The escape of Nadeem Anjanwalla, one of the two detained executives of Binance Holdings Ltd, from the DSS custody in Abuja is the most embarrassing security breach of the Tinubu administration and it’s a clear pointer to the porosity of our fight against terrorism and financial crimes. Elsewhere, such lapses would automatically lead to the sack of the security chief, arrest of the guards and their supervisors and the resignation of the supervising minister. But in Nigeria, the government will move on as if nothing happened. So far, the government has remained tightlipped.

Anjarwalla and his colleague, Tigran Gamabaryan, together with their company, Binance Holdings, were facing charges of tax evasion, money laundering and other offences in the Federal High Court Abuja. The two men have been in DSS custody since February 26 when they arrived the country. Anjarwalla is Binance’s Africa regional manager and Gambaryan, a US citizen is its compliant officer.

The company is facing serious criminal charges including nonpayment of VAT, company income tax and complicity in aiding its customers to evade taxes through its platform; failure to register with FIRS for tax purposes and unwillingness to collect and remit various categories of taxes to the federal government, thus contravening Section 40 of the FIRS Act of 2007. In addition, Binance is accused of encouraging speculative currency trading on its platform which was responsible for the drastic fall in the value of the Naira. The two men are co-defendants in the case.

A criminal charge was filed against the two executives before a Magistrate Court in Abuja, and on February 28, the court granted the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) an order to remand the duo for 14 days. The court also ordered Binance to provide the Nigerian government with the data/information of Nigerians trading on its platform. But the company refused to comply with the order and the court extended the remand of the officials for an additional 14 days to prevent them from tampering with evidence. The court then adjourned the case till April 4. Meantime, the government has revealed that over $21.6 billion was traded by Nigerians whose identities were concealed by Binance. The government also believes that some dubious persons were using Binance for money laundering, terrorist financing, currency speculation and market manipulation, distorting the Nigerian economy and weakening the Naira against other currencies.

These are very serious indictments that border on serious economic sabotage against the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Whosoever aided and abetted the escape of one of them should be treated as an economic saboteur and an enemy of Nigeria. According to Premium Times, Anjarwalla, 38, escaped on Friday, 22 March, from the Abuja guest house of the DSS where he and his colleague were detained after guards on duty led him to a nearby mosque for prayers in the spirit of the ongoing Ramadan fast. A British citizen with a dual Kenyan citizenship, Anjarwalla is believed to have fled on a Middle East airliner. Security officials are however puzzled that Anjarwalla left the country although his British passport, with which he entered Nigeria, had been seized by the Nigerian authorities.

I am not puzzled. Rich people can wangle their way out of any tight situation, especially in a nation of corrupt officials. For a man who was detained in a comfortable setting in a guest house and allowed use of telephones, it is no brainer that he was able arrange for his Kenyan passport to be sent to him, and with that he fled Nigeria. It is also likely that Anjawarlla had also compromised our security guards with huge financial inducements. In December 2019, Nissan chief executive, Carlos Ghosn, escaped from a house arrest in Japan to his country, Lebanon, in what has been described as a most daring escape of the 21st century.

The escape of the Binance executive is the latest in the long string of security challenges that has plagued the country in recent months, the recent being the kidnap of over 140 school children in Kaduna and killings of 17 soldiers and six policemen in Delta State. Although President Tinubu has shown some courage in tackling insecurity, there are indications that there are powerful fifth columnists who are willing to sabotage his efforts. The persistent killings of peasant farmers in North Central region and the inability of the security forces to stop them smacks of collusion between some elements in the security forces and the terrorists. The upsurge in violence in the Niger Delta, especially the persistent massacres of soldiers and policemen is seen as an attempt to plunge the region into another orgy of violence in order to disrupt oil production. A prolonged cessation oil exports may lead to an unprecedented economic crisis and immense social upheavals.

In many jurisdictions, Binance is mired in legal controversies. In February, Binance Holdings Ltd agreed to pay $4.3 billion fine in a plea deal to settle criminal money laundering charges levelled by the US Department of Justice. Binance founder and CEO Changpeng Zhao, also known as CZ, pleaded guilty and agreed to resign. His criminal trial has been postponed to 30 April by a US court. The government must seek to bring Anjawarlla back to face the law and all those who are complicit in his escape should be punished.

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party at the 2023 general election, Peter Obi, has lamented over the rising reports of stampede across the country.

Expressing concerns in a statement released via his official X account, the former Anambra governor, who was reacting to the latest report of a stampede that resulted in the death of four in Bauchi state, lamented that life had become cheap in the country.

Naija News reports that Obi suggested that the regular reports of stampedes and food struggles reflected the deep hunger and starvation the country was currently experiencing.

Obi said, “It is saddening how cheap life has become in this country today. It is now a daily occurrence to read reports of our fellow Nigerians who lose their lives while struggling for basic food to eat.

“Just 3 days ago, I lamented the disheartening occurrence involving some of our children at Nasarawa State University who lost their lives in a stampede while hustling for government-provided food.

“Yesterday, another four people have also reportedly lost their lives in a stampede during an almsgiving zakat exercise for the poor in Bauchi State. These regular occurrences of stampede and struggle for food only reflect the depth of hunger and starvation in the country.

“It also shows the level of desperation among our people. With food prices soaring higher every day and our nation continuing to wallow in unproductivity, our people now live their lives not knowing where the next meal will come from.

“What is more concerning is the report of UNICEF projecting that over 30 million Nigerians will face acute hunger during the lean months, between June and August.

“We now have a situation where our people are losing their lives to hunger before the projected timeline. The physical hunt and struggle for scarce food has become a life threatening adventure in itself.

“We have never had it this bad in the nation as we do now, and unless very urgent actions are taken, the situation may get worse. I sincerely appeal to the government to release every resource, human and material, needed to end insecurity in the country,
so that farmers can return to the farms, and with the government’s support, ensure that our vast arable lands in the North are fully explored to feed Nigerians and export to the rest of the world.”

[NaijaNews]

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) increased the monetary policy rate (MPR) by 400 basis points, elevating it to a historic high of 22.75% to combat inflation and foster economic stability.

This pivotal adjustment signifies a major shift from the previous rate of 18.75%, which had been in effect since the Monetary Policy Committee’s (MPC) meeting on July 24th and 25th, 2023.

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

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

The decision has garnered praise from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which commended the MPC’s resolve to tighten monetary policy further by increasing the policy rate to 22.75%.

Such a strategic manoeuvre aims to curb the inflation surge, which recorded a year-on-year peak of 31.70% in February 2024, and to mitigate the depreciative pressures on the naira.

Since May 2022, this has accumulated to a total policy tightening of 1,025 basis points, showcasing the CBN’s commitment to restoring macroeconomic equilibrium.

However, the steep increase in the policy rate has sparked concerns regarding the potential impact on the cost of credit for businesses already facing economic hardships.

Each bank offers different lending rates that reflect their respective approaches to lending to the manufacturing industry.

The prime rate indicates the best possible rate offered to the most creditworthy customers, while the maximum rate suggests the upper limit of interest rates for loans to the sector, which might apply to higher-risk scenarios or different loan structures.

Here are the top 10 banks with the highest prime lending rates for manufacturing firms in Nigeria, according to the CBN as of March 8, 2024:

10. Titan Trust Bank

With a prime rate of 23.00%, this bank offers competitive lending options for the manufacturing sector. Its maximum rate stands at 30.50%, indicating a range of loan products that could cater to different types of manufacturing businesses.

9. Optimus Bank

Offering a prime rate of 23.75%, Optimus Bank positions itself as a strong contender for manufacturing firms looking for loans. The maximum rate here is 35.00%.

8. Fidelity Bank

With a prime lending rate of 24.00%, Fidelity Bank is another bank that serves the manufacturing industry with tailored financial solutions. Its maximum rate is comparatively lower at 26.00%, potentially indicating a narrower range of loan products or more consistent loan terms.

7. Providus Bank

At a prime rate of 25.00%, Providus Bank extends credit to the manufacturing sector, likely with various loan options, as suggested by its maximum rate of 30.00%. This could mean a variety of terms and conditions to meet the different financial needs of manufacturing businesses.

6. Unity Bank

Unity Bank’s prime rate for manufacturers is 26.00%, with a maximum lending rate of 33.00%. This spread allows for flexibility in financing, offering a range of possibilities for manufacturers with varying credit needs.

5. Ecobank

With a prime rate of 26.75%, Ecobank offers one of the highest rates to the manufacturing sector. The maximum rate of 35.00% indicates that the bank has a broad spectrum of loan products, which could cater to a wide array of manufacturing ventures.

4. Heritage Bank

Offering a prime rate of 27.00%, Heritage Bank stands as one of the highest lending options for the manufacturing industry. Its maximum rate of 35.00% showcases its readiness to accommodate various manufacturing operations with diverse financial requirements.

3. United Bank for Africa (UBA)

United Bank for Africa presents a prime rate of 28.50%, making it the third most expensive lending option for the manufacturing sector. The bank’s maximum rate is 32.00%, signifying a range of loan options available to manufacturers.

2. Wema Bank

With a prime rate of 30.50%, Wema Bank is among the most expensive lenders for manufacturing firms in Nigeria. The bank’s maximum rate is at 31.50%, which likely suggests a lesser appetite for loans to manufacturers.

1. Keystone Bank Ltd

Keystone Bank Ltd leads with the highest prime rate of 31.00%, making it the most expensive in lending to the manufacturing sector. The maximum rate of 36.00% is also the highest on this list.

Recommended reading: CBN’s 22.75% interest rate hike sparks fears of increased non-performing loans- Experts

[Nairametrics]

To make your dreams come Trululu.

Delulu is thinking that you will wake up one morning, set out as usual to go about your business and you will, by luck, meet the popular Instagram philanthropist, Asherkine. Then he asked you what you wanted, and you told him 50 million naira, and he credited your account immediately.

Boom!

E don better for you. Delulu is having fee-fee imaginations such as you find in a Ghana-Must-Go bag filled with dollars. Boom! Your fortune turns around. From a poor person, Dangote begins to pick up your calls.

Delulu is when you are single to a stupor, yet stay indoors every day with zero social life and communication skills and hope that your life partner will miraculously appear in the form of Angel Michael to propose to you in your room. Delusional single!

Delulu is thinking that by recording a dance video to an artist’s song, as Moses Bliss’s wife did, it will also earn you your conjugal bliss. It is thinking that by joining Bro. Theo to chant and sing “No Glory in this World,” you will bag your own full package American babe. Boom!

Delulu is hoping that you will one day find out that your father is not your biological father and you are Femi Otedola’s son. Or that your father, Falola Idan, has babanla bastard money and has only been pretending to be poor so that he can teach you humility. Or that you are a trust fund kid and will only be able to access the billion dollars your parents have kept for you when you are 42. Baba Falola, die now so that I can collect my inheritances at First Bank. Boom boom!

Delulu is thinking that you will sleep, wake up and miraculously have all the things you have ever wanted at the snap of a finger without you working for it. Delulu is wishing you were a genie or had superpowers to make your dreams come true at the wave of a magical wand.

Abracadabra!

Yes, all of these can happen to you, as has happened to some people, but what are the chances? It is like tossing a coin; the probability that it will fall on a particular side is very slim.

Delulu is living in a world of fantasy, thinking and imagining things that may or may never happen. Delulu is you having vivid imaginations. Delulu is the Gen-Z term for “delusional,” Solulu means “solution,” while the ajasa, trululu means “true”. Delulu is the Solulu;therefore, it means that being delusional and living in the world of your imagination is a way to create the life of your dreams and escape the harsh reality of the present world.

The slang, Delulu is the Solulu, went viral following a TikTok video by Moses Wong, in which he said, “In this generation, being delusional is one of the key factors to being happy.” While the slogan might be a Gen-Z term for thinking and staying positive, the idea is nothing new. Universally, the law of assumption states that by believing the things you want already exist in your life, you will manifest them into reality. This positive thinking tactic is a strategy for creating the life of your dreams; if you want something desperately and you believe you will have it, the forces of the universe will attract them to you. Why do you think millions flood the religious camps every month?

Delulu is choosing to think positively and be optimistic even in the face of a harsh reality. Nigerians are a perfect example of delulus. Nigerians catch cruises with everything; we use everything about our situation or the situation of the country to crack jokes. Once we lament about it and it seems like the echoes of our voices are not heard, not to talk of our voices themselves, because we cannot kill ourselves or start dying from depression, we resort to laughing and cruising about our predicament, even when we know that nothing about it is funny. Our sense of humour seems to be what gets us through the tough times. We have probably made peace with the opinion that delulu is the solulu to make the Nigerian dream come trululu. The great Nigeria we dream of is in our minds. A Nigeria free of corruption, insecurity, economic struggles, leadership crisis, and other national problems is only real in our minds, and this assures us that Nigeria will be great again. We may not know how or when, but this is our delulu as a nation. This delulu is easy to imagine but difficult to experience.

Delulu is all about living life even when all odds are set against you, when the walls around your life are crumbling, and your whole life seems to be on fire. Delulu believes that even though you walk “through the valley of the shadow of death”, you fear no evil. It is passing through fire and not burning, walking through water and not drowning.

Delulu is when you manage to soak garri with groundnut due to sapa in Tinubu’s economy, but you make yourself believe you are eating “groceries and floating berries.” Delulu is when you are the owner of the largest conglomerate in the world and No. 1 on the Forbes list, but in reality, you keep making excuses to start up just one business. You are delulu when you start calling yourself a CEO because you just started a popcorn and groundnut business in front of your house. In your delulu, you are the big man who runs the town with big money, spending like sweat, wealthy enough to afford anything. But in reality, you avoid whatever you cannot afford.

Being Delulu is having unrealistic fantasies and beliefs. The way children are tricked into believing in themselves as they grow up is by making them delusional. With the advent of comic cartoons, such as Power Rangers, Barbie, Cinderella, Frozen and the like, children begin to see themselves as these characters to the extent of behaving like these characters until they grow up to realize that those characters were never real and their delulu can never be trululu, except they choose to collect witch so they can fly at midnight.

As funny and harmless as it may sound, delulu can be negative. You may be having delulu about how to japa from the country, while someone somewhere is having delulu about bombing up a town so he can be rewarded with ten virgins in paradise. There may be someone out there who considers his or her delusion fun enough to enter into a school, shooting and killing innocent schoolchildren just because his mind is powerful enough to conjure up such thoughts and imaginations.

Delulu, in and of itself, is not bad, but it becomes a problem when you dwell in it for so long that it begins to blur out reality or makes you want to slack or become an idiot. There is a way imagination or living in your mind too much can affect your life and mentality such that irrespective of facts and reality staring you in the face, you adamantly choose to believe the falsity your mind is wrapped in. Delulu may stem from other people, the things you read, watch or listen to. Try Twitter for a month and see. You are welcome! The things you expose yourself to gradually begin to have a hold on your mind, so strong that even if the origin of the delulu later comes to say they were wrong, you are already a goner because nothing can change your deluded mind. Like that, psycho is entering small small.

Having fee-fee imaginations can be a good way to escape reality for a while and create the life of your dreams; delulu can help you go on a trip to the Bahamas without leaving your bed in Ajegunle, but if you live in that delulu longer than you should, your life may never become as good as you have imagined. Let your delulu instead ginger you to work harder so that all your nice dreams will not just be in your head. Rather than keep hoping that you are Elon Musk’s secret child who will inherit all his money, strive to be an Elon Musk for your children and generations yet unborn. Your parents may not have given you a trust fund, but they work hard and smartly to make your children trust fund babies.

Remember, if you can dream or imagine it, you can be it. But delulu without action or hard work is not the solulu to make your dreams come trululu. Of all the people who think that Toyin Falola uses juju to write over 200 books, their delulu has taken them to the mountains and valleys to write their own books, but they are still praying for solulu without trululu. When next you sleep, and you dream of living in a mansion by the ocean, abeg, never wake up! Or should I have said I pray that you will never wake up so that you don’t face your dululu? Or should I ask God to let you continue to sleep forever as your solulu?

Trululu

The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has sold dollars to Bureau De Change operators at the rate of N1,251/$1.

According to a statement issued by the apex bank’s Director, Trade and Exchange Department, Dr Hassan Mahmud, $10,000 was made available to each of the BDCs which benefited from this.

The BDCs were directed not to sell the dollars at a rate which exceeds 1.5 per cent above the purchase price, meaning that it should not be sold beyond N1,269 per dollar.

“We refer to our letter to you referenced TED/DIR/CON/GOM/001/071 in respect of the above subject wherein the CB approved a second tranche of sale of FX to eligible BDCs.

“We write to inform you of the sale of $10,000 to each BDC at the rate of N1,251/$1. The BDCs are to sell to eligible end users at a spread of not mora than 1.5 per cent above the purchase price.

“ALL eligible BDCs are directed to make the Naira payment to the underlisted CBN Naira Deposit Account Numbers before close of business on Thursday March 28, 2024, and submit confirmation of payment, with other necessary documentation, for disbursement at the appropriate CBN Branches.”

The bank threatened sanction to any BDC that breaches its directive.

“Please note that any BDC that breaches above terms shall be sanction appropriately, including outright suspension from further participation in the sale,” the statement read.

Last month, the bank had announced its decision to sell foreign exchange worth $20,000 to each eligible Bureau De Change operator across the country.

Former CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, had stopped the sales of foreign exchange to BDCs in 2021.

[DailyTrust]

Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris on Monday said there is no hiding place for Nadeem Anjarwalla, a Director of Binance who escaped from custody and fled the country after he was detained by the Nigerian Government.

The minister said the International Police (Interpol) were currently on Anjarwalla’s trail.

Idris was reacting to the Binance executive’s escape from Nigeria.

According to Idris, since Binance is an international firm, there is no way the culprit will evade arrest.

His explanation came barely few hours after the Office of the National Security Adviser confirmed that Anjarwalla, a key suspect in the ongoing criminal investigation regarding Binance’s activities in Nigeria, managed to escape lawful custody on Friday, March 22nd, 2024.

In an official statement released by the Head of Strategic Communication for the Office of the National Security Adviser, Zakari Mijinyawa, it was explained that collaborative efforts between the office, relevant security agencies, various government bodies and the international community are already underway to swiftly locate and detain the fugitive.

The statement stressed that security agencies are working with Interpol for an international arrest warrant on the suspect as preliminary investigation shows that Anjarwalla fled Nigeria using a smuggled passport.

The personnel responsible for the custody of the suspect have been arrested, and a thorough investigation is ongoing to unravel the circumstances that led to his escape from lawful detention.

It would be recalled that the Federal Government of Nigeria, like other governments around the world, has been investigating money laundering and terrorism financing transactions perpetrated on the Binance currency exchange platform.

Anjarwalla, who holds British and Kenyan nationalities and serves as Binance’s Africa regional manager, was being tried by Nigerian courts before he escaped while under a 14-day remand order issued by a court.

He was scheduled to appear before the court again on 4 April 2024.

[DailyPost]

The Federal Government on Monday said it would carry out a census of all schools in the country.

The government said the data from the census would assist in tackling the challenges facing the sector.

The Minister of Education, Prof. Tahir Mamman, stated this in Abuja on Monday at a two-day capacity-building workshop for desk officers in the ministry, its departments, and agencies.

Mamman said the school data would help the ministry to advise the state governments to move to do the right thing.

He said: “It is our plan that by the end of this year or early next year, we will be signing a partnership contract with a firm that will be working with our IT people to generate data on all schools in Nigeria.

“This is because we need to know our teachers and every single student; we need data to know the trend of learning and our school infrastructure.

“This exercise will enhance decision-making and policy formulation as the data collected and collated will aid evidence-based planning, measure implementation and progress, and identify areas where improvement is required.”

The Minister also decried the rate of learning crisis in the country saying a report submitted to him showed that some pupils found it difficult to identify numbers while many could neither read nor solve simple mathematical questions.

He however noted that impacting soft basic skills on students was a part of the ministry’s plans towards achieving its deliverables.

The Minister said the training was aimed at enhancing the capacity to track, collate, harmonise and report progress in the implementation of the Ministerial Deliverables and the Education Sector Roadmap.

“It will further ensure that government policies and programmes are effectively tracked and implemented,” he added.

He charged heads of MDAs, desk officers, and other participants to tailor their programmes, activities, and projects towards the realisation of the deliverables.

The myinister urged the participants to turn in timely, credible and reliable report of the activities, programmes and projects of their departments and organisations.

Mamman said: “The uppermost focus of the Ministry in general is in the areas of ensuring the generation of credible, timely, and reliable education data at all levels and the promotion of skill development.

“It is also in the enhancement of skill development across the entire education landscape for innovative and employability education; teacher training and development; and reducing the number of out-of-school children in Nigeria.

“I believe if we get it right in education, everything else will fall into place.

“The doctors who man our hospitals, the nurses who deliver the vaccines, the engineers in charge of our construction work—everybody is the by-product of our activities.”

The Minister commended the government of Kaduna State and the security organisations for helping in the release of the 287 abducted schoolchildren in the state.

The Senior Education Officer, Foreign Commonwealth Development Office (FCDO), Ian Attfield, pledged to support the government in actualising the deliverables and addressing the learning crisis through continuing education financing.

[TheNation]

PRECISELY 22.5 kilometres south-west of Sokoto, there used to exist a community called Satiru. In March 1906, it was extinguished from the face of the earth. Three years earlier, in July 1903, the British had massacred Muhammadu Attahiru, the 11th Sultan of Sokoto together with over 1,000 of his followers, decapitating him in Burmi (near Bajoga in present day Gombe State, North-East Nigeria) and then displayed photographs of “the beheaded Sultan of Sokoto throughout Northern Nigeria”. 

 Many among the faithful in the region at the time regarded Frederick Lugard and his lot as infidels. The fate of Sultan Attahiru inspired, as Lugard would later complain in his 1906 annual report, “a series of local ebullitions in favour of some Mahdi or reformer”, claiming a mission to rid the people of these infidels. 

  At the beginning of February in 1904, Satiru’s district head proclaimed himself The Mahdi and his son, as Prophet Isa (Jesus). Sultan Muhammadu Attahiru II, whom the British installed the previous year after killing his brother, arrested and detained the Mahdist pretender, who tragically died in detention. His son, Isa, succeeded him.

  In January 1906, an itinerant preacher, Dan Makafo, arrived from French Niger (Niger Republic) to boost Isa’s insurgent claims. The following month, when the neighbouring community of Tsomo were reluctant to accord him recognition as prophet, Isa and his followers attacked the village, reportedly killing 14 and declaring a Jihadist rebellion against the British infidels. 

  Unlike in 1904 when they encouraged the Sultan to deal with Isa’s dad, the British chose in 1906 to handle Isa’s impertinence by themselves. On Saint Valentine’s Day in 1906, the Acting Resident, Mr. Hillary; his assistant, Mr. AGM Scott, and a force of over 70 mounted infantry led by Lt. Francis Blackwood, approached Isa and his rebellious followers in Satiru. The absence of mutual intelligibility did not much help mutual suspicion. Communication quickly broke down between both sides and in the ensuing chaos, Isa and his followers killed Hillary, Scott, Blackwood and 29 of their troops, leaving the remainder to retreat in disarray.

  On March 10, Lugard’s forces returned to Satiru. They comprised 573 rifles, 70 armed police, a 2.95-inch gun and several Maxim guns. Confronting them were Isa and over 2,000 of his followers armed with traditional weapons. It was a mismatch. Lugard quotes what happened next: “Someone gave an order, everyone fired, then a whistle blew, everyone stopped and there was no one left alive in the front.”  

  According to Jonathan Dewhirst, “in total it was estimated that Satiru lost over two thousand men killed, with over three thousand women and children captured. By half-past two in the afternoon the mission had ended, and the town burnt to the ground. The Sultan destroyed the ruins utterly, and decreed that the town should never be rebuilt.” 

  Isa was killed in the massacre. Dan Makafo was apprehended with five remaining leaders of the rebellion. Sultan Attahiru II had the six of them convicted by the Sokoto Native Court for rebellion and murder before executing them. 

  Lugard wrote a racy account of the extermination of Satiru in his 1906 annual report, exulting that the situation “demanded a signal and overwhelming victory for the restoration of our prestige and the prevention of any such rising in future.” 

  Nine years earlier, in February 1897, General Harry Rawson led an expedition that massacred its way through the Benin, ransacking the city and its civilization in retribution for an incident recalled by Queen Victoria in her diary of January 12, 1897 as follows: “A number of English officers & civilians, including doctors &c who went on a friendly mission, but imprudently not armed, were attacked & fired upon by the King of Benin.”

  Satiru was almost assuredly the most egregious but by no means the only example of such punitive colonial expeditions. Lugard described the policy as one entailing “a terrible retribution” with the stated goal being to “render any further appeal to arms unnecessary in the Sokoto Province for very many years”. 

  On the centenary of the extermination of Satiru, historian, Richard Gott, recalled that this was a vain hope, pointing out that “active Islamic resistance continued in Northern Nigeria until the 1930s, remaining a permanent concern and irritant to colonial officers.” 

  Some could argue with justification that this resistance continues until the present day. Not unlike the colonial period, martial retribution has not prevented assaults on uniformed symbols of the Nigerian state. Instead it has guaranteed it. 

  In the last week of October 1990, youths in Umuechem, an oil-bearing community in Rivers State, protested against Shell Petroleum, alleging acts of pollution that had decimated their environment, livelihoods and well-being. Shell invited the police to quell the protests, which had been largely peaceful. 

  In the early hours of October 31, a squadron of the Police Mobile Force invaded the community shooting at random “in a purported attempt to locate three of their members who had not returned the previous evening”. Over 80 members of the community were reported killed and nearly 500 houses destroyed or burnt by the police. A judicial commission of inquiry into the Umuechem Massacre later found “no evidence of a threat by the villagers and concluded that the Mobile Police had displayed ‘a reckless disregard for lives and property.’”

  Umuechem did not quell restiveness in the Niger Delta. Instead, it appeared to inflame the region’s youths and radicalise them. The brutal murder by armed gangs of 12 police officers in Odi, Bayelsa State in November 1999, led to bloody reprisals on the orders of President Olusegun Obasanjo “which may have killed hundreds of unarmed civilians”. 

  As Chief of Army Staff, General Victor Malu oversaw the reprisals in Odi. A mere two years later, in October 2001, the killing of 19 soldiers in his community, Zaki Biam, in Benue State, led to similar reprisals in which “more than 200 people died at the hands of the soldiers”. Over the three-year period from 1999 to 2002 alone, CLEEN Foundation and the World Organisation against Torture, OMCT, reported “over fifty separate and documented incidents” and “over ten thousand Nigerians have reportedly been victims of extrajudicial executions at an average of over 200 executions per incident”.

  Fourteen years later, the excuse for the Zaria Massacre was that an un-named member of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria, IMN, as the Shiites of Nigeria are mostly called, had desecrated the epaulette of an Army General. Full casualty count has never been established but the official inquiry acknowledged that it took nearly 50 soldiers using 14 lorries, over six hours to dispose the bodies in mass graves in Mando, near Kaduna.

  Half a century ago, on Christmas Eve in 1974, a soldier was reported missing in Ugep, Cross-River central. Soldiers sent by the commanding officer to look for their colleague set upon the villagers “killing innocent men, children and raping their women who were eagerly waiting to celebrate Christmas”. Thirteen people were reported killed and over 100 injured. Days thereafter, the body of the soldier was found in a gutter in the village. An inquiry later showed that the soldier who was “given to drunkenness and suffered occasional epilepsy” had “choked on his sputum and died”.

  There may be little comparison between the circumstances of the reported death of the soldier in Ugep in 1974 and what transpired in Okuama, Ughelli South in Delta State 50 years later. Remarkably, the Okuama incident occurred in the month of the 118th anniversary of the extermination of Satiru. 

  President Bola Tinubu has rightly communicated the revulsion of all right-thinking persons at the mass murder of three senior officers of the Nigerian Army with 13 men under their command, followed by the desecration of the remains. He has also given the armed forces a free hand to ensure that “the offenders will not go unpunished” and promised to honour the memory of the fallen soldiers. 

  A dispassionate Board of Inquiry must get to the root of how these soldiers met their unconscionable fate, who was responsible, and how they were deployed on the mission that consumed their young lives. It is time to turn the page on this cycle of escalation, retribution and bloody reprisal that has prospered for 118 years since Satiru.

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

I HAVE been to a number of budget ‘defence’ sessions in the National Assembly, and some were like bazaar sessions with buying and selling going on.

On some occasions, I watched a ‘Distinguished Senator’ who was a Committee Chairman, perform. He was unperturbed that he was sitting in public with journalists present. He left no one in doubt that he was sitting, primarily to extract juice from the Ministries, Departments and Agencies, MDAs, appearing before him. Like a corrupt police officer at a counter, he made all sorts of demands, with members of his panel nodding their heads.

He would ask what provisions in the budget had been made for him and his team or, how did the chief executive of the MDA expect them to work so hard on budgets and get peanuts in return? If, for example, the government official explains that there are travels, including overseas provided for in the budget for the ‘Distinguished Senators’, he would ask for an increase in the number of trips.

He would then pause as if lost in thought, and then enquire how much foreign airline tickets cost and, frown that the proposed budgets do not adequately cover the cost of first class tickets. At the end of session, having hiked the proposed budget, he would assure that the new proposals would be passed and that he would soon visit the MDAs concerned. He was a sanctuary of corruption in the National Assembly.

There is an ‘Honourable Member’ who uses his knowledge of forensic accounting to intimidate the MDAs who are, in many cases, led by chief executives who are ready to play ball. He would tear down particular budget proposals, engage the chief finance officer of the MDA in what may seem to be professional arguments on the budget proposals. After wearing out the confidence of the finance officer or intimidating him, he turns to the now hapless chief executive, offering to help the MDA with its seemingly tattered budgets proposals.

Essentially, binary budgets are passed annually by the National Assembly; one submitted by the executive and the other, by the legislators. In considering the former, the National Assembly grafts its own budget on that submitted by the Presidency.

While signing the 2018 Budget allegedly under protest, then President Muhammadu Buhari accused the National Assembly of ‘padding’ it by introducing 6,403 projects of their own amounting to N578 billion.

He wailed that the insertions “relate to matters that are the responsibility of the states and local governments, and for which the Federal Government should therefore not be unduly burdened.”

Conversely, he said the National Assembly made cuts amounting to N347 billion in the allocations to 4,700 projects submitted to them for consideration. He claimed that: “Many of the projects cut are critical and may be difficult, if not impossible, to implement with the reduced allocation. Some of the new projects inserted by the National Assembly have not been properly conceptualised, designed and costed and will therefore be difficult to execute.”

He further revealed that “many of these new projects introduced by the National Assembly have been added to the budgets of most MDAs with no consideration for institutional capacity to execute them or the incremental recurrent expenditure that may be required.” In other words, the new insertions were, basically, duplications, yet the funds are approved.

As President, he clarified that: “The logic behind the Constitutional direction that budgets should be proposed by the executive is that, it is the executive that knows and defines its policies and projects.” Despite this, and his knowledge that the budget was packaged in criminality, Buhari signed it.

The defence of the NASS by then spokespersons, Senator Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi and Abdulrazak Namdas was that it had the powers to do what it deems fit with the budget.

Its argument was that: “Adjustments and reductions in the locations, costs and number of projects approved were made in order to address geo-political imbalances that came with the executive proposal. The introduction of new projects was done to ensure the promotion of the principles of Federal …Character as contained in Section 14, subsection (3) of the 1999 Constitution…”

It added that: “The number of projects had to be increased in order to give a sense of belonging to every geo-political zone of the country to ensure socio-economic justice, equity, fairness, and to command National loyalty.”

If the claims of the NASS were true, all it needed to do was to return the budget to the Presidency for necessary adjustments, rather than rewrite it or, write and pass its own budget.

After signing such budgets annually, Buhari again, wailed openly while signing the 2022 Budget that 6,576 new projects had been smuggled into it by the National Assembly.

Since I am not sure a gun was held to President Buhari’s head while signing those budgets which we all know border on criminality, my conclusion is that the racketeering was mutually agreed by both arms of government and was beneficial to the perpetrators.

Interestingly, there is a continuum: then Senate President Ahmad Lawan, returned to the Senate albeit under controversial circumstances, while then Speaker of the House of Representatives, Femi Gbajabiamila, is currently the Chief of Staff to President Bola Tinubu.

Given this culture of impunity, the claims by Senator Abdul Ningi of PDP Bauchi, that the 2024 Budget was padded by N3.7 trillion or over 10 per cent of the N28.78 trillion budget, did not come as a surprise. He, as an old Senator, has been part of this culture. Therefore, his claims or revelations must have startled his fellow ‘Distinguished Senators’. They neither gave him the floor to explain himself, nor provide facts why they think his claims were frivolous. They simply suspended him for three months. The sin Senator Ningi seems to have committed is that having been invited to the table, he did not observe the ethics that you do not talk while eating.

A similar punishment was inflicted on Abdulmumin Jibrin in 2016 when as the Chairman of the House Committee on Appropriation, he revealed that the 2016 Budget was padded. He had gone to the extent of naming the then Speaker, Deputy Speaker , Chief Whip and Minority Whip of allocating N400 billion to themselves in the NASS Budget.

During the session on Ningi, another Distinguished Senator, Jarigbe Jarigbe, Cross Rivers North, was exposing some of his colleagues for collecting humongous amounts of at least N500 million each. His microphone was quickly switched off before he could inflict more damage.

Some claimed such monies were for constituency projects. Who supervises such projects; who oversights them? Do they pass through the normal public procurement and contract processes? Side-tracking criminality does not change its essence.

A former governorship aspirant in the Peoples Democratic Party’s (PDP) recently conducted governorship primary election and a former member of the House of Representatives, Hon Omosede Igbinedion has expressed reservation on the way Governor Godwin Obaseki has piloted the affairs of the party as its leader since he joined at the eve of his re-election bid in 2020.

  In a statement by Igbinedion titled “The hypocrisy of politics”, she said the old members of the party that Obaseki came to meet in the party have been pushed out of the scheme of things as principal offices in the Obaseki administration were taken by himself and those who came with him from the All Progressives Congress (APC).

 Igbinedion said she expected that the running mate to Ighodalo should have been ceded to the old PDP to give them a sense of belonging.

  She also criticized those who have been claiming that she was on her way to the APC because of a recent visit to his Abuja home by the APC governorship candidate, Sen. Monday Okpebholo.

   According to Igbinedion “The Governor we have today, only joined the party along with his SSG and a host of others, simply because they had issues in their own party and needed a platform, which the PDP gave them.”

  She said some of the people criticizing the picture that surfaced after Okpebholo’s visit “only attend campaigns when and if they are given transport fares, or else they choose not to leave their houses and use money sent to them for data to write rubbish online, same people who demand to be paid to remain in a political Party.

  “Go and look at the results from the last federal elections where PDP in Oredo lost to Labour by 37,994 votes, PDP in Egor and Ikpoba Okha lost to Labour by 19,777, PDP in Orhionmwon and Uhumwonde lost by 2,986, whilst PDP in Ovia North East and South West lost by 1,455 votes. We lost all the seats in Edo South at the National. Oredo produced the poorest results for PDP, with only 11,899 votes, compared to the 18,396 votes pulled for PDP in Ovia.

  “It is on record that I have never lost Ovia North East, since 2015 till date to any political party. The records are there to show. 

  “If Anyone has issues with me speaking against the injustice done to the original PDP members who had sustained the party till now and made it formidable enough for the governor to seek reelection in 2019, then I am sorry but I owe you no apology. 

 “I stepped aside my ambition for governorship on the grounds of equity, fairness and justice for the Esan people and now the question we must answer is; when choosing a deputy governor was it equitable, fair and just to not consider age, gender, the old PDP and the Ovia Constituency, that has never had governor or deputy governor before, but always given block votes to PDP ?

  “Do not be deceived, most old PDP Members are silently protesting and ready to either work for Labour or decamp to APC. My appeal as a bonafide PDP Member is that we should settle the House before it’s too late.”

[Vanguard]