General
SERAP Tackles World Bank over $500m for Electricity in Nigeria
By Adedapo Adesanya
In its latest round of seeking accountability, the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged the World Bank President, Mr David Malpass, to publish details of electricity projects funded by the lender in Nigeria since 1999.
According to an application dated February 6, 2021, and signed by SERAP Deputy Director, Mr Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation called for the release of archival records and documents relating to spending on all approved funds to improve access to electricity in Nigeria between 1999 and 2020.
It demanded to know the bank’s role in the implementation of any funded electricity projects and to identify and name any executed projects, and Nigerian officials, ministries, departments and agencies involved in the execution of such projects.
This is coming after the World Bank board of directors last week approved $500 million to help boost access to electricity in Nigeria and improve the performance of the electricity distribution companies in the country.
SERAP urged the bank to “explain the rationale for the approval of $500 million to implement electricity projects in the country, despite reports of widespread and systemic corruption in the sector, and the failure of the authorities to enforce a court judgment ordering the release of details of payments to allegedly corrupt electricity contractors who failed to execute any projects.”
SERAP said: “This application is brought pursuant to the World Bank’s Access to Information Policy, which aims to maximize access to information and promote the public good.
“There is a public interest in Nigerians knowing about the bank’s supervisory role and specifically its involvement in the implementation of electricity projects, which it has so far funded.”
According to SERAP, the $500 million is part of the over $1 billion available to Nigeria under the project titled Nigeria Distribution Sector Recovery Program.
“We would be grateful for details of any transparency and accountability mechanisms under the agreement for the release of funds, including whether there is any provision that would allow Nigerians and civil society to monitor the spending of the money by the government, its agencies, and electricity distribution companies,” it said.
SERAP noted that should the Bretton Wood Institution fail and/or refuse to release the information and documents as requested, it would file an appeal to the Secretariat of the Bank’s Access to Information Committee to challenge any such decision, and if it becomes necessary, to the Access to Information Appeals Board.
SERAP added that it may also consider other legal options outside the bank’s Access to Information framework.
The letter copied to Mr Shubham Chaudhuri, World Bank Country Director for Nigeria, read in part: “SERAP believes that releasing the information and documents would enable Nigerians and civil society to meaningfully engage in the implementation of electricity projects funded by the Bank, contribute to the greater public good, and enhance the Bank’s oft-stated commitment to transparency and accountability.
“The World Bank has been and continues to be involved in overseeing the transfer, disbursement, spending of funds on electricity projects in Nigeria. The Bank also reportedly approved a $750 million loan for Nigeria’s electricity sector in June 2020 to cut tariff shortfalls, protect the poor from price adjustments, and increase power supply to the grid. As such, the World Bank is not a neutral party in this matter.
“SERAP is seriously concerned that the funds approved by the Bank are vulnerable to corruption and mismanagement. The World Bank has a responsibility to ensure that the Nigerian authorities and their agencies are transparent and accountable to Nigerians in how they spend the approved funds for electricity projects in the country, and to reduce vulnerability to corruption and mismanagement.
“SERAP also believes that the release of the requested information and documents is of paramount importance to the public interest in preserving the legitimacy, credibility, and relevance of the Bank as a leading international development institution. The Bank ought to lead by example in issues such as transparency and public disclosure raised in this request.
“It would also demonstrate that the Bank is willing to put people first in the implementation of its development and governance policies and mandates, as well as remove any suspicion of the Bank’s complicity in the alleged mismanagement of electricity projects-related funds.
“The information is also being sought to improve the ongoing fight against corruption in the country and the provision of regular and uninterrupted electricity supply to Nigerians as a fundamental human right.
“The information requested is not affected by the “deliberative” “corporate administrative matters” or “security and safety” exceptions under the Policy. The information requested is crucially required for Nigerians to know how the funds released to the authorities to improve electricity supply in the country have been spent, and monitor how the funds are being used.
It contended that it was necessary to do this as the country had not benefit as it should from the financing, it cited its report titled: From Darkness to Darkness: How Nigerians are paying the price for Corruption in the Electricity Sector which documents widespread and systemic corruption in the electricity sector, and reveals how about N11 trillion electricity fund was squandered by successive administrations in Nigeria since the return of democracy in 1999.
“This report raises specific questions of public interest, and the World Bank ought to be concerned about how Nigerian authorities are addressing reports of widespread and systemic corruption in the electricity sector, and to seek some answers from the authorities on the problems.
“However, as the report shows, the Bank’s funding of the electricity sector has not resulted in corresponding access of Nigerians to the regular and uninterrupted electricity supply. Successive governments have failed to provide access to regular and reliable electricity supply to millions of the citizens despite budgeting trillions of naira for the power sector.
“Millions of Nigerians still lack access to free pre-paid meters. Authorities continue to use patently illegal and inordinate estimated billing across the country, increasing consumer costs, and marginalizing Nigerians living in extreme poverty, disproportionately affecting women, children and the elderly.”
It reiterated that the World Bank leadership has to disclose information on agreements and the mechanisms the bank is putting in place to ensure transparency and accountability in the spending of all funds on electricity projects in Nigeria.
By Adedapo Adesanya
President Bola Tinubu has approved the immediate dissolution of the Presidential Implementation Committee (PIC) on the Alienation of Federal Government Properties.
According to a release by the Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, Mr Bayo Onanuga, henceforth, all matters relating to the activities of the committee would be coordinated by the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr Lateef Fagbemi (SAN).
“After careful consideration, the government has noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the committee is no longer justified,” the statement noted.
The PIC was established in 2000 during the administration of former President Olusegun Obasanjo to oversee the privatisation, sale, and lease of federal government landed assets under the government’s monetisation policy.
Its membership comprised the then Minister of Housing as Chairperson, alongside representatives from the Ministries of Transportation, Justice, Health, Agriculture, and the Nigeria Police Force.
Professor P.T Ahire, then a Deputy Director in the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, served as the pioneer Secretary. Other members were drawn from both the public and private sectors.
On March 22, 2001, the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved the establishment of a Panel of Inquiry to produce a White Paper to guide the implementation of its recommendations.
The panel worked for 21 months before submitting its report, and after careful consideration, the government has noted that the activities of the PIC had extended beyond its original mandate, resulting in multiple litigations across the country, and the continued existence of the Committee is no longer justified.
Accordingly, the President directed the dissolution of the PIC and that the Attorney General of the Federation coordinate its activities with effect from November 5, 2025.
Following the President’s directive, the PIC stands dissolved, and the erstwhile Secretary, Mr B. S Dutsin-Ma, has been directed to cease acting on behalf of the committee and the Federal Government on related matters.
By Modupe Gbadeyanka
The spiritual father and chairman of the Cherubim and Seraphim Movement Church Worldwide, Ayo Ni O, His Most Eminence Prophet Emmanuel Adewale Abiodun Alogbo, has died at the age of 93.
The revered cleric, whose demise was announced today, Thursday, July 30, 2026, via a circular from the church, was the Supreme Head of C&S Unification Church of Nigeria.
In the notice signed by CSMC Secretary-General, Snr. Sp. Ap. Prophet Anthony Olusesan Samaye, disclosed that the church leader breathed his last peacefully in the early hours of today, “surrounded by his family members and all his domestic staff at his residence.”
It was stated that his passing occurred at about 2:10 am at his residence in Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos.
“With gratitude to God Almighty for a life well spent, on behalf of the Board of Trustees and the entire church, I write to inform you all that our Spiritual Father, His Most Eminence, Prophet (Dr.) Emmanuel Adewale Abiodun Alogbo, was called to glory in the early hours of today, July 30, 2026, at around 2:10 am,” a part of the disclosure, addressed to the church’s management committee, district chairmen, conference supervisors, mission directors, church elders, zonal secretaries and ministers-in-charge of parishes worldwide, said.
The statement, which prayed for God to grant the “church the fortitude to bear the irreparable loss,” said daily prayer sessions would be held for seven days from 5 pm at the late cleric’s residence located at Plot 1, Alogbo Close, off Ahmadiyya Bus Stop, Ijaiye Ojokoro, Lagos, noting that burial arrangements would be announced later.
By Sani Abdulrazak, PhD
Thrilling it is to realise that some journeys answer questions you never knew you were asking. Mine happened with no political prism through which to interpret every urban developmental project. Instead, it manifested with a simple curiosity: what does rural Kaduna look like today vis-à-vis three years prior? That part of Kaduna where press conferences are neither held nor dominate social media timelines, but the Kaduna where dawn breaks over farmlands, where markets awaken to the aroma of roasted maize, where children trek to school, and where government is not judged by eloquent speeches but by tangible presence.
If there is one thing I have learned from my travel experience to most rural communities within the 23 local government areas of Kaduna state, it is the fact that these communities have an uncanny way of telling the truth. They have little patience for rhetoric. A bridge either exists or it doesn’t. A classroom either shelters learning or it doesn’t. A health centre either treats patients or remains another neglected structure awaiting the next campaign season. These places are bluntly earnest; poor custodians of propaganda, I call them. They will always remain refreshingly fascinating because evidence is a currency there and it strips governance of embellishment.
One transformational change you can’t miss in the last three years in almost all the rural communities within Kaduna state is education. We speak of schools in cities through the prism of budgets and policies, but in villages, they speak of the child who no longer studies under the tree, the teacher who finally has a conducive classroom, and the parent whose greatest inheritance is no longer a prayer alone. It will interest us to know that across Kaduna State, more than 736 new classrooms have been constructed, while over 1,200 others have been rehabilitated. Add to this the completion of 62 secondary schools, another 50 under construction, and the establishment of 102 new schools alongside the rehabilitation of 170 existing ones under the Reaching Out-of-School Children programme, and the picture begins to assume clearer contours. Statistics, however, are notoriously reticent. They seldom tell you what they have witnessed.
A visit to Tudun Biri will surely convince you. For many Nigerians, the community became known through an episode everyone wished had never happened. Yet communities, like human beings, deserve the opportunity to write new chapters. Today, a new school stands there, as a quiet repudiation of despair. Watching children gather where sorrow once held sway, I was reminded that development is sometimes the art of replacing painful memories with hopeful possibilities. The good people of Kwoi today are living their dream, all thanks to the Proverbial Lannister of Kaduna State, Governor Uba Sani. Roads like Hospital Road, Sabon Gari Road, Audu Tilo Road, Doctor Sani Road, Kpop Ham Palace Road and the Kwoi-Gora Road have done more than alter the landscape of Kwoi; they have recalibrated daily life. They shorten journeys, connect communities and restore the simple dignity of movement. Kwoi residents, within the last three years, describe this giant developmental stride in minutes saved, transport fares reduced, and opportunities regained.
Furthermore, across the 23 local government areas of Kaduna State, 255 Primary Healthcare Centres have been upgraded to Level II status. Another 23 Centres of Excellence and 15 General Hospitals have equally received significant upgrades. These are figures easily read and quickly forgotten. Yet behind every digit lies a heartbeat. Somewhere, an expectant mother reaches skilled care without travelling impossible distances. In another village, a child receives treatment before a preventable illness becomes irreversible. Good healthcare is rarely dramatic; its greatest triumphs are the tragedies that never happen.
Nothing intrigued me the most like the philosophy underpinning Project 255. There is something profoundly democratic about the notion that every one of Kaduna State’s 255 wards deserves visible development. It is an acknowledgement that governance should not become an urban monopoly. Whether in Dogon Dawa, where schools have been rehabilitated, Zonzon, where classrooms have regained life, or other communities benefiting from roads, bridges, electrification and boreholes, the underlying message remains unmistakable: development should travel the last mile. The ancient heartbeat of rural Kaduna is undoubtedly agriculture, and it appears to be rediscovering its rhythm as well. Improved security has encouraged many farmers to return to lands once abandoned, while better rural infrastructure is gradually easing access to markets. Free fertiliser distribution to rural farmers is now becoming an annual event. Governor Uba Sani believes that Rural development, in truth, is not a peripheral conversation; it is the fulcrum upon which sustainable development balances.
None of this suggests that rural Kaduna has arrived at some idyllic destination. Far from it. There are still communities yearning for potable water, better electricity, additional schools, more healthcare personnel and improved infrastructure. Development has never been a destination reached by a single administration; it is an enduring pilgrimage requiring consistency, courage and continuity. But objectivity demands something equally important: the willingness to acknowledge progress where it is evident. Taking the pulse of rural Kaduna left me with an impression that statistics alone could never adequately convey.
That, for most objective students of governance and policy, is the most reliable way to measure a government’s impact, not by the eloquence of its promises nor the intensity of political debates, but by the ordinary experiences of ordinary people. The pulse of rural Kaduna is not yet the pulse of perfection. But it is steady. It is discernible. And, for anyone willing to leave the comfort of assumptions and listen closely, it tells a story worth hearing.
Sani Abdulrazak, PhD, is a writer, researcher and public affairs analyst based in Zaria, Kaduna State
