The Chairman of  Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, has said that the significant cut in the diesel price to N1,200 will have a positive effect on inflation in Nigeria.

He disclosed this  during a Wednesday briefing with journalists following his homage visit to President Bola Tinubu for Eid-el-Fitr in Lagos.

According to Dangote, there has been considerable economic progress recently, indicating that the country is on the right path.

Dangote stated that his refinery is offering diesel at N1,200, below the market rate of N1,650, and he believes this will contribute to lowering inflation in the country.

• “I believe that we are on the right track. I believe Nigerians have been patient and I also believe that a lot of goodies will now come through. There’s quite a lot of improvement because if you look at it, one of the major issues that we’ve had was the naira devaluation that has gone very aggressively up to about N1,900.
• “But right now, we’re back to almost N1,250, N1,300, which is a good reprieve. Quite a lot of commodities went up. When you go to the market, for example, something that we produce locally like flour, people will charge you more. Why? Because they’re paying very high diesel prices.
• “Now, in our refinery, we started selling diesel at about N1,200 instead of N1,650 and I’m sure as we go along, things will continue to improve quite a lot.
• “If you look at it now, when you are buying N1,650 or N1,700 for a litre of diesel, and that one has been cut off by almost two-thirds, you are now paying N1,200 for diesel.
• “This can help to bring inflation down immediately. And I’m sure when the inflation figures are out for the next month, you’ll see that there’s quite a lot of improvement in the inflation rate,” Dangote said.

What you should know

Nigeria’s inflation rate currently remains very high, standing at 31.70 as of February 2024, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).

The inflation was driven mainly by rising food prices and the removal of petrol subsidy by President Bola Tinubu in May 2023.

In response, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has rolled out multiple monetary measures to reduce inflationary pressure in the country, including raising the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR) – the benchmark interest rate – to 24.75%, the highest in decades.

Nairametrics reported that the newly launched Dangote refinery has begun to distribute diesel and aviation jet fuel to domestic marketers in the country, a move many believe will reduce inflation as well as Nigeria’s dependence on imported petroleum products.

According to Dangote, the reduction in the price of diesel from N1,650 to N1,200 will  have a positive effect on the cost of goods and services in the country.

[Nairametrics]

Super Falcons captain, Rasheedat Ajibade has debunked claims the side adopted a defensive approach in their clash against South Africa in Pretoria on Tuesday.

Randy Waldrum’s side held the Banyana Banyana to a 0-0 draw in the second leg of the 2024 Olympic Games fourth round qualifying tie.

The result ensured their passage to Paris 2024 following a 1-0 aggregate win

Ajibade, who scored the decisive goal in the first leg, claimed the Super Falcons played to win in South Africa.

“We didn’t hold back, we wanted to score goals,” the Atletico Madrid forward told reporters.

“We respect South Africa, but we wanted to play the way we played in the first leg at home in Abuja.”

[DailyPost]

The words of President Bassirou Diomaye Faye were honey to taste. Following the bitter ending of the 12-year rule of Macky Sall, highlighted by the widespread belief that France is at the heart of Senegal’s misery, a forlorn country enthusiastically lapped up Faye’s promise of a future untainted by French shenanigans.

At a stage, it was not clear who was the public enemy #1: Sall or France? 

Sall started well. He came to office in 2012 with solid credentials, looking every inch like what Senegal needed to break away from the incompetence and cronyism of Abdoulaye Wade under whom the country had lost its way. 

Sall was an elite with a strong connection to the grassroots. He rallied the opposition against Wade including committing the unthinkable sin of breaking off from the ruling Parti Democratique Senegalaise (PDS) under which he served as minister. He even dragged the president’s son to account before parliament. 

Senegalese applauded. After only a few years as president Sall offered to reduce his own term to set an example, but the country said over its dead body. If Senegal could not afford to crown him for life, he must complete his two-term limit of seven years each. 

It’s a decision it would later regret. The country had to drag Sall through an economy in a shambles, a country falling apart, and over one dozen dead in street protests to get him out of office. By this time, he had already exceeded his constitutional term limit. Sall, in short, became the very thing that he campaigned against.

France as dirty word

And France? That’s a different story. From Mali to Burkina Faso and from Guinea to Niger, France has become a dirty word, even though the elite in these countries are too ashamed to admit there’s nothing France has done without their helping hand. France is not just a metaphor for underdevelopment. You’ll be forgiven to think it’s probably also the reason some formerly virile folks in the former colonies have lost their libido. It’s not a laughing matter.

Faye’s inauguration address on April 2 was applauded because in a continent blighted by incompetent gerontocrats he is, at 44, the youngest president in Senegal’s 63-year history. But his speech was just as important. To say “enough” to France a fric – a perversion of FranceAfrique the harmless slogan of cooperation – that has made French West Africa France’s cash machine was a big deal. And Faye said it somewhat elegantly.

Sall is past tense. But promising Senegalese a future outside the grip of France, a grip forged decades before Faye was born, is where the tyre meets the road. It’s an ambitious promise made not based on where Senegal is today, but on where it wishes to be.

Dialing back to Senghor

Let’s dial back. Like a number of colonies, especially the French ones, Senegal was a part of France, in law and spirit. Senegal’s first President Leopold Sedar Senghor and an in-law of France, was one of the nine African deputies at the Constituent Assembly in Paris in 1945 that prepared the constitution of the Fourth Republic, which brought de Gaulle to power. 

That constitution according to Martin Meredith’s The Fortunes of Africa, “Endorsed the emphasis it placed on the ‘indivisible’ nature of the Union Francaise,” a union which of course included Francophone West Africa.

Anyone in doubt about the value of Union Francaise, need to be reminded that when de Gaulle died in 1970, Emperor Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic wept at the funeral of the man he fondly called “Papa.” Guinea’s Sekou Toure was the exception to Francophone West Africa’s mushy-mushy.

At independence, even though Senegal was better off than a number of other countries, it still relied heavily on French subsidies to pay its bills. Of course, things have changed somewhat in the last six decades, but only somewhat.

On the day that Faye took his oath of office, pledging to cut French wings to size, France remained the largest exporter to Senegal with goods such as medicines, wheat, and copper wire. In the last 27 years, France exports to Senegal have increased at an annual rate of 3.39 percent from $461 million in 1995 to $1.1 billion in 2022.

Of course, Nigeria, Morocco, and Ghana are also popping up on the radar, with Senegal’s intra-African trade growing by about eight percent but it would take more than a passionate inauguration speech to topple French interest, also deeply embedded in the oil and gas sectors by key businesses such as Total (formerly Elf), or BNP Paribas and Societe Generale in the financial services. 

Scapegoating France?

Is it even necessary to scapegoat France? Of course, it’s the popular thing and perennial French greed, not to mention the arrogance and condescension of its last two presidents, have not helped matters. But beyond red-meat politics, why should the average Senegalese be given the impression that once France – and all things French – is out of the way, the country would be on its way to a life of happily ever after?

Faye and those in his corner would soon find that the truth is more nuanced. In today’s world, capital or investment is not monolingual. Whether it’s French, English, Arabic or Mandarin capital, it finds a home wherever it is made welcome, wherever it can find value.

It’s not a matter of patriotic convenience, for example, that Abu Dhabi has conquered European football clubs and real estate. Britain, France, Germany and other European countries where the Emirati kingdom is invested made them feel welcome, whatever the right-wing sentiments in these countries may be. 

Twenty-five years ago, this same kingdom, not far from the region where the West likes to call the Axis of Evil, bought the Chrysler Building, one of the most iconic features of the New York skyline, for $800 million! And surely, Faye knows that for all its sabre-rattling against China nearly three percent of US foreign debt is owed to China.

Even though Senegal’s intra-African trade profile is looking up, CFA franc, which is still tied to the French treasury, remains the currency of Francophone countries. Plans by the 15-member regional block, Ecowas, to adopt a single currency since 1987, have gone nowhere. Similarly, Kenyan President William Ruto’s call for a pan-African payment system that would settle intra-African trade outside the dollar has gone nowhere.

Faye’s homework

For Faye to promise freedom from French grip on French money, French medicines and French food, is wishful thinking. The work must start from home, from within. The country must heal after the roller-coaster transition and also take steps to restore tourists’ confidence. Faye’s government needs to tackle corruption, strengthen the justice system, and help farmers deal with the impact of climate change. 

There’s no need to demonise France. A strategic reset of Senegal’s relationship with Paris can begin with Dakar creating an environment that works for investment – wherever it is coming from – while the new government also leverages regional cooperation, especially with moderate Francophone countries in the region. 

And the country is not doing too badly in casting its net wide. China, Russia and India are following closely behind France as Senegal’s deep-pocket trading partners. Investments from these destinations may not speak French but they may just be as unserviceable as those from Paris or elsewhere if Faye does not create the right environment for them to thrive.

The political campaign is over: governance is where the tyre meets the road.

Azu Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP. 

Nigerians are said to be very forgiving of their leaders no matter the level of betrayal. Many however believe this is the effect of illiteracy in some parts of the country where governors openly celebrate the betrayal of their people who they claim don’t read newspapers. Others attribute this to the fact that a great many Nigerians suffer from collective amnesia. But one betrayal Nigerians are not likely going to forget in a hurry was the avoidable agony they were subjected to by Godwin Emefiele and his principal, President Buhari in the run up to the 2023 election.

That the anger and anguish of many Nigerians are yet to be assuaged was experienced by yours truly in a supermarket a few days back. A woman following a seamless transaction with her ATM card triumphantly declared: “It is just as well Godwin Emefiele is in prison”. An intervention by the cashier to the effect that Emefiele was not in prison attracted a despondent “he should be taken back to prison where he should be left to rot away”. As she walked out of the supermarket, she spoke of the agony her family went through when Emefiele confiscated their life savings in 2023.

Except that power sometimes leads to self-delusion, it was hard to imagine how Emefiele thought he could ignore constitutional provisions to contest the presidency of Nigeria as a sitting CBN governor.  But intoxicated by sycophants’ eulogies and deceived by a segment of the media, he went to court to defend the indefensible. When he became sober, opportunistic Emefiele, who initially secured his job because of his sympathy for PDP decided to go down with APC.

Emefiele on the eve of an all-important general election confiscated people’s life savings in the name of currency swapping. He then ordered the destruction of the old currencies even when he knew many locations in the country were yet to be saturated with the new notes. Unable to stand the sufferings of their people, some governors sought and secured relief from the Supreme Court. Emefiele ignored the Supreme Court ruling. All he wanted was anarchy and social dislocation that would hurt the ruling APC in the 2023 election

The problem with Emefiele was that he was a round peg in a square hole. He was ill-equipped but President Jonathan unable to stand Sanusi Lamido’s criticism of monumental corruption going on in PDP, replaced him with a more pliable Emefiele. In fact, Emefiele was described by Kingsley Moghalu, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, as “the worst CBN Governor” in the nation’s history”. He is without debate the worst and most damaging central bank governor in Nigeria’s history – incompetent and ill-prepared for the role and from all available information from his actions, doubtlessly severely integrity-challenged.

Emefiele’s case is not helped by the report of Jim Obazee on the infractions that took place under his watch as CBN governor.  One of the 17 allegations by the Obazee’s report was that Emefiele employed surrogates to obtain shares in a new-generation bank. Other grave allegations as contained in the report submitted to President Tinubu on December 20 last year include Emefiele’s alleged unauthorised funding of 593 offshore bank accounts, fraudulent cash withdrawals from the CBN vault, gross financial misconduct involving the former governor and his deputy governors, and substantial fixed deposit holdings amounting to £543.4 million. It was on account of the above grave allegations Emefiele was arraigned at the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Maitama, Abuja, in January on a 20 count-charge bordering on corruption and forgery.

Last Friday, April 8, Emefiele was once again dragged to Lagos High Court by EFCC with the following charges: “That Mr. Emefiele directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act, to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $2,136,391,737.33 without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”

Count two, also of abuse of office, alleged that “Godwin Emefiele between 2020 and 2021, in Lagos, “directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary, act to wit: allocating foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $291,945,785.59, without bids, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians”.

In the third count, Mr Emefiele was alleged to have, in 2021, in Lagos, “directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office, as the governor, Central Bank of Nigeria, an arbitrary act, to wit: special allocation of foreign exchange in the aggregate sum of $1,769,254,793.16, which act is prejudicial to the rights of Nigerians.”

In count four, the sum involved was $370,872,893.01. Emefiele’s co-defendant, Mr Omoile was accused of “about the 17th of November, 2020, whilst acting as an agent, accepted from Raja Punjab through Monday Osazuwa, the total sum of $110,000, for Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, gifts as reward for allocating foreign exchange by the Central Bank in favour of Raja Punjab’s employer.”

Although the buck stops at Emefiele’s desk, but the special investigation report indicated Emefiele, he did not work or act alone. He and the four deputy governors worked hand in glove. And this cannot be otherwise because deputy governors’ duties include “sustainability; foreign reserve adequacy; improving the transmission mechanism of monetary policy; achieving depth, safety and soundness in the financial sector; and managing capital flow and ensuring that key economic and financial policy reforms are focused on fiscal and debt”. This is why Nigerians expect the four CBN deputy governors to have their own dates in court.

It is also on record that in 2019, President Muhammadu Buhari constituted an Economic Advisory Council (EAC) to replace his administration’s Economic Management Team. It was headed by Professor Doyin Salami, a doctoral degree holder of Queen Mary College, University of London who had earlier served as a member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Central Bank of Nigeria and had been a member of the Federal Government’s Economic Management Team.

 There was Bismarck J. Rewane, a chartered member of the Institute of Bankers of England and Wales and a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Bankers with over 30 years of experience as an economist, banker & financial analyst. There was also Chukwuma Soludo, a former CBN governor. He earned a first-class degree in Economics, backed up with a with a PhD and post-doctoral training in some of the world’s most prestigious institutions, including The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC; University of Cambridge, UK, University of Oxford among others. 

Professor Shehu Yahaya, another member was a macroeconomics lecturer at the Department of Economics at the University of Sussex, UK. He was a former Executive Director at the African Development Bank. There was also Professor Ode Ojowu, former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s adviser who had held positions at the International Monetary Bank and the World Bank.  Mohammed Sagagi with a PhD (Economics) from University of Warwick was another member. Salisu Mohammed BSc (First Class Hons) in Economics from University of Maiduguri and went on to bag PhD in Economics from Lancaster University, Lancaster, United Kingdom

 Iyabo Masha has worked with the International Monetary Fund since 2003 in Washington D.C. Metro Area Assignment has taken her to more than 10 emerging markets (Asian and African countries). She worked at Central Bank of Nigeria’s Research Department and was also the immediate past IMF Representative for Sierra Leone).

That these accomplished stars could not sound the alarm when things began to go critically wrong cannot but leave Nigerians in wonder.

Ex-quarter miler Ogunkoya hails World Athletics’ initiative

Team Nigeria’s A-list athletes in the track & field event including the likes of Tobi Amusan, the world record holder in the 100m women’s hurdles event and current Commonwealth gold medallist in the women’s long jump event , Ese Brume and amongst others , will each have a rare opportunity of winning a staggering US$50,000 (approximately sixty-two million, two hundred ninety-seven thousand and five hundred naira) should they scoop a gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

This remains a distinct possibility after the World Athletics ‘in a landmark decision’ announced yesterday (April 10) that it will become the first international federation to award prize money at an Olympic Games by ‘financially rewarding athletes for achieving the pinnacle of sporting success’ starting at this summer’s Olympic Games in Paris. “Each individual Olympic champion will receive US$50,000,” the governing body of athletics noted in a statement sent to NationSport .“ Relay teams will receive the same amount, to be shared among the team.”

Altogether , there will 48 athletics events at this summer’s Olympics with each gold medallist guaranteed the sum of US$50,000 as such , the World Athletics will be committing a hard-to-believe US$2.4 million(conservatively about two billion, nine hundred seventy-five million and six hundred sixty-four thousand) at Paris 2024.

Even at that, it was noted that ‘the payment of prize money will depend upon the World Athletics ratification process, including athletes undergoing and clearing the usual anti-doping procedures’.

Speaking on this development, the first Nigerian to win an individual track and field medal at the Olympic Games, Falilat Ogunkoya , has lauded World Athletics , adding Nigeria’s contingent in athletics to Paris 2024 must gird their loins to win a slice of the prize money earmarked for the track & field events.

The former Nigeria quarter-miler who won a bronze medal in the 400 m event at Atlanta 1996 Olympics behind Marie-José Pérec of France and Cathy Freeman of Australia in a personal best and African record of 49.10, described the gesture by World Athletics as a milestone and laudable.

“ For the World Athletics to give as much as US$50,000 to each of the gold medallist in the track and field events at Paris 2024 is laudable and a step in the right direction and it will certainly be a big boost to the athletics events as well as our (Team Nigeria) athletes to compete for the gold medal,” Ogunkoya who was also a member of the silver medal-winning 4×400 m relay team at the 1996 Atlanta Games, told NationSports. “ The Olympic Games is certainly the biggest and that means any of our athletes desirous to win this money must work very hard, no short cut (to win a gold medal.”

While only gold medallists would partake in the financial booty at Paris 2024 , the World Athletics yesterday further affirmed its ‘commitment to extend the prize money at a tiered level to Olympic silver and bronze medal winners at the LA 2028 Olympic Games’ saying : “The format and structure of the LA28 Olympic bonuses will be announced nearer the time.”

Athletics at Paris 2024 featuring a total of 48 medal events across three distinct sets namely track and field, road running, and race-walking will run between August 1 and 11 across four venues.

[TheNation]

The Minister of Power,  Adebayo Adelabu, must have smarted from the embarrassing fallout his comments about Nigerians and their habits of energy efficiency generated. While addressing the public last Thursday, he noted how Nigerians waste energy by keeping their freezers and air conditioners running even when not at home. He said the habit of energy preservation eludes us because energy is too cheap in our part of the world.

The media quotes him as saying, “A lot of people will come back from work, they want to have dinner, or they want to see their colleagues down the road, they switch on the AC for the room to be cooling before they come back. Some people will be going to work in the morning, a freezer that you left on for days, they will still leave it on when all the items in the freezer are frozen and 5, 6, 8 hours of their absence will not make it to defreeze, they will still leave it to be consuming power just because we are not paying enough. We have all been overseas before; we know how conscious the power consumers are about electricity consumption.”

If I had been at that gathering, I would have asked Adelabu how frequently he turns off the refrigerator in his houses in Ibadan, Abuja, and elsewhere, to preserve energy. Also, does he wait until he starts sweating into the folds of his agbada before he turns on the air-conditioning system? In trying to clarify the broader context in which the minister addressed the public, former media aide Tolu Ogunlesi noted that the manner in which people ran with the “freezer” gaffe was “sad” and “unfortunate” because it distracted from the main points of the public address. Actually, what is really sad and unfortunate here is that the minister chose to be pedestrian. He walked into it.

Unlike his thought clarifier, I do not take the quoted statement as a case of wrong choices of examples; I see it as the extent to which he understands energy issues as they play out in mundane situations. In case Adelabu has not noticed, appliances like refrigerator/freezer are not designed to be unplugged. As long as a home (or office) is occupied, the refrigerator works itself to its death.

Three crucial issues stood out from his criticism of Nigerians’ energy consumption habits. One, his selection of appliances—freezer and air-conditioning—are interesting for far more reasons than why he chose them. In 2013, an American guy called Todd Moss (a vice president and senior fellow at the Centre for Global Development), bought a refrigerator. As he closely looked at the efficiency tag (that yellow paper appended on new refrigerating sets), he noticed that the single appliance would consume 459 kWh annually. He ran the figures and realised that that single refrigerating unit would gulp more electricity than most people in African countries get to use in a whole year. Those six countries? Ethiopia, Tanzania, Liberia, Kenya, Ghana, and of course, Nigeria.

The chart he created comparing energy use figures and inequality of access has been reproduced and circulated multiple times to illustrate the reality of energy inequity. If there is one luxury that people in countries like Nigeria cannot be said to have, it is energy supply. As of 2020, electricity consumption for air conditioning accounted for about 19 per cent (roughly 254 billion kiloWh) of electricity consumption in US homes. It takes about 2,365 kWh of electricity per year to cool an average home in the USA.

So, when the Nigerian power minister suggests we overuse electricity, with whom exactly was he comparing us? Even Ghana where roughly 70 per cent of households have access to electricity does not consume anything close to what mere air-conditioning and refrigerating sets in countries like the US gulp. As of 2020, Americans reportedly consume an annual average energy of 10,700 kWh per hour, compared to the Nigerian average of 161 kWh. How can people so lacking be considered irresponsible users?

Second, our leaders should understand that contrary to the assumption that the  scarcity of resources is due to overconsumption, we are—by almost every measure—a vastly under-resourced people. We lack certain infrastructure like energy, not because we are wasteful, but simply because we have never had enough. Nigeria is a place where people have to decide whether a visitor is worth their turning on their generator (so as to turn on the fan) or endure the sweltering heat together. Countries where they supply energy 24/7 never need to worry about such things. If Nigerians cannot similarly take energy supply for granted, it is not because their freezers never defrost but because their energy supplies are woefully inadequate.

How many households in Nigeria even have freezers and air-conditioning units? According to Ogunlesi, there are 12 million electricity customers (including both households and businesses) in Nigeria. Relative to our purported population, that number is shockingly meagre. Even if Nigeria’s population were a mere 150 million  (as against the 200 million plus which official figures frequently tout) and there is an average of seven people per household, it is still not enough. Twelve million customers simply means far too many households and businesses are unconnected to official energy supply. It is either that millions of people stay in the dark or Nigeria is preponderantly powered by generators. Either way, we have a challenge that will not be resolved by asking people to deny themselves certain basic comforts in the name of energy conservation. For a developing society like Nigeria that needs all the energy it can get to grow, preaching conservation can easily become counterproductive.

Third, none of the above is to be construed as discounting the necessity of energy preservation. While I will readily agree that conservation is essential, I also urge caution when comparing our energy management practices with societies that, comparatively, have excess supplies. When those societies nudge themselves towards preservation, they are not coming from a place of perpetual lack like Nigeria. If there is another reason that Nigerians have not cultivated the ethic of energy preservation, it is also because we tend not to see the link between the energy supplied to us and what we are billed for it. There is no time in my Nigerian life that I do not recall people complaining that even though they do not get “light,” but they still receive bills from the energy company and which they have to pay.

There is a local radio show that I listen to some mornings. Officials from an energy company come on the show and take questions. Many times, when a customer phones in, it is to vent over being billed for services denied. What do you think people like that would do the very moment that light comes on? They will use it with carefree abandon. People like that come to believe that they would be inordinately billed whether they use up the energy (whenever it is supplied) or not, and so they use it so they can justify what they pay for it.

Finally, we also cannot presume that the entire responsibility of energy management lies with individual Nigerians monitoring their energy usage by turning off their freezers as soon as the contents are frosted or waiting until their skins start cooking in the afternoon heat before they turn on their air-conditioning systems. Those habits are ultimately limited in their effects without larger structural enablement. For instance, the kind of appliances we use (and their age) also go a long way in facilitating energy preservation. Advanced societies constantly tweak technology to ensure that newer models of those appliances consume less energy. You can only export some of these products to their countries if those devices meet their set bar for energy-saving specifications.

The family of the late former Chairman of the Nigerian Exchange Group, Abimbola Ogunbanjo, who was killed in a Southern California helicopter crash in February filed a lawsuit on Wednesday, against the US helicopter company.

The former Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings, Dr Herbert Wigwe, his wife and son were also onboard the ill-fated helicopter.

The Ogunbanjo family stated that the flight should have been grounded because of treacherous weather.

In February, Wigwe, his wife and son died following a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America, The Will reports.

One of the attorneys who filed the lawsuit, Andrew C. Robb, noted Ogunbanjo’s family is seeking “answers and accountability.”

“Helicopters do not do very well in snow and ice,” Robb told The Associated Press. “This flight was entirely preventable, and we don’t know why they took off.”

Ogunbanjo’s wife and two children have filed a lawsuit in San Bernardino County Superior Court against Orbic Air and its CEO, Brady Bowers, alleging wrongful death and negligence.

The suit also includes the unidentified successors of Pettingill and Hansen, whom Ogunbanjo’s family holds responsible. Orbic Air did not provide any comment on the matter.

The National Transportation Safety Board is currently investigating the crash.

A preliminary investigation report released by the agency in February revealed details about the helicopter’s flight path and wreckage.

Witnesses reported observing a “fireball” during rainy and snowy conditions at the time of the crash.

The lawsuit seeks a jury trial for Ogunbanjo’s burial expenses, funeral expenses, and other damages. Robb & Robb, the law firm representing Ogunbanjo’s family, previously represented Vanessa Bryant in her lawsuit following Kobe Bryant’s fatal helicopter crash in 2020.

[Punch]

One often ignored fact is that everything in life rises and falls on leadership. Furthermore, leadership is incredibly underappreciated and not given the premium it deserves. Any group’s or nation’s success or failure can be attributed to its leadership.

For its importance, leadership is perhaps the most significant legacy of the late Okwadike Ndigbo, Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife, the first executive governor of Anambra State, Special Adviser to the President on political matters, and chairman of Ohanaeze Ime-Obi FCT. He was an exemplary leader whose impact was seen not only in Igbo land but also throughout Nigeria. He was adored and revered, and some even dreaded him because they believed, correctly or not, that he was a battle axe for the Ndigbo people.

Ezeife’s life was an open book, and it was obvious where he stood on issues however controversial. He was truthful and exhibited steadfast loyalty to his chosen path; he never once attempted to be politically correct and never shied away from speaking truth to power not to offend or hurt the establishment. His Igbo people leaned heavily on him to be their face and voice because of these reasons. Thus, Ezeife became the Igbo spirit and the Igbo can-do spirit in his time.

He was not only an exemplary Igbo leader but also a real nationalist and statesman. To people with closed minds, it may appear incongruous to be both. It’s not. In federalism, being a good member of one’s ethnic group (federating unit) is the first and primary requirement for being a respectable and patriotic citizen of the country, in our case, Nigeria.

Being typical, Ezeife was a great Nigerian and a great Igbo man all at once. He was loyal to both. Ezeife said something in his last TV interview that ought to be interpreted as his parting message to Nigeria. He said that if the correct actions are taken and social justice is given a chance to play a role in national life, Nigeria will rise to become a superpower, as God has destined it to be. He had earlier in his political career warned his Igbo people to defend their rights within the framework of one Nigeria.

Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife showed what leadership should be by example, not by words, before he passed away. He became a symbol of leadership and, in time, the marker of leadership as someone who filled in the void for his people.

Let’s take a quick look at leadership as a concept before looking at the touchstone leadership lessons that may be drawn from Ezeife’s leadership style. Leadership is still the most used and misused concept. Leadership is credited with several things. Because of this, there are as many knowledgeable leadership guidelines as there are experts.

However, influence—the capacity to positively or negatively affect others’ behaviour—is the only thing that distinguishes leadership at all levels and of all kinds. It is clear from this practical definition that positive leadership isn’t always necessary. The underworld needs leadership as well, and they, too, think that honour and integrity are critical criteria for judging good leadership.

According to John C. Maxwell, “Leadership is influence, nothing more, nothing less.” John emphasises that every individual has a certain degree of influence, which is why they are all leaders in their own right. It means that all that is required to persuade a group of individuals to act in a way that the leader wants them to is encompassed in influence as leadership.

The ability to lead is something that is both innate and acquired through experience or education. A unique leader like Ezeife results from a fair combination of nature and nurture. It is evident from Ezeife’s life that leaders are both made and born, anyone who dares to endure the rigorous official and informal training process. However, due to the tough and rigorous nature of the leadership grooming and the role itself, the majority of people are unable to assume leadership roles and would much rather be followers.

Ezeife was propelled into leadership roles, both by authority and those he gained via other means, such as leadership roles conferred by social graces and culture. Ezeife held high positions of authority. He was governor of a state, the permanent secretary in the federal civil service, and a political adviser to the president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Yet, it is not appropriate to rely on these positions of authority, which Ezeife occupied by election and appointment, to evaluate his leadership abilities because roles created by law offer fundamental compliance guidelines and sanctions that force people to unwillingly follow the leader. What Max Weber called rational-legal authority are positions of power. In a rational-legal authority model, the legitimacy and rationality of the law serve as major determinants of an organisation’s or a ruling regime’s authority and bureaucracy. It is the second of Max Weber’s tripartite classifications of authority.

The role of Ezeife as an Igboist and nationalist cum statesman will be a more reliable tool. One is still relying on the operational definition already adopted for this treatise: leadership as an influence and its process. This is because both were the areas where his leadership influence was best exercised due to their situational and contingency natures.

Chukwuemeka Ezeife exhibited six essential leadership qualities that are crucial for situational and contingency leadership: courage, integrity, forthrightness, vision, competence, and empathy.

The virtue of courage marked Ezeife’s life. Even when angels would not, he never shied away from taking risks for the people as their leader. He was willing to pay the ultimate price (as seen by his “Eji ndu eme gini” philosophy). He spoke truth to power.

To be sure, the cornerstone of any effective leadership is integrity. Since it is the basis, whatever is built on top of it will collapse in its absence. Integrity is the foundation of leadership; without it, everything else crumbles.

He was straightforward, unambiguous, and direct. The reverse of straightforward, as we observe with the majority of Nigeria’s so-called leaders, might be elusive, shifty, oblique, or convoluted. His word was his bond, and he never wavered. He spoke his thoughts and feelings loudly and plainly. 

Ezeife was very visionary as well. The capacity to focus on the most crucial elements of one’s goals and ideal leadership style is what is called leadership vision. Ezeife was aware that both Nigeria and Ndigbo required leadership; therefore, he took deliberate steps to assume the role and performed admirably.

For Igbo leadership, Ezeife served as a metaphorical “touchstone”—he became a benchmark for worth or excellence—by which other Igbo leaders could be judged. As demonstrated by Ezeife, leadership competencies are the abilities and attitudes that support exceptional performance.

Because Ezeife lived and was at the head of the Igbo collegiate leadership system, the ethnic group, though greatly republican, remains resolute and thriving, and their essence in Nigeria is more strongly felt. Throughout his life, Ezeife famously made sure the marginalisation of Ndigbo in Nigeria was at the forefront in such a way that it remained topical.

Lastly, Ezeife possessed a great deal of empathy, which is a critical trait of a successful leader. Because of his compassionate leadership style, Ezeife concentrated on relating to and comprehending the perspectives of both Igbo and non-Igbo people. He truly empathised with the suffering of his people and other Nigerians as well. Ending the Igbo marginalisation in Nigeria, which dates back to the Nigeria-Biafra war was, in fact, Ezeife’s lifelong struggle.

Dr. Chukwuemeka Ezeife was indeed a living example of the six cardinal characteristics of a great leader, making him a true study in group leadership. For those who really want to be in leadership positions, Ezeife offered them a leadership pathway. Despite not being born great, he attained greatness and had greatness thrust upon him. Throughout his life, Ezeife proved: You too can do it!

Good night, authentic Igbo leader and archetypal patriot and statesman, Okwadike Ndigbo.

Dr Law Mefor, an Abuja-based forensic and social psychologist, is a fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts. He can be reached via This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.; Twitter: @Drlawsonmefor.