The First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, has assured Nigerians that the hard times being faced is temporary and will soon be over.

She gave the assurance during a meeting with wives of 36 State Governors at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Monday.

Mrs Tinubu said times like this calls for sober reflection, saying that all hands must be on deck to ensure that the country overcome its challenges.

She said: “Times like this calls for sober reflection, hence, all hands must be on deck. Moreover, the hardship situation is temporary, it will soon fade away.

“The mission of the RHI is driven by my office to complement the Renewed Hope Agenda of the administration of President Tinubu.”

She said Women Agricultural Support Programme (WASP), under her Renewed Hope Initiative (RHI) will empower 20 farmers each, from five states in the South East Zone.

“These farmers will get N500,000 each and a total draft of N10m will be given to five RHI states’ coordinators as the case may be.

“The National Agricultural Land Development Authority in partnership with the RHI will support an additional 80 female farmers from each state with the provision of training and capacity building and agricultural inputs.

“We will buy-off all produce from the farms after harvest,’’ she said.

The First Lady said she would soon launch “Young Farmers Club’’ in public schools across the nation to encourage farming among young population.

She said schools with the best farms would be identified, and prizes would be given to them, ranging from school renovations, equipping of school science laboratories, provision of ICT equipment and upgrading of school libraries.

..misses Super Eagles trip to Bouake

Super Eagles striker Victor Osimhen could miss the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) semi-final against South Africa after failing to travel with the rest of the squad from Abidjan to Bouake.

Nigeria face rivals South Africa in the first semi-final of the competition on Wednesday in Bouake for a place in Sunday’s final.

In a statement released by the Super Eagles media team, Osimhen will be monitored in Abijdan while the rest of the squad head to Bouake where they will take on South Africa.

“We will fly from Abidjan to Bouaké today via a 10pm Air Cote d’Ivoire flight,” an official statement from the team on Monday night says.

“Victor Osimhen will not join us on this trip as a result of an abdominal discomfort.

“Team medics confirmed that he has been placed under close watch with a member of the medical team staying behind in Abidjan with him.

“If cleared by tomorrow morning, he will join the rest of the squad before 5pm.”

Osimhen has started in all of Super Eagles’ five matches in Cote d’Ivoire, scoring one goal and chalking up one assist.

Association of Industrial Pharmacists of Nigeria (NAIP) has attributed the increased prices of drugs in the country to the high cost of diesel and forex.

This is even as the association has voiced grave concern over the detrimental implications of the current economic climate on the country’s import and manufacturing of pharmaceuticals.

NAIP chairman, Kenneth Onuegbu, in an interview with LEADERSHIP, hinted that if the government did not move to address these two pressing problems – the high price of fuel and the lack of foreign exchange – Nigerian pharmaceutical companies may find it more difficult to supply essential drugs at affordable rates.

Outlining the key challenges faced by the pharmaceutical sector, Onuegbu said, “We have insecurity issues, and how to get the medication from the point of production to the final consumer is another challenge that we have not been able to solve. To access forex is a big challenge. The process can take a year to get the CBN-subsidised rate, hence, we resort to the black market. We buy dollars at the rate of N1,300.00 which automatically affects production.

“If we don’t do something about it, there is going to be a scarcity of essential medicines. We must call for the domestication of medications to reduce the production cost.”

He further pointed out that the environment is over-regulated.

“Our regulations ought to have a Nigeria face; we cannot be promoting local production when you are making it difficult for them to start.

“Government needs to tackle insecurity, epileptic power supply, forex and a host of others if they really want pharmaceutical companies to survive in this country,” he said.

Also, the president, Pharmaceutical Society of Nigeria (PSN), Prof. Cyril Usifoh, told LEADERSHIP that it was extremely crucial that Nigeria produce its Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients (APIs) used in the production of drugs, to cut down the cost of drugs.

According to him, without APIs, drugs cannot be produced.

Usifoh claimed that all pharmaceutical companies in Nigeria import APIs to produce their drugs locally.

The PSN president expressed concern over the high cost of medicines as it affects the common man, while calling on the government to provide an enabling environment for local production of drugs.

He said, “When you provide an enabling environment, assuming we get the issue of energy right, that will reduce the cost of production drastically. Also, if we have our petrochemicals such as APIs, we will even sell drugs to other West African countries, thereby increasing our internal foreign exchange earnings.

“So, I think telling us to look inward will help us. By the time there is increased local production,that will also help. I think NAFDAC is working judiciously on that, that is why they will always tell you that if you import drugs, after three or five years, you should be able to get the infrastructure to make sure that we produce in the country and when you do so, that will affect foreign exchange and employment.”

However, Usifoh hinted that the federal government was working closely with pharmaceutical companies towards increasing local production.

“They dialogue with pharmaceutical companies so that we meet some of these and bring the cost of drugs down. When there is medical security, we can guarantee what is happening, not like what happened during the COVID era; if it happens now, it’s going to be disastrous.”

Meanwhile, the federal government has disclosed that it will be partnering with the private sector to boost local production of drugs to 60 per cent.

The special adviser to the president on Health, Dr Salma Ibrahim Anas, who disclosed this at a conference, in Lagos, averred that the Tinubu-led administration is focusing on medical industrialisation.

There was heavy traffic gridlock in some parts of Lagos on Monday as motorists formed long queues outside the forecourts of filling stations on what appeared may herald a fresh scarcity of Premium Motor Spirit.

One of our correspondents observed along the Ikorodu Road axis how motorists endured an unusually heavy gridlock due to a long queue of motorists waiting to buy petrol at filling stations. Also, the Total Filling station at the Mobolaji Bank Anthony Way had queues which led to heavy tariff around the Ikeja axis.

Our correspondent also noticed that many of the filling stations along the Ikeja axis, through Obafemi Awolowo Road in Ikeja were shut.

Meanwhile, some motorists had begun to hike the prices of their fares due to the development.

A commercial transport operator plying the Unilag-Jibowu axis in Yaba one of told our correspondents that he was forced to hike his fees after waiting for hours to buy fuel.

The commercial transport operator, who refused to disclose his name said, “Do you know how long it took me to buy fuel today? Anybody who doesn’t want to enter should stay out.”

Our correspondent also observed that all the filling stations along Ogunnusi Road inbound Berger did not also sell petrol to customers.

It is not immediately clear why fuel queues have resurfaced in Lagos.

Meanwhile, our correspondents gathered that the queues were noticeable in major filling stations considered to be selling at lower rates.

It was gathered that a number of filling stations owned by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway did not dispense fuel too.

The National Vice Chairman of the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, Hammed Fashola, said he was aware of the queues in some filling stations in Lagos.

However, Fashola said the queues might be due to panic-buying on the part of customers.

“I am not in Lagos as we speak. But I heard about it too that there are queues in Lagos. It may just be panic buying. I am not sure there is fuel scarcity. People are just panicking. However, I will find out what the problem is,” Fashola said.

It is not just the menace of insecurity in the land that has been in the news in Nigeria, the economy too, and indeed the latter for obvious reasons as well, with the national currency, the Naira in a very bad shape, inflation at 28.92%, widespread systemic distortions in the economy, a foreign exchange regime gone askew, resulting in a problematic business environment for investors, high unemployment rate, further misalignments between the monetary and fiscal spaces, and gross anxiety among the people for whom the Naira no longer holds as much value as it used to. In November 2023, the National Security Adviser (NSA), Nuhu Ribadu speaking at the Defence Intelligence Annual Conference reported that the Tinubu administration inherited “a bankrupt economy which had resulted in budgetary constraints… it is important for you to know that we have inherited a very difficult situation…” Before then, the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun and Atiku Bagudu, Minister of Budget and National Planning had both said just as much. Fresh concerns have now been raised about the Nigerian economy following the exclusive interview granted to Arise News, by the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Mr. Olayemi Cardoso. The interview was conducted by seasoned Business Correspondent, Boafson Omofaye. It has been reported widely.

The timing of the interview could not have been more auspicious. The monetary space had become so busy recently, everything was becoming confusing. The Cardoso interview offered needed clarifications on a number of issues. He was emphatic as he had been since November 2023, that the purpose of the reforms being introduced by the CBN under him is to stabilise the foreign exchange regime and the economy through proper alignments to foster economic growth. Over the weekend, there had in fact been a panicky announcement that the FG was planning to convert people’s domiciliary accounts in Deposit Money Banks (DMBs) to Naira at a government-determined rate. Cardoso promptly dismissed that as untrue. I think the source of that rumour should be traced. It was a potentially disruptive and provocative piece of fake news, to even suggest that government would take the unthinkable step of stealing people’s money! People who make up such stories that can potentially cause social and economic crises should be made to pay for their folly. The interview raised quite a number of questions.

First, what happened to all the promises made by Mr. Cardoso in his first major outing as CBN Governor when he delivered a keynote address, and an economic roadmap at the 58th Annual Dinner and 60th Anniversary of the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria (CIBN)? On that occasion, Mr. Cardoso outlined the CBN’s priorities as (i) achieving monetary and price stability given the real-life implications of same for the well-being of Nigerians; (ii) targeted policies, transparent market operations and coordination between monetary and fiscal authorities, to ensure a more stable exchange rate, control inflation, and create an enabling environment for businesses and individuals to thrive; (iii) adopt measures to tackle institutional deficiencies, restore corporate governance, strengthen regulations and implement prudent policies, and overall (iv) promote sustainable and inclusive economic growth. He also announced these targets: (a) banks will be directed to recapitalize (b) the extant ban on 43 items in the official foreign exchange market will be lifted to enable market forces to determine exchange rates; (c) the adoption of a floating exchange rate among other policies; (d) emphasis on technology in financial services with strict regulatory compliance and (e ) achieving a one-trillion-dollar economy in the next seven years, with the CBN strictly focused on its core mandate. Good ideas, so they seem on paper. It may also be argued that the CBN has not had enough time for its ideas to be fairly assessed, but so far, there have been more anxieties about the Nigerian economy, rather than confidence. Of that, we are certain.

There may have been a slew of reforms, guidelines, directives and measures by the CBN, still, the economy has taken a dive for the worse, with the floating foreign exchange regime or managed float as they call it, resulting in massive depreciation of the Naira, at a point, the naira was losing its value every 48 hours – an absolutely chaotic situation even to non-economists. A Nigerian Professor who delivered his exaugural lecture recently, disclosed that whereas in 2011, his monthly salary was worth $2,698.40, in 2024, with 20 years of service as a Professor - his salary had reduced to $291.88, both figures calculated on the basis of Nigeria’s foreign exchange rate. He is not alone. Ordinary people have more to complain about. Persons who could walk about a year or two ago and still claim that they belonged to the Nigerian middle class have found themselves at such a pitiable level that they can no longer feed themselves. Families have had to withdraw their children from schools abroad and from private schools at home, and send them to Nigeria’s terrible public schools. Many employers of labour are just putting up appearances. They can’t pay staff. They can’t buy diesel. The staff themselves have nowhere to go, because there are no easy alternatives. Many families have broken up because so-called breadwinners cannot win anything again. Last month, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reviewed Nigeria’s economic growth projection downwards from 3.1% in October 2023, to 3.0% in 2024. The Nigerian government is meanwhile optimistic that it would record a GDP growth of 3.76%. How? When one policy appears to be failing, another policy is quickly introduced, or a measure or guideline is thrown into the mix, in typical Nigerian fashion: if this does not work, may be that one would work. Many Nigerians have since fled the country in the hope that life would be better elsewhere. It is called “Japa” in local parlance.

To be fair, we have seen the CBN embarking on a make or mar move to save the Naira which the CBN Governor said was undervalued. But what is the Naira’s real value? Nobody knows, not even the CBN Governor – at least he could not make any revelations in that regard in his Arise News interview. What has happened to the Naira is not strange, it is alarming. In December 2023, the exchange rate was N907.1/$1. By the end of January, the Naira had been devalued to about N1,455.59 – a 37.7% depreciation in one month! In days of yore, the Naira used to be as strong as the dollar and the pounds sterling. Today, many – citizens and investors alike -have lost faith in the country’s national currency, having failed in its original function as a store of value. This has resulted in the continuing dollarization of the Nigerian economy, a misfortune which Femi Falana SAN is currently challenging at the Federal High Court, Lagos seeking the enforcement of relevant sections of the CBN Act, 2007.Unfortunately, the courts can read out the law, but the Naira’s value is beyond the pronouncements of the judex; its real value is in the market-place of productivity and consumption.

Cardoso’s CBN has since moved in with policies, measures and guidelines in a classical fire brigade fashion: On January 29, it issued a circular on “Financial Markets Price Transparency”. On January 31, it issued another circular on “the Harmonization of Reporting Requirements on Foreign Currency Exposure of Banks,” the effect of which was that banks should bring their excess forex stocks to the market unfailingly by the deadline of February 1, 2024. Also on January 31, the CBN further issued a circular on International Money Transfer Organisations (IMTOs). Before now, there had been a +/- 2.5% on the NAFEX rate for IMTOs. That has now been removed. Specific guidelines were further issued on International Money Transfer Services with regard to minimum capital share ($1million), non-refundable application fees (N10 million), and all exporters are required to provide details of their domiciliary accounts and NXP numbers, with export proceeds to be promptly repatriated within 90 days for oil exports and 180 days for non-oil exports. In another move, the CBN reviewed the Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) framework. It also reviewed the exchange rate for the calculation of import duty upwards from N952 to N1, 357, with immediate effect. If policy pronouncements and circulars alone could save an economy, the CBN has put up more than enough drama in that regard in recent times. At no other time in the last decade has there been so much frantic effort to assert regulatory control, adopt measures to increase forex liquidity and insist on transparency and ensure correction. Mr. Cardoso defends these policy measures and assures the public that they would eventually stabilise the monetary space. We will see. We will see.

What is interesting in that Cardoso interview is the disclosure by him that about $2.7 billion out of the reported $7 billion outstanding foreign exchange liabilities of the Federal Government are not valid for settlement. An audit process commissioned by the CBN and conducted by Deloitte showed that those claims are fraudulent, and having been exposed as such, those who were making the claims have chosen to be quiet. However, the CBN has settled $2.3 billion valid requests, with current outstanding FX obligations standing at about $2.2 billion. The CBN Governor left much unsaid. Who are those persons or non-entities who made fraudulent claims? They need to be named, and if they had escaped with such “419 tactics” (obtaining money by false pretence) in the past, now that they have been uncovered, they should be sanctioned accordingly. It is not enough to say that their claims were rejected. What do they produce? What do they consume?

Mr. Cardoso also said clearly that whereas he is not against direct interventions by the CBN in the economy provided such interventions were well thought-out but that under him the CBN would rather focus on its core mandate. He pointed out that the CBN had intervened before him through loans and advances, up to N10 trillion, the volume and mismanagement of which resulted in the same distortions and inflation now troubling the economy. Indeed, before Cardoso, the CBN was in the business of Ways and Means beyond the allowable thresholds, and the CBN even became so overstretched, it intervened in virtually every sector of the economy from agriculture to fashion and soon began to dictate fiscal policies. The caveat is that those in charge of those other sectors of the economy at the time practically had no clue. The Central Bank of Nigeria actually had a more up-to-date register of Nigerian farmers than the Federal Ministry of Agriculture! But what are the specific distortions? Who mismanaged those interventions? Cardoso has cleverly offered a veiled criticism of the CBN that he inherited. He should be more specific. He would have to go beyond innuendoes, more so as some of the measures that the CBN has now introduced amount to a complete repudiation of what existed hitherto. Who exactly did what that has brought Nigeria to this sorry economic situation?

It is also important that while trying to return the CBN to its core mandate, the CBN under Cardoso does not repeat the same errors that it seeks to correct. Take for example the decision to return the excluded 43 items to the official foreign exchange market. How has that helped? Take also the increase in exchange rate for the computation of import duty. Is import duty not a fiscal matter? Take the new Implementation Guidelines on Cash Reserve Requirement Framework – here the attempt is to correct the arbitrary practices of old, and correct bad behaviour but what exactly went wrong? The banks were also asked to offload their excess forex stock, and just like that, the improvement in forex liquidity was traced to that directive, the long-term effect of which is yet to be seen. Wait a moment, you mean the banks were sitting on $7 billion and yet they always said they had no forex to sell? To get the banks to sell Forex was an ordeal, in fact, they became so comfortable, they even told customers that there was no Naira in their vaults. Every year, the banks declared trillions of profits at the people’s expense. They were using our money to make profit at our expense! Where was the same CBN? What happened to its oversight, regulatory role? The banks can of course claim that they have not committed any crime. They also do not trust the Naira, so it was better for them to stockpile value in dollars. The banks and the CBN can shift blame from now till the end of the year, that would not make any difference. But then who pays for the bad behaviour all around within the system? I am not too sure that the CBN Governor was in any position to shed light on that. And are there mechanisms in place to sustain the regulatory control that the CBN is trying to assert?

When CBN Governors speak in other jurisdictions, they base their positions on hard core data or evidence. Nigeria’s apex bank Governor did not have much data to speak with, which was why he could not make definite statements on inflation or other macroeconomic issues, or the proposed Monetary Policy Committee Meeting (MPC) now scheduled for February 26-27. For whatever it is worth, however, it was good to hear him speak with so much confidence and optimism even if we all know that it would take more than promises, social media posts, or the movement of departments from Abuja to Lagos, to rebuild this economy. It is either Nigeria goes to the World Bank or the IMF to secure a lifeline to rescue the Naira, or we find ways in the long run to return to those old days when the Nigerian economy used to work. The CBN cannot also do it alone. The long-term solution lies in making this economy productive again. The country is too import-dependent. It can’t even refine its own crude oil, it has to import finished products from elsewhere. The economy is too narrow, it has to be expanded to generate better activities and opportunities beyond oil. Up till the eighties, Nigeria boasted of so many industrial estates that produced textiles and foods and beverages. We produced our own tyres and vehicles and food. Along the Ikeja area, the sweet smell of wheat and barley, and confectionery and beverages wafted into the air; today those old industrial units have been taken over by heavy noise pollution from the Alleluia-shouting choruses! In the Niger Delta, there is too much oil theft and pipeline vandalism. Insecurity stalks the land. The people will not eat hope or policies. We squandered the riches. We are now harvesting poverty. Sad, but true.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) has banned alcoholic beverages produced in sachets less than 200ml.
The agency said the five-year window given to the manufacturers of the products to stop producing the drinks in sachets and pet bottles which began in 2018 elapsed on January 31, 2024.

She said enforcement of the ban commenced on February 1, 2024.

The director-general of NAFDAC, Prof Mojisola Adeyeye, while addressing the media over the development in Abuja on Monday, February 5, said the ban was not a sudden development but a result of a multilateral Committee that agreed that the ban would be in phases whereby production would be reduced by 50 percent by 2020 while outright ban would be on January 31, 2024.

Given that decision, the DG said NAFDAC did not issue renewal licenses exceeding January 2024 to any manufacturer of the products.

According to her, the agency took the route of wiping out the drinks in such sachets because of the negative effects on underage children.

She said because the drinks come in pocket-friendly sizes, accessible and affordable, children easily fell for the packages only to face the consequences in the future.

She said: “This decision was based on the recommendation of a high-powered committee of the Federal Ministry of Health and NAFDAC on one hand, the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), and the Industry represented by the Association of Food, Beverages and Tobacco Employers (AFBTE), Distillers and Blenders Association of Nigeria (DIBAN), in December 2018.

“As a commitment to the decision reached at the end of this Committee meeting, producers of alcohol in sachets and small volume agreed to reduce the production by 5 percent with effect from 31st January 2022 while ensuring the product is completely phased out in the country by 31st January 2024”.

According to her, the future of the country supersedes other considerations in the enforcement of the policy.

Noting that saving Nigerian children and protecting the health of the larger society is paramount, Adeyeye said: “The people who are mostly at risk of the negative effect of consumption of the banned pack sizes of alcoholic beverages are the under-aged and commercial vehicle drivers and riders.

“The World Health Organization has established that children who drink alcohol are more likely to: use drugs, get bad grades, suffer injury or death, engage in risky sexual activity, make bad decisions and have health problems.

“The World Health Organization also stated that harmful consumption of alcohol is linked to more than 200 health conditions including infectious diseases (tuberculosis and HIV/AIDS) and non-communicable conditions (liver cirrhosis and different types of cancer).

“It is also associated with social problems such as alcohol addiction and gender-based violence.

“To curb the menace of abuse of alcohol, the World Health Organization recommended some actions and strategies to Policy-Makers that have shown to be effective and cost-effective, which include: regulating the marketing of alcoholic beverages (in particular to younger people) and regulating and restricting the availability of alcohol.”

She said in the course of enforcing the ban it was discovered that some manufacturers were still in production of the banned products and still had stacks of both finished products and packaging materials of the products in their possession.

She noted: “This situation is of course not acceptable, and the Agency views this as flagrant disobedience to the laws of Nigeria. NAFDAC views this matter seriously and will engage all statutory means, which may include prosecution, to deal with the matter”.

She warned that there is no going back on the decision, saying, “I want to use this medium to ask all holders of alcohol in sachets, PET and Glass bottles, empty sachets, PET bottles, empty Glass bottles, and other packaging materials of these banned products to immediately report to the Investigation and Enforcement Directorate of NAFDAC for hand-over of same to NAFDAC for destruction, to prevent sterner measures including prosecution.

“NAFDAC is resolutely committed to the strict implementation of the regulations and regulatory measures towards safeguarding the health of Nigerians, particularly the vulnerable youth, against the dangers of reckless consumption of alcohol.”

…Condemns killings of Ekiti monarchs

The Oodua People’s Congress, OPC, on Monday, condemned the killings of two traditional rulers in Ekiti State, saying the organization will do everything that is possible to secure the South West.

The Yoruba socio-cultural organization also urged the Federal Government to fish out the killers of the two monarchs and bring them to book.

OPC, in a statement by its Publicity Secretary, Mr Yinka Oguntimehin, in reaction to the gruesome murder of three Ekiti monarchs- Onimojo of Imojo- Ekiti, Oba Olatunde Olusola, the Elesun of Esun-Ekiti, Oba David Ogunsola and the Olukoro of Koro Ekiti in Ekiti Local Government Area of Kwara State, Oba Olusegun Cole, whose wife has been in the captive for the past five days.

Condemning the acts, Oguntimehin said it is sad that the monarchs died in such a situation, adding that the OPC will not fold its arms and leave unknown gunmen to spill blood of innocent people in such a dastardly act.

The statement reads: “We have indicated our resolve to assist the government of the south west region in addressing the surge of killings in Yoruba land.

“OPC will not allow the South West to be used as an abattoir where innocent people will be slaughtered and gunmen would live like king in our region.It is unacceptable.We will resist any attempt by gunmen to turn Yoruba land into a den of killers.

“It is unfortunate now that reports of killings and kidnappings are spreading across the southwest. We appeal to the federal and the state governments to co opt the OPC in their attempt to solving the security challenges in the country.

“We are ready to salvage the region from marauders and killers that have infiltrated our region. Those behind the killings of the three traditional rulers would not go unpunished.”

Nigerian sprint icon, Tobi Amusan has set a new African women’s indoor 60-meter record of 7.75 seconds at the New Balance Indoor Grand Prix in Boston.

The 27-year-old’s 7.75 seconds in Boston means she has retired the 7.77 mark she set in Kazakhstan at the Astana Indoor Meet in January.

Despite setting an African record, Amusan’s 7.75 effort was insufficient for first place in Boston, where she finished second to America’s Tia Jones in 7.72 seconds.

On January 27, in her first race of the new season, the Nigerian broke the 7.82seconds African record set by fellow Nigerian Gloria Alozi.

Amusan now has two of the fastest times ever run by an African woman in the 60m Hurdles and is on track to break the World Record of 7.68 seconds before the indoor season ends.

Amusan is ranked second on the world top list for the season behind Devynne Charlton of the Bahamas who ran 7.75 last week at the Corky Classics in Lubbock, Texas.

Amusan has also moved up to number 20 on the world all-time list and the reigning Commonwealth Games champion has now broken all three African records held by Alozie.

She first broke her predecessor’s African Games record of 12.74 set in 1999 when she ran 12.68 to win 10 years later (2019).

Amusan followed up by breaking Alozie’s 12.44 African record when she ran 12.42 seconds on her way to winning her first Diamond League title.

The sprint hurdler now owns the Nigeria, Nigerian Championships, African, African Games, African indoor, Commonwealth Games, World Championships, and world records.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the last election, Atiku Abubakar has blamed the All Progressives Congress (APC’s) economic policies for the prevailing pain and despair among Nigerians.

The former Vice President in a post on his X handle, formerly Twitter berated President Bola Tinubu, saying his “poor response to nation’s challenges is setting the stage for a prolonged and deeper economic crisis.”

Atiku said President Tinubu’s economic performance has, in recent weeks and months, been a subject of intense discourse among Nigerians at home and abroad, adding, “Nigerians are gravely concerned, and rightly so, that ….His economic policies, drawn from a so-called renewed hope agenda, are ironically dashing hopes, creating pain and causing despair. The private sector is shrinking by the day as small businesses are emasculated and as Multinational Companies, confused and weary of the economy, leave Nigeria in droves.

“The intense cost of living pressures has created more misery for the poor in towns and villages. There is hunger in the land as basic commodities, including bread, are becoming out of reach for average Nigerians.

But in a swift reaction, the presidency on Sunday night said Alhaji Atiku Abubakar had certainly found a new hobby to keep himself busy, having failed to achieve his lifelong ambition of becoming the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information & Strategy, in a statement, said the former vice president “is increasingly carving for himself the role of opposition-in-chief to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and his government.”

He said: “Atiku’s latest diatribe was another uncharitable commentary on the state of the economy and the efforts of the President Bola Tinubu administration in remoulding it for sustained prosperity.

“Nigerians can easily see through the hypocrisy of Alhaji Atiku, who in accusing President Tinubu of poor response to the nation’s challenges and causing pains and despair, didn’t offer any better policy options in his run for the Presidency different from the economic reform agenda being pursued by President Tinubu. “His claim that the government’s policies have created intense cost of living pressures are also not grounded on facts as recent comparative cost of living indices show that Nigerians still enjoy the lowest cost of living in Africa.

“Instead of mouthing platitudes every time in a bid to earn cheap political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.political mileage, Alhaji Atiku who presumes himself as the leader of opposition should tell Nigerians what he would have done better if he had been elected President.

“Atiku should be honest enough to admit that President Tinubu inherited a weak economy, which to all intents and purposes and to ensure the survival of our country needs a complete overhaul.”

“While President Tinubu and his able team are working very hard to make our country better, ensure our economy is stronger and more competitive, Atiku Abubakar and his cohorts may continue to belly ache.

“However, they cannot stop the serious work of nation-building already set in motion by President Tinubu.”

The Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS has urged the Senegalese authorities to urgently schedule a new date for the country’s presidential elections that was earlier postponed.

The ECOWAS Commission made the appeal in a statement issued on its website on Sunday.

Recall that the Senegalese President Macky Sall had on Saturday announced the indefinite postponement of a presidential election scheduled for February 25, just hours before official campaigning was due to start.

Sall, in an address to the nation, said he signed a decree abolishing a previous measure that set the date, because lawmakers were investigating two Constitutional Council judges whose integrity in the election process has been questioned.

The ECOWAS Commission said it has taken note of the decision of the Senegalese authorities to postpone the presidential elections, but “expresses concern over the circumstances that led to the postponement of the elections.”

The bloc therefore appealed to the authorities in Senegal to expedite the various processes to set a new date for the elections.

“The Commission further urges the entire political class to prioritise dialogue and collaboration for a transparent, inclusive and credible election,” ECOWAS said.

ECOWAS encouraged President Sall to continue to defend and protect Senegal’s long-standing democratic tradition, assuring that it would continue to monitor the situation in the West African nation.