Former governor of Kaduna State, Malam Nasir El-Rufai, says fuel subsidy is back, but many Nigerians do not know this.

Fielding question from newsmen in Maiduguri , Borno State capital, on Monday, El-Rufai said the federal government is now paying more than before.

In his inaugural speech, President Bola Tinubu had announced the removal of fuel subsidy, saying its payment was no longer justifiable.

But El-Rufai, who said he was in support of the policy, said the government had to make necessary adjustments.

“Fuel subsidy is another policy that has been implemented by the president, it’s the right policy. I always supported withdrawing fuel subsidy.”

“But, in the course of implementation as you can see the government has now realized that the subsidy has to be back because right now, we are paying a lot of money for subsidy even more than before.

He said many people don’t know that fuel subsidy is back, “but, if they want to know whether we are subsidizing or not, they should compare the price of petrol and diesel because petrol should be more expensive than diesel but diesel is priced above a thousand naira while petrol is at N600 per liter.

“So, we are still subsidizing Petrol because the government has realised that they way it implemented the fuel subsidy initially required some adjustments. That’s what I keep saying about policy and policy pragmatism,” he said.

El-Rufai had earlier presented a paper titled: “Leadership and Public Policy: Navigating Challenges and Lessons”, at the Capacity-building workshop for Senior Government Officials of Borno State.

[DailyTrust]

as court overrules defendant, admits his statement

 

A Federal High Court in Abuja heard on Monday, April 15, how police investigators were able to track the man behind an online publication that accused the ex-works and housing minister, Babatunde Fashola of writing the judgments of the Presidential Election Petition Court (PEPC).

Ibezim Chike Victor, who is alleged to be one of the three individuals linked to the publication made on an online platform – Reportera.ng, is being tried on a six-count charge, marked: FHC/ABJ/CR/434/2023 brought against him by the Inspector General of Police (IGP).

Victor is charged with criminal conspiracy, cyberstalking, and defamation, among others.

Testifying before the court on Monday, a police investigator, Inspector Ikemba Cyprian said his team was able to track Victor through his phone number by deploying technology.

Lead in evidence by prosecuting lawyer, E. O Ochai, Cyprian said the defendant’s phone number – 08146435568 – was provided by Fashola in two petitions, dated August 7 and 8, 2023 which he addressed to the IGP.

The witness said the nominal complainant (Fashola) stated, in the petition, that the publication was to the effect that his premises were surrounded by soldiers because he was writing judgments for the PEPC that was hearing petitions, challenging the last presidential election. 

He said immediately the petitions were assigned to his team, Fashola was invited and he volunteered a statement.

“We analysed the phone number on the petition and found that belonged to the defendant,” the witness said.

He added that upon realising that the number belonged to the defendant, Victor was invited and when he subsequently responded to the invitation, he volunteered a statement.

The witness added that, in his statement, dated August 10, 2023, the defendant admitted that he bought the MTN SIM card and registered it.

Ochai applied to tender the defendant’s statement, but Victor’s lawyer, Kanayo Okafor objected on the grounds that Sections 6(2)(d),17(2) and 15(4) of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act (ACJA) were not complied with.

In a ruling, Justice Bolaji Olajuwon overruled Okafor and admitted the statement on grounds of relevance.

The witness added that when his team contacted the Court of Appeal, authorities of the court said the judgments of the PEPC were written by Justices on the panel and not any outsider.

He said his team also contacted the Nigerian Army Headquarters and was told that no soldier was deployed to Fashola’s premises as claimed in the offending publication.

“At the completion of the investigation, we found that the defendant made the publication to smear the hard-earned reputation of the nominal complainant. We also found that there was no siege on the nominal complainant’s house by the army,” he said.

The witness added that the investigation also revealed that the nominal complainant did not write the judgment as claimed in the defamatory statement.

He added that the investigation revealed that the defendant and other of his collaborators use the same office and share the same phone number.

“We found that the publication was such that could lead to the breakdown of law and order,” the witness said.

At the completion of Cyprian’s testimony, Okafor prayed to the court for an adjournment to enable him to return on a later date to cross-examine the witness.

Although Ochai objected to the defence lawyer’s application for adjournment, Justice Olajuwon adjourned till April 19 for cross-examination.

[TheNation]

The Coroner Inquest sitting in Ogba Magistrate Court examining the death of a 12-year-old student of Dowen College, Lekki, Sylvester Junior Oromoni, has attributed his death to his parents’ and doctor’s negligence.

The Coroner Magistrate, Mikhail Kadiri, held that Oromoni died as a result of failed treatment for his enlarged liver.

Oromoni died on November 30, 2021.

His death was attributed to bully and an alleged poisonous substance he was forced to drink in the school.

He was said to have mentioned that he was beaten up by five senior students of Dowen College whose names were Favour Benjamin, 16, Edward Begue (16), Ansel Temile (14) Kenneth Inyang and Micheal Kashamu, 16, son of late Senator, Buruji Kashamu, before he died.

The incident led to the indefinite closure of the school despite denying the claim.

The school insisted that the boy complained of leg pain following an injury he sustained while playing football.

Meanwhile, the Lagos State Commissioner of Police ordered a full-scale investigation into the incident.

On January 5, 2022, the Lagos State Government exonerated the five students and five employees of Dowen College, Lekki, Lagos, who were accused of the death of Sylvester Oromoni.

Two years later, Oromoni was laid to rest at the family’s compound at Ogbe-Ijoh, Warri South-West Local Government Area of Delta.

Kadiri said, “Based on the foregoing it is clear that the deceased health deteriorated in (doctor) PW 3’s care.

“PW 3, did not take proper care of the deceased, PW 3, completely abandoned the deceased for a period of more than 32 hours.

“The deceased’s death was an avoidable one but for the negligence of the parents and PW 3, they didn’t take him to the hospital until the day he died on November 30, 2021.

“The deceased went through an avoidable and excruciating pain and made to suffer needlessly,” Kadiri said.

Watch video below: https://x.com/MobilePunch/status/1779912480463974821

[Punch]

 

 

The Kano State Working Committee of the All Progressives Congress has invalidated the suspension of the National Chairman, Abdullahi Ganduje by his ward in APC Dawakin Tofa Local Government Area.

The working committee also suspended the party leaders at the ward level.

PM News earlier reported that the ward leaders through Legal Adviser, Halliru Gwanzo, said Ganduje was alleged to be involved in bribery.

Gwanzo said the allegations against the Ganduje were serious and he needed to be suspended.

He said: “We decided to suspend Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje from the party due to the seriousness of the allegations against him”

But the Local Government Chairman for the APC, Inusa Dawanau, stated that who purportedly suspended Ganduje were being suspended six months over their involvement in anti-party activities.

He claimed that there were their records of meetings with another party.

In his reaction, the state’s APC chairman, Alhaji Abdullahi Abbas, said, “We have evidence of meetings between the State Government officials and those who suspended the National Chairman, and the State Working Committee has agreed to sanction them for six months. They will remain suspended until the expiration of the period”.

[PM News]

Investors have continued to backpedal on the stock market, especially in the banking sector, on the back of the proposed recapitalization of the banks announced late last month by the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN.

The risk-off sentiment resulted in the loss of N633 billion as investors took profits from the banks.

Consequently, the market capitalization of all the listed equities fell to N57.87 trillion at the close of the holiday-shortened week from N58.498 trillion in the previous week, representing a 1.1 per cent decrease.

Also, the benchmark All Share Index (ASI) of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) declined by 1.1 per cent to 102,314.56 basis points from 103,437.67 basis points in the previous week, driven by losses in the shares of Guaranty Trust Company (GTCo) Plc (-13.75%), FBN Holdings Plc (-11.15%) and Zenith Bank Plc (-5.88%).

Month-to-Date (MtD) and Year-to-Date (YtD) returns slipped to -2.1 per cent and +36.8 per cent, respectively.

Further analysis shows that activity level was also impacted by the shortened trading week, as the total trading volume and value weakened by 69.2 per cent Week-on-Week (w/w) and 50.5 per cent w/w, to 734 04 million units and N31.58 billion respectively.

Sectoral performance was negative, reflecting the sour mood in the market.

Precisely, all the major sectoral indices declined with the banking sector, leading with 7.2 per cent depreciation, followed by the insurance sector 2.4 per cent; consumer goods sector (-1.3%); oil and gas sector (-0.3%) and the industrial goods sector which fell by 0.2 per cent.

Analysts at Cordros Capital, in their projection for the week, said: “Looking forward, we anticipate that market sentiments will remain negative, with investors continuing to react unfavourably to the potential dilution stemming from the CBN’s recapitalization initiative.”

“In the medium term, we expect investors’ sentiments to be influenced by developments in the macroeconomic landscape and corporate actions,” they added.

Analysts at Parthian Securities, however, projected that the market performance will be mixed this week, saying: “We expect investors sentiment to be mixed at this week’s trading session.”

Vanguard News Nigeria

 

Nigerian corporate influence and that of the West continue to collide. The rationale is straightforward: whereas corporate activity in Europe and America is part of their larger local and foreign policy engagement, privately owned enterprises in Nigeria or commercial interests are not part of Nigeria’s foreign policy ecosystem, neither is there a strong culture of government support for privately-owned enterprises’ expansion locally and internationally.

Nigerian firms’ competitiveness on a global scale can only be enhanced by the support of the Nigerian government. The relationship between Nigerian businesses and foreign policy is important to the national interest. When backing domestic Nigerian companies to compete on a worldwide scale, the government should see it as a lever to drive foreign policy and national strategic interest, promote trade, enhance national security considerations, and minimise distortion in the domestic market as the foreign airlines were doing, boost GDP, create employment opportunities, and optimise corporate returns for the firms. For example, the South Korean mega conglomerates within the chaebol corporate structure, such as Samsung, Daewoo, SK Group, LG, and others, have become globally recognisable brands thanks to the backing of the South Korean government. For Chaebol to succeed, strong collaboration with the government has been essential. Also, in telecommunications, Huawei would only be such a well-known brand worldwide with the backing of the Chinese government. The opposite is the case with Nigeria.

Admittedly, nations do not always interfere directly in their companies’ business and commercial dealings, and there are always exceptions. I can cite two areas of exception: military sales by companies because of their strategic implications and are, therefore, part of foreign and diplomatic policy and processes. The second is where the products or routes of a company have implications for foreign policy. Air Peace falls into the second category in the Lagos–London route.

Two events demonstrate an emerging trend that, if not checked, will disincentivise Nigerian firms from competing in the global marketplace. There are other notable examples, but I am using these two examples because they are very recent and ongoing, and they are typological representations of the need for Nigerian government backing and support for local companies that are playing in a very competitive international market dominated by big foreign companies whose governments are using all forms of foreign policies and diplomacy to support and sustain.

The first is Air Peace. It is the only Nigerian-owned aviation company playing globally and checkmating the dominance of foreign airlines. The most recent advance is the commencement of flights on the Lagos–London route. In Nigeria, foreign airlines are well-established and accustomed to a lack of rivalry, yet a free-market economy depends on the existence of competition. Nigeria has significantly larger airline profits per passenger than other comparable African nations. Insufficient competition has resulted in high ticket costs and poor service quality. It is precisely this jinx that Air Peace is attempting to break.

On March 30, 2024, Air Peace reciprocated the lopsided Bilateral Air Service Agreement (BASA) between Nigeria and the United Kingdom when the local airline began direct flight operations from Lagos to Gatwick Airport in London. This elicited several reactions from foreign airlines backed by their various sovereigns because of their strategic interest. A critical response is the commencement of a price war. Before Air Peace’s entry, the price of international flight tickets on the Lagos-London route had soared to as much as N3.5 million for the economy ticket. However, after Air Peace introduced a return economy class ticket priced at N1.2 million, foreign carriers like British Airways, Virgin Atlantic, and Qatar Airways reduced their fares significantly to remain competitive.

In a price war, there is little the government can do. In an open-market competitive situation such as this, our government must not act in a manner that suggests it is antagonistic to foreign players and competitors. There must be an appearance of a level playing field. However, the government owes Air Peace protection against foreign competitors backed by their home governments. This is in the overall interest of the Nigerian consumer of goods and services. Competition history in the airspace works where the Consumer Protection Authority in the host country is active. This is almost absent in Nigeria and it is a reason why foreign airlines have been arbitrary in pricing their tickets. Nigerian consumers are often at the mercy of these foreign firms who lack any vista of patriotism and are more inclined to protect the national interest of their governments and countries.

It would not be too much to expect Nigerian companies playing globally to benefit from the protection of the Nigerian government to limit influence peddling by foreign-owned companies. The success of Air Peace should enable a more competitive and sustainable market, allowing domestic players to grow their network and propel Nigeria to the forefront of international aviation.

The second is Proforce, a Nigerian-owned military hardware manufacturing firm active in Rwanda, Chad, Mali, Ghana, Niger, Burkina Faso, and South Sudan. Despite the growing capacity of Proforce in military hardware manufacturing, Nigeria entered two lopsided arrangements with two UAE firms to supply military equipment worth billions of dollars, respectively. Both deals are backed by the UAE government but executed by UAE firms. These deals on a more extensive web are not unconnected with the UAE’s national strategic interest.

In pursuit of its strategic national interest, India is pushing Indian firms to supply military equipment to Nigeria. The Nigerian defence equipment market has seen weaker indigenous competitors driven out due to the combination of local manufacturers’ lack of competitive capacity and government patronage of Asian, European, and US firms in the defence equipment manufacturing sector. This is a misnomer and needs to be corrected. Not only should our government be the primary customer of this firm if its products meet international standards, but it should also support and protect it from the harsh competitive realities of a challenging but strategic market directly linked to our national military procurement ecosystem. The ability to produce military hardware locally is significant to our defence strategy. This firm and similar companies playing in this strategic defence area must be considered strategic and have a considerable place in Nigeria’s foreign policy calculations. Protecting Nigeria’s interests is the primary reason for our engagement in global diplomacy. The government must deliberately balance national interest with capacity and competence in military hardware purchases. It will not be too much to ask these foreign firms to partner with local companies so we can embed the technology transfer advantages.

Increasingly, other companies, especially in the banking and fintech sectors, are making giant strides in global competitiveness. Our government must create an environment that enables our local companies to compete globally and ply their trades in various countries. It should be part of the government’s overall economic, strategic growth agenda to identify areas or sectors in which Nigerian companies have a competitive advantage, especially in the sub-region and across Africa and support the companies in these sectors to advance and grow to dominate in the African region to compete globally. Government support in the form of incentives such as competitive grants, tax credits for consumers, low-interest capital, patronage, G2G business, operational support, and diplomatic lobbying, amongst others, will alter the competitive landscape. Governments and key government agencies in the West retain the services of lobbying firms in pursuit of their strategic interest.

Nigerian firms’ competitiveness on a global scale can only be enhanced by the support of the Nigerian government. Foreign policy interests should be a key driver of Nigerian trade agreements. How does the Nigerian government support private companies to grow and compete globally? Is it intentionally mapping out growth areas and creating opportunities for Nigerian firms to maximise their potential? Is the government at the domestic level removing bottlenecks and impediments to private company growth, allowing a level playing field for these companies to compete with international companies? Why is the government patronising foreign firms against local firms if their products are of similar value? What was the rationale for flight tickets from Lagos to London costing N3.5 million for economy class just a few weeks ago only to come down to N1.3 million with the entrance of Air Peace to the market? Why are Nigerian consumers left to the hands of international companies in some sectors without the government actively supporting the growth of local firms to compete in those sectors? These questions merit honest answers.

Nigerian national interest must be the driving factor for our foreign policies, which must cover the private sector, just as is the case with most developed countries. The new global capitalism is not a product of accident or chance; the government has choreographed and shaped it by using foreign policies to support and protect local firms competing globally. Nigeria must learn to do the same to build a strong economy with more jobs.

Festus Keyamo, minister of aviation and aerospace, says the federal government is set to arrest and sanction illegal flights and non-certified personnel.

Keyamo spoke in an interview on Channels Television on April 14.

According to the minister, the federal government has received credible information about them and would not hesitate to persecute them.

He said new private jet owners approach aviation regulators to request approval to use their aircraft to fly family or friends, however, after obtaining the required licence, they begin commercial flights.

“And we give them very low fee paydays. The moment you give them, they begin to carry passengers all over Nigeria, doing six or eight flights a day. And nobody checked them before I came,” Keyamo said.

“This is a notice to them on camera. I am coming for them. I am coming for them because the president has given us marching orders. We are not going to allow this to happen.

“First of all, in terms of the regulation, tracking them, making sure passengers that you carry are safe, regulating them and all that is low. Secondly, you are cheating the federal government. It is economic sabotage and I’m not going to allow that to happen.

“So people who are even my friends or friends of Mr. President, we are going to come hard on all of them, ground their planes, withdraw their licences and come very hard on them.

“We are not going to allow that to happen. And I’m about to do something on that, and guess what? I’m tying it down to the issue of training and retraining because it’s in most of these private aircraft you now see those people who have not gone for their normal routine training, they are the ones flying them (private aircraft).

“We have a complicity within the system. People who are also supposed to check and carry out sting operations on them do not.”

Keyamo also said he has received intelligence on persons involved, adding that in a matter of days or weeks, his ministry will go hard on them.

 

[TheCable]

The seemingly intractable conflict in Africa’s volatile Great Lakes region, sparked by the Rwandan genocide 30 years ago, is raging anew, as local and foreign-backed forces plunder the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s vast mineral deposits. Resolving the crisis will require close coordination among regional and external actors.

LAGOS – Violence is once again surging in Africa’s volatile Great Lakes region. This month marks the 30th anniversary of the Rwandan genocide that left 800,000 people dead and another two million displaced. These refugees fled into the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), which became the epicenter of an increasingly intractable conflict – what some now call Africa’s Thirty Years’ War.

Since the ouster of the kleptocratic dictator Mobutu Sese Seko in 1997, successive DRC governments have been unable to secure the country’s borders and govern large areas in its east, where about six million people have been killed and another seven million internally displaced. The lawlessness of this vast territory has enabled local and foreign-backed forces’ systemic looting – especially in recent years – of the DRC’s large deposits of cobalt, coltan, copper, gold, diamonds, and other minerals.

African regional bodies, external powers, and the United Nations – which has deployed peacekeeping missions in the DRC for 25 years – have failed to curb the violence. To prevent an escalation, and ultimately end the conflict, the DRC’s domestic, regional, and international interlocutors must understand the complex dynamics at work.

At the heart of the current crisis are severe tensions between the DRC and Rwanda, whose autocratic president, Paul Kagame, is expected to extend his almost quarter-century rule in July’s election. Kagame has accused the DRC government of supporting genocidal Hutu militias, seeking to expel Congolese Tutsis, and refusing to negotiate an end to the fighting. The DRC, meanwhile, has rejected talks with the March 23 Movement (M23), a Rwanda-backed rebel group in eastern Congo, and called on Kagame to withdraw Rwandan troops from the DRC and demobilize the M23.

Neighboring Uganda and Burundi have played a more ambiguous role in the conflict. Both are accused (as is Rwanda) of smuggling gold and other resources out of the DRC. But, despite its uneasy truce with Rwanda, the Ugandan government has launched a joint operation with the DRC against the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), an Islamic extremist group operating in both countries. Burundi has accused Rwanda of supporting Burundian rebels in eastern Congo and recently sent troops to the region under a bilateral agreement with the DRC government.

Exacerbating the dire situation in the mineral-rich eastern provinces of Kivu and Ituri are the widespread human-rights abuses committed by the Congolese army and some Mai-Mai (local self-defense forces) vigilantes. And this is to say nothing of the more than 100 militias that operate in the region. Last year alone, these armed groups displaced one million people. In February, violent clashes broke out as the M23 surrounded the large city of Goma, North Kivu’s capital. The ADF and the Coopérative pour le développement du Congo (CODECO) have reportedly killed hundreds and committed acts of sexual violence.

Peacemaking efforts in the Great Lakes are equally complicated. In 2022, Félix Tshisekedi, the erratic Congolese president, brought in peacekeepers from the East African Community (Burundi, Kenya, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda), of which it is also a member, before criticizing their unwillingness to fight the M23 and engineering their departure. Then, last December, Tshisekedi invited in a Southern African Development Community (SADC) mission – comprising 2,900 troops from Malawi, South Africa, and Tanzania – despite vociferous opposition from Rwanda. But the SADC peacekeepers are unlikely to engage in a full-scale war with Rwanda and the M23, which is what Tshisekedi ultimately wants. Moreover, the recent deaths of two South African soldiers in the DRC has caused alarm among South African policymakers.

Worryingly, the UN peacekeeping mission is set to withdraw from the DRC, at the request of the Congolese government, by the end of 2024. The three African members currently on the UN Security Council – Algeria, Mozambique, and Sierra Leone – are working closely with Guyana to ensure continued financial and logistical support for the SADC mission, while cautioning the UN against leaving a “security vacuum” in the DRC.

Foreign governments are also active in the Great Lakes region. The United States, which was instrumental in halting the M23’s march toward Goma in 2013 by withholding aid from Rwanda, has recently sought to mediate between the DRC and Rwanda. It has also taken a tougher stance toward Rwanda in recent years, suspending military assistance, urging the country to withdraw troops and surface-to-air missiles from the DRC, and condemning its support for the M23. Equally important, the US has questioned Rwanda’s contributions to UN peacekeeping efforts in the Central African Republic and South Sudan, which Rwanda often uses to deflect pressure from its actions in the DRC.

Self-interest has motivated most other foreign powers. Despite partly echoing America’s criticisms, France has increased its financial support for Rwanda, which has deployed 2,500 troops to Mozambique to protect a gas-processing plant owned by French oil giant TotalEnergies from local insurgents. In February, the European Union signed a memorandum of understanding with Rwanda for the exploitation of critical minerals (despite its plundering of the DRC’s resources), incurring the wrath of Congolese officials. China, with which the EU is competing for raw materials, has invested heavily in the DRC’s cobalt sector.

Resolving the Great Lakes crisis will require coordination among regional and external actors. Western countries must condition aid to Rwanda on its withdrawal of troops from the eastern DRC and its ending support for the M23. Rwanda, Uganda, and Burundi should also face severe consequences for the looting and illicit trafficking of the DRC’s minerals. Lastly, Rwanda’s role in UN peacekeeping missions must be scaled down substantially.

Domestically, the DRC must tackle widespread corruption, improve democratic governance, and rein in genocidal forces and Western mercenaries. And the African Union should bridge the gaps in peacemaking efforts, including by bolstering the SADC mission so that it can work more closely with UN peacekeepers. But most importantly, the UN must avoid a hasty, ill-planned withdrawal from what Secretary-General António Guterres has rightly described as “a protracted and largely neglected humanitarian crisis.”

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