The Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), the highest policy-making organ of the Central Bank of Nigeria(CBN), begins a crucial two-day meeting today with a decision on the benchmark interest rate as the main agenda.

Many analysts expect the CBN to leave the benchmark interest rate, the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), unchanged at 27.50 per cent, in preference for a more discernible consumer price trend.

The MPC, headed by the CBN governor, traditionally provides monetary policies and benchmarks, which determine the direction of the financial services sector and the economy to a large extent.

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) last week released its latest Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, showing that the headline inflation rate dropped by 52 basis points from 24.23 per cent in March 2025 to 23.71 per cent last month.

On a month-on-month basis, inflation also declined to 1.86 per cent in April, compared to  3.90 per cent recorded in March.

The decline in inflation rate was driven by a broad-based decrease in the prices of food items. Food inflation slowed by 53 basis points from 21.79 per cent in March 2025 to 21.26 per cent in April 2025. On a month-on-month basis, food inflation eased by 12 basis points from 2.18 per cent to 2.06 per cent.

Core inflation-which included all items excluding farm produce and energy, also declined by 105 basis points from 24.43 per cent in March 2025 to 23.39 per cent in April. On a month-on-month basis,   core inflation dropped by 239 basis points from 3.73 per cent in March 2025 to 1.34 per cent last month. 

Experts and sources close to the CBN said the MPC would rely on the side of caution and hold the rates and other parameters unchanged.

Analysts at Bismarck Rewane’s Financial Derivatives Company (FDC), Cordros Capital Group, Afrinvest West Africa and Arthur Steven Asset Management, among others, expect a cautious stance that would leave the MPR and all parameters unchanged.

However, analysts at Futureview said the apex bank could reduce the benchmark interest rate marginally. They expect inflationary pressure to reduce further in the next period.  

Cordros Capital analysts said: “Since the last MPC meeting, the global economic landscape has grown increasingly volatile and uncertain, primarily driven by persistent trade protectionist policies in the United States.

‘’In our view, the MPC is likely to take these developments into account, particularly the elevated global uncertainty and its adverse implications for naira stability, despite a positive real rate of return, given the current inflation rate. 

‘’Against this backdrop, we expect the MPC to adopt a cautious stance, leaving the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) unchanged, alongside retaining all other policy parameters in a bid to anchor inflation expectations and maintain the naira’s attractiveness,”

The analysts said inflation risks were still tilted to the upside, particularly as the naira continues to experience gradual depreciation, reinforcing the need to anchor inflation expectations.

US President Donald Trump said Monday he would launch a “major investigation” into his 2024 election rival Kamala Harris over celebrities who backed her failed run for the White House.

“Candidates aren’t allowed to pay for ENDORSEMENTS, which is what Kamala did, under the guise of paying for entertainment,” he posted on his Truth Social platform.

“I am going to call for a major investigation into this matter.”

Harris sought to harness star power from celebrities such as Beyonce and Oprah Winfrey in the election race.

Winfrey defended a $1 million payment to her production company from the Harris campaign to covers costs associated with the talk show legend hosting the presidential candidate.

Harris’s team, meanwhile, denied rumours that she paid pop megastar Beyonce $10 million to appear at a rally.

The Harris campaign listed one endorsement-related expenditure for $75 in its financial reports to an environmental advocacy group.

Trump, who won the election comfortably, received scant support from the entertainment industry at large but tapped into a targeted subset of well-known, hypermasculine influencers including podcast host Joe Rogan.

The president on Monday took aim at Beyonce, Winfrey and Bruce Springsteen, accusing Harris of paying the legendary rock star to perform at a rally in Georgia weeks before the election.

“How much did Kamala Harris pay Bruce Springsteen for his poor performance during her campaign for president?” he wrote.

“Why did he accept that money if he is such a fan of hers?”

Trump last week took to Truth Social to feud with Springsteen after the star told a British concert audience that his homeland is now ruled by a “corrupt, incompetent and treasonous administration.”

In return, the 78-year-old Republican said the star, nicknamed “the Boss,” is “Highly Overrated.”

Springsteen is an outspoken liberal critic of Trump and turned out for Harris after she replaced Democratic president Joe Biden in his abandoned reelection bid.

AFP

I anticipated  lots of reactions  to my April 12, 2025 column titled  “How the military taught Nigerians the art of looting.” However, I did not expect an avalanche. It was as if I had made a monumental discovery  on corruption. I have not!  

Some of the reactions suggested that multi-party democracy in a  diverse religious  and multi-ethnic  polity with competing  interests like Nigeria, requires compromises which make corruption unavoidable. This assertion, as explained    by Chief Tunde Fanimokun,  in his 2009 book, “Jakande: His Story Is History”, is a fallacy. In  using the example of former Lagos State Governor  Lateef Kayode Jakande, Fanimokun, the pioneer Permanent Secretary for Land Matters in the state, demonstrated  “the practicability  of  incorruptibility under a democratic dispensation, given a good leader.” Jakande, by his policies, pronouncements, actions, example and body language, left nobody in doubt that a cardinal sin anybody in his government could commit was to be corrupt in any way or form.  As he said: “Where there is light, there can be no darkness.”

Jakande  shocked the citizenry when from the podium  he was sworn in, he headed for his private one-story residence    at    2, Bishop Street, Ilupeju rather than the palatial State House.  When he was told it was impracticable, he asked what could be done to make it practicable.  When told a ‘State House’ could not  be in darkness, and he had no generator, he went out to buy one on hire purchase. When the security services said  closed-circuit television is  a necessity, he borrowed one from a friend. The emphatic message Jakande  sent out was that he  sought public office in order to serve and not be served.  At his own expense, he modified his residence and lived there throughout his terms in office, and  for the two years from 1993 when he was  the Minister of Works and Housing.

When his administration built an average    21  new houses everyday for the four years he was governor – making a total of over 30,000 new houses – he did so at the lowest possible cost. This included  making bulk purchases of building materials and fittings using the    state    Building Materials Company, BMC, “at the most competitive prices from all available sources.” Fanimokun wrote that the Jakande administration also    made direct “strategic  importation    of building materials  as and when  necessary”.  These included iron-rods and cement from Spain and flush doors from countries like Cote d’ Ivoire and Taiwan.

  This way, the houses were affordable for the poor and the possibility of corruption in awarding contracts, was highly  minimised. Fanimokun wrote that in awarding contracts, Jakande’s “tender award procedure  was ideal – open, competitive, and very strictly  guided by due process.” Also, there could have been no cases of corruption in the allocation system, as there were far more houses  available than the number of applicants. He said under Jakande,  the annual budget was like an holy book. It was  used as an effective tool  of management, for fiscal discipline, financial prudence and full compliance.  The issue  of ‘unspent budget’, he said, would have been strange under Jakande because  strict budget implementation  was a standard  antidote  for any end-of-year rush for  unspent  balances. Fanimokun posited that  the practice of unspent budget  is by itself “an open invitation  to fraudulent  manipulations, most especially in the absence of any effective control to clean the balance sheet.” He  suggests Jakande’s method of taking steps to prevent  corruption rather than tackle it after, because: “It is a notorious fact  that Nigerian governments  have a penchant  for endless probes  without prosecution  to logical conclusion.”

He also argued that while  new agencies to fight corruption  such as the  Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, and  the Independent    Corrupt Practices    and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC,    have been established after the Jakande era to fight corruption,  the country seems to be moving in a circle.  He said even when  such agencies recover looted funds, there are claims that some of such funds are re-looted. The military coup of  December 1983 which overthrew the Shagari administration and ended the Jakande administration in Lagos State, came with a vengeance to deal ruthlessly with leaders of the  overthrown administration. It assumed the former leaders were corrupt. But Fanimokun said the military regime found Jakande to be spotlessly clean.

  Based  on his experiences under Jakande, Fanimokun  made  eight recommendations.  First, is the power of example.    Referring to innovative projects like the Banana Island land reclamation project, he said as governor, Jakande created land from water “without  allocating one single plot of land to himself or his family.”

A second suggestion is that an upright leader should not be found in the midst of villains and treasury looters.  Thirdly,  that a visionary leadership is an irreducible minimum.  Fourthly,  that a good administration must keep    faith with its policy pronouncements. Fifth, that good governance should not under any circumstance be compromised. This, he says, requires  the promotion of the greatest good for the greatest number of the people.  Six,  is a total rebirth  of the country’s value system built on a people-oriented  mass movement  against corruption.  Seven  is a continuous  auditing of public accounts and use of watchdogs  operating    in the form of fund and financial review committees.  Lastly, a demonstrable  ‘zero tolerance’ for corruption.    

While delivering the 2025 Distinguished Personality Lecture of the Lagos State University, LASU, Fanimokun noted: “It is a notorious  fact that corruption remains a recurring decimal in the history of Nigeria. It is widely  acknowledged  as a monster with ferocious  fangs/claws; and an endemic problem of gargantuan dimensions.” He  said it is disheartening    that  Nigeria, the sixth  largest oil producer on earth, has the third largest    concentration of poor people.  Corruption, he added,  has held back economic growth and development in the country.

In gazing across his audience  and, reflecting  on  his life, he said:    “At  80, I feel greatly elated  about a rebirth in Nigeria as imminent regarding the anti-corruption crusade.”    Some of the reasons for his elation are the high profile cases involving    the former  Governor of the Central Bank, Godwin Emefiele; the immediate past Governor of Kogi State, Yahaya Bello; and the final forfeiture of assets by Mrs    Deziani Allison-Madueke, former Petroleum Minister under the Jonathan administration.

Fanimokun  said his presumption is that  the younger generations as leaders of tomorrow  are listening to the clarion call  for salvation: “If other wise, Nigeria is irredeemably doomed forever!” To assure the country survives, Fanimokun advocates that the crusade against corruption  should  be elevated to the  status of a war in which drastic measures can  be taken. One direction he directs his gaze is China,  where the wages of corruption is the death penalty.

The immediate past Deputy Speaker of the Enugu State House of Assembly, Dr. Ikechukwu Ezeugwu, has resigned from the People’s Democratic Party (PDP).

In a resignation letter addressed to the Chairman of his Udunedum Ward in Udenu Local Government Area of Enugu State on Sunday, Ezeugwu cited several deliberate wrongdoings by the PDP against its members, describing the party’s operations in the state as “Deceitocracy.”

“For the records, the breaking point for me was, but not limited to, the events during the build-up to the 2023 general elections. The party leadership, with their allies, driven by selfishness, arrogated to themselves the responsibility and clumsily selected candidates for the elections against the advice of well-meaning members of the party,” he stated.

Ezeugwu further lamented that “in many instances, merit was glaringly sacrificed on the altar of mediocrity, and deceit was ingloriously elevated to unimaginable proportions.” He expressed gratitude for the wisdom to reject what he described as a “Trojan Horse,” adding that he was targeted for economic suppression and political ridicule, but persevered.

He also criticized the party for sidelining many vibrant first-time members of the State House of Assembly and other political aspirants. According to him, these individuals were deceitfully encouraged to embark on countless constituency empowerment projects and campaigns, with assurances of candidacy that never materialized.

“Those who were given such opportunities were left stranded when they needed support and encouragement. Meanwhile, the party leadership was busy flirting around with candidates of other political parties vying for the highest political office at the national level,” Ezeugwu said.

He described the experience as deeply depressing, especially considering the contributions of members of the 7th Assembly of Enugu State.

“For me, trust is a fundamental aspect of any relationship, and without it, relationships can become challenging to maintain. It is pitiful, shameful, and heartbreaking that ‘Papas deceived Pikins’ who respected, trusted, and treated them as fathers. DECEITOCRACY,” Ezeugwu concluded.

[Vanguard]

Tokunbo Wahab, Lagos commissioner for environment and water resources, says the state will begin full enforcement of the ban on single-use plastics (SUPs) from July 1, 2025.

SUPs are products intended for short-term use. They are sometimes discarded after a single application.

Styrofoam is a trademarked brand of closed-cell extruded polystyrene foam (XPS) used for building insulation on walls and roofs. It is also used for production of single-use cups and plastics.

In January 2024, the Lagos government banned the use and distribution of styrofoam and other SUPs to reduce environmental pollution across the state.

The development elicited varied reactions as stakeholders and some residents berated the government for the short notice.

Providing an update on the development on Monday, Wahab, via a post on X, said the state government has been strategic with the implementation of the policy.

The commissioner said in the last 18 months, the state organised a series of stakeholder engagement sessions with marketers and producers of SUPs.

“Now it’s time to act,” he said.

“We re-emphasized this stand during a courtesy visit by management of TETRA PAK West Africa Limited led by the Managing Director, Mr. Haithem Debbiche.

“This is about environmental responsibility and we have given ample time to align with global best practices.

“What is unacceptable elsewhere cannot become standard in Lagos. We must protect our future and do what is right for the greater good.

“We’re not here to score points. We’re here to do the work. Just like with the successful enforcement of the styrofoam ban, we will insist on accountability and responsibility.”

[TheCable]

In Yoruba, there is a proverb: “Ojú l’arí, ọ̀rẹ́ ò dé ‘nú”—literally it means ‘we only see the face; friendship does not go deep inside.’ That is the name the Group Managing Director of the NNPCL, Mr Bayo Ojulari, bears. The name calls attention to why appearance and essence sometimes wear different colours. It teaches a lesson in how names, faces and accents may be mere masks—not mirrors.

In Nigeria, the powers of power always wear tribal costumes. Every big position is a sacred grove, only the initiates have its access cards. Kinship confers initiation rights at the grove; free cakes are the benefits. For this and other familial reasons, about a month ago when Ojulari was made the boss of Nigeria’s national oil company, Yoruba people, home and abroad, danced round the world. They thought the NNPC had become their grove. 

There is a town called Oke Ode in Ifelodun Local Government Area of Kwara State. Chiefs and youths of that community competed for space in newspapers, on radio and TV with press releases thanking President Bola Tinubu and their own stars for the appointment of Ojulari. They said he was their son in whom they were very well pleased. The chiefs, in particular, added, for effect, that he was “able and capable of bringing the necessary turnaround in NNPC for the benefit of Nigeria and the entire citizenry.”

But the man by himself gave a definition of himself last week. He spoke extensively to BBC Hausa in flawless Hausa language, clearly and purposively choosing and declaring where he belongs. Newspapers did English translations of what he said: “I was surprised when people said I was not from the North. I am a child of the North, and I come from Ilorin. I was brought up in Kaduna State. I started learning Yoruba when I was 15 years old. When I left Kaduna, I went to Zaria to study, so I am a northerner,” he said — and added: “I need the support of the North to do this work well and bring development to the North and the whole of Nigeria…” 

What Ojulari said is a culture jolt to Western Nigerians, and I saw it in more than one critical Yoruba circle. It is a reminder that the face is not necessarily the soul. It is also a warning that a name may and may not mirror allegiance or belonging. 

Three things I noted in what the man said: That he is from the North is true and the truth; Kwara is geographically north. It appears settled forever, no matter what I may think or feel. That the man is from Ilorin will be declared false by Ilorin, and held to be very untrue by the people of Oke Ode, his father’s hometown. The city he claims, Ilorin, is in Kwara-Central senatorial district; the town that claims him, Oke Ode, is an Igbomina town that sits deep in the savanna of Kwara South. Much more fundamental is this: “I need the support of the North to do this work well and bring development to the North and the whole of Nigeria.” Now, read the last clause of that sentence again. Did you see that ‘the north’ comes first before ‘Nigeria’? So, between the two which one is really his country?

In the pantheon of the gods, some deities are more worthy than others. The North is that deity who stands by you with everything it has. When you have northern Nigeria on your side, you can sleep completely and totally. No ant will dare walk your skin; rodents won’t disturb your rest. Ojulari knew this as a proven fact. He, therefore, desperately wanted the North behind him. And, with that interview, the boss man has owned the North; the North is expected to accept and own him. 

I believe Ojulari could claim his northernness without posting a disclaimer of his ethnic, linguistic and communal roots. His interview has stomped his feet on the eyes of that part of the earth which calls him son. The language and tone of the interview suggest his mother tongue is a footnote; an afterthought that came after 15 years. His hometown, Oke Ode, did not even feature at all in his story as told by him. I hope his Yoruba is strong enough for him to understand that rain beats one into the same house more than once. He can still make quiet amends. 

A lesson: Butterfly gazed at her reflection in a clear pond and said, “These wings are too grand for an insect—I must be a bird! I am a bird!” 

Butterfly convinced herself and stopped associating with insects; she opted for the assembly of birds. 

In his majesty, the eagle arrived at the next meeting of birds. He spotted butterfly and queried her:

“Why are you here?”

Beautiful butterfly replied: “I have wings like you. I fly. This is where I truly belong. I am a bird.” 

The eagle smiled, patted butterfly on the back and gently told her: “You are truly beautiful, but you are not of our tribe. You flutter, we glide and soar. The world may keep praising your beauty but you should never let achievement, praise and adulation make you forget who you truly are.” 

So, the Hausa-speaking Yorubaman who started learning Yoruba at the age of 15 should listen to the elders when they warn his butterfly never to think itself bird. Achebe’s Ikemefuna called Okonkwo father. We all know how fatal the boy’s run for cover turned out in his ‘father’s’ arms. Maybe I should kuku read out that part of the story: “As the man who had cleared his throat drew up and raised his matchet, Okonkwo looked away. He heard the blow. The pot fell and broke in the sand. He heard Ikemefuna cry, ‘My father, they have killed me!’, as he ran towards him. Dazed with fear, Okonkwo drew his machete and cut him down…” 

The enemy is behind everything that happens to anyone here. In electronics and computing, a glitch is an unexpected software or hardware malfunction. Here, you have your phone frozen or your app crashed, you respond cursing the devil that is responsible for the trouble. You suffer network failure, you hit or tap the desk and pray against the spirit of lost connections. Or you simply blame the village witch, and the next-door neighbour whose jealous, suspicious eyes you’ve been seeing in your dreams. You bind and curse them all —and all their generations. 

At exactly 8:00 a.m. on Tuesday, May 2, 2023, thousands of students across China prepared to take the Advanced Placement (AP) Chinese Language and Culture exam. One after another, they logged into the AP testing platform. For some, the exam began smoothly—they managed to answer a few listening questions—then their screens abruptly froze. Like today’s dog expertly pursuing today’s hare, the obedient citizens of the tech world did what the manuals advised troubled users to do: log out and try again, standard troubleshooting step. Many logged out and attempted to sign back in. But the system told them no: “Access denied. This account is already in use.” Nothing they did resolved the glitch. They remained logged out and locked out – and stranded.

The experience was not a one-centre fiasco. The malfunction was widespread; students from over 700 high schools were impacted. A makeup examination was later organized for those affected. 

China is home to 56 officially recognized ethnic groups—a fine mix of cultures, languages, and traditions. But when the AP Chinese exam system glitched, no one pointed fingers at anyone’s ethnicity. No teacher or senator screamed: “Glitch caused by majority Han to retard the progress of the Hui.” There was no binding the devil and cursing the enemy. The problem was simply taken for what it was —a glitch, a technical chaos.

JAMB discovered that a glitch happened to a part of its 2025 exam and explained how it happened; it offered apologies and remedies. But some people say the JAMB glitch was not an accident; they say it was a carefully designed plot by the Yoruba, led by JAMB’s Professor Ishaq Oloyede to deny Igbo children university education.

Nigeria is an impossible country. Oloyede is an Egba man from Abeokuta, therefore he must be carrying out a Yoruba agenda against their historical southern rival across the Niger. That is what some people say in rooms and verandas and on rooftops. I gasped reading very enlightened people, even respected top media people, entering the fray, blasting the walls of reason. 

Well, it turned out that the glitch affected more candidates in Lagos (a Yoruba state) than the total number of the victims in the South-East. In Lagos, there were 206,610 victim-candidates; the whole of the five South-East states had 173,397. Could the Yoruba have hated their neighbours so much that they would add their own part of the earth to the scorched? Only a suicide bomber would not mind inflicting more harm on himself than on his target. And suicide bombing is not a Western Nigerian delicacy. 

Read the “moth in the hardware” story in the evolution epic of the computer. Anything machine can malfunction at any point and be caused by anything. That is why it is called a machine, an invention by man. Read the Greek origin of the word and its long journey to today’s form and meaning.

The genius called Thomas Edison, when he encountered technical hiccups which he called ‘bugs’ in his inventions, famously said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” Science historians say Edison tackled the bugs and hiccups in his inventions through a combination of rigorous experimentation, documentation, and iterative problem-solving. I am almost sure that our scientists and engineers are part of this JAMB controversy, not as professionals proactively in search of solutions to future glitches, but as public or closet ethnic champions. 

I read a report credited to the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) of the University of Nigeria, Nsukka. The chairman of ASUU-UNN, Comrade Óyibo Eze, told newsmen in Nsukka on Wednesday that the massive failure, which he claimed mostly affected candidates from the South-East, was a deliberate attempt by JAMB to stop children from the zone from getting higher education. 

“JAMB knows that children from the South-East must score higher before they can get admission, whereas their counterparts in some parts of the country will use a 120 JAMB score to get admission to read medicine at universities in their area. In the JAMB recently released result, out of 1,955,069 candidates who sat for the 2025 examination, over 1.5 million candidates scored less than 200, and the majority of these are from the South-East and Lagos State, where many Igbos reside,” he said.

Nsukka’s ASUU reduced a national disaster to a glib tribal talk. It even added Lagos to its sphere of tribal influence. Jesus said: “It is finished.” Until I read that news report, I had thought that ASUU (of any branch) was what we thought it was: an association of intellectuals. Now we know. “If gold rusts, what shall iron do? For if a priest, upon whom we trust, be foul, no wonder a layman may yield to lust.” Geoffrey Chaucer who wrote those lines in ‘The Canterbury Tales’ apparently had ASUU-UNN in mind. 

The union should have left such cheap tribal talk to arrogance of ignorance and those who revel in it. There is a reason why university teachers are called intellectuals. “An intellectual is someone whose mind watches itself.” That was Albert Camus in ‘The Enigma of the Universe’ (1948). If you are called an intellectual, your scent must be self-awareness; your breath, critical thinking; your thoughts, introspection. Psychologist John H. Flavell called it metacognition—thinking about thinking. A union of university teachers which failed to question its own assumptions, and neglected an analysis of its reasoning before taking a stand on a key national issue puts all branches of knowledge to shame. 

Shakespeare’s King Lear says, “I am a man/More sinn’d against than sinning.”

We should have enough of people reading tribal meanings into anything and everything they are involved in. What I write here is a debugging attempt, an effort at telling ethnic moths to remove themselves from our computer relays, an attempt at protecting the system from human glitches. 

Or, maybe we should just pack up Nigeria since we cannot live a minute without threatening each other. And over what? Over glitches that can happen even under an angel’s watch.

•Restructuring of security architecture, bi-camera legislature, revenue formula on agenda
•Moved from May 27, 28 to June 11, 12

More details are beginning to emerge on specifics that may dominate debate at the all-inclusive political summit being put together under the leader of The Patriots and former Secretary General of the Commonwealth, Chief Emerita Anyaoku, to fashion a workable constitutional framework for the country. 

 A draft proposal for discussion gleaned by the Nigerian Tribune at the weekend showed that no fewer than 34 critical items therein, barring any major adjustments subject to the final approval by the organisers. The items cover fundamental restructuring in all the layers and arms of government, as well as the security services cum architecture. 

Nigerian Tribune reliably gathered that a new date has been proposed for the summit due to the 26th anniversary of Nigeria’s return to civil rule on May 29. 

The summit, according to the sources, has been shifted from May 27–28 to June 11 and 12 in Abuja.

Among the other issues listed in the proposal are: provision for judicial adjudication of corruption and betrayal of trust matters, remunerations of members of the National Assembly, remunerations and compensations in the public service, electoral system, political party structures, revenue management format, security architecture, and fiscal arrangement.

Management of resources and revenue, concurrent functional responsibilities, regional border changes and disputes, as well as equal rights among federating regions, basis of state government, status of the federal capital territory (FCT), federal Executive Council, powers and functions of the President, restructuring of states based ethnic homogeneity and other items are contained in the document.

Tagged: “Issues to be presented by the Secretariat for Consideration and Ratification by the Summit, the document observed that the “2025 Summit of The Patriots affords a veritable opportunity to canvass topical issues that are prepared in advance for consideration and concurrence by delegates before departure. As many issues as are presented and accepted will serve as the basis for post-Summit advocacy and demand of action by the National Assembly.”

 It noted that the 2014 National Conference was a major dialogue convened by then President Goodluck Jonathan to address critical national challenges and propose reforms, noting that, “While the conference covered a wide range of topics (e.g., governance, security, economy, and social cohesion), the principal recommendation centered on managing the subsisting 1999 Constitution and its behemoth stipulations, regarding which there is a consensus about its multifarious inadequacies.”

Two of the most striking items listed in the proposal are the setting up of a technical panel to facilitate constitutional reforms, as well as the process for the enactment of a new constitution that would be widely accepted by Nigerians.

The proposed technical panel, which is number 32 on the list of the items reads: “There shall be a Technical Panel to Facilitate Constitutional Reforms in Nigeria (TPF-CRN). The body shall be set up by the President.

“The panel will facilitate the processes towards the drafting of the Regional and then the Federal Constitutions by the people of Nigeria.

“The TPFCR shall undertake the following functions: Facilitate all processes and activities towards the enactment of a new Governance Framework for Nigeria

•Provide information and advice only that will facilitate the activities of the linguistic/ethnic nationalities, sub-nationalities as they interact and consult voluntarily towards that fashioning out of cooperative and collaborative frameworks.

•Sensitize and guide voluntary aggregation of the peoples identified in (b) above into viable socio-economic and political units, primarily based on contiguity of land territory, local resource control and self-management of governance affairs.

•Provide secretarial support to the accredited representatives of the linguistic/ethnic nationalities, sub-nationalities in their respective quests to aggregate and or disaggregate to form new regions.

•Provide advisory support to the emerging leaders of political units based on (d) to enable them work out understandings and frameworks for local governance, such as would be embodied in their articles of associations: A respective Regional Constitutions.

•Facilitate the organisation and hosting of the Convention of the bona-fide representatives of the emerged regions, being outcomes of (e) above, with the purpose of articulating the form and content of a new framework for federal governance.”

The document stated that the framework for governance shall be presented for ratification and enactment into a new Constitution for the Federation of Nigerian Nations (FNN), stressing that the “outcome shall not be abridged or tampered with in whatever form.”

It also suggested that the National Assembly shall facilitate a new federal constitution within six calendar months.

“The National Assembly shall transmit the enactment to the respective State Assemblies for passage with a simple majority vote.

“On ratification by a simple majority number of state assemblies, the new federal constitution for Nigeria shall be voted upon by all Nigerians of voting age. With a simple majority vote, the New Constitution shall be deemed to have been passed by the People of Nigeria,” it emphasised.

 It noted that Nigeria was nowhere near the complexity of the Indian nation that has endured since 1947, stressing that, “If we are truly serious about solving the problem of the Nigerian question, we no longer need to view the fact of our 371 ethnic nationalities as an albatross on our quest for development. We must confront it frontally.”

Reaffirming the ethnic heterogeneity of the country, the document states: “Nigeria should be considered for operation as a 10 state-polity with as many federal territories constituted to give identity to every of the 360 residual ethnic nationalities.

“We have far less than the 2,000 ethnic nationalities of India to contend with.

“The implicit profligacy of 109 senators, 360 honourable members, 36 executive governments, 36 state assemblies, and 774 local governments bears no restarting to emphasise that the political class is merely self-serving at the expense of citizens. Nigeria is unlikely to fare well any much longer.”

[Nigerian Tribune]

The Governor of Anambra State, Professor Chukwuma Charles Soludo, CFR, has expressed profound sadness on the passing of Chief Sir Sylvester Chukwudozie Ezeokenwa, KSJI (Ezeudo-Umuchu), the beloved father of Chief Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa Jr., National Chairman of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA), on Thursday, May 15, 2025.​

In his condolence remarks, Governor Soludo described Chief Ezeokenwa as an outstanding community leader, a consummate political figure, and a pioneer officer of the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) in Anambra State. His unreserved dedication to the party and his relentless efforts in galvanising grassroots support have notably contributed to making APGA stronger as a foremost progressive party and are deeply appreciated.​

The Governor further stated that the deceased’s legacy of service, leadership, and tenacious commitment to societal progress, which has continued to reflect in his son (Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa Jr.) as the APGA national chairman, will always be remembered and cherished by all APGA members and Ndi Anambra at large. ​

Therefore, Governor Soludo condoles with Chief Barrister Sly Ezeokenwa and the entire Ezeokenwa family, praying for the peaceful repose of their patriarch’s soul and comfort for the family at this difficult time. 

Signed,

​Christian Aburime

Press Secretary to the Governor