The Grand Chief Imam of Oyo Land, Bilal Husayn Akinola Akeugberu, has reaffirmed the commitment of Muslims in the area to follow the leadership of the Sultan of Sokoto on all Islamic matters. Akeugberu stated this amid what he described as the resilience of Muslims in Yoruba land in the face of attempts by divisive elements, allegedly driven by political motives, to incite them against the leadership of the Nigerian Muslim Ummah. According to him, “The Ummah in Oyo Land will, by the will of Allah, follow the leadership of the Sultan in all Islamic-related matters.” He added that the…
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Dangote Petroleum Refinery has denied reports suggesting it imports finished Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) into Nigeria, describing the claims as misleading and inaccurate. In a statement on Monday, the refinery said publications attributed to S&P Global — and amplified through newspaper advertisements — misrepresented its operations and created a distorted picture of the country’s refining landscape. The company said the issue was addressed during an S&P Global forum held in the United Kingdom, where clarification was provided regarding its activities. It added that the forum acknowledged the refinery’s role in global refining developments following the explanation. ALSO READ Dangote targets…
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) will hold its 304th Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting on Monday and Tuesday, February 23–24, 2026. The schedule was disclosed in a circular published on the apex bank’s website on Monday. The meeting comes as the CBN continues efforts to contain inflation, stabilise the foreign exchange market and strengthen macroeconomic conditions. The MPC — the bank’s highest policy-making body — formulates monetary and credit policies aimed at maintaining price stability. Using instruments such as the Monetary Policy Rate (MPR), Cash Reserve Ratio (CRR) and Liquidity Ratio (LR), it guides interest rate conditions and overall…
Eleven Nigerian states have emerged as pacesetters in fiscal transparency after achieving full compliance with public finance disclosure indicators in a transparency scorecard tracking subnational accountability standards. The assessment, built around the States Fiscal Transparency League Table, evaluates the availability and accessibility of key fiscal documents, including approved budgets, citizens’ budgets, budget implementation reports, and audited financial statements. The exercise reflects growing efforts to institutionalise openness in public finance management and sustain reforms introduced under the States Fiscal Transparency, Accountability and Sustainability (SFTAS) programme. The initiative was designed to maintain momentum after the conclusion of the SFTAS intervention, which incentivised…
Nigeria’s persistent loan recovery challenges are no longer episodic banking problems. They reflect deeper structural weaknesses in the country’s credit system. This continues to undermine financial stability, limit credit expansion and slow economic growth. Increase in non-performing loans, repeated debt restructurings, and weak enforcement mechanisms have altered borrower behavior, which in turn is making loan default a rational economic decision rather than an exceptional event. Addressing this challenge requires fixing how credit is designed, enforced and incentivized across the banking system. Understanding this distinction is essential if Nigeria is to fix the problem. Loan default in Nigeria, a system failure, not…
Israel’s message to one of the intermediaries was that it would not participate in the US attack, and therefore asked Iran not to target it. This request was also met with a negative response from Iran, which explicitly stated that with the start of US military action, Israel would be attacked. This made Netanyahu threaten to attack Iran with a force “1,000 times more than they have known”, alluding to the use of nuclear bombs. The US and Europe have been, as part of their propaganda, telling whoever cares to listen that Iran would use the bomb if it had…
This weekend, the Emir of Machina, Alhaji Dr Bashir Albishir Bukar Machinama turbaned Dr. Kole Shettima as the Zanna Yuroma of the Emirate. This exalted position is only given to people with sufficient depth, maturity, sincerity and tact to talk truth to power. The onerous duty of the new Yuroma, therefore, includes warning the Emir if he engages on the wrong path. Dr. Shettima clearly has the qualifications to play such an important and delicate role and I wish him success in executing his role to the glory of Machina, Yobe and Nigeria.The turbanning was the crowning event in an…
The United States has reauthorized the African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) through December 31, 2026, with retroactive effect to September 30, 2025. The U.S. Trade Representative framed this as both continuity and a signal that AGOA will likely be reshaped, with stronger expectations around market access and alignment with current U.S. trade priorities. (USTR, 2026; Reuters, 2026). For Nigeria, this is not just a trade-policy update; it is a time-bound execution window. The countries and firms that move fastest on export readiness, compliance and buyer linkages are the ones that will turn this short extension into contracts, jobs and…
A few days ago, I had the opportunity to deliver a lecture on security and geopolitical dynamics in West Africa and the Sahel at the US Army War College in Pennsylvania. The lecture was delivered remotely from Accra, Ghana, with many of the participants (drawn largely from the ranks of Lt. Colonel and above) joining online because of the snowstorm that had hit the area. Like the lecture I delivered to last year’s cohort, this session was interactive, with participants asking important questions and making thought-provoking statements. Among the participants were several military officers from different countries. And so what?…
On 8 July 2021, I published a column examining what I then described as “the art of wearing two caps”—a reflection on Governor Mai Mala Buni of Yobe State’s ability to navigate the simultaneous demands of partisan political leadership and subnational governance. The argument in that essay was neither celebratory nor predictive. Rather, it was an inquiry into institutional balance: whether the burden of national political responsibility could coexist with focused attention to the quotidian, unglamorous work of state development. At the time, the conclusion was cautious. The essay noted discipline, timing, and restraint as key ingredients but stopped short…