National News

Nigeria Threatens To Dump ECOWAS Over Discrepancies in Recruitment

Published

4 years ago

August 5, 2022

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Nigeria Threatens To Dump ECOWAS Over Discrepancies in Recruitment

By: Michael Mike

Nigeria has threatened to withdraw its membership in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) over alleged discrepancies in ongoing recruitment exercises by the regional body.

The regional body was recently directed at the 2022 First Ordinary Session of the ECOWAS Parliament in Abuja to suspend the ongoing recruitment, which some Nigerian representatives at the Parliament alleged was never stopped.

The Nigerian representatives on Thursday subsequently issued the threat of pulling their nation from the body should the directive to suspend the exercise is not immediately respected, they alleged that some principal officers in the regional bloc have defiled the directives and embarked on the illegal process of recruiting their relatives and cronies.

The lawmakers, while citing the huge financial commitments that Nigeria makes to the body while relegating funding to its internal security challenges, claimed there was no commensurate return on investment for Nigeria in ECOWAS for all the country has done and is doing for the region.

Leader of the Nigerian delegation and Deputy Speaker of the Nigerian House of Representatives, who is also the First Deputy Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Ahmed Idris Wase said it has become imperative that Nigeria review its relevance and membership in the bloc.

He said: “If you are in a system, and you are not getting the right results, where you are investing your money, it pays best to walk out of the union.

“In a situation where we are having an infrastructural deficit and witnessing security challenges, why should we continue to invest our money where it will not benefit our country?

“Yes, we will pull out if we don’t get the desired result from this.”

He added that: “We are asking for justice not just for Nigerians alone, but for the entire ECOWAS community. That is what MPs are asking for. There are few countries that want to run ECOWAS like a cabal but we will not tolerate that.”

The Nigerian Permanent Representative to ECOWAS, Musa Nuhu, had also to have written to the Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, Sidie Mohamed Tunis on the nepotistic employment scandal rocking ECOWAS.

The letter from Nuhu was dated July 20, 2022, and titled, “Formal complaint about unfair treatment and confirmation of staff at the ECOWAS parliament.”

He wrote in the letter that “I have the honour to refer to our verbal discussion on the above subject matter and formally inform you that the attention of the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the ECOWAS Commission has been drawn to a number of complaints by Nigerian staff working at the ECOWAS Parliament. The grievances border around stagnation and overlooking of staff already working in the parliament in favour of outsiders in the ongoing recruitment for divisional heads and professional staff.

“This action directly contravenes the recommendations of the 30th meeting of the ECOWAS Administrative and Finance Committee as well as the position of the Council of Ministers, which directed that internal candidates should be prioritised in filling existing vacancies in ECOWAS institutions, as recommended in the Staff Skills Audit Report.

“The Honourable Speaker may kindly wish to note that the mission has examined the complaints of the staff of the parliament based on existing staff regulations as well as the decisions and guidelines given by the AFC and Council of Ministers for ECOWAS institutions to carry out the recruitment and found that their grievances are genuine.

“Therefore, as you rightly observed during our discussions, recruiting individuals outside the system to place them above the existing staff would only lead to discontent, demoralisation and continued stagnation of the staff. This will inevitably affect the overall performance of the Parliament.”

The controversy, it was learnt came on the heels of the implementation of the provision of the staff regulation of the Commission. It is understood that each institution in ECOWAS gets permission (since there is a freeze on recruitment) to employ from the AFC/ Council of Ministers. Thus, Parliament needs to show that the permission was given.

The system, which allows that internal candidates are first considered for positions (internal advertisement of positions with the institutions of ECOWAS) before looking externally for candidates where internal candidates have not measured up to requirements, has been jettisoned because it allows the powers that hold sway to bring in their relatives to occupy those positions.

A source told journalists that those recruitment exercises are never fair because before they are even conducted, you will start hearing about preferred candidates already and about instructions to the so-called consultant in charge of bringing out the long list from the entire list of applicants, to ensure that some people are not on that list and also that those preferred candidates make it to the top of those lists.

Wase said the fact remains that as of today, Nigerian lawmakers are in receipt of certain misgivings, and protestations by people who are so affected.

He said: “I may not know if such protestations existed in the Fourth Assembly, as at today, these protestations are evident before us and we are duty bound to attend to them like we have indicated and in the cause of our engagement we are not restricting ourselves to what has happened today. If you listened to our intent on the floor, we said that for the past ten years, whatever it is that had happened in the past ten years, the one that has to be remedied, the one that requires sanctions, I am sure that at the end of the day, without preempting the resolve of the committee, we will get to that point.”

Wase reiterated that Nigeria has done so much for ECOWAS, explaining that over 60 per cent of ECOWAS funding comes from Nigeria.

He said: “We have staffers who are of Nigerian origin that may have done better or progressed rapidly in their career if they were within the bureaucracy of the Nigerian civil service. Their colleagues and contemporaries in the Nigerian civil service are now directors and even permanent secretaries and those of them in ECOWAS institutions have stagnated for years. They are not promoted because they are engaged as casual staff. We cannot subject these staff to remain at the same level for more than 10 years. ECOWAS employed them as casual staff and kept them as casual staff for that long.

Wase said: “It offends the International Labour Organization (ILO), Convention on Forced Labour. I was an activist and a unionist, before joining politics. We cannot keep an employee for more than six months on a casual basis, it is against international law. But here we have kept them for a number of years, up to nine years, it is inhuman.

“What the Parliament is talking about is transparency, and doing the right thing in the right manner. I heard them saying that the audit report was inconclusive, it then meant that there were issues. Whether inconclusive or not, in Parliament, there is what we call an interim report. So, there was an interim report, and that is what some members were relying upon, it does not mean that because they were unable to conclude, then there was nothing. There was something on the table, and I will refer to that inconclusive report that the Secretary General mentioned as an interim report before the Parliament, which of course should be used, and considered because it raised issues regarding the imbalance in the composition of the staff.”

According to Wase, the Nigerian constitution in Section 14 (4) provides that, the composition of government shall be in a manner that reflects the federal character. “Now, we have people who possibly have one opportunity and they want to bring in their relatives, and their siblings against the larger interest of our community. Common judgment teaches us that when you have nations coming together, we should do the distribution in such a way that justice and fairness takes the centre stage”

He said that if Nigeria had not asked for 60 per cent benefit in ECOWAS before now, it must have been a mistake “because our dividend should be equivalent to our contribution and investment. And if that is not done and the little that we have in the system is being humiliated, we will not take it.

“From the National Assembly of Nigeria, we are also going to probe our Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Finance Minister who is giving the money and the Commissioner who is representing us at the Commission. What are they doing there, are they part of this nonsense going on, possibly because they have one interest to protect or the other? We will not allow that to happen. We will expose everybody from the Nigerian Parliament and sanctions will follow. We will sanction anybody found wanting in the process,” he added

Last month, at the 2022 First Ordinary Session of the Parliament, the lawmakers passed a resolution to suspend the recruitment exercise after Nigerian representatives at the parliament alleged discrimination and lopsidedness in the recruitment of workers at the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.

The motion to suspend the recruitment and promotion in the ECOWAS Parliament was moved by Hon. Awajim Abiante, a Nigerian lawmaker at the ECOWAS Parliament.

The motion was seconded by Sen. Abiodun Olujimi, a Nigerian Lawmaker at the Parliament, supported by Hon. Yousoufa Bida and concurrently agreed by the house.

Abiante, who represents the Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro federal constituency in the House of Representatives said “The Speaker of ECOWAS Parliament is duty bound to respect the resolutions of Parliament.

“If he does not respect the resolution of Parliament, I wonder which Parliament he is heading.

“So, it is left for him to answer where he stands.

“You know, probably some of us are not well experienced, relative to Parliamentary requirements and procedures.

“Therefore, if one is not experienced, we could expect this kind of action. But the Speaker is duty bound to obey the resolution of Parliament.”

“He is first amongst equals, but we are all members of Parliament, by certain requirements, somebody has to lead.

“So, if he is the Speaker today, it does not make him senior or superior to any Member of Parliament.

“And who is he speaking for? He is speaking for the entirety of all of us and if we have come and raised issues, and resolutions taken, saying stop this, he is duty bound to obey.

“So, whatever they had done, we the parliamentarians see it as an effort in complete futility.”

When contacted, the Secretary General of the Parliament John Azumah from Ghana said he was unaware of any audit report that talked about employment and promotion. “I don’t know where they got that information from that they were talking, but you know that on the floor of the Parliament, you cannot stop them.”

“For me, I don’t have any information about this, but let me tell you this, the First Deputy Speaker would have done himself good if he had called me to explain what is happening in ECOWAS to him. I don’t know where they got that information from. There is no audit report like that. It is true that ECOWAS did a skill audit some time ago, but it was inconclusive. The skill audit that was done for the whole ECOWAS institution was inconclusive.

“So, if you went and were extracting information and you got something from staff, you are looking for your interest, sometimes they will give you half information, because of their interest. They would not give you the full information, then you just pick it as an MP and you start talking.

“The staff will tell you that this is happening at the Commission, this is happening at the court and this is happening at the Parliament, it is not true, just because of their interest. For me, if you have that, you have to rely on some credible officers to validate the veracity or otherwise of the information before you come to the floor. When they were talking, I was just laughing in my heart, I am telling you the truth because they were just ridiculing themselves,” he added.

National News

FG Declares October 1 Public Holiday as Nigeria Mark’s 66th Independence Anniversary

Published

1 week ago

September 30, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

FG Declares October 1 Public Holiday as Nigeria Mark’s 66th Independence Anniversary

By: Michael Mike

The Federal Government has declared Thursday, October 1, 2026, a public holiday to commemorate Nigeria’s 66th Independence Anniversary.

The Minister of Interior, Dr. Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, announced the declaration on behalf of the Federal Government in a statement issued on Wednesday by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Dr. Magdalene Ajani.

The minister congratulated Nigerians at home and abroad, urging citizens to use the anniversary to reflect on the nation’s journey since independence and renew their commitment to building a more united, peaceful and prosperous country.

Tunji-Ojo emphasised the importance of peace and stability to national development, calling on Nigerians to emulate the patriotism and love for country demonstrated by the nation’s founding fathers.

He said Nigeria’s diversity remains a major strength and expressed optimism that a better and more prosperous nation is achievable through collective determination.

“As we celebrate 66 years of our independence, we should always remember that there is hope for our country and our diversity is our strength, and our collective determination remains the foundation upon which a stronger and more prosperous nation will be built,” the minister said.

The minister also reaffirmed the Federal Government’s commitment to the Renewed Hope Agenda of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, stating that the administration would continue working towards a better Nigeria for all citizens.

He urged Nigerians to make the Independence anniversary an opportunity to demonstrate unity, patriotism, peaceful coexistence and mutual respect, while honouring the sacrifices of the country’s past heroes.
Tunji-Ojo further assured citizens that the Federal Government remains committed to strengthening national security, improving public safety and creating an environment where Nigerians can live, work and pursue their legitimate aspirations with confidence.

Nigeria gained independence from British colonial rule on October 1, 1960, and will mark its 66th Independence Anniversary on Thursday.

The minister wished Nigerians a happy 66th Independence Anniversary.

FG Declares October 1 Public Holiday as Nigeria Mark’s 66th Independence Anniversary

National News

AT 3RD AFRICA MINERALS STRATEGY GROUP HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE

Published

2 weeks ago

September 22, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

AT 3RD AFRICA MINERALS STRATEGY GROUP HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE

President Tinubu Rallies Aggressive Alliance To Guard Africa’s Mineral Wealth

** *Charges continent to stop exporting wealth, start profiting from its own resources

** *Says Africa’s future being fashioned from minerals must have room for continent’s ambition

By: Our Reporter

President Bola Ahmed Tinubu has called for a fresh continental push to end the historical exploitation of Africa’s critical mineral resources, urging African nations to unite and halt the export of raw materials.

Accordingly, he demanded an aggressive alliance among African countries to ensure the continent transitions from a mere supplier of raw minerals to a hub for local processing, manufacturing, and value addition.

The Nigerian leader made the call on Monday in New York, United States, during the AMSG High-Level Roundtable on Critical Minerals Development in Africa held on the sidelines of the ongoing 81st Session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).

Convened and chaired by President Tinubu, his deputy, Vice President Kashim Shettima, alongside AMSG Chairman and Nigeria’s Minister of Solid Minerals, Dr. Dele Alake, the high-level dialogue, themed, “From Resources to Wealth: Continental Cooperation for Mineral Value Addition, Data Sovereignty, Innovative Financing and Critical Minerals Security,” focuses on transforming the continent’s mineral wealth into sustainable economic growth.

In his address delivered by Senator Shettima at the Roundtable, the President told African leaders and other stakeholders that the continent cannot claim to be wealthy while its children wallow in poverty amid mines that enrich the world.

“For generations, Africa has furnished the materials of prosperity elsewhere. Our duty is to ensure that the future being fashioned from African minerals has room for African ambition,” he declared.

President Tinubu regretted that mineral-rich communities lack infrastructure, jobs, and a stake in their own wealth at a time when global demand for clean energy, AI, and advanced manufacturing has made Africa’s critical minerals—like cobalt, copper, lithium, and rare earth elements—indispensable to global supply chains and economic security.

The answer to such deprivation, he observed, “must be processing, refining, batteries, components, African technologies and competitive skills,” noting that “the worth of a mine must be counted in the lives it improves.

“Jobs, industries, infrastructure, technology transfer, African enterprise participation and prosperity retained across generations must measure our progress from resources to wealth,” he maintained.

The Nigerian leader warned, however, that no African country can achieve this alone, adding that competing through lower royalties, weaker local content, and excessive concessions will only weaken the continent’s negotiating power.

“Fragmentation leaves us exporting raw materials and buying finished goods at a premium. Cooperation gives our markets scale, our industries integration, our financing reach and our negotiations authority,” he said.

Back home, the President noted that Nigeria must require local value addition for new mining licenses, strengthen geological data and investor access, organize artisanal miners into cooperatives, combat illegal mining, and improve regulatory accountability

“Revenue rose from approximately ₦6 billion in 2023 to over ₦38 billion in 2024 and between ₦68.1 billion and ₦70 billion in 2025. Major foreign investment commitments and large-scale lithium processing capacity developed and commissioned in Nasarawa State demonstrate the possibilities,” he added.

He drew attention to his administration’s mining policy direction, which stipulates that minerals extracted in Nigeria must sustain Nigerian industries, workers, skills, and communities, saying ongoing reforms indicate that “firm terms can attract serious capital.”

Offering other African nations the Nigerian experience for adaptation across the continent, President Tinubu called for “reliable partnerships grounded in mutual benefit, shared responsibility, sovereign equality and respect for our priorities, with fair market access, industrial investment and technology partnerships that build African capabilities.”

He implored member countries of the AMSG to speak with one voice to promote Africa’s collective interest, insisting that reliability must never mean dependency, and partnership must never demand inequality.

On the Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration adopted and signed at the Roundtable, the President said it must establish a predictable, investment-ready environment for Africa’s Strategic Mineral Corridors, harmonised policies, responsible investment and shared infrastructure.

He stated that the Declaration’s authority must survive the signing ceremony through a binding programme with timelines, financing, implementation and public accountability, even as he urged African nations to specify national and regional contributions; development finance institutions and sovereign investors to propose financing platforms.

Declaring the Roundtable open, the Nigerian leader spearheaded an aggressive alliance to retain the continent’s mineral wealth, saying, “Africa’s power resides in its people, markets and ingenuity. No outsider will organise our continent or place our industrial interests above their own. We must integrate our markets, mobilise African capital and negotiate with one voice wherever our interests converge.

“Our industrial growth can strengthen global prosperity, the energy transition and secure supply chains. Minerals confer no automatic prosperity; vision, investment and industry must earn it. Political will must turn mineral promise into enduring African wealth.”

Earlier, Chairman of the AMSG and Nigeria’s Minister of Minister of Solid Minerals, Mr. Dele Alake, said the group is proposing a Continental Integration and Economic Assurance Declaration (CIEAD) as a landmark continental framework designed to establish a unified architecture for Africa’s critical and solid minerals value chains.

He said the strength of the gathering reflected the journey and progress made in Africa’s solid minerals sector as manifested in the growth of the Africa Minerals Stategy Group (AMSG).

Alake urged African countries that have yet to join the group to do so in the bid to ensure synergy of efforts, ideas and resources needed for Africa’s natural resources.

He observed that Africa’s minerals ambitions cannot be realised by policy implementation alone as fully integrated partnership designed across financial transactions and infrastructure development as the way forward.

On his part, Kenya’s Minister of Blue Economy and Maritime Affairs, Mr. Hassan Ali Joho, underscored the importance of domestic resource mobilisation as a catalyst for solid mineral development in Africa and beyond.

He added that for members of the AMSG to achieve holistic transformation, members must stay transparent, competitive and work towards greater alignment of licensing procedure while respecting the sovereignty of member states of the group.

There were also contributions from representatives of the governments of Liberia, Chad and Tanzania, among other stakeholders.

AT 3RD AFRICA MINERALS STRATEGY GROUP HIGH-LEVEL ROUNDTABLE

National News

ECOWAS Court Turns to Media as Enforcement Gap Threatens Impact of Regional Justice

Published

2 weeks ago

September 22, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

ECOWAS Court Turns to Media as Enforcement Gap Threatens Impact of Regional Justice

…Abuja workshop seeks to strengthen judicial reporting and public accountability over Member States’ compliance with court decisions

By: Michael Mike

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice is seeking to strengthen the role of journalists in holding Member States accountable for implementing its judgments, as concerns persist over the enforcement of decisions issued by the regional judicial institution.

The President of the Court, Hon. Justice Ricardo Claudio Monteiro Gonçalves, made the call at the opening of a three-day training workshop for journalists from ECOWAS Member States, urging participants to use their media platforms to draw attention to governments’ obligations under regional treaties.

He said the Court’s existing enforcement mechanism places responsibility for executing its judgments on Member States, but described the level of compliance as below expectation.

“Let me also urge you to use your media platforms to engage Member States on the need to faithfully implement the decisions of the Court in accordance with their treaty obligations,” Gonçalves said.

His remarks placed the spotlight on a central challenge facing regional justice: ensuring that judicial decisions translate into practical outcomes for individuals and communities.

The ECOWAS Community Court of Justice serves as a regional judicial institution within the Economic Community of West African States, with jurisdiction that includes human rights cases involving Member States.

Its judgments can address allegations of human rights violations and provide remedies to applicants. However, enforcement depends on mechanisms involving national authorities rather than the Court independently executing its own decisions.

Under Article 24 of the Court’s Supplementary Protocol, judgments are enforced through a writ of execution submitted by the Chief Registrar to the relevant Member State, where execution proceeds according to domestic civil procedure rules.

The Court has also explained in its jurisprudence that Member States have obligations to comply with its judgments, while its own authority to directly enforce those decisions is limited.

This arrangement makes cooperation between the regional institution and national authorities an important part of the enforcement process. Differences in domestic procedures, institutional capacity and the implementation of regional legal instruments can affect how judgments are carried out.

The Court has identified enforcement as an area requiring stronger coordination with national institutions. In 2026, it held bilateral engagements with national authorities in countries including Guinea, Sierra Leone and Nigeria to discuss compliance, institutional cooperation and practical enforcement challenges.

These engagements form part of broader efforts to improve the implementation of decisions across the region.

Gonçalves said limited public understanding of the Court’s mandate, procedures, jurisdiction and judgments was partly linked to gaps in media coverage.

He stressed that journalists need a sound understanding of the institution’s composition, structure and legal responsibilities to communicate its work accurately.

The president said the workshop was designed to improve judicial reporting and establish a network of journalists across the ECOWAS region who would report regularly on the Court’s activities.

“This training is, therefore, very important for the Community Court of Justice,” he said.

He expressed confidence that contributions from the Court’s Registry and Research Departments, alongside technical experts in journalism and judicial reporting, would help achieve the initiative’s objectives.

The workshop is expected to strengthen participants’ ability to explain court proceedings, interpret judgments and communicate the implications of regional judicial decisions to the public.

The media training comes amid continuing institutional efforts to improve compliance with ECOWAS Court judgments through closer engagement with national enforcement authorities.

In February 2026, the Court convened a meeting with Nigerian authorities on the status of enforcement of its decisions. Similar engagements in Sierra Leone and Guinea focused on cooperation, identifying implementation challenges and strengthening coordination between the Court and national institutions.

A further regional meeting of Competent National Authorities was scheduled in Cotonou, Benin, in June 2026, as part of efforts to develop a collaborative framework for enforcement.

The initiatives reflect the importance of national institutions in carrying out regional judgments and the need for more consistent procedures across jurisdictions.

Against this background, the Court’s engagement with journalists introduces a public communication dimension to its compliance efforts, encouraging media professionals to explain the obligations arising from judgments and report on implementation.

The training brought together journalists drawn primarily from national broadcast media organisations across 12 ECOWAS Member States.

The participating countries are Benin, Cabo Verde, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Senegal, The Gambia, Togo and Nigeria.

The initiative forms part of the Court’s Annual Cascade Workplan and is aligned with its Strategic Plan 2026–2030.

In particular, it supports Strategic Goal 4, which focuses on transparency, stakeholder engagement and strategic accountability, as well as Strategic Objective 4.2, which seeks to strengthen platforms for regular engagement with stakeholders.

Through the training, the Court aims to expand public awareness of its work and encourage sustained reporting on its judgments and activities.

For the participating journalists, the task extends beyond covering courtroom proceedings to explaining what decisions mean, which institutions are responsible for implementation and what progress is being made in giving effect to the Court’s rulings.