President Dissolves the Boards of Many Federal Government Agencies & more –22nd June 2023

Sannu from BA ! This is the Rorshok Nigeria Update from the 22nd June twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Nigeria.

We kick off this episode with more actions from President Tinubu.

On Monday the 19th, the president dissolved the governing boards of all federal government parastatals, agencies, institutions, and government-owned companies. Some of the agencies excluded, according to the constitution, were the Federal Civil Service Commission, the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the National Agency for Food Drug Administration and Control, the Independent National Electoral Commission (best known as INEC), among others. Shortly after, new security chiefs were announced.

While the president is making moves and changing agencies across the country, the Labour Party (or LP) and the Peoples Democratic Party (best known as PDP) are still challenging the outcome of the presidential election in court. However, at the court session on Tuesday the 20th, the PDP said that they would close their case at the tribunal on Friday the 23rd.

The LP, on the other hand, has accused the INEC of deliberately frustrating their case by withholding documents that are necessary for evidence. On Monday the 19th, the LP told the court that the party’s legal team had done everything necessary to compel the electoral body to provide documents that it requested, all to no avail. The political party asked the court to urge the INEC to take necessary actions. However, the INEC said that the claims were false, and that it only received one letter from the LP requesting documents which the INEC provided

Let's move away from politics and let’s see what’s new in the business world.

On Sunday the 18th, the federal government introduced an economic reform. The Central Bank of Nigeria (best known as CBN) lifted the cash deposit restrictions into domiciliary accounts. For those who don’t know, in twenty twenty-one, customers were directed not to exceed a daily limit of 10,000 dollars deposited either by inflow or cash deposit, and a monthly cumulative of 20,000 dollars into their domiciliary accounts. However, after a meeting on Sunday, the CBN said that customers will now have unrestricted access to funds in their accounts.

Speaking of new policies, Aliko Dangote, chairman of Dangote Group and the richest man in Africa, has hailed Tinubu’s policies on subsidy removal so that there will be more money now to put into education, health, infrastructure, and other areas, and congratulated him on the elimination of multiple foreign exchange (or FX) rates. Recall that Tinubu promised to work towards a unified exchange rate system in his inaugural speech as president. Two weeks after his speech, the CBN announced the unification of the official and the parallel rates on the FX market. Hours later, the already weakened naira depreciated even further and caused a stir in the country. On Thursday the 15th, the Bloomberg Billionaire Index reported that Dangote lost slightly over three billion dollars because of the FX policy. Despite all the happenings, on Monday the 19th, during a visit to the president, Dangote said that Tinubu’s policies will be better for everyone.

Meanwhile, Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, visited Tinubu on Monday the 19th at the Aso Rock villa. Gates said that the visit was part of his Foundation’s commitment to working with leaders and partners to support innovation that can help speed up progress and improve lives across Africa. In response, Tinubu pledged to give priority to the health and safety of Nigerians and said that his administration would do all that is required to make Gates' work in Nigeria and Africa successful, particularly in the area of eradicating polio, measles, malaria and other diseases from the continent. The billionaire is expected to meet with national and regional leaders to encourage them to make investments and implement policies that promote innovation, despite challenging economic conditions.

Negotiations with the Nigeria Labour Congress (or NLC) and the Trade Union Congress (best known as TUC) with the federal government have resumed. Recall that on the 5th of June, the labour unions suspended their planned strike to protest Tinubu’s removal of petrol subsidy. However, the president met with representatives of the TUC and the NLC to suggest measures that will alleviate the impacts of the removal of the petrol subsidy, such as the increase in transportation fares. The negotiations began again on Monday the 19th but the outcome of the meeting is still unknown.

Here’s a piece of news for the people in the maritime sector.

On Monday the 19th, the federal government said that it has granted shipowners operating on its waterways a three-month window to pay off their outstanding taxes. Zachaeus Adedeji, special adviser to the president on revenue, said that the payments debts were running into millions of dollars and had accumulated from twenty ten to twenty nineteen. Although he said that defaulting ships would not be confiscated, he added that vessel owners would be barred from operating in the country’s ports if they fail to comply with the government’s directive. According to Bloomberg, the claims for each vessel range from 400,000 dollars to about 1 million dollars.

Many cryptocurrency lovers in the country are familiar with Binance, the trading platform. Well, on Sunday the 18th, Changpeng Zhao, CEO of Binance, said that the subsidiary Binance Nigeria Limited, is a scammer entity. He said that Binance has issued a cease and desist notice to the Nigerian branch and asked citizens to beware. Recall that earlier this month, the Securities and Exchange Commission warned Nigerians of the risk of investing in crypto assets on the platform as it announced that the operations of Binance Nigeria Limited were illegal in the country.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday the 21st, a federal high court in Abuja fixed the 23rd of October for Diezani Alison-Madueke, former minister of petroleum resources, to challenge the final forfeiture of her seized assets. Recall that in twenty twenty-two, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (or EFCC) seized two houses belonging to the former minister said to be valued at over 2 million dollars each. Two of her luxury cars said to be valued at thirty-six million naira (about fifty-two thousand dollars) were also seized. Also, recall that the former minister will go to court after being away from the country since twenty fifteen allegedly for health reasons and that her assets were unjustly seized.

In a move that has sparked outrage from Nigerians, the Revenue Mobilisation, Allocation and Fiscal Commission has approved the salaries of politicians, judicial, and public office holders to be increased by 114 percent. Muhammad Shehu, chairman of the commission, made the announcement on Tuesday the 20th. He said that the last remuneration review was conducted in two thousand seven and that it was high time for an increment which is in accordance with the law. Many Nigerians took to social media to protest the move, saying that teachers, doctors, and civil servants had been demanding an increase in wages over the years. This demand was responsible for the frequent strikes across sectors. They also faulted the federal government for making such a move when there are high levels of poverty in the country— worsened by the sudden removal of petrol subsidy which has hiked inflation.

However, while Nigerians are feeling the heat of the removal of petrol subsidy and the unification of the naira on all markets, other persons seem to feel otherwise. On Tuesday the 20th, David Malpass, former president of the World Bank, commended Tinubu for his actions of “taking concrete steps to scrap Nigeria’s harmful government subsidies and multiple exchange rates.” Malpass said that the actions would drive currency stability, lower inflation, and reduced corruption in the country.

To round up, the federal government has announced that it would develop an effective oiled wildlife contingency plan to protect the country’s wildlife in the event of oil spills. Speaking on Tuesday the 20th, Ibrahim Yusuf, permanent secretary of the ministry of environment, said that there have been several oil spill incidents with devastating impacts on the environment and that prevention is the most effective way to control this.

That’s it for this week! Thanks for joining us!

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Sai gobe!