PRESS RELEASE

There are ominous signs that danger of high magnitude is looming in Nigeria as the conventional media, that has been the key factor in maintaining political stability, security and peace of the country is under serious threat due to the harsh economic environment

1. Even before the announcement of the collapse of the National Electricity Grid, public power supply had been epileptic, at best, and bills for the non-available power supply kept and keeps rising unabated.

2. There is a lingering scarcity of petroleum products and diesel, which fuels the generating sets of these organisations, has more than doubled in price over the last four months.

3. The value of the Naira has tumbled so badly while remaining very scarce affecting the repairs and replacement of broadcast equipment, all of which are imported.

4. The National Broadcasting Commission’s levy of 2.5 % on turnover (not profit) outside of Station License fees, Federal Statutory taxes, State and Local Government taxes and Levies combine to impose a huge burden on the retained revenues of Broadcast Licensees.

5. All broadcast stations (Radio and Television, Private and Public) are supported by the same pool of advertisers and while broadcast stations are increasing in number, the advertising spend has been reducing over the last ten years, owing to the dwindling economy, and this has adversely affected the income of Broadcast Organisations even as operating costs are increasing daily.

Radio and Television stations typically need approximately N500,000 to N700,000 and N700,000 to N1,000,000 each daily to run generators, which have become their main sources of power supply, to maintain their transmissions and keep the equipment at the optimal temperatures necessary for the efficient performance and sustaining the projected lifespan of their equipment.

Broadcast media, being the source that the public turns to for authenticating breaking news, must gather information, produce programmes and transmit same to keep the public informed and entertained. With diesel costs averaging N700 per litre and having to resort to buying petrol, from the black market, at more than N200 per litre, Broadcast Organisations are recording such huge deficits that have resulted in staff salaries being delayed.

These issues have to be addressed urgently to avoid the total shutdown of operations by Broadcast Organisations, most of whom have resorted to reducing transmission hours.

The Nigerian Public and indeed Governments at all levels, are served by these Radio and Television Stations; ensuring that the society is well informed and providing outlets for the governments in its obligation for public enlightenment.

Broadcast organisations that are, and have been for a while now, struggling to keep their stations on air are doing so in order to ensure unfettered access to verified and authentic information which helps to avoid the chaos that could arise from Fake News which could lead to public disorder.

It the issues raised above are not addressed immediately, it portends grave consequences for the Nation as accurate, verified and information dissemination, pubic enlightenment and entertainment provided by conventional media organisations might no longer be available giving way to the uninhibited proliferation of fake news and unverified information.

If this happens, it will be difficult to counter hate speech and misleading information that could heat up the polity and exacerbate the already precarious security and fragile peace of the country.

We advise that:

1. Both the Executive and Legislative arms of Government take advantage of the current amendment of the constitution to resolve the lingering issue of Radio and Television License fees with which Public Broadcast Stations are funded in Europe, South Africa and Ghana. The amendment will be to remove the collection of these License fees from the Local Governments and have same be collected by the Federal and State Governments as the local governments do not have any role in Broadcast Operations.

This should resolve the funding for Public Broadcasting in Nigeria.

2. There be an immediate audit of the Digital Access Fee (DAF), currently being collected on behalf of Broadcasters in the Digital Switch Over process. The collection of this fee over the last 5 years should have amounted to a huge sum running into billions of Naira and the funds should be used to ameliorate the current liquidity challenges of the broadcasters much as the Petroleum Equalisation Fund (PEF) was used to relieve the transportation costs from the ports of landing of petroleum products to the remote areas of Nigeria

3. The collection of the Digital Access Fees should be domiciled in the National Broadcasting Commission immediately.

4. Federal and State Broadcast organisations should be designated as Public Broadcasters which should only be funded through the Radio and Television License Fees and should not play in the advertising space.

Signed:

Yemisi Bamgbose

Executive Secretary

Lauretta Fagbohun, Ogun 

Chief Oladipupo Adebutu of the Peoples'Democratic Party, PDP has promised to rescue Ogun State from the shackles of the ruling All Progressives Congress, APC. 

He made this statement while expressing interest to contest the governorship election in the state, by formally obtaining the Nomination and Gubernatorial forms of the PDP, at the National Headquarters of the Party in Abuja. 

According to his Media Director, Afolabi Orekoya, he said “the decision to express Gubernatorial interest and to obtain the Nomination form by Hon. Adebutu was a collective decision by all the party stakeholders, leaders and followers in Ogun PDP; that is the reason you can see all the leaders from Ogun State here in Abuja to jointly obtain “our” Nomination form today”.

The swift action followed the decisions reached at the End of 95th National Executive Committee (NEC) Meeting of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Held on Wednesday, March 16, 2022 at the PDP National Secretariat, Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5, Abuja which included commencement of sales of Nomination forms to interested aspirants in the party.

He said “the journey to liberate the peoples of Ogun State and deliver the state from the shackles of APC has formally started today”.

Adebutu becomes the first aspirant in Nigeria under the Peoples Democratic Party to make payment for the expression of interest and purchase the Nomination forms with the receipt number 0001 and form number 0001.

The historic moment was witnessed by members of the Ogun State Elders Council of PDP led by Chief Kolapo Ogunjobi, the  State Executive members and leaders led by the State Chairman, Alhaji Sikirulai Ogundele, some notable aspirants for other elective positions in Ogun State which include Asiwaju Bolarinwa Oluwole, Barr. Taiwo Shotte, Chief Toyin Amuzu and Mr. Lukman Adeleye among others.

Debt Management Office (DMO) says Nigeria’s total public debt stock climbed to N39.556 trillion in 2021 against N32.915 trillion in the previous year.

Patience Oniha, director-general of DMO, said this on Thursday at a media briefing in Abuja.

Oniha said the total debt includes new borrowings by the federal government and the sub-nationals.

She added that the amount helped in financing the budget deficit, capital projects and support economic recovery.

“Nigeria’s total public debt as at December 31, 2021, was N39.556 trillion or $95.779 billion. The amount represents the total external and domestic debts of the Federal Government of Nigeria (FGN), 36 state governments and the federal capital territory,” Oniha said.

“The comparable figure for December 31, 2020, was N32.915 trillion or $86.392 billion. The public debt stock for December 31, 2021, includes new borrowings by the FGN and the sub-nationals. For the FGN, it would be recalled that the 2021 appropriation and supplementary acts, included total new borrowings (from domestic and external sources) of N5.489 trillion to part-finance the deficit.

“Borrowings for this purpose and disbursements by the multilateral and bilateral creditors account for a significant portion of the increase in the debt stock. Increases were also recorded in the debt stock of the states and the FCT.”

She said that despite the debt increase, Nigeria is still within the total public debt stock to gross domestic product (GDP) limit of 55 percent set by the World Bank and 70 percent set by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

She added that the federal government is “mindful of the relatively high debt-to-revenue ratio” and has initiated various measures to increase revenues through the strategic revenue growth initiative and the introduction of Finance Acts since 2019.

“The new borrowings were raised from diverse sources, primarily through the issuances of the Eurobonds, sovereign Sukuk, and the FGN bonds. These capital raisings were utilised to finance capital projects and support economic recovery,” she added.

“With the total public debt stock to GDP as at December 31, 2021, of 22.47 percent, the debt-to-GDP ratio still remains within Nigeria’s self-imposed limit of 40 percent. This ratio is prudent when compared to the 55 percent limit advised by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for countries in Nigeria’s peer group, as well as, the ECOWAS convergence ratio of 70 percent.”

Despite low debt-to-GDP, Nigeria’s debt-to-revenue ratio is alarming. In 2020, out of the federal government’s total revenue of N3.42 trillion in 2020, N3.34 trillion was used to repay loans, representing 97 percent.

Nigeria has raised a $1.250billion seven-year Eurobond in the International Capital Market (ICM).

Debt Management Office (DMO) announced in a statement Thursday night that the Eurobond offer was launched at an initial price of 8.75 per cent per annum,  adding that on the back of strong investor demand, Nigeria was able to revise the price guidance to 8.5 per cent per annum.

According to the DMO, the Order Book continued to grow, reaching a peak of $4 billion. 

The Order Book included many quality investors in the United States, Europe and Asia. “With this strong investor interest, the price was tightened to 8.375% per annum, the Order Book still remained high at USD 3.676 billion and retained the quality investors.

“Nigerian investors also participated in the Offer with a total subscription of USD60 million.

”Proceeds of the Eurobond will be used to finance critical capital projects in the Budget to bridge the deficit in infrastructure and strengthen Nigeria’s economic recovery.

“Equally important, it would contribute directly and in full to the level of Nigeria’s external reserves,” the DMO said.

Less than six hours after his inauguration as the sixth Governor of Anambra, Charles Soludo has announced the appointment of three persons into his administration.

The statement containing the new appointments was released to reporters by Soludo’s media aide, Joe Anatune, on Thursday in Awka.

The statement announced the appointment of Osita Chukwulobelu, a professor, as Secretary to the State Government (SSG) and Chukwudi Okoli as the Accountant General, while Chinedu Nwoye has been appointed as the deputy chief of staff/state chief of protocol.

Soludo, a former governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, was sworn-in earlier on Thursday in a low-key ceremony in Awka.

The governor, in his inaugural speech, assured residents of the state that he would work every day to make them proud.

He thanked the people for voting him at the November governorship election, just as he praised the All Progressive Grand Alliance (APGA) and the party leaders for giving him the platform to serve the people.

He particularly praised the National Chairman of APGA, Victor Oye, and the immediate past governor of the state, Willie Obiano, for their “unwavering support and commitment to the realisation of a new Anambra project”.

“As I repeatedly promised, I will work hard every day to make Anambra proud,” Soludo said.

He said he would forward the list of the nominees for the commissioners to the state House of Assembly within one week.

Soludo said he would immediately begin the implementation of his urban regeneration plan in the state.

The governor reiterated his position that his administration would only rely on made-in-Anambra products to encourage local production.

Stockmarkets took a breather on Friday after several days of sizeable gains, while commodities were set on edge by the lack of progress in Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations.

Reuters report that Oil rose sharply and back over $100 overnight and Brent crude futures were up another 2% to $108.73 in early trade. Commodity exporters' currencies rose with it.

S&P 500 futures fell 0.6% in Asia. MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) eased 0.6% in early trade, but were headed for a 3% weekly gain. Japan's Nikkei (.N225) rose 0.2%.

"It's very difficult to get any confidence that you're going to be able to reliably source commodities out of Russia or Ukraine," said Tobin Gorey, a commodities strategist at Commonwealth Bank of Australia in Sydney.

"You're going to be looking elsewhere and that just tends to get priced up."

The war in Ukraine has settled into a grinding pattern of siege.

Sentiment had been supported by Russia appearing to make a dollar bond coupon payment - avoiding default - and previous comments from Moscow about a deal with Ukraine being close.

However, after a fourth straight day of talks between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators, messaging from both sides suggested agreement remained some way off.

Wheat and corn futures, which are sensitive to Black Sea supply disruptions, bounced sharply overnight.

The Bank of England also raised interest rates on Thursday, as expected, but turned dovish in its outlook amid worries that soaring commodities will hurt growth and demand.

Gilts rallied after the decision and sterling briefly fell as traders turned less sure about future hikes.

The Treasury market is likewise sounding a warning on the outlook, with the yield curve flattening and flirting with inversion as investors think rate hikes that the Federal Reserve began on Wednesday will end up hurting growth.

Benchmark 10-year yields were steady at 2.1813%.

CHINA STEADIES

Wall Street indexes rose overnight to close out their biggest three-session percentage gains since November 2020. The S&P 500 (.SPX) and Dow Jones (.DJI) each rose 1.2% and the Nasdaq 1.3%.

China markets on Friday eased into the end of one of the wildest weeks in decades.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng (.HSI) followed its worst session in more than six years with its biggest two-day rally since 1998 after China's top financial policymaker promised policy easing and a gentler approach to market-sensitive reform in future.

Investors now await actions to follow his words and on Friday the Hang Seng opened 1% lower while the mainland blue-chip CSI300 (.CSI300) was down 0.5% in early trade.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar was eying its first weekly loss in six weeks as hope for an end to the war has lifted the euro and as commodity exporters' currencies have benefited from higher prices.

The euro was steady at $1.1093 and up 1.7% for the week. The Australian dollar , which caught an additional boost from stellar employment data on Thursday, hit an almost two-week high of $0.7394.

The yen is on course for a second consecutive weekly loss of more than 1% and last traded at 118.73 to the dollar.

The Bank of Japan concludes a two-day meeting later on Friday and, unlike the rest of the world, is expected to keep policy ultra-easy for some time yet. 

Russia warned the United States on Thursday that Moscow had the might to put the world’s pre-eminent superpower in its place and accused the West of stoking a wild Russophobic plot to tear Russia apart.

Dmitry Medvedev, who served as president from 2008 to 2012 and is now deputy secretary of Russia’s Security Council, said the United States had stoked “disgusting” Russophobia in an attempt to force Russia to its knees in a Reuters report.

“It will not work - Russia has the might to put all of our brash enemies in their place,” Medvedev said.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, the United States and its European and Asian allies have slapped sanctions on Russian leaders, companies and businessmen, cutting off Russia from much of the world economy.

President Vladimir Putin says that what he calls the special military operation in Ukraine was necessary because the United States was using Ukraine to threaten Russia and Russia had to defend against the “genocide” of Russian-speaking people by Ukraine.

Ukraine says it is fighting for its existence and that Putin’s claims of genocide are nonsense. The West says claims it wants to rip Russia apart are fiction.

Russia says that despite sanctions it can fare well without what it casts as a deceitful and decadent West led by the United States. It says its bid to forge ties with the West after the 1991 fall of the Soviet Union is now over and that it will develop ties with other powers such as China.

In the midst of our current misery, Ondo State Governor Rotimi Akeredolu thought we needed something to cheer last week, so he offered a joke, which was telling and disturbing.

In the row between the Governor of Yobe and interim chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Mai Mala Buni, and governors who wanted to overthrow him, Akeredolu, who was on the side of the protagonists, reached into the gutter for words to describe his enemies.

He plumbed the depths, far below the sepsis reached by the sarcasm of Salihu Lukman, the former director general of the Progressives Governors Forum, and gave gutter language a new lease of life. Akeredolu called governors of his own party, yahoo-yahoo governors.

Let me be clear. I have absolutely no interest in APC’s house of commotion. And if it is true, as is being alleged, that Buni procured court judgements to stall the party’s national convention for the third time since his inexplicably extended tenure, if it is true, as is being alleged, that Buni the referee plans to join the race, if it is true, as has been alleged, that Buni is offering the party’s primaries ticket for sale; in short, if it is true, as is being alleged, that Buni is the party’s problem, then perhaps Akeredolu’s description would be a fitting epitaph.

But Akeredolu being not just a lawyer but a senior advocate and former president of the Bar, knows there is a difference between an allegation and a fact. It’s possible that he was overcome by the poor habit of politicians who hardly talk to make sense. To call governors of his own party yahoo-yahoo, deserves not only the attention of the party but also that of bystanders who should take more than a passing interest in this linguistic slur.

After Governor Nasir El-Rufai of Kaduna State made an unusual appearance on Channels TV and vowed that Buni may return as Alhaji Buni but certainly not as chairman of the APC, it is possible that Akeredolu may have seized on that premature funeral to make his own obsequies. But in doing so, he described governors of his own party in a language which even the opposition may have been reluctant to deploy.

Are we really hostage to yahoo-yahoo governors?

Yahoo-yahoo, a cruel twisting of the search engine, is Nigerian speak for con-artistry; a confidence trickster who earns a living – often outrageously flamboyant living – from transactions guaranteed to leave the other party with the short end of the stick, if not in premium tears.

The ruling APC has 22 governors across Nigeria, but Akeredolu did not name names. He did not say which of them is yahoo-yahoo, but mocking fingers are pointing in the direction of three governors – one in the Southeast, one in the Northcentral, and the other one in the Southwest, reflecting a federal character of sorts.

As of the time of writing, Buni, the man who El-Rufai vowed publicly will not return as chairman for causing the inexplicable disappearance of APC’s manhood among other embarrassing misdemeanours is back in the saddle, riding the party’s horse with his team including John Akpanudoedehe the secretary who has resigned and has been reinstated more times than it takes to say yahoo-yahoo.

From a bystander’s point of view, it is not only Buni’s dramatic comeback and the potential resurgence of the so-called yahoo-yahoo governors that are concerning. Akeredolu’s mudslinging also says something about the ruling party and the political elite as a whole that is tragically true.

And it is true for a good number of the progressive governors today as it for governors and politicians in the opposition. How, for example, do you describe a governor who upon falling out with his godfather on the eve of an election, goes on his knees just to trade his party’s broom symbol for another party’s umbrella and then after securing reelection, drags and beats his benefactors with the umbrella?

Or a governor who after being elected on the platform of a party, decides in the twilight of his second term, that he must decamp to the ruling party to serve not those who elected and re-elected him in his state, but to ensure the success of his new paymasters in Abuja against whom he had been in opposition for nearly seven years? If that is not yahoo-yahoo, then what is it?

How do you explain the ascension to power of a governor who was not first or second but third by 176,919 votes, but who in spite of that ascended to power through a rare process of judicial iberiberism (apologies to Rochas Okorocha, wannabe pilot and presidential aspirant), and is currently being paraded as the icon of the new politics in the Southeast?

If it is not yahoo-yahoo, then how come a politician who once said a government that cannot fix power in six months is unfit for office now serves in a government that has been unable to fix power for seven years? And this same government is struggling to guarantee supply of petrol after the country spent $5.8 billion to repair refineries between 2015 and 2020?

It seems that after the temporary relief from drug barons and their yahoo-yahoo cousins who took politics hostage in the 2000s, we’re once again returning to the era when con-artists ruled the roost. And what is more, between the accusers and the accused, it’s increasingly difficult to know who is yahoo-yahoo by politics or yahoo-yahoo by nature.

There are many reasons this resurgence which Akeredolu said has taken hold of the ruling party, is worse than the current low-grade version popular among desperate, young people holed up in many hotels across the country today.

While the police and other crime-fighting agencies can still hope to pursue and rout perpetrators of the low-grade version, what Akeredolu has described is a more dangerous variety.

The perpetrators of yahoo-yahoo in Akeredolu’s class and party, not only enjoy immunity from prosecution while they are in office, they also have the security agencies at their beck and call. In other words, yahoo-yahoo politicians swindle you and yet reserve the power and resources to protect themselves from being held to account.

If the governor insists that he used the phrase in a more general sense, perhaps as a rallying cry to save his party from falling apart, it would then be fair to insist that indeed not only those accused of backing Buni but perhaps a significant number in the current class of governors fall under this yahoo-yahoo group.

We don’t have to go far for examples. After a week during which power supply has been at a catastrophic low, with many urban households going for days without electricity, not to mention the long petrol queues and run-away inflation, the memes of politicians who swindled voters by making empty promises have flooded the internet.

It would be unfair to write politicians off, especially those in the ruling party, as all scam and no work. Some serious work has been done to rebuild infrastructure, which may take some time to show. But if, for a moment, we set aside Akeredolu’s passion for the regional security network, Amotekun, and for legalising the sale of Indian hemp it would be interesting to see what his five-year ledger in Ondo looks like.

Even though the governor would like us to believe that con-artistry in his party is limited to Buni’s circle of supporters, the evidence is that it is far more widespread. If it is not political con-artistry, how can a ruling party which promised so much seven years ago leave the country struggling to secure itself, and its citizens bereft, poorer and more divided than they were when the government came to power?

And see how even the management of the party’s convention has shown that yahoo-yahoo is not just an accident but a lifestyle for the party: in less than one week, the same man who was vilified as a political fraud unworthy of the progressive banner is back in charge, and his enemies, including Akeredolu, must now bow at his feet under strict presidential orders.

It’s a Nollywood script written in a London hospital beyond anything that Akeredolu’s genius or sense of humour could have imagined. Yet to think that Buhari who hardly says a word has written two epistles in one week to save his party is proof that even the directors of this script are sometimes victims of their own con-artistry.  

A most humbling experience indeed. Or does Akeredolu still think it’s a laughing matter?

Azu Ishiekwene is Editor-in-Chief of LEADERSHIP

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on Thursday arrested former Anambra State Governor, Willie Obiano at the Murtala Muhammad International Airport, Lagos.

Obiano, who has been on the Commission’s watchlist for months, was arrested at about 8.30pm.

He was reportedly on his way out of the country to Houston, Texas in the United States after handing over to his successor, Governor Charles Soludo.

Details of the arrest are currently sketchy but unconfirmed sources claimed it is connected to financial impropriety while in office.

The former governor is said, "to have been arrested by eagle-eyed operatives of the EFCC while trying to escape Nigeria for Houston in the United States of America on Thursday night".

The Spokesman for the EFCC, Wilson Uwujaren, confirmed the arrest.

Wilson said the ex-governor will be detained in Lagos pending further actions by the anti-graft agency.

It would be recalled that the media had reported on November 24 2021, that the EFCC had placed the ex-Governor of Anambra State, Willie Obiano, on a watch list, a move described then by the state government as laughable.

Since coming into office in 2013, Governor Obiano has never been linked with any scam or fraud-related controversy but his sudden placement on the EFCC watch list raises serious concern among his followers and political associates.

The EFCC had requested the Nigeria Immigration Service to inform it anytime the Governor is travelling out of the country from any of the international airports, as well as other points of entry and exit.

The move was seen as an indication that the agency may have been discreetly investigating the governor and possibly have intelligence that he was planning to escape after handing over power to his successor, Professor Charles Soludo, on March 16, 2022.

An American cybercrime expert, Gary Warner, says some scammers are behind the viral report of a notorious Nigerian fraudster, Ramon Abbas, aka Hushpuppi, laundering $400,000 while inside a prison in the United States.  

Warner, Director of Research in Computer Forensics at the University of Alabama, stated this on Twitter on Thursday, hours after the purported report and the accompanying documents filtered in.

He said the document shared to back the report is a doctored version of a June 2020 affidavit, adding that the edited document was intended to get people to visit a scammer website.

He tweeted: “People are asking me if it is true that #Hushpuppi laundered $400,000 in #Stimulus cards from in prison.

“The document they showed is an edit of a June 2020 Affidavit. The new version is fake, intended to get people to visit a scammer EIP website.”

The circulated document had claimed that the Federal Bureau of Investigation through its agent, Andrew John Innocenti, presented documents before the United States District Court of California on Wednesday with fresh evidence indicting HushPuppi of committing fraud and money laundering in the U.S. Federal correctional facility.