The Presidency has announced that President Bola Tinubu and his aides will return to Nigeria from Europe today.

Recall that the President travelled for a meeting with the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, over two weeks ago, from where he took a trip to Saudi Arabia to attend a special World Economic Forum, WEF.

He subsequently travelled to Europe after the summit

Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, who announced the development in a post on his X handle yesterday, said: “President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, along with his aides, will return to Nigeria tomorrow (today) from Europe.”

On April 22, Tinubu left Abuja, the country’s capital, for the Kingdom of The Netherlands on an official visit.
Ajuri Ngelale, presidential spokesperson, said the president was visiting The Netherlands at the invitation of Prime Minister Mark Rutte.

After the engagements in The Netherlands, Tinubu proceeded to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia to attend a special World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting between April 28 and 29.

The president was expected back in the country after the forum in Saudi Arabia, but he did not return, which fueled speculations about his whereabouts.

Some reports said the president travelled to London from Saudi Arabia for a private visit before heading to France, a European country.

The Senate Chief Whip, Ali Ndume, has criticized the renovation work done in the Chamber, describing it as a poor job.

Ndume spoke in an interview with Channels Television’s Politics Today on Tuesday.

Under Order 42 of the Senate Standing Rules, Ndume described the Chamber as a conference hall.

The lawmaker said the Chamber is fraught with inadequacies such as poor sound system, evident in the echoes, poor sitting arrangements, lack of provision of voting devices, amongst others.

He said, “Since day one, precisely last week Tuesday, when we moved into this Chamber that supposed to have been renovated, there have been complaints here and there.”

Reacting to Ndume’s argument, the President of the Senate, Godswill Akpabio, however, explained that complaints on sitting arrangements among Senators have been sorted out 99.9%.

Akpabio said the contract for the renovation work was not done by the 10th National Assembly.

Nigerians, the organised labour, Civil Society Organisations and power sector experts have knocked the Nigerian Federal Government and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, over the N18 downward review of electricity tariff for end-users under Band A.

Recall that NERC announced a tariff decrease for customers under Band A feeders on Monday.

The Commission slashed electricity to N200.6 per Kilowatt-hour from N225.

Ikeja Electric, Abuja, Kaduna, Ibadan, Enugu, and other discos effected the new tariff implementation on Monday.

The development comes a month after NERC approved a 240 per cent tariff hike for electricity customers getting between 20-24 hours of supply.

However, Nigerians, organised labour and other organisations have kicked against the hike, insisting on its reversal amid Nigeria’s economic hardship.

Recall that on Sunday, TUC issued a two-week ultimatum to NERC to reverse April tariff hike.

But, contrary to Nigerians and Organized Labour’s demand for an immediate electricity hike reversal, NERC settled for a downward tariff review.

NERC sighted Improved macroeconomic parameters as the reason for the downward review.

The Naira appreciated N1353.21 per Dollar on Monday at the foreign exchange market, up from N1400.4 on Friday last week.

Explaining the decision, NERC said, “The Commission has considered changes in the macroeconomic parameters over the preceding month of April 2024 and especially the appreciation of exchange rates – consequently, the Commission has approved a downward review of end-user tariffs for Band “A” customers from NGN225/kWh to NGN206.8/kWh”.

Barr Dafe Akpeneye, Commissioner of Legal, Licensing and Compliance at NERC, stressed that, “It is based on other macroeconomic variables that the tariff was reduced”.

Meanwhile, the development did not go down well with NLC, Civil Society Organisations and many other Nigerians.

They described the reduction as silly, insignificant, tokenism, and shallow.

In an exclusive interview with DAILY POST on Monday, Benson Upah, the spokesperson of NLC, described the development as tokenism, stressing that it would not positively impact consumers.

He said the downward review of electricity for end-users under Band A fell short of Nigerian workers’ demands and expectations.

He called for a total reversal of April’s tariff hike and a review of Nigeria’s power sector privatisation.

“This is tokenistic. It falls far below our demand or expectations. Doubtful if this will make a positive impact on consumers.

“A total reversal and a review of the privatisation of the power sector is our demand”, he told DAILY POST.

On his part, the national secretary of the Network for Electricity Consumers Advocacy of Nigeria, Uket Obonga, said NERC was confused and was making a mockery of the sector.

“NERC is confused. You wake up to issue electricity price hike. Is that the methodology of tariff fixing? NERC should not mock themselves.

“A methodology designed by the Commission has yet to be followed. All their claims about the benefit of electricity subsidy removal are scams,” he noted.

According to the 2023 Electricity Act, Section 116(6) provides that the proposed tariff will be published in Newspapers and the official gazette to enable stakeholders to raise concerns and representation to the Commission.

Additionally, it provides that the Commission shall issue notice to relevant stakeholders to submit their input within the timeframe determined by the Commission for consideration before the Commission updates the tariff methodology, which is why Obonga alleged that NERC failed to follow due process in issuing May’s tariff order.

Also, Ewetumo A A, a retired staff member of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, PHCN, formerly the National Electric Power Authority, NEPA, said the recent review shows how shallow and misdirected NERC personnel have become.

“It only shows how shallow and misdirected our bureaucrats and technocrats in NERC headquarters are.

“They refused to condemn a Gas-to-Power Policy denominated in US Dollar but are quick to pass on to hapless Nigerians the Forex fluctuations.

“NERC has no feasibility studies on Load Demand or a blueprint for building Power Plants to meet citizens’ energy needs nationwide but only to ration and price the little Megawatts remaining on the Grid”, he stated.

Similarly, the Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, said the tariff reduction is a silly manoeuvre by NERC.

He urged for a reverse to status before April’s tariff hike.

“It is a silly manoeuvre. It is above the market cost of electricity. How sustainable is the Naira appreciation?

“If the Naira slumps tomorrow, will the tariff be increased? That is why I call it a silly manoeuvre.

“They should go back to the status quo. Nigerians should know the actual cost of electricity. I am not impressed”, he told DAILY POST.

Super Eagles forward, Ademola Lookman has revealed the most difficult game he played at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations.

Super Eagles coach, Jose Peseiro used Lookman majorly on the left wing during the tournament in Ivory Coast and he started six of the seven matches.

Lookman scored three goals and was named in the Team of the Tournament. 

Nigeria encountered the Bafana Bafana of South Africa in the semifinals where they won via penalty shootout.

They went on to play the host nation, Ivory Coast in the final and were beaten 2-1 by the Elephants.

However, the Atalanta forward told Calister Enejele that the Super Eagles’ opener against Equatorial Guinea was the most challenging.

“‘Probably Equatorial Guinea because we played at 2 pm, the heat and humidity was tough for us. Probably you have to say that game,” he said.

Nigerian government received $1.36 billion and $1.09 billion in corporate taxes and royalties from Shell Nigeria through its operations of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited and Shell Nigeria Exploration and Production Company of Nigeria Limited in 2022 and 2023.

The company disclosed this in its recently published 2023 Shell Briefing Notes, according to a statement by the firm’s Media Relations Manager, Abimbola Essien-Nelson.

The figure showed that the SPDC paid $442 million, while SNEPCo remitted $649 million in taxes in 2023 alone to the Nigerian government.

However, the figure showed a $27 billion tax remittance decline in 2023 when compared to 2022.

“These payments are Shell exclusive and do not include those made by our partners,” said SPDC Managing Director and Country Chair, Shell Companies in Nigeria, Osagie Okunbor.

He noted that the firm was focused on Deepwater and Integrated Gas investment in Nigeria.

The development comes months after Shell Nigeria announced in January 2024 that it would exit onshore oil production in Nigeria.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has announced 44 lists of licensed deposit money banks in Nigeria.

The apex bank disclosed this in a list released on its official website on Tuesday.

According to CBN, Seven banks, including Zenith Bank, Access Bank, First Bank, First City Monument Bank, United Bank of Africa, Fidelity, and Guaranty Trust Bank, have Commercial Banking licenses with international authorization as of April 26, 2024.

Also, fifteen banks have commercial banking licenses with National Authorization.

Similarly, four banks have commercial banking licenses with regional authorization, and four non-interest banks have national authorization.

The bank said the country has six merchant banks licensed with national authorization.

It stated that financial holding companies increased to seven.

CBN added that the country has a Mauritius commercial bank representative office.

The list comes months after the CBN raised the minimum capital requirement for all banks in Nigeria to strengthen the country’s financial sector.

Kelechi Iheanacho, a Super Eagles and Leicester City striker, has rejected a new contract with the club despite interest from Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, Soccernet.ng reports.

The 27-year-old striker has made only ten league starts in the EFL Championships this season, with Enzo Maresca preferring Zambian Patson Daka to lead the line for the Foxes.

Iheanacho, along with Wilfred Ndidi, are nearing the end of their Leicester City careers, as their contracts expire in June 2024. While the defensive midfielder wants to join a Premier League top-six club, Iheanacho is not interested in staying at the King Power Stadium.

According to Football Insider, the highest-scoring African in the history of the FA Cup was offered an improved deal with a weekly wage of £65,000, but the Nigerian striker rejected the offer.

‘‘He (Iheanacho) has been offered a new deal but not prepared to sign. But we will wait till the end of the season and see,’’ the report stated.

Several reasons might have sparked Iheanacho’s reaction, with the absence of playing time at the forefront. According to Football Fancast, Aston Villa are interested in bringing the 2021 FA Cup winner to Villa Park as a backup for Ollie Watkins.

The Villains have enjoyed a great season under Unai Emery and have their eyes locked on a place in the UEFA Champions League next season. Should Iheanacho join Villa, he would have the luxury of playing alongside skilled players like Douglas Luiz, Leon Bailey, Ollie Watkins and Moussa Diaby.

Aston Villa view Iheanacho as an experienced Premier League forward, representing a summer bargain that could make all the difference next season at Villa Park.

In 10 starts for Leicester, Iheanacho found the back of the net five times and created one goal, averaging a goal involvement every two games.

The Foxes have secured a return to the English Premier League after relegating on the last matchday in the previous season.

Ahead of the 2027 general elections, the Lagos State Chapter of the Peoples Democratic Party has initiated plans to reconcile all warring members of the party in a bid to wrest power from the ruling All Progressives Congress in the state.

This was according to a chieftain of the party, Chief Olabode George, during Tuesday night’s edition of Newsday on Arise TV.

Since the poor performance of the party at the 2023 general elections, growing discordant tunes among stakeholders in the party have lingered on.

Even after a committee was set up by the leadership of the party to reconcile warring and aggrieved members, the party crisis lingered.

Recall that in February 2024, a chieftain of the PDP in Lagos State, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse, attributed the poor outings of the party in recent elections in the state to a lack of unity in the Lagos chapter.

He said the political party had also not been functioning well in the state because its structure had been weakened and had no leader serving as a rallying point in the chapter.

However, after several indoor meetings, some stakeholders of the party last Wednesday held a reconciliatory meeting to put the state chapter of the party in order ahead of the 2027 general election.

At the stakeholders’ meeting, which was held in Ikeja, the party chieftains stressed the need for forgiveness and unity within the party to increase the party’s chances at the forthcoming elections.

Shedding light on the series of efforts made at uniting the party ahead of the 2027 elections, the party stalwart noted that there was light at the end of the tunnel.

He, however, admitted that though there were some pockets of aggrieved members yet to be sorted out, the reconciliatory process was making meaningful headway.

He said, “In any organisation, any political party, you will have a kind of turmoil immediately after you lose an election; but the ability of the party and the managers of the party to get everybody back to a discussion table where we will do an in-depth postmortem analysis of what happened. How did we lose the elections, who were the people who were committed and loyal to the party, who were the other people who didn’t perform, who are the other people who are pretending that they are members of your party when they are working for your opposition?

“This is what we are going through now and I’m very happy that yesterday’s meeting in Ibadan that was chaired by the governor of Oyo State, Seyi Makinde, and with all the other leaders from all the states of the Southwest came out to be a brilliant move. It shows that we still have leaders with the ability to rise above the pettiness, the inuendos of those who are struggling to get into positions in the party. You’ve got to work for it.”

Speaking further, George affirmed that efforts at ensuring the party was well-positioned for the 2027 general elections have been so far successful.

He stated, “We have been very successful in trying to move forward, it’s still a long time, 2027, the national meeting we had, the NEC meeting we had, plus the caucus meeting, the Board of Trustees meeting, to me was quite successful. So, we we told ourselves some truths, we are setting up committees for reconciliation, we had started our own in Lagos, and it’s been very highly successful.

“The one we did in Ibadan yesterday ended up on a very high note, very successful and I pray that by the next few months, people will see that unity, because once you are not united and you go to war as a General, you know you’ll be defeated. The same if we are not united to go into an election, we will be perpetually defeated.

“It’s high time, the electorate in Lagos are now fed up, they are looking for an alternative and if they see that we can weave ourselves as an indivisible group, they will now want to see how we can manage ourselves. One thing I will say is that there are discordant voices, a few that are throwing tantrums all over the whole place, those who got the ticket who were candidates, they collected humongous amounts of money, how they managed it and what they did were not quite plausible and the national itself, the managers at the national level they have realized it and they have given us the go-ahead to start mending fences.”

George said at the Ibadan meeting, they were able to close ranks for the leaders in Ondo, and it would be a reflection on state by state.

He added that the leadership of the party was determined to wrest power from the ruling APC in 2027.

“But we are determined that we are going to forge ahead, even if the numbers who are going to remain as members of the party are small. The members of the public can see that yes, these people are managing themselves very well.

“You can see even the party in government. Are they also completely trouble-free? No. Anytime you have any organisation, people will come with different tones and different voices, but the leaders first must respect their constitution and work according to the constitution.

“Yes, people will have interests in one thing or the other, but play the game according to the set rules. Once you do that, then you have no problem,” he said.

The Central Bank of Nigeria has ordered banks to stop charges on cash deposits.

The apex bank disclosed this in a May 6, 2024, circular signed by its Director of Banking Supervision, Adetona Adedeji.

The apex bank noted that the suspension will last until September 30, 2024. 

The development comes as Nigerian banks charge two per cent on deposits above N500,000 for individuals, while corporate account holders were to be charged two per cent on deposits above N3 million.

However, according to the latest circular to financial and non-financial institutions, CBN said the processing fees have been suspended.

“Please refer to our letter dated December 11, 2023, referenced BSD/DIR/PUB/LAB/016/023 on the above subject, suspending processing charges imposed on cash deposits above N500,000 for individuals and N3,000,000 for corporates as contained in the ‘Guide to Charges by Banks, Other Financial Institutions and Non-Bank Financial Institutions’ issued on December 20, 2019.

“The Central Bank of Nigeria hereby extends the suspension of the processing fees of 2 per cent and 3 per cent previously charged on all cash deposits above these thresholds until September 30, 2024,” the circular reads.

The development comes as money outside the banking system rose by 10.67 per cent to N3.63 trillion in March 2024.

The CEO of Binance, a popular cryptocurrency platform, claimed that some unknown persons, claiming to be agents of Nigerian officials demanded huge payments in cryptocurrency to make their problems in the country “go away”.

Richard Teng, the firm’s chief executive officer (CEO) who took over from founder and former CEO Changpeng Zhao, made the claim in a blog post released Tuesday, May 7, on Binance's website.

He added that the request was made through a local firm it hired.

Speaking on Binance’s issues with the Nigerian government, Teng detailed how the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange tried to engage with the Nigerian authorities, including a meeting on January 8 in Abuja, where it was confronted with criminal allegations.

Teng said despite multiple requests, Binance had still not received details of the allegations, “and our employees, therefore, inquired if there was an opportunity to submit our responses in writing and in the absence of a public hearing”.

“There were a number of reasons for that, including the sensitivity of the information and getting the opportunity to see the allegations in full and prepare a thorough substantive response,” he said.


“The meeting ended with the Chair confirming they would consider the matter and revert through Binance’s local counsel.

“However, as our employees were leaving the venue, they were approached by unknown persons who suggested to them to make a payment in settlement of the allegations.

“Later that day, our local counsel — representing us at that time — was summoned by the Committee through someone purporting to be their agent, who relayed the Committee’s terms and instructed our local counsel to advise us.

“Counsel reported back that he had been presented with a demand for a significant payment in cryptocurrency to be paid in secret within 48 hours to make these issues go away and that our decision was expected by the morning.

"Our team grew increasingly concerned about their safety in Nigeria and immediately departed.”

Teng said the payment request was declined “via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer”.

The CEO said Binance clarified that it would engage in settlement negotiations on the conditions that the relevant petition or the details of all allegations were seen.

He wrote: "We, of course, declined the payment demand via our counsel, not viewing it to be a legitimate settlement offer, and clarified that we would engage in settlement negotiations on the following conditions:

"Binance needs to see the relevant petition and/or the details of all allegations.

"Any settlement must be official, recorded in writing, and signed by all relevant parties.

"Any settlement must encompass all relevant agencies and be in full and final settlement of all allegations, including any potential historic tax liabilities, if applicable, with guarantees.

“While the exact terms of any settlement may have to remain private, there would have to be some public acknowledgement that a resolution has been reached.”

The Binance boss also requested that the company's “contractors and employees are not to be intimidated, harassed, or detained.”

He said the Binance counsel relayed its conditions which Nigerian authorities initially objected to before they later agreed.

In continuation of its engagement with Nigeria, two Binance officials, Nadeem Anjarwalla, a 37-year-old British-Kenyan and Binance’s regional manager for Africa; and Tigran Gambaryan, a 39-year-old US citizen and Binance’s head of financial crime compliance, arrived Nigeria to discuss further terms with the Nigerian government but they were arrested on February 28.

Anjarwalla later fled detention and left Nigeria.

On March 25, Nigeria’s government filed a criminal charge against Binance for “tax evasion”.

Teng appealed to the government to “Let Tigran go home to his family, and then Binance will work through the same process that we have done with Nigeria’s law enforcement community voluntarily more than 600 times in the past.”

He added: "We will always work to protect innocent users, and bad actors are not welcome on our platform. We will work tirelessly with public and private partners to remove them. Furthermore, we will continue engagement with Nigeria’s Federal Inland Revenue Service on resolving potential historic tax liabilities.”