NIGERIA’s budget funding is exposed to higher risks as the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil output fell in January due to the lower supply from Nigeria and Libya.
The Nigerian government has been struggling to fund the 2025 national budget as the Appropriation Act rely highly on proceeds from oil sales but could resort to borrowing if production falls short.
On Monday, February 9, a Reuters survey found that this offset increases among OPEC members, including Venezuela, after the United States (US) capture of Nicolas Maduro and the end of an oil blockade.
OPEC pumped 28.34 million barrels per day (bpd) in January, down 60,000 bpd from December’s total, the survey showed, with Nigeria posting the largest decline.
Nigeria’s crude oil production fell 8.3 per cent year‑on‑year to 1.544 million bpd in December 2025, missing its OPEC quota and budget benchmark. The decline, attributed to insecurity, investment gaps, and policy uncertainty, underscores persistent challenges in the oil sector.
OPEC+, comprising OPEC and allies including Russia, in January began a first-quarter pause of its monthly output increases amid concerns of a supply glut.
Many members are running close to capacity limits, and some are tasked with extra cuts to compensate for earlier overproduction, which has limited the impact of the increases.
Under an agreement by eight OPEC+ members covering January output, the five of them that are OPEC members – Algeria, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the UAE – were to keep output unchanged before the effect of compensation cuts totaling 130,000 bpd for Iraq and the UAE.
The survey shows that they increased output by 60,000 bpd month on month, but total output remained below their targets.
Nigeria had OPEC’s largest output decline, and Libyan supply also fell as bad weather impacted loadings, the survey found.
Iranian crude supply fell further. Iran is subject to US sanctions that seek to curb its oil exports over its nuclear work, and new measures were announced in January over Tehran’s crackdown on protesters.
Among countries with higher output, Iraq exported more from its southern terminals. Venezuelan crude output increased slightly, and exports jumped.
Venezuelan production has risen close to 1 million bpd, Reuters reported on Monday, having earlier reported that Venezuelan exports of crude and refined products rose to some 800,000 bpd in January.
The Reuters survey is based on flow data from financial group LSEG, information from other companies that track flows, such as Kpler, and information provided by sources at oil companies, OPEC and consultants.
THE Senate has appointed 12 members to serve on a conference committee with the House of Representatives to harmonise differences on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2026, following heated plenary debates over provisions on electronic transmission of election results.
The Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, reached the decision after senators adopted the Votes and Proceedings of Wednesday, February 4, paving the way for the expansion of the Senate’s earlier nine-member conference committee to match the 12-member delegation already constituted by the House.
“The information we have is that our counterparts in the House of Representatives are 12 in number. While we have nine here, so we just have to move our number to 12, so that we can have 12-12,” Akpabio said.
He subsequently named Simon Lalong as chairman of the Senate conference committee, alongside other members
Tense plenary over voting procedure
A central flashpoint in the debate was a provision on the electronic transmission of election results.
The House of Representatives had passed a version of the bill mandating real-time electronic transmission of polling unit results to the Independent National Electoral Commission’s (INEC) Results Viewing Portal (IREV), a reform backed by civil society and opposition figures who say it would strengthen transparency.
However, during Senate consideration, lawmakers rejected a proposal to make real-time transmission mandatory. They instead adopting the existing legal provision that result transmission be done “in a manner as prescribed by the Commission.” Critics immediately condemned the move as weakening electoral transparency.
The debate on Tuesday began when the Senate Chief Whip, Mohammed Tahir Monguno, moved an amended proposal, effectively introducing a different motion.
He claimed to have seconded the motion, but when asked to clarify its content, he was unable to explain, worsening the uproar in the chamber.
Monguno insisted that he had seconded the earlier motion, which had already been passed but later rescinded, specifically regarding Section 60, Subsection 3 of the bill, part of which stipulates that the presiding officer should uphold results on the IREV portal after Form ECHA has been signed, in cases where electronic transmission fails and it becomes impossible to transmit results. The provision essentially designates Form ECHA as the primary source for election results in such circumstances.
A subsequent vote was conducted, and members voted unanimously.
However, Abia South senator, Enyinnaya Abaribe invoked Order 72, which allows any lawmaker to challenge the opinion of the Senate President or presiding chairman by requesting a division, effectively calling for a motion to be voted on individually. The move sparked some confusion and debate on the floor, with colleagues questioning why he had taken that action.
After a brief pause while senators reviewed the relevant pages of the bill, Abaribe withdrew the order he had invoked.
The ICIRreported that this emergency plenary followed growing criticisms and protests that trailed the Senate’s position.
Ahead of the emergency sitting, some lawmakers acknowledged flaws in how the Senate handled the debate. The lawmaker representing Bauchi Central, Abdul Ningi, said on Channels TV on Monday that the Senate could make the voting process and individual stances on the electronic transmission provision transparent.
Meanwhile, Nigerians have continued to stage a peaceful demonstration at the gate of the National Assembly since last week Friday, demanding that the Senate include a compulsory provision for real-time electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, warning that Nigeria’s democracy would not survive without credible polls and real-time electronic result transmission.
They said failure to include the clause amounted to “setting the country on fire” over a minimum transparency requirement.
The ICIR reports that Nigeria’s elections have been flawed, with many election outcomes addressed by courts. Many citizens have accused the court of miscarrying justice, with judgement allegedly bought by moneybags.
In 2007, after winning litigation against his victory at the Supreme Court, the late former President Yar’Adua admitted that the election that brought him into office was flawed. He promised electoral reforms, but the nation has yet to get it right almost two decades later, as successive leaders failed to deliver legal document for achieving it.
NIGERIA has been ranked as the 37th most corrupt country in the world in 2025, slipping slightly in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI)
It moved from 140th in 2024 to 142nd in 2025, out of 182 countries, according to the latest report by Transparency International.
The number one nation on the list represents the country with the least corruption and 182 is the most corrupt.
Nigeria scored 26 points, sharing the position with Cameroon, Guatemala, Guinea, Kyrgyzstan, and Papua New Guinea.
The CPI measures perceived corruption in the public sector across 182 countries and territories.
Denmark topped the list as the least corrupt nation with 89 points, followed by Finland (88), Singapore (84), and New Zealand (81).
No African country made the top 10 least corrupt nations, though Seychelles, Cabo Verde, and Botswana were the continent’s least corrupt, scoring 68, 62, and 58.
At the bottom of the list are South Sudan, Somalia, and Venezuela, emerging as the world’s most corrupt countries.
Commenting on the CPI, TI CEO Maíra Martini said: “The 2025 Corruption Perceptions Index ranks 182 countries and territories worldwide by their perceived levels of public-sector corruption. The results are given on a scale of 0 (highly corrupt) to 100 (very clean).
“While 31 countries have significantly reduced their corruption levels since 2012, the rest are failing to tackle the problem — they have stayed stagnant or got worse during the same period. The global average has fallen to a new low of 42, while more than two-thirds of countries score below 50. And people are paying the price, as corruption leads to under-funded hospitals, unbuilt flood defences, and blights the hopes and dreams of young people.”
She added: “We’re seeing a concerning picture of long-term decline in leadership to tackle corruption. Even established democracies, like the US, UK and New Zealand, are experiencing a drop in performance. The absence of bold leadership is leading to weaker standards and enforcement, lowering ambition on anti-corruption efforts around the world.”
Marini said many states were increasing restrictions on civic space, stressing that by making it hard or dangerous for citizens, non-governmental organisations and journalists to challenge abuses of power, they are reducing transparency and accountability. This, she said, allowed corruption to flourish.
The official urged leaders to act fast and tackle abuses of power and the wider factors driving corruption, including the roll-back of democratic checks and balances, and attacks on independent civil society.
He further explained that anti-government protests in many parts of the world showed that people were fed up with unaccountable leadership and were demanding reform.
THE ICIR reported that Nigeria had crawled to 140 spot in TI global corruption ranking in 2024, with 26 scores from its 25th position in 2023.
THE United States (US) Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has announced plans to deport another batch of 18 Nigerians listed on its “worst-of-the-worst” criminal register, raising the total number of the West Africa nation’s citizens scheduled for expulsion from the US to 97.
This comes barely one week after the ICIR reported that 79 Nigerians convicted of various offences had been marked for deportation by US authorities.
An update by the DHS on Monday revealed that 18 more names had been added to the list, signaling an expansion of the ongoing enforcement exercise.
“The US Department of Homeland Security is highlighting the worst of the worst criminal aliens arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Under Secretary Noem’s leadership, the hardworking men and women of DHS and ICE are fulfilling President Trump’s promise and carrying out mass deportations, starting with the worst of the worst, including the illegal aliens you see here,” the statement on the website read.
The DHS website shows that the Nigerians newly listed for deportation include Oluwaseyanu Akinola Afolabi, Olugbeminiyi Aderibigbe, Benjamin Ifebajo, Obinwanne Okeke, Kolawole Aminu, Oluwadamilola Olufunsho Ojo and Franklin Ibeabuchi.
Others are Alex Afolabi Ogunshakin, Joshua Ineh, Stephen Oseghale, Eghosa Obaretin, Adesina Surajudeen Lasisi, Ibrahim Ijaoba, Azeez Yinusa, Charles Akabuogu, Kelechi Umeh, Lotenna Chisom Umeadi, Donald Ehie, and Chukwudi Kingsley Kalu.
The security outfit noted that the arrests were part of a nationwide crackdown on criminal immigrants, whose most common offences included wire fraud, mail fraud and identity theft.
The latest figures highlight the Trump administration’s sustained hardline approach to illegal and criminal immigration, with several foreign nationals affected, including Nigerians.
The ICIRreported last week that the US listed 79 Nigerian nationals among worst of the worst criminal non-citizens arrested by the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
According to DHS Secretary Kristi Noem, the arrests form part of recent enforcement operations across several American states, noting that they were focused on removing undocumented immigrants with serious criminal convictions from the US.
While DHS has not provided a specific timeline for deportation, individuals listed are expected to face removal proceedings following their arrests, in line with US immigration laws.
The development adds to growing concerns among Nigerians in the US, particularly over the reputational impact of high-profile crime-related immigration enforcement actions.
Nigerians have been among those affected by the US deportation policy since Trump assumed power in January 2024.
Many Nigerians have either voluntarily returned home or were deported over offences ranging from immigration violations to criminal convictions.
NIGERIA’S fragile healthcare system continues to face renewed strain as the Coordinating Minister of Health and Social Welfare, Muhammad Ali Pate, disclosed that only ₦36 million was released from the ₦218 billion approved for the ministry’s 2025 capital projects.
Pate made the revelation on Monday, February 9,in Abuja during the ministry’s 2026 budget defence before the House of Representatives Committee on Healthcare Services, explaining that the severe funding shortfall stalled the implementation of critical health projects nationwide.
“Out of the N218 billion appropriated to the health sector by the parliament for the execution of capital projects in the 2025 fiscal year, only N36 million was released,” Pate said.
According to the minister, while the personnel allocation for 2025 was fully released and utilised, the capital component was unavailable.
He said this was due to the federal government’s bottom-up cash planning system, which constrained access to project funds.
He further noted that delays in releasing Nigeria’s counterpart contributions prevented the ministry from drawing down donor-supported financing tied to key health interventions, compounding the inability to execute planned projects.
Pate said the sector’s programmes were guided by national development frameworks such as Vision 20:2020, the National Development Plan 2021–2025, and the National Strategic Health Development Plan II.
He added that the frameworks were aimed at strengthening healthcare delivery and expanding access, particularly through primary healthcare and universal health coverage.
“The principles of universal health coverage are central to the national health policy objective of strengthening Nigeria’s health system, particularly the primary health care subsystem, to deliver quality, effective, efficient, equitable, accessible, affordable, acceptable and comprehensive health services to all Nigerians,” he said.
The ICIR reports that despite these policy commitments, the near absence of capital releases in 2025 reflected how millions of Nigerians have continued to face limited access to health infrastructure and essential services.
This also raised fresh questions about the government’s ability to translate health budgets into meeting citizens’ needs.
This was despite the very low budget five per cent allocation of the national budget to the sector in the 2025 appropriation act, which fell short of the Abuja declaration.
Long history of weak capital spending
The latest shortfall reflects a long-standing structural pattern in Nigeria’s health financing, where most public spending goes to salaries and other overhead costs rather than building, refurbishing hospitals and equipping them.
The ICIRinvestigation had in 2022 shown that government budget data showed that between 2011 and 2021, Nigeria spent about 72 percent of its health budgets on recurrent expenditure – paying salaries, training workers and running offices – leaving only a small fraction for capital projects such as building and equipping health facilities.
Within the same period, although roughly ₦640 billion was earmarked for capital investment, less than 80 percent of that amount was released, further weakening infrastructure development across the sector.
This imbalance has persisted for years with health allocations also remaining far below the 15 per cent benchmark that African leaders agreed to provide in what is widely known as Abuja Declaration, with Nigeria often committing below eight per cent of its national budget to health since the declaration.
Recall that in January 2025, Pate also disclosed that only 15.06 per cent of the 2024 ministry’s capital allocation was released, despite billions earmarked for infrastructure and services.
Sector under severe strain
Nigeria, with a population nearing 250 million, continues to face deep structural challenges in healthcare delivery despite modest progress in recent years.
Out-of-pocket spending accounts for about 74.68 per cent of total health financing, placing a heavy burden on households and limiting access to essential services. Neonatal mortality remains high at 41 deaths per 1,000 live births as of 2023, while the maternal mortality rate of 576 deaths per 100,000 live births ranks among the worst globally.
The system is also critically understaffed, with about 55,000 licensed doctors serving the population as of March 2024.
The ICIR reports that inequitable distribution of services, weak infrastructure, persistent brain drain and widening socioeconomic inequalities, particularly in rural and underserved communities, have continued to deepen health disparities.
Many facilities lack basic equipment, medicines and essential amenities, while poor remuneration and working conditions drive the continued emigration of skilled health professionals, further weakening service delivery.
THE 2023 presidential candidate of the Labour Party, Peter Obi, has joined the coalition of civil society organisations to demand the inclusion of a compulsory provision for real-time electronic transmission of election results in the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, warning that Nigeria’s democracy would not survive without credible polls.
Obi made the demand during a peaceful protest organised by a civil society group, “Enough is Enough”, at the National Assembly on Monday in Abuja.
“Election must take its process from the beginning of qualification to the campaigns, to the debates. Everything must be done in a manner that we will show we are exemplary as giants of Africa. This giant must now rise and be giant. We cannot continue to be giants in doing the wrong thing. We want to be giants in doing the right thing now. We must dismantle our criminality and show that we are not a nation that should lie to Africa,” Obi said.
The ICIRreported that the Senate on Wednesday, February 4, approved the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill which introduced several changes but failed to include real time transmission of results from polling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IREV), as advocated by most Nigerians.
Some senators in the minority caucus told journalists on Thursday that the approved Electoral Bill did not accommodate real time electronic transmission of election results.
However, the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, speaking at a book launch on Saturday, acknowledged that the Senate removed the provision for mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results during the clause-by-clause consideration of the amendment.
He said the decision was informed by concerns that enforcing real-time transmission could lead to legal disputes in the event of network failures during polls.
However, during Monday protest, the representative of Lawyers in Defence of Democracy, Okere Kingdom, said in the Electoral Act, there must be provision for transmitting election results from the polling booths to online, in real time, for Nigerians to view on IReV. He insisted that anything short of mandatory electronic transmission would leave room for votes manipulation.
He accused the former INEC chairman, Mahmood Yakubu, of what he called “wrongful exercise of discretion” during previous elections, alleging that objections raised by stakeholders were ignored, leading to disputed outcomes.
“The description that Yakubu Mahmoud exercised when he leveraged on the current Electoral Act, how did he exercise it? Objection was raised at the International Conference Centre. He ignored his own regulation. The regulation said if an objection is raised, you will suspend everything and resolve it.
“When objection was raised, he ignored it and continued and delivered a wrong result, a fraudulent result. So, we are saying no wrongful exercise of description. The Senate must know that Nigerians are saying no and will resist wrongful exercise of description,” he added.
Similarly, an activist, Aisha Yusufu, said that Nigerians were no longer interested in “press conferences, media rounds or Twitter spaces” by senators, but concrete legislative action, noting that the National Assembly had the constitutional authority to ensure that electronic transmission of results is clearly provided for in the law.
“The Senate President is saying that there are places where there are no networks. If they don’t have, which is a shame by the way, Nigeria would provide that network. If either can register everywhere, they can also provide those networks,” she said.
The activist countered Akpabio’s position, noting that telecommunications companies provided network coverage across the country and that the same infrastructure used by INEC for voter registration could support result transmission.
Also speaking at the protest ground, Isaac Fayose, younger brother of former Ekiti State Governor Ayo Fayose, dismissed claims that poor network coverage would make electronic transmission of results impossible, describing such arguments as excuses meant to justify electoral fraud.
He questioned how Nigeria could justify spending hundreds of billions, and in some cases trillions of naira, on elections and technology, only to abandon a system designed to guarantee transparency.
“How do we explain something that we spend close to a billion, a trillion, and you just want to throw it away like that? It’s like carrying our money, throwing it like that. No, it’s not possible,” he said.
The ICIRreported that threatened by criticisms that trailed the Senate’s position, Akpabio directed his colleagues to reconvene for an emergency plenary session on Tuesday, February 10.
The Upper Chamber had adjourned for a two-week recess after approving the bill, to enable senators to engage heads of ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs) on the defence of their 2026 budget proposals.
Under Clause 60 of the bill, the Senate retained the provision in the Electoral Act which permits the transmission of results to collation centres.
On voter identification, Clause 47 was amended as lawmakers rejected a proposal to allow alternative forms of identification other than the Permanent Voter Card (PVC). While “smart card readers” were replaced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation and voting, the Senate retained the PVC as the sole mandatory means of voter identification at polling units.
Earlier, the bill had proposed that because BVAS would not read the microchip embedded in PVCs, the card should no longer be compulsory, allowing voters to use the National Identification Number (NIN), international passport or birth certificate. However, the Senate disagreed and upheld the PVC as the primary mode of identification.
On Clause 22, which deals with PVC-related offences, lawmakers rejected a proposed 10-year jail term for buying and selling PVCs. They instead retained a two-year imprisonment term and increased the fine from N2 million to N5 million.
Regarding proof of non-compliance, the Senate deleted Clause 142, which would have allowed political parties to establish non-compliance solely through original or certified documentary evidence without oral testimony. Lawmakers argued during clause-by-clause consideration that the provision would amount to a “waste of time in court.”
On ballot paper inspection, Clause 44 was retained, maintaining the existing procedure that gives political parties two days to submit written approval or disapproval of their representations on sample ballot papers. INEC is also required to invite parties to inspect sample electoral materials at least 20 days before an election.
Under Clause 29, the deadline for political parties to submit candidate lists was reduced from 120 days to 90 days before an election.
To curb vote buying, lawmakers also amended Clause 22 to impose stiffer penalties, increasing the fine for offenders from N500,000 to N5 million.
On post-election disputes, the Senate amended Clause 136 by removing the power of election tribunals to declare winners outright in certain situations. The amendment provides that where a candidate is found not to have been validly elected for failing to score the majority of lawful votes, a rerun election shall be conducted, and the disqualified candidate and sponsoring party will be barred from participating.
This provision differs from the 2022 Electoral Act, which allows a tribunal to declare the candidate with the second-highest number of valid votes the winner where the candidate with the highest votes is found to be unqualified.
When he presented his budget proposals for 2024 to Nigeria’s National Assembly, the first full year of appropriations under his presidency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu identified as his priorities, human asset development, poverty reduction and fighting insecurity. Last week, his official spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga, appeared to forget or renounce that policy direction, when he acknowledged that 133 million Nigerians were multi-dimensionally poor but claimed that had nothing to do with the Federal Government. According to Onanuga, the states and local governments were responsible for that.
On the same day, 450 kilometres away, Vice-President, Kashim Shettima, provided a full rebuttal of Onanuga’s escape into sovereign abdication. The occasion was the launch of the stakeholder consultation of the Southeast Development Commission, SEDC for its regional development plan called Southeast Vision 2050 (SEV2050). At the event, the Vice-President went beyond merely reaffirming the leadership and responsibility of the Federal Government in eliminating poverty. He also underscored that this had to be “inclusive, sustainable, and anchored on peace and productivity.”
This was not an unveiling of the SEV2050. Rather it kicked off the process to evolve one. It was also the coming out promenade of the SEDC.
The Commission is one of the four regional development bodies established by President Tinubu under the Ministry of Regional Development. The others are in the north-central, north-west, south-west. Preceding these, the Niger Delta Development Commission, NDDC, has been in existence since 2000; and the North-East Development Commission, NEDC, since 2017.
The Stakeholder consultation in Enugu was a credit to the Board of the SEDC chaired by Emega Wogu and the management led by the Managing Director, Mark Okoye. It was clearly a pitch for political support and constituency building for the Commission. The SEDC achieved the significant feat of lining up the public support of the governors of all five states of the south-east. By contrast, when its counterpart for the north-west organised similar event last month, none of the seven governors of the zone attended.
Imo State Governor, Hope Uzodinma, coincidentally the chair of the South-East Governors Forum, was the only one of the five who did not attend in person. He sent the Speaker of the State House of Assembly in his stead. It appears the Commission will not be short of goodwill as it sets out on its mission. Quite clearly also, it will not be short of human obstacles in its path.
As its primary mission, the SEDC Act of 2024 charges the Commission with responsibility to “receive and manage funds from allocations of the Federation Account for the reconstruction and rehabilitation of roads, houses and other infrastructural damages suffered by the region as a result of the effect of the Civil War….” The SEDC is the only regional development commission with an explicit mission of post-war reconstruction. One question that the consultation put before the Commission was: reconstruction from which war?
Anambra State Governor, Chukwuma Soludo, addressed this question in his remarks arguing that the region was in recovery from not one war but “two major wars”. One was the Nigeria-Biafra war, which was supposed to have officially ended on 15 January 1970. The second was what he called “an internal war of self-destruction that has been on since 2021.” Some people may argue that his dating of this second conflict to 2021 is either artificial or unrealistically recent.
It was notable that Governor Soludo failed to say who the parties were to this second war. Pointedly, however, he noted that “after the (first) civil war, there was a promise of rehabilitation and reconstruction; and…. this is yet to happen.” What he left unsaid was that the failure to fulfill that promise made what he described as the second war all but inevitable. Whether that was deliberate or inadvertent is immaterial.
Even as it sought to project an ambition over the next quarter century, the SEV2050 consultation could not escape the enduring backdrop of reconstruction that frames its search for a mission. The mistake will be to focus on brick and mortar and forget to prioritise a reconstruction of minds, memories, and mentalities.
Vice-President Shettima acknowledged as much with some deftness in his opening remarks when he paid tribute to “a region defined not only by memory, but by motion.” Like Governor Soludo, what he left unsaid was even more eloquent. It was impossible to miss that he felt unable to say that this motion led to movement or progress.
How to transform motion into movement and ultimately to regional progress more than half a century after the end of the conflict that continues to define independent Nigeria is what the SEDC seeks.
On show were early signs of constructive competition among the states of the south-east. It begs to be harnessed.
These reassure. But the event equally advertised the daunting challenges that confront the Commission along its path. Three were evident.
One is a crisis of mismatched expectation. This was best illustrated by Governor Soludo. Having advised the Commission to be realistic in its ambitions, he nevertheless asked it to lead the delivery of a “Marshall Plan” for the south-east, a reference to the US-led plan for Europe’s reconstruction after World War II. According to Governor Soludo, this regional Marshall Plan should include a regional security framework, and “super inter-state infrastructure” such as regional railways and regional highways. The problem, however, is that an SEDC that purports to lead on the former is likely to antagonise the state governors and a Commission that claims to lead on the latter will be on a fool’s errand.
Two is the problem of evolving a viable business model for the SEDC. For long, the NDDC has defined the business model of the regional development commissions. Under this model, these commissions operate largely as front offices for extortion which holds the fate of citizens of the concerned region(s) hostage in carve ups by political insiders sharing development funds as private loot. By 2022, according to one report on the NDDC, “12,000 out of 13,377 projects were abandoned after paying trillions of naira for them.” As development agents, they have been largely ineffectual. The SEDC can’t afford this.
Therefore, SEDC will face pushback from the usual species of greedy political grubbiness. The event in Enugu had in attendance the Vice-President, the Governors of all the south-east States, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives who was represented by Majority Leader, Professor Julius Ihonvbere.
But it was impossible not to notice the absence of the Chairman of the SEDC Committee in the Senate and former Governor of Abia State, Orji Uzor Kalu; his counterpart in the House of Representatives, Chris Nkwonta; and the man who refers to himself as “Number Six Citizen”, Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu. Senator Orji Kalu reportedly sent one of his daughters to represent him. She holds no relevant public office. Anyone who thinks the near collective absence of the National Assembly caucus of the region was a coincidence misunderstands how the place works.
As a convening, the SEV2050 event in Enugu has been arguably as successful as its planners could have hoped. In terms of its symbolisms and optics, it may indeed have exceeded expectations. The Commission will not be short of ideas as it goes forward; nor will it be short of determined antagonists.
Post-war reconstruction is an existential undertaking. The SEDC has neither the budgets nor the latitude for the errors that have become the habits of the NDDC. If the Commission can confine its mission and secure protection against baleful political extortion from predictable sources, it may lay durable foundations under its current leadership for a business model suited to its unique and historic mission.
LESS than two weeks to the February 21 Federal Capital Territory (FCT) Area Council elections, political parties across the six councils namely Abaji, Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC), Bwari, Gwagwalada, Kuje and Kwali are revving their campaigns.
The contest is expected to shape grassroots governance in the nation’s capital, where the Peoples’ Democratic Party (PDP) and the All Progressives Congress (APC) shared the councils in previous election.
The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) fixed February 21, 2026, for the poll, with campaigns running until February 19 after publication of the final candidates list in September 2025.
The INEC had cleared more than 1.6 million registered voters to participate in electing six chairmen and 62 councillors across the councils.
According to the figure released by the Resident Electoral Commissioner (REC) for the FCT, Aminu Idris, the number of voters for the poll stands at 1,680,315.
Idris also said INEC had approved the decongestion of large Registration Area Centres to enhance efficiency and ease the movement of personnel and election materials on polling day. This, he explained, led to the establishment of sub-RACs in Dutse Alhaji and Kubwa wards in Bwari Area Council, as well as in Gwarinpa and Kabusa wards within the Abuja Municipal Area Council.
The REC further disclosed that elections would not be conducted in four polling units across the FCT because no voters registered there during the last voter registration and revalidation exercise.
Three of the affected polling units are located in Garki Ward, while the remaining one is in Jiwa Ward.
The election will hold in 2,822 polling units of the 62 wards in the FCT.
However, the build-up to the exercise has been shaped by court rulings and intra-party conflicts.
A Federal High Court in Abuja on January 20, ordered INEC to recognise candidate lists from some parties, including the African Democratic Congress (ADC), while disputes over nomination processes and candidate eligibility have also trailed the Labour Party (LP) and the PDP.
Meanwhile, below are the major contenders across the six area councils as listed on INEC portal as of September 2025.
Abaji Area Council
Sokodabo MusaBilyaminu emerged as the PDP’s consensus chairmanship candidate during the party’s primaries in June 2025, securing all delegate votes. He was the only contestant according to the Electoral CommitteeChairman.
His emergence positions him as the party’s frontline challenger in what is expected to be a fierce competition among the three leading parties – the PDP, APC, and ADC. The APC won the seat in 2022.
Umar Abdullahi is the APC flagbearer as the party seeks to retain the seat. Mohammed Ibrahim picked the ADC ticket and will be seeking to cause a major upset for his rivals. It is, however, unclear if INEC has delisted him to entertain the court-ordered names from the David Mark-led national executives of the party.
Abuja Municipal Area Council (AMAC)
AMAC, being the home to Nigeria’s seat of power and major national institutions, is widely regarded as the most developed council in the FCT. It will see 16 political parties vying for its chairmanship seat.
Danlani Zadna clinched the PDP ticket after Michael Jigu withdrew from the race. This left Danlami as the lone contestant and winner with all 30 delegates votes at the primary.
Zakka Christopher flies the APC flag in AMAC, seeking to retain the seat for his party. The PDP won the poll in previous election (in 2022), but the chairman, Christopher Maikalangu, defected to the APC in 2025, citing loss of federal jobs by his constituents.
Similarly, Paul Moses Ogidi is the ADC flagbearer in the election.
Bwari Area Council
Adamu Julius secured the PDP ticket after winning the party’s primary with 19 votes against Elimelech Jebida, who garnered six votes. Others namely Abdullahi Abuja Zakanbonton, Haruna Muhammed, and Ephraim Dauda got one vote each.
Julius candidacy followed the PDP’s electoral success in Bwari, where the party previously won the chairmanship seat.
Haruna Shekwoloaudi leads the APC’s bid to win the area council’s chairmanship, while Musa Josiah Abinto picked the ADC ticket, according to INEC list of registered candidates.
Gwagwalada Area Council
For Gwagwalada Area Council, Mohammed Kasim emerged the winner of the PDP primary, securing 19 votes to defeat Rabiu Adamu, who polled 11 votes. His candidacy aims to reclaim a council previously won by the APC. He will be contesting against Yahaya Usman Shehu of the APC and Danjuma Iko Afanyibada of ADC.
Kuje Area Council
Zakwoyi Danlami, the PDP candidate in the forthcoming exercise is contesting against Danjuma Samuel Shekwolo of the APC, and ADC’s Knabayi Stephen Adalo.
The area council is currently led by the PDP.
The party will seek to hold its grip on an area council that has recorded landmark transformation from both its current chairman’s efforts and President Bola Tinubu-led government.
Both the PDP and APC-led governments have been widely commended for executing internal road projects across the town, with the two Federal Government-funded dual highways planned to connect Kuje to Gwagwalada and the main city.
Kwali Area Council
Haruna Pai Muhammed secured the PDP ticket in a three-way primary contest, emerging with the highest delegate votes. Daniel Nuhu Kwali (APC) leads his party’s campaign to regain the council it previously controlled.
Meanwhile, Bandoj Jeremiah won ADC ticket in the area council, defeating other major contender.
The ICIR reports that beyond the PDP, APC and ADC, other parties are fielding candidates in the election, with up to 16 parties in AMAC and between nine and 11 in others.
NIGERIA’s annual budgets, running into trillions of naira, has, over the years, failed to impact the lives of the people, with 130 million of the population still in multi-dimensional poverty. For the Lead Director of the Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere, the Legislature should rise to the occasion as an independent body empowered by the constitution to scrutinise budgets and relevant agencies of government in its oversight. Featuring on The ICIR’s budget and transparency series Onyekpere insists that legislative functions should be done independently and not trivialised by singing ‘on your mandate we shall stand’ in key functions of the National Assembly.
Onyekpere:
The ICIR: Can you give your assessment of President Tinubu’s government in the last two years? From the floating of the exchange rate and also from the removal of the subsidy?
Onyekpere: Well, let me start by saying that there have been critical challenges in the economy since the Tinubu administration came on board. Even before then, there were challenges. So not everything we see in the economy is attributable to either its proper management or mismanagement. But we are going to try an assessment based on the key critical reform issues which the administration introduced.
You know, when we use the word reform, it’s a fairly nebulous word because it doesn’t indicate the content. Everybody can call anything a reform, since you’re changing the system from what it used to be to a new one.
Now, if you look at the critical reforms — the removal of the fuel subsidy and the floating of the naira, you discover that the reforms were not well nuanced, well planned, well sequenced, and well understood by the author of the reforms.
First of all, I would like to see reforms from the construction of a categorical syllogism. In logic, you have the first premise, the second premise, which is the middle premise, and then the conclusion.
For instance, let’s try to construct a syllogism out of the removal of fuel subsidy. The idea is that paying for subsidies by the federal government and states is taking away fiscal space and resources that should have been used for infrastructure, electricity, education, health, water, namely all the infrastructure that we need. So, there was a need to remove that subsidy so that the resources — the six or seven trillion that would have been used — would now be re-channelled to improve health services, education, and access to water.
But when you say reform, the first step of removing subsidies is not the end of the reform. There needs to be a second stage showing what has been saved, and a final stage showing where the money is invested, leading to improvements in quality of life, security, and welfare.
The first step has been taken, but the second and third are not being discussed. Nobody is talking about where the money was invested or improvements in welfare, services rendered by the government, or security.
This is not the first time subsidy removal has been discussed. The only difference is that this time it was a total removal. If you recall, the much-maligned General Abacha did remove a few pennies from the subsidy. Consequently, what he did was to set up a Petroleum Trust Fund (PTDF), which was managed by the former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari. We may not agree with all the PTDF did, but at least we saw some road infrastructure, we saw some drugs, and some buses branded with PTF, and so there were some services delivered to the people.
When the much-maligned Goodluck Jonathan also removed a few pennies out of subsidy, you could see that there was a huge uproar, there were demonstrations. Beyond that, he now said, okay, I will set up Sure-P, focused on transportation, on maternal and child health, and a few other things in education. Even if you say the money was not managed with the wholeness and utmost transparency demanded, at least we could see a few things.
Now the difference is that this man removed the subsidy and refused to target the money and left the money in that bottomless pit. Okay, where the money simply goes to other things that are not targeted. So that is a critical challenge.
Yes, he removed fuel subsidy, and every major contestant in the 2023 elections, Peter Obi and Atiku Abubakar, said they were going to remove the subsidy. Even at some point in time, in this office, we had written papers demanding the removal because it was being pointed out that six, seven, or sometimes eight trillion dollars in a year was going to this. So the hope was that we would use our money better.
Now, the second one is about the floating of the Naira. We also have that critical challenge because we were supporting the Naira with a lot of resources. The CBN was doing that. And doing that, economists will say that the rate was artificial.
Therefore, the rate being artificial didn’t demonstrate its true value to both Nigerians, the investing community, and outsiders interested in Nigeria.
So there ought to have been a policy articulation that, after you’ve taken that first step to say I have floated the Naira, then you use that new policy framework to make local production easier, to incentivise local production, and remove those obstacles that are challenging exports.
When they improved the minimum wage, they did not improve it in such a way as to take cognisance of how much the currency has depreciated. Because it’s not just about the articulation of figures. When it came in newly, after the first couple of months, we were buying rice for about 80,000 to 100,000.
Now, even if you say you have done something new, rice has reduced to about 60,000 to 70,000. So that’s a bag of rice for the minimum wage. Forgetting that when we are doing 30,000 minimum wage, at some point, a bag of rice was under 10,000.
So you could buy a bag of rice from there, transport yourself, pay your children’s school fees, and even pay rent of 30,000. But from 70,000, you can no longer do that. If, for any reason, you buy a bag of rice, that means all your income for the month goes into a bag.
The Lead Director,Centre for Social Justice,Eze Onyekpere
The ICIR: The governors seem to be the biggest beneficiaries, smiling to the bank with bigger FAAC allocations, yet citizens see little impact. What can be done differently now to reduce the burden?
Onyekpere: When you say governors are smiling to the bank, it appears you may have been drawn into propaganda. The revenue allocation formula did not change.
The federal government picks up about 52 per cent of all the money. It didn’t change after the removal of the subsidy or the floating of the Naira. So while Tinubu’s administration keeps insisting, oh, ask your governors what they’re doing with the more money. He has not accounted for what he’s doing with his own money.
But then, if the money that has increased looks like paper money and nominal money, now let’s look at it this way. The last budget before Buhari left, we had the budget premised on about less than, I think it wasn’t up to 400 Naira to the dollar. Then I could get a fairly used Toyota Corolla for 2.53 million Naira.
The ICIR: Are you satisfied with the budget office clarification on fiscal transparency concerns raised by some stakeholders, which you were part of? Onyekpere: With utmost respect to them, it appears either the officials are ignorant of the law or deliberately mischievous. Whichever one you interpret it, it’s not good enough for people who are occupying that high office, either ignorance or mischief, because these facts are clear. You don’t need to be an accountant, a lawyer, or you don’t need to go to school to understand the basics.
So, look at the scenario; the 2024 budget was presented. The president drafted the 2024 budget in the executive and sent it to the National Assembly. The National Assembly approved his draft. He signed. So what next? Implement and report back to the people through the National Assembly.
If you have a problem in implementation during the year, you review it around June or July, and you go back to the National Assembly to say, either give me a supplementary budget or amend this. The money I’m expecting is no longer available. That’s the normal thing.
So he did not come within 2024 for the amendment of the act. And the law said, you implement this budget from January 1 to December 31.
He now begged that they should extend the implementation for up to 2025. They did that for him, although I hold that what they did was illegal. But let’s say what they did was legal. He took another 24 months and finished implementation in December 2025 of something you shall finish on December 2024. And all through that time, he did not come back to the National Assembly to say, I want to increase or to reduce.
When he finished implementing, he now brought a bill to amend the 2024 act, to reflect the actual thing he had done, which does not align with the approval of the National Assembly. He has spent more than the National Assembly approved for 2024. He was saying that at the end of 2024, I had not finished implementing.
Give me more time. The whole of 2025, he never got back to them to say, I will spend more. In 2025, he now says, I’m finished.
He now brought a bill to say, I have finished. But now, amend this law, which I should have finished, to reflect what I actually did.
Last year, too, they were only able to; they did a call circle and told MDAs to take 70 per cent of their capital budget over, roll it over to 2026, because they could not implement. They admitted they did only 30 per cent, but many MDAs said they did not even get up to 30 per cent releases.
That’s why they postponed it to March to say, let’s see if they will finish that 30 per cent by March. That cannot be a best practice. So you ask yourself, what was it doing all along?
The National Assembly is just about to have the budget, talking about it for the first time. And knowing what they do, that budget will not be ready until March or April. Then, when do you start implementation? And you know this is the year they are going for primaries.
The ICIR: Since Tinubu assumed office, we have seen fiscal transparency violations in the Medium-Term Expenditure Framework (MTEF) and other areas. What’s the general implication of this? Also, how do we wake up the National Assembly on this?
Onyekpere: You can wake up a man who is already asleep, I’m sure you know that. But a man pretending to be asleep, when he’s awake, it is not possible to wake him up now. First of all, he’s already awake. So you are wasting your time.
The infractions, as I see them, are not only on the part of the executive. It is like a conspiracy between the executive and the legislature. Because if you see what happens, this is the first time in history that the president comes to the National Assembly and instead of playing the national anthem, there is a special song ‘on your mandate.’
So they conspire. And each time the people draw attention to the infractions, they double down. So you are not going to wake up a National Assembly that sees itself as an extension of the presidency rather than as a respected arm of government.
If you look at the Constitution, the first arm, Section 4, is the legislature. Section 5 is the executive. Section 6 is the judiciary. The difference between a military dictatorship and a democracy is the legislature. Because in a military dictatorship, the executive is always there. The judiciary is always there, but it is forced to blow the military trumpet to obey military decisions.
So the first arm of government is actually the representative of the people in the legislature. So they should be supreme. For them now to become outrunners and appendages of a powerful chief executive is a throwback to dictatorship.
The Lead Director, Centre for Social Justice, Eze Onyekpere and Business Editor, Harrison EDEH.
The ICIR: We have been going through these line items in the budget, highlighting lots of frivolous items inserted in the budget across various MDAs. And we have also seen that these monies are, of course, borrowed. How do we come out of this mess?
Onyekpere: That is why I say there is a coven-like conspiracy. Most of those projects, in fact, virtually all of them, are constituency projects inserted by legislators. Ideally, they are supposed to interact with the executive in the choice of constituency projects.
Because initially, people asked why legislators should even be the ones to select constituency projects. Let us even grant that they understand the problems of their constituency. The ideal procedure should have been that if you think the problem in your constituency is a health centre, you take it to the Minister of Health and sit down with the ministry officials to plan it.
They will tell you whether that is actually a problem for that community, because they may point out that there is already a health centre. Instead of building a new block, bring the money and furnish that centre. Ensure there is a nurse, a midwife, or a doctor. It is better than having two brick-and-mortar structures and none functioning.
So you plan along with them, do feasibility studies, environmental assessments, and everything, so it fits in. You may choose electricity and go to the Minister of Power or the Rural Electrification Agency; education, you go to the Minister of Education or UBEC. But they do not do this. They just select any MDA where the leadership is a party man and apply pressure.
That is why you see electrification and rural roads in oceanography institutes whose mandate relates to ocean waves, tides, fisheries, and development. Because the man there is a party man.
In my constituency in Imo State, I once saw constituency projects placed in a planning institute in Zaria. That is where they put water and electrification projects meant for my constituency.
The ICIR: Away from the budget briefly, we have seen the government and the CBN tell us that inflation is easing again, but when we go to banks, the cost of funds for businesses is still very high. This appears to be a huge disconnect. How do you react to this?
Onyekpere: That is part of why I was talking about Tinubu reforms. The floating of the naira also impacts inflation rates. Even before Tinubu came on board, the rate was already up. With these interventions he did, it skyrocketed further.
Now they claim inflation is about fifteen-point-something per cent; it does not hold water. If the central bank believes that, why is the monetary policy rate above twenty-seven per cent? Banks will add their margin to survive, so something is not adding up in that story that the inflation rate is coming down.
The rates as announced by the NBS do not reflect the actual inflation rate inthe country.
Inflation reporting should give the government a proper understanding of economic difficulties so that policies can reduce the cost of living and production. But the current reportage does not give that direction. It is like saying we are succeeding while nothing has changed.
The ICIR: We have also seen the newly passed tax laws and concerns about forgery raised by a lawmaker, which appeared to be overlooked. Some advocacy NGOs are developing cold feet because the government does not seem to listen. How do you react to this?
Onyekpere: People develop cold feet because they cannot have a conversation with a stone. If someone is not listening, it’s either you kick himout of there or you shut up. And since you’re not in a position to kick him out of there, you eithershut up or go back and devise another means of engaging him.
Even the report of the minority caucus from the House of Reps, you can see how they disowned it. And they said they’ve gazetted,done a new gazetting, but where is it? It’s not available to any Nigerian.
So by saying that they’verejected it or they’ve redone it, is an admission that it was altered.
Under theconstitution, the powers of the legislature are solely reserved for the legislature.The president or any of his men has no right to change a comma, a full stop, an apostrophe,a semicolon, or a colon, either by adding or removal or changing his position in any law passedby the National Assembly.
The ICIR: You have worked on budgets for years. These issues keep recurring, and budgets often appear disconnected from the people. Is there a template for a truly people-focused budget we can adopt?
Onyekpere: Yes. That is why you have three key words: accountability, transparency, and popular participation.
These three words are so crucial to fiscal management, whether it’srevenue or expenditure. Accountability is that if you are elected president, governor, or Senator,you have to carry the people along through popular participation and transparency.
You have to tell everybody the truth that this is the money available for health.
And when you saythe Ministry of Health is supposed to do a consultation with stakeholders. Stakeholders don’t need to be NGOs. You have doctors, you have nurses, you have pharmacists,you have laboratory technicians, those who are working in the health sector.
Senate President Godswill Akpabio has directed the Senate to reconvene for an emergency plenary session on Tuesday,February 10, following mounting public pressure on lawmakers to include mandatory electronic transmission of results in the ongoing amendment of the Electoral Act.
Akpabio issued the directive in a memo signed by the Clerk of the Senate, Emmanuel Odo, dated February 8, and circulated to senators, announcing the emergency sitting without stating the reason for the emergency plenary.
“I am directed by His Excellency, the President of the Senate, Distinguished Senator Godswill Obot Akpabio, GCON, to inform all Distinguished Senators of the Federal Republic of Nigeria that an Emergency Sitting of the Senate has been scheduled to hold as follows: Date: Tuesday, 10th February, 2026. Time:12:00 Noon. Venue: Senate Chamber.
“Distinguished Senators are kindly requested to note this Emergency Sitting date and attend. All inconveniences this will cause to Distinguished Senators are highly regretted, please,” Akpabio wrote.
There are strong indications that the decision to reconvene is linked to widespread public outrage over the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill passed by the Senate last Wednesday. The upper chamber had adjourned for a two-week recess after approving the bill on Wednesday, to enable senators to engage heads of Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) on the defence of their 2026 budget proposals.
Although the amendment introduced several changes to the law, public debate has centred largely on one contentious provision: the rejection of mandatory electronic transmission of election results from polling units to INEC’s Result Viewing Portal (IREV).
However, many political parties, politicians and civil society actors have criticised the clause and called on lawmakers to reverse it, as some advocacy groups have also threatened mass action. A coalition operating under the banner Enough is Enough has begun mobilising supporters for a protest at the National Assembly, using the hashtag #OccupyNASS.
Amid the criticism, some senators in the minority caucus told journalists on Thursday that the Electoral Act amendment bill does, in fact, accommodate electronic transmission of election results.
However, Akpabio, speaking at a book launch on Saturday, acknowledged that the Senate removed the provision for mandatory real-time electronic transmission of results during the clause-by-clause consideration of the amendment.
The Senate president said the decision was informed by concerns that enforcing real-time transmission could lead to legal disputes in the event of network failures during elections.
UnderClause 60 of the bill, the Senate retained the provision in the 2022 Electoral Act which permits the transmission of results to collation centres.
On voter identification, Clause 47 was amended as lawmakers rejected a proposal to allow alternative forms of identification other than the Permanent Voter Card (PVC). While “smart card readers” were replaced with the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS) for accreditation and voting, the Senate retained the PVC as the sole mandatory means of voter identification at polling units.
Earlier, the bill had proposed that because BVAS does not read the microchip embedded in PVCs, the card should no longer be compulsory, allowing voters to use the National Identification Number (NIN), international passport or birth certificate. However, the Senate disagreed and upheld the PVC as the primary mode of identification.
On Clause 22, which deals with PVC-related offences, lawmakers rejected a proposed 10-year jail term for buying and selling PVCs. They instead retained a two-year imprisonment term and increased the fine from N2 million to N5 million.
Regarding proof of non-compliance, the Senate deleted Clause 142, which would have allowed political parties to establish non-compliance solely through original or certified documentary evidence without oral testimony. Lawmakers argued during clause-by-clause consideration that the provision would amount to a “waste of time in court.”
On ballot paper inspection, Clause 44 was retained, maintaining the existing procedure that gives political parties two days to submit written approval or disapproval of their representations on sample ballot papers. INEC is also required to invite parties to inspect sample electoral materials at least 20 days before an election.
Under Clause 29, the deadline for political parties to submit candidate lists was reduced from 120 days to 90 days before an election.
To curb vote buying, lawmakers also amended Clause 22 to impose stiffer penalties, increasing the fine for offenders from N500,000 to N5 million.
On post-election disputes, the Senate amended Clause 136 by removing the power of election tribunals to declare winners outright in certain situations. The amendment provides that where a candidate is found not to have been validly elected for failing to score the majority of lawful votes, a rerun election shall be conducted, and the disqualified candidate and sponsoring party will be barred from participating.
This provision departs from the 2022 Electoral Act, which allows a tribunal to declare the candidate with the second-highest number of valid votes the winner where the candidate with the highest votes is found to be unqualified.
