Nigeria’s outgoing president promised to leave a legacy fashioned from concrete, stone, and steel. Instead, billions in stalled financing from China is forcing him to temper his aspirations to seed the country with ambitious public works.

Muhammadu Buhari, a former military ruler, was elected to lead Africa’s most populous nation in 2015 on pledges to tackle a deadly Islamist insurgency, clamp down on corruption, and build critical infrastructure. With only a year left before the end of his second and final term in office, it appears he put too much faith in the appetite of Chinese lenders to fund the roads, railways, and power plants that could transform Nigeria.

“It is obvious that things are below expectations,” says Ovigwe Eguegu, a Nigerian policy analyst at Development Reimagined, a Beijing-based consulting firm. “It would greatly help the ruling party’s chances in the polls next year if they deliver on these major infrastructure projects.”

Although Buhari has scored significant victories, more than $25 billion worth of projects that were meant to be completed before his departure are either far behind schedule or yet to start.

Africa’s largest economy is crying out for investment in infrastructure to spur growth and diversify beyond oil production. The public and private sectors need to spend $2.3 trillion over 23 years to tackle the country’s infrastructure deficit, with the heaviest allocations directed toward transport and energy, according to a finance ministry report published in late 2020.

About 40% of Nigeria’s 200 million people live in poverty, and the government generates barely enough revenue to service the nation’s debt, trapping it in an endless cycle of borrowing. Like many developing countries, it’s turned to loans from Chinese state-owned banks to finance major public works.

“Buhari got into power and looked at his options at how to provide infrastructure to Nigeria,” says Abdul-Gafar Tobi Oshodi, a political science lecturer at Lagos State University. “China is known for that. China is the leading state financier in Africa, not only in Nigeria.” From 2000 to 2020, China’s lenders committed almost $160 billion to African governments and state-owned companies, according to a database run by Johns Hopkins University and Boston University.

Project-specific lending to Nigeria from the Export-Import Bank of China totals $3.6 billion, according to data published in December by the nation’s Debt Management Office. The loans enabled Buhari to complete two rail lines that cover almost 350 kilometers (217 miles)—one started from scratch linking the commercial hub of Lagos with the city of Ibadan and another begun by his predecessor connecting the capital, Abuja, to the northern city of Kaduna. Funding from the same lender is paying for the upgrade of a 220km highway and a 700-megawatt power plant, with both projects expected to be completed before the end of Buhari’s term.

Those are notable achievements in a country where previous leaders have spent billions of dollars on projects that remained unfinished for decades or swiftly fell into disrepair. Buhari’s government even revived and finished a third rail segment that one of his predecessors began building in the 1980s. But these exploits are far more modest than the ambitions outlined by the president and his allies when they swept aside the political party that had governed Nigeria since the restoration of democracy in 1999.

A conspicuous failure is the 740 miles of rail track that will travel northward from Ibadan to the trading center of Kano. Buhari has frequently extolled the benefits of this line, estimated to cost $5.3 billion, which he says will streamline and turbocharge commerce between Lagos’s seaports and Nigeria’s second-largest city.

Ahead of the president’s reelection in 2019, the ruling All Progressives Congress party told Nigerians that Buhari’s second term would bring the construction of two additional rail projects priced at $14 billion and a giant 3,000MW hydroelectric plant that’s been on the drawing board for 50 years. Since then, the state-owned energy company has commenced work on a $2.6 billion gas pipeline intended to increase domestic consumption of the country’s abundant reserves and reinvigorate power-deprived industries.

At various times, Buhari or his officials have announced the government has obtained or would shortly secure loans from China to pay for the bulk of these developments. Yet the funds haven’t materialized, so projects are being kept on life support with government money or are on pause until financing can be resolved.

Rotimi Amaechi, Nigeria’s transport minister at the time, voiced his frustration in February, telling reporters, “We were waiting on the Chinese to give us the loans we applied for, and till today they’ve not replied.” According to Amaechi, the finance ministry had to turn to London-based Standard Chartered Plc to arrange financing for the rail lines.

Unfortunately for Buhari, China’s enthusiasm for underwriting these capital-intensive endeavors appears to be waning. When President Xi Jinping addressed the eighth triennial Forum on China-Africa Cooperation in October, his financial pledge to the world’s least industrialized continent fell for the first time in more than a decade, decreasing a third from the $60 billion committed at the same event in 2018.

Xi’s government “is facing tight budget limits domestically and needs to balance different priorities overseas,” says Ye Yu, associate research fellow at the Shanghai Institutes for International Studies. In Africa “the focus has shifted to vaccines and multilateral aid” channeled via organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, she says.

Also, concern about the capacity of some African nations to repay their debts is “discouraging Chinese financial institutions’ lending in lower-income countries,” Ye says.

There are steps Nigeria could have taken to improve its chances of unlocking at least some of the promised Chinese funding. One of Xi’s most senior envoys informed Buhari in 2019 that China Eximbank couldn’t finalize $4 billion in loans for a 700MW hydroelectric facility until his government resolves a long-running legal dispute involving a Nigerian firm.

The experience of a subsidiary of the state-owned China Civil Engineering Construction Corp., which builds Nigeria’s new railway, has also played a role, according to Eguegu. The company’s reports of “delays and problems” to China Eximbank “definitely makes securing the rest of the loans much harder,” he says.

The armed groups that are active across much of Nigeria are also deterring potential financiers. So-called bandits blew up a section of the Abuja-Kaduna line and then opened fire on a passenger train in late March, killing nine and kidnapping dozens more. The abductees are still missing, and service on the line has yet to resume.

A China-backed project that appears to be progressing more seamlessly is one in which the Nigerian government has taken a back seat, participating as a minority shareholder in the development: a much-needed new deepwater port outside Lagos designed to decongest two existing facilities in the city. A $629 million loan from state-owned China Development Bank and $221 million in equity funding from majority shareholder China Harbour Engineering Co. are financing most of the $1 billion project, which is expected to start operations in the first quarter of next year.

With a presidential vote looming early next year, Chinese lenders may choose to sit on the sidelines until there’s a successor to Buhari. “The fact that China has been reluctant now places it in a powerful position to renegotiate and reengage” once the dust settles after the election, Oshodi says.

It’s too soon to write off some of the Chinese-funded projects that have stalled, Oshodi says, noting that the three rail lines Buhari inaugurated were conceived of, and in two cases started, by previous heads of state. “Hopefully [the next president] may be in the position to complete many of these ambitious projects,” he says.

The backbone of a major cartel distributing drugs in Delta and adjourning states was broken on Sunday 15th May following the arrest of a wanted 59-year-old drug baroness, Bridget Oghenekevwe Emeka, a.k.a Mama, by operatives of the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA, at her palatial mansion where she cooks and distributes Crack Cocaine, Methamphetamine and other illicit substances.

No fewer than nine of her staff and associates were arrested along with her in coordinated simultaneous operations at her expansive residence and drug bunks where she accommodates drug users and sells illicit substances to them and others in parts of Warri, Delta state. 

Femi Babafemi, the agency's director, media & advocacy who announced this on Tuesday said various quantities of Crack Cocaine, Methamphetamine, Molly, and Loud were seized from her home.

Babafemi added that drug bunks; a pump action gun, 15 cartridges, documents, two cars, mobile phones, drug paraphernalia such as sodium bicarbonate and polythene wrappings were also recovered for further investigation.

According to agency's director of Image management, five of the baroness' staff that cook, cut, package and distribute the drugs were found in her house located at Favour Street, Otukutu, Effurun Warri while four of her associates were equally arrested at her drug bunks in other parts of the town during the raids by Strike Force officers of NDLEA supported by the military.

The drug baroness has been under surveillance for weeks after her identification as a major distributor of illicit drugs in the South South state.

Bridget cooks Cocaine into Crack Cocaine for local distribution and consumption in drug joints.

Some of the paraphernalia for making Crack recovered from her house include: sodium bicarbonate, which is the main adulterant and recipe for making crack cocaine, as well as transparent nylon used in wrapping the finished product.

Chairman/Chief Executive of NDLEA, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Buba Marwa (Retd) commended the officers and men involved in all the processes leading to the eventual execution of the operation plan. He also appreciated the armed forces for their unwavering support to the Agency.

The National Democratic Coalition, NADECO, was formed on 15 May 1994 by a broad coalition of Nigerian democrats, who called on the military government of Sani Abacha to step down in favor of the winner of the 12 June 1993 election, M. K. O. Abiola. The members mostly came from the southwest of the country.

NADECO was roughly a product of another organization, which existed before the June 12 crisis.  This was the Committee for Unity and Understanding (CUU).  The overriding motive of CUU was the campaign for power shift from the North to the South. CUU was started not long after the Babangida transition-to-civil-rule programme started.  Founders and key members of the CUU included Admiral Ndubuisi Kanu, Chief Sam Mbakwe, Mr. Ayo Opadokun, Chief Edward Kobani, Chief Lulu Briggs, Commodore Ebitu Ukiwe, Alhaji Abdulazeez Ude, Ambassador Tanko Yusuf and General Theophilus Danjuma.

However, when the June 12 election was annulled, the CUU, in conjunction with such groups as the Movement for National Reformation (MNR), led by Chief Anthony Enahoro, Egbe Ilosiwaju Yoruba, led by General Adeyinka Adebayo, Afenifere, led by Chief Michael Ajasin, the Progressive Alliance for Justice and Unity (PAJU), Justice Forum and National Patriotic Front (NPF) and several other pro-democracy and human rights groups like Beko Ransome Kuti’s Campaign for Democracy came together to form NADECO in General Adeyinka Adebayo’s house, GRA, Ikeja.

NADECO quickly became the symbol of mass resistance against military rule. On 11 June 1994, using the groundwork laid by NADECO, Abiola declared himself president and went into hiding. He re-emerged and was promptly arrested on 23 June.

This led to a mass protests and the acclaimed winner of the June 12, 1993 presidential election, Chief MKO Abiola, his wife, Kudirat, and several Nigerians paid for it with their lives. Scores of NADECO members including the likes of Senator Cornelius Adebayo, Olatunji Hameed George, Femi Ojudu and many others went on exile for mounting pressure and organising civil unrest on the military regimes. 

Nigerians were not weary to insist on their constitutional demand to wilfully choose their leaders.  Thus, after close to two decades, their wish was granted. But it came at a very high price.

The anger that came before and after the deaths of these Nigerians forced the Abacha’s successor, General Abdulsalami Abubakar (retd.), to set in the machinery for a return to civilian rule within days of assuming office, following Abacha’s sudden death on June 8, 1998.

With the support of the international community, Nigerians went to the polls on February 27, 1999, to elect Chief Olusegun Obasanjo as civilian President, and that was the very first red flag that a military was ruling wearing a civilian garb.

With the arrival of Democratic rule fought for by NADECO’s underground, open-ground, self-exiled and other cadres of Nigerian patriots, one would have thought that military incursion into politics was done with in Nigeria. 

Before his election, Obasanjo who previously served as military Head of State, was serving a 15-year prison sentence over a phantom coup.

He was released, granted state pardon and won the presidential ticket of the Peoples Democratic Party. He contested and won the election thus getting a second chance to preside over the world’s largest black nation.

The presence of the military was felt, even though it was a Democratic government as the military was more often than not, called upon to deal with civil unrest. Angry soldiers, avenging the death of their comrades in the hands of Niger Delta militants’ also killed scores of men, women and children in the infamous Odi massacre.

The 2007 elections were held after the third term attempt of President Obasanjo failed. The biggest beneficiary of the electoral heist, the late President Umaru Yar’Adua, acknowledged this when he took the oath of office.

His tenure was cut short by a terminal ailment which eventually claimed his life. He was succeeded by the then Vice President, Goodluck Jonathan, after what almost became a constitutional crisis. Before his death, close aides of the late President kept Jonathan and most Nigerians in the dark about the true state of Yar’Adua’s health.

It took several street protests and the intervention of the Senator David Mark-led Senate which came up with the doctrine of necessity to break the impasse and transfer power to Jonathan to act as President until 2011, when he contested and won the presidency.

His administration recorded modest achievements but was marred by allegations of corruption. 

In the run up to the 2015 general elections, opposition political parties formed the All Progressives Congress. Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who promised to tackle corruption and tame the monster of insecurity, became the candidate of the APC.

He won the election with Jonathan conceding defeat even before the final votes were tallied. Buhari, who was re-elected in 2019, has also recorded modest achievements in agriculture and completion of several infrastructural projects in the transport sector.

However, his regime has been characterised by allegations of massive corruption, nepotism, economic hardship and insecurity at a scale never before seen.

The Executive Director of the Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, Emmanuel Onwubiko, said, “It is sad that this regime has placed greater value on the lives of cows than that of citizens. Armed herdsmen have been going about raping, maiming and killing citizens across Nigeria with most of them not being brought to book. Crop farmers in the middle belt and the South have been at the receiving end. There is banditry across the country, including Zamfara, Kaduna and even in the President’s home state of Katsina.

Speaking in a similar vein, the National Publicity Secretary of the main opposition PDP, Kola Ologbondinyan, noted, “This APC-led regime has taken Nigeria back to a disgraceful level. Nigerians and the rest of the world can testify to the progress made under the PDP since the days of President Obasanjo, right through the Jonathan presidency.

“But today, what do we have? We have a nation where human life has become cheap because of the ineptitude of those in power.

Although there are still challenges, the general consensus among Nigerians is that the worst form of democracy is better than the best military rule. 

However, some believe that what is operated in Nigeria is diarchy, an arrangement involving both civilian and military.

The Catholic Arch Bishop of the Sokoto Diocese, Rev Father Hassan Kukah, at a point voiced out his concern for a long term military dominance of Nigeria's politics, which he said had been accentuated by the emergence of two retired Generals, Olusegun Obasanjo and Muhammadu Buhari as the President of the country. As a result, he advised retired military personnel, especially the imposing generals to lessen their interference in the political space of the country.

The narrative of the democratization processes in African states cannot be written without a bold reference to the role played by the military class in several African countries. 

Nigeria presents a remarkable case, while the military regimes of Olusegun Obasanjo (February 1976 – October 1979) and Abdulsalam Abubakar (June 1998 – May 1999) presented the second and fourth republics, the regime of Muhammadu Buhari (December 1983 – August 1985) would be remembered for aborting the second republic in December 1983.

The democratic change of government in 1999 did not keep the military out of the Nigerian state’s political affairs. The military’s constitutional roles provided for them to not only maintain territorial integrity and defend against external aggression, but also to suppress insurrection and act in aid of civil authorities to restore order when called upon to do so by the legislature. Hence, post-1999 Nigeria has featured a motley of incidents that necessitated, at various times, military intervention to either defend the country’s territorial integrity, assist civil authorities, or act as agents of state hegemony and control in manners reminiscent of previous military regimes in the Country.

Nigeria’s democracy is in a distressed state. It is perhaps apt to state that Nigeria is a democracy from afar, but far from a democracy. According to Thomas Carothers in the 2002 article, ‘The End of the Transition Paradigm’, and Larry Diamond in the 2002 article, ‘Thinking about Hybrid Regimes’, ‘reckless and pseudo’ forms of democracy explain the type of Nigeria’s democracy; and for analysts like Ryan Cummings, Nigeria’s democracy is best described as a ‘sham’. The distressed condition of Nigeria’s democracy arises from the failure to fully democratize after its final transition from military rule to democracy in 1999. According to Nic Cheeseman, in his 2015 book, Democracy in Africa: Successes, Failures and the Struggles for Political Reform, democratization involves three distinct but overlapping processes. They include ‘the transition to multipartyism, the reconstitution of a new political order, and the later process of consolidating democratic gains. While post-1999 Nigeria has passed through the first two processes, it stalled significantly in the phase of democratic consolidation, allowing different subaltern groups to contest violently for their share of the national cake.

The Nigerian state’s inability to consolidate its democratic journey since 1999 has resulted in a trapped democratization process. A trapped democratization is one that fails for whatever reasons to improve its democratic qualities, measured by its procedure, content, and results. Shola Omotola, in the 2015 essay, ‘Trapped in Transition: Nigeria’s First Democratic Decade and Beyond’, argued that in such transitions, there is always disequilibrium between the demand for and supply of democracy, distinguished by a democratic motion without democratic movement, a sort of cause without effect.

In Nigeria, this caged democratic transition mode has not only created a weak state; it equally has unwittingly paved way for the emergence of ethnic militias and insurgent groups in different geo-political zones across the country. This has led to the deployment of military forces in various internal security operations where they are either operating as stand-alone operations or working in concert with other civil authorities to secure peace.

The Nigerian state’s failure to fully answer the question of democratic consolidation at the post-transition stage was also evident in the gap between the people’s expectation and the reality of governance. As far back as 1986, eminent political theorist, Richard Sklar, in his chapter in the 1986 book, Political Domination in Africa: Reflection on the Limits of Power, captured the failings of democracy in Nigeria after the end of the Second Republic. He noted that:

‘Liberal democracy in Nigeria is debilitated by the effects of economic anarchy and social distemper. A small minority of the population is conspicuously wealthy and privileged while the vast majority seethes with discontent. In Nigeria, liberal democracy is democracy with many reservations’.

Sklar’s position accurately mirrors the present realities of Nigeria because a prominent section of the ‘securitized elite thrives on crony capitalism and patron-client deals in violation of the rule of law, sometimes with benevolent and malevolent attributes’ as argued by Isaac Olawale Albert in his 2012 article titled, ‘The Securitized Elite: A Deconstruction of the Cabals in Nigeria’s Political Economy’. As a result, the Nigerian state has suffered insecurity, capacity and legitimacy gaps. This has been demonstrated in the declining capacity of its institutions to deliver public goods and dividends of democracy. The resultant effect of this is a huge gap between the demand and supply of democracy and good governance in Nigeria, according to Said Adejumobi in the 2010 book, Introduction in Governance and Politics in Post-Military Nigeria.  

At this juncture, would it not be right to again invite the NADECO members to come back and finish their job by ensuring that the hands of the military are completely removed from Nigeria’s democracy? Then the generals often referred to as cabals won’t have a say in who becomes what in the country’s democratic governance. 

While I invite Senator Femi Ojudu, Olatunji Hameed George, Senator Cornelius Adebayo and other great members of NADECO’s underground, Open-ground and self exiled Patriots to come rescue the nation still from the military, I would end this piece with a quote by Rev Father Hassan Kukah, who said "You know that the military has already taken away most of our years in this democracy, and as you have seen, they are still not yet through with us. "After Gen. Olusegun Obasanjo and Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, how many more generals do you want to have as Presidents? Will civilians grow this democracy or will it be the duty of soldiers? 

"My people, we must make progress and our democracy will grow. This is not anti-military rally but please soldiers retired and serving give us civilians to rule.

"Let those soldiers who have retired enjoy the benefit of their retirement and let the soldiers who are serving remain in the military and do very well what they set out to do when they joined the military".

Tunji Akinremi writes from Ogun State as a concerned citizen with interest in genuine democratisation of the Nigeria States.

A 30-year old University drop-out Mustapha Gajibo has been converting petrol mini-buses into electric vehicles at his workshop, but he is now going a step further to build solar battery-powered buses from scratch in a push to promote clean energy and curb pollution.

Africa's top producer and exporter of crude oil has heavily-subsidised gasoline and a patchy supply of electricity -- a combination that might discourage anyone from investing in electric vehicles.

But the entrepreneur who is a resident of Maiduguri city in Nigeria's northeast, is undaunted. He says rising global oil prices and pollution make electric vehicles a worthwhile alternative in Nigeria.

At his workshop, he has already stripped combustion engines from 10 mini-buses, powering them with solar batteries. The buses, which have been operating for just over a month, cover a distance of 100 km on a single charge, he said.

His most ambitious project is building the buses from scratch. They will be equipped with solar panels and batteries.

"As I am speaking to you now at our workshop, we are building a 12-seater bus which can cover up to 200 kilometres on one charge," Gajibo said.

"Before the end of this month we are going to unveil that bus, which will be the first of its kind in the whole of Nigeria," he said, adding that his workshop had capacity to produce 15 buses a month.

In Nigeria, like most of Africa, electric vehicles have not yet gained traction because they are more expensive and there is little electricity and no infrastructure to charge vehicles.

For now, Gajibo has one charging station powered by solar.

There are other hurdles like foreign currency shortages that make it difficult to import parts. So, he is looking to source them in Nigeria.

"We have been substituting some materials with local materials to bring our costs down and maximise profit," said Gajibo.

Naira plunged against the U.S. dollar on Monday with a 0.60 per cent depreciation at the official market.

According to FMDQ, where forex is officially traded, the naira which opened trading at N417.30 closed at N421.50 to a dollar at the close of business on Monday.

This implies N2.50 or 0.60 per cent devaluation from N419.00 it exchanged hands with the greenback currency Friday, last week.

This is the second lowest level the naira exchanged officially with the dollar in five months after closing at N422.67 to a dollar on January 5, early this year, and the first time it stretched across the N417.00 and N419.00 and above benchmark it has been trading in the past four months.

The naira reached an intraday high of N410.00 and slipped to a low of N444.00 before closing at N421.50 per $1 on Monday.

Forex turnover plummeted by 58.3 per cent with $70.68 million recorded at the close of business on Monday against the $169.38 million posted in the previous session last week Friday.

Similarly, the local currency touched N600.00 mark at the parallel market on Monday.

In Uyo, currency dealers exchanged the naira at N595.00 and sold within the range of N596.00 and N600.00 to a dollar, while Abuja balck market dealers at wuse zone 4 said the currency was exchanged at N594.00 and sold at N595.00 per $1 on Monday.

Federal government says the Abuja-Kaduna train service will resume operations on May 23.

Yakubu Mahmood, spokesperson, Nigerian Railway Corporation (NRC), said this in a statement on Monday.

In March, the government suspended operations on the route after an attack on the train by gunmen. 

Eight passengers died in the attack, while many were kidnapped.

Mahmood said the decision to resume operations does not mean efforts to secure the safe release of those abducted would be shelved.

“The government wishes to assure the relatives of the abducted citizens still in captivity that the safe rescue of these passengers is a top priority and not to misconstrue the resumption of train services, like abandonment or nonchalant attitude of the government towards their plight,” the statement reads.

“The federal government will never abdicate its responsibility in rescuing these valuable citizens, however, the government assures of its resolve not to succumb to threats by any faceless group.”

The resolve to resume train services on the route was reached even as most of the kidnapped passengers are still held captive by abductors.

Relatives of the abducted passengers had warned the federal government against resuming operations along the route until their loved ones were rescued.

Nigerian students, yesterday, made good their threats to cripple socio-economic actives in the country as they barricaded major highways and obstructed movements in continuation of their protest over ongoing nationwide strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU).

In 2020, the union embarked on a nine-month strike, the longest since 1999 and about two years later on February 14, it went on a four-week warning strike. It declared another eight weeks strike, saying it was giving the government more time to attend to its demands. Upon it expiration, it announced additional 12 weeks roll-over with effect from May 9, to end in August. The students have so far spent three months at home owing  to  the lecturers’ strike.

Following the protracted industrial action which has lasted over 90 days, the students had last week released an action plan which include disruption of socio-economic and political activities to force government and the lecturers back to the dialogue table with a view to speedily resolving the disputes and ensure the return to classrooms.

Yesterday’s protest forced motorists on major routes linking the Southwest to the Southeast and the north to spend several hours while others had to find alternatives routes out of the logjam. Most commuters were forced to trek long distances to their destinations.

In Ibadan, Oyo State, the protesting students barricaded the highway in front of the University of Ibadan (UI) and hampered free flow of traffic along the busy Ojoo-UI-Molola Road and the road leading from UI to Bodija. The students also went to the entrance of Oyo State Government Secretariat, Ibadan, and prevented vehicular movement.

Leader of the Ibadan protest, Solomon Emiola, said: “We are here because of ASUU, NASU SSANU strike. We want the Federal Government to use this as the last strike. We want all the strikes to finish. This should be the last strike in the history of Nigerian students.”

One of the protesting students, Damilola Olubunmi, said: “I am here because we need to tell the Federal Government that students must resume. The strike is not affecting the students alone. It is also affecting our parents. The essence of this is that when the road is blocked, people cannot move and they will trend it for us. Then, the government will know that we are protesting.”

In Ogun, a joint protest by students of Olabisi Onabanjo University (OOU), Ago-Iwoye; Tai Solarin University of Education, Science and Technology (TASUED) Ijagun and Federal University of Agriculture (FUNAAB), Abeokuta, saw the students block the Sagamu-Benin Expressway.

Carrying placards with inscriptions such as “#End ASUU strike now#”, “We say no to educational stagnancy”, “We are tired of deadlock meetings” and “Education should not be this difficult” among others, the students blocked the expressway leaving many motorists stranded and travellers trapped.

Chairman, National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS) in the state, Damilola Simeon, appealed to the Federal Government to respond urgently to the yearnings of ASUU. He stressed that it was high time the Federal Government and members of ASUU agreed and reach a compromise to end the strike.

”We have been clamouring since the commencement of this ASUU strike that something should be done with immediate effect, but both ASUU and the federal government are not listening to us. They have to understand the fact that Nigerian students will always be at the receiving end at the end of the day. Our students are suffering, our students are fed up. This whole issue is getting out of hand. We do not pray that our students end up engaging themselves in criminal activities as we all know that an idle hand is the devil’s workshop,” he said.

The NANS chairman begged the two parties to do the needful and call off the strike.

Don Ayomide, President, Student Union Government of TASUED, said the protest was necessary to let both the federal government and ASUU be aware of the plight of Nigerian students.

Similarly, students of the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) also blocked major roads in Akure, the Ondo State capital in protest to the ASUU strike.

The students who trooped out as early as 6.30am moved in enmass on major roads in the town chanting various solidarity songs.

The protest caused serious crisis for transporters and commuters as the busy Ilesa-Akure express road was temporarily blocked.

For hours, transporters plying the busy road were stranded as a result of the protest, just as commercial activities in the affected areas were halted. Some of the roads blocked aside the Ilesa-Akure express road include Benin-Owo road and Orita Obele road among others.

The students hinged their action on the attitude of the Federal Government on the strike by the university teachers, condemning the attitude of President Muhammadu Buhari’s administration on the plight of both the university students and teachers.

While appealing to the Federal Government to accede to the demands of ASUU and other staff unions of university, the students threaten to continue with the protest until the universities are opened for academic work.

In Benin, Edo State, students of the University of Benin (UNIBEN) shut the Federal Secretariat, Benin, stormed the secretariat at Aduwawa area and declared a work free day for workers.

They cooked at the secretariat and threatened to shut Federal Government offices in the state to press home their demand for the resolution of the ASUU crisis.  

“We have told the workers that today is a free day for them because they can’t be working while we are out of our classes. All the Federal offices would be shut down. We have also written to INEC to let them know that election will not take place in Edo until we return to our classes. The police is here with us to ensure that the protest is not hijacked by hoodlums because the students are peace-loving people,” said Foster Amadin, president, UNIBEN Student Union Government.

“Education has been taken to an unserious level and the Federal Government is busy with election, forgetting  that there are many students at home due to the ASUU strike. We are here today, we have protested at the Airport, Ring Road and Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) office. We will keep going round until they find a solution and we go back to our classes,” Amadin said.

A magistrate’s court sitting in Sokoto has remanded two suspects — Bilyaminu Aliyu and Aminu Hukunci — arrested in connection with the murder of Deborah Emmanuel, a female student of Shehu Shagari College of Education.

BACKGROUND

On May 12, Deborah was attacked by a mob and set ablaze over comments purportedly considered to be an insult to Prophet Mohammed.

A video of the student being stoned and beaten with sticks was shared on social media.

The incident sparked outrage and condemnation across the country and the police command in Sokoto, subsequently, arrested two suspects in connection with the killing.

On Saturday, some residents protested against the arrest of the two suspects, which led to unrest in Sokoto — a development that led to the imposition of a 24-hour curfew by the state government.

SUSPECTS PLEAD ‘NOT GUILTY’ 

On Monday, the police command in Sokoto arraigned Aliyu and Hukunci over alleged participation in the murder of the female student.

During the court proceedings, the suspects pleaded not guilty to the murder of the deceased.

According to NAN, Khalil Musa, the prosecuting inspector, told the court that the police are currently investigating the circumstances surrounding the incident.

Mansur Ibrahim, the defence counsel who is leading a team of 34 lawyers for the case, applied for bail on behalf of the suspects, adding that the request was in line with constitutional provisions and sections of the Administration of Criminal Justice Law.

But the trial judge (name withheld for security reasons) reserved ruling on the bail application and ordered the suspects to be remanded at a correctional centre.

In the meantime, the All Progressives Congress(APC) and G20 UK have endorsed the second term ambition of governor Dapo Abiodun, saying he deserves re-election for another round of four years come 2023, following his even development of the state and inclusive governance style, the daily crucible has reported.

The UK APC and G20 group, UK, also described as an exercise in futility attempts by some failed politicians to deploy smear campaign and petitions to make governor Abiodun ineligible to participate in the 2023 governorship race on the platform of APC.

The All Progressives Congress (APC) leadership had recently received a petition written by one Ayodele Oludiran which seeks to disqualify Governor Abiodun from participating in the forthcoming governorship primaries.

The petition alleges that there are discrepancies in his Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) forms CF001 submitted in 2015 and 2019.

The April 12 petition also alleges that the governor was convicted for an offence in 1986.

The petitioners add that he bears Shawn Michael Davis in addition to Dapo Abiodun.

But the governor, in a letter to the APC National Chairman, Abdullahi Adamu, through his lawyers Afe Babalola & Co, urged the party to disregard a petition.

The law firm, in an April 19 letter to Adamu, described the petition as full of spurious and unfounded allegations to mislead the party into disqualifying the governor from participating in the 2023 gubernatorial poll.

However, Prince Dele Tinuosho, spokesperson for G20 UK chapter and Hon Sunday Olalekan Oyesanya - both members of APC UK, said sponsors of smear campaign and petitions seeking the disqualification of Abiodun by the APC National Working Committee (NWC)  would fail just as they failed woefully to stop him in the build up to the 2019 governorship election.

The two United Kingdom based APC chieftains pledged full support of the foreign chapter for the governor ahead of the party primaries and 2023 general elections.

They urged the National body of APC to disregard the petition and petitioner while also calling on the good people of Ogun State to rally round the governor and ensure he returns in 2023 to enable him continue his further developmental agenda for the state.

The Department of State Services has reportedly arrested a blogger, Ahmed Olamilekan, for allegedly publishing a story on Ogun State Governor, Dapo Abiodun, the Punch has reported.

The report published by Olamilekan was said to be on Abiodun’s alleged criminal records in the United States.

Olamilekan’s lawyer, Festus Ogun, said his client had been in detention since Friday after he honoured an invitation by the Ogun State command of the secret police.

He accused the governor of instigating his client’s arrest, adding that Abiodun had the right to challenge the publication in court instead of using the DSS to harass the blogger.

Abiodun had been involved in a battle with his political adversaries, who called for his disqualification over his alleged arrest in the US for a credit card fraud and forgery in 1986.

The governor, who is running for re-election under the ruling All Progressives Congress, had dismissed the claims, saying they were not sufficient grounds for his disqualification.

But speaking to Punch’s correspondent on the phone on Monday, Ogun said he had just left the DSS office but was not allowed to see his client.

He said, “Ahmed was invited for questioning by the Ogun State command of the Department of State Services over a publication relating to the controversial criminal past of the state governor. Thereafter, he was forced against his will to pull down the story from his news blog.

“On Friday, last week, he was invited again and because my client had nothing to hide, he again honoured their invitation. Since then, he has been held incommunicado. He has not been granted access to his family or lawyer and he has been detained beyond the time contemplated by law. Currently, he is being arbitrarily tortured, intimidated and denied his fundamental rights to liberty guaranteed under Section 35 of the constitution.

“I am just leaving the Ogun State command of the security service; they did not allow me, his legal representative, to have access to him. The law is clear: you cannot detain a suspect beyond 24 or 48 hours, as the case may be.

“Again, I became very worried why the governor would instigate the arrest because in the very first place, when a journalist files a report that the governor feels worried about, he is entitled by law to approach the court for redress. But the governor didn’t do so. I do not think journalism is a crime in this country; why should a journalist be treated in such a despicable manner?”

The DSS spokesman, Peter Afunanya, denied that the blogger was in the agency’s custody.

“Let the lawyer be truthful to you,” he added.

Ogun later called to say the journalist had been transferred to the police command headquarters.

The state Commissioner for Information, Mr Waheed Odusule, said he could not tell the reason for the arrest.

Efforts to reach the Ogun State Police Public Relations Officer, Oyeyemi Abimbola, for comments were not successful as at the time of filing this report.

We shall update the story as soon as we heard from the PPRO, Punch stated.