THE Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) has released data indicating that 32 of its officers lost their lives while on official duty between 2018 and 2022.
The data was released by FRSC spokesperson, Bisi Kazeem, on Friday, April 21.
According to the records, three officers were killed in 2018, eleven lost their lives in 2019, nine in 2020, five in 2021, and four in 2022.
The road safety personnel were killed “as a result of knockdown by reckless drivers or attacks” according to the data.
In November 2022, a truck driver crushed two officers along the Ikot-Ekpene – Aba route. The crash occurred as a result of excessive speed by the driver of a DAF articulated truck while trying to dodge a pothole along the route.
On April 3, 2022, unknown gunmen killed two FRSC officials in Ezinifite, Aguata Local Government Area of Anambra State.
In November 2020, the House of Representatives expressed concerns over the safety of FRSC members, who had been threatened, harassed, and even killed in the line of duty.
The House Committee on FRSC had suggested that arming FRSC members would help curb the excesses of road users in the country.
The Committee Chairman, Mayowa Akonfolarin, said the Road Safety Establishment Act of 2007 should be amended to provide a legal framework for the arming of personnel on essential duties.
He said that the committee would liaise with relevant bodies, including the FRSC, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, and relevant supervisory agencies, to set up a body that would brainstorm on the issue and make recommendations.
To address the safety concerns, experts have suggested several measures that the FRSC could implement to reduce the number of officers killed while on duty.
These measures include deploying technology such as license plate recognition, speed limiting devices, and a traffic operation centre to enable the agency to discharge its duties effectively.
FRSC operatives have also been advised to to avoid jumping into the road to stop fast-moving vehicles. The road safety commission was also advised to deploy secret body cameras to monitor activities, and engage in arresting vehicles instead of chasing them down.
SOCIO-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to set up a presidential panel of enquiry to probe allegations that over 149 million barrels of crude oil are missing.
The allegation was documented in 2019 audited reports by the Auditor General of the Federation and Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI).
SERAP, in the letter dated April 22, and signed by its deputy director Kolawole Oluwadare, urged the President to “ensure the effective prosecution of anyone suspected to be responsible for the plundering of the country’s oil wealth and the full recovery of any proceeds of crime”.
It was reported that over 107 million barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude without any document or tracing, according to the Auditor-General’s 2019 report.
NEITI, according to SERAP, also reported missing 42.25 million barrels of crude oil in 2019.
The letter stressed that there is a legitimate public interest in ensuring justice and accountability for the allegations.
The organisation further warned Buhari to take the recommended steps between now and the end of his term in office.
According to the the SERAP, poor and socio-economically vulnerable Nigerians have continued to pay the price for the stealing of the country’s oil wealth apparently by both state and non-state actors.
Parts of the letter read: “SERAP notes that you have repeatedly promised to combat corruption. As you go into the final weeks of your term of office, the missing crude oil allegations present yet another opportunity to demonstrate your commitment and to uphold your oath of office both as President and Minister of Petroleum Resources.
“As the President and substantive Minister of Petroleum Resources, you and your government should prioritise getting to the bottom of these allegations and use the remainder of your term of office to ensure justice and accountability for these serious crimes against the Nigerian people.
“Investigating the allegations and naming and shaming and prosecuting those suspected to be responsible for the missing crude oil would serve the public interest and end the impunity of perpetrators.
“We would be grateful if the recommended measures are taken within 7 days of the receipt and/or publication of this letter. If we have not heard from you by then, SERAP shall take all appropriate legal actions to compel your government to comply with our request in the public interest.
“The allegations by both the Auditor-General and NEITI are different from a whistleblower’s claims that 48 million barrels of Bonny Light crude oil allegedly sold in China in 2015 are missing or unaccounted for.”
“The reports by the Auditor-General and NEITI suggest a grave violation of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended], and the country’s anticorruption laws and international obligations, as well as the public trust.
“These damning revelations also suggest your government is failing to prevent and combat the plundering of Nigeria’s wealth and natural resources, name and bring suspected perpetrators to account and recover any proceeds of crime.
“Poor and socio-economically vulnerable Nigerians have continued to pay the price for the stealing of the country’s oil wealth apparently by both state and non-state actors.
“The country’s oil wealth ought to be used solely for the benefit of the Nigerian people, and for the sake of the present and future generations.
“These allegations can promptly be investigated and suspected perpetrators named and shamed. Taking these steps would advance the right of Nigerians to restitution, compensation and guarantee of non-repetition and improve public confidence in the fight against corruption, and related crimes, especially in the oil sector.
“According to the 2019 audited report by the Auditor General of the Federation (AGF), some 107,239,436.00 barrels of crude oil were lifted as domestic crude without any document or tracing.
“To date, there is no information on the sale of Un-Utilized Crude oil by Refineries for 2019 and no information on crude oil allocations from 30th May to 31st December 2019. The Auditor-General is concerned that the missing crude oil may have been diverted.
“The Nigeria Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (NEITI) also reported missing 42.25 million barrels of crude oil in 2019.
“Section 13 of the Nigerian Constitution imposes clear responsibility on your government to conform to, observe and apply the provisions of Chapter 2 of the Constitution. Section 15(5) imposes the responsibility on your government to ‘abolish all corrupt practices and abuse of power.
“Under Section 16(1) of the Constitution, your government has a responsibility to ‘secure the maximum welfare, freedom and happiness of every citizen on the basis of social justice and equality of status and opportunity.’ Section 16(2) further provides that, ‘the material resources of the nation are harnessed and distributed as best as possible to serve the common good.
“The UN Convention against Corruption and the African Union Convention on Preventing and Combating Corruption to which Nigeria is a state party obligate your government to effectively prevent and investigate the plundering of the country’s wealth and natural resources and hold public officials and non-state actors to account for any violations.
“Specifically, article 26 of the UN convention requires your government to ensure ‘effective, proportionate and dissuasive sanctions’ including criminal and non-criminal sanctions, in cases of grand corruption.
“Article 26 complements the more general requirement of article 30, paragraph 1, that sanctions must take into account the gravity of the corruption allegations.
“The proposed panel should be headed by a retired justice of the Supreme Court or Court of Appeal, and its members should include people with proven professional record, and of the highest integrity that can act impartially, independently, and transparently.”
MAJOR opposition political parties in Nigeria are experiencing internal crises following the conclusion of the 2023 general elections.
The two major opposition parties, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and the Labour Party (LP) are facing crises characterised by leadership tussles, suspensions, expulsions and court cases.
The crisis in the PDP has its root in the outcome of the party’s presidential primary election, where Rivers State governor, Nyesom Wike, lost to the former vice-president, Atiku Abubakar. After the primary, Atiku picked Delta State governor, Ifeanyi Okowa, as his running mate for the 2023 presidential election, against the recommendation of a committee chaired by Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, which reportedly recommended Wike as the PDP vice presidential candidate. The Rivers governor would later lead four other PDP governors to demand the resignation of the party’s chairman, Iyorchia Ayu, as one of the conditions for backing Atiku’s presidential ambition.
All efforts to resolve the crisis, including the resignation of the party’s Board of Trustees (BoT) chairman, Walid Jibrin, were rebuffed by the G5 governors.
Just before the elections, the party moved to suspend some members believed to be loyal to former Ekiti State governor, Ayodele Fayose, who is also Wike’s ally, for anti-party activities in Ekiti. The party also suspended a former Enugu State governor, Chimaraoke Nnamani, who was openly working for APC presidential candidate Bola Tinubu.
Wike failed to support Atiku during the general elections and, instead, worked for Tinubu, who was declared by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) as the winner of the presidential poll. But Wike did not stop asking for Ayu’s resignation even after the general elections.
Following the conclusion of the general elections, the PDP leadership moved to suspend Fayose. The Ayu-led PDP leadership also directed Ortom to face a disciplinary committee. The Benue governor swore that he will not appear before the panel.
The crisis took a new dimension when, in a move that appeared similar to circumstances surrounding the removal of former PDP national chairman Uche Secondus, Ayu was suspended by his ward for anti-party activities. Ayu was ordered by Justice W. I. Kpochi of the Benue State High Court to stop parading himself as the party’s chairman.
In the meantime, the Deputy National Chairman (North), Ambassador Umar Damagum, is the acting national chairman of the party, following Ayu’s removal by the National Working Committee (NWC) in compliance with the court ruling.
The Labour Party (LP) is also facing a similar crisis. The crisis started after the general election when the party’s national chairman, Julius Abure, was suspended by his ward in Edo State for anti-party activities. Although the party’s leadership dismissed the suspension, Abure and Farouk Ibrahim, were ordered by an Abuja Federal High Court to stop parading themselves as the party’s chairman and secretary, respectively.
The court also stopped the party’s National Organising Secretary, Clement Ojukwu, and the Treasurer, Oluchi Opara, from parading themselves as the party’s national officers.
The court, presided by Justice Hamza Muazu, ruled the the officials should remain suspended, pending the hearing and determination of a suit challenging their continued stay in office over allegations of corruption brought against them. The court also revised the suspension of some national officers that had been previously suspended due to alleged anti-party activities by the Abure-led party leadership.
Following the court order, the party’s South-West chairman, Lamidi Apapa, announced himself as the acting national chairman of the party. He also announced Saleh Lawan is the acting national secretary.
However, the crisis took another turn on Wednesday, April 12, when some state chairmen of the party clashed with the Lamidi Apapa-led faction. In the wake of the development, the LP state chairmen in the 36 states disowned Apapa and threw their weight behind Abure as the party’s leader.
Speaking to journalists, Kehinde Rotimi, state chairman of LP in Kwara State, narrated what transpired during the clash with the Apapa-led faction at the party secretariat. Rotimi said trouble started when the state chairmen arrived for a meeting but were locked out of the secretariat.
“We have been here for quite some days now for screening of some of our gubernatorial candidates for the forthcoming election in Bayelsa, Kogi and Imo states. We were at the screening, yesterday, when we learnt that some people brought themselves to this office to do screening for candidates, when we heard that, we said that that is an aberration because they do not have the locus standi to do that.
“I am a member of the screening committee where we screened so many candidates yesterday, so I do not know how they manipulated one or two candidates to come here yesterday and impersonated some of the candidates. So that’s why we came here. On getting to our secretariat, we wanted to hold a meeting and we discovered it was under lock and key.
“So we met some DSS men and some vigilantes groups, some thugs and miscreants and they said they asked them to lock the secretariat. So in the course of discussing, the legal committee led by Apapa came around and were trying to engage us, and their thugs were almost attacking us and we resisted every temptation to cause commotion and crisis because we know the case is in court.
“Anything in court you don’t discuss it and we don’t want to commit contempt of court and that’s why we now said okay, what do we do? Let’s stay here. So they could not enter, we too, could not enter.”
Although the APC has denied interference in the party’s crisis, the LP believes that its ongoing ordeal is part of several plots by the ruling party to frustrate its petition at the Presidential Election Tribunal (PET), where it’s presidential candidate Peter Obi is challenging the outcome of the February 25 election.
Crises could jeopardise election petitions — Political analysts
Political analysts believe that if the ongoing crises within the main opposition parties are not resolved, they could jeopardise their chances at the tribunals.
A professor of Political Science at the Federal University Oye Ekiti, (FUOYE), Shola Omotola, blamed the crises in the two main opposition parties on lack of internal democracy and discipline.
In an interview with The ICIR, Omotola said that the crisis could lead to a loss of support from their their supporters, who may see the parties as unstable and lacking in direction if the controversies are not quickly managed.
He noted that the ongoing crises could tarnish the image of the parties, as it could lead to negative media coverage and portray them as lacking in discipline and leadership.
He said that this could impact the parties’ ability to attract new members and supporters, and also focus on the various elections petitions.
“The leadership of the parties must be proactive in addressing the crisis. They must listen to the grievances of all parties involved and seek to find common ground,” he said.
“The party must promote internal democracy, where every member has an equal opportunity to contribute to the party’s growth and development. The parties need to promote democratic processes that promote fairness and transparency in the selection of candidates and party officials, avoiding the imposition of candidates or the use of violence.
“They need to enforce discipline within their ranks, promoting a culture of accountability and punishing members who act against the party’s interest.”
Omotola believe that the two parties need strong and decisive leaderships that can take charge of the situation and unify all interest groups.
Similarly, Rotimi Fashakin, a political analyst in Ado Ekiti, Ekiti State, believes that the solution to the crises lies in the promotion of democratic principles within the party.
According to him, “The party must promote democratic processes, including free and fair primaries, to select candidates for elections. This will promote inclusivity and ensure that every member has a stake in the party’s success.”
THE Federal Government has approved the payment of the new 40 per cent pay rise for federal civil servants under the Consolidated Public Service Salary Structure (CONPSS)
However, the pay rise will not be enjoyed other federal workers operating under different salary structures, such as university workers and medical doctors, who are under the Consolidated University Academic Salary Structure and Consolidated Medical Salary Scale, respectively.
The non-academic workers in tertiary institutions, nurses, police, members of the armed forces and some other category of public servant will not benefit from the pay rise.
The approval for the peculiar allowance was conveyed by the head of the National Salaries Income and Wages Commission, Ekpo Nta, in a memo addressed to the Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed.
According to the Punch newspaper, the memo stated that only the 144,766 staff members of the federal civil service under the CONPSS salary structure will be paid the allowance, which will take effect from January 1, 2023.
In the memo, the commission stated that the estimated sum of N79.37 billion per annum required to implement the allowance for the 144,766 staff on CONPSS would be funded from the treasury.
“This approval takes effect from 1st of January, 2023 and the estimated sum of seventy nine billion, three hundred and seventy-three million, three hundred and forty thousand, nine hundred and fifty-nine Naira (N79,373,340,959.00) per annum required to implement it for the 144,766 staff on CONPSS will be funded from the treasury,” the memo said.
The Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige, had during his appearance of Channels Television, last month, announced a pay rise for civil servants across the country.
He disclosed that the rise had been included in the 2023 budget and that it would help government workers to cushion the effects of rising inflation, rising cost of living, and hikes in transportation fare, housing and electricity tariffs.
Meanwhile, some workers have started receiving bank alerts of the arrears for the first three months of the year, while others have protested the exclusion of their members from the payment of the peculiar allowance.
The Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), has protested the exclusion of its members from the payment of the peculiar allowance.
ASUU National President, Emmanuel Osodeke, accused the government of trying to create problems in the system, adding that the Union would study the situation on the ground and make its stand known soon.
“We just saw the news this evening that arrears are being paid to workers. We are surprised. However, we will study the situation,” he said.
“The government is simply trying to create a problem in the system. We are watching and we are studying the situation of things on the ground,”
Similarly, the Nigerian Association of Resident Doctors (NARD) has also kicked against the exclusion of medical doctors from the pay rise.
NARD President, Emeka Orji, said that members were not happy with the development, because the Federal Government had yet to complete the process of increment in the Consolidated Medical Salary Structure both for doctors and other health workers since over one year.
“We are happy that they increased the salary of civil servants, but the only thing is that they have yet to do ours up till now. These are some of the things causing agitation,” he was quoted by the Punch newspaper as saying.
“I’m sure that when we have our national emergency council meeting on Friday, April 28, 2023, this will be part of the major discussions and decisions will be taken in that meeting.”
IN the heart of Nigeria’s capital city, a small, bustling hub for gadget sales and rehabilitation flourishes due to high demand for phone repairs and a growing smartphone market. IJEOMA OPARA reports how the GSM Village thrives amidst challenges facing SMEs in the country.
Daily, hundreds of customers troop in to the famous Abuja GSM Village in the Wuse area of Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory (FCT), hoping to acquire new gadgets or seeking to repair a faulty device.
As early as 8.30 a.m. every day except Sundays, Chukwuemeka Okeke stands in front of his shop, rag in hand, cleaning and displaying phone accessories in a transparent show glass to attract potential buyers.
Like most others in the market, his shop is made of shipping containers used initially for importing or moving goods.
A standard shop in the market is tiny, with barely enough space for more than two people to sit in.
Although shop owners arbitrarily fix rent, which can fall around N100,000, N200,000 or more annually, traders are sometimes forced to pay for two adjoining shops and merge them to get more space.
A shop at the GSM Village market, Wuse. Photo: The ICIR/IJeoma Opara./April 2023
Like Okeke, other traders spend the mornings cleaning, shelving and calling out to passers-by whom they suspect might require their services.
He describes the market as a meeting point for both the rich and poor due to the range of customers it attracts each day.
“Whether rich or poor, everybody comes here for one thing or the other,” he said.
There is easy access to a wide variety of gadgets, used high-end phones which cost less than the new, and generally low prices of items compared to many locations in the FCT where such goods are sold, Okeke explained.
In Nigeria, 63 per cent of the population live in poverty, according to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics (NBS), and high-end phones are a luxury to many.
Therefore, swapping and purchasing used high-end phones at affordable rates characterise the market and is a significant attraction for FCT residents.
A thriving hub for phone repair
But beyond lower prices, Okeke identifies the concentration of technicians, generally called engineers, who repair gadgets in the market as a significant reason the GSM Village thrives.
“What makes customers show up steadily is: there are many engineers here that fix devices. Other places be focused on sales, but here, we have a lot of repairers,” Okeke said.
A short distance from Okeke’s shop, one of such technicians examines a Nyne bass speaker as the owner explains the fault it has developed.
“I can fix it for you, but if it works, you will pay five thousand naira,” he tells the customer.
Although several gadgets get fixed at the GSM Village, mobile phones are the most commonly repaired items.
Phone repair includes multiple steps, as technicians specialise in various aspects of the craft and depend on each other to get their work done.
While loosening a faulty phone, a technician Sadiq Isiaka, says the process is not a one-person job.
“In this job, you cannot specialise in everything. It will seem as though you want to kill yourself,” Sadiq explains as he separates the phone’s screen from the rest of the device.
He spends several minutes picking at tiny screws with a screwdriver and replaces the calibrator, melting off unwanted leather with a rework station.
A food vendor stops in front of his shop with a plate of boiled yam and sauce. He hands her some money and continues with work.
In the shop next to his, a young man struggles to replace the faulty charging port of an Infinix phone.
Sadiq Isiaka working on a faulty phone. Photo: The ICIR/IJeoma Opara/April 2023
“There are various stages to the job. Your expertise and specialisation will determine how much you can make as an engineer,” Isiaka further explains.
Melting adhesive with a soldering iron, he glues the phone together. He sends it to another technician who, for N1,000, will ensure that the screen sticks firmly to the other part of the device, a process Isiaka describes as lamination.
A temporary arrangement
Until 2010, the GSM village was located under a bridge in the Central Business District (CBD) of Abuja.
In 2009, the then Abuja Metropolitan Management Agency (AMMA), under the Department of Development Control, announced that the GSM village would be moved from CBD to another location.
Subsequently, the market was moved to the Zone 1 area of Wuse, with about 350 shops, after a demolition exercise. However, some traders could not secure spots at the new site due to heavy losses recorded during the demolition.
While phone technicians and vendors occupy a significant part of the market, it also provides opportunities for other businesses beyond gadget sales and repairs to grow.
On the other side of the market lies a row of shops, where mainly food vendors are located.
Food shop at the Abuja GSM Village. Photo: The ICIR/Ijeoma Opara/April 2023
Others who transact business in the area include hawkers of various items ranging from fruits to beauty products.
The market is also littered with several point-of-sale (POS) vendors, which suggests steady financial transactions in the area.
With Nigeria’s youth unemployment rate at 42.5 per cent, more young people are turning to businesses to earn a living.
Due to rising poverty, many are unable to afford rent at the market. However, there are employment opportunities for such people, who act as middlemen between customers and business owners, taking a small percentage out of every deal successfully brokered.
Although the market has grown in the years since its relocation, traders say the new location is yet another temporary site.
Despite existing for about a decade, entrepreneurs like Gladys, who runs a POS business at the GSM village, are still sceptical about how long until the demolition vans show up again.
“You know Abuja is developing every day. Any day the government decides, they can still come and chase us out of here. If we could get a permanent place, it would be better,” she said.
However, the global dependence on mobile phones and other technological devices motivates entrepreneurs in the market.
According to data by Statista, the number of mobile cellular subscriptions in Nigeria was 204 million as of 2020, suggesting a high number of phone users in the country.
Although the percentage of smartphone users is much less, the market in Nigeria is also one of the fastest growing globally.
Based on available data, Statista predicts a strong indication of growth for the smartphone market in Nigeria, as the number of users is expected to exceed 140 million by 2025.
This implies that the phone sales and repair business is also fast growing and can contribute immensely to the country’s revenue.
Already, the Computer Village market in Lagos, a much bigger version of the Abuja GSM Village, generates at least N1 billion daily and a total of N366bn annually, with millions being paid as taxes to the state, according to Nigeria’s Ministry of Communication Technology.
Traders at the FCT GSM village say they pay regular monthly dues of N1000 per occupant to the Abuja Municipal Area Council(AMAC).
This means the GSM village, which has about 350 shops, already generates an estimated N4.2m annually for the council, a figure that might be higher, as there is often more than one occupant per shop in some cases.
The ICIR reached out to the Market Chairman, McDonald, for a definite figure, but he declined to comment.
“I am not willing to divulge any information at this time because many estate developers are trying to lobby the government, buy this place, develop and then sell it more expensive to us, even though we got here first.
“We will not allow that to happen, and based on that, I cannot give you such information,” he said.
A host of other challenges
Unlike Gladys, the Assistant Secretary of the market union, Chidozie Igwemezie, is more hopeful of a continued stay at the market.
“For now, there is no threat yet from the government. They are even considering making here a permanent place because we do not have anything like Computer Village; this is the only one we have in the FCT.
“You know times are changing now, and technology has come to stay. In a city like FCT, at least this kind of market is needed to drive the economy,” he said.
However, he noted that trading at a temporary site comes with attendant challenges, including the inability of traders to access certain infrastructure that would be beneficial to their businesses.
“We need boreholes here, because there is no water. We need adequate security, a police post, even banks. Banks will not come here since it is not a permanent place, and security is not guaranteed,” Igwemezie noted.
For vendors at the GSM Village, these issues compound the challenges associated with entrepreneurship in Nigeria, one of the most difficult places to do business globally.
Ranking 131st on the Ease of Doing Business (EDB) index out of 190 global economies rated by the World Bank in 2020, several unfavourable factors affect entrepreneurship in Nigeria.
Thus, despite the large number of customers that troop into the market daily, many vendors, including Vincent Okemefula, a technician at the GSM Village, barely manage to make enough profit to get by.
For Okemefula, the devaluation of the naira against the dollar has adverse effects on his business.
“The dollar rate affects us, because we pay for our software in dollars. If I want to unlock a phone, I have to pay in dollars for the software. One has to keep charging more money, based on the rates, so that you can get some change,” he said.
He also identified the inadequate power supply as another issue affecting business in the market.
In April 2021, the World Bank described Nigeria as the country with the least access to electricity globally, having dropped below the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Despite an estimated population of 200 million, Nigeria distributes only about 4000MWs of electricity instead of at least 200,000MWs based on global best practices.
Over 92 million Nigerians lack access to electricity, according to the Energy Progress Report, by the International Energy Agency (IEA) in 2022.
Some entrepreneurs like Okemefula rely on fuel-powered generator sets to back up electricity supply for their businesses, which spikes the cost of services.
Johnson Simon, who works as an attendant in one of the food shops at the market, also spoke on the inadequate power supply.
“Before, we were using one Mikano generator set. People were contributing money weekly. But now, the generator for our line is spoilt, so unless you buy your own generator, you have to depend on NEPA light,” he said, referring to the electricity distribution company.
He said a minimum of N3,000 is usually spent on fuel weekly, which amounts to N12,000 a month and N144,000 annually.
A 2021 report by the World Bank estimated the economic cost of power shortages in Nigeria to be $28 billion, about 2 per cent of the country’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).
Oftentimes, getting petrol is an arduous task for entrepreneurs, as the country suffers from recurrent episodes of fuel scarcity, due to dysfunctional refineries and a heavy dependence on imported fuel, despite being one of the largest oil-producing states globally.
However, Isiaka thinks that business generally thrives in the market, and though operating a different line of the same business, Okeke shares similar sentiments with him.
After over five years spent selling phone accessories at the Zone 1 GSM Village, Okeke argues that business is good, as one could make at least N5,000 in profit from selling phone accessories on a bad market day.
But as he locks up every evening, the aluminium door of his mobile container shop is a constant reminder that the market is yet another temporary settlement.
THOUSANDS of foreigners, including at least 10, 000 Nigerian students and over five million Sudanese of Nigerian origin, have remained trapped in Sudan, Northeastern Africa, a week after intense fighting between two rival forces broke out.
The fighting between the Sudanese armed forces, led by Abdelfattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), a paramilitary force led by Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, is tearing apart cities and towns across the country, including the capital Khartoum.
Evacuation efforts have been difficult as the airport in the Sudanese capital has been repeatedly targeted.
Respite came on Saturday after some foreign countries like the United States and Saudi Arabia began evacuating their nationals and the Nigerian Government says it is also exploring all avenues to ensure the safe return of its stranded citizens.
The Director General of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Mustapha Ahmed, expressed concern about the safety of Nigerian residents in Sudan, adding that the Agency was coordinating with all relevant partners to constantly evaluate the situation and explore the safest means to rescue those stranded.
“The current emergency in Sudan is very complex with fighting between warring factions going on and all airports and land borders closed.
“The National Emergency Management Agency, NEMA is working assiduously with all its partners and is constantly compiling updated information on the situation,” Ahmed said.
The president of the National Association of Nigerian Students, Sudan (NANSS), Abubakar Babangida, warned that “any delay would lead to unpredictable casualties”.
More than 330 people have been killed so far in the violent power struggle and at least 3,200 people were injured.
Chairperson and CEO of the Nigerians in Diaspora Commission (NIDCOM), Abike Dabiri-Erewa, has urged all Nigerian students in Sudan as well as Nigerians living in the country to be security conscious and calm.
Meanwhile, the RSF announced a 72-hour truce on humanitarian grounds, effective from Friday morning, providing the opportunity for countries to evacuate their citizens.
The Sudanese Army said on Saturday that it would facilitate the evacuation of American, British, Chinese and French citizens, which it considers as “brotherly and friendly”.
Nigeria-Sudan diplomatic relations were established since Nigeria’s independence in 1960, and both countries have continued to explore ways to deepen cooperation in order to achieve more meaningful growth.
Earlier in the year, the Sudanese Ambassador to Nigeria, Mohamed Abdelmannan, said plans were ongoing to establish direct passenger and cargo flights from Khartoum to Abuja, Nigeria’s capital and licence has been issued to a Nigerian carrier, Nissers Sky AirPower, to fly the route.
THE Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has said it will be beaming its searchlight on those hiding under real estate investments to perpetrate money laundering and other fraudulent acts.
An EFCC lawyer, Chris Mishela, said this during a training session for journalists on effective reporting of economic and financial crimes in Benin, Edo State.
Mishela, during his presentation, said many estates springing up in Abuja, Lagos and other parts of the country were believed to be proceeds of fraud and money laundering.
“In Abuja, you see so many estates coming all over, and we believe the source of this is unlawful funds. The funds are illegally gotten either from the government or from international crime that is used to launder through estate business.
“Real estate is one of the designated and non-designated professions that are also under our obligation under the establishment to do a full disclosure.
“So EFCC is actually working to look into that dimension, and the new Money Laundering Act has provided an opening for the government to look into the aspect of real estate as we saw under the Act.
“It is not an investigation that is going on; rather we have identified specifically that these are proceeds of crime,” Mishela said.
He explained that the training was to keep journalists abreast of the framework of the new Anti-Money Laundering Act 2022 and the role they were expected to play.
He added that the workshop was necessary to inform the public of the expanded scope of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act 2022 as against the repealed Money Laundering Prohibition Act 2011.
In her presentation on risks and benefits associated with digital payment systems, the Head of the Cyber Crimes Unit in EFCC, Benin, Oluwakemi Olawoyin, charged members of the public to refrain from opening any link they didn’t initiate while on the Internet.
She highlighted tactics for safe transactions on the various e-business platforms and advised the members of the public to beware of unsecured sites.
Also speaking during the training, the Assistant Commander, Public Affairs Unit of EFCC, Dele Oyewale, charged journalists on investigative reporting to provide the Commission with a lead for fraud investigations.
The EFCC had in the past raised concerns over links between real estate and money laundering. In 2014, the Commission raised concerns over the new mode of money laundering through investments in real estate in the FCT.
The then Chairman of the EFCC, Ibrahim Lamorde, said the Commission had uncovered several money laundering schemes in the city where the perpetrators disguised the proceeds of crime by investing in properties without using the banks, preferring to pay for their acquisition with cash.
Lamorde further revealed that the laundered funds are frequently converted into foreign currencies through the Bureau de Change before the purchases are made and that, in most cases, no change of ownership is done after such acquisitions, making it difficult to verify the identities of the new owners or the sources of fund.
Lamorde said over 270 cases of land scams were reported to the Commission during the period , adding that evidence of the trend is the number of palatial but unoccupied houses that litter the capital city.
He added that the Commission suspected involvement of some FCT administration officials in some of the cases investigated.
The ICIR, in a report in 2022, discovered that housing remained a massive challenge for residents of Nigeria’s Federal Capital City, Abuja, where many people battle homelessness.
The city is responsible for at least 10 per cent of the housing deficit in the country, which stands at 17 million, with the likelihood of the figure increasing to 22 million by 2030, according to experts.
The high cost of rent is a factor in the housing deficit in Abuja, which has left many houses in the city unoccupied, with many residents living in slums or, worse, homeless.
Empty houses can be found littering the highbrow areas of the city, priced beyond the reach of average residents, and rotting away in large quantities.
Many residents believe the empty houses are built with fraud proceeds or used as a smokescreen for money laundering.
In 2021, a resident of Abuja, Ayo Balogun, had told The ICIR that abandoned houses sprawling throughout the city served as a smokescreen to launder stolen funds.
“I think these are just projects set up by these politicians or Yahoo boys to launder their money. You can’t just erect a building and leave it empty like that. No returns on your investment and you are not worried,” he said.
Also, the Independent Corrupt Practices and Related Offences Commission (ICPC) in 2022 said it would intensify the probe of completed but unoccupied housing estates across the country in a bid to address Illicit Financial Flows (IFFs).
The Commission’s Director of Asset Tracing, Recovery and Management (ATRM), Adedayo Kayode, disclosed this at opening of a two-day capacity-building workshop for investigators, prosecutors and tax inspectors on IFFs.
More than 600 houses are unoccupied within Abuja, yet, almost two million residents battle homelessness.
Money laundering is the process of illegally concealing the origin of money obtained from illicit activities such as drug trafficking, corruption and others.
The Money Laundering Act 2022 was introduced as part of the intensified efforts towards adopting and implementing the Financial Action Task Force’s (FATF) recommendations on combating the financing of terrorism and money laundering.
THE Benue State government has enacted a bill to protect widows from harmful cultural practices in the state.
The bill is aimed at curtailing the impact of negative cultural practices upon the death of their husbands.
The Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to Governor Samuel Ortom, Terver Akase, disclosed this in a statement on Saturday, April 22.
According to him, if the bill is passed and signed into law, it will end one of the age-long negative traditional practices among the people in the state.
He said the bill was necessary due to the popularity of these cultural beliefs among diverse ethnic groups
Akase identified some harmful practices as “the disinheritance from assets of a deceased husband, banishment from a late husband’s home, being forced to marry a relation of the deceased husband”.
“Most often, such widows have children for the deceased and have the task of nurturing the children without any assistance from the relatives of the deceased. In some instances, some are denied their fundamental rights enshrined in the 1999 Constitution.
“It is in face of such a helpless situation of widows that the Ortom administration has initiated the bill in order to assuage the position of widows as regards inheritance of their late husbands’ assets and to protect and guarantee their fundamental rights as well as obviate the obnoxious cultural practices which deny them the right of inheriting their late husbands’ property amongst others,” he said.
The bill also proposes creating a commission to oversee the welfare of widows in the state.
Akase noted that the proposed agency is called the Benue State Widows Commission. It will have the power and responsibility to support, protect and build the capacity of widows in the state.
“The Benue State Widows Commission envisioned by the proposed law will have the power and responsibility to support, protect and build the capacity of widows in the state whereby they can own their property and inherit the assets of their deceased husbands.
“It shall be the duty of the Commission to, among others, coordinate and monitor the implementation of widows programmes and activities; initiate and support measures which shall enhance the welfare of widows; assist widows by providing support services.“
There have been calls for the government to make legislation to protect and empower widows in Nigeria.
Several women-centred organisations have pointed out the need to draw attention to the voices and experiences of widows and to galvanise the unique support they require.
According to the International Women Society (IWS), 15 million widows in Nigeria are living in abject poverty.
Also, Eunice Ortom, wife of the Benue governor, had appealed for the elimination of cultural practices harmful to widows.
She indicated that widows faced demeaning situations ranging from rights abuses and indignity.
She also said many women had lost their lives to harmful widowhood practices, noting that most widows were ejected from their homes at the death of their spouses.
“They are denied even access to farmland and the right to other inheritances.
“In some cases, their children are taken away from them and they are denied access to the children,’’ Ortom said.
CURRENCY in circulation increased by 71.41 per cent in March after the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) returned old naira notes from its vaults to commercial banks.
The naira in circulation rose to N1.68 trillion at the end of March 2023 from N982 billion in February, data published on the CBN’S website showed.
The increase in the circulation of the old N200, N500, and N1,000 notes followed the extension of their legal tender status to December 31, 2023, as directed by the Supreme Court, and as eventually obeyed by the CBN after a two-week tarry.
Although naira circulation has increased, reducing substantially the scarcity agonies that attended the currency redesigned policy, checks by The ICIR showed poor circulation of the new N200, N500, and N1000 notes.
Visits to banking halls by our correspondent showed that banks were dispensing mostly the old notes, both over the counter and through their automated teller machines (ATMs).
Also, point-of-sale (PoS) operators have also been paying their customers the old naira notes.
A PoS operator, Muhammed Yusuf, told The ICIR, “The banks pay us more of old notes than the new ones. They pay us more of the N1,000 and N500 old notes.
Another PoS merchant, Ngozi Nwankpa, told The ICIR that issuance of the new notes was still slow from the banks.
Nwankpa said, “We are still not getting enough of the new notes. Although people are not complaining, we want a situation whereby it would circulate more side by side with the old ones.”
The CBN’s acting Director, Corporate Communications, Isah Abdumuminin, confirmed on March 26 that the regulator had disbursed substantial amounts of money to the commercial banks for onward distribution to the public.
Bank sources told The ICIR that banks had, however, been receiving more of the old currency, with the new notes coming in just slowly.
“We have been monitoring the situation and it is improving. Banks are also disbursing what they get, although our findings showed we are getting more of the old notes. I can authoritatively tell you that the situation will improve more than what it is currently .We have got that assurance from the CBN that it can only get better,” the president of the Corporate Affairs Managers of Banks (ACAMB), Rasheed Bolarinwa, told TheICIR
Commenting on rise in currency circulation, a professor of Capital Markets, Uche Uwaleke, said there was a rise in deposit money banks borrowing from the CBN’s standing lending window.
Uwaleke pointed out that the rise in currency circulation followed the reinjection into the banking system some old naira notes the CBN had mopped up.
“The increase in the circulation of old naira notes followed the extension of legal tender status of old notes to December 31, 2023,” he said.
A report by the FSDH Merchant research unit noted that the impact of the naira redesign policy has been profound for the economy, and will be the major determinant of Nigeria’s economic trajectory in 2023.
“The associated cash crunch has led to increased pressure on the banking system and on the financial system’s digital infrastructure.
“It has also resulted in the disruption of economic activities, created social tensions, and distorted the trajectory of the economy,” the report stated.
The CBN had said that as at September 2022, N2.73 trillion out of the N3.23 trillion currency was outside the vaults of commercial banks. This apex bank cited the development as key reason for its naira redesign, and insinuating that the currency outside the banking vaults was being used for terrorism financing.
THERE are hopes for improved ease of doing business and trade facilitation in the Southeast as the Federal government said it has successfully concessioned the Onitsha Port in Anambra State.
The government also informed that discussions were ongoing for the concessioning of Baro and some other ports across the country.
The Managing Director, National Inland Waterways Authority (NIWA), George Muoghalu, made the disclosure on April 20 to State House correspondents in Abuja after a private meeting with President Muhammadu Buhari.
Muoghalu said such concessioning would ease pressure on the government and attract revenue to it as the concessioning firm would be paying royalty to the government.
“For Onitsha Port, we have successfully concessioned it and handed it over to Universal Elison, a company that is partnering with Port of Tuna, for the next 30 years.
“Now, because of limited resources and to reduce pressure on government, we opened up discussions with other interested organisations. Unsolicited proposals have come for the concessioning of Baro in Niger State, Oguta in Imo State and Lokoja, in the Kogi State capital, although they’re still under construction,” he said.
Muoghalu explained that the Oguta River Port was not on the budget prior to his appointment as the NIWA chief executive, but was brought into it.
He said that the fencing of the Oguta Port had been completed, while some basic facilities required for a seaport to operate were being put in place, depending on the availability of resources.
He said, “Same is applicable to Lokoja, in Kogi State. We are taking it from two perspectives, which is by completing the building and concessioning it so that the new concessionaire can complete the ports and put it effectively to use.”
Muoghalu said that cargo was being moved between Onne and Onitsha, while Lagos to Onitsha was being concluded.
“So, you find out that these jetties and ports are all in line with rivers Benue and Niger. We are very conscious of that and whatever we are doing, we have that at the back of our mind,” he said.
Ports are important network nodes for cargo transportation between cities and even countries, and they play vital roles in stimulating urban economies. However, at the same time, port production activities also consume various resources, like water, electricity, coal, and land.
Available statistics have shown that the annual volume of trade at the Onitsha market is in excess of $3 billion, with about 40 per cent of this figure in constant circulation through unbanked transactions.
Onitsha is located in Anambra State metropolitan, and many industry watchers believe the state will improve on its current ranking of 7th on ease of doing business.
“This development will improve trade facilitation and improve further ranking of the state on ease of doing business,” said Celestine Okeke, a development economist, who spoke with The ICIR.
