A fresh crisis is brewing in the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, over the just concluded Edo State governorship primaries election following the insistence of Deputy Governor, Philip Shaibu, that he won the primaries and should be given a certificate of return. Shaibu, who emerged as winner of a parallel primary, stormed the National Secretariat of the PDP, yesterday, to demand the certificate of return.

His demand came barely 24 hours after the party’s Acting National Chairman, Amb. Umar Damagum and the party leadership issued a certificate of return to Dr. Asue Ighodalo, who won the primaries recognized by the party. The deputy governor who was at the secretariat with a handful of his aides, did not meet any member of the National Working Committee, NWC.

He, however, insisted that the party must abide by its own rules or be prepared to face legal action. Speaking to reporters shortly after leaving the office of the PDP acting national chairman, Shaibu said: “Today is 28th of February, 2024. By the PDP guidelines approved by the NWC on the Edo 2024 governorship primary, today is the day set aside by the electoral guidelines that the certificate of returns will be issued. “I am here to receive my certificate of return because I won the primary in Edo where the authentic delegates voted. If you look at the board of the party office here, you will see the names of all the delegates that voted for me.

“Today is the presentation of Certificate of Return according to the party, so PDP must follow its rules and guidelines. This is what we are talking about.

“The process of producing a candidate has been compromised from the onset and we ask that those things be corrected. Even the committee that recommended the political solution is fully aware that there were abnormalities in the process that led to my emergence and whoever.

“But why I am here is to obey the guidelines to come and receive the certificate of return and I was told that somebody else came here yesterday and was given the certificate. “I think the court will tell us who between us is the real candidate, but I am here in fulfillment of the electoral guidelines of the PDP to receive my certificate… I told them that I was coming, but none of them had come to work, only the staff of the secretariat are here. I don’t know why they are not here. That is strange and that is in line with why they were in a hurry to give the certificate of return yesterday (Tuesday).”

Asked whether he was ready to give peace a chance following calls by both the party leadership and its recognized candidate, Ighodalo, for a truce, Shaibu expressed doubt over the sincerity of Governor Godwin Obaseki and his team. He said: “Maybe the acting chairman may be very honourable and mean what he is saying but the others talking about reconciliation don’t really mean what they are saying.

“They are intimidating us, and harassing us. As I speak, they are even threatening to impeach me and that is their way of dealing with people. They suspend, sack people, make phone calls intimidating people telling people, they will come after you.

“During the military, these were the kind of threats that we were getting and we cannot return to the era of intimidation and harassment, and that is the issue in Edo State.” Asked if he was considering seeking legal redress, Shaibu said: “When the party’s internal mechanism is followed and it is obvious that the party is not ready to listen, the next line of action obviously will be the judiciary, but I pray we don’t get there and that is why I came here today.

“I’m sure in the coming days, the acting National Chairman and others will adhere to what brought me here today and when they do so, there will not be a need to go to court.” I will surpass Obaseki’s performance, if elected – Ighodalo Meanwhile, Dr Ighodalo has said he was committed to transforming the state and surpassing the achievements of outgoing Governor Obaseki if elected on September 21, 2024. He gave the assurance while addressing party supporters who thronged the Benin Airport to welcome him back from Abuja. Recall that Asue Ighodalo who was recently nominated as PDP candidate in a primary election many judged to be transparent, free and fair was on Tuesday in Abuja given the certificate of return by the party’s national leadership.

He said: “If elected, I will commence work from where Governor Obaseki would stop and even do more for the people.” He maintained that having been given the PDP return certificate, the real work has commenced and appealed to the people to help support his ambition. He said: “I want to thank you all for this show of love and support because we wouldn’t be where we are now without your support. “This is the time for the real work to commence and by the grace of God, we are going to work hard in order to achieve our target. “Where the Governor will stop in terms of development, we are going to continue from there and even do more”, he assured.

[Vanguard]

One of the oft-repeated myths in this country is that when the poor are hungry enough, their final resort will be to eat the rich. But when one considers the Nigerian situation, one wonders just how much more hungry people need to get before they finally combust. Several revolutions in human history have been triggered by people who could no longer manage their hunger pangs. From Russia in the 16th century to South Africa in 2020, hunger has launched the public protests that changed the course of history. Only time will tell if the physiological experience of hunger will drive the urgency of political action in Nigeria.

No thanks to the current economic situation, “ebi ń pa wá o!” has become the defining anthem of the Bola Tinubu era. The gustatorial politics of jęun sókè that made our man popular has been overtaken by the insatiability of the gut. Last Friday, a stampede that occurred during the sale of rice “seized” by the Nigeria Customs Service Yaba office reportedly killed seven persons. There is so much one can begin to say about the organisers who failed to factor in crowd control properly. What technical and organising capacity did they have that they trusted themselves to efficiently handle the starving multitude that would surge to their offices to buy food a little more affordably?

Given the rate at which the politics of ethnicity and religion are being weaponised as a taming mechanism to curtail agitation, maybe we are seeing all there is to the shouts of ebi ń pa wá o! The Yoruba elders in the socio-cultural group Afenifere, for instance, begged fellow Yorubas not to join the public protests breaking out over the current economic hardship. Reuben Fasoranti, chairman of Afenifere’s elders caucus, said that though people face hardship, they must also be understanding. After restating the same trite excuse that our situation is comatose because of the failures of past administrations, he added, “The government’s commitment to implementing these measures is a testament to its dedication to addressing the root causes of our economic challenges, inherited from the ills of the previous years.”

I do not know if Baba Fasoranti is an economic analyst to trust that the ongoing reforms are truly as restorative as government officials insist, but I can bet that the elderly man has witnessed enough of Nigeria’s history to know that what he describes as “the ills of the previous years” does not exclude key actors in this present administration. Nigeria did not become the way it is presently because a bunch of aliens dropped from Mars to inflict pain on us. We are stuck in history because we are repeatedly being served by the same old executioners garbed in the robes of statesmen.

Even Sunday Igboho, the so-called revolutionary who stepped up for the “Yoruba nation” during the Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)’s administration too has joined the company of Yoruba attenuators. He also exonerates Tinubu from the ongoing hardships and blames Buhari instead. I think he forgets that the insecurity situation that prompted him to become a “freedom fighter” in the Buhari era also predated the Buhari presidency. I do not recall him offering Buhari the same alibi he is now tossing around for his kinsman. The fact that every Nigerian problem is a carryover from a previous era does not mean we should merely shut up and suffer. What is the point of electing a president when the best he can do is to merely contextualise the problem we—not them—live through every day?

By now, if there is one consistent quality one has come to expect from our people, it is that the politics of identity will always trump the affinity of class. Even amidst the hunger that killed seven while they struggled to buy cheap rice, our people still manage to maintain some clarity on the ethnic import of their reaction to the hunger. Even the NLC protests planned for Tuesday and Wednesday could barely be held after several unions backed out.

Former Executive Secretary of the National Health Insurance Scheme, Prof. Usman Yusuf, who has been making provocative public statements in the media regarding the worsening economic hardship recently wondered “why the South-East is uncharacteristically quiet.” Several self-appointed representatives of the South-East handed him some self-justificatory answers, but who can blame any southeasterner for not joining or staging protests after all the traumas they went through under the Buhari administration? The man’s politics, especially his imprudent response to the rise of IPOB, did not bode well for the South-East. Why go through another phase of unrest again and so soon too?

Then, of course, there was the 2023 elections where an Igbo man was a leading presidential candidate. While he managed to upend the structuration of Nigeria’s political calculations, the election outcome was another story. Not only did the results feature many instances of electoral manipulation, but the triumphalism of the supposed winners fuelled toxicity. The silence of the South-East can therefore be a manifestation of a well-earned schadenfreude. Really, why should they not gloat now that “èmilókàn” has become “ebi ń pa wá o”? Let those who opened their eyes wide to retain the APC after suffering eight years of affliction under Buhari stand up and fix what they broke.

Whatever one might think of Yusuf’s singling out a region in his expectations of political agitations, he had a point about how public protests work in Nigeria. If Nigerians who have been serially hit by Tinubu’s harsh policies are now pacifying themselves with stories of how everything got spoiled by previous administration(s), it is not because they have a better perspective on their history. If, by now, the South-West has not brought out its famous rage machine to antagonise the government of the day over the excruciating economic conditions that their people—crying ebi ń pa wá o! in the streets—are enduring, how else do we account for their complacence other than the “àwalókàn” sentiment?

Under a different set of circumstances, certain characters—you know them—would have been jumping from one media house to another to register their aggrievement over the unfortunate incident of the deaths at the Customs Office. They would have been alleging a systematic plot to diminish the “Yoruba race” and be threatening fire and brimstone. But now, they ask us to sit still. Not even the affliction of hunger can put paid to our people’s marshalling of tribal troops.

If Atiku Abubakar or Peter Obi had won the 2023 presidential election, would Fasoranti have issued a statement cautioning the Yoruba people against public protests? I know it is a hypothetical question, but it is one that can be answered by considering precedents. Under Dr Goodluck Jonathan and Buhari, did they also enjoin Yorubas not to protest because the hardship was for the eventual good?

If we will advance as a people, we need to reach a point where the region (and the religion) that succeeded in putting a candidate into power should be the one to lead the agitation if that leader starts faltering. If you voted out of a conviction that the person can level mountains, then you owe the rest of us the legwork to see that the better world you envisioned while casting your vote is realised. People who go all out for a candidate should take the pains to also hold them accountable. It should not be enough to want to see your tribe (or religion) in power, but you should also go all out to ensure that their administration represents the best your tribe has to offer the country.

Seriously, Tinubu’s supporters owe us public protests and accountability for opening the door to an affliction everyone knew would happen.

Two senior executives at Binance have been detained in Nigeria.

According to Financial Times (FT), a UK-based business news outlet, the passports of the unnamed Binance executives were seized.

FT gathered that the executives flew to Nigeria following the country’s decision to ban several cryptocurrency trading websites last week but were detained with their passports seized.

Officials did not provide details on why the Binance employees are being detained and it remains unclear on whether they have been charged with any violations of Nigerian law.

Recall last week Federal Government blocked the online platforms of Binance and other crypto firms to avert what it considers continuous manipulation of the forex market and illicit movement of funds.

Apart from Binance, other platforms such as Forextime, OctaFX, Crypto, FXTM, Coinbase, and Kraken, among others were also blocked.

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) on Tuesday raised concerns over $26 billion that flowed through Binance Nigeria over the past year from “unidentified sources”.

CBN Governor, Olayemi Cardoso, expressed worries over the significant volume of transactions passing through Binance Nigeria, emphasizing that the origins and beneficiaries of these funds are yet to be adequately identified.

“We are concerned that certain practices go on that indicate illicit flows going through a number of these entities and suspicious flows at best.

“In the case of Binance, in the last one year alone, $26 billion has passed through Binance Nigeria from sources and users who we cannot adequately identify,” he stated.

The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, on Wednesday, said the importation of Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, into Nigeria has reduced by 50 per cent since the withdrawal of subsidy on the commodity.

During his inaugural speech on May 29, 2023, President Bola Tinubu declared that fuel subsidy was gone. Within 24 hours after that declaration, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, Nigeria’s sole importer of PMS, withdrew subsidy on petrol.

This led to a jump in the price of the commodity from about N198/litre to over N500/litre, as it later moved up to over N600/litre and currently sells for between N620/litre and N700/litre depending on the area of purchase.

Speaking at the third edition of the ministerial press briefing series in Abuja on Wednesday, where the Coordinating Minister for Health and Social Welfare addressed journalists, Idris stated that subsidy removal had led to the reduction of fuel imports by 50 per cent.

“Petrol importation has been reduced by 50 per cent since the withdrawal of the fuel subsidy,” the information minister stated.

He explained the continent lacked extensive traditional energy infrastructure, but stressed that this had presented an opportunity for leapfrogging in a more efficient way to renewable technology.

“Our aspiration in the area of energy security and energy transition will remain aspiration unless we have access to adequate funding resources that we control. With a lot of international banks withdrawing funding out of the oil and gas sector, the investment in the industry has become severely limited with the corresponding impact on exploration and production.

“Afreximbank has intervened in a big way, quickly becoming the largest financier of oil and gas deals in the continent. The support provided to the sector by the bank is in excess of $30bn. Nigeria has been one of the largest beneficiaries accounting for almost 60 per cent of the total funding of the sector.

“And it’s important to the point that afreximbank has been able to make those modest contributions in the oil and gas sector because the bank is predominantly African in ownership and control,” he stated.

Oramah disclosed that Afreximbank would be managing the proposed Africa Energy Bank to ensure its best chance of success.

“The strategic goal of the Africa Energy Bank is to play a leadership role in shaping the energy landscape in Africa through strategic partnership with proven African and international financial institutions and investors and also to provide sustainable financing in this area of the oil and gas sector.

“The Africa energy bank will need considerable support to get off the ground. We will need support from member states to achieve the level of capitalization that is adequate to support the energy sector,” he stated.

NNPCL partners OPEC

Also on Wednesday, NNPCL and the Organisation of the Oil Exporting Countries pledged to work together to achieve the Nigeria’s aspirations to attract investments and grow production.

The two organisations came to this accord when the Secretary-General of OPEC, Haitham al-Ghais, paid a courtesy visit to the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, at the NNPC Towers in Abuja.

Speaking at the event, al-Ghais stated that OPEC was completely aligned with NNPCL’s vision as captured in its payoff line: “Energy for Today, Energy for Tomorrow”.

This, he said, was because of the oil firm’s inclusive view of energy as opposed to the view being pushed in some quarters that some sources of energy were bad.

He disclosed that in spite of the pushback on oil and gas, the world would require about $14tn investments from now till 2035 to be able to meet global demand, and urged NNPCL to do everything to tap into that opportunity to raise its production.

“We will continue to ensure that the market is stable. The global market has to be stable in order for Nigeria to be able to attract investors. If there’s volatility, if there’s no stability in the market, it will only create havoc for everybody, whether it’s a producer or consumer country.

“So, we will continue to do that in OPEC. We count on Nigeria’s support,” the OPEC helmsman stated.

In his remarks, Kyari said NNPCL was working very hard to recover lost production and provide the right fiscal environment to attract investments.

He expressed appreciation to OPEC for its support to Nigeria, adding that NNPCL would continue to support the organisation in whatever way it could.

Nigeria reaping

Meanwhile, at the briefing series by the information minister, which was initiated to provide a platform for public officials to reel out their achievements and apprise Nigerians of the challenges of governance, Idris said Nigeria had begun to reap the benefits of the reforms being spearheaded by President Tinubu.

He said  that the Nigeria’s gross domestic product grew by 3.46 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, as against 2.54 per cent recorded in the third quarter of 2023.

 He also said capital importation rose to 66 per cent in the fourth quarter of 2023, reversing a 36 per cent decline in the third quarter.

“The Nigerian Stock Exchange All Share Index crossed the 100,000 mark – its highest ever, mainly due to the pragmatic reforms initiated by the President, which inspired investor confidence in the Nigerian economy.

“It is also encouraging to state that oil production has risen from 1.22 million barrels per day in the second quarter of 2023 to 1.55 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter of 2023.”

President Bola Tinubu announced the removal of petrol subsidy during his inaugural address on May 29, 2023, saying, “Subsidy is gone.”

Idris notes that President Tinubu has also given a directive for the design of a Social Security Unemployment Programme to cater for the unemployed graduates.

“This is in addition to setting up of a Social Consumer Credit Scheme to boost the purchasing power of Nigerians, as they make adjustments in view of the temporary economic hardship.

“As the government rejigs the National Social Investment Programme, the direct payments of N25,000 to 15 million households will resume immediately.

“The government is equally tackling insecurity headlong and more success stories are coming in on daily basis. Without any doubt, we are winning the war against insecurity,” he said.

[Punch]

On Monday, January 8, 2024, Nigerians woke up to the news of the suspension of Betta Edu, who was formerly the minister for Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation. On the same day, Babatunde Ayokunle Irukera who was, for six years, Executive Vice Chairman of the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, (FCCPC), was relieved of his appointment.

Both developments compelled an essay which I titled “On Betta Edu and Tunde Irukera.” The media generously ventilated the article even as I attempted to draw comparisons between two public officers with different pedigrees and “misdemeanours”. Evidence in the public domain attested to blatant disregard for public service rules and mammoth thievery by one of the two people I wrote about. The other public servant was uncharacteristically innovative, transparent and altruistic in his approach to work. He literally excavated a government agency in the throes of asphyxiation and obliteration, to a world-class organisation, to local and international aplomb.

Much unlike me, I had, just weeks before, written about Irukera following the recognition of the agency he superintended over as “Government Agency of the Year”. This was evidence of how very closely I followed the good works of Irukera. The honour in question came from Leadership Newspapers, one of Nigeria’s most reputable tabloids. FCCPC was selected for the acclamation for “promoting fairness, regulatory stability and consumer protection within the marketplace.” My piece alluded to the uncommon-ness of Irukera’s attitude to public service which many officeholders construe as a licence for the wholesale looting and holistic decimation of departments assigned to them. Haven’t we just been told that nine officers in the Nigerian Customs Services, (NCS) were recently fingered in a N12 billion scam?

In pronouncing the FCCPC under Irukera as an authentic public service exemplar, Leadership noted that since his appointment in 2017, the organisation had pursued “a transformative journey reshaping and rebranding the erstwhile Consumer Protection Council, (CPC)”. Further, the newspaper noted that the organisation had been refocused as a “proactive and consumer-centric FCCPC.” Irukera’s oversight of the commission’s transformation and operationalisation beginning from January 30, 2019, Leadership noted had been a game-changer. Further still, the awarding newspaper said: “Following the enactment of the FCCPC Act, Irukera has demonstrated “unwavering dedication to fostering a dynamic and responsive regulatory environment”. The FCCPC under Irukera it was observed “has recorded numerous milestones across diverse sectors including healthcare, digital finance and electricity”.

According to Leadership, “one of the standout accomplishments of Irukera’s FCCPC is the strategic development and implementation of the Patient’s Bill of Rights”. That initiative establishes a comprehensive framework empowering patients with essential rights such as informed consent, confidentiality and unrestricted access to their medical records”. The Patient Bill of Rights, Leadership observed, “serves as a charter of principles delineating the rights and responsibilities of patients, healthcare providers and the regulatory body”. This is “an approach which fosters a culture of transparency, accountability and patient-centric care”.

Irukera’s leadership at the FCCPC witnessed other strategic initiatives and impactful interventions in other sectors, notably in digital finance, the power sector and the nation’s bureaucracy. FCCPC was also catalytic in shaping Nigeria’s business environment which became more cognisant of the emplacement of fairness, consumer protection and regulatory stability. Local and foreign investors have continued to experience the transformative impact of standardised practices instituted by the FCCPC. This congruence between national and international standards, in combination with rigorous process auditing and the development of guidelines and standard operating procedures, serves as an imprimatur of quality assurance in the Nigerian marketplace. These are identified perspectives about Irukera’s exertions in public service as dispassionately enunciated by one of Nigeria’s more serious newspapers.

Confident of his transparent governance approach, Irukera was never shy of media engagement. On the eve of the last yuletide, therefore, Irukera hosted the media where he noted that the FCCPC under him, had become a wholly self-sustaining department. According to him, the FCCPC made history in 2023 by generating N56 billion. The feat was achieved by the simple enforcement of compliance with existing laws vis-a-vis the payment of penalties by defaulting companies. This was a novelty by any standards in a milieu where many government-funded establishments overdraw their allocations, expend their internally generated revenues (IGR) and still prospect for supplementation. Irukera noted at that media interface that the organisation hired new staff in strict adherence to service procedures. This assisted the federal government in taking young, qualified, unemployed people off the streets.

Perhaps if every ministry, department or agency under the thoroughly dysfunctional Muhammadu Buhari regime had transparently recruited qualified youths across board, the national despondency levels would have been mitigated albeit marginally. Much of what we picked up in the media space was hush-hush recruitments into “A-grade” MDAs like the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and so on. After addressing staff emoluments, overhead costs and capital requirements, the FCCPC, Irukera noted, gifted the federal government N22 billion by way of remittances! This was a most un-envisaged precedence by a government agency which was picked up from the backwoods and transformed into a national model, even bride.

On Wednesday, February 28, 2024, the Senate of the Federal Republic under the leadership of Godswill Akpabio, rubber-stamped the request of President Tinubu to sack Irukera. He was deemed inefficient! For those who have followed the quiet yet impactful revolution which Tunde Irukera has pursued in the past six years, nothing can be more preposterous. There wouldn’t be a joke more cruel, more malevolent, more unfeeling than such a testimonial to a man who has invested so much in service to the nation at testy times such as we have been in the past decade. Irukera demonstrated that government concerns can be effectively and productively run. What do we make of an organisation like the National Board for Arabic and Islamic Studies, (NBAIS), which was in September 2022 reprimanded by the legislature for unjustified spending? The Senate Committee on Finance and Appropriation queried NBAIS for spending N8.5 billion annually, on 6,000 employees to administer examinations to 500 students. No heads have rolled ever since in the Professor Muhammad Abdullahi-led organisation.

The spiteful removal of Babatunde Ayokunle Irukera from office the way it has been done is a gross injustice and a colossal disservice to patriotism and sacrifice. There have been unfounded suggestions to the effect that Irukera was blackmailed as one of those who “substantially” supported former Vice President, Yemi Osinbajo’s bid to contest the presidential primary of the All Progressives Congress, (APC) in 2022. This is most farfetched for a technocrat like Irukera whose gaze is almost permanently fixed on his desk treating official correspondences, receiving briefs, and holding meetings. In other climes, Irukera should by now have in the bag recognitions like the “National Productivity Order of Merit,” (NPOM) as well as a minimum investiture with a national honour in the category of “Officer of the Order of the Niger,” (OON). He chose, however, not to hunt for titular aggrandisement preferring to immerse himself wholly and completely in service to fatherland.

Irukera’s mistreatment echoes the manner Damilola Ogunbiyi who was managing director of the Rural Electrification Agency under the Buhari government, was unjustly treated in 2019. She has since moved on to the global heights of the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General for Sustainable Energy for All. She is also Co-Chair of UN Energy.

Irukera always had a flourishing law practice in the United States before heeding the call to avail the country of his multiplex competencies and experiences. He is not a jobber like many whose only CV is “being abroad”. For as long as he remained in his job in Nigeria, he ran his family by telephone, virtually. The manner he has been treated will be a major disincentive to Nigerians out there who would otherwise be glad to come contribute their quotas to national development. In Irukera, Nigeria has a brand ambassador who should be engaged to hoist the nation’s banner across the world. He deserves to be genuinely apologised to, pacified and given his flowers.

Olusunle, PhD, poet, journalist, scholar and author is a Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors, (ANA).

Federal government investigation has revealed that some parody non-governmental organisations (NGOs), within West Africa are being used to fund terror organisations.

The commandant of the National Defence College, Abuja, Rear Admiral Olumuyiwa Olotu, disclosed this at the opening session of a five-day workshop organised by the Inter-Governmental Action Group Against Money Laundering in West Africa (GIABA).

GIABA is a specialised institution of the Economic Community of West African States, ECOWAS, responsible for facilitating the adoption and implementation of Anti-Money Laundering, AML, and Counter Financing of Terrorism, CFT, strategies in West Africa.

Nigeria was represented at the event by the National Counter Terrorism Centre, NCTC, the Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit, NFIU, National Defence College and the Department of State Services, DSS.

In his remarks at the workshop which provided a platform for ECOWAS member states to brainstorm and create curriculum and training modules to counter terror financing within the region, which was read by Dr. Adam Abdullahi, said efforts were on to block all the sources of funds open to terrorist organisations in the country.

He, however, decried that some of the terror groups had resorted to seeking funds through various less suspectable means.

“The moment we are able to interrupt the financing of terrorist groups, about 50 per cent of our problem is solved. Majority of the sources of funds for these criminal elements are unconventional means, such as kidnapping for ransom and illegal declaration of taxation in the Lake Chad Basin.

“The moment we are able to seal off these unofficial sources of income and identify ways of blocking them, as well as some official sources as religious organisations and other parody NGOs who are supporting terrorism, the better for us,” he added.

Also at the event, the director-general of the DSS, Mr Yusuf Bichi, described terrorism as one of the most significant threats to global peace.

Bichi, who was represented by Mr. A.S. Adeleke, said there was need to dismantle “the subversive funding mechanism” that sustain terrorist networks within West Africa.

He said the effort would require a comprehensive and coordinated response aimed at undermining the capacity of terror groups to cause harm in the society.

“At the heart of our effort to counter terrorism lies, is the need to disrupt and dismantle the financial network that enable its operation.

“Terrorist organisations rely on a steady flow of funds to recruit, train and equip their operatives to propagate their extremism ideology and carry out their heinous acts of violence.

“By targeting their financial lifelines, we can undermine their capacities to function. However, combating terrorism financing is not task that only one agency of government can undertake. It requires close cooperation and coordination among law enforcement agencies, financial institutions, civil society organisations and international regulatory community at large. It demands shared commitment on information sharing, capacity building and the implementation of our robust legal and regulatory frameworks,” he added.

On his part, the coordinator, NCTC, Real Admiral Y.E. Musa, lamented that activities of various terrorist groups had persistently increased, despite the sustained efforts and cooperation among national governments within the region.

The federal government has reportedly detained two top executives of Binance, the cryptocurrency trading platform.

According to Financial Times on Wednesday, the executives flew to  Nigeria but had their passports seized by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

The report said the executives visited Nigeria in response to the country’s recent crackdown on various cryptocurrency trading platforms.  

Although the reasons for their detention are unknown, their arrest is coming amid allegation of manipulation in foreign exchange trading in Nigeria.

Bayo Onanuga, special adviser to President Bola Tinubu on information and strategy, on February 21, 2024, said Binance and other cryptocurrency platforms should be banned from operating in the country

He said Binance is “blatantly setting exchange rate for Nigeria,” and hijacking the role of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

The special adviser called on the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the CBN to move against the platforms, adding that the firms are trying to “manipulate our national currency to ground zero”.

Also on February 27, 2024, Olayemi Cardoso, governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), said $26 billion passed through Binance Nigeria from unidentified sources in one year.

Cardoso said the apex bank is collaborating with the SEC to ensure there is no manipulation in the FX market.

He said there was also collaboration between the different agencies which includes the EFCC,  the police, and of course, the office of the NSA.

On June 9, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) had said the operation of Binance Nigeria Limited, a subsidiary of Binance, was illegal.

Meanwhile, despite the federal government and the CBN’s plan to clampdown on cryptocurrency trading, Binance is still operational.

The crypto firm, however, has discontinued the trading of the naira against bitcoin and tether cryptocurrencies on its exchange platform.

[TheCable]

With his supporters turning the Kirikiri (Lagos) Maximum Security Prison into a pilgrimage site, authorities of the Nigeria Correctional Service (NCoS) were forced to move the condemned Founder/General Overseer, Christian Praying Assembly (CPA) Church Worldwide, ‘Daddy G.O., His Holiness, The Most Honourable Dr Rev King’, to Kuje Prison in Abuja. Not long after, according to sources, the same problem surfaced and King was transferred to Kaduna Prison. Today, ‘God in black skin, the man of the moment, every moment and the final moment, the last preacher of the truthful gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ’ is in Maiduguri Maximum Security Prison in Borno State where, from what I have gathered in recent days, he continues to live large as devotees troop to pay him obeisance. And on Monday, as has been the tradition every year for almost two decades, there were several pages of colour adverts to celebrate his birthday. 

The story of King says a lot about criminal justice administration in Nigeria – both positive and negative. While the judiciary has discharged its responsibility creditably, the executive has become a clog, with a growing number of Nigerian death row inmates. Last December, the NCoS spokesman, Abubakar Umar, lamented that there are 3,413 condemned inmates across the country. Part of the constitutional responsibilities of Governors is to sign the death warrants of convicted murderers or commute their sentence to imprisonment. Unfortunately, our governors would rather do nothing. The result is that death row inmates end up spending decades on a roller coaster existence. In his own case, King has spent nine years as a condemned man.

King was arraigned at the Lagos High Court, Ikeja on 26 September 2006 for the murder of one Ann Uzor, a member of his church, and the attempted murder of five others. He allegedly doused the six with petrol before setting them ablaze on grounds that they committed fornication. While Uzoh died from injuries sustained from the burns, others survived, though they may also have died by now since nobody followed up on them. In a judgement delivered on 11 January 2007, Justice Olubunmi Oyewole convicted and sentenced King to death for the murder of Ann Uzor. King appealed the judgement but lost. Not satisfied, he approached the Supreme Court which on 26 February 2015 affirmed the judgements of both the Lagos High Court and Court of Appeal.

The five-man apex court bench that tried the case was led by then Chief Justice of Nigeria, Justice Walter Onnoghen. Facts of the case, according to the late Justice Sylvester Ngwuta who read the lead judgement, “could have been lifted from a horror film.” Ngwuta said: “The prosecution’s case was that the appellant accused six of his people of immoral behaviour. He called them together, beat each of them with many hard objects and after the beating, he assembled them downstairs, made them kneel and he caused petrol to be poured on them and a struck match thrown on them. They all sustained various degrees of burns. While five of them escaped, the sixth of them who later died sustained 65 per cent degree burns. You can imagine her last day in the hospital.” King, according to Justice Ngwuta, “denied this incident, saying though he punished them for immoral behaviour, the punishment was different from the incident that gave birth to this charge. He said they sustained injuries when a generator exploded. But throughout the proceedings, this mysterious generator was never produced.”

There are two issues here. The first has to do with what I once described as ‘faith and fanaticism’ in Nigeria and how that is being exploited by charlatans. But that is not my business for today. The second is on the issue of the death penalty itself. During the 2023 World Day Against the Death Penalty last October, Attorney General of the Federation and Justice Minister, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), stated that many countries, including Nigeria, are being encouraged to consider reforms on capital punishment. “The World Day against the Death Penalty is not merely a day of solemn remembrance, but a call to action,” Fagbemi said. “It is a day when we, as global citizens, come together to emphasise that every life is sacred, and no mistake or crime should ever push us toward actions that we cannot reverse.” Many Western diplomats also used the occasion to campaign for Nigeria to drop the death penalty even when, in some of their countries, they still carry out executions.

I followed the execution drama of Kenneth Smith who was subjected to inhaling pure nitrogen through a mask until he suffocated last month in Alabama, United States. The United Nations Commissioner for Human Rights (UNCHR), Volker Türk, and several others, had urged Alabama State authorities to cancel the execution on 25 January but were ignored. And despite claims that the execution (the first through such method anywhere in the world) would be “swift, painless and humane”, Smith reportedly shook, convulsed, writhed, and gasped for breath until he was pronounced dead after more than 20 minutes.

The story began on 18 March 1988, when Elizabeth Sennett, wife of a Pastor, was stabbed to death in a contract killing orchestrated by her husband, Charles Sennett, who later committed suicide when he realised his cover had been blown. The Pastor, said to be heavily indebted, was having an affair with another woman, and had taken out a life insurance policy on his wife before hiring Billy Gray Williams who in turn recruited Smith and John Forrest Parker to assist in her murder. Each was paid $1,000. At trial, Williams (the middleman) was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole and died in prison in November 2020. Smith and Parker who carried out the killing were both sentenced to death. Parker was executed via lethal injection in June 2010. Not surprisingly, it took a long time to execute the judgement on Smith because of several lawsuits filed on his behalf.

However, the real drama started on 17 November 2022 after Smith had eaten what was supposed to be his last meal and said the traditional goodbyes to his mother and grandson. With his death warrant already signed, Smith was placed on a gurney inside the execution chamber, his arms and legs strapped down. But for almost four hours prison officials could not find the intravenous line on Smith’s body to administer the lethal injection. By the time the execution was suspended close to midnight, shortly before expiration of the death warrant, Smith’s body was already riddled with puncture holes, according to reports. What followed was predictable. Lawsuits were again filed to stop his execution but they all failed. “After more than 30 years and attempt after attempt to game the system, Mr Smith has answered for his horrendous crimes,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey who signed the death warrant said in a statement shortly after the execution on 25 January. “I pray that Elizabeth Sennett’s family can receive closure after all these years dealing with that great loss.”

This then brings me back home to Rev. King who has been on death row for the past nine years. Interestingly, birthday congratulatory adverts in his honour this year offer a practical solution to the problems of Nigeria. “Daddy, you are God’s divine solution to the problem of mankind. The problem you cannot solve does not exist. All the prophecies that you gave about Nigeria have come to fulfilment exactly as you prophesied,” wrote Eng. Somitobechukwu King. “If the power brokers of Nigeria would be humble enough to consult you, I know for a fact that you are the only man endowed with the ability to transform Nigeria from the capital of poverty and clandestine activities which it currently is, to one of the wealthiest and adorable nations of planet earth.”

At a period in history when Nigerians are going through harrowing times, this may indeed be the solution we need. But before ‘His Holiness’ can rescue our country; he must first rescue himself from the death sentence for which there is no longer any appeal.

Now to the issue of capital punishment. As much as I understand the argument against the death penalty (‘an eye for an eye makes the world go blind’), I have also wrestled with the question of how to ensure closure for families of those gruesomely murdered, including by killers who show no remorse for their crimes. Don’t such families also deserve justice? That precisely was the question resolved in Alabama with the execution of Smith last month. At some point in Nigeria, the matter of ‘His Holiness, Dr Rev King’ will also have to be resolved. One way or another!

Much Ado about Oronsaye Report

On Monday, the federal government announced its preparedness to implement theSteve Oronsaye Report of 2012 and the subsequent 2014 White Paper by the Mohammed Bello Adoke inter-ministerial committee. President Bola Tinubu, we have been told, has given the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF) a 12-week implementation timeline. “Many agencies will be scrapped, and many others will be merged, to pave the way to a leaner government,” according topresidential spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, in a post on X (formerly Twitter), following Monday’s Federal Executive Council (FEC) meeting. The specific agencies to be merged or scrapped have also been highlighted so the weeks ahead are bound to be interesting in that regard.

Considering that I have written several columns on the Oronsaye Report, I crave the indulgence of readers to share a few excerpts from the first one, ‘Public Service in Private interest’, published on 7th February 2013, before I conclude with my take on the current issue.

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.. anybody who has read the report of the Presidential Committee on the Restructuring and Rationalisation of the Federal Government Paratastals, Commissions and Agencies cannot but understand the waste we call government in Nigeria. Chaired by former Head of Service, Mr Steve Oronsaye, the committee, established in August 2011, submitted its report in April 2012. And it has come out with damning revelations. The executive summary highlights some of the salient rot in the identified 541 federal government agencies, 50 of which have no enabling laws! There are also 55 agencies that are in the statutes book yet not under the supervision of any ministry and some of them include: National Agency for Population Programmes and Development; Population Activities Fund; Population Fund Activities Agency and Population Research Fund!

According to the report, one common feature of virtually all the parastatals is the prevalence of high personnel cost as “many of them receive more budgetary allocations for personnel than they require because that component of their budget is usually inflated”. Several of them are also “obvious duplications of existing bodies” which then underscores the fact of “overlaps and enormous wastage of scarce resources”. To compound the situation, “successive administrations have over the years created parastatals which were not necessarily based on requisite need assessment that would drive development agenda”.

Debts owed local contractors, the report stated, had long been verified and paid off by a previous administration, which instructed all MDAs to ensure that any new debt be treated as First Line charge entities in Annual Budgets. However, “several years on, it is worrisome that payment to local contractors continue to feature in our National Budget, thereby giving the impression that the authorities are condoning the bad behaviour”. Further revelations include the fact that there are 106 core research and quasi-research institutes spread across the nation with little or no end product and this may be why: “In the 2011 Fiscal year, the sum of N97,108,917,918 was allocated to all the Institutes with personnel and Overhead Costs accounting for N42,581,362,128 and N10,157,863,826 respectively. Of the N44,369,691,964 allocated to Capital, only N10,408,574,488 was for core research activities.” We can see from the more than N97 billion earmarked for Research Institutes that only about 10 percent of the money is expended on core research work with the rest going into salaries and sundry procurements!

Most of the revelations in the Oronsaye Report depict very clearly that public office in our country has become avenues for the pursuit of private interests by many. But that is just a small part of the story of waste if one considers the unwieldy nature of the governing boards of these agencies and their number, as well as their overlapping and duplicating functions. For instance, some of the agencies in the ministry of Culture and Tourism are: National Institute for Culture Orientation; National Theatre; National Troupe of Nigeria; National Council for Arts and Culture; Centre for Black and African Arts and Civilization; National Gallery of Arts; National Commission for Museums and Monuments and then you have the Nigerian Tourism Development Corporation (NTDC) and National Institute of Hospitality and Tourism Development Corporation! Yet each of these nine stand-alone agencies has a Director General or Managing Director, full board membership and a retinue of mostly redundant staff. And it is from the Oronsaye report that I learnt that we actually have a full-fledged Research Institute for the study of Trypanosomiasis!…

ENDNOTE: For those who are excited about the decision of the current administration to implement the Oronsaye Report, let me remind them that we have been down this road before. In April 2020, then Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed, announced that President Muhammadu Buhari had approved implementation of the report on which a White Paper was also approved. “This is a report that has been in place for a long time and there hasn’t been implementation, but the President has approved that it should be implemented,” she declared. Not only was nothing done in that direction, but the administration ended up adding hundreds of new federal agencies such that the number of agencies in the federal government budget for this year is 929! So, rather than a reduction, we have almost doubled the number of federal government cost centres that we had 12 years ago before the Oronsaye Panel.

Mindful of this motion without movement that has been the bane of public engagement over the years, Oronsaye prefaced the submission of his report in 2012 with a recall. More than a decade after the White Paper on the Ahmed Joda Panel Report on the Review, Harmonization and Rationalization of Federal Government Parastatals, Institutions and Agencies (2000) by the Olusegun Obasanjo administration, Oronsaye told President Jonathan twelve years ago, “some parastatals and agencies, which government had decided should either be scrapped, commercialized, privatized or self-funding, are still receiving full government funding, which runs into billions of Naira.” 

Reducing the cost of governance is good. But the jury is still out as to what the Tinubu administration intends to do with the Oronsaye Report. I will wait to see what happens in the coming weeks!

• You can follow me on my X (formerly Twitter) handle, @Olusegunverdict and on www.olusegunadeniyi.com   

In an unprecedented move, the Harvard Business School, the graduate business school of Harvard University, is set to cast the spotlight on the Tony Elumelu Foundation (TEF), recognising the Foundation’s extraordinary philanthropic achievement in a ground-breaking case study.

The case study, first of its kind on any philanthropic organisation in Africa, is to be launched on Thursday, February 29, 2024, before a class of graduate students in Boston, Massachusetts and will explore the Foundation's unique approaches and transformative initiatives, showcasing how strategic philanthropy offered by TEF is driving positive change and elevating countries and communities.

This move by Harvard underscores the Foundation’s pivotal role in empowering young African entrepreneurs across all 54      African countries and places the Foundation at the forefront of global discussions on transformative and catalytic philanthropy, acknowledging its significant contributions towards fostering entrepreneurship in Africa.

In addition to delving into the foundation's innovative approaches and the resultant impact it has garnered over the years, the event will also feature an exclusive acknowledgment of the Founder of TEF, Tony Elumelu’s economic philosophy of Africapitalism, which positions the private sector, and most importantly entrepreneurs, as the catalyst for the social and economic development of the African continent. 

The Tony Elumelu Foundation is the leading philanthropy, empowering a new generation of African entrepreneurs, driving poverty eradication, catalysing job creation across all 54 African countries, and increasing inclusive economic empowerment. 

Since the launch of the TEF Entrepreneurship Programme in 2015, the Foundation has trained over 1.5 million young Africans on its digital hub, TEFConnect, and disbursed over USD$100 million in direct funding to 20,000 young African women and men, who have collectively created over 400,000 direct and indirect jobs.

Tony Elumelu who spoke on the impact of TEF on the African youth said, “TEF is creating economic hope and opportunity for African Entrepreneurs. We know that entrepreneurship is the antidote to poverty, youth unemployment and insecurity. Through the intervention of the Tony Elumelu Foundation, we are encouraging our young people, giving them hope through the seed capital we provide, capacitising them through the training and mentoring we provide and setting them up to create businesses that will succeed and create even more jobs. Collectively we are fixing the challenges that we have on the continent.

Continuing, he said, “the Tony Elumelu Foundation was set up to create more successful African business leaders. We want to replicate our own success and create entrepreneurs who will build more prosperity on the continent and for the continent. It’s all about transforming our society and making sure that we leave the society better than we met it. It is not about the money that we have in our bank accounts, it is about the legacy that we make and the impact we create. Prosperity for all is what will create the security, harmony and peace that we need.”

The Harvard Business School session will provide a platform for thought leaders, scholars, and business enthusiasts to engage in a meaningful discussion on the role of philanthropy in shaping sustainable and inclusive economies. As the world grapples with complex challenges, the Tony Elumelu Foundation stands as a beacon of hope, showcasing how strategic philanthropy can be a driving force for positive change.

The foremost governorship aspirants of the All Progressives Congress and the State Governor, Lucky Aiyedatiwa, are engaged in a war of words over the visit of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to Ondo State on Wednesday.

The aspirants accused Aiyedatiwa of preventing the aspirants and party leadership from receiving the president during his visit to the state.

Speaking on behalf of others, the former finance commissioner and governorship aspirant, Wale Akinterinwa, said the governor deliberately sidelined other leaders and aspirants of the party to receive Tinubu.

Akinterinwa, in a statement issued by the spokesperson of the Wale Akinterinwa Campaign Structure, Segun Ajiboye, in Akure, said the aspirants were aware of plans by certain elements acting for and on behalf of the Governor of Ondo State, Hon. Lucky Aiyedatiwa.

“This is to prevent members of our party and leaders who are not in his camp from receiving Mr President, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, in Akure.”

Ajiboye, who said that all the aspirants rejected the dictatorial order by the governor, said, “This to us is the most undemocratic, disrespectful, unreasonable, and disdainful attempt by any chief executive in the history of democracy in Nigeria.

“Ordinarily, we would not have responded, but based on the intelligent report at our disposal that he and his supporters have perfected plans to unleash mayhem on our people both at Owo and Akure, it is necessary for us to bring this to the attention of peace-loving Nigerians. 

“The directive that no supporter or aspirant should come to the airport to welcome Mr President, who is on a private visit and not on a state visit, is a directive from ignorant minds in Alagbaka. 

“It is a tradition that whenever the President visits any state, members of his party offer him their love and support by welcoming him in their droves. It does not matter whether it is election year or not. 

“We reject affirmatively the directive that neither our leader, Wale Akinterinwa, nor his supporters should come near the airport to welcome Mr President. 

“We further reject the assertion that the governor is in charge of the president’s safety in Ondo State during this visit. 

“It must also be put on record that the airport is under federal law supretended by FAAN. So, Mr Governor cannot give any order or lay claim to any powers he does not possess. 

“The attempt by Ayedatiwa and his henchmen to prevent, intimidate, harass, or threaten our supporters and party men will not work and will not be tolerated. 

“For us in WA, we are already mobilised and ready to show solidarity, love, and support to our leader, mentor, and Commander in Chief both at Owo and Akure. 

“We state without any ambiguity that the WA phenomenon will be focused and consistent in our pursuit of our goals towards Alagbaka in 2024. The momentum of our campaign will remain steady, peaceful, and consistent. 

“Let it be known that the WA team is already on the ground to show the affinity we have for Mr President.” 

However, the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Prince Ebenezer Adeniyan, said that the President’s visit is a state affair and not a political or campaign one. 

Adeniyan added that only government officials and those accredited by the government will have the opportunity to receive the president at the airport, not a campaign crowd.