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Tag: Bayo Onanuga

  • In less than three years, Tinubu has a lot to show for his stewardship — Onanuga

    In less than three years, Tinubu has a lot to show for his stewardship — Onanuga

    …references The Economist’s positive analysis of administration’s progress

    …cites inflation drop, reserve growth, investor return

    The Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, has said President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has achieved significant economic gains in less than three years in office, citing a recent assessment by The Economist.

    Onanuga, in a post on his verified X handle, @aonanuga1956, drew attention to the January 29 edition of the magazine, which reviewed the state of Nigeria’s economy before and after President Tinubu assumed office in 2023.

    According to the magazine, President Tinubu inherited a deeply troubled economy marked by severe fiscal and monetary imbalances.

    It noted that when he took office, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) faced unmet obligations of about $7 billion, equivalent to 1.4 per cent of GDP at the time, a situation that triggered a mass exit of international investors.

    The publication added that the apex bank’s credibility had been undermined by loose monetary policy, mismanagement of foreign exchange reserves, and the maintenance of an unsustainable multi-tier exchange rate regime, while the Federal Government spent about $10 billion, or 2.2 per cent of GDP, on fuel subsidy in 2022 alone.

    It said the Tinubu administration responded with “drastic structural reforms,” including the removal of fuel subsidy and the unification of the foreign exchange market, allowing the naira to float more freely.

    The magazine further observed that monetary policy was aggressively tightened to curb inflation, while the government also moved to improve security in the Niger Delta and introduced tax incentives to attract investors and boost oil production.

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    While acknowledging that Nigerians, particularly the poor and middle class, continue to feel the impact of higher fuel and food prices, the publication said the reforms appear to be yielding results.

    It noted that annual inflation, which peaked at 34.8 per cent in December 2024, fell sharply to 15.2 per cent by December 2025, while economic growth is returning, with the International Monetary Fund projecting 4.4 per cent growth in 2026.

    According to the assessment, the naira has stabilised after two major devaluations in 2023, and Nigeria’s foreign exchange reserves have risen to $46 billion, their highest level in seven years.

    The publication said improvements in macroeconomic stability are restoring investor confidence, citing plans by Shell to finalise development of a $20 billion offshore oilfield by 2027 and a $1.5 billion deepwater investment commitment by Exxon Mobil.

    It added that local business leaders are also more optimistic, with oil and gas output rising due to improved security and increased participation by indigenous firms in the Niger Delta.

    According to the post, the magazine concluded that the reforms should provide the government with greater fiscal breathing room, particularly as a more competitive naira boosts non-oil exports such as cocoa and cashew nuts.

  • June 12 Honours…knocks on Bayo Onanuga and Co, Alex Ibru (6)

    June 12 Honours…knocks on Bayo Onanuga and Co, Alex Ibru (6)

    Deliberately, I skipped publication of the fifth part of this series. It will appear on my Facebook page (John Olufemi Kusa). It continues my responses to Mr Osadolor’s assumption that publication of this series in this column is an abuse on a health platform. The skip is to enable urgent address of other weighty assumptions, namely that:

    1) Femi Kusa was an Editor of The Guardian who could not write an EDITORIAL OPINION and NEVER wrote one

    2) FEMI KUSA was intellectually incompetent to be on THE GUARDIAN’S Editorial board, that he often attended editorial board meetings only to be at sea, correcting errors in current editions of the newspaper and would occasionally wake up to make contributions which were at variance with the flow of thought. When I read that, it reminded me of a former Nigerian president who was so hard of hearing that if you said “GOOD MORNING” to him, he could reply his second marriage took place in 1985. Such was the hilarious atmosphere Mr. Osadolor said Femi Kusa generated at editorial board meetings that many, if not all, of the editorial board members made a gossip stock of him.

    Wherever Mr. Osadolor situates FEMI KUSA, he was always as an object of gossip. If Mr. Osadolor always was a constant factor in those gossips, he must be a gossip. We should have ideas of what gossips are like. If time and space permit, we should soon find him and someone else gossiping about FEMI KUSA at a hospital where Mr Alex Ibru was taken after he was shot and, before then, at the Sheraton Hotel, Abuja now (Abuja Continental) when the editors of The Guardian and Mr Alex Ibru lodged, preparatory to their meeting with Gen. Sanni Abacha.

    GOSSIPS

    My understanding of gossips is that they are dwarf human spirits who envy giant human spirits for inner treasures of the latter beyond their reach. Emanations from the superior persons scorch or wear them during any inward encounter. None of us can stand before a person of higher etheric vibration than ours and be indifferent to him or her. We are either attracted to that person through a longing for something more sublime than is in us, or we are repulsed if we are unable to appreciate sublimity. If we doubt existence of the aura or emanation, what shall we say of healing through the laying of hands, in which the healer passes animistic energy to another whose energy is down, like an active battery jump starting a flat battery? The Lord Jesus displayed this in the healing of the woman “with the issue of blood” when he asked… Who  touched me, for I perceived power go out of me? Energy outflow brought Lazarus back from the dead, as it did Jairus’s daughter. Peter raised Tabitha as Paul did Eutychus. The transfiguration reveals emanations. Inwardly diminutive Kings shiver before inwardly mightier slaves. The Biblical Joseph was gossiped by his brothers because of his majesty and sold into slavery. Goliath succumbed before shepherd boy David, whose aura unnerved King Saul. The gossip, envious and hateful, can be destructive through slander, and may even murder the person he fears or unsettles him.

    I will address the aforestated assumptions of Mr. Osadolor in the context of the start-up history of The Guardian, which he did not experience. Our forebears say: BI OMODE O BA BA ITAN, A  BA AROBA; AROBA SI NI BABA ITAN. (Children predated by history can learn history from oral tradition; indeed, oral tradition is the father of history).

    A START-UP ACCOUNT

    Externally, The Guardian personified a beautiful kingdom in which harmony prevailed. In nature, beauty and harmony are inseparable. Within The start up Guardian were two kingdoms at war. Later, ethnic relationships are rivetted through the fabrics. I will discuss this in relation to the newsroom and the editorial board, the two kingdoms.

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    As stated earlier in the series, Mr Alex Ibru wished to set up a small-scale newspaper. He spoke with Mr. Segun Osoba, as he then was, who was at The Daily Times. Mr. Osoba invited Mr. Lade Bonuola to be Editor. Mr. Lade Bonuola invited Femi Kusa to be Assistant Editor. When Mr. Osoba had to manage the Sketch or The Herald, Mr. Ibru invited his senior at Ibadan Grammar School, Dr. Patrick Dele Cole, to replace Mr. Osoba. Dr. Cole had been brought to The Daily Times by Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo following his military government’s seizure of 60 percent of the newspaper’s shares to oust Alhaji Babatunde Jose from the chairmanship of the Board which he held concurrently with the office of Managing Director. Dr. Cole brought his friend, Dr. Stanley Macebuh, to The Daily Times. Dr. Macebuh tried to introduce American type of Editorial Board but the Editor, Prince Tony Momoh, resisted it. In the American system, a board, not the Editor, decided and wrote editorial opinions, whereas the Editor did in the British system operated in Nigeria. Once, Dr. Macebuh invited me to his office to ask why I edited his article. I was Deputy Production Editor. I had heard stories about what one may call “a struggle for power”. He reasoned with me. Even if he had done otherwise, I would not have changed my decision because I reported directly to the Editor.

    We met again at The Guardian where he was Executive Editor, an American title which gave him control over a non- executive editor. The brief Mr. Bonuola gave me months before the start-up of The Guardian was for me to knock out a NewsRoom that would make the newspaper second to none in the country at its debut. This included a study of the weaknesses of news reports, news rooms, and cutting edge techniques for the upcoming newspaper. The Guardian’s newsroom was designed on a Beat System, against a News Editor’s Diary System in most newsrooms. We were to have no News Editor at start-up. I was to train greenhorn reporters who, within three months, would be full-fledged reporters. I was to develop a reportorial style second to none in the country that would make The Guardian rank among the best five well-written newspapers in the English speaking world. I was to double as News Editor and Assistant Editor and produce seven titles in one week after debut of the Sunday title to test waters. On top of these, only two persons were to re-write all the news reports of every edition. This was to uniformise the style and set a standard for our greenhorn reporters. Those two persons were Mr. Bonuola and Femi Kusa. Mr, Bonuola soon retired, called up by other exigencies. We often set tables as beds at night as we slept in the office. We had about three sub editors in place of 10 and only one newsroom typist, Mr Ganiyu Lawal. As many as 10 reporters may be sighted on a queue before me waiting for their copies to be re-written wholesale. Initially, we printed at the sketch in Ibadan and, later, at The Punch where we also sometimes slept. Some of the young men and women brought new briefs at nearby Oshodi market to change old ones. Local food canteens nearby cooked for us. Dr. Macebuh, never a reporter or a newsroom manager, once exclaimed that the dedication to duty was “beyond the normal call of duty”. He was veering towards the conception of DUTY AND LOYALTY in creation which demands CONVICTION in, AND LOVE for duty. DUTY and LOYALTY are inseparable where the worker is not a mercenary merely working for the pay.

    Mr. Osadolor was not part of this experience, nor was Mr. Izeze. Loyal and dutiful reporters fluttered, swinging in joyful activities, their joy ascending in humble gratitude as a genuine song of praise to the Throne of the Almighty Creator for the privilege of being partakers in this event. Inwardly diminutive ones resorted to subterfuge and the rustic, gossip mill which became clumps of personel, like disturbing clumps of blood in blood circulation. They were not peculiar to The Guardian. They are everywhere. In the church, in the military, in the public service etc and in other countries. They remind the inwardly attentive person of THE LAW OF ATTRACTION OF HOMOGENOUS SPECIES which compels birds of a feather to flock together or invites us to mention our friends so we can be told what we are.

    EDITORIAL BOARD

    Dr. Macebuh assumed full control of the board. He was a fine writer. He brought in some of his friends from the United States. They included Dr. Onwucheka Jemie and Chiweizu. I was glad to meet with Chiweizu, whose book, THE WEST AND THE REST OF US, I read at Nsukka. My senior by two years at Ibadan boys High School in 1963, Dr. Yemi Ogunbiyi, was there. So was Prof. Femi Osofisan. Ditto Dr. Edwin Madunagu . Dr. Olatunji Dare came on sabbatical and stayed on. There were accomplished gentlemen such as Ordia Offeimum, Sully Abu and Sonala Olumense. Then, there were visiting academics from the universities. Mr. Ibru injected Oba Festus Adesanoye and politicians such as Alhaji Shehu Musa, John Oyegun, Aliyu Dasuki.

    Dr.  Macebuh conceived the editorial board as the think-tank of The Guardian, and saw reporters as less intelligent as its members. The board was conceived to supervise the line editors and editor! Hitherto, Mr. Bonuola had been designated Associate Editor to diminish his status as editor. An editorial board member controlled the Business Pages. They were the least competitive in the market with publications sometimes three weeks stale! The least paid person on the Editorial Board earned more than Femi Kusa, the Assistant Editor who did all the “monkey work” from Sunday to Saturday. One of my professional juniors employed by Dr. Macebuh and sent to work with me as a subordinate earned more than I did. Inauguration of the Financial Guardian and Lagos Life took some of us by surprise. Both titles had drooped wings at the outset. The Editor of Lagos Life, being a photographer and not a journalist, the paper developed reportorial problems. To salvage it, a cub reporter I was training was taken from the newsroom without notification of the Editor and made Assistant Editor. This made her become superior to her trainers!

    What Mr. Osadolor may not have appreciated was that the Editor was not subordinate to the chairman of the Editorial Board after the exit of Dr. Macebuh, or to the Editorial page Editor. The Editor could reject an editorial opinion, could edit it and often edited it since, before the Law, he was the one actionable for the content.

    Regarding whether Femi Kusa could write editorials, I have suggested he read editorials on Christmas, Easter etc and assessed the stamp on them. What point would I be making by writing editorials, anyway? That I should write because Andy Akporugo said I couldn’t and his ethnic minions were trumpeting him? I had been Secretary-General of the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE). I was in Abuja to be honoured with the fellowship of the NGE as one of its two new Fellows (Nduka Obaigbena of THISDAY newspaper was the other), when The Guardian wrote an editorial opinion that the NGE Executive which made the awards was a wishy-washy one! Interestingly, the same committee gave Mr. Akporugo the NGE Fellowship the following year and it was not a wishy-washy committee.

    Mr. Akporugo said I could not write. He was a visiting member of the Editorial Board in a self-created capacity as REPRESENTATIVE of the Ibru family. Ask Mr. Bonuola: both men rose to their feet one day in a shouting match, each asking the other who bore responsibility for the paper. Members of the board froze in embarrassment. That was Mr. Akporugo for you. Jobless, distracting, embarrassing, raising ethnic tensions and pardon my language SHAMELESSLY hungry for authority.

    Long before the visit to the earth of Haley’s comet in the 1980s, I had become interested in COMETS. During my youth service in 1977, I learned about THE GREAT COMET, which was heading for the earth from the same origin as THE STAR OF BETHLEHEM. When I began to write about HALEY’S COMET, with intent to distinguish it and its effects from THE GREAT COMET, Mr. Akporugo spread word in the gossip mills that I was plagiarising, but did not say who or what. Nevertheless, his rustic followers followed him. Even when astro physicists from the University of Lagos visited us to applaud the publications, they would not relent. Even when my office staff showed them my manuscripts in 2A exercise books, they did not relent. What do you do but ignore their stupidity and obstrusiveness? Did Mr. Akporugo not hiss up when I began the reporting of NATURAL MEDICINE in a section of the paper to align The Guardian with a United Nations declaration endorsed by Nigeria that member nations upgrade their alternative medicine systems? Did he then not oppose my frequent feature of Jobelyn, a Nigerian star multi-purpose plant medicine formula, which is world renowned today?

    In the section I skipped today for my Facebook page, I mentioned the possible anchorages of us humans in the ethereal spheres of existence where, as on the earth, there are villages, towns, cities, slums, luminous gardens and PRINCIPALITIES of which some christians are aware. These include but are not limited to regions of darkness and damnation, lands of shadows, lands of twilight, regions of light and Paradise. There, no one can rise beyond his level. When you can guess where anyone is anchored and that both of you are incongruent, there is no need to “drag” anything with such a person. If I worked everyday of the week about 11am to about 3am, sitting through no fewer than six meetings, including three to train greenhorn reporters to become full-fledged reporters in three months and editorial board members work three days a week and closed by 5pm daily, write an opinion article and perhaps one or two editorials in one week, why should I add to my burden by “struggling” with them to write editorial opinions just to prove a point? Wouldn’t that be stupid of me?

    SHAKING LIKE A LEAF

    Mr. Osadolor cited no fewer than three instances to suggest I am a simpleton, not man enough within and fade off in the face of adversity. Yet, he was the one who fled to Somolu immediately Abacha shut The Guardian. Mr. Akporugo fled to Mushin in the home of a reporter I would not name here. Maybe he was unaware that I provided Mr Ibru a “human shield” when he lay in coma in an ambulance outside the hospital and a particular car was roving around the area, perhaps on a reconnaissance operation. Mr. Osadolor said he and Mr. Izeze were in the hospital. Apparently, they heard of the shooting before I did but did not inform me or could not reach me. It was Mr. Debo Adesina who telephoned me. I do not remember if we went to the hospital together. Mr. Ibru’s body was pale and darkening. Mr. Adesina noticed that a car had been driven around several times, perhaps by a person on reconnaissance checks. I reasoned that, if he was an assassin, he would not strike with a crowd around. I saw Mrs. Maiden Ibru upstairs, briefly, and hurried back. Chief Segun Osoba, Mr. Edu and their friends were in the lobby downstairs. Later, Mr. Adesina and I left for the office.

    I will mention this aspect of his story in the office after I address the incident at the Abuja Hotel in which Mr. Osadolor said I tried to hide my identity because I was afraid of Abacha and his men. First, maybe he forgot that it was Mr. Ibru, who suggested, after we had announced our arrival to Abacha, that it may be better for us to return to Lagos unannounced. I replied that it was “too late” that we were already in the lion’s den. He said that, in fright, I checked in as JOHN, instead of Femi Kusa, and he and Mr. Izeze exchanged glances and laughed. Mr. Osadolor probably does not realise he is always dragging Mr. Izeze into his gossip conversations. It reveals him as a person who cannot keep secrets, who does not wish to be caught acting alone. I checked in, really, not as FEMI KUSA because that is my work name and not official name. My official name is JOHN OLUFEMI KUSA. I was born and christened at baptism as BABATUNDE OLUFEMI KUSA, the middle one my baptismal name. In 1966 or 67 when I was baptised as an adult by Rev. Earl M. Fyne at Olivet Baptist High School chapel, Oyo, I adopted JOHN because that apostle’s gospel touched me. That is the name you will find in all my certificates, employment letters and other documents. Secondly, which five star hotel will accept a single name from a lodger? Truly, gossips cannot inherit Paradise, because they will destroy the peace, bliss, harmony and beauty there!

  • June 12 Honours…knocks on Bayo Onanuga and Co, Alex Ibru (5)

    June 12 Honours…knocks on Bayo Onanuga and Co, Alex Ibru (5)

    I am back again in a newsroom examination hall. The chief examiner is Mr Kingsley Osadolor, my deputy when I was Editor of The Guardian newspaper, Editor of The Sunday title when I was Director of Publications and Editor-in-Chief and, after my retirement, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the newspaper. Mr Osadolor said I abused the privilege of an editorial platform to write a column on natural medicine by publishing on that platform this series of articles on June 12 Democracy Day National Honours.

    Over the years, I have learned to not make comments on what I am not acquainted with. I comment only on what I experience, or what have become experiencing for me. When I write about herbs and their healing potentials, Iam encouraged to do so by literature in more than 200 books in my study written by leading figures in this art world-wide, who back their claims with verifiable clinical expertise. I personally use many of the herbs as well. Outside this field, I have learned to ask myself; How much of myself do I know ? Saying we know someone , when we are only familiar with him or her, is an abuse of language. The same happens when we give the impression that we know what someone is doing or has done, because, thereby, we are vouching that we know the A-Z of that person or process.

    I believe Mr Osadolor made this mistake when, categorically, in his limited view, he said I abused the privilege of this publication in a column designated as NATURAL REMEDIES FOR SOUND MIND AND BODY. Superficially looking at this title or designation, Mr Osadolor would be right. However, he is incorrect because he did not see through the depths, through origins of the conception. Everything has an origin, purpose or raison detre. I “RECEIVED” this LOGO, did not think it out. It came from INTUITIVE PERCEPTION, not INTELLECTUAL triffle. I will define the crucial words to distinguish the work of intuition from the work of intellect and, thereby, situate the perception of Mr Osadolor where it rightly belongs… in the realm of the intellect. As bright as intellectual work may appear to be, it is inferior to intuitive work, origin of the logo, which is more expansive because, in scope, the intellect is confined by earthly parameters of time and space and, therefore, cannot soar beyond this confinement.

    In the following definition of terms, four words are crucial for an in-depth understanding of what the logo and, therefore, the column seeks to achieve. They are NATURAL, REMEDIES, MIND and BODY.

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    NATURAL

    This word connotes living a life that is natural, and this means living in accordance with THE LAWS OF NATURE. These laws can also be termed THE LAWS OF GOD IN CREATION or THE LANGUAGE He speaks to His creatures and which they must strive to learn in order to understand His Will and not run into trouble with the machinery of creation. Creation is governed by laws which enforce adherence to His Will. Therefore, the laws of nature are like the manual of operations through which the designer of a motor car, instructs the owner or motorist about how to use the vehicle or maintain it. If the motor car is well used and well maintained, it will serve purposes for which it was manufactured. Several years ago, I gave home and public lectures based on natural lifestyles. I titled them THE KEY TO PEACE AND HAPPINESS. How pleasant will existence be for a child in the home of his or her parents if he or she does not understand the language of communication in that home? Everything which exists came through these laws and are subject to them. We know about those of sowing and reaping from the Bible, Gravity , (from science), the cycle (from blood circulation, evaporation and rainfall, sunrise and sunset, birth and death) , gradualism and Radiations among others. It is because we do not obey them that our world is upside down, whether in government, education, marriage, nutrition, management of states of disease, business, investor-worker relations, call to service as guardians on earth such as the founding fathers of The Guardian newspaper found themselves, and opposition to such calls, as THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN has sought to explain vicissitudes of this newspaper. Thus, it is within the province of the column to address questions relating to infringements of the laws of nature as foundations of troubles which assail human MIND and BODY.

    REMEDIES

    These are prescriptions of the laws of nature for anomalies created by disrespect for these laws. Two weeks ago or so, I made my widow’s mite contribution to the ongoing efforts to reform Nigeria’s Constitution for a healthier society. I suggested Nigeria’s present six geo-political regions become self- governing, each under a Governor General, while the office of the President be subsumed. The Governor General would superitend a wholesome, organic economy and cultural growth of his region. Currently, the states in a region are not harmonised by any authority and tend to drift hither and tither as national political waves blow them about. The regions have no unified goals, no direction, no serious purpose. If under the proposition mentioned, a region wishes to address food shortage and rail transportation, all the states must unify their thinking and budgets in favour of the agenda. Isn’t this what the arrangement of the human body teaches us? Is the human body not a product of the laws of nature, as human societies? There are many biological systems which inhabit from the human body, like human races and tribes which inhabit the surface of the earth and particular countries, such as Nigeria. In the human body, these biological systems include but are not limited to the skeletal, respiratory, digestion, reproductive, immune, blood circulation, the nerves, digestion, urinary etc. The cells and tissue of each are differentiated from those of others. They are like tribes of humanity. No one dominates or seeks to absorb or annihilate the other unless something is going wrong. How healthy would you feel, if teeth begin to grow in your eyes or brain, or if bones erupt in your heart or intestine?

    MIND

    We speak of mind-over-matter. Scientists cannot figure out what the “MIND” is, because it is weightless and unverifiable by research tools but they accept there is something more to earth man than blood and flesh. I discovered this at 24 in 1974 as I often write when I had my first OUT-OF BODY-EXPERIENCE (OBE). My brother, Architect Tunji Kusa, who shared a bed with me that night is a living witness of what I write. I came out of my body, and beheld my body fast asleep in bed beside him. An astral or ethereal soul was in the room to attack me. I do not “shake like a leaf” when confronted by adversity as Mr Osadolor suggested in his rejoinder. How much does he know about himself not to mention of another person and from which sources these other persons receive inspirations which energise and drive the visible works of his hands. It would be a Hallmark of presumption, conceit and vanity if anyone says he or she “knows” the other. What we call “the mind” is SPIRIT, the living ego in the earth-man , the I in the language who speaks, in the possessive sense, of “my head” or “my stomach”, that which came out of my body that great night in 1974 to defend his sleeping body. Since then, I have concerned myself seriously with the meaning of existence.

    BODY

    The body is the dust casing in which the spirit exists on earth. It has no life of its own , was animated by the spirit on its incarnation to set off foetal blood circulation and the first kicks of pregnancy. This body would later serve for the soul’s anchorage on earth for the fufilment of the task assigned to it in this part of creation. The highest capacity and tool of this body is the INTELLECT, anchored in the brain. It is meant, by the Laws of Nature, to be the tool or servant of the spirit on earth. In the majority of mankind, however, it has pushed the spirit aside and taken over the throne. That is why many persons no longer do anything right on earth. An active, soaring Spirit is different. It easily connects with the higher spheres of existence from where it received guidance which the subordinated intellect easily implements.

    I would have been electrocuted by high tension cables about 20 years ago, if my intellect governed me. I had parked my car on the road and gone into my residence to prepare for the office. Done, and set to go out, I approached the perimeter fence gate. As I was about to open it, the INNER VOICE, that is THE INTUITIVE PERCEPTION of the spirit expressed in the INNER VOICE, suggested I go to re-check the house entrance door. The intellect wondered why I should since I double checked it under one minute earlier. That quiet voice suggested…WHAT WILL IT COST YOU TO DO SO? I obliged. As I turned round, and before I took the first step, I heard sounds of cracking metals right on the road, in front of the house. I thought armed robbers were operating and tip-toed to the back of the house for safety! Later, I discovered fallen high tension cables on my car. I had not noticed that a wooden electric pole was beside my foot gate. Termites had eaten it up from the bottom. That morning, it collapsed. Had I not obeyed the inner voice, that voice of my Guardian SPIRIT to not let the intellect be my guide, I would have been electrocuted.

    I told the story to underscore the fact that we are linked to higher spheres from which we receive guidance and that it was through such guidance that I RECEIVED the idea for the logo NATURAL REMEDIES FOR SOUND MIND AND BODY. This high guidance also provided the ideas which led to the editorial compartmentalisation of THE GUARDIAN and its profitability from the fifth year onwards. Everyone is linked to high guidance. Whether he or she strives to activate the network which spans the earth to Paradise is another matter.

    Long before I came to The Guardian, I had been steadily guided towards the knowledge of extra terrestrial existence. I mentioned some of these steps in the introduction of my website. My first OBE and several others which followed continually grew my interest in what many of us still call “THE BEYOND” that is a world beyond our physical abilities to experience and to explore. Such persons have not arrived at recognitions that they bear within them the material consistency of this world within them and that it is inert if they do not activate it. Everything boils down to activating every ability of the spirit lying dormant within and that was why The Lord Jesus admonished us to SEEK, promising that we shall find, to KNOCK, promising that the door shall be opened unto us, to ASK and it shall be given unto you. Active in these dimensions, I increasingly recognised that the human Spirit is on earth, a school of Life to grow from CONSCIOUSNESS OF EXISTENCE of the spirit germ to SELF CONSCIOUSNESS and, from there, to consciousness of its environment, the other beings who inhabit it with him, Creation and the Almighty Creator discern the purpose of all these as the recognition of The Will of God, unconditional submission to this Will and become privileged, upon its development, into a HUMAN BEING to participate in the further development of this part of creation through ennoblement by the Spirit.

    The picture I am painting for the definition of the task of my column, NATURAL REMEDIES FOR SOUND MIND AND BODY, is not fictional as some doubting Thomases would like to imagine.

    One more example should drive home this point. On a Monday in August 1998, my mother who passed on 5th August 1959 told me in a dream my father had left the flesh. Two days after, a Wednesday, my father came to me in a dream to hold my hand and to announce to me that he had gone, that I should remember his discussions with me and that I should tidy his affairs. On that previous Monday, I had asked Mr Gbenga George in my office at The Guardian to take him to hospital, to see his doctor, Professor Bukola Adefule-Oshitelu of The Lagos University Teaching Hospital (LUTH) who confirmed him to be in good health for his age at 76. I was to see him on Saturday. After I rose from that Wednesday dream at about 3.40am, I went to my wife in her room to inform her I would leave home in Ikeja by six for Obanikoro where he lived. Before six, my brother, Yinka, who lived with him, and one of his tenants were at my gate, knocking. I knew what had happened. As soon as I let them in and I asked what happened and Yinka replied “Daddy”, I stopped him and informed him Daddy had come to tell me. Our “discussion” he wanted me to remember was that his body must not be kept in a refrigerator and should be interred on the Saturday that would follow his passing. Through the help of Reverend Adenugba, who heard this story, I was able to get the church in the village to comply with his will. If I had been a person who “shakes like a leaf” as Mr Osadolor imagines, I would not have done what I did next. My culture demanded that I report my father’s passage to his siblings and elders in the community who would hold family meetings that may delay the interrment for three months. I would not be trapped between culture and the man who as my father facilitated my entrance into this part of the world. I bravely stood on his side and carried out the interrment as he wished it be done without informing members of his family and the village elders. Some editors of The Guardian attended the funeral, despite the short notice. A vibrant inner life gave me the inner strength for this defiant activity.

    In the course of this inner growth, the divination of my birth as a healer in succession to my paternal grandfather who as a prince of the royal court of the Awujale of Ijebu land ministered to the health of the Awujale of his days, began to merge with my aspirations in life to help my fellow humans in the field of health. My grandmother’s breast cancer in 1980, two years after I returned from youth service, further activated this desire. I began to buy and to read books on ALTERNATIVE MEDICINE which were being written at that time by Orthodox medical doctors in Europe and America who were expanding the frontiers of MEDICINE into the ambit of herbs and spiritual medicine. Doctor Norman Shealy, a surgeon, and Journalist Carolyn Myss, hoisted the flag of energy medicine in the United States. Their book, based on their clinical experiences of healing even cancer of the breast without drugs, was titled THE CREATION OF HEALTH. In it, they even categorically stated that the human ego, the human Spirit, was behind radiant health or dis-ease . I continually reviewed such books and passed the reviews to persons such as Chief Bola Ige. In time, I was guided into expanding the reviews to encompass spiritual content, and then to the logo NATURAL REMEDIES FOR SOUND MIND AND BODY.

    Each word bears a powerful radiation of its own. Together, they are a constant reminder to me of the field of activity IAM called upon to work with them. No one received them for me. So, Mr Kingsley Osadolor cannot de-limit their application. That would be presumptuous, vain, conceit and even garrulous murder of a living spiritual idea.

    Since 1999, that is for 26 years, I have published a column of varied content under the conception of the logo NATURAL REMEDIES FOR SOUND MIND AND BODY. They range from CHRISTMAS, EASTER and PENTECOST to President Tinubu’s inauguration in 2023 and herbal medicines for various ailments of the human body, including cancers and uterine fibroids. So, why would THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN be an exception? The question Mr Osadolor did not answer include why he fled from home on learning of the GUARDIAN’s closure, and why he failed to share the information with his direct boss Femi Kusa, but with Andy Akporugo if there were no immediate and direct links with the publication INSIDE ASO ROCK. They lived in a block of six flats where five senior editorial staff of The Guardian lived. Two of them were senior members of the editorial board. Why did only two of them flee? Were these two not the only ones connected with inside Aso Rock?

  • June 12 honours… knocks on Bayo Onanuga & Co, Alex Ibru (3)

    June 12 honours… knocks on Bayo Onanuga & Co, Alex Ibru (3)

    The curtain falls today, 17 July 2025, on JUNE 12 HONOURS… KNOCKS ON BAYO ONANUGA & CO, ALEX IBRU, a three-part series begun on 03 July 2025 and continued on 10 July 2025. As it was suggested in the second part of the series, this one may be entitled… A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN. The series appears in the context of wether BAYO ONANUGA, (CON), Special Adviser on Information and Strategy to President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Owei Lakemfa (CON), Kayode Komolafe (CON) and Mr Alex Ibru (CON), Chairman of the Board of THE GUARDIAN newspaper and its Publisher, deserved places given to them by the President on the 12 June 2025 DEMOCRACY HONOURS ROLL. Onanuga, Lakemfa and Komolafe were members of the editorial staff of THE GUARDIAN when I was either The Editor or the Director of Publications/ Editor in- Chief. Mr Alex Ibru was Chairman of the Board of Directors and Publisher of the newspaper. There were no doubts in the Press, especially among fellow Journalists, that Honours were misplaced in respect of two other GUARDIAN men, Dr Olatunji Dare, Chairman of the Editorial Board cum Editorial Page Editor, and Dr Edwin Madunagu, Editorial Board member. I wondered why another member of the Board, Sully Abu, did not make the roll. As for Mr Alex Ibru, there was a division within the Guardian and in the Pro-Democracy groups about whether he deserved the honour. In the last edition, I tried to figure out why he made the list, suggesting, as well, why some of the objectors thought he did not belong to the ranks of the heros and heroines. Their arguments center on what may be termed …A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN.

    “ A BATTLE” in this context implies that there may have been many “battles for The soul of The GUARDIAN… WHAT THE GUARDIAN STANDS FOR”. As much as it was possible, the founding Editors of this newspaper which from its first day on the news-stand easily became THE FLAGSHIP OF THE NIGERIAN PRESS couched what the newspaper was to represent in FOUR simple Words… CONSCIENCE, NURTURED BY TRUTH. It was a powerful SPIRITUAL statement which many of them, though prolific writers, perceived or conceptulised only at the material or INTELLECTUAL level. It was an extract from a statement by UTHMAN DAN FODIO, leader of the JIHADIST movement which stormed Northern Nigeria in February 1804 and captured several Hausa Kingdoms, including Kebbi, Kastina, Kano e.t.c in a few years before heading for Yorubaland in the South-Western region but was halted at Oshogbo and Ilorin. Ilorin fell later because of a palace coup of the defending army general against his own people. DAN FODIO had said “ Conscience IS AN OPEN WOUND…ONLY TRUTH CAN HEAL IT!

    “ A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN” was set against whether the LIGHT seeking guardian of the nation’s soul should capitulate to a DARKNESS-invoking Gen. Sanni Abacha.Two words stood out as STAFF and TORSH for those editorial warriors against guns and bombs who had not permitted fear of the beast or dragon and consideration of bread and butter to dim, darken or entomb their CONSCIENCE and the RECOGNITION OF TRUTH. Of course, these two words were CONSCIENCE and TRUTH.

    “A BATTLE” presupposes that there were many “battles” to refocus The Guardian on “ CONSCIENCE” and “TRUTH”.The trouble, always, was that all of us, being different persons, had naturally different understanding and views of these words, while, understandably, they meant nothing at all to some others. I speak for myself, Femi Kusa, and I like to believe, Lade Bonuola, Managing Director. He and I came to THE GUARDIAN from spiritual backgrounds. These backgrounds recognised the purpose of human existence on Earth was to honour the Almighty Creator Who Graciously granted human kind blessings of conscious existence for UNCONDITIONAL FULFILMENT OF HIS WILL. Do we not in THE LORD’S PRAYER pledge that…THY WILL BE DONE ON EARTH AS IT IS IN HEAVEN after beseeching Him that… “ THY KINGDOM COME”? On Earth, we are a trioka of SPIRIT, SOUL and EARTH BODY. We earth men and earth women are human spirits developed from spirits kernels or sparks from out of the Radiations of GOD, THE LIGHT. In our wandering through the Universe and Earth to develop our spirit kernels and become human beings for re-admission to Paradise, our origin, we acquired covering of those spheres of existence which, together with the Spirit kernels, many persons call THE SOUL. With the earth convering on earth, we become EARTH- MEN and EARTH-WOMEN. On earth, we are not disconnected from our Paradise. Through a A LONG CHAIN from here, SPIRIT GUIDES and HELPERS often mistakenly called GUARDIAN ANGEL always speaks to our spirits on earth. We called their voice “our inner voice” or Conscience or those “ first impressions” about anything which we know is always right. The intellect is the earthly tool of the human spirit which fashions the messages or the inner voice of the spirit to earthly activities which nurture and protect us.

    Read Also: Buhari’s death a major loss to Nigeria, Africa, says Shettima 

    The trouble with many earth-men and earth-women is that they have submitted the thrones of their spirits, the Temples of God in them, to the earthly-intellect which, bound to earthly confines of time and space, does not recognise Paradise and God. Isnt this why we are admonished that …GOD IS SPIRIT, WHOEVER WILL WORSHIP HIM MUST WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH? The battle of THE GUARDIAN against Gen. Abacha was waged in the Light of conscience and Truth against the Darkness and Its minions.

    From Daily Times

    Lade Bonuola and I came to the GUARDIAN from THE DAILY TIMES, which became professionally derilict after Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo, as Military Head of State, irreverently took it over from its private owners and used it to fester needs of his government. Professionalism was going out of the window. Some journalists, especially those who were God fearing, were bound, stagnated in their careers, demoted or fired. Lade Bonuola was demoted. He went to court, but the case was toppled. Mr Martin Iroabuchi who was made to succeed the principled Prince Tony Momoh submitted for vetting by persons unknown to the newspaper reports I edited, their headlines and my page designs. I would give him fake dumies and copies and send the originals to the works. The News Editor, Felix Odiari, who ought to not have access to my work as Production Editor, would complain to Iroabuchi. By next morning, I would see in the paper reports I did not vet for publication. Martin Iroabuchi belonged to the M.K.O. Abiola’s version of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) while Odiari belonged to the Umaru Dikko segment of the party. The Chief Reporter, Odafe (formerly James) Othohiwa, belonged to Bamanga Tukur’s group. An Advertisement professional was brought in to manage Editorial personnel! The Daily Times newspaper had become a drunken newspaper. Political money freely flowed in the newsroom. This was not a question of “brown envelopes”. When reportorial agents of the politicians returned to the office from their beats, they brazenly deposited money on the desks of reporters and Editors who were willing collaborators.

    However, just when the Darkness thought it had held us down, light shone through the dark veils. Some newspapers accused Olorogun Michael Ibru’s company of importing some expired products. The family denied the claims, but did not receive fair hearing in the Press. So, Mr Alex Ibru decided to set up a newspaper. His goal was a light weight newspaper, something like a gossip channels, with which the Ibru family could always defend itself. He did not back gain for a top ranking QUALITY NEWSPAPER which his dream, modulated by other dreams brought about for Nigeria. He reached out to his senior at Ibadan Grammar School, who was brought to the Daily Times as a sole administrator by Gen. Obasanjo. That IGS senior was Dr Dele Cole who brought along to Daily Times his friend, Dr Stanley Macebuh. Both were not journalists. Along the line, My first editor, Chief Segun Osoba, got into the picture. Our professional relationships were good. He had wanted me after youth service in 1978 to edit his Abeokuta- based newspaper, THE MACHETE. He called Lade Bonuola to the Guardian, and Lade Bonuola called me to be his deputy. We were happy to go, promising that we would teach Daily Times a professional lesson. It was then still “the biggest daily sale” newspaper “ South of the Sahara”, as it branded itself. The lesson was to professionally overtake it on circulation and advertisements. We achieved our dreams in a few years, and Daily Times became a newspaper carcass. My pre-debut duty for THE GUARDIAN was to develop an editorial reporting strategy that would immediately make us the market leader. The second task was to make it the most successful in advertising and circulation income. Allied to this was the responsibility to train young men and women who had never seen the inside of a newspaper house to become first-rate reporters within three months of their employment. Those young men and women who slept several days on their desks in the office with us their bosses may now know where we were coming from and “ WHAT THE GUARDIAN STAND FOR” which was expressly stated in writing…it holds allegiance to no person, group, tribe, religion, government e.t.c but defend only, THE TRUTH always. In the matter of THE GUARDIAN’s reactions and responses to Gen. Abacha, did the newspaper become decadent like the DAILY TIMES or nearly so?This is why A BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN trailed President Tinubu’s inclusion of Mr Alex Ibru in the 12 June 2025 DEMORACY HONOURS ROLL.

    Abacha, Alex Ibru And The Guardian

    (The third part of these series continues from where the curtain dropped on the second part i.e Mr Alex Ibru proposing that Femi Kusa take over Lade Bonuola’s job as Managing Director because he disagreed that THE GUARDIAN Editors go to beg Gen. Abacha for opposing him. Femi Kusa rejected the offer. Mr Alex Ibru howled on Femi Kusa, accusing him of ingratitude for making him Editor against all odds. Femi Kusa retorted that he did not beg to become Editor and that, in any case, he inherited a newspaper about 7 million naira in the red which he turned around in the first year of his Editorship, posting more than 10 million naira profit. THE STORY OF THE BATTLE FOR THE SOUL OF THE GUARDIAN continues…).

    Mr Alex Ibru knew that the first five years of THE GUARDIAN (1983-1988) were unprofitable years, according to the books. In my view on becoming Editor in 1988, that was because the Guardian was”too hard”or “ too academic”. What I did was an UPBUILDING. I destroyed or pulled down nothing which existed, except to move the OPINION PAGES, which were the two center pages inward, thereby subordinating them to pull-outs targeted at the business communities. The newspaper is a social institution, no doubt, but can it survive without money? Besides, news comes before OPINION. It is on the basis of NEWS that COMMENTS are made. That means NEWS is the PROGENITOR of OPINION. Isn’t this why a newspaper is called a newspaper and not an opinion paper? I always discussed my plans with Mr Alex Ibru, and, in fairness to him, he gave me 100 percent approvals. My plans was to make every day a unique day for the business community by giving them their own newspaper within THE GUARDIAN . This made THE GUARDIAN to become the FIRST COMPARMENTALISED NEWSPAPER in Nigeria, beginning with PROPERTY on Monday, EXECUTIVE JOBS and MANAGEMENT on Tuesdays, FINANCE on Wednesday, NATURAL HEALTH on Thurdays with ELIZABETH KAFARU COLUMN. There were other subjects on Fridays and Saturday. I even gave Mr Alex Ibru a blue print for the next ten years in which every day of the week would have more than two or three market niches. That period was the begining of the employment and editorial training of professionals for our various editorial niches. PAUL OKUNNOLA came from Ife with a Master’s degree in Architecture to man the PROPERTY pages on Monday. Two of his five-member team included Timiyin, an estate management graduate and a quantity surveying graduate. I could summon FRED AGBAJE, a Barrister, under thirty minutes notice to the office for a front-page analysis on a major news-break. His wife, also, a Barrister, came to fight me in the office, alleging that I was exploiting the skills of her husband to grow THE GUARDIAN. But the tables soon turned, and she came on her knees full on the ground, to apologise. That was when FRED AGBAJE did the analysis on why SAVANNAH BANK Lost the case in CHRIS AJILO Vs SAVANNAH BANK, an epic case then. CHRIS AJILO borrowed money from SAVANNAH BANK , using his property as COLLATERAL. When he could not pay, SAVANNAH BANK tried to take possession of the property. CHRIS AJILO went to court, saying the COLLATERAl did not have THE GOVERNOR’S CONSENT! Indeed, all landed property to be used as collateral must have the GOVERNOR’S CONSENT. SAVANNAH BANK was CARELESS and, so, lost the case. This analysis gave FRED AGBAJE visibility abroad, and some companies begun to invite him abroad for consultation. His wife was bowled over and came to recognise that NOT EVERYTHING was MONEY. This much and more I demonstrated to Mr Alex Ibru, and couldn’t understand why he could think I had no gut because I was passionate with my work, arriving the office early by 11.am and leaving later at about 14 or 15 hours later at about 2a.m, long after he had been with his wife and family!

    I was glad I talked down on MONEY. He flared up. Mr Ososame counselled that we go for lunch and return when we were calm. During lunch, Mr Alex Ibru was anything but calmer. He called Nick IDUWE and told him that , on resumption of the meeting, he would make ANDY AKPORUGO Managing Director of THE GUARDIAN. I do not wish to talk about ANDY AKPORUGO except to say that Lade Bonuola got Mr Alex Ibru to rehabilitate him at The Guardian, reporting to me as senior foreign correspondent, after he was excused from the DAILY TIMES where he was our senior, but not our boss.

    When AKPORUGO disliked reporting to his professional junior (by age in the trade and not by achievements), he approached Mr Alex Ibru who carved out AFRICAN GUARDIAN MAGAZINE for him to compete with NEWS WATCH, AFRICAN CONCORD, TELL, NEWS BREED Magazines and PRESIDENT magazines. African Guardian drained financial resources of THE GUARDIAN, and Mr Alex Ibru asked Andy Akporugo to go. His Editors and reporters sourced from THE GUARDIAN had been resigning. Lade Bonuola again played with fire, literally speaking, when he persuaded Mr Alex Ibru to find something for Andy AKPORUGO to do in his office to avoid backlashes in the village because they were cousins. Andy AKPORUGO, who always described himself as a STUDENT OF POWER, used this opportunity to literally set The Guardian on ethnic fire, often acting in the name of Mr Alex Ibru or of the “ family” interests without Mr Alex Ibru’s authorisation. He would rouse Urhobo members of staff to wonder if they ever saw a Yoruba company in which an Urhobo was Managing Director. He accused me of YORUBALISING the newsroom. Three times or so, Mr Alex Ibru called for staff audit around their ethnic origins. The results showed that Ibos took slightly more than half of the slots while Yorubas and Urhobos shared the rest. Nevertheless, Andy Akporugo had increasingly taken possession of Mr Alex Ibru, members of the Executive Board who were privy to my last conversion with Mr Alex Ibru following his receipt of my letter of retirement which was followed days after by that of Lade Bonuola. I told him Andy AKPORUGO was the problem of The GUARDIAN. Did he not once tell Dr Tunji Dare that Mr Alex Ibru sent him to demand that Dr. Dare relinquish one of his offices… Chairman of The Editorial Board and Editorial Page Editor? Did Dr Dare not almost respond untill Lade Bonuola gave him assurances only he, the Managing Director, could make such a demand on the instruction of the Publisher? This was the man Mr Ibru wanted to succeed Lade Bonuola as Managing Director simply because he thought the Guardian was sympathetic to HUMAN RIGHTS and NADECO. I have profiled the foregoing event to paint a picture to presage a picture of what eventually happened when we reconvened from lunch … and when we met in Abuja with ABACHA days after.

    • The remainder of these three-part article will be published in a fuller version of this one on my facebook page @ John Olufemi Kusa.

  • June 12 honours… knocks on Bayo Onanuga & Co, Alex Ibru (1)

    June 12 honours… knocks on Bayo Onanuga & Co, Alex Ibru (1)

    When an elephant dies, all kinds of the butcher’s knife emerge. It takes a lion heart to face the long knives in battle and to survive them. How many persons can easily overcome the tide when, individually, they cook for their country and all citizens respond to the gesture, each one with his or her own meal deposited at one’s door-step. You would discover that, however wise and meticulous you thought you were, there is no way your ways and means would be pleasing and acceptable to every-one. It was, therefore, not surprising to person like me that pathological critics of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu saw no value in many of the persons he gave Nigeria’s National Honours on Democracy Day JUNE 12,  2025. Even journalists, especially on always critical Lagos Radio stations such as Voice of The People (VOP) , Mainland Radio and Nigeria INFO rejected the honours for fellow Journalists Bayo Onanuga, Owei Lakenfa and Kayode Komolafe. If you didn’t know their professional trajectory well enough, they all came from The Guardian newspaper in its hey days as the Flagship of the Nigerian Press. So were two others on the Honour list…Dr. Olatunji Dare and Dr Edwin Madunagu,both members of The Guardian Editorial Board. Dr Dare succeeded Dr Stanley Macebuh as Chairman of the Editorial Board in addition to his lower line Editor title of Editorial Page Editor. I wondered why Sully Abu, also a radical member of the Editorial Board, was not ranked with them, and Mr Alex Ibru, Chairman of the Guardian and its Publisher, was in the same train with strange bedfellows Dr Dare and Dr Madunagu. I will explain this in the second article on this subject. Now, I will state that, after Gen. Sanni Abacha shut the Guardian for one year, and Mr Alex Ibru got some editors to agree to follow him to Abuja to apologise to Gen. Abacha for whatever wrongs the newspaper may have done him, Dr Dare, Dr Madunagu and Sully Abu immediately re-signed their appointments. They couldn’t attened a meeting to apologise to a despotic murderer for their criticisms of his savagery. Mr Alex Ibru accused Yoruba Editors at The Guardian of collaboration with NADECO, the pro-democracy resistance group, to fight Abacha in whose government he was a Minister and, in turn, make Abacha threaten financial fortune of Ibru family laboriously built up. Their exit left Managing Director Lade Bonuola and his Deputy, Femi Kusa, Director of Publication/Editor-in-Chief, to clear up the mess Mr Alex Ibru had swirled up against Yoruba people and their own persons as prodical professionals and business destroyers. Mr Alex Ibru summoned a Board meeting to press Lade Bonuola and Femi Kusa to agree to an apology. Lade Bonuola rejected the suggestion. Mr Alex Ibru asked him to resign his appointment. Lade Bonuola did. A divide-and- rule Maverick, Mr Alex Ibru appointed Femi Kusa Managing Director in succession to Lade Bonuola. Femi Kusa rejected the appointment outright, and tendered his resignation from the Board and the Company. Emotion run riot. I will explain later how peace was restored by a compromise which rejected apology to Abacha,and how Mr Alex Ibru went behinde the line to smuggle into the meeting Oba- Festus Adesanoye, then Osemawe of Ondo, to apologise to Abacha for whatever sins the draconian General thought the Guardian committed against him.

    Accordingly, some commentators rejected the presence of Mr Alex Ibru on the Honours List. I, too, shrugged my shoulders, although I seemed to agree half -way through the arguments. I align myself with the President that Bayo Onanuga, Owei Lakenfa and Kayode  Komolafe deserved the honours conferred on them. I agree with critics who say many people who deserve the honours are still left out. This is understandable and must have been strategic. The annulment of Chief Moshood Kasimawo Abiola’s election was originally resisted by all regions of Nigeria. In the twinkle of an eye, the Northern Region backed out. Even Chief Abiola’s running-mate, Alhaji Babangana Kingibe, withdrew from their electoral ticket. Soon after, the Eastern Region followed the Northern Region, abandoning the Western Region with the annulment albatross. Thus, the Yorubas of the Western Region were left alone in the struggle for Democracy. If President Tinubu loaded the Democracy Honours List with everyone who deserved to be on it, there would be far too many Yorubas on it that he would be accused of Yorubalising the victory of democracy over Gen. Ibrahim Babangida and his cohorts.

    Bayo Onanuga, Owei Lakenfa and Kayode Komolafe

    I have two reasons for saying they deserved the honour.

    1. At different times in the sojourn of these gentlemen in the newsroom of the Guardian newspaper, I was either their Editor or Editor-in-Chief. I knew them all to be rebels against feudalism and untidiness in human affairs. By rebels, I mean they were all FIGHTERS AGAINST DARKNESS. My definition of darkness here does not encompass the darkness which, in spiritual parlance,is Lucifer,but limited to His minions, those men and women who are His servants on earth and elsewhere in the universe, who would not allow the flourish of human virtues and nobility. In every wa, they bring sufferance. Only human souls who instinctively or intuitively devote themselves to ENNOBLE humanity can selflessly confront them and their master. This is one of the battles of journalism.

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    I recuited these gentlemen into the Guardian newsroom, which served as preparatory ground for their “rebel” work later in life, including the battles against Gen. Ibrahim Babangida, Chief Ernest Shonekan and Gen. Sanni Abacha, which brought about Jun 12 as Democracy Day. As Secretary-General of the Nigerian Guild of Editors( NGE), I would be proud of Bayo Onanuga, after he left the Guardian, when he got wind of how I resisted Military President Babangida and he wanted to scream the encounter to the end of the earth. Only a rebel against what had become pathological norm in his profession would dare to confront a powerful General who had taught he could make anything to happen in Nigeria. It took a great deal of effort to persuade Bayo Onanuga to let go …that they would be another day, another opportunity, to challenge incongruence in authority.

    It was always difficult to find a smile on the face of Bayo Onanuga. What was there to smile about in the rotteness every where?,he always seemed to be asking. He was a Sub- Editor, and impacted his nature on his work. He was always restless, like Duro Onabule, his relation , who was Editor of Chief M.K.O Abiola’s National Concord newspaper before his boss “donated” him as Chief Press Secretary to his supposed friend, military President Ibrahim Gbadamosi Babangida. An editor’s job is an onerous one. The sanity and well being of his fellow country men and women, the young and the old, the healthy and infirm, lie squarely on his or her shoulders. So does the well-being of the staff of the company who may number 500, fewer or more. Add these to the investment which , these days, may run into billions of Naira. The editor must let the rebels be, without giving them free reign. For “rebel”journalists, it is “fight, fight and fight”all the way. A good editor will moderate the rebel Journalist without necessary killing his or her fighting spirit. I believe Bayo Onanuga enjoyed work with me in this regard.

    Owei Lakenfa was another kettle of fish, jovial, smiling, laughing ,bouncing and restless, but no less “dangerous” than Bayo Onanuga when he came to fighting anachronism and social dung hills., Owei Lakenfa was a spirit, soul and body a Labour Union warrior in the newsroom. To moderate him,I set up a counterpart reporting system for the other side of the coin …management.An editor who fails to do this may become unbalanced…, lose the market and the budget, become unable to pay salaries and he or she may be fired. Yet, he or she need the Owei Lakenfa’s of this world to earn respect from all players in the economy. Why he as not become President of the Nigerian Labour Congress( NLC) I do not know. I wasn’t surprised that he gave his energy to the June 12  Strugglewhen the Nigerian Labour Congress no longer contained it. The Guardian couldn’t contain it either and, so, he had to leave. That, I believe,was when the newspaper,good on the outside, was inadequate in -house in terms of staff welfare. The staff did not know of the efforts of the Executive Directors to, literally speaking, squeeze water out of stone from the proprietors that would improve their conditions of service. The Executive Directors could not be blamed for the seeming slowliness of the proprietors in this regard. Many of us were pure journalists or advertisement persons. Even our first Executive Editor and later Managing Director, Dr Stanley Macebuh, was an academic and writer, with no experience in business management. Our challenge when the Guardian was on the drawing board was how to make it the best written newspaper in English speaking Africa, if not on earth. We had sleepless nights on how to beat the Daily Times from where most of us came, The Punch and the National Concord. We employed reporters who had never worked on a newspaper. Most of them wrote trash. Alone, Oyinlade Bonuola, the Associate Editor, and I, Femi Kusa,then the Assistant Editor, re-wrote for the first year of the newspaper all the news stories, apart from surpervising the features and other pages. We resumed work at about 10 a.m and closed at about 3a.m, giving 17 hours of our day to office work. There was no time to think of anything else. I learned that we ran on back loans guaranteed by Mr Alex Ibru.Our admin and personnel departments were to have sorted out the conditions of service. They did not. The Labour Union, driven by Owei Lakenfa and Kayode Komolafe( a.k.a KK) could not stomach it. They had a good case in which the executive directors believed. However, where do Executive Directors openly align with junior staff to directly wage war on Proprietors? Nevertheless, we adopted their grievances for a working paper to hammer out something with the proprietors. A turning point came about 1988, five years after the debut of the newspaper, when, according to a trading report, the company was said to have lost about seven million naira. The proprietors ordered salaries cut by about 25 per cent across the board. Owei Lakenfa and his group could not stomach this on top of the high demands on their time, energy and talents …their lives. The proprietors got all the departments to debate the proposed cut, and subject them to a “YES” or “NO” vote. The editorial department, led by Owei Lakenfa, threw out the pay cut, but it was defeated by other departments with their combined superior vote. The outcome was messy. Any reporter who came to work but filed no reports was fired, and test candidates on the employment wait list were immediately employed to replace them. Owei Lakenfa honourably left the Guardian. I missed him because, despite his fiery stance on union matters, he was a radiant, noble person. You may accuse him and his group of youthful exuberance, label them as birds of passage which abandon a broken tree branch and the endangered mother tree for personal safety and wellness, but they made good points. They were through with sanguine and melancholy blood temperaments and were deeply seeped in the choleric, their spirit having ridden on their generative power and connected with the material world in which they discovered ugly forms against which they battled.

    Kayode Komolafe was one foot in Labour and unionism, and another in socialism and communism. Mathematican Dr Edwin Madunagu, who, like him, is a 2025 June 12 Democracy Hero, was his socialism/ communism mentor and soul mate. He was so soft spoken and easy going you wouldn’t immediately recognise he was an unrepentant communist, even after the Berlin Wall was scrapped to bring freedom and humanity to East Germans, and I returned to the newsroom from a visit to that country with crumbs of the bricks as momentos.

    Today, I will tell Owei Lakenfa and Kayode Komolafe something they did not know about their Editor and Mr Alex Ibru. Rumour mongers with anti-Yoruba sentiments brewed lies that Mr Ibru gave “hand-outs” to Directors to keep the wage bill down. This was to discredit Lade Bonuola and Femi Kusa for a take-over by other nationalities. I was appointed Editor in March 1988 at the same time as Emeka Izeze was appointed Editor of the Sunday title and Mitchel Obi( now a Ph.D.), was appointed Editor of the Guardian Express, the afternoon paper. For 12 months after this appointment, none of us earned an extra Kobo above our pre-promotion pay. We were told the company lost 7 million Naira the previous business year. I thought the general outlook and perception of the paper carved by Dr. Stanley Macebuh, an academic, was responsible for this. As I told Mr Ibru, the newspaper was not only a social institution but big business as well. It cost more money to set up a newspaper then than it cost to set up a bank. I asked Mr Ibru if we could budget the salaries we wanted to earn in the newsroom, and if he would permit this if we hit or even exceeded it. He probably saw the proposal as an unachievable joke. Nevertheless, he agreed. Within six months, we turned the loss into profit and made more money. My colleague and I set to work, supported by him, and we made the Guardian the first compartmetalised newspaper in Nigeria, connecting it to various markets such as Property or Real Estate, Information Technology, Alternative Medicine Community and Executive Jobs and Management among others. It is on this stucture that The Guardian continue to financially thrive till today. Mr Ibru kept to his word. Three times in one year for about three years, we had general pay rises. However, Condition of Service were nothing to write home about by the time I retired from the Board in 1999, because Mr Ibru thought my colleagues and I were Pro-NADECO journalists. I will address this soon. I wish to recognise, nevertheless, his good naturedness in accepting my proposal that we finance from the surplus profits (1) 45 plots of land at OPIC Isheri North for 45 members of staff who had been working for five years (2) About nine hectares of land (or more than 100 plots of land) at Opic Isheri North for the Guardian to build staff quarters (3)one plot of land for each Director at Opic Isheri North (4) School Scholarships for children of Junior staff which Dr Tunji Dare was to manage.

    Some staff who were not covered by the plan were bitter. So, I encouraged information by junior staff of a Guardian Co-operative Society to which, unusually for the Director, I belonged in the spirit of espirit de corps. That co-operative Society yielded a Guardian Housing Estate in Matogun,an Ogun State community near Lagos State in which willing members were assigned land to build houses. Thus, Matogun counter balanced Isheri North, which I suspect has not yielded a Guardian Staff Housing Estate . (4) To the credit of the proprietors, they also accepted the proposal that the company pay for the staff land purchases in Isheri North and charges for the various Certificates of Occupancy ( C OF O)…and instalmentally deduct the debits from the salaries of allottees.(5) Additionally, it was agreed that the Editorial department would be entitled to five per cent of its surplus budget on the Monday Edition to host quarterly luncheons for the Nigerian Institution of Estate Surveyors and Valuers ( NIESV) which saturated that edition with Real Estate Advertisement. That package created symbiotic blessings for both the Guardian and the NIESV. It offered the NIESV its own newspaper, as it were every Monday, within the Guardian newspaper, a new trend in Nigerian journalism. It brought increased and effective customer traffic and prosperity to the NIESV. For the Guardian newspaper, it increased readership, raised advertisement traffic from about four pages every Monday to about 25 pages.

    The foregoing was one side of the coin of the Guardian. Bayo Onanuga, Owei Lakenfa and Kayode Komolafe may have left the Guardian when a new day began to dawn for the staff. However, their imprints cannot be extricated from what was to become the biggest pay package in the newspaper industry at that time, a salute to their courage and the inputs they unofficially made to the working paper aforementioned. There is an other side of every coin. The Guardian of my days had its own share of it.

    I retired from the Board of the Guardian in 1999. Till this day, I have no records of my compulsory contributions backed by the company’s contribution paid into my National Provident Fund ( NPF) Account. The little I have saved up there according to Stanbic IBTC records, came from Daily Times where I worked for 12 years and interest on the savings. It amounted to a mere 109,000 Naira about two years ago. Even this, I couldn’t access irespective of my voter card and national ID identifications, because I couldn’t present my letter of employment of 8 March 1971 at the Daily Times.

    •NEXT WEEK: Democracy Hero MR ALEX IBRU

  • Presidency debunks fake ministerial sack reports

    Presidency debunks fake ministerial sack reports

    The Presidency has debunked the widely circulated reports claiming that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu had sacked three Ministers, describing the story as a fabrication with no basis in fact.

    Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr. Bayo Onanuga, in a post on his verified X handle, @aonanuga, on Tuesday night, expressed deep concern over the dangerous trend.

    The erroneous reports, which quickly gained traction on social media, claimed that President Tinubu had dismissed the Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu; the Minister of Defence, Mohammed Badaru Abubakar and the Minister of State for Defence, Bello Matawalle. 

    Citing a non-existent statement allegedly issued by Onanuga, the reports misled the public and triggered widespread speculation.

    Describing the development as not only irresponsible but dangerous to national stability, Onanuga called for decisive action against fake news merchants.

    “Security agencies must urgently take action against fake news websites and platforms and the purveyors who fail to check the authenticity of the stories and make them go viral,” he said.

    Read Also: Presidency hits back at “desperate” opposition, partisan activists

    He emphasised that unchecked falsehoods pose a threat to democratic values and the integrity of the press, warning that freedoms must be exercised with responsibility.

    “Press freedom and freedom of speech will not exist when some people can wake up and concoct their news and narratives without regard for truth.

    “Fake news is simply licentiousness and must be criminalised,”Onanuga said. 

    He urged media organisations to uphold the ethics of journalism by verifying information before publication and advised the public to rely on official sources for government-related updates.

    As of the time of this report, all three ministers named in the false story continue to serve in their respective roles. 

    The Presidency has made no official announcement regarding any cabinet reshuffle.

    The call for criminalising fake news is likely to spark national conversation about the balance between free expression and the regulation of harmful content online—a debate that continues to gain urgency in Nigeria’s evolving media landscape.

  • 2027 and realignment of forces

    2027 and realignment of forces

    Presidential Adviser on Information and Strategy Bayo Onanuga examines the import of realignment of forces ahead of the 2027 general election.

    We have read the alarming claims orchestrated by disgruntled opposition figures,  some partisan human rights crusaders and emergency defenders of democracy over recent defections of key members of opposition parties into the governing All Progressives Congress.

    The seismic shift caused by the defection of the Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, the former governor and vice presidential candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party in the last election, Dr Ifeanyi Okowa, and the principal political actors in Delta State certainly threw the opposition and their sympathisers into disarray.

    While the opposition elements are understandably heartbroken and disillusioned over the failure of their fabled grand coalition to gain traction, we find it disturbing that they resorted to peddling false allegations of the promotion of a one-party State against President Bola Tinubu, who is working very hard to reverse decades of economic mismanagement of our country.

    Contrary to the false claims in the sponsored propaganda materials in circulation across mainstream and social media, democracy is not under any threat in Nigeria. Accusations that the administration is moving towards authoritarianism are baseless and exaggerated.

    We must add that no policy, official action, or directive from the Presidency seeks to “dismantle democracy” or “weaken opposition or create a one-party state.” Accusations of bribery, blackmail, and the weaponisation of state institutions only exist in the idle minds of politicians and their agents who have failed in their assigned duty of opposition.

    Read Also: Shettima, Ganduje, APC govs storm Delta Monday to welcome Oborevwori, Okowa, others to APC 

    The opposition cannot blame President Tinubu and the governing APC for their poor organisation, indiscipline, and gross incompetence in managing their affairs. It is certainly not part of President Tinubu’s job to organise or strengthen opposition parties.

    We find it curious that those who celebrated the defection of the former Governor of Kaduna State, Mallam Nasir El-Rufai, to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the formation of a regional grand coalition with the sole aim of defeating President Tinubu in the 2027 election are the same people shedding crocodile tears over Nigeria’s so-called drift to a one-party state and authoritarianism.

    While the latter-day defenders of democracy raised no anxious voice against the disgruntled politicians cobbling an anti-Tinubu, anti-APC coalition along dangerous regional lines, even before INEC blows the whistle for party politicking, they are quick to ascribe the political shifts in some states to “bribery, blackmail, and coercion” without any shred of evidence.

    Without any equivocation, freedom of association, freedom of speech and freedom of choice are part of the cherished ideals of democracy.  When politicians and citizens can not freely join any association or political party of their choice or cannot openly express their views, democracy is imperilled.  Those opposed to the Tinubu administration should understand that they can issue diatribes, without fear,  against the government because we practice democracy.

    It is hypocrisy writ-large when opposition politicians and their collaborators in the ‘human rights’ movement desire that the party of the President should implode so they can gain electoral advantage and cry wolf when their wish does not materialise.

    We want to state that democracy is not threatened or undermined simply because politicians exercise their rights of association. Nigerians migrating to the APC and expressing support for Tinubu are doing so out of their free will, based on the belief that the reforms being executed are in the interest of Nigerians and the unborn generation. It is a gross disservice to democracy in itself for these emergency defenders of democracy to delegitimise the political choices of some Nigerians while upholding the choices of others to form a coalition against Tinubu and APC.

    Under President Tinubu, democracy is strong, and the multiparty democratic system will continue to flourish unhindered. His administration remains resolutely committed to upholding and strengthening the democratic foundations upon which our Fourth Republic has stood since 1999

    Politicians changing party affiliation is not new or peculiar to Nigeria. In more advanced democracies, there are ready examples of notable politicians, statesmen and women who changed their parties.

    President Tinubu and the National Working Committee of the APC, under the leadership of Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje, deserve commendation for making the ruling party viable and attractive to all Nigerians willing to participate in the democratic process.

    President Tinubu is an avowed Democrat and a firm believer in multiparty democracy. His political activism and democratic credentials in galvanising and strengthening opposition platforms as a force that defeated a sitting President and the then ruling party attest to his profound credibility as a tested and relentless defender of multiparty democracy.

    We urge all Nigerians to join hands with the administration in protecting our democracy by respecting their choices and giving a wide berth to peddlers of alarming narratives rooted in fiction.

  • Presidency hits back at “desperate” opposition, partisan activists

    Presidency hits back at “desperate” opposition, partisan activists

    • …says democracy not only alive in Nigeria, but thriving 

    The Presidency on Sunday hit back at opposition politicians and partisan activists, accusing them of peddling “desperate lies” and “manufactured hysteria” over recent political realignments, and declaring that democracy under President Bola Tinubu is stronger than ever.

    In a statement issued by Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the Presidency said allegations that Nigeria was sliding into a one-party state were nothing more than “propaganda rooted in fear, frustration, and political failure.”

    “They are heartbroken by the collapse of their so-called grand coalition and now resort to fiction, falsely accusing President Tinubu of engineering a one-party state. Their claims are not only baseless but a desperate attempt to deflect attention from their own incompetence, poor organization, and political irrelevance”, Onanuga said. 

    Onanuga was reacting to criticism following a wave of defections from key opposition figures to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC), including Delta State Governor, Sheriff Oborevwori, and former Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) vice-presidential candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, as well as the open declaration of support for the President by the Akwa Ibom Governor, Umo Eno.

    According to the Presidency, these developments have understandably thrown opposition elements “into disarray,” but that is no justification for what it described as a coordinated disinformation campaign.

    “The defections are the legitimate exercise of the politicians’ constitutional rights,” Onanuga said. “In a democracy, freedom of association is sacrosanct. No one is coerced. Nigerians are joining the APC of their own free will, drawn by the clear reforms President Tinubu is pursuing for the future of our country.”

    The statement flatly rejected allegations of coercion, bribery, or weaponization of state institutions as “wild tales spun by political sore losers fishing for scapegoats.”

    “It is laughable and insulting to the intelligence of Nigerians to suggest that the APC’s growing appeal is anything other than voluntary. There is no policy, no directive, no action from the Presidency aimed at weakening the opposition or dismantling democracy”, Onanuga added.

    Read Also: Presidency justifies solar power project for State House

    Turning the spotlight back on Tinubu’s critics, the Presidency accused opposition leaders of hypocrisy, recalling their silence when former Kaduna State Governor, Nasir El-Rufai, defected to the Social Democratic Party (SDP) to form a regional coalition aimed at defeating the President in 2027.

    “It is hypocrisy writ large. When disgruntled politicians cobbled together a regional grand coalition against Tinubu, these defenders of democracy cheered. Now that Nigerians are aligning with the President’s vision, they cry foul”, Onanuga charged. 

    The Presidency also dismissed fears about political diversity under Tinubu’s watch, pointing to the President’s long-standing democratic credentials.

    “President Tinubu is an avowed democrat. His political activism, notably his role in building the opposition alliance that unseated a sitting president in 2015, is a testament to his commitment to multiparty democracy. No one has fought harder to strengthen the opposition than President Tinubu himself”, the statement read. 

    The government insisted that Nigeria’s Fourth Republic remains on solid footing, and there are no threats to multiparty democracy.

    “Under President Tinubu, democracy is not only alive but flourishing. Freedom of speech, freedom of association, and freedom of political choice are vigorously protected. The opposition remains free to criticize — which it does loudly and without consequence”, Onanuga said. 

    Onanuga further argued that party-switching is a common feature even in the world’s most established democracies, citing examples where prominent leaders changed affiliations in pursuit of their political convictions.

    “Democracy thrives when citizens and politicians are free to make choices without intimidation,” he said. “It is not democracy when you celebrate defections that favor you and cry wolf when they don’t.”

    The Presidency credited APC National Chairman Dr. Abdullahi Ganduje with making the ruling party “viable, inclusive, and attractive” to a broad cross-section of Nigerians, thereby reinforcing the health of Nigeria’s democratic culture.

    “The fact that the APC continues to expand is a sign of political vitality, not authoritarian drift,” Onanuga declared.

    Presidency urged Nigerians to remain vigilant against “alarmists and fiction writers” seeking to destabilize the polity through misinformation.

    “We call on all citizens to reject these merchants of falsehood and stand firm in defense of our democracy. Our democracy is strong, our institutions are intact, and our future under President Tinubu’s leadership is secure”, Onanuga said.

  • Presidency blasts Ndume over lopsided appointments claim

    Presidency blasts Ndume over lopsided appointments claim

    The Presidency has dismissed allegations of lopsided appointments under President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, describing the claim by Senator Ali Ndume as hypocritical and misleading.

    In a reaction posted on Tuesday via his verified X handle, @aonanuga1956, the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, said the Borno South senator is “allergic to facts and addicted to theatrics.”

    Onanuga’s response comes after Ndume accused President Tinubu of favouring certain regions in his recent appointments, sparking debates across political circles.

    “Senator Ali Ndume’s latest outburst on TV about so-called ‘lopsided appointments’ by President Bola Ahmed Tinubu reeks of hypocrisy and selective perception.

    “While the Borno senator grandstanded as a moral authority on equity, he forgot to tell his interviewer that two of his kinsmen featured in recent NNPC Limited top appointments”, Onanuga wrote. 

    He pointed out that the Chairman of NNPC Limited, who was appointed by President Tinubu, hails from Ndume’s own senatorial district in Borno State. 

    “If Tinubu and his surrogates’ choices are so ‘tribal,’ how did two of Ndume’s kinsmen clinch NNPC’s top roles?” he queried.

    The presidential aide accused Ndume of repeatedly engaging in populist rhetoric without regard for verifiable facts. 

    “His habit of firing half-baked criticisms—only to be contradicted by facts—proves he’s more interested in headline-chasing, rabble rousing, and stoking divisive narratives than offering constructive criticism,” he added.

    Read Also: Damboa Attack: Ndume lauds Army’s resilience, offers support to victims

    Onanuga reaffirmed the President’s commitment to inclusive governance, saying Tinubu’s appointments are based on merit, integrity, and national spread. 

    “President Tinubu is deeply committed to fostering a government that embraces all Nigerians, irrespective of their ethnic or regional affiliations,” he said.

    He urged the senator to “elevate public discourse and avoid misinformation and baseless criticism,” warning that such behaviour was “a disservice to the nation and the behaviour least expected from a Nigerian Senator.”

  • Presidential aide addresses misconceptions on tax reform

    Presidential aide addresses misconceptions on tax reform

    Mr Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, has addressed the misconceptions surrounding the tax reform initiated by the current administration.

    He noted that the Northern Governors’ Forum on Oct. 28, led by Gov. Muhammed Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State, expressed opposition to the new derivation-based model for Value-Added Tax (VAT) distribution in the tax reform bills before the National Assembly.

    He said the meeting also had traditional rulers from the region in attendance, led by Muhammadu Sa’ad Abubakar III, the Sultan of Sokoto, Onanuga said this in a statement on Thursday in Abuja.

    He explained that the tax reform bills, endorsed by President Bola Tinubu and the Federal Executive Council, aimed to streamline Nigeria’s tax administration processes, enhance efficiency, and eliminate redundancies.

    “These reforms emerged after an extensive review of existing tax laws. The National Assembly is considering four executive bills designed to transform and modernise Nigeria’s tax landscape.

    “First is the Nigeria Tax Bill, which aims to eliminate unintended multiple taxation and make Nigeria’s economy more competitive by simplifying tax obligations for businesses and individuals nationwide.

    “Second, the Nigeria Tax Administration Bill (NTAB) proposes new rules governing the administration of all taxes in the country.

    “Its objective is to harmonise tax administrative processes across federal, state and local jurisdictions for ease of compliance for taxpayers in all parts of the country,” he said.

    According to him, the third bill, the Nigeria Revenue Service (Establishment) Bill, seeks to rename the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) as the Nigeria Revenue Service (NRS).

    Onanuga assured that the reforms would not increase taxes, lead to job losses, or absorb existing departments’ duties, instead, they aimed to optimise and simplify tax frameworks, ensuring a more equitable distribution of tax obligations.

    He said the reforms also sought to consolidate multiple taxes into a unified structure, reducing administrative fragmentation.

    Read Also: Still on Tinubu’s economic tax reform

    Regarding the proposed derivation-based VAT distribution model, Onanuga explained that the new proposal aimed to create a fairer system, considering the place of supply or consumption for relevant goods and services.

    He said the reform would benefit states in the Northern region that produced VAT-exempt goods, ensuring they did not lose out on revenue.

    “These reforms are crucial to improving Nigerians’ lives and were not intended to undermine any part of the country, Onanuga stated.

    He said the bills would overhaul the country’s tax systems, generating revenue for all tiers of government to fund development projects.

    (NAN)