nigeria to support the first phase of the economic governance and energy transition support programme (EGET-SP). 

EGET-SP is an initiative aimed at accelerating the transformation of the country’s electricity infrastructure and improving access to cleaner sources of energy. 

The plan will, among other things, lift 100 million people out of poverty, reduce Nigeria’s carbon footprint, drive economic growth, and create jobs, according to the government. 

In a statement on Thursday, AfDB said the loan will help close the financing gap of the government’s budget in the 2024/2025 fiscal year, particularly supporting the implementation of the country’s new Electricity Act and the Nigeria energy transition plan.

“The Nigerian government launched the energy transition plan in August 2022, and in June 2023, passed a new Electricity Act decentralising the electricity supply industry and setting the stage for increased investments by subnational governments and the private sector,” AfDB said.

“The energy transition plan envisions the development, by 2050, of 250 GW of installed electricity capacity, 90 per cent of which will be renewable.

“It will provide clean cooking access to the bulk of the population by 2030, using liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), biogas, biofuels like ethanol, and electric cookstoves,” the statement said

It added that “The AfDB $500m support to the Federal Government of Nigeria is the latest in a series of initiatives aimed at supporting the country’s economic growth, poverty reduction, and climate action efforts.”

[Dailytrust]

Nigeria’s Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Egbetokun, Thursday night decried the dimensions of the ongoing EndBadGovernance protest in the country.

DAILY POST reports that Nigerians across many states and the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja, took to the streets as they commenced an earlier announced 10-day protest against hardship in the country.

However, the first day of the protest witnessed widespread violence and lootings across major cities, with many protesters reported dead.

The major flashpoints were in Kano, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi, FCT Abuja, Niger, Jigawa and Nasarawa States.

Some of the states have already imposed curfew in a bid to contain the situation.

Addressing a press conference, the IGP, who knocked the promoters of the protest for being nowhere around to lead it, urged them to end it.

He said the security agencies had been vindicated in their earlier intelligence that the protest would turn violent.

According to him, “It is with a grave sense of responsibility that I address you this evening. You will recall that upon several indications by various groups of their intent to commence a nationwide protest on 1st August, 2024, we rolled out several warnings based on actionable intelligence at our disposal indicating that some groups were mobilizing our youths for violent protests with intent to create anarchy in the country.

“While some groups claiming to be mobilizing for peaceful protests were doing so with violent undertones, refusing to cooperate with the Police on measures to be taken to guarantee peaceful protest.

“On the basis of this intelligence, the Police advised that the protests should be shelved at the instant time. Where the organizers insisted on going on with the protests, they were advised to stage the protest in confined locations.

“This would have enabled the police provide adequate protection for the protesters and isolate the criminals whose intention was to loot and destroy in the name of a protest.

“This we were doing in furtherance of our duty to protect lives and property and maintaining law and order.

“While we affirmed the constitutional rights of citizens to assemble and express their views on issues of national importance, we were wary about the dangers posed by agitation instigated by some individuals who have shown tendencies to be disloyal to the government of the day.

“Despite our suspicions, we showed good faith through professional conduct by providing security at strategic locations all aimed at ensuring peaceful conduct during the protest as the promoters pledged.

“Our men deployed nationwide went out with a clear brief to ensure that no one is unnecessarily harassed or intimidated. In places where there were court orders, we gave instructions for observance of same.

“Regrettably, events in some major cities today showed that what was being instigated was mass uprising and looting, not protest.

“Those who were in the forefront of promoting the idea of the protest were not around to lead it. Hoodlums have been let loose on innocent Nigerians and their hard-earned businesses and property looted and destroyed.

“The motive of the rioters was basically two; loot and destroy both private and government property. The destruction so far has been mind-boggling.

“There has been destruction in Kano, Borno, Yobe, Kaduna, Gombe, Bauchi, FCT Abuja, Niger, Jigawa. Police stations have been destroyed, there have been attempts to take over government houses, looting of government infrastructures, several warehouses and shops have so far been looted and, in several instances, completely destroyed.”

He decried that “ispite of the refusal of the protesters, for instance in FCT to adhere to a court order requesting that protest in Abuja should be at the National Stadium, they trooped into the streets, and yet the police provided security for them. At no point did we breach their fundamental rights even as they breached court order.

“In places like FCT, Kaduna, Kano and Gombe, among others, we recorded incidents of unprovoked attacks on security personnel, where one policeman has been reported murdered and others seriously injured.

“We alerted earlier on that terror elements may take advantage of the protests to infiltrate the crowd of protesters with suicide bombers. Yesterday in Lagos, our EOD team was informed of a suspected IED on Bank Anthony Way, Ikeja. The team responded swiftly and rendered safe what turned out to be an improvised explosive device (IED).

“Today in Borno State, we recorded one incident of an explosion which occurred in the crowd of protesters killing 4 instantly and severely injuring 34 others, many of whom are presently on danger list.

“We wish to advise law abiding citizens of Nigeria to heed and not dismiss warnings given by the police and other security agencies which were based on credible and actionable security intelligence.

“In the light of the current situation, the Nigeria Police Force has placed all units on red alert. Our officers are fully mobilized and prepared to respond swiftly and decisively to any further threats to public safety and order.

“We remain committed and resolute to protecting lives and property and ensuring that law and order are maintained across the nation.

“Groups who are hiding under the guise of exercise of a right provided in the Constitution to destabilize the country should remember that the same Constitution imposed on them the duty to obey the laws of the land and respect the rights of other citizens.

“The Police are equipped to respond appropriately to the unfolding situation and will get assistance from other security agencies, including the military if the need arises.

“We appeal to all citizens to remain calm and cooperate with the Police and other security agencies during this challenging period.

“Your safety is our top priority, and we will continue to take all necessary measures to ensure continued peace and stability in our country.”

The President met with Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT) yesterday while the protest was ongoing.

Nyesom Wike arrived at the Presidential Villa around 4pm in an SUV and briskly walked into the Presidential Office in what was said to be a meeting with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

While the exact purpose of Wike’s visit was not disclosed, it comes amidst ongoing protests in the nation’s capital.

The FCT witnessed protests in some parts including around the Central Area, particularly the vicinities of the Eagle Square where protesters defied warnings from security agencies to vacate the area.

A court order had restricted protests in the FCT to the Moshood Abiola Stadium.

The protesters left the stadium a procession to the Eagle Square which the FCT had said was not approved.

Their movement caused disruptions to traffic and businesses in the Central Area.

It was learnt that the situation with the protest in the FCT might have warranted the minister’s meeting with the President.

[TheNation]

One of the domestic workers of Aribemchukwu, the slain daughter of Justice Rita Ofili-Ajumogobia, has owned up to being involved in the murder of her boss, a police source exclusively disclosed on Thursday.

PUNCH Metro reported that the deceased, popularly called Chuchu, was reportedly killed in her Parkview Estate residence in the Ikoyi area of Lagos State.

Although a family source said she was killed Tuesday night, her lifeless body was discovered on Wednesday morning outside the gate of her residence.

Her three domestic employees, which included the house help, a security guard, and a driver, were, however, arrested in connection to the murder.

Providing updates on the findings made so far, a police source who craved not to be mentioned as he was not authorised to speak on the matter said the house help confessed to the crime during interrogation.

The source also clarified that the deceased was murdered inside her room, and her body was thereafter dragged from the spot outside the gate where it was dumped.

According to the source, the suspects attempted to clean up the blood stains but missed some spots because the act was perpetrated at night.

“The deceased was killed in her room and her body was dragged to the front of the gate to make it look like she was killed on the spot. After that, all the blood stains were carefully cleaned but still, they missed some spots.  They did not clean it well because it happened at night.”

“The house help did not deny what happened. She said, ‘We do am, na we do am’, during an interrogation and everything she said tallied with the evidence on the ground.” the police source disclosed.

The suspects were also said to have immediately packed all the valuables of the deceased after killing their boss.

The source also confirmed that the three domestic workers were employed at the same time a week before the incident.

Until her death, the late Aribemchukwu was a doctor and had recently married.

When contacted, the state Police Public Relations Officer, Benjamin Hundeyin, said investigations were still ongoing.

He said, “Investigations are still ongoing on the incident. We will provide updates as soon as there are more developments.”

[Punch]

BEFORE now, I have heard so much about Ola Makinwa, the iconic Professor of Dramatic Arts, a doyen of the film and theatre industry, world-class academic and author of many books, including his much-talked about compendium, Peace Culture. But I never met him.

Here is a man with over 76 celluloid film directing experience, 480 video movies and 163 television series in addition to attending over 450 seminars and conferences , including film, cultural, drama and music festivals, garnering over 300 awards and honours locally and internationally, and who remains one of the few heroes of the FESTAC ’77.

But these giant feats probably don’t define him as much as his quest for peace in Africa, a risky gambit which earned him death sentence in Liberia, does. It was the story of the death sentence that first caught my attention.

I had made futile attempts to meet with him all these years until last Saturday, a day after his 74th birthday in Abuja. The encounter was fortuitous and a story for another day.

But for his Soyinka-like grey hairs, you would hardly know that Prof Ola Makinwa is 74 years already. Gangling, sprightly and full of youthful, vibrant energy, he was engaging and intellectually alert.

Prof Makinwa is sad that most African countries are still badly governed, a veritable recipe for crisis. “I just discovered lately that Africa as a whole is having the same problem of bad governance with the attendant turmoil,” he lamented.

But he didn’t quite come to that realisation lately. Other than his passion for theatre which started from childhood, nothing has occupied Prof Makinwa in all his adult life more than the quest for peace in Africa, which sprouted from his ugly experience in Liberia in 1995.

The fascinating, yet blood-chilling story of his arrest, trial and death sentence can only be imagined. To appreciate why he became an African Peace ambassador, the story needs to be retold and he is not tired of telling it.

“In the mid-1990s,” he began, “I really wanted to know where Africa was headed and when I became the cultural ambassador for Britain, I left London for Germany to buy a caravan which I drove through the Sahara Desert enroute Nigeria. I drove from Morocco to Mali, crossed over to Burkina Faso and to Liberia. I just want to tell you how I came about the African Peace Project.”

When Prof Makinwa and his two subordinates, Kaka and Alaba Nwosu, got to the Liberian border with Burkina Faso, the Charles Taylor-led militia refused them entry on the excuse that the country was in the middle of a brutal war. That was in 1995.

But he didn’t budge, insisting that he was a cultural ambassador of Britain on a tour of African countries for exhibitions. The standoff lasted for about seven hours before they let them in. But shortly after, they were arrested and the nightmare ensued.

“As we were driving, these militia boys accosted us and said they were arresting us,” he explained. They were accused of being spies even after they produced their travel documents to prove otherwise. The arrest led to a 34-day detention. Then one day, when they thought they had been forgotten, they were hauled before a tribunal for trial.

Prof Makinwa still remembers vividly. “Charles Taylor headed the panel and he condemned us to death and they took us back to the cell to await execution. If you were a Liberian then, when you are arrested, they will chop off your two hands. The idea is to ensure that you won’t be able to carry guns again. But in our own case, because we were foreigners, they could not do that to us having seen our British documents. But what they did by condemning us to death by firing squad was even worse.

“We were in the cell for two months and I kept telling the guy who was bringing us food that we were not spies. I remember him telling us after one month that he was going to tell one of their senior officers to see me. When eventually the officer came, I once again pleaded our innocence, reminding him that we were fellow Africans on a cultural trip because of our love for the continent.

“So, I think he went back to re-present our case and after one month, they called us for a retrial and this time, Charles Taylor said because of the travel documents we had and because we were not living in the country and no arms were found on us, we should be allowed to go. He discharged and acquitted us.”

But rather than come back to Nigeria, Prof Ola Makinwa proceeded to Monrovia and on the road he had his Damascus experience that dramatically changed his entire worldview. Corpses, he still remembers, littered the entire stretch on both sides of the road.

He convinced himself on the need to seek audience with President Samuel Doe and convince him to end the brutal war by taking the asylum offered him by most Western countries. After three days in a government guest house in Monrovia, his request to see the President was granted.

In his own words: “At my request, President Doe’s Chief of Staff came and booked appointment for me to see him. I went with Alaba and as soon as we were ushered into his presence, I said: ‘Your Excellency, you will be one of the greatest African leaders if you can take the part of honour, accept the amnesty proposals and leave Liberia. I told him about the uncountable number of corpses that littered the roads on my way to Monrovia, some of them in their various stages of decomposition

“His words were not reassuring.”

“’Do I tell you the truth?’ he asked and when I answered in the affirmative, he retorted: ‘This is my country and I am in charge and I am going nowhere.’”

When Prof Makinwa reiterated the horror he saw on the road, Doe confessed that he had also heard about it but insisted that Charles Taylor was to be blamed and not him, assuring his flustered guest that his then arch-enemy was just killing the people for nothing but cannot achieve anything.

Failing in his self-assigned peace mission having escaped death by the whiskers himself, Prof Makinwa left for Nigeria but what he saw in the war-torn country made him a peace advocate.

“We must work on peace for Africa, for the peaceful co-existence of the African people,” he says. Yet, he is the first to admit that “it is an extremely difficult task because some of these leaders you see are not even peaceful people. They are not interested in peace. They are oblivious of the fact that peace is a weapon that can foster unity.”

But that hasn’t deterred him. After setting up the African Peace Foundation, a custodial of intellectual heritage, he went visiting African leaders; first to Col. Muammar Gadhafi in Tripoli in 1996. The Libyan leader embraced the project and pledged $500,000, which they never collected, not because Gadhafi reneged but because of leadership intrigues in Africa and Western manipulation and interference. Nelson Mandela whom he visited in prison, not only welcomed the idea but offered, without any prompting, to be the grand patron now as President. That was also in 1996. Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia jumped at the idea and so did Jerry Rawlings of Ghana who said he was all for good governance. But Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe objected on the ground that it had Western support.

If all these leaders acquiesced, why has peace continued to elude the continent? At the heart of the conflicts in Africa is the lack of good governance, the reason why Nigerians are today plumbing the depths of misery under President Bola Tinubu’s watch.

On Tinubu, Prof Makinwa posits: “Tinubu’s administration is an eyesore. He might have good intention but what is the intention of those who surround him? Their own reason for being in government is to grab. As it is now, what is killing this country is corruption. We have ICPC and EFCC. In the last one year, what has the EFCC done? That shows you that corruption has eaten deep into the country’s fabric.”

If the economy is thriving and people are able to feed, the unemployed secure jobs, and there is quality education and good healthcare for all, there will be peace in Africa generally and Nigeria in particular, he asserts.

But as dispiriting as the situation is, he is undeterred in his advocacy. The product of his tenacity is the book, Peace Culture: A Monumental evidence for Global Co-existence, our topic for next week.