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N5bn for Presidential yacht, 6.9bn on luxury cars in extra budget

  • First Lady’s Office to get N1.5bn cars

By Oladehinde Oladipo 

Widespread criticism has greeted the billions of naira earmarked for a presidential yacht and luxury cars, among others, in the N2.1 trillion supplementary budget submitted by President Bola Tinubu to the National Assembly.

The document seen by BusinessDay shows that N5.09 billion is allocated for the yacht, N2.9 billion for sport utility vehicles for the Presidential Villa, and another N2.9 billion for the replacement of operational vehicles for the presidency.

The yacht is listed under the Nigerian Navy’s proposed capital expenditure of N42.3 billion.

The sum of N1.5 billion was budgeted for vehicles for the Office of the First Lady, an office that is not recognised by the constitution.

The government allocated N4 billion for the construction of an office complex in Aso Rock while N2.5 billion will be used for the renovation of the Vice-President’s official residence in Lagos. In all, N28 billion is proposed for the State House.

It plans to spend N12.5 billion on the Presidential Air Fleet.

The presidential fleet includes Boeing Business Jet (Boeing 737-800 or NAF 001), one Gulfstream 550, one Gulfstream V (Gulfstream 500), two Falcons 7X, one Hawker Sidley 4000, two AgustaWestland AW 139 helicopters and two AgustaWestland AW 101 helicopters.

Critics say politicians are not adopting the austerity measures being forced on the people.

“There is no way we can explain that we are budgeting this amount for vehicles at this time in this country,” Paul Alaje, a financial analyst and senior partner at SPM Professional, told BusinessDay.

“Some of the things in the budget like the construction of bridges are commendable. However, we must know why we are spending so much money on vehicles knowing what Nigerians are currently going through.”

Some have said the supplementary budget may not get any resistance from lawmakers, who despite public outcry, spent over N75 billion on procuring official vehicles for themselves. It scaled through the second reading at both the Senate and House of Representatives on Tuesday.

“Presidency and National Assembly spend billions on luxurious cars while Nigerian citizens pay billions in taxes,” Kalu Aja, a personal finance expert, said. “Nigerian citizens defend the Presidency and Legislators as their wages get inflated away.”

Auwal Musa Rafsanjani, executive director of the Civil Society Legislative Advocacy Centre, said the major items of the budget defeat any rational thinking, given that the country currently faces both economic and financial difficulty.

He said: “This supplementary budget is full of dubious and suspicious items. Why are we budgeting monies for the Independent Electoral Commission for an election that has already been taken care of? The states confirmed receiving monies for the election but we are seeing it in the budget again. This is suspicious spending.

“Also, the office of the first lady is not recognised in the constitution, so why are we budgeting for that? This is financial recklessness. Nigerians are suffering and the Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration seems not to be concerned about it.”

Kabir Isah, an Abuja-based public affairs analyst, said the government may have to look at more borrowing to fund the budget.

He said: “The government at this time should be looking for ways to boost revenue and not planning to spend the lean revenues on irrelevant items. It is even worse to know that there are no plans to patronise our local vehicle manufacturers.

“This government is not even considering that many Nigerians are unable to feed themselves, the price of petrol is impacting the prices of other items consumed by the average Nigerian. And the president is expecting us to bear with him.

“Since the removal of fuel subsidy which has pushed up the cost of transportation, one would expect that we should have government-owned buses everywhere across the country. We are not seeing them and the president wants to spend this much to import vehicles. This is insensitive. ”

Sam Adeyemi, senior pastor of Daystar Christian Centre, while speaking on a Channels Television programme on Wednesday, stressed the need for leaders to make sacrifices.

He said: “All the contracts going out of the MDAs (Ministries, Departments and Agencies), even the oversight functions for the National Assembly, it is money driving it.

“The people in leadership need to make sacrifices now for that collaboration to happen but I promise you most people in leadership now are not thinking sacrifice, they are thinking survival.”

Oluwatobi Ajayi, the CEO of Nord Motors, a local automobile company, expressed his disappointment, saying the lawmakers ignored their proposals despite the potential benefits for the economy.

The legislators’ choice to buy foreign vehicles was seen as a missed opportunity to promote ‘Buy Nigeria’ and support local industries, he said.

He said on social media platform X: “The National Assembly buying foreign-built vehicles at this time is dispiriting, especially when you consider that we are all trying to promote buy Nigeria to grow the Naira.

“A sad part of this is that we (assemblers and manufacturers of vehicles in Nigeria) actually proposed our vehicles and explained how it would make a lot of financial, technical and political sense to buy from us but they didn’t even entertain the idea for long.”

Tinubu and some of his aides and other government officials have repeatedly pleaded with Nigerians to be patient with the administration as the prices of most goods and services have surged owing to the removal of petrol subsidy, risimg inflation, and the unification of exchange rates, whereas the incomes of many citizens have remained stagnant.

Wilson Erumebor, a senior economist at the Nigerian Economic Summit Group, said petrol subsidy was no longer sustainable, “but so too is corruption, wastage and inefficiencies. Let’s reform that government budget and hold them accountable for every kobo spent”.

“The best gift the President can give Nigerians right now is to carefully scrutinise the federal government budget and remove those frivolous items that we see every year. Business-as-usual for a N26+ trillion FG budget will be disastrous,” Erumebor said on X.

Nigeria still has a host of economic reforms on the table including growing its tax collection rate, increasing its non-oil revenue, and reducing its N77 trillion debt to local and foreign creditors.

However, growing tax revenues in a country like Nigeria will require sacrifice from businesses and individuals who point at decrepit infrastructure to make the case that tax revenues are not efficiently utilised.

“A broke and unproductive country is buying a presidential yacht and cars worth billions for the first woman and NASS?” Tunde Martins said on X .

Critics noted that many Nigerians have long believed the government only exists for a privileged few and not for a population of over 200 million, many of whom are struggling to afford the most basic standard of living.

“At a time like this, there is no car the president wants to buy that he does not already have. His convoy prior to being sworn in was already presidential. So why, at a time like this? More of the same keeps us in a state of same of the same,” said Gbadebo Rhodes-Vivour, the governorship candidate of the Labour Party in Lagos State in the 2023 general election.

A larger part of this article was originally published on 2 November, 2023 by BusinessDay

JUST IN: NLC President brutalised, released, hospitalised —Falana

The National President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero who was arrested earlier on Wednesday by operatives of the Nigeria Police Force, has been released.

This revelation was made in a chat shared by Human Rights Lawyer/Activist, Mr. Femi Falana, SAN in a WhatsApp Platform. Falana in the chat said: “We have secured Comrade Ajero’s release. But he is in the hospital as he was brutalised by the police.”

NLC’s Head of Information, Benson Upah, had told The PUNCH, that Ajaero was picked up at the state secretariat of the congress and taken to an unknown location.

“President of the Nigeria Labour Congress, Joe Ajaero, was picked up a few minutes ago from NLC state council secretariat by heavily armed policemen in Owerri and taken to an unknown destination,” Upah informed our correspondent via a text message.

The PUNCH reports that the NLC had vowed to mobilise its members for a total strike in Imo state starting Today, November 1, 2023.

Ajaero, during a press briefing on Sunday, had accused the Imo State Government of “violating the rights of the Nigerian workers in the state.”

Accusing the state governor Hope Uzodimma of neglecting workers’ welfare, Ajaero lamented that many of them have died because of the alleged lack of payment of their salaries.

He outlined some of the infractions against workers by Uzodimma, including the alleged refusal to implement previous agreements especially the accord reached on January 9, 2021, outstanding salary arrears of about 20 months, unjust declaration of workers as ghost workers, declaration of pensioners as ghost workers and unsettled gratuity arrears, among others.

According to him, approximately 10,000 pensioners have been wrongly labelled as ghost pensioners resulting in over 22 months of unpaid pensions while about 11,000 workers have been branded by the Imo State Government as ghost workers.

The NLC president also lamented the non-compliance with the national minimum wage by the state government, adding that Governor Uzodinma has resisted the use of social dialogue and collective bargaining to resolve the issues.

How N68m was spirited out a First Bank customer’s account

The rise in unsuspecting bank depositors from whose accounts various sums of money were mysteriously or fraudulently withdrawn has become a great cause for concern. Aside from monies leaving bank accounts without authorisation from account holders, another disturbing trend is that of strange withdrawals when debit cards are stuck in Automated Teller Machines (ATM). Even so, the question of how commercial banks exert multiple and indiscriminate charges and deductions from depositors accounts, will perhaps be addressed some day. National Waves captured the story of a Nigerian lady from whose First Bank account domiciled in Benin City, Edo State, Nigeria, N68 million was fraudulently withdrawn.

Glory Omokaro who is based in Italy recounted her ordeal when she appeared on a popular Radio Programme, in Abuja, the Brekete Family. Omokaro said she travelled to Italy in 2005 and returned in 2013 to visit her family. Within this period, she opened a savings account with First Bank at the Ring Road Branch in Benin City.

On travelling back to Italy according to her, she deposited some money into the First Bank account, and was in touch with the branch manager, one Mr. Gabriel.

In 2018, during another visit to Nigeria, Omokaro said she subscribed to the bank application to enable her to track her transactions from Italy.

She also applied for a debit card, which she used to perform transactions during her stay in Nigeria. When her ATM card expired 2021, she reportedly contacted Mr. Gabriel to help renew her debit card.

However, the manager she said, gave her the option of sending someone or coming in person to renew the card. But due to Covid-19 restrictions, Omokaro further explained, she could not return.

To her surprise, when she returned in May 2023 and visited the bank to make withdrawals and renew her card, she was told that she had no money in her account. “I met customer care and I was told that I only have N3,000 in my account and not N68m.”

She said she requested for the bank statement, but the bank declined to release the statement to her. On account of that, she got her lawyer to write a letter of requesting for the statement and it was released a week later.

“We discovered that on 13, October 2022, they moved N51. 7m out of the account. They returned the money. We suspected that they were checking if she would complain. But she did not notice. After 24 days around November 2022, they withdrew three times from the account. The first was N9m, then N5m, N2m and another N2m until it was left with N3,000.

“We contacted EFCC. They said they were only after Yahoo boys for now. We contacted the DSS and they declined. The lawyer also started behaving as though he was compromised.”

In response to the alleged fraud, First Bank admitted that N68m belonging to an Italy-based customer, Glory Omokaro was withdrawn from her account.

First Bank said, “We confirm the report of fraudulent activity on the account of one of our customers. This incident has been undergoing a very robust investigation since our receipt of the customer’s complaint with the goal of holistically unearthing what transpired and addressing the challenge, including satisfying the customer. Unfortunately, this has taken longer than anticipated.

“While the investigation is ongoing, we have repaired the customer’s account given the findings so far and our view that this is the best action in consideration for our customer. We regret any inconveniences this may have caused the customer and wish to emphasize that this incident is in no way reflective of the principles and ethics of our time-tested operations.”

Last month TheNigeriaLawyer reported how A bank customer has accused Zenith Bank of unauthorized withdrawals of 1.7 million naira from his account after his ATM card got stuck in the bank’s machine.

A distraught lady in a viral video narrated how the card of ‘Emma’ was seized by the Zenith Bank ATM on Awolowo Road, Ikeja when he tried to make use his GT Bank ATM Card to withdrawal.

She went on to recount how immediately he put his ATM Card in the machine, the card was seized as Emma could not retrieve it again.

The seizure of his card took another unexpected twist when he began to receive series of unapproved and unrequested debits from same account and everything amounted to 1.7 Million Naira.

According to her, all attempts to block the card so as to halt the withdraw spree ended in the futility.

She accused both Zenith Bank and GT Bank of culpability in the illegal act and described them as thieves.

TheNigeriaLawyer noted that the complaint once again raises concerns about the integrity of Nigeria’s banking sector players and emphasizes the need to better regulation of banks to prevent the arbitrary exploitation of customers who are subjected to sharp practices by these banks.

“Many tagged Zenith Bank fraudsters while calling for the customer to be fully reimbursed. This is just one of many instances where bank customers have fallen victim to dubious activities.

Proper oversight is required to ensure banks establish complaint resolution systems and compensate victims. The integrity of the financial sector depends on accountability for such unethical conduct.”

Credits: National Waves/TheNigeriaLawyer

The Wages Of INEC

By Ebun-Olu Adegboruwa, SAN

“Truth must be told, the non-transmission of results to the IReV portal may also reduce the confidence of the voting population in the electoral process.” Hon Justice Inyang Okoro, Justice of the Supreme Court of Nigeria.

These are words on marble, coming from the highest court of the land. They simply summarize the failure of the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC during the 2023 general election and they remain indelible marks on the record and history of the electoral umpire.

We have now gradually come to the reality of the bastardy of democracy. An institution established to strengthen democracy is daily eroding it, through crooked elections, dribbling tactics and electoral malfeasance. Putting it very mildly, INEC has simply become a hindrance to the search for democracy in Nigeria.

It is moving dangerously to sink the democratic ship that many Nigerians have paid the highest price for, with their liberties and their lives. This is not peculiar to Nigeria though as so many other African countries have such other fanciful entities similar to INEC in the name electoral umpire, as the means of perpetuating themselves in office. When the people can no longer tolerate the rigging and manipulations, they resort to armed struggles and at the end of it, coup d’état.

Why is a credible election important for democracy? Good governance and accountability, for if a leader is only to emerge through the verdict of the people freely delivered at the polls without any form of manipulation, he will be on his toes while in office in order to escape the wrath of voters. If elections are free and fair, no political party will take voters for granted by conducting sham primary elections, imposing candidates on its members and the people. And where people are allowed to choose their leaders freely, the government in power will hold itself accountable to the electorate.

But because of INEC and its voodoo elections, we have ‘leaders’ who consider themselves emperors, leaders who oppress those who are supposed to have voted them into office and who go without due regard for accountability. What My Lord Justice Okoro is saying is that election is not and cannot be about figures alone. That is why we talk about free, fair and credible elections. The credibility of any election is in its transparency, secrecy and accessibility. Once the people have lost confidence in the electoral process, any candidate emerging from such a flawed contraption cannot truly claim to have the legitimacy of the people.

Two major areas of concern for the people of Nigeria for the 2023 election were the deployment of the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS and INEC Result Viewing Portal, IReV. BVAS is a device that facilitates the identification and accreditation of voters whilst IReV is an online portal where unit-level results are uploaded directly from the polling unit, transmitted and available for public monitoring. It is to help secure election results and guarantee the sanctity of votes. Accreditation of voters and election results are the two main areas of election rigging and manipulation. In times past before BVAS was introduced, it was possible for politicians to hijack the process of accreditation to their own selfish advantage.

INEC has been involved in the conduct of elections for an unbroken period of twenty years on, from 1999 to 2019. It would seem however that there is still a lot to do to get the electoral umpire moving. For sure, INEC is the only statutory body authorised to organise or conduct elections in Nigeria, in respect of certain offices created by the Constitution. INEC is one of the federal executive agencies of the State established under section 153 (1) of the 1999 Constitution as amended, with its functions stated in paragraph 15 of the Third Schedule of the said Constitution. Under and by virtue of paragraph 14 of the said Third Schedule, the Chairman of INEC should be at least forty years old; he must be non-partisan, he must not be a member of a political party and he must be a person of unquestionable integrity.

By law, the major functions of INEC are to: organize, undertake and supervise all elections into major positions of national importance as stated in the Constitution; register political parties monitor the organisation and operation of the political parties, including their finances, conventions, congresses and party primaries; arrange and conduct the registration of persons qualified to vote and prepare, maintain and revise the register of voters for the purpose of any election; monitor political campaigns and provide rules and regulations which shall govern the political parties.

From all the above, INEC is the alpha and omega of major elections in Nigeria. This is further confirmed by section 158 (1) of the Constitution which states that INEC shall not be subject to the direction or control of any other authority or person. In plain language, the Constitution has set out to establish an electoral body that is truly independent, because of the unique roles that INEC has to play in the emergence of leaders across the land. Statutorily and financially therefore, the goal is to make INEC a self-accounting body, in order to guarantee its independence and impartiality. But this has not been the case at all, over the years.

Confidence involves trust, reliance and faith that one will act in a right, proper or effective way, it mirrors certainty that something will be done as stated or as expected. It goes to the root of credibility, especially when there are competing forces and there is need for someone or an entity to stand in the place of the examiner or umpire. If the referee in the football match, in the boxing arena and indeed all other sports cannot be trusted to act fairly, then the contest cannot be said to be fair. Political parties and their candidates are usually invited by INEC to jostle for certain positions of leadership, they are to convince the people and seek their mandate to be elected to represent them.

If that process of emergence cannot be depended upon, if the umpire cannot be trusted, then we cannot in good conscience claim to have a contest. Now let us relate all these with the 2023 general election. INEC postponed the election at the very last minute, at dawn. There were too many challenges associated with the registration of voters and issuance and collection of the permanent voter’s cards, which indeed should be the foundation of any electoral success.

There was some form of disconnect between INEC and the voters, in terms of voter education and information, especially in relation to the collection of the voter’s cards. The procedure was unduly bureaucratic, unwieldy and frustrating. You just have to keep going and going, at times for many days on end. With the resources committed to this exercise, there is no reason why any voter should have been denied this basic entitlement. The frustrations associated with election and voting in Nigeria make it unattractive to get involved in the process of leadership recruitment through the ballot.

When there is a breach of public confidence due to failure to fulfil promises made, there must be consequences otherwise there will be no change. One of the reasons for imposing penalties for infractions of the law is to achieve deterrence so that the pains, discomfort and inconveniences suffered for past offences will serve to discourage their repetition or continuance. Presently, it is business as usual for INEC.

The same IReV portal that failed in the past elections is still being marketed by INEC for the off-cycle elections coming up in November. INEC has allowed politicians to turn election into some kind of ritual, whereby you cannot participate decently in the process unless you agree to do it their own way.

The declaration of Hon Justice Inyang Okoro is sufficient for the INEC Chairman to either resign or be relieved of his office. You cannot continue to supervise a system that you cannot improve upon for the good of the nation. In this regard, the only reason that the Tinubu administration will continue to retain the current chairman of INEC is if it seeks to profit from the failures of that organisation. Free, fair and credible elections constitute the foundation of democracy and no democrat can lay claim to that title if he cannot bequeath a legacy of electoral reforms. The President needs to act urgently to initiate genuine electoral reforms that will satisfy the tenets of democracy.

Unbundling INEC

INEC is simply too large, like an octopus without direction. The responsibilities imposed upon the organization by law are too enormous and indeed cumbersome. Non-election-related matters such as registration of voters, distribution of voter’s cards, creation and delimitation of constituencies, registration of political parties, monitoring political campaigns, observing party primary elections, funding elections, etc. should be undertaken by a different entity from INEC.

For instance, under the Electoral Act, 2022, political parties are required to conduct primary elections for all elective offices and these must be monitored by INEC. To achieve this, there will be elections at the wards to determine their representatives. Where on earth will INEC have the manpower and funds to achieve the task of monitoring these elections across Nigeria?

And the same INEC is to attend and observe the campaigns of political parties and track their funding. Observing the behavioural patterns of INEC leaders, from the Chairman to the Resident Electoral Commissioners at least, it is easy to notice some semblance of highhandedness, with the impression of lord and master, as if holding the rest of us to some kind of ransom. With the present INEC, we will only move around in circles.

Govs’ll become vegetables if Wike succeeds with federal might – Timi Frank

A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Timi Frank, on Tuesday waded into the political crisis in Rivers State with a call on President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, to immediately sack the Minister of Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, for masterminding a plot to impeach Governor Siminilaye Fubara.

He warned that should Wike succeed to remove Fubara as Governor, at the end of the day, sitting Governors would become vegetables like Local Government Chairmen in states.

According to him, the action of the police in tear-gassing and pouring water on Governor Fubara who is supposed to be the Chief Security of the State was condemnable.

He also called on the Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, to urgently remove the Commissioner of Police in Rivers state, over the partisan action of his men against the elected Governor of the State.

Frank in a statement insisted that Wike’s sack had become necessary to stop him from bringing Tinubu’s government into disrepute and destroying the APC.

He said, “Already Wike has started demolishing houses and revoking ownership of landed property in Abuja to anger Nigerians, cause Tinubu to be hated and portray the APC’s administration as wicked and anti-people. By the time Tinubu will realize it, it will be too late because Wike would have destroyed his government to make way for him to contest the post of President in 2027.

“All Wike is after good governance, he has started preparation for 2027 Presidency. So he’s very desperate and he will do everything to please Tinubu but at the same time he is going to destroy the government if they do not call him to order.

“If Wike loves Tinubu and believes in his administration, let him officially join the APC and become a card-carrying member of the party. But he has refused to do so because he wants to destroy the APC to enable him contest for Presidency in 2027 using the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). He has refuse to defect to APC because of his evil agenda.

“Tinubu and APC should not only be wary but should urgently call on Wike to stop this madness in River State, otherwise, it will backfire.

“Wike campaigned for Fubara and claimed he was the best among all the other candidates for the governorship election. But suddenly, Fubara is now his enemy because Fubara is no longer taking directives from him being a dictator who is after Rivers’ money.”

Frank who is the United Liberation Movement for West Papua (ULMWP) Ambassador to East Africa and Middle East, also called on governors across party lines to rally support for their Rivers State counterpart in his bid to end Wike’s dictatorship and God-fatherism in Rivers State.

“If they allow Wike to succeed, to use federal might to illegally remove Fubara as governor, at the end of the day, sitting governors will become vegetables like local government chairmen in states because former governors who worked for their emergence as governors, will borrow a leaf of illegality from Wike to hound them out of office whenever they fail to do their bidding. So, it’s not all about the Rivers’ governor”, he said.

The activist called on Fubara to remain resolute and dogged in pushing back the evil machinations of Wike. He said he believed that at the end of the day light would triumph over darkness.

He called on him to reach out to the people of Rivers state across party lines to bring about genuine reconciliation and support in order to engender peace in the state.

Frank also called on Nigerians especially the people of Rivers State not to allow Wike to cause crisis in the state.

He advised them to stand firm against Wike’s dictatorial tendency in Rivers.

ENDS***

14-year-old girl recounts how she and her friends murdered FUT Minna Lecturer

A 14-year-old Girl (name withheld) has been arrested over the murder of a Lecturer at Federal University of Technology, Minna.

She was apprehended over her involvement in the murder of Dr Fumilola Sherifat Adefolalu, who was a lecturer with the Department of Biochemistry, School of Life Sciences of the Federal University of Technology, Minna on Saturday, October 28.

Police Public Relations Officer (PPRO), Wasiu Abiodun, disclosed the arrest of the prime suspect, saying two other suspects connected to the crime were at large. He stated that efforts were ongoing to apprehend them.

The 14-year old confessed to the crime while being paraded at the Bosso Police Station in Minna, Niger state, stating that she had gone to the house to confront and beat up the late lecturer for sending her packing.

According to her, she had gone to the deceased residence with two of her classmates known as Walex and Smart, adding that while beating her, it was discovered that the lecturer would report them when she was left alone which was why they decided to kill her.

The suspect, who is an SS 2 Student of Day Secondary School, Gidan Kuka, said that Smart and Walex first hit the deceased with a stool before stabbing the deceased with knives repeatedly and leaving her dead.

She stated: “It was Walex who said that she would recognize us if we left her alive, so they started stabbing her with the knife we brought, I then struggled with the knife with them which made Smart enter her kitchen and take a knife there and they continued stabbing her.

“They stabbed her in her stomach, her hands, her legs and she was just shouting Jesus, Jesus. After all that, they took her phone and laptop and her car battery before we left the house in the motorcycle we came in.”

She added that she had been living with the deceased for three weeks, stressing that the deceased who was supposed to sponsor her education sent her packing because she could no longer bear her misdeeds.

On October 29, Dr. Adefolalu was found murdered in her residence in the Gbaiko Area of the town.

PPRO Abiodun said the suspect will be transferred to the State Criminal Investigation Department SCID for further investigation and diligent prosecution, while an effort is ongoing to arrest other fleeing suspects

Credits: Newstodayng /Channels TV

Peaceful Protests: Nigerians are gradually being cowed into submission —Analysts

  • As Benue State University suspends medical students following peaceful protest

With the one-month suspension placed on all medical students from 200 to 600 levels, by the Management of Benue State University, concerns have been raised over the new wave of gagging being deployed by various authorities in Nigeria to quash any form of protest particularly since the Court of Appeal quashed Public Order Act nearly 16 years ago.

The suspension made known in a memo shared by the Benue State University in Makurdi on Monday according to TVC News, came in the wake of a peaceful protest organised by medical students, during which they raised concerns about the arbitrary withdrawal of their peers, water shortages, and overcrowded living conditions, with up to five students in a room designed for two.

An internal memorandum, signed by the Registrar, Dr. Mrs. Mfaga Modom, outlined the terms of the suspension. It specifies that all affected students must vacate their school hostels by 10:00 AM on Monday, October 30, 2023, and are scheduled to return on Wednesday, November 25.

Dr. Modom further stated in the memo that upon their return, each student must provide a Sworn Affidavit from a competent Court of Law, affirming their good conduct. Additionally, each of the students must come with a parent or guardian responsible for signing an undertaking of good conduct.

This is notwithstanding that the Court of Appeal in December 2007, affirmed the inalienable right of Nigerians and associations to hold rallies event without a police permit.

Kingson Uwandu in his article Right to protest: A fundamental human right notes that: “Principle 1 of the Resolution on Promotion and Protection of Human Right in the context of Protest recognizes that a protest can engage in actions targeting any audience, including public authorities, private entities or individuals, or the general public and may annoy or give offence to people who are opposed to the ideas. It also recognizes that protest may temporarily hinder or obstruct the activities of third parties.

“Principle 2 then imposes obligations on States/countries to respect the right to protest. States should not prevent, hinder or restrict the right to protest; States should protect the right to protest and should undertake reasonable steps to protect protesters by adopting measures necessary to prevent violations by third parties; States should fulfil the right to protest by establishing an enabling environment for the full enjoyment of right to protest. Instead of the Nigerian government to protect her citizens exercising their right to protest, the protesters were despised and calculatedly made vulnerable and subject of attack…”

In its opinion on the Public Order Act, Rightofassembly.info observed that the Court’s decision has not yet been reflected in legislative changes adding that “in All Nigeria Peoples Party v. Inspector-General of Police, Justice Adekeye held that:

The Public Order Act should be promulgated to complement sections 39 and 40 of the Constitution in context and not to stifle or cripple it.  A rally or placard carrying demonstration has become a form of expression of views on current issues affecting government and the governed in a sovereign state.  It is a trend recognized and deeply entrenched in the system of governance in civilized countries – it will not only be primitive but also retrogressive if Nigeria continues to require a pass to hold a rally.  We must borrow a leaf from those who have trekked the rugged path of democracy and are now reaping the dividend of their experience (italics added for emphasis).”

As Nigerian citizens are expected to exhibit appropriate and responsible conduct at all times, Public Affairs Analysts insist that the right to peaceful protest is inalienable and guaranteed by domestic and international statutes.

They maintain that Nigerians must be allowed to exercise their right to peaceful protests while expressing concern citizens are gradually being cowed into submission after or even before embarking on peaceful protests under the guise of protecting public property.

Confusion as Wike demolishes Chief’s palace in Abuja

Residents of Jabi Masalachi area of Abuja have been thrown into confusion following the demolition of the chief’s palace by the FCT Task Force on City Sanitation.

A report by BarristerNG.com disclosed that the task force had acted on the instruction of FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, to pull down illegal structures in the area.

A resident, Ayuba Kefas, noted that the demolition of the palace was a source of concern to the indigenous people of the community as they “now had no place to converge for meetings” that required the attention of the chief.

“This is the first time this kind of thing is happening, especially demolishing the palace of a chief in any settlement in the FCT,” Kefas said.

He added that the situation was more worrisome to residents about their fate as the village was home to hundreds of low income earners.

BarristerNG.com reports that effort to speak with the chief yielded no result as he has still not recovered from the shock of losing his house to Wike’s bulldozers.

The taskforce, comprises of officials of the FCT Development Control Department, the DRTS, the police, NSCDC, the AEPB, among others have been demolition illegal structure, some, the authorities say are being used by criminal elements.

Credits: BarristerNG.com

Suspended UniCal’s Prof. Ndifon faces four count charges on sexual harassment, others

A four count charge bordering on sexual harassment, official corruption, and abuse of office, contrary to Sections 8, 18, and 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000 has been filed against the suspended Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar (UniCal), Professor Cyril Ndifon by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

Spokesperson of the ICPC, Mrs Azuka Ogugua, in a statement released on Monday revealed that the filing of the four-count charge against the embattled Professor is a sequel to the conclusion of the Commission’s investigation into the professor’s alleged gross misconduct against some of his students.

The four-count charge against Ndifon, in the charge sheet number FHC/ABJ/CR/511/2023, focused on sexual harassment, official corruption, and abuse of office, contrary to Sections 8, 18, and 19 of the Corrupt Practises and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.

Mrs. Ogugua further explained that Ndifon was arrested by ICPC in collaboration with the Department of State Services (DSS) on October 4 in Calabar, the Cross River State capital, after he ignored several invitations extended to him.

The ICPC Spokesperson further disclosed that, “One of the counts read: That you, Professor Cyril Osim Ndifon (m) between June-September, 2023, at Calabar, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, and while being a public officer charged with responsibility for the certification of students as fit in learning and character as a prerequisite for the award of a Bachelor’s degree in Law and admission into the Nigeria Law School, used your office and position as the Dean, Faculty of Law, University of Calabar to gratify yourself by soliciting nude photographs and videos from one Ms ABC (not real name), a Year 2 Diploma student of the University of Calabar, through WhatsApp chats on your telephone number 0803***** and thereby committed an offence contrary to and punishable under S. 19 of the Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Act, 2000.”

Arraignment is yet to be fixed.

Nigerians lament as hunger, poverty batter families while Reps take delivery of N160bn SUVs

While Nigerians have been further advised to tighten their belts and remain patient amidst inflation and gross economic hardship in the country, lawmakers in the Green Chambers of the House of Representatives have started taking delivery of their luxury Sports Utility Vehicles (SUV) according to a report by Sahel Standard.

Likewise members of the Senate will receive the first batch of the SUVs this week. It was also gathered that the last tranche of the SUVs for use by the lawmakers would arrive before December.

In a recent interview with Vanguard Newspaper, a former President of Nigeria Bar Association (NBA), Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) has said that the Nigerian government is broke and so cannot effectively fund palliatives. But do Nigerians really need palliatives? Certainly, what Nigerians are yearning for is good governance that would enable better living standards.

BusinessDay tells the story of 45-year-old human resource executive, Godwin Dafe who lost his job with one of the manufacturing firms in 2021 after the Coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic forced several businesses to either cut down on their labour force or close shop.

Since then, BusinessDay reports, Dafe has been in the job-hunting business for over two years now. But to survive, the father of three has been doing one part-time job or the other to provide for his children and wife but life in Nigeria is definitely moving from bad to worse.

With the current economic situation in Nigeria especially with the issue of the subsidy removal crisis, which started at the beginning of the Bola Tinubu administration and escalated the petrol pump prices from about N195/litre to the present N626/litre, Dafe and his family has been living from hand to mouth.

According to him, the salary from the factory work that he is presently managing is barely taking care of him and his family due to the skyrocketing prices of food items in the market today.

“My salary is below N80,000 and that is what I use in running a home of five people. The situation has become worse that one could hardly eat two decent meals in a day due to the situation of things. My take home pay does not take me home anymore because it is from it that I pay my children’s school fees, provide food and other basic needs for the home, pay house rent and also transport myself to work on a daily basis.

“The situation is getting complicated such that one has been living on salary advances and loans to make ends meet. Things have gone so bad because one has been servicing loans from the little salary that I am being paid. Before the middle of the month, one will run out of cash,” he said.

Dafe is not alone in the cost-of-living crisis that many families are facing in Nigeria today as Ifeanyi Fabian, a professional electrician was recently forced to relocate his family from Lagos to the village due to his inability to maintain an apartment in Lagos.

According to him, the money he was earning from his work was no longer enough to pay the rent and feed his family of six.

He said his wife, who is a teacher with one of the private schools in Lagos, was also not earning sufficient pay to give him a helping hand in paying the bills at home.

“The hardship became unbearable, and we could not pay the rent anymore, only for our landlord to give us an eviction notice. Nigeria is no longer easy to live in, gas is now very expensive at over 1,000 per kg, and prices of other staple foods are also unaffordable such that in most cases, we end up eating only once a day.

“We have to stay with friends and family, and my kids were forced to drop out of school for over a session until I decided to take my children to the village to stay with my parents,” Fabian said.

According to the World Bank, the Nigeria Development Update report for June 2023, revealed that an estimated 4 million Nigerians were pushed into poverty between January 2023 and May 2023.

This is as the soaring inflation continues to eat deep into the purchasing power of many Nigerians, taking staple foods from the table of many and increasing the poverty level in the country.

The World Bank further explained that the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) data shows that 89.8 million Nigerians fell below the poverty line at the start of 2023, and with an additional 4 million making it 93.8 million in May of 2023 and this accounts for 43 percent of Nigeria’s 216 million people.

According to the latest NBS data, Nigeria’s food inflation rate rose to 26.72 percent in September 2023 amid harsh economic realities.

While poor Nigerians are making sacrifices for the survival of the nation by enduring the hardship that comes with adjustment in petrol pump prices, the political office holders seem not to care.

Rather than Nigerian politicians cutting the cost of governance, they are busy living large and spending the scarce resource on luxury.

For instance, the current leadership of the National Assembly recently used the scarce dollars to import over 400 new cars for members.

According to Rotimi Akin, spokesperson for the House of Assembly, the109 Toyota Land Cruisers were for senators and 2023 Toyota Prado were bought for 360 members of the House of Representatives.

This move elicited criticism from well meaning Nigerians as Oby Ezekwesili, a former minister of Education, questioned why political office holders should be spending scarce public resources on luxury cars at a time majority of Nigerian citizens cannot feed, transport themselves, pay school fees and hospital bills due to cost of living crisis.

“We that are into the business of buying and selling are not finding it easy at all because when one buys items to sell, the person will finish selling only for he or she to take both the capital and the profit to go to market to restock,” Juliana Osaro, a trader told BusinessDay.

The mother of two, who sells children’s wears in a Lagos market, said that business is not only slow but also very difficult to break even due to the economic situation in the country.

She said that there are days that people will transport themselves from their houses to the market only for them not to sell anything for the day.

“Imagine paying almost over N3,000 for daily transport without selling anything to cover for the daily expenses. How can a mother with two children put food on the table and provide for the needs of her children in a situation where prices are making things unaffordable?” Osaro said.

She further said that Christmas is less than two months away from now yet there are no signs of upbeat in business activities due to the level of poverty in the country.

“Today, many Nigerian families only pay attention to food even when many cannot provide good food for their families. The number of people begging in the streets of Lagos is increasing by the day due to the bad economic situation. I boarded a commercial bus only for a full-grown man to approach the vehicle to beg for food because according to him, he had not eaten for a whole day,” Osaro said.

BusinessDay market survey shows that food prices have been skyrocketing in recent times as a basket of fresh tomatoes, which was formerly sold for below N20,000 during its season, now cost as much as N100,000; a 50kg of rice now cost as much as N55,000 and above; a 50kg bag of beans cost as much as N40,000 and a 50kg bag of yellow garri cost as much as N22,000.

Anthony Elemchi, a civil engineer, said in addition to the problem of poverty, food inflation and other cost of living crises, that sending one’s children to school in Nigeria has also become a difficult task.

He said that tertiary institutions in the country including government-owned ones are also increasing their tuition fee, which is making things very difficult for parents.

Citing an example, he said the tuition fee of his son who is in year three in one of the tertiary institutions in Nigeria was increased from N90,000 to N175,000 for the 2023/2024 academic session.

According to him, the tuition fee is aside from the accommodation fee, feeding allowance and transportation cost to return to school.

He said by estimation, the return to school by his son will cost his family nothing less than N600,000 for a child who is in a Federal Government-owned university.

Elemchi said that if what is happening in Nigeria today continues unabated, more people will be pushed below the poverty line before the end of the year.

“Many are now under pressure since the pump price of petrol was increased to over N600/litre. Prices of food became uncontrollable because of the high transportation costs because food sellers would end up transferring the cost to the final consumers. I learned that the Federal Government has reintroduced an intervention to prevent the petrol prices from hitting N1000/litre but the deed had been done already,” he said.

Many Nigerians are still hoping that the All Progressive Congress government led by Bola Tinubu as president, will in the near future deliver on their campaign promises of mitigating the suffering of the average Nigerian.

In the meantime, recall that the leadership of the National Assembly had announced the decision to purchase imported SUVs for each lawmaker and bulletproof vehicles for the principal officers.

The move has generated heavy criticism, with some citizens lampooning the parliamentarians for being insensitive to the plight of Nigerians amid the high cost of living.

The Human Rights Writers Association earlier criticised the move, stating that procuring SUVs for federal lawmakers was provocative at a time when most families could barely feed their members three square meals per day, and hospitals and roads were collapsing rapidly across the country.

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project asked the Federal High Court in Lagos to stop the National Assembly from procuring and taking delivery of exotic and bulletproof cars for members and principal officials pending the hearing and determination of the applications for injunction filed by the organisation.

But the Senate defended the purchase of the SUVs, saying lawmakers needed the vehicles for their operations.

The spokesperson for the House of Representatives, Akin Rotimi, told our correspondent that members of the House had started taking delivery of the vehicles.

He also noted that priority was given to female lawmakers and people with disabilities, and much emphasis was laid on people without pending court cases.

Rotimi said, “Some members have started taking delivery of their vehicles. Priority was given to women in the parliament, people with any form of disability and the elderly.

“The management has also ensured that only members who have been fully disposed of their court cases will be given the vehicles to avoid problems.”

Corroborating this, a member of the Green Chamber, who pleaded anonymity, noted that the management was very keen on members justifying the use of the vehicle for their legislative operations.

The source noted that the management had issued a circular to members not to sell any of the vehicles, stating clearly that it was the property of the National Assembly.

The source said, “This particular Assembly is very particular about things being done right. In previous assemblies, people would collect their vehicles and sell them off, but the Speaker has put his foot down against such.

“The spokesperson was mandated to issue a statement internally to members and ensure that no member must sell their vehicles as they are National Assembly property.

“Beyond the circular, the management is seriously following up, particularly to justify the purchase, because the vehicles were bought to give lawmakers a level of autonomy from the executive.”

According to top-level sources, the vehicles will arrive in three batches for the use of the committee chairmen and members.

Another source stated that although the vehicles had generated a lot of controversy and public discussions, they were to aid the lawmakers in performing their duties.

Credits: BusinessDay and Sahel Standard

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