Former minister Ngige arraigned over alleged N2.2bn contract fraud, remanded in Kuje prison

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Former Minister of Labour and Employment, Dr. Chris Ngige, was on Friday arraigned before an Abuja High Court sitting in Gwarinpa by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) over alleged N2.2bn contract fraud.

Justice Maryam Hassan ordered that the former minister be remanded at the Kuje prison pending the hearing of his bail application, fixed for Monday, December 14.

Ngige pleaded not guilty to eight counts bordering on abuse of office and acceptance of gifts from contractors of the Nigeria Social Insurance Trust Fund (NSITF) while he served as its supervising minister between September 2015 and May 2023.

After the plea, EFCC counsel, Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, applied for a trial date and asked the court to remand the defendant.

Tahir submitted: “In view of the not guilty plea entered by the defendant, we humbly apply for the trial date. We further pray my Lord that the accused person be remanded at the Kuje prison pending the commencement of the full trial.”

In response, the defence lead counsel, Patrick Ikwueto SAN, however, opposed the EFCC’s submission and urged the court to grant his client bail on health grounds, noting that the former minister had been in EFCC custody for three days prior to the arraignment.

Opposing, Ikwueto said: “The defendant has taken his plea, and your lordship is now in full control of this trial. As I mentioned earlier, the defendant has been in the custody of the EFCC for the past three days, during which the charge was served on him. We can see the charge was filed yesterday and assigned to this Court.

“The issue of whether he will be granted bail or not is a right in our Constitution. The defendant is not an unknown person in this country. I don’t think there is anybody in this country who will say they don’t know the defendant. Even from the charge, it was stated that he was a minister of this country.

“I urge your Lordship to grant the defendant bail, and we are ready to comply with any requirement your Lordship will put to grant him bail. Even this morning, he mentioned how he needs to go to the hospital. The prosecution is asking for his remand, knowing fully well they don’t have the facility to cater to his health issues at Kuje.

“It’s not like he ate the ministry’s money or that of NSTIF. The trial will start, and we will see how those contracts were awarded. It’s not a terrorism charge or treason offence.

“We were not allowed time to file our own counter-affidavit. If the prosecution will give us time, we will.”

The prosecution, however, replied him, noting that the defendant’s alleged offence was not trivial and should not be downplayed by the defence.

“The offences with which the defendant was charged are by no means minute; they are rather enormous crimes that if found guilty, he will spend nothing less than five years in prison because of the attempt to trivialise the crime and bamboozle the Court.

“Ngige failed to return his international passport after he was permitted to travel for medical treatment in October,” the prosecution said.

In her decision, the judge ordered Ngige’s remand in Kuje prison and adjourned the matter to December 14.

Dangote unveils N1trn scholarship scheme for Nigerian students

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Jigawa: Dangote set to boost agriculture with $200m investment - Vanguard News

Aliko Dangote, Chairman of the Aliko Dangote Foundation (ADF) and the President of Dangote Group, has announced a N1 trillion scholarship programme to expand access to education and promote academic excellence across Nigeria.

Starting in 2026, the initiative will support over 1.3 million students from all 774 Local Government Areas, with N100 billion committed annually for 10 years.

Speaking at the launch of the national scholarship scheme in Lagos on Thursday, Dangote said too many brilliant young people were being forced out of classrooms because of poverty.

He described education as the “strongest engine of social mobility” and a critical foundation for national development.

The initiative, funded by the Aliko Dangote Foundation, will run for ten years beginning in 2026, costing over N1 trillion in total.

Dangote said the scheme would support 45,000 scholars each year at inception, expanding to 155,000 beneficiaries annually by its fourth year, and maintaining that level for the rest of the decade.

By 2036, he said, the programme is expected to have reached at least 1,325,000 students.

“We cannot allow financial hardship to silence the dreams of our young people, not when the future of our nation depends on their skills, resilience and leadership,” he added.

A major component of the fund is the Aliko Dangote STEM Scholars programme, which will provide annual scholarships for 30,000 undergraduate students pursuing science, technology, engineering and mathematics in public universities and polytechnics.

Each beneficiary will receive tuition support aligned with the fees of their institution and course of study. Dangote said the goal is to expand access to higher education, empower innovation, and give young Nigerians the tools to compete globally.

“STEM drives development. If Nigeria must compete globally, our young minds must have the tools to learn, imagine and innovate,” he said.

Vice President Kashim Shettima, who lauded Dangote for his vision in business and national development, said the new intervention demonstrates the critical role of private-sector actors in national development.

He noted that Nigeria’s demographic growth makes urgent investment in education indispensable, warning that “a population becomes a liability only when it is uneducated.”

Lagos State Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu, speaking on behalf of the 36 State governors, also commended the initiative and pledged the governors’ full support.

In his presentation, Tunji Alausa, Education Minister, described the initiative as “pure human capital development,” saying it aligns with the Tinubu administration’s education sector renewal plan of transforming Nigeria from resource-based economy to a knowledge-based economy and is significant because every local government area will benefit.

Chairman of the Programme Steering Committee, His Highness Justice Sidi Dauda Bage, Emir of Lafia, said the scheme is unprecedented and praised Dangote’s patriotism in reinvesting his wealth to uplift other Nigerians.

Trumpland 2025: I Saw It Coming, By Olusegun Adeniyi

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The National Security Strategy of the United States 2025, representing President Donald Trump’s view of the world and his administration’s foreign policy direction was released last week. Erik Solheim, a Norwegian diplomat who served as Minister for International Development and also Environment in his country as well as Under Secretary General of the United Nations and UNEP Executive Director summed up the document succinctly. “Dominate the Americas, respect China, undermine Europe, ignore India, retreat from the Middle East, don’t give a damn for Africa. These are the true headlines of the new US National Security Strategy released this week,” wrote Solheim on his X (formerly Twitter) handle where he also highlighted what he believes every country now needs to do to stand up for themselves.

Having received the document at a time I was going through the archives of my old columns (as I usually do at this period of the year), I found it interesting that 20 years ago, precisely on 16th November 2005, I predicted this outcome following an experience at the American embassy in Lagos. I am more interested in what should be our response to the US national security strategy, which was what motivated the column under reference more than two decades ago. And I will still come back to my current take another day. For today, I leave readers with my November 2005 column which I consider quite revealing.

===================================================

There are some privileges that one enjoys that a time comes you almost take them for granted. That was what has been happening with some of us concerning visa to the United States. Until very recently, whenever any editor (or a family member) wants to travel, all one needed to do was walk to the Department of Public Affairs (United States Information Service, USIS) and their officials would be there to assist with the visa process through what they call ‘referral’ form. But with the September 11, 2001 terror attack, things have not been the same. Today, everybody, including Ministers and top government functionaries, have to be at the embassy while the ‘Dropbox’ visa renewal process is now a full interview session going by my experience on Tuesday.

My passport had been collected a day earlier for the compulsory thumb printing which, I guess, is supposed to ensure one is not a terrorist. I got to the ambassy early enough to meet the usual ‘morning worship’. One of the numerous pastors (they must have a union on that street) was still delivering his sermon when I arrived. As to be expected, the sermon had to be tied to the business at hand. It was all about faith and how many people fail visa interviews because they refused to ‘possess’ their ‘possessions’. According to the itinerant pastor, all the visa seeking applicants should “entertain no fear, just believe you will get it and you will. Don’t be intimidated, be courageous…”

As he preached, the ‘man of God’ also gave intermittent ‘words of prophesy’ that our visa applications would be successful and many shouted ‘Amen’. What I noticed, however, was that most of us who came for visa renewal did not pay much attention to him, as we carried on with an air of arrogance, believing that we did not need his prayers. We were wrong. Meanwhile, the pastor seemed to know so much about the Visa process that you would almost imagine he worked in the office of the Consul General. From his sermon, and the audience was on the same wavelength with him, you would also think what the enthusiastic ‘congregation’ came to secure were tickets to heaven. Not surprisingly, the session ended with the pastor seeking ‘offering’ from us to ‘support the work of God’.

But the real drama would happen after we had succeeded in gaining entrance and were on the queues. Given that the consular officers were inside cubicles with microphones, there was no confidentiality in the exchanges. A former chief executive of a once-thriving-but-now-moribund federal government parastatal walked to the window with confidence. “How many times have you been to the US, Sir?” the young officer asked him and laughing, he answered for all of us to hear: “I have lost count.”

“Like 10 times?” the officer followed up and the big man replied, “something like that”, again to our hearing. After about two minutes during which the consular officer must have been perusing some documents, he asked: “You managed Nigerian…(withheld) and ran it aground didn’t you or why did it fail?”

At this point, our man, who must have lost his confidence, began to talk in hushed tones. I wished I could move closer to the cubicle to see his face. The man got his American Visa alright but he left the embassy thoroughly deflated. Then came another man, former Managing Director of a regional bank. “Your wife and children are based in the US and you visit frequently; why have you then not taken permanent residence there?” the consular officer asked. The man replied that he stays in Nigeria because this is where he makes all the money with which he sustains his family in the US.

Unfortunately, we have several families like that. In fact, most of our top public officials have their wives and children abroad while they ‘make’ all the money here. And it is then easy to see why they do not care a hoot about what happens to our society. We are just a transit camp for making cheap money for their families abroad. That is also why when you hear phrases like “’my children are citizens”, they are not talking about Nigeria but the US. So, if all social institutions collapse here, it would hardly matter to them since they have already secured the good life for their own children. Well, sorry for the digression. It took only a few minutes for the former bank chief to have his visa application denied. Obviously dazed, he began to shout: “What do you want me to do? my family is in the US…”

“Next person…”, came the voice of the consular officer which meant that case was closed. Meanwhile, a rather interesting drama was taking place at another cubicle. One young man was being interrogated about his extended stay in Japan last year (2004) as revealed in his passport. “What were you doing in Japan for five months?” the consular officer asked. The man mumbled something that was inaudible from where I stood, but we didn’t have to wait for long before getting the gist of it. “Research on motor vehicle spare parts?” the American consular officer drawled as we all laughed. Sensing trouble, the man began to recount family and business tales that were at the end to no avail. He was denied the US visa.

There were several other dramatic scenes. Women who had given birth to babies in the US but didn’t disclose it in their forms. Those who overstayed the days or weeks they filled in their immigration forms when entering US on their last visit. Seemingly innocuous matters but strong enough to ensure denial of visa. There were also some young men and women carrying X-ray files, all visa lottery winners who were there for their interviews. I sat with one of them outside as he sang loftily: “He has done for me, He has done for me, what my mother cannot do, He has done for me, what my father cannot do He has done for me…”

As he sang, he was beaming with smiles. While I was worried by the excitement of the young man and what could be unmet expectations on the other shore, I was also realistic enough to know he was going to a place where his talents, with some providence, could actually ensure prosperity for him. So, I added my own line to his song: “What my nation cannot do, He has done for you.” The young man smiled, nodding his head in appreciation that I understood his joy. Yet, he is taking what may be no more than a shot in the dark.

As I watched the degradation and abuse to which we subject ourselves because we want to go to America, I felt really depressed by the desperation I could see on the faces of many, especially young men and women. And as I reflect on Tuesday’s experience, what readily comes to my mind is one of the Development Theories we learnt in my final year as an undergraduate at Ife: Ethics of the Lifeboat!

In his 1974 controversial book, ‘Life Boat Ethics: The Case Against Helping The Poor’, Garrette Hardin had used the lifeboat metaphor to explain what one can now see happening to Nigerians at the embassies of the western industrialised countries and before I come with what I consider my own solution to the problem, we should appreciate why the United States or United Kingdom or any of the rich countries would rather our people stayed back home so we don’t burden them with our woes. I have excerpted some parts of the rather interesting theory:

If we divide the world crudely into rich nations and poor nations, two thirds of them are desperately poor, and only one third comparatively rich, with the United States the wealthiest of all. Metaphorically, each rich nation can be seen as a lifeboat full of comparatively rich people. In the ocean outside each lifeboat swim the poor of the world, who would like to get in, or at least to share some of the wealth. What should the lifeboat passengers do?

First, we must recognise the limited capacity of any lifeboat. For example, a nation’s land has a limited capacity to support a population and as the current energy crisis has shown us, in some ways we have already exceeded the carrying capacity of our land. So here we sit, say 50 people in our lifeboat. To be generous, let us assume it has room for 10 more, making a total capacity of 60. Suppose the 50 of us in the lifeboat see 100 others swimming in the water outside, begging for admission to our boat or for handouts. We have several options: we may be tempted to try to live by the Christian ideal of being ‘our brother’s keeper,’ or by the Marxist ideal of ‘to each according to his needs.’ Since the needs of all in the water are the same, and since they can all be seen as ‘our brothers,’ we could take them all into our boat, making a total of 150 in a boat designed for 60. The boat swamps, everyone drowns. Complete justice, complete catastrophe.

Since the boat has an unused excess capacity of 10 more passengers, we could admit just 10 more to it. But which 10 do we let in? How do we choose? Do we pick the best 10, ‘first come, first served’? And what do we say to the 90 we exclude? If we do let an extra 10 into our lifeboat, we will have lost our ‘safety factor,’ an engineering principle of critical importance. For example, if we don’t leave room for excess capacity as a safety factor in our country’s agriculture, a new plant disease or a bad change in the weather could have disastrous consequences.

Suppose we decide to preserve our small safety factor and admit no more to the lifeboat. Our survival is then possible although we shall have to be constantly on guard against boarding parties. While this last solution clearly offers the only means of our survival, it is morally abhorrent to many people. Some say they feel guilty about their good luck. My reply is simple: ‘Get out and yield your place to others.’ This may solve the problem of the guilt-ridden person’s conscience, but it does not change the ethics of the lifeboat. The needy person to whom the guilt-ridden person yields his place will not himself feel guilty about his good luck. If he did, he would not climb aboard.

The harsh ethics of the lifeboat become harsher when we consider the reproductive differences between rich and poor. A wise and competent government saves out of the production of the good years in anticipation of bad years to come. Joseph taught this policy to Pharaoh in Egypt more than 2,000 years ago. Yet the great majority of the governments in the world today do not follow such a policy. They lack either the wisdom or the competence, or both. On the average poor countries undergo a 2.5 percent increase in population each year; rich countries, about 0.8 percent. Because of the higher rate of population growth in the poor countries of the world, 88 percent of today’s children are born poor, and only 12 percent rich. Year by year the ratio becomes worse, as the fast-reproducing poor outnumber the slow-reproducing rich…

Now that we have seen the ethics of the lifeboat, we must come to terms with the reality that in this vast ocean of life, no nation, least of all George Bush America, would risk the security and welfare of their own people to save us from the self-inflicted peril of drowning…

ENDNOTE: I wrote the foregoing more than two decades ago in a two-part column where I admonished that we should make our country to work for us. Between then and now, not much has changed. In fact, the second coming of President Trump and the rise of far-right politicians in most western countries has shown quite clearly, especially for us in Nigeria, that the choices we make collectively and as individuals will determine the future of our country. The critical stakeholders come to terms with that reality, the better for us all.

Credit: Olusegun Adeniyi

Dangote refinery reduces petrol price substantially

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Crude Oil Prices Fall Below $50 Per Barrel | Fortune

Dangote Petroleum Refinery (DPR) has again reduced its petrol gantry price, substantially slashing the ex-depot rate from N828 to N699 per litre.

Real-time market data published on Petroleumprice.ng on Friday showed that the refinery implemented another major downward review, cutting the Premium Motor Spirit benchmark price by N129 per litre — a 15.58 per cent reduction.

An official of the refinery, said to have spoken to Punch on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to comment publicly, also confirmed the adjustment.

According to the newspaper, the official said: “The refinery has reduced petrol gantry price to N699 per litre.”

The new price took effect on December 11, 2025, marking the 20th petrol price adjustment announced by the refinery this year.

The latest reduction comes barely five days after the refinery’s Chairman, Aliko Dangote, restated his commitment to keeping domestic fuel prices “reasonable and competitive” despite global volatility and persistent smuggling along Nigeria’s borders.

Speaking after a closed-door meeting with President Bola Tinubu on December 6, Dangote said prices would continue to fall as the refinery ramps up output and competes directly with imported products.

Dangote said: “Prices are going down. The reason why prices have to go down is that we have to also compete with imports.

“But luckily for us now, the smuggling has reduced, not totally.

“There is still quite a lot of smuggling because the price we have in Nigeria is about 55 per cent lower than the price of our neighbouring countries.”

“Petroleum products (diesel and petrol) “will continue to be sold in the market at a very reasonable price.

“We are not here to make our $20 billion back quickly; it’s a long-term investment.”

Market trackers, the Petroleumprice.ng also reported fresh reductions across several private depots following the refinery’s latest review.

According to the platform, Sigmund Depot reduced its ex-depot price by N4 to N824 per litre, while Bulk Strategic also posted a marginal drop of N3. TechnoOil implemented one of the sharpest decreases with a N15 cut.

Bayelsa State Deputy Governor, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo is dead

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Bayelsa deputy gov

Deputy Governor of Bayelsa State, Lawrence Ewhrudjakpo, has passed away after slumping in his office.

Ewhrudjakpo, has been confirmed dead after he slumped earlier Thursday afternoon, December 11.

The deputy governor’s media aide, Mr Doubara Atasi, confirmed that his principal slumped and was taken to hospital. Ewhrudjakpo died at the ICU at the Federal Medical Centre (FMC) after several efforts to resuscitate him failed.

He was said to have collapsed while in his office at about 1.30pm and was rushed to the FMC, Yenagoa, Bayelsa State, where he has now been confirmed dead.

Ewhrudjakpo, born on September 5, 1965, was 60 years old at the time of his death.

Vanguard reports that the deputy governor collapsed in serious condition before being transported to the hospital’s emergency unit where has now been certified dead.

Sources claim he had, overtime, maintained a demanding work schedule and have described him as a “workaholic” who rarely found time to rest.

The late deputy governor refused to defect to the All Progressives Congress (APC) when his boss, an already two-term governor of the State defected to the APC.

Mrs Tinubu’s crassness meets Adeleke’s indiscipline, By Abimbola Adelakun

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The video of Nigeria’s First Lady, Oluremi Tinubu, chastening the Osun State Governor, Ademola Adeleke, during her coronation ceremony in Ile Ife reminded me of what I think was my first encounter with her about 14-15 years ago at their party secretariat (then, it was still Alliance for Democracy) in Lagos. I was a reporter with The PUNCH, and we were to cover an event. She arrived at the place, and a bunch of journalists (including yours truly) got up to interview her. The person closest to her started asking her a question. Out of nowhere, she interrupted the female journalist, “Call me mummy! Before you can address me, you must call me mummy!” That one was momentarily taken aback, and while she struggled to recompose her thoughts and perhaps rephrase her question, Mrs Tinubu huffed and walked away with an air of impatience. I remember staring at her as she left with a small crowd of hangers-on trailing her and feeling relieved that I was not the one she yelled at that day. I would perhaps have retorted that she was not my mother, and that the obsequiousness disguised as courtesy she was expecting was unwarranted in the formal environment in which we were both operating.

The trouble with people who crave adoration and veneration is not that they will not find enough people willing to throw their dignity on the floor for them to step on. Senate President Godswill Akpabio, who announced to his fellow lawmakers that “Our mother, Remi Tinubu, has sent an invitation to us her children for a dinner…” is proof that there is currently no shortage of self-infantilising adults even at the highest cadres of power. Akpabio, of course, has enough motivation to be subservient. It does not only seem to be in his nature, but a man with a catalogue of sins with the EFCC like him cannot survive politics without learning how to perpetually be on his knees before the Tinubus’ worshipful majesty. The day he ever demonstrates any autonomy or even gives the slightest of an indication of reasonable character emerging from him, he would be thrown to the wolves and gobbled without remains.

So, when you think of yourself as everyone’s “mummy”, and your delusion is enabled by high-ranking public officials like Akpabio, you will also soon fall into the error of taking everyone as your ward.

To be fair, I understand the impatience that pushed Mrs Tinubu to go harangue the governor. Some of us find the lack of proper organisation that typifies our socio-political life annoying. We are the kind of people who start every event a few hours behind schedule, and when we eventually do, we are still unhurried. We start with an opening prayer, one by a Muslim and the other by a Christian. Then the national anthem. The Tinubu anthem. Then, we bring guests to the high table and even offer some of them the microphone so they can make interminably long speeches. Somehow, it is taken for granted that people have nothing better to do and are willing to stay until their buttocks are glued to the chair. Do we not watch foreign events and see how those oyinbos take time seriously? That is a feature of their productive society. People have things to do, and you cannot subject them to endless delays at public events. Our own rhythms, on the other hand, are regulated by different ideas of time as an endless resource that can be cheaply frittered. That is why what we call “African time” is a euphemism for masking the underlying problem of our under-productive society.

One of the most popular culprits of this time-wasting culture is Adeleke. He comes across as an unserious person who takes every public occasion as a playful moment, not only because he is flippant, but also because that is how he has learned to hide his vacuity. By throwing up spectacles, especially by repeating that singular dancing style with which he has been entertaining us since the days of Lord Lugard, he gets to distract from his other flaws. On almost every occasion, he must sing and dance as if they cast a spell on him.

But he is also a Nigerian big man, which means nobody can instruct him. Besides, if his clowning has not stopped him from becoming a governor, who is anyone to tell him to be more mindful of his public self-conduct? So, those around him have either learned to dance along with him or watch with bemusement. Except that this time, his characteristic lack of self-awareness annoyed Mrs Tinubu—the honouree of the event—who got up from her chair to interrupt the governor’s antics by publicly telling him that she would switch off his microphone if he continued to waste time.

Even if the governor had to be instructed, she could have sent an emissary to whisper in Adeleke’s ears, but she stood up by herself to confront a playful guest at an occasion in her own honour. She could not trust that anyone at the event—not even the royal father giving her a title—had enough gravitas to compel Adeleke, so she, the “mummy” with the maternal authority to straighten everyone in the public sphere, took the task upon herself. But that was crass for someone being conferred with a respectable title of “Yeye Asiwaju”. The honour not only presumes you already possess leadership qualities, but you would be expected to live up to high expectations of self-conduct. Even if you have no virtue, you must feign one now. Unfortunately, the ceremony had not even been completed before her true character began to seep out. Whatever was wrong with Adeleke would not be corrected by your humiliating public instruction, so she could have waited him out. Even if he had taken an extra 15 minutes, would it have set the world spinning on its orbit?

Again, I completely understand the irritation that pushed her to stand up to Adeleke, but the solution to Nigeria’s habit of disorganisation is reorientation and not simply picking someone out. Our public events are typically chaotic, and if Mrs Tinubu is interested in reform, she should begin with herself and the occasions she attends. For instance, for the coronation, the Office of the First Lady or First Wife of whatever they are called these days should have liaised with the Ooni institution and planned the events.  Every guest who is allowed to speak should have received the programme in advance and be enjoined to stick to their allotted time, otherwise their microphone would be cut off. Many of them, having never been held to such standards before, will try to exceed their time allowance, and you must follow through on the threats to cut off their voices. Once you have consistently established yourself as a stickler to time and you demonstrate enough discipline to maintain that ethos in public, officials will learn to adjust. They will train themselves to rehearse their public speeches and plan their speaking time to fit the allotted time.

The other part is that Mrs Tinubu might not actually have a problem with the indiscipline of time-wasting at public occasions and sees no need for a wholesale reform. Her issue might just be with the Adeleke character, one of the few governors who has chosen to remain in the “opposition” and would not drag himself over to the APC to be under her custodianship.

Credit: Abimbola Adelakun

Soyinka slams Seyi Tinubu’s ‘excessive’ security escort

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Winning the Nobel didn't affect my writing— WOLE SOYINKA - Vanguard News

Nobel Laureate, Professor Wole Soyinka says President Bola Tinubu must be cautious about his approach to regional security, domestic governance, and the use of state protection for privileged individuals.

The foremost Nigerian playwright said this at the 20th Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism Awards in Lagos on Tuesday.

All these were captured in a now viral four-minute, 25-second video shared on Tuesday night by #Nigeriastories on X.

Soyinka had recounted an encounter which he described as recent in his hotel room in Ikoyi, Lagos State, that left him shocked at what he considered an extravagant display of state security.

He described seeing “an excessively large security battalion assigned to a young individual close to the Presidency,” an entourage he said was “sufficient to take over a small country.”

Soyinka revealed that the young man turned out to be Seyi Tinubu, the President’s son.

Soyinka on security escort for Tinubu’s son

He said the discovery concerned him enough to contact National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu. “I was so astonished that I started looking for the national security adviser. I said track him down for me. I think they got him somewhere in Paris. But he was with the president; he was in a meeting.

“Then, I said I’ve just seen something I can’t believe I don’t understand and I described the scene to him I said do you mean that a child of the head of state goes around with an army for his protection or whatever.

“I couldn’t believe it. Later on, I did some investigative journalism, and I found that apparently this is how this young man goes around with his battalion, his heavy armed soldiers,” he said.

“I was astonished,” Soyinka said, adding that “children must understand their place. They are not elected leaders, and they must not inherit the architecture of state power simply by proximity.”

In a separate remark captured at the same event in honour of veteran poet Odia Ofeimum and many others, Soyinka urged Tinubu to reconsider the scale of security personnel attached to Seyi, stressing that such resources are urgently needed elsewhere.

He humorously observed that if a major insurgency were to break out, perhaps the President should ask Seyi to “go and handle it,” given the size of his escort — but added that “beyond the humour lies a serious matter of priority and fairness.”

Soyinka warned that concentrating a battalion of operatives around one individual is inconsistent with a nation battling kidnappings, rural attacks, insurgency and criminal violence, insisting that security deployments must reflect national realities, not privilege.

Why is Matawalle Still a Defense Minister?, By Farooq A. Kperogi

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Farooq A. Kperogi: Atiku's Interview and Unfair Tinubu Muslim-Muslim Dig - NewsWireNGR

Even the severest critics of the Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration admit that the last few days have seen what appear (at least on the surface) to be a visible, reinvigorated, if Donald Trump-induced, earnestness in the fight against the unchecked widening and deepening of the theaters of death and destruction in the country.

The firing of former Defense Minister Mohammed Badaru Abubakar (who infamously said in a BBC Hausa interview in late November 2025 that bandits are holed up in forests so impenetrable that bombs cannot get to them) and the appointment of General Christopher Musa in his place signaled a praiseworthy pivot in the direction of never-before-seen seriousness in tackling banditry and terrorism.

But this pivot is undermined, even scorned, by the retention of Bello Matawalle as Minister of State for Defense.

The problem is not merely that Matawalle has no background in defense or security. The problem is that he is beset by serious, credible and detailed allegations of complicity with the same bandits who have brought Zamfara and much of the Northwest to its knees.

These allegations have surfaced from multiple directions and from multiple periods, and they are consistent in their substance. They cast a dark shadow over his tenure as governor and raise troubling questions about his fitness to hold any security portfolio.

For example, a former senior aide of his gave an explosive interview in November 2025 in which he alleged that Matawalle provided “36 brand new Hilux vehicles” to notorious bandit commanders while he was governor and even maintained contact with these commanders after he became minister.

The aide also claimed that Matawalle purchased stolen livestock from the bandits at discounted prices. These allegations were not vague hints. They were specific actions accompanied by dates, names, and places, and they were made by someone who had worked closely with him.

This is not where the claims stop. While serving as governor, Matawalle was accused by his successor Dauda Lawal of harboring bandit leaders in the government house and turning the machinery of state toward enabling banditry rather than fighting it. According to reports, Lawal alleged that ransom payments to abductors often passed through government channels under Matawalle.

The accusations were so grave that Lawal called for Matawalle’s removal from the defense ministry on grounds that someone tainted by complicity should not be anywhere near Nigeria’s security apparatus.

Several respected Islamic clerics and political commentators have also raised longstanding claims that Matawalle procured vehicles for bandit leaders as part of what he styled as “peace efforts.”

These allegations aren’t recent, politically motivated hit jobs designed to get him out of his current job. They form a pattern that predates his time as minister and have endured long after he left the governorship.

Of course, Matawalle has denied all of these allegations, and has even reportedly offered to swear on the Qur’an that he has no links to bandits. But denial alone is not proof of innocence. The problem for him is not merely the fact of the accusations but the saturation of the accusations.

They come from a former aide, a sitting governor who succeeded him, Islamic clerics and investigative journalists. When allegations come from such diverse quarters and align in content, the burden shifts. Even if none is proven in a court of law, they have already damaged his credibility beyond repair.

Then there is the now infamous resurfaced video of him defending bandits and making excuses for their criminality. In that clip from 2021, recorded during his time as governor, Matawalle said of bandits that abduct, murder, and maim men, women and children: “not all of them are criminal.” He said bandits turned to criminal activities as a retaliation against vigilante groups who cheat them.

Nigerians who have lost family members or survived kidnapping attempts do not need anyone to tell them how tone-deaf such a defense sounds. Although the clip dates back some years, its resurgence is politically devastating because it reinforces what many Nigerians already suspected.

It shows a man who viewed bandits with indulgent sympathy at best. That video alone would have damaged a defense minister beyond redemption. Combined with the other allegations it makes his retention indefensible.

If President Bola Tinubu could ask Mohammed Badaru Abubakar to resign from his post as Minister of Defense to make way for General Christopher Musa, then there is absolutely no excuse for keeping Matawalle.

Like Abubakar, Matawalle has zero security experience. But unlike Abubakar, Matawalle comes with enormous ethical baggage and a reputation clouded by claims of enabling the very terror he is supposed to fight. Keeping someone with no security expertise is one kind of error. Keeping someone with no expertise, little education and a tainted reputation is, frankly, national self-sabotage.

Tinubu’s original appointment of both Abubakar and Matawalle as defense ministers raised deep questions about his seriousness in confronting insecurity. What was the rationale for placing two civilians with no defense background at the helm of a ministry that requires seasoned security judgment?

Was it political balancing? Personal loyalty? Regional appeasement? Whatever the reason, it was shortsighted and dangerous at a time when insurgency and banditry had become existential threats. If the president now wants to show that he has awakened to the gravity of the crisis, the place to start is with the removal of those whose presence compromises the integrity of the defense sector.

Even on political grounds, Matawalle fails the most basic test. He has never won a statewide election. He became governor of Zamfara only because the Supreme Court voided the votes cast for the APC in 2019, ruled them wasted and ordered that the candidate with the second highest votes be sworn in.

He was what Nigerians like to call a “Supreme Court governor,” not a governor elected by the will of the people. When he finally faced the electorate in 2023, he lost.

Why does the president believe there is political value in a man who has never actually won the mandate of his state? Someone who cannot mobilize his own people cannot bring political advantage to the center. Someone who lost an election despite incumbency certainly cannot strengthen the political fortunes of an administration struggling with public trust.

In other words, Matawalle brings neither political nor security value to the government. Instead, he brings reputational risk. He is a political liability because he lacks electoral legitimacy. He is a security liability because the allegations against him erode public confidence and taint any efforts at reform within the defense ministry.

There is also no shortage of competent, apolitical, untainted security experts from Zamfara who could replace him without creating regional controversy. The state has produced senior military officers and respected security analysts who have real experience with counterinsurgency, civil-military relations and community-based security programs.

If Tinubu genuinely wants to send a message that his administration is serious about the war against bandits and terrorists, replacing Matawalle with a professional would send that message clearly.

The president cannot continue to insist that he is committed to restoring security while keeping someone whose name triggers suspicion and distrust. Nigeria is at a point where symbolism matters as much as substance.

A tainted defense minister sends the wrong signal to bandits and terrorists, to citizens, to the military, and to our international partners. It tells the world that politics still outranks competence at a moment when many are losing hope.

The fight against terrorists and bandits demands clarity of purpose. It demands leaders whose integrity is above reproach. It demands individuals who inspire confidence in troops and communities.

Bello Matawalle does not meet that standard. Every day he remains in that office deepens public skepticism about the administration’s seriousness and chips away at whatever legitimacy the security sector still has.

If the president wants to convince Nigerians that he is taking the security crisis seriously, he must remove Matawalle. Keeping him undermines the mission, insults victims and burdens the nation with a defense minister whose reputation is incompatible with the gravity of the role.

The country deserves better. The security forces deserve better. And a government that claims to prioritize the restoration of peace cannot be served by a man whose name has become a symbol of the problem rather than the solution.

Credit: Farooq A. Kperogi, Ph.D

Burkina Faso grounds Nigerian military aircraft, detains military officers on board the plane

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Burkina Faso's Traore captivates young Africans despite worsening security crisis | AP News

Government of Burkina Faso has confirmed that a Nigerian Air Force C-130 aircraft carrying 11 military personnel was forced to land on Monday after allegedly entering the country’s airspace without authorisation.

Grounding of the aircraft was disclosed by the Agence d’Information du Burkina, the state-run news agency, which published a statement from the Confederation of Sahel States (AES) detailing the circumstances surrounding the interception.

The translated statement said: “The Confederation of Sahel States informs the public that a C130 aircraft belonging to the Air Force of the Federal Republic of Nigeria was forced to land today, December 8, 2025, in Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina Faso, following an in-flight emergency while operating in Burkinabe airspace. The military aircraft had two crew members and nine passengers on board, all military personnel.”

The AES said an investigation by Burkinabe authorities revealed that the aircraft did not obtain the required clearance to fly over the country.

The investigation “highlighted the absence of authorisation to fly over the territory of Burkina Faso for this military device,” the statement added.

Describing it as a breach of the sovereignty of its member states, the regional seriously bloc condemned the incident.

The AES said it “condemns with the utmost firmness this violation of its airspace and the sovereignty of its member States.”

It further warned that its air and anti-aircraft defence systems had been placed on maximum alert and authorised to neutralise any aircraft that violates AES-controlled airspace.

As of the time of filing this report, there has been no official response from the Nigerian Air Force or the Federal Government regarding the forced landing.

Osun Governor, Adeleke unveils his new Party

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Governor of Osun State, Ademola Adeleke, has unveiled the Accord Party as his new political platform, announcing his intention to seek re-election for a second term on the platform of the party.

Adeleke made the announcement Tuesday evening at the Banquet Hall of the Government House in the presence of national and state leaders of the Accord Party.

He said: “I joined the Accord Party more than a month ago precisely November 6th as a platform to seek re-election in 2026. This was after weeks of consultation and deliberations with stakeholders and opinion leaders.

“Stakeholders and residents of Osun state are aware of why we are taking this important decision. We intend to pursue a second term in office on the platform of the Accord Party to complete ongoing delivery of good governance and democratic dividends which have been applauded at home and abroad.

“We opted for the Accord Party because its mission of welfarism aligns with our passionate focus on citizens and workers’ welfare.”

The governor said he has been fascinated by the philosophy of Accord party since he joined, expressing optimism that the party emerge victorious in the August 2026 gubernatorial election in the state.

Adeleke added: “I welcome our party leaders into the Osun state Government House. You are now part of us as I am also now part of you. We are united in progress and good intentions for the good people of Osun state and Nigeria at large.

“At this historical point, our task is to sustain a united front as we prepare for the elections. We have a duty to ensure an inclusive leadership where the interests of all groups are cared for. Our party, Accord Party, is here to take over Osun  governance and sustain the delivery of good governance in our dear state.

“Since I joined the party more than a month ago, I have been fascinated by the philosophy of this great party. The focus on people’s welfare should always be at the heart of public leadership. The primary essence of a government is the welfare and well being of the people.

“As a governor, I have prioritized the welfare of our people, from workers to the entire citizenry. Day and night, we implement policies and programmes to elevate the well being of our people. From infrastructure to social services, Osun has never had it so good in governance and service delivery.

“Today, we unveil the new platform for the good people of Osun state. From Osun West to Osun East to Osun Central, this is our party, our new platform for victory come August next year.

“From Igbomina to Ijeshaland to Ifeland to Osogbo to Iwoland to Modakeke to Gbongan to Igbajo to Ikire to Ikirun to Ede and other lands of Osun state, we must thumb up according to our collective desires for good governance.

“Osun voted for good governance in 2022 and they will support continuity in 2026. The mass of our people are for continuity and Accord is our party for victory next year.

“In accordance with the will of our stakeholders and to accord deep respect for the wishes of Osun people, I hereby accordingly declare for the Accord Party.”

Governor Fubara dumps PDP, defects to APC

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Sim Fubara, good student of Wike's school of effective ...

Governor of Rivers State, Siminalayi Fubara, has dumped the main opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), and joined the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Fubara announced the move on Tuesday during a stakeholders’ meeting at the Government House in Port Harcourt.

Speaking at the meeting, the governor said, “We can’t support President (Tinubu) if we don’t fully identify with him, not just the backyard support.

He said: “So we have taken that decision here today that everyone who has followed, who has suffered with me, our decision today, this evening is that we are moving to the APC.”

This defection followed the governor’s visit to President Bola Tinubu at the State House, Abuja, on Monday.

Tinubu met separately on Monday with Fubara and his Ebonyi State counterpart, Francis Nwifuru, at the State House.

Earlier, the defection of the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, and 15 other PDP lawmakers to the APC signalled worsening factional tensions within the opposition party.

General Christopher Musa: Lessons and warnings, By Lasisi Olagunju

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Balling with Bola Tinubu at 73, By Lasisi Olagunju

Better a child is confirmed dead than a child is unaccounted for. I am not sure we remember that about 250 pupils of St. Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri village in Niger State, remain in captivity. They’ve been with their abductors since November 21 without Nigeria losing a day’s sleep. And we say Donald Trump was wrong to say we are “a disgraced country.”

Anguish, helplessness and despair are not pleasant words to describe the state of anyone; but they perfectly fit the conditions of the parents of the missing kids. One distraught father told the BBC: “If they (the bandits) hear you speak about them, before you know it they’ll come for you. They’ll come to your house and drag you into the bush… I feel so bitter, and my wife hasn’t eaten for days… We are not happy at all. We need someone who will help us and take action.”

So, who will help them? Some of the kids, mere five-year-olds, sleep and wake up there in the bush; they must be wondering why they have to be in someone’s ‘prison’ while the country appears to have moved on. It is terrible.

It is “Bout time this town had a new sheriff”, a law enforcer says in ‘High Plains Drifter’, a 1973 film that is about retributive justice, about criminals getting what they deserve; about a crime-wracked town that sounds almost like Lagos – it is Lago. The new sheriff is ‘The Stranger’ who brought precision guns, “reversals and exposures” and swept the town clean of crime and criminals. Read the text – it reads like Nigeria. And there is apparently a new sheriff in the Nigerian town. He is said to be Christopher Musa, smooth-talking, clean-shaven, debonair and handsome. But how far can he go?

“Be careful. You’re a man who makes people afraid, and that’s dangerous.” Sarah Belding says in the film above. Nothing should rattle a battle-tested General, yet Christopher Musa, the new minister of defence, must feel more than a flicker of awe at the sheer tumult of the welcome he has received so far. He must be even more afraid of the character of the system that has hired him. To help parents such as the quoted above, Musa has been drafted from retirement. But, what he is joining is no war council; it is a cruise party; the ship he has just boarded is not a warship built for battle against criminals. It is a yacht, a vessel for leisure, for politics, for power, and for wealth.

The man came highly recommended with very rare national acceptability. I’ve always believed that history rewards competence and exposes pretenders. If I say that your next position is encased in your present performance, I will be right. I look at the new Minister of Defence, General Musa. The whole world marked his script as our Chief of Defence Staff and said he passed. I do not have access to the marking scheme, but what I know is that the man is very fortunate. He has a sweet tongue and a good head but he has also worked hard to earn the epaulettes that light the path of his active engagements.

Every feat and office has its witnesses. Julius Caesar did not become Rome’s most powerful figure by bribing consuls and senators and sowing discord in opposition forces. He worked positively hard in his journey of service. He was a General who solved problems. And a leader who solves problems becomes naturally indispensable. That is why Musa had to come back so soon after Nigeria retired him.

I cannot remember any appointment made by this president that has universal appeal and endorsement as we’ve seen with Christopher Musa’s. From the initial speculation to the announcement, to his Senate appearance and screening, the man suffered neither darts nor missiles. Even the fissures and factions of Nigeria spared him the usual smears. Everyone, everywhere owned him. He appeared (appears) loved by all.

A General will always earn the loyalty of his troops if they see and feel in him personal courage, discipline, and strategic clarity. Caesar did not directly lobby for leadership; his results made Rome accept his destiny. History says his rise was built on an extraordinary record in the Gallic Wars (58–50 BCE). In that war he subdued the major tribes of Gaul, captured numerous fortified towns, and brought almost the entire region covering much of what is today France, Belgium, Luxembourg, and parts of Switzerland, Italy, and Germany under Roman rule. By transforming Rome’s power Caesar transformed his own political destiny. History adds that he, as a General, displayed extraordinary engineering genius by building a bridge across the Rhine in just ten days and by leading two bold expeditions to Britain. The Roman General accomplished these feats and stunned Europe; his competence imposed him on his world.

Musa was sworn in on Thursday to pursue his own destiny; his hours started counting almost immediately. There is an experience of leisure and luxury called honeymoon. Every English word possesses a history, its etymology. The history of ‘honeymoon’ is rooted in medieval times when newlyweds shared a honey-fermented drink called mead for a moon cycle (a month of thirty days). It was a rite of fortune steeped in symbolism and was believed to usher the couple into a union blessed with good fortune, sweetness, and fertility. For today’s many newlyweds, rich or poor, honeymoon is “a cachet of distinction” which they all insist they must enjoy. But this beautiful bride, Musa, cannot have a honeymoon. I hope he knows. Accepting to be defence minister of Nigeria at this point is the same as accepting to fetch hot coal with one’s bare palm. With his two palms, and with all his faculties perfect, the new minister went for Nigeria’s smoldering balls of embers. What he accepted is a hot plate. You don’t go that far and still think you can pause and rest. He cannot.

Whatever he says or has said will be used to judge him. And he has been talking: He says he won’t negotiate with bandits: “No negotiations with any criminal, because those things compromise security. If you negotiate with them, they will never abide by it. It is just a monetary tactic, what they do is try to buy more time to acquire more arms, and then they will come out again. We have seen it repeatedly,” he said. The man insists that bandits are traitorous criminals, they do not want peace: “Terrorists are enemies of Nigeria; they have no respect for human life. We are going to go after them fully, working together with all security agencies…”

General Musa will not negotiate with terrorists but the forces he will meet on the battlefield here are more than the bandits, Boko Haram and their brother terrorists. He knows there are powerful people who profess negotiation because bandits are their brothers. A war against bandits is against such men of means.

Musa needs the support of his appointers to deliver. This is where I pity him. His makers may have already achieved their aim: respite from Donald Trump and his troublesome band, home and abroad. In other words, the positive review which the president has got from the new minister’s choice may have been the end the system wanted; nothing more. I may be wrong; if I am wrong here I will be happy. US-based Professor Moses Ochonu put it more elegantly in a Facebook post: “While having a competent and uncompromised defense minister helps, the problem ultimately is not about who is the minister. Rather, it is whether there’s the political will, unsoiled by political and electoral calculation, to go after the terrorists, and whether the Tinubu government is willing to humbly admit that its non-kinetic counterterrorism strategy has not only failed but has emboldened the terrorists, and is, as a result, ready to move to a more offensive posture.” Musa should read this again as he prepares for this phase of his life and career.

The new minister can talk, and he has been talking. Musa wants Nigeria fenced round to combat terror. He said: “Border management is very critical. We have had countries that because of the level of insecurity in their country had to fence their borders. Pakistan fenced 1,350 kilometers of border with Afghanistan; that was the only time they had peace. Saudi Arabia and Iraq, 1,400 km border, is completely fenced.” Geography says Nigeria’s total boundary stretches roughly 4,047 km by land and 853 km along its coastline, giving it an approximate total perimeter of about 4,900 km. Now, let me ask Musa: Which of our own neighbours is our own Afghanistan? The truth is that we are the Afghanistan of Africa. We, not our neighbours, are the danger to be fenced off. The new minister and his team can change our story and our status. They won’t do that with weird ideas like border fencing which is potentially another project etched in the image of an elephant painted white.

But, then, I wonder where the fencing idea came from. The intelligent General from Southern Kaduna has probably forgotten that Boko Haram in the North-East started as a Nigerian start-up. The group has essentially remained a Nigerian brand exporting abhorrence to Chad, Niger, Cameroon, even Benin.

Again, has Musa, the gadfly, forgotten that banditry in the North-West has its roots in the historical tension between the Hausa and the Fulani? Did he listen to a recent interview by the chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Bashir Dalhatu, where he admitted that banditry and terrorism in northern Nigeria is self-inflicted? For the records, Bashir Dalhatu said: “We have fifteen million out-of-school children roaming the streets. If we had taken care of that, it would not have gotten out of hand.” The General should read Dalhatu’s lips and ask himself what a fence would do to prevent the multi-million idle hands from becoming the devil’s workshop. A fence will be as useless as a door locked against the enemy within.

The Musa that I watched on TV has no deficit of education. Leadership has never been an accident of luck. Those who attained it worked for it; the best among them are the truly educated ones. Because of his apparent good education, this Musa is not like the one at the gate whispering peace to bandits. His voice has been very shrill against the enemy, but he needs more than his voice to win this war. The enemy is not the Wall of Jericho. He should fight criminals and battle those who excuse their crimes.

The man has a model to copy in legendary British Iron lady, Margaret Thatcher who had the IRA extremists to pummel almost four decades ago. In the midst of “The Troubles” and their bombs, Thatcher reminded her country that: “Crime and violence injure not only the victim, but all of us, by spreading fear and making the streets no-go areas for decent people…To be soft on crime is to betray the law-abiding citizen. And to make excuses for the criminal is to offer incentives to dishonesty and violence. Crime flourishes in a culture of excuses…” Thatcher did not just talk and go to bed; she followed her talk with concrete actions and degraded the enemy.

Our new minister needs good Nigerians to succeed and he already has them. If he will keep them, he must be felt more in action rather than in words. A billion words are mere hot air, they can’t fill a basket. Everyone knows this. Policies and actions that terminate banditry and terrorism are what will sustain his name and legacy of heroism. He will achieve that only when he fences off bloodline politics and treats crime as crime.

I go back to Thatcher. To our president and his minister, I recommend the words of the Iron Lady uttered on October 12, 1990 (35 years ago). She told her Conservative Party that “crime is not a sickness to be cured; it is a temptation to be resisted, a threat to be deterred, and an evil to be punished.”

Credit: Lasisi Olagunju

ECOWAS declares state of emergency in West African region

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Regional organisation, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) has declared a state of emergency across the West African region.

President of the ECOWAS Commission, Omar Touray, made the announcement on Tuesday during the 55th Session of the Mediation and Security Council at the ministerial level in Abuja.

Touray said recent developments underline the “imperative of serious introspection on the future of our democracy and the urgent need to invest in the security of our community.”

While addressing ministers, diplomats and senior officials, Touray gave a sobering assessment of West Africa’s political climate, citing multiple incidents as evidence of a rapidly deteriorating security environment.

He noted that ECOWAS member states currently face an average rating of “high risk,” based on country-by-country analyses contained in documents before the ministers.

“Events of the last few weeks have shown the imperative of serious introspection on the future of our democracy and the urgent need to invest in the security of our community.

“As you would have seen in the memoranda before you, the country-by-country analyses of our member states show different risk levels across our community, from high to medium, with an average of high risk, thereby demanding immediate and concerted action.

“The risk factors are the persistence of military interventions (Guinea-Bissau and the Republic of Benin just days ago); non-compliance with transition norms in Guinea, where we face a military leader turning civilian; growing erosion of electoral inclusivity across multiple states; expanding influence of terrorists, armed groups and criminal networks; and increasing geopolitical pressures affecting member states’ diplomacy and cohesion,” he explained.

Among the most troubling trends, Touray emphasised that “elections have become a major trigger of instability in our community.”

He also cited recent attempted coups and ongoing discussions with the Alliance of Sahel States, stressing the urgent need for a coordinated regional response to terrorism and cross-border criminal activity.

Declaring the situation unprecedented, he warned, “Faced with this situation, Excellencies, it is safe to declare that our community is in a state of emergency.”

Touray called for more frequent meetings of the Mediation and Security Council over the next year, insisting ECOWAS must “pool our resources to confront the threats of terrorism and banditry, which operate without respect for territorial boundaries.”

He outlined priority areas requiring continuous ministerial oversight, including the crisis in Guinea-Bissau, managing political transitions, addressing rising political exclusion, and safeguarding regional unity amid external pressures.

The ECOWAS Commission President also drew attention to worsening humanitarian conditions in West Africa, referencing recent UNHCR data. He said that “as of October 2025, approximately 7.6 million individuals are forcibly displaced across the region,” including more than 6.5 million internally displaced persons.

According to the data, the largest displaced populations are in Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, while Niger, Mali, Nigeria, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo host the highest numbers of asylum seekers.

Touray stressed, “We must therefore take decisions and actions that will reverse this trend.”

Despite the challenges, he reaffirmed ECOWAS’s commitment to its citizens.

“Let me assure our community citizens that we will not rest on our oars. We will continue to work harder to promote a peaceful, stable and stronger region for the overall benefit of Community citizens.

“Let us all remain committed to preserving regional unity, advancing peace and upholding the Community’s Constitutional Convergence Principles,” he said.

Touray also welcomed new ministerial representatives attending the session for the first time.

“May I extend a warm welcome to the new Ministers of Defence of Nigeria, Rtd. General Christopher Musa, and Foreign Affairs of Cabo Verde, José Luis Livramento, who are joining today for the first time,” he said.

Sierra Leone’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Chair of the Council of Ministers, Timothy Kabba, in his own comment, called for decisive action to protect democratic governance amid worsening political instability.

Kabba highlighted the fragile state of democracy in West Africa, pointing to the recent political crises in Guinea-Bissau and Benin.

“The recent coup in Guinea-Bissau and the attempted coup in the Benin Republic are sobering reminders of the fragility of our democratic gains,” Kabba said.

He detailed Sierra Leone’s diplomatic efforts, noting that he led a high-level delegation to Guinea-Bissau on December 1, 2025, to engage with military leaders and political stakeholders.

“His Excellency’s engagement helped ease tensions and opened the door for continued dialogue under ECOWAS’s guidance.

“These actions reflect our collective position. ECOWAS cannot and will not accept this development. They undermine everything our community stands for and threaten the peace and security of our citizens,” he said.

Kabba stressed the need for concrete outcomes from the summit.

“The discussions we have today must move beyond just reaffirming principles. They must generate decisions that offer real hope and strengthen the credibility of our institutions.

“Our people no longer have patience for commitments that remain unfulfilled. They expect us to confront these challenges with seriousness, unity and purpose,” he added.

(Photo: AP)

Tinubu gave Wike assignment to destroy PDP ―Emma Ogidi, PDP chieftain, claims

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Why Tinubu made Wike Minister - Akpabio - Vanguard News

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chieftain, Emma Ogidi, has accused President Bola Tinubu and FCT Minister Nyesom Wike of collaborating to weaken and destabilise the opposition party.

Ogidi, while speaking on Channels Television’s Politics Today on Monday, claimed the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) is interfering in PDP affairs in a manner he described as “a threat to democracy.”

“This APC government will do anything to make Nigeria a one-party state,” he alleged. Ogidi further insisted that President Tinubu is fully aware of the internal turmoil rocking the PDP. “Tinubu knows what is going on. Wike is his minister and is working for him. Wike is behind the destruction of our party. Tinubu is complicit; that was the assignment given to him.”

In spite of the crisis, Ogidi maintained that the PDP remains resilient. “He cannot destroy our party. The PDP is indestructible because it is the people’s party,” he said.

Responding to Wike’s assertion that no one can expel him from the PDP, Ogidi countered that every member is subject to party discipline. “No one is above the rules. If you violate them repeatedly, you can be expelled. The PDP belongs to everyone equally; nobody has more stake than another.”

Ogidi’s comments come amid intensifying internal divisions within the PDP. In November, a faction backed by Governors Seyi Makinde and Bala Mohammed announced Wike’s expulsion along with several others. Wike, however, insists he cannot be pushed out of a party he has belonged to since 1998.

The PDP has also seen a series of recent defections, deepening concerns about its stability ahead of future political contests.

Insecurity and Plenty Conspiracy Theories, By Simon Kolawole

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At the dawn of the new democratic order in 1999, Channels TV did a vox pop asking Nigerians their expectations from the incoming Olusegun Obasanjo administration. One market woman said: “I want Obasanjo to bring the economy down!” You can laugh all you want, but she knew what she was saying — even though her diction was unsophisticated. To her, the “economy” meant “prices of goods and services”. Things were expensive and she wanted them to become affordable. What she meant, effectively, was for Obasanjo to bring down the “prices of goods and services”. She must have been disappointed as prices kept going up. And 26 years after, prices are still heading for the skies.

In my previous article, ‘Where Nnamdi Kanu Missed a Trick’, I suggested that the majority of Nigerians — Muslims, Christians, northerners, southerners — are more concerned about food, shelter, clothing, jobs, roads, healthcare and security than balkanisation and secession by stealth. Do not take my word for it: randomly stop Nigerians on the streets and ask them the things that are dear to their hearts. I bet those are the items you are most likely to find on their lists. I do this all the time. I talk to security guards, taxi drivers, okada riders, food vendors, bricklayers, and carpenters, among others. Actually, sampling the opinions of everyday Nigerians is a hobby for me. I learn a lot from it.

On the other hand, you have the powerful opinion leaders and political elite who have a different agenda and set a different tone for public discourse. They saturate the airwaves with their toxic agenda, mainly because they have the platform, the capacity and the incentive to push their scheme even to the uttermost parts of the earth. They are all over the media, both traditional and social, promoting their divisive agenda with half-truths and outright lies, preying on the innocence and ignorance of their fans and followers. Ordinary Nigerians are the victims of the manipulation. Much damage is being done to our nationhood and I often wonder if we can ever recover from the malady.

Meanwhile, I recently got into an interesting discussion with an Uber driver. I had asked him his thoughts on the insecurity plaguing the nation and he swore that the heightened kidnappings and attacks were stage-managed to discredit the government so that US President Donald Trump could help unseat President Bola Tinubu. As with conspiracy theorists, there are facts and questions they work with. The driver asked: why are suddenly fresh attacks on churches and a Christian school by the bandits? He alleged that they were orchestrated to prove that there is Christian persecution in Nigeria and that Trump should invade the country “guns-a-blazing” as he had threatened weeks ago.

I told him there are so many conspiracy theories in town that I myself do not know what to believe any longer. One theory says the entire insecurity situation is the handiwork of the government itself, to siphon funds under the subhead of “security”. Another one says the military hierarchy is making too much blood money from the insecurity and will not want it to end anytime soon. Another says some politicians are desperate for power in 2027 and want to make the country ungovernable “like they did to President Goodluck Jonathan” so that they can win the next elections. It seems to me that every Nigerian has a theory on the matter. Some theories sound frolicsome but it is what it is.

Aside from the theories on the streets and inside the Ubers, there have been claims by government officials that cannot be waved aside just like that. Governor Nasir Idris of Kebbi state, speaking on the abduction of 25 students of Government Girls’ Comprehensive Secondary School, Maga, said openly that the military was informed of the impending attack but troops were withdrawn just before the bandits struck. He said soldiers left the school around 3am and the bandits struck 45 minutes later. “We provided intelligence reports. We alerted them. So, who gave the order for troops to withdraw at that critical hour?” Idris said. The military has not responded to this allegation, except I missed it.

Senator Idris Wase also alleged that Boko Haram members and other criminals were recruited into the armed forces. “Former (house) chairman of defence, and my very good friend, (Muktar Aliyu) Betara, will bear me witness that we had moments in time when, in the process of recruitment, Boko Haram were found on the army list,” Wase said on the floor of the national assembly, broadcast on TV. A few days later, he was countered by Gen Lucky Irabor, former chief of defence staff, who denied the allegation. “How could it be? Where people got that impression, I cannot tell,” he said. But should Wase be saying such on TV or sharing the information with the appropriate authorities?

The Uber driver’s question refreshed my memory. After the Chibok abductions of April 2014, theories were being peddled effortlessly by all sides. I recall asking a presidential aide what really happened and he told me: “Don’t mind (Kashim) Shettima (then-Borno governor, now vice-president). When he is tired of playing politics, he will bring those girls from where he is hiding them.” To him, the abductions were stage-managed to embarrass Jonathan. Theories were not one-sided though: there were those who said Jonathan unleashed insecurity on the north-east because it was an opposition stronghold. They said he didn’t want 2015 elections to hold there. It is what it is.

Admiral Murtala Nyako, as governor of Adamawa state, said something similar at a meeting between northern Muslim governors and Ms Susan Rice, then-US national security advisor, as well as other American officials at the White House on March 18, 2014. Nyako said Jonathan was behind Boko Haram, that his government was supplying arms to Boko Haram to perpetuate the conflict in the north in order to reduce their voting power ahead of his re-election bid. He did not back down despite facing impeachment proceedings obviously orchestrated from Abuja. There are those who believe the US played a key role in Jonathan’s ouster and are hoping history would repeat itself.

Indeed, Nyako even wrote a well-publicised letter to northern governors in 2014. He said: “Clearly the victims of the Administration’s evil-mindedness are substantially Northern Nigerians. The Administration is bent on bringing wars in the North between Muslims and Christians and within them and between one ethnic group and another or others in various communities in the region. Cases of mass murders by its bloody minded killers and cut-throats are well known, but it attributes the killings to so-called Boko-Haram.” He said young girls and boys had been kidnapped by “clearly organised militia in the last few years and kidnapping is now a random affair all over the far North”.

Nyako said these organised kidnappers “must have the backing of the Federal administration for them to move about freely with abducted children just as those who convey ammunition and explosives from the Ports to the safe-houses of so-called Boko Haram in the North”. He repeated the claims he made in the US that arms and ammunition were being supplied to Boko Haram by air. For all his efforts, though, Nyako was impeached. But his conspiracy theory outlasted him. Also, along the line, Gen Muhammadu Buhari was alleged to be the brain behind Boko Haram. They said he was a religious fanatic who was trying to use the terrorists to chase Jonathan out of power in 2015.

Lt Gen Azubuike Ihejirika, as chief of army staff from 2010 to 2014, was at a time accused of being the brain behind Boko Haram. They said he was the one supplying them with arms and ammunition because as an Igbo, he had an unfinished business: to destroy northern Nigeria in revenge for the civil war of 1967-70. Ihejirika, who was the first Igbo since 1966 to attain the position of army chief, had to head for the courts to defend his name as the allegations became a staple for the Nigerian media. It must have been a very harrowing experience for him — a general being accused of waging war against his own country. Sometimes, it is difficult to make sense of these theories. It is what it is.

In 2020, the late Dr Obadiah Mailafia, a former deputy governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and a Christian from southern Kaduna, said that a northern governor was the commander of Boko Haram. He did not name the governor. “We have met with some of their high commanders, they have sat down with us not once, not twice,” he said in a viral interview. “They told us that one of the northern governors is the commander of Boko Haram in Nigeria. Boko Haram and the bandits are one and the same. During this lockdown, their planes were moving up and down as if there was no lockdown.” Mailafia was invited by the DSS to substantiate his claims. He couldn’t but he apologised.

Conspiracy theories could be damaging, distractive and destructive, yet my core argument remains that it is the job of the government to secure Nigeria, whether or not these allegations are true. If there is sabotage, squash it. If there is corruption, crush it. If it is politics, puncture it. However, we must know that conspiracy theories and conjectures are not harmless. I will say our failure to reason together and unite against these common enemies is one of the reasons why insecurity festered and reached this frightening level. Still, the government must do its job diligently. Nigerians deserve to sleep and snore with eyes closed. Like the market woman, I want Tinubu to bring insecurity down.

AND FOUR OTHER THINGS…

WAITING FOR OBI

All eyes are now on Mr Peter Obi on his next political move. While the major politicians behind the African Democratic Congress (ADC) have officially joined the party, the former presidential candidate of the Labour Party is not eager to get on board despite repeatedly giving assurances. “We can’t just say, ‘Oh, we don’t like what these people are doing. Let them go.’ If they go, what is the alternative? We’ve done that in 2015: ‘Let this man just go,’ and he went. So, we now have to be clear. What are we getting?” he asked rhetorically, maintaining he is not desperate to be president. But does that mean he can agree to be running mate to Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, the likely ADC candidate? Intriguing.

DEFENCE TO ATTACK

Less than six weeks after he was retired as the chief of defence staff (CDS), Gen Chris Musa has been appointed minister of defence by President Bola Tinubu. I was genuinely confused, to be frank. We thought his retirement and the appointment of new service chiefs was in reaction to the growing insecurity in the land and that the president was about to breathe a new life into securing the nation. But I am now being told by those who should know that Musa had a lot of “brilliant ideas” as CDS but he could not implement because of the political hierarchy. I’m told he will now have all the political power and authority he needs to chart a policy direction for the security sector. Amen.

LISTLESS LIST

Pardon me if I am sounding cynical, but this must be one of the most underwhelming ambassadorial lists I have seen in my life. In the first place, it is such a big shame that we went for two years without appointing substantive ambassadors and high commissioners — whatever reason we might have. It is not done. It does not show a country that is serious about its place in the international community and global affairs. Something is definitely wrong with our understanding of priorities in the modern world. And when the ambassadorial list finally came out, I could not believe my eyes when I saw the names of some of the nominees. This is what happens when politics is priority in all things. Disgrace.

NO COMMENT

The crisis in the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) is far from over: the combatants have been busy expelling one member or the other. The faction led by Mallam Kabiru Turaki has expelled Chief Nyesom Wike and his loyalists: Ayodele Fayose, Samuel Anyanwu, Umar Bature, Mao Ohuabunwa, and Dan Orbih, among five others. The Wike faction has, in kind, expelled Governors Dauda Lawal (Zamfara State), Bala Mohammed (Bauchi) and Seyi Makinde (Oyo), and the rest. But the Turaki faction is providing more entertainment with the issuance of “expulsion certificates” to Wike and co. I’m curious: will there be a presentation ceremony? Will it be broadcast live on ARISE? Hahahaha.

Credit: Simon Kolawole

Stop buying Rolls-Royce and private jets, establish industries instead ―Dangote tells wealthy Nigerians

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Jigawa: Dangote set to boost agriculture with $200m investment - Vanguard News

African richest businessman, Aliko Dangote has called on wealthy Nigerians to redirect funds currently spent on luxury items such as Rolls-Royce cars and private jets into establishing industries that drive economic growth and create employment opportunities.

Dangote spoke after a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at Aso Rock Villa on Saturday, he lamented the culture of extravagant consumption, stressing that the nation’s development depends heavily on the responsibility of local investors.

He criticised the proliferation of private jets at Nigerian airports, arguing that such wealth would be better invested in productive ventures.

“If you look at the Nigerian policy before, during the military, everybody from the president downwards used Peugeot 504. That was the highest. So, when a president is using 504, you cannot come as a commoner, as a businessman, or whoever you are, to be using Rolls-Royce.

“If you have money for a Rolls-Royce, you should go and put up an industry in your locality or anywhere in Nigeria where there is a need.

“It pains me when I go to the local airport, whether here or in Lagos, and even finding a parking space for your plane is impossible because everybody has a private jet. Those private jets could be in industries creating jobs.

“National development requires a strong focus on manufacturing and agriculture, supported by robust banking systems.

“Nigeria is in urgent need of job creation as her population grows by 8.7 million yearly.”

Military coup in Benin Republic foiled

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Democracy Survives: How Benin Republic coup failed — FG - Vanguard News

A number of soldiers appeared on Benin’s state TV announcing the dissolution of the government in an apparent coup, the latest among series of coups in West Africa.

The group, which called itself the Military Committee for Refoundation, on Sunday announced the removal of the president and all state institutions.

President Patrice Talon has been in power since 2016 and was due to step down next April after the presidential election.

Talon’s party pick, former Finance Minister Romuald Wadagni, was the favorite to win the election.

Opposition candidate Renaud Agbodjo was rejected by the electoral commission on the grounds that he did not have sufficient sponsors.

However, the president of Benin Republic, Patrice Talon said on Sunday that the “situation is completely under control” in his country after the government thwarted an attempted coup, thanks to loyalist soldiers.

“I would like to assure you that the situation is completely under control and therefore invite you to calmly go about your activities starting this very evening,” Talon said on state broadcaster Benin TV.

Reports say Beninese military and security also announced that around a dozen soldiers had been arrested, including those behind the foiled coup.

Last month, the country’s legislature extended the presidential term of office from five to seven years, keeping the term limit at two.

Photo: Vanguard

Violence and the ’emilokan’ presidency, By Obi Nwakanma

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Obi Nwakanma - College of Arts and Humanities

It is no longer news that the current APC administration – the ‘Emilokan’ presidency of Mr. Bola Ahmed Tinubu – has no answers to the problems facing Nigeria. Bola Tinubu is in fact, out of his depths. He has not the actual training, the intellectual capacity, the visionary or rhetorical ability to move Nigeria forward. He is negotiating with terrorists.

He is not only clueless – yes that word again that has come to haunt the APC and its supporters who first used it against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan – Tinubu is confused. He has no ideas, beyond his “Agbado solutions.” He is surrounded by the most incompetent people ever to be assembled on Nigeria’s Federal Executive Council. A cabinet of lightweights, who like the man Tinubu himself, are also mostly out of their depths.

The administration under his watch has not only deepened corruption, it has also turned Aso Rock into the parking lot of a narrow, ethnic and provincial mutual admiration society. It has cheapened the stature of government, and reduced Nigeria’s capacity and weight in world affairs beyond measure. Where his predecessor stopped, he continued – and took it a step further. I could never have imagined that anybody would be worse than Buhari. But Tinubu has done it spectacularly! He perfected Buhari’s program of nepotism and ethnocentrism. And that is one of the key problems of the current Nigerian administration: there are not enough weighty, competent, independent-minded, and technically-grounded soundboards around to steer the direction of government.

Nigeria now feels like a pyramid scam, shaky – with an Alao as president, and his many ‘Shakey-Shakey’ assistants (read Ralph Opara’s ‘Save Journey’) who never understood that Nigeria is bigger than that massive slum called Lagos. Both his domestic and foreign policy are weak, directionless, and incomprehensible. Tinubu wanted to be president by every means. Buhari’s inept administration, and a compromised Electoral Commission, as well as an ‘Emilokan court’ facilitated his wish. In the last election, they brazenly subverted the will of Nigerians, and made Tinubu president.

They stole the mandate of millions of Nigerians, and made an ethnic bigot president of a very complex nation. The rest is now history. But there is much more in the making. Bola Ahmed Tinubu reflects the tragedy called Nigeria. Nigeria began as a Republic with one of the giants of the 20th century, Nnamdi Azikiwe, as its president. But over the years, this nation has continued to roll down the hills, after those early years of promise, until it got to this point, where a Bola Ahmed Tinubu is president of Nigeria. I still cannot imagine it. It is the greatest symbol of a nation that has failed, a country that eats itself from the tail

Let’s be clear, Tinubu did not cause the trouble with Nigeria. He inherited it. But he orchestrated a significant part of it. Let us begin from his activities in the opposition against Dr. Goodluck Jonathan. As Nigerians now love to say, “the internet no dey lie!” Well, largely speaking – because we now are in the age of Artificial Intelligence. Stuff happens that are now mind-blowing. But the archives are still intact, with the words and activities of Bola Tinubu and his cohorts – the APC coalition of men who rendered Nigeria ungovernable in their opposition to Jonathan.

The late Buhari even promised on the strength of their deadly plan to unleash the blood of baboons and monkeys to push their agenda. The thunder went out before it could strike, because Goodluck Jonathan stole it.

Reading the tides, Jonathan arrested this very dangerous buildup by sacrificing his presidency. As he said in that moment, “no

Nigerian blood was worth his political ambition.” There were those who called him weak. But it was the act of a deeply humane intellectual, who had seen, and clearly received intelligence briefings of a huge conspiracy against the federation of Nigeria, supported by a NATO partnership, which saw John Kerry, then-American Secretary of State, flying in against all known diplomatic protocols to have meetings in Sokoto. In the same period, some APC leaders had chaperoned Buhari to London to go kiss the rings of British ex-these and that, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair.

The active subversion of Nigeria began in those very moments. These facts are well known to Nigerians. Nothing I have written here is outside the public domain. Key figures of that conspiracy have spoken loudly about it in moments of either elation, a twinge of conscience, or just gotcha! In 2021, the government of the United Arab Emirates arrested and reported six Nigerians to the Buhari administration as facilitating funds for Boko Haram through the international financial system. In September 2022, the US government named the individuals as “leaders of terrorists groups,” who were “providing support to terrorists or acts of terrorism.”

The Buhari government shielded them. To this day, even under the current APC administration, nothing has happened to these folks. Buhari’s program of recruitment into the Nigerian Armed Forces, of “repentant terrorists” was an act of brazen subversion of the Armed Forces of Nigeria. He made possible the official infiltration of terrorists who have formed very complex cells and networks in the Nigerian National Defence and Security system. Few weeks ago, a top Nigerian General, Musa Uba, was ambushed, captured alive, and executed by Boko Haram, in a most brazen act of “fuck-you” to the Federal Government and to the Armed Forces of Nigeria. Terrorists cells and networks have orchestrated, since the US threat to invade Nigeria militarily over what it calls.

“Christian genocide” in Nigeria, a series of abductions, kidnappings, and killings. These are now in fact too numerous to name. What is so very clear is, one, that Bola Ahmed Tinubu is overwhelmed and cannot, and is not strategically equipped to prevent what is clearly brewing in Nigeria: a brutal civil war, which will not take an ethnic, but a religious dimension. Yes, a very dangerous religious war is brewing in Nigeria. Let the truth be known.

It is thus incumbent on Nigerians to compel the National Assembly to act on the following lines:

First, impeach the President of Nigeria because he has failed to meet his constitutional obligation of protecting Nigerians, and he does not exhibit the intellectual and emotional capacity to do so. He is overwhelmed by what he helped to create. If it is true he negotiated recently with terrorists, and paid them off, that constitutes a crime against his office as president.

Two, the National Assembly must declare a National Security Emergency and constitute a diarchy that includes the Armed Forces of Nigeria which must immediately assume the power to govern Nigeria with the National Assembly. They should sack the ministers who must hand over temporary duties to the Federal Permanent Secretaries. They must reorganize the Civil Service quickly, clean out the infiltrators in the Armed Forces, recondition the National Security Agencies, erase anyone associated with this insurgency and restore the order and trajectory of Nigeria. The Nigerian Armed Forces must also quickly reconstitute ECOMOG, and go into active partnership with other West African nations, to smoke out this insurgency which is threatening to upend Nigeria, and West Africa.

Credit: Obi Nwakanma

US Congress delegate visits Benue State over alleged Christian genocide

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Christians Genocide: US Congress Delegation Visits Benue State - Politics - Nigeria

Governor of Benue State, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Iormem Alia, earlier in the day received a Delegation from the US Congress, the US Assistant Secretary of State and the US Ambassador to Nigeria in Makurdi, Benue State, Nigeria.

The US Congress delegate is in Nigeria in respect of the alleged Christian genocide going on in Nigeria, especially around the middle belt zone.

Discussions were centered on security and humanitarian challenges in Benue and North Central Nigeria with a shared commitment to sustainable peace, justice and safety of the Benue People.

Nigeria’s World Bank debt rising to $9.65bn

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Spring 2017: World Bank | Economics at Illinois

Loans from the World Bank to Nigeria between 2023 and 2025 are projected to reach $9.65bn by the end of this year as fresh approvals, ongoing negotiations, and disbursements gather pace across key sectors.

The amount covers International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) loans only, according to an analysis of data on the bank’s website. When grants are added, total World Bank support rises to about $9.77bn within the three-year window.

International Bank for Reconstruction and Development provides loans on commercial or near-commercial terms to middle-income and creditworthy low-income countries, while the International Development Association offers highly concessional loans and grants to the world’s poorest nations.

The figures show a steady build-up of commitments with government officials pushing ahead with digital infrastructure, social protection, power, education, and health programmes while defending the concessional nature of the borrowings.

Nigerian Government is expected to secure another $500m facility on December 19, 2025, under the Fostering Inclusive Finance for MSMEs in Nigeria project. The operation is being prepared for Board consideration and will be implemented through the Development Bank of Nigeria.

Cycle of borrowing under the administration of Bola Tinubu began with $2.7bn in loans in 2023 across four major projects. Financing that year was dominated by power sector recovery, renewable energy access, girls’ education, and women’s economic empowerment.

The Nigeria Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up project received $750m in IDA financing to expand private sector-led clean energy access. Another $700m IDA credit was approved for girls’ secondary education in participating states. Women’s economic empowerment attracted $500m IDA through the Nigeria for Women Programme Scale Up.

The AF Power Sector Recovery operation received $449m in IBRD financing and $301m in IDA to improve the reliability of the electricity supply and restore financial sustainability in the sector. There were no grant components in 2023, so the entire amount consisted of loans.

Volume of loans rose sharply in 2024 as new approvals reached $4.25bn, representing a 57.4 per cent increase compared with the preceding year. The increase was driven largely by two policy-based operations and three separate $500m IDA investment packages.

The Nigeria Reforms for Economic Stabilisation to Enable Transformation programme provided $1.5bn in loans, split between $750m IBRD and $750m IDA, as the government sought fiscal space and protection for vulnerable populations while reforms continued.

Another $750m IBRD loan was approved for the NG Accelerating Resource Mobilisation Reforms programme to boost non-oil revenues and safeguard oil and gas receipts.

The World Bank also cleared $500m IDA each for rural road access, primary healthcare strengthening, and dam safety and irrigation programmes. The primary healthcare programme included a $70m grant, which lifted total World Bank support for 2024, including grants, to about $4.32bn.

For 2025, the data shows $2.695bn in loans at various stages of project processing alongside $52.18m in grants. Nine operations have already been identified across financial inclusion, digital broadband, health, education, social protection, and institutional capacity.

The largest facilities are tied to $500m IDA each for broadband expansion, basic education, and livelihood support for poor and vulnerable households. Health security, nutrition, and internally displaced communities account for another $630m, while procurement standards receive $65m from IDA.

A $400m IBRD component is included for the MSME finance programme, along with a $100m IDA portion. Also, the Central Bank of Nigeria is to receive a $6.8m grant to strengthen technology-enabled oversight of the banking sector and deepen understanding of payment and remittance systems.

Compared with 2024, the 2025 loan pipeline represents a decline of about 36.6 per cent, though it is broadly in line with the $2.7bn reached in 2023. Across the three years, IDA loans account for about $7.30bn while IBRD loans contribute roughly $2.35bn. Grants add another $122.19m, rising from zero in 2023 to $70.01m in 2024 before easing to $52.18m in 2025.

The portfolio highlights the scale of financing underpinning Nigeria’s reform programme as authorities continue to seek low-cost multilateral resources even as concerns persist over debt sustainability and the need to strengthen domestic revenue mobilisation.

According to Punch, Nigeria’s stock of World Bank International Development Association loans rose to $18.5bn, making it the largest IDA borrower in Africa and the third-biggest in the world.

Fresh data from the IDA’s unaudited financial statements for the third quarter of 2025 confirmed that the country has maintained the ranking it first attained in 2024, when it climbed to third place after overtaking India. The country was the fourth-largest borrower in 2023.

According to the report, Nigeria’s exposure increased from $17.1bn in September 2024 to $18.5bn in September 2025, representing a rise of $1.4bn or 8.2 per cent. The increase reflects the country’s heavier reliance on concessional financing to plug infrastructure gaps, stabilise its reform programme, and support social spending amid volatile oil earnings.

Economists warn that the rising loan pipeline, while potentially beneficial for long-term development, could deepen fiscal pressures if not matched with stronger domestic revenue mobilisation and prudent expenditure management.

Lagos-based economist, Adewale Abimbola, reacting to the rising World Bank commitments to Nigeria, said loans from multilateral institutions such as the World Bank are largely concessionary, with interest rates typically below market levels and longer repayment tenors.

He noted that the critical question is not whether Nigeria should be borrowing, but whether the loans are structured and deployed effectively. “If it’s concessionary and tied to viable projects with medium-term revenue prospects, I don’t think it’s a bad idea,” Abimbola explained. “Borrowing isn’t bad; what matters is utilisation.”

Abimbola stressed that the economic impact of such loans depends on how well they are channelled into projects that can generate sustainable growth, strengthen revenue, and improve public services over time.

Development economist and CEO of CSA Advisory, Dr Aliyu Ilias, has expressed strong reservations about Nigeria’s rising debt profile in light of the World Bank’s fresh commitments.

While acknowledging that borrowing is not inherently bad for an economy, he questioned the rationale for taking on more debt at a time when the government claims to have higher revenues. Ilias pointed out that following the removal of fuel subsidy, Tinubu had announced increased revenue inflows.

He added that both the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) had declared revenue surpluses, further suggesting the government should be able to fund projects without resorting to heavy borrowing.

According to him, the impact of the current borrowing spree is being felt in reduced public service delivery, particularly in capital expenditure, as debt servicing now consumes a significant portion of available revenue.

He warned that this crowding-out effect limits job creation, fuels inflation, and worsens Nigeria’s foreign-exchange imbalance, with the naira trading at historically low levels.

He argued that given the claimed revenue surpluses, the Tinubu administration should not have needed to borrow within its first two years in office, let alone at the scale currently being witnessed.

Economist and CEO of the Centre for the Promotion of Private Enterprise (CPPE), Dr Muda Yusuf, said the rising World Bank commitments to Nigeria should be examined within the context of the country’s Medium-Term Expenditure Framework and annual budgets, which already provide for both domestic and foreign borrowing.

He noted that deficit financing is a common feature of budgets worldwide and is not inherently wrong, as it allows governments to make critical investments without waiting to generate all the required revenue upfront.

Yusuf, however stressed that borrowing should always be backed by sound economic reasoning and clear development priorities. Yusuf emphasised that the key issue is debt sustainability, which depends primarily on the country’s revenue capacity to service its obligations.

Without strong cash flow to meet repayment schedules, he warned, Nigeria risks falling into a vicious cycle of borrowing to service existing loans, thereby perpetuating fiscal vulnerability. He said it is essential that projects funded by loans directly support the economy’s capacity to repay.

According to him, Nigeria should be cautious with foreign loans due to the exchange rate risks they pose, noting that domestic debt is generally easier to manage. Excessive foreign borrowing, he warned, could put pressure on the country’s reserves and further weaken the exchange rate. He stressed that a disciplined approach to debt sustainability will be crucial for Nigeria to avoid long-term fiscal distress.

Data from the Debt Management Office showed Nigeria’s external debt stood at $46.98bn as of June 30, 2025. Of this amount, the World Bank Group accounted for $19.39bn—comprising $18.04bn from the International Development Association and $1.35bn from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

This means the World Bank holds 41.3 per cent of the total, reinforcing its outsized role in funding Nigeria’s development programmes.