General
72nd UNGA: Presidency Says Fake Buhari Speech in Circulation
By Dipo Olowookere
The presidency alerted Nigerians of a speech purportedly delivered by President Muhammadu Buhari at the ongoing United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in the United States of Amercia (USA).
In a tweet early Tuesday, the presidency said on Twitter that Nigerians should disregard the said post advising the UN on the need to restructure the global body.
“There’s a fake speech circulating online as the text of President @MBuhari’s #UNGA Address, to be delivered Tuesday. Please DISREGARD it,” the post from the verified Twitter account @NGRPresident (Presidency Nigeria), said.
President Buhari is among the leaders to speak at the UN General Assembly today.
This year’s debate theme is ‘Focusing on People: Striving for Peace and a Decent Life for All on a Sustainable Planet.’
Below is the fake Mr Buhari’s speech:
The president of the United Nation’s General Assembly,
Your Excellencies,
Heads of States and governments,
Distinguished Delegates,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
On behalf of the government and people of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, I congratulate you, Mr President, on your election to preside over the 72nd session of the United Nations’ General Assembly.
I also wish to express my country’s appreciation to the Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr Antonio Guterres, for his steady leadership and this body’s dedication to the search for a peaceful and equitable world through the charter of the United Nations.
Every year, we gather here to deliberate on the affairs of the world. Sometimes we implement what we talked about and move humanity an inch closer to that ideal relationship as members of the world community.
At other times, we have our talks and end up not implementing anything to the disappointment of millions and millions of people around the world who look up to this body to provide leadership in a world that is constantly oscillating between advancement and doom.
In all of these, we often forget that what we have accomplished in the last 72 years is unprecedented in the annals of human history.
The world may be badly governed, but the fact that there is a form of governance agreed upon by all is an accomplishment in and of itself.
So, I congratulate us all. Mr President, as we say in Nigeria, he who does not look ahead remains behind. Our charge now is to aspire to make this world better for the next generation. We, the generation that knows how the world was before the United Nations was formed, must bequeath to those coming behind us a better United Nations that would be in a position to deal with the challenges of tomorrow.
To accomplish that, we need to fast forward the reformation long proposed in this chamber. To restructure or not to restructure is no longer the question – the United Nations must be restructured for it to remain relevant in years to come. How to restructure the United Nations should be our priority number one.
Several ideas are out there. All that we need is to get them together and agree on what works for majority of the people of this world.
As a leader of one of the leading African nations, I want to see a United Nation’s Security Council that is expanded to have one or two African permanent members with veto powers. It is a fair thing to do – one that will benefit the world by giving it a chance for a more balanced outlook to matters of importance to us all.
As we have learned in Nigeria, sometimes you need to change in order to remain the same. It is the first principle of renewal. In the continent of Africa, the post-colonial era is going into a new phase. In another generation, there would not be any African alive who could remember when European powers once governed Africa.
That emerging generation is creating new challenges for the African order left behind by the colonial powers. My generation is managing that challenge with the hope of leaving behind nation states that are less prone to crisis. We cannot continue to pretend that conflicts that emerged as a result of our colonial heritage have been resolved.
Across our continent, they are still there. In some cases, bad governance is exacerbating these conflict points. Here are some of the things we are doing to make sure that we bequeath to the upcoming generations of Africans a continent that is healthy, wealthy and well-grounded in law and order.
We are close to enshrining in the African Union’s creed the fundamental principle of democracy, which says that a credible people’s mandate should determine who governs any nation across Africa. We are taking it a step further by pushing to make that mandate limited.
We believe that Africa has numerous talents and no man or woman should be in the leadership saddle for an inordinate time. We are also working hard to expand the African market and open it up for our people to benefit from the free flow of goods, services and knowledge across the continent. It is the only path to prosperity for over one billion people in Africa yearning for opportunities to show the world the potentials they have.
As Africans, we will continue to build partnerships across the world. As we stretch our hands out for friendship, we do so with the expectation that our hands would be met not with pity and charity but with respect and dignity. Africans have a lot to offer the world, not just its minerals and human potentials. We are committed to resetting that old perception with a new one that proclaims Africa as a land ready for business.
Those who have taken the steps to invest in Africa can attest to the mutual benefit that comes with it. In areas of infrastructural developments, research and security, we urgently need a respectable and mutually beneficial partnership with the world. Integration of the continent and expansion of prosperity can only come when there are good roads, constant electricity, clean water and descent healthcare for our people.
The United States government, The European Union, private investors and non-governmental organizations are getting involved in these ventures.
Africa will continue to welcome the world in every enterprise that will uplift our people. It is only when we add value and build capital that we will reduce the grim statistics of Africa’s child mortality rate from preventable deaths.
It is only then that we can reduce deaths on the Mediterranean Sea of African youths running away from conflicts and poverty. The challenge is ours. We accept the responsibility. As in the past, we know that we do well when we share skills and expertise. That was how we were able to work together with partners around the world to reduce the AIDS epidemic. That was how, in the last two decades, we were able to defeat diseases like polio, tuberculosis and ringworm in several parts of Africa. Africans have always been appreciative of the assistance we receive.
We have also paid back to the international community with our involvement in Peace Keeping missions across the world. Mr President, on matters of security, there is no gainsaying that when one part of the globe is insecure, all parts of the globe become potential victims of that insecurity. The activities of several extreme groups jeopardize not just the nation where they emanated but everyone far and in-between.
The free movement of fighters and weapons has all but made the issue of security a global problem. As we have learned in Nigeria, you compromise the security of the whole when components of the sum are not fully valued, appreciated and integrated with the whole.
We in Africa have been partners in the quest for a secure world. We will continue to be committed to the mission until all threats to peace across the world are eliminated. In Nigeria, we have degraded the capability of the Boko Haram terrorist group. We are on the path to eliminating the last of their safe heavens.
We have also secured the release of some of our abducted Chibok Girls. We are working hard to secure the release of the rest and to finish the job of closing the Boko Haram chapter and get the North East of Nigeria back to a peaceful region that it used to be.
Along this line, Mr President, we at the United Nations need to do more to bring about a more equitable world where a large group of people does not feel suppressed, undervalued and alienated. Last year, I talked about the need for Palestinians to have their own state. Progress has not been made on that matter in the past one year. It is one of those problems that we must not punt to another generation. Any glaring unfairness, like the Palestinian case, diminishes our moral authority to preach and lecture the world on other cases.
As we have learned in Nigeria, our stubborn self-righteousness blocks our ears from hearing the cry of those that we left on the fringe of society and blocks our eyes from seeing and reading the handwriting on the wall. In the urgent matter of the nuclear stand-off with North Korea, we hope that calm heads prevail. And as our ancestors say, that the disobedient fowl does not wait to be put into a pot of soup before it obeys.
We in Africa hope that North Korea and, indeed, all the nations with nuclear weapons will hasten to eliminate them all. We don’t aspire to have nuclear weapons in the continent of Africa, the cradle of mankind. We will preserve Africa in case the nuclear-armed nations of the world decide to destroy themselves in their so-called mutual assured destruction.
Should that happen, be assured that there will be a place in Africa for those of you who will be lucky enough to survive your self-inflicted annihilation. While we do not wish for that, we have this saying in Nigeria that, “na when soldier slap you, you go sabi say police na your friend.”
Mr President, Nigeria is always willing to work with the United Nations and other international organizations to advance human progress.
May the United Nations continue on its challenging task of being an instrument for peace, and may the goals that this General Assembly “for peace and a decent life for all on a sustainable planet” be accomplished in our time.
Thank you all for listening. Muhammadu Buhari, President, Federal Republic of Nigeria
By Adedapo Adesanya
The federal government, the 36 state governments, and the 774 local government councils (LGCs) in the country have share N1.424 trillion from a gross revenue of N2.310 trillion recorded in the month of December 2024.
This was disclosed by the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) at its December 2024 meeting chaired by the Minister of Finance and the Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Mr Wale Edun.
The funds shared comprised Gross Statutory Revenue, Value-Added Tax (VAT), Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and Exchange Difference (ED), with the sum of N84.780 billion removed for the cost of collection and N801.175 billion allocated for transfers intervention and refunds.
The total revenue distributable for December 2024 was drawn from statutory revenue of N386.124 billion, VAT of N604.872 billion, EMTL of N31.211 billion, and exchange difference of N402.714 billion.
It was disclosed that the federal government received N451.193 billion, the states got N498.498 billion, the local councils shared N361.754 billion, and the oil-producing states were given N113.477 billion as 13 per cent derivation of mineral revenue).
In a communique issued by FAAC after the meeting, it was stated that the gross revenue available from the VAT was N649.561 billion as against N628.973 billion distributed in the preceding month, resulting in an increase of N20.588 billion.
From that amount, the sum of N25.982 billion was allocated for the cost of collection and the sum of N18.707 billion given for transfers, intervention and tefunds.
The remaining N649.561 billion was distributed to the three tiers of government, of which the federal government got N90.731 billion, the states received N302.436 billion and councils got N211.705 billion.
Accordingly, the gross statutory revenue of N1.226 billion received for the month was lower than the sum of N1.827 billion received in the previous month by N6.988 billion.
From the stated amount, the sum of N57.498 billion was allocated for the cost of collection and a total of N782.468 for transfers, intervention and refunds.
The remaining balance of N386.124 billion was distributed as follows to the three tiers of government: federal government got the sum of N167.690 billion, states received N85.055 Billion, the sum of N65.574 billion was allocated to LGCs and N67.806 billion was given to the beneficiary states as 13 per cent derivation.
Also, the sum of N31.211 billion from EMTL was distributed in the period under review, with the central government getting N4.682 billion, the states receiving N15.605 billion, the local councils getting N10.924 billion, and N1.300 billion allocated for cost of collection.
It was further revealed that from the N402.714 billion from exchange difference, the federal government received N188.090 billion, states got N95.402 billion, and the councils got N73.551 billion, while the oil-producing states shared N45.671 billion.
FAAC disclosed that VAT and EMTL increased significantly last month, while oil and gas royalty, CET levies, excise duty, import duty, Petroleum Profit Tax (PPT) and Companies Income Tax (CIT) decreased considerably.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (FMAFS), in collaboration with the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC), is finalising plans to introduce a digital farmer registry via the Government 2 People (G2P) card initiative.
The National Identity Number (NIN) enabled card initiative will address the Federal Ministry’s immediate challenges of identity and authentication, required to deliver government services efficiently and accurately, according to a statement jointly issued by Mr Joel Oruche, Director of Information, FMAFS and Mr Kayode Adegoke, NIMC’s spokesperson on Thursday.
The statement added that the programme seeks to address existing barriers to effective government programs, ensuring that aid reaches the right beneficiaries.
The partnership will, “leverage the National Identity Management System to power the Ministry’s farmer registry by the linkage of the NIN and attendant biometric identity data of each farmer to their farmland, as well as all necessary supporting data relating to that farmer, including the size of the holding, type of crops or livestock.”
Connecting the NIN-backed registry to the G2P card will allow for the provision of targeted and ring-fenced aid to the farmers and other recipients of government benefits under the FMAFS programmes.
“The G2P card ecosystem is an initiative that allows for the issuance of NON-enabled cards by Federal Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), and enables the use of the card’s frontend by these MDAs for their respective programmes. The key feature of the ecosystem is a biometrics card with multiple wallets that can provide verifiable identification and also process transactions without internet connectivity, allowing the Ministry to support beneficiaries in the most remote locations. The card is unique to each citizen, and every Nigerian and legal resident is eligible to obtain it, banked or unbanked. The G2P card will be owned by and personalised to each MDA that adopts its usage.
“By adopting this card, FMAFS can uniquely identify all farmers, provide multiple agriculture services through the card in a manner that eliminates risks and fraud and also provide end-to-end visibility within the agriculture value chain thus enabling scalability. Agriculture services to be provided through the card include farmer financing, input distribution, farmland mapping linked to identity, extension services monitoring & evaluation and agency banking as well as multiple types of third-party services.
“Within this framework, NIMC will provide the foundational identity ecosystem to FMAFS, who as the owner of both the farmer registry and G2P card scheme will provide government services via the issued G2P cards, tailored to the needs of the farmers supported by the Ministry at the national and sub-national levels.
“The G2P card has a large capacity in-card chip that stores beneficiary identity, know your customer (KYC), picture, and fingerprints. In addition, it has two applets and several wallets dedicated to multiple types of programmes, which provides the flexibility and channels needed for multiple interventions to be implemented against the same unique identity. This flexibility is required to address infrastructure challenges limiting identity verification and digital evidence of beneficiary access when implementing government programmes,” the statement revealed.
The G2P biometric cards will be processed through a bespoke but interoperable biometrics Point of Sale (POS) acceptance device, which requires biometrics to access and operate which will allow the Ministry to better deliver services and programmes in any location regardless of infrastructure challenges.
The card will operate as a digital wallet/ prepaid card and it is tailored for government transactions such as subsidies, loans, welfare disbursement, pensions and other activities carried out by FMAFS.
“With the G2P ecosystem, any programme implemented by the Ministry can now be administered independently and showcased through digitally enabled dashboards displaying key data on how each programme has been efficiently implemented or otherwise,” the statement added.
By Adedapo Adesanya
The Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) will arraign the Chairman of Honeywell Group, Mr Oba Otudeko, and three other defendants on Monday, January 20, 2025, over an alleged fraud worth about N12.3 billion.
The anti-graft agency on Thursday filed a 13-count criminal charge against the respected businessman and others. They will be brought before Justice Chukwujekwu Aneke of the Federal High Court, Lagos next week.
Mr Otudeko will be arraigned alongside a former Managing Director of First Bank, Mr Olabisi Onasanya; a former member of the board of directors of Honeywell Flour Mills Plc, Mr Soji Akintayo; and a company linked to Mr Otudeko, Anchorage Leisure Ltd.
All four were listed as defendants in the suit filed by an EFCC prosecutor, Mrs Bilkisu Buhari-Bala, on January 16, 2025.
The EFCC alleged the four committed fraud in tranches of N5.2 billion, N6.2 billion, N6.150 billion, N1.5 billion and N500 million, between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos.
In proof of the charge against the defendants, the EFCC intends to call representatives of First Bank, including Mrs Cecelia Majekodunmi, Mr Ola Michael Aderogba, Mr Abiodun Olatunji, Mr Raymond Eze, Mr Abiodun Odunbola and Mr Adeeyo David, all of whom are expected to give evidence of the fraudulent misrepresentation of the defendants and tender relevant documents.
The agency will also rely on the testimonies of representatives of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), Stallion Nigeria Limited, and V-tech Dynamics Ltd.
Also included in the EFCC’s list of witnesses are one Ms Farida Abubakar and Ms Adaeze Nwakobi.
Some of the Counts
According to the commission, the offences contravene Section 8(a) of Advance Fee Fraud and Other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and were punishable under Section 1 (3) of the same Act.
Count 1 of the charge says that Chief Oba Otudeko, Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, Soji Akintayo and Anchorage Leisure Limited between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired amongst yourselves to obtain the sum of N12,300,000,000.00 (Twelve Billion, Three Hundred Million Naira Only), from First Bank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for by V- Tech Dynamic Links Limited and Stallion Nigeria Limited, which representation you know to be false, and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 8(a) of Advance Fee Fraud and other Fraud Related Offences Act 2006 and punishable under Section 1(3) of the same Act.
In Count 2, it was alleged that the defendants, on or about 26th day of November, 2013 in Lagos, “obtained the sum of N5.2 Billion from First Bank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for by V Tech Dynamic Links Limited which representation you know to be false.”
The 3rd count claims that the defendants, between 2013 and 2014 in Lagos, obtained N6.2 Billion from First Bank Limited on the pretence that the said sum represented credit facilities applied for and disbursed to Stallion Nigeria Limited, which representation you know to be false.”
Count 4 reads, that you, Chief Oba Otudeko, Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, Soji Akintayo and Anchorage Leisure Limited on or about 26th day of November 2013 in Lagos, within the jurisdiction of this Honourable Court conspired amongst yourselves to use the total sum of N6,150,000,000,.00 (Six Billion, One Hundred and Fifty Million Naira Only.), which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of your unlawful activities to wit: Obtaining by False Pretence and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Sections 18(a), 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
Count 5 accuses Chief Oba Otudeko, Stephen Olabisi Onasanya, Soji Akintayo and Anchorage Leisure Limited on or about 11th day of December, 2013 in Lagos, procured Honeywell Flour Mills Plc to retain the sum of N1.5 billion, which sum you reasonably ought to have known forms part of proceeds of your unlawful activities to wit: Obtaining by False Pretence and you thereby committed an offence contrary to Section 18(c), 15 (2) (d) of the Money Laundering (Prohibition) Act, 2011 (as amended) and punishable under Section 15(3) of the same Act.
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