Falana made the call following revelations by the Auditor-General for the Federation, Mr Shaakaa Kanyitor Chira, that the Federal Government could not provide sufficient evidence to auditors that N33.75 billion in cash transfers meant for more than 3.29 million vulnerable households actually reached genuine beneficiaries.

The disclosure is contained in the Auditor-General’s 2024 Annual Report on Non-Compliance/Internal Control Weaknesses in Ministries, Departments and Agencies of the Federal Government.

According to the report, electronic transfers totalling N33.751 billion were made to 3,295,207 households and beneficiaries drawn from the National Social Register and enrolled on the National Beneficiary Register across 35 states during the 2023 financial year.

However, auditors said they could not adequately authenticate the payments because essential beneficiary information and reconciliation records were not provided.

In a statement dated September 6, 2026, Falana described the development as too serious to be dismissed as a mere administrative or accounting irregularity, insisting that the EFCC should liaise with the Auditor-General’s office to establish what happened to the funds.

He urged the anti-graft agency to immediately investigate the circumstances surrounding the disbursement of the N33.75 billion and determine whether any portion of the funds was criminally diverted.

“Those found culpable should be arrested and prosecuted without any delay,” Falana said.

The latest development has renewed concerns over the management of Nigeria’s social investment programmes, which were established to provide financial assistance and economic opportunities to some of the country’s poorest and most vulnerable citizens.

The National Social Investment Programme Agency (NSIPA) was transformed into a statutory agency under the National Social Investment Programme Agency Act 2022, enacted during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari.

The Act provides NSIPA with a legal framework to design and implement social investment programmes, manage beneficiaries’ databases, strengthen payment and accountability systems, and collaborate with state governments and development partners.

Its programmes include N-Power, the National Home-Grown School Feeding Programme, the National Cash Transfer Programme, the National Social Safety Net, the Government Enterprise and Empowerment Programme and the Grant for Vulnerable Groups.

Falana, however, expressed concern that programmes created to alleviate poverty and support vulnerable Nigerians have repeatedly been associated with allegations of financial mismanagement and corruption.

He recalled that former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, had been investigated by the EFCC over allegations involving the laundering of more than N37 billion during her tenure.

The former minister is currently facing EFCC prosecution alongside former Permanent Secretary Bashir Nura Alkali and another defendant over allegations involving $1.3 million and N746.7 million.

In April 2026, the Federal Capital Territory High Court in Abuja issued a warrant of arrest against Farouq and Alkali after they failed to appear for arraignment. The court subsequently sustained the warrant in June.

Falana also recalled the controversy that followed the suspension of former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Betta Edu, after a December 2023 memo emerged directing the transfer of N585 million in public intervention funds to a private bank account.

The then Chief Executive Officer of NSIPA, Halima Shehu, was also suspended and questioned over alleged financial irregularities.

According to Falana, the latest audit findings should serve as another warning that stronger mechanisms are required to protect funds intended for poor and vulnerable Nigerians.

He noted that following earlier controversies and pressure from development partners, including the World Bank, the Federal Government introduced stronger beneficiary-verification measures, including requirements for beneficiaries to link their profiles with Bank Verification Numbers (BVN) and National Identification Numbers (NIN).

He argued that such measures would have little meaning if government agencies could not subsequently demonstrate that billions of naira had actually reached the people for whom the funds were intended.

The ASCAB chairman therefore urged the EFCC to work closely with the Auditor-General’s office and other relevant agencies to trace the N33.75 billion, identify the beneficiaries who actually received the funds and establish whether public officials, contractors, financial institutions or other intermediaries were involved in any unlawful diversion.

He stressed that anyone found to have participated in the criminal diversion of public funds should face prosecution, while any recoverable funds should be returned to the public treasury.

Falana also expressed concern over the Federal Government’s management of a new generation of poverty-reduction and human-capital development programmes supported by the World Bank.

In July 2026, President Bola Tinubu launched five social intervention and development programmes valued at about $3.05 billion, aimed at reducing poverty, strengthening community resilience and improving access to healthcare and education.

The package includes NG-CARES, the SOLID programme and the Human Capital Opportunities for Prosperity and Equity (HOPE) programmes.

The World Bank is providing significant financing for the initiatives, including about $1.25 billion in additional financing for NG-CARES, $300 million for the SOLID programme and $1.5 billion for the HOPE package.

Falana said the Federal Government must ensure that the new funds do not become another opportunity for public officials to exploit programmes designed to assist Nigerians living in poverty.

He proposed greater involvement of credible civil society organisations in monitoring and overseeing the disbursement of the funds to ensure that assistance reaches its intended beneficiaries.

According to him, the credibility of Nigeria’s social intervention programmes will ultimately depend not only on the amount of money committed to them but also on the government’s ability to demonstrate transparently where the funds go and who benefits from them.

He maintained that public funds allocated for poverty reduction must be protected from corruption and that the latest N33.75 billion audit query provides an opportunity for the government and anti-corruption agencies to demonstrate their commitment to accountability.

“Instead of allowing public officers to feast on the huge funds for poverty reduction in the land, the Federal Government should set up a body constituted by representatives of credible civil society organisations to disburse the $3.05 billion package of development programmes to poor and vulnerable people in the country,” Falana said.

He urged the Federal Government to treat the Auditor-General’s findings as a matter requiring immediate action, insisting that every naira meant for vulnerable Nigerians must be accounted for.

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In her just-published memoir, retired career diplomat, Ambassador Lillian Onoh, fills that gap or, at least, the Nigerian version. In the pantheon of diplomatic memoirs out of Nigeria there’s been nothing quite like this. Her title, Diplomatic Bedlam, is a giveaway. Her sub-title makes clear that this is a story of “interactions with humans, mutants, variants and quadruple variants.”

While diplomacy can often profit from ambiguity, Lillian Onoh trades in clarity. She is not one of those diplomats given to professional or practised memory loss. Instead, she prefers total recall. Her narration is refreshingly irreverent, with a touch of occasional risqué. Her wit is acid.

As her text makes clear, Lillian Onoh was a reluctant diplomat. Her father, a successful lawyer and politician, had wanted her to follow him into the vocation of the law. The closest she came to that was taking courses in international and non-proliferation law on her way to a degree in politics and international studies.
Her diplomatic career almost ended before it began. Shocked at the squalid shoddiness of the first week of her induction academy, Lillian absconded to England, intent on other pursuits. Her father followed her there and extracted from Lillian a promise to try it out for one year. She lasted an additional 29, compiling along the way a record that made her “one of the best multi-lateral officers” in Nigeria’s foreign service.

Lillian was raised in a family with deep ties to law and diplomacy. They invested deeply in their daughters. Her younger sister is Nigeria’s current Minister of Foreign Affairs. She was preceded in that office by a man who was married to her elder sister. Another elder sister took a Ph.D. in international law only to have her life tragically cut short in an air crash.
Lillian’s story is a three-decade long reel of the kind of interminable coincidence that is not unusual in Nigerian public life. In 1983, the civilian administration of President Shehu Shagari recruited over 300 new officers into Nigeria’s diplomatic service. While they were still to complete their orientation, Muhammadu Buhari, a soldier, overthrew the regime on the last day of 1983.

Lillian’s Dad was one of the politicians deposed in the Buhari Coup. One decade after that coup, Lillian was one of only 60 officers hired into Nigeria’s diplomatic service in 1993 during the regime of Ibrahim Babangida, the man who usurped Muhammadu Buhari. By the time she rose to become an Ambassador, Buhari was back in power, this time as a civilian. She retired as a career ambassador under him. She was his High Commissioner to Namibia and, before that, Head of Mission in Jamaica.
For Nigerian diplomats, the “fear of their children having free access to ganja” made Jamaica something of a hardship posting. Most diplomats avoided it. It was to be Lillian’s first posting as an Ambassador. There, she was to battle the three themes that appear to define diplomatic life in Nigeria.

One is bribes. The entire chain of Nigeria’s diplomatic representation and practice appears to be deeply steeped in it. It begins from the point of orientation at the Foreign Service Academy. Intakes routinely paid for their grades and many directing staff appeared happy to oblige. In Lillian’s set, the students who scored the highest marks in the course were not the ones who won the prizes for best performance. The latter apparently was a pay-as-you-go fare.
For the right amount, anything could be bought in the foreign service – cushy postings, ministerial propinquity, and longevity in the right locations. Under cover of diplomatic immunity, diplomats skimmed and scammed the country interminably. In London, for instance, many made enough money to invest in choice real estate. Others invested in women. One particular senior diplomat used the proceeds of his diplomatic scams to procure multiple women in different posts. He seems to have ended up in predictable penury.

The second is sex – a lot of it. It is both a commodity and currency of the diplomatic service. Posted to Vienna Austria as a senior officer, Lillian was instructed to call the Ambassador, a politician. When she did, the Ambassador in Vienna told her that what the post needed was a female officer who could ‘take care’ of his political friends and ‘entertain’ them; “in short, he was looking for a hooker at Government expense.” Lillian explained to him that she lacked the skills for his specification. Her posting was withdrawn. The headquarters “pandered to his demand for a prostitute packaged as a diplomat and sent him an obliging female.”

Sometimes, these dalliances were themselves diplomatic incidents. In the mission in London, “Madam True Love” reportedly caught her man, a senior Nigerian diplomat, in the office in a perpendicular position inside another female competitor. It all ended rather messily. If it had been today, there’d be digital receipts and undiplomatic memes.

Back at the headquarters, Lillian caught an ascetic-looking senior diplomat at his peep hole set up to observe female proprieties improperly.
The place bustled with prize-winning Lotharios with impressive cognomens. A ministerial honcho earned the name “Free Wily”. His bureaucratic side-kick was “Small Wily.” “Big Bum” was a married (male) operative in a European post who had a reputation for intimate lubrication with equal opportunities for both sexes. His alleged partners included a governor or two from Nigeria who visited regularly. “Lolita” was a native facilitator of intimate graces in Namibia. The fuller cast of characters reads like a roll call of distinguished deplorables: Chickenpox, The Bat, Shifty-eyed Perv, Jezebel the Delta Variant, Nivaquine Malaria Parasite, Smallpox Pancake, Chewing Gum Rat, and lots more.

Third, apparently, Nigeria’s diplomatic service has always been something of a Voodoo Olympiad. Few Nigerian diplomatic posts are complete without the obligatory attentions of a Babalawo or Brujo. At the mission in Jamaica, a senior staffer had them on retainer. In London, “everybody knew the days when ‘Big Bum’ had new instructions from his witchdoctor”; he’d show up accompanied by “the pungent stench of some cloyingly odious incense.” In testament to the claim that Juju does not cross water, the prize winner, however, appears to be next door in Togo. It is the place where young diplomats are sent to find out whether they have the presence to imbibe or subdue it.

Togo was also the place where a Nigerian Ambassador proudly displayed in his office not a portrait of the Nigerian President but a photoshopped image of himself with the president of a super-power and his Foreign Secretary.

Diplomatic Bedlam is not all about mutants and several degrees of variants. It is also about humans. A decade after he had departed office from his second tour of duty as Nigeria’s president, Olusegun Obasanjo was invited to headline an event in Jamaica.

On vacation in Cuba from her post in Jamaica, Lillian’s landlady called to ask her whether she was attending the reception for her former president. It was the first time she’d heard about it. She had less than 24 hours to make it back to base from Cuba. President Obasanjo had not informed the High Commission and was surprised to find two separate reception parties at the airport, including one from Nigeria’s High Commission.

A mini-battle ensued on the tarmac as to who would convey the former president from the airport. Stepping into the path of President Obasanjo, Lillian motioned him to the car with Nigeria’s flag: “You are the former president of Nigeria; you do not have a choice.” The General ate humble pie and obeyed. Sometimes order finds a way to reassert itself, even amidst bedlam.

Title: Diplomatic Bedlam: Interactions with Humans, Mutants, Variants & Quadruple Variants in the Diplomatic Service
Author: Ambassador Lillian Onoh
Publisher & year: Spines (Florida), 2026
Pages: 495

A lawyer and teacher, Odinkalu can be reached at chidi.odinkalu@tufts.edu

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Alausa made the disclosure on Thursday while addressing members of the National Association of Proprietors of Private Schools and other stakeholders in the education sector, where he warned that examination malpractice and question leakage posed a serious threat to the integrity of Nigeria’s education system.

According to the minister, the widespread availability of leaked examination questions could undermine students who genuinely prepare for their examinations and create pressure on them to cheat simply to remain competitive with candidates who had obtained examination materials illegally.

Recalling his experience in efforts to combat examination malpractice, Alausa said some individuals had previously been able to obtain NECO questions ahead of the scheduled examinations by paying a relatively small amount.

“Before the examination, they bought the questions for N3,000. That was it. They bought the questions for N3,000 before the examination,” he said.

The minister also recounted what he described as a disturbing experience during the 2025 examination period, when he repeatedly received examination questions allegedly obtained before candidates were due to sit for the papers.

He said authorities were sometimes compelled to verify the materials with examination officials, only to discover that the questions being circulated were genuine papers scheduled for that particular day.

Alausa stressed that examination malpractice should not be treated solely as a problem caused by students, arguing that parents, teachers, school proprietors, principals and invigilators also have significant roles to play in either facilitating or preventing cheating.

He said where adults colluded to assist candidates in compromising examinations, students could end up being the least responsible participants in a system that ought to protect the integrity of academic assessments.

The minister said the Federal Government would continue to strengthen measures aimed at preventing question leakages and other forms of examination malpractice, noting that academic certificates must ultimately reflect students’ actual knowledge and abilities rather than their access to leaked examination materials.

He linked the reforms to the broader efforts of the President Bola Tinubu administration to raise standards in the education sector and build an academic system capable of producing competent graduates.

The Minister of State for Education, Prof Suwaiba Ahmad, also called on private school proprietors to support government efforts to restore credibility to public examinations.

Ahmad acknowledged that tighter examination controls could initially expose weaknesses in the academic performance of some students who had previously benefited from leaked questions.

She said the introduction of serialised examination questions would make it more difficult for candidates to obtain or circulate leaked papers, while encouraging students to prepare adequately for their examinations.

The minister further urged schools to complete their curricula on time and encourage students to maintain regular study habits.

She assured private education stakeholders that the Federal Ministry of Education would continue to engage them as the examination reforms were implemented.

The renewed government stance comes amid persistent concerns over examination malpractice in Nigeria, including question-paper leakage, impersonation, collusion and unauthorised assistance to candidates.

The authorities maintain that tighter examination procedures are necessary to protect students who compete fairly and restore public confidence in the credibility of Nigeria’s educational qualifications.

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1. Let me begin with the Chairman of this occasion, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, who spent nearly eight years as this country’s chief communicator and who knows better than anyone in this hall how narrow, and how important, the ground between government and the press can be.
2. To the Special Guest of Honour, Senator Gbenga Daniel, who governed Ogun State for eight years and now legislates for it, and who therefore understands the peculiar arithmetic of a governorship, where every problem in the State arrives at one table and the table is never large enough.
3. To the Chief Host, Mr. Eze Anaba, President of the Nigerian Guild of Editors and Editor of Vanguard. And to our host, Mr. Gabriel Akinadewo, and the management and staff of Swaaya Limited, publishers of Freedom Online: thank you for the invitation, and for the confidence it represents.
4. I did my homework before coming here. Since its inception in 2017, this lecture has taken on unemployment, leadership, Nigeria’s place in the world, politics and democracy, and the social contract. That is not a random list of topics. It is the record of a platform that has kept asking the hardest questions about this country and has refused to settle for easy answers. I am honored to add to that record.
5. I have been asked to speak on the theme “2027 Elections: Economy, Security and Nigeria’s Future,” and I want to be honest, at the outset, about the vantage points from which I speak.
6. I speak as a technocrat, with more than two decades in public service, much of it spent preparing budgets, negotiating concessions and building infrastructure in the most demanding city on this continent.
7. I speak as a politician, who has stood before the electorate twice and been trusted twice, and who now leads his party into the 2027 elections in Lagos State.
8. And I speak as a governor in the final months of his second and last term, whose name will not appear on any ballot in 2027. That fact gives me a certain freedom this morning, and I intend to use it. I am not here to ask for your vote. I am here to ask for your attention and, before I finish, for something a little harder than that.
9. I will not pretend to be neutral. I am a proud member of the All-Progressives Congress. I believe in the reforms of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, and I will say so plainly. But I will try to speak first as a Nigerian and only then as a partisan, because I think that is what the theme deserves and what this audience expects.
10. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, let me begin with the number that should frame everything else we say today. That number is twenty-eight.
11. By the time the polls open in January, this Fourth Republic will be twenty-eight years old. Consider what that means. The First Republic lasted five years and a few months, from Independence in October 1960 to the coup of January 1966. The Second Republic lasted four years and three months.
12. The Third Republic gave us elected governors and an elected National Assembly, but never quite arrived at an elected President. Add those three together, and this Republic has now lasted more than twice as long as all of them combined.
13. The election of 2027 will be the eighth consecutive general election since 1999. One of those elections, in 2015, produced something this country had never seen: a sitting President conceding defeat and handing over, peacefully, to the opposition.
14. We should say these things out loud, because we live in a neighborhood where they can no longer be taken for granted. In the last six years, soldiers have seized power in Mali, in Guinea, in Burkina Faso and in Niger, and more recently in Guinea-Bissau. Three of those countries have walked out of ECOWAS altogether. In a region where the ballot box is under siege, Nigeria’s unbroken run of elections is the anchor, and we should say so.
15. None of it came free. This democracy was paid for by people who were detained, exiled and, in some cases, killed for it. The President knows this better than most; he spent years in exile for the cause of June 12. So, when we speak about 2027, let us speak about it with the seriousness it deserves. It is one more milestone on a road that many people did not live to see.
16. That election is now 135 days away. The presidential campaign opened officially on the 19th of August. The governorship campaigns open in six days, on the 9th of September. The season is upon us, and the two questions that will define it are exactly the two on this morning’s program: the economy and security.
17. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we have already seen the shape of the campaign. Barely two weeks in, opposition politicians have reached for the fuel subsidy as their instrument of choice. We will see more of this. We will see promises that no treasury on earth could honor. We will see coalitions form, dissolve and re-form, sometimes within the same week. This has been the pattern of every election season in this country, and 2027 will not be the exception.
18. So let me address the subsidy directly, because Nigerians deserve better than slogans on either side of it.
19. The subsidy was not removed because anybody enjoyed removing it. It was removed because it had become a hole in the national purse through which the money for roads, schools and hospitals was draining away, and because much of that money was never reaching the ordinary motorist it was supposed to help. In the 2023 election, every major candidate promised to remove it. Only one of them was in a position to do it, and he did it on his first day in office.
20. I will not stand here and tell you that it has been painless. It has not. Lagosians have felt it at the pump, at the market, and in the price of a bag of rice, and any governor who tells you otherwise has not been listening to his own people. But the measure of a reform is not whether it hurts. It is whether it heals. And the evidence that this one is healing is now arriving, quarter by quarter.
21. On Monday, the National Bureau of Statistics published the growth figures for the second quarter of this year. The economy grew by 4.43 per cent, up from 3.89 per cent in the first quarter and from 4.23 per cent in the same quarter of last year. Agriculture, the sector on which most of our people depend, grew by 4.39 per cent, up from 2.82 per cent a year earlier. Services grew by 4.6 per cent. In nominal terms, the economy is more than 18 per cent larger than it was twelve months ago.
22. Look past the headline and the picture holds. Our external reserves stood at 53 billion dollars last week, the highest they have been since January 2009. We are running a trade surplus. Fitch and Moody’s both upgraded Nigeria’s credit rating last year. Inflation, which peaked at almost 35 per cent at the end of 2024, was 15.9 per cent in June. The naira has held its ground against the dollar for the better part of a year. And the era of unpaid public servants, unpaid pensioners and abandoned federal projects is behind us.
23. This week, too, the Central Bank reported that Nigerians abroad sent home 947 million dollars through formal channels in the month of July. That is the largest monthly figure in our history, and it is within touching distance of the one-billion-dollar-a-month target that many people laughed at when it was set two years ago.
24. These are not my numbers. They belong to the National Bureau of Statistics and the Central Bank of Nigeria, and every journalist in this hall can check them. I invite you to. That, in the end, is the difference between a case built on facts and a campaign built on fear.
25. For us in the All Progressives Congress, the position that follows is a simple one. We intend to stay the course, to deepen the reforms, and to make sure that the benefits reach, quickly and visibly, the people who bore the cost.
26. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, security will shape 2027 in two ways, and we should be clear-eyed about both.
27. The first is practical. In the communities where banditry and insurgency persist, insecurity touches everything: whether candidates can campaign, whether INEC can move its materials and its people safely, whether voters will come out at all. INEC’s own leadership has spoken openly about the threats to this election, and the Commission and the security agencies must plan for them now, not in December.
28. The second is a matter of perception. People vote on how safe they feel. And I believe Nigerians can see, because they are not blind, that this President has taken the security of this country as seriously as any Commander-in-Chief since 1999.
29. Consider what has been done in three years. In July, the President approved the expansion of the Nigerian Army from eight divisions to twelve, with 28,000 additional personnel and new divisional headquarters in Makurdi, Ilorin, Jalingo and Benin City, closer to the theatres where they are needed.
30. The Navy has a new Special Operations Command. Police training has been decentralized. Forest Guards and Mining Marshals now operate in spaces that were, for years, simply ungoverned. A new presidential office coordinates homeland security. And in May, in a joint operation with our American partners, some of the most wanted terrorist commanders in the Lake Chad Basin were taken off the battlefield.
31. Then there is State Policing. When it is completed, it will rank among the most consequential reforms in the history of this country, and I want to say something about it from experience rather than theory.
32. Lagos has been running a version of it for almost twenty years. The Lagos State Security Trust Fund, created in 2007, pools contributions from the private sector and the State to equip the police and the other agencies that keep this city safe. Our Neighborhood Safety Corps puts men and women from every community on the ground in that community.
33. The lesson of two decades is not complicated. Security works best when the people who pay for it and the people who depend on it can see, and hold to account, the people who provide it. That is the whole argument for State Policing in a single sentence.
34. The President understands this because he governed this State. His conviction about devolving power to the grassroots is the same conviction behind his fight for full financial autonomy for local governments, which the Supreme Court affirmed in July 2024. State Policing will require amendments to the Constitution, which means the National Assembly and our State Houses of Assembly. Whoever sits in the next Assembly, I hope they will finish the job.
35. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen
36. We speak of the economy and security as though they were two subjects. They are one. Poverty feeds insecurity, and insecurity strangles the very economy that would cure poverty. When a farmer cannot go to his farm, the nation gets hungrier. When a school is not safe, the country gets another cohort of children who never learned to read. And the reverse is just as true. The most effective security policy is a job, and the surest guarantee of a job is a country safe enough to invest in.
37. Lagos is the proof. Every business that opens in this city is a vote of confidence in the safety of this city. We did not attract the Lekki Deep Sea Port, or build the blue and red rail lines, or draw the investment that has made Lagos the technology capital of Africa, by accident. We did it because, first, people had to believe that Lagos was safe enough to bet on. That is the nexus. I have not read about it. I have lived it for seven years.
38. It is why the President’s interventions have gone straight at the poverty that feeds insecurity, and straight at the demographic with the most to gain or to lose: our young people. Nigeria has one of the largest youth populations on earth. That is either the greatest dividend in our history or the greatest danger to it, depending entirely on what we do in the next ten years.
39. The Nigerian Education Loan Fund is keeping students in school who would otherwise have dropped out. The Consumer Credit Corporation is building the credit culture without which no modern economy functions. The 3 Million Technical Talent program is training the workforce of a digital economy. The recently unveiled reform of the National Youth Service Corps is turning a year of service into a year of enterprise.
40. And behind these stand the Nigerian Youth Academy, the Nigeria Health Fellowship, the Student Venture Capital Grant, the Power Force program and the Labor Employment and Empowerment Program. It is hard to name an administration that has invested in young Nigerians on this scale.
41. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, we can argue about the economy and about security from now until January. None of it will matter if the election itself is not credible. So let me turn to the referee.
42. Our elections have improved. Anyone who covered the elections of the 2000s, as many in this hall did, knows how far we have come, and much of that distance was travelled on this party’s watch: the Electoral Act of 2022 and now the Electoral Act of 2026, and the technology that verifies voters and transmits results. But this is not the moment to rest on our oars. INEC must be ready in every polling unit on the 16th of January and again on the 6th of February, and each of us has a duty to help it be ready.
43. I want to say something about the President and this process, and I want to say it with a recent example, because an example is worth more than an assurance.
44. Nineteen days ago, on the 15th of August, the people of Osun State elected a governor. The candidate of my party, the President’s party, lost. The incumbent, Governor Ademola Adeleke, of a different party, won by more than sixty thousand votes. The President did not sulk and he did not equivocate. He picked up the telephone the following day, congratulated the winner, urged him to unite the State, and thanked INEC and the security agencies for a peaceful and transparent election. Governor Adeleke has since publicly thanked the President for ensuring a level playing field.
45. Think about what that means. There was a time in this country when “federal might” was a phrase that a ruling party used without irony. Under this President, the ruling party can lose a state, in the South-West, in an election year, and the sky does not fall. That is what a maturing democracy looks like. This President is a lifelong democrat, and he means to leave behind a stronger democracy than he inherited, not only for Nigerians but as an example to a continent that badly needs one.
46. And let me add one sentence for every candidate and every party, my own included. A mandate is only as strong as the process that produced it. No office in this land is worth the life of a single Nigerian, and no victory won by the wrong means is a victory at all.
47. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, you cannot discuss 2027 and leave out the 36 governors. Nigeria is not one economy but thirty-seven: 36 States and the Federal Capital Territory. The people who manage those economies will decide much of the outcome of this election, whether they mean to or not.
48. Voters may not be economists, but they are excellent accountants. They know whether their State built the road it promised. They know whether the primary health center has a nurse in it. They will bring that ledger with them to the polling unit.
49. Let me be candid with my colleagues, because I have sat where they sit for seven years. Under this President, the States have had it very good. Since the subsidy was removed, the monthly allocations to States and local governments have more than doubled in naira terms. The President has done his part; the money is arriving. What is done with it is on us. The excuses have been removed, and the electorate knows it.
50. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, no discussion of our future is complete without the world beyond our borders, and here I want to be careful, because the temptation in an election year is to pretend that everything that happens to Nigeria is decided in Nigeria.
51. It is not. Oil prices, the wars in Europe and the Middle East, the interest-rate decisions of the world’s major central banks: these move our economy, for good and for ill, and no President controls them. What a government controls is how it responds, and the test of any response is whether it protects people’s livelihoods, businesses and industries while the shock passes through. I believe this government has passed that test more often than not, and I believe the reserves and the naira are the evidence.
52. The same is true of security. Our neighbors’ wars do not stay on their side of the border, and our borders are long. We must keep our eyes on the region and keep improving our early-warning and response systems. The President’s recent decision to set up a high-level panel to produce a National Threat Assessment and a Five-Year Strategic Defence Operations Plan is exactly the kind of planning a serious country does.
53. This is also where the President’s foreign policy has quietly delivered. It has had two objectives: bring investment in, and bring security partners in. On investment, the verdict of the market is in. The Nigerian stock market has been one of the best-performing in the world this year, and the value of the companies listed on it has grown more than five-fold since 2023.
54. On security, we now have partners who are not merely sympathetic but present. In July, President Trump wrote to President Tinubu to say that it was, in his words, “a true honor to stand with you in the fight against terrorists.” Behind that sentence stand a Defense Cooperation Roadmap, a joint working group led by the national security advisers of both countries, and joint operations that have already produced results.
55. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, I want to end where the theme ends: with the future.
56. There is a future beyond 2027, and it is a bright one. The President has set the destination: a one-trillion-dollar economy by 2030. I know there are people who scoff at that number. People also scoffed at reserves of fifty billion dollars, and at a billion dollars a month in remittances, and at a stock market worth more than 150 trillion naira. Set the target, do the work, and let the scoffers keep the score.
57. We have moved past the era when every election felt like the one that might end the Republic. When the 2027 elections are done, 2031 will come, and then 2035, and 2039. That confidence, which our parents never had, is itself an achievement of this democracy, and we should say so.
58. I will not disguise my hope for the outcome. I expect my party to win, and I expect a second term for President Tinubu to consolidate the Renewed Hope agenda, because an unfinished reform is the most expensive kind. But whatever the outcome, I expect the election to be peaceful, I expect the loser to concede, and I expect Nigeria to add one more milestone to its record.
59. And now, the harder request I promised you at the beginning. It is for you. The fourth estate holds immense power in an election season, and power carries obligation. To whom much is given, much is expected.
60. I am not asking for a compliant press. A compliant press is of no use to a democracy; it flatters the powerful and abandons the public. I am asking for a rigorous press. Check the facts, mine included. Call out disinformation wherever it comes from, including from my own side. In the weeks ahead, the most dangerous lies will not come from newspapers. They will come from anonymous accounts and doctored videos, and you are the institution best placed to answer them.
61. I am asking you to look where others do not. Our deputy governorship candidate in Lagos is a woman, extending a tradition in which women have held that office four times out of seven since 1999, including an unbroken run from 2007 to 2019. Women remain badly under-represented in our politics; cover the women who are running. Young people are trying to break in; cover them too.
62. And I am asking you to tell the whole story. I am not asking you to hide this country’s problems. I am asking you to give the same energy to what is working: the business that opened, the student who got the loan, the town whose road finally arrived. There is a place for patriotism in journalism. Patriotism is not propaganda; it is the refusal to let those who wish this country ill have the last word about it.
63. Distinguished ladies and gentlemen, one hundred and thirty-five days from now, Nigerians will do something no generation before ours ever did: elect a President, peacefully and on schedule, for the eighth time in succession.
64. Nigeria’s future will not be decided on the 16th of January. It will be decided by what we do with the mandate that the 16th of January produces: whether we finish the reforms or abandon them halfway; whether we complete State Policing or leave it on the drawing board; whether we turn our young people into a dividend or a grievance; whether we build the one-trillion-dollar economy or merely talk about it.
65. Our elders say that one hand cannot lift a load onto the head. The Federal Government has a part. The States have a part. INEC has a part. And you, the fourth estate, have a part that no one else can play.
66. Let us lift this load together, and let 2027 be remembered not as the election Nigeria survived, but as the election at which Nigeria came of age.
67. I thank you for your kind attention. God bless the Federal Republic of Nigeria.

Being text of the lecture delivered by Mr. Babajide Olusola Sanwo-Olu, Governor of Lagos State, at the Freedom Online 7th Yearly Lecture, Sheraton Lagos Hotel, Ikeja, on Thursday, 3 September 2026.
Protocols.

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Odinkalu argued that the appointment was difficult to reconcile with the recommendations of the Anambra Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, which he chaired and which investigated the history of violence and insecurity in the South-East.

He recalled that Igwe, who was then Chairman of the Onitsha Branch of the Nigerian Bar Association (NBA), and his pregnant wife were killed in September 2002, shortly after he led the branch in demanding the payment of outstanding salaries owed to judiciary and public service workers in Anambra.

According to Odinkalu, the couple were attacked with guns and machetes on the outskirts of Onitsha after returning from the NBA Annual General Conference in Ibadan.
Emeakayi’s name in murder trial

Odinkalu said the Anambra State Government subsequently commenced criminal proceedings against 11 suspects in connection with the murders in The State v. Francis Nzekwe and 10 Others, Charge No. O/60C/2003.

He said one of the defendants was Emeakayi, who was then serving as Commissioner for Works in the administration of Governor Chinwoke Mbadinuju.

Odinkalu said the prosecution of the case encountered several setbacks, including the withdrawal of one of the judges from the matter, its transfer between judicial divisions and the eventual disappearance of relevant records following a prison break in 2006.

He said the case was never concluded.
Truth commission revisited case
Odinkalu said the murder of the Igwes later came within the mandate of the Anambra Truth, Justice and Peace Commission, which Governor Soludo established in 2022 to investigate the causes of violence and unrest in the state.

The commission, whose report was submitted in March 2024, described the double murder as particularly heinous and drew attention to the unfinished prosecution involving Emeakayi.

According to Odinkalu, the commission recommended that the state government review the case to ensure effective accountability. It also recommended an official apology and symbolic compensation for the couple’s children.

He said Soludo, upon receiving the report, promised swift action on its recommendations.
‘Appointment contradicts commission’s recommendation’

Odinkalu, however, said that about six months later, Soludo appointed Emeakayi as his Special Adviser on Community Security.

He said the state government subsequently established the Agunechemba vigilante security outfit, with Emeakayi placed in a leadership role.

The development, he argued, amounted to a contradiction of the commission’s recommendations and raised serious questions about the state government’s approach to accountability and security.

Odinkalu described the situation as an example of “the fox guarding the chicken coop”, arguing that a person whose name had featured prominently in an unresolved murder case should not be placed in charge of community security.

Odinkalu faults Soludo
The lawyer questioned how a person he described as having been credibly suspected of involvement in the killing of a pregnant woman and the orphaning of her children could subsequently be given responsibility for community security.

He said the development was particularly troubling because it involved the same governor who had received the Truth, Justice and Peace Commission’s report and promised to act on its recommendations.

Odinkalu argued that Soludo could not simultaneously complain about insecurity in Anambra and place the security of the state in the hands of a person whose past, in his view, raised serious questions about accountability.

He said the development had created a situation in which fear and silence could prevail over scrutiny of the government’s security policies.

The murder of Barnabas and Amaka Igwe in 2002 occurred during a period of severe insecurity and political tension in Anambra State, when vigilante groups, particularly the Bakassi Boys, operated with significant influence.

The couple’s killing generated widespread outrage within the legal profession and the wider public. The subsequent prosecution of suspects, however, did not produce a final judicial resolution.

More than two decades later, the case was revisited by the Anambra Truth, Justice and Peace Commission as part of its broader investigation into violence in the state.

Odinkalu, who chaired the commission, has now used the unresolved case to question the wisdom of Emeakayi’s subsequent appointment to a position responsible for community security.

He maintained that accountability for past abuses should remain central to the state’s efforts to address insecurity and restore public confidence in its security institutions.

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Falana made the call in an opinion on the statutory safeguards governing the arrest and detention of suspects, urging the NBA, under the leadership of Mrs Oyinkansola Badejo-Okusanya, to strengthen the monitoring of detention facilities across the country.

He specifically called on the NBA to ensure that members of its Human Rights Committees in all 145 branches accompany magistrates during their monthly visits to police stations and monitor compliance with the rights of suspects.

Falana urges NBA to monitor police stations
Falana said the combined provisions of Section 34 of the Administration of Criminal Justice Act, 2015 and Section 70 of the Nigeria Police Force Establishment Act, 2020 empower Chief Magistrates to conduct monthly visits to police stations within their magisterial districts.

According to him, the magistrates are empowered during such visits to inspect records of arrests, direct that detained suspects be brought before a court for trial or formal arraignment where appropriate, and grant bail in deserving cases.

He said the NBA should ensure that its Human Rights Committees work closely with the magistrates during the inspections to help strengthen oversight and protect the rights of detainees.

Falana said the initiative would also enable the NBA to identify cases of prolonged or unlawful detention and take appropriate legal steps to secure the release of affected citizens.

Call for Federal High Court judges to inspect detention facilities
The senior lawyer also urged the NBA leadership to mount pressure on the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court to designate judges to visit detention facilities other than police stations within their respective jurisdictions.

He said the relevant laws empower Federal High Court judges to inspect such facilities to ensure that suspects are not detained beyond the period permitted by the Constitution.

Falana, however, expressed concern that the Chief Judge of the Federal High Court had not designated judges to undertake the visits as contemplated by law.

He urged the NBA to make the issue a priority and press for the implementation of the statutory safeguards.

Falana: NBA officers are official visitors to correctional centres
Falana further called on the new NBA leadership to activate its statutory role in monitoring correctional centres across the country.

He said Section 21 of the Nigerian Correctional Service Act, 2019 makes the President and national officers of the NBA official visitors to correctional centres.

He therefore urged the NBA President and national officers to mobilise themselves and commence regular visits to the centres without further delay.

According to him, such visits would provide an additional layer of professional and independent oversight over the treatment and conditions of inmates and detainees.

NBA urged to enforce judgment on police lawyers
Falana also referred to the judgment of the National Industrial Court in The Incorporated Trustees of the Nigerian Bar Association v. Police Service Commission & Ors (Suit No. NICN/ABJ/264/2025), delivered by Justice O. Y. Anuwe.

He said the court declared that the police authorities have a mandatory duty to deploy police officers who are legal practitioners to police divisions across the country to assist with the enforcement of human rights in policing, pursuant to Section 66(3) of the Nigeria Police Act, 2020.

Falana urged the NBA leadership to ensure compliance with the judgment by securing the deployment of police officers who are legal practitioners to police divisions.

He said the officers should help monitor compliance with the fundamental rights of suspects and ensure that established safeguards are observed during arrest, detention and investigation.

‘NBA must protect indigent citizens’
Falana said the NBA should use the powers and mechanisms available to it under the law to protect indigent citizens who may be particularly vulnerable to unlawful arrest and prolonged detention.

He stressed that the protection of fundamental rights should not be limited to courtroom advocacy but should also extend to effective monitoring of police stations, correctional centres and other detention facilities.

He said the NBA had a responsibility to ensure that statutory safeguards against unlawful detention were implemented throughout the country.

The Nigerian legal framework provides several safeguards intended to protect the rights of persons arrested or detained by law enforcement agencies. These include judicial oversight of detention, access to bail in appropriate circumstances and protection against treatment that violates constitutionally guaranteed fundamental rights.

Falana’s call comes against this legal and institutional background, with the senior lawyer urging the NBA to make the enforcement of these safeguards a practical priority through regular monitoring, legal intervention and engagement with relevant law enforcement authorities.

He said stronger involvement by the NBA’s Human Rights Committees, national officers and legal practitioners within the police would help ensure that citizens are not unlawfully deprived of their liberty.

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In an interim assessment of the conference, Ubani said unless there was a significant improvement in the remaining days, the event could rank among the least memorable NBA annual conferences in recent years.

He contrasted the Port Harcourt conference with last year’s gathering in Enugu, which he said was widely praised for its organisation, traffic management, ease of movement, environmental friendliness and hospitality.

According to him, the positive reviews of the Enugu conference may have contributed to the large turnout at this year’s event, particularly among younger lawyers eager to experience the NBA’s annual gathering.

Ubani, however, said his experience in Port Harcourt had so far fallen short of expectations.
He expressed particular concern about the quality of conference materials, including the conference bag, which he said did not reflect the dignity and intellectual character expected of the gathering.

The senior lawyer also questioned the suitability of some of the personalities invited to participate in the conference, arguing that the NBA should preserve the professional and intellectual character of its annual gathering.

He said the conference should provide lawyers with opportunities to engage leading intellectuals, examine contemporary issues and exchange ideas on the future of the legal profession.

“The NBA Annual General Conference should be a place where lawyers encounter the best minds, challenge established ideas, interrogate contemporary problems and leave with a richer understanding of the law, society and the future of our profession,” he said.

“Entertainment has its place, but it must never replace intellectual substance.”

Presidential debate, welfare arrangements
While acknowledging that the presidential debate was a commendable initiative, Ubani said its execution, in his view, fell below expectations.

He also identified what he described as shortcomings in the welfare and comfort arrangements for participants, including the organisation and accessibility of tea-break venues and lunch arrangements.

Ubani further complained about heat and discomfort in some of the halls used during the first two days of the conference, describing the environment as unconducive to serious intellectual engagement.

He said such issues should not be dismissed as minor details because the comfort and welfare of participants were important to the success of a major conference.

“A lawyer who is struggling with heat, hunger, congestion and confusion cannot fully concentrate on the quality of discourse taking place around him or her,” he said.

Calls for modern convention centres
Ubani also renewed his call for greater investment in purpose-built convention centres across Nigeria, noting that the NBA annual conference attracts tens of thousands of lawyers.

He said facilities used for such gatherings were often not designed to accommodate conferences of that magnitude.

Nigeria, he argued, should develop modern convention centres capable of accommodating at least 25,000 people, with adequate halls, air-conditioning, parking, security, sanitation, exhibition spaces, restaurants, reliable electricity and efficient transportation.

He said the country had the resources to develop such infrastructure but appeared to lack the necessary vision, planning and commitment.

Ubani urges incoming NBA leadership to raise standards

As the NBA prepares to usher in a new president, Ubani urged the incoming leadership to raise the standards of the annual conference, particularly in planning, organisation, intellectual content and facilities.

“We must plan better. We must organise better. We must select our guests with greater care. We must prioritise intellectual substance over unnecessary spectacle and insist on facilities worthy of the Nigerian legal profession,” he said.

Ubani stressed that his assessment remained an interim verdict and expressed hope that the remaining days of the conference would bring improvement.

“But as things stand today, my interim verdict on the 2026 NBA Annual General Conference in Port Harcourt is that it has been lacklustre, uninspiring and, in several respects, deeply disappointing,” he said.

He said the large number of lawyers who travelled to Port Harcourt, particularly younger lawyers who had heard favourable accounts of previous conferences in Abuja and Enugu, deserved a better experience.

Ubani maintained that the NBA, as organiser of what he described as the largest gathering of lawyers in Africa, must ensure that its annual conference reflects the highest standards of the Nigerian legal profession.

“The Nigerian Bar Association can do better. The Nigerian Bar Association must do better. And the lawyers of Nigeria demand something better, more attractive, more intellectually rewarding and more professionally dignified,” he said.

He added: “Our Annual General Conference must never become an ordinary gathering. It is the largest gathering of lawyers in Africa, and it must always reflect the best of the Nigerian legal profession.”

Acknowledging that others were entitled to hold contrary views, Ubani concluded: “You may differ, it is your right. I have said mine, it is my right.”

The NBA Annual General Conference is the association’s flagship event, bringing together lawyers from across Nigeria for professional discussions, continuing legal education, networking and consideration of issues affecting the legal profession and the country.

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Oladipo, a former Political Editor of The Punch newspaper and one-time President of the Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP), died at the age of 56.

Tinubu: His contributions will not be forgotten
President Tinubu expressed deep sadness over Oladipo’s death, describing it as a painful loss to the Nigerian media community and the nation.

In a statement issued on Wednesday by his Special Adviser on Information and Strategy, Bayo Onanuga, the President acknowledged Oladipo’s contributions to journalism, particularly political reporting and the development of digital media.

Tinubu said Oladipo dedicated many years to informing Nigerians through traditional and digital media platforms and contributed to democracy by providing credible information and platforms for public discourse.

The President also recalled Oladipo’s passion for journalism and his contribution to the growth of digital journalism through The Eagle Online, which he founded after his career at The Punch.

“Dotun Oladipo’s death at the age of 56 is a painful loss to the Nigerian media community and to our nation. He was a committed journalist who devoted significant years of his life to informing the public and contributing to the development of our democracy,” Tinubu said.

He extended his condolences to Oladipo’s family, colleagues in GOCOP and friends, and prayed for the repose of his soul.

Akpabio: He was courageous, principled
Akpabio also described Oladipo’s death as a painful loss to the Nigerian media industry and the nation, noting his contributions to journalism, public discourse and the growth of online media.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Hon. Eseme Eyiboh, the Senate President commiserated with Oladipo’s family, friends, colleagues and professional associates, particularly members of GOCOP, where the deceased served as President.

Akpabio described Oladipo as a courageous, principled and dedicated journalist who devoted much of his life to the pursuit of truth, responsible journalism and the advancement of society.

“His sudden passing is a profound loss to his family, the journalism profession and Nigeria as a whole. His immense contributions to the development of online journalism, as well as his commitment to professional excellence, integrity and public interest, will remain indelible,” Akpabio said.

He said Oladipo understood the responsibility of a free and responsible press to listen, question and speak truth to power, adding that his life demonstrated how journalism could contribute to democracy and national development.

Akpabio urged media practitioners to uphold and build on Oladipo’s legacy of professionalism, integrity, courage and commitment to the public interest.

He prayed that God would grant the deceased eternal rest and give his family, friends and colleagues the strength to bear the loss.

Sanwo-Olu: His death shocking, painful
Similarly, Sanwo-Olu described Oladipo’s death as shocking, painful and heartbreaking.

In a statement by his Special Adviser on Media and Publicity, Gboyega Akosile, the governor extended his condolences to the deceased’s family, as well as the management and staff of Premium Eagle Media Limited, publishers of The Eagle Online, where Oladipo served as Managing Editor and Chief Executive Officer.

He also commiserated with the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ), GOCOP and the Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE), describing Oladipo as a cerebral and prolific writer.

Sanwo-Olu said the death of the former GOCOP President came as a rude shock to his family, friends, colleagues and associates.

“The death of one of Nigeria’s prolific journalists, writers and media entrepreneurs, Mr. Dotun Oladipo, is a significant loss to the media industry and Nigeria, as well as his family and friends. He will be sorely missed,” he said.

The governor said Oladipo made significant contributions to journalism, particularly through his pioneering work in online publishing in Nigeria.

He described the late journalist as an exemplary professional who also made a positive impact on those around him.

“Dotun Oladipo led an exemplary life. He was a dutiful husband and a good father to his children. Most importantly, he touched countless lives through his profession as a journalist, rising to become Publisher, Managing Editor and Chief Executive Officer of a media organisation,” Sanwo-Olu said.

The governor recalled his personal encounters with Oladipo during engagements with members of the media, describing him as brilliant, calm and highly professional.

He also recalled Oladipo’s presentation of GOCOP’s case during an engagement about three years ago, saying, “You can’t but listen to him.”

Sanwo-Olu extended his sympathies to the Oladipo family, the media community, his friends and colleagues, and journalists across the country.

He prayed that God would grant them the strength to bear the loss.

Oladipo was a veteran journalist who moved from mainstream journalism into digital publishing and became publisher of The Eagle Online.

He served as President of GOCOP from 2017 to 2021, during a period of rapid growth in Nigeria’s online media industry.

His death has drawn tributes from political leaders and media organisations across the country.

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Oladipo died on Tuesday, August 25, 2026, at the age of 56.

He served as President of GOCOP from 2017 to 2021 and was among the publishers who played important roles in the development of the Guild in its formative years.

His death is a loss to GOCOP and the wider Nigerian media community.

Oladipo entered online publishing with extensive experience in the traditional media, having worked as a journalist and editor before moving into digital publishing and establishing The Eagle Online.

At a time when online news publishing was still developing in Nigeria, he was among the publishers who recognised the need for online media practitioners to come together, exchange ideas and build a stronger professional community.

His tenure as GOCOP President coincided with a period of rapid growth in online publishing, as more digital news platforms emerged and social media increasingly transformed how Nigerians accessed and shared information.

As President, Oladipo represented GOCOP at various engagements and worked with members to address the opportunities and challenges associated with the growth of online publishing.

Nmodu: His contribution will be remembered
GOCOP President, Danlami Nmodu, described Oladipo’s death as painful for the Guild, saying he made significant contributions to its development.

“Dotun played an important role in the development of GOCOP. He led the Guild for four years at a time when there was still a lot of work to be done to establish online publishers as an important part of the media. His contribution will always be remembered,” Nmodu said.

He said Oladipo brought his experience as a journalist and publisher to the leadership of the Guild.

“Dotun understood journalism and he understood the business of publishing. He was passionate about the place of online media in Nigeria and he gave his time to the growth of the Guild. We are saddened by his passing,” he said.

Oladipo’s journalism career began long before online publishing became a major source of news in Nigeria.

His experience in the mainstream media provided him with a background in reporting, editing and newsroom management, which he later brought to digital publishing.

As publisher of The Eagle Online, he became part of the growing community of journalists and publishers who moved into the digital space as the internet transformed the media industry.

GOCOP said Oladipo’s contribution to the Guild should be viewed against this period of rapid transformation in Nigerian journalism.

The Guild also remembered him as a colleague who maintained relationships with publishers across the country and remained interested in the affairs of the organisation after leaving office.

GOCOP extended its condolences to Oladipo’s family, the management and staff of The Eagle Online, and his friends and colleagues in the media industry.

The Guild said it would work with his family and associates on plans to honour his memory.

Signed:
Kemi Yesufu
Publicity Secretary
Guild of Corporate Online Publishers (GOCOP)

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The governor assented to the Edo House of Assembly Funds Management Bill 2023 and the State Judiciary Financial Autonomy 2023 Amendment Bill on Monday at the Government House, Benin City, shortly after the House of Assembly passed the amendments.

Okpebholo signed the laws while receiving the Speaker of the Assembly, Hon. Yekini Idiaye, and commended the lawmakers for what he described as the swift resolution of the controversy surrounding the legislation.

In a statement by his Chief Press Secretary, Dr Patrick Ebojele, the governor said the three arms of government had distinct constitutional responsibilities and should operate within their respective mandates.

“I am, indeed, delighted because this has become like a controversial law, I must confess to you,” Okpebholo was quoted as saying.

He said the executive was responsible for administration and implementation, the legislature for lawmaking and oversight, while the judiciary was responsible for interpreting laws and administering justice.

“For me, deviating from these is totally out of the field of play, changing the goal post. I saw danger in it and the way things were going,” he said.

The governor expressed concern that funds allocated for capital projects were not sufficiently translating into projects that directly benefited residents, stressing that infrastructure remained one of the most visible ways government could improve people’s lives.

He commended the lawmakers for what he described as standing by the people and supporting the development of the state.

Speaker: Autonomy not removed
Explaining the amendment, Idiaye said the legislation did not remove the financial autonomy of the House of Assembly or the judiciary, but changed the arrangement for managing capital funds.

He said recurrent expenditure would continue to go directly to the Assembly and judiciary, while the amendment dealt specifically with the capital component.

“It is the capital part of the funds that has issues. It was badly abused,” the Speaker said.

According to Idiaye, under the amended arrangement, the Assembly and judiciary would submit proposals for capital projects to the executive for approval, with the capital component subsequently handled through the appropriation process.

He said the arrangement was intended to prevent further abuse of capital funds.

“The autonomy is still in place, there is no fear on any side, and the unions should not have any fear,” Idiaye said, adding that workers’ salaries would not be affected by the amendment.

Financial autonomy question
The amendment, however, raises a broader constitutional question over the practical meaning of financial autonomy where capital funds are concerned.

Section 121(3) of the 1999 Constitution, as amended, provides for amounts standing to the credit of the State House of Assembly and judiciary in the Consolidated Revenue Fund to be paid directly to the relevant institutions.

The Speaker maintained that the new law preserves the institutions’ financial autonomy because recurrent funds would remain directly available to the two arms of government.

However, the requirement that proposals for capital projects pass through the executive for approval before the funds are accessed could raise questions about the extent to which the legislature and judiciary retain independent control over their capital expenditure.

The issue is particularly significant because financial autonomy is intended to strengthen the institutional independence of the legislature and judiciary and prevent excessive financial dependence on the executive.

The Edo State APC Chairman, Jarrett Tenebe, has defended the amendment, arguing that the legislature should make appropriations but should not also execute them, as doing both could undermine checks and balances.

The constitutional validity and practical effect of the new arrangement, however, remain open to legal interpretation.

Financial autonomy for State Houses of Assembly and the judiciary has been a longstanding issue in Nigeria’s constitutional and governance debates.

The Fifth Alteration to the 1999 Constitution strengthened the framework for financial independence by providing for direct payment of funds standing to the credit of the legislature and judiciary from the state’s Consolidated Revenue Fund.

Against that background, the Edo amendments have attracted attention because, while the state government and Assembly say they preserve financial autonomy and seek only to address alleged abuse of capital funds, the requirement for executive involvement in capital-project approvals has raised questions about the practical extent of that autonomy.

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