Shortly after Donald tied the knot with his wife, Melania Trump, in 2005, the couple learned they were expecting a baby. Barron was born on March 20, 2006, becoming Donald's fifth child and Melania's first.

Barron spent most of his childhood at his family’s lavish penthouse in New York City while attending prestigious private schools on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. When Donald was first elected president and began his term in January 2017, Barron and Melania stayed behind in Manhattan so that he could finish the school year. That summer, he enrolled at St. Andrew’s Episcopal School in Maryland and officially moved into the White House with the rest of the family.

While Donald’s older children — Ivanka, Donald Trump Jr., Eric and Tiffany — took a more hands-on role in their father’s presidency, Barron’s privacy was heavily guarded.

Amid his father's 2024 presidential campaign, Barron continued to largely stay out of the spotlight. He declined an opportunity to serve as an at-large delegate for Florida at the Republican National Convention, citing "prior commitments" in a statement made by his mother, though he did attend his first campaign rally in support of his father in July. After Donald defeated Vice President Kamala Harris to win the presidential election, Barron also appeared on stage for his father's victory speech, during which the president-elect expressed his gratitude for his children.

After graduating from high school in May 2024, Barron enrolled at New York University in September. Though he opted to live at Trump Tower, his family's Midtown Manhattan residence, he will have a room at the White House following his father's inauguration so he can "come and visit," Melania confirmed to Fox News in January 2025.

When Donald was first elected president, he shared that Barron was hesitant about leaving his life in N.Y.C. and moving into the White House. He explained that the then 9-year-old loved New York and his school, and the move was a “whole change of life."

Donald said, “He has a very good school in New York where he has a lot of friends. But I tell him if this happens, Daddy will help people, and can help children like him, and that makes him happy. He’s a young boy who is 9 years old and he is strong and smart and he gets it. He sees it.”

According to comments Donald made while speaking at his presidential campaign headquarters in Des Moines, Iowa, in January 2024, his teenage son is already towering over him at 6 feet, 7 inches. He attributes Barron's height to him eating all of the food that his late grandmother, Melania's mother Amalija Knavs, would make for him.

The Daily Mail reported that Donald called Barron a "special boy" during his speech, adding, "'I said you're gonna be a basketball player. He said, 'well I like soccer dad, actually.' I thought ... at your height I like basketball better but you can't talk them into everything."

Barron joined his dad on the campaign trail in July 2024. While in Doral, Fla., Donald noted from the podium that it was his son's first-ever rally.

"You’re pretty popular, he might be more popular than Don and Eric," he said. "So Barron, it’s good to have you. [He's] had such a nice, easy life. Now, it’s a little bit changed.”

Barron Trump: All About Donald Trump's Youngest Son

Donald Trump’s youngest son, Barron, grew up in the White House, but he's mostly lived outside of the spotlight.

On Sept. 4, 2024, NYU security officers confirmed to PEOPLE that Barron had arrived at the Manhattan college. He was spotted outside of the library, along with Secret Service agents.

In an interview with Fox News that same month, Melania said that it had been Barron's idea to go to school in New York and live in the family's tower in Manhattan.

"It was his decision to come here, that he wants to be in New York and study in New York and live in his home, and I respect that," she said.

She went on to call her son an "incredible young man," adding, "I'm very proud of what he grew up to. His strength. His intelligence. His knowledge, his kindness. It's admirable."

In December 2024, a source told PEOPLE that Barron is "popular with the ladies" on campus.

"He’s tall and handsome. A lot of people seem to think he’s pretty attractive — yes, even liberal people like him.

EFCC to auction 850 recovered vehicles

A statement issued by the EFCC on Monday explained that the auction was in line with the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, Public Procurement Act, 2007 and the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery & Management) Act, 2022.

The auction, according to the statement is scheduled to hold in various locations across the country, including Lagos, Abuja, Port Harcourt, and Kano, and will be executed by the EFCC in collaboration with appointed auctioneers.

According to the statement, the commission has called on interested members of the public to participate in the auction, promising that the process will be transparent and fair.

The statement reads: “The General Public is hereby notified that the @officialEFCC through its appointed auctioneers will conduct e-auction of the under-listed vehicles that are subject to final Forfeiture orders in accordance with the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, Public Procurement Act, 2007 and the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery & Management) Act, 2022.”

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) has announced that it will conduct an electronic auction of 891 cars.

In a notice published on its social media handles, the anti-graft agency said the vehicles have been forfeited in line with the EFCC (Establishment) Act, 2004, Public Procurement Act, 2007 and the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery & Management) Act, 2022.

The agency listed the auctioneers for the sale of the “forfeited” cars. The electronic auction is expected to run from January 20-27.

Interested parties have been directed to the following websites: www.rihogo.com, https://biznjeg.ng, www.areogunresourcesniglid.com.ng.

EFCC arraigns Ex AMCON MD, Ahmed Kuru, four others in Lagos over alleged N76bn, $31.5m fraud

The Eyewitness Reporter

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, 20 January, 2025 arraigned a former Managing Director of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), Ahmed Kuru and four others for allegedly defrauding Arik Airline N76 billion and $31.5 million, respectively.

Other defendants are former Receiver Manager of Arik Airline Ltd, Kamilu Omokide, Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, and Super Bravo Ltd and Union Bank PLC.

The defendants were arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on a six-count charge bordering on theft, abuse of office and stealing by dishonestly taking the property of another.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to all the six-count charges when they were read to them.

Count one reads: “That you, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intention of causing and/or inducing unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, made false statements to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), regarding Arik Air Limited’s performing loans, following which you transferred a bogus figure of N71,000,000,000.00 (Seventy-One Billion Naira) to AMCON.”

Count two reads: “That you, Ahmed Lawal Kuru, Kamilu Alaba Omokide as Receiver Manager of Arik Air Limited, and Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air Limited in Receivership, sometime in 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently converted to the use of NG Eagle Limited the total sum of N4,900,000,000.00 (Four Billion Nine Hundred Million Naira only), property of Arik Air Limited”.

Count five reads: “That you, Kamilu Alaba Omokide, Ahmed Lawal Kuru and Capt. Roy Ilegbodu, on the 12th day of February, 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, being public officers, directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office and with intention of obtaining undue advantage for yourself and cronies an arbitrary act, to wit: intentionally authorizing the tear down and destruction of 5N-JEA with Serial No. 15058 valued at $31.5million (Thirty One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars), an arbitrary act, which act is prejudicial to the economic stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Arik Air Limited”.

The counsel to the first and third defendants, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, informed the court of a motion for bail application dated November 28, 2024 and November 29, 2024 for the two defendants.

Osipitan prayed the court that the defendants be granted bail on liberal terms.

According to him, the first defendant had no criminal records and that the EFCC granted him administration bail which he didn’t jump.

“We pray the court grants bail to the two defendants on the same liberal terms given to them by EFCC,” he said.

EFCC Counsel, Wahab Shittu SAN, filed counter-affidavits dated December 2, 2024 against the first defendant and also another counter affidavits dated December 22, 2024 against the third defendant.

Shittu prayed the court to dismiss their bail applications.

According to him, the two defendants are facing serious offences of economic sabotage.

However, he agreed with the second and third defence counsel that they are presumed innocent pending the determination of the court.

Shittu , however, added that the temptation of the defendants leaving the country was very high.

He thereafter prayed that accelerated hearing be granted and the defendants’ international passports be seized by the court.

“But if my lord decides to be magnanimous to grant them bail, we shall be praying for stringent conditions because we are particular about their attendance in court.

“We urge that they should submit their international passports with the court in order to ensure that they come for trial,” he said.

The counsel to the second defendant, Olasupo Shasore, SAN in his motion for bail dated December 6, 2024 and filed on the same day, urged the court to also grant bail to his client on self recognition.

The prosecuting counsel in his counter affidavits dated January 17, 2025, opposed the bail application of the second defendant.

He said the application for bail was incompetent and should be struck out.

Shittu cited relevance laws to buttress his argument.

“My lord, the record of this court is to the effect that the second defendant, at one point, absconded in which your lordship had to issue a bench warrant.

“The learned silk for the second defendant is not the defendant on trial and it is very unhealthy for a counsel to stand as a surety for a defendant.

“I urge my lord, in exercising his discretion, to take all this into consideration because our concern is the appearance of the second defendant in court so that he does not abscond.”

After listening to the arguments from all the parties, Justice Dada granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N20 million Naira each with two sureties in like sum.

The sureties must be gainfully employed and deposed to means of identification.

She also directed that the defendants must submit their international passports with the registrar of the court.

Justice Dada adjourned the matter till March 17, 18, and 19, 2025 for commencement of trial.

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on Monday, 20 January, 2025 arraigned a former Managing Director of Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria AMCON, Ahmed Kuru and four others for allegedly defrauding Arik Airline N76 billion and $31.5 million, respectively.

Other defendants are former Receiver Manager of Arik Airline Ltd, Kamilu Omokide, Chief Executive Officer of the airline, Captain Roy Ilegbodu, and Super Bravo Ltd and Union Bank plc.

The defendants were arraigned before Justice Mojisola Dada of the Special Offences Court sitting in Ikeja, Lagos on a six-count charge bordering on theft, abuse of office and stealing by dishonestly taking the property of another.

The defendants, however, pleaded not guilty to all the six-count charges when they were read to them.

Count one reads:

“That you, Union Bank Nigeria Plc, sometime in 2011 or thereabouts, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, with the intention of causing and/or inducing unwarranted sale of Arik Air loans and bank guarantees with Union Bank, made false statements to the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON), regarding Arik Air Limited's performing loans, following which you transferred a bogus figure of N71, 000,000,000.00 (Seventy-One Billion Naira) to AMCON.”

Count two reads:

“That you, Ahmed Lawal Kuru, Kamilu Alaba Omokide as Receiver Manager of Arik Air Limited, and Captain Roy Ilegbodu, Chief Executive Officer of Arik Air Limited in Receivership, sometime in 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court, fraudulently converted to the use of NG Eagle Limited the total sum of N4,900,000,000.00 (Four Billion Nine Hundred Million Naira only), property of Arik Air Limited".

Count five reads:

“That you, Kamilu Alaba Omokide, Ahmed Lawal Kuru and Capt. Roy Ilegbodu, on the 12th day of February, 2022 or thereabout, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, being public officers, directed to be done in abuse of the authority of your office and with intention of obtaining undue advantage for yourself and cronies an arbitrary act, to wit: intentionally authorizing the tear down and destruction of 5N-JEA with Serial No. 15058 valued at $31.5million (Thirty One Million, Five Hundred Thousand Dollars), an arbitrary act, which act is prejudicial to the economic stability of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and Arik Air Limited".

The counsel to the first and third defendants, Prof Taiwo Osipitan, SAN, informed the court of a motion for bail application dated November 28, 2024 and November 29, 2024 for the two defendants.

Osipitan prayed the court that the defendants be granted bail on liberal terms. According to him, the first defendant had no criminal records and that the EFCC granted him administration bail which he didn’t jump. "We pray the court grants bail to the two defendants on the same liberal terms given to them by EFCC," he said.

EFCC Counsel, Wahab Shittu SAN, filed counter-affidavits dated December 2, 2024 against the first defendant and also another counter affidavits dated December 22, 2024 against the third defendant. Shittu prayed the court to dismiss their bail applications.

According to him, the two defendants are facing serious offences of economic sabotage. However, he agreed with the second and third defence counsel that they are presumed innocent pending the determination of the court. Shittu , however, added that the temptation of the defendants leaving the country was very high. He thereafter prayed that accelerated hearing be granted and the defendants' international passports be seized by the court.

"But if my lord decides to be magnanimous to grant them bail, we shall be praying for stringent conditions because we are particular about their attendance in court. "We urge that they should submit their international passports with the court in order to ensure that they come for trial," he said.

The counsel to the second defendant, Olasupo Shasore, SAN in his motion for bail dated December 6, 2024 and filed on the same day, urged the court to also grant bail to his client on self recognition.

The prosecuting counsel in his counter affidavits dated January 17, 2025, opposed the bail application of the second defendant.

He said the application for bail was incompetent and should be struck out. Shittu cited relevance laws to buttress his argument. "My lord, the record of this court is to the effect that the second defendant, at one point, absconded in which your lordship had to issue a bench warrant. “The learned silk for the second defendant is not the defendant on trial and it is very unhealthy for a counsel to stand as a surety for a defendant.

"I urge my lord, in exercising his discretion, to take all this into consideration because our concern is the appearance of the second defendant in court so that he does not abscond."

After listening to the arguments from all the parties, Justice Dada granted bail to the defendants in the sum of N20 million naira each with two sureties in like sum. The sureties must be gainfully employed and deposed to means of identification.

She also directed that the defendants must submit their international passports with the registrar of the court.

Justice Dada adjourned the matter till March 17, 18, and 19, 2025 for commencement of trial.

Alleged 76bn, $31.5m Fraud: EFCC Arraigns Ex AMCON MD, Ahmed Kuru, Four Others in Lagos

Marco Antonio Rubio (/ˈruːbioʊ/; born May 28, 1971) is an American politician, diplomat, and attorney serving since 2025 as the 72nd United States secretary of state. A member of the Republican Party, he served from 2011 to 2025 as a United States senator from Florida and from 2006 to 2008 as the speaker of the Florida House of Representatives.

Rubio is a Cuban American from Miami, Florida. After serving as a city commissioner for West Miami in the 1990s, he was elected to represent the 111th district in the Florida House of Representatives in 2000. Subsequently, he was elected speaker of the Florida House; he served for two years beginning in November 2006. Upon leaving the Florida legislature in 2008 due to term limits, Rubio taught at Florida International University.

In a three-way race, Rubio was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2010. In April 2015, he launched a presidential bid instead of seeking reelection. He suspended his campaign for the presidency on March 15, 2016, after losing to Donald Trump in the Florida Republican primary. He then ran for reelection to the Senate and won a second term. Despite his criticism of Trump during the 2016 Republican presidential primaries, Rubio endorsed him before the 2016 general election and was largely supportive of his presidency. Due to his influence on U.S. policy on Latin America during the first Trump administration, he was described as a "virtual secretary of state for Latin America". He is also considered one of Congress's most hawkish members with regard to China and the Chinese Communist Party. The Chinese government sanctioned him twice in 2020 and he is banned from entering China. Rubio became Florida's senior senator in January 2019, following the defeat of former Senator Bill Nelson, and was reelected to a third term in 2022, defeating Democratic nominee Val Demings in a landslide victory. Rubio endorsed Trump for president in 2024 days before the Iowa caucuses.

In November 2024, President-elect Trump announced his intention to nominate Rubio as United States Secretary of State in his second administration. Rubio was confirmed unanimously by the U.S. Senate and took office on January 21, 2025. He is the first Latino to serve in the position, making him the highest-ranking Hispanic American official in U.S. history. Rubio is also the first Floridian to serve as Secretary of State.

Marco Rubio

Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa (born 11 November 1972) is a Nigerian lawyer and politician who served as speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly from June 2015 to January 2025.[1]

He is a member of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Mudashiru Obasa

Political career

In 1999, he contested the seat of councilor at Agege local government under the Alliance for Democracy party and won. He served between 1999 and 2002.[5]

He was elected to the Lagos State House of Assembly representing Agege Constituency I in 2007. He was reelected in 2011, 2015 2019, 2023.[6][7]

Amidst the #EndSARS saga in his home state, he was recorded on live TV saying "the LSHA will not acknowledge the death of miscreants at the hands of the Police Force" when calling for the one-minute silence for the victims of the #LekkiMassacre and others across Nigeria.[8]

Corruption Scandal

In 2020, Sahara Reporters reportedly released allegation reports on misappropriation of public funds against Obasa. He, however, denied all the allegations.[9][10][11][12]

Sahara Reporters later reported that Obasa was taken in for questioning by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission on 8 and 9 October 2020. According to an inside source confirmed to Sahara Reporters that Obasa feigned sickness during the interrogation at the EFCC's office, which caused interrogation to be stopped. Obasa had to be taken to the EFCC office's sick bay before being released on bail.[13] Obasa then supposedly requested the return of his passport, ostensibly to seek medical treatment abroad before going on Umrah to meet with Bola Tinubu in Saudi Arabia. Obasa remains under investigation by the EFCC for allegations of misappropriation and fraud.[14]

On 13 January 2025, Obasa was impeached by the majority members of the Lagos State House of Assembly over allegations of gross misconduct and abuse of office. His deputy, Mojisola Meranda was immediately elected and sworn in as his successor.

Early life

Mudashiru Ajayi Obasa was born in Agege, a town in Lagos State southwestern Nigeria on 11 November 1972.[2] He had his primary education at St Thomas Acquinas Pry School, Surulere, Lagos before he proceeded to Archbishop Aggey Memorial Secondary school, Mushin, Ilasamaja, Lagos where he obtained the West Africa School Certificate.[3] He received a bachelor's degree in Law from Lagos State University, Lagos in 2006

Pronunciation of the name of the letter ⟨a⟩ in European languages. /a/ and /aː/ can differ phonetically between [a], [ä], [æ] and [ɑ] depending on the language.

This article is about the Latin letter. For the similar Greek letter, see Alpha. For the similar Cyrillic letter, see A (Cyrillic). For other uses, see A (disambiguation).

For technical reasons, "A#" redirects here. For A-sharp, see A-sharp.

OtherAssociated graphsa(x), ae, eau, auWriting directionLeft-to-rightThis article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic
Latin alphabet AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

• v

• t

• e

A, or a, is the first letter and the first vowel letter of the Latin alphabet,[1][2] used in the modern English alphabet, and others worldwide. Its name in English is a (pronounced /ˈeɪ/ AY), plural aes.[nb 1][2]

It is similar in shape to the Ancient Greek letter alpha, from which it derives.[3] The uppercase version consists of the two slanting sides of a triangle, crossed in the middle by a horizontal bar. The lowercase version is often written in one of two forms: the double-storey |a| and single-storey |ɑ|. The latter is commonly used in handwriting and fonts based on it, especially fonts intended to be read by children, and is also found in italic type.

A

History

The earliest known ancestor of A is aleph—the first letter of the Phoenician alphabet[4]—where it represented a glottal stop [ʔ], as Phoenician only used consonantal letters. In turn, the ancestor of aleph may have been a pictogram of an ox head in proto-Sinaitic script[5] influenced by Egyptian hieroglyphs, styled as a triangular head with two horns extended.

When the ancient Greeks adopted the alphabet, they had no use for a letter representing a glottal stop—so they adapted sign to represent the vowel /a/, calling the letter by the similar name alpha. In the earliest Greek inscriptions dating to the 8th century BC following the Greek Dark Ages, the letter rests upon its side. However, in the later Greek alphabet it generally resembles the modern capital form—though many local varieties can be distinguished by the shortening of one leg, or by the angle at which the cross line is set.

The Etruscans brought the Greek alphabet to the Italian Peninsula, and left the form of alpha unchanged. When the Romans adopted the Etruscan alphabet to write Latin, the resulting form used in the Latin script would come to be used to write many other languages, including English.

Computing

The Latin letters ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ have Unicode encodings U+0041 A LATIN CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0061 a LATIN SMALL LETTER A. These are the same code points as those used in ASCII and ISO 8859. There are also precomposed character encodings for ⟨A⟩ and ⟨a⟩ with diacritics, for most of those listed above; the remainder are produced using combining diacritics.

Variant forms of the letter have unique code points for specialist use: the alphanumeric symbols set in mathematics and science, Latin alpha in linguistics, and halfwidth and fullwidth forms for legacy CJK font compatibility. The Cyrillic and Greek homoglyphs of the Latin ⟨A⟩ have separate encodings U+0410 А CYRILLIC CAPITAL LETTER A and U+0391 Α GREEK CAPITAL LETTER ALPHA.

Other languages

In most languages that use the Latin alphabet, ⟨a⟩ denotes an open unrounded vowel, such as /a/, /ä/, or /ɑ/. An exception is Saanich, in which ⟨a⟩—and the glyph ⟨Á⟩—stands for a close-mid front unrounded vowel /e/.

Other systems

• In the International Phonetic Alphabet, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel, ⟨ä⟩ is used for the open central unrounded vowel, and ⟨ɑ⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel.

• In X-SAMPA, ⟨a⟩ is used for the open front unrounded vowel and ⟨A⟩ is used for the open back unrounded vowel.

This article is about the letter of the alphabet. For other uses, see F (disambiguation). Not to be confused with the long s, ſ.

For technical reasons, terms beginning with "F#" redirect here. For other uses, see F-sharp, Fuccbois, and Fu@K I Love U.

FF fUsageWriting systemLatin scriptTypeAlphabeticLanguage of originLatin languageSound values

• [f]

• [ɸ~h]

• [v]

• [ʍ~xʷ]

• /ɛf/

In UnicodeU+0046 U+0066Alphabetical position6
Numerical value: 6, 15HistoryDevelopment

Transliterations

• U

• V

• W

• Y

OtherAssociated graphsf(x)Associated numbers6, 15Writing directionLeft-to-rightThis article contains phonetic transcriptions in the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA). For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. For the distinction between [ ], / / and ⟨ ⟩, see IPA § Brackets and transcription delimiters.

ISO basic
Latin alphabet AaBbCcDdEeFfGgHhIiJjKkLlMmNnOoPpQqRrSsTtUuVvWwXxYyZz

• v

• t

• e

F, or f, is the sixth letter of the Latin alphabet and many modern alphabets influenced by it, including the modern English alphabet and the alphabets of all other modern western European languages. Its name in English is ef[a] (pronounced /ˈɛf/), and the plural is efs.[1]

In the English writing system ⟨f⟩ is used to represent the sound /f/, the voiceless labiodental fricative. It is often doubled at the end of words. Exceptionally, it represents the voiced labiodental fricative /v/ in the common word "of" and its derivatives.

F is the eleventh least frequently used letter in the English language (after G, Y, P, B, V, K, J, X, Q, and Z), with a frequency of about 2.23% in words.

F

The origin of 'F' is the Semitic letter waw that represented a sound like /v/ or /w/. Graphically it probably originally depicted either a hook or a club. It may have been based on a comparable Egyptian hieroglyph such as that which represented the word mace (transliterated as ḥ(dj)):

The Phoenician form of the letter was adopted into Greek as a vowel, upsilon (which resembled its descendant 'Y' but was also the ancestor of the Roman letters 'U', 'V', and 'W'); and, with another form, as a consonant, digamma, which indicated the pronunciation /w/, as in Phoenician. Latin 'F,' despite being pronounced differently, is ultimately descended from digamma and closely resembles it in form.

After sound changes eliminated /w/ from spoken Greek, digamma was used only as a numeral. However, the Greek alphabet also gave rise to other alphabets, and some of these retained letters descended from digamma. In the Etruscan alphabet, 'F' probably represented /w/, as in Greek, and the Etruscans formed the digraph 'FH' to represent /f/. (At the time these letters were borrowed, there was no Greek letter that represented /f/: the Greek letter phi 'Φ' then represented an aspirated voiceless bilabial plosive /ph/, although in Modern Greek it has come to represent /f/.) When the Romans adopted the alphabet, they used 'V' (from Greek upsilon) not only for the vowel /u/, but also for the corresponding semivowel /w/, leaving 'F' available for /f/. And so out of the various vav variants in the Mediterranean world, the letter F entered the Roman alphabet attached to a sound which the Greeks did not have. The Roman alphabet forms the basis of the alphabet used today for English and many other languages.

The lowercase 'f' is not related to the visually similar long s, 'ſ' (or medial s). The use of the long s largely died out by the beginning of the 19th century, mostly to prevent confusion with 'f' when using a short mid-bar.

FCSC Recruitment 2025 exercise has officially commenced, offering thousands of Nigerians an opportunity to secure federal government jobs through the FCSC recruitment portal. If you have been searching for reliable information on how to apply for the FCSC recruitment form 2025, this is your ultimate guide.

The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) provides opportunities for Nigerians to work in various ministries, departments, and agencies. The FCSC portal at www.recruitment.fedcivilservice.gov.ng is the only official platform where eligible candidates can access the FCSC recruitment form 2025 and submit their applications.

Whether you are a fresh graduate or an experienced professional looking to advance your career, the FCSC recruitment portal is the first step in achieving your goal. The process is straightforward but competitive, so understanding the requirements and application guidelines will significantly improve your chances of success.

Many Nigerians are eager to apply, but knowing the correct steps will put you ahead. Keep reading to discover how to navigate the FCSC portal, complete the FCSC recruitment form 2025, and stay updated on all necessary details regarding the FCSC recruitment 2025.

FCSC Recruitment 2025/2026 Application Form Portal | www.fedcivilservice

About FCSC Recruitment 2025

The FCSC recruitment 2025/2026 exercise seeks qualified and capable individuals who can contribute to Nigeria’s development. The FCSC application form portal at www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng is the only official site for applying. Avoid scammers and ensure you follow the official recruitment guidelines.

FCSC Recruitment Requirements

Before applying for the Federal Civil Service recruitment 2025/2026, make sure you meet these basic requirements:

• Applicants must be Nigerian citizens.

• A valid National Identification Number (NIN) is required.

• Minimum educational qualification: Secondary School Certificate (SSCE).

• Higher qualifications like OND, HND, or B.Sc. are an added advantage.

• Applicants must be of good character and medically fit.

• Age limit: Between 18 and 35 years.

Make sure your documents are ready before visiting the FCSC application form portal at www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng.

How to Apply for FCSC Recruitment 2025

Follow these steps to complete your application for the Federal Civil Service Commission recruitment 2025/2026:

1. Visit the official portal: www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng.

2. Create an account using your email address.

3. Fill out the FCSC recruitment application form.

4. Upload your required documents.

5. Review your application and submit.

The application deadline for the FCSC recruitment 2025/2026 will be announced on www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng. It is important to keep checking the portal for updates.

The Federal Civil Service Commission recruitment 2025 offers job security, career growth, and the opportunity to serve your country. Working in the civil service provides numerous benefits, including pensions and allowances.

Applying for the FCSC recruitment 2025/2026 is your chance to make a difference. Ensure you complete your application through the FCSC application form portal at www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng. Follow all instructions carefully, and don’t miss this opportunity.

The Federal Civil Service Commission recruitment 2025/2026 is competitive, so prepare well.

As you fill out the FCSC recruitment form 2025, ensure that all your details are accurate and match your submitted documents. Mistakes in your application can lead to disqualification, so take the time to double-check everything before submission.

Many applicants are unaware that the FCSC recruitment 2025/2026 is open to both entry-level and experienced professionals. Whether you’re starting your career or looking to advance, the FCSC portal offers various opportunities across multiple federal agencies.

Stay updated with announcements on www.fedcivilservice.gov.ng to ensure you don’t miss out on key information during the recruitment process.

By applying for the FCSC recruitment 2025, you’re not just aiming for a job but securing a stable and rewarding career in the Federal Civil Service. Make use of the resources provided on the FCSC portal and take your time to craft a strong application.

Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination

The Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination is a computer-based standardized examination for prospective undergraduates in Nigeria.[1] It is designed to assess problem solving, critical thinking, knowledge of scientific concepts and principles significance of each subject taken. Prior to 2014 the exam was a paper-and-pencil test; since May 17, 2014, however, all administrations of the exam have been computer-based.[2]

Policies

Registration is usually once in a year, and candidates are allowed to register in four subjects only. The only mandatory subject is English Studies (termed 'Use of English') and any other three subjects relevant to the proposed course of study as set out in the relevant chapters of the Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board Unified Tertiary Matriculation Examination brochure.

The board prohibits the use of calculators, timers, or other electronic devices during the exam.[3] Cellular phones are also strictly prohibited from exam rooms and individuals found to possess them are penalised, usually made to forfeit the exam. The only item that may be brought into the testing room is the candidate's Reprinted E-registration slip. Exam results are made available just few days after the exam has been conducted via board's website, SMS and email. The board also sends scores to universities and institutions being applied to.

Preparation

The Joint Admissions and Matriculation Board does not prepare candidates for its examination by establishing secondary schools or tutorial centers, and no such institution is affiliated with the body.

However, the board provides a syllabus brochure, which is either made available online or given to students when they register. Candidates are expected to cover all the subject areas in the syllabus.

The board also has an online practice test on its website which enables students to practice. There are also some test software and applications which are made by several test preparatory companies, none of which are affiliated with the board.

Students also purchase books that contain questions asked in the exam during previous years. The book is made by different publishing companies.

JAMB subject combinations

JAMB subject combinations refer to the specific subjects that a student must select during the UTME registration process. Each course of study has its unique set of required subjects, and students must carefully choose the right combination to be eligible for admission to their preferred courses.

Common JAMB subject combinations are:

• Medicine and surgery: physics, chemistry, biology.

• Engineering: mathematics, physics, chemistry.

• Law: use of English, literature in English, government or history, and any other arts or social science subject.

• Economics: mathematics, economics, and any other social science subject.

• Psychology: use of English, biology, mathematics, and any other subject.

• Civil engineering: mathematics, physics, chemistry.

• Computer Science: mathematics, physics, and one other science subject.

• Pharmacy: use of English, biology, physics, chemistry.

• Political Science: Use of English, Mathematics, Government, Economics

Mark Alexander Milley (born 20 June 1958) is a retired United States Army general who served as the 20th chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff from October 1, 2019, to September 30, 2023. He had previously served as the 39th chief of staff of the Army from August 14, 2015, to August 9, 2019[3] and held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and special forces.

A Reserve Officers' Training Corps graduate from Princeton University, Milley earned his commission as an armor officer in 1980. He later received a master's degree from Columbia University. He was appointed chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff by U.S. president Donald Trump, making Milley the tenth U.S. Army officer to be chairman. As chairman, Milley was the highest-ranking officer in the United States Armed Forces and the principal military advisor to the president of the United States, the secretary of defense, the National Security Council and the Homeland Security Council.[4] His official portrait was unveiled at the Pentagon on January 10, 2025, but was removed within hours of Donald Trump's inauguration, an unprecedented step.

Mark Milley

Early life and education

Milley was born on 20 June 1958, in Winchester, Massachusetts.[1] He is of Irish descent, and was raised Roman Catholic.[6][7] His paternal grandfather, Peter (1897–1976), was from Newfoundland[8] and served with the Royal Newfoundland Regiment during the Gallipoli campaign in World War I.[9] His father, Alexander (1924–2015), enlisted in the U.S. Navy in March 1943 as a naval corpsman. He was assigned to the 4th Marine Division and landed at Kwajalein, Saipan, Tinian and Iwo Jima. After the war, he worked as a restaurateur and food-broker. He was a member of the Knights of Columbus, whose membership is limited to practicing Catholic men.[10][11] Milley's mother, Mary Elizabeth (née Murphy), was a nurse who served with the Navy's WAVES in World War II and is described by Milley as a "break-the-glass-ceiling" type of woman.

Milley attended a Catholic grammar school where he played hockey. Good grades and athletic ability led to him being recruited to Belmont Hill School.[13] and afterwards to Princeton University where he played varsity ice hockey.[6][14]

There he joined the Reserve Officers' Training Corps,[15] and in 1980 graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in politics after completing a 185-page-long senior thesis titled "The Irish Republican Army: A Critical Analysis of Revolutionary Guerrilla Organization in Theory and Practice".[16] Milley holds a Master of International Affairs degree from the School of International & Public Affairs at Columbia University and another Master of Arts degree in national security and strategic studies from the Naval War College.[17] He is also an attendee of the MIT Center for International Studies Seminar XXI National Security Studies Program.

General Richard A. Cody administers the oath of office upon Milley's promotion to brigadier general in February 2008

Milley earned his commission as an armor officer through Princeton's Army Reserve Officers' Training Corps program in 1980.[19] His career included assignments with the 82nd Airborne Division, 5th Special Forces Group,[20] 7th Infantry Division, 2nd Infantry Division, Joint Readiness Training Center, 25th Infantry Division, Operations Staff of the Joint Staff, and a posting as Military Assistant to the Secretary of Defense.[21]

Milley held multiple command and staff positions in eight divisions and units, including the 5th Special Forces Group and 10th Mountain Division, throughout his military career. He served as a commander of ODA 543, a 12-man combat diver-qualified Special Forces team. He commanded 1st Battalion, 506th Infantry, 2nd Infantry Division, in South Korea from 1996 to 1998.[21][22] He served as commander of 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 10th Mountain Division (Light) from December 2003 to July 2005; deputy commanding general for operations of the 101st Airborne Division from July 2007 to April 2008, and as commanding general of the 10th Mountain Division from November 2011 to December 2012.[23][24][25] Milley commanded III Corps, based at Fort Hood, Texas, from December 2012 to August 2014,[26][27][28] and concurrently the International Security Assistance Force Joint Command from May 2013 to February 2014.[29][30] He served as the commanding general of the United States Army Forces Command at Fort Liberty, North Carolina from August 2014 to August 2015.

Secretary of the Army John M. McHugh administers the oath of office to incoming Army chief of staff Milley during the change of responsibility ceremony on August 14, 2015

Chief of Staff of the Army

Milley was appointed chief of staff of the Army on August 14, 2015.[33] In his initial message to the U.S. Army, General Milley laid out his priorities on readiness, the future Army, and taking care of troops. "We must ensure the Army remains ready as the world's premier combat force. Readiness for ground combat is—and will remain—the U.S. Army's #1 priority. We will do what it takes to build an agile, adaptive Army of the future

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE; /aɪs/) is a federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. ICE's stated mission is to protect the United States from cross-border crime and illegal immigration that threaten national security and public safety.[3][4]

The ICE mission is executed through the enforcement of more than 400 federal statutes and focuses on customs violations, immigration enforcement, preventing terrorism and combating the illegal movement of people and goods.[5][6] ICE has two primary and distinct law enforcement components, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) and Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), in addition to three supporting divisions: Management & Program Administration, Office of Principal Legal Advisor (OPLA) and Office of Professional Responsibility (OPR).[7]

Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO), which primarily deals with the deportation and removal of illegal immigrants, is among the most public and contentious function of ICE. ERO maintains the custodial facilities used to detain people that are illegally present in the United States. In interior offices, ERO officers primarily conduct targeted enforcement operations to apprehend immigrants engaged in serious criminal activity. For example, in fiscal year 2020, 90% of those immigrants apprehended by ERO had criminal convictions or pending charges at the time of their administrative arrest. This FY 2020 arrest statistic includes 1,800 homicide related offenses, 1,600 kidnappings, 3,800 robberies, 37,000 assaults, and 10,000 sex crimes.[8] At border offices, ERO officers receive and detain undocumented immigrants apprehended by the United States Border Patrol. Undocumented immigrants apprehended at the border have significantly lower levels of criminal history than those arrested by ERO in the interior of the United States.[9]

ICE maintains domestic offices throughout the United States and detachments at major U.S. diplomatic missions overseas. ICE personnel (special agents and officers) do not patrol American borders; rather, that role is performed by the Border Patrol.[10][11][12] ERO and HSI operate as two independent law enforcement agencies and have completely separate mission statements. HSI is focused on the disruption of transnational crime, where as ERO is responsible for the apprehension, detention and removal of undocumented immigrants.[13]

The acting director is Caleb Vitello.[2] The agency has not had a Senate-confirmed director since Sarah Saldaña stepped down on January 20, 2017

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement

ICE headquarters building in Washington, D.C.

History

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was formed under the Homeland Security Act of 2002, following the September 11 attacks. With the establishment of the Department of Homeland Security, the functions and jurisdictions of several border and revenue enforcement agencies were combined and consolidated into U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Consequently, ICE is the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security and a contributor to the FBI's Joint Terrorism Task Force.

The agencies that were either moved entirely or merged in part into ICE included the criminal investigative and intelligence resources of the United States Customs Service, the criminal investigative, detention and deportation resources of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Federal Protective Service. The Federal Protective Service was later transferred from ICE to the National Protection and Programs Directorate effective October 28, 2009. In 2003, Asa Hutchinson moved the Federal Air Marshals Service from the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) to ICE,[15] but Michael Chertoff moved them back to the TSA in 2005.[16]

The origins of HSI Special Agents date back to the formations of the United States Customs Service in 1789.[17] The taxing of imports led to the creation of the Treasury Department and its sub-components (i.e. Division of Customs Chief and Revenue Marine (Revenue Cutter Service). Later, the Industrial Revolution led to some of the first immigration related laws targeting forced labor, human trafficking and child exploitation

Organization

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement is responsible for identifying and eliminating border, economic, transportation, and infrastructure security vulnerabilities. There is an estimate of about 20,000 ICE employees in approximately 400 offices within the United States and 53 countries.[19]

The organization is composed of two law enforcement directorates (HSI and ERO) and several support divisions each headed by a director who reports to an executive associate director.[20] The divisions of ICE provide investigation, interdiction and security services to the public and other law enforcement partners in the federal and local sectors.

The director of ICE is appointed at the sub-cabinet level by the president of the United States, confirmed by the U.S. Senate, and reports directly to the secretary of homeland security

HSI Special Response Team (SRT) drug raid during Operation Pipeline Express in Arizona

Training

Newly hired ICE law enforcement personnel receive their training at the Federal Law Enforcement Training Centers (FLETC) in Glynco, Georgia. FLETC is the largest law enforcement training facility in the United States. To meet division specific academic and practical instruction, the ICE academies vary in length from 4 to 6 months depending on the position. Furthermore, following graduation, all ICE law enforcement personnel undergo additional post academy training, as well as career-continuous training.

HSI Special Agent trainees must complete the inter-agency Criminal Investigator Training Program (CITP) and the HSI Special Agent Training Course (HSI SAT).[44] HSI special agents also receive significantly advanced training regarding U.S. customs law, warrant service, advanced tactics, undercover operations, criminal interrogation, weapons of mass destruction, and other subjects routinely encountered by HSI special agents in the field. HSI Special Agents typically complete CITP in conjunction with other agencies (i.e. Secret Service, Diplomatic Security Service, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco & Firearms, and various Office of Inspector Generals, etc.). However, the agency specific HSI SAT course is only attended by HSI trainees and focuses on customs & immigration related investigations.[45]

ERO Officer trainees must complete the basic 13-week ERO academy.[46] ERO deportation officers undergo several weeks of intensive Spanish language training prior to graduating.

Specific course curriculum is kept confidential, but both ERO officers and HSI special-agent new hires undergo training related to basic law enforcement tactics, immigration law, firearms training, emergency response driving, and Constitutional law.

ICE officer detaining a suspect

Transnational gangs

In February 2005, ICE began Operation Community Shield, a national law enforcement initiative that targets violent transnational street gangs through the use of ICE's broad law enforcement powers, including the unique and powerful authority to remove criminal immigrants, including illegal immigrants and legal permanent residents

The Federal Civil Service Commission (FCSC) has opened its portal and is receiving applications for recruitment into various vacancies in the Federal Civil Service.

Taiwo Hassan, the head of press and public relations of the commission in a statement on Monday, disclosed that the vacancy announcement has been published on the Commission’s website: fedcivilservice.gov.ng and in selected newspapers.

The announcement, published on the Commission’s official website, calls on interested applicants to submit their applications online via the portal https://recruitment.fedcivilservice.gov.ng.

Candidates are allowed to apply for only one position and must submit their applications before the deadline of Monday, March 10, 2025.

The Commission also encouraged physically challenged individuals to apply, asking them to indicate the nature of their disability.

Applicants are required to upload relevant documents such as their curriculum vitae, degree certificates, birth certificates or declarations of age, local government identification, and NYSC discharge or exemption certificates.

The FCSC assured Nigerians of a transparent process aimed at recruiting qualified candidates to serve in the Federal Civil Service.

Applicants are encouraged to visit the Commission’s official website for more details.

Federal Civil Service Commission Begins Nationwide Recruitment

BBCH-scale

The BBCH-scale is used to identify the phenological development stages of plants.[1] BBCH-scales have been developed for a range of crop species where similar growth stages of each plant are given the same code.

Phenological development stages of plants are used in a number of scientific disciplines (crop physiology, phytopathology, entomology and plant breeding) and in the agriculture industry (risk assessment of pesticides, timing of pesticide application, fertilization, agricultural insurance). The BBCH-scale uses a decimal code system, which is divided into principal and secondary growth stages, and is based on the cereal code system (Zadoks scale) developed by Jan Zadoks.[2]

The abbreviation BBCH derives from the names of the originally participating stakeholders: "Biologische Bundesanstalt, Bundessortenamt und CHemische Industrie". Allegedly, the abbreviation is said to unofficially represent the four companies that initially sponsored its development; Bayer, BASF, Ciba-Geigy, and Hoechst.

Basic principles

• The BBCH-scale provides a framework to develop scales for individual crops.

• Similar growth stages of each plant species are given the same BBCH code.

• Each code has a description and important growth stages have additional drawings included.

• The first digit of the scale refers to the principal growth stage.

• The second digit refers to the secondary growth stage which corresponds to an ordinal number or percentage value.

• Post harvest or storage treatment is coded as 99.

• Seed treatment before planting is coded as 00

Principal growth stages

• 0: Germination, sprouting, bud development

• 1: Leaf development

• 2: Formation of side shoots, tillering

• 3: Stem elongation or rosette growth, shoot development

• 4: Development of harvestable vegetative plant parts, bolting

• 5: Inflorescence emergence, heading

• 6: Flowering

• 7: Development of fruit

• 8: Ripening or maturity of fruit and seed

• 9: Senescence, beginning of dormancy

Etymology

The name Nigeria derives from the Niger River running through the country. This name was coined on 8 January 1897, by the British journalist Flora Shaw. The neighboring Republic of Niger takes its name from the same river. The origin of the name Niger, which originally applied to only the middle reaches of the Niger River, is uncertain. The word is likely an alteration of the Tuareg name egerew n-igerewen used by inhabitants along the middle reaches of the river around Timbuktu before 19th-century European colonialism.[23][24] Before Flora Shaw suggested the name Nigeria, other proposed names included Royal Niger Company Territories, Central Sudan, Niger Empire, Niger Sudan, and Hausa Territories.

Nigeria

Nigeria,[a] officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa.[9] It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of 923,769 square kilometres (356,669 sq mi). With a population of more than 230 million, it is the most populous country in Africa, and the world's sixth-most populous country. Nigeria borders Niger in the north, Chad in the northeast, Cameroon in the east, and Benin in the west. Nigeria is a federal republic comprising 36 states and the Federal Capital Territory, where its capital, Abuja, is located. The largest city in Nigeria by population is Lagos, one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world and the largest in Africa.

Nigeria has been home to several indigenous material cultures, pre-colonial states and kingdoms since the second millennium BC. The Nok culture, c. 1500 BC, marks one of the earliest known civilizations in the region.[10] The Hausa Kingdoms inhabited the north, with the Edo Kingdom of Benin in the south and Igbo Kingdom of Nri in the southeast. In the southwest, the Yoruba Ife Empire was succeeded by the Oyo Empire. The present day territory of Nigeria was home to a vast array of city-states.[11]: 136  In the early 19th century the Fula jihads culminated in the Sokoto Caliphate. The modern state originated with British colonialization in the 19th century, taking its present territorial shape with the merging of the Southern Nigeria Protectorate and the Northern Nigeria Protectorate in 1914. The British set up administrative and legal structures and incorporated traditional monarchs as a form of indirect rule.[12] Nigeria became a formally independent federation on 1 October 1960. It experienced a civil war from 1967 to 1970, followed by a succession of military dictatorships and democratically elected civilian governments until achieving a stable government in the 1999 Nigerian presidential election.

Nigeria is a multinational state inhabited by more than 250 ethnic groups speaking 500 distinct languages, all identifying with a wide variety of cultures.[13][14][15] The three largest ethnic groups are the Hausa in the north, Yoruba in the west, and Igbo in the east, together constituting over 60% of the total population.[16] The official language is English, chosen to facilitate linguistic unity at the national level.[17] Nigeria's constitution ensures de jure freedom of religion,[18] and it is home to some of the world's largest Muslim and Christian populations.[19] Nigeria is divided roughly in half between Muslims, who live mostly in the north part of the country, and Christians, who live mostly in the south; indigenous religions, such as those native to the Igbo and Yoruba ethnicities, are in the minority.[20]

Nigeria is a regional power in Africa and a middle power in international affairs. Nigeria's economy is the fourth-largest in Africa, the 53rd-largest in the world by nominal GDP, and 27th-largest by PPP. Nigeria is often referred to as the Giant of Africa by its citizens due to its large population and formerly large economy,[21] and is considered to be an emerging market by the World Bank. Nigeria is a founding member of the African Union and a member of many international organizations, including the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Nations, NAM,[22] the Economic Community of West African States, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and OPEC. It is also a member of the informal MINT group of countries and is one of the Next Eleven economies.

Map of Nigeria's linguistic groups

Five hundred and twenty-five languages have been spoken in Nigeria; out of these 525 languages, eight are now extinct.[243] In some areas of Nigeria, ethnic groups speak more than one language. The official language of Nigeria, English, was chosen to facilitate the cultural and linguistic unity of the country, owing to the influence of British colonisation which ended in 1960. Nigerian Pidgin English, first used by British and African slavers to facilitate the Atlantic slave trade in the late 17th century,[244] has replaced the native language for many Nigerians. Many French speakers from surrounding countries have influenced the English spoken in the border regions of Nigeria and some Nigerian citizens have become fluent enough in French to work in the surrounding countries. The French spoken in Nigeria may be mixed with some native languages and English.[citation needed]

The major languages spoken in Nigeria represent three major families of languages of Africa: the majority are Niger-Congo languages, such as Igbo, Yoruba, Ibibio, Ijaw, Fulfulde, Ogoni, and Edo. Kanuri, spoken in the northeast, primarily in Borno and Yobe State, is part of the Nilo-Saharan family, and Hausa is an Afroasiatic language. Even though most ethnic groups prefer to communicate in their languages, English as the official language is widely used for education, business transactions and official purposes. English as a first language is used by only a small minority of the country's urban elite, and it is not spoken at all in some rural areas. Hausa is the most widely spoken of the three main languages spoken in Nigeria.

With the majority of Nigeria's populace in rural areas, the major languages of communication in the country remain indigenous languages. Some of the largest of these, notably Yoruba and Igbo, have derived standardised languages from several different dialects and are widely spoken by those ethnic groups. Nigerian Pidgin English, often known simply as "Pidgin" or "Broken" (Broken English), is also a popular lingua franca, though with varying regional influences on dialect and slang. The pidgin English or Nigerian English is widely spoken within the Niger Delta Region.

Topography of Nigeria

Nigeria is located in western Africa on the Gulf of Guinea and has a total area of 923,768 km2 (356,669 sq mi),[102] making it the world's 32nd-largest country. Its borders span 4,047 kilometres (2,515 mi), and it shares borders with Benin (773 km or 480 mi), Niger (1,497 km or 930 mi), Chad (87 km or 54 mi), and Cameroon (including the separatist Ambazonia) 1,690 km or 1,050 mi. Its coastline is at least 853 km (530 mi).[103] Nigeria lies between latitudes 4° and 14°N, and longitudes 2° and 15°E. The highest point in Nigeria is Chappal Waddi at 2,419 m (7,936 ft). The main rivers are the Niger and the Benue, which converge and empty into the Niger Delta. This is one of the world's largest river deltas and the location of a large area of Central African mangroves.

Nigeria's most expansive topographical region is that of the valleys of the Niger and Benue river valleys (which merge and form a Y-shape).[104] To the southwest of the Niger is a "rugged" highland. To the southeast of the Benue are hills and mountains, which form the Mambilla Plateau, the highest plateau in Nigeria. This plateau extends through the border with Cameroon, where the montane land is part of the Bamenda Highlands of Cameroon.

Climate map of Nigeria

The far south is defined by its tropical rainforest climate, where annual rainfall is 1,500 to 2,000 millimetres (60 to 80 in) per year.[105] In the southeast stands the Obudu Plateau. Coastal plains are found in both the southwest and the southeast.[104] Mangrove swamps are found along the coast.[106]

The area near the border with Cameroon close to the coast is rich rainforest and part of the Cross-Sanaga-Bioko coastal forests ecoregion, an important centre for biodiversity. It is a habitat for the drill primate, which is found in the wild only in this area and across the border in Cameroon. The areas surrounding Calabar, Cross River State, also in this forest, are believed to contain the world's largest diversity of butterflies. The area of southern Nigeria between the Niger and the Cross Rivers has lost most of its forest because of development and harvesting by increased population and has been replaced by grassland.

Everything in between the far south and the far north is savannah (insignificant tree cover, with grasses and flowers located between trees). Rainfall is more limited to between 500 and 1,500 millimetres (20 and 60 in) per year.[105] The savannah zone's three categories are Guinean forest-savanna mosaic, Sudan savannah, and Sahel savannah. Guinean forest-savanna mosaic is plains of tall grass interrupted by trees. Sudan savannah is similar but with shorter grasses and shorter trees. Sahel savannah consists of patches of grass and sand, found in the northeast

National Youth Service Corps

The National Youth Service Corps (NYSC) is a mandatory, post-tertiary scheme set up by the Nigerian government during the military regime of Head of State, Yakubu Gowon, to "reconstruct, reconcile and rebuild the country after the Nigerian Civil war".[1] There is no military conscription in Nigeria, but since 1973, graduates of universities and polytechnics have been required to take part in the National Youth Service Corps program for one year.[2] This is known as the "national service year". Ahmadu Ali served as the first Director-General of the NYSC until 1975.[3] The incumbent Director-General is Brigadier General Yusha'u Dogara Ahmed.[4]

Major General Suleiman Kazaure was appointed director general of the NYSC on 18 April 2016 and served as the 17th DG of the scheme until his redeployment to the Nigerian Army Resource Centre on 26 April 2019.

History

NYSC was created on the 22 of May 1973 during the general Yakubu Gowon regime as an avenue for the reconciliation, reconstruction, and rebuilding of the nation after the civil war. It was established based on decree No. 24, which stated that the scheme was created "with a view to the proper encouragement and development of common ties among the youths of Nigeria and the promotion of national unity"

Operation

Corps members (participants in the National Youth Service Scheme and colloquially called 'corpers') are posted to states other than their state of origin, where they are expected to mix with people from different ethnic group, social and family backgrounds, and learn the cultures and traditions of the indigenes in the location they are posted to. This action aims to foster national unity and appreciation of other ethnic groups in the country.

Orientation Camp

Nigerian youths who are eligible for service are expected to register on the NYSC portal to be called up for service. After a successful registration, eligible graduates get their green card and call-up letter, which indicates their state of service. When called up, they are usually referred to as "PCMs" (a short for 'prospective corps members').

The PCMs are then expected to proceed to their various states of posting for registration and the orientation camp exercise, which is the first phase of the service year.

The "orientation" period is approximately three weeks (21 days) and is spent in a regimented "camp" away from family and friends. The camps are situated across the 36 states of the federation.[7] During the first week of the orientation camp the PCMs are sworn in and then referred to as Corps members. There is also a "passing out ceremony" at the end of the three weeks orientation camp, after which corps members are posted to their various Place of Primary Assignment (PPA). They are expected to work as full-time staff at their PPA with the exception of one working day devoted to the execution of a community development service popularly called CDS. After eleven months at their PPA, corps member are allowed 3 weeks of vacation before their final passing out ceremony, where they would be issued certificates of completion

Allowance

NYSC Corp Members are entitled to a monthly allowance that stems from the National Minimum Wage. The Corps Members receive a monthly stipend which is equal to the National Minimum wage and an additional 10% of the Minimum wage. In 2024, following the announcement of the new minimum wage of 70,000 Naira by the President,[9] a new allowance was also approved for the Corps Members, bringing their monthly stipend to 77,000 Naira.[10] The previous allowances were 33,000 Naira and 19,800 Naira, all based on the previous minimum wages.

Eligibility for service

To be eligible to participate in the compulsory one year service, a graduate must be below or not above the age of 30 years upon graduation, or else he/she will be given a Certificate of Exemption, which is also equivalent to the NYSC Discharge Certificate. A graduate who graduated before 30 years but skipped the service year will still be eligible since his graduation certificate was dated before he clocked 30 years of age. NYSC is compulsory in the sense that the graduates of the country can't request an exemption by themselves unless they are disabled, have served in the military or paramilitary for a period of more than one year or are older than 30 when they graduated. Part-time graduates (CEP) are given exemptions since they're not allowed to serve.[11]

Requirements for registration

Prospective corps members should have a valid and functional email address and Nigerian (GSM) telephone number to register. A correct J.A.M.B and matriculation number is also required for locally trained graduates. Foreign-trained prospective corps members should ensure that their institutions are accredited. Also, if they trained in non-English speaking countries, they are expected to translate their certificates to English before uploading. It is also important to note that registrations by proxy are not allowed as every participant would be required to undergo biometrics screening.

Merit

Nigerian graduates are ineligible for employment in governmental establishments (and most private establishments) until they have completed the mandatory one-year service or obtained the relevant exemptions. Graduates exempted from the service include those over 30 years and those with a physical disability. During the service year, corps members can acquire new entrepreneurial skills and also learn the cultures of the state they serve in.

Criticisms

The program has been met with criticism from a large portion of the country and complaints from Corps members about their remuneration.[14] A few youth carrying out the NYSC program have been killed in the regions where they were sent due to religious, ethnic or political violence.[15][16]

Besides security issues, many [17][18] have questioned the continued importance of the program and have called for a dialogue in this regard.[19] Preemptive measures must be taken to avoid future incidents of violence. The integrity and nobility of the program must be upheld by addressing the aforementioned issues. Recently, there was a call for the NYSC to be scrapped. The bill was sponsored by Hon Awaji-Inombek Abiante, who listed insecurity in the country, the incessant killing of corpsmembers, and the inability of firms to retain corps members after service due to the failing economy as some of the reasons why the NYSC should be scrapped.[20] This call for the scrapping of NYSC has been met with mixed feelings. While some past leaders are against the scrapping of it because its gains outweigh its losses, some Nigerians feel the scheme has lost its use and should be scrapped to avoid endangering the lives of innocent Nigerians to insecurity and unnecessary one-year stress

EFCC to probe auction of forfeited vehicles

Oyewale explained that the commission was currently awaiting the auctioneers’ report, adding that genuine complaints from members of the public would be reviewed to ensure that ‘‘no one is short-changed in the exercise”.

He expressed the commission’s concern over reports of negative experiences from some Nigerians who participated in the auction.

“Among the complaints received by the Commission were the inability of some citizens to access the websites of the auctioneers, being shut out from the platforms after submitting bids, and outrageous bid prices, among others.

“Relevant departments of the commission monitored the exercise and can confirm that there were glitches.

“This observation was communicated to the auctioneers for remedial action.

“The commission, however, could not directly intervene while the exercise was ongoing because the process had been assigned to duly accredited and licensed auctioneers.

“This is in line with the provisions of Sections 4(a)(b) of the Proceeds of Crime (Recovery and Management) Act, 2022, and Section 55 of the Public Procurement Act, 2007,” he said.

According to him, the complaints arising from the auction are unfortunate and detract from the commission’s objectives.

He explained that the commission opted for an online auction to provide a seamless and transparent platform for millions of Nigerians interested in purchasing the forfeited assets.

He attributed the challenges to the high number of participants, which he said might have overloaded the online facilities.

“Without making excuses for the auctioneers, it is possible that the sheer number of participants in the exercise (over four million) perhaps stretched the carrying capacity of the auctioneers’ online facilities.

“This, in addition to unstable internet service in parts of the country, exacerbated the challenge.

“The commission is currently awaiting the report from the auctioneers and assures that genuine complaints by members of the public will be reviewed to ensure that no one is short-changed in the exercise,” he said.

According to him, those who completed the process successfully and emerged as winners would certainly be allocated their vehicles.

“The commission’s sole interest in the public auction is to ensure that the assets are disposed of in the most transparent manner and that the nation gets value for the assets.

“This cannot be compromised under any circumstances,” he said.

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit instituted by a legal practitioner, Olukoya Ogungbeje, seeking his removal for being incompetent.

President Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), in a joint preliminary objection, argued that the plaintiff – Ogungbeje, failed to disclose any cause of action against them.

The duo also told the court to strike out the suit alternatively, as the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (legal right) to institute the suit.

The plaintiff, in an originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1334/2024 and dated Aug. 28, 2024, but filed Sept. 4, 2024, sued the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and AGF as 1st and 2nd defendants.

Tinubu, AGF seek dismissal of suit over alleged right

President Bola Tinubu, on Monday, asked the Federal High Court in Abuja to dismiss a suit instituted by a legal practitioner, Olukoya Ogungbeje, seeking his removal for being incompetent.

President Tinubu and the Attorney General of the Federation, Lateef Fagbemi (SAN), in a joint preliminary objection, argued that the plaintiff – Ogungbeje, failed to disclose any cause of action against them.

The duo also told the court to strike out the suit alternatively, as the plaintiff lacked the locus standi (legal right) to institute the suit.

The plaintiff, in an originating summons, marked FHC/ABJ/CS/1334/2024 and dated Aug. 28, 2024, but filed Sept. 4, 2024, sued the President, Federal Republic of Nigeria and AGF as 1st and 2nd defendants.

Ogungbeje, in the suit, sought six reliefs – the plaintiff prayed to the court for an order compelling the National Assembly to initiate impeachment proceedings against President Tinubu over alleged fundamental rights violation.

He said the NASS is guaranteed by Section 143 of the Constitution to initiate and set machinery in motion for impeachment proceedings immediately.

He sought a declaration that the alleged persistent suppression of peaceful protests organised by Nigerian citizens from the 1st of August, 2024, to the 10th of August, 2024, constituted gross misconduct to ground impeachment proceedings against the 1st defendant.

Tinubu, AGF seek dismissal of suit over alleged rights breach

Upon resuming sitting in the matter, the plaintiff’s lawyer, Stanley Okonmah, said he was served with the defendant’s preliminary objection and a counter affidavit on Jan. 30.

Ogungbeje, therefore, prayed to the court for an adjournment to give him time to respond to the applications appropriately.

Sanusi Musa (SAN), President Tinubu and AGF’s counsel did not object to the plaintiff’s lawyer’s request for an adjournment.

The presiding judge, Justice James Omotosho, granted Ogungbeje’s request for an adjournment and fixed March 4 for hearing.

In their preliminary objection filed by Musa, the president and the AGF prayed for the court to issue an order striking out the suit on the grounds that the court lacked jurisdiction to entertain it.

They also prayed to the court for”An order striking out this suit for being incompetent as this suit is not initiated by due process of law having been initiated under a wrong procedure.”

Giving 18-ground of argument, the plaintiff’s question one for determination is in respect of all the concerns of the fundamental right of non-disclose rightserians.

They said that by the provision of Section 46 of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), only the person whose right is breached has the locus to file an action before the court for redress.

“Pursuant to the provision of Section 46 (3), the Chief Justice of Nigeria has {brought into being the Fundamental Rights (Enforcement Procedure) Rules, 2009, which makes ample provision of the procedure to follow in filing an action with respect to a breach of the Fundamental Rights of any Nigerian.”

They said the plaintiff’s questions two and three for determination are in respect of the alleged breach of the 1999 Constitution by the 1st defendant (president) vis-a-vis Section 143 of the said constitution.

According to them, in the instant case, the plaintiff has not disclosed any breach of his fundamental right by the defendants, among other arguments.

They, therefore, urged the court to discountenance the suit.

Also, in a counter affidavit deposed to by a Principal State Counsel, Federal Ministry of Justice, Gbenga Oladimeji, he averred that contrary to Ogungbeje’s depositions, the present government under President Tinubu has been a promoter of democratic tenets.

He said the president had been allowing people to air their grievances and conduct peaceful protests.

“I know for a fact that the protest conducted between 1st August 2024 and 10th August 2024 was peaceful, as there was a Court Order limiting the protesters to demonstrate within a confined location,” he said.

Oladimeji said that during the protest, the security agents under the control of the president were present to protect the protesters from any acts of hijacking by hoodlums and to achieve a peaceful protest.

“I know as a fact that the 1st defendant (the president) has always ensured that law and order are adhered to strictly by the security agencies and institutions of the arm of government,” he said

“Contrary to the deposition in paragraph 26 of the Affidavit in support of the Originating Summons, I know as a fact that the 1st defendant has not violated any provision of his oath of office and allegiance.

“There has been no breach on his part that would warrant his impeachment from office as the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria,” he said.

Career

Usman Yusuf graduated from Ahmadu Bello University in 1982, where he obtained an MBBS and has practiced medicine across three continents – Africa, Europe and North America – ever since. He became a consultant paediatrician and Fellow of the West African College of Physicians in 1989 and won a scholarship for a postgraduate diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at the University of Liverpool (UK) in 1988. He moved to Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center in Seattle, Washington, US, as transplant fellow and assistant professor in 2000 and in 2003, he moved to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, as assistant professor in the Division of Stem Cell Transplantation and rose to the rank of full professor in 2008.

Usman Yusuf

Corruption & irregularities at the NHIS

Ever since he became the NHIS boss, he has been faced with numerous suspensions, of which he rejected some, on the account that he can only be suspended by the Federal Government of Nigeria. He was earlier suspended by the Nigerian Health Minister in 2017 and by the Board of NHIS in October 2018.[7][8][9][10][11] Usman in a video done in 2017 lamented that if NHIS was a business they should have declared bankruptcy and that the NHIS has covered only one per cent of Nigerians for 12 years.[12] He is presently under investigations by the Nigerian House of Assembly after a motion was brought under matters of urgent national importance by Diri Douye on 23 October 2018.[13]

He is currently on an administrative leave till 2019 as directed by the Federal Government of Nigeria. The directive was conveyed in a letter signed by the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha while in his absence, Mr. Ben Omogo, a director of administration in the Office of the Head of the Civil Service of the Federation has been deployed to oversee the affairs of the scheme.[14] Prof. Yusuf was removed as NHIS executive secretary and replaced with Prof. Mohammed Sambo.[15]

It was later revealed by the Office of the Auditor-General (Nigeria) that Professor Usman Yusuf engaged in payment of N6.8bn (circa $18.5m) fraudulently to himself and staff as unauthorized and unrecognised costs and allowances (including "Pre-retirement overseas training allowance").[16] There are no evidence (via receipts and bookings) that some of the costs were incurred.

Usman Yusuf is a Nigerian professor of haematology-oncology and bone marrow transplantation and an alumnus of Ahmadu Bello University and has practiced medicine across three continents – Africa, Europe and North America – after his MBBS in 1982.[1] He was appointed the executive secretary / chief executive officer of the National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) in August 2016 by President Muhammadu Buhari.

El Salvador,[a] officially the Republic of El Salvador,[b] is a country in Central America. It is bordered on the northeast by Honduras, on the northwest by Guatemala, and on the south by the Pacific Ocean. El Salvador's capital and largest city is San Salvador. The country's population in 2024 was estimated to be 6 million according to a government census.[5]

Among the Mesoamerican nations that historically controlled the region are the Mayans,[13] and then the Cuzcatlecs.[14] Archaeological monuments also suggest an early Olmec presence around the first millennium BC.[15] In the beginning of the 16th century, the Spanish Empire conquered the Central American territory, incorporating it into the Viceroyalty of New Spain ruled from Mexico City. However the Viceroyalty of New Spain had little to no influence in the daily affairs of the isthmus, which was colonized in 1524. In 1609, the area was declared the Captaincy General of Guatemala by the Spanish, which included the territory that would become El Salvador until its independence from Spain in 1821. It was forcibly incorporated into the First Mexican Empire, then seceded, joining the Federal Republic of Central America in 1823. When the federation dissolved in 1841, El Salvador became a sovereign state, then formed a short-lived union with Honduras and Nicaragua called the Greater Republic of Central America, which lasted from 1896 to 1898.[16][17][18]

From the late 19th to the mid-20th century, El Salvador endured chronic political and economic instability characterized by coups, revolts, and a succession of authoritarian rulers. Persistent socioeconomic inequality and civil unrest culminated in the Salvadoran Civil War from 1979 to 1992, fought between the military-led government backed by the United States, and a coalition of left-wing guerrilla groups. The conflict ended with the Chapultepec Peace Accords. This negotiated settlement established a multiparty constitutional republic, which remains in place to this day. During the civil war and afterwards, large numbers of Salvadorans emigrated to the United States. From 1980 through 2008, nearly one million Salvadorans immigrated to the United States, such that by 2008, they were the sixth largest immigrant group in the US.[19]

El Salvador's economy has historically been dominated by agriculture, beginning with the Spanish taking control of the indigenous cacao crop in the 16th century, with production centred in Izalco, along with balsam from the ranges of La Libertad and Ahuachapán. This was followed by a boom in use of the indigo plant in the 19th century, mainly for its use as a dye.[20][21] Thereafter the focus shifted to coffee, which by the early 20th century accounted for 90% of export earnings.[22][23] El Salvador has since reduced its dependence on coffee and embarked on diversifying its economy by opening up trade and financial links and expanding the manufacturing sector.[24] The colón, the currency of El Salvador since 1892, was replaced by the United States dollar in 2001.[25] As of 2019 economic improvements had led to El Salvador experiencing the lowest level of income inequality among nearby countries. Among 77 countries included in a 2021 study, El Salvador had one of the least complex economies for doing business.

El Salvador

Motto:Dios, Unión, Libertad : "God, Union, Liberty"

Etymology

After the Spanish conquest, the land was divided into the province of San Salvador, the Spanish version of "Holy Savior", a biblical title for Jesus. From 1579 that also including the province of San Miguel (Saint Michael). San Salvador would become, throughout the colonial era, an alcaldía mayor (great mayor's office), intendancy, and finally a province with a provincial council, and the province of Izalco (which would become be called the mayor's office of Sonsonate). In 1824 the two jurisdictions were united in the State of Salvador, a part of the Federal Republic of Central America.[27][28]

After the dissolution of the Federal Republic of Central America, the country was referred to as the "Republic of Salvador" (República del Salvador), but in 1915, the Legislative Assembly passed a law which officially stated that the country's name should be rendered as the definite form "El Salvador" ("The Savior")--again a reference to Jesus--rather than "Salvador". With another law passed in 1958, the legislature reaffirmed the country's name as "El Salvador

Prehistoric

During the Pleistocene El Salvador was inhabited by now extinct megafauna species, including the elephant-sized giant ground sloth Eremotherium, the rhinoceros-like Mixotoxodon, the gomphothere (elephant-relative) Cuvieronius, the glyptodontGlyptotherium, the llama Hemiauchenia, and the horse Equus conversidens.[30][31] El Salvador has likely been occupied by humans since the Paleoindian period, based on fluted stone points found in western El Salvador

Pre-Columbian

Archaeological knowledge of Pre-Columbian civilisation in El Salvador is poor, due to its high population density limiting excavation, as well as volcanic eruptions blanketing potential archaeological sites. This lack of knowledge particularly effects the Preclassic Period and earlier.[33]

A notable archaeological site in western El Salvador is Chalchuapa, which was first settled around 1200 BC, and became a major urban settlement on the periphery of the Maya civilization during the Preclassic Period and was heavily involved in the trading of valuable items like ceramics, obsidian, cacao and hematite. The settlement was heavily damaged around 430 AD by a volcanic eruption, after which it never regained its former prominence.[34] Another major Pre-Columbian settlement is Cara Sucia in the far west of the country, which began as a small settlement around 800 BC at the beginning of the Middle Preclassic, during the Late Classic (600–900 AD), Cara Sucia emerged as a major urban settlement, before being abruptly destroyed during the 10th century.

The Pipil people, Nahua speaking groups migrated from Anahuac beginning around 800 AD and occupied the central and western regions of El Salvador.[36] The Nahua Pipil were the last indigenous people to arrive in El Salvador.[37] They called their territory Kuskatan, a Nawat word[38] meaning "The Place of Precious Jewels," back-formed into Classical Nahuatl Cōzcatlān, and as Cuzcatlán.[39][40] It was the largest domain in Salvadoran territory up until European contact. The term Cuzcatleco is commonly used to identify someone of Salvadoran heritage, although the majority of the eastern population has an indigenous heritage of Lenca origin, as do their place names such as Intipuca, Chirilagua, and Lolotique.

Most of the archaeological sites in western El Salvador such as Lago de Guija and Joya De Ceren indicate a pre-Columbian Mayan culture. Cihuatan shows signs of material trade with northern Nahua culture, eastern Mayan and Lenca culture, and southern Nicaraguan and Costa Rican indigenous culture.[41] Tazumal's smaller B1-2 structure shows a talud-tablero style of architecture that is associated with Nahua culture and corresponds with their migration history from Anahuac. In eastern El Salvador, the Lenca site of Quelepa is highlighted as a major pre-Columbian cultural centre and demonstrates links to the Mayan site of Copan in western Honduras as well as the previously mentioned sites in Chalchuapa, and Cara Sucia in western El Salvador. An investigation of the site of La Laguna in Usulutan has also produced Copador items that link it to the Lenca-Maya trade route.

Nigerian passports are issued to Nigerian citizens to travel outside of Nigeria. Nigeria now offers only electronic passports for new passport applications. These electronic passports, known also as the e-passport, are classified as either "Standard" or "Official", depending on intended use.

Nigerian passports can be applied for either at the physical location of the Nigeria Immigration Services, or by making submission through its website. Nigerians living in other countries may obtain passports through the nearest Nigerian embassy or consulate. Renewing an already existing passport must be done in person

Nigerian passport

Front cover of the current Nigerian passport (with chip ), issued since January 2019

Passport

The official e-passport is primarily reserved for certain classes of government officials and Nigerian diplomats.

Nigerian citizens can travel to member states of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)

Visa requirements

Main article: Visa requirements for Nigerian citizens

Countries and territories with visa-free or visa on arrival entry for holders of regular Nigerian passports

In 2016, Nigerian citizens had visa-free or visa on arrival access to 66 countries and territories, ranking the Nigerian passport 91st in the world according to the Visa Restrictions Index

Email marketing is sending emails to people who want to hear from you to tell them about your products or services. It can be used to help educate leads who aren’t quite ready to buy, to make specific offers to those who are, and to increase referrals and repeat business from existing customers. Given that 95% of internet users aged between 25 and 44 years in the United States report they use email daily, it’s worth your time to understand how to do email marketing in 2025.

What Are the Advantages of Email Marketing?

• For eCommerce businesses, email marketing lets you sell products, recover abandoned carts, and increase lifetime value.

• Small business owners can use email marketing to maintain brand awareness and build relationships over time.

• Email marketing is great for SaaS companies to turn subscribers into free trial users, and free trials into paying customers.

• Bloggers and publishers use email marketing to drive traffic to their websites and affiliate links, which means more revenue.

• Enterprise clients can scale their email marketing plan to reach thousands or even millions of customers at once.

What Are the Disadvantages of Email Marketing?

Email marketing, despite its effectiveness, has several disadvantages:

• Spam: Emails marked as spam can lower open rates over time and hurt deliverability. Learn how to prevent emails from going to spam.

• Inbox overwhelm: Marketing emails can get lost in an inbox filled with marketing emails. Segment your list by their engagement, and maintain a consistent by not excessive mailing schedule to combat this.

• Design challenges: Emails that display inconsistently across devices or email clients can hurt the reader’s experience. Using your ESP’s responsive templates will usually prevent these challenges. Services like Litmus Email Tester can show how your emails perform on various devices and clients, too.

• Regulations and compliance: Privacy regulations like GDPR, CAN-SPAM, and CCPA require ongoing attention to avoid legal conflicts. Double opt-ins, and unsubscribe links in every email will help you comply with these regulations.

• List maintenance: Inactive and unengaged subscribers must be regularly removed from email lists.

• Cost: Email marketing service providers typically charge by subscriber, which means your cost increase as your list grows. Maintaining your list, and engaging with subscribers will help ensure every subscriber is worth your investment

What Is Email Marketing? The Secret to 3600% ROI Revealed!

How to Do Email Marketing Successfully: A 5-Step Guide

There are five things I want you to do when you’re just getting started with email marketing:

1. Define Your Goals

2. Choose an Email Service Provider

3. Create an Optin Form to Build Your Email List

4. Select the Type of Email Marketing Campaign To Send

5. Track Email Marketing Metrics

Every email marketing service offers basic optin forms, usually a popup and an inline form, with limited customization options. You can extend the functionality of those optin forms with OptinMonster. This is especially helpful when you use Lead Magnets like an ebook, discount code, or cheat sheet to encourage your visitors to subscribe to your email list.

Offering lead magnets in exchange for an email is a great way to overcome that “Inbox Overwhelm” I mentioned earlier. That’s because they help you segment your email list by the visitor’s interests. Once your visitor tells you what they’re interested in by subscribing to receive a specific lead magnet, you can send them emails and offers about those interests.

Olukemi Olufunto Adegoke Badenoch (/ˌkɛmi ˈbeɪdənɒk/ KEM-ee BAY-də-nok;[1][2][e] née Adegoke; born 2 January 1980)[4] is a British politician who has served as Leader of the Opposition and Leader of the Conservative Party since November 2024. The first Black person to hold those offices, Badenoch previously served in the Cabinet under Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak from 2022 to 2024.[5] She has been Member of Parliament (MP) for North West Essex, previously Saffron Walden, since 2017.[6]

In 2012, Badenoch unsuccessfully contested a seat in the London Assembly, but became a member of the London Assembly after Victoria Borwick was elected as an MP in 2015. A supporter of Brexit in the 2016 referendum, Badenoch was elected to the House of Commons at the 2017 general election.

After Boris Johnson became prime minister in July 2019, Badenoch was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Children and Families. In the February 2020 reshuffle she was appointed Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury and Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Equalities. In September 2021 she was promoted to Minister of State for Equalities and appointed Minister of State for Local Government, Faith and Communities.

In July 2022, Badenoch resigned from government in protest at Johnson's leadership; she stood unsuccessfully to replace him in the July–September 2022 party leadership election.[7][8] After Liz Truss was appointed prime minister in September 2022, Badenoch was appointed Secretary of State for International Trade and President of the Board of Trade and was appointed to the Privy Council;[9] she was reappointed Trade Secretary by Truss's successor, Rishi Sunak, the following month, also becoming Minister for Women and Equalities.

In the February 2023 Cabinet reshuffle, Badenoch assumed the position of Secretary of State for Business and Trade following the merging of the Department for International Trade with elements of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy. Badenoch retained the responsibilities of Women and Equalities Minister.[10] After the Conservatives' defeat in the 2024 general election, Badenoch was appointed Shadow Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government in Sunak's Shadow Cabinet and later launched her bid to become leader of the Conservative Party in the 2024 leadership election. She defeated Robert Jenrick in the members' ballot, becoming party leader and Leader of the Opposition.

Badenoch has been described as being on the right of the Conservative Party, with both social conservative and "anti-woke" positions.

Early life and education

Olukemi (later shortened to Kemi) Olufunto Adegoke was born on 2 January 1980 in Wimbledon, London.[11] Her mother had travelled from Nigeria to the UK to give birth in St Teresa's private hospital before the British Nationality Act 1981 abolished automatic birthright citizenship for those born in the United Kingdom, and then returned to Nigeria shortly after Badenoch was born.[12][13][14]In later interviews, Badenoch denied claims she was an "anchor baby" and asserted that her family did not know she was in fact eligible for a British passport until she was a teenager.[15][16] She is one of three children born to Nigerian Yoruba parents.

Her father, Femi Adegoke, was a GP who later founded a publishing company in Nigeria and became an activist for the rights for the Yoruba people. Her mother Feyi was a professor of physiology in America and at the University of Lagos. She has a brother and a sister.[17][18] According to a profile in The Times, Badenoch is the first cousin once removed of former Nigerian Vice-President Yemi Osinbajo.[19]

Badenoch spent her childhood living in Lagos, Nigeria, and in the United States, where her mother lectured.[20][21] Badenoch has spoken about having a "very tough upbringing" in Nigeria. Her family lived in the middle class neighbourhood of Surulere and she was a student at the private International School of Lagos. Badenoch has described her background as "middle-class" but said in 2018 "Being middle class in Nigeria still meant having no running water or electricity, sometimes taking your own chair to school" and claimed that her family went through "periods of poverty" due to inflation.[22] She returned to the UK at the age of 16 to live with a friend of her mother's owing to the deteriorating political and economic situation in Nigeria, which had affected her family.[23] During her parliamentary maiden speech Badenoch stated that she was "to all intents and purposes a first-generation immigrant".[24]

Badenoch studied A Levels in biology, chemistry and maths,[25] from Phoenix College, a further education college in Morden, south London. She achieved a B in Biology, a B in Chemistry and a D in Maths,[26] claiming that "no one at the school had pushed [her] to fulfil [her] potential" despite being a "straight A student" while in Nigeria and that being let down by the British education system pushed her to become a Conservative.[27] She consequently missed out on her place at Warwick University. Concurrently, she worked at a branch of McDonald's, among other jobs. During this time, she said she "became working class".[11][28] Badenoch studied Computer Systems Engineering at the University of Sussex, completing a Master of Engineering (MEng) degree in 2003.[29][30] She studied Law at Birkbeck College, University of London, graduating with a LLB in 2009.

Kemi Badenoch

Early career

She initially worked within the IT sector, first as a software engineer at Logica (later CGI Group) from 2003 to 2006. While working there she read Law part-time at Birkbeck, University of London, graduating as Bachelor of Laws (LLB) in 2009.[21] Badenoch then worked as a systems analyst at the Royal Bank of Scotland Group,[31] before pursuing a career in consultancy and financial services, working as an associate director at private bank and wealth manager Coutts from 2006 to 2013 and later a digital director for The Spectator from 2015 to 2016.[30][32][33]

Political career

Badenoch joined the Conservative Party in 2005 at the age of 25.[34][35] At the 2010 general election, she contested the Dulwich and West Norwood constituency and came third, behind the Labour Party incumbent MP Tessa Jowell and the Liberal Democrat candidate Jonathan Mitchell.[36]

London Assembly

In 2012, Badenoch stood for the Conservatives in the London Assembly election, where she was placed fifth on the London-wide list.[37] The election saw the Conservatives win three seats from the London-wide list, meaning she was not elected.[38]

Three years later, in the 2015 general election, Victoria Borwick was elected to the House of Commons[39] and thus resigned her seat on the London Assembly. The fourth-placed candidate on the list, Suella Fernandes (Braverman), was also elected as an MP,[40] so Badenoch became the new Assembly Member.[41] She went on to retain her seat in the Assembly at the 2016 election, being succeeded in 2017 by fellow Conservative Susan Hall.[42]

Badenoch supported Brexit in the 2016 UK EU membership referendum.[20]

In 2018, Badenoch admitted that, a decade earlier, as a prank, she had hacked into the website of Harriet Harman who was then Deputy Leader of the Labour Party; Harman accepted Badenoch's apology, but the matter was reported to Action Fraud, the UK's cyber crime reporting centre

Political views

Badenoch is described as being on the right-wing of the Conservative Party.[142] She has also personally described herself as being on the "liberal wing" of the Conservative Party,[143] while being "not really left-leaning on anything".[144] She has identified English philosopher Roger Scruton and American economist Thomas Sowell as her influences, citing Sowell's Basic Economics as an influence.[145]

During her parliamentary maiden speech in 2017, Badenoch named Winston Churchill, Airey Neave and Margaret Thatcher as political heroes.[146] She has also been characterised as a social conservative and "anti-woke" politician.[143][147] Badenoch has described herself as a "net zero sceptic" and has generally voted against measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Parliament

Race relations

During a House of Commons debate in April 2021, Badenoch criticised the Labour Party's response to a report compiled by the Commission on Race and Ethnic Disparities that had declared Britain was not institutionally racist. Labour had described the report as "cherry-picking of data", while the party's former frontbench MP Dawn Butler claimed the report was "gaslighting on a national scale", describing those who put it together as "racial gatekeepers".[150] Badenoch accused Labour of "wilful misrepresentations" over the report and responded to Butler's comments by stating "It is wrong to accuse those who argue for a different approach as being racism deniers or race traitors. It's even more irresponsible, dangerously so, to call ethnic minority people racial slurs like Uncle Toms, coconuts, house slaves or house negroes for daring to think differently."[151][152]

In a Black History Month debate in the House of Commons in October 2020, she reiterated the government's opposition to primary and secondary schools teaching white privilege and similar "elements of critical race theory" as uncontested facts.[153] ConservativeHome readers voted Badenoch's speech on critical race theory 2020 "speech of the year", in which she said that any school that teaches "elements of political race theory as fact, or which promotes partisan political views such as defunding the police without offering a balanced treatment of opposing views, is breaking the law."[154]

During her leadership campaign launch, Badenoch expressed criticism of identity politics in a 2022 article for The Times, arguing that, "Exemplified by coercive control, the imposition of views, the shutting down of debate, the end of due process, identity politics is not about tolerance or individual rights but the very opposite of our crucial and enduring British values."

The House of Representatives Committee on Constitution Review on Thursday proposed the creation of 31 new states in the country.

If the proposal scales through, the Nigerian state will be made up of 67 sub-national governments.

The proposal for new states was contained in a letter read during Thursday’s plenary session by the Deputy Speaker, Benjamin Kalu, who presided over the session in the absence of the Speaker, Mr Tajudeen Abbas.

The committee chaired by Kalu proposed six new states for North Central, four in the North East, five in the North West, five in South East, four in South-South and seven in South West.

The letter read in part, “The committee proposes the creation of 31 new states. As amended, this section outlines specific requirements that must be fulfilled to initiate the process of state creation, which include the following:

1. New state and boundaries

“An act of the National Assembly for the purpose of creating a new state shall only be passed if it requires support by at least the third majority of members.

2. The House of Representatives, the House of Assembly in respect of the area, and the Local Government Council in respect of the area are received by the National Assembly.

“Local government advocates for the creation of additional local government areas are only reminded that Section 8 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, as amended, applies to this process.

“Specifically, in accordance with Section 8 (3) of the Constitution, the outcome of the votes of the State Houses of Assembly in the referendum must be forwarded to the National Assembly for fulfilment of state demands.

“Proposals shall be resubmitted in strict adherence to the stipulations. Submit three hard copies of the full proposal of the memoranda to the Secretariat of the Committee at Room H331, House of Representatives, White House, National Assembly Complex, and Abuja.

“Sub-copies must also be sent electronically to the Committee’s email address at info.hccr.gov.nj. For further information or contact, please contact the Committee Clerk at 08069-232381.

“The committee remains committed to supporting the implementing efforts that align with the Constitutional provisions and would only consider proposals that comply with the stipulated guidelines. This is coming from the Clerk of the Committee on Constitutional Review.”

The proposed new states are Okun, Okura and Confluence states from Kogi; Benue Ala and Apa states from Benue; FCT state; Amana state from Adamawa; Katagum from Bauchi states and Savannah states from Borno and Muri State from Taraba.

Reps committee proposes Lagoon, Ijebu, New Kaduna, 28 other new states

Others are New Kaduna and Gujarat from Kaduna State; Tiga and Ari from Kano, and Kainji from Kebbi State; Etiti and Orashi as the 6th state in the South East Adada from Enugu, Orlu and Aba from the South East.

Also included are Ogoja from Cross River State, Warri from Delta, Ori and Obolo from Rivers; Torumbe from Ondo; Ibadan from Oyo, Lagoon from Lagos, Ogun, Ijebu from Ogun state as well as Oke Ogun/Ijesha from Oyo/Ogun/Osun States.

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has been forced to deny claims he has been replaced by a Sudanese doppelgänger, finally addressing a wacky conspiracy theory that has been making the rounds on social media for several months.

Buhari spent five months in the U.K. last year receiving treatment for an unknown illness, according to The Guardian. There are numerous theories as to why he was in the U.K., but proponents of one of the more extreme explanations suggest he actually died during this period and was replaced by a look-alike called Jubril.

Though no concrete evidence has ever been provided, conspiracy theorists have published multiple videos on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter detailing their claims. The videos have been viewed thousands of times.

Buhari was in Poland this weekend to attend a conference. Speaking during a town hall session with Nigerians, the president was asked about the Jubril theory. He replied: "It's the real me, I assure you. I will soon celebrate my 76th birthday, and I will still go strong."

Some of his colleagues could be seen laughing alongside him as he went on: "A lot of people hoped that I died during my ill health. Some even reached out to the vice president to consider them to be his deputy because they assumed I was dead. That embarrassed him a lot, and, of course, he visited me when I was in London convalescing."

Buhari said those spreading the rumor were "ignorant and irreligious" and suggested, "If I am getting harassed by anyone, it is my grandchildren, who are getting too many."

Buhari's comments were sent out by his office in an emailed statement titled "It's Real Me, President Buhari Responds to Cloning Allegation." The video of the president dismissing the theory was also posted to Buhari's Twitter account and pinned on his profile page.

Nigerian President Says He Is Not Dead and Not a Clone: 'It's the Real Me'

According to The Guardian's Nigerian affiliate, the doppelgänger conspiracy theory owes much of its traction to separatists hoping to establish an independent state called Biafra in the southeast of Nigeria.

Nnamdi Kanu, the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra organization—one of the most prominent groups in the Biafra struggle—is a major proponent of the Jubril allegation. He claims the imposter is nearly identical to Buhari, with the exception of a cleft ear, a broad nose bridge and suspiciously young-looking hands.

According to Agence France-Presse, the earliest mention of the imposter conspiracy was in a video posted by Twitter user @sam_ezeh on September 3, 2017. The video has since been shared more than 5,000 times on Facebook and Twitter.

In the video, Kanu tells a crowd, "The man you are looking at in the television is not Buhari…. His name is Jubril, he's from Sudan. After extensive surgery, they brought him back."

According to the Daily Post website, Kanu responded to Buhari's speech by declaring, "I said Jubril is an impostor. [The conspirators] brought him in to act and behave like the 'dead' Buhari. I never said he was cloned.… The introduction of cloning into the narrative was a ploy to confuse the people."

The rumor has reportedly been fueled by the mysterious death of a Nigerian diplomat in May. Habibu Almu was found stabbed to death in the Sudanese capital of Khartoum, and a Sudanese woman of Nigerian origin was arrested on suspicion of involvement.

Local police said the killing did not appear to be politically motivated, but conspiracy theorists took it as evidence of a Sudanese-Nigerian effort to cover up the Jubril plot.

An appeal filed by Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, challenging the leadership of the Rivers State House of Assembly has been dismissed by the Supreme Court in Abuja.

Fubara was also ordered to pay N2m to the Assembly and the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, Martin Amaewhule, by a five-member panel led by Justice Uwani Abba-Aji on Monday.

The case was dismissed after Fubara’s lawyer, Yusuf Ali, withdrew the suit.

Recall that on October 10, 2024, the Court of Appeal, Abuja Division, admonished Fubara for failing to follow the rule of law in his actions.

The court ruled that his decision to present the 2024 Rivers State Appropriation Bill to only four out of 31 members of the Assembly was a gross violation of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.

The court stated that presenting the budget to just four members contradicted the Nigerian Constitution.

It added, “The appellant hurriedly submitted the Rivers State Appropriation Bill to four members, who then considered, deliberated on, and passed it into law within a few hours.”

The court further held that Fubara’s actions violated Section 96 of the 1999 Constitution, which requires at least one-third of the Assembly members to form a quorum.

The court noted that “four out of 31 members cannot, by any stretch of the imagination, constitute the required quorum for legislative business.”

Meanwhile, Justice James Omotosho of the Federal High Court also ruled against Fubara’s presentation of the 2024 budget before the four-member Assembly led by Edison Ehie.

The budget presentation was a result of the leadership crisis within the Rivers State House of Assembly. Fubara had argued that the Amaewhule-led faction lost its legitimacy after defecting from the People’s Democratic Party to the All Progressives Congress.

However, the lower courts ruled that he failed to provide evidence of their defection and, therefore, could not legally present the budget to a four-member House.

Following the Court of Appeal judgment, Fubara approached the Supreme Court to set aside the lower court’s ruling and allow him to present the budget to the Ehie-led faction.

However, when the case was called on Monday, Fubara’s counsel, Yusuf Ali, informed the Supreme Court that the governor had decided to withdraw the appeal.

S’Court dismisses Fubara’s appeal against Amaewhule-led Rivers assembly

Ali stated that a notice dated February 6 had already been filed, explaining that the appeal had been overtaken by events.

All 17 respondents in the case, represented by various lawyers, did not oppose the withdrawal. However, J.B. Daudu (SAN), representing the 3rd to 12th respondents (National Assembly and its leadership), and Wole Olanipekun (SAN), representing the 1st and 2nd respondents (Rivers State House of Assembly and Amaewhule), requested a cost of N2 million.

Daudu further urged the court to dismiss the appeal rather than strike it out, as issues had already been joined.

The five-member Supreme Court panel dismissed the appeal after confirming that the withdrawal was not opposed.

In a brief ruling, Justice Abba-Aji declared the appeal dismissed and awarded a cost of N2 million in favour of the 1st to 12th respondents.

A home, or domicile, is a space used as a permanent or semi-permanent residence for one or more human occupants, and sometimes various companion animals. It is a fully- or semi-sheltered space and can have both interior and exterior aspects to it.[vague] Homes provide sheltered spaces, for instance rooms, where domestic activity can be performed such as sleeping, preparing food, eating and hygiene as well as providing spaces for work and leisure such as remote working, studying and playing.

Physical forms of homes can be static such as a house or an apartment, mobile such as a houseboat, trailer or yurt or digital such as virtual space.[1] The aspect of 'home' can be considered across scales; from the micro scale showcasing the most intimate spaces of the individual dwelling and direct surrounding area to the macro scale of the geographic area such as town, village, city, country or planet.

The concept of 'home' has been researched and theorized across disciplines – topics ranging from the idea of home, the interior, the psyche, liminal space, contested space to gender and politics.[2] The home as a concept expands beyond residence as contemporary lifestyles and technological advances redefine the way the global population lives and works.[citation needed] The concept and experience encompasses the likes of exile, yearning, belonging, homesickness and homelessness.

Home

History

The earliest homes that humans inhabited were likely naturally occurring features such as caves. The earliest human fossils found in caves come from a series of caves near Krugersdorp and Mokopane in South Africa. The cave sites of Sterkfontein, Swartkrans, Kromdraai B, Drimolen, Malapa, Cooper's D, Gladysvale, Gondolin and Makapansgat have yielded a range of early human species dating back to between three and one million years ago, including Australopithecus africanus, Australopithecus sediba and Paranthropus robustus. However, it is not generally thought that these early humans were living in the caves, but that they were brought into the caves by carnivores that had killed them.[citation needed]

The first early hominid ever found in Africa, the Taung Child in 1924, was also thought for many years to come from a cave, where it had been deposited after being preyed upon by an eagle. However, this is now debated.[4] Caves do form in the dolomite of the Ghaap Plateau, including the Early, Middle and Later Stone Age site of Wonderwerk Cave; however, the caves that form along the escarpment's edge, like that hypothesized for the Taung Child, are formed within a secondary limestone deposit called tufa. There is numerous evidence for other early human species inhabiting caves from at least one million years ago in different parts of the world, including Homo erectus in China at Zhoukoudian, Homo rhodesiensis in South Africa at the Cave of Hearths (Makapansgat), Homo neanderthalensis and Homo heidelbergensis in Europe at Archaeological Site of Atapuerca, Homo floresiensis in Indonesia, and the Denisovans in southern Siberia.

In southern Africa, early modern humans regularly used sea caves as shelter starting about 180,000 years ago when they learned to exploit the sea for the first time.[5] The oldest known site is PP13B at Pinnacle Point. This may have allowed rapid expansion of humans out of Africa and colonization of areas of the world such as Australia by 60–50,000 years ago. Throughout southern Africa, Australia, and Europe, early modern humans used caves and rock shelters as sites for rock art, such as those at Giants Castle. Caves such as the yaodong in China were used for shelter; other caves were used for burials (such as rock-cut tombs), or as religious sites (such as Buddhist caves). Among the known sacred caves are China's Cave of a Thousand Buddhas[6] and the sacred caves of Crete. As technology progressed, humans and other hominids began constructing their own dwellings. Buildings such as huts and longhouses have been used for living since the late Neolithic.

According to Kirsten Gram-Hanssen, "It can be argued that historically and cross-culturally there is not always [a] strong relation between the concept of home and the physical building, and that this mode of thinking is rooted in the Enlightenment of the seventeenth century".[10] Before, one's home was more public than private; traits such as privacy, intimacy and familiarity would proceed to achieve greater prominence, aligning the concept with the bourgeoisie.[11][12] The connection between home and house was reinforced by a case law declaration from Edward Coke: "The house of everyman is to him as his castle and fortress, as well as his defense against injury and violence, as for his repose". Colloquially, this was adapted into the phrase "The Englishman's home is his castle" which popularised the notion of home as house.[13]

A result of the longstanding association between home and women, 18th century English women, of upper-class status, were scorned for pursuing activities outside of the home, thus seen to be of undesirable character.[14] The concept of home took on unprecedent prominence by the 18th century, reified by cultural practice.[15]

The concept of a smart home arose in the 19th century in turn with electricity having been introduced to homes in a limited capacity.[10] The distinction between home and work formulated in the 20th century, with home acting as sanctuary.[16] Modern definitions portray home as a site of supreme comfort and familial intimacy, operating as a buffer to the greater world

Career

In 2011, Ayeni became chairman of Skye Bank,[1] which was formed in 2005 when five commercial banks (including Bond Bank, founded by Ayeni in 2000) merged to create a new entity with a balance sheet in excess of ₦1 trillion.

In 2007, Ayeni became majority stakeholder and vice chairman of ASO Savings & Loans. He is also a founding partner.

In 2013, as vice chairman of Integrated Energy Distribution and Marketing Ltd (IEDM), he led a successful bid to take control of the Ibadan and Yola Electricity Distribution Companies. This marked the first privatization of a national energy asset in Nigerian history.[2] He is also chairman of JKK (Nigeria) Plc and Temple Resources Ltd, and sits on the boards of PPP Fluid Mechanics Limited and Hightech Procurement Limited.

Ayeni is an advocate of banking and trade reforms that will make doing business easier in Africa.[3] He is widely acknowledged as a philanthropist, supporting various charitable organisations throughout Africa.

Education

Ayeni had his secondary education at Baptist Secondary School, Iyah-Gbede in Ijumu, Kogi State between 1981 and 1985 followed by Kwara State Polytechnic, Ilorin, Kwara State. He obtained the General Certificate of Education (G.C.E.), Advanced Level papers in the year 1987.

In the same 1987, he was admitted to read law at Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Kaduna State. He graduated with honours in 1990 and was called to Bar in 1991.[citation needed]

Thereafter, he underwent and completed the compulsory National Youth Service Corps service with Professor S. A. Adesanya & Co., a firm of Legal Practitioners.

After the National Service in 1991, he worked with Rodco (Nig) Limited as the Legal Adviser from 1991 to 1994 after which he voluntarily left the company to start his own firm of Legal practice in 1994 - Legal Resources Alliance.

John Olatunde Ayeni

John Olatunde Ayeni (born April 4, 1967) is a Nigerian lawyer, investor and business magnate. He holds board positions on companies throughout Nigeria.

Philanthropy

Ayeni is founder of The Oluwatoyin Ayeni Educational Foundation, established in 1999. Every year, the foundation awards tertiary institution scholarships to 25 bright students from his hometown of Iyah-Gbede in Ijumu, Kogi State. He is also a trustee of Support our Troops Foundation, a not for profit military charity that supports and promote the interests of the men and women of the Nigerian Armed Forces who serve home and abroad.

Recognition

In recognition of his contributions to the growth and development of the Nigerian economy, Nigeria's Achievers University awarded Ayeni the honorary title of Doctor of Science (D.Sc.) in business administration.

In September 2014, he was made Fellow by the Institute of Directors, Nigeria and the Commander of the Order of the Niger.[5] He is happily married to Abiola and the marriage is blessed with three children.

Languages

Ayeni is a native speaker of Okun, Yoruba, and is also fluent in English and Hausa.

Professional memberships

• Nigerian Bar Association - A one time Vice Chairman of Ikeja branch and also a former Member of Council of Legal Aid Council.

• International Bar Association.

• Institute of Directors – In September 2014 he was conferred with the status of Fellow of the Institute of Directors Nigeria

The West African Examinations Council (WAEC) is an examination board established by law to determine the examinations required in the public interest in the English-speaking West African countries, to conduct the examinations and to award certificates comparable to those of equivalent examining authorities internationally.[1] Established in 1952, the council conducts exit examination in 5 English-speaking countries of West Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Gambia). The council has an endowment fund, to contribute to education in West Africa, through lectures and aid to those who cannot afford education.[2]

Dr. Adeyegbe, former head of WAEC Nigeria (2004) said "the council has developed a team of well-trained and highly motivated staff, and has administered Examinations that are valid and relevant to the educational aspirations of member countries".[3] In a year, over three million candidates registered for the exams coordinated by WAEC.[4] The council also helps other examination bodies (both local and international) in coordinating Examinations.

History

The University of Cambridge Local Examinations Syndicate, University of London School Examinations Matriculation Council and West African Departments of Education met in 1948, concerning education in West Africa.[5] The meeting was called to discuss the future policy of education in West Africa. At the meeting, they appointed Dr. George Barker Jeffery (Director of the University Of London Institute Of Education) to visit some West African countries, so as to see the general education level and requirements in West Africa. At the end of Jeffery's three-month visit (December 1949 – March 1950) to Ghana, the Gambia, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria, he tendered a report (since known as Jeffery report) strongly supporting the need for a West African Examination Council, and making detailed recommendations on the composition and duties of the council.[5] Following this report, the groups met with the governments of these countries, and they agreed on establishing a West African Examination Council, fully adopting Jeffery's recommendations.

West African Examinations Council

The Establishment of the Council

The legislative assemblies of Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone, and the Gambia passed an ordinance (West African Examinations Council Ordinance NO. 40) approving the West African Examination Council in December 1951.[6] The Ordinance agreed to the coordination of exams, and issuing of certificates to students in individual countries by the West African Examination Council. Liberia later issued their ordinance in 1974, at the annual meeting held in Lagos, Nigeria.[6] After the success of forming an examination council, the council called a first meeting in Accra, Ghana in March 1953. In the meeting, the registrar briefed everybody about the progress of the council. In that same meeting, five committees were formed to assist the council. These committees are: Administrative and Finance Committee, School Examinations Committee, Public Service Examinations Committee, The Professional, Technical and Commercial Examinations Committee, and the Local Committee.[5] The total number of people present for this meeting was 26

Vision of the Council

To be a world-class examining body, adding value to the educational goals of its stakeholders.

The council current chairman is Professor, Ato Essuman who was elected during the 69th meeting of the council which held virtually from March 22–26, 2021.[16] Professor Ato Essuman is Ghanaian.

Mission of the Council

The Council has several missions, most of which is to maintain the standard they have achieved. The Missions of the West African Examination Council are:

1. To maintain internationally accepted procedures

2. To keep providing qualitative and reliable educational assessment

3. To keep promoting sustainable human resources development, mutual understanding and international cooperation

US Embassy, Lagos Consulate to close Monday for Presidents’ Day

The United States Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate General in Lagos will temporarily close on Monday, 17 February 2025, in observance of Presidents’ Day.

A statement posted on X on Sunday by the diplomatic mission confirmed the closure and assured the public that normal operations would resume the following day.

“The U.S. Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate General in Lagos will be closed on Monday, February 17, 2025, in observance of Presidents’ Day. We will resume normal operations on Tuesday, 18 February 2025,” the statement read.

The U.S. observes Presidents’ Day annually on the third Monday of February to honour past and present leaders of the nation.

While essential services will remain accessible through emergency contact channels, routine consular services will resume after the holiday.

Nigerians seeking U.S. visas or consular assistance are advised to plan their visits accordingly.

US shuts embassy, consulate to mark Presidents’ Day

The United States Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate General in Lagos will be closed on Monday, February 17, 2025, in observance of Presidents’ Day.

This was announced by the diplomatic mission in a statement on Sunday.

The closure is in line with the annual celebration of Presidents’ Day in the United States, which is held on the third Monday of February to honour past and present leaders of the nation.

According to the statement, normal operations will resume on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.

The embassy and consulate will reopen for business as usual, attending to the needs of Nigerians and Americans alike.

“The U.S. Embassy in Abuja and the Consulate General in Lagos will be closed on Monday, February 17, 2025, in observance of Presidents’ Day. We will resume normal operations on Tuesday, 18 February 2025,” the mission said.

Rungo’s status came under scrutiny following the controversy surrounding her daughter’s participation in the Miss South Africa beauty pageant.

It was later revealed that Adetshina was ineligible to contest, as she was not a South African citizen.

At the time of her arrest, Rungo was reportedly with Adetshina’s minor child, prompting the authorities to engage the Department of Social Development and SAPS Child Protection Services to ensure the child’s welfare.

Qoza accused Rungo of deliberately defying the country’s immigration laws, despite being declared undesirable.

“It appears that Rungo has defied her ‘undesirable’ status through her Mozambican passport. Investigations are ongoing into further potential misrepresentation and fraudulent conduct.

“After being processed by Home Affairs over her illegal continued residence in South Africa, she will be handed over to SAPS, as she is also the subject of an ongoing Hawks investigation,” he added.

The PUNCH reports that Adetshina with Nigerian origin, withdrew from the Miss SA pageant and later contested in Miss Universe Nigeria, where she emerged as the winner following the revelation of her immigration status.

She would later finish first runner up at the Miss Universe pageant in Mexico last November.

Miss Universe Nigeria, Adetshina’s mother arrested in South Africa

South African authorities have arrested Anabela Rungo, the mother of Miss Universe Nigeria, Chidimma Adetshina, over allegations of fraudulently obtaining a South African identity document.

The Department of Home Affairs confirmed that Rungo, a Mozambican national, was apprehended at a hideout in Cape Town on Saturday in a joint operation by Home Affairs investigators and the South African Police Service reports local news platform, Sunday World.

Department spokesperson Siya Qoza was reported to have stated that Rungo had been declared persona non grata in September 2024 after officials uncovered irregularities in her residency status.

“Investigators from the department, assisted by SAPS, detained Anabela Rungo at a property in Cape Town. The Department withdrew Rungo’s South African documentation in September 2024 after finding that it had been fraudulently obtained, rendering her ineligible to continue residing in South Africa,” Qoza said.

Osun (/ˈoʊʃuːn/; Yoruba: Ìpínlẹ̀ Ọ̀ṣun), is a state in southwestern Nigeria; bounded to the east by Ekiti and Ondo states for 84 km and for 78 km respectively, to the north by Kwara State for 73 km, to the south by Ogun State for 84 km and to the west by Oyo State, mostly across the River Osun. Named for the River Osun—a vital river which flows through the state—the state was formed from the southeast of Oyo State on 27 August 1991 and has its capital as the city of Osogbo.[4][5]

Of the 36 states of Nigeria, Osun is the ninth smallest in area and 25th most populous state with an estimated population of about 4.7 million as of 2016.[6][7] Geographically, the state is divided between the Nigerian lowland forests in most of the state and the drier Guinean forest–savanna mosaic in the north. The major geographical features are rivers including the state's namesake, the River Osun which bisects the state's interior before forming much of the state's southwestern border with Oyo State and flowing south. Other important rivers are the Erinle and Oba rivers, both Osun tributaries which flow from the north before meeting the Osun along the southwestern border. Among the state's fauna are mona monkey, common kestrel, purple heron, and royal antelope, along with some of Nigeria's last remaining Nigeria-Cameroon chimpanzee and African forest elephant which inhabit the heavily threatened forests along the southern borders with Ondo and Ogun states.[8][9][10]

Osun State is primarily inhabited by the Yoruba people, mainly of the Ibolo, Ifẹ, Igbomina, Ijesha, and Oyo subgroups.

In the pre-colonial period, the area that is now Osun State was split up between various Western Yoruba states with some states being town-based as others were part of larger empires like the Oyo Empire. From 1877 to 1893, Western Yoruba states fought the Kiriji War alongside other Eastern Yoruba groups against Eastern Yoruba groups; the war ended in a British-brokered stalemate before the area was colonized and incorporated into the British Southern Nigeria Protectorate which later merged into British Nigeria in 1914. After independence in 1960, the area of now-Osun was a part of the post-independence Western Region until 1967 when the region was split and the area became part of the Western State. In 1976, the Western State was split and the state's west became Oyo State. Fifteen years later, Oyo State's east was broken off to form Osun State.

Economically, Osun State is largely based around agriculture, mainly of cocoa, cassava, millet, maize, potato and yam crops. Other key industries are services, especially in urban areas, along with artisanal mining and livestock herding. Osun is home to several of Nigeria's most famous landmarks, including the campus of Obafemi Awolowo University, one of Nigeria's pre-eminent institutions of higher learning. The university is located in the ancient town of Ile-Ifẹ, an important early center of political and religious development for Yoruba culture. Other important cities and towns include the ancient kingdom-capitals of Ila Orangun, Iragbiji, Ada, Ikirun, Oke-Ila Orangun, Ipetu-Ijesha, Ijebu-Jesa, Erin Oke, Ipetumodu, Ede, Iwo, Ejigbo, Ibokun, Ode-Omu, Otan Ayegbaju, Ifetedo, Esa-Oke, Ilesa, Okuku, Otan-Ile and Igbajo. Osun State is additionally noted for having the second highest literacy rate in the country.

Osun State

History

The modern State of Osun was created on 27 August 1991 from part of the old Oyo State. The state's name is derived from the River Osun, the venerated natural spring that is the manifestation of the Yoruba goddess of the same name.[12]

The former Governor Olagunsoye Oyinlola launched and laid the foundation for the groundbreaking of Osun State University with six campuses (Osogbo, Okuku, Ikire, Ejigbo, Ifetedo, and Ipetu-Ijesha) strategically located across the state. Important cultural events in the state include the Ori Oke[13] and Egungun festival (masquerade festival)[14] in Iragbiji,[15] Olojo in Ife, Iwude Ijesha in Ilesha, Agbeleku Festival in Erin Oke, and the Osun Osogbo festival.[16]

Culture

Every year, adherents and non-adherents of Osun, one of the Orisa (the traditional deities of the Yoruba people), travel from all over the world to attend the annual Osun-Osogbo festival in August. Visitors include nationals of Brazil, Cuba, Trinidad, Grenada, and other nations in the Americas with a significant Yoruba cultural heritage. Annual traditional festivities and invocations of the Osun goddess are held along the banks of the river bearing her name into which – according to Yoruba Oratory traditions – she transformed.[17]

Ọsun-Ọsogbo Grove, the shrine of the annual rites of the deity and an important artistic center, was declared a World Heritage Site in 2005.[18]

The former semi-official flag and seal of the state, adopted in 2012, depicted the Ori Olokun.[19] However, the flag and seal were officially relinquished in 2023 by act of the Osun State House of Assembly following a 21 January 2017 ruling by the Osun State High Court that the legislation adopting it had been unconstitutional.[20]

Demographics

The major sub-ethnic groups in Ọsun State are Ife, Ijesha, Oyo, Ibolo and Igbomina of the Yoruba people, although there are also people from other parts of Nigeria. Yoruba and English are the official languages. People of Osun State practice Christianity, Islam and the traditional faith.

Tourism

The State of Osun is home to a lot of tourist attractions based on its rich history and the cultural base of the Yoruba.

This place is considered as an heritage site. It is located along the Osun river and it is home to the goddess of fertility, Yemoja.[24]

Erin-Ijesha Waterfalls is located in Erin-Ijesha. It is a tourist attraction located in Oriade local. The fall features seven floors

Christians and Muslims in Osun

Osun State was created from the old Oyo State in August 1991, has a large population of both Muslims and Christians.[27] Among the famous religious leaders from Osun State is the London-based Muslim cleric Sheikh Dr. Abu-Abdullah Adelabu, who hails from the state's capital city, Osogbo and Pastor (Dr.) Johnson Ade Odewale of Christ Apostolic church, Calvary Assembly from Odeomu, who is based in Boston, USA. The popular Pastor E.A. Adeboye hails from Ifewara in Osun state. Also Pastor W. F. Kumuyi among others. The Osun State government claims to offer services to both Muslims and Christians in the state, especially through Pilgrims Welfare Boards.[28]

The major traditional rulers in Osun State acclaim either the Faith of Islam or Christianity. While, for instance, Ooni of Ife Oba Adeyeye Enitan Ogunwusi (Ojaja II) and Owa Obokun Adimula of Ijesaland Oba Gabriel Adekunle (Aromolaran II), Oba Samuel Oyebode Oluronke II (Olokuku of Okuku), and Oba Sunday Olatokun (Olotan of Otan Ile) ascribe to Christianity, Orangun of (Ile) Ila-Orangun Oba Wahab Kayode Adedeji Oyedotun (Arutu-Oluokun Bibiire I), Ataoja of Osogbo Oba Jimoh Olaonipekun Oyetunji (Larooye II), Timi of Ede Oba Munirudeen Adesola Lawal (Laminisa I), Aragbiji of iragbiji (Oba Abdulrasheed Ayotunde Olabomi),[29] Owa of Otan Ayegbaju Oba Lukman Ojo Fadipe (Olatanka III) and Oluwo of Iwo Oba Abdul Rasheed Adewale Akanbi (Ilufemiloye Telu I) practiced Islam. The dominant religions in Osun State are Islam and Christianity although a certain amount of traditional religion is still practiced.[30]

2.2% Catholic in the Diocese of Osogbo (1995) with 74,440 followers in 56 parishes under Bishop John Akinkunmi Oyejola (2016), a suffragan of the Archdiocese of Ibadan.

The Anglican Province of Ibadan within the Church of Nigeria includes the Dioceses of Oke-Osun (1993) led by Bishop Oluwagbemiro Fabuluje (2021), Osun (1987) led by Bishop Foluso Olugbenga Babatunji (2019), Osun North led by Bishop Abiodun Olaoye, Osun North East (2009) led by Bishop Ebenezer Akorede Okuyelu (2019), Ife led by Bishop Olubunmi Akinlade, Ife East (2008) led by Bishop Oluseyi Oyelade (2010), Ijesa North East (2009) led by Bishop Joseph Olusola (2009), Ijesha North Missionary Diocese led by Bishop Isaac Oluyamo (2015), Ilesa led by Bishop Samuel Olubayu Sowale (2000), and Ilesa South West led by Bishop Samuel Egbebunmi (2009).

Tourism

As of 2010, Atlanta is the seventh-most visited city in the United States, with over 35 million visitors per year.[290] Although the most popular attraction among visitors to Atlanta is the Georgia Aquarium,[291] and until 2012, the world's largest indoor aquarium, Atlanta's tourism industry is mostly driven by the city's history museums and outdoor attractions. Atlanta contains a notable number of historical museums and sites, including the Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park, which includes the preserved childhood home of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., as well as his final resting place; the Atlanta Cyclorama & Civil War Museum, which houses a massive painting and diorama in-the-round, depicting the Battle of Atlanta in the Civil War; the World of Coca-Cola, featuring the history of the world-famous soft drink brand and its well-known advertising; the College Football Hall of Fame, which honors college football and its athletes; the National Center for Civil and Human Rights, which explores the civil rights movement and its connection to contemporary human rights movements throughout the world; the Carter Center and Presidential Library, housing U.S. President Jimmy Carter's papers and other material relating to the Carter administration and the Carter family's life; and the Margaret Mitchell House and Museum, where Mitchell wrote the best-selling novel Gone with the Wind.[292]

Atlanta contains several outdoor attractions.[293] The Atlanta Botanical Garden, adjacent to Piedmont Park, is home to the 600-foot-long (180 m) Kendeda Canopy Walk, a skywalk that allows visitors to tour one of the city's last remaining urban forests from 40 feet (12 m) above the ground. The Canopy Walk is the only canopy-level pathway of its kind in the United States.[294] Zoo Atlanta, in Grant Park, accommodates over 1,300 animals representing more than 220 species. Home to the nation's largest collections of gorillas and orangutans, the zoo is one of only four zoos in the U.S. to house giant pandas.[295] Festivals showcasing arts and crafts, film, and music, including the Atlanta Dogwood Festival, the Atlanta Film Festival, and Music Midtown, respectively, are also popular with tourists.[296]

Tourists are drawn to the city's culinary scene,[297] which comprises a mix of urban establishments garnering national attention, ethnic restaurants serving cuisine from every corner of the world, and traditional eateries specializing in Southern dining. Since the turn of the 21st century, Atlanta has emerged as a sophisticated restaurant town.[298] Many restaurants opened in the city's gentrifying neighborhoods have received praise at the national level, including Bocado, Bacchanalia, and Miller Union in West Midtown, Empire State South in Midtown, and Two Urban Licks and Rathbun's on the east side.[78][299][300][301] In 2011, The New York Times characterized Empire State South and Miller Union as reflecting "a new kind of sophisticated Southern sensibility centered on the farm but experienced in the city".[302] Visitors seeking to sample international Atlanta are directed to Buford Highway, the city's international corridor, and suburban Gwinnett County. There, the nearly-million immigrants that make Atlanta home have established various authentic ethnic restaurants representing virtually every nationality on the globe.[303][304] For traditional Southern fare, one of the city's most famous establishments is The Varsity, a long-lived fast food chain and the world's largest drive-in restaurant.[305] Mary Mac's Tea Room and Paschal's are more formal destinations for Southern food

Atlanta

Arts and theater

Atlanta is one of few United States cities with permanent, professional, and resident companies in all major performing arts disciplines: opera (Atlanta Opera), ballet (Atlanta Ballet), orchestral music (Atlanta Symphony Orchestra), and theater (the Alliance Theatre).[251][252][253][254] Atlanta attracts many touring Broadway acts, concerts, shows, and exhibitions catering to a variety of interests. Atlanta's performing arts district is concentrated in Midtown Atlanta at the Woodruff Arts Center, which is home to the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra and the Alliance Theatre. The city frequently hosts touring Broadway acts, especially at The Fox Theatre, a historic landmark among the highest-grossing theaters of its size.[255]

As a national center for the arts,[256] Atlanta is home to significant art museums and institutions. The renowned High Museum of Art is arguably the South's leading art museum. The Museum of Design Atlanta (MODA) and the SCAD FASH Museum of Fashion + Film are the only such museums in the Southeast.[257][258] Contemporary art museums include the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center and the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia. Institutions of higher education contribute to Atlanta's art scene, with the Savannah College of Art and Design's Atlanta campus providing the city's arts community with a steady stream of curators. Emory University's Michael C. Carlos Museum contains the largest collection of ancient art in the Southeast.[259] The Spelman College Museum of Fine Art is the only museum in the nation to focus on art by women of the African diaspora.[260] Georgia Tech's Robert C. Williams Paper Museum features the largest collection of paper and paper-related artifacts in the world.[261]

Atlanta has become one of the U.S.'s best cities for street art in recent years.[262] It is home to Living Walls, an annual street art conference and the Outerspace Project, an annual event series that merges public art, live music, design, action sports, and culture. Examples of street art in Atlanta can be found on the Atlanta Street Art Map.

Atlanta (/ætˈlæntə/ ⓘ at-LAN-tə)[14] is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, and a portion of the city extends into neighboring DeKalb County. With a population of 510,823 (2023 estimate) living within the city limits, Atlanta is the eighth most populous city in the Southeast and 36th most populous city in the United States according to the 2020 U.S. census.[9] It is the principal city of the much larger Atlanta metropolitan area, the core of which includes Cobb, Clayton and Gwinnett counties, in addition to Fulton and DeKalb. Metro Atlanta is home to more than 6.3 million people (2023 estimate), making it the sixth-largest U.S. metropolitan area.[15] Situated among the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains at an elevation of just over 1,000 feet (300 m) above sea level, Atlanta features unique topography that includes rolling hills, lush greenery, and the densest urban tree coverage of any major city in the United States.[16]

Atlanta was originally founded as the terminus of a major state-sponsored railroad, but it soon became the convergence point among several railroads, spurring its rapid growth. The largest was the Western and Atlantic Railroad, from which the name "Atlanta" is derived, signifying the city's growing reputation as a major hub of transportation.[17] During the American Civil War, it served a strategically important role for the Confederacy until it was captured in 1864. The city was almost entirely burned to the ground during General William T. Sherman's March to the Sea. However, the city rebounded dramatically in the post-war period and quickly became a national industrial center and the unofficial capital of the "New South". After World War II, it also became a manufacturing and technology hub.[18] During the 1950s and 1960s, it became a major organizing center of the American civil rights movement, with Martin Luther King Jr., Ralph Abernathy, and many other locals becoming prominent figures in the movement's leadership.[19] In the modern era, Atlanta has remained a major center of transportation, with Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport becoming the world's busiest airport by passenger traffic in 1998 (a position it has held every year since, except for 2020), with an estimated 93.7 million passengers in 2022.[20][21][22]

With a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of $473 billion in 2021, Atlanta has the 11th-largest economy among cities in the U.S. and the 22nd-largest in the world.[23] Its economy is considered diverse, with dominant sectors in industries including transportation, aerospace, logistics, healthcare, news and media operations, film and television production, information technology, finance, and biomedical research and public policy. Atlanta established itself on the world stage when it won and hosted the 1996 Summer Olympics. The Games impacted Atlanta's development growth into the 21st century, and significantly sparked investment in the city's universities, parks, and tourism industry.[24] The gentrification of some of its neighborhoods has intensified in the 21st century with the growth of the Atlanta Beltline. This has altered its demographics, politics, aesthetics, and culture.

History

Daura, in northern Nigeria, is the oldest city of Hausaland. The Hausa of Gobir, also in northern Nigeria, speak the oldest surviving classical vernacular of the language.[29] Historically, Katsina was the centre of Hausa Islamic scholarship but was later replaced by Sokoto stemming from the 19th century Usman Dan Fodio Islamic reform.[30]

The Hausa are culturally and historically closest to other Sahelian ethnic groups, primarily the Fula; the Zarma and Songhai (in Tillabery, Tahoua and Dosso in Niger); the Kanuri and Shuwa Arabs (in Chad, Sudan and northeastern Nigeria); the Tuareg (in Agadez, Maradi and Zinder); the Gur and Gonja (in northeastern Ghana, Burkina Faso, northern Togo and upper Benin); Gwari (in central Nigeria); and the Mandinka, Bambara, Dioula and Soninke (in Mali, Senegal, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Guinea).[citation needed][31]

All of these various ethnic groups among and around the Hausa live in the vast and open lands of the Sahel, Saharan and Sudanian regions, and as a result of the geography and the criss crossing network of traditional African trade routes, have had their cultures heavily influenced by their Hausa neighbours, as noted by T.L. Hodgkin "The great advantage of Kano is that commerce and manufactures go hand in hand, and that almost every family has a share in it. There is something grand about this industry, which spreads to the north as far as Murzuk, Ghat and even Tripoli, to the West, not only to Timbuctu, but in some degree even as far as the shores of the Atlantic, the very inhabitants of Arguin dressing in the cloth woven and dyed in Kano; to the east, all over Borno, ...and to the south...it invades the whole of Adamawa and is only limited by the pagans who wear no clothing."[32][33] In clear testimony to T. L Hodgkin's claim, the people of Agadez and Saharan areas of central Niger, the Tuareg and the Hausa groups are indistinguishable from each other in their traditional clothing; both wear the tagelmust and indigo Babban Riga/Gandora. But the two groups differ in language, lifestyle and preferred beasts of burden (the Tuareg use camels, while Hausa ride horses).[34]

Other Hausa have influenced other ethnic groups southwards and in similar fashion to their Sahelian neighbors, which have heavily influenced the cultures of these groups.[citation needed] Islamic Shari'a law is loosely the law of the land in Hausa areas, well-understood by any Islamic scholar or teacher, known in Hausa as a m'allam, mallan or malam (see Maulana). This pluralist attitude toward ethnic identity and cultural affiliation has enabled the Hausa to inhabit one of the largest geographic regions of non-Bantu ethnic groups in Africa.[35]

In the 7th century, the Dalla Hill in Kano was the site of a Hausa community that migrated from Gaya and engaged in iron-working.[36] The Hausa Bakwai kingdoms were established around the 7th to 11th centuries. Of these, the Kingdom of Daura was the first, according to the Bayajidda legend.[37] However, the legend of Bayajidda is a relatively new concept in the history of the Hausa people that gained traction and official recognition under the Islamic government and institutions that were newly established after the 1804 Usman dan Fodio Jihad.

The Hausa Kingdoms were independent political entities in what is now Northern Nigeria. The Hausa city states emerged as southern terminals of the Trans-Saharan caravan trade. Like other cities such as Gao and Timbuktu in the Mali Empire, these city states became centres of long-distance trade. Hausa merchants in each of these cities collected trade items from domestic areas such as leather, dyed cloth, horse gear, metal locks and kola nuts from the rain forest region to the south through trade or slave raiding[citation needed], processed (and taxed) them and then sent them north to cities along the Mediterranean.[38] By the 12th century AD, the Hausa were becoming one of Africa's major trading powers, competing with Kanem-Bornu and the Mali Empire.[39] The primary exports were leather, gold, cloth, salt, kola nuts, slaves, animal hides, and henna. Certainly trade influenced religion. By the 14th century, Islam was becoming widespread in Hausaland as Wangara scholars, scholars and traders from Mali and also from the Maghreb brought the religion with them.[40]

By the early 15th century, the Hausa were using a modified Arabic script known as ajami to record their own language. The Hausa compiled several written histories, the most popular being the Kano Chronicle. Many medieval Hausa manuscripts similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script have been discovered recently, some of them describing constellations and calendars.[41]

A depiction of a Hausa man from Gobir by Carl Arriens (1913)

The Gobarau Minaret was built in the 15th century in Katsina. It is a 50-foot edifice located in the centre of the city of Katsina, the capital of Katsina State. The Gobarau minaret, a symbol of the state, is an early example of Islamic architecture in a city that prides itself as an important Islamic learning centre. The minaret is believed to be one of West Africa's first multi-storey buildings and was once the tallest building in Katsina. The mosque's origin is attributed to the efforts of the influential Islamic scholar Sheikh Muhammad al-Maghili and Sultan Muhammadu Korau of Katsina. Al-Maghili was from the town of Tlemcen in present-day Algeria and taught for a while in Katsina, which had become a centre of learning at this time, when he visited the town in the late 15th century during the reign of Muhammadu Korau. He and Korau discussed the idea of building a mosque to serve as a centre for spiritual and intellectual activities. The Gobarau mosque was designed and built to reflect the Timbuktu-style of architecture. It became an important centre for learning, attracting scholars and students from far and wide, and later served as a kind of university.[42]

Muhammad Rumfa was the Sultan of the Sultanate of Kano, located in modern-day Kano State, Northern Nigeria. He reigned from 1463 until 1499.[43] Among Rumfa's accomplishments were extending the city walls, building a large palace, the Gidan Rumfa, promoting slaves to governmental positions and establishing the great Kurmi Market, which is still in use today. Kurmi Market is among the oldest and largest local markets in Africa. It used to serve as an international market where North African goods were exchanged for domestic goods through trans-Saharan trade.[44][45] Muhammad Rumfa was also responsible for much of the Islamisation of Kano, as he urged prominent residents to convert.[45]

The legendary Queen Amina (or Aminatu) is believed to have ruled Zazzau between the 15th century and the 16th century for a period of 34 years. Amina was 16 years old when her mother, Bakwa Turunku became queen and she was given the traditional title of Magajiya, an honorific borne by the daughters of monarchs. She honed her military skills and became famous for her bravery and military exploits, as she is celebrated in song as "Amina, daughter of Nikatau, a woman as capable as a man."[46] Amina is credited as the architectural overseer who created the strong earthen walls that surround her city, which were the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. She subsequently built many of these fortifications, which became known as ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls, around various conquered cities.[47]

The objectives of her conquests were twofold: extension of her nation beyond its primary borders and reducing the conquered cities to a vassal status. Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto stated that, "She made war upon these countries and overcame them entirely so that the people of Katsina paid tribute to her and the men of Kano and... also made war on cities of Bauchi till her kingdom reached to the sea in the south and the west." Likewise, she led her armies as far as Kwararafa and Nupe and, according to the Kano Chronicle, "The Sarkin Nupe sent her (i.e. the princess) 40 eunuchs and 10,000 kola nuts."[48]

The Hausa–Fulani Sokoto Caliphate in the 19th century

From 1804 to 1808, the Fulani, another Islamic African ethnic group that spanned West Africa and have settled in Hausaland since the early 1500s, with support of already oppressed Hausa peasants revolted against oppressive cattle tax and religious persecution under the new king of Gobir, whose predecessor and father had tolerated Muslim evangelists and even favoured the leading Muslim cleric of the day, Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio whose life the new king had sought to end. Sheikh Usman Dan Fodio fled Gobir and from his sanctuary declared Jihad on its king and all Habe dynasty kings for their alleged greed, paganism, injustices against the peasant class, use of heavy taxation and violation of the standards of Sharia law. The Fulani and Hausa cultural similarities as a Sahelian people however allowed for significant integration between the two groups. Since the early 20th century, these peoples are often classified as "Hausa–Fulani" within Nigeria rather than as individuated groups.[49] In fact, a large number of Fulani living in Hausa regions cannot speak Fulfulde at all and speak Hausa as their first language. Many Fulani in the region do not distinguish themselves from the Hausa, as they have long intermarried, they share the Islamic religion and more than half of all Nigerian Fulani have integrated into Hausa culture.[45]

British colonial administrator Frederick Lugard exploited rivalries between many of the emirs in the south and the central Sokoto administration to counter possible defence efforts as his men marched toward the capital.[50] As the British approached the city of Sokoto, the new Sultan Muhammadu Attahiru I organised a quick defence of the city and fought the advancing British-led forces. The British emerged triumphant, sending Attahiru I and thousands of followers on a Mahdist hijra.[51]

On 13 March 1903 at the grand market square of Sokoto, the last Vizier of the Caliphate officially conceded to British rule. The British appointed Muhammadu Attahiru II as the new Caliph.[51] Lugard abolished the Caliphate, but retained the title Sultan as a symbolic position in the newly organised Northern Nigeria Protectorate.[52] In June 1903, the British defeated the remaining forces of Attahiru I, who was killed in action; by 1906 resistance to British rule had ended with the conquest of Hadejia and the death of Sarki Muhammadu Mai Shahada of Hadejia as the last Emirate standing in Sokoto Caliphate.[53] The area of the Sokoto Caliphate was divided among the control of the British, French, and Germans under the terms of the Berlin Conference.[54]

The British established the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to govern the region, which included most of the Sokoto empire and its most important emirates.[55] Under Lugard, the various emirs were provided significant local autonomy, thus retaining much of the political organisation of the Sokoto Caliphate.[56] The Sokoto area was treated as just another emirate within the Nigerian Protectorate. Because it was never connected with the railway network, it became economically and politically marginal.[57]

The Sultan of Sokoto continued to be regarded as an important Muslim spiritual and religious position; the lineage connection to dan Fodio has continued to be recognised.[52] One of the most significant Sultans was Siddiq Abubakar III, who held the position for 50 years from 1938 to 1988. He was known as a stabilising force in Nigerian politics, particularly in 1966 after the assassination of Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria.[52]

Following the construction of the Nigerian railway system, which extended from Lagos in 1896 to Ibadan in 1900 and Kano in 1911, the Hausa of northern Nigeria became major producers of groundnuts. They surprised the British authorities, who had expected the Hausa to turn to cotton production. However, the Hausa had sufficient agricultural expertise to realise cotton required more labour and the European prices offered for groundnuts were more attractive than those for cotton. "Within two years the peasant farmers of Hausaland were producing so many tonnes of groundnuts that the railway was unable to cope with the traffic. As a result, the European merchants in Kano had to stockpile sacks of groundnuts in the streets." (Shillington 338).

The Boko script was implemented by the British and French colonial authorities and made the official Hausa alphabet in 1930.[58] Boko is a Latin alphabet used to write the Hausa language. The first boko was devised by Europeans in the early 19th century,[59] and developed in the early 20th century by the British (mostly) and French colonial authorities. Since the 1950s, boko has been the main alphabet for Hausa.[60] Arabic script (ajami) is now only used in Islamic schools and for Islamic literature. Today millions of Hausa-speaking people, who can read and write in Ajami only, are considered illiterates by the Nigerian government.[61] Despite this, Hausa Ajami is present on Naira banknotes. In 2014, in a very controversial move, Ajami was removed from the new 100 Naira banknote.[62]

Nevertheless, the Hausa remain preeminent in Niger and Northern Nigeria.

Hausa people

The Hausa (autonyms for singular: Bahaushe (m), Bahaushiya (f); plural: Hausawa and general: Hausa;[13] exonyms: Ausa; Ajami: مُتَنٜىٰنْ هَوْسَا / هَوْسَاوَا) are a native ethnic group in West Africa.[14][15] They speak the Hausa language, which is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family.[16][17] The Hausa are a culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria respectively,[18] numbering around 86 million people, with significant populations in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Chad, Central African Republic, Togo, Ghana,[9] as well as smaller populations in Sudan, Eritrea,[11] Equatorial Guinea,[citation needed] Gabon, Senegal, Gambia. Predominantly Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara, with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez.[19] Other Hausa have also moved to large coastal cities in the region such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Accra, Abidjan, Banjul and Cotonou as well as to parts of North Africa such as Libya over the course of the last 500 years. The Hausa traditionally live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities where they grow crops, raise livestock including cattle as well as engage in trade, both local and long distance across Africa. They speak the Hausa language, an Afro-Asiatic language of the Chadic group. The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture.[20] Still a status symbol of the traditional nobility in Hausa society, the horse still features in the Eid day celebrations, known as Ranar Sallah (in English: the Day of the Prayer).[21] Daura is the cultural center of the Hausa people. The town predates all the other major Hausa towns in tradition and culture.

Population distribution

The Hausa have, in the last 500 years, criss-crossed the vast landscape of Africa in all its four corners for varieties of reasons ranging from military service,[23][24] long-distance trade, hunting, performance of hajj, fleeing from oppressive Hausa feudal kings as well as spreading Islam.

Because the vast majority of Hausas and Hausa speakers are Muslims, many attempted to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage, a requirement of all Muslims who are able. On the way to or back from the Hijaz region, many settled, often indigenizing to some degree. For example, many Hausa in Saudi Arabia identify as both Hausa and Afro-Arab.[25] In the Arab world, the surname "Hausawi" (alternatively spelled "Hawsawi") is an indicator of Hausa ancestry.

The homeland of Hausa people is Hausaland ("Kasar Hausa"), situated in Northern Nigeria and Southern Niger. However, Hausa people are found throughout Africa and Western Asia. Cambridge scholar Charles Henry Robinson wrote in the 1890s that "Settlements of Hausa-speaking people are to be found in Alexandria, Tripoli, [and] Tunis."

Finland,[a] officially the Republic of Finland,[b][c] is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It borders Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bothnia to the west and the Gulf of Finland to the south, opposite Estonia. Finland has a population of 5.6 million.[10] Its capital and largest city is Helsinki. The majority of the population are ethnic Finns. The official languages are Finnish and Swedish; 84.9 percent of the population speak the first as their mother tongue and 5.1 percent the latter.[1][11] Finland's climate varies from humid continental in the south to boreal in the north. The land cover is predominantly boreal forest biome, with more than 180,000 recorded lakes.[12][13]

Finland was first settled around 9000 BC after the last Ice Age.[14] During the Stone Age, various cultures emerged, distinguished by different styles of ceramics. The Bronze Age and Iron Ages were marked by contacts with other cultures in Fennoscandia and the Baltic region.[15] From the late 13th century, Finland became part of Sweden as a result of the Northern Crusades. In 1809, as a result of the Finnish War, Finland was captured from Sweden and became an autonomous grand duchy within the Russian Empire. During this period, Finnish art flourished and the independence movement began to take hold. Finland became the first territory in Europe to grant universal suffrage in 1906, and the first in the world to give all adult citizens the right to run for public office.[16][note 2] Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, Finland declared its independence. A civil war was fought in Finland the following year, with the Whites emerging victorious. Finland's status as a republic was confirmed in 1919. During World War II, Finland fought against the Soviet Union in the Winter War and the Continuation War, and later against Nazi Germany in the Lapland War. As a result, it lost parts of its territory to the Soviet Union but retained its independence and democracy.

Finland remained a largely agricultural country until the 1950s. After World War II, it industrialised quickly and established an advanced economy, with a welfare state built on the Nordic model. This allowed the country to experience overall prosperity and high per capita income.[17] During the Cold War, Finland officially embraced a policy of neutrality. Since then, it has become a member of the European Union in 1995, the Eurozone in 1999, and following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, joined NATO in 2023. Finland is a member of various international organisations, such as the Nordic Council, the Schengen Area, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD). The nation performs extremely well in national performance metrics, including education, economic competitiveness, civil liberties, quality of life, and human development.

Culture

Written Finnish could be said to have existed since Mikael Agricola translated the New Testament into Finnish during the Protestant Reformation, but few notable works of literature were written until the 19th century and the beginning of a Finnish national Romantic Movement. This prompted Elias Lönnrot to collect Finnish and Karelian folk poetry and arrange and publish them as the Kalevala, the Finnish national epic. The era saw a rise of poets and novelists who wrote in Finnish, notably the national writer of Finland, Aleksis Kivi (The Seven Brothers), and Minna Canth, Eino Leino, and Juhani Aho. Many writers of the national awakening wrote in Swedish, such as the national poet J. L. Runeberg (The Tales of Ensign Stål) and Zachris Topelius.

After Finland became independent, there was a rise of modernist writers, most famously the Swedish-speaking poet Edith Södergran. Finnish-speaking authors explored national and historical themes. Most famous of them were Frans Eemil Sillanpää, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1939, historical novelist Mika Waltari, and Väinö Linna with his The Unknown Soldier and Under the North Star trilogy. Beginning with Paavo Haavikko, Finnish poetry adopted modernism. Besides Lönnrot's Kalevala and Waltari, the Swedish-speaking Tove Jansson, best known as the creator of The Moomins, is the most translated Finnish writer;[285] her books have been translated into more than 40 languages

History

The area that is now Finland was settled in, at the latest, around 8,500 BC during the Stone Age towards the end of the last glacial period. The artefacts the first settlers left behind present characteristics that are shared with those found in Estonia, Russia, and Norway.[24] The earliest people were hunter-gatherers, using stone tools.[25]

The first pottery appeared in 5200 BC, when the Comb Ceramic culture was introduced.[26] The area of present-day Finland was in the western limits of the culture, which produced pottery with a distinct comb pattern.[27] The arrival of the Corded Ware culture in the south of coastal Finland between 3000 and 2500 BC may have coincided with the start of agriculture.[28] Even with the introduction of agriculture, hunting and fishing continued to be important parts of the subsistence economy.

In the Bronze Age, permanent all-year-round cultivation and animal husbandry spread, but the cold climate slowed the change.[29] The Seima-Turbino phenomenon brought the first bronze artefacts to the region and possibly also the Finno-Ugric languages.[29][30] Commercial contacts that had so far mostly been to Estonia started to extend to Scandinavia. Domestic manufacture of bronze artefacts started 1300 BC.[31]

In the Iron Age, population grew. Finland Proper was the most densely populated area. Commercial contacts in the Baltic Sea region grew and extended during the eighth and ninth centuries. Main exports from Finland were furs, slaves, castoreum, and falcons to European courts. Imports included silk and other fabrics, jewelry, Ulfberht swords, and, in lesser extent, glass. Production of iron started approximately in 500 BC.[32] At the end of the ninth century, indigenous artefact culture, especially weapons and women's jewelry, had more common local features than ever before. This has been interpreted to be expressing common Finnish identity.[33]

An early form of Finnic languages spread to the Baltic Sea region approximately 1900 BC. Common Finnic language was spoken around Gulf of Finland 2000 years ago. The dialects from which the modern-day Finnish language was developed came into existence during the Iron Age.[34] Contacts with the ancient Baltic and eastern Germanic peoples greatly influenced the Proto-Finnic language.[27] Although distantly related, the Sami people retained the hunter-gatherer lifestyle longer than the Finns. The Sami cultural identity and the Sami language have survived in Lapland, the northernmost province.

The name Suomi (Finnish for 'Finland') has uncertain origins, but a common etymology with saame (the Sami) has been suggested.[35][36] In the earliest historical sources, from the 12th and 13th centuries, the term Finland refers to the coastal region around Turku. This region later became known as Finland Proper in distinction from the country name Finland.

Finland

Nuhu Ribadu mni (born 21 November 1960) is a Nigerian politician, barrister and retired police officer who is currently serving as the National Security Adviser to Nigerian President Bola Tinubu.[1]

Ribadu ran unsuccessfully for office of the President of Nigeria in 2011 as the candidate of the Action Congress. He ran for governor of Adamawa State in 2015 as a candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party; before joining the All Progressives Congress to run in 2019 and lost his bid in 2023 to Aishatu Dahiru Ahmed.[2]

He was the Chairman of the Petroleum Special Revenue Task Force from 2012 to 2014[3] and the Chairman of Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) from 2003 to 2007.[4]

Early life and education

Ribadu was born on 21 November 1960 in Yola. His father, Ahmadu Ribadu, was a First Republic Member of Parliament, and Ambassador to Niger, during the military regime of Muhammadu Buhari.[5][6][7] He attended Mustapha Primary School from 1966 to 1973 in Adamawa and Yelwa Government Secondary School, Yola from 1973 to 1978; College of Preliminary Studies, Yola from 1978 to 1980.

Ribadu studied law at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Kaduna State from 1980 until 1983, receiving a Bachelor of Laws degree. Following a year at the Nigerian Law School, he was called to Bar in 1984. He also earned a Master of Laws degree from the same university.[8]

Police career

Ribadu joined the Nigerian Police Force shortly after graduation and held the positions of Assistant Superintendent of Police, Nigeria Police Force, January 1, 1986; Divisional Crime Officer for Ajegunle, Mushin, Apapa from 1990 to 1997; Force CID. AIagbon Close, Ugos; dep. Superintendent of Police, 1992; Superintendent of Police, 1995; Chief Superintendent of Police, 1998; asst comm. of Police, 2002; Head, Legal and Prosecution Department, NPF.

Anti-corruption and the EFCC

The Nigerian president, Olusegun Obasanjo, appointed Ribadu as the pioneer chairman of the EFCC in 2003 and reappointed him in 2007.

On 20 October 2006, Nuhu Ribadu told the BBC that over 380 billion dollars had been stolen or wasted by Nigerian governments since independence in 1960.[9] Under Ribadu's administration, the EFCC charged prominent bankers, former state governors, ministers, Senators, high-ranking political party members, even the head of the Nigerian police.[10]

The EFCC issued thousands of indictments and achieved about 270 convictions during his stint in office. One notable case was that of his boss, the then Inspector General of the Nigerian Police Force, Tafa Balogun, who was convicted, jailed and made to return £150 million under a plea bargain.[11]

During the course of his duty Ribadu was offered bribes to pervert the course of justice, amongst these was a State governor who offered Ribadu $15 million and a house abroad.[12] Interviewed from Washington D.C. on the BBC's Hardtalk, Ribadu said that he took the money and used the bribe as evidence to prosecute the state governor.[13] This claim has however been refuted by the ex-governor who claimed that the fact that Ribadu put the money in the CBN is not a proof that he gave the money.[14] Ribadu escaped two assassination attempts in Nigeria before he left the country for the United Kingdom in early 2009.[15]

Less than 2 months before the end of the Obasanjo administration, he was promoted to the position of Assistant Inspector General of Police.[16] The promotion on 9 April 2007, was later challenged on the basis that it was "illegal, unconstitutional, null and void, and of no legal effect."[17] In December 2007, Mike Okiro, Inspector-General of Police, stated that Ribadu would be removed as EFCC chairman and sent on a one-year training course.[18]

In December 2007, Inspector-General of Police Mike Okiro ordered that Ribadu be temporarily removed from the position of EFCC chairman and ordered him to attend the National Institute of Policy and Strategic Studies (NIPSS) in Kuru, Jos, Plateau State for a mandatory one-year course.[18] The decision was criticised by, among others, Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka, House of Representatives members, and All Nigeria Peoples Party (ANPP) national chairman Edwin Ume-Ezeoke as politically motivated and/or likely to set back the fight against corruption

Nuhu Ribadu

Exile and return

On 22 December 2008, as widely predicted, he was dismissed from the Nigerian Police force by the Nigerian Police Service Commission (PSC). He left Nigeria and in April assumed a fellowship at the Center for Global Development.[20] He lived in exile until 2010 when he returned to Nigeria and declared his intention to run for President of Nigeria under the platform of the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN) political party.

Entry into politics

Ribadu returned to Nigeria and joined opposition ACN as the presidential candidate on 14 January 2011. Tinubu had campaigned for a merger between the ACN and the CPC, but the plan failed due to Ribadu’s refusal to step down for CPC candidate Muhammadu Buhari. After the merger talks collapsed, Tinubu decided to choose Ribadu’s running mate for the April presidential elections.[21]

Shortly after Jonathan won the election, Ribadu joined a six-man UN monitoring team tasked with auditing Afghanistan’s governance, the third most corrupt country in the world. The committee aimed to reduce corruption in Afghanistan. While on this international assignment, the Jonathan administration asked him to chair the Petroleum Special Revenue Task Force, tasked with improving accountability in Nigeria’s oil and gas sector.[22]

In August 2014, he defected to the ruling party PDP with the intention to run for the Governorship of Adamawa State, Nigeria.[23] He later joined the ruling APC and contested for governorship of Adamawa in 2019 and 2023,[24] he became a close confidant of Bola Tinubu during the presidential campaign.

National Security Adviser

Ribadu was appointed by President Bola Tinubu as National Security Adviser on 19 June 2023.[25] In March 2024, Ribadu oversaw the arrest and detention of two employees of cryptocurrency exchange Binance, including a former United States Internal Revenue Service agent, for Binance's alleged role in market manipulation that led to a drop in value of Nigerian currency

The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission has arraigned Jude Okoye, the elder brother and former manager of Paul and Peter Okoye of the defunct music group, P-Square, on charges of laundering ₦1.38billion, $ 1 million, and £34,537.59.

According to Channels TV, he was arraigned alongside his company, Northside Music Ltd, before Justice Alexander Owoeye of the Federal High Court, Lagos, on a seven-count charge on Wednesday.

One of the counts read: “That you, Jude Okoye Chigozie and Northside Music Ltd sometime in 2022, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did directly acquire a landed property known as No 5, Tony Eromosele Street Parkview Estate, Ikoyi, Lagos worth ₦850,000,000.00 (Eight hundred and fifty million naira) only, which money you knew or reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of unlawful act and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (2) (d) and punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

Another count read: “That you, Jude Okoye Chigozie and Northside Music Ltd sometime in 2022, in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court, did indirectly using bureau de change convert the sum of $1,019,762.87 (One million nineteen thousand, seven hundred and six-two dollars eighty-seven cents), domiciled in Access Bank Plc operated by Northside Music Lid to the naira equivalent and remitted into various bank accounts to conceal that the said fund form part of the proceeds of an unlawful act and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18 (2)(a) and punishable under Section 18 (3) of the Money Laundering (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.”

He pleaded “not guilty” to the charges.

EFCC arraigns Jude Okoye over N1.3bn fraud

Given his plea, the prosecution counsel, Larry Peters Aso, applied for a date for hearing as well as for the remand of the defendant in the correctional facility pending trial.

The defendant’s counsel, Inibehe Effiong, informed the court of a pending bail application. He asked for a short date for the hearing. Effiong also asked that the defendant be remanded in the EFCC’s custody pending the hearing of the application.

Aso objected to the request for the defendant to be remanded in the EFCC custody. He argued that the EFCC custody was already congested with suspects awaiting arraignment. He urged the court to remand the defendant to the correctional facility since he had taken his plea.

Justice Owoeye adjourned the matter till February 28 for bail hearing and April 14 for trial.

He also ordered that the defendant be remanded in the Ikoyi correctional facility

The Punch is a Nigerian daily newspaper founded on August 8, 1970. Punch Nigeria Limited is registered under the Companies Act of 1968 to publish newspapers, magazines and other periodicals. The newspaper's aim is said to be to "inform, educate and entertain Nigerians and the world at large."[2][3][4]

History

The Punch was founded by James Aboderin, an accountant, and Sam Amuka, a columnist and editor at the Daily Times of Nigeria. Amuka became the first editor of the Sunday Punch. In November 1976, a few years after the first print of its Sunday edition, the duo started printing their trademark daily newspaper. Both editions were designed to favor a friendlier apolitical approach to news reporting, combining footage of social events with everyday political news. The paper sustains itself by delving[citation needed] into broad issues that interest myriad of people.[5]

However, during the twilight of the Second Republic, political exigencies had introduced conflicts to its original intentions. Aboderin and Amuka parted ways due partly to political conflicts. Aboderin later secured the support of his former foe, M. K. O. Abiola, after the latter left the NPN.[6] The paper began to take on a political slant, mostly against the Shehu Shagari regime. Supposedly, days before the regime's fall in the 1983 Nigerian coup d'état, a few Punch editors were aware of a coup approaching and injected strong antigovernmental tones in their reporting.

Press freedom

The Punch was not immune to the excesses of the authoritarian regimes in the country. In 1990, its editor was jailed for 54 days. In 1993 and 1994, the publishing house was closed on the direction of the nation's military ruler

Most widely read newspaper

From 1998 to 1999, the Research and Marketing Services (RMS) Lagos published independent surveys in which The Punch was rated as the most widely read newspaper. [citation needed]

Punch press: Goss Community

Punch's Goss Community printing press was delivered in November 1998. It is capable of producing 30,000(cps).[9]

The Punch press, which has expandable colour units, is capable of printing eight pages of full color and eight of spot colour at up to 48 pages, and it is more often used in the western part of Nigeria

The Punch

The company

Punch Nigeria Limited was registered on August 8, 1970, under the Companies Act of 1968 to publish newspapers, magazines, and other periodicals of public interest. It was designed to perform the tripartite functions of the popular mass media: informing, educating, and entertaining Nigerians and the world at large. The company has a board of directors, which is the highest policy-making organ of the company.

In 1971, the company made its debut with the publication of Happy Home', a family-oriented magazine. Its first editor was Bunmi Sofola. On Sunday, March 18, 1973, its first newspaper, Sunday PUNCH, first started publishing and was edited by Ajibade Fashina-Thomas.

The Punch, a daily tabloid followed on November 1, 1976. Its pioneer editor was Dayo Wright. However, by the 1980s, the two tabloids had been repackaged.

On April 29, 1990, a week after an attempted coup d'état against the military regime of Ibrahim Babangida, the company was closed down, lasting a month while the then deputy editor of the publication, Chris Mammah, was detained for 54 days. In July 1993, the military government again shut the company's premises under Decree No 48 of 1993 and banned all its publications from circulating in the country. The closure followed the political crisis caused by the annulment of that year's presidential election.[8]

On November 17 of the same year, the proscription order was repealed by Decree No 115 of 1993. This decree would later be cancelled on July 24, 1994, resulting in a proscription of all Punch titles including Toplife, which had been revived and published as a weekly magazine in the meantime. Bola Bolawole, the then editor of the Punch, was detained for three days in his office in the company's old headquarters. During the closure, the government ignored a court order directing it to vacate the company's premises and pay the sum of ₦25 million and ₦100,000 respectively to the company and Bolawole. It was not until October 1, 1995, that the government de-proscribed the publication via a national day broadcast by the then military head of state Sani Abacha.

Sir Amaopusenibo Siminalayi Fubara- (born 28 January 1975), is the Governor of Rivers State, Nigeria. He previously served as Accountant general[1] of the Rivers State, Nigeria. He is an ethnic Ibani-Ijaw, and was born in Opobo Town in the Opobo/Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State.[2][3]

Early life and education

He was born in Opobo Town in the Opobo-Nkoro Local Government Area of Rivers State. He completed his primary education at Opobo Primary School and attended Comprehensive Secondary School, Opobo, before proceeding to study Accountancy at the Rivers State University of Science and Technology. He got his MBA and MSc in 2013 and 2016 respectively from the University of Port Harcourt.[4]

Career

Fubara started his career in 2003 as a Principal Accountant with the Rivers State Senior Secondary Schools Board. He rose to the position of director of finance and accounts at the State's government house in 2015 and rose to the position of Permanent Secretary in March 2020. He was appointed the Accountant General of Rivers State on December 23, 2020, up till May 2022, when he won the People's Democratic Party governorship primaries for the 2023 general elections. He is a Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management, Fellow of Association of National Accountants of Nigeria.

Personal life

Fubara is the second of five children and the first son of Late Joseph Fubara, a former soldier who had an overseas training tour of duty, and Late Love Fubara, a civil servant. He is also a knight of St. Christopher (KSC) Order of Church of Nigeria Anglican Communion. He holds the traditional title of Amaopu-Senibo of Opobo Kingdom. He is married to Valerie Fubara and they have three children.

Projects

As Rivers State Governor, Sim Fubara signed N195.3bn contract with Julius Berger for the construction of Port Harcourt Ring Road project. The project when completed would traverse six local government areas of the state, thereby decongesting Port Harcourt.[6] Fubara further stated the State would pay over NGN150 billion advance for the project.[7]

Controversy

In May 2022, Fubara and 58 other government officials were declared wanted by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission for a NGN 435 billion fraud. He was also wanted for a NGN 117 billion fraud alongside four other Rivers State government officials. Additional charges by the EFCC included alleged criminal conspiracy, money laundering, misappropriation of public funds, and abuse of office.[8][9][10]

Siminalayi Fubara

The gravamen of their petition marked: EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, was that the poll was invalid by reason of alleged over-voting and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.

The petitioners contended that governor Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.

How well the petitioners were able to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law has been a subject of debate, with even the tribunal itself expressing its disgust over how its precious judicial time was wasted.

For instance, following the relocation of the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel to Abuja after their smooth sitting was almost disrupted by thugs allegedly on the side of the petitioners, on the first sitting of the panel in Abuja on January 28, it lampooned PDP and Ighodalo for wasting judicial time.

The drama started after counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, who had claimed they had so many people lined up to testify, failed to produce them on excuse that the proposed witnesses “suffered travel disruptions.

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja will on Monday, allow parties to adopt their final briefs of argument in the petition the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, filed to challenge Governor Monday Okpebholo’s resounding victory at the poll.

The petition is specifically challenging the outcome of the governorship contest that held in the state on September 21, 2024.

Though observers had adjudged the gubernatorial poll as one of the freest and most credible the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has conducted in recent times, however, Ighodalo and his party, in what appeared as a wild goose chase, insisted they should have been declared the winner.

Remarkably, Ighodalo contested the election as the anointed candidate of the immediate past Governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, who despite deploying all instruments of government to ensure that the then Senator Okpebholo who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was placed at a disadvantaged position, still failed to thwart the will of the electorates.

Consequently, notwithstanding Obaseki’s inglorious political misadventures, INEC, at the end of the poll, declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closet rivalry, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got 247, 655 votes.

Rather than accepting the result, PDP and Ighodalo lodged a petition, alleging that the election was rigged to favour APC’s candidate, Okpebholo.

The gravamen of their petition marked: EPT/ED/GOV/02/2024, was that the poll was invalid by reason of alleged over-voting and non-compliance with provisions of the Electoral Act.

The petitioners contended that governor Okpebholo did not secure the highest number of lawful votes that were cast at the election.

As customary with legal proceedings, he who raised an allegations must embrace the burden of proof.

How well the petitioners were able to discharge the burden of proof placed on them by the law has been a subject of debate, with even the tribunal itself expressing its disgust over how its precious judicial time was wasted.

For instance, following the relocation of the Justice Wilfred Kpochi-led three-member panel to Abuja after their smooth sitting was almost disrupted by thugs allegedly on the side of the petitioners, on the first sitting of the panel in Abuja on January 28, it lampooned PDP and Ighodalo for wasting judicial time.

The drama started after counsel to the petitioners, Mr. Adetunji Oyeyipo, SAN, who had claimed they had so many people lined up to testify, failed to produce them on excuse that the proposed witnesses “suffered travel disruptions.”

“My lords, this is the reason we are unable to present them today. We urge your Lordships to give us another date.

“We undertake that on the next date, we will bring as many witnesses as may be convenient for the tribunal.

“We will also work assiduously to prime down our witnesses,” Oyeyipo, SAN, pleaded.

Not pleased with the development, the panel slammed the petitioners, noting that it had earlier cleared its docket just to give room for unfettered hearing of the case.

“What you are just telling us is not good at all! Why then did we ask the other petitioners to take dates? We should have heard them today,” Justice Kpochi fumed.

“In fact, call those your witnesses. Tell them to come, we are ready for them to come today,” Justice Kpochi added.

The Edo State Governorship Election Petition Tribunal sitting in Abuja will on Monday, allow parties to adopt their final briefs of argument in the petition the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP, and its candidate, Asue Ighodalo, filed to challenge Governor Monday Okpebholo’s resounding victory at the poll.

The petition is specifically challenging the outcome of the governorship contest that held in the state on September 21, 2024.

Though observers had adjudged the gubernatorial poll as one of the freest and most credible the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, has conducted in recent times, however, Ighodalo and his party, in what appeared as a wild goose chase, insisted they should have been declared the winner.

Remarkably, Ighodalo contested the election as the anointed candidate of the immediate past Governor of the state, Godwin Obaseki, who despite deploying all instruments of government to ensure that the then Senator Okpebholo who was candidate of the All Progressives Congress, APC, was placed at a disadvantaged position, still failed to thwart the will of the electorates.

Consequently, notwithstanding Obaseki’s inglorious political misadventures, INEC, at the end of the poll, declared that Okpebholo of the APC secured a total of 291, 667 votes to defeat his closet rivalry, Ighodalo of the PDP, who got 247, 655 votes.

Rather than accepting the result, PDP and Ighodalo lodged a petition, alleging that the election was rigged to favour APC’s candidate, Okpebholo.

However, counsel to the petitioners pleaded that the witnesses may not be in the right frame of mind to mount the dock after their travel difficulties.

“I appeal that we should be given a new date,” the petitioners’ counsel pleaded as he persuaded the tribunal to fix another date.

When the witnesses were eventually produced, most of them ended up giving contradictory evidence that proved fatal to the case of the petitioners.

A case in point was on January 30, when one of the witnesses flustered as he confirmed contradictions in the proof of evidence he was brought to testify on.

The witness, Mr. Eseigbe Victor, who told the panel that he is a farmer, added that he served as agent of the PDP at Ward 9 in Akoko-Edo Local Government Area of the state.

Testifying as the 13 witness of the petitioners, Victor, said he was the one that recieved results from agents of the party that were posted to 28 polling units in Ward 9, Akoko-Edo.

While being cross-examined by counsel to Governor Okpebholo, Dr. Onyechi Ikpeazu, SAN, the PW-13, insisted that information from the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System, BVAS, machines and hardcopies from the IReV, were presented at the Ward Collation Center for reconciliation of results of the election.

When he was shown one of the Exhibits that was tendered by his party, PDP, the witness, confirmed that though there were 71 accredited voters at Unit 001 of Ward 9, report from the BVAS machine they tendered showed that there were 252 number of accredited voters in the same polling unit.

Likewise, he acknowledged that in Unit 003, while the number of accredited voters in the IReV report they tendered was 116, when he was shown the BVAS report they also tendered for the same Unit, he confirmed that the number of accredited voters on the document was 262.

The witness further confirmed that in Unit 004, while 107 was recorded in the IReV report, the BVAS report had 243 accredited voters.

More so, he confirmed that most of the documents they tendered had no stamp of the INEC.

He, however, insisted that agents of his party did not sign most of the result sheets owing to alleged wrong computation.

While some witnesses of the petitioners admitted that they signed copies of the election result, others claimed they did not.

Owing to the manifest inconsistencies, the petitioners, at the resumed sitting of the tribunal on February 3, hurriedly wrapped up their case, saying they would no longer call any witness to appear before the panel.

Of the 99 witnesses the petitioners said would testify for them, only 19 were called.

Having noticed the weakness of the case of the petitioners, INEC told the tribunal that there was no need for it to call any witness to testify in the matter.

The electoral body simply tendered a certified copy of the governorship election result to accentuate its position that the poll was duly conducted inline with provisions of the law.

Likewise, whereas Governor Okpebholo called a lone witness that told the tribunal that he was the valid winner of the contest, on the other hand, the APC closed its own defence with the evidence of four witnesses.

“My lords, we have carefully done a comprehensive review of the evidence led by the petitioners; evidence elicited from their witnesses under cross-examination; evidence led so far by the respondents in this petition; the documentary evidence presented before this tribunal; and also considered the fact that time is of the essence because judicial time of this tribunal is precious.

“Taking all the enumerated factors into consideration, we are happy at this stage to close the 3rd respondents case,” APC’s lawyer, Mr. Dan Orbih, SAN, told the tribunal as the party closed its case on February 13.

The respondents’ decisions not to call more witnesses was obviously buoyed by the position of the law that a petitioner must succeed on the strength of his case and not on the weakness of the defence.

With the conclusion of the evidence stage, the tribunal fixed Monday, March 3, for the parties to adopt their final arguments, a procedure that is a precursor to the delivery of judgement in the matter.

As all the parties converge again for the adoption, all eyes will be on the Judiciary to reinforce the four-year mandate that was freely handed to Governor Okpebholo by Edo people.

Edo: Ighodalo frets over failure to prove petition

Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who is the 47th president of the United States. A member of the Republican Party, he served as the 45th president from 2017 to 2021.

Born in New York City, Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1968 with a bachelor's degree in economics. He became the president of his family's real estate business in 1971, renamed it the Trump Organization, and began acquiring and building skyscrapers, hotels, casinos, and golf courses. After six business bankruptcies in the 1990s and 2000s, he began side ventures. From 2004 to 2015, he hosted the reality television show The Apprentice. A political outsider, Trump won the 2016 presidential election against Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton.

In his first term, Trump imposed a travel ban on citizens from six Muslim-majority countries, expanded the U.S.–Mexico border wall, and implemented a family separation policy. He rolled back environmental and business regulations, signed the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017, and appointed three Supreme Court justices. In foreign policy, Trump withdrew the U.S. from agreements on climate, trade, and Iran's nuclear program, began a trade war with China, and met with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un without reaching an agreement on denuclearization. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, he downplayed its severity, contradicted health officials, and signed the CARES Act stimulus. Trump was impeached in 2019 for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, and in 2021 for incitement of insurrection; the Senate acquitted him in both cases. After his first term, scholars and historians ranked him as one of the worst presidents in American history.

Trump is the central figure of Trumpism. Many of his comments and actions have been characterized as racially charged, racist or misogynistic, and he has made false and misleading statements and promoted conspiracy theories to a degree unprecedented in American politics. After losing the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, Trump attempted to overturn the outcome, culminating in the January 6 Capitol attack in 2021. In 2023, Trump was held liable in civil cases for sexual abuse and defamation and for business fraud. In 2024, he was found guilty of falsifying business records, making him the first U.S. president convicted of a felony. After winning the 2024 presidential election against Kamala Harris, Trump was sentenced to a penalty-free discharge, and two other felony indictments against him were dismissed.

Trump began his second term by pardoning around 1,500 January 6 rioters, creating the Department of Government Efficiency presidential task force, initiating mass layoffs of the federal workforce, and starting a trade war with Mexico and Canada. Trump's broad and extensive use of executive orders has drawn numerous lawsuits challenging their legality.

Media career

Trump has published 19 books under his name, most written or cowritten by ghostwriters.[87] His first book, The Art of the Deal (1987), was a New York Times Best Seller, and was credited by The New Yorker with making Trump famous as an "emblem of the successful tycoon".[88] The book was ghostwritten by Tony Schwartz, who is credited as a coauthor. Trump had cameos in many films and television shows from 1985 to 2001.[89] Starting in the 1990s, Trump appeared 24 times as a guest on the nationally syndicated Howard Stern Show.[90] He had his own short-form talk radio program, Trumped!, from 2004 to 2008.[91] From 2011 until 2015, he was a guest commentator on Fox & Friends.[92] In 2021, Trump, who had been a member since 1989, resigned from SAG-AFTRA to avoid a disciplinary hearing regarding the January 6 attack.[93] Two days later, the union permanently barred him.

Early life and education

Donald John Trump was born on June 14, 1946, at Jamaica Hospital in the New York City borough of Queens, the fourth child of Fred Trump and Mary Anne MacLeod Trump.[1] He is of German and Scottish descent.[2] He grew up with his older siblings, Maryanne, Fred Jr., and Elizabeth, and his younger brother, Robert, in a mansion in the Jamaica Estates neighborhood of Queens.[3] Fred Trump paid his children each about $20,000 a year, equivalent to $265,000 a year in 2024. Trump was a millionaire at age eight by contemporary standards. Trump attended the private Kew-Forest School through seventh grade. He was a difficult child and showed an early interest in his father's business. His father enrolled him in New York Military Academy, a private boarding school, to complete secondary school.[5] Trump considered a show business career but instead in 1964 enrolled at Fordham University.[6] Two years later, he transferred to the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, graduating in May 1968 with a Bachelor of Science in economics.[7][8]

He was exempted from the draft during the Vietnam War due to a claim of bone spurs in his heels.

Early political aspirations

In 1987, Trump placed full-page advertisements in major newspapers[101] expressing his views on foreign policy and how to eliminate the federal budget deficit.[102] In 1988, he approached Lee Atwater, asking to be put into consideration to be Republican nominee George H. W. Bush's running mate. Bush found the request "strange and unbelievable".[103][104] Trump was a candidate in the 2000 Reform Party presidential primaries for three months before he withdrew in February 2000.[105][106][107] In 2011, Trump considered challenging President Barack Obama in the 2012 election. He spoke at the Conservative Political Action Conference in February and gave speeches in states with early primaries.[108][109] In May 2011, he announced that he would not run.

Early actions

Trump was inaugurated on January 20, 2017. The day after his inauguration, an estimated 2.6 million people worldwide, including 500,000 in Washington, D.C., protested against him in the Women's Marches.[148] During his first week in office, Trump signed six executive orders, including authorizing procedures for repealing the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act ("Obamacare"), withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations, advancement of the Keystone XL and Dakota Access Pipeline projects, and planning for a wall along the U.S. border with Mexico.

Donald Trump

Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving digital messages using electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the late–20th century as the digital version of, or counterpart to, mail (hence e- + mail). Email is a ubiquitous and very widely used communication medium; in current use, an email address is often treated as a basic and necessary part of many processes in business, commerce, government, education, entertainment, and other spheres of daily life in most countries.

Email operates across computer networks, primarily the Internet, and also local area networks. Today's email systems are based on a store-and-forward model. Email servers accept, forward, deliver, and store messages. Neither the users nor their computers are required to be online simultaneously; they need to connect, typically to a mail server or a webmail interface to send or receive messages or download it.

Originally a text-only ASCII communications medium, Internet email was extended by MIME to carry text in expanded character sets and multimedia content such as images. International email, with internationalized email addresses using UTF-8, is standardized but not widely adopted.

Message format

The basic Internet message format used for email[34] is defined by RFC 5322, with encoding of non-ASCII data and multimedia content attachments defined in RFC 2045 through RFC 2049, collectively called Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions or MIME. The extensions in International email apply only to email. RFC 5322 replaced RFC 2822 in 2008. Earlier, in 2001, RFC 2822 had in turn replaced RFC 822, which had been the standard for Internet email for decades. Published in 1982, RFC 822 was based on the earlier RFC 733 for the ARPANET.[35]

Internet email messages consist of two sections, "header" and "body". These are known as "content".[36][37] The header is structured into fields such as From, To, CC, Subject, Date, and other information about the email. In the process of transporting email messages between systems, SMTP communicates delivery parameters and information using message header fields. The body contains the message, as unstructured text, sometimes containing a signature block at the end. The header is separated from the body by a blank line.

Email

History

Computer-based messaging between users of the same system became possible after the advent of time-sharing in the early 1960s, with a notable implementation by MIT's CTSS project in 1965.[17] Most developers of early mainframes and minicomputers developed similar, but generally incompatible, mail applications. In 1971 the first ARPANET network mail was sent, introducing the now-familiar address syntax with the '@' symbol designating the user's system address.[18] Over a series of RFCs, conventions were refined for sending mail messages over the File Transfer Protocol.

Proprietary electronic mail systems soon began to emerge. IBM, CompuServe and Xerox used in-house mail systems in the 1970s; CompuServe sold a commercial intraoffice mail product in 1978 to IBM and to Xerox from 1981.[nb 1][19][20][21] DEC's ALL-IN-1 and Hewlett-Packard's HPMAIL (later HP DeskManager) were released in 1982; development work on the former began in the late 1970s and the latter became the world's largest selling email system.[22][23]

The Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) was implemented on the ARPANET in 1983. LAN email systems emerged in the mid-1980s. For a time in the late 1980s and early 1990s, it seemed likely that either a proprietary commercial system or the X.400 email system, part of the Government Open Systems Interconnection Profile (GOSIP), would predominate. However, once the final restrictions on carrying commercial traffic over the Internet ended in 1995,[24][25] a combination of factors made the current Internet suite of SMTP, POP3 and IMAP email protocols the standard.

Chief Godswill Obot Akpabio GCON CON[1] (Ibibio pronunciationⓘ; born 9 December 1962) is a Nigerian lawyer[2] and politician who is currently serving as the 15th president of the Nigerian Senate since 2023.[3][4] He was first elected as Senator representing Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District in 2015, lost in the 2019 senatorial elections and won in the 2023 elections.[5][6] He also served as minister for Niger Delta Affairs from 2019 up till 2022 when he resigned to seek re-election into the Nigerian senate.[7] He had previously served as the Governor of Akwa Ibom State from 2007 to 2015.

Appointments and politics

In 2002, he was appointed Honourable Commissioner for Petroleum and Natural Resources by the then Governor Obong Victor Attah in Akwa Ibom State. Between 2002 and 2006, he served as a Commissioner in three key ministries: Petroleum and Natural Resources, Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, as well as Lands and Housing.[24][11][26]

In 2006, he aspired for the governorship of Akwa Ibom State in a contested primary election and defeated 57 other aspirants to emerge the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP).[27] His campaign with the slogan, "let God's will be done" received mass support and was elected Governor in 2007. He was re-elected for a second term in office as Governor of Akwa Ibom State in 2011.[28]

In 2013, he was elected chairman of the newly formed PDP Governors Forum.[29]

In 2015, he contested and won the Senate seat of the Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District (Ikot Ekpene) to represent the district in the Senate of the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Running under the platform of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), he polled 422,009 of the 439,449 to defeat Chief Inibehe Okorie of the All Progressives Congress (APC) who recorded 15,152 votes to be declared elected by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).[5]

Akpabio was nominated for the position of the Senate Minority Leader by the South-South caucus of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), ratified by the caucus of the PDP in the Senate and announced by the Senate President as Senate Minority Leader on 28 July 2015. The PDP lost the majority to the All Progressives Congress (APC), in the 2015 general elections.[30][31]

In August 2018, he resigned as the Senate Minority Leader,[32] after he had announced his defection to the All Progressives Congress. His defection was marked by a Political rally in his hometown at the Ikot Ekpene township stadium, Akwa Ibom State.[33]

In July 2019, he was nominated by President Muhammadu Buhari and screened by the Nigerian Senate for a Ministerial appointment.[34]

On 21 August 2019, he was sworn in as Minister for Niger Delta Affairs.[35][36]

In June 2022, Akpabio resigned from his position as minister for Niger Delta Affairs to contest in the presidential primaries of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) but stepped down on the night of the primaries for the eventual winner Bola Tinubu. A few days after the presidential primaries, he emerged as the Senatorial candidate for Akwa Ibom North-West Senatorial District. However, it was fraught with accusations of foul play by stakeholders of the party in the State. He went on to defeat his closest rival Emmanuel Enoidem of the Peoples Democratic Party to become the senator-elect in the 2023 general elections polling 115,401 votes, against Enoidem's 69,838 votes.[37]

On 13 June 2023, he was elected President of the Senate of Nigeria with 63 votes defeating Senator Abdulaziz Yari, a former Governor of Zamfara State who scored 46 votes.

Early life and career

Godswill Akpabio is the son of Chief Obot Akpabio and Madam Lucy Obot Akpabio (née Inyangetor) of Ukana, Ikot Ntuen in Essien Udim Local Government Area.[9] He was born on 9 December 1962.[10] He lost his father at an early age and was raised by his mother.[11]

Education

Akpabio was educated at Methodist Primary School, Ukana,[12] Essien Udim LGA, Akwa Ibom State; the Federal Government College, Port Harcourt,[13] Rivers State; and the University of Calabar,[14] Cross River State, where he obtained a Degree in Law.[15][16]

While at the Federal Government College, Port Harcourt, he was appointed the Senior Prefect.[12] In the University of Calabar, Akpabio was elected as the Student Union Government (SUG) Speaker of the 1987/88 parliamentary year.[17][9]

Family and personal life

Akpabio's grandfather, Okuku Udo Akpabio, was the Warrant Chief in Ikot Ekpene province. His uncle, Dr. I. U. Akpabio, was the Minister of Education/Internal Affairs in the then Eastern Nigeria. Justice Nsima Akpabio, his cousin, was a senator in the Second Nigerian Republic.[9]

Akpabio is a Christian of the Catholic faith.[11] He is married to Ekaette Unoma Akpabio,[18] the founder of the Family Life Enhancement Initiative (FLEI), a non-governmental organization aimed at redirecting development efforts towards families as a strategy for achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

Akpabio and his wife have four daughters and one son.

Career and employment

Akpabio briefly worked as a teacher before joining Paul Usoro and Co., a prominent law firm in Nigeria as an associate partner.[23][24]

He later worked with EMIS Telecoms Limited, a wireless telecommunications company based in Lagos, Nigeria. By 2002, he had become Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer.[24] Prior to this, he served as the National Publicity Secretary of the Association of Telecommunication Companies in Nigeria, (ATCOM), while also serving as a director of EMIS.

Corruption accusations

Godswill Akpabio was under investigation by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) on accusations that he diverted over 100 billion Naira from Akwa Ibom State during his time as governor (2007-2015) with American diplomats calling the level of corruption "exceptional" during his tenure.[41][42] However, no charges have been filed.[43] A lawyer, Leo Ekpenyong who also accused Akpabio of corruption, was later arraigned by the police in court for defamation.[44]

In May 2020, Akpabio was summoned by members of the House of Representatives over the misappropriation of 40 billion Naira.

Godswill Akpabio

The governor of Rivers State is the chief executive of the Rivers State government and is one of the governors of the thirty-six states of Nigeria. The governor is supported by the deputy governor, both popularly elected for a term of four years (maximum of two terms). The governor, as head of the executive branch, has the power to appoint and remove commissioners responsible for each of the state's ministries, the heads of parastatals and the state-owned bodies with specific regulatory or administrative duties. He appoints judicial officers based on the recommendation of the state judicial service commission. The Governor cannot be a member of the state's House of Assembly.Since achieving statehood in 1967, seventeen individuals have held the power to govern Rivers State, a majority of whom were military officers. Alfred Diete-Spiff, a navy commander and member of the Supreme Military Council, served as the first military governor of the state, after it was created from part of the old Eastern Region, Nigeria. He held office from May 1967 until July 1975 during the administration of General Yakubu Gowon and is the state's only military governor to serve two consecutive four-year terms.[1] In October 1979, Melford Okilo became the first elected governor of Rivers State and ruled until December 1983.

Three governors in the state's history have served two consecutive terms. They are: Dr. Peter Odili (1999–2007), Rt. Hon. Chibuike Amaechi (2007–2015) and Barr. Nyesom Wike, DSSRS (2015-2023). Rivers State's shortest-serving governor was Celestine Omehia who served only five months in office before the Supreme Court annulled his election on 25 October 2007.

Election and qualification

The governor and deputy governor are directly elected on the same ticket by popular vote for four-year terms, and are limited to two consecutive terms, for a total of eight years.[4] Qualifications required for an individual aspiring to become the governor of Rivers State is contained in section 177 of the 1999 Constitution, as amended.[5] According to the constitution, an individual may become governor if they meet the following eligibility criteria:

• at least thirty (30) years of age;

• a citizen of Rivers State by birth;

• a member of a political party with endorsement by that political party;

• School Certificate level or its equivalent.

Governor of Rivers State

Powers and functions

Executive powers

Most executive power lies with the governor whose responsibility is to enforce state laws. They serve as the head of government with supreme authority over the Executive Council. Excluding the deputy governor, they appoint commissioners, heads of government agencies, special advisers and judicial officers subject to the House's approval. The governor has the duty to attract investments, promote business and implement political as well as economic initiatives.[6]

Legislative powers

Under the Constitution, every bill passed by the House of Assembly must be presented to the governor for approval before it becomes law. The governor may choose to sign it and make it law, veto it and return it to the House, or take no action, however. If they veto the bill, a two-thirds majority of the House may override it, and the bill will become law without the governor's signature. If the governor does not act, the bill will automatically become law after a 30-day period.

Judicial powers

Judicial officers are appointed by the governor on the recommendation of the State Judicial Service Commission subject to confirmation of the appointment by the Rivers State House of Assembly. Should a vacancy arise in the office of the Chief Judge or the President of the Customary Court of Appeal, the governor can appoint the next most senior judge of those courts to act for a period of three months.[7]

Section 212, subsection (1) and (2) further empowers the Governor to issue pardons and reprieves, commute sentences, or remit fines and forfeitures imposed for the commission of offenses against, or for the violation of the state laws. Such authority must be exercised on the advice of the Rivers State Advisory Committee on the Prerogative of Mercy, and should not be wielded independently.

Natasha Hadiza Akpoti (1979[1]) is a Nigerian barrister and politician who is a member of the 10th Nigeria National Assembly representing Kogi Central Senatorial District since 2019.[2]

Akpoti contested in the 2019 Kogi State gubernatorial election on 16 November 2019.[3] As an entrepreneur, she is the founder of the Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP).[4]

Early life

Akpoti was born on 9 December 1979 as the second of four children. Her father, Jimoh Abdul Akpoti, is from Kogi and her mother, Ludmila Kravchenk, is from Chernivtsi, Ukraine.[citation needed] She was raised in Ihima, Okehi.[5] She lost her father in 1998 and the family had to relocate.[6]

Akpoti studied at the University of Abuja from 2000-2004 and graduated with a Bachelor of Laws. She was called to the Nigerian bar in 2005 after he graduation from the Nigerian Law School, Abuja. In 2011, she obtained her MBA in oli and gas management from the University of Dundee in 2012.[7]

Early career

After graduation from the Nigerian Law School, she worked with Brass LNG as a legal counsel from 2007 to 2010. In 2015, she established Builders Hub Impact Investment Program (BHIIP).[8]
She came to national prominence after presenting an investigative report to the National Assembly on 1 March 2018 that exposed corrupt activities at the Ajaokuta steel mill.[9] The report detailed the repetitive waste of government funds and embezzlement since the initial construction of the steel mill which has remained moribund despite multiple attempts to get back in operation. The report was opposed by the Federal ministry of mines and steel development and Akpoti was accused of deliberately misinforming the House of Representatives. An association of small scale steel dealers also alleged that Akpoti was running a sponsored campaign to discredit the government and enrich some corporate interests.[10] Following the allegations, a legal battle ensued, and a High Court sitting in Abuja ordered the publishers of Authority newspaper, Ifeanyi Uba and Williams Orji to pay the sum of ten million naira in damages to Natasha Akpoti for their libelous publication against her.

Political career

Personal life

Akpoti hails from Okehi in Kogi State. She is from Ebiraland.[15] She is a mother of three.[16] On 5 March 2022, she married the Alema of Warri, Chief Emmanuel Uduaghan (not to be confused with the ex-governor Emmanuel Uduaghan), in a ceremony at her native home in Ihima.

In 2018, she declared her intentions to run for the office of Senator representing Kogi Central in the Nigerian Senate under the umbrella of the Social Democratic Party (SDP). On 25 May 2022 Natasha won the PDP’s primaries for the 2023 Kogi Centre Senatorial Elections to face Abubakar Ohere who picked the APC ticket.[13]

In February 2023, a few days to the senatorial elections, in a bid to forestall transportation of electoral materials to the district elections, it is alleged that the Yahaya Bello-led Kogi State government excavated portions of the road linking to her senatorial district, however the government stated that the excavations were done to prevent access by hoodlums who have made the route a thoroughfare for themselves. 16b

She contested for the senatorial seat under the PDP with 51,763 votes against Sadiku-Ohere of the APC with 52,132 votes, and she lost to her opponent with a difference of 369 votes between them.[14]

On September 6, 2023 she was declared winner by the election tribunal while her opponents victory was nullified. On October 31, 2023, the Court of Appeal in Abuja ruled that she was the legitimate winner of the Kogi Central Senatorial Election that was held in February 2023. In addition, her opponent's petition was dismissed by the court due to its lacking in merit.

Natasha Akpoti

Ekpa Simon Njoku[3] (born 21 March 1985), generally known as Simon Ekpa, is a Finnish politician and Biafran political activist.[4][5] In 2022, while in Finland, he declared the activation of the Biafra Government In Exile (BGIE), and in 2023 declared himself the leader (titled "Prime Minister") of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE).

Activism and separatism

Ekpa became active in the "Biafra independence movement" in 2019. He was noticed by the Nigerian media after he posted a video claiming that Nigerian soldiers had been killed by Boko Haram. According to a Nigerian rights attorney, the purpose was to "disillusion Nigerians especially soldiers to resign from the Army".[30]

In July 2021, Ekpa was announced the lead broadcaster for Radio Biafra, associated with the separatist organisation Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) after the arrest of its leader, Nnamdi Kanu.[31][13][32] However, Ekpa was not allowed to broadcast[33][34] for violation of the rules of the organisation.[35] In 2022, IPOB accused Ekpa of illegal activities and stated that IPOB was a peaceful organization.[36] In July 2023, the Daily Post said that Ekpa led a faction of IPOB, as did Premium Times in May 2024.[37][38] According to Ekpa, IPOB was dissolved in a vote, renamed "Autopilot", and he became its spokesman. In August 2022, Ekpa declared "full activation" of the Biafran Government in Exile. He said: "we also wish to officially announce an alliance and activation of Biafra Government In Exile (BGIE) with the IPOB-Autopilot."[16][39] In April 2023, he announced that he had been appointed as the prime minister of the Biafra Republic Government in Exile (BRGIE).[40] Nigerian news media have variously referred to him as "prime minister" or "self-acclaimed prime minister" of the government-in-exile.[41][42][43][44] Ekpa stated in 2023 that "Biafra Republic Government In-Exile is registered, approved and legal. Agent of Nigeria, take note!"[45] As of 2024, it has a main office in Maryland, US.[16] IPOB called the BRGIE "double agents sponsored by the Nigerian government to ridicule the IPOB movement".Suomen Kuvalehti said in 2024 that "Be it as it may, Ekpa is now at least the prime minister by some."

Zubairu Dada, Nigerian minister, said the same year that "When [Ekpa] gives instructions, destruction follows. They cause killing, maiming, fires, whatever."Nigerian general Christopher Gwabin Musa said "In the South-east, Simon Ekpa has become a menace to this country. The country must act on it diplomatically. [Ekpa] is having a freeway because [Finland] are encouraging him to do what he is doing. His utterances and actions are affecting what is happening in Nigeria." Ekpa said in 2024 that he is in daily contact with Kanu.[48]

According to a report from Yle, Ekpa's activism started to gather mainstream attention in February 2023. The local Kokoomus party in Lahti stated that it had started an internal investigation of these claims. A representative of the association Igbo Union Finland said: "He should stop inciting hatred and provoking. Ekpa does not represent the Igbo people of Finland". The Nigerian government has also demanded Finland stop Ekpa's activities.[49] Yle interviews with residents of Enugu suggested extensive fear of Ekpa and compliance with his "sit at home" orders which involved the 2023 Nigerian elections.[50] In late February 2023 Yle reported Ekpa is being suspected of having raised funds in an illegal manner by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation.[51] As of early 2023, his speeches on Twitter had around 800,000 views.[10]

In December 2022, Ekpa declared a five-day sit at home civil disobedience campaign[52] in the southeast and parts of southern Nigeria[53] from 9 to 14 December 2022.[54] On 14 June 2023, Ekpa announced a week-long sit at home campaign from 3 to 10 July 2023,[55] which according to The Whistler recorded 70% compliance.[56] The sit-at-homes have been enforced by gunmen.[37][57] Ekpa has continued Kanu's sit-at-home orders, to protest the imprisonment of Kanu. In July 2023, he threatened that oil exploitations in the Biafra region would be stopped if Kanu wasn't to be released. However, Ekpa exonerated Kanu from the activities of the Biafra agitations. He said Kanu wasn't responsible for the actions taken to free him.[58][59] The head of ACLED's Nigerian branch criticizes 'Ekpa's faction' for attacking those not following this curfew. Ekpa denies violence against civilians, by stating "After the creation of the defensive forces, government forces no longer encroach on our area, because we have manpower all over, that protect".[16][47]

In 2023, he declared that the 2023 Nigerian general election would not be held in the Biafra region that year.[10][60] The Nigerian senate asked Finland to extradite Ekpa in July 2023.[61] In May 2024, BRGIE declared a three-day sit at home from 29 to 31 May. Ekpa said it was "necessary to enable Biafrans vote for the Liberation of Biafra". IPOB disagreed on the date, having earlier declared their own sit at home on 30 May.[62][63] The conflicting messages caused confusion and fear of violence in the region. The police and military said that people should go about their lawful business.[64][38]

In October 2023, Ekpa and cabinet members of BRGIE hosted a three-day convention in Helsinki, Finland, where a possible Biafran referendum was discussed with participants and attendants from Biafra.[65][66][67] In early February 2024, BRGIE announced the commencement of the Biafra Referendum and revealed the structure of the proposed independent state of Biafra.[68]

BRGIE has stated that it intends to issue a "declaration of Biafra independent state" in late 2024,[16][69] and that this declaration will bring peace and stability to the West African region.[70][71] Ekpa said mid-2024 that over 30 million votes had been recorded in an online voting "self-referendum" regarding the sovereignty of Biafra and as of July 2024, he said "over 49 million Biafrans have voted in the ongoing self-referendum".[72][73] In June 2024, the Organisation of Emerging African States (OEAS), a group that counsels African separatists, said that "the BRGIE referendum further consolidated the self-determination pursuit of the people of Biafra amid decades of alleged marginalization by the Nigerian government."[74][75] According to Ekpa, only BRGIE has the legitimate right to call for "Biafra's declaration".[76] In July 2024, Ekpa said the United States was to issue favorable statements for the Biafra declaration in the coming months.[77]

At the three-day convention he also announced the formation of the Biafra Liberation Army (BLA), a militant group fighting for secession from Nigeria.[78] He had previously claimed to control the Eastern Security Network, IPOB's armed wing,[10] and said this group was renamed BLA.[16] BLA was suspected to have killed a police officer in Imo State in November 2023.[79][80] According to Ekpa, it has a hundred thousand soldiers.[16] IPOB disassociated itself from the BLA.[81]

Yle had in February 2023 reported that estimates of the number of gunmen loyal to Ekpa vary greatly, from hundreds to tens of thousands.[10] In late 2023, Ekpa and Ambazonian activist Ayaba Cho Lucas announced a military pact between their respective organizations against the Cameroonian and Nigerian governments.[82] In June 2024, Ekpa signed a one-year agreement to be represented by the American lobbying firm Moran Global Strategies.[83]

In March 2024, the Nigerian Defence Headquarters (DHQ) declared Ekpa and more than 90 others "wanted" for "terrorism, kidnapping and other crimes."[84][85][86][87] Ekpa responded that he had nothing to do with Nigeria, and declared other people "wanted" in his turn.[88] In May 2024, the African Court on Human and Peoples' Rights in Banjul, the judicial arm of the African Union (AU), acknowledged a petition by the BRGIE regarding Kanu and a declaration of the restoration of independent state of Biafra.[89]

In May 2024, Ekpa urged the Nigerian government to engage the Finnish government to mediate in the conflict between BLA and the Nigerian army.[61] In June 2024, a former director of the Nigerian State Security Service called for the extradition of Ekpa to Nigeria. He urged the Nigerian government to initiate negotiations with Finnish authorities to repatriate Ekpa.[90] Nigeria's Chief of Defence Staff Musa also reiterated call for the arrest and prosecution of Ekpa. He accused the Finnish government and the European union of shielding Ekpa, thereby preventing his arrest.[91][92][93]

On 30 July 2024, the Biafra Defence Forces killed four Nigerian police operatives. Ekpa classified them as "terrorists" and declared that they should be withdrawn from the Biafran region.[12][94]

In August 2024, Simon Ekpa and the Biafra Republic Government in Exile ordered 30 days lockdown of the Nigerian government institutions in the South East region, from 28 August to 26 September, excluding private businesses. This action responds to the continued detention of Nnamdi Kanu and alleged killings of Christians and Biafrans. Ekpa demands Kanu's release and the withdrawal of Nigerian security forces from the region.[95][96]

On 20 August 2024, Ekpa unveiled the map of a proposed 40 "United States of Biafra" and announced 2 December 2024 as the date for its official presentation and issuance of a declaration of independence. Declaration happened on 29 November. The Nigerian government, while reacting to the development through the Defence Headquarters (DHQ), stated that it is engaging with the European Union to extradite Ekpa from Finland. In response, the Biafra Republic Government in Exile says it is inviting the Nigerian government to the Biafra restoration declaration convention in Finland for possible dialogue.

Early life, education and career

Ekpa was born on 21 March 1985, in Ohaukwu, Ebonyi State, in the southeastern Nigeria.[13][14] Ebonyi State had previously been part of Biafra, a partially recognized state that declared independence from Nigeria and existed from 1967 until 1970.[15]

He won the 100 meters silver medal for Nigeria at the 2003 African Junior Athletics Championships in Cameroon.[13] He left athletics because of a knee problem.[16] In September 2021, Ekpa denounced Nigeria and vowed to return the medal he won for the country at the 2003 African Junior Athletics Championships,[17][18] and renounced his Nigerian citizenship the following year. In July 2024, he said he had returned the medals to the Nigerian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.[19]

Ekpa was the Chairman of the Igbo Union Finland from 2015 until 2019.[20][21] He has also served as the Chairman of the Playground Board, in the City Lahti, a position he held between 2017 until 2021.[22]

Since 2007, he has lived with his family in Lahti, Finland. He learned Finnish, became a citizen and did military service[23][9] in the Finnish military at the Häme Regiment in Hennala in 2013 as well as a reservist in the Finnish Army.[23] Ekpa joined the Finnish politics in 2012 and has been active since then.[22] He ran as a candidate in the 2017 Finnish municipal elections and was also a candidate in the 2022 Finnish county elections under the National Coalition Party of Finland.[24][25][10] As of 2023, he serves as a public transport officer for the Lahti region.[23][26] Yle has referred to him as a businessman.

Award

On 25 May 2023, the Universal Peace Federation awarded Ekpa Ambassador for Peace at the African Day Celebration in Helsinki, Finland.[8]

Arrest

On 21 November 2024, Ekpa was detained by the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, (NBI) on accusations of alleged terrorist activities in Nigeria. Finnish police said the accusations are under investigation and it involves international cooperation. It said, the Nigerian government was reached out to for their comments.[100][101] The NBI also arrested four others over alleged terrorist offenses.[102][103] On 6 January 2025, The Nation newspaper reported that two out of the four individuals arrested alongside Ekpa had been released.[104]

Ekpa was remanded into custody by the District Court of Päijät-Häme on suspicion of public incitement to commit a crime with terrorist intent. He is suspected of committing the crime between 23 August 2021, and 18 November 2024. According to the report, the Finnish Bureau of Investigation has frozen his assets, those of his accomplices, and the assets of companies associated with him.[105] This marks his second arrest in Finland; he was previously detained in 2023 on suspicion of illegal fundraising but was released shortly after.[106]

The Organization of Emerging African States (OEAS), while condemning Finland for the arrest in a statement, called for the release of Ekpa and Ayaba Cho. Ayaba, an Ambazonian independence movement leader, was arrested in September 2024 by Norwegian authorities for the same crime Ekpa is accused of. It accused Finland and Norway of partnering with Nigeria and Cameroon, respectively, to detain the duo.[107][108] Ekpa is in alliance with Ayaba.

On 24 January 2025, President Bola Tinubu commended the Finnish authorities for the arrest. Meanwhile, the Finnish Ambassador to Nigeria, Ms. Sanna Selin, stated, "Simon Ekpa has been hindering bilateral relations. The cooperation between our two countries is going very well now, and the National Security Adviser has been providing all the evidence.” The statement was made as the Ambassador presented her letter of credence to Tinubu in Abuja.

Despite Ekpa's arrest, deputy Ngozi Orabueze declared that the sit-at-home initiative championed by Ekpa must continue. She expressed her commitment to ensuring Ekpa's release. In another statement on 25 December 2024, she announced recruitment into the Biafra Defense Forces.

On 3 December 2024, hundreds of Biafrans, who consider him their Prime Minister, gathered in Lahti, Finland, to protest against the arrest.

Legal work

Since 2009, Ekpa has worked in the legal field, including as a legal advisor. However, Ekpa is not an attorney in Finland and does not represent his own clients in court.[28] Ekpa became familiar with the legal field while on internship at his ex-wife's law office.[29]

Ekpa has stated that he is an expert, a legal advisor, and has a Master of Law (LLM) degree from the Welsh Aberystwyth University, but upon inquiry by Yle, the university didn't give any information about the degree.[28][14] Ekpa has no apparent lower or higher legal degree.

Simon Ekpa

Godwin Ifeanyi Emefiele CFR (born 4 August 1961) is a Nigerian politician,[2][3] economist and banker who served as governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 4 June 2014[4] until his suspension by President Bola Tinubu, on 9 June 2023.

Early life and education

Godwin Emefiele was born in present day Lagos State, Nigeria on 4 August 1961. He is a native of Agbor, Delta State, Nigeria. He attended Ansarudin Primary School and Maryland Comprehensive Secondary both in Lagos, before proceeding to the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN) for his tertiary education. He obtained a Bachelor’s Degree in Banking and Finance, finishing as one of the top students in his class, in 1984. Soon after his National Youth Service, he returned to UNN for a Masters Degree in Finance, which he obtained in 1986. He is also an alumnus of Executive Education at Stanford University, Harvard University (2004) and Wharton School of Business (2005). He was conferred with an Honorary Doctorate Degree in Business Administration by the University of Nigeria Nsukka (UNN).

Career in the private sector

Early in his career, Emefiele lectured finance and insurance at the University of Nigeria Nsukka, and University of Port Harcourt, respectively. He also had a brief stint at Vodafone.

Before moving to the Central Bank, he gained over eighteen years of banking experience. He served as chief executive officer and group managing director of Zenith Bank Plc. He served as deputy managing director of Zenith Bank Plc. from 2001. He served as executive director in charge of corporate banking, treasury, financial control and strategic planning of Zenith Bank Plc and served on the management team from its inception. He served as director at Zenith Bank Plc and Zenith Bank (Gambia) Limited. He served as director of ACCION Microfinance Bank Limited.[8]

Governor of the Central Bank

Emefiele was the governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria from 4 June 2014 to 9 June 2023 when he was suspended by President Bola Tinubu. During his first term, he supervised an interventionist currency policy at the behest of the presidency, propping up the Nigerian Naira by pumping billions of dollars into the foreign exchange market. He also introduced a multiple exchange rate regime to try to mask pressure on the Naira and avoid a series of devaluations.[9]

In 2019, Nigeria's Senate approved a second five-year term for Emefiele.[10][11] This was the first time that anyone had served for a second term since Nigeria's return to democracy in 1999.[9] Senator Bukola Saraki read President Muhammadu Buhari's letter on 9 May 2019.[12] He was screened on Wednesday[13] and his confirmation came on 16 May 2019.

Controversy

In an unprecedented move by any chief of the Nigerian apex bank, Emefiele ventured into partisan politics against the dictates of the Central Bank Act which provides that the occupant of the governor's position must remain apolitical and independent at all times to preserve the nonpartisan posture of the bank.[14]

In May 2022, Emefiele drew public outrage when it emerged that he was seeking to replace President Muhammadu Buhari in the 2023 presidential election. What started as a rumor when campaign posters of the bank chief flooded the capital city of Abuja[15][16] soon gained traction when a group of alleged rice farmers purchased the presidential form of the All Progressive Congress for the CBN Governor.[17] In a series of tweets via his verified account, Emefiele rejected the presidential form and declared he has no intention to contest.[18][19] In a quick turn of events, Emefiele filed a lawsuit at the Federal High Court in Abuja seeking an order from the court directing the electoral body and the office of the attorney general not to stop him from contesting for the presidency. The court declined the request but invited the parties to make a formal presentation on why Emefiele's request should not be granted.

Nigerians and civil society organizations filed multiple cases in court demanding the removal of the CBN Governor and accusing him of violating multiple provisions of the Central Bank Act.

Godwin Emefiele

Suspension as Central Bank Governor

On 9 June 2023, President Bola Tinubu suspended him as the Central Bank Governor with immediate effect, the statement came from the office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation by Mr Willie Bassey.

The suspension followed an investigation of his office and the planned reforms in the financial sector of the economy.

Emefiele was directed to hand over the affairs of his office to the Deputy Governor (Operations Directorate) Folashodun Adebisi Shonubi, who served as the Acting Central Bank Governor during the investigation and reforms.

Arrests by the DSS and Subsequent Prosecution

On 10 June 2023, the Department of State Services (DSS) confirmed the arrest of Emefiele at exactly 14:28 WAT through their official twitter page. He was reportedly brought in for interrogation regarding the investigation of his office. A short video clip of him stepping out of an executive Hilux car, closely accompanied by DSS officers as he walked toward a waiting private jet, went viral in the media. He was charged in July 2023.[22] He was re-arrested by the DSS on 25 July 2023, at the Federal High Court in Lagos.[23] On 5 April 2024, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), filed new charges against Emefiele. Emefiele was accused of fraudulently allocating $2 billion in foreign exchange. The indictment claimed that the allocation was made without supporting offers. According to the commission, Emefiele committed the offenses between 2022 and 2023.[24] On 24 May 2024, A Federal High Court in Ikoyi, Lagos, ordered the interim forfeiture of $4,719,054, N830,875,611, and several properties linked to Emefiele.[25] On 22 June 2024, in another related case, a Federal High Court granted the final forfeiture of properties worth over N12.18 billion Naira to the federal government.

Mark Joseph Carney (born March 16, 1965) is a Canadian economist and politician who has been the prime minister-designate of Canada and leader of the Liberal Party since March 9, 2025. As the leader of the governing party, Carney will succeed Justin Trudeau as the next prime minister of Canada. He previously served as the eighth governor of the Bank of Canada from 2008 to 2013 and the 120th governor of the Bank of England from 2013 to 2020.

Carney was born in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories, and raised in Edmonton, Alberta. He graduated with a bachelor's degree in economics from Harvard University in 1988, going on to study at the University of Oxford, where he earned a master's degree in 1993 and a doctorate in 1995. He held various roles at Goldman Sachs before joining the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor in 2003. In 2004, he was named as senior associate deputy minister for the Department of Finance Canada. In 2007, Carney was named Governor of the Bank of Canada, where he was responsible for Canadian monetary policy during the global financial crisis. He led the Canadian central bank until 2013, when he was appointed as Governor of the Bank of England, where he led the British central bank's response to Brexit and the early phase of the COVID-19 pandemic.

After leaving central banking, Carney served as chair and head of impact investing at Brookfield Asset Management and as chair of the board of directors for Bloomberg L.P.[3] He was also appointed the United Nations Special Envoy for climate action and finance.[4][5] Carney also worked as an adviser to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during the COVID-19 pandemic and was made chair of the Liberal Party's economic growth taskforce. In early 2025, he announced his intention to seek the leadership of the Liberal Party of Canada, winning a landslide victory in March.

Early life and education

Carney was born on March 16, 1965, in Fort Smith, Northwest Territories;[6][7] he is the son of Verlie Margaret (née Kemper), a stay-at-home mother, and Robert James Martin Carney, a high school principal.[8][9][10][11] His paternal grandparents were Irish, from County Mayo.[12] When Carney was six, his family moved to Edmonton, Alberta.[7] His father was the Liberal candidate for Edmonton South in the 1980 Canadian federal election, placing second.[13] His mother returned to university to pursue a career in education when Carney was ten.[8]

Carney has three siblings — an older brother and sister, Seán and Brenda, and a younger brother Brian.[7][11] Carney attended St. Francis Xavier High School,[14] before studying at Harvard University on a partial scholarship and financial aid.

Carney graduated from Harvard in 1988 with a bachelor's degree with high honours in economics;[7] he took postgraduate studies at the University of Oxford at St Peter's College and Nuffield College, where he received master's and doctoral degrees in the same field in 1993 and 1995, respectively.[15][16] During his Harvard years, he was backup goalie for the varsity ice hockey team[17] and was a roommate of future NHL general manger Peter Chiarelli and former ice hockey player Mark Benning.[18][19] Carney was also co-captain of the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club alongside David Lametti.

Financial career

Carney spent 13 years at Goldman Sachs[21] and worked in their Boston, London, New York City, Tokyo, and Toronto offices.[22] His progressively more senior positions included co-head of sovereign risk, executive director for emerging debt capital markets, and managing director for investment banking. He worked on South Africa's post-apartheid venture into international bond markets, and was involved in Goldman's work with the 1998 Russian financial crisis.[7]

In 2003, Carney left Goldman Sachs to join the Bank of Canada as a deputy governor.[23] One year later, he was recruited to join the Department of Finance Canada as senior associate deputy minister, beginning that role on November 15, 2004.[24]

From November 2004 to October 2007, Carney was the senior associate deputy minister and G7 deputy in the Department of Finance Canada. He served under two finance ministers: Ralph Goodale, a Liberal; and Jim Flaherty, a Conservative. During this time Carney oversaw the Government of Canada's controversial plan to tax income trusts at source.[25] Carney was also the lead on the federal government's profitable sale of its 19 percent stake in Petro-Canada.

Personal life

Carney met his wife, Diana Fox Carney,[116] a British economist specializing in developing nations, while studying at the University of Oxford.[8] She is active in various environmental and social justice causes.[117] The couple married in July 1994 while he was finishing his doctoral thesis.[118] They have four children and lived in Toronto before moving to the Rockcliffe Park neighbourhood of Ottawa and then moving to London in 2013.[7] They moved back to Ottawa when Carney left his role at the Bank of England in 2020. He is the godfather of Chrystia Freeland's son; Freeland ran against him in the 2025 Liberal Party leadership election.

Carney speaks some French. Carney is an Irish and British citizen in addition to holding Canadian citizenship. In 2025, Carney revealed that he is in the process of revoking his Irish and British citizenship.[125] Carney has distant relatives in Liverpool and is a supporter of the city's Everton F.C.[126] He is also a supporter of the Edmonton Oilers and the Edmonton Elks.[127] Carney completed the 2015 London Marathon in 03:45:22, which was 17 minutes faster than his time at the 2011 Ottawa Marathon.

Carney is a practicing Catholic.[130] In 2015, he was named as the most influential Catholic in Britain by The Tablet.

Publications

Carney published the book Value(s) Building a Better World for All in 2021. It was positively reviewed by John Ivison for the National Post[113] and by Will Hutton for The Guardian.[114] On May 13th, 2025, Carney plans on publishing the book The Hinge: Time to Build an Even Better Canada.

Political beginnings

According to Carney, in 2012, Prime Minister Stephen Harper asked Carney—who was then governor of the Bank of Canada—if he would join the Conservative government as minister of finance. Carney declined, stating in a February 2025 interview with the CBC that he felt it "wasn't appropriate" for him to proceed with the offer because he felt it was not right to "go directly from being governor into elective politics."[69]

In the 2013 Liberal Party of Canada leadership election, there was speculation that Carney would run. He ultimately declined to do so.

As he prepared to step down as governor of the Bank of England, Carney was appointed as United Nations special envoy for climate action and finance in March 2020.[71] In January 2020, UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson appointed Carney to the position of finance advisor for the UK presidency of the COP26 United Nations Climate Change conference in Glasgow.[72] At that time the conference was scheduled for November 2020, but it was later postponed to November 2021.[73] Carney also served as an informal advisor to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in 2020, advising him on the government's COVID-19 economic response.

Carney endorsed Catherine McKenney's candidacy for mayor of Ottawa in the 2022 mayoral election.[77]

In October 2023, he endorsed the UK Labour Party's Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves to be the next chancellor of the exchequer in a video following Reeves' speech at the Labour Party conference that year.[78] Following Labour winning the 2024 election, Carney was part of a taskforce which saw the creation of a British National Wealth Fund.[79]

On September 9, 2024, Carney was named by Justin Trudeau to chair the Liberal Party of Canada's leader's Task Force on Economic Growth.[80] His name was briefly mentioned upon the resignation of Chrystia Freeland as a possible candidate for finance minister in Trudeau's ministry.

Mark Carney

Nasir Ahmad el-Rufai CON (Listenⓘ; born 16 February 1960)[2] is a Nigerian politician who served as governor of Kaduna State from 2015 to 2023.[3] He had served as minister of the Federal Capital Territory from 2003 to 2007. El-Rufai also served as director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises.[4] He is a founding member of the ruling party All Progressives Congress.[5]

Early life, education and career

Nasir Ahmad El-Rufai was born on 16 February 1960 to a Fulani family in Daudawa. His father died while he was eight years old, and he was sponsored through his early schooling by an uncle.

El-Rufai was educated at Barewa College. As a junior at the college, future president, Umaru Yar'Adua, was the house captain of his dormitory.[7] In 1976, he graduated at the top of his class, winning the "Barewa Old Boys' Association Academic Achievement" Trophy.[8] El-Rufai studied at the prestigious Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, where he received a bachelor's degree in quantity surveying with first class honours.

In 1984, he received a Master of Business Administration from Ahmadu Bello University. He has since attended several professional and post-graduate programs, including the Georgetown School of Foreign Service of Georgetown University in Washington, D.C., and programs on privatization and leadership.

In August 2008 he received a law degree from the University of London; and a master's degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government of Harvard University in June 2009. He also received the Kennedy School Certificate in Public Policy and Management having spent 11 months as an Edward A. Mason Fellow in Public Policy and Management from July 2008 to June 2009.

In 2017, he enrolled in for a Doctorate Degree in Governance and Policy Analysis at the United Nations University - Maastricht Economic and Social Research Institute on Innovation and Technology in Netherlands.

Professional career

In 1982, he founded El-Rufai & Partners, a quantity surveying consulting firm with three partners, which he managed until 1998.[13] During the military juntas of 1983–1998, the firm received building and civil engineering contracts including during the construction of Abuja, making the partners "young millionaires".[14] In addition to his practice, El-Rufai held management positions with two international telecommunications companies, AT&T Network Systems International BV and Motorola Inc.

Early political career

After the death of military dictator Sani Abacha, his successor Abdulsalami Abubakar began planning the peaceful transition of power, he set up an advisory policy committee which was referred to then as "the presidents think tank" of technocrats to aid in demilitarising the entrenched public administration following years of military dictatorship in Nigeria. Abubakar appointed El-Rufai as an economic advisor on his team in 1998, he resigned from his private sector positions and spent the next year of the transition working primarily on issues with the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other financial institutions overseeing the national privatisation program and electoral finance for the 1999 presidential election.[10] On 29 May 1999, Abubakar transferred power to President Olusegun Obasanjo. In November 1999, Obasanjo appointed El-Rufai as the inaugural director of the Bureau of Public Enterprises,[15] and secretary of the National Council of Privatisation where he spear-headed the privatisation of several government owned corporations alongside Vice President Atiku Abubakar.

Governorship

On 29 May 2015, El-Rufai was sworn in as the 22nd Governor of Kaduna State.[37] In his inaugural address, he declared that he and his deputy were cutting their allowances by half pending an improvement in the state's fiscal situation.[38] On 6 August 2015, El-Rufai in one of his first acts as governor announced that Kaduna State will adopt the Treasury Single Account policy by 1 September of the same year.[39] At the end of the exercise, 470 accounts belonging to different ministries, departments and agencies were closed and a sum of N24.7 billion was recovered and remitted to the Kaduna State Government TSA with the Central Bank of Nigeria.

By blocking leakages and cutting the cost of running government, it is estimated that the El-Rufai administration was able to save N1.2 billion in just two months.[41] El-Rufai also reformed the civil service in Kaduna State and reduced the number of ministries from 19 to 13 and the number of permanent secretaries from 35 to 18.[42] In a bid to reduce the cost of governance, El-Rufai appointed only 13 commissioners, 10 special advisers and 12 special assistants as against the 24 commissioners, 41 special advisers and about 400 special assistants appointed by the previous administration.

As governor, El-Rufai has embarked on a comprehensive education reform with the goal of revamping the moribund state of education. El-Rufai sacked over 22,000 unqualified primary teachers.[45][3] El-Rufai's administration launched the School Feeding Programme, aimed at providing one free meal per day to 1.5 million pupils in public primary schools within the state.[46][47] He also abolished the collection of fees and levies in public primary and junior secondary schools in Kaduna, thereby removing a financial burden of N3 billion from the parents.

On 28 March 2020, El-Rufai tested positive for COVID-19, following contact with an index case.[49] He has placed a curfew in Kaduna State and restricted movement, to prevent the spread of the virus.

On 20 August 2020, Controversy arose on social media when the Nigerian Bar Association invited Governor El-rufai to speak at its annual conference. Thousands of Nigerians signed a petition on change.org to have Governor El-rufai's invitation revoked. The NBA succumbed to the pressure and disinvited the governor.[51] A report by Open Bar initiative cited eight reasons why El-rufai's invitation to the general conference was turned down. [52] Some of the reasons include his refusal to obey court orders in his case with Audu Maikori, threatening Gloria Ballason who was Maikori's lawyer and a report by Quartz (publication) Africa which named Governor El-rufai as the head of a "powerful" group of Nigerian governors who "now regularly use security agents to arrest and intimidate journalists who dare to question their actions or attempt to hold them accountable".

El Rufai granted pardon to 12 prisoners in Kaduna State, 10 of whom were nearing the end of their sentences, some of the pardons were also granted due to age. Additionally he reduced one prisoners death sentence to life in prison.[54] On 1 August 2023, he was screened by the Senate, following his nomination as minister by President Bola Tinubu.

Nasir El-Rufai

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU; French: Union Interparlementaire, UIP) is an international organization of national parliaments.[3] Its primary purpose is to promote democratic governance, accountability, and cooperation among its members; other initiatives include advancing gender parity among legislatures, empowering youth participation in politics, and sustainable development.

The organization was established in 1889 as the Inter-Parliamentary Conference. Its founders were statesmen Frédéric Passy of France and William Randal Cremer of the United Kingdom, who sought to create the first permanent forum for political multilateral negotiations. Initially, IPU membership was reserved for individual parliamentarians, but has since transformed to include the legislatures of sovereign states. As of 2020, the national parliaments of 180 countries are members of the IPU, while 13 regional parliamentary assemblies are associate members.[4][5]

The IPU facilitates the development of international law and institutions, strengthening the foundations and enhancing the vision for peace and the common good, including the Permanent Court of Arbitration, the League of Nations, and the United Nations. It also sponsors and takes part in international conferences and forums, and has permanent observer status at the United Nations General Assembly. Consequently, eight individuals associated with the organization are Nobel Peace Prize laureates.

History

The organisation's initial objective was the arbitration of conflicts. The IPU played an important part in setting up the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague. Over time, its mission has evolved towards the promotion of democracy and inter-parliamentary dialogue. The IPU has worked for establishment of institutions at the inter-governmental level, including the United Nations, an organization with which it cooperates and with which it has permanent observer status.

Amendments to the Statutes

Any proposal to amend the Statutes shall be submitted in writing to the Secretariat of the Union at least three months before the meeting of the Assembly. The Secretariat will immediately communicate all such proposals to the Members of the Union. The consideration of such proposed amendments shall be automatically placed on the agenda of the Assembly.

Any sub-amendments shall be submitted in writing to the Secretariat of the Union at least six weeks before the meeting of the Assembly. The Secretariat will immediately communicate all such sub-amendments to the Members of the Union.

After hearing the opinion of the Governing Council, expressed through a simple majority vote, the Assembly shall decide on such proposals by a two-thirds majority vote.

Inter-Parliamentary Union

Members and organization

Members

At its founding on 30 June 1889, the Inter-Parliamentary Conference had eight members: Austria-Hungary, Belgium, Denmark, France, Italy, Liberia, Spain, and the United Kingdom. The United States also attended but did not formally adopt the treaty of arbitration

The Inter-Parliamentary Union currently has 180 members.

• Regional parliamentary assemblies may be admitted by the Governing Council as Associate Members

• Every Parliament constituted in conformity with the laws of a sovereign State whose population it represents and on whose territory it functions may request affiliation to the Inter-Parliamentary Union. The decision to admit or readmit a Parliament shall be taken by the Governing Council.

It is the duty of the Members of the IPU to submit the resolutions of the IPU within their respective Parliament, in the most appropriate form; to communicate them to the Government; to stimulate their implementation and to inform the IPU Secretariat, as often and fully as possible, particularly in its annual reports, as to the steps taken and the results obtained.

As it can be seen on the map, mostly all the countries in the world have a parliament member of IPU, with the notable exception of the United States, although the 12th (1904), the 23rd (1925) and the 42nd (1953) conferences were hosted in the US.

In 2018, the Court of Appeal granted the EFCC’s request to challenge the Federal High Court’s ruling. However, the Rivers State Attorney General and the Speaker of the House of Assembly sought to nullify the appellate court’s decision by filing separate appeals at the Supreme Court.

A statement released on Tuesday by the EFCC’s Head of Media and Publicity, Dele Oyewale, said that during the proceedings at the Supreme Court on Monday, Justice Okoro questioned the nature of the appeals, describing them as interlocutory and not the kind of cases the apex court hears at this stage.

“The litigants’ lawyer, S. A. Somiari, SAN, argued that the appeal challenged the leave granted by the Court of Appeal for the EFCC to appeal the 2007 injunction. Justice Okoro, however, interjected, stating,
‘This is not the type of appeal we hear here,’ and advised the parties to return to the Court of Appeal to have the substantive appeal heard before approaching the Supreme Court.”

Recognising the court’s position, Somiari applied to withdraw the appeal, while the EFCC’s legal team, led by Abubakar Mahmud, SAN, alongside Sylvanus Tahir, SAN, and B. O. Obialo, did not oppose the withdrawal.
The Supreme Court subsequently dismissed the appeal.

“The appeal is dismissed, having been withdrawn without any objection,” Justice Okoro ruled.

He also stated that a similar appeal, filed by the Speaker of the Rivers State House of Assembly, was dismissed on the same grounds.

The Supreme Court of Nigeria has dismissed appeals filed by the Rivers State Attorney General and the Speaker of the State House of Assembly, effectively paving the way for the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission to investigate the tenure of former Rivers State Governor, Peter Odili.

In a ruling delivered on Monday, March 10, 2025, a five-member panel of the apex court, led by Justice John Okoro, upheld the leave granted by the Court of Appeal to the EFCC, allowing the anti-graft agency to challenge a long-standing perpetual injunction that had barred it from probing Odili’s administration.

Odili, who governed Rivers State from 1999 to 2007, secured the controversial injunction from the Federal High Court in Port Harcourt in 2007, preventing the EFCC from investigating, arresting, or prosecuting him, as well as scrutinising the state’s finances during his tenure.

The EFCC has fought to overturn the injunction since 2008, but the legal blockade had shielded Odili from its investigations for nearly two decades.

In 2018, the Court of Appeal granted the EFCC’s request to challenge the Federal High Court’s ruling. However, the Rivers State Attorney General and the Speaker of the House of Assembly sought to nullify the appellate court’s decision by filing separate appeals at the Supreme Court.

S’Court clears EFCC to probe Odili’s tenure as Rivers governor

Personal life

Tinubu married Oluremi Tinubu, who is a former senator representing the Lagos Central senatorial district, in 1987. They have three children, Zainab Abisola Tinubu, Habibat Tinubu and Olayinka Tinubu.[143][144] He fathered three children from previous relationships, Kazeem Olajide Tinubu (12 October 1974 – 31 October 2017), Folashade Tinubu (born 17 June 1976) and Oluwaseyi Tinubu (born 13 October 1985).[145]

Tinubu's mother, Abibatu Mogaji, died on 15 June 2013 at the age of 96.[146] On 31 October 2017, his son, Jide Tinubu, died in London.[147]

Tinubu is a Muslim.

Governor of Lagos State (1999–2007)

As a skilled political strategist, Tinubu survived the then ruling People's Democratic Party (PDP) massive takeover of the South Western States of Nigeria as the sole re-elected Governor of the AD. This led to frequent clashes with the PDP-controlled Federal Government, especially over his creation of 37 additional Local Council Development Areas for Lagos States. A Supreme Court ruling in his favor ordered the release of seized Lagos State Local Government funds.

During his 8 years in government, Tinubu initiated new road construction, required to meet the needs of the fast-growing population of the state. Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu, the Executive Governor of Lagos State, Nigeria (1999–2007), received numerous awards for his exceptional leadership. These include Best Governor in Nigeria for 2000 by the Nigerian-Belgian Chamber of Commerce, Y2002 Best Practices Prize for improving the living environment by the Federal Ministry of Works and the UN Habitat Group, and Y2000 Best Computerized Government in Nigeria Award by the Computer Association of Nigeria. He was also conferred with the Honorary Doctor of Law Degree by Abia State University for his contributions to democracy, good governance, and Nigeria’s development. Tinubu holds numerous chieftaincy titles and supports various professional and social organizations.[24]

Tinubu, alongside a new deputy governor, Femi Pedro, won re-election into office as governor in April 2003. All other states in the South West fell to the People's Democratic Party in those elections.[25] He was involved in a struggle with the Olusegun Obasanjo-controlled federal government over whether Lagos State had the right to create new Local Council Development Areas (LCDAs) to meet the needs of its large population. The controversy led to the federal government seizing funds meant for local councils in the state.[26] During the latter part of his term in office, he was engaged in continuous clashes with PDP powers such as Adeseye Ogunlewe, a former Lagos State senator who had become minister of works, and Bode George, the southwest chairman of the PDP.[27]

In 2006, Tinubu attempted to persuade the then-vice president of Nigeria Atiku Abubakar to become the head of his new party, the Action Congress of Nigeria (ACN). Abubakar who was a member of the People's Democratic Party (PDP), had recently fallen out with President Olusegun Obasanjo over Abubakar's ambition to succeed Obasanjo as president. Tinubu offered Abubakar the chance to switch parties and join the AC, offering him his party's presidential candidacy, with the condition that he, Tinubu, would be Atiku Abubakar's running mate. Atiku declined the proposition and, having switched to the AC, chose a running mate from the South East, Senator Ben Obi. Although Atiku ran for office on Tinubu's platform in the election, the PDP still won, in a landslide.[28]

Relations between Tinubu and deputy governor Femi Pedro became increasingly tense after Pedro declared his intention to run for the gubernatorial elections. Pedro competed to become the AC candidate for governor in the 2007 elections, but withdrew his name on the eve of the party nomination. He defected to the Labour Party while still keeping his position as deputy governor.[29] Tinubu's tenure as Lagos State Governor ended on 29 May 2007, when his successor and former chief of staff Babatunde Fashola took office as Lagos state governor.

Bola Tinubu

Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Adekunle Tinubu GCFR (born 29 March 1952) is a Nigerian politician who is serving as the 16th and current president of Nigeria since 2023.[1] He previously served as the governor of Lagos State from 1999 to 2007, and senator for Lagos West in the Third Republic.

Tinubu spent his early life in southwestern Nigeria and later moved to the United States where he studied accounting at Chicago State University. He returned to Nigeria in the 1980s and was employed by Mobil Nigeria as an accountant, before entering politics as a Lagos West senatorial candidate in 1992 under the banner of the Social Democratic Party. After the military dictator Sani Abacha dissolved the Senate in 1993, Tinubu went into exile and became an activist campaigning for the return of democracy as a part of the National Democratic Coalition movement.

In the first post-transition Lagos State gubernatorial election, Tinubu won by a wide margin as a member of the Alliance for Democracy. Four years later, he won re-election to a second term. After leaving office in 2007, he played a key role in forming the All Progressives Congress in 2013. In 2023, he was elected president, defeating Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi.

Early life and career

Tinubu was born in Lagos into the merchant family of Abibatu Mogaji, the Ìyál'ọ́jà of Lagos. He is generally accepted in reliable sources to have been born in 1952;[2] this year of birth is sometimes disputed by political opponents, who argue that he is much older. Some reliable sources note that his age has not been verified.

Tinubu attended St. John's Primary School, Aroloya, Lagos before proceeding to Children Home School in Ibadan.[5] Tinubu arrived in the United States in 1975, where he commenced undergraduate studies first at Richard J. Daley College in Chicago and then at Chicago State University where he majored in accounting and management. He worked odd jobs as a dishwasher, night security guard and cab driver to support himself through college.[6] He made the honor dean's list as an undergraduate and taught remedial class tutorials, some of his classmates credited his lectures for their improved grades. Tinubu was the university accounting society president in his senior year. His cumulative GPA was 3.54.[7] Tinubu graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration in 1979.

After graduating, Tinubu worked as an accountant for the American companies Arthur Andersen, Deloitte and GTE Services Corporation.[10][11] At Deloitte, he gained experience in auditing and management consultancy services for Fortune 500 corporations. He was a consultant for Saudi Aramco's joint venture partner National Oil, helping to establish their accounting and auditing system and leading to his first financial breakthrough.[12] Tinubu moved to London where he was recruited as an auditor for Mobil Oil UK before later joining Mobil Producing Nigeria Unlimited (now Seplat Energy[13]) as a senior company executive and treasurer in the 1980s.

Tinubu actively contributed and raised funds for community development programs in Lagos leading Primrose Group, a political action organization advocating for fundamental progressive changes in the state's politics during the Babangida administration. He later opted fully to enter politics in exchange for his lucrative job at Mobil.

Allegations of corruption

In 1993, his assets were frozen by the United States government as a result of a court case asserting that the American government had "probable cause" to believe Tinubu's American bank accounts held the proceeds of heroin dealing. He settled with the U.S. government and forfeited about $460,000 later that year. Court documents and later reporting on the case suggested he worked in league with two Chicago heroin dealers.

In April 2007, after the general elections, but before the governor-elect Babatunde Fashola had taken office, the Federal Government brought Tinubu before the Code of Conduct Bureau for trial over the alleged illegal operation of 16 separate foreign accounts.[138]

In January 2009, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission cleared Tinubu and governors James Ibori of Delta State and Obong Victor Attah of Akwa Ibom State of charges of conspiracy, money laundering, abuse of office and official corruption in relation to a sale of Vmobile network shares in 2004.[139] In September 2009, there were reports that the British Metropolitan Police were investigating a transaction in which the Lagos State government made an investment in Econet (now Airtel). Tinubu said the transaction was straightforward and profitable to the state, with no intermediaries involved.[140] The Federal Government rejected a request by Britain to release evidence needed for further investigation and prosecution of the three Nigerian ex-governors in a London court.[141]

During the 2019 election, a bullion van was seen entering Tinubu's residence on Bourdillion Road in Ikoyi, which caused him to later exclaim: "I keep money anywhere I want."