TUESDAY 8TH SEPTEMBER 2026

Peter Obi to Baba-Ahmed: I Can Transform, Bring Honour to Nigeria Support group says his Anambra record proves Obi’s capacity NDC presidential candidate declares Makinde qualified to rule Nigeria Oyo governor opens presidential campaign office Vows to reset Nigeria Chuks Okocha, Emmanuel Addeh and Sunday Aborisade in Abuja

Presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), Peter Obi, yesterday rejected the pessimistic

assessment of his former running mate, Dr Datti Baba-Ahmed, about the capacity of the leading contenders

to transform Nigeria. The former Anambra state governor declared that his record

in the state demonstrated that he could replicate his achievements at the national level.

Also reacting to Baba-Ahmed’s Continued on page 8

Tuesday 8 September, 2026 Vol 31. No 11475. Price: N400

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Oil Nears $100 Per Barrel as Renewed Supply Crunch Looms Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

L- R: Former Governor of Niger State, Muazu Babangida; Allied Peoples Movement (APM) Vice Presidential Candidate, Lawal Musa Daura; Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) Presidential Candidate, Peter Obi; APM Presidential Candidate, Engr. Seyi Makinde; Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed; and National Chairman, APM, Yusuf Dantalle, during the inauguration of APM Presidential Campaign office in Abuja, yesterday

Oil prices approached $100 a barrel yesterday, with traders and analysts warning of a renewed supply crunch, as hostilities between the US and Iran exacerbated supply Continued on page 8

People’s IPO Opens with $49 Billion Share Capital Dangote Refinery seeking to democratise ownership across Africa

SIGNING CEREMONY OF DANGOTE PETROLEUM REFINERY INITIAL PUBLIC OFFERING...

Story on page 8

L-R: Group Vice President, Oil & Gas and Fertiliser, Dangote Industries Limited, Devakumar Edwin; Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Cement and Foods Businesses Dangote Industries Limited, Mariya Aliko-Dangote; Chairman, Heirs Holdings, Tony Elumelu; President/CE, Dangote Industries Limited, Aliko Dangote; Founder/Former Chairman, Zenith Bank Plc, Jim Ovia; Former Minister of Industry, Trade and Investment, Otunba Niyi Adebayo; Founding Partner, Banwo & Ighodalo, Asue Ighodalo; Group Executive Director, Commercial Operations, Oil & Gas, Fertiliser and WAEP, Fatima Aliko-Dangote; Group Vice President, Business Units, Dangote Industries Limited, Olakunle Alake, at the signing ceremony of Dangote Petroleum Refinery & Petrochemicals FZE Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Lagos, yesterday

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Group News Editor: Goddy Egene Email: Goddy.egene@thisdaylive.com, 0803 350 6821, 0807 401 0580

NEWS

SIGNING OF DANGOTE PETROLEUM REFINERY AND PETROCHEMICALS FZE INITIAL PUBLIC OFFER...

L-R: Taiwo Olatunji, Head, Investment Banking, Coronation Merchant Bank; Ademola Adekoya, Divisional Head, Corporate and Investment Banking, Coronation Merchant Bank; Obeahan Ohiwerei, MD/CEO, Coronation Merchant Bank; Ernest Ebi, Chairman, Board of Directors, Coronation Asset Management; Aigbovbiose Aig-Imoukhuede, MD/CEO, Coronation Asset Management; and Jibola Odedina, MD/CEO Coronation Securities Limited, at the signing of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals FZE Initial Public Offer, which was held at Eko Hotel, yesterday

FG to Discos: Pay Up Your Market Obligations After 97% Debt Relief NISO threatens sanctions over outstanding obligations Discos’ June revenue collection falls 7.82% to N191.86bn Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigeria Independent System Operator (NISO) has directed electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) to immediately commence the settlement of their outstanding obligations to the Nigerian Electricity Market and service providers. The organisation, in a statement, stressed that the federal government had already netted off approximately 97 per cent of their debts accumulated between 2015 and 2020, and demanded a viable payment from the electricity distributors. The system operator, which concluded a four-day public hearing with the Discos, said payment proposals submitted by some of the electricity distribution companies were unacceptable, particularly considering the magnitude and age of the outstanding obligations. The engagement was convened to review the outstanding market obligations of the Discos and examine payment arrangements for balances that have continued to hamper the effective functioning and development of the Nigerian Electricity Market. A five-member committee, chaired by NISO’s Executive Director, Market Operations, Dr. Edmund Eje, expressed concern

over the frameworks proposed by some of the Discos for liquidating their outstanding market debts. The committee noted that the federal government had substantially intervened by netting off about 97 per cent of the Discos’ outstanding obligations for the 2015 to 2020 period, maintaining that the affected companies could no longer justify delays in clearing the balances that remained. Following extensive deliberations, NISO stressed the need for the Discos to take immediate and concrete steps towards liquidating their outstanding obligations, warning that it would proceed with further actions against defaulting market participants. “NISO will therefore proceed with the next steps, including the application of applicable sanctions as provided under the market rules, while maintaining its commitment to constructive engagement, transparency and due process,” the system operator said. The hearing comes amid continuing concerns over the huge indebtedness of operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), with unpaid market obligations remaining a major constraint on the liquidity and sustainability of the sector. NISO stated that the engagement was intended to reinforce market discipline, compliance and

accountability among participants, while also ensuring continued collaboration in rebuilding confidence in the electricity market. The operator added that ensuring Discos meet their obligations to service providers was critical to strengthening the financial sustainability of the market and improving the overall functioning of the Nigerian electricity supply chain.

Meanwhile, Discos collected N191.86 billion from electricity consumers in June 2026, representing a 7.82 per cent decline from the previous month, according to the latest data released by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). The NERC June 2026 factsheet showed that the distributors generated total electricity bills of N240.71 billion during the

month, leaving N48.85 billion uncollected. Consequently, the Discos’ overall collection efficiency fell to 79.71 per cent in June, compared with the previous month, although performance varied significantly across the 11 distribution companies. Benin Disco recorded the highest collection efficiency at 94 per cent, followed by Ikeja at 89 per cent, Eko at 88.64 per cent and

Port Harcourt at 87.74 per cent. Ibadan Disco recorded a collection efficiency of 83.44 per cent, while Abuja and Enugu recorded 80.27 per cent and 78.49 per cent respectively. At the lower end of the scale, Jos Disco recorded 55.18 per cent collection efficiency, followed by Yola at 68.58 per cent, Kaduna at 46.13 per cent and Kano at 42.16 per cent.

Vice President: Government’s Reforms, Transforming Indigenous Firms into Global Brands Lauds Flutterwave for building one of Africa’s most successful technology stories from Nigeria Deji Elumoye in Abuja Vice President Kashim Shettima has declared that through reforms instituted across diverse sectors in Nigeria, the administration of President Bola Tinubu is supporting the transformation of indigenous companies into international brands. Shettima observed that companies, such as Flutterwave, Moniepoint, Andela and others, were leveraging the gains of the government’s economic reforms to scale their operations and expand their businesses. The vice president made the observation on Monday in Abuja when he received on a courtesy visit, a

delegation from Flutterwave led by its Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder, Mr Olugbenga Agboola. Flutterwave is an indigenous fintech company that provides payment infrastructure for global merchants and payment service providers. In an interaction with the team, Shettima assured the Flutterwave team of the federal government’s continued support within and outside Nigeria. He stated, “We have to support and promote our own. We have to make our companies stronger.” He commended the Flutterwave team for building one of Africa’s most compelling technology stories from Nigeria.

Attributing the feat to committed leadership and expertise at the company, Shettima stated that worthy of mention in the Flutterwave story was the company’s “ability to solve an African problem using an indigenous solution that addresses challenges related to digital payment for products and services, among others”. Earlier, Agboola informed the vice president that the company’s mandate was to ensure massive growth in the next couple of years to remain the giant of payments and banking across Africa and the globe. He thanked Tinubu, Shettima, and the federal government for the confidence reposed in the company,

stating, “It is a strategic signal of how Nigeria is supporting Nigeria,” as well as a very important milestone for the company. Agboola stated, “It’s my honour to be here today. Like I said, our goal is to partner with you and your team to reason how we can do more to advance the administration’s amazing economic agenda that we have seen working right now in the country. We want to be a part of that positive story. “We are very much a Nigerian company. I’m very much Nigerian. Nigeria is our home. And everybody here, as you can see, they’re all Nigerians. Our goal is to ensure that we do our best to help move Nigeria forward.”

NNPC Threatens Legal Action, Disowns Cannabis-laden Truck Seized by NDLEA Says vehicle not in company’s asset database Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) has threatened legal action against those behind the alleged unauthorised use of its corporate identity on a truck intercepted by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) with 2,145 kilogrammes of cannabis concealed in a secret compartment. NNPC, in a statement yesterday

signed by its spokesman, Andy Odeh, however, commended the NDLEA for intercepting the 20,000-litre fuel tanker in Ondo State, while distancing itself from the vehicle, which bore markings associated with the national oil company. The company said preliminary investigations showed that the truck, with registration number MKA 960 XC, neither belonged to NNPC nor formed part of its

official fleet or that of any of its authorised dealers. It added that the logo displayed on the vehicle was inconsistent with its current corporate branding and stressed that the truck could not be found in its asset database. “NNPC Ltd. takes any unauthorised use of its corporate identity seriously, particularly where such use may be associated with unlawful activity. The Company remains committed

to protecting the integrity of its brand and ensuring that its name, trademarks and other corporate identifiers are not misused. “The Company is also reviewing its brand-protection and assetmonitoring protocols and will take appropriate steps, including legal action where warranted, against any unauthorised use of its corporate identity,” it stated The national oil company said it was engaging the Nigerian

Association of Road Transport Owners (NARTO) to obtain further information and establish the circumstances surrounding the use of its old branding on the vehicle. NNPC also pledged to cooperate fully with the NDLEA and other security agencies to establish the ownership and operation of the truck as well as how its corporate markings came to be displayed on it. It said it supported a full investigation into the incident

and would provide all necessary cooperation to ensure that the facts were conclusively established. The NDLEA had disclosed that its operatives intercepted the 20,000-litre tanker along the Akoko/ Lokoja Expressway in Ondo State after the driver allegedly refused to stop when flagged down by its officers. According to the anti-narcotics agency, the driver subsequently abandoned the vehicle at a church premises in Ugbe Akoko and fled into the bush.

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NEWS

SOUTH-SOUTH GOVS FORUM MEETING IN CALABAR...

L-R: Deputy Governor of Edo State, Hon. Dennis Idahosa; his Rivers State counterpart, Prof. Ngozi Odu; host, Governor of Cross River State, Senator Bassey Otu; Governor of Bayelsa State and Chairman, South-South Governors Forum (SSGF), Senator Douye Diri; Governor of Akwa Ibom, Pastor Umo Eno; and the Deputy Governor of Delta State, Chief Monday Onyeme, during the SSGF meeting at Government House, Calabar, yesterday PHOTO: BAYELSA STATE GOVERNMENT HOUSE

FirstHoldCo, MTN Nigeria, Dangote Cement, GTCO, Two Others Lead, as Six Nigerian Companies Secure Spot in FTSE Frontier 50 Index Kayode Tokede Six listed Nigerian companies on the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) joined the FTSE Russell’s Frontier 50 Index effective at the close of the market Friday, September 18. According to the FTSE Frontier 50 Index official September 2026 Semi-Annual Review, the six Nigerian companies joining the 50-stock benchmark are: Aradel Holding Plc, Dangote Cement Plc,

FirstHoldCo Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company (GTCO) Plc, MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, and Zenith Bank Plc. A total of 10 Nigerian large-cap companies had qualified for FTSE Russell’s broad frontier benchmark and only six made the Frontier 50 index. The likes of Nestlé Nigeria Plc, Nigerian Breweries Plc, Presco Plc, and Stanbic IBTC Holdings Plc were left out, despite being large enough for the wider list.

The addition of six listed companies on FTSE Russell’s Frontier 50 Index followed Nigeria’s broad country reclassification from “Unclassified” back to “Frontier Market” status, supported by the foreign exchange market reforms and foreign exchange backlog clearance implemented by Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The FTSE Frontier 50 Index is created from an eligible universe of 26 frontier market. The index tracks the performance of the 50 most liquid

stocks from the eligible universe of 26 Frontier markets. A September 2026 paper by Ernest Biktimirov and Pyemo Afego published in the International Review of Economics and Finance, stated, “Stock prices in frontier markets tend to rise persistently after index inclusion and fall after exclusion due to institutional investor demand rather than temporary trading pressure or liquidity changes.” Out of 13 total global inclusions into

Water Insecurity Threatens Nigeria’s National Security, Minister Warns Folalumi Alaran The Minister of Water Resources and Sanitation, Prof. Joseph Utsev, has called for the integration of water security into Nigeria’s national security architecture, saying that access to safe water and sanitation were fundamental to public health, food security, economic stability and national resilience. Utsev made the call yesterday while delivering a lecture titled, “Water Resources Management and Sanitation as Catalysts for Sustainable National Development and Security in Nigeria,” at the National Defence College, Abuja. The Minister said Nigeria must move beyond viewing water as

merely a development issue and recognise it as a strategic national security priority. He warned that water insecurity, unsafe water, inadequate sanitation, flooding, drought and climate variability could trigger public health emergencies, displacement and resource-based crises, intensify competition among water users, undermine livelihoods and increase vulnerability to climate-related shocks. Utsev also highlighted the roles of the River Basin Development Authorities in irrigation, agriculture, fisheries, rural water supply, flood control, job creation, agro-processing and rural economic development. On food security, the Minister

said irrigation development was critical to reducing Nigeria’s dependence on increasingly unpredictable rainfall patterns. He disclosed that approximately 154,000 hectares of irrigable land are currently benefiting more than 1.6 million farmers, noting that efforts are ongoing to expand irrigation coverage. He also raised concerns over the security implications of climate-induced flooding and drought, noting that the 2026 Annual Flood Outlook identified 1,249 communities in 176 Local Government Areas across 30 states and the Federal Capital Territory as high flood-risk areas. Utsev advocated stronger

coordination among government institutions, particularly in the water, agriculture, health, environment and security sectors, alongside increased investment, effective regulation, reliable water intelligence, climateresilient infrastructure and stronger community participation. On policy coordination, the Minister disclosed that the Ministry was developing a National Water Compact for 2026–2030 as a roadmap to harmonise Nigeria’s water and sanitation policies and interventions.

the FTSE Frontier 50 Index, Nigeria captured six slots (46.1per cent of all new additions), underscoring the immediate appetite for large-cap Nigerian liquidity across banking, telecom, industrial, and upstream energy sectors. The Index-tracking exchange-traded funds (ETFs) and institutional passive funds benchmarks tied to the FTSE Frontier 50 are required to purchase shares in the incoming constituents prior to the September 21 effective date, providing immediate liquidity support for the affected equities. FTSE Russell announced two separate things about Nigeria within days of each other, and the difference between them. The first was the FTSE Frontier Index Series, the broad benchmark covering large, medium and small companies across every eligible frontier market. A total of 31 Nigerian companies were included in that, of which 10 were classified as large-cap: Aradel Holdings, Dangote Cement, FirstHoldCo, GTCO, MTN Nigeria, Nestlé Nigeria, Nigerian Breweries, Presco, Stanbic IBTC Holdings and Zenith Bank. Together the ten are worth N67.14 trillion. The second is the FTSE Frontier 50, which takes only the 50 most heavily traded stocks from the entire frontier universe.

FTSE Russell sorts the world’s stock markets into four tiers: developed, advanced emerging, secondary emerging, and frontier. Frontier covers the smallest and least liquid markets still open to foreign investors, and Nigeria sits there alongside 25 other countries. The Frontier 50 is the highest recognition available to a Nigerian listed company. South African, Egyptian and Moroccan companies sit in the higher emerging market indices, which draw from a considerably larger pool of institutional money. Nigeria was removed from frontier market status in September 2023, after continuing delays left international institutional investors unable to repatriate capital or execute foreign exchange transactions. The naira had been fixed at a rate the central bank could not defend, and a queue of unfilled dollar requests built up over several years. President Bola Tinubu’s government floated the currency in June 2023, and CBN subsequently cleared the backlog, restoring the conditions index providers require before classifying a market. FTSE Russell confirmed the reclassification on Aug. 27 after engagement involving NGX Group, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), global custodians and international institutional investors.

Oxford Names MDCN Registrar 2026 Aig-Imoukhuede Visiting Fellow

AWLO Debuts in London, Sets Agenda The University of Oxford has of public-sector leaders who have workforce capacity and responding the Registrar and Chief previously held the fellowship, to changes in the healthcare labour Executive Officer of the Medical including former Chairman of market. for African Women’s Leadership named The research is also expected to and Dental Council of Nigeria the Independent National Electoral Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

The African Women in Leadership Organisation (AWLO) has formally launched its United Kingdom chapter in London, unveiling plans to deepen mentorship, policy advocacy and leadership development for African women across the UK and Europe. The two-day inaugural programme, which brought together policymakers, business leaders, professionals and women changemakers from Africa and the diaspora, featured a mayoral reception, an inaugural leadership lecture and a gala dinner. The event opened at the Islington Town Hall, where Her Worshipful the Mayor of Islington, Councillor Rosaline

Ogunro, hosted participants at the Town Hall Chambers, a statement in Abuja said. The engagement focused on the growing role of women in governance, public service and cross-cultural leadership, setting the stage for the formal inauguration of the organisation’s UK chapter. The highlight of the programme was an inaugural lecture and gala dinner held at the InterContinental Hotel Ballroom under the theme, “Leading for Lasting Impact.” A fireside conversation on “Character, Competence and Consistency” formed a major part of the evening, with speakers examining the qualities required to build enduring institutions and sustain effective leadership.

Moderated by Prof. Uduak Archibong, the discussion featured leadership and transformation expert, Udeme Etukeyen; outgoing Oxfordshire County Councillor, Dr. Dianne Regisford; and renowned wealth strategist, Grace Ofure. The panellists stressed the importance of credibility, integrity and consistency in leadership, arguing that lasting impact depends on the ability of leaders to build systems and institutions that can outlive their individual tenures. Among the prominent personalities at the event were Dr. Zainab ShinkafiBagudu, former First Lady of Kebbi State and founder of the Medicaid Cancer Foundation, who was honoured as the AWLO “Phenomenal Woman of the Year.”

(MDCN), Prof. Fatima Kyari, as the 2026 Aig-Imoukhuede Visiting Fellow. The Aig-Imoukhuede Foundation disclosed this in a statement yesterday, saying Kyari would undertake the six-month fellowship at Oxford’s Blavatnik School of Government from September 2026. The fellowship, delivered in partnership with the Blavatnik School of Government, is designed to support exceptional public-sector leaders in deepening their understanding of critical policy challenges and developing practical solutions to strengthen public institutions. The Foundation said Kyari would join a distinguished group

Commission (INEC) Prof. Attahiru Jega; former Chief Justice of Ghana, Justice Georgina Wood; former Chairman of the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Ifueko Omoigui-Okauru; and Director General of the Administrative Staff College of Nigeria, Funke Adepoju. According to the Foundation, fellows spend six months engaging with leading scholars and practitioners while developing policy insights that can be applied in their respective institutions. It said Kyari’s research would examine how Nigeria could expand medical education as a strategic public-sector reform while improving quality, strengthening health

produce practical policy recommendations to improve governance, regulatory stewardship and the implementation of large-scale reforms in health and medical education. Kyari, a clinician and academic, has worked across healthcare delivery, medical research, health policy, medical education, professional regulation and institutional reform. At the MDCN, the Foundation said she was leading efforts to strengthen medical education and professional regulation as Nigeria seeks to expand its healthcare workforce amid persistent workforce and migration challenges.

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NEWS

UNVEILING OF AFRINVEST CSR INITIATIVE IN KANO...

L-R: Manager, Afrinvest Kano Office, Mr. Kabir Ibrahim; Group Deputy Managing Director, Afrinvest, Mr. Victor Ndukauba; Board Member, Afrinvest, Amal Hassan; Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II; Group Managing Director, Afrinvest, Dr. Ike Chioke; and Chairman, Afrinvest Trustees, Nana Fatima Mede, during the unveiling of the Afrinvest CSR Initiative in Kano…recently

Confusion Trails NAICOM’s Alleged Revocation of NICON Insurance Licence as Legal Battle Looms NICON insists it remains going concern, alleges ‘fake and fraudulent’ recapitalisation exercise James Emejo in Abuja National Insurance Commission (NAICOM) has revoked the operating licence of NICON Insurance Limited and appointed a Receiver/ Provisional Liquidator to take control of the company’s affairs, assets, and liabilities. However, in a twist, NICON rejected the regulatory action, describing the recapitalisation exercise that preceded the licence cancellation as “fake and fraudulent” and insisting that it remains in business as a going concern. The development opens a fresh legal and regulatory dispute between the insurance company and its regulator, with NICON disclosing that the issues surrounding the action are already before the Federal High Court in Abuja. NAICOM revoked NICON’s Certificate of Registration, RIC-049, following the company’s alleged failure to meet the prescribed minimum capital requirements within the stipulated recapitalisation period under the Nigerian Insurance Industry Reform Act (NIIRA) 2025. Following the licence cancellation, the commission reportedly appointed

Chukwuma-Machukwu Ume (SAN) as Receiver/Provisional Liquidator of the company. The appointment effectively transferred control of NICON’s affairs to the receiver, who was expected to secure the company’s assets and records, establish its liabilities, verify legitimate claims, and oversee the winding-up process in accordance with the law. In a public notice, the receiver directed NICON’s policyholders, creditors, business partners, federal and state governments, the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), and land registries to direct all matters relating to the company’s affairs, assets, and business to his office. The receiver also warned that transactions, contracts, commitments, or other dealings purportedly undertaken on behalf of NICON Insurance Limited, “being In-Liquidation”, would not be honoured without his ratification. But in its response, NICON disputed the basis of the regulatory action, and declared that it was “not part of the fake and fraudulent recapitalisation exercise carried out by NAICOM”.

The company said the circumstances surrounding the purported recapitalisation process and related regulatory actions had already been formally brought to the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Ministry of Finance for “appropriate investigation and necessary action”. NICON asserted that it remained a statutory insurance company established under an Act of Parliament and continued to conduct its business in accordance with the law. The company consequently sought to reassure its policyholders, shareholders, business partners, employees, financial institutions, and the general public that it “remains in business and continues to operate

A civil society organization, the Africa Network for Environment and Economic Justice, ANEEJ, is demanding an independent investigation into the reported payment of N14 billion to a contractor handling an 11-kilometre section of the Benin-Asaba-Onitsha expressway. Addressing journalists in Abuja on Monday, ANEEJ Executive Director, Rev. David Ugolor, said the call became necessary after the Minister of Works, Sen. David Umahi raised concerns over the poor level of work on the project during an inspection on

August 28. According to Ugolor, the minister disclosed that the federal government had paid about N14 billion to Hartland Nigerian Limited for the stretch from Summit Junction to Head Bridge, including drainage and hydraulic works. Dissatisfied with progress on site, Umahi directed officials to track down the contractor’s Managing Director, recover monies already paid, enforce the Advance Payment Guarantee, and audit all payment certificates. The group said the revelations raised serious accountability questions and listed five key demands

status that was inconsistent with the orders and proceedings of the court. The statement further read, “NICON Insurance Limited wishes to state unequivocally that it is against the fake and fraudulent recapitalisation exercise carried out by the National Insurance Commission (NAICOM). “The circumstances surrounding the purported recapitalisation process and related regulatory actions have been formally brought to the attention of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) and the Federal Ministry of Finance for appropriate investigation and necessary action. “NICON Insurance Limited is

a statutory insurance company established under an Act of Parliament and continues to conduct its business in accordance with the law.” It added, “The company, therefore, wishes to reassure its policyholders, shareholders, business partners, employees, financial institutions and the general public that NICON Insurance Limited remains in business and continues to operate as a going concern. Any contrary representation suggesting otherwise is rejected. “The company is taking all necessary legal steps to protect its rights and interests. The issues arising from the actions complained of are presently before the courts in Suit No. Suit no: FHC/ABJ/ CS/1670/2026.

UK Appoints Alastair Long as Trade Commissioner for Africa, Vows Deeper Economic Partnerships Michael Olugbode in Abuja The United Kingdom has appointed Alastair Long as His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner

Benin-Asaba Road: CSO Seeks Probe, Recovery of N14bn Paid for 11km Project Kuni Tyessi in Abuja

as a going concern”. It rejected any contrary representation suggesting that the company had ceased operations. The company said, in a statement, “NICON Insurance Limited remains committed to the rule of law and due process.” It said it was taking “all necessary legal steps” to protect its rights and interests, stating that the issues arising from the actions complained of are currently before the courts. According to the company, the matter is pending before the Federal High Court, Abuja, in Suit No. FHC/ ABJ/CS/1670/2026. NICON urged members of the public to disregard any information or representation concerning its

that include full disclosure of contract documents comprising award letter, contract sum, scope, timelines and any variations. Others are complete payment records such as dates, amounts, certificates, officials who approved payments, and banks involved, independent technical audit to verify the reported 40% completion and what has actually been delivered. “Details of the Advance Payment Guarantee– issuing bank, amount, expiry, and whether it has been called; Probe of all officials involved in recommending, supervising, certifying and approving payments

(HMTC) for Africa, in a move aimed at deepening trade, investment and commercial partnerships between Britain and African countries. Long has formally assumed responsibility for leading the UK’s trade and investment engagement across the continent under the Department for Business and Trade (DBT). His return to Africa comes at a time when Britain is seeking to expand commercial ties with African economies, with greater emphasis on investment, market access, innovation, job creation and sustainable economic growth. In his new role, Long will engage African governments, businesses, investors and institutions while working to identify and develop opportunities for British and African companies. He is also expected to support UK businesses seeking to enter or expand in African markets, attract investment into the UK and African economies, and contribute to the development of resilient and productive industries.

Long brings extensive experience of Africa and international trade to the position. He previously served as Deputy Trade Commissioner and later His Majesty’s Trade Commissioner for Africa between 2019 and 2022. Before returning to the continental assignment, he served as His Majesty’s Ambassador to Bahrain from August 2023. He joined the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office in 2002 and has held several diplomatic and trade-related positions across the Middle East and North Africa. His previous assignments include Deputy Trade Commissioner for the Middle East and Director of Trade and Investment for Saudi Arabia in Riyadh; Regional Director for Trade for the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan and Deputy Consul General in Dubai; and Deputy Ambassador and HM Consul General in Muscat. Speaking on his appointment, Long said he was delighted to return to Africa, describing the

continent as “the future” and recalling the energy and ambition he encountered during his previous assignments. He said the UK was committed to supporting both African and British growth by listening to African priorities and offering British expertise and capabilities where they could create mutual benefits. “I look forward to engaging across the continent, with the UK business community, and with the UK Government team, to realise as many mutual opportunities as possible,” he said. Long succeeds John Humphrey, who served as UK Trade Commissioner for Africa from June 2022. Reflecting on his tenure, Humphrey described his service as a privilege and said the UK-Africa relationship had been strengthened through delivery, trust and shared economic ambitions. He said Africa remained central to the UK’s global outlook, with considerable opportunities for commercially driven cooperation and sustainable growth.

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Foreign Trade Hits N41.44tn, Yields N12.60tn Surplus in Q2 Crude oil remains major exported commodity value at N12.91 trillion India is major trade partner James Emejo in Abuja The country’s total external merchandise trade increased by 19.13 per cent to N41.44 trillion in the second quarter of the year (Q2 2026) compared to N34.79 trillion in the preceding quarter, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said yesterday. Exports accounted for 65.20 per cent of total trade, valued at N27.02 trillion compared to N21.16 trillion in Q1 while imports represented 34.80 per cent with N14.42 trillion in value, resulting in N12.60 trillion trade surplus under the review period. According to the Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics - Q2 2026, crude oil remained the country’s major exported commodity in Q2, valued of N12.91 trillion and accounting for 47.79 per cent of total exports. Non-crude oil exports were valued

at N14.10 trillion, representing 52.21 per cent of total exports, of which non-oil products contributed N3.72 trillion or 13.80 per cent of total exports. On the other hand, import represented a 12.55 per cent decrease from N16.49 trillion in Q2 2025 and a 5.91 per cent increase from N13.61 trillio in Q1 2026. India emerged the country’s leading export destination, with N3.28 trillion or 12.17 per cenr of total exports. This was followed by Spain N1.98 trillion or 7.34 per cent of total exports, The Netherlands N1.90 trillion or 7.05 per cent of total export; United States of America N1.72 trillion or 6.40 per cent and Togo N1.49 trillion representing 5.54 per cent of total exports. Collectively, these five countries accounted for 38.51 per cent of the total value of exports in Q2. According to NBS, imports from

China stood at N5.91 trillion, representing 41.02 per cent of total imports. This was followed by United States of America, N1.005 trillion, representing 6.97 per cent; India N924.46 billion, or 6.41 per cent; The Netherlands N409.81 billion, or 2.84 per cent and Germany N395.87 billion, or 2.74 per cent. The value of exports to African countries stood at N6.65 trillion while imports amounted to N1.10 trillion. Nigeria’s exports to Africa were mainly to Togo with N1.49 trillion, South Africa N1.34 trillion, Ivory Coast N1.21 trillion, Ghana N461.36 billion, and Egypt with N455.81 billion, altogether representing 74.75 per cent of exports to Africa. On the other hand, Nigeria’s major import partners within Africa in Q2 2026 were Libya with N305.69 billion, Ghana, N157.37 billion, Angola N123.15 billion, South Africa N113.54 billion

and Cameroon N63,13 billion. Imports were mainly sourced from Asia N8.56 trillion or 59.37 per cent of total imports. This was followed by imports from Europe N3,064.46 billion or 21.25 per cent America N1.59 trillion or 11.03 per cent, while imports from Oceania stood at N100.97 billion or 0.70 per cent. Imports from African countries stood at N1, 103.86 billion or 7.65 per cent of total imports; of which imports from ECOWAS Member States amounted to N269.06 billion or 24.37 per cent of imports from the continent. The main commodities exported to African countries in the quarter under review were ‘Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude’ valued at N3.23 trillion, accounting for 48.58 per cenr of total exports to Africa, ‘Gas oil’ with N1.32

trillion or 19.88 per cent, ‘Kerosine type jet fuel’ N975.37 billion or 14.66 per cenr, ‘Motor spirit, ordinary’ N416.78 billion or 6.26%, and ‘Urea, whether or not in aqueous solution’ with #147.54 billion or 2.22%. The top five products accounted for 91.60 per cent of total exports to Africa. On the import side, Nigeria’s imports from African countries in Q2 2026 were mainly ‘Petroleum oils and oils obtained from bituminous minerals, crude’ worth N628.89 billion or 56.97%, ‘Crude palm oil’ valued at N68.46 billion or 6.20%, ‘Other additives for lubricating oils (excluding with petroleum oils)’ with N26.99 billion or 2.45%, ‘Whole hides and skins, of a weight exceeding 16 kg valued at N24.97 billion or 2.26%, ‘and Other vehicles for goods transport, petrol fuel, dumpers, CKD’ amounting to

PEOPLE’S IPO OPENS WITH $49 BILLION SHARE CAPITAL

Peter Uzoho

Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals (DPRP) has signed the registration documents for the biggest Initial Public Offering (IPO) in Africa, valued at approximately N2.2 trillion, about $1.6 billion. The people-centric offering targets up to 10 million Nigerian investors, including low income earners, through a Bank Biometric Verification Number (BVN)-integrated subscription process. President and Chief Executive of Dangote Petroleum Refinery

and Petrochemicals, Alhaji Aliko Dangote, led the company’s team to sign registration documents for the IPO, declaring that drivers, cooks, traders and “everybody” will have a chance to own shares in the $49 billion refinery. The offer comprises 4.1 billion ordinary shares at N525 each, with an overallotment option of up to 30 per cent to accommodate strong demand. The IPO is scheduled to open on September 14 and close on October 13, with listing expected on the Main Board of Nigerian

Exchange Limited (NGX) upon completion of regulatory approvals. Speaking at the signing ceremony in Lagos, the president and chief executive of Dangote Industries Limited described the transaction as a defining moment for the company and the continent. Dangote said, “Today’s signing ceremony marks another defining milestone in the evolution of DPRP. We set out to build a world-class refinery capable of transforming Nigeria’s energy landscape and strengthening Africa’s energy security.

“Through this IPO, we are opening ownership of this strategic asset to a broader community of investors and creating an opportunity for Nigerians to participate directly in its future growth and value creation.” He said it was an “IPO for the people” designed to democratise ownership. “But it is not only to fund the expansion of the refinery, of course, it’s a bigger amount,” he said. Dangote added, “What we are trying to do is to make sure majority of all these my—our drivers, our cooks, our, you know, servants,

PETER OBI TO BABA-AHMED: I CAN TRANSFORM, BRING HONOUR TO NIGERIA position, the Peter Obi Movement for Rescue (POMR) said the former vice presidential candidate’s assessment, though reflective of the depth of Nigeria’s problems, failed to take adequate account of Obi’s antecedents. Besides, the NDC presidential candidate, speaking at the official opening of the presidential campaign office of the candidate of the Allied Peoples Movement (APM), Governor Seyi Makinde, stated that the Oyo governor remains eminently qualified to lead the country in 2027. But Obi, who spoke separately in an exclusive interview with Arise News anchor, Ojy Okpe, said Nigeria’s enormous challenges could be overcome through purposeful leadership, institutional reforms and a deliberate focus on critical areas of national development. Responding to Baba-Ahmed’s reported assertion that none of the major presidential contenders in the 2027 election could fundamentally improve Nigeria, Obi pointed to his experience in Anambra as evidence of his capacity to deliver measurable results. “I passed in particular areas of development. And I can do the same thing for Nigeria,” Obi said. He said his administration would pursue a governance agenda centred on national unity, security, justice, law and order, anti-corruption and investment in critical sectors capable of improving the welfare and productivity of Nigerians. Obi also promised to restore Nigeria’s reputation and rebuild public confidence in government, stressing that leadership must be directed towards producing tangible improvements in the lives of citizens.

“ (If elected) I’ll be able to do quite a number of things that will bring honour, respect to the country,” he maintained. The former governor, who has consistently advocated a shift from what he describes as a consumptiondriven economy to one based on production and investment in human capital, said corruption would remain a major target of his administration. “You know I will fight corruption,” he declared, while reaffirming his commitment to justice and the rule of law. He also linked credible elections to the survival and development of the country’s democracy, insisting that electoral malpractice would have no place under his leadership. “I’m still with the issue of justice. I’m still with the issue of law and order. Of course, what we’re talking about in the election cannot take place under my watch,” Obi said. He identified national unity as his first priority, arguing that the country is currently too divided and requires deliberate efforts to rebuild cohesion. “The country is not united today,” he said. His second priority, according to him, would be securing the country from the terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and other forms of insecurity that have continued to threaten lives and livelihoods. Obi listed the prioritisation of critical areas of development as his third major agenda, specifically identifying healthcare, education and poverty reduction as areas requiring urgent national attention. He further listed “health, education, and pulling people out of poverty” alongside the fight against

corruption as areas that would receive sustained attention under his proposed administration. The former governor’s declaration came as political parties and opposition groups intensify consultations ahead of the 2027 general elections, with possible opposition alliances and the search for a formidable challenger to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) increasingly dominating political discourse. Obi and Baba-Ahmed had jointly contested the 2023 presidential election on the platform of the Labour Party (LP) before their political relationship subsequently

became strained.

Support Group Backs Obi on Nigeria’s Transformation Also reacting to Baba-Ahmed’s position, the Peter Obi Movement for Rescue (POMR) said the former vice presidential candidate’s assessment, though reflective of the depth of Nigeria’s problems, failed to take adequate account of Obi’s record in public office. In a statement issued yesterday by its spokesman, Idris Zekeri Jnr, POMR argued that the severity Continued on page 28

our managers, everybody, they will have an opportunity to have a stake in this refinery.” Dangote said the BVN-integrated platform was central to the inclusion drive. He stated, “This offer presents Nigerians with a unique opportunity to become co-owners of a world-class refinery that is transforming Africa’s energy landscape. By simplifying the subscription process through BVN integration and digital application channels, we are opening the door for millions of citizens to participate in the growth story of this strategic national asset.” He framed the offer as deliberate inclusion. Dangote stated, “So, this is why we have actually called it the IPO for the people. This is why we say that this is democratising. “There is no segregation on who can own these shares. We want every human being living on the continent to be part of this action, and I’m sure they will continue to be happy now, future, and forever.” The minimum subscription will be 10 shares, a threshold Dangote said was set to ensure retail participation across income levels. The billionaire also dangled the prospect of dollar-denominated returns.

Adeyemi Adeniran, StatisticianGeneral of the Federation N17.20 billion or 1.56%, of total imports from African countries. The major agricultural goods imported in Q2 2026 included “Durum wheat” with imports from Poland and Germany, valued at N66.38 billion and N61.20 billion, respectively.

He stated, “When, uh, they will end up having to say that, yes, I’m waiting for that check for my dollar, uh, dividend to send for the school fees of my daughter in UK or anywhere in the world.” Reflecting on the refinery’s path, Dangote recalled the early trust from bankers and the land struggles that delayed the project, including five years search for a site and resistance at Lekki Free Zone. He acknowledged successive Lagos governors Fashola, Ambode, and Sanwo-Olu for their support. Dangote described the IPO as a continental milestone. According to him, “The refinery means so much to our continent. From the man working in the Simandou mines, to the woman cultivating the fertile fields of Amhara, to the fisherman in Walvis Bay, and the custodians of our ancient history at the northern edge of Africa, this project represents a shared African achievement. Today is, indeed, a day of collective pride.” He made a passionate call to ambition. “This event signals that we can dream and dream big while we create prosperity for our people,” Dangote said. “Today also shows that nothing is impossible for us to achieve once we are focused and determined,” he added. Continued on page 27

OIL NEARS $100 PER BARREL AS RENEWED SUPPLY CRUNCH LOOMS concerns. The price of benchmark Brent crude rose above $98 a barrel during the day for the first time since late July, following US strikes on three Iranian crude oil tankers over the weekend in retaliation for Iranian missile attacks on two US Navy warships. Hostilities continued with an attack on Saudi Aramco oil facilities in the Saudi Arabian city of Jizan on Monday, a report by FT stated. “This represents a significant escalation,” said Arne Lohmann Rasmussen, chief analyst at Global Risk Management. He said markets would now watch for signs of disruption to oil shuttling services run by oil producers and traders, which use ship-to-ship transfers just outside the Gulf and have been a lifeline for oil markets in recent months. Oil prices fell from an Iran war high of $126 a barrel in late April

to just over $70 in early July after a ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran raised hopes of a lasting peace. They have been on a rising trend since, as prospects of peace have been scuppered by fresh hostilities, with analysts raising concerns about supplies as strategic reserves are drawn down. Daan Struyven, co-head of global commodities research at Goldman Sachs, said on Monday that Brent could reach $120 a barrel “[if] shipping attacks broaden and intensify”. Events over the past few days suggested this would be the case, he told Bloomberg TV. Energy Aspects, a consultancy, said commodity funds that had spent much of the conflict betting on lower prices or staying on the sidelines were now “turning bullish, largely driven by the view that a tipping point in global [reserves] is approaching”.

It added that oil reserves outside China had fallen by more than 400mn barrels since the Iran war began and the volume of oil in tankers at sea was at “multiyear lows”. China has also recently reentered the market, said June Goh, an analyst at Sparta Commodities. Early in the war, as prices soared, Chinese buyers cut their purchases by a third and instead drew down their reserves. Goh said Chinese buyers had since turned to Iraqi and Saudi crude, despite high prices, because they could not source enough Russian and Iranian crude to meet their needs. “They have run out of their base options if the government is not telling them tPrices “will continue to move higher”, said one executive at a major oil trading firm. “The issue is whether it is a slow burn or a fast move.”

Buyers had been holding back in anticipation of an end to the war, but now “something has to break”, the executive added. “Either crude has to go higher or [refined] products have to really materially move higher” in order to reduce demand to match supply. Prices for some refined fuels have already surged to record highs. Wholesale diesel in the US has been trading at more than $100 a barrel above the price of crude oil since last month. European prices rose above that level last week. “The refined products will tell you that we are [at a crunch point] already. Diesel at an all-time high tells that story. Diesel is twice the price of crude, that has never happened before,” said Martijn Rats at Morgan Stanley. “There is a hundred-dollar incentive in the US to take crude and turn it into a barrel of diesel,” Continued on page 27

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8 t T H I S D AY

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 • THISDAY

NEWS

LOKPOBIRI’S BILATERAL MEETING WITH INDONESIA ENERGY PARTNERSHIP GROUP...

L-R: Vice President, P.T, Pertamina Patra Niaga, Indonesia, Mr. Dicky Sudan Pramuduanta; Director African Affairs Ministry of Foreign Affairs; Mrs. Dewi Justicia Meidiwaty; Vice Minister, Foreign, Amb. Arif Havas Oegroseno; Minister of state, Petroleum Oil, Sen. Heineken Lokpobiri; Indonesian Ambassador to Nigeria, Amb. Bambang Suharto; Senior Diplomat Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia, Mr. Muhammad Hartantyo; Senior Analyst Development International Market of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Indonesia, Ms. Centhya Octavia Iriani, during the minister’s bilateral meeting with Indonesia Energy Partnership group in Abuja, yesterday

NAPTIP, NGO Target 6,000 Nigerian Youths Annually in Anti-trafficking Drive Sylvester Idowu in Warri National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) and Next2None Support Initiative have launched an eight-year campaign to prevent human trafficking using fashion, sports, entertainment, and vocational training to reach vulnerable young Nigerians. The initiative, tagged, “Threads of Resilience: Fashion for Freedom,” is expected to combine anti-trafficking education with skills development

and survivor rehabilitation across the country. The organisations announced the partnership in a joint statement issued yesterday, following the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding on August 27. The programme, which would run from 2026 to 2034, targets an initial 6,000 young people annually and plans to train about 1,000 participants in each of Nigeria’s six geopolitical zones. The organisers said the campaign

would culminate in an annual Global Fashion for Freedom event in Abuja, with its international launch scheduled for the second quarter of 2027. Director-General of Next2None Support Initiative, Mr. Sam Obu, said the nature of human trafficking had changed significantly, with traffickers increasingly exploiting social media, fake job offers, fraudulent migration schemes, and online relationships. Obu said the campaign was

designed to tackle some of the conditions that made young people vulnerable to exploitation. He said, “Human trafficking is no longer just a law enforcement challenge; it is a crisis of poverty, unemployment, and lack of opportunity.” Obu said the initiative would go beyond rescuing trafficking victims by creating opportunities that could help vulnerable people avoid exploitation, in the first place. He said, “Threads of Resilience

NAAPE, NDLEA Move to Strengthen Aviation Sector’s Role in Combating Drug Trafficking Kasim Sumaina in Abuja National Association of Aircraft Pilots and Engineers (NAAPE) has pledged to support National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) in its effort to prevent illicit drug trafficking and substance abuse within Nigeria’s aviation sector, NAAPE said the integrity of pilots and engineers was closely linked to flight safety and national security. The association made the commitment during a courtesy visit by its President, Captain Bunmi Gindeh, to Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of NDLEA, Brigadier-General Mohamed Marwa (Rtd), at the agency’s headquarters in Abuja. Both sides examined the role aviation professionals could play in strengthening the fight against illicit drugs. Speaking during the visit, Gindeh emphasised that the fight against narcotics and the preservation of aviation safety had become inextricably tied. He stated that licensed pilots and maintenance engineers operated at the most critical points of aviation operations, before departure, during flight, and inside hangars, where public trust must remain absolute. “This visit is not ceremonial,” Gindeh stated. He added, “Fighting illicit drugs and protecting aviation safety are now the same fight. They meet

at our airports, our cockpits, our hangars, and in the lives of the young Nigerians we both serve. “Airports remain a top target for trafficking, and when a professional is compromised, it is not just a crime; it is a direct threat to flight safety and national security.” In a statement issued on Monday by Public Relations Officer of NAAPE, Engr. Blessing N. Ahmadu, Gindeh explained that aviation professionals were often the first line of defence in spotting unusual occurrences, including sudden changes in colleagues’ behaviour, unexplained wealth, or suspicious cargo-handling activities. He stressed that a proactive union was essential to closing vulnerabilities that drug cartels could exploit. Gindeh stated, “NAAPE does not see itself as a spectator in this effort. Our members work where aviation safety is protected every day. “We have a responsibility to promote integrity, fitness for duty, and a culture in which legitimate concerns can be raised before they become serious threats.” To operationalise the collaboration, NAAPE outlined four key areas of action: organising joint awareness and integrity sessions for flight crews, engineers, and aviation students, in collaboration with NDLEA airport commands; establishing clear, confidential reporting channels between

NAAPE branches and NDLEA; developing joint fitness-for-duty and substance-abuse prevention programmes across airlines and maintenance facilities; and strengthening continuous professional education to ensure early identification of behavioural and security concerns. The NAAPE president also commended Marwa for the agency’s sterling work in tackling drug trafficking and abuse, as well as the renewed intensity of its campaign against drug trafficking, including

its focus on disrupting trafficking networks, tracing cartel finances, and reducing drug demand among young Nigerians. During the visit, the NAAPE leadership also presented Marwa with an “Award for Excellence in Leadership” in recognition of his leadership and commitment to the fight against drug trafficking and abuse. Marwa commended NAAPE for its proactive leadership and willingness to align with the anti-narcotics crusade.

addresses this by moving beyond mere rescue. We are creating a sustainable, Nigerian-led international movement that uses creativity, sports, and education to establish pathways to absolute freedom and economic dignity.” Obu said the programme would focus on three areas – prevention, empowerment, and rebuilding – stressing that on prevention, the partners plan to take anti-trafficking messages to schools and communities through fashion campaigns, digital advocacy and other awareness programmes. The campaign would also educate young people on online safety and the tactics used by traffickers to lure victims. The empowerment component would provide practical training in fashion design, textile production, leather making, garment care, and other vocational areas. Participants would also be exposed to digital skills, e-commerce, financial literacy, and branding. The organisers said the aim was to help young people develop productive skills and reduce their vulnerability to trafficking and exploitation. For survivors, internally displaced persons, and returnees, the programme will provide rehabilitation, mentorship, mental health, and

psychosocial support. The campaign would also use the popularity of fashion, Nollywood, and sports to reach wider audiences. According to the organisers, emerging designers and trafficking survivors would be encouraged to produce and showcase fashion collections carrying messages of healing, freedom, and resilience. They said discussions were being pursued with major international fashion brands, including Gucci, Balenciaga, Versace, and Hugo Boss. The project also plans to work with Nollywood and international filmmakers to produce anti-trafficking films, documentaries, and awareness skits. Young people would equally be trained in film production as part of the programme. Sports would form another major part of the campaign, with the organisers seeking partnerships with international sporting bodies. The statement said discussions were being pursued with FIFA for football initiatives, International Handball Federation for handball tournaments, and NBA for athlete ambassadors and sports clinics. The organisers said NAPTIP would provide government leadership and technical support, while Next2None would drive implementation.

FG Unveils Measures to Curb Air Pollution as Experts Warn of Rising Health Risks Michael Olugbode in Abuja The federal government has unveiled a raft of measures to tackle air pollution and improve air quality across Nigeria, including a national framework for vehicular and generator emissions testing, expansion of air-quality monitoring stations and accelerated adoption of cleaner fuels. The government also disclosed plans to implement the National Clean Cooking Policy, with the objective of achieving universal access to clean cooking energy solutions for households and institutions by 2030. The Minister of Environment,

Balarabe Abbas Lawal, disclosed this in his keynote address delivered by the Permanent Secretary of the ministry, Dr. Salihu Aminu Usman, at the 2026 commemoration of the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies in Abuja. The event brought together government officials, development partners, environmental experts, civil society organisations, privatesector representatives, academics, the media and other stakeholders to examine Nigeria’s worsening air-pollution challenge and possible solutions. Lawal described the annual observance, established by the United Nations General Assembly

in 2020, as more than a symbolic event, saying it served as a global reminder of the importance of clean air to human survival and wellbeing. He said the right to breathe clean air affected everyone regardless of age, social status, location or circumstance, stressing that because air was a shared resource, protecting it must also be a collective responsibility. According to the minister, air pollution remains one of the most serious environmental and publichealth challenges confronting the world, with consequences extending to human health, ecosystems, agricultural productivity, livelihoods and community resilience. He said the challenge was

becoming more urgent in Nigeria because of rapid population growth, urbanisation, increasing transportation needs, industrial activities, rising energy demand, waste generation, agricultural practices and continued dependence on polluting fuels. Lawal cited Nigeria’s ranking as the third most polluted country in Africa in the 2025 World Air Quality Report, with an average annual PM2.5 concentration of 23.4 micrograms per cubic metre, approximately 4.8 times the World Health Organisation’s annual guideline level. He said behind the statistics were millions of Nigerians exposed to polluted air every day.

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Road or Air Travel: The Narrowing Choices of Nigerian Commuters

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T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

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e h T : l e v a r T r i Road or A hoices of C g n i w o r r a N s r e t u m m o C Nigerian

SPIDEL Moves to Free Deserving Inmates in Rivers Page V

Court Restrains Lizzy Anjorin Over Priscilla Ojo Mkambala’s Son Page V

QUOTABLE ‘We were part of the struggle for the liberation of our brothers and sisters in South Africa, and we feel personally pained that our people are being picked up for humiliation. Government and the people of Nigeria will no longer countenance a situation, whereby our people are dehumanised and put into unacceptable situations..' -HE Kashim Shettima, GCON, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria

The Gadzama Case: Can the Federal High Court Quash an LPDC Direction? Page VI

Transcending Limits and Reimagining the Bar Page VII

LAWYER

ONIKEPO BRAITHWAITE: EDITOR, JUDE IGBANOI: DEPUTY EDITOR, PETER TAIWO, STEVE AYA: REPORTERS

III THE ADVOCATE

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

Law and Morality: A Tale of Two Courts Court of Public Opinion v Court of Law: Law and Morals have said a few times that the way issues are considered and litigation works in the court of public opinion in Nigeria, is usually not the way proper law and litigation work in actual legal proceedings and courts of competent jurisdiction. And, usually, when the legal outcomes are not what the public desires or expects them to be, they are unhappy, they cry foul and are up in arms against the Judiciary, legal system, and even the Government. But, one of the reasons for the difference between the judgement of the court of public opinion and a court of law, is that the former is mostly based on morality and emotions, while the latter is based on statute and legal principles. I’m sure that I may have referred to the theory of ’Inclusive Legal Positivism’ in the past. It basically holds that law and morals are conceptually different, but can and sometimes do intersect. What is considered immoral, isn’t always unlawful. Marrying two sisters may be considered to be immoral, but not unlawful, while stealing is both immoral and unlawful. Even abortion which is considered to be murder and a sin as far as morality and religion are concerned, isn’t illegal in all jurisdictions - it is called the ‘right to choose’ in certain places. It is possible for a legal system to incorporate moral standards into its legal reasoning, where moral reasoning becomes part of what the law is, for instance, the Sharia legal system that’s operated in Saudi Arabia. Nigeria keeps morality separate from its legal system, and with the 1999 Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (as amended)(the Constitution) excluding criminal jurisdiction from the Customary and Sharia Courts, it further narrows the many things which are immoral and could be offences as far as custom or religion are concerned, from being statutory offences in Nigeria. So, for example, fornication and telling white lies may be considered to be immoral, and most religions certainly adjudge them to be so, but the Constitution cherishes freedom of speech and association and upholds them as fundamental rights (see Sections 39(1) & 40 of the Constitution). The first mistake of the court of public opinion is equating immorality with illegality, and without following any due process, delivering judgement on that basis.

I

Constitution Isn’t Self-Executory However, though a Constitution is the supreme law (see Section 1(1) of the Constitution), it is not always self-executing, nor is it a complete working code. Most of what it requires is executed or carried out through ordinary laws, institutions, and procedures created under it. The Constitution creates the State, allocates power, sets limits, and states principles. Some clauses operate immediately: they confer jurisdiction, create offices, or invalidate inconsistent laws. Others only state a goal or a duty, and leave the details to later legislation. In a few months, Nigeria will be going into its eighth general elections since the inception of the Fourth Republic. The elections will cover four positions - President/Vice President (see Sections 130, 131 & 137 of the Constitution); Governor/ Deputy Governor (see Sections 176, 177 & 182 of the Constitution); National Assembly - Senate and House of Representatives (see Sections 47, 65 & 66 of the Constitution); State House of Assembly (see Sections 90, 106 & 107 of the Constitution) [see these aforementioned sections of the Constitution on the establishment, qualifications, and disqualifications for these offices]. The Constitution has explicitly stated the qualifications for these offices and what would disqualify an aspirant for same, but, the details of how challenges or disputes that arise from these provisions should be addressed are not provided therein, that is, the provisions are not self-executory. Though some disqualifications are not clear cut, and cannot be acted upon because of a say-so or circumstantial evidence, others are obvious, and in some situations INEC may not accept nominations from such an overtly unqualified aspirant. For instance, contrary to Section 65(1)(a) of the Constitution which stipulates 35 years of age, if a one year old baby in diapers is supposedly running for Senate, it is obvious to the naked eye that the baby isn’t qualified, and INEC cannot be expected to accept the nomination of a baby candidate. It was probably because of the absurdity that could result from the provision, that the old Section 31(1) of the 2010 Electoral Act (as amended) which provided that INEC couldn’t disqualify a candidate for any reason whatsoever, was deleted from the law. Likewise, the constitutional disqualifications due to criminal sentences and convictions are also quite clear - 1) a person under a sentence of death imposed by a competent court of law or tribunal in Nigeria (a sentence of death or any conviction imposed by a Sharia Court wouldn’t qualify, because the Constitution doesn’t endow a Sharia Court with criminal jurisdiction); 2) under a sentence of imprisonment for any criminal offence imposed by a court or tribunal or substituted by a competent authority for any other sentence imposed by such court or tribunal - that is, the person is still serving or bound by the sentence; 3) if within a period of 10 years before the election, such person has been convicted and sentenced for an offence involving dishonesty or been found guilty of breaching the Code of Conduct - a person convicted of a non-dishonesty offence such as straight forward armed robbery, will

ONIKEPO BRAITHWAITE ONIKEPO BRAITHWAITE

onikepo.braithwaite@thisdaylive. com onikepob@yahoo.com

The

Advocate “…. unproven criminal allegations are not convictions.….. President Tinubu isn’t under any sentence; there is no evidence that he was convicted for any criminal offence…. A challenge of the constitutional qualifications of a candidate before an election in the court of public opinion, doesn’t appear to be able to achieve any tangible results, possibly apart from being a source of embarrassment….. In a court of law or tribunal, such challenge ….apart from the Section 29(5) of the EA mode, amounts to an abuse of court process, because the law as it stands, doesn’t seem to permit it….Seeking the invalidation of Section 138 of the EA for denying candidates who may have locus standi their right to fair hearing, …may be desirable” not be bound by this 10 year rule. The truth is that, unproven criminal allegations are not convictions. And, even when they are convictions, the Constitution has stated how these convictions can impact candidates. A suspect is also entitled to the presumption of innocence, until proven guilty - see Section 36(5) of the Constitution; Ogwo v State (2026) LPELR-83571(SC) per Adamu Jauro, JSC where the Supreme Court reiterated Section 36(5). Of course, the argument of cynics is that the system delays the prosecution of high profile suspects particularly politicians, so they are not disqualified either by being caught under a sentence, or suffer the 10 year ban after being convicted. President Tinubu’s Example Those pushing the campaign against President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, based on a Chicago controversy of the 1990s do not appear to be abreast with the law, if one is examining the matter from the only prism that counts as far as the law is concerned - that of the above-mentioned disqualifications provided in Section 137 of the Constitution regarding a Presidential/Vice Presidential candidate. For one, President Tinubu isn’t under any sentence; secondly, there is no evidence that he was convicted for any criminal offence; thirdly, assuming but not conceding that he was convicted in the 1990s, even if it was a dishonesty offence, the 10 year ban would have expired over 20 years ago. Disputing Qualifications The first response as to how a dispute on electoral qualifications can be resolved comes from Section 6(6)(b) of the Constitution, which extends judicial

powers, inter alia, to the determination of all matters between persons or persons and institutions, which would definitely include those qualifications or disqualifications, excepting only matters covered by Section 6(6)(c) of the Constitution. Such disputes are resolved by the court. The second response lies in the statutes concerning electoral qualifications. Section 29(5) of the Electoral Act 2026 (EA) provides that only a fellow aspirant of the same political party who partook in the primaries, can challenge a candidate’s constitutional eligibility if they have reasonable grounds to suspect that the candidate provided false information concerning their constitutional qualifications in the forms submitted to INEC. Such fellow aspirant must file their case as a pre-election matter at the Federal High Court, seeking a declaration that the information is false, and the suit must be filed not later than 14 days from the date the cause of action arose - see Section 285(9) of the Constitution. The sum and substance of this is that, though the qualifications and disqualifications are provided by the Constitution (‘constitutional matter’ as the public is always quick to remind us), the Constitution has only set the limits of qualifications and disqualifications. The EA is the law that stipulates, how some of these qualifications can be challenged. Those who have the locus standi to make the challenge are explicitly mentioned in Section 29(5) of the EA - it is restricted to only fellow aspirants, who participated in the primaries with the candidate with the suspicious qualifications. And, where a Claimant doesn’t have the locus

standi, that is, the right to bring an action, the court lacks the jurisdiction to hear the matter. In Adebiyi v DaSilva & Ors (2024) LPELR-62590(SC) per Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme, JSC, the Supreme Court held that: “A person is said to have locus standi to sue in an action if he is able to show to the satisfaction of the Court, that his civil rights and obligations have been or are in danger of being infringed”. Similarly, in Okonjo-Iweala v Saheed Fawehinmi & Ors (2025) LPELR-80384 (SC) per Stephen Jonah Adah, JSC, the Supreme Court held inter alia thus: “This duty can only be carried out by one who is injured by the said act of the Respondents. The Court, therefore, must shun the temptation of giving a blank cheque to everyone, to prime up the zeal to approach the Court over every decision of the Executive and the Legislature. This will not be a problem, if there is no abuse. There is, in our clime, high tendency of abuse of such an unguarded open door, which will cause a floodgate of baseless and irritable litigations that will worsen the congestion that is rocking the Courts”. The rationale behind both decisions seems to be that, it is only a person who is directly affected by an action, that has the right to institute legal proceedings to correct that action. In the case of primaries, it is a fellow aspirant that is directly affected. If fellow aspirants are directly affected by the constitutional qualifications of each other, so also should fellow election candidates be so affected. This principle should easily be extended to fellow candidates in an election. And, just as a fellow aspirant can bring such a challenging action after the primaries, so also should a fellow candidate be able to bring the same challenge against fellow candidates or the winner, after the election, as part of their election petition. Unfortunately, challenging constitutional qualifications is not open to candidates, as it’s no longer one of the grounds upon which an election petition can rest - see Section 138 of the EA. The new Section 138 of the EA which replaced Section 134 of the 2022 EA operates as an ouster clause - ousting the right of aggrieved candidates to sue on constitutional qualifications. This operates as a denial of the candidates’ right to fair hearing, guaranteed by Section 36(1) of the Constitution. However, this brings us to the conundrum. It appears that during the period before the elections, no one has the locus standi to challenge constitutional qualifications under civil jurisdiction (aside from aforementioned fellow aspirants) and in some cases, INEC which may be able to refuse a nomination as described above. Then, there’s the question of getting a constitutional judicial review of Section 138 of the EA, on the ground that it denies candidates of their right to fair hearing on constitutional qualifications, is inconsistent with Section 6(6)(b) of the Constitution and should therefore, be declared unconstitutional to this extent (see Section 1(3) of the Constitution). Firstly, which venue would such a Petitioner ventilate this issue? An election petition tribunal may not be the proper venue for this. Should it be the Federal High Court? The argument for the establishment of a Constitutional Court to determine these types of questions, still lingers on. Of course, the allegation simpliciter that a candidate isn’t constitutionally qualified, should normally be able to be part of an election petition. But, it goes beyond that. Examining the law itself, is necessary. Secondly, the review of the law cannot arise until the locus standi of the Petitioner who is demanding for the review is established. This requisite locus standi for candidates, will most likely be ignited by the elections (just as it is ignited for aspirants by primaries). It would then make the argument of fellow candidates that they suffer direct injury viable, not just because an unconstitutionally unqualified candidate may have partaken in the election, but also that such a candidate is declared the winner of the election, and allowed to take up the position. See Adebiyi v DaSilva & Ors (Supra). Conclusion A challenge of the constitutional qualifications of a candidate before an election in the court of public opinion, doesn’t appear to be able to achieve any tangible results, possibly apart from being a source of embarrassment and discomfort to such candidate. As long as morality remains separate from law, morality is mostly of no relevance in law. In a court of law or tribunal, such challenge or quest to have a candidate disqualified or prevented from taking part in an election, apart from the Section 29(5) of the EA mode, amounts to an abuse of court process, because the law as it stands, doesn’t seem to permit it. In certain jurisdictions, Counsel that bring actions that abuse the court process, thereby wasting the precious time of the courts, usually face sanctions, which serve as a deterrent to others. Sections 29(5) & 138 of EA have converted a constitutional matter to an intra-party squabble, and deleted it from election petitions. Seeking the invalidation of Section 138 of the EA for denying candidates who may have locus standi their right to fair hearing, its attempt to override Section 6(6) (b) of the Constitution, and allowing those who do not meet the constitutional qualifications to slip through the cracks, may be desirable.

IV LAW REPORT

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 ˾ T H I S D AY

Inferential Proof of the Offence of Conspiracy Facts The Appellant and one Olasunkanmi Bakare were arraigned before the High Court of Ogun State, on a two-count charge of conspiracy to commit armed robbery and armed robbery contrary to Sections 6(b) and 1(2) (a) of the Robbery and Firearms (Special Provisions), Cap 11, Laws of the Federation, 2004. It was alleged that they, alongside other persons at large, on or about 4th April, 2009 at Akute within the Ota Judicial Division, robbed one Ayo Banjo of his property including a Hyundai Sonata Elegance 2009 model car, while armed with guns and other offensive weapons. At the trial, the Respondent called six witnesses and tendered documentary exhibits, including the Appellant’s confessional statement marked as Exhibits PE2 and PE3. The Appellant testified for himself, denied committing the offences and essentially, retracted Exhibits PE2 and PE 3. After considering the evidence adduced by the parties, the trial court delivered its judgement in which it convicted the Appellant for the offences, and sentenced him to death. The Appellant’s subsequent appeal to the Court of Appeal was dismissed and the decision of the trial court was affirmed. Dissatisfied, the Appellant lodged a further appeal at the Supreme Court. Issue for Determination The Supreme Court adopted the issues formulated by the Appellant as follows: 1. Whether the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal were right in holding that the Respondent, on the totality of evidence adduced, proved the offence of armed robbery against the Appellant beyond reasonable doubt. 2. Whether the learned Justices of the Court of Appeal were right, in holding that the Respondent proved the offence of conspiracy against the Appellant. Arguments Arguing the 1st issue, Counsel for the Appellant submitted that although the potency of a retracted confessional statement by an accused person is not affected by the retraction, the law requires some other evidence outside in order to make the probability of the accused committing the offence to be true. Counsel Honourable Mohammed Lawal Garba, JSC submitted that the trial court was wrong to have used the evidence of the prosecution’s witnesses – PW1, In the Supreme Court of Nigeria PW2 and PW3 to corroborate the retracted confessional Holden at Abuja statement, because their testimonies contained doubts On Friday, the 12th day of December, 2025 which rendered the truth of the said statements and the commission of the offences by the Appellant improbBefore their Lordships able. Counsel also argued that the circumstances of the Mohammed Lawal Garba Appellant’s arrest by PW5 necessitated the conduct of Tijjani Abubakar an identification parade to link him to the offences he Chioma Egondu Nwosu-Iheme was charged with, and the Respondent’s failure to Haruna Simon Tsammani tender the arms used in the commission of the robbery Jamilu Yammama Tukur was fatal to the Respondent’s case. Justices, Supreme Court On the 2nd issue, the Appellant’s Counsel argued that the Respondent did not prove agreement between SC/617C/2019 the Appellant and others, to commit the offence he was charged with. Counsel cited ABDULLAHI v STATE Between (2008) 8 SCM 1 in support of his argument. Kayode Adeyoju Appellant Responding on the 1st issue, Counsel for the Respondent submitted that the evidence of PW1, PW3, the victim And of the robbery who testified as PW4, and PW5, as well as the Appellant’s confessional statements in Exhibit The State Respondent PE2 and PE3 proved the ingredients of the offence of armed robbery against the Appellant beyond reasonable (Lead Judgement delivered by Honourable Mohammed Lawal Garba, JSC) doubt. Counsel contended that the evidence of PW4 and PW1 who positively identified the Appellant, rendered an identification parade unnecessary. The Respondent’s Counsel also argued that the evidence show facts from which the inference of agreement the conspirators to do what is illegal or of PW1 and PW4 provided the required corroboration, and meeting of minds between the Appellant unlawful. The Supreme Court held that due to make the truth of Exhibits PE2 and PE3 probable and and the other accused persons to commit the to the nature of the offence, it can be sufficient to prove the guilt of the Appellant. Counsel robbery in question, can be deduced, Counsel satisfactorily proved beyond reasonable pointed out that Exhibits PE2 and PE3 were admitted contended that the prosecution witnesses were doubt by necessary inferences to be drawn in evidence without objection, and passed the desirable not cross-examined on the material facts, and by subsequent statements and/or action by test set out in OGUDU v STATE (2012) 12 ALL so the lower courts were right to have made an the conspirators, which would reveal their FWLR (PT. 629) 1115. inference of conspiracy between the Appellants common intention and mutual agreement The Respondent’s Counsel argued further that it and the others to commit armed robbery. constituting the offence. was not mandatory for the prosecution to tender the The Court held that by and large, the essential gun(s) used by the Appellant in the commission of the Court’s Judgement and Rationale elements of the offence of conspiracy which robbery, in view of the uncontroverted evidence of PW4 Deciding the 2nd issue on conspiracy first, must be proved are that: (i) there was an who was the victim. Finally, Counsel submitted that the Apex Court relying on its earlier decision agreement between two or more persons to the evidence adduced by the parties before the trial in OBIAKOR v STATE (2002) 10 NWLR or cause to be done, an illegal/unlawful act court were well evaluated, before the trial court arrived (PT. 774 – 776) AT 628-629 held that the or a lawful act by unlawful means; (ii) all at its finding that the charge was proved against the offence of conspiracy is initiated in secrecy or each of the conspirators were parties or Appellant beyond reasonable doubt. Counsel urged the such that it can, very rarely if at all, be part of the agreement; and (iii) where the Apex Court to dismiss the Appeal, for lacking in merit. proved by direct evidence, and usually the agreement was to do an illegal or unlawful Responding on the 2nd issue, Counsel for the offence arises and is proved by inferences act, that each of the conspirators had done Respondent submitted that Exhibits PE2 and PE3 as from compelling acts or circumstances that some acts in pursuit or furtherance of the well as the testimonies of PW1, PW3, PW4 and PW5 occur in furtherance of the agreement by agreement. The Apex Court held that it was evident that the finding by the trial court that the essential elements of the offence were established against the Appellant, was primarily based on the “…….. the offence of conspiracy is initiated in secrecy inference drawn from the evidence of PW1, PW3 and PW4, of the incident of the armed such that it can, very rarely, if at all, be proved by direct robbery which the Appellant was charged with, evidence, and usually the offence arises and is proved which finding was affirmed by the Court of Appeal. The Court held that the only argument by inferences from compelling acts or circumstances proffered by the Appellant’s Counsel against this concurrent finding of the two lower courts, was that occur in furtherance of the agreement by the that the prosecution failed to show specifically through the evidence of its witnesses the proof conspirators to do what is illegal or unlawful”

of agreement between the Appellants and others, without the Appellant demonstrating specifically which evidence and how the inference of an agreement between the Appellant and the others who were indisputably shown by the evidence of the victim (PW4) and PW1 to have robbed PW4 at gunpoint, was not reasonable and cogent in the circumstances of the case. The Supreme Court thus, endorsed the concurrent finding by the trial court and the Court of Appeal, that the offence of conspiracy was proved against the Appellant. On issue 1 on the offence of armed robbery, the Supreme Court held that it is now elementary and thus, common knowledge in our criminal jurisprudence that the essential ingredients of the offence of armed robbery which must be proved conjunctively beyond reasonable doubt in order to secure a conviction for the offence are: (i) that there was an armed robbery or a series of armed robberies; (ii) that each of the robberies was an armed robbery as defined by law; and (iii) that the accused person was one of the persons who committed the armed robbery or participated in the robbery. The Apex Court held that the first ingredient of the offence was established beyond reasonable doubt by the evidence of PW4 – the victim of the armed robbery, who was in law an eye witness and thus, in the best possible position to recount the actual facts of the incident, and the confessional statement of the Appellant admitted as Exhibit PE2. The Court held that even without more, the unchallenged evidence of PW4 is credible and sufficient to satisfactorily prove the first ingredient of the offence beyond reasonable doubt, to support the finding of the trial court to that effect. On the 2nd ingredient, the Apex Court held that the evidence of PW4 remains direct, unchallenged, unassailable, cogent and credible that the robbers who robbed him were indeed, armed with, among other weapons, a “pistol” held to his head by one of them whom he identified as the Appellant. The Supreme Court held that this evidence was not challenged during cross-examination or disputed by the Appellant, and so worthy of credibility to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the robbery was an armed robbery as correctly held by the trial court, and rightly affirmed by the Court of Appeal. On the last ingredient that the Appellant was one of the robbers, the Apex Court held that the testimonies of PW4, and PW1 who was present when the Appellant and others drove the car they stole at gun point from PW4 into the premises where they parked it and where it was eventually recovered, as well as the testimony of PW5 who led the Police investigation to recover the PW4’s car at the church premises and gave unchallenged evidence that the Appellant had in his possession, the ignition key of the car which was used to open it and start the engine so it could be driven to the Police station for further investigation, which established the Appellant’s participation in the armed robbery were not controverted or discredited by the Appellant’s counsel during cross-examination. The Apex Court held that this position was further strengthened by the Appellant himself in Exhibit PE2, which was admitted in evidence without any objection from him, wherein he expressly admitted that he participated in the said robbery, providing specific details of specific acts he did which could only be given by a person who actually participated in the robbery in question. The Court held that as rightly stated by the trial court, Exhibit PE2 having passed the recognised test for its truth and credibility by being corroborated with some cogent evidence outside it, is alone sufficient to warrant his conviction. The Court held that the commission of any offence including armed robbery can be proved through direct evidence of eye witness(es), or the voluntary and proved confessional statement of an accused person, or strong and compelling circumstantial evidence. The Court found that the Respondent had satisfactorily proved the offence of armed robbery against the Appellant beyond reasonable doubt through the direct, unequivocal and credible evidence of the victim –PW4 and eye witness; the tested, verified and voluntary confessional statement of the Appellant in Exhibit PE2; and the strong, compelling and irresistible circumstantial evidence of PW1 and PW5, which together, presented a consistent and conclusive factual picture of the armed robbery committed by the Appellant and the others against PW4. Appeal Dismissed. Representation Peter Ilogogie with O. T, Nwenyi for the Appellant. Adesina Ayodele Olaniyan with the fiat of the Hon. Attorney-General of Ogun State for the Respondent. Reported by Optimum Publishers Limited, Publishers of the Nigerian Monthly Law Reports (NMLR)(An affiliate of Babalakin & Co.)

V

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 ˾ T H I S D AY

NEWS

Hon. Justice Helen Moronkeji Ogunwumiju, CFR, JSC

Late Justice Umaru Atu Kalgo, CON, JSC (Rtd)

Chairperson of NBA-SPIDEL, Prof Uju Agomoh

Ogunwumiju, JSC Pays Tribute to Late Justice Kalgo Stories by Steve Aya A Justice of the Supreme Court, Helen Ogunwumiju, CFR, has described the late Justice Umaru Atu Kalgo, JSC (Rtd), CON, as an erudite, hardworking and compassionate jurist whose discipline and scholarship left a lasting mark on Nigeria’s Judiciary. Kalgo died at 89, after a distinguished legal career spanning several decades. Ogunwumiju, in a tribute to the former Supreme Court Justice, recalled her years as a Senior Legal Aid Counsel in Sokoto State between 1983 and 1986, when she

appeared before Kalgo in several criminal trials in Sokoto and other jurisdictions. She said Kalgo, who was then Chief Judge of Sokoto State, was known for conducting proceedings expeditiously, sometimes sitting until 5pm, while delivering detailed judgements the following day or, at the latest, within a fortnight. Describing him as a scholarly and welldressed gentleman with a dry British sense of humour, Ogunwumiju said Kalgo was a master of the English language, who could chastise difficult or incompetent

SPIDEL Moves to Free Deserving Inmates in Rivers The Nigerian Bar Association Section on Public Interest Litigation and Development Law, NBA-SPIDEL, has visited the Maximum Security Custodial Centre, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to identify inmates requiring legal assistance. The delegation, led by the Chairperson of NBASPIDEL, Prof Uju Agomoh, was received by the Controller of Corrections, Rivers State Command, CC RM Williams, FCAI. During the visit, the Lawyers interacted with inmates, and listened to complaints concerning their legal challenges and continued detention. The delegation also requested a list of inmates with options of fines and those requiring legal intervention, particularly

inmates seeking assistance with bail applications. NBA-SPIDEL assured the inmates that the cases identified would be reviewed, and appropriate legal steps taken to assist deserving persons within the law. The team also expressed its commitment to supporting inmates’ welfare, by providing basic items to address some of the needs identified within the custodial facility. The Controller of Corrections commended NBA-SPIDEL for its intervention, saying collaboration with stakeholders, particularly the legal profession, was essential to improving access to justice, decongesting custodial facilities and supporting rehabilitation and reintegration of inmates.

Counsel with remarkable subtlety. She recalled particularly, his patience and kindness towards her as a young Lawyer who sometimes struggled to understand the language of witnesses

appearing before the court in Sokoto. According to her, Kalgo continued to encourage her after his elevation to the Court of Appeal and subsequently, the Supreme Court, where

he contributed to the development of Nigerian jurisprudence. His legal career began after his call to the Nigerian Bar in 1965, and included service at various levels of the Judiciary.

Her Ladyship, Ogunwumiju, JSC expressed condolences to the Sokoto State Judiciary, the people of the State and Kalgo’s family, praying for the repose of the late Jurist’s soul.

Court Restrains Lizzy Anjorin Over Priscilla Ojo Mkambala’s Son A Lagos State High Court has restrained Nollywood actress, Elizabeth Lawal, popularly known as Lizzy Anjorin, from publishing or circulating photographs of the oneyear-old son of actress Priscilla Ojo Mkambala and her husband, Tanzanian Singer, Juma Mussa Mkambala aka

Juma Jux. Justice Yetunde Adesanya granted the interim order on September 2, 2026, in Suit No. LD/ADR/6646/2026, following an ex-parte application filed by Priscilla Ojo Mkambala, Juma Mussa Mkambala, and their son, Master Rakeem Mkambala.

The court barred Anjorin, her agents, representatives, employees or anyone acting under her authority from publishing, posting, uploading, circulating or broadcasting photographs of Rakeem on Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok. The order also restrained the actress

Court Cancels Alleged Plot to Hijack 30-Year-Old Property Firm The Federal High Court in Lagos has nullified an alleged attempt to take control of a 30-year-old property company, through disputed corporate filings submitted to the Corporate Affairs Commission. Justice Dehinde Dipeolu, in a judgement delivered on July 24, 2026, in Suit No. FHC/L/ CS/557/2017, declared illegal a purported December 5, 2014 meeting of Oyetubo Jokotade Estate Resources Ltd. The court found that persons who allegedly were neither Shareholders

nor Directors, had purportedly allotted themselves shares, assumed directorship positions and removed the company’s longstanding Secretary. The company and one of its founding Directors, Alhaja Amoke Okanlawon, had sued the CAC and 15 individuals, alleging that the disputed filings were part of an attempt to hijack the company through manipulation of statutory records. Justice Dipeolu held that the purported meeting was invalid, because those who

convened it lacked the legal standing to do so and failed to comply with statutory requirements for convening and notifying persons entitled to attend company meetings. The court consequently voided the resolutions, share allotments, changes in directorship and removal of the Company Secretary, while restraining the affected individuals from presenting themselves as Shareholders or Directors. The Judge ordered the CAC to expunge the disputed filings from its register, and restore Shade Ogundare & Co. as the Company’s Secretary.

from publishing or broadcasting editorials concerning the Applicants on the listed social media platforms, pending the hearing and determination of the substantive Motion on Notice. The court specifically identified several social media accounts allegedly linked to Anjorin, including Instagram accounts and a Facebook page, and directed her to cease and desist from the prohibited publications. The development is the latest in a longrunning public dispute between Anjorin and members of Priscilla’s family, which has previously included a 1 billion defamation suit filed by Priscilla’s mother, actress Iyabo Ojo. The order remains an interim measure, and does not constitute a final determination of the dispute. Anjorin has since challenged the court action publicly, according to reports published on Friday.

VI ARTICLE Introduction few weeks ago, I wrote an article following the decision of the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) to suspend Chief J-K Gadzama, OFR, SAN, for three years. At the time, the major question that caught my attention was simple but, to me, very important: Where does the appeal lie? Gadzama had rejected the decision of the LPDC, and announced his intention to appeal directly to the Supreme Court. This immediately generated a debate, because of the recent position of the Supreme Court on appeals arising from the LPDC. I wrote about the apparent institutional vacuum created by the absence of a functional Appeal Committee of the Body of Benchers, and I asked whether the Body of Benchers could be compelled by an order of mandamus to perform its statutory duty of constituting the Appeal Committee. I thought that was where the next major legal debate would be. But, I was wrong, yes I was wrong. Another development has now emerged, and this one was not what I was expecting. The matter has moved to the Federal High Court. According to the enrolled order reported by TheNigeriaLawyer, the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja, presided over by Hon. Justice Obiora-Atuegwu Egwuatu, on 20 August, 2026 granted Chief J-K Gadzama, SAN, leave to apply for judicial review and to seek an order of certiorari to quash the Direction of the LPDC delivered on 29 July, 2026. The suit is FHC/ABJ/CS/1954/2026. The substantive application is to be filed within seven days, and the matter was adjourned to 4 September, 2026, subject to service on the Respondents. The Federal High Court has not quashed the LPDC Direction. The Court has only granted leave to seek judicial review. That distinction matters. Leave is not judgement. Leave is not a finding that the LPDC acted unlawfully. Leave is not an order, setting aside the three-year suspension. Rather, it permits the Applicant to proceed with the substantive judicial review application. The Respondents will still have an opportunity, to contest the application. And, this is where, as a law student who is curious about what is happening, I began to ask myself another set of questions. Can the Federal High Court Quash an LPDC Direction by Certiorari? This, to me, is now one of the major questions arising from the Gadzama case. Certiorari is not simply another form of appeal. It is a judicial review remedy, through which the High Court may call up the decision of a body exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions and, where appropriate grounds are established, quash that decision. The question therefore, becomes: Is the LPDC a body whose Direction can be subjected to certiorari? And, if the answer is yes, another question immediately follows: Under what circumstances can the Federal High Court interfere with an LPDC Direction? Is it where there is a want or excess of jurisdiction? Is it breach of natural justice? Is it an error of law? Is it procedural unfairness? Or is Gadzama asking the Court to go beyond judicial review, and reconsider the actual merits of the LPDC's findings? These are questions that, in my view, should be carefully distinguished. Because, judicial review is not an appeal. The court exercising judicial review, doesn’t simply substitute its own opinion for that of the body whose decision is being challenged. The purpose is to examine the legality of the decision-making process, and the jurisdiction within which the decision was made. But then, What Happens to the Statutory Right of Appeal? This is where the matter becomes even more interesting. The LPDC disciplinary system has its own statutory framework, for challenging its Directions. But, we have already seen the controversy surrounding the appellate route. The earlier position in Okike v LPDC (2005) 15 NWLR (Pt. 949) 471, was that an appeal from the LPDC could lie directly to the Supreme Court. That position was subsequently departed from in Aladejobi v NBA (2013) LPELR-SC.121/2011, where the Supreme Court rejected the direct route. The recent Supreme Court authorities have further complicated the issue, and have brought the question of the proper appellate mechanism back into the centre of legal discussion. This is precisely why I previously asked: If the Supreme Court says the practitioner cannot come directly to it, and the statutory appellate mechanism is unavailable or not operational, what is the remedy? Now we have a possible answer before us: Judicial review. But, is it really that simple? I don't think so. The Respondents may very well argue that judicial review should not be used as a substitute for a statutory appeal, particularly where legislation provides an appellate mechanism. And, that raises a fundamental question: Can a practitioner invoke certiorari where an alternative statutory remedy exists, but that remedy is itself unavailable, ineffective or constitutionally uncertain? That, to me, is one of the most interesting questions in this entire controversy. Then What About the Body of Benchers?

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 ˾ T H I S D AY

A

Chief J-K Gadzama, OFR, SAN

The Gadzama Case: Can the Federal High Court Quash an LPDC Direction? This article by Umar Sanusi Garba Kalambaina, examines the questions arising, after the Legal Practitioners Disciplinary Committee (LPDC) directed that Chief J-K Gadzama, OFR, SAN, be suspended for three years. The immediate controversy was where an appeal from that Direction now lies, the Supreme Court having closed the old direct route, while the Appeal Committee of the Body of Benchers remains, for practical purposes, unavailable. Another thing that immediately caught my attention, is the parties to the Federal High Court proceedings. The Defendants include: The Body of Benchers; The LPDC; The Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court; Chris Alashi, Esq.; and Ocha P. Ulegede, Esq. And I began to ask myself: Why these parties? Particularly, why is the Chief Registrar of the Supreme Court joined? The reported order does not disclose the substantive grounds of Gadzama's application, or the complete reasoning behind the joinder. The report itself notes that the joinder appears significant, potentially because of the effect or transmission of the LPDC Direction, but I would rather wait for the actual substantive processes before making a definite conclusion. As Lawyers and law students, we should distinguish between what we know, and what we are merely speculating about. Another Question: Who Exactly was the LPDC Complaint Against? There is another point that caught my attention. The complaint is recorded as: Chris Alashi, Esq. v Ocha P. Ulegede, Esq. & Anor. Yet, Gadzama is the Applicant before the Federal High Court. This immediately raises another question: What is the precise legal basis of Gadzama's standing, to seek judicial review of the Direction? Of course, the LPDC Direction directly affects him, if he has been suspended for three years. But, the procedural history and the relationship between the parties, deserve to be understood properly. How did the complaint evolve into a disciplinary proceeding against Gadzama? What was the precise allegation against him? What was the nature of his involvement? And, what is the legal relationship between the Complainant, Ocha Ulegede and Gadzama, in the underlying Zaki Biam compensation dispute? These are not questions to be answered, by social media headlines. They require the actual

“Can a practitioner invoke certiorari where an alternative statutory remedy exists, but that remedy is itself unavailable, ineffective or constitutionally uncertain?”

LPDC Direction, and the processes filed before the Federal High Court. Interestingly, reports on the underlying dispute, indicate a complicated history involving representation of judgement creditors, competing claims of authority, professional fees, court proceedings and the eventual N8 billion settlement. That history makes the case much more complicated than simply saying: “A SAN was suspended for professional misconduct”. Then, the Federal High Court's Own Jurisdiction Another question came to my mind: Is the Federal High Court the appropriate court to review the LPDC? The Federal High Court's jurisdiction is largely defined by Section 251 of the Constitution, and other enabling legislation. So, can the LPDC and the Body of Benchers properly be subjected to the supervisory jurisdiction of the Federal High Court in this particular circumstance? Is the LPDC a Federal body or agency, for this purpose? Does the nature of its statutory functions, bring the matter within the jurisdiction of the Federal High Court? These are questions that may now have to be answered. And, perhaps, this is one of the reasons why this case is becoming more interesting than I initially expected. The InstitutionalVacuum Hasn’t Disappeared One thing I do not think we should lose sight of, is the issue I raised in my previous article. The institutional vacuum has not suddenly disappeared, simply because Gadzama has approached the Federal High Court. If the statutory appellate route is problematic, and judicial review is now being invoked as an alternative route, we still have to ask: What happens to other legal practitioners who have received LPDC Directions? What happens to cases that are already pending? What happens to a practitioner who wants to challenge an LPDC Direction, but does not have the resources to embark on another round of constitutional and administrative litigation? And, most importantly: Should an effective appellate mechanism, depend upon the willingness of an aggrieved practitioner to find another route through the courts? To me, this is bigger than the Gadzama case. It is about the architecture of professional discipline in Nigeria. A disciplinary system must not only have the power to punish professional misconduct; it must also have a clear, effective and legally certain mechanism through which an aggrieved practitioner can challenge an adverse decision.

The Body of Benchers itself describes one of its core functions, as the discipline of erring Lawyers and the regulation of the legal profession. Therefore, the system must be capable of functioning both ways: discipline when there is misconduct, and remedy when there is a challenge to the disciplinary decision. What Happened on 4th of September? For now, I am particularly interested in what happened when the substantive application went before the Federal High Court. Did the Respondents challenge the jurisdiction of the Court? Did they argue that certiorari is unavailable, because of the statutory appellate mechanism? Did the Court consider the effect of the Supreme Court's recent decisions on the appellate structure? Did the Court examine the legality of the LPDC's process? Did the issue of standing become significant? And, what exactly are the grounds contained in the Statement filed pursuant to Order 34 of the Federal High Court (Civil Procedure) Rules? These are questions I believe deserve serious legal discussion. For now, one thing is certain: The Gadzama case has taken another turn. What began as an LPDC disciplinary proceeding, became a debate about the proper appellate route to the Supreme Court. It then exposed what I described in my earlier article, as an institutional vacuum. And, now, unexpectedly, the controversy has moved to the Federal High Court, through an application for judicial review and certiorari. I am not saying that Gadzama will win. I am not saying that the Federal High Court will ultimately quash the LPDC Direction. And, I am certainly not saying that the grant of leave, means that the LPDC has already been found to have acted unlawfully. The real legal battle may only be beginning. As a law student, I find this development particularly fascinating, because it raises questions far beyond the fate of one legal practitioner. It brings us back to a fundamental question of administrative and constitutional law: “When a statutory disciplinary body makes a decision against a person, and the ordinary appellate mechanism is uncertain or unavailable, what is the proper judicial remedy?” Perhaps, the answer will emerge from the Gadzama case. Perhaps, it will expose another gap in the law. Or perhaps, it will force a much-needed legislative intervention. Interesting times ahead in the Nigerian legal profession. What do you think? Can the Federal High Court properly entertain an application for certiorari, against an LPDC Direction? And, if yes, does the present institutional vacuum strengthen the case for judicial review, or does the existence of a statutory appellate mechanism make certiorari inappropriate? Umar Sanusi Garba Kalambaina, Law Student, Northwest University, Sokoto

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ARTICLE Introduction The Conference Planning Committee said the NBA Annual General Conference is Nigeria's flagship legal gathering, bringing together thousands of legal practitioners, policymakers, the Judiciary, and partners for an immersive week of learning, advocacy, and networking. Relevance and Appropriateness of the Conference to NBA and the Nation The theme of the Conference was no doubt bold and provocative, and the Conference was held at a challenging and treacherous period for the NBA and the nation. It came at a time of a change of guard at the helm of the NBA, and of issues, brickbats and accusations that attended the NBA election, ranging from allegations of attempted ethnic and religious hijack of the Association, to internet glitches, cyberattacks, the use of the courts to attempt to scuttle the conduct of the election, the attendant media war on television, newspapers and social media, the petition filed by the candidates and the invitation to the security agencies to investigate the conduct of the election. The Conference also took place, as the nation prepares for a general election. The 2027 general election will occur at a time when many young people in Nigeria are disengaging from the electoral process, because they feel that democracy is not working for them. Some of them are seeking ways to leave the country. Some have graduated, and either cannot find a job or meaningful employment. It took place at a time, when ordinary Nigerians are struggling to survive. It came at a time of heightened insecurity in the country, with thousands of people displaced and thousands killed. It took place at a time when kidnapping and abductions are taken for granted and challenge Nigerians' patriotism and nationalism. Against this background, it is appropriate to place certain matters before the new leadership of the Nigerian Bar Association to enable it to focus on the challenges ahead and to foster a better legal profession that is relevant to national growth and development and that fundamentally improves the Nigerian justice delivery process, in which lawyers are the principal actors. The Bar and Adaptation to Change The new leadership of the NBA must demonstrate to Nigerian Lawyers and the Nigerian people, that it is ready and willing to lead the Association in a fast-changing, scientific, technological, and complex world, to defend the rule of law and due process, and to help safeguard the electoral process and democracy. The NBA must reassure the legal community that it is adapting to changing dynamics, and is not stuck in old ways of conducting legal business. These points raise some questions. Has the NBA looked into the future of legal practice and planned for it? Have Nigerian law faculties and the Nigerian Law School looked into the future, and prepared students to embrace it with hope rather than fear? What about the Judiciary? Have the various courts reconceived their methods, and adapted to the changing realities of the world and the global economy? Are Lawyers, Judges, policymakers, businesses, and the justice system ready to move beyond longstanding constraints, and reimagine what is possible? Are they ready to transcend their limitations by embracing the future? Are they ready to anticipate challenges, rather than wait for them to arise? Unless this happens, the world will leave the legal profession in Nigeria, the justice sector, and legal education behind. Some Specific Issues in Contention The leadership of the NBA and the legal community, need to consider reforms to reduce litigation delays. These include embracing technology such as AI, digital courts, and electronic filing; modernising legal education and professional practice; positioning Lawyers as drivers of investment, innovation, and economic growth; expanding legal practice into emerging areas such as fintech, climate law, data protection, sports law, and the digital economy; helping create a legal environment that attracts local and foreign investment; building internationally recognised legal expertise, rather than confining it to domestic practice; strengthening the rule of law, judicial independence, and accountability; encouraging Lawyers to be active participants in the development of democracy; cultivating leadership and resilience in a rapidly changing profession; and seeking innovative solutions, rather than relying solely on precedent and tradition. The Need for a Fresh Burst of Energy The truth is that the legal community in Nigeria did not start early enough to reimagine the future of legal practice in a fast-changing world. The legal profession in Nigeria has been left behind in a fast-changing world. The legal profession must acknowledge that it is starting late and design mechanisms to catch up with the rest of the world. Things taken for granted in some countries are seen as innovations in Nigeria. In some countries, the legal profession, like government, plans and projects for where it wants to be in the coming years. In Nigeria, everything takes us by surprise, and unless it happens, we will not find solutions. For NBA and Nigerian Lawyers, how can the legal profession serve as a catalyst for national transformation rather than merely interpreting the law? What reforms are needed to make justice faster, fairer, and more accessible, and how can Nigerian Lawyers thrive in a globalised, technology-driven profession while remaining relevant to the Nigerian and global economies? In that sense, looking beyond limits is less about ignoring constraints than about identifying and challenging them and developing practical strategies

Festus Okoye

Transcending Limits and Reimagining the Bar The Nigerian Bar Association’s (NBA) Annual General Conference is the profession’s annual mirror. Held in Port Harcourt from 21 to 28 August 2026 under the theme “Transcending Limits and Reimagining the Bar”, it convened at a difficult moment: a contested change of guard at the NBA, a nation preparing for the 2027 elections amid youth disengagement, insecurity and economic hardship, and a legal profession still celebrating as innovation what other jurisdictions completed years ago. This article by Festus Okoye places before the new leadership, the work that the theme actually demands - faster justice, genuine partnerships, a Judiciary that does not go cap in hand to the Executive, and a Bar that defends the electoral process instead of watching it from the sidelines to overcome them. It calls for ambition grounded in concrete reforms, innovation, and leadership, rather than in rhetoric alone. Concrete steps must be taken to address specific issues. Digitalisation, Diversification and Specialisation For instance, many jurisdictions digitised their legal practice and judiciary long ago, achieving speedier access to justice and legal services. We are only beginning to do that, yet we are celebrating as if we have accomplished something great. That is not the way to go. We must embrace the future with hope and courage and begin asking questions about it early, rather than waiting for it to surprise us. Within the Bar, diversification and specialisation must replace its jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none approach. Nigerian lawyers must explore emerging areas and use the internet and other social media platforms to engage with new issues and ideas in the international arena. These include Technology and Digital Law, Climate and Energy Law, Health, Life and Food Science, Trade, Investment and Infrastructure, the Creative and Digital Economy, Space Law, Biotech and Genetic Data Law, Digital Rights, Refugee and Climate Migration Law, and many other areas. In these areas, specialists may face less competition, secure international funding, shape policy, and even work remotely from home. In other countries, successful lawyers are not necessarily those who go to court every day. Some successful lawyers go to court only occasionally to explore new areas of law that are still grey. They think outside the box. They believe that technology can serve the public good. They believe that technology can aid their work and make it faster. They believe that technology can break down boundaries and allow them to see what lawyers in other jurisdictions are doing. They believe that the globalised world has allowed them to innovate, make mistakes, and learn from them. They are not afraid of change and are

open to new ideas and issues. Unseating Sole Proprietorship Sometimes, acronyms are misused. We encounter names such as Chukwuma and Associates, Bold and Beautiful Attorneys, Patrick and Partners, and many others. Often, the owners—whether associates, partners, or attorneys—registered these names. These firms are typically sole proprietorships, and when the owner dies, the office, partnership, and associates also cease to exist. Genuine partnerships endure. You cannot buy law books worth millions, and they will gather dust and moisture when one passes on or is unable to practice because of the exigencies of age. Genuine partnership must be built on trust and genuine love for the profession. Terms must be clearly spelled out, and there must be fidelity to the partnership. We must not continue to behave like some traders in a remote area whose signpost reads "Festus and Co West Africa Limited". On closer inspection, you cannot see the words "Limited" or "West Africa". The Justice Sector Many Nigerians believe the justice sector is not working for them. It is not working for them because of delays in the administration of justice and because of what they believe the judiciary now represents. Delays in justice delivery sometimes erode the justice sector's gains and lead to mob justice and extra-constitutional means of solving problems. The NBA must speak for the judiciary. It is a shame that the judiciary still goes cap in hand, begging for funds to carry out its functions. Unfortunately, the executive is busy providing vehicles for the judiciary and making a show of it. Houses are now being built for members of the bench, and the executive is making a show of it. This leaves one wondering whether the motive is not to fraternize and, insidiously, to

“The new leadership of the NBA must demonstrate to Nigerian Lawyers and the Nigerian people, that it is ready and willing to lead the Association in a fastchanging, scientific, technological, and complex world, to defend the rule of law and due process, and to help safeguard the electoral process and democracy“

cultivate a sense of obligation and courtesy. The Bar must stand as a bulwark for the judiciary and speak on their behalf. Those who perform well should be commended, and those who are misfits should be shown the way out. The Bar and the 2027 General Election The Bar must, under no circumstances, allow Nigeria’s democracy project to falter. People fought for and laid down their lives for a democratic Nigeria. The Bar must therefore, take an interest in the Independent National Electoral Commission’s work. The Bar must assist the Commission in upholding its independence and strengthening its processes and procedures. The Bar must continually hold the Commission accountable. The same applies to the security agencies involved in election duty. Aiding or supporting any political party will erode their neutrality and cast them as enablers of electoral fraud. Handling pre- and post-election litigation will be challenging. The Bar must encourage and assist the judiciary in understanding that some ballot papers, result sheets, and other sensitive materials are not printed overnight. Some of these materials have complex security features and are not printed in Nigeria. They are security documents, printed by security printers and stored at the Central Bank. Orders and judgments must be issued on time so the Commission can redesign and reprint the documents. Post-election matters must be handled transparently, and the Judiciary must be accountable. The Bar must not allow content creators in the legal profession to dictate how post-election litigation is handled. Judicial openness will enable Nigerians to understand and follow developments in the electoral process rather than relying on content creators seeking fame and trying to grow their fan base. Conclusion The new executives must reimagine the Bar, so it can play a leadership role in a technology-driven world and put the legal profession on a strong footing to compete globally. The new leadership must lead with purpose. It must encourage the Law Faculties to look beyond the immediate, and ask questions about the profession over the next ten to twenty years. It must organise innovative conferences on Artificial Intelligence in the Legal Profession, and on emerging areas and markets. The new executive must give the new wigs hope, that a good life in the legal profession and in Nigeria is possible. We must look beyond the immediate and beyond limits. Festus Okoye, Legal Practitioner; Former INEC National Commissioner

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Honourable Minister of Works, David Umahi

Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Transportation, Olufunso Adebiyi

Road or Air Travel: The Narrowing Choices of Nigerian Commuters For successive administrations in Nigeria, the battle to salvage failing road infrastructure has posed an unnecessary challenge. The worsening condition of roads across the country, has consequently driven many people to prefer air travel. But, with humongous airfares, a conundrum has arisen, as many travellers are now unable to afford plane tickets. The Benin–Asaba and Lagos–Ore highways, for example, are in such poor condition that commuters have endured nightmares - sometimes spending more than 72 hours on a journey that should take no more than seven or eight hours. The dangers scarcely need spelling out, particularly the risk of being kidnapped in traffic caused by dilapidated roads. Constitutionally, the security and welfare of the people is the primary purpose of government. Bad roads promote insecurity: criminals operate more easily when road users slow down to negotiate perilous stretches. What can be done to remedy this? To whom does the responsibility to fix the roads lie - the Federal or State Governments? Who can be held accountable? The lives of Nigerians are unsafe when the road network is in this condition, quite apart from the resulting damage to commerce and economic growth. Jonathan Gunu Taidi, SAN and Chiedu Ebie discuss the issues and proffer solutions to these problems Nigerian Roads and the Cost of a Nation in Transit Jonathan Gunu Taidi, SAN

T

here are moments when a nation must stop and ask itself an uncomfortable question: How much longer can we continue like this? For millions of Nigerians, travelling by road has ceased to be an ordinary inconvenience. It has become an ordeal - sometimes an economic

punishment, sometimes a security risk, and increasingly, a matter of life and death. The nightmare unfolding along some of Nigeria’s most important highways, particularly the Lagos–Ore–Benin, Benin–Asaba and Bida–Lambata–Dikko–Kaduna corridors, is not simply about potholes, failed sections of pavement or traffic congestion. It is a symptom of something much deeper: the failure to adequately maintain

“The Nigerian traveller is caught between a road that may consume an entire day, and an aircraft ticket that may consume a substantial portion of their income”

the infrastructure upon which the nation’s economy, mobility and social life depend. A road is not merely a strip of asphalt. It is an economic artery. It carries workers to their places of employment, farmers to markets, children to schools, patients to hospitals, traders to customers, businesses to their supply chains and families to one another. When a major highway fails, an entire ecosystem begins to fail with it. The Lagos–Ore–Benin–Asaba Nightmare Few roads illustrate Nigeria’s infrastructure predicament, more vividly than the corridor stretching from Lagos through Ore and Benin to Asaba, and onward to Onitsha and the South-East. This is one of the country’s most commercially significant transportation corridors.

It connects Nigeria’s commercial capital with substantial parts of the South-South and South-East and carries thousands of passenger vehicles, trailers, tankers, buses and private cars every day. Yet, sections of this strategic corridor have become synonymous with gridlock, f a i l e d pavement, flooding, prolonged construction, broken-down heavy-duty vehicles and intolerable travel times. The consequences are staggering. A journey that should ordinarily take a few hours, can become an

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Road or Air Travel: The Narrowing Choices of Nigerian Commuters cont'd from page VIII

all-day ordeal. In particularly bad circumstances, motorists have reportedly spent several days navigating portions of the Benin–Asaba corridor. That is not normal traffic. It is infrastructure failure. When a Nigerian spends 12, 24, 48 or even more hours attempting to complete a journey that should take a fraction of that time, the resulting losses cannot be dismissed as mere inconvenience. They are economic and productivity losses, as well as security and publichealth risks. Tragically, they can also become losses of human life. The economic consequences of bad roads are often underestimated, because they do not always appear neatly in government expenditure reports. A truck delayed for 20 hours is not merely stationary. Its driver is being paid. Its fuel is being consumed. The vehicle is depreciating. The cargo is being delayed. The recipient is waiting. The next delivery is postponed. For agricultural products, delay can mean spoilage. For manufacturers, it can mean interrupted production. For retailers, it can mean empty shelves. For commuters, it means lost working hours. For Lawyers, doctors, consultants, engineers and other professionals whose work requires interstate travel, it can mean cancelled appointments and missed engagements. For emergency services, the consequences can be catastrophic. Nigeria therefore pays for bad roads several times over: through the cost of construction and maintenance; through vehicle damage and increased logistics costs; through lost productivity and higher consumer prices; and, ultimately, through human lives. The road may appear free to use, but its failure is extraordinarily expensive. The Aviation Paradox There is another consequence that deserves greater attention: the aviation paradox. As road transportation becomes increasingly unreliable, Nigerians who can afford it are compelled to seek alternatives, particularly air transportation. Ordinarily, flying between Nigerian cities should be a matter of convenience, urgency or business preference. Increasingly, however, it is becoming a matter of time survival. A businessman who cannot afford to lose an entire day travelling from Lagos to Benin, may choose to fly. But, domestic air travel in Nigeria is hardly cheap. Airfares are influenced by a range of factors, including aviation fuel, foreign exchange, aircraft acquisition and leasing costs, maintenance, insurance, airport charges and airline capacity. It would therefore, be intellectually dishonest to attribute high airfares

Honourable Minister of Aviation and Aerospace Development, Festus Keyamo, SAN

entirely to bad roads. The important relationship, however, should not be ignored: when the road alternative becomes unreliable, demand for air transportation increases - not necessarily because Nigerians prefer to fly, but because the road has ceased to be a dependable option. Poor roads therefore, impose an indirect transportation tax on Nigerians who are forced to pay a premium to save time. The irony is profound. Nigeria is simultaneously failing to provide affordable, reliable road transportation while struggling to make domestic aviation accessible to ordinary citizens. The Nigerian traveller is caught between a road that may consume an entire day, and an aircraft ticket that may consume a substantial portion of their income. That is not an efficient transportation system. It is a national mobility crisis. Who is Accountable? It is easy to blame “the government” alone. But, serious public discourse must go further. Federal roads are principally within the responsibility of the Federal Government and its relevant agencies. The Federal Ministry of Works has responsibility for Federal highway development and oversight, while the Federal Roads Maintenance Agency (FERMA) has statutory responsibilities relating to the maintenance of

“We need an integrated transportation architecture encompassing roads, rail, aviation, inland waterways, ports and logistics hubs. A country of Nigeria’s size and population, cannot efficiently carry virtually all of its passenger and freight burden on roads”

federal roads. Where a road has been concessioned, the analysis becomes more nuanced. A concession does not mean that government has abdicated its public responsibility. It means that government has chosen a different mechanism, for delivering and managing a public asset. Where a private concessionaire fails, government must enforce the contract. Where a contractor delivers defective work, government must enforce the contractual and statutory remedies available to it. Where a supervising consultant fails in his or her professional responsibility, that failure must be investigated. Where public officials negligently supervise, approve or certify defective work, accountability cannot stop at the contractor’s gate. And, where public funds have been expended to correct avoidable failures, Nigerians are entitled to know why. The recent controversy surrounding the Benin–Asaba Expressway, is particularly instructive. The Federal Government has acknowledged deficiencies in aspects of the project, and ordered remedial action. Reports have also raised concerns relating to pavement quality, drainage and traffic management. The larger lesson, however, extends beyond one road or one project. Nigeria must stop governing infrastructure by emergency. There is an unhealthy pattern in the management of Nigerian infrastructure: a road deteriorates; citizens complain; the media reports it; traffic becomes unbearable; politicians visit; government announces an emergency intervention; machines arrive; a portion of the road is patched; a press release follows - and eventually, the cycle begins again. This is not infrastructure management. It is infrastructure firefighting. Nigeria needs to move from reactive maintenance, to planned asset management. A major highway should

not have to collapse before government intervenes, and a contractor should not disappear after construction. Our traditional infrastructure model, also requires fundamental reform. Nigeria should identify its most economically critical transportation corridors, and place them under a special national infrastructure regime. The Lagos–Ore–Benin–Asaba–Onitsha and Bida–Agaie–Lapai–Lambata–Dikko– Kaduna corridors should be among them. Other strategically important corridors should be identified using objective criteria, including population served, economic activity, industrial connectivity, accident rates and nationalsecurity importance. These corridors should receive priority funding, continuous maintenance and independent technical monitoring. Politics should not determine whether an economically critical road is maintained. Beyond Roads: Building An Integrated Transport System Roads alone, will not solve Nigeria’s transportation crisis. There is an even bigger lesson: Nigeria must stop thinking about transportation, as a road-only problem. We need an integrated transportation architecture encompassing roads, rail, aviation, inland waterways, ports and logistics hubs. A country of Nigeria’s size and population, cannot efficiently carry virtually all of its passenger and freight burden on roads. Heavy cargo should increasingly have viable rail alternatives. Agricultural produce should move through efficient logistics networks. Major cities should develop multimodal transportation systems. Our ports must eventually connect efficiently, to rail and road corridors. The objective should not simply be to build more roads, but to create a transportation system in which each mode performs the function for which cont'd on page X

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Road or Air Travel: The Narrowing Choices of Nigerian Commuters

Traffic Chaos on Benin-Asaba Expressway cont'd from page IX

it is most efficient. Accountability Must Have Consequences There must also be consequences for failure. This is where accountability becomes real. We cannot continue to celebrate the award of contracts, as though awarding a contract were itself an achievement. A road contract is successful only when the road is delivered to specification, within reasonable time and cost, remains safe and functional, and provides value to the public. If a project fails, there must be an institutional mechanism for determining why. Where the failure results from unavoidable circumstances, government should explain. Where it results from poor design, the responsible professionals should answer. Where it results from defective construction, the contractor should answer. Where it results from inadequate supervision, the supervising authority should answer. And, where it results from corruption or fraud, the appropriate investigative

and prosecutorial agencies should act. Where contractual obligations have been breached, government must enforce them. Public infrastructure cannot operate on a culture of impunity. The Way Forward The solution is neither mysterious, nor impossible. Nigeria needs: * Immediate emergency intervention on dangerous strategic corridors. * Independent technical audits of major road projects. * Transparent publication of concession and construction agreements. * Strict enforcement of contractor and concessionaire obligations. * Whole-life maintenance contracts. * Independent certification of major infrastructure works. * Real-time public infrastructure dashboards. * Serious legislative oversight. * Effective sanctions for proven failures. *Integrated road, rail, aviation and inland-waterway planning. *A national framework for

“….. and will be intervening in the very bad sections of the road, particularly between Oghara - Mosogar - Elume Junction (Sapele) totalling about 15kms….. Another road we are preparing to intervene in, is the Abraka - Obiaruku - Umutu - Abavo - Agbor Road ….We are doing our best at NDDC, as an interventionist agency, to provide some succour to commuters and road users”

prioritising economically critical transportation corridors. A road should be maintained, because the asset requires maintenance - not rehabilitated because a Minister visited, a crisis erupted or an election is approaching. Government should not act, because Nigerians have finally become angry enough to protest. It should act because, public office carries a continuing duty to protect the public interest. Perhaps, the most disturbing aspect of our current transportation crisis, is how quickly we have normalised it. We complain about roads across virtually every geopolitical zone. We move on until the next breakdown, accident or flood - or until another family loses someone. We must stop normalising infrastructure failure. Every kilometre of failed highway, represents more than damaged asphalt. It represents time stolen from citizens, productivity lost by businesses, additional costs imposed on consumers and, in the worst cases, lives lost. Nigeria’s roads are therefore, not merely infrastructure. They are part of the nation’s economic and social lifelines. And, when those lifelines begin to fail, fixing them cannot remain a matter of political promises, emergency interventions and press releases. It must become a matter of national priority, measurable performance and enforceable accountability. A nation in transit, cannot afford to remain permanently stuck. Jonathan Taidi, SAN, former General Secretary, Nigerian Bar Association; Life Bencher Why NDDC is Intervening on Road Infrastructure

Chiedu Ebie Recently, my Managing Director joined the Minister of Works in Benin City to look into the Benin - Oghara Sapele - Warri Road. Following that, we inspected the road and will be intervening in the very bad sections of the road, particularly between Oghara Mosogar Elume Junction (Sapele) totalling about 15kms, to make the road accessible and reduce the hardship for all of us that utilise that alignment.In fact this weekend, the designated contractors will be mobilising to site. Another road we are preparing to intervene in, is the Abraka - Obiaruku - Umutu - Abavo - Agbor Road which is another major road within the region. Just yesterday, NDDC Engineers inspected that alignment to determine the scope of work preparatory to our intervention. On the Benin - Asaba Road, the Minister did mention that the road had been concessioned, but that the very bad section around Ubulu Okiti will be attended to as soon as possible. So, I am not in any position to proffer an opinion on the state of our roads and the resultant effects. We are doing our best at NDDC, as an interventionist agency, to provide some succour to commuters and road users. Chiedu Ebie, Chairman of Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC)

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8 t T H I S D AY

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FEATURES

Group Features Editor: Chiemelie Ezeobi Email chiemelie.ezeobi@thisdaylive.com,

Mojeed Abisiga: Fostering Innovation, Advancement and Professional Development of Global Data, AI Community

Mojeed Abisiga is an award-winning Data & AI Leader, entrepreneur, technology educator, public speaker, and Forbes Technology Council member, recognised as a Marquis Who's Who Honoree, an Einstein Visa Green Card recipient. He is the CEO & Founder of AI Every Time, the world’s first 24/7 AI newsroom and AI content hub where people can follow, chat with, and learn directly from AI reporters & AI learning companions around the globe, each bringing a unique identity, expertise, and cultural voice, and the Founder & CEO of DataGlobal Hub, a platform dedicated to being a one-stop platform for news, education, networking, and professional opportunities in data science and AI. By fostering innovation, knowledge sharing, and collaboration, he promotes the advancement and professional development of the global data and AI community. In this interview, Mojeed, who is passionate about helping individuals and organisations understand, adopt, and leverage AI, shares how to create new opportunities and shape the future of work and technology. Precious Ugwuzor brings excerpts You are an award-winning Data & AI Leader, entrepreneur, educator and public speaker. What sparked your journey into the world of data and artificial intelligence? y journey began with a fascination for numbers and a belief that an insight can be more valuable than a billion data points. Winning a national climate-change competition and joining a UNESCO-sponsored research tour showed me early that data-driven insights can shape policy and improve real lives. Mathematics gave me the foundation, consulting and machine-learning work gave me practical discipline, and education gave me purpose. The thread connecting everything has been the desire to turn complexity into something people can understand and use; AI is the most powerful extension of that mission I have encountered.

intelligence? The barriers form a connected system: limited and expensive compute; unreliable power and connectivity; insufficient highquality local data; shortages in advanced skills and research capacity; limited capital for scaling; fragmented policy; and low public trust. Africa also needs models that understand local languages and can work in low-connectivity settings. The answer is therefore bigger than training more data scientists: governments and industry must build digital public infrastructure, interoperable data systems, regional compute capacity, responsible regulation, and pathways that help local research and startups reach the market.

M

You founded AI Every Time, described as the world’s first 24/7 AI newsroom and AI content hub. What inspired this groundbreaking concept? The inspiration was the gap between content reach and human attention: a creator or educator on AI can reach millions of people, but cannot answer millions of follow-up questions, remember every learner, or remain available at 2 a.m. Here is where AI Every Time comes in, The World of AI taught by your local AI voices that never sleep. Chat and learn about AI from your local AI voices now. AI Every Time turns a piece of content into the beginning of a relationship rather than the end of a view. We are building the world’s first 24/7 AI newsroom and AI learning hub where people can follow, chat with, and learn about AI directly from AI reporters/ learning companions around the globe, each representing different countries, bringing a unique identity, expertise, and cultural voice. The purpose is not to remove human expertise; it is to make trusted knowledge more accessible, responsive, and useful at global scale. Video ends learning begins. How is AI Every Time redefining the way people consume news, learn and interact with information? Our platform delivers always-on Al news and education through local Al voices that writes content, explain it, answer questions, and personalize learning for users in real time. It transforms learning of AI from passive content consumption into interactive conversations, making creators accessible to their audience at all times. We also solve one of the biggest issues with AI content, which is that it often sounds robotic or obviously AI-generated. Our platform creates learning experiences that feel human, clear, and engaging. Learn from your local AI voices that never sleep. Chat, learn, and stay updated in a personalized and interactive way with our AI learning companions. You are also the Founder and CEO of DataGlobal Hub. What gap in the global data and AI ecosystem are you seeking to address? The ecosystem is rich in talent and information but fragmented across countries, platforms, events, courses, jobs, and professional communities. DataGlobal Hub was created to bring those pieces together and make high-quality data and AI knowledge,

Abisiga

opportunities, and networks easier to access, especially for people who are outside the traditional centers of technology. The vision is to build a trusted global destination for learning, news, community, and professional growth in the data and AI field. AI Every Time advances that mission by moving from publishing knowledge to making knowledge available as a continuous conversation. Artificial intelligence is transforming virtually every industry. Which sectors do you believe will experience the most dramatic disruption in the next five years? The fastest disruption will occur where work is information-intensive, repetitive, and digital: media, education, software development, customer service, finance, marketing, legal services, and professional services. Healthcare, manufacturing, agriculture, telecommunications, and government will also change significantly, but adoption there will depend more heavily on safety, infrastructure, regulation, and trusted human oversight. The important distinction is that AI will not transform every sector in the same way: in some places it will automate production, in others it will augment decisions, and in the most consequential settings it must remain a tool under accountable professional judgment. What does the rapid advancement of AI mean for the future of jobs, particularly for young people entering the workforce? AI will change tasks before it eliminates entire professions, but young people are exposed because many entry-level jobs are built around the routine research, drafting, analysis, and coordination that AI can now perform. The opportunity is to move up the value chain earlier: learn to define the problem, direct AI, verify its output, communicate with people, and take responsibility for the result. PwC reports that employer skill requirements are changing 66 percent

faster in AI-exposed occupations, which means the real career risk is not AI itself; it is standing still while the work changes around you. Should workers be afraid that AI will replace their jobs, or should they see it as an opportunity to become more productive and competitive? Workers should take the disruption seriously without surrendering to fear. Some tasks and roles will disappear, and the transition will not be painless, but the evidence also shows strong productivity and wage gains where workers develop valuable AI skills. PwC found that industries most exposed to AI achieved three times higher growth in revenue per employee than the least-exposed industries, while job numbers were still growing in virtually every AI-exposed occupational category studied. The practical response is to treat AI as a colleague that needs direction and supervision: automate the routine, strengthen your judgment, and keep learning. Nigeria has a large young population and growing technology ecosystem. What opportunities does AI present for Nigeria and Africa? AI gives Nigeria and Africa an opportunity to leapfrog constraints in education, healthcare, agriculture, finance, public services, and access to expertise. The biggest prize is not simply importing global tools; it is building systems around African languages, cultures, markets, and problems. McKinsey estimates that at-scale generative AI deployment could unlock between $61 billion and $103 billion in additional annual economic value across Africa. If we combine our young talent, entrepreneurial energy, and local knowledge with better infrastructure and responsible governance, Africa can become a producer of AI solutions rather than only a consumer of them. What are the biggest barriers preventing Africa from becoming a major global player in artificial

As a technology educator, what are the most important AI skills young Africans should begin developing today? Young Africans should build three layers of capability. The first is technical literacy: data, prompting, automation, coding, and an understanding of how models work and fail. The second is judgment: critical thinking, source verification, ethics, privacy, and the ability to test an answer rather than admire it. The third is human value: communication, creativity, domain expertise, collaboration, and entrepreneurship. Tools will change quickly, so the most durable skill is learning how to learn. Do not compete with AI at producing generic answers; become excellent at asking better questions and applying answers to real African problems. You have been recognized by the Forbes Technology Council and Marquis Who’s Who. How have these recognitions influenced your professional journey and global outlook? My membership in Forbes Technology Council and my inclusion in Marquis Who’s Who have expanded my exposure to different markets, leadership perspectives, and standards of execution. I value these recognitions as professional milestones, not as endorsements of every view I hold or every organization I build. They increase my responsibility to contribute thoughtfully, represent African innovation with integrity, open doors for others, and use a wider network to make data and AI knowledge more accessible. I am speaking here in my personal capacity, and my views do not represent Forbes or Forbes Technology Council. The Internet Is No Longer Human: Who Will Teach Us What to Believe?” Is this the defining question of the AI era? Yes, because the internet is changing from a network where humans create most content into one where machines can generate, personalize, and distribute information at enormous scale. That makes platforms such as AI Every Time more important because people need always-available, local, conversational help to understand AI and ask better questions. The answer is not for one company, government, journalist, or AI system to dictate belief; it is to give people accessible explanations, visible sources, multiple perspectives, and the confidence to exercise judgment. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

XIII

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

PROPERTY & ENVIRONMENT Devtraco Targets Nigerian Investors as Ghana’s Property Market Beckons Bennett Oghifo Ghana’s property market is increasingly positioning itself as an attractive destination for Nigerian investors seeking to diversify their real estate portfolios beyond the domestic market, with Devtraco Nigeria Limited seeking to leverage the growing cross-border investment appetite. The Ghanaian property developer, which has been

operating for more than three decades, recently engaged Nigerian media and prospective investors in Lagos, highlighting opportunities in residential, commercial and hospitality real estate while assuring potential buyers of transparency, structured payment plans and exit opportunities. At the centre of the company’s pitch is its established presence in Ghana and its expanding portfolio of devel-

opments, including Devtraco Woodlands, a planned sustainable city sitting on a 600-acre land area within a wider land bank of more than 2,000 acres. Speaking during the engagement, representatives of the company said the Nigerian market represented a significant opportunity, particularly as investors increasingly looked beyond traditional destinations such as Dubai, the United Kingdom and other established

property markets. The company said it was positioning Ghana as a relatively close and accessible investment destination for Nigerians, stressing that the country’s expanding tourism, hospitality and urban development sectors were creating demand for quality accommodation and investment properties. One of the representatives said the company was introducing an opportunity for

Nigerians to visit Ghana and inspect its developments before making investment decisions. According to the company, prospective investors would pay a fee for the inspection trip, but the amount would be absorbed into the cost of the property if they eventually purchased. “We know that for Nigerians, seeing is believing,” the representative said, urging Nigerians to take advantage

of the opportunity to visit Ghana and inspect Devtraco’s developments before investing. The company also placed considerable emphasis on transparency, particularly for Nigerians investing remotely. It disclosed that its accounts were audited by Deloitte in Ghana, with the audit subsequently sent to Deloitte South Africa for further checks, while reports were made available to investors.

Domo Reinvents Corporate Retreat in Lekki Fadekemi Ajakaiye In a bustling city like Lagos that moves at full speed almost all round the clock, Domo,

an urban retreat, offers you a refreshing sanctuary-something unique and increasingly rare: the space to pause tucked away from the distracting crowd.

Powered by an impressive assemblage of top notch faclities, Domo goes well beyond the norms but gives the beholder a holistic event with a range

Domo

of curated experiences in an environment just for your team. It supports fun, focus and results. Located in a tranquil environment at 12/14, Meadow Hall Way in Elegusi-Lekki, about 30 minutes from the business districts of Victoria Island and Ikoyi, Domo is a small-scale urban retreat designed for corporate teams who want more than a conventional hotel meeting. It is close enough to be practical for a working day, yet deliberately removed from the noise, traffic and routine that can prevent people from thinking clearly. Domo was created around a shared philosophy found in Edo and Japanese culture: respect for nature, precision, balance and beauty with purpose. It shapes the experience of the your

stay - from the quiet rhythm of the Japanese-inspired garden and koi pond to the spacious apartments, considered interiors, restorative wellness treatments and Nigerian-Japanese cuisine at Edo Restaurant. Unlike a regular hotel, DOMO is not built around crowds, busy lobbies or generic event rooms. Its scale is its strength. When your company comes to DOMO, the experience feels personal, focused and private. Your team has room to meet, share meals, recharge and reconnect in one coherent setting - without the distractions of a large, impersonal venue. Whether for a leadership retreat, strategy session, workshop or team appreciation program, DOMO can create a tailor-made half-day or multi-day experience. A unique

combination of meeting space, accommodation in spacious and luxurious apartments, dining with a relaxing view on the Japanese garden and spa treatments. But Domo offers more: a large collection of relaxation and team-building activities can be brought together around one aim: helping your team members to return to work with greater clarity, connection and energy. Domo is also an amazing and special location to relax with your partner, family and friends. Relax in our garden, at the poolside, in your luxurious apartment, or whilst enjoying treatments at the Ehima Cave Spa. The Edo Restaurant, which also serves a Sunday Brunch, and a special Japanese-Nigerian Fusion menu will make you want to come back for more.

Ogombo Land: Enforcement of High Court Judgement Underway The enforcement of the Ogombo land judgement in Eti-Osa, Lagos State, is now being carried out, following the decision of the High Court of Lagos State. The case involved interests connected to the historic estate of Late Iyalode Efunroye

Tinubu and members of the Kosoko royal family, with Mr. Shafiu Kassim Lumosa and others representing the estate’s side of the matter. In the judgement delivered on November 12, 2024, at Court 37, Lands Division of the High Court of Lagos State,

Hon. Justice O.O. Ogunjobi adopted the Terms of Settlement agreed by the parties as the judgement of the court, thereby giving the settlement full legal effect. Lumosa’s representation of the Efunroye Tinubu Estate is backed by a Power of Attorney

from Madam Efunroye Tinubu, through Chief Adamakin Akinfolabi, authorising him to act on matters concerning the estate and its property interests. The Ogombo case involved different claims over a large area of land at Ogombo Village,

an area that has become one of the major property locations in Lagos State. An important part of the historical claim to the land is an 1912 survey plan prepared by Herbert Macaulay, which has been used in tracing the Efunroye Tinubu Estate’s his-

torical interest in the property. The historical documents were also linked to an earlier Supreme Court judgement, which formed part of the records used in establishing the history of the property and the interests claimed by the estate.

Dangote, E-Terra Seek Stronger Collaboration to Tackle Nigeria’s Growing e-waste Challenge Fadekemi Ajakaiye The Dangote Cement Circular Economy Champions Team, alongside the E-waste Relief Foundation (ERF), have visited the Material Recovery and Recycling Facility (MRRF) of E-Terra Technologies Ltd. in Abule Ado, Lagos, as part of efforts to promote practical knowledge, collaboration and responsible electronic waste (e-waste) management. The visit provided the team with an opportunity to observe E-Terra’s operations, including e-waste collection, data destruc-

tion, sorting, dismantling, material recovery and recycling. The team also examined the company’s commitment to environmental responsibility, occupational health and safety, quality management, traceability and resource efficiency, in line with recognised international management-system principles and global best practices. Speaking during the visit, Team Lead of the Dangote Cement Circular Economy Champions Team, Dr. Oyekemi Oyelola, expressed excitement at what she described as an eye-opening experience.

“We have seen, first-hand, how waste can be systematically transformed from an environmental burden into valuable resources. The level of organisation, technical processes and commitment to sustainable waste management demonstrated by E-Terra is truly impressive.” Welcoming the delegation, E-Terra Technologies Ltd.’s CEO, Chief Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwutem Ochonogor, expressed his pleasure at hosting Dangote Cement and the ERF, describing the visit as an important opportunity for collaboration.

L-R: Technical Director, E-Terra Mr Patrick Inoh; Head of Sustainability, Dangote Cement Plc, Dr Oyekemi Oyelola; CEO, E-Terra Technologies Ltd, Dr. Ifeanyi Chukwutem Ochonogor; and Environment & Social Analyst, Dangote Industries Limited, Mr Abdullahi Ibrahim, during a visit to the Material Recovery and Recycling Facility of E-Terra Technologies Ltd... recently

Nigeria Can Unlock 95% Untapped Real Estate Potential, Says Expert Blessing Ibunge in Port Harcourt Nigeria can unlock up to 95 per cent of its largely untapped real estate potential and attract massive

investment into the sector if the country strengthens regulation, builds investor trust and digitises land administration, the Mayor of Housing, My-ACE China, has said.

China, Chairman of the Mayor of Housing Group, spoke against the backdrop of a recent global real estate report which valued Nigeria’s property market at about $2.6 trillion, making it Africa’s

largest, while the continent’s total real estate value was put at $17.6 trillion. He described the figures as a wake-up call for Nigeria, arguing that the country has exploited only about five per

cent of its real estate assets. According to him, Nigeria’s property sector could experience an unprecedented surge as global markets become saturated and investors increasingly seek new op-

portunities. “As a matter of fact, I see a future where, out of the 95 per cent potential remaining untapped, a 65 per cent potential surge will happen almost overnight,” he said.

WEDNESDAY, MARCHSEPTEMBER 11, 2026 ˾ T H 8, I S2026 D AY TH I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY,

XIV

BUSINESS/MONEYGUIDE

PremiumTrust Bank Receives Dual Credit Rating Upgrades from Agusto & Co., DataPro. Oluchi Chibuzor PremiumTrust Bank has received dual credit rating upgrades from two of Nigeria’s leading rating agencies, Agusto & Co. and DataPro Limited, underscoring the Bank’s financial strength, sound risk management and consistent growth trajectory. While Agusto & Co. upgraded the Bank’s longterm rating from BBB+ to A- and its short-term rating from A2 to A1, DataPro has upgraded the Bank’s long-term rating from A- to A, while affirming its short-term rating at A1. A long-term rating in the ‘A’ category reflects a low credit risk profile and a strong capacity to meet financial obligations as they fall due, while an A1 short-term rating denotes the highest capacity for timely settlement of short-term financial

commitments. Taken together, the two outcomes represent upgrades from both agencies within the same review cycle mark a further improvement in the Bank’s credit standing since its last assessment. The agencies cited the bank’s robust capitalisation, with its capital adequacy ratio rising from 20.8% to 40.8%, alongside a strong liquidity ratio of 71.1% and a net interest margin of 83.3%. Asset quality remained sound, with a non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of 0.2% and a cost of funds of 3.2%, while cost efficiency was reflected in a costto-income ratio of 23.2%. Agusto & Co. further noted the Bank’s pretax return on equity of 84.6% as the highest in the Nigerian banking industry. The upgrades come against the backdrop of the Bank’s strong underlying performance, having reported a pre-tax

profit of N177.1 billion and total assets of N1.7 trillion in FY2025. Commenting on the ratings, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of PremiumTrust Bank, Mr. Emmanuel Efe Emefienim, said: “These upgrades are a strong validation of the fundamentals we have built at PremiumTrust Bank. From inception, we have been deliberate about establishing our presence and building an institution with the financial strength, resilience, and operating discipline to compete in the Nigerian banking industry. “Our focus now is on converting this momentum into sustained growth. We are strengthening our balance sheet, expanding our physical and digital footprint, and investing in the capacity needed to serve our customers and support the businesses and communities across our markets,” he said.

D&B Launches Business Credibility Report asVerified Data Gains Importance Dun & Bradstreet (D&B) South Asia, Middle East & Africa (SAME) has launched a Business Credibility Report (BCR), a verification solution that helps companies independently validate their credentials as they face greater scrutiny from lenders and commercial partners. The launch comes amid growing demand for verified business information as companies and other stakeholders strengthen due diligence before extending credit or entering commercial relationships. A Senior Executive at Dun & Bradstreet SAME, Sameer Anees, said the report would help businesses strengthen

their credibility in an increasingly risk-conscious commercial environment. “The Business Credibility Report, endorsed by Dun & Bradstreet SAME, is an indispensable tool in an organization’s armoury, particularly for firms seeking to enhance their credentials in an increasingly value-driven business environment,” Anees said. The report, he said, is available in five formats, with each providing verified information that external stakeholders can use when assessing a business. Depending on the variant selected, the report also incorporates macroeconomic, industry and operational

perspectives, giving users a broader view of a company beyond its basic corporate information. Dun & Bradstreet said the solution is designed to turn a company’s reputation, which is often difficult t o q u a n t i f y, i n t o a more tangible business advantage by providing independently verified information that can support commercial decisions. The company said the launch forms part of its broader effort to help businesses build trusted commercial relationships through verified business information and datadriven insights across S o u t h A s i a, the Middle East and Africa.

DAC Consulting Begins Operations,Targets BusinessTransformation with 360° Approach Bennett Oghifo DAC Consulting, a 360-degree management consulting firm, has commenced operations with a mandate to help organisations navigate complex business challenges through integrated solutions covering people, processes and product management. The firm, founded by Business Transformation and Product Management Leader, Adedayo Adedapo, and HR and Management Consultant, Dr. Omotola Dayo-Adedapo, said its model was designed to strengthen leadership, improve organisational effectiveness, optimise business processes and support sustainable business growth. Its entry into the consulting market comes as businesses across industries grapple with rapid technological change, shifting workforce dynamics, evolving customer

expectations and mounting pressure to improve productivity and operational performance. Speaking on the commencement of operations, Co-Founder and Managing Partner, Dr. Omotola DayoAdedapo, said sustainable business growth required more than ambition, stressing the need for deliberate investment in leadership, people and organisational capability. “Every organisation wants to grow, but growth demands more than ambition. It requires the right leadership, capable people, efficient processes and products that continue to create value in an increasingly competitive environment. “At DAC Consulting, we partner with organisations to strengthen these foundations and help them build businesses that are positioned for sustainable success,” she said.

Also speaking, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, Adedayo Adedapo, said the firm would deploy expertise in Business Process Management, Product Management, Digital Transformation, Brand and Customer Experience to support clients. He identified the gap between strategy formulation and execution as one of the major challenges confronting organisations, noting that having a strategy did not necessarily translate into improved business performance. “Business transformation is most effective when leadership, people, systems and execution work together. Our role is not simply to recommend solutions but to work alongside our clients to implement practical strategies that improve organisational performance, strengthen capability and create lasting value,” he said.

MARKET INDICATORS MONEY AND CREDIT STATISTICS (MILLION NAIRA) October 2025

Month

Money Supply (M3)

119,037,577.07

-- CBN Bills Held by Money Holding Sectors

9,291.49

Money Supply (M2)

119,028,285.58

Quasi Money

79,681,419.97

-- Narrow Money (M1)

39,346,865.60

---- Currency Outside Banks

4,646,794.28

---- Demand Deposits

34,700,071.33

Net Foreign Assets (NFA)

34,804,442.84

Net Domestic Assets(NDA)

84,233,134.23

-- Net Domestic Credit (NDC)

99,199,655.08

---- Credit to Government (Net)

24,787,980.96

---- Memo: Credit to Govt. (Net) less FMA

0.00

---- Memo: Fed. and Mirror Accounts (FMA)

0.00

---- Credit to Private Sector (CPS)

74,411,674.12

--Other Assets Net

2,603,854.03

Reserve Money (Base Money)

36,641,142.21

--Currency in Circulation

5,057,881.01

--Banks Reserves

31,583,261.21

--Special Intervention Reserves

284,361.95

˾ ÙßÜÍÏ ̋

Money Market Indicators (in Percentage) Month

October 2025

Inter-Bank Call Rate

October 2025

Minimum Rediscount Rate (MRR) Monetary Policy Rate (MPR)

27.00

Treasury Bill Rate

15.07

Savings Deposit Rate

7.43

1 Month Deposit Rate

11.37

3 Months Deposit Rate

11.32

6 Months Deposit Rate

11.12

12 Months Deposit Rate

11.78

Prime Lending rate

18.89

Maximum Lending Rate

29.56

NSE MARKET INDEX CAP

0.75%(52%YoY)

Index

0.9% (29%Y/D) ˾ ÙØÏÞËÜã ÙÖÓÍã ËÞÏ ̋ Ͱ͵ϱ

OPEC DAILY BASKET PRICE AS AT 24TH NOVEMBER , 2025

The price of OPEC basket of twelve crudes stood at $63.14 a barrel on Monday, according to OPEC Secretariat calculations. The OPEC Reference Basket of Crudes (ORB) is made up of the following: Saharan Blend (Algeria), Djeno (Congo), Zafiro (Equatorial Guinea), Rabi Light (Gabon), Iran Heavy (Islamic Republic of Iran), Basrah Medium (Iraq), Kuwait Export (Kuwait), Es Sider (Libya), Bonny Light (Nigeria), Arab Light (Saudi Arabia), Murban (UAE) and Merey (Venezuela).

XV

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

MARKET NEWS

FTSE Russell Adds Wema Bank, Nine Others to Frontier Index Series Kayode Tokede Following the recent reclassification of Nigeria from “Unclassified” to “Frontier Market” status, FTSE Russell has listed Wema Bank Plc, nine others to its mid-capitalised Nigerian companies into its FTSE Frontier Index Series. Other companies in the mid-capitalised categories are: Access Holdings Plc ,

Dangote Sugar Refinery Plc, FCMB Group Plc, Fidelity Bank Plc, Guinness Nigeria Plc, Oando Plc, Okomu Oil Palm Plc, Unilever Nigeria Plc, and United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA). Nigeria is preparing to return to Frontier Market status on September 21, 2026 after a three-year absence from the global index provider’s classification. The 10 listed midcapitalised companies

P R I C E S MAIN BOARD

F O R DEALS

have seen a massive rally on the floor of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX), driven by impressive corporate earrings, among others. As gathered by THISDAY, Wema Bank, joined two others listed companies so far in eight months of 2026 with an average return above 40 per cent. The stock price of Unilever Nigeria led the chart with 58.3 per cent average return in eight

S E C U R I T I E S MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

months of 2026, followed by Access Holdings with an average return of 52.9 per cent as of eight months of 2026. In addition, Wema Bank gained 42.1 per cent when its stock price opened for trading this year at N20.40 per share and closed August 2026 at N29.00 per share. Impressive corporate earnings, N200 billion recapitalisation changing the growth story, digital

T R A D E D

VALUE TRADED ( N )

MAIN BOARD

A S

O F

banking & low-cost deposits, Improving asset quality were key contributions to Wema Bank’s soar in stock price. Wema Bank’ for unaudited half year (H1) ended June 30, 2026 declared profit before tax of N154.5 billion ,about 53.65 per cent increase from N100.6billion in half year ended Jun 30, 2025, while profit after tax closed at N131.3 billion in H1 2026, up by157 per

cent from N87.5 billion in H1 2025. The H1 2026 performance, however, reinforced the view that the one of Nigeria’s oldest financial institutions has moved into a new phase of earnings expansion. The H1 2026 profit after tax of N131.37 billion already represents about 67.5 per cent of 2025 earnings, indicating that the bank is on track to surpass its previous profit record.

S E P T E M B E R

7 / 2 6

DEALS

MARKET PRICE

QUANTITY TRADED

VALUE TRADED ( N)

XVI

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, T H I S D AY

MARKET NEWS A Mutual fund (Unit Trust) is an investment vehicle managed by a SEC (Securities and Exchange Commission) registered Fund Manager. Investors with similar objectives buy units of the Fund so that the Fund Manager can buy securities that willl generate their desired return. An ETF (Exchange Traded Fund) is a type of fund which owns the assets (shares of stock, bonds, oil futures, gold bars, foreign currency, etc.) and divides ownership of those assets into shares. Investors can buy these ‘shares’ on the

floor of the Nigerian Stock Exchange. A REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) is an investment vehicle that allows both small and large investors to part-own real estate ventures (eg. Offices, Houses, Hospitals) in proportion to their investments. The assets are divided into shares that are traded on the Nigerian Stock Exchange. GUIDE TO DATA: Date: All fund prices are quoted in Naira as at 3rd September 2026, unless otherwise stated.

Offer price: The price at which units of a trust or ETF are bought by investors. Bid Price: The price at which Investors redeem (sell) units of a trust or ETF. Yield/Total Return: Denotes the total return an investor would have earned on his investment. Money Market Funds report Yield while others report Year- to-date Total Return. NAV: Is value per share of the real estate assets held by a REIT on a specific date.

DAILY PRICE LIST FOR MUTUAL FUNDS, REITS and ETFS MUTUAL FUNDS / UNIT TRUSTS AFRINVEST ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD aaml@afrinvest.com Web: www.afrinvest.com; Tel: +234 818 885 6757 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Afrinvest Equity Fund 890.55 897.71 43.88% Nigeria International Debt Fund 421.98 421.98 16.51% Afrinvest Plutus Fund 100.00 100.00 15.90% Afrinvest Dollar Fund 120.27 120.27 9.23% Afrinvest Halal Fund(AHF) 119.42 119.42 14.88% Web: www.alphamorgan.com, Tel: +2347018898523 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ALPHA MORGAN BALANCED FUND 3,217.43 3,241.72 47.23% AIICO CAPITAL LTD ammf@aiicocapital.com Web: www.aiicocapital.com, Tel: +234-1-2792974 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn AIICO Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 17.12% AIICO Balanced Fund 9.56 9.74 21.94% AIICO Eurobond Fund 108.80 8.80% 108.80 Web:www.anchoriaam.com, Tel: 08166830267; 08036814510; 08028419180 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Anchoria Money Market 100.00 100.00 18.58% Anchoria Equity Fund 1.85 1.85 13.77% Anchoria Fixed Income Fund 586.09 594.58 43.22% ARM INVESTMENT MANAGERS LTD enquiries@arminvestmentcenter.com Web: www.arm.com.ng; Tel: 0700 CALLARM (0700 225 5276) info@anchoriaam.com Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn ARM Aggressive Growth Fund 1.00 1.00 17.76% ARM Discovery Balanced Fund 1.25 1.25 5.22% ARM Ethical Fund 1.44 1.44 12.01% ARM Eurobond Fund 1.29 1.29 13.25% ARM Fixed Income Fund 1.22 1.22 13.41% ARM Short Term Bond Fund 1.07 1.07 5.04% ARM Shariah Fixed Income Fund 1.06 1.06 4.60% ARM Short Term Eurobond Fund 72.16 74.33 36.24% ARM Specialized Dollar Fund 1,415.83 1,458.51 34.19% ARM Money Market Fund 146.39 150.80 40.58% AVA GLOBAL ASSET MANAGERS LIMITED info@avacapitalgroup.com Web: www.avacapitalgroup.com; Tel 08069294653 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 122.83 122.83 9.39% AVA GAM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 1,402.00 1,402.00 21.64% AVA GAM Fixed Income (Naira) Fund 1.00 1.00 16.89% AVA GAM Money Market Fund AXA MANSARD INVESTMENTS LIMITED investmentcare@axamansard.com Web: www.axamansard.com; Tel: +2341-4488482 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.00 0.00 0.00 AXA Mansard Equity Income Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 AXA Mansard Money Market Fund CAPITAL EXPRESS ASSET AND TRUST LIMITED info@capitalexpressassetandtrust.com Web: www.capitalexpressassetandtrust.com; Tel: +234 803 307 5048 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 2.99 2.99 13.65% CEAT Fixed Income Fund 8.99 9.22 74.40% Capital Express Balanced Fund(Formerly: Union Trustees Mixed Fund) CARDINALSTONE ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfunds@cardinalstone.com Web: www.cardinalstoneassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 (1) 710 0433 4 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 1.13 1.13 11.24% CardinalStone Fixed Income Alpha Fund 1.13 1.13 7.43% CardinalStone Dollar Fund 2.88 2.92 61.06% CardinalStone Equity Fund 1.76 1.77 45.32% CardinalStone Balanced Fund 1.00 1.00 19.05% CardinalStone Money Market Fund CHAPELHILL DENHAM MANAGEMENT LTD investmentmanagement@chapelhilldenham.com Web: www.chapelhilldenham.com, Tel: +234 461 0691 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Chapel Hill Denham Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 18.25% Nigeria Bond Fund 112.65 113.26 3.91% Nigeria Dollar Income Fund 1.06 1.12 -2.63% Paramount Equity Fund 73.28 73.55 53.82% CORDROS ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED assetmgtteam@cordros.com Web: www.cordros.com, Tel: 019036947 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Cordros Money Market Fund 100.00 100.00 16.41% 116.56 116.56 11.91% Cordros Fixed Income Fund 129.50 129.50 14.09% Cordros Halal Fixed Income Fund Cordros Dollar Fund ($) 118.22 118.22 6.22% Cordros Milestone Fund 303.66 305.88 35.61% CORONATION ASSETS MANAGEMENT investment@coronationam.com Web:www.coronationam.com, Tel: 012366215 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coronation Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 19.44% Coronation Balanced Fund 2.75 2.80 39.19% Coronation Fixed Income Fund 1.60 1.60 9.21% Coronation Premium Fixed Income Fund 1.08 1.08 10.35% Coronation Dollar Fund 1.03 1.03 5.06% CFG Asset Management Limited Portfoliomanagers@cfgafrica.com Web:https://cfgafrica.com/cfg-am/ , Tel: 02018870020 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn CFG Ethical Fund 1,269.77 1,269.77 20.63% CFG AM Naira Fixed Income Fund 1,099.96 1,099.96 15.00% CFG AM Fixed Income Dollar Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00% EDC FUNDS MANAGEMENT LIMITED mutualfundng@ecobank.com Web: www.ecobank.com Tel: 012265281 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn EDC Nigeria Money Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 EDC Nigeria Balanced Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 EDC Nigeria Halal Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 assetmanagement@emergingafricafroup. EMERGING AFRICA ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED com Web:www.emergingafricagroup.com/emerging-africa-asset-management-limited/, Tel: 08039492594 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Emerging Africa Money Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Emerging Africa Bond Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Emerging Africa Balanced Diversity Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Emerging Africa Eurobond Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Emerging Africa Halal Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FBNQUEST ASSETS MANAGEMENT LIMITED invest@fbnquest.com Web: www.fbnquest.com/asset-management; Tel: +234-81 0082 0082 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn First Asset Money Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Bond Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Dollar Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Halal Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Specialised Dollar Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Balanced Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Smart Beta Equity Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 First Asset Blended Dollar Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FCMB ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED FCMBAMhelpdesk@fcmb.com Web: www.fcmbassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 462 2596 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FCMBAM Money Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FCMBAM USD Bond Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FCMBAM Debt Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FCMBAM Equity Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FCMB-TLG Private Debt Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FSL ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Adeniran.Daniel@fsl.ng Web: https://www.fsl.ng/asset-management ; Tel: +2348062727759 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FSL Money Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 FSL Euro Bond 0.00 0.00 0.00 FIRST ALLY ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED blossom.omojughare@first-ally.com Web: https://first-allyasset.com/ ; Tel: +2348023217850 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn FAAM Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 18.46% FSDH ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD coralfunds@fsdhgroup.com Web: www.fsdhaml.com; Tel: 01-270 4884-5; 01-280 9740-1

Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Coral income fund 5,069.34 5,069.34 9.89% Coral money market fund 100.00 100.00 16.61% FSDH HALAL FUND 1,438.78 1,438.78 12.76% FSDH dollar fund 1.40 1.40 7.02% Coral Balanced Fund 14,466.36 14,578.28 43.82% HILLCREST CAPITAL MANAGEMENT dabbey@hillcrestcapmgt.com Web: https://hillcrestcapmgt.com/; Tel: +2348075144540, 0214540094 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Hillcrest Balanced Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 LOTUS CAPITAL LTD fincon@lotuscapitallimited.com Web: www.lotuscapitallimited.com; Tel: +234 1-291 4626 / +234 1-291 4624 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn LOTUS HALAL FIXED INCOME FUND 1,319.66 1,319.66 10.70% 3.82 LOTUS HALAL INVESTMENT FUND 3.89 37.90% 95.92 LOTUS HALAL EQUITY EXCHANGE TRADED FUND 106.01 63.58% LOTUS WAQF ENDOWMENT FUND 1,582.19 1,582.19 26.77% MERISTEM WEALTH MANAGEMENT LTD info@meristemwealth.com Web: www.meristemwealth.com/funds/; Tel: +2348028496012 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Meristem Equity Market Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Meristem Value ETF 0.00 0.00 0.00 Meristem Growth ETF 0.00 0.00 0.00 Meristem Fixed Income Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Meristem Dollar Income Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 Meristem Money Market Mutual Fund 0.00 0.00 0.00 MANGO ASSET MANAGEMENT jetadafe@mangoam.com Web:https://mangoam.com/; Tel: +234 7030839517 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Mango Naira Money Market Fund 1.00 1.00 16.62% NORRENBERGER INVESTMENT AND CAPITAL MANAGEMENT LIMITED enquiries@norrenberger.com Web: www.norrenberger.com, Tel: +234 (0) 908 781 2026 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Norrenberger Money Market Fund (NMMF) 100.00 100.00 18% Norrenberger Islamic Fund (NIF) 108.65 108.65 18% NORRENBERGER DOLLAR FUND (NDF)-----($) 107.09 107.09 14% NORRENBERGER TURBO FUND (NTF)-----(N) 107.97 107.97 13% PAC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD info@pacassetmanagement.com Web: www.pacassetmanagement.com/mutualfunds; Tel: +234 1 271 8632 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn PACAM Balanced Fund 10.00 10.00 13.79 PACAM Fixed Income Fund 13.25 13.27 65.65% PACAM Money Market Fund 4.37 4.40 23.00% PACAM Equity Fund 2.91 2.95 1.00% PACAM EuroBond Fund 159.12 165.23 0.00% SCM CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED info@scmcapitalng.com Web: www.scmcapitalng.com; Tel: +234 1-280 2226,+234 1- 280 2227 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn The Frontier Fund 303.22 313.09 81.70% SFS CAPITAL NIGERIA LTD investments@sfsnigeria.com Web: www.sfsnigeria.com, Tel: +234 (01) 2801400 Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn SFS Fixed Income Fund 1.09 1.09 16.04 SFS REIT 334.23 334.23 1.30 UH REIT/SFS 152.03 152.03 5.40 UPDC REIT 14.50 14.50 0.00 STANBIC IBTC ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD assetmanagement@stanbicibtc.com Web: www.stanbicibtcassetmanagement.com; Tel: +234 1 280 1266; 0700 MUTUALFUNDS Fund Name Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn Stanbic IBTC Money Market Fund Stanbic IBTC Guaranteed Investment Fund Stanbic IBTC Bond Fund Stanbic IBTC Dollar Fund (USD) Stanbic IBTC Shariah Fixed Income Fund Stanbic IBTC Enhanced Short-Term Fixed Income Fund Stanbic IBTC Balanced Fund Stanbic IBTC ETF 30 Fund Stanbic IBTC Ethical Fund Stanbic IBTC Imaan Fund Stanbic IBTC Nigerian Equity Fund SIAML Pension ETF 40 Stanbic IBTC Aggressive Fund Stanbic IBTC Conservative Fund

STL ASSET MANAGEMENT LIMITED Web: WWW.STLASSETMGT.COM; Tel: 8136115170 Fund Name STL MONEY MARKET FUND STL BALANCED FUND STL DOLLAR FUND

UNITED CAPITAL ASSET MANAGEMENT LTD Web: www.unitedcapitalplcgroup.com; Tel: +234 01-6317876 Fund Name United Capital Money Market Fund United Capital Sukuk Fund United Capital Fixed Income Fund United Capital Nigerian Eurobond Fund United Capital Global Fixed Income Fund United Capital Stable Income Fund United Capital Equity Fund United Capital Balanced Fund United Capital Wealth for Women Fund United Capital Children Investment Fund VETIVA FUND MANAGERS LTD Web: www.vetiva.com; Tel: +234 1 453 0697 Fund Name Vetiva Banking Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Consumer Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Griffin 30 Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva Money Market Fund Vetiva Industrial Goods Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva S&P Nigeria Sovereign Bond Exchange Traded Fund Vetiva USD Fixed Income Fund QUANTUM ZENITH ASSET MANAGEMENT & INVESTMENTS LTD Web: www.quantumzenith.com.ng; Tel: +234 1-2784219 Fund Name Zenith Balanced Strategy Fund Zenith Income Fund Zenith Income Fund Zenith Money Market Fund ZEDCREST INVESTMENT MANAGER LIMITED Web: www.zedcrestwealth.com; Tel: +2348075881240 Fund Name Zedcrest Money Market Fund Zedcrest Fixed Inocme Fund Zedcrest Dollar Fund Zedcrest Equity Fund

REITS Fund Name SFS REIT UPDC REIT EXCHANGE TRADED FUNDS Fund Name Chapel Hill Denham Nigeria Infrastructure Debt Fund

1.00 401.16 261.33 1.7155 159.89 179.94 13,553.89 500.99 6.82 1,469.64 60,738.71 730.29 17,222.19 11,095.23

1.00 401.16 261.33 1.7155 159.89 179.94 13,687.48 509.55 6.93 1,489.53 61,550.77 742.87 17,481.43 11,148.91

16.30% 6.33% 1.21% 2.77% 12.08% 12.31% 40.58% 61.20% 52.78% 3194.84% -27.55% 77.11% 35.78% 18.24%

jemenike@stlassetmgt.com Bid Price 0.00 0.00 0.00

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 unitedcapitalplcgroup.com

Bid Price 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00

Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 funds@vetiva.com

Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 89.90 90.10 46.52% 26.19 26.29 61.18% 40.97 41.07 4.79% 103.99 104.19 62.48% 146.04 148.04 1.09% 1.00 1.00 17.42% 1.19 1.19 3.04% service@quantumzenithasset.com.ng Bid Price Offer Price Yield / T-Rtn 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 0.00 investmentoperations@zedcrest.com Bid Price 1.00 1.51 1.58

Offer Price 1.00 1.51 1.58

Yield / T-Rtn 19.11% 14.99% 8.95%

1.94

1.96

90.51%

NAV Per Share

Yield / T-Rtn

14.20 0.00

0.00% 0.00%

Bid Price

Offer Price

Yield / T-Rtn

0.00

0.00

0.00

The value of investments and the income from them may fall as well as rise. Past performance is a guide and not an indication of future returns. Fund prices published in this edition are also available on each fund manager’s website and FMAN’s website at www.fman.com.ng. Fund prices are supplied by the operator of the relevant fund and are published for information purposes only.

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

17

BUSINESSWORLD R A T E S MONEY MARKET OPR OVERNIGHT

A S

A T

REPO 25.34% 25.18%

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Email oriarehu.eromosele@thisdaylive.com

08056356325

S E P T E M B E R

S & P INDEX

7 ,

S & P INDEX

CALL 1-MONTH

23.25% 21.37%

INDEX LEVEL 1-DAY

595.26 0.10%

3-MONTH

22.41%

MONTH-TO-DATE

0.24%

2 0 2 6 EXCHANGE RATE

1/4 TO DATE YEAR TO DATE

0.24% -10.99%

N1,364/ 1 US DOLLAR* *AS AT MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 7, 2026

NNPC Posts N25.13tn Revenue in Seven Months, Records N2.55tn Profit

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja The Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) generated a cumulative revenue of N25.133 trillion between January and July 2026, mainly driven by relative growth in crude oil output, sustained natural gas production, and expanding operational receipts, a THISDAY analysis has shown. Analysis of the state-owned oil company’s monthly operational and financial performance summaries also

indicated a total Profit After Tax (PAT) of N2.553 trillion in the seven-month period under consideration. The monthly breakdown showed that the NNPC kicked off the year in January with a single-month profit of the period, posting a PAT of N385 billion on the back of N2.571 trillion in revenue. However, in February, profit dropped to N136 billion despite top-line revenue growing to N2.680 trillion. March recorded a recovery in bottom-line figures as PAT rose to N276 billion with

revenue reaching N2.77 trillion, financial performance surged sharply in April, with revenue nearly doubling to N4.971 trillion while PAT expanded to N481 billion. Besides, May sustained the high revenue trajectory, pulling in N4.335 trillion in sales and N462 billion in PAT. The momentum continued into June, which yielded N4.389 trillion in total revenue and N535 billion in PAT, the second-highest monthly profit recorded within the seven-month stretch. July closed the

period under review with N3.087 trillion in revenue and a PAT of N279 billion. Nigeria’s oil production has grown slowly but steadily in recent times, mainly because the country is recovering barrels it had previously lost, on the back of improved security and reduced crude theft. For years, Nigeria’s production was crippled by pipeline vandalism, illegal connections and large-scale crude theft, particularly in the Niger Delta. Greater collaboration

between security agencies, operators and regulators, alongside surveillance technology, has also helped stabilise production and keep pipelines available for crude evacuation. Also, there has been an improvement in pipeline and evacuation reliability. Improved operational stability and more reliable evacuation infrastructure has therefore helped production rise for several consecutive months in 2026. In the same vein, asset optimisation by operators

has been improved, with producers getting more out of existing fields through better maintenance, quicker intervention on shut-in wells and better management of producing assets. Alongside its corporate profitability, NNPC’s contribution to government coffers grew steadily during the period under review. Total statutory payments made to the federation account accumulated to N7.913 trillion by the end of July. The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

Dangote Hires Three Rigs to Develop 1.6bn Barrels Oil Assets Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja West African Exploration and Production Company (WAEP), an upstream oil company majority owned by Nigerian businessman, Aliko Dangote, has contracted three jack-up rigs to commence a drilling campaign aimed at unlocking more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil in place across two Nigerian oil blocks. The company’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Cecilia Ajayi,

disclosed that drilling activities on Oil Mining Leases (OMLs) 71 and 72 would begin in December, with WAEP targeting increased production and the installation of gas monetisation infrastructure within the next 24 months. Ajayi spoke at the Africa Oil Week Energy Conference in Accra, Ghana, where she outlined the company’s plans for the assets acquired from the Shell joint venture, a report by Billionaires Africa website stated. “We will be drilling

to ramp up production and also bring out the value in the asset,” she said. The two assets hold more than 1.6 billion barrels of oil in place, based on discoveries made so far, as well as approximately 1.9 trillion cubic feet of gas. WAEP acquired a 45 per cent working interest in both OMLs in 2015, while the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC) holds the balance. The blocks are located in shallow waters,

FOOD NAME OF COMMODITY

SIZE

STATE

RICE

50KG

ABUJA

50KG

LAGOS

50KG

PLATEAU

50KG

OYO

50KG

RIVERS

50KG

SOKOTO

PRICE

₦53,000 – ₦60,000 ₦55,000 – ₦65,000

₦55,000– ₦68,000 ₦55,000– ₦65,000 ₦70,000– ₦82,000 ₦55,000– ₦70,000

approximately 22 kilometres from the Bonny terminal. Dangote holds an 85 per cent interest in WAEP through Dangote Exploration Assets Limited and Dansa Energy Resources Limited, while First Exploration and Petroleum Development Company Limited holds the remaining 15 per cent. Production from the assets resumed in December 2025 after a prolonged shutdown, beginning with approximately 4,500 barrels per day from the

COMMODITIES NAME OF COMMODITY

SORGHUM

SIZE

PRICE

STATE

100KG JIGAWA 100KG

BENUE

100KG

KADUNA

50KG

ENUGU

50KG

LAGOS

100KG

DELTA

100KG

ABIA

Kalaekule field on OML 72. Ajayi said the company was pursuing a phased redevelopment strategy focused initially on securing quick production gains and generating cash flow for reinvestment in the assets. “The first thing is to look at the low-hanging fruit, the short-term oil gains, generate cash flow from that, put it back into the assets and start redevelopment. And that’s exactly what is happening currently,” she stated.

She added that six Field Development Plan studies were currently underway to support a series of developments across the portfolio after the drilling programme. Ajayi also said WAEP expected to benefit from a ready domestic market for its crude, given the ownership of Dangote Petroleum Refinery and Petrochemicals by the same principal shareholder. The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

T O D AY

PRICE

₦65,000– ₦85,000 ₦70,000– ₦90,000 ₦65,000– ₦85,000 ₦40,000– ₦50,000 ₦42,000– ₦55,000 ₦75,000– ₦95,000 ₦75,000– ₦95,000

NAME OF COMMODITY

SIZE

STATE

PRICE

BEANS

50KG BAG

IBADAN, OYO

50KG

LAGOS

₦65,000– ₦80,000 ₦65,000– ₦80,000

50KG

ABUJA

50KG

ENUGU

₦60,000– ₦75,000 ₦65,000– ₦85,000

50KG

DELTA

₦70,000– ₦85,000

18

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 ˾ T H I S D AY

BUSINESSWORLD

NEWS FOOD

NAME OF COMMODITY

PALM OIL

SIZE

STATE

PRICE

₦42,000 – 25CL LAGOS ₦50,000

NAME OF COMMODITY

GROUNDNUT

COMMODITIES SIZE

STATE

PRICE

100KG KANO N75,000–₦95,000

25CL

PH

₦40,000 – ₦50,000

100KG BENUE ₦80,000–₦105,000

25CL

OYO

₦45,000 – ₦55,000

100KG LAGOS ₦100,000–₦125,000

25CL

IMO

₦40,000 – ₦50,000

100KG DELTA ₦105,000–₦130,000

25CL

EDO

₦40,000 – ₦50,000

100KG

25CL ABUJA

₦48,000 – ₦60,000

100KG ENUGU ₦90,000–₦115,000

ABIA

₦95,000–₦120,000

PRICE

T O D AY

NAME OF COMMODITY

SIZE

ONIONS

₦75,000– 100KG IBADAN ₦100,000 100KG KANO ₦55,000– ₦80,000 ₦80,000– 100KG BENUE ₦110,000 ₦80,000– 100KG PLATEAU ₦110,000 100KG DELTA ₦95,000– ₦125,000 ₦90,000– 100KG LAGOS ₦120,000 ₦90,000– 100KG ENUGU ₦120,000

STATE

PRICE

NAME OF COMMODITY

SIZE

LOCATION

PRICE

MAIZE

50KG

OYO

₦80,000– ₦105,000

50KG ENUGU

₦90,000 – ₦115,000

50KG

ABIA

₦90,000– ₦115,000

50KG LAGOS

₦95,000 – ₦115,000

50KG

KANO

₦70,000– ₦95,000

100KG BENUE

₦65,000– ₦90,000

Nigeria’s Cooking Gas Supply Hits 5.3 Kt/d in July, Prices Drop 30% Peter Uzoho Nigeria’s Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) market posted its strongest recovery in months in July 2026, with total daily supply rising to 5.332 kilotonnes per day from 5.164 KT/D in June, as domestic production climbed and retail prices fell by nearly 30 per cent in key cities. Data from the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Authority (NMDPRA) sector factsheet for July 2026, showed domestic sources delivered 4.373 KT/D, or 82.0 per cent of total supply, while imports accounted for 0.958 KT/D, or 18.0 per cent. The figure is the highest recorded in a long time

and pushed local supply well above the 3.9 KT/D consumption benchmark. The NLNG/SEPNU consortium retained the largest market share, contributing 2.031 KT/D, or 38.1 per cent of total volume via vessel deliveries. Dangote Refinery supplied 0.829 KT/D, representing 15.5 per cent, while other domestic processing plants accounted for 1.513 KT/D, or 28.4 per cent. Daily consumption stood at 4.4 KT/D against 5.332 KT/D supplied, compared to 4.1 KT/D consumed in June against 5.164 KT/D supplied. According to the fact sheet, demand has now stayed above benchmark for two consecutive months, with

July’s supply growth keeping pace and pointing to a market gradually normalising after the disruption of April and May 2026. The improved supply translated to immediate retail

relief. In Lagos, average pump price dropped to roughly N1,235/kg in July from about N1,776/kg in June, a decline of nearly 30 per cent. Ibadan fell from N1,775/kg to N1,540/ kg, Calabar from N1,550/kg

to N1,410/kg, Kano from N1,575/kg to N1,550/kg, and Enugu from N1,625/ kg to N1,550/kg. Sokoto was the lone exception, edging up slightly from N1,550/kg to N1,575/kg.

The correction followed weeks of intervention after prices surged to as high as N2,500/kg in parts of the country by mid-June, up from between N1,500 and N1,700/kg around May 25.

ledare: Nigeria Must Convert Oil Wealth into Lasting Economic Value Stories by Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja A foremost petroleum economist and Professor Emeritus of Petroleum Economics, Prof. Wumi Iledare, has said Nigeria must move beyond merely producing hydrocarbons and deliberately convert its petroleum resources and revenues into lasting productive wealth.

Iledare, who marked his 75th birthday on September 6, said his reflections on Nigeria’s petroleum industry were shaped by decades spent watching the country evolve from the optimism surrounding early oil discoveries into an economy heavily dependent on crude oil revenues. In a press commentary titled: “PEWI @75: Reflections on Nigeria’s

Petroleum Industry, Value Creation and the Unfinished Economic Journey,” Iledare said the fundamental question confronting Nigeria was what the country had truly gained after almost seven decades of commercial petroleum production. Iledare, a fellow of several organisations argued that while petroleum had generated

substantial foreign exchange, public revenues, infrastructure and professional capabilities, Nigeria had yet to fully convert its vast resource endowment into sustainable economic value. “Production is not prosperity; revenue is not development; and resource abundance is not wealth,” Iledare stated.

FG Moves to Raise Real Estate CIoD Launches Chartered Director Certification Programme to Raise Directorship Standards Sector’s Contribution to GDP Dike Onwuamaeze and Deborah Ndinorouba

The federal government has expressed its determination to reposition Nigeria’s real estate and built environment sector to significantly increase its contribution to the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Muttaqa Darma, disclosed this when he received members of the Real Estate Marketers and Consultants Association of Nigeria

Group Business Editor Eromosele Abiodun Deputy Business Editor Chinedu Eze Comms/e-Business Editor Emma Okonji Asst. Editor, Energy Emmanuel Addeh Asst. Editor, Money Market Nume Ekeghe Correspondents KayodeTokede(CapitalMarkets) James Emejo (Finance) Ebere Nwoji (Insurance) Reporter Peter Uzoho (Energy)

(REMCAN) on a visit to the ministry in Abuja. Darma said the real estate sector possessed enormous potential to become one of the biggest contributors to the Nigerian economy, noting that its current contribution remained below levels recorded in many other countries. “We must make sure that this industry provides a significant contribution to the national economy. In fact, it must be number one. If it can’t be number one, then it will be among the top three,” the minister said. He explained that the reforms being pursued by the ministry were also designed to protect Nigerians who invest their hard-earned money in housing, but sometimes fall victim to fraudulent transactions and poorly regulated operators. According to him, the government’s objective was to build a framework that protects all participants across the real estate value chain, including developers, marketers, consultants, investors and homebuyers. “We must protect everyone,” Darma stressed.

The Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (CIoD Nigeria) has launched its Chartered Director Certification (ChDC) programme that is designed to provide a structured pathway for developing, validating and recognising professional directorship in Nigeria. The CIoD Nigeria said that successful candidates

of the programme would be awarded the Chartered Director designation and entitled to use the professional suffix “Ch.Dir.” The ChDC followed the conferment of chartered status on the institute pursuant to the Chartered Institute of Directors Nigeria (Establishment) Act, 2023. Speaking last week during the launching of the CDCP, the President of CIoD Nigeria, Mr. Adetunji Oyebanji, said

that the programme represents an important step towards strengthening professional directorship and corporate governance in Nigeria. Oyebanji said: “Experience remains important, but experience alone is no longer sufficient. Directors require a structured pathway through which their knowledge can be developed, their competence validated and their professional standards continually strengthened.”

He explained that the programme adopted a flexible blended learning model, which is broken into three stages, namely the Certificate in Company Directorship; the Advanced Certificate in Company Directorship and the Chartered Directorship, which is “experience-based assessment and a professional interview to demonstrate the application of knowledge, experience and judgement to boardroom situations.”

$50m Elektron’s Plant to Improve Power in Lagos Peter Uzoho Elektron Energy is progressing its $50 million power project to improve commercial electricity supply in Lagos with the Victoria Island Power (VIPL) project, a 40 megawatts embedded plant

scheduled for completion in the first quarter of 2027. The company unveiled details of the project during a VIPL Customer Experience Day in Lagos, where business leaders got a first look at the infrastructure designed to deliver dedicated power to

Victoria Island. Speaking at the session, Executive Director, Business Development, Elektron Energy, Mr. Ayomide Oladapo, said the plant addresses years of power constraints in the area. “For years, businesses in Victoria Island have had to

operate within the constraints of unreliable power, either absorbing the cost and complexity of self-generation or navigating the uncertainty of the grid. Neither model provides the predictability businesses need to plan, invest and grow with confidence.”

250 Students Partake in Egbin Scholarship Scheme Peter Uzoho Egbin Power has commenced the 11th edition of its annual scholarship programme, reaffirming its commitment to advancing quality education and creating meaningful opportunities for young people in its host communities. The scholarship programme reflects Egbin Power’s

commitment to Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4), which calls for “inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities for all.” The Chief Executive Officer of Egbin Power, Mokhtar Bounour, reaffirmed the company’s commitment to investing in education as a catalyst for sustainable

community development. Bounour said: “As a responsible organisation, we remain committed to accelerating development around us. Education is one of the most powerful and sustainable ways to create that impact, and our scholarship programme is a deliberate investment in the future of our communities.

“At Egbin Power, we believe our responsibility goes beyond generating electricity. We also have a responsibility to help generate opportunities, nurture potential and enable dreams. Through this programme, we are investing in young people who will become the leaders, professionals and changemakers of tomorrow.”

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

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AGRICULTURE

How Tractor Operators Can Unlock Agricultural Productivity James Emejo writes that Nigeria’s push to modernise agriculture is increasingly moving beyond the question of how many tractors are available to a more fundamental one; who will operate, maintain and maximise them? The graduation of 250 newly trained tractor operators under a federal mechanisation programme offers an early glimpse of how investment in human capacity could translate into higher farm productivity, lower production costs and stronger food security

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or 24-year-old Idris Zainab Dansuleiman of Keffi, Nasarawa State, the completion of a 10-day intensive tractor-operator training programme has provided more than a certificate. A student with no previous tractor-driving experience, she can now confidently operate a tractor, understand its controls and carry out basic farm operations safely. “It has increased my confidence and given me a practical skill,” she said, adding that she hopes to gain more experience and build a career in agricultural mechanisation. Dansuleiman is one of about 250 Nigerians who have completed the first cohort of the National Agricultural Mechanisation Service Providers Training Programme organised by the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) in collaboration with Agcoms International Trading Limited, the Industrial Training Fund (ITF) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security. The 250-person cohort, drawn from different parts of the country, represents the first completed stage of a much larger programme targeting 4,000 tractor operators and mechanics. The training is linked to the Federal Government’s wider mechanisation programme, with this phase involving 2,000 John Deere 5E Series tractors and associated implements to be supplied by Agcoms. The significance of the exercise lies in a simple proposition: tractors alone cannot mechanise Nigerian agriculture. They must be operated safely and efficiently by people with the skills to get the best from the equipment and keep it working. That proposition is increasingly central to the agricultural policy of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s administration. The President has described agricultural mechanization as a key component of his administration’s response to

Nigeria’s food-security challenge and its ambition to modernise agriculture, increase productivity and move the country towards food sovereignty. The federal government’s strategy for transforming mechanization is a service-provider model which will give smallholder farmers access to modern machinery, reduce dependence on manual labour and increase yields. The 2026 Budget identifies mechanisation, alongside input financing, irrigation, climate-resilient agriculture, storage, processing and agro-value chains, as priorities for strengthening food security and agricultural productivity. More recently, the government unveiled a National Agricultural Mechanization Policy and National Agricultural Mechanization Investment Strategy, with the stated objective of moving Nigeria from a mechanisation deficit towards a more productive and

competitive agricultural system. Against this background, the training of operators represents an important but often overlooked part of the mechanisation equation. t 'SPN MPPLJOH BU USBDUPST UP PQFSBUJOH UIFN The transformation is particularly evident among trainees who arrived without meaningful experience. Abubakar Jamilu, 29, from Garki Local Government Area of Jigawa State, had no previous tractor-driving experience. Before the training, he said, he could visit a farm and see a tractor without understanding what was happening. He can now operate the tractor and use different implements. In his community, he noted, farmers often have to bring tractor operators from considerable distances because there are

few locally available operators. “Now I can operate and help them do anything in the farm,” he said. For Usman Baba Mohammed, 28, from Lavun in Niger State, the training has opened a similar door. A farm worker and extension agent, he said he previously could not operate a tractor but can now start, drive, turn and reverse one, attach implements and undertake land preparation safely. He sees the certification as a route to employment with farms, cooperatives and mechanisation service providers, while also providing an opportunity to support his family. The benefits are not limited to the individual operators. Many trainees linked their new skills directly to the problems confronting farmers in their communities: the high cost and shortage of labour, delays in farm operations and the physical burden of manual cultivation. Aliyu Murtala, 29, a farmer, agro-dealer and service provider from Giwa, Kaduna State, said his training in tractor operation, safety checks, routine maintenance and implement handling would enable him to offer ploughing, harrowing, planting and transportation services. For him, the ultimate ambition is to own a tractor and operate his own mechanisation service. t 5IF XPNFO BOE UIF XJEFS PQQPSUVOJUZ The programme has also opened a pathway into an area of agriculture often perceived as male-dominated. Hadiza Ashiru, 34, a farmer from Kura, Kano State, learnt, among other things, how to conduct pre-operation checks, start a tractor correctly and hitch implements. She said the training also taught her to identify some faults and understand fuel consumption and working hours more closely.

The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

'BTFSF %JHJUBM 5PPMT 8JMM "EESFTT "GSJDB T -POH UFSN $MJOJDBM $POEJUJPOT Founder and CEO of Medlitics, Michael Fasere, speaks about the need to build customised digital healthcare tools for Africa that will address long-term clinical conditions and enable clinicians to depend less on internet connectivity, while carrying out daily clinical routine, writes &NNB 0LPOKJ What specific gap or personal experience led to the founding of Medlitics, and why did you choose to focus specifically on chronic disease management in Africa, despite the digital infrastructure gap that exist? edlitics was born from firsthand experience with the fragmentation of healthcare delivery across Africa. We repeatedly saw patients with hypertension, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic illnesses move among hospitals, laboratories, pharmacies, and specialists without a unified medical history. Care was episodic rather than continuous, leading to delayed interventions, duplicate Fa s e r e tests, avoidable complications, and unnecessary healthcare costs. Chronic diseases like hypertension The challenge isn’t merely access to and diabetes are often described as healthcare—it’s continuity of care. Chronic silent killers. How does Medlitics diseases now account for an increasing share of use continuous data tracking to deaths across Africa, yet most health systems shift patients from reactive crisis remain designed to treat acute illnesses. Patients management to proactive daily care? often seek care only when complications arise Medlitics continuously aggregates because mechanisms for continuous monitoring, health information from multiple early intervention, and personalized support sources, including patient-reported are limited. outcomes, connected medical devices, We founded Medlitics to shift healthcare from laboratory results, medication reactive treatment to proactive prevention by adherence, lifestyle data, and virtual integrating Artificial Intelligence (AI), remote consultations. monitoring, digital health records, and connected Rather than waiting until patients care into a single platform that empowers patients become critically ill, our AI analyzes and equips clinicians with better tools to manage longitudinal trends to detect subtle long-term conditions. signs of deterioration.

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For example, instead of viewing a single elevated blood pressure reading in isolation, Meddy AI evaluates weeks or months of readings alongside medication adherence, glucose trends, symptoms, BMI, activity levels, and prior clinical history. The platform generates personalized risk scores, early warning alerts, and evidence-based recommendations, enabling both patients and clinicians to intervene earlier. Patients receive daily coaching, medication reminders, educational content, and personalised wellness recommendations, while clinicians receive actionable alerts instead of raw data streams. Our objective is simple: identify deterioration before hospitalisation is necessary. Building digital health tools in Africa comes with infrastructure challenges. How did you design Medlitics technically to work under low-resource conditions? Africa requires healthcare technology designed for African realities rather than imported assumptions. From day one, Medlitics was designed as an offline-first Progressive Web Application (PWA), enabling seamless offline functionality. The architecture enables clinicians and patients to continue working without requiring constant internet connectivity. Data entered offline is securely encrypted, stored locally, and automatically synchronised when connectivity is restored. The additional design principles that we

added to our PWA, include: Low-bandwidth optimisation; Mobile-first user experience; Device-independent deployment; Cloud-native microservices; Intelligent synchronisation; Secure local caching; API-first interoperability; and Modular deployment architecture. This allows Medlitics to operate across urban hospitals, rural clinics, community health programmes, and remote regions, even with inconsistent connectivity. How do you balance Artificial Intelligence (AI) insights with physician oversight to ensure safety and trust? At Medlitics, AI augments clinicians, never replacing them. Meddy AI serves as a clinical decision-support system rather than an autonomous diagnostic engine. Every recommendation is accompanied by: Supporting clinical evidence; Risk confidence scoring; Historical trend analysis; Clinical rationale; and Escalation recommendations. High-risk cases are automatically prioritised for review by clinicians. Final diagnoses, treatment decisions, prescriptions, and care plans always remain the responsibility of licensed healthcare professionals. We intentionally designed Meddy AI around a “human-in-the-loop” governance model because trust and accountability are essential to healthcare.

The story continues online on www.thisdaylive.com

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WHEN NGX MEETS ITS DESTINY The success of the Dangote Refinery IPO will deepen the NGX, broaden investor participation, and strengthen liquidity, argues SOLA ONI

See page 21

KADUNA AND POLITICS OF OPPOSITION The PDP position on the World Bank loan is specious, argues EMMANUEL MUSA

See page 21

EDITORIAL

THE EFCC ON BALANCE

See page 22

Tuesday September 8, 2026 Vol 27. No 11466

ABIODUN OLUWADARE contends that reform should not be judged solely by its discomfort

SUBSIDY, REFORM AND THE COURAGE TO CHANGE The 2027 presidential contest has barely begun, yet one important thing has already changed: the political conversation is gradually moving beyond the personalities and histories of the candidates towards the policies that will determine the daily lives of Nigerians. That is a welcome development. Elections should ultimately be contests over competing visions of how to govern the country, strengthen its economy and improve the welfare of its citizens. In this context, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar's recent position on petrol subsidy deserves attention. Atiku now says that, if elected president in 2027, he would restore a form of subsidy, DOWKRXJK KH KDV FODUL¿HG WKDW KH LV QRW proposing a return to the old importsubsidy regime but a targeted, capped and transparently budgeted production VXEVLG\ WLHG WR GRPHVWLF UH¿QLQJ There is nothing inherently wrong with proposing an alternative policy. Indeed, that is what democratic elections should permit. But the proposal raises an important question that Nigerians are entitled to ask: what changed between 2023 and 2026? During the 2023 presidential campaign, Atiku did not oppose subsidy removal. His position was explicit. He said he had chaired a committee on subsidy removal and would continue from where previous administrations had stopped, remove subsidies completely and redirect the resources into the economy. His policy document similarly proposed ending fuel subsidies ZLWKLQ KLV ¿UVW GD\V LQ R൶FH That was not an incidental position; it UHÀHFWHG DQ HFRQRPLF DUJXPHQW WKDW a system consuming enormous public resources while creating opportunities for fraud, smuggling and rent-seeking was unsustainable. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu subsequently acted on essentially the same diagnosis. The LPSRUWDQW GL൵HUHQFH LV WKDW 7LQXEX inherited the problem and accepted the political consequences of confronting it. On 29 May 2023, Tinubu announced the end of the subsidy regime, knowing that the decision would have immediate and painful consequences for households, commuters and businesses. The hardship that followed has been substantial and should not be minimised. Nigerians experienced higher transportation costs, rising food prices and declining purchasing power, and the government has a responsibility to acknowledge those realities. Yet acknowledging the hardship associated with reform is not the same as accepting

the argument that the reform itself was unnecessary. That distinction is at the heart of the present debate. For decades, Nigeria spent enormous public resources subsidising petrol FRQVXPSWLRQ ZKLOH VWUXJJOLQJ WR ¿QDQFH the infrastructure and productive capacity needed for sustainable development. The old arrangement was also vulnerable to smuggling, diversion and manipulation, while the EHQH¿WV ZHUH QRW QHFHVVDULO\ GLVWULEXWHG according to need. Ordinary Nigerians FHUWDLQO\ EHQH¿WHG IURP FKHDSHU SHWURO but a universal subsidy on a commodity disproportionately consumed by vehicle owners, commercial operators and businesses was a blunt instrument IRU ¿JKWLQJ SRYHUW\ $ JRYHUQPHQW does not automatically become propoor simply because it subsidises a commodity consumed by both the poor and the wealthy. The more fundamental question is how scarce public resources should be allocated. Should they remain locked into keeping one commodity DUWL¿FLDOO\ FKHDS RU VKRXOG D JUHDWHU proportion be redirected towards education, healthcare, social protection, infrastructure, employment and productive investment? That was the GL൶FXOW FKRLFH FRQIURQWLQJ 1LJHULD and Tinubu chose to confront it rather than postpone it once again. 7KLV LV ZKHUH WKH SROLWLFDO VLJQL¿FDQFH of the subsidy reform becomes clearer. The removal of the subsidy was not merely a decision about petrol pricing; LW ZDV DQ DWWHPSW WR DOWHU WKH ¿VFDO structure within which the Nigerian state operates. The reform released resources that could potentially be deployed across the federation, including through increased allocations to state and local governments. This is particularly important in a federal system where many of the services that GLUHFWO\ D൵HFW FLWL]HQV DUH GHOLYHUHG DW the subnational level. The question, therefore, should not be restricted to

how much the Federal Government saved or how much Nigerians paid for petrol. It should also include what state and local governments have done with the additional resources that became available to them. If citizens do not see corresponding improvements in roads, schools, healthcare, salaries, social services and local development, accountability must extend beyond $EXMD 7KH UHIRUP FUHDWHG ¿VFDO VSDFH the next responsibility is to ensure that the space is converted into public value. The Tinubu administration should, of course, be required to demonstrate FOHDUO\ KRZ WKDW ¿VFDO VSDFH LV EHLQJ used. Government must provide facts, ¿JXUHV DQG YLVLEOH UHVXOWV UDWKHU WKDQ relying on rhetoric. But the claim that the administration simply removed the subsidy and left Nigerians to VX൵HU LV LQFRPSOHWH 7KH UHIRUP changed the revenue position of the federation, expanded subnational ¿VFDO UHVRXUFHV DQG FUHDWHG JUHDWHU room for interventions in education, infrastructure, social protection and human-capital development. Whether WKRVH LQWHUYHQWLRQV DUH VX൶FLHQW LV D legitimate question, and there is room for criticism over the speed, targeting and communication of implementation. But one can defend the direction of reform while demanding better execution. One can acknowledge the SDLQ FDXVHG E\ LQÀDWLRQ DQG WKH ULVLQJ cost of living without concluding that Nigeria should return to the economic architecture that contributed to the ¿VFDO SUHVVXUHV WKH UHIRUP VRXJKW WR address. This is particularly important because the Tinubu reform programme extends considerably beyond petrol subsidy. The administration has pursued changes in taxation, foreign H[FKDQJH SXEOLF ¿QDQFH HGXFDWLRQ social protection, infrastructure and investment. The Nigerian Education Loan Fund, for example, represents DQ H൵RUW WR H[SDQG DFFHVV WR KLJKHU education by shifting attention from an exclusive reliance on direct public IXQGLQJ WRZDUGV D VWUXFWXUHG ¿QDQFLQJ mechanism for eligible students. Such a programme cannot put food on a household's table today, but it addresses another dimension of national vulnerability: the inability of young Nigerians to acquire the education and skills required to participate productively in the economy. Oluwadare is a professor of Political Science in Nigerian Defence Academy, Kaduna

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The success of the Dangote Refinery IPO will deepen the NGX, broaden investor participation, and strengthen liquidity, argues SOLA ONI

WHEN NGX MEETS ITS DESTINY

Many stories are already in the public domain about the much-anticipated Initial Public Offering (IPO) of Dangote Refinery following the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) approval of an offer price of ଂ525 per ordinary share. The offer, comprising 4.1 billion ordinary shares, could raise about ଂ2.15 trillion if fully subscribed, making it potentially the largest equity offering in the history of the Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX). But the bigger story may not be the money raised. It is what the IPO could change about Nigeria’s capital market. For years, the Nigerian equity market has grappled with the challenge of attracting more companies of significant scale, deepening liquidity, broadening participation and convincing domestic and international investors that it can effectively support long-term capital formation. The Dangote Refinery IPO presents an opportunity to confront several of these challenges at once. The listing of a globally significant energy and petrochemical company could reshape the composition and profile of the NGX, introducing a major industrial asset into a market traditionally dominated by banking, telecommunications and consumer stocks. It would provide investors with another major large-cap investment option while strengthening sectoral diversification. But size alone does not make a market deep. The real test will be whether the Dangote Refinery IPO generates sustained activity in the secondary market. An offer that attracts huge subscriptions but subsequently trades with limited liquidity would fall short of its transformative potential. The challenge, therefore, is to convert the excitement of the primary offer into sustained participation, trading and price discovery. This puts institutional investors under the spotlight. Pension funds, asset managers, insurance companies and other institutional investors will have to determine where the refinery belongs within their portfolios. A successful transaction could encourage greater deployment of Nigeria’s long-term domestic savings into equities and demonstrate that the market can provide investible assets of sufficient scale to meet the needs of large institutional portfolios. The IPO could also redefine the relationship between retail investors and the capital market. For millions of Nigerians, the opportunity to own a stake in one of the country’s most strategically

important industrial assets could make equity investment more tangible and meaningful. If participation is broad-based, the transaction could help rekindle an investment culture in which Nigerians see the stock market not merely as an institutional preserve, but as a vehicle for wealth creation and participation in national economic growth. There is, equally, a significant confidence dividend at stake. A successful IPO of this magnitude would demonstrate that Nigeria can mobilise substantial capital through its domestic market for productive enterprise. It could strengthen the NGX’s reputation as a credible platform for large-scale capital raising and encourage other sizeable private companies to consider public listing as a pathway to growth, expansion and value creation. For market operators, this is more than another transaction. It is a defining opportunity to demonstrate the depth and sophistication of Nigeria’s capital market infrastructure from issuing houses and brokers to the Central Securities Clearing System (CSCS) registrars, custodians, fund managers and the Exchange itself. The execution of the offer, investor onboarding, allocation, settlement and subsequent trading must match the expectations of a transaction of international significance. The IPO could also strengthen Nigeria’s proposition to international investors. A successful outcome would send a powerful signal that the country possesses a capital market capable of accommodating companies with continental and global ambitions. More importantly, it could encourage other Nigerian corporates of significant scale to see the capital market not simply as a source of funding, but as a credible platform for expansion, ownership and longterm value creation. Yet the strategic importance of the IPO should not be confused with the investment decision itself. At ଂ525 per share, discerning investors must still interrogate the refinery’s earnings capacity, cash-flow generation, crude supply arrangements, operating costs, expansion plans, debt obligations, dividend prospects and valuation. The size and prestige of the project do not eliminate investment risk. If anything, they make rigorous analysis and proper price discovery even more important. Oni, an Integrated Communications Strategist, Chartered Stockbroker, Commodities Broker and Capital Market Registrar, is the Chief Executive Officer, Sofunix Investment and Communications

The PDP position on the World Bank loan is specious, argues EMMANUEL MUSA

KADUNA AND POLITICS OF OPPOSITION The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Kaduna chapter has once again intruded into issues concerning other political parties within, apparently convinced that Kaduna voters are waiting eagerly for its intervention over the comments on the KXJH GHEW EHTXHDWKHG E\ WKH DGPLQLVWUDtion of former Governor Nasir El-Rufai. The PDP should be reminded that it has not been appointed the referee of alleged political disagreement. It was not invited to adjudicate the political contest between Uba Sani and El-Rufai. And, most importantly, Kaduna voters did not hand it the mandate to govern. its restructuring strategy? Where is its This latest intervention therefore looks assessment of the World Bank facility? less like opposition politics and more Where is its project-by-project analysis like a meddlesome interloper desperate- of how the money was spent? Where ly knocking on the door of political rele- is its alternative budgetary framework? vance after being repeatedly rejected by Where is the grand economic vision that the electorate. Kaduna voters are supposedly missing? The party’s argument is that Governor There is none. There is only another Uba Sani should accept responsibility press statement. for the $350 million World Bank loan And that is precisely why the PDP’s approved in 2020 because, as a senator intervention deserves to be treated with and Chairman of the Senate Committee the contempt it has earned. on Banking at the time, he supported the If the party genuinely believes the govfacility and reportedly vouched for its ernor is wrong, it should prosecute its prudent utilisation. case with facts. If it believes the loan was That argument is intellectually lazy EHQH¿FLDO LW VKRXOG LGHQWLI\ WKH SURMHFWV and politically convenient. If the PDP is LW ¿QDQFHG DQG GHPRQVWUDWH WKHLU LPSDFW alleging that Sani is personally liable for If it believes the state is mishandling its the loan simply because he supported its debt, it should present a better repaylegislative approval, then it should pro- ment strategy. duce the legal instrument establishing Instead, it has reduced a complex pubsuch liability. Where is the agreement OLF ¿QDQFH TXHVWLRQ WR D FKLOGLVK SROLWmaking the senator personally responsi- ical slogan: “You supported the loan, ble for repayment? Where is the evidence therefore you cannot complain about the that his legislative role transformed him debt.” That is not governance analysis. from an approving lawmaker into the That is not even serious opposition. It is debtor of Kaduna State? SROLWLFDO RSSRUWXQLVP PDVTXHUDGLQJ DV The PDP cannot substitute political public interest. LQVLQXDWLRQ IRU ¿QDQFLDO IDFW ,I LW KDV What the PDP is attempting is someevidence, let it publish it. If it does not, thing far less noble: to convert anoththen its entire argument collapses into er party’s internal disagreement into a the familiar Nigerian opposition tactic of cheap publicity opportunity. Kaduna VKRXWLQJ ³DFFRXQWDELOLW\´ ZKLOH R൵HULQJ people should see through it. absolutely nothing of substance. The party’s problem is not a shortage But the PDP’s greatest problem is not of press releases. Its problem is a shorteven the weakness of its argument. It is age of credibility. the sheer audacity of behaving as though It has not demonstrated that it has deit is an innocent observer of Kaduna’s veloped a better political philosophy, a political and economic history. better economic programme or a better This is a party that governed Kadu- governance model. It has not convinced na before Nigerians and Kaduna voters Kaduna voters that it has learnt the lesmoved on. The electorate rejected its po- sons of its electoral failures. OLWLFDO R൵HULQJ DQG KDQGHG SRZHU WR DQInstead, it continues to behave like a other platform. Yet, having failed to win political organisation trapped in oppoWKH FRQ¿GHQFH RI WKH SHRSOH WKH 3'3 sition without understanding what opnow wants to regain visibility by insert- position is supposed to mean. A serious ing itself into every matter involving the opposition does not merely wait for the ruling party. That is not relevant. government to make a statement before The PDP sees an argument and rushes producing a rebuttal. towards it. It sees controversy and grabs The party should also be careful about a microphone. It comes alive anytime the presenting itself as the champion of acJRYHUQPHQW PDNHV IDU UHDFKLQJ YHUL¿- countability while selectively assigning able comments and suddenly discovers responsibility. If it wants to interrogate a sense of urgency. But when it comes to the debt legacy of Kaduna, then it should presenting an alternative coherent eco- interrogate the entire history, not chernomic programme for Kaduna, the party ry-pick whatever portion helps its politibecomes remarkably silent. cal narrative. Where is its debt-reduction plan? Where is its proposal for increasing inMusa ternally generated revenue? Where is writes from Kaduna State

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EDITORIAL

Editor, Editorial Page PETER ISHAKA Email peter.ishaka@thisdaylive.com

THE EFCC ON BALANCE

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The anti-graft agency is making a difference

cultural and political problem bigger than EFCC: the ike other major public agencies, the Ecoinstitutionalisation of corruption, especially in the punomic and Financial Crimes Commisblic sector. For instance, many of the convicted polision (EFCC) has given an interim report ticians have in recent years been pardoned, contested of its achievements in the last three and and won elections despite having abused public trust half years under the current administraLQ SUHYLRXV R൶FHV :KLOH ZH FDQQRW EODPH WKH FRPtion. While the revelations are of grave mission for those political decisions, they nonetheless national interest because of the overwhelming scale of LPSDFW RQ LWV ZRUN DQG H൵HFWLYHQHVV corruption in the Nigerian public space, they also came Even more worrisome is the tardiness and rot in the as no surprise. Almost on a daily basis, disclosures of judiciary which often hamstrings the best intentions cases of corruption seem to compete with rampant of the EFCC. Indeed, the judiciary has to a large exinsecurity for front page headline prominence. OfWHQW EHHQ D VWXPEOLQJ EORFN WR WKH H൵RUWV LQ ¿JKWLQJ tentimes, the sheer volume of resources – cash, real JUDIW 6HYHUDO FDVHV DJDLQVW SURPLQHQW SROLWLFDO ¿JXUHV estate, automobiles and precious metals – found with have been in various courts for years without the trials those accused and being investigated is mind bogHYHQ WDNLQJ R൵ 7KH FRXQWU\¶V IHHEOH DQG RYHUVWUDLQHG gling. Unfortunately, a good number of these investiMXGLFLDU\ R൵HUV LQ¿QLWH RSHQLQJV IRU H[SHULHQFHG GHgations and the attendant fence lawyers to secure necourt proceedings either ver-ending and sometimes dirun cold or simply lead There is need to review the instruments establishing the zzy delays as well as dubious nowhere. injunctions against criminal That perhaps explains agency to strengthen it in the area of asset recovery as well prosecutions. These are some why the public percepof the challenges for which tion of the EFCC is that as in its criminal investigation and prosecutorial functions we cannot blame the EFCC. it thrives on either media There was once a debate as show conviction of susto whether or not the federal government should espects or sheer incompetence disguised in excessive T H I S D AY WDEOLVK VSHFLDOLVHG DQWL FRUUXSWLRQ FRXUWV IRU H൶FLHQshowmanship. But the just released interim report EDITOR SHAKA MOMODU cy, speed, integrity and expertise. But there were also SDLQWV D VRPHZKDW GL൵HUHQW SLFWXUH RI WKH DJHQF\ $FDEPUTY EDITOR WALE OLALEYE questions about the relationship of such courts to the MANAGING DIRECTOR ENIOLA BELLO cording to the EFCC Chairman, Ola Olukayode, some DEPUTY MANAGING DIRECTOR ISRAEL IWEGBU regular judicial courts, the procedures for appointing 10,872 convictions were secured under his stewardship CHAIRMAN EDITORIAL BOARD OLUSEGUN ADENIYI and removing such judges, and the substantive scope while a whopping N1.233 trillion, $684 million, £373 EDITOR NATION’S CAPITAL IYOBOSA UWUGIAREN of jurisdiction, among others. Even though the idea million and €9.34 were recovered. A total of 1,177 real THE OMBUDSMAN KAYODE KOMOLAFE has not gone beyond rhetoric, the mere suggestion of estate assets and a slew of other tangible assets were it is an indication that the EFCC has often been saboalso recovered. taged by corrupt tendencies in the judiciary itself. Clearly, this scope of cash and asset recoveries is imT H I S D AY N E W S PA P E R S L I M I T E D In a nation where the political system continues to pressive by any standard. But it also reveals something EDITOR-IN-CHIEF/CHAIRMAN NDUKA OBAIGBENA recompense rather than reprimand corruption and the deeper. First, it indicates that the EFCC may have been GROUP EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS ENIOLA BELLO, KAYODE KOMOLAFE, boundary between right and wrong is becoming inmore successful in asset recovery mechanism than in ISRAEL IWEGBU FUHDVLQJO\ GL൶FXOW WR GHWHUPLQH ZH PXVW DFNQRZOHDIVISIONAL DIRECTORS SHAKA MOMODU, PETER IWEGBU, crime punishment. Even those from whom these troves ANTHONY OGEDENGBE GJH WKH FRPPHQGDEOH H൵RUWV RI WKH ()&& XQGHU 2OXof cash and assets have been recovered are still freely DEPUTY DIVISIONAL DIRECTOR OJOGUN VICTOR DANBOYI kayode. What is perhaps required is an urgent need operating in our society and many of them remain naSNR. ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR ERIC OJEH to review the instruments establishing the agency to ASSOCIATE DIRECTOR PATRICK EIMIUHI meless. To that extent, while the EFCC may have sucCONTROLLERS ABIMBOLA TAIWO, UCHENNA DIBIAGWU, NDUKA MOSERI strengthen it in the area of asset recovery as well as in FHHGHG DV D PHFKDQLFDO SXEOLF DVVHW UHFRYHU\ RXW¿W LWV DIRECTOR, PRINTING PRODUCTION CHUKS ONWUDINJO its criminal investigation and prosecutorial functions. H൶FDF\ DV D ODZ HQIRUFHPHQW DQG D FULPH GHWHUUHQFH TO SEND EMAIL: first name.surname@thisdaylive.com agency remains doubtful. However, there is a larger

Letters to the Editor Letters in response to specific publications in THISDAY should be brief (150-300 words) and straight to the point. Interested readers may send such letters along with their contact details to opinion@thisdaylive.com. We also welcome comments and opinions on topical local, national and international issues provided they are well-written and should also not be longer than (750- 1000 words). They should be sent to opinion@thisdaylive.com along with photograph, email address and phone numbers of the writer.

I

A REVEALING BRUSH STROKE

s it the robots or an AI toothbrush that is going to destroy civilisation? A $AU799 toothbrush might be the knife that stabs us. It's not about the capacity of the AI toothbrush but the simple fact that it exists. It shows that some people have too much money and science is their willing servant. This is just another AI device, but it is one that normally travels with you everywhere you go and the question is, can it be hacked? Can conversations or video be sent to other 'spys' and if not, the likely current reality, when will someone develop it? If it has a GPS capability then people can be tracked or criminals will know when they are away. Cyborg Arnie did have good teeth. Dennis Fitzgerald, 28 Landale St, Box Hill, Vic, Australia

LETTERS BARRIERS TO AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT The disconnect between policymakers and grassroots farmers is a long-standing barrier to agricultural development. Policy decisions are frequently crafted in urban administrative centers without real-time, ground-level data or direct consultation with the rural producers who drive the sector. Core drivers of policy neglect agriculture. Strategies are often designed in ministry headquarters without incorporating participatory appraisals from field extension agents or local farmer groups, leading to interventions that mismatch local ecological and social realities. Agricultural statistics and rural intelligence often arrive late, incomplete, or distorted. Without real-time diagnostic tools, interventions address past crises rather than current realities. Besides, persistent underinvestment in feeder roads, localized cold-storage systems, processing facilities, and digital connectivity keep smallholders isolated from input markets and key value chains. Subsidies, farm inputs, and

credit facilities frequently stall in administrative bottlenecks or target large-scale capital ventures, marginalizing rural smallholders and youth. In addition, frequent shifts in administration disrupt long-term agricultural programs, preventing sustainable capacity building, research adoption, and soil/water conservation strategies. Without timely access to adapted technologies, quality inputs, and local processing infrastructure, yields remain far below potential, and post-harvest losses eat into household incomes. Stagnant rural earnings make agriculture appears unviable to younger generations, driving rural-to-urban drift and weakening community resilience. Policy neglect also leaves rural communities poorly equipped to adapt to erratic rainfall, land degradation, and resource competition, threatening national food security. Michael Adedotun Oke, Gwagwalada, Abuja

T H I S D AY ˾ TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

23 Acting Group Politics Editor DEJI ELUMOYE

POLITICS

Email: deji.elumoye@thisdaylive.com 08033025611 SMS ONLY

Moving Fuel-Subsidy Debate Beyond Idealogical Slogans

Iyobosa Uwugiaren argues that, amid the renewed debate over fuel subsidy recently ignited by candidate of the African Democratic Congress in the January, 2027 presidential poll, Atiku Abubakar, Nigeria should be asking: What kind of subsidy provides the greatest protection to the poor at the lowest possible cost to taxpayers? In other words, Nigeria’s fuel-subsidy debate should move beyond ideological slogans.

Tinubu

T

he renewed debate over fuel subsidy has exposed one of the country’s most difficult economic policy questions: should the government allow petrol prices to be determined almost completely by market forces, or should it intervene to protect citizens from the full effects of international oil prices, exchange-rate volatility and domestic production costs? Former Vice-President andAfrican Democratic Congress (ADC) presidential candidate, Atiku Abubakar has answered that question in favour of intervention. He has recently reaffirmed that, if elected in 2027, he would restore a form of fuel subsidy, arguing that Nigeria is sufficiently endowed with oil resources to protect its citizens from excessive energy costs. His proposal has, justifiably, generated controversy. Critics, especially government supporters, have argued that subsidy is fiscally expensive, encourages corruption, disproportionately benefits richer Nigerians who consume more petrol, and diverts public resources from infrastructure, healthcare and education. These criticisms cannot simply be dismissed. To be sure, the previous subsidy regime was deeply compromised by allegations of fraud, opaque accounting and weak controls. But there is another side to the argument. Many economists have argued that the failure of the previous subsidy regime does not necessarily prove that the idea of subsidising energy is inherently wrong. It may instead demonstrate that Nigeria designed and administered the subsidy poorly. The dominant question, therefore, should not be whether Nigeria should subsidise energy under any circumstances. The more important question is: Can Nigeria design a subsidy that protects poor and vulnerable citizens while preventing politicians, importers, middlemen and officials from capturing the benefits? The answer can be yes. In fact, there is broad international evidence that energy subsidies are not an economic aberration. One of the weakest arguments against fuel subsidy is the suggestion that serious economies simply allow energy prices to float freely. International experience demonstrates otherwise.

Atiku

The World Bank’s Global Fuel Subsidies and Price Control Measures Database indicates that fuel subsidies, price controls and fuel-tax reductions remain widespread across the world. In its assessment of 154 economies, the World Bank identified many countries using some form of official fuel subsidy, recurring price freezes or fuel-tax reductions between 2021 and 2024. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) likewise estimated that explicit fossil-fuel subsidies globally amounted to about $725 billion in 2024. These figures are important because they challenge the simplistic idea that subsidies are practised only by poorly governed developing countries. Major economies and oil-producing states have used energy subsidies or price interventions for decades. Saudi Arabia, for example, has historically maintained fuel prices below international market levels. Although the country has been gradually reducing subsidies under Vision 2030, the IMF reported that government compensation for energy prices was still equivalent to about 3.5 percent of GDP in 2024. Iran provides an even more dramatic

example. IMF data for 2024 indicated enormous explicit and implicit fossil-fuel subsidies, reflecting the country’s policy of keeping domestic energy prices far below international levels. The lesson is not that Nigeria should duplicate every aspect of Saudi or Iranian energy policy. Rather, the lesson is that government intervention in energy pricing is a legitimate policy instrument used in many countries when governments believe that affordable energy serves broader economic and social objectives. India provides perhaps the most useful lesson. With a population of about 1.47 billion people, India offers a particularly relevant example because it demonstrates how energy subsidies can be targeted towards poorer households rather than distributed indiscriminately. Through the Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, an Indian government scheme launched in 2016 to help poor households, especially women, the government provides subsidised LPG to eligible households. For the 2025–26 financial year, the Indian government approved a targeted subsidy of 300 rupees per 14.2-kilogram LPG cylinder for up to nine refills annually, with an expenditure ceiling of 120 billion rupees—about $1.27 billion. The programme had more than 103 million beneficiaries at the time of the announcement. The implication for Nigeria is enormous. India has effectively recognised that energy

The objective should be to ensure that Nigeria’s petroleum wealth produces a tangible welfare dividend. The ultimate test should be simple: Does the policy reduce the cost of living for poor Nigerians without becoming another channel for public money to disappear? If the answer is yes, then fuel subsidy should not be dismissed merely because previous governments abused it.

affordability is not merely a market question; it is also a social-policy question. Poor families need energy to cook, travel, trade, farm, manufacture and earn a living. When energy prices rise sharply, the consequences spread throughout the entire economy. Nigeria’s experience since subsidy removal validates precisely this transmission mechanism. Higher petrol prices increase transportation costs. Higher transport costs increase the cost of moving food from farms to markets. Businesses then increase prices to compensate for higher logistics expenses. Workers demand higher wages. Consumers lose purchasing power. Consequently, a person who does not own a car can still be severely affected by petrol prices. Petrol subsidy can therefore function as an anti-inflation instrument. This is perhaps the strongest argument for reconsidering subsidy in Nigeria. Petrol is not an isolated commodity. It is an input into virtually every part of the Nigerian economy. A farmer needs fuel to operate machinery or transport produce. Atrader needs transportation. A manufacturer needs energy and logistics. A school bus needs petrol. A taxi driver needs petrol. A generator-dependent small business needs fuel. When the price of fuel rises dramatically, the shock is transmitted throughout the economy. Nigeria is particularly vulnerable because transportation infrastructure remains inadequate and millions of businesses depend directly or indirectly on petroleum products. The World Bank’s latest Nigeria Development Update acknowledges that food inflation and poverty remain high and calls for stronger social protection and improved public-spending efficiency. Recent reporting has also highlighted the enormous cost-of-living pressures facing ordinary Nigerians following the removal of fuel subsidies, even as the government and investors point to improvements in public finances and macroeconomic stability. This creates an important policy dilemma. NOTE: Interested readers should continue in the online edition on www.thisdaylive.com

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 • THISDAY

NEWS

30TH ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION AND AWARDS...

L-R: Global Chief Executive Officer, Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), Erik Prusch; Managing Director/CEO, First City Monument Bank (FCMB), Yemisi Edun; and President of ISACA, Lagos Chapter/Chairman, ISACA Nigeria Chapters, Justus Osuji, during the 30th anniversary celebration and awards of the Lagos chapter, where FCMB received an excellence award, held in Lagos...recently

Atiku Queries Massive Borrowing Under Tinubu Despite Rising Oil Prices ADC: FG’s social intervention big racket, hard to find beneficiaries Chuks Okocha in Abuja Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, yesterday described the federal government’s ‘unprecedented’ appetite for domestic borrowing as evidence of dangerous fiscal indiscipline that is starving Nigerian businesses of credit, killing jobs and worsening the cost-of-living crisis. In a statement issued by his Senior Special Assistant on Public Communication, Phrank Shaibu, Atiku said it was particularly alarming that the Bola Tinubu administration continues to borrow at such a frightening pace at a time when crude oil prices have risen substantially above the assumptions upon which the 2026 budget was built. “At the beginning of this fiscal year, the federal government budgeted on an oil benchmark of $64.85 per barrel. Today, crude oil prices have risen substantially above that benchmark. “Yet, instead of this windfall translating into lower borrowing, stronger businesses and relief for Nigerians, the federal government went into the domestic market and borrowed a staggering N24.7 trillion between January and August 2026 — 90.5 per cent more than the N12.98 trillion borrowed in the corresponding

period of 2025. ‘’This is a government borrowing like drunken sailors in the middle of a revenue windfall. Tinubu removed fuel subsidy and told Nigerians the sacrifice would free up money. He floated the naira and government revenues consequently received a massive nominal boost. Oil prices have risen sharply. Revenues have improved. Yet the borrowing has not gone down — it has exploded,” the former vice president stressed. According to him, Nigerians must begin to ask what the money saved from fuel subsidy has been spent on. “What makes this recklessness even more damaging is that the government is now competing directly with Nigerian businesses for money. Credit to the government grew by 43 per cent, while credit to the private sector grew by only 9.6 per cent. Government credit is expanding about 4.5 times faster than credit to businesses. “This is yet another troubling signal that the Tinubu economic reforms have failed to produce any meaningful impact on the private sector,’’ Atiku added. Atiku said that ordinarily, the outlook and performance of the private sector should serve as one

of the clearest yardsticks for measuring the effectiveness of government economic policy. He said: ‘’If businesses are expanding, investing, hiring and gaining easier access to capital, then reform can claim some measure of success. “But under Tinubu’s economic policy, the exact opposite is happening. The public sector is exerting an increasingly parasitic effect on the private sector — consuming the

The Sokoto State Government has awarded contracts for the construction and rehabilitation of 1,365 kilometres of rural roads across the 23 Local Government Areas, with an additional 530 kilometres already identified for execution under Governor Ahmed Aliyu’s administration. The Special Adviser to the Governor on Rural Roads, Hon. Malami Muhammad Galadanchi Bajare, disclosed this in Sokoto while briefing journalists on the achievements of the current administration in the rural roads sector from 2023 to date.

Galadanchi explained the 1,365 kilometres are at various stages of execution. According to him, some of the roads have been completed and commissioned, some are completed and awaiting commissioning, while others are still ongoing. He said the projects are being delivered under three categories: asphalt roads, surface-dressed roads and feeder roads, to ensure that different rural communities get road infrastructure suited to their needs and traffic volume. Citing specific interventions, the Special Adviser mentioned the 9.5-kilometre Gada-Illah-GariDutse-Tabanni road, as well as

“The result is obvious: businesses pay more for credit, expansion is postponed, factories struggle, jobs disappear and the cost of producing everything from food to household goods rises. This government is not merely borrowing money; it is borrowing away the future of Nigerian businesses.” He stated that Nigeria cannot achieve prosperity by allowing the government to swallow the credit

that should finance production, stressing that an economy grows when businesses borrow to build factories, farmers borrow to expand production and entrepreneurs access affordable capital to create jobs. “My administration will impose fiscal discipline, cut waste, prioritise productive expenditure and progressively reduce the government’s suffocating dependence on the domestic credit market.

Invest on Tech Innovations to Prepare Youths for Global Economy, Lecturer Tells FG Ibrahim Oyewale in Lokoja In line with the determination to prepare Nigeria Youths for global economy, the federal government have been urged to invest significantly in education, health, vocational training, technological innovation to experience higher economic performance and increase in productivity. This position also trails the tasking of government to drastically reduce the rate of youth unemployment.

Sokoto Links Hinterlands With 1,895km Rural Roads as Gov Aliyu Prioritizes Farms, Schools, Hospitals Access Onuminya Innocent in Sokoto

credit, capital and financial oxygen that productive businesses desperately need. That, at a glance, is one of the clearest indictments of the failure of these so-called reforms. “When banks can lend to the government at attractive, risk-free rates, why would they lend cheaply to the manufacturer in Aba, the furniture maker in Kaduna, the agro-processor in Kano or the young entrepreneur in Lagos?

multiple projects in Tambuwal Local Government Area totaling over 100 kilometres. In Tambuwal, he listed the 23-kilometre Dogondaji-NabagudaYagawal-Tambuwal road and the 21.18-kilometre Faga-Alasan-Romon Liman road among those executed, while other LGAs like Silame have also seen the commissioning of the Garin Magaji–Gittarana road. Galadanchi further revealed that about two months ago, the state government directed his department to identify another 530 kilometres of rural roads, and that consultants have already been engaged for the design work and contractor engagement.

This was contained in a monthly lecture delivered by Dr. Mrs. Victoria Obera during a general meeting of the Nigeria Institute of Management Lokoja/ Ajaokuta Chapter, a copy of which was made available to journalists in Lokoja yesterday. According to Obera, for the country to move from consumption to productivity, the nation should increase budgetary allocations to education, vocational training, and human capital development programmes. She added that it is also pertinent that educational curricula should be reviewed regularly to align with labour market demands and technological changes.

Her words: “Priority should be given to vocational and technical education and training centres should be equipped with modern facilities and qualified instructors. “Greater emphasis should be placed on digital skills, innovation, and emerging technologies to prepare Nigerian youths for the global economy. “Human capital is the process of improving people’s skills, knowledge, health and experience through education and training to increase their economic productivity. “Human capital is not solely the people in organizations, it is what those people bring and contribute to organizational success.

“Human capital is the collective value of the capabilities - knowledge, skills, life experiences, and motivation of an organizational workforce. The concept of human capital truly owes its origins to the field of economics. Among the earliest contributors to its conceptual evolution. Obera who lecturer at the Department of Public Administration posited that Nigeria possesses on of the largest youth populations in Africa. “According to constitute more than 69 Bureau of Statistics and the World Bank, young people young people constitute more than 60 percent of the country’s population.

IYC Rejects Call for Revocation of Pipeline Surveillance Contract Olusegun Samuel in Yenagoa The leadership of the Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Central Zone, has rejected the call for revocation of the pipeline surveillance contract involving Seven Oceans Oil and Gas Ltd., Kojo Sam Logistics Ltd., and Labrador Security Outfit. Reaction to a recent publication by Mr. Kelly Nengimote calling for the revocation of the contract, IYC said after carefully considering the issues raised and their potential implications for the

security and economic interests of the Niger Delta, the Council considers it necessary to state its position. A statement signed by Boro Francis, Information Officer, IYC central zone, strongly condemned any attempt to use the name or collective interest of the Ijaw people to undermine fellow Ijaw persons or legitimate Ijaw-owned enterprises. “While individuals have the right to raise concerns about public or commercial activities, such concerns

must be supported by credible evidence and addressed through appropriate institutional channels. “The Ijaw people must not become instruments in internal rivalries. We cannot continue to pull down our own people and later lament that opportunities meant for our communities are being taken over by others. “Constructive criticism should strengthen our society, not deepen division or weaken legitimate economic participation.

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THISDAY • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

NEWS

MEDICAL TECHNICAL SUPPORT TO HOSPITALS IN IMO...

Imo State Governor, Senator Hope Uzodimma (right) in a handshake with Mr. Ibrahim Soliman of Integromed Germany after their agreement to provide medical technical support to hospitals in Imo State, yesterday

Jimoh Ibrahim: Tinubu, Family Have Unimpeded Transit in US for UNGA, Can’t Be Arrested Michael Olugbode in Abuja

Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Jimoh Ibrahim, has dismissed speculation that President Bola Tinubu or members of his family could be arrested or subjected to movement restrictions in the United States while attending the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). Ibrahim, who is also Chairman of UN Committee on Budget and Administration, said neither the Nigerian mission in New York nor the president had received any notification from the

United States government imposing restrictions on Tinubu’s movement during UNGA. The ambassador made the clarification in a statement by the Office of Nigeria’s Permanent Representative to the UN in New York, amid growing discussions on social media over the possibility of legal action against the Nigerian leader during his stay in the United States. Ibrahim based his position on Section 11 of the 1947 Agreement between the United Nations and the United States, which governs arrangements relating

to the UN headquarters in New York. He said the provision protects representatives of UN member states and their families from impediments to transit to and from the UN headquarters district. According to him, US federal, state and local authorities are required to refrain from imposing restrictions that would interfere with the movement of representatives of member states, their families, UN officials, specialised agencies and persons invited to the headquarters district on official UN business.

The envoy maintained that Tinubu’s attendance at the general assembly came with the protections applicable to representatives of member states participating in official UN activities. He said there was presently no communication from the US government suggesting that Tinubu’s movement had been curtailed. The clarification came against the backdrop of renewed speculation surrounding the possibility of Nigerian political figures facing legal scrutiny in the United States. Ibrahim sought to draw the dis-

Sanwo-Olu, AFRIMA Founder, California Governor, Afretrade CEO, Others to Speak at California–Lagos Summit Sunday Ehigiator Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu; Founder and President of the All Africa Music Awards (AFRIMA), Mike Dada; California Governor, Gavin Newsom; and Afretrade Chief Executive Officer, Lekan Salaam, are expected to headline the California–Lagos Business & Investment Summit scheduled for September 17 and 18, 2026, in Sacramento and San Francisco, California. The two-day summit, themed “Building the California–Nigeria Business Bridge,” is expected to bring together business leaders, investors, entrepreneurs, policymakers, professionals and members of the African diaspora to explore opportunities for trade, investment and cross-border collaboration. The event is a private sector-led initiative powered by Afretrade, the US Diaspora United Chamber of Commerce, NIED Group and the Office of Diaspora Affairs of Lagos State. According to the organisers, the summit is designed to strengthen the economic relationship between California and Lagos while creating new platforms for business partnerships, investment and cultural exchange. Dada is expected to speak on “From Culture to Capital: Unlocking the California–Lagos Creative Economy,” with a presentation focusing on investment opportunities in

music, film, intellectual property and Africa-America cultural commerce. His presentation will examine how the creative industries can drive economic growth and create new channels for investment and business partnerships between Africa and the United States. “Africa is no longer simply a source of creative content for the global market; Africa is a market, a talent hub and an investment destination,” Dada said. He said the continent needed structures that would enable African creators to retain greater value from their intellectual property while attracting capital, technology and global partnerships to scale their businesses. According to him, AFRIMA has spent the past 15 years helping to build bridges between African creativity, enterprise and global markets. “AFRIMA perfectly aligns with the California Business and Investment Summit as both platforms share a common vision of positioning African businesses, talents and intellectual property for global trade competitiveness,” he said. Other speakers and participants expected at the summit include Dr Charly Lemassi, Dr Badewa Adejugbe-Williams, Dr Jameine Sanwo-Olu, Victoria Remi Nkong, President of bridgeAfric, and Rory Douglas, CEO of Aqua Financial. The summit will feature discus-

sions on technology and fintech, trade and logistics, transportation, entertainment, agriculture, renewable energy, real estate and access to capital for small and medium-sized enterprises. The main business programme is scheduled to run from 9am to 5pm and will feature keynote addresses, high-level discussions, panel sessions, capital-raising opportunities and business matchmaking. An official celebration will follow at the historic Stanford Mansion, while the Gala and Award Night

will take place at the Hyatt Regency Sacramento. The programme will continue on September 18 with a high-level diplomatic and business networking reception in San Francisco. In a related development, AFRIMA has entered into a strategic partnership with the California–Lagos Business & Investment Summit, further strengthening the focus on the creative economy as a key component of the emerging California–Nigeria business relationship.

tinction, recalling an earlier episode involving a former Nigerian president, whom he stressed was not Tinubu. He said the former president was at one time restricted to a 10-kilometre radius from the UN headquarters in connection with a drug-related allegation, but added that the allegation was never proved. The ambassador stated that the existence of an allegation could not, by itself, amount to proof of criminality. He stressed that criminal accusations must be subjected to due process and established beyond reasonable doubt before a person could be convicted. His comments appeared aimed at countering attempts on social media to transform unproven allegations into assertions of criminal guilt or imminent arrest. Ibrahim said campaigns seeking to criminalise Tinubu or secure his arrest through social media would ultimately prove futile. The Nigerian envoy also sought to put the significance of presidential attendance at the general assembly in perspective. He said participation in the UNGA was ultimately a matter of national priority and countries retained the discretion to determine who would represent them at the high-level gathering. According to him, more than 60 per cent of the current speaking list comprised vice presidents and foreign

ministers speaking on behalf of their respective countries. The development illustrated that while the general assembly provided an important platform for presidents and heads of government, countries could delegate representation to senior officials where circumstances require. The UN General Assembly remains one of the most significant annual gatherings of world leaders, providing member states with an opportunity to address international peace and security, economic development, climate change, global governance and other issues of common concern. For Nigeria, the annual gathering also provides an important diplomatic platform for advancing its foreign-policy priorities, engaging bilateral and multilateral partners, and presenting the country’s position on major global issues. Ibrahim explained that the existence of legal protections around UN-related movement should not be confused with a blanket prohibition on lawful investigative activity by US authorities. He said US law-enforcement agencies could invite individuals to provide information or statements in the course of investigations and could collect identifying information, where legally authorised. Such information, he said, could include personal and family history, educational records and fingerprints, depending on the circumstances of an investigation.

Anambra APC Protests Exclusion in Arrangements for Remi Tinubu’s Visit, Accuses APGA of Hijack As security agencies profile travel routes ahead of visit David-Chyddy Eleke in Awka The All Progressives Congress (APC) in Anambra State, has protested the exclusion of the party and its women in the arrangements of the expected visit of the First Lady of Nigeria, Senator Oluremi Tinubu to the state on Thursday. Though the party leadership congratulated and welcomed the First Lady to the state, they added that the All Progressives Grand Alliance (APGA) is deceiving President Bola Tinubu on the expectation that progressives were working together, when in real sense they (APC) in Anambra were

being alienated from national activities. This is coming as joint security agencies have commenced profiling of all routes to be travelled by the First Lady, including security mappings. In a statement issued on Monday in Awka, Anambra State and signed by the state Secretary of APC, Sir Obi Okpala and made available to journalists, APC said the party only knew about the visit and its arrangements through the announcement by the First Lady of Anambra State, Dr. Nonye Soludo. The statement read: “The Anambra State APC warmly welcomes Her Excellency, Senator Oluremi Tinubu

CON, to our dear state and appreciates her unwavering commitment to the empowerment, welfare and economic advancement of Nigerian women, particularly her initiative to empower thousands of women across the Southeast. “However, the Anambra State APC is constrained to express its concern and disappointment that, as of the time of issuing this statement, the leadership of the All Progressives Congress in Anambra State, including its women leadership and recognised party structures, have neither been formally invited nor meaningfully carried along in the arrangements

for this important visit. “As the leading political party at the national level and a major political stakeholder in Anambra State, we believe that an official visit by the First Lady of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, particularly one centred on the empowerment of women, should transcend partisan considerations and provide an opportunity for broad participation, consultation and inclusion. “It is therefore difficult for us to reconcile the apparent exclusion of the APC and its women structures with the repeated public narrative of “Progressives Are Working Together”

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 • THISDAY

NEWS

RECEPTION IN HONOUR OF AJANI-LAWAL BY CLASS OF 1993, UNILAG MASS COMMUNICATION...

L-R: Dr. Michael Faloseyi, Deputy Director and Head, Protocol and Inter-Governmental Affairs Department, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC); Dr. Isiaka Ajani-Lawal, Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, LOTUS Bank; and Mrs. Terae Onyeje, Managing Partner, KraveX Ltd, at a reception held in honour of Ajani-Lawal by the Class of 1993, UNILAG Mass Communication Alumni Association (UMCAA), in Lagos on Sunday

Shettima: Tinubu’s Infrastructure Devt in Line with Transporters’ Welfare, Others Says govt working towards reducing transportation cost nationwide Inaugurates transporters support group for president’s re-election, tasks them on peaceful, issue-based campaign Deji Elumoye in Abuja Vice President Kashim Shettima, yesterday, said President Bola Tinubu was deeply committed to prioritising transport infrastructure to ease operations for Nigerian transporters. Shettima said the Tinubu administration treated connectivity as an economic necessity and was actively working to reduce the cost of movement because the president did not take the struggles of transport workers for granted. Shettima spoke in Abuja while formally inaugurating the National Working Committee of the National Structure of Transporters for Tinubu/ Shettima 2027. He observed that there was no group in the country that connected communities as much as transporters. Represented by Deputy Chief of Staff to the President, Senator Ibrahim Hadejia, the vice president stated that beyond their operational duty, transport workers were unparalleled ambassadors of the nation. Pointing out that the transportation industry stood at the heart of economic boom, Shettima said the sector “determines whether a farmer reaches a market, whether a manufacturer moves goods, whether a trader restocks, whether a student reaches school, and whether

an investor connects production to demand”. He stated, “Every kilometre saved, every bottleneck removed, every port made more efficient, and every safer journey completed contributes to national productivity. This is why we can’t afford to take you for granted. “This understanding also explains why President Bola Tinubu has remained committed to infrastructure that eases your operations. Across highways, rail corridors, ports, clean mobility initiatives, and logistics infrastructure, the administration has treated connectivity as an economic necessity.” The vice president described transport

workers as credible witnesses to the administration’s struggles, while also acknowledging their role in conveying people and goods across the nation on a daily basis. He said, “So, to have the men and women whose daily work moves Nigeria organise themselves across every region and mode of transport to give President Bola Tinubu another chance speaks to your understanding of what has been achieved and the unfinished tasks ahead of us.” He recalled that on June 15, he had welcomed the transport workers to “the fold of patriots who’ve come together to promote the interests of the nation

above misinformation, disinformation and economic sabotage”. Shettima said he did so based on his belief that Nigerian transporters could help the country’s “diverse communities understand the Renewed Hope Agenda and participate responsibly” in the country’s democratic process. He explained, “Barely three months later, you have built structures across the country, drawing in road transporters, railway workers, aviation stakeholders, maritime operators, inland waterways practitioners, logistics providers, and those engaged in pipeline transportation. I commend the dedication and patriotism behind this national spread.”

Bassey Inyang in Calabar South-South governors have resolved to build a stronger regional economic bloc anchored on infrastructure connectivity, investment mobilisation, maritime development, industrialisation and coordinated engagement with the federal government, as they seek to translate the region’s enormous economic potential into

Threatens legal action Embattled former governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, has demanded the sum of N10 billion as compensation, from the Minister of Defence, General Christopher Musa (Rtd.), over alleged defamatory publication made against his person. El-Rufai in a letter dated September 7, and signed by his lawyer, Ubong Akpan is also demanding an apology tendered in two national newspapers as well as a retraction of the said

peaceful and their campaign issue-based, pointing out that no political objective is improved by disorder. He stated, “I appeal to each of you to remember that political participation places obligations on those who organise others. Keep your engagements peaceful and your message issue-based, even as he implored them to reject violence, threats, intimidation, misinformation, and every form of electoral misconduct. “No political objective is improved by disorder, and no democratic cause is strengthened by fear. Nigeria’s future must be argued in the open, tested by citizens, and decided through credible elections.

S’South Govs Mull Regional Economic Powerhouse tangible prosperity for its people. The resolution formed the thrust of the communiqué issued at the end of the second meeting of the South-South Governors’ Forum, in Calabar, Cross River State, under the chairmanship of Bayelsa State Governor, Senator Douye Diri. The governors identified regional rail development, the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Calabar,

Port Harcourt and Warri seaports, and the economic opportunities offered by the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway as strategic priorities. They also resolved to engage President Bola Tinubu on critical South-South concerns, particularly infrastructure and environmental development, while reaffirming their commitment to his re-election in

Alleged Defamatory Publication: El-Rufai Demands N10bn, Apology from Defence Minister Alex Enumah in Abuja

Describing them as unparalleled ambassadors of the country, the vice president said this explained why the Tinubu administration would not rest until it put “a system in place where the dignity of operators is guaranteed, traffic laws are upheld, and passengers are protected”. He added, “The fast-evolving technologies of your industry are a reality check we cannot afford to ignore, and that’s why your friendship, your support, your endorsement and your expectations are critical to where we are headed.” Shettima, however, cautioned the transport workers to keep their activities

defamatory. Recall that the minister had while appearing as a guest on Channels Television’s Politics Today, on September 3, 2026, made certain statements considered as defamatory by the former governor. According to the letter, General Musa had among others alleged that el-Rufai “deliberately planned for the killing of our people”, and divided Kaduna State along ethnic and religious lines when he was governor of the state.

The minister was also quoted as saying that the former governor paid ransom to bandits as well as orchestrated the demolition of properties belonging to critics; statements which his lawyer claimed has done serious harm to the reputation of the ex governor. Akpan, who described the allegations against his client as false submitted that they presented the former governor as “a criminal, a murderer, a sponsor of banditry, and a person of the most base and depraved character.” The letter while observing that

el-Rufai had “never been involved in any offence relating to the deliberate planning of killings in Southern Kaduna,” maintained that “no evidence has ever been produced to establish that our Client ‘deliberately planned the killing of any person.” “Your statements carry particular weight and credibility in the eyes of the public. By making these allegations from such a position of authority, you have caused substantially greater damage to our Client’s reputation than would have been caused by a private individual”, Akpan said.

2027 with “100 per cent” support from the region. The Forum equally resolved to institutionalise its activities through quarterly meetings, with Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, scheduled to host the next meeting from November 6 to 8, 2026. The communiqué embraced a broader regional investment strategy, reflecting the presentation by the Director-General of the BRACED Commission, Ambassador Joe Keshi, on efforts to advance regional infrastructure, particularly rail development. PANDEF National Chairman, Ambassador Godknows Boladei Igali, had advocated a regional investment fund capable of mobilising capital for projects that transcend individual state boundaries. At the same time, he urged the governors to place young people at the centre of the region’s economic transformation. The emerging agenda, therefore, sought to move the South-South from isolated state-level initiatives towards an integrated economic space driven by shared infrastructure, investment and value chains. Hosting the meeting, Cross River State Governor and Vice Chairman

of the Forum, Senator Bassey Edet Otu, said the region’s ability to secure meaningful development depended on the extent to which its states could speak and act collectively. “We must come together as a people; we must cooperate, and we must ensure that our voice is heard and respected,” Otu declared. He stressed that “the South-South has everything it takes” to become one of Nigeria’s most formidable economic blocs, provided the states could overcome fragmentation and harness their resources within a common regional framework. Otu called for a unified regional position on fiscal equity, particularly Value Added Tax, oil and gas revenues and the 13 per cent derivation benchmark. He also sought the Forum’s support for Cross River’s campaign to regain its oil-producing status, describing the issue as part of the state’s broader quest for greater economic opportunity. On infrastructure, he proposed a regional corridor linking the Bakassi Deep Seaport in Calabar with the East-West Road and the ports of Bayelsa and Delta, while advocating greater integration of the region’s agricultural economies.

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NEWS

ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING OF THE WARWICK UNIVERSITY, NIGERIA ALUMNI ASSOCIATION...

L-R: Treasurer, Warwick University Nigeria Alumni Association, Mr. Emmanuel Anumbor; Legal Adviser, Mr. Noble Obasi; General Secretary, Mrs. Adedolapo Onikan; and Outgoing President, Mrs. Olukemi Ogutuga-Awodein, during the Annual General Meeting of the Warwick University Nigeria Alumni Association, held in Lagos … recently

APC, PDP Petition Against Governor Adeleke’s Re-election at Osun Tribunal APC legal team denies move Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo The Osun State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal has formally commenced proceedings, treating disputes from the August 15 governorship election. It has, therefore, displayed two petitions from All Progressives Congress and the Peoples Democratic Party challenging Adeleke’s re-election. In another development, the APC legal team in Osun has denied a petition filed on behalf of the party challenging Adeleke’s victory. The petitions filed by the APC and the PDP were pasted on the notice board of the tribunal secretariat in Osogbo, yesterday.

Secretary of the Tribunal, Pefe Belemore, confirmed that petitions challenging the outcome of the election had been filed before the tribunal. At the opening of the tribunal, Belemore was in the courtroom alongside other officials of the secretariat as preparations were made for the commencement of proceedings. The APC petition, marked EPT/ OS/GOV/01/2026, was filed by its candidate, Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji, against Adeleke, the Accord Party and the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The PDP petition, with suit number EPT/OS/GOV/02/2026,

was filed by Adebayo Olugbenga Adedamola against Adeleke, INEC and the Accord Party. The display of the petitions is expected to set in motion the legal process, including the service of processes on parties and subsequent proceedings before the tribunal. Meanwhile, one of the leaders of the team, Adekunle Adegoke, SAN, has noted that no petition was filed on behalf of the APC candidate, Bola Oyebamiji, and the party before the tribunal. Adegoke, who said the legal team met Oyebamiji and other party leaders shortly after the results of the poll were released to discuss the next line of action, further noted that the decision not

to challenge the outcome of the poll was taken after consultations. He stressed that the decision not to approach the tribunal was based on the need to de-escalate tension and allow peace to reign in the state. “Right from the second day of the election, at the level of the legal team being led by about four Senior Advocates of Nigeria, Dr Biodun Layoonu, SAN, Dr Yomi Aliyu, SAN, myself, Kunle Adegoke, SAN, and Dr Muritala Abdulrasheed, SAN. “We also have other legal luminaries, Professors of law in the legal team, Prof Mojeed Alabi and many others, and we advised our client that the best in

Osun Governor, Adeleke, Goes on Vacation, Orders Probe into Koka Obaship Dispute Yinka Kolawole in Osogbo A few weeks after his re-election victory, the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, has left the country for vacation in Europe even as he ordered a probe into the emerging dispute over the kingship of Koka town in Obokun Local Government. The governor who would also embark on medicals as part of the vacation headed to the United

Kingdom and other destinations to be announced later. “I am taking a short break to refresh and get further prepared to serve the good people of Osun State,” the governor stated while taking off at the Lagos airport. He, however, directed the Ministry of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to probe the circumstances surrounding the reported appointment of another king for Koka Ilase, leading to

alleged two kings in the same town. The ministry was instructed to review the situation and enforce due process of the law in respect of the chieftaincy law and tradition. “I read of another King appointed outside the one on the stool. The ministry is hereby directed to look into the dispute and issue a report to set the records straight. “I urge all stakeholders to re-

OIL NEARS $100 PER BARREL AS RENEWED SUPPLY CRUNCH LOOMS he said. Refining capacity in the Gulf has been cut off from markets since the start of the war, with processing facilities elsewhere in the region coming under frequent attack. Ukraine said it hit refineries in Russia’s Perm region and Tatarstan on Sunday night, in a campaign of drone strikes that has cut Russia’s refining capacity by more than 30 per cent. Traders are increasingly taking the view that the Iran war will

take much longer to resolve than previously expected, the FT report added. One trading house executive said their base case was now that the Strait of Hormuz “would never return to normal”, referring to the prewar flows of 20mn barrels a day of crude and fuels that used to pass through the chokepoint. Spencer Dale, a professor at the London School of Economics and former chief economist at BP

and the Bank of England, said crude had remained cheaper than expected partly because more oil was getting through Hormuz than commonly believed and inventories had taken longer to run down. “But we cannot keep on drawing reserves,” he said. “If you’d asked 100 oil experts six months ago and said, this is what’s going to happen, I don’t think anybody would have said oil prices are still below $100,” Dale said.

main peaceful as the ministry does the needful. Kingship is governed by extant laws and regulations and the government will stand by the law and tradition of our people,” the governor posited.

this circumstance is for us not to go to the tribunal. “The legal team has been in existence for more than seven years now. When we are going into an election, and the result of the election is being announced, we know where there are loopholes, we know what we can challenge. “At this particular point in time, we want to prove to the minds of the people that at the level of the APC, we are not termagants; we are not just litigious people who are just interested in causing brouhaha in the populace. “We don’t have anything personal against Nurudeen Adeleke the governor, or any other person in another party, whether PDP or Accord. “We are principled, and when we want to challenge or fight for something, we fight on the basis of principle. That is one thing we want to make clear to the people. And when we decided that we are not going to the Tribunal, we needed to let our client understand why we had taken that decision. “We took our client through a gamut of our findings. It’s not like maybe the election was free; it doesn’t mean there were no malpractices. There are valid grounds to challenge the result

of the election, and we decided to let the populace rest. “Let there be some peace and our client said yes; if it’s going to take us another four years to get things together for the people of Osun, let us allow it. And that is the decision we took. “Right from the second day, 16th of August, when the result of the election was announced, that is why we allowed time to play out a little before our client came out and congratulated the Governor Nurudeen Ademola Adeleke. “Our client, having willingly, without pressure, without duress, congratulated Governor Adeleke, do you now think it will be legitimate as a man of honour for Asiwaju Munirudeen Bola Oyebamiji to go behind and authorise the filing of a petition? The petition is just a piece of paper without good substance. “No good petition will come from a seasoned election petition lawyer that will contain such a penchant for context. It is never done. I want to be on record that the APC legal team has denounced the bundle of papers filed by some individuals masquerading as APC lawyers. It was not authorised by APC as a party or its candidate.”

PEOPLE’S IPO OPENS WITH $49B SHARE CAPITAL Dangote tied the refinery to the continent’s energy security and industrialisation drive. He said, “Our Vision 2030 mantra at the Dangote Group is ‘accelerating Africa’s industrialization.’ We have learned the hard way and we cannot industrialise if we do not have energy security.” He cited the planned expansions in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Namibia.

The Investment Case: World Scale, World Class

Managing Director of Dangote Refinery and Petrochemicals, Mr. David Bird, laid out the commercial thesis. Bird stated, “If you’ll permit me to stand on existing protocols, let’s

talk about the investment case that we’re signing today. “We talk about merchant, world class and world scale.” He described the 700,000 barrels per day facility as unique. Bird said, “This is not just a refinery in a crude producing nation sitting on the end of a pipeline processing one crude and only serving a domestic market. This is the world’s most modern, youngest, most energy efficient, most automated, most data rich refinery. And our business model is merchant refining, we process a wide variety of crude and feedstocks and we serve a wide variety of markets with a wide variety of products.” He stressed location and flexibility in West Africa’s crude-rich basin

and pointed to global relevance. Bird said, “And then as a merchant refiner, yes, we serve Nigeria. Yes, we prioritise West African markets. But no better time than right now can we demonstrate the world class quality of our products because we are the largest jet fuel supplier into Europe.” Bird said the expansion to 1.4 million bpd by 2028 is “fully funded, fully engineered, fully procured” and will make Dangote “the largest integrated refinery and petrochemical complex on the planet right here in Nigeria”. He said the Vision 2030 plan included diversifying into petrochemicals and building distribution infrastructure in West Africa, starting with Namibia.

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NEWS

PRESENTATION OF CONSTITUENCY NEEDS ASSESSMENT SURVEY REPORT TO DONKEMEZUO...

L-R: Chief Rufus Abaribote Loveday Rufus, PDP National South-South Zonal Auditor; Hon. Engr. Elvis Donkemezuo, PDP candidate for the 2027 Federal House of Representatives election for Yenagoa–Kolokuma/Opokuma Federal Constituency; Nicholas Eferebo, PDP Youth Leader, Bayelsa State; Dr. Victor Ikem, Research Consultant and Coordinator of the Constituency Needs Assessment Survey; and Douye Abadani, PDP candidate for Kolokuma Constituency II in the Bayelsa State House of Assembly, during the official presentation of the Constituency Needs Assessment Survey Report to Hon. Donkemezuo at King George’s Court Hotel, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State…recently

INEC to Deploy Nigeria’s First Real-time Election Readiness Tracker Ahead of 2027 Adedayo Akinwale in Abuja

The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has said it would roll out a firstof-its-kind, real-time readiness tracker that would allow the Commission to monitor election preparations across all 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) instantly. Chairman of the Commission, Prof. Joash Amupitan, disclosed this yesterday while declaring open a two-day Strategic Operational Workshop for Administrative Secretaries, held at the Marriott Hotel, Ikeja,

Lagos. He said the workshop would produce a standardised, Excelbased Administrative Secretary Master Operational Tracker Template, linked directly to the Commission’s Election Monitoring and Support Centre (EMSC) dashboard and the Election Project Plan (EPP). The chairman noted that the Commission had historically lacked a dedicated, uniform mechanism for tracking the operational duties of Administrative Secretaries, describing the new tool as one that would bridge that institutional gap.

Amupitan added: “Once deployed, the tracker will give Resident Electoral Commissioners, Supervising National Commissioners, the Secretary to the Commission and Headquarters instant visibility into material distribution, ad-hoc staff training and State-level readiness.” He stressed that it would replace what he called “reactive panic with proactive management.” The INEC Chairman said the innovation would also outlive the 2027 exercise, serving as a permanent onboarding blueprint for future generations of Ad-

ministrative Secretaries. He linked the initiative to the Commission’s drive to keep the voter register clean and PVC collection seamless as enrolment closes in on 100 million. Amupitan described Continuous Voter Registration as one of five operational pillars under review at the workshop, alongside logistics and material management, electoral technology, ad-hoc staff optimisation, and financial compliance. He stressed that the tracker initiative built on lessons drawn from recent off-cycle elections, including the Osun State

governorship election, where disciplined logistics and functioning technology delivered a transparent outcome. Amupitan added that the Commission was now working to replicate that standard nationally, in the six-month window remaining before the 2027 general election. Earlier, the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for Lagos State, Prof. Ayobami Salami, described the workshop as coming at an auspicious time in the Commission’s preparations. He commended the European Union, through the European

Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EUSDGN), implemented with Development Alternatives Incorporated (DAI), for supporting the exercise. Also speaking, Secretary to the Commission, Mrs Rose Oriaran-Anthony, said the workshop would ensure Headquarters and all States operate from the same Election Project Plan, while equipping Administrative Secretaries with updated knowledge of new policies, technology and administrative procedures ahead of 2027.

PETER OBI TO BABA-AHMED: I CAN TRANSFORM, BRING HONOUR TO NIGERIA of Nigeria’s challenges made the election of a leader with proven capacity, character and competence even more urgent. The group said years of what it described as mismanagement, corruption, waste and poor leadership had weakened institutions and increased hardship across the country. It nevertheless insisted that Nigerians must distinguish between political rhetoric and demonstrated capacity to govern. According to POMR, Obi’s record as governor of Anambra provided evidence that he could prudently deploy limited public resources to achieve measurable results. “Peter Obi does not approach Nigeria’s challenges as an experiment. His record in Anambra provides evidence of what he can do with limited resources when public office is treated as a responsibility rather than an opportunity for personal enrichment,” the group said. POMR credited Obi with fiscal discipline and investments in education, healthcare, human development and infrastructure, arguing that his record remained available for public scrutiny. It said the real question before Nigerians in 2027 was not whether one individual could “magically rescue” the country, but whether the electorate could choose a leader capable of beginning the process of national recovery. “The question is whether Nigeria

can elect a leader with the character, competence, prudence, and courage to begin the rescue. We believe Peter Obi can—and will,” POMR said. The group added that Obi’s proposed rescue agenda was not premised on the emergence of a “messiah” who would govern alone, but on building strong institutions, assembling competent Nigerians, confronting corruption, reducing waste and investing in productive sectors. “Peter Obi has demonstrated that understanding before. The task in 2027 is to allow him to demonstrate it at the national level,” it said. POMR further maintained that Obi could lead Nigeria’s recovery “not because he claims to be a miracle worker, but because his record shows that he knows how to turn limited resources into measurable results.”

Makinde Opens Campaign Office, Vows to Reset Nigeria The APM yesterday opened its presidential campaign office in Abuja, with the presidential candidate of the party in the 2027 general election, Governor Seyi Makinde, pledging to reset the country. Speaking on the occasion, Makinde said the objective of his “Reset Nigeria” agenda was to build a system of government in which public institutions were

transparent, leadership accountable and citizens fully aware of how decisions affecting their lives were taken. “It means that we stop accepting systems that nobody can explain. It means that the government must show its workings. It means that Nigerians must know how decisions are made, how public resources are used and who benefits from them,” he added. The former governor also dismissed suggestions that his presidential ambition should be discounted because of the strength of established political forces, recalling that he faced similar scepticism before winning the governorship election in Oyo State. He argued that dismissing his campaign amounted to disregarding the aspirations of millions of Nigerians struggling with rising prices, unemployment and worsening business costs. “They may discount one candidate. But they cannot discount millions of Nigerians united behind a better future,” Makinde said. He called on Nigerians, including traders, farmers, workers, business owners and young people, to participate actively in shaping the country’s future and contribute ideas to the ‘Reset Nigeria’ movement. “This is our country. These are our resources. We count. And together, we will Reset Nigeria,” he stated.

…Insists Petroleum Pricing Shady At the event, Makinde declared that Nigeria’s crude oil resources must deliver direct and measurable benefits to citizens, insisting that his proposed petrol pricing framework does not represent a return to the controversial fuel subsidy regime. Makinde said the country must rethink how its crude oil is priced for domestic refining, arguing that Nigerians should not be made to bear costs that disconnect the country’s petroleum wealth from the welfare of its citizens. He explained that the benefits of Nigeria’s oil wealth should be incorporated into the system from the point at which crude is supplied to local refineries, rather than through what he described as opaque interventions at the petrol pump after costs, inefficiencies and other distortions had accumulated. “Today, we are not just opening a campaign office. We are opening another door for Nigerians to join the conversation about the future of our country. A conversation about what must change. A conversation about how we can make Nigeria work for every Nigerian. That is what Reset Nigeria is about,” he stated. Responding to questions over his recent comments on petrol pricing, Makinde stressed that he was not advocating the restoration of the

old subsidy regime. “That is not my position. Let me explain my position very simply with this example. If a community grows food, the people of that community should not have to buy that food as though it travelled halfway around the world before reaching them. “So why should crude oil supplied to Nigerian refineries be priced as though Nigeria does not produce crude oil? Nigeria’s oil must provide a real and measurable benefit to Nigerians,” he said. The presidential candidate called for complete transparency across the petroleum value chain, from crude oil production and domestic allocation to refining, transportation, distribution, taxes and retail margins. According to him, Nigerians should be able to understand how the final pump price of petrol is determined, who receives what portion of the proceeds and where inefficiencies are adding to the cost ultimately paid by consumers. Makinde said the broader objective of his “Reset Nigeria” agenda was to build a system of government in which public institutions were transparent, leadership accountable and citizens fully aware of how decisions affecting their lives were taken.

Obi: Makinde Qualified to Lead Nigeria

Meanwhile, at the occasion which was attended by opposition figures, the NDC presidential candidate, Obi, declared that Makinde remains abundantly qualified to be president of Nigeria. He also expressed his readiness to work with any presidential candidate who wins the 2027 election ‘genuinely’. “We want a Nigeria of unity and inclusion; we have a candidate who is contesting for President today, my dear brother Makinde. Is he qualified to be President? Yes, he is qualified. “What we are doing today, for us, is not about desperation but we want Nigerians to make their choice. All of us should come together to build a new Nigeria. We can’t continue the way we are going, our people are hungry and poor. “Whoever wins genuinely from a free, fair, and credible election, we will all work together to save this country from collapse,” Obi said. The NDC presidential candidate called for unity among politicians, stressing that the politics of bickering and bitterness should be discarded. “That’s why I’m here to show solidarity and assure you that we are changing the system. We don’t want politics of quarrel, politics of disagreement. Let our quarrel be to feed our people. We want a Nigeria where the child of nobody can be somebody without knowing anybody,” he added.

TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 ˾ T H I S D AY

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NEWS

CELEBRATING EMERITUS PROFESSOR STEPHEN AKPAVIE…

L-R:His Royal Majesty, Odio-Ologbo of Irri Kingdom, Simon Wajutome Odhomo(Igbogidi 1); Professor Stephen O. Akpavie, and President-General, Irri Federal Union, Chief Adonis Ubuwere, during a visit to Akpavie to celebrate with him on his appointment as Emeritus Professor(Veterinary Pathology) by the Senate of University of Ibadan in Ivrogbo-Irri, Delta State...on Sunday

Christ Church to FG: End Insecurity, Economic Hardship Before 2027 Demands free, fair polls, issue-based campaigns

Blessing IbungeinPort Harcourt The Spiritual Advisory Council (SAC) of Christ Church, Port Harcourt, has called on the federal and state governments to urgently intensify efforts to address worsening insecurity and economic hardship across the country.

The council also condemned what it described as the “increasingly unrestrained ostentatious display of affluence” by public officials and members of the political class amid widespread hardship, urging greater accountability, selflessness and efficiency in public service. The resolutions were contained in a communiqué

issued at the end of the 10th meeting of the SAC, in Port Harcourt, under the theme, “Manifesting His Glory,” drawn from Psalm 97:6. The communiqué was signed by the SAC Chairman, His Eminence, Dr Ekpenyong Nyong

Akpanika, Prelate and Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria, and Elder Deinabo Tennyson Horsfall, Secretary of the 10th SAC. Christ Church, an ecumenical church founded in 1938,

comprises the Church of Nigeria (Anglican Communion), Methodist Church of Nigeria and Presbyterian Church of Nigeria The SAC expressed grave concern over the persistent wave of kidnappings and violent crimes across the country.

While commending the government, armed forces and other security agencies for recent gains in the fight against insecurity, the council urged them to “rise to the occasion” and urgently tackle the kidnapping crisis.

In Uba Sani, Gani Fawehinmi Lives On, Says Daughter John Shiklam in Kaduna

the lives of the people.”

Sani: A Tale of Mentor and

our country, Nigeria, in any

Gani Fawehinmi, Basirat Fawehinmi Biobaku, has commended Kaduna State Governor, Senator Uba Sani, for what she described as “his commitment to improving

that public office holders must never lose sight of the masses. She spoke at the weekend in Kaduna during the presentation of her book titled: “Gani Fawehinmi and Uba

committed to the welfare of ordinary Nigerians whenever he had the opportunity to serve. “Uba, if you ever have the opportunity to serve

telling Sani. According to her, the governor was particularly close to her father and lived with the family for four years at their Lagos residence.

Biobaku said Sani had Mentee.” capacity, make sure you never PDP Assures Ogun Daughter of late pro- remained faithful to the values She said her father had, ever forget the masses of our and human and counsel of her late father, more than three decades people, Voters of better Welfare democracy Biobaku recalled her father rights activist, Chief particularly his admonition ago, advised Sani to remain James SowoleinAbeokuta

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Ogun State has assured the people of the state of better welfare if they vote for party’s candidates in the 2027 The PPD Deputy Governorship Candidate for the state Hajia (Dr.) ’Yemi Sowunmi-Kolapo, gave the assurance urging the people to vote massively for all PDP candidates from the National Assembly to the State House of Assembly, declaring that the party is confident of victory in the elections. Kolapo spoke while addressing over 1,000 PDP members at the party’s

Ijemo Zone meeting in Ward 5, Abeokuta South Local Government. The meeting was attended by prominent party leaders and stakeholders across the constituency. She noted that PDP opponents are apprehensive of their impending defeat as it was a clear to everyone that Ogun State politics had gone beyond the kind of personal interests that had kept the masses in pain for long. The deputy governorship candidate, who is the Iya Sunnah of Egbaland and Ameerah of Ogun State, however, reassured those in the opposition that they would not be abandoned or left to suffer after the PDP’s victory.

The Nigerian Institute of Journalism Alumni Association (NIJAA) yesterday paid a courtesy visit to the management of the Nigerian Institute of Journalism (NIJ), with a commitment to strengthen collaboration with the Board and Management towards advancing the development and growth of the institution. The delegation was led by the newly elected President of NIJAA, Mr. Olumuyiwa Akintunde, who used the occasion to formally introduce the new executive committee of the Association to the management and Council of

the institution. Speaking during the visit, Akintunde emphasised the association’s readiness to work closely with the board and management of NIJ to identify areas of mutual interest and contribute meaningfully to the continued development of the institution. He noted that alumni have a significant role to play in the growth and sustainability of their alma mater, adding that NIJAA is committed to deploying the experience, expertise, networks and goodwill of its members in support of the Institute.

Tompolo Donates Campaign Vehicles to Tinubu’s Support Group in Katsina

Linus Aleke in Abuja

The Founder/Chairman of Tantita Security Services Nigeria Limited(TSSNL), High Chief Government Ekpemupolo, popularly known as Tompolo, has donated no fewer than 34 campaign vehicles to the Tinubu Support Group in Katsina State.

Tompolo made the donation during the official unveiling of the PBAT Door-to-Door Movement in Katsina, describing the initiative as part of efforts to mobilise grassroots support for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s re-election bid in 2027. Tompolo, the founder and convener of the movement,

said he chose Katsina as the first state in northern Nigeria to unveil the initiative. He explained that 34 local government coordinators were inaugurated, with campaign vehicles presented to them at the People’s Square in Katsina. Represented at the flag-off and inauguration by High Chief Kestin Ebimorbowei Pondi,

Tompolo said the relationship between President Tinubu and Katsina was founded on trust, confidence and inclusion. He urged members of the movement to take the message of the Tinubu administration to the grassroots through door-to-door engagements in wards, communities, markets and households.

President Tasks Govts to Tackle Insecurity with Seriousness NIJ Alumni Association NBTS with their two eyes closed. meaningful for the people. on human life is high that it KemiOlaitaninIbadan cleric, while addressing He said God placed high should not be toyed with. To Pledges to Develop Institution The President of the Nigerian a The press conference on the value on human life such that ensure that the sacredness of Baptist Theological Seminary (NBTS), Ogbomoso, Oyo State, Rev. (Prof.) S. Ola Ayankeye, yesterday urged the government at all levels in the country to tackle insecurity with all the seriousness it deserves for Nigerians to sleep

preparation for the 2026 Ministers’ Conference of the NBTS, called on political leaders to demonstrate commitment in addressing kidnapping, fuel subsidy, inflation, and elections, stating that they owe it as a duty to make life

it must be protected at all times, maintaining that the governments must endeavour to do everything possible to ensure that Nigerians are safe wherever they find themselves. “The value God placed

life and the associated benefits like good economy, safety of life, and property are held in high esteem, the government needs to put in place measures that will restore peace and tranquility in no distant time,” he said.

Chain Reactions Wins Award for Nigeria’s Economic Reforms Campaign Chain Reactions Africa, one of Nigeria’s leading public relations consulting giants, has earned another major global distinction, with its “From Promises To Proofs” campaign for the Presidency of the Federal Republic of Nigeria selected amongst the 40 Best

PR Campaigns in the world at the 2026 Global SABRE Awards. The recognition is particularly significant on two fronts. Chain Reactions Africa is the only Nigerian PR consultancy on the global list and stands out as an independent African

consultancy amongst a roster largely populated by the world’s major multinational PR networks. In doing so, the Lagosheadquartered consultancy will fly the Nigerian flag on one of the global industry’s most prestigious stages.

The 40 campaigns were selected from more than 5,500 entries from over 60 countries across the SABRE Awards’ regional competitions, placing the recognition in a highly exclusive category of fewer than one per cent of entries.

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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026 • THISDAY

TUESDAYSPORTS

Group Sports Editor: Duro Ikhazuagbe Email: duro.ikhazuagbe@thisdaylive.com

0811 181 3083 SMS ONLY

Nigeria’s Falconets Crash in Group Opener against Former Champions Spain Duro Ikhazuagbe Nigeria’s Falconets began their campaign at the 2026 FIFA U20 Women’s World Cup in Poland with a 0-2 loss to Spain at the Arena Sosnowiec on Monday evening. The 2022 FIFA U20 World Cup champions started brightly and took the lead in the 13th minute when Marisa Garcia slotted past goalkeeper Christiana Uzoma to put Spain 1-0 up. Despite the early setback, the Falconets responded with purpose and created a few half-chances, but could not find the equaliser before the break. Coach Moses Aduku’s side came

U 2 0 W O M E N ’S W O R L D C U P out with renewed energy in the second half and controlled periods of the game. The Falconets pushed forward in search of a leveller and had several attempts, but were denied by a solid performance from Spain’s goalkeeper Lopez who kept her side’s lead intact. As Nigeria pressed for a goal, Spain punished them on the counter in

the 72nd minute. Alba Cerrato beat Uzoma to score Spain’s second, doubling the European side’s advantage and putting the game beyond the Falconets’ reach. Despite valiant efforts, the Falconets were unable to get on the scoresheet. The team showed flashes of quality and determination, but lacked the final touch in front of goal against

the well-organized Spanish defence. The result leaves Nigeria with some work to do in Group F. The Falconets will now regroup and turn their focus to their second group game against China PR on Thursday, September 10, as they seek to get their campaign back on track at the global tournament. The Chinese ladies defeated New Caledonia 5-0 to stay on top of Group F on same three points as Spain but with better goals difference.

RESULTS U20 Women’s W’Cup Spain 2-0 Nigeria N’Caledonia 0-5 China N’Korea 2-0 Portugal C’Rica 1-3 Colombia

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TODAY AEK Athens v LASK C’Brugge v Aston Villa Dortmund v Villarreal FC Porto v Man City Lille v Real Betis R’Madrid v Inter WEDNESDAY Barcelona v Feyenoord Stuttgart v Viking Liverpool v Atletico Napoli v Arsenal PSG v S’ Bratislavia Sporting v Galatasaray

NIS DG Philip Shaibu Urges Igoche Mark Not to Give up on Basketball Devt The Director General and Chief Executive Officer of the National Institute for Sports (NIS), Rt. Hon. Philip Shaibu, has urged basketball promoter and Initiator of the Mark D’ Ball Basketball Championship, Mr. Igoche Mark, not to relent in his efforts to develop the game in Nigeria. Shaibu made the appeal on Monday in Abuja when he received Mark, who was on a visit to assess basketball coaches currently undergoing training under Mark’s sponsorship. “I want to thank you for stopping by to see some of our students. I am told that you are sponsoring quite a number of them, and I am confident that this partnership will yield results,” Shaibu said. “We have positioned the NIS to be private sector-driven, and that is how it should be. Over-reliance on

government funding is no longer sustainable. Government has created several agencies and MDAs that should naturally be driven by the private sector, but the culture of waiting for the annual budget cycle has left many of them moribund. “For us at the NIS, we understand that this institute is the engine room of sports. It is responsible for the empowerment of the sporting ecosystem. Anyone working in the sports sector is supposed to pass through here for training. “I thank you for what you have done for basketball, and I plead with you: do not give up on basketball.” Earlier in his remarks, Mark commended the DG for the transformation witnessed at the institute, noting that Shaibu’s antecedents in Edo State, particularly in sports development, were evident.

Falconet’s Queen Joseph (left) battling out ball possession with Spain’s Neomi Bejararo during their Group F fixture at the ongoing U20 Women’s World Cup in Poland...yesterday Mr Igoche Mark (left) presenting a Mark’D Ball shirt to NIS DG, Rt.. Hon. Phillip Shaibu during Mark’s visit to the NIS Boss in Abuja... yesterday.

D’Tigresses Beaten by France, End 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup Adventure Winless Yusuf Alli Says Eko 2026 Will Captain Okonkwo admits the Nigerian ladies struggled to find rhythm

African champions Nigeria’s D’Tigresses completed their adventure in the 2026 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in Berlin, Germany yesterday without a win in four matches. It was the worst performance by the Nigerian ladies in recent time. Yesterday’s 111-56 points defeat of Nigeria by France capped the poor run by Rena Wakama’s ladies across three consecutive matches at the tournament. From the tip off in the first quarter, D’Tigresses struggled, as the French side imposed its quality and tempo on the contest, leaving the Nigerians unable to establish any rhythm in what turned into a one-sided encounter at the Berlin Arena. France raced to 31 points in the opening quarter before adding another 34 in the second to take a commanding 65-26 lead into halftime. The French continued their dominance after the interval, scoring 30 points in the third quarter before easing off in the final period after the damage had already been done. The defeat capped a difficult group-stage campaign for the African champions, who entered the tournament with high expectations following their quarter finalist historic run at the 2024 Paris Olympics. France, meanwhile, strengthened their credentials as one of the leading contenders for the title with a remarkable long-range shooting performance.

They made a record 22 threepointers, surpassing their previous World Cup best of 15 against Hungary earlier in the tournament and Japan’s previous all-time mark of 20 triples set on the opening day. France were particularly ruthless in the first half, making 14 three-pointers, with Gabby Williams and Marine Johannes combining for eight from 11 attempts. The 65 points France scored in the first half also represented their highest-ever first-half total in a FIBA Women’s World Cup game. Williams further etched her name into the record books by becoming the first French player to make six three-pointers in a Women’s World

Cup game. For Nigeria, the result highlighted the gap between the current squad and the team that stunned the basketball world at the Paris Olympics two years ago. D’Tigresses Captain Amy Okonkwo admitted that France’s quality exposed Nigeria’s inability to settle into the game. “It was a tough game. France is a great team. We saw that at the 2024 Olympics, and we’ve seen it throughout the qualifiers,” Okonkwo said. “They’re a really great team, and they came out to play today. Again, I think we just struggled to find our rhythm early and weren’t able to get

the win or really stop them.” Head coach, Rena Wakama, acknowledged that the current D’Tigresses are undergoing a rebuilding process and cannot rely on the achievements of the 2024 Olympic team. “A lot of people saw what we did in 2024, and the reality of where we are today is that we’re in a rebuilding process,” Wakama said. “I think connectivity is a big thing for myself, my team and my staff. Where we are today isn’t where we were two years ago. “We can’t rely on the success we had two years ago. Who we are today, we’re still figuring that out, and I know we will.”

Expose Athlete Poaching States

Former Nigerian Olympian, Yusuf Alli, has stated that the maiden National Intermediate Games, branded EKO 2026, will serve as a litmus test for states genuinely investing in grassroots athlete development versus those relying on recruiting established talents to boost medal counts. Scheduled to run from October 1 to 15 in Lagos, EKO 2026 will feature athletes aged 15 to 18 competing across 28 sports. Organisers expect more than 14,000 athletes from Nigeria’s 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory to participate in the inaugural edition. Alli, who is part of the organiz-

ing structure, emphasized that the competition is designed to strengthen the pathway between youth and senior sports. “This will expose states. States that just go and buy athletes for festivals — this will determine the ones that have really been training,” he said. He noted that the Games will shift focus from short-term medal success to identifying states with sustainable systems for producing athletes. “I know for sure that states like Edo and Lagos train athletes very well. It will come to play for us to see the states that have been training athletes,” Alli added.

US Open: Zheng Comes from 5-0 Down to Stun Swiatek Zheng Qinwen won a set from 5-0 down for the second match in succession as she extended her fantastic US Open run by beating former champion Iga Swiatek to reach the quarter-finals. Zheng, the reigning Olympic champion and former world number four, dropped outside the world’s top 100 earlier this year while struggling to regain her best form following elbow surgery in July 2025.

The 23-year-old from China had trailed Madison Keys 5-0 in the deciding set of their third-round match on Saturday before winning seven successive games to secure her spot in round four. And Zheng was 5-0 down in the opening set against Poland’s eighth seed Swiatek, but won 13 of the next 16 games on Arthur Ashe Stadium to set up a quarter-final against either Naomi Osaka or

Elena Rybakina. The second set was on serve until the seventh game, when Zheng crushed a powerful backhand return winner to secure a crucial break, and she broke again two games later to complete a 7-5 6-3 victory. This latest win - her seventh in a row in New York having come through three rounds of qualifying - will put her back to the brink of the top 50.

Zheng Qinwen yesterday matched her best ever performance at the US Open by reaching the quarter-finals

T H I S D AY • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

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BACK PAGE CONTINUATION THE NIGERIAN KILLED BY HIS PENIS to a V-Boot or Landcruiser. Many do liposuction. They tuck in their tummies. They adjust either their lips or noses. Many of them die too when things go wrong. When a man decides to do a dick job, yes he may have been influenced by his partner, but there are women too who say they have done cosmetic surgery to please their husbands, or to keep a good shape. Cosmetic surgery is a big industry. The penis industry is at the centre of it.” “God forbid bad thing. I rebuke it. This is why in Africa, in-laws often accuse women whose husbands die prematurely of witchcraft, and they drive them away from the deceased’s property.” “It is not witchcraft. It is the way of the world. Sigmund Freud in his Essays on the Theory of Sexuality said sex is what is on a man’s mind, and that the body’s pleasureseeking energy is concentrated in the libido. Some people, male or female, just get fixated at this point. Sexuality defines the individual’s inner world. This is also the central argument in a book titled “A Mind Of Its Own: A Cultural History of the Penis” by David Friedman where it is reported that among the Greeks for example, the penis was considered a measure of a man’s proximity to divine power. In contemporary times, the penis, also known as the phallus, is celebrated, annually, on every Sunday of the month of April in Kawasaki in Japan. It is called the Kanamara Matsuri.Festival. It is a major tourist attraction, big-sized penis as its main symbol. And why do you think the Viagra is a very popular aphrodisiac, and the Kama Sutra is one of the best-selling books on sexual positions in the world?” “How come you seem to know so much about the role of the penis in evolutionary history? Let me tell you if you go and try any nonsense and you die in the process, I will not come anywhere near your funeral. What nonsense! You need to get closer to God.” “I will like to recommend yet one more book to you. A History of the Penis…” “Don’t bother. I am not interested. In fact, the Nigerian government should come up with a law banning the production and consumption of aphrodisiacs in Nigeria. They are focusing on sachet alcohol. They should also target all those small bottles of aphrodisiacs: Opa Eyin, Ginseng, Maca, Spanish Fly, Men Power, Kayan Mata, Wafekulaleyi, Burantashi, Ale, Kick and Start. The obsession with sexual performance in Nigeria is a threat to public health. Those things damage people’s organs. They are also responsible for the spread of rape in the country. An overcharged penis is bound to lose its mind.” “I think the Lagos government is already addressing the matter of rape. Or what do they even call it. They say it is not rape. They are talking about Domestic and

Late Igho Ubiribo Sexual Violence as criminal conduct.” “That is very good. But what I don’t quite understand is the Lagos State Government saying that any man that forces sex on his wife will be sent to jail for life. Life imprisonment. I just want them to ban the use of dangerous drugs by men who are seeking divine power or what did you call it? Life imprisonment for husbands will not work. For what? I am not surprised that even the wives and women in Lagos are also saying they don’t want that kind of law. I can bet that no married woman will report that kind of case except the marriage has already collapsed completely. No police station will attend to such a report. A husband raping his wife, because of no consent? Some of these men will just turn their attention to other women. The state should not cause problems in people’s homes. Love should be the foundation of marriage, not government proposing a law that is bound to be dead on arrival.” “I think they are serious about it.” “And I say they are serious over nothing. What God has put together, let no man put asunder. They should encourage men to love their wives, and wives to respect their husbands. That is what the Bible tells us in the Book of Ephesians. Husbands love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it… (Ephesians

5: 25). Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord. (Ephesians 5: 22). “When a wife asks her husband to get penis enlargement injections, is that also love?” “You are trying to twist what I said. But let me give you a recent example of love that I have in mind. Christian love. Take Professor Yemi Osinbajo, the former Vice President of Nigeria. He recently disclosed that when his wife stopped taking carbonated drinks years ago and switched to freshly squeezed orange juice daily, she started having serious headaches, and when they went for tests, they discovered that the juice she was taking was not well preserved. He was talking about food preservation, and avoiding food that is not fit for human consumption. He raised the point about how farmers and retailers use chemicals like calcium carbide and rat poison to preserve food.” “But that has nothing to do with love. He was talking about public health, and the need to protect the people from themselves and the harm that surrounds them. He was speaking as a statesman defending the public interest.” “His example proves my point about love. If he wasn’t paying attention to his wife’s health, he would not have been in a position to trace her strange headaches to the fresh juice that she switched to. Some men are so absent-minded, so distracted, they don’t know what goes on in their own homes. They are busy looking for sexual enhancement opportunities as a way to express love. Marital happiness deserves a better definition.” “Life is a matter of perspective. You are here quoting the Bible. Are you aware that one politician in the North has told women that if any of their husbands prevents them from voting for the ruling APC in the 2027 election, or he divorces them, they should leave such a man, he would pay their bride price and marry them. You are here saying what God has joined together. Do you know that some women could take the man seriously, vote for the APC, and leave their husbands?” “That is the Yobe State APC Chairman. And that would be a woman who has been looking for an opportunity to leave her husband. But the man has since apologized, after his comment drew widespread protest and outrage. He said he was joking. But his joke says something far more serious about the crisis of kakistocracy in Nigeria. Many of our politicians do not know what to say, how to say it, and when they have vomited strange things, they would claim that they were quoted out of context, or that the report of their misconduct was AI-generated. The truth is that they do not know any better. Five months to the election, many of the politicians pretending to be campaigning have been busy issuing threats.” “Some of the parties do not even have any manifesto.

They want to win elective positions, but they have no idea what exactly what they want to do. Our democracy remains at the level of an experiment.” “In Ebonyi, the state Governor, Francis Nwifuru openly threatened elected local council Chairmen. He told them that if the APC should lose in any of the local council areas, the Chairman purportedly elected by the people, will be removed. We will remove you from office if the APC loses in your area, he said. One of the newly inaugurated Chairmen took the threat so seriously, he too went to his Local Government Area, Ohaukwu LGA, and warned opposition politicians to stay away from the LGA, otherwise the person or persons will be treated as an enemy. How then can we have free, fair and credible elections if the politicians are full of so much bile? We really need an Electoral Offences Commission to deal with electoral offenders.” “You are the one preaching love. There is no love anywhere in this country. Have you not heard Donald Duke, former Governor of Cross River State and the Presidential candidate of the PRP saying that politicians do human sacrifice to help them elongate the size of their votes? Nigerians are desperate about whatever would give them an advantage. That is the way we are.” “The biggest shock I had during the weekend, was a statement attributed to veteran actor Chief Pete Edochie saying no man should allow his wife to be the one that would feed him, and that should any man find himself in that situation, he should just commit suicide. He said kpai, otherwise, the man should be prepared to take insults.” “Pa Edochie is a veteran husband. He has been in the business for 57 years. He is an African elder. He knows that the man should be the head of the House. He is old school.” “But the times have changed. We should always preach love because love conquers all. Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy. It does not boast. It is not proud. It does not dishonor others. It is not self-seeking. I Corinthians 13: 4 -8” “Pa Pete Edochie was not speaking about the Corinthians, please. He is an African realist.” “But what the elder does not know is that most of the boys of today are actually looking for wives that will feed them. An emerging generation of lazy husbands, adult boys. They are all over. Their wives work and maintain the home. Every day, their wives go out to find fortune for the family, these boys sit at home, playing with toys. There has been a reversal of everything and every value that our elders once held dear.” “Sad” “Shocking.”

refined petroleum products fell 23 percent in a single month between April and May 2026 as the refinery reached full capacity. A market that international trading houses such as Vitol, Trafigura and Gunvor had harvested for decades as a reliable source of tanker demand is, according to BIMCO’s chief shipping analyst, experiencing changes that may prove “permanent in some dimensions.” For Nigerian consumers, the practical experience has been a petrol price that, while still subject to global oil market volatility, is no longer set by the foreign exchange cost of importing refined product from European or American refineries. That structural shift from price-taker to pricesetter has not eliminated fuel cost pressures in Africa’s most populous economy, but it has fundamentally altered their origin. One wonders why Nigeria is still importing refined products.

the Nigerian Exchange with no minimum subscription designed to exclude retail participation. For a generation of Nigerians who watched the fuel import economy transfer value from the naira to European trading houses, the opportunity to own equity in the institution that ended that transfer is not purely a financial calculation. It is something closer to an act of economic citizenship.

AFRICA BUILT THIS. NOW IT MUST OWN IT with a Chinese consortium for yet another Port Harcourt and Warri rehabilitation. Independent experts, including the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association, publicly questioned the wisdom of this path, noting that no previous iteration of the same cycle had produced a different outcome. This is the context in which Aliko Dangote built his refinery.

THE MAN WHO DID WHAT GOVERNMENTS COULD NOT Aliko Dangote’s trajectory follows a pattern he has executed across nearly every major commodity sector in Nigeria. Identify what the country cannot produce domestically, build the production capacity and own the market. The logic is elegant in its simplicity and brutally difficult in its execution. He built Dangote Sugar into one of the world’s largest refineries of its kind. He constructed the Obajana Cement Plant in Kogi State, the largest cement facility in sub-Saharan Africa. He holds approximately 86 percent of Dangote Cement. He did not merely identify a market opportunity with the refinery. He identified a sovereign failure and deployed more than $20 billion of his own and borrowed capital to correct it, in a country where the state had tried and failed to do the same thing with public money for six consecutive decades. The refinery’s financing structure itself is a study in institutional complexity: NNPC injected $1 billion for a 7.24 percent equity stake; a syndicate of domestic and international banks contributed roughly $5.5 billion in commercial debt. More than $2.5 billion of that commercial debt has already been repaid. NNPC’s $1 billion stake is now worth approximately $2.9 billion at the IPO valuation, nearly a threefold return on public capital. The facility that emerged from this investment is without precedent on the African continent. Located on 2,635 hectares at Ibeju-Lekki, it operates the world’s largest single-train refinery. It is powered by a dedicated 435-megawatt power plant, itself a significant standalone energy facility. Its integrated port infrastructure handles supertankers. Its polypropylene plant produces 900,000 tonnes of plastic feedstock annually, reducing Nigeria’s dependence on imported polymer materials.

FROM EMBARRASSMENT TO EXPORT CHAMPION The refinery reached its full nameplate capacity of 650,000 barrels per day in February 2026. Within two months, it had done something that no analyst had anticipated on this timeline: it became the world’s single largest exporter of aviation fuel. When Middle Eastern geopolitical tensions disrupted traditional jet fuel supply chains in early 2026 with concerns over the Strait of Hormuz (through which nearly one-fifth of the world’s oil supply moves) pushed buyers to search

for alternative sources, it was the Dangote refinery in Lagos that filled the gap. According to S&P Global Commodities at Sea data, the facility exported a record 158,000 barrels per day of aviation fuel in April 2026, a 770 percent increase from the same period two years prior. South Africa entered discussions for a 12-month supply contract. Dangote products reached Vitol and Sunoco in the United States, the first Nigerian-refined petroleum to meet US motor fuel standards. Cargoes arrived at ports in the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. The European Union’s data showed that Nigeria’s seaborne refined petroleum exports to Europe surged approximately 767 percent year-on-year in the second quarter of 2026, reaching 130,000 barrels per day, driven overwhelmingly by Dangote’s production. The refinery’s CEO, David Bird, who previously ran Singapore’s Pulau Bukom refinery, described the operational philosophy plainly: “This is not a traditional refinery in an oil-producing country that just sits on the end of a crude pipeline and processes one crude. This is a fully merchant refining model that you could see in Europe or Asia.” That model is already demonstrating its flexibility. The facility currently refines approximately 40 crude grades and is building toward 100-plus crude varieties, comparable to Pulau Bukom’s 130. It has tested at 700,000 barrels per day, exceeding nameplate capacity. Its management reports that with improved storage infrastructure, output could reach 100 million litres per day.

THE PRICE QUESTION Critics have raised the spectre of monopoly pricing and the fear that a single entity controlling domestic fuel supply could extract rent from a captive market. The documented pricing record of the past eighteen months offers a substantive answer to that concern. In 2025 alone, the refinery reduced its petrol gantry prices on eight separate occasions, raising them only twice, each increase tied to documented global crude market movements. It introduced a 30-day interest-free credit facility for Nigerian airline operators struggling with foreign exchange volatility. It shifted aviation fuel sales from dollar-denominated to naira transactions to reduce pressure on Nigeria’s foreign exchange market. It committed N720 billion to deploy 4,000 compressed natural gas-powered trucks for nationwide fuel distribution, a logistics investment that absorbs transport costs from the supply chain at no charge to marketers, with analysts estimating annual consumer savings of N1.7 trillion. If consumers ever needed a subsidy on fuel, this is the kind of subsidy they needed. The downstream impact has been structural. By mid2025, Nigerian refined fuel imports had already declined 39 percent year-on-year. West African imports of clean

THE CAPITAL MARKET TRANSFORMATION The IPO that opens on September 14 arrives in a Nigerian capital market that has been quietly experiencing its own transformation. The Nigerian Exchange Group’s All-Share Index recorded a 51 percent return in 2025, among the highest for any major exchange globally. The market’s year-to-date return through late August 2026 stands at 53.38 percent. Market capitalisation has reached N155.82 trillion. Into this market, the Dangote Refinery will enter at a valuation of approximately $47 billion, equal to roughly 40 percent of the entire pre-listing market capitalisation of the Nigerian Exchange. The immediate structural consequence is without precedent in African capital market history. A single entity, larger than any stock currently trading on the NGX, larger than Dangote Cement, Airtel Africa, and MTN Nigeria combined, will become available for purchase by any Nigerian with a bank account and a CSCS clearing code. The timing intersects with a broader global rerating of the Nigerian market. FTSE Russell announced that Nigeria would rejoin its Frontier Market Index on September 21, 2026, having been removed in 2023 over foreign exchange liquidity concerns. The reclassification, which will become effective seven days after the Dangote IPO opens, will trigger mandatory reallocation by global tracker funds and frontier-market ETFs into Nigerian equities, sending passive international capital into the same market the refinery is entering as a public company. Meristem Securities has reported a fivefold increase in new trading account openings this year, driven almost entirely by Nigerians seeking to participate in the Dangote offering. The practical access structure is deliberately inclusive: shares are priced at N525, dividends will be payable in US dollars from the refinery’s export revenues for investors who prefer dollar returns, and the offering is available on

THE WIDER ARCHITECTURE OF AMBITION The September 14 listing is not the end of the story. It may not even be its most consequential chapter. Under its Vision 2030 strategy, Dangote Industries aims to generate $100 billion in annual revenue by the end of this decade, requiring between $40 and $45 billion in new investments across the continent. The expansion plans for the Lagos refinery alone are staggering. Dangote has announced plans to double capacity from 650,000 to 1.4 million barrels per day, a scale that would surpass India’s Jamnagar complex and make it the largest refinery in the world by any measure. The expansion will upgrade fuel production from Euro V to Euro VI standards, aligning the facility with the most stringent global environmental benchmarks. It will add a 750,000-metric-tonne-per-year propane dehydrogenation plant that converts imported LPG into polypropylene, deepening Nigeria’s petrochemical value chain. Power generation at the site will expand from 500 to 1,000 megawatts. Beyond Nigeria, the group has finalised plans for a 700,000-barrel-per-day refinery on Kenya’s Lamu coast - a $16 to $17 billion project that will serve East Africa’s entire fuel demand, with surplus for export, upon completion. Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda have been offered a combined 30 percent equity stake worth approximately $1.5 billion, turning governments into shareholders with aligned interests in the project’s success. Groundbreaking is expected in late September or October 2026. The Nairobi Securities Exchange CEO confirmed in June that Dangote had approached multiple African exchanges about a potential pan-continental listing of the refinery group. The architecture of this ambition is worth pausing over. The Lagos refinery was designed as a national champion. The Kenya refinery is being designed, from its first share certificate, as a continental one. That evolution from national industrial policy to pan-African industrial strategy represents something that has not previously existed: an African private sector actor building infrastructure at a scale and geographical reach that begins to rival the largest state-backed development projects anywhere in the world. •Bashir Yusuf Ibrahim is the CEO of Bullion Resources Limited and can be reached at bashir.ibrahim@post.harvard.edu

THISDAY • TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 8, 2026

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SIERRA LEONEAN EX-LEADER, ERNEST BAI KOROMA ENDS EXILE, RETURNS TO FREETOWN...

L-R: Nigeria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Amb. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu; former President Olusegun Obasanjo; and ex-Sierra Leonean leader, Ernest Bai Koroma, when the latter returned to Freetown, after over two years exile in Nigeria, on Sunday

TUESDAY WITH REUBENABATI abati1990@gmail.com

The Nigerian Killed By His Penis “B rother, how now? How was your weekend?” “Basically, a weekend of shocks” “What could possibly be shocking you? Life is for the living. Live it as it comes. Don’t take anything to heart.” “No, that’s not what I mean. I tried to catch up on the news over the weekend, and some of the things I read were just unbelievable” “Ha. What have we not seen? What have we not heard? Nothing shocks me anymore, be it in politics or human behaviour. It is a crazy world, and it will forever remain so apparently.” “You can say that again. What can be crazier than the story of that Nigerian who went to Thailand to take penis enlargement injections, accompanied by his wife, one Daniella Simba Allen whom he married in 2022.” “He is a British-Nigerian, Igho Tiny Ubiribo, a businessman and an influencer, and his wife is from Zimbabwe. This is why I am always very skeptical about allowing your

Late Igho Ubiribo child to grow up abroad, and to even marry a foreigner. Some of these foreign women can put their men under

pressure, until the man ends up in the grave. Have you seen a picture of that Daniella? I can bet that she was created on a Sunday, the seventh day, while God rested, and so she is well-sculpted, perfectly made, so perfectly that any man will do the forbidden.” “Nonsense. No woman is worth the risk of wilful suicide. And by the way, the. man is not a child. He was 43 years old. He took himself to the hospital. They gave him hyaluronic acid (40 millilitres of that) and lidocaine. Then he and his Daniella went for a massage, where he started complaining of chest pain, lost consciousness before dying of pulmonary embolism. He wasted his life” “He wanted to please his wife. In fact, I hear some men now do operations to increase the size of their scrotums too to boost their self-esteem.” “Those are very stupid men. The fact that you can afford to pay for stupidity does not mean you should invest in it. Your brother Igho spent about $9, 000 to get the injections, he didn’t even get a chance to test it.”

“He died in March. So why is anybody bringing up the matter now? But at least he got a glorious burial. He was buried in a gold coffin worth over $745,000.” “The announcement of his death may have been delayed because of the Coroner’s Report which may have taken some time. He is dead. The wife is alive. The man left behind a $1.1 million home in Los Angeles, and a $600, 000 apartment in London. Now that he is gone, the wife will most likely sit on everything. And in less than a year, she may move on with another man, another victim, using the man’s wealth to get what she wants. People need to be educated that no man or woman should enlarge anything to please a partner. Accept yourself the way God has made you.” “You are preaching because one man died trying to redesign his anatomy. Women do it too. They do boobs job, they upgrade their derriere from a Volkswagen range Continued on page 31

BASHIRYUSUFIBRAHIM SPECIAL REPORT

Africa Built This. Now It Must Own It

N

igeria’s Dangote Petroleum Refinery, the largest in the world, opens to public investors this week. It is the most consequential bet on African industrial sovereignty in a generation. The continent cannot afford to sit it out. On a September morning in 2026, something remarkable will happen in the Lekki Free Trade Zone on the outskirts of Lagos. A bell will ring, a ticker will move, and for the first time in the history of the African continent, ordinary citizens of a developing nation will have the opportunity to purchase equity in a refinery capable of processing more crude oil in a single day than many sovereign nations produce in a week. The Dangote Petroleum Refinery, a 650,000-barrel-perday colossus that tested at 700,000 barrels per day during performance trials in June, is opening its initial public offering on September 14, 2026, at N525 per share. Regulators at Nigeria’s Securities and Exchange Commission approved the offering last week, clearing 4.1 billion ordinary shares at a price that values the enterprise at approximately $47 billion. If fully subscribed, the offering will raise N2.15 trillion, or roughly $1.55 billion, the largest share sale in

(an African-built, African-financed, privately owned industrial giant at the scale of the world’s great refining hubs) asks ordinary Nigerians to become its shareholders. It is, in the language of political economy, a referendum on whether African industrial ambition can translate into African financial inclusion. The answer to that referendum will reverberate far beyond Lagos.

THE SIXTY-YEAR FAILURE

Alhaji Aliko Dangote African capital market history by a significant margin. This is not merely a capital market event. It is the moment when a project that many said was impossible

To understand what the Dangote Refinery represents, one must first understand what preceded it. Nigeria, an OPEC member, holder of the largest proven crude oil reserves on the African continent, spent six decades exporting its crude and importing its fuel. That era, one of the defining humiliations of post-colonial African economic history, is over. But its price was staggering. The country’s four state-owned refineries built between the 1960s and 1980s became the emblem of that failure. According to a House of Representatives investigation, Nigeria spent approximately N11.35 trillion between 2010 and 2020 on rehabilitation, operations, and associated costs

on these dinosaurs. In US dollar terms, estimates put the total rehabilitation spending since 1999 alone at more than $5.3 billion, with some analysts placing the aggregate waste over two decades closer to $25 billion. What did Nigeria receive for this expenditure? The Port Harcourt Refinery, rehabilitated at a cost of $1.5 billion and reopened with fanfare by President Tinubu in November 2024, shut down again within six months. The Warri Refinery, recommissioned on December 30, 2024 and described by the president as “a remarkable achievement,” failed to produce meaningful petrol output and was shut down barely a month after its public launch. The Kaduna facility, having consumed hundreds of millions in rehabilitation funds, has offered similarly disappointing results. The cycle of announcement, contract, commissioning, celebration, silence and shutdown has repeated itself through five administrations with what the Daily Trust described as “clockwork regularity.” And still, as recently as April 2026, Nigeria’s national oil company signed yet another memorandum of understanding Continued on page 31

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