On Monday, the 188MW Geometric Power Plant in Aba, Abia State, was  commissioned. By this weekend, Aba Power Limited, a subsidiary of Geometric Power, will commence the supply of electricity to a section of Enyimba City. It has taken long, two decades in coming. But soon, the much-needed electricity to unleash the full potentials of Aba, the industrial and commercial nerve centre of Abia, will surely make up for the long wait.

I congratulate and appreciate the efforts of Prof Barth Nnaji and his team to deliver on this project despite all the (political and) business environment obstacles. 

His tenacity and demonstration of the ‘can-do spirit’ is exemplary. It is remarkable that the governor of Abia state had stayed the course of the project that he had made an initial contribution to as a private sector person. Equally worthy of congratulation is the enterprising people of Abia.

This significant milestone is important for a number of reasons. Firstly, it improves peoples access to electricity – and thereby improves the overall quality of life of the people of Abia. This is a privilege the people of Abia must be thankful for. As we all know, more than 40% of Nigeria’s 220 million people do not have access to electricity.

Secondly, it is a big boost to businesses. Aba is one of Southeast’s industrial nerve centres. The other is the Nnewi axis. Inadequate power infrastructure is identified as the most problematic factor for doing business in Nigeria. More than 70% of firms in Nigeria use generators.

Thirdly, the project is delivered by the private sector – and an indigenous one to boot! It demonstrates the resilience of the private sector despite all the business environment issues. It also demonstrates the capacity of the local private sector to deliver on such huge and complex projects.

Why does this excite me?

I have all along been concerned that:

1. The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has over the years suffered from inadequate investments, failure of generation, transmission, and distribution infrastructure.

2. Nigeria’s core infrastructure stock is very low, estimated at 35-40% of GDP, below the international benchmark of  70% and below South Africa 87%, Indonesia 70%, China 76% and India 58%.

3. The finances required to bridge Nigeria’s infrastructure gap are in the region of US$100 billion per annum – over the next 30 years.  Nigeria does not have the resources to provide all of its infrastructure needs without sacrificing investments in education, health, and other social services. It should be remembered that Nigeria struggles to budget no more than US$30 billion annually.

For these reasons, I have been an ardent advocate of private sector presence in Nigeria. I have all along advocated for a private sector friendly business environment so we could leverage its enormous resources, including finance, skills, and technology. I doubt if the Abia state government would have been able to execute this mega project with the resources at its disposal.  

My policy document outlines how Nigeria could prioritize investments to increase the stock and improve the quality of economic and social infrastructure across the country. We believe that  narrowing the enormous gap that exists between the demand and supply of key infrastructure facilities in Nigeria is key to improving the competitiveness of our businesses, opening new economic and entrepreneurial opportunities, and promoting enterprise growth. 

To achieve this, we pledged to undertake far-reaching institutional reforms and introduce innovative infrastructure financing models that will be appealing to the private sector to take risks and invest capital.

To this end, we pledged to:

· Facilitate the establishment of a private sector-led Infrastructure Debt Fund (IDF) to mobilize domestic and international private resources for the financing and delivery of large infrastructure projects across all sectors of the economy.  

· Establish an “Infrastructure Development Unit” (IDU) in the Presidency, with a coordinating function and a specific mandate of working with the MDAs to fast track and drive the process of infrastructure development in the country.

· Strengthen the capacity of the ICRC to promote Public Private Partnerships (PPP) in the construction and management of infrastructure across the country.

· Broaden the scope of InfraCredit  to complement the operation of the IDF by de-risking investments in infrastructure to build investor confidence in taking risks and investing capital. 

· Open up the entire power sector from generation to transmission for private investments.

Going forward, the goal of every developing country must be to  achieve universal access to electricity, ensuring that every citizen benefits from reliable power for daily needs, education, healthcare, and economic activities. This would be in line with the SDG 7 (Sustainable Development Goal 7), which aims to ensure affordable, reliable, sustainable, and modern energy for all. In this wise:

· Nigeria must double efforts to support the likes of Prof Nnaji. Nigerian governments both federal and state must provide the Business environment that will make  the private enterprises more competitive by (1)  reducing their costs of set-up and operations (2) improving their margins and (3) making government policies more predictable.

· In particular, the authorities must create an environment that will enable distribution companies to recover full costs for power supplied to their consumers with firm commitment to a metering program for all customers. The scourge of electricity theft must be dealt with through a viable partnership between investors in the distribution companies and the government with legislative support for prompt action against electricity theft.

· Attention must be paid to improve access to Credit by enterprises willing to invest in the power sector.

· Government must incentivize the private sector to increase greenfield investments in the development of off-grid solutions to intensify electrification, particularly of rural communities not yet serviced by the grid.

Abubakar, Nigeria’s Vice President of Nigeria from 1999 to 2007, was the presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the 2023 elections.

An Igbo proverb says that the man who complained about the relocation of the village market because its current location suited his wife is not thinking of the needs and fortunes of the larger community. The Igbo will also tell you that a coffin merchant who says to a customer “I will give you a discount when you come for the next purchase” must be viewed with misgivings by all men and women of goodwill. There is also the Igbo saying that whoever makes a living by impunity, presumption and braggadocio will have a very hard time when widespread hunger, draught and famine compels everyone in the community to deploy his farming skills.

Which brings us to the outcry of Katsina Elders, among other allegedly ‘Northern’ voices, when news of the relocation of some departments of the Central bank of Nigeria and aviation ministry hit the airwaves. Like Senator Ndume, who opened with a rather virulent salvo, the Katsina Elders forum asked President Tinubu to either reconsider the decision or face the clear possibility of losing Northern support in the 2027 elections. The statement was that blunt; and to the point.

But what is this much-vaunted point? The reaction was very likely in anticipation of the potential socio-economic impact of a relocation of institutions of state on Northern Nigeria. The group accused some individuals of ill-advising President Tinubu, calling the presumes mis-advisers enemies of Nigeria who aim to undermine the unity of the country.

By implication the, Katsina Elders are saying that the unity and territorial integrity of the Federal Republic of Nigeria is secured and maintained by the continued presence of certain government institutions in Abuja – or in the North, generally. Now, that is absurd, is it not?

Not quite done on the matter, the forum accused the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory, Nyesom Wike, of supporting the federal government’s plan to relocate anything at all. Quite an “accusation”, wouldn’t you say? The group also asked why Wike was “inviting the Israelis to come and provide security to (sic) Abuja.” That is the business of Katsina Elders – I mean what a minister does, or does not do, in Abuja; right?

This group of wise elders said nothing when Miyetti Allah, a trade union of cattle dealers, set up a fully kitted alternative national security outfit, with its pilot test case in Nasarawa State. The group said nothing when the son of Professor Ango Abdullahi, Chairman of the Northern Elders Forum, was kidnapped from a Kaduna-bound train. The young man was held captive for months, until the full ransom was paid. Not even the subsequent kidnapping of Ango Abdullahi’s relation and her four children, shortly after the release of his son on ransom, was a matter of interest to Katsina Elders.

Even now, the Katsina Elders have not seen anything to worry, or talk, about concerning the routine pillaging of the North by marauders of northern Nigeria origins. Instead, they are very deeply concerned about what President Tinubu should do, in order to please the North and get the support he would need to win the 2027 elections. In strident tones, the group said:
“… we are telling Mr. President, as long as he is interested in coming back in 2027, … to reverse these unconstitutional decisions. Whoever is advising him to take such decisions is an enemy of the country.”

Perhaps the revered Katsina Elders would recall a lengthy submission of four years ago, by the Northern elder statesman, Ahmed Joda. The latter sought to remind his brothers and sisters that Northern Nigeria was not developing its human capital. He also told them, in that well-publicized open expression of concern that the North no longer had the time to do so anymore; and that the region was now ill-equipped to fit into either the knowledge-driven world of today or the new world of tomorrow. He summed it by saying that the North needed at least 20 years of super-accelerated development of its human capital in order to be taken seriously in today’s world.

Is the foregoing the concern of most of the people speaking for the North today? What you see, instead, is the pursuit of the illusion of dominance. No one is asking whether the larger half of the youths of the region possess the skills for tomorrow, or anything that could make them part of a 21st century world in any way.

Everyone now overlooks the major point in Joda’s intervention, which revolved around the fact that the triumphalism of cattle herders will not take the North anywhere in the immediate and long terms. The herders’ illusion of invulnerability rests on a conspiracy to use national security framework to promote insecurity in specific regions of the country. Can this last forever?  Has the headship of institutions of state helped the North, or created a “replacement generation” that can lead the region into the future – even here in Nigeria?

There are abandoned, ungoverned and even ungovernable, spaces all over Northern Nigeria, due to terrorism and banditry. The North’s dominant elite lives in Abuja, while playing games with the very criminals that are wiping out northerners and laying their lands desolate.  

An article which appeared on this page on April 17, 2019, titled “As the North Goes Under”, spoke of how a serving Secretary to the Zamfara State Government “…explained how he abandoned his farm and ranch because of cattle rustling and fear for his personal safety.” He confessed that “it was impossible to deploy law enforcement agents, even for himself, in any meaningful way” because they were mostly outnumbered, ill equipped and answerable to Abuja. As I write, matters have worsened very dramatically in Zamfara State over the years.

Remember that the government of Katsina State once signed an agreement with bandits; for them to stop robbing and maiming hapless citizens under Governor Maisari?  What became of that agreement, and what did Katsina Elders say about it; and about the series of kidnappings going on in the state? What did they say, at that time, about the months-long kidnap of a Katsina State traditional ruler, and of the recent kidnap of a home-going bride and the 63 women accompanying her in the same Katsina?

Remember that Bauchi State signed an MoU on service delivery with development partners a few years ago? Remember also that the same Bauchi State has schools and other social amenities that are better not talked about here. The situation is hardly different in Jigawa, Kebbi, Sokoto, Kano and other northern states. Even states with over 10% of their geographical spaces occupied by marauders have been drafting and implementing budgets and development projects covering these areas, where no one lives.

Is it just elite myopia, leadership illiteracy and abysmal ignorance at work here? Most of Nigeria’s poor are northerners. It is always the case, whether or not most high profile political and economically rewarding positions are held by Northerners. For the first time ever, beginning with the tenure of President Buhari, the North came out with the greatest evidence of a people’s failure to follow the rules of political and economic self-preservation.

What you find at most major social events organized by prominent politicians in most parts of the country today, but specially the North, is that the guests are overwhelmed by shabby looking youths. They are either generally prowling the vicinity, directly affronting guests, or raiding laid out serving-food tables. They are very hungry, and not yet very angry about that. They are looking for bits of leftover, a little cash gift here and there, perhaps a half empty bottle of water, oo a soft drink. Nothing more!

And the big men themselves are usually not embarrassed by the spectacle.

It should be easy for the Katsina Elders to see the disconnect between today’s world and the illusion of relevance they are trying to sustain. School enrolment, the acquisition of vocational skills, professional development, and overall academic performance have not improved, and are not improving, in the North. But go and take a look at the recorded expenditures on education in the last ten years alone.

The North has not shown a significant increase in the number of people registering for SSCE, NECO and similar competitive examinations. And Northerners is being progressively wiped out by “their people” who come here from Chad, Mali, Niger and further away. Many Northern youths are begging in the streets, or in the forests, while those from outside Nigeria now dominate even the herding business; as they turn everywhere into a no-man’s-land. More and more foreigners may be the ones with Nigerian ID cards in the North. The total number of registered candidates for all competitive examinations from the 19 states of the north continues to stand much lower than that of one serious state in the South. Yet, the Katsina Elders are not looking in the right direction for their problems.

The roaming bands of marauders who have no conception of even Fulani/Muslim brotherhood may yet be the undoing of Northern Nigeria, unless the Northern elite wake up on time – if it still has time. The merciless, mindless and truly gruesome regular killing, the kidnappings and the rapacious banditry now has a life of its own. A new breed of wild young men, with predominantly predatory and anti-social skills, and who would rather pick up any healthy-looking man rather than say ‘Ranka dede’, are on the ascendant in Northern Nigeria. This is bad! Very bad for us all!

When you combine the foregoing with widespread drug abuse, poverty, open-ended criminality and elite insensitivity in one location, there you have the ingredients for brewing what is keeping most northern big men to Abuja and environs. Can they be in exile forever? I think not! Abuja itself is no longer safe. Many high-profile, and presumably impregnable, estates and exclusive neighbourhoods in Abuja are no routinely attacked; at the pleasure of bandits and kidnappers.

From the angle of business and simple economics, local economies have collapsed. Re-desertification has taken over the places abandoned by victims of insurgency. Farming and animal husbandry are in limbo, in places where they used to thrive. There is now no peace mind of for those who had the chance to make a difference but failed to do so. Thus, the elite must now spend so much on armed escorts and sundry security measures.

To the Katsina elders, as I said at the beginning of this piece, “…the man who complained about the relocation of the village market because its current location suited his wife is not thinking of the needs and fortunes of the larger community. …whoever makes a living by impunity, presumption and braggadocio will have a very hard time when widespread hunger, draught and famine compels everyone in the community to deploy his farming skills”.

In dealing with one of the initial shocks of the fuel subsidy removal in June 2023, many agencies of the Federal Government and a good number of state governments ‘officially’ reduced working days of the week to either three or two days, instead of the normal five. This initiative was a sort of palliative to lighten the burden of civil servants who were faced with an outrageously high and rising cost of transportation, triggered by rise in the pump price of fuel (Premium Motor Spirit, PMS) sequel to fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on 29 May 2023.

However, while the reduction in work days may alleviate the plight of the civil servants, productivity at the state and Federal levels was utterly sacrificed. In other words, the main reason for hiring these civil servants was played down—all culminating in unquantifiable loss of the ‘output’ of these public servants. On the aggregate, nationwide, Nigeria would have lost immeasurably in terms of the productivity that would have added up to the much needed economic growth and development.

Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services. Productivity is said to increase when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs. But in the subsisting ‘palliative regime’ in Nigeria, the same number of civil servants is being used to ‘produce’ the same or less services at the Federal and sub-national levels: all because of the adverse impact of government policies.

Ever since the adoption of the two or three days (working) week in June 2023, almost every initiative of the Federal and state governments have principally to do with palliatives. There have been hues of ‘salary awards’, cash transfers and motley in-kind palliatives. It is on record that the Federal Government at a point late last year, announced a dole of five billion Naira to each of the states for an assortment of palliative packages for their citizens. The utilization of this fund got ‘soaked’ in the politics of each of the states; and the governors mainly used their political party ‘network’ to reach out to select beneficiaries.

Till date, many of the state governments are still contending that they were given only N2 billion and not N5 billion; and that the money was only to be repaid. Howbeit, it remains very doubtful if the right targets (the very vulnerable) got the government’s largesse (palliatives) in most of the states. This is why, over the past months, rather than things getting better, many more Nigerian have been pushed into the poverty trap in the face of sharp increases in the cost of living.

The import of all these has been continuing deterioration of the nation’s social fabric: sharp increases in crimes and criminality, upheavals and skirmishes, youth restiveness, organized protests, etc. All these have combined to heighten socio-economic tension, even as insecurity keeps posing existential threat to all. The polity is now such that government at all levels is contending with a hungry, angry and restive citizenry. The upshot of this reality has been packaging and re-packaging of all manner of palliatives to (perhaps) merely assuage the frayed nerves and ire of the populace across the country.

In the past couple of weeks, there have been public protests in not a few towns and cities in various parts of the country: Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Abuja, Edo and Osun states, etc. As the protests keep spreading like wild fire, governments (states and federal) seem yet preoccupied with ‘dousing’ the tension (anger, hunger, poverty) through palliatives. This is perhaps why, instead of expeditiously coming up with a new/improved salary structure (or minimum wage), the Federal government seems more bent of paying ‘cash awards’ and ‘crumbs’ to calm the Organized Labor (OL), as it were.

The upshot of this has been that in the past eight or nine months, the OL has been in an endless dingdong with the Federal government over the form and content of palliatives as well as the new minimum wage.

While these remain open-ended, the Federal government has resorted to giving ‘food palliatives’; under this arrangement, the Tinubu administration, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, is working on releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to support the vulnerable population across the country. As this is ongoing, various state governments in a variety of ways, are institutionalizing the ‘palliatives culture.’ In Lagos state, the commercial hub of the country, for instance, a ‘Special Dispensation Palliative Advisory Committee’ has just been set up.

Chaired by the Governor, with his Deputy as alternate Chairman, the eleven man inter-party panel is to determine the content and variety of palliatives to be put in place by the government, going forward. It will also determine the timing and mode of distribution—to reach the teeming populace. At the Federal level, too, President Tinubu has equally empaneled a tripartite economic advisory committee—essentially to come up with “immediate measures to stabilize the economy.” Made up of representatives from the Federal and state governments as well as the Organized Private Sector (OPS), the panel is to help initiate steps to speedily “bring life back to the economy.”

The situation is not different in other states of the country: it is either the government is buying and distributing foodstuff or buying and deploying buses to ‘ease’ transportation challenges in its domain. These buses are made to charge ‘subsidized’ fares as palliatives for the people. Since June 2023, the Federal government had during festive seasons ensured ‘low fare’ charges by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for users of the railways across the country—all in the spirit of palliatives.

Some state governments have so integrated the ‘palliative culture’ into their mode of operation that they rather give crop seedlings (yam, maize, cassava, etc.) to their populace than introduce them to mechanized farming. In point of fact, the seedlings (and in some cases, fertilizer and other inputs) are sold by government (agencies) at subsidized rates—again, as palliatives.

In truth, a panoramic view of all these ‘palliative interventions’ will put to question whatever has been the economic development blueprint of the governments. If there has been any realistic economic roadmap, would palliatives or ad hoc provisions been necessary? Indeed, in the absence of a realistic destination (roadmap), every road (palliatives and doles) just takes Nigeria to somewhere (economically). And that has been its plight for upwards of one year now. At present, the Nigerian economy badly needs direction, stimulation and leapfrogging for a quantum leap. Palliatives will always remain what they are: crumbs!

• The author, Okeke, a practising Economist, Business Strategist, Sustainability expert and ex-Chief Economist of Zenith Bank Plc, lives in Lekki, Lagos. He can be reached via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

  In dealing with one of the initial shocks of the fuel subsidy removal in June 2023, many agencies of the Federal Government and a good number of state governments ‘officially’ reduced working days of the week to either three or two days, instead of the normal five. This initiative was a sort of palliative to lighten the burden of civil servants who were faced with an outrageously high and rising cost of transportation, triggered by rise in the pump price of fuel (Premium Motor Spirit, PMS) sequel to fuel subsidy removal by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration on 29 May 2023.

  However, while the reduction in work days may alleviate the plight of the civil servants, productivity at the state and Federal levels was utterly sacrificed. In other words, the main reason for hiring these civil servants was played down—all culminating in unquantifiable loss of the ‘output’ of these public servants. On the aggregate, nationwide, Nigeria would have lost immeasurably in terms of the productivity that would have added up to the much needed economic growth and development.

  Productivity is a measure of economic performance that compares the amount of goods and services produced (output) with the amount of inputs used to produce those goods and services. Productivity is said to increase when more output is produced with the same amount of inputs or when the same amount of output is produced with less inputs. But in the subsisting ‘palliative regime’ in Nigeria, the same number of civil servants is being used to ‘produce’ the same or less services at the Federal and sub-national levels: all because of the adverse impact of government policies.

  Ever since the adoption of the two or three days (working) week in June 2023, almost every initiative of the Federal and state governments have principally to do with palliatives. There have been hues of ‘salary awards’, cash transfers and motley in-kind palliatives. It is on record that the Federal Government at a point late last year, announced a dole of five billion Naira to each of the states for an assortment of palliative packages for their citizens. The utilization of this fund got ‘soaked’ in the politics of each of the states; and the governors mainly used their political party ‘network’ to reach out to select beneficiaries.

  Till date, many of the state governments are still contending that they were given only N2 billion and not N5 billion; and that the money was only to be repaid. Howbeit, it remains very doubtful if the right targets (the very vulnerable) got the government’s largesse (palliatives) in most of the states. This is why, over the past months, rather than things getting better, many more Nigerian have been pushed into the poverty trap in the face of sharp increases in the cost of living.

  The import of all these has been continuing deterioration of the nation’s social fabric: sharp increases in crimes and criminality, upheavals and skirmishes, youth restiveness, organized protests, etc. All these have combined to heighten socio-economic tension, even as insecurity keeps posing existential threat to all. The polity is now such that government at all levels is contending with a hungry, angry and restive citizenry. The upshot of this reality has been packaging and re-packaging of all manner of palliatives to (perhaps) merely assuage the frayed nerves and ire of the populace across the country.

  In the past couple of weeks, there have been public protests in not a few towns and cities in various parts of the country: Kano, Kaduna, Oyo, Ogun, Lagos, Abuja, Edo and Osun states, etc. As the protests keep spreading like wild fire, governments (states and federal) seem yet preoccupied with ‘dousing’ the tension (anger, hunger, poverty) through palliatives. This is perhaps why, instead of expeditiously coming up with a new/improved salary structure (or minimum wage), the Federal government seems more bent of paying ‘cash awards’ and ‘crumbs’ to calm the Organized Labor (OL), as it were.

  The upshot of this has been that in the past eight or nine months, the OL has been in an endless dingdong with the Federal government over the form and content of palliatives as well as the new minimum wage.

  While these remain open-ended, the Federal government has resorted to giving ‘food palliatives’; under this arrangement, the Tinubu administration, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, is working on releasing 42,000 metric tonnes of assorted food commodities to support the vulnerable population across the country. As this is ongoing, various state governments in a variety of ways, are institutionalizing the ‘palliatives culture.’ In Lagos state, the commercial hub of the country, for instance, a ‘Special Dispensation Palliative Advisory Committee’ has just been set up.

  Chaired by the Governor, with his Deputy as alternate Chairman, the eleven man inter-party panel is to determine the content and variety of palliatives to be put in place by the government, going forward. It will also determine the timing and mode of distribution—to reach the teeming populace. At the Federal level, too, President Tinubu has equally empaneled a tripartite economic advisory committee—essentially to come up with “immediate measures to stabilize the economy.” Made up of representatives from the Federal and state governments as well as the Organized Private Sector (OPS), the panel is to help initiate steps to speedily “bring life back to the economy.”

  The situation is not different in other states of the country: it is either the government is buying and distributing foodstuff or buying and deploying buses to ‘ease’ transportation challenges in its domain. These buses are made to charge ‘subsidized’ fares as palliatives for the people. Since June 2023, the Federal government had during festive seasons ensured ‘low fare’ charges by the Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC) for users of the railways across the country—all in the spirit of palliatives.

  Some state governments have so integrated the ‘palliative culture’ into their mode of operation that they rather give crop seedlings (yam, maize, cassava, etc.) to their populace than introduce them to mechanized farming. In point of fact, the seedlings (and in some cases, fertilizer and other inputs) are sold by government (agencies) at subsidized rates—again, as palliatives.

  In truth, a panoramic view of all these ‘palliative interventions’ will put to question whatever has been the economic development blueprint of the governments. If there has been any realistic economic roadmap, would palliatives or ad hoc provisions been necessary? Indeed, in the absence of a realistic destination (roadmap), every road (palliatives and doles) just takes Nigeria to somewhere (economically). And that has been its plight for upwards of one year now. At present, the Nigerian economy badly needs direction, stimulation and leapfrogging for a quantum leap. Palliatives will always remain what they are: crumbs!

  • The author, Okeke, a practising Economist, Business Strategist, Sustainability expert and ex-Chief Economist of Zenith Bank Plc, lives in Lekki, Lagos. He can be reached via: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

THERE were contrasting fortunes for Super Eagles of Nigeria players in the top two tiers of English football today.

In the Premier League, Taiwo Awoniyi came on as a second-half substitute for Nottingham Forest but it was his former club Liverpool who benefitted from his presence.

The striker, who has scored six Premier League goals this season, played a huge part in Liverpool’s winner as the Reds stretched the gap at the top of the table to four points.

With the game in the ninth minute of stoppage time and just seconds from the final whistle, Awoniyi attempted to dribble on the edge of the Forest box instead of booting the ball away, and he paid dearly for the error.

The Nigeria international was robbed of the ball by Alexis Mac Allister who crossed to Darwin Nunez to head home the only goal of the game, earning Liverpool a 1-0 win.

Awoniyi’s error deprived Forest of a crucial point, leaving them 17th in the table, just four points clear of Luton Town who occupy the third relegation spot and have two games in hand.

In stark contrast to Awoniyi, Joe Aribo came on in the 70th minute of Southampton’s Championship clash at Birmingham City and scored in the sixth minute of added time to give the Saints a 4-3 victory.

It was Aribo’s third Championship goal this season and second in three matches as Southampton stay in fourth spot, seven points behind Ipswich who occupy the second automatic promotion place.

Championship leaders Leicester City, who were without their Nigeria stars Wilfred Ndidi and Kelechi Iheanacho, lost 2-1 at home to Queens Park Rangers to record a third straight defeat in the league.

Back to the Premier League, Super Eagles midfielder Frank Onyeka started for Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium and played for 77 minutes as they drew 2-2 with Chelsea.

In other Premier League fixtures today, Tottenham Hotspur came from behind to beat visiting Crystal Palace 3-1, Everton lost 3-1 at home to West Ham United and Fulham, with Super Eagles stars Calvin Bassey and Alex Iwobi starting, dismissed Brighton 3-0 at Craven Cottage.

[NaijaTimes]

The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said an Israeli strike hit tents housing displaced civilians near a hospital in the southern city of Rafah Saturday, killing 11 and wounding dozens.

A paramedic was among those killed and children were wounded in the blast close to the Emirati Maternity Hospital, ministry spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra said in a statement.

“Eleven citizens were martyred and about 50 injured, including children, as a result of Israeli forces targeting tents of displaced people near the Emirati hospital,” Qudra said.

The Israeli military said it was looking into the incident.

Footage posted on social media, which AFP could not independently verify, appeared to show bloodied bodies in the streets as crowds gathered, with men carrying away the wounded for treatment.

An AFP journalist saw wounded people being rushed on stretchers to the Kuwaiti Hospital, also in Rafah.

“Destruction is everywhere and there are many martyrs,” said Rafah resident Belal Abu Jekhleh.

“Suddenly the glass shattered and a fire broke out. Everyone fled, some of whom were martyred and others injured. I was injured in my hands and head, and my brother was also injured.”

Israeli troops have carried out multiple operations in and around hospitals in the Gaza Strip since they launched their offensive in the Palestinian territory.

Israel has repeatedly accused Hamas militants of using hospitals for military purposes, something the Palestinian group denies.

An estimated 1.5 million Palestinians have sought refuge in Rafah, raising fears of mass casualties if Israel goes through with a planned ground invasion of the city.

Mediators are scrambling to secure a new truce ahead of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which begins on March 10 or 11, depending on the lunar calendar.

The war in Gaza broke out with Hamas’s unprecedented attack on southern Israel on October 7 which resulted in the deaths of around 1,160 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli figures.

Israel’s retaliatory military campaign against Hamas has killed at least 30,320 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s health ministry.

[DailyTrust]

No fewer than two persons were shot on Saturday at Okere Community in Warri Metropolis of Delta State.

It was gathered the victims were shot by security operatives believed to be soldiers from the 3 Battalion of the Nigerian Army, Effurun Barrack.

The first victim was identified as Macaulay Uku and the second simply identified as Eguono, was shot around midday during the visit to the area by the Olu of Warri, Ogiame Atuwatse III.

Uku, according to various sources, was shot early in the afternoon while Eguono was shot hours later.

The Commanding Officer of the Battalion, Major A. Ohegbe, who was contacted by The Nation, said he was not aware of any shooting but confirmed the heavy presence of security personnel during the visit.

He  hinted that the fracas was sparked off by resistance to the monarch’s visit by a section of the indigenes of Okere community, which is the home of Chief Ayiri Emami.

The Nation recalled  that a section of the Okere community sided with Chief Ayiri Emami, the Ologbotsere of Warri, whose alleged removal is the subject of an ongoing litigation.

“Those who are loyal to the Ayiri essentially are opposed to the monarch and this has resulted in the polarisation of Okere,” a source in the area said.

 Supporters of the monarch however said that there was no opposition to the monarch in Okere, stressing, “He is the Olu of all Itsekiri people”.

Our source further added that the people of the area were incensed by an attempt by the monarch to sprinkle anointing oil at the sacred ground of the Okere shrine.

It was gathered that two of the victims of Saturday’s shooting were those loyal to Chief Emami, leading to insinuation that the soldiers were brought in to suppress opposers of the monarch’s visit.

Tension has gripped the community as supporters on the opposing sides trade words on social media and on the streets on the next line of action.

[TheNation]

A Ghanaian cleric, Bishop Sam Owusu, has expressed disappointment in his fellow Ghanaians for not offering the same level of support to Ghanaian clerics as they do to Nigerian pastors.

This is coming in the wake of Nigerian Pastor Jerry Eze’s conference in Ghana.

The Nations’ Service Project with Pastor Jerry Eze reportedly attracted over 60,000 people last week.

The Ghana Conference, also known as the NSPPD conference, attracted a lot of buzz on social media.

However, Owusu, in a viral clip on Saturday, chided his church members and his countrymen for attending the conference.

Owusu is the Senior Pastor of the Pottersville church, East Legon Hills, Accra, Ghana.

He shared concerns about Ghanaians labelling their pastors as fake but supporting the ministries of Nigerian pastors.

In an impassioned speech in front of his members, he said, “Sometimes I am very surprised about Ghanaians, how hypocritical we are.

“We don’t respect our own and we don’t honour our own and we don’t love our own. We celebrate foreigners more than our own.

“But there is no foreigner that will celebrate Ghanaian. Look at how Ghana members and Ghanaian Christians follow Nigerian pastors and respect Nigerian men of God than even Ghanaian pastors.

“Every prophet in Ghana is considered as fake. Every anointed man of God is considered fake.”

Talking about Eze’s programme, he said, “Just last week, one of the young men in Nigeria came to do a prayer conference here and over 50,000 people were there praying, Ghanaians o!

“But let me tell you, do you know there is no Ghanaian Pastor that will go to Nigeria to have that crowd? Not even 10%?

“Nigerians will never that’s why there is no bigger Ghanaian Church in Nigeria. Nigerians respect and love their own”

He added, “You go to Jerry Eze programme, you are sponsoring a Nigerian at the detriment of your own prophet in Ghana.

“I don’t hate him. I love the man. I love the young man. He came to Ghana and pulled over 100,000 crowd and took offerings and seed to his country and I saw even the Electoral commissioner who was the one who went to receive him from the airport.”

This situation has triggered responses from many individuals, who have highlighted the ongoing competition between Ghana and Nigeria.

The two African nations have often clashed in attempts to establish superiority.

In recent years, Ghana and Nigeria have engaged in friendly competition over Afrobeats, football, and jollof rice.

[Punch]

Mauricio Pochettino admitted he feels unloved at Chelsea after frustrated fans called for his sacking during Saturday’s 2-2 draw at Brentford.

Pochettino’s side led through a Nicolas Jackson header, but were pegged back by Mads Roerslev’s close-range strike after half-time.

Shortly after Yoane Wissa put Brentford ahead with a spectacular overhead kick, Chelsea supporters packed into one corner of the stadium began chanting for Pochettino’s dismissal and singing the name of former Blues manager Jose Mourinho.

But it was hardly an enjoyable afternoon for the former Tottenham and Paris Saint-Germain manager on his 52nd birthday.

Asked if he had heard the Chelsea fans’ taunts, Pochettino said: “I’ve been told, I didn’t hear to be honest, it’s difficult for me to understand.

“But it’s normal, we were losing the game 2-1 and they expressed their frustration. I am one of the ones responsible, I’m the coach.

“I was asked before if I feel the love from the fans? No.”

Pochettino has failed to revitalise Chelsea after arriving in the close-season to clear up the mess left by his predecessors Graham Potter and Thomas Tuchel.

Chelsea have spent over £1 billion ($1.2 billion) on signings since Todd Boehly’s consortium bought the west London club from Roman Abramovich in 2022.

But the spree has left Chelsea with an unbalanced and underachieving squad who are languishing in 11th place in the Premier League.

The Blues, who have not won a domestic trophy since 2018, were beaten by Liverpool in last weekend’s League Cup final despite facing an inexperienced line-up.

Pochettino is certain to suffer more terrace jibes amid mounting speculation that he will be axed by the end of the season.

But the Argentine, yet to win a trophy in English football, is adamant he can cope with the vitriol.

“I’m not worried. We need to accept this relationship. You win your relationship through winning games,” he said.

“I will continue to work and try to change this perception. We need to manage some reality. We are working really hard to try to win games, the team is fighting.

“If it doesn’t work and the fans are disappointed I need to respect their opinion. I think the relationship is good. If they did what they did, fans are emotional.

“I am fighting with all my sense to try to provide a team to play in the best way to score goals and win games. Today is my 52nd birthday, I know this business, but I’m going to fight.”

[Vanguard]

We called them the ‘happening couple’. Flex (real name was Felix) was a 500 level medicine student while Tunrayo was a 200 level Law student. Though the two of them were very busy ‘effico’, they spent every free moment together. They went to the bukateria together, walked hand-in-hand to the library and the cinema. They were a reference point especially when we girls wanted to ‘yab’ our NFA male classmates who were in the habit of giving excuses to their girlfriends as to why they couldn’t take them to see a movie at Oduduwa. 

We simply sneered at them.

 ‘If a 'medical' student could make out time for his girlfriend, please what is a Philosophy student reading?'

 Stuff like that.

Anyway, shortened version of the story of Flex and Tunrayo was that their love was not hidden, at least not to those who lived with or knew them. Those who didn't know soon did when tragedy struck. Yes, death, avoidable death,  came too soon, before their story got to a happy ending. 

Tunrayo ‘somehow’ got pregnant and Flex metamorphosed into a guy she couldn’t believe existed somewhere inside the fine-boy-no-pimples doctor-to-be she fell in love with. Flex didn’t want the pregnancy. Indeed, he told Tunrayo to ‘let them remove’ it. There were hospitals that would do it in minutes. There were pills. Pregnancy will slow him down. In fact, it will destroy his life. The two of them did not need the distraction of a pregnancy, least of all a baby at that point in their lives. 

True, neither Law or Medicine will nicely make room for pregnancy or a nine-month vacation without a major breach in the course-calendar. Happening couple or not, both Flex and Tunrayo were young. Flex was 22 while Tunrayo was 19. Of course, things fell apart. The 'Baby Doctor didn’t want a baby and so started avoiding Tunrayo. No more lunches at ‘Forks and Fingers’ or dinner at ‘New Buka’.

Flex stopped going to the movies altogether and avoided the library like it was a lepers colony or a tuberculosis ward. 

Love left the Garden of Eden and Tunrayo was inconsolable. She became a shadow of herself. And as the semester break approached, she became really afraid and distracted. How did you face your parents with a teenage pregnancy and disappoint your mother whose friends were already calling ‘Mama Lawyer’. Going home was like being sent to the Guillotine. So,  out of fear, Tunrayo stayed back on campus and as we later heard, she turned up dead in a quack hospital in town. She died alone, along with her dreams, her parent’s dreams , with her unborn baby.

Flex wept and mourned. We were told he got there just before Tunrayo's body was taken to the mogue and that he kept saying he was sorry. 

Dear Mum and Dad, tell your girls ‘sorry after an abortion had gone wrong means nothing’. If she does not die, she may be scarred, irreversibly. My dear girls, don’t put yourself in a meaningless sorry situation just because you think it would please the man or make him stay. Do not put your life and future on the line just for a man to say ‘sorry’ and move on while you carry the scar and bear the trauma. 

Too many times, the words and emotions backing ‘sorry’ don’t mean much or anything at all. It’s okay to be sorry, feel remorse and apologize but the man or woman who has inflicted the pain cannot erase the affliction. The scars sometimes are life-long ones. That’s why it’s better to stay safe than to be sorry. Be careful what you promise. Be wary of what you are promised. Think of the consequences before you lay yourself bare to the situation that might lead to gnashing of teeth. Do not forget yourself in the ecstasy of the moment and let someone else take and take and take until you are spent, only for him to come back and say sorry when it no longer matters.

What about husbands, fathers, wives, mothers who leave for greener pastures letting their partners raise their children all alone? And then they come back 20 years later when the ‘soup don done’ and the children are  all made, bearing ‘sorry’ as if it is ‘aporo-epa-Ijebu’, the solution or mixture that cure all ailments. Excuse me, who sorry hep, please?

Do not be like Mama Titi whose husband left with three children only to return 18 years later, his amputated tail in between his ungodly legs and bearing a dammed and cursed sorry bouquet. And I repeat, 'who sorry hep?"  Unfortunately, Mama Titi did not move on. She pined and waited for that 'sorry"for all those 18 years. One day turned into one decade but she trudged on, taking on extra jobs, doing all kinds of petty businesses to feed and put the three children through school. All she did was work and cry. Of course, 18 long years of pity party will take a toll on even the strongest healthiest woman, and it did. She had a mild stroke just before her last child graduated. All the years of hussle and hassle have impacted her body. Let’s not talk about what the loneliness did to her mind and spirit. The years of hard grind and heavy lifting a left its mark, leaving her  looking older than her 60 years. And then Baba Titi returned profusely apologizing.

‘It was the Devil’s work’

‘My eyes are open now’

‘She used juju to cage me’

‘I have wronged you and your Ori’

‘I’m sorry’

Annoying sorry, who needs it? What can roll back the 18 years of tears. Who will take away the toll of playing Father and Mother to the children on Mama Titi’s health?

Who am I to say don’t take your prodigal wife or husband back? It’s not my decision or anybody’s for that matter. 

That’s not even the point of this piece. The crux of this article is what you do while waiting for the return of the prodigal. 

If your wife left you with the children and went off with a richer man, should you just cry, pine away and wither with the years? If she bleached and partied 10 or 15 years away and then returned with a skin that is looking like yet-to -be -cleaned Shaki (tripe), offering you a bouquet of sorry and tears on her discolored cheeks, what will you do? Everybody will probably beg a deserted spouse to welcome home a deserter, right? Even the children most likely will join the plea club. Not a problem. The decision is solely yours. 

My own sermon and view is this: do not let a deserter find you on a dung heap when he or she returns. Take care of your health. In fact, pay extra attention to your health. Live, laugh, move on. Do not waste years you cannot retrieve, crying and beating up yourself with what-if-whips. If he or she is having a blast wherever they are, please enjoy yourself at least if you cannot afford a blast. Bond like never before with those children he or she abandoned for you. Live, I repeat, live. Add values to your life. Let the deserter not meet you at the same spot they left you. Develop yourself. Enrich your life. Make sure you can see through tears of loneliness. Do not become a heap of ruin and rot because your partner chose the easiest route. Make your own luck.  Enjoy as much as you can while fulfilling your parental obligations. If he’s having a blast, have a blast too. If and when he decides to return with ‘sorry’, meet him with ‘sorry’ too,  in case he finds evidence of your ‘blast’.

I came in peace.

I’m going in peace.

The presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the 2023 election, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, has urged gubernatorial aspirants and stakeholders to close ranks and rally around Asue Ighodalo, the party’s governorship candidate for Edo State.

Naija News reports that Ighodalo had emerged as the winner of the primary conducted by the ruling party, but the Deputy Governor of Edo State, Philip Shaibu, had also claimed victory in a parallel primary.

Despite the PDP leadership giving Ighodalo a Certificate of Return, Shaibu has vowed to challenge the party’s decision in court.

In a statement on Saturday, Atiku, through his Media Adviser, Paul Ibe, congratulated Asue Ighodalo for his victory at the just-concluded primary election of the party.

The former Vice President said that the election of a thoroughbred technocrat by the PDP as the party’s candidate in Edo State signposts the urgency that the PDP gives to ensuring that the next governor of Edo State is a round peg in a round hole.

Atiku said, “The PDP leadership and members in Edo State must be congratulated also, for an amazing primary election that produced the quality of candidate to fly the flag of our party in the upcoming election.

“The party has made a choice, and it is not in dispute that the choice is a good one.

“It is, therefore, on this note that I plead with all other aspirants and aggrieved stakeholders to reconcile and negotiate to make sure that Edo remains a PDP state.

“Barrister Ighodalo, apart from being a brilliant mind, in whose hands the affairs of Edo State will steer on stable waters, is also a fine gentleman.

“I believe that our candidate has what it takes to bring everyone willing to work for the interest of the PDP under the huge umbrella of our party.”

Continuing, he noted that the current hardship being experienced by Nigerians should energize every PDP member to work for the party’s interest, especially in Edo State, in ensuring that the ruling party, the APC, does not enlarge its map of hunger and poverty.

[NaijaNews]