Nigerian skit maker cum content creator, Abisi Emmanuel better known as Nasty Blaq, has announced that he and his partner, Esther are expecting their first child.

The comedian announced the good news on his social media pages, uploading photographs of himself and Esther who showed off her huge baby bump as they both adorned white outfits.

Nasty Blaq expressed how amazing his journey with his partner has become over time, and now that they are embarking on a new chapter in their life.

The soon to be father celebrated the adventures of parenting and the tremendous joy that awaits them.

In Nasty Blaq’s words:

“From the first laugh we shared to the love that blossomed, our journey together has been nothing short of magical.

Now, we’re about to write a new chapter—welcoming our baby into the world. With you by my side, every moment feels like a dream come true. Cheers ? to the adventures of parenthood and the joy that awaits us.”

In the comments section, his admirers, friends, and colleagues joined him in celebration.

In a recent twist, Mr Obasi, Judy Austin’s 1st husband has called out the actress, accusing her of denying him access to his children.

In a video making the rounds online, he expressed displeasure about having children, 16, and 14 years old respectively and being restrained from seeing them.

He noted that he hadn’t seen his children in 10 years which has caused him great distress and worry.

According to him, the children aren’t living with Judy Austin nor are they with him which raises questions about where they are and the type of upbringing they’re currently receiving.

Mr Obasi opened up about being very sober and confused any day he wakes up thinking about his children.

The Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority (NMDPRA) has stated that it is not their job to protect a company, adding that they are regulators.

The regulatory body stated this while replying to the claims by billionaire businessman, Aliko Dangote that they were demarketing a company that they should be protecting.

Recall that NMDPRA Chief Executive, Farouk Ahmed claimed that Dangote’s diesel was inferior, as it has more sulphur content than the imported one.

He also said the refinery, which has been selling diesel and aviation fuel in Nigeria for months, had yet to be licensed.

Reacting, Dangote lamented that it was disheartening that the regulators were not safeguarding the petroleum market in Nigeria.

However, speaking during an interview with Punch on Sunday, NMDPRA spokesman, George Ene-Ita fumed over the allegation that the regulator was demarketing a company it should protect, wondering if Dangote wants the agency to bend the rules in his favour.

“Why should we protect any company? We are regulators, operations are going don’t protect anybody; we regulate operators. If he says protect, it means we are shielding. It means that we should bend the rules. We don’t do that, we regulate every company.

“And we don’t demarket, what does he mean? You only demarket your competitors to gain an advantage. We are not competing with an operator. The word, ‘demarketing’, is only used when two competing brands are fighting. We are not an operator; we are a regulator. How can we demarket? Please, I take exception to that, on behalf of my organisation. We are not demarketing anybody. We are regulating every local refinery, including NNPC,” he clarified.

Speaking further, Ene-Ita said the body is expecting fresh reports to confirm the real sulphur content of the diesel produced by the Dangote refinery as the company debunked claims of inferior fuel production.

He said the agency had done its job and would not engage in a media fight with anybody over the claims made by the NMDPRA Chief Executive.

According to Ene-Ita, the authority has about 15 engineers and scientists embedded in the Dangote refinery, whose fresh report about the refinery’s sulphur content will be out on Monday (today).

The NMDPRA spokesman posited that a lot might have changed within a space of five days.

“We are not fighting anybody. Dangote refinery is the same as an indigenous local refinery. We are regulators, we don’t fight in the media. We have done our job, and that is it.

“You know we are dealing with engineering and time, and when we deal with engineering and time, it means that whatever claims put forward can be put to test and verified or debunked. If you recall, the ACE made that pronouncement on the sideline of an interaction on Wednesday or so. Between that time and now, it’s been like five days, a lot can change. So, 650ppm or 500 can come down to whatever.

“What I am saying is that I can’t give you any verifiable result for now, being a Sunday evening, until perhaps tomorrow when we will be in a position to review our technical report that must have been submitted by our engineers who are embedded in that plant. What normally comes to us are weekly reports. These particular tasks are done across the week from Monday to Sunday; even now, operations are going on and our engineers are there. So, I can’t speak to the claims made by that refinery now,” Ene-Ita explained.

Former president Bill Clinton and ex-secretary of state Hillary Clinton praised Joe Biden’s decision to abandon his White House reelection bid Sunday, and threw their support behind Vice President Kamala Harris to take up the baton.

Lauding Biden‘s “extraordinary career of service,” the Clintons said in a joint statement that they were “honored” to join him in endorsing Harris as the Democratic nominee “and will do whatever we can to support her.”

“Nothing has made us more worried for our country than the threat posed by a second Trump term. He has promised to be a dictator on day one,” they continued.

An officer of the Nigeria Police Force, Sergeant Sunday Wadzani, has reportedly killed his father in Maiduguri, Borno State capital.

Naija News learnt that the tragic incident unfolded in Maiduguri on Sunday.

According to Daily Trust, the incident took place in the vicinity of the State Police Command headquarters in Modugannari.

It was reported that the officer responsible for this heinous is attached to the Borno State House of Assembly complex.

A security source told reporters that Wadzani has been apprehended and is presently under the custody of the GRA Police Station.

“A police sergeant by the name Sgt. Sunday Wadzani serving in Borno state command today 21st July 2024 this evening at about 1620hrs shot his father Rtd. Asp Wadzani Ntasiri seven times after a minor feud at Maiduguri,” a document filed on the incident read.

The main reason for the officer’s act, however, is yet to be made public.

Also, the Police Public Relations Officer in the state, ASP Kenneth Daso, has not issued any official public statement regarding the incident as of the time of filing this report, Naija News understands.

Meanwhile, an Inspector of the Nigerian Police Force, identified as Shehu Oyibo, has been reportedly killed by gunmen in Abia State.

The murdered officer was serving with the Rapid Response Squad (RRS), as confirmed in a statement made available to newsmen by the Abia State Command Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Maureen Chinaka.

According to her, three civilians were brutally killed during the attack on a police patrol team stationed along Mosque Street, Ngwa Road, in Aba.

Naija News understands that the attack marks three weeks following the previous loss of two police officers at Opobo Junction, Ogbor Hill, Aba.

On the latest attack, the police mouthpiece stated that the assailants, operating from a Toyota Sienna bus on Mosque Street, Ngwa Road, initiated fire upon the police team upon their approach.

In a valiant effort to repel the attack, the police team successfully defended themselves.

THE court-reinstated deputy governor of Edo State, Mr. Philip Shaibu, yesterday, said his fight against his impeachment was to protect the office of the deputy governor in Nigeria, which he said has been ridiculed by some governors since 1999.

Shaibu spoke to journalists after a thanksgiving service at St. Paul’s Catholic Church, Benin City, where he said his reinstatement by the court was an act of God.

He also wants the Federal Government and the Inspector General of Police to investigate the killing of a policeman while he was on the way from the airport.

He said the policeman was an orderly to the governorship candidate of All Progressives Congress, APC, Sen. Monday Okpebholo.

According to him, “The governor (of Edo State) said he will destroy me and that is why I decided that the office of the deputy governor of Edo State, I will fight to make sure that sanity and respect is brought back to that office. 

“All what I am doing is not to earn anything but to make sure that the sanity of the office of the deputy governor is restored in line with the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. 

“What other deputies cannot fight, I will fight on their behalf, so that governors will start respecting that office.”

On his victory in the court, he said: “I challenged God and I told Him that I want Him to prove His power in my life, that people that are anti-God and anti-democracy are at it again and they want to use me as scapegoat, I told God to show to the world that I am truly your son.

“They said they will impeach me and I will go to court and that by the time judgment will come, the tenure would have been over.  I now challenged God to it, to prove to them that they have touched His anointed and that the judgment will come more faster more than expected, I said I will need the judgment to come before the election.

“By the grace of God, democracy has come to stay and we that fought for democracy will protect it, anti-democratic forces must be flushed out and by the grace of God we will succeed.”

Shaibu said ahead of the coming election in the state, youths should not allow themselves to be used but should vote in the election to remove “anti-democratic people” rather than allowing themselves to be used for violence.

“This election is the time to change anti-democratic forces and you must do it through the ballot, don’t engage in violence. I have been preaching this for the past year when the intimidation and harassment against me started.”

On the attack that led to the death of a policeman, Shiabu said: “I refused to call anybody to the streets because they were saying we know him, he will soon call people to the streets. 

“They know what they have done and they are trying to cover up, but this one, they cannot cover it up, not when a police officer was a victim, they cannot cover this, all of them must be picked. 

“They orchestrated it, the men of the vigilante did that. The vigilante in Edo State killed a policeman, the IG must look into it. They are struggling to see who they can rope in, they cannot rope anybody in. I am urging the president and IG to set up an enquiry to investigate the killing, not only the killing but proscribe vigilante in Edo.”

Popular hair vendor, Nwanneka Nkumah, has debunked rumours of a romantic affair with the Senate President, Godwill Akpabio.

Naija News reports that an Instagram gossip blog had called out Akpabio over alleged illicit affairs with some famous Nigerian celebrities after humiliating Kogi female senator, Natasha Akpoti on the floor of the senate.

However, Nwanneka, whose picture was included in the list of side chicks, dismissed the reports in a lengthy post via her Instagram page.

She stated there might be a mistake in identity because she has often spoken against people destroying other women’s homes and will never be part of such a thing.

She wrote, “Woke up this morning to my picture on a flyer. First off, I’m still trying to make sense of why my picture is in this mix, could it be a mistake from the graphic designer or what?

“I’d like to assume this was a complete mistake and was never intended. Gistlover please go back and do this research well or
just reconfirm from who your source is as I believe there might be a mistake somewhere.

“I am one woman who hates, condemns and publicly speak against people destroying other women’s homes and I will never ever be a part of something like that.

“I have been a married woman almost all my life as I even came to Lagos a married woman. I have never met, seen, talked, come in contact personally or otherwise with this man or any other politician in Nigerian or anywhere in the world.

“All my life I have worked hard for every penny 1 have, if I have $2m I can account for every dollar. If I have gotten any help, it is from my ex husband and my current husband. I am a happily married woman with 4 kids and do not want my name associated with something like this.

“I urge you all to please say all the lies you have to about me which I never care to respond to anything but not that I, Wanneka is or was ever involved with someone’s husband, talk more a Nigerian politician that can’t even help business owners do something about the dollar rate

“I am a certified lover girl and will never be in a situation where I have to be the woman. That being said, Wanneka Women I don’t know if you were as surprised as I was but abeg, y’all should please avoid me and even as a joke, do not involve me or put up my picture or mention my name in anything like this again.

“I have built my company from the ground up and since Day 1, I have been intentional about building in public and y’all can backtrack and trace my progress to this
point.

“I feel this is not only disrespectful to me, but to all genuine hardworking women out there. This further deepens the stereotype that every woman at the top, slept her way through it.

“I am raising two beautiful daughters and I am conscious of how my actions today, will impact them in the future. Thank you and God bless.”

The International Monetary Fund (IMF), has identified some African countries with the highest indebtedness to the global financial institution.

The list of countries with the highest indebtedness was unveiled in a recent report by the IMF, which identified countries of the world including African countries with the highest outstanding IMF credit as of July 19, 2024. 

While the IMF gives loans to countries, the loans usually come with some specific conditions including economic reforms and policy changes.

The report said that Egypt ranks first in the list of African countries with massive debt to the IMF, with a total debt of $10,215,014,179.

Nigeria, with a total IMF debt profile of about $1.23 billion, ranks eight on the list.

Below is a list of the top 10 African countries indebted to the IMF and the amount owed.

Egypt: $10,215,014,179

The North African country is the first on the list, with an outstanding debt surpassing $10.2 billion.

Angola: $2,989,900,003

Angola ranks second on the list with almost $3 billion in IMF debt.

Kenya: $2,566,263,300

The country with East Africa’s largest economy has over $2.5 billion in IMF loans.

Ghana: $2,303,438,500

Ghana, located in the West African region, owes the IMF about $2.3 billion.

Cote d’Ivoire: 2,246,318,672

The country is indebted to the tune of about $2.2 billion.

South Africa: $1,907,000,000

Africa’s most industrialized country owes the IMF about $1.9 billion.

Democratic Republic of Congo:  $1,599,000,000

The East African country owes about $1.5 billion to the IMF.

Nigeria: $1,227,250,000

Nigeria, Africa’s largest economy has approximately $1.23 billion in IMF debts.

Senegal: $1,143,348,750

Senegal’s indebtedness to the IMF is put at about $1.4 billion.

Morocco: $1,056,550,000

The 10th African country on the list owes the IMF about $1 billion.

Finance institutions to pay 50% of windfall

Experts caution on timing

The proposed one-off tax on 2023 foreign exchange (forex) gain by banks may fetch the Federal Government not less than N2trillion, it was learnt at the weekend.

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu hinted at his administration’s plan to tax the banks’ gain in the proposed amendment to the 2023 Finance Act before the National Assembly.

Also before the National Assembly is an Executive Bill on the 2024 Supplementary Budget seeking to raise N6.2 trillion to fund infrastructure.

The tax on banks’ forex windfall in 2023 is meant to raise part of the funding for the supplementary budget.

The levy on forex revaluation gains, otherwise known as a windfall, will be used to finance “Renewed Hope” infrastructure projects, education and healthcare, among others.

A review of audited reports and accounts of banks and independent analysts’ reports yesterday estimated forex revaluation gains at about N4 trillion in 2023, half of which the government is seeking to appropriate for national budget funding.

For instance, three of Nigeria’s five biggest banks – Guaranty Trust Holdings Company (GTCO), Zenith Bank and United Bank for Africa (UBA), made forex revaluation gains of about N700 billion last year 2023, with GTCO accounting for about two-thirds of the total gains by the big three.

GTCO recorded a forex revaluation gain of about N442 billion in 2023, followed by Zenith Bank and UBA with N229 billion and N27 billion respectively.

If passed into law, the government will receive about N350 billion in one-off payments from the three banks.

Five other banks, including the First City Monument Bank (FCMB) Group, Fidelity Bank, Stanbic IBTC, Access Holdings, and Sterling Financial Holdings, recorded estimated forex revaluation gains of about N176 billion during the year.

The 2023 Finance Act amendment stipulates that “there shall be levied and paid to the benefit of the Federal Government of Nigeria a tax of 50 per cent on the realised profits from all foreign exchange transactions of banks within the 2023 financial year.

“The Federal Inland Revenue Service – (a) shall assess the realised profits, collect, account and enforce payment of tax payable under section 30 in accordance with the powers of the Service under the Federal Inland Revenue Service (Establishment) Act 2007.”

The amendment proposes a penalty of an additional 10 per cent for banks that have not remitted the assessed forex gains or gotten approval for instalment payment from the CBN by December 31, 2024.

Read Also: Shaibu: My legal battles will restore sanity to deputy governor’s office ridiculed since 1999
Also, principal officers of defaulting banks would face imprisonment of up to three years.

Most experts have faulted the timing and the nature of the windfall tax, noting that it could indirectly undermine the ongoing banking recapitalisation.

They said it was unfair to deny shareholders of direct benefits from forex gains on one hand, and for the government to seek to retroactively appropriate such on the other hand.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) had directed banks not to utilise their forex revaluation gains to pay dividends or for other operational expenses, but rather to save the funds as a hedge against any future volatility.

“Banks are required to exercise utmost prudence and set aside the foreign currency revaluation gains as a counter-cyclical buffer to cushion any future adverse movements in the forex rate in this regard.

“Banks shall not utilise such forex revaluation gains to pay dividends or meet operating expenses,” the apex bank had stated.

Experts at Afrinvest West Africa said while the government is constitutionally empowered to impose taxes, including on windfall gains, to strengthen fiscal accounts, the timing of the policy’s announcement is problematic.

Faulting the timing, they argued that it would create a sense of uncertainty and unpredictability among investors and industry practitioners.

Afrinvest said: “For instance, Italy in August 2023 announced a one-off 40.0 per cent windfall tax on increase in banks’ net interest margin for the fiscal year 2023.

“Although the plan was eventually modified, the announcement was made during the 2023 operating year – in contrast to the abruptness of the proposed tax on Nigerian banks, which is to be applied outside of the 2023 fiscal year.

“Unsurprisingly, the banking index shed a total of 3.0 per cent in the final trading sessions of the week, following the announcement.

“In summary, lingering concerns about uncertainty around the sector could present some headwinds amidst the ongoing recapitalisation process.

“Furthermore, there is a need for clarification on the wind-fall tax adjustments to be made for banks that already remitted income tax for 2023.

“Given the five-month window for compliance, the federal government should provide a clearer template that would take into consideration some of the nuances around implementing the tax.

“There is the issue of fairness from the perspective of capital owners, given that the CBN already barred access to foreign currency earnings via dividend payments.

“The Federal Government is seeking access to 50.0 per cent of the same profit.

“In the light of the ongoing recapitalisation, the broad steps by the regulator and the Federal Government to tighten the noose around forex income for banks might disincentivise new capital inflow into the sector, thereby prolonging the current episode of lack-lustre foreign capital inflows into the country.”

Managing Director, Arthur Steven Asset Management, Mr. Olatunde Amolegbe, said the introduction of the windfall tax in the middle of ongoing banking recapitalisation may send wrong signals to investors and thus negatively impact the ability of banks to raise the much-needed capital.

Amolegbe said: “We also have to be very mindful of the impact on the liquidity ratio of these banks, many of which are finding things tough due to the tight monetary stance of the CBN. There is a need for caution here.

“In business, as in life, timing is everything. It will appear we are moving one step forward two steps backward.”

His counterpart at HighCap Securities, Mr. David Adonri, said the 50 per cent windfall tax amounts to an expropriation of shareholders’ wealth.

“It defeats the purpose of making banks strong enough to support the envisaged $1 trillion economy, an objective that is compelling banks to recapitalise,” Adonri said.

Veteran highlife singer, Gentleman Mike Ejeagha, has been moved to tears by the unexpected resurgence of his 1983 song, “Ka Esi Le Onye Isi Oche”.

The song, which had been largely forgotten over the years, gained new life after skit maker, Brain Jotter used it in one of his videos, creating a catchy dance move that synchronises with the music.

The song has since gone viral, garnering over 659,000 likes on Instagram and an impressive 11 million views on TikTok.

Its popularity has transcended borders, with the song being used in content from Nigeria to Asian countries.

The viral sensation has prompted content creators to pay homage to Mike Ejeagha, with one Tiktoker, @anyigoldtv, presenting him with an envelope containing money and sharing the achievement of his new song.

Overwhelmed with emotion, the aged singer broke down in tears, clearly touched by the unexpected revival of his music and the appreciation from a new generation of fans.