No fewer than four vessels carrying imported Premium Motor Spirit, popularly called petrol, arrived at seaports situated along the nation’s borders between Friday, October 18, and Sunday, October 20.

According to a document obtained from the Nigerian Port Authority on Sunday, about 123.4 million litres of PMS were berthed at two seaports to improve fuel supply nationwide.

The latest development confirms an exclusive report by The PUNCH, which disclosed that oil dealers intend to import the commodity to supplement the supply from the $20bn Dangote Petroleum Refinery.

The dealers had stated that the supply from the Lekki-based plant was currently insufficient to meet domestic demand.

They had alleged that the plant was producing about 10 million litres of petrol daily, as against the 25 million litres that it earlier promised to produce.

In September, dealers imported about 141 million litres of PMS following a hike in the pump prices of petrol produced by the Dangote Petroleum Refinery and released by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited.

They said the fair market price following the full deregulation of the downstream oil sector by the government allowed room for PMS imports.

An analysis of the document showed that the commodities landed at the Apapa port in Lagos and the Calabar port in Cross River State.

Our correspondent, however, could not confirm if any of the vessels belonged to the NNPCL or only oil marketers.

The first shipment carrying 35,000 metric tonnes of PMS allocated to the West African Port Services berthed at terminal ASPM jetty on Friday, October 18, at 10.13 am.

This was followed by 37,000 metric tonnes of fuel assigned to Intership at 3.37 pm. It also berthed at terminal ASPM jetty.

As of 3:59 pm of the same day, another vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel berthed. It was assigned to Peak Shipping as its agent.

At the Calabar port, a vessel carrying 10,000 metric tonnes of fuel arrived at the Eco marine terminal on Sunday at 8:02 am.

This means the four vessels brought in 92,000 metric tonnes.

Going by the conversion rate of 1,341 litres to one metric tonne, it, therefore, implies that the marketers brought in about 123.4 million litres of petrol.

When contacted in an earlier interview, the spokesperson of the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority, George Ene-Ita, said marketers with approved import licenses were free to import PMS.

He, however, stressed that the products must be subjected to three major tests by the agency.

“The products must be subjected to our testing protocols at the ports. The products must conform to stipulated standards before we authorise them to offload to their terminals.

“Also, before the smaller vessels bring it further inland to Nigeria, our people will fly to the place to see the product and carry out some tests to ensure the right specification is upheld.

“Tests are also done at the products’ origins. And when the products come in before they are released to the market, further tests would be conducted to ensure that they meet the specifications,” he stated.

Punch

Lebanese flee as blasts hit Beirut, Israel warns of strikes on Hezbollah finance arm

Hundreds of Beirut residents fled their homes late on Sunday with multiple explosions heard across the Lebanese capital, as Israel prepared to attack sites linked to the financial operations of Lebanon's Hezbollah group and told people to leave those areas immediately.

Reuters witnesses saw dense plumes of black smoke billowing in the air after at least 10 blasts. Eyewitnesses, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said a building located in the Chiyah neighbourhood in the southern suburbs of Beirut was reduced to rubble and the few people in the area had fled ahead of the explosion, resulting in no casualties.

There was no immediate information on what caused the blasts, or further details of any casualties. Panicked crowds clogged the streets and caused traffic jams in some parts of Beirut as they tried to get to neighbourhoods thought to be safer, witnesses said.

An Israeli military spokesperson said earlier in a statement posted on social media platform X that it "will begin attacking infrastructure belonging to the Hezbollah Al-Qard Al-Hassan Association - get away from it immediately."

Al-Qard al-Hassan - which the U.S. has said is used by Iran-backed Hezbollah to manage its finances - has more than 30 branches across Lebanon including 15 in densely populated parts of central Beirut and its suburbs.

There was no immediate statement from the organisation, Hezbollah or the Lebanese government.

Asked by journalists whether the branches could be considered military targets, a senior Israeli intelligence official said: "The purpose of this strike is to target the ability of Hezbollah economic function both during the war but also afterwards to rebuild and to rearm ...on the day after."

Cross-border fighting between Israel and Hezbollah erupted a year ago when the group began launching rockets in support of Palestinian militant group Hamas in Gaza.

At the start of October, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilise the border region for its citizens who had fled rocket attacks in northern Israel.

ESCALATED ATTACKS

Israel has intensified its military campaigns both in Gaza and Lebanon, days after the killing of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar raised hopes of an opening for ceasefire negotiations to end more than a year of conflict.

With U.S. elections approaching, officials, diplomats and other sources in the region say Israel is seeking through military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.

Israel is also preparing to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month, though Washington has pressed it not to strike Iranian energy facilities or nuclear sites.

Earlier on Sunday Israel said it hit Hezbollah's intelligence headquartersand an underground weapons workshop in Beirut.

Fighter jets killed three Hezbollah commanders, the Israeli military said.

Hezbollah made no immediate comment on those strikes, but said it had fired missiles at Israeli forces in Lebanon and at a base in northern Israel.

A 41-year-old Israeli colonel was killed, and another officer was wounded in combat in northern Gaza on Sunday, the Israeli military said. Israel's Channel 12 and public broadcaster Kan reported an explosive device had gone off under a tank.

Officials said rescuers were still recovering people from the rubble after an Israeli attack on the northern Gaza city of Beit Lahiya that left 87 people dead or missing on Saturday, according to the health ministry - one of the highest death tolls for months from a single attack.

The strike came two weeks into a major assault around Jabalia, just south of Beit Lahiya, where Israel says its troops have been trying to root out remaining Hamas fighters.

Israel said the strike hit a Hamas target, questioning an earlier death toll of 73 released by the Hamas media office.

Hamas-led militants killed 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year that sparked the war in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Israel's military response in Gaza has left more than 42,500 people dead and has made most of Gaza's 2.3 million people homeless, Palestinian officials say.

Over the last year, Lebanese officials estimate that more than 2,400 people have been killed and more than 1.2 million people displaced in Lebanon. Fifty-nine people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights over the same period, say Israeli authorities.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine says it struck Russian military airfield, explosives factory

Ukrainian forces attacked infrastructure at a military airfield in Russia's Lipetsk region and an explosives-manufacturing enterprise in the Nizhny Novgorod region, Kyiv's General Staff said on Sunday.

The confirmation came after Russian officials and Telegram channels said Ukraine had targeted those regions in an overnight drone attack.

The Ukrainian General Staff added that it was still assessing the extent of damages.

** Russian forces storming town in eastern Ukraine, bloggers say

Russian forces are fighting street-to-street battles with Ukrainian troops in the outskirts of the eastern Ukrainian town of Selydove as Moscow's forces push to gain control over the whole of the Donbas region, according to pro-Russian bloggers.

Russian forces, which President Vladimir Putin ordered into Ukraine in February 2022, advanced in September at their fastest rate since March 2022, according to open source data, despite Ukraine taking a part of Russia's Kursk region.

The thrust of the Russian advance over recent months has been in eastern Ukraine's Donbas region, over which Putin says he wants to gain full control.

In recent weeks, Russia has surrounded towns in Donetsk region and then slowly constricted them until Ukrainian units are forced to withdraw. According to bloggers they are doing the same to Selydove, which had a pre-war population of over 20,000.

"Street by street fighting is going on in the town," according to Yuri Podolyaka, a prominent Ukrainian-born, pro-Russian military blogger. "The assault on Selydove has intensified."

Other pro-Russian bloggers published video of intensive shelling of Selydove. Reuters was unable to immediately verify the footage. The Russian defence ministry did not comment.

The General Staff of Ukraine's military, in a late evening report on Sunday, said Ukrainian forces had repelled 41 Russian attacks around several towns and villages, including Selydove. The report said four battles were still raging in the area.

The popular Ukrainian war blog DeepState showed Selydove to be in Ukrainian hands.

Russia controls about 80% of the Donbas, which covers an area about half the size of the U.S. state of Ohio, and is pushing westwards along about 100 km of the 1,200-km front around the tactically important towns of Pokrovsk and Kurakhove.

The 2-1/2-year-old Ukraine war is entering what Russian officials say is its most dangerous phase as Russian forces advance and the West ponders how the war will end.

Ukraine wants NATO membership, a step that Russia has said would be unacceptable. The United States and key NATO powers have not publicly endorsed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's call for an immediate NATO-membership invitation.

Russian forces hold about a fifth of Ukraine and control 98.5% of the Luhansk region and 60% of the Donetsk region. The two regions make up the Donbas, the cradle of the war.

After a pro-Russian president was toppled in Ukraine's 2014 Maidan Revolution, Russia annexed Crimea and pro-Russian protests broke out in parts of the Donbas, where Moscow began supporting separatist forces.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukrainian forces lost up to 460 troops in Battlegroup Center responsibility zone

The Battlegroup Center defeated five brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the Donetsk People's Republic in one day and repelled nine counterattacks, the Ukrainian army lost up to 460 servicemen, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup Center continued to advance deep into the enemy's defenses, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 150th Mechanized, 25th Airborne, 59th Motorized Infantry, 5th Assault Brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 101st Defense Brigade in the areas of the settlements of Dimitrov, Dzerzhinsk, Novotroitskoye, Shevchenko and Tsukurino of the Donetsk People's Republic. Nine counterattacks by the 53rd, 93rd, 100th Mechanized, 68th Jaeger Brigades, 49th, 425th Assault Battalions of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the 37th Marine Brigade and the Lyut Assault Brigade of the National Police of Ukraine were repelled," the ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the enemy lost up to 460 servicemen, a US-made M117 armored personnel carrier, two Kozak combat armored vehicles, five cars, a 203-mm Pion self-propelled artillery unit, and a 122-mm Grad multiple launch rocket system.

Kiev forces lost 110 troops in Battlegroup East responsibility zone

The Battlegroup East group of forces defeated a brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces in the area of Dobrovolye in the Donetsk People's Republic and repelled a counterattack, the enemy lost up to 110 servicemen in 24 hours, the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup East group of forces occupied more advantageous positions, defeated the manpower and equipment of the 72nd mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces in the area of the settlement of Dobrovolye in the Donetsk People's Republic. They also repelled the enemy's counterattack," the Russian Defense Ministry reported.

According to the ministry, the enemy's losses amounted to 110 servicemen, an armored combat vehicle, three cars and a Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled howitzer.

Kiev forces’ daily losses in Battlegroup West responsibility zone exceed 450 troops

The Ukrainian armed forces lost more than 450 servicemen in a day in the area of responsibility of the Russia’s army’s Battlegroup West, the defense ministry reported.

"Three counterattacks of the assault groups of the 14th mechanized brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces were repelled. The enemy lost more than 450 servicemen, a US-made M113 armored personnel carrier, a pickup truck, a Polish-made 155-mm Krab self-propelled howitzer, a 122-mm D-30 howitzer, a UK-made 105-mm L-119 gun, an Enclave-N electronic warfare station, and an AN/TPQ-50 counter-battery radar made in the USA," the report says.

As the ministry noted, the units of the Battlegroup West improved their tactical position, inflicted losses on the manpower and equipment of the 54th, 60th, 67th, 116th mechanized brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces and the 119th defense brigade in the areas of the settlements of Kupyansk, Peschanoye in the Kharkov region, Prishib and Terny in the Donetsk People's Republic.

Ukrainian armed forces lose up to 90 servicemen in Battlegroup North responsibility zone

The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 90 servicemen in the area of responsibility of the Battlegroup North in a day, the defense ministry added.

"In the Kharkov direction, the units of the Battlegroup North defeated units of the 57th motorized infantry and 92nd Airborne Assault Brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Liptsy and Volchansk in the Kharkov region. The losses of the Ukrainian armed forces amounted to 90 servicemen and a 122 mm D-30 howitzer," the report says.

Kiev forces lost up to 645 troops in a day in Battlegroup South responsibility zone

The Ukrainian armed forces lost up to 645 servicemen in the zone of responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup South, the ministry reported.

"Units of the Battlegroup South improved the situation along the forward edge, defeated the formations of the 10th mountain assault, 23rd, 54th, 116th mechanized, 56th motorized infantry, 79th airborne assault and 46th airmobile brigades of the Ukrainian armed forces in the areas of the settlements of Reznikovka, Seversk, Verolyubovka, Dalneye, Kurakhovo, Dachnoye and Konstantinovka of the Donetsk People's Republic. They repelled two counterattacks by units of the 81st airmobile brigade of the Ukrainian armed forces," the ministry reported.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, the enemy's losses totaled 645 servicemen, two pickup trucks and a US-made 105-mm M119 gun.

Reuters/Tass

The judicial career of Francis Chukwuma Abosi was supposed to last only seven years. In the event, he did 12 and may well have reached 20 years if events had not intervened. In his 12th year as a judge in April 2020, while serving as the Acting President of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo State in South-East Nigeria, the National Judicial Council (NJC) mercifully ended it all.

When he attended the Nigerian Law School, as all Nigerian lawyers must, Francis Abosi deposed that he was born in November 1950. On his appointment as a judge in 2008, therefore, Francis Abosi was 58. At the time, the retirement age of all judges was 65. This meant he would have been due to retire in 2015.

In 2008 also, a judge could only retire on their terminal salary as pension if they had served for at least 15 years. In the case of Francis Abosi, he well knew that based on his date of birth, he was eight years short of what he needed to be eligible to retire on his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

The answer to this problem was rather straightforward – Francis Abosi edited his birth year from 1950 to 1958. This act added eight years to the seven that he would have served, bringing his notional judicial tenure to 15 years, at which point he would have been entitled to his terminal salary as his judicial pension.

What Abosi could not do, however, was alter the filings he had done prior to becoming a judge, especially those he made upon matriculation as an undergraduate and also on admission to the Nigerian Law School. Upon being appointed to act as the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, they caught up with him. In April 2020, the NJC found him guilty of  “the falsification of his date of birth from 1950 to 1958. Findings showed that he was supposed to have retired in November 2015 when he clocked the mandatory retirement age of Sixty-five (65) years.”

Abosi’s feat of genealogical management had far reaching consequences. He became President of the Customary Court of Appeal of Imo State nearly three years after he should have retired. That means he took someone else’s job unlawfully. It could have been worse. Had the NJC not stopped him, Abosi would have been in position in 2023 when the age of retirement changed from 65 to 70, meaning that he would have been on the job until 2028 when biologically he would have been 78. That would have given him 15 years of judicial service beyond his due retirement age.

Abosi was not alone in the business of injudicious emendation. One of his peers in the 2008 cohort of appointments to the judiciary in Imo State was Theresa Eberechukwu Chikeka. A graduate of the University of Maiduguri, Chikeka became a lawyer in 1982 and did her National Youth Service Corps at the Borno State Ministry of Justice, who employed her thereafter as State Counsel. There she worked for the first ten years of her professional career before transferring her service to Imo State in 1993.

Up to this point, Chikeka’s records indicate that she was born on 27 October, 1956. With this date of birth, she would have attained retirement at 65 in 2021, two years short of the 15 years of service which would have entitled her to retire on her terminal judicial salary. Borrowing a leaf from Abosi’s book of elastic genealogy, it seems, Chikeka also adapted her age sometime in 2006, changing her birth year from 1956 to 1958 and making her eligible to retire in October 2023 instead of 2021.

Indeed, according to records in the possession of the Imo State Judicial Service Commission, which has looked into the issue, the affidavit deposed to by Chikeka’s mother in support of her new birth year claimed that she was born in 1958, without providing the day or month on which she was extruded from the womb.

On 28 June 2022, the Imo State House of Assembly (IMSHA) confirmedChikeka as chief judge. This was more than eight months after she should have retired as a judge. In other words, the House of Assembly confirmed as chief judge a person who was – as a matter of law – not a judge on the date that they did so.

In 2023, when the age of retirement of judges of the high court was increased to 70 from 65, Chikeka received another five years of judicial life as chief judge when, in fact, she should have been in retirement two years earlier in 2021.

These facts are not seriously in dispute.

On 14 June 2024, one Ndubuisi Onyemaechi, on behalf of a group called the Civil Society Engagement Platform (CSEP), filed a petition with the Imo State House of Assembly in Owerri alleging that the Chief Judge had unlawfully edited her age. This allegation goes to the heart of Rule 1(3) of the Judicial Code of Conduct in Nigeria which stipulates that “a judicial officer should respect and comply with the laws of the land and should conduct himself at all times in a manner that promotes public confidence in the integrity and impartiality of the Judiciary.”

The IMSHA referred this to its judiciary committee, which began investigations the following month. They invited Chikeka to attend but she declined. In a letter to the House dated 12 July 2024, she claimed that “the provisions of the guidelines of my office…. do not permit me to appear before any Investigation Panel (sic) other than a panel set up by the National Judicial Council.”

On 17 July, the Judiciary Committee reported to the IMSHA in plenum which voted through a resolution calling for the removal of Chikeka as chief judge for falsifying her age. Moments after this vote, on the same day, the chief judge served the House with an ex-parte order of the Federal High Court in Owerri restraining the House from taking the vote that it had already concluded.

Matters have since then relocated to the NJC, which now has cognisance of the allegations against Chikeka. Having previously told the IMSHA that she cannot answer to any panel except one constituted by the NJC, Chikeka now tells the NJC that she cannot answer to their panel because of an interim order of the Federal High Court, which has lapsed. On this artifice, she presently claims to function in an office for which she was ineligible to begin with.

In the last week, Chief Justice of Nigeria (CJN), Kudirat Kekere-Ekun, voiced concerns about the credibility of the judicial branch that she leads, appearing rather incredulously to suggest that it is a function of how many judgments and rulings judges produce.

The CJN must realise that no one will take her seriously if she continues to prove unwilling and unable to act swiftly to get rid of the person who now desecrates the office first occupied in 1976 by Akunne Chukwudifu Oputa.

The least anyone can ask of those who hold leadership positions in the judiciary is that they are fit in law to serve as judges. Chikeka is not. She ceased to be a judge in October 2021. Allowing her to hang on as Chief Judge of Imo State today is egregiously unlawful. The NJC owes Francis Abosi an apology and a recall if Madam CJN continues to prove unwilling and unable to get rid of Chikeka.

Let her go!

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Disruptive businesses change the world by inventing game-changing products and services that transform how we live, work and connect with each other. So, it’s no surprise that the most successful business disruptors – Amazon, Apple and Google among them – are household names and some of the most valuable companies on Earth.

For my book, The Disruptors: How 15 Successful Businesses Defied the Norm, I studied 15 other disruptive and groundbreaking businesses of our time, from film company A24 through to social media platform TikTok. They all had valuable lessons to teach leaders looking to disrupt their own marketplace. Here are four of those lessons:

1. Fearlessly tackle big problems

Disruptors aren’t afraid of challenges. In fact, they positively welcome them. That’s why many disruptive businesses are wrestling with some of society’s biggest problems, including climate change. A good example is U.K.-based Octopus Energy, which has scaled at speed by delivering cheaper, greener energy to customers around the world.

Another disruptor that is helping to mitigate climate change is electric car maker Tesla. Tesla has helped to accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy by building fast, attractive and high-performance electric cars. Nearly half of all battery-powered vehicles sold in the U.S. during the second quarter of 2024 were manufactured by Tesla.

2. Make life easier for other people

German meal kit provider HelloFresh has built its brand on taking the pain out of mealtimes. In fact, it makes dinnertime super easy for busy people by sending them all the fresh and pre-measured ingredients they need to whip up a tasty and nutritious meal.

HelloFresh doesn’t just offer its customers convenience, however. It offers them customization as well. Thanks to the simple online ordering system, customers can choose what goes in their food box and when they will receive it, while the available recipes cater to a wide range of diets, from vegetarian through to high protein. By offering a tailored service, HelloFresh has established itself as the world’s most popular meal kit.

3. Execute the concept better than anyone else

Home-sharing platform Airbnb was not the first website in the US to offer short-term property rentals. Yet it overtook competitors by developing a better platform and a more distinctive brand. In particular, Airbnb prioritized the creation of a user-friendly online experience, and it applied sophisticated algorithms to help guests locate their ideal accommodation. It also grounded its brand in the concept of community: a community of like-minded hosts and travelers all around the world.

Another effective executor is TikTok. Founded in China in 2016, the entertainment app was a comparatively late arrival to the social media market. Nevertheless, its short-form video content was so wildly popular that the app boasted 100 million users within a year of its launch. Before long, TikTok was a global phenomenon and today it boasts more than one billion monthly active users. TikTok’s success can be attributed to its addictive and captivating content – which is created by its users – and its highly effective recommendation engine. This recommendation engine learns users’ interests from their viewing habits and makes compelling, personalized recommendations that keep them hooked.

4. Be a force for good

Deciem, the Toronto-based umbrella company behind beauty brands The Ordinary and NIOD, aims to be a force for good within the beauty industry. From the outset, it positioned itself as an incubator of innovative and effective beauty brands that deliver results to consumers – without necessarily bearing a high price tag.

In addition, Deciem is transparent about its product formulations, ingredients and pricing. It wants to educate people so that they understand exactly what they are putting on their skin and whether they are overpaying for products that just feature generic ingredients. “We don’t promise what isn’t there,” is the verdict of Deciem CEO Nicola Kilner.

Forbes

The Central Bank of Nigeria released $547.7m (N823.19bn at the official exchange rate of N1,503.3/$1, as of June 30, 2024) to Nigerians for the importation of food items in the second quarter of 2024.

The amount is a reduction of $142.48m or 20.6 per cent from $689.88m recorded in the first three months of 2024 and N80.76bn or 8.93 per cent from N903.95bn recorded in Q1 when converted to naira.

This implies that the CBN released a total of N1.73tn for food items importation in six months, according to data from the bank’s quarterly statistics bulletin.

An analysis of the reports on Friday showed that Nigerians spent $164.43m in January, $303.91m in February, and $221.54m in March.

The apex bank also allocated $153.27m in April, $197.21m in May, and $197.22m in June.

This came as it was established that the Federal Government’s plan to reduce the price of food commodities through the implementation of zero duty on selected basic food items is increasingly becoming difficult to achieve.

This challenge is underscored by the alarming increase in the average price of imported food items, which rose to 878.3 price point index in September 2024, reflecting broader economic pressures.

On July 8, 2024, the Federal Government announced a 150-day duty-free import window for food commodities to ensure a reduction in food inflation in Nigeria. The food commodities include maize, husked brown rice, wheat, and cowpeas.

It said the programme was meant to help cushion the effects of various factors contributing to food scarcity and price hikes in the country.

The idea was simple: remove or significantly reduce import duties and value-added tax to encourage an inflow of food imports and drive down consumer prices.

But three months after the government announced the plans, the scheme has failed to take off, majorly due to government bureaucratic process and the failure of the Federal Ministry of Finance to publish a list of importers qualified to participate in the process as required by the guidelines earlier issued by the customs in August.

At a press briefing early this month, the Minister of Finance, Wale Edun, said the government had ordered maize and wheat imports to stabilise the food market.

The National Public Relations Officer of the Nigerian Customs Service, Abdullahi Maiwada, couldn’t be reached when our correspondent called to confirm if the awaited item had been imported.

While the government is yet to begin implementation of the policy, the price of imported food has continued to increase.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics monthly inflation report, the new figure indicated a rise of 30.6 price index or 3.61 per cent from 847.7 in August 2024.

Further analysis showed that the average price of imported food has surged by 72.3 percentage points or 8.97 per cent from the 806.0 average price index in July 2024 when the policy was announced and 878.3 in September.

On a year-to-date, this increase is a surge of 185.7 price index points or 26.81 growth from 692.6 in January 2024, indicating more resilience on foreign food products amidst food supply shortages in the country.

A month-by-month analysis showed that in January, Nigeria recorded an imported inflation rate of 26.29 per cent. This increased to 29.81 per cent in February, marking a notable jump of 3.52 per cent in the inflation rate from January.

The trend continued in March, with the imported food inflation rate climbing to 32.89 per cent, an increase of 3.08 per cent from February.

In April, the inflation rate further increased to 34.01 per cent, growing by 1.12 per cent from March, showing a slight deceleration in the rate of increase.

May recorded an imported food inflation rate of 34.83 per cent, indicating a continued upward trend. The increase in the inflation rate is 0.82 per cent from April.

The figure was 806.0 in June, 826.2 in July, 847.7 in August, and 878.3 in September.

Punch

Nigeria faced yet another nationwide blackout on Saturday following the collapse of the national electricity grid. This marks the third collapse within a week, and the eighth recorded in 2024. Data from the Nigerian System Operator’s portal showed that the grid recorded zero megawatts (MW) as of 9:10 AM on October 19, disrupting electricity supply across the country.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) explained that the collapse was triggered by an explosion at the bus section of a current transformer at the 330-kilovolt (kV) Jebba transmission substation in Niger State. According to a statement by Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager for Public Affairs, a protection system was activated to curtail the explosion and prevent further damage. This led to a temporary disturbance in the grid, which engineers quickly worked to rectify by isolating the faulty transformer and restoring power to affected regions.

This collapse is part of a troubling pattern, with other incidents occurring on February 4, March 28, April 15, July 6, August 5, and more recently, on October 14 and 15. Despite assurances from TCN earlier this year that system collapses had reduced by 76.47 percent in the last five years, these recent events paint a different picture.

Minister of Power Adebayo Adelabu has acknowledged the challenges posed by outdated infrastructure, attributing the recurring system failures to an aging and overstretched national grid. Adelabu emphasized that without significant investment in power infrastructure, future collapses are inevitable. He advocated for decentralizing the power sector by introducing multiple regional grids to minimize the impact of a failure in one part of the country on the entire nation. This move, he said, is supported by the Electricity Act, which allows state and local governments to participate in electricity generation, transmission, and distribution.

Analysis of Nigeria’s Power Situation

The recurring collapse of Nigeria’s national grid highlights the fragile state of the country’s electricity infrastructure. Despite the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s claims of progress, the repeated failures suggest deeper systemic issues. The centralized nature of Nigeria’s power grid, where a single failure can disrupt the entire nation, makes it highly vulnerable. With eight collapses recorded so far in 2024, it is evident that the current grid is inadequate for Nigeria’s energy demands.

The minister’s push for decentralization could offer a way forward. Regional grids would localize the impact of failures, ensuring that disturbances in one area do not lead to nationwide blackouts. However, decentralization alone will not solve the underlying issue of outdated infrastructure. Significant investment is required not just in transmission but also in generation and distribution networks. Moreover, the grid needs advanced protection mechanisms and better maintenance to handle technical faults and prevent incidents like the transformer explosion at Jebba.

In the short term, frequent blackouts will continue to hinder Nigeria’s economic growth, affect businesses, and disrupt daily life. The long-term solution lies in overhauling the grid, promoting regional solutions, and ensuring that new investments are strategically placed to modernize Nigeria’s power sector. Without these steps, the country risks enduring a prolonged energy crisis.

Israel pounds Beirut and Gaza after rockets hit Israel's north

Israel struck what it said were Hezbollah arms facilities in southern Beirut on Saturday after the Lebanese armed group fired rockets into northern Israel and a spokesman said a drone was launched at Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's holiday home.

Netanyahu was not there at the time, and it was not immediately clear if the building was hit. But he described it as an assassination attempt by "Iran's proxy Hezbollah" and called it a "grave mistake", as Israel prepares to retaliate for an Iranian missile barrage earlier this month.

The strikes came as medics and Hamas media in Gaza, where Israel has been fighting to root out the Palestinian militant group for more than a year, said Israeli bombardments had killed more than 100 people across the coastal enclave and a siege around three hospitals had tightened.

Promises by Israel and its enemies Hamas and Hezbollah to keep fightinghave chilled hopes that the death of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwaron Wednesday might lead to truces in Gaza and Lebanon and prevent further escalation in the Middle East.

Officials, diplomats and other sources say that with U.S. elections approaching, Israel is seeking to use intensified military operations to try to shield its borders and ensure its rivals cannot regroup.

On Saturday, Israeli planes dropped leaflets over southern Gaza with a picture of Sinwar and the message: "Hamas will no longer rule Gaza".

Israeli strikes later on Saturday on a multi-floor building in the northern Gaza town of Beit Lahiya killed at least 73 people and wounded dozens, medics and Hamas media said.

The Israeli military is checking reports of casualties from an airstrike in northern Gaza, an Israeli official said, adding that a preliminary examination suggested the numbers had been exaggerated and did not match information it had received.

In Beirut's southern suburbs, Israel carried out heavy strikes on several locations, leaving thick plumes of smoke hanging over the city into the evening.

The strikes targeted "a number of Hezbollah weapons storage facilities and a Hezbollah intelligence headquarters command centre", Israel's military said.

Israel had issued evacuation orders for four separate neighbourhoods within the suburbs, urging residents to get 500 metres (yards) away, but carried out strikes in other areas as well, witnesses said.

Tens of thousands of people have fled the southern suburbs - once a densely populated zone that also housed Hezbollah offices and underground installations - since Israel began regular strikes there about three weeks ago.

An Israeli air attack on Sept. 27 killed Hezbollah's secretary general Hassan Nasrallah, and strikes nearby have killed other top figures from the Iran-backed group.

The United States would like to see Israel scale back some of its strikes in and around Beirut, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said.

NEW AREA STRUCK

Earlier on Saturday, an Israeli strike killed two people as they were travelling on Lebanon's main highway near the Christian-majority town of Jounieh. Israel's military said it was looking into the incident.

Another strike killed at least four people in Lebanon's Bekaa valley, health authorities said. One of them was the mayor of a nearby town, the second mayor to be killed this week.

In a series of Hezbollah rocket salvos in Israel, one person was killed and at least nine injured, the Israeli ambulance service said.

There was no immediate comment from Hezbollah on any drone attack targeting Netanyahu's house in the northern Israeli town of Caesarea, which the prime minister said was aimed at killing him and his wife.

The conflict over the past year has caused direct Iranian-Israeli confrontations, including missile attacks on Israel in April and on Oct. 1.

Netanyahu has vowed to respond to the October ballistic missile attack.

"I say to Iran and its proxies in its axis of evil: Anyone who tries to harm Israel’s citizens will pay a heavy price," he said in a statement following the Caesarea attack.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in a statement: "We have already responded to the Israeli regime, and the action in question has been carried out by Hezbollah in Lebanon."

STALLED TALKS

Hezbollah has been trading fire with Israel since the war between Israel and Iran-backed Hamas began in Gaza last October. On Saturday alone, Hezbollah launched around 200 "projectiles," the Israeli military said.

Nearly three weeks ago, Israel launched a ground assault inside Lebanon in an attempt to stabilise the border region for its citizens who had fled the fighting.

Israel's military said on Saturday said it had destroyed tunnel shafts and underground infrastructure in southern Lebanon. It also said it had killed Hezbollah's deputy commander of the Bint Jbeil area on Friday.

The Israeli military has opened an investigation into the death of a Hezbollah detainee in Lebanon, Israeli media said.

Since October 2023, more than 2,400 people have been killed in Lebanon, most of them in the last month, according to Lebanon's health ministry, while 59 people have been killed in northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights, according to Israeli authorities.

Hamas-led militants killed some 1,200 people and took 250 hostages in the attack that triggered the war, according to Israeli tallies. Israel's military response has left more than 42,500 people dead, Palestinian officials say.

The Israeli offensive has made most of Gaza's 2.3 million people homeless, caused widespread hunger and destroyed hospitals and schools.

COGAT, the Israeli military agency that oversees administration in the Palestinian Territories, has stepped up deliveries of aid into Gaza amid international pressure. Israel and the United Arab Emirates made an air drop of aid into southern Gaza on Saturday.

Western leaders, including U.S. President Joe Biden, have said Sinwar's death offered a chance for a deal for a truce in Gaza and the release of the remaining hostages.

Negotiations for such a deal have been stalled for weeks. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who has led diplomatic efforts, is expected to travel to Israel on Tuesday as part of a regional tour, Axios reported on the social media platform X.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine launches drones at Moscow, western Russia, regional officials say

Ukraine launched a series of drones targeting Moscow and western Russia, regional officials said early on Sunday, adding that there were no injuries or significant damage reported.

Russia's air-defence units destroyed at least one drone flying towards Moscow, the mayor of the Russian capital, Sergei Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app.

According to preliminary information, there was no damage or casualties where debris fell in the Ramensky district of the Moscow region.

Drone debris sparked several short-lived fires in the Lipetsk region in southwestern Russia, the region's governor said on Telegram. There were no injuries reported, he added.

Governors of the Bryansk and Oryol region, also in western parts of Russia, reported that air defence units destroyed several drones there.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.

Kyiv has often said in the past that its air attacks target infrastructure key to Russia's war efforts and are a response to Moscow's continued air attacks on Ukraine.

Russian officials often do not disclose full extent of damage inflicted by the drone attacks, especially on military, transport or energy infrastructure.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russia says its Mi-28NM helicopter destroyed Ukrainian armored vehicles in Kursk Region

An Mi-28NM helicopter destroyed a cluster of Ukrainian troops and armored vehicles near the border in the Kursk Region, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

"Army aviation crews flying an Mi-28NM helicopter struck Ukrainian manpower and armored military vehicles with air-borne missiles near the border in the Kursk Region. According to reports from the forward air controller, the Ukrainian personnel and armored military vehicles were destroyed," it said.

The strike on the previously detected enemy targets were delivered with air-borne missiles.

"After the use of air-borne weapons, the crew performed an anti-missile maneuver, released heat traps and returned to the base," the ministry said.

Reuters/Tass

On April 4, 2021, I wrote a piece with the title The President is a sick man: Buhari’s Secret Therapy Inside the ‘Oneida.’ It was a lamentation of President Muhammadu Buhari’s knee-jerk and off-the-cuff jetting out of Aso Rock Villa like a wandering evil spirit. At the drop of a hat, Buhari flew to the United Kingdom to attend to his health. But for the removal of Buhari’s name and its substitution with ‘Bola Tinubu,’ this piece is almost a complete cyclostyle of that Buhari piece. In 1849, Jean-Baptiste Alphonse Karr, a French writer, pioneered a phrase which has become famous for its evergreen relevance to contemporary malaises. He had written, “plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose” which, translated, means, the more things change, the more they stay the same. That phrase speaks volumes. It tells us that we are back to presidential night-time recourses to UK hospices and presidency’s spins to shroud the truth.

In virtually all cultures, synonyms or variations to Karr’s thesis exist. They explain the recurrence of either evil or good. Among the Yoruba, it is rendered as, Kò sí ohun t’ó jé tuntun tí kìí s’àlòkù – nothing new is novel.

The President Is A Sick Man is the title of a book written by Philadelphia-born, award-winning American journalist, Matthew Algeo. It is a chronology of the medical travails of Grover Cleveland, the 22nd and 24th president of the United States of America, which he was from 1885 to 1889 and 1893 to 1897. The book chronicles how inexorably linked the health of a president and the health of the nation are.

Famously renowned for always speaking the truth, Cleveland was regarded as a very virtuous man, so much that his most memorable quotation, ramped up into a cliché was, “Tell the Truth.” America was to later find out that, wrapped up inside that Cleveland shawl of “telling the truth” was the most untruthful cover-up in American history. That untruth was far more scandalous than Watergate. What revealed Cleveland’s real persona was his battle with mouth cancer and an extraordinary, even if political, cover-up of this infirmity. It lasted for almost a century, garnished with a successful attempt to keep it from the American people.

Critics called Cleveland debauched due to his penchant for “bringing his harlots to the vicinity of the White House.” However, on July 1, in the summer of 1893, the president suddenly disappeared from the radar and couldn’t be found anywhere in the White House. Or anywhere in America. It was a challenging time when America, like Nigeria under Bola Tinubu, was embroiled in what American newspapermen labeled, in oblique vernacular, “The money question.” America was teetering on the brinks of financial and social chaos. The economy was threatening to kiss the canvass; unemployment figures were competing with the firmament in height; banks and factories were shutting their gates and stock prices were in a free fall.

On May 5, 1893, two weeks shy of his 56th birthday, the second day of his swearing in at the Capitol for a second term, Cleveland noticed a rough spot on the roof of his mouth. By the prodding of his wife Frances, this prompted the invitation of Cleveland’s friend, New York surgeon and family physician, Joseph Decatur Bryant, to look it up. Bryant diagnosed an oral tumour, which was malignant in nature, “an ulcerated surface with an oval outline about the size of a quarter of a dollar.” He called it a “bad looking tenant” that should be evicted post-haste. The fear was that, if the cancer afflicting Cleveland had gone into metastasis, the lower part of his left eye socket would be removed during surgery and thus permanently impairing his vision.

On July 1, 1893, Cleveland got lost inside the Oneida, his friend, Commodore Elias Benedict’s yacht. For five good days, he was declared missing. William Keen, America’s most famous and celebrated surgeon of the time and a team of other surgeons, performed the surgery to remove the cancerous tumor that had grown dangerously and embarrassingly on the president’s upper jaw and palate. The most shocking aspect of it was that, one very enterprising newspaper reporter, E. J. Edwards, later got wind of the information and reported the secret surgery. President Cleveland’s Bayo Onanugas descended on the journalist with the highest acerbity ever. They even labeled him “a disgrace to journalism.” It was not until decades later that one of Cleveland’s surgeons exposed the startling disappearance.

I decided to narrate this long story so as to give a background to the African and Nigerian experience of the Cleveland disease – not in terms of the disappearance per se but the stunt by elected presidents of keeping their ailments out of the people’s knowledge. While some may argue that the covert Cleveland surgery legitimizes many similar situations in Africa, the fact that this happened in America, in the “dark age” of the 18th century, delegitimizes such argument.

Eighteen days ago, President Tinubu announced that he was on a similar two-week elopement out of Nigeria. His absence was dressed in the queer oxymoron of a “working vacation.” How do you work and vacate simultaneously? 

Apparently again on the way to hop into the presidential jet to his U.K. infirmary, Tinubu’s minders simply cloned the Buhari model, with an ingenuous tweak. Emerging from sleepless nights of studying the constitution, Buhari had obstinately announced that he would not vacate power to anybody, as the constitution allowed him to spend his two weeks projected stay with medics in the U.K. Tinubu’s destination, like Buhari’s, was the United Kingdom. It was where he would be observing “part of his yearly leave.” The latest trip to the UK came two weeks after. Like a lost cat, the president suddenly veered off his trip to China, only to be found in photo-ops with King Charles in London. An unconfirmed stealthily shot video later surfaced on social media showing a winter-clad president wobbly strutting out of what was said to be St. Mary’s Hospital.

In March 2017, the then 74-year-old Buhari had suddenly appeared on the Nigerian radar after unceremoniously disappearing for seven weeks, from January 19. He had jetted to the U.K. to treat an ailment which, till he left office, remained undisclosed. He spent a cumulative 225 days in the UK on medical trips. Before him, Late President Umaru Yar’Adua also spent months in foreign hospitals. Reports claimed that, as his aides spruced up lies to defend his absence, he was in a vegetative state. The Nigerian presidency equally claimed he was constitutionally empowered to discharge his duties and function anywhere in the world. Yar’Adua eventually died in May 2010.

Shrouding the health status of African leaders from their constituents and their sudden disappearances have a long history. In October 2016, President Peter Mutharika of Malawi disappeared off the radar, by which time he was 76 years old. Like Tinubu has often done since he became president, Mutharika had attended the United Nations General Assembly mid-September and didn’t come back until October 16. This provoked speculations in Malawi that he had died, with his cagey aides failing to divulge his whereabouts. There were later disclosures through the grapevine that he had vamoosed to some parts of Europe to attend to his health. The same was the story of Gabonese President, Ali Bongo, son of Omar Bongo. At a time in November 2018, Ali was said to have been “seriously ill,” with speculations rife that he had died after suffering from a stroke. He was just 59 years old then. Findings, however, later revealed that he had not died but that was holed up in a Saudi Arabia hospice.

Oil-rich Angola’s Jose Eduardo Dos Santos, who ruled the country from 1979, also eloped to Spain. He had sought medical remedy for an undisclosed ailment in May, 2017. It was after about three weeks of his noticeable absence from the public that his foreign minister, after pressure from the opposition, confirmed his unceremonious absence. Again, until his death at age 95, Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe was always dashing in and out of Singaporean hospitals.

Benin Republic’s Patrice Talon is perhaps one of the rarest breeds of the African leadership caste. Talon unusually and uncharacteristically made public disclosure of what ailed him. After the 59-year old president, who took over from Thomas Yayi-Boni, disappeared from the radar for about three weeks, his minders, on June 19, 2017, released the information that he had undergone two successful surgical operations in Paris. He said doctors had found a lesion in his prostate. This further necessitated another surgery in his digestive system.

Tinubu merely took off from the disastrous opacity of previous Nigerian presidents about their health statuses. With him, presidential disappearance is done with an audacious arrogance coated in embarrassing lies. While Cleveland’s act of pulling the wool over his American people’s eyes must have resulted from his dread and respect for them, Tinubu and his predecessors’ opaque and peremptory struts out of Nigeria are done with arrogance and a “they can go jump inside the lagoon” mind. On a trip to China slated for August 29, though told he would make a brief stopover in Dubai, Nigerians were distressingly shocked to learn that Tinubu landed in London.

Serpentine disappearances seem to be the second name of the Tinubu presidency. On April 23, he suddenly landed in The Netherlands on a visit to then Prime Minister, Mark Rutte. He then moved to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, ostensibly to attend the Special Meeting of the World Economic Forum which held from April 28 to 29. For six days after the event ended, the Nigerian president was AWOL. It was only on May 8 that Nigerians were “honoured” with information that their president would return from Europe the day after. When he again junketed to France on January 24 for a “private visit,” secrecy was the name. Health rumours of the president then began to fly in the air. He returned two weeks after. Again, on August 19, pulling out what sounded like an oxymoron, the presidency claimed Tinubu was embarking on a journey to France in his new presidential jet. He called it “a brief work stay.” He was away for three days.

To waffle to Nigerians about their president’s disappearances is outright irresponsibility on the part of the Nigerian presidency. Nigerians are now left with a queer equation of Tinubu and his vice, Kashim Shettima, both AWOL. While Shettima, since last Wednesday, has been in Sweden, since October 3, Tinubu has been marooned in a God-knows-where. In the thick of this, the presidency claimed there was no leadership vacuum. Following his usual cants, Onanuga had announced that, “All state organs are functioning as usual. The Senate President, the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Ministers, and Service Chiefs are all in their respective positions, ensuring the smooth operation of the government.” The way Yar’Adua’s publicists waffled needlessly on his disappearance before he died, Onanuga did same last week. He maintained that the Nigerian constitution “does not explicitly require the physical presence of either the president or the vice president in the country at all times to fulfill his duties.”

While their president is embroiled in disappearing acts, Nigeria is literally in disarray. Hunger and hopelessness are bringing out the beast in the people daily. Some people were caught on video demanding for a military hijack of power. The petrol crisis has bred different shades of affliction. Last week, over 140 people died in Jigawa State in desperation to scoop fuel from a tanker. Shakespeare would have couched the Nigerian situation today as, “rudderlessness is thy name, oh Nigeria.” Do citizens of the countries our leaders run to at the drop of a hat seek the whereabouts of their own leaders as this?

There must be a genetic dysfunction in African presidents which necessitates them not to disclose their health statuses. Worse still, they try to hold on to power like an adhesive, in spite of and despite their failing health. If the health failings of presidents are such that they cannot function in office effectively, since the presidency is not a birthright, let them step aside and their deputies step in. Of course, those who profit from the power stagnation arising from the incapacity of ailing leaders would fight tooth and nail to continue to pad them up. Don’t they know that there is a metaphysical and indeed, physical link between the health of the president and the health of a nation? 

The mentality behind pulling shrouds on African leaders’ health is continuation of the empires and monarchies of Africa. There, kings were perceived as infallible, super-human and incapable of falling prey to the afflictions of plebeians and common people. African leaders of today see themselves in the same mould of kings and emperors. They must not be heard to have failing health, nor their health statuses made public. In what other way can it be said to them that, no matter one’s status in life, no one is immune to health failings and death? This trend that I call the Kabiyesi mentality, has bred a pandemic of leaders of Africa who, almost like 19th century Cleveland, “abdicate their thrones” covertly to seek remedies abroad, without the knowledge of their people. Those who argue strongly in defence of Nigerian sovereignty should well know that that same sovereignty is seriously threatened by the Nigerian president being a captive patient in a foreign hospital.

It is bad enough that citizens don’t know the whereabouts of their president. It is worse that the president, like the biblical Saul who crept out of the palace at nocturne to consult the Witch of Endor, surreptitiously gropes in the dark to hospices of the world. Is the presidency ignorant of the fact that that office is a public trust which gives citizens the right to know where their president is?

INEC’s naked dance in Ondo  

There is no way a man would judge his own case and lose. That is the logical basis for the legal maxim nemo judex in causa sua. It is the reason an umpire's company is always of interest to contestants. 

It has been repeatedly said that unless Nigerians break the unholy alliance between the tripodal axis of evil of political office holders, the electoral umpire, and the judiciary, they will continue to have dross for democracy. At every election cycle, that alliance is similar to the Yoruba egbìnrìn òtè, an endless alliance of conspirators, where massive graft is the lingua franca Recently, Edo State was alleged to have witnessed that brazen dalliance between INEC and politicians in high places. So when, after that election, the National Chairman of the ruling All Progressives Congress, (APC) Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, boastfully claimed that his party would deploy same template used in Edo governorship election to win the November 16 election in Ondo State, those who know raised eyebrows. You will recall earlier cries to INEC to replace its Resident Electoral Commissioner, (REC) Anugbum Onuoha, which fell on deaf ears. The argument was, being a cousin to Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory  (FCT), who openly advertised his disdain for the outgoing governor of Edo State and his recent promise to “put fire” in states that were against him, Onuoha would carry Wike’s urine can in the election.

Several very illogical arguments were made in the aid of retention of Onuoha for the election. One of such was that being human and with links all over the place, if that argument was extrapolated to virtually all citizens, it would be difficult for it to operate anywhere. The argument becomes very lame when it is realized that in all human dispensation of equity and fairness, it is a requirement that every umpire must not be untainted by linkage or alliance to any party. It is why judges must recuse themselves from any matter that bears any overt or covert link to them. The eventual damage done to the credibility of the Edo election is today linked to Onuoha being overwhelmed while carrying the Wike urine can, thus letting down INEC guards, leading to a shameless rigging 

An Onuoha-kind egbìnrìn òtè is spreading like a pestilence in Ondo State. In a confetti of allegations last week, Ondo State Resident REC, Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola, was alleged to be an indigene of the state. A youth group, the Ondo State Youth Vanguard, opened the trough of the allegations. According to it, Babalola had been living in the state capital, specifically at No. 3, Majekodunmi Street, Ijoka, Akure, with her parents for more than 10 years prior to her appointment as REC. Said the group: “The facts above, which are in the public domain, are an attestation to the fact that Mrs Oluwatoyin Babalola will not, and can never, be fair, unbiased and an uncompromised umpire in the forthcoming Ondo State governorship election as the REC.” Rather than explain her indigeneity, Babalola, in an interview, rather denied alliance with any political party or individual.

This allegation was, however, given fillip when, last week, the Oyo State governor, Seyi Makinde, amplified it. At the launch of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) campaign, the governor asked that Babalola be immediately redeployed to pave the way for neutrality of INEC. He said, “We will protest until she is removed. Ondo REC must be redeployed. She was born here. Her parents live here. She can never be fair in this election. We don’t want her in Ondo State. Babalola must leave. What they did in Edo will not succeed in Ondo. We will protest until she is removed. Bring another REC that will be fair; that will allow a level playing field. We, as PDP, aren’t afraid of any contest. Remove her, or else we will continue to protest.”

INEC denied this. “For the avoidance of doubt, Mrs Babalola is not from Ondo State, in line with the Commission’s policy not to deploy a REC to his or her state of origin,” it said. None of those who defended Babalola’s retention has however been able to speak to the allegation that, although she is originally from Ekiti, she was born in and attended schools in Ondo State where her parents live up till now.

The neutrality of a REC is essential in the conduct of a free and fair election in Nigeria. If the above allegations are upheld, there is no way Babalola’s neutrality can be guaranteed. A major scenario that readily comes to mind is that of ace journalist, Dele Momodu. Originally from Edo State, Momodu, in his own words, “was born in Ile-Ife in 1960 and practically grew up a stone throw from this ancient palace of Oduduwa.” Appreciating God and life that he lived in Ile-Ife, he continued, “... It is a long story, well scripted by God almighty. No one else could have written it any better...” Momodu never really lived in his native Edo State. Now, imagine asking a Dele Momodu to conduct Osun State's governorship election?

Babalola should be asked to pointedly speak to the allegations. If confirmed, it makes her a stakeholder in Ondo State by reason of affinity with and domicile in the state for such a long period. Though we know that purchase of electoral umpires by politicians is more a matter of cash, affinity and domicile with stakeholders also breed preference and thus fraud. She can then not reasonably be a neutral umpire in the election.

INEC’s already messed up image can only be timidly salvaged from total ruins if Babalola is divorced from the Ondo November election.