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The first black Professor honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University is a Nigerian

UK-based Nigerian professor of public international law, Dapo Akande has been honoured with a portrait at St Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Akande will be the first black professor to stand gallantly in the halls of the college located in the prestigious and current world’s number University

The 46-year-old educator has spent most of his adult life lecturing at great institutions in the United Kingdom

Professor of Public international law, Dapo Akande has been honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College in Oxford University, United Kingdom, making him the first black professor to be bestowed such an honour in the college of the prestigious university.

Akande who is Yamani Fellow at St. Peter’s College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) has spent most of his adult life as an educator. Starting as a part-time lecturer at London School of Economics and then at Christ’s College and Wolfson College, Cambridge from 1994 to 1998.

From 1998 to 2004, Akande made giant strides as he was lecturer in law at the University of Nottingham School of Law and University of Durham. He then moved on to University of Miami School of Law till 2009, when he Yale Law School as a visiting associate professor and Robinna Foundation International Fellow.

Not only is he a remarkable educator, he has advised states and international organizations on matters of international law as well as advised and assisted counsel, provided expert opinions in cases before the International Court of Justice, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, international arbitral tribunals, WTO and NAFTA Dispute Settlement Panels as well as cases in England and the United States of America.

Little wonder that Akande, who is currently a professor of public international law at the Blavatnik School of Government, was nominated alongside two other colleagues for teaching awards in 2018. The 46-year-old professor was nominated under the most acclaimed lecturer category.

A Facebook user Yomi Layinka had this to say about the brilliant educator below:

Dapo Akande(1973- ) is a Professor of Public International Law at the prestigious Oxford University.
On Monday the 23rd of September, history was made when he became the first Black Professor to be honoured with a portrait at St. Peter’s College, Oxford University.

Dapo is also a Fellow at Exeter College and Co-Director of the Oxford Institute for Ethics, Law and Armed Conflict (ELAC) & the Oxford Martin Programme on Human Rights for Future Generations. He has held visiting professorships at Yale Law School (where he was also Robinna Foundation International Fellow), the University of Miami School of Law and the Catolica Global Law School, Lisbon. Before taking up his position in Oxford in 2004, he was Lecturer in Law at the University of Nottingham School of Law (1998-2000) and at the University of Durham (2000-2004). From 1994 to 1998, he taught international law (part-time) at the London School of Economics and at Christ’s College and Wolfson College, University of Cambridge. His father is Emeritus Professor Ebenezer Oluwole Akande who was the first Chief Medical Director of the University College of Hospital, Ibadan in 1978 to 1984 and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, University of Ibadan.

The Portrait is by Catherine Goodman, Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School.

The Portrait was created by Catherine Goodman, Artistic Director of the Royal Drawing School, England.

Interestingly, Akande is an apple who didn’t fall far from its tree. His father is emeritus Professor Ebenezer Oluwole Akande, who was the first Chief Medical Director of the University College of Hospital, Ibadan in 1978 to 1984 and former Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at University of Ibadan.

Indeed, the Akandes have one hell of a legacy.

The Nigerian professor who heads a US hospital and institute

Philip O. Ozuah, a Nigerian by birth, is one of the very recognised doctors in the US and as well an academic- Ozuah got his first degree in medicine from University of Ibadan before he went to South California to bag his Masters- The Nigerian doctor has gotten many awards for his exceptional services, one of which is the famed Harry Gordon Award for Outsanding Clinical Teaching

Philip O. Ozuah, a Nigerian medical doctor, is one of the best in the US as he is a professor in the departments of pediatrics and epidemiology and population health at Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

 In 1992, he joined the very important faculty at Montefiore and was the head of the residency training affairs of the college and got a very big promotion to the level of a professor of pediatrics and family medicine and community health.

As if that was not enough, the Nigerian in 2015 got a feather added to his numerous awards as he was promoted to the level of the university chairman of the department in the college and at Montefiore.

It should be noted the Ozuah had his medical degree certification at University of Ibadan, Nigeria and did his internship at the University of Nigeria Teaching Hospital before he proceeded to Southern California for his Masters programme, and got his PhD from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.The Nigerian has also gotten several awards, out of which are the Lewis M. Fraad Award for Excellence in Resident Teaching, the Harry Gordon Award for Outstanding Clinical Teaching, among several others.Ozuah is not just a world recognised medical practitioner, he is a teacher and writer of several publications that have helped advance the medical field.

SOURCE: legit.com

Meet the Nigerian neurosurgeon who risks his life to jet home every month from US to perform free surgery

Neurosurgeons are known as skilled operators. But straddling surgeries across two continents? That’s a different skill entirely.

Dr. Olawale Sulaiman, 41, is a professor of neurosurgery and spinal surgery and chairman for the neurosurgery department and back and spine center at the Ochsner Neuroscience Institute in New Orleans. He lives in Louisiana, but splits his time between the US and Nigeria, spending up to 12 days each month providing healthcare in the country of his birth — sometimes for free.

Born in Lagos Island, Lagos, Sulaiman says his motivation comes from growing up in a relatively poor region.

“I am one of 10 children born into a polygamous family. My siblings and I shared one room where we often found ourselves sleeping on a mat on the floor,” he told CNN.

His parents could not afford his university tuition, but Sulaiman said at the age of 19, he received a scholarship to study medicine in Bulgaria through the Bureau for External Aid, a Nigerian government program targeted at improving the quality of life for Nigeria’s most vulnerable communities.

Sulaiman said the scholarship opened many doors and, in turn, he feels responsible to give back through healthcare. “Africans who have had the privilege of getting outstanding training and education abroad must mobilize their network of influence to transform our continent,” he said.

According to a report by the Global Health Workforce Alliance, Nigeria’s healthcare system does not have enough personnel to effectively deliver essential health services to the country’s large population.

Sulaiman says he wants to use his knowledge to improve the healthcare system. “As I often do, I consulted with my loving and devoted wife for advice. We both decided that giving back was the only option for both of us, and for our family. We have never looked back,” he added.

Starting a health company

In 2010, Sulaiman established RNZ Global, a healthcare development company with his wife, Patricia. The company provides medical services including neuro and spinal surgery, and offers health courses like first aid CPR in Nigeria and the US

Noting a shortfall in physician-scientists (doctors with a combined degree in medicine and a PhD) like himself, Sulaiman decided it was important to extend his expertise to Nigeria too.

“I would use my vacation times for the medical missions, which were also planned with education and training sessions. We donated a lot of medications, equipment and hands-on training on surgical techniques,” he said.

Sulaiman said he negotiated a 25% pay cut with his American employer in exchange for longer holidays to Nigeria to pursue his passion. RNZ Global has treated more than 500 patients and provided preventative medicine to up to 5,000 people in the US and Nigeria.

Dr. Yusuf Salman, a neurosurgeon based in Abuja, Nigeria has known Sulaiman since 2006. In 2013, through a partnership with MPAC, a faith-related organization, both doctors worked together to provide free spinal surgeries to underprivileged Nigerians in Kwara, north-central Nigeria.

“(Sulaiman) came to Nigeria with implants and equipment from the US so that we could operate for free on people with spine-related problems. He was the lead surgeon and I and a couple of others assisted him at the time. We did about 10 surgeries,” Salman said.

“Over the years, I have learned a lot about minimally invasive spine surgery just from working closely with him. It is a complex procedure and we don’t have a lot of experts on it over here,” he added.

Life-changing surgery

One of his former patients Philomena Arah described his surgeries as “life-changing.”

Arah met Sulaiman for the first time in Lagos in 2018 through a friend. Before meeting him, she had spent more than 15 years trying to find a permanent solution to her frequent excruciating back pain.

“Walking was unbearable, I couldn’t even stand straight. I was not happy. The pain stopped me from socializing, from participating in many things. I could not even exercise the way I wanted,” Arah told CNN.

She would later find out from Sulaiman and his team that she needed a laminectomy, a surgical procedure where part or all of a vertebral bone is removed to relieve pressure on the spinal cord. According to Arah, the surgery in Nigeria cost considerably less than if she had traveled to the US for the procedure.

RNZ Global also has a not-for-profit arm called RNZ foundation. The foundation, registered in 2019, focuses on managing patients with neurological diseases for free.

“We offer free services and surgery for those that are less privileged and cannot afford the cost,” said Blessing Holison, patient care coordinator for RNZ Global.

Sulaiman hopes to establish at least four neuroscience centers in Nigeria in the coming years.

“I believe that happiness doesn’t come from what you get, rather, it comes from what you give,” he said. “There is always room to give; you don’t need to be a millionaire to give.”

CNN.com

Shuping Wang, whistleblower doctor who exposed HIV scandal in China and saved thousands of lives, dies

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A whistleblower who exposed HIV and hepatitis epidemics in central China in the 1990s, potentially saving tens of thousands of lives, has died aged 59.

Dr. Shuping Wang lost her job, was attacked, and had her clinic vandalised after she spoke out.

She died in Utah in the US, where she moved after the scandal.

A play inspired by her life is currently running in London, with the playwright calling her a “public health hero”.

Dr. Wang never returned to China after leaving, saying it did not feel safe.

Why did Dr. Wang speak out?

In 1991 in the Chinese province of Henan, Dr Wang was assigned to work at a plasma collection station. At the time, many locals sold their blood to local government-run blood banks.

It wasn’t long before she realised the station posed a huge public health risk.

Poor collection practices, including cross-contamination in blood-drawing, meant many donors were being infected with hepatitis C from other donors.

She warned senior colleagues at the station to change practices, but was ignored and according to her own account, was told that such a move would “increase costs”.

Undeterred, she reported the issue to the Ministry of Health. As a result, the ministry later announced that all donors would need to undergo hepatitis C screening – reducing the risk of the disease being spread.

But because of her whistleblowing, Dr Wang said, she was forced out of a job.

Her seniors said her actions had “impeded the business”. She was transferred, and assigned to work in a health bureau. But in 1995, she uncovered another scandal.

Dr Wang discovered a donor who had tested HIV positive – but had still sold blood in four different areas.

She immediately alerted her seniors to test for HIV in all the blood stations in Henan province. Again, she was told this would be too costly.

She decided to take things into her own hands, buying test kits and randomly collecting over 400 samples from donors.

She found the HIV positive rate to be 13%.

She took her results to officials in the capital, Beijing. But back home, she was targeted. A man she described as a “retired leader of the health bureau” came to her testing centre and smashed her equipment.

When she tried to block him, he hit her with his baton.

‘I’m not a man. I’m a woman’

In 1996, all the blood and plasma collection sites across the country were shut down for “rectification”. When they re-opened, HIV testing was added.

“I felt very gratified, because my work helped to protect the poor,” she said. But others were not happy.

At a health conference later that year, a high-ranking official complained about that “man in a district clinical testing centre [who] dared to report the HIV epidemic directly to the central government”.

“He said, [who is] the guy – how dare he [write] a report about this?” Dr Wang told the BBC’s Woman’s Hour in an interview earlier this month.

“I stood up and said I’m not a man. I’m a woman and I reported this.”

Later that year, she was told by health officials that she ought to stop work. “I lost my job, they asked me to stay home and work for my husband,” Dr Wang said.

Her husband, who worked at the Ministry of Health, was ostracised by his colleagues. Their marriage eventually broke down.

In 2001, Dr Wang moved to the US for work, where she took the English name “Sunshine”.

In the same year, the Chinese government admitted that it faced a serious AIDS crisis in central China. More than half a million people were believed to have become infected after selling their blood to local blood banks.

Henan, the province that Dr Wang had worked in, was one of the worst hit.

The government later announced that a special clinic had been set up to care for those suffering from Aids-related illnesses.

Several years later, Dr Wang re-married and moved with her husband Gary Christensen to Salt Lake City, where she began working at the University of Utah as a medical researcher.

But her past followed her. In 2019, she said, Chinese state security officers made threatening visits to relatives and former colleagues in Henan, in an attempt to cancel the production of a play inspired by her life.

She refused, and the play titled “The King of Hell’s Palace” premiered at London’s Hampstead Theatre in September.

Dr Wang died on 21 September while hiking in Salt Lake City with friends and her husband. It’s thought she may have had a heart attack.

“Speaking out cost me my job, my marriage and my happiness at the time, but it also helped save the lives of thousands and thousands of people,” she had told the Hampstead Theatre website in an interview just one month before her death.

“She was a most determined, relentless optimistic and most loving woman,” wrote her friend David Cowhig after news of her death.

“She chose the English name Sunshine for a reason. Perhaps her exuberance and love for the outrageous – made possible [the] perseverance she had.”

SOURCE: bbc.com

List Of Agreements And Transactions That Are Invalid If Handled By A None Lawyer In Nigeria

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Daily Law Tips (Tip 428) by Onyekachi Umah, Esq., LLM. ACIArb(UK)

Some agreements and transactions in Nigeria cannot be completed without the input of a lawyer. Even after such transactions or agreements are completed they are invalid, null, void and waste for the single reason that they were not handled/managed by a lawyer. And monies spent it paid on them can even be retrieved.

Some of the agreements and transactions that can not legal and valid unless handled by lawyers, are transactions or documents relating to;
1. Rent, tenancy, lease, mortgage, sale, transfer, gift, land, landed property, extracted and not-extracted minerals resources, mines, buildings, structures or
2. Probate letters of administration or
3. any proceedings in court in Nigeria.

Any document/agreement relating to the issues mentioned above prepared by a none lawyer whether the matter is in court or not, whether the parties are happy or not, is INVALID, NULL AND VOID as well as any monies or ownership obtained via such documents. And any of the party at anytime can collect back any monies or property paid or transferred, earlier whether the matter is in court or not even after expiration of 3 years.

Further note that it is a criminal offence in Nigeria, for a none lawyer to prepare any of the above mentioned documents. It is an offence punishable with fine not more than #200.00 or and imprisonment for not more than 2 years. Where an offender is a company, the directors, managers, secretaries or any such officer as well as the company will be held liable. Well, this offence cannot be brought to court after 3 years such offence was committed.

Note that, none lawyers are exempted from the above law, where such a person is doing such for himself and not in expectation of reward/payment. Other persons exempted are law students and staff of lawyers while performing their duties for the lawyer that employed them.

Lawyers are Legal Practitioners called to the Nigerian Bar and enrolled at the Supreme Court of Nigeria and not mere law graduates, other related professional or persons with law degrees or related courses.

My authorities are sections 2, 22(1)(d), 22(2), 22(4), 22(5), 22(6), 22(7), 24 and 25 of the Legal Practitioners Act, 1975.

CALL FOR AMENDMENT.
There is need to amend the Legal Practitioners Act of 1975 to meet up with reality. There should be an increase of the fine from #200.00 to an amount punitive in nature and the imprisonment term should be a minimum and not a maximum. Also, there should not be a limitation period for prosecution of the offence considering the peculiarity of our society and growing cases of fake lawyers and other overzealous professionals in real estate and investment sectors.

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Feel free to reach the author, ask questions or make inquiries on this topic or any other via [email protected] or [email protected] or +2348037665878.

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FIDA, Awomolo, insist violence against Women and hildren must stop

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Condemnations continue to rise against the spate of violence against women and children in Africa and Nigeria as the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) on Wednesday restated its stance that perpetrators must be punished.

Speaking ahead of their upcoming Africa Regional Congress, in Abuja, Chief Mrs. Victoria Awomolo, SAN, Regional Vice President (West & North Africa) FIDA,told judicial correspondents that prosecutorial agencies must rise to the occasion by charging offenders to court using the Violence Against Person’s Prohibition (VAPP) Act 2015 which currently is applicable in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and three other states in the country.

Noting that the VAPP Act covers all areas of violence against persons including applicable punishments, the Senior Advocate said these issues and more would be part of the discuss at the FIDA Africa Regional Congress 2019 which will take place from the 11-15th October, 2019.

Addressing the question of gender and sexual violence; particularly the rape of minors, rising wave of incest as well as the need to create a level playing field in politics for women, Mrs Awomolo said the status of women and children in Africa has not changed.

“The status of women and children has not changed much in Africa. We still have many cases of discrimination against women in the homes, cultural practices don’t favour us, in workplaces, we are also discriminated upon.

“The one that is in the front burner now, is gender violence” she stated.

“Gender violence is becoming rampant now, particularly the case of rape. Minors are being defiled on a daily basis, and we have to create awareness to put an end to this dastardly act.

“You now see fathers raping their daughters, and uncles raping infants; a child as young as 6 months is now being raped and one wonders why.”

Mrs Awomolo, who was elected in 2017 at the FIDA Convention in Bahamas, said the theme of the Africa regional congress is, “The growth of Women and Children in Africa Beyond Rhetoric”.
What informed the theme, she said, was the many discussions on the status of women and children in Africa, particularly Nigeria.

She said the FIDA Africa Regional Congress “will equally lend voice our to the fact that African women have grown beyond just being in the kitchen to much more.

Why do Nigerians still study law?

By David Hundeyin 

The 2015 movie “The Big Short” tells the true story of Steve Eisman, a Wall Street fund manager who becomes aware of an opportunity to profit heavily by shorting the US housing market. Wanting to investigate it for himself, he takes a trip to South Florida where he discovers a hyperinflated local housing market, unscrupulous mortgage brokers and clueless mortgage borrowers. It turns out that due to relaxed regulatory compliance and corporate greed, banks are issuing mortgage loans to pretty much anyone who wants them, even giving out so-called NINJA (No Income No Job or Assets) loans worth hundreds of thousands of dollars against all common sense.

What really makes his mind up for him is when he meets a stripper who informs him mid-dance that she is paying mortgages on five houses she “owns.” He immediately buys $50 million worth of shorts against the housing market with a potential 20-1 payout. The reasoning is simple – there is a housing asset bubble caused by an oversupply of easy credit and willing takers with a steep deficit of borrowers who can actually pay back their loans. Sooner or later, the bubble will pop and the whole house of cards comes crashing down – which happened in 2008, netting Eisman over $1 billion in profits.

This incidence of heavy investment going into an asset class without reliable evidence that said assets are valued correctly underpins every market bubble, from the Dutch tulip bubble in the 1630s to the dotcom bubble at the turn of the millennium. We may not realise it, but it also underpins the bubble we have created around higher education in Nigeria. Like the pre-2008 financial credit rating agencies who kept giving worthless mortgage-backed securities AAA ratings, the highest rate for creditworthy, investment-grade assets -. Nigerians continue to regard certain university programmess very highly, even though their objective value – determined by job market outcomes – is practically nil.

Educational investment as a bubble: The curious example of law

In 2008, I started a programme of study that many Nigerians – most notably my parents – thought of as borderline insane. Whenever I met other Nigerians on campus and I got the “what are you studying?” question, I got used to the almost pitying looks that followed my answer – Creative Writing and Media, Culture & Society. Apparently, it was almost unthinkable that Nigerian parents would make the 3-year investment worth circa £50,000 for a foreign degree if it were not Engineering, Business, something Science-y or Law. Especially law. Nigerian parents love to send their children to school in Nigeria and beyond to study law, and I had several Nigerian acquaintances studying law at Hull University.

After three years studying a difficult LLB programme, many returned to Nigeria to make a wonderful legal career for themselves. Only after Law school and NYSC though, which cumulatively swallowed a further two years, but no matter – those fantastic jobs at elite law firms like Banwo & Ighodalo and Falana & Falana Chambers would make the time and money invested, hard work, sacrifice, paying dues and all that worth it!

The jobs, however, did not materialise.

It wasn’t that the big boys weren’t hiring. It was that there was such an oversupply of qualified lawyers competing for a tiny number of spaces that getting a good entry level legal job became like getting into NASA. In an employers’ market, the few who did get into the much-coveted spots at elite law firms found themselves burning both ends of the candle, working from dark to dark for a salary often less than $450/month. Those who did not make it into these spots found themselves unemployed, underemployed and ridiculously underpaid.

A good friend of mine with an LLB and LLM found himself working at a mid-sized law firm in Abuja for a king’s ransom of N40,000/month. Eventually he and his partner packed up and moved to China to teach English for two years, where they saved up money for an eventual move to Canada earlier this year. Any lawyer practicing in Nigeria who graduated at any point within the last 15 years probably has similar stories, and yet as you read this, naïve teenagers and pushy parents all over the country are still putting down “law” on JAMB forms.

Like the pre-2008 U.S. housing market, there is no evidence that the asset in question (a Law degree) offers value commensurate to its rating and perceived desirability, but investors (students and their parents) keep putting their time, money and energy into it anyway. Even worse, unlike a stock market bubble which at least goes away after it pops, it seems as if the penny is not about to drop with Nigerians on the subject of investing in overvalued degree programmes like law.

The LLB and LLM basket clearly has too many holes to successfully fetch water anytime soon, but the tap above it is still rushing, pouring out tens of thousands of new law graduates every year for no reason at all, adding to the existing number of unemployed and depressed ones.

Short the bubble and try something new

Like Eisman in “The Big Short” who famously stated that his investment strategy was based on “a willingness to call bulls**t” on irrational asset valuations and go against conventional market wisdom, one way to make a significant short term dent in Nigeria’s long term unemployment problem is for Nigerians to become ruthlessly pragmatic and data-driven about what their education choices represent. Law is the most obvious and egregious example, but there are several other conventional university programmes that remain significantly overvalued in Nigerian consciousness.

Medicine is another example of an overvalued study program, consuming anything from 7 to 12 years of a Nigerian student’s life just to be qualified to practise as a junior doctor. I know a doctor who got into Medical School at 18 and completed his first degree at 29 – 11 years later. For reference, in the 11 years since I entered university to study my “unconventional” programme in 2008, I have worked across several jobs, founded two businesses and grown a significant portfolio of local and international work.

The doctor by contrast, is only now qualified to start his career at the lowest possible rung, and getting even a house placement and a job afterward will be extremely difficult. If he decides to move abroad, he then faces the prospect of further expensive, difficult examinations to enable him practise– exams that must be passed within a limited number of tries with no guarantee of success. From a numbers point of view, can one really justify the years and money invested in that medical degree when compared to the left-field route I took?

This of course does not mean that avoiding Law and Medicine in favour of Creative Writing will necessarily result in similar results to mine. It just means that when making the most important investment decision of a young adult’s life – post-secondary education – students and their parents must first of all analyse the job market to make an informed decision about what to fill in on that JAMB form. In a world where companies like IBM, Apple and Facebook have removed university degrees from their list of recruitment requirements, it also means that Nigerians must focus now on practical skills over high-sounding degree certificates.

In the job market of today, a 19 year-old with an SSCE certificate, an online nano-degree in Python and six months of remote experience as a developer will be significantly more employable and better remunerated than a 31 year-old with an LLB and an LLM who spent seven years acquiring these qualifications across university and Law School. Some companies like Siemens in Germany even offer apprenticeship programmes to teenagers, which take them straight from high school into paid work, awarding the equivalent of a degree certificate afterward.

Unlike Steve Eisman, we may not make $1 billion for recognising that the world has changed and “calling bulls***t” on the false valuations Nigeria currently gives to certain types of education. Like Eisman though, we will at least be in a position to benefit from rapid change instead of being consumed by it.

Culled from: BusinessDay

Dealing with Electric Energy Theft in Nigeria: Need for an Investment-Protection-Oriented Approach

By Obinna Nwadialo

Introduction

The electricity industry in Nigeria since the privatization era has become awash with many promising opportunities. The industry which was broken into three layers of Generation, Transmission and Distribution with private firms/individuals holding the majority shares in the Generation and Distribution layers of the industry while the government, understandably, maintains its control on the Transmission layer of the industry. The privatization of the industry saw the emergence of 11 distribution firms now reduced to 10 upon the return to the Federal Government of the Yola Electricity Distribution Company by the investors.

Unfortunately, one of the biggest challenges the electricity distribution industry has had to deal with through its existence is the loss of energy through conscious act of energy theft which in no mean way add to the unimaginable height of the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses. The theft of electric energy can be in different forms including but not limited to meter tampering/ bye-pass and illegal or unauthorized use of electricity, non-payment of tariff/bills, vandalism and Transformer Oil theft. Electricity theft, except for cases of vandalism which may lead to technical losses, is basically aligned as commercial loss.

Electric energy theft as every other criminal activity, is not limited to Nigeria. In fact, it was reported that South Africa loses on the average of R20 billion, the equivalent of a whopping $1.5 billion per annum to electricity theft.[1]  In India, the central government, aside having pledged an investment of billions of dollars for creating a smart grid infrastructure had in November, 2014, announced the release of USD$4 billion in funding for smart metering programs all geared towards discouraging electricity theft.[2] This is aside having a comprehensive and updated India Electricity Theft Act, 2003 with some interesting amendments thereto in 2007 which has robust provisions on electricity theft.

Read more: https://stephenlegal.ng/dealing-with-electric-energy-theft-in-nigeria-need-for-an-investment-protection-oriented-approach/

Can tax office unilaterally impose percentages of turnover as any person’s income tax?

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Daily Law Tips (Tip 417) By Onyekachi Umah, Esq., LLM. ACIArb(UK)

Surprisingly, Yes.
Personal Income Tax is a direct tax charged on income, salary, allowance, wage, fee, bonuses, dividends or any benefit of an adult individual, communities, families, executors and trustees being resident in Nigeria or outside Nigeria or that of any person resident outside Nigeria but deriving income or profit from Nigeria.
Where a tax office cannot for a certain year ascertain the true income of a person from his business(trade, Profession or vocation) because the business produced no assessable income or produced an assessable income that is in the opinion of the tax office is less than what might be expected to arise from that business or that the true assessable income of the person form the business cannot be readily ascertained, the tax office may assess and charge such person on such fair and reasonable percentage of the turnover of the business.
If the business of the person is carried on in Nigeria, tax office will assess and charge the person on such fair and reasonable percentage of the turnover of the business as the tax office will determine.
If the person is a non-resident but has a fixed base in Nigeria, from where he carried on such business, tax office will assess and charge that person on such fair and reasonable percentage of the turnover attributable to that fixed base.

If the person is a non-resident that operates a business through another person or persons, tax office will assess and charge that person on such fair and reasonable percentage of the turnover of business carried on through that person.

If the person is a non-resident that operates a business in Nigeria which involves a single contract for surveys, deliveries, installation or construction, tax office will assess and charge that person on such fair and reasonable percentage of the contract.


My authorities are sections 1, 2, 3, 7, 108 and 109 of the Personal Income Tax Act 1993.

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Feel free to reach the author, ask questions or make inquiries on this topic or any other via [email protected] or [email protected] or +2348037665878.

NOTE: Sharing or modifying or publishing this publication without giving credit to Onyekachi Umah, Esq. and “LearnNigerianLaws.com” is a criminal breach of copyright and will be prosecuted. Please share this publication till it gets to those that need it most. Save a Nigerian today!

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This publication is the writer’s view not a legal advice and does not create any form of relationship. You may reach the writer for more information.

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Minimum information that must be in database of all arrested persons at federal and state leves in Nigeria

Daily Law Tips (Tip 415) By Onyekachi Umah, Esq., LLM. ACIArb(UK)

First of all it is the exclusive duty/power of the Attorney General of the Federation to establish electronic and manual database of all records of arrests at the Federal and State level.
The database is designed to be fed through mandatory reports of records of arrested quarterly remitted by Nigeria Police Force and all other security agencies in Nigeria. Hence, the database must contain at least the records of arrest drawn for Register of Arrest completed at various police stations and security agencies across Nigeria showing particulars of arrested persons.
Particulars of arrested person includes; alleged offence, date and circumstances of arrest, full name, occupation and residential address as well as height, photograph, full fingerprint impressions and any other means of identification.
Note that failure to comply or discharge responsibility without reasonable cause must be treated as misconduct by the appropriate authority.

My authorities are sections 15, 29, 491, 494 and 495 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and other similar laws across States in Nigeria.

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This publication is the writer’s view not a legal advice and does not create any form of relationship. You may reach the writer for more information.

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