Political stakeholders from the South-East Geo-Political Zone converged, Saturday, in Enugu with a list of demands from the Federal government. The Political Leaders, who spoke through Gov. Peter Obi of Anambra State, listed the Second Niger Bridge, Federal Roads and Ecological Problem as the pressing needs of the region
The leaders spoke while welcoming President Goodluck Jonathan, who was in Enugu to commission the remodeled Akanu Ibiam Airport and lay foundation for the international terminal.
The leaders who were elated by the Airport project, thanked President Jonathan for fulfilling his 2011 electioneering campaign promise, adding that South-East Geo-Political Zone are not and do not wish to be like Oliver Twist who keeps asking for more.
However, It is trite to note that our needs are numerous and our challenges multifaceted. Several critical projects in this zone cry for dire attention. And it is to those we must now turn. They noted.
On the Second Niger Bridge, the leaders, said,“ First, we must acknowledge your effort so far to ensure that the aspiration of Nigerians to bring the execution of this critical project to fruition is realized. Sir, this long-delayed project is not just a necessity for our nation and people; it is indeed a political imperative and a strategic development requirement. The bridge will serve as an important economic corridor that is at the heart of a globally recognized emerging industrial hub, not just for this nation, but for the entire Africa. The salient national benefits of a second bridge across River Niger cannot be overemphasized. Sir, at this juncture, it is pertinent to remind you that in our last meeting, you promised to flag off this project within the First Quarter of 2013. We humbly plead that you return to our zone in the not-too-distant future to fulfil this promise for which your commitment is not in doubt.”
On Federal Roads, the leaders, said, “there is an inextricable nexus between sustainable development and the presence of a good road network. The present state of most federal roads in our zone remains deplorable and our people very often use these roads as a comparative measure of the federal government’s commitment to our zone. In this context, Sir, we wish to once more as a people appeal for your due attention to the Enugu-Port-Harcourt, Enugu-Onitsha, and the Owerri-Elele federal roads, which we have repeatedly brought to your attention. These roads form a critical tripod in our national transportation mosaic. Similarly, a critical bridge on the hump of the federal road linking Abakaliki to Ogoja is in dire need of replacement.”
On Ecological Problem, they said, “you are all too aware of the ecological challenges in our zone. This zone suffers the most horrific and attending destructive consequences of soil erosion in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the global climate evolves, our ecological challenges multiply and worsen. You have personally come to our rescue in recent times, but we are yet to be free from this hump. The erosional incursions in our five states seem to have no boundaries. Some work has been done, but much more remains to be done. Frankly Sir, the remedial measures are so capital-intensive that erosion problems are now well beyond the scope which states can grapple with individually. As a zone, we are all at risk. There is clear and imminent danger that towns and villages, farmlands, roads and homes will disappear into great voids created by yawning gullies if urgent steps are not taken. With over 2000 active erosion sites in our zone, we ask for sustained federal remedial measures to stem their destructive consequences.”
Responding, President Jonathan thanked the leader of the Southeast geopolitical zone for supporting his administration. He added that the Federal Government plans to spend N158 billion on the listed projects.
According to him, the projects to undertaken are the second Niger Bridge in Onitsha, Anambra State, for which a total of N30 billion has been earmarked from the Sure-P funds. N60-billion for comprehensive solution to ecological and erosion problems in the zone. While N68 billion will be expended on other infrastructural projects in the zone including roads and electricity
Full Address By The Political Leaders of the South-East Geo-Political Zone, reads,
“Your Excellency, Mr. President,
We the leaders and people of the South-East Geopolitical Zone are immensely gratified and delighted to welcome you once again to our zone. We cherish every opportunity and privilege of interacting with you. We feel especially honoured that you usually find time, despite your very busy schedule, to be with us. We therefore thank you most sincerely for your present visit.”
“Mr. President,
As unequivocal stakeholders in Nigeria, we are mindful of the great demands – both political and physical – which constituent parts of this country make on you. You have handled such challenges with great equanimity and statesmanship. You have carried us all along and shown abiding interest in, and support for, our zone. For that, Mr. President, we will continue to be immensely grateful.”
“We have previously expressed our appreciation for the eminently qualified sons and daughters of this zone who you have honoured with various national assignments and federal appointments. Please be rest assured that we will always avail you of our very best and qualitative candidates, who are not only proud and honoured to serve, but are also committed to bringing added value to every task you may assign them. “
“Mr. President,
Your presence here today is not fortuitous. It is a culmination of our long-standing yearning, and a fulfilment of your personal commitment to the development of this zone, the broadening of our developmental infrastructure and our quest for expansive and sustainable development. As you are aware, Sir, the people of this geopolitical zone remain the most widely travelled in this nation. It is only fitting, therefore, that they should merit their own International Airport as they traverse the world to market the entrepreneurial attributes of Nigeria and seek to attract investors that empower our people, create wealth and generate income. We are therefore grateful for the commissioning of the new domestic terminal of the Akanu Ibiam International Airport, Enugu and the ground-breaking ceremony of the International Terminal of the same airport.”
“Collectively and as individual states, our zone continues to boast of our ennobling efforts, oftentimes against many odds, to pursue policies germane to your transformational and restorative agenda. Doing so, sometimes within the limits of our resources, requires dexterity, leadership and resourcefulness. It is heart-warming that we are making progress and accomplishing our mandates in this regard. However, our challenges are far from over.”
“ Your Excellency, we are not and do not wish to be like Oliver Twist who keeps asking for more. We are mindful of our responsibilities in terms of governance, delivery of democracy dividends and empowering our people. We do also acknowledge the multifarious challenges our institutions face. Even with our best efforts, we know that we do not always meet the aspirations of our people. It is exactly for these reasons that we often seek partnership with the Federal Government, and sometimes ask for direct intervention from the Government at the Centre.”
“ It is trite to note that our needs are numerous and our challenges multifaceted. However, several critical projects in this zone cry for dire attention. And it is to those we must now turn.”
“SECOND NIGER BRIDGE: First, we must acknowledge your effort so far to ensure that the aspiration of Nigerians to bring the execution of this critical project to fruition is realized. Sir, this long-delayed project is not just a necessity for our nation and people; it is indeed a political imperative and a strategic development requirement. The bridge will serve as an important economic corridor that is at the heart of a globally recognized emerging industrial hub, not just for this nation, but for the entire Africa. The salient national benefits of a second bridge across River Niger cannot be overemphasized. Sir, at this juncture, it is pertinent to remind you that in our last meeting, you promised to flag off this project within the First Quarter of 2013. We humbly plead that you return to our zone in the not-too-distant future to fulfil this promise for which your commitment is not in doubt.”
‘FEDERAL ROADS: Mr. President Sir, there is an inextricable nexus between sustainable development and the presence of a good road network. The present state of most federal roads in our zone remains deplorable and our people very often use these roads as a comparative measure of the federal government’s commitment to our zone. In this context, Sir, we wish to once more as a people appeal for your due attention to the Enugu-Port-Harcourt, Enugu-Onitsha, and the Owerri-Elele federal roads, which we have repeatedly brought to your attention. These roads form a critical tripod in our national transportation mosaic. Similarly, a critical bridge on the hump of the federal road linking Abakaliki to Ogoja is in dire need of replacement.”
“ECOLOGICAL PROBLEMS: Mr. President, you are all too aware of the ecological challenges in our zone. This zone suffers the most horrific and attending destructive consequences of soil erosion in Sub-Saharan Africa. As the global climate evolves, our ecological challenges multiply and worsen. You have personally come to our rescue in recent times, but we are yet to be free from this hump. The erosional incursions in our five states seem to have no boundaries. Some work has been done, but much more remains to be done. Frankly Sir, the remedial measures are so capital-intensive that erosion problems are now well beyond the scope which states can grapple with individually. As a zone, we are all at risk. There is clear and imminent danger that towns and villages, farmlands, roads and homes will disappear into great voids created by yawning gullies if urgent steps are not taken. With over 2000 active erosion sites in our zone, we ask for sustained federal remedial measures to stem their destructive consequences.”
“ CONCLUSION: Your Excellency, Sir, we have limited ourselves to these three core issues in order to underpin the importance which we attach to them. We are profoundly grateful that you have listened to us with a keen sense of empathy and a full grasp of our collective plight. We remain hopeful that our earnest plea will result in your desirable intervention. We have been privileged in the past to benefit from your compassion and thus remain hopeful this time.”
“ In closing, we hereby affirm that we share fully in your personal desire to find peaceful and abiding solutions to the many political and socio-economic challenges confronting our nation. For our part, we wish to re-affirm our commitment to ensuring that the bond of performance between the federal and state governments are sustained, and remain proactive and constructive.”
“ As much as we seek your support, we also wish to reassure you of our unalloyed backing for your office and for you personally. Sir, be assured that the South-East Zone is faithfully and solidly behind you. We stand with you, Sir. “
“As we march forward, we earnestly pray that you will continue to exhibit the strength, wisdom, and dignifying but quiet equanimity which have become the trademark of your purposeful leadership. We hope, and sincerely so, that we can once again, count on and benefit from your approach as a compassionate problem solver, in urgently attending to our pressing needs and those of other parts of our dear country. We thank you. We wish you well and we ask Almighty God to grant you His Blessings and Grace, now and always.”
“ Thank you Mr. President for your attention.”
PETER OBI, CON
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The Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), Ola Olukoyede, has offered whistleblowers between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of recovered stolen Nigerian assets held abroad for information that leads to their recovery.
Olukoyede disclosed this on Wednesday while delivering a lecture at the Cambridge International Symposium on Economic Crime in the United Kingdom.
According to him, the ability of EFCC operatives to trace assets, cooperation from the judiciary and access to credible intelligence have played important roles in the commission’s success in securing non-conviction-based forfeiture orders.
He also described the EFCC as having some of the best investigators in the world and stressed the importance of protecting and encouraging whistleblowers.
He said anyone with credible information about stolen Nigerian assets taken or hidden anywhere in the world could receive between 2.5 per cent and 5 per cent of the recovered assets as an incentive, with payment made after the recovery.
Olukoyede further revealed that the EFCC had forfeited cash and assets worth more than $500 million to the Federal Government within the past three years.
He cited several cases involving the recovery and forfeiture of assets, including cases linked to a former Chairman of the Central Bank of Nigeria and a former Attorney-General of the Federation.
The EFCC chairman explained that the commission is legally empowered to seek the forfeiture of suspected proceeds of crime by applying to the High Court for an order. He said the process is similar to procedures used in countries such as Australia and Canada.
Olukoyede also recalled a case involving an aircraft allegedly acquired by an individual who was accused of receiving about $30 million in bribes in connection with a power project. He said the aircraft was forfeited about three months ago and had subsequently been added to the presidential air fleet.
He also referred to a property containing about 753 housing units that was forfeited from a former CBN governor, against whom the EFCC has filed criminal charges in three courts.
Speaking about the immediate past Attorney-General of the Federation, Abubakar Malami, Olukoyede said the EFCC opened an investigation following allegations of abuse of office. He claimed that investigators traced about 57 properties to Malami and that approximately 48 of them had been forfeited.
The EFCC chairman further mentioned the forfeiture of a private university allegedly linked to a director in the Federal Ministry of Health. According to him, the official voluntarily surrendered the property following the commission’s investigation.
Olukoyede said the measures demonstrate the importance of asset tracing, international cooperation, credible intelligence and whistleblower protection in the fight against financial crime and the recovery of stolen public assets.
The Dangote Petroleum Refinery has raised concerns over the growing volume of imported petrol entering Nigeria, warning that it could be forced to export more of its own production if the trend continues.
The refinery said imported Premium Motor Spirit (PMS) made up roughly 43 per cent of the petrol supplied to the Nigerian market in July. It argued that the development was creating serious difficulties for a domestic refinery with the capacity to produce enough fuel for the country.
Dangote Refinery explained that it has maintained sizeable petrol reserves since commencing operations to ensure that consumers across Nigeria have access to a reliable supply. Keeping those reserves, it noted, requires substantial expenditure on storage, transportation and working capital.
However, the refinery said the continued granting of import licences without adequate information about expected import volumes has made it increasingly difficult to determine how much petrol should be produced and stored for the local market.
The company said holding large quantities of petrol becomes financially burdensome when there is no certainty about how much imported fuel will compete for the same market. It therefore considers exporting surplus stocks a more commercially viable option than allowing them to remain in storage indefinitely.
According to the refinery, increased exports in recent months should not be interpreted as evidence that Nigeria lacks sufficient refining capacity. Instead, the exports are being driven by excess stock resulting from unpredictable import volumes.
Dangote Refinery maintained that it remains fully committed to supplying the Nigerian market and has the capacity to meet or surpass the country's petrol requirements. It said its decision to export surplus products was aimed at managing inventory efficiently and avoiding unnecessary storage and financing expenses.
The refinery also warned that market disruptions caused by excessive imports could make it harder for domestic refiners to accurately predict demand. Any resulting supply problems, it said, should not automatically be blamed on local refineries.
It urged regulators and other industry stakeholders to improve transparency around petrol imports and strengthen coordination within the downstream petroleum market.
The company argued that policies that give greater support to domestic refining would help Nigeria reduce its dependence on imported fuel, conserve foreign exchange, strengthen energy security and maximise the economic benefits of investments in local refining infrastructure.
Dangote Refinery said it remains prepared to supply the country but stressed that a more predictable and transparent market environment is necessary for efficient production and inventory management.
Business
In The Spotlight
A group of heartless carpetbaggers have captured the Nigerian state, and it appears that they, their biological and political descendants, will hold the levers of government and access to Nigeria’s commonwealth for a long time to come.
When you consider news reports of how previous and current state actors steal public funds, buy choice properties in the toniest districts of Nigeria’s major cities, acquire private jets, and even establish private universities, you wonder if some people have more than two heads, to adopt a Yoruba phrase.
Either because of an inability to deliver the greatest good to the greatest number of Nigerian citizens, or by intention, the political elite have kept the people poor, causing them to depend on the largeness of heart of the same elite to meet their existential needs.
That explains why poor, downtrodden, and unconnected Nigerians eagerly collect crumbs of measly N5,000, rice, gari and whatever else the politicians offer to obtain their election votes or acquiescence after rigging the elections.
When watching an economically disadvantaged individual tell a politician who is seeking to become a legislator the good news that his wife just had a new baby, and he needed to prepare for the naming ceremony, it felt like the oppressed poor were enabling his oppressor to further oppress him.
It was like the classic case of Stockholm syndrome, of victims collaborating with their “captors” to cement the oppressive stranglehold that they already had over the state and the commonwealth of the nation, thus unwittingly arresting their own future development.
A running mate to a former governorship candidate in a Southwestern state hilariously regaled Nigerians with the story of how constituents would have raided all the alcoholic drinks in his refrigerator in the early hours of the morning, even before he woke from the hectic campaign tour of the previous day.
The political elite have practically cornered the Nigerian state for themselves, children, tribesmen and acolytes, and have devised a way to admit only those that they have found to be loyal, or pliable, into their rank of oppressors.
The oppression of the citizens of Nigeria is easily accomplished because of the high illiteracy level amongst the poor masses. The use of the weapon of illiteracy is more evident in Northern Nigeria, whose political leaders somehow turn a blind eye to the illiteracy and underdevelopment of their people.
In 2024, UNICEF revealed that out of Nigeria’s 18.3 million out-of-school children, about 12.1 million, or 66 per cent, were resident in the Northwest and Northeast regions. Yet, instead of expanding educational facilities and opportunities, some Northern governors are arranging mass weddings for children who are hardly out of their teen years.
And this is not to deny the weaponisation of illiteracy even in Obafemi Awolowo’s Western Region, which is regarded as the Athens of Nigeria, after its pre-Independence head start of free, universal and compulsory primary school education.
As if he had a premonition that Nigeria’s so-called democrats would eventually compromise education, to the detriment of the lowest and marginalised masses, that Karl Marx described as the “lumpen proletariat”, French political thinker Montesquieu argued a long time ago that “It is in a republican government that the whole power of education is required.”
Western Nigeria’s free education scheme was gradually abandoned from the days of the Second Republic when some Yoruba members of President Shehu Shagari’s political party knocked it off its bottom with the argument that “qualitative” education was better than “free” education.
It is more than a shame that a free, universal and compulsory primary school education scheme was abandoned under President Shagari, who not only was a trained teacher, but had a career as a teacher before his political career.
Awolowo had warned Nigeria’s political elite with the following quip: “The children of the poor that you failed to educate will not let your children sleep peacefully.” The insecurity that currently occurs in nearly every part of Nigeria only drives Awolowo’s point home.
Probably the realm of the Nigerian republic that has been most complicit with the carpetbagger political elite is the media, whose members either serve the elites as press secretaries who kill media brushfires, or editors who either run planted stories, or spike stories that the politicians do not want published.
The media is so compromised that it can hardly perform those responsibilities assigned to it by Section 22 of the Nigerian Constitution, which are to “be free to uphold the fundamental objectives contained in (Chapter II of the Constitution) and uphold the responsibility and accountability of the Government to the people.”
Some apologists have argued on behalf of the media that the political elite have so run the economy aground that the media, which can only thrive as commercial enterprises within Nigeria’s quasi-capitalist economy, cannot stay afloat, especially with the devastating inroads that the digital media are making into their audience, advertising revenue and profit.
The absence of regional economies, the argument goes, prevents the emergence of regional newspapers that can thrive on advertising revenues from regional companies, the way it obtains in the economies of North America and Western Europe. Many Nigerian newspapers, that are essentially regional, often pretend to be national to receive advertising revenue from companies whose market is national.
Two other collaborators of the political elite are the election management agencies and the judiciary at both the national and sub-national levels of government. The conspiracy between these agencies and the political elite is almost like that of Siamese twins conjoined by the belly button.
After the election management agencies may have deliberately bungled (especially) governorship and legislative house elections, and declared false reports, the losers, who felt that they won the election, would then approach the temple of justice, with significant financial inducement to ask for justice(?).
From that point on, the justice that both contestants hope to corruptly obtain could swing according to the heft of the naira in the Ghana-must-go bag that they will be hauling into the chambers of the denizens of the corrupted judiciary.
Thus, the “award” of electoral justice is “a matter of cash”, to quote Basi, the protagonist of “Basi & Co”, the television sitcom produced by environmental activist Ken Saro-Wiwa, who himself was denied justice from the judiciary that served the regime of General Sani Abacha, Nigeria’s most notorious military dictator.
In Nigeria, the lines of separation of powers that demarcate the duties of the three arms of government –the legislative, executive and judiciary– and the checks and balances that empower each arm to check the others have become almost irredeemably blurred.
As legislators use constituency projects as a ploy to carry out the functions of the executive, the president issues executive orders that are essentially legislative in nature. Though the judiciary does not perform the duties of the other arms, it fails to check them as it indulgently winks at their excesses.
If those who are regarded as Nigeria’s political elite really know what is in their enlightened self-interest and would like to protect the future of their descendants from what Thomas Hobbes described as a short, brutish and nasty existence, they will use their current privilege to correct the evil they have done to Nigerians.
They must urgently redeem the future before it delivers violence against their children.
By Lekan Sote
In The Spotlight
Lagos alone is worth more than Botswana, Namibia, Rwanda and Mauritius combined.
Let that sink in.
With an economy of N41.17tn — about $102bn in 2021 — Lagos State dwarfed the entire gross domestic products of four countries. Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa sit on oil wealth that funds nations. Ogun, Anambra and Imo churn out goods, services and commerce that would make small economies jealous.
By the numbers, Nigeria’s states are giants.
But walk the streets of Lagos, and you will still find mothers cooking with firewood. Drive through Port Harcourt, and you will see communities drinking water polluted by the same oil that makes the state’s GDP glow. Visit Umuahia, Abeokuta, or Minna and ask the average trader what “trillion-naira economy” means to her dinner table.
The answer is: nothing.
That viral video telling you “10 Nigerian states are richer than countries” is both true and a lie. True, because the 2021 BudgIT figures don’t lie — Lagos at N41.17trn, Rivers at N7.96trn, and so on. A lie, because those numbers are GDP, not prosperity. They measure how much economic activity happens _in_ a place, not how much of it reaches the people who live there.
A country with $7,778 GDP per capita, like Botswana, will still feed its citizens better than a state with $102bn in total output but $2,058 per capita, like Nigeria. A state can host a port, an oil rig, and a tech hub, yet fail to build a hospital that works.
So, the real question isn’t “Which state is bigger than which country?”
The real question, and the one our governors should lose sleep over, is this: When your economy is bigger than a nation, why are your people still living like they have nothing?
In this edition of The Bottomline, we follow the money from GDP to the gutter — and ask why Nigeria’s trillion-naira states have not become trillion-naira lives.
The viral numbers are not new. They were lifted straight from BudgIT’s 2022 State of States report and reflected 2021 estimates: Lagos at N41.17tn, followed by Rivers at N7.96tn, Akwa Ibom at N7.77tn, Imo at N7.68tn, Delta at N6.19tn, Anambra at N5.14tn, Ondo at N5.10tn, Ogun at N5.03tn, Bayelsa at N4.63tn and Niger at N4.58tn.
The trick is in the timing. To pitch those 2021 figures against 2025 country GDPs is statistical fraud. Nigeria has since rebased. The NBS moved the base year from 2010 to 2019, and the whole map shifted. Lagos itself has moved on: its 2025 _Lagos Economic Development Update_ puts the state at N43.06tn in 2023, with forecasts of N54.77tn for 2024 and N66.47tn for 2025. Those are projections, not fresh NBS post-rebasing observations, but they tell you the direction: up.
There is no debate that Lagos is Nigeria’s economic engine. From a colonial port to federal capital until 1991, it never lost momentum. Today, trade, manufacturing, ports, telecoms, tech, entertainment, real estate and finance all cluster in just 3,345 square kilometres. Compare that footprint to Botswana’s 581,730 sq km, Namibia’s 825,615 sq km, Rwanda’s 26,338 sq km, and Mauritius’ 2,040 sq km. Yet in 2021, Lagos’ $102 billion economy was several times larger than Botswana’s $19.9bn, Namibia’s $15.1bn, Rwanda’s $16.4bn, and Mauritius’ $16.2bn, according to 2025 World Bank figures.
That comparison is legitimate. The conclusion people draw from it is not.
GDP tells you how much value was produced in a territory. It does not tell you who owns it, who earns it, or whether the roads work, the lights stay on, or the hospital has drugs.
A state can run a trillion-naira economy and still have mothers boiling water on firewood. A country can have a smaller GDP and deliver a better life. Look at the per capita numbers: Botswana at $7,778, Namibia at $5,309, Mauritius at $11,819. Nigeria sits at about $2,058. Even Rwanda, at just $773 per capita, has pushed its $3-a-day poverty rate down to 38.6 per cent — proof that size is not destiny.
The oil states expose the fraud most brutally. Rivers, Akwa Ibom, Delta and Bayelsa rank high because petroleum inflates their GDP. But oil wealth does not flow into state coffers in equal measure, and it certainly does not flow into household wallets. BudgIT’s own fiscal sustainability index proves this. In 2022, Rivers topped overall fiscal performance despite Lagos having the biggest economy. A big economy without revenue discipline, jobs, and services is just a billboard.
Nigeria does not have a GDP problem. We have a translation problem.
We have pockets of enormous economic power. Lagos. Rivers. Akwa Ibom. Ogun. Anambra. Delta. The output is real. What is missing is the bridge between that output and ordinary life.
Until economic activity creates real jobs, until IGR rises and addiction to federal allocation falls, until infrastructure supports production instead of strangling it, those trillion-naira figures will remain a cruel joke.
So let the video go viral. Let Lagos be “bigger than Botswana”.
But governors, commissioners, and citizens should ask only one question:
If my state can outproduce a country, why can’t it out-deliver a decent life for the people who call it home?
Until we answer that, we are not rich. We are just big.
By Raphael Mbamalu