Chairman of Dangote Group, Aliko Dangote, has disclosed that his refinery has more than enough fuel in reserve to meet Nigeria’s demand and that marketers should collect the available supply to alleviate the current scarcity.

He disclosed this to State House correspondents after President Bola Tinubu met with crude oil and refined product sales members in the local currency implementation committee.
The committee was led by the minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Mr Wale Edun.

“We are more than ready to supply the market with 30 million litres daily,” Dangote assured, adding that his refinery holds 500 million litres of fuel in reserve.

“This is enough to sustain the country for over 12 days without new imports or production,” he added.
Dangote emphasised that his role is strictly that of a producer and bulk supplier, not a retail distributor, and urged marketers to take responsibility for distribution to filling stations.

“We are not in the retail business. I have a refinery, not filling stations,” he clarified. “If marketers come forward to collect, there will be no queues.”

Dangote also expressed his commitment to the government’s fuel supply goals, stating, “I’m putting my name on the line by assuring Mr President that we will supply a minimum of 30 million litres per day, ramping up as needed to stabilise the market.”

He also highlighted the financial impact of holding such a massive fuel reserve, explaining that it incurs daily costs, particularly with high interest rates.

“Every day, it costs me to maintain 500 million litres in our tanks. If I could recoup this investment, I could be charging 32% interest,” he noted, underscoring the urgency for marketers to act.
Dangote urged fuel marketers to prioritise local collection over imports.

“If marketers have been managing 55 million litres daily through imports, I see no reason they shouldn’t come and collect our supply and distribute it locally.”

He reaffirmed his refinery’s readiness to keep a steady supply. “We have what they need. As they collect, I will continue pumping. Our tanks are full, and we are ready to keep Nigeria’s fuel supply flowing smoothly if the marketers do their part.”

He also underscored the significance of Afreximbank’s role as a settlement bank between Dangote and the NNPCL, the aim of which is to streamline transactions within the crude oil market.

Pump Price Adjustment Reaction To Market Dynamics – Marketers

Petroleum products marketers have described the fresh pump adjustment of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at some retail outlets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as a reaction to market dynamics.

The new price was observed on Tuesday at NNPC filling stations in some parts of the country.
About three weeks ago, NNPC also hiked fuel prices to about N1,030 per litre in Abuja and N998 in Lagos.

The adjustment may see motorists paying about N1060 in Abuja and N1025 in Lagos.

The president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr Billy Gills-Harry, told LEADERSHIP that Nigerians should always expect to see prices going up and down.
He said this is expected in a deregulated market and should not be seen as NNPCL arbitrarily raising the pump price.

According to him, prices can change depending on import parity, which is essentially expected in a free market operation.

Our Correspondent reports that earlier this month, the federal government explained the recent increase in petrol prices by the NNPCL, attributing it to global energy market conditions.

The minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, clarified that the NNPCL’s decision was influenced by market forces, not government directives, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).
Meanwhile, the Finance Minister Wale Edun also shared insights from the meeting with President Tinubu on a new initiative enabling local refiners to purchase crude oil in Naira, a project fully backed by the Federal Executive Council.

Edun credited the Dangote Group’s substantial investment in its 650,000-barrel-per-day refinery as a crucial project enabler and emphasised collaboration with regulatory bodies like the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) and Nigeria National Petroleum Company Ltd (NNPCL).

“What we have achieved is the establishment of market pricing for petroleum products,” he explained.

“This, coupled with market pricing for foreign exchange, sets our economy on a path toward industrialisation.”

He further highlighted the initiative’s broad economic impact, noting it would provide essential raw materials for various industries, from agriculture to chemicals and textiles.

“This is part of Mr President’s strategy to create favourable conditions for private sector investment, job creation, and economic growth,” Edun said.

Edun also stated that the new pricing structure is expected to strengthen NNPC’s financial position, enabling it to better support federal, state, and local governments.

“This will allow them to meet their obligations, including salary payments and infrastructure development,” he added.

While acknowledging the remaining challenges, Edun expressed optimism about Nigeria’s industrial development trajectory.

“Although it’s early days and much work remains, we now see a clear path toward modernising our economy,” he remarked, assuring stakeholders of the government’s commitment to overcoming initial hurdles linked to local crude sales in Naira.

“There is determination from the top downwards for this initiative to succeed,” he affirmed.
The meeting was attended by top officials, including the group chief executive officer of NNPCL, Mele Kyari; chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service, Zacch Adedeji; governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Yemi Cardoso; chief executive of NMDPRA, Farouk Ahmed, and the chief executive of the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission, Gbenga Komolafe.

It is recalled that President Tinubu had , on July 29, directed NNPCL to commence crude sales to the Dangote Refinery and other local refiners, with Afreximbank appointed as the pilot settlement bank to oversee transactions.

Ghana Eyes Fuel Imports From Dangote Refinery

Ghana could buy petroleum products from Nigeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery once the facility is operating at total capacity, cutting more expensive European exports, the head of the country’s oil regulator said on Monday.

According to a Reuters report, the chairman of the National Petroleum Authority, Ghana Mustapha Abdul-Hamid, said this could end monthly fuel imports of $400m from Europe.

He spoke at the OTL Africa Downstream oil conference in Lagos.

The $20bn Lekki-based Dangote refinery began releasing Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, into the Nigerian market on September 15, 2024.

However, despite this, marketers of the product in Nigeria have since commenced importing PMS in hundreds of millions of litres following the federal government’s total deregulation of the downstream oil sector in Nigeria.

However, at the function in Lagos on Monday, the Ghanaian petroleum authority official stated that his country might start importing fuel from the Nigerian refinery.

“If the refinery reaches 650,000 bpd a day capacity, all that volume cannot be consumed by Nigeria alone; so instead of us importing as we do right now from Rotterdam, it will be much easier for us to import from Nigeria, and I believe that will bring down our prices,” Hamid said.

The Dangote refinery, built by billionaire Aliko Dangote, is expected to operate near total capacity by the end of the year, and analysts believe it could be fully operational in the first quarter of 2025.

Allow Market To Determine Profit, Loss In Oil Sector- Tinubu

…Urges oil stakeholders to end reliance on import

President Bola Tinubu, speaking Tuesday in Abuja, commended the Implementation Committee on selling Naira-based crude oil and refined products and asked the members to resolve any teething problems.

In a review meeting at the State House, the President, in a statement by his spokesman, Bayo Onanuga, said that using the Naira was conceived to remove the exchange rate hurdle.

“Whatever solution we proffer in crude oil and refined products sales in Naira should not take us back to our experience in the last 40 years.

“There can be cost and revenue adjustment in the oil sector, but the issue is that the government will not have to go back to the old way of doing things,’’ the president stated.

President Tinubu said the various players in the oil sector, including the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Ltd and the Dangote Refinery, should work to improve the economy and the livelihood of Nigerians.

The President urged stakeholders to look inward, consider supplying enough petrol and petroleum products for local consumption, and stop the persistent reliance on importation.

He said this would enable the channelling of foreign exchange into the development of the real sector.

The President advised stakeholders to use Afreximbank as a settlement bank to resolve the Naira pricing for crude and refined products. Afreximbank is already on board as the financial adviser.

“The market must determine what we are doing. Once you allow the market to determine the profit and loss, independent marketers and the government side can meet on the worksheet. I want the issues resolved without future waste of time,’’ he added.

“We can have energy security, and the motivation for Alhaji Aliko Dangote will not be defeated. It will be more predictable on a medium and long-term basis,’’ the President said.

Minister of finance and coordinating minister of the economy, Wale Edun, said the administration’s groundbreaking steps to sell crude in Naira would not be reversed, and the government would not be involved in determining the rate of exchange for the oil sector.

The President and Chief Executive of Dangote Group told the President that the refinery had more than 500 million litres of fuel in reserve after supplying 400 million to the economy.

He said the refinery could collaborate with the other refineries managed by NNPC Ltd to meet an estimated 32 million litres of local petrol needs.

At the meeting, the Federal Inland Revenue Service chairman, Zach Adedeji, who chairs the technical committee, said importing refined products should end once Nigeria can produce enough to meet domestic needs.

“The vision of Mr President is to turn Nigeria into a hub for refined products to export to the world.”Other stakeholders at the meeting included Prof. Benedict Oramah, the president and chairman of the Board of Afrexim Bank, and Sen. Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, the minister of budget and national planning and group managing director of NNPC Limited, Mele Kyari.

The president’s special adviser on energy, Olu Verheijen, and the CEOs of NIMASA and Nigerian Ports Authority also attended, along with Engineer Gbenga Komolafe, head of Upstream Regulator, and Farouk Ahmed, head of Midstream and Downstream Regulator, NMDPRA.

Marketers Say Pump Price Adjustment At NNPCL Stations, Reaction To Market Dynamics

Petroleum products marketers have described the fresh pump adjustment of Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) at some retail outlets of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) as a reaction to market dynamics.

The new price was observed on Tuesday at NNPC filling stations in some parts of the country.

About three weeks ago, NNPC also hiked fuel prices to about N1,030 per litre in Abuja and N998 in Lagos.

The adjustment may see motorists paying about N1060 in Abuja and N1025 in Lagos.

The president of the Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN), Dr Billy Gills-Harry, told LEADERSHIP that Nigerians should always expect to see prices going up and down.

He said this is expected in a deregulated market and should not be seen as NNPCL arbitrarily raising the pump price.

According to him, prices can change depending on import parity, which is essentially expected in a free market operation.

Our Correspondent reports that earlier this month, the federal government explained the recent increase in petrol prices by the NNPCL, attributing it to global energy market conditions.

The minister of information and national orientation, Mohammed Idris, clarified that the NNPCL’s decision was influenced by market forces, not government directives, in line with the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA).

[Leadership]

Governor of Nasarawa State, Abdullahi Sule, has said that the 19 governors under the Northern Governors Forum (NGF) are against the VAT bill because it will be unfair to the region. 

The governor stated this during an interview on Channels TV’s Politics Today.

Arising from a meeting on Sunday, the NGF chaired by Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, had rejected the derivation-based model for Value Added Tax (VAT) distribution in the new tax bill currently in the National Assembly for deliberation.

Sule said that the governors were not against President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, saying they brought him into power.

He said. “We can’t bring in President Tinubu and then oppose him. If you look at the composition of the meeting you will see that there are people from the APC and the PDP. Some don’t even have a political party. We sat down and took the decision together.

“Some are traditional rulers. If you look at the law, it will be unfair to the north. By the time you say you are going to take something out of the sharing of the FAC and then say you are going to share something similar to something like that because that is the understanding we have based on the proposal. It’s going to be another 13% derivation.

“So, the states that have almost no VAT at the moment will end up actually with the shorter area of the stick. And you know, the 19 states of the north are generating very little when it comes to VAT at the moment.

“It’s very clear. I worked for some of these multi-national. I know how VAT is paid. When we were importing raw material at Dangote at Apapa port. We paid VAT first and then the finished product had VAT added to it,” he added.

[Dailytrust]

The Minister of State for Police Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has promised to draft the authors of a book, titled: Cybercrime, Digital Forensic Readiness, and Financial Crime Investigation in Nigeria, Dr. Tombari Sibe and Prof. Christian Kaunert, into Federal Government’s Committee on National Policing Policy.

Sibe, a lecturer in the Department of Computer Engineering at the Rivers State University, Diobu (Mile III) in Port Harcourt, is a Cybersecurity/Digital Forensic expert with over two decades of professional experience in Information Technology Consulting, while Kaunert is Professor of International Security in the School of Law and Government at the Dublin City University in Ireland.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim noted that experts like Sibe and Kaunert were needed in the committee she said was being put together.

She said the authors would provide inputs on cybersecurity frameworks for the Nigeria Police Force (NPF).

The minister, who was represented by her Senior Technical Adviser on Policy and Strategy, Mike Imafidor, spoke during the book launch in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital.

She said the ministry was focused on driving police reforms through the integration of advanced technologies.

Sulaiman-Ibrahim said: “Another significant element is the development of a national policing policy with the committee currently being formed.

“We will extend an invitation to Dr. Sibe and Professor Kaunert to join the committee, particularly in the section focusing on cybersecurity and technology adoption within the NPF.

“The aim is to establish a framework for technology integration, avoiding isolated systems that are difficult to connect and ensuring smooth inter-operability. The goal is to create a policy that guarantees the sustainability of these technological efforts.”

[TheNation]

The meddlesome World Bank says that “By August 2024, the Ethiopian birr, the Nigerian naira, and Sundanese pound were among the worst (performing currencies) in the (African) region,” and added that “The naira continued losing value, with a year-to-date depreciation of about 43 per cent as of end-August.”

The acknowledgement by banker Chika Mbonu that the naira got weaker than the currency of many African countries has a counterpoise in the World Bank’s converse report that the Kenyan shilling got stronger by more than 21 per cent during the same period.

Bloomberg ranks the naira among the world’s 10 weakest currencies, three of which –Zambian kwacha, Angolan kwanza, and Nigeria’s naira– are from Africa. Their weakness is attributed to unstable commodity prices, inflationary pressures, and lack of dollar liquidity, a point of view that enables Euro-American metropolitan economies to prey on Third World economies.

But the weak naira needn’t be a disadvantage if President Bola Tinubu’s economic managers can flip things around, and take advantage of economies of large-scale production by getting the real sector, especially, to produce, for export, goods for which Nigeria has a comparative advantage. Investment banker, Dr. Nnaemeka Obiaraeri, says Nigeria has no currency problem but lacks productivity.

After the Naira gains strength from the accumulated foreign reserve therefrom, it should be further devalued– to maintain the weak regime that should earn even more convertible currency to finance the importation, and acquisition of more infrastructural and industrial production capacity that will eventually strengthen the naira.

But strengthening the naira will not be the only intent of this strategy, but is to reverse the current import-oriented trend of the Nigerian economy and tap the ready market for Nigeria’s manufactures in richer economies.

Nigeria’s fiscal, monetary, and macroeconomic policymakers should consider this unorthodox opportunity to strengthen Nigeria’s economy which is suffering from inappropriate economic policies that are imposed by Breton Woods institutions on an unwary political class.

Even non-economists know that consumers from other countries prefer to buy cheaper goods from economies whose currencies are relatively weaker than their own. America and China, countries with the world’s two biggest economies, are masters of this highly profitable game.

One obvious “low-hanging-fruit” place to start to take advantage of the tanking Naira is to encourage the export of petroleum products from the refineries of Dangote, Nigeria National Petroleum Company Limited, and others, to countries with stronger currencies than the naira.

Though subsidy has been removed, the depreciation of the naira still makes smuggling of Nigeria’s petrol and other petroleum products relatively profitable in West and Central African countries. Nigeria should take advantage of this ready market and redeem the N132 trillion revenue that the World Bank claims Nigeria lost to the subsidy.

Wale Edun, Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, who was with Governor Yemi Cardoso of Central Bank of Nigeria, at the Group of 20 Economies meeting hosted by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, DC., gave a rather simplistic submission that all Nigeria needs to do to strengthen its currency is to increase petroleum production.

That is true, but it’s not good enough, for an economy with the capacity to add value to primary commodities. It only feeds the concerns of foreign investors whose interest is how to easily remit their earnings back home. That is why Muhamad Sani Abdullahi, CBN’s Deputy Governor for Economic Policies, cockily disclosed that “Nigeria now has $40.2 billion external reserve.”

Abdullahi boasts that ramping up the foreign reserves is “a significant move, up from a year ago when (Nigeria had) less than $34 billion… to cover at least 14.3 months of import for goods and services, and 15 months for goods only,” neglects the productive capacity of Nigeria’s economy.

Abdullahi should have addressed Arise News TV Rotus Odirri’s inquiry about

plans by the government, if any, to return Nigeria Incorporated to work again. The real sector is key to strengthening the currency of any country.

Invisible Ekperikpe Ekpo, Minister of State for Petroleum Resources (Gas), should expand the production of Liquified Petroleum Gas, used for cooking, instead of halting the export. His counterpart in the Ministry of Petroleum Resources, Heineken Lokpobiri, plans to raise daily petroleum production by one million for export.

Nigeria’s Federal and state governments can jointly nudge the private sector to invest in the country’s agriculture and agro-allied sector to cultivate more agricultural produce and as well as turn the commodities into industrial manufactures for export.

If, for instance, Southern Nigerians can turn agricultural crops into industrial raw materials for the pharmaceutical and textile industries, and Northern Nigerians can revive the hides & skins trade, for export, Nigeria can turn the pitiable foreign exchange table around.

Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa of Ondo State has already given an undertaken that if he is re-elected in the November 2024 off-season gubernatorial election, he will promote agriculture and food security. He may just be able to motivate his constituents to supply cheaper food crops to Americans who are currently concerned about the high cost of foodstuffs.

To attract foreign students and their convertible currency to the Nigerian economy, as they used to do in the 1960s and 1970s, the Federal and state governments should invest in the quantum improvement of tertiary educational institutions.

An ancillary to that is to also improve the medical infrastructure to reverse the medical tourism that Nigerians make to other countries and attract patients from countries that hitherto provide medical treatment for Nigeria’s money-miss-road elite.

The revelation by Sule Abdulaziz, Chief Executive Officer of Transmission Company that “(Nigeria supplies) Togo, we supply Benin (Republic) and Niger (Republic)… they get power from Nigeria on a 24-hour basis and they are paying,” is enough motivation for Nigeria to expand the capacity of its electricity sector to be able to further expand supply to the western and central African markets.

The Federal, state, and local governments can agree to divert funds from Excess Crude Account, or from savings made from the removal of petrol subsidy, to invest in electricity, probably the most foundational infrastructure for the success of Nigeria’s industrialisation strategy.

(By the way, the argument by Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, that increased funding from charging premium tariffs for Band A market of the electricity sector will lead to facility upgrades and expansion doesn’t seem to be adding up).

Dr. Jumoke Oduwole, incoming Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, should join hands with Abubakar Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and Economic Planning and Edun, and begin to think about how to urgently create conducive conditions to revive the comatose real sector of the Nigerian economy.

If all this works, all CBN Governor Cardoso needs to do is to keep looking for creative ways to devalue the naira further, which will be getting stronger, to make Nigeria’s farm produce and industrial manufactures affordable for consumers in foreign countries with stronger currencies.

But also, Finance Minister Edun and the National Salaries and Wages Commission must regularly review salaries and wages to reflect the cost of living that would rise after every devaluation of the Naira. After all, there is a law that mandates regular salary adjustments.

If well executed, this strategy should feed Edun’s ambition to optimize foreign remittances to Nigeria, conveniently pay for Nigeria’s imports, and provide jobs for Nigeria’s army of unemployed youths.

X@lekansote1, lekansote.com

Last week’s cabinet reshuffle by President Bola Tinubu has generated a lot of mixed reactions. While many saw it as a masterstroke, others are either indifferent or knock the move as being underwhelming. I have had the privilege of discussing the shuffle on about 20 media platforms 13 of which were on the day after the announcement. All the major broadcast media, print, and television stations wanted to know my position on the president’s decision, so I graciously obliged.

This piece chronicles my thoughts on the president’s decision to overhaul his cabinet. The takeoff point is the announcement of the decision which was on the evening of Wednesday, October 23, 2024. Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser, Information and Strategy for the President announced on his X-handle that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has approved the immediate implementation of eight far-reaching actions to reinvigorate the administration’s capacity for optimal efficiency pursuant to his commitment to deliver on his promises to Nigerians. The eight actions include The renaming of the Ministry of Nigeria Delta Development to the Ministry of Regional Development to oversee the activities of all the Regional Development Commissions.

Others are the immediate winding up of the Ministry of Sports Development and the transfer of its functions to the National Sports Commission to develop a vibrant sports economy; The merger of the Federal Ministry of Tourism and the Federal Ministry of Arts and Culture to become Federal Ministry of Art, Culture, Tourism and the Creative Economy; The re-assignment of ten ministers to new ministerial portfolios; The discharge of five Ministers; The nomination of seven new ministers for onward transmission to Senate for confirmation; The appointment of Shehu Dikko as Chairman of the National Sports Commission; and the appointment of Sunday Dare as Special Adviser to the President on Public Communication and Orientation working from the Ministry of Information and National Orientation.

He thereafter went on to name sacked ministers, the newly appointed ones, and the redeployed ones. It needs to be understood that we have an executive president who has the constitutional backing to appoint, suspend, dismiss, and reshuffle his aides among whom are ministers, heads of agencies and parastatals, special advisers, and special assistants. They are all lieutenants of the president just the same way as commissioners, heads of agencies, advisers, and assistants to the governor of a state are. It is utterly within the prerogative of the president or Governor to carry out a shake-up.

Tinubu bided goodbye to a total of six ministers namely: Uju-Ken Ohanenye, Minister of Women Affairs; Lola Ade-John, Minister of Tourism; Prof. Tahir Mamman SAN, Minister of Education; Abdullahi Gwarzo, Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development and Dr. Jamila Bio-Ibrahim, Minister of Youth Development. The sixth minister was Dr. Betta Edu, Minister of Humanitarian Affairs who had earlier been suspended on abuse of office allegation since January this year. For me, there are no surprises here.

The only disappointment is that many more should have been on the list as more than half of the president’s ministers were appointed based on political patronage and not on merit. Many of them have either no clue about what they were appointed to do or have no capacity to deliver. Truth be told, however; the political system wasn’t fair to some of them especially those who were appointed into newly created ministries last year. These are the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy, Ministry of Steel Development, Ministry of Tourism, Ministry of Youths, and Ministry of Art, Culture and Creative Economy. This is because when they were appointed in August 2023, they had no funding, sufficient office space, and personnel to work with until early this year when the 2024 Budget was signed into law.

Questions have been asked on why the former governors who are in Tinubu’s cabinet were kept at their duty posts. They were not sacked nor reshuffled despite the glaring underperformance of some of them. They have become sacred cows and untouchables due to calculations and permutations about the president’s re-election bid in 2027. Sincerely speaking with the exemption of the Minister of Works and Minister of FCT, other former governors in the president’s cabinet are either overwhelmed or incompetent. Apart from the former governors, citizens have issued queries to the president about why he kept the Ministers of Power, Environment, Finance, Special Duties, and Water Resources despite their obvious non-performance or hurtful policies. Obviously, those who have strong political godfathers or are deemed to be political assets were left off the hook.

Seven new ministers were welcomed on board the president’s cabinet and it is heartwarming that President Tinubu harkened to the advocacy that ministerial nominations should be accompanied by the portfolio in which the nominee will serve. This should be standard practice at all levels of governance. This will enable the Senate or State Houses of Assembly as the case may be, to carry out proper screening of the nominees. The appointment of Bianca Odumegu-Ojukwu the widow of Dim Chukwuemeka Ojukwu, the late Biafra leader, as Minister of State Foreign Affairs has been lauded by the All Progressives Grand Alliance where she is a chieftain. The president may have done this to curry favour from the opposition political parties and give his cabinet a semblance of a “Government of National Unity”. Remember, Nyesome Wike is from the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic Party. Likewise, Adebayo Adelabu, the incumbent Minister of Power was appointed when he was a member of the Accord Party in Oyo State before he defected back to the All Progressives Congress after he assumed office.

People are asking what objective criteria were used to demote Senator John Enoh from the Ministry of Sports to Minister of State (Industry) in the Ministry of Trade and Investment and Dr. Doris Uzoka-Anite from Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment to Minister of State Finance. If you do not know, the Minister and Minister of State are not of equal status. In fact, the learned silk and current Minister of Aviation, Festus Keyamu has said it is unconstitutional and should be scrapped. He said this in his valedictory speech on Wednesday, May 24, 2023, as Minister of State for Labour in former President Muhammadu Buhari’s cabinet.  Another observation is the appointment of the Minister of State for Water Resources and Sanitation and the Minister of State for Steel Development. Do these ministries deserve to have two ministers at the helm of affairs? Meanwhile, the Ministry of Solid Minerals from which the Ministry of Steel was carved out still has only Dele Alake as the Minister. I think it is inappropriate to appoint a medical doctor, Morufu Alausa as Minister of Education. He should have been left in the Ministry of Health where he was Minister of State.

If President Tinubu found it expedient to scrap the Ministry of Sports and Ministry of Tourism, why did he not merge the Ministry of Police Affairs with the Ministry of Interior or Defence? Better still why didn’t he ask the Police Service Commission to take over the function of the Ministry? I am unhappy that the president did not bridge the gender gap in this shuffle. He sacked four female ministers and appointed two. He failed to live up to his campaign promise to give Nigerian women 35 per cent in appointive positions. He also did not improve on youth inclusion and excluded persons with disabilities.

I however commend the president for restructuring his cabinet ahead of the submission of the 2025 budget to the National Assembly. If this had been done after the laying of the budget for the lawmakers’ consideration, it would have caused a lot of dislocations. On the whole, what’s most important to Nigerians on this cabinet reshuffle is the reduction of the rising cost of governance which the president has again patently ignored by increasing the number of ministers and ministries. Ultimately, Nigerians expect that there will be priority for the welfare and security of citizens as mandated by section 14(2)(b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as altered.

X: @jideojong

The Nigeria Football Federation, on Tuesday, confirmed the dates and venues for the country’s senior men’s national team final two Group D matches for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualification series against Rwanda and Benin, The PUNCH reports.

According to NFF, the Confederation of African Football has scheduled November 14 and 18 as the days for the two games.

The Super Eagles will travel to Abidjan for their Matchday 5 fixture against the Benin Republic, scheduled for Thursday, November 14, at Stade Felix Houphouet-Boigny.

This match will start at 8 pm Nigerian time (7 PM Ivorian time) and will be officiated by Senegalese officials, with Issa Sy named as the centre referee. He will be joined by Djibril Camara and Nouha Bangoura as assistant referees, while El Hadji Amadou Sy will serve as the fourth official. Ivorian Rene Williams Sere will be the commissioner while Angolan Inacio Manuel Candido will be the referee assessor.

The three-time Africa Champions will play their final game of the qualifier at the Godswill Akpabio Stadium in Uyo on Monday, November 18.

The game, set to kick off at 5 PM Nigerian time, will be officiated by Moroccan referee Samir Guezzaz, who will be supported by assistants Zakaria Brinsi and Abdessamad Abertoune.

Kech Chaf Mustapha will serve as the fourth official, while Ghana’s Prosper Harrison Addo will take the role of match commissioner, and Somalia’s Ali Mohamed Ahmed will act as the referee assessor.

The Eagles currently top their Group D with 10 points from four games, four points ahead of second-placed Benin Republic, while Rwanda has five points. Bottom-placed Libya has only one point and is out of the running for qualification.

A win or draw against the Cheetahs of Benin Republic in Abidjan will secure the Super Eagles a ticket to the finals in Morocco, scheduled for December 2025/January 2026 with a game to spare.

The Eagles boycotted their last qualifier against Libya after suffering poor treatment where they had their flight diverted to another city and also held hostage at the Al-Abraq airport on the outskirts of Benghazi for almost 20 hours without food, water and internet facilities.

[Punch]

The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Osun, has suspended Rauf Aregbesola, a former governor of the state, over alleged anti-party activities.

The party accused the former minister of interior of “creating splinter groups in the APC” and making “public outbursts” against President Bola Tinubu, Bisi Akande, a former governor of Osun, and Gboyega Oyetola, minister of marine and blue economy.

The state working committee of the Osun APC said it found merit in the allegations leveled against the former minister by the executives of the party in Ilesa East LGA where he hails from.

In a letter to the national working committee (NWC) of the party, Tajudeen Lawal and Alao Kamoru, chair and secretary of the APC in Osun, said Aregbesola breached article 21 (2) of the party’s constitution.

“Following complaints of anti-party activities levelled against Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola by the llesa East Local Government executive committee, the State Executive Committee (SEC), after reviewing the allegations and in accordance with the powers vested in it by article 21(3) (vi) (c) of the party’s constitution, hereby suspends Ogbeni Rauf Aregbesola from the party pending the outcome of an investigation into the allegations by a disciplinary committee,” PUNCH quoted the letter as saying.

“The State Executive Commíttee has constituted a disciplinary committee to investigate and provide Ogbeni Aregbesola with the opportunity to respond to the allegations of activities deemed to be in violation of Article 21 (2) of the party’s constitution, particularly relating to anti-party activities that undermine the collective interests of the APC.”

They said the disciplinary committee would give Aregbesola a chance to defend himself.

RIFT BETWEEN TINUBU AND AREGBESOLA

Tinubu and Aregbesola fell out in 2020 when the former minister revamped the Mandate Group — a core of Tinubu’s loyalists — and usurped the closely-knitted caucus for individuals he could trust.

The former Osun governor relaunched the group without Tinubu’s approval and named Abdullahi Enilolobo, his protege, as the new leader.

In 2022, there was an attempt by close associates and friends to reconcile both men in the build-up to the 2023 general election – but that did not yield any tangible result as they still do not see eye to eye.

[TheCable]

One of the dominant themes in public discourse that has continued to attract both academic and media scrutiny in Nigeria is the leadership question. A lot has been written and many words expressed to describe the leadership situation in our country. It is the view of many that our major problem is “leadership”. Indeed, the legendary literary giant, Chinua Achebe once famously remarked in his book, The Trouble with Nigeria that “the trouble with Nigeria is simply a failure of leadership…”

It is to be noted though, that this “problem” of not having “good leaders” has been a generational accusation. In the colonial Nigeria, patriotic nationals of Nigeria, mostly young people but highly intelligent and courageous, worked tirelessly to confront the colonial leadership and the oppressive symbolism that it represented.

By the time their collective aspiration materialized and the lever of power fell in their hands, it was not long before they, themselves became victims of accusation of incompetence and corruption. The younger elements of their time were so impatiently pissed off with them, that, they staged a bloody coup to forcefully remove them from power.  And of course, they too became a “worse version” of what they complained agains.

The lesson to be noted in this, is that our search for good leaders and the proclivity for each generation to accuse the ruling class of their time of being incompetent, corrupt and visionless is as old as this country.

From all of these, it is sometimes difficult to really understand the nature of our leadership challenge, as it is clear that the dynamics of power struggle and oppositional politics can sometimes eclipse genuine leadership success.

Similarly, since leadership assessment in our clime is subjective and determined by sociopolitical or ethno-religious affiliations, the search for the ideal leadership has been made harder, if not illusory. Indeed, the leadership concept itself and its suppositions is as problematic as its ideation.

Who is a Leader?

One frightening thing about the conceptualization of leadership among Nigerians, especially from the standpoint of media narratives, is that the leadership of the country is often constructed as the people holding public offices. Our focus has always been to highlight the activities of public office holders as the ultimate and final generational leadership.

A nation’s leadership starts from the household to the larger society. Every father is a leader, every mother is a leader and every child is a leader. From being a class captain to becoming the president of a nation, the core values and skills of leadership are the same: responsibility, problem-solving, vision, fairness, firmness, prudence, transparency, temperance, resourcefulness, patience, responsiveness, creativity, accountability, fear of God among others.

These are the enduring values that a leader must possess. One doesn’t need to hold political office to have these values and skills, nor should they get to public office before possessing them.

A Clamour for Leadership Education

Therefore, I hold the view that leadership must be part of the basic everyday skills that every citizen should possess. Leadership training must be as important as basic education for literacy and numeracy. As a nation, we should have embedded curriculum that teaches leadership skills and principles, both as practical skills and indoctrinated values. For me, I believe  if you want to change a people, teach them what you want them to change to.

There are those who become leaders by default or by circumstances of privileged pedigree and not because of personal merits.  Yet, the best of leaders are those who have been trained, tested and exposed to the nitty-gritty of leadership in addition to their innate ability.
 Furthermore, the average person does not have the wherewithal to evaluate leadership competence because there is no widespread knowledge about leadership as a skill.

Leadership is such a serious thing that being certified should be one of the requirements to hold certain strategic positions in the society. Evidence abounds that technical skill on jobs are not enough for people to lead competently; there is the need for real and special training in the art and science of leadership for people to succeed today.

I therefore subscribe to the argument that people should, of necessity, go through intentional leadership training before they can lead at some certain levels in the society. We all need to be well exposed to the call of leadership and how to manage a mass audience of people with differing characteristics, needs and tendencies.

As a result, we currently run a compulsory subject called Ekiti Values Education (EVE) with a considerable module that focuses on leadership development. The subject aims to teach young Ekiti children comprehensive aspects of leadership, responsibility of a leader and practical leadership exposure. It aims to raise their self-awareness about their individual roles as a member of the future leadership and to prepare them to face the challenge of nation building.

Even as we grapple with the challenges of this generation, we owe the future generation, in addition to providing pedagogical framework, the responsibility of personal example. This is because it is in the nature of young people to emulate their leaders.

So, where we have found ourselves as leaders, be it as traditional rulers, community leaders, religion leaders, business leaders, union leaders, professional leaders, academic leaders, judicial, legislative or executive leaders, we have a duty to be the paragon of example for the next generation.

Conclusion

I want to thank the authorities of the Foursquare Gospel Church in Nigeria for providing this platform through which topical issues of relevance to national development are discussed. I am more than confident in our Guest Speaker to do justice to the topic at hand.
Let me conclude this remark with a quotation from the Maxwell Leadership Bible on our Lord Jesus Christ leadership model:
“The best leadership simply expresses who we are. Jesus led from who He was: God incarnate, the perfect expression of the Father. As He pursued His divine mission, He influenced others. Similarly, as we pursue who God called us to be, our leadership will be most natural and effective”.

* His Excellency  Biodun Oyebanji is the Governor Ekiti State