From Hassan Taiye

A high-level delegation from the European Union (EU) Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, led by Mr. David McAllister, paid a courtesy visit to the Nigerian Senate today October 28, 2025.

“We are here to deepen our understanding of the situation in West Africa and strengthen our partnership with Nigeria,” McAllister said.

Senate President Godswill Akpabio welcomed the delegation, emphasizing Nigeria’s strategic partnership with the EU. “Nigeria is committed to strengthening ties with the EU, highlighting areas of mutual interest, including security, trade, and governance,” Akpabio said.

The delegation, comprising Ambassador Greta Mylott, EU Ambassador to Nigeria and ECOWAS, Miss Zelaya Zorko, Miss Mata Tamido, Sebastian Tankman, General Christophe Gomart, and Sebastian Buharo, is undertaking a comprehensive tour of West Africa, with stops in Nigeria and Ghana.

During the visit, Akpabio shed light on the challenges facing female representation in Nigeria’s parliament. “Women often vote for male candidates, making it difficult for female candidates to win elections,” he noted.

“The Senate is exploring innovative solutions, including constitutional amendments, to boost female participation in the legislative process, with support from organizations like the Black Women’s Forum.”

The EU delegation’s visit aims to foster greater understanding and cooperation between the EU and Nigeria, addressing shared concerns, such as terrorism, climate change, and economic development.

“The EU is committed to supporting Nigeria’s development efforts,” McAllister assured the Senate, emphasizing the bloc’s interest in seeing a stable, prosperous, and democratic Nigeria.

Their visit also includes participation in the forthcoming International Islamic Conference on Security and Governance in West Africa and the Sahel, scheduled for November 4-6, 2025 at ECOWAS Commission.

Akpabio expressed optimism about the potential for enhanced cooperation, highlighting Nigeria’s readiness to work with the EU to address common challenges.

By: Fabian Apechihin

Agricultural stakeholders have raised alarm that Nigeria may be unable to rein in rising food inflation in the coming months due to mounting challenges facing the sector.

Speaking on the issue, a leading agronomist, Emiju, identified the high cost of farm inputs and scarcity of labour as key factors discouraging farmers, warning that these constraints could have serious implications for national food production and availability.

He advised farmers to adopt cooperative savings models or microfinance options to access funding for large-scale input purchases. According to him, such collaborative financial strategies would help smallholders cope with the escalating costs of seeds, fertilizers, and machinery.

Emiju further encouraged farmers to seek bulk purchasing arrangements, explore discount opportunities, and consider alternative, cost-effective inputs where possible. He also urged them to organise community labour-sharing initiatives and invest in mechanisation to cushion the impact of labour shortages and rising production costs.

Highlighting the importance of accurate data in addressing the crisis, he noted that robust agricultural data remains one of the most essential tools for evidence-based planning, monitoring, and policy formulation in Nigeria’s agricultural sector.

“It provides a realistic picture of production outcomes, farmer experiences, and sectoral constraints, upon which informed decisions and targeted interventions can be built,” he said.

He commended recent efforts to improve agricultural data quality, including the Farm Family Census, the Tractor Census, and complementary studies on commodity prices, describing them as steps toward greater transparency and excellence in agricultural performance reporting.

….resolve to set up Ad-hoc C’ttee

By Hassan Taiye

The House of Representatives has resolved to urgently investigate the current status of Nigeria’s non-functional state owned refineries, despite the Federal Government reportedly spending of about $18 billion on their turnaround maintenance for years.

The resolution followed a motion moved during plenary yesterday by Hon. Sesi Whingan, a lawmaker representing Badagry Federal Constituency in Lagps State in the House of Representatives.

In his lead debate for the motion, the lawmaker drew the attention of his fellow colleagues to persistent failure of the nation’s refineries to refine petroleum products despite repeated assurances of rehabilitation and massive financial interventions year in year out.

Speaking further, Whingan expressed serious concern about the current state of all Rifinarie in country noting that continuous importation of refined petroleum products has placed immense pressure on Nigeria’s foreign reserves and contributed to the instability of the naira, even though the country remains one of Africa’s largest crude oil producers.

According to the lawmaker,”” the huge expenditure on turnaround maintenance,TAM,of the Port Harcourt, Warri, and Kaduna refineries has not yielded the much results, leaving nigerians to raise question on the transparency and accountability of the whole process.

Consequently, the House after the amendment of the motion unanimously adopted some parts while relevant ad-hoc committee were asked to conduct a comprehensive investigation into all funds appropriated, released, and utilized for the rehabilitation of the three major refineries across the country.

Again, lawmakers during the plenary unanimously resolved that the committee should engage relevant government agencies, contractors as well as stakeholders in the oil and gas sector to ascertain the true state of the facilities and report back for further legislative action.

Deputy Speaker, Hon Benjamin Kalu who presided over yesterday plenary equally emphasized that the House would leave no stone unturned in uncovering the truth behind the alleged mismanagement of the billions of dollars spent on the refineries over the years.

The House also resolved to set up an Ad–hoc Committee composed of members drawn from the Committees on Petroleum Resources (Upstream and Downstream), Public Accounts, Anti-Corruption, Finance, and Legislative Compliance in order to urgently investigate funds appropriated and disbursed for the rehabilitation of the three refineries between 2010 and 2024 in order to ascertain their status and examine how public funds were utilised even as they will also identify agencies responsible for the infractions or mismanagement and report back within four (4) weeks for further legislative action

Deputy Speaker finally assured that the findings of the investigation would guide the legislature in taking decisive steps toward ensuring that Nigeria’s refineries are revived to work on full capacity and that public funds are judiciously and transparently use.