Where is the subsidy money? This was the question Peter Obi, presidential candidate of the Labour Party (LP), in the February 23, 2023 election, posed to his host during an outing on The Morning Show, the breakfast programme on ARISE NEWS, Nigeria’s television network.

It was a question to underscore the promise President Bola Tinubu made when he told Nigerians that he would be deploying the proceeds from the removal of subsidy on Premium Motor Spirit (PMS), otherwise known as petrol to engage in massive development of infrastructure across the country.

The idea behind the thinking as contained in the reform structure signposting his Renewed Hope Agenda, is not only to cushion the immediate impact of the policy on the polity, but to evoke a quantum leap in the economy of the country. Of course, not a few have hailed the move as a bold step that underscored the President’s courage to dare to step into a forbidden ground where his predecessors feared.

But if any impact has been cushioned or the economy has been jumpstarted, two years on, it is in the imagination of the leaders of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Tinubu’s immediate cabinet, appointees, the hundreds of his appointees he has given jobs and of course state governors and members of the legislature, who are either themselves swimming in the deep ocean of unimaginable quantum of raw cash now suffusing the coffers of their individual states or are too scared of the now ubiquitous “Hurricane” the government of the day has created around itself to make as much as a whimper of protest.

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The rest of Nigerians not only see differently, but feel differently, having been at the receiving end from the moment Tinubu pronounced those three-letter words on May 29, 2023 at the podium of Eagle Square, Abuja, shortly after taking the oath of office to commence official duties as Nigeria’s 16^th President – subsidy is gone! To further deepen the ugly situation, the President also, followed up with the floating of the national currency, plummeting the value from N400 to N1,700 to a dollar.

Here is how the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), the main mouthpiece of organised labour in Nigeria attempted to capture the situation: “Instead of reinvestment, Nigerians got inflation so vicious that families now skip meals, businesses shut down daily, and transport costs consume what little remains of workers’ wages. The naira, left to the so-called ‘market forces,’ has collapsed in value, turning Nigeria into a bargain basement for neighbouring countries, while local industries suffocate under the weight of imported inflation.

“What makes this pain even more frustrating is that none of it is new. We’ve seen this script before – subsidy removals, devaluations, and IMF-approved austerity – each time sold as the bitter pill Nigeria must swallow for a brighter future. But when has it ever worked? These same policies under past administrations only widened inequality, enriched a few, and left the majority poorer. Tinubu’s version is no different – except the suffering is deeper, the anger louder, and the government’s response more brutal.”

But the wackiest part of the sad story is not captured in the massive pain the labour body captured or the oft-sung mantra of the President, luxuriating in in obvious wealth and making no bones about it urging Nigerians to be patient and give him time for the benefits to mature, which in itself instead of suggesting a genuine appeal, appears more of an insult and mockery.

No! It is not even much more in the fact that the President himself and those at the corridors of power are engaging in the level of obscene revelling never seen before of public officials in Nigeria – buying up everything under the sun – spending cash like drunken sailors – or competing in opulence that mimics Arabian kings or medieval monarchs.

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No! It is in the impunity – the utterly licentious – let the heavens fall attitude of it all, as captured in the cost of the projects being showcased in the so-called infrastructure gulping the Nigerian commonwealth in question and the inability of Nigerians not even make a whimper of protest. That is what rankles – like pouring vinegar to a festering sore.

Apart from Tinubu himself, nobody seems as culpable in this regard as Nyesom Wike, Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Those who name him the alternate President of Nigeria, may not be far off the mark, because in everything, the former Governor of Rivers State appears to copy Tinubu. The President is reputed to parade one of the longest convoys of cars in the world. Wike’s convoy is merely a few cars short. Tinubu bought a Cadillac Beast, Wike now appears at functions in latest Rolls Royce.

On Tuesday, Wike gathered the world to launch the newly-renovated International Conference Centre (ICC), now named the Bola Ahmed Tinubu International Conference Centre (BATICC) Abuja, at the cost of – wait for it N39billion. Everybody, including the President was there to celebrate. It is of course, one of the wonders Wike, the poster-boy of the Tinubu administration is doing in the FCT.

But as the backslapping and chest-beating were going on, it was obvious that nobody bothered to ask the basic question – what was the N39billion for? What could have been put in that structure to gulp such an amount? How much would a brand-new structure have cost? This was a structure that the military government of Military President Ibrahim Babangida built in 1991 at the projected cost of N240million, from the scratch. Granted that the Naira is almost valueless. But has become so worthless that the renovation of a mere building would cost that much?

That missing question is what we are asking today. Has Nyesom Wike been given a blank cheque? What level of financial scrutiny goes into these projects or is he immune from such assessment? Only on Monday, May 6, 2025, Tinubu presented a whopping ₦1.78 trillion proposal to the National Assembly as the FCT budget for the year. This was after the approvals of other humongous amounts for the same entity.

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We raise this issue because we believe it must go pari-passu with the celebration of the Minister as the poster-boy of the Tinubu administration for which he has earned the sobriquet – Mr. Projects – and an award to go with it from no lesser influential organisation than ARISE NEWS, Nigeria’s frontline television station.

While it is apposite to join other numerous Nigerians to pop the bottles and roll out the drums in celebration, the greater duty is to ask, how much of the mind-boggling financial accruals from the federal purse and the also huge internally-generated funds from Abuja, goes into actual project and how much goes into maintaining imperial lifestyle associated to him, including those highly dollarised apparels such as he spotted on Monday and fancy cars.

If renovating the residence of the Vice President at N21billion, parading state of the art cars in a convoy, driving to a function in the latest edition of Rolls Royce and renovating the ICC or now BATICC, originally built at N240million only 34 years ago at N39billion, is not criminal, we wonder what else qualifies. We won’t keep quiet!

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When in 2021, Peter Obi called attention to the indiscriminate borrowings of Muhammadu Buhari, the President of Nigeria, the reaction was instant as it was virulent. The former Governor of Anambra State, had pointed out to the President that his penchant for grabbing money from foreign and domestic lending institutions, was not only a bad behaviour, but completely dangerous to national health, because it was akin to mortgaging the future of the country and putting the children of the next generations in harm’s way.

Naturally, the quick riposte from Buhari and his men, was that Obi was jealous of the administration and the giant strides it was making and that his intervention was dangerous to the general health and wellbeing of Nigeria. In other words, he was effectively declared the nation’s number one enemy. In fact the noxious attacks against the former governor could have been likened to the venoms from the desert puff adder, a rock scorpion and the Amazon spider put together – more lethal than the poisonous gas that escaped from the Chernobyl nuclear plant in Ukraine.

But because truth was itself a buffer and the most potent antidote to such mortal poison, the barrage of attacks constituted little effect on him. Intriguingly, Obi’s, like that of John The Baptist in the wilderness calling for repentance to the Jews, was a lone voice calling attention of Nigerians to the danger ahead at a time many others including the so-called Nigeria’s celebrated economists, decided to switch to the silent mode.

From Lai Mohammed, the official spokesman of the government to the duos of Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu, the President’s spokesmen to the goons at the APC, and many more of their supporters at the Brantyre Wuse Secretariat, the remit, was to make a mincemeat of Obi and cast him as enemy of progress, as they echoed the oft-sung mantra of their principal – we’re building infrastructure.

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Today, where are the infrastructure that administration claimed they were sinking the billions of dollars they were borrowing from left, right and centre? The Port Harcourt Refinery, has become the perfect metaphor for the idea of resuscitating the nation’s four refineries. The railway project, another drainpipe of that administration remains comatose, confirming Obi’s fears whenever he asks – where are the infrastructures?

Of course, in connivance with their collaborators abroad, who for a clearly diabolical purpose, have ensured that these loans keep coming continuously, aware of the mindset of the recipients is not only the voracious appetite for lavish spending, undiluted corruption and the penchant to return the money to their banks, had to rig the 2023 election to ensure that Obi never came close to office to stop the stream of continuous sleaze.

So, what did the world see? With the first set of loans, President Bola Tinubu, like Buhari, went on a binge of spending, buying everything in sight. He suddenly remembered that the nation needed a N5billion yacht and that the Vice President needed a new lodge and gifted N21billion. Then, there was the need for a new Presidential jet to put him at par with his United States counterpart or the King of Saudi Arabia, who are Nigeria’s contemporaries.

Then, there was the home front to be taken care of. For that, some N2billion was devoted for the cars to ensure that the First Lady luxuriated around in optimum pleasure devoid of the impact of road craters. To ensure that the largesse went round, about 500 mint super-comfort, freshly-minted Sports Utility Vehicles (SUVs), were ordered from the automobile factories of Japan for members of the National Assembly.

Since then and two years on, the story has remained the same – streams of borrowings that seem to go into nothing outside pampering the palates of people in the corridors of power with Nigerians, whose children and grandchildren are supposed to repay the debts, left in the lurch, while their fortunes continue to plummet such that majority of Nigerian families now go to bed hungry.

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But the scary part has just arrived the scene. Like the python that goes for bigger preys as it increases in size, Tinubu has gone for the kill! Last Tuesday, he notified Nigerians of his intention to borrow a whopping N34.15 trillion.

Naturally, he port at his usual arena – NASS, his pliable ally in the entire macabre dance. In a letter to lawmakers at the Senate and House of Representatives, he sought approval for a new external borrowing plan of over $21.5 billion, which translates to N33.39 trillion at the official exchange rate of N1,590 per dollar as well as domestic bond issuance of N757.9 billion to settle outstanding pension liabilities.

Hear him: “The 2025–2026 borrowing plan covers all sectors, with specific emphasis on infrastructure, agriculture, health, education, water supply, growth, security, and employment generation, as well as financial and monetary reforms, among others.” Now, does this not sound familiar? Was this not the same mantra Buhari sang throughout his tenure that got Nigerian into this deep morass?

We must warn from the outset that this loan is a death sentence that must not be touched with a long stick. We say so because nothing in the borrowing of the last two years indicates that Tinubu is going to deploy the proceeds to the needed areas. Nothing suggests so. Recently, Babachir Lawal, former Secretary to the Government of the Federation (SGF), claimed that previous loans were shared before the got to Nigeria. Unfortunately, this is the dominant public position.

It is not surprising that the NASS appears in a haste to hit its rubberstamp on the proposal as usual. In both chambers, the matter was referred to committees dealing with the subject, with a mandate to report back in two weeks. That again bears a familiar tone. But before the gavel sounds to approve the request, the lawmakers must call the President to give a clear and comprehensive account of what he did with all the previous loans they approved for him.

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The answers to this must be the cogent, verifiable and justifiable reasons for the approval or rejection of the proposal. They must also call the President to question on where the money from the removal of subsidy on petrol has also gone. Nigerians were told that the reason for the move which Tinubu announced minutes after his inauguration on May 29, 2023, for which they have been experiencing the level of deprivation, poverty and pain nobody ever thought was possible, was because funds needed to be freed to pursue massive infrastructure development in the country.

Where are those infrastructures? Has anything been added to the rail infrastructure project Buhari left behind? Have Nigerian roads become smooth and clean that NASS members no longer need SUVs to navigate them? Have Nigerian hospitals and other federal institutions acquired the needed state of the art equipment that ensures that medical tourism will be reduced and made a choice and no longer a necessity?

If these are not evident, then the proper step to take at the moment is to ask Tinubu, where is our money? This question will not be answered by pointing at the four kilometres they have done on the Lagos – Calabar super highway or the students loan initiative that is currently reeking of accusations of massive corruption. It is not about the conditional cash transfer and other claims, which Nigerians see as more audio than real. These claims are too scanty and far in-between!

We are not taking this position because we are not aware of the propensity for Tinubu to muscle his way or because we are numb to a NASS that seems sworn to live fully by its tag of rubberstamp legislature. No, we want to put it on record that we did not keep mute when things are going south. Like Peter Obi was on record for shouting when Buhari embarked on his own binge, we must shout and put it on record that this loan is another reckless attempt by Tinubu that he has completely captured Nigeria.

Let it be known that we do not support this new loan, which only result is to plunge Nigeria further into excruciating pain and unlivable condition. It is bad for the health of the nation, both now and in future and must be rejected. NASS, reject this loan request. We need not say more!

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On Friday, May 23, 2025, a video surfaced on the social media showing Martins Vincent Otse, celebrated media influencer, otherwise known as Very Dark Man (VDM), with a group of young men at the Head Bridge, Onitsha home to the popular Onitsha Drug Market, which is reputed, like its parent Onitsha Main Market, to be the largest market in Africa, to be the biggest market for all sorts of medicines in the sub-continent.

Apparently frustrated by their ugly fate in the hand of the National Agency for Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC), they had reached out to Otse, who seems to have carved the niche of the voice of the powerless and oppressed in Nigeria – a clime where such voices now appear scant and far in-between even against an obviously bourgeoning sequence of official bad behaviours.

What is in issue? In February 2025, the agency had invaded the market and shut it down without warning, in one of the biggest operations of its anti-fake drug campaigns in recent years. During the operation, all the more than 5,000 shops were sealed. But intriguingly, if not strangely, the body did not only shut down the shops selling all manner of medicines, but also the ancillary markets – building materials, textiles, upholstery and all.

Expectedly, not only were the hundreds of thousands of traders directly linked to the primary trade of drugs were suddenly shut out of business but thousands more involved in support services – food vendors, hairdressers, hawkers, shoe-shiners and other artisans populating the market as the source of their daily bread, were equally denied the space.

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Amid the hues and cries, Peter Obi, former Governor of Anambra State, who had had to manage the same situation at a point when it was his remit as the Chief Executive, visited in solidarity with the traders and made a point that while it was apposite and critical for NAFDAC to carry out the operation, it must be done with human face.

For instance, he wondered what offence the ancillary agents in the market committed to warrant the closure of their businesses since they were not directly involved in the drug business, the raison d’etre for the agency’s operation, urging the body to consider the collateral damage in the number of families that could go without food, since many of them depend on daily incomes.

He argued instead that a complete closure not being the best option, the operation could go pari passu with those not in the immediate radar of the agency carrying out their businesses. But NAFDAC not only thumbed its nose at the suggestion, but had an ally in Charles Chukwuma Soludo, who rushed to Onitsha from Awka, so soon after to give fillip to its decision for the market to remain closed.

Now, it was obvious that the incumbent governor was sold to the counter arguments of the agency, one of which was that since the drug traders were hiding their fake products in the shops of the other traders in the market a total shutdown was the only option to achieving a complete cleaning up of the market and saving Nigerians from the sure death the evil traders were feeding them.

In fact, the daily reports of the seizure of fake drugs – some of them said to be some of the world’s most dangerous coupled with other eerier tales, which accentuated the cries of danger – to the extent that the suggestion of death sentence by Mojisola Adeyeye, Director General of the agency was easily bought by Nigerians, not only underscored the supposedly stark realities of the situation, but swallowed the feeble voices of the traders in the market that the operation was far something else and that the world was being sold a dummy.

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Now, what is the situation that brought in VDM into the picture? The traders in that video episode, revealed that NAFDAC has ordered each of them to pay a whopping N700,000 as condition precedent to reopen every shop. A quick calculation puts the total figure the agency could generate from the traders to well over N3.5billion for the 5,000 plus shops.

What is this money for? This was the question Otse asked the agency in that outing. Incidentally, not even the traders could offer any reason adduced by the regulatory body to make such a demand. To convince Nigerians that they are not lying, some of the traders, who had already paid, displayed receipts issued by the agency as proof.

Incidentally, what the world which had watched NAFDAC regale it with the terribly sordid tales of the atrocities of these evil merchants of death, is to come out with the final report of its investigation. This includes not only establishing where the truck-loads of the so-called fake drugs the excavated from these shops ended, but a disclosure of those involved.

Where are the culprits of this dangerous escapade and the drugs running into trillions of Naira, by its own admission? Three months is more than enough for NAFDAC to have broken its silence on the state of its operation. NAFDAC is not a private body as to claim that it has no obligation to make full public disclosure of its activities.

It becomes even more germane with this N700,000 revelation coming into the picture. We dare ask again, what is it for? Is it operational fee for cleaning up the market? Is it a penalty for the traders not doing the job hitherto? Is it official or the underwater deal in exchange for the traders to continue business as usual?

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Well, for now, it is better to adopt the option of circumspection until NAFDAC speaks on the matter. For all anyone could tell, the traders, might just be lying or skewing the tales to suit their own purposes or undermine the reputation of the agency, which has in the past posted a stellar performance in making Nigerian health system safer.

But we demand however that this reaction must be fast and immediate. Nigerians cannot wait and silent is not golden at this time. There had been many tales from the traders imputing that the regulatory agency is not smelling roses. For instance, it has been said that the so-called seized drugs, at the right price, end up back in the hands of their original owners or resold by the operatives who seized them to willing buyers.

In fact, the so-called cleanup operation is seen in many cases as scams, staged to hoodwink the public. It has also been alleged that managers of the agency are hands and feet into the mess of fake drugs business they claim to fight against and official sleaze runs writ-large in their daily affairs.

Aside from the high level of corruption trailing the NAFDAC operation, there is also the claim in high quarters that the instant operation is decked with ethic biases and that it is part of the ethnic-targeting of the current government of the All Progressives Congress (APC) against the Igbo people. This point was clearly made by VDM outing.

It does not lie in our mouth to disclaim or affirm either way. That burden lies with NAFDAC. Clearly, it is not a burden that will not be discharged by keeping silent. There must be clear evidence that it is neither playing hanky-panky as it is wont elsewhere nor targeting certain Nigerians. This must start with adducing cogent and verifiable reason for demanding this N700,000 from traders if actually it did so.

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Gladly, those who should speak out already doing so. Tony Nwoye, Senator representing Anambra North at the National Assembly has just called out the agency on the matter, demanding not only the immediate reopening of the shops, but explanation for money, which he sees as extortion.

While we find the intervention of the Senator highly commendable, we also call on Soludo to quickly intervene in the development and ensure that there is full disclosure to ensure that the people he supervises their affairs are not cheated out of their money. As an economist and in fact former Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), he should know what it means for a whopping N3.5billion to leave the economy of the state, especially when it goes into private pockets unjustly. We need not say more!

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