Tinubu Wins & more – 2nd Nov 2023

Bawo Ni from BA! This is the Rorshok Nigeria Update from the 2nd of November twenty twenty-three A quick summary of what's going down in Nigeria.

We begin today's episode with some political news. On Thursday, the 26th, the Supreme Court ratified the Presidential Election Petition Court’s decision. It confirmed that President Tinubu won the elections and threw out the applications of Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, the two opposition presidential candidates. The Supreme Court also rejected Abubakar’s application to submit documents obtained from the Chicago State University. It said Nigeria's legal system doesn't allow the Supreme Court to take fresh evidence not presented to the lower courts. The court also noted that the Federal Capital Territory doesn't carry a special status, as it is equal to other states in the country. It, therefore, rejected Obi's appeal to remove Tinubu for not getting 25% of the votes in the Federal Capital Territory. Although the Supreme Court's ruling is final, Atiku Abubakar has rejected the verdicts. Obi's Labour Party has also expressed dissatisfaction with the court's decision. The party said the executive has hijacked the judiciary and legislative arm of the government. It further called on the international bodies to defend democracy in Nigeria.

In other news, the police have asked doctors to treat gunshot and accident victims without police reports. The police made the declaration on Saturday, the 28th, in light of public outcry over several death cases that could have been prevented if the hospitals had treated patients without having police reports. In the past, there have been cases of death caused by neglect of patients in hospitals because they didn’t have a police report. Meanwhile, in twenty seventeen, the government established the Treatment and Care for Victims of Gunshot Act to allow healthcare practitioners to prioritize immediate care for gunshot victims. However, many hospitals have failed to comply with this. Now, police have vowed to partner with health ministries, departments,, and agencies for full enforcement.

Moving on, The Imo State Chapter of the National Labor Congress (or NLC) protested because the state government treated workers poorly. They accused the state government of not paying them several monthly salaries. In a protest that took place on Wednesday the 1st, thugs assaulted demonstrators, who lost gadgets and money. Reportedly, the police brutalized Joe Ajaero, the National President of the NLC, and took him away, but the police said that he is only in protective custody. The police also denied that they had beaten him and said that the mobs did it.

A day before, on Tuesday, the 31st of October, The Lagos State government closed down thirty-four big firms for not remitting the Personal Income Tax of their employees to the state. Among the companies that shut down were prominent pharmacies, hospitals, hotels, and corporate firms within the metropolitan city. Seyi Alade, the Director of Legal Services for the state, said that the tax liabilities total four hundred and fifty-two thousand dollars. He said that the government had previously refrained from forcing the firms to pay so that they could voluntarily make the payments. Reportedly, many firms collected a certain amount of money from the income taxes from their employees' salaries and consumption taxes on goods sold but didn’t send that same amount to the state government.

Next up, Bello Maigari, the Executive Secretary of the National Lottery Trust Fund, has revealed that Nigerians spend over nine hundred and seventy-five million dollars daily on online betting. He said that sixty-five million citizens spend an average of fifteen dollars on bets daily. Bello also said that many Nigerians have continued to engage in online betting, not minding the economic hardship in the country. Nigeria is the largest betting market in Africa, and predictions state that nationals will spend three hundred and sixty-six million dollars on betting daily by twenty twenty-seven.

Meanwhile, the Enugu State High Court has recognized the Indigenous People of Biafra (or IPOB) as a legal group. In twenty seventeen, Southeast governors considered the IPOB an illegal group, which also made the Federal Government declare it a terror organization. The group demands independence and be a separate country, seeking self-determination for the Southeast region. However, it has used violence to get their demands fulfilled. A.O. Onovo, the Justice who delivered the judgment, asked the government to release and pay ten million dollars to Nnamdi Kanu, the group leader. Kanu has been in government detention since twenty seventeen.

On Wednesday, the 1st, President Tinubu told members of the Federal Executive Council to either start doing something or get fired. The council members are ministers and heads of government agencies. Tinubu also told the council members that his administration is running against the clock to reposition the country's economy and improve the standard of living of Nigerians. Tinubu further said that Nigeria has all the resources needed to improve the country's current status. He also announced that the Result Delivery Unit will be used to assess the performance of the ministers and agencies' heads.

Also on Wednesday, the 1st, Lola Mewu, a Nigerian artiste, ended her eighty-two-hour painting marathon as she sought to break the Guinness world record for the longest painting marathon. She began painting at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday, the 28th of October and ended at 4:30 a.m. on Wednesday, the 1st of November. Ronald Palmaerts, a French national, holds the current Guinness world record for the longest painting marathon. Once the Guinness World Record officially confirms the record-breaking, Mewu will join Nigerians Hilda Baci, Tonye Solomon, and Philip Solomon, who won the Guinness World Record in twenty twenty-three.

And now, some entertainment news. On Tuesday, the 31st of October, popular singer Naira Marley and his associate Sam Larry sued the Lagos Police and Magistrate for being detained for more days than the Magistrate had allowed. The Magistrate had only permitted the Police to detain Naira Marley and Sam Larry for twenty-one days. However, they have remained in police custody for more than a month to help with investigations surrounding the death of artist Mohbad. Now, they are demanding their immediate release and fifty thousand dollars in compensation.

Still on entertainment, Nigerian artist Rema became the first African singer to perform live at the Balon'D'Or ceremony on Monday, the 30th of October. Rema sang his hit Calm Down. The audience gave him a loud cheer and applause. The organizers also posted a clip of his performance on their social media.

Speaking of the Balon d'Or, on Monday, the 30th of October, Victor Osimhen, Nigerian and Napoli star striker, became the first Nigerian to make it to the top ten of the Ballon D'Or world's best. He ranked 8th in the list behind Lionel Messi (who won the prize), Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe, Kevin De Bruyne, Rodri, Vinicius Jr and Julian Alvarez. Since he's the only African in the top ten list, he will likely win the Confederation of African Football (or CAF) Award for player of the year. Similarly, Asisat Oshoala, Nigeria and Barcelona women's football star, was the only African player to feature in the women's category, as she ranked 20th. She has won the CAF Award four times and is the odds-on favorite to win it again in December.

Ending with more sports news. On Sunday, the 29th, The Nigeria Boxing Federation (or NBF) promised to take legal action against World Boxing for saying that Nigeria has joined its organization. The NBF further said that the country is not part of World Boxing but belongs to the International Boxing Association (or IBA). On Friday, the 20th, World Boxing announced Nigeria as one of its new members, saying that it is the first African country to join the boxing body. It further insisted that all senior officials within the NBF had signed the necessary application. The NBF did not take this well, as it probably feared that the IBA would remove them from the Association.

And that’s it for this week! But don’t leave yet, there’s something important we need to tell you.

We have been doing these updates for a while but the number of listeners isn’t going up. We need to increase the number of listeners to keep doing the show.

We need your help to expand our audience. Tell as many people as you can about these updates; your friends, your family, your colleagues, people who need to practice their English, people who are curious about what’s going on in Nigeria.

Recommend us on social media. Post about us with the link to the Nigerian Update.

If you know how we can get more listeners, reach out! Contact us by sending us an email at nigeria@rorshok.com or a DM via Instagram or Twitter @rorshoknigeria.

Sorry for the bad news, hope we can stay with you!

O dabo