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Emilokan, propaganda economics and the gathering storm

Published

10 months ago

August 23, 2025

Whirlwindnews

By Ifeanyi Izeze

It is easier to talk if you don’t think, but if you think you will think thoroughly before talking, and when you talk, you will work. By now, if they have been thinking, it should be clear to President Bola Tinubu and operators of his government that ‘Emilokan’ (it’s my turn) is not an economic policy.

They claimed to understand the problem at hand, and the President himself told us not to sympathise with him: “don’t sympathise with me, don’t pity me. I know what I am getting into.”

It is tragic that government officials and their media surrogates have amplified only one soundbite from remarks, where Dr. Okonjo-Iweala credited the administration for “stabilising the economy,” while deliberately ignoring her more serious call for urgent measures to grow the economy and establish social safety nets for millions of Nigerian families suffering the negative impacts of the government’s reforms.

Okonjo-Iweala’s recent comments on President Tinubu and the Nigerian economy “have been seized upon by government officials and their media allies as if their scandalous implementation of hard reforms, which have condemned the majority of Nigerians to absolute poverty and destroyed millions of jobs, had received endorsement by the oracle herself. This is not correct.”

How do you reconcile a government flaunting wholesale outdated economic theories based on dogmatic declarations, whilst procuring endorsements of foreign experts to re-echo and applaud same regardless of the naked extremely contradictory worsening economic situation on ground starring everyone in the face?

Headline inflation remains unyielding, sitting at 22.22 percent as of June, with food inflation at 21.97 percent, meaning that millions of Nigerians are paying more, not less. Petrol prices now average N1,037.66 per litre, still a significant burden on households and small businesses.

The naira trades at around N1,530 to the dollar at the official window — drastically weaker than President Tinubu’s pre-reform levels of N460 — eroding purchasing power across the board.

It should be clear to the government that it is the Tinubu administration’s policy choices — irrational fuel-subsidy removal, naira devaluation, tariff hikes on electricity and transport and almost every other goods and services — that have triggered this distress and made social safety nets not optional but essential. Yet these social programs have either been administered haphazardly or rather dishonestly, suspended, or had negligible impact.

So when the African Democratic Congress (ADC) recently called on President Tinubu to fully confront the economic challenges facing Nigerians instead of “cherry-picking” comments made by World Trade Organization (WTO) Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, to score political points, those who are naïve took it as another opposition criticism. No, it is not at all, it was a clarion call for all it means.

That the federal government chose to ignore the real message in the comments by Okonjo-Iweala on the state of the Nigerian economy, instead prefering to celebrate the headlines is nothing but dodging to take responsibility for its actions or more aptly inactions.

It is very unfortunate that the Tinubu administration is more interested in “external validation” rather than taking responsibility for policies that have worsened living conditions.

Dr. Okonjo-Iweala knows that a stable economy is one that is growing in real terms, led by jobs and productivity. She knows that a stable economy is one that is able to guarantee minimum standards of living for the people.

How come the government chose to ignore what she is really saying that the economy is not growing, jobs are not being created, and too many people are suffering as a direct consequence of President Tinubu’s ill-conceived and badly implemented reforms?

The government seem to be deliberately ignoring that part of her message and celebrating only the superficial aspects that at best sounds like “propaganda economics” or more aptly another ‘Emilokan economic policy.’

Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 3.13 percent in the first quarter of 2025 and just above 3 percent in the second quarter, figures that could best be described as unimpressive compared to the administration’s promises of very strong recovery.

Are these numbers abstracts, no. They translate directly into hunger, joblessness, and despair for millions of Nigerians. The Tinubu administration’s policy choices, fuel subsidy removal, naira devaluation, tariff hikes on electricity and transport have unleashed untold hardship on Nigerians.

Every well-meaning Nigerian knows that celebrating the mere appearance of ‘stability’ is pyrrhic. Such candour from a global economic leader like Dr. Okonjo-Iweala underscores the urgent need for federal government policies that go beyond rhetoric and propaganda but addresses the daily harsh realities of millions of Nigerians under the APC-led Tinubu’s government.

Look at the CBN Governor, he thinks if he keeps raising interest rates he can fight inflation. What Cardoso is doing in CBN makes no sense as several economic experts have warned because what’s driving inflation in the country is factor cost and not the availability of credit.

The problem they have with the economy is that they went and devalued the currency and have the illusion of money in which case you will say at FAAC we used to share two trillion but now we share ten trillion but they failed to acknowledge that the present value of ten trillion is not up to the value when you were sharing two trillion simply because of the gross devaluation of the Naira.

As rightly said by a concerned Nigerian, they are simply not running the country, they’re doing business. They are business people and they don’t see us as citizens, they see us as their customers. So their mercantile approach prompts them to always see their customers and think how they can make more money from them and that’s why you see them taxing everything needed for life and basic living.

They are not willing to comply with Chapter Two of the Nigerian Constitution which stipulates how governance should be done in the country. What’s the responsibility of government? Call anybody in government, they are not responsible for anything. The minister of Water Resources is not responsible for whether you have water or not, the minister of Education is not responsible for education outcome whether the students pass or fail WAEC/NECO or Jamb. The minister of Health is not responsible for live expectancy or medical outcomes. We have people who are in power but they are not in government because they are not governing.

According to a recent report by the National Bureau of Statistics, FDI to Nigeria sharply declined by about 70 per cent in the first quarter of 2025, falling to only $126.29 million from $421.8 million in the last quarter of 2024. Of the total capital importation of about $5.64 billion in the first quarter of 2025, FDI accounted for only about 2.24 per cent, compared to 8.2 per cent in Q4 2024.

Of course how do you expect sustainable economic growth and development to be achieved under the current poor leadership and weak governance structure -problems that are clearly reflected in declining FDI and our poor performance in key governance indicators.

To further illustrate our precarious situation, capital flows to the manufacturing sector declined exponentially by 32.1 per cent, dropping to only $129.92 million in Q1 2025 from $191.92 million in the same quarter of 2023. There is no better confirmation of the lack of trust in this government, whose reforms remain uncoordinated and largely reactive.

Available statistics show that in 2024, while global FDI flows declined, FDI to Africa significantly increased to $97 billion — a rise of about 75 per cent compared to 2023. Europe, the United States, and China were the main sources of this FDI. Egypt attracted the highest share in Africa, with $46.58 billion. Other top recipients included Ethiopia ($3.98 billion), Côte d’Ivoire ($3.80 billion), Mozambique ($3.55 billion), Uganda ($3.30 billion), Democratic Republic of Congo ($3.11 billion), South Africa ($2.47 billion), Namibia ($2.06 billion), Senegal ($2.02 billion), Guinea ($1.83 billion), and Morocco ($1.64 billion).

Most disappointingly, our dear nation, Nigeria — the so-called “Giant of Africa” — received only $1.08 billion, about 1 per cent of Africa’s total FDI, representing a decline of about 42 per cent from 2023. Worse still, after this 42 per cent drop between 2023 and 2024, FDI to Nigeria has further declined by 75 per cent between Q4 2024 and Q1 2025.

Whether anybody wants to hear it or not, we cannot achieve sustainable growth and development with ineffective leadership and a weak government. This is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. God bless Nigeria!

Ifeanyi Izeze writes from Abuja and can be reached via email iizeze@yahoo.com or phone +2348033043009.

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BREAKING: Court sentences Nigerien, two others to death over terrorism

Published

3 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Justice Muhammad Nuraddeen Bello of High Court sitting in Sokoto State has sentenced three men, including a foreign national, to death by hanging, after convicting them on charges bordering on terrorism and arms proliferation.

The convicts, Yusuf Muhammad (alias Sallau), a Nigerien; Jabbi Alhaji Yalle; and Kabiru Muhammad, were apprehended on 13th June, 2025, by the Department of State Services (DSS) Counter Terrorism Unit in connection with cross-border criminal activities bordering on arms trafficking and terrorism.

Bello, who found all three defendants guilty as charged and sentenced them to death by hanging, while also ordering the forfeiture of all monetary exhibits recovered from the convicts to the Federal Government, said: “The conviction is the latest in a series of successful prosecutions by the DSS in its sustained operations against terrorism and organised cross-border criminal networks across Nigeria.”

The sentencing is coming about two weeks after the Federal High Court sitting in Abuja sentenced each of the five suspects arrested on May 31, 2026, by the DSS for their involvement in the November 21, 2025, attack on St Mary’s Catholic School, Papiri, Niger State, to 25 years’ imprisonment.

Justice Binta Nyako, had handed down the judgment after the men, including two Nigeriens, pleaded guilty to all four terrorism-related charges, bordering on support for the commission of an act of terrorism, breaching both Section 16 of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022, and the Firearms Act, were pressed against them.

According to Count One, the men were accused of jointly conspiring to assist a terrorist by agreeing and intentionally playing various roles towards conveying 15 AK 103 rifles as well as about 1,434 rounds of 7.62mm live ammunition from the Diffa region, Republic of Niger, to one Malam Ahmad, a member of the Boko Haram terrorist group based in Borgu, Niger State, and thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 26(1) of the Terrorism (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, 2022.

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BREAKING: Primate Ayodele to pay Kwankwaso N10billion over Obi betrayal claim!

Published

3 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

Primate Elijah Ayodele, is on the verge of coughing out a whopping N10billion, if he fails to offer unrestrained apology to Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, former Governor of Kano State within the next 24 hours, and retract his claim that the former Minister of Defence is bidding his time to betray Peter Obi, to whom he is to contest the 2027 presidential election as a running mate.

Without doing so, the controversial cleric, should be ready for a major court battle with the vice-presidential candidate of the Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC), the platform on which the pair is to contest the election.

In a letter indicating a legal action against Ayodele of the INRI Evangelical Spiritual Church over defamatory remarks, Kwankwaso, through Magaji Mato Ibrahim, SAN & Co., his lawyers demanded an immediate retraction and apology from the cleric over the allegations.

Details of the letter, dated June 11, and unveiled through the X platform of the legal team, was based on a viral video recorded during a live-streamed church service, where the preacher made allegations targeting Kwankwaso’s integrity as Peter Obi’s running mate under the NDC.

Quoting the cleric as stating: “KWANKWASO IS A FAKE TO OBI, KWANKWASO WILL BETRAY YOU. KWANKWASO HAS BEEN PAID TO BE VICE PRESIDENT TO OBI AMONG OTHER LIBELOUS COMMENTS WHILE PRETENDING TO BE A PREACHER,” the former governor said the comments were unprovoked, grossly unfounded, and carefully designed to create a rift within the ranks of the political party and its supporters.

Handing Ayodele a 24-hour ultimatum to publish a full and unequivocal retraction across all social media platforms and news outlets with the same prominence as the original video, they also demanded a written undertaking that he would cease and desist from making any further malicious statements against their client, warning that failure to comply, would lead to full legal actions.

The letter stated: “We shall claim substantial damages to the tune of Ten Billion Naira and cost of the action on a full indemnity basis amongst other reliefs.”

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Exploitation of African minerals must stop now – Tinubu *Demands local processing

Published

3 days ago

June 24, 2026

Whirlwindnews

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu on Tuesday demanded the immediate end to the exportation of minerals from countries in Africa in their raw forms, which he said had led to massive exploitation of the continent.

The President, told member countries of the African Minerals Strategy Group (AMSG), a forum of Ministers in charge of Mining and Solid Minerals on the continent to speak with one voice to promote, collective interests, ensure value addition, and prevent the continent from becoming merely a source of raw materials for the rest of the world.

As the Grand Patron of the group, chaired by Dele Alake, Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals Development, gave the charge while receiving a delegation of AMSG in the State House, Tinubu told the delegation that the group had a critical role to play in strengthening Africa’s bargaining power in the global mineral market and ensuring that the continent derives maximum value from its natural resources.

His words: “ What we should do is avoid bureaucracy and deceit; we must put an end to exploitation. The rest of the world won’t mind if your country is a cesspit of dams and rubbish and excavates your raw materials without giving value.

“It is our responsibility to collaborate and cooperate to ensure that these metals and minerals bring value to us, bring technology to us, and we can do it. It is how much each country will put into the research, development and refinery. I don’t see reasons we cannot demand centralisation of that conversation somewhere on the continent. So why not utilise that in our research and development and knowledge-based economy to enhance the quality of life and bring prosperity to our people.”

Emphasising that Africa possessed enormous mineral wealth that should be strategically harnessed to drive industrialisation, create jobs and accelerate economic transformation across the continent, the President, said the era of exporting raw minerals without local processing and beneficiation must give way to a new model that encourages investment in local industries, technology transfer and the development of value chains that retain wealth within Africa.

Alake, who had earlier expressed gratitude to the President for his exemplary leadership under the Renewed Hope Agenda, said the gesture had shown support for Nigeria’s mineral sector, especially in the local value-addition and economic diversification drive, where artisanal miners are empowered.

He told the President: “You encouraged us to look at the focal point of the establishment of this group, which is to ensure that the African natural resources, especially with regards to minerals, critical matters, are localised, the beneficiation coming directly to Africans generally.

“You charged us that we should set our sails very high and ensure that local value addition is a pivot around which all the objectives of this organisation should revolve.

“So, sir, we have gone implemented your charge and we are quitted that today local value addition is reverberating all over Africa.”

He added that some member countries have gone ahead to ban the export of raw minerals.

He explained members of the body were in Abuja for the Fifth edition of the African Natural Resources and Energy Investment Summit (AFNIS 2026), to push for a new continental approach to resource management and industrial development.

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