Former President Olusegun Obasanjo has faulted verdicts of the Nigerians judges on the electoral disputes, saying three to five judges should not overturn decisions made by millions of voters during an election.

Obasanjo described the powers vested in the hands of a few judges as “totally unacceptable.”

The former President spoke in wake of the ongoing judgements of the Court of Appeal on the electoral disputes arising from 2023 elections in Nigeria.

Only last week, three governors were sacked in separate judgements delivered by the judges of the Court of Appeal.

The affected governors are, Dauda Lawal of Zamfara State, Abba Yusuf in Kano, and Caleb Mutfwang of Plateau State.

The decisions have triggered reactions, earning the judiciary more knocks than kudos.

Speaking at the high-level consultation on Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy in Africa held at Green Resort Legacy, Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, Abeokuta, Ogun State, Obasanjo faulted what he labelled “cathedral pronouncements” by the judges.

Obasanjo said “I believe whatever form of democracy we have or whatever system of government we have, three or four men in the judiciary should not be able to overturn the decisions of millions that have voted. Now, we have to find a way to handle that. I don’t know what the way will be but, for me, I think it’s totally unacceptable that millions (of votes), maybe 10m on one side, maybe 9million on the other side. Then, you have five people sitting down, three of them agree, two disagree. And you come up and make cathedral pronouncements that cannot be changed, I believe that should not be accepted.

“How do we do it? I don’t know. But whatever form of democracy we have, we should look at how to handle this. If you say ‘go again for election,’ then, what happened to the previous election? I don’t know.

“So, I personally feel strongly about it. It does not matter what you say about the judiciary, but in fact only five people or seven will sit down. If they are five, three may agree, two may not agree, and the decision of three will be final. All that you have done comes to the decision of three or decision of four.”

Daily Trust

Nigerian and German companies on Tuesday signed two accords in Berlin that include a $500 million renewable energy pact and a gas export deal, further strengthening economic ties between the two nations, a presidential spokesperson said.

Union Bank of Nigeria and Germany's DWS Group signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on renewable energy. The agreement seeks to harness $500 million in investment in renewable energy projects across Nigeria, mostly in rural communities, spokesperson Ajuri Ngelale said in a statement.

A second MoU on gas export partnership was agreed between Riverside LNG of Nigeria and Germany's Johannes Schuetze Energy Import AG. Under the accord, Nigeria will supply 850,000 tons of natural gas to Germany annually which is expected to rise to 1.2 million. The first deliveries will be in 2026, Ngelale said.

The deal will help process about 50 million cubic feet per day of natural gas that otherwise would have flared.

Nigeria holds Africa's largest gas reserves of more than 200 trillion cubic feet, but flares, or burns off, about 300 million cubic feet daily due to inadequate processing facilities.

President Bola Tinubu, who is attending the G20 Compact with Africa conference in Berlin, welcomed the deals, Ngelale said.

On Monday German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Germany will invest 4 billion euros in green energy projects in Africa until 2030, noting these could in turn help Europe's largest economy achieve its own transition to carbon neutrality.

Germany will need to import large quantities of green hydrogen going forward, including from Africa, if it is to achieve its goal of net zero emissions by 2045, he said at a German-African business forum in Berlin.

The forum preceded the G20 Compact with Africa summit that aims to drum up investment in the world's poorest but fast-growing continent by coordinating the development agendas of reform-minded countries and identifying business opportunities.

Reuters

Federal government has revoked 1,633 mining licenses due to default in payment of stipulated service fees by operators.

In a statement on Tuesday, Dele Alake, minister of solid minerals development, said the revocation became necessary after the expiration of a 30-day notice to defaulters — as stipulated by sections 11 and 12 of the Nigerian Mineral Mining Act (NMMA), 2007.

Alake, in the statement issued by Segun Tomori, special assistant on media to the minister, said the ministry began the process of revoking 2,213 titles on October 4, 2023.

“In compliance with the law, the Mining Cadastral Office (MCO) on October 4, 2023 began the process of revoking 2,213 titles,” he said.

“These included 795 Exploration titles, 956 Small Scale Mining Licences, 364 Quarry licences, and 98 Mining Leases. These were published in the Federal Government Gazette Number 178, Volume 110 of October 10, 2023 with the notice of revocation for defaulting in the payment of Annual Service Fee.

“The mandatory 30 days expired on November 10, 2023. Only 580 title holders responded by settling their indebtedness.

“With this development, the MCO recommended the revocation of 1, 633 mineral titles as follows: Exploration Licence, 536; Quarry Licence, 279; Small Scale Mining Licence, 787 and Mining Lease, 31.

“In line with the powers conferred on me by the NMMA 2007, Section 5 (a), I have approved the revocation of the 1,633 titles.

“I hereby warn the previous holders of these titles to leave the relevant cadaster with immediate effect as security agencies shall work with the Mines Inspectorate of the Ministry to apprehend any defaulter found on any of the areas where titles have been revoked.”

Alske said efforts are ongoing to sanction other operators defaulting in payment of royalties, taxes amongst others.

According to the minister, revoking the licences of operators shortchanging government is an ongoing process which he said will create space for serious prospective investors to come on stream.

Addressing illegal mining in the country, Alake read the riot act to culprits, saying that their days are numbered.

Alake said illegal miners will be dealt with by the government should they continue their unauthorised mining activities.

He said President Bola Tinubu is committed to sanitising the mining sector.

On the issue of insecurity, Alake said plans for the establishment of mine police are underway.

The minister said the military will conduct initial clearance operations to pave the way for the deployment of the mine police.

The Cable

Israeli government debates deal for release of Gaza hostages, truce

Israel's government met into the early hours of Wednesday to consider a deal for Palestinian Hamas militants to free some hostages in Gaza in exchange for a multi-day truce and the release of a greater number of Palestinian prisoners in Israel.

Officials from Qatar, which has been mediating negotiations, as well as the U.S., Israel and Hamas have for days been saying a deal was imminent.

Qatar Foreign Ministry spokesperson Majed Al-Ansari said the proposal on a hostage release deal was delivered to Israel in the early hours of Tuesday.

"The State of Qatar is awaiting the result of the Israeli government's vote on the proposal," he said.

Before gathering with his full government, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met on Tuesday with his war cabinet and wider national security cabinet over the deal. Hamas is believed to be holding more than 200 hostages, taken when its fighters surged into Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people, according to Israeli tallies.

The Israeli prime minister said the intervention of U.S. President Joe Biden had helped to improve the tentative agreement so that it included more hostages and fewer concessions.

But Netanyahu said Israel's broader mission had not changed.

"We are at war and we will continue the war until we achieve all our goals. To destroy Hamas, return all our hostages and ensure that no entity in Gaza can threaten Israel," he said in a recorded message at the start of the latest government meeting.

If agreed, the accord would see the first truce of a war in which Israeli bombardments have flattened swathes of Hamas-ruled Gaza, killed 13,300 civilians in the tiny densely populated enclave and left about two-thirds of its 2.3 million people homeless, according to authorities in Gaza.

A U.S. official briefed on the discussions said the deal would include 50 hostages taken from Israel, mostly women and children, in exchange for 150 Palestinian prisoners and a pause in the fighting of four or five days.

The pause would also allow for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

Israeli media including Channel 12 news said that if the deal was approved, the first release of hostages was expected on Thursday. Implementing the deal must wait for 24 hours to give Israeli citizens the chance to ask the Supreme Court to block the release of Palestinian prisoners, reports said.

Hamas has to date released only four captives: U.S. citizens Judith Raanan, 59, and her daughter, Natalie Raanan, 17, on Oct. 20, citing "humanitarian reasons," and Israeli women Nurit Cooper, 79, and Yocheved Lifshitz, 85, on Oct. 23.

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The armed wing of the Palestinian militant group Islamic Jihad, which participated in the Oct. 7 raid with Hamas, said late on Tuesday that one of the Israeli hostages it has held since the Oct. 7 attacks on Israel had died.

"We previously expressed our willingness to release her for humanitarian reasons, but the enemy was stalling and this led to her death," Al Quds Brigades said on its Telegram channel.

HOSPITAL ORDERED TO EVACUATE

As attention focused on the hostage release deal, fighting on the ground raged on. Mounir Al-Barsh, director-general of Gaza's health ministry, told Al Jazeera TV that the Israeli military ordered the evacuation of the Indonesian Hospital in Gaza City. Israel said militants were operating from the facility and threatened to act against them within four hours, he said.

Hospitals, including Gaza's biggest Al Shifa, have been rendered virtually inoperable by the conflict and shortages of critical supplies. Israel claims that Hamas conceals military command posts and fighters within them, a claim that Hamas and hospital staff deny.

On Tuesday, Israel also said its forces had encircled the Jabalia refugee camp, a major urban flashpoint and Hamas militant stronghold.

According to the United Nations, most Palestinians in Gaza are registered as refugees because they or their ancestors were displaced by the 1948 war of Israel's creation.

The Palestinian news agency WAFA said 33 people were killed and dozens wounded in an Israeli air strike on part of Jabalia, a congested urban extension of Gaza City where Hamas has been battling advancing Israeli armoured forces.

In southern Gaza, Hamas-affiliated media said 10 people were killed and 22 injured by an Israeli air strike on an apartment in the city of Khan Younis.

Reuters could not immediately verify the accounts of fighting on either side.

Reuters

RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine has lost over 13,000 troops this month – Moscow

Ukraine has lost over 13,700 troops and approximately 1,800 tanks and other heavy weaponry so far this month, Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu told his government colleagues on Tuesday during a ministerial meeting.

Russian forces have been actively thwarting Kiev’s attempts to breach their defensive lines and continue to reduce Ukraine’s military capacity, the senior official said. He claimed that Ukrainian soldiers were surrendering in droves after realizing the futility of their counteroffensive.

The minister issued his last assessment of Ukrainian casualties in late October, when he said they had surpassed 90,000 since the start of Kiev’s ill-fated counteroffensive in early July. During this week’s meeting, Shoigu described the cost paid by Ukrainian soldiers in the conflict as “colossal.”

Valery Zaluzhny, Ukraine’s top general, previously said that the conflict with Russia had reached a “stalemate” and that his armed forces would likely not achieve a breakthrough in the confrontation anytime soon. President Vladimir Zelensky has disputed the assessment, claiming that progress was still being made in his nation’s attempt to return Ukraine to its pre-2014 borders.

On Monday, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin visited Kiev to meet Zelensky and announce Washington’s latest package of military assistance, worth some $100 million. The Pentagon, however, has warned that it is running out of money authorized by Congress to be spent on Ukraine.

The funding has become contentious on Capitol Hill; the conservative wing of the Republican party opposes further aid. Critics of the White House’s pledge to support Kiev for “as long as it takes” have complained about a lack of transparency and argued that the US has more important priorities.

Some GOP lawmakers have described the Zelensky government as a problematic recipient of aid, in light of a string of graft scandals this year, including in the Ukrainian Defense Ministry. 

On Tuesday, the Ukrainian leader welcomed more foreign dignitaries in the capital, including German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, European Council President Charles Michel and Moldovan President Maia Sandu. The country is commemorating the 10th anniversary of what Kiev calls the “Revolution of Dignity,” the mass protests and armed overthrow of Ukraine’s democratically-elected government that ultimately led to the current confrontation with Russia.

Moscow has described the Ukraine conflict as part of a US-led proxy war against Russia, in which Ukrainians are used as “cannon fodder.” Anatoly Antonov, Moscow’s ambassador to Washington, called the latest package of aid “a sedative pill” for the Zelensky government, as it edges closer to complete collapse.

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Ukraine's tank repairmen deal with damage inflicted by Russian drones, artillery and mines

Reuters) - In a nondescript warehouse in the eastern Ukrainian region of Kharkiv, a crew of repairmen work tirelessly to fix Ukrainian tanks damaged by Russia's vast arsenal of mines, drones and artillery.

“The most common causes why vehicles are brought here are because they either drove over an enemy mine or came under artillery shelling,” said 30-year-old Oleksandr Fedorenko, the deputy head of weaponry of the 4th Tank Brigade.

Another problem are Lancets, the Russian kamikaze drones that Ukrainian soldiers say has been a menace on the battlefield this year.

“We get vehicles that were hit by Lancet or by unmanned guided rockets. It happens often. On average there are five to ten vehicles brought in here each month,” Fedorenko said.

Throughout the war, hundreds of videos online show Ukrainian and Russian tanks being struck by shells or drones, or being incapacitated by landmines. Both sides have lost significant amounts of machinery.

Although exact numbers are kept secret, Ukraine started the war with fewer tanks than Russia, which invaded 21 months ago and has a vast military-industrial complex.

"We have no time to relax, we understand very well the enemy's forces by far exceed ours," Fedorenko said.

In his November 7, 2023 New York Times newsletter, the economist Paul Krugman asks a good, albeit belated, question: Why did so many economists get the inflation outlook wrong? After all, the near-consensus among mainstream economists in recent years was that inflation would persist – and even accelerate – and that this justified substantial interest-rate hikes by the US Federal Reserve. Yet the quasi-inflation of 2021-22 proved transitory.

Krugman poses his question with impeccable diplomacy, professing “respect” for three authors of a September 2022 paper published by the Brookings Institution (which was then promoted by Harvard University’s Jason Furman) projecting that it would take at least two years of unemployment at 6.5% to bring inflation back to the Fed’s self-imposed 2% target. But inflation had already peaked before the Brookings paper appeared, and long before the Fed’s rate hikes might have been felt. Over the next year, inflation petered out, even as unemployment remained below 4%. “Team Transitory” – which once briefly included US Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen – endured two years of derision, but it was correct all along.

Krugman rightly focuses on the illogic of certain inflation “pessimists,” who “came up with new, completely unrelated justifications” for their contention that inflation would “remain stubbornly high” long after the 2021 fiscal stimulus packages had been absorbed. Since these pessimists encountered very little mainstream dissent, their doomsaying continued to dominate the discourse well into 2023.

Krugman tactfully avoids naming Lawrence H. Summers, whose “justifications” for inflation pessimism included supposedly excessive “savings,” the Fed’s “debt purchases” and forecasts of “essentially zero interest rates,” and “soaring stock and real estate prices.” Yet, aside from his worries about fiscal stimulus, this was all nonsense. As I pointed out at the time, savings cannot cause inflation, and a technical forecast has no causal power.

Adopting the persona of a naïf, Krugman then suggests that it was “almost as if economists were looking for reasons to be pessimistic.” A paragon of politesse, he declines to tell us what those reasons might have been. But two always stood out. The first was fear: if American workers retained a financial cushion from the Covid-19 aid packages, they might be “harder to boss around.” The second reason concerned power: high interest rates tend to support the dollar internationally.

Since then, various Fed officials have acknowledged both motives many times. For example, an obsession with wages permeates all of Fed Chair Jerome Powell’s speeches, and he has openly stated his commitment to maintaining a strong dollar. It is no surprise that mainstream economists endorse – indeed, craft – the same arguments.

But I, too, was being polite, because I omitted a third possibility: namely, that some mainstream economists might call for high interest rates to curry favor with bankers, who enjoy larger profit margins when rates are high (especially now that the Fed pays interest on bank reserves directly). A strong public stance on the matter could generate hefty speaking fees, consulting contracts, or a path to high public office. As Krugman concludes, “I’d like to see some hard thinking about how so many of my colleagues got this story so wrong and maybe even a bit of introspection about their motivations.”

That would be nice, but let’s not hold our breath. Instead, let’s turn to a larger issue. Krugman notes that all the economists he mentions “are very much part of the economics profession’s mainstream.” He means this as a compliment; yet, as Hamlet says, “there’s the rub.” Consider just how often mainstream economists get things wrong – not only small things, but very big ones. Remember their famous failure to foresee the 2007-09 financial crisis, or the woefully ill-advised turn to austerity in 2010? What about the predictably perverse effect of sanctions on Russia? The misdiagnosis of inflation in 2021-22 was merely the latest episode in a long-running series of failures.

The question we should be asking, then, is whether there is something wrong with mainstream economics. Mainstream economists should perhaps re-examine their core beliefs, or maybe we need a new “mainstream” altogether.

To be sure, Krugman notes that “one strand of argument involved parallels with the inflation of the 1970s.” But this only grazes the problem. The real issue is that most of today’s leading mainstream economists were trained in the 1970s, and their worldview – not just the facts, but the theory – was fixed back then. On macroeconomic issues such as inflation, the influences of general equilibrium theory, inflation-unemployment trade-offs, and monetarism remain strong. The legacies of Kenneth Arrow, Paul Samuelson, Robert Solow, and Milton Friedman live on.

That earlier generation’s project was partly scientific, partly political. As “social scientists,” they believed in the power of mathematics, which they borrowed from the celestial mechanics of previous centuries. Politically, they sought to defend capitalism against the Soviet challenge during the Cold War. By uniting these objectives, they fashioned the market-oriented mathematical straitjacket in which today’s mainstream economists were raised – and from which they cannot escape. Yesterday’s Wunderkinder – including Summers and Krugman – are today’s tired old men.

Notably, Krugman’s reflection on disinflation makes no mention of the economists who did not misdiagnose things, including Isabella M. Weber of the University of Massachusetts Amherst, and L. Randall Wray and Yeva Nersisyan of the Levy Institute. They correctly predicted the disinflation back in March 2022.

But economists with better ideas never get citations by name, let alone job offers from so-called top departments, mainly because so many members of the old guard want to preserve the academic, political, and media monopolies they have held since the 1970s. That means purging new ideas and belittling the people who advance them. By offering such a polite, gentle critique of his “colleagues” after their latest failure, Krugman is being diplomatic to a fault.

Project Syndicate

Are you a formerly "gifted" kid, struggling to find success as an adult? Organizational psychologist Adam Grant may have a solution for you.

Put simply: Instead of giving up when things don't come naturally to you, start thinking like a "late bloomer."

"Natural talent is overrated," Grant, a bestselling author and psychology professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, recently told CNBC's "Squawk Box." "Most child prodigies do not grow up to become adult geniuses. And I think that leaves us to really underestimate the slow learners, the late bloomers."

You need to be able to try new things, problem solve and accept mistakes to reach the height of your capabilities, Grant wrote in his newest book, "Hidden Potential: The Science of Achieving Greater Things." Those "slow learners" develop such traits by necessity from an earlier age, priming them well for achievement later in life, he added.

Late bloomers also tend to be particularly skilled at turning weaknesses into strengths, and if you can master something you're bad at, you're well-equipped to handle most types of challenges, Grant told "Squawk Box."

That doesn't mean the "naturally gifted" are doomed, according to Grant. His book outlines ways anyone can work toward reaching their potential:

• Ask superiors and peers for advice rather than feedback. You'll elicit more interesting and relatable takeaways.
• Find new and fun ways to practice your skills. Athletes often call this cross-training: Instead of running drills or plays repetitively, they lift weights, practice yoga or even attend dance classes. No matter your context, doing this can help prevent burnout.
• Expect and accept awkwardness. Mastering anything is difficult, and that shouldn't deter you from trying.

"The feeling that something is uncomfortable is a signal that you're about to learn something new," Grant told the New York Times last month. "That's a signal we should not only pay attention to, but amplify.

Research backs that up. If you've been dubbed an auditory learner, for instance, you might prefer audiobooks or podcasts over written texts. But the format doesn't actually affect your ability to master the material: People grasp new concepts more effectively when they're pushed outside their comfort zones, studies suggest.

Character skills can be highly valuable in the workplace. Billionaire entrepreneur Mark Cuban actively seeks out employees who make the office a better place rather than scouring through impressive resumes, he told Grant's "Re:Thinking" podcast last year.

In one example, Cuban said he hired a CEO who had less relevant experience on their resume, but excelled at "employee support and employee training and enhancement."

″[They] may not have had the experience on the business side that we otherwise would have gone for," said Cuban. "[But they] were putting [employees] in a position to succeed [better] than anybody I've seen."

CNBC

Central Bank of Nigeria scrapped a meeting of its monetary policy committee for a second time since Governor Olayemi Cardoso was nominated to the post in September, raising concerns about attempts to bolster the nation’s currency that’s plunged about 42% this year and is fueling inflation.

A calendar of MPC meetings published on the central bank’s website had scheduled the next gathering for Monday and Tuesday. The “MPC is not holding” a meeting this week, Isa Abdulmumin, spokesman for the bank, said by text message on Monday. He didn’t give a date for when it would be held.

Investors have been looking to the MPC meeting for signals on how the central bank will rein in inflation that’s accelerating at the fastest pace in almost two decades. They were also anticipating an update on the overhaul of the nation’s foreign-exchange controls initiated by President Bola Tinubu in June.

Nigeria Postpones Rate Decision as Inflation Quickens

Price growth is at an almost two-decade high

“Postponing two successive meetings is not a good sign” if you want to stabilize the naira and attract investment to the country, Mosope Arubayi, an economist at IC Group said by phone from Lagos. The meeting will “enable investors to assess the direction of the new MPC board. The most important information for foreign investors is the interest rate.”

The naira was trading at a wide spread at the official market, compared with the parallel market rate because of dollar shortages. It closed 791.74 a dollar on Friday, according to Lagos-based FMDQ, which tracks the data. That compares with 1,138 naira to the dollar it traded on the streets of Lagos on Monday — a 30% spread, Abubakar Mohammed, chief executive officer of Forward Marketing Bureau de Change Ltd., which compiles the data said by phone.

A Bloomberg survey of 12 economists had forecast the central bank will raise its benchmark rate by as much as 325 basis points from 18.75%.

CBN held its last monetary policy meeting in July when it raised the benchmark by 25 basis points to curb inflation, which was 22.8% in June. The price index has since climbed to 27.3% in October, pressured by the depreciation in the local currency and a jump in fuel costs after the removal of subsidies on gasoline.

The new CBN leadership has instead signaled an intention to tighten borrowing costs and control liquidity by raising yields on short-term papers.

“While rising OMO yields are the most important signal yet of the CBN’s tightening intent, formalizing this with an MPC statement would also help reinforce the message,” said Razia Khan, chief economist for Africa and the Middle East at Standard Chartered Bank, referring to open market operations conducted by the authority.

Cardoso may give some indication of the central bank’s policy direction on Nov. 24 when he speaks at a dinner organized by the Chartered Institute of Bankers of Nigeria, Lagos-based Thisday newspapers reported on Monday, citing a statement from the industry group.

Bloomberg

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says democracy has not been working as a system of government in Africa because it was “forced” on the continent.

Obasanjo stated this on Monday in Abeokuta in his address at a high-level consultation on “Rethinking Western Liberal Democracy for Africa.”

The former president said the Western style of democracy has failed in Africa because it does not take into consideration the views of the majority of the people.

He described Western Liberal Democracy as a “government of a few people over all the people or population”.

”These few people are representatives of only some of the people and not full representatives of all the people.

“Invariably, majority of the people were wittingly or unwittingly kept out. This is why we should have ‘Afro Democracy’ in place of Western Liberal Democracy.”

Obasanjo said African countries have no business operating a system of government in which they have no hands in its definition and design.

“The weakness and failure of liberal democracy as it is practised stem from its history, content, context and its practice.

“Once you move from all the people to representatives of the people, you start to encounter troubles and problems.

“For those who define it as the rule of majority, should the minority be ignored, neglected and excluded?

“In short, we have a system of government in which we have no hands to define and design and we continue with it, even when we know that it is not working for us.

“Those who brought it to us are now questioning the rightness of their invention, its deliverability and its relevance today without reform,” he said.

Obasanjo explained that the essence of any system of government should be the welfare and well-being of the people.

“Here, we must interrogate performance of democracy in the West – where it originated from – and with us the inheritors of what we are left with by our colonial powers.

“We are here to stop being foolish and stupid. Can we look inward and outward to see what in our country, culture, tradition, practice and living over the years that we can learn from?

“(Something) that we can adopt and adapt with practices everywhere for a changed system of government that will service our purpose better and deliver.

“We have to think out of the box and after, act with our new thinking.

“You are invited here to examine clinically the practice of liberal democracy, identify its shortcomings for our society and bring forth ideas and recommendations that can serve our purpose better,” he said.

In his remarks, a former governor of Ekiti State, Kayode Fayemi, said liberal democracy in Africa is confronted with many challenges.

Fayemi said the improvement of the welfare of the people remained important, as democracy faces challenges of delivery in Africa.

“Non-delivery of development outcomes for the people must be adequately addressed so that democracy can deliver,” he said.

NAN

Lagos State Government under the leadership of Babajide Sanwo-Olu approved N24.5m for the renovation of the official residence of the Commissioner of Police in the state.

The approval for the project executed by Omay Engineering Services Ltd was dated February 6, which was a few days before the February 25 general election.

The main opposition parties in the state accused security agencies of colluding with non-state actors to intimidate their supporters and suppress votes in some areas of the state.

This was seen in the Public Procurement awards by the state government in 2nd and 3rd quarters of 2023.

Aside the money spent on renovation, the state Ministry of Justice paid N200m to four Senior lawyers to represent Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat in pre-election matters.

The state also released N20.8m for the decoration of the venue for political delegates’ congress.

However, the money was approved on June 26, more than three months after the 2023 general elections.

N6.1m was approved in July for the provision of furniture items at the Campaign office, GRA, Ikeja. Political commentators said it is wrong for taxpayers’ money to be used to fund political activities.

The government also approved N152 million for the restoration of water supply at Iduganran palace, the official residence of the Oba of Lagos.

These revelations come at a time when Nigerians are struggling to cope with harsh economic conditions.

Sanwo-Olu and Hamzat, have come under criticism over the controversial approval amid the nationwide hardship.

In addition, Sanwo-Olu approved N44.8m for the clearing of vegetables within the Epe Mixed Development Scheme.

According to records from the state’s Public Procurement Agency (PPA), the project was awarded in May to M/S Obak Nigeria Enterprises by the Lagos State New Towns Development Authority.

Another approval by Sanwo-Olu is N7.5 million to replace liquid fragrance in his office.

Further checks revealed that some questionable spending was approved by the state government. According to the document, N73.1m was approved for the production of the official portraits of President Bola Tinubu and the state governor, Sanwo-Olu. The project which was executed by the office of the Chief of Staff was awarded to Flolizvi Connect.

Tinubu, a former governor of Lagos state, was sworn-in as President on May 29. Sanwo-Olu also started his second term tenure on the same date.

N80.8m Tokunbo vehicles; 400m on Charter plane

The office of the Chief of Staff also got approval of N80.8m on June 19 for the procurement of ten units of foreign used vehicles. The same office got approval of N440.75m for the purchase of a brand new Lexus LX 600 Bulletproof Sport Utility Vehicle.

The office also got N18.5 million for the supply and distribution of 2,000 Noiler chicken across the local government areas and wards in the state.

400m was approved for flying hour expenses on an ad-hoc charter plane.

N152 for Akiolu’s water, N581m for church renovation

The government also approved N152m for the restoration of water supply at Iduganran palace, the official residence of the Oba of Lagos.

Records also showed that the state approved N581m to renovate Saint Andrews Anglican Church in Oke-Popo area of the state.

Daily Trust