Hello,
Nigeria’s inflation rate has once again increased 🥲. As of May 2022, the rate was 17.71% (April was 16.82). This is the highest inflation since June 2021’s 17.75%.
In this episode
House of Reps want to overthrow Buhari
Nigeria holds the record for most people without electricity
Kidnap in Ogun, Sokoto
ASUU vs the government
Nigeria holds the world record for the number of people without electricity
The World Bank recently revealed that one of the things Nigeria is breaking records in is the highest number of people living without light. This is according to the World Bank’s Regional Director for Infrastructure, Africa West and East of the global bank, Ashish Khanna.
He added that to resolve the electricity crisis, the Bank estimates that Nigeria will need at least $100 billion over the next 10 years (so at least $200 billion if we add policy makers’ “pocket money”).
Khanna believes that to make any real progress in the sector, we’d need to solve the issues with subsidy, gas-to-power and general energy access
However, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says that they don’t need 10 years to fix it. They’ll do it in 2 weeks!
The commission says that Nigerians will start to see “remarkable improvement” in power from the 1st of July 2022. This, they say, is because they have hired contractors who have committed in contracts to ensure the generation, transmission and distribution of 5000 megawatts (MW) of electricity in the country.
Recall that just last week the country suffered the 6th nationwide blackout of the year.
++ Small businesses in Nigeria have been forced to close down over the secret spikes in electricity bills, and the increasing cost of petrol/diesel (which they have to consider because of no electricity).
Protests over arbitrary electricity bills
Residents of Oko-Oba, Agege in Lagos are protesting blanket electricity payments in their area. Residents said they’re tired of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company(IKEDC) doing guesswork with their power bills and just expecting them to pay without evidence of how much power households are consuming
The residents, led by the Secretary of the union, Comrade Omotayo Ojo, marched from Oko-Oba to the Ikeja Electricity branch in Egbeda. There, they demanded that Ikeja Electric provide meters to each home in the area.
Addressing the crowd, the manager of the IE unit reminded them that the government is to blame. He said the government promised over 17 months ago to provide meters for the company to distribute, but they have not received anything.
The manager however promised to work with the community to ensure transparency: the company rep will take meter readings for the community in the presence of a community-chosen rep. If they find any disparities, they can bring it to the branch and they’ll recalculate the bill.
Elections
House of reps vs Buhari
Members of the House of Reps are considering going over President Buhari’s head to approve the (once again) amended electoral act.
Backstory: The Africa Report explains that in the final copy of the amended Electoral Act, the members of the house “accidentally” added a clause that does not allow statutory delegates to vote in party primaries. The clause demands that all delegates in the primaries must be elected for that purpose (meaning only a fraction of the party is allowed to vote in the primaries).
Statutory delegates are people who hold some sort of high position within the party. They include:
The current president and vice-president and the former office holders
Governors and their deputies
Senators, members of house of representatives and of state assemblies
Local government chairmen and their deputies
Ward councillors
Chairman of the party in all the 774 local government areas
Until this clause, all statutory delegates were automatically given the power to vote in all party primaries
According to the speaker of the house, Femi Gbajabiamila, many members lost because of the process of the new process. Toby Okechukwu, one of the people who lost his bid to return to the HOR also raised concerns about the impact of the new policy.
The house has attempted to use the delegate system which is what the House fought for by making direct primaries compulsory in the Electoral Act which the President has refused to sign — he is full-on ignoring them.
Some people believe that this is good— there is no reason anyone should get automatic power to return to vote in the primaries just because they have won tickets in the past. But others say the reduction in the amount of people making decisions in the primaries could damage the integrity of the general elections (via Africa Report)
Possible extension for PVC registration
The House of Representatives has urged the INEC to extend the deadline for continuous voter registration by 60 days.
The current deadline for physical registration is the 30th of June (online registration has now closed)
And over the last few weeks, there has been a surge in the number of persons registering for PVC. The last-minute rush is reportedly overwhelming INEC staff, so the HOR suggested an extension to give voters more time and reduce the pressure on INEC.
The extension is also an effort to reduce the crowd at registration centres. This reduction is an attempt to better manage security and reduce the chances of incidents like the attack in Imo where gunmen killed a member of INEC.
INEC will report their decision two weeks from the 14th of June — that’s two days before the scheduled deadline 🙄
Meanwhile, private companies around Nigeria are threatening to withhold staff salaries if they don’t have PVCs. They’re saying it’s a way to “encourage” staff to vote.
Also see
PDP presidential ticket holder, Atiku Abubakar, has chosen his Vice President: current Governor of Delta State and former Senator, Ifeanyi Okowa. Here, Culture Custodian covers some fun facts about Okowa and why he was chosen.
Insecurity
Kidnappers in Ogun
While the country still mourns the people who died in the attack at St. Francis Catholic Church, Owo, Ondo State for which a mass burial was held, another church in Ogun has been attacked.
On Tuesday, attackers stormed the Celestial Church of Christ at Wasimi in Ewekoro LGA of Ogun state and reportedly kidnapped two worshippers
The police in the area say they are looking for the culprits and doing everything they can to get the victims back
Meanwhile, Oluwatomisin Ehuwaojomo, the parish priest, who spoke to Daily Trust, said the kidnappers have demanded N50 million ransom from the church.
Kidnappers in Sokoto
Last week Saturday, terrorists attacked over 50 wedding guests travelling along the Sokoto-Gusau Road. They kidnapped 29 of them
The attackers are now demanding 145 million to release their victims
According to the secretary-general of the Phone Sellers Association in Sokoto, Nasiru Musa, the attackers called twice on Monday morning to inform the association that the members that are with them, and state their demands
This is because the country is demanding that people add their National Identity to their phone numbers mainly for security purposes.
Kidnap releases
The terrorists from the Kaduna-Abuja train attack in March have released 11 out of the 61 people they still have in captivity. There aren’t any details about why they let them go.
The Nigerian army says they have found another one of the girls who Boko Haram terrorists kidnapped from Chibok in 2016. The latest discovery of one of the girls comes about 5 years after 81 of the school girls who were abducted were released. Meaning so far, about 82 of 300 kidnapped school girls have been found.
ASUU is fighting everyone and everything
The Registrar, Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board (JAMB), Prof.
Is-haq Oloyede, on Friday, urged the leadership of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) to call off the ongoing industrial action by the university lecturers in the country— Vanguard
The Academic Staff Union of Universities is suing the Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki, over the suspension of all union activities in the state-owned institutions of higher learning. They’re urging the court to declare the ban as “unconstitutional, illegal, null and void and same is ultra vires the powers of the defendants— Punch
Health
WHO has decided that to avoid discrimination (racism), they are going to rename monkeypox.
The WHO currently refers to two types of monkeypox, namely the “West African” and the “Congo basin (central African)” clades.
This year’s outbreak is driven by the Congo basin variant, which is substantially less dangerous.
Plateau records 2 new positive cases of monkeypox— Guardian NG
Other news
FG approves 109 e-learning centres for primary education - Premium Times
Catholic Church of Nigeria kicks against Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket - The Cable.
FG struggling to meet debt servicing due to petrol subsidy, other issues - The Cable
How Ebonyi gave 400 million Covid-19 funds to officials to build houses -Premium Times
3 men kill sex worker in Lagos- Punch
How Chinese online industry exploits African children - Premium Times
An Overland Airways Ilorin-Lagos flight experienced an ‘unusual high turbine temperature’ that resulted in a fire in one of its engines, causing the airplane to go on fire with passengers aboard. No one died and the airline is believed to have handled the issue well enough - Leadership