If you're looking for Buhari, he is NOT in the UK. His medical trip scheduled for the 25th of June has been postponed.
In this week’s issue:
Election 2023: INEC Update
Update: Twitter in Nigeria
Nigeria is bad at human rights
The Bandit's PR guy Ahmad Gumi says it is "not fair."
Fake drugs making rounds
Emirates cancelled flights from Nigeria, South Africa and India early last week due to a disagreement on how the countries handle COVID travel screenings.
This came after Dubai partially lifted their ban: before, no one coming from Nigeria, SA or India could enter Dubai, but now residents who have been fully vaccinated are allowed.
The catch: You can't travel to or transit through Dubai if you're coming from South Africa or Nigeria, but you CAN fly emirates otherwise.
Election 2023: INEC Update
The credibility of the 2023 national elections is already in question by President Muhammadu Buhari’s nomination of Lauretta Onochie, a supporter of All Progressives Congress (APC) and Personal Assistant to the President, as commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) in Delta State.
After the National Assembly initial rejection of Onochie nomination, she was nominated again 2 weeks ago, and the National Assembly agreed to screen her for the position.
We reported 2 weeks ago that under the constitution, a known party member could not be nominated as an INEC official as it discredits the whole idea of an election (especially here, where rigging isn't that difficult)
While some supporters have attempted to help her case by denying her affiliation with APC, Premium Times claims to have obtained documents. She described herself as a “volunteer at the Buhari Support Organisation (BSO)” and an active APC member.
A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) has presented another reason why Onochie should be rejected: she is a British citizen, and the constitution does not allow international citizens to participate in elections.
PVC online registration portal opens on Monday, 28th of June! Don't forget to register to vote (This link is expected to go live tomorrow)
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Update: Twitter in Nigeria
At the start of the Twitter Ban drama, Nigeria's attorney-general Abubakar Malami threatened an order to prosecute anybody who tweets in Nigeria. Court of Justice of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is not having it.
The court considers it unlawful and has forbidden the Nigerian government from going through with it.
This is a temporary verdict while reviewing the legal action launched by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) and other Nigerian activist groups.
In response, the Nigerian government said Twitter is not a fundamental right and that it does not concern ECOWAS. Read the government's argument here.
Meanwhile, President Buhari and his guys have set up a committee to "engage with Twitter". The team consists of Isa Pantami, Lai Mohammed and other ministers.
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No surprise: Nigeria is bad at human rights
The Human Rights Measurement Initiative found Nigeria's human rights score to be "very poor" and worse than the average in Sub-Saharan Africa.
They highlighted Nigeria's "mismanagement of resources" (aka corruption) as the main culprit. "If Nigeria were to utilise its resources, we would expect an additional 12 million children under 5 to grow well". Last week The World Bank revealed that over 7 million Nigerians were below the poverty line in 2020
Case in point:
After 68 days in custody, the Nigeria Correctional Centre in Kabba, Kogi State, released 2 Nigerian citizens who were jailed for attending a #BuhariMustGo protest staged against President Muhammadu Buhari administration.
According to their lawyer's recounts, the Police denied them access to their clients. Only when activist groups like Amnesty International intervened did they grant them bail.
Also, the Nigerian Labor Congress is resuming their strike in Kaduna after El-Rufai's government refused to comply with the terms of their agreement reached in April.
The strike was about months of no pay and El-Rufai's decision to fire elderly workers without compensation or payment of their complete agreed salaries.
There's no record of what the agreement was, but according to NLC reps, they have been met with silence every time they've attempted to appeal to El-Rufai to fulfil the agreement.
Premium Times also reports that the NLC wrote to Buhari when Kaduna state's government refused to comply, but no response either.
But don't worry: the National Democratic Coalition (NADECO) wrote a ‘Save our Souls’ letter to the United Nations, asking the international body to save us from Buhari's government. They also urged the National Assembly to impeach Buhari.
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Gumi’s latest thoughts on “bandits.”
The Bandit's PR guy Ahmad Gumi says it is "not fair" to compare herdsmen and bandits to IPOB fighters because they merely kidnap children "to make money, not to kill them", which is not as bad as the latter's vigilante activities.
Last week, the "bandits" kidnapped over 100 students from a school in Niger.
"bandits" have also killed many of the students and teachers they've abducted and exploited millions of Naira from panicking low-income families.
Also, The United Nations says more than 1.1 million people may die in Nigeria’s northeast if the conflict with said "bandits" continues to 2030.
Speaking of the UN...
Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State has accused the UN and other international NGOs of mismanaging funds donated for displaced people in northeastern Nigeria. ⠀
Zulum said this at the Borno State Government House on Wednesday when the UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Nigeria, Edward Kallon, led ambassadors of donor countries to Borno.⠀
Zulum also estimated that the target population would probably get less than 30% of what is donated.
According to the governor, some UN officials may embezzling the donations and must be investigated.⠀
He urged the US, UK and other donors to prioritise transparency in the use of donor funds by international agencies in the Nigerian northeast.
Battling Bandits
Premium Times reports that the Nigerian Air Force "eliminated" a group of ISWAP-Boko Haram terrorists on Sunday, including their commanders in Lamboa in Kaga Local Government Area of Borno State.
The NAF reported that the insurgents invaded Lamboa with 8 gun trucks, but they were stopped dozens "neutralised".
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FG giving money
People's Gazette reported earlier this week that for 2 years, the Nigerian Government has been funding Adamu Garba for his Twitter mimic app Crowwe.
PG claim to have obtained exclusive bank statement evidence that the CBN sent Garba N136.8 million to build the app in 2019.
Garba denied the claims and has asked the APC to shame the "fake news merchants". He also promised (threatened, honestly) never to give up on Nigeria.
The federal government announced via their Koo account that Buhari has appointed ex-security chief of staff to act as ambassadors for Benin Republic, Ghana, and other neighbouring countries.
Finance
The Federal Government has approved a N75 Billion fund to support youths under the Nigeria youth investment fund scheme(NYIF).
According to the ministry of youths and sports, the goal of the initiative is to "financially empower youths between 2020 to 2023".
How it works: people 18-35 pitch their business ideas in any of the 125 microcredit banks around the country, and approved candidates are given access to the loan,
Anyone given the loan has up to one year allowance, after which the interest increases by 5% per annum.
They claim that they have so far distributed to N1. 62 Billion to 5,200 beneficiaries.
ICYMI: Two weeks ago, President Buhari said the government could not afford the funding needed to revive the education system.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) revealed that Nigeria's debt profile hit N33.11 trillion in March 2021. According to the data, N12.47trillion of the debt is borrowed from within the country, and 20.64 trillion is external.
Last year, Buhari instructed governors to borrow N17trillion from the pension funds, which The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) objected to as a breach in the country. In 2017, the FG borrowed 5 trillion from pensions to pay salaries.
Remember: In May, we reported that The BBC eye released a documentary exposing Nigeria's pension scam: pensioners still alive are recorded as deceased, and older Nigerians forced to pay government workers before they can get some of their pension.
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More fraud updates
After a 9-year trial, The Abuja High Court has sentenced a former federal lawmaker, Farouk Lawan, to 7 years imprisonment for taking bribes while serving as the chairman of a committee created to investigate fuel subsidy fraud in 2012.
The trial judge, Angela Otaluka, said Mr Lawan demanded N3 million and received $500,000 from Femi Otedola.
The bribe was to take Otadola's oil company, Zenon Oil and Gas, off the list of firms being indicted for subsidy fraud.
Premium times recalls that in 2012, a video in circulation showed Mr Lawan concealing wads of dollar bills he took from Mr Otedola in his cap.
The prosecution said the video clips were recorded at Mr Otedola’s Abuja residence in a sting operation organised along with the State Security Service (SSS). Part of the clip was used as evidence in the trial.
The EFCC re-arraigned former Coordinating Director of Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), Peter Hena; FRIS internal auditor, Umar Aliyu Aduka, and 7 others on 42 counts of corruption and fraud.
They are believed to have used their positions to defraud the country of over N4.5 Billion between 2017 and 2018.
Justice Toyin Bolaji Adegoke of the Federal High Court, Abuja, granted them bail of N100 million each, and they have to submit their passports to the court.
No mention of when the final verdict will be made.
In Lagos
Former Lagos governor Bola Tinubu has been accused of controlling the finances of Alpha Beta Consulting and for using the company to divert Lagos State funds.⠀
A former managing director of the firm Dapo Apara accused the company, Tinubu and Akin Doherty, a former commissioner in Lagos, of money laundering, fraud, tax evasion and sundry corrupt practices in a 40-page write he submitted to a Lagos high court in 2020.⠀
In an exclusive interview with ThisDay, Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Abdul Rasheed Bawa, said Tinubu is under investigation. They can't make any arrests until the investigation is complete.
World Fraud
A pair of South African brothers have vanished, along with Bitcoin worth $3.6 billion from their cryptocurrency investment platform, AfriCrypt.
Business Insider reports that the platform vanished earlier this year and that many people (including family) have been looking for thee brothers, Ameer and Raees Cajee, but to no avail.
But on Friday, the brothers, through their lawyers, broke their silence to say that they, too, were scammed, and they have no idea where the money went.
Their rep's excuse is that they have "very little experience", and they're "kids"— 21 and 19 years old.
South African business news platform, Money Web, reports that AfriCrypt was endorsed by SA influencers (scammers love celebs).
The "kid's" lawyers did not disclose how much was missing, but an analysis conducted by Cape Town firm, Hanekom Attorneys, estimates that the wallets wiped come to about $3.6 billion.
Arise segment: Global oil prices affecting inflation across Nigeria, South Africa, Senegal and Ghana. How might it Africa's economic future? Watch the 9-minute interview with Mosope Arubayi, Economist with Inflexion Capital Asset Managers.
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Fake drugs making rounds
On Thursday, the Abia office of the Consumer Protection Council (CPC) arrested makers of fake eyedrops in Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
Chidi Nnabugwu, chairman of the CPC, explained that the council has been on trailing fake drug sellers for 8 months, which lead them to Anambra State, where they arrested the owner of Jenkins Foundation- the counterfeit drug company.
According to the CPC, Jenkins has recruited people around Aba to resell vegetable oil repackaged as eyedrops. The sellers claim they thought it was legit.
More news from the week
Buhari's new “citizen-led” policing system (Premium Times)
Nigeria earned a total of $418.54 Billion in revenue from the oil and gas sector between 2010 and 2019 (The Cable)
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) blames petroleum products smuggling, and crude oil theft for daily petrol consumption rises to 102m litres (The Cable)
Constitution review: House of Reps considering 100 bills out of 200 (Premium Times)
Recommended Read
The Generational Clash at Pride Is Actually a Sign of Progress (The Atlantic)