1. Sometime in 1996, after honing my skills in the Law Firm of Dr. Mudiaga Odje & Co. I took a huge leap of faith and relocated from Warri, Delta State to Lagos State, where I teamed up with my cousin, Oghogho Akpata, who had just set up the Law Firm, TEMPLARS.

2. From 1996 to date, I have worked with Oghogho, our Partners and other colleagues at TEMPLARS, in transforming a 4-man law practice into a world class, multi-sectoral, multinational and full-service Law Firm which is now in the 28th year of its existence and consists of over 100 lawyers, including three Senior Advocates of Nigeria.

3. In this period, I have served TEMPLARS in various capacities including as Senior Partner and Head of the Corporate & Commercial Practice Group, in which role I led or participated in some of the major groundbreaking transactions that have shaped commercial law practice in Nigeria and indeed the Nigerian economy. It was also from TEMPLARS that I went on to become the 30th President of the Nigerian Bar Association, with the full support of the Partners and entire staff of the Firm.

4. It is therefore with mixed feelings, but with a great sense of pride and responsibility, that I announce my disengagement from Templars with effect from 31st August 2023. This decision, which is not one that was taken lightly, became inevitable in view of my recent foray into active politics with a view to contributing towards the critical task of nation building.

5. I wish to assure the lawyers and staff at TEMPLARS, our clients, the legal community in Nigeria, and the general public that this decision was a collective one, which accords with the Firm’s governance protocols that I signed up to.

6. In my absence, our clientele will continue to be served by over 100 lawyers in TEMPLARS led by twenty other partners (across different practice areas) working out of the Firm’s offices in Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt and Accra.

7. I sincerely appreciate the Managing Partner, Oghogho Akpata, my other Partners and the entire staff of TEMPLARS for their unwavering support and for always being there for me. Indeed, the story of my life will never be complete without a chapter devoted to the central role that TEMPLARS played therein.

OLUMIDE AKPATA

24 August 2023

ECOWAS Chaiman and Nigeria's President Bola Tinubu on Thursday in Abuja granted a group of Islamic Ulamas (scholars) the approval to continue negotiations with the Niger junta for the peaceful restoration of constitutional order in that country.

This was after the group led by Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi had briefed the ECOWAS Chairman on the outcome of their previous mission to Niger at the behest of the regional organization.

The team, which is opposed to the use military force threated by ECOWAS, is expected to return to Niamey for further talks with the Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani-led junta.

Rtd Gen. Abdulsalami Abubakar, Nigeria’s former Head of State and the ECOWAS Special envoy to Niger, is also pursuing a similar back-channel diplomatic initiative to ensure a peaceful resolution of the Niger crisis after weeks of concerning stand-off.

President Tinubu is expected to brief his Heads of State colleagues on the next move by ECOWAS, which has rejected the 36-month political transition plan proposed by the junta.

A faction of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP), led by self-acclaimed founder, Boniface Aniebonam and the National Publicity Secretary, Agbo Major, has promised to “deal” with the 2023 presidential candidate of the party, Rabiu Kwankwaso, blaming him for the crisis that has rocked the party.

The faction therefore dismissed its suspension saying it was null and void.

The National Working Committee (NWC) of the NNPP, led by Abba Alli, had earlier on Thursday announced the suspension of Major and a founding member of the party, Boniface Aniebonam.

The NWC, which said the suspension was with immediate effect, pending the outcome of investigations by the party’s Disciplinary Committee, accused Major and Aniebonam of anti-party activities.

Aniebonam was also accused of trying to factionalise the party.

But speaking for the faction, Major dismissed the suspension, describing members of the NWC as jokers, in a telephone interview with THE WHISTLER hours after the suspension was handed down.

THE WHISTLER had contacted the publicity secretary to get a reaction on his suspension by the NWC without success.

Responding hours later, Major blamed the crisis in the NNPP on Kwankwaso, whom he said had been trying to hijack the party.

“He (Kwankwaso) is the one stage managing all these things because he is planning to hijack the party. But it is not a problem, we will deal with him,” Major told THE WHISTLER.

Stressing that the suspension was of no effect, he pointed out that Aniebonam is the Founder of the NNPP, and equally the Chairman of the party’s Board of Trustees (BOT).

“They (NWC members) are a bunch of jokers. They are suspending themselves. It is a Nollywood drama they are acting. Nobody will take them seriously.

“The Founder of a party and the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, you wake up and say you are suspending him for nothing.

“A Publicity Secretary of a party, you say you have suspended him. You say for anti-party activities. Which anti-party activities?

“These people are joking. Nobody would take them seriously.”

Asked what he would do next, Major said the suspension couldn’t stand.

“I am a law-abiding Nigerian but I can tell you there is nothing like suspension. They have made their pronouncement but it is the most useless pronouncement anybody can make.

“They are just on their own.

“I will be peaceful but I can assure you that whatever they are talking about there, it means nothing to me. Even in the face of the law, it makes no sense so they are wasting their time.”

Troops of the Nigerian Army, on Thursday, destroyed eight illegal oil refineries and 14 reservoirs containing an estimated 200,000 liters of stolen crude oil and 90,000 liters of diesel in the Ogbokoko and Atu areas of Warri South Local Government Area of Delta State.

Acting on intelligence, the troops stormed the area and found the refineries and reservoirs operating in full swing.

The oil thieves fled the scene upon sighting the troops, the Director, of Army Public Relations, Brig. Gen, Onyema Nwachukwu, revealed this via the Army’s handle on X, formerly Twitter.

“The Illegal refining site was destroyed in-situ in line with extant guidelines of Operation Delta Safe. Investigation is ongoing to arrest the fleeing criminals.

“Members of the public are please implored to report any suspected act of sabotage or criminality to security agencies to enhance ongoing operations to curb economic sabotage in the country,” the military disclosed.

Nigeria’s unemployment has dropped from 33.3 percent in 2020 to 4.1 percent in the first quarter of 2023, and 5.3 percent in the fourth quarter of 2022.

The 2020 figures and the current one were calculated using different methodologies, says the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), after a two-year hiatus after a two-year hiatus.

The nation’s unemployment rate which is an outcome of the labour force survey (LFS) conducted in Nigeria, is coming two years after the last official data of 33.3 percent for the fourth quarter of 2020 which was released in March 2021.

The Statistician-General of the Federation, Adeyemi Adeniran, who commented on the labour force survey report, however, said the drop is basically due to a new methodology adopted by the National Bureau of Statistics in conducting the survey, and not necessarily government performance.

The LFS is quarterly survey designed with the objective to produce official national statistics on the labour force, employment and unemployment for monitoring and planning purposes.

The new methodology for the Nigeria Labour Force Survey brings our Labour Force Statistics in line with international standards and best practices

However Nigeria has failed to ensure publication of the report as at when due, as Businessday findings showed that no data was published for the four quarters of 2021 as well as the first three quarters of 2022.

Clarification 

The statistician general clarified that there is no real basis to compare the data from two years ago when the report was last released to the present figures.

“NBS has not said that unemployment rate in Nigeria has “reduced from the 33.3% to whatever the figure it is now, therefore government should go to sleep” No, that is not what we have said,” the Statistician General strongly noted in his fairly long keynote speech.

According to him, “The figures today are not based on any performance of any sort, but strictly, and I repeat, strictly on the change in methodology….this is based on the new ILO standard, which Nigeria is part and parcel of, as a country.

“As a matter of fact, the current Chair of the ILO Governing Board is Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations in Geneva, H.E, Ambassador Abiodun Richards Adelaja, so this we cannot continue to be at odds with the ILO standard…we have adopted the ILO standard methodology, which I believe, we have shown enough justification for, and as a result, the figures have changed, and both the new and old are not comparable.

Also he noted that the NLFS is a survey for measuring whether people are engaged or not, the type of that engagement, and the nature of it, be it for pay, profit, own consumption or for free.

“This is why the concept of decent work has become much more pronounced in recent times, as the clamour for better working conditions increase, and rightly so. The measure of the quality of a person’s life is not done through the NLFS, there are other surveys that are designed for that purpose, such as the Nigeria Living Standard Survey (NLSS), Food and Nutrition Survey, or other household Consumption and Expenditure surveys which deal with welfare and living conditions,” he said.

“Waged employment, which is very often what people confuse for employment, disregarding self-employment, is only 11.8%, meaning that most Nigerians are self-employed, do we then classify the self-employed as unemployed? This cannot be so, hence attention should shift to the quality of work people do, as that appears to be the real issue.”

Reeling out the real outcomes of the survey, Adeniran explained that “the findings reveal that about three quarters of Nigerians in the working age population, 73.6% in Q4 2022 and 76.7% in Q1, 2023 were engaged in some form of work for pay or profit during quarters under review.

He noted that this workforce is composed of individuals engaged in various types of work, including formal and informal employment. A further 4.96% were engaged in subsistence agriculture in the fourth quarter of 2022, while 3.56% of the working age population were engaged in subsistence agriculture in the first quarter of 2023.

He noted that this workforce is composed of individuals engaged in various types of work, including formal and informal employment. A further 4.96% were engaged in subsistence agriculture in the fourth quarter of 2022, while 3.56% of the working age population were engaged in subsistence agriculture in the first quarter of 2023.

The results also indicates a scarcity of Wage-employment, as the share of those employed in Wage-employment during the reference quarters was 13.4 percent in Q4 2022 and 11.8 percent in Q1 2023.

This, he said means that a lot more Nigerians operate their own businesses or engage in agriculture and that this figure was 73.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022, and 75.4% in the first quarter of 2023. The high share of self-employed persons amongst the employed shows that most Nigerians struggle to find wage employment, which is most desirable by Nigerians.

Furthermore, the share of the working age population in Nigeria that are not working was 21.4% in the fourth quarter of 2023 and 19.8% in the first quarter of 2023.

According to him, not working is a combination of those within the working age population who are unemployed and not in labour force, such as students, housewives and those not available and searching for work, hence the not working rate should not be taken as the unemployment rate.

He quite acknowledged that Unemployment which is a challenge faced by countries across the globe, remains so in Nigeria.

In his words, “Using the new ILO definition, the survey shows that the unemployment rate for the fourth quarter of 2022 stood at 5.3% and 4.1% for the first quarter of 2023. 

“This figure aligns perfectly with neighbouring countries around Nigeria. Ghana (3.9%), Niger (0.5%), Chad (1.4%), Cameroon (4.0), Togo (4.1%), Benin Republic (1.7%) amongst others.

“Unemployment amongst those with post-secondary education was highest, at 9.1% in the fourth quarter of 2022. This figure is almost double the headline unemployment rate for that quarter and highlights the challenging problem of graduate unemployment, were individuals, despite their education, struggle to secure employment.

Underemployment is also a more significant issue for Nigerians, whereby persons engaged in one activity or the other yet indicate interest and availability to take on more work, due to inadequacy of the jobs they are engaged in at the time.

Findings from the survey estimate the underemployment rate to be 13.7% in the fourth quarter of 2022, and 21.2% in the first quarter of 2023.

“This indicates that, though persons are engaged, the engagement is not sufficient for them, and they would like to work additional hours of work,” he stated.

The survey also collects information on informality of employment. Nigeria has a large informal sector, however, the number of persons engaged in informal employment is largely blurred.

“Using the ILO definition, the survey estimates that 93.5% of employed person were engaged informally in the fourth quarter of 2022, while 92.6% of employed persons in the first quarter of 2023 were also engaged informally.

For him, this is very interesting and useful information for government, particularly at this time when discussions are ongoing on palliative measures to be taken following the removal of petrol subsidies.

In his remarks, the world bank country director, Shubham Chaudhuri noted the importance of having a robust, regular national data such as the Labour force survey report, sating that reliable data gives the government to knowledge about the welfare of the nation as well as ensures the right intervention and programs needed to address challenges.

Noting that over 130 million Nigerians were multidimensionally poor, Chaudhuri stated the importance of the report cannot be overemphasised as necessary for job creation and poverty reduction. 

For the permanent secretary, Ministry of budget and economic planning, Nebeolisa Anako, the achievement is consistent with the mandate the present administration given the importance of data. “We place more emphasis on reliable data and the ministry will continue to provide support to the bureau to ensure availability of reliable data.

Hence the importance of this report is that it shows the economy realities, as labour force report is a key indices in the economy.

For the Minister, budget and economic planning, Abubakar Bagudu, data is vital to nation and planning building.

He said, “the president believes in reliable data for planning and will support anything that will lead to production of appropriate data.

“To create jobs for youths, we need this kind of data, a lot needs to be done to address the high rate of unemployment in the country. The President is desirous of reducing unemployment. 

“Nigeria is one of the countries with absorptive capacity, so what we need is to provide better environment and more incentives.”

Reaction

Analysts who spoke with Businessday, said that the delays showed government lack of concern for human development amidst high rate of poverty in the country.

Paul Inyang, Abuja based economic analyst, decried that most government initiatives and interventions are often designed without acurate data and implemented based on assumptions.

For him, no country can have a meaningful development in the absence of accurate and current. 

“If the government is concerned about the well being of its citizens, they will be expectant to know these figures because it shows the welfare of the citizens.

“How do we ensure meaningful interventions and programs if we do not have accurate data, this only happens in Nigeria where people come into government to enrich themselves.

“Even when these data are finally released, some do not reflect the realities of happenings in the country,” he said.

Determined to resolve the political standoff in Niger Republic, President Bola Tinubu, acting in his capacity as the Chairperson of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has given his approval for a delegation of Islamic leaders (Ulama) to engage in another round of dialogue with coup leaders in the country.

The decision was reached during a meeting on Thursday, where President Tinubu conferred with prominent clerics, including Sheikh Dahiru Bauchi.

The Ulama delegation had previously visited Niamey, the capital of Niger Republic, two weeks ago to engage in discussions with the junta led by General Abdourahamane Tiani, following the coup that took place on July 26, 2023, leading to the seizure of power from President Mohamed Bazoum.

As part of ECOWAS’ response to the coup, sanctions were imposed on Niger, and the possibility of employing force against the coup plotters was not ruled out.

ECOWAS, recognizing the severity of the situation, has already approved the deployment of a standby force to restore constitutional order in Niger, while maintaining its commitment to pursuing diplomatic avenues to resolve the crisis.

Abdulsalami Abubakar, the ECOWAS envoy to Niger Republic and former Nigerian Head of State, expressed optimism after his delegation’s meeting with the coup leaders that diplomatic efforts could resolve the problem.

Although the junta announced its intention to transition back to civilian rule within three years, this proposition was met with rejection from ECOWAS.

The African Union has also taken measures against the junta by suspending the Niger Republic due to the ongoing political turmoil.

Niger’s coup marked the fourth in West Africa since 2020, following similar events in Burkina Faso, Guinea, and Mali.

The battle to unravel what the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, Atiku Abubakar, has called “true identity” in aid of his petition at the tribunal enters crucial stage on Thursday as the Chicago State University has assured that all documents being sought by the applicant in relation to Bola Tinubu of the All Progressives Congress, APC, would be released and exposed if granted by the court.

Atiku who has been locked in a battle with Tinubu regarding the actual winner of the 2023 presidential election at the Presidential Election Petition Tribunal extended the frontiers of the war to the US in what his camp said is to expose the ‘actual’ Tinubu following several discrepancies in his biodata submitted to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC.

Although Tinubu, who courted controversy regarding his real name, age and academic records since 1999 when he won the governorship seat in Lagos has denied all accusations of deliberately concealing his true identity, Atiku believes certain records in the US where the current president schooled and worked could settle the controversy.

Whichever way, the Atiku camp told THE WHISTLER, “it’s a win-win for us,” as “we are sure the reason Tinubu made an application to deny the release of that information means his true identity would be unravelled.

“Is he a male? What course did he study? When? What’s his date of birth?

“We would know all of those and even more,” a member of the Atiku camp said on Wednesday.

In its deposition to the court, the Chicago State University, CSU, has requested the court to grant “only limited and targeted discovery” of the information however assuring that in the event the court rules otherwise, it’s bound to honour the court decision immediately.

The University however wondered how information being sought by Atiku would aid his petition at the tribunal in Nigeria, it nonetheless said, in the event the Court determines to allow any discovery to proceed here, the University urges the Court to direct only limited, targeted discovery on the University.

“As leave to issue any discovery has not yet been granted, and the Court’s views on what if any discovery is appropriate here under 28 U.S.C. §1782 are not yet known, it is premature for the University to raise objections to the scope of the documents and information sought in Abubakar’s two subpoenas.

“But without limiting further objections, which the University expressly reserves, the University notes that the scope and relevancy of certain of Abubakar’s requests are clearly inappropriate,” the University added.

Citing it said, “For example, Abubakar’s document subpoena Request No. 5 seeks information on diplomas issued by the University for a 44-year period (1979 to the present), and Abubakar’s deposition subpoena Topic No. 7 seeks information on the employment status and reasons for departure of a former employee in the University’s General Counsel’s Office

“Following this Court’s ruling on the Application, should any discovery be permitted, the University will meet and confer promptly and in good faith with Abubakar’s counsel to attempt to address all the University’s concerns.”

Suspected armed robbers have invaded a female hostel at the Rivers State University (RSU), Port Harcourt on Thursday, where they robbed and sexually assaulted some of the students.

The robbers carted away mobile phones, cash, and other valuables belonging to the students.

The incident occurred in Hostels D and C, located near the school’s back gate, where a lot of female students are accommodated, at around 1:45 a.m.

According to a student, the robbers were armed with guns and machetes, and they operated for about 45 minutes. They injured about four female students before making away with cash, phones, and other items of value.

The students staged a protest around 8 a.m. after the incident, making the school’s management to shut both entrances to the institution to prevent the protest from escalating.

The Lamidi Apapa faction of the Labour Party (LP) has said Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the governorship candidate of the Labour Party for Imo State and not Athan Achonu.

It therefore said it has ‘voided’ the governorship flag-off of Ukaegbu for the November 11 governorship election in the state.

The Julius Abure faction had held its flag off on Wednesday in Owerri where it unveiled Athan Achonu as its candidate.

Abure, LP presidential candidate Peter Obi and Abia State governor, Alex Otti, attended Achonu’s campaign flag-off, where the party declared its readiness to dislodge the All Progressives Congress (APC) incumbent, Governor Hope Uzodimma.

However, hours after the event, the Apapa camp said it held an emergency National Working Committee (NWC) meeting, late Wednesday, where the flag-off was declared null and void.

The Apapa camp has insisted that Ikechukwu Ukaegbu is the authentic candidate of the LP for the Imo governorship election.

Ukaegbu emerged as candidate in a parallel primary conducted by the Apapa faction on April 16 but a day earlier, April 15, Achonu was elected as the party’s flag bearer in an election held by Abure’s camp.

The Apapa camp announced that it had voided Achonu’s campaign flag-off in a statement released on Thursday.

The statement, signed by Apapa, as Acting National Chairman, Saleh Lawan,
Acting National Secretary and Arabambi Abayomi, National Publicity Secretary, also faulted Peter Obi for endorsing Achonu.

“The Labour Party (LP) National Working Committee (NWC) in an emergency meeting yesterday, Wednesday, 23rd August, 2023, have disclaimed Mr Peter Obi’s assertion and voided the illegal, unlawful and unauthorised Imo State Gubernatorial Campaign Flag-Off of Senator Athan Nneji Achonu, awaiting the National Executive Council (NEC) meeting concurrence today, Thursday 24th August, 2023,” the statement said.

“Abure and others illegally and unlawfully conducted unauthorised gubernatorial primaries of the Labour Party (LP) in Imo, Bayelsa and Kogi states on 15th April, 2023; while Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa conducted the legally valid primaries on 16th April, 2023, that has been adjudged by the Owerri High Court judgment of 23rd June, 2023, and Appeal Court judgment of 18th July, 2023, that upheld Chief Ukaegbu Ikechukwu Joseph Ikenga as the authentic Labour Party gubernatorial candidate in Imo State,” the statement added.

The Apapa camp, in the statement, further alleged that Abure and members of his executive committee “colluded with Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) officials to upload illegal names on the INEC portal because they had the INEC portal codes which they have refused to hand over to Alhaji Lamidi Bashiru Apapa”.

FIFA opened disciplinary proceedings against Luis Rubiales on Thursday after the Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) president kissed Spain star Jenni Hermoso on the lips following the Women’s World Cup final last weekend.

“The FIFA disciplinary committee informed Luis Rubiales, president of the Spanish Football Association, today that it is opening disciplinary proceedings against him based on the events that occurred during the final,” world football’s governing body said in a statement.

FIFA said the incident “may constitute violations of article 13 paragraphs 1 and 2 of the FIFA disciplinary code”.

Spain star Hermoso released a joint statement with union Futpro on Wednesday, which called for action to be taken against the RFEF president.

“We are working to ensure that acts such as those we have seen never go unpunished, that they are sanctioned and that the exemplary measures are adopted to protect women footballers from actions that we believe are unacceptable,” the statement said.

Spain’s women’s football league, Liga F, also called for Rubiales to be sacked.

Rubiales, 46, initially attacked his critics before eventually apologising but the criticism of his behaviour has not abated.