The Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC), has confirmed that some officials of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON) have been arrested over the ₦90 billion hajj subsidy.

The spokesperson of the commission, Demola Bakare, told TheCable that some NAHCON officials were arrested by the commission on Wednesday for “refusing to honour an invitation” by the anti-graft agency.

Bakare debunked the claims that ICPC shutdown NAHCON’s office, emphasising that the commission operates within legal boundaries.

He declined to name the arrested officials, noting that they were assisting the commission with useful information.

Bakare said, “We are investigating officials of the National Hajj Commission because they either failed or refused to honour the invitation. We therefore paid them a friendly visit.

“We didn’t shut down the commission as reported by some journalists. ICPC operates within the confines of the law.

“Officials arrested, which I can’t name, were released on bail and would henceforth be helping the investigation process until concluded.”

The spokesperson of NAHCON, Fatimah Usara, while speaking on the arrest, said it was not unusual for officials to be queried after hajj operations.

She said, “Some of the commission’s relevant staff had been making presentations to the ICPC when demanded.

“And this is a thing that the commission considers normal because it happens after every hajj until any doubt is cleared. It’s nothing new.

“The Head of Procurement had an invitation which he didn’t honour so two days ago, on Wednesday precisely, the ICPC sent the relevant officers to him, him alone.

“In fact, NAHCON accommodated them to wait for him to report to work, which they did. And when he came, they left together. No one entered any office at all. They waited outside.”

Organizers of the Take It Back movement protest have vowed to return to the streets soon with a 10-million-man protest across the 36 states of the federation.

This declaration comes following the end of the 10-day series of nationwide protests against economic difficulties in Nigeria.

Naija News reports that the group had commenced the nationwide protest on Thursday, August 1 and wrapped up today, Saturday, August 10.

The demonstrators have taken to the streets in Abuja and various other cities, advocating for the reinstatement of the fuel subsidy and a reduction in electricity tariffs, among other issues.

The protesters, today, remained steadfast with their demands, holding placards and banners with slogans such as “Reinstate a corruption-free fuel subsidy,” “Rent should be paid monthly,” and “Nigerians are weary of ineffective leadership.”

They, however, expressed dissatisfaction with President Bola Tinubu’s apparent disregard for their concerns, despite their persistent presence on the streets for a full ten days.

Speaking on behalf of the protesters today, activist, Abiodun Sanusi, indicated that while the movement would pause its demonstrations for the time being, they would return with an even larger and more resolute assembly if their demands continue to be ignored.

“Earlier on, we declared 10 days of rage to end bad governance in Nigeria. However, it is now clear that President Bola Tinubu is not ready to listen to the demands of Nigerians.

“Today is the final day of the 10 days of rage, but we are promising the Nigerian government and President Tinubu that we will come back until he accedes to our demands.

“We will return to the streets, and this time, we will be more than this. We will be declaring a 10-million-person march across the 36 states of Nigeria and the FCT,” Sanusi said.

Naija News reports that nationwide protests were characterized by violence, as security personnel employed lethal measures against demonstrators and journalists in Abuja, Kaduna, and various other states.

Also, the Nigerian Army acknowledged that they inadvertently caused the death of a teenage boy, Ismail Mohammed, during a protest in Zaria, Kaduna State.

On the fourth day of the #EndBadGovernance nationwide protest, President Bola Tinubu addressed Nigerians in a televised speech.

The president addressed several issues in his speech, including his achievements in office, and defended his policies.

As part of efforts by his administration to ameliorate the hardship being experienced by Nigerians, Tinubu said “more than N570 billion has been released to the 36 states to expand livelihood support to their citizens, while 600,000 nano-businesses have benefitted from our nano-grants. An additional 400,000 more nano-businesses are expected to benefit”.

But five days after Tinubu’s speech, Seyi Makinde, Oyo governor, said the federal government did not give his state any money.

Makinde, in issue 95 of his periodic newsletter, said Oyo only got reimbursed for the funds the state invested in the NG-CARES initiative.

Makinde said it became necessary for him to clarify a “concerned citizen” who referenced Tinubu’s speech and asked him (Makinde) what he used the funds for.

“Let me state categorically that this is yet another case of misrepresentation of facts. The said funds were part of the World Bank-assisted NG-CARES project — a Programme for Results intervention,” Makinde wrote.

“We were reimbursed funds (N5.98 billion in the first instance and N822 million in the second instance). We invested in the three result areas of NG-CARES.

“The Federal Government did not give any State money; they were simply the conduit through which the reimbursements were made to States for money already spent.”

WHAT IS NG-CARES? 

In 2020, due to the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and as a response to the hardship caused by the pandemic, the federal government, under the leadership of Former President Muhammadu Buhari, sought a concessional loan from the World Bank to the tune of $750 million on-lending to the 36 states and FCT.

Concessional financing provides organisations or companies with access to capital at favourable terms. This can include lower interest rates and longer repayment periods. A concessional loan is extendable on softer terms and typically has long grace periods.

The loan was to implement a two-year short-term emergency response programme named the Nigeria COVID-19 Action Recovery and Economic Stimulus (NG-CARES) between 2021 and 2023.

The programme seeks to mitigate the impact of the COVID-19 crisis in three key result areas:

•  increasing cash transfers and livelihood support to poor and vulnerable households
• increasing food security and safe functioning of food supply chains for poor households
•  facilitating recovery of MSEs while strengthening institutional support for coordination and delivery through a separate Investment Project Financing (IPF) component.

According to the plan, out of the $750 million, each state can access up to $20 million, the FCT $15 million,  and the Federal CARES Support Unit (FCSU) $15 million.

The initiative is financed through the Programme for Result (PforR) at the state level and FCT, while the federal level is funded by the Investment Project Financing (IPF).

In the programme document dated November 13, 2020, the World Bank said Nigeria is central to its mission of eliminating global poverty and that the programme is “fully aligned with the forthcoming World Bank 2020–2024 Country Partnership Framework (CPF) for Nigeria, as well as Nigeria’s Economic Reform and Growth Plan for 2017–2020 and theGovernment’s Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) to respond to the economic crisis induced by COVID-19”.

IS NG-CARES A GRANT?

No.

The World Bank intervention is a loan to the state governments and has to be paid back.

In fact, the Programme for Results (PforR) nature of the initiative means that states invested their funds in advance, only to be refunded after auditing and verification of expenditure by the global bank.

In 2021, Foluso Okunmadewa, task team leader of NG-CARES for the World Bank, said the programme was designed in such a way that the states would spend their own money in the first batch.

“Each state should be able to earn 20 million dollars within a space of two years. I used the word earn because it is a programme for results approach. It is not as if the money will be given to the states and the state will now have to spend it. No! Then Independent Verification Agent will go and look at the results and on the basis of that, the states will be reimbursed,” Okunmadewa said.

In the Oyo state instance, the programme was domesticated as Oyo-CARES, Lagos-CARES for Lagos state, and in Borno, it is BO-CARES.

In May 2023, Okunmadewa said the government was on track to secure a one-year extension to access the loan.

TheCable cannot independently verify the repayment terms and plan, but in January, Abubakar Bagudu, minister for budget and economic planning, said the loan carries about a one percent interest rate.

“It is important to note that these loans come from the International Development Association, carrying an interest rate of about 1%. However, the federal government is nearing the limit of borrowing under these low-cost loans. Therefore, swift disbursement and timely debt repayment are crucial to maintaining access to these affordable funding sources in the future.” Bagudu said.

HOW MUCH DID STATES GET? 

Mohammad Idris, minister of information and national orientation, said so far, the 36 states and the FCT have received a total of N570 billion collectively, contrary to claims that each state got the said amount.

He said N135.4 billion was released in December 2023, and N438.36 billion in July 2024.

“What the States and the FCT collectively received in reimbursements between the end of 2023 and July 2024, under the World Bank-supported #NGCARES program, is a total of N573 billion naira,” he wrote in a post on X.

Idris’ X post buttresses Makinde’s submission that the funds referred to in Tinubu’s speech were indeed reimbursements financed through a loan from the World Bank and not a support grant from the federal government to the states.

The deal was secured, and the initiative took effect in 2021 under the Buhari administration.

From a breakdown of the July reimbursements made available on the NG-CARES website, Zamfara state got the highest at N49,182,347,834 billion while Ogun state had the lowest at N2,125,069,028 billion.

For the December reimbursement, Abdulkarim Obaje, NG-CARES national coordinator, said: “The top three best-performing states in this Second Round of Assessment are Nasarawa, which earned N13,697,828,496.96, Cross River N10,944,747,818.84 and Zamfara N10,231,055,267.82”.

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says it is immoral for the members of the national assembly to determine their salaries and allowances.

Obasanjo spoke on Friday when he hosted some members of the house of representatives in Abeokuta, the capital city of Ogun state.

The former president said it is the duty of the Revenue Mobilsation Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMFAC) to determine what public officeholders earn.

“Look at your case, with all due respect,” Obasanjo said.

“You are not supposed to fix your salaries or your allowances; it is supposed to be done by the RMFAC, but you decide what you pay yourselves, the allowances that you give yourselves – newspaper allowances, pant allowances – you give yourself all sorts of things. With due respect, you know it is not right.

“It is not right for me to be the one to declare and determine what I pay myself. It is immoral, and then you are doing it.

“The senate is doing it, and in some cases, the executive gives you what you are not entitled to. You all got N200 million.”

The federal legislative arm of government is often criticised for the “huge pay” allocated to its members. The total remuneration the federal lawmakers receive every month is shrouded in secrecy.

In 2018, Shehu Sani, a former senator who represented Kaduna Central, said he and his colleagues received N13.5 million monthly as running costs, aside from salaries.

The Lagos government has announced a 25 percent cut in the blue rail transport fare for off-peak periods.

Abimbola Akinajo, managing director of Lagos Metropolitan Area Transport Authority (LAMATA), announced the reduction in a statement on Saturday.

Akinajo said the 25 percent discount is for commuters travelling “within the off-peak period set at 10.00 am and 4.00 pm daily”.

She said the Lagos rail mass transit (LRMT) blue line would increase its number of trips from 54 to 72 per day, from August 12.

However, Akinajo said the current schedule for Sunday operations remains unchanged.

Akinajo said passengers can now travel between Marina and Mile 2 on the blue line route in just about 18 minutes from the previous travel time of 25 minutes.

According to the LAMATA boss, this means there would be a train every 18 minutes both ways — thus allowing commuters to plan their trips.

“The new train schedule is potentially expected to reduce journey times, encourage more riders to use the train system during off-peak periods and reduce transport spending,” she said.

Akinajo said the new timetables is available on the LAMATA website, stations, and social media handles.

The blue rail line started operations on September 4, 2023 — running 12 trips per day.

On October 11, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, governor of Lagos, announced that the state would temporarily shut down the blue rail line from October 14, 2023.

But the the service resumed passenger operations days after with 54 trips.

On Thursday, August 8, the Independent Petroleum Marketers Association of Nigeria, IPMAN, announced to Nigerians that the Port Harcourt Refinery would become operational in four weeks’ time, perhaps to meet the government’s August deadline of producing petroleum products.

The association went further to say that the refinery would equally be supplying between 10 and 12 million litres of petrol to marketers.

The IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Zarma Mustapha, who let the cat out of the bag in an interview on national television, said the refinery would boost the supply of petroleum products in the country to about 11 to 15 million liters daily, and help ensure energy availability across the board.

According to him, the refinery was set to operate independently and sell at the prevailing market price with little or no government interference.

“There is this understanding that the Port Harcourt Refinery is going to perform independently and sell at whatever prevailing market price for them to recover their cost.

“It is not going to be run like a government entity as it has been before. I believe that the refinery coming up will really boost the demand and supply of PMS to nothing less than 11 to 15 million litres daily.

“I am confident and optimistic that this August deadline is going to be a realistic deadline. It will come on stream and fully produce all the necessary components that the refinery is supposed to produce,” he said.

However, instead of receiving the news with enthusiasm, Nigerians were rather skeptical considering the fact that several of such promises had been made in the past without any of them coming to fruition.

A segment of the society described the development as a harvest of promises with unending deceptions.

Some are of the opinion that the latest promise which is about the fourth in the series could still go the way of the previous ones, even as others have volunteered to give the government the benefit of the doubt.

Recall that earlier, Nigerians were told that the refinery would start operations in December 2023.

The Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri, had sounded optimistic about the December 2023 deadline, but at the end of the day, nothing happened, and no apologies were offered.

On Thursday, March 13, 2024, Nigerians were again greeted with the news that the Port Harcourt Refinery would become operational in two weeks’ time.

The Group Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, Mele Kyari, assured Nigerians that the rehabilitated Port Harcourt Refinery would commence operations in two weeks. He made the revelation at an interactive session with the Senate.

He assured Nigerians that the delivery date of the Port Harcourt and other refineries remained sacrosanct.

According to the NNPCL spokesperson, Olufemi Soneye, in a statement, Kyari said: “We will make sure that promises that we made about the rehabilitation of these refineries are kept. We completed the mechanical completion of PHRC in December.

“Now, we have crude oil already stocked in it. It is currently undergoing regulatory compliance tests before we re-stream it. I assure you that this refinery will start in next two weeks

“For the Warri Refinery, we have also done mechanical work on it. It is undergoing regulatory compliance processes that we are doing with our regulators. Kaduna will be ready by December this year, but we have not reached that stage. We believe that it will also be ready on schedule.”

Kyari noted that the Port Harcourt refinery had received 450,000 barrels of crude for processing since the mechanical completion of the plant in December last year.

He called for the cooperation of all stakeholders in the rehabilitation process, saying, “We are all serving this country dutifully and loyally. Nigerians must understand that gradually, we shall get this task done.”

The statement added that the Senate Ad-hoc Committee was expected to visit the three refineries in Kaduna, Warri, and Port Harcourt soon for an on-the-spot assessment of work progress.

The two week’s ultimatum ended in April and the refinery did not even produce a litre of petrol. Most Nigerians were not surprised as they never even believed the statement when it was released.

Again, on Monday, May 20, the National Public Relations Officer, Independent Marketers Association of Nigeria, Chief Ukadike Chinedu, promised Nigerians that the 210,000-barrel-per-day Port-Harcourt Refinery would finally commence operations by the end of July after several postponements.

He stated that the development would stimulate economic activities, reduce the price of petroleum products and ensure adequate supply.

Again, July came and ended without the Refinery working. Nigerians, again, did not give a whimper because they never took the statement seriously in the first instance.

So, the latest news that the PH Refinery would be operational in four weeks’ time did not receive cheers from Nigerians.

To many Nigerians, it has become a festival of promises. In fact, it has become a cliché to hear that the refinery, whether Port Harcourt, Warri or Kaduna, would work. Since 2015, when the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC, wrested powers from the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, which held sway for 16 years, there have been promises of a turnaround maintenance of the Port Harcourt Refinery and others and their eventual operation, but none has ever come to fruition. It has all been deceptions couched in political statements to hoodwink the Nigerian masses.

So, when the IPMAN’s National Operations Controller, Mustapha announced on Thursday that the PH Refinery would begin operations in four weeks’ time, as an indication of the government’s preparedness to actually end fuel importation, not many were excited, as most people expressed skepticism, considering the past promises.

There are various views about the development. While some dismissed the news outright as mere political talks, others said even though such promises never produced any positive outcome in the past, they were prepared to give the government the benefit of the doubt this time round.

Those who believe that nothing would come out of it and that it was just mere political talks said it was akin to a political campaign promise where politicians promise that they would build bridges even where there is no river.

However, those who want to give the government the benefit of the doubt are of the view that even a liar would have a day when he would decide to be honest. To them, the government might have decided to turn a new leaf and do the right thing this time.

One of the proponents of those pushing that Nigerians should give the government the benefit of the doubt this time round is the president of Arewa Youth Consultative Forum (AYCF), Alhaji Yerima Shettima.

He said although he would like to remain optimistic this time round, he cannot blame those who don’t believe the government’s promise considering the previous promises about the same refinery, which ended with no positive result

He told DAILY POST that: “The problem with the promise is just that we have a government that speaks from both sides of the mouth and previous promises have come and gone without fulfillment. So, even if this one is genuine, a lot of people will have a lot of doubts in their minds.

“But, I hope this will not be the same story because you cannot continue to say one thing today, and then tomorrow, you say another thing.

“Doing that will always put you on the defensive because you always want to say something, giving people hope without anything on ground to fulfill such promises.”

He advised the government to be honest and sincere with Nigerians, warning that deliberately lying to the people always would only provoke them to anger, which is not good for the society.

“The more you lie to the people about the refinery, the more you provoke people to anger. So, I am of the view that this time round, the government should try to live up to their promise.

“I am not part of those who don’t believe that things will work because I am always optimistic and I strongly believe that there will be light at the end of the tunnel. So, all they need to do is to re-programme themselves to be more sincere and honest to Nigerians,” he said.

He noted that the situation was so critical that the government just has to do everything possible to make sure that the refinery and other things work in the country.

He also advised that the leaders should not continue to give excuses because they knew exactly what the situation was before they went into office.

“We are in a critical period where people must have to understand that things are not okay and the government must also do something because they knew the problem before they took over the mantle of leadership.

“And to that extent, ours is to support them, and let them be honest to Nigerians, so that all of us will be able to survive this trying period,” he submitted.

But for a journalist and public affairs analyst, Nze Ezeocha, there is nothing cheery about the latest promise.

He noted that last year, the Minister of State for Petroleum, Heineken Lokpobiri told Nigerians that it would become operational before Christmas.

“Christmas passed and we reminded them about their promise and they gave Nigerians a fresh date, which also never came to reality.

“Now, we are being fed with another promise about the same refinery. This is the fourth time that the NNPCL and the Ministry of Petroleum Resources are telling Nigerians that the PH Refinery would be operational in weeks. And at the end of the day, nothing would come out of it.

“So, as far as I am concerned, I think this latest promise will end up like the previous ones. We have seen the brickbat between the NNPCL and the Dangote Refinery.

“Dangote is still insisting that it has not got enough crude from the NNPCL. Nigerians would like to know the kind of agreement Dangote had with the NNPCL.

“Dangote also demanded that the NNPCL should be mandated to direct the IOCs to be selling their crude to him. Did he not make adequate arrangements on how he will be getting crude before setting up a refinery?

“So, the whole thing about this oil refining in Nigeria is shrouded in secrecy and deception and the earlier the government comes clean on that the better for everybody in this country,” he told DAILY POST.

The president of the Middle Belt Forum (MBF), Dr. Pogu Bitrus, equally agrees with Ezeocha.

He stated that nothing would come out of the promise. He believes that the Nigerian attitude has not changed, and would not want Nigerians to build any hope around the promise to avoid suffering unnecessary heart ache.

“We do propaganda with everything. We politicise everything. The President doesn’t have to tell us that the Port Harcourt Refinery is on course when it is not fully on course. Let this government start to do things differently.

“When things are not right, rather than getting political capital by telling lies to Nigerians, they should come out to tell Nigerians the true situation of things,” he said.

Continuing, he said: “There is no point in deceiving the populace. Let them tell the truth and they will better be appreciated, rather than thinking that by telling lies, they are playing politics. They are instead dishonouring themselves, and Nigerians will lose confidence in them very soon.”

Also speaking, a legal practitioner and public commentator, IK Onodi also did not believe that the refinery would become operational in two weeks time.

He said such promises had been made in the past and none came to fruition, and because of that he would not believe anybody until he has seen that the refinery has actually started refining.

According to him: “It is said that action speaks louder than words. We were told last year when the Dangote Refinery was commissioned that it would start producing by July last year.

“From July last year till now is about nine months, and no drop of crude oil has been refined by the Dangote Refinery.

“We have been told times without numbers that the Port Harcourt Refinery and other refineries would come on stream very soon.

“If I were the government, I will not announce anything until the refinery starts producing and when that happens, I will tell Nigerians that this is from the PH or Warri or Kaduna Refineries. I will not believe it until I see it.”

For an independent petroleum marketer, Chief Dipo Lanre, the refinery might not likely work in four weeks as promised.

He, however, noted that he would not totally dismiss it but expressed strong reservation about the feasibility of the promise considering the past promises which never yielded any positive result.

“I pray that this time, the promise will be fulfilled. It should not go the way of previous promises about the refinery.

“Remember that during Olusegun Obasanjo’s administration, the same Port Harcourt Refinery was sold to Mike Otedola and Aliko Dangote, but the money was later returned to them.

“And since that money was returned to Otedola and Dangote, the refinery has not returned to operation; it has been promises upon promises. It has become a cancer to the Nigeria society.

“I am tired of the politics of that refinery. Politicians have used it to play politics since the Obasanjo era. What is a refinery anyway?

“What is the big deal in building a refinery? Since 1999 when the democratic governance returned, we could have built more than four refineries if we are serious.

“For almost 25 years, we have been playing politics with the refinery. Let it not be another round of deception this time,” he further told DAILY POST.

Sports Minister, John Enoh, Calls Nigeria’s 2024 Olympics Performance ‘Disaster’

Team Nigeria ended their participation in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, France, without securing any medals for the country.

The last remaining athlete representing Nigeria, Hannah Reuben, aimed to clinch a medal for the West African Country in the women’s freestyle wrestling 76kg category.

Unfortunately, she was defeated in her second-round fight, losing 5-2 (by points) to Mongolia’s Davaanasan Amar Enkh.

The disappointment came from Tobi Amusan’s inability to advance to the final of the women’s 100m hurdles.

Furthermore, Nigeria’s 4x400m men’s relay team faced disqualification following their semi-final race. This unfortunate outcome marked Nigeria’s poorest performance at the Olympics since the 2012 London Games.

Looking ahead, the next Olympics are scheduled to take place in Los Angeles in 2028 which means that the sports ministry in Nigeria has at most four years to prepare for another game.

Sports Minister, John Enoh, Calls Nigeria’s 2024 Olympics Performance ‘Disaster’

The Minister of Sports Development, John Enoh, has expressed his disappointment with Team Nigeria’s performance at the 2024 Olympics in Paris.

In a statement posted on his X page earlier today, August 10, John Enoh emphasized that the failure to secure any medals reflects underlying issues that require immediate attention.

He highlighted the need for careful consideration in the upcoming sports federation elections to ensure that the most qualified individuals are elected to lead the various sports federations.

John Enoh wrote, “Yesterday, I met with gentlemen of the press at the Nigerian Embassy in Paris for a press briefing following the country’s participation in the 2024 Olympics. As we go back home, we must do everything to prevent future occurrences of the Paris disaster and if this will entail the review of how people are elected to lead our sporting federations, it will be done.

“The elections for the federations are around the corner, and it will be the perfect platform to get only those who are most eligible to lead the various sports federations.

“Team Nigeria’s disappointing performance at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where the country did not secure any medals does not entail being addressed just by our participation at the Olympics, but it is a product of very many other things that need immediate attention.”

Despite assertions that the ministry adequately supported the athletes both financially and otherwise, Senator Enoh underscored the importance of addressing systemic issues beyond just participation in the Olympics.

“We did everything as a ministry to prepare the athletes adequately and provide them with every financial support, but unfortunately, the performance did not produce any podium finish,” he said.

Looking ahead to the federation elections, he emphasized the need for rigorous scrutiny of the candidates to elevate the standards of leadership within Nigeria’s sports federations.

He wrote: “I am aware that the sports federations elections in Nigeria are even tougher than our national elections. We must set our standards to scrutinize what motivates those vying to run the federations and get only the best hands.

“This call for reform aims to enhance the leadership and effectiveness of Nigeria’s sports federations, paving the way for improved performance on the global stage.”

Top 20 countries of the 2024 Paris Olympics medals table

As of 2:50 p.m. (Nigerian Time), China are sitting at the top of the medals table with a total of 84 medals, which comprises 34 gold, 27 silver, and 23 bronze.

Even though the United States have more medals (113) than China, they are second because they have one gold less than the Asian giants.

Below are the top 20:

Format: Country, Gold, Silver, Bronze, total number of medals

1. China – 34 | 27 | 23 = 84

2. United States – 33 | 41 | 39 = 113

3. Australia – 18 | 16 | 14 = 48

4. Japan – 16 | 8 | 13 = 37

5. France – 15 | 20 | 22 = 57

6. Great Britain – 14 |20 | 23 = 57

7. Korea – 13 8 8 29

8. Netherlands – 13 6 11 30

9. Germany – 12 9 8 29

10. Italy – 11 12 13 36

11. Canada – 8 6 11 25

12. New Zealand – 7 7 2 16

13. Hungary – 5 7 6 18

14. Uzbekistan – 5 1 3 9

15. Spain – 4 3 8 15

16. Ireland – 4 0 3 7

17. Brazil – 3 6 9 18

18. Ukraine – 3 4 4 11

19. Sweden – 3 4 3 10

20. Romania – 3 4 1 8

Note that the 2024 Olympics will officially come to an end on Sunday, August 11.

Kunle Wizeman Ajayi, the Governorship candidate of the African Action Congress, AAC, in the forthcoming gubernatorial election in Ondo State, has been reportedly arrested.

Ajayi, who is also a member of the Take It Back Movement, was arrested by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force on Saturday in Akure during the ongoing one-milion-man protest against hunger and hardship.

The AAC candidate was, according to the organization, arrested alongside another activist, Patrick Owolabi.

The human rights advocacy organisation, Take It Back Movement, announced the arrest in a post on its official X handle, while demanding their immediate release.

The post reads, “It’s unfortunate that the @PoliceNG is yet to learn.

“The continued clampdown on peaceful #EndBadGovernceInNigeria protesters is a total shame.

“We condemn the unlawful arrest of Ajayi Wizeman & Patrick Owolabi in Ondo state and we demand their immediate and unconditional release!”

However, when contacted by DAILY POST, the Ondo State Police Public Relations Officer, SP Odunlami Ibukun said, “I have not been briefed on that report”.

THE 10-day nationwide #EndBadGovernance protests that end today, known by the reduplicative compound “Zanga-Zanga” in Hausaphone northern Nigeria, have ruptured the coalition that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu managed to build with a portion of the northern Muslim political establishment since 2014, which put Muhammadu Buhari in power in 2015 and 2019 and him in 2023. 

But this Zanga-Zanga-inspired rupture also reveals the initial precarity and fragility of the strange-bedfellows coalition. Buhari and Tinubu were previously fierce political adversaries who distrusted each other’s motives and undermined each other. Their alliance was more accurately a political scaffold that papered over their contradictions for a temporary gain, which was the ouster of Goodluck Jonathan from power.

Tinubu’s associates and acolytes in the Southwest, who said they protected Buhari from revolt in their region even when he bungled governance with uncommon ineptitude, are understandably miffed at the rawness, fierce intensity, and undiluted anti-Tinubu fervor of the protests in northern Nigeria.

They are wondering why Buhari, his associates, and even the APC establishment in the North didn’t return the favor. The answers are obvious, but people in power are often blind to the obvious, especially if the obvious is disquieting. 

First, Buhari and his supporters know that the Tinubu group, which had a tight leash on the Southwest political space, didn’t protect Buhari from the consequences of his infernal incompetence out of any high-minded considerations. They did so because they needed power after Buhari’s term in office. It was unvarnished calculative opportunism. 

Since Buhari’s people have no expectation of any kind of requital from Tinubu, like Tinubu did from them, they felt no obligation to protect or explain away Tinubu’s own hard-hearted incompetence. The chase often stops after a conquest. Men who woo women can relate to this sentiment.

Second, the misery that Tinubu’s simultaneous policies of never-before-seen astronomical petrol price increase and devaluation of the naira unleashed on the country are felt more deeply in the North than in any part of the country because of the preexisting multidimensional poverty in the region and the pervading insecurity that makes farming almost impossible. 

Money is now both hard to find and worthless when it is found, and food is both hard to find and unaffordable when it is found. That is an unprecedentedly profound, not to mention unsurvivable, existential torment.

Two days after the #EndBadGovernance protests started, I told someone that many people in the North have been rendered so desolate, so destitute, and so despondent by the economic crunch that they are looking to cash in on the protests to commit suicide by police bullets because Islam forbids suicide.

Islam teaches that committing suicide guarantees an unfettered passage to the hottest depths of hellfire in the hereafter. I said many people who couldn’t survive the pain and humiliation of perpetual hunger might tempt security forces to shoot them so they could end it all and not fear that they would provoke the wrath of their Creator for committing suicide.

Of course, this is twisted thinking because a famous hadith, which every Muslim who took Islamic Studies in secondary school knows, says “Actions shall be judged according to intention.”

Well, my predictions turned out to be accurate. A friend shared a video of scores of protesters in a northern city chanting, “da yunwa ta kashe mu, da ma bullet yakashe mu” (rough translation: “Instead of dying of hunger, we would rather be killed by a bullet”) as they confronted gun-wielding military and police officers.

There is also the viral video of protesters bursting into the Zamfara State Government House in Gusau and defying, even daring, menacing, gun-toting soldiers who tried to stop them. Several such scenes have been replicated throughout the North.

The mistake the government is making is to dismiss the protests as entirely politically motivated. They are not. Even if they wanted, Buhari and his associates couldn’t stop the protests both because the shelf life of Buhari’s “magic” has expired (his own house was besieged in Daura, and he had been pelted with stones while he was in power in cities like Kano and Maiduguri where he had been idolized) and because the extent of anguish people are going through now is unappeasable.

Apart from the usual criminals of opportunity (who exploit every unrest to steal and destroy), the vast majority of protesters think their only hope of living is to risk death and push back at policies that kill them slowly but surely. You can’t persuade people who have nothing to lose by dying.

That was why American author Dan Groat pointed out in his 2014 book titled In Monarchs and Mendicants, “Not interested in scarin’ anybody, but people with good sense are afraid of a man with nothin’ to lose.” Lance Conrad echoed this in his book The Price of Nobility when he said, “Only a fool would underestimate a man with nothing to lose.”

People who weren’t exempt from the rage of protesters can’t stop protesters from protesting.

The self-inflicted attenuation of Tinubu’s political capital in the North plays into the old debate in the Southwest about the best coalitional strategy to attain and retain power for the Yoruba.

The Chief Obafemi Awolowo strategy, which Afenifere still believes in, sees the Muslim North as a competitor and not an ally. The Awo strategy for getting power is to build an alliance between the entire South and Northern Christians.

But the Chief Ladoke Akintola template sees the Muslim North as a strategic partner in light of the deep historical and cultural ties that bind Yoruba people and several linguistic, ethnic and cultural groups in the Muslim North, such as Borgu, Nupe, Igala, and Hausa people. (Read my October 9, 2021, column titled “Arewa and Oduduwa More Alike than Unlike.”) This is hardly surprising because even though Akintola was a Christian, he was from Ogbomoso whose traditional ruler traces ancestral roots to Borgu.

Chief MKO Abiola—and now President Tinubu—subscribe to the Akintola template. Abiola was briefly vindicated when he won the June 12, 1993, presidential election with enormous support from the North, including Kano, his opponent’s home state.

But the revocation of his epochal electoral triumph by a Northern military head of state—and the decidedly ethnic and regional character the fight for and the opposition to his mandate later took—appeared to justify the distrust of the Muslim North by the Awo group, which nonetheless gave full-throated support to Abiola to reclaim his mandate.

Tinubu, undeterred by Abiola’s experience, reinvented the Akintola template. It’s as if he wanted to prove that he could tread the same path and get to the destination that Abiola couldn’t get to. That must be why he called his presidential bid “Renewed Hope.” Abiola’s was “Hope.” Like Abiola, he chose a Muslim running mate. And, like Abiola, his running mate is a Kanuri man from Borno.

With the Muslim North now souring on him only one year into his first term and the unlikelihood of his ever recovering whatever goodwill he had from the region if he continues with his economic policies that push people to the brink of the existential precipice, the Awo/Afenifere group may be having the last laugh.

So, what should he do? The best option is to discard the IMF/World Bank neoliberal policies he’s enamored with (which have never worked anywhere in the world) and embrace Awolowo’s welfarist capitalist template of governance that puts the development and wellbeing of people at the center of policies. That may restore his goodwill with the North—and even earn him more support elsewhere.

The other options are non-starters, but I’ll mention them anyway. Like Chief Olusegun Obasanjo who won his first term with the support of the Muslim North, but who later used the Awo/Afenifere template to get a second term, Tinubu can court the Christian North and galvanize the South. Goodluck Jonathan used this template in 2011 and won.

The problem is that if Peter Obi runs in 2027, and I don’t see any reason why he won’t, Tinubu won’t be able to galvanize the South into a unified voting bloc. And, although the worst fears of his Muslim-Muslim ticket among Christians hasn’t materialized, northern Christians are unlikely to embrace him wholeheartedly, however hard he tries to woo them.

In other words, Tinubu is cooked, as Gen Zs say. Anything short of bringing down the cost of petrol, restoring the value of the naira, making everyday things affordable will doom Tinubu’s first term and deny him a second term because he is now effectively a political orphan.

The newly-appointed Head of Civil Service of the Federation, Mrs Didi Walson-Jack, has promised to serve the interest of Nigerians as captured in President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.

Walson-Jack gave the assurance on Friday, after private talks with Tinubu at the Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja.

“I see it as a divine assignment, and I had the opportunity to assure Mr. President that, by the grace of God, I will not disappoint him,’ she said.

The new HoS, who was led to the Villa by her predecessor, Dr Folashade Yemi-Esan, also said she will “work together not only with the permanent secretaries but also with the directors and the entire civil service to deliver on the Renewed Hope Agenda.”

On her part, Yemi-Esan described the handover process as “seamless,” adding that the new civil service chief was “capable” of performing the task before her.

“The President has made the handing over seamless, which is very well appreciated. The incoming Head of Service has had some weeks with me learning the ropes and I am sure by now, she is ready to go and we thank Mr President for this.

“We also had a good time chatting with Mr President, sharing his vision for the country and especially for the civil service with the incoming Head of Service, and that should prepare her and should make her hit the ground running so that she can achieve all that Mr President has discussed with us.

“The newly appointed Head of Service is capable, very intelligent, hardworking, professional and empathic. I have no doubt that she will do the job very well,” said Yemi-Esan.

On July 17, Tinubu approved the appointment of Walson-Jack as Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, with effect from August 14, 2024.

Her appointment was announced in a statement by Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Ajuri Ngelale, titled ‘President Tinubu appoints new head of civil service of the federation.’

She succeeds Yemi-Esan who retires from service on August 13, 2024.

Walson-Jack was appointed Federal Permanent Secretary in 2017 and has served in several Ministries.

Tinubu thanked the outgoing Head of Service for her stewardship and tasked the incoming Head of Service to “discharge her duties with innovative flair, integrity, and stringent adherence to the extant rules and regulations of the Civil Service of the Federation.”