More Government, Less Service, More Hunger

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Just as I was preparing to write this column, news filtered in that President Bola Tinubu has assented to the Nigerian Ports Economic Regulatory Agency (NPERA) Bill, 2026, paving the way for the establishment of a dedicated economic regulator for Nigeria’s port sector.

*Tinubu

The news was sourced from a post on the Facebook page of Dr. Pius Akutah, Executive Secretary/CEO of the Nigerian Shippers Council. The enabling law for this new agency was titled Nigerian Port Economic Regulatory Agency Act, 2026. Meanwhile, in 2014, the Federal Government had designated the Nigerian Shippers’ Council as interim economic regulator of the ports pending enactment of a substantive law.

Cost Of Governance: Playing Ostrich With The Economy

 By Adekunle Adekoya

Earlier in the week, two renowned economists, one a businessman and the other a traditional ruler used the occasion of a book launch by the Oxford Global Think Tank Leadership Conference in Abuja to speak truth to power. They are HRH Muhammad Sanusi II, Emir of Kano and former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, and Mr. Atedo N.A. Peterside, founder of IBTC, which later fused with Stanbic Bank to become Stanbic-IBTC Bank. 

*Tinubu

What came up at the event, which the media focused on, were the reforms of the present administration and the cost of governance.

For Sanusi, the issue was the size and cost of governance. He pointedly asked: “We’ve got to be honest, why do we need 48 ministers? Why do we need dozens of vehicles when we’re moving around in convoys or travelling all over the country?”