Politics
Court Orders Lai Mohammed To Disclose Agreement Between FG And X
In a landmark judgement, a Federal High Court sitting in Lagos, has ordered Alh Lai Mohammed, former Minister of Information and Culture and the ministry of information to disclose the details of the agreement between the Federal Government and X, formerly Twitter, to assess whether the agreement complies with the exercise of Nigerians’ human rights online.
The judgment was delivered in May 2024 by Hon. Justice Nnamdi Okwy Dimgba following a Freedom of Information suit number: FHC/L/CS/238/2022, brought by the Socio-Economic Rights and Accountability Project (SERAP). The certified true copy of the judgment was obtained last Friday.
In his judgment, Justice Dimgba held that, “The former minister and the Ministry of Information are directed and compelled to provide a copy of the agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter to SERAP solely to ascertain its impact on the protection of fundamental human rights of Nigerians.”
According to Justice Dimgba, “Disclosing the details of the agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter is in the public interest and does not affect Twitter’s business interest as a third party. It is also not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security.”
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Justice Dimgba also stated that, “The agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter must still be disclosed irrespective of the harm to Twitter if it would be in the public interest to make sure disclosure.”
Justice Dimgba dismissed the objections raised by the minister’s counsel and upheld the SERAP’s arguments.
Justice Dimgba further said, “The minister has failed to prove that the President has followed due process of law to designate Twitter as a Critical National Information Infrastructure upon the National Security Adviser’s recommendation and issued an Order in the Federal Gazette in that regard.”
Justice Dimgba’s judgment, dated 28 May, 2024, read in part: “Therefore, I hold that the disclosure of the Twitter agreement is not prejudicial to Nigeria’s sovereignty and national security or protected by the Official Secrets Act, as the minister has failed to prove the same.
“The first question that needs to be answered is how the need to disclose the agreement is outweighed by the importance of protecting the commercial interests of the third party, Twitter.
“The former minister has unequivocally argued that the disclosure could harm Twitter’s business interests in other jurisdictions, potentially with Twitter’s contractual negotiations.
“However, this defence is hypothetical and does not point to the specific business or contractual interests of Twitter that could be affected.
“It is my view that the disclosure of the details of the agreement as requested by SERAP will not interfere with the commercial interests and trade secrets of Twitter or lead to financial losses to it, as the former minister has failed to prove the same.
“Besides, Section 15(4) of the Freedom of Information Act envisages only real and not hypothetical financial loss or gain to or prejudice to, the competitive position of or interference with contractual or other negotiation of a third party like Twitter which could be affected by the disclosure.
“No evidence was placed before this Court pointing to the fact that Twitter has an agreement with another country as a precondition for its operation in such jurisdiction as obtainable in Nigeria.
“I am of the view that SERAP has a legitimate reason to wish to be availed of the agreement, which is to understand how the agreement affects them and other Nigerians as far as the protection of the human rights of Nigerians are concerned.
“Another point of controversy is whether the need to disclose the agreement for public interest is subject to the need to protect national sovereignty, as argued by the minister. National sovereignty depending on context is synonymous with national security.
“In most cases, the need for national security outweighs public interest, including protection of fundamental human rights. In this case, however, I am of the view that the reason for the refusal by the minister to disclose the agreement does not come within the need to protect national security and sovereignty.
“The minister’s defence is predicated on the Cybercrimes (Prohibition and Prevention Act) 2015 but has failed to prove how the Act relates to the Twitter agreement other than mentioning the same.
“More than merely linking SERAP’s request for the agreement to ‘critical national information infrastructure’ in section 3 of the Cybercrime (Prevention and Prohibition) Act, nothing more is said about its relevance and how it supports non-disclosure of the Twitter agreement.
“As such, the Cybercrime Act cannot apply to this case, and the protection that would have availed the minister is exempted. The minister also failed to prove how SERAP’s request for the agreement between the Nigerian Government and Twitter came within the protection of the Official Secrets Act.”
“SERAP’s lawsuit falls within the framework of Section 20 of the Freedom of Information Act.
“The minister is directed and compelled to provide a copy of the agreement requested to SERAP to enable the organization to study the same and come to an assessment of whether the agreement incorporates the provisions of Chapter IV of the Nigerian Constitution 1999 [as amended] on fundamental human rights and Nigeria’s international human rights obligations.
“It is clear that Twitter was from the beginning ostensibly suspended from operating in Nigeria’s cyberspace solely to protect the country’s corporate existence. The same ban was lifted after Twitter reached agreement with the Nigerian Government on some terms and conditions for its operation in Nigeria’s cyberspace and the former minister has not denied the existence of such an agreement.
“SERAP’s request does not involve disclosing personal information but relates to an agreement between the government and an international company that plays in the social media and public data space.
“By paragraph 13 of SERAP’s affidavit evidence, the organization requested a copy of the agreement to know whether it complies with Nigeria’s domestic fundamental human rights laws and international treaties to which the country is a state party.
“SERAP’s request seeks clarification on the scope and enforcement of the agreement to ensure it complies with fundamental human rights laws. For emphasis, matters of human rights enforcement fall within the ambit of public interest, as can be gleaned from a holistic understanding of Section 15(4) of the Freedom of Information Act.
“Thus, a public institution may grant a request for information on human rights protection grounds within Section 15(4) of the FOI Act, provided that the importance of granting the same outweighs the commercial interests of the third party.
“Particularly, Order 1 Rule 2 of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure Rules 2009 provides that public interest ‘includes the interest of Nigerian society or any segment of it in promoting human rights and advancing human rights law.
“Paragraph 3(1)(3)(d) of the Guidelines on the Implementation of the Freedom of Information Act Revised recognizes the following factor as constituting public interest ‘allowing individuals and companies to understand decisions made by authorities affecting their lives, and in some cases, assisting individuals in challenging those.
Reacting to the judgment, Femi Falana, said, “We commend Justice Dimgba for this landmark judgment. This is a judicial confirmation of Nigerians’ rights to freedom of expression, and access to information online. We call on the government of President Bola Tinubu to immediately implement the judgment.”
In the letter dated 13 July 2024 sent to President Tinubu on the judgment, and signed by SERAP deputy director, Kolawole Oluwadare, the organization said, “We urge you to demonstrate your expressed commitment to the rule of law by immediately obeying and respecting the judgment of the Court.”
The SERAP’s letter, read in part: “We urge you to direct the Ministry of Information and Culture and the office of the Attorney General of the Federation to immediately disclose the details of the Twitter agreement, as ordered by the court.
“The immediate enforcement and implementation of the judgment by your government will be a victory for the rule of law, freedom of expression including digital and data rights in Nigeria.
“SERAP trusts that you will see compliance with this judgment as a central aspect of the rule of law; an essential stepping stone to constructing a basic institutional framework for legality and constitutionality. We therefore look forward to your positive response and action on the judgment.”
The suit was filed against the former minister of information and culture. The suit followed the Nigerian Government’s statement on 13th January 2022 after lifting the suspension of Twitter operations in Nigeria, to the effect that, “Twitter has agreed to act with a respectful acknowledgement of Nigerian laws and the national culture and history.”
Recall that the Nigerian Government suspended Twitter on June 4, 2021 after it removed a post from former president Muhammadu Buhari.
The former president was joined in the suit as Co-respondent but the court gave the orders against the minister.
Politics
2027 Polls: ‘Poor Funding Could Undermine Election Security, Logistics’ — INEC Chairman Warns
The Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Prof. Joash Amupitan, has warned that inadequate funding could undermine security and logistics for the 2027 general elections.
Amupitan gave the warning on Wednesday in Owerri, Imo State, while delivering a goodwill message at the sixth edition of the Conference and Retreat for Senior Police Officers, themed, “Developing a Nigeria Police Roadmap for Effective Management of Security During Elections.”
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According to the INEC chairman, adequate funding is critical to the effective deployment of security personnel and electoral materials needed for the successful conduct of elections.
He noted that although INEC’s funding is constitutionally provided as a first-line charge on the Consolidated Revenue Fund, the scale of the commission’s responsibilities requires sustained financial support.
Amupitan explained that INEC conducts not only presidential and National Assembly elections but also governorship and State House of Assembly elections, in addition to voter registration and the registration of political parties.
He also pointed out that the commission has statutory powers to request the deployment of security agencies for elections and voter registration, making security an integral component of the electoral process.
He said financial limitations could affect what government agencies are able to accomplish, noting that allocations are often determined by what is available and affordable at a particular time.
“Sometimes, it is not what you would like to do that you are able to do because of financial constraints.”
Amupitan further stressed the importance of voter registration, describing it as the foundation of credible elections.
He warned that an inaccurate or outdated voters’ register could undermine the inclusiveness of the electoral process, adding that INEC’s responsibility for elections across the three tiers of government makes election expenditure a collective national responsibility.
The INEC chairman said adequate funding would be particularly important for deploying personnel and electoral materials to local government areas, wards, registration areas and polling units across the country.
According to him, even where security agencies successfully maintain peace, inadequate logistics could still affect the effective conduct of elections.
Amupitan said security and logistics had remained priorities under his leadership, adding that the commission was working with government and security agencies to address operational challenges ahead of the 2027 polls.
He also highlighted the role of the Inter-Agency Consultative Committee on Election Security (ICCES), describing it as a platform for coordinating INEC, security agencies and other relevant government institutions on election security.
He explained that ICCES, which emerged as a coordinating arrangement following the 2011 general elections amid concerns over post-election violence, has since developed into a structured election-security mechanism operating at federal, state and local government levels.
At the national level, the Inspector-General of Police participates in the arrangement, while commissioners of police are represented at the state level and divisional police leadership at the local level.
Amupitan said continued coordination among INEC, the police and other security agencies would be essential to ensuring that security and logistical challenges do not undermine the 2027 general elections.
The organised labour in Nigeria has joined forces with civil servants demanding for a new minimum wage of N500,000 and reduction of petrol price to N500 per litre to address the worsening economic hardship facing workers and their dependents.
Acting under the Joint National Public Service Negotiating Council (JNPSNC), made up of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), and civil servants, as one Trade Union Side (TUS), made a formal request to the Federal Government.
In a letter to President Bola Tinubu, the National Secretary of JNPSNC (Trade Union Side), Olowoyo Gbenga, disclosed that workers were also demanding the immediate constitution of a committee to negotiate a new national minimum wage, ahead of January 2027.
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The NLC insists that their position is realistic and legitimate.
According to the workers, the recent increase in fuel prices to N1,430 per litre and above in some locations had further worsened the cost-of-living crisis. They gave government till Wednesday, September 30, 2026, to take action on their demands, warning that the prevailing hardship is creating palpable tension among workers and Nigerians.
The JNPSNC, which includes Nigerian Civil Service Union (NCSU); Medical and Health Workers Union (MHWU); Association of Senior Civil Servants of Nigeria (ASCSN); National Association of Nigerian Nurses and Midwives (NANNW); among others, said the removal of fuel subsidy three years ago had triggered an astronomical increase in fuel prices which triggered multiplier effects on the prices of essential commodities in the economy.
Other unions in the council are Amalgamated Union of Public Corporations (AUPC); Civil Service Technical and Recreational Employees, AUPCTRE; Nigeria Union of Public Service, Reportorial, Secretarial, Data Processors and Allied Workers, NUPSRAW; National Union of Printing, Publishing and Paper Products Workers, NUPPPPROW; and National Union of Agriculture and Allied Employees, NUAEE.
The council said the situation has made life increasingly unbearable for workers, adding that the provision of food palliatives is not a sustainable solution to the economic crisis.
It said: “It has dawned on Nigerian workers that the provision of palliatives, such as bags of rice, Indomie, vegetable oil, garri, among other edible foods, is as good as weaponising Nigerians with poverty because it is a pyrrhic intervention which is unsustainable, inaccessible to the majority of Nigeria’s population and also limited to political cronies.”
The workers argued that a more sustainable intervention would be to reduce the cost of fuel to N500 per litre, saying the measure will have a multiplier effect on the economy.
“Consequent upon the above, it is preferable that the Federal Government provides an intervention that will trickle down to all Nigerians by making fuel available at an affordable amount, as low as N500 (five hundred Naira),” they said.
The council identified the restoration of workers’ purchasing power, improved productivity and service delivery, promotion of integrity and accountability, and the reinforcement of trust and industrial peace as major reasons for its demand for improved remuneration.
‘Govt must look inward on fuel price’
On fuel prices, the workers said government should “look inward and stabilise the prices of fuel to an affordable minimum,” arguing that fuel remains an essential commodity with significant implications for the Nigerian economy.
“As a matter of reality, the current hardship being faced by the hapless Nigerian workers is caused by the astronomical increase in the price of Premium Motor Spirit to as much as N1,430.00, or more per one litre (this is a killing amount),” the council stated.
It further called for an intervention fund for stakeholders in the oil sector to stabilise fuel prices and eventually bring the pump price down to N500 per litre.
The council also said government could adopt another description for the intervention if the term “fuel subsidy” was considered unacceptable.
“The fuel intervention fund will give the opportunity to every Nigerian to benefit from the intervention fund because it will have multiplier effect in the life of every Nigerian and will naturally trickle down to the downtrodden and all the remotest parts of the country,” it said.
The council also endorsed a position attributed to the NLC President, Joe Ajaero, on measures to address the fuel crisis.
Ajaero was quoted as saying that “Nigeria, as an oil-producing country, has sufficient local refining capacity, even as this substantially resides with the private sector.”
He also said: “As a nation, and as a people endowed with enormous fossil resources, we are deserving of a certain level of protection or buffer against the gales from the Gulf, and indeed, other gales.”
According to the NLC position cited by the council, “As part of the process of creating this buffer government should sell sufficient crude in Naira to our local refineries; expand our national storage capacity in pursuance of meeting energy emergencies and security. These measures will create jobs, economic value as well as deal with mutating security challenges.”
The statement further said: “There is nothing wrong with government subsidizing the needs of citizens, especially in emergency situations like this. At the moment, there is no oil-producing country we know of that has not intervened or come up with sustainable palliatives in one way or the other in these perilous times.”
The NLC position also stated: “Government is making extra money in the international spot market (of between USD35 and 40 per barrel above the budgeted figure). This translates to trillions of Naira a month.
“On a long term basis, we are equally concerned that local refineries are importing crude. This is unreasonable and unacceptable and defeats the logic and purpose of local capacity.”
On wages, the council demanded immediate introduction of a wage award covering federal, state and local government workers.
“Wage award as an urgent intervention and upward review of salaries and allowances of all serving public servants in the Nigerian public service should be provided with immediate effect to cut across all federal, state and local government workers,” it said.
The JNPSNC proposed that the minimum salary payable to an officer on Grade Level 01, Step 1, should be N500,000 per month under the 2027 salary template.
The council also called for harmonised wages across ministries, departments and agencies, MDAs, while urging that the review be encouraged at the state and local government levels.
The JNPSNC urged the president to direct the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission, NSIWC, to commence discussions with the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC; Trade Union Congress of Nigeria TUC; JNPSNC; and other relevant stakeholders on the wage award and upward review of salaries and allowances.
Former Kano State Governor and Nigeria Democratic Congress (NDC) vice-presidential candidate, Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso, has said an NDC government would bring back fuel subsidy if elected in the 2027 general elections.
Kwankwaso made the declaration during an exclusive interview with ARISE Correspondent, Adesuwa Giwa-Osagie.
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The former governor said the subsidy would not necessarily return in the same form as the previous system, stressing that the NDC would adopt its own approach to reduce the cost of petrol for Nigerians.
“We’ll bring back subsidy in our own way,” Kwankwaso said.
He added that the party would do “whatever it takes” to bring down the price of fuel.
Kwankwaso also criticised President Bola Tinubu’s decision to remove the petrol subsidy at the beginning of his administration, describing the policy and its consequences as having left Nigeria in a “total mess, economically.”
Tinubu announced the removal of the petrol subsidy during his inauguration on May 29, 2023, triggering a major shift in petrol pricing and subsequent increases in the cost of transportation, goods and services.
The policy has remained a major subject of political and economic debate, with the Federal Government maintaining that subsidy removal was necessary to reduce the financial burden on the country, while critics have argued that it has worsened economic hardship.
Kwankwaso, who is running alongside former Anambra State Governor Peter Obi on the NDC ticket, said bringing down fuel prices would be a priority under an NDC administration.
The former Kano governor also took a swipe at former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar while discussing Nigeria’s refineries.
According to Kwankwaso, “Atiku would sell our refineries to his friends.”
His comments come as political parties and presidential contenders begin to intensify their positioning ahead of the 2027 elections, with economic hardship, fuel prices, subsidy policy and the future of Nigeria’s refineries expected to remain major campaign issues.
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