The Nation Newspaper

Author: The Nation

  • A word from Davos

    A word from Davos

    But for a quirk of fate, you would have been forgiven for having never heard of the existence of a small town in the Swiss Alps called Davos. After all, it is no more than a ski resort with less than ten thousand permanent inhabitants offering no interest for anyone in Nigeria or anywhere else in the world for that matter. But Davos, for all its previous obscurity, is now famous the world over. This is because since January 1971, at the invitation of Dr. Schwarb, a German academic, stakeholders in various aspects of the ordering of the global economy have descended on the otherwise sleepy village of Davos. For a few January days, Davos takes its place in the wintry sun as the most influential CEOs in the world hold discussions with each other, with heads of state, academics and other groups of people who have been recognised as contributors to the global economic order.

    According to Perplexity AI, the guest list at the last Davos meeting which occupied a good part of last week included about 3,000 participants from roughly 130 countries. This included around 400 senior political leaders and more than 60–65 heads of state or government. Roughly 800–850 CEOs, founders and chairpersons of major global companies. Dr. Okonjo-Iweala in her capacity as the Director General of the World Trade Organisation was also present but not representing Nigeria at that venue. This distinguished guest list is a far cry from the few CEOs of European companies who were invited to the first Davos forum in 1971. Now, private jets of every magnificent description annually turn all the airports around Davos into a massive jet parking lot for the world’s richest CEOs, heads of state and others with enough clout to operate expensive private jets, for a few days. They come on this yearly pilgrimage to meet and discuss what exactly?

    One would have thought that their major preoccupation would have been to jointly improve the flow of world trade with a view to decreasing poverty in those parts of the world where degrading poverty is making a mockery of human existence. These are places where people have no choice but to battle on, on less than $2 a day. Their attention should also be turned on people in the rich countries who are marginalised to the level of those wretches facing anonymity and extinction in the poorest parts of the world. What is the use of all those words poured out in Davos every year if a significant minority of the world is left staring into the abyss of extreme economic disadvantage whilst a miniscule minority swims in an ocean of unimaginable wealth?

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    I became interested in the World Economic Forum (WEF) about ten years ago when I came across an article on Davos by Oxfam, the British organisation which has dedicated itself to global charity and is currently active in more than seventy countries all around the world. Founded in 1942 at the height of WWII, Oxfam has dedicated itself to fighting poverty and injustice with the conviction that both have their root in inequality. The focus on the reduction of inequality will be followed by the reduction of both poverty and injustice and the world would become a better place for most of her inhabitants. Every year, in the leadup to the WEF meeting in Davos, Oxfam publishes the state of global inequality using one vital statistic, the number of the richest people in the world whose wealth is balanced by the number of the poorest people in the world. About a decade ago, Oxfam reported that eighty-seven of the world’s richest people held as much wealth as half of the number of the poorest people in the world. That number is put into some perspective if we imagine that those eighty-seven persons will fit comfortably into a London double decker bus without anyone having to stand. It is most instructive that that number has shrunk perceptively over the last ten years even as the number of the poorest half of the world has increased. The number released by Oxfam this year is twelve, only twelve,  just enough to fit into a minibus or perhaps more instructively, into a Lagos danfo with space left over for the driver and conductor. The global population today is 8.3 billion people, up from 8.2 billion in 2025. This means that the twelve richest people in the world today, have resources in excess of the poorest 4.15 billion poorest people in the world. This figure simply boggles the mind! Forbes has identified around 3000 billionaires in the world today, certainly an impressive figure which dwarfs by a considered distance, the figure of 140 billionaires reported in 1987 when to all intents and purposes, the world was a saner place. Latest figures show that in the United States alone, there are 924 billionaires with a total worth of $6.9 trillion or 31.7% of global total. But there are other figures coming out of the US which must arrest our interest. 800 of the richest Americans are in control of no less than 3.8% of the nation’s wealth with the poorest 50% of the population having to make do with only 2.5%. Bearing in mind that the USA is by far the largest economy in the world, this figure verges on the scary. And with recent policies put in place by the Trump government, this disparity is set to grow as soon as tax cuts for the rich kick in as they are bound to do soon enough. The USA runs by far the largest economy in the world but a very significant  number of her citizens are very poor, even when judged by third world standards. The Davos initiative has been alive since 1971 but in spite of it or is it because of it, global wealth inequalities have increased relentlessly year upon year. And it is clear that this trend will be accelerated in the coming years as the CEOs continue to hoover up more wealth at the expense of the rest of us.

    The elephant in the room at Davos this year was a small man in a large suit and wearing a red tie. As the President of the United States, he was expected to make what should have been the keynote speech at the Forum. He made a speech alright but it was so full of air and blather that its emptiness will still embarrass his great grandchildren far into the next century. That speech has been said to mark the end of an old global order, that order that was supposed to bring order to the chaos of the global market place.

    If the old order is said to be gone, then, it stands to reason that its place must be taken by a new one and indeed, it is safe to assume that there is a new world order as proclaimed by Mark Carney, the Prime Minister of Canada. He identified the main problem of the old order as being blatantly predatory. Those people or countries, the super powers that had somehow acquired a place at the table of global dominance feasted on those, the wretched of the earth, who were rigorously excluded from the table. They were not even given the dubious privilege of feeding on scraps as they were on the menu. Given that Canada is one of the wealthiest nations on earth, one would have thought that her place on that table was secure but the implication of Carney’s speech was that Canada did not have a place on that famous table and consequently was a victim of the old order. What he proposes is a new order to be governed by a concert of what he called middle powers which would include  some countries in the European Union including France and Germany. Those of us on the outside looking in must be looking on with considerable bemusement because as far as we can see, some of those so-called middle powers had guaranteed places around the old table. Canada for one has been feeding on African flesh for centuries. Her first discernable industry was cod fishing off her North Atlantic coast. The best of their catch was sold in Europe for a very good price. The worst was salted and sold to the owners of sugar cane plantations in the West Indies. This formed the staple food of the slaves working on those plantations. Those slaves were of course excluded from the table and it is easy to see that they were the main course on the menu. Canada, France, Germany and other so-called middle powers of Carney’s imagination have been feasting on the rest of us for hundreds of years. And so, what is new about this much vaunted new order? Come next year, the number of those sitting in our pilot vehicle will fit comfortably in any self respecting SUV.

    We return to the highway next week.

  • A promise kept

    A promise kept

    • Still, to strengthen the power sector, GenCos should enjoy a more market-structured payment system

    In what could prove a systemic boost to the power sector – and a lift for the economy and sundry socio-economic prospects from constant electricity – the Tinubu administration just posted a bond to offset the arrears of debts owed the power generating companies (GenCos).

    It is the 100% subscription of an inaugural tranche, of a power sector bond, to pay GenCos rocking under heavy debt: some of it for power supplied as far back as 2015! This intervention is highly welcome.  It is also highly laudable.  Sometime last year, power minister, Adebayo Adelabu, echoing a presidential promise, had pledged to clear a substantial part of the debt.  This, therefore, is a promise kept – bravo – but just as well!

    The bond – which just hauled in N501 billion – is courtesy the Presidential Power Sector Debt Reduction Programme (PPSDRP).  It was drawn from banks, pension funds, asset managers and sundry investors.  Though the bond is just enough to offset half of the legacy GenCo bill, the payment should add fillip to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) to further drive this all-important spark of the economy.  Electricity makes a difference between the sparkling day against the stark economic night.

    A further breakdown shows that the tranche comprises N300 billion, raised from the capital market.  Added is a further N201 billion in bonds, given to partner GenCos: making a total of N501 billion, in new liquidity.  The payments would be made for electricity received, and duly verified, between February 2015 and March 2025 – a 10-year period.

    Again, this is smart public debt tackling a grave public emergency.  It thus bypasses possible budgetary votes, which may take eons to accumulate, given the government’s not-so-bright revenue profile, even as new debts pile up.  How could the power sector have survived such a crushing debt burden?  That again toasts the creativity of the innovation.

    Read Also: Canada PM denies retracting Davos comments in talks with Trump

    Prior to posting the bond, the GenCos had agreed on settlement claims with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET), under the aegis of negotiated settlements.  The final settlements stand at N827.16 billion.  The agreed phases of payment are four instalments.  But the bond will only pay two of the four: N421.42 billion, from the owed N827.16 billion.  By the terms of the deal, payment would be made by cash and notes.  The benefiting GenCos are: First Independent Power Limited (FIPL), Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), Mabon Power Limited (MPL), Geregu Power Plc (GP) and Ibom Power Company Limited (IPC).  These GenCos run 14 power plants nationwide.

    Though the bond only defrays 50% of certified debts – suggesting some follow-up tranches – the prospects to settle long-term debts are exciting top industry players.

    “Capital formation can only come when there is confidence, when you can truly see a line of sight in recovering investments previously made,” Kola Adesina, Group CEO of the Sahara Power Group, which runs five power plants, told ‘Premium Times’. “Because we are being owed so much, it was a bit of a problem for us to put in more money.”  That shows bright prospects of further investments on the power front.  He hinted the Sahara Group would proceed on a Phase 2 upgrade of its Egbin Plant.  For now, things appear looking up on the power horizon.  That’s good news for the economy.

    On his campaign stump, President Bola Tinubu had committed the All Progressives Congress (APC) to sorting out the power mess.  How far the administration has gone on that lane is still a subject of public debate.  But that the government is going for the jugular, by bolstering the weak payment infrastructure of the sector, is a thing to cheer.

    Still, inasmuch as all these deserve praise, they would mean little if they did not open the gate for a new era of a more structured, far more predictable, far less shambolic and much more sustainable payment system.  Only a routine seller-buyer prompt payment can ensure that.  So, the present bond arrangement should push towards that predictable threshold.  Otherwise, in the long run, it might all end a wasted effort.

    Besides, the Federal Government cannot seriously pull this off without, once and for all, taking care of the prodigal son at the base of the power chain: the power distribution companies (DisCos) and their state variants.  Unless and until DisCos are made to meter everyone, and not to play hanky-panky with “installation costs” – a euphemism for wilful sabotage by an over-pampered corporate child – prompt selling and buying can’t be routine in the power market.

    Indeed, were the Federal Government itself not to have some minority stakes in some GenCos, many of them would probably have been history.  If the primary power producers are not sure of their revenue, how can we even dream of constant electricity?

    It’s a good restart, this bond initiative.  But the power market must eventually pay its way, without any government intervention.

  • Implications of AI for public service codes of practice

    Implications of AI for public service codes of practice

    • By Tunji Olaopa

    In June 2024, and in the Gumi City Council of South Korea, a service robot—or Robot Supervisor—was alleged to have committed “suicide.” This event is just one of the many bizarre and chilling incidences that herald the consequences of the unraveling of artificial intelligence and robotics in contemporary human affairs. In the same South Korea in November 2023, another robot deployed in a vegetable plant fatally crushed a man to death because it could not differentiate between the man and the boxes of vegetables. Some seven years earlier, in 2017, Sophia—the first humanoid robot—became the first robot citizen of Saudi Arabia and an innovation ambassador for the United Nations Development Program. All over the world, and due to the increasing deployment of AI and robotics in various professional fields—from engineering to surgery and the public service—we will never know the statistics of fatalities that might have resulted due to robotic malfunctions.

    Two significant facts about South Korea will bring the two earlier incidents into clearer relief. One, South Korea has the highest robot density in the whole world. Statistics claim that there is at least one robot for every ten people in the country. To put it clearly, robots have been deployed almost everywhere in South Korea. Most importantly, robots, like Sophia, have become not just administrative assistants but effectively civil servants working tirelessly in state and city councils. The second fact that connects with the so-called robot suicide is that South Korea has the unenviable record of being one of Asia’s most overworked countries. South Koreans work fifty-two hours per week, from 9am to 9pm every day. The total of 1915 hours per year is 200 hours more than the average clocked by any countries within the OECD nations. It was inevitable that the South Koreans would invent a name for death by overwork: gwarosa. The Japanese call it karoshi.

    It is therefore no surprise that even a service robot would “feel” the fatal pressure of the overworked workplace, and develop a glitch that plunged it to its death. This facts about South Korea allow me to draw specific correlations and implications for public administration and the public service in postcolonial Nigeria, especially in terms of institutional reforms and what we can call the imperative of technological modernization, public service ethics, productivity and democratic governance that can make the public service a genuine backstop for launching a developmental state in Nigeria. The Asian countries are notorious for the template of their work ethic. This ethic connects working longer hours with the value of diligence and perseverance which translate to a productive persona. The Robot Supervisor was integrated into the (over)work culture, working from 9am to 6pm daily.

    There is a similarity between the workplace pressure in Asia and in Africa. In 2025, the ten most hardworking countries in Africa, ranked by an average weekly work hour, are Sudan (50.8), Lesotho (50.2), Republic of the Congo (48.7), Sao Tome and Principe (48.2), Liberia (47.5), Egypt (45.6), Burkina Faso (45.3), Cape Verde (45.3), Zimbabwe (45.0), and Senegal (44.9). Even though work hours do not always automatically translate into productivity, Nigeria, at 39.6 hours per week, does not qualify as a hardworking nation. This work hour might actually reflect a work culture that is less than salutary within the context of what Nigerians usually call the ‘Nigerian Factor”; a key dimension of which is the indolence that attends working in a government institution. This plays into the overall fabric of institutional dysfunction, especially in the over-bloated and ineffective public service, where too many people doing nothing, too many doing too little, and too few people doing too much.

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    A significant dimension of institutional reform and modernization of the dysfunctional public service in Nigeria is the imperative of open and transparent government that demands the deployment of technological creativity and innovation in fast tracking efficiency in government business, and ultimately productivity. This technological imperative lies beneath the need for computerization, digitization and automation of the public service to increase and deepen efficiencies. Given the furious development in AI and robotics, and the demonstration of their efficiency in assisting government to achieve their administrative goals, we can say that Nigeria is grossly behind in creating an efficient workplace where the robotic and human civil servants can work side by side in energizing the public service workplace for efficient and effective service.

    And yet, the level of our anxiety with being behind in the AI deployment race must be directly proportional to the level of our carefulness in learning from the technological experiences of other countries in ways that will feed Nigeria’s institutional reform trajectory. Experience, and definitely example, is the best teacher, as they say! The Gumi City Council AI incident says and teaches significant lessons. At the fundamental level, the incidence calls to the fore the context of interaction between human and machines, and the ethical framework that ought to guide that interaction. This implies that reflections about AI and its reality must first be grounded within the sociocultural circumstances of those who are deploying it. AI, when it begins to function, is a reality within a specific milieu. And so, it is not a phenomenon that must be taken as an unconscious default adaptation process. When South Korea adopted and adapted it, it was within a specific demographic, administrative and cultural context. Any thought that goes to the need to deploy AI must be thoughts that consider the context within which it is to be deployed and those that it will affect, positively and negatively.  

    The constant evolution and modifications to AI is due to the fact that it is developed by humans for humans. AI affects people in their various social and professional endeavors. And it is only within these contexts that we can adjudge AI to be functional and successful, or ineffective and failed. It is these contextual dynamics of deployment and use that provides the accurate data that enables us to think about the regulatory frameworks that can help us make AI more adaptable for societal, institutional, organizational and ethical use. The worries about AI are critical ones. There is the worry about the increasing autonomy of AI and the challenges that poses for how humans perceive themselves and their worth. But more immediate is the worry about the societal disruptions of the deployment of AI, especially in the workplace—displacement, alienation, security, death. Thus, AI is not just a panoply of technical issues. It is also fundamentally a human-centered phenomenon that must be adequately understood if we are to better enjoy its functional innovation and creativity. 

    These issues take on some sinister conceptual and practical directions when situated within Nigeria’s dysfunctional context of public administration. Africa has the unsavory reputation of being the most difficult administrative context in the world. And this translates into a lot of implications and repercussions for individual states like Nigeria. One of the implications is the lack of efficient connection between the public service and the state. It is difficult, for instance, to point to any functional developmental state—in the mold of the Asian Tigers—on the continent. And this speaks volume about the capacity of individual states to deliver on the promises and dividends of good governance for their respective citizens. It is also a damning indictment on the effectiveness of the trajectories of institutional reforms in Africa.

    This is the context that demands, as a matter of urgency, the AI revolution in the service of productivity for a citizenry that have been waiting a long time for good governance. And yet, this is where caution is most required in proportion to the level of urgency. In other words, if the malfunctioning of robot assistants and supervisors can generate such a huge global hoopla within a work and administrative context—like South Korea—that is highly efficient and productive, what would happen if they are deployed within a highly difficult administrative environment? Or, even more fundamental, how do we relate the deployment of AI to a context that less than effective, efficient and productive?      

    Is it enough to automate, computerize or digitize when the system and processes being improved have not been mapped, reprofiled for reengineering; does it not amount to engrafting technology on a challenged system and what results should we expect? This is the current direction of the institutional and administrative reform dynamics in the Nigerian public service. And it calls for a critical pause for reflection. Two issues are fundamental for resolution. The first is: Can the AI efficiency dynamic be tacked on to a deficient system to achieve efficiency and effectiveness? Yes, it can; but then it becomes another supposedly “innovative” recipe for deepening existing inefficiencies and deficits. First consideration: we need to start the reflection from the perspective of the self-motivated, hardworking but extremely frazzled and demotivated Nigerian public servant who is compelled by so many factors to work within a highly toxic, inefficient and highly politicized workplace. This is the first and most significant context that AI is to be deployed. How will this pan out in practice? What regulatory frameworks can such a system deploy? What safety measures can the system afford that will not compromise the human well-being?

    Second, how do we ethically mediate the relationship between the robot assistant and the human civil servant not just in terms of emotional connection but fundamentally of ethical relationship. If the existing public service is flawed in mediating human-to-human ethical relations, how do we hope to situate the human-AI component and achieve even a measure of success? The workplace is a context that must be configured to protect and enhance human dignity, self-worth and welfare which cannot be sacrificed to structural efficiency that AI deployment is meant to address. What accountability structures and standards are then in place to safeguard human self-worth? This also goes beyond the workplace to, for example, the sanctity of data collected by AI. How is the system to ensure data privacy? How about the ethical oversight function of the system to monitor AI autonomy and deployment for critical use? This also affects the way the system manages public perception and public trust with regard to the functional effectiveness of AI. 

    A challenged system does not need more innovation; rather, it needs a moment to rethink and reengineer and get right the institutional basics. The effectiveness of AI in the workplace is not in doubt; it has been demonstrated all across the world as the harbinger of efficiencies and productivity if properly managed and grafted effectively into a functional system. AI is meant to enhance an already functioning system rather than serving as an instigator for a deficient one. This implies that to adopt, adapt and deploy AI into the Nigerian administrative workplace must be preceded by an urgent imperative of reflecting on, rethinking and reengineering the administrative and institutional basics that can make the public service genuinely and efficiently worldclass. And the most fundamental question in this regard is: what change management mechanism can yield a government business model that is efficient?  

  • Atiku or Obi: who emerges ADC presidential candidate?

    Atiku or Obi: who emerges ADC presidential candidate?

    Beginning 21 September, 2014 I commenced, on these pages, a trilogy of articles titled ‘Periscoping The Ideal APC Presidential candidate(1)’.

    I compared and contrasted the serious contestants – all Northerners – as I did not really bother with  then Imo state governor Rochas Okorocha, for the obvious reason of rotational presidency.

    Those considered were General Muhammadu Buhari(rtd), a former Head of state, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, former Vice President, Dr Musa Kwankwaso, a former Kano state governor, and  Sam Nda – Isaiah, the Publisher, Leadership Newspaper.

    The exercise almost turned out a no- brainer as General Buhari, now late, very easily met every quality Nigeria needed to fight the two  ferocious demons tearing at its innards – corruption and insecurity.

    He, therefore, emerged my preferred candidate and went on to defeat the other candidates, hands down, at the primary election proper.

    I have, unfortunately, since had cause to regret my

    support and advocacy for General Buhari who, although remained incandescently incorruptible till the end, was so weak a leader that besides the very corrupt Villa Mafia which completely ringed him all round, far too many of his ministers, advisers etc, especially the Northerners among them, so rapaciously ruined the country that it is only now  anti- corruption agencies are beginning to make them answer for their sins against all of us.

    This short background is necessary as I begin an examination of who, between Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, should be the ADC Presidential candidate at the 2027 Presidential election.

    Today is the turn of Peter Obi, the former Anambra State governor.

    My job is made easy by the well known answer to the question: What is History?

    Google puts it succinctly thus:”History is the systematic study and interpretation of the human past, encompassing events, people, societies, and changes over time, using evidence from sources like artifacts, documents, and stories to create narratives that explain how the past shapes the present and future. It’s a discipline that seeks to understand “what happened,” “when,” and “how,” in analysing political, social, economic, and cultural developments”.

    Let us, therefore, now see the former Labour Party Presidential candidate – he has since, as usual, fled that party – in the eye of history, no matter what “stories” he will be concocting afresh on their new, borrowed political party – the ADC, regarding what he believes qualify him to be our next President.

    If one of these is his totally unexpected huge vote tally of 6,101,533 which placed him third in the 2023 election, let me quickly inform Nigerans, ADC members in particular, that Obi has no such hopes in the 2027 election cycle if he is a candidate.

    Lest we forget, that high vote was the result of his extreme exploitation of ethnic and religious differences at the election, especially the mistaken view, among a large proportion of Christians, that APC’s Moslem – Moslem ticket was particularly noxious.

    While President Tinubu has since proved that completely false,  I cannot see the likes of  highly regarded Bishop Oyedepo  and  several other men of God, once again, put their pulpit at the service of Peter Obi, as happened in 2023.

    Besides the above, the following will also work against his candidacy:

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    His limited national presence as his influence is largely limited to his ethnic Southeast which, with the tectonic changes that have taken place in the region since the last election, he can no longer win 90+ per cent of the votes. He will, at best, take a decent 60 per cent of the Southeast vote, edged on by the Obidients;

    His being seen as a divisive figure will certainly negatively impact his ability to build broad coalitions just as

    Lack of Experience, compared with  both Tinubu and Atiku, will show Obi’s national-level experience as very limited.

    Finally, the yet uncertain alliance dynamics being spearheaded by Baba Obasanjo, pairing Obi  with Kwankwaso, will certainly face challenges in balancing regional and party interests.

    His greatest advantage, which will come to nothing, is the massive, geo- spatial presence of Igbos in every part of the country but with only aggregate figures that will be very negligible.

    Peter Obi, whose biggest claims are that he brings a new face and energy to Nigerian politics, as well as an appeal to young voters and those seeking change,  is himself an old guard politician, having served two terms as Anambra State governor from March 2006 to November 2006, and then from February 2007 until March 2014 – a clear 20 years.

    Just imagine a 20 year old adult!

    For my job, therefore, I’ll do no more than press into service, a subtantial portion of my article of Sunday,  12 November, 2023 titled ‘Peter Obi: The Consumate Obscurantist’s Grand Delusions’ which reads, in part, as follows:

    “Rather than just his claim of victory at the Presidential election,  this will be an examination of the entirety of what Obi brought to an election he and Atiku so malignantlly poisoned.

    That will mean psycho- analysing the man I describe here as an insuferable obscurantist.

    Obscurantism, by the way, is the practice of deliberately

    preventing the facts, or full details of something from becoming known.

    And how does this apply to him?

    Although both the PEPC and the Supreme court gave no moment to the fact that he was an 11th hour joiner of the Labour party,

    meaning that contrary to INEC Guidelines, the courts gave no probative value to his name not being on the party’s membership register forwarded to the commission 30 days before its primaries, and thus implying  that he flagrantly flouted one INEC stipulation, his entry, being so ethnic and stealthy, resulted in an instant internal crisis within the party which is still smouldering as you read this.

    What is more important, however, are the lies which underpinned his emergence as the presidential candidate, when Gbajue- style – thanks to the Nobel Laureate – somebody stepped down for him, in the process, deprecatingly pronouncing himself  inferior to Obi as far as leadership is concerned;  he  a normally show- boating individual, who never ceases to preach to Nigerians from the rooftops thus degrading himself, just so his  Igbo brother could emerge  the  presidential candidate TWO DAYS  after  becoming a member of the party.

    That too pales into insignificance when compared to  the lies  Obi told Nigerians as his reasons for eloping from the PDP.

    Such were they that lies soon became the party’s modus operandi, whether it was Obi’s claim that he went to Egypt to “understudy that country’s education, power and finance sectors”, or several of his pastors, and bishops, regaling their hypnotised, congregants with details of dreams they never had as to how Obi had already won an election yet to be conducted – all to rapturous shouts of Halleluyah.

    What of his  sophistry, explaining how, and why, he claimed to have joined the Labour party  and schemed his way to its presidential candidacy.

     Hear him:

    “I have chosen a route that I consider to be in line with our aspirations and my mantra of taking the country from consumption to production” – apparently, he momentarily forgot everything about NEXT, his importation giant.

    “I invite all Nigerians to join me in taking back our country. Be assured that I’ll never let you down.”

    Having gratuitously let the Ikemba down by dumping APGA for PDP,  our man just has to promise not to let Igbos down again.

    But pray! Was it in two days, after leaving PDP, he did all he is claiming here?

    He continues: “Since I resigned from the PDP because of issues that are at variance with my persona and principles (such as serial decamping and investing state funds in family business?) I have consulted widely with various parties and personalities to ensure we do not complicate the route to our desired destination. For me, the process of achieving our goal is as fundamental as what one will do thereafter.”

    Just listen to this practised obscurantist, trying to suck in, not just his Igbo brethren, but every Nigerian.

    His placing third in the election proved, conclusively, that Nigerians were not deceived.

    “Since I resigned”, Obi also said, making two days look like a millennium, “I have consulted widely with parties and personalities” – parties and personalities who were, understandably, nameless.

    Here is a guy who had, only a few days earlier, submitted himself for screening by the PDP whose Vice Presidential candidate he was four years earlier.

    “I thank all Nigerians, he continued, especially our youths who have joined me in the mission of taking back and reuniting Nigeria. This project is yours and for the future of your children.

    I am just a facilitator” – certainly a precursor to  President Obasanjo’s letter to Nigerian youths while soliciting support for Obi later. Now Baba is allegedly putting every effort into an Obi- Kwankwaso Presidential combo. Nigerians remember, all too well, the futility of all such Obasanjo’s past efforts.

    I digress.

    All that sweet nonsense was after Obi had run the most

    ” hateful, vile, divisive and polarising campaign that pitted Christians against Muslims and one ethnic group against the other in a multi-ethnic and multi-religious society like Nigeria”, as Presidential Spokesperson, Bayo Onanuga would later perspicaciously put it.

    All these should tell Nigerians who Peter Obi truly is.

    Let us now see how the cookie crumbled, how Obi was outed in a situation akin to which Yoruba would describe as ‘bi iro ba lo logun odun, ooto ma ba lojo kan’, that is, even though a lie may subsist for 20 years, (but) truth will catch up with it one day.

    Obi had probably forgotten all these lies when, several months later,  the Executive Committee of Ohanaeze Ndigbo Worldwide visited former governor,  Nyesom Wike,  remonstrating with him over his non support for Igbo interests, especially,  the Southeast  quest for the Presidency, emphasising, in particular, his failure to  support Peter Obi.

    Trust Wike to have told the elders what would most probably have put ashes on their faces.

    Wike let it be known to the eminent Igbo statesmen that Obi was actually bullied into leaving the PDP.

    He had journeyed, excruciatingly, to Jigawa state, Wike said, intent on soliciting the support of Sule Lamido who took him to a village that took him more than four hours drive from Dukse to reach.

    That was vintage Lamido who sees Fulani as the Aryan race and was eager to teach the Igbo upstart politician a lesson he would never forget.

    That visit should remind us all of Obi’s promised one term all in the hope of playing servitude to the North, even if Igbos had wanted the presidency for ages.

    Task master, per excellence himself, Lamido  respects no single Southern politician besides former President Olusegun Obasanjo who appointed him External Affairs minister; a position for which he had nil qualification.

    Obi, therefore, had to drive hours through the desert dust to hear Lamido

     tell him that in his books, a Northerner  must, willy nilly,  succeed Buhari who was about completing his two terms.

    That was when their boy fled PDP, not the sweet song his worshipful professors were scripting as reasons, putting Goebbels to shame.

    It is all these, and the fact that his Igbo brethren believe Obi, hook, line and sinker even now, in fact, canonise him alive, that rankle.

    It is why others watch in utter amazement as the otherwise brilliant and enterprising Igbo look like bewitched followers of Obi even when a redoubtable race like theirs does not have a paucity of brilliant, experienced and well connected men and women than can be thrown up for the ultimate Nigerian diadem.

    It is, therefore, time Igbos tell Obi that he ill represents them, going round, and round, romancing ethnicity and religion as his route to the presidency:  a choice sure to  take  Igbos nowhere.

    It is the ADC I pity the more, as Atiku Abubakar, who we examine next Sunday, is not much better.

    Net winner: Nigeria

  • Soludo’s market closure: Democracy, security and limits of executive power

    Soludo’s market closure: Democracy, security and limits of executive power

    The recent decision by Lt Col., sorry, Governor Chukwuma Soludo to shut down the Onitsha Main Market for one week has ignited a fierce debate about governance, security, and the existence of democratic rudiments in Anambra State. While the Colonel’s, sorry governor’s frustration with the Monday sit-at-home compliance is understandable, his stentorian response raises fundamental questions about whether ‘ajuwaya’ strong-arm tactics can substitute for the protection and security that these traders desperately need.

    Governor Soludo’s reasons for this drastic action are not without merit on the surface. The Onitsha Main Market, previously like many commercial centers across the Southeast, had been observing the Monday sit-at-home order, an action that appears to validate the authority of non-state actors, over the legitimate government. This compliance represents a troubling erosion of state authority, suggesting that faceless individuals wielding threats hold more sway over citizens than elected officials. The economic implications are equally staggering. Each Monday that Onitsha Main Market remains closed, Anambra State hemorrhages revenue that could fund infrastructure, healthcare, and education. The cumulative effect of these weekly closures amounts to trillions of naira in lost economic activity annually, affecting not just the state’s coffers but the livelihoods of countless families dependent on the market’s vibrancy.

    Furthermore, Soludo’s argument that other major markets across Anambra are  functioning normally on Mondays carries some weight. Markets in Awka, Nnewi, Nkpor, Abagana and Obosi, and even other parts of the Southeast continue their operations without interruption. The question then becomes: why should Onitsha be an exception? From this perspective, the governor’s insistence that Onitsha traders must break free from the grip of fear and resume normal trading appears logical. The state cannot afford to have its commercial nerve center paralyzed by the dictates of criminal elements who have no electoral mandate or moral authority.

    However, this is precisely where Soludo’s approach reveals a fundamental misunderstanding of democratic governance and the social contract between leaders and the led. The governor appears to have forgotten that Nigeria is a democracy, not a military dictatorship. In a democracy, governments exist to serve and protect their citizens, not to coerce them into dangerous situations. The traders are not closing their shops on Mondays because they are lazy ,unpatriotic or closet symphatisers of IPOB. They are doing so because they are terrified for their lives and property. This is not willing submission to non-state actors; it is survival instinct in the face of credible threats and demonstrable violence.

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    Shutting down the market as punishment for this fear-driven compliance is not just counterproductive; it is morally indefensible. If the market were being closed for legitimate regulatory reasons such as poor sanitation, fire safety violations, or environmental hazards, the government would be within its rights. But closing a market because traders are afraid of being killed or having their goods destroyed represents a spectacular failure of leadership. It shifts blame from the government’s inability to provide security onto the victims of insecurity themselves. These traders are not the enemy; the hoodlums terrorizing them are.

    The comparison to other markets functioning normally, while superficially compelling, crumbles under scrutiny. Onitsha Main Market is not just any market. It is the largest market in West and East Africa combined, a sprawling commercial ecosystem with hundreds of thousands of daily visitors and transactions running into billions of naira. The security requirements for such a massive complex are exponentially greater than those for smaller markets. Protecting Onitsha Main Market would require tripling or even quadrupling the security presence that might suffice elsewhere. Has the Anambra State government deployed such resources? Have there been visible, sustained security operations that would give traders confidence in their safety? The evidence suggests otherwise.

    Ali Chukwuma, one of Anambra’s finest bards once crooned “ Eje ana bu isi Ije” (A safe return is the centrepiece of every journey or travel). Now, if the government could guarantee absolute security within the market premises, what about the journey to and from the market? Traders cannot materialize in and out of the market gates by magic and with Soludo arresting and detaining a number of dibias, such magic may not be readily available to these traders as they travel from various parts of Anambra and neighboring states, often in the pre-dawn hours to set up their wares. The roads leading to Onitsha, the motor parks, the surrounding neighborhoods—these are all potential ambush points for those enforcing the sit-at-home. A trader who survives the market day unscathed might still face violence on the way home. Is their life worth the revenue they would generate for the state? The traders themselves have answered this question with their feet, and it is revealing that many of them are willing and eager to trade even on Sundays, demonstrating their entrepreneurial spirit and economic ambition. Yet this same ambition cannot override the instinct for self-preservation.

    Contrast such authoritarian directives with the fact that a number of state institutions such as the Anambra State House of Assembly, as well as local government council secretariats  observe these sit at home days (Anambra State House of Assembly conducts plenary sessions on Tuesdays, whilst most secretariats experience skeletal presence of staff) these are places that possess immense security coverage, yet, Soludo wants to compel hapless citizens to risk their lives, a case of do as I say not as I do!

    Governor Soludo would serve his people better by engaging in meaningful dialogue with market leadership rather than wielding the sledgehammer of closure. What specific security measures do the traders need to feel safe? What intelligence-sharing mechanisms can be established between market unions and security agencies? What emergency response protocols can be implemented?

    These are the questions a democratic leader should be asking. Copying from the playbook of military regimes—issuing ultimatums, making threats, forcing compliance through coercion—is a dangerous path that may indeed come back to haunt him politically and morally.

    Democracy thrives on consultation, consensus-building, and collaborative problem-solving. It withers under autocratic edicts and punitive measures against citizens who are already victims. The Onitsha Main Market crisis is fundamentally a security crisis, not a compliance crisis. Until Governor Soludo addresses the root cause—the inability of the state to protect its citizens from violent non-state actors—any attempt to force the market open will be both futile and unjust.

    The governor must remember that leadership in a democracy means walking with the people, understanding their fears, and creating conditions that make courage possible, not demanding bravery while providing no shield. Onitsha’s traders need protection, not punishment. They need a governor who fights the criminals terrorizing them, not one who fights them for being terrorized. Only when security is genuinely assured will the market return to its full glory, not through coercion, but through the restoration of confidence and peace.

  • Europe finds its balls in Davos

    Europe finds its balls in Davos

    • By Timothy Ash

    People are asking me for big takeaways of Davos this week, beyond Ukraine, so here goes.

    Actually, after years of Davos appearing to have exhausted its use and having been the “it” place to be for global executives and power players, it had become a bit naff, smeared with an aura of being an elitist party for intellectually bankrupt globalistas.

    Trump’s Commerce secretary, Lutnick, seemed to signal that his own appearance was to read an obituary for Davos and those same global elites, but the carpet was kind of taken from under him by Trump, who seemed to want to use the same stage of global elites to announce his Peace Board. Lutnick cannot quite see the wood from the trees, and that he has long been one of the global elites, that he seems now to be whinging about. And if anything, Trump is making the world even more elitist with his bunch of cronies, sycophants, and tech bros.

    Net net, Trump breathed new life into Davos, only it became even more elitist – who, amongst even the Davos elite, could get the invite for the Trump show?

    Look and an admission here, I have been twice to Davos, this year and last, invited to speak on Ukraine, immobilized CBR assets, and Ukraine recovery. Topics close to my heart, and I thought worthy of selling my soul and making the trek to Davos. But I did not get admission to any of the other events. It’s just too expensive to hang around, hotels and restaurants are overpriced, so I commuted from Zurich, which is still pretty expensive.

    Greenland, Trump, Carney, and Zelensky were however center stage in the side discussions I had.

    On Greenland, the MAGA guys are trying to sell the eventual deal done – if it was a deal – as some huge win for Trump. The line is that Trump again read the riot act to Europe, that they are not doing enough on the NATO front, and through his tantrum over Greenland, they are now focused on Arctic security.

    Actually, I don’t see it that way at all. From what I can make out, no concessions we made to Trump, and whatever deal was done is essentially just a restatement of the existing 1951 Treaty with Denmark.

    My take is that Trump’s ego made him want the win from stealing Greenland and he thought, that with the threat from the recent successful US military operation in Venezuela, the weak Europeans would roll over. This was not about Arctic security, albeit in seizing Greenland for the US, I think Trump likely thought there was big money to be made then on various minerals deals. But this was ego – Trump planting the US flag, perhaps renaming Greenland eventually to Trumpland. It was all about Trump, as it always is. Keeping Donald on the front pages, satiating his enormous ego, above all else.

    But Trump misread Europe. He could not quite get into his head that Europe, facing an existential threat from Russia, and with a torrid history from great powers changing borders by force, that sovereignty and territorial integrity matters for Europe. This idea of great powers taking what they can is existential for Europe.

    Mark Carney summed it up in his seminal speech this week as well, as it’s all as important for Canada as for Europe. Canada does fear that after Greenland, Canada would be the next target for its southern (and northern) neighbor. Europe, I think regretted rolling over to Trump in tariffs last July with the Turnberry agreement. Europe surrendered back then, accepting a wholly unfair trade deal as the price for buying off Trump, and for what they assumed would assure the US security backstop for Europe. How wrong they were then with Trump’s push then to try to grab Greenland.

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    So the thought processes in Europe moved to what’s the point rolling over to Trump, when he screws you anyway. And if we cannot rely on the US security backstop, then why be nice to Trump and the US on tariffs et al? So the Turnberry deal was stalled, and threats then of the €93 billion tariff hit, plus the much worse ACI. I think Rutte et al also confronted Trump with the stark reality that if he took Greenland by force or coercion, NATO would be dead, and would Trump want to be the US president to take down the most successful defensive alliance in history?

    I think markets also did their thing – the Danish pension fund threatening to sell, and a German bank amplifying the risks of dollar selling ensured TACO. Trump blinked, backed down, and moved on to his next big shiny thing, the Peace Board, to shift the narrative from a humiliating defeat for Trump at the hands of the weak and feckless Europeans, even then signaled in his speech by Zelensky.

    Iran also looks set to be the next big Trump distraction, as he moves US forces from the Caribbean to the Gulf – expect another decapitation exercise which might be a little more challenging than Maduro when it comes to Khamenei. No one is focusing on the huge Trump strategic blunder in moving those forces away from the Gulf in the first place, which meant that when opposition demonstrations kicked off in Iran, US forces lacked the critical mass to respond, and thousands of demonstrators died in vain answering Trump’s call to the street and that he would protect them.

    But going back to Greenland and Davos, is NATO stronger because of all this?

    Absolutely not.

    As if Trump’s threats to steal Greenland were not enough, Trump could not help himself, his ego and mouth know no bounds. He went on then to denigrate NATO allies for never having come to the US defense, and doubting whether they would in the future.

    This was a total insult for the thousands of Europeans, and Canadians, who died answering the US call, after the triggering of NATO’s Article 5 defense after 9/11, and who died or were injured in Iraq and Afghanistan.

    Forty-odd Danes dies, over four hundred Brits, and the list goes on. What an absolute insult from bone spur Donald, pissing on their graves. If anything has damaged the core integrity of NATO, it is this.

    Imagine what the answer of European service families will be on the next 911 like event, and another US call for support? What does Trump think their answer would be? Not only did Trump not acknowledge their sacrifice, but he did not even seem to know that the only time NATO’s Article 5 response was triggered was in defense of the US. And I would argue that Russia’s attack on Ukraine, and its malign actions against Europe are a similar event, and what has the US under Trump done? He has sided with Russia, if anything, cut arms supplies and financing to Ukraine, which is the front line for Europe’s defense. And to add insult to injury, he has invited Putin to his own peace board, and now seems willing to let Putin draw down on CBR immobilized assets, which were supposed to be earmarked for Ukraine, for Putin’s membership in the Peace Board country club of autocratic leaders.

    So my take on all the above is that NATO is now fundamentally weakened by events over the past couple of weeks. And European leaders might not say it out loud, but they are looking for alternatives to the US backstop – actually, they continue to be nice, and call Trump “daddy” as they are buying time, to keep the supply of US weapons going until a time when they can break free from the US. And in the interim, they will work overtime to build an autonomous defense capability.

    Actually, on this autonomous European defense capability, Europe probably has enough capability now to defend against the one big existential threat – Russia. Imagine the combined military capabilities of the UK, France, Germany, Finland, Türkiye, Poland, the Balt, plus the Ukrainians. That is surely enough to hold off the

    Russians, without the US. And that is the future. But Europe does need to fast track arms production and the deployment of its military industrial complex to be independent of the US. It also needs to do much more to bind both Türkiye and Ukraine into the European security architecture, and that will mean concessions on EU accession – interests outweigh values at this stage, when Europe is in an existential battle for its survival.

    Notable this week the number of mainstream UK, and European military, political, and opinion leaders – even the right-wing Andrew Neil, ex-editor of the Times, questioning the US as an ally, even suggesting it as an enemy of Europe. Quite extraordinary, but a reflection of the hugely damaging actions of the Trump presidency, which has ruptured the international order and the Western alliance.

    So I think from Davos I read that Europe finally got the message – the US is no longer a reliable partner, it’s even an “enemy” if Neil is to be believed, and it needs to fast track the development of its autonomous defense capability, diversify strategic defense relationships, with Ukraine, Türkiye, the Gulf, and perhaps even with China. That was the message this week from Carney. Imagine that the US is so frustrated with what it sees as Europe’s free-riding on it for defense, that it’s bull in a China approach actually encourages a depending in ties between Europe and its own hegemonic rival, China. So, the one big winner from the week in Davos was Beijing.

    Great result, Donald Trump, see you next year!

    •             This article was originally published in www.kyivpost.com
  • 2026: Dissecting Nigeria’s boom year

    2026: Dissecting Nigeria’s boom year

    • By Omoniyi M. Akinsiju

    We recall our quick rebuttal of the International Monetary Fund’s forecast of Nigeria’s economic growth in April 2025 when it projected that the economy in 2026 would grow at a miserly 2.7 per cent.

    We were riled by that projection, which the global lender predicated on projected lower global oil prices.

    We made it clear in that statement that the Nigerian economy under the current administration had engendered a paradigm shift from perennial dependency on crude oil earnings to policy-driven economic facilitation.

    This refers to the deliberate use of governmental policies, regulations, and institutional frameworks to reduce obstacles, lower costs, and speed up economic activities, particularly in trade and investment.

     The facilitation, in this context, aims to foster sustainable, inclusive growth by improving efficiency and reducing red tape.

    Seven months after that questionable projection, we have seen a volte-face in the offensive projection. In an epiphany-like realisation, the IMF now speaks of a resurgent Nigerian economy as reflected in the global multilateral institution’s revised Nigerian economic outlook to a projected 4.4 per cent economic growth for 2026.

    This is the highest GDP growth projection by IMF over the last 17 years, a real expression of confidence in the Nigerian economy.

    Global and Domestic Consensus Around Nigeria’s Higher Growth Prospects

    Beyond the IMF’s new GDP projection, we have observed a consensus around a higher than 4 percent economic growth performance expectation of the Nigerian economy by virtually all known individual and public economic commentators. While the Nigerian Government projected 4.68 percent growth in 2026, the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry (LCCI) projected a massive 7 percent, 1.5 percent higher than the Nigeria Economic Summit Group’s 5.5 percent for the year. PwC sustained the conservative threshold by projecting a 4.3 percent growth conditioned on higher oil price while the World Bank also revised its earlier 3.7 percent projection to 4.4 percent.

    The agglomeration of these positive economic growth outlooks by domestic and global institutional players points to an emerging economic paradigm that emphasizes increased production and productivity momentum, foreign exchange stability, dis-inflation, galvanized foreign direct investment and inflow, and unobtrusive regulatory environment, anchored in policy-driven economic facilitation.

    Available data indicate that this emerging economic paradigm and the new policy-driven economic facilitation environment are consequences of the economic reforms conceived and implemented by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu-led administration.

    2026 GDP Projection

    However, our analysis of available economic data indicates that all things being equal, the Nigerian economy will grow to a 5.5 percent threshold. This projection is based on available data and economic trends in the Nigerian economy between 2024 and 2025.

    To put things in proper context, in our January 2024 Policy Statement, after an objective analysis of the implementation of the Federal Government’s flagship reform policies headlined by the removal of fuel subsidy and liberalisation of the foreign exchange window, we declared without any doubt that Nigeria would emerge economically and socially prosperous and stronger in the medium to long term on the back of the policy reforms and other subsidiary policies devised to transform and transit the nation’s old economic order to market-driven economic management template.

    In an exemplification of our predictive analysis, we said in that Policy Statement: “From the conceptualisation and deployment of policies across multifarious sectors by the federal government, we are convinced that President Tinubu is putting in place new building blocks to serve as the bedrock of a new model for national economic growth and socio-political development.” (IMPI Policy Statement 001 issued on 30th January, 2024).

    So, for us, understanding the background to the current developments and the philosophical underpinning of the economy, we submit that the year 2026 would be Nigeria’s boom year yet.

    We did not arrive at this projection lightly.

    First, as now attested to by global and domestic economic players, the Nigerian economy has been a well-managed affair since the reforms kick-started in 2023. We commend the Federal Government for staying the course despite the initial economic headwinds. These storms were the result of the economy adapting to the hypodermic impact of the reforms.

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    Increasing Capital Acquisition by Corporates

    A major indicator of an expanding economy is the increasing capital acquisition by private sector operators. Nigerian companies, particularly in the oil, gas, telecoms, banking, industrial goods and agricultural sectors, are actively acquiring property, plant, and equipment to expand operations and strengthen market positions.

    Key 2025 transactions include MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, which topped the list with N539.6 billion, Presco Plc’s 10,000-hectare plantation acquisition in Cross River and Ellah Lakes Plc’s acquisition of over 11,700 hectares across four states, among others.

    Large-scale investments are aimed at building capacity to meet consumer demand and reduce reliance on imports. This has direct consequences on production.

    More impressively, Nigeria has moved up 15 places to 4th in Africa for foreign exchange accessibility according to the Absa Africa Financial Markets Index 2025.

    FX accessibility is a major bulwark in the measure of ease and convenience of doing business especially for foreign direct investors. The country has made one of its biggest improvements over the years in terms of how easy it is for investors to get and use foreign exchange. This achievement is a result of the sweeping FX reforms by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).

    Developments in financial account also supported the overall economic outcome with Foreign Direct Investment inflows rising to $720 million in Third Quarter 2025, while portfolio investment reached $2.51 billion, reflecting a stronger non-resident participation in domestic debt and equity markets.

    We see a further rise in foreign direct investment in 2026 along with increased access to FX.

    Macroeconomic Stability and Enhanced Manufacturing Output

    Macroeconomic stability is the cornerstone of any successful effort to increase private sector development and economic growth. Cross-country regression analysis using a large sample of countries suggest that growth, investment, and productivity are positively correlated with macroeconomic stability. Macroeconomic stability exists when key economic relationships are in balance, for example, among domestic demand and output, the balance of payments, fiscal revenues and expenditure, and savings and investment. Nigeria continues to venture near this equilibrium. The impact is reflecting in the manufacturing sector amongst others. Firms that are backward integrated and better aligned with domestic input sourcing are expected to benefit immensely from the nation’s improving macroeconomic fundamentals.

    Basic to this is the fact that for Nigeria import dependent manufacturers, FX stability alone offers meaningful relief on input costs and planning certainty. In line with this, the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) forecasts that the country’s manufacturing sector will grow by 3.1 percent while contribution to real GDP is expected to rise to an impressive 10.2 percent in 2026, underscoring renewed optimism in the domestic manufacturing outlook.

    These projected attainments would be accomplished through the incentives being channeled to the manufacturing sector through the new tax laws, regulatory adjustments, and the operationalisation of the National Council on Industry, Trade and Investment (NCITI) and other policy frameworks.

    CBN Re-engineering of its Operations Playbook

    The Central Bank of Nigeria’s decision to re-engineer its operations’ playbook to strict orthodoxy has signaled increased optimism with exchange rate stability and the prospect of easing interest rates. The result has been a huge contraction in the gap between the official and parallel market rates. Foreign capital inflows are expected to grow further in 2026 as awareness heightens around the Non-Resident BVN and as Nigeria begins to reap the benefits of its exit from the grey list of the Financial Action Task Force and the European Union’s removal of the country from its list of high-risk jurisdictions on Anti-Money Laundering and Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT). Nigeria exiting the two global financial restraining bodies’ list has signaled a major restoration of confidence in the country and eases compliance frictions for correspondent banks with tangible benefits of an estimated $30 billion in potential investments in the country in 2026.

    NGX Listed Companies Declaring Higher Profits

    The country’s biggest firms have been recording strong profit growth. After years of foreign exchange volatility that eroded corporate earnings, a more stable naira in 2025 is restoring profitability across NGX listed firms. An analysis of NGX 30 listed firms shows that twenty-six of the firms recorded a 72.7 percent increase in after-tax profits to N7.6 trillion in the nine months of 2025 from N4.4 trillion in the same period of 2024.

    This reflects a broad-based profit recovery, particularly among those companies with domestic production bases and moderate import exposure.

    The surveyed firms include BUA Foods, MTN, Dangote Cement, BUA Cement, Geregu Power, Transcorp Power, Nigerian Breweries PLC, Lafarge Africa and International Breweries.

    Others are Transcorp Hotel, Nestle Nigeria, Presco Plc, Okomu Oil, Dangote Sugar Refinery, Oando Plc, Transnational Corporation, Access Holding Plc, and Fidelity Bank.

    The overall data shows that as the naira steadied in 2025, corporate Nigeria began to regain balance after years of volatility-induced distortions. Companies’ profit margins are improving, cost management is firmer and financing plans are clearer. Companies that are yet to resume dividend payments are expected to do so sooner than later.

    For instance, the telecom giant MTN Nigeria rebounded strongly, posting a N750 billion profit in the first nine months of 2025, reversing a N513 billion loss a year earlier. Revenue soared 57 percent year-on-year to N3.73 trillion, driven by data and fintech growth.

    In the energy sector, Seplat Energy’s profit rose sharply to N146 billion, up from N52 billion in 2024, while Oando Plc earned N201 billion after several volatile years.

    Power companies such as Geregu and Transcorp Power benefited from stable naira-denominated financing and improved energy demand from industries resuming expansion.

    Agricultural firms, notably Presco and Okomu Oil, posted strong earnings growth of 116 percent on the back of export competitiveness and efficient operations. The near-profit explosion across listed companies is indicative of prospective performances of the listed companies on the NGX with implications for production expansion, employment and wealth creation in 2026.

    New Tax Laws and Nigeria’s Economic Buoyancy

    The tax reforms, which took effect on January 1, 2026, are projected to improve Nigeria’s tax mobilization. The federation’s revenue is expected to strengthen further, driven by the phased implementation of tax reforms, tighter compliance enforcement, expanded use of digital revenue systems, and improved remittance discipline across revenue-generating agencies.

    In addition, Nigeria’s tax reforms will redefine how manufacturers operate, invest, and plan for growth. The law signals a clear policy shift towards a more coordinated and incentive-driven fiscal environment, particularly for the manufacturing sector.

    At the centre of the reforms are the newly-introduced Economic Development Tax Incentives targeting priority sectors such as manufacturing. Under the scheme, eligible companies can obtain an Economic Development Incentive Certificate, granting a five percent annual tax credit on qualifying capital expenditure for up to five years. Firms that reinvest profits may access longer incentive periods, while some manufacturing-related transactions are exempt from stamp duties. The incentives are intended to tilt investment decisions in favour of local production and industrial expansion, particularly at a time when manufacturers are under pressure from import costs and foreign exchange volatility. These hold strong momentum potentials for increased production and productivity growth in 2026.

    Beyond incentives, the Tax Act revises capital allowance rules, providing clearer guidance on how manufacturers can claim deductions on plant, machinery, and industrial buildings. This could ease pressure on cash flow by allowing businesses to recover capital costs more quickly during the early stages of operation or expansion and further encourage increased PPE acquisition across sector.

    The Act also introduces research and development deductions. It permits manufacturers to deduct up to 5 percent of turnover from taxable profits where spending is linked to innovation. This provision could encourage product development and technology upgrades, areas where many local manufacturers have historically lagged behind, due to funding constraints.

    Another production bolstering factor is the clearer rules on input VAT credits, which are expected to reduce disputes and prevent the accumulation of unrecoverable taxes on raw materials and capital equipment with manufacturers operating within the agriculture and agro-processing value chain standing to gain further advantages. These include income tax exemptions for the first five years of operation, zero-rated VAT on selected inputs such as animal feeds and fertilisers, and duty-free importation of machinery for agricultural production. Taken together, the measures could strengthen margins and free up resources for expansion, workforce development, and technology investment, improving the competitiveness of locally-made goods.

    Key pro-poor provisions in the tax laws include full exemption from Personal Income Tax for individuals earning ₦800,000 or less annually (covering minimum wage earners). Progressive taxation shifting more burden to higher earners. Elimination of numerous “nuisance taxes” that disproportionately affected small businesses and low-income households. Expanded reliefs, such as increased tax-free compensation for job loss or injury (from ₦10 million to ₦50 million) and incentives for agriculture and small enterprises. These changes will harmonize levies, reduce multiple taxation, boost revenue without borrowing dependency, and stimulate economic growth.

    Nigeria’s Emerging Supply Chain Sub-sector

    In the realm of global commerce, supply chains are the backbone of economic activities, especially in emerging markets like Nigeria. These networks encompass all stages of production, from raw material sourcing to the final product delivery. Nigeria’s integration into the global supply chain is advancing through a $2 billion logistics sector, driven by e-commerce, infrastructure investments, and AfCFTA, with growth expected to reach $3 billion by 2029.

    Key sectors include oil, agriculture, and manufacturing, though challenges remain in infrastructure, with logistics costs exceeding $29 billion annually.

    We also see a geographical relocation of industry as a result of cheap labour. Nigeria offers significantly lower labour costs compared to China and other Asian economies, making it an ideal location for cost-conscious manufacturers particularly with AfCFTA providing access to 1.54 billion consumers while approximately 47 percent of Nigerian businesses have adopted digital solutions to optimize supply chain operations.

    Nigerian Banks’ Credit to Real Sector to Increase

    The challenge for Nigerian banks in the post-recapitalization era starting March 2026, is the operational compulsion to move from defensive balance-sheet positioning to carefully priced lending. This will facilitate entrepreneur financing across strategic sectors of the economy. At the household level, pressure on consumer wallets should continue to ease, as inflation is expected to fall below the long-run average and the CBN inflation target.

    Conclusion

    The year 2026 promises to be a standout season for the Nigerian economy despite the tensions that usually characterize election season. Though Nigeria’s federal and state elections are to hold early in 2027, however, all maneuvres, intrigues and intense politicking that usually precede the election year and endanger the business of governance will rear their ugly heads this year.

    However, from our readings, the Federal Government of Nigeria has shown substantial capacity to manage an economy that is transiting from populism to policy-driven facilitation. The economic atmosphere so engendered has variously enabled independence and effective decision-making process for the critical private sector sphere of the economy. This has given fillip to economic momentum and is now the reason we are decoupling GDP’s growth prospects from the budget of the Nigerian federation as it used to be.

    Without doubt, the President Tinubu-led administration is successfully driving the economy away from the doldrums of uncertainty that used to distort the growth paths of the national economy. This gives us utmost confidence in the robust and positive trajectory of the national economy.

    • Omoniyi M. Akinsiju, PhD, Chairman, Independent Media and Policy Initiative (IMPI) , writes from Abuja
  • Week the numbers could not ignore

    Week the numbers could not ignore

    There are weeks in the life of a presidency when events align so neatly that even the most sceptical observers are forced to pause. Last week was one of such weeks for President Bola Ahmed Tinubu and, by extension, for Nigeria. From the diplomatic theatres of Ankara to the trading screens of the foreign exchange market, and finally to the cold verdict of an influential global publication, the signals were unmistakably positive. It was a week of wins, plain and clear.

    It began in Türkiye. On Monday evening, President Tinubu arrived in Ankara at the invitation of Recep Tayyip Erdogan, stepping into the biting winter cold not as a tourist or ceremonial guest, but as a man on a mission. Those who know Tinubu’s political and administrative DNA understand this instinctively. He does not travel to admire scenery or exchange pleasantries. He travels for leverage, for advantage, for deals that can move the needle at home. Ankara was no exception.

    By Tuesday, the business end of the visit was in full swing. The optics alone told a story: a Nigerian delegation heavy with ministers and senior officials, sitting across from their Turkish counterparts, not in supplication but in negotiation. By the time the doors opened and the communiqués rolled out, Nigeria walked away with no fewer than nine multi-sectoral agreements. Defense cooperation, energy, education, diaspora policy, media, halal quality infrastructure, and the establishment of a Joint Economy and Trade Committee all made the list. Most symbolically, both countries recommitted themselves to growing bilateral trade to $5 billion. It was previously about $2 billion.

    That figure is not mere diplomatic decoration. It represents factories humming, ports busier than before, and jobs created along value chains that stretch from Lagos to Ankara. It signals confidence in Nigeria as a destination for capital at a time when investors are notoriously cautious. For Tinubu, it was also another entry in a familiar ledger. As governor of Lagos State years ago, he built a reputation as a dealmaker who understood that growth follows structure, and structure follows hard choices. Türkiye felt like a reprise of that Lagos playbook, scaled to a national stage.

    Even the minor mishap that briefly caught public attention, (back at home though because reports had it that Turks were surprised to hear that made a headline in Nigeria); a stumble caused by stepping on a metal object, became an unintended metaphor. The President steadied himself and carried on. No drama, no interruption, no retreat. In many ways, it mirrored the broader reform journey of his administration: momentarily jarring, uncomfortable to watch at times, but defined by forward motion rather than paralysis.

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    While the echoes of Ankara were still settling, another signal emerged back home. On Thursday, the naira did something it had not done in a long while: it surprised the optimists by outperforming expectations. Strengthening from the N1,450–N1,420 range to about N1,388.24 to the dollar at the official window, the currency recorded its strongest showing since May 2024. In a country where exchange rate movements dominate dinner-table conversations and boardroom calculations alike, the news landed with force.

    This was not a random bounce. It was the fruit of a decision Tinubu took early in his presidency, and for which he paid a heavy political price: pulling the plug on the rent-seeking, multi-window foreign exchange regime and allowing the naira to find its level. That move stripped away the illusion of strength that had enriched a few through arbitrage while bleeding the economy. It denied round-trippers their playground and forced capital to respond to fundamentals rather than favours.

    For months, the pain was real and visible. Inflation surged, purchasing power shrank, and the criticism was relentless. Yet, as last Thursday’s numbers suggested, the architecture was always designed for this phase: stabilisation, credibility, and gradual recovery. A currency that can strengthen on the back of policy coherence is one that investors can trust, even if cautiously. The Ankara deals and the naira’s performance were not separate stories; they were chapters of the same narrative.

    Then came Friday, and with it, the verdict of The Economist. Rarely sentimental and often unforgiving, the magazine offered an assessment that many Nigerians might not have expected so soon. It credited Tinubu’s administration with pulling Africa’s largest economy back from the brink. It noted that painful reforms had stabilised the naira, rebuilt foreign exchange reserves to a seven-year high, and set the stage for renewed growth, with the IMF projecting a 4.4 per cent expansion in 2026.

    The Economist did not ignore the hardships. It acknowledged the squeeze on ordinary Nigerians and the strain of debt servicing on public finances. But its core conclusion was unambiguous: the direction is right, the precision of reform is evident, and the economy is no longer wobbling on the edge. For a president whose choices have often been judged harshly in the court of public opinion, that mattered.

    Put together, the three strands of the week tell a coherent story. The success in Türkiye was not an isolated diplomatic flourish; it was an external validation of internal reform. Investors and partner nations respond to seriousness, to clarity of purpose, and to governments that are willing to endure short-term pain for long-term gain. The naira’s rally was not a miracle; it was a market response to consistency. And The Economist’s analysis was not flattery; it was a recognition that something fundamental has shifted.

    There is still a long road ahead. Stability does not automatically translate into prosperity, and macroeconomic improvements can feel abstract to families struggling with daily costs. Tinubu himself has never pretended otherwise. Yet politics, like economics, moves in phases. Last week marked the end of one such phase and the clear opening of another, one in which credibility begins to compound.

    For President Tinubu, it was a reminder that leadership is often vindicated not in applause but in outcomes. A week that began with a flight into Ankara ended with numbers and narratives aligning in his favour. The cameras saw it, the markets felt it, and the world took note. In the unforgiving arithmetic of governance, that counts as a win.

    Beyond the headline-grabbing success of the Turkish state visit, the steady rebound of the naira against the dollar and the rare nod of approval from The Economist, the rest of President Tinubu’s week unfolded as a careful blend of statecraft, empathy and symbolism, quiet moments that often say as much about leadership as high-stakes diplomacy.

    Midweek, the President turned national attention to matters of shared grief and collective humanity. On Wednesday, he reached out to Super Eagles captain Wilfred Ndidi following the tragic death of his father, Sunday Ndidi, in a road accident in Delta State. Tinubu’s message, sober and deeply personal, underscored the bond between family and nation, reminding Nigerians that even their most celebrated stars are not immune to loss. The condolence resonated all the more because it came just as Ndidi continues to carry the hopes of a football-loving nation on his shoulders.

    That same day, the President’s gaze shifted from personal sorrow to a global challenge that increasingly defines the modern age. Speaking through the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Senator George Akume, at a high-level meeting on climate-induced mobility under Nigeria’s chairmanship of the Rabat Process, Tinubu made a case for coordinated global action. His message was clear: climate change is no longer an abstract environmental concern but a driver of migration, insecurity and humanitarian strain across continents. It was a fitting final note to Nigeria’s tenure as Chair, positioning the country as a thoughtful voice in global conversations that link climate, development and human dignity.

    Also on Wednesday, the President mourned the passing of Otunba Adekunle Ojora, a towering figure in Nigeria’s business and public life. Tinubu’s tribute to the 93-year-old industrialist highlighted values; humility, perseverance, hard work and generosity, that once defined a generation of nation builders and which the administration continues to invoke as moral anchors in a reforming economy.

    Thursday carried a more reflective, historical tone. At the 2026 Samuel Akintola Memorial Lecture in Ibadan, Tinubu urged Nigerians to draw lessons from the life of the late Premier of Western Nigeria, Chief Ladoke Akintola. Through his representative, he called for courage, unity and a politics of cooperation, warning against bitterness and division, an appeal that echoed the administration’s broader push for national cohesion amid political realignments.

    The week closed on a gentler, celebratory note. On Friday, Tinubu congratulated Alhaja Lateefat Gbajabiamila, a 96-year-old pioneer nurse and former local government chair, on her honorary doctorate. In celebrating her resilience and service, the President subtly reinforced a theme that ran through his week: that nationhood is built not only by policies and power but by lives of quiet excellence, compassion and enduring legacy.

    Taken together, these moments formed the understated rhythm of a presidency attentive not just to markets and summits, but to memory, mourning and meaning.

  • 70 years journey of Nigeria’s Platinum Navy

    70 years journey of Nigeria’s Platinum Navy

    • By Babajide Fadoju

    In 2026, the Nigerian Navy will officially turn 70, having come into existence on June 1, 1956, as the Nigerian Navy Defence Force (NNDF). The middle child of Nigeria’s Armed Forces—younger than the Army but older than the Air Force—the Service is approaching a platinum jubilee milestone.

    For the Navy, and for the nation as a whole, this anniversary is a moment to celebrate and honour an enduring legacy of courageous service. It is also an opportunity to reaffirm the Navy’s unwavering commitment to safeguarding Nigeria’s maritime domain and protecting the country’s vital economic lifelines at sea.

    Platinum, as a metal, symbolises strength and durability. It is resistant to wear and corrosion, widely used across industries, and is, in fact, the most ductile of all pure metals—able to be stretched into thin wire without breaking.

    It is a fitting metaphor for the Nigerian Navy: resilient under pressure, adaptable in form, and enduring in purpose.

    The man who will lead the Service through its 70th anniversary and into the next phase of its journey is Vice Admiral Idi Abbas, the 56-year-old 25th Chief of the Naval Staff, who assumed command on the penultimate day of October 2025. Since taking office, the highly decorated Above Water Warfare specialist has signalled his determination to preside over a defining era for the Navy.

    For his command, 2026 will be a pivotal year—an opportunity to present to the world a Nigerian Navy that is at its most capable, most motivated, and most formidable in its history, and to demonstrate fidelity to his inaugural pledge to “uphold the proud traditions of excellence and service that define our Navy,” while leading from the front, listening attentively, and keeping personnel welfare at the heart of command.

    As the new year gets underway, preparations are gathering momentum, under Abbas’ leadership, for the anniversary celebrations, which will take place within the symbolic window between May 29 and June 12—two of the most significant dates in Nigeria’s democratic calendar. That symbolism should not be overlooked. The Navy, like the rest of the Armed Forces, occupies a special place in Nigeria’s democracy: protecting national sovereignty, preserving territorial integrity, and projecting Nigerian power and influence beyond its shores.

    Planned events for the platinum jubilee include an International Maritime Conference and Exhibition, as well as an International Fleet Review (IFR). Of all the Services, the Nigerian Navy is perhaps the most intrinsically international in outlook, given the multinational nature of the maritime environment in which it operates. It is therefore no surprise that navies from around the world will converge on Nigeria in the first week of June to participate in the celebrations, underscoring the Service’s growing global partnerships and standing.

    It is not an exaggeration to say that the modest force that began in 1956 with a handful of patrol, training, and survey vessels would barely recognise today’s Nigerian Navy. What now exists is one of Africa’s most formidable and respected maritime forces, equipped with modern platforms, improved infrastructure, and a more professionalised corps of officers and ratings.

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    Even compared to the Navy that marked its 60th anniversary in 2016, today’s Service represents a significant leap forward. The past decade has seen sustained investment, doctrinal refinement, and operational improvement. The results are evident. This is the Nigerian Navy that has kept Nigeria off the global list of piracy-prone nations for four consecutive years, maintaining a clean slate since that historic achievement in 2022—no small feat in one of the world’s most complex maritime regions.

    This is also the Nigerian Navy that, in 2025, concluded an agreement with the African Union to provide strategic sea lift services in support of AU humanitarian operations across the continent. Central to this capability is NNS KADA, one of the most modern and capable warships in Africa today.

    Indeed, it is KADA’s advanced capabilities that positioned the Navy to credibly offer such support to the African Union.

    The Navy’s elite Special Boat Service (SBS) has further strengthened its reputation as a top-tier special forces unit, and is now complemented by a newly established Special Operations Command (SOC), strategically located along the banks of the River Benue in Makurdi, Benue State.

    Beyond defence, the Nigerian Navy has increasingly asserted itself in humanitarian assistance and community impact. Through dozens of infrastructure projects nationwide, as well as high-risk rescue and evacuation operations, the Service has saved countless lives that would otherwise have been lost to maritime accidents and flooding.

    In August 2024, all 59 crew members of the dredging vessel MV Ambika 4 were rescued during a ten-hour naval operation—an operation that tragically claimed the life of Lieutenant Commander Gideon Yashim Gwaza, who led the mission and paid the ultimate price in service to others. More recently, on December 22, 2025, Nigerian Navy personnel rescued 20 crew members from the burning MV Chimba Express along the Calabar waterways.

    Nigeria was also recently in the news for the military intervention that helped preserve democracy in the Republic of Benin following an attempted coup on December 7. Less widely known, however, is the Nigerian Navy’s quiet but crucial role in strengthening Benin’s maritime security. Just two weeks before the attempted coup, the Naval Dockyard Limited formally handed over a fully refitted Benin Navy ship, BNS Matelot Brice Kpomasse, as part of an agreement to repair and upgrade six Beninese naval vessels signed in 2024.

    The Nigerian Navy has also become a valued partner in the global effort to fully map the world’s ocean floor. In May 2023, it entered a historic partnership with the Nippon Foundation–GEBCO Seabed 2030 Project, reflecting the significant advances the Service has made in oceanographic research, hydrographic surveying, and technical expertise. These advances have delivered tangible local benefits, with the National Hydrographic Agency—formerly the Nigerian Navy Hydrographic Office—producing updated and more accurate charts of Nigeria’s waterways.

    These achievements outlined above represent only a fraction of what defines Nigeria’s platinum Naval Force. Like every other Service, and the entirety of Nigeria’s security architecture, the Nigerian Navy has been able to count on the unwavering support and commitment of the Commander-in-Chief, His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. With this level of support, there is no doubt that the best is yet ahead; that fair winds and following seas are already assembling to usher the Nigerian Navy into an even more rewarding next chapter.

    • Fadoju writes from Ondo State
  • Lagos’ bridge of death

    Lagos’ bridge of death

    Perhaps no other bridge in Nigeria has recorded more road crashes than the Otedola Bridge on the outskirt of Lagos along the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway. Weekly, sometimes daily, crashes, most times, very bloody and fatal, have become so regular, that commuters now have their hearts in their mouth once their vehicles approach the axis. But why is this so and how can it be stemmed? Gboyega Alaka writes.

    It was never officially named Otedola Bridge. However, by virtue of its proximity to the Lagos State medium housing estate located right opposite the bridge and named after a former Lagos State Governor, Sir Michael Otedola, father of billionaire businessman, Femi Otedola, it naturally assumed the name. Inevitably, the volume of auto crashes, gridlocks and other unpalatable incidences recorded weekly, sometimes daily on the bridge; meant the media had to unwittingly adopt a descriptive name for it, and Otedola naturally came handy. 

    Welcome to Lagos bridge of death

    For every Nigerian newspaper reader or news junkie, the name ‘Otedola Bridge’ unveiled in 1978 as part of the newly completed Lagos-Ibadan Expressway should ring a bell, albeit for negative reasons. Hardly a week passes without it featuring in the news. And the headlines are always as horrific as they come: “Three family members die, two rescued in Otedola bridge autocrat”; “Eight injured as truck crashes on Otedola Bridge”; “Two serious accidents rock Otedola Bridge in Lagos. Fully loaded trucks overturn”; “Truck rams into two cars on Otedola Bridge”; LASTMA rescues baby in multiple vehicle collision on Otedola Bridge”; “Another gridlock hits Otedola Bridge as truck, commercial bus crash in Lagos”; “Otedola bridge fire: Drivers, traders, mechanics lament devastating losses…”

    One could go on and on and on. Hundreds of lives have been lost, many maimed for life and vehicles and properties destroyed.

    In one of such incidents reported on March 12, 2025, titled: “Otedola bridge fire: Drivers, traders, mechanics lament devastating losses”, The Nation reporter captured a grim aftermath.

    On Tuesday March 11, 2025, a devastating fire had erupted after a 30-tonne gas tanker overturned on the bridge, fell over and exploded. That inferno did not only claim lives – LASEMA (the Lagos state Emergency Management Agency) reported two dead (unofficial report claimed four); it claimed vehicles, moving and some others stationed at mechanics’ workshops underneath the bridge and nearby.

    Altogether, between 12 and 15 automobiles were destroyed alongside eight tricycles and several buildings, including a church (partially), a dental clinic and a plaza.

    A survivor, George Uchenna, a driver, recounted his narrow escape: “I parked with my boy when the tanker fell. We managed to run, but about ten bus drivers at the scene didn’t make it.”

    Among the victims was Baba Rotimi, a well-known mechanic trapped by the spreading gas before the fire ignited, leaving him with no room to escape. Rumour had it that he was trying to rescue a customer’s vehicle.

    A member of nearby Redeemed Christian Church of God (Fulfillment Centre) Paul Samuel, narrated how the raging flame consumed the church’s gate (but mercifully spared the church auditorium); while the plaza was consumed almost in its entirety.

    Another eyewitness, Tosin, a mechanic revealed that a food vendor’s gas explosion worsened the raging fire, causing it to further consume four parked cars.

    Most horrendous was the death of a newly wedded couple: Chiedozie Okoye, a banker with Zenith Bank and his wife, Joan Chidalu, an America-based nurse, who had only been married weeks earlier in the inferno.

    And the tragedies go back in time. On June 28, 2018, what may go down as the most horrendous yet happened on the same bridge when a Mack truck tanker carrying a 33,000-liter of petrol heading out of Lagos suffered a brake failure, fell over and spilled its content on the busy expressway.

    The explosion that ensued created a massive inferno that quickly engulfed numerous oncoming vehicles, trapping their drivers and passengers.

    Official reports confirmed 12 deaths including a minor, while four survivors suffered severe burns. Most of the victims were burnt beyond recognition, with families needing DNA analysis to identify their relatives.

    In all, 54 vehicles were utterly burnt, including the tanker, five buses and 45 private cars.

    That incident caused the Lagos State government to come up with stricter regulations for articulated vehicles, including restricted movement hours for tankers (from 9pm to 6am). Unfortunately, that law soon became inactive, as motorists reverted to old ways and articulated vehicles resumed plying highways at their whims.

    Speaking on non-compliance to that regulation when confronted with the rascality of articulated vehicles and their wanton waste of lives and destruction of properties in an interview not long ago, the Special Adviser to the Lagos State Government on Transportation, Mr. Sola Giwa, said it was a regulation and not a law. He also stated that it was necessitated by the events of the time, and that it has never been reversed. He, however, stated that the issue of insecurity, as cited by the drivers, necessitated a relaxing of its enforcement.

    “It was a regulation, not a law. … At that time, the regulation was a necessity, and nobody has reversed it. However, we also noticed the issue of security which came up, where drivers and owners came here complaining that they are being attacked while moving at night. So as a listening government, we started looking for other ways of regulating them, such as use of weigh bridges and stopping them from point of entry into the state. …As a government, we have to continuously think outside the box and evolve.”

    More horrendous stories

    The effect of that non-compliance has been more horrendous accidents, blood spilled and properties and valuables consumed, with incidences Otedola Bridge, leading the pack.

    On November 5 (2025), eight people were severely injured and hospitalised when a truck rammed into eight vehicles on the Otedola Bridge section of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway.

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    The truck, heading out of Lagos, was said to have rammed into two 18-seater buses, one minibus, and five cars.

    Just last week, January 23, 2026 to be exact, the bridge again witnessed a multiple crash in the early hours, leading to a gridlock that lasted long hours. Muyiwa Hassan, a photographer with The Nation newspaper told this reporter the horrific story of how he spent six hours on a journey that should at best take him 45miniutes between his Fatai Atere office and Magboro residence.

    Not surprisingly, the accident claimed one life, the driver of one of the trucks.

    Traffic authorities in Lagos said the principal incident involved a violent collision between two heavy-duty trailers, one laden with sand and the other conveying granite. Both drivers were said to be recklessly contending for right of way when tragedy struck.

    The Director, Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, of the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) Adebayo Taofiq said in a statement: “The driver of the second trailer was rescued alive and remarkably, escaped unhurt.”

    “Cumulatively, the incidents obstructed nearly 80 per cent of the carriageway, thereby compelling the implementation of extensive traffic control and diversion measures,” LASTMA said.

    “Consequently, motorists travelling inward Lagos from the Mowe, Kara Bridge and Redemption Camp axis were redirected through the Ojodu –Olole route, connecting Agidingbi, Coca-Cola, Secretariat, and 7-Up to enable continued movement towards Gbagada or Ojota with minimal inconvenience.”

    The Rapid Response Squad of the Lagos State Police Command posted that a secondary accident occurred as a result of the overturned truck.

    “Two serious accidents have occurred at Otedola Bridge, inward Lagos. In the first incident, a fully loaded truck overturned, spilling its consignments onto the road and covering about 90 per cent of the carriageway.”

    It stated that the accident, which happened inward Secretariat along the Lagos–Ibadan Expressway, left thousands of people stranded on the ever-busy highway.

    On December 10, 2025, three family members were confirmed dead while two other victims sustained injuries following a multi-vehicle collision at the Secretariat towards Otedola Bridge, along Lagos–Ibadan Expressway.

    Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA) reported that the three family members were a father, mother and their young child.

    Preliminary investigations revealed that the incident involving three vehicles (Audi, Toyota Camry & Toyota Corolla) occurred when a heavily loaded truck travelling at excessive speed violently hit one of the vehicles from the rear, causing it to lose control and collide with two other moving vehicles.

    On October 30, the bridge recorded another crash, leaving one person injured. That incident occurred just hours after a deadly crash on Kara Bridge, which left several people dead and caused gridlock on the Expressway.

    A truck reportedly suffered brake failure, ramming into a vehicle in front and triggering a chain collision involving three other cars.

    The crash caused severe gridlock on both sides of the bridge, causing commuters to spend hours in traffic.

    Baby rescued unhurt

    On November 20, 2025, the bridge yet again made the headlines, with screaming tabloid title such as “LASTMA rescues baby in multiple vehicle collision at Otedola Bridge.”

    The baby, an eight-month-old infant was rescued unhurt in a multiple-vehicle collision early that Thursday at the Otedola Bridge, while no fewer than four pedestrians sustained serious injuries.

    The accident, according to LASTMA’s Director of Public Affairs and Enlightenment Department, Adebayo Taofiq, involved four vehicles.

    The four injured pedestrians, one of who was carrying the baby, were said to be crossing the expressway when an LT commercial bus rammed into them.

    The impact, Taofiq claimed, led to a secondary chain collision involving three other vehicles.

    Kara bridge, sister culprit

    Equally notorious for crashes is the Kara Bridge on the same Lagos-Ibadan expressway. Just 2.7kilometers from the Otedola Bridge, it might seems impossible to discuss crashes on Otedola Bridge or gridlocks at that, without referencing or implicating Kara, as effects of incidences on one impact the other.

    A fortnight ago, Kara Bridge inward Mowe witnessed a multiple crash that led to the death of two people with several injured.

    The accident occurred when a truck conveying bags of flour reportedly lost control and rammed into several vehicles, including commercial buses on the busy highway.

    The impact also affected a Toyota Corolla that had been parked on the bridge due to a flat tyre, injuring its driver.

    Emergency responders from the Lagos State Traffic Management Authority (LASTMA), the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC), and the Ogun State Traffic Compliance and Enforcement Agency (TRACE) were deployed to the scene to manage traffic and carry out rescue operations.

    LASTMA in its official X handle said the crash involved a truck, a Toyota Corolla, a RAV4 SUV, and two fully loaded interstate buses.

    Not surprisingly, the accident caused severe traffic gridlock, trapping thousands in their vehicles for hours.

    Months earlier on October 30, 2025, six persons, including a police officer were confirmed dead following a multiple collision on the Kara Bridge.

    The crash involved several trucks, including a fuel tanker. This resulted in a massive fire and chaos on the highway.

    Eyewitnesses would later say that one of the trucks veered off the road and crashed into the concrete barricade on the bridge. The impact severed the truck’s head, causing it to plunge into the river below.

    One of the victims, said to be a truck occupant, was burnt beyond recognition, while others, including a policeman and an assistant to one of the drivers, also lost their lives.

    All-year-round

    While the ‘Ember months have become notorious for accidents – many have put this down to certain beliefs and myths; these two bridges make no distinction. They remain prone to accidents every other month of the year –be it January, March or August; licking blood, savouring the clatter of bones and metal as well as mashing of flesh.

    On some very bad weeks, Otedola Bridge, especially, records up to three or more fatal accidents, raising concerns and questions. Is it due to engineering fault, drivers’ impatience/recklessness? Or some supernatural reasons?

    As Africans, this last part needed to be raised, as this is not the only bridge in Lagos.