Economy
Senator Attai Aidoko Sir, Legal Quests or Legislation?
By John Paul
Recently, I embarked on a journey to Ugbamaka lgah, the ancestral home of senator Attai Aidoko representing Kogi East in the senate. Whirling the community without a glance on potential pay-off for producing a Senator of the federal republic, I resorted for interrogation and a retired police officer has this to say: “This is not river, but a stream.
The only stream sustaining our community and the neighborhood and it’s about four Kilometers away. Aidoko is far from our challenges because he only comes here in the night and disappear before dawn since he became a Senator. As you can see, we have no portable water, no electricity and other basic infrastructures.”
While the interrogation was still on, something struck my mind with the absence of morality in our leaders and I asked myself, why do people find pleasure in deceiving others? The senior citizen suddenly tapped and asked that I come with him. Lo and behold! I was taken to a large warehouse stocked with tricycles purportedly meant to electioneer Aidoko’s re-election bid in 2019.
Flash, Senator Attai Aidoko told us few months ago that he would not contest in 2019 as he will return to his farm in order to cater for his family but all doubt was cleared with events turning out from his camp within the last few days.
Sometimes I wonder if some of our leaders are sets of aggrieved people on vengeance. They are friendly while election is around the corner and once they are voted into power, they turned their back on the electorates.
I stumbled upon a media branded achievement of the Senator from inception to date and I scoffed knowing it’s fallacious and politically intrigued. Though it’s the usual shenanigans with Nigeria politicians especially when election approaches, but I don’t think it’s necessary to spend constituency allocation on tactics that is obviously irrelevant to the political curriculum of Senator Aidoko. Why? Because unlike his contemporaries, Aidoko only sleeps and merry with his concubines while the court delivers his mandate in his choice location.
What a digression of our democracy.
Come to think of it, why would Aidoko include electrification of Ikeje Igah to Ugbamaka in the projects he initiated when Ikeje has been electrified a year before he found his way to the corridors of power? As a matter of fact, Ikeje Igah’s electrification projects was initiated by the famous philanthropist Suleiman Babanawa in 2002.
Moreover, as a center to Okpo, Ogugu, Ugbamaka and Branch Obu, Ikeje town is located along Kogi – Benue – Enugu highways and it’s said to have been blessed with some basic infrastructures like schools, health care facilities and pipe borne water before our democratic rebirth.
Developing an already developed community in the face of others is abysmal. If Aidoko was in for the business he flaunts, it would have made more sense if suburbs like Igah gate, Igah Ocheba, Igah chechere, which lack virtually all the basic amenities, especially portable water, was considered.
Having watched helplessly while Kogi east legislative strides devalorize daily amidst national core issues, I put a call to some ‘behavioural scientists’ to find out what differentiates ‘psychological dispensation’ from action but they are yet to get back to me. Vision, they say, determines mission and mission determines action. The hypocrisy in the entire narrative of our legislative struggles is not far fetched; the man at the helm of affairs is formerly known for his indispensable slogan “Development of Igalaland is my priority”.
More delusive, Aidoko is also a major stakeholder in the so called ‘project save Kogi’. So, one may be tempted to ask, what has suddenly befallen this noble personality? Has power actually corrupted him or the so-called slogan was just a headway to political limelight?
The time is appropriate to pose this sacred question (Legal quests or Legislation?) before distinguished Senator Aidoko as further delay may write off Kogi east from Nigeria’s Geo-political zones. Judiciary they say is the last hope of a common man but for Aidoko, it’s an avenue to quiz justice against the people.
In 2015, Kogi East Senatorial mandate was grasped via election petition tribunal as Abdulrahman Abubakar of the ruling All Progressives Congress won the senatorial poll. Lending credence, he was given the certificate of return as member of the Nigeria Senate on the 3th of April 2015 and took oath of office in June 2015 conforming with electoral acts.
Six months later, Aidoko swirled into the Senate with a verdict from the state electoral petition tribunal siting in Lokoja asking Senator Abdulrahman Abubakar (APC) who polled 98,915 votes to relinquish for him as the flag bearer of the opposition party with 88, 994 votes. Efforts to appeal the injustice perpetrated against Abdulrahman was an exercise in futility as Aidoko, though has Alfa to contend with, bought his way in the entire process.
The legal battles between Aidoko and Alfa however came on the heel of nonconformity with party rules on individual mandate. While Alfa was anointed by his party with his mandate, Aidoko leveraged on his allotted court mandate.
To show that Alfa was also endorsed by the gods (ojo-ane), not only did he win the scheduled re-run, the pre-election suit had had Aidoko declared unqualified for the second time. But coercively, Aidoko flouted court judgement to remain in the senate regardless of whose ox is gored and the recent appeal he filed at the supreme court is just a guy-man making the street attractive for the next ten months when his tenure shall elapse.
Apparently, Aidoko has never been mandated by his constituency in the senatorial journey so far going by the above facts. He has never won election but rely on paid court orders to overthrow those who toiled every nooks and crannies of the constituency to woo voters.
It was reported online that Aidoko bribed four judges of the supreme Court with a whooping some of N100,000,000 each in order to halt it’s judgement on the pre- election suit by Isaac Alfa sometimes last year.
Space constraints may deter my urge to X-ray the saga between Air Marshall Isaac Alfa and distinguished senator Aidoko Ali Usman but one disgusting fact posterity may not allow if ignored is the fact that Alfa ambitiously gambled with Edward Onoja and cohorts in order to secure justice. But if I must balance the equation, Alfa’s last-minute move is just a tradition everyone must adopt especially if the business of politics must thrive. His concordat with Edward Onoja which hierarchically introduced the influence of the state governor, Minister of Justice and finally the presiding judge was a perfect political permutation. At least the mission was accomplished even though the future is uncertain.
Our democracy has been muddled. The business of legislation is now clustered in one-man’s show which neither regard the rule of law nor enforce common will. The judiciary has been cloned into private entity with the outputs favoring an individual.
Those accusing me of raising dust among our party men can now understand that Aidoko has no place in the heart of any party man or the PDP itself going by the odious selfishness and permutations that had reduced Kogi eastern legislation to a shit hole. How can Aidoko sit and watch while Dino Melaye and his counterpart from the central strive for Ajaokuta steel? How can we watch while our Constituency allowances is been diverted and use for legal cases? How can we fold our hands while myopically inclined, self-serving and self-aggrandizement hold sway to the detriment of common will and aspirations?
To prevent further rots, Aidoko and his handlers must be called to order, at least to explain their preferences between the hovering legal quests and legislative business. So that if the need be, we must shop for possible replacement. A black goat they say is better captured in the day time. (PROPHETIC declaration)
God Bless Kogi East.
John Paul, writes from Lokoja, Kogi State. He can be reached on 07064258752
Editor’s Note
The views and opinions expressed in this article are purely of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the position of Business Post Nigeria on the subject matter.
By Adedapo Adesanya
Oil prices fell on Wednesday after the United States’ attacks against Iranian military installations that aimed to limit its ability to strike shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.
Brent futures declined by $1.11 or 1.31 per cent to $83.62 a barrel, while the US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) futures lost 81 cents or 1.02 per cent to close at $78.53 a barrel.
Attacks worsened a supply disruption in the Strait of Hormuz, through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed prior to the war’s outbreak.
The US military said it had hit dozens of military targets near the strategic waterway and Iranian coastal areas in strikes lasting seven hours. In response, Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said on Wednesday it had struck American military targets in the region, including in Bahrain, Kuwait and Jordan.
The US military said its fresh strikes on Wednesday against Iran’s coastal defence systems and cruise missile storage and launch sites were “designed to further degrade military capabilities Iranian forces have used to attack commercial shipping in the Strait of Hormuz.”
The US alleged that said Iran had “intentionally” targeted civilians and attacked seven commercial vessels over the previous week, leaving roughly a dozen crew members dead, missing or injured.
The hostilities between Iran and the US reignited last week, breaking an already fragile truce reached in June after several months of fighting. The collapsed ceasefire precipitated a new crisis in the waterway, and Iran threatened to close all other export corridors that benefit the US and its allies.
The US Energy Information Administration reported a 1.7 million-barrel drop in US crude inventory last week. The American Petroleum Institute (API) had estimated that crude oil inventories in the US fell by 564,000 barrels in the week ending July 10.
Goldman Sachs estimated in a note that Gulf exports recovered to more than 80 per cent of pre-war levels after the US-Iran memorandum of understanding in June but slipped back below 50 per cent, or about 11 million barrels per day, over the last week.
The bank said Brent could exceed $110 in the fourth quarter this year if the Gulf export recovery continues to stall.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will, at the Commercial Bid Conference, announce the successful bidders for 50 oil and gas blocks in the 2025 Licensing Round on July 21, 2026.
The regulator said the conference would conclude an eight-month licence round that began on December 1, 2025, after President Bola Tinubu approved the exercise under the Petroleum Industry Act (PIA) 2021.
The commission said the 50 blocks include 15 onshore, 19 shallow-water, 15 frontier and one deep-offshore block, covering basins such as the Niger Delta, Chad Basin, Benue Trough, Anambra and Bida.
It said the round aims to attract about $10 billion in fresh investment and to unlock discovered but undeveloped fields, fallow assets and gas resources. NUPRC described the 2025 round as the third licensing exercise under the PIA framework and stressed it is designed to prioritise natural gas development.
NUPRC outlined a five-stage process for the round — registration and pre-qualification, data acquisition, technical bid submission and evaluation, and the commercial bid conference — followed by ministerial approval and contracting. The Commission said it notified pre-qualified applicants on March 16, 2026, and closed technical and commercial bids on June 12, 2026.
NUPRC chief executive, Mrs Oritsemeyiwa Eyesan, had said the selection would be merit-based and would exclude weaker applicants.
She said only candidates with strong technical and financial credentials, professionalism and credible development plans would advance, and that winners would be chosen on a weighted combination of technical and commercial scores.
To widen participation, the federal government fixed signature bonuses for the round in a prescribed range of $3 million to $7 million per block, the Commission said, adding that bids outside that range would be non-compliant and excluded.
NUPRC said it would resolve the tied highest bids within the range by conducting a sealed rebid for the signature bonus, adding that successful bidders will receive Petroleum Prospecting Licences (PPLs) and may elect either a Concession or a Production Sharing Contract (PSC) framework, noting that the choice of framework will determine fiscal terms for up to two decades.
The agency noted that bidders were required to present host community development plans and to commit to remit 3 per cent of operating expenditure to Host Community Development Trusts. It said decarbonisation objectives and broader environmental, social and governance (ESG) requirements were mandatory parts of submissions.
It warned that applicants with government debts, those that had previously failed to develop licences “vigorously and in a business-like manner,” or those found non-compliant with applicable laws could be disqualified at any stage.
The regulator said it expects ministerial approval and formal contracting between July and October 2026, after which awardees must execute concession contracts before licences take legal effect.
Recall that during the 25th Nigeria Oil and Gas (NOG) Energy Week in Abuja, the NUPRC issued PPLs to 12 companies across 19 blocks from the 2024 round. The Commission named recipients, including Boron Energy Limited, Energy Marketing and Supply Limited, Sahara Deepwater Resources Limited, Tulkan Energy E&P Company Limited and said that the exercise showed the licensing pipeline was functioning.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs Olu Verheijen, has said Nigeria requires about $38.3 billion in fresh investment to sustain current oil and gas production and achieve its 2030 output targets.
Speaking at the recently concluded 25th NOG Energy Week Conference and Exhibition in Abuja, Mrs Verheijen said global investors are now prioritising countries with predictable policies, competitive fiscal terms and credible regulatory systems.
“For Africa, that question is urgent. And for Nigeria, the scale of the task is equally clear: to sustain the current base and grow toward our 2030 production target, analysis shows a financing gap of about $38.3 billion,” she said.
According to her, the era when countries relied solely on resource endowment to attract capital has ended.
“Capital has no passport. It is rational. It prices risk. It follows credibility. It asks one question: can this country turn resources into bankable projects, and bankable projects into reliable returns?”
She said Nigeria had deliberately repositioned itself through reforms aimed at improving investor confidence and accelerating project execution.
“We recalibrated fiscal terms, clarified regulation and streamlined oversight. We introduced targeted incentives and cut contracting timelines by more than half. We made a clear statement to the world: Nigeria is no longer asking to be trusted; Nigeria is working to be bankable.”
Highlighting progress recorded under the reforms, Verheijen said Nigeria now has more than $50 billion worth of upstream projects in its visible investment pipeline.
“We now have more than 50 billion dollars of upstream projects in the visible pipeline. In the last three years, more than 10 billion dollars of long-awaited final investment decisions have come through.”
She added that crude oil and condensate production has increased by about 400,000 barrels per day since 2023, while onshore production is at its highest level in two decades.
“Crude oil and condensate production has risen by about 400,000 barrels per day since 2023. Onshore production is at its strongest level in twenty years.”
Mrs Verheijen said the Federal Government remains committed to achieving its target of producing three million barrels of oil per day and 10 billion standard cubic feet of gas daily by 2030, while strengthening Nigeria’s competitiveness in the global energy market.
She also highlighted ongoing reforms in the power sector, including the N4 trillion Presidential Power Sector Financial Reforms Programme, which she described as critical to restoring confidence across Nigeria’s electricity value chain.
On gas development, she said the government was expanding domestic LPG supply, improving affordability and supporting investments through tax and import duty incentives.
“A gas-rich nation cannot be comfortable when families are priced back to firewood, charcoal or kerosene,” she said.
Mrs Verheijen stressed that Nigeria’s ambition extends beyond exporting crude oil to building an industrial economy anchored on value addition.
“We have chosen not merely to produce molecules, but to convert molecules into megawatts, fertiliser, petrochemicals, mobility, manufacturing, jobs and exports.”
She concluded that the country’s reforms were laying the foundation for long-term growth despite lingering challenges.
“The age of Nigerian hesitation is ending. The age of Nigerian ambition has begun. Our task now is to turn reform into relief, capital into projects, projects into jobs, and energy into national greatness.”
