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FG Can Use New Loan Opportunities to Turn Lives of Nigerians Around

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By Joel Popoola

Latest loans can turn an unprecedented crisis into an unprecedented opportunity, and this is if we make sure the money goes to the right place.

We all know the challenges facing Nigeria. But seeing those challenges laid out in black and white still has the power to shock.

This week a report from the International Monetary Fund pulled no punches in its assessment of our nation.

“Half of the student-age population is enrolled in schools.

“Healthy life expectancy is 49 years, placing Nigeria among the bottom six countries in the world.

“Some 54% of the population is connected to an electricity grid that collapses about once a month.

“Roads are in precarious condition.

“Less than four per cent of the population have access to safely managed water.

“Overall, Nigeria’s indicators of human and physical capital are worse than countries with lower GDP per capita.”

The IMF estimates public spending will need to go up by 18% to fix these problems.

As William Shakespeare put it; ‘when troubles come, they come not as single spies but whole battalions’. And these troubles have been compounded by the COVID-19 crisis, which has crippled Nigeria’s economy while demanding extraordinary increases in public spending.

But this crisis has brought with it unparalleled financial assistance too, and not a penny of that assistance should be wasted.

In April, the IMF approved a $3.4 billion package of emergency financial assistance for Nigeria to support the government’s efforts to stabilise our economy in particular in the face of the dramatic slump in world oil prices.

This is likely to be followed by an additional $3 billion dollar loan from the World Bank, which will be used to fund to restart and re-energise our economy.

As I write, the World Bank has also agreed a $750m package of investment aimed at ending power cuts across Nigeria, which are estimated to cost our economy $2.8 billion a year and reduce economic growth by at least 2%.

This is exactly the kind of infrastructural investment I have repeatedly called for. But that investment can only be delivered with transparency and accountability.

It is something of a cliché to say that the Chinese use the same word for ‘crisis’ as ‘opportunity’. But this unprecedented crisis has created an unprecedented opportunity to put Nigerian on the path to a better future.

But based on bitter experiences, many Nigerians may worry that some of these funds will never be used for their intended purposes. Cronyism. Misappropriation. Downright theft. Many of us have a depressing story to tell.

This time things could be different.

The IMF’s mission chief for Nigeria, Amine Mati, has already highlighted what measures the government is taking to enhance transparency and governance of the emergency financing.

These include independent oversight of the spending of the loans and the procurement processes related to that spending, and the publication of procurement plans and notices for all emergency response activities including the names of companies awarded contracts and the owners of those companies.

And most important of all, these reports will be published daily on Nigeria’s treasury website for everyone to see.

Every penny must be accounted for.

As the head of the Digital Democracy campaign, created to use technology to bring people and politics closer together, I welcome these announcements. But we need to go a little further.

Our politicians need to be as transparent and as accountable as these accounts. That’s why we created the free Rate Your Leader app.

The free app puts registered voters in direct person-to-person contact with their local decision makers, forcing them to justify every decision they make and every penny they spend, and making them truly accountable to the people they serve.

And if their voters don’t like the answers they get, they can rate their politicians appropriately for everyone to see.

Generations of underwhelming and underperforming government has brought Nigeria to where we are today. Many Nigerians do not trust their leaders. To many, they are self-interested and self-serving. This is not true in my experience, but like it or not, many think this way.

The first step to addressing that lack of trust is to build better relationships between electors and elected and using the technology you might be reading this on – that can very easily be achieved.

Joel Popoola is a Nigerian tech entrepreneur, digital democracy campaigner and is creator of the free Rate Your Leader app. You can reach him via Joel@rateyourleader.com or @JOPOPOOLA

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INEC Resumes Upload of Osun Election Results after 3Hours Pause

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The Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) has resumed the upload of results from the Osun State governorship election to its Result Viewing Portal (IReV), with more than 92.53 per cent of polling unit results now available on the platform.

Tribune Online reports that 3,482 results had been uploaded out of the 3,763 polling units across the state, representing 92.53 per cent of the total results expected on the portal.

Concerns were earlier raised after result uploads on the IReV portal appeared to stall for about three hours.

The delay triggered reactions from several social media users, including Afrobeats star David Adeleke, popularly known as Davido, who questioned the halt in the upload process.

In a post on X, he wrote, “INEC IREV uploads have been stuck for almost 2 hours now. 3292 out of 3763 results submitted and then silence. This is not acceptable Why has the uploading stopped?@inecnigeria

Another X user, @mundus01 tweeted, “Osun IReV uploads have been stalled for over 2 hours. The last result was published at 8:48:08 p.m. The portal is online, but no new results are appearing. @inecnigeria, what is happening? This doesn’t look good.”

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Food for Living: Love What You Do (Pt. 2)

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By Henry Ukazu

Dear Destiny Friends,

Last week, we laid the foundation of loving what you do. We discussed loving the topic as it relates to family, career, health, relationship, personal development, purpose and spirituality.  Today, we shall be focusing on how loving what you do can be a game changer.

It’s instructive to note that in the dictionary of life; when you love what you do and what you do loves you, you are destined for not only success, but also greatness. One may be wondering how this works. Trust me, it is difficult to succeed in a major, or profession one doesn’t like.

The journey of life can be challenging, stressful and unpredictable. When one is trying to set up a business, there’s bound to be setbacks maybe due to a new policy or meeting up with the requirement, there could challenges of funds; in academics, if one choose a major one likes, despite the associating challenges that may arise, one will still manage to pull through because he that is in him is greater and stronger than he that is in the world.

Also, in relationships and marriage, if one values friendship, they won’t allow their ego to have influence over them. Rather, they will invest time and resources in the relationship. That’s why it’s always good to place values above physical features in a human body when it comes to settling down for marriage because at the end of the day, the human body features can fade away, but values and friendship will not fade away, rather, it will serve as the binding factor that keeps the relationship.

One’s career is not an exception; one can tell who likes their job and one who doesn’t like their job. In workplaces, if one is happy at work, they tend to put in extra hours to get the job done. But when they are not happy with the job, they’ll do the bare minimum just to get through.

Let’s spend a minute to understand how loving what one does can be a game changer in one’s life. Just imagine, one is inspired to write a book, there will be challenges, however, it is the inspiration and determination of the person that will determine if they will finish strong. But if they are inspired by the wrong source, they might finish weak. Here is the gist, it is your desire to succeed that will outweigh your fear of failure.

Again, imagine a scenario where one is starting a business but has no resources and structure behind him. The fact is that if the person loves what he’s doing, it will be hard for the person to give up because their force is internal. I can vividly remember when I was working on my first, second and third book, I had many reasons to quit, but I refused because I love the work I was producing.

Furthermore, when you love what you do, you’ll endeavor to learn something new in addition to spending quality time to improve the work. I say this because rational minds don’t invest time and resources in what they don’t like. There’s a saying, if you want to know a man, give money, women and power. One of them would like to subdue him, but if he’s able to overcome them, he is a man.

This principle of loving what you do cuts across all facets of life whether we are taking care of families, academics, religion purpose, health, career, finance and even spiritual life. For families a man/woman who is intentional in building their family, must love their family and loving their family intends sacrificing for the family.

For health, if one loves their health, they won’t take harmful substances, just because they love their health; they will be intentional in exercising, and in doing so, they must love exercising.  For finance, an intentional person must spend time learning about stock, budgeting and investment. These are avenues to show that they have interest in growing their income.  Even in spiritual life, when one shows interest in loving God in truth and spirit, God has a way of coming through for them because they have been tested and trusted. This is simply how life works. Even in relationships if one loves their partner, there’s a high probability they would like to invest time and resources into that relationship.

In summary, endeavor to love what you do because there’s a certain level of spiritual strength, blessings and corresponding opportunities that’s associated with success, when one loves what they do. This is basically how life works.

Henry Ukazu writes from New York. He works with the New York City Department of Correction as the Legal Coordinator. He’s the founder of Gloemi. He’s a Transformative Human Capacity and Mindset coach. He is also a public speaker, youth advocate, creative writer and author of Design Your Destiny- Actualizing Your Birthright to SuccessUnleash Your Destiny and The Six Pillars of Success . He can be reached via info@gloemi.com

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Osun Govt Drags Fadahunsi to Court over “Kill Accord Members” Threat

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The Osun State Government has approached the High Court of Osun State seeking an order compelling security agencies to investigate Senator Francis Adenigba Fadahunsi over his alleged threats against members and supporters of the Accord Party ahead of Saturday’s governorship election.

The suit, marked HOS/M.157/26, was filed on August 12, 2026, at the Osogbo Judicial Division, three days before the August 15 election.

The Attorney-General and Commissioner for Justice, Oluwole Jimi-Bada (SAN), filed the application seeking an Order of Mandamus against the Inspector-General of Police and the Commissioner of Police, Osun State Command. Fadahunsi, who represents Osun East Senatorial District, was listed as the person affected or interested party.

The government said its action followed a video circulating on social media in which Fadahunsi was allegedly captured addressing a political gathering in front of the Owa Obokun’s Palace in Ilesha on August 11.

According to the court documents, the senator allegedly made statements interpreted as calls for violence against members of the Accord Party.

The government said a transcript and translation of the speech showed Fadahunsi allegedly directing supporters to attack Accord members wherever they encountered them and making threats against their families.

The court filings also alleged that the senator instructed his supporters to chase Accord members out of hotels where they were found and made derogatory comments about the party’s yellow caps.

The government further alleged that Fadahunsi threatened that the election would not hold if Accord members resisted the actions of APC supporters.

The Attorney-General is asking the court to compel the police to investigate the video and determine whether the alleged statements constitute criminal offences under applicable laws.

The government is also seeking an order directing the police to preserve, authenticate and conduct a forensic examination of the complete video to establish whether it has been altered or edited.

Other reliefs sought include compelling the police to take preventive measures to protect Accord candidates, members and voters from intimidation or harassment before, during and after the election.

The government also wants the police to ensure that registered voters and Accord supporters are not prevented from accessing hotels or other locations during the electoral period.

It further asked the court to order the respondents to submit a report on compliance with the court’s directives within 48 hours of the orders being granted.

In the supporting affidavit, Nurudeen Kareem, Special Adviser to Governor Ademola Adeleke on Legal Matters, said Accord members had expressed “reasonable and legitimate concerns regarding their safety and security before, during, and after the forthcoming election.”

The government argued that the police have a statutory responsibility under the Police Act 2020 and the 1999 Constitution to prevent crime and maintain public order.

It maintained that waiting until violence occurs before investigating an alleged public threat would undermine the preventive role of law enforcement.

“The Applicant believes that waiting until actual violence, deaths, or injuries occur before investigating an alleged public instruction to kill political opponents would amount to a dereliction of duty,” the government said.

The Attorney-General also clarified that the suit was not asking the court to determine Fadahunsi’s criminal guilt, stressing that such a determination would require a proper criminal trial.

Rather, the government said it was seeking to compel the police to carry out their statutory responsibilities and take appropriate preventive action.

With the election scheduled for Saturday, the government said “time is of the absolute essence”, warning that failure to act on the alleged threats could expose residents to “irreparable harm, loss of life, and widespread civil unrest.”

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