We are the CONSCIENCE OF YORUBA NATION GROUP an affiliate of Afenifere.

In regards to the recent instruction of our president of Nigeria, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to the state Governors to provide land for grazing to herders in attempt to curtail the incessant Farmer Herders Crisis that is ravaging the country. Members of COYN hereby reject this proposition of PBAT on this subject. Grazing zones as a proposal to combat the farmers herders crisis has proved ineffective in the middle belt of the country. Benue state banned open grazing and provided ranches yet the crisis in Benue has continued. In Plataeu State and Nasarawa, lands were donated by the President Buhari administration but this did not stop the continued Farmers -Herders clashes. Southern Kaduna is another example of cases of failure of the grazing reserves: they have the longest record since the 1960 grazing reserve act where the former Northern region let the herders lease land for grazing, the reserve land subsequently becoming disputed land, leading to further conflicts till today and continued killings in the region.

We are also dismayed that the President did not recommend any investigation into the offending herders who are interfering with agricultural practices in affected regions such as the South West of Nigeria. As the chief law enforcement officer of the country, we urge the president to look into farm security initiatives for farmers whose lives are endangered everyday by herders who are often armed and has been confrontational in their encounters with farmers, leading to their murdering of many farmers in cold blood. We propose that the president set up a committee to investigate the causes of the incessant farmers -herders crisis and why existing remedies in other regions of the country with adequate land mass for ranching has failed. Mandating State Governors to give land as grazing zone appears to be a repeat of same ineffective strategies that have plagued the country since 1960s.

We urge the State Governments of the Southwest to double their efforts in Animal husbandry to meet the demands of the citizens.

COYN continues to believe in the unity of Nigeria under a federal system based on equity and fairness.

We also believe in the capacity of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to solve the problems bedevilling Nigeria.

Otunba Adekolejo Kole Omololu. 
Conveiner.

Lionel Messi built on his 13th minute assist to Luis Suarez, netting a stupendous finish for the Herons just 15 minutes later.

After a 2-2 draw in the first leg that saw Inter Miami seize an away goals advantage, the Herons came out firing on home turf in the second leg on Wednesday night.

The Herons opened the scoring just eight minutes in, with Suarez providing the goal on a Messi assist.

Just 15 minutes later, though, Messi got one of his own, firing home a feed from Diego Gomez to make the score 2-0.

The Argentine’s brilliant first half set the tone for the Herons, shooting them to a 3-1 victory (5-3 aggregate) over NSC.

Now, they’re off to the quarterfinals of the tournament.

The CONCACAF Champions League is Inter Miami’s first crack at a trophy this season, having won the club’s first-ever piece of silverware last season in the Leagues Cup.

Perhaps more importantly, though, the tournament gives Miami a chance to qualify for the Club World Cup, where they can match up against some of the world’s best.

Following Wednesday’s cup match, the Herons will be back in action this weekend as they return to MLS play. They’ll play host to D.C. United on Saturday as they look to bounce back from a frustrating defeat to CF Montreal.

As for the Champions Cup, Inter Miami will play the winner of FC Cincinnati and CF Monterrey Thursday evening, in the next round of the tournament.

[Leadership]

 A civic organisation focused on the Nigerian budget and public data, BudgIT, has thrown its weight behind suspended Senator Abdul Ningi on a N3.7 trillion gap in the 2024 budget presented to the National Assembly.

 The Director and co-founder of BudgIT, Seun Onigbinde, made this known during an interview with Channels Television on Wednesday, stressing that Ningi was right if he posited that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget. 

Ningi, representing Bauchi Central senatorial district was suspended on Tuesday by the Senate, over the allegations that two versions of the 2024 budget were passed at the National Assembly. The senator said he stood by his story and also said there was nowhere he said two versions of the budget were being implemented.

The senator from Bauchi, who was also the Chairman of the Northern Senators Forum (NSF), alleged that the budget was padded by N3.7 trillion and that the North has been neglected under the administration of President Bola Tinubu. On the floor of the Senate, the Chairman Senate Committee on Appropriation, Senator Olamilekan Adeola (APC, Ogun West) on Tuesday moved a motion on breach of privilege and after heated debate by senators, Ningi was suspended for three months.

 ‘Ningi was right’

But reacting yesterday, the BudgIT Director, Onigbinde, stressed that Ningi was right for positing that there was no detailed allocation for N3.7 trillion in the 2024 budget.

 Onigbinde said the allocations of the National Assembly, National Judicial Council (NJC), Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Tertiary Education Trust Fund (TETFund) and others do not carry a detailed breakdown. 

He added that the people have the right to know how the funds earmarked for the aforementioned agencies were being spent.

“Around N2 trillion of the budget presented by the president is the government-owned enterprises budget. So, if Senator Ningi says there is a N25 trillion budget, yes, that is the MDA’s budget. It’s different from the government-owned enterprises budget which was now added. 

“It is factual that he said that, but it doesn’t mean that we are running two concurrent budgets. There is a different conversation that those projects should be detailed. TETFUND should not just get an allocation. 

“What are you spending the money on? INEC is collecting a huge chunk of funds but there are no public details about what the funds are used for, the same thing with NJC, even the National Assembly. “In the current budget, the National Assembly gave a very broad summary of its allocations but there are no detailed allocations on a granular level that everybody can interrogate.

 “These are transparency issues and if you put all these together, that is around N3.5 trillion to N3.7 trillion. So, if that is what he (Ningi) wants to interrogate, there are components of the budget where there is no breakdown. That is very factual. 

“But the National Assembly needs to push back. We need a breakdown. What is NJC spending money on? We give more money to the NJC and say take it arbitrarily. What are they spending that money on? There should be a detailed breakdown to the public. On that point, Senator Ningi is right but to look as if we are running parallel budgets, that is not right.” He said. Contacted by Daily Trust yesterday to shed more light on their finding, Onigbinde said “Ningi’s allegation of budget padding was partly true. “From my fact-checking of Ningi’s statement, we found some parts to be untrue, and we found some parts to be true.

“The only part that we found to be true is that some of the items that were statutory transfers and Government Owned Enterprises (GOEs) do not have a breakdown. “The bigger picture here is about insertion into the budget. Around 7,474 projects worth N2.2 trillion were added to the budget. I think that’s where the bigger problem is.”

But efforts to get the Senate spokesman, Yemi Adaramodu, to comment on the latest development proved abortive, as he neither answered his phone calls nor responded to an SMS sent to him. Senator Adaramodu had explained on Tuesday that the N3.7 trillion alleged to have not been traceable to any project or location was for agencies of government “on first line charge.”

 The Senate Spokesman said, “They include the Public Complaints Commission, INEC, UBEC, TETFUND, and many others. So, the money was not padded. They are allocations of agencies of government that have to take first line charge.”

However, Dataphyte, a research and data analytics organisation, said there was no evidence of padding in the 2024 budget. 

 “What we can confirm is that the 2024 Appropriation Act approved an aggregate expenditure of 28.78 trillion naira, and the figures add up,” Mr Oluseyi Olufemi, the Insight Lead, Dataphyte, told Daily Trust yesterday.

We stand by Ningi – Bauchi gov 

Meanwhile, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State has declared that the state government is behind Senator Ningi.

 Speaking during the state’s cabinet meeting at the Government House in Bauchi yesterday, Mohammed said, “Yesterday (Tuesday), I was very sad the Senate suspended one of our best from Bauchi for saying the truth, for standing up to be the beacon of the truth. “Equally I don’t know what we will do but we will discuss privately to see what we can do to support him because I support whatever he is doing and that is our best position especially if what he is saying is the truth.” The governor, however, called on all relevant authorities to thoroughly investigate the matter rather than suspending the senator.

PDP asks Akpabio to step aside

 The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has asked Senate President Godswill Akpabio to immediately step aside and allow an independent investigation into the “allegation that a staggering N3.7 trillion was discreetly inserted into the 2024 budget for alleged non-existent projects.”

 PDP also demanded that Senator Akpabio immediately report to the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over the pending case of “alleged looting of N108 billion belonging to the people of Akwa Ibom State under his watch as governor”.

Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary of the party, in a statement, said the Senate president should also speak to Nigerians on the “reported N86 billion contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) during his tenure as the minister of Niger Delta Affairs.”

Ologunagba said, “We ask, why the APC leadership in the Senate not referred the matter to the appropriate Senate standing committee for an open investigation in line with the extant rules of the Senate? What is the APC Senate leadership afraid of and what is it hiding from Nigerians?

 “It is even more absurd that instead of recusing himself, the Senate president sat as a judge in the matter; a situation that can bring the institution of the Senate to further public disrepute.”

Suspension didn’t address budget padding allegation – Obi 

The presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in last year’s election, Mr Peter Obi has said that the suspension of Senator Abdul Ningi by the Senate has not addressed vital issues emanating from his allegation of the 2024 budget padding. Obi, in a post on his X handle yesterday, asked senators to disclose to Nigerians the exact amounts allocated to them for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public. “And if indeed the report from BudgIT is true, that there is about N3.7trn without any detailed project allocations, I strongly urge the Senate to do more detailed work of channelling these funds into the critical areas of development – education, health and pulling people out of poverty, which will in turn, minimise the criminality we are facing today.”

Ningi’s suspension attack on freedom of expression – CISLAC 

The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) also queried the “undemocratic action and questionable decision by the leadership of the Senate to suspend Ningi over the 2024 budget padding controversy.”

The Executive Director of CISLAC/TI-Nigeria, Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, said on Wednesday in Abuja that it is unacceptable that the suspension was initiated against Ningi for expressing his constitutionally guaranteed concerns and observations on the 2024 budget at this critical moment when the nation is deeply soaked in socio-economic and financial crisis. 

He said that the unjust suspension of a senator who represents an entire senatorial district is similar to a public demonstration of an unguarded culture of silencing, insensitivity, disrespect and marginalisation of the people and dictatorship. Also, Comrade Ibrahim M. Zikirullahi, Executive Director, Resource Centre for Human Rights and Civic Education (CHRICED), demanded for forensic audit of allocation for constituency projects. He also demanded Senator Abdul Ningi’s immediate reinstatement.

“The Senate leadership made major attempts to undercut Senator Ningi’s charges and swiftly suspended him without conducting a thorough inquiry to check the veracity of his claims. He commended Senators Ningi and Jarigbe for their courage in speaking out against corruption and theft of public resources in the Nigerian Senate.

“Furthermore, we’ve discovered that members in both the Senate and the House of Representatives have developed new methods to sneak fake projects into the budget, making it impossible to monitor.

“This has occurred since the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC) collaborated with selected Civil Society Organizations, including CHRICED, to monitor constituency projects across the country, exposing the fraudulent practices of several federal and state legislators.

“One such strategy adopted by them is to insert useless and frivolous empowerment initiatives that are virtually hard to track down and do not fulfil the constituents’ concerns. We saw in the 2024 budget that a lot of projects with billions of Naira earmarked to them had no locations or specifics,” he said. 

 [DailyTrust]

The journey to Kuriga in southern Kaduna, North-west Nigeria, did not start with the kidnap of 287 students last week. In the early 1990s a neighbouring town, Zango Kataf, was the boiling point. 

About a decade later, the beast of sectarian violence, which had reared its head in Kaduna, surfaced several hundreds of miles away in two major places that have become the epicentres of insurgency: Borno and Yobe States, both in the North-east.

Even though misery travelled southwards aided by Mohammed Yusuf, the itinerant extremist Muslim preacher in Yobe whose activities heightened the rise of extremism in the early 2000s, Yusuf did not entirely pave the way for the mass kidnap in Kuriga last week. 

The incompetence of the security services mixed with rampant poverty in parts of the North and the opportunism of the elite in the region helped in no small way to recruit the bands of misguided and rogue elements that have become a national plague.

That band, mixed with insurgents drifting southward from the Sahel, has been showing up as banditry in some areas, cattle rustling in other areas, and violent extremism elsewhere. In the process, hundreds have been killed, while Borno and Yobe have become Africa’s largest camps of internally displaced persons.

Kidnapping is the latest franchise. It shocked the world when over 200 girls were kidnapped from their school in Chibok and 58 boys killed inside their school dormitory in Buni Yadi, Yobe State. But since then, Amnesty International has documented 13 abductions in Nigerian schools. 

Within 10 days last week, over 500 persons, mostly children, were taken hostage in different states and in separate attacks on IDP camps and schools. 

Days after 200 persons were kidnapped from an IDP camp in Borno State, a school in Kaduna State was the next hunting ground. Two-hundred and eighty-seven students and pupils, with some staff, from the Local Government Education Authority (LGEA) Primary School, Kuriga in Chikun Local Government Area of Kaduna State were kidnapped during the school’s morning assembly. 

Politicians, who shed crocodile tears for a living, visit crime scenes like Kuriga twice in their lifetime. They visit unfailingly during election campaigns and then grudgingly – more for the camera – at a time of grief, like this. Kaduna State Governor, Uba Sani, for example, was in Kuriga on Thursday, shortly after the students were kidnapped. 

It was not a normal visit, like you would visit folks in your neigbourhood who had just suffered a loss. Kuriga or Birnin Gwari, another dangerous neighbouring town, has not been a normal place for years. Four years ago, for example, an NGO, WANEP, reported that 140 persons were abducted and 84 killed by bandits in Birnin Gwari. 

Governor Sani’s visit

Eyewitnesses said on his visit to Kuriga, Governor Sani was prepared as if he was going to a warfront. Only one print journalist and a few others from broadcast stations, chosen by the Government House, were embedded in the governor’s convoy on that trip. Which means with telecommunications cut off, reports from there are second- third- or perhaps, fourth-hand accounts.

Residents of Chikun Local Government, with an estimated population of 550,000, have tried to get used to living under terror. Left largely on their own without government or security, they have accepted the authority of bandits and terrorists. These criminal gangs extort money from residents from N70,000 to N100,000 to have access to their farms. Those in Kidandan, Galadimawa Kerawa, Sabon Layi, Sabon Birni and Ruma whose names may not show on your Google map, are also affected.

Yet, these folks might even consider themselves lucky, if luck means paying through your nose to reach your farm. According to news reports, those in other local governments such as Igabi and Giwa, have abandoned their farms to terrorists. Other communities in Kaduna currently under siege are Kaura, Kajuru, and Zango Kataf.

Toll gates of Kuriga

Apart from tolling the farms for cash, illegal miners, using small fry, have also deployed their billing machines. They squeeze farm owners to give up their lands for peanuts, which they then mine for minerals. It’s a criminal enterprise that has been on for years. Like most criminal gangs, the ones in Kuriga have developed their own codes, fees, levies and commissions. 

The decision of these syndicates to turn from extorting farmers and stripping their lands of mineral deposits to kidnapping students for ransom is an indication that kidnapping is paying more. That’s not a surprise. The Africa Report quoted SBM Intelligence that gunmen kidnapped at least 3,620 people across Nigeria between July 2022 and June 2023, with a ransom demand totalling over N5billion. 

What is the government doing about it? And I’m not talking about the state alone; I’m also talking about politicians in Kaduna and Abuja elected to represent these communities. Where, for example, is Jesse David, who represents this distressed community in the State House of Assembly? 

And where is Shehu Balarabe, who represents Birnin Gwari/Gwari Federal Constituency in the House of Representatives? How did they find their way to their constituency during the election campaign but have lost their way back when their people need them most?

Where is the Federal Government, which controls the army, the air force, the police and the state services? How are kidnappers or bandits or terrorists able to mobilise and seize 287 students and teachers from their school in daylight in Kuriga, about 20 minutes’ drive from Birnin Gwari that is supposed to have a military base? 

Imagine, for a moment, the logistics involved in moving 287 persons, most of them children. From infographics published by LEADERSHIP the day after, it would take 144 motorcycles or 57 cars or 21 buses or five 4.8 Embraer-145 planes, to move that number of people. 

Yet, for the umpteenth time since 2014, children were kidnapped in their numbers by bandits who still managed to plan, coordinate and execute this evil in an area supposedly cut-off from communications. How, for Christ’s sake, did that happen?

A trillion naira industry?

Just as shocking for me has been the near total absence of outrage outside Kuriga. It’s this kind of eye-rolling, not-our-business kind of attitude that has brought us where we are: where what shocked the world 10 years ago in Chibok even spawning demonstrations and hashtags, appears incapable of moving the dial today, in spite of its scale and audacity.

Apart the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), the Central African Republic (CAR), and South Sudan, where the savagery of the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA), led to 100,000 deaths, and the abductions of 60,000 to 100,000 children and the displacement of millions, only few countries have witnessed the scale of criminality that Nigeria has witnessed in what is supposed to be peace time.    

It reminds me of Mexico in 2014. That year, also the year of the Chibok Girls, 43 students were kidnapped by a drug cartel and years of agonising search yielded no clues. Until last year, when long after the students had been murdered, investigations revealed that government officials were employees of the cartel. 

According to the New York Times, text messages exchanged between the cartel and government officials even found that first responders on the crime scene were on the cartel’s payroll! Which partly explains why it took so long to unravel the crime.

It’s heart-wrenching to think that even though we’re told that Kuriga and other affected parts have been cut off from communications, we still hear of the criminals asking for ransom and issuing threats! 

It may be far-fetched to assume official complicity in Kuriga. It’s foolish, however, to think that kidnapping became a trillion-naira industry without support from outside the gangs. Until we thoroughly investigate the kidnappers’ support system and expose and punish the kingpins, we’re wasting time. 

Who knows where this is going to happen next?

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

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL), Mele Kyari, has said the firm recorded 9,000 infractions on oil pipelines in one year.

Kyari stated this yesterday when the House of Representatives Special Committee on Oil Theft visited the NNPCL headquarters in Abuja on oversight functions.

According to him, from 2022 till date, the NNPCL had deactivated 6,465 illegal refineries. It has also removed 4,876 of the 5,570 illegal connections to pipelines.

He added: “Some of the infractions we see are unbelievable. We are not able to deal with it. When you remove one connection, the next day in the same location, someone will replace it.

“It is obvious that crude oil theft is almost an end-to-end issue in Nigeria; it is very obvious that everyone is involved. In most of these locations, they are less than a 100 meters from the settlement. Some are even less than a 100 meters from the local government headquarters.”

Kyari said the key issue was insecurity, and that NNPCL moved to curtail pipeline vandalism by incorporating all security agencies into a single platform, including private security.

According to him, no country surrenders the protection of such critical assets, which are the source of income, to non-state actors.

Exactly one month to this day in 2014, Nigeria became the subject of international interest when 276 students of Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Borno State, were kidnapped by the terrorist group Boko Haram. The brazenness and the novelty of the Chibok incident turned many Nigerians into conspiracy theorists. In those days, the All Progressives Congress/Congress for Progressive Change was the so-called opposition, and they really dug a spear into former President Goodluck Jonathan’s side. Bola Tinubu was the leader of the APC. Then Borno governor, Kashim Shettima, could not devise enough ways to stitch up the Jonathan administration over Chibok.

Reading through the old media reports recently and seeing the allegations against the Jonathan administration by people like Tinubu (and even his wife) and Shettima, it is striking how much they politicised that unfortunate incident.

A decade after Chibok, Tinubu is president; Shettima is his vice, and another 300 or so school children plus their teachers have been kidnapped in Gada, Sokoto State, and Kurija in Kaduna State. In fact, over 400 Nigerians have been reportedly abducted within a week. I wonder if the Tinubus and Shettima think of the irony of fate that underlines these serial abductions. Everything they said about Jonathan and his inept handling of the Chibok abductions can now be said about them.

Speaking on the recent incident, the Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, noted that some fifth-column elements were at work. Media reports quoted him saying, “Across the North, we understand that some of the sub-regional geopolitical forces that are currently at play are actively conspiring against the stability of Nigeria.” While I appreciate Ngelale’s candour—and in terms of self-comportment, he is head, shoulders, and even ankle above his classless predecessors who turned the management of the presidency into a bolekaja affair—his bag of tricks is pretty old.

Ten years after Chibok and with unabated kidnaps throughout the country, Ngelale is still stuck on the propagandist’s spiel of “out-of-power northern Nigeria wants to make the country ungovernable for the southern president.” Like the rest of the Nigerian political class, he too blames abstract forces for our national issues. Nigeria is a place where “unknown soldiers” kill and despoil in broad daylight. Snakes and monkeys eat money, “cabals and deities,” the “elites of the elites” with “deep pockets” rob the country of funds for fuel subsidies. Electricity is unstable because some “demons” constantly toy with its functions. The problems that beset the country always have no face, no name, and therefore inapprehensible. We have heard all these tall tales before. Ngelale needs a new game.

To be clear, the issue here is not that professional politicians took advantage of the Chibok abductions to make the Jonathan administration look bad. What they did is what politicians everywhere do: amplify every failing and misstep of your opponent. The APC that unseated the Peoples Democratic Power from power might be amoral, but their actions are still consistent with the character of high-stakes politics.

Anyway, as I said, the politicisation of the Chibok abduction is not how the chickens can be said to have come home to roost for the APC. What rankles is that a whole decade after Chibok, despite abductions having become a normative evil, our government still has not fashioned a better response to these sad incidents. While Jonathan’s shortcomings in responding to the Chibok kidnappings can be chalked down to the novelty of Chibok, Tinubu/Shettima has no excuse. Yet, what can their administration say they have done any better than Jonathan who did not see Chibok coming? Yes, the president ordered security agencies to find those children but every Nigerian by now knows the efficacy value of such “orders.”

And here is where the trouble lies: if the present administration has not demonstrated better insight into a situation that has now become predictable, what guarantee exists that there will not be more of these incidents? The kidnappers are part of Nigeria’s social and political culture, and their choice to make a resounding impact by serially invading three schools over a mere few days cannot be separated from their observations of how entirely chaotic and dysfunctional the Tinubu administration has been. A government that cannot get basic things together in everyday administrative management is one whose resolve will be tested. Unfortunately, the kidnaps are one of the relatively easiest ways to go head-to-head with an administration that does not yet quite know what governance means and still get heftily paid while at it.

And why are the police infantilising the courts?

Thursday last week, the Nigeria Police Force released a press statement on the Chioma Egodi vs. Eric Umeofia case. Since this column was published just hours before the police bombast, I am compelled to raise a few issues with the press release. First, I am curious to know if they ran that waffle of a statement by a lawyer (or anyone with even basic knowledge of the law) before putting it out. Or, was it just one man who cranked out his prejudices on an angry typewriter? If they had consulted before publishing, they would perhaps have been reliably informed that public investment in a case involving two Nigerians and the judicial system is not tantamount to a “manipulation of public sentiment.”

Second, the police claimed to be “deeply worried” that people are crowdfunding for the woman’s legal expenses, and that that might influence legal proceedings. If you are ever in doubt that the police have taken sides on this issue and are using the instruments of the state to run the errands of one man who happens to have a lot of power (aka money), that statement should convince you. Otherwise, why should the police care how the case is decided? Why is it their place to be “deeply worried” that the courts will be influenced by public investment in the issue when they are supposedly neutral arbiters?

People crowdfund their legal expenses all the time and anywhere in the world. When we ordinary members of the public give toward the legal expense of someone else, we signify our moral investment in the judicial process. The law allows us to hold such opinions, and the police cannot strip us of them. Saying that the courts will be moved to take a decision one way or another because of public opinion infantilises the court. They are in fact alleging that the judges base their judgment on extrajudicial means. If they believe the court is too fickle to decide this case rationally, why file the case with them in the first place? During the presidential election tribunal, the judges told us they are unmoved by social media commentary, so why are the police panicking?

As Nigerians under a democratic rule that guarantees freedom of thought/conscience, we fully reserve the right to comment on an issue of collective interest and even donate our money toward it. Why should it bother the police that what Egodi’s supporters are doing will influence the court any more than Umeofia’s supporters? Notice that the police press statement was silent about the latter’s social media antics.

I said it last week and I will say it again: the police are playing a villainous role in this Egodi vs Umeofia case. If they truly believed their own stated claims that this case is about “upholding the rule of law,” then they should stand down. Their aggression toward Egodi and her family suggests they have an extrajudicial interest in this case. If truly there is a democracy in Nigeria, then we should have certain rights. And if those rights will be abridged because one man somewhere cannot take criticism, let it be on record that the courts-not the police-took that injurious decision.

Of all our past leaders, Muhammadu Buhari, by his anti-imperialist and pro-Nigerian policies during his short stay in power between 1984 and 1985 was perhaps the most pro-Nigerian.  The author of ‘Nigerians have no other place they can call their own’ was regarded as an honourable man ‘who cannot be unfair’ (Maitama Sule). The only ware Buhari had to sell in the run up to the 2015 election was his righteousness which he carried around like Saint Christopher’s badge of honour.

Buhari had played his politics well by rejecting IMF loan to prevent the destruction of our budding industries with the flooding of our market with foreign manufactured goods and challenging Nigerians to produce their own wheat or starve.  Nigerians produced not only what they would eat but more than enough wheat that storage facilities became a challenge.  Within the period, our refineries worked with Nigerian exporting refined petroleum products to earn foreign exchange while domestic consumption of PMS was secured through swapping of crude oil with Brazil.

It was widely believed that Babangida’s palace coup was masterminded by CIA in response to Buhari’s anti-imperialist crusade. This was to earn him the sympathy of Yoruba voters in 2015 despite jailing their leaders for between 100-300 years for taxing contractors to raise money to build universities in Edo, Ondo, Ogun and Lagos while treating Shagari who presided over massive corruption that led to the collapse of the economy and his NPN/NPP governors that took foreign loans to marry new wives and set up private banks with kid gloves.

Unfortunately, Buhari, by his mishandling of our crisis of nation-building during his two-term presidency marred by incompetence, cronyism and delegation by abdication, deprived himself of an opportunity to become a statesman.

His first test of integrity after acquiring power was his apparent sympathy for herdsmen terrorists rated by Global Terrorism Index as the fourth deadliest terrorist group in the world, coming after Boko Haram, ISIS and Al-Shabab. As if to confirm the fears of those who alleged his government had been hijacked by ethnic irredentists even before its inauguration, Alhaji Sale Bayeri issued a threat claiming that “the Boko Haram insurgency would be a child’s play if herdsmen and farmers’ conflicts are not resolved in a way that is acceptable to all sides”, while pointing out that what would appease the rampaging herdsmen was contained in a 70-page letter he had sent to President Buhari before his inauguration. Their demand was for an unhindered grazing access in areas he identified as ‘trouble spots’ spread across 75 local government areas across 21 states including “Oye Local Government in the northern part of Ekiti, Shaki in Oyo State, Akwa-Ibom, Cross River, Rivers, Delta, Edo, Bauchi, Gombe, Yola”. To support their claim that “Benue anti-grazing law cannot work”, mindless massacre of 72 people was carried out in the night. Buhari ignored warnings by Nigerian stakeholders including Wole Soyinka who advised the Fulani insurgents should not be treated with kid gloves, until the whole of the middle belt states was overrun.

Buhari’s management of the oil sector which accounts for over 80% of foreign earnings was no less disappointing.  Nigerians had hoped he would improve on his record as oil minister in 1977 and as Head of State in 1984. Curiously, none of Nigerian four refineries worked while his party’s promised modular, for eight years remained a promise.  And while the nation could not meet its OPEC quota of crude oil export due to massive crude oil theft, over N700 billion was being stolen daily under the fuel subsidy scam.

And despite Oronsaye recommendation, Buhari retained the instrument through which politicians and oil marketers commit this crime. For instance, the PPPRA, an outfit with a staff strength of 249, supervised by an unwieldy 22-man strong board, gobbling scandalously whopping salaries and allowances of N57.9 billion per annum, whose mandate include ending long queues at filling stations by making petroleum products  available at reasonable prices”, was retained even when its functions only duplicated those of Pipelines and Product Marketing Company, (PPMC) set up in 1988 to “profitably and efficiently market refined petroleum products and also maintain uninterrupted movement of refined petroleum products from the local refineries.”

Buhari’s management of the economy was no less disastrous. Perhaps scared by IMF that accused him of being stubborn, he went on a borrowing binge with Nigeria debt rising to $40b currently being serviced by about 95% of our national earnings. We can add to that the illegal printing of N23trillion through ways and means by CBN and one-year advance collection of crude oil sales revenue.

Nigerians had expected a probe of how Babangida’s Technical Committee on Privatization and Commercialization’s (TCPC) disposed of the following national assets: Assurance Bank, African Petroleum, Unipetrol, National Oil and Chemical Co. Plc, West African Portland Cement, Ashaka Cement, Northern Nigeria Cement, Nigeria Cement company, FESTAC 1977 Hotel, Nigerdock, Niger Insurance, Nigeria Re-insurance, Savannah Sugar, National Trucks Manufacturing, Electricity Meter Company, Zaria, Hamdala Hotel and Federal Palace hotel among many others. They had expected the same on the following national assets sold by Obasanjo’s 1999 Public Enterprises Privatization and Commercialization Act: Delta Steel Company valued at $1.5 billion but sold for $30m; NICON Insurance worth N6billion but allegedly bought with fake MoU and fake cheques, Ajaokuta Steel Company valued at $1.5 billion but sold for $30 million, ALSCON valued at $3.2b but sold for $130m, Nigeria Re-Insurance Corp. worth N50b but sold for N1.5b (see Adamu Adamu: “BPE: Behind Closed doors”(Daily Trust, August 12, 2011). There was also Abuja Sheraton Hotel and Towers built at a whopping $300m in 1986 but sold for a paltry $34m” and “Sofitel Hotel (NICON Luxury Hotels) built with a German loan of $139m in 1990 later sold off for $50m. (The Senate Committee on the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Probe (This Day, April 23 2008).

Buhari whose campaign promises included restructuring was to feign ignorance as to its meaning after the election. He was however schooled by the following Nigerian stakeholders who first reminded him that our “1954 structure, negotiated by our founding fathers ‘to promote the unity of Nigeria and protect the interest of diverse elements that make up the country’ was destroyed by our military adventurers.

For Atiku, restructuring means ‘less centralized, less suffocating and less dictatorial’ central government to satisfy agitation by some restive groups for self-actualization. For Alhaji Balarabe Musa, the former governor of Kaduna State, it is ‘a return to regional arrangement, where each region can create states, they can cater for, would certainly reduce injustice and inequality among the people’. For Emeka Anyaoku, the former Commonwealth Secretary, it is ‘a return to the regional structure practiced in the First Republic, with the country’s six regions forming the federating units. For Wole Soyinka it means “the basis of our association needed to be renegotiated if we are to prevent a disastrous disintegration”.

But Buhari would rather listen to Ango Abdullahi, the spokesman for Northern Elders Forum, who after tracing it to post-independence power rivalry between the Igbo and the Hausa Fulani, advised him to refer it the National Assembly, a product of injustice, by design and by composition” whose control by northern majority has made any change, including ordinary local policing impossible. And of course, Buhari’s  other trusted confidant is elder-statesman Tanko Yakassai who blamed the Yoruba for supporting self-actualization struggle by restive groups like the Tivs, Beroms, Katafs  of the Middle Belt and the Calabar-Ogoja-Rivers states of the Southeast since 1953.

• Buhari loves Nigeria but loves his fellow Fulani ethnic irredentists more.

The Nigeria Labour Congress, on Wednesday, expressed anger over the failure of about 90 per cent of states (over 30 states) in paying the wage award as agreed by the Federal Government and the organised Labour.

The NLC said this as pensioners who retired from the Federal Civil Service threatened to embark on a nationwide protest following the failure of the government to pay their wage award.

Labour leaders in Sokoto, Kano, Benue, and Bayelsa states told The PUNCH on Wednesday that their state governments had no paid  the wage award, while Gombe, Ogun, and Osun were paying N15,000 or N10,000.

The NLC Assistant General Secretary, NLC, Chris Onyeka, in an interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday, said state governors jettisoned negotiations, as they unilaterally gave workers N10,000 without any negotiation.

The payment of wage award to workers was one of the agreements between the organised labour and the Federal Government as one of the ways to mitigate the effect of the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit, popularly known as petrol.

In 2023, the NLC and Trade Union Congress entered into an agreement with the Federal Government where the latter agreed to pay a N35,000 wage award to workers for six months, as well as review the minimum wage in 2024.

On Tuesday, President Bola Tinubu in Niger State appealed to state governors to continue to pay workers in their various states the wage award till negotiations on a new minimum wage were concluded.

But speaking with one of our correspondents on Wednesday, the Assistant General Secretary, NLC lamented that about 90 per cent of states, representing over 30 states, were not paying the wage award to their workers.

He “About 90 per cent of the states have not paid wage awards. Some states I know decided to give workers N10,000 but the wage award is not decided alone.

“There is a process for it. There must be a negotiation with the workers. Wage award is not a dash out or a charity. The process must be inclusive,” Onyeka stated.

Gombe pays N10,000

But the General Secretary of the NLC in Gombe State, Ibrahim Fika, said so far, workers had received N10,000, as the wage award had yet to be implemented by the state government.

Fika said, “Nothing yet. We have only been paid N10,000 per month. We have not received the wage award as directed by the President. We are still hopeful that workers will be duly paid the agreed amount at the right time to reduce the hardship.”

The NLC leaders in both Sokoto and Kebbi states said workers in the two states had yet to receive any wage award from their respective state governments.

Speaking in separate interviews, the union leaders said they had commenced the process of negotiation for the wage award with the representatives of their governments.

The Chairman, NLC, Sokoto State, Abdullahi Jungle, said the state government would soon announce the wage award to its workers.

“We are still negotiating with the government and I am sure that very soon the state government and labour leaders will agree on how much to be paid to workers,” he said.

His counterpart from Kebbi State, Murtala Usman, said, “Yes, we are still negotiating and the outcome will soon be made public.”

Meanwhile, a senior aide to the governor of Sokoto State, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the state government had been adopting different measures to cushion the effect of the current economic hardship on its workers.

He said, “Look at the announcement made by the governor yesterday on the payment of half salary to all categories of workers including pensioners in the state to assist them in this month of Ramadan.

“This is apart from so many other measures being made available to workers including palliatives. I am sure the wage award will be addressed soon as usual.”

‘Bayelsa not paying’

In Bayelsa State, the state chapter of NLC said the state government had not been paying its workers the wage award.

The state NLC Secretary, John Angese, who stated this, said the state government had not given the organised labour a definite response on the issue of wage award.

He said, “No, the state government is not paying workers the wage award. The government has not given us any definite answer on that matter.

“The wage award is N35,000. The Federal Government paid only two months (to its workers) and stopped, now they are about to continue. That stoppage couldn’t allow us to make any serious case (with the state government) since the national government also defaulted.”

Also speaking, the Chairman of the Trade Union Congress, Ekiti State, Sola Adigun, said the hike in the prices of goods and services had made the wage award insignificant, hence the need for immediate conclusion of negotiation and implementation of a new living wage for workers.

Adigun said though the Ekiti State Government had since December last year been implementing the wage award for workers, “what is being implemented is not the same amount that the Federal Government expected.

“Here in Ekiti, all public servants at the states and Local Governments are given N15,000 monthly after the payment of salary. We have been paid for three months now, December, January, and February. Pensioners are being paid N10,000 monthly apart from their pensions.’’

When contacted, Osun State TUC Chairman, Bimbo Fasasi, said the state government started paying the wage award to workers and retirees in December 2023.

Fasasi, who added that the government had paid up to February, said, “Osun is paying N15,000 for active workers and N10,000 for retirees.

“It commenced payment last December 2023 and has paid up to February 2024. By March ending we are expecting the March wage award to come.”

The Kano State Government has yet to fulfill its promise on the payment of the N20,000 wage award it agreed to pay the state and Local Government workers for six months beginning from December 2023.

Similarly, the government has also yet to commence the payment of the N15,000 wage award it promised pensioners for three months from December 2023.

The Chairman of the NLC, Kabiru Inuwa, said this in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Wednesday.

He said, “We agreed on N20,000 but the government has yet to begin the payment.”

According to him, the wage award was aimed at minimising the hardship being experienced by workers brought about by the fuel subsidy removal in the country but was not forthcoming in Kano State.

Efforts to get the state Commissioner of Information, Baba Dantiye, failed as his phone was switched off. He was said to be in the State Executive Council meeting.

A WhatsApp message sent to him was not replied as of the time of filing this report.

Labour in Benue State threatened to write to the national secretariat about the non-response of the state government to the wage award demand.

The state NLC Chairman, Terungwa Igbe, said the union had written to the state government about their desire to meet with the government.

He said, “We have not heard of anything from the state government despite the letter we wrote to them to have a meeting with them.”

Asked what would be the next line of action, Igbe said, “We are going to write to our national secretariat to inform it of the development.”

Meanwhile, the state government through the Commissioner for Finance and Budget Planning, Michael Oglegba, said the government would soon meet the labour union concerning the wage award.

The Chairman, TUC, Ogun State, Akeem Lasisi, said the state government had since July commenced the payment of N10,000 palliatives to the state workers.

“We were given 40 per cent of the basic salary starting from September 2023; N10,000 palliatives started in July 2023, while we also got Christmas bonus in December, ranging from N20,000 from Level 01 to N100,000 for level 15-17.”

Pensioners threaten protest

Meanwhile, pensioners who retired from the Federal Civil Service threatened a nationwide protest following the failure of the Federal Government to pay their wage awards.

The pensioners under the aegis of Federal Civil Service Pensioners, an affiliate of the National Union of Pensioners, expressed dismay at the failure of the Tinubu-led administration to pay the wage awards despite the untold hardship currently being faced by Nigerians.

While addressing selected members of the press in Abuja on Wednesday, the President of the Federal Civil Service Pensioners, Sunday Omezi, said pensioners were going through excruciating pains and agony.

“We feel constrained to bring to the knowledge of the world through this medium, the excruciating pains and agony we have been subjected over the years by the same government we served vigorously and diligently with our youthful energy without blemish only to be abused, dehumanised, marginalised and neglected with reckless abandon, after sapping our energy and leaving us dejected and consigned to rot and death,” he said.

Speaking on the unpaid wage award, Omezi said, “It is pathetic and disappointing to bring to the fore, the non-payment of the N25,000 wage award promised pensioners by the government.

“It is rather distasteful that up till date, no single payment has been made to pensioners. We are hereby demanding immediate payment of the award, because it is so embarrassing for such a promise to be left unfulfilled.”

Omezi also noted that pensioners have been crying profusely the tears of pain over the years through several official representations to the government.

“Our telling has been deliberately ignored, hence we are left with no option, but to cry out louder to the world to be informed of the pathetic condition we have been made to suffer by the same system that is expected to protest us.”

When asked whether the union would protest, Omezi said, “We are hoping it won’t get to that. That is the major reason we have this press briefing. However, if nothing is done, we may have to embark on a protest.’’

But the Niger State Governor Mohammed Bago has promised to start paying the State’s workers wage award beginning from March 2024.

The governor’s promise was the outcome of a round table negotiation with the leadership of the State chapter of the Nigeria Labour Congress NLC, in Minna.

Chairman of the Niger State NLC, Idrees Lafene, spoke with The PUNCH in a telephone chat on Wednesday in which he said President Bola Tinubu’s comment on wage award during his visit to the State was important to the State’s Labour Union.

He expressed confidence that the Niger State Governor would fulfill his promise to start paying the wage award from March 2024.

“I like what the president said, especially when he said governor’s should give wage award. That is the only thing hat remains for our Governor. If he is able to give wage award, he’ll be one of the best governors,” Lafene said.

Asked if the governor has started paying wage award, the NLC chairman said, “ Our agreement with the governor is this March, he said end of March, that is when he will start paying the wage award. He said he will pay N20,000”.

[Punch]

More controversies appear to be swirling around the 2024 budget as more indications that the portion of the budget attributable to some federal government institutions lack details and transparency.

The affected institutions, including the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, were allocated between N3.5 trillion and N3.7 trillion without specific expenditure heading, or stipulations of what the monies were meant for.

This came as the Minority Leader of the Senate, Abba Moro, expressed concerns yesterday that the Senate is currently having credibility problems, following suspension of the whistle blower, Senator Abdul Ningi.

This is even as Bauchi State governor, Bala Mohammed, also yesterday threw his weight behind Senator Ningi, the lawmaker representing Bauchi Central senatorial district, who was handed a three-month suspension by the Senate for his expose, just as Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, and Transparency International in Nigeria, TI-Nigeria, declared Senator Ninigi’s suspension as sheer attack on freedom of expression and opposition’s rights.

Similarly, the presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, urged the Senate to come clean and clear all allegations associated with the N3 trillion padding in the 2024 budget.

Onigbinde, who was a guest on Channels Television’s ‘Politics Today’ programme late Tuesday, stated: “There should be a detailed breakdown of the budget. On that point, Senator Ningi is right”.

Ningi, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) resigned as Chairman of the Northern Senators’ Forum, even as he was suspended by his colleagues in the red chamber on Tuesday over budget padding allegations.

BudGit fact-checks

But the BudGit co-founder, Onigbinde, said: “As the Senate rowdy session was going on, we were also fact-checking and one of the things we found is that we were not able to lay hold to the claim by Senator Ningi. A budget of N28.7trillion was passed into law and we were not able to see where N3.7trn (was missing).

“Historically, there are items in the budget that don’t have breakdown, like statutory transfers but that does not mean there is a certain level of capital projects by the Federal Government that was appropriated and does not have a breakdown.”

He said the entire capital project was around N9trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act signed into law by President Bola Tinubu after the bill was reviewed upward from N27.5trn to N28.78trn.
“The budget we have now have the ministries, departments and agencies (MDA) and the government-owned enterprise budget.

“Around N2trn of the budget presented by the President is the government-owned enterprises budget. So, if Senator Ningi says there is a N25trn budget, yes, that is the MDA’s budget. It’s different from the government-owned enterprises budget whose budget was now added.

“It is factual that he says that but it doesn’t mean that we are running two concurrent budgets. There is a different conversation that those projects should be detailed. TETFUND should not just get an allocation. What are you spending money on? INEC is collecting huge chunk of funds but there is no public details about what the funds are used for.

“In the current budget, the National Assembly gave a very broad summary of its allocations but there are no detailed allocations on a granular level that everybody can understand.

“These are transparent issues and if you put all these together, that is around N3.5trn to N3.7trn. So, if that is what he (Ningi) wants to interrogate, that there are components of the budget where there are no breakdown, that is very factual.”

The Budgit boss urged the executive and the National Assembly to ensure transparency in the budgetary allocations to MDAs and government-owned enterprises.

Senate already having some credibility problems – Minority Leader

Reacting to Ningi’s suspension yesterday, Senate Minority Leader, Abba Moro, said the upper chamber is having some credibility problems as a result.

Senator Moro said: “The budget in question was passed by the senators. Senator Ningi is a senator, he was a member of the Appropriation Committee. I am from the North and he purported to speak for the North.

“Why I was angry is that Senator Kawu Samaila who is the spokesperson of the Northern Senators Forum came before me and said he was going to address the press on this same matter while the debate was going on.

“I said ‘you don’t do that. You raised issues, we are tackling the issues and here you are, you want to address the press, go ahead and address the press.’ That was why I raised my hands because as minority leader, Senator Kawu Samaila is a member of the NNPP, he is with me and signed for me to be a minority leader.

“So why would he not accept my advice? As people have commented now, the Senate is already having some level of credibility problems. Why would an individual arrogate to himself the power to know it all, say it all?”

Speaking further, Senator Moro, who spoke in an interview on Channels Television’s breakfast programme, Sunrise Daily, yesterday, also defended the action of the Senate leadership, saying it did the right thing in Ningi’s matter.

‘I think the Senate did the appropriate thing, I was there. Budget padding may not be mentioned here now in the 10th Senate because previous budgets have been criticised based on budget padding.

“But this is the first time a participant senator who was honestly engaged in the whole process is coming out to say that what I did was wrong and rubbing it on all of us. I think it is not correct.”

He faulted Ningi’s action, recalling how the Northern Senators Forum had an audience with the Senate President in which Kawu and Ningi were in attendance.

Bauchi governor declares support for Ningi over Senate suspension

In his reaction yesterday, Governor Bala Mohammed of Bauchi State defended Senator Ninigi for his expose, condemining the three months suspension slammed on him by the Senate.

He said: “We will, as the opposition to the Federal Government, say some of the things that should be done in our modest opinion, but it is not for us to disparage our country. ‘’Yesterday (Tuesday), I was very sad for the Senate to suspend one of our best from Bauchi for saying the truth, for standing up to be the beacon of truth.

“Equally, I don’t know what we will do but we will discuss privately to see what we can do to support him because I support whatever he is doing. And that is the face of the opposition, especially if what he saying is the truth. I am not too quick to go to the media but, certainly, he has shown courage.”

Come clean, clear all the allegations, Obi tells Senate

The presidential candidate of Labour Party in the 2023 general elections, Mr. Peter Obi, in his reaction yesterday, asked the Senate to come clean and clear all allegations associated with the N3 trillion padding in the 2024 budget.

He wrote: “The fuss over the alleged N3 trillion padded into the 2024 budget raised by a Senator still rages as the Senate reaction of suspending the whistle-blower has not addressed vital issues emanating from the allegation.

“The senator is insisting on his allegation and the executive agreed that there was only N1.2trillion padded, not N3trillion as alleged by the Senate.

“Fresh allegations have also cropped up over indiscriminate and unbalanced allocation of constituency projects by the Senate leadership.

“A civic group, Budgit, through their official, have also added their voice to agree with the Senator. They alleged that there was no detailed project allocations for about N3.7trn in the 2024 Appropriation Act.

“As the Senate suspension of the senator involved has not addressed the issue, they still owe the Nigerian public a clear clarification over the various claims and counter-claims, including that of the executive arm, to be able to know exactly what is happening, and also disclose to the public, the amounts allocated for constituency projects for appropriate monitoring of implementation by the public.

“I had particularly elucidated in my earlier comments on what we can use the N3 trillion to achieve, by showing that it is more than the national budget of the two most critical components of the human development index, health and education, combined.

“Now that the executive arm has accepted that the padded amount is only N1.2 trillion, it is still a very significant amount, when you consider that it is almost five times the N251.47 billion proposed for Universal Basic Education, which is the foundation of education, in the country.

‘Use the money for health, education’

“Today in Nigeria, the greatest challenge to human resource development is education, which has been identified as most critical at the basic level. Nigeria has about 20 million out-of-school children today because of the poor investment in education. These are resources that would have been utilised to ensure that our children are taken off the streets and returned to schools.

“If, indeed, the report from the BudgiT is true that there is about N3.7 trillion without any detailed project allocations, I strongly urge the Senate to do more detailed work of channelling these funds into the critical areas of development – education, health and pulling people out of poverty, which will in turn, minimise the criminality we are facing today.

“We must, as a matter of urgency, put a stop to all the wastage of our scarce resources, amid the excruciating hardship in the country. Let every penny of our public funds be used for public good. That is the only way to achieve the New Nigeria we are working towards.”

Ningi: Attack on freedom of expression, oppositions’ rights – CISLAC, TI

Also yesterday, the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, CISLAC, and Transparency International in Nigeria, TI-Nigeria, declared the suspension of Senator Ningi as sheer attack on freedom of expression and opposition’s rights.

In a statement, Executive Director of CISLAC/TI-Nigeria, Auwal Rafsanjani, said the Senate’s action was not only undemocratic but also questionable.

Rafsanjani also pointed out that anything outside the provisions in the Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; Article 19 (2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966, was tantamount to deliberate violation of human right and apparent disregard to the rule of law.

He said: “The Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre (CISLAC)/Transparency International in Nigeria (TI-Nigeria) is seriously perturbed by the undemocratic action and questionable decision by leadership of the Senate as shockingly demonstrated in the recent unfounded suspension of the Senator Abdul Ningi.

“We are not unaware that the suspension was initiated against Senator Ningi for expressing his constitutionally guaranteed concerns and observations on 2024 budget at this critical moment when the nation is deeply soaked in socio-economic and financial crisis.

“The suspension is not unconnected with the public exposure of the N3trillion padded into the 2024 budget by the Upper Chamber, which has hitherto failed to display transparency and public accountability in its annual budgetary allocation and spending.

“This includes the inequality and disproportionate marginalisation surrounding the distributions of the N3trillion, where each senator is expected to receive N500million as constituency allowance.

‘’We recognise and affirm that freedom of expression and opinion remains sacrosanct to preserve the democratic culture, values and principles in Nigeria.

“We, without hesitation, uphold our position that freedom of opinion and expression is a constitutional and legally-backed right under Section 39 of the 1999 Constitution of Federal Republic of Nigeria; Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, 1948; Article 19 (2) of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, 1966; hence, the sanity and sanctity of these provisions must be strictly adhered, demonstrated and protected by a civic institution such as National Assembly.

‘’Anything outside these provisions is tantamount to deliberate violation of human right and apparent disregard to the rule of law.

“We must reiterate that the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria as a supreme law of the country gives zero provision or power to the Senate to suspend a member of the National Assembly. ‘’Such provisions are only found in the ethics and privileges committee laws, which is answerable to the plenary through the Senate president.

‘’On this note, the committee laws cannot override the Constitution, especially in a matter of freedom of expression which is a fundamental right.

“Just as every member of the National Assembly representing his/her constituency has the primary mandates and responsibilities to absorb communal observations and offer feedback to the people for public accountability, expressing such in form of opinion must not be interfered, intimidated or suppressed in anyway or form.

‘Action projects legislative arm as autocratic’

“The repressive action by leadership of the Senate would clearly project the legislative arm as autocratic, which to a large extent would negatively impact legislators’ independence, robust debate, genuine submissions, and image of the legislature before Nigerians and rest of the world.

“Unjust suspension of a senator who represents an entire senatorial district is similar to public demonstration of unguarded culture of silencing,insensitivity, disrespect and marginalisation of the people.

“We strongly maintain that intimidating or silencing opinion of the dissents or oppositions is unhealthy in any civilised democracy and must not be tolerated as a culture in Nigeria. Despite the multiple number of opposition parties in the National Assembly, they appear to be conquered by power of the executive as well as the principal officers in the legislature.”

Rafsajani, however, called on the Senate not to silence opposition in the National Assembly, and warned that such action will lead to dictatorship and oppression, and should, therefore, not be allowed to exist in any form.

“We, therefore, call on the Senate to as a matter of urgency, shun silencing opposition views in the legislature; as the essence of the legislature is to allow for freedom of expression and contrary opinions as well as provide a democratic platform for constructive debates that enhance national interest.

“The greatest danger is that legislators can no longer be allowed to perform their duties, including oversight and opposing views on the executive and principal officers in the Senate which will be tantamount democratic dictatorships.

“We call on all well-meaning Nigerians and the media to protect and reject any undemocratic action or decision by the National Assembly targeted at impeding public accountability and shrinking civic space.’’

PDP demands Akpabio’s resignation, says it stands with Senator Ningi

Also reacting yesterday, Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, asked the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, to immediately step aside and allow for an independent investigation into the allegation that a staggering N3.7 trillion was discreetly inserted into the 2024 budget for alleged non-existent projects.

National Publicity Secretary of the PDP, Debo Ologunagba, who made the party’s position public, in Abuja, yesterday, said the party also demanded that Senator Akpabio immediately report at the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, over his pending case with the commission.

‘President should speak on N86b contract scam’

Ologunagba said: “Furthermore, the Senate President should speak out on the reported N86 billion contract scam in the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, during his tenure as the Minister of Niger Delta Affairs.

“The suspension of Senator Ningi is apparently a desperate move to suppress investigation, conceal and sweep the facts under the carpet.

“Moreover, the frustration of investigation by the APC Senate leadership further confirms PDP’s repeated alert that prominent APC officials in the National Assembly and a top official in the Presidency have been using ministers and other government functionaries to siphon budgeted funds from the national coffers.

“We ask, why did the APC leadership in the Senate not refer the matter to the appropriate Senate Standing Committee for an open investigation, in line with the extant Rules of the Senate? What is the APC Senate leadership afraid of and what is it hiding from Nigerians?

“It is even more absurd that instead of recusing himself, the Senate President sat as a judge in the matter; a situation that can bring the institution of the Senate to further public disrepute.

“This is especially as the issues at hand heavily border on alleged gross misconduct and criminal betrayal of public trust which are serious offenses under our laws.

“Nigerians can now see why the APC leadership in the National Assembly, especially in the Senate continues to condone the unbridled looting of public resources including funds meant for palliatives for poor and vulnerable citizens.

“This apparent inclination towards covering up sleaze in the polity is already pitching the institution of the Senate against Nigerians who are demanding for answers on the matter. Of course, the widely condemned suspension of Senator Ningi does not provide answers to the budget padding allegation.”

[Vanguard]

Nigeria has hired investment banks including Citibank NA, JPMorgan Chase & Co., and Goldman Sachs, to seek advice on its first eurobond issue since 2022.

According to a Bloomberg report, the size of the eurobond offer, which is expected before June, is yet to be determined.

The federal government could raise as much as $1 billion in external borrowing this year to meet its spending needs, according to sources who spoke to the publication.

The report said Nigeria has also hired Standard Chartered Bank and Lagos-based Chapel Hill Denham as advisers.

On January 1, President Bola Tinubu signed the N28.7 trillion budget for 2024 fiscal year, with a deficit of N9.8 trillion — which will be financed by borrowings from local and international investors and multilateral lenders.

Tinubu also received approval from the senate on December 30, 2023, to borrow the sums of $7.8 billion and €100 million as part of the 2022-2024 borrowing plan of the federal government.

The president had sent a request to the national assembly to approve the sum, saying the funds, when obtained, would be used to assuage the economic realities and undertake many projects cutting across various sectors of the economy.

Meanwhile, since he took office on May 29, 2023, Tinubu has been seeking to attract foreign investors back into the economy through several reforms.

Last year, on June 14, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) announced the unification of all segments of the foreign exchange (FX) market.

[TheCable]