Category: Nigerian Tribune

Elder statesman and Convener of the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), Professor Ango Abdullahi, has lamented that the North has lost its values and leadership direction, warning that for the region to return to its former path, it must retrace its values to those upheld by past leaders.

Speaking at the third edition of the Late Gen Hassan Usman Katsina Memorial Conference held at Arewa House, Kaduna, with the theme, ‘From Sacrifice to Strategy: Rekindling Gen Hassan Usman Katsina’s Vision for a Prosperous Northern Nigeria’, Prof Ango said the North had departed from the values inherited from its parents and pioneer leaders.

He insisted that the region’s decline was rooted in moral and leadership failure rather than a lack of physical development.

‘The North has lost its values. You may not want to hear this, but that is the case today. If we had not lost the values we inherited from our parents and our pioneer leaders, the North would not be where it is today,’ he said.

According to him, although cities across the North had witnessed physical expansion, the virtues of discipline, honesty, sacrifice and selfless leadership that once shaped the region had gradually disappeared.

‘The North is in a pathetic situation. For me, that is the only reason why the North has stagnated. Don’t worry about the buildings you see. The basic issue concerning where the North finds itself today is the loss of our values,’ he stated.

He urged Northern leaders to draw lessons from the life of the late Gen Hassan Katsina, whom he described as one of the generation that upheld integrity, accountability and service to society.

‘If we can go back to those values, particularly by remembering those who inherited them and practised them, there is no doubt in my mind that the North would have been different today,’ Abdullahi added.

In his keynote address, Prof Usman Bugaje also painted a grim picture of the state of the North, saying the region had suffered decades of economic decline, insecurity and institutional collapse because it had drifted away from the leadership ideals of men like Gen Hassan Katsina.

‘The troubles of the North are many and varied. Food production is going down daily, hundreds of thousands are being displaced from their homes, the economy has been shrinking, poverty has nearly tripled, education and healthcare have collapsed, and our human capital has been depleted,’ he said.

He added that insecurity had continued to cripple agriculture, commerce and social life across the region.

‘It is indeed time to ask how much of the North still remains. Or better still, how much of the sanity of the elite, especially those in government, still remains? Today, who is there to go to? Where are the General Hassans to complain to? Where exactly is the leadership? Where is the direction?’ he asked.

Bugaje criticised what he described as the complacency of sections of the Northern elite, saying many preferred lamenting the region’s problems without offering practical solutions.

‘It has become the pastime of the elite to sit in the comfort of their homes and say that the North is in trouble. Some even scream that the North is finished. These comments only betray the complacency or even the complicity of the Northern elite,’ he said.

Recalling a personal encounter with the late Gen Hassan Katsina, Bugaje narrated how the former military governor stood by him after the then American ambassador complained about an article he had written criticising Western imperialism.

‘The American ambassador came all the way to Kaduna to complain about the article. General Hassan read it himself and called me. Instead of asking me to stop, he told me to write more of such articles. That was the kind of leader they were. When they knew what was being done was right, they encouraged it,’ he recalled.

Bugaje said leaders of Hassan Katsina’s generation combined modern education with deeply rooted Northern values, describing them as contented, community-oriented, disciplined and committed to justice.

‘General Hassan’s generation had an infusion of a high dose of our value system. We saw it in their contentment, commitment to their communities, respect for rules and procedures, modesty and decorum, and their vision of a prosperous North where every Northerner became his brother’s keeper,’ he said.

He urged today’s leaders to return to those principles if the North was to overcome its growing social, economic and security challenges.

The annual memorial conference was organised to honour the legacy of the late Gen Hassan Usman Katsina and promote discussions on leadership, governance and the future of Northern Nigeria.

At least 16 people were killed in Ukrainian and Russian strikes on Saturday, as both sides intensified attacks in the fifth summer of the war, while diplomatic efforts remained deadlocked.

Ukrainian drones also targeted a Siberian oil refinery and the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, escalating strikes deep inside Russia – attacks Kyiv says are aimed at weakening Russia’s war effort and forcing the Kremlin to negotiate.

The deaths – in Russian-occupied Ukraine, north-eastern Ukraine and Russian border villages – came as the United Nations warned that civilians had been dying in larger numbers recently in the nearly four-and-a-half-year war.

US-led talks aimed at ending the fighting are at a deadlock, with Washington focused on the Middle East and Moscow intent on seizing the whole of eastern Ukraine.

Russian occupation authorities in southern Ukraine said a Ukrainian strike on an Azov Sea village killed eight people, including two children.

Yevgeny Balitsky, the Moscow-installed head of the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, said Kyiv had struck ‘tourist camps’ in the seaside village of Kyrylivka.

Balitsky said the strike also wounded 14 people in Kyrylivka, which was seized by Russia in the first days of its offensive.

Kyiv has not yet commented on the strike.

Kyiv, meanwhile, said a Russian drone strike on the private courier service Nova Poshta in the north-eastern city of Sumy killed three drivers.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a ‘double-tap’ drone strike.

Two more people were killed in southern Ukraine, Kyiv said, as Moscow reported two villagers killed in border areas and one more person in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Kherson region.

Far from the battlefield, Ukrainian drones struck an oil refinery in Siberia’s Tyumen region, more than 1,000 miles east of Moscow, in one of their furthest hits so far.

Ukraine’s strikes deep inside Russia have caused fuel shortages and disrupted ordinary life in Russia more than at any point during the four-and-a-half-year war.

The governor of the Tyumen region, Alexander Moor, said a Ukrainian drone fell ‘on the territory’ of an oil refinery, causing a fire.

Moscow said Ukraine had launched more than 300 drones into Russian territory, including at regions far from the border.

Zelensky announced that Kyiv had also struck a factory in Kirov – hundreds of kilometres east of Moscow – for the second day in a row, a day after a deadly strike there.

‘Once again, a plant in Kirov was struck – the one supplying components for the weapons Russia uses to attack our people,’ Zelensky said.

Kirov Governor Alexander Sokolov earlier declared three days of mourning in the region, which had so far not been affected by Ukraine’s strikes.

Sokolov said the final death toll from Friday’s strike was five, not six, after a man believed to be dead was found alive.

He called the dead ‘heroes of the labour front’, saying the strike would only ‘unite us against the enemy’ and that Russia was fighting ‘the collective West’.

Further west, in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, Russian online retail giant Wildberries – hit by Ukrainian strikes this week – said it had evacuated its staff.

Yekaterinburg is one of Russia’s biggest cities and lies just before Siberia.

Wildberries said it had ‘suspended’ work at its ‘logistics facility’ in the city after a ‘timely evacuation’. It said its facility was not damaged.

Ukrainian drones have hit Wildberries warehouses around Moscow, Saint Petersburg, Crimea and southern Russia this week, causing fires and business losses.

The head of the Sverdlovsk region, of which Yekaterinburg is the capital, Denis Pasler, confirmed that the city had been attacked.

Pasler said there were no casualties and that the drones had caused a fire in a car park.

Russian President Vladimir Putin did not comment on Saturday’s attacks.

Ukraine says its retaliatory strikes are fair retribution for Russia’s daily barrages on Ukrainian cities for more than four years.

The Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, has denied the imposition of Mogaji on Olufadejin compound, Alekuso, Ibadan, as alleged by a section of the family.

A section of the family, in a statement signed by Elder Dauda Adesina has appealed to the Olubadan of Ibadanland, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, to forestall any attempt by any individual or group to impose a preferred candidate as the family’s Mogaji (compound head), contrary to established customs.

The section alleged that the family has uncovered plans to install Mr. Fatai Omosanjo Amzat as the Mogaji of the Olufadejin family despite what it described as an unresolved family selection process.

The position became vacant following the death of the immediate past Mogaji, the late Seriki Musulumi of Yorubaland, Alhaji Yekini Adeojo, who passed away, on Friday, April 4, 2025.

According to the statement, ‘Two members of the family, Mr. Akeem Adeojo and Mr. Fatai Omosanjo Amzat, contested for the vacant stool during a selection exercise supervised by the Mogaji Committee.

‘The family claimed that Akeem Adeojo emerged victorious in the first ballot but that the outcome was challenged by Amzat, leading to a second election which reportedly ended in a tie.

‘Rather than conduct another round of voting to break the deadlock, the family alleged that one of its elders, Lateef Busari popularly called Engineer, canvassed support for Amzat and allegedly vowed to use his personal relationship with the Olubadan to secure his emergence.’

The statement further alleged that members were surprised to discover that Amzat’s name had been allegedly included among the list of compound heads scheduled for installation by the Olubadan.

‘What happened is this: the selection of a Mogaji is an internal family affair. We had two contestants, Akeem Adeojo and Fatai Omosanjo Amzat.

‘In the first election, Akeem defeated Amzat, but he rejected the result. A second election ended in a draw.

‘Instead of conducting a third election, one of our elders insisted that Amzat should emerge and even promised to use his personal relationship with the Olubadan to influence the process.

‘To our amazement, the Olubadan later listed Fatai Omosanjo Amzat among the compound heads to be installed.

‘We expected our revered monarch to invite the contestants and family members for dialogue instead of imposing a candidate on us,’ the statement read.

The family argued that the imposition of a Mogaji runs contrary to the customs and traditions of Ibadanland, where families are expected to freely choose their compound heads before the Olubadan ratifies the selection.

It, therefore, appealed to Oba Ladoja to withdraw Amzat’s name from the proposed installation list in the interest of peace and age long custom of Ibadanland in the selection process of Mogaji.

‘We respectfully appeal to our revered monarch, Oba Rashidi Ladoja, to remove the name of Fatai Omosanjo Amzat from the list of proposed Mogajis to avoid creating a crisis within the Olufadegin.

However, the monarch, in a statement by his media aide, Adeola Oloko, explained that Mogaji in Ibadan belongs to every family.

‘But the question of screening Mogaji ultimately belongs to the Olubadan, or anyone His Imperial Majesty so designates.

‘Alekuso, the Olufadeji family compound falls within the confines of the Ibadan Southwest Traditional Council. And that was why their case was handled by the Traditional council under the acting chairmanship of Osi Olubadan, Oba Abiodun Kola-Daisi.

‘The Traditional Council set up a Committee to look into applications before it,and affirmed that two candidates contested the Mogaji Olufadeju title.

It was further submitted that the family consists of sections. In Ibadan, the section that vacates the title does not often produce successor to the title where other eligible sections of the same family contest the title.

‘It is for reason of fairness, justice, and equity that Ibadan customs and tradition are so wired. If you look at different families such as Olubadan Olakulehin, Olubadan Lekan Balogun families and many other families in Ibadan, mogaji title is not an exclusive preserve of any section. It belongs to all sections of a bonafide family.No more, no less. This is our tradition.

The spokesperson of the Imole Campaign Council, Barrister Pelumi Olajengbesi, has called for a free, fair, and credible governorship election in Osun State, describing the August 15 poll as a crucial test of Nigeria’s democratic institutions ahead of the 2027 general elections.

Olajengbesi made the remarks on Friday in Abuja during a press briefing following an advocacy visit to the Bishop Matthew Hassan Kukah Centre, where he appealed to domestic and international stakeholders to closely monitor the election.

He said the Osun governorship election would serve as a major assessment of the credibility of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the Nigeria Police Force, and other institutions responsible for safeguarding the electoral process.

‘The coming election in Osun State is important to Nigeria and important to the world. It is a major test of the integrity of INEC, the Inspector-General of Police, and our institutions to determine whether we are prepared to conduct free, fair, and credible elections ahead of the 2027 general elections,’ he said.

Olajengbesi urged the international community, civil society organisations, and election observers to pay close attention to the conduct of the poll to ensure that the will of the people prevails.

He alleged that the police command in Osun State had become compromised and accused the state Commissioner of Police of acting in a partisan manner. According to him, the campaign council had submitted a fresh complaint to the British High Commission over its concerns.

He also said the council had previously petitioned the Inspector-General of Police, alleging insecurity and politically motivated violence in the state.

‘People are being killed every day in Osun State,’ Olajengbesi alleged, calling on the police authorities to remain neutral and guarantee the safety of voters throughout the election period.

He stressed that eligible voters must be allowed to freely elect the candidate of their choice without intimidation or interference.

Also speaking at the briefing, a representative of the Coalition of Public Interest Lawyers, Mr Olufemi Franklin, described the forthcoming election as a litmus test for Nigeria’s democratic institutions and electoral stakeholders.

He said the government derives its legitimacy from the people and insisted that every eligible voter must be provided with a safe environment to exercise their franchise.

‘The forthcoming election in Osun State is a litmus test that must assess the credibility and integrity of all stakeholders,’ he said, urging INEC to remain impartial and the Inspector-General of Police to discharge his constitutional responsibilities professionally.

Franklin added that the election would provide an indication of Nigeria’s preparedness for the 2027 general elections and called on the media to continue holding public institutions accountable through objective and fearless reporting.

The advocacy visit formed part of the Imole Campaign Council’s engagement with stakeholders ahead of the August 15 governorship election, which the council said should reflect the genuine choice of the people of Osun State.

As the son of the legendary founding father of Nigerian theatre, Hubert Ogunde, Owobo made a breath-taking return to the screens with the ‘Anikulapo’ epic film. More recently, he left audiences spellbound and hopelessly infatuated with his dual performance in ‘Iwe Ala’. Having left the acting scene and the creative industry for decades, living a corporate life abroad, Owobo Ogunde, in a recent exclusive conversation on Nollywood on Radio, strips away the glamour to talk about his unconventional childhood, the true genius of the Ogunde estate, the realities of growing up in a polygamous powerhouse, and why he refuses to be boxed in by the term ‘actor’. ROTIMI IGE brings excerpts.

I must commend you for your fantastic performance in ‘Iwe Ala’. Were you the one that played the other Taiwo? Or was he another actor?

Yes, I played both characters, Taiwo and Kehinde.’

You did a fantastic job for me to be that confused.

When you’re playing two characters, the audience should not look at both and know straight away that it’s the same actor playing them. If you feel that way, you’re not the only one.

When you got the script of the movie, what was the first thing that crossed your mind? I know that you’re from Ososa, Ijebu, and you have a rich knowledge of the Ojude Oba festival. When you got the script, what was the first thing that crossed your mind?

I was pleasantly surprised. I knew straight away, just looking at the title without even reading the script, that I was seeing something rare. We rarely have an Ijebu-based story. And that tagline, ‘An Ojude Oba Story’, was certainly something that drew me in. Of course, before looking at the script, I’d already done my own research into the production company, just to know what they’re about and what they have done before. I see a lot of scripts, so a company has to be of a particular standard for me to consider even looking at the text. We had already gone past that screening stage before I opened it, and the script itself was an exception.

Your father lived a very fulfilling life. I’ve seen two documentaries on him, and I want to see even more. You cannot talk about the Nigerian film industry without mentioning his name alongside Ade Love, Baba Sala, and the rest. Did that reality put pressure on you when you decided that you wanted to return to acting? Did it pressure you that people would look at you through the lens of your father?

No, not at all. Now, the reason for this is that I get asked this question quite often, and I can almost tell every time I get it that whoever is asking is relatively new to this space. I’ve been around here a lot longer than most people realise. First, it’s no surprise to you that I was born into it. Everybody in our house was an actor. My mother was an actor, an exceptional one. In the documentary that you’re referring to, which is the ‘Aropin N’tenia’ documentary, there are two wives married to a king. One of those two wives was my late mother. She was exceptional. I grew up watching her, watching my stepmoms, my brothers, my sisters, and the other professionals who worked for my father.

I actually left school at form 3; I didn’t even finish secondary school. Till today, I never went back. I left school to join my father’s theatre company. So, I started acting full-time from about age 14. When international films like ‘Mister Johnson’ were being made in Jos, where we had world-class actors like Pierce Brosnan, the former James Bond, I was right there. When my father’s last film, ‘Ayanmo’, was made, I was there.

‘Ayanmo’ was after ‘Mister Johnson’? Because I thought ‘Mister Johnson’ was his final movie…

‘Mister Johnson’ was his last movie, but ‘Ayanmo’ came just before. ‘Ayanmo’ was shot entirely in Ososa. Everybody talks about film studios and film villages these days, but the first functional film village in West Africa, as we know it, was established in Ososa. It’s still there.

A lot of the industry concepts we’re looking at today have all been done before; we just didn’t have social media at that time to document it continuously. So, there is a generational disconnect for people who are just seeing this modern wave. I was with my father until his passing, and a few years after that, I decided to travel abroad. All my life, all I knew how to do were just three things: act, sing, and dance. That was it. I live and breathe those three things. I simply wanted to broaden my horizons and try something else, which was why I temporarily left the industry behind. I travelled in 1992. If anyone in Nollywood was not actively acting before that year, then they all started after me. You can do the math to see how many practitioners started pre-1992.

Were you featured in any of those early films?

No, I was too young for the earliest ones. The only major one I appeared in, not strictly as a lead actor, but appeared in, is ‘Ayanmo’, because I had already left formal school by then.

Is the Ogunde clan thinking of doing a collaborative project? Has it ever crossed your mind to bring the family together for a massive media production?

We’re always doing things collectively behind the scenes. However, up until recently, that direct artistic participation has admittedly tailed off a little bit over the last few years for many different reasons. If your question is specifically around the core family coming together to execute a massive commercial production, that is something we have not done lately. One of the reasons for that is because not all of Baba’s children went into the arts or acting. Everybody has their own distinct career and personal interests, and rightly so. For those of us who are deeply invested in the industry, it’s just that we hadn’t pushed that side of our legacy until recently when I made the conscious choice to step back in. But the talent is there, make no mistake. They are there. I think you’re likely to find that over the next few years, you’ll start to see some very interesting projects coming out of the family.

You grew up in a legendary polygamous setting. What was life like in that household? In the archive footage and documentaries, we see Baba driving in his car with his many wives, and them talking about the dynamic happily. Does it ever cross your mind to also practice polygamy?

I spend part of my time in the UK and part in Nigeria. Growing up, it was almost culturally expected for a man of status to have more than one wife; it was seen as completely normal. This was particularly true within the creative circles I was surrounded by. I grew up around the pioneers of travelling theatre companies, the Ade Love Theatre, Ishola Ogunsola (I Show Pepper), and Eda Onileola. Those were the patriarchal figures around me, and all of them had large families with many wives. So, it wasn’t something I grew up thinking was a shocking big deal. When I was young, I had many girlfriends, which traditionally tends to lead to having many wives.

But as you grow older, you become an evolved person. You learn as you mature. There are certain lifestyle paths you decide against because you realise they simply aren’t right for your personal journey. I haven’t got many wives because that is just the specific lifestyle I choose to lead now.

You said, ‘I haven’t got many wives’. Does that imply you have more than one?

No, it means I have exactly one. I understand completely. But just so you know, I have no issues whatsoever against anybody who chooses to have more than one. In fact, I always ask myself this philosophical question: What is the true difference between a Nigerian man who decides to marry many wives at once, and a Western man who decides to marry many wives sequentially through multiple divorces? Because they do it too. So, what is the core difference?

Or the alternative, where a man keeps one official wife and maintains many girlfriends.

Exactly, and many girlfriends.

Your father was a man of many parts; he was larger than life. He was everything a man in his career could have ever wished for, an actor, a producer, a director, and a dancer. What would you say he was absolute best at? Would you call him a better actor than a director, or a better dancer than a producer? Where would you rank his abilities?

I think he was a better human being first, long before any of those professional labels we like to put on people. For example, a number of people are very quick to call me an actor. I don’t actually see myself as an actor. If you look at my social media bios, it does not say ‘actor’. It says ‘artiste’. I see myself strictly as an artiste.

Most people are very quick to jump on the bandwagon of ‘I am an actor’, and there’s a specific way they say it with a certain swag, like it’s the ultimate cool title. I’m not saying it isn’t cool, but it’s an identity we imported from looking at Hollywood, where people introduce themselves solely by their performance trade. We copied it from them, but that’s not organically us.

So really, in the household where I grew up, there was no singular designation called an ‘actor’. You are an ‘artist’. What that means is that you must encompass the three core performance skills required to survive on stage: you must be able to sing completely live, you must be able to dance energetically, and I don’t mean the basic party dancing you see on social media; stage dancing is a highly choreographed, intense, and exhausting discipline, and then you must deliver impeccable acting.

When I started within my father’s company, I didn’t start by acting lines. I started at the very bottom with a gong, the agogo. That’s where my training began. Then I moved to the omele drum, then to the bass rhythms, then to the choreography line. Acting was the absolute last stage of my development. That is how I was trained. The majority of contemporary performers focus on just one isolated aspect, which is screen acting.

So, coming back to your question about what Hubert Ogunde was uniquely good at: you are asking that from the perspective of how you see the isolated structure of the industry today. Back then, you had to be a complete visionary. You had to write the entire story yourself. You had to compose the musical scores. You will never find an Ogunde play or film without an original motion picture soundtrack. You mentioned Aye earlier on, and you mentioned Jaiyesimi. Each of those films featured a full, original soundtrack composed entirely by him.

People talk about the kind of money they are making in cinema right now, but they are making nothing compared to the commercial scale of what happened back then. If you go back and look at the archival newspapers, the National Theatre was practically torn to pieces by roaring crowds whenever people wanted to watch Aye. Anytime that film was screening, the venue was packed to maximum capacity.

We didn’t have a vast cinema chain infrastructure at that time, so what we did was rent massive town halls, paste posters across the state, and run the films ourselves. We packed out every single time, not just in Lagos, but all the way up north to Kano, Kaduna, Sokoto, Kontagora, and Borno. There are vibrant Yoruba communities everywhere, alongside locals in Jebba and Minna, and they all came out in full force to support the cinema. Furthermore, all of Hubert Ogunde’s films were shot on premium 35mm celluloid film, whereas most other local films of that era were shot on cheaper 16mm. He would fly in a professional technical crew of about ten Caucasians to shoot. That is why the visual and audio quality of those films remains outstanding.

When you left school at 14 to join his theatre group, what was his immediate reaction to that? Did he just accept your choice, did you have a firm conversation about it, or was it just considered normal for him? I’d love to know how that transition happened.

First of all, let’s look at how the decision was made. Second, are you really asking if Hubert Ogunde sat down to have a democratic negotiation with a 14-year-old child? Who were you to negotiate? You were simply told what to do. He made the final decision himself. But I know exactly why he made it: I wasn’t doing particularly well in the rigid academic environment of formal school at the time, and he felt the best thing to do was to bring me into a structured, controlled creative environment. There, the family could directly oversee my personal development while schooling me in a more profound, artistic way.

Did your parents practice traditional Yoruba religion, or were they Christians or Muslims?

Both of my parents identified as Christians. Now, my father grew up in a traditional house of Babalawo (Ifa priests), that is a well-known historical fact, and he thoroughly learned the ways, philosophy, and wisdom of the Babalawo. Even in those documentaries, you might see him performing cultural rituals or sacrifices for theatrical authenticity. But by the time he passed away, he was a dedicated Crossbearer in the Grail Movement. He frequented Grailland in Iju. I go to Grailland myself. Back in the day, I used to attend the Cherubim and Seraphim church; that was where I went as a youth.

THE Pentecostal Fellowship of Nigeria (PFN) has appealed to President Bola Tinubu to withhold assent to the Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) Amendment Bill, arguing that provisions seeking to penalise preaching and hawking in commercial vehicles could infringe on citizens’ constitutional rights and heighten religious tension.

The appeal was made at the third-quarter National Executive Council (NEC) meeting of the fellowship, held at the PFN secretariat in Lagos on Thursday.

Speaking after the meeting, the PFN national secretary, Bishop David Bakare, said while the fellowship supports efforts to improve road safety, it believes the proposed legislation is misplaced and fails to address Nigeria’s more pressing challenges.

The bill, which has reportedly been passed by the National Assembly and is awaiting presidential assent, proposes a fine of N50,000, six months imprisonment, or both, for anyone found hawking or preaching in commercial vehicles as part of measures aimed at reducing distractions to drivers.

Bakare said the fellowship appreciates the intention of lawmakers and the FRSC to strengthen road safety enforcement but questioned the necessity of the provision prohibiting preaching in buses.

‘There are many existing laws in Nigeria that, if properly implemented, would bring sanity to the country. What Nigerians urgently need today are solutions to insecurity, hunger and economic hardship, not legislation that appears to target religious activities,’ he said.

According to him, the fellowship believes the provision on preaching disproportionately affects Christians, who are more commonly known to evangelise in commercial buses.

‘We do not understand why lawmakers believe preaching in commercial buses distracts drivers. We have never been presented with evidence showing that a road accident occurred because someone was preaching in a bus,’ Bakare stated.

He argued that the proposed law could infringe on constitutional guarantees of freedom of religion and expression, adding that similar concerns over activities that obstruct traffic in other settings have not received equal legislative attention.

The PFN national secretary urged the president to return the bill to the National Assembly for wider consultations with critical stakeholders.

‘This is a sensitive matter capable of generating unnecessary tension. We appeal to Mr President not to assent to the bill but to send it back for further deliberation. Government should focus on addressing issues that directly affect the welfare and security of Nigerians,’ he said.

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Bakare stressed that the fellowship remains committed to peaceful engagement with government but warned that criminalising peaceful evangelism would be unacceptable to the Christian community.

‘If government insists on implementing such a law, then they should be prepared to arrest us. We will continue to practise our faith peacefully, and government should not create avoidable religious intolerance,’ he added.

Also speaking, the PFN national treasurer, Dr Samuel Aboyeji, commended the recent successes recorded by security agencies against criminal elements, describing the release of abducted victims in Oyo state as an answer to prayers.

He, however, urged the Federal Government not to relent in its fight against banditry and kidnapping.

‘The government should build on the recent successes and sustain pressure on bandits. They are becoming more sophisticated, and the fight against insecurity must remain a top priority,’ Aboyeji said.

On the proposed FRSC amendment bill, Aboyeji questioned the priorities of the National Assembly, arguing that street hawking is largely a consequence of Nigeria’s harsh economic conditions.

‘Hawking in commercial buses is not something people enjoy doing. It reflects the state of the economy. Rather than criminalising hawkers and preachers, lawmakers should make life better for Nigerians,’ he said.

He also maintained that the PFN had not changed its position on the Muslim-Muslim presidential ticket, insisting that the fact it succeeded in the 2023 elections did not alter the fellowship’s earlier reservations.

The Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) has called on the Nigerian government to act on growing pressure from the United States Congress for the release of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu, following fresh demands by U.S. Congressman John James that the separatist leader be freed immediately or granted a fresh trial.

James, a Republican lawmaker representing Michigan, made the call on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday, urging the Nigerian government to either conduct a fresh trial for Kanu in line with the country’s Constitution or release him immediately and unconditionally.

According to a video of his remarks circulating online, the congressman said any retrial should guarantee Kanu access to evidence, legal representation, medical care and humane detention conditions.

James also described Nigeria as ‘the deadliest place on earth to be a Christian,’ alleging that Christians have faced sustained religiously motivated violence since 2019 and claiming that terrorist groups such as Boko Haram have continued to operate without an adequate response from the Nigerian government.

He argued that Kanu’s conviction resulted from what he described as a flawed judicial process and urged fellow lawmakers to support efforts aimed at securing the IPOB leader’s release.

‘I implore my colleagues to support my bill for the Nigerian government to release Nnamdi Kanu immediately and unconditionally,’ James said.

The congressman further stated that the United States provides substantial financial assistance to Nigeria and should not continue to do so ‘to fund Christian genocide,’ saying Washington has a moral obligation to support persecuted Christians.

James’ intervention follows the introduction of House Resolution 1321 in May 2026, which called on the Nigerian government to ensure Kanu’s legal proceedings comply with constitutional guarantees and international human rights standards.

Kanu was sentenced to life imprisonment in November 2025 after a Federal High Court in Abuja convicted him on terrorism-related charges. He is currently being held at the Sokoto Correctional Centre, while his legal team has filed an appeal challenging the conviction, which is yet to be heard.

Reacting in a statement on Friday, IPOB spokesman Emma Powerful described James’ intervention as a historic development and urged the Nigerian government to heed the calls by U.S. lawmakers.

‘We commend Congressman John James for his courage and the United States Congress for providing the platform,’ Powerful said.

He said IPOB’s representatives in the United States had continued to engage lawmakers and other stakeholders on Kanu’s case, adding that the latest intervention reflected growing international concern over the detention of the IPOB leader.

Powerful also pointed to what he described as recent engagements with Israeli lawmakers in Jerusalem, saying they further demonstrated increasing international attention on the matter.

The IPOB spokesman maintained that Kanu was wrongly convicted and insisted that his trial failed to meet due process standards.

He expressed hope that the renewed international pressure would compel Nigerian authorities to review the case.

‘Onyendu Mazi Nnamdi Kanu must be released immediately and unconditionally,’ Powerful said, adding that IPOB would continue to pursue what it described as its long-standing demand for a referendum on self-determination for the Biafra region.

Kanu’s conviction and detention remain the subject of ongoing legal proceedings before Nigeria’s appellate courts.

Oyo South senatorial candidate of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) and House of Representatives member representing Ibadan North-West/Ibadan South-West federal constituency of Oyo State, Hon. Adedeji Dhikrullahi Olajide Odidiomo, has declared that he is setting an electoral target of 250,000 votes in the 2027 general election.

Olajide made the declaration while receiving members of the Odidiomo Movement, Ibadan North local government Teachers’ Forum who paid him a solidarity visit at his residence in Ibadan to reaffirm its support for his senatorial aspiration across the district ahead of the 2027 polls.

The two-term federal lawmaker expressed confidence in the growing popularity of the Allied Peoples’ Movement (APM) across Oyo South senatorial district and Oyo State, declaring that his target of 250,000 votes would more than double the highest number of votes ever recorded in the electoral history of the district.

He maintained that the political equation ahead of the 2027 general election had shifted decisively in favour of the party.

‘I am looking for 250,000 votes. The highest votes ever recorded in Oyo South stand at about 115,000, but I intend to raise that bar. Once we deliver Oyo south, the victory of our governorship candidate, Hon. Bimbo Adekanmbi, becomes a done deal. Our target is achievable because our structure is expanding and our message is solid with the people,’ he said.

Speaking on his political relationship with Governor Seyi Makinde, Olajide reaffirmed his loyalty to the governor, revealing that respected political leaders, including Chief Kola Daisi, Chief K.O Olatunji, and Baba Champion, among other notable Ibadan elders, encouraged him to align with Makinde in the interest of Oyo State.

‘My loyalty to Governor Seyi Makinde is undivided. I rose with him and I can never be part of anything that will undermine his political future. I stand by loyalty because it is one of the principles that define my life,’ he declared.

Earlier, the coordinator of the Odidiomo Movement, Ibadan North Teachers’ Forum, Mr. Olaide Samuel Olayinka, assured the federal lawmaker of the forum’s commitment to mobilizing teachers and other stakeholders in support of his senatorial ambition.

He expressed the readiness of members of the forum on intensifying grassroots mobilization across Oyo South, expressing confidence that the lawmaker’s experience, accessibility and record of service would earn him widespread support in the 2027 general election.

Director General of the Budget Office of the Federation, Dr. Yakubu Tanimu, on Friday formally confirmed that the phantom Council entered the budget through official instrument, which has its institutional origins in the Presidential Economic Advisory Council inaugurated by President Muhammadu Buhari on 9 October 2019.

This is coming on the heels of interrogation of officials of relevant Standing Committees of the Senate and House of Representatives by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission (ICPC).

The National Assembly personnel were invited to ascertain their oversight roles in scrutinising the budget process for the period under review.

Responding to the Ad-hoc Committee’s inquiry, Mr. Tanimu gave the insight during the resumed investigative hearing into the circumstances surrounding the inclusion of budgetary provisions for the Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Council (PFIPC/PFIC), headed by the self-acclaimed Director General, Prince Adeniyi Adeyemi.

He added that the Office of the Accountant-General of the Federation (oAGF) had assigned the administrative budget code that gave the Council its identity within the Federal Government’s budget architecture.

Meanwhile, Chairman of the Ad-hoc Committee, Hon. Yusuf Gagdi who affirmed that the controversial Appropriation was passed by the National Assembly, however, disclosed that the Chairmen of relevant Standing Committees of the House of Representatives overseeing the Presidency budget will be invited for scrutiny.

While speaking, Mr. Yakubu disclosed that the sum of N3.8 billion requested for personnel cost was pruned to N802.98 million by the Budget Office in line with the approved establishment and applicable public service salary structure.

He maintained that the issue was never whether Parliament appropriated funds. It was whether the law permitted those funds to become expenditure. The law required financial clearance, lawful recruitment, payroll or enrolment, treasury warranting, cash backing, and procurement approvals. Those conditions never arose.

‘The appropriation, therefore, remained an appropriation. It never became expenditure. The public record should reflect the distinction. The public record should reflect that distinction, because if the distinction upon which the integrity of the expenditure control system rests.’

Mr. Yakubu, who affirmed that ‘the National Assembly appropriated funds for the Presidential Economic Advisory Council/Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council’ as a matter of record, however argued that ‘an appropriation is not expenditure; it is only the beginning of a legal process. Public money does not move because a figure appears in an Appropriation Act. It moves only when the law permits it to move, because the two lie a chain of controls between the two. Each link belongs to a different institution. Each must hold before the next can open.

‘The Budget Office is one part of that chain. The office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation approves establishment and recruitment. The National Salaries, Incomes, and Wages Commission regulates remuneration. The Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation control warrants release cash backing and payment. The procurement authorities govern capital spending. No one institution can carry money from appropriation to expenditure. That is the safeguard. In the case of PEAC/PFIPC, the safeguard that safeguard actually held.

‘How the council entered the budget. The council did not enter the 2026 budget merely because it asked for funds. The Council had its origin in the presidential economic advisory council, inaugurated during the administration of the late President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.

‘By the time preparation of the 2026 budget began, official instruments had already been issued by the institutions charged with those functions, the office of the Accountant General of the Federation had assigned an administrative code. The office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation had approved the authorized establishment and a recruitment waiver. The applicable public service salary structure also existed. Those instruments did not come from the Budget Office; they came to it.

‘The Budget Office did not create the Council; it did not assign its code; it did not approve its establishment; it did not grant its recruitment waiver. It received official instruments, and did what the law required of it. It measured their fiscal effect.

‘The Council later submitted a personnel estimate of N3.8 billion. That estimate did not form the basis of the Budget Office’s recommendation. The Budget Office disregarded it and made an independent calculation, only using the authorized establishment, the approved recruitment waiver, the applicable establishment, the applicable public service salary structure, and the extent costing methodology.

‘That calculation produced N802,978,783. This was not a concession to the Council; it was the Budget Office’s own fiscal proposal, a letter appropriated. Financial clearance was the closed gate. Financial clearance is the point at which a personnel provision may begin to acquire legal force as expenditure. It is not a routine letter. It is a confirmation that the fiscal and regulatory conditions for recruitment have been made. Until it is issued, the figure remains in the budget. It does not create staff, it does not open payroll, it does not produce salary.

‘The Budget Office did not issue financial clearance for the Council because the conditions were incomplete. The 2026 Appropriation bill did not become law until presidential assent on 31 March 2026. Before that date, the Budget Office could cost the proposal. It could not grant final financial clearance against a bill that had not yet become law.

‘After assent, a further condition remained outstanding: the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission had not confirmed that the proposed staffing and remuneration arrangements complied with its prescribed template and the approved public service compensation framework.

‘The Budget Office could calculate the cost; it could not open the gate. There was therefore no financial clearance. There was no lawful recruitment. There was no payroll enrolment. There was no salary payment. The personnel provision was N802,978,783. It represented 61.63% of the total appropriation of N1,302,978 783.

‘It has sometimes been described as though the Council could have received the whole amount and spent it at will. The description is false. Personnel appropriations are not paid to agencies as lump sums. After every legal condition has been made, salaries are paid monthly, month by month. The money moves electronically into the designated bank accounts of verified employees enrolled on the federal government payroll.

‘The institution does not receive the annual personnel provision as cash under its control. Even in a lawful process, the Council would not have received N802,978,783 in one payment. The money would have gone over 12 months to individual employees. The process never began. No financial clearance was issued. No recruitment took place. No payroll record was created. No salary became due.

‘Not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn. Not one kobo was drawn. There is no personnel expenditure to recover because there was no personnel expenditure. The overhead provision never became a right to cash. And only when the Treasury issues the required warrant and provide cash backing, the annual figure translated to N16.7 million a month during the period under review.

‘The treasury generally released between 25% and 50% of monthly provision, the amount that might have become available therefore ranged between N4.2 million and N8.3 million a month. Even that depended on the cash position of government.

‘Then the legal question changed the course of events. In June 2026, doubt arose about the status of the Council. The Budget Office formally notified the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to withhold every instrument that could support payment. That instruction closed the route to release. The N200 million remained a provision in law. It did not become money in the hands of the council. The capital provision never reached procurement. The capital provision was N300 million, representing 23.02 percent of the total appropriation.

‘It was a standard start-up provision for new, reinstated or reactivated public bodies. It was meant for basic operational assets. It was not a cash award. Capital expenditure follows another chain. There must be a procurement plan. The appropriate ministerial tenders board must act. The Public Procurement Act must be obeyed. Where the threshold requests it, the Bureau of Public Procurement must issue a Certificate of No Objection.

‘After that, the expenditure must still be warranted, released, and cash backed. None of these stages was completed. No procurement reached the point at which expenditure could arise. No ministerial tenders board approved a transaction. No Certificate of No Objection was issued. No warrant followed. No treasury cash backing followed. The capital provision remained where Parliament had placed it in the Appropriation Act. Subject to law, it never became capital expenditure.

‘The system did not chase a loss; it prevented one. The three provisions tell one story. The personnel provision stopped a financial clearance. The overhead provision stopped being warranting and cash backing. The capital provision stopped before procurement approved and released. Each met a different control. Each control held. The Budget Office rejected an unsupported estimate and made its own calculation. It withheld financial clearance when the conditions were incomplete.

‘When doubts arose about the legal status of the Council, it asked the Federal Ministry of Finance and the Office of the Accountant General of the Federation to stop all payment instruments. The wider system then did what it was designed to do. Payroll was never activated. Overhead was never converted into an annual cash release, procurement did not commence. Treasury instruments did not mature into payment.

‘The result was measurable. The 802,978,783 personnel provision never became payroll expenditure. The N200 million overhead prohibition never became a cash entitlement. The N300 million cash provision never became procurement or capital expenditure. The law did not recover money after it had gone. It prevented the money from going.

‘The broader lesson for all of us: this matter is larger than one Council and one appropriation. It shows why appropriation and expenditure must be kept apart in law and public understanding. Appropriation gives authority subject to conditions. Expenditure arises when those conditions have been met. The system divides power between public finance. The system divides power because public finance cannot rest on one office, one letter, or one decision. It rests on sequence, proof, and restraint. If the counts in the council’s case, the sequence did not fail; it stopped the expenditure before it began.

‘What has been called weakness is better understood as resilience. The controls did not identify a loss after the event, they prevented the event. They did not pursue money after it had left the treasury. They kept it from moving. The conclusion is firm: not one kobo of the personnel provision could lawfully have been drawn, and not one kobo was drawn. The overhead provision never matured into lawful release. The capital provision never matured into procurement or expenditure. The conditions for spending were not met, and were not close to being met.

‘There is therefore no personnel expenditure to recover. The money never moved because the controls held. The Budget Office of the Federation will continue to cooperate with every lawful inquiry and will provide the records, computations, correspondences, and system evidence required to establish the facts,’ he assured.

In his intervention, a member of the Committee, Hon. Abubakar Fulata, noted that the document submitted by the Budget Office did not bear a gazette number, the signature of the Clerk to the National Assembly and evidence of presidential assent, insistes it was not a genuine Act of Parliament.

‘The purported Act is very clear. It is not genuine because it did not carry the gazette number, it did not have the signature of the Clerk of the National Assembly and it did not carry the signature of Mr. President.’

The lawmaker also faulted government agencies for failing to verify the authenticity of the document before acting on it.

While responding to the inquiry, Mr. Yakubu, insisted that the Agency acted strictly on official establishment approvals, recruitment waivers and salary structures issued by the appropriate statutory authorities.

He explained that although the phantom Council submitted a request seeking personnel funding, but stressed that such correspondence did not influence the Budget Office’s computations.

‘We do not rely on any instrument to calculate personnel costs other than the establishment authorisation and the directives of the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission.’

While ruling, Hon. Gagdi disclosed that the Accountant-General of the Federation would appear before the committee on Monday to explain how the council obtained its budget code, while other agencies would also be questioned as the panel moves toward concluding its investigation.

‘By the special grace of God, we will conclude our findings and finish by next week,’ he assured.

The Osun State Government has declared the purported appointment of Kazeem Oyewale, also known as Asiri Eniba, as Chairman of the Osun State Council of the National Union of Road Transport Workers (NURTW), ‘null and void and of no effect.’

The government said Comrade Nurudeen Alowonle and his executive remain the only recognised leadership of the union in the state.

In a statement issued on Friday in Osogbo by the Commissioner for Information and Public Enlightenment, Oluomo Kolapo Alimi, the government said the move by the APC Association of Local Governments of Nigeria (ALGON) to suspend NURTW officers and inaugurate a caretaker committee was illegal and unconstitutional.

The statement noted that the dispute escalated after the State Security Council suspended all NURTW activities in motor parks across the state over alleged violent activities by hoodlums. The government said the suspension was misinterpreted as the dissolution of the Alowonle-led executive.

‘Declaring that Governor Ademola Adeleke did not at any point remove the NURTW leadership, the government submitted that the tenure of the Alowonle executive is yet to lapse and that attempting to impose a suspect in violent crimes as state chairman is an affront to the law,’ the statement said.

The government affirmed that Alowonle and his executive were appointed by the national leadership of the NURTW under Comrade MC Oluomo in line with the union’s regulations, adding that ‘there is no vacuum in the leadership of the union.’

‘At no time did the state government dissolve the executives of the NURTW at all levels. What the Security Council’s directive is all about is the suspension of all activities of the union in all our parks pending the restoration of peace in all the parks,’ the statement clarified.

According to the statement, Governor Adeleke also directed that the parks should remain open and not be closed.

The government urged security agencies to ensure peace in all motor parks while the Alowonle-led executive continues to operate in line with the union’s national guidelines.