TheNewsGuru

Author: Godwin Etakibuebu

  • Uromi 16: What if they are not hunters? Part 2 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Uromi 16: What if they are not hunters? Part 2 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    In part one of this intervention, which was published early in the week, effort was devoted to searching for some missing links, which the author believes, if found, could make the story of the Sixteen Fulani hunters that were lynched at Uromi, in Edo State, on March 27, 2025, a more understandable presentation. 

    In so doing, the author is just putting up a good show of coming into conformity with our own Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “danger of a single story”, because until now the story of the Sixteen Fulani hunters have been presented from “a narrow line” point of view. 

    For example, until this intervention, the story had remains within the single lane context of “innocent hunters, of Northern Nigerian extraction”, returning from Rivers State, where they practised their hunting skill, and heading to their State of origin in Kano, for the Sallah festival, were ambushed and killed, just like that, at Uromi, in Edo State.

    Whereas there must be two sides to each coin, but here, in this event, the Nigerian Security Community did not care to look for the other side of the narration, at least if only for the purpose of balancing the trajectory. 

    It is this failure, by the Nigerian Security Architecture, in balancing things that prompted this investigative and reportage intervention. 

    However, let it be repeated here again, that whatever lost link, or links, this adventure can restore into this voyage of discovery, the fact of condemning the extrajudicial killing of those hunters in Uromi, ditto of any Nigerian anywhere, remains sacrosanct, and this it is for ever. Now, let us move to looking for the missing links, please.

    In Part One of this work [you can download it from my website [www.godwintheguru.org] we were able to establish three routes through which travellers coming out of Rivers State, by road, can go through in arriving Kano State, and the conclusion was drawn that the one road that passes through Uromi/Ubiaja is the least most attractive route to follow. And the reasons were well articulated in the previous work.

    Now, let us beam our light on other missing links that, if properly probed, could associate these men to other ventures – which might include kidnapping probably. 

    One, at the place and point the Vigilante Group apprehended them, it was confirmed by eyewitnesses, that the “hunters” were the first to show sign of aggression. And this was when one of the Vigilante men attempted boarding the vehicle to conduct a thorough search on what the cargoes in the vehicle were. Such simple exercise was resisted by the hunters. And one of them – the hunters, drew a dagger [knife] and stabbed the Vigilante man.

    Two, it was said that there were bags, or sacks, fully loaded with Naira Notes inside the vehicle that was conveying the hunters, and this was attested to by Abubakar Shehu, 20, one of the hunters who survived the deadly encounter, when he spoke to the BBC Pidgin program. 

    We might want to agree that the technology of differentiating Naira Notes collected from sales of bushmeat, and Naira Notes collected from ransom payment might not be available to the Vigilante Group at that point in time. 

    Three, the dilemma of guns loaded in the hunters’ conveying vehicle – be they Dane, Local, Double Barrel or Automatic Raffles, would mislead, even Professional Armourers in arriving the conclusion of what such “equipment of mass destruction” were meant for. If such evaluation would be a debacle for Armament Professionals, then a Ragtag Vigilante Group – ill-trained and ill-equipped, could easily be forgiven about what its opinion of such cache was.  

     Four, we need to go through the story, or testimony, of the driver of the conveying Truck, whom unfortunately, was never identified by name. We shall thereafter return to evaluate all he said, as such would be a very good exercise in helping to have some of those missing links in place. Read his account below:

    The truck driver who survived the lynching of 16 travellers of Kano State extraction, by a vigilante group in Uromi, Edo State, has recounted the harrowing experience, refuting claims that the incident was tribal-related.

    The incident occurred in the early hours of Friday when the travellers, believed to be hunters, were journeying from Port Harcourt, Rivers State, to Kano for the Eid-el-Fitr celebration.

    The truck driver, whose name was not revealed in a viral video circulating online, stated that he was transporting Dangote Group’s goods to Obajana in Kogi State when he encountered the hunters at Elele, seeking a ride to the northern part of the country.

    “I initially refused to give them a ride because it was against my company’s policy. But after driving for about two kilometres, I felt guilty for abandoning them. After all, they are my fellow Northerners from Kano State, so I went back and picked them up,” the driver said.

    According to him, the journey was peaceful until they arrived at Uromi, where they were stopped by a vigilante group. The leader of the vigilante allegedly questioned the driver about his cargo and the identity of his passengers. Despite presenting the waybill for the goods, the vigilante commander reportedly expressed suspicion about the hunters, particularly due to their weapons and dogs aboard the truck.

    “He said he (Vigilante Leader) didn’t trust them and demanded they come down. As soon as the crowd saw their guns and dogs, they attacked us,” the driver narrated. “The commander told the crowd that we were kidnappers and Boko Haram, and they started beating us mercilessly.”

    The driver, alongside two others identified as Haruna, an older man, and a younger man, were reportedly handcuffed by the vigilante commander and taken to a nearby police station. The vigilante informed the police that they had captured suspected kidnappers, leading to their immediate detention.

    “By the time he went back to the scene, the mob had already killed 16 people,” the driver revealed, his voice filled with anguish.

    He, however, categorically dismissed suggestions that the incident was a tribal clash.  “This was not a tribal clash”. 

    Let us interrogate his narration.

    He said he met the hunters at Elele, on his way from Port Harcourt in Rivers State, to Obajana in Kogi State, conveying cargoes belonging to his employer – Dangote Cement. He also admitted that he refused to pick them – the hunters, because such act was against the Rules and Regulations of his employment. He drove away, without picking them, according to his admission, until after 2 kilometres, when he developed guilty conscience of not helping his brothers from the North, that he turned back to go and pick them, without consideration for the cost of diesel.

    This and more were his admission. To balance our evaluation of his presentation, it would be befitting to use what he did not say to interrogate what he said the perimeter of his presentation. And what are those things that he did not say?

    The driver refused to tell us what the negotiation between him and the hunters was when he first met them at Elele before driving off without carrying them. Could it be about the price of transportation offered by the hunters? Or could it be the types of loads he discovered with the hunters, e.g guns, dogs and money? Or his suspicion that these people might not be hunters, but instead, looked like bandits/kidnappers?

    Then on returning back, to pick his Northern brothers after his conscience pronounced him guilty, according to his confession, could the decision be based on the quantum of the money offered by the hunters, ab initio? 

    Then, most importantly, can this driver say emphatically that he did not see the contents of those cargoes – guns, dogs and money, being loaded into his Truck at the point of loading? 

    Profiled and seasoned Police Investigators I worked with in my younger days as an investigative journalist, would have asked him – I mean the driver, to “renavigate his story”. But, most unfortunately, such asset of vigour and deep-rooted investigation of those good olden days are gone with the wind. I missed them even as l write this piece.

    The last and final attempt of laying hand on, yet another missing link on this saga remains the prevailing atmosphere of criminality – albeit notorious kidnapping by Fulani herdsmen around that zone of Uromi and environs before the 16 hunters arrived Uromi.  

    Permit me to repeat the story I told in Part One of this exercise early this week, about the Kidnap of a pregnant woman, under severe labour pain, being escorted by her husband to another village maternity home in the middle of the night. The woman delivered inside the forest the Fulani Terrorist kidnappers took her and her husband into. Immediately after delivering, their kidnappers fed the newborn baby and the placenta to their dogs, and continued the trek further into the forest, kept them there until huge ransom was paid.

    A fallout of this venture was the fact that the couple kept the memory of their abductors in them.

    This saddest event in the annals of human history happened within the Uromi axis of Edo State, not too long before the “arrival of these strange hunters” from Rivers State. And that is if they were hunters actually and coming from Rivers State really.

    Another pointer of this author’s swagger in looking for the last circle of the missing link would be the Igueben train station kidnapping, which took place on January 8, 2023, where 32 people – including some Station’s personnel, were taken away into the forest by the Fulani Terrorists. A woman, with her baby later escaped from the kidnappers, and this woman, plus many others that came out of captivity after ransom had been paid, carried with them memory of those kidnappers that tormented them savagely in the forest. 

    There are revealing facts that due to the frequency of kidnapping in this axis of Edo State before, some locals – including some of those kidnapped victims of the immediate past, were able to identify some of the hunters as kidnappers in previous kidnapping operation. 

    If this is to be true, which can be confirm through diligence investigative work by Nigerian Security Agencies, then the route to where we arrived, at Uromi, in Edo State, on that bloodsucking day of March 29, 2025, would have fully been identified – fait accompli.

    Permit me, ipso facto, to close this interrogation with these two beautifully exciting questions:

    What if the Uromi 16 were not hunters? What if the journey of these so-called hunters did not originate from Rivers State? 

  • Uromi 16: What if they are not hunters? Part 1 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Uromi 16: What if they are not hunters? Part 1 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Every normal human being would condemn extra-judicial killing at any given time. Those that are empowered by the Nigerian Constitution to secure lives and properties, even when investigating crimes and suspected criminals, are never authorised by any law of the land to kill until a court of competent jurisdiction so pronounces. 

    It is based on this fact of the sanctity of life that the hacking to death of Sixteen Nigerians at Uromi, in Edo State, South/South Nigeria a few days ago was most unfortunate

    We have been told that these 16 people were, in the first instance, Nigerians, precisely of Northern Nigerian extraction, and now identified as from Kano – a Nigerian State. They are most likely to be of the Fulani extraction. Really, the tribe they belong does not matter much. They are human beings, and Nigerians.

    In addition, we have been told that they were [I used the word “were” because they are now dead] hunters – that carried out their hunting expenditure in Rivers State – another Nigerian State and returning back home – from Rivers State to Kano State, for the Sallah festival. 

    Then along the line of their returning back from their legitimate and legal place of operations, they met their waterloo, somewhere at Uromi, where some people; members of the Edo State Government’s constituted Vigilante Group, on stopping the vehicle conveying the hunters, for the usual routine search, disagreed with the identity they – the hunters, presented to the Vigilante Group.

    It was at the process of identification debacle that misunderstanding, and maybe hot exchange of arguments led to fracas that eventually to the deaths of the unfortunate Sixteen out of the Twenty hunters that were on the voyage home for celebration. And the manner of the death itself was cruel and barbaric, as the 16 were reported to have been lynched.

    And a type of hell – that is looking more destructive than the Tsunami of December 26, 2004, had broken loose since then.  This writer’s fear, ditto many Nigerians, is that while the Tsunami of 2004, killed at least 250,000 people within the areas of Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, and Thailand, the Nigerian Hunter’s story, if not properly handled, might consume millions.

    Where do we go from here? Or, more succinctly, how can we avert the looming holocaust? 

    Permit me to submit that the trajectory of the narration of this sad voyage should be re-properly navigated. And this should be done within fabrics of sanitised wisdom – the type of wisdom that would travel with two good companions, knowledge and understanding.

    I depose that there are few questions we need to find cogent answers to – even if that will make us to play the devil’s advocate here. This is necessary because I am of the opinion that there are some crucial missing links here. Let us identify those missing links, as they might just be the SOLUTION needed to avoid the incoming Tsunami.     Ipso facto, let us ask this first major question.

    What if they are not hunters? 

    This is the most difficult question that can bring to the open the mysterious missing key to unlock this puzzle. We shall therefore call on Security Agencies to disband the Military’s mentality of “destroying first before asking question”. This is necessary because we have seen it over and over – at Zaki Biam of Benue State, in October of 2001, Odi in Bayelsa State and of recently, the Okuoma Community in Delta State.

    Have our Security Agencies, in a properly grilled investigation functions, been able to ascertain that these hunters were really in Rivers State for the past one year and were there as hunters? Such investigations would have facts of their movements, their places of abode in Rivers State [not living in some forests], their neighbours’ testimony [in the city or the village they were domiciled while the hunting venture lasted and a few more questions.

    Our Security Agencies should be able to tell Nigerians also the types of Licence they – the hunters, procured for those so-called “Dane guns”, because if the truth is to be told, Dane gun kills as automatic rifle kills. 

    Yet there is more to be done.

    Isn’t it suspicious that hunters in Kano State, would make a decision of hunting adventure, and choose Rivers State for the actualisation, considering the distance, and more importantly, when they are not going for fishing adventure? Do fishermen go fishing with guns, or with hooks, spears [for sharks] and nets? Is the narration on this outlet not nebulous and curious.

    Why did these hunters choose the route of Uromi/Ubiajia to travel to Kano when there are alternative routes which are shorter. Permit me to give an example here, please.

    The alternative route, which is longer than the Abia-through-Enugu route, is Port Harcourt → Delta → Edo → Kogi → Abuja → Kaduna → Kano through the A2 highway. This route does not pass through Uromi. Why?

    • Uromi is in Esan North-East LGA of Edo State, which is off the main A2 highway.
    • The A2 highway passes through Benin City (Edo State capital) and continues toward Auchi, then into Kogi State (Lokoja).
    • Uromi is farther east, near the Benin–Ekpoma–Agbor Road, not directly along the A2 highway. For someone to pass through Uromi, they would need to deviate from the A2 highway, which would add unnecessary travel time and distance.

    So, this writer asks the question again, what were they looking for on Uromi Road? Permit me again, to introduce another route these gentlemen hunters would have passed.

    Yes, it’s possible to travel by road from Rivers State to Kano State without passing through Delta and Edo States, by taking a route that goes through Bayelsa, Imo, and then through the states of the North-East. 

    Here is a more detailed route: 

    Start: Rivers State (e.g., Port Harcourt)

    Go through: Bayelsa State

    Continue through: Imo State

    Then through: Anambra State

    Then through: Kogi State

    Then through: Bauchi State

    Then through: Jigawa State

    Finally arrive in: Kano State 

    Let me stop this intervention here, for now at least. This is not to say that I have brought out the totality of the missing link in its fullest. 

    No, but there is need for a break so that the story might not be too long for my readers – as that could bring in boredom. So, let us be on recess, or we can call it coffee break, for just Seventy-Two hours.

    In the second and final part of this intervention, we shall be looking at other missing links of these 20 hunters and the route they chose to pass which shouldn’t have been, if . . .

    Also, as of most important point we need, and even, must direct our searchlight on, would remain the prevailing situations around the Uromi environment many mouths before the down of Armageddon.

    Just a teaser:

    A few days before the doomsday of March 27, 2025, a kidnap operation was carried out, allegedly, by Fulani herders, within the Uromi Community. The victims were a man and his pregnant wife – the woman/wife was in labour pain, and both were on their way to a local village maternity – and this was at midnight, when the kidnappers got them. 

    The obvious labour condition of the woman did not appeal to the conscience [do they really have conscience?] of the wicked kidnappers. Both husband and wife were marched into the forest. And while they were on the march, delivery happened. Inside the forest. And what next? 

    These alleged Fulani kidnappers fed the newly born child to their dogs while the mother and father of the baby were looking. Could there be any calamity larger than that on the earth.

    Above is just a teaser amongst too many things that played out, within the hostile visibility of an endangered community of Uromi before the Doomsday – this and more are coming your way after this break!

  • Goodluck Jonathan and others spoke to an un-listening president and his unelected vice – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Goodluck Jonathan and others spoke to an un-listening president and his unelected vice – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    First, I have it a duty to simplify the above captioned topic to enable readers’ understanding. This need to be done before embarking on the actual journey of producing the full body of this piece.

    The President named here as un-listening is Bola Ahmed Tinubu. That he is not listening is not a false allegation against him. Nigerians would be willing to testify that their own elected President would never listen to them – he does it as it pleases him, and not as his people would have wanted. 

    And the unelected vice-president under reference here could not have been Kashim Shettima, whom Nigerians elected as the 15th Vice-Present of the Federal Republic, and sworn in with his principal, on May 29, 2023, to take charge of our country. 

    Instead, the unelected vice-president under discussion here is Nyesom Wike – immediate past governor of Rivers State, and now Minister of the Federal Capital Territory. He, Nyesom Wike, became so-known, through a perfidious means of political coup-de-tat, The route he chose tallied with some of the theories of President Bola Tinubu himself. Only two examples would be okay here.

    While in Abeokuta, campaigning for the APC Primary’s ticket, Bola Tinubu made a very bold pronouncement of “Emi l’okan”, meaning “It Is My Turn”. He meant, by that statement, that it was his turn to become president of Nigeria. That was September 13, 2022. And he became.

    Then leaving the Chatham House, in the United Kingdom, the presidential candidate of the APC, as he was then, told members of his Party, in a properly media-covered outing, that “Political power is not going to be serve in a restaurant. They don’t serve it a la carte. At all costs, fight for it, grab it and run with it.” That was December 8, 2022. And he fought for it, grabbed it, and ran away with what he grabbed to become the president.

    One man that was not with him in Abeokuta; where he declared that it was his turn, and also not with him after the Chatham House show in London, where he taught his followers to steal – sorry, to grab and run away with what is grabbed, but got the meaning of the two messages clearly was the tten governor of Rivers State, Nyesom Wike. 

    The man, Wike, as of the time Bola Tinubu was establishing his school of “grabbing and running away with peoples’ properties”, has had a fixated eyes on the latter’s achievement as Lagos State governor. And he had studied two major things about the man – Bola Tinubu and had decided to follow his examples to the fullest.

    Those two things that Wike chosen to pick from Tinubu were: 

    1. How the man was able to conquer Lagos and turned the whole State to his personal property, or his Estate. I think, in my opinion, Wike admired the technique the Asiwaju used in having permanent grip on who the future governor of the State would be as long as he [Tinubu] remains alive. 
    2. The second thing Wike inherited from understudying the Jagaban, again, in my opinion, was that Bola Tinubu, as a governor. never tolerated “second-in-command”, or what we call Deputy Governorship. Reality was that during his two tenures as governor, Tinubu changed his deputy governors the same way and manner one changes his/her underwear. 

    Though Wike liked this formula, he however adopted it with wisdom, deferring its adaptation till the future, at a time for presidency’s place of operation, because he – Wike, had a very romantic and robust relationship with his deputy throughout his two tenures as a governor. 

    Nysom Wike went to work immediately in acquiring all the political structures in Rivers State, as the 2023 General Election was approaching. He first of all selected all those that he wanted to run for all available political offices in Rivers State. These included all members of the State House of Assembly, the one person he has chosen to become his successor as a governor, the 3 Seats for the Senate and all members going to the House of Representative, at the National Assembly.

    He took a further step by purchasing the needed political Party forms to enable contenders to contest for the elections, filled all the forms and filed same with INEC. He did and paid for everything. Wike confessed to all these publicly later. 

    Having secured the State under his political briefcase, he turned to make a deal with the man he believed may be winning the incoming election controversially – Bola Tinubu. He assured him of allocating all votes in River State to him – albeit, to secure his presidential victory. Don’t forget in hurry that Bola Tinubu was a candidate of the APC.

    And at the same time, he made it known to Tinubu that the total votes in Rivers State that would be confirming his presidential ambition shall also be giving victory to all members of his own Political PARTY – the PDP, for the State House of Assembly, the Senate and the House of Representative. It was a master political Abracadabra that no Politician in Nigeria ever achieved except Nysom Wike. That victory itself tells the story of how that election was fully manipulated.

    At this point of the greatest political rigging that ever occurred in Nigeria, Wike was signed in as the unelected vice-president of the Federal Republic.

    I chose to take this lengthy but painful route of updating us about the “darkroom agenda thesis” that created the metaphor of Nysom Wike and Bola Tinubu. 

    Let us now fast forward to the Nigerian political crises that set sailing from the waters of Rivers State, which may push the whole country asunder, except God the Almighty intervenes.

    I think the ship of disaster, that has sailed out of Port Harcourt and speedily heading towards Abuja, has the potential of consuming all of us – and this is for many reasons. A few amongst them would be the fact that the 3 arms of government in Nigeria, vis-à-vis the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary, have been synchronised and fully syndicated into one demonic Occult – albeit against the Nigerian People, by the current Government.

    And the facilitators of this Demonic Agenda may not want to hear any other voice except the one of the commanding officers – the two masquerades. Because for now, thought of wiser men and women around the world community matters not to the duo. 

    What matters to them is the return of the economy and the political structures of Rivers State, and by extensions, the Oil economy of the Niger Delta geopolitical Zone, fully back to Wike in one hand, and the victory of the 2027 General Election is assured for President Bola Tinubu.

    This is where the Roforofo fight [to the glorious memory of Fela Anikulapo] and the tragedy of victory for democracy might have been incubated! 

    Now, fact remains that we cannot close this essay on one episode, but before we go to the second episode, which shall be following this, most promptly, there is need to garnish the body of the topic – Goodluck Jonathan and others spoke to un-listening president and his unelected vice, by quoting what the latter said, in speaking to the ongoing battle between  the Federal Government and against Rivers State.

    Read very carefully, with full assimilation, of President Goodluck Jonathan verdict on the matter below. I shall be returning swiftly with the second and last comment on this trajectory.

    The former Nigerian leader said, “We’re talking about building a society where no one is oppressed, as reflected in the top paragraph of our national anthem. As a former president, and also from the Niger Delta, when the issue of suspending the governor came out, I think people called on me, ‘President Jonathan you should say something.’

    “What is happening in Nigeria today regarding the situation in river states is like an Indian proverb that said that if somebody is sleeping, really sleeping, you can easily wake up that person. But if that person is pretending to sleep, you find it difficult to wake up that person. The key actors in Nigeria, from executives to the legislature, and the judiciary, they know the correct thing to do, but they are refusing to do it. They are pretending to sleep.

    “Waking such a person is extremely difficult, but the person knows the right thing. The clear abuse of offices, clear abuse of power, clear abuse of privileges, cutting across from the three arms of government, from the executive to the parliament to the judiciary. And I always plead with our people that whatever we do affects everybody.

    “No businessman can bring his money to invest in a country where the judiciary is compromised, where a government functionary can dictate to judges what judgment they will give. No man brings his money to invest in that economy because we are taking a big risk. So whatever we do affects everybody.

    “And if we want to build a nation where our children and our grandchildren, no matter how painful it is, we must strive to do what is right. It may cost us, but we must endeavour and pay the price to insist on doing what is right. Whether you are holding an executive office as a president, a minister, governor, or special advisor, executive, whether you are holding an office in the parliament, senate, or rep, whether you are a judicial officer in high courts or appellate courts, we must strive to do what is right.

    “If we want to build a nation that our children will be proud of. As we engage in these discussions, let us remember that promoting social change is not a one-time event, but a continuous process. It requires a sustained commitment, collective action, and unwavering dedication to the values that promote good governance.”

  • Wake up Nigerians – Another N7.74 trillion fuel subsidy fraud is here – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Wake up Nigerians – Another N7.74 trillion fuel subsidy fraud is here – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The news broke just a few days ago that the Downstream price war between the Dangote Refinery and the Federal Government owned Four Refineries – Port Harcourt Refineries [they are two there], Warri Refinery and the Kaduna Refinery, being operated on behalf of the latter by the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Limited, have pushed government fuel price further down to N774 per litre. 

    This became good news to Nigerians, and most of us celebrated it. Of course, who wouldn’t celebrate, since the Dangote Refinery, which is the alternative source of Premium Motor Spirit [PMS]; popularly known as fuel or petrol, supply to the Nigerian Market was selling at N860 per litre at the time the “good news of price reduction” came from the government.  

    However, that joy of celebration ought not to be, if facts of realities at play in the Nigerian petroleum industry are laid bay before the Nigerian People. I will say a few things quickly here that will enable us to understand why we shouldn’t have been rejoicing about the reduction in price by the NNPCL. 

    One, while Dangote Refinery refines Crude into PMS – and other products, at its Refinery, at Ibeju=Lekki in Lagos State, NNPL imports finished Petroleum product- PMS, from abroad, as it lacked full refining capacity.

    Two, every litre of fuel imported from abroad by the NNPCL is through licences issued by the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority [NMDPRA] to the Importer. It means the Importer imports on behalf of the NNPCL, and the NNPCL does all its operation on behalf of the Federal Government, exercising such “Power of Functions” under the Supervision of a Minister of Petroleum Resources, appointed by the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

    Ultimately ipso facto, the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria controls, with Full and Totalitarian Power of Authority, everything in the Nigerian Petroleum Industry – NNPC inclusive. 

    Not even the Petroleum Industry Bill [PIB] that brought the registration of the NNPC, at the Corporate Affairs Commission [CAC], that now makes it a Limited Liability – which is a mere legal jargon nomenclature, changed the true position of things for the NNPCL.

    The point being made here is that both the NNPCL and the Federal Government are same of the same face of the same coin – finito cascara.

    Now, let us go back to the issue of price reduction competition between the NNPCL and the Dangote Refinery, please.

    There are events that happened within the past two weeks that revealed the fraudulent presentations of the NNPCL over the “so-called price reduction”, which has shown very clearly how the NNPCL and the Federal Government, in an unholy conspiracy, have brought back regime of Fuel Subsidy. And this time around Nigeria is being expected to pay Fuel Subsidy of almost Eight Trillion Naira [N8tn]. When The Guru says Nigeria, he meant that Nigerians would pay for this monumental fraud of oil subsidy, introduced through the backyard.

    I must allow you to go through NNPCL personal presentation on how it incurred the sum of N7.74tn fuel subsidy debt, at a forum, that held about two weeks ago, which was widely reported by both the National and International Medial. Same is presented here below, under the caption:                                                                                                            xNNPCL work out N7.7tn fuel subsidy debt payment.

    The Federal Government’s indebtedness to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited as exchange rate differential (subsidy) for the importation of Premium Motor Spirit (petrol) rose to N7.74tn as of September 2024 when the deregulation of the downstream oil sector was fully implemented.

    This amount covers the cost of maintaining a specific price range in the retail market, despite acquiring the product at a higher rate between June 2023 and September 2024.

    This was disclosed in a presentation by the national oil company to the Federation Account Allocation Committee at its February meeting in Abuja. The Guru obtained a copy of the document.

    The FAAC document also revealed that the government is working out measures to settle the N7.74tn fuel subsidy debt within a period of 210 days.

    The PUNCH Newspaper reported in August last year that the NNPCL demanded a refund of N4.71tn from the government to settle outstanding debts used to import petrol.

    The claim, at the time, was listed as “Exchange rate differential on PMS and other joint venture taxes” on products imported by the company between August 2023 to June 2024.

    Exchange rate differentials refer to the income accrued to banks or government agencies from the difference in value between two currencies at different times through foreign exchange’s sale and purchase prices.

    For example, if one exchanges $1 for N1,600 today, and tomorrow you get $1 for N1,500, the exchange rate differential is the change between these two rates.

    The government supported fuel imports by covering the difference between the projected rate and the actual expenses incurred by the NNPCL for importing petroleum products into the country.

    This difference in cost, which ordinarily should be reflected in the retail price of the product and borne by final consumers, is the amount the national oil firm now seeks to recover from the government.

    An analysis of the document explained that the exchange rate differential for the period of July to September 2024 was estimated based on the Nigerian Autonomous Foreign Exchange Market rate.

    “Thus, the actual differentials may change in line with the prevailing forex (foreign exchange) rate at the time of import settlements.”

    The balance brought forward is the additional claim due to the actualisation of an estimated portion of 2017 to May 2023 PMS under-recovery.

    A breakdown showed that the total sum of the exchange rate differential due was N10.499tn, but N2.756tn was the exchange rate differential recovered between November 2023 and September 2024. This reduced the cumulative outstanding amount to N7.74tn.

    The document further remarked that the weighted average of purchased USD as of February 7, 2025, was applied. It added that payment is ongoing within 210 days.

    A month-by-month breakdown indicated that the debt with an outstanding balance of N1.29tn increased to N1.402tn in June 2023, N1.48tn in July 2023, N1.535tn in August, N1.59tn in September, and N1.81tn in October 2023.

    By November, these claims increased by N662.9bn to N2.378tn, and by another N616.38bn to N2.94tn in December 2023.

    The document further indicated that the figure increased to N3.57tn in January 2024, N3.96tn in February, N4.68tn in March, N5.81tn in April, N6.47tn in May, and N6.97tn as of June 2024.

    In July 2024, it increased to N7.46tn, N7.66tn in August, and N7.74tn in September 2024. The amount represents 14.07 per cent of the N54.99tn 2025 national budget. On May 29, 2023, during his inauguration, President Bola Tinubu publicly declared that “subsidy is gone,” signalling the end of barriers that had been restricting the nation’s economic growth.

    The International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, and other authoritative figures had argued that the government quietly reintroduced fuel subsidies. In June, a proposed economic stabilisation plan document stated that the government planned to spend about N5.4tn on fuel subsidies.

    An Energy Expert, Wunmi Iledare, was quoted as asking why the national oil firm was asking the government to cover its differentials when NNPCL sold oil in foreign currency on the government’s behalf. According to him, the NNPCL was supposed to pay royalties to the government like other oil companies.

    “If you look at the taxes paid by the international oil companies, they are tax oil which NNPCL sells on behalf of the government and gives the government the dollar. So, it is very difficult for me to understand why the Federal Government has to return any money to NNPCL.

     “Unless NNPCL is saying that it is the one funding the government in dollar equivalent, and since the government is changing the exchange rate to the tune of N1,500, the government cannot keep the windfall profit because the government now has more than when the exchange rate was N700,” Wunmi Iledare stated.

    The scholar added, “It is very difficult for me to comprehend the rationale because the government is the owner of the equity, the government owns the tax oil, and the government is the owner of the royalty oil that the NNPCL is selling on its behalf.

    “If the argument is about what they call under-recovery, that means NNPCL spent dollars on behalf of the government to import fuel, and the government is giving them the under-recovery in Naira, which I am not sure of. It is very complicated to understand. By the way, the Federal Government is not necessarily the owner of NNPCL. It is the federation that is the owner of the NNPCL.”

    Can you see now, in 2025, the fraud of fuel subsidy, which “ended in Nigeria on May 29, 2023, with a Presidential proclamation?”  

    As it was in the beginning, so it remains in a Nigeria without end! But I cannot say Amen.

  • Look how Bola Tinubu, with his political wizardry, brings Rivers to Lagos – Godwin Etakibuebu

    Look how Bola Tinubu, with his political wizardry, brings Rivers to Lagos – Godwin Etakibuebu

    Let us start with the similarities of the two situations before coming to the genesis, or the beginning of the voyage.

    In Port Harcourt, Rivers State, twenty-seven members of the State House of Assembly saw it, beautiful enough, to defect from the People Democratic Party [PDP] – a Political Party under which they were elected to office as Honourable Members of the State Assembly. 

    And the defectors did what they did glamorously, publicly and under a very widely covered showmanship; which was appropriately reported by both the Nigerian and International Press.

    Besides the deliberately orchestrated ceremony, the leadership of the opposing Political Party in Rivers State – the All Progressive Congress [APC], represented by the State Chairman; Tony Okocha, was at hand to receive the defectors, and so made a speech of welcoming the twenty-seven [defectors] from the PDP into the APC

    With the defection ceremony completely concluded, the PDP was left with only Four members in the Rivers State House of Assembly. It was the Four leftover of the State House of Assembly that the State Governor – Amaopusenibo Siminalaye Fubara, have been dealing with, in all legislative matters, till date.

    President Bola Tinubu knew this historical perspective before he brought his wizardry “political solution” to calm nerves down, between his godson – the man that gave him the presidential winning political ticket from Rivers State; former Governor Ezenwo Nyesom Wike, and the incumbent Governor of Rivers State, Siminalaye Fubara, in Abuja.

    The takeaway cache with which Bola Tinubu – the President, brought political solution to Rivers State was FOUR – 1,2,3,4, legislative members.

    Let us turn away from Rivers State and come down to Lagos State and anchor in its capital city – better known as Lagos, a city credited with Excellence. 

    Permit me to place it on record that the acronym of EXCELLENCE given to Lagos did not come during Bola Tinubu time as Governor. 

    No, the city earned that alias from the days of Brigadier General Mobolaji Olufunso Johnson; Military Governor of the State from May 1967 to July 1975. This is not to say that Ahmed Bola Tinubu, as governor of Lagos State did not perform excellently – yes, he did and added his touch to the ever-glowing and ever-glorious great Masterplan, that started from General Johnson, through that great Journalist of his time; Alhaji Lateef Kayode Jakande, before Bola Tinubu’s arrival.

    Can we now settle down to look at the Four-man legislative council solution that President Bola Tinubu brought to Lagos from Rivers?

    Back to Lagos State – where Bola Ahmed Tinubu had remained the political Lord Mayor of the Jungle, or the Alfa and Omega, since 1999, when he became the governor of the State, things have never fallen out of his personalised arrangement. He remains the godfather of Lagosian, and the people remain dedicated to him. He remains the Supreme Commander of his people.

    But by December 2024, even as a sitting president of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, he came home on holiday – at his sprawling Bourdillon house. There, he met with some leaders of his Political Party, the APC, the State Governor; Babajide Sanwo-Olu; the Speaker of the State House of Assembly; Mudashiru Obasa, and nearly all members of the Octopus-like Institution, Governance Advisory Council [GAC] – an institution created by Bola Tinubu in 1999 that simplified his hold on power in Lagos State.

    The topic of deliberation on that day in question, as we were told, was to look into the allegation levelled against the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, as relates to his arrogant disposition against the Governor of the State, and some members of the GAC, high handedness cum unruly actions against his colleagues in the House of Assembly, and allegations of corruption and fraud on his management of the House’s budget.

    The Nigerian public did not know the exact outcome of that “reconciliation gathering”, except to accept that “their political godfather reconciled them”. Signs that the so-called “reconciliation”  did not go well started manifestation on January 13, 2025, a few days after the Bourdillon gathering, as Speaker Obasa was impeached by 36 members of the State House of Assembly – a clear majority out of the 40-member, and the Deputy Speaker – Mojisola Lasbat Meranda, was elected Speaker. 

    After a few days of silence from the ousted Speaker, and the fortification of the newly elected first female Speaker in Lagos State; with her Executive paying a solidarity visit to  the GAC, and the State’s Governor, whispers came in very clearly that Bola Ahmed Tinubu consent was not sort before removing Mudashiru Obasa as Speaker.

    Obasa fought his way back, with galaxy of Security outfit, on a day that Police Security assigned to Mojisola Meranda [the newly elected Speaker] was withdrawn by the Police Authority. On his return journey however, “former Speaker Obasa, though announced that “I have returned to take over the leadership of the House”, he addressed only 4 legislators of the House as 36 members distanced themselves from him. 

    And this is where the similarity between River State and Lagos State anchored. In Rivers State, the lacuna created by political exigency left 4 legislators in the House of Assembly, while in Lagos State, another lacuna of political exigency left 4 legislators in the State House of Assembly for a ravaging Speaker – allegedly said to have gained President Bola Tinubu’s backing, 

    There are questions on the position, or place of President Tinubu, in this political fracas – this is something we must dig out. Other most important questions we must find answers to are these: 

    • Has an end come to the Bola Tinubu’s totalitarian hold of power in Lagos State?
    • Who are these “Political Hawks” daring the absolutistic Mayor of the Lagos Jungle?
    • Could it be that as the Asiwaju of Yoruba land and Jagaban of Borgu moved up the ladder in conquering and acquiring Nigeria, the Lagos vibrant politicians – most of whom are not indigenous personae dramatis of Lagos State, have started rewriting the history of Lagos already?
    • Can we identify these hustler-politicians by names?
    • If Mudashiru Obasa regains the Lagos State House of Assembly’s Speakership back, what revelation about the Tinubu’s oligarchy would that be bringing to the front burner of the Nigerian historical template?
    • Same question holds for continuity, or otherwise, of Mojisola Meranda.
    • Where blows the wind of Lagos State political setting henceforth, from here?

    We are not finished with this trajectory yet, but this court must adjourn for the exigency of other involving matters from Abuja. C.O.U.R.T!

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • A Nigerian Senate of hard drugs? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    A Nigerian Senate of hard drugs? – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    It is the upper chamber of the Nigerian National Assembly that we are about to discuss. That is the same one, out of the two chambers, that is respectfully referred to as the Red Chamber. 

    The other one is called House of Representative. Or reverently and honourably accommodated within the language of being the Green Chamber.

    Our discussion today is going to be more on the Upper Chamber, which we may be referring to as Senate of hard drugs. You may not have heard me well enough. Yes, a Senate of hard drugs. But wait a moment. Why would the name drugs be associated with that chamber of Distinguishable – Special Citizens of the Federal Republic?

    One of the first earlier Professors of Mass Communication in the London School of Journalism thought his students – this must be more than Forty Years ago of course, that “if you find it difficult to start a story, go back to the beginning and start from there”. Ipso facto, let us go to the beginning of this trajectory to commence this discussion. 

    It all happened last week, during an amiable discussion around a new Bill being packaged at the Upper Chamber that the language – caption of this topic, sauntered into the Chamber. And it did not come from an outsider, but instead, the language came from a Distinguished Senator of the Chamber.  

    Let us first meet with this most Distinguished Senator before going for the enormity of the bomb he dropped.

    Senator Kawu Sumaila represents Kano South Senatorial Zone of Kano State, and he is a member of the New Nigerian People’s Party [NNPP]. The lawmaker known to be bold and factual shouldn’t be new to many Nigerians at all. 

    Just as early as August 14, this year, he was the same person that revealed to the whole world that as Senator, his takeaway every month – both in salary and allowances, was Twenty-One Million Naira [N21,000,000]. By that revelation, he became the second lawmaker to have been bold enough in revealing to us what lawmakers in the Nigerian National Assembly received. 

    The first lawmaker to have given us such fact was Senator Shehu Sani, who represented Kaduna State in the 8th National Assembly. Senator Sani told us that the monthly take-home of every Senatore, during that time, was Thirteen Million Naira [N13, 000,000}.

    A factual revelation that put paid to all the lies of both the National Assembly Management Structure, and even the Revenue Mobilisation Allocation and Fiscal Commission – the federal government’s body that is saddled with fixing salary and wages for public organizations.

    It is this same Senator that was bold enough to tell his other Distinguished colleagues [or what are we to call them?] that the Bill before them for debate – National Institute for Drug Awareness and Rehabilitation, ought to be evaluated and properly interrogated against perspective of membership’s background. 

    He accused his colleagues at the National Assembly of drug abuse in the course of their official duties. Listen to how he put it.

    “As I speak now, most of our offices in our constituencies, most of our political offices in our constituencies, most of our houses, when you go there, you will find out that there is a mountain of drugs and there are drug dealers in our offices and in our houses, all in our houses.”

    The Distinguished Senator Sumaila also claimed that he knew some senior politicians who were supporting drug dealers to carry out their illegal activities.

    “I can take you to some of the political leaders who are in so many ways contributing or supporting drug abusers in Nigeria”, cautioning the Senate President that, “Mr. President, we need to be serious because if we are talking, we need to understand; we are all one here. We need to fight it from our own side. We need to be serious. Let us go for test and see who and who are not,” he concluded.

    The Kano State lawmaker alleged emphatically that most of his colleagues possessed hard drugs and kept them in their constituency offices and homes, claiming also that majority of the senators had ties with drug dealers.

    The Senator even challenged his colleagues to swear by the Qur’an or the Bible that they did not encourage drug abuse during their electioneering campaigns.

    It could be that he was too sure of the allegation that he advanced further in recommending some steps that can be taken in making the Nigerian Senate to purge itself of the issue he discussed. We can review some of his recommendations below.

    He called for drug tests for politicians before allowing them to contest elections and on assumption of political offices.

    He said: “whether we are allowing this Bill to create an agency or strengthening the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA), we need a situation where, before contesting elections or before taking up an office at whatever level in government, you must go for a drug test.”

    “There is one aspect which we need to investigate. Whether we create this agency or strengthen the activities of the NDLEA, we need to do something. We, as politicians; we, as leaders in this country; we, as stakeholders, need to do a lot. We all believe that religiously, both Islam and Christianity, even in our traditional religion, drug abuse is prohibited. but who are those encouraging and supporting it? We cannot achieve the intent of this Bill unless and until we all agree that we will put our heads together with relevant stakeholders to stop drug abuse in Nigeria,” he said.

    But when the Deputy Senate President – Senator Barau Jibrin, who presided on the day in question, was to rule on this very serious allegation tendered against most members of the Senate; if not all the members, did not even caution Senator Kawu Sumaila about the weight of allegation. Neither did any other Senator in plenary agitated against the alleged revelation.

    All that the Senate Deputy President did was to rule Senator Sumaila out of order like this:

    “Order 56: Debate upon any motion, Bill or amendment shall be relevant to such motion. “While we are speaking, while we are contributing, our contributions should be relevant to the subject matter. “In this case, your contribution is not relevant to the subject matter. I, therefore, rule you out of order,” Barau said.

    In view of above, which name should be more appropriate for this Senate?

  • 1965 Western Region returning to Nigeria – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    1965 Western Region returning to Nigeria – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    The political crisis tearing Rivers State into shreds today, which is most likely to become Nigeria’s doomsday affair, if care is not taken, did not start from the Nigerian General election of February and March 2023. It predated it.

    Its genesis started somewhere inside the Moshood Abiola National Stadium in Abuja, during the presidential Primary of the People Democratic Party, when the Party set out to pick a candidate most qualified to be the presidential candidate of the Party in 2023, general election. And that was May 27, 2022.

    Atiku Abubakar; former Vice President to Olusegun Obasanjo, won – but not without intrigues of fraudulent manipulations anyway. These manipulations included, mainly purchasing of delegates with American Dollars – which made the money factor to hold more than Eighty percent of the “rules of the game”. 

    Other factors of tribal and religious sentiments dominated that exercise most faithfully, as the phone call that went between former President Ibrahim Babangida and former Governor of Sokoto State, Aminu Tambuwa, shall always remain a sad reminder of the wicked side of the Nigerian political game. 

    Atiku Abubakar however won – crook or hook.

    While in the other hand, Nyesom Wike, then Governor of Rivers State, became the major loser of the PDP Primary. And the “big man” from Rivers State, and who had dominated Rivers State’s politics like and Octopus for years, had, before the 2022 Presidential Primary, invested so much money in the PDP. It was an obvious fact that he was, and most likely remaining till this moment, the financial livewire of that Political Party – the PDP. 

    It wasn’t not with his money, but the Rivers State’s people’s money. He spent it then anyway, and still spending it today.

    It therefore will be convenient to say that the loss and gain of that day – May 27, 2022, began the battle that has returned Rivers State to the “National Stadium of Hell”. And this is becoming a one dangerous journey that is most likely to take Nigeria along. 

    God forbid bad thing that Nigeria is not consumed in the movement. But before God comes in, to rescue Nigeria, the man that God has given enablement to take over political leadership of Nigeria now, must understand a “role-function” created for him by the same God that made him Nigerian leader.

    So, the following message from the past of our national history below, is meant for President Bola Tinubu – and that is if he has forgotten the journey of 1965’s Western Region into the marketplace of Nigeria. 

    I pray that I have the full attention of President Bola Tinubu as we navigate this historical perspective voyage of discovery.

    The Western Region of 1965 that produced “Operation Weti e” did not come because Obafemi Awolowo was physically around the people at that time. The man – Obafemi Awolowo, had earlier been sentenced to prison on September 11, 1963. So, it was not the presence of the man that made what happen in 1965 happened. It was the injustice that characterised the general election of 1964, with its gradual built-up, that brought us to the waterloo of 1965, until it eventually brought in a collapse of an era, on January 15, 1966.

    I want to posit that this history should remain fresh in our memory. Or it ought to be. It means therefore that going by the documented evidence of that era – the fallout from 1963 to 1965, before 1966; the year of the inferno, every political adult in Nigeria should have seen that hand of political disaster rising from the Coaster State of Rivers, with terrible Tsunami, following. 

    Unfortunately, political ego of a few individuals in any given society, at most times, would not allow them to admit what is politically good for the society in question.

    What are the issues that led to truncating our democratic race of the past era? Let us name them as causes of the 1964 election. They are simple and few.

    1. Inordinate of Crisis
    2. Inordinate ambition for power on the part of all political parties
    3. Inter and intra party rivalry
    4. Intimidation of opposition politicians who were denied fair contest in elections.

    Then let us look at the causes of 1965 problem before an attempt in prophesying into what might likely happen in today’s endeavours.

    1. Western region citizens were bitter that Chief Obafemi Awolowo was in prison
    2. It was believed that the ruling NNDP wanted to retain power at all costs
    3. Opposition candidates were not given equal opportunity to contest the elections.

    Are these malfeasances not so relevant in todays’ Nigeria? Then, Samuel Adegoke Akintola, the former Deputy Premier of Western Region, under the Premiership of Obafemi Awolowo, found a very sweet and cozy ally in the person of Sir Ahmadu Bello – then Premier of Northern Nigeria.

     That was when Samuel Akintola (Deputy Leader of the Action Group) broke away to form the Nigerian National Democratic Party (NNDP), and immediately caused his new party to form alliance with the Northern People’s Congress [NPC]. The alliance was called Nigeria National Alliance [NNA).

    Today, Nyeson Wike; who admitted buying contesting forms for all PDP politicians that contested for all the political posts in the 2023 general election, has demonstrated that he is the Political Supremo of Rivers State, including his ability to return all PDP members to their chosen offices during the general election, while at the sometime, divert all the presidential votes to favour the candidate of the opposition party – the APC, who is now the President of the Federal Republic. 

    Such abracadabra shall remain a fervent study case for future students of “Election Rigging”, if any University, in the future, might want to introduce such faculty. But for now, it is worth being fully compensated – from the president to the former governor. But at what cost? Will it worth it at the end – given all the anticipated and articulated calamitous casualties?

    The romance between President Bola Tinubu and his Minister of Federal Capital Territory – Nyesom Wike, for now is quite tantalizing and mesmerizing, and for obvious reason of course. Yes, Wike has “quaked” his own Political Party [PDP] to rumble of ashes – courtesy of Nigerian money, which all of them are wasting anyhow until nemesis shall catch up with them, and of course all POWERS in the country are now properties of one man.

    In a few days’ time [in Wike and his benefactor’s calculation], Minister Wike’s godson; Governor Siminalayi Fubara, could be impeached, again, courtesy of the powers that be, and the Nigerian jaundiced judiciary, and if that happens, can it erode the memory of 1965?

    There was such romance before, according to the story of Samuel Akintola and Sardauna of Sokoto told above.

    Today’s Nigerian leadership should therefore look beyond the sweetness of today’s romance into that dark tunnel of the unknown and take one positive decision: Nigeria to be or not to be? 

    Why can’t we consider that Nigeria’s future should take priority over our myopic narrow interest?

    And that the Almighty Jehovah God; the Creator of Heaven and Earth [all men and women], including Wike and Fubara, has the supreme Right and Authority of putting an end to every activity of men, including the evil game plans of current leaders! 

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.org

    You Tube Channel: Godwin The  Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/godwintheguru

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    WhatsApp: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only. 

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • Same message is echoing about the Nigerian Ship again – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Same message is echoing about the Nigerian Ship again – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Yes, it is good news that we have survived; with this Fourth Republic for 25 years – counting from 1999, when General Olusegun Obasanjo, a one-time Military Head of State, took over from General Abdusalam Abubakar; the last of the Nigerian Military Junta, at a very elegant handing over after a democratically contested election.

    But by events of this Administration – under President Bola Tinubu, there seems to be hiccup in the body of the Polity. Things, as they look, are no more at ease; with much respect to Chinua Achebe; our late literary Icon. 

    It must be purely for this reason that The Guru walked a memory back somewhere to the First Republic, to draw from his deep well of Historical Perspective.

    What the man tries to do here is sounding a very strong warning to today’s leadership of the Fourth Republic to please learn from the past. This warning should be appropriately taken by our leadership because of what one of our own – another highly reverend Nigerian man of knowledge, called Cicero – James Ajibola Idowu Ige [September 13, 1930 – December 23, 2001]’s said. 

    He said that history has shown that people don’t learn from history hence history has a way of repeating itself. He, most unfortunately, did not learn from history enough, hence brutal history met with him in Ibadan on the evening of that December 23, 2001.

    It is for this that The Guru is asking present Nigeria’s leadership to listen to the music that echoed during First Republic and compared it to the music that echoed in the Second Republic diligently and decide the similarities between those two echoes and the one that booming currently. 

    “A stich in a time saves nine”, the elders have always said.

    The Nigerian First Parliamentarian General Election of December 30, 1964, left our country politically divided. The meaning of real political enmity came down from Hell – because it could not have arrived from Heaven, and all Nigerians, matured enough then, saw it. What most of those that were decoding the mathematical equation of that time, thought it was just a phase that would soon vanish with time

    Alas, it refused to vanish away. And one of the many reason that made that “political disorder” not vanished, was the fact that those who won the election of that year started thinking and calling themselves Warrior, Victors and Conquer. That was in one hand.

    While, on the other hand, those who lost in the election were becoming sadder on daily basis because those who won started calling those who lost as “bad losers” – the losers really were being tormented physically, spiritually, mentally and emotionally by the winners. 

    Even, in-between these two Group of winners and losers; as they so named themselves, anger, dichotomy, bitterness and all verses were geometrically growing, without any attempt of reconciliation from any quarter.

    The dichotomy raised its ugly head more between the North and the South, with the East finding some silvered lining along the Coast of Safety. Of course, since a House divided against itself cannot stand – as the saying goes, the political enmity between Obafemi Awolowo and Samuel Ladoke Akintola, inside One House that the Western Region could have been, did not see solution appearing from any angle.

    The atmosphere degenerated into “Operation Weti re” in the Western Region. Houses of suspected political enemies were being burnt. People were being sent to jail through the instrumentality of jaundiced judiciary. 

    The losers of that political election [1964] were at the loosing ends while the winners were enjoying the freedom of triumph or victory.

    That was the situation until the 15th Meeting of the Heads of Governments and Heads of Commonwealth of Nations met in Lagos in January 1966. Practically speaking, our own esteemed Prime Minister of that era – the Golden Voice of Africa; as he was called, Sir Tafawa Balewa, hosted that conference while fire was burning on his roof. 

    The Conference was successfully hosted by Nigeria, so the so-called Winners of the 1964 General Election classified it. 

    Sir Tafawa Balewa, having done a good job of hosting the delegates, decided, with full enthusiasm, to see his Special Guests off to their different destinations, at the Nigerian only International Airport, at Ikeja, on that day of January 14, 1966. A journalist of the Tribune Newspaper asked the Prime Minister a deep question that day, at the Airport. 

    Sir, “how comfortable are you hosting the Commonwealth Conference while fire is burning in Western Nigeria?”, the man asked. 

    Do you want to know the “Wise” answer our “wisdom-packed” Prime Minister gave?

    Is Ikeja not part of Western Region you mentioned? Where is the fire you are talking about? Can you show me the fire, please?

    That was January 14, 1966. And 48 hours later, that joke of looking for the fire had become one big history – and so well written for future generations.

    Then, another scene, like 1941 and 1966 re-echoed again, but this time, in 1982, around October or November of that year.

    Obafemi Awolowo, in his usual custom, was going on his annual pilgrimage to Isreal, and at the airport in Ikeja, he addressed the Press. The Sage submitted, during the briefing, that the Ship of the Nigerian Nation would soon go aground because of the financial recklessness of Nigerian Political Leaders – he took time to give details of the Nigerian financial balance sheet. He submitted, with timely accuracy that it would only be matter of months, the Nigerian Nation-State Ship would be wrecked.

    Of course, the then Nigerian Ruling Political Party did not welcome Chief Obafemi Awolowo with Cup of Tea. Neither were drums rolled out to dance for him. What he said then has since became One big history.

    Here we are, in 2024, the music is sounding from somewhere, and many people are speaking, as some people spoke in the past. Who is listening?

    The Gure shall be advising, tomorrow, at Lagos Talks 91.3 FM Studio, that if we will not listen to what Nigerians are saying, President Bola Tinubu’s Administration should, at least, listen to what General Abdulsalami Abubaker – a onetime Nigerian Military Head of State, has just said. And what did this Gentleman Officer is saying? 

    Wait and meet with The Guru tomorrow, by the grace of God. 

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

    Contact:

    Website: www.godwintheguru.org

    You Tube Channel: Godwin The  Guru

    Twitter: @godwin_buebu

    LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/godwintheguru

    Facebook: Godwin Etakibuebu

    Facebook Page: Veteran Column

    Telegram: @friendsoftheguru

    WhatsApp: @friendsoftheguru

    Phone: +234-906-887-0014 – short messages only. 

    You can also listen to this author [Godwin Etakibuebu] every Monday; 9:30 – 11am on Lagos Talk 91.3 FM live, in a weekly review of topical issues, presented by The News Guru [TNG].

  • How States spent N1.7trn on trips, meals, others in 2023 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    How States spent N1.7trn on trips, meals, others in 2023 – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Borrowed N988bn for frivolous expenditures.

    The 36 states of the Federation have spent N1.71tn on recurrent expenditures including allowances, foreign trips, office stationery, aircraft maintenance, and more in the first nine months of 2023.

    This is according to an analysis of their budget performance reports sourced from Open Nigerian States, a budgIT-backed website that serves as a repository of government budget data. 24 states analysed had budget implementation data covering the first three quarters of the year while 12 states had data for the first two quarters of the year.

    The states cumulatively spent N802.43bn on salaries across the data period available, but investation isolated this data set to focus on other recurrent spending items. If salaries were added, total recurrent spending would have been N2.52tn.

    Other recurrent spending items covered in this investigation include the amount spent on foreign and domestic travel, Internet access fees, entertainment, foodstuff, honorarium/ sitting allowance, wardrobe allowances, telephone bills, electricity charges, stationery, anniversaries/special days, welfare, aircraft maintenance, and more.

    Of the 36 states, only 30 states have disbursed security votes (N87.45bn) so far. Also, the total borrowings of the states grew to N988bn as of the third quarter of 2023.

    In the first nine months of 2023, ABIA spent N17.61bn on housing/rent allowance, meal subsidy, entertainment allowance, wardrobe allowance, social benefits, pension, gratuity, internet access charge, telephone charges, local and international travels, office stationeries, maintenance services, consulting and professional services, fuel, financial charges, miscellaneous expenses, and others.

    In the first two quarters, AKWA IBOM spent N92.54bn on allowances and social contributions, social benefits, travel and transport, utilities such as electricity chargers, Internet access charges, and more, materials and supplies such as office stationery, drugs, laboratory and medical supplies, maintenance, training, and more. So far, the state has spent N10 million on hosting/mobilisation of political associations and interest groups, while the sum of N841.83m  was spent on entertainment at meetings, and more.

    ADAMAWA has so far spent N40.90bn on non-salary expenditure as of the end of Q3, 2023. Part of its recurrent expenditure which includes allowances and social contribution includes N1.29bn on furniture allowance, N1.19bn on travel and training including domestic and foreign, N214.37m on office stationery and consumables, and N413.32m on refreshments and meals.

    ANAMBRA’s non-salary spend was N15.17bn as of the end of Q2, 2023; Bauchi was N70.25bn. By the end of Q2, 2023, BAYELSA had spent N58.26 on non-salary recurrent expenditure. These expenses include N2.18bn on training and travel, N1.81bn on welfare packages, N78.60m on burial logistics, N1.48bn on town hall meetings expenses, N48.20m on praise night/thanksgiving expenses, N17.70m on marriage ceremony support, and more.

    BENUE’s non-salary spend was N34.44bn. It spent N387.55m on special day celebrations, N434.17m on welfare packages, N7.06bn on security votes, N1.23bn on materials and supplies such as office stationery, books, and more.

    BORNO’s non-salary spend as of the end of Q3 of 2023, was N32.63bn, Cross Rivers was N43.71bn, Delta was N152.15bn, EBONYI was N30.91bn, and Edo was N41.11bn. As of the end of Q2, 2023, EKITI’s non-salary spend was N31.33bn. Part of this expense includes N2.74bn on local and international travel and transport, and N1.97bn on miscellaneous such welfare packages, refreshments, honorarium and sitting allowances, and more.

    ENUGU’s non-salary spend as of the end of Q3, 2023 amounted to N33.36bn, GOMBE was N24.73bn (for Q1 and Q2). IMO was N58.21bn, where N1.21bn was spent on refreshments and meals, N866.81m on welfare packages, N3.26bn on allowances and more. JIGAWA’s non-salary spend was N49.64bn which included allowances of N22.07bn, N1.18bn on transport and travelling, N1.83bn on materials and supplies including drugs, vaccines, medical supplies, stationaries, and more.

    Total non-salary spend in KADUNA was N27.87bn as of the end of Q3, KANO was N17.79bn (Q1 and Q2), KATSINA was N40.49bn, KEBBI was N24.51bn, KWARA was N41.19bn, Kogi was N58.02bn. LAGOS’s non-salary spend was N289.49bn. These expenses include N741.34m as severance pay for political office appointees, N340.95m on aircraft maintenance, N8.07bn on plant and generator costs, N1.13bn on special days/celebrations, N107.79bn on special duties, servicing of meetings N11.45bn, N2.53 on welfare packages for the public, N3.69 on enforcement expenses, and more.

    NASARAWA’s non salary spend as of Q3, 2023, was N28.13bn, NIGER was N23.43bn (as of Q2), OGUN was N49.27bn (as of Q2), ONDO was N59.70bn, OSUN was N42.59bn, OYO was N24.52bn, PLATEAU was N7.99bn as of Q2, RIVERS was N51.96bn (as of Q2), SOKOTO was N20.89bn, TARABA was N24.73bn, YOBE was N25.07bn (as of Q2, 2023), and ZAMFARA was N29.14bn.

    Total spending by states, including capital expenditure, amounted to N4.59tn in the period under review. States may not match their 2022 spending (N8.2tn) due to reduced revenues and macroeconomic challenges. However, there is growing concern that states are spending a lot on irrelevant items.

    Government spending has come under increased scrutiny, especially considering the worsening economic challenges in the country. Recently, the governorship candidate of the Action Democratic Congress in Lagos, Funso Doherty, called out Lagos State for how it was spending public funds. This has since been met with public outcry.

    In a letter to the government, he wrote, “I have had the opportunity to go through the register of public procurement awards by LASG, its ministries, and Department Agencies for the second and third quarters of 2023, as reported by the Public Procurement Agency.

    “This attached schedule highlights selected awards which, in my opinion, require greater scrutiny.”

    In the period under review, state governments increased their borrowing to N988.48bn to augment their FAAC allocations and internally generated revenue. 29 states now owe financial institutions and other government enterprises N536.01bn while borrowings from short and long-term borrowing from multilateral lenders such as the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund, Afrexim, and African Development Bank by 33 sub-nationals increased to N452.47bn.

    Investigation revealed that Lagos state had the highest domestic debt (N200bn), then Delta (N70bn) and Oyo(N58.87bn).

    Similarly, Delta state is the highest borrower from multi-lateral lenders with N71.45bn in debts, followed by Lagos with N51.36bn, Akwa-Ibom (N27.04bn) and Ogun (N22.82bn).

    Recently, The Punch Newspaper reported that state governments borrowed about N46.17bn from three banks to pay salaries between January and June 2023.

    Borrowing for recurrent expenditures is a growing concern to economists. An economist and former Vice-Chancellor of the University of Uyo, Prof Akpan Ekpo, recently said that “the situation is bad, but most states do not have enough in terms of internally generated revenue. A lot of the states, even their federal government allocation, cannot pay salaries, which is very dangerous. You should not borrow to pay salaries. “You should borrow to finance capital projects. States must think of new ways of increasing their IGRs. If they continue borrowing to pay salaries, it is not good for the economy.”

    A development economist, Dr Aliyu Ilias, further noted, “With the current hardship we have in the country, they may not have an alternative than to resort to borrowing. But borrowing to pay salaries is becoming a problem. We must stop borrowing for recurrent expenditure. We can borrow for capital expenditure; that is okay. The consequence is that we are digging ourselves into more trouble.”

    Source: The author personal research and the Punch Newspaper of November 22, 2023. 

    Godwin Etakibuebu; a Veteran Journalist, wrote from Lagos.

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  • Atrocious criminality of 10th NASS against Nigerians – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Atrocious criminality of 10th NASS against Nigerians – By Godwin Etakibuebu

    Amidst economic challenges; which are strangulating Nigerians’ lives, the National Assembly – a bunch of representatives elected by Nigerians to represent their interests, have done something very bizarre in the Federal Budget signed into law by President Bola Tinubu two days ago [January 1, 2024], by increasing their own budget with about  N200 billion.

    The National Assembly, made up of the Upper chamber [Senate] with 109 Senators, and Lower chamber [House of Representative] made up of 360 members, raised their allocation from N197 billion to N344 billion – highest ever in the history of the National Assembly.

    This means that in spite of all economic challenges, the federal lawmakers have raised their own allocation in the 2024 budget, to an unprecedented N344.48 billion – an increase of over 50 per cent on the N197 billion proposed by President Bola Tinubu for them in the budget proposal submitted to them in November 30, 2023.

    Both the Senate and the House of Representatives passed the federal budget on Saturday after increasing it from N27.5 trillion proposed by the president to N28.7 trillion, a difference of about N1.2 trillion.

    The increase in the allocation of the National Assembly is coming at a time Nigerians are being asked to endure pains due to the economic reforms embarked upon by the Tinubu administration.

    This shall not be the first time our political leaders – both at the Executive and the Legislative levels, are duping and cheating Nigerians. It has been long coming, except that this time around; under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, it has become so astronomical that not too many Nigerians might survive the burden.

    And since this narration is strictly on the National Assembly, permit me to proceed with the lawmakers continued trend of arbitrary increment of their budgets irrespective of the economic situation facing the country.

    Between 2011 and 2014, the National Assembly had a fixed budget of N150 billion, but it was slashed in 2015 to N130 billion due to the crash in the price of oil.

    Under former President Muhammadu Buhari, who was in power between 2015 and 2023, the budget was further reduced to N125 billion, but was increased to N128 billion in 2021, N134 billion in 2022 and N228 billion in 2023.

    Many believe that the “stagnant budget” in the 8th Assembly (2015-2019) was due to the strained relationship between the leadership of the National Assembly and President Muhammadu Buhari.

    The “rosy” and “robust” relationship between the Executive and Legislature returned, and the former president proposed a budget of N169 billion for the National Assembly in 2023, but the lawmakers increased it to N228 billion.

    One of the reasons given by the lawmakers was that “certain projects were not catered for in the initial budget.” In addition, the lawmakers allocated N30 billion for payment of severance allowance of their aides and ex-lawmakers.

    President Tinubu proposed N197 billion as budget estimate for the National Assembly in the 2024 budget thus reducing the 2023 budget by about N30 billion. However, the lawmakers upped their proposal to a record N344.5 billion, an increase of about N147 billion.

    There is need for you to see the breakdown of the National Assembly’s budget, and here it is under.

    National Assembly Office – N36.7 billion Senate – N49.1 billion

    House of Representatives – N78.6 billion

    National Assembly Service Commission – 12.3 billion

    Legislative Aides – N20.3 billion

    NILDS to get N9.09 billion

    Service-wide votes – N15.1 billion

    Senate Appropriation Committee – N200 million

    House Appropriation Committee – N200 million

    Public Account committees of Senate and House – N280.7 million

    NASS Library Take Off Grant – N12.1 billion

    National Assembly building (ongoing) – N4.2 billion

    NASS Liabilities – N8.5 billion

    NASS E-Library – N225 million

    Constitution Review – N1 billion

    Completion of NILDS HQ – N4.5 billion Construction of NASC Building – N10 billion

    Office of Clerks and Permanent Secretaries – N1.2 billion

    Alternative Power System – N4 billion

    NASS Zonal Offices – N3 billion

    Senate Car Park – N3 billion

    Reps Car Park -N3 billion

    Furnishing of committee rooms (Senate) -N2.7 billion

    Furnishing of committee rooms (House) – N3 billion

    Design, Construction, Furnishing and Equipping of NASS Ultramodern Printing Press – N3 billion

    Design, Construction, Furnishing and Equipping of the National Assembly Budget & Research Office (NABRO) – N4 billion

    NASS Hospital Project – N15 billion

    NASS Recreation Centre – N4 billion

    Procurement of Books for the NASS Library – N3 billion

    NASS Pension Board (Take-Off Grant) – N2.5 billion.

    Please, take note of the fact that the National Assembly’s allocated budget in this year – 2024, is higher than the allocation given to all educational institutions in Nigeria.

    Many Nigerians believe that President Tinubu may not have the moral leverage to caution the lawmakers because the presidency has not been prudent in its own spendings.

    We should not be in hurry to forget that earlier into the life of this 10th National Assembly, one of the first decisions the Legislators took was that of buying luxurious SUV vehicles – Landcruiser and Prado, for themselves. 

    In that suicide decision, that mocked all senses of normalcy and morality, the legislators appropriated and approved the purchase of Landcruiser cars to each member of the 109 Senators at the cost of 164 million Naira each – translating to total of Seventeen Billion, Eight Hundred and Six Million Naira [N17,876,000,000]. That was for the Senators alone.

    In the other hand, the 360 members of the Federal House of Representative got a Prado each, at the cost of 140 million Naira – translating to Fifty Billion, Four Hundred Million Naira [N50,400,000,000]. This was for the “Honourable” [or are they dis-Honourables?] members only.

    The Nigerian law makers – Nigerians should be forgiven if they call these dangerous dealers parading themselves as leaders as law breakers, resisted huge outcries of those that elected them, went ahead to purchase the SUVs. The fund for the purchase of the luxurious cars was from the loan of Eight Hundred Million American Dollars sourced from the World Bank by President Bola Tinubu’s Government.

    Nigerians slept on their rights as they lacked mobility in leadership to occupy the National Assembly because if they had done that, the dishonourable and extinguishable lawmakers probably would have a change of mind about the inglorious act – probably though. 

    Even more on this luxurious lifestyle of the law makers was their refusal to patronise Nigerian car manufacturers, like Innoson Vehicle Manufacturing and others. They instead, transported this huge money, in foreign exchange, across the Atlantic Ocean to Japan in preference of Toyota products. 

    Nigerians cried. President Bola Tinubu slept off in the Villa while Nigerians were shouting, wailing and weeping about this transaction. There was no organized labour – not the Trade Union Congress nor the Nigerian Labour Congress, could lead Nigerians to occupy the National Assembly against the looters. And the “thieves” absconded with their loots.

    Just the way the Nigerian political leadership cookie crumbles!

     

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    Website: www.godwintheguru.com

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