President Tinubu Names Nuhu Ribadu to Oversee Security Agencies in Nigeria

Nigerian President Bola Tinubu named new security chiefs to replace those he inherited from former President Muhammadu Buhari as he continues to put together a team to implement pledges made during his campaign.

Nuhu Ribadu, a former chairman of the country’s anti-corruption agency, will be national security adviser. Ribadu, who last week was named special adviser on security, will now take up a more senior role as coordinator of the country’s security agencies. New heads were also appointed for the army, navy, air force and police.

The security chiefs must contend with rising turmoil that has ravaged Africa’s most populous country, including a decade-long insurgency perpetrated by Islamist extremists and bandits in the north, as well as an increasingly violent secessionist movement in the southern part of the country.

Hadiza Bala Usman, former managing director of Nigeria Ports Authority, was appointed a special adviser for policy coordination, while Hannatu Musawa will serve a similar role for culture and the entertainment economy.

Tinubu named eight others to advisory roles last week, including Wale Edun, former chair of Lagos-based investment bank Chapel Hill Denham Group, as his senior adviser on monetary policy.

Three weeks into a four-year term, Tinubu has already made several key decisions, including ending a fuel subsidy that cost $10 billion last year, removing a controversial central bank governor and promising to unify a web of varying exchange rates. The moves have helped lead to a rally in dollar bonds and the stock market climbing to a 15-year high.

By Ruth Olurounbi, Reuters

Related stories: Nuhu Ribadu uncovers large scale oil fraud

Former EFCC chairman Sani Ribadu's brother kidnapped

Video - President Tinubu allows states to license and regulate electricity in Nigeria

Nigeria is fast-tracking efforts to boost its power capacity following years of stifled growth. President Bola Tinubu has signed into law legislation to overhaul Nigeria's power sector. The new plan will also allow Nigeria's state governments to license and regulate electricity markets within their jurisdiction.

CGTN

Video - President Tinubu dazzles markets with first week of radical change in Nigeria

Nigeria's President, Bola Tinubu suspended the head of the country's economic and financial crimes unit, Abdulrasheed Bawa, over his alleged abuse of office. The move comes just a week after the president moved to suspend and detain the country's central bank governor, Godwin Emefiele. CGTN Africa spoke with Sopitan Segun, Principal Partner at Woodridge and Scott Consulting on his impression of the policy changes made by Bola Tinubu so far.

CGTN

Video - President bola Tinubu on a mission to change Nigeria

Less than a month into his tenure, President Bola Tinubu has begun implementing a raft of reforms long sought by bankers, economists and multilateral lenders in order to revive Africa's biggest economy. The radical changes include removing a fuel subsidy that cost the state 10 billion U.S. dollars annually.

CGTN

Nigerians languishing in prison for petty crimes

The Hope Behind Bars Africa has said that most awaiting trail inmates in Nigeria have been languishing in our Custodial facilities for petty crimes like loitering or hawking.

The human rights and criminal justice reform organisation said apart from such petty and misdemeanours cases, one would also find civil cases like disagreements between business partners that was given criminal correlations.

Executive Director Hope Behind Bars Africa, Mrs. Funke Adeoye revealed that 40 percent of the cases so far handled by the organisation are simple cases.

Adeoye said Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982 on the 30th of May 2023, the number which is spread across 240 custodial facilities, has about 69.3% awaiting trail inmates.

She said this yesterday in Abuja, during the organisation five years impact report/strategic plan launch and press conference.

She said, “40 percent of the cases we have handled are actually simple cases. Cases like people arrested for hawking, loitering and a lot of cases that the sanctions is less than three years. We also find very frequently people arrested by the Special Anti-Robbery squad for armed robbery but when we go into the nitty-gritty of the case we find their is no evidence, most of the cases are stalling for years on ending because their is really no evidence against the person on trail.


“We also find a lot of Civil cases that have been given criminal correlations, for instance, someone having a contract with another person and he gets the police to pick up the person, the person gets arrested and remanded.

“In the past five years, our organisation has dedicated major aspects of its work to providing free legal services to indigent pre-trial detainees, engaging in welfare, empowerment, reformation and reintegration interventions.

“Nigeria’s prison population was 76,982, on 30 May 2023. This number spreads across 240 custodial facilities. Inmates awaiting trial constitute about 69.3 percent of the prison population. This is the highest percentage of awaiting-trial prisoners in Africa,

“Hope Behind Bars Africa, having recognised this challenge, decided to leverage its legal network to foster access to justice. We started out directly representing inmates for free here in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) and expanded to Kano and Edo states. Currently, we have a network of lawyers in Kaduna, Niger, Nasarawa, Edo, Kano and FCT. We have represented 420 indigent pre-trial detainees so far. About 40 percent of this number were charged with simple offences, 20 percent for misdemeanours, and the rest for felonies, capital crimes and fundamental human rights actions.”

By Matthew Ogune, The Guardian