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

NAPTIP Moves to Strengthen Justice Chain Against Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling

Published

2 days ago

September 14, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

NAPTIP Moves to Strengthen Justice Chain Against Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling

By: Michael Mike

The National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons (NAPTIP) has moved to strengthen Nigeria’s criminal justice chain against human trafficking and migrant smuggling, with a renewed focus on closing operational gaps between investigation, prosecution and judicial decision-making.

The initiative is coming against the backdrop of Nigeria’s strategic position in West Africa and its exposure to transnational organised crime, particularly human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Nigeria serves as a country of origin, transit and destination, a position that exposes the country to complex operational and judicial challenges requiring a coordinated response across the entire criminal justice system.

Speaking in Abuja on Monday at the opening of a capacity-building workshop on “Strengthening the Criminal Justice Chain in Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Cases,” the Director-General of NAPTIP, Binta Adamu Bello, said a stronger justice chain was critical to ensuring that perpetrators were effectively investigated, prosecuted and brought to justice while victims received adequate protection.

Bello said the workshop was designed to bring together investigators, prosecutors, judicial officers, intelligence analysts and law enforcement practitioners to strengthen cooperation and build an integrated response to the two forms of transnational organised crime.

She said human trafficking and migrant smuggling networks exploit human vulnerability, undermine national security, violate fundamental human rights and threaten economic stability across national boundaries.

According to her, the increasing sophistication of criminal networks made it necessary to strengthen the entire criminal justice chain rather than focus on isolated stages of enforcement.

“A criminal justice system is only as strong as its weakest link. If an investigation is compromised at the intelligence stage, prosecution becomes difficult; if evidence collection is flawed, justice is delayed or denied; and if judicial proceedings lack specialised operational insights into trafficking dynamics, dangerous criminals return to the streets while victims remain unprotected,” Bello said.

The workshop, she explained, seeks to improve interaction among investigators, prosecutors and judicial authorities while strengthening the effective implementation of existing procedures.

Its overall objective, she said, is to improve the effectiveness of the criminal justice chain in human trafficking and migrant-smuggling cases by improving coordination among stakeholders, enhancing the quality of case files and strengthening the connection between investigation, prosecution and judicial decision-making.

The initiative is also expected to strengthen institutional coordination and inter-agency cooperation and improve the overall effectiveness of Nigeria’s criminal justice response to trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Bello said the workshop would help close operational gaps from the initial detection of cases and victim-centred investigations through intelligence gathering and prosecution to final adjudication.

She added that the training would strengthen the ability of participating agencies to work together in tackling the convergence of trafficking and migrant smuggling with financial crimes, cybercrime and cross-border security threats.

Participants, she said, would also refine strategies for financial tracking, digital evidence collection and international legal cooperation, including Mutual Legal Assistance.

The NAPTIP boss stressed that the initiative would reinforce a victim-centred and trauma-informed approach to justice, ensuring that victims were protected throughout judicial proceedings and not re-traumatised in the process of seeking justice.

Bello said NAPTIP had maintained an aggressive, multi-dimensional strategy anchored on its 5P approach of Policy, Prevention, Protection, Prosecution and Partnership.

She disclosed that the agency had secured hundreds of convictions against human traffickers, with its legal teams continuing to pursue maximum sentences as a deterrent to organised criminal syndicates.

She said thousands of victims, including women, children and young men, had been rescued from domestic exploitation, forced labour, sexual servitude, organ-harvesting networks and digital exploitation centres both within Nigeria and internationally.

According to her, survivors receive psychosocial support, medical care, vocational training and reintegration assistance through NAPTIP’s specialised shelters across the country.

Bello said the agency had also expanded its intelligence operations in response to the growing use of digital platforms by traffickers, enabling it to track online trafficking syndicates, fake job-placement schemes and cyber-enabled exploitation networks operating in urban centres and across borders.

She added that specialised joint operations with sister security agencies, border-control authorities and international law-enforcement partners had enabled NAPTIP to intercept transnational syndicates and disrupt smuggling corridors across West Africa and Europe.

The agency, she said, had equally updated operational guidelines, strengthened standard operating procedures for victim identification and enhanced evidence-gathering techniques to ensure that investigations met international standards.

However, Bello warned that the achievements could not justify complacency, given the evolving tactics of organised criminal networks.

She said continuous innovation, institutional adaptation and deeper collaboration across the criminal justice pipeline remained necessary to sustain the fight against trafficking and migrant smuggling.

EU-backed criminal justice intervention

The capacity-building activity is being implemented within the framework of the Common Operational Partnership (COP Nigeria), carried out by CIVIPOL in collaboration with the Fundación para la Internacionalización de las Administraciones Públicas (FIAP), under the Support to Migration Governance (Component 3) project in Nigeria.

The project is funded by the European Union in partnership with the Nigerian authorities and is being developed in coordination with FIAP’s activities in Nigeria, particularly initiatives aimed at strengthening migration governance and combating human trafficking and migrant smuggling.

Bello expressed NAPTIP’s appreciation to the European Union for its sustained support under the Support to Migration Governance project, saying its investment in Nigeria’s migration-management and counter-trafficking frameworks reflected a commitment to global peace, security and human dignity.

She commended CIVIPOL for its technical expertise and leadership in implementing COP Nigeria, while also appreciating FIAP for its partnership and coordination in strengthening governance, justice and anti-trafficking structures in Nigeria.

The DG further thanked sister security agencies, judicial officers, civil society organisations and other resource persons for their participation and commitment to the fight against human trafficking.

Bello charged participants to use the workshop to build stronger professional networks and partnerships that would extend beyond the duration of the training.

“You represent the frontline defence of our nation’s criminal justice system against exploitation,” she told participants.

She urged them to engage actively, challenge assumptions and share best practices from their respective institutions, stressing that the knowledge and skills acquired would directly influence Nigeria’s capacity to investigate, prosecute and dismantle trafficking and migrant-smuggling networks.

She reminded participants that behind every case file, legal precedent and investigative report was a human life seeking justice and protection.

“Together, through a strengthened criminal justice chain, we will deny traffickers a safe haven, bring perpetrators to justice, and uphold the dignity of every individual,” Bello said.

She subsequently declared the capacity-building workshop officially open.

NAPTIP Moves to Strengthen Justice Chain Against Trafficking, Migrant Smuggling

National News

FG moves to operationalise 112 national emergency number

Published

7 days ago

September 9, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

FG moves to operationalise 112 national emergency number

By Zagazola Makama

The Federal Government has commenced steps to operationalise the 112 national emergency number as a single, toll-free channel through which Nigerians can access emergency services across the country.

The move followed a directive by Vice-President Kashim Shettima during a stakeholders’ meeting on the National Emergency Number 112 Project in Abuja on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 2026.

Shettima directed relevant government agencies to develop a comprehensive operational roadmap and standard operating procedures for the nationwide rollout of the emergency number.

The Federal Government has consequently constituted a committee comprising the Nigeria Police Force (NPF), Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC), National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) and other relevant agencies to finalise the framework for consideration and formal endorsement by the National Economic Council (NEC).

The NEC had recently approved 112 as Nigeria’s single universal toll-free emergency number, replacing the fragmented emergency response lines currently operated by different agencies.

The initiative is aimed at eliminating delays and bureaucratic bottlenecks while providing citizens with easier access to rapid assistance during emergencies, including fires, road crashes, medical emergencies and security incidents.

Speaking at the meeting, Shettima urged members of the committee to draw from global best practices in developing the operational framework and ensure that the project moves from policy approval to practical implementation.

He charged the stakeholders to finalise the roadmap and standard operating procedures for presentation to the NEC, stressing the importance of making tangible progress.

“Let’s make progress so that whatever time we have spent here is worth spending,” the Vice-President said, while assuring stakeholders that the Federal Government would provide the resources required to drive the process.

He said adequate funding would be made available once the project progressed to the implementation stage.

The Inspector-General of Police, Olatunji Rilwan Disu, expressed the full support of the Nigeria Police Force for the adoption of 112 as the country’s unified national emergency number.

Disu described the initiative as a significant step towards providing Nigerians with a simple and reliable means of accessing emergency assistance.

He said that during emergencies such as armed attacks, road crashes, fire outbreaks, medical crises or kidnapping incidents, citizens often face the additional challenge of determining which agency to contact.

According to him, the 112 system would provide a single access point through which an emergency call could be directed to the appropriate response agency.

Earlier, the Personal Assistant to the President on e-Governance in the Office of the Vice-President, Mrs Lydia Aina, said Nigeria’s emergency response system currently operates across multiple agencies, platforms and jurisdictions.

She explained that the fragmented structure often affects how emergencies are received, coordinated and responded to.

Aina said the objective was to move from the existing fragmented system to a coordinated and eventually fully integrated national emergency response framework.

She stressed that the success of the 112 initiative would depend not only on the emergency number itself but also on the people, agencies, operational standards and systems required to make it functional when citizens place emergency calls.

“Our job now is to turn it into an actual working programme with milestones,” she said.

According to her, six immediate priorities have been identified, beginning with governance and a clear delineation of responsibilities among participating agencies.

Other stakeholders at the meeting pledged their support for the initiative, including the Director-General of NEMA, Mrs Zubaida Umar; Corps Marshal of FRSC, Shehu Mohammed; and Director-General of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), Mallam Lanre Issa-Onilu, among others.

The Federal Government’s move is expected to strengthen coordination among emergency response agencies, reduce response delays and provide Nigerians with a more accessible mechanism for seeking urgent assistance.

If successfully implemented nationwide, the 112 system could provide a unified gateway linking citizens to police, fire, medical, road safety, disaster management and other emergency response services.

The initiative is therefore being positioned as a major step towards building a faster, more coordinated and citizen-centred emergency response system in Nigeria.

FG moves to operationalise 112 national emergency number

National News

Nigeria, IEA Solidify Partnership, Sign Pact On Energy Policy, Security

Published

2 weeks ago

September 4, 2026

Ochuwa Ibrahim

Nigeria, IEA Solidify Partnership, Sign Pact On Energy Policy, Security

**It’s a justification of President Tinubu’s policy choices, gains of his economic reforms – VP Shettima

By: Our Reporter

Nigeria and the International Energy Agency (IEA) have signed an agreement for a Joint Work Programme to strengthen strategic partnership in the development of data for energy policy and investment across the value chain for economic growth and energy security.

This is just as the Vice President, Senator Kashim Shettima, has said Nigeria’s formal admission into the IEA as an Association Country is a significant milestone for the country and another testament to the gains of the economic reforms of the administration of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu.

Senator Shettima stated this on Thursday during the signing of the agreement for the Joint Work Programme between Nigeria and IEA, signaling the formal commencement of the partnership.

Speaking on behalf of President Tinubu, the Vice President noted that Nigeria’s formal entry into the fold of the Paris-based non-governmental organisation justifies his administration’s policy choices and efforts aimed at leveraging the country’s abundant energy resources scattered across the nation.

Commending the IEA for the important role it is playing in shaping global energy landscape, he said the effort of the agency in the global energy conversation and in supporting countries to navigate the challenges of energy security, affordability, sustainability and economic development, cannot be overstated.

His words: “Nigeria’s admission as an association country with the IEA is a significant milestone for our country and it reflects Nigeria’s strategic importance in the global energy landscape and the confidence that IEA has placed in our commitment to constructive international energy cooperation.”

VP Shettima added that given Nigeria’s potential, “the country will benefit from IEA’s institutional knowledge, the intellectual resources, the reach and expertise to support our nation’s ambitions in this sector.”

He acknowledged Nigeria’s abundant renewable energy resources and his commitment to repositioning the economy leveraging available resources which are already manifesting across different sectors of the economy.

The Vice President assured the IEA team of his administration’s commitment to continue to partner with other stakeholders within the setting to contribute to the global energy debate on a fair and just energy transition.

Earlier, leader of the IEA delegation, Dr. Fatih Birol explained that his organisation is an organisation of governments that covers all technological fields, including oil, gas, solar, nuclear power, artificial intelligence and electric cars based in Paris.

Working with top 500 energy experts of the world in terms of giving policy advice, sharing data and expertise, he said to be a member of the IEA family is not an easy task, as it requires a lot of considerations and tests.

According to Dr. Birol, after detailed discussions with the Minister of State for Petroleum and Gas, Mr. Ekperikpe Ekpo, the Board comprising the governments of the United States, Japan, Germany, Italy, and UK voted and accepted Nigeria unanimously as a member.

“The IEA will accompany the Nigerian energy sector for the next few years to come for a much better energy future. We will provide policy advice from clean cooking to gas markets, from gas markets to training Nigerian experts at the IEA on our own,” he assured.

Earlier, Minister of State Petroleum Resources (Gas), Mr Ekperikpe Ekpo, stressed that Nigeria’s admittance into the IEA was based on the performance of the Tinubu administration reflected in the reforms undertaken in the economy.

He said the signing of the Joint Work Programme, which portends the involvement of the technical team of the IEA with Nigeria in the development of data for energy policy and investment across the value chain and targeted for economic growth and energy security.

On his part, the Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ambassador Sola Enikanoaiye, described IEA’s partnership with Nigeria as strategically important, noting that the Nigerian Mission in Paris played a critical role in ensuring its success.

Pledging the commitment of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mrs. Bianca Odumegwu-Ojukwu, towards the process, “Our role is to ensure that whatever government does at home is projected effectively in advancing and promoting the interest of Nigeria.

“We take this as a critical component of our national interest and we will not fail in ensuring that we assist, as facilitators and coordinators, in ensuring that the maximum benefit of this endeavor is derived for the benefit of the Nigerian people.”

Also, the Director General of Energy Commission of Nigeria, Dr. Mustapha Abdullahi, said the Commission’s relationship with IEA led to the joint sponsorship of Nigeria’s last National Energy Master Plan, even though there was no structure to their relationship.

He expressed optimism that Nigeria’s formal joining of the IEA and the agreement will strengthen the Commission’s relationship with the organisation.

Nigeria, IEA Solidify Partnership, Sign Pact On Energy Policy, Security