In about 160 countries worldwide, May 1 is earmarked as International Workers’ Day. Thus, last Thursday, Nigerian Workers celebrated their day with fanfare at Eagle Square in Abuja and across all the state capitals. It was also observed as a public holiday. Labour Unions, namely the Nigerian Labour Congress and the Trade Union Congress, also reel out a 20-point demand from the government. Before going on to analyse these demands, who really are the workers? They are wealth creators. There are different categories of workers. There are public cum civil servants who form government bureaucracy and there are also the organised private sector workers. Some also work in the informal sectors, such as artisans, petty traders and labourers. Anyone who engages in any form of labour to earn income is a worker.

The high rate of unemployment in Nigeria has pushed most people to be self-employed. Some are underemployed. The irony is that workers hardly receive their real worth in wages and salaries. They are mostly shortchanged. One of the sordid realities of many Nigerian workers is casualisation. Many factories, financial institutions, such as banks and insurance companies, electricity distribution companies, telecommunication companies as well as oil and gas companies, are now outsourcing their staff recruitment to agencies rather than via direct employment. The recruited staff are unfortunately not given full employment with proper remuneration but are recruited as casual staff without job security and any perks, such as housing, transport and meals allowance. No leave bonus and no retirement benefits. Instead of running an eight-hour shift, some factory workers run 12-hour shifts. This means that, unlike what the Nigerian and global labour practices stated that a worker should work for eight hours daily, this category of workers works for 12 straight hours without getting paid overtime. This is pure slave labour!

For those who are gainfully employed and earn the minimum wage with all the perks, unfortunately, inflation and devaluation of the currency have made a mincemeat of their income. For instance, a worker earning the basic N70,000 minimum wage cannot live a decent life because of the astronomical cost of living. As a result of the removal of the petrol subsidy in May 2023, the increase in electricity tariff, the increase in the cost of telecommunication tariff, and the devaluation of the naira by 40 per cent, the costs of goods and services have skyrocketed. In my neck of the woods here in Abuja, my rent has just been increased by 120 per cent. Petrol sells for over N900 per litre and this has led to a spike in transport costs; cooking gas is over N1,500 per kilogramme. Need I say that school fees have also been upwardly reviewed? How will a worker, on national minimum wage, be able to afford essential commodities for himself and his family?

Ironically, some state governments have not started paying the new national minimum wage of N70,000, signed into law in July 2024. These state governments’ alibi is that they are not elected as governors only to pay wages, as only a fraction of the citizens of their states are government workers. Meanwhile, the old minimum wage of N30,000 is peanuts in value terms, given the current inflationary trend and purchasing power parity of the naira. It is the lackadaisical attitude of the government to the workers’ plight that is responsible for truancy, indolence and corruption in the public service.

Aside from remuneration issues, there is also the challenge of an unconducive work environment. In some government offices, as many as six to eight staff members share a small office. The office is sometimes not well ventilated. There are either no fans or air conditioners. Where there are, there is often no light to power them, or they have become faulty and unserviceable. Toilet facilities in many offices, both public and private enterprises, are an eyesore. There is often no water to flush the toilet when used. Sometimes the water closet has become faulty, and water, where available, floods the restroom. Elevators meant to serve multistory offices sometimes break down for months without repair, thereby forcing staff and visitors to climb the staircase. God help you if you have arthritis or you’re someone in a wheelchair or using crutches. Insecurity plaguing the country is also negatively impacting workers’ productivity.

The plight of senior citizens is worse than those still in service. They sometimes don’t receive their pension and gratuity as and when due. Meanwhile, the pension, which is a fraction of their salaries, is so paltry that it cannot feed them, let alone enable them to live a decent life in retirement. This is partly why many people falsify their age to avoid early retirement.

The aforementioned are part of the reasons for the labour unions’ 20-point demand during this year’s workers’ day celebration. The PUNCH of May 2, 2025 (online edition) reported that among other things, the NLC and TUC asked for tax cuts, better retirement package, reversal of the emergency declaration in Rivers State, salary adjustment, withdrawal of the tax bills, reduction of telecommunication tariffs from 50 per cent to 35 per cent and upward review of retirement age to 65 for all categories of civil servants. The National President of the NLC, Joe Ajaero, presented the demands during the event in Abuja. Making a case for better treatment for Nigerian workers, the NLC leader said, “It is imperative to extend the revised retirement age of 65 years or 40 years of service currently enjoyed by teachers, health professionals, and judges to all public servants.”

Reading a speech he jointly signed with his TUC counterpart, Festus Osifo, the NLC leader expressed frustration with the continued prioritisation of corporate profits over the survival of the ordinary Nigerian, calling for reforms that would shift focus toward the people. Essential services, such as energy, infrastructure, and public utilities, he emphasised, must be oriented toward serving the public interest rather than private gains. On matters of governance, he demanded democratic accountability, transparency, and urgent electoral reforms.

The labour bodies condemned what they described as a sustained suppression of civic space and dissent, calling on federal and state governments to stop actions that erode citizens’ rights and instead work to strengthen democratic norms. They also called for an immediate end to the widespread killings and bloodshed across the country, labelling the violence as genocidal and intolerable.

All the aforementioned are some of the demands of the labour unions, which I fully endorse. However, I should add that workers, too, must shun all corrupt practices. There is no gainsaying that some of the civil servants are corrupt. For instance, the N80bn allegedly found in the personal account of a sacked managing director of one of our ailing refineries. This was the lead story in the Saturday PUNCH of May 3, 2025. If this gargantuan sum is established as the proceeds of crime, imagine what these huge sums could do for our infrastructural development. Thus, workers must learn to live above board and work for the betterment of the country. It is also important for the workers to be well-resourced in terms of office spaces and equipment. They should also be trained and retrained, and have their capacity built in the use of technological innovations that will aid performance of their tasks.

Oyo State has enjoyed a good run with its last two governors, Abiola Ajimobi and the current governor, Seyi Makinde, whose two-term tenure will end in 2027. The citizens point to visible physical developments and relative peace, especially within the state capital, Ibadan. So, the next governor must also be competent and experienced.

Admirers say that Adebayo Adelabu, who appears to be the preeminent contender, fits the bill. He is a Fellow of Institute of Chartered Accountants of Nigeria and an alumnus of the consultancy firm, PriceWaterhouseCoopers, from where he was seconded to lead the turnaround team on “Project EAGLE” for reengineering and corporate renewal of the Central Bank of Nigeria.

From CBN, he moved into core banking with First Atlantic Bank, Standard Chartered Bank and First Bank of Nigeria, where he was Executive Director/Chief Financial Officer. In 2014, President Goodluck appointed him CBN Deputy Governor, Operations.

After CBN, he went into farming and the hospitality business. In 2019, he contested to be the governor of Oyo State and lost to Governor Makinde. Some argue that his loss was due to public disaffection with Ajimobi, his sponsor, whose wont is to always put his foot in his mouth. 

Adelabu contested the loss of the election in the court but accepted the verdict that declared Governor Makinde as the winner. He returned home to mind his business until 2023, when he contested and lost the primaries of the All Progressives Congress to Senator Teslim Folarin.

Adelabu, who is yet to publicly declare his intention to run for Oyo State Governor in 2027, is alleged to have told someone who asked if he would run, “Let’s leave everything in the hands of God, and allow the people of Oyo State to decide.”

He may have said this in deferment to Section 84(12) of the Electoral Act 2022, which says, “No political appointee at any level shall be (a) voting delegate or be voted for, at a convention or congress of any political party for the purpose of the nomination of candidates for any election.”

But then, Adelabu, who has never won an election, has a formidable opponent in three-term senator and former Senate Leader, Senator Folarin, to whom he lost the 2022 gubernatorial primaries of the APC. This caused him to temporarily defect to the Accord Party, from where President Bola Tinubu “retrieved” him and appointed him Minister of Power.

Folarin studied political science at the University of Ibadan before proceeding to Harvard University for a diploma. He then worked with Her Majesty’s Department (Ministry) of Trade in Britain and returned to Nigeria in 2002 to observe the mandatory one-year National Youth Service Corps. After that, he went straight into politics to win his first term as a senator.

But in 2023, Folarin lost the governorship election to Governor Makinde. Apart from politics, he is an Ibadan traditionalist. He may become the Olubadan, as he has started climbing the ladder as Mogaji of his family and the Laguna Olubadan.

Former Governor Rashidi Ladoja, who was a senator representing Oyo State and an astute businessman, who is next in line to be Olubadan, may have inspired Senator Folarin’s aspiration to be Oyo State governor and Olubadan.

The other Adelabu, cerebral Dr Zach Adelabu Adedeji, Chairman, Federal Inland Revenue Service, former Oyo State Commissioner for Finance and alumnus of American multinational, Procter & Gamble, is said to have declined running for governor in 2027. But fingers are still crossed.

So Adelabu and Senator Folarin, both members of the APC, may be the contestants for governor in 2027. No one is quite sure who will contest from the People’s Democratic Party or any other political party. Governor Makinde does not seem to have a preferred candidate.

Some say that his “collabo” with presidential candidate Tinubu in the 2023 general elections may have led to an “understanding” for his trading of the office of the governor for a senatorial ambition that has not yet been declared. But, of course, this is in the realm of speculation.

But there is some doubt against Adelabu’s speculated ambition to contest the governorship election in 2027 from his opponents, who say that his tenure as Minister of Power has yet to deliver the expected results to Nigerians.

His admirers, however, argue that Nigerians will soon witness a turnaround because he has been able to gain ample mastery of the knowledge that can help revive the electricity sector that appears jinxed by insurmountable challenges.

Also, they argue that perhaps the current operational template that puts electricity generation, transmission and distribution in silos, instead of integrating them in each of the regional markets, is the Achilles’ heel of the electricity sector.

They draw an analogy from the argument that, as is, Nigeria itself may not achieve much political, economic and social progress until the polity is restructured so that each state, or at least each region, can handle its economy at its level.

This will mean that the whole gamut of governance, electricity, water supply, railways, agriculture, industry, mineral resources and others will be handled at the sub-national level, and no one will have to go cap in hand to the monthly meeting of the Federation Account Allocation Committee for funds from the suzerains in Abuja.

This theory works for those who argue that Adelabu should transition to the sub-national level as the governor of Oyo State, where, as the chief executive officer, he can use his acumen and skills in management and finance for the benefit of the people.

They point to Babatunde Fashola, who was an excellent governor of Lagos State but had limited success as Minister of Power, Works and Housing under the unusually absent-minded President Muhammadu Buhari. In other words, Adelabu needs to be his own man to deliver a superlative performance. That is a probable argument.

By the way, mischief-makers, who flew the kite of the sacking of Adelabu and the Ministers of Defence, Muhammad Badaru Abubakar and Bello Matawalle, by President Tinubu, could have aborted Adelabu’s quest to be governor or jump-started his runs.

One good reason for competent personnel, policies and programmes at Nigeria’s sub-national government levels is the call by President Tinubu and his communication team that the media and the citizens must pay more attention to the activities of state governors who now receive higher remittances from FAAC.

The enormous financial resources that are now available to state governors and local government chairmen, as a result of the removal of petrol and other subsidies, should not be placed in the hands of incompetents or kleptomaniacs.

Increasing agitation across the country for fiscal federalism and stronger regions calls for more competent hands as administrators at the state or regional levels. The days of mediocre managers at state and local government levels are running out.

Will President Tinubu support Adelabu, his Minister of Power, for Oyo State governor? Observers think he will likely go in that direction. But the observers also insist that Adelabu must work hard to snatch the oyster from wily Senator Folarin.

They say he must invoke the spirit of his grandfather, late Ibadan stormy petrel, Adegoke “Penkelemesi” Adelabu, to swing the electorate to his side. With recent defections to the APC, President Tinubu’s APC choice may become the next Oyo State governor.

So, Adelabu and Folarin each have just one more political river to cross.

Afrobeats superstar David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, has shared his thoughts on his career trajectory while celebrating a significant accomplishment in his music career after surpassing 11 million monthly listeners on Spotify for the first time.

This achievement follows the release of his fifth studio album, 5ive, which has continued to garner widespread attention.

In a moment of reflection, Davido expressed pride in how far he has come, emphasising that his success was not the result of industry endorsements or influential mentors.

Unlike many of his contemporaries who had early backing from key figures in the music industry, he built his career independently through perseverance and dedication.

Nonetheless, Davido was quick to attribute much of his success to divine grace and the unwavering support of his fans.

He wrote, “No co-sign, built from the ground up! Just God, good music and the best fans! I Appreciate you guys fr [for real]!

“Who wan even CO-SIGN big man like me ?? Hmmm another angle sha ”

5ive, Davido’s April 18, 2025 release, includes 17 tracks and has become a runaway success, amassing millions of streams and sitting comfortably at the top of Afrobeats charts.

[Punch]

Dr Abdullahi Ganduje, the All Progressives Congress (APC) National Chairman, says the party will accommodate Alhaji Rabiu Kwankwaso, a former governor of Kano State, into its folds if he decides to join.

Speaking to newsmen after receiving Alhaji Yusuf Ata, Minister of State, Housing and Urban Development, Ganduje said:” The APC is deepening and widening democracy in the country.

”Kwankwaso is a fish out of water, trying to find its way back into the waters. 

“We cannot say we can’t accommodate him, because a friend in need is a friend indeed.

“We don’t want to leave him completely abandoned, we can still have him in, if he wants to join us”.

“When you see your son running to where he would get shelter and you are a big brother in a big home, I think it is morally right to accommodate him.

“So, we cannot say we cannot accommodate him,” Ganduje stressed.

Earlier, Ata, who is a former Speaker of the Kano State House of Assembly said he visited Ganduje to pay his respect and to appreciate him and show support for what the President Bola Tinubu-led administration was doing for Kano State.

“We are strongly behind Tinubu and we are working round the clock to ensure we deliver Kano State in 2027,” he said.

Speaking on the ‘Kwankwasiyya movement”, Ata said the Kwankwasiyya red cap era was becoming a thing of the past in the state.

”For me, I will not want the former Kano state governor to be welcomed into the APC fold. But I have no choice if our national chairman decides to have him on board.” Ata said.

[Vanguard]

Late dramatist and playwright, Prof Ola Rotimi, once wrote a play, Holding Talks. In this work, which falls under the genre of theatre of the absurd, two characters are having a conversation forever or will ad nauseam be a better word? In this conversation, there is neither head nor tail and the repetition can be boring or annoying except you spice the cast with exciting or energetic actors. Lovely stuff of academic distinction.

In this country, we love holding talks. So many of them. And the outcomes are pretty predictable, and the place of the papers and reports guaranteed – kept where they may never be revisited!

We had one last week, and please bear me witness that I do not have the capacity to ever suggest that the Telecoms Colloquium which held in Lagos under the auspices of the House Committee on Communications at the National Assembly, will end in the manner of Holding Talks, a play which Rotimi used to satirise our propensity to talk as a people with very little results.

There were two significant developments in the sector as the colloquium was holding. One, a residual trade dispute between MTN and Kogi State which led to service disruption in parts of the state, and the other, MTN returning to the path of profit after consecutive trade losses. Also be mindful that I am not saying here that MTN is like the tortoise that appears in every story; I am just trying to zero on the point that while the issue with Kogi may not enjoy any attention, the latter which has to do with the organisation making profit is the kind of stuff the lawmakers would love. But MTN featured in the two stories in such a variegated form I thought should engage the interest of our lawmakers.

For the telecommunications industry, there is always something very positive to acknowledge, much unlike the power and energy sectors, among others, where there exists a dismal dearth that increases widespread concerns among the people. In spite of seeming inadequacies in the telecoms sector, the stakeholders who gathered in Lagos – lawmakers, operators, lawyers, finance industry operators, equipment manufacturers and vendors, and subscribers, all agreed to the great strides recorded in the industry since early 2003.

“The Nigerian Communications Act 2003 has been instrumental in shaping our telecommunications landscape. However, 22 yers later, it has become essential to reassess its provisions, identify challlenges, and explore opportunities for growth and development in our rapidly changing world,” Chairman of the House Committee, Peter Akpatason, pointed out most succintly.

His position can hardly be faulted. Even the EVC of the Nigerian Communications Commmmission (NCC), Dr Aminu Maida, agreed completely as he said the Act has heralded a new era for the telecommunications sector in just over two decades.

It is true that the industry is worth over $75bn today with over 153m lines in the hands of subscribers across the nation. It has become an enabler of other sectors giving rise to a wave of unanticipated developments. It is also true that the industry has been straining at the seams causing a lot of service issues that make subscribers unhappy. Modernity is playing a role in the sector that can hardly be overlooked.

In 2003, at the birth of the Act, Nigerians craved for basic telecoms services, nothing more. At the time, there were no Internet of Things (IoT), Over-the-Top (OTT) services – WhatsApp, Instagram, Netflix, Uber, just to name a few, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence (AI) – nobody was thinking that you could go to a restaurant and a humanoid will have to serve you tea, no Space Tourism – some guys waving to humans from the edge of space, and no Autonomous Self-Driving Cars. It hardly occurred to anybody then that life would throw its entire weight on telecommunications and force the sector to buckle somewhat, tethering for survival. It has been a good ride for the industry but time has come to grow the Act to enable it cope with all these nuanced developments and pave the way for a fresh foundation for sectorial infrastructural growth.

So, without doubt, I totally agree with former regulator and now legal practitioner, Yetunde Akinloye, when she observed in her paper, The Nigerian Communication Act 2003 – Impact Analysis on the Communications Sector, that the Act is “not in tune with Current realities – Fines, Digital Economy Policy, National Broadband Plans, Technology Evolutions, AI, OTT, IOT and Data Driven Services.”

But the Act was bold on a number of things, for instance, the independence of the regulator but silent on the things it never anticipated. The Act did not make provisions for this wave of cyber criminality, of people living their life in cyberspace, fleecing others of their fortunes or even stalking them to death. The Act did not anticipate that a state in the federation would wake up one morning and vandalise telecommunications facilities in pursuit of taxes in dispute. The Act did not envisage a number of things because the visioning didn’t happen at the time.

A piece of good news from the colloquium is the agreement by stakeholders of the industry, including the regulator, NCC, to work with the National Assembly to review the Act and equip it to cope with unfolding industry issues. They see it as a task that must be done. When was the last time you heard that expression?

The lawmakers must take cognisance of a number of bills going through legislative processes that all seem to derive from, or detract from the efficacy and substance of the 2003 Act. I am happy that she particularly referenced the regulatory overlaps between NCC, FCCPC and NITDA. Many more are in the making. The reviewers should watch out for regulatory overlaps that portends evil for the industry.

The hallmark of the 2003 Act is the independence of the regulator. But that independence was trampled to the mud under the previous administration which pushed the regulator and industry close to a precipice from which they are still trying to find stability.

It is good that a review process has started but Akinloye warns that “Laws must grow with the people and be responsive to any given peculiar circumstances. Nigerians will be counting on the legislature to review and produce a better version of the NCA, just as it did in 2003”.

The NCA 2003 gave Nigeria an industry. Will Akpatason and his team move the nation beyond Holding Talks and add value to the sector with a new Act?

The senate has announced a minor reshuffle of its standing committees.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio said the changes are part of efforts to improve legislative productivity.

“We will continue to make adjustments where necessary in order to deliver on our legislative mandate,” Akpabio said.

He also directed Opeyemi Bamidele, senate leader, to ensure all committees submit activity reports for deliberation on the senate floor.

In a welcome address at the resumption of plenary on Tuesday, Akpabio urged his colleagues to recommit themselves to national service with integrity and patriotism.

He implored the lawmakers to prioritise legislative efforts on issues that promote national unity.

Simon Lalong, the senator representing Plateau south, has been named chairman of the committee on the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and electoral matters.

Lalong replaces Sharafadeen Ali, senator representing Oyo south, who has chaired the committee since the inauguration of the 10th national assembly.

Ali has been reassigned as chairman of the committee on agricultural institutions and research, a role previously held by Lalong.

Anthony Ani, senator representing Ebonyi south, will no longer serve as chairman of the committee on tourism.

Pam Nwadkon, senator representing Plateau north, will now chair the tourism committee.

Eze Kenneth Emeka, senator representing Ebonyi central, has been removed as the vice-chairman of the committee on the South East Development Commission (SEDC). That position has been given to Ani.

Emeka, however, retains his role as chairman of the committee on information and remains vice chairman of the committee on water resources.

[TheCable]

Pope Francis I (Jorge Bergoglio) who recently died, was the first ever pontiff from Latin America and the first non-European one in 1,300 years. The 88-year old Argentinian’s 12-year papacy transformed the 1.3 billion-strong Catholic Church into one more inclusive of global South perspectives (its fastest growing congregations are in Latin America, Asia, and Africa), and 80 per cent of the more diverse cardinalate that will shortly elect a new Pope was appointed by Francis.

In a Europe where Catholicism had long become the religion of kings and queens and nearly empty churches have become museums, Bergoglio adopted the name of 13th- century saint,Francis of Assisi as a clear signal of a desire to follow the Italian friar’s pious commitment to Jesus Christ’s humble lifestyle, his commitment to the “wretched of the earth”, his outreach to Islam, and his attachment to nature. Pope Francis described himself as a “callejero” (a man of the streets), insisting: “My people are poor, and I am one of them.”

POOR PEOPLE’S POPE

A trained theologian, chemist, and philosopher who studied in Argentina, Chile, Spain, and Germany, Francis despised the Vatican’s ostentatious opulence. He thus declined to live in the plush 12-room Apostolic Palace apartment, opting instead for a modest two-room suite in the Vatican’s Casa Santa Marta guest house, eating in the common canteen.

He surrendered the bullet-proof papal limousine for a small Ford Focus. As a “Slum Bishop” in Buenos Aires, Francis had similarly given up his official residence for a modest room, cooked his own meals, and travelled by public transport. As Archbishop of Buenos Aires (1998-2013), he established food kitchens, schools, and drug rehabilitation centres, though some criticised him for not directly confronting the brutal “Dirty War” and forced “disappearances” of Argentina’s military caudillos (1976-1983). As Pope, he continued to berate “peacock priests” and “airport bishops” who did not visit poor neighbourhoods to save souls.

The United Nations (UN) was founded 80 years ago by largely Christian nations on lofty Christian ideals, with its secretary-general sometimes referred to as the “Pope on the East River”. These were the very struggles that Francis embraced: poverty, human rights, conflict resolution, climate change, migration, and nuclear disarmament. He articulated clearly the UN’s concept of human security that sought to prioritise the security of people over that of states.

Francis’s first trip outside Rome as Pope in July 2013 was to the squalid migrant camp on Italy’s island of Lampedusa, where he comforted desperate African migrants fleeing poverty, persecution, and conflict. These were the invisible people who have been widely despised and denigrated across a Europe rife with xenophobia.

The new Pope castigated the “global indifference” towards Africa’s boat people, calling for a “reawakening of conscience” among rich nations. During Europe’s 2015 “migrant crisis”, Francis relentlessly spoke out for the rights of refugees fleeing conflicts in Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan. He later gave sanctuary at the Vatican to a dozen Syrian refugees, noting: “Welcoming the stranger to the door is fundamental to the faith.” When Donald Trump pledged to build a wall to keep Mexican migrants out of America during his 2016 presidential campaign, Francis chided him as “not Christian”, arguing that countries should build bridges rather than walls. During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020-2021, the Pope consistently condemned the West’s “vaccine nationalism”.

FIGHTING POVERTY, DEFENDING HUMAN RIGHTS

Francis was the good shepherd who tended his flock, providing hope and succour to destitute, downtrodden, and desperate people in prisons and hospitals, often washing their feet while feeding and sheltering the homeless. Though a Jesuit, he did not embrace the Marxist-inspired “liberation theology” of many radical Latin American theologians. Francis was more pragmatic, arguing that while the Left worshipped the state, the Right tended to overglorify the market.

He, however, scathingly castigated an exploitative capitalism, which he dismissed as “greed looking for easy gain”, insisting that “money must serve, not rule!” For the pontiff, capitalism spawned perverse inequalities both within states and between the rich North and the global South, insisting: “Without a solution to the problems of the poor, we cannot resolve the problems of the world.”

Francis not only defended Catholics, but spoke out forcefully against Israel’s brutalities against Palestinians in Gaza. He championed the rights of Rohingya on visits to Myanmar and Bangladesh; defended Yazidis in Iraq; and apologised for the failure of the Catholic Church during the 1994 Rwandan genocide and the abuse of First Nations indigenous children forcibly placed in Canadian Catholic schools between 1881 and 1996. Before his visit to the US in September 2015, Francis invited Black Lives Matter activists to brief papal advisers on America’s racial challenges.

During his address to the US Congress in Washington, DC, the Pope invoked African-American Nobel Peace laureate Martin Luther King Jr., who had been inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s use of Jesus’s love ethic in his non-violence struggles in South Africa and India. Francis also appointed Wilton D. Gregory, Archbishop of Washington, as the first black American cardinal in 2020. Francis discreetly worked with the first African American president, Barack Obama, to broker a deal between Washington and Cuba that led to a thaw in relations in 2014.

PROMOTING PEACE, PROTECTING THE ENVIRONMENT

The Pontiff was a peacemaker who declared the possession of nuclear weapons by any nation to be “immoral”, calling instead for total nuclear disarmament. He visited the world’s neglected “peripheries”, falling at the feet of South Sudan’s warlords, Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, exhorting them to turn swords into ploughshares. He did the same in the Congo – with its powerful Catholic Church – urging a silencing of the guns and an end to widespread rape. He further preached peace and reconciliation in Mozambique.

Francis called on everyone to protect “Mother Earth”, condemning the “iniquitous exploitation of natural resources”. He railed against the impact of climate change on the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations, particularly castigating lacklustre politicians and climate change denialists. He bemoaned Washington’s withdrawal from the 2015 UN Paris Climate agreement because “the future of humanity is at stake”. The “green” Pope also organised environmental conferences with the UN and called a synod of bishops from Brazil’s pan-Amazon region in 2019 to draw attention to the plight of the 33 million people in the Amazon Basin facing an onslaught from exploitative multinationals and the country’s pyromaniac new right-wing president, Jair Bolsonaro.

LEGACY

For all his smiling charisma and understated humility, Francis was an astute and sometimes ruthless political operator. He faced much opposition from powerful conservative cardinals in America, Australia, and Canada (often allied with well-funded right-wing movements) who had strongly backed the Eurocentric status quo of Polish Pope John Paul II and his German successor, Benedict XVI. These religious rebels often challenged Francis’s “heresy” and his perceived threat to a Western Christian identity. Unlike his autocratic predecessors who brooked no dissent, Francis allowed ideological debates to flourish.

He managed to reform the stuffy and opaque Roman Curia bureaucracy, restoring the Vatican’s finances, and sought to decentralise decision-making away from Rome to local parishes. His critics opposed many of his policies: his attempts to make the Church more racially, sexually, and gender-inclusive; his attacks on capitalist greed, climate change, and the arms industry; his reaching out to Muslim leaders by attending a conference at Cairo’s ancient Al-Azhar centre in 2017, and visiting Islamic religious leaders in the Arabian peninsula two years later to promote inter-faith harmony; his opposition to the death penalty as contrary to church teaching; and his impatience with continuing archaic Latin liturgical rites.

Even in death, Francis embodied humility, choosing to be buried not in Rome’s St Peter’s Basilica like most popes, but in the more modest St Mary Major Basilica with a simple tombstone bearing the inscription “Franciscus”. As we await the white smoke to emerge from the Conclave of the College of Cardinals that will elect a new pontiff, the world has much to celebrate in the legacy of the global South’s “Poor People’s Pope”: a true servant leader who was born a week before Christmas, and died on the day Christ is believed by his followers to have returned to Earth following his Resurrection.

Professor Adekeye Adebajo is a senior research fellow at the University of Pretoria’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship in South Africa. 

Nigeria is at a crucial juncture in its political and economic journey. Once buoyed by the promise of post-colonial growth, the country now grapples with poverty, inflation, and public dissatisfaction. A recent World Bank report highlights the severity of the crisis: over 56% of Nigerians approximately 129 million people live below the national poverty line, a staggering increase from 40.1% in 2018. Urban poverty has doubled, inflation exceeds 30%, and while structural reforms have been well-intentioned, they have often intensified hardships.

In this climate of uncertainty, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina, President of the African Development Bank, made remarks that compared today’s economic challenges with those of the 1960s. With clarity and empirical depth, he noted that real GDP per capita has plummeted from $1,847 at independence to just $824 today a reality that underscores Nigeria’s regression despite its abundant resources. He attributed this decline to decades of weak institutions, policy missteps, and chronic underinvestment in essential public goods.

Adesina’s analysis was not a political attack; it was a data-driven assessment grounded in the realities faced by millions of Nigerians. His comments strongly resonated with the World Bank’s statistics indicating that rural poverty now exceeds 75%. Projections suggest that Nigeria, despite being one of the world’s resource-rich nations, faces one of the steepest uphill battles against poverty.

In response, the Presidency, through Bayo Onanuga, quickly dismissed Adesina’s figures as “inaccurate” and “narrow,” citing a GDP per capita of just $93 in 1960 to counter his comparison. However, this rebuttal not only relied on outdated or inconsistent data but also deflected from a broader truth: Nigeria’s quality of life, institutional coherence, and social infrastructure were demonstrably stronger in the immediate post-independence era than they are today.

This rebuttal reflects a troubling trend in Nigerian public discourse, where defensiveness and political loyalty often overshadow facts. Rejection of the symptoms does not change the underlying condition, akin to ignoring a medical diagnosis. As the proverb states, “Raising your voice cannot make a deaf person hear.”

Amid this contention, HURIWA emerged as a vital voice of reason and solidarity. Standing firmly behind Adesina, HURIWA criticized the Presidency’s response as “unwarranted, disrespectful, and indicative of a broader refusal to engage honestly with Nigeria’s realities.” The organization commended Adesina not only for his statistical rigor but also for his moral clarity in articulating the hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians.

HURIWA’s support underscores the idea that truth-telling is a civic duty rather than merely a political act. By defending Adesina, HURIWA highlighted the importance of expert analysis in policymaking and reaffirmed that challenging authority with facts is a hallmark of democratic engagement, not an act of treason.

The organization emphasized the need for a candid reckoning. Adesina’s intervention was a call for strategic change, not a censure. The facts he presented demand an accompanying policy shift one that combines prudent macroeconomic reform with intentional investments in job creation, education, health, and institutional integrity. This framework must also include robust social protections to support the most vulnerable during economic transitions.

The core of Adesina’s clarion call was about Nigeria rising, elevating itself from deepening and widespread poverty, and achieving a much faster pace of economic growth. Adesina is not someone to ignore. His outstanding leadership and achievements at the African Development Bank and the ingenuity of his innovative ideas have earned him the trust of Presidents and leaders around the continent and globally. His very thoughtful speech (for anyone who actually reads it, is unbiassed and dispassionate) is actually solutions oriented, forward looking and very pragmatic on what Nigeria should be in 2050.

The Presidency should not politicise the patriotic assessment of Adesina, which if taken seriously has the potential to set Nigeria on a faster pace of economic growth and prosperity. As Adesina said, it is time to turn Nigeria into a developed economy. How can that be wrong and missed in the raging rush to smear his well-intentioned push? 

Interestingly, Onanuga forgot that in the same speech Adesina’s patriotism as a Nigerian comes out strongly as he helped to mobilise $2.9 billion to support the development of special agro-industrial processing zones for 28 States in Nigeria, all in support of the same Presidency that is pillorying him? Few weeks ago when Adesina was in Nigeria, he launched the groundbreaking of the first set of 8 special agro-industrial processing zones, together with Vice President Kashim Shettima and Governors of Kaduna State and Cross Rivers State, all APC controlled States. Adesina does not play politics. He is a serious minded, selfless and patriotic Nigerian who works relentlessly and passionately with everyone to advance the economic progress of Nigeria. 

Nigeria cannot achieve long-term growth through selective amnesia. It requires a willingness to confront painful truths and to recalibrate governance accordingly. As Adesina has made clear, acknowledging decline is not an act of defeat but the first step toward renewal.

In defending Adesina, HURIWA reminded the nation that public officials owe citizens more than dismissive rebuttals; they owe accountability. Their intervention helped steer the national dialogue back to what truly matters: the lived experiences of millions, the credibility of national data, and the moral imperative to respond with empathy and evidence-based policies.

History will judge not only those who spoke but also those who listened. Whether Nigeria chooses to embrace truth as the foundation for recovery or continues to disguise the crisis with noise will ultimately shape its legacy for generations to come.

How do you begin a book about one of Nigeria’s best known serial entrepreneurs and one of the richest men on the continent? Do you begin from when he was born or from a dramatic moment of outstanding achievement?

Mike Adenuga or Niyi as his friends call him or The Bull as admirers, rivals, and traducers hail him defies easy categorisation or classification. He is an enigma wrapped in a conundrum.

To commemorate his 72nd birthday, I have begun cataloguing attributes that not only define Chief Michael Adeniyi Agbolade Ishola Adenuga Jr CSG GCON, the founder of Globacom, and the moving spirit behind Conoil but which can also be seen as business primer for those wishing to follow in his prodigious footsteps.

Strive to be the primus inter pares:

In 1990 after the FG granted discretionary licences to 11 Nigerian businessmen to play in the oil and gas space, Mike Adenuga’s Consolidated oil (now Conoil) was the first to strike oil making him the first amongst equals. It wasn’t happenstance or luck, it was thanks to a planned, intentional and deliberate business strategy which has not flagged with Conoil still leading the pack decades after and even after more indigenous players have joined the fray.

You must learn to eat adversity for breakfast:

Think about it. Mike Adenuga has a high adversity quotient! How so? The man wins an auction, pays $20m deposit and then has his licence revoked leading to the loss of said deposit. What does he do? He returns years later and puts down over 10 times the amount he lost to obtain another licence and once he does so he powers on to change the telecom industry in Nigeria by unveiling innovative and people-oriented solutions all the other telcos said was impossible. Never say die!

Excellence must define your game:

What is excellence but the ability to excel and be the best. It speaks to greatness but not just a passing one. It speaks to greatness defined by consistency. Think about it; very few Nigerian businessmen have managed to excel in different sectors of the economy. You can probably count them on the fingers of one hand, but this is not a comment on their ability but a recognition of what it means to excel. Austin Avuru, oil man extraordinaire acknowledges this in his book, My Entrepreneurship Journey where he writes – “Globacom was established by Mike Adenuga a serial participant in Nigeria’s privatisation and liberalisation efforts across four major sectors (Banking, Petroleum Downstream, Telecoms and Petroleum Downstream).”

You must have a marathoner’s mindset:

To run a marathon you require speed, but not just speed, you need strength, persistence, and a mind focused on the long term. That is the difference between athletes like the Olympic champions – sprinter Usain Bolt and marathoner Eliud Kipchoge. The marathoner does not rush off with speed, he paces himself, conserves his energy, studies his competitors and plots his path to victory.

Make money but have a heart for people:

Mike Adenuga, like every businessman, set up his businesses to make money but there is always an altruistic element and this is evident from Conoil and its pocket friendly lubes to Globacom and its mass market and people-friendly innovations and the philanthropic works he carries out, quietly and without fuss through the Mike Adenuga and Glo Foundations something that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu highlighted in his 72nd birthday tribute – “Nigerians will always appreciate Globacom’s ingenuity in disrupting the billing template in the telecommunications sector. By pioneering per-second billing, Glo expanded telephony and digital access to millions of Nigerians… Dr. Adenuga’s philanthropy, through the Mike Adenuga Foundation, has touched many lives—supporting tertiary education, healthcare, and cultural advancement across our nation.”

Learn to move in silence but with impact:

Anyone of age in 1986 and who was able to read and write and listen to the radio or TV must remember the fever that gripped the world as we braced ourselves for the return of Halley’s comet which astrologers say orbits the earth once every 75 years to 76 years. Adenuga’s appearance in public is like Halley’s comet, rare but heralded by pageantry and as newsworthy as can be. Mike Adenuga is the master of savvy exclusivity. We don’t see him, but we can’t stop talking about him.

It’s a job but it’s not just a job:

When you go to work for Mike Adenuga, there are two things he would almost always demand from you – honesty and loyalty but not the type that sees you being dragged to Okija shrine. He just wants you to be a committed member of the team and what does he offer, not just a good salary and perks but an opportunity to become a member of his very large family. Your employees should feel seen, appreciated and part of a whole.

Be always plugged into the zeitgeist:

What does Mike Adenuga do with his time since no one sees him in public? Good question. While no one has the full details of his daily itinerary, the fact is that Mike Adenuga like most business leaders keeps a finger on the pulse of the world – news, music, movies, politics, books and everything happening around him because you won’t mention the name of a musical artist or actor or politician in his presence and get a blank stare. Nah!

Have a generous heart:

There is philanthropy and then there is generosity. Both must never be conflated because while philanthropy can be a corporate strategy, generosity is personal, selfless and from the heart. The distinction is important in situating Mike Adenuga’s large heartedness. When corporate Nigeria was falling over themselves to ride upon the popularity of hot and young actors, Mike Adenuga’s Globacom went above and beyond by initiating a nostalgia project that revived the careers of stars from decades before from Amebo to Madam Kofo, Zebrudaya to Femi Jarret, Nelly Uchendu to Bright Chimezie and many others.

Be bullish, be resilient, be stable:

Why is Mike Adenuga called The Bull? Is it because he is a Taurean, the zodiac sign symbolised by a bull or a recognition and celebration of his masculine energy, his strength of character, his power and resilience. Wherever it came from, it is not wide off the mark because it refers to a man who is stable, grounded, likes luxury and loves the finer things in life. A man’s man.

Our headline says 72 things and you have just read 10. Well, wait for the book, but in the meantime raise a toast to Otunba Mike Adenuga.

. Kan was a former Head of PR at Globacom.

A fast-rising African cryptocurrency exchange, ZendWallet, has launched a new stablecoin payment feature, Zendfx.

This feature allows users to make easy global business payments using USDT and USDC.

ZendWallet has processed over $3 billion in transactions, with 95% of payments completed within 48 hours.

Now, with Zendfx, the platform is making cross-border payments quicker, more affordable, and more reliable using USDT and USDC.

Businesses across Africa can now make faster, simpler cross-border payments with ZendWallet’s new USDT and USDC stablecoin payment feature.

Through Zendfx, businesses can send payments directly from their Zend Business accounts in USD, EUR, CAD, or GBP to countries such as China, Vietnam, Hong Kong, the United States of America, and 150 others.

To access Zend Fx, businesses must sign up on ZendWallet.com and complete the KYB verification on a ZendBusiness account.

Once verified, they can fund their accounts with USDT or USDC and execute transactions swiftly.

Payments require an invoice for verification and are processed within 24 to 72 business hours.

Users must also provide essential beneficiary details, including SWIFT codes, for accurate fund transfers.

Zend Fx’s key highlights include multi-currency transactions, a minimum payment threshold of $1,000, and a maximum limit of $1,000,000 per transaction.

According to the CEO, Elujoba Adedamola, “Businesses in Africa often face challenges with cross-border payments due to restrictions and high fees. Zendfx addresses this issue by offering a reliable and clear payment method using stablecoins,” he said.

The feature improves international transactions, removing the complexities of traditional banking while ensuring compliance through the Know Your Business (KYB) verification process.

ZendWallet’s move signals the growing use of stablecoins in Africa’s financial ecosystem, providing businesses with more flexibility and better ways to make cross-border payments.

For more details, read the full blog post here or visit ZendWallet.com.

[Nairametrics]