Speaker of the Borno State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Abdulkarim Lawan, has said the life of Vice-President Kashim Shettima is at risk as a result of the “faulty” presidential aircraft he uses to represent President Bola Tinubu in official engagements across the globe.

He said this after Nigeria’s number two citizen cancelled his trip to the Commonwealth Summit in Samoa over an incident at an airport in New York, United States.

According to the presidency, Shettima could not proceed to Samoa because a foreign object hit his plane during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York.

Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the president on Information and Startegy, had said some parts of the aircraft, including the windscreen of the cockpit, was damaged during the incident.

Commenting on the situation in a statement issued in Maiduguri, Borno State capital, on Sunday, Lawan called on the Federal Government to get Shettima a new aircraft to avoid any tragedy.

He said the aircraft designated to the Vice President has had several incidents in recent times.

“I want to sympathize with the Nigerian Government, especially the office of the Vice President, his crew and staff over the unfortunate incident at JFK Airport in New York, U.S.A.”

“I also express my gratitude to Allah (God) for saving the precious life of our dear Vice President Senator Kashim Shettima and those on board the ill- fated VP’s plane, even as I urge the Nigerian government to demand a thorough and timely investigation from the United States government over the incident that affected Vice President Kashim Shettima’s plane at one of the most secure spots in the World.

“The life of the Vice President, and that of his crew/officials stand at risk while using the old and faulty presidential aircraft. Therefore, there is the urgent need to acquire a new aircraft to Senator Kashim Shettima so as to avoid these recurrence of air mishaps,” he said.

Early this year, the House of Representatives Committee on National Security and Intelligence mandated the Federal Government to acquire new aircraft for Tinubu and Shettima, but the presidency came under intense public scrutiny and in the end, only that of Tinubu was acquired.

[DailyTrust]

An Anglican priest identified as Ven David Arinze Ajaefobi, who is said to be the Archdeacon of Oyi Central Archdeaconry and Vicar of St James’ Parish, Awkuzu, has been reportedly kidnapped.

A source told DAILY POST that the cleric was allegedly kidnapped by unidentified individuals on Saturday night.

The source said, “The abduction occurred around 9:00 PM on Saturday, October 26, 2024, at the entrance gate of St James’ Parish, Awkuzu, in Oyi Local Government Area of Anambra State.”

As of the time of filing this report, no contact has been made by the abductors to the priest’s relatives for ransom or reason for his abduction.

The source said the church has announced prayer sessions for his safe release.

When reached for confirmation, the Police Public Relations Officer of Anambra State Police Command, SP Tochukwu Ikenga, said the police had not received any report of such an incident.

[DailyPost]

“A judge shall avoid developing excessively close relationship with frequent litigants – such as government ministers or their officials, municipal officials, police prosecutors in any court where the judge often sits, if such relationship could reasonably create an appearance of partiality.”

Rule 2.8, Revised Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers in Nigeria (2016)

Sylvanus Nsofor was a little-known Justice of the court of appeal when he breathed oxygen into Muhammadu Buhari’s political aspirations with his dissent in the presidential election petition in 2007. Eight years earlier, he had launched a unique career in the history of political litigation in Nigeria.

The case arose from the election into the office of chairman of the Obio/Akpor local government area (LGA) in Rivers state in Nigeria’s Niger Delta on December 12, 1998. Cyprian Tasie Wike was the candidate of the All Peoples Party (APP). Cyprian Chukwu flew the flag of the Alliance for Democracy (AD). After screening aspirants on November 24, 1998, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) settled on Ezenwo Nyesom Wike as its candidate. 

At the time, local elections were conducted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and the PDP initially submitted Nyesom Wike’s name as their candidate. However, sometime before election day, the party substituted his name with Samuel Rogers Icheonwo. When it announced the results, INEC declared the candidate of the PDP as the winner with 40,370 votes, beating the candidate of the AD into second place with 11,441 votes. 

Nyesom Wike sued, claiming that INEC had announced Icheonwo as the winner when he was not lawfully sponsored by any party in the contest. The election petition tribunal struck out the petition, holding that it lacked jurisdiction “to resolve the issue as to who was sponsored by PDP.” 

Nyesom Wike appealed. In his judgment on behalf of a three-person panel of the court of appeal on 6 March 1999, Sylvanus Nsofor nullified the result announced by the INEC and ordered a re-run of the election with Nyesom Wike as the candidate of the PDP. Wike duly won the re-run to emerge as the chairman of the Obio/Akpor LGA.

In 2008, he became chief of staff to a Governor of Rivers state whose emergence rested on a somewhat improbable piece of judicial machination. 

After a stint as minister of state for education, Wike emerged in 2015 as the candidate of the PDP for the governorship of Rivers state. Following the election on 11-12 April 2015, the INEC declared him as the winner ahead of  Dakuku Peterside of the All Progressives Congress (APC). Peterside petitioned challenging the result declared by INEC. The tribunal granted his petition and initially set aside the result. The court of appeal agreed with the trial tribunal.

On 12 February 2016, the supreme court set aside the judgment of the court of appeal on a specious technicality and restored Nyesom Wike as duly elected. The author of the supreme court judgment was Kudirat Kekere-Ekun. 

In the past week, she and Nyesom Wike resumed mutual acquaintance. In the intervening nine years, Kekere-Ekun had risen to become Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN) while Wike emerged in August 2023 as minister of the Federal Capital Territory. The venue was the flag-off of the construction by the minister of 40 units of judicial housing in Abuja. 

This was the latest chapter in Wike’s durable track record as Nigeria’s most prolific judicial benefactor. 

As governor of Rivers state, he gave 41 Range Rover sports utility vehicles (SUVs) to judges in the state. Customary court judges were not left out. He gave them 29 Renault SUVs while complaining about the “unfortunate unwillingness of the judiciary in Nigeria to seek true independence to discharge their functions.” 

The irony was clearly lost on him. 

In 2020, Wike donated 24 luxury duplexes to judges in Rivers State and reportedly “handed out $300,000 in cash to judges who preferred to build their own houses.” It was presumably tax-free. Then CJN, Tanko Muhammad, slavishly “applauded his generosity saying the gifts spoke of the ‘love the Rivers State governor has for the judiciary.’”

The love was fully requited. 

The previous year, in January 2019, the judiciary had made Wike’s re-election an electoral non-event when it disqualified the opposition APC from fielding any candidate against him.

Before leaving office as governor in 2023, Wike launched yet another construction of quarters for judges also in Rivers state, this time on a site “where his administration recently demolished flats initially belonging to Bayelsa state.” 

Now, as minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Wike’s political generosity has become fully federalised under the judicial benediction of yet another CJN. At the launch of the 40 new units of judicial housing in Abuja this past week, the minister had in attendance both the CJN and the PCA. Presumably keen to impress such high judicial presence, Wike serenaded them with testimony as to how he summarily revoked the land previously allocated to construction conglomerate, Julius Berger, in order to make it available for building suitable judicial digs. 

The high judicial figures present looked nothing if not suitably impressed, but the minister was only getting started. According to him, it was important “to build houses for judges so they would not be susceptible to temptations from unscrupulous politicians.” 

No one around had the presence of mind to ask him to look in the mirror. 

This has been described charitably as convenient overreach. A better description of it will be judicial subornation. In full public glare, the two senior-most judges in the country looked rather giddy as they advertised an undisguised breach of the Code of Conduct for Judicial Officers, whose effectiveness depends on their combined leadership and example. 

There is no political litigant in the country more prolific than the current minister of the FCT. He has an almost extra-terrestrial ability to normalise outcomes that defy all cannons of lawful judicial enterprise. If anyone fits the description of the prohibition in Rule 2.8 of the Judicial Conduct, it is Minister Wike. Yet, for him, the Chief Justice of Nigeria is happy to retrench that same Code of Conduct. 

It was not supposed to be like this. 

Jerome Udoji, one of Nigeria’s best-known lawyers and public servants, was born in Ozubulu in present-day Anambra state around 1912. Udoji was also the first indigenous district officer in the colonial civil service. He ended his civil service career as chief secretary to the government of the Eastern Region under the military coincidentally in 1967, the same year in which Wike officially was born.

When he got the opportunity to undertake a retrospective on his public tour of duty  in 1995, fifteen years before he died in 2010, Udoji chose to issue his memoirs with the title “Under Three Masters.” The three masters whom he served, of course, were colonial administrators, post-colonial civilian politicians, and their military usurpers. 

Each set of masters was not without exertions in seeking judicial subservience. Until now, they had usually encountered judicial resistance. Under the current dispensation, however, it is almost as if the government has a minister responsible for judicial subornation. To many, the leading judges have simply become Wiked and the country has a CJN who appears happy to have the judicial branch fully Nyesomized.

A lawyer and a teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. 

Mr Macaroni has revealed how his ordeal with the Lagos police — following his arrest at the #OccupyLekkiTollGate protest in 2021 — left him shaken but ultimately fearless.

The skit maker, whose real name is Debo Adebowale, was among 40 people arrested for allegedly flouting COVID-19 protocols on public gatherings.

In an interview on the WithChude podcast, Mr Macaroni recounted how he was “stripped naked and molested” by police officers, who he claimed took pleasure in his suffering.

The 31-year-old also alleged that the police warned him to stop disturbing certain individuals, implying that he was being targeted for his activism.

However, Mr Macaroni said the experience has made him fearless and more determined to use his platform to advocate for the oppressed.

“I feel I should be involved because I think God has given me the platform today, not so I can be popular, but so that I can use the platform that I have to speak up for not just me, but for those that cannot speak up for themselves. How can I ask others to make sacrifices I am not willing to make,” he said.

“It was after that experience that all the fear in me disappeared. That is the twist. I wondered how that happened. Before that moment, I used to be afraid. I felt these people we know them and they can just come in and kill somebody. It was after these guys tortured me., saw the hate in their eyes. I saw how angry they were. And they did all that they could. And I am sure if not that I was released, they could have done more. It was at that moment I said so this is it? So right now we are back.

“The skit I made does not do justice to what I went through in that place. I had to do it so that people could watch. I was completely naked. These guys stripped us naked. I was molested. It was a thing of joy for them. They were happy. They were mentioning names. They were saying I was disturbing some people.”

[TheCable]

THE much-awaited cabinet reshuffle by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu came last Wednesday but I will be surprised if the shape and character of the reshuffle did not disappoint many. Most of the new names qualify as unknown quantities. Add this to the fact that many of the existing cabinet members were also names that did not ring a bell. If I attend an interview where I am asked questions on Ministers and their portfolios or even the state that they represent, I confess I will fail woefully! I cannot even claim to know the Minister or Ministers representing my state and their portfolio! I must admit that this may partly be a function of my own limitations. Some folks are silent achievers, though. We are likely to find them in the Tinubu cabinet, such that as time wears out, some of them may etch their name in gold with their stellar performance. They may come in incognito but leave as national heroes and heroines or even as international celebrities. I wish and pray for such to happen!

Cabinet reshuffles present presidents and governors with a vista of opportunities to chart a new course and enact a new beginning; correct mistakes made; reinvigorate the cabinet; energize it; recalibrate it; weed off dead woods; place round pegs in round holes; bring in new hands; transfuse fresh blood into the system; play around with fresh ideas and new ways not only of thinking but also of doing things; set new templates, parameters and mandates; respond to criticisms and new challenges, thereby demonstrating that its feedback mechanism is alive and well; re-invent the government and recover lost ground, lost trust and lost confidence; and line up the citizenry solidly behind the government and its plans, programmes and policies. For Tinubu whose campaign mantra was “Renewed Hope”, the cabinet reshuffle was a golden opportunity for him to restore the sagging hope of the people in his leadership and point them in the way forward. Did he succeed in doing that?

What is certain, however, is that Tinubu is a man of immense courage, great daring and audacity. It is not every president or governor that summons the courage to reshuffle their cabinet – the same way many of them shy away from signing death warrants! In his eight years in office, Buhari removed only two of his Ministers. In a little less than one-and-half years in office, Tinubu has deemed it fit to reshuffle his cabinet, removing five Ministers at a go. We may still expect more to come. Give it to Tinubu, he is a man imbued with a large dose of courage. In his allocutus during the orchestrated sedition trial (1963), the late sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo, quoted Hugh Walpole, author of “Fortitude”, as saying: ‘Tis not life that matters, but the courage you bring to it”.

To escape from the vile dictator, Gen. Sani Abacha, into self-imposed exile and become an important member of the opposition National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), is courage. To escape the President Olusegun Obasanjo-contrived tsunami that uprooted all other Alliance for Democracy governors of the South-west in 2003 demanded uncommon courage. To go forward and not only survive the same President Obasanjo’s seizure of Lagos State local government funds but also leverage the challenge to make Lagos, perhaps, the only state out of the country’s 36 that can survive without allocations from the Federation Account takes courage.

Ever before the country’s Independence in 1960, efforts by politicians to form alliances have floundered at the altar of greed and suspicion and for Tinubu to succeed where even the founding fathers failed abjectly, in cobbling together the All Progressives Congress (APC) that wrested power from the ruling Peoples Democratic Party in 2015 demands courage and uncommon foresight. Yes, it takes a man imbued with foresight to deny himself today with the hope of reaping tomorrow. What a gambit! Hence his “Emilokan” desperation when he was about to be denied what he thought was rightfully his! When the trophy he had laboured for and sacrificed so much for was slipping through his fingers, he opened mouth, as they say!

It takes a man of unequalled courage to stoically suffer all the indignities he was subjected to throughout the eight years of Buhari’s rule without losing sight of his goal. Many times they gave him a bloodied nose; he was undeterred. His head, too, was bloodied; yet, unbowed! Tinubu literally stooped to conquer.

To snatch the APC presidential flag from the Buhari/Daura cabal hallmarked Tinubu’s political sagacity. To win the February 2023 presidential election despite the daunting obstacles stacked against him – unwavering, unhasting, unrelenting – shows the stuff of which Tinubu is made. I am bold to say that he is made of sterner stuff than many of his political adversaries! Mere mortals would have fainted when Tinubu waxed stronger. Other men would have turned their back where he undauntedly forged ahead.

Did Tinubu make Proverbs 24: 10 his forte? That scripture says if you faint in the day of adversity, your strength is small! Other scriptures say men ought always to pray and not to faint (Luke 18:1). Galatians 6:9 admonishes us not to become weary doing good for in due course we will reap if we faint not. This is not to say anything of the courage Tinubu reportedly suddenly “summoned” on his first day in office while reading his inauguration address to blurt out that “fuel subsidy is gone”, which, unfortunately, the whole country suffers from today. This shows that not all courage is positive or advisable. The elders counsel that if you wield power; learn to temper it! M’oja; m’osa!

How will Tinubu’s cabinet reshuffle resonate with the people when virtually all the critical areas where people had hoped there would be some rethinking were left untouched? Does it mean that the president is satisfied with the performance of the helmsman manning those positions? The security architecture was left untouched despite the worsening state of insecurity in many parts of the country. Is there anything the president knows that the ordinary citizens are not aware of? Power supply is another area where the people are being roasted alive; yet, the Minister in charge survived the cabinet shake-up. Once it became certain that a shake-up was imminent, power became relatively stable in my Agege area of Lagos state. Is this a hoodwink, deceit or bribe? The cost of foodstuffs has become prohibitive and no one knows what the Ministers in charge of Agriculture are doing about it; yet, they escaped the axe! Finance and the Central Bank also sit pretty despite the “palongo” that the national currency, the Naira, dances daily in the foreign exchange market. The unrelenting depreciation of the Naira is responsible for the hike in the price of virtually everything – imported and local.

The Oga Patapata of them all, the General Overseer of them all is the Petroleum Ministry/NNPC where nothing has been done to rejig the unholy alliance causing the citizenry so much pain. Tinubu himself sits pretty as the Minister of Petroleum Resources; he did not sack or reshuffle himself. Many had expected he would at least hand off the Ministry as well as rejig the whole NNPC apparatus. Had he done that, he would have given Nigerians something to cheer for!

Any positives from the cabinet reshuffle? Of course, yes! It would have been scandalous had Betta Edu returned as was being whispered all over the place. So, with her not returning, many will heave a sigh of relief. It is also in order that the woman in women affairs was asked to comot, as they say. She amassed two scandals in quick succession that cannot be easily glossed over. I don’t know much about the others who were sacked; so also about many of those newly enlisted. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu (nee Onoh) is the only household name among the lot – whether for good or bad reasons is a topic for another day!

The sack of the Education minister, Tahir Mamman, raises questions: Is it because of the JAMB/admission age controversy? It could not have been because the law is extant, as they say; the sacked Minister only insisted the law be enforced. Maybe he did not do his homework well with the implementation, in the same way no proper homework was done before “fuel subsidy is gone” was blurted out. In both instances, we saw the chaos that followed! I wasted no time in throwing out of the window the other suggestion that Mamman’s alleged rapport with the unions might have been responsible for his sack! How can that be? His tenure, short-lived as it was, witnessed industrial peace on our campuses. At the last JAMB stakeholders meeting, his soundbites were positive: He emphasized the need for cordial relations between management and labour unions in the institutions of higher learning; he also warned Governing Councils against leveraging their positions to fleece the institutions and taxpayers.

Well, I give it to the president that he knows what he is doing, even though his cabinet appears more like a cabinet of the anonymous. Tinubu’s saving grace is, if, in the end, his cabinet delivers the good and proves every critic wrong. Otherwise…

BARELY 72 hours after his first cabinet review, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has been asked to consider relinquishing the position of Minister of Petroleum resources, which he has been occupying since May 29, 2023.

Mr. Osita Okechukwu, one of the founding members of All Progressives Congress (APC), made the call while reacting to the recent reshuffle of ministerial portfolio in the Federal Executive Council.

While commending President Tinubu for compelling all the ministers to be on their toes; by exercising the executive powers conferred on him by Section 5(1) of the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic, Okechukwu noted that the President’s action is a milestone.

“Secondly, Mr. President deserves kudos for adhering to the ageless doctrine of Key Performance Index index (KPI) evaluation, which is a major management tool that guarantees transparency and accountability. “In the same vein, I wish to appeal to Mr President to complete the reshuffle process by relinquishing the post of Minister of Petroleum Resources as a matter of urgent national importance. This step would go a long way to stem, if not weed out the buccaneer antics of the less than transparent Oil Mafia,” he stated.

Okechukwu, who is also the immediate past Director General of Voice of Nigeria (DG, VON), recalled that the cabinet review, which was announced during the Federal Executive Council Meeting last Wednesday, was a signpost as it resulted in the dismissal of five ministers and reassignment of few.

He stated that to help bring sanity in the Petroleum sector and not only position the President effectively as General Overseer of the entire Federal Ministries; but an enablement for the Hadiza Bala Usman Coordinating Policy Unit to effectively sanitize the oil industry.

Okechukwu submitted that, “it would be strategic if His Excellency, President Ahmed Bola Tinubu, GCFR, willingly vacates the office of Minister. I am making this humble appeal on the grounds that it is practically unimaginable and absolutely impossible for the Coordinating Policy Unit headed by Hadiza Bala Usman to monitor or even take a cursory glance at the Petroleum Ministry as it would amount to supervising her principal, the President, who is the Minister.”

The Public Relations Consultant also cautioned the President not to fall into the toxic state capture trap of Minister of Petroleum, which made the operation of the oil industry opaque and made it impossible for former Presidents to even fix one out of four petroleum refineries in over two decades.

According to Okechukwu, “the failure to make any of the country’s four refineries functional made Nigerians to lose faith in democracy, just as it has generated hunger and multidimensional poverty. Nigeria has also over the years suffered great economic haemorrhage by squandering over $70 billion on importation of refined petroleum products as well as undue imbalance on the country’s foreign exchange earnings.”

While reiterating his appeal on President Tinubu to forthwith relinquish the Petroleum Resources portfolio, Okechukwu stressed that many of us APC members want him to succeed and win the 2027 presidential election via free and fair ballot not controversy.