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Labour Lists Fresh Seven demands, Wants Creation Of State, LG Police

Published

2 years ago

April 21, 2024

The Nigeria Labour Congress has listed seven demands from the Federal Government ahead of the May 1, 2024 Workers’ Day.

Aside from demanding for a new minimum wage, the NLC is also asking for the creation of state and local government police to tackle insecurity in the country.

The congress also stressed that states and local governments, as well as the organised private sector, must pay the new minimum wage when it is eventually approved.

International Workers’ Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often called May Day, is a celebration of the working class, and is marked annually on May 1, or the first Monday in May.

The 2024 Workers Day is particularly being looked forward to as it is expected that President Bola Tinubu may unveil the newly proposed minimum wage for workers in the country on that day.

Earlier in the month, organised labour had pegged the new minimum wage at N615,000 per month tentatively.

A member of the National Executive Council of the Trade Union Congress had confided in The PUNCH that the decision was reached before the hike in electricity tariff by the Federal Government.

The source said, “We are going to have another round of serious conversations with the government. Mind you, the tariff increase is also very good for us, because they (the government) did it when the new minimum wage process had not been concluded. So, it is going to be a good ground for us to ask for more money.”

The N30,000 subsisting minimum wage expired three days ago, as its five-year lifespan ended on April 18.

Former President Muhammad Buhari had signed the N30,000 Minimum Wage Act into law on April 18, 2019.

The tripartite committee, comprising representatives of organised private sector, organised labour and government, for a national minimum wage negotiation, follows the International Labour Organisation Convention 131.

In January, the president, through his Vice President, Kashim Shettima, had, on January 30, set up a 37-member panel at the council chamber of the State House in Abuja.

With its membership cutting across federal and state governments, the private sector, and organised labour, the panel is to recommend a new national minimum wage for the country.

In his opening address, Shettima urged members to ‘speedily’ arrive at a resolution and submit their reports early.

Chairing the panel is a former Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Bukar Aji, who, at the inauguration ceremony, affirmed that its members would come up with a “fair, practical, implementable and sustainable” minimum wage.

The inauguration followed months of agitation from organised labour who expressed concerns over the FG’s failure to inaugurate the committee as promised during negotiations last October.

From the government’s side, members include the Minister of State for Labour and Employment, Nkeiruka Onyejeocha, representing the Minister of Labour and Employment; Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy, Wale Edun, who was represented by the ministry’s Permanent Secretary, Lydia Jafiya; the Minister of Budget Economic Planning, Atiku Bagudu; Head of the Civil Service of the Federation, Dr Yemi Esan; and Permanent Secretary, GSO/OSGF, Dr Nnamdi Mbaeri, amongst others.

Representing the Nigeria Governors Forum are Mohammed Bago of Niger State, representing the North Central; Senator Bala Mohammed, Governor of Bauchi State- representing the North East; Umar Dikko Radda of Katsina State, representing the North West; Prof Charles Soludo of Anambra State, representing the South East; Senator Ademola Adeleke of Osun State, from South West; and Otu Bassey of Cross River State, representing the South-South.

From the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association are the Director-General of NECA, Adewale-Smatt Oyerinde; Chuma Nwankwo; Thompson Akpabio; as well as members from the Nigeria Association of Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines and Agriculture— Michael Olawale-Cole (National President); Ahmed Rabiu (National Vice President), and Chief Humphrey Ngonadi, National Life President.

From organised labour are the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and President of the TUC, Festus Osifo; his deputy, Tommy Etim Okon, among others.

Ajaero had announced N1m as the new minimum wage, owing to the rising inflation in the country which, according to him, had pushed many of the NLC’s members into poverty.

This led to several controversies, including experts saying that the suggested wage was unrealisable and unsustainable.

In February, Onyejeocha said the Federal Government had achieved about 90 per cent of the agreement it had with organised labour last October.

“We have done virtually everything in agreement. Ninety per cent of everything (is done),” Onyejeocha said on Channels Television’s Politics Today.

The statement came a few days before the NLC had said it would shut down the country in a nationwide protest over economic hardship.

Ajaero had told government representatives at a meeting that the protest was not about the government’s commitment to the October agreement, but inflation in the prices of food.

The minister said food security and economic prosperity were part of the priorities of the President Bola Tinubu administration.

She appealed to Nigerians to be patient with the new government as the administration was in its planting season with harvest on the horizon.

Onyejeocha said the Federal Government had ticked about 90 per cent of the 15-point memorandum of understanding it signed with organised labour on October 2, 202.

Some of the agreements include granting wage awards of N35,000 to workers, the inauguration of a minimum wage committee, and suspension of the collection of Value Added Tax on diesel for six months.

On the provision of high-capacity CNG buses for mass transit in the country, the minister said funds had been released for the purpose but “there are certain things you cannot control; you cannot control the number of days a shipment or a container will stay in the port”.

Nigeria is battling rising inflation, forex crisis, economic hardship and high cost of living occasioned by the removal of petrol subsidy, which attracted protests in parts of the country.

Speaking to The PUNCH correspondent in Abuja, the NLC’s National Treasurer, Hakeem Ambali, listed seven demands the congress had made from the federal and state governments.

He said, “First, we expect that there should be improved labour government industrial relations, full implementation of minimum wage across the board for the federal, state, local government and private sector workers.

“Settlement of pension arrears, the establishment of compressed natural gas conversion centers in all senatorial districts, fixing of Port Harcourt and Kaduna refineries.

“Creation of state and local government police, granting of local government autonomy, granting of infrastructure support scheme to all local governments.”

Speaking further, Ambali noted that the Congress was still awaiting an invitation to the next meeting of the tripartite committee on minimum wage.

Ex-TUC president warns against arbitrary fixing of new minimum wage

Meanwhile, a former two-term president of the TUC and one-time president of the Petroleum and Natural Gas Senior Staff Association of Nigeria, Peter Esele, had warned against the arbitrary fixing of a new minimum wage.

Speaking, Esele noted that the Federal Government and organised labour should agree on a new minimum wage before it is announced by the president on Workers’ Day to avoid another round of protests and strikes.

He said, “First, I will be surprised if organised labour says the Federal Government should announce the minimum wage. Probably the unions are hoping that by then, they will have concluded negotiations with the government. But for me, if the negotiation is not concluded by that time and the Federal Government goes ahead to announce the new national minimum wage, it is also possible that organised labour will dispute it. And what we are going to have is another round of protests and strikes.

“So my expectation for the labour unions is to put what they want on the table, while the Federal Government also puts theirs on the table. They should then both agree. But, suppose the Federal Government goes ahead and unilaterally announces a new national minimum wage, labour would oppose it, which, as I said, will lead to another round of industrial actions.

“It will be strange if the Federal Government announces the new minimum wage on Workers’ Day. However, I believe the governments are also smart enough not to make such a move unless they reach an informal agreement with the organised labour, and the Nigeria Employers’ Consultative Association”.

Esele also ruled out the possibility of problems arising if organised labour and the Federal Government fail to reach a concrete agreement on the new minimum wage by May Day.

He said, “The fact again remains that if both parties are still on the negotiation table by next month, it does not prevent the proposed new minimum wage from taking effect that month. What it simply implies is that whenever the agreement comes, the government will pay arrears.

“Even in the organised private sector, that is what we do. You can go on negotiation for even six months, but once an agreement is finally reached, and the last collective bargaining has expired, for whatever is agreed whether in six months or a year later, the arrears will be paid by the employers, which is the government in this case. So if the agreement is in place, it doesn’t matter whether they announce it on May 1 or not, the salary arrears must be paid.”

We’ll pay agreed minimum wage – MAN

Reacting, the Director General, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, Segun Ajayi-Kadir, stated that members of the association will pay the new minimum wage when eventually agreed to and approved.

He said, “We (the tripartite committee) are negotiating and the three groups are discussing. Whatever is agreed will be mandatory on all parties. So, the private sector is looking forward to arriving at a consensus of the committee and whatever the outcome, the private sector will oblige because we have been part of it.

“I don’t think in the history of the country, there has ever been a situation where it is the private sector that has failed to implement the minimum wage. We effectively implemented the minimum wage when it was N30,000, so there should be no apprehension whatsoever that the private sector will not pay the proposed new minimum wage. I think it is best to cross the river when one gets there.”

NLC wants creation of state, LG police

Meanwhile, the NLC is also demanding for the creation of state and local government police.

This demand is coming a few weeks after 16 state governors submitted reports expressing their support for establishing state police to the National Economic Council.

In the report, they also recommended changes to the constitution to allow for the creation of state police.

The reports were part of documentation received at the 140th NEC meeting presided over by Vice President Kashim Shettima at the Aso Rock Villa on Thursday, March 21.

Special Adviser to the Vice President on Media and Communications, Stanley Nkwocha, revealed that in a statement titled, ‘NEC endorses take-off of $617M i-DICE programme across states.’

According to the statement, NEC is still awaiting reports from 20 states. It expressed confidence that others would support it.

Disclosing discussions at the NEC meeting, Nkwocha said, the “Secretary to NEC (Nebeolisa Anako) made a presentation on submissions by states on the state policing initiative. Reports have been received by 16 states on the establishment of state police. 20 states have yet to send in their reports. All states across the country expressed their support for the establishment of state police.

“States made presentations in support of the creation of state police. They also recommended changes in the constitution, and the current policing structure to enable the operationalisation of the initiative.”

This comes weeks after the federal and state governments, on February 16, 2024, resolved to develop modalities to create state police to tackle the country’s security crisis.

Meanwhile, speaking with The PUNCH, a retired Superintendent of Police, Adebayo Alugbin, said the NLC demand for local government police resonates greatly with the call for state police creation recently made by some elder statesmen in the country.

He said, “In a federation, it is expected that the state government will control everything under it. They will be the ones to establish the police formation for each of their states and local governments. What that means is that you want people who know an area to police the area.

“From my experience, ideal policing is when you are part of the people. That is what is obtainable in Britain, whose system we copied, but wrongly operate. A policeman has to have local knowledge of the area they are covering, and that cannot be achieved without local involvement.”
PUNCH

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[OPINION] Jan 1 Resolutions: Why I Write What I Write

Published

6 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Editor

By Festus Adedayo

As I write this, I am listening to a line of the song of my favourite Jamaican reggae music superstar, Peter Tosh. It is a 1979 track entitled Jah Seh No, in his Mystic Man album. When life becomes too convoluted for me to comprehend, when it seems I am running mad, I run into Tosh’s embrace. But, running to Tosh for an embrace is problematic. Tosh himself was like a madman. He was unconventional, an iconoclast who didn’t see life from the prism of the living. A devout adherent of the Rastafari faith, he was highly spiritual, was a poet, philosopher and a staunch defender of African rights. At some point, life broke Tosh’s will, long before his assassination on September 11, 1987, aged 42, in Kingston, Jamaica. It would appear that his musical preachment made little impact. He was repeatedly assaulted by Jamaican police and once had his skull cracked by them. The charge was his illiberal smoking of marijuana. So, in this track, Tosh bore his frustration with orthodoxy and the system thus: “Must Rastas bear this cross alone and all the heathens go free? Must Rastas live in misery and heathens in luxury? Must righteous live in pain and always put to shame? Must they be found guilty and always get the blame?

Tosh’s Jamaica of 1979 bears similarities with today’s Nigeria. Jamaica wore, like an apron, significant economic instability. This led to intense poverty and inequality driven by global economic shocks, domestic policy choices, capital flight, and political violence. The aftermath was massive hopelessness.

The attendant hopelessness in Jamaica fired the muse of reggae musicians. They saw naked poverty as catalysts for their songs. For instance, in 1976, Maxwell Smith, known professionally as Max Romeo & The Upsetters Band, sang in Uptown Babies Don’t Cry, about a little lad hawking Kisko, a popular brand of ice pops, on Kingston streets and shouting “Kisko pops! Kisko pops!”. He also sang about another lad who, as Star newspaper vendor, shouted, “Star News, read the news!”. They were embroiled in existential survival, said Romeo, and “help(ing) mummy pay the fee, for little junior to go to school.” For Tosh, in his Get Up, Stand Up, Jamaicans must stand up for their rights while Bob, apparently frustrated by the system, in Time Will Tell, sang confidently that ”Jah would never give the power to a baldhead to come crucify the dread.”

But the Jamaican governmental and political leadership, epitomised by Edward Seaga and Michael Manley, kept on taking advantage of the people’s hopelessness. Nigeria of today is yesterday’s Jamaican mirror on the wall. The hopelessness in the land has the capacity to break the most impregnable will. Everything seems to be upside down. Seaga and Manley are replicated in Bola Tinubu and Abubakar Atiku. Or Peter Obi and other scavengers for power.

Everything is shrouded in a fog. Hope of retrieval of country from the jaws of political carnivores recedes by the day. This year, prelude to election year, will even be worse. Foes will stab friends and friends will stab foes, not in the back, but in their very before. War has begun, says So-kple-So. That line reminds me of Ghanaian Akan poet, Kojo Senanu’s poem, “My Song Burst” in the A Selection of African Poetry, authored by him and Theo Vincent, which recited that Akan war song.

Physical or psychological repression is writ large. Impunity reigns like a malevolent incubus. Those are actually not the ailment. The disease is the Nigerian people. The way Nigerians’ minds have become warped, significantly captured and compartmentalized into a binary, is mind-boggling. Never have Nigerians’ minds operated in a gross profile as this. Tribe, religion, and political parties determine where everyone stands. No one sees rot and maggots but opportunities. Everyone is running a rat race to take a bite of Nigeria’s carrion. Our sense of judgment has been significantly recalibrated. When I read comments by some otherwise knowledgeable and brilliant people on visible rots in the polity, I feel I am falling into depression. Yet, a part of me warns not to take Nigeria seriously. If you run mad and then die, Nigerians would piss on your graveside.

Many times, I have toyed with the option of abandoning this thankless ritual of column-writing which I began in 1998. It is a killing ritual for which, not only don’t you get paid but you are insulted for daring to have a voice. Maybe I could find sanity in silence and abandonment of my voice? After all, Reno Omokri and Daniel Bwala have found redefinition in becoming the biblical Lot’s wife. But my mind tells me I would face hell on earth and would even not rest in peace. But the truth is, where I stand has potentials of running me mad. Permit me to be immodest, those who know me know I have an ecumenical spirit that cannot hurt a fly. But when I sit behind my laptop, I am like a possessed Yoruba deity of smallpox called Sonpona. Chaos, otherwise known as upside-down, which Fela said has its meaning too, is meaningless to me. Everywhere I turn, I see chaos and my head spins, threatening to explode. Even when I cannot totally extricate myself from the rot in the land, I am grieved like a pallbearer. Yet, another part of me tells me that order and chaos are Siamese, built into a profile by the Omnipotent.

As 2025 spun into oblivion, I stood to make a New Year resolution. But before I did this, I checked the literature of resolutions. It offers no comfort. Over a century ago, specifically on January 1, 1887, Rudyard Kipling, English journalist and novelist, attempted to drill into the philosophy of resolutions. In a timeless poem which explored the human desire to make New Year resolutions and the failure that attends it, he gave a tribe of New Year resolution makers a short-lived hope. He did this in a poem he entitled Little-Known Poem on New Year’s Resolutions. Billions of people in the world make resolutions on New Year’s Day. But, said Kipling, there are trials and tribulations in resolutions. In seven short stanzas, Kipling took readers on a journey. He begins by listing vices he wants to give up. They hung on him like an apparition. Chief among the vices were alcohol, gambling, flirting, and smoking. But in each of the stanzas, as he proposes a resolution, he proposes contrary sentences that nullify the resolutions and even justifying their reversals.

Matthew Wills, in his Why New Years Falls on January 1st: Why do we celebrate the beginning of the New Year on the first of January?, took the world on a journey on the frivolities of January 1st. Julius Caesar, he said, is why. The eponymous Julian calendar, said Matthew, began in Mensis Ianuarius (or Januarius) 45B.C. The month of January, he further reminded us, is named after the Roman god called Janus. Janus is a god who had two faces. While one faces the future, the other faces the past. Janus was however perceived, according to Wills, as “the god of beginnings, endings, and transitions, or, more prosaically, doors and passageways.”

Among the Yoruba, just like Jews’, the agricultural season marks the beginning of the year. For them, the newness of a year is defined by their philosophy of time, which they also approximated in the saying, the next season is here so, don’t eat your yam seedling, «Àmódún ò jìnnà, má jẹ isu èèbù rẹ». Season and time, to the Yoruba, are expressed in an embodiment of words like àkόkὸ (time around), ìgbà (season) and àsìkò (specific season) which they most times deploy interchangeably. The people also have sayings which speak to their conception of time. For instance, late professor of philosophy and my teacher at the University of Lagos, Sophie Oluwole, in one of her works, “The Labyrinth Conception of Time as Basis of Yoruba View of Development” published in Studies in Intercultural Philosophy (1997), cited Yoruba saying to illustrate this. “Tí wón bá ńpa òní, kí òla tèlé won kí ó lo wò bí won o ti sin ín (when today is being killed, tomorrow’s attendance at the murder scene is necessary so that it could see where the corpse of today is buried and for it to know how it too would be interred). The two other Yoruba sayings Oluwole cited to illustrate time and season are, one: “ogbón odún ni, wèrè èèmí ni” (this year’s wisdom is next year’s folly) and “Ìgbà ò lo bí òréré, ayé ò lo bí òpá ìbon” (a life span cannot exist ad infinitum; it is not vertical, and is unlike the straightness of the barrel of a gun).

These were all I reflected upon as I proposed to make a 2026 Resolution. The self-imposed road of a columnist I tread is a lonely, hard road strewn with briers and thorns. I remember the sermon of another Jamaican reggae great, Jimmy Cliff. It is a hard road to travel and a rough road to walk, he counseled. Many times, you are lonely, dejected and rejected on this road. You open your mouth to speak but wordless words ooze therefrom. Just as Tosh lamented in his “Must Rastas bear this cross alone and all the heathens go free?” volunteering anti-establishment opinion is like carrying a cross. Many times, I am inundated by family and friends to turn apostate of my belief. They fear death or state castration. Can’t the world see? Don’t they see the pains, grits and uncertainty on this road? Don’t they know that there is lushness, flourish and plenty on the other side? If I neglected these for a carapace-hard travel, I thought I would be hailed. No. Why is one who chose this lonely road the demon? And those who sup in the bowl of destruction heroes? Why? No response. Only echo of my own silent voice.

In this dejection, Audre Geraldine Lorde came to my rescue. Lorde was an American professor, philosopher, feminist, poet and rights activist. She was also a self-described Black lesbian. Lorde got romantically involved with Mildred Thompson, American sculptor, painter and lesbian she met in Nigeria during FESTAC 77. In a paper she delivered at the Modern Language Association›s “Lesbian and Literature Panel,” Chicago, Illinois, December 28, 1977 with the title, The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action, Lorde gave insight into the pains she encountered on account of her beliefs: “I have come to believe over and over again that what is most important to me must be spoken, made verbal and shared, even at the risk of having it bruised or misunderstood.”

It could also mean pain or death, but she said, “learning to put fear into a perspective gave me great strength” and that “I was going to die, if not sooner, then later, whether or not I had ever spoken.” Gradually, said Lorde, “I began to recognize a source of power within myself that comes from the knowledge that while it is most desirable not to be afraid, my silences had not protected me.” She died of liver cancer in 1995.

Yes, this is a rough, lonely road. It could be excruciating when you see friends, especially ones in government, desert you because they don’t want to associate with you. You walk alone like a deranged alchemist. Some even ask why, with your endowment and ascription, you live comparatively like a pauper. Your views are criminalized. Where you stand is not popular. But both madman Peter Tosh and lesbian Audre Geraldine Lorde give the will to trudge on in the New Year, regardless. Lorde was loud in my head with her admonition. After her initial apprehension of a mastectomy resulting from a breast cancer, she said: “I was going to die, sooner or later… My silences had not protected me. Your silences will not protect you…. What are the words you do not yet have? What are the tyrannies you swallow day by day and attempt to make your own, until you will sicken and die of them, still in silence? We have been socialized to respect fear.”

There and then, I made a bold vow, a New Year resolution: I will continue to speak truth to power. Regardless.

News

What I Saw After A Lady Undressed Herself — Pastor Adeboye

Published

8 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Editor

General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG), Pastor Enoch Adeboye, has recounted a remarkable experience in which he said a woman was miraculously healed after prayers.

Adeboye shared the testimony while speaking at the RCCG annual gathering, describing the incident as a clear demonstration of divine intervention and the power of prayer.

According to the cleric, the incident occurred during a visit to a city where he had checked into an undisclosed hotel.

He said the lady approached him, greeted him and insisted on following him to his hotel room despite his objections.

“I told her, ‘Please don’t put me into trouble, I can pray for you here,’ but she insisted on following me,” Adeboye recounted.

He said that upon getting to the hotel room, the woman revealed the condition that prompted her persistence.

“When she pulled her dress up, what I saw shocked me. Her body was covered with scars,” he said.

Adeboye explained that he immediately began to pray for the woman, adding that he did not mind being loud during the prayers.

“I began to pray for her, and before I knew it, all the scars were gone,” he said.

The RCCG leader described the experience as a powerful testimony of faith, stressing that it reinforced his belief in prayer as a tool for healing and transformation.

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Missing N128bn: SERAP Demands Probe Into Power Ministry, NBET Expenditures

Published

8 hours ago

January 4, 2026

Editor

The Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP) has urged President Bola Ahmed Tinubu to immediately order an investigation into allegations that more than N128 billion in public funds is missing or has been diverted from the Federal Ministry of Power and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc. (NBET), Abuja.

The allegations are contained in the latest annual report of the Auditor-General of the Federation, published on September 9, 2025, which highlighted multiple cases of financial irregularities, undocumented payments, ents and suspected diversion of public funds across both institutions.

In a letter dated January 3, 2026, and signed by SERAP’s Deputy Director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organisation called on President Tinubu to direct the Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, SAN, alongside relevant anti-corruption agencies, to promptly probe the findings and ensure accountability.

SERAP stressed that any individual found culpable should be prosecuted where sufficient admissible evidence exists, while all missing or diverted funds should be fully recovered and paid back into the national treasury.

The group further urged the president to deploy any recovered funds to address the deficit in the 2026 budget and help ease Nigeria’s growing debt burden.

According to SERAP, Nigerians continue to bear the consequences of entrenched corruption in the power sector, which has contributed to persistent electricity shortages, frequent transmission line failures and unreliable power supply nationwide.

The organisation argued that addressing corruption in the sector would significantly improve access to regular and uninterrupted electricity.

The civil society group described the allegations as a grave breach of public trust and a violation of the 1999 Constitution (as amended), Nigeria’s anti-corruption laws and international obligations, including the United Nations Convention against Corruption.

Detailing the audit findings, SERAP noted that the Ministry of Power failed to account for over N4.4 billion transferred to the Mambilla, Zungeru and Kashimbilla project accounts, with no evidence provided on how the funds were utilised.

The Auditor-General expressed fears that the money may have been diverted and recommended its recovery.

The report also revealed that the ministry paid over N95 billion to contractors for various projects without documentation or proof that the projects existed or were executed.

Additionally, more than N33 million was reportedly spent on foreign travels for the minister and aides to attend international events in Abu Dhabi and Dubai without required approvals from the Secretary to the Government of the Federation or the Head of Civil Service.

Further concerns were raised over unaccounted expenditures, including over N230 million on the GIGMIS platform and more than N282 million paid as non-personal advances to staff beyond statutory limits, all without adequate documentation.

At NBET, the Auditor-General uncovered multiple cases of irregular contract awards and payments. These include over N427 million in contracts awarded without evidence of procurement advertisements, more than N7.6 billion transferred into purported sub-accounts of unnamed beneficiaries, and over N9.3 billion paid to Egbin Power Plc without documents to authenticate the transactions.

The audit also cited payments exceeding N8 billion made without proper record-keeping, over N420 million paid to ineligible consultants without evidence of services rendered, and more than N1.1 billion spent as extra-budgetary expenditure without approval from the Minister of Finance or the National Assembly.

Other questionable expenditures highlighted include payments for vehicles without due process, unapproved legal fees, undocumented staff welfare packages, and consultancy services not captured in approved budgets.

SERAP warned that if decisive action is not taken within seven days of the receipt or publication of its letter, the organisation would consider legal steps to compel the government to act in the public interest.

Citing constitutional provisions, SERAP reminded President Tinubu that Section 15(5) of the Constitution mandates the abolition of corrupt practices, while Section 16 obliges the government to ensure that the nation’s resources are managed to promote the welfare and happiness of all citizens.