Feature/OPED

Buhari’s Tweet about CNN/BBC Report on The #EndSARS Campaign

Published

5 years ago

18/12/2020

By Jerome-Mario Utomi

The information in the public domain reveals that President Muhammadu Buhari on Wednesday, December 9, 2020, via a tweet stated that he was ‘disgusted’ by the coverage of the protest against police brutality done by the foreign media.

Buhari criticised the CNN and BBC for allegedly not rendering a balanced reportage of the protest tagged #EndSARS.

“I was disgusted by the coverage, which did not give attention to the policemen that were killed, the stations that were burnt, and prisons that were opened,” he had said.

To be sure, my first reaction to that tweet by Mr President was to seek the latest meaning of the word disgusted. And this is what I got from Wikipedia, the world’s information search engine. It says; disgusted is an emotional response of rejection or revulsion to something potentially contagious or something considered offensive, distasteful, or unpleasant.

In The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals, Charles Darwin wrote that disgust is a sensation that refers to something revolting.

Without dwelling further on the correctness or otherwise of CNN/BBC reports, as it is not the kernel of this piece, it is, however, important to underline that many commentators/analysts have but peripherally argued that Mr President enjoys prerogatives to feel disgusted over such report that dealt very strong blows on the reputation/image of a nation under his watch.

Indeed, while I appreciate their views that every great leader should be concerned about all form of dent targeted at the image of his/her society, group, state, region or nation, no matter how little, I chuckled at the claim by some that manipulators in the media especially influential news organizations like CNN/BBC, can intentionally ignore or downplay transgressions and prevarications on behalf of the people they agree with while making an enormous fanfare about any imperfections found in their perceived enemies.

Notedly also, even as their argument was not sufficient to push through their corrupt understanding of disgusted, coupled with the fact that Mr President claim that the CNN/BBC did not give attention to the policemen that were killed, stations that were burnt and prisons that were opened have since been found to be inaccurate, the whole episode have for two reasons left me lost in the maze of high voltage confusion.

First, no matter how long we live in denial as a nation, the Tuesday, October 20, 2020, Lekki Toll Gate tale where scores of protesters were reportedly shot at by shooters believed to be officers of the Nigerian military, will continue to resonate on the nation’s political wavelength until proponents of disorder develop courage and stamina to ask for forgiveness from Nigerian youths that they have wronged. Any other solution is at best temporal.

Secondly, this piece believed and still believes that, like every forest which has layers-ranging from the ground level and scaling up the heights, there exist articulated concerns in ways that render the content of Mr President’s tweet as misguided.

Separate from the belief by Nigerians with critical minds that the country is right now in its most fragile state since the end of the civil war, even if the President must for any reason feel concerned about any issue, he should have de-focussed on the #EndSARS debacle as the consequence of its poor management/handling has more than anything else presented his administration as a bunch that is unwilling to draw a lesson from its past mistakes/wrong leadership judgements. He should have rather concentrated more on fundamental issues such as the provision of security, education, infrastructure and pursuit of the economic welfare of citizens which are his constitutional responsibilities.

In fact, there are numerous examples of great leaders across the globe that in a period of crisis like ours, generated breakthrough ideas via a concentration on fundamental issues.

One of such leaders that naturally comes flooding of which President Muhammadu Buhari could draw a lesion form is Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirate and Ruler of Dubai.

He (Al Maktoum) on one occasion stated “there was a time we used to worry about the aftermath of the depletion of our oil resources, but these worries are dissipating. We have successfully diversified our economy by focusing on trade, tourism, services and creating new opportunities. We have succeeded because we mastered the art of exploiting the best resources in the world for acquiring inexhaustible riches.”

The ingrained lessons inherent in this comment is that while the Lekki Toll Gate narrative remains a sin that the federal government must continue to share from its guilt no matter the volume of excuses generated, it would have been considered more rewarding if Mr President in that tweet told Nigerians how his administration is tackling the offensive, distasteful, unpleasant and unacceptable, and nagging security and economic situations in the country.

He urgently needs to be familiar with the fact that the nation will continue to find itself stuck in difficulty accelerating the economic life cycle until his administration creatively contemplates diversifying, and focusing not on CNN/ BBC reports on Lekki Toll Gate shooting or its likes, but on trade, tourism, services, creating new opportunities and reduction in the cost of governance.

The need for diversifying the nation’s economy becomes imperative when one commits to mind that such a step will provide options for the nation to reduce financial risks and increase national economic stability: As a decline in particular revenue source might be offset by the increase in other revenue sources.

Same goes to the education sector. Mr President must redirect strength dissipated on gloating over CNN/BBC reports, to finding answers to the nation’s education sector that is on the progressive decline. And take pragmatic steps to fund the sector in ways that can bring back the kind of learning and nation envisioned by our founders. He must sincerely take politics out of education and feel concerned and remorseful that for over seven months Nigerian universities students of which youths composed a greater chunk of them have been at home, no thanks to the strike action embarked upon by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) and the inability of the Federal Government to meet with their demands.

This administration must take advantage of all the educational tools available to return us to a place where our public education system will be the envy of the world.

To use the words of Ben Carson, part of that education will include preparing people for jobs of the future, which will decrease unemployment and increase fulfilment while brightening future generations’ prospects.

Lastly, we should shine the bright light of truth on the forces of manipulation that run rampant throughout our society today. Improvements in education, combined with wisdom and knowledge, would then turn our country around’.

In conclusion, while this piece urges Mr President’s handlers to imbibe the culture of verifying information before circulating /dissemination as such is capped with the capacity to reduce citizens’ trust in the federal government, I hold the opinion that the government must do something to help the youths come out of this challenge. It Is in the interest of the government to develop the political will to help Nigerian youths. It is also in the interest of the government to address the issue of the millions of out of school children in the country. This should be done not merely for political consideration but from the views of national development, sustenance of our democracy and most importantly, averting future #EndSARS protests.

Jerome-Mario Utomi is the Programme Coordinator (Media and Public Policy), Social and Economic Justice Advocacy (SEJA), Lagos. He could be reached via; [email protected] or 08032725374.

Feature/OPED

AI and Cybercrime in Nigeria: Can Weak Laws Support Strong Technology?

Published

2 days ago

06/05/2026

Business Post Contributor

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]

Feature/OPED

Before Oil Hits $150: A Warning Nigeria Cannot Ignore

Published

3 days ago

05/05/2026

Business Post Contributor

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]

Feature/OPED

A Simple Guide to Obtaining Pension Clearance Certificate in Nigeria

Published

4 days ago

04/05/2026

Business Post Contributor

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]