Many Nigerians invested hopes in the Dangote Refinery and thought it would bring stability to Nigeria’s chaotic petroleum industry. But on the cusp of its coming on stream, it began to be dogged by regulatory and other kinds of puzzling troubles from the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration. 

Why is a refinery that is supposed to be a shining light of domestic investment stymied by needless state-sanctioned controversies?

We sought answers to our question on August 31 during an impassioned and insightful two-hour discussion in the third edition of the Diaspora Dialogues, a monthly discussion show organized by Dr. Osmund Agbo, Professor Moses Ochonu, and I, which attracted scores of attendees.

My colleagues and I are by no means experts in the oil industry. That was why Professor Ochonu, who anchored the discussion, first did extensive documentary research to establish the background to the issue and later invited contributions from the audience. Although more than 10,000 people watched the discussion from my Facebook livestream, our Zoom could only contain 100 people at a time.

In response to multiple requests from people who missed the show, I offer a summary of the conversation in this week’s column in light of the continuing centrality of the issues we discussed, especially as Nigeria grapples with yet any steep petrol price hike amid availability struggles in spite of the coming on stream of the Dangote Refinery.

The Dangote Refinery began test production this week and was, according to Aliko Dangote, ready to roll out its petrol right way, but it still faced the challenge of securing enough crude locally to feed its 650,000-barrels-per-day-capacity refinery.

Prof. Ochonu, in his background to the issues, pointed out that one or more possibilities could explain why the Dangote Refinery was stuck in prolonged gestation:  the NNPC and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) wanted to withhold crude from Dangote to sabotage the refinery, or they wanted to punish him on behalf of the present administration for allegedly supporting Tinubu’s rival during the 2023 presidential election, or they didn’t have the crude to supply to Dangote and wanted to use the ludicrous and false excuses and propaganda of “substandard products,” “no license,” and non-completion to cover the fact that they were not able to supply crude to Dangote.

It also seemed, Prof. Ochonu added, that the NNPC and International Oil Companies (IOCs), NNPC’s joint venture partners, are not able to guarantee supply of crude to Dangote for even more tragic reasons.

 He pointed to the fact that two successive APC governments have mortgaged much of Nigeria’s 1.5 million bpd production to secure so-called crude-backed loans running into billions of dollars, which have to be repaid with future crude production. It started with Buhari and continues with Tinubu.

Ochonu’s research revealed that the NNPC and the NUPRC wanted to continue exporting crude because such transactions are done in dollars and are shady dealings involving middlemen, bribes, cuts, and layers of profiteering.

 Even though the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) mandates the NUPRC to ensure the supply of crude to local refinery as a priority over export, the NUPRC claimed that they could not compel the IOCs to supply Dangote because the IOC’s had signed prior crude supply contracts with buyers overseas, some of whom financed their crude extraction operations in Nigeria. The IOCs, the NUPRC claimed, would be in violation of those contracts if they supplied Dangote with crude.

 Mr. Dan Kunle, a respected oil industry expert and former Senior Technical Adviser to a past Minister of Petroleum Resources, in his contribution, said perhaps the reluctance of the NNPC and NUPRC to supply Dangote crude stemmed from their hope that it would derail the refinery because if Dangote started production, they’d no longer have a reason to export the 450, 000 bpd set aside for local refineries, which has been exported since the local state refineries stopped functioning over a decade ago.

Tinubu’s directive to the NNPC to sell crude to Dangote in naira is a welcome development if implemented, but the key questions are: 1) Where is the crude (650,000 needed by Dangote) going to come from when export contracts and crude-backed loan obligations have already been signed by government and its oil industry entities? 2) Will the NNPC comply with the directive, which reduces its lucrative crude export business?

The show raised several pertinent questions that arise from the accusations and counter-accusations between Dangote and government entities trying to sabotage his refinery:

One, how much of Nigeria’s daily crude production has been committed to creditors who loaned the Buhari and Tinubu administrations billions?

Two, how has the 450,000 crude set aside for domestic refining been handled over the years? According to Mr. Kunle, the NNPC exports these 450,000 barrels because local refineries are currently comatose. 

In what they call crude swap deals, the crude is then refined abroad and resold to Nigeria as petrol. But as Kunle asked during the show, apart from the petrol derived from it, what’s been happening to the other derivatives from the refining process—diesel, kerosene, etc.? The NNPC has never given Nigerians an account of these derivatives. If they’re sold, to whom are they sold and how much has been realized over these decades?

Three, how much fuel do Nigerians consume daily? The NNPC and its subsidiaries bandy around outlandish figures that are disputed by industry experts. Kunle said during the show that one of the potential benefits of Dangote’s refinery is that it will reveal the true, accurate numbers regarding Nigeria’s daily fuel consumption/demand, which will potentially expose one layer of fraud in the fuel importation regime, where many industry experts have long suspected that the importation cabal have been inflating Nigeria’s daily fuel needs to submit false invoices that rely on the bogus consumption claims.

Four, why would Nigeria’s oil law, the PIA, not trump and supersede whatever other contracts and laws NNPC and IOCS have entered into? The PIA clearly authorizes the NNPC to prioritize the crude needs of local refineries such as Dangote and other smaller ones, whose combined daily crude need is put at 597,700 barrels per day (bpd)?

Five, when will the allegedly refurbished Port Harcourt and Warri refineries commence operations (the NNPC has postponed the commencement of operations three times now, with the last postponement done to the end of August), and where will the crude come from and at what price (dollar or naira, subsidized or prevailing international price?)

Professor Ochonu pivoted to the possible motives and identities of people who might have a personal or business investment in killing the Dangote Refinery. He named three.

 The first, he said, are the honchos at the NNPC and oil regulating agencies. Their motive, he pointed out, is to maintain the status quo of lucrative and fraudulent fuel importation and crude export businesses.

The second, he pointed out, is the Tinubu government. The motive might be to sabotage a businessman who allegedly funded Tinubu’s opponent during last year’s presidential election. 

Another motive, Prof. Ochonu added, might be to protect the rapidly expanding midstream and downstream dominance of Tinubu family-owned OANDO in the Nigerian oil industry. Dangote would be a direct and massive competitor.

The third entities Prof. Ochonu identified were a conspiracy of international oil refineries and a crude-buying and fuel-marketing cabal. He called attention to a report by investigative journalist David Hundeyin that blew the lid on a campaign by a Western oil cabal against Dangote refinery.

The oil company offered to pay Hundeyin and perhaps local journalists to write stories against Dangote using a prepared script of environmentalism and environmental protection, which is a clear ruse to hide their true motive of wanting to maintain the status quo of their purchase of Nigerian crude, refining it poorly below European standards, and re-exporting it to Nigeria at massive profits.

 A US-based Nigerian engineer and industry expert by the name of Dr. Muhammad Kabir Hassan, corroborated Hundeyin’s claims during the show. 

The final issue tackled in the show had to do with the scandal of NNPC retail (NNPCL) purportedly purchasing a company named OVH (OANDO, Velar, Helios)

The OVH scandal is related to what is happening to Dangote because, after allegedly purchasing OVH (for how much, no one knows and commenters on the show said NNPC owes Nigerians an explanation and the transaction numbers), the NNPC then turned around and inexplicably asked a judge to dissolve its retail arm (NNPCL-Retail) and then, in a move that should be a first in history, turned over all of its retail operations (fuel stations and depots all over the country) to OVH to run. 

This means that OVH staff and managers have replaced NNPCL staff at all NNPC fuel stations, which have now been rebranded as OVH. OVH, of course, emerged only a few years ago as a result of a merger involving OANDO, Velar, and Helios (hence the acronym). All three were small players in the retail (downstream) sector of the Nigerian oil industry, but with tentacles in fuel importation.

Dr. Hassan enjoined Nigerian journalists to investigate the true ownership of OVH at the Corporate Affairs Commission, the amount NNPC paid for OVH, the terms of the sale, and what, if any, benefits are accruing to OANDO, Tinubu’s family business, from NNPC’s purchase of OVH and its surrender of its sprawling retail business to the acquired entity.

The show is curated on my Facebook page for people who want to watch it.

But wait: Do Nigerians really know the demands they ought to make of their governors, local governments chairmen, state Houses of Assembly, etc.? As thraldom and misery have taken up permanent residence in our subnational governments, do we all really care what people who are supposed to be dealing with leadership at subnational levels are doing with our money and with themselves? I think not. And that is because everyone has been living with barely-performing subnational governments.

Scenario number one: A local government chairman receives the sum of 150 million Naira in one month on behalf of his local government and nothing happens. Yes, nothing happens; and no one can see or tell what he did with it. The month before, the same local government chairman received the sum of 180 million and no one asked him what happened to is, or what he did with it. Since he became local government chairman, less than two years ago, his fleet of cars has increased. So has the size, and cost, of his residence. He even now has a hotel, as well as a big house, in the state capital.

Scenario number two: There are Ward and Council Chairmen in the local government. All of them carry on either as if they owe no one any responsibilities, or as if the schedules assigned to them by law do not even exist. Yet they are all on the organogram designed by the framers of our constitution for effective leadership and good governance. No questions are asked by the people. And that includes mostly traditional rulers, religious leaders, town unions, district and village heads in the local government; who ought to be custodiams of propriety.

Scenario number three: The entire supply of truckloads of bags of rice, (read palliatives) sent to a particular state of the federation from the centre was sold off, stock, lock and barrel by the governor, along with very people who are supposed to help him act as custodians of service delivery and defenders of the people’s well being. In short, the goods did not get to the people in whose name it was sent to the state because of the “subversive patriotism” or elected leaders.

And then this noisy talk, allegedly true, that the thousands of tons of fertilizer meant for farmers in some parts of northern Nigeria got sold off to our Cameroonian neighbours? Just saying.

Scenario number four: A state governor pulls out billions of Naira every month as security vote. Every month security worsens in the very state wherein these billions are being routinely pulled out from. No one asks questions about the increasing size of governors’ security votes and the increasing levels of insecurity in the states.

Truth be told, the problems of Federal republic of Nigeria today are not all about the Federal Government. Subnational governments are all lying flat on its stomach, bereft of all dignity and unwilling to take responsibility in many respects. Unable to present a cohesive leadership front, state and local governments, Counsellors and Ward Chairmen are part of the furniture in their respective neighbourhoods. It has been thus for a long time now, and it is as if we are all enveloped in an incubus of snarling befuddlement that rules out any inclination to question what is wrong.

That is why we are dragging towards a benighted terminus, because Nigeria’s subnational governments are mostly now a metaphor for how to exist without really living. We are told that the governors are in charge everywhere, and in that the local governments are emasculated and even underfunded. We are further told that the Chairmen are all twisting and turning piteously in subdued pain and near-asphyxiation. But are they really?  

We are told that the local governments are ridiculed, swindled and roundly scandalised on all fronts by an elaborate scheme of the governors to maintain a stranglehold on them, in order to drain and use their resources. That, we hear, is the reason why there is not even a shadow of accountability and responsible service delivery at that level of government. It is all said to be a grand text for nominal and fraudulent leadership and service delivery, we are told.

True, many local government chairmen have found themselves in a system that excludes them from the very powers they are supposed to exercise. But that was before the Supreme Court judgment. What their equivalents all over the world are doing as a matter of course they cannot even contemplate. There is, for most of them, a strange identity crisis and an uncertain groping for validation, despite that landmark judgment. That level of government seems to be under a strange spell, with the denuding assaults of governors that seemed determined to annihilate them, until a few months ago.

The failure of constitutional provisions, the failure of reforms, and the decades of aggravated misconduct have all combined to almost make plain nonsense of our local government system. It is a matter of fact, and record, that the nation has lived with this reality for very long before the current government That is why the land and the people now bleed from all pores. Local government administration lacks relevance in every sense of the word. It is mocked by the wretched profile of its most visible political actions and actors. It crawls about in recondite and narrow corners, scandalized by everything it ought to stand for.

Look around you calmly and you must conclude that there is really nothing happening in our local governments. It boasts the most disregarded clan of political leaders. It is the least considered in many ways, notwithstanding the Supreme Court judgment. For decades now, its misfortune has lingered; until it became the norm. A massive industry of fraud sprung up, and now still thrives, around our local government system.

Much of the insecurity in the land remains a matter that intel from local governments can help with. The Airforce has been bombing and destroying illegal refineries for years now. This year alone several hundreds have been “destroyed”. Really?

Recall that some three years ago Nyesom Wike directed all 23 Local Government Chairmen in his state to hire bulldozers and destroy the illegal refineries in their respective local government areas. Four days before the directive, he said to the LG bosses, as mentioned in an article titled, “Governors, Just Look at Wike”: “Now, every council Chairman must go and identify illegal refineries … and you’re given 48 hours to go and identify all illegal refineries sites, and those who are in charge of them. … Our people are dying and we owe our people the responsibility to protect them, to save them from death”.

A few weeks before this directive, Wike went about commissioning several completed, and well-executed, projects. Concerning where the huge sums of money came from, the then governor announced that it was from massive tranches of cash he received in arrears from the Federal Government. Not quite done, he went ahead to tell Nigerians that all other oil-producing states in Nigeria received their shares of the same arrears. Then, he challenged the governors concerned. He asked them to explain what they did with their own share of the windfall. “Then, his colleague oil-producing governors started speaking in tongues”.

But that is not the point here. Wike is also not the point. It is all about tying the fortunes of the people to the tenure and continuity of subnational governments and their confirmed relevance in their respective domains. Wike’s handling of local government officials at the time pointed to what is possible; even if it was coming from an unlikely source. It was a pointer to what demands could and should be made on some subnational governments as elected leaders who should be part of the nation’s cohesive national leadership, service delivery and security architecture.

As was said back then, “That Wike called on the 23 Local Government Chairmen in Rivers State out was his way of putting responsibility for some aspects of environmental awareness and security squarely at the door step of those who are supposed to be closest to the people: and who should therefore know what is going on at any point in time”.

Will all our LG bosses, where they exist in real terms, not be forced to take their jobs seriously, if their governors are breathing down their necks? Will these chairmen not, in turn, descend on their largely idle Ward and Council Chairmen? Will this then not eventually bury the thriving expectation that we should all continue pretending that it is the business of the Federal Government in Abuja to address all local issues that a passing knowledge of one’s living environment should enable us to deal with?

As said then, regarding Wike’s Riot Act to LG Chairmen: “The beauty of Wike’s intervention … lies in the fact that he is calling out politicians who are in office as servants of the people to do their work. He is also, metaphorically speaking, asking his fellow governors and their LG Chairmen to do their jobs. They are being told that they have a duty to identify criminality and propose ways of dealing with same, in their largely closely-knit communities where everyone knows what everyone else is doing. He is saying that it is not right that people should carry official titles/cars and have their names on the government payroll, without actually being on the job”.

With the intervention of the Supreme Court, the days of our governors being sole administrators are over, and the reason is simple: “Being a governor, or a local Government Chairmen, has job description and role expectations in other climes. Enough of everyone pretending that we don’t know what’s going on and who is doing what”. The six months moratorium will soon be up. We suspect that this is a “political’ ploy, to enable the governors plug in their stooges and continue the old merry-g-round. But for how long?

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But wait: Do Nigerians really know the demands they ought to make of their governors, local governments chairmen, state Houses of Assembly, etc.? As thraldom and misery have taken up permanent residence in our subnational governments, do we all really care what people who are supposed to be dealing with leadership at subnational levels are doing with our money and with themselves? I think not. And that is because everyone has been living with barely-performing subnational governments.

The Patriots led by Chief Emeka Anyaoku recently visited President Tinubu. The group declaring that “what we have now does not make for effective internal security measures,   does not make for rapid economic development and does not make for satisfactory social development, say, in education and health” made two demands on the president. First is “The convening of a National Constituent Assembly of directly elected individuals, on a non-political basis, from the 36 states of the federation, possibly three individuals per state, and one from the FCT with the mandate to produce a draft people’s democratic constitution”.  And “The draft constitution produced by the Constituent Assembly, to be put to a national referendum and if approved, should then be signed by the president as the genuine Nigerian people’s constitution.” 

The president while assuring them of “listening to their two major requests on the path to referendum which should lead to constitutional measures that will fit our diversity and governance so that we avoid conflicts and break-ups”, however added that he is “currently preoccupied with economic reform, his first priority after which he would look at other options, including constitutional review as recommended along other options, as soon as possible”. Having emerged from the trenches, President Tinubu understands the yearnings of Nigerians and the imperative of identifying with those aspirations.

Before the current intervention by the Patriots, there had been calls for constitutional reform by other concerned groups including the late Enahoro’s ‘Movement for National Reformation’ (MNR), Pro-national Conference Organisation (PRONACO),  National Democratic Coalition (NADECO), foremost socio-cultural  ethnic groups such as Afenifere, Ohanaze, Pan-Niger Deltal Forum (PANDEF) and Middle Belt Forum, (MDF) for whom periodic agitation for restructuring of the country is a crusade. Other leading lights and stakeholders in the Nigerian project across the country have also actively supported the crusade for a return to the federal arrangement, the basis for the coming together of the country’s different multi-ethnic nationalities at independence.

Most of the above groups also believe resolving our crisis of nation building should be a crusade that must necessarily precede the quest for economic prosperity. In fact, many believe the failure to first resolve our political problem is responsible for all other socio-economic problems including massive corruption, crisis of legitimacy, participation and penetration, sabotage of the economy by groups fighting for distributive justice in the Niger Delta as well as those unpatriotic groups undermining the economy of the country through importation of the labour of other societies.

As proof of failure of successive leaders to address our political problems, they also pointed out the zero-sum struggle for power by leaders of ethnic nationalities, election rigging and electoral violence as well as massive corruption. All these they added found expression in the collapse of government economic initiatives including Obasanjo’s ‘Operation Feed the Nation’ the various ‘River Basin Authorities’ projects, Shehu  Shagari’s “ Green revolution” (Alhaji Umaru Yar’Adua’s 7-Point Agenda where he identified seven sectors of the economy as the engine room to the transformation of the entire economy, and Goodluck Jonathan  “Transformation Agenda” including  unbundling of PHCN and its sales to incompetent political stalwarts.

President Tinubu who said no one should sympathize with him because he asked for the job is no doubt aware of the effects of putting the cart before the horse or attempting to sweep the political crisis under the carpet. This is why he today has a Hobbesian choice to make.

But he is a risk taker who attained power thorough grit and wit. He challenged his APC party’s oligarchs including President Buhari, VP Osinbajo, Abdullahi Adamu, his former party chairman who tried to outwit him by imposing a consensus candidate on the eve of the primary and his ever disloyal Southwest governors, with bravery and tenacity. And that turned out  a rehearsal for his final battle which he fought with great perseverance and unyielding determination against warring PDP and its surrogate, the Labour Party, crowded by crude, rude, unthinking mob called ‘obidients’ whose only commodity is intimidation of rivals.

And also working in his favour was the fact that as the only 2023 presidential candidate that emerged without the endorsement of the ‘owners of Nigeria’, the powers and principalities, he could afford taking risks.

In his Yoruba base, where electorate are often described as discriminatory voters, he lost two of the six states, Osun and Lagos where he had reigned supreme for over 20 years. He lost all the southeast states, won two in South-south and shared the northern states with Atiku Abubakar.

If with his frightful experience while navigating the mine-invested route to the Nigerian presidency, threat to a possible second term bid because of punishing effects of his harsh economic policies on Nigerians who believe they are being punished for the sins of untouchable parasitic elites that stole the country blind, he stubbornly insists on first solving economic problem before addressing the political problems he admits threaten our very survival, we can see in President Tinubu a politician who promises hope while praying for a miracle. And that is what separates the real politician from a venal man of many words.

And this is why  President Tinubu alone knows how he intends to win the war on an economy under daily  assault of crude oil thieves, importers of fake products and where manufacturing firms like Nestle and PZ are declaring loses of between N262.5b and  N76 billion while some parasitic banks are targeting  N1 trilion pre-tax profit for a year.

I guess Tinubu is not afraid of failure because unlike his errant predecessors, he sees himself as providing selfless service to a country that has been serially  betrayed by self-serving overbearing leaders interested only in exploiting, for political gains, the innermost fears of the poor electorate that look up to them for leadership.

For instance, the health of Nigeria could never have been the concern of Aguiyi Ironsi who whimsically promulgated his Decree 34 of 1966 that turned the country from a federal state to a unitary state or the succeeding military adventurers that splintered the country to 36 states and 774 local government areas to consolidate Ironsi’s initiative.

Babangida could not have been serving anyone but self by foisting Structural Adjustment programme (SAP) on Nigeria despite its wide rejection by Nigerians and his imposition of an interim contraption on the country after Nigerians had expressed their preference for MKO Abiola’s presidency by giving him a landslide victory in the 1993 election. A leader who sets out to truly serve Nigeria wouldn’t have waged five years’ war against Nigerians as Abacha did. And only Obasanjo’s political children who crowned him ‘the father of New Nigeria’ after presiding over the sale of Nigerian total government investment of $100 billion for a paltry $1.5 billion and sharing of Nigeria physical properties including national monuments among political cronies and civil servants are deceived  and not Nigerians.

Buhari couldn’t have been serving Nigeria by presiding over the total collapse of the nation’s economy and the pacification of the North including his Katsina State by bandits and herdsmen.

I am sure Tinubu the politician knows his survival and credibility is anchored on finding accommodation for the demands of the Patriots and the faithful implementation of his “three-year economic revival plan targeted at addressing Nigeria’s socioeconomic challenges, prevailing adversity, unemployment, insecurity, and poverty whose highlights, are food security; poverty eradication; growth, job creation; access to capital; inclusion; rule of law; and fighting corruption.”

 And if he is voted out in 2027 by the electorate for either not turning the fortune of Nigerians around or for failing to instituionalise a federal system that liberates individuals and groups from the tyranny of the state, he will return home a fulfilled man having tried his best.

And as a founding director of Transparency International and  a former vice president of the World Bank (Africa region), Oby unarguably remains a pacesetter and the best example of what educated African woman can become as against ‘feminization of poverty’ (UN) by those African societies that refuse to educate their womenfolk. Above all, Oby is passionate about the Nigerian project and often speaks with passion on issues that are connected to our crisis of nation-building.

But like many of us, her vision is sometimes blurred by her political prejudices. Ezekwesili sees only the things she wants to see. ““If you are a Nigerian, you should be vexed at this government. All we have seen from this government since it came into office is fiscal profligacy”. Although many of the economic policies designed to set our nation on the path of modernization and sustainable growth are yet to start yielding dividends, not many of those familiar with Nigeria’s years of the locusts when ill-equipped leaders declare unabashedly that ‘money was not Nigeria problem but how to spend it’ and when in recent years, weak leaders turned themselves to ATM without password, will agree with Ezekwesili.

But we understand where Ezekwesili, an unapologetic supporter of candidate Peter Obi, and a silent admirer of the ‘obidients’, is coming from. For her, Peter Obi, a sell-confessed importer of wine among other items that killed our budding industries thereby forcing our youths out in search for greener pasture elsewhere in the world,  is the best hope for turning the Nigeria economy around.  She has a mind-set that both Atiku and Tinubu, the eventual winner of the election, are no match for Obi.

And her crooked syllogism was that youths who make up 60 per cent of the voting population along with women which make up about 51 per cent of the voting population are more inclined towards the presidency of Peter Obi. And based on two premises that may be invalid, Oby on  December 10, 2022  told Channels TV’s Hard Copy “So after I have done my rating, there is absolutely no way I would leave a Peter Obi and vote for any of the other two candidates”.

Now trapped in Obi’s illusory presidency, she still describes the 2023 election as  “not an election, but snatch it grab it and run away with it” while discrediting both the INEC and the Supreme Court, praised by many for the share profundity of its judgment. She dismisses both the executive and legislature as ‘bandits’ and ‘rascals’. All she wants by accusing those in power of starting class war is the collapse of the government.

But if one may ask, what are the causes of Oby’s current emotional anguish?

First, beyond removal of fuel subsidy, she wants total deregulation, where market forces will reign supreme. No one expects anything different from former director of the Harvard-Nigeria Economic project. The problem however is that no one has told us where in the world market forces only has brought prosperity to the people beyond making the poor  live to support the system while the rich get richer.

At least we already have a template in Nigeria. Okpara’s ‘Pragmatic Socialism’, where public enterprises played a leading role repositioned the old Eastern Region as the fastest growing economy in the world in the sixties. In the West, Awolowo’s home grown capitalism where public enterprises joined forces with the private sector to create a more egalitarian society, was the reason the old Western Region became ‘the most educated part of Africa’. Of course Ahmadu Bello built the biggest business conglomerate in Africa in the sixties without consulting Oby’s World Bank.

Ezekwesili also considers government’s acquisition of aircraft –Airbus A330 to replace the 19-year old Boeing, economic recklessness. While uninformed victims of the president’s economic policies could be incensed, the same reaction from opinion leaders who understand need for safety and the fact that old aircrafts have been put on sale to offset the cost of the new one could only have been designed to whip up public sentiments against the government.

As for Oby’s grief over N20b to build the vice president’s house, she was being economical with the truth. FCT Minister, Nyesom Wike, disclosed the contract for the building was first awarded in 2010, at a cost of N7 billion. It became one of the abandoned projects until leadership of the FCT in January 2024 sought for and obtained approval for a review of the contract to the sum of N22 billion, leading to its completion 14 years after commencement. The president praised Wike for his ‘dynamic and focused leadership’ saying it was the 9th in the series of (mostly abandoned projects) Wike had completed.  Oby would have preferred the property already taken over by reptiles to continue to rot away like the abandoned National Assembly whose contract was awarded in March 11, 2006 to Reynolds Construction Company, (RCC), to the tune of N8.5 billion naira.

Unlike the National Mosque and the Ecumenical Centre started the same time but completed by those who think God can be deceived, it was abandoned and today TETFUND is projecting a cost of N200b. Meanwhile, Ezekwesili has not called those who abandoned the projects only to raise N7billion from serving governors and government contractors to build their own personal presidential library bandits.

 As for Oby’s other heartache, the National Assembly’s decision to buy toys or what she described as ‘funny looking cars’, even while the governed should be naturally  such  insensitive decision, Oby understands that the  National Assembly runs its own budget independent of the executive arm of government.  She knows it was this reason, neither Obasanjo, her political father, who has at various times described the assembly members as ‘pen thieves’, Jonathan who according to Okonjo-Iweala had to part with about N15b bribe to have his budget passed nor Buhari who for eight years complained about the padding of his budget by the legislature, could not rein in the National Assembly members.

Oby also knows that this was part of the reasons Nigerian stakeholders have since 1999 called for the review of the 1999 constitution. But as against joining this crusade, what we have on record is Ezekwesili’s pursuits of her Igbo ethnic group agenda-citizenship of Nigerians wherever they stay without obligations of settlers to host communities, ignoring the sociological reality of Nigeria, which unlike America, is a federation of ethnic nationalities.

I am not sure many Nigerians have an axe to grind with Oby’s characterization of many Nigerian politicians as bandits. She is best placed to confirm this fact.  I think they just believe charity must start from the home. She was part of PDP when Obasanjo  and Atiku in the guise of privatization sold Nigeria’s total investment of over $100b for  a paltry $1.5b to party stalwarts, when in the name of monetization policy they shared physical structures dating back to the pre-colonial period, kept in their temporary care for our children among themselves with David Mark, as Senate President and Dimeji Bankole as House Speaker,  buying their official residences at give-away prices among other government  buildings including the  NITEL building in Ikoyi.

She was there when in 1999 when lawmakers who claimed to have sold house to fight election set up an instrument which according to a National Assembly probe report, they deployed to steal billions. She cannot also deny the claim by Audu Ogbe, one time PDP chairman, corroborated by National Assembly report, that siblings of PDP stalwarts forged papers under the nose of Okonjo-Iweala, as Minister for Finance, to defraud the nation to the tune of NI.6 trillion under the dubious subsidy regime, “without importing a pint of fuel”.

Finally, Oby is a former vice president of the World Bank whose policies she wants to force down our throats. But we do know the World Bank is the greatest bandit the world has ever known. It is the instrument Europe effectively deployed to defraud and impoverish Africa nations from where over $58b is siphoned from annually. What other name besides ’bandit’ do we have for a continent  that has nothing but depends on our  priceless resources including silver, gold, crude oil among others, and declare without shame that a unit of their coloured papers, must exchange for between 1,500  and 5,000 units of the currency of African nations that own their resources?

Between the Federal Ministry of Education and some states, we are hearing pronouncements on educational policies that give us citizens some concern especially parents and those who are seized with the question of the education of our children and grandchildren and about the educational trajectory of the country. The Federal Ministry of Education shocked the whole country, by issuing a decree, as if we were in a military regime, that children under 18 should not be allowed to take JAMB university entrance examination and those below certain age should not be allowed to take the Senior School examination. Also Lagos State suddenly announced it was converting the College of Medicine in its university into a University of Medicine. These two developments gave me worry and if some of us don’t speak out, these two authorities will think they are doing the right thing.

The federal minister of education who made one of these announcements is totally wrong. First of all, education is still on the concurrent constitutional list on which both the federal and the state governments have jurisdiction. I am waiting for any state government to challenge this federal announcement because it is wrong. No government should be able to tell parents whether their fast learning children should be arbitrarily restrained from entering a university because a minister says so, or should a minister be able to restrain a child from taking senior school leaving examination which is a prerequisite for sitting for JAMB examination. If this policy holds, parents would be forced to asking their children to take Ordinary and Advanced level examinations of external examination bodies in order to give their children opportunity to enter universities. In this way, the minister would have found a market for external examination bodies to the detriment of the local ones.

In places like Canada and the United States, children enter universities with different state qualifications not a unified homogenized qualification like in Nigeria. There are smart children who get first degrees in Harvard and Oxford universities in their teenage years because they are gifted children and it doesn’t seem as if our own regimes make allowance for such gifted children because everyone is brought down to the lowest pedestal of the average and dullest people in the country.

I pray that this action of the federal minister of education would be challenged in the courts for clarification and also in order to protect the interest of smart and precocious children who have no voice in what amounts to abridgment of their educational progress.

The idea of University of Medicine began in Ondo State where a so-called university of medicine domiciled in a rented section of the Adeyemi College of Education in Ondo State for years before apparently having its own campus. When this unique institution was established, I asked then in this paper what this university of medicine was all about. Can medical students be trained without knowledge of basic sciences like Physics, Biology and Chemistry? Certainly these medical students would  be expected to go through basic sciences in which case the university of medicine would have to have departments of basic sciences and also Biochemistry, Physiology and Anatomy, knowledge of which are critical to the study of medicine. In modern medical schools, students are expected to have knowledge of the sociology of the country within which their knowledge will be practiced. Education nowadays tries to widen the knowledge of students outside the narrow confines of the specialized fields of study. This is why a university of medicine should be part of a developed comprehensive university, not an isolated university of medicine. Even if there are universities of medicine in the developed countries, must we blindly copy them without their level of development and the resources available in such countries? Since the Ondo example, the federal government has in the last few years established such universities of medicine in Oturpo, in Benue State and another one in Ila-Orangun , Osun State presumably to honour Brigadier-Gen. David Mark and Chief  Bisi Akande  who are political bigwigs in the country without counting the cost of such establishment even when other old dilapidating federal institutions are collapsing.

One also wonders where medical teachers are going to be found for these universities of medicine. There is no surplus of such teachers in Nigeria or anywhere as far as I know. In the case of Ondo State, it is not even able to fund its universities of technology in Okitipupa, Owo and its premier university in Akungba. The technical equipment and structure for such a highly specialized university of medicine can only be purchased in forex-denominated currency. Is it with the billions of naira that will fetch a mere million dollars that they would use to fund this so-called university of medicine?

A poorly trained doctor armed with the scalpel to perform surgery will be a licensed murderer. By the way, what happened to Muhammadu Buhari’s University of Transportation in Daura? Recently the Customs Director-General announced his department was about to announce a university of Customs and the Department of Immigration is ready to roll! Not to talk about different arms of the military! The university idea has become a joke in Nigeria.

When Lagos State announced that it was setting up a university of medicine this October, I said to myself here we go again. The reasons adduced for it were shortage of doctors in state hospitals because of resignation of their doctors for foreign appointments. The state did not say people went elsewhere because of poor remuneration but we the people know this is what happened. We all know the reason why doctors are fleeing the country is poor wages and emoluments. The announcement by the Lagos State governor went further to state that the new university of medicine would graduate 1500 doctors per year.

I asked myself whether the institution would just be told to go and graduate 1500 doctors as if it were a factory. What will be the size of 1500 graduating medical university? Where are the teachers that would graduate 1500 doctors? This is simply impossible and if it is possible, these brand new doctors would be poorly trained physicians. None of the old medical schools in the country can graduate a third of such figures annually. This is not a solution to the problem of resignation.

For the sake of argument, would the new doctors be tied down by shackles to the hospitals? I have not heard of universities being set up like this before. Was there any study done about the feasibility of this enterprise? Even with the acclaimed resource endowment of Lagos State, it will not be able to fund adequately its new university of medicine along with recently established universities of technology, of education and the old LASU which is not adequately funded.

State governments should not just jump into the running stream of establishing universities on the whim of the chief executive. States concerned with the health of their people should provide potable clean water and embark on programs of preventive medicine rather than poorly conceived establishments of universities of medicine. Universities that are universities are serious enterprises. The federal and state governments should have deep thoughts about  establishing new universities when it can hardly fund the current ones. It is indeed time for the federal and state governments to roll back some of the mushroom universities that they have established in recent times.

Al Nassr of Saudi Pro League superstar, Cristiano Ronaldo fired a not-so-subtle message to archrival Lionel Messi after scoring his 900th career goal, saying Portugal’s Euro 2016 triumph is ‘equivalent’ to winning a World Cup.

The 39-year-old iconic football star, who has had a near career-long rivalry with Messi, reached the remarkable milestone on Thursday’s night as Portugal opened their Nations League campaign with a 2-1 victory over Croatia.

It was a mixed night for Ronaldo’s former Manchester United team-mate Diogo Dalot in Lisbon, with the defender breaking the deadlock early on before directing the ball into his own net at the other end of the pitch.

Fortunately for Dalot, Ronaldo’s 34th-minute strike proved decisive and Roberto Martinez’s men held firm to secure maximum points from the heavyweight clash at Benfica’s Estadio da Luz.

Metro.co.uk reports that after volleying Nuno Mendes’ inviting cross beyond Croatian goalkeeper Dominik Livakovic, Ronaldo dropped to his knees and broke down in tears, clearly overcome with emotion at his astonishing achievement.

Ronaldo and team will look to maintain their 100 per cent record in the competition when they play host to Scotland in their second Group A contest on Sunday evening.

Speaking to the media after becoming the first player in history to score 900 goals, Ronaldo insisted that ‘enjoying football’ was now his sole motivation – rather than winning the World Cup.

“Portugal winning Euros is equivalent to winning a World Cup,” the veteran attacker said.

‘I’ve already won two trophies for Portugal that I really wanted. I’m not motivated by that.

‘I’m motivated by enjoying football and the records come naturally.’ Ronaldo added: ‘Scoring 900 goals seems like any other milestone, but only I know how hard it is to work every day to score your 900th goal.

‘It’s a unique milestone in my career. ‘I don’t break records… they haunt me!,” Ronaldo said.

[Leadership]

The federal government has flagged off the sale of 30,000 metric tonnes of milled rice to public servants with duly registered National Identification Number (NIN) to curb racketeering. The move is parts of efforts to crash the prices of food in Nigerian markets.

President Bola Tinubu, who was represented at the flag off by Abubakar Kyari, the minister of agriculture and food security, said the intervention will be sold strictly “one man to one bag or one woman to one bag”.

He said the rice — which is to be sold at a flat rate of N40,000 naira only for 50kg — is the federal government intervention for the sales of subsidised milled rice to ameliorate the prevailing food crises in Nigeria.

“This food intervention can be said to be timely considering the times and challenges we are in as citizens of this great nation,” he said.

“As one of the numerous efforts of the present administration to cushion the effect of high cost of food commodities, kindly join me to applaud the immense efforts of the present administration such as the release of 42,000MT of Assorted Food Commodities (AFC) to vulnerable and the 30,000MT of milled rice which is being flagged-off for sales to Nigerians today 5th September, 2024.”

The minister blamed COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine war, climate change amidst other localized factors/challenges for the high cost of food prices.

“This has led to increase concern and risk of food insecurity and general decline in the standard of living globally. I therefore urge us to understand that the present challenges are not peculiar to our great country,” he said.

He added that the federal government being aware of the potential challenges associated with the sales of an important staple such as rice, at this critical period has deployed a multi-disciplinary machinery of Government, as well put in place certain processes and conditions to ensure the transparency, wider reach and success of this exercise.

“This includes one man one 50kg of rice, others are the verification of intending beneficiaries using relevant identification mediums such as the National Identification Number (NIN) and phone numbers to forestall multiple access to this food commodity by fraudulent individuals at the detriment of other citizens,” he said.

He implored citizens to cooperate with the relevant citizens to achieve the initiative.

“Let us work together to ensure that the dream of the present administration to upheld the fundamental right to food for all Nigerians is achieved. It is expected that with the injection 30,000MT (1000 trucks of 30MT each of this important staple into Nigeria food balance sheet, it will not only crash the price of rice but also other closer food substitutes and alternatives.”

He called on Nigerians to remain steadfast and be patient with Mr. President as his numerous efforts to enhance Food security will soon begin to pay off.

The director, food and strategic reserve of the ministry, Haruna Sule Abutu outlined the procedure to buy the subsidised rice.

“To qualify for the one person one bag, you must have National Identification Number, of course you have phone numbers and those in public service are all registered under the Integrated Payroll and Personal Information System (IPPIS) platform,” he said.

“Once you have any of these three, at the point of sale, with the NIN logged into the system, a code number and a Treasury receipt will be generated, and with that the buyer can get to the collection center and pick up his bag. The receipt will indicate, time and point of collection to eliminate stampede.”

[BusinessDay]

The Court of Appeal in Abuja has dismissed an appeal filed by governorship aspirants of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Edo State, Arthur Esene and Anselm Ojezua,  to disqualify the party’s candidate for the upcoming September 21 governorship election, Asue Ighodalo.

In the appeal marked CA/ABJ/CV/863/2024, Esene and Ojezua had urged the Court of Appeal to overturn the April 17 judgment by Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court, Abuja, which dismissed their suit as “statute barred.”

Justice Omotosho had previously ruled that the plaintiffs failed to prove their claim that Ighodalo had forged his voter’s card. He also noted that “non-possession of a voter’s card did not constitute a disqualifying factor under the Constitution and the Electoral Act” to bar a candidate from contesting an election.

In the lead judgment delivered on Friday, Justice Hamma Barka upheld Justice Omotosho’s decision and affirmed that the suit filed by Ojezua and others was “filed out of time and statute barred.”

Justice Barka concurred with the Federal High Court’s finding that the appellants “failed to establish their claim” that Ighodalo forged his voter’s card.

He further observed that the suit lacked merit, based on the flawed assumption that “non-possession of a voter’s card constitutes a ground to disqualify a candidate from contesting an election.”

Justice Barka highlighted that the appellants did not contest the trial court’s findings that Ighodalo had applied to the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the transfer of his registration from Lagos State to Edo State, and that INEC had issued a voter’s card to Ighodalo.

Consequently, Justice Barka struck out the appeal for being without merit and awarded costs of N3 million against the appellants and in favor of Ighodalo, PDP, and INEC.

Justices Usman Musale and Okon Abang, who were also on the panel, concurred with the lead judgment.

Details later…

[Tribune]

Bolton Wanderers striker Victor Adeboyejo missed the team’s EFL Trophy victory against Barrow on Tuesday after suffering an unusual injury caused by a “hefty sneeze.”

Adeboyejo was forced to pull out of the squad due to discomfort in his back and ribcage, which, according to his manager, Ian Evatt, was triggered by the sneeze.

“Victor has been suffering with a nasty back injury and a sneeze set it off, believe it or not,” he told The Bolton News on Thursday.

The 26-year-old Nigerian has since undergone a scan to assess the extent of the injury.

Evatt noted that the injury originally occurred after a challenge in a game against Charlton but was worsened by the sneeze.

“He was okay at the time, but then he had a pretty hefty sneeze. Victor is a powerful boy, and even his sneezes are powerful,” the manager joked. “I’ll have to start having a long look at myself when players start getting injured sneezing.”

Despite Adeboyejo’s absence, Bolton secured a 3-2 win against Barrow and currently sit 18th in League One with four points from their first four games of the season.

Adeboyejo transferred to the League One club on January 27, 2023.

[Punch]