The Nation
Court voids Rivers APC’s list of candidates
A Port Harcourt court yesterday voided the election of officers and candidates of the Rivers State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
But the party said it had appealed the judgment and requested a stay of execution.
The ruling is a culmination of the crisis between Minister of Transportation Rotimi Amaechi and Senator Magnus Abe over the leadership of the party.
Abe, ran a parallel congress which picked him as the governorship candidate. The Ameachi group, with the endorsement of the National Secretariat, picked Mr Tonye Cole as the candidate.
Cole is recognised by the national secretariat.
In spite of yesterday’s sack of Rivers APC Chairman Ojukaye Flag-Amachree, and the nullification of the party’s ward, local government and state congresses of May 19, 20 and 21, by Justice Chiwendu Nworgu, the Amaechi group insisted that the APC officials remained duly elected.
Justice Nwogu said all actions taken by the APC during the pendency of the suit had been set aside because “they are illegal and unconstitutional.”
Justice Nwogu declared that all those who purchased nomination forms for the ward congresses were entitled to contest the ward congresses of May 19, but were unjustly excluded by the party.
He said: “The Rule by might must be checked by the rule of law. We must restore the hope of the common man in the justice system”.
Justice Nwogu, who based his judgment on the Amaechi versus INEC Matter of 2007, noted that having studied the submissions in the matter, he was bound to make consequential orders to ensure that justice was done in the case.
Justice Nwogu declared that all those who purchased nomination forms for the ward congresses were entitled to contest the ward congresses of May 19, 2018, but were unjustly excluded by the party.
Rivers APC through its Publicity Secretary Chief Chris Finebone, at a news conference yesterday said the judgment had been appealed, with stay of execution already entered.
The APC also noted the support inside the Rivers High Court, Port Harcourt by Governor Nyesom Wike’s aides “in full collaboration with Abe.”
Senator Abe’s loyalists: Ibrahim Umar and 22 others in the 23 local governments of Rivers, State approached the court, stating that they were excluded from participating in the congresses. This was upheld by the court.
Justice Nworgu in the judgment that lasted over one hour, also set aside all the primaries of Rivers APC, including the indirect election that produced Cole, a billionaire businessman, as the governorship candidate.
Addressing his supporters yesterday at a rally, Senator Abe hailed the court’s judgment, declaring that Prince Peter Odike remained the Rivers Chairman of APC and that since he emerged through a direct primary, backed by the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the party, he was the standard bearer of APC in Rivers.
Abe said: “When he (Amaechi) came to me and said I should not run (for the governorship in 2019), but I asked him what he wanted, he said he would bring Tonye Cole. Rivers people will not follow anybody that they do not know. We are fighting against a sitting governor (Nyesom Wike of Peoples Democratic Party), who has resources and he is a politician. They told the world I am a betrayer, a bad person and I am not loyal. No, it will not work.
“They said they would retire me from politics, if I refused. I would wear the retirement as a badge of honour, because Nigerians would know that when it was time to tell the truth, I opened my mouth and I spoke the truth. How would they retire me from the minds of my people in Rivers State? They also said they would bring money and everyone would leave me and go home. Let them bring the money, I will still stand here alone. We will not leave APC, because we built the party. We cannot leave our inheritance for anybody. The trouble will not end.
“Over 148,000 Rivers people, across the 319 wards of the 23 local governments of Rivers State, during the direct governorship primary election of APC, came out and cast their votes for me. We are interested in the progress of this party, we are ready to work for the progress of this party, but the party must show respect to its members. We are being treated with disrespect. You do not do that in politics. People cannot sit down in Lagos and choose a governor for Rivers people.
The Rivers chapter of APC, however, stated that it was not surprised that the Rivers High court, presided over by Justice Nworgu, set aside the May congresses.
Amaechi’s allies in Rivers APC said: “The judgment did not come to us by surprise. It brings to an end, the collaboration between Senator Magnus Abe and Governor Nyesom Wike to destabilise the APC in Rivers State.
“There had been many overt and covert partnerships between Wike and Abe, using the Rivers State Judiciary on the matter to scuttle the electoral fortunes of the APC in 2019. Today’s (yesterday’s) judgment is a culmination of the evil collaboration.
“The grand rally staged today (yesterday) by Abe was carefully planned and scheduled by both the Senator and Wike to coincide with the Rivers State High Court judgment, details of which they were already privy to. It was not surprising when Abe gleefully announced the exact judgment of the court on the rally rostrum, just about when the judge was still reading his judgment in court.”
Rivers APC also urged members and sympathisers of the party in the state and across Nigeria to remain calm.
It noted that despite the fact that aspects of the matter were already before the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court, the lower court in Port Harcourt still went ahead to decide on the matter being challenged at higher courts.
It said: “Nothing will happen to the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led State Working Committee (SWC) of the party, as it is further protected against any action by the perpetual injunction granted by Abuja High Court 14, presided over by Justice A. O. Musa, on September 4, 2018, in which it restrained the APC and its National Chairman, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole (1st and 2nd Defendants), from tampering with the mandates of the elected officials/delegates elected at the 1st Defendant’s ward, local government and state congresses in Rivers State on May 19, 20 and 21, 2018 respectively, either by nullifying, removing or in any way refusing to give effect to the outcome of the said congresses or by purporting to conduct another congress in respect of Rivers State.
“It is also important to emphasise that the entire 319 wards and 23 LGAs executives of the party in Rivers State are, by implication, protected against the ruling by any court of coordinate jurisdiction with the Abuja High Court that granted the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led Rivers State executive a perpetual injunction. We urge everyone to go about their duties without let.
“It must be mentioned that if the entire collaboration between Abe and Wike on this matter is to nullify actions the party recently took relating to its mandate, by seeking to invalidate the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive, such an exercise has failed. For example, the primaries so far conducted in Rivers State were done by the national executives/ national leadership of the APC and not essentially by the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive in Rivers State. Seeking to invalidate the Ojukaye Flag-Amachree-led executive cannot in anyway invalidate the primaries.
“We commend the Special Adviser to Governor Wike on Electronic Media, Simeon Nwankaudu, for his efforts at the court today (yesterday) in furtherance of the collaboration between Abe and the Rivers State government. We also commend the presiding judge for the ‘industry’ put into the process.”
Rivers APC also urged members and supporters of the party not to lose sleep over the matter, while asking Wike, Abe and their supporters to continue to fool, delude and ridicule themselves.
Sourced From: The Nation Nigeria
Kamaru Usman has raked in a mammoth £1.1million, about N584.2 million after his impressive knockout victory over Jorge Masvidal on Saturday night, Sportivation.com.ng reports.
The Nigerian Nightmare has been handsomely rewarded for his stunning performance and he was the best-paid fighter on the card which was witnessed by 15, 000 fans in Florida.
According to Daily Mail, Usman earned £538,000 to show up, £459,000 pay-per-view bonus, a £43,000 sponsorship bonus and a well deserved £35,000 Performance of the Night bonus.
Jorge Masvidal also earned £358,000 to show, £186,000 in pay-per-view money and a £28,000 sponsorship bonus.
This is the biggest payday of Usman’s career so far and the Welterweight champion also benefited from the fact that Masvidal is also a top draw for the fans.
Kamaru Usman is a Nigerian-American professional mixed martial artist, former freestyle wrestler and graduated folkstyle wrestler.
Sourced From: Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics
By Alao Abiodun
‘Twice as tall‘, the album of Grammys winner Burna Boy has been nominated for the 2021 BRIT awards.
The Nation had reported the 29-year- old singer became the first Nigerian to win an individual Grammy for best album in the ‘World Music category’.
Organisers of the 2021 BRIT Awards, which is sometimes referred to as the British version of the Grammys, unveiled the nominees on Wednesday.
Read Also: Burna Boy: Insight into fifth album Twice as Tall
Burna Boy was nominated for the ‘International Male Solo Artist’ category alongside The Weekend, Bruce Springsteen, Childish Gambino and Tame Impala.
He was nominated for the same category last year for ‘African Giant’ his 2019 album but lost to Tyler The Creator, American singer-songwriter.
The awards will take place on 11 May 2021.
Usually held in February, the ceremony was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic
It will be hosted by comedian Jack Whitehall.
Sourced From: Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics
By Bassey Anthony, Uyo
It was a harvest of tributes for the late Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshall Nsikak Eduok, as his remains were interred in his hometown in Ibesikpo Asutan, Akwa Ibom State yesterday.
Chief of Air Staff, Oladayo Amao, who spoke at the Ibom Hall grounds Uyo, during the funeral service conducted by United Evangelical Church, Founded as Qua Iboe Church, described late AM Eduok as a man of valour, integrity and a great achiever with unprecedented strive for success.
Based on these sterling attributes, the Force has decided to immortalize him by naming Ultrafit Gymnasium Centre at the Nigerian Air Force Base, Yola, after him.
In his condolence message to the family of the late Air Force officer, the former military President, General Ibrahim Babangida, described late Eduok as an officer who had distinguished himself while serving the country, adding that Akwa Ibom state and Nigerian has lost a rare gem.
Former President Olusegun Obasanjo described late Eduok as one who played a significant role during the Nigerian civil war, noting that he worked tirelessly to build an efficient and effective Air Force.
Earlier, Akwa Ibom State governor, Mr. Udom Emmanuel, noted that the country, the Nigeria Airforce, the Church and the people of Akwa Ibom State have lost a rare gem, stressing that he was filled with a big sense of loss and grief.
Dignitaries present at the funeral service included, former Military Administrator of Akwa Ibom State, John Ebiye, former governor of the state, and Minister of Niger Delta Affairs, Senator Godswill Akpabio, Senior Special Assistant to the President on Niger Delta, Senator Ita Enang, immediate past Chief of Naval Staff, Ibokette Ibas, former minister and chieftain of the All-Progressives Congress (APC), Senator John Akpanudoedehe, among others.
Sourced From: Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics
The debates on the Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) rage on the hallowed chambers of legislators, the highbrow offices of operators and stakeholders and on the streets. In this analysis, Najim Animashaun, a seasoned oil and gas expert and Partner, Gulf of Guinea Consulting, underlines the imperatives of reforms in the oil and gas sector and the need for government to undertake more urgent reforms in the sector
The Petroleum Industry Bill (PIB) that is before the National Assembly is the first time in Nigerian history that the complete overhaul of the legal regime of the sector has, since 1963, occurred in a democratic dispensation, and, more importantly, not coincided, at least within two years, of a new constitution or restructuring of the Nigerian state occurring.
These two connections would be coincidental or even accidental, if five of the most consequential structural or constitutional changes to Nigeria’s political-geography had not happened within two years of major petroleum industry legislative changes.
Successive governments since Frederick Lugard amalgamated Northern and Southern Nigeria have designed legislation to exert control over and extract revenue from the petroleum industry. That would not be a concern, were that fixation accompanied by an enterprising mind-set rather than narrower imperial or statist ‘rentier’ goals. Why consult the governed when designing governing systems when you can have a monopoly on resources to fund government, essentially without imposing or effectively enforcing tax on the populace? Why create an energy sector, when tax and other resource revenues enter government coffers? The default mind-set is thus to secure the resource for revenue for the government. And the constitution is there to support that endeavour. This mind-set is consistent with creating an extractive industry but is anathema to creating a diversified energy sector. That constitution making and petroleum legislation have gone hand in hand at critical junctures of our history thus bears further scrutiny.
For present purposes, constitutions should chart a path for the future. But when combined with petroleum legislation, including the current PIB, they tend to focus on solving past problems than meeting future challenges. Or as the Columbia Center for Sustainable Investment (CCSI) described the PIB as “a small step when Nigeria needs a leap”.
“The PIB, ultimately, fails to account for climate change, acknowledge the Paris Agreement, and address the need for diversification to adequately prepare Nigeria for the energy transition that is already underway, ‘’ CCSI notes in its blog. They continue “rather than locking more capital into projects and infrastructure that will soon be obsolete, Nigeria should be promoting the stewardship of assets that propel the energy transition forward, not those that will be left behind”.
In short, the PIB does well to play catch up, while being woefully unprepared for what’s coming next. NNPC is not only way behind its peer National Oil Companies in planning energy transitions, but the PIB’s proposed new NNPC limited is not equipped for the monumental changes facing the energy sector. Equinor, for example, Norway’s National Oil Company (NOC), is an investor in Oxford PV, an innovator in solar panel production using Perskovite cells. Equinoris also creating the world’s first fully decarbonised industrial cluster at an old chemical plant in Saltend, England.
Where Equinor is investing in cutting-edge solar and Carbon Capture and Storage technology, the PIB obsesses over applying 10 per cent of revenue from acreage rents to subsidise petroleum exploration in frontier basins for reserves that may not be worth much after 2030, elevating sectional political agendas over compelling commercial and climate change priorities.
Policy blindspots to changing global trends can be traced to the 1914 Ordinance. That law restricted participation in Nigeria’s oil industry to British companies, while also claiming ownership of the resource for the British crown. While excluding European competitors was good for Britain, was it any good for newly amalgamated Nigeria, or even in the Lugard administration’s enlightened self-interest, especially as the colonial office refused to fund exploration at the time? Imperial policy and post amalgamation public revenue demands drove the 1914 and subsequent petroleum legislation that Nigerians in the 1940s dubbed ‘obnoxious ordinances’.
Only upon enacting the 1963 Mineral Oils Amendment Act were these ‘obnoxious ordinances’ repealed, making room for Italy’s Eni to become Nigeria’s first non-British oil concessionaire. This amendment also came on the heels of the 1963 Republican Constitution that made subtle but consequential changes, beyond declaring Nigeria a republic, strengthening executive powers. Changes that enhanced state control over petroleum and gave the Prime Minister operational control over the security services. But changes that also triggered military intervention and the descent to civil war.
By 1965 Nigeria began asserting its desire to participate in the sector without defining whether this would-be private sector or government led. The Tafawa Balewa government negotiated a 35 per cent option to participate in Eni’s concession in 1963. In 1965, the deal with Shell over the Port Harcourt refinery included a term vaguely granting options for “Nigerians” to participate.
Shell’s reluctance to pay royalties and fees to the Federal Government during the civil war influenced government policy, paving the way for Nigeria to assert resource sovereignty and vest vast discretionary powers in the Minister of Petroleum under the Petroleum Act 1969. Abolishing regional governments and creating 12 states, in 1967, made Nigeria a federal republic thereby increasing the centralisation of power and centralisation of revenues from oil to the Federal Government. By 1971 oil revenue began exceeding non-oil revenue. This would continue for 45 years until 2016. Greasing political power with revenues from resources is a powerful multiplier of executive authority.
A literal demonstration of the allure the power of petroleum legislation backing constitutional authority is the fact that all present and past presidents in this Fourth Republic, with the exception of Goodluck Jonathan, for all or some of their tenure, made themselves minister of petroleum; dispensing altogether with any pretence of governing through ministers. Something no military or civilian leader before them ever did. To its credit the PIB devotes substantial energy to curbing these discretionary powers.
Until 1971, the minister’s wide discretionary powers under the 1969 Act were restricted to policy and regulation. It was not until the Nigerian National Oil Company (NNOC) was formed as part of the requirements for Nigeria to join OPEC, that the fusion of policy, regulation and commercial operations became possible. This vastly increased the operational scope and exercise of ministerial discretion. Thereafter commercial petroleum operations fueled ever deeper patronage networks that have come to define Nigeria’s petroleum and political landscape.
Battles over operational and commercial decisions between the management of NNOC and the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Mines nearly caused Nigeria to default on her obligations in 1973. Without adequate capitalisation and no operational autonomy NNOC was unable to function commercially. The Murtala-Obasanjo regime, rather than set NNOC commercially free, decided to abolish the ministry altogether and yolk NNOC’s successor NNPC with policy and regulatory responsibility, while repeating the earlier mistake of not capitalising NNPC. The net effect is that NNPC was no more autonomous than NNOC but now had to set national policy and regulate the oil companies. Essentially, Government threw the baby out with the bath water in the NNPC Act 1977, which act also accompanied another monumental wholesale constitutional change – the 1979 Presidential Constitution and the creation of additional states. Three years after the NNPC Act was decreed, the “N2.8-billion oil money is still missing” scandal Fela sang about in 1985 occurred – an NNOC-type scandal all over again.
Meaningful reform came during Ibrahim Babangida’s administration, which arguably made more consequential commercially oriented reforms and promoted more private sector led indigenous participation in the petroleum sector than any administration since Tafawa Balewa amended the Mineral Oils Act.
Babangida, notwithstanding, failings in other spheres, also created new states and promulgated a new constitution of 1989 (from which the 1999 constitution is cloned). In the petroleum sector, he incentivised Deep Water exploration, restructured NNPC along commercial lines – creating and incorporating strategic business units such as Nigerian Petroleum Development Company and Corporate Service Units such as NNPC headquarters, which survive to this day. He appointed the first independent chairman of NNPC. He even announced plans to commercialise NNPC through the Technical Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation (now the Bureau of Public Enterprises).
He also separated policy functions from regulatory functions reestablishing the Department of Petroleum Resources as regulator in 1988. Babangida’s reforms decoupled from 25 years of increasingly statist- driven policy re-making the petroleum landscape without enacting a new framework law . The PIB is the policy progeny of these reforms, but cannot shake off the limiting statist impulses.
After 20 years of struggling to pass a PIB, we have reached a fork in the road, with a bleak future for petroleum and no accompanying structural political change on the horizon. Petroleum can no longer paper over the cracks in the constitutional structure. It behooved this government to have more ambition than to bet on a petroleum future when our petroleum past, at the best of times, has produced suboptimal returns. In light of the apparent decoupling of structural or constitutional change from petroleum policy reform, Nigeria may be missing that rarest of opportunities to forge a new energy future untethered to hydrocarbons, essentially bypassing the industrial revolution in the way Nigeria did with telecoms.
The PIB would have been a forward-looking piece of Legislation in 1992 when the Earth Summit in Rio de Jenario, Brazil brought Climate change into international political consciousness. It would even have positioned the industry for greater domestic utilisation and diversification had it been passed in 2000. But, today, it is a day late and dollar short. Though, perhaps, this is better than no dollar at all.
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Animashaun is a Partner at Gulf of Guinea Consulting, Abuja.
Sourced From: Latest Nigeria News, Nigerian Newspapers, Politics
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