Two recent events in Abuja beamed the spotlight on the protracted and yet-to-be-won battle against corruption in Nigeria. The first was a conference and a report presentation by Chatham House, one of the world’s preeminent think tanks; the second was the unveiling of an initiative to promote transparency and accountability in Nigeria’s 774 local councils by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC). The attention and reflection offered by the two events were necessary and timely, especially in the context of the seeming dip in enthusiasm about anti-corruption in both political and popular consciousness in the country.

It is important to keep the fire of the anti-graft campaign burning as corruption remains the bane of the Nigerian society. The second part of the last sentence is a statement straight out of the inaugural address of President Olusegun Obasanjo at the dawn of this republic in 1999. Without a doubt, anti-corruption has been the most consistent feature of the last 25 years in Nigeria, even when we have also seen uneven emphasis across administrations. We have had a phalanx of laws, institutions, policies and initiatives devoted to checkmating graft in the country, and some significant progress has been made. But there is still much more to be done. In taking this necessary work forward, we need to expand the toolkit for tackling corruption in Nigeria.

I will share my highlights of the two events, interspersed with observations, then conclude with a few comments.

On 3^rd April, ICPC unveiled an initiative to deepen openness and probity in Nigeria’s local government areas (LGAs). The initiative is called the Accountability and Corruption Prevention Programme for Local Governments in Nigeria (ACPPLG) and will be run with the Centre for Fiscal Transparency and Public Integrity (CFTPI), a civil society organisation. In the main, this initiative is designed to nudge the local councils to comply with laws and policies mandating proactive disclosures of their finances and operations.

All the 774 LGAs will be assessed and ranked based on their performance in terms of public and pro-active disclosures in five broad categories: fiscal transparency, open procurement, human resources, citizens’ engagement, and control of corruption. These five categories have 27 sub-categories, ranging from proactive publication of annual budgets, budget implementation reports, revenue flows, annual audits, debt profiles to records of tenders, procurement and recruitments, staff nominal rolls, and policies on bribery, conflict of interests and whistleblowing and the existence of functional websites, social media accounts and records of interactive engagements with citizens.

I think this is a very important initiative. The local councils are the most critical tier of government in terms of service delivery. This is the tier of government that is not just the closest to the people but it is also where the presence and essence of government should be felt the most. This is hardly the case at the moment. The LGAs are technically the closest tier of government to the people but they are realistically the farthest from the people in terms of impact. Local elections are the least credible, the local officials are rarely accountable, and the local people are seldom involved in decision-making about local priorities and resource allocation. Where governance is needed the most is where it is the most broken. We need to reposition our local councils for them to effectively discharge the responsibilities entrusted to them in the Fourth Schedule of the 1999 Constitution and for them to deliver, like their counterparts elsewhere, on the promise of good governance embedded in the theory of decentralisation.

The 11 July 2024 ruling by the Supreme Court affirming that local councils should only be run by democratically-elected officials and compelling direct federation allocation to the LGAs remains a step in the right direction. But even if both conditions are fully met, they are not sufficient to bring about the needed development at the local level. Accountability and responsiveness will be critical. Free and fair elections and financial autonomy by themselves do not necessarily guarantee accountable, efficient, and responsive governance. This is where the initiatives by ICPC and others can bridge the gap.

The disclosures required by ICPC and on which LGAs will be assessed and ranked are already mandated in various statutes including the laws on freedom of information, public procurement, fiscal responsibility and others. Providing an incentive (through a league table) for LGAs to comply is a great idea that additionally serves three purposes: encouraging peer review/peer learning among the LGAs, reducing the incidence of malfeasance through openness, and empowering citizens with information that they can use to hold local officials to account.

I am aware that CFTPI has been publishing an index for the three tiers of government along these lines. But a ranking by ICPC, an organisation with investigative and prosecutorial powers and national reach, definitely will carry more weight. The partnership between the two organisations is the kind of strategic collaboration needed and a reinforcement of the desirability of a handshake between government and civil society.

It is also noteworthy that the Chairman of ICPC, Dr. Musa Aliyu, attended this event, alongside not just his directors but also the heads of key anti-corruption agencies such as the Code of Conduct Bureau (CCB), Fiscal Responsibility Commission (FRC), Nigerian Financial Intelligence Unit (NFIU), and the Public Complaints Commission (PCC)—all pledging support for the initiative and stating they would be tracking the processes and finances of LGAs to actualise the landmark and desirable ruling of the Supreme Court and in line with their mandates.

But ranking and threats are also not enough. It will be important to get the residents of the various LGAs to become invested in and committed to holding local officials to account and to have the applicable tools and the capacities to do so. The LGAs can publish all the required pieces of information on their websites and this might still not make much difference. The information on the websites might not make much meaning or be accessible to most of the people in the LGAs for instance. The point here is not to dismiss the importance of this critical transparency (and potentially investigatory) tool but to say that other things need to be layered on it, including capacity building and nurturing for community-based groups/local opinion leaders and even the local officials.

On its part, Chatham House hosted a conference in Abuja on March 19^th with the theme: “Renewing Nigeria’s Anti-Corruption Agenda—Pathways for Change and Reflections on 25 Years of Policy.” Not unexpectedly, Chatham House brought together the leading figures in the anti-corruption space in the country, from government to civil society, development partners and think tanks.

The agenda statement set the tone for the frank and insightful discussion that followed: “Over the past 25 years, Nigeria has developed a broad set of anti-corruption frameworks and institutions. Yet, corruption remains endemic at multiple levels of society, a reality that has corroded public trust in government, stunted economic growth, and weakened Nigeria’s external standing. Corruption’s resilience—despite the raft of legislation and government bodies created over the last quarter-century—continues to underscore the limitations of top-down policy and legislative responses.”  

The event was both reflective and forward-looking, and this was well-captured in the framing of the two sessions: “Taking Stock: 25 Years of Anti-Corruption Efforts in Nigeria”; “Looking Ahead: A Participatory, Multi-Level Approach to Anti-Corruption.” The various speakers and the participants highlighted the need to bridge the research and policy gap, to ensure comprehensive value-reorientation, to leverage technology to limit human contact, to focus on fighting corruption in all sectors and all tiers of society, to make it less difficult for those who want to do the right thing, to celebrate, protect and link integrity champions, to build enduring and resilient social movements, and to impose proper and context-meaningful sanctions for bad behaviours.   

The conference also marked the official unveiling of the 50-page research paper by an Associate Fellow of Chatham House’s Africa Programme, Dr. Leena Hoffmann. Entitled “Taking Action against Corruption in Nigeria—Empowering Anti-Corruption Role Models and Coalitions to Change Social Norms,” the paper argues for a normative, bottom-up and networked approach to strengthening the fight against corruption in the country. The conference and the paper were part of Chatham House’s Social Norms and Accountable Governance (SNAG) project, implemented by its Africa Programme since 2015 and supported by the MacArthur Foundation through the groundbreaking On Nigeria programme.

Using a behavioural and norms-based lens, the SNAG project conducted surveys and produced research papers to deepen the understanding of the depth of and the motivations for corruption in Nigeria. I find it interesting that Chatham House started its first major research with trying to understand why Nigerians partake in corruption but concluded the project with valuable insights into why some Nigerians resist corruption. As the report underscores (which is a confirmation of the work by organisations such as Accountability Lab that have been naming and praising integrity icons in the country), there are actually Nigerians who resist corruption, at a significant cost to their careers and sometimes to their safety. Doing the right thing has a cost, and the cost can be steep, but that has not been a deterrent to those who choose to be positive deviants.

One of the things we need to do is to recognise that such people exist, to continue to celebrate and protect them, and to reduce or even eliminate the cost of being upright, then hope that they can create a tipping point. The paper also argues that there is safety in numbers, and I think this is eminently sensible. Integrity icons and anticorruption champions within and outside government stand a better chance if they work together in “networked coalitions” and are supported with the necessary laws (such as a whistleblower law) and with strategic guidance on how to navigate the mines of the narrow path.

As stated earlier, there is an apparent sense of fatigue about anti-corruption in the country. This could be due to hopes raised and dashed by different administrations. Or because people have seen impunity go unpunished so often that they have become jaded or sceptical or even disillusioned. Whatever the reasons, it is important to keep alive the campaign to significantly reduce corruption in Nigeria. And in doing this, we will need to expand the toolkit of the anti-corruption crusaders as these two events affirm. We definitely need more than the disproportionate emphasis on law and order of the last 25 years. This is not to say we should undo the laws or slow down on enforcement/sanctions. No. But we need to spend more time on the not-so-sexy work of prevention, research and strategy.

We need to make it difficult for people to engage in corrupt practices by putting in place, and constantly strengthening, mechanisms and systems that checkmate corruption before it happens. Preventing corruption is not headline-grabbing but it is cheaper. We also need to significantly hike the cost of engaging in corrupt practices. As is often said: corruption is not a crime of passion but a crime of calculation—perpetrators do cost-benefit analysis and weigh their chances. Where the cost is low and the benefit is high, you know what will happen, especially where it doesn’t take much effort to undertake or conceal.  

Systems and laws do not implement or enforce themselves. They are implemented and enforced by humans whose actions are dictated, sometimes subliminally, by how they have been socialised. This is why it will also be critical to focus on how to change entrenched values that predispose people to, or drive, corrupt practices. Behaviours are what we see, more like the tip of an iceberg. Beneath behaviours are bigger and deeper elements: attitudes, belief systems and values. We need to dive deep to understand what is there.

So, merely telling people to change their behaviours through clever play with words or some fancy behavioural change campaign without addressing the values that define and motivate them may not amount to more than empty preachments. We need to surface the norms that drive action and know what buttons to press to make the difference. It is going to be some tough and persistent work, needing a lot of probing, nuance, rigour and reflection. But it is a necessary and worthwhile work, if the goal is to slay the monster of corruption in our country.

“When beggars die, there are no comets seen; heaven themselves blaze forth the death of princes” - spoken by Calpurnia, Julius Caesar’s wife, in William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.

At first, I took little interest in the Uromi massacre for obvious reasons. How many of such assaults on our sensibilities do we suffer on a daily basis? So, any time I come across them - incessantly - on social media, especially when the authors are kind enough to warn viewers to beware, I delete and move away! To maintain one’s good health in today’s Nigeria, one must learn to go to Afghanistan, as writers call it. Afghanistanism means avoiding unfortunate issues or one that could land someone in trouble while preoccupying oneself with innocuous issues, especially from far away lands, to maintain one’s sanity and keep out of trouble.

Another reason why I initially avoided Uromi was because I knew that after the uproar and outrage that greeted it, it would soon pass into oblivion like many others before it in our recent past. Ours, like I have repeatedly said, is a country of one scandal, one moment. Before Uromi, we had the Natasha versus Akpabio “he wants to f*ck me” scandal, which is still trending. As if that and the lady’s kangaroo suspension were not bad enough, another leg of the macabre dance was the plot to recall her from office. Recall that it was in that same Kogi state that the attempt, in 2018, to recall another senator, Dino Melaye “caput” on its head “yakata”, as they say.

The shenanigans of a vindictive recall process apart, the embarrassment of watching Kogi state officials fall one on top of the other devising all manner of machinations to keep Natasha away from her place of birth, despite her undisputable rights, under law, to freedom of movement, beggars belief! If sensible and reasonable persons still remain in the land of Yahaha Bello, this is the time for them to show up to be counted.

In the midst of the Natasha/Akpabio melodrama, a state of emergency was declared in Rivers state. An elected governor was removed - even though his election was fraught with mind-boggling irregularities - and a retired military officer was asked to take his place. The irony of the situation was lost on a president who was a pro-democracy activist and one of the arrowheads of the “military-must-go” struggle that cost ordinary as well as prominent Nigerians lives and limbs as well as properties and liberties.

In the last one week alone we have had Uromi, the sack of the Board and Management of the NNPC, the president himself jetting out to France for what they call a two-week working visit, a euphemism for what I am sure you know! By now Nigerians must have become adept at reading the lips of their presidents! To divert attention, the president gave the people something to cheer for in the clean sweep at the NNPC. This is the proverbial case of someone who poured honey in your mouth but farted into it as well!

As if that was not a mouthful, news also broke that the government had introduced N10,000 and N5,000 denominations into the economy. I was at the Ikeja Shopping Mall when someone suddenly screamed, “They have killed us o! Tinubu has introduced N10,000 and N5,000 denominations o!” The whole place immediately went dead. Who does not know the implications of such a move? Mercifully, the CBN was quick to declare the information as fake news!

So, you can see that it is not every news that you must hurriedly react to if you want to keep your blood pressure in check. For me, Uromi was one of those. I simply sighed, “Aaah, Uromi, the birthplace of the Enahoros - Anthony and Peter - is in the news for the wrong reasons” and moved on. Anthony Enahoro moved the historic “Independence Now” motion in the emerging Nigerian parliament in 1953 while his brother, Peter Enahoro aka Peter Pan, remains one of the country’s most celebrated journalists and writers.

Uromi also reminded me of the Yoruba “iromi”; in my native Owo (Ogho) language where the “u” vowel starts everything, it will be pronounced “uromi”. My people say that the iromi/uromi dancing on top of the river has a drummer dictating the tunes beneath the river. In other words, there is no smoke without a fire. The massacre at Uromi could not have happened if there were no underlying causes. Unfortunately as with all things Nigeria, Nigeria immediately happened to efforts to unravel the truth. Were they innocent hunters? Or were they terrorists masquerading as such? We may never know; I mean, we may all never come to an agreement as to who they actually were.

Returning to Calpurnia, the Fulani - and their Hausa foot-soldiers - are the “princes” of the Nigerian federation while the others, especially those from the Middle Belt down to the South, are the “beggars”, difficult as this is to swallow. That is why the torrents of mindless butchering of the “beggars” have neither commanded the attention of the government nor gingered it to action. Whereas any slight calamity that happens to the “princes”, no matter how minute when compared with the horrendous afflictions visited on the “beggars” in the Middle Belt down to the South, is quickly and squarely attacked and addressed to the satisfaction of the “princes”, who must not be offended.

With one example after another ad nauseum, ad infinitum, this has become not a mistake or oversight but a deliberate and deliberative cause of action. It is politics at work - vile politics that value votes to human lives. Questions have been asked, which must be answered. Were the victims of the Uromi massacre really hunters armed with dane guns, killing lions and elephants, and found with lots of cash on them? Were there no forests in the North where they came from that they had to travel down South? Were they appropriately documented with local authorities according to extant Forestry laws operating in those states?

Pardon me! Being an apostle of Peter Abelard, I ask questions so that I can understand. Says Abelard: “Nothing can be believed unless it is first understood”. Assuming they were terrorists as alleged - or they looked like one? Yes, there are laid down rules and regulations of bringing criminals to justice and self-help is itself a crime under our laws, but where criminality trumps the law again and again and the law lies prostrate, can we in clear conscience ask the people not to take their destiny into their own hands?

The very fact that vigilantes were set up under the nose of the government and were known to law means that the necessity for their operation has been established. The State has failed to protect its citizens. The citizens have been saddled with the duty of providing for themselves what the State has failed to provide. And this is the case, not only in Uromi but all over the country, including Kano where the unfortunate hunters were said to have originated from. And can we say, in clear conscience, that there have been no mistakes or unfortunate incidents in all those other places - even with the Federal Government’s security agencies? How many times have the Nigerian Air Force apologised for mistaking innocent villagers for terrorists and wiping them out in the process?

I did not watch the gory details of how the Uromi 16 met their end - and may never do because I cannot stand such spectacles. So, you may understand that I can never root for it - not even for my enemies. But, truth be told, Uromi is just one of such bestialities that is today a common occurrence all over the place. Once human essence is deprecated, any bestiality becomes sport. Ask them in Kosovo! Witness it in Rwanda! Have you forgotten Liberia and Sierra Leone?

That is why we must never fall into that pit; once we do, it is no longer a case of John Bunyan’s he that is down needs fear no fall. The further down we are; the farther still we fall. The more gory sights we witness every day, the more our sensibilities are dulled; moreso if the victims are people known to us. If we seek to address and redress this - which I think we should before we fall irretrievably into Thomas Hobbes’s state of nature - then, selectively serving justice is not the way to go. We shall be creating weightier problems if we travel that route.

Are we not aware of the perception in the Middle Belt and the South that the “princely” status of the North has prevented the criminals in its midst from being brought to book? What, then, is the remedy left for the victims? A skewed justice system that dispenses justice with fear and favour cannot serve the course of justice. If we cry for peace from now till Armageddon without serving justice, like Peter Tosh crooned, we shall only be wasting our time. Worse than Uromi lurks around the corner.

The symptoms of a failed state are there for us all to see. Non-state actors challenge the State for control and sovereignty over its territory. Citizens have taken over tasks that the government is statutorily assigned to perform. Citizens’ confidence in the government is at its lowest ebb. Poverty, criminality, and corruption bestride the polity like a colossus. In the face of all of these, the judiciary, touted as the last hope of the common man, lies prostrate.

Google says the symptoms of a failed state include “the presence of an insurgency, extreme political corruption, overwhelming crime rates suggestive of an incapacitated police force; an impenetrable and ineffective bureaucracy, judicial ineffectiveness, military interference in politics…”. Which of these is not present in our country today? In the same way Rome was not built in a day, our problems did not just spring up in 2023 but they have steadily and stealthily crept upon us, right from Independence, like a thief in the night (Proverbs 6: 6 - 11).

If you think what we experience today is the worst, note that it doesn’t get better here; it gets worse. Our best years are always behind us. It promises to remain so until the people gain the class consciousness that victim-on-victim violence is not the solution. The repraisals threatened by misguided Northern youths fit into that narrative. The oppressors are not touched and the oppression of the oppressed is not mitigated. Instead, we have a vicious cycle of people who should forge a common front to fight their oppressors leaving the oppressors and fighting to liquidate one another, as was the case with the enemies of Jehoshaphat fought to liquidate one another without Jehoshaphat himself lifting a finger (2 Chronicles 20: 20-37).

Poverty of ideas, more than the poverty of substance, is the bane of the common man in Nigeria. Their day of liberty comes when they learn to loan one another commonsense.

With a heart weighed down by sorrow, His Excellency, former Vice President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar, laments the passing of his long-serving aide and confidant, Mr. Jerry Vampa.

Mr. Vampa, a native son of Michika in Adamawa State, was not merely an employee but a steadfast companion on the arduous journey of politics. Their paths first crossed more than 35 years ago, when Jerry, having distinguished himself at the Nigeria Television Authority (NTA), Yola, in the erstwhile Gongola State, answered the call to service and joined the budding political voyage of the Waziri Adamawa.

In a solemn message conveyed through the Atiku Media Office in Abuja on Saturday, April 5, 2025, the former Vice President expressed a deep and personal grief at the loss of the man affectionately known to all as “Uncle Jerry.”

“Uncle Jerry,” Atiku reminisced, “was the embodiment of humility and warmth. To all who knew him, he was truly everyone’s uncle—a kind spirit, gentle in manner and generous in heart. He was with me from the very beginning, a living archive of my political odyssey. In him, we found not only dedication, but also serenity, loyalty, and quiet strength. My heart is broken. His absence will be deeply felt.”

Among colleagues in the Atiku Media Office, Uncle Jerry was a beloved figure whose jovial nature and unwavering commitment earned him universal affection and respect.

“He shall be remembered,” the statement continued, “for his unwavering fidelity to duty, his remarkable constancy of spirit, and his profound passion for service. Uncle Jerry leaves behind a legacy etched in dedication and friendship, one that shall not fade with time.”

The Waziri Adamawa extends his heartfelt condolences to the bereaved family, the people of Michika, and all who had the privilege of crossing paths with the late Mr. Vampa.

In prayerful reflection, Atiku beseeches the Almighty to grant eternal repose to the soul of Uncle Jerry and to bestow upon his family and loved ones the strength and solace needed to endure this great loss. May his memory remain a light to all who mourn him.

Signed:
Paul Ibe
Atiku Media Office
Abuja

The leadership battle within the Labour Party took a new turn on Friday after the Supreme Court set aside a previous ruling that recognized the Anambra convention, which ratified the re-election of Julius Abure’s National Working Committee.

In a unanimous judgment, the five-member panel of the Supreme Court overturned the Court of Appeal’s decision, which had recognized Abure’s leadership. The Court emphasized that matters concerning party leadership are internal affairs, and as such, the judiciary does not have jurisdiction over them. The Court also noted that based on the submissions presented, Abure’s tenure had expired, and as a result, it dismissed the cross-appeal filed by Abure’s faction of the party.

While media outlets widely reported that the Supreme Court had sacked Abure, the Labour Party leadership quickly issued a statement to clarify that the judgment had been misinterpreted. National Publicity Secretary of the LP, Obiora Ifoh, responded in Abuja, praising the judgment as a validation of the party’s position that political matters are internal affairs.

Later, the party held a press conference where Ifoh reiterated that the judgment did not mean the dismissal of Abure. He emphasized that the Supreme Court’s ruling upheld previous judgments from the High Court and Court of Appeal, affirming that party structures, including the leadership, should be decided internally by the party.

“The Supreme Court judgment didn’t sack Labour Party National Chairman, Julius Abure. Rather, it rightly upheld the preceding and accumulated High Court and appeal court judgments upholding the immutability of responsibility of Labour Party structures to choose its leaders,” Ifoh clarified.

He pointed out that the judgment also did not negate the Appeal Court ruling in Labour Party vs Ebiseni and others, which reaffirmed Abure’s leadership as valid and subsisting.

“The judgment is still valid and subsisting and has not been appealed,” Ifoh stated. He also underscored that Abure remains the Labour Party National Chairman and that the party’s constitution outlines who has the authority to call national conventions and meetings.

LP’s National Legal Adviser, Kehinde Edun, further clarified that the Court’s statement did not imply Abure’s tenure had expired. He explained that the judgment only discussed the general principles of political party leadership, emphasizing that once a term ends, the official can either step down or seek re-election. Edun refuted the claim that the Court had called for a caretaker committee, stating that the Labour Party constitution does not recognize such committees.

Deputy National Chairman of the Labour Party, Ayo Olorunfemi, also dismissed critics of Abure’s leadership, emphasizing that the party’s constitution does not allow for caretaker committees. He vowed that Abure would remain in office until his tenure ended in 2028, mocking those who spread false reports about his removal.

Meanwhile, the Acting National Chairman of the Nigerian Labour Congress Political Commission, Prof. Theophilus Ndubuaku, has hailed the judgment of the Supreme Court.

“We always know a day like this will come. We have done everything to give Abure a soft landing for him to leave the party leadership quietly in vain.

“But with this judgement, he has no choice than to leave,” he told The PUNCH.

On how the NLC will handle the affairs of the party when Abure steps down, Ndubuaku said some members who were permanent members on the board of the LP would set up a caretaker panel.

Also reacting, the National Caretaker Committee of the Labour Party, supported by figures like former presidential candidate Peter Obi and Governor Alex Otti, welcomed the Supreme Court ruling as a victory for the rule of law.

The committee’s chairman, Senator Nenadi Usman, described the judgment as a significant step forward for Nigerian democracy. She called for unity within the party, urging members to focus on advancing the Labour Party’s mission of creating a just, equitable, and people-centered Nigeria.

“The Labour Party remains one indivisible family, steadfast in its mission to create a New Nigeria founded on justice, equity, and people-centred governance,” Usman said, encouraging party members to stay committed to democratic principles during the transition.

[NaijaNews]

Bread is a staple food for many in Northern Nigeria, serving as a primary breakfast choice across diverse ethnic, linguistic, and cultural groups. With bakeries operating in nearly every state, the industry is vital to both regional and national economy.

According to Statista.com (a global data and business intelligence platform), Nigeria’s bread market is projected to generate $18.81 billion in revenue by 2025, with an annual growth rate of 11.04% (CAGR 2025-2030), revenue surged by 14.3% compared to 2023.

In recent years, the price of flour, bread’s key ingredient skyrocketed, reaching over NGN 80,000 per bag in markets across Kano and other northern states. This forced bakeries to raise prices to cover production costs. However, flour prices have since dropped significantly.

Despite this, bread prices remain stubbornly high, sparking concerns among Kano residents.

Investigating the issue, DAILY POST conducted a market survey at Singa Market, a major food distribution hub in Kano and Northern Nigeria.

Flour prices have dropped, but bread prices haven’t

In an interview, a flour distributor in Kano, Usaini Rabiu confirmed the price drop. “Since mid-2024, flour prices have fallen significantly. We now sell a bag for NGN 55,000 to NGN 56,000. There is ample supply, and all major companies are producing. We urge retailers to pass these reductions on to consumers.”

A price check in various stores within the market confirmed this claim. Following this, we visited a well-known bakery in Kano to understand why bread prices had not adjusted accordingly.

A bakery manager, speaking anonymously, insisted that their prices had already been reduced.

“A loaf that previously sold for NGN 1,300 now costs NGN 900, while the NGN 1,000 loaf is now NGN 700. We adjusted our prices as soon as flour costs dropped. However, I’m shocked to see bread being sold at inflated prices elsewhere.”

Middlemen under fire

The manager blamed middlemen for the price inconsistencies, saying “We sell a loaf to distributors for NGN 900, yet I see the same loaf selling for NGN 1,400 in retail shops. When I investigated, I found out that distributors sell to retailers for NGN 1,200, making a profit of NGN 300 per loaf—more than what we, the producers, make!”

A tea and bread vendor, Kamalu Ishaq, echoed this frustration. He lamented that despite flour prices dropping, bread prices have not followed suit.

“There has been no real price relief since flour costs spiked nearly two years ago. If we make any profit on bread, it’s barely NGN 100 per loaf. A NGN 1,000 loaf is sold to us at NGN 900 by distributors. When we complain, they just tell us to be patient, even though we can clearly see that flour prices have dropped.”

The blame game continues

The consistently high retail prices suggest that middlemen and distribution chains play a significant role in keeping bread costs elevated.

However, Abubakar Garba Indabawa, a bread distributor with years of experience, refuted this claim.

“Nowadays, bakeries require full payment upfront. Unlike before, when we could take bread on credit and pay after selling, we now buy at our own risk. The profit margin is minimal -usually no more than NGN 100 per loaf. For every NGN 10,000 worth of bread, distributors make NGN 1,000 in profit. In some cases, we don’t even earn that much.”

What’s the solution?

As this blame game continues, consumers—especially low-income earners bear the brunt. It remains unclear who is truly responsible for the price discrepancy.

Amid growing frustrations, there is a rising call for regulatory measures to ensure that reductions in essential commodity prices, such as flour, translate into lower costs for bread and other bakery products.

[DailyPost]

That Wednesday morning, the chickens came home to roost. Our governments don’t think methodically. Often they explain away consequences as inevitable. That was how our naira crashed and plunged everyone into deeper poverty. Good policies that are poorly thought through and implemented erratically. This time, there was no wiggle room. 

They would like to tell us what could have happened if the bridge was not fixed. Cars would have eventually fallen into the sea. So we must endure whatever comes with the repairs, no matter how inept. They would like to say the economy was more fractured than that bridge. But they won’t mention that a properly planned closure of the bridge will begin with better traffic enforcement on the alternative routes to mitigate the consequences on the already frayed citizens. They never acknowledge that failure to institute cushions before announcing drastic economic policies with wide-ranging impact is bad governance in itself, regardless of intentions. The bridge closure was a glimpse of our national life. 

That Wednesday’s traffic madness threw our mess into bold relief. 

Indeed the signs had been pasted for weeks. “But where is the independence bridge?” That was the question on many lips. The communication was poor. A bridge was to be closed for repairs. Neither the government nor the contractor bothered enough. When it was eventually closed, nobody was ready. The government that closed it wasn’t prepared. Their clumsiness made it seem like life was dependent on that short bridge. 

By 8am that hellish day, Victoria Island, Ikoyi, Lekki, and Lagos Island were grounded. Cars were running back to meet cars running forward. People were jumping down from panting stationary buses and starting to trek. Their faces said they didn’t believe they would get to their destinations. Then the rain came. 

By 11am, most offices had no workers. Many cars caught in the melee had run out of fuel. And those who underestimated the distances they had embraced with their feet were running out of breath. Soon, they would have the independence bridge etched on their minds. Lagos was accustomed to traffic turmoil, but that Wednesday, even for the initiated, it seemed surreal.

All through the madness, neither the police nor Lastma were anywhere to be found. Perhaps they were all stuck somewhere. On a day when a state of emergency could have been declared and soldiers sent in to move the traffic and restore order, the government was soundly asleep. 

If those who shut the bridge had an eye for consequences, they might have re-opened it immediately to relieve the city of the suffocation. Sick people were stuck. Health workers were trapped. But the engineers at the bridge started to break it. Perhaps having put thousands through the anguish, they might as well go through it once and for all. If likened to taking out a bad tooth without anaesthesia, having started, they were justified to continue and finish. 

When the minister of works, who, it appears, has no respect for environmental impact assessment assays, woke from his slumber, it was already sunset. Without thinking it through, he announced that the works be stopped and the bridge reopened. Perhaps he was worried that some aunties of the president would reach him to tell him that the minister had put them through hell. Perhaps the president was already screaming at him.

Unfortunately for the minister, his order for re-opening left him looking clueless. The bridge had been excavated and broken. The next morning, the governor stepped in to do damage control. He tendered a solid apology. He begged the public not to dwell in the blame game. It’s difficult to know between him and the minister who should get the kick in the groin. 

The bridge repairs were overdue. But had anyone been thinking about the people, arrangements would have been made to lessen the suffering. Lagos can put traffic officials, soldiers and policemen at every bottleneck and curtail the anticipated constipation. But the authorities slept and the city became an obstructed and tangled mess. They know how to prepare for the visit of the president, to prevent him getting trapped in traffic. But they couldn’t think about the people.

That fateful Wednesday, some people got to work at 4 pm. Bedraggled and famished. They hid in their offices till 11pm to avoid any contact with the scourge on their way home. But at midnight, they still ran into it. Many got back home at 5 am. Only to have their bath and start another sleepy uncertain journey back to the office. 

By the time the governor was rendering his apology for the previous day’s commotion, another maze was forming. Nothing had been done overnight. He politely asked the public to disregard the minister of works, suggesting that the Abuja man was at a remove from the consequences. He asked the people to brace for the disruptions to get a healthy bridge and avoid a calamity. Once again he asked for two whole months to fix the short bridge. 

After the governor left the scene, the minister appeared. He said he was sent by the president to sort out the bridge and the nefarious traffic. He said he was taking responsibility but didn’t avoid throwing his staff under the bus, saying he wasn’t informed of the closure and the repairs. He said the president was displeased. He said the Controller of Works wouldn’t go unpunished. The number of times he mentioned ‘Mr President’ left no one in doubt. The president wasn’t just on his neck, but the sulking president was perhaps angry with the governor too. During this appearance, the minister praised the governor for his effort in curbing the traffic before he arrived from Abuja. 

But before sunset, the minister returned. He announced the bridge must be re-opened the next day. “Before the close of work,” he said. Obviously, the president sent him back. Perhaps the governor’s stance had bruised the president’s ego. In his usual style, whenever he had to shield his boss’ tempestuousness, Umahi was ambiguous. He said by the next day, he would have effected a temporary fix that could become permanent. The same bridge he had planned to close for two months for a proper fix. At some point, he almost suggested that the temporary fix could even be a blessing in disguise. Tomorrow he might attribute the ‘miracle’ to Mr President. The same Umahi who had claimed he supervised the original engineering repair design was speaking like a peripatetic luxury bus medicine dealer. Effectively, the broken bridge will be patched up. 

A clash of egos in the end, possibly. Excruciating levity, flippancy and costly reversals, certainly. A country stumbling along. The brunt is always borne by the people. The bridge could be closed again next month. Umahi would again come with some mumbo jumbo.  The story of our country. 

•Kidnappers fed a newborn baby to their dogs in the presence of the kidnapped mother

WHAT occurred at Uromi, headquarters of Esan North East Local Government Area in Edo State on Thursday, March 27, could have befallen any other community in the heartbeat of the nation, given the prevailing circumstances, tension, and anger over the hair-raising operations of suspected herders in combination with abductors.

More than 24 other communities in Edo Central, Edo North, and Edo South senatorial districts have been sacked and under siege by criminally-minded herders from northern Nigeria.

The same could also have arisen in over 30 communities in Delta and Bayelsa States, where the residents, especially farmers, are terrified to go to farms because of some brazen Fulani herders who invade their farms, uproot crops they planted and feed their cows, rape women, and take the villagers hostage for ransom.

A few months ago, bewildered women stormed the palace of the Onojie of Uromi to vent their anger at the rising cases of kidnappings and killings.

The situation became so frightening in January that the Onojie of Uzea, Esan North East local government area, HRH Solomon Itoya Iluobe, declared that he did not want to see any Hausa/Fulani in their forests because of their atrocities.

”Our women go to their farms, they rape them, and at times they even set them ablaze. I have paid ransom three times to Fulani herdsmen; they kidnapped my elder sister, and they have also kidnapped two people from this place. Even last month, I paid a ransom.

“To even sleep in this place is by the grace of God Almighty. To access this road, you need security, which is a problem.

“I, as Onojie of Uzea, no longer want Fulani in my forests. They will kidnap us, keep us in our land, and we will pay a ransom. We are tired. I do not have a hand in Fulani, and anybody who has a hand in their staying in our forests should tell them to leave Uzea. We need security here so that one day we will not wake up and discover that we only have two people remaining in the Uzea Kingdom.”

Some weeks ago in Bayelsa State, where the deputy governor confirmed that several local governments were under siege by herders, mothers protested the destruction of their farmlands and rape by the prowling cattlemen.

In Delta, Edo, and Bayelsa States, the situation is as if herders plotted and intensified their operations in the first three months of this year to make life unbearable for the people, who have cried hoarse about their nightmares with the federal and state governments doing little to protect the citizens.

We are hunters, not terrorists — Survivors

However, last week’s incident in Uromi was ill-fated. A raging mob roasted alive 16 out of 27 persons of Hausa origin who identified themselves as hunters and were traveling from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to the northern part of the country for the Salah celebration on the supposition that they were kidnappers after finding a cache of arms and ammunition with them.

Some people argued that it was a transferred hostility. Two survivors of the Uromi attack who narrated their near-death experience said they were hunters from Kano State.

They said the rifles recovered by the vigilante group were hunting rifles, claiming they had licenses; however, the vigilante cluster accused them of being terrorists and lynched 16 of them, while five others escaped.

Concerned citizens have also pointed out that the people lynched were Hausa indigenes and not Fulani herders, who the Uromi people claimed were attacking farmers and kidnapping villagers for ransom. Eyewitnesses said more than 20 persons were in the trailer, but some Uromi indigenes helped some of them to escape lynching.

The whereabouts of arms, ammunition, and cash allegedly found are unknown

There is a controversy over the whereabouts of the arms and ammunition found with the victims, but what they saw with them were Dane guns.

A villager said the guns were with the police, but the police public relations officer said everything that has to do with the case has been transferred to the Force Criminal Investigation Department (FCID).
The whereabouts of the supposed cash found in the trailer remain unknown.

Ubiaja indigene sighted victims transferring weapons into a waiting trailer – Ben

Some locals who disputed the claim of the Hausa victims said some kidnappers also have dogs with them in their hideouts in the forests, but the way the victims behaved created room for suspicion from the point they were sighted loading their consignments into a waiting truck, along the road between Onicha-Ugbo in Delta State and Ubiaja in Edo State.

A non-indigene who lives in Uromi, Ben (surname withheld), gave a peek into what happened. His words: “I condemn the act of jungle justice, which is not in line with our constitutional provision of how offenders of any form of crime can be tried.”

“However, those persons are presumed to be kidnappers because information available showed that if you are passing through here to the east, you will move from Uromi to Ubiaja, Ewato, and Ewohinmi, down to Onicha-Ugbo, and there is a forest and a river.

“That place has been a flashpoint; they (herders and kidnappers) have laid siege on that part of the road for the past months, and it was at that spot that an indigene of Ubiaja moving towards Ubiaja from the Onicha-Ugbo axis saw these men carrying their arms from one person to another and into the trailer with Dangote inscribed on it.

“He quickly drove to town and alerted the vigilante men at Ubiaja, who waited for the truck. On getting to Ubiaja, the trailer did not stop for the vigilante, so the vigilante at Ubiaja sent a distress call to those in Uromi, and they mounted surveillance.

“The vigilantes in Uromi were able to use a tipper with a full trip of sand to stop the trailer, and at the point of questioning them, one of them stabbed the vigilante with a dagger, which was how the thing escalated. It is regrettable the way they were handled, but they caused the provocation, and their movement was suspicious.”

What gave them away— Prince Olumese, native

Corroborating the claim, Prince Eugene Olumese said the victims could have also camouflaged as hunters because “there are hunters that carry dogs and Dane guns.”

“From the environment I grew up in, Lagos and Ogun states, we used to see hunters in the bushes, irrespective of what tribe they were; some of them even have huts in the bushes. But even at that, were these people hunters? It could be. Are they kidnappers? It still could be, but some reasons will make you say these people are likely to be kidnappers or hunters.

“They covered themselves with a tarpaulin in a truck filled with palm kernel shells, which means they did not want anybody to know that people were there. Why? Hunters should walk freely in towns; there was something spectacular, and they also had plenty of money. New currency notes—look at it, hunters with new currency notes!

“Many trucks drove through Uromi that day without anybody searching. This truck was carrying palm kernel shells. You can imagine what it took them to search and discover human beings and then guns, money, Dane guns, and dogs, so these people (vigilantes) were working on a tip-off.

“There are videos and write-ups in social media by Uromi indigenes saying these things are happening; they kidnap poor men, they kidnap our women, they rape our women, and they insert sticks into their private parts.

“Sometimes, even when ransoms were paid, they would hold the person who came to pay the ransom and release the one who was held before. These things kept happening again and again, yet nothing was done on these cries, and if anything was done, it was not to the satisfaction of the Uromi indigenes.

“Though it is not right that they took the law into their hands, something triggered the anger. You can imagine that when people are arrested in the act and taken to the appropriate authorities, especially the police, and in a few days to months, you see the same people walking freely.

“Your life is at risk, especially those who keep watch over the town, whom we call vigilantes, because these people will come after them. This was why they mobbed them to death, which is inappropriate. We are unhappy about it. But a situation that was not remedied caused it to happen.”

Why did they hide in the trailer? Okojie, native queries

Another indigene, Brown Okojie, said, “We see trucks pass through here, and you would see the boys who we call aboki standing on the top of the trucks; they hang their Dane guns on their shoulders, and you would see the dogs they carry, but these, they were hiding in the Dangote truck. why?”

A week before that incident, five kidnappers were arrested in the forest, and they were taken to the police station in Uromi, which transferred them to the state police headquarters in Benin City. But shockingly, the following Monday, the same people were released back to the community, thereby putting the lives of those who apprehended them at risk.

Okojie revealed: “A day before the incident, N25 million was paid as ransom to the herders to release a husband and his wife, but they still killed them and left their bodies along the Ubiaja Road.

“That same day, a lady went to pay N5 million to bail her sister from the herdsmen in Uromi; they collected the money, released the initial victim, and then kept her. Now, we are looking for money to release her. As we speak, people who are victims of kidnapping are still with their captors, these Fulani herdsmen.

Fulani herdsmen fed a newborn baby to their dog in the mother’s presence

“Early this year, a pregnant woman was in labor, and the husband had no choice but to carry her around midnight to the hospital. On their way to the hospital, herdsmen kidnapped them. The woman was in labor throughout that night until morning, and she gave birth to a baby boy in their presence.

“The Fulani herdsmen gave that baby boy to their dog because they move with the dogs; the woman said she watched her baby being eaten alive by the dogs. She is still living with the trauma, so you cannot just say that because those victims were with dogs, it made them hunters. After this incident, they still asked for ransom before they were released. They did that to show their level of harshness.”

He said a few days before the incident, about 12 children were going to school together in a community in Ewohi, cows emerged from the bush, the children ran, and a three-year-old child who could not run was trampled upon, killed by the cows, and nothing happened

They are not hunters — Ordia

Ordia, who has been involved in negotiating the release of a kidnapped person, said, “It is not a good experience at all. About two months ago, a very close friend of mine was kidnapped, and the members of our association had to rally round, levied ourselves, including church and family members, and raised N3 million before they released him.”

I am not particularly pleased with how the authorities and media have handled this matter, that they are hunters traveling from Port Harcourt to Obajana and Kano State, as the case may be. Port Harcourt is a riverine area, so where were they hunting? I believe that these guys were not hunters.”

Villagers identified some of them as kidnappers before the lynching

A source told Saturday Vanguard: “What provoked the mob to lynch the 16 persons was when villagers who claimed to have been abducted in the past past came to the scene, and identified some of them as those that kidnapped them.”

“Some of them also identified some items found with them as property they stole from them during their kidnap.

“If they were hunters , why were they not with dried meat and any other things that would show they were hunters? They use the weapons they carry to hunt and kill their fellow human beings, not animals.

“Is it the bags of rice that the vigilantes saw with them that were their proof of being hunters when we already knew they took off from their hideout in the thick forest between Onicha- Ugbo and Ubiaja.”’

Okpbholo’s intervention after dismantling Obaseki’s ESSN

When Governor Monday Okpebholo visited Uromi on March 28, a day after the incident, Hausa people residing in the community and some natives staged parallel protests.

Both sides almost clashed before security agents shot to disperse them, after which the governor came down from his vehicle to address them.

The women’s protest on social media, purporting that they barricaded Okpebholo’s entourage, was an old video.

The protesting women, however, said they were worried that the state government had stopped the local vigilante protecting them in Uromi, and “Now, it is operation secure yourself.”

Former governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, had set up the Edo State Security Network (ESSN), mainly vigilante members. Many of them registered with the state government with their arms.

Some were trained by the security forces at the Mobile Police Training School in Ogida Barracks, Benin City, and the government deployed them across senatorial districts, local government areas, and communities. They worked with the local vigilantes and hunters in the communities.

They also mounted roadblocks at the flashpoints around the highways and communities, and at times, jointly searched the forests with government security agencies to checkmate kidnappers and their activities.

When Governor Okpebholo assumed office, he appointed Friday Ibadin, a retired commissioner of police, and changed the name to Edo State Security Corps. Ibadin recalled the personnel and ordered them to submit their guns and appear for profiling, which is what he has been doing for the past three months. The governor suspended him soon after the Uromi incident.

The Okpebholo government took a hard stance against kidnapping by demolishing properties linked to criminal activities, including those of suspected informants and kidnappers, and has vowed to continue this crackdown until kidnapping ends in the state.

These actions were taken based on a new anti-kidnapping law in the state. According to the new law passed by the Edo State House of Assembly and signed by the governor, any house found to be used for kidnapping activities will be demolished to serve as a deterrent to others.

Under the new law, a landlord “must profile a person before giving out their house to him or her for rent.”
The government intensified its crackdown on individuals aiding kidnappers, as the state’s task force demolished several properties within the Edo Central and Edo North senatorial districts.

The measures seemed to be yielding results as collaborators were already allegedly fleeing their areas, abandoning their properties for fear of being demolished until the March 27 tragedy.

[Vanguard]

The banking sector dominated headlines in the past few days following the humongous earnings released by most of the financial institutions in their full-year 2024 financial results.

In a country where individuals and companies are hurting from economic challenges and rising cost of basic necessities, the financial industry seems to be projecting a stark contrast as commercial banks continue to churn out staggering and record-breaking earnings.

For instance, the pre-tax profit for five tier-1 banks rose by about 69.5 percent to N4.56 trillion in 2024, as against the N2.69 trillion they recorded in 2023, just as their net profit after tax grew by 66.2 per cent, from N2.27 trillion in 2023, to N3.78 trillion in 2024.

Key extracts from the full-year financial results of United Bank for Africa (UBA) Plc, First Holdco Plc, Zenith Bank International Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc revealed a strong jump in their respective profitability and assets.

Their combined total assets hit N108.21 trillion in the review year, compared with the N72.80 trillion recorded in 2023.

For UBA, while it recorded a pre-tax profit of N803.72 billion in 2024, compared with N757.68 billion in 2023, its net profit rose from N607.7 billion to N766.6 billion. Zenith Bank’s profit before tax rose from N795.96 billion in 2023 to N1.32 trillion in 2024, while its profit after tax also crossed the N1 trillion mark from N676.9 billion to N1.03 trillion.

GTCO printed pre-tax profit of N1.27 trillion in 2024 as against N609.3 billion in 2023, and its net profit rose from N539.66 billion to N1.02 trillion. First Holdco doubled profit before tax from N356.15 billion in 2023 to N862.39 billion in 2024, while its profit after tax increased from N308.4 billion to N736.7 billion.

Stanbic IBTC Holdings’ profit before tax doubled from N172.91 billion in 2023 to N303.8 billion in 2024, while profit after tax increased from N140.62 billion to N225.3 billion.

In the same vein, Fidelity Bank Plc which is not in the tier-one league reporting a 210 per cent growth in its profit before tax to N385.2 billion in 2024. According to the bank’s results released on the Nigerian Exchange (NGX), its profit after tax jumped by 179.6 percent to N278.1 billion in 2024.

Clearly, this is a startling dissonance and most Nigerians are wondering how possible it is for a sector to thrive so magnificently amid the economic hardship in the land? They are also questioning if these earnings are a testament to sound financial management, or do they signal a widening gap between the prosperity of the banking sector and the struggles of everyday citizens?

This questions arise because today, millions of Nigerians still experience multidimensional poverty as the country faces unique challenges in addressing poverty, considering its diverse population and regions. With the rebased Consumer Price Index, inflation in Nigeria today stands at 23.18 percent with the harsh business environment.

While the robust finance performance is partly attributed to banks taking advantage of the high interest rate environment and foreign exchange revaluation gains, many banks also short-change their customers and illegally profit from hidden and arbitrary charges. These excess charges range from commission on NIP transfer, VAT charges, SMS VAT charges, SMS alert charges, processing fees, interest charges, commission on turnover, card and account maintenance fees, withdrawals, and transfers charges, ATM fees, stamp duty fees, among others. Annoyingly, some banks charge for each of the more than two SMS notifications they send on a single transaction, in a country where workers’ minimum wage remains lower compared to other emerging economies.

These numerous charges significantly erode bank customers’ savings in Nigeria, compared with other jurisdictions where such charges are often non-existent, especially for basic accounts. It also impacts negatively on financial inclusion.

Indeed, this is not about demonising banks making profits, it is about advocating for a more balanced approach and responsible banking. The concerns of banks profiting from excessive charges call(s) for scrutiny and highlight(s) the need for consumer protection.

Also, beyond declaring huge profits, banks should note that they are essential in providing a safe place for individuals and businesses to store their money, offer loans to stimulate economic activity, and facilitating a wide range of financial transactions.

The concern by the President of the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Francis Meshioye, who recently stated that commercial banks are not supporting manufacturers and small and medium-scale enterprises (SMEs) enough should also be looked into.

According to Meshioye, the percentage of bank loans to the real sector yearly, compared to other sectors, is abysmal, currently at about 12.9 per cent.

“Besides scarcity, the cost of funds is too high and no manufacturer can produce anything with the current interest rate. If the banks have access to short-term funds, they cannot give long-term loans. The cost of funds will determine how much the banks are going to give out as they certainly cannot give out funds at a loss to them.

“The banks are growing their capital base and declaring huge profits while manufacturers are declaring losses and closing shops. When we even get the funds, by the time it is time to pay back, the cost of funds has gone up and we find out that our capital base has eroded even more,” he said.

From the foregoing, commercial banks must shun arbitrary deductions from customers’ accounts, and transparency, fairness should be their guiding principles.

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) which has statutory mandate under the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Act to intervene in matters that adversely affect consumer interests, must also be alive to its responsibility to prevent banks from ripping off consumers.

Equally, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has to ensure that the regulatory environment is strengthened so that banks can operate in a manner that aligns with the nation’s developmental goals. Policies that promote financial inclusion, encourage lending to productive sectors, and curb excessive interest rate spreads are essential. It is equally important for regulators in the financial system to initiate enduring public awareness programmes that will build financial knowledge and literacy of consumers.

The development also justifies the need for the federal government to ensure the enforcement of last year’s imposition of a windfall tax. In July 2024, the National Assembly passed a bill that was assented to by President Bola Tinubu in August 2024. By the Finance (Amendment) Act 2023, the windfall tax targets the significant profits banks made due to the naira’s devaluation. This policy is expected to push banks towards more sustainable and ethical business practices, where profit generation is aligned with long-term value creation, customer satisfaction, and economic development.

Finally, for Nigeria to truly prosper, the benefits of economic growth must be more equitably distributed. Banks must also contribute towards ensuring that the country achieves inclusive growth and one where the prosperity of the few translates into opportunity for many.

In Nigerian politics, loyalty is not merely a virtue—it is a double-edged sword, a cross to bear, and sometimes, a noose. A man who stands firm with his principal will either be praised as a committed ally or seen as an obstacle to someone else’s inordinate ambition. In the latter case, such a man must be “removed.”

This appears to be the case in the ongoing saga between Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan and Senate President Godswill Akpabio. Akpoti-Uduaghan, who initially attributed her removal as Chairman of the Local Content Committee to sexual harassment, has now changed her tone—claiming she was sacked for “protecting Northern interests.”

When one places this narrative side-by-side with the comments of Busola Saraki, Atiku Abubakar, the Arewa Consultative Forum, and other Northern elements, the larger play unfolds. This is not an innocent drama of legislative disagreement. It is a carefully choreographed spectacle—replete with villains, pawns, and shadows.

At the heart of it stands Akpabio—a man accused, maligned, and marked. Not because he has broken any law or committed any proven wrong, but because he has stood firm beside President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. And for that, he must be brought down.

There is, without question, a gathering of dissenters—former aspirants, serial losers at the ballot, political relics whose time has passed but whose ambitions remain undimmed. They have no national vision to offer, no coherent philosophy to propose—only a festering grievance and a common enemy: the man who defeated them.

Their aim is simple: to seize, through subterfuge and scandal, what they could not secure through the sovereign will of the people. And if power cannot be regained, then the next best thing is to make the country ungovernable.

The first phase of this plot is clear—decimate the President’s Praetorian Guard. Strip him of loyal allies. Render him vulnerable as 2027 approaches. In their crosshairs is Akpabio, and Senator Akpoti-Uduaghan appears to be the willing hired gun for the dirty job.

Why Akpabio? Akpabio is the first supporter they wish to sacrifice on the altar of vengeance. A visible ally of Tinubu. A formidable defender of the administration. They know that weakening Akpabio loosens the pillars holding up Tinubu’s house. And so, they reach for their weapons—not of war, but of whispers and smear campaigns, sponsored headlines, and strategic falsehoods. Among these, the most visible instrument is Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan—a willing tool for their evil enterprise.

They know that as long as Akpabio remains Senate President, Tinubu’s re-election bid will enjoy solid legislative backing.

As Machiavelli put it, “He who guards the throne is more dangerous than he who sits upon it—remove the guardian, and the throne becomes a chair.”

 Akpabio is a major guardian of the Tinubu throne. Hence, the attacks from all angles.

Let us not be beguiled by sentiment. Senator Natasha, in this context, is not a lone voice of justice crying in the wilderness. She is no accidental heroine. She is a pawn in a larger political game—a game devised in the drawing rooms of desperate politicians who, unable to govern Nigeria, now seek to ruin those who do.

The names are not unfamiliar: Atiku Abubakar, Nasir el-Rufai, Peter Obi—the trio of ambition, bitterness, and illusion. They lost the 2023 election, not through fraud or manipulation, but through the expressed will of millions of Nigerians. Yet, rather than accept the verdict of democracy, they now seek to dismantle its very instruments. What better place to strike than the Senate? And what better target than its presiding officer?

This is not speculation. Their recent statements, social media antics, and strategic silences at critical moments reveal their hand. Atiku’s viral, unprovoked attack on Akpabio is no coincidence—it is part of the plan.

Natasha is not a loose cannon; she is a guided missile. The game plan is simple: manufacture crises from the most mundane matters, paint key figures as villains, and set the stage for a grand opposition showdown in 2027. Her sudden outburst in the Senate and carefully choreographed media blitz were the cold open of the movie. Now the sequence has been established, and the opening credits are rolling—featuring Bukola Saraki and company.

From a routine seating arrangement—a mundane legislative procedure—Senator Natasha has now conjured accusations of sexual harassment, threats to life, and elaborate conspiracies. The timing of this remembrance, suddenly arising a year after the alleged incident, is not only convenient; it is calculated. A smokescreen. A decoy. An attempt to stain a man’s name in the court of public opinion, where evidence is no longer required, and accusation is guilt enough.

There’s an old legal maxim: Give a dog a bad name and hang him. That, indeed, is what is unfolding. The Atiku-led clique is directing the movie. The volume of money pumped into this needless campaign to lure international media and embarrass the nation is staggering.

One day, it’s alleged insults. The next, sexual harassment. Tomorrow—who knows? Perhaps they’ll say Akpabio plans to auction Nigeria. The strategy is obvious: manufacture offence, amplify it through a compliant media, and weaponize it for political gain. But Nigerians are growing wiser—and wearier.

Even locally, all these unpatriotic efforts to create global embarrassment have yielded nothing. Nigerians are not fools. They know, as all people of discernment do, that justice cannot be built on lies, and democracy cannot thrive on deceit. The cry for accountability rings hollow when it emerges from a place of partisanship, not principle.

If Senator Natasha were truly pursuing justice, would she be flanked only by those with a declared interest in toppling the administration? According to the ancient Nigerian proverb: “When an owl hoots in the night and a child dies in the morning, we all know who to suspect.” In this case, it is now clear: Natasha was never a bystander. She was a hired agent provocateur sent to destabilize the Red Chamber. The logic was simple: strike Akpabio, the shepherd, and the sheep would scatter.

Before the unsuspecting public, a mere seating issue has now mushroomed into a web of accusations—sexual harassment, assassination plots, and shadowy threats—all conveniently aimed at one man. When we uncover the lies, she changes the script—hoping the audience forgets the plot.

This is a textbook case of “Give a dog a bad name and hang it.” The goal is to destroy Akpabio’s public image. First, he allegedly harassed her. Then, he sidelined her. What next? That he plans to privatise the oxygen Nigerians breathe?

Let us be clear: the Natasha debacle is a scripted drama to paint Akpabio as a villain and a threat to democracy. Ultimately, the goal is to weaken Senate leadership. But Nigerians are not being fooled—and many already see through the charade. History has taught us that in politics, those who cry the loudest often have the most to hide.

This episode is not about justice, democracy, or the protection of women—it is about power. Senator Natasha Akpoti, who has previously accused several men of sexual misconduct, is a well-placed pawn in a political chess game. Akpabio is simply the collateral victim. The true aim is to erode Tinubu’s support base and pave the way for an opposition comeback in 2027. Those who cannot see this are either naive or willing accomplices in the drama.

Akpabio, for all his human flaws, remains a political heavyweight whose loyalty to Tinubu is unshaken. And that, dear people, is his real crime. If Natasha truly sought justice, she would not wage a media war in harmony with those who lost at the ballot and now hope to win through chaos.

As the Yoruba wisely say, “The rat cannot claim innocence when found near the pot of soup.”

The motives are transparent. The cast is clear. The only question is whether Nigerians will fall for the performance or stay focused on the real issues.

To Senator Akpabio, I say: take heart. The storm may rage, the winds may howl—but the tree with deep roots does not fear the tempest, and the eagle does not flinch at the storm. History is rarely kind to the mob—but it always remembers the man who stood tall when it was easier to fall.

Dr. Daika, a Political Communication Strategist writes from Plateau