News
COVID-19 Pause: Need for National Reflection and Self Reliance
By Akinyele Okeremi
The COVID-19 pandemic brings to the fore a rare opportunity for African nations to reawaken and reconsider national strategies. However, if we needed an emergency, we have it. It hinges on our future.
It hinges on our children. It hinges on how we react to this timely reminder. Because it is difficult for anyone to have imagined that the world would get to a situation where local and international travels would be restricted while social and commercial activities are almost comatose.
The travel restrictions also have an adverse impact on the movement of goods and services. It is safe to state that global interdependence has never been challenged the way it is presently.
While the world will remain interdependent, it is necessary for countries, especially Africans, to consider their capabilities to respond to challenges to become more self-reliant than they currently are.
With all due respect to many brilliant Africans, who are trying to create value legitimately, many riches in Africa are created through corruption and rent seeking. The economic situation in economies that depend heavily on natural resources such as petroleum-like Nigeria are likely to suffer a balance of trade deficits and may become unable to meet their financial obligations except they consciously move into other areas that are capable of generating sustenance and possible foreign exchange. More importantly, the challenges of the balance of trade are national security concerns for African countries.
Most of the critical activities that determine security and actual sovereignty are not in the control of nationals of African countries. It is funny. Why is it that all the time African countries must go begging? Why is Africa always at the receiving end? Has anything ever happened in the world and Africa has offered help instead of begging for help? It tells you we are not thinking right and this is the same thing that has happened and not just in government but also in our private businesses.
Turn our youthful population into gold
African countries need to develop their abilities to create real value for themselves rather than expect wealth to come merely because we are endowed with natural resources (which we invite foreigners to exploit on our behalf).
Africa must gravitate towards productive and knowledge-based economies. Data shows that Africa is blessed with a young and well-educated population. This makes it possible for them to contribute to the economy beyond mere primary products. With proper national strategies and value systems, the teeming African youth can create solutions to the challenges that daily face them.
This is extremely dangerous as this makes many African countries to become mere glorified colonies that cannot make sound decisions in their own interests and may never stand by such decisions if they are ever taken because of pressure from the countries that control their critical assets and resources.
What this translates into is that we dare not disagree seriously with those countries; otherwise our security will be in jeopardy. The security of African nations must be in the hands of Africans in substantive terms and not mere lip service.
Provide internally created solutions
Africa needs to rise to the challenge of becoming a continent to reckon with for providing solutions to challenges of the world. With no fear of equivocation, many Africans all over the world are working hard and have achieved great successes in their respective careers but the challenge is why does it appear that Africans do well in the diaspora? But do not do well on African soil?
My stab at this is that the institutions in the African continent need to be developed and strengthened to ensure that we can produce guaranteed relevant leaders. Africa needs to take another look at its compensation mechanism.
There is an obvious need to ensure that the right processes and results are appropriately rewarded while unacceptable conducts are punished accordingly. As the balance of trade challenges stare brazenly at us, there is a need to encourage policies to conserve our financial resources.
We need to ensure that we consume what we produce and to produce what we consume. This will require hard work and heavy lifting on the part of the leadership at all levels of African society. We need to take another look at our food security – I do not know how much of our food is in our control as Africans and I am concerned about this.
Wean ourselves off foreign solutions
A cursory look at our financial and the banking systems in Nigeria reveals that more than 90% of applications run by Nigerian banks come from foreign countries, mostly from India. The implication is that the Nigerian financial system could be switched off remotely with an attendant consequence of social unrest and possible removal of structures and even governments.
While this may seem far-fetched, it is my honest opinion that the risk and possibilities are very present and discerning leadership need to take a closer look at the possibilities in doing their risk assessments and response preparation.
If Africa is to make the right progress in the right direction, we need to build our own society, create solutions to solve our own problems without the need for wholesale copy and paste. We will refer to the beautiful and nice works that are in existence in other countries, but we will only adopt them and own them wholly in Africa.
In conclusion, I posit that the challenges with our current level of development create a major opportunity for us to produce our own solutions to those challenges with minimal help from other countries. This will give us the opportunity to move towards development and simultaneously creating wealth for ourselves as a people.
Recently, I listened to an interview by a Ghanaian woman who said, “I do not blame you [Europeans] – you did and are doing [all this] for your survival; we [Africans] can’t blame you for that. The fact is, we [Africans] didn’t do enough for our own survival and we are still not doing enough for our survival – that is not your problem.”
The context is that Africans, nay Nigerians, are not doing enough for our survival as a nation and as a people. COVID-19 has just exacerbated the situation we have put ourselves and the ramifications will come home to roost now unless we reflect and put in place many structures that will make us self-reliant soon.
Dr Okeremi is the MD/CEO of Precise Financial Systems headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria.
Federal High Court in the Bwari Judicial Division has thrown out a case of fraud filed against the Chairman of Zinox Technologies, Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, his wife, Chioma Ekeh, and 11 others.
Femi Falana and Leo Stan Ekeh
This is the umpteenth time.
The latest is the dismissal of the suit by Justice Akpan Okon Ebong of the FCT High Court, who struck out the case filed by Mr. Femi Falana SAN, purporting to act on a fiat donated to him by Mr. Lateef Fagbemi SAN, attorney general and minister of Justice of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, against Mr. Leo Stan Ekeh, chairman of Zinox Technologies, and 12 others.
The other defendants are Mr. Chris Eze Ozims, Oyebode Folashade, Charles Adigwe, Obilo Onuoha, Agartha Ukoha, Anya O. Anya, Femi Dosumu, Nnenna Kalu, Admas Digital Technologies Limited, Technology Distributions Limited and Zinox Technologies Limited.
In the suit No. FCT/HC/CR/985/24 filed in November 2024, Falana, on behalf of his client, Benjamin Joseph, the CEO of Citadel Oracle Concept Limited, an Ibadan-based computer firm, filed charges against Ekeh, 9 other individuals and 3 companies before the Federal High Court in Abuja for allegedly diverting N162,247,513.80 being payment for laptop supply contract at the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) Headquarters which Technology Distribution Ltd (now TD Africa), the biggest tech equipment distributor in sub-Saharan Africa supplied on behalf of Citadel in 2012.
However, in the certified true copy of the judgment dated March 20, 2025, Justice Ebong ruled as follows: “It is my conclusion based on the foregoing that this charge (No. FCT/HC/CR/985/2024, Federal Republic of Nigeria v Leo Stan Ekeh and 12 ORS) constitutes a gross abuse of court process and is liable to dismissal. I accordingly hereby dismiss it.”
Before arriving at his judgment, which has put the final nail in the coffin of a case that other courts had also dismissed in the past as dead on arrival, Justice Ebong considered the outcome of previous cases and petitions filed by Mr. Joseph, none of which was in his favour.
Justice Ebong said: “One intriguing aspect of this matter is that none of the law enforcement agencies involved in the investigation of the nominal complainant’s (Mr. Joseph) numerous petitions has found merit in any of his allegations against the defendants. When called upon before Senchi J. (Justice Danlami Z. Senchi) to prove his said allegations to the court, he failed to turn up in court. One then wonders on what premise he wants to maintain this campaign of persecution against the defendants.”
Previous judgments on the matter had established that rather than being the culprit, Ekeh and the 12 others were actually the victims of a failed money diversion scheme plotted by Mr. Joseph and Citadel.
When contacted, one of the defendants, Mr. Chris Eze Ozims, a lawyer, said: “This ruling truly reflects our consistent position on the allegations, and it is good that we have been vindicated, once more, by a competent high court.”
He asserted that the judgment of Justice Ebong was consistent with the position of the defendants and in tandem with the rulings of other judges who had previously adjudicated on the same matter.
Mr. Matthew Burkaa SAN, chief counsel to the defendants, described the judgment as a victory for integrity and the rule of law.
Court papers showed that Falana’s suit was based on the same claims that various courts had dismissed in the past as falsehood and baseless. The case arose from a contract between Citadel and Technology Distributions Limited over the supply of computers to the Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS), a project fully funded by Technology Distributions and has no bearing whatsoever with Zinox and its promoter, Mr Leo Stan Ekeh.
It will be recalled that Mr. Joseph had lost the case and its adjunct suits at different courts in the past. In his petition to the police in 2013, police authorities discovered that Mr. Joseph provided false information to the police, prompting the Inspector General of Police to charge him for false information in charge no.CR/216/16.
In another case filed by the EFCC in his instance against his partner, Princess Kama, in charge no. FCT/HC/CR/244/2018, Honorable Justice Danlami Z. Senchi of the FCT High Court (as he then was) dismissed as false all the allegations made by Benjamin Joseph, and imposed the sum of N20 million as damages against him for false petitioning in relation to these same allegations.
Earlier court papers showed that Joseph, in his statement on oath in suit No:LD/4335/2014 in the High Court of Justice, Lagos State, dated June 28, 2019, averred that his company, Citadel, did not execute any contract with FIRS and that he was not aware that a contract had been awarded to Citadel.
In his deposition under oath, Joseph claimed that Citadel “did not at any time execute any contract for the FIRS and neither did the 2nd defendant (Princess O. Kama) who is its agent in respect of the contract it bid for with the FIRS deliver/release any documents to the Claimant (Citadel) indicating that the contract it bid for, or any other contract was awarded to it by the FIRS or any other body.”
However, a letter from the FIRS addressed to the chamber of Afe Babalola & Co dated February 11, 2014 (FIRS/PD/GDS/2559) and signed by one Idrissa Kogo, Head Legal Department, stated: “Contrary to your client’s claim that they knew nothing about the execution of the contract awarded to them and that they did not receive any payment for the execution of the contract, our record reveals otherwise.
“Your client instructed FIRS through a letter dated December 13, 2012, to deal with Princess O. Kama (Your client’s agent) in relation to the contract. Through three separate letters dated December 20, 2012, your client instructed FIRS to pay to the client’s account with Access Bank plc. Please note that FIRS acted in compliance with your client’s instruction and with due diligence,” the FIRS letter stated.
The FIRS letter was a response to inquiry by Afe Babalola Chamber, lawyers to Citadel Oracle Concept Ltd and its MD, Mr. Benjamin Joseph, at that time.
The current charges filed by Falana on the basis of a fiat from the Attorney General is the third in a row as Mr Joseph had earlier filed charge no.CR/469/2022, which was struck out by Honorable Justice C. O. Oba of the FCT High Court, by an order dated November 8, 2022.
Determined to push through with his case, Mr Joseph filed the same charges before Honorable Justice A. S. Adepoju of the FCT High Court, and the charges were, once again, struck out by the Honorable Court on March 19, 2024, with Honorable Justice Adepoju holding that: “This matter was brought in dead, extinct and should be confined into the dustbin of history…I hold that the instant suit is an abuse of the process of court, and it is hereby struck out accordingly.”
Nigeria is to phase out solar panel imports to promote local manufacturing and advance Nigeria’s shift towards clean energy, according to Uche Nnaji, minister of Science and Technology.
Uche Nnaji, minister of Science and Technology
Nnaji who spoke at the unveiling of the NEV T6 electric buses in Abuja, stated that the decision aligns with a presidential directive prioritising local content in science, engineering, and technology.
He highlighted Nigeria’s capacity to produce its own solar panels, with the National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI) playing a key role in local manufacturing.
He projected that as domestic production grows, more households and institutions would transition to off-grid solar power solutions.
“We have lithium in abundance here in Nigeria, so Mr. President is already taking action. We are adding value to our raw materials. The lithium we have here will be processed and used as batteries for these vehicles,” Nnaji said.
Addressing the country’s power challenges, the minister revealed that the government is developing mini-grid solutions to provide reliable energy for hospitals, institutions, and homes.
“If you look at our budgets, we have what is called mini-grids all over the place. In less than three or four months, you will start seeing our hospitals and institutions being powered by solar,” he stated.
Nnaji emphasised that the government’s approach focuses on sustainability and environmental protection.
“Again, we are saving the environment; we are putting in place non-carbon emission infrastructure. So, we are creating power everywhere. It is not about using diesel, it is not about using PMS, it is not about generating the kinds of power that will pollute the environment.”
He pointed out that NASENI and private companies have already begun producing solar panels locally, making it feasible to discontinue imports.
“With NASENI here, you know that we have panels. It has a factory that has started producing solar panels, and other private individuals are also producing solar panels as we speak.
“So, all we need to do is, even through science and technology, through our Presidential Executive Order No. 5, we will stop all these importations of solar panels.
“We will support our local industries to grow, and very soon, most houses will go off-grid. Personally, I have been off-grid for over three years, and it is working.”
Federal government of Nigeria has said that it has received a N1 billion grant from Airtel Africa Foundation to boost its 3 million Technical Talent initiative (3MTT).
Championed by Dr. Bosun Tijani, minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, as part of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s strategic talent-building initiatives for the tech sector, the 3MTT programme aims to bridge the digital divide and position Nigeria as a key player in the global technology landscape.
Tijani said the grant will be deployed towards training and empowering over 25,000 Nigerians with in-demand technical skills under the 3MTT program.
“Today we received a N1 billion grant from the Airtel Africa Foundation for our 3MTT Nigeria program.
“The grant will cover hands-on training, community engagement, and job placement initiatives, all with the objective of enhancing Nigeria’s digital workforce in alignment with H.E President Bola Tinubu’s Renewed Hope Agenda.
“Grateful to the Airtel Africa Foundation for collaborating with us as we work to position Nigeria as a key player in the global technology landscape,” the Minister stated.
Tijani noted that the 3MTT program is a cornerstone of the government’s commitment to building a robust digital economy in Nigeria.
In his remarks, Dr Segun Ogunsanya, chairman, Airtel Africa Foundation, highlighted Airtel’s dedication to the growth of Nigeria’s economy through the support of its key levers.
He stated that Airtel believes in the power of technology and digital skills to unlock new opportunities, drive economic growth, and uplift communities.
According to him, the 3MTT programme is a bold step towards ensuring that Nigerian youths are not just participants in the digital revolution but leaders in it.
“Our N1 billion support is a strategic investment in Nigeria’s future workforce and prosperity,” he said.
Dr. Bosun Tijani, minister of Communications, Innovation, and Digital Economy, on Wednesday, after receiving the cheque from the Foundation’s Chairman, Dr Segun Ogunsanya.
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