Ate and left no crumbs
APC has cleared all chairmanship seats in two states, and that’s kinda sus
Good morning, Big Brains. There are at least 10,000 things that I don’t understand about Nigeria, and today’s edition will force you to share my confusion.
- Margaret
Word count: ~1300
Reading time ~ 5 mins
Let’s get into today’s edition:
Nigeria’s ruling party is literally ruling
We’re praying Nigeria’s problems away
Nigerians can no longer afford to japa
The Big Deal
Nigeria’s ruling party is literally ruling
The All Progressives Party (APC) is taking the “ruling party” title too seriously. Last weekend, the party cleared all the chairmanship seats in the Nasarawa and Cross River states local government elections.
In Nasarawa, they won in all 13 local governments, barely leaving room for competition. Out of 147 councillorship seats in the state, APC won 140 while other parties like the Social Democratic Party (SDP) and the Zenith Labour Party (ZLP) won only 5 and 2 seats respectively.
Meanwhile, in Cross River, APC completely got rid of every form of competition, claiming all 18 chairmanships and 196 councillorship spots in the state.
Love that for APC, but only Davido can pull off that kind of “no competition” move without raising a few eyebrows.
Why is this a big deal?
Despite being the leading party, APC is currently among the most criticised political parties in Nigeria. During the 2023 presidential elections, some civil rights groups and concerned Nigerians argued that the party’s win was not free and fair. So, if there’s any political party Nigerians love enough to ride that hard for, it’s probably not APC.
But that’s not even the big deal. The gag is that most of the local government elections conducted recently follow the same pattern of a sitting governor’s party sweeping most, if not all, of the chairmanship and councillorship seats in the states, This is bad for so many reasons.
The first reason is that it makes the recent financial autonomy given to all LGs look like a big joke. How? State governments literally had the LGs in their pockets until Nigeria’s Supreme Court decided it had seen enough and granted them autonomy. The entire point of it was so they could finally flex their muscles as the third tier of government that they are instead of being power-grabbing tools in the hands of state governments.
The pattern these elections are following however seems to suggest LGs in Nigeria are not making it out of the trenches anytime soon. A governor can easily call any kind of shot he wants. Apart from the recent APC wins, this has already been seen in places like Rivers State, where Fubara “regained control” by using a proxy party to clinch 22, out of the 23 chairmanship seats in the state.
The major culprit in all of these fishy wins is state independent electoral commissions (SIECs), which are largely still controlled by state governors. We are not the only ones who have spotted this problem. In fact, recently, federal lawmakers pushed for INEC to take over the conduct of LG elections as State governments do not have control over them.
This would have been an awesome idea if INEC wasn’t already swamped with its own duties– Other stakeholders spotted this as a potential problem which is why they are against the lawmaker’s position but suggesting instead, that SIECs are reformed to give them proper freedom from state governments.
Whatever decision they’re making should be fast enough to bring about a permanent solution because these LG election results look like a mess.
We’re praying Nigeria’s problems away
It’s a good thing God doesn’t sleep or slumber because He’s about to get super busy, and it’s all because of Remi Tinubu.
The First Lady has been redefining what it means to be a President’s wife in Nigeria with her unique ideas. First, the national unity fabric which was supposed to end tribalism in Nigeria. Now, we’re talking about a national crusade.
Oluremi Tinubu and National Security Adviser Nuhu Ribadu are hosting a national prayer session to tackle Nigeria’s countless issues. Because if there’s one thing we haven’t tried, it’s calling in the divine backup to get us out of this mess. And what’s a crusade without a theme – this one’s theme is ‘Seeking the Intervention of God in Nigeria’s Affairs.’
The prayer sessions are set to run for a full week. Muslims will gather at the National Mosque, where 313 participants will each recite the Qur’an to boost national peace and Christian prayer warriors will gather at the National Ecumenical Centre to focus on similar prayer points. Remi Tinubu’s two-factor authentication goes hard!
There’s no better time to yell “God abeg” from 10 miles away because Nigeria has now dived deep into the food crisis zone, according to a new report by the United Nations.
2025 isn’t even here, and the UN already has bad news for us. Because of tough economic times, over 30 million people are expected to struggle with hunger next year—a 30% increase from this year.
And who does the UN blame for this spike in food insecurity? According to their report, it's a mix of factors that come together to spell T-pain – severe economic hardship, record-high inflation, rising food prices, and hiked transportation costs.
While the UN’s report was more subtle in describing Nigerians' reality, Chi Lael, a spokesperson for the World Food Programme, said that even though Tinubu’s reforms are most likely going to pay off in the future, the short-term effect has “felt like a direct attack on people's wallets, hitting hardest every time they try to buy food.”
Like Lael said, these reforms have a shot at being beneficial in the future but nobody can put a date to that yet. For one year, President Tinubu has watched citizens struggle as he serves those reforms back-to-back. We’re approaching 2025, and his administration still hasn’t discussed any plan to help Nigerians cope with these hardships in 2025. We honestly don’t blame Remi for calling on higher forces because, clearly, her husband isn’t that keen on doing anything to make life easier for Nigerians.
Nigerians can no longer afford to japa
PiggyVest’s new report is giving “for better, for worse” because it shows that the number of Nigerians saving up to “japa” (emigrate) has dropped from 21% to just 10% this year. Last year, saving for relocation was the third priority on Nigerians’ list. Now, it's slipped behind seven other priorities, with goals like personal education, car purchases, and rent/housing taking centre stage.
The report shows that those planning to relocate for better economic or career prospects are putting those plans on hold as soaring inflation and the cost-of-living crisis make that goal harder to achieve.
The report also shows that monthly savings are becoming a dying trend: only 47% of Nigerians save regularly, a big drop from 64% in 2023. This makes sense because the Central Bank of Nigeria released a report earlier this year showing that Nigerian families are spending at least 54.9% of their income on food due to rising food prices.
It’s not the numbers you hope to see, but the World Bank also released a new report showing how low labour income has pushed about 14 million Nigerians into poverty in 2024. According to the report, almost 47% of Nigerians are now living below the international poverty line, which is $2.15 per day—that’s about ₦1,700 daily. There’s barely any money to spend on food, so it’s unsurprising that Nigerians can no longer afford to save for japa or anything else.
This Week’s Big Question
“If you could be guaranteed success at just one thing in life, what would you choose?”
Bolaji’s response - “I’d choose to succeed at just being a kind person. For someone who has seen the ugly side of life, I feel the need to put out as much kindness as I can”
You can also share your response here, and if it’s as interesting as Bolaji’s, we’ll feature it in the next edition.
The Big Picks
Tinubu Orders Release Of Minors Arraigned For Hunger Protests: After facing criticism over the arrest and arraignment of minors from the #EndBadGovernance protests in August, President Bola Tinubu has ordered that all the detained minors be released immediately.
PETROAN Accuses Dangote Of Trying To Stifle Competition: The Petroleum Products Retail Outlets Owners Association of Nigeria (PETROAN) has accused Dangote Refinery of trying to shut down its competitors in the oil market.
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