The sum of ₦3.8 billion has been allocated by the Tinubu-led Federal government to support stranded Nigerian scholars in foreign countries.

The Executive Secretary of the Tertiary Education Trust Fund, Sonny Echono, shared this information on Thursday in Abuja during a meeting with the House of Representatives Committee on TETFund.

He mentioned that the fund has provided support to 1,500 scholars, totalling ₦3.8 billion in funding.

In response to the reported delay in scholarship payments, Echono clarified that the recent spike in foreign exchange rates has raised concerns among scholars from various countries, including the United Kingdom and Malaysia.

Echono confirmed that these concerns had been communicated to the National Assembly, the Presidential Villa, the Ministry of Education, and even TETFund.

“We were happy that the response was very positive and that was why we were able to secure the President’s approval and do what we called the bail out or assistance.

“We did observe that part of the challenge.

“In the past, each time we send funding for the institutions, we send money directly to the schools and it is the responsibility of the institutions to now remit to the students.

“However, for illegitimate and legitimate reasons, many of the institutions came back to us and complained that it takes a whole lot of time to process the transfers to central bank.

“But we now pay directly to the institution as part of our intervention,” he said.

Echono disclosed that Nigeria’s performance in research grants has improved, moving from 9th to 7th place in Africa.

The Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has announced the temporary suspension of the controversial helicopter landing fee recently introduced by the federal government.

Keyamo, in a statement on Friday, issued by the spokesperson of his ministry, Odutayo, Oluseyi, said the suspension is to allow a review of the policy after stakeholders complained about its introduction.

Recalls the federal government had announced the introduction of a $300 helicopter landing levy.

According to a statement issued by the Press and Public Affairs Manager of the Ministry of Aviation, the government has granted the Nigerian Airspace Management Agency (NAMA) permission to begin charging the fees.

The statement added that NAEBI Dynamic Concepts Limited has been granted sole authorization to administer helicopter landing fees for federal entities on behalf of NAMA for the federal government.

However, following the vehement rejection of the levy by aviation stakeholders, Keyamo announced on Friday that the levy has been suspended with effect from May 30, 2024, to allow for its review.

He added that a committee has been set up to look into the issues raised by concerned stakeholders and submit a report on or before the end of June 2024.

“The statement read: “Following a meeting with the AON executive on the issue bordering on Helicopter landing levies collection at Aerodromes, Helipads, Air Strips, etc, Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, has temporarily suspended the enforcement granted Messers NAEBI Dynamic Concept Ltd, by the Federal Government, as consultants to collect such levies.

“The suspension is with effect from 30th May, 2024. This, the Minister said is as a result of clamor for review by some stakeholders in the industry.

“Accordingly, Keyamo has constituted a Committee with members drawn up from the Ministry of Aviation and Aerospace Development and its relevant Agencies, Airline Operators of Nigeria (AON), International Oil Companies (IOCs) and Messers NAEBI Dynamic Concept Ltd who are charged to look into the issues raised by concerned Stakeholders and submit a Report on or before end of June, 2024.

“Messers NAEBI Dynamic Concept Ltd was granted the exclusive right by the Federal Government as consultants to collect such levies which stakeholders have expressed their reservation on the appropriateness of the levies.

“The recommendation(s) of the Committee would proffer a way forward”.

The Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) has characterised President Bola Tinubu’s first year in office as “tumultuous.”

However, the group commended President Tinubu’s commitment to developing Nigeria’s infrastructure, agricultural development and enhanced security since his assumption of office.

MACBAN National President, Baba Othman-Ngelzarma gave the commendation in a congratulatory letter to President Tinubu on Friday.

Ngelzarma stated that Tinubu’s one year in office stands him as a man of courage, conviction and vision to make Nigeria great.

The letter reads, “Congratulations to Mr President and Commander-in-Chief of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Alhaji Bola Tinubu, on your one year in office. On behalf of the over six million pastoral communities in Nigeria, the chairman of the board of trustees, the national executive, management, and staff of MACBAN, I wish to congratulate you on your successful one-year anniversary in office.

“Your one year in office, though tumultuous, stands you as a man of courage, conviction and vision with ‘Renewed Hope’ to make Nigeria great. Your commitment to developing Nigeria’s infrastructure, agricultural development and enhanced security is a testimony that you are not only up to the task but to deliver dividends of democracy to the larger Nigerian populace.”

The group noted that Tinubu’s agenda on agriculture, which intends to make Nigeria self-sufficient in its food security, entails massive agronomy and livestock production investment.

In view of this, MACBAN said it looks forward to the president’s promise of creating a ministry for livestock to handle the N15 trillion industry and its value chain.

The group stressed that the industry stands to provide millions of quality jobs to Nigerian youth wallowing in unemployment and abject poverty, which is a threat to national cohesion and security in the country.

To achieve this objective, the group called for the immediate establishment and inauguration of the livestock implementation committee, which you promised during the report presentation.

It also appealed to Tinubu to allow the National Commission for Nomadic Education to exist independently for the continued well-being of Nigerian nomads.

The letter added, “We appreciate the efforts of security agencies in the country in combating crime, but we express concern with the way and manner in which innocent pastoralists are being profiled and extorted. Your Excellency, the hope you exude should be made a reality to strengthen the faith of ordinary Nigerians on your renewed hope agenda.

“We will continue to support you in your quest to strengthen institutional frameworks to make Nigeria and Nigerians the pride of Africa in innovation and productivity.”

A chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano, Alhassan Yaryasa has called for the reconciliation of two former governors and the political leaders in the state, Abdullahi Ganduje and Rabiu Kwankwaso.

Yaryasa opined that the duo must sheath their sword if they want the people of Kano to live in peace.

The APC chieftain stated this during an interview with Punch in Kano.

According to him, Kano indigenes are after the progress and development of the state.

He stressed that it is the prayers of the Islamic scholars and other well-meaning Nigerians that are sustaining the current peace in Kano since the coming of the administration of Governor Abba Kabir Yusuf.

“Kano people want to live in peace, and they are after the progress and development of the state. There is the need for them – Kwankwaso and Ganduje – to forgive each other in order for Kano people to live in peace,” Yaryasa said.

He also advised people of the state not to engage in any act capable of plunging the state into trouble or violence.

“My advice to Kano residents and the entire people of the state is that they should live in peace with one another because it’s the bedrock of any development in the society.

“With the dissolution of the five emirates If not because of prayers, Kano would have been on fire or in chaos by now.

“The matter is currently in court. So, it will be a contempt of court or a disrespect to the court if Governor Abba went ahead and reinstated Sanusi,” he added.

Yaryasa, who is also a former coordinator of the Tinubu Campaign Organisation for Kano South, noted that the dissolution of the new emirates was nothing but vendetta against the person of the former Governor Ganduje.

“We know before now people who don’t wish the state well have been calling on the governor to dissolve the emirates, and now that he has dissolved the emirates, let’s see what will happen.

“Those calling for the scrapping of the emirates are nothing but enemies of the state. I said it before, and I’m still maintaining my stand that scrapping the emirates will not augur well for the state,” he insisted.

…Becomes First U.S Ex-President Convicted Of Crime

Former President Donald Trump has been convicted on all 34 counts of falsifying business records in relation to a “hush money” payment made to adult film star Stormy Daniels before the 2016 United States election.

A 12-person jury reached the unanimous decision after two days of deliberations in the closely-watched trial.

The charges stemmed from a $130,000 payment made by Trump’s former lawyer Michael Cohen to Daniels in the final weeks of the 2016 presidential campaign to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter with Trump years earlier.

Prosecutors argued that Trump falsified records about reimbursing Cohen to cover up the payment, which could have been a violation of campaign finance laws.

In delivering the verdict, the jury agreed with prosecutors from the Manhattan District Attorney’s office that Trump engaged in a widespread effort to undermine the integrity of the 2016 election by covering up potential scandals.

Trump had pleaded not guilty and his defence maintained the payment was meant to prevent personal embarrassment rather than an illegal campaign contribution.

“Our whole country is being rigged right now,” CNN quoted Trump as telling reporters after leaving the courtroom.

“This was done by the Biden administration in order to wound or hurt an opponent, a political opponent.”

More details to follow…

ASKED last December to comment on Bola Tinubu’s performance as President and Commander-in-Chief of Nigeria’s Armed Forces since May 29, 2023, Professor Wole Soyinka, first black man to win the Nobel Prize in Literature and one of the most fervent cheerleaders of the Tinubu presidency, said he will only do so on the administration’s first anniversary.

“Well, you know, something you may have noticed about me is that most heads of state, when they take office, I always leave them alone for about the first year… because they need time. I know when they come in, they don’t start from ground zero. They often start even lower than ground zero and they have to make up. So, I’m adopting the same principle this time. When you see me next year, ask the same question again and listen to my answer,” Soyinka, who has taken up the untypical role of Tinubu’s attack dog, told journalists on December 25 when he paid the president who was holidaying in Lagos what he called an “embarrassing visit.”

The literary giant, whose primary assignment from the Tinubu government seems to be a vicious and unrelenting put-down of Mr. Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Labour Party in the 2023 elections with the sole purpose of demarketing him ahead of the 2027 polls, is yet to comment even as fellow citizens struggle to make sense of where the government is headed. Nigerians are patiently waiting for him.

But Tinubu, just like the proverbial lizard that jumped from the high Iroko tree to the ground and crowed that he would praise himself if no one else did, didn’t wait for Soyinka’s validation of his “exceptional exploits” in office.

While flagging-off the 700-kilometre Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway on Monday, a visibly excited President Tinubu said it was his day to boast.

Maybe it is. But the boasting would have been more appropriate if it was reserved for the commissioning of the project after completion. The deal cannot simply be done as he ululated because a project has been flagged-off. The deal can only be done when the project is completed and delivered to the Nigerian people.

But he was not only euphoric about the coastal highway, he also commissioned the rehabilitated Third Mainland Bridge and the concrete-paved road to the nation’s major ports in Apapa and Tin Can Island.

It is instructive that Tinubu is making a song and dance about a rehabilitated bridge. But why not? Considering the fact that the disastrous Muhammadu Buhari administration worked on the same bridge intermittently without any appreciable result, the Tinubu administration, indeed, has earned a bragging right for doing a refurbishing job on the 12.5 kilometre bridge that even their worst critics acknowledge is outstanding.

What’s more, in an era where a state governor is listing a visit to the National Security Adviser, NSA, and a courtesy call by his constituents as achievements in his first 100 days as Governor Usman Ododo of Kogi State did recently, why won’t Tinubu brag about refurbishing a bridge in his first 365 days in office?

But to say that the president has made good progress in the last one year as his spin doctors are doing is to incredulously stretch logic and common sense.

Agreed, Tinubu is entitled to his fantasies which explain his gloating while speaking to a group of investors in November 2023 at the 10th German-Nigerian Business Forum in Berlin, Germany, that his name be included in the revered Guinness World Records, GWR, for reforms that have made life unbearable not only for the poor but also the rich.

But beyond the grandstanding and propaganda, Nigerians, with the exception of those feeding off the crumbs from his table, agree that Tinubu’s first year in office has been a curse rather than a blessing.

The primary purpose of government is the security and welfare of the people as clearly spelt out in Section 14(2) (b) of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999.

So, beyond refurbishing the Third Mainland Bridge, which, to those who may have forgotten, was commissioned by President Shehu Shagari in 1980 and completed by President Ibrahim Babangida in 1990, and the reconstructed concrete-paved road leading to the Lagos seaports, a project which was financed by the Dangote Group, using its tax credits, the economy is in dire straits and Nigerians are bleeding, literally.

Besides, assessments cannot be made in a vacuum. Those who say Tinubu inherited a hellhole from Buhari and use that as an excuse for his abysmal performance are being smart by half.

To be sure, Tinubu knew that Buhari was a colossal failure. He was well aware that the All Progressives Congress, APC, government took Nigeria to the brink of socio-economic and political collapse, which explains why Nigerians refused to reward such dreadful performance and rejected the APC at the February 25, 2023 poll. But the magician he is, he managed to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

Having wangled his way to Aso Rock, and knowing how badly Buhari damaged the country, he unfurled an eight-point agenda to recovery that included food security, poverty eradication, growth, job creation, access to capital, inclusion, rule of law and fighting corruption. Any assessment not anchored on this agenda is duplicitous.

Unveiling the agenda in September 2023 at the first Federal Executive Council, FEC, meeting after three months of haphazardness, Tinubu said it was targeted at addressing the country’s socio-economic challenges and mandated the ministers to deliver the first phase within three years. Reminding them of the prevailing adversity, unemployment, insecurity, and poverty in the land, he said the idea was to move away from the frenzied borrowing of the Buhari regime, check the “unacceptably high” jobless rate, achieve economic growth, “prosperity for all,” and end poverty with a promise to create 50 million jobs to boot.

One of those three years has been spent and no item in the eight-point agenda was realised. With food inflation at over 40 per cent, Nigerians are starving, literally, and food security has become a mirage. Rather than creating 50 million jobs, millions of Nigerians have been pushed into the unemployment loop.

It couldn’t have been otherwise. The ill-digested twin policies of petrol subsidy stoppage and consequent higher pump prices, and the unification of official and parallel foreign exchange rates not only pummelled the Naira but also pushed the headline inflation to 33.69 per cent in April 2024, according to the figures released by the National Bureau of Statistics, NBS, on May 15. It was 22.22 per cent in April 23, a month before Tinubu came on board. Food inflation which was 24.45 per cent in March 2023 is today 40.01 per cent, a 15.56 percentage point year-on-year climb.

Rather than ebb, insecurity has spiked in the 12 months of Tinubu’s presidency. This week, some 84 civil society organisations led by Global Rights disclosed that more than 4,416 people were killed and 4,334 abducted in the last one year.

Tinubu enthused in October 2023 at the 29th Nigeria Economic Summit in Abuja that the economy under his watch can grow to $1 trillion by 2026, stressing that a $3 trillion economy is possible in a decade with government ensuring “double-digit, inclusive, sustainable and competitive growth.” That remains a mirage with the GDP declining to 2.98 per cent in the first quarter of 2024. With interest rate at 26.25 per cent, access to capital for businesses is near zero.

The average Nigerian is poorer today than he was a year ago. Tinubu’s renewed hope agenda has not yielded the touted benefits. Instead, it has dragged Nigeria back to the Hobbesian state of nature in which life, to many, has become solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short.

If the sole purpose of government is the welfare and security of citizens, a fact which Tinubu captured in his eight-point agenda, then, he cannot claim to have achieved much, if anything at all, when there is hardly any Nigerian that can sincerely say he is better off today than a year ago.

But most worrisome is the fact that the president, like the fifth Roman emperor, Nero, who was busy playing the fiddle while Rome was consumed by fire, has perfected the inelegant art of majoring in the minor, focusing on insignificant things rather than the larger, more important issues at hand. It is quite instructive that on a day that should have been spent introspecting and seeking ideas for navigating out of the self-inflicted headwinds, the government busied itself replacing the National Anthem with the colonially bequeathed version, discarded since 1978 . 

Talk of Tinubu’s best-forgotten first 365 days in office.

President Bola Tinubu has vowed to sack any minister in his cabinet who he feels falls short of the expectations of Nigerians.

Tinubu stated this during a meeting with the leadership of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, on Thursday.

The president, again, vowed to continue to do his best for the country.

“I thank the cabinet members for their efforts, but I will relieve any of them of their duties anytime I feel that they are failing Nigerians,” Tinubu said.

Uruguay striker, Edinson Cavani, has announced his retirement from international football on Thursday.

The 37-year-old is his country’s second all-time leading scorer and third most-capped player, with 58 goals in 136 appearances.

Cavani, who currently plays for Boca Juniors, wrote on social media: “I have been and always will be blessed to have pulled on this shirt to represent what I love most in the world, my country.

“I want to dedicate myself to this new stage of my career and give everything I have to where I need to be.

“Today I’ve decided to retire, but I’ll always follow you with my heart pounding, just like when I played in that beautiful shirt.”

Cavani made his debut for Uruguay in 2008 and played at four World Cups.

He also won the 2011 Copa America in Argentina.

DEAR readers, I am wearing my academic cap this week, and assessing the first-year performance of Bola Tinubu, Nigeria’s president since May 29 last year. In fact, I have marked Tinubu’s first-year assessment. The result? He failed badly. He scored an abysmal 37 per cent!

Earlier this week, Tinubu marked his own exam paper and awarded himself a pass mark. He said he met Nigeria bleeding and stopped the bleeding. That’s utterly ludicrous, given that most Nigerians have been trapped in unimaginable misery and anguish over the past one year, and the fundamentals of Nigeria’s economy and social fabric have crumbled further in the past year. Yet, Tinubu has cheerleaders. One of them is Dr Olisa Agbakoba, SAN, who said Tinubu “has laid the groundwork for progress” in his first year. What an outlandish thing to say! Well, for me, Tinubu failed his first-year assessment.

Talking about assessment, let me, in fidelity with the Aristotelian mode of persuasion, appeal to ethos, to credibility. Until recently, I was a tutor at the London School of Economics, LSE, where I am still a visiting fellow. Over the years, I have marked many essays, exams and dissertations, against established marking criteria. To secure a Distinction or top Merit, a student must show sophistication in the following areas: their answers must be relevant to the questions; organised and structured; show clarity of exposition; have analytical depth; and demonstrate the use of evidence.

Now, don’t think these criteria are only relevant to students’ assessments; no, they are also applicable to performance in government, especially to policy development and delivery. Tinubu failed in each of them.

Trust me, dear readers, the 37 per cent I have awarded Tinubu has nothing to do with the 37 per cent he secured in last year’s presidential election. That said, there is a shared resonance of failure between them. I mean, anyone who secured 37 per cent in an election, rejected by 63 per cent of voters, can hardly claim any success. But under Nigeria’s military constitution, someone with such a weak mandate and legitimacy can form a winner-takes-all government. Thus, despite his 37 per cent “mandate”, Tinubu has absolute power and runs Nigeria like his personal fiefdom. The election result, now history, is not my concern here. Except that, coincidentally, Tinubu also gets 37 per cent in his first-year assessment. But how?

Well, first, Tinubu’s government lacks an organising principle, lacks a vision; everything is based on a scattergun approach. The first evidence of the absence of a vision is the formation of his cabinet. No president who wants to succeed, knowing the challenges that Nigeria faces, would form the kind of cabinet Tinubu formed. It was a cabinet designed to reward cronies, return political favours and shore up support for his re-election bid in 2027. Why, for instance, did Tinubu put virtually all the economic ministries under his Lagos “boys” and other cronies from the South- West, his geo-political zone? And why are there so many deadwood ministers, whose only qualifications were that, as governors, they helped Tinubu “ win” their states? Why did he choose to form a government of cronies, sycophants and political jobbers? Truth be told, Tinubu’s current cabinet is too weak, too ineffectual, to tackle Nigeria’s acute challenges; the time calls for a government of all the talents.

Another evidence of Tinubu’s unpreparedness is that none of the policies he introduced since he came to office involved serious analysis and planning. There is what political economists call stroke-of-a-pen decisions. These are decisions anyone can make quickly and easily. But there are decisions, with far- reaching consequences, that no president should make simply at the stroke of a pen. Yet, when Tinubu declared that “subsidy is gone” and when he floated the naira, no analysis and planning went into those decisions. No thoughts went into their implementation to avoid unintended consequences. Absolutely none. Tinubu said he was “possessed by courage” in abruptly scrapping the fuel subsidy. But good policies are not made with such impulsiveness, such rashness.

Dr Agbakoba listed removal of the fuel subsidy, flotation of the naira and “ rehabilitating refineries and incentivising new private refineries” as Tinubu’s “notable achievements” that laid the “groundwork for progress”. The learned senior lawyer was hasty in his judgement. Each of the “achievements” is already unravelling. Take the fuel subsidy. Even the IMF which called for its removal also called for “adequate compensatory measures for the poor and efficient and transparent use of the saved money.” None of these has happened. There is no transparency on the use of the saved money, and the savings have not been used to alleviate the pains of poor Nigerians.

Furthermore, the IMF believes the government has quietly introduced “an implicit subsidy.” Truth is, until Nigeria can produce refined petroleum, enough to meet local demands, fuel subsidy won’t go away completely. Yet, despite the promises to turn around the Port Harcourt Refinery, it is still not working, and the other three state- owned refineries remain moribund. Recently, Aliko Dangote said the government won’t need to import refined petroleum from next month, suggesting his refinery would produce enough to meet local demands. Would that happen? Even if it did, would Dangote’s consumable fuels bring down the pump price of petrol? The jury is still out!

What about the floating of the naira? Well, the government is fretting about the naira’s devaluation. And it is intervening aggressively to make the naira appreciate. But the value of a currency is determined by the strength of the economy. If the economy is weak, the currency will be weak, and vice versa. Yet, the fundamentals of Nigeria’s economy are extremely weak, with inflation at 33 per cent and interest rates at 24.75 per cent. In a recent report titled “Nigeria’s currency crisis the last straw for many overseas groups,” the Financial Times said naira’s devaluation and foreign exchange scarcity have forced many foreign companies to divest from Nigeria, while many local businesses “have died quietly.” So, where are Tinubu’s “notable achievements” that lay the “groundwork for progress”?

There are other policies, such as students’ loans, plans to establish state police and the so-called Lagos-Calabar coastal highway, that space doesn’t allow me to discuss. But they all fail the good policymaking test and will have perverse consequences.

So, forget the praise singers, Tinubu’s first year in office is a failure. It inflicted untold pains on ordinary Nigerians and caused huge damage to Nigeria’s economy and social fabric. All for some pie-in-the-sky future “gains”!