PRESIDENT Muhammadu Buhari on Monday January 23, 2023 commended Lagos State governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu, for his administration’s revolution in the agriculture sector, especially in rice production.
A statement issued and signed by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Gboyega Akosile, on Monday January, 2023 quoted Buhari as personally telling Sanwo-Olu, “You are doing well.”
Buhari spoke at the inauguration of the Lagos Rice Mill in Imota, which the governor said was the largest rice mill in sub-Saharan Africa and the fourth largest in the world.
The President, after touring the facility, seeing the rice pyramid and also watching the last part of the bagging process, which is the sealing, expressed delight at he saw.
Sanwo-Olu said during the tour, “Mr. President, this is the result of your rice revolution. This rice is called Eko Rice, proudly Nigeria. It is the best in town now.
“It is being done because of the agricultural revolution of Mr President, who, when he started his government, said Nigerians should grow what they eat and they should eat what they grow.
“We are happy that Lagos is a testament of that. With 2.8 million bags of 50-kilogramme rice per annum, Lagos is ready to support the rice revolution and the food revolution in Nigeria.”
The mill is expected to create 250,000 direct and indirect jobs.
MEDIA Rights Agenda (MRA) has condemned the harassment of an Arise Television cameraman at the campaign meeting of the All Progressives Congress (APC) presidential candidate, Bola Tinubu, with the Lagos business community on January 13, 2023.
The MRA, in a statement issued on Monday, January 23, by its Programme Director Ayode Longe, described the expulsion of the journalist from the meeting as “bizarre, high-handed and a violation of the rights of the media’.
According to the MRA, the All Progressives Congress Presidential Campaign Council’s (APC-PCC) blatant disregard for the rights of a journalist performing a constitutionally-protected function portends grave dangers for the media should that candidate prevail in the elections.
The APC-PCC Director of Media and Publicity, Bayo Onanuga, had claimed on Twitter that the Arise Television cameraman was caught clandestinely live streaming Bola Tinubu’s campaign event without authorization and accused him of being “on espionage mission”.
However, Longe expressed outrage at the allegation and the APC-PCC’s justification for its unconstitutional action, describing it as ridiculous and baffling.
He said: “What authorization does the journalist require to perform his professional duty of covering a political campaign event? How can a purely journalistic act by a cameraman from a television station filming a public political campaign event and beaming it live to a public audience be characterized as espionage? Should the cameraman have first made a public announcement that he is covering the event so as not to be accused of doing so clandestinely?
“We find this particularly bewildering because Mr. Onanuga, who issued the justification and made the accusation of espionage, spent a significant portion of his career as a professional journalist engaged in what came to be known as guerrilla journalism, for which he and the two media outlets, TheNews and Tempo magazines, where he served as an editor, were widely applauded, including by people like Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. It is the worst form of irony that he is now attempting to condemn a journalist engaged in his professional pursuit as having committed a capital offence.
“If this attitude is indicative of the vision of the party or its presidential candidate on the role of the media in the democratic process, then we shudder to think of what the future holds for journalists and the media community should this attitude and mentality be brought into the highest political office in Nigeria,” he added.
Longe noted that it is the duty of the media to scrutinize and hold accountable public office holders and institutions as well as public figures, including political parties and candidates seeking public office.
He stressed that the media has to ensure that members of the public have as much information as possible about the candidates seeking officer, their programmes and their track records, adding that the media cannot properly play their role in the electoral process if they are prevented from having access to public events which form part of the process.
According to him, anyone unwilling to be subjected to scrutiny by the media has no business seeking public office.
He further explained that it is contrary to the code of journalism practice in Nigeria and everywhere else in the world that institutions or individuals who are being held accountable should be the ones to determine the media organizations or journalists that are allowed to hold them to account.
While noting that journalists should be given the fullest access to all electoral events, he urged “the entire media community, regardless of the political sympathies that individual media professionals may have, to rise in unison to condemn the APC-PCC’s undemocratic action.”
Longe also called on the APC-PCC to publicly apologise to the cameraman and his media organization and make a public commitment not to repeat such action in future.
THE Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) has announced that it collected over N10 trillion in tax revenue in the year 2022, the highest tax collection ever recorded in its history.
The Service made this known in its ‘FIRS 2022 Performance Update’ report signed by its Executive Chairman, Muhammad Nami, and released to the public today.
The FIRS explained that it collected a total of N10.1 trillion in both oil (N4.09 trillion) and non-oil (N5.96 trillion) revenues, as against a target of N10.44 trillion.
The Companies Income Tax, it said contributed N2.83 trillion; Value Added Tax, N2.51 trillion; Electronic Money Transfer Levy, N125.67 billion; and Earmarked Taxes, N353.69 billion.
The non-oil taxes, the report said contributed 59 per cent of the total collection in the year, while oil tax collection stood at 41 per cent of total collection.
The Performance Update Report also clarified that included in the total revenue sum was the sum of N146.27 billion, which was the total value of certificates issued by the Service to private investors and NNPC for road infrastructure under the Road Infrastructure Development Refurbishment Investment Tax Credit Scheme created by Executive Order No. 007 of 2019.
The report also stated that the N10.1 trillion is exclusive of tax waived on account of various tax incentives granted under the respective laws, which amounted to N1,805,040,163,008.
Providing perspectives to this development, the FIRS noted that the current management, upon assumption of office, came up with a four-point focus, namely: administrative and operational restructuring, making the service customer-focused, creating a data-centric institution, and automation of administrative and operational processes.
The revenue agency pointed out that over the period of 2020 to 2022, the management introduced reforms bordering on the four-point focus, saying the strategy was producing results.
“The reforms introduced at different times from 2020 are gradually yielding fruits. By the close of 2022, the Service had fully restructured the administration of the Service for maximum efficiency, and achieved internal cohesion such that all functional units are working in unison towards the achievement of set goals.
“As a result of the conducive environment created for staff, officers of the Service are pulling their weight on the global stage with international recognitions and awards,” the report added.
The Service, the report said had also automated most of its administrative and operational processes.
“A major leap was the full deployment of the TaxPro Max for end-to-end administration of taxes in June 2021. The module for the automated TCC went live on January 1, 2023, while taxpayers had already downloaded over 1,000 TCCs this year without having to visit the FIRS office,” the report stated.
It also noted that the Service had operationalised its data mining and analysis system, thereby allowing for data-backed taxpayer profiling.
Other reforms the Service introduced in this period focused on the detoxification of the tax environment by ridding it of mutual mistrust, negative tax morale, and tax evasion, through effective taxpayer education, open engagement with stakeholders and improved services.
It noted that it was through these reforms, framed around the four-focus points, that the Service was able to achieve this collection.
CURRENCY hawkers are already making brisk business from trading the three redesigned naira notes, which have remained inaccessible to point-of-sale (POS) merchants, traders and Nigerians generally.
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) has redesigned the N200, N500 and N1000 notes, which it released into circulation on December 15, 2022, while retiring the old ones that would cease to be legal tender on January 31, 2023.
President Muhammadu Buhari launched the redesigned notes on November 23, 2022.
With the legal tender deadline only a week away, the old notes have remained in wide circulation, just as the redesigned notes have been scarce coming out from commercial banks.
The banks, The ICIR investigation discovered, have mostly ignored the CBN’s directive to be dispensing the new notes, especially through their automated teller machines. Most ATMs are still dispensing the old notes, with only a few ones paying the new ones, especially the N1000 note.
Operators of PoS centres, through which many Nigerians now source their naira currency, complained they have been finding it hard getting the new notes at both banking halls and ATMs.
Strangely, the new notes are being made available at the most unlikely of places. Our correspondent observed currency traders hawking the redesigned notes at the popular Dei-Dei bridge in Abuja, the Federal Capital Territory.
“We sell one wrap of N200 for N29,000,” one hawker told The ICIR on Sunday, January 22. A wrap of the N200 note contains 100 pieces, which translates to N20,000. So, on every bundle of the N200 note, the hawkers earn N9,000.
The hawker, Abdul Mohammed, enthused that demand for the note had been high as buyers compete to satisfy their curiosity and enjoy a feel and possession of the new notes.
Our correspondent counted over five hawkers at the Dei-Dei junction, indifferent to the fact that their business contravenes certain provisions of the Central Bank laws.
Sections 20 and 21 of the CBN Act of 2017 outlaw any action by anyone who hawks, sprays and squeezes the naira, or dances or writes on it.
Currency hawkers at the popular Dei-Dei junction in Abuja, despite circulation scarcity. Photo: The ICIR, Jan 23
The CBN has threatened to sanction commercial banks for continuing to load their ATMs with old notes. An official of the Stanbic IBTC, who pleaded anonymity, told our correspondent that the apex bank’s internal control officials had begun penalising banks that put old notes in their ATMs.
The official, however, complained that banks have not been receiving enough of the new notes from the CBN, even as they lodge their own old notes with the apex bank.
“If you look closely at the ATM points, you will discover that only few are dispensing the new notes.We can only fill the cash points with the available cash we have. I believe it’s going to be better during the week,” he said.
Many citizens expressed the fear the legal tender deadline might just catch them napping with plenty of the old notes still in their possession, with a few or nothing of the new ones at hand. This would be huge losses to many, especially if the CBN does not extend the expiry date.
A bank customer at the Guarantee Trust Bank branch at Area 3, Garki, Abuja, Suleman Aliyu, told The ICIR that the delay in flooding the banks with the new notes close to the deadline meant that some people would lose some money.
“If the deadline is January 31, which is nine days from today, and the banks are still supplying the old notes, it means they want some people to lose their money,” Aliyu said.
A PoS operator at Liberty junction in Kubwa, Ikenna Onyeka, told The ICIR that the CBN needed to do better in its supply of the redesigned currency.
PoS operator at Liberty junction in Kubwa, FCT, dispensing the old notes, complains of new notes scarcity
“When we make demands for N50,000 from the banks, we get only a few pieces of the new notes to the tune of only about N10,000. What I intend to do is to stop collecting the old notes from the 28th of this month and lodge my oold notes in banks.
“CBN is telling us that there are enough of the redesigned notes in the vaults of the commercial banks, but the banks are saying that they do not have enough supply of the notes. Something is not adding up,” he said.
Checks by The ICIR confirmed that the ATMs were scarcely dispensing the new notes. In some banks where the machines are about four or five, only one machine would be dedicated to dispensing the new notes, while the remaining would be paying the old ones.
When The ICIR visited the Zenith Bank ATM centre at Ogba-Aguda in Lagos last week, only one machine out of the four there was paying only one redesigned note, and that was the N1000 note.
A bank customer, Onyedika Udensi, also told The ICIR his experience, “I have been to three banks – UBA, Union Bank and Stanbic IBTC – in Kubwa this morning and I discovered many of their ATMs were either shut down or not dispensing the new notes.”
Our correspondent discovered that another ATM of the First Bank in Kubwa, a satellite town in the Federal Capital Territory, was not dispensing at all.
First Bank ATM not dispensing the new notes in Kubwa, FCT, Photo: The ICIR Jan 2023
The apex bank did reiterate on Friday, January 20 that it has mandated banks to ensure issuance of the new notes strictly through their ATMs.
A statement jointly signed by the Director, Banking Supervision Department, Haruna Mustapha, the Director, Payment System Management Department, Musa Jimoh, explained that the step was to ensure that distribution of the new currency notes was fair, transparent, and evenly spread across the country.
The CBN also allayed the fears of rural dwellers on accessing the new notes before the January 31 deadline.
It announced that it would be inaugurating a cash-swap programme in rural and underserved areas of the country on Monday, January 23 to boost collection of the redesigned naira notes.
The apex bank said that the inauguration was informed by the need to maximise the channels through which underserved and rural communities could exchange their naira notes.
It said that the inauguration would hold in partnership with deposit money banks and super agents.
“The old N1,000, N500 and N200 notes can be exchanged for the redesigned notes or existing lower denominations of N100, N50 and N20, which remain legal tender.
“The super agents can exchange a maximum of N10,000 per person, while amounts above N10,000 shall be treated as cash-in deposit into wallets or bank accounts in line with the cashless policy.
“Bank Verification Number, National Identification Number or Voter’s Card details of the customer should be captured as much as possible,’’ the CBN said.
On the heels of the concern of slow-paced circulation, the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF) invited the Governor of the CBN, Godwin Emefiele, to a meeting on the redesigned naira notes and the timeline to fade out old notes.
The invitation sent out by the Director-General of the Forum, Asishana Okauru, late Tuesday, January 17, noted that the agenda of the meeting would focus on the recent redesigning of the N200, N500 and N1,000 notes, as well as the withdrawal policy of the apex bank.
The agenda of that virtual meeting, was titled, ‘The Economic and Security Implications of Naira Redesign and Withdrawal Policy.’
A statement by the NGF Head of Media and Public Affairs, Abdulrazaque Bello-Barkindo, said, the discussions promised to foster participation and dialogue between various stakeholders, including governments and civil society organisations to come out with a solution to the lingering issue.
The NGF Chairman, Governor Aminu Tambuwal of Sokoto State, in a statement on Wednesday, January 18 at the end of the forum’s first meeting of 2023, noted that the governors were not opposed to the objectives of the naira redesign.
“We, the members of the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF), received a briefing from the Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, Mr Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele, on the Naira redesign, and its economic and security implications, including the new withdrawal policy.
“Governors are not opposed to the objectives of the Naira redesign policy. However, we observe that there are huge challenges that remain problematic to the Nigerian populace,” he said.
Tambuwal pointed out that the governors expressed the need for the CBN to consider the peculiarities of states, especially as they pertained to financial inclusion and underserved locations.
Emefiele has been in the eye of the storm in recent weeks, with allegations of terrorism financing by the Department of State Services (DSS) around his neck, and now troubled by slow circulation of the redesigned notes.
He reportedly met with President Buhari on Thursday, January 19. Although details of the meeting were not disclosed, banking sources said they might not be unconnected with the currency redesign concerns.
He said Bamiro was in the habit of sexually assaulting his daughter and had forcefully penetrated her anus repeatedly in the past without her consent.
The offence, he added, contravened the Criminal Laws of Lagos State.
However, Bamiro pleaded not guilty to the charge preferred against him.
The presiding magistrate, L.J.K Layeni, referred the case file to the Directorate of Public Prosecution for legal advice and adjourned the case till February 22, 2023, for mention.
He also ordered the remand of Bamiro at the Badagry Custodial Centre.
THE Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) has reiterated its call on the United States (US) Department of State to re-enlist Nigeria as a Country of Particular Concern (CPC), “for extreme violence against Christians”.
CAN was reacting to a report by the 2023 Open Doors World Watch List which said Nigeria accounts for 89 per cent of martyred Christians worldwide.
In a statement sent to The ICIR on Monday, January, 23rd, CAN’s spokesperson, Luminous Jannamike, said the body had previously urged the US State Department to return Nigeria to the Special Watch List based on available evidence of Christian persecution in the country.
“This position has not changed”, he said.
Nigeria had joined Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan on the US Department CPC list in 2020.
But the administration of President Joe Biden removed the Nigeria from the religious persecution list in 2021.
The CPC list names and shames governments which have “engaged in or tolerated systematic, ongoing, and egregious violations of religious freedom”.
Responding to questions raised by The ICIR, CAN spokesman Jannamike said: “No doubt, Nigeria is facing security challenges that can trigger a vast humanitarian crisis in the future, if not tackled comprehensively today.
“CAN has been persistent in the call for Nigeria’s government to rise to the occasion and protect the rights of all citizens, including Christians from undue violations carried out with impunity.
“For this reason, the apex Christian body under the leadership of Archbishop Daniel Okoh has committed to fostering genuine unity, building true peace and promoting honest tolerance among people of all faith in the country.”
Meanwhile, a new report by SBM Intelligence said at least 39 Catholic priests were killed by gunmen and 30 others abducted in 2022.
The report titled; “Attacks on Priests” released by the research outfit on Monday, January 23, said there were 145 attacks on Catholic priests last year.
Parts of the report read; “2022 was an awful year for the clergy. None in that group suffered more than Catholic priests, who at a point, were subjected to near-daily abductions with ransom demands set at an average of N50 million per priest.
“Although there were quite genuine fears that these abductions were targeted persecution of the Christian faith, the financial imperative in a holy abduction has somewhat eclipsed such concerns.”
THE International Women’s Media Foundation (IWMF) is seeking nominations for the Anja Niedringhaus Courage in Photojournalism Award honoring AP photographer Anja Niedringhaus, who was killed in Afghanistan in April 2014.
The award recognizes women photojournalists whose work reflects the courage and dedication of Niedringhaus, and who exhibit extraordinary strength of character, bravery, and perseverance in documenting the world.
Nominations must be in English and include 12 photographs that best represent the scope and style of their candidate’s work.
Women photojournalists who reported in dangerous environments can be nominated for an award.
The winner will receive a cash prize of US$20,000 and her work will be showcased publicly.
The deadline for the submission of nominations is March 3, 2023. Self-nominations will be accepted. Interested applicants can apply here.
NOBEL Laureate, Wole Soyinka, a professor, has tackled a former Director-General of the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA), Bola Akinterinwa, also a professor, for attributing statements he never made to him.
In a statement released on Monday, January 23, Soyinka described as ‘unfortunate’ how Akinterinwa fell “for the operations of Nigeria’s fake attribution industry”, which he said had attained hideous social dimensions.
Soyinka issued the release as a rebuttal to Akinterinwa’s attribution to him in his piece titled “From Pope Benedict XVI to Jacinda Ardern: The Challenge of Poor Health versus National Leadership,” published in This Day newspaper on Sunday, January 22, 2023.
In the publication, Akinterinwa wrote extensively about how African and other leaders perpetuate themselves in office, regardless of their incompetence due to failing health or lack of requisite leadership prowess.
He recalled how 22 African leaders had died in office when some could have escaped deaths if they had quit power when ill.
Besides, he decried the concealment of leaders’ health status and declared that the public have the right to know the fitness of those who lead them.
He compared Pope Benedict XVI and Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand Prime Minister, who announced on January 19 she would be stepping down in February because of growing crises in her country, with leaders who would rather choose to die feasting on state resources and keep more for their offsprings and kinsmen.
Akinterinwa, the President/Director-General of the Bolytag Centre for International Diplomacy and Strategic Studies (BOCIDASS), eulogised the late Pope Benedict and Ardern and urged Nigerians to choose wisely in the coming elections to enable the nation to boast of good leaders.
He quoted some respected writers, including Soyinka, to buttress his arguments on politicking and leadership in Nigeria and Africa.
The diplomacy expert wrote about the fear of ‘Fulanization’ and ‘Islamization’ agenda in Nigeria, positing that politics and terrorism were part of the tools for achieving them.
He also alluded to what the former Libyan leader, Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, purportedly said about how Nigeria would never have lasting peace until the country split into Muslim North and Christian South.
According to him, leaders should be physically and mentally fit to unite the people, curb growing threats and guarantee economic prosperity.
Similarly, Akinterinwa wrote about how “intellectual speculators” assume the North seeks to cling to power through the instrumentality of politicking.
Quoting Soyinka, Akinterinwa wrote: “Nothing could be more interesting than what Professor Wole Soyinka was quoted as saying: ‘Northern Nigeria will continue to control the government no matter who becomes the President. This is because they created (a) fraudulent constitution in Nigeria, fraudulent population in the Northwest and more states in the North.
“More significantly, the African Nobel Laureate from Ogun State also noted that ‘Northern Nigeria was in charge of the government when Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan were President. Even if you make Igbo President, Northern Nigeria will still control the government. The best solution to Nigeria’s problem is for us to negotiate our existence.”
Reacting, Soyinka said the attribution belonged to the “sharp practices of internet trolls with their own agenda, who, however, lack the balls to answer their fathers’ names. There is an appropriate name for them, but we shall avoid using it here…I never made such a statement. We have warned again and again.”
According to him, the increasingly bastardised social media will eventually set one country after the other on fire, leading eventually to a global conflagration.
He explained that the principal instigators would be “those malformed subhumans who lack the courage of their conviction and must resort to identity theft of mounting impudence.”
Soyinka reasoned that even the most elementary, but rational, mind-sustaining discourse had become a minefield of distortions, wholesale fabrications, half-truths, tendentious extrapolations that impose on serious thinkers and debaters superhuman navigation skills.
He commended those who persist and attempt to retrieve the social media from the “mentally retarded minority”.
Soyinka then added: “In this connection, one brief comment: Professor Akinterinwa missed out on one leadership qualification that the nation desperately needs: a mass psychiatrist or an exorcist. Preferably both rolled in one.”
GUNMEN have beheaded the Sole Administrator of Ideato North Local Government Area of Imo State, Chris Ohizu.
The council boss was butchered on Sunday, January 22, after his abductors allegedly received N6 million as ransom for his release.
The slain sole administrator was kidnapped on Friday, January 20, alongside two others.
The gunmen had burnt down his country home at Imoko community in the Arondizuogu area of the LGA before abducting him.
A video of his beheading surfaced on Sunday. In the video, the gunmen insisted that there would be no election in the country.
A source from the LGA, who did not want to be named, told Punch that the killers of the sole administrator published videos of the beheading with the phone of their victim on his WhatsApp status.
“The videos were horrible. He was tied and half-naked before he was beheaded. That was a painful way to die. They butchered him after collecting N6 million ransom,” the source said.
The gunmen, who called themselves separatists, reportedly tied his hands backwards with a rope before slaughtering him.
When contacted, Imo Police spokesman Henry Okoye, said he is working on a statement on the matter.
THE International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) will meet with relevant stakeholders over the cases of more than 25000 Nigerians who are missing due to insecurity in the country.
The meeting, scheduled for Tuesday, January 24, will be co-hosted by the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development and the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC).
This was disclosed in a statement by the Public Relations Officer of the ICRC in Abuja, Aliyu Dawobe, on Monday, January 23.
“The meeting seeks to raise awareness, establish collaborative networks, develop methods towards solutions, build avenues for engagement, as well as discuss priorities and an action plan to support families of the missing.
“Stakeholders from across the country will attend, including ministries, agencies, civil society, and representatives from families of the missing,” the statement read.
Dawobe noted in the statement that there were possibly more missing people than the figure quoted, adding that 90 per cent of the missing persons were connected to the crises in the Northeastern region of the country.
“In 2022, together with the Nigerian Red Cross Society, the ICRC helped exchange 4319 ‘Red Cross messages’ and facilitate 812 phone calls between separated family members.
“We facilitated 14 family reunions and provided psychosocial, economic, legal, and administrative support to 156 people affected by missing loved ones. This is the support we provide for communities in Nigeria, as we do around the world,” Dawobe noted.
In 2022, the ICRC disclosed that at least 25,000 Nigerians were missing due to insecurity in the country. Out of this figure, 14000 are children.
For over a decade, the North-East region, especially Borno State, has struggled with insecurity due to the activities of insurgents, leading to the displacement of up to three million people.
In 2019, The ICIRdocumented the stories of Borno indigenes whose relatives went missing as a result of the crisis. A year after the report, the Nigerian government launched a register to raise awareness on missing persons in the country.
