Feature/OPED
Letter to New Administrator of Presidential Amnesty Programme Dennis Otuaro
By Jerome-Mario Utomi
Going by torrents of positive reactions and optimistic commentaries that trailed your recent appointment as the Administrator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP), it is evident that President Bola Ahmed Tinubu spoke the minds of Niger Deltans by providing an answer to protracted demand as head of PAP, a development-minded fellow who understands the yearnings of the people, respected by the people and lives around the creeks.
Again, aside from the above defining requirements, if someone unfamiliar with the region and its dynamics is asked to evaluate these commentaries that flow from your appointment, such a fellow may hastily and peripherally conclude that the orchestrated reaction was elicited by your intimidating academic feat which includes but not limited to; possession of a Doctorate Degree (PhD) in Comparative Politics and Development Studies from the University of Benin, which he pursued from 2016-2019. Master of Public Administration and another MSc in International Relations from the same university, earned in 2008-2009 and 2007-2008, respectively well as a Bachelor of Science in Political Science Education from Delta State University, obtained from 2001 to 2005, among others.
However, a more critical appraisal of your endeavours further signposts that your influence goes beyond academic achievements to include the fact that during the height of the crisis in the region, you were reportedly in the Creeks, advocating for a better deal for the people and possessed a rich and comprehensive understanding of the Niger Delta Region.
The tone of congratulatory messages by different groups further gives credence to this assertion.
Beginning with a statement by the Ijaw Youth Council IYC, Western Zone, which spans Delta, Edo and Ondo States, it applauded President Tinubu for the appointment which it described as “a breath of fresh air”, noting that President Bola Tinubu took a “bold step” in appointing Dr. Dennis Otuaro as the Coordinator of the Presidential Amnesty Programme (PAP). The statement which was signed by Dr Doubra Okotete and Omoghomi Olu-Derimon, Chairman and Secretary respectively, the group said the appointment has brought great relief to Niger Deltans, Otuaro being the first Delta Ijaw to be appointed into the PAP office’.
In a similar vein, the youths in Arogbo Ijaw ethnic nationality in Ondo state, under the banner of the apex youth council observed that the appointment serves at the pleasure of the youths in the region, as Mr President, Bola Ahmed Tinubu, has promptly replaced the former interim Administrator of the programme, who had been due for substitution regarding some anomalies in the office.
Expressing confidence that the new PAP coordinator, who is a product of the Niger Delta struggle, will move the programme forward, the IYC assured of its readiness to work with him to address the problems bedevilling the region.
The above comments signify two things; one, your appointment has again shown clearly that ordinary calculation can be upturned by extraordinary personalities. Secondly, the ancient argument of whether circumstance or personality shapes events is settled in favour of the latter.
Also working in your favour in my view is the established familiarity with the oil-rich Niger Delta Region and profound commitment to improving the region and the lives of its people which has not only made you a key figure but a man with a grand vision for the region.
Beyond these acclamations, this piece however, believed and still believes that if truly a people-purposed leadership is what you seek, if accelerated economy of Niger Delta youths is your goal, if promoting peace, supporting skill developments among youths of the region are your dreams and forms your objectives, then, you need to study history, study the actions of your predecessors, to see how they conducted themselves and to discover the reasons for their victories or their defeats so that you can avoid the later and imitate the former.
Regardless of what others may say, leadership knowledge is gained by probing the past and using the knowledge derived to tackle the present. Or, analysing the present and using the information gained to predict the future.
Notably, flagrant disregard for public opinions, ignoring advice/admonitions from stakeholders and groups, and paying no attention to political and socioeconomic concerns expressed by the people are but some vivid examples that set the stage for failures in the past. It is equally painfully true that PAP has witnessed protracted leadership that ‘enjoyed’ a penchant for ignoring advice, warning signals, and inability to read the political handwriting on the wall.
Also prominent among the reasons for the past failures was the barefaced illusion on the part of some leaders that they were more patriotic than the other stakeholders and a disproportionate view of appointment as a personal right. This baffling disposition, more often than not prepares the ground for exercising power and responsibility, not as a trust for public good but as an opportunity for private gains and therefore, must be avoided by your administration to record resounding success.
Acting as a boost to the above fuelling failures is the excruciating poverty and starvation in the region which drives more people into the ranks of the beggars, whose desperate struggle for bread renders them insensitive to all feelings of decency and self-respect and in some cases makes many to applaud and endorse policies harmful to their interests.
Without a shadow of a doubt, it is a fact that youths in Delta, Edo and Ondo States and more acknowledge you as an astute administrator and resource manager who fits the bill, it is also a statement of fact that others described your appointment as a round peg in a round hole of which the entire Niger Delta youths are happy with the development.
The above declarations and endorsements notwithstanding, the appointment in the objective view of this piece could be likened to the proverbial new invention which usually comes with both opportunities and challenges.
Essentially, it is an open secret that the Niger Delta region is a big geographical location with complex challenges. Also troubling which you are aware is that expectations from your new office are always at an all-time high. This point partially explains why you must accord the office the needed attention that it deserves.
Also unique is the hidden consciousness that these expectations are coming from teaming supporters with varying shades of interest.
Take, as an illustration, a group recently wrote; that we are sending our voices and still congratulating you strongly from Canada and the United Kingdom. All and some of us also from the Philippines, strongly believe in working with you in any positive platform to ensure that your office meaningfully trains students on the most viable career paths and to develop education that encompasses skills, academics and entrepreneurship development.
In your own time, we want Niger Delta to feel the positive impact of education. We will give our best support to feed your office with positive information from the diaspora. Honestly, people like us will strongly work with you. Once more congratulations, they concluded.
Another group has this to say; ‘you should see this as a call to serve and avoid the obvious mistakes of his predecessors, as well as avoid the pitfalls, distractions and the trappings of office and concentrate on delivering on the mandate of the programme for the benefit of those it is intended for. We are ready to work with the new coordinator to achieve the desired result, knowing he can deliver.”
Yet from another group; “Our advice to him is to remain focused and avoid name droppers who don’t mean well for the region and his immediate focus should be on key areas capable of restoring the beneficiaries’ confidence that the programme is meant for them. Finally, it is pertinent to drop a reminder that the amnesty programme is key to maintaining peace in the region and as such, must see his appointment as a call to contribute to achieving such peace,”.
For me, these are objective admonitions.
Therefore, as you settle down to serve the people of the Niger Delta region and Nigeria as a whole, one point you must not fail to remember is that the entire Niger Deltans are solidly behind you. But in the interim, more reforms need to be made and more policies need to be put in place to assist complete the sustainable settlement of the targeted beneficiaries of the programme.
Congratulations Sir.
Utomi Jerome-Mario is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Policy) at Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via [email protected]/08032725374
By Nafisat Damisa
Introduction
The proliferation of generative AI has transformed Nigeria’s cybercrime landscape, enabling deepfake fraud, automated social engineering, and AI-enhanced phishing at scale. In early 2024, scammers using AI-generated deepfake videos impersonating a company’s CFO defrauded a Hong Kong finance worker of $25.6 million. As similar threats emerge in Nigeria’s fintech sector, this article examines whether the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015 (as amended 2024) is legally adequate, or whether Nigeria’s evidentiary and accountability frameworks are too weak to support effective prosecution of AI-driven cybercrime
Current Legal Landscape
Nigeria’s primary legal framework on preventing cybercrime is the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act 2015, amended in 2024 to address cryptocurrency transactions, cyberbullying and various forms of digital misconduct. Complementary frameworks include the National Information Technology Development Agency Act 2007, the Nigerian Data Protection Act 2023, and sectoral regulations such as the CBN’s Risk-Based Cybersecurity Framework. However, the majority of these frameworks were issued far before now, and emerging risks like AI-driven threats are not really being addressed. The Act nowhere mentions “artificial intelligence,” “algorithm,” or “autonomous system.” Notably, the National Artificial Intelligence Commission (Establishment) Bill, 2025, is currently pending before the Senate. If passed, it would establish a dedicated commission to coordinate AI strategy, research, and ethical deployment. However, the Bill in its present form focuses primarily on development and innovation promotion, with limited provisions on criminal liability, evidence handling, or enforcement against AI-facilitated cybercrime, leaving the core accountability and evidentiary gaps largely unaddressed.
AI as a Double-Edged Sword
AI paradoxically enables both defence and attack. Nigerian financial institutions deploy AI for real-time fraud detection and pattern recognition. Conversely, cybercriminals exploit generative AI for deepfake creation, automated credential stuffing, and convincing phishing tailored to Nigerian English and Pidgin. The same technology that powers fraud detection systems can be weaponised to evade them. Take justice delivery as an example, the Evidence Act 2011 (as amended 2023) admits computer-generated evidence under Section 84, but remains silent on AI’s capacity to seamlessly generate or alter electronic records, creating “doctored AI-generated evidence”. These and many more issues await Nigeria’s digital space in the coming years.
The Legal Gaps
There are multiple critical gaps that undermine AI governance. For this article, three are considered. First, no framework attributes criminal liability when an autonomous AI commits an offence. The question of whether the developer, user, or owner should bear criminal responsibility for the acts of an autonomous system remains entirely unanswered under Nigerian law, leaving prosecutors without a clear legal theory of culpability.
Second, Section 84 of the Evidence Act 2011 governs computer-generated evidence but does not address AI-generated outputs. The Act’s definition of “computer” excludes AI’s cognitive processing capabilities, creating a statutory blind spot where evidence produced by generative or autonomous systems falls outside the existing admissibility framework.
Third, Nigeria lacks any framework for mandatory AI-generated content labelling, impeding deepfake traceability. Computer-generated evidence under Section 84 of the Evidence Act 2011 remains admissible if unchallenged at trial, a dangerous precedent for AI evidence, as opposing parties may lack the technical capacity to mount any challenge at all.
Comparative Jurisdictions: Rich Laws, Tangible Results
Jurisdictions with advanced AI laws demonstrate clear outcomes. The EU AI Act (Regulation 2024/1689) mandates transparency obligations, requiring synthetic content labelling and informing individuals when interacting with AI systems; non-compliance triggers significant penalties. The US Algorithmic Accountability Act of 2023 is a proposed Act that will require impact assessments for high-risk AI systems in housing, credit, and employment, with FTC enforcement and a public repository. China implemented mandatory measures for the Identification of AI-generated (Synthetic) content. These rules, mandated by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) and others, require explicit (visible labels) and implicit (watermarks/metadata) identification for all AI-generated text, images, audio, video, and virtual scenes to ensure transparency, traceability, and combat disinformation. These laws contribute to measurable results: forensic traceability, expedited prosecution of deepfake fraud, and clear liability chains. Nigeria has none of these.
Hope or Illusion?
Without legislative intervention, AI’s promise against cybercrime remains an illusion. Nigeria requires the following to boost its hope:
- Amendment of the Cybercrimes Act to include AI-specific offences and mandatory content provenance standards;
- Revision of Section 84 of the Evidence Act 2011 to address AI-generated evidence credibility, not merely admissibility;
- Investment in digital forensic capabilities is currently hampered by inadequate enforcement, weak forensic capabilities, and a lack of specialised personnel; and
- A risk-based framework drawing from EU and US models.
- Review of both secondary and tertiary education curricula to address the knowledge gap in AI and prepare the next generation for the AI-driven future.
Conclusion
AI can help curb cybercrime in Nigeria, but only if legal capacity catches up with technical capability. The Cybercrimes Act 2024 amendments were a step forward, but they did not address AI accountability, algorithmic transparency, or evidentiary credibility. The pending National Artificial Intelligence Commission Bill, 2025, signals legislative awareness, but without substantive provisions on liability, evidence, and enforcement, it cannot fill the existing gaps. The effectiveness of existing frameworks remains a question. An optimistic but cautious path exists, but until Nigeria enacts AI-specific legislation, whether through amending the Cybercrimes Act, revising the Evidence Act, or strengthening the pending Bill, weak laws will remain unable to support strong technology.
Nafisat Damisa is a Legal Research Associate in Olives and Candles – Legal Practitioners. For further information, enquiries, or clarification, please contact Nafisat via: [email protected] or [email protected]
By Isah Kamisu Madachi
As of April 30, 2026, the crude price is said to have reached $125 in the global market. The all-time high price per barrel was recorded in 2008, when it surged to $147. It is obvious that the price is heading in that direction or even towards what experts have predicted — crude reaching a new all-time high of $150 in the near future if crude passages remain closed in the Middle East, which would ultimately come with several disproportionate challenges for businesses and households.
In Nigeria, what began as a mild adjustment in the price of gasoline and other refined crude products has not stopped anywhere until it reached N1,400 per litre of petrol at filling stations. When the price was surging, experts in energy, economics, marketing, business and other relevant fields tried to come up with explanations for how Nigeria, despite housing the largest petrochemicals refinery in Africa and being one of the largest oil-exporting countries on the continent, would continue to absorb this shock.
Despite our advantages, Nigeria recorded the world’s second-highest surge in petrol prices following the escalating geopolitical tension in the Middle East. In Africa, Nigeria has the highest spike, with many sources citing it at 39.5% and above. Even non-oil-producing countries in Africa, and countries that do not refine a drop of oil, did not experience this surge. Also, African countries like South Africa at 1%, Morocco at 2.1%, and Tanzania at 2.7% experienced far smaller increases that are nowhere near Nigeria’s.
To put it in context, South Korea, Japan, and China are among the foremost dependents on the Strait of Hormuz, whose closure escalated the crude price, but none of these countries has recorded even a 20% increase in their petrol prices. Nigeria does not import its crude through the Strait of Hormuz. Yet, as an oil-exporting nation, we have suffered some of the sharpest petrol price increases in Africa.
What went wrong in Nigeria to warrant this surge is not the primary focus of this piece. What lies ahead is. As a result of the increase in petrol prices, Nigerians have been disproportionately affected. Life has become unbearably difficult, with sharp increases in transportation costs, rising food prices, and higher costs of goods and services. Even charging points that used to collect N150 for charging a phone or battery now charge N300 or more.
As it stands, the gap between the current crude price and the predicted new all-time high is about $25. This means that if the passages continue to remain closed, we are not far from another historic price peak. It is even said that reopening the passages may not immediately stabilise prices, as crude tankers would still take time to reach their destinations.
What this means for Nigeria is another sharp increase in refined petroleum product prices, which could trigger another wave of stagflation. Already struggling, Nigerians do not deserve this. They are only just adapting to the post-subsidy era, yet are being hit again by another round of global geopolitical tensions. Many are already in deep energy poverty, with businesses struggling due to unstable electricity supply.
Therefore, as crude oil prices hover above $125 per barrel and threaten to reach the predicted $150 if disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz persist, Nigeria must act decisively to shield its citizens. The Dangote Refinery exists. Nigeria refines oil. What the federal government owes Nigerians at this point is a deliberate policy decision to make that the refinery serve domestic needs first, with pricing that does not mirror whatever is happening in the global market. That is not complicated; other oil-producing countries do exactly this.
The NMDPRA has the authority to act on this. The question is whether there is a political will to act before another price wave hits and Nigerians are once again left to absorb what their counterparts elsewhere never have to.
Sub-national governments also have something to do. Commercial motorcyclists and small business owners are the people who feel every petrol price increase the hardest and the fastest. Pushing CNG and LPG adoption among this group beyond the FCT and Lagos, with genuine support, would cushion a significant part of the next shock. Expanding solar access in underserved communities would do the same. A shop owner running on solar is not at the mercy of the next diesel price spike.
These solutions are quite feasible. Nigeria has attempted versions of them before. Where we often seem to get it wrong is in execution, and Nigeria has to treat this with the same urgency and seriousness as given to elections, for the well-being of its citizens. The only thing that has never matched the problem is the seriousness of the response.
Isah Kamisu Madachi is a policy analyst and development practitioner. He writes via [email protected]
By Gbolahan Oluyemi
In 2025, the National Pension Commission (PenCom) directed all Licensed Pension Fund Operators (LPFOs) to demand a Pension Clearance Certificate (PCC) from service providers before engaging their services. This new policy typically affects various types of entities, including small and medium-scale enterprises, most of which are not usually compliance-driven. Following this directive, the PCC has become an essential compliance document for both large, medium and small-scale firms. This article provides a guide on what a PCC is, why it matters, and how it can be obtained.
What is a Pension Clearance Certificate (PCC)?
A Pension Clearance Certificate (PCC) is an official document issued by PenCom confirming that an organisation has complied with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act. It is an annual document that must be renewed every year at no cost. The yearly renewal is intended to ensure that organisations treat compliance as a continuous activity rather than a one-off act.
Why is a PCC Important?
The PCC is important because it demonstrates that an organisation is compliant with the provisions of the Pension Reform Act, especially as it relates to employee pension contributions under Section 4 (1) of the Pension Reform Act and subscription to group life insurance under Section 4 (5) of the Pension Reform Act. It is also required for certain transactions, such as government contracts and engagements with compliance-sensitive partners. In essence, a PCC assures investors, partners, and clients that your business is properly structured and compliant with regulatory requirements.
Who Needs a Pension Clearance Certificate?
Under Nigerian law, companies with three or more employees are required to participate in the Contributory Pension Scheme (CPS). If your organisation employs at least three staff members and provides or intends to provide services to Licensed Pension Fund Operators (LPFOs) or other regulated entities, you are expected to obtain a PCC annually.
How Do I Obtain a PCC?
PenCom issues the PCC electronically and at no cost through its web portal: https://pcc.pencom.gov.ng/. Please note that Applicants who are just beginning compliance and remitting employees’ pensions are required to first obtain an employer code from a Pension Fund Administrator (PFA). This code is necessary to initiate the PCC application on the PenCom portal.
Upon logging into the portal, you will be required to complete your company profile by providing your date of incorporation, contact details, and website (if applicable), as well as uploading your CAC documents.
Next, you will upload an Excel schedule (using the template provided on the website) containing your employee list. After this, you will be required to upload Excel sheets detailing pension contributions. You will also need to upload your organisation’s group life insurance documentation and payment instrument.
Finally, you will review your application and submit it for further processing by PenCom. Before commencing an application, ensure you have the following:
- Certificate of Incorporation (CAC documents)
- Group Life Insurance Policy for employees
- Evidence of Pension Fund Administrator (PFA) registration for employees
- Three years’ proof of monthly pension remittances, including penalties for any defaults (where applicable). For companies less than three years old, provide proof of remittances from the date of incorporation
- A valid Tax Identification Number (TIN)
- An employee schedule showing staff details and contributions (usually in Excel format) Templates are available on the PenCom portal
Also note that for the portal to accept employee details and remittance records, employees must have completed their data capture with their respective Pension Fund Administrator and updated their records to reflect their current employer.
Conclusion
Obtaining a Pension Clearance Certificate in Nigeria may seem technical at first, but once proper processes are established, it becomes routine. The key is consistency in remittance, maintenance of accurate records and prioritisation of compliance in overall operations.
For many Nigerian businesses, the PCC is more than a regulatory requirement; it is a mark of credibility. In a competitive environment, that credibility can make all the difference.
Gbolahan Oluyemi is a Legal Practitioner and currently leads Olives and Candles – Legal Practitioners. For further information, enquiries, or clarification, please contact Gbolahan via: [email protected] or [email protected]
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