Some parts of Rivers and Bayelsa states will experience months of blackout after vandals destroyed thirteen Transmission Company of Nigeria’s towers along the Ahoada-Yenagoa 132kV Double Circuits.

Ndidi Mbah, General Manager of Public Affairs, TCN, disclosed this in a statement on Wednesday.

The TCN urged the governments of Rivers and Bayelsa states to assist it in addressing the ongoing vandalism of its installations, which has become increasingly alarming and overwhelming.

This comes after vandals had earlier destroyed the same Ahoada-Yenagoa transmission line.

“Additionally, a new contract was recently awarded for the reinforcement of towers 19-31 on the Ahoada-Yenagoa line, where tower members had been vandalized and stolen.

“Despite these ongoing efforts, the recent vandalism of the thirteen towers presents a significant challenge to TCN,” it said.

The company said that the thirteen vandalized towers are located in several communities, including Okobe in Ahoada East, Emezhi 1 in Ahoada West, and Mbiama in Ahoada West Local Government Areas of Rivers State, as well as the Igbogene community in Bayelsa State.

“Given the extent of the destruction to the towers and the ongoing work on previously vandalized transmission towers, it may take several months for TCN to complete the rebuilding and stringing of the towers to restore power supply to the state”, TCN added.

TCN called for collaboration among security operatives, and host communities to tackle rising vandalism of critical electricity facilities in the country.

[DailyPost]

Police and  youths have blocked the All Progressive Congress (APC) Secretariat  in Makurdi, Benue state capital .

It is the fourth time  the APC  Secretariat will be put under lock and key.

This is coming ahead of Comrade Austin Agada- led State Working Committee (SEC) APC caucus meeting scheduled for Thursday.

The Benjamin Omakolo- led APC State Working Committee (SWC) has also scheduled a caucus  meeting for today in Makurdi to find tune arrangement for Local Governments elections .

Benue State Independent Electoral Committee ( BSIEC) scheduled October 5 for the polls in Benue state .

Details Shortly…

[TheNation]

Some of the recurring problems of poverty, corruption, vices, and the perennial decay in our society can be attributed to a hope decline. When people are no longer driven by hope, they stop trying. When they become convinced that nothing they do ultimately matters, they imprison their own agency; they look everywhere else for survival except within themselves. When they cannot find what they are looking for, they let things decay and die. When a people no longer have hope, the wellsprings that enliven their societies dry up.

People can survive environmental disasters, nuclear bombings, setbacks, poverty, and whatever lousy hand fate deals with them, but no society can beat a loss of hope. Hope is a self-motivating essence, an ethic, and a prerequisite for a society to keep advancing.

Two recent incidents in the country got me thinking about how people act when this source of self-directing agency has been toxified. The first was the vandalisation and looting of government establishments, including the ICT centre in Kano scheduled for opening the following week. The second was the protesters flying the Russian flag and openly calling for a coup. Both incidents look disparate, but they are connected by the embitteredness of people who are missing a vital ingredient and happy to destroy what subsists, even if only for the perverse delight of watching it all burn.

You look at the photograph of the protesters cum looters, and you see young men for whom the ICT centre spelt nothing but just another space where the scions of the oppressive ruling class will deepen the privilege that will further deepen the divide among them. They do not see any connection between what will happen in an ICT centre and their own future—not because they are blind, no—but because they are well-informed enough about the state of the country to know that very little of what it represents concerns their future. Without the hope that the outcome of the gatherings that will take place in that Kano centre will have any material impact on their future, why should such a place be allowed to stand?

People who still have some hope protest differently. They are mindful to preserve the symbolic objects of the administrative state knowing that, for all its faults, it still has enough integrity contained within it, to do right by them. Even when they are angry enough to destroy things, they are strategic. People who have lost faith that anything can be better will burn things just to be tickled by the dancing flames.

We can say the same of those carrying the Russian flag and baiting Vladimir Putin to come to their rescue. Call them deluded all you want, but do not overlook their driving outlook. Their misbelief is coming from somewhere. If they want a breakdown of democracy, it is because its meaning no longer corresponds to their desire to thrive. Democracy no longer spells freedom to be; it has become a four-year carnival during which we renew the power of our regular oppressors. What we call democracy in this part of the world is an ever-increasingly expensive venture with little or no returns. The sum of money an impoverished poor country like Nigeria regularly wastes on conducting poor elections that will inaugurate poor leadership is enough to make one despair. You can take away the flags, incarcerate the tailor who sowed it for them, and even try these protesters for sedition, but their mindset to destroy a country that has become oppressive will remain.

The easiest thing is to look at these people and dismiss them as blindly ignorant. But what if they are not? They have eyes and can see that the African countries recently overtaken by a coup are not faring any better. Since 2020, Africa has turned into the world’s coup belt. Some have been successful, others failed. But when was the last time anyone heard anything about these countries thriving under their new military overlords? Those looking for a coup in Nigeria are also people who live in regions ransacked by Boko Haram and banditry; they know the weaknesses of the Nigerian military. They know that the golden age of the military has passed and what now subsists is an institution heavily diminished by the Nigerian factor. Yearning for a coup, backed by Russia or not, cannot be simply because they are stupid enough to believe it will bring a radical change in their conditions; they just want to see the existing order burn.

In the wise in which they are looking for a strong man who can use their power to override reality, they are not all that different from their southern counterparts similarly waiting for Donald Trump to win the US presidency so he can magically wave a wand over the crises in different world zones. Neither Putin nor Trump considers them relevant to anything, but that will not stop them from fantasising that a higher transcendental power can put an end to this present darkness. It is a loss of faith in the country and its bureaucratic systems.

Some have been content to point out the complacency of these same coup seekers under the administration of Muhammadu Buhari where they serially went through enervating policies, but which they patiently endured. While this prejudice might be true, it is not enough to merely point out the obvious. We must also go beyond the simple and satisfying answers. To dismiss these people as little-minded bigots who assume that political power in Nigeria must begin and end with them will satisfy our prejudiced instincts but leave us no clearer on why things came to be the way they are now.

Why would those who suffered under a leadership whose connection to them was merely symbolic be zombified by the mere vicarious pleasure of seeing him as a representation of themselves in power? Is it that shallow political representation is the only citizenship claim Nigeria presently extends us? Buhari offered them nothing, and in fact, took everything from them. Yet, they could hardly be motivated to act on their condition until he was replaced. That itself is telling of the meaninglessness at the heart of what we call the Nigerian nation.

Now that all is calm again, our leaders need to think deeply about seeking ways to offer people hope in themselves and the nation. It is worth noting that the All Progressives Congress 2023 campaign slogan was “Renewed Hopefulness,” alluding to the 1993 election that also promised hope. One year later, I do not think anyone looks around them and sees a basis for hope renewal. If anything, the APC has drained the little hope that mobilised people. And that is a problem.

When people do not have hope, they also have nothing to lose. When people have nothing to lose, they also gain nothing. Everything around them decays and dies. Hope is not just a feeling or a sense of anticipation; hope is an ethic, freedom, and progress. When Apostle Paul says the greatest of the triumvirate of faith, hope, and love is love, it is because love culminates faith and hope. Without faith, one cannot hope; without hope, there is no faith; without both, one cannot love. People cannot love their country if they lack the hope that gives faith.

The greatest calamity that can befall a nation is not corruption, poverty, sickness, or disease; it is loss of hope. How a society demonstrates hope reflects its relationship to time—the past and the present as a means of charting the path toward a more auspicious future. When people are no longer hopeful of the possibilities that can unfold through their reason and action, they deactivate their moral agency and start an uninhibited acceleration toward decay.

Former Chelsea midfielder Mikel Obi has categorically stated that he will do his utmost to see compatriot Victor Osimhen sign for the London club, PUNCH Sports Extra reports.

The former Super Eagles captain, in a video posted on X, added that another club legend, Didier Drogba, was also in contact with the Napoli striker, as they hoped to convince him to make a switch to Stamford Bridge.

Osimhen’s future remains the subject of intense viral speculations ahead of the final weeks of the summer transfer window. The striker has asked to leave Napoli and has been linked with a transfer to Chelsea in a deal that would see Romelu Lukaku move the other way.

Chelsea have already signed a host of players this summer, including Pedro Neto, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall, Marc Guiu, and Filip Jorgensen, but appear ready to continue their spending spree, with the 25-year-old ranking prominently on their wish list to lead their line during the 2024/25 season.

Just a few weeks before the close of the transfer window, Mikel revealed that he would try and help the club land their primary target, whom he believed would be an instant hit in the English Premier League.

“We want somebody who can finish, score goals, the tap-ins. Someone like Erling Haaland,” Mikel said.

“That’s something Victor Osimhen will bring to Chelsea. I hope that Chelsea fans will finally see him come to the club. I’ll make sure I send him those text messages and calls, making sure Chelsea is his top priority! But it seems like he loves the club and wants to come to Chelsea.

“I’m sure he has all the big clubs wanting to sign him. I think if we can secure his signature, it would be fantastic for the club. He’s somebody who will get us goals, and that’s something that we need right now.

“A fantastic guy, a fantastic human being, and I really do hope he comes to the club, and I’ll try my best to make sure that happens. Didier is also speaking to him, sharing his own ideas and what the club means to us. We all want to see Victor come to the club.”

Osimhen has emerged as one of the most sought-after strikers in Europe, having been linked with moves to Chelsea, Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain, Manchester United, and Liverpool, among others, following impressive seasons with Napoli.

However, his hefty €130m remains the stumbling block, with PSG, among other suitors, backing off, leaving Chelsea as the only European club still keen on signing him.

[Punch]

AFTER quelling what, to all intents and purposes, was a peaceful protest by economically challenged Nigerians over insufferable high cost of living, President Bola Tinubu has moved quickly to consolidate his grip on power. Taking a page from the archetypical fascist playbook, he summoned a meeting of the National Council of State, NCS, on Tuesday, to pass a vote of confidence in him and the Council obliged.

For those who may not know, the NCS idea, which was introduced by General Murtala Muhammed in a broadcast on July 30, 1975 after overthrowing General Yakubu Gowon, was to create an advisory body.  

“The structure of government has been re-organised. There will now be three organs of government at the federal level namely: The Supreme Military Council, The National Council of State, and the Federal Executive Council,” he said.

On return to democracy in the Second Republic, the 1979 Constitution enlarged the Council’s membership to include the President, Vice-President, former Presidents and Military Heads of State, former Chief Justices of Nigeria, President of the Senate, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Governors and Minister of Justice and Attorney General of the Federation.

The Constitution gave the National Council of State the responsibilities of advising the President in the exercise of his powers with respect to national population census, prerogative of mercy, awarding of national honours, and appointment of members of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC; National Judicial Council, NJC; and National Population Commission, NPC. The Council also advises the President whenever requested to do so on the maintenance of public order within the federation or any part thereof and on such other matters as the President may direct.

While former Presidents Muhammadu Buhari and Goodluck Jonathan attended the meeting physically, and Generals Yakubu Gowon and Abdulsalami Abubakar joined virtually, former President Olusegun Obasanjo and General Ibrahim Babangida kept their distance.

Kwara State governor, who also doubles as the chairman of the Nigeria Governors Forum, NGF, Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq, obviously happy with the outcome of the meeting, crowed that the Council lauded Tinubu on the way he is governing the country.

“The high note of the meeting was a unanimous passage of a vote of confidence in President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR, Commander-in-Chief of the Nigerian armed forces,” Abdulrazaq told journalists.

Really? How on earth could anyone say that Tinubu is governing Nigeria well and the country is headed in the right direction?

To be sure, I wasn’t surprised that Buhari decided to cut his political soul mate, Tinubu, some slack. It is tantamount to failure reinforcing failure. But what would make the other leaders binge on the same false narrative? Could it be lack of courage to speak truth to power – in the manner of the three wise monkeys of the Japanese pictorial maxim that “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil?”

Tinubu drafted in some of his poster lieutenants – Ministers of Solid Minerals, Finance, Budget, Works, Trade and Investment and Agriculture – to make presentations. The National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, briefed the Council on the security situation in the country, as Dele Alake put it: “Especially on issues before, during and after the nationwide protests.”

Throwing more light on what transpired, Finance Minister Wale Edun said he updated the Council on the progress the Tinubu administration was making on the economy in terms of the macroeconomic policies and the “encouraging results”.

“In broad terms the economy is growing. The balance of payments, in particular, the trade balance and a current account balance are in surplus. The exchange rate is stabilising, and inflation, though high, uncomfortably high for the liking of Mr. President and his team, is slowing and it is set to fall,” Edun crooned.

“But in particular, there has been support for the economy from investors, foreign investors, by way of portfolio investors, domestic investors, who are participating in important private-public partnerships, particularly infrastructure sector and foreign direct investment, is beginning to recover, I would say so.”

Apparently they wowed the August body with their submissions, hence the confidence vote. But this is tiring and monotonous sing-song of the Tinubu orchestra since May 29, 2023. The government continues to claim, falsely, that the economy has turned the awful corner where the execrable Buhari government left it.

But these claims are far from the reality that stares Nigerians in the face. The same policies that Edun is touting have not only triggered the worst cost of living crisis since 1960 but also pushed millions of already impoverished Nigerians deeper into poverty and unmitigated misery. There is hardly any Nigerian, except those in government and their rent-seeking partners-in-crime outside who thrive on government patronage, that can claim to be better off today than 15 months ago.

Tinubu’s macroeconomic policies have wiped out Nigeria’s middle class, literally. Hunger is stalking the land even as the spectre of corruption continues to haunt the country to perdition. Nigerians have never been hungrier. Of course, that was the reason for the 10-day #EndBadGovernance protest. But expecting members of an elite club of serving and retired government top guns, most of who live on government rent, to complain may be expecting too much.

But the really embarrassing thing is the fact that Gowon, Abdulsalami and Jonathan agreed with Tinubu that the hunger protest was a movement to effect a change of regime by force. We can excuse Buhari because he and Tinubu are birds of the same plumage. In 2020, Buhari levelled the same allegation against #EndSARS protesters.

Alake, who claimed that “the Council thanked Nigerians at large for resisting any unconstitutional move to change the government,” further said, rather hubristically that “if anybody is not satisfied with the government, there is always an election coming, so you wait for an election and cast your vote” as if the votes will ever count.

It is sad that these statesmen never cared a hoot about peaceful protesters, fellow Nigerians, who were killed in cold blood by trigger-happy security men for no crime other than asking for good governance. Hundreds of youths have been rounded up and clamped in prisons by a regime that is bent on using them as a war trophy to scare aware any would-be protesters in the future.

Meanwhile, even as the police and DSS are busy quelling the protest and making sure that no protester ever raises his head again while Tinubu is on the saddle, the NCS didn’t even raise as much as a whimper over the noxious campaign to expel Ndigbo from the South-West starting August 20. Beside the very feeble and hypocritical protestations from Tinubu, who claimed he was offended by the campaign, there is no investigation into the matter. Of course, the government knows those behind the campaign, the chief instigator being Bayo Onanuga, Tinubu’s top media adviser.

Nigeria has become a police state with the government devising means to exercise an extreme level of control over civil society and liberties. Public officials are so disrespectful of the citizenry. The legislators continue to legislate their vexatious and toxic personal ideas, wishes and preferences as Tajudeen Abass, Speaker of the House of Representatives, wanted to do with his obnoxious counter subversion bill. Those in the judiciary have absolutely no respect for the Constitution they say is their prerogative  to interpret and chieftains of the executive arm of government continue to talk down on the people as the National Security Adviser, NSA, did on Wednesday when he warned Nigerians not to mistake Tinubu administration’s “commitment to peace for weakness.”

As I noted here last week, Tinubu is not a democrat. He is an autocrat who believes in and fervently craves power absolutism. If unresisted, by the time he is done with Nigeria, the so-called General Sani Abacha dictatorship will pale into insignificance. Nigerians have a patriotic duty to resist the creeping dictatorship otherwise we are headed for the notorious “Heil, mein Führer!” (‘Hail, my leader!’) saga as Germans did under Adolf Hitler. Nigeria can ill-afford a “Dear Leader,” an authoritarian leader who demands unquestioning loyalty.

The Ogun State Police Command has alerted members of the public of a notorious one-chance gang operating within Sagamu, Ijebu Ode, and Mowe areas of theUK economy slows slightly in second quarter state.

The command’s spokesperson, SP Omolola Odutola, who disclosed this in a statement obtained late Wednesday, night, said the command had received numerous complaints from residents, one of which involved a victim, who was robbed of N700,000 at gunpoint after getting into a car from Kajola on Wednesday. 

Odutola, while warning traders and business owners not to risk travelling with huge cash, advised commuters to record and send a video to the police media if they were unsure about a boarded vehicle.

She said, “The Ogun State Police Command has become inundated with complaints of a notorious gang operating within Sagamu, Ijebu Ode, and Mowe areas of Ogun State.

“Commuters on that axis should make a video of your next trip and upload it to police media when in doubt of the vehicle.

“Please alert our traders and business owners not to risk travelling with huge cash.

“Today, N700,000 was transferred from a victim who joined from Kajola, and at gunpoint, they drove her into a street and made the transfer into a POS machine.

She added that investigation is ongoing to apprehend the culprits.

[Vanguard]

In a bid to assuage protesters during the #EndBadGovernance protest, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu while addressing Nigerians in a live broadcast recounted the actualisation of half of its revenue generation target for 2024 as one of the major achievements of his administration.

According to the president, aggregate government revenues have more than doubled, hitting over 9.1 trillion in the first half of 2024 compared to the first half of 2023, due to efforts at blocking leakages, introducing automation and mobilising funding creatively.

Recall that the 2024 budget, which was tagged “the budget of renewed hope”, had an aggregate expenditure of 27.5 trillion naira, with a non-debt recurrent expenditure put at 9.92 trillion naira while debt service is projected to be 8.25 trillion naira and capital expenditure at 8.7 trillion naira. Out of the total sum of 27.5 trillion, the government was meant to realise 18.3 trillion naira from internal sources and to be left with a deficit of 9.18 trillion naira.

Judging from past trends, this feat is a welcome development because the past government under former President Muhammadu Buhari consistently failed to realise its revenue target, rather it incurred more deficit and resorted to funding the greater percentage of the budget with borrowings.  

Despite this achievement by the Tinubu administration, it is ironic that Nigerians cannot point to any evidence of positive developmental transformation or changes in the livelihood of people as a result of the revenue generated in the first half of the year. Such a quantum of money realised is expected to be deployed through budget releases to MDAs for the funding of critical infrastructural projects and programmes under the renewed hope agenda.

Unfortunately, there are no evidence of projects embarked upon by most MDAs. Upon enquiries, most of the MDAs have complained of a lack of budgetary releases to implement approved capital projects under their domain. Meanwhile, in the face of the current hunger plaguing families and homes in Nigeria due to the removal of fuel subsidy, the president had promised to utilise the budget to restore hope to Nigerians. 

Amongst the promises of Mr. President, is to provide massive social security programmes for Nigerians, implement critical infrastructural projects, reduce poverty and hunger by boosting food production, providing security in the farming areas, and investing in renewable energy, etc. Judging from these promises, little can be said to have been achieved because infrastructural projects across the country remain in a very critical state. Notable routes like the east-west road and roads traversing between Lokoja in the north central and the south-east to mention but a few, remain un-motorable.

On the social security programmes such as the presidential conditional grant scheme, where promises were made to reach one million businesses in the 774 local government areas, and other programmes, there is a lack of transparency and accountability on how the beneficiaries of these programs were selected.

Nigerians are very much aware that the current social register being utilised by the country to cater for the poorest of the poor cannot be trusted due to the corruption cases recorded and reported in the use of the register. There is no evidence of cleaning the register or producing a new one. 

Also, Nigerians are fully aware that the president has presented up to three supplementary budgets since assuming office to the national assembly, yet there are no visible projects to cushion the effects of the subsidy removal on Nigerians. It was only recently that the president launched the 33 powered CNG buses amongst high demand for CNG-powered vehicles in Nigeria.

It is the expectation of Nigerians that by now, the federal government would have established partnerships with investors to establish numerous CNG assembling plants across the country and facilitate the importation of CNG-powered vehicles to be distributed to Nigerians at subsidised rates. Nigerians also expected the federal government to deploy funds to fix our moribund refineries and get them to work at optimal capacity so that the country can stop the importation of refined petroleum products. 

Most worrisome is the fact that the budget office of the federation has been failing in its duty to upload budget implementation reports on its website; the last report on the BOF website is that of the third quarter of 2023. The failure of the budget office to account for a round of four quarters implementation report of the 2024 budget makes it difficult for well-meaning Nigerians to assess Mr. President’s performance based on his statement on revenue realised.  

In conclusion, as the nation forges ahead to attain its fiscal targets, the utilisation of these resources should be apportioned transparently in such a manner that would be evident in the social well-being and developmental outcomes of Nigerians.

Victor Emejuiwe is the monitoring evaluation/strategic communication manager at the Centre for Social Justice, Abuja

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) says the N50 billion it handed to the Nigerian Education Loan Fund (NELFUND) was not a donation from the commission.

In his speech on the #EndBadGovernance protests on August 4, President Bola Tinubu ordered the release of the sum to NELFUND.

“This week, I ordered the release of an additional N50billion Naira each for NELFUND – the student loan, and Credit Corporation — from the proceeds of crime recovered by the EFCC,” Tinubu said.

On Wednesday, there were reports that the EFCC “donated” the sum to NELFUND.

In a statement on Thursday, Dele Oyewale, EFCC spokesperson, said the fund was not a donation but “part of the recovered proceeds of crime remitted to the government”.

“President Bola Ahmed Tinubu in furtherance of his social intervention policy for the most vulnerable segments of the population, decided in his wisdom, to plough the money into funding the critically acclaimed students loan scheme,” the statement reads.

“It is not the place of the Commission to determine where the government commits recovered proceeds of crime.

“But the student’s loan scheme is a salutary innovation which has the potential to reduce youth involvement in criminality.

“As the Commission’s Chairman, Ola Olukoyde disclosed during a courtesy visit to the Commission by the NELFUND’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mr. Akintunde Sawyerr on August, 13, 2026, the EFCC will monitor the use of the funds to ensure accountability and the realization of the objectives of the Scheme.”

[TheCable]

Almost everyone thinks they know what is wrong with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government, except Tinubu himself. And to show that it’s not just bellyaching, there are plenty of examples to beat the president over the head.

Headline inflation has risen from 22.2 percent in April 2023 to 33.7 one year after – and is still growing – while attempts by the government to tame it have been largely ineffective. Food inflation has nearly doubled. The naira has been devalued by 70 percent in one year, and poverty levels, even among the once-comfortable urban population, have risen dramatically. Hardship has never been starker.

But that’s not all. Where Tinubu promised leaner government parastatals, they have increased. The talk about cutting the cost of governance is being crushed under the wheels of longer executive convoys and a parliament out of touch.

Events around the continent, especially in West Africa, where Nigeria is supposed to be a powerhouse, offer little comfort. On Tinubu’s watch, and some might even add, because of his mishandling, three countries – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – have pulled out of ECOWAS and formed a band of rebellious Sahelian states.

And on the continental stage, Nigeria has dropped from Africa’s largest economy to number four, a blow that a country with an oversized ego can still not reconcile with.

Crucify him

If one called for nails to crucify Tinubu, volunteers would supply more than enough to cover every inch of his body, with bags of it to spare. You will be reminded that this was self-inflicted misery when he removed the petrol subsidy on day one and attempted to merge the exchange rate without a clear plan.

That’s just as well. I can’t wrap my head around some of the events that happened in the last year. And I can’t remember how often I have asked if this is the same Tinubu I’ve known since 1998. Well, it’s the same Tinubu, more or less. It’s the same Tinubu, seasoned and buffeted almost equally from age and circumstance in a country that has also changed by far greater measure in the last nearly three decades!

Tinubu asked for the job, so there can’t be excuses for why the country is in such misery. It’s, however, fair to say, almost at the risk of attack, that those who judge Tinubu harshly underestimate the determined, active efforts of interest groups – both from within and outside his government – to ensure that he fails, despite his best efforts.

The heart of the matter

His government’s two most consequential decisions – announcing the removal of petrol subsidy and attempting to create a more transparent exchange rate system – touched a raw nerve. The biggest beneficiaries, primarily wealthy, powerful and deadly people across the country, but particularly in the North, are determined to fight his government to a standstill.

The pattern of last week’s #EndBadGovernance protests showed where poverty was starkest. But it also showed the locus of misdirected anger and resistance to change. The anger was against Tinubu’s policies.

But much more than that, it implicated sections of the Northern elite who have, over the years, underdeveloped and impoverished the region, primarily by playing the ethnic and religious card and refusing to be held to account. This same elite was on a roll last week, issuing Russian flags to protesters and pontificating how Tinubu had lost his way.

North’s misery

Things didn’t become suddenly hard for the North under Tinubu. As Kingsley Moghalu said four years ago, when Nigeria displaced India as the world’s poverty capital under the government of President Muhammadu Buhari, the North, regrettably, also became the poverty capital of the poverty capital, with the incidence of poverty up to 80 percent in the North-west.

Decades of the elite prioritising politics and a sense of entitlement over production and accountability have radicalised millions of young people without hope or a future. Their anger should have been directed at the elite responsible for the mess.

Unfortunately, the same elite stoked the discontent, capitalised on it and managed to frame it as evidence of Tinubu’s unfitness for office. And people who used soldiers to crush swathes of the civil population when they were in power are now teaching us lessons on civil management of public protests. The truth is more nuanced. 

The handling of the protests in several states was incompetent, disgraceful and indefensible. Nothing justifies using live rounds against primarily unarmed people expressing their right to dissent. It’s a disgrace that live rounds were used to disperse mostly unarmed crowds, as a result of which about 13 people were killed.

However, the suggestions that people with a sinister agenda sponsored the violence in several Northern states to destabilise Tinubu’s government and divert attention from their complicity in our current mess should not be dismissed out of hand.

Elite wars

It only takes a cursory look at the sections of the elite worst hit by the removal of the subsidy and the attempts to streamline the forex market chaos to understand why they won’t give up without a dirty fight, whatever the cost. Those who think it’s in their power to determine who rules and how long took advantage of the protests to fire warning shots about what they’re determined to do, if not sooner, then by the next election.

Kenya, the UK, and, later, Bangladesh have been touted as models for managing dissent and examples of what may happen if a government fails to listen to the people. While economic hardship is the common thread, those who cite these examples in Nigeria ignore the sinister role of interest groups that fear a prolonged loss of political power.

Insects within

Yet, suggesting that outsiders caused all of Tinubu’s woes would be foolish. Amid the chaos of last week, there were members of his cabinet who were more than delighted that the pressure might finally compel the president to review his government’s “tight-fistedness”. Under Buhari, the Ministry of Finance released quarterly capital votes to ministries and government departments, and they didn’t have to account for it.

Under Tinubu, however, the Ministry of Finance tightly controls releases. Payments are only made after projects have been verified and certificates of completion issued. It’s not the kind of thing people who are used to easy money would be happy about. Beneficiaries of the previous order will resist this change or stand idly by when the government is under attack.

What team?

The part of the whole business that I find troubling is the quality of Tinubu’s cabinet and inner circle. If it was a joke to please certain interest groups when he came to power last year, it has become an embarrassment. He has paid them what he owes, with interest.

With a few exceptions, his team is neither valuable for the country nor serviceable for a president in an emergency. Where did he find these people? And how long will he keep them as passengers on a train to nowhere, putting at risk his reputation as an excellent talent hunter?

I guess that the #EndBadGovernance protest will not be the last. One can only hope that lessons have been learnt and concrete steps will be taken to implement them for the benefit of citizens. That would be the biggest test of his presidency.

In an interview with Financial Times published last Friday, Chairman of Heirs Holdings, Mr Tony Elumelu sounded more upbeat about the Nigerian oil and gas sector than he was two and a half years ago. As an industry player, Elumelu had lamented in March 2022 that the reason Nigeria could not meet its OPEC production quota “is not because of low investment but because of theft, pure and simple!” At the same period when oil companies were shutting down production, a former Seplat Energy CEO, Mr Austin Avuru stated that “the entire export pipeline network has been surrendered to vandals and illegal ‘bunkerer’ thus the phrase, ‘crude theft’ which crept into the industry about 2010 has taken on a new meaning.”

It is heartwarming that Elumelu is no longer reading from the Book of Lamentations, essentially from a reduction in theft. “42,000 barrels of crude are pumped out daily. Theft still takes away about 18 per cent of production,” Elumelu admitted while posing a fundamental question for which there has been no answer. Asked about those behind oil theft, Elumelu adopted the Nigerian style of answering a question with another question, but he left no doubt as to who should be held accountable for the problem. “This is oil theft; we’re not talking about stealing a bottle of Coke you can put in your pocket. The government should know, they should tell us,” Elumelu replied before he added: “Look at America — Donald Trump was shot at and quickly they knew the background of who shot him. Our security agencies should tell us who is stealing our oil. You bring vessels to our territorial waters, and we don’t know?”

Elumelu would not be the first to raise questions about the nature of this crime and why perpetrators should not be difficult to fish out. At the session with the federal government in 2022, then Managing Director, ExxonMobil Nigeria, Mr Richard Laing (now chairman & CEO of its affiliate companies in Nigeria) described the situation in our oil sector as organized crime because “the engineering involved points towards a high degree of sophistication and technology, as well as the distribution.” With these criminal cartels investing in barges, canoes, speed boats and large wooden boats which they use in their illicit business, it is difficult to fault Laing. Yet, to imagine that the country suffers such enormous revenue depletion while begging for foreign loans is, to say the least, lamentable. 

With the controversy over where to secure feedstock for the 650,000 barrels per day Dangote Refinery, mismanagement of both the upstream and downstream sectors of the petroleum industry in Nigeria is now an open sore. But nobody should be under any illusion that the problem of oil theft is being addressed in any sustainable manner. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) is currently working in collaboration with the military and other security agencies to tackle oil theft in the country based on a “fresh mandate” from President Bola Tinubu. “We know that Nigeria relies so much on crude oil production, so we want to use this medium to appeal to the communities, to have an understanding,” the Chief of Defence Staff, General Christopher Musa told Nigerians. “Yes, we know trust has been a problem, but they can trust us, they can trust the government, that we want to do things differently. Everyone will be carried along”.

Considering the way their trust has been abused over the years, most Nigerians would have taken Musa’s words with a pinch of salt. Besides, this episodic approach to a fundamental challenge that has been with us for many decades can only achieve short term results. “A tanker will be commandeered, its tracking devices disabled, and its cargo siphoned off onto a smaller ship in an isolated location and sold on the black market”, according to a report once published in oilprice.com, an authoritative news outlet for oil and gas, which detailed the modus operandi of the criminals. “Fuel theft in Nigeria is so systemic it will not be slowed or stopped any time soon. Doing so would be tantamount to eliminating drug trafficking in Colombia”, argued Dr Terry Hallmark, an international oil and gas expert whose career as a political risk analyst spanned more than three decades, in a piece he wrote for Forbes magazine in 2017.

I cannot count the number of columns I have also written on this vexatious issue of oil theft. In one, I referenced the 2003 United States-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) report which stated that oil theft accounts for 10 percent of Nigeria’s daily production. That was more than two decades ago. Today, between 20 to 30 percent of oil production is lost to these criminal cartels. Describing oil theft as Nigeria’s most profitable private business, estimated to yield between $750 million to $3.5 billion annually (as of that time), HRW said “in theory it should be easy to stop its theft (it is hard to hide a tanker and easy to trace its owner)”. Apparently not in Nigeria!

According to the HRW report, “Illegal oil bunkering-long prevalent in the Delta-has become a sophisticated operation that no longer requires the cooperation of oil company staff to operate equipment at wellheads or allow access-though there are still reports that they are involved.” The bunkerers, the report further claimed, “tap directly into pipelines away from oil company facilities and connect from the pipes to barges that are hidden in small creeks with mangrove forest cover. Frequently, both in the riverine areas and on dry land, the police and military are involved in the process or are paid off to take no action against those tapping into pipelines.”

To be sure, oil theft is not a new challenge in Nigeria; it has been with us for decades. That culprits are hardly brought to justice is where the problem lies. Even when they are apprehended, investigations are most often bungled. In May 2014, for instance, the late former Bayelsa State Governor, DSP Alamieyeseigha, testified before the Senate Committee on Public Finance and Revenue. “I had one experience. Tankers were loaded in Bayelsa. I got the information and laid ambush for them and arrested them. About 14 big tankers and they were handed over to the police,” Alamieyeseigha told the senators. “They were charged to court and the judge ordered that the product should be tested to be sure if they were crude oil. NNPC was invited, they came, took the sample and after a week the result came out as agro-chemical and before I know it, all of them had been released”.

There was no follow-up regarding Alamieyeseigha’s claim which pointed to official complicity. But it is also typical. On 18th May 2013, then Nigerian Maritime Administration and Safety Agency (NIMASA)Director General, Patrick Akpobolokemi told journalists in Abuja that “There are some big vessels under my custody belonging to organised piracy and crude oil thieves,” before he promised: “Very soon, I will release all the big names in the syndicate.” Akpobolokemi, who was in April this year acquitted over a case of N8.5 billion brought against him by the EFCC, has not been held accountable on the issue that impinges not only on our economy but indeed, our national security.

Meanwhile, I commend recent efforts by the NNPCL, the military and other security agencies to reduce the menace of oil theft in Nigeria. But I have not seen anything to suggest they are any different from the usual episodic interventions we have witnessed in the past. As I have argued repeatedly on this page, the capacity to undertake oil theft to the magnitude being reported in our country is not available on the streets. It is an organised crime and must involve big actors across the oil and gas value chain. Until the federal government therefore musters the courage to deal decisively with what clearly threatens the economic well-being of Nigeria and our national security, these occasional ‘presidential mandates’ will only continue to yield momentary drama.   

Tales from The Olympics

The 2024 Paris Olympics ended last Sunday in France with the focus now on Los Angeles 2028 in the United States for which many countries are already preparing. But that is not the Nigerian way. Preparations will only start a few weeks to the 2028 Olympic Games. Meanwhile, there is a report on the number of medals ‘won’ by our country in Paris being circulated on WhatsApp that I find quite instructive. There is also a similar cartoon since we know how to create humour out of every tragedy. Both tell a compelling story of Nigeria. First, the report which I have slightly edited: “For those who may not know, Nigeria performed creditably well at the just concluded Olympics in Paris with five gold medals, three silver medals and three bronze medals. Here is the breakdown: Gold in Shot Put: Yemisi Ogunleye (Germany); Gold in Men’s Football: Samuel Omorodion (Spain); Silver in Men’s Football: Michael Olise (France); Silver in Women’s Hammerthrow: Anette Echikunwoke (USA); Gold in Men’s Volleyball: Barthélémy Chinenyeze (France); Silver in Women’s 400 Meters athletics: Ebele Agbapuonwu, (Salwa Eid Naser, Bahrain); Gold in Men’s Basketball: Femi ‘Bam’ Adebayo (USA); Bronze in Women’s Basketball: Ezi Magbegor (Australia); Bronze 4x400m women: Yemi Mary John (GB); Bronze 4x400m women: Victoria Ohuruogu (GB); Gold in Volley Ball Women: Paola Egonu (Italy).”

With N9 billion expended and a total of 84 athletes (and no doubt, hundreds of idle officials and politicians), Team Nigeria is returning from Paris with zero medals. And just like the Tokyo Olympics, four years earlier, our officials failed to do even the basic things at the Games. In a most pathetic case during the Olympics, Favour Ofili wrote: “It is with great regret that I have just been told I will not be competing in the 100 metres at this Olympic Games. I qualified, but those with the AFN and NOC failed to enter me. I have worked for four years to earn this opportunity.”

Now to the award-winning cartoon by Wilfred Orhue. On the medal podium are the United States for Gold, China for Silver and Japan for Bronze. A man carrying a Bible and Quran and the green-white-green flag was standing by. The caption: ‘Team Nigeria will now lead us in the closing prayers.’ The cartoon explains the tragedy of our country which a former Super Eagles Manager, Mr Berti Vogts, once summed up most memorably: “Nigerians spend a lot of time attending workshops and seminars, the rest in prayers. Yet, at the end, nothing works.”

For that narrative to change, a lot of things must also change. Regarding the Olympics, respected broadcast journalist, Dr Danladi Bako has already put the Sports Minister, Mr John Enoh, to task, following the Paris disaster. “There are too many jobbers occupying top positions in the Federations who feed on the system. The National Olympic Committee must be revamped through new elections into the executive, and performance-driven persons put in charge,” Bako admonishes. “Government must be definite and intentional in funding scholarships to designated universities of sports in the United States, China and Cuba for student youth games products.”

While I subscribe to the idea of funding scholarships for sports men and women, it doesn’t have to be for only those in the Diaspora. As a student at Ife in the eighties, I can recall several students who were also on such sporting scholarships. Our charity must begin at home!

Kola Adesina @ 60

It is a testimony to the kind of man he is that the 60th birthday ceremony of the managing director of Sahara Group and board chairman of Ikeja Electric, Mr Kola Adesina had in attendance people from all walks of life. From former Presidents Olusegun Obasanjo, Goodluck Jonathan and Ernest Bai Koroma (of Sierra Leone) to young professionals in the corporate world and entertainment industry, it was a memorable night in Lagos on Monday as many paid tributes to a man who values relationships. With a year and a few months between us (as I got to know only recently), Kola qualifies to be called an Egbon. And he has earned it. I wish him long life and good health.