Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has threatened to take legal action against the federal government over plans to regulate social media.

Naija News reported earlier that President Bola Tinubu declared that social media must be regulated because it has become a societal menace.

The President, who spoke through his Chief of Staff, Femi Gbajabiamila, said this at a book launch in Lagos State on Thursday, February 8, 2024.

President Tinubu also berated the menace of social media in disseminating fake and wrong information, which has almost torn the country apart and caused violence in some states.

The Nigerian leader stressed the need to regularize the framework of news dissemination on social media to avoid misinformation in the country.

He emphasized the importance of data in policy formulation for the growth of the country, stating that no developing country can succeed without adequate and well-informed data.

Reacting, however, SERAP, in a statement issued on Friday via its official handle on X, said the government’s intention is odd with the country’s constitution and international human rights standards.

It said: “The threat by the Tinubu administration to regulate social media is at odds with the Nigerian Constitution and international human rights standards. We’ll take legal action if the administration carries out its threat to restrict Nigerians’ rights on social media.”

This report presents the biggest headlines of the week.

Nigerians hope to swap Grammys for AFCON; protests hit Kogi, Niger, Rivers as Nigerians lament high cost of living; states get N3.3tn allocations even as Nigerians, including Labour leaders,  urged state governors to justify increased allocations by addressing the increasing hardship among the masses.

Here are the highlights of the week’s biggest news stories, from February 4 to February 10, 2024.

• Grammy 1 Nigeria 0

On Sunday night, the 66th Annual Grammy Awards were held in  Los Angeles, United States, to kick off the week. A record number of Nigerians were represented at the Grammys, with Davido, Burna Boy, Ayra Starr, Asake, and Olamide nominated, thanks to the Best African Performance category.

But on Monday morning, it was all about how they returned home empty-handed. Their fans took to the internet to lament the losses.

South Africa’s Tyla won the inaugural Grammy Award for Best African Music Performance with her single ‘Water’, edging out Nigerian stars.

Interestingly, because Nigeria would play against South Africa on Wednesday in the AFCON semi-finals in Ivory Coast for a chance to make it to the final, netizens challenged the Super Eagles to avenge the Grammy loss to Tyla by beating the Bafana Bafana of South Africa. This led to a tense semi-finals fixture that kept Africans at the edge of their seats.

• AFCON: Grammy avenged

After a fierce 90 minutes of play, the Nigerian national team, the Super Eagles, were tied 1-1 and forced into an additional 30 minutes of extra time. It all came down to a penalty shootout, which Nigeria won 4-2. The Grammy loss had been avenged and Nigerians had a field day on the internet taunting South Africa with Tyla’s ‘Water’. Nigerians also claimed that ‘Amapiano,’ a music genre that has its roots in South Africa, now belongs to Nigeria. Several celebrities joined the internet banter.

Kelechi Iheanacho scored the decisive kick that secured Nigeria’s spot in the final. But one hero reigns supreme…

• Nwabali steals the show

The Super Eagles goalkeeper, Stanley Nwabali, clinched the Man of the Match award after saving two penalties in the shootout.

With several clean sheets and remarkable saves, Nwabali is poised to secure the tournament’s Golden Glove award. In the tournament, Nwabali kept a tally of four straight clean sheets, which helped him break the clean sheet record held by Alloy Agu and equal Best Ogedegbe’s 44-year-old record.

In addition to his clean sheets, Nwabali has made numerous crucial saves at critical moments in matches. Fans praised his crucial saves, hailing him as Nigeria’s key to winning the tournament.

The final against Ivory Coast will be played on Sunday (tomorrow), 9 pm Nigerian time.

• AFCON heartbreak

In what can only be described as a bitter victory, PUNCH Online reported five  deaths after the AFCON victory, with many reportedly dying during the  penalty shootout. The individuals who lost their lives include a stalwart of the All Progressives Congress, Dr Cairo Ojougboh; the Deputy Bursar of Kwara State University, Alhaji Ayuba Abdullahi; a sales representative named Mikhail Osundiji; a National Youth Service Corps member identified as Samuel; and an Anambra-born businessman based in Cote d’Ivoire, Osondu Nwoye.

Many experts have cautioned Nigerians, especially those with pre-existing health conditions, to avoid excessive emotional stress during such events. Some have even warned wives to keep their hypertensive husbands away from the AFCON final on Sunday

• His Excellency returns

President Bola Tinubu returned to Nigeria after a two-week private visit to Paris, France. The President came back at a time when protests were erupting in parts of the country over rising food and living costs, with angry youths and women taking to the streets.

Tinubu directed immediate interventions to address the situation, while discussions are ongoing to increase food supply and reduce prices in collaboration with millers and commodity traders.

After a series of meetings, more than 102,000 metric tons of various grain types from the National Food Reserve and the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria were released to address the food crisis. The Minister of Information and National Orientation, Mohammed Idris, announced to State House correspondents the release of 42,000 metric tons of maize, millet, garri, and other commodities from the strategic reserve.

Additionally, discussions with the Rice Millers Association led to a commitment of 60,000 metric tons of rice. The government said it is prepared to import commodities if necessary and is ready to take punitive measures against food hoarders to ensure food security for Nigerians.

• Cries across the nation

Protests erupted in various parts of Nigeria, including Port Harcourt in Rivers State, Kano, and Niger State, over the rising cost of living, food prices, and poor power supply. In Port Harcourt, scores of married women protested outside the office of the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company due to prolonged blackouts, which they said affected their personal lives, including marital relations.

Some of the placards carried by the Rivers women read, “‘We lack romance with our husbands’ and ‘Our husbands no longer touch us at night’.”

Similarly, in Kano, angry youths and women took to the streets to voice their grievances over the economic challenges facing the country and the high prices of food items. Meanwhile, in Niger State, residents protested against the high cost of living, demanding government intervention.

• Alcoholic backlash

Another wave of protests followed the ban imposed by the National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control on the production of alcoholic beverages in sachets and small bottles. A coalition of civil society groups protested at the National Assembly. The Food Beverage and Tobacco Senior Staff Association and the National Union of Food Beverages and Tobacco Employees rejected the plan, citing potential job losses for over 500,000 workers.

The House of Representatives has directed its committee on NAFDAC to investigate the circumstances surrounding the ban on the production of beverages in sachets and small bottles by the agency.

• States allocation

Allocations from the Federal Account Allocation Committee to 36 states and 774 local governments from July to December 2023, increased to N3.34tn, a 19.5% increase from the previous half-year according to figures obtained from the National Bureau of Statistics earlier in the week.

The bulk of the revenue shared at FAAC meetings comes from oil exports, taxes, and other statutory allocations, with the Federal Government receiving 52.68%, states 26.72%, and local governments 20.60%.

Despite increased allocations, some governors have faced criticism for failing to alleviate the impact of fuel subsidy removal, with complaints about poor infrastructure, rising kidnappings, and insecurity.

Labour leaders and Nigerians have urged state governors to justify the increased allocations by addressing the hardships faced by the masses.

[Punch]

Sunday 4th February was as usual, a miserable, depressed and wretched day for His Excellency, Chief James Onanefe Ibori. But this year’s 4th of February was a particularly gloomy one; it marked the 20th year of that murder most foul, the assassination of Chief Aminasoari Kala (A.K) Dikibo.

For the past twenty years Ibori has tried all in his power to remind Nigerians of Dikibo, who was the Deputy National Chairman, South-South geopolitical zone, of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) when he was assassinated in broad daylight on a Nigerian motor road. Year in, year out, Ibori has had full page newspaper advertisements published in memory of Dikibo.

That he has been the only Nigerian, among the numerous movers and shakers of the Nigerian political class who remembers Dikibo does not appear to bother him. That his efforts have not moved the Nigeria Police Force or the Department of State Security (DSS) to appear to be still interested in solving that murder, does not in any way bother Ibori. He appears to be doing what he has taken to be his personal duty; as though living the saying – “if you can’t change the world for the better, don’t let the world change you”.

Dikibo was lion-hearted. He was a politician with strong convictions.

He was not a double-crossing weasel that would change positions like the weather vane. He often stood his ground like a high tower – there for all to see. Yes, he was the veritable Dede Ukwu – the Big Brother, as he was called in his Okirika locality of Rivers state where he was the Chief of a well-respected Canoe War House.

And Ibori continues to mourn him because Dikibo fully identified with Ibori’s project of trying to unite the South-South politicians so that the could speak with one voice in matters concerning that geopolitical zone. Also, Dikibo was working in the service of that cause when assassins cut him down.

An audacious and forward-looking Ibori had convened a summit of South-South politicians in Asaba, the Delta state capital for the first weekend in the February of 2004 – exactly 20 years ago. Burning in Ibori’s mind was a flint hard idea, novel and bold; that the South-South should begin to work towards having a son or daughter as the occupant of the choicest piece of real estate in Nigeria; the Aso Rock presidential residence. 

As the PDP had zoned the presidency to the North after Chief Olusegun Obasanjo’s 2003 – 2007 second term, it meant that the push was actually to ensnare the vice-presidential position for the South-South in 2007. Then the Vice-President would ease into the main presidential office afterwards. And that was exactly what happened – as President Goodluck Jonathan became Vice President to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, a friend Ibori remembers and publishes a memorial advertisement for on his death day, annually. Also, the summit was to discuss how to work to have the amount of oil revenue accruing to the oil producing states increased. But the story jumps!

Dikibo, in line with the PDP zoning formula, was already campaigning to be the party National Chairman, which meant that the next President, come 2007, would come from the North. For some reasons, some highly placed politicians in Abuja opposed that Asaba summit. And it is on record that some of their South -South lackeys by then, supported Abuja. Not only that, a particular Governor had asked all invitees from his state to keep away from Ibori and his Asaba summit. Yes, a state Governor had requested Dikibo to stay away from that meeting. But the South-South champion, Dikibo, disdaining that stay away call, was well on his way to the summit when some people ensured he was unable to disobey that Governor’s orders. He had flown into Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, hopped into a car to make it to Asaba by road. His trip ended around Isiagwu village, close to Ogwashi-Uku, Aniocha South LGA, Delta state.

He was killed execution style from close range. A gun was poked under the right hand side of his jaw. As the trigger was pulled and the shot rang out, the bullet escaped from the roof of the Jeep, splattering Dikibo’s brain everywhere.  The assassins killed more than Dikibo that day; they killed the last real push of the peoples of the Niger Delta region to peacefully speak with one voice in seeking for increased monies that accrue to the area as a percentage of the oil royalty.

A day or two after Dikibo was assassinated, Obasanjo announced in Lagos that Dikibo was felled by armed robbers. That may have been the case…but the man was shot execution style; the bullet entered from beneath the right hand side of his jaw, escaped from his head and hit the roof of his car. It is curious how armed robbers could have so shot a man who refused to stop for them on the highway. They should have shot straight and hit his face.

In a letter  to Obasanjo, Dr. Orji Uzor Kalu, now a Senator, recalled: “I am further worried because the late A.K. Dikibo complained to Governor DSP Alamieyeseigha of Bayelsa State and myself at the Port Harcourt Airport three days before his brutal assassination that some powerful persons in the Presidency and a governor from one of the South- South states of the country were planning to kill him. Though he looked ruffled and agitated, we never knew his death was imminent”. Kalu wrote to inform him that some people were also after his own life. No wonder Audu Ogbeh, when he was PDP National Chairman wrote to Obasanjo that a nest of killers existed in the polity.

Unfortunately, Nigeria appears determined to deny Dikibo and his family justice. No matter; Ibori continues to mourn that courageous man, a true lion, the Dede Ukwu, the Aminisabo of Okirika, Rivers state.

The biting hunger and unnaturally rising price spiral in Nigeria instigated primarily by the removal of petrol subsidies and the floating of the naira are threatening to spark off seismic social vibrations across the country. 

The spontaneous, hunger-induced eruption of seething communal anger in Minna over hunger in the land a few days ago, which inspired a massive protest by market women in Lokoja and smaller but nonetheless consequential protests by distraught citizens in Suleja, Kano, Osogbo—and counting— is a warning sign. 

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s swift order for the release of “102,000 metric tons of various grain types from the National Food Reserve and the Rice Millers Association of Nigeria” to bring down the cost of food in the aftermath of these strings of protests suggests that he is aware of the danger that lies in the offing for him. 

Had the current president been Muhammadu Buhari and not Bola Ahmed Tinubu, chances are that the worst that would happen amid the adversity people are going through now would be suppressed, barely audible murmurs. It’s because Buhari is a political cult leader with a firm grip on his followers who worship him and surrender responsibility for their lives over to him. Tinubu has no such appeal.

A psychologist by the name of Steve Taylor came up with a concept he called “abdication syndrome,” which he said disposes people to invest total, child-like trust in a political figure, a cult leader, an opinion molder, etc. in ways that mimic how children idealize and idolize their parents as unblemished paragons of perfection. 

According to Taylor, “abdication syndrome stems from the unconscious desire of some people to return to a state of early childhood, when their parents were infallible, omnipotent figures who controlled their lives and protected them from the world. They’re trying to rekindle that childhood state of unconditional devotion and irresponsibility.”

Buhari is lucky to benefit from abdication syndrome in Muslim northern Nigeria, broadly conceived, which explains why he got away with murder for eight years. When he increased petrol prices by a steep margin in 2016, for instance, there were protests in Kano, Bauchi, and other places in SUPPORT of the increase and AGAINST people who planned to protest the increase. Nigeria had never seen anything like that before.

Even protests against the unabating descent of northern Nigeria into a theater of bloodshed and abduction on Buhari’s watch provoked counter protests from people who have abdicated the use of their brains in the service of Buhari.

Tinubu not only does not have the benefit of abdication syndrome anywhere in Nigeria, but he also has the misfortune of having to contend with a peculiar character of Muslim northern Nigeria: we feel the pain of, and react violently to, bad policies only when the policies are hatched and executed by people who have no filiation with our natal region.

It’s no surprise that the hunger protests against the Tinubu administration started from and spread in the North.

A powerful indication of Tinubu’s lack of firm emotional support base emerged when Osun, his state of birth where he lost the last presidential election to PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, became the first southern state to join the hunger protests. Should the resistance to his punishingly heartless neoliberal economic policies ignite a nationwide convulsion, the Southwest is unlikely to constitute itself as his bulwark.

In fact, I hazard a guess that should Tinubu’s unfeeling policies activate the sort of destabilizing national upheaval that we saw in 2012 during Goodluck Jonathan’s administration, the Southwest won’t be aloof. It is likely to join in.

And, of course, Tinubu is deeply unpopular in the Southeast, the South-south, and Christian northern Nigeria. In other words, Tinubu is essentially floundering into the most treacherous of social quicksands.

His only fortification against danger is not just good governance but compassionate governance. The release of thousands of metric tons of grains is a good first step, but it’s not nearly enough to stem the tide of mass rebellion that is brewing in the country. At best, it will only delay the inevitable.

The truth is that Nigeria can’t survive a total withdrawal of petroleum subsidies without an adequate, systematic, well-planned public transportation system. To do away with petrol subsidies, the government must first create conditions where car ownership and patronage of commercial transportation are a luxury.

Let’s take Canada as an example. Although Canada is an oil-producing country, it doesn’t subsidize the petrol consumption of its citizens. And it’s precisely because it has great public transportation that meets the transportational needs of its people.

 I met a Canadian here in Atlanta last year who, like most Canadians, doesn’t know how to drive because government-subsidized public transportation is the primary means of moving from point to point. Car ownership is a luxury, and people who choose to shun public transportation deserve the high price they pay for petrol to fuel their cars.

It’s the same situation in most of Europe. The availability of government subsidized public transportation insulates citizens from the effects of high petrol prices and obviates the need for petrol subsidies.

It is not so in the United States. Here, as I pointed out in many past columns, petrol is subsidized because most Americans have their own cars and resent public transportation except in such big cities as New York.

Without first building an efficient, government-subsidized public transportation infrastructure within cities and towns and between cities, towns and states, removing petrol subsidies will always result in the kind of mass affliction that Nigerians are going through now. 

That is why countries like Kazakhstan, Ecuador, Bolivia, Indonesia, and Brazil, which the World Bank and the IMF had forced to remove petrol subsidies, have backtracked and re-instituted subsidies. That is inevitable in Nigeria if the government wants to survive. 

Is Olayemi Cardoso Nigeria’s Worst CBN Governor?

I know awfully little about current CBN governor Olayemi Cardoso. I’d just assumed that to deserve being appointed the governor of the CBN, he must at least be minimally competent and conversant with economic policies.

But he is shaping up to be the most inept and least intellectually prepared for his job. It isn’t just that he is supervising the free fall of the naira through inconsistent policies, he also doesn’t seem to be able to explain to anyone what exactly he is doing, indicating he doesn’t know what he is doing.

On Friday, I watched Cardoso’s meeting with the senate where he couldn’t answer questions from senators without reading from a prepared script. "I object to this!” a senator yelled in response to Cardoso’s lifeless regurgitation of a prepared speech he obviously didn’t understand. “Let him go back and answer the question!"

Anyone who can’t respond to a question without reading a prepared text obviously has no understanding of what he is talking about. Albert Einstein famously said, “if you can't explain it simply then you don't understand it well enough." Cardoso’s case is even worse. He can’t explain it at all. It explains why the economy is in a mess and the naira is in a worse shape than it has ever been.

Cardoso’s most important qualification for the job appears to be that he was Economic Planning and Budget commissioner in Lagos when Tinubu was governor, but the job seems to be above his intellectual and experiential paygrade.

I know of no CBN governor in my lifetime (until Cardoso) who couldn’t articulate economic policies effortlessly. Even Godwin Emefiele had no difficulty defending his policies. You may question his competence or disagree with his policies, but he could at least clearly formulate thoughts about what he was doing. Cardoso gives me the jitters. Nigeria is in way worse trouble than it realizes with an airhead like that as CBN governor.

The Presidency has called for an investigation into the civil service framework.

This, according to the Presidency, is to eliminate individuals it refers to as “moles” who are loyal to the main opposition, the PDP.

The moles are allegedly responsible for the unauthorized disclosure of classified documents.

Recall that an internal memo was recently leaked, indicating that President Tinubu allegedly sanctioned the disbursement of N500m from a total of N1bn to the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume.

The allocated funds were intended for the inauguration of a 37-member Tripartite Committee responsible for discussing the New National Minimum Wage.

The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, emphasized the need for the Federal Government to take decisive action in identifying and removing individuals who are leaking classified documents and are believed to have allegiance to the opposition.

”This step is crucial in ensuring the security and maintenance of sensitive information,” he said.

Onanuga said, “What is worrisome is, how come a memo written by SGF to the President bearing the President’s signature leaked out? It means that there are some fifth columnists within the government.

“It’s not the first time a memo will leak. There was a memo leak when the President went to UNGA, about a request for money to pay for his hotel bills and you wonder where it is leaking from.

“There are so many moles around who are probably doing the bidding of the opposition. They do not respect the civil service rule for handling official secrets. And it shows that the government should look inwards to probe how memos between officials are getting into the public space. Memos that are supposed to be secret are not supposed to be flying all over the place.”

The match officials for the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations final have been announced by the Confederation of African Football, CAF.

Referee Dahane Beida from Mauritania will be the man in the middle for Sunday’s game.

The first assistant referee will be Jerson Emiliano Dos Santos of Angola.

Diana Chikotesha has been appointed second assistant referee for the match.

The fourth official will be Morocco’s Bouchra Karboubi.

The final on Sunday will kick off at 9pm WAT at the Alassane Ouattara Stadium in Abidjan.

In 1988, Nigeria lost 1-0 to Cameroon in the final, with referee Idrissa Sarr from Mauritania controversially ruling out a Henry Nwosu header for offside.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has declared Margaret Emefiele, wife of a former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and three others, wanted for money laundering.

Naija News gathered that Mrs Emefiele, Mr Eric Odoh, Anita Omoile and her husband, Jonathan Omoile, were declared wanted in a post on the X account of the anti-graft agency on Friday night.

The anti-graft agency declared them wanted for allegedly conspiring with the former CBN Governor “to convert huge sums of money belonging to the Federal Government of Nigeria and committed felony to with obtaining money by false pretences, and stealing, contrary to and punishable under Sections 411, 287, and 314 of the Criminal Law of Lagos State.”

In a related development, the Federal Government filed a 20-count charges against Emefiele Federal Capital Territory (FCT) High Court in Maitama, Abuja.

The charges against Emefiele now border on Criminal breach of trust, Forgery, Conspiracy to commit forgery, Procurement Fraud and Conspiracy to commit Felony.

The Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Olayemi Cardoso has said the bank will no longer grant Ways and Means to the federal government unless the outstanding balance is settled.

Me Cardoso also announced measures the bank was taking to tame the rising inflation in the country which has led to an astronomical increase in the prices of goods and services.

He disclosed these on Friday when he appeared before the Senate Committee on Banking, Insurance and other Financial Institutions alongside the Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister for the Economy, Olawale Edun, the Minister of Budget and National Planning, Atiku Bagudu and the Minister of Agriculture, Abubakar Kyari.

Ways and Means is a loan facility through which the Central Bank of Nigeria finances the federal government’s budget shortfalls.

Last December, the National Assembly approved the securitisation of the outstanding debit balance of N7.3 trillion of the Ways and Means Advance in the Consolidated Revenue Fund (CRF) of the federal government.

This was after medias repeatedly highlighted the violation of Nigeria’s financial laws which state that Ways and Means allocation to the federal government must not be higher than the five per cent of government’s revenue in the previous year.

The Ways and Means had been a recurring loan the CBN issued to the federal government to finance shortfalls in the government budget.

Recall that in March 2022, the Debt Management Office (DMO) announced that the federal government had borrowed a total of N18.16 trillion from the Central Bank.

The debt as of then was more than 40 per cent of the money supply in the economy.

At Friday’s meeting with lawmakers, Mr Cardoso did not state whether the federal government has surpassed the limit of advances according to the CBN Act.

But he insisted that the central bank would not be a part of the Ways and Means agreement with the federal government again the latter fails to refund all the outstanding debts on the Ways and Means already advanced.

The CBN governor said the position complies with section (38) of the CBN Act (2007).

Mr Cardoso said the payment of the outstanding balance of the Ways and Means will control inflation in the country.

“I am pleased to note the Fiscal Authorities efforts in discontinuing Ways and Means advances. This is also in compliance with Section (38) of the CBN Act (2007), the Bank is no longer at liberty to grant further Ways and Means advances to the federal government until the outstanding balance as of December 31, 2023, is fully settled. The Bank must strictly adhere to the law limiting advances under Ways and Means to 5 per cent of the previous year’s revenue.

“We have also halted quasi-fiscal measures of over 10 trillion naira by the Central Bank of Nigeria under the guise of development finance interventions which hitherto contributed to flooding excess Naira and raising prices to the levels of Inflation we are grappling with today.

“The CBN’s adoption of inflation-targeting framework involves clear communication and collaboration with fiscal authorities to achieve price stability, potentially leading to lowered policy rates, stimulating investment, and creating job opportunities.

“Our MPC meeting on the 26th and 27th of February is also expected to review the situation and take further decisions on these important issues.

“Distinguished senators, Inflationary pressures are expected to decline in 2024 due to the CBN’s inflation-targeting policy, aiming to rein in inflation to 21.4 per cent at the medium term, aided by improved agricultural productivity and easing global supply chain pressures”.

Demands Legislative Investigation

The opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has reacted to President Bola Tinubu’s purported approval of N500 million for the inauguration of the 37-man Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage.

Naija News recalls that the Vice President, Kashim Shettima, inaugurated a 37-man Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage at the Council Chamber of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on January 30, 2024.

However, a letter addressed to the President by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, George Akume, released by an anonymous journalist, shows the initial request submitted to Tinubu was a budget of N1.8 billion, which he refused to approve.

The report alleged that Akume submitted another budget of N1 billion, but Tinubu insisted that the committee begin with N500 million.

Reacting, the opposition party, in a statement through its National Publicity Secretary, Debo Ologunagba, described the purported approval as the height of profligacy and financial recklessness.

PDP noted that it is highly provocative that Tinubu is spending such an amount of money, especially when Nigerians are undergoing excruciating economic hardship.

The PDP further called on Tinubu to speak out, come clean and address the nation on this very weighty allegation.

The statement reads, “The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) condemns the reported approval of a whooping N500 million as first installment of a N1billion allegedly approval by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu for the inauguration of the 37-man Tripartite Committee on New National Minimum Wage as reportedly contained in a leaked memo by the Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), Senator George Akume.

“The PDP describes the said approval of the huge amount for a routine government activity like committee inauguration as the height of profligacy, imprudence and financial recklessness which further validates PDP’s position that the Tinubu-led government is a cesspit of corruption where officials engage in brazen and reckless treasury-looting.

“It is highly provocative and unpardonable that at the time the nation is suffering acute food shortage; when millions of Nigerians are starving due largely to inadequate investment in food production, insecurity and harsh economic policies of the government; a time when workers are still being owed their January 2024 salary and other legitimate entitlements, President Tinubu is allegedly spending NI billion to inaugurate a committee.

“It is even more revealing that the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, allegedly requested for an audacious sum of N1.8 billion for the event which was later scaled down to N1 billion, out of which President Tinubu reportedly directed the SGF to “start with N500 million first”.

“This further shows that the APC administration is insensitive and has no regard for the plight of Nigerians, whom President Tinubu, during his 2024 budget presentation at the National Assembly described as “ordinary people out there”.

“Nigerians can now also see how our national treasury and funds meant for their wellbeing are being looted with reckless abandon by officials of the Tinubu-led APC administration.

“This is apparently a tip of the iceberg of how looters in the APC administration are cashing out with public funds under the cover of the Presidency as witnessed in the reported plundering of over N44 billion in the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs and Poverty Alleviation.

“Our Party demands that the National Assembly, pursuant to its powers under Section 88 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, 1999 (as amended) immediately commence investigation into this matter which is already agitating the minds of Nigerians across the country.”

The Port Harcourt Refinery is set to start operations following the supply of 475,000 barrels of crude oil by Shell Petroleum Development Company Limited.

A statement by Shell said: “This significant milestone was made possible through intensive preparations, collaboration and the dedication of the Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal, BOGT and Port Harcourt Refinery Company, PHRC teams.”

It stated that some activities, including pressure and leak testing to assure pipeline integrity by relevant subsidiaries of the NNPC Limited and integrity and maintenance activities on the Oil and Gas Terminal, BOT Refinery export pumps and associated instrumentations were carried out at the terminal through diligent efforts of the BOT operations and maintenance teams.

“The recommencement of crude oil supply from the Bonny Oil and Gas Terminal to Port Harcourt Refinery is a significant achievement and a game-changer for the industry and the country. The intensive preparations, collaboration and dedication of both teams involved were instrumental in overcoming challenges and ensuring a safe and efficient supply operation.

“This milestone will support the government’s aspiration of steady supply of petroleum products to the downstream market and other associated benefits to the economy of the nation,” Shell stated.

Already, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Ltd said it has fulfilled its pledge of achieving the mechanical completion of rehabilitation work on Area 5 Plant of the PHRC.

It stated that rehabilitation work has been ongoing at the Refinery for over two years and the NNPC Ltd. had pledged to complete Phase One of the project (mechanical completion and flare start-up) of Old Port Harcourt Refinery (Area 5) by 31st December 2023.

Speaking during an inspection tour of the rehabilitation project, which also coincided with the 15th Refineries’ Rehabilitation Steering Committee Meeting, the Group Chief Executive Officer, NNPC Ltd., Mr. Mele Kyari, had said as of December 15th, 2023, 84.4% of Area 5 Plant, a key component of the Refinery, and 77.4% of the entire rehabilitation project has been completed