Good morning,
President Bola Tinubu touches down in Lagos on Tuesday after four weeks in Europe, and one imagines the trumpets were warmed up well in advance. The official line: a working vacation. He will mark Independence Day on Thursday and premiere a documentary honouring MKO Abiola. What he will not do, apparently, is explain why Section 145 of the 1999 Constitution was treated like a suggestion rather than a requirement. A written declaration to the National Assembly? Nobody has confirmed it was ever sent. The Save Democracy Group demanded the Assembly reconvene. It did not. Section 145(2) says if no declaration arrives within 21 days, the chambers should pass a simple-majority resolution making the Vice President Acting President. That did not happen either. Instead, we were told the President’s powers are “not geographic”. Which is a creative way of saying the law is optional when the man in charge prefers the view from abroad. We wrote this rule after Yar’Adua and Jonathan. Buhari and Osinbajo normalised ignoring it. Now the precedent has hardened into habit.
And then there is INEC, which has announced it will “review” the Supreme Court’s judgment restoring direct primaries and party membership registers. Review. The Supreme Court. Let that settle. INEC is an implementing body, not a court of appeal. The ruling came down on 24 September, overturning a July Court of Appeal decision that had voided the provisions. The commission says it will wait for the Certified True Copy before deciding how to proceed. Fair enough, except that “reviewing” a final judgment is not INEC’s job. Its job is to enforce it. The 2027 elections are already creeping up. Parties need clarity now. Candidates like Mohammed Abubakar Adamu, Isa Ali Pantami and Kingsley Chinda are already insisting the ruling does not invalidate their nominations. INEC’s hesitation does not create clarity. It creates doubt, and doubt is where manipulation lives.
The weekend’s other stories carried the same theme: rules exist, enforcement does not. A car rammed into a gas store in Kubwa on Sunday morning, triggering an explosion that shook buildings two kilometres away, destroyed shops and injured a driver and a child. Cooking gas outlets sit beside residential blocks and highways with no buffer zones. The safety standards exist on paper. They were not enforced. In Gwarimpa, a man died at a guest house, and his body was dumped under the Katampe bridge. Three people have been arrested, including a woman and two hotel staff, for concealment. The cause of death remains unknown. The cover-up, at least, is a crime someone is answering for.
Meanwhile, Northern Nigeria’s kidnapping industry has grown teeth. SBM Intelligence recorded 7,825 abductions between July 2025 and June 2026, with ₦7.78 billion verifiably paid in ransoms. Nearly 94 per cent of the abductions occurred in the three northern zones. The syndicates now demand motorcycles, petrol, food and airtime alongside cash, building a shadow supply chain powered by civilian fear. A High Court judge in Kebbi was abducted from his home in July. The ransom demand was ₦200 million. And in Lagos, thieves stole eleven generators from a single compound in Eti-Osa overnight. Eleven. Without a truck, without noise, without anyone noticing. The grid delivers about 4,000 megawatts for over 220 million people. Generators are essential. They are also portable. Until both the grid and the security situation improve, thefts will continue.
NiMet has forecast thunderstorms and rains nationwide through Wednesday, warning of strong winds across the North-Central, South-East and South-South. In Ebonyi, the government has told the opposition to stop politicising the Akaeze floods while SEMA coordinates relief. In Abuja, police arrested two one-chance robbers and the buyer who kept them in business, recovering nine phones and tools near the Court of Appeal junction. And the National Boundary Commission is deploying drones and satellite imagery to monitor 4,000 kilometres of remote borders. Surveillance helps. But a country that cannot keep eleven generators safe in Eti-Osa should ask itself whether it can watch the whole bush.
May the rains fall gently on those who cannot afford a roof.
Warmly,
Lolade