On Dangote refinery, the comments below by Dr. Magbabgeola may be of interest and enlightening:

While it is within the purview of the lawmakers to provide oversight function for Nigerians, their exercise is like a roadside mechanic discussing Thoracic Aortic Dissection Repair or Decompressive Craniectomy. While I will not hold brief for the corrupt NNPCL, NUPRC, and other sundry agencies, I will, however, try to provide a wholistic response to their discussion.

Short thread 1. To start with, Dangote is a spoilt monopolistic child who is throwing preemptive ejaculative tantrums. He can't survive without government's support and the privilege of monopolies. Despite the fact that he is paying about $1.5/MMBTU which is one of the cheapest rates (GBI) in the country, he is owing the IOCs millions of dollars in gas payment arrears, the payment though indexed to dollars is in Naira. We need to understand this Dangote's antecedent.

EXPOSED: El-Rufai, Tinubu’s Minister, Labor Leader, Atiku’s 23-Year-Old Daughter, Other ‘Owners’ Of N1.49trn Properties In Dubai

Thread. Within four years, politically exposed personalities (PEPs) in Nigeria have doubled their investment in the real estate sector of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to an investigation on Business Day.

The newspaper reports that the investigation is part of ‘Dubai Unlocked,’ a six-month probe of UAE’s booming and secretive property market led by the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) together with more than 70 media partners.

Economy Post is said to be the only Nigerian firm which participated in the project.

WHEN DID IT START? WHEN WILL IT END?

Has anything changed ?

THIS PRESENT DARKNESS.
Before he died in 2015, the late Professor Stephen Ellis wrote his last book titled ‘This Present Darkness: A History of Nigerian Organised Crime’. Going through this book left me with several thoughts, most of them unpleasant.

It is a fascinating read covering, not just organised crime, but the evolution of the Nigerian state (or maybe they are the same thing). At any rate, I want to share 8 random things I found interesting in the book, and I will leave you to draw your own conclusions. 1. In 1947, late Chief Obafemi Awolowo wrote that “Corruption is the greatest defect of the Native Court system.” He complained that not only did judges take bribes, people used their connections to enrich themselves and avoid punishment for their crimes. He also wrote that in the north, a new Emir always removed all the people appointed by the previous Emir and replaced them with his own people. He wrote all these as a complaint against the Indirect Rule system favoured by the British.

Nigerians woke up to news yesterday that Diaego, the parent company of Guinesss Nigeria, has sold 58% of its shareholding to a company known as the Tolaram Group for the sum of 103 billion naira ($70 million).

Tolaram already owns several popular Nigerian consumer products, including Indomie, Lush Hair extensions, Minimee, Dano Milk, Lekki Port, Hypo, Kelloggs, Colgate Mimie noodles, and Power Oil.

The announcement comes at a challenging time for Guinness Nigeria. The company recently reported a loss after tax of N61.7 billion for the nine months ending March 31, 2024, a stark contrast to the N5.9 billion profit in the same period the previous year.
Despite a 28% year-on-year revenue growth to N220.3 billion, significant foreign exchange losses totaling N83 billion and a pre-tax loss of N60.5 billion have severely impacted the company’s financial health. The financial strain has wiped out Guinness Nigeria’s retained earnings, pushing the company into a negative equity position of N4.7 billion.

The interest expenses on loans and borrowings surged by 490% year-on-year to N5.6 billion, compounding the fiscal challenges. Despite these setbacks, Guinness Nigeria remains optimistic about its future.

Diageo will still retain the brand name Guinness, and so the new owners, Tolaram, will pay a licensing fee every year to Diageo to be able to use the name Guinness for business and commercial purposes in Nigeria.

The announcement shook the whole of the Western State. From Oyo Alaafin, it rolled across the Yoruba nation like thunder. The news was heard in Ile-Ife, the spiritual capital of Yoruba. They heard it in Ketu and Sabe in the then Republic of Dahomey. Orangun heard the news in Ila. Owa was informed in Ilesa. There was nowhere in the world where they did not hear the news.

An interesting historical thread🧵 Oba Bello Gbadegesin, Ladigbolu the Second, the Alaafin of Oyo had joined his royal ancestors. January 25, 1968 was a day most people in Yorubaland would never forget. Messages of condolence began to pour in like July rain from all over the world. As people prayed for the repose of the soul of the departed king, they also mouthed prayers for the unknown prince who would be chosen to replace him.

Without Onigegewura telling you, I am sure that you know that the stool of Alaafin is like no other. Or haven’t you heard that A jii se bi Oyo laari, Oyo ko ni se bi baba eni Kankan. Whatever affects Oyo affects Yorubaland. It was therefore in the interest of all children of Oduduwa that a new Alaafin should be appointed without delay.

Nigeria Confronts Its Worst Economic Crisis in a Generation

People in Africa’s most populous nation are suffering as the price of food, fuel, and medicine has skyrocketed out of reach for many. 

A thread from the New York Times. Nigeria has been facing its worst economic crisis in decades, with skyrocketing inflation, a national currency in free-fall, and millions of people struggling to buy food. Only two years ago Africa’s biggest economy, Nigeria, is projected to drop to fourth place this year.

The pain is widespread. Unions strike to protest salaries of around $20 a month. People die in stampedes, desperate for free sacks of rice. Hospitals are overrun with women wracked by spasms from calcium deficiencies.

June 10th, 2024

Press Release

When I wrote my words for the anthem, in 1978, it was my dream for the country to move forward and take its place among the great nations of the world. But all that potential has been hijacked and degraded by a political leadership that constitutes a criminal enterprise. Many of our people now wonder if we were ready for independence.

The regressive reverting of our anthem to the colonial anthem is a betrayal of our independence. It is a symbol of a political leadership that is clueless and has so lost its way that it goes crawling on its hands and knees back to kiss the ring of its colonial master to adopt its anthem – music and lyrics.

There have been numerous reasons attributed to this speedy reversion of our anthem. What struck me the most was that the colonial anthem embodied more relevant values than our Nigerian anthem. Some have said that it would be a source of building patriotism. What sheer hypocrisy. First, the Nigerian anthem: The first two lines of Arise O Compatriots, Nigeria’s call obey is a call to action. It calls on us to serve our fatherland with love and strength, and faith. There is nothing more patriotic than that. But our leaders have not the foggiest idea of the meaning of patriotism. They are too greedy and simply incapable of living up to the creed of the Nigerian anthem. An anthem with lyrics written by Nigerians and music composed by a Nigerian. On October 7th, 2006, in her visit to Nigeria, Beyonce, as never before, fell in love with a piece of music that wasn’t her composition or planned by her team. Such was the power of our anthem, pulsating with our African drums. Our culture, music, movies, songs, and dances are exported and celebrated by different races all over the world. Radio stations and clubs in cities from Alaska to Argentina play Nigerian Afrobeat. Yet, in the birthplace of that culture, the leaders reject their own anthem for a colonial anthem. Nigeria, the hitherto giant of Africa that led the liberation struggles of Africans to defeat apartheid and colonialism, now reduced to a midget crawling back and crying mama to her colonial master. But no surprise here. Our leaders steal from the poor because the much they have is never enough. They have failed to serve the fatherland with love and strength, and faith. They have failed to create one nation bound in freedom, peace, and unity. They have failed to be guided by God and are unable to teach our youth in love and honesty to grow as they neither have love nor do they have honesty. They live corruptly and have failed to live just and true.

One year has passed. The bold economic reforms Tinubu started have faltered. On day one, he had removed petrol subsidies with a pumped fist. But one year after sounding revolutionary at oath-taking, his government now pays petrol subsidies through the backdoor. And because nobody bothers with transparency, Tinubu hasn’t informed the public how much he now spends on petrol subsidies. Policy reversals have become a permanent feature of his government. Critics say the president does more soundbites than thorough planning and has been too arrogant to admit his mistakes. The opposition says the myth is unravelling itself. Tinubu’s ardent supporters believe he is an oracle. They think he only needs time to tame the tempest.

A thread🧵 When Tinubu floated the naira, investors were delighted. It was supposed to open up the economy to foreign capital and investment. Tinubu said he had taken the bull by the horns. But soon, the local currency tumbled off a cliff. The CBN seemed helpless. It said the naira was seeking its true value. Soon, speculators were made the scapegoats. Apparently, the new government hadn’t looked at the books before going for the bull. Without a critical appraisal of dollar liabilities and liquidity, Tinubu embraced an option he didn’t have the resources to prosecute efficiently. After running helter-skelter and dashing to the Middle East, pan in hand, and returning almost empty-handed, Tinubu must have realised he wasn’t a magician after all. But a man who perpetually brags about his accomplishments and taunts his opponents is unlikely to be in a hurry to manage expectations. Millions have been left disappointed.

First Bank Employee On The Run After Diverting ₦40 Billion

First Bank, a Nigerian bank with a market capitalisation of ₦829 billion, has begun legal action to recover “huge sums of money” allegedly diverted by an employee at a head office team in Iganmu, Lagos. The employee, now on the run, allegedly diverted those funds to 98 bank accounts classified as first beneficiaries, including his wife’s. The bank reported the incident to the Nigerian Police Force on March 25, 2024, and obtained three court orders between April 4–8, 2024 to block hundreds of bank accounts believed to have received the stolen funds.

Three people with direct knowledge of the incident told TechCabal that while the initial amount discovered to be diverted was around ₦12 billion, it now stands at around ₦40 billion ($29 million).

As a manager on the electronic products team at First Bank, the employee, identified by court documents as Tijani Muiz Adeyinka was authorised to process reversals for customers, said one First Bank employee with knowledge of the matter. It meant he controlled an account with which he processed those reversals and could credit merchant accounts.

Northern Emirs, Rulers Forced Me To Annul June 12, IBB Opens Up, Implicates David Mark, Abacha, Emirs.

They will kill me; they will kill the President Elect, Chief MKO Abiola if I went ahead with the election and announced the winner of the elections which we all know to be Bashorun, Chief MKO Abiola.

''I know so; I am not daft. He won; he tried. I feel bad about the whole matter. Professor, I do not see how they will spare you because they know you are my principal confidant. Do you think they do not know you? They know they know you are with me now. They saw you coming in, and they know you are with me now. I can't kill myself for the sake of what the country wants. I am sorry,' IBB lamented. It was astonishing to hear a General stating that he could not lay down his life for his country. It was clear that General Babangida was in a fix as of June 21st 1993. I then proceeded to deal with the questions of who were these “they” and for what reasons would they want to kill the President and the President Elect if the June 12 election were allowed to go forward. He named them in the military and in ethnic categories:

''Sani (meaning General Sani Abacha) is opposed to a return to civilian rule. Sani cannot stand the idea of Chief Abiola, a Yoruba becoming his Commander- in- Chief; Sani seems to have the ears of the Norhern leaders that no Southerner especially from the South West should become the President of the country. Sani seems to rally the Northern elders to confront me on the matter. He is winning; the Sultan and the Northern leaders are of this frame of mind.''

Some said what she threw at the building was an egg. Others claimed it was a local grenade. What was not in dispute is that whatever the half-naked elderly woman threw at the office of the Federal Electoral Commission (FEDECO) was powerful enough to set the building on fire. In a twinkle of an eye, the office was up in flames. It was not the only compound on fire. From Akure to Ondo, from Owo to Ado-Ekiti, the whole of Ondo State was burning.
The protesters were unstoppable. The half-naked woman was strolling ahead of the protesters like an army general. Once a building was identified for her, out came her magical egg and the next moment the building would be on fire. Anywhere you turned to in Akure, the skyline was enveloped in thick, dark smoke.

Thread🧵 People were not spared. First to fall victim of the rampaging crowd was Hon. Olaiya Fagbamigbe who was a member of the Federal House of Representatives in Lagos. Fagbamigbe was the publisher of the trilogy of collected speeches of Chief Obafemi Awolowo titled Voice of Reason, Voice of Wisdom, and Voice of Courage. You have seen the books? He was not the only one. He was killed along with his brother, James Fagbamigbe. Hon. Tunde Agunbiade was also caught in the crossfire. He was a member of the Ondo State House of Assembly.
From one house to another. From one street to another. From one town to another, the carnage went on and on. The thunderstorms of tragedy continued to reverberate throughout the length and the breadth of Ondo State. It was a day Ondo State would never forget. But what could have turned the hitherto peaceful state to a theatre of war? What could have turned a people who were formerly in the same political family into sworn enemies?

Today, those whose ancestors snatched Kano are fighting each other over the city and their spoils. The Yoruba would look at their drama and sing for them the song of Ambrose Campbell/ Ebenezer Obey: Eni rí nkan he tó fé kú torí è/ Owó eni tó ti so nù nko? I won't translate this!

A🧵. Their victims are taking sides. I shake my head for them. May I never be found on either side of siblings feuding over whose turn it is to loot me.

"Emir Sanusi II should be referred to as the 59th Emir of Kano (and) not the 16th - unless the history of Kano started after Dan Fodio's Jihad and imposition of Emir Sulaimanu in 1807." With these words, journalist Jafaar Jafaar on Friday started an online war which is still raging as I write this. So, two wars are being fought simultaneously on and over Kano. The first is the game of thrones between brother and brother over the city's kingship and its pricey palace. The second war is on social media being fiercely fought between a conquered people and their conquerors over when the history of the city started.

DOWN MEMORY LANE

Osama bin Laden was found because his family hung their clothes out to dry

The Al Qaeda founder was shot and killed in Pakistan on May 2, 2011.

A🧵 "I don’t understand why people take only one wife," Osama bin Laden would often say, in what was the nearest he ever came to a lighthearted quip. "If you take four wives, you live like a groom."

But Osama disapproved of how his own father, the wealthy Yemeni builder Mohammed bin Laden, went about the Islamic sanctioned practice of polygamy that allows a man to legally take up to four wives.

When Siju, the wife of Pastor Idowu Iluyomade of Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), City of David, Victoria Island, Lagos, threw an extravagant birthday party while the body of Herbert Wigwe, the church’s primary financier had not yet buried, the adverse public reaction was swift.

A short thread. The general overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, Pastor Enoch Adeboye, was worried about the negative press and public opinion. He ordered Pastor Iluyomade to resign as the regional head of the Apapa family of the RCCG. The pastor refused to resign.

In the heat of the crisis, Pastor Adeboye and his wife called Pastor Iluyomade and his wife. Unknown to them, the Iluyomade placed them on a speakerphone with other pastors under Iluyomade listening. The Iluyomades told the Adeboyes they would not take nonsense from them.

The year 1969 is one the people of Ogbomoso will never forget. More than half a century later, elders still shudder whenever they remember the incident. For those who were not born at the time or who were too young to know what happened, the story has been told over and over again till today and it has become almost a folklore. It is doubtful if there is anyone of Ogbomoso descent who has not heard of the story. After all, bí ọmọdé kò ba ba ìtàn, yóò ba àrọ́bá, àrọ́bá sì ni bàbá ìtàn. (if a child did not meet an event, the child will certainly grow up to meet its narration, and narration is the parent of an event.) The story you are reading now is therefore the parent of that fateful event of 1969. Of course, you know that in 1969, Nigeria’s federal force was in the thick of the civil war with the Biafran soldiers. The war which had started two years earlier had not shown any sign of abating. In the South West of the country, another local civil war of epic proportion was being fought. It was the revolt of the peasant farmers. Although it has been variously described as a riot, it was more than a riot. It was as bloody and as tragic as any war. According to the author of The Politics of Peasant Groups in Western Nigeria, more than 80 people in Ibadan lost their lives between 1968 and 1969 as a result of the crisis. In Abeokuta, the casualty was put at 36, Ijebu and Ogbomoso were not left out as they also recorded several deaths. It was Ogun Agbekoya.

“It’s in the character of a very few men to honor without envy a friend who prospered.” – Aeschylus

Envy and jealousy drive political rhetoric in Nigeria, particularly among handicapped Igbo politicians. David Umahi, the former Ebonyi State Governor and current Minister of Works, has been mistaking envy towards Peter Obi, the Labor Party's presidential candidate for normal political behavior. The minister's recent outburst against Ndigbo is a desperate and disingenuous effort to impress his political allies and gain favor from the Aso Rock Villa. The 2023 presidential standard bearer of the Labor Party, Peter Obi certainly possesses something political that most of his contemporaries in Igboland and indeed In Nigeria think they should be the one having. The question is, why should Obi's unprecedented goodwill and admiration across the country be drawing for him this level of resentment even from his kith and kins. This is even when the benevolence he enjoys is earned and not awarded as it derives from his content, antecedents, and mien?

The major person that will benefit from the Nyesom Wike-Sim Fubara crisis in Rivers state is Bola Tinubu

See why

Tinubu is fully aware of the crisis in Rivers state and wants it to continue.

Here are why I draw these conclusions: Bola Tinubu has always been involved in Rivers politics since the days of Chibuike Amaechi. If you watch the trend, every Rivers governor from Dr. Peter Odili, Amaechi to Wike always turned out very influential nationwide. They all eventually ran or attempted to run for the office of the president of Nigeria.

When Amaechi defected from the PDP to the APC in 2014, and partly sponsored Buhari's election in 2015, his interest was to form a national alliance so he could eventually run for president in 2023. It had very little to do with his relationship with Goodluck Jonathan. The GEJ and his wife's issues were just a smoke screen to validate his ambition to be at the national spotlight.

At the 11th Bola Tinubu Colloquium on March 29, 2019, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, then only a powerful but unofficial pillar of the APC, gave us an ominous presage of his administration that we all either ignored or sniggered at but which is now eerily materialising.

“If we reduce the purchasing power of the people, we can further slow down the economy,” he said to a mysterious ovation from the audience. “Let’s widen the tax net. Those who are not paying now, even if it’s inclusive of Bola Tinubu, let the net get bigger and we take in more taxes. And that is what we must do in the country.”

Many people were genuinely bewildered and wondered what Tinubu meant. I was, too. For one, there is clearly neither economic logic nor even moral merit in reducing the purchasing power of a people, slowing down the economy, and then taxing the same people whose purchasing power has been reduced in a depressed economy. Why would anyone propose that as the anchor of his economic policy? It’s defensible to suggest the broadening of the tax base of an economy, but not even the most ruthless, unfeeling, sadistic, and misanthropic tyrant would openly advocate the mass pauperisation of the people as an economic policy.

So, many people, including me, concluded that Tinubu merely slipped up. What he meant to say was inconsistent with what he actually said. It was a fair concession. But there was more to the slip-up than many of us cared to accept at the time.

I am a student of Sigmund Freud. I was exposed to his psychoanalysis in my secondary school days by one Steven Omolaiye, a 1984 University of Ibadan sociology graduate, who was the project supervisor of a hospital the European Economic Community built in my hometown.

Anger with which Minister of Works David Umahi addresses the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway project unleashes pungent smells that are entirely unpleasant. They have cast a pall of mystery on the project that is clothed with an urgency that is unbecomingly breath-taking.

Call the Coastal Highway project Umahi’s delight. He likes to be at the centre of things, talk about big projects with a finality that forecloses anyone saying a thing about anything.

Umahi is not used to being questioned. His eight-year reign of Ebonyi State over was imperial, impervious, with dashes of perceptibility. It was beneath Umahi to be questioned. Now he is being challenged. Journalists he would have incarcerated until their leaders genuflected for their release are asking him questions about his project. What do they know? Who are they?

Are they by any chance bigger than the President who has told him to proceed with the project? Umahi has really suffered in accepting an appointment that gives people the opportunity to question a former Deputy Governor, two-term Governor, former Senator, former presidential aspirant.

A garrulous fellow who makes his day listening to his own voice, he takes pride in elevating his participation in lawlessness. Re-elected in 2019 as Governor, on the platform of the People’s Democratic Party, PDP, he was proud of fraternising with the All Progressives Congress, APC.

ANDROPAUSE
(THE MALE MENOPAUSE)

Wives should please also read.

Men also have their menopause and the truth is that it affects them as severely as women's menopause does, infact it could be worse. It's just that men don't talk about weaknesses and vulnerabilities.

But it's important that they also understand what is happening in their bodies, why, and how to combat it. We, as women and wives, too, need to understand these things because our understanding and help is most needed at such times. So first, what is ANDROPAUSE? Simply put, Andropause describes an age-related reduction of testosterone in men. Andropause starts to set in for men from 50/55 years upwards. And we have Male outliers like I am a female outlier who may start noticing it from the late 40s. Remember also that Testosterone is not just responsible for men's sexual well-being but is also responsible for their mental and physical energy, body mass, etc.

Now, the signs and symptoms of Andropause in Men are as severe and troubling as Menopause in women. In fact, theirs is more complicated because of the peculiar socio-culturural factors that men are generally predisposed to in this part of the world. And I'll be focusing a bit more on this complication in this write-up later. But first, the symptoms.

I was born in Kaduna on the 26th of June I936, the fifth in a line of six children born by Amina Theodora to a polygamous husband, Thomas Adekunle. My father, a native of Ogbomoso, was domiciled in Kaduna as early as 1908. He had met my mother in her hometown Numan, during one of his sojourns to the Adamawa Province and married her in 1919. She was a member of the Bachama Tribe, an ethnic group noted for their fighting abilities. As one of the earliest converts to Christianity in her area, my mother was a staunch Christian. She succeeded in converting my father Thomas to Christianity in the course of their courtship and we were raised as Anglicans.

According to the legend repeatedly narrated to me by elderly female relations during my childhood, the circumstances surrounding my early entry into the world were somewhat portentous. They said I overstayed my time in my mother's womb by two months. Moreover, I am reported to have vacated this comfortable abode only after a series of local birth attendants had exhausted their entire repertoire of childbirth skills. These tales meant little to me at the time, but their chief significance was the special attention it secured for me from my family, particularly from my mother.

Both my father and grandfather served in the colonial army. My father later entered the carpentry trade where he made a sufficiently good living to fend for his large family of two wives (he later married a second wife, Christianity non-withstanding), a dozen children and numerous relatives. We all lived in the sprawling house that he built in the Kaduna Township. By 1945, at age nine, I had enough of both school and my unsatisfactory home life. The death of my father in this year strengthened my resolve to take matters into my own hands. I resolved to leave home and look for someone to serve, in exchange for educational support. On the chosen night, I gathered my few belongings and ran away from my brother's home. After several days on the streets, I found my way to one Reverend Ayiogu whom I persuaded to employ me as a domestic servant at the rate of one Shilling and six pence a month. With the assistance of the police, my elder brother soon traced me to my new living quarters. However, all entreaties, commands, cajolery and threats directed at me by the police officers, relations, and the Reverend to return with my brother fell on deaf ears; with Reverend Ayiogu I would remain or vanish again.

From this period, the influences to which I was exposed were more stabilizing. The Reverend proved to be a decent man and I lived with him for two years. By 1947, I came under the protection of a new Master. Under his guidance, I earned a scholarship to Dekina Primary School in Kwara State. My new Master was an extraordinary man though unimposing in appearance. In all the years I spent in the home of Mr. Quinni, a native of Ugep and employee of the Igala Native Authority, he never once raised his voice in anger. He was scrupulously just in his dealings with all persons around him. He was gifted with a formidable intellect, which was brought to bear in every situation. I was fascinated by his ability to win any argument by rigorous analysis. By the time he reached his conclusion, the parties present had little option but to agree, regardless of their own initial positions or whether his conclusion, conflicted with their own interests. It was for this reason that his polygamous home was calm, stable, and peaceful. Mr. Quinni taught me the strength in meekness, the honour in humility, and the dignity in labor. If I have not always succeeded in exhibiting these qualities, he blessed me with the ability to appreciate and esteem them in others.

Under his influence, I thrived at my new school (Dekina Primary School) to the extent that my progress caught the attention of the Head Master, Mr. Dokpong. Among my schoolmates at Dekina was the one time Director of the Nigerian Twelve Corps Service, Colonel Ahmadu Ali, who is still a friend. I passed the entrance examination to Okene Middle School in 1951 and left Dekina with many happy memories.