The Joint Action Front (JAF), a labour and civil rights group affiliated to the organised labour, has warned the parent labour bodies, the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union congress (TUC), against taking part in the National Conference being organised by President Goodluck Jonathan.
At a press conference, JAF, which gave the warning through its chairman, Dipo Fashina and its secretary, Abiodun Aremu, expressed pessimism about any positive outcome from the conference, saying it is a waste of time, money and effort.
JAF said the conference is a wasteful jamboree, claiming that majority of the delegates are those who have soiled their hands and put Nigeria in its current sorry state. It therefore urged the organised labour to avoid being seen as hypocrites claiming to be fighting for the downtrodden masses, yet dining with those considered the real enemies of the country.
Titled: Jonathan's Conference Is An Exercise In Futility, JAF, in its speech said the conference was being organised “at the instance of the same members of the ruling cabal and their new recruits who have suddenly become “champions of National Dialogue”.
Below is the full speech presented by JAF at the press conference:
JONATHAN CONFERENCE IS AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY! LABOUR SHOULD HAVE NO BUSINESS IN ANOTHER WASTEFUL JAMBOREE!!
A CONFERENCE OF THE WORKING AND OPPRESSED PEOPLE TO FIGHT AND DEFEAT THE RULING CLIQUES OF LOOTERS IS THE WAY FORWARD!!!
INTRODUCTION
We in the Joint Action Front (JAF) welcome our dear media compatriots to this press conference, which has been specifically scheduled to:
• Expose the deception and futility of the Jonathan National Conference (JNC);
• Appeal to our partners – NLC and TUC to back out of the JNC; and
• Articulate our position on the ongoing realities and the challenge before the Nigerian working people and the oppressed classes.
All seems set for the commencement of another looting jamboree in the guise of the Jonathan National Conference (JNC) in the next few days. The stage for this wasteful exercise was set with the release of a LIST of 492 delegates selected by the FG in the evening of March 6th 2014.WHY JAF INSISTS THE JNC IS AN EXERCISE IN FUTILITY?
1. We in JAF wish to recall that about two years ago when the demand for the convocation of a National Conference (NC) by various civil society groups (Not JAF), political parties and ethnic platforms raged like wildfire across the country, we made our position clear to Nigerians that “a National Conference convoked at the instance of the ruling cliques of exploiters and looters cannot resolve the problems of Nigeria”.
2. We consistently re-affirmed our position when the Jonathan Presidency in 2014 made official pronouncement of the timetable and modalities of the JNC. The consistency of our position as captured on March 11th 2012 can be recalled and summed up as follows:
• That such a Conference should not be at the instance of the same members of the ruling cabal and their new recruits who suddenly become “champions of National Dialogue”.
• We acknowledged then that there were few patriots genuinely committed to the resolution of the crises in the Nigerian polity through a NC. But we equally expressed the concern that majority of those calling for NC were members and fronts of the ruling cabal and political parties who want to re-negotiate among themselves the conditions under which they will continue to enjoy their privileges while keeping the majority of the people poor and powerless. The composition of the JNC with the so-called list of elder statesmen, retired security and armed operatives, traditional rulers, ex-convicts such as Bode George and DSP Alamieyeseigha, apologists, etc has actually confirmed that fear.
• We stated that the Mass Protest of January 9th – 16th 2012 protest against the wicked imposition of a high price for petrol, in which Nigerians overwhelmingly supported the call by the Joint Action Front (JAF) and its labour allies – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (TUC) - cut across ethnic and religious lines and put a lie to the use of religion and ethnicity by successive regimes and their cohorts to engender perennial violence and insecurity in the country.
• We observed that the failure by the ruling cabal and political office holders at the three levels of government, has been responsible for the recurring political instability, ethnic and religious suspicion and violence, and the insecurity of life and property being daily aggravated by the menace of Boko Haram, MEND and Amnesty palliatives-excluded Niger Delta militants, ethnic militias, etc.
• That the neo-liberal economic policies of privatisation and deregulation with its attendant failure to deliver on education, health, employment opportunities, social welfare, infrastructure, etc have made life unbearable to the people.
• JAF had also warned Nigerians that it was not enough to talk about “Political restructuring and Revenue Derivation”, but that Nigerians should in particular, be concerned with: what use the current office holders make of the allocations they receive monthly.• We had recommended to Nigerians that if a Conference becomes inevitable to address the national questions in order to resolve the decades of political and economic decadence; it should be a Conference of the Exploited and Oppressed Working people and the poor, who have genuine reasons for their anger and frustration against the existing ruling cabal, whose callousness and inimical policies have been responsible for the decades of injustice, dehumanisation, poverty and wants, ethnic and minority marginalisation and hatred, bad governance, looting and sharp corrupt practices, underdevelopment, subservient to foreign political and economic dictates, etc.
3. It should be clear from the foregoing that our opposition to such a wasteful project as the JNC is not new. Our understanding of what Nigerians need is informed by our analysis that the extant capitalist exploitative division of our society into exploiters (looters) and the exploited, and oppressors against the oppressed is the critical challenge. This is contrary to the false notion that nationalities’ crises are the fundamental problems of Nigeria.
4. If we may ask: where are the democratic credentials of the delegates to the JNC? Who elected them? Where are the people’s assemblies that determined most of the delegates? Even ethnic associations and religious groups that have been used to facilitate the JNC are complaining about representatives being imposed on them? We are aware that all the JNC delegates at all levels, were either appointees or apologists of the ruling class of exploiters?5. The JNC being a product of a doctored-list of delegates by the Presidency lacks any power to enforce the outcome of the talk-shop. The best the JNC can come up with would be feeble constitutional proposals, with which to further unite the ruling class of exploiters to continue the looting spree at the expense of underdevelopment of the working people.
A SPECIAL APPEAL TO THE NLC and TUC
6. The Joint Action Front (JAF) has been in partnership with the two labour centres – Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) and Trade Union Congress (TUC) since 2003 under the broad platform of Labour and Civil Society Coalition (LASCO). We struggled together to defend the interest of the working people and oppressed classes as manifested in several struggles against the perennial hike in fuel prices; against the policies of privatisation and deregulation, against violation of collective agreements by Government, against obnoxious laws and policies aimed at undermining the working people, against electoral frauds and sharp corrupt atrocities, etc.
7. However, much as we recognise the right of our partners – NLC and TUC to their independence of decisions on critical national issues, such as the issue of the JNC, which they have endorsed to participate, we in JAF have a responsibility to APPEAL to them to reconsider their position. JAF is concerned that the Labour movement should not be rubbished by the ruling class of exploiters to achieve their selfish political agenda.
8. We cannot be indifferent to Labour’s participation in a JNC we know would end up as a futile exercise because both Congresses represent the aspirations of millions of the working people and oppressed Nigerians, given its antecedent of leadership of critical struggles in the life of our country since the anti-colonial and post-independence struggles. Our partners should know that in alliance with them, we have a historical duty to the exploited and oppressed working people to avoid the deceptive and desperate politics of the ruling class of exploiters, which are clearly anti-poor, anti-working people and responsible for the current state of underdevelopment and general state of insecurity in the country.
9. We want our partners to know that our thorough social class analysis of the JNC revealed it as another wasteful and looting project, whose carcasses would become clearer to the generality of Nigerians in the next six months. The JNC, to say the least, is just in the stead of the recently held wasteful jamboree called the Centenary Celebration of Colonial Nigeria.
The necessary questions we asked were:
• Where in the JNC are the representatives of the more than 10 million Okada or Achaba or motorcyclists who are daily harassed, humiliated, brutalised and some of who are graduates and have been ridiculed and reduced to pauperization as the direct result of an economy polity that does to create environment of productive jobs?
• Where are the representatives of the more than 40 million unemployed youth and graduates in the JNC who are the daily victims of the growing rate of unemployment?
• Why should we take serious a JNC that allotted 18 delegates to youth and students represented by agents of the Presidency? Can such handpicked puppets of the Presidency be said to represent the interest of millions of Nigerian students and the future of the Nigerian Child on the right to adequately funded and democratically managed educational institutions. It may be useful to ask when and where did the students meet on the JNC?• Why should anyone whose is genuinely concerned about the continued sharp corrupt practices, which is the major contributory factor to Government’s irresponsibility to the needs of the working people, participate in a JNC, who sources of funding are not transparent and yet billions of Naira would be used as settlements to the conferees?
• Why should we waste our efforts in a doomed JNC instead of working out programmes that can meaningfully ensure that the youth of our country are no longer appendage or mercenaries to the politicians and the ruling cliques of looters?
• Why should we entrust a Government that failed to implement collective agreements with millions of workers, that continue to deny entitlements to pensioners, that keep polytechnic and colleges of education students across the country out of schools for several months, etc; and expect such a Government to implement decisions of a Conference of favoured delegates and sympathisers?
• In what way will the JNC compel the government to implement to the fullest the 2011 National Minimum Wage law, and Agreements reached with ASUP, SSANIP and COEASU?• The JNC as far as we in JAF are concerned is just another patronising platform for most of the delegates seeking material benefits. We therefore call on the leadership of the NLC and TUC to have a rethink on its participation in the JNC in order to avoid eroding its credibility.
• Instead of dissipating our efforts on the JNC, we demand that Labour should rally Nigerians to compel the FG to implement to the fullest the demands by the pensioners, ASUP, COEASU and other unions presently suffering non-implementation of collective agreements. These are germane issues that affect the generality of the working people, which the JNC doesn’t have as its agenda.
THE WAY FORWARD10. We commend to Labour to provide leadership for a nationwide campaign against the policies of privatisation and deregulation and for full industrialisation drive that could ensure massive employment and expansion of infrastructure, which the JNC would never address.
11. What Nigerians need today is a conference of the working and oppressed people to resolve on putting an end to the regime of the class of looters (PDP, APC, APGA, etc,).
12. Thus, in the of face the continuing monumental corruption and global failure of capitalism to deliver on the needs and aspirations of the working people, we would prefer to join forces with Labour to appreciate that the major task required to redeem Nigeria is to ensure a national agenda that can lead to the socialist transformation of the country.
13. To achieve this, we demand that Labour and its JAF partner under LASCO should work towards the emergence of a genuine mass party of the working class and the poor as the political alternative to the political parties of the ruling class of exploiters.
FORWARD EVER, BACKWARD NEVER
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Tinubu Meets Bolloré in Paris Over Expanded Investment in Nigeria’s Creative, Digital Economy
President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has held talks with French businessman Vincent Bolloré in Paris on plans to expand investment in Nigeria’s creative and digital economy.
The meeting, held during the President’s working vacation, focused on opportunities to deepen the localisation of operations by the Bolloré Group and increase investment in sectors including film, entertainment, fibre-optic infrastructure and digital services, according to a statement issued by the presidency.
Bolloré and members of his executive team outlined proposed investments centred on Nigeria, highlighting the country’s growing influence in global entertainment through Nollywood and Afrobeats.
The group also expressed interest in expanding its operations and local presence in Nigeria, with the presidency saying the plans could support increased production, investment and employment opportunities in the country.
Tinubu reaffirmed his administration’s focus on economic growth, job creation and digitalisation, while welcoming the group’s reported plans to deepen its activities in Nigeria.
The President said the government would continue to support investments aimed at developing the creative and digital economy, strengthening infrastructure and creating opportunities for Nigerian talent.
According to the statement, Tinubu also emphasised the potential for Nigeria to serve as a base for companies seeking to operate across Africa and international markets.
The meeting comes as Nigeria continues to promote its entertainment and technology sectors as areas of economic opportunity, with the government seeking to attract investment while expanding employment opportunities for young Nigerians.
Tinubu said his administration’s Renewed Hope Agenda seeks to harness Nigeria’s talent, entrepreneurship and growing global cultural influence to create greater economic opportunities and improve livelihoods.
News
Banks Shut 476 Branches as Nigeria’s Banking Landscape Goes Digital
Nigeria’s banks are rapidly abandoning the traditional banking model, shutting down hundreds of branches and cash centres as customers increasingly move to digital and electronic channels.
Data from the Central Bank of Nigeria show that banks closed a net 476 branches and cash centres between 2022 and 2025, cutting the country’s physical banking network by 8.8 per cent in just three years.
The number of bank branches and cash centres plunged from 5,410 in 2022 to 4,934 in 2025, signalling a dramatic shift away from brick-and-mortar banking.
The contraction has gathered pace in recent years.
Banks closed 37 locations in 2023, followed by a much steeper reduction of 229 locations in 2024. Another 210 branches and cash centres disappeared in 2025.
In effect, more than nine out of every 10 locations lost during the three-year period were closed in 2024 and 2025.
The figures, contained in the CBN’s 2025 Statistical Bulletin for the Financial Sector, cover branches and cash centres operated by commercial, merchant and non-interest banks. The data were sourced from the CBN and the Nigeria Deposit Insurance Corporation.
Lagos bears the biggest hit Lagos, Nigeria’s financial powerhouse, recorded the largest decline.
The state had 1,602 bank branches and cash centres in 2022. That figure dropped to 1,532 in 2023, 1,521 in 2024 and just 1,444 in 2025.
That represents a loss of 158 locations, or nearly 10 per cent, in three years.
Despite the closures, Lagos remains overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for almost 29 per cent of all physical banking locations in Nigeria.
The Federal Capital Territory also suffered a significant contraction. Abuja went from 400 locations in 2022 to 362 in 2025, a decline of 38, or 9.5 per cent.
But some states experienced far more dramatic cuts.
Ekiti lost almost half of its banking locations, falling from 107 in 2022 to just 57 in 2025 — a staggering 46.7 per cent decline.
Enugu lost 44 locations, dropping from 162 to 118, while Oyo shed 41, falling from 237 to 196.
Other notable declines were recorded in Ondo, Plateau, Osun, Cross River and Rivers.
Northern banking centres also feel the squeeze
The contraction was not confined to the South.
Kano, for instance, initially expanded its banking footprint, rising from 164 locations in 2022 to 183 in 2024. But the reversal was sharp in 2025, when the figure crashed to 157.
Kaduna followed a similar pattern. Its locations climbed from 148 in 2022 to 164 in 2024 before falling back to 146 in 2025.
Yet not every state is losing branches.
Delta recorded the strongest expansion among the states highlighted, adding 23 locations and rising from 173 in 2022 to 196 in 2025.
Edo added 10, while Jigawa and Kogi gained six and five locations respectively.
A widening banking divide
The figures expose a striking disparity in access to physical banking infrastructure across Nigeria.
While Lagos had 1,444 branches and cash centres in 2025, Yobe had only 23, Taraba 26 and Zamfara 28.
Bayelsa and Gombe had 31 each, while Ebonyi had 32.
The imbalance underscores how heavily physical banking infrastructure remains concentrated in Nigeria’s major commercial and economic centres.
The bank branch may be losing its battle
The shrinking branch network comes despite the number of banks operating in Nigeria initially increasing.
The country had 32 banks in 2022, 33 in 2023 and 35 in 2024, before the figure slipped slightly to 34 in 2025.
That means the branch closures cannot simply be explained by a shrinking number of banks.
Instead, the figures point to a much bigger transformation: Nigerian banking is moving away from physical locations and towards digital platforms.
The CBN has itself been pushing greater adoption of alternative payment channels, particularly among farmers, traders, small businesses and informal-sector operators who may have limited access to conventional banking services.
Speaking at the 2026 CBN Fair in Lokoja, the Acting Director of Corporate Communications and Investor Relations, Hakama Sidi-Ali, stressed the importance of alternative payment channels in expanding financial access and stimulating economic activity.
The message from the numbers is even clearer.
The era of banking halls on every major street may be fading.
With hundreds of branches disappearing in just three years — and the pace of closures accelerating — Nigeria’s banking industry is betting increasingly on phones, apps, electronic payments and other digital channels rather than physical walls and counters.
For millions of Nigerians, the next bank branch may no longer be a building. It may be sitting in their hands.
Business
In The Spotlight
Dangote: OPM Made You 36th Globally—How Many Investors Will Become Billionaires?
Alhaji Aliko Dangote has done what very few Africans have ever done. He has built a business empire of extraordinary scale, crossed the $50 billion mark in personal wealth, and reportedly risen to the 36th position among the world’s 3,397 billionaires.
That is an achievement Nigerians can acknowledge. But today, I want to ask a different question. Alhaji Dangote, how many of the Nigerians who are now investing their hard-earned money in your businesses will you help turn into millionaires—and eventually billionaires? That, in my view, is the more important question. Because behind every great fortune is an army of people whose money, labour, patronage, trust and participation helped create that wealth. And that brings us to OPM—Other People’s Money.
Other People's Money Built More Than One Fortune
Let us be honest: no business empire is built by one person alone. Investors provide capital. Banks provide financing. Workers provide labour. Consumers provide revenue. Suppliers provide goods and services. Governments provide infrastructure and an operating environment. And ordinary Nigerians have been buying Dangote products for decades. Now, Nigerians are being invited to take another step—from being customers to becoming owners.
The public offering of shares in the Dangote Petroleum Refinery gives ordinary Nigerians an opportunity to put their money into one of the country's biggest industrial projects. That opportunity comes with risk, of course. Nobody should invest money they cannot afford to lose, and nobody should assume that buying shares automatically guarantees wealth.
But there is a bigger principle here.If Nigerians are going to put their money into Dangote's business, Nigerians should also have a meaningful opportunity to participate in the wealth that business creates.
Don't Take Nigerians for Granted
Alhaji Dangote, Nigerians have supported your businesses.They have bought your cement.They have bought your sugar. They have bought your flour. They have bought countless other products connected to your business empire.Nigerian workers have built factories, transported products, operated plants, sold products and provided services.
Now, ordinary Nigerians are being asked to invest directly. That creates a responsibility—not merely to shareholders, but to the broader Nigerian public.
Don't take Nigerians for granted. Treat the small investor with the same seriousness you would give the institutional investor. Give shareholders transparency. Give them accountability. Give them information. Give them confidence that their money is being managed responsibly. And when the business succeeds, shareholders should have the opportunity to benefit from that success.
Your Greatest Legacy Should Be Bigger Than Your Net Worth
There is nothing wrong with becoming extraordinarily wealthy by building successful businesses.But there comes a point when the conversation should move beyond “How much is Dangote worth?" The more interesting question becomes:How many people became wealthy because Dangote built these businesses?
Imagine the impact if hundreds of thousands of Nigerians who invest today eventually build substantial wealth from their investments. Imagine a young Nigerian who starts with a modest investment and, over decades, builds an investment portfolio capable of paying school fees, buying a home, funding a business or securing retirement. Imagine Nigerian families passing shares from one generation to another. That is how an ownership culture is created.And Nigeria desperately needs an ownership culture.
We Need More Than One Dangote
Nigeria does not simply need another Dangote. Nigeria needs 10,000 Dangotes in different industries.
We need Nigerians who build technology companies, manufacturing companies, agricultural businesses, energy companies, financial institutions, pharmaceutical companies and global brands.But we also need millions of Nigerians who can become shareholders in those businesses. A country becomes economically stronger when wealth creation spreads beyond a handful of extraordinarily wealthy individuals.
The refinery therefore presents an interesting test. Can a Nigerian industrial giant create not just a massive fortune for its founder, but also a new generation of Nigerian investors? Can ordinary Nigerians who put their money into the company eventually look back and say:I was there when it started, and I benefited from its growth”?
That would be a powerful story.
From Billionaire to Wealth Creator
Dangote has already demonstrated that he knows how to create enormous corporate value. The next challenge is different.Can he help create enormous shareholder value for ordinary Nigerians?That is where the conversation about his $51.3 billion fortune becomes relevant.
If one man's wealth can grow by tens of billions of dollars, Nigerians are entitled to ask whether the people who invest alongside him can also experience meaningful wealth creation. Not necessarily overnight.Not necessarily without risk. But over time.That is what investing is supposed to be about.
The Question Nigerians Should Keep Asking
So, Alhaji Dangote, congratulations on reaching another extraordinary milestone.But don't stop at building your own fortune. Build an ecosystem in which others can build theirs. Don't let Nigerians remain merely consumers of Dangote products. Make them owners. Don't let the story end with one Nigerian becoming one of the world's richest people. Let the next chapter be about thousands, perhaps millions, of Nigerians building meaningful wealth through ownership and investment. Because the real measure of an economic giant is not only how high the founder climbs. It is how many people rise because of the platform he created.
So here is the question Nigerians should be asking: Aliko Dangote, OPM has helped take you to the 36th richest person in the world. Now that Nigerians are putting their own money into your empire, how many of those investors will you help turn into millionaires—and, ultimately, billionaires? That is the legacy question.
By Emmanuel Emeke Asiwe (EEA) Publisher/Editor-in- Chief)
In The Spotlight
Mixed metaphors: Eating them young
On this page, I have praised former Minister Nasir el-Rufai for his work in the Federal Capital Territory.
As governor, I praised some of his work, including when he fired state teachers. I also criticised him when he became arrogant and presumptuous.
Powerful people tend to misjudge distance, in terms of how long they will remain powerful, as well as the depth of their relevance, measuring how power, once in the hands of others, can remain in their favour.
El-Rufai made both miscalculations. Following over two decades of untouchability in power from Olusegun Obasanjo to Muhammadu Buhari, he has now spent 200 days in pre-trial detention on ICPC and DSS charges.
This should not happen to a citizen, any citizen. But some citizens, when fate grants them the winning lottery ticket, become Cronus, the Titan in Greek mythology who, to maintain his power, swallowed five of his six children soon after birth.
But not Zeus, his youngest son, who miraculously survived and, becoming the supreme ruler of the Olympian gods and the “Father of Gods and Men, “would exact vengeance.
In power, el-Rufai forgot not only the principle of right and wrong, but also the concept of justice.
But it was right there the whole time: on the flip side of injustice. The truth is that wearing glasses to be able to see arms, nobody to see through clouds.
Last Tuesday’s disruption by political thugs of the visit to Benue State of Peter Obi, the presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress, is an early reminder of the temptations of power in a Nigerian election year.
The ruling party controls the state, which is in the thick of Nigeria’s insecurity crisis. Its governor, Hyacinth Alia, is a Catholic priest. Having, in 2025, been involved in trying to prevent the same Obi from a humanitarian visit, claiming that his intervention was purely on security grounds, Mr Alia is trying to persuade the country that his are not the hands behind the crude attempt to stop, particularly Mr Obi, from travelling freely and safely in the state.
As Minister Festus Keyamo wisely said, this kind of menace is not a part of our democracy. Mr Alia, show the world your strengths, not your limitations.
Big news: the 2024 Auditor-General’s Non-Compliance report, published last month, identified over N1.34trn in audit lapses.
It found that the National Cash Transfer Office paid N33.751 billion to 3,295,207 households in 35 states in 2023 with no evidence that the money reached genuine beneficiaries.
The Office could not produce REMITA records to authenticate the payments. SERAP has written to President Tinubu demanding a published audit trail and investigation of the flagged N78.8bn in total irregularities.
Similarly, Femi Falana (SAN) has called on the EFCC to investigate and prosecute officials.
Given that we are dealing with a specific regime of governance coated in colours of ruthlessness, it is doubtful that these calls will yield anything.
The truth is that the situation is worse than what we know so far, and so, I have a different call: that Nigerians pay close attention to what is actually a long-running looting spree of our poorest and most vulnerable. There is a scorched-earth assault going on.
I begin in 2019, the start of the second term of the fake anti-corruption champion Muhammadu Buhari:
The Auditor-General’s 2019 report on the FGN Consolidated Financial Statements discovered that 36 MDAs made individual transfer payments,totalingN15,534,467,561.26, without identifying the beneficiaries, ignoring the relevant budget lines for “Transfers–Payment to Unemployed” and “Transfers–Payment to Aged/Vulnerable Group.” The Auditor-General flagged the risk of “diversion of public funds” and “misapplication of funds.”
The 2020 report is more curious. In the MDA-by-MDA budget-performance schedule, the National Social Investment Office shows: Approved Budget N0.00, Supplementary Budget N0.00, Total Budget N0.00, but the actual spending is N275,010,764,595.02! That is, the NSIO somehow recorded spending N275bn with no budgetary authorisation at all.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
The 2021 Non-Compliance report, Volume II, found under the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs that N54,630,000,000 in N-Power Batch C1 stipends (the August–December 2021 backlog) was recorded as paid but, per the Auditor-General’s own field visits, “was not actually effected to the beneficiaries.”
The same section found N2,617,090,786 paid for the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme (COVID-19 period), the Auditor-General recommending full recovery to the Treasury: a combined N58.05bn flagged in that one ministry in that one year.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
The 2022 Non-Compliance file is titled as Volumes I and II merged, but despite that filename, Volume II appears to be absent, as it excludes Humanitarian Affairs, NSIPA, NCTO or NASSCO, meaning that their work was either not audited at all, or that that specific audit has yet to be published.
Again, and similarly, despite examining the two volumes of the 2023 Non-Compliance report, neither the Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, NSIPA, NCTO, NASSCO, N-Power, GEEP nor school feeding appears anywhere, although many other agencies were thoroughly audited.
Surely, somebody has an explanation?
That brings us to the 2024 itemised findings SERAP has publicized: N33.751bn in cash transfers with no beneficiary confirmation; N36.744bn paid in December 2023 without prepayment audit; N4.616bn in unsupported expenditure which the Auditor-General says “may have been diverted”; N350.18m in enrolment payments to state coordinators with no supporting documentation; N89.51m for store items never delivered or logged; N17.42m in diesel cash advances with no traceable purchases; and at NASSCO, N2.24bn paid through 158 vouchers without prepayment audit.
These appear to be the patterns that Nigerian MDAs exhibit in their work every year, with vulnerable Nigerians exploited every year.
But the first challenge is for journalists to track Humanitarian Affairs/NSIPA through every audit year to establish the full carnage.
There is another crisis: that despite all of this, a lot of MDAs still fail to submit audited accounts to the Auditor-General, representing one of Nigeria’s worst accountability challenges. This is a problem that worsened significantly under the Buhari administration despite his anti-corruption rhetoric. According to the Auditor-General, the 2016 audit year saw the highest number of non-submissions (324) in modern Nigerian history: more than double the previous 22-year high of 148. In 2016-2017 alone, 436 agencies failed to submit accounts. Think about that.
President Bola Tinubu is in the middle of a three-week foreign trip, departing without formally informing the National Assembly or handing over to Vice President Shettima, violating the constitution.
For a man who is seeking a second term of office, this is a stark reminder of how little the rules, or for that matter, Nigeria, really matter to Mr Tinubu. Keep in mind that when he headed north, Mr Shettima headed south, to Angola.
The general debate of the 81st United Nations General Assembly will begin on 22 September. Mr Tinubu is scheduled to speak the following morning.
At a time of chaos and doubt in his leadership, and in democracy under his watch, he will confront the theme: “Restoring trust, managing transformation: a United Nations that delivers for all.”
By Sonala Olumhense