SUNDAY 3RD NOVEMBER 2024

Be APC Versus Nigerians, Not Between PDP and Ruling Party

Urges PDP leaders to unite against external control

Chuks Okocha in Abuja and Kemi Olaitan in Ibadan Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, yesterday declared that the 2027 general election will be between the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the people of Nigeria, and not between the ruling party and the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). Makinde has also urged the leaders of the PDP to unite against any form of external control that may prevent them from uniting and forming a strong opposition

History as Kemi Badenoch Becomes First Black Woman to Lead UK’s Conservative Party

New opposition leader vows to hold government to account, return her party to power

Festus Akanbi with agency report

History was made yesterday as the United Kingdom's Conservative Party announced the election of Kemi Badenoch as its leader ahead of her closest rival, Robert Jenrick. Badenoch, who received 53,806 votes to defeat Robert Jenrick who got 41,388, succeeds Rishi Sunak as leader of the opposition party.

Speaking on the significance of her victory and her ambitions for the party, she said her first responsibility is to hold the Labour Party’s government to account, while the second is to prepare for the next few years for the government.

The former British Business Secretary is the first black woman to lead a major political party in the UK and takes charge of a Conservative Party reeling from its worst-ever election defeat.

Born in Wimbledon, London, on January 2, 1980, to Nigerian parents, she spent her childhood in Lagos and the United States until she returned Continued

Post-election Violence Looms in United States as Washington State Puts National Guard on Standby

Intelligence agencies warn of Russian interference in election campaigns Supreme Court dismisses Republicans’ suit on Pennsylvania voting case

With just two days before the United States presidential election, the Governor of Washington State, Jay Inslee, has activated some members of the National Guard to be on standby in case of election-related unrest.

This is just as intelligence agencies in Washington are warning Russia against interference in election campaigns.

ahead of 2027.

Speaking during the inauguration of the South-west PDP Zonal Office, which he built in honour of the late former PDP National Vice Chairman (South-west), Hon. Olasoji Adagunodo-Oluwatukesi, and donated to the party, Makinde stated that Nigerians would be the ones to determine the next leadership of the country.

He urged the PDP leaders to look inward, work together, and salvage the country.

He said: “People have been complaining; they have been talking; they have been making a lot of speculation. Let me say this again, and I will say it myself: Nobody will set an agenda for me apart from myself.

“They have also been talking; the ruling party and other parties. Let me say this: If you are accusing the ruling party of interfering with other parties to prevent them from uniting and forming a strong opposition for 2027, my position is that there are certain things within our control.

"Whether Governor Adeleke (Osun State governor) and I will cooperate for the growth and benefit of our party in the South-west is beyond the ruling party. It is between me and Governor Adeleke. So, please, let us work together and unite our base; that is all we need to do.

"The next election will be APC versus Nigerians. It is not even about APC versus PDP. So, let us do our bit to unite our party and our base, and let the people of Nigeria speak.

“The people spoke in Oyo and Osun states. They will do it in Nigeria. So, don’t fret. Don’t think external people have control over what will happen in our party. Yes, they may try; they can only succeed when we allow it.

“I want to admonish PDP members all over the country; let us unite and the way to demonstrate it is if you know one or two people in Ondo State, call them and tell them that the PDP is united. Tell them that the Ondo election coming up two weeks from now would be an indication of where Nigeria would be in 2027,” Makinde added.

headquarters of the $5 billion Africa Energy Bank (AEB), following the country’s successful bid in July 2024.

Addressing a gathering of the Oil Producers Trade Section (OPTS), a group of oil firms operating in Nigeria, at the Cross Industry Group (CIG) meeting in Istanbul, Turkey, at the weekend, Lokpobiri also restated that oil field bid winners must explore or relinquish them.

The minister’s spokesperson, Nneamaka Okafor, said in a statement that Lokpobiri’s remarks were part of a strategic plan to navigate the challenges and opportunities in Nigeria's petroleum industry presented to the producers.

Underscoring the sector's central role in Nigeria's economy, which the minister said provides around 85 per cent of government revenue as well as serves as a vital source of foreign exchange, the minister said there was the need for the oil sector to remain resilient.

He acknowledged the persistent security challenges in the Niger Delta but reported ongoing efforts to protect

The U.S. Supreme Court has also dismissed the suit filed by some Republicans seeking rules for postal voting in the battleground state of Pennsylvania.

A statement issued by the office of the Governor of Washington State said some members of the National Guard have been activated to be on standby in case of election-related

Makinde said despite the clamour for him to join the 2027 presidential race, he had not assigned anyone to campaign for him.

“Please, let us all work together and unite our bases. That is all we need. The next general election would be APC versus Nigerians, not even APC versus PDP. But, let us just do our own bit to unite our party and bases and then allow the people of Nigeria to speak when the time comes.

“I am glad we are opening this House. It is a demonstration of our unity. I am also glad that our Acting National Chairman is here. The kind of story they would have loved to hear is that the suspension and counter-suspension saga is still on, but that is behind us.

“We are even more united to move forward. So, I thank you all for being here,” Makinde added. He tasked all PDP members to work together and unite for total victory in the Ondo State governorship election coming up on November 16, 2024.

He spoke on the cooperation and cordial relationship between himself and his Osun State counterpart, Senator Ademola Adeleke, assuring that they would work hand-in-hand to unite the South-west

“My brother, Governor Adeleke, I want to thank you today for being here.

“We had our issues; we were fighting ourselves, especially for the control of Zonal Executives. My dear brother, Governor Adeleke, thank you for being part of this; it shows your magnanimity. That means whatever has happened in the past is behind us.

“Dr. Eddy Olafeso is here. We fought. That is the spirit of PDP. Let me also specially recognise my brother, the next Governor of Ondo State, His Excellency Agboola Ajayi.

“This time, two weeks from today, Ondo State people will be in the process of electing him as their next governor.”

Makinde added: “Those of you thinking that the only way to achieve your dream is for a division to be in the PDP - well, the South-west

Nigeria’s oil infrastructure through enhanced security measures.

Aside from engaging communities and encouraging partnerships to foster local ownership of critical assets, Lokpobiri stated that other efforts include increased military support, particularly from the Nigerian Navy and the Joint Task Force (JTF).

“The government has also implemented technology-driven solutions, including drone and satellite surveillance to enhance the security framework and detect potential threats to the industry,” the minister said.

The minister outlined Nigeria’s dual approach to energy transition to ensure the future of its petroleum industry by focusing on maximising crude oil production and adapting to a cleaner energy transition.

“In the short-term, our focus remains on increasing revenue from crude oil production,” Lokpobiri stated.

He stressed that the government recognised the urgency of cost reduction, highlighting the government’s measures aimed at

violence.

“This is a purely precautionary measure,” a statement from Governor Jay Inslee’s office said at the weekend.

A ballot drop box for early voting was set on fire with incendiary devices in Vancouver, Washington at the start of the week. Hundreds of ballots were destroyed.

A similar incident occurred in the nearby city of Portland, Oregon

of Nigeria is leading the way. My brother, Adebutu, your own time will also come. I said before that when we look at Nigeria, if the South-west is united, Nigeria will unite.

“The two PDP governors who are in the South-west are here together,” he added.

to the UK at the age of 16.

Badenoch is also the first Black woman to head a party that has had three other female leaders - Margaret Thatcher, Theresa May, and Liz Truss.

During her campaign, Badenoch pledged to return the Conservatives to “first principles” and launch a series of reviews in the coming months to shape a new policy platform.

The North West Essex MP is also the sixth Tory leader in less than eight and a half years and faces the challenge of uniting a fractured party.

“The time has come to tell the truth,” Badenoch declared to supporters at the final count of the leadership contest, which ended yesterday.

“It is time to get down to business, it is time to renew.”

The charismatic, fire-brand rightwing leader succeeds Sunak, who became the first non-white British Prime Minister after taking over the Tories, Britain’s oldest party, in 2022.

“It is the most enormous honour to be elected to this role, to lead the party that I love, the party that has given me so much,” a smiling Badenoch said to a group of Conservative Party members after being announced the winner.

“I hope that I will be able to repay that debt,” she added.

The Labour Party’s landslide victory gave it a huge majority in Parliament and the Tories face at least four years in opposition before the next election is due.

Badenoch has served as shadow Business and Trade Secretary since the Conservative Party lost the general election in July and Rishi Sunak said he would stand down as leader, triggering the campaign.

streamlining operations, particularly upstream activities, to remain competitive in the global market.

The minister said: “The world is moving toward cleaner energy, and Nigeria must be part of that transition. The government has prioritised natural gas as a cleaner alternative while actively exploring renewable energy options to diversify Nigeria’s energy mix.”

He listed part of the bouquet of reforms and incentives to revitalise Nigeria's oil and gas sector as the Value Added Tax (VAT) modification order 2024 and the tax incentives order for deep offshore oil and gas production.

Lokpobiri told the gathering that the Nigerian government was focused on reducing contracting costs and timelines and has therefore mandated that the procurement cycle be streamlined to six months.

In addition, he highlighted the government’s commitment to the Nigerian Oil and Gas Industry Content Development (NOGICD) Act, which promotes local content.

around the same time.

Inslee’s office said the governor, a Democrat, was responding to these incidents as well as the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s nationwide warnings regarding threats to election infrastructure.

The National Guard is a statebased military force that answers both to governors and the president and is frequently deployed in

He acknowledged the presence of former governors Okezie Ikpeazu of Abia State and Samuel Ortom of Benue State.

On his part, Governor Adeleke also stressed the need for the PDP leaders to be united.

“We must forget the past divisions

Her campaign was called Renewal 2030 and has targeted the next election for the Tories to return to power.

Badenoch has been criticised at times for her outspoken approach, with opponents jumping on comments she had made about subjects such as maternity pay, gender equality, and net zero.

But she has long been popular among the party membership and previously ran to be leader in 2022.

It is not clear who her shadow cabinet will be made up of, but she had suggested that all those who ran to be leaders against her should be involved.

However, James Cleverly revealed the day before the results that he would be returning to the backbenches.

Badenoch has vowed to rebuild the Tory Party on more authentically conservative foundations, saying her training as a computer engineer had taught her how to fix problems.

She spoke often of “first principles” like freedom and individual responsibility.

And she has not hesitated to wade into thorny issues like transgender rights or Britain’s colonial legacy, deploring “woke” ideology and “nasty identity politics.”

Despite the challenges, Badenoch’s no-nonsense approach has earned her a loyal base among the Conservatives.

Known for her outspoken positions on identity politics and her desire to reduce state influence, she appeals to a faction within the party that believes a decisive rightward turn is necessary to reconnect with disillusioned voters.

She has a history of tense interactions with media figures, celebrities, and even some government

The minister emphasised that the government’s recent initiative to launch bid rounds for 31 oil and gas blocks will be a cornerstone of Nigeria’s strategic development.

“Each block has been meticulously selected for its potential to boost reserves and stimulate economic growth. In line with international best practices, barriers to entry have been reduced through signature bonuses to attract a wider range of investors, with strict enforcement of Nigeria’s ‘drill or drop’ policy,” he added.

Lokpobiri called for greater commitment from industry players to support Nigeria’s ambitious plan to increase oil production by over 1 million barrels per day within the next 24 months.

"We cannot afford to hold valuable fields in perpetuity. It’s either you put them to work or relinquish them. The era of renewing licenses without development is over,” he reiterated.

Meanwhile, the federal government has confirmed its readiness to host the headquarters of the $5 billion Africa Energy Bank (AEB), following the

response to natural disasters and other emergencies.

The guard will be on stand-by for four days in Washington State, beginning Monday, and ending just after midnight on Thursday.

Election Day is Tuesday but millions of early votes have already been cast.

Meanwhile, intelligence agencies in Washington have warned of targeted

and unite for the good of our dear party. We should resolve conflicts inside the Government House rather than outside. We must refocus on building strong administrative and operational structures,” Adeleke added.

Also speaking, the Acting National

officials during her time as a trade minister, but this has only bolstered her support among members who are wary of institutional and media influences.

Speaking on the significance of her win and her ambitions for the party, she commented: “The task that stands before us is tough but simple. Our first responsibility as His Majesty’s loyal opposition is to hold this Labour government to account. Our second is no less important; it is to prepare for the next few years for the government.”

Congratulating Badenoch on her victory, the Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer said: "Congratulations, Kemi Badenoch, on becoming the Conservative Party's new leader.

"The first black leader of a Westminster party is a proud moment for our country.

"I look forward to working with you and your party in the interests of the British people."

Ellie Reeves, who is chair of the Labour Party, delivered a more political attack: "It's been a summer of yet more Conservative chaos and division.

"They could have spent the past four months listening to the public, taking responsibility for the mess they made, and changing their party.

"Instead, Kemi Badenoch's election as leader shows they're incapable of change.

"Meanwhile, the Labour Government is getting on with fixing the foundations of our economy and cleaning up the mess the Tories left behind."

The combative former equalities minister now faces the daunting task of reuniting a divided and weakened

country’s successful bid in July 2024.

Preparations are underway to ensure a seamless operational launch of the Bank in the first quarter of 2025, the minister said in a separate statement.

Lokpobiri spoke at the 46th Ordinary Session of the Ministerial Council of the African Petroleum Producers’ Organisation (APPO) held in Yaoundé, Cameroon.

While speaking to the ministers of the 18 APPO member-states, Lokpobiri expressed Nigeria’s enthusiasm for the project, stating: “We are prepared to host the AEB, and our dedication to enhancing funding for Africa’s energy sector remains unwavering.”

One of the bank’s missions is to bridge financing gaps within Africa’s oil and gas industry, facilitating advancements in energy infrastructure across the continent.

Lokpobiri emphasised that the federal government under President Bola Tinubu’s leadership, has taken significant steps to lay the groundwork for the bank’s strategic objectives.

disinformation from Russia.

The agencies blamed Russia for a video that “falsely depicted individuals claiming to be from Haiti and voting illegally in multiple counties in Georgia.”

Another fabricated video falsely accused “an individual associated with the Democratic presidential ticket of taking a bribe from a US entertainer.”

Chairman of the PDP, Umar Iliya Damagum, said with unity, the PDP can reclaim all South-West states and the entire country. He described the late Adagunodo as a kind and down-to-earth man whose contributions added value to the party’s successes in the country.

party that was emphatically ousted from power in July after 14 years in charge. Badenoch will become the official leader of the opposition and face off against Labour’s Starmer in the House of Commons every Wednesday for the traditional Prime Minister’s Questions.

However, she will be leading a much-reduced cohort of Tory MPs in the chamber following the party’s dismal election showing.

She must plot a strategy to regain public trust while stemming the flow of support to the right-wing Reform UK party, led by Brexit figurehead Nigel Farage.

Having campaigned on a rightwing platform, she also faces the prospect of future difficulties within the ranks of Tory lawmakers, which includes many centrists.

Badenoch, born in London to Nigerian parents and raised in Lagos, has called for a return to conservative values, accusing her party of having become increasingly liberal on societal issues such as gender identity. She describes herself as a straight-talker, a trait that has caused controversy on the campaign trail. When addressing immigration, Badenoch said that “not all cultures are equally valid” when deciding who should be allowed to live in the UK.

She was widely criticised after suggesting that statutory maternity pay on small businesses was “excessive” and sparked a further furore when she joked that up to 10 per cent of Britain’s half a million civil servants were so bad that they “should be in prison.”

“Our commitment is underscored by Nigeria’s contribution of $69.1 million in equity funding to the bank, which demonstrates our leadership role in supporting critical energy initiatives on the continent,” he noted. Beyond financial contributions, Nigeria, he said, has also formally signed and ratified the AEB establishment agreement and charter, a development that APPO has praised as a significant leap toward establishing the bank. With the treaty now in effect, the legal and operational framework is set, paving the way for the AEB’s launch and enabling it to advance its objectives of enhancing energy security on the continent, the minister added.

“I urge all member countries to expedite their subscription and payment of their allocated shares to the AEB. Together, we can achieve remarkable advancements in our energy sectors and establish ourselves as a continental energy hub,” the minister added.

Chuks Okocha in Abuja

UNITING THE OPPOSITION AHEAD OF 2027...

Police: Arraigned Protesters Who Slumped in Court Staged It

AGF mulls withdrawing charges against minors Gov Yusuf vows to get suspects back to Kano, Kwankwaso condemns stringent bail conditions

Aleke in Abuja and Ahmad Sorondinki in Kano

The Nigeria Police Force (NPF) has stated that six of the suspects who suddenly rushed out and fainted in the court on Friday, staged the act to draw negative attention.

THISDAY has however gathered that the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF) and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), is considering withdrawing the charges against the minors.

Governor Abba Yusuf of Kano State has also vowed that his administration will take all necessary measures to bring back the arraigned minors believed to be from the state, who were arraigned for their roles in the #EndBadGovernance protests.

This is just as the presidential candidate of the New Nigeria Peoples Party (NNPP) in the 2023 general election and leader of the Kwankwasiyya movement, Senator Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, expressed displeasure over the bail condition imposed on the protesters.

However, while the Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS) has refuted claims that juvenile defendants were detained in adult custodial facilities at the Kuje Correctional Centre in Abuja, the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim, has expressed deep concern over the recent detention of 32 children, reportedly arrested on August 3, 2024, during the #EndBadGovernance protests in Kano and Kaduna states.

The arrested minors, who were arraigned before a Federal High Court in Abuja on Friday, were said to be from Abuja, Kaduna, Gombe, Plateau, Katsina, and Kano states.

When the protesters were arraigned, some minors collapsed and were rushed out during proceedings.

The court later granted N10 million bail to each of the 72 defendants.

Many Nigerians, including

leading politicians and civil society, have condemned the arraignment of minors.

In a statement issued yesterday, the spokesman of the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Muyiwa Adejobi, an Assistant Commissioner of Police (ACP), acknowledged that the police arraigned 76 individuals in court on charges including terrorism, arson, and treasonable felony.

“The suspects were initially presented in court, where they were formally charged, and a remand order was issued by the court. Throughout this process, the Police have worked to balance justice with compassion, ensuring that each suspect’s basic rights and privileges are respected, including access to medical care and other necessary provisions.

“Today, an unexpected incident in court saw six of the suspects suddenly rush out and faint, drawing media attention in a deliberate and scripted manner to draw negative attention,” he said.

Adejobi insisted that under Nigerian law, individuals who have reached the age of criminal responsibility are answerable for their actions, regardless of their age.

“As seen in other jurisdictions, including the United Kingdom, age does not exempt individuals from facing legal consequences,” he added.

Adejobi promised that the police were committed to aligning with best practices, upholding both the rule of law and respect for human dignity.

THISDAY has however gathered that Fagbemi has received the case file from the police and was considering withdrawing the charges against the minors.

The minister had on Friday requested the police to hand over the file to him.

Also reacting to the incident on his X page, the Kano governor said the state Attorney-General and Commissioner of Justice, Haruna Dederi, has been directed to take

immediate action on the matter.

“We shall do everything possible to get them back to Kano, in sha Allah,” the governor added.

Meanwhile, in a post on his Facebook page, Kwankwaso expressed shock over the condition of the suspects, which he described as a violation of their fundamental human rights.

He said: “These children, who are obviously malnourished and need medical attention have been

subjected to a cruel experience when they should be in school.

“The arraignment of such a number of minors in their states is highly unusual and negates every tenet of the protection of human rights and dignity,” he explained.

“The stringent conditions set for their release, it is absurd that a teenager is ordered to source for N10 million and a grade 15 civil servant for bail,” Kwankwaso added.

The former Kano State

governor also called on the federal government to face the challenges of banditry, kidnapping, Boko Haram, lack of stable electricity and excruciating economic policies rather than putting children behind bars.

Also, in a statement issued yesterday, NCoS spokesman, Umar Abubakar, clarified that the reports claiming that juvenile defendants from the recent #EndBadGovernance protests were detained in adult custodial facilities at the Kuje

Correctional Centre in Abuja were misleading.

The statement assured that the service adheres to strict standards when managing juvenile offenders. In a related development, the Minister of Women Affairs, Imaan Sulaiman-Ibrahim acknowledged public concern regarding the treatment, safety, and rights of these detained children, adding that ensuring every child’s rights is paramount.

NSIB, House Committee Vow to Uncover Cause of Helicopter Crash

The Director General of the Nigerian Safety Investigation Bureau (NSIB), Captain Alex Badeh Jr., and the Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Aviation and Aerospace Technology, Hon. Abiodun Akinlade, have vowed to unravel the cause of the crash of the Sikorsky SK76 helicopter, with registration No. 5N BQG.

Both officials, who visited the crash site to oversee the progress of recovery and investigation operations, reaffirmed the government's commitment to a transparent and thorough inquiry into the accident to improve transport safety in Nigeria.

The helicopter, operated by Eastwind Aviation, ditched off the coast of Bonny Finima on October 24, 2024, with eight people on board.

Since the accident, the NSIB, with support from local and international partners, has coordinated a search-and-recovery mission to locate the wreckage and examine the circumstances that led to this tragic event.

During the visit, the officials received updates from the multidisciplinary search and recovery team.

The officials were briefed on recovery progress, as well as investigative procedures examining environmental factors, safety protocols, and technical variables.

Badeh reaffirmed NSIB’s dedication to transparency, underscoring the Bureau’s role in conducting an objective investigation.

“We are committed to uncovering the facts of this tragic incident. Our team is deploying the highest standards to ensure we bring clarity to the families affected, while enhancing safety measures that will benefit all Nigerians.

“Transparency and accountability guide this process as we work to bring closure to those impacted, and provide actionable recommendations to improve aviation safety,” Badeh was quoted in a statement by the Bureau’s Director, Public Affairs and Family Assistance, Mrs. Bimbo Olawumi Oladeji, as saying.

Akinlade echoed the government’s commitment to supporting the recovery effort and NSIB’s mission, ensuring that the investigative findings contribute to safety reform. He expressed condolences to the families affected, saying the government must prioritise the welfare of all citizens who depend on safe transportation:

“This tragedy affects us all, and our thoughts are with the families who lost loved ones. The safety of our citizens and the integrity of our transport system are priorities for the National Assembly. We will ensure that insights and lessons from this investigation contribute to Nigeria’s aviation safety policies and broader transport safety initiatives,” he added.

NSA Hands Over Freed Medical Doctor to NMA, Family for Reintegration

John Shiklam in Kaduna

Following a comprehensive security debriefing, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Malam Nuhu Ribadu, yesterday handed over the freed medical doctor at the National Eye Centre in Kaduna State, Dr. Ganiyat Popoola and her nephew to her family, in the presence of the President of Nigerian Medical Association (NMA), Dr. Bala Audu, for rehabilitation and reintegration. The handover ceremony, which

had the presence of representatives from the Defence Headquarters, Ministry of Health, NMA, and the National Association of Resident Doctors (NARD), provided an opportunity for security personnel to highlight the efforts made to secure Dr. Ganiyat’s release. They also discussed related operations, including the recent rescue of abducted medical students.

In his remarks, Dr. Audu expressed his gratitude to the security agencies under the leadership of the

NSA for their efforts, while urging them to intensify actions to ensure the rescue of other Nigerians, including medical doctors, who remain in captivity.

The family extended their appreciation to the federal government, NMA, NARD, and all Nigerian doctors for their unwavering support during this challenging time.

Dr Popoola, a Registrar in the Department of Opthalmology at the National Eye Centre, was abducted alongside her husband, Nurudeen

Popoola who is a military officer and her nephew, Folaranmi- AbdulMugni who lives with them.

The kidnappers had earlier demanded a whopping N40 million ransom, which was paid after which they released her husband on March 8, 2024, and still refused to release Dr. Popoola and her nephew. Dr. Popoola and her nephew were, however, freed on Wednesday evening, bringing an end to their terrifying ordeal in the hands of their abductors.

Kasim Sumaina in Abuja

Chuks Okocha, Linus

L-R: Former Governor of Osun State, Prince Olagunsoye Oyinlola; Osun State Governor, Senator Ademola Adeleke; Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde; wife of the late PDP National Vice Chairman (South-West), Mrs. Adeyinka Adagunodo; PDP National Acting Chairman, Ambassador lliya Damagum; and Deputy National Chairman of the party (South), Hon. Taofeek Arapaja, during the inauguration of Soji Adagunodo House, PDP Southwest Zone Secretariat, built by Makinde in Ibadan …yesterday

PROMOTING CULTURE...

L-R: Director, Tomez Nigeria Limited, Mr. Somto Ezeani; Awardee and Chief Executive Officer, Tomez Nigeria Limited, Chief Tony Ezeani; Chairman, Konac

and Chairman, MegaChem Nigeria Limited, Chief Sam Ubachukwu; Chief Executive Officer, Zanetti Marbles

Dave

and

Full Page Communications Limited, Chief Ingram Osigwe, at the 2024 Anambra Lecture/Awards Cultural day celebration in Lagos…yesterday.

10 Banks Generate N12.24tn Interest Income from Loans, Others in Nine Months

Following the frequent hike in the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), a total of 10 Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) generated an estimated N12.24 trillion in interest income from loans and advances to customers, banks, and investment in federal government’s securities in the first nine months of 2024.

The 2024 figure of N12.24 trillion interest income, according to extracts from the unaudited nine months results (January to September) posted on the Nigerian Exchange

Limited (NGX), translates into a 148 per cent increase when compared with the N4.9 trillion generated in nine months of 2023.

The 10 DMBs are Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), Zenith Bank Plc, United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, Ecobank Transnational Incorporated (ETI), and FBN Holdings Plc.

Others are Fidelity Bank Plc, Wema Bank Plc, Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc and Sterling Financial Holdings Company Plc.

These DMBs have continued to benefit from the high-yield

operating environment as monetary authorities in countries in key African economies have sustained a tight monetary stance to address stubbornly high inflation.

Across Sub-Saharan Africa, inflation has slowed significantly from prior year highs.

The MPR hikes are part of a strategy to address inflation and economic challenges.

The CBN has increased the MPR five times in 2024.

In February, the MPR was raised by 400 basis points from 18.75 per cent to 22.75 per cent and in March, it was raised by 200 basis points

from 22.75 per cent to 24.75 per cent.

In May, it was raised by 150 basis points from 24.75 per cent to 26.25 per cent, while the rate was raised by 50 basis points from 26.75 per cent to 27.25 per cent in July.

The latest increase was in September when the MPR was raised by 50 basis points from 26.75 per cent to 27.25 per cent and it has impacted loans to customers and yield on government securities such as FGN Bond and Nigerian Treasury Bills (NTB).

The average yield on NTBs inched higher through nine months of 2024 driven by the CBN’s policy

Remi Tinubu Urges Women to Support One Another for Elective Positions

Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

First Lady, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, has called on Nigerian Women to rally around other women seeking elective positions, encourage them, and actively support them.

She spoke at the All Progressives Congress (APC) Women National Summit and Dialogue in Abuja with the theme, ‘Empowering APC Women for Leadership and Nation Building.’

Mrs. Tinubu, in a statement issued yesterday by her Senior Special Adviser on Media, Busola Kukoyi, said women should avoid creating imaginary limitations.

She said: “During this phase of

nation-building, as women leaders, let us remember that we all have what it takes to make an impact in our various spheres of influence.

“Let us avoid creating imaginary limitations and focus on our potential by persevering, supporting one another, and working diligently. We can shape the future, let us do it right, one woman at a time”.

The First Lady urged the National Woman Leader of the Party to team up with other APC State Women Leaders to make a presentation to the National Assembly to further push for legislation to increase the quota of women that must have seats at the assembly.

She added: “The next election is for

the Nigerian women. The Renewed Hope Agenda of His Excellency President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR places a strong emphasis on creating opportunities for women to thrive.

“We have witnessed increased representation of women in key positions within our party and government. This is proof of the hard work, resilience, and determination we exhibit as women and we must continue to push forward in unity”.

Mrs Tinubu admonished the women on the principles and qualities of good leadership, especially by women which include, integrity, hard work, and compassion.

She noted: “A leader who cannot apologise for their wrong is not

worth being a leader. When you get into office, you must look out for your fellow women all the time.

When one woman succeeds, we all succeed and when one woman fails, we all fail”.

Earlier, Deputy Governor of Ogun State, Noimot Salako-Oyedele commended President Tinubu for consistently demonstrating a commitment to gender equity.

The event had in attendance the Wife of the Vice President of Nigeria, First Lady of the Gambia, National Assembly members, State First Ladies, Deputy Governors, Women Leaders of the APC from across Nigeria, and members of the diplomatic community.

Presidency Refutes Nepotism Allegations against Tinubu's Administration in Security Appointments

Linus Aleke in Abuja

The Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Public Communication and Orientation, Sunday Dare, yesterday punctured the allegation that the appointment of security officials by President Bola Tinubu’s administration was skewed in favour of Yoruba ethnic group. Dare, who debunked the trending allegation against President Tinubu's administration, averred that facts do not lie.

President Tinubu's recent appointment of Major General Olufemi Oluyede as the Acting Chief of Army Staff (COAS), had sparked reactions on social media with allegation that the incumbent administration headed by a Yoruba man is favouring his tribesmen against other sections of the country, especially in the security appointments. But in a well tabulated fact sheet, Dare explained that the North got the highest number of appointments in the security sector with 15 appointees, while the South has seven appointees, making a total of 22. He further revealed that Northwest was the most favored with eight appointees, followed by North-central with four appointees and North-east with three.

Dare also revealed that the Southwest was more favoured in the South with five appointments, while the South-east and South-south got the least with one slot each.

He noted that while the Southwest currently heads the Nigerian Army (NA), Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Department of State Services (DSS), Nigerian Customs Service (NCS), and Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), the North-west heads Ministry of Defence (MOD), Defence Headquarters (DHQ), Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Nigerian Correctional Service (NCoS), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), Independent Corrupt

Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), and National Youth Service Corps (NYSC).

He said the South-east heads only the Nigerian Navy (NN), while the North-east produced the National Security Adviser (NSA), heads of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), and that of the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU).

Also, South-south heads only the Defence Intelligence Agency (DIA), while North Central holds sway in National Intelligence Agency (NIA), Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC), Federal Fire Service, and the Nigeria Immigration Service (NIS).

measures to curb inflation and mop up excess liquidity.

According to THISDAY investigations, Access Holdings led other DMBs with the highest interest income from loans and advances to customers in the period under review, followed by Zenith Bank, ETI, UBA, and FBN Holdings.

In the nine months of 2024, Access Holdings announced N2.4 trillion interest income, an increase of 129 per cent from N1.05 trillion in nine months of 2023, while Zenith Bank declared N1.94 trillion interest income in nine months of 2024, a growth of 161.7 per cent from the N671 billion reported in nine months of 2023.

From the unaudited result and accounts for nine months of 2024, ETI posted N1.93billion interest income, representing 140 per cent growth from N805.1 billion in nine months of 2023, as UBA announced N1.8 trillion interest income in nine months of 2024, about 170 per cent from N666.3 billion reported in nine months of 2023.

FBN Holdings announced N1.63 trillion interest income in nine months of 2024, up by 164 per cent from the N617.1 billion recorded in the first nine months of 2023.

Following the increase in the MPR

or interest rate from 18.75per cent to 27.25 per cent, the banking sector average maximum lending rate rose to 30.21 per cent in September 2024, the highest since 2022. Maximum lending rate refers to the rate charged by commercial banks for lending to customers with low credit ratings.

The unanticipated rise in MPR has impacted the banking sector lending rate as the CBN sustained pressure in tackling inflationary pressure.

This unprecedented move has not only set the MPR at its highest level to date but also reflects the CBN’s determined effort to address the persistent economic pressures.

The decision was backed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which commended the MPC’s resolve to tighten monetary policy further by increasing the policy rate to 27.25 per cent.

Analysts have attributed the increase in lending to the hike in MPR and severe macroeconomic challenges.

The recent announcement, made by CBN Governor, Dr. Yemi Cardoso, had highlighted the central bank’s proactive approach towards monetary tightening amidst challenging economic conditions.

FG Unveils First Database for Volunteers

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

The federal government has launched Nigeria’s National Volunteer Database along with the blueprint for the National Policy on Inclusive Volunteerism.

The database, launched through the Nigerian National Volunteer Service under the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, in collaboration with Natview Technology, aims to make volunteerism a central element of Nigeria’s sustainable development efforts.

According to a statement by the Head of Communications, Natview Technology, Olubunmi Olorunpomi, yesterday, the initiative, which was launched on Wednesday in Abuja, was themed “Launching the National Volunteer Database in Nigeria and the Blueprint of the National Policy on Inclusive Volunteerism.”

It is part of the government’s ongoing commitment to encouraging civic engagement among citizens,

with an emphasis on sustainable national development.

According to the SGF, George Akume, represented by a Director, Ifiok Abia, the National Volunteer Database provides Nigerians with structured and easy access to volunteer opportunities, which align with the country’s socio-economic, environmental, and societal goals. He said, “The blueprint for the National Policy on Inclusive Volunteerism, approved by the Federal Executive Council in December 2020, offers a detailed framework for organised and inclusive volunteerism across the country. Administered by the NNVS, the policy prioritises critical areas such as health, education, the environment, and social work.” By creating an inclusive volunteer structure, the government aims to “empower individuals, organisations, and communities to take collective action” in driving the nation’s growth and development, Abia noted.

Kayode Tokede

Industries Limited, Chief Emma Konac Aniakor; Awardee

Limited, Mr.

Anazodo;

Chief Executive Officer,

UNVEILING FUTURE PLANS…

Tinubu: I’m Committed to Ending Terrorism, Banditry, Kidnapping

Tertiary institutions not grounds for recruitment of extremist groups, Kaduna gov tells students

Francis Sardauna in Katsina President Bola Tinubu yesterday reiterated his administration’s commitment to tackling all forms of banditry, kidnapping, and other related criminality in the country.

This is as Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, cautioned against rising extremism in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, saying that they have become veritable recruitment grounds for extremist groups and criminal organisations.

Tinubu stated this yesterday in Katsina State at the ninth Convocation ceremony of the Federal University, Dutsinma.

The president, however, said tackling insecurity was not the responsibility of the government alone, just as citizens have a role to play by providing information to security operatives that would aid the fight.

e president, who was represented

by the Vice Chancellor of Federal University, Dutste, Jigawa State, Prof. Abdulkarim Mohammed, called on youths to leverage the Nigerian Loan Scheme, which over N70 billion has been disbursed to that effect.

Tinubu reminded Nigerians that governance is not about the presidency or those in places of leadership but about Nigeria and Nigerians, who will make the country better.

“I want to assure all Nigerians that the government is fully committed to combat and defeat all acts of terrorism, kidnapping, banditry, and other criminal activities in Nigeria.

“However, security is a collective responsibility. I urge all Nigerians to join hands with the government by giving them relevant information to security agents on suspicious persons, miscreants and other criminal elements”, according to President Tinubu.

The president also called on convocating students to be good

To Avert Varsities Shutdown, FG Releases Funds for Payment of NASU Salaries, Federal Retirees

James Emejo in Abuja

The federal government yesterday announced that it had released funds for payment of withheld salaries of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Federal Universities (NASU).

The Office of the Accountant General of the Federation (OAGF) also said payments to the non-academic staff of Federal Universities had commenced, adding that many have confirmed receipt of payment.

A statement issued by the Director of Press and Public Relations, OAGF, Mr. Bawa Mokwa, pointed out that the federal government had also released funds for payment of benefits to retirees under the Nigerian Union of Pensioners Contributory Pension Scheme Sector (NUPCPS).

The office further reaffirmed the current administration's commitment to efficiently cater for the well being of Nigerian workers and retirees.

The federal government recently said it was negotiating with members of the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU)

and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities (SSANU) to end their strike.

Both unions went on an indefinite strike over non-payment of their fourmonth salaries that were withheld during their 2022 strike.

The government spoke after a meeting with members of the Joint Action Committee (JAC) of both unions at the Federal Ministry of Education in Abuja.

Addressing reporters after the meeting, the former Minister of State for Education, Dr. Yusuf Sununu, who was mandated by the new Minister of Education, Dr. Tunji Alausa, to chair the meeting, explained that efforts were ongoing to resolve the issues raised by the unions.

He said the government was using a holistic approach to resolve the matter while discussions had reached an advanced stage to meet the unions’ demands.

Sununu assured the unions that the government was committed to having a stable educational system and resolving the lingering crisis in the sector.

ambassadors of the institution and the country at large, wherever they fund themselves.

He called on university lecturers to live up to expectations in grooming future leaders of the nation and charged them to take advantage of modern teaching methods using Information Communication Technology.

Earlier on his part, the Vice Chancellor of Federal University Dutsinma, Prof. Armaya’u Bichi, highlighted the institution’s challenges, including insecurity, which has been the major problem of the university.

According to Bichi, “As we are aware, the security situation in and around Dutsin-Ma in recent times has made us abandon the main campus and crowd ourselves at the take-off campus of the university, which is grossly inadequate in structures and facilities to accommodate the 14 faculties and a large number of staff and students.

Also speaking, FUDMA Chancellor and Chairman of Convocation, King Jaja of Opobo, Dandeson Douglas, said the institution is not resting on its oars to improve the Internally Generated Revenue.

“The university has established a Consultancy Unit, Micro Finance Bank, Pure Water Factory, Staff Primary and Secondary Schools,

and Printing Press to boost our IGR. As the Chancellor of this great university, I will continue to engage the Federal Government, Philanthropic organizations, stakeholders, Private Organisations, NGOs, businessmen, and the Alumni of the university to solicit support to meet the needs of the university”.

Douglas further called on the attention of the President on lingering insecurity bedevilling the students’ community.

“I will be failing in my responsibility as the Chancellor of this great university if I do not draw your attention to the security challenges bedevilling the university, which has made the conduct of any activity at the main campus impossible. All activities of the university, including this Convocation Ceremony, are at the take-off campus, which is grossly inadequate in both structures and facilities for staff and students,” he said.

FUDMA graduated a total of 297 postgraduate students. Out of which, 18 have Ph.D, 226 have Masters, 53 have Professional Diplomas and have PGD.

Out of 4282 undergraduate students, 44 have first class, and 872 have second Class Upper. 2273 have second class lower, 1076 have third class, and 17 have pass degrees.

Also speaking at the event, Kaduna State Governor, Senator Sani, has cautioned against rising extremism in tertiary institutions in Nigeria, saying that they have become veritable recruitment grounds for extremist groups and criminal organisations.

Sani, who was represented by the state’s Commissioner of Education, Prof. Muhammad Sani Bello, noted that the issue of radicalisation by extremist ideologies on campus was exacerbated by unemployment, poverty, and lack of opportunities for many students.

The governor cited the recent case of a student of FUDMA, who was arrested by the police with ammunition intended for criminal activities.

He said: “A recent incident at FUDMA serves as a troubling example of this trend. A student was arrested by the police and found in possession of ammunition intended for criminal activities. This incident underscores the increasing risk of students being drawn into violence, radical ideologies, and illegal activities.

“Such developments not only endanger the lives of the students involved but also threaten the integrity of the institution and the safety of the entire academic community. The vulnerability of students to radicalisation is a direct result of their

socio-economic challenges, including frustration with the political system, disillusionment with job prospects, and exposure to extremist ideologies.

“Many tertiary institutions lack the infrastructure and technology needed to create a safe and secure learning environment. Poor security measures on campuses, inadequate facilities, and a lack of surveillance technology have made schools easy targets for bandits, kidnappers, and other criminal elements. While insurgency and terrorism, particularly from groups like Boko Haram and ISWAP, are more concentrated in the northeast of Nigeria, the effects of their activities ripple across the country.

“The presence of these groups has destabilised the region, leading to the displacement of millions and the destruction of infrastructure, including educational institutions. Insecurity surrounding tertiary institutions has also resulted in brain drain, a phenomenon in which highly qualified academics leave the country or withdraw from service due to fears for their safety. At FUDMA, several senior professors have withdrawn their services from the university, citing the high-risk environment as a factor for their decision to either relocate to safer parts of the country or seek opportunities abroad,” the governor explained.

Governor Eno Receives Two Additional Aircraft for Ibom Air

Okon Bassey in Uyo

Akwa Ibom State Government has received two new CRJ 900 Bombardier series aircraft, thus increasing the fleet of Ibom Air.

Governor Umo Eno, who received and celebrated the arrival of the two aircraft, promised to flag off more new projects in the coming weeks.

He described criticisms as major catalysts, which enhance improved performance, insisting that, “if you want to do anything in this life and people don't criticise, look back again and check."

In a brief ceremony in Uyo, the governor highlighted Akwa Ibom’s achievement as the only sub-national in Nigeria with an airline, while also emphasising his administration’s commitment to developing critical infrastructure without incurring any

burden on the people.

Governor Eno disclosed that the latest aircraft acquisitions were funded by the government, describing it as a rare unique approach that avoids traditional high-interest public financing.

“When we came into office, we promised to continue with what our past leaders have done, particularly, the immediate past administration of Deacon Udom Gabriel Emmanuel.

“For those criticising us, you have given us the reason to continue.

“Very soon, and in the next two weeks, we are laying the foundation for the Aviation Village.

“Before the end of December, we are flagging off the international market in Ikot Ekpene.

“Before the end of December, we are flagging off the Judicial Quarters

in Uyo.

“Before the end of December, we are flagging our Special Ambulance Service in the state.

“In the next one week, we shall be harvesting from the employment portal, 5,000 young undergraduates and we will pay them N50,000 each.

“This month of November, I have just approved N1.2 billion for the payment of gratuities to our retirees.

“We are building roads and this month we are commissioning 72 projects in Akwa Ibom State,” the governor explained.

He said: “We are building compassionate homes; we are building schools; we are through with the Akwa Ibom food purchasing agency, distributing food to our local government areas.

“Between now and the first quarter of next year, we will be flagging off

a four-star hotel in Abuja because we are determined to turn all our moribund property to commercial use,” Eno added.

According to him, “By next year, the MRO behind us would have been fully ready. Then, we will begin to earn in foreign currency.

“Later on in December, we are going to partially open the brand-new international terminal and then it will be fully opened by the first quarter of next year,” the governor said.

On his part, the Chairman of Ibom Air, Pastor Imo-Abasi Jacob, in his address, expressed gratitude to the governor for his commitment, crediting his financial strategy for the airline's growth.

“This fourth aircraft within a year symbolises our resilience and the governor’s dedication to Akwa Ibom’s prosperity,” he said.

L-R: Business Development Manager, BIC Nigeria, Mr. Adeyemi Ojo; General Manager, BIC Nigeria, Mr. Anthony Amahwe; Plant Manager, BIC Nigeria, Mr. Peter Ajakaiye; and Human Resources Manager, BIC Nigeria, Mr. Oladimeji Sodunke, at the press conference on the company's plans for expansion and business growth in Lagos…recently ETOP UKUTT

GIVING BACK TO THE SOCIETY…

FG Proposes N341bn for Emergency Road, Bridge Repair

The federal government has proposed N341 billion for emergency repair of roads and bridges nationwide.

The Minister of Works, Senator Dave Umahi, made this known while updating members of the National Assembly Joint Committee on Works on the repair status of the Third Mainland and Carter bridges yesterday.

The minister and the legislators were on tour of the Third Mainland

and Carter Bridges, both in Lagos State.

Umahi said that repairing the bridges would avert dangers.

The minister said that N341 billion had been proposed to repair roads and bridges nationwide in 2025, but the amount might not be sufficient considering the extent of the damage.

“We have proposed that N341 billion will be needed. We don’t know how much this is going

Vantage Markets Distributes Relief Items to Lagos Residents

Esther Oluku

As part of efforts aimed at supporting Nigerians economically, Vantage Markets, an online forex trading platform, has donated 2,000 packs of relief items to residents of Ikeja local government in Lagos.

The project is part of the firm’s Corporate Social Responsibility targeted at reaching five selected capital cities in Nigeria including Abuja, Abeokuta, Akure, Ibadan and Ikeja.

The Regional Manager, of Vantage Markets Africa, Mr. Ted Odigie, stated that the initiative aligns with the firm’s long-term vision of supporting and empowering communities to thrive.

Odigie stated that this year’s event which also doubles as a

celebration of the firm’s 15th anniversary, marks a significant milestone in Vantage Market’s journey while also acknowledging the undeniable contributions of the public to its growth and successes over the years.

“As a global brand, this programme is part of our corporate vision to uplift communities and we are starting here in Nigeria by empowering the youth through our wealth creation platform. It is also a celebration of our journey and we are proud to use this opportunity to give back to the communities we serve.

“Given the current economic situation and in commemoration of our fifteenth anniversary, we are distributing 2,000 packs of food items to residents and two selected orphanages in Ikeja, Lagos State.”

to cost.

”If we are to rebuild these bridges, even N30 trillion will not do it; so, a stitch in time saves nine. This is very important.

“Let me report that Julius Berger had been doing very beautiful work until they encountered this situation. “We are putting heads together with them. We are also consulting internationally to see what the solution will be.

“It is important that the National Assembly bears in mind that we have problems; there are no problems that cannot be

surmounted, but problems should not be overlooked,” Umahi said.

The minister praised President Bola Tinubu for his commitment to infrastructure development.

Umahi called for urgent intervention on the bridges.

The National Assembly team gave the assurance that an urgent public engagement would be called to discuss the state of Nigerian roads.

They were led by the deputy chief whip of the Senate, Senator Peter Nwebonyi.

The others are the Minority

Whip of the Senate, Senator Osita Ngwu, Senator Mpigi Barinada, and Chairman, House of Representatives Committee on Works, Hon Akin Alabi.

The lawmakers regretted the lack of a maintenance plan after road construction or rehabilitation.

They said that the bridges had remained in bad condition decades after their construction due to the absence of a maintenance plan.

The lawmakers commended the minister for efforts in addressing the country’s infrastructure

needs.

They emphasised the importance of allocating a “condition survey” budget for all bridges to ensure consistent maintenance and prevent damage.

The engineers responsible for maintaining and repairing the bridges presented various strategies to ensure safety.

The strategies include the installation of temporary builtup steel support, reconstructing capping beams, casting of guard wall installations, and steel cage installation.

Abia LG Polls: ZLP Wins 15 LGs, YPP Clinches Two Seats

The Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) emerged victorious in 15 out of the 17 local government areas in Abia State during the local government elections held yesterday, while the Young Peoples Party (YPP) claimed victory in the remaining two LGAs.

The results were announced by the Chairman of the Abia State Independent Electoral Commission, Prof. George Chima, at the commission’s headquarters

in Umuahia, the state capital yesterday.

“We have fulfilled the duty we were inaugurated on September 5 to carry out.

“It wasn’t an easy task, but we went above and beyond to raise awareness about the election across the state,” Chima stated.

Highlighting the significance of the election, he noted, “in recent times, this commission has not conducted an election with over

12 political parties participating. This, in itself, is a milestone for the commission.”

Chima confirmed that the election took place across all 17 LGAs of the state, describing it as “free, fair, and credible.”

He added, “We have been able to complete a task that could typically take six to twelve months within a span of two months.”

The commission chairman

congratulated both the winners and the opposition parties, emphasising the need to maintain peace in Abia.

“In any election, there are winners and losers, but the most important thing is that Abia remains peaceful. I urge everyone to uphold this peace.” He also expressed gratitude to security agencies for their support and commended political parties for “playing by the rules.”

Wema Bank Highlights Importance of Financial Literacy for Teenagers, Launches ALAT Xplore App

As part of its commitment to accessible fitness, i-Fitness, West Africa’s largest fitness chain, has expanded its footprint across Lagos State by launching three new branches in Iponri, Lekki, and Gbagada areas of the state.

This brings i-Fitness’s total number of branches in Lagos to 21, promoting its mission to make health and wellness accessible for all residents of Lagos.

The new locations boast world-class facilities, certified trainers, and over 40 weekly fitness classes, establishing the company as a leader in Nigeria’s fitness industry.

Located at strategic spots across Lagos, these branches are designed to cater to diverse fitness needs.

The Iponri branch marks i-Fitness’s second location in Surulere, while the Lekki branch integrates with the vibrant Purple Lekki complex. The Gbagada branch offers double the space of previous branches, positioning i-Fitness to accommodate even more members on their fitness journeys.

At each opening event, i-Fitness organised interactive activities to celebrate the milestone, culminating with the launch of its “Coming of Age” 21st branch.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of Wema Bank, Moruf Oseni, has stressed the importance of inculcating financial literacy from an early age, particularly during teenage years, to produce more financially responsible adults. This emphasis comes as the bank launched the ALAT Xplore App, Nigeria’s first licensed banking app designed specifically for teenagers aged 13-17.

MoneyMaster Payment Service Bank (MMPSB), Nigeria’s leading payment service bank, has announced the launch of an exciting 10 per cent data bonus offer for its customers. This initiative is designed to reward loyal customers and attract others, further affirming the bank’s dedication to empowering Nigerians to master their money via efficient

Oseni noted that the ALAT Xplore App is designed to give teens a head-start in financial independence, helping them understand finance management and navigate its intricacies.

According to him, the App boasts an array of engaging, educative, and innovative features that make finance management more interesting for teenagers, adding that the features include a seamless onboarding experience,

offers that make every naira count.

The promo is available for Glo customers on various banking channels including the MoneyMaster PSB app, USSD banking code *995# and MoneyMaster PSB Web banking.

Customers will receive a 10 per cent data bonus on recharges from N1,000 and

savings goals, interest earnings, airtime and data purchases, and customisable interface.

Additionally, he explained that the app allows teenagers to access debit cards with three unique design options, stressing that it is built with a parental-control framework, and works in conjunction with the ALAT App, enabling parents to supervise and control their teenager’s access and fund

above. The volume of data awarded to customers has been adjudged as one of the best in the country.

The data purchases come with a 30-day validity and unused data can be rolled over upon next plan subscription.

Speaking on the data offer, the Head of Agency Banking at MoneyMaster, Julius Arhebun, said, “We are committed to of-

management. He said: “Teenagers stand at a critical juncture between childhood and adulthood, and it is crucial that we leverage this pivotal phase to steer them in the right direction.

“This pioneering initiative is set to revolutionise the Nigerian banking industry, promoting financial inclusion and empowering teenagers for a productive and successful future.

fering our customers products that enhance their lifestyle and help them master their money. With this offer, our existing and new customers can enjoy extended access to quality internet services whether it is streaming their favourite content, browsing top sites, or catching up on trends on their favourite social media apps.

Agnes Ekebuike

Executive Director of Mind the Gap, Tayo Olosunde; Africa Director, Tek Experts, Mr. Gbolahan Olugbolahan; Director of Corporate Affairs and Sustainability, Nigerian Bottling Company, Oluwasoromidayo George; Director of Youth Development, Lagos State Ministry of Youth and Social Development, Mr. Saka Abdul-Lateef; Senior Special Assistant to the Lagos State Governor on Community Affairs, Mr. Sulaimon Lekan Biliamin; and Corporate Affairs and Sustainability Lead, NBC, Olukemi Ogunsakin, at the NBC youth empowerment training event in Surulere, Lagos…recently

REWARDING LOYAL CUSTOMERS…

L-R:

#EndBadGovernance Protest: Arewa Group Blames Arrest of Minors on Saboteurs

A Northern group, Arewa Think Tank (ATT), yesterday blamed the arrest of minors who participated in the last #EndBadGovernance protest on the “handwork of those who want to sabotage President Bola Tinubu’s government”.

The group, therefore, urged Tinubu to bring the alleged saboteurs to book and face the law.

In a statement, the Convener of ATT, Muhammad Alhaji Yakubu said, “Those who have axe to grind with President Bola Tinubu should not use the arraignment of these minors as an opportunity to lampoon the government.

“The president should stand up firm now and deal with those who have encouraged this embarrassment.”

The group further alleged that the saboteurs intended to frustrate Tunubu’s 2027 ambition for a second-term bid, urging the president to be “aware of fifth columnists in his government”.

The Northern group also called on government appointees especially the ministers to wake up to their responsibilities and defend the government because they remained part and parcel of Tinubu’s administration.

According to ATT, “We want to believe that President Tinubu is not aware of this arrest of this category of children, so we are calling on the federal government to withdraw the charges against them and return them to their states and homes.

“We are not happy about the arraignment of those minors

for their participation in the protest. It is most unfortunate and shameful for our country’s democracy. But those who were involved in their arrest should have abided by the law of the land against detention of minors.”

The group further stated that it was alarmed by the distressing condition of malnourished children in court, many of whom may not meet the legal age threshold for formal arraignment.

It urged the judiciary to safeguard the rights of minors unjustly detained during the protests.

ATT said, “We are also calling on those who arrested the children to protect the Minors from inhumane treatment and attend to their physical and mental distress caused by prolonged detention and malnutrition.

“We want to emphasise the importance of collective action in upholding a vision of Nigeria that values justice, equity, and the rights of every child to a safe and dignified life.

“However, we are satisfied that the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Fagbemi has agreed that it has come to his notice that the police have arraigned those arrested in connection with the end bad governance violent protest in court for various offences including treason.”

The statement added, “We are also happy that the Minister has said that there are some issues his office will need to look into regarding the matter to enable him to take an informed decision.

“We are appealing to Nigeria Police to transfer the case file to the office and hand over same to the Director of Public Prosecution of the Federation

Activists

(DPPF) as demanded by the minister of justice.

“We are commending the AGF for directing that immediate machinery be

put in motion for consideration of the court to bring the adjournment date to a nearer date for the minors”.

Meanwhile, reactions have continued to trail the federal government’s decision to arraign minors who took part in the protest in court.

Urge ICPC to Release Report of Corruption Probe of Radiography Registration Board

Segun James

Some civil rights activists have appealed to the Independent Corrupt Practices and other related offences Commission (ICPC) to release the report of its investigation of the allegation of corruption levelled against the Radiography Registration Board of Nigeria (RRBN), a parastatal of the Federal Ministry of Health.

ICPC had earlier this year quizzed some management staff of the RRBN over allegations of misappropriation of funds and other alleged corrupt practices levelled against the Registrar, Prof. Mark Okeji.

Some of the allegations include embezzlement of COVID-19 fund, over-inflation of contracts, including that of the Enugu Zonal Office build-

ing; use of unqualified contractors for execution of projects; and violation of procurement policies.

The Registrar was also accused of spending huge sums of money on vehicles above the maximum approved limits for the agency.

The Registrar was also accused of buying a house in Abuja that is alleged to be worth more than his legitimate earnings for six years at the agency.

One of the affected officials who was invited was said to have resigned after she was confronted with the weighty allegations.

While the Registrar did not respond to phone calls and WhatsApp messages, another top official of the agency who pleaded anonymity, confirmed that he was invited over the

allegations but denied any wrongdoing.

“Yes, I was invited by ICPC to explain something about the allegations and I have submitted my statement that I was not involved in any embezzlement. I don’t know anything about it,” he said.

He however confirmed that one of his colleagues who was also questioned resigned when confronted with evidence.

Reacting to the allegations, human rights defence activist, Comrade Moses Ajibo, in a short statement, praised the ICPC for its doggedness in the fight against corruption.

He urged the agency to release the report of its investigation and charge those who have questions to answer in court.

“I use this opportunity to call on the ICPC to publicly tell Nigerians the outcome of their investigation of the Radiographers Registration Board of Nigeria following the allegations before the commission,” Ajibo said.

Also speaking, civil rights crusader, Comrade Obinna Anachuna, hailed the ICPC for its achievements in the war against corruption.

“I respectfully call on the ICPC to release the outcome of the investigation of corrupt practices levelled against the Radiographers Board about four months ago. This will enhance the confidence Nigerians have on the President Bola Tinubu-led administration,” he added.

Anambra Community Places N10m Bounty on Gunmen Who Killed 16

David-Chyddy

Eleke in Awka

Ezinano community in Awka South Local Government Area (LGA) of Anambra State has placed a bounty of N10 million on the alleged cultists who attacked indigenes of the Nibo community last two weeks, killing 16 people, during their New Yam Festival. Ezinano, a neighbouring town to Nibo, in the same LGA, had also lost two of

its sons during the attack.

This is coming as suspected cultists on Friday killed another indigene of Awka, whose two other brothers were said to have earlier been killed in similar circumstances.

Leader of the Ezinano community, Ozo Jeff Nweke who addressed members of the community during the 2024 Ezinano Day celebration yesterday, said the community was determined to track down those perpetrating heinous crimes in the area.

He said the community announced a 10million bounty for anyone with information that could lead to the capture of those responsible for the Nibo massacre.

Nweke said: “We will not rest until justice is served.

The Ezinano community will not tolerate violence or cultism. We urge anyone with information to come forward and help bring the perpetrators to justice.”

Nweke, a security expert, who is also known for his community

development initiatives, said the Ezinano community would not tolerate cultism, adding that its leaders will create a N100 million empowerment fund, with the initial launching of 50million to check unemployment.

He said: “The empowerment programme is part of our commitment to building a prosperous and peaceful community. We believe that empowering women is key to unlocking our community’s potential.”

Oborevwori, Ibori Mourn as Former Deputy Governor, Utuama, Dies at 77

Sylvester Idowu in Warri

Delta State Governor, Hon. Sheriff Oborevwori, and former Governor James Ibori yesterday sent condolences to the family of a former Deputy Governor of the state, Professor Amos Agbe Utuama (SAN). Utuama reportedly died in Warri in the early hours yesterday after a protracted illness. He was aged 77.

Oborevwori’s condolence was contained in a statement by his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Sir Festus Ahon in Asaba.

The governor commiserated with the family, the Urhobo nation, the people of Ughelli South Local Government Area (LGA), and Otu-Jeremi community in particular, over the demise of Utuama.

He noted that the departed Utuama was a renowned law teacher and Senior Advocate of

Nigeria (SAN), who excelled as Attorney General and Commissioner for Justice of the state from 1999 to 2007 and later as deputy governor of the state from 2007 to 2015.

According to the governor, the deceased was a world-class academic scholar whose teachings and research undertakings had contributed immensely to the Nigerian legal profession and jurisprudence. He said: “On behalf of the

government and people of Delta, I mourn the passing of a gentleman, a scholar, and astute politician, Professor Amos Agbe Utuama (SAN) who passed on in Warri on Saturday (yesterday).

“I received the devastating news of his death with great shock. He was a gentleman politician, and scholar who distinguished himself in the service of his people, first, as Commissioner for Justice and Attorney General of the state

James Emejo in Abuja

Head Coordinator, Indomie Fan Club, Faith Joshua; first Place Winner, Indomie Online Teachers’ Quiz, Nkiruka Afube; third Place Winner, Indomie Online Teachers’ Quiz, Oluwapelumi Ademusayo; second Place Winner, Indomie Online Teachers’ Quiz, Okeke Alexander; and Group Corporate Communications and Events Manager, Dufil Prima Foods, Temitope Ashiwaju; at the Indomie Teachers’ Seminar in Lagos…recently

Editor: Festus Akanbi

08038588469 Email:festus.akanbi@thisdaylive.com

Opposition to Tax Reforms Reopens Debate on States’ Financial Autonomy

The unfolding drama, triggered by the opposition of the Northern States Governors’ Forum to the Fiscal Bills pending before the National Assembly has made it inevitable to revisit the issue of Festus Akanbi

With the groundswell of opposition trailing the Tax Reforms Bills recently forwarded to the National Assembly by President Bola Tinubu, economic analysts said the misgivings over what the Presidency described as a move to streamline Nigeria’s tax administra-

Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, the Tax Administration Bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, and the Joint Revenue Board

One of the bills seeks to change the sharing formula of VAT and reduce the federal government’s share from 15 per cent to 10

Northern Governors’ Reservations on VAT Sharing on Monday rejected some aspects of the new bills, calling on members of the National Assembly from the North to oppose the legislation and any other measures that jeopardise the interests

A communique signed by the Chairman of the forum and Governor of Gombe State, Muhammed Inuwa Yahaya stated, “The Forum notes with dismay the content of the recent Tax Reform the interests of the North and other sub-nationals, especially the proposed amendment to the distribution of Value-Added Tax

Forum unanimously rejects the proposed Tax Amendments and calls on members of the National Assembly to oppose any bill

This was the argument put forward by Governor of Abdullahi Sule of Nasarawa State and the senator representing Borno South that the northern states would be at the losing end, insisting that states that have almost no VAT at the moment will end up actually with the shorter area of the stick,” the latter believed the north has more poverty, so it would be unfair to burden

start campaigning against the increase in tax for now because

NEC Calls for Review

As opposition mounts, the National Economic Council, on Thursday, asked President Tinubu to withdraw the controversial bills from the National Assembly to allow for wider consultations

Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, said this formed part of resolutions reached at the 144th meeting of the National Economic Makinde told journalists that the council members agreed that it was necessary to allow for consensus building and understanding reforms and recommended the withdrawal of the tax reform

Presidency: New Finance Bills to Modernise Tax Landscape

Meanwhile, President Tinubu has vowed not to withdraw the four tax reform bills from the parliament, contrary to the advice

Friday that the President would instead allow the lawmaking begun, provides an opportunity for inputs and necessary changes without withdrawing the bills from the National Assembly,”

The Presidency, while allaying the fears of the Northern Governors’ Forum and other interests, explained that President Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council endorsed new policy initiatives aimed at streamlining Nigeria’s tax administration

According to Onanuga, the proposed tax reforms emerged after an extensive review of existing tax law, adding the National Assembly is considering four executive bills designed to transform

multiple taxation and make Nigeria’s economy more competitive by simplifying tax obligations for businesses and individuals nationwide, while the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill (NTAB) proposes new rules governing the administration of all taxes

Speaking on the contentious issue of VAT sharing arrangement, Onanuga said, “The current model for distributing VAT is based on where the tax is remitted rather than where goods seeks to correct the inherent inequity in the current derivation region that produce food should not lose out just because their Oyedele: VAT to Be Shared Based on Derivation, Consumption

Taiwo Oyedele explained that, according to the proposal in the Tax

fairness and long-standing criticisms of the existing distribution Oyedele through his X(formerly Twitter) handle explained that “A state that produces food shouldn’t lose out just because

Dismissing the fears raised by the Northern Governors’ Forum, the Development Agenda for Western Nigeria (DAWN) Commis-

The commission said in a statement by the Director-General, for productive activities in states and enhance genuine economic

“The policy will strengthen the link between ‘need’ andtance, while understandable, requires deeper examination

activities in these states, which consequently attract large populations seeking economic opportunities,” the statement

It explains that these economic hub states face unique challenges that the current horizontal allocation formula burden of serving not just their residents, but millions of

Rekindling Financial Autonomy Debate

In August 2021, the former Rivers State Government and the current Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, signed into law, a bill that authorised the state

With the arguments of the Northern State Governors’ Forum, federalism which enables states to focus on their comparative expected to address some fundamental issues around revenue

According to analysts, Nigerians want to know how the national assembly will resolve the contradictions where states of revenue paid in the form of taxes by producers of the same

Bill before the National Assembly, VAT is to be shared based

Tinubu

Edun

Yahaya

Spotlighting Looming Crises in New Electricity Market Regime

Nigerians will be witnessing a new electricity market regime in the coming weeks and months

the hard reality is that many states and consumers may not withstand the demands of this new power market, which may trigger civil unrest of alarming proportion,writes Peter Uzoho

New things are beginning to happen in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) in compliance with the provisions of the Electricity Act 2023, which liberalised the market, allowing state governments to play an active part as regulators and operators.

Following this law, many states are setting up independent electricity regulators and establishing distribution companies (Discos) their respective jurisdictions.

Two weeks ago or so, the Enugu State government set up its power regulator and also established its Disco called 'Mainpower'. As reported by THISDAY, last Tuesday, Akwa Ibom State has also established its power distributor, called 'Ibom Utility', and is in the process of setting up its electricity regulatory agency.

Currently, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is in the process of handing over regulatory powers to states as it will be formally transferring the powers to seven state regulators from November 22, 2024, starting with Enugu and followed by Ondo, Ekiti, Oyo, Kogi, Edo and Imo.

President Muhammadu Buhari had in March 2023 assented to the landmark law, which empowers states to license, generate, transmit and distribute electricity. But, his successor, President Bola Tinubu, has also made at least two amendments to the law since he took over the leadership of the country in May 2023.

The electricity market in Nigeria was hitherto centralised, allowing only the federal government to oversee the three chains of generation, transmission and distribution.

What the New Market Entails

The new electricity market is expected to be driven by bilateral trading between the generation companies (Gencos) and the Discos, where Discos will now be entering into Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) directly with Gencos to buy and sell power to consumers within their jurisdictions.

Under the new regime, consumers will start

N700 per kilowatts per hour (kw/h) being paid by the Band Acustomers that enjoy over 20 hours power supply in a day.

The new electricity regime is also expected to lead to the exit of the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) which currently manages all the electricity invoices on behalf of the market. The new market will equally lead to the end of the Transitional Electricity Market and which paved the way for the subsidy regime in the market, a fertile ground for the existing illiquidity in the sector.

Nevertheless, with the new electricity market regime, NERC will now only be responsible for (FCT) and performing other statutory functions in that area. At the same time, states will and performing other statutory responsibilities in their respective jurisdictions.

The Looming Crises

No doubt, allowing the free market to play in the Nigerian electricity sector has its merits,ing investments in the sector, raising industry revenue, creating certainty in the market, and guaranteeing quality power supply and general

and allow it to focus on core governance mandates while allowing the private sector to drive the sector through healthy competition.

But beyond the euphoria trailing the liberalisation of the power sector, crises of various proportions are being envisaged in the industry and across many states as some stakeholders are raising concerns about the ability of the subnational to regulate and manage the market, sustained supply.

Questions are being asked about the ability considering the hard economic situation in Nigeria, driven by the devaluation of the naira, with resultant high living costs, dwindling disposable income, and high fuel costs amongst others.

Stakeholders are asking what happens if consumers cannot pay the right tariff as demanded by the new regime. Will state governments pay for them?

Do state governments have the capacity to pay subsidy if that is an option, considering their ignoble record of non-payment of salaries and pensions for many years? Will there be mass disconnection of consumers by Discos and will this lead to protests and civil unrest across the states? Also, will the emerging competition between states and the existing Discos breed disputes that may further collapse the electricity sector in Nigeria? More and more questions are begging for answers.

NERC Calls for Caution

Weighing in on the implications of the new market regime, NERC's Commissioner in charge of Legal, Licensing, and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, raised some doubts about the capacity of the subnational governments to when the consumers are unable to pay, to keep

He cited the states' record of nonperformance in payment of salaries.

Akpeneye also pointed out some gaps in the Electricity Act 2023, saying no sunset clause addresses some of the issues that will arise in the course of implementing the law.

He explained, "The law is law, I can't question the law. The point is, regardless of what you think, we are going to have a maturing moment. So we will go through our processes. "But there is a major trigger. It now means that states will now be responsible for the deter-

that is a serious issue and that is going to be the maturing moment that everyone has to face. And I think we made a mistake in the Electricity Act and the Constitution Amendment because we didn't put in place a sunset clause that, on X date, all states should transition." He argued that it would be unfair and against the concept of federalism if some states could transit and were able to foot their electricity bills

He further explained, "So that's not a tidy arrangement, and it goes against the concept of federalism, in that, there should be parity in the treatment of the subnational. So, it's an interesting question that I think we need to treat with the maturity in which we treated the issue of the Doctrine of Necessity when we were about to move power from President Yar'Adua to

President Jonathan when everybody woke up and said we have to be mature in how we treat this decision. "That's where we see ourselves going and we have to manage it it. Minimum wage of N30,000 was a big challenge for many states and N70,000 is a hard task. Some states haven't paid the N30,000 and you are telling them to come and pay N70,000. So we need to have a solution that works".

Contributing to the discourse, the Head of Corporate Communications at Ibom Power, Michael Dada, said the major problem to be witnessed as the new Electricity Act and bi-

to pay and the capacity of state governments to fund subsidy to lower the cost.

With the current Band A customers already complaining about paying about N700/kwh and under the emerging bilateral market regime, Dada suggested that the federal government should consider paying some subsidy until the market stabilises.

He added, "Now that states have started taking over, they will begin to see the reality. You can see that NERC is so excited to see states taking over, but the states don't understand what they are going into. It's easy for them to say yes, I can now generate, transmit and distribute, but have they looked at the cost?”

A power plant

Politics of Membership of International Organisations: The Case of Nigeria in BRICS

Membership of any national or international organization is, more often than not, a resultant from political decisions, because it is first a matter of choice between joining and not joining. Nigeria’s interest in joining the United Nations Organisation (UN) was made clear on October 7, 1960 in Prime Minister Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s statement at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) when Nigeria was admitted as the 99th Member of the UN.

Membership can be of many types: original membership, membership by accession, full membership, observer status membership, and membership with limited rights like the Palestinian case at the UN. Palestinians want to become a full member of the UN but were obstructed by the whims and caprices of the United States and Israel in the main. This is one good example of politics of membership. Membership can be unlimited in periodic terms and can confer equal and unequal rights as the example of the United Nations has shown.

Every Member of the UN has one vote but the one vote can be more equal than others as it is the case with the right of veto at the UN Security Council (UNSC). For instance, as provided in Articles 108 and 109 of the UN Charter, no reform of the UN can take place without the consensual support of the Permanent-5 (P-5). It is equally useful to note the financial weighted principle in several financial institutions. The principle is about the determination of number of votes based on how much money one has in an organization in decision processes.

It is partly because of this that there has been growing complaints about inequality, injustice and unfairness in the conduct and management of international financial questions by the Bretton Woods institutions. It is also one major reason for the establishment of the BRICS to which many members of the UN are seeking membership and which the new organization has categorized.

Politics of Organisational Membership

It is useful to note that the membership of an international organization carries along with it the personality of the Member and should not be confused with the personality of the organization. This point is raised in understanding the context of Nigeria’s membership of the BRICS. Put interrogatively, is the BRICS an international organization? What constitutes an international organization? In the eyes of Akehurst M.A., in his Modern Introduction to International law, an ‘international organization is set up by agreement between two or more states.’ Garner, B.Asays it is ‘an intergovernmental association of countries established by and operated according to multilateral treaty, whose purpose is to pursue the common aims of those countries.’

More interestingly, S.C.C. Okoronkwo says an international organisation is ‘an association of States established by treaty with a Constitution and Organs having legal personality, possessing privileges and immunities, which is formed for the purpose of achieving the common aims of its Members.’ From the foregoing, it is expected that an international organization must have a state character, organs and more than one member. Besides, it must be the outcome of an agreement aimed at pursuing shared values. It is at the level of the pursuit of shared values that the politicization of membership of the organization takes place.

Membership experiences in international relations are quite interesting and thought-provoking especially from the perspective of the international politics of it. First, there is the example of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) which has two types of membership: individual and collective membership. As provided in Article 5 of the April 4, 1949 NATO agreement, ‘the parties agreed that an armed attack against one or more in Europe or North America shall be considered an armed attack against them and consequently they agree that, if such an armed attack occurs, each of them, in exercise of the right of the individual or collective self-defence recognized by Article 51 of

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the Charter of the United Nations, will assist the Party or Parties so attacked by taking forthwith, individually and in concert with the other Parties, such actions as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force, to restore and maintain the security of the North Atlantic area…’

The politics of membership is noteworthy: an attack on one is an attack on all others; such an attack warrants a reciprocal treatment; the reciprocal treatment should be ‘reported to the Security Council;’ and must be ‘terminated when the Security Council has taken the measures necessary to restore and maintain international peace and security.’ Without doubt,

Article 5 of the Charter has been applied only once since the inception of the NATO in 1949. It was applied following the 9/11 al-Qaeda terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon.

Besides, the truth remains that no one wants to wait for an attack to take place before responding. The practice has always been to prevent or nip in the bud security threats. But the non-occurrence of an armed attack has not prevented intraorganisational misunderstanding that was the main feature within the NATO. France is on record to have been quarrelling with the mania of directives of the NATO commander, generally an American citizen. The NATO Allied Command Operations is under the command of the Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR). The misunderstanding prompted France’s withdrawal from the NATO’s collective membership. France wanted prior consultation and her consent before participation in any reciprocal and collective armed defence. And true enough, the misunderstanding also led to the conversion of the NATO headquarters into the University of Paris-Dauphine. As such,

In essence, Nigeria does not appear to have been invited to join the BRICS. Nigeria applied to be a member and she falls under the category of partnership. Nigeria first mooted the idea of a Concert of Medium Powers to protect the interests of the global south. Some of the countries that were invited by Foreign Minister Bolaji Akinwande Akinyemi, are now members of the BRICS. Short sightedness did not allow Nigeria’s policy makers to appreciate the beauty in the idea. Several meetings were held and Nigeria acted as the primus inter pares. Nigeria was internationally respected. As a result of fears expressed domestically and internationally, the Concert was renamed Lagos Forum. At the end of the day, the Forum was thrown into desuetude. Today, Nigeria sought membership as a partner, but not as an official member. The nitty gritty of a partner member is not yet well known. However, Nigeria’s membership is in conflict with her policy of non-alignment and national interest because the BRICS is fraught with many internal contradictions: the politico-economic conflicts between China and India, Russia and US, the quest of BRICS to replace the US-dominated global system, and the Russo-Ukrainian conflict have the potential to undermine the protection of Nigeria’s core interests. This is not the ideal time to join any group. Nigeria is a leader, not a follower, and should have self-respect.

France remained a political member of the NATO at the level of individual membership.

There is also the category of unwanted membership in international relations, which is the case of the Nuclear Weapons States or the Nuclear Club. The nuclear club operates in an informal or officious setting and capitalizing on international regulations to project their national interests. For instance, the Nuclear Powers, synonymous with the Permanent Members of the UNSC and also generally referred to as the Nuclear Weapons States, do not want any other Member State of the United Nations to acquire nuclear capability, arguing that other States could be careless. The P-5 only support the development of nuclear energy for peaceful purposes. Most unfortunately, however, the processes for developing nuclear capability for war purposes are not different from the processes for peaceful purposes.

In fact, France and China are on record to have initially refused to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. They wanted to perfect their nuclear capability before committing themselves. They later came back to sign the agreement after they were satisfied with their nuclear status. The P-5 does not want North Korea and Iran to acquire nuclear capability but both countries have insisted on acquiring it for purposes of their self-defence. They do not want to be protected under the nuclear umbrella of any foreign country. While some countries insist on becoming a member of the nuclear family and the nuclear family does not want new members, this has generated much controversy and cannot but be an interesting aspect of politics of membership. Additionally, all the members are state actors. There are no institutional structures and there is no collective collaboration apart from the UN framework.

Shared interest is also a major dynamic of membership of an organization. There are the cases of the G-5, G-7, G-8, G-20, G-77, etc. The G-5, also referred to as Group of Five, was founded in 2014 as a regional and intergovernmental organization to foster security and development in the five Member States (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger). The shared values include the need to support democracy and good governance, as well as sustain mutually beneficial, regional and international cooperation. It is from this G-5 that the Group of Three or the Alliance of the Sahel States (Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger) has been carved out.

The G-7 is similarly an intergovernmental political and economic forum, comprising Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom and the United States. Economic cooperation, as well as pluralism, liberal democracy and representative government are the main motivational dynamics of coming together. But, for other various reasons of force majeure, Russia was admitted into the group to form the G-8. Again for further considerations, membership of the G-8 was increased to G-20. The G-20, made up of 19 sovereign States and two regional organisations (the African Union and the European Union), is the first intergovernmental group for international economic cooperation.

Nearer home in Africa, there is the African Union of 55 Member States. Membership of it requires the ratification or accession to the Constitutive Act of the Union. In essence, it is the perception of gainful benefits that generally drives the urge to join an international organisation. By joining, a State cedes part of its sovereignty to the organization which makes the organization to acquire supranational authority. But when the supranational authority is used to the detriment of a Member’s interest, the membership can be withdrawn as it is the case with the ECOWAS and Mauritania and ECOWAS and the AES countries.

It is against this background that the exegesis of Nigeria’s reported membership of the BRICS is a desideratum, especially in terms of its implications for Nigeria’s foreign policy of the 4-Ds. In this regard, how do we explain Nigeria’s membership of the BRICS?

BRICS and its Nigerian Membership

Before explicating Nigeria’s membership of the BRICs, it is quite relevant to first investigate Nigeria’s quest to be an Associate Member of the European Economic Community (EEC) of Six in the 1960s. Nigeria sought the status of an Associate Member of the EEC, following France’s plea to the other five Members (Germany, Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg, and Italy) to consider giving a preferential treatment to all her former colonies. The other members accepted the idea, but advised that the same preferential treatment should also be extended to other countries for two reasons.

First, France could not but have the potential of maintaining a preferential treatment vis-à-vis other Members in the said former colonies of France. The belief was that the preferential treatment would be contrary to the spirit of the Rome Treaty. Secondly, the EEC would be discriminating by according the colonies a preferential treatment in the EEC relations with other third countries. It is within this context that, rather than agree to give France a different privileged position in the former colonies, a consensus was reached on a regime of association for all their former colonies. This was the background to the inclusion of Articles 131 to 136 in the Rome Treaty. A protocol on the modalities for implementation was specifically done on 27 March, 1957 for five years.

Tuggar

INVESTING IN MANY HAPPY RETURNS

Umo Eno lays the foundation of 18-storey Ibom Towers in Lagos, writes BASSEY GEORGE

Some have made a profession of castigating his achievements. But he enjoys majority support. The man, Nigeria’s president, Bola Tinubu, was again blessed with roses when Akwa Ibom State governor, Umo Eno, eulogised him last Wednesday.

The occasion was the groundbreaking ceremony of the Akwa Ibom’s 18-storey Ibom Towers in Victoria Island, Lagos.

Pastor Eno ascribed Lagos’ emergence as the best performing economy in Africa to Tinubu’s leadership which ended about 17 years ago. And while at it, he urged Nigerians to be patient for the president’s reforms to start bearing fruits.

“We remain hopeful that the reforms our president is currently introducing to grow our country, painful as they may appear today , will bear fruits soon, as he repositions Nigeria, just as he did with Lagos State as the largest economy in Africa,” said Eno.

“So I urge people to follow patiently, while we walk this path because I see a great light at the end of this tunnel.”

Eno said the Akwa Ibom government under him decided to invest in real estate to grow the state economy and increase its revenue base, and the need for the groundbreaking ceremony of this 18-storey Ibom Towers. Prior to Tinubu becoming the governor of Lagos, the state was in tatters. Its civil service was inept and a conduit for corruption. It lacked any fantastic infrastructure, was dirty, provided an everyday traffic melee and it was a paradise for armed robbers.

However, with Tinubu on the saddle, he and his cabinet put heads together to develop a plan. Step by step, the imprints of his administration were stamped. The civil service got a boost with grand employment. There was renewed vigour to upgrade schools and hospitals. He liaised with the private sector to form a Lagos State Security Trust Fund (LSSTF) and created a model which increased the state’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). The visions of Lateef Jakande, aka Baba Kekere, which included a metro line, were reignited. And knowing that to actualise these visions, he has to be interested in his successors, Tinubu did not make it any secret that together with a Governing Advisory Council, he has had an input in the election of his successors. All these did not make Tinubu popular but Lagos, today, is better for his decisions as governor.

Rome was not built in a day. Yes. However, some people feel the rot in Nigeria can be corrected in a hurry. While anyone can hurriedly put in place policies to revamp the country, a hard fact is that to repair Nigeria would take some time. And it won’t even be four years. Already, the Tinubu administration has taken some bold moves that previous administrations shied away from. For one, the removal of the oil subsidies which were being looted and squandered by a cabal. The administration has also created the Students Loan, CrediCorp and Local Government autonomy is set to begin. Again, there have been cries. But they won’t deter the president.

The 18-storey Ibom Towers by the Akwa Ibom State government would be constructed in two years. However, builders know that a three-bedroom bungalow can be completed in three months. Yet, can a three bedroom bungalow be compared to an 18-storey edifice? No. Also, some critics would ask, why he is not building the edifice in Akwa Ibom. Of course, this is a valid question asked by an ignorant or mischief makers who don’t care to acknowledge the cost of real estate differs in the two states. The good thing is that, like Tinubu, Pastor Eno is not allowing himself to be swayed by popular opinions.

“In our determined effort to grow

more means of income and deepen our investment portfolio, we are here to perform a ground breaking ceremony of this 18-storey Ibom Towers,” said Eno, with a tone of a man who is convinced of the destination he is heading.

Obong Victor Attah, a former governor of Akwa Ibom, who was also at the event, advised Pastor Eno against detractors.

“Don’t pay attention to those who may blame you for not developing your state, by building such property in your state,” said Attah.

“The value of land here in Lagos is far above that of Akwa Ibom State. You have a vision.The future belongs to those who have the audacity to see the future before it becomes a reality.”

It is not a new development for countries or even states to have investments in other countries or even states. Norway for instance, through its sovereign wealth fund, has invested in over 8,700 companies in more than 70 countries. And locally, Lagos has farms and agricultural collaborations in Osun, Kwara, Niger and Kebbi. According to the Lagos State governor, Babajide SanwoOlu, the groundbreaking would “strengthen economic ties and create new opportunities across our regions” and serve as a bridge between both states.

“As Ibom Towers rises, it will serve as a beacon of the fruitful alliance between Lagos and Akwa Ibom, creating a unique space that encourages business, investment, and vibrant community life,” said Sanwo-Olu.

“Projects like this one are the embodiment of our collective vision for Nigeria’s growth, driven by creativity, collaboration, and a commitment to excellence.”

The Managing Director of the State Investment Corporation, Pastor Imoabasi Jacob, said that Ibom Towers was conceived to increase Akwa Ibom’s Internally Generated Revenue (IGR). He also revealed that the site on which the building would come up was acquired in the 90s and left underdeveloped. It is a good thing the Enoadministration has deemed it fit to further develop the parcel of land. Only a few investments trounce real estate.

Since Eno assumed leadership in Akwa Ibom last year, the government has built 229.411 Km of roads, with 14 bridges and three underground discharge drainage. Rural communities across the state also got 37.7Km of feeder roads. Also, 4,600 persons were employed by the government in different sectors while 4,603 people benefited from entrepreneurship schemes of the state government. The government also encouraged farming by empowering 2,984 persons via agricultural programmes, while 100 public secondary schools and 30 public primary schools got agricultural inputs. The state government also sponsored free healthcare for 16,522 patients while it paid SSCE fees for 48,797 students. Of course, he can do better but the sad quality of many critics is that they would always have a negative thing or two to say or do to ridicule the man of the moment.

AS NIGERIA PREPARES FOR ANOTHER IMO ELECTION

OSAGIE EDWARD argues that Nigeria has what it takes to secure a seat on the IMO in 2025

Nigeria is set to contest for a seat in the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) Council under Category C, a strategic potential for both the country and the wider African region. The Category C seat represents an opportunity for nations maritime policies. For Nigeria, securing this position is not merely about gaining a voice on the international stage; it is a vital step toward fostering sustainable economic growth, promoting regional cooperation, and advancing discussions on safety, security, and environmental standards within the maritime domain.

The announcement of Nigeria’s intention by the Minister of Marine and Blue Economy, Adegboyega Oyetola CON, during the World Maritime Day parallel event in Spain, and abroad.

As a strong contender for Category C, Nigeria’s over 853 kilometers of coastline along the Gulf of Guinea positions it to Its ports handle over 70% of goods destined for West Africa, and its Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) is rich in marine resources and shipping routes. Despite challenges like piracy and environmental threats, Nigeria has taken decisive steps to enhance maritime security through initiatives such as SHADE Gulf of Guinea and the Deep Blue Project, which deploy technology and trained personnel to enhance maritime security and combat piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. These efforts have led to a reduction in incidents, demonstrating Nigeria’s commitment to securing its waters and ensuring the safety of maritime trade across West Africa. Notably, IMO Secretary-General Arsenio Dominguez has acknowledged Nigeria’s role in stabilizing the Gulf. During a meeting with the DG NIMASA recently, he commended Nigeria for providing leadership in the region. He said, “While the recent insecurity in the Red Sea meant more pressure for the region, the world had feared the worse. When it comes to security I want to appreciate Nigeria for enhancing security in the Gulf of Guinea. At the beginning of the year the situation in the Red Sea led to an we are happy that the situation has remained the same. We at the IMO will continue to appreciate Nigeria,” Dominguez stated.

It is on record that for 36 months and counting, Nigerian waters, which used to be the hub of piracy, have not witnessed any incidents. Membership in Category C will no doubt allow Nigeria to bring crucial insights to the IMO’s discussions on maritime security, which could drive stronger policies to ensure security for vessels and their crew members.

Like other developing nations, Nigeria is vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, particularly along its coastlines, which face rising sea levels, erosion, and pollution. By being elected into the IMO Council, Nigeria can contribute adoption of sustainable practices in the shipping industry, ensuring that international standards align with the needs of coastal and island nations. Nigeria’s experience in managing marine litters via tools such engaging marine litters marshals and developing marine litters action plan amongst other initiatives toward cleaner shipping practices would enable it to advocate for policies that minimize the environmental footprint of the maritime sector.

By participating in IMO discussions, Nigeria hopes to contribute to policy frameworks that will support blue

economies in developing countries, advocating for fair trade practices, investment in infrastructure, and capacity building in maritime industries.

Nigeria’s election into the IMO Council would ensure that the maritime nations of West and Central Africa region MOWCA and by extension, Africa has a stronger presence and that African perspectives on security, environmental protection, and economic development are integrated into global strategies.

With over a year until the elections in the last quarter of next year, Oyetola’s announcement in Spain marks a maritime presence. Dr. Dayo Mobereola, Director General of NIMASA, emphasized the agency’s focus on technical preparations to meet international standards while enabling stakeholders to excel in their areas.

“We at NIMASA have engaged with the IMO technical team to address gaps enhancing communication with member states via the IMO GSIS platform. While we focus on technical aspects, our supervising Ministry will provide the political support needed for Nigeria’s return to the IMO Council,” he stated.

Unsuccessful attempts in the past decade to return to the Council may lead skeptics to question the Minister’s decision. It is essential for Nigerians to view the situation as a cup of water half-full rather than half-empty. With global recognition of our efforts thus far, new alliances built over the years, and Nigeria’s renewed commitment to the ideals of the IMO, coupled with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu GCFR’s for the Marine and Blue Economy, perhaps this is the best time to contest the elections with renewed vigor.

African nations like Kenya, Morocco, and Egypt already hold seats in Category C, which means Nigeria must present a compelling and differentiated case to gain the support of IMO members.

All stakeholders should rally around the Ministry of Marine and Blue Economy and all its Agencies by bringing to the table their expertise and input to achieve success diligent preparation, and strategic focus, secure a seat on the IMO come 2025.

Edward writes from Lagos

George writes from Uyo

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA

Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

THE TAX REFORM CONTROVERSY

Consultation with stakeholders was inadequate. They need to know more to support the amendment

We fail to understand why President Bola Tinubu would jettison the well-considered recommendation by the National Economic Council (NEC) to withdraw the current tax reform bills before the National Assembly to pave the way for more comprehensive consultation with key stakeholders in the country. By asking the council, headed by Vice President Kashim Shettima and comprising all the 36 governors, to direct their reservations to the National Assembly, the president might be taking a needless gamble. The explanation by Oyo State Governor, Seyi Makinde, that NEC members concluded that it was necessary to allow for consensus building and understanding of the bills among Nigerians is in line with public mood.

The president had, on September 3, transmitted four tax reform bills to the National Assembly for consideration. They are the Nigeria Tax Bill 2024, which is expected to for taxation in the country; the Tax Administration Bill, which will provide a clear and concise legal framework for all taxes in the country and reduce disputes; the Nigeria Revenue Service Establishment Bill, which will repeal the Federal Inland Revenue Service Act and establish the Nigeria Revenue Service, and the Joint Revenue Board Establishment Bill, which will create a tax trib unal and a tax ombudsman.

Federal Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) to fund their budget, and VAT is a major component of the revenues shared at FAAC.

Proposing changes on VAT and PAYE without getting the endorsement of the governors is wrong-headed. It is not just about making a presentation to them. They need to know and support the rationale for the change and should own the amendment

This whole problem started from the beginning. In July 2023, the president and tax reforms with Taiwo Oyedele, a at PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC), as chair. The committee’s primary objectives include enhancing revenue collection promoting the effective utilisation of tax to boost citizens’ tax morale, and fostering a healthy tax culture by driving voluntary compliance. Ordinarily, a reports to the appointing authority whose responsibility, after due consultation and and announce publicly the rationales and the next steps. But in the past one year, Oyedele has been making categorical statements on tax administration in Nigeria almost as if his word is law.

This is a bold policy initiative considering the different problems associated with tax administration in Nigeria. Unfortunately, because of the way the issue has been mismanaged, unhelpful narratives are playing out. At their meeting last week, governors of the 19 northern states, under the platform of the Northern Governors’ Forum (NGF), rejected the new derivationbased model for Value Added Tax (VAT) distribution in the new tax reform bills. The proposition, according to the communiqué read by NGF chairman, Governor Muhammed Yahaya of Gombe State, negates the interest of the north and other sub-nationals.

Tax administration in Nigeria has always been contentious and emotive. It has also played into the north-south divide. The major contentious part of the current proposal is that it aims to shift VAT distribution to a derivation-based model. According to the Northern leaders, companies remit VAT using the location

not where the services and goods are consumed. They further argued that the proposal would negatively impact the North and called on lawmakers from the region to oppose the bill in its current

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form, demanding that national policies should promote equitable distribution to avoid regional marginalisation.

We do not believe there is any sectional undertone to the bills. But the federal government should take the blame for the misgivings being expressed. Like it did with the removal of petrol subsidy

administration is, once again, jumping out without thinking things through. Otherwise, they would not have sent the tax bills to the National Assembly without inputs from the states, the key

impolitic that a presentation would be made to NEC only after the bills that will impact the revenues of states have been submitted to the National Assembly. Most states rely on money from the

Another potentially contentious area of the bills is the provision on Pay As You Earn (PAYE), which is a state tax. Whatever the good intentions in this area, we should be mindful that we are operating a federal system and, in a democracy-not under military rule. Therefore, the federal government cannot be dictating the rates and bands in a way that assumes a uniformity of economic conditions in the 36 states. The proposals on PAYE are likely to negatively impact the revenue for some states based on the number of workers they have in the formal sector and how much they earn. This is another reason why prior consultations with the states were necessary.

Meanwhile, there is merit in many aspects of the proposed bills. But proposing changes on VAT and PAYE without getting the endorsement of the governors is wrong-headed. It is not just about making a presentation to them. They need to know and support the rationale for the change and should own the amendment. Nigerians also deserve to know the difference between the status quo and the proposed changes in terms of concrete numbers and see whether it is worth the trouble. Who will gain or lose, by how much and how do we manage that? These are important questions that should have been addressed. The whole issue has been muddled because of inadequate information and consultation. Any proposed policy change should have an overarching positive narrative underpinning it. In the absence of none, the administration has put its tax reform bills in jeopardy.

Trading Opulent for Sleek in Pakistan, They Learned That Less Costs More

By Fred A.Bernstein

In Lahore, Pakistan, people with money tend to want tall houses. “Nobody builds a single story anymore,” says interior designer Fatima Salahuddin. They also want interiors with lots of marble. If you don’t use marble, Salahuddin observes, people will wonder where you spent your money.

But when Haroon and Ayesha Arshad, lifelong residents of Lahore, Pakistan’s second-largest city with more than 13 million people, were planning their new house, “we weren’t concerned about social pressure,” Haroon says. “We live in a culture of opulence. We, as a couple, wanted to challenge that and build a space that reflected our personalities.

For Haroon, who runs a manufacturing conglomerate started by his grandfather in the 2960s, and Ayesha, whose family is in the textile business, that meant a modern house all on one floor, so they won’t have to leave it when they’re old. “We chose livability over a show of wealth,” says Haroon, 51, who, with his wife, has three daughters, ages 12 to 22.

But is anyone surprised that less costs more?

Haroon says that with the imported building systems needed to achieve the kind of precision he and his designers sought, the house cost three or four times as much as other luxury houses in their area- or about what it would have cost to build the same 12,000- square-foot house in Greenwich, Conn. or Beverly Hills, Calif. “Initially we thought we’d spent too much,” he says. But nearly a year after moving in, he says, “we know that it was worth it.”

The Arshads had been sharing a 40,000-square-foot house outside the city with members of Haroon’s extended family. When they decided to move closer to the centre of Lahore, they reached out to Salahuddin, who had helped them make their portion of the very big house livable.

Salahuddin had just graduated from San Francisco’s Academy of Art School of Interior Architecture & Design. There, she had befriended Tobi Adamolekun, a Nigerianborn designer who had been her professor and thesis adviser and is the founder of the California-based Tobi Adamolekun Design Agency (TADA).

Salahuddin brought Adamolekun into the conversation with the Arshads. The two designers began advising the couple on how to choose an architect in Pakistan. But Haroon so liked their ideas that he asked them to design the house. The two formed a partnership, which they called Omi-Pani, blending the Yoruba and Urdu words for water-in part because they like buildings that flow.

Soon, Salahuddin was helping the Arshads choose a site in Model Town, a residential community that was once a suburb but has now been absorbed into the sprawling city. Quiet streets and fences lined with frangipani, bougainvillea, and silver palm trees make it one of Lahore’s most expensive neighbourhoods, where an empty lot can cost millions of dollars. The Arshads bought three-quarters of an acre containing bits of an abandoned school and several old trees, including a magnificent fiddle leaf fig that they decided to try to preserve.

With Salahuddin in her native Pakistan, the two designers mostly met on Zoom. Adamolekun, who has a wife and son in San Francisco and is working on a ski development in South Lake Tahoe, made several trips to Lahore. Both say they set aside much of their other work for a chance to realize, Salahuddin says, “so much of what we believe about design.”

That included making sure every room had access to outdoors. But to achieve that and to make the plan of the house flow like water, they needed expanses of curved glass. They could have faked the arcs with flat panes set into closely spaced mullions, but the result would have been clunky. Haroon gave them permission to order curved, insulated, floor-to-ceiling windows from the German manufacturer Schaco. That was a “big ticket item,” Haroon says.

The building took the form of a U, with a large, landscaped courtyard and swimming pool at its centre. But for all its openness, the house is also very private. A brick wall surrounds the property. The house itself is ringed by a planted zone about five feet deep behind a screen of bamboo slats. That planted zone reaches deeper into the house in almost a dozen places, giving each room what is essentially its own small garden. A flat roof, typical of Modernist houses, supports an array of photovoltaic panels.

The entry sequence is dramatic. An awning of steel pipes cantilevers 25-feet from the front door, over a private driveway. The door itself is a sculpture, its outside sheathed in folded metal panels made in one of Haroon’s factories, its inside in grooved copper-clad panels made by Salahuddin’s family’s furniture company. A straight line leads from the front door to

the central courtyard, its curved glass wall helping to guide people in one direction or the other.

To the left of the entry are Haroon’s study, where he entertains guests, and a larger sitting room. To the right is the dining room, where visitors and family members mingle, followed by more private spaces, including a kitchen and lounge just for the family. The prayer room, a mini-mosque, angles toward Mecca. In Pakistan, such rooms are often tucked away, but the Arshads wanted theirs to be at the heart of the house.

“Religion is a big part of their lives,” says Salahuddin.

There is no marble to be seen. The floors are of textured Turkish tile. The designers purchased two sofas from Gubi and a chair from CB2. But most of the furniture was made in Lahore by Zamana Studio, the company that Salahuddin’s

mother, Seema Iftikhar, founded 50 years ago. Salahuddin now runs both the furniture company and her own design practice, which, she says, is busier than ever. Until recently, she says, interior design wasn’t taken seriously as a profession in Pakistan. But that has changed. Some of the pieces were already in Zamana’s catalogue, and others were designed by Salahuddin and Adamolekun for this house. Those include the large dining table, its raw-steel base supporting layers of wood and MDF beneath a nearly indestructible finish. The Arshads splurged on lighting, including a chandelier by Paul Mathieu over the dining table and other high-end fixtures from abroad. But many light sources are hidden. “You see the light but you don’t know where it’s coming from,” Haroon notes.

Since moving to the new house late last year, Haroon and Ayesha have invited many friends and relatives over to see it. They were prepared for criticism, but, Haroon says, “People have reacted very positively to the flow of the interior spaces, the materials, the large windows opening onto gardens.” He adds, “I think people can see how beautifully our needs were understood and met.”

Culled from Wall Street Journal

with KAYoDe ALFreD 08116759807, E-mail:

...Amazing lifestyles of Nigeria’s rich and famous

Dare Aliu: Unveiling New Paths for Impact

Why is Everyone Afraid of Idris Saliu?

The Nigerian presidency is a powerful institution, encompassing a vast network of ministers, top government appointees, and an extensive support system of advisers and assistants dedicated to the president’s comfort and agenda. Among these aides are senior special assistants (SSAs), advisers, and personal assistants - individuals with diverse professional backgrounds appointed to reinforce the administration’s capabilities.

Dare Aliu, also known as TDA, recently celebrated his 40th birthday in a grand style. The celebration also included the unveiling of his book and the launch of a foundation for widows, validating what others have thought—that his moves are usually significant and showcase both personal reflection and philanthropy. Indeed, these initiatives are the latest in a series of impactful decisions that highlight his commitment to giving back.

In the current administration of President Bola Tinubu, one emerging figure stands out: Idris Saliu, the Special Adviser to the President on Technology and Digital Economy. Saliu’s role typically involves collaboration with the Minister overseeing the Federal Ministry of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy. However, reports indicate that Saliu bypasses this conventional structure, reporting directly to the president.

Aliu’s book, “Everything Will Be Alright”, details his life journey, from humble beginnings in Obalende to leading the TDA Group. It lays out why he is considered resilient by allies and rivals, as it documents him rising above the odds and creating a business empire. It is filled with life lessons and professional insights and is more than an autobiography. It’s a call to action, urging readers to find their inner strength. As the saying goes, “he who has a why can bear any how,” and Aliu’s “why” is to inspire and empower others.

Saliu is alleged to wield substantial influence in what many believe is a coordinated state capture strategy. With a robust background in the private sector, including roles as Chief Technical Officer at Interswitch and cofounder of fintech companies Ceviant Finance and Arca, Saliu is now thought to be allegedly leveraging his expertise to reshape the technology and digital economy sector in ways that align with personal interests rather than the national good.

But that was not all. The launch of the TDA Widows Foundation added another layer to his legacy. According to reports, the foundation aims to provide financial support and vocational training to widows across Nigeria. For Aliu, this foundation is not just charity but a personal mission that is rooted in his desire to uplift those facing life’s toughest challenges.

It remains unclear whether President Tinubu is fully aware of Saliu’s actions or if Saliu is operating independently or in collaboration with other senior government figures. However, there are indications that numerous petitions have been filed against him. Were Nigeria a country where public access to petitions was allowed, Nigerians might already see multiple complaints filed against Saliu.

Aliu’s story speaks to the Nigerian spirit of resilience. His success wasn’t handed to him, and his efforts to support others show that, like him, anyone can rise from adversity. His achievements feel like a blueprint for others to follow.

Within government circles, there is an undercurrent of concern regarding the implications of these actions, while members of the organised private sector worry about the potential fallout on the president’s reputation. Yet, the risks of speaking out appear too great, and so silence prevails.

From a big-picture perspective, it is clear to see that Aliu’s influence in business and philanthropy is growing. At only 40 years of age, the man’s focus on empowering the underprivileged cements his role as a visionary leader. He is not merely a businessman, but an example of what’s possible when passion and purpose align.

2027: The More the Merrier in

Lagos as Gbajabiamila, Muri-Okunola, Obasa, and Ambode

Lagos 2027 is shaping up to be more thrilling than an Oworo danfo ride at rush hour, with more political giants secretly or openly jostling for the governor’s seat. The latest lineup in this high-stakes game includes some of the biggest names in Lagos politics: Femi Gbajabiamila, Hakeem Muri-Okunola, Mudashiru Obasa, and, yes, a familiar face, Akinwunmi Ambode. Each brings a unique story, a dose of ambition, and enough firepower to keep the APC hierarchy on its toes.

Let’s start with Femi Gbajabiamila, the man who currently sits as the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu, wielding the kind of power that can make or break political careers. Gbaja, as he’s popularly called, isn’t just any politician; he’s the man in Tinubu’s inner circle, privy to the president’s strategic plans and confidence, and holding the access keys to his eyes and ears. His position as CoS means he practically controls Tinubu’s “kitchen cabinet” and has a direct line to Aso Rock.

Gbaja’s political journey has been a master-class in building clout, with his swift rise to Speaker of the House of Representatives and now, the CoS position. If Gbajabiamila has his eye on Lagos, he has a potent mix of experience, loyalty, and insider power that makes him the ultimate contender. As it stands, never mind Tinubu’s blessings, you need Gbaja’s too to stand a chance. And if the man decides to bless himself, the rest might just be playing catch up.

Then there’s Hakeem MuriOkunola, or HMO to those who track the power players of Lagos. Muri-Okunola has been Tinubu’s loyalist from the beginning, ever the “good son” of the Lagos political machine. Appointed as the youngest Head of Service in Lagos State, Hakeem’s career is a case study in fast-tracking through the ranks under Tinubu’s tutelage. His loyalty to the Tinubu dynasty is legendary, and word has it that he’s banking on that unwavering fealty for a potential endorsement in 2027.

After all, Tinubu has been known to

Allegedly Eye the Prize

elevate his loyalists, even at the cost of bending the rules, so why not now? The idea of HMO as the anointed successor has tongues wagging, and his ties to the corridors of power make him a wild card that Lagosians would be unwise to ignore.

Mudashiru Obasa, the Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, is another contender with his eye on Alausa. Known for his sharp political instincts and an even sharper tongue, Obasa’s ambitions are no secret. Recently, he and his assembly crew skipped a high-profile APC event, a move that raised eyebrows and fanned the flames of speculation. To insiders, this was no ordinary absence; it felt like a thinly veiled statement of dissent. Obasa has a reputation for speaking his mind, and his conspicuous absence from APC’s SouthWest Assembly felt like a calculated snub, as if to remind the party he won’t be left out of the 2027 conversation. If Obasa runs, it would signal not just an ambition but a potential rift within the APC ranks - a storm that could shake the party’s hold on Lagos.

And then there’s Akinwunmi Ambode, the former governor who

served only one term before being shown the door by the same forces that propelled him to power. Ambode might be the wildcard Lagos politics needs right now, a man with a complicated history who commands deep respect among the grassroots. He’s still revered in places like Alimosho and Epe, where his tenure brought unprecedented infrastructure and development, and some would say he’s practically their “Messiah.”

There’s talk that Ambode could make another play for the governorship, perhaps even under a different party. If he does, his influence in Lagos’ populous areas might be the thorn APC can’t pull out easily. His candidacy would pose a serious challenge and not just in popularity. There’s the religious factor too. Since Lagos has a Christian governor in Sanwo-Olu, the Muslim faction is making subtle cries of “Emilokan”. Ambode would represent a rallying point for the sizable contingent who wish to maintain the status quo.

The political landscape becomes even more intriguing when one considers that not a single woman is on the list of likely contenders. In 2027, almost 30 years after Nigeria’s return to democracy, the Lagos governorship race remains an all-boys club, as if the glass ceiling over Alausa’s seat is still bulletproof.

For all the power moves and bags of rice, if there’s one truth about this race, it’s that from Tinubu’s inner sanctum, Femi Gbajabiamila remains the frontrunner, the “crown prince” of Lagos in waiting. Seyi Tinubu, with his silent rice diplomacy, might be vying for public favour, but in a field of veterans, he’s a minor player, a young hustler who doesn’t yet have the gravitas to match these political giants. When these aspirants were already household names, Seyi was still toasting girls in boarding school.

As Lagosians wait and speculate, one thing is sure: 2027 won’t be a boring year. Lagos’ political theatre is set for a spectacular showdown, and this lineup of Gbaja, HMO, Obasa, Abiru, Hamzat, Ambode and the rest promises all the drama Lagosians love. The question remains: who will emerge victorious, and who will be left licking their wounds in the wake of yet another bruising battle for Lagos’ crown?

Gbajabiamila

Muri-okunola

Ambode

Saliu obasa

Aliu

Gabriel Ogbechie Flying Ahead Again

Gabriel Ogbechie is a force in Nigeria’s oil and gas industry. As the founder of Rainoil Limited, his name is synonymous with success in the energy sector. His ability to lead and innovate keeps him ahead of the game. Especially with recent news, many now look up to him as an influential figure in business.

Ogbechie’s latest move into aviation fuel is proof that he is always expanding his horizons. Rainoil’s acquisition of a controlling stake in Eterna Plc positioned him strategically. Now, his company’s operations in Jet-A1 fuel are revolutionising the sector. This shows how Ogbechie continues to rise.

This isn’t the first time Ogbechie has soared to new heights. His journey from humble beginnings to billionaire status is inspiring. Born in Delta State, he grew up in a modest home. Despite the odds, he made a name for himself, proving that hard work pays off.

But it wasn’t always smooth

sailing. Ogbechie has faced his fair share of challenges. His clash with Ned Nwoko over allegations of an assassination plot was a low point. Yet, he emerged unscathed, with his

“Too much power in one hand may lead to chaos.” This is the gist behind the rumour that the Senegalese Khadijetou Wouro Ba is a top figure in Kwara State’s political landscape. Allegedly, she serves as the principal private secretary to Governor AbdulRahman AbdulRazaq. Many believe Wouro

name cleared. This resilience has made him stronger.

Flying ahead again, Ogbechie now commands respect beyond just the oil industry. His foray into aviation fuel marks his return to the top after weathering personal storms. It’s no surprise to those who know his drive and determination. Indeed, his growth is a testament to his vision.

For readers who may wonder how people like Ogbochie always stay ahead, it’s simple: they keep their eyes on opportunities and remain focused. Whether it’s fuel or philanthropy, Ogbechie leaves a lasting impact. His contributions to healthcare and education in Delta are further proof of his forwardthinking.

The big deal in all this is that Ogbechie never stops flying. He’s not just a businessman; he’s a symbol of perseverance. His success shows that no matter the challenges, there’s always room to rise again.

Khadijatou Wouro Ba: Senegalese Lady Who Became Most Powerful Woman in Kwara

that she holds immense power within the governor’s administration and that her influence greatly dictates the flow of governance in the state.

Reports indicate that nothing moves in the Kwara State government without Bâ’s approval. Cabinet members often struggle to secure appointments with her. They reportedly line up outside her office whenever she is in town. Despite her official position, she often operates remotely, amplifying her mystique.

Bâ’s influence reportedly extends to all aspects of governance. Individuals seeking contracts or appointments often find themselves at her feet. This dynamic creates a culture of adulation around her role. Therefore, many view her as the gatekeeper to the governor’s inner circle.

Bâ’s rise has consequently sparked contrasting opinions within the community. Some applaud her as a savvy operator in a male-dominated space. Others express concern over the concentration of power in one individual, especially one who is a foreigner.

Aisha Rimi: An Amazon Making Huge Impact

Aisha Rimi, the MD/CEO of the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission (NIPC), is making waves in Nigeria’s investment landscape. With a career rooted in legal expertise and corporate insight, she’s steering the NIPC with precision. One year now in this position, Rimi’s leadership has sparked optimism for Nigeria’s economic future.

Rimi brings more than just experience to her role. She brings a profound understanding of international commerce and investment. Her legal background, spanning top firms and leadership positions, gives her a sharp edge in managing very complex investment terrains. In this regard, Rimi shows just how well-equipped she is to drive change.

Rimi’s journey began with foundational roles in Nigerian and international law firms. This is where she honed her skills in regulatory compliance and corporate law. These were the roles that prepared her for the delicate balancing act of promoting foreign investment while protecting national interests.

According to her colleagues, Rimi is a diligent strategist. Her work at Africa Law Practice saw her tackle international partnerships and corporate joint ventures, skills she now applies to attract diverse investments to Nigeria. With her dedication, Nigeria’s investment future seems brighter than ever.

She has proved this already. Under her leadership, the NIPC has intensified efforts to attract investors in sectors like technology, energy, and infrastructure. Rimi’s vision is clear: a Nigeria that’s open for business and equipped for sustainable growth. Her efforts are reshaping perceptions of Nigeria’s investment potential.

Rimi’s philanthropic spirit further reinforces her impact. Through Africa Law Practice, she runs a pro bono program for victims of domestic abuse, demonstrating her commitment to justice beyond business. Her compassion is as evident as her professionalism.

Nigerians see in Rimi an “Amazon” of resilience and impact. Her dedication to both corporate growth and societal welfare sets her apart in Nigeria’s business

Few have apparently dared to verify her background or defy the authority of Governor AbdulRazaq concerning her appointment.

There are bits and pieces about this lady online. They all show Bâ to be a person of high intelligence, graceful disposition, and clear vision. Such characteristics, when revealed, would likely only complicate the rumours about her delegated powers in Kwara. Expectedly, stories abound about her impact on state affairs.

Some people say that securing her approval is akin to obtaining a royal decree. In a society that values connections, her influence is both coveted and feared. Her role raises questions about the balance of power within the governor’s office.

Bâ’s case shows how complex political influence can be. Her story casts shadows on the intricacies of governance in Kwara. Even though she has great leadership potential, folks are cautious.

globally competitive Nigeria.

In an era where greatness is often a fleeting title, Adisa Aliu has carved his name with a chisel of perseverance and excellence, a beacon in the labyrinthine world of Nigeria’s energy sector. As Matrix Energy celebrates its 20th anniversary, the story of its journey cannot be told without honouring the man who stood as its anchor, architect and heartbeat. Adisa Aliu’s legacy is not merely one of corporate success, but of vision, resilience, and a pursuit of excellence that defies the ordinary.

Imagine the early days: the dawn of Matrix Energy, built from Aliu’s dreams and crafted by his dedication, each brick laid with vision, each corner moulded with tenacity. What began as a humble ambition transformed under his leadership into one of Nigeria’s foremost energy giants, shaping the industry and setting a new standard for quality and reliability. In Adisa’s hands, Matrix Energy was not just a business—it was a promise to deliver energy with integrity, a commitment he has fulfilled every day for two decades.

Under Aliu’s leadership, Matrix has become synonymous with resilience, navigating economic storms with the steadfastness of a ship in tumultuous waters. His keen eye for opportunity, his unmatched instincts, and his unwavering principles have guided Matrix Energy through the winds of change, allowing it to emerge stronger, and more vibrant, with each passing challenge.

Colleagues and competitors alike speak of Aliu’s quiet strength, his fierce intelligence, and his ability to inspire those around him. Like the fire that fuels his industry, Adisa Aliu has ignited a spark within Matrix Energy, one that radiates beyond its walls and into the heart of Nigeria’s energy landscape.

As Matrix Energy reaches its 20th milestone, it does so with Aliu’s legacy deeply etched into its foundation. The vision he has imprinted on Matrix Energy is not only a legacy for the company but a gift to Nigeria—a testament that excellence is not just achieved; it is cultivated, nurtured, and passed on.

Adisa Aliu: A Legacy of Excellence as Matrix Energy Marks 20th Anniversary Aliu

Rimi

Ogbechie

scene. With Rimi at the helm, there’s renewed hope for a prosperous,

Seyi Tinubu: It’s Monarchy

During the last week, a newspaper publication burst the news of Seyi’s purported interest in the governorship seat of Lagos State and all hell was let loose. Analysts went to town on the report. Not only analysts o, even those of us who have not eaten three square meals since Buhari left also started analysing. There is no kind of analysis that we have not heard from all platforms. Radio and TV stations, social media, molue buses, bus stops and everywhere, Lagosians were discussing the good news.

For me, I think the gubernatorial ambition, if true, is a degradation

UJU KENNEDY: ADIEU MAMA AFRICA

Kai, they have kicked mummy out. Oh my God! I could not stop laughing each time she appeared on set. Yes o, it was one big movie set for this one who paraded herself like a caricature from a poorly scripted Nollywood movie. In fact, I should parody her in one of my plays. The woman didn’t just get it. She lacked decorum, carriage and elegance. She was a perfect example of that thing we used to call in banking –employment error. She so demystified her position to the point that she lost all respect.

Did you see the video where she went into a police station to fight for a child who was defiled? She was screaming at the top officer, wringing her hands like a market woman, complete with smirks, hiss and eye movement- you know how angry illiterate women used to eye people when they are upset, that was exactly how the honourable minister was eyeing the policemen. At some point, a policeman lost it and shouted back. She had just brought her office to the mud and the office of the president who appointed her and who she represents at all times to the floor. The policeman shouted back: “Oh, you cannot instruct me, I don’t take

of where we are today as the royal family. Why limit yourself to Lagos when you have the whole of the country as your oyster?

The presidency should be the next position while you leave Lagos for the boys- abi you have not heard of Absalom in the Bible? Let them Abiru and Gbaja struggle with that one abeg.

Abi is it by mistake that you have been going on global trips, meeting the Qatari Royal Family, attending FEC meetings, visiting flood victims and receiving red-carpet treatments all over the nation only for you to limit yourself to Lagos which is but a local government in the grand scheme of things?

instructions from you,” he bellowed. She now said, “Okay, I will call the IG,” and instantly brought out her phone and called someone and said “Oga…”

Kai! This was a train crash. This was not ministerial at all; this was just a caricature that found herself in power and could not calm down and just learn how to be elegant. I will miss her though, because she provided a certain relief amid all the hardship.

ALEX MASCOT IKWECHEGH: SHREK IN THE HOUSE

My people, when I watched the video of the purported assault and saw the picture of this person, the only thing that came to my head was “Shrek.” I know some of you can no longer afford a DStv subscription and as such, may not know who Shrek is. Shrek is the green character in the Eddie Murphy movie of the same title. It was good-natured but had very ugly characteristics. This our Honourable looked like Shrek and also displayed very ugly characteristics. That level of bullying was so undeserving and showed very clearly the background and home training of this character who has found himself in our

Mbok anybody close to Mr. Tinubu Jnr. should tell him to forget that “little” ambition — if it is true — and focus on the presidency. Better still, he should work assiduously to turn the whole thing into a monar chy so that you kukuma just inherit everything. Abeg what else come remain? You see, when you beat people too much, what you get is lethargy and apathy. Where we are today is a state of “we don tire” Anything you want to do, come and do. Whether na governor, president, king or emperor, na garri be our problem. Thank you.

hallowed halls as a member. Thankfully, he has been charged and the House ethics committee has also taken up the case. He must face severe sanctions and maximum punishment ascribed to such an offence and he must send monetary reparation to the driver who very unlike him was trying to eke out an honest living. The NDLEA must also be brought in to see if the honourable member is on something because that kind of unprovoked attack cannot come out from a sane mind, I tell you. Let’s run a series of tests, not only drug o but also mental tests, make we never go vote in a mentallychallenged person to make laws for us.

TY DANJUMA IN A PASTOR’S DEN

A cleric from Taraba State had written a book in which the highly respected General T. Y. Danjuma (rtd) felt defamed by him. As a law-abiding General who will not resort to other means his colleagues are adept at which is unleashing his soldiers and batmen on the clerics’ butt, he got his lawyers to write the cleric and seek a retraction, failure

which he would take him to court and ask for billions in damages. Mbok, I am sure they did not bargain for Baba’s reply. Cleric threw the bible at Danjuma o. He basically said that he would be suing God, and that he was but a messenger and he had done his job. Immediately I read this, I raised my head to the sky. This was classic. Pastor threw the bible at a General o. He continued, that instead of then General at his age to seek forgiveness for all of his sins, he is threatening him with court. He did not end there o. He said that the mission is looking for money to drive God’s work, and this one is using the money to go to court, and ended by basically telling the General to go put his hands in the body cavity where the sun doesn’t shine.

Now let me ask Nigerians, what would you do if you were in Gen Danjuma’s shoes? How will you respond to this? Would you still go ahead with the court case and risk “God’s wrath” or would you send for the cleric and kneel for him to bless you in your old age? Me, I will run to the man’s church and beg for forgiveness. You know that I am a card-carrying member of the Cowards Association of Nigeria.

Kennedy Danjuma

Dangote

Tinubu

Ikwechegh

ALIKO DANGOTE: A DIFFERENT KIND OF PROBLEM

I don’t even know if I should even pity this Alhaji or mind my business since he took it upon himself to save Nigeria from the leprous hands of the cabal that has sucked us dry in the downstream oil and gas sector. While we were busy carrying placards in his support against the monsters he was fighting, Alhaji has doubled his personal worth, while our own personal worth has also doubled but southward. Since I joined Alhaji’s camp, he is said to have doubled his net worth.

So as I watched him lament that he has 500 million litres sitting down in his storage without anybody taking it and that it was costing him money, I tried but could not bring myself to pity him. The logic of it all amazes me. So, we now have more than enough capacity to service local consumption and more but we still insist on importing with all the associated costs.

What is the deciding factor for our government people to continue to insist on importation if quality and efficient delivery is no longer an issue if not the personal benefit that comes with this importation?

Let me remove my personal envy for Mr. Dangote’s personal net worth and painfully, one last time, jump to his defence. Those who are still hell-bent on importation are those who should be arrested and tried for economic sabotage. They have done everything possible to sabotage this local refinery and, in the process, cause untold pain to Nigerians because of its debilitating effect on the economy.

All I can say at this point is to call on the fire of Damocles to come down and burn enemies of Nigeria since the judiciary has turned to Muppets on Sesame Street. Fire will burn them and Nigeria will be free one day, in this our lifetime, I swear. Just watch.

KASHIM SETTIMA’S LIFE NOT AT RISK

My dear people of Borno State, let me tell you categorically that the life of your major contribution to our democracy - Alhaji Shettima - is not at any risk abeg. So because stone nack his windshield, we should buy a new plane for him? Mbok, if you guys love him that much, abeg you people should contribute the money and buy it for him. Shebi you guys have Alhaji Indimi there? We do not have money to do this plane oo.

Let me state very categorically that if Nigeria tries this one and buys a new plane for this man, I will personally walk stark naked into that National Assembly and slap somebody. I am saying it now o, you people should not try me because that would be one provocation too much. What is it? We have built a new house for N21 billion, we have bought a yacht, we have bought a new plane and we are paying for exoteric monthly medical vacation. We that have the money are here struggling with N200,000 bags of beans.

Please, nobody should annoy me o because my anger is very bad. If you try it, no DSS or Army or Civil Defence will stop me, I will enter that National Assembly stark naked and show you what an Ibibio man does in high anger.

Let me even ask, all these journeys up and down what has it brought to us. Have we seen any debt forgiveness or any new major investment or even any remarkable change in our international perception and we are now thinking of buying a new plane for a man to be junketing up and down? Please, let’s respect ourselves o.

DAVE UMAHI: AN OSENI TYPE OF ATTACK

I listened in awe at the verbal umbrage unleashed on the Minister of Works by the chairman of something in the House of Representatives, one Hon. Oseni.

Mbok, it is not from me you will hear this one. If you are really interested in hearing all the yabis this Oseni unleashed on my brother Umahi, just google ‘Umahi under attack’ and the thing will come out and you can watch in peace.

Pending when you go and get the google clip, let me just say that if Umahi had stolen Oseni’s wife, Oseni would not have unleashed on him

like he did o. He basically called him a time waster and a man with no true sense of priority. He said the roads have all collapsed. Mbok, that was too much. If it was Wike he was shouting down on like that, I would not have minded at all but Umahi the hardworking minister who has built only one……. Ahhhhh let me keep quiet o before Umahi will now use me to do low hanging fruit. But in response, Umahi went personal like all things Nigeria. He started to make mouth “Ahh, I was not there,” he boasted within the comfort of his office. If I was there ehn, he said, sounding like Chief Eleyinmi of the rested Village Headmaster. He further

BABAJIDE SANWO-OLU: STAND STILL

No smoke without fire, I wrote on WhatsApp when the news of my person suing EFCC came out and quickly followed by his rebuttal through the Attorney General’s office.

These things don’t just happen like that, there must be some undercurrent, I wrote. Sadly, that write-up pulled in some engagements, which points to the possible turbulence within Camelot. The whole thing reminds me of a discussion I once had with an influential sitting governor. He had lamented that it is now the norm that governors would be humiliated once the immunity is removed and it’s true if you really look at it. Once you are out of office, EFCC comes at you the next morning and for the next ten years, it’s one struggle or the other. Some of them really deserve it. In fact, most of them really do deserve it because of the way they run the whole thing like a personal fiefdom.

As for my paddy, Sanwo-Olu, I would say that he should hunker down and expect the worst. He is a different kind of soul, he has run Lagos to the very best of his ability; tried to be fair and just; and also tried very hard to make a difference. His personal sacrifice especially at the time of Covid-19; his enthusiasm to jump on the side of the people and all his well-meaning policies and initiatives will fight for him. He would be very naïve if he sat down hoping that he would be allowed a peaceful transition to his next port in this Lagos which is roforofo at best. As such, he must and should be ready to run through fire from the moment he hands over. This is the Nigeria we have built for ourselves where dog eat dog is the order of the day. He should however be rest assured that God will not sleep on his case because he is a good man who did it as best as he could. We dey here, no worry, we dey here.

went petty by asking – what has he achieved and that he would not join issues because of the respect he has for the Speaker and the National Assembly.

Mazi, it is not about respect, it is about what exactly you have done. Please, we have gone past respect, we now need action and report. Mbok, don’t respect us, just give us a report on the N300 billion I hear they have released to you.

I am happy you have said you will soon release the report. Kindly release it very quickly so that I can help you yab that Oseni back.

So, my brother, instead of calling a press briefing, please concentrate on bringing that report because we need to put that Oseni man back into his hole.

AKINTOYE AKINDELE: MAN ON FIRE

This is my friend that I cannot deny but I am kinda worried. I just saw a report that he is in EFCC custody after being accused of squandering about $35 million meant for the building of a refinery for the government.

This comes on the heels of his ongoing problem with the Abiolas, also bothering on the misuse, diversion and illegal taking processions of funds meant for their joint venture.

Akin is my friend, I must confess but all of these things are much more worrisome. This man is brilliant, kind and God fearing but all these things are just too much.

The funds being allegedly tied to his name are purportedly misappropriated from various institutions and individuals. It is scary that I am totally confused.

My main issue is that, as an investment banker, I know how difficult it is to secure the confidence of investors, the stress you go through even after securing the confidence in passing through all the challenges to get the funds deployed and then you now get the funds and we start to hear these kinds of stories? It’s not the best. I really pray for him and certainly do hope that all these stories are not true and that he would somehow be able to defend himself and come out of all of this because this is all too disturbing. Really sad, such an intelligent and brilliant fellow.

LARRY ETTAH: AN OLD KIND OF GENTLEMAN

Larry is the former Group Managing Director of giant UAC and he celebrated his 60th the other day somewhere in Ikoyi. Larry belongs to that class of business magnates who ran with integrity and vision. He arrow-headed the diversion of the huge conglomerate into fast food retail business which saw the revolution that was Mr. Biggs, Since retirement, he has gone into private equity where he has continued to build and nurture businesses. He is also a culture exponent as every year with his people he pulls in almost the whole world to Uruan, his village in Akwa Ibom to celebrate the beautiful Ekpe Masquerade. He remains highly respected and distinguished and it’s no wonder that such notables like Admiral Akpan, Ufot Udeme, Tony Nda, Uto of MTN and Senator Udo Udoma and a host of others gathered to celebrate him. I was there o and I am happy to report that although I did not see afang to eat. I ate porridge with nice fresh fish and also a big bowl of Amala with plenty meat and gbegiri which I later washed down with fresh palm wine after which I went home to sleep.

Sanwo-Olu

Finally, Betta Edu Left in the Cold

Perhaps, if Betta Edu, a former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Reduction, had been more circumspect, she would not have suffered the awful fate that befell her.

It all began when she was suspended earlier in the year by President Bola Tinubu over an alleged N585 million scandal that rocked the Ministry.

Following the development, President Tinubu directed the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, to conduct a thorough investigation into all aspects of the financial transactions involving the ministry.

Though she denied any wrongdoing, her office had claimed that she approved the transfer into a private account for the “implementation of grants to vulnerable groups.”

At the outset of the investigations, she had wrongfully thought that she could escape justice, owing to her influence and connection. Indeed, she was said to have boasted that she was untouchable.

But it didn’t take long before she was demystified. Before the eyes of her fans, she began to make the covers of newspapers and magazines for the bad reasons.

Until her descent from the coveted position, she had commanded a lot of respect and her popularity had literally soared across the country.

In fact, she was regarded as one of the top ministers in the present regime on account of the sensitivity of her job.

Given this, many, who idolize and adore her, had hoped that she would be recalled and allowed to resume her duty.

But it is clear to all that her fate in the current administration has been sealed, as President Tinubu has replaced her with Dr. Nentawe Yiwaltada.

In fact, Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, during an interview with Channels Television, following the recent cabinet reshuffle, stated in clear terms that “she is gone!”

Her uninspiring tale is such that would make anyone think that the famous Australian writer, Stefan Zweigh, had her in mind when he penned these words: “In history, as in human life, regret does not bring back a lost moment; and a thousand years will not recover something lost in a single hour.”

Indeed, hers is another narrative with a gripping beginning but a sad ending!

For Bianca Ojukwu, It’s Yet Another Chapter

In an exciting twist, Bianca OdumegwuOjukwu has stepped into a vibrant new chapter of her life. She has become a beautiful bride to the world of politics in the country with her recent appointment as State Foreign Minister by President Bola Tinubu.

For those who recognise her grace and charisma, Bianca is poised to infuse her diplomatic flair and impressive credentials into this crucial role. Many are eager to see how her beauty and intellect will revolutionise Nigeria’s foreign relations.

Bianca is a remarkable figure who is celebrated not just for her stunning looks but also for her extraordinary achievements across various fields. As a reigning champion in international pageantry, she has captured

prestigious titles such as Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria, Miss Africa, and Miss Intercontinental, showcasing her charm and poise on the global stage.

But Bianca is more than just a beauty queen; she’s a dynamic politician, diplomat, lawyer, and businesswoman. Her diplomatic journey is noteworthy, she previously served as Nigeria’s ambassador to Ghana before taking on the prestigious role of Nigeria’s Ambassador to Spain in 2012.

Through her various roles, she has effectively bridged cultures and represented her country with elegance and authority, solidifying her status as a multifaceted leader. Bianca’s journey is a powerful blend of beauty, intellect, and dedication to public service, making her an inspiring role model for many.

SIFAX Boss, Taiwo Afolabi Celebrates Wife at 57

Taiwo Afolabi, Chairman, SIFAX Group, is known for his business acumen. Though he is always as busy as a bee, he gives priority to his family. In particular, he likes to celebrate his wife whenever the need arises.

Last Tuesday, the affable Afolabi celebrated his beautiful wife, Folasade Afolabi, when she turned 57 to the admiration of all. The event, which was held at their London home, was attended by immediate family members, close friends,

and business associates.

For the celebrator, the day would go down as most unforgettable, especially as her husband cooed nice, loving words into her ears and also serenaded the guests with the tale of his long-standing relationship with her.

She looked so regal, as she moved from one seat to another to express her gratitude to those who honoured her invitation and shared in her joy on the occasion.

Mudi Africa’s Three Decades of Making Nigeria Proud

Sometime in 1994, a young man from Delta State had a brainwave and a dream to start a fashion design business. To many at the time, the idea was a mere intent to just swell the number of existing players in the sector. But to him, it was to radically change the narrative in the nation’s fashion designing industry.

Today, the name Clement Mudiaga Enajemo, also known as Mudi Africa, is synonymous with fashion. Since he shot into the public consciousness 30 years ago, he has remained very faithful to his first love: fashion design.

He has proven to all that he had a clear vision of what he wanted to do when he launched his career way back.

Mudi Africa literally worships at the temple of the god of fashion. And for his abiding loyalty to his passion, he has been rewarded with numerous industry awards, home and abroad, and blessed with all the comforts of life.

and the love shared along the way. The business magnate believes the age of

Over the years, the brain behind the soar-away brand, Mudi Africa, is known to be a trailblazer, which further goes to prove that his muse has never left him even after three decades. He loves to express the dynamism in African cultures through his avant-garde designs.

A man of supreme taste, every move he makes in the industry is ultimately intended to promote his brand and win the hearts of his far-flung clients.

Undoubtedly, Mudi remains one of the many success stories coming out of Africa’s fashion design space. With a load of challenges, he has, however, had to manoeuvre while growing his trade, and he is silently contributing to the economy and cementing his standing among the global financial elite to the extent that he has showcased his brand in the same arena with other renowned fashion brands in the world.

89 is really a big one and that no one has ever attained it by hurrying. For him, it’s a privilege bestowed on favoured individuals by God’s grace.

Last Thursday, the man with multiple chieftaincy titles clocked 89. As expected, there was a deluge of congratulatory messages, including a special message from President Bola Tinubu, among other prominent Nigerians who described Adebutu as an enigma whose contributions to the growth of the nation’s economy are highly felt.

The octogenarian hosted many of his friends, business associates and admirers to a birthday shindig at Harbour Points, Victoria Island, Lagos. There’s no gainsaying that the highly connected mogul is indeed a great Nigerian, a treasure trove of wisdom with a zest for life and a beacon of light for everyone around him.

In a world where friendship can often feel transactional, the billionaire entrepreneur, investor, and philanthropist, best known for his influential role in the nation’s business landscape, stands out as a beacon of generosity and kindness.

The founder and chairman of Premier Lotto has made headlines, not just for his wealth, but for his extraordinary commitment to uplifting those around him.

From funding educational initiatives to supporting local communities and impacting his blueprint on the world page, the Ogun State-born proves that true wealth is measured by the impact you have on others.

It is on record that no individual has done better than Adebutu in the service to humanity across the country. Indeed, his milk of kindness is second to none.

Prolific Author, Ope Banwo, Excites with New Book

Renowned author Dr. Ope Banwo has announced that his forthcoming political satire titled: ‘The Kingmaker of Muguland’ will cause a stir in the literary world.

The electrifying new novel is set to be launched on November 3, 2024, and it is already making waves in literary circles and beyond.

This powerful tale, which blends fiction and political commentary, delves deep into the heart of Muguland’s chaotic political landscape, weaving a gripping narrative of power, betrayal, and the price of ambition. A controversial satire set in the fictional nation of Muguland, the novel captures a dramatic period of political upheaval following the country’s independence. One of the central characters after Chief Bisola Eleniyan is Paul Igwe, a principled former governor, who finds himself

leading the Igwerians—a grassroots movement demanding justice and reform. As his movement gains momentum, he faces off against the deeply entrenched political elites who will stop at nothing to maintain their stranglehold on power.

The novel’s title character, Chief Eleniyan, “The Kingmaker”, is a shadowy puppet master, manipulating Muguland’s destiny from behind the scenes. Drawing readers into the dangerous world of political machinations, “The Kingmaker of Muguland” exposes the raw, human cost of power struggles that shape the fate of nations and makes a commentary on contemporary issues in some of Africa’s most populous nations.

With explosive themes of tribal conflict, military coups, and the rise of revolutionary movements, the novel has already captured the attention of readers eager for a high-stakes political drama.

Ojukwu

Afolabi

Edu

Mudi

Banwo

Adebutu

To Odoole of Yorubaland, Chief Kessington Adebutu, 89 is not just a number but the sum of all of one’s experiences, triumphs,

Adenuga’s Daughter, Afolasade, Weds in Style and Opulence

Banquet for the Elite, Music for the gods: Ebenezer Obey, King Sunny Ade, Others, Thrill High Calibre Guests

Afolasade, the beautiful daughter of the Chairman of Globacom, Dr. Mike Adenuga, had her traditional marriage to her beau, Adebola Ogunsanya, in a grand spectacle of pomp and intimate grandeur. The union, cloaked in privacy, featured an exquisite dance of wealth, tradition, and love, held far from the public eye, orchestrated by a father for whom mystique and magnificence go hand in hand.

This was no ordinary wedding, but a world unto itself, meticulously crafted by a man who moves empires and shapes destinies with peerless precision, writes LANRE ALFRED

Every note, every detail, down to the gilded linens and the secretive guest list bore the unmistakable signature of Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr., a legend who remains as inscrutable as he is powerful.

Everything was tailored to enhance Se-Se’s Grove, at Alfred Rewane Road, Ikoyi, Lagos. On Saturday, October 26, the venue bloomed with grand and delicate artistry, reserved for the crème de la crème of Nigeria’s high society, as Adenuga wedded his beloved daughter, Afolasade, to her beau, Prince Adebola Ogunsanya, sheltered from the curious gaze of the world.

To receive an invitation to this event was to be ushered into the epicentre of an elite that Nigeria rarely glimpses. Not a few people jostled to lay their hands on a copy of the invite, but unfortunately, it was indeed easier to retrieve an object through the Bermuda triangle than to get the invitation card. That was how scarce and exclusive the party was and they owe nobody an apology for it.

In the days leading up to the event, invitations were dispatched, but only to those handpicked by Adenuga himself. The exclusive guest list was nothing short of a who’s who of Nigerian high society, from titans of industry to revered political figures, all chosen with the precision and privilege emblematic of Adenuga’s life. Each guest that entered the sanctuary of Se-Se’s Grove was a symbol of class and distinction, carrying within them the shared legacy of Nigeria’s highest echelons.

Indeed, whispers about the wedding swirled in social space, but few could anticipate the grandeur that lay beyond the gates of Se-Se’s Grove, the newly erected sanctuary chosen by the Adenugas.

The venue, transformed into an Eden of sorts, under the stewardship of Zapphire Events, echoed not only the cultural essence of Nigerian aristocracy but also the delicate balance of elegance and restraint emblematic of the Adenuga legacy.

As guests arrived, they were swept into an atmosphere carefully curated to enchant yet shield; ornate tapestries hung against walls, floral arrangements climbed to the ceiling, and golden chandeliers spilled their warm light over guests.

Adenuga is one wealthy man versed in the art of throwing parties that would leave guests drooling and recalling and recounting long after they had held. Even the after party still had all the trappings of a gaudy celebration; rows of gourmet food and afterses and non-stop feasting.

It was obvious to guests that good money had been expended.

The father of the bride, famously reclusive, was present but elusive, a spectre within his own celebration, his protective gaze extending over every corner of the gathering. And to safeguard the union he had nurtured in the most private of circles, strict protocols were enforced, reminding attendees that this was a personal and protected affair—a tribute to the Adenugas’ legacy of exclusive opulence.

Some call him the Big Kahuna. But Adenuga’s enigma surpasses one catchy sobriquet. He is puzzling and endearing, a colossus and a figure so strong, exalted and heroic that the blood of the gods must flow through him; because how else could a being so rounded and fine exist in this world, in Nigeria to be precise?

There is something about the entrepreneur

extraordinaire; his charm strikes the sight, but his merit wins the soul. Ultimately he leaves you reeling under his spell.

At Adenuga’s arrival in the venue, a whirlwind of curiosity blew through the canopy of bliss, stamping his essence into the minds and consciousness of everyone present. “The big kahuna is here,” the walls seemed to say.

Spotting a greying but well-trimmed beard, Dr Adenuga cut a portrait of good health and well-being in his bespoke white native agbada ensemble. He wore his trademark toothy smile as he hobnobbed with friends and family. Until his recent public appearances, Adenuga maintained the aura of a reclusive trillionaire who would rather be heard and have his presence felt than be seen.

As the wedding began, a procession of Nigeria’s elite took their seats: captains of industry, royalty, dignitaries, and legends of public life. Former Governor Chief Olusegun Osoba and his wife, the ageless Beere Aderinsola Osoba, chaired the occasion, a role they executed with grace befitting their stature. governors, senators, retired generals, corporate titans - all were present, each adding their own prestige to the event’s gilded aura. In attendance were notable figures like

Lt. General Alani Akinrinade (rtd), Governor Ademola Adeleke, and Governor Dapo Abiodun, a coalition of the powerful united by the influence of a single man. From the Chief of Staff to the President, Hon. Femi Gbajabiamila, to Otunba Bimbo Ashiru, to Senator Ibikunle Amosun, Chief Layi Amoje, and other titans, this was an assembly of the people who wielded power across Nigeria. Even the glittering Nana Otedola, the wife billionaire Chairman of First Bank, Femi Otedola, graced the occasion, a signal that this was not only a wedding but a gallery of Nigeria’s most influential and affluent. Interestingly, Afolasade, with her grace and poise, embodied the quiet power of her father’s legacy, carrying forward the tradition of excellence that has defined the Adenugas. The accomplished lawyer and boardroom tigress radiated the grace her family name conjures, an embodiment of dignity, poise, and strength. Her groom, Adebola, stood beside her like a prince of fables—his poise and calm indicative of the noble legacy he inherits. A regal figure with the strength and nobility of his own family heritage, he stood alongside her, every inch the princely groom. His ensemble echoing the legacy of the Ogunsanya family of Ikorodu, a proud heritage forged in dignity and tradition. Together,

they were not just a couple but a convergence of dynasties—a blending of two Nigerian realms.

Each movement, each ritual performed in the ceremony underscored a timeless Nigerian ethos: that marriage is not merely the union of two souls but of two families, histories, and destinies.

And to entertain the revered attendees, only the finest were summoned. King Sunny Ade, Dbanj, Flavour, and Davido filled the air with anthems of celebration, a symphony of sound worthy of the union that bound two powerful families. On the day of the family introduction ceremony, a week before the traditional wedding ceremony at the wondrous home of the Adenugas , crowning touch came with Chief Commander Ebenezer Obey’s soulful melodies—a tribute from the elder maestro whom Dr. Adenuga himself had coaxed out of secular retirement a decade prior. In this union of music and might, it was not merely performance; it was history in song, echoing the ages-old legacy of Nigerian music.

And then, a moment as rare as it was touching: for the first time, the enigmatic Adenuga himself rose from his seat to dance, flanked by his family. In an uncharacteristic display of reverence, he doffed his cap to Obey, paying homage to a legend in one of Nigeria’s most unforgettable encounters. With each verse, Obey summoned the spirits of tradition and love, serenading the couple while guests watched, spellbound, as a history so often veiled by privacy unfolded before them.

Thus the grand maestro and King Sunny Ade, alongside, younger music royalty offered electrifying performances that reverberated through the evening of the traditional wedding ceremony. Each song was a crescendo in the unfolding fairytale, blending the old with the new, the traditional with the modern, as music united generations and brought the revelers together. Known for his dedication to guarding the sanctity of family, Adenuga crafted this event with an invisible shield, ensuring the prying eyes of the outside world would not intrude. Despite the grandeur of the occasion, the details were held close, a quiet testament to the man who lives as one of Africa’s most enigmatic figures.

However, one day after the wedding, internationally acclaimed journalist and Ovation Publisher, Dele Momodu, excitedly posted on his Instagram page snippets and pictures of the grand wedding thus allowing netizens glimpses of the high-society wedding.

The wedding of Afolasade Adenuga and Prince Adebola Ogunsanya will endure in memory not merely for its splendor but for its powerful exclusivity, for the restrained elegance that spoke louder than words. Held aloft on wings of wealth, tradition, and love, this wedding was more than an event—it was a testament to the enduring strength of family, a homage to the Adenuga name, and a mark of influence that moves silently yet pervasively through Nigeria’s heart.

In a world captivated by spectacle, Dr. Mike Adenuga Jr. proved once more that true power lies in knowing when to reveal and when to conceal. And in the grand vistas of Afolasade’s wedding, he created a moment as timeless as it was private, leaving his audience with just enough to wonder - what worlds might lie within the recesses of this legendary family, forever shielded from the mob.

For all its dazzle, the Adenuga wedding was, ultimately, a deeply personal affair, crafted by a father who understood that wealth’s greatest privilege is the ability to shield one’s family from the world’s gaze.

For those lucky enough to witness it, it was a night rich with dreams, echoes of tradition, and a reverence as old as time.

The couple

Governor Adeleke and Adenuga

AFRIFF 2024 Officially Kicks off, John Boyega, Skepta to Attend

Stories by Vanessa Obioha

The 13th Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) officially kicks off today with the premiere of Michael Ndiomu’s film ‘Headless.’

This year’s event has been specially curated to address critical issues while celebrating African talent and heritage.

“AFRIFF is all about celebrating who we are and showcasing the creativity and strength within our continent,” said the founder, Chioma Ude, during a press conference.

With the theme ‘Indigenous to Global: Cultural Wealth for Global Prosperity,’ each day has been themed to celebrate various aspects of African cinema and collaboration. November 4 has been aptly themed Herbert Wigwe’s Day in honour of the festival’s patron who passed away earlier in the year. Also, a new award will be introduced in honour of Wigwe, who was an ardent supporter of the creative industry.

“This award category will focus on celebrating Nigerians excelling in the creative fields, acknowledging Wigwe’s contributions to the growth of Africa’s cultural and creative industries,” Ude explained.

The inaugural recipients of the award are Afreximbank President Benedict Oramah, founder of the Creative Africa

Nexus (CANEX), and Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu. According to Ude, these awards will be presented by the Minister of Art, Culture, Tourism, and the Creative Economy, Hannatu Musawa, at the opening gala. In addition to these honorees, Ude shared that trailblazer awards will be given in Film, Music, Culinary Arts, Fashion, and Technology.

Other themed days include CoProduction Day, exploring international film collaborations (November 5), Animation Day, showcasing African talent in animated storytelling (November 6), Television Day, highlighting the role of television in African storytelling (November 7) and Afro-Unity Day, promoting Pan-African collaboration in the global film ecosystem (November 8).

The festival will wrap up the edition with its AFRIFF Globe Awards on November 9.

There will also be workshops and masterclasses on different aspects of the creative industry.

A notable addition to this year’s festival is the attendance of British actor John Boyega of Nigerian descent and Nigerian-British rapper Skepta who will be premiering his short film ‘Tribal Mark.’ They join other international stars expected to attend the event and contribute to the global appeal of African cinema.

AVRS Distributes Over N45 Million in Royalties

At the 8th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of Audio Visual Rights Society of Nigeria (AVRS), the chairman, Mr. Mahmood AliBalogun revealed that over N45 million in royalties had been distributed to members with verified account information between January 2023 and March 2024. The distribution marked the fourth consecutive year since the body, which is the sole collective management organisation for audiovisual works in Nigeria, has done so.

Ali-Balogun also highlighted AVRS’s efforts to engage with users of audiovisual works, focusing on hotels and other similar

establishments.

“Our partnership with hotel associations in Lagos and Abuja, through group licensing agreements, has enabled smoother operations and fostered mutual understanding,” the chairman stated. These agreements, expiring in December, are already under renegotiation to align with market developments and industry needs. He commended the President of the Hotel Owners & Managers Association of Lagos (HOMAL), Chief Samuel Alabi, for the continued compliance of its members to AVRS licensing obligations.

On enforcement efforts, Ali-Balogun detailed AVRS’s collaboration with the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID) to ensure compliance from non-cooperative hotels, particularly in Abuja.

“Enforcement actions, though challenging and costly, are essential to uphold the rights of our members and protect the value of their works,” he remarked.

The chairman also confirmed progress on the Private Copying Levy, with substantial funds already collected and awaiting distribution to relevant Collective Management Organizations (CMOs) and rightsholders.

Spotify Releases Radar Documentary for Ugandan Artist Joshua Baraka

Kampala-born singersongwriter and producer Joshua Baraka, a rising Spotify RADAR Africa artist, is set to captivate global audiences with the release of his latest single, “Lonely”, alongside an intimate documentary.

The documentary offers a rare glimpse into Baraka’s journey, featuring moments with his family and a visit to the boxing gym that shaped his discipline.

“I’m really thankful to be part of the RADAR programme this year,” Baraka said. It’s been an opportunity for me to showcase my art and show people a

Netflix Introduces Moments

“Whether you’re replaying the intense final showdown in ‘Beef’ or a spooky twist in ‘Wednesday,’ Moments lets you save and share it all,” a statement from the streamer read.

Here’s how it works: Let’s say you’re watching the latest season of Bridgerton on your phone and want to save the scene where Colin and Penelope share their long-awaited kiss in the carriage. All you have to do is tap Moments at the bottom of your screen, and it’ll automatically save to your My Netflix tab.

bit of my world. It feels good to be recognised by a programme that has birthed a lot of the artists I look up to. I hope this opens doors for other Ugandan artists like me.”

Baraka’s rise has been impressive. His debut EP, Growing Pains, saw collaborations with major names like Bien, King Promise, and Joeboy, while his breakthrough hit “NANA” has garnered over five million streams. His music has rea ched audiences across Nigeria, Kenya, Uganda, the United Kingdom, and the United States, with his tracks added to over 240,000 playlists on Spotify.

You can revisit your Moments anytime on your phone, and if you rewatch the episode, it will start playing right from the scene you bookmarked. Moments can also be shared on social media platforms. The company announced that the feature is only available on iOS but will be made available on Android in the coming weeks.

Streaming platform Netflix recently launched a new mobile feature, Moments, that allows subscribers to easily save, relive, and share their favourite Netflix scenes.

Boyega

Skepta

Sample of Netflix Moment

Baraka

ARTS & REVIEW ARTS &

A PUBLICATION

Beyond Borders, Art X Lagos Maps the Promised Land

That so much of the Lagos art scene’s recent activities have since learnt to orbit around the gravitational pull of Art X Lagos speaks volumes about its relevance. With its display of trendy galleries and champagne-soaked openings drawing in the art scene’s Who is Who and wannabes like moths to

conceived to promote contemporary art from Africa and its diaspora.

As a pivotal player in the West African art

whose passions and pretensions are fuelled by the promise of discovery and fame.

as West Africa’s leading international art fair and stands unrivalled like a monolith at the ripples across the subregion’s art communities. mouse game already know the score: whoever wants to be recognised as “someone” had to be seen at the event.

illuminating the subregion’s cultural horizon. El observes this transformation with a keen eye. From its beginning as an ambitious newbie to its art scene’s most sought-after event seems to have arrived. Anatsui attributed this success not only to the organisers’ unyielding dedication but also to the whispered conversation about

have validated the fair’s stature.

has long since transcended borders. Now he detects the same alchemy at work with this

tive known as the Aka Circle of Exhibiting Tony Umunna.

for attention during the Art X season. Today

Agulu (Robert Schirmer Professor of Art and Archaeology and African American Studies

and Individual Talent: El Anatsui and the Aka Circle of Artists” at the Wheatbaker Hotel in The Lagos art community meanwhile purred

with pleasure as ART X Lagos unfurled its ninth edition over the weekend. Recall that

cementing its status as the sub-region’s most and hope amidst Africa’s turbulent landscape. enthused: “We are thrilled to present an diverse and dynamic voices emerging from all corners of Africa and the diaspora. ‘Promised Lands’ is a theme that resonates deeply with are and envisioning where we aspire to be. It was crucial for us to create a platform that not only anchors the African art movement but also

We remain dedicated to creating an absolutely Against Nigeria’s backdrop of political and cross-cultural dialogue. Ten specially selected

artists weaving a narrative of resilience and innovation.

weaving a collective narrative of shared voices and hopes.

with a live music experience curated by Lanre

showcasing multi-hyphenate African artists

Lagos also presented Art Across Borders: Wherebean artists exploring ancestral connections and exhibition delved into the African imagination.

national audiences. Peterside-Schwebig’s vision has indeed been a platform for an unforgettable and collaboration.

In Algiers, Kininso Koncepts Wins Hearts

Stories by Yinka Olatunbosun

The Lagos-based theatre company, KININSO Koncepts, thrilled the international audience with its latest theatre production, ‘King of My Heart,’ at CANEX WKND 2024, held in Algiers, Algeria, on October 17. The dance drama ‘King of My Heart’ was performed for the production is written and directed by Joshua Alabi, the internationally acclaimed CEO and Creative Director of Kininso Koncepts.

‘King of My Heart’ is a play that seamlessly blends the timeless themes of love, tradition, and cultural identity. The production draws on the love story of two individuals as a powerfuling the beauty of Africa—its traditions, values, and deep-rooted connection to family and heritage. The cast comprises extraordinary Oluchi Odii, Loveth Ndubueze, and Eniola Salako.

Each actor brings to life the essence of African womanhood, motherhood, and love, their performances leaving an indelible mark on the audience. The ingenuity of the cast is matched by the expertise of the technical crew. Produced by Angela Peters,

DRAMA

the show’s seamless blend of multimedia projection, music, and choreography owes much to the behind-the-scenes brilliance of Edgar Eriakha, Stanley Okeke, Qoyyum

Ihenyen Caleb, and Blessing Okunlola. The team meticulously creates a world where love and tradition harmoniously coexist, immersing the audi-

ence in a visually stunning and emotionally engaging experience.

Hundreds of creatives from across Africa converged, representing diverse sectors such

years, we’ve had the privilege of working across Europe, and this collaboration with CANEX marks a deliberate step in our plan to reintegrate ourselves within the African continent. We see this partnership as a key opportunity to connect with other cultural, creative, and arts organisations within Africa to further develop the continent’s creative industries.”

For Kininso Koncepts, this performance collaboration across the African creative landscape. Anchored on cultural exchange and artistic growth, Kininso actively builds bridges with artists and organisations throughout Africa, leveraging its Lagos hub as a catalyst for creative development and innovation.

A company milestone, ‘King of My Heart’ serves as a reminder of the power and importance of African stories, told in African global audiences. With more collaborations and projects on the horizon, Kininso Koncepts continues to push the boundaries of African theatre, establishing itself as a leading force in shaping the future of African storytelling.

Olowe of Ise Museum Set to Rise in Ekiti

Amemorial museum is set to be built in honour of Olowe of Ise, one of Nigeria’s most celebrated sculptors. Olowe, born in Ise Ekiti in 1875, was known for his exceptional wood carvings, which continue to attract global attention 87 years after his death. His works, which included carved doors, thrones, and posts, blended traditional Yoruba art with innovative styles, distinguishing him in Africa and internationally.

The Olowe of Ise Arts Foundation, led by Senator Babafemi Ojudu, is spearheading the project. The museum will be built on the site where Olowe lived and worked, and it will showcase not only his works but also the art of other African artists.

The Foundation has announced a major fundraising event to support the project, scheduled for Sunday, October 27, at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Victoria Island, Lagos. Ekiti State Governor, Abiodun Oyebanji, will host the event.

a museum of world standard in the memory of the great carver, Olowe of Ise,” Ojudu stated.

Olowe’s home town in Ekiti, where he probed deeper into the artist’s world. With the governor’s support, the idea to build a world-class museum

gained him widespread recognition, and his work was commissioned by royalty across Yorubaland.

the local economy. ‘The museum will be built on the very place where Olowe lived and died in 1937. The museum will not just serve as a tribute to Olowe’s craftsmanship but will also serve as a centre for research, education, and cultural exchange. Showcasing the dept of Yoruba art globally.” Ojudu also mentioned that many private collectors who own Olowe’s works are excited about the project. He called on art patrons, corporate sponsors, noting that the museum will require substantial resources for construction, art acquisition, and operational costs.

Olugbile Holloway, Director-General of the National Commission for Museums and Monuments (NCMM), pledged the Commission’s support for the project. He highlighted the role the museum will play in preserving Olowe’s legacy for future generations, ensuring that his story and artistic contributions are preserved for future generations.

in Olowe’s honour was born. He noted that Olowe of Ise lived during a period

stood out for his ability to push the boundaries of traditional Yoruba woodcarving. His bold use of

According to Ojudu, the museum will serve as a tribute to Olowe’s craftsmanship and will also be a hub for education, research, and cultural exchange. It will include galleries, a library, and shops where visitors can learn about Yoruba art and culture. He emphasised that the project will not only preserve Olowe’s works but also help promote Ekiti State as a tourist destination, boosting

In Abuja, Tola Wewe Roots for Womanhood EXHIBITION

Womanhood was the centrepiece of Nigeria’s master-artist Chief Tola Wewe’s two-week of electrifying artistic expression at Orisun Art Gallery, Abuja.

His exhibition of Hieroglyphics of Womanhood, which was graced by high-end art connoisseurs, presented women in various parts of humanity.

about piercing women as being domesticated or restricted. I believe this is what Chief Tola Wewe is trying to do by showing the strength and the depth of a woman,” said the Executive Director, Orisun Gallery, Mrs. Adebola Adetunbi.

as the African Picasso because he is versatile and

his works of art are so striking and are crucibles characteristics and represent a depth of womanhood. His art belongs to the traditional and more established master artist.”

Adetunbi described Wewe as an icon and one of the best artists in Nigeria, saying his work belongs to the traditional and more established master-artist

Equally, the Israeli Ambassador to Nigeria, Michael Freeman, applauded the renowned Nigerian artist for his vivacious visual creations.

Freeman admitted his love for Nigerian visuals because of the likes of Wewe, noting he could no

Gallery, doing active works with Nigerian artists, and in the process have fallen in love with Wewe and the Nigerian artists. Their concepts are so good

that you want to buy a lot of them. houses are very small, so you have no where to put them. So, when we get a bigger house, we will Wewe said he dedicated a number of his creations to talking about women because women are very spiritual people, without whom there can’t be a society.

In addition, he recalled that his 80-year-old mother was kidnapped some years ago, causing her a trauma, which eventually led to her death. of women in society again because without women, there can’t be men; without a woman, there can’t be a family; and without women, there can’t be a society.

in society, and they are so diligent about it. If you go into politics, most of the women in politics are more active and more forthright.

Prince Ade Ajayi, Olowe’s great-grandson, expressed excitement in being part of the initiative in his remarks. He emphasised the importance of preserving Yoruba history and culture and Carnival,” which celebrates Yoruba heritage and is expected to attract tourists to the state. Some of the include Aina Davies, Dr. Gbenusola Akinwole, Arc. Olayinwolo Olayinka, Dr. Alex Nwuba, and Abiola Adelana.

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Cast and crew of 'King of My Heart'

Members, Board of Trustees, The Olowe of Ise Arts Foundation

Yemi Adeojo, Oloyede Aribilola, Chinenye Chukwudi, Adaeze David, Rosemary Ayodele, Praise Alabi, Zayn Awaiye,

VISUAL ARTS

A painting by Tola Wewe

IN THE ARENA

Conflicting Court Orders: Can CJN Bite?

While many Nigerians are in support of the decision of the Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun to set up a panel to probe judges of the federal and state high courts involved in conflicting rulings in political cases rocking Rivers State, they

are skeptical on the capacity of the NJC to implement severe sanctions against erring judges

Recently, the Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Justice Kudirat Kekere-Ekun moved to restore sanity in the judiciary when she set up a panel to probe judges over conflicting orders in political cases rocking Rivers State.

Among those summoned to face a panel of the National Judicial Council (NJC) include both the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court and the Chief Judge of the Rivers State High Court. Conflicting court orders had trailed the local government elections that were held in the state recently. While the state High Court, presided over by Justice I. Igwe on September 4, 2024, ordered the state’s Independent Electoral Commission (RSIEC) to conduct the local government elections in the state using the 2023 voters’ register compiled by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), a Federal High Court in Abuja presided over by Justice Peter Lifu on September 30 restrained INEC from releasing the voters’ register to RSIEC, technically stopping the parties from going ahead with the polls.

Similarly, while the court in Abuja recognised the Martins Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly loyal to the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory and immediate past governor of the state, Nyesom Wike, on the other hand, a high court in the state gave the faction led by Victor Oko-Jumbo, who are on the side of Governor Siminalayi Fubara, the legal imprimatur to continue to conduct legislative affairs of the state.

Both the heads of the courts and the judges involved in the conflicting orders are to defend themselves before a panel that would be headed by a retired Justice of the Court of Appeal. Though the NJC had yet to issue a statement on the matter, a top source at the council confirmed to THISDAY that the CJN has taken steps to address the ugly situation.

“What I can tell you is that the CJN is deeply worried about the whole situation and it is a standard procedure for the NJC to query the judges and heads of their respective courts. Remember that the CJN is barely a month in office, and she had, on many occasions, expressed her determination to wield the big stick against erring judicial officers,” the source said. Whether it is on the emirship tussle in Kano State or others, legal and political pundits, on

many occasions, have frowned at the questionable role of some judges who have become part of the challenges facing the country’s democracy with their conflicting orders, especially those by courts of coordinate jurisdiction. To them, if the trend was not stopped, it could set the country on fire.

Since Nigeria enthroned democracy in 1999, judges are increasingly being derided because observers feel that justice is given to the highest bidders. The resultant effects, according to them, are the vague, contradictory and incongruous judgments that emanate from the courts. Hardly are judgments or orders in sensitive business and political cases delivered without allegations of compromise.

Many Nigerians are disappointed that corruption and influence-peddling have permeated the judiciary. What they have seen over the years is that instead of the third arm of government to use their judgments and orders to straighten the path of progress for the country, judicial officers themselves want to deep their hands into the cookie jar.

Some powerful politicians are believed to have some corrupt judges in their payroll. These

judges hear cases in which they have interest and favourable judgments are guaranteed.

It is, therefore, not surprising that certain identified judges have consistently delivered judgments that favour certain powerful politicians. The activities of these politicians and their compromised judges are a threat to Nigeria’s democracy.

Justice administration is a very serious business, and the judiciary, as an institution, derives legitimacy from the implicit confidence reposed in it by the masses over whom it sits in judgment.

When the impression, real or perceived, is created that high net-worth individuals can approach the courts to procure judgments and orders at the expense of less-privileged members of the public, then the foundations of the justice system would have been eviscerated.

While successive CJNs as the chairmen of the NJC had refused to take decisive actions against judges who indulged in these ignoble actions, the incumbent, Justice Kekere-Ekun after she was sworn in as substantive CJN, had vowed to restore the dignity and integrity of the judiciary for Nigerians to have confidence

in the third arm of government.

Specifically, Justice Kekere-Ekun warned that there would be consequences for conflicting judgments for both judges and lawyers who go on forum shopping.

But will the NJC under her watch be able to wield the big stick against the erring judges?

Sadly, at its 105th meeting last May, the council, rather than come down hard on judges found wanting of infractions, imposed sanctions that were merely considered insufficient to serve as a deterrent to the compromised judges.

Observers have often wondered why in the last few months there hasn’t been any order sought by one of the parties in the Rivers State crisis at the Federal High Court in Abuja that was not granted.

For instance, all the cases filed by one faction of the members of the Rivers State House of Assembly were strangely heard in Abuja when most of the plaintiffs were in Port Harcourt.

It was for this reason perhaps that human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana (SAN) recently requested the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court, Justice John Tsoho to reassign the case filed by the Martin Amaewhule-led faction of the Rivers State House of Assembly against the Rivers State government and others over the withholding of funds meant for local governments to the Port Harcourt Division of the court.

Falana through his law firm, Falana and Falana, representing the 9th and 10th defendants in the current suit, in a letter dated October 25, 2024, argued that the Port Harcourt Division has the territorial jurisdiction to hear the case, as the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd defendants have offices in Port Harcourt, while the remaining parties reside there.

Furthermore, the law firm expressed concerns about the likelihood of bias in the Abuja Judicial Division, recalling that the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, an interested party, had earlier announced plans to give lands and build houses for judges in Abuja.

Since this is the first the new CJN, Justice Kekere-Ekun has set up a panel to probe infraction in the judiciary, many Nigerians are waiting to see if the outcome would curb the rot in the judiciary or it would be business as usual under watch.

POLITICAL NOTES When Onaiyekan Spoke Truth to Northern Elite

Former Catholic Archbishop of Abuja, Cardinal John Onaiyekan, last week told northern leaders the bitter truth about the condition of the region.

Onaiyekan declared that the economic, political and security crises in the region have to be fixed as a way of fixing the country’s problems.

He argued that for Nigeria’s challenges to be fixed, the challenges in the region must be fixed.

The cleric who spoke in Abuja when the League of Northern Democrats (LND), stated that the northern elite should inquire why there was too much poverty and insecurity in the northern states, when compared to the south of Nigeria.

“I think we must face the reality that the way northern Nigeria is today is not something we can be proud of. All the various indices of good governance and standard of living; we have a very poor record. If Nigeria is poor, the epicentre of the poor is the north.

“We are in a federal government, and federal resources are being distributed. So, what has happened? Let’s face it, if the north does not move well, Nigeria cannot move well. It’s the same discourse: If Nigeria does not move well, Africa cannot move well,” Onaiyekan added.

Since Nigeria’s Independence, the North has been the most backward in all development indices. This is despite producing most heads of state and other political and economic figures

in the country.

In the military and paramilitary organisations, the North also tops, yet the region wallows most in multidimensional poverty.

While these challenges are pervading, the elite have refused to speak up, take actions or hold themselves responsible.

According to the United Nations, there are over 3.5 million internally displaced people in the region due to insecurity related to militant groups like Boko Haram and banditry.

Many current or former state governors in the North have not helped the region. This is why elite in the North must come together and fixed the region. They need to heed Onaiyekan’s advice and speak with one voice on how to tackle the region’s challenges.

Yahaya

Kekere-Ekun

BRIEFING NOTES

Ikwechegh’s Contempt for Common Man

Last Sunday’s physical and verbal abuses on a Bolt driver by a member of the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh and the lawmaker’s threat to cause the disappearance of the driver without any consequences show how the life of a common man is worthless to an average Nigerian politician, Ejiofor Alike writes that the lawmaker should be treated like his British counterpart, Mike Amesbury, who was suspended last Monday for punching a man in the face

Amember representing Aba North and South Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives, Alex Ikwechegh, last Sunday engaged in despicable conduct that demonstrated how an average Nigerian political leader holds the masses in disdain and contempt.

In a video footage that went viral last Monday, Ikwechegh was seen engaging in abuse of power by physically assaulting, and verbally threatening an e-hailing driver from Bolt, Stephen Abuwatseya, at the lawmaker’s residence in Maitama, Abuja.

The lawmaker had ordered some snails from a woman vendor who engaged the services of the e-hailing App driver to deliver the goods.

On getting to the lawmaker’s residence, the driver was said to have requested that he come to his car to collect the package, a request the lawmaker considered disrespectful.

A furious Ikwechegh refused to pay the driver, and was heard speaking with the vendor on the phone and yelling.

He said: “Madam, who is this stupid boy that you sent to my house? Who is this foolish boy that you sent to my house? How can this stupid idiot come to my house and tell me that I’m supposed to come and meet him in his car and pick up a snail that I’m buying from you?”

“Can you imagine this rat? I can make this man disappear in the whole of Nigeria and nothing would happen.

“I’m not going to give this silly boy one naira of my money.”

When the driver protested against the barrage of insults, the lawmaker was further enraged.

He said: “I will slap the hell out of you; lie you down, and lock you in my generator house. How dare you?

“Do you know who you’re talking to? Do you know where you are?”

Ikwechegh proceeded to slap the driver while saying, “Who the hell do you think you’re talking to.”

The lawmaker also challenged the driver to call the Inspector General of Police (IG) to come to his residence, boasting that nothing would happen.

Ikwechegh’s actions and utterances show how Nigerian leaders regard the life of the common man as worthless.

This explained the threat that he could make the driver disappear from the country and nothing would happen.

The disparaging remarks he made about the driver, his fellow young man, just because he

had the privilege of being elevated by politics, also showed that the poor man means nothing to an average politician.

It is not surprising that while the Nigerian leaders live in affluence, they make life increasingly unbearable for the common man.

Following the nationwide outrage, the lawmaker had quickly offered an apology for his despicable behaviour. However, his claim that he was “seeking professional counselling to ensure that such behaviour never happens again,” seems to have conveyed the negative impression that he was under the influence of foreign substances when he displayed the condemnable act.

His inhuman actions against the poor driver did not portray him as someone who could treat citizens of low class with any modicum of dignity and respect, as pledged in his apology.

However, it was reassuring that his party, the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) was among the first groups to condemn his despicable conduct.

APGA, while reacting to the viral video, said the lawmaker’s reaction was condemnable in all ramifications, adding that his behaviour fell short of the party’s constitution.

The party vowed to set up a disciplinary committee to investigate the act, adding that if found wanting, appropriate sanctions shall be meted on him.

On its part, the House of Representatives also referred Ikwechegh to its Ethics and Privileges Committee, for further legislative action.

Though Ikwechegh apologised to his colleagues on the floor, a motion of privilege moved by the House Leader, Prof. Julius Ihonvbere during Tuesday’s plenary session, had notified the House that by threatening to make the driver disappear without consequences, Ikwechegh had brought the Green Chamber into ridicule

The police also acted swiftly by speedily concluding investigation and prosecuting the lawmaker last Wednesday on charges of “Abuse of office, criminal intimidation and criminal force and assault contrary to Sections 397(b) and 265 of the Penal Code Act at the Kuje Magistrate Court.

NOTES FOR FILE

The Magistrate, Abubakar Umar Sai’id, granted him bail at the sum of N500,000 and two sureties in like sum, and adjourned the case to November 8, 2024.

However, Nigeria should take a cue from the United Kingdom on how citizens should be treated with respect and how leaders should be held accountable for their actions.

Without prejudice to the court case, the Nigerian lawmaker should be treated like his British counterpart, Mike Amesbury, who was suspended by the ruling Labour Party (LP) last Monday after a video footage showed him punching a man repeatedly on the street.

The UK Police were investigating the alleged attack by Amesbury, which occurred on the night of Friday, last two weeks.

The incident first came to light after a video footage shows Amesbury talking to a man before punching him in the face and then attempting to strike him again repeatedly on the ground.

In its reaction, the Labour Party said Amesbury, a member of Parliament in Cheshire, northwest England, was assisting police in their investigation, adding that they have suspended the backbencher “pending an investigation.”

On his part, the lawmaker said in a statement that he was “involved in an incident that took place after I felt threatened on the street following an evening out with friends.”

He said he had “contacted Cheshire Police myself to report what happened during the incident.”

Cheshire police said in a statement that the 55-year-old lawmaker was voluntarily interviewed under caution by police and released, pending further enquiries.

In line with their culture of treating citizens with respect and dignity, the UK Prime Minister, Keir Starmer, had issued a statement of condemnation of the British lawmaker’s action.

“I have seen the video footage; it’s shocking,” Starmer told reporters on Monday.

“We moved very swiftly to suspend him as a member and as a member of parliament,” he added.

Ironically, Nigeria’s presidency did not consider a similar shameful action by Ikwechegh embarrassing to the image of the country to warrant a statement of condemnation.

The attitude of the Nigerian leaders towards the masses explains why Nigerian citizens are not treated with dignity and respect both within and outside the country.

Why Umahi Must Pay Attention to Existing Roads

Members of the House of Representatives recently criticised the Minister of Works, David Umahi, over the deplorable roads in the country.

They accused Umahi of lacking commitment to improving the nation’s roads.

Though Umahi was notably absent from the session, the members were enraged during a House hearing, where the ministry’s Director of Bridges, Bede Obiora, cited funding constraints as the primary cause of the poor road conditions.

A member of the House, Remi Oseni, representing Ibarapa/Ido Federal Constituency in Oyo State, rebuffed the minister’s defence, and challenged the claim that resource scarcity was to blame.

The lawmaker noted that the ministry was still awarding new road contracts.

He claimed that the minister had misplaced his priorities over the state of roads across the country.

Currently, very few roads are motorable in the country. The East-West Road, which runs across the entire South-South region, from Edo through Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, and Akwa Ibom and terminates at Cross River, is a nightmare. Most parts of the road are impassable and have been so for many years under successive governments.

The Benin-Asaba-Onitsha Road is currently in a state of disrepair; so are the Calabar-Itu Federal Highway, Enugu-Port Harcourt Road, the 65-kilometre Oyo-Ogbomosho Highway, Akure-Ekiti Road, Nsukka-Otukpo-Makurdi Road, Wukari-Yola Road, Lafia-Akwanga-Jos Road, Benin-Auchi Road, Benin-SapeleWarri Road, Jos-Bauchi-Gombe-Numan Road,

Suleja-Minna Road and the Lagos-Ota-Abeokuta Road, to mention a few.

Though the federal government inherited these bad roads, most Nigerians think that it should first fix these existing roads before shifting attention to the construction of the new Lagos-Calabar Coastal Road and the Badagry-Sokoto expressway worth trillions of naira.

They believe that at least N2trillion will complete these roads for Nigerians to have a sigh of relief.

The dangers in all the failed roads are that they help bandits and kidnappers to perpetrate their nefarious activities.

As the Christmas and New Year celebrations are approaching, one of the ways the federal government can make many Nigerians happy in this difficult and bleak times, is to fix these roads for them to travel in peace.

Umahi

Ikwechegh

Trump vs Harris: Who will Win US Election?

With the former United States President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris neck-and-neck in the battleground states, all eyes are on who will clinch the Electoral College, Martins Ifijeh writes from New Jersey

Voters in the United States will go to the polls on Tuesday, November 5 to elect their next president.

The election, initially seen as a rematch of the 2020 presidential election, was upended in July when President Joe Biden ended his campaign and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his party’s candidate.

The big question now is - will America get its first woman president or will former President Donald Trump get a second term? If Trump wins, he would join the likes of Grover Cleveland who lost a reelection in 1889 and came back four years after (1893) and was given a second-term chance.

So far, the race is driven by intense war of words, where rhetorical framing is the key weapon being deployed by both sides to shape opinions and influence voting decision.

While Trump has made strong economy and immigration the core of his campaign, Harris, among others, has made abortion central to her campaign, and has continued to advocate for legislation that would safeguard reproductive rights nationwide.

Though some Americans believe that Harris is still relatively unknown and weak on economy, they have reservations for Trump for what he represents and his chaotic and troubling regime four years ago.

His current campaign rhetoric has also made a lot of Republicans to distance themselves from him.

According to latest polls, Harris has a small lead of 48 per cent over Trump’s 47 per cent in the national polling averages since she entered the race at the end of July and she remains ahead.

The numbers were relatively stable through September, even after the only debate between the two candidates on September 10, which was watched by nearly 70 million people.

Other polls are also showing that Trump has a slight lead ahead of Harris and vice versa.

With most polls suggesting razor-thin margins between Trump and Harris, this election is turning out to be one of the most closely contested in American history. Undecided or hesitant voters have become critical in breaking the tie between closely matched support bases on both sides, come November 5.

While these national polls and forecasts are a useful guide as to how popular a candidate is across the country as a whole, they are not necessarily an accurate way to predict the result of the election.

So far, as part of the early voting, about 67 million Americans have already voted, with 36 million mail-in ballots pending, bringing the likely total to 100 million votes so far if all pending ballots are returned.

But how a candidate wins the election is more complicated than just votes. It actually comes down to an often misunderstood body called the Electoral College.

That’s because the US uses an Electoral College system, in which each state is given a number of votes roughly in line with the size of its population.

A total of 538 electoral college votes are up for grabs; so, a candidate needs to hit 270 to win.

There are 50 states in the US, but because most of them nearly always vote for the same party, in reality, there are just a handful where both candidates stand a chance of winning. These are the places where the election will be won and lost and are known as battleground states or swing states.

How Electoral College Works

Under the Electoral College, all 50 states and the District of Columbia are allocated a certain number of electoral votes equal to their two senators and their number of representatives.

Since representatives are based on the population of a state, that means larger states, like California and Texas, have the highest number of electoral votes at 54 and 40. Five states—Alaska, Delaware, North Dakota, South Dakota, Vermont, and Wyoming—have the least electoral votes at three.

The election is essentially decided state-by-state. If a candidate wins the popular vote in a state, typically, they receive all of the states electoral

college votes—even if the race is close. But in Maine and Nebraska, there are split electoral votes, which means two electoral votes are given to the state’s popular vote winner, and then one electoral vote goes out to the popular vote winner per congressional district.

How Many Votes a Candidate Needs to Win

In total, 538 electors will cast a vote in favour of a particular presidential candidate. In order to win the presidential election, candidates must receive a majority of the possible 538 votes or at least 270 votes.

After voters cast their ballots on Election Day, races are eventually called in every state, with the first results starting to come in on Election Day. States have until December 10 to finalise any disputes or finish recounts over the results.

On December 17, electors meet to cast their ballots for President. The copies of the ballots are then sent to the president of the US Senate, or

Vice President to officially be counted. On January 6, 2025, Congress meets to count the electoral votes and certify victory for the candidate who has received at least 270.

If no presidential candidate gets 270 votes, then Congress will elect the President and Vice President. Each state’s House of Representatives will cast a ballot in favour of one candidate. In this scenario, a candidate must earn at least 26 votes to win the presidency. The Senate elects the Vice President. Each Senator casts one vote for a vice presidential candidate, and whoever receives 51 votes will be elected. If the House of Representatives does not elect a president by Inauguration Day, Jan. 20, then the Vice-President-elect becomes the interim President until the House comes to a decision.

Why Electoral College?

The rules for the Electoral College are outlined in the 12th Amendment of the Constitution.

The nation’s founders had thought it would be best to have the states elect a President rather than voters directly because democracy was a new idea during that period.

This decision was part of the checks and balances system prevalent throughout the American

political system. It also reflected the Founding Fathers’ lack of trust in voters, says John Sacher, a history professor at the University of Central Florida.

“They wanted property-owning white men to vote,” he said.

“They wanted to make sure that people were virtuous who voted. They were concerned that if you allow the people too much power, the people might choose poorly.”

The logistics at the time also made it more difficult to get people to cast their ballot during a period with reduced and slower transportation, lower literacy rates, and limited education opportunities. In fact, it was not until the election of 1824 that eligible voters, not just electors, cast a ballot for the next leader of the U.S.

Slavery also played a role in the establishment of the Electoral College when delegates to the 1787 constitutional convention agreed on the so-called three-fifths compromise in determining representation in the House.

It was gathered that in order to distribute the number of congressional seats and the electoral votes, they would count an enslaved person as three-fifths of a human being.

Though they couldn’t vote, it boosted the seeming population of those states that had large numbers of lay people.

This made it so that those in the North would not wield significantly more power than those in the South, where many people remained enslaved.

How Electors are Selected

Electors are selected by each political party, but the guidelines vary state-by-state. Guidelines that apply to all states include that no senator, representative, or person who holds an “office of trust or profit in the U.S.” can be an elector. State officials who have previously held an “insurrection or rebellion against the United States or given aid and comfort to its enemies” are also disqualified.

What If an Elector Goes Rogue?

While electors often vote for the presidential candidate they have pledged to vote for, sometimes “faithless electors,” do not do so. In 2016, seven electors went rogue—the most since 1972, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Thirty-five states and D.C. have laws against faithless electors. Violation of these laws could lead to fines or elector disqualification depending on the state. In New Mexico and South Carolina, faithless electors could face a criminal penalty. But, these faithless actors have never changed the outcome of an election.

Trump Harris

Time to Reconsider Ties With Israel

Femi Fani-Kayode

In an article titled: “Is Nigeria fuelling Israel’s genocide against Palestinians?” which was published in Businessday on October 30, 2024, one Suraya Dadoo, who wrote in from South Africa, opened his contribution by quoting our Hon. Minister of Foreign Affairs, my friend and brother, Ambassador Yusuf Tuggar who he attributed the following words to.

“There is no justification for the carnage that is going on in Gaza… the complete disregard for the proportionality of force that is being meted out on innocent civilians. This carnage is completely out of hand and totally unacceptable. There is no way to explain the double standards; it has to stop”.

He went further by quoting our nation’s number two citizen, Vice President Kashim Shettima’s words at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in September where he said the following.

“Justice is antithetical to revenge… Freedom is an inalienable right and a natural entitlement that cannot be denied to any person. The Palestinian people deserve their independence.”

Both the minister and the vice president have done us proud with their courageous words and bold stand and it is a reflection of the fact that the Tinubu administration represents the thinking and has expressed the sentiments of the overwhelming majority of Nigerians and have opted to tread the right path when it comes to the tragic events in Gaza and the pitiful plight of the Palestinian people.

Dadoo went further by writing the following: “The Nigerian government has consistently condemned Israel’s military occupation of Palestine and has been particularly outspoken against Israel since October 7. Historically, Nigeria has been a strong supporter of the Palestinian struggle for liberation, and Nigeria was central in efforts to ensure that Israel was not granted observer status at the African Union (AU). According to sources who were at the October 2021 meeting of the AU executive council attended by Africa’s foreign ministers in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, Nigeria’s then Foreign Minister, Geoffrey Onyeama took the lead in objecting to Israel’s accreditation and urged other member states to do the same”.

Again this is comforting but he follows it by getting to the crux of his essay and the heart of the matter by dropping the following clanger. He wrote, “While the Nigerian government has strongly condemned Israel’s military onslaught on Gaza it also stands accused of fuelling the Israeli war machine that had already killed, at the time of writing, more than 40,000 Palestinians through direct violence and bombing”.

To substantiate his point he wrote, “According to a recently released report titled “Behind the Barrel: New Insights into the Countries and Companies Behind Israel’s Fuel Supply,” Nigeria accounts for 9 percent of the total crude oil supplied to Israel between October 21, 2023, and July 12, 2024. Researchers analysed satellite imagery, ship positions, shipping logs, commodity trade flows, information from port authorities, and financial and media reports to track 65 oil and fuel shipments to Israel in that period”.

He concludes by alleging that, “Over 133 kilotons of Nigerian crude were delivered to Israel from Chevron, Eni, Exxon, Shell, and TotalEnergies. Gabonese crude accounted for 22 percent, and the Republic of the Congo supplied 6 percent, but it is Nigeria’s contribution that has raised eyebrows given the country’s vocal criticism of Israel”.

Dodoo’s allegation, if proven to be true, is deeply troubling and needs to be taken very seriously indeed lest we leave ourselves open to his grave charge of complicity in the genocide that is being unleashed on Gaza by the Zionists.

The matter can be resolved by simply banning all crude oil shipments from Nigeria to Israel. I hereby call on our President, Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to do precisely that and take an even stronger stance against the Zionists by banning all arms purchases from them and terminating any military and/ or intelligence advice or services that the Israelis are offering or providing us with.

If he could find the courage to implement a number of bold and much needed fiscal, economic and constitutional reforms and policies such as the removal of the oil subsidy, the floating of the naira, the establishment of autonomy for the local government areas, the implementation of the students loan fund, the numerous tax reforms and most important of all the refusal to go to war against Niger Republic despite the enormous pressure that the western powers, led by France and the United States of America, put on him to do so earlier this year, he can certainly muster same to kick the Zionists out of Nigeria, nullify their pervasive influence in our country and sub-region and sever all trade, economic and diplomatic ties and relations with them.

General Yakubu Gowon, our reverred former Head of State, did this in 1973 when he was in power and as Chairman of the then OAU (AU) in order to punish the Jewish State for its attack on the Palestinians during the Yom Kippur War.

For a number of years before then and specifically during our three year civil war, Gowon had viewed Israel with much distrust and suspicion given the covert support she gave to the Biafran secessionists and her complicity in the attempt to dismember and break up our beloved country.

However, the straw did not break the camels back until 1973 after which the final break took place and diplomatic relations between our two countries were not restored until September 1992 by the then Head of State General

Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida. I am constrained to say that now is the time to break diplomatic ties with Israel again.

This is the right and proper thing to do in the light of their insatiable compulsion and appetite for mass murder, ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity, war crimes and genocide and given their insane and psychotic disposition for murdering helpless and defenceless women and children and for killing babies.

Again this is the right and proper thing to do given the fact that they have not only illegally occupied the land of the Palestinian people for over 76 years and slaughtered and incarcerated millions of them but they have also unleashed what can best be described as the second holocaust against them over the last one year killing over 60,000 in Gaza alone and thousands more in the West Bank, Lebanon and Syria!

If the world could go to war with Nazi Germany in 1936 as a consequence of the first holocaust every civilised nation ought to, at the very least, be able to break diplomatic ties with Zionist Israel as a consequence of the second.

Morality, decency and justice demands no less and those nations that insist on applauding the atrocities of the Jewish state and selling weapons of mass destruction to her are not only complicit in her war crimes but are also from the pit of hell and in the service of shaitan.

The Holy Bible says there can be no fellowship between light and darkness. It says we must either choose God or Belial.

It also compels us to resist evil and to fight for the weak, the poor, the vulnerable and the oppressed.

The Holy Koran does the same and is emphatic on the importance of justice for all and support for the less privileged and the vulnerable.

Nigeria can and must NEVER

be seen to be complicit in the bestial barbarity that is going on in Gaza or to have relations with the beasts that have relentlessly unleashed it.

Though we have many challenges, ours is a nation of decent, God-fearing, just and right-thinking people who have a long history of standing for the oppressed all over Africa and contributing to the efforts of numerous liberation struggles.

Let us prove to the world once again that that is who and what we are by openly and loudly challenging the barbarity, lunacy and thuggery of the State of Israel at the International Court of Justice, the International Criminal Court, the United Nations, the African Union and all other relevant fora and calling her out for her continuous violations of international law, her disdain for an international rules-based system and her racist, fascist and ethnocentric disposition.

Let us expose her contempt for humanity and human life, her total and complete adoption, espousal and implemention of apartheid as a fundamental principle and cardinal policy in her system of government and her religious fanatacism and proselytising bigotry.

Let us vigorously and aggressively resist her hatred for Arabs and Africans, her appalling treatment of Christians and Muslims, her rejection of the twostate solution, her desire to ethnically cleanse, wipe out and totally eradicate and eliminate the Palestinian race, her intention to establish a ‘Greater Israel’ whose borders would stretch from Egypt to Iran and her heinous crimes and unspeakable atrocities in Gaza, the West Bank and Lebanon.

These are concrete and cogent steps that we as a people and nation can take to contribute our quota to the collective fight against the tyranny and oppression of the Zionists and I believe that we are still big and strong enough to take them.

May God guide and protect us in this noble endeavour and may history and posterity be kind to us.

Tinubu Netanyahu

and another war would erupt in the cyberspace, obscuring the real issue of abuse of power and privilege that ails the country. I initially avoided going on social media but I later manned up. To my delight, the Ikwechegh affair did not follow the rule. It deviated from the predictable pattern. What I saw was collective anger. It is not impossible that the bigots still had their say, but they must have been so consigned to oblivion that they did not trend. Once again, I saw Nigerians demonstrate what I have always believed: that our core problem is not ethnicity, religion or region — contrary to what we have been manipulated and brainwashed to believe. Our problems cut across the divides. We live in an unequal society where members of the ruling class lord it over us. And rather than confront them, we are so often distracted by politics that we end up confronting each other.

In reality, we live in a country where there are two countries — the one for the powerful and the power-drunk; and the other for the others. It is a case of “we and they”. No matter their ethnic and religious differences, they enjoy similar privileges: state power and the treasury are at their beck and call, so they can go to Canada on “self-sponsored” trip to study the legislature

PRISONERS OF WAR?

Protesters arrested during the #EndBadGovernance rallies in August were finally arraigned in court on Friday. My heart sank on seeing those skeletons. Some collapsed in court. Police said the fainting was stage-managed. Were the skeletons AI-generated? Protesters being treated like prisoners of war in their own country is an alltime low for Nigerian democracy. All suspects, whether adults or minors, have a right to be treated like human beings, no matter the allegations against them. Charging this calibre of people with treason because they flew the Russian flag is ridiculous. What do they know about Russia? Why not go after their sponsors if you want to prove treason? Shame!

America, even in the earliest days of its democratic experiment. Trump has a string of indictments and convictions around his neck, he remains a polarising figure, he keeps saying outrageous things against his opponents and those who disagree with him, including threatening those he has termed enemies of the state, and many of the senior officials who worked with him during his first term have said he is unfit for that esteemed office.

Ordinarily, by American and Western standards, Trump’s political career should be dead and buried by now. But the death of his political life has been widely exaggerated. He has remained a major political force and he may as well make a historic return to the White House, and even if he doesn’t make it, he will come closer than the other five US former presidents who tried unsuccessfully to make a return to the White House (and let’s hope his failure will not be followed by the kind of political violence usually associated with the Third World).

There are many reasons for Trump’s improbable resilience in American politics. One, Trump has successfully narrativized the 2020 election as stolen and his trials as persecution. There are those who see him as a victim. Two, his undiplomatic language/approach is seen as a departure from the usual guile of politicians, and most Americans have become so immune to his bad form that they readily give him a pass. Three, American politics is more polarised than ever, and he retains near total control of the Republican Party and has a strong appeal for those who feel they got the short end of globalisation.

So, his gratuitous slander of immigrants and his promise to deport record number of illegal immigrants and impose high tariffs on imports (especially from China) strikes a chord with many blue-collar workers who think outsiders are stealing their jobs. Some have framed this racist pushback, because the core of Trump’s MAGA crowd is white and male. But things

in a parliamentary system, even though Nigeria practises presidentialism. No matter our ethnic and religious differences, we suffer from similar afflictions: abuse of power, poverty, unemployment, bad roads, bad schools, neglected hospitals, lack of clean water, insecurity, and other things that define misrule.

We are plagued by waste and corruption in every region, but, somehow, we have been brainwashed to think that our problem is because someone is Hausa or Igbo or Yoruba, Muslim or Christian, southerner or northerner. Our brains have been politically engineered to believe that one part of the country is the problem of the other. We are blind to the realities we face every day on our streets and in our local governments, state legislative constituencies, federal constituencies, senatorial districts, states and zones. At election times, we often queue behind “our sons”, “our daughters” and “our brethren” — which is certainly not a crime — but do we hold them accountable afterwards?

I can go on from state to state and zone to zone to show how ethnic champions use power and state resources for personal benefit while taking full advantage of the sectional sentiments of the people on the streets. Sadly, sectional sentiments are

the preoccupation of lot of Nigerians, particularly on social media. As a result, most Nigerians are unable to talk with one voice, to genuinely confront misrule, to demand good governance. Our leaders surely like it that way: divide and conquer. Let the people be busy abusing each other and insulting their mothers and grandmothers while abuse and misuse of power continues. Until we wake up from our slumber, we will remain where we are.

I like the general reaction to the Ikwechegh episode so much because I saw the Nigeria I have always yearned for: a country where people can, at least, cast aside bigoted lenses to be able to see and attack a problem that ails our country. How I wish we would do this more often in the other matters that beset us and drag us backward in the quest for development, peace and progress. We definitely have primordial hangovers (I can’t deny that) but I have always insisted that that is not our primary problem. There is no country in the world that is not living with a form of cleavage sentiments, but countries where people are able to focus more on good governance always make progress.

The Ikwechegh affair and our response to it really gladdened my heart. I have seen it several times before. When Sadiq Daba, the late actor,

And Four Other Things…

RIVERS

It has happened again — another court has delivered another weird judgement on Rivers state. Justice Joyce Abdulmalik of the federal high court, Abuja, has ruled that federation allocations due to the state should not be released until the passage of a lawful appropriation act by a validly constituted house of assembly. How can a judge rule that constitutionally guaranteed allocations should not be released when the issue at stake is not the allocations but the budget? You can say a budget cannot be implemented because it was not properly passed. At this rate, a judge will soon rule that Rivers state be abolished. The political authorities are playing with fire. Dangerous.

are more nuanced, as evident from the support that Trump is now receiving from black and Latino males and from Muslims.

A major driver of Trump’s strong appeal is the state of the economy post-pandemic. America’s economy has recovered well, it is growing at a decent clip (2.8% in Q3-2024), and it is still the envy of the world. Inflation has tracked down from a peak of 9.1% to 2.4%, and after keeping interest rates high for a long time, the Federal Reserves cut the benchmark rate by 0.5% in September and is projected to make further cuts next week. But these macro data is not making as much dent on the standard of living of average Americans who still remember when, not long ago, they used to buy basic things at much lower prices and didn’t have

was sick to the point of death some years ago, Nigerians from everywhere rallied around him. Nobody discussed his ethnicity or religion. That is who we are as Nigerians if you take away the political manipulation of our brains. We are all celebrating the global strides of Afrobeats and Nollywood as Nigerians, not because the stars are from our village. That is who we are deep down — without the brainwashing. I don’t know how we allowed the agents of division to hijack the airwaves. We simply surrendered the space to them.

Lest I forget, there is an update: Ikwechegh has apologised. He has also been arraigned on a three-count charge of abuse of office, assault and threat to life. We should remain vigilant as the law take its course. Remember, Hon. Farouk Lawan was jailed for five years for corruption. If we can direct our collective energies in the right direction, there is a lot we can achieve in our desire to clean up this society. But we are rather more tickled by ethnic hate instead of facing the challenges of promoting good governance. That is why I am so delighted that we suspended our differences once again to call a spade a spade in the Ikwechegh affair. That is the Nigeria I dream of and the Nigeria I love to see.

OR TRUMP?

Weeks ago, it looked like Vice President Kamala Harris was all set to clinch the US presidency after entering the race on a high momentum, but former President Donald Trump has caught up with her. This takes us to a November 5 presidential race that is as tight as hair and skin (apologies to Brymo). Trump may be the top choice of racists, bigots and misogynists, but the economy is a major issue in this election and many “neutral” Americans believe he will do a better job based on his record in office. Harris enjoys the support of liberals, immigrants and ethnic minorities but it appears being female — and a black female at that — means she has a mountain to climb. Unpredictable.

as much struggle paying their bills. That era, just a few years ago, happened to coincide with when Trump was president. Also, many entrepreneurs think Trump will be better for their bottomline.

So, while a significant number of Americans who will vote for Trump do not approve of his style and morality, they think he will be better for their welfare. It is a form of nostalgia, which may not stand close interrogation. But it doesn’t matter. Politics is largely about perception. The key message of the Democrats, especially their flagbearer, has been about how nasty a person Trump is and about how much threat he poses to democracy. Character and institutions still remain important. But they become abstracts when compared to bread and butter issues and they do not resonate with people as much as their ability to pay their bills without stress. Politics is personal.

Other factors that have helped Trump include the obvious cognitive deterioration of President Joe Biden, which forced him off the race four months to the election, the anger of the youth (who believe that Biden didn’t do enough to protect the Palestinians and thus are not excited about turning out for the Democrats) and the short time that Harris has had to define herself as well as her difficulty in erecting a distance between her and an administration in which she is effectively a co-pilot. But she may still be able to swing the presidency her way, especially if women who think that Trump constitutes a threat to their reproductive freedom pour out in record number for her and if she outperforms Trump in most of the battleground states.

There are analysts who feel that the outcome of the election will not have much effect on America’s domestic and foreign policies. They base their analysis on the hope that even Trump will not be able to carry out his many threats either because the institutional guardrails of America will hold firm or because commonsense

NO COMMENT

The senate screening of ministerial nominee, Mrs Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, shows an urgent need for our lawmakers to undergo gender sensitivity orientation. During introductions, Senator Osita Ngwu was praising her beauty instead of reading her résumé. Senator Victor Umeh also said: “I asked her to tone down her beauty when she comes.” These statements all sound like compliments, but they are patronising and actually objectifying. She is beautiful, we know. She was the Most Beautiful Girl in Nigeria 1988, Miss Africa 1988 and Miss Intercontinental 1989. But she was at the senate as a ministerial nominee — and they were salivating at her beauty instead of her credentials. Wonderful.

will prevail. They may end up being right. At the domestic level, there is not much difference in the policy proposals of the two candidates, as Trump has successfully remade American policy landscape in his image, (a case that The Economist made persuasively recently through a review of policy proposals in eight policy areas), and the fact that the Democratic Party has moved mostly to the right to counter the Trump effect. In any case, American politics and economy are sturdy enough to withstand the next four years. America, largely, will be fine.

At the foreign level, however, is where we should worry and brace up for a tumultuous ride. Harris offers a safer bet for the global order. Even if there will be tweaks on her approach to Israel and Ukraine, she is likely to continue on the same path as Biden. But Trump presents a different proposition. While it will sound great to some Americans, Trump’s threat to impose 20% tariffs on all imports and 60% tariffs on imports from China may not only trigger a tariff war that the world does not need but also put free trade and the fragile global economy at risk. His ultra-nationalistic posture will have serious implications for multi-lateral institutions like the United Nations and for traction on global causes like climate change.

The delicate balance of a multipolar world is also likely to be strained under a Trump presidency, and it is important to proactively think about how Trump’s approach and preferences will impact US relations with Europe and China on one hand and the ongoing/potential wars between Russia and Ukraine and between Israel, Palestine, Lebanon and Iran on the other. In capitals around the world, foreign policy experts should be mapping the various scenarios, thinking through their possible responses and preparing for whatever choice America makes on Tuesday. The rest of the world doesn’t have a vote in America’s most consequential election in generations. But it can at least ready itself for the outcome.

FROZEN

HARRIS

ENGAGEMENTS

For Mr. Trump, Maybe Good Night at Last

Inamatterofdays,America’sdemocracymight self-correct and present a rough and bulky casualty. Mr. Donald Trump’s presidency is unlikely to be revalidated for a second term. As the various polls indicate once again, the American electorate seems poised to deal the disruptive Mr. Trump a merited ‘F’ grade. Forget about dead heat. The only heat in America’s political kitchen can only smoke out Mr. Trump and bid him final good night.

Trump’s imminent calamity is unlike 2016 when Mr.Trumpdefiedtheprojectionsofmostpollstersto clinch an electoral college based victory over Hilary Clinton. Then, he was untested and something of a fresh vacation from the humdrum predictability and boringcorrectnessofpoliticalWashington.Formost of the rural populace and the unschooled artisans and calloused work hands in rusty industrial cities, he representedsomethingofahopefortherenascence of classic America as it once was. Now is different. He is a tried and tested political toxin.

In many ways, Mr. Trump’s imminent humbling is more than a personal travail. Democracy itself is on trial. So are the many issues that define its credibility andglobalpreference.EvenAlexisDeTocqueville,the French writer and definitive authority on American democracy(DemocracyinAmerica)didnotforeseethe aberration that periodically, democracy will present a defective outcome.The people will go out to elect a leader who ends up as the opposite of their best intentions. Ironically, only democracy can correct its own mistakes at the next election. In many ways then, this US election is a classic test of democracy’s self -correcting capacity. The imminent election of Kamala Harris as the next US President is a fitting self-correction of a democratic error by democracy itself by the very people of the United States.

In the four years of his first tenure, Mr. Trump literally subverted the most powerful political office on earth. He did and stood for the fine virtues of everything democratic. American history and the electoral process produced in Trump a president who was a highbred of leadership negativity.Trump was a cross between aThird World Banana republic autocratanda19thcenturyEuropeanfascistdictator. Thank God his fascist credentials have once again resurfaced in this campaign.WhileTrump held sway, the world held its breadth out of the fear that a highly unstable deviant genius in the White House could press the wrong button on the nuclear code with dire consequences for mankind. Every moment of the Trump presidency was minimally nightmarish and sometimes apocalyptic.

In his ill-digested bid to ‘make America great again’, Mr. Trump spent a whole four years regaling his countrymen and women and indeed the whole world with glimpses of his troubled mind and arguably demented vision. It was a tragedy foretold and a disaster perennially in the making.

ForfouryearsunderthefirstTrumppresidency,the world was treated to a quaint mixture of adolescent blusterandcruderealitytelevision.Wherehissupport base and the rest of America expected purposeful conservative leadership, Mr.Trump offered an overdose of unthinking posturing and showmanship. In a country where fact and statistics constitute the bedrock of governance and public policy, Mr.Trump offered an unrelenting cascade of lies, half truths and false figures to back up claims fueled more by a bloated ego than realities on the ground.

ToTrump’s curious credit is the emergence of the novel concepts of ‘alternate truth’ and ‘fake news’. Under Trump, fiction came to compete with fact as the currency of public affairs. The credibility of the media as an institution of free democratic society came under systematic and unrelenting assault. Not eventheAmericanpoliticalestablishmentwasspared the scalding marks of theTrumpian blitzkrieg. Even as he heads to lose this election,Trump will go down withthecarcassoftheRepublicanparty.Thepartyof Ronald Reagan had shrunk to the party of theTrump family.Over70%ofspeakersattheconventionwere either members of Mr. Trump’s family or his direct cronies and quislings.

Yet it is in terms of serial policy failures and administrative incoherence and mayhem that Mr. Trump is most likely to be remembered. In four years, he failed to fill more than 60% of jobs in the USgovernmentsystem.HehiredandfiredkeyWhite House appointees with the regularity of underpants. Renowned professionals, decorated generals and other persons of high repute who came to serve under his administration either left in frustrated anger or were unceremoniously humiliated out by thetemperamentalfitsofanegotisticpresident.Most former Trump appointees have recently returned

to haunt him all through this current campaign as someone to be barred from re-entry into the White House.

Inhiscurrentcampaign,Trumpendedupasamore undisguised advocate of anarchy and hate than the first time around. His campaign promises ended up more as advertisement pay off lines than well thought out policy propositions. He would carry out the largest immigrant deportation in US history.To him, every illegal immigrant is a criminal. Immigrants wereeatinguppetsandcommittingtoomanycrimes in US border cities.

Mr.Trump’sdisruptivevalueinternationallywasendless.Foranationwhosehistoryisrootedinanetwork of alliances and alignments across the globe,Trump ended up converting more US allies into potential adversaries in four years than American has known in 75 years afterWorldWar II. His personalisation of foreign policy was bound to escalate global tension.

In his first term, Mr. Trump failed to realise that as US president, he was the inheritor of the historic burdenofsustainingglobalorderandsecurityafterthe SecondWorldWar. By rolling back the bulwark of US security guarantees to its allies in Europe especially, Trump was literally permitting nuclear capable and wealthy nations like South Korea, Germany, Japan and perhaps Saudi Arabia to develop the appetite to acquire and use nuclear weapons. He has over these yearsmadenosecretofhisadmirationforallmanner oftincanautocratsanddictatorstothediscomfiture oftimehonoredAmericanvalues.Heopenlyadmires and worshipsVladimir Putin, Xi Japing, Kim Jung Un, Viktor Organ and Mohammed Bin Salman.

It is true that US foreign policy has often had a destabilizingeffectonpartsoftheworld.Ithasfelled bloody dictators only to allow the rise of dangerous armed factions in Iraq, Libya and parts of Syria. It has destabilised whole regions (the Middle East) and upset traditional balances of power in Latin America (Venezuela, Cuba) while problematising territorial disputes like inYemen and over the South China Sea. Mr. Trump’s temperamental diplomacy in his first term merely exacerbated these trends and made the world a more dangerous place.

On the domestic front,Trump may have had a few disjointedwelcomingsoundbitesduringhisfirstterm. He then spoke about bringing back American jobs from Mexico and China. He probably forgot that US manufacturers shipped their operations abroad in searchofcheaperlabourandlowerproductioncosts following the aggressive unionisation of US labour in the Ronald Reagan days. He could be excused for appealingtothepopularsentimentsofAmerica’srural folk, farmers, rust belt technicians and non -college majorityforpoliticaladvantage.ButBidenandKamala Harris have since brought about a cooling off of the economy, bring down inflation to a historic 2% with millions of new jobs created in the last four years.

Trump’shabitualappealtobaseinstinctsofracism andwhitesupremacyweaponisedAmericansociety againstitself.Heinheritedarelativelyunitedcountry

andahealthyeconomyfromBarackObamabutended up creating a divided nation in which skin colour and systemic racism ignited a series of clashes and civil protests.Inabelatedattempttoappearlikeanadvocateoflawandorder,Mr.Trumpemployedthestrong arm tactics of autocratic dictators to quell the very riots and protests that his divisiveness had ignited.

In the last four years, America’s investigative and judicial machinery have revealed Mr.Trump’s moral deficits especially in his relationship with women. Nearlyeveryhighprofiledefendantincasesinvolving sexualoffencesandfinancialcrookednessinAmerica inthelastfouryearseitherinvolvedaTrumpassociate or made mention ofTrump’s links with the accused. Mr.Trump’salltoofrequentflirtationswithallmanner ofcriminalschemesendedupsendingmorethanhalf a dozen of his associates to jail for offences ranging from perjury, forgery, money laundering to multiple campaign fund infractions. Mr.Trump’s closeness to theseconvictswassometimessoclosethatonlythe weight of his previous high office kept him out of jail.

Mr. Trump’s singular qualification for seeking to return to the White House is to wage retributive crusades against his political enemies. He wants to fire the judges that presided over his myriad criminal and civil infractions. He wants to release all the criminals jailed for the January 6 riots at the US Capitol. In addition, he wants to complete his unfinished dinners with Kim Jong Un, Vladimir Putin, Xi Jinping and Victor Organ. For him, the job of US president is not bigger than that of a successful real estate merchant.

This, after all, is the nation of Sam Walton, founder of the Wal-Mart behemoth whose choice work location was behind the shop cash till and whose favourite transportation was a pickup truck. It is the nation of Bill Gates, one of the world’s richest single individuals who still drives himself to work and resisted for a long time that Microsoft should buy him a business jet to ferry him to and from meetings around the world. Not to talk of the great Warren Buffet who has lived in the same modest apartment almost all his life. Let us not talk of younger really wealthy Americans like Mark Zuckerberg with his over $60 billion net worth, who is so enamoured of his jeans and t-shirts that he hardly varies their colours!

In a nation that has long been greeted as the bastionofglobalcapitalism,theminimumexpectation isthatanyonewhohoistsabusinesscredentialwould at least pass the minimal tests of compliance and relative transparency. Not forTrump. He refused to disclose his tax returns and the brief details that the media sneaked out indicated that the man had not paid personal income tax for close to two decades while the maids and janitors in his gleaming high rise hotels sweated to pay personal income tax from their starvation wages.

Mr. Trump brought into the White House his personal creed of ‘transactional everything’. Not for himthenuancedrefinementofpoliticalrhetoric.Not

for him the candour and modesty of high office and immense power. Not for him the depth of knowledge on policy issues that should guide the business of governance let alone the higher requirements of diplomatic candour needed in managing the world’s most powerful office. NATO should pay its bills irrespectiveofthestrategicimportofthetransAtlantic alliance. Mexico should pay for a border wall with the US to keep its citizens from migrating to America. In spite of his own humongous fortunes, I doubt that Mr. Trump understands the higher need to protect capitalism from its own excesses. Instead, he proceeds to champion policies of protectionism, steep tariff barriers , isolationism and shutting out of immigrants and competitive trade arrangements with other countries. Some of the agreements that he cancelled in his first term had enabled American business to embrace global competitiveness. He would erect trade and tariff barriers against China, South Korea, Japan, Mexico and even Canada only to replace them with unworkable lopsided transient arrangements. For the United States, this meant a recoursetotheearly19thcenturypopulismofAndrew Jackson who appealed to ‘the common man’ or the protectionist isolationism of the 1930s associated with men like Smoot-Hawley and Charles Lindbergh. Of course Trumpism as a decadent and illiterate iteration of illiberal democracy and mob populist conservatism has had its followership not just in the United States but elsewhere by other names. Its primary appeal is the urge to constrict national spaces and resources to a native square. ForTrump and his kind, the nation state becomes more or less a tribeofnarrow-mindeddemagogues,aplaygroundfor opportunistic troublemakers and part time political rascals intent on hacking down long standing institutions of state.The rhetoric is a drive for ‘change’ from politics as usual to transactional politics, a shorthand for political anarchism. It is an autocratic populism that demolishes but hardly has a plan to reconstruct. Trumpismisnotatheologyofconstructionbutrather one of destruction, division and antagonism both within the United States and among the nations of the world. It has no message for inclusion but rather for exclusion and barricades, border walls and mass deportation..

InthecaseofTrumpandtheUnitedStates,however, the pursuit of policies and rhetoric that promotes isolationismandshrinkageruncountertothebedrock ofthefoundingvisionofAmerica,arobustcivilization founded by immigrants with a global world historic missionandvision.Trumprepresents a lethal erosion of the creedal essence of the United States as a bastion of freedom and gathering point of global democracy. America was founded as a nation of immigrants, a place of great diversity and immense opportunity for those ready to work. Its strength and purpose derive from these fundamental values, which have catapulted it in these many years from an experimental creedal nation into a global civilization. It was designed as diverse, expansive and inclusive force for global good, not the bastion of smallness and divisive meanness that Trump’s narrow vision has reduced it to.

In America’s presidential system, the title of “Commander in Chief” has more than a ceremonial purely military meaning. It places on the shoulder of the president the burden of defending and protecting the nation from every threat: military, climatic, epidemiological and even doctrinal. Unfortunately for Trump, he has spent the last four years out of the White House retooling his essential divisiveness and nastiness. He has more insults for his opponents, more threats for immigrants and more frightful words for Americans who are opposed to his extremist perspectives. He now calls them “:enemies within” against who he has threatened to deploy America’s armed forces.

There is therefore a larger sense in which the imminent US presidential election is a referendum on the return of Trumpism. The imminent rejection of Mr. Trump at the polls would be a loud rejection not only of his decadent brand of conservatism but also of his embarrassing incompetence and divisiveness. It is the fitting punishment for a commander in chief who could not protect himself, his family and the White House from Covid-19, or indeed protect America from its own better forgotten divisions and hidden ugliness. From the myriad negatives of the Trump Presidency the road map for the first term of the imminent Harris presidency may have been sketched. Even if Kamala Harris needs to tighten her stance on some issues, just the fact of her not being as nasty and toxic as Mr. Trump is victory enough for a new day in America.

Trump

Ola Aina’s Stunner Lifts Forest to Third on the Premier League Log

Bo’mouth shock City 2-1 to end 32-match unbeaten run

Super Eagles defender, Ola Aina, yesterday scored his Premier League goal as Nottingham Forest defeated West Ham 3-0 to climb to the third spot behind leaders Liverpool and second placed Manchester City.

Aina’s goal scored with his left foot was a boomer from outside the box that gave the West Ham goalkeeper no chance for Forest’s third goal of the day.

Hosts Forest dominated against West Ham and rightly deserved their big 3-0 win.

The win shot Forest to third place in the Premier League standings with 19 points from 10 matches while Liverpool who defeated Brighton 2-1 leapfrogged Manchester City to the top.

Elsewhere, Bournemouth stunned Manchester City as goals from Antoine Semenyo

and Evanilson gave them Premier League champions.

The result ended City’s 32-game unbeaten run in the competition - a record stretching back to 6 December, 2023.

It is also a second defeat in four days for Pep Guardiola’s side following their midweek Carabao Cup exit at Tottenham.

The Cherries, in good form after picking up four points from their past two games against Aston Villa and Arsenal, started quickly and full of positivity.

Ederson was forced into a double save after just two minutes as he denied Semenyo and Justin Kluivert.

With the tone set, Bournemouth continued to press high and they were rewarded in the ninth minute when Milos Kerkez’s cut-back from the byeline was turned in by Semenyo.

City failed to muster an attempt on target during half.

Galatasaray Open Talks to Sign Osimhen Permanently

After enjoying the Osimhen, 25, is made months into his season-long loan deal, Turkish giants, Galatasaray, are prepared to the Super Eagles striker from Napoli permanently. With four goals and four assists for the Istanbul club in seven games, Galatasaray are not willing to let Osimhen return to Italy at the end of his loan spell in summer of 2025. It is for his sterling quality that Galatasaray are now willing to pay Napoli 50million Euros (about N90billion) to keep Osimhen permanently. Reports in Turkish media

reported yesterday that Galatasaray President, Dursun Ozbek, has met with his management to approve the 50million Euros payment on Osimhen.

The Turkish media believe that Galatasaray’s sponsors have the capacity to dole out the cash required to keep Osimhen in Istanbul.

The reports quoted by ScoreNigeria.com.ngstressed that Galatasaray are being proactive because they believe Premier League club Chelsea will also come up with an improved bid by the end of the season.

To further convince Osimhen, the Turkish champions contract with mouthwatering fees he may not be able to resist.

NPFL: Lobi Appoint Coach from Finland to Assist Amokachi

Lobi Stars have beefed up their technical crew with the appointment of Finnish tactician

Mika Lönnström as their new head coach. The Makurdi appointment on Saturday.

The 50-year-old will assist technical adviser Daniel Amokachi in managing the team.

The former Thailand U-16 national team assistant coach was part of Lobi Stars’ train-

ing session on Saturday.

Lobi Stars are in Ikenne for the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) matchday 10 encounter against Remo Stars.

The Pride of Benue have recorded just two wins from nine outings in the Nigeria Premier Football League (NPFL) this season.

Lobi are currently occupying 17th spot on the NPFL table on nine points from nine matches.

Meanwhile, Enyimba forward, Ekene Awazie, is optimistic the People’s Elephant can get a positive

result against Bayelsa United today in

The nine-time NPFL champions will be up against Bayelsa United in a matchday Stadium this afternoon in the Bayelsa State capital.

Yemi Olanrewaju’s side defeated Ikorodu City in Aba last weekend and another win will see them stay within touching distance of the top two sides ahead of them on the log.

leaders Rivers United.

“We know it won’t be easy playing against Bayelsa

JURIS FC, Siasia, Houseman Collaborate on Scouting Tournament

structures in the continent.

Sports Facility Expert, Ebi Egbe, has advocated for tax incentives to companies that specialise in construction of sports infrastructure to attract more funding.

Egbe who is the CEO of Monimichelle Sports Facilities Construction Limited, Nigeria’s leading stadium turf of the many poor sports infra-

Speaking at the two-day Africa Football Business Summit in Nairobi Kenya at the weekend, Egbe stressed that improving football infrastructure in Africa requires a multi-faceted approach that involves investment, policy changes, and grassroots development.

The Monimichele CEO listed key strategies to achieve this objective include; 1. Government and Corporate Investment; Public-Private Partnerships; Tax incentives; and Sports Grants.

With practical onsite expe-

rience, Egbe, listed the tax incentives as very crucial in getting the desired result.

He listed how taxes on sports equipment have slowed the growth of facilities and made costs of construction to spiral out of control.

“When you look at the custom duties paid on a 40feet container in some countries, it is really outrageous and makes costs of providing facilities to go up. Those involved in sports facilities needs tax breaks or incentives to attract more funding for the sports sector,” stressed Egbe.

Duro Ikhazuagbe

Olawale Ajimotokan in Abuja

Yenagoa.

Ola Aina (in front) scored his first English Premier League goal in 12 months as Nottingham Forest defeated West Ham 3-0 to climb to third on the log

Victor Osimhen...Galatasaray want to keep him permanently

United away from home, but we are ready for the challenge,” Awazie told NPFL media.

“The arraignment of such a number of minors in their states is highly unusual and negates every tenet of the protection of human rights and dignity, The stringent conditions set for their release, it is absurd that a teenager is ordered to source for N10 million” – Presidential candidate of NNPP in the 2023 general election, Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, expressing displeasure over the bail condition imposed on the protesters Kwankwaso to FG

SIMON KOLAWOLE

simon.kolawole@thisdaylive.com, sms: 0805 500 1961

JThe Nigeria I Love to See

ust when you are tempted to give up on Nigeria, something happens and your hope survives another brutal assault yet again. The incident involving Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh has once more assured me that Nigeria is not a lost case. We know what is right, even if we fail to do it. We know what is wrong, even if we fail to condemn it. Above all, we can still speak with one voice when we experience a common affliction — regardless of our differences. I have, many times, been on the verge of giving up on Nigeria whenever I see hate-filled exchanges on social media, but something happens and I tell myself: relax, boy, this is not exactly who we are; this is just social media cruise.

A recap. Ikwechegh, a member of the house of reps (Abia north and south), assaulted Mr Stephen Abuwatseya, a cab driver, for refusing to deliver a consignment of “snails” to his living room. Abuwatseya had asked him to come outside to receive it, as it is done everywhere in the world. Ikwechegh, a typically Nigerian “big man”, felt disrespected. He phoned the “snail” seller to complain about the “stupid idiot”. He then added, ominously: “Can you imagine this rat? I can make this man disappear in the whole of Nigeria and nothing would happen.” It was not a

threat: many Nigerians are regularly “disappeared” by big men and, usually, nothing happens. It is the height of impunity.

Ikwechegh then said what many Nigerians, particularly big men (and women), love to say: “Do

WAZIRI ADIO

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you know who I am?” Who are you? Are you God? Grandstanding is Nigerian culture. Ikwechegh is a just mascot for this. Even girlfriends/boyfriends of politicians who go around town with police protection will ask you: “Do you know who I am?” Ikwechegh issued another threat: “I will slap the hell out of you, lie you down, and lock you in my generator house.” Like I wrote in my previous article, for the typical Nigerian politician, “power is a licence to become a deity, to amass and flaunt obscene wealth in the midst of wretched poverty, and to deploy raw state power to oppress or suppress others”.

Abuwatseya made it known that the lawmaker/ lawbreaker was on video and started commentating on the triple slap. Ikwechegh got up and arrogantly introduced himself as “Honourable (indeed) Alex Ikwechegh, a member of the house of representatives” — in case viewers harboured any doubts about his monumentality. The mascot of a man dared Abuwatseya to call the inspector-general of police. He knew what he was doing. If you report a big man to police in Nigeria, you are kidding. There is no crime big people commit that a phone call cannot wash off. In fact, by special arrangement, the complainant can become the defendant. The subject will become the predicate.

When the video of the encounter got to social media, I was happy and worried at the same time. I was happy that there is video evidence. I was happy that this would draw the attention of activists and the authorities. That is the good that comes with the age of social media. Gone are the days when evidence is difficult to produce and it would be “my word against yours”. Despite the risk of manipulation and AI, video evidence is very much valuable because it can be verified and subjected to forensic analysis. When I saw the video, I did not need any special skill to know it would go viral, draw the ire of Nigerians and produce some response — even if cosmetic — from the authorities.

But I was worried at the same time. I felt this might be another golden opportunity for the social media thugs to ramp up hate exchanges, usually along ethnic lines. It happens all the time. A matter that is unrelated to race or religion can be twisted by the merchants of malice to propagate bigotry and bile. It has become a favourite pastime for those in the dirty corners of social media. It gives them a sense of fulfilment in life. I was afraid that Ikwechegh, being Igbo, would draw ethnic slurs

Preparing for the Effect of America’s Historic Poll

No matter who wins the November 5th presidential election in the United States of America, history will be made. If Kamala Harris carries the day, she will become America’s first female president and the second person of colour to occupy that storied office. If Donald Trump triumphs, he will become the second US former president to win two non-consecutive terms, the first being Grover Cleveland who lost his re-election bid in 1888 but regained the office in the 1892 election (and who also happened to be the first and only American president to have gotten married while in the White House).

But the historic significance of whatever happens on Tuesday goes beyond the personal record that will be set by one of the two candidates. It is more about what it says about the state of politics in the US, about what is likely to happen after the election is called, and what the outcome will mean for rest of the world. Post-World War II, America has held outsized significance for global economic and political order. America’s presidential elections

are thus closely monitored around world. But there is an extra significance this time around. The world is in a fragile place. How America votes on Tuesday is likely to moderate or deepen this fragility.

The global political and economic order will be the last thing on the minds of the majority of the 180 million Americans who will elect the next president. This is understandable. America itself is in a strange place. It is largely an insular and polarised country, but it is more insular and more polarised today than at any other period in modern times. American voters will be preoccupied with how to navigate the contours of the strange territory they have found themselves. They have pressing local issues to sort out, and the world can wait. In any case, they are electing the next president of the USA, not of the world, and they are the only ones with votes in this pivotal election.

However, the rest of the world will be impacted—for ill or for good, slightly or significantly—by how the Americans vote. This itself is a strange place to be. Others are mere spectators in a game that is likely to have real

effects on their fortunes. And unlike spectators in say a football game, they can’t even shape the outcome with the decibel of their support. They can only hope for their preferred side to edge out the other side. But there is another useful thing they can do: they can start to actively prepare for what victory for either Harris or Trump may portend for the global order in general and for their individual countries in particular.

This is more so because the election can go either way, and it is important not to be caught napping. As at this morning, the election, according to most aggregate polls, remains a toss-up. It is a rare sight in American elections for projections to be this tight just a few days to the presidential election. It is important to acknowledge that American election projections/ polls have been off a few times either because of errors in polling methods or the bias of pollsters. But in most instances, the majority of pollsters call the election one way or the other ahead of polling day.

We won’t know if the supporters of a candidate have been over-sampled or under-sampled until

the actual results are declared. The way things stand, it is safe to project that the election remains close and that the outcome may be decided by which of the candidates/parties succeeds in wooing the few remaining undecided voters to their side and whose get-out-the-vote (GOTV) machine is more effective. At the end of the day, this election may be decided by either the level of turnout overall or by a few thousand voters in the seven battleground states of Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

How Donald Trump has stayed this strong to the extent that he stands a good chance of winning the election still confounds many watchers of US politics. Against an established American tradition, Trump denied losing the 2020 election and said his victory was stolen. He rallied his supporters to ‘Stop the Steal,’ tried to bully state officials to tilt the election in his favour, and gave more than a wink to those who stormed the Capitol on January 6th, 2021. These were acts thought unimaginable in

Continued on page 37

Hon. Alex Mascot Ikwechegh