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Opposition Leaders Decry State of Democracy in Nigeria

As Nigeria celebrates its 25th Democracy Day, President Bola Tinubu promises to preserve and strengthen democratic institutions and to deliver more dividends of democracy to Nigerians.

Tinubu said Nigeria has established a tradition of holding “transparent, open, and fair elections,” which gives credence to the country’s democratic bearing and pointed to “peaceful transitions of power” as evidence of the nation’s democratic maturity.

However, the two major opposition candidates, Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi- who were plying for the presidency as Tinubu in the 2023 presidential election, have expressed concern over the state of democracy in Nigeria, citing poor governance, corruption, and insecurity.

Atiku Abubakar of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP)

Atiku, in his statement, paid tribute to the sacrifices made by democratic icons such as Basorun MKO Abiola but lamented the failure of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) to deliver on its promises, saying, “Our democracy is not yet virile if it continually fails to deliver the promises of prosperity and liberty to the people.”

Atiku said, “However, the past nine years has thrown up a regime of extreme hardship manifested in excruciating poverty and unprecedented levels of violence and insecurity upon our people. Sadly, the ruling All Progressives Congress is to blame for bringing forth this dawn of gloom,

“But the opposition political parties are even more guilty than the ruling party for the seeming lack of capacity to come together and galvanise a coalition that will retire the ruling party and articulate a plan of good governance that will earn the conviction of Nigerians.

“our democracy is not yet virile if it continually fails to deliver the promises of prosperity and liberty to the people.”

“Today, the failings of the opposition parties to uphold the functionality of their existence is the major threat to our democracy. The earlier they realise that the fortunes of Nigeria lies in their forging a coalition, the better it will be for our country and the people.”

Peter Obi of the Labour Party

Similarly, Obi, in his statement, urged the country to re-examine its democratic journey, saying the country has deteriorated into “classical state capture” rather than a government for the people.

As our dear nation marks Democracy Day today, commemorating 25 years of striving to be a democratic country, the fundamental question for all of us remains: Are we truly democratic?

Obi lamented that Nigeria’s democratic experience has been marred by leadership failures that have resulted in uncontrolled systemic corruption, high levels of insecurity, lack of freedom of speech, increasing poverty rates, and unprecedented levels of hunger and hardship, which remain unsolved and are growing geometrically.

To illustrate, Obi stated that the country is not truly democratic and has only produced the aforementioned vices, noting that the country’s democracy index score of 4.23 ranks it low on the Global Democracy Index, while its corruption perception index ranking of 145th out of 180 countries shows a high level of corruption in Nigeria.


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71% of households affected by food price hike – NBS

The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) says the most prevalent shock affecting households across Nigeria is the price increases on major food items.

The NBS said 71 per cent of households reported this shock.

The NBS disclosed this in its General Household Survey-Panel (GHS-Panel) Wave 5 2023/2024 unveiled in Abuja.

The report said urban households experienced the shock of food price increases at 75.5 per cent more than rural households at 68.9 per cent.

It said the issue was most pronounced in the South-East and South-South zones at 83.6 per cent and 79.3 per cent, respectively.

“In general, the data indicate that price hikes on essential goods are a major concern for households nationwide.”

The report revealed the other top most common economic shocks were increase in price of oil and fuel at 52 per cent, and increase in prices of other fuels at 32.2 per cent.

“This was followed by increase in price of farming/business inputs at 28.8 per cent, floods at 8.8 per cent, droughts at 5.8 per cent, and pest and plant disease at 5.7 per cent.

“Shortage/scarcity of petrol at 5.3 per cent, irregular rains at 4.7 per cent and very high temperatures (>40°C) at 4.7 per cent.”

It said these households dealt with shocks in a variety of ways, but the main coping mechanism was reducing food consumption at 48. 8 per cent.

“To cushion shock effects, some households also received assistance from friends and family at 36.1 per cent and reduced purchased quantities compared to the last at 32.6 per cent.

“In contrast, a significant proportion of households did nothing to deal with the shocks at 28.3 per cent.”

The report revealed that only 4.0 per cent of households nationwide received safety-net assistance, a decline compared to GHS-Panel Wave 4 at 10. 4 per cent.

The report showed that households in the urban areas had a higher coverage of receiving assistance at 5.2 per cent compared to rural areas which has a coverage of 3.5 per cent.

“Also households in the urban areas had a stronger reliance on cash assistance at 60.5 per cent compared to the rural areas at 49.6 per cent.”

The report said at the zonal level, the South-South and North-West zones recorded the highest share of households with safety nets at 6.7 per cent and 5.6 per cent, respectively.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the GHS-Panel is Nigeria’s nationally representative longitudinal household survey which commenced in 2010 and the NBS has implemented five waves of the survey.

The panel nature of the data enables tracking household-level changes in critical areas of welfare, work, and socio-economic outcomes over time, yielding insights for policy. 

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Supreme Court nullifies National Lottery Act

The Supreme Court has nullified the National Lottery Act 2005 enacted by the National Assembly, declaring it unconstitutional.

The apex court in a unanimous decision delivered by a seven-member panel on Friday held that the National Assembly lacks the authority to legislate on matters related to lotteries and games of chance, as such powers reside exclusively with state Houses of Assembly.

Justice Mohammed Idris, who delivered the lead judgement, ordered that the National Lottery Act 2005 should no longer be enforced in any state except the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), where the National Assembly is constitutionally empowered to make laws.

This judgement arises from a suit filed in 2008 by Lagos State and several other states, challenging the constitutionality of the Act.

The court’s decision reinforces the federal principle of states’ autonomy over certain legislative matters.

Details later.

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How DSS arrested fake NGO leader

Officials of the Department of State Services (DSS) Thursday in Abuja arrested one Kennedy Tabukoi for allegedly leading an unregistered Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), the Niger Delta Development Initiative (NDDI), to blackmail certain high-profile officials of government.

According to security sources, when such government officials fail to meet Tabukoi’s demands, he resorts to organising other unsuspecting groups to lead protest marches against government officials.

One such protest march was held Thursday morning at the National Assembly gate, where Tabukoi led several groups to protest against what he claimed were moves by the federal lawmakers to stall a probe of the petroleum sector.

The sources confirmed that, unknown to Tabukoi, security operatives had been on his trail after certain officials of government reported the several attempts he made to allegedly blackmail them into parting with huge sums of money and contracts, “or risk being embarrassed.”

A security source said, “That man Tabukoi had been boasting to friends and members of his syndicate that, as a Niger Deltan activist, he would use his NGO to deal with any government official who didn’t do his bidding.

“Unknown to him, it was the same people he had been intimidating with claims of how much he would make from top government officials in Abuja that tipped off the DSS that he had no NGO and that he was merely using impersonation to blackmail such government officials.”

“When we invited Tabukoi, he didn’t waste time in corroborating the claims of his so-called friends. He said he was aware that several Niger Deltans made money from activism, reason he was in the process of raising money to register his own NGO.”

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IPOB disowns Simon Ekpa

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has disowned Simon Ekpa

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) on Friday disowned Simon Ekpa, the self-acclaimed Prime Minister of Biafra Government in Exile (BRGIE), who was arrested in Finland alongside four others over terror-related activities.

According to the Finnish Police, Ekpa was arrested “on suspicion of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent,” while the four others were arrested “for financing a terrorist crime”.

In a statement released on Friday, IPOB’s spokesman, Emma Powerful, accused Ekpa of recruiting violent criminals to destabilize the South East Region.

IPOB also disowned Ekpa, stating that he has never been a registered member of the group.

“Contrary to the deliberate and malicious misinformation from the Neo colonialist news agency, the BBC, that Simon Ekpa is an IPOB leader. Simon Ekpa has never and is not an IPOB member, let alone being a leader in IPOB,” Powerful said.

“IPOB has some family units in Finland, and Simon Ekpa is not a registered member of any IPOB unit in Finland or any other IPOB unit globally. Mazi Nnamdi Kanu established IPOB as a peaceful movement to seek Biafra Independence via a supervised UN referendum.

“IPOB is a peaceful global movement that has never taken to violence or arms struggle in two decades of our self-determination struggle. Even though the various murderous government regimes in Nigeria have provoked us, we have remained resolutely peaceful.

“It was unfortunate that some innocent Biafrans being passionate for the restoration of the stolen sovereignty of the Biafran Nation, thought that Simon Ekpa was genuinely sympathetic to the Biafra course. Sadly, they had to learn the hard way that he was a destructive agent paid to infiltrate and destroy the IPOB peaceful movement for Biafra self-determination.

“He recruited violent criminals to destabilize the South East Region in 2021. He is a self-acclaimed prime minister of a small, criminally minded group called the Biafra Government in Exile (BGIE). The infamous BGIE, led by Simon Ekpa, created a violent group that called itself the Biafra Liberation Army.”

Powerful accused Ekpa’s BRGIE group and the Nigerian Army of being responsible “for many kidnappings, rapes, forceful disappearances, killings, and burning of homes in the South Eastern region.”

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NEC sets up National Electrification Committee to end grid collapse

NEC has set up a National Electrification Committee to end the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s power grid

The National Economic Council (NEC) has in its resolve to end the frequent collapse of Nigeria’s power grid set up a National Electrification Committee.

The Vice President, Kashim Shettima who is the chairman of NEC disclosed this in a post he shared on his official X account on Thursday night.

“The National Economic Council (NEC) has resolved to reinforce implementation of the National Electrification Strategy in a bid to end the collapse of the nation’s power grid,” the post read.

“This is just as Vice President, Kashim Shettima who is the chairman of NEC told members of the council that access to energy is a fundamental right and not a privilege because electricity is the oxygen of economic growth.”

Accordingly, the council has constituted a committee on National Electrification to help address the challenges in the power sector.

The formation of the committee was among decisions taken by NEC at the end of its 146th meeting on Thursday chaired by Shettima at the Council Chambers of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.

The committee headed by Cross River State Governor, Bassey Otu is to work towards deepening states’ engagements within the Electricity Reform Act 2023 and the National Electrification Strategy and Implementation Plan.

VP Shettima added that the private sector distributed renewable energy generation is vital to increasing electricity access across Nigeria.

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Delta approves N713m for 2024 students bursary payment — Official

Gov. Sheriff Oborevwori of Delta has approved the sum of N713 million for the 2024  bursary award for 32,028 students in tertiary institutions in the country.

The Executive Secretary of the State Bursary and Scholarship Board, Dr. Godfrey Enita, disclosed this in a statement made available to newsmen on Thursday in Asaba.

According to Enita, the governor’s approval for the year 2024, the bursary award will cover students of state origin in public and private universities.

“It also covers students in polytechnics, mono-technics, colleges of education, schools of nursing science, and other tertiary schools, including military and paramilitary institutions.

He described the governor’s gesture as rare and uncommon and should be applauded.

“The governor demonstrates his magnanimity and goodwill towards the well-being of the Delta students and youths in general.

“It also underscores his commitment towards educational advancement through financial assistance to students in diverse forms and through massive infrastructural development in schools across the state.

“It is hoped, as always, that beneficiaries of the state’s financial assistance schemes will continue to be worthy ambassadors of Delta wherever they find themselves,” he said.

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