Is Tinubu plotting a one-party state in Nigeria?

Nigeria's President, Bola Tinubu

Claim: President Bola Tinubu is orchestrating a systematic plan to weaken opposition parties and entrench a one-party state in Nigeria.

Over the past few months, Nigeria has witnessed a surge in defections from major opposition parties, particularly the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), Labour Party and politicians from the New Nigeria People’s Party (NNPP), to the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The most dramatic of these was in Delta State, where Governor Sheriff Oborevwori, his predecessor and former vice-presidential candidate Ifeanyi Okowa, cabinet members, and other key PDP figures crossed over to the APC. The event was described by some as a political “tsunami.”

Similar movements are unfolding elsewhere. Akwa Ibom State Governor Umo Eno, though still a member of the PDP, has publicly expressed support for President Tinubu, deepening concerns that opposition parties may be rapidly losing their foothold.

NewsRoundUp | 040525

 

GLOBAL

Singapore: The ruling People's Action Party (PAP) won a landslide victory in the general election, securing 87 of 97 parliamentary seats. Prime Minister Lawrence Wong received a strong mandate to navigate economic challenges, particularly in response to looming U.S. tariffs. Wong, who succeeded Lee Hsien Loong last year, emphasized stability and economic resilience in his campaign.

Israel: The Israeli military has called up tens of thousands of reservists ahead of an expanded Gaza offensive. Reports indicate that reservists are being mobilized to replace active-duty soldiers in Israel and the occupied West Bank, allowing for redeployment to Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Qatar, a key mediator in ceasefire negotiations, accusing it of playing "both sides".

Vietnam: The country has lodged a formal protest against China over an alleged airspace violation near disputed islands in the South China Sea. The incident involved a Chinese helicopter and coast guard vessels, prompting Japan to also issue a diplomatic protest. The dispute highlights ongoing tensions in the region.

INTERNATIONAL MAY DAY CELEBRATION IN NIGERIA | STAKE HOLDERS SPEAK

International Labour Day, also known as International Workers’ Day or May Day, is a global celebration that is dedicated to the success and rights of workers. It is marked on 1st May annually and is observed in various different countries with diverse traditions, protests, events, and parades. This day serves as a reminder of the ongoing struggles for labour rights, fair wages, and better working conditions for everyone.

Historically, the labour day movement began in Chicago, the United States, on 4th May, when a peaceful strike demanding an eight-hour workday turned into a tragedy. A bomb was thrown during the protest, leading to the deaths of several police officers and workers. In response to this Haymarket incident, labour unions around the world began to call for a day to recognise the importance of workers’ rights. The idea for an international workers’ day was proposed by a socialist group in 1890 and many countries started celebrating May Day to work for the right of labourers, improve labour laws, and better working conditions. Over the years, International Labour Day has become a symbol of strength, unity, and demand for justice for workers.

Nigeria’s Labour Union Asks Tinubu To Immediately Reverse Fubara’s Suspension, Withdraw Tax Bills

Nigeria’s labour leaders have urged the federal and state governments to cease actions that erode the civic space and deepen it for the sake of the nation.

Photo from left to right: TUC President, Festus Osifo, NLC President, Joe Ajaero, and President Bola Tinubu.

The organised Labour in Nigeria has asked President Bola Tinubu to immediately reverse what it describes as the unconstitutional suspension of the elected Government of Rivers State via a state of emergency.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION AT 2025 MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING | FEDERAL MINISTRY OF POWER | VIDEO

 

The event was held at Radio House, Abuja, on 17 April 2025.

CHARLES ANIAGWU CLEARS THE AIR ON MAJOR DEFECTION BY PDP LEADERSHIP IN DELTA STATE TO APC | VIDEO

 

The Honorable Commissioner for Works (Rural and Riverine Roads) in Delta State appeared recently as a special guest on Your View, a frontline breakfast programme on TVC News. He said all there is to say about the recent mass defection of PDP leadership in Delta State to APC.

HON. MINISTER OF POWER AT THE 2025 MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING | VIDEO

 

The event was held at Radio House, Abuja, on 17 April 2025.

YOUR VIEW | DEATH BY HANGING | OSINACHI'S HUSBAND | VIDEO

The opinion of Your View Panelist on the recent court sentence of Osinachi's husband to death by hanging.

 

Beiersdorf Nigeria is Set to Officially Launch the New Eucerin Range of Products in Nigeria

 

The Nigerian skincare industry just witnessed a major milestone with the official launch of Eucerin, the globally recognised dermatological skincare brand by Beiersdorf, makers of NIVEA.

 

Held at the prestigious Marriott Hotel in Lagos on Friday, March 28, 2025, the event brought together dermatologists, skincare experts, pharmacists, and beauty enthusiasts for an immersive experience into the science of safe and effective skincare.

NATIONAL POLICE DAY CELEBRATION | MAIDEN EDITION | VIDEO EXCERPTS | PART 1

 

The event took place at the Eagle Square in Abuja on 7 April 2025.

QUESTION AND ANSWER SESSION AT THE 2025 MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING | MINISTRY OF TRADE AND INVESTMENT (VIDEO)

 

The event took place at the Radio House, Abuja on 4 march 2025.

SEC begins campaign against ponzi schemes in markets, churches

The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun campaign to sensitise citizens against investing in ponzi schemes.

Speaking during the exercise in Wuse Market, Abuja, Dr Emomotimi Agama, the Director-General of SEC, said the move was to educate people on the dangers of ponzi scheme.

Agama, who regretted that some traders had fallen victims to the schemes, said the sensitisation was to engage the people physically.

He said the commission would take the sensitisation to markets across the country, churches, mosques, hospital and barracks to reach all citizens.

The Ogun man who killed son during fight with wife

WITH neither party being perfect, it is normal, even expected, for couples to engage in arguments. However, given their reluctance to let go of the patriarchal outlook on life that seems to confine women to a lower rung of life, certain men in the Nigerian society seem to fly off the handle at the slightest prompting. They subject women to physical and emotional torture following the slightest perceived dissent. To such men, it is not just an affront for a woman to have a contrary opinion to her husband’s, it is something close to treachery. This warped outlook on life seems to have underlined the terrible case of a man who, in a fit of madness, clubbed his own baby to death in Abeokuta, Ogun State, recently. According to reports, a heated argument between a couple resident in the Elega area of Abeokuta turned tragic when the husband, identified as Olamide, mistakenly struck his one-year-old son with an iron rod intended for his wife, leading to the child’s death!

T.D. Jakes hands over leadership mantle to daughter, son-in-law

Bishop T.D. Jakes

Bishop T.D. Jakes, founder of The Potter’s House in Dallas, Texas, has declared he is stepping down from leading the megachurch, handing over the reins to his daughter, Pastor Sarah Jakes Roberts, and her husband, Pastor Toure Roberts.

The declaration was made during a Sunday morning service on April 27, 2025, just weeks after Jakes suffered a massive heart attack while preaching.

Speaking to the congregation, Jakes said his recent health scare played a major role in his decision to transition leadership.

FIRS establish gender desk to boost equity, inclusive governance

The Federal Inland Revenue Service (FIRS) on Tuesday established its Gender Desk and Women Network (WoN) to promote gender equity and inclusive governance.

Speaking at the inauguration in Abuja, the Chairman, FIRS, Dr Zacch Adedeji, according to NAN report described the establishement of the desk as a declaration of the service’s resolve to embed equity at the heart of its operations.

Adedeji, who was represented by Dr Dick Irri, the Coordinating Director, Medium and Government Taxpayers Group (M&GTG, FIRS) said the initiative would help to drive inclusive public service.

He said that it would place gender equality as a constitutional right, and as a strategic imperative in governance, especially within the Nigerian tax system. 

DR JUMOKE ODUWALE AT THE 2025 MINISTERIAL PRESS BRIEFING (VIDEO)

The event took place at the Radio House, Abuja on 4 March 2025

Taraba varsity lecturer writes Tinubu, calls for ban on open grazing - Punch reports

President Bola Tinubu

A lecturer at Taraba State University, Professor John Ajai, has called on President Bola Tinubu to urgently review Nigeria’s commitment to the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol and fast-track the enactment of a national law banning open grazing across the country.

Punch reports that Ajai made the call in an open letter addressed to the President on Sunday, where he warned that the country was facing a “defining moment” that demands bold executive action to protect national sovereignty, security, and unity.

According to him, the ECOWAS Transhumance Protocol, which was originally intended to facilitate pastoral mobility across West Africa, has worsened insecurity, encouraged violent land occupation by armed groups, and undermined Nigeria’s territorial integrity.

Every bite of ultraprocessed food will increase your chance of an early death, major new study says

As you add more ultraprocessed foods to your diet, your risk of a premature death from any cause rises, according to a new meta-analysis of research involving more than 240,000 people.

“We looked at the risk of a person dying from eating more ultraprocessed foods between the ages of 30 and 69, a time when it would be premature to die,” said study coauthor Carlos Augusto Monteiro, emeritus professor of nutrition and public health in the School of Public Health at Brazil’s University of São Paulo.

“We found that for each 10% increase in total calories from ultraprocessed foods, the risk of dying prematurely rose by nearly 3%,” said Monteiro, who coined the term “ultraprocessed” in 2009 when he developed NOVA, a system of classifying foods into four groups by their level of processing.

Trump took the US economy to the brink of a crisis in just 100 days

Donald Trump spent his first 100 days back in the Oval Office driving an economy that the world envied to the brink of crisis, risking America’s reputation as a financial safe haven and fostering fear among voters who’ve lost confidence in his leadership.

Americans were desperate for relief from high grocery prices and bought into Trump’s promise to make America affordable again in November 2024, partly out of nostalgia for the pre-pandemic economy of his first term.

But the president deliberately and singlehandedly adopted policies that are almost certain to spike prices even more; that could lead to shortages; and that have CEOs and small businesses dealing with chaos and the possibility of a recession.

Women’s toilets not for transgenders, UK watchdog says

Photo: Shutterstock/baona

Britain’s equality watchdog has advised that trans women should not be allowed to use women’s toilets following a landmark ruling by the Supreme Court on the legal definition of a woman. 

The Equality and Human Rights Commission issued interim guidance for organisations in response to five judges ruling earlier this month that a woman is legally defined based on their sex at birth.

The decision was hailed by gender-critical campaigners and has been welcomed by the government as providing “clarity”, but transgender people have expressed concern that they will be discriminated against.

Trans women “should not be permitted to use the women’s facilities” in workplaces or public buildings such as shops and hospitals, the EHRC said.

TOP SNIPPETS | 260425

Understanding violence is the first step towards changing attitudes. Riccardo Cuppini

LAST week, I observed that the insecurity situation in the country is very bad. And it will remain that way as far as we can see into the future. This is because those whose duty it is to solve the problem are hardly doing anything worth talking about, beyond meetings, photo-ops and the regular platitudes that we are fed with. I am not surprised.

This is because the architects of the problem may have no solutions to proffer. That is also why, whenever a political strategy is devised, those who formulated the strategy more often than not do not pause to ponder the variables that will spin out of control. The insecurity we are bedevilled with at present is the fallout of a political strategy with variables that have gone out of control, as they would.

Some men don’t know they have children somewhere

Chukwuneta Oby

One of the stories that struck me recently was about a young girl who gained admission the university last year but had to abandon her studies a few months later because she got pregnant. When asked who was responsible for the pregnancy, she claimed she couldn’t say for certain, as two young men were involved, and it all happened on the night of the famous party usually organised on university campuses to welcome freshers.

According to her, the first young man seduced her before the party and had sex with her, while the second sexual encounter happened after the party.

While we are busy pulling the ears of the girl-child on the need to close her legs more, may we also extend the same energy to the boy-child, who still feels that dipping his ‘something’ into every available hole is his birthright.

The CBEX SCAM

We have as a people experience what we would call historic bitterness with Ponzi schemes. “Once bitten, twice shy,” they say. But at this point, we at SEB think it should rather be a situation of “forever shy”.

Recall the following:

MMM (Mavrodi Mundial Moneybox): Originating in Russia, it collapsed in the 1990s and resurfaced in various countries, including Nigeria, before crashing again.

Bernie Madoff's Scheme: One of the largest in history, it defrauded investors of billions before unraveling in 2008.

Bitclub Network: A cryptocurrency-based Ponzi scheme that operated globally before its collapse.

Spitzedersche Privatbank: A 19th-century scheme in Germany, promising high returns but ending in fraud.

Well , we came by this article captioned "CBEX scam: Folly of Greed", courtesy, Punch Newspapers, and we thought it wise to bring you up to speed with its submissions to perhaps, disabuse the minds of many about the Ponzi scheme menace in our society.

Two thirds of our communities under herdsmen’s control — Benue Royal Father

Attacks by armed herdsmen in Benue state date back to 2011 when they invaded communities in Gwer West Local Government Area, which has since spread to about 20 out of the 23 Local Government Areas of the state.

The incursions led to the sacking of several communities and the displacement of countless victims of the attacks. Presently, the dreaded armed marauders have succeeded in not only sacking these communities they have also occupied many of them while the locals are left languishing in Internally Displaced Persons, IDPs, camps spread across the state.

Inside Nigeria’s morgues where humans, rodents compete for body parts

A private morutary at Finija, Satelitte, Lagos. Photo: Chijioke Iremeka

For years, suspicions of ritualistic activities perpetrated by corrupt mortuary attendants have haunted grieving families whose loved ones were returned without vital body parts. But in a chilling twist that reads like a horror script, this investigation by CHIJIOKE IREMEKA uncovers a grotesque reality: in some poorly maintained mortuaries, alongside suspected human atrocities, ravenous rats feast on corpses, gnawing away at their dignity

What was meant to be a solemn farewell turned into a heartbreaking morning of chaos for the family of late Mrs Angela Nyam, whose remains were deposited in a morgue at the old site of the Jos University Teaching Hospital, Plateau State.

Early in the morning, precisely at 7 a.m., a quiet crowd assembled at the hospital’s mortuary along Murtala Mohammed Way, preparing to accompany the late Nyam to her final resting place at the Evangelical Church Winning All, Rusau village.