The hard-won achievements of the 50-year-old Economic Community of West African States are at risk of unraveling amid growing political and economic turmoil. Following the withdrawal of Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger, the 12-member group’s survival depends on the political leadership of its three largest economies.

ACCRA – While attending a recent United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) leadership seminar with Ghanaian cabinet members in Accra, I noticed that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) had kicked off its 50th anniversary celebrations.

ECOWAS, established in 1975, was the brainchild of Nigeria’s then-Minister of Economic Development Adebayo Adedeji, who went on to head the UN Economic Commission for Africa from 1975 to 1991. It was his vision of a borderless West Africa where goods, people, and services could move freely that ultimately united 15 countries across the region.

By 1990, ECOWAS had established a free-trade area, and West Africa recorded one of the world’s highest intra-regional mobility rates. In the following decade, it led two peacekeeping missions that helped end civil wars in Liberia and Sierra Leone. Under the leadership of Ghana’s Mohamed Ibn Chambas, the bloc supported the democratic transitions of Guinea, Niger, Togo, and Burkina Faso. In 2015, it reached another milestone with the adoption of a common external tariff.

But these hard-won achievements are now at risk of being undone. Since the 2010s, jihadist insurgencies led by Islamic State (ISIS) and Al-Qaeda affiliates – and partly fueled by NATO’s 2011 intervention in Libya – have devastated the Sahel. In 2024, the tri-border region of Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso accounted for 3,066 of the world’s 7,555 terrorism-related deaths; nearly five million people have fled to neighboring countries.

The resulting insecurity has destabilized the region, triggering a wave of military coups in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Guinea between 2020 and 2024. Meanwhile, the civilian governments of Togo, Benin, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Senegal became increasingly autocratic.

Compounding these problems, Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger withdrew from ECOWAS in January, accusing the bloc of serving neo-colonial interests. Tensions arose over Nigeria’s close political and commercial ties to France, which have grown, even as French troops have been expelled from Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Senegal, and Côte d’Ivoire amid often fierce anti-French protests.

With the departure of the three Sahelian countries, ECOWAS has lost 76 million people – roughly 17% of its population – and nearly half of its territory. Now, the bloc’s survival depends on six of its founding members, most of which are mired in turmoil.

Nigeria, which accounts for over 50% of ECOWAS’s population and over 60% of its economic output, was once widely viewed as the bloc’s stabilizing force. But it has since become a source of instability, owing to its ongoing failure to contain the jihadist insurgency in the country’s volatile northeast.

In March, Nigerian President Bola Tinubu declared a “state of emergency” in the oil-rich and politically unstable Rivers, suspending the state parliament and Governor Siminalayi Fubara for six months. International and domestic observers, including the Nigerian Bar Association, condemned the move as unconstitutional amid growing concerns over creeping autocracy.

Côte d’Ivoire, West Africa’s second-largest economy, could also slide into autocratic rule. President Alassane Ouattara – a former deputy director at the International Monetary Fund – oversaw average annual growth of 7% between 2012 and 2023, accelerating infrastructure development and expanding electricity access. But he is serving an unconstitutional third presidential term and has manipulated state institutions to sideline political opponents, including opposition leader Tidjane Thiam, who was recently banned from running in October’s presidential election.

In neighboring Ghana, ECOWAS’s third-largest economy, President John Mahama has returned to power following a landslide election victory. His predecessor, Nana Akufo-Addo, left behind a legacy of economic turmoil, marked by corruption allegations and a 2022 sovereign-debt default that triggered a $3 billion IMF bailout. The resulting austerity measures led to rolling power outages and a steep decline in living standards, paving the way for Mahama’s return from the political wilderness.

Meanwhile, Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger have embarked on an experiment in regional autonomy. Before withdrawing from ECOWAS, the three countries formed the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES) – a mutual-defense pact aimed at creating a joint counter-terrorism force, establishing an investment bank, and collaborating on agriculture, energy, and infrastructure projects.

Despite these ambitions, all three remain part of the eight-member, French-controlled West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). Each has curtailed democratic freedoms and announced five-year transitions to civilian rule while relying on Russian Africa Corps mercenaries for security support. Yet the shift in foreign backers has done little to turn the tide against jihadist insurgents, with large swaths of their territory still under militant control.

Political instability and climate change have underscored the structural vulnerabilities of ECOWAS’s heavily indebted member states, which remain largely dependent on mineral and cash-crop exports. Intra-regional trade accounts for just 12% of total commerce, while 38.4% of adults live below the poverty line. The bloc also suffers from high unemployment, especially among people under 25, who comprise 65% of its population and account for many of the desperate migrants risking dangerous Atlantic and Mediterranean crossings to reach Europe. With limited resources to address infrastructure deficits, member states are acutely susceptible to climate-related threats like droughts, floods, and desertification.

Despite an increasingly hostile geopolitical environment, ECOWAS’s three largest economies must take the lead in driving industrialization and establishing a functioning customs union. With little international support, the landlocked Sahelian countries will struggle to create the economies of scale needed for rapid economic development. Moreover, they lack the capital and technical capacity to offer a viable alternative integration model.

Mahama and Senegalese President Bassirou Diomaye Faye have made strides in bridging the divide between ECOWAS and the AES. But reports suggest that Togo and Benin may join the emerging bloc, potentially inflaming an already volatile regional landscape. Encouragingly, ECOWAS and the AES have agreed to maintain the free movement of people, goods, and services across their shared borders.

While ECOWAS has left the door open for the return of its three prodigal members, its 50th anniversary is a reminder of Adedeji’s prescient warning: “In the final analysis, it is politics and not economics that will ultimately determine the fate of regional integration arrangements.”

Adekeye Adebajo

In botanical terms, inclusive leadership is like a flower of which beauty proceeds from the anatomy of each petal or the leaves of its corolla. It takes different parts to form a whole, and there is no stronger force than a united people.

President Bola Tinubu has steadily demonstrated a rare rallying quality; pulling together and not setting asunder. Whether north, south, east, or west, he has remained consistent as an even-handed arbiter, dealing graciously and honourably with everyone.

On May 2, he visited Katsina State, where he made bold and decisive declarations against banditry and terrorism in the North-West zone. He reiterated his resolve that Nigeria would never succumb to the designs of terror and asked the military to intensify its efforts to remove the vestiges of the menace.

The President visited Enugu State on January 4. The visit, his first port of call in the year, underscored the importance accorded to the South-East zone, as well as the President’s genuine effort at bringing all Nigerians together.

In Enugu, President Tinubu interacted with a melange of leaders in the South-East, listening, taking note of their concerns, and ending with a fine lexical smorgasbord of unity, hope, and compassion.

In Anambra, his second visit to the South-East in 2025, the President reprised his accustomed nationalistic aspect – not a performance or a contrivance, but an organic and time-honed disposition.

President Tinubu paid a visit to Anambra State on Thursday, May 8. He was received with flourish, elegance, and exceeding excitement — an undisputed affirmation of the Igbo saying, “Nkea bu nke anyi” (He is our own).

It was a carnival in the streets of Awka as the President’s convoy entered the city, a welcome deserving only of a well-striped warrior — Dike. The President was honoured with the foremost traditional title — Dike Si-mba of Anambra — mighty warrior/hero.

Earlier, he had inaugurated the Emeka Anyaoku Institute of International Studies and Diplomacy at Nnamdi Azikwe University; the new Government House, and Solution Funcity.

Speaking at Ekwueme Square, a stadium, where an open meeting was held with an array of South-East leaders, opinion moulders and other citizens, President Tinubu thanked the people of Anambra for the warm welcome and their support.

“I know our diversity will lead to prosperity.

“South-East, I salute your enterprise, your innovation, and commitment to progress,” the President said.

In his address, Governor Chukwuma Soludo thanked the President for honouring the state by visiting. He said the last state visit by any President was in 2012.

He commended the President for having the courage to take tough decisions that were already turning around the economy and encouraged the President to stay the course.

The governor said his support for President Tinubu was rooted in ideology and principle and described the President as the “Professor of Federalism.”

Chief Emeka Anyaoku, former Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, also thanked the President, underscoring his expansiveness, accommodating, and fatherly disposition.

The significance of the President’s domestic trips is the exigency of solidarising, as well as of building bridges and fostering unity. Nigerians across the country can see, feel, and hear their President in the flesh. He comes to them with words of hope, encouragement, understanding, compassion, and action.

The President has shown time and time again that he is the leader that Nigeria sorely needs at this time to mend the fault lines, the fissures, and to disentangle the national antinomy.

Leadership is by example. It is in the doings. It is in the results. Little wonder Nigerians across all artificial aisles are rallying towards the President. The ability to bring people together, regardless of any unnatural boundaries, is the great stuff of leadership.

President Tinubu epitomises this outlier quality of leadership.

Fredrick Nwabufo is Senior Special Assistant to the President on Public Engagement

The Ogun State government has renamed the newly refurbished MKO Abiola Stadium, Abeokuta, as MKO Abiola Sports Complex following the addition of new facilities in the structure ahead of the 22nd National Sports Festival (NSF).

The stadium previously had only a football pitch and an athletics track, but it now boasts a 50-metre Olympic-size swimming pool, basketball, tennis, and handball courts, a new digital scoreboard, a tartan track, as well as a hybrid football turf.

Explaining the decision to add new structures to the complex, Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, said that hosting the NSF has helped to revive many of the state’s sporting facilities, driving the sporting ecosystem and boosting the GDP of the Gateway State.

“Before the NSF, we planned to rename the MKO Abiola Stadium to MKO Abiola Sports Complex because the edifice now has what it takes to be considered a sporting complex. The stadium now boast an Olympic-size swimming pool, a tartan track, a digital scoreboard and floodlights, tennis, basketball, and handball courts, with a VVIP seat that can accommodate 150 guests at a time. We have spent a lot to put our facilities in good shape, and we believe that beyond the NSF, we want to ensure that we build a sporting ecosystem that can improve our GDP in the state.”

Governor Abiodun highlighted the positive impact of the NSF, noting that the Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has chosen Ogun State to host the 2025 U-18 and U-20 African Championships in July, after initially awarding it to Algeria.

“This is what we envisioned when we decided to bid for the NSF, and now, the results have started coming on board. We look forward to such events soon so that Ogun State can become part of the global sporting ecosystem,” he said.

He added that bidding for and hosting the NSF was an intentional venture by the government aimed at improving infrastructure and creating a sports economy for the state.

“Ogun’s business circle will experience a bumper harvest during the event, with major hotels fully booked and petty traders making brisk businesses,” he said.

[Guardian]

The rector, Nigerian College of Aviation Technology (NCAT), Dr Danjuma Ismaila, has raised the alarm that the institution’s poor wage profile is triggering talent loss in the institution.

The Rector, who disclosed this during the oversight visit of the College by the chairman of the House Committee on Aviation, Tajudeen Abisodun, said the institution’s wage is critically low and demotivating for personnel.

He, however, said poor wages were responsible for the continued exit of trained professionals to other agencies offering better remuneration packages in the sector.

The Rector further seized the opportunity to appreciate the generous commitment shown by Festus Keyamo, the Minister of Aviation, and other predecessor administrations in the success story of the institution.

He appealed for the continued kind assistance of the committee in ensuring the improvement of budgetary allocations and funding for the college.

On his part, the chairman of the Committee, Hon. Abisodun, also bemoaned the poor wage profile of NCAT staff.

This, he attributes, as a major reason for the prevalent attrition and poaching of her trained personnel by sister agencies and the industry sector with higher salary remunerations.

He assured of his committee’s commitment to supporting the college in addressing its major challenges.

While commending the Rector, he also assured that his committee would carefully study the detailed presentation made by the Rector to ascertain city areas of interventions.

The Committee members were impressed with the facilities and infrastructure in the college. The Chairman further assures of the committee’s regular interface with the Rector to meet necessary needs of the college.

[Leadership]

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) on Thursday confirmed that Nigeria has fully repaid the $3.4 billion COVID-19 financial support it got under the Rapid Financing Instrument (RFI).

But despite the confirmation, the government is still indebted to the multilateral organisation to the tune of about $30m, which is the Special Drawing Rights (SDR) charges, Daily Trust can report.

The $30m equivalent of N48.2bn would be paid annually over a period of four years as charges on the loan. This would amount to over N190bn.

The SDRs are supplementary foreign exchange reserve assets defined and maintained by the IMF which represent a claim to currency held by IMF member countries for which they may be exchanged.

There have been mixed reactions over the claim of the full repayment of the IMF loan which the presidency has widely celebrated.

Senior Special Assistant to the President, Otega Ogra had posted a widely circulated post on X (formerly Twitter) account sharing the good news of Nigeria’s exit from the IMF debtors’ list.

He said this was a signal of “Discipline, reform and strategic reset by the Tinubu-Shettima administration in restructuring our finances to enable us to be better placed for a prosperous future.”

Daily Trust reports that the announcement was coming amidst criticism of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration over the rising domestic and external debts.

Nigeria’s total domestic and external debts amount to over N144.67 trillion as of December 2024, according to the Debt Management Office (DMO).

IMF clears the air

In a statement yesterday on behalf of the IMF’s Resident Representative for Nigeria, Mr. Christian Ebeke cleared the air on the repayment of the RFI loan facility, which was disbursed in April 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic.

During the pandemic, the global economy was almost shut down resulting in sharp fall in oil prices, slowdown of the economic activities and drastic drop in revenues to the government.

Having cleared the principal amount, the federal government is now expected to pay the interests and charges on the loan estimated to be about N200bn.

IMF said, “As of April 30, 2025, Nigeria has fully repaid the financial support of about US$3.4 billion it requested and received in April 2020 from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) under the Rapid Financing Instrument to help alleviate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and the sharp fall in oil prices.”

It however explained that Nigeria would continue to make annual payments of approximately $30 million in SDR-related charges over the next few years.

These charges, it stated, accrued from the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings and its cumulative SDR allocation.

The statement added, “Nigeria is expected to honor some additional payments in the form of Special Drawing Rights charges of about US$30 million annually.

“In line with the IMF’s Articles of Agreements, these charges, levied at the SDR interest rate, which is updated at the beginning of each week, apply to the difference between Nigeria’s SDR holdings (SDR 3,164 million) (US$4.3 billion) and its cumulative SDR allocation (SDR 4,027 million) (US$5.5 billion) The net payment of the charges stops when Nigeria’s SDR holdings reach the cumulative allocation amount.”

Debt burden persists despite IMF’s loan repayment

As stated earlier, Nigeria’s public debt of N144 trillion as of December 2024 remains a source of concerns for stakeholders and observers.

This amount has been projected to grow significantly before the end of the year following the 2025 budget deficit of N13 trillion.

With the sharp drop in oil prices in recent times, there are indications that the federal government would borrow more to bridge the deficit.

Already, the federal government is indebted to many multilateral organisations like the IMF, World Bank, African Development Bank (AfDB), among others.

Last year, Nigeria spent $4.66bn on external debt servicing, a significant increase from $3.5bn in 2023 with the multilateral creditors accounting for the largest portion at $2.62bn or 56 per cent of the total.

In addition, Nigeria has continued to take fresh loans from the World Bank with over $8bn secured from the organisation alone.

‘Not yet Uhuru’

With the amount of loan facilities yet to be repaid and with more facilities in the offing especially with the World Bank, economic analysts say it is not yet Uhuru for the government.

They particularly cautioned against being carried away by the loan repayment with the IMF and stressed the need to double down especially on foreign loans to ensure debt and fiscal sustainability.

‘Nothing has changed’

Emeritus Professor of Economics, Ndubisi Nwokoma believes nothing has really changed as there were other loan facilities still hanging on the neck of the federal government.

He said, “That has not changed the big picture, the big picture is still not a good or desired position.

Government is still borrowing, we are indebted to many multilateral institutions, we are indebted to AfDB, World Bank, we are taking bilateral loans, so it doesn’t significantly change our debt profile and with the drop in the price of oil, it makes it more difficult for government to stay without borrowing, even though it has been made easier by the removal of fuel subsidy and the harmonisation of the foreign exchange market.

“This had made it easier for the government in terms of public finance and not to be under serious pressure, if there were still fuel subsidy the fall in price of fuel would have been a very big blow on public finance because basically we are talking about public finance, government has much money to play around with, so the triple down effect on the economy is not very strong, but in terms of fiscal sustainability for government, it’s an improvement.

“So nothing has changed on the part of the common man or the economy or inability to get the economy out of the woods but public finance, fiscal sustainability is being assisted with those earlier policies that took place in 2023 but drop in price of crude may make us go back to our borrowing ways, so not much has really changed.”

‘FG deserves commendation’

An economist at the African School of Economics in Abuja, Dr. Oluseye Ajuwon commended the government for clearing the IMF loan.

He stated that there is no nation that exists without borrowing. However, Nigeria must borrow “responsibly.”

“There is no nation that can do without borrowing, not even a developed country not to talk of a struggling economy like ours. However, we need to borrow responsibly.

“Borrowing responsibly simply means borrowing money for a project that will be able to repay the loan by itself, and spending the loan judiciously.”

‘We need to double down’

Dr. Muda Yusuf, Director/CEO, Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprises (CPPE) said the repayment of the IMF loan signaled the commitment of the government to reduce its debt burden.

“However, I think we need to continue to double down on the reduction of our debts because given the current debt level and particularly given the current level of our debt service commitment and the amount of resources we are committing to debt service, I think it will help our fiscal sustainability, our debt sustainability if we work towards reducing the totality of our debt exposure especially external debt because from all indications, external debts are much more difficult to manage and service than domestic debts,” he stated.

According to him, the focus must be on doubling down both domestic and external debt. 

“So the payment of these components of debt is a welcome development, it will in some sense reduce the burden of outstanding debts and we need to do a lot more of that and going forward, as much as possible we should reduce our exposures, especially to foreign debts.

“And utilisation of debts is also important, debts must be committed to projects that would enhance the productivity in the economy and that should be our priority and that is speaking largely to our infrastructure stock.

“We should prioritise infrastructure investment in our debt exposure, which is extremely important. I am also hoping that our fiscal consolidation objectives will also improve and will also be better achieved with the current tax reform.

“We expect that the revenue administration would be much more efficient without necessarily putting additional burden on the citizens or businesses. If we are able to do that, then the pressure to incur more debt would reduce. We need to ensure that the cost of domestic debts is as low as it can be as well.”

[DailyTrust]

Amid ongoing defections to the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Shehu Sani has warned that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu could secure a landslide victory in the 2027 elections unless Nigeria’s opposition parties unite in a coalition.

Speaking to journalists in Abuja on Thursday, Sani—who represented Kaduna Central in the 9th Senate—argued that internal divisions are weakening the opposition and making it impossible to challenge the ruling party effectively.

“There is no way you can evict a ruling party without a coalition,” he said.

“Only through unity can opposition parties set aside narrow interests for the greater good of democracy.”

Sani pointed out that despite public calls for collaboration, key opposition parties remain uninterested.

“The SDP, PDP, Labour Party, and NNPP have all distanced themselves from coalition talks. If they head into the election disjointed, APC will likely win by a landslide.”

He added that the opposition’s failure to form an alliance in 2023 contributed to Tinubu’s victory and warned that history may repeat itself.

According to Sani, Nigeria’s political landscape lacks strong ideological boundaries, making party-switching easy and frequent.

“Parties are just platforms to pursue personal ambitions. Their manifestos are almost identical, and names are the only things that differentiate them.”

Sani dismissed the notion that Tinubu is responsible for protecting opposition parties from implosion.

“It is not Asiwaju’s job to keep opposition parties intact. They must do the hard work of resolving internal issues and retaining their members.”

The former senator also predicted more defections to the APC in the coming months, citing unresolved leadership crises in the PDP.

“You can’t function in a party with two national secretaries or factions fighting over primaries. It creates uncertainty for governors, senators, and other aspirants who won’t know which side to align with,” he said.

He concluded that unless the opposition gets its act together, Nigeria may drift into a de facto one-party state—not by law, but by default.

[DailyPost]

Grammy nominee and multiple awards winner, David Adeleke aka Davido has explained that he didn’t imagine he was going to become a global star at the the initial stage of his career.

Davido made this known in a recent chat with Apple Music during the promotion of his fifth album entitled ‘5ive.’

“Never imagined it here. Forget it. I’ll be lying to you. Never imagined it. So when things were just happening over time, we were just taking in the strides like, “Damn, this is getting lit.” We sold out 1,000. We sold out 2,000. Damn, we sold out 30, 40… Yeah, so it’s never really… I feel like every successful person that attains a great level of success can’t explain the feeling. You know what I’m saying?” he said.

Intensifying on the feeling, the father of four said, “I think just generally in life when good things are happening so quick, you don’t realize. I actually remember the first time I was sitting in front of my laptop opening Logic and sitting down like, “Damn, I want to make it. I actually want to be a musician. This is what I want to do,” he began.

Continuing, he said, “Watching MTV Cribs, watching people go on tour. I was a big YouTuber. I used to watch YouTube a lot. I used to watch vlogs. Tour vlogs, so it’s like Soulja Boy vlogs, just people about just being popular and being a star. I used to watch all that stuff, so I saw it transition into reality for me. Do you understand?

“From the beginning, from showing my friends the culture, showing my friends like, “Come listen to this Nigerian music.” And then, actually falling in love with the genre, falling in love with music, knowing that my family’s not going to accept this, but I’ll still do it anyway, not knowing that I’ll be one of the ones to pioneer it.”

[TheNation]

At least N20.03bn was spent on the maintenance and operations of the Presidential Air Fleet from July 2023 to December 2024, The PUNCH reports.

This was as the new presidential jet purchased last year has been flown to South Africa for refurbishment and upgrades.

Findings by our correspondents from GovSpend, a civic tech platform that tracks and analyses the Federal Government’s spending, revealed that for 2024, the payouts amounted to N14.15bn, representing 71 per cent of the allocations for the fleet in the 2024 fiscal year.

Most disbursements were labelled ‘Forex Transit Funds,’ usually funds allocated for foreign exchange requirements to facilitate international transactions and engagements. 

For the Presidential Air Fleet, such funds cover expenses related to operations abroad, including fuel purchases, maintenance or services in foreign currencies.

“When aircraft on the fleet are abroad, payments are often made in U.S. dollars or another foreign currency to ensure we have uninterrupted operations,” a government official explained.

In July 2023, N1.52bn was disbursed in two tranches of N846m and N675m for ‘Presidential air fleet forex transit funds.’

The following month, N3.1bn was disbursed in three tranches of N388m, N2bn, and N713m for the same item. In November of that year, N1.26bn was released to the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account.

The first overhead for 2024 was in March, when N1.27bn was disbursed twice, amounting to N2.54bn. The transit account received N6.35bn in April, N4.97bn in May and N210m in July.

In August, N5.60bn was released in six separate disbursements, the highest frequency that year. The monies were paid into the Presidential Air Fleet naira transit account, including a N168m transfer made on September 11 and 19. From December 7 to 24, 2025, N469.72m was released in eight tranches.

In April, the transit account received N5.08bn; this came around the same time the President was on a two-nation tour to the Netherlands and Saudi Arabia.

Although Tinubu arrived in the Netherlands in a state-owned Gulfstream AeroSpace 550 Jet, the aircraft could not proceed to Saudi Arabia due to unspecified technical problems. He reportedly continued his journey on a chartered private plane.

At the time, the President’s Boeing 737 business jet was undergoing maintenance. It was later replaced with an Airbus A330 purchased for $100m in August through the service-wide votes.

The nearly 15-year-old plane, an ACJ330-200, VP-CAC (MSN 1053), is “spacious and furnished with state-of-the-art avionics, customised interior and communications system,” Tinubu’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, said, adding “it will save Nigeria huge maintenance and fuel costs, running into millions of dollars yearly.”

However, The PUNCH observes that since February 2025, the President has been using a San Marino-registered BBJ (REG: T7-NAS).

Sources who spoke to one of our correspondents confirmed that the primary aircraft had been flown to South Africa to change its livery to reflect the office of the President.

“The last I heard is that they took it abroad, I think to South Africa, to change the body design. You know it doesn’t have the green white green,” one source said, asking to remain anonymous.

“It’s not only the body paint. I learned they are doing some refurbishment on it,” a second official stated.

The new Airbus A330 is just one of several aircraft currently on the Presidential Air Fleet, arguably one of Africa’s largest, with around 11 aircraft of various makes and models.

Until August, it comprised the 19-year-old B737-700 (BBJ) and a 13-year-old Gulfstream Aerospace G550. The BBJ was acquired during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo at $43m, but became a money guzzler as it aged.

The presidential fixed-wing fleet includes a Gulfstream G500, two Falcon 7Xs, a Hawker 4000, and a Challenger 605. Three of the seven fixed wings are reportedly unserviceable.

The rotor-wing fleet includes two Agusta 139s and two Agusta 101s, all operated by the Nigerian Air Force but supervised by the Office of the National Security Adviser.

Since 2017, budgetary allocations for the PAF have shown a growing trend, with one exception in 2020. The allocation for the fleet increased from N4.37bn in 2017 to N20.52bn in 2024, showing a 370 per cent rise in running costs. In 2022, maintenance expenses for each aircraft ranged from $1.5m to $4.5m annually.

In 2018, the fleet’s budget rose significantly by 66.13 per cent to N7.26bn, driven by a substantial increase in capital project allocations while maintaining similar levels for recurrent costs. This upward trajectory continued into 2019, slightly increasing the total allocation to N7.30bn.

The exception came in 2020, when the budget dropped by nearly 7 per cent to N6.79bn, primarily due to decreased overhead costs, a reflection of the global economic impacts of lockdowns and disruptions in operations.

By 2021, however, the budget surged dramatically to N12.55bn—a record increase of 84.83 per cent from the previous year. The 2022, 2023 and 2024 appropriation acts earmarked N12.48bn, N13.07bn and N20.52bn respectively.

On his way to the 2024 Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit in Samoa, a foreign object damaged the cockpit windscreen of Vice President Kashim Shettima’s Gulf Stream aircraft during a stopover at JFK Airport in New York.

According to Lee Aerospace, manufacturers of Gulfstream jet windshields, these thick, multilayered structures comprise varying layers of glass and transparent acrylic, built to withstand collisions with a 2 kg object.

However, damage to the windshield must have affected its inner layers. While specific prices for replacement can vary based on supplier, labour rates and regional costs, estimates suggest that a single windshield replacement for a G550 can range from $50,000 to $70,000 for part and labour costs.

In an interview with our correspondent, the General Secretary of the Aviation Round Table, Olumide Ohunayo, blamed the meteoric rise in the allocations for the PAF on the age of some of the fleet’s aircraft, the declining value of the naira, and the Nigerian Air Force’s “commercial use” of aircraft.

Ohunayo explained, “The cost will definitely increase over the years because, for one, this issue of the naira against the dollar. As the naira keeps falling to the dollar, we will see a rise in cost because most of the costs of training crew and engineers and replacing aircraft parts are all in dollars.

“Also, some of these aircraft are not new. The older the aircraft, the higher the cost of maintenance and operation. Lastly, during these past years, terrorism and insecurity have increased in Nigeria, which has also affected the cost of insuring the aircraft.”

The Executive Chairman of the Centre for Anti-Corruption and Open Leadership, Debo Adeniran, argued that the administration’s spending habits were contrary to Nigerians’ expectations of frugality.

“What we are getting from this administration is the opposite of our expectations. We thought we would have an administration that would be frugal in spending and very meticulous at implementing its budget. But what we are getting is an administration that has fallen in love with profligacy, that doesn’t see anything wrong in living big in a poverty-stricken nation.

Adeniran further said, “It is a reenactment of the Shagari administration, whereby they bought the biggest Mercedes Benz and made themselves as comfortable as possible without considering how much the masses are suffering.

“So when you look at a Vice President saying he’s not travelling [to Samoa] again because there was a splinter on the windscreen of his private aircraft. Why should that be the case?

“First and foremost, we need to be represented at such an international meeting, where we should be well represented by the first two citizens of this country. He abandoned that, which means we would have lost certain representation that we deserve at that forum. Two, money will have been spent on advance parties that went ahead of the Vice President. But he abandoned the journey altogether.”

The CEO of Centurion Security Limited, John Ojikutu, justified the figure considering all related expenses.

“That’s not a big deal. If they are going to go and repair, particularly for C-checks, it’s always around that range. They will fly it abroad, but fuel, catering, and hotel bills are also involved; pilots will fly it back, and the figure likely includes far more than the direct cost of repairing the aircraft,” Ojikutu explained.

Meanwhile, the President’s Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, argued that the new Airbus 330 aircraft and the costs of maintaining the air fleet are not for the President’s comfort but in the interest of Nigerians.

“It’s not President Tinubu’s plane; it belongs to the people of Nigeria, it is our property…the President did not buy a new jet; what he has is a refurbished jet – it has been used by somebody else before he got it, but it is a much newer model than the one President Buhari used.

“The one President Buhari used was bought by President Obasanjo some 20 years ago. There was a time when the President went to Saudi Arabia, and the plane developed some problems. The President had to leave the Netherlands with a chartered jet.

“Nigerians should try to prioritise the safety of the President. I’m not sure anybody wishes our President to go and crash in the air. We want his safety so that he can hand it over to whoever wants to take over from him,” Onanuga said.

The presidential aide said he discussed with the NSA, Nuhu Ribadu, on the faulty plane (Boeing 737 jet), and he said the maintenance costs were excessive because of the age of the aircraft, hence the need for another plane.

[Punch]

A frightening total of 9,757 migrants died in 2024 while trying to reach Spain by sea. The Spanish migration group, Camindo Fronteras –Walking Borders, reported that 1,538 of the victims were children and 421 women. These were migrants heading for Spain alone. There are the larger numbers trying to reach other European countries. There are the hordes dying in the Sahara Desert.

Yet, such dangers are merely the beginning of uncertain migration for 304 million persons worldwide.

So, why these phenomena? What local and international laws protect migrants? What local protections are available for Nigerians abroad? These, under the broad theme of ‘The Rights of Nigerian Migrants Abroad’ were some of the issues I was invited to address on April 30, 2025.

The organisers, including the Federal Ministry of Labour and Employment, and German foundations like GIZ, German Cooperation and the Nigeria-German Centre, were particular about youths.

I told the audience that all humans have localities where they usually live. But once they move from that to another distinctively different geographical locality, they might be engaging in one form of migration or another.

To me, migration is a natural phenomenon. I also recalled that some major Nigerian cities like Jos which has tin mines , Enugu that sits on coal mines, Kano with its commerce, and the twin cities of Lagos and Badagry with fine ports and commerce, were largely built by migrants.

So, generally, a migrant is a person who changes his usual country of residence irrespective of legal status or reasons for the relocation. Therefore, the fact that a person is regarded or classified as a legal or an illegal migrant, does not change the fact that he is a migrant.

My primary focus was on migrant labour. For this, I took refuge in the UN special agency, the International Labour Organisation, ILO, which states that: “A migrant worker is a person who is to be engaged, is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national.”

I explained that the primary challenges faced by Nigerian migrants is not the lack of protective local and international procedures, laws, conventions and regulations. It is their violation.

For instance, many Nigerian women employed as domestic servants, especially in countries like Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate and Iraq are not recruited in accordance with established processes. Rather, illegal rings of local agents carry out the recruitment in collaboration with similar rings in the receiving countries. So, many of these women end up as modern slaves with no rights whatsoever, including the right to resign or return to Nigeria. The irony is that many of these victims actually pay to be recruited into such slavery, while authorities in both the sending and receiving states look the other way.

There is also the ceaseless brain drain of professionals. For instance, there are over 20,000 Nigerian doctors and 10,000 Nigerian academics in the United States alone. Today, given the unpredictable flip flops of the Trump administration, the stay and well-being of some of them, cannot be guaranteed even under international law.

I explained that the Nigerian Constitution guarantees Nigerians and migrants within its borders, all the major fundamental human rights guaranteed by the UN Fundamental Human Rights Charter.

Also, that the Labour Act provides for employment under virtually all conditions, including recruitment of Nigerians to work abroad.

The Act requires that to recruit for employment outside Nigeria, international agreements are required, so are duration of contract and return passages, and procedure prior to leaving Nigeria. Also required are special terms and conditions of contract, embarkation check, exemption from customs on repatriation and the right to be accompanied by family at employer’s expense.

Equally, the Act states that the Nigerian migrant worker has the right to enforce his rights in respect of any breach of any lawful contract made outside Nigeria.

It also provides that: “Whenever a contract made outside Nigeria has been executed in conformity with this Act, it shall be enforced in the same manner as a contract entered into under this Act.”

I also spoke on the Nigerian National Policy on Labour Migration 2014 which seeks to ensure decent treatment of migrants and their families, and the Nigeria Immigration Act which impacts on the employment of migrant workers.

The international laws, conventions and regulations, I explained, included the UN Human Rights Convention, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. Others include the ILO core conventions on Forced Labour, 1930; Freedom of Association, 1948; Right to Organise, 1949; Right to Collective Bargaining; Convention on Equal Remuneration, 1951; Minimum Wage, 1973 Convention, 1973; Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, 1990 and the Convention Against the Worst Forms of Child Labour, 1999.

I explained that the Nigerian President cannot be everywhere in the world which is why an ambassador is appointed to represent him. So, just as the Nigerian Constitution makes it incumbent for the President to advance the welfare and security of every Nigerian, so also has the ambassador the duty to do same for all Nigerians in any given country he is posted. So, the Nigerian, anywhere in the world, has the right to report or call out any ambassador who neglects to do this. This, I said in reply to a question, has become far easier with the advent of the social media.

Mrs Remi Ihejirika, Programme Manager, Friedrch Ebert Stiftung, FES, pointed out policy gaps and incoherence between local needs and the international agenda. She called for the restructuring of of migration policies, and emphasized the need for a multi-stakeholder collaboration on migrant labour. She equally called for the establishment of networks to build coalitions which can protect groups like migrant workers and women.

Mrs Ihejirika lamented the phenomenon of casual work which destroyed basic employment relations, and fueled poverty and labour migration. She warned of the global rising tide of anti-immigration sentiments and the need for collective action.

Comrade Ismail Bello, Deputy General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, said there is the need for workers wherever they find themselves in the world to join and build unions as they are a powerful defence for the worker. He recalled that when Nigerians were attacked in South Africa, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, COSATU, rose to their defence.

The discussions were further enriched by Mrs Sandra Vermuijten-Alonge, GIZ-ZME Head of Programme; Wole Olubanji, also of GIZ; and Maureen Ovie, Head, Migrant Resource Centre.

The gathering showed that there is in Nigeria, an incredible knowledge on external migration which needs to be further coordinated in the interests of migrants, the country and humanity.