News

Why Tinubu Signed Executive Orders On Gas, Energy – Aide

Published

1 year ago

March 8, 2024

Editor

The Special Adviser to the President on Energy, Mrs. Olu Verheijen, has given reasons why President Bola Ahmed Tinubu signed Executive Orders to transform the gas and energy sectors of the economy, submitting that gas remains the best option for Nigeria’s attainment of energy stability.

The presidential aide, who addressed the media in Abuja on Friday, pointed out that the steps taken by the president was to make gas readily available to Nigerians at affordable rates for all purposes and reduce dependence on petrol and diesel.

Mrs. Verheijen said: “Our ambitions to accelerate our economic growth and diversify the economy for the benefit of all Nigerians require timely, credible, clear and consistent policy. We are faced with a revenue crisis which is impacting all Nigerians. To urgently address this, President Bola Tinubu is actively seeking ways to grow revenue and forex to stabilize our economy and currency. The oil and gas sector is critical to our ability to do so. However, our current oil and gas production and investment levels falls significantly short of our potential.

“Since 2016, Nigeria has only accounted for only four percent four percent of Africa’s total oil and gas investments, despite possessing 38 percent of the continent’s hydrocarbon reserves. A society is not rich because of its resources but because of what it does with those resources. President Bola Ahmed Tinubu is determined to reverse this trend and take decisive steps to ensure to a conducive business climate and reposition Nigeria as a preferred investment destination for oil and gas sector,” she explained.

The energy adviser said that it was in a bid to reverse the negative tendencies in the sector that the president issued a directive to streamline and clarify the scope of two regulators in the petroleum sectors and to provide certainty and create a conducive business environment for the players.

She pointed out that consequent upon the directive, the TNP pipeline, which had been repeatedly vandalized, is now enjoying improved uptime and doubled its availability, resulting in increased liquids of over 200,000 barrels/day being transported over the last six months and increasing the availability of NLNG Trains 1-6 from 57 percent in 2023 to 70 percent in Q1 2024.

The adviser said the president had also introduced fiscal incentives to deepen Compressed Natural Gas (CNG) and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) penetration all aimed at easing the impact of fuel subsidies on transportation cost, enabling the displacement of PMS/Diesel and contributing to stabilising the price of cooking gas in the market and support the transition to clean cooking.

The presidential aide explained that the Fiscal Incentives for Non-Associated Gas (NAG), Midstream and Deepwater Oil and Gas Developments is aimed at facilitating the monetization of Nigeria’s extensive oil and gas resources.

She said: “For Gas, 76 percent of our gas reserves, remain undeveloped. This explains why, despite possessing one of the largest gas reserves globally, we lack sufficient gas to meet our domestic needs for industry, for power and for cooking. The fiscal incentives introduced will attract the much-needed investments to enhance energy security, catalyze economic activity, attract essential foreign exchange, and promote job creation.

“The President has issued directives to reduce contracting timelines and project delivery. Benchmarking and analysis revealed that the contracting cycle takes up to 36 months. This Directive should have the effect of compressing this cycle to less than 6 months in line with global averages. This will expedite the delivery of oil and gas products to the market and enhance overall value for the country.

“Local Content Practice Reform: This Directive seeks to ensure that local content requirements are implemented in a manner that does not impede investments or the cost competitiveness of oil and gas projects. This Directive aims to reduce the cost premium of operating in Nigeria, presently averaging at 40 percent. We anticipate significant benefits from this reform, including the development of local companies’ capacity, thereby generating additional business opportunities, job creation and boosting economic growth.

On how the new policies would be implemented for effective results, the presidential aide, explained that the assignments had been shared among different levels of government agencies to be followed up by her office.

Under the arrangement, she said, the Minister of Finance/Co-coordinating Minister of the Economy will develop and propose amendments to introduce fiscal incentives for deep-water developments into legislation while the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) and the Nigerian Upstream Petroleum Regulatory Commission (NUPRC) will issue guidelines on the implementation of the fiscal incentives.

News

Bumper Harvest: Foundation Distributes 6,000 Fertilizers To Farmers In Bauchi

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

A group, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation has donated 6,000 50kg bags of fertilizer to farmers in Bauchi state in order to have a bumper harvest.

Speaking during the flag off ceremony of the distribution of the fertilizers on Thursday, Mr Abubakar Mohammed, Monitoring and Evaluation Officer, Wunti Al-Khair Foundation, said the distribution was only for the indigent farmers in the state.

He said the fertilizers would be distributed to farmers in underserved communities across the three Senatorial Districts of the state.

“We are gathered here to flag off the free distribution of fertilizers to farmers, especially the indigent farmers that don’t have the means to buy fertilizer for their farms.

“That is the reason why the founder of this foundation bought the fertilizers and distributed them to the low income farmers in the state.

“We have gone round the nooks and crannies of the state to identify the underserved communities and those that deserve this particular gesture.

“We planned to distribute about 6,000 bags of fertilizer and due to the populous nature of the Bauchi LGA, they have the largest share but some other local governments too have hundreds of beneficiaries which we divided into Senatorial zones,” he said.

According to him, today was the flagging off of the Bauchi South Senatorial District, adding that the extension of the gesture would commence in Bauchi North and Bauchi Central Senatorial Districts tomorrow.

Mohammed explained that the only criteria used in selecting the beneficiaries were underserved communities and low income farmers, adding that “we know that a large number of the farmers in Bauchi state are low income farmers.

“Those are the people that we identified, verified and they are our beneficiaries and we have warned the general public about the activities of some unscrupulous elements that go round to impersonate our foundation.

“Wunti Al-Khair Foundation is not charging a kobo for every part of its activities, be it education, healthcare, economic empowerment and community development”.

Responding, one of the beneficiaries, Emmanuel Samson, described the support as a timely intervention that would greatly enhance his farming activities and appreciated the foundation for the intervention.

Another beneficiary, Salisu Maidawa, who was short of words for the gesture, said the gesture came at a time when he was in dire need of it.

News

IYC Urges Tinubu To Sack NCDMB Boss

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Ijaw Youth Council (IYC), Western Zone, has urged President Bola Tinubu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, the Executive Secretary of Nigeria Content Development and Monitoring Board (NCDMB) for allegedly not “keeping up to the fundamental mandate,” upon which the agency was established.

This was contained in a statement jointly signed by Comrade Nicholas Igarama, Comrade Ebi Joshua Olowolayemo, and Comrade Tare Magbei, Western Zone
Chairman, Secretary, and Information Officer respectively, and made available to newsmen in Warri on Thursday, August 14, 2015.

According to the IYC, the call for Ogbe’s sack becomes necessary following his incompetence and ethnic bias, adding that Ogbe has turned the agency meant for the whole Niger Delta to his Itsekiri ethnic group alone.

The IYC, while noting that efforts to meet the NCDMB Executive Secretary to discuss critical issues as they affect the region and its people have proved abortive, said it can no longer fold it arms and watch while things go from bad to worse.

“As Executive Secretary of the NCDMB, Ogbe has consistently failed to input his supposed industry track record in the advancement of the mandate upon which the agency was founded.

“He has continually had a sectional engagement with his fellow Itsekiri Kits and Kin, thereby shutting all other ethnic nationalites in the Niger Delta region out.

“Repeatedly, he avoided critical youth engagement in the region while sponsoring that of his Itsekiri ethnicity through different human capacity development initiatives, while other ethnic nationalites are left unattended.

“As Ijaw, mostly from the western flank where Engr. Ogbe also hails from, we will not sit and watch others benefit from the resources that we produce without our practical involvement to better the lives of our people as well.

“It is on record that the leadership of Ijaw Youth Council (IYC) Western Zone has tried to establish communication with Engr. Ogbe, for the last ten months, but every medium of communication to get his attention has fundamentally proven to be abortive.

“As youths, we can no longer have leaders in office who have now equated themselves to demi-god and have refused to attend to most significantly youthful issues in the Niger Delta Region.

“To this end, we therefore call on President Bola Ahmed Tinibu to immediately sack Engr. Felix Omatsola Ogbe, who has consistently displayed disregard for critical actors in the Niger Delta and has also exhibited the highest level of gross inefficiency by not keeping up to the fundamental mandate upon which NCDMB was founded,” the statement reads.

The IYC also called for the probe Ogbe as Executive Secretary after his sack.

Efforts to reach Dr. Obinna Ezeobi, the General Manager, Corporate Communications, NCDMB, for reaction proved abortive.

News

I’m Being Impersonated – Goodluck Jonathan Disowns Social Media Account

Published

1 day ago

August 14, 2025

Editor

Former President Goodluck Jonathan, on Thursday said he is being impersonated by fraudsters.

Jonathan alleged that a fraudulent Instagram handle has been impersonating him.

In a statement by his Media Aide,
Ikechukwu Eze, the former President insisted that he does not operate any Instagram handle.

The statement is titled ‘Beware of fake Instagram account impersonating H.E. Dr Goodluck Ebele Jonathan’.

“Our attention has been drawn to a fraudulent Instagram account operating under the handle goodluck_ebelejonathan, which is falsely impersonating former President Dr. Goodluck Ebele Jonathan.

“This impostor account has been deceitfully posting content, some copied from Dr. Jonathan’s Facebook page, while pretending to represent the former President.

“We wish to emphasise that Dr. Jonathan does not operate any Instagram account.

“The media and members of the public are strongly advised to disregard, avoid sharing, or promoting any content originating from this fake profile,” the statement read.