On Thursday, the House of Representatives pledged support for the federal government with N648 million for six months by cutting down their salaries by 50 percent.

The move, according to them, is aimed at supporting food sufficiency in the country and also addressing the soaring prices of foodstuffs.

The lawmakers also appealed to citizens to be patient with President Bola Tinubu in his efforts to tackle to current economic crisis bedevilling Nigeria.

The Committee on Appropriation, Humanitarian Affairs, Finance and Budget was mandated by the House to ensure compliance.

The decision came after the adoption of a motion moved on the floor of the House by Gboyega Isiaka (APC- Ogun State) during plenary in Abuja.

Sun

In a move that can only be described as political theater, members of Nigeria's House of Representatives have offered to slash their basic salaries by 50 percent for six months. This gesture, ostensibly aimed at alleviating the hardship faced by ordinary Nigerians, is nothing more than a smokescreen that fails to address the real issues at hand.

Let's be clear: the basic salary of these lawmakers represents a mere fraction—reportedly around 5 percent—of their total compensation package. The real wealth accumulated by these representatives lies not in their official salaries, but in the myriad of allowances, constituency projects, and other perks approved by themselves for themselves.

The proposed salary cut, amounting to N648 million over six months, is a drop in the ocean compared to the billions of Naira allocated for constituency projects, luxury vehicles, and other extravagant expenses. It's akin to trimming a toenail while ignoring a gaping wound.

More troubling is the fact that these same lawmakers have consistently rubber-stamped policies that have contributed to the economic crisis they now claim to address. Their oversight of government agencies has too often been an exercise in extortion rather than accountability.

The irony is palpable. The very individuals who have been complicit in creating and exacerbating Nigeria's economic woes now position themselves as sacrificial lambs, urging patience from a populace they have consistently failed.

If the people’s ‘representatives’ in the National Assembly truly wish to make a difference, they should start by addressing the systemic issues that plague the country’s governance. These include tackling corruption, reducing the bloated costs of running the legislature, and exercising genuine oversight over the executive branch.

The Nigerian people deserve more than tokenism and empty gestures. They deserve a government that works tirelessly to improve their lives, not one that offers superficial solutions while continuing to benefit from a broken system.

As we move forward, it's crucial that we, as citizens, demand real change and accountability from our elected officials. The path to economic recovery and prosperity for all Nigerians will not be paved with half-measures and publicity stunts, but with genuine reform and responsible governance.

The lawmakers' appeal for patience rings hollow when their actions continue to prioritize self-interest over public service. It's time for our representatives to make real sacrifices and implement meaningful changes that will truly benefit the Nigerian people. Anything less is an insult to the intelligence and resilience of the citizens they claim to serve.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Taiwo Obindo, the president of the Association of Psychiatrists in Nigeria (APN), says more than 100 psychiatrists have left the country to practise abroad in one year.

Obindo said the psychiatric profession is the worst hit by the brain drain syndrome ongoing in the Nigerian medical sector.

He said for every five psychiatric doctors trained in Nigeria, three of them leave the country to practise abroad.

He said healthcare institutions abroad are looking for individuals with psychiatric qualifications and are ready to offer them good and enticing remuneration.

Obindo added that while Nigeria can train medical personnel, it cannot maintain, retain and sustain them.

“Many practitioners in the psychiatric field have left the country to practise abroad, though the exact figure may not be there,” NAN quoted Obindo as saying.

“But I can categorically state that more than 100 trained psychiatric doctors have left to practise abroad in the last one year.

“In fact, for every five psychiatric doctors trained in Nigeria, three of them leave the country to practise abroad.

“As I am talking to you now, one psychiatric practitioner somewhere is leaving or planning to leave the country to practise abroad, and it is as rampant and bad as that.”

Also speaking, Olugbenga Owoeye, the chief medical director (CMD) of the Federal Neuro-Psychiatric Hospital Yaba, said the brain drain in the hospital has resulted in a drastic reduction in manpower.

He said the hospital has resolved to train more doctors to close the vacuum created by the constant migration of psychiatric practitioners overseas.

He expressed optimism that the migration of health workers to other countries to practise would eventually stop someday.

“One thing to note is that with time, this movement will become saturated, and it will stop,” he said.

“I can recall that sometimes in the 80s, a lot of people were migrating to Saudi Arabia in search of greener pastures; now most of them are back home; they are old and are retiring.”

The Cable

PRESS RELEASE

Afenifere has stated that President Bola Tinubu administration's push for Local Government Autonomy has a hidden agenda to use it for taxation and state capture purposes, which clouds the decision to take the right steps as suggested by Afenifere to resolve the fundamental issues affecting the non-performance of local governments.

Afenifere is cautioning the public who have fallen for various gimmicks used to provoke mass hysteria for a treatment that is always worse than the symptoms, from politically motivated anti-subsidy removal protests to corruption killing Nigeria under Jonathan to ethnic baiting in Lagos elections. This current attack on governors is a two pronged attack on democracy, the first being financial autonomy, and the second being political autonomy which must now be fiercely resisted through state assemblies for the following reasons:

1. President Tinubu's repeat of local government manipulation: Anti-people laws are usually pushed using valid reasons to bamboozle the people, one of which was Lagos State Governor Tinubu's fight for local government with the Obasanjo-led Federal Government, which ultimately led to the Lagos State government using the excuse to takeover local government tenements, levies and other income sources.

In Lagos, Tinubu appointed operators to manage waste management, markets and transport sectors, and used the operators to build and finance local political structures which in turn are utilized to capture the state for the last 25yrs, with the local governments ending up being far worse off. All successive governors have been blackmailed into submission, as ex-Governor Ambode realized when he tried to reset the waste management used to subsist Tinubu's local political apparatus.  

2. Flawed foundations: the financial and political autonomy sought by Tinubu for local governments in their current form is reinforcing deceit and misgovernance. Afenifere acknowledges that local governments are currently not run properly, but the fundamental issue is that local governments should be administrative units of State governments, that should have been created by states themselves, but were created by a biased central military government that overcompensated the North with our national resources.

Military constitutions, due to their unitary and command structure, introduced the anomaly of local governments funded from the federation account, despite not being federating but administrative units. This became a basis of revenue allocation, delineation of electoral wards, census enumeration areas, employment in federal ministries and parastatals and above all, delegates to political party conventions for selecting presidential and other candidates.

When local councils/governments were not collecting federal allocations, the North had 147 while the South had 215, but once the anti-federalism act of federal allocations to local governments was put into the constitution, the North increased to 413 as against 355 for the South. In 1979, the present South East had 44, while the North West was 53, but now, the South East stands at 95 while the North West has 187. Local Government Autonomy reinforces this unfair gerrymandering and socioeconomic injustice.

Afenifere believes all local governments should be scrapped to allow states create their administrative units as they deem fit, since the responsibility of managing the state is solely that of the states. It is up to the states whether or not to divide their territories into local councils to help in delivering their state objectives, and should not be part of the national agreement of states coming together to invest part of their power in a federal government in order to act on their behalf for common state interests.

3. National deprivations: Federal government allocations to local governments are to assist the State government in their statutory duties towards the local government, so if the allocations fall short of the local government needs, it is the state that is responsible for filling the gap. Now with this development, as we have seen Governors welcome the lifting of the responsibility, local governments will be at the mercy of the federal government to fill the shortfalls, therefore will have to conform to Tinubu's known Internally Generated Revenue Drive of taxing the poor for the rich.

Tinubu's increased IGR drive is based on increased taxation drive targeting the agricultural sector that contributes about 30% of income and employment. There is already a heavy tax burden exacted by existing local government officials that extort passing food transporters, thereby increasing food prices by up to 300% from the farms to the markets. It will be excruciating for the federal government to now compound the overtaxation of the agricultural, retail and transport sectors. And like Lagos where majority of the tax comes from the poor SMEs of the informal sector, nationwide this sector will be taxed with no social benefits since the monies will be shared among the political class.

4. Localizing INECs federal imperfections: To complete the strangulating of our political economy, there are moves to push for local government political autonomy by letting INEC take over state electoral bodies. This is unacceptable until INEC is truly independent to be the unbiased arbitrator of local government elections. With its present structure, the president can select and deselect political office holders as he wishes, choosing only those that would do the bidding of the party at the center.

For INEC to be truly independent, we must either adopt the Uwais Report for retired judges and academia to be in control of INEC, even though some observers point to the recent corrupt practices of Professors in election issues. Whatever the case, INEC needs to be truly independent of the President before being allowed to handle all election issues, or we will end up as a one party state as witnessed in Lagos State.

5. State capture for 2027 and Internal colonization - the drive for financial local government autonomy is a guise for state/national capture by APC and Tinubu, especially in opposition held states. We have already witnessed even political appointees threatening elected senators with deselection. Local governments and their chairpersons would be open to electoral and financial blackmail to adopt policies already rejected by states and regions.

Although Tinubu might be using it for his normal IGR drive through increased taxation and selfish political reasons, it is a dangerous tool that could be adopted by future governments for internal colonization. Local governments could be forced to accept different civilizational practices and immigration. For example, local governments could be made to accept RUGA and cow colonies, or foreign imposed LGTBQ laws, for more or less funding and electoral success. States are supposed to be a tool of ethnic self determination and devolution of power, but the principle of representative democracy could be usurped through their local government by the central government.

Through history especially in the West Africa subregion, going back to ancient Ghana and Mali Empires, external civilizational usurpers usually back a member of the local elite to implement policies that weather down their traditional institutions and identity, which would ordinarily be rejected if proposed by them. After he leaves, the laws will be exploited for total annihilation of traditional beliefs, identity and institutions.

Afenifere and well meaning Nigerians won't stand aside while for the purpose of increasing IGR from local governments, we risk turning Nigeria into a one party or internally colonized state. Local governments don't have enough collective power to act as Federating units in Nigeria.

Signed:

Ayo Adebanjo, Leader of Afenifere

Justice Faloye, Afenifere Publicity Secretary

Israeli military says Tel Aviv blast apparently caused by drone

The Israeli military said it was investigating an apparent drone attack that hit central Tel Aviv in the early hours of Friday but which did not trigger the air raid sirens.

The explosion occurred hours after the Israeli military confirmed it had killed a senior commander of the Iran-backed Hezbollah militia in southern Lebanon.

"An initial inquiry indicates that the explosion in Tel Aviv was caused by the falling of an aerial target, and no sirens were activated. The incident is under thorough review," the military said in a statement.

It said air patrols had been increased to protect Israeli airspace but said it had not ordered new civil defence measures.

The military spokesman of Yemen's Houthi militants, which like Hezbollah are backed by Iran, said on the X social media website that the group would reveal details about a military operation that targeted Tel Aviv.

Police said the body of a man was found in an apartment close to the explosion and said the circumstances were being investigated.

Footage from the site showed broken glass strewn across the city pavements as crowds of onlookers gathered near a building bearing blast marks. The site was sealed off by police tape.

Hezbollah and the Houthis have stepped up attacks against Israel and Western targets, saying they are acting in solidarity with the Palestinians after Israel invaded the Gaza Strip following an attack by Hamas militants on southern Israel.

Reuters

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Trump, Ukraine's Zelenskiy plan phone call, sources say

Associates of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy have discussed holding a phone call between the two leaders, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

One source said the call could occur on Friday, but Reuters was not able to immediately determine if the conversation, which would be their first since the former U.S. president left the White House in 2021, had been confirmed.

CNN reported earlier on Thursday that the two leaders had a phone call scheduled on Friday. The news organization warned that the schedule of the former president - who is in Milwaukee to accept the Republican Party presidential nomination - is subject to frequent changes.

Trump has said he would end the war in Ukraine before he even takes office in January should he win the Nov. 5 election, though he has not provided details of how he would do so.

A representative for the Trump campaign declined to comment.

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Russian troops strike Ukrainian military airfield infrastructure over past day

Russian troops struck Ukrainian military airfield infrastructure, enemy manpower and military hardware in 127 areas over the past day in the special military operation in Ukraine, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported on Thursday.

"Operational/tactical aircraft, unmanned aerial vehicles, missile troops and artillery of the Russian groups of forces struck military aerodrome infrastructure, Ukrainian manpower and military equipment in 127 locations," the ministry said in a statement.

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicts 160 casualties on Ukrainian army over past day

Russia’s Battlegroup North inflicted roughly 160 casualties on Ukrainian troops in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup North units inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 57th motorized infantry, 125th territorial defense and 13th National Guard brigades in areas near the settlements of Volchansk, Liptsy and Staritsa in the Kharkov Region. Over the past 24 hours, they repelled two counterattacks by formations of the Ukrainian army’s 92nd assault brigade," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 160 personnel, six motor vehicles, a 155mm Bogdana self-propelled artillery gun, a 152mm D-20 howitzer and two 122mm D-30 howitzers, it specified.

Russia’s Battlegroup West inflicts 520 casualties on Ukrainian army over past day

Russia’s Battlegroup West advanced to better positions and inflicted roughly 520 casualties on Ukrainian troops in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup West units keep gaining more advantageous positions. They inflicted casualties on formations of the Ukrainian army’s 21st, 60th and 115th mechanized and 1st National Guard brigades in areas near the settlements of Torskoye, Ivanovka and Krasny Liman in the Donetsk People’s Republic," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 520 personnel, an armored combat vehicle, a 122mm 2S1 Gvozdika motorized artillery system, a 122mm D-30 howitzer, a US-made 105mm M119 artillery gun and an Anklav electronic warfare station, it specified.

In addition, Russian troops destroyed six ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army, the ministry said.

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicts 540 casualties on Ukrainian army over past day

Russia’s Battlegroup South inflicted roughly 540 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed five enemy ammunition depots in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup South units improved their forward edge positions in active operations and inflicted damage on manpower and equipment of the Ukrainian army’s 24th and 54th mechanized, 46th airmobile and 79th air assault brigades in areas near the settlements of Maksimilyanovka, Katerinovka, Chasov Yar and Verkhnekamenskoye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. The Ukrainian army lost as many as 540 personnel, three armored combat vehicles and 10 motor vehicles," the ministry said.

In counterbattery fire, Russian troops destroyed two British-made 155mm FH70 howitzers, three 122mm D-30 howitzers, two US-made 105mm M119 artillery guns, a British-made 105mm L119 howitzer, a US-made AN/TPQ-50 counterbattery radar station and two Anklav electronic warfare systems, it specified.

In addition, Russian troops destroyed five ammunition depots of the Ukrainian army, the ministry said.

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicts 290 casualties on Ukrainian army over past day

Russia’s Battlegroup Center inflicted roughly 290 casualties on Ukrainian troops and destroyed a US-made armored fighting vehicle in its area of responsibility over the past day, the ministry reported.

"Battlegroup Center units gained more advantageous positions and inflicted casualties on formations of the Ukrainian army’s 32nd, 110th and 151st mechanized brigades in areas near the settlements of Toretsk, Novozhelannoye and Vesyoloye in the Donetsk People’s Republic. They repulsed seven counterattacks by formations of the Ukrainian army’s 41st mechanized and 144th infantry brigades," the ministry said.

The Ukrainian army’s losses in that frontline area over the past 24 hours amounted to 290 personnel, a US-made MaxxPro armored fighting vehicle, a US-manufactured 155mm M777 howitzer, a 122mm D-30 howitzer and two 100mm MT-12 Rapira anti-tank guns, it specified.

Reuters/Tass

The assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump on July 13 at a campaign rally in Pennsylvania has sucked the oxygen from the debate on President Joe Biden’s fitness for a second term. The discussion will resurface, but Democrats should forget it. The party is stuck with Biden.

The odds are daunting. It must feel like a difficult marriage heading for a shipwreck. However, with only four months to the election, facing the odds is the only way to overcome them. Expectedly, Biden doubled down on his decision to run after the presidential debate with Trump left the president looking like the victim of a car crash. 

He has tried to redeem himself several times and has snagged on his speeches every time. Yet, despite his frail health, stumbling speeches, and the mocking caricatures in the media, Biden insists he would stay in the race. 

“I know I'm not a young man,” Biden said after the debate with Trump. “I don't walk as easy as I used to. I don’t speak as smoothly as I used to. I don’t debate as well as I used to, but I know what I do know — I know how to tell the truth!”

Stuck on him

As doubts about his fitness persist, one truth that he weighs is whether it’s in his party’s best interest to run. With a heavy heart, it’s fair to say that the answer is yes. Democrats are stuck with Biden. However worrying the prospects of a defeat – particularly a defeat to Trump – might seem, Biden’s candidacy still gives the party the best chance to win or rebuild. 

Some think Biden should let Vice President Kamala Harris run. She has received support from members of Congress, especially from her state of California, women organisations, progressive activists, and sections of the Asian American community. 

Her supporters have given reasons, from her relatively younger age to the likelihood that, given her background as a prosecutor and Attorney General, she would pay more attention to issues like criminal justice reform, immigration and healthcare. Others have added that her ethnic nationality would bring diversity to the ticket and energise Latinos, Asians and Blacks, who are increasingly important demographics among voters.

Others, like Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Michigan governors, have also been mentioned as possible Biden replacements, but none would appear as viable as Harris. Yet, for all the promises she offers, there are many reasons Biden, instead of Harris, remains the Democrats’ best card.

Remember Hilary?

Hilary Clinton, former First Lady and Secretary of State, apart from being a senator, a white woman and one of the best-kept secrets of the deep state, could not defeat Trump in 2016 because America was not ready. It was unprepared to discard the bogey of an “evil” Clinton dynasty. It was – and still is – unprepared for a female president. 

Sure, more women are serving in the US Congress today, and voters’ attitudes toward having a female president have slightly improved. But not so fast when a woman of colour is on the ballot.

We never know what might have happened if Hilary challenged Trump again in 2020. But she declined not only because the previous contest had left her with deep emotional scars but because the Democratic party had also come to the inevitable conclusion that in what was supposed to be a post-modern society, gender – and the elephant in the room, race – remained a big issue. 

It’s unlikely that Harris would succeed where Clinton failed, a hint that may also be responsible for Michelle Obama staying out of the race despite her popularity in the opinion polls. 

Harris’ bonafide

Harris’ slim chance against Trump has little to do with her credentials. She was a former Attorney General and senator from California who formed a bipartisan coalition to enact a $1 trillion investment in infrastructure to remove every lead pipe in the US. She has also been on the frontline to reform the healthcare system, especially among the vulnerable, and reduce gun violence, among other things. 

On a typical day, Harris is an asset to the Democratic party and might still be for some time. But this November election is an unusual one. America is deeply divided, and trust in politics is so severely broken that a Wall Street Journal poll indicated that even though this is the first presidential rematch in five decades, nearly 10 per cent of voters are still undecided. 

That shouldn’t be because voters have records to judge the contestants: Trump, the demagogue, cut taxes for the middle class and massively removed regulations, among other things; Biden, on the other hand, has recorded two crucial years of job growth in a long time and managed to keep the economy steady, despite the supply chain disruptions of Covid-19. Inflation has taken a significant toll on families but could have been worse.

The jury is out on voters' feelings, especially where it matters most: their pockets. Although the demographics of the undecided population – less educated, less wealthy, less politically aware and engaged, less interested in politics, but definitely more diverse – should favourHarris, the “silent voters” or “hidden Trump voters” who blindsided pollsters and torpedoed Clinton eight years ago are still alive and well. 

Teflon Trump thrives in scandals. Today’s Feeble Joe is not the same Biden who faced Trump four years ago and got away by the skin of his teeth. While he is weaker, frailer and poorer even at sharing his accomplishments in the last four years, his opponent, Trump, has been emboldened by his worst excesses. The race for the US presidency is a match-up between horror and uncertainty. 

Strength in weakness

Yet, Biden’s weaknesses, especially his common touch – not Harris’ strengths – are the Democrats’ most potent weapon against a candidate who would lie, cheat, inflate, incite and routinely invent stories to get by. It’s a hard thing to say, but Biden, with all his frailties, is the medicine for Trump’s demagoguery.

Biden stepping down at this time will further weaken and divide the Democrats, giving them very little time to rally before the election. And if the worst, a Trump victory happens – which I think is improbable – then the party would have the chance to rebuild from its potentially less fragmented ruins.

What’s in it for Africa? Heads or tails, not a lot. Trump made clear that it was America first and last and the rest of the world, especially Africa, was shithole. Some still romanticise the Biden Senate years, when he spoke against apartheid, railed against injustice in the Middle East and pursued global peace through multilateralism.

A new Biden

That was then. The Biden of the last four years has massively funded Ukraine’s senseless war with Russia, a meat grinder if ever there was one, and paid scant attention to Africa. He has also proved utterly ineffective in getting Benjamin Netanyahu to stop the killings in Gaza. 

The election in November is not about Africa. It’s about whether an exceptional country that lost its way in 2016 – with horrific consequences for the rest of the world – is determined to lose it yet again.

** Ishiekwene is the Editor-In-Chief of LEADERSHIP

One key trait separates the best CEOs from all others, according to JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon.

While some leaders can get complacent in their lofty roles, a great CEO prioritizes learning, inquisitive conversations and taking genuine interest in other people’s points of view, Dimon, 68, told LinkedIn’s “This is Working” video series last week.

“I think leaders have to get out [from behind their desks],” Dimon said. “They have to get out all the time. They have to be curious, ask a million questions. They’re learning from competitors, they’re learning from clients.”

One of Dimon’s top priorities for himself is meeting with clients and competitors — so he can ask questions and get firsthand accounts about where his company is excelling or doing poorly, he said.

“I always tell a client, ‘When you complain to us, you’re doing us a favor. If we’re torturing you, we’re probably torturing another 10,000 [or] 100,000 people,’” Dimon said. “I think CEOs, any business leader, who can’t get out [or is] too busy, they’re making a huge mistake.”

Dimon isn’t the only CEO who values inquiring minds in the workplace: The trait separates highly successful employees and leaders from their peers, according to Amazon boss Andy Jassy. 

“You have to be ravenous and hungry to find ways to learn,” Jassy said last week in a videopublished by Amazon, about the company’s list of 16 leadership principles. The biggest difference between people with successful careers and those who remain “stagnant” is a constant, humble drive for knowledge and self-improvement, he added.

“For some people, at a certain point, they find it too threatening or too difficult to keep learning,” said Jassy. “The second you think there’s little left for you to learn is the second that you are unwinding as an individual and as a learning professional.”

Curiosity and desire to learn can take you further in your career than your technical skills, LinkedIn vice president and workforce expert Aneesh Raman told CNBC Make It in March. The two traits are especially beneficial for young professionals, helping them stand out in the hiring market and reframe setbacks as learning opportunities, he said.

″[A growth mindset] is the new degree, the way that you’ve been looking for a Harvard degree,” said Raman.

To strengthen your inquisitiveness, try dedicating 20 to 30 minutes each day to learning something new, TedX speaker and organizational psychologist Tomas Chamorro-Premuzic wrote in the Harvard Business Review last year. You could research a subject you’ve always been interested in, set up a coffee chat to learn more about a colleague or read a challenging book about an unfamiliar subject. 

Ask yourself questions like, “What area do I want to be an expert in?” and “What topics could I spend all day thinking about?” Chamorro-Premuzic wrote.

Continuing to learn and explore, in both familiar and new areas of interest, helps people avoid “complacency” and build the “heart and grit” they need to advance their careers, said Dimon.

“If you don’t have an accurate assessment of the real world out there, what’s changing, what the ideas are, you will eventually fail,” he said.

CNBC

The federal government is taking aim at lenders by introducing windfall tax on banks’ foreign currency revaluation gains, hoping to use the proceeds to part-finance its spending plans.

President Bola Tinubu wrote to the Senate, asking it to back a legislation that will tax the bumper income derived by banks last year from the revaluation of their FC-denominated assets after a free fall in the value of the naira caused a surge in the value of such assets when converted into the local currency.

“A proposed amendment to the Finance Act Amendment Bill 2023 is required to impose a one-time windfall tax on the foreign exchange gains realised by banks in their 2023 financial statements,” Tinubu said in a letter to the Senate, read on the floor of the upper parliament on Wednesday by Godswill Akpabio, the senate president.

The tax will help “fund capital infrastructural development, education and healthcare access as well as public welfare initiatives all of which are essential components of the Renewed Hope Agenda,” he added.

The revenue expansion push is coming nearly ten months after a PREMIUM TIMES analysis of Nigeria’s five biggest lenders’ (FBN Holdings, UBA, GTCO, Access Holdings and Zenith Bank) half-year 2023 financials revealed those banks alone earned N1.3 trillion in foreign exchange revaluation gains, 17 times bigger than that of the corresponding period of 2022.

Nigerian banks are profiting from two of the major economic woes plaguing Africa’s most populous country as it faces a record cost of living crisis that has tipped many into poverty.

While a sticky inflation rate has prompted eleven straight interest rate hikes from monetary authorities, enabling banks to charge more for loans, two devaluation rounds executed within the first seven months of Tinubu’s presidency have caused assets held by banks in foreign currencies to balloon to record levels.

Unfortunately, those reforms and policy shifts are pushing many businesses, especially the import-dependent ones to the brink, with some multinationals shutting down their Nigerian operations.

The current move to tax banks’ windfall foreign exchange gains is part of the aggressive plan of the Tinubu’s administration to raise tax revenue’s share of the gross domestic product to 18 per cent from 11 per cent within three years.

Nigeria, which has one of the lowest tax revenues in the world, expects to scale up collection by 57 per cent this year.

“We all know that banks are making huge profits. In fact, that’s why everybody is now willing to set up a bank because of huge amount of money they are getting.

“A bank will declare close to about N500 billion. There is no business you can do in this country where you can get that kind of money,” said Aliero Mohammed, the senator representing Kebbi Central Senatorial District.

Last year, the Central Bank of Nigeria forbade banks from using their foreign exchange revaluation gains from dividend payment purpose, stating that such income should be set aside as rainy day savings that would help lenders mitigate future foreign exchange risks.

“There is no such tax known to the laws of this country as we speak… If I have my way, I will say that we step down the second bill which is about taxation of banks, profits of banks. We cannot grow our economy, we cannot run our government by continually taxing our people, whether they are corporate citizens of Nigeria or whether they are individuals,” said Seriake Dickson, who represents Bayelsa West in the Senate.

“Let it not be said that this Senate without the benefit of a public hearing, without the benefit of economic expert, financial experts advising us about the propriety of this legislation, and most importantly also the timing of this legislation,” he added.

Apart from vast foreign exchange gains, the big boom banks are witnessing from interest rate hikes would automatically have been an invitation to windfall tax if it were to be in the West.

Last year, France, Hungary, Italy, Spain and Sweden joined the league of European markets imposing a windfall tax on banks profiting from rate increment, with an economy like Czech going as high as 60 per cent.

Windfall tax receipts helped Nigeria’s African peer South Africa in 2022 to pay down debt and repair public sector infrastructures. The government hopes it could help cut public debt as a share of GDP to 69 per cent by 2024/2025 from 71.4 per cent in 2022/2023.

PT

The Senate, on Wednesday, announced the removal of Ali Ndume (Borno South) as Chief Whip.

When put to voice vote by the Senate President Godswill Akpabio, members of the APC Senate Caucus endorsed Ndume’s removal as Senate Chief Whip during plenary.

Ndume was replaced by Tahir Mungono (Borno North).

This comes amid his recent criticisms of President Bola Tinubu’s government.

In a letter addressed to the Senate Caucus by the national leadership of the ruling party, the APC asked Ndume to resign his membership of the APC and join any opposition party of his choice.

The letter was signed by the party’s national chairman, and Secretary, Abdullahi Ganduje, and Ajibola Bashiru.

Daily Trust had reported how some loyalists of Tinubu plotted to get Ndume suspended.

Sources at the National Assembly told Daily Trust that the pro-Tinubu Senators were planning to not just strip Ndume of his position but equally suspend him like Abdul Ningi (PDP, Bauchi Central).

Ningi, also a ranking senator from the North, was suspended for three months in March this year, for granting an interview to the BBC Hausa in which he alleged that N3.7 trillion in the national budget for the 2024 fiscal year was not tied to any projects or locations.

Ndume had in an interview with newsmen at the National Assembly Complex in Abuja last week said, “Mr. President is not in the picture of what is happening outside the Villa. He has been fenced off and caged. So many of us won’t go through the backdoor to engage him.

“Now they have stopped him from talking and he doesn’t have public affairs managers, except his spokesman, Ajuri Ngelale, who writes press statements. Nigerians are getting very angry.

“The government is not doing anything about the food scarcity and it needs to do something urgently. We don’t have food reserve. There is unavailability of food. Food crisis is the worst crisis that any nation can encounter. If we add that to security crisis, it will be severe.”

But his submissions triggered series of reactions from the pro-Tinubu camp as Sunday Karimi (Kogi West) and the ruling APC both knocked the Borno lawmaker, describing his statement as derogatory.

Our correspondent gathered from impeccable sources that three of the four senators that plotted Ndume’s suspension and ouster as the Chief Whip are from the South West – Ekiti, Ogun and Lagos, while another Senator from Kogi is also part of the agenda.

It was learnt that Akpabio was in a fix, considering that Ndume was the Director-General of the Stability Group which worked hard to make him President of the Senate in June 2023.

It was, however, hinted that some Northern senators were waiting for the cat to be let out of the bag during plenary before they would take a position.

A source said, “But of course, you know the Northern Senators will rise against another plan to destabilise their caucus, barely a few months after Ningi was suspended.”

However, some stakeholders from the North under the aegis of Concerned Northern Forum (CNF), in a statement on Tuesday signed by Abdulkadir Kura, said, “It is on record that Ndume is a critical stakeholder of the ruling APC, and a close ally of Tinubu. Therefore, if he can take such a bold step in saying the truth about the economic and social reality on the ground, then the Southern Borno Senator need to be celebrated by all and sundry. So we stand by him.

“Ndume has spoken the minds of the average Nigerians who have been under serious economic hardship since the removal of the fuel subsidy and other anti-people policies of the present administration.

“This is not the first time Ndume has criticised or challenged policies of the federal government. He consistently did so during the past administrations of Presidents Goodluck Jonathan and Muhammadu Buhari. Such criticisms led to positive changes by the listening governments at that time.”

Daily Trust