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2023: Judiciary Tasked On Uprightness, Transparency In post-Election Disputes

Published

4 years ago

March 16, 2023

As the courts and tribunals begin hearing post-election disputes, the Nigerian Judiciary has been tasked with proper and transparent adjudication of cases that will be brought before it by politicians and political parties.

The presidential candidates of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Labour Party (LP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar and Peter Obi, have already indicated that they will contest the February 25, Presidential elections over alleged infractions.

Apart from the two presidential candidates, many National Assembly candidates have also indicated interest in approaching the courts.

Speaking on the integrity task ahead of the Judiciary after the 2023 general elections, Abuja-based legal practitioner Barr. Chidi Onwuekweikpe called on judicial officers appointed to preside over petitions arising from the 2023 polls to “exercise their roles in an upright way and according to limits of the law.”

Onwuekweikpe led the call during PUBLIC CONSCIENCE, an anti-corruption radio programme produced by the Progressive Impact Organization for Community Development, PRIMORG, Wednesday in Abuja.

He stated that the judiciary has a crucial role at this stage of Nigeria’s electoral Jurisprudence and remains the only option available for any aggrieved person.

Onwuekweikpe blamed politicians for stimulating doubts and integrity concerns whenever judgements are pronounced from the courts, noting that civil cases do not generate controversy as much as political cases in Nigeria.

“The challenge we are having is from politicians; when a matter goes in your favour, the Judiciary is the best thing that happened to Nigeria, go on appeal it goes the other way saying I have been robbed, the Judiciary is corrupt from the same mouths, so what do you make of it, are the politicians that are now determining the integrity of the Judiciary which should not be so.

“Whatever you say about it should be based on reading through the judgement and how the judges decide. That is when you can make an informed opinion from the court’s decision. It’s not a marketplace thing when you come because the case didn’t favour you would say they have turned justice upside down. You have to read in between the lines and find out the reasons for decisions made,” Onwuekweikpe stressed.

Cautioning Nigerians on their expectations ahead of post-election litigations, the Legal Luminary said courts handling election cases could only work with available evidence and not emotions. Adding that election cases are won and lost in courts to technicalities, procedural errors or how lawyers present facts.

On his part, Daily Trust Newspaper’s Judiciary Correspondent, John Chuks Azu, reminded the Judiciary that Nigerians expect them to maintain neutrality and transparency and be above board as they entertain post-election petitions.

According to Azu, judicial officers handling election cases must understand that the judiciary is serving the people and not themselves while urging that journalists should be granted access to monitor and report the process.

His words: “The Judiciary as a 3rd arm of the government has tried to maintain neutrality. For them (Judiciary) to be above board, the public will expect that as the petition come in for the various election, both the presidential and national assembly and, of course, disputes arising from the Governorship and State Assembly elections that will be coming up on Saturday, the public will expect them (Judiciary) to be transparent in the sense that the processes and procedure should be made open.

“Journalists should be granted sufficient access, and observers both from local and international platforms should also be allowed, and the judiciary should try as much as possible to ensure that it follows the relevant rules and laws that guide our elections and are applied properly to ensure that the outcomes will not be far from what the public expect based on the evidence before it.”

On several pre and post-election petitions, Azu said the Independent National Electoral Commission must be ‘more accountable,’ which will help solve the problem.

“The problem is that INEC believes its role is just to supervise the process and then declare results.

“You have to be accountable all through the procedure. This is where they are getting it wrong, and they have to work on it to ensure that the money they are being given is used; How was the monitoring for the primaries done? Who were the officials? Where were they posted to? How did they monitor? The election proper, the budget for technology, the funding for materials, how did you utilize them? Why didn’t you get the outcome that is generally accepted?

“So they have to be up to task in terms of accountability. That’s how to build confidence,” Azu stated.

Recall that Governorship and State Assembly elections, earlier slated for March 11, were rescheduled for March 18, 2023, after the court granted INEC permission to reconfigure the Bimodal Voter Accreditation System (BVAS).

Public Conscience is a syndicated weekly anti-corruption radio program used by PRIMORG to draw government and citizens’ attention to corruption and integrity issues in Nigeria.

The program has the support of the MacArthur Foundation.

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Strategic Partnerships, Diaspora Investment and Improved Workforce Critical to Industrialization-DG RMRDC

Published

2 days ago

November 12, 2026

The Gleamer

By: Stella Azi and Adaora Adibe

The Director-General/Chief Executive Officer of the Raw Materials Research and Development Council (RMRDC), Prof. Nnanyelugo Ike-Muonso, has called for a strategic shift from the exportation of raw commodities to domestic processing, manufacturing and value addition, declaring that Nigeria possesses enormous untapped raw material resources capable of driving industrialisation, creating jobs and strengthening the country’s economic competitiveness.

Prof. Ike-Muonso made this submission in a lecture titled Unlocking Nigeria’s Raw Material Value Chain for Industrialization, Manufacturing and Competitiveness, where he presented an extensive assessment of Nigeria’s resource endowments, industrial challenges and emerging investment opportunities across agricultural commodities, solid minerals and waste-based raw materials.

The lecture highlighted a combined US$2.65 trillion global market opportunity across 30 major raw material value chains, comprising 12 agricultural value chains valued at US$932 billion, 11 mineral value chains worth US$1.352 trillion and seven circular-economy value chains estimated at US$366 billion.

According to the RMRDC Boss, Nigeria must move beyond the traditional approach of extracting and exporting raw materials to building competitive domestic industries that transform these resources into intermediate products, industrial inputs and finished goods for local consumption and international markets.

He observed that the country’s manufacturing sector has struggled to sustain its 2014 peak, with its contribution to real Gross Domestic Product declining from 9.64 per cent in 2014 to 8.05 per cent in 2025, representing a 16.5 per cent decline. He also drew attention to the increasing cost of raw material imports, which rose to US$20.5 billion in 2025, approximately six times the 2020 level.

He explained that the growing dependence on imported industrial inputs exposes Nigerian manufacturers to foreign exchange volatility, increases production costs and weakens the competitiveness of locally manufactured products.

Prof. ke-Muonso stressed that the solution lies in developing domestic raw material value chains through deliberate investment in processing facilities, research and development, technology, infrastructure and stronger linkages between producers, processors and manufacturers.

He identified agriculture, solid minerals and industrial waste as three major resource platforms for Nigeria’s industrial transformation, stating the country’s significant production capacity and the enormous opportunities available for downstream processing.

Ike-Muonso noted that Nigeria produces over 63 million metric tonnes of cassava annually, making it the world’s largest producer, while also maintaining strong positions in cocoa, cashew, sesame, palm oil and cotton. However, more than 80 per cent of agricultural output leaves farms without adequate processing, resulting in the loss of significant economic value and industrial opportunities.

In the solid minerals sector, he identified more than 44 commercially viable minerals across over 500 locations, including lithium, gold, barite, bitumen, iron ore and high-grade limestone, describing them as strategic resources capable of supporting steel production, energy storage, electrification and advanced manufacturing.

The DG further drew attention to Nigeria’s industrial and agro-waste resources, noting that the country generates over 32 million tonnes of solid waste annually. He explained that agricultural residues, cassava peels, scrap metals, plastics and electronic waste could serve as important feedstock for bio-fertilisers, industrial chemicals, recycled polymers, energy production and other manufacturing applications.

In the agricultural sector, the DG identified cassava and industrial starch, cotton and natural textiles, natural rubber and elastomers, oil palm and oleochemicals, maize derivatives and cocoa processing as priority areas requiring increased investment.

He explained that processing agricultural commodities into industrial starch, sweeteners, textiles, technical rubber, specialty fats and other intermediate products would enable Nigeria to capture more value from its agricultural resources while reducing dependence on imported industrial inputs.

For the minerals sector, he highlighted crude oil-to-olefins and petrochemicals, lithium and energy storage, iron ore and steel, rare earth elements, bauxite and aluminium, and copper and electrification as strategic investment opportunities.

He particularly emphasised the importance of moving beyond mineral extraction into beneficiation, refining, battery precursors, industrial chemicals, metal fabrication and advanced materials production.

On the circular economy, Prof. Ike-Muonso identified electronic waste recovery, scrap metal recycling, plastic waste processing, agro-waste valorisation and battery recycling as emerging industrial opportunities.

He explained that transforming waste into productive industrial feedstock would not only reduce environmental pollution but also create new manufacturing industries, generate employment and reduce the importation of valuable industrial materials.

He noted that to address the structural challenges confronting raw material-based industrialisation, the DG highlighted the strategic interventions of the RMRDC, particularly the proposed 30% Value Addition Bill and the Nigeria Integrated Information Statistical System for Raw Materials and Products (NISSRAMP).

He described the 30% Value Addition Bill as an important policy instrument designed to encourage domestic processing of raw materials before export, strengthen local manufacturing capacity and guarantee access to essential raw materials for Nigerian industries, and NISSRAMP as a critical data infrastructure that would improve access to verified information on the availability, location and quality of raw materials.

According to him, the combination of appropriate policy instruments and reliable resource data would help de-risk investments, improve transparency and strengthen confidence in Nigeria’s raw material sector.

He emphasised the importance of collaboration among government, academia and industry in developing bankable projects, sharing investment risks and accelerating the establishment of processing and manufacturing facilities.

Professor Ike-Muonso called on Nigerians in the diaspora and other local and international investors to take advantage of the opportunities available in Nigeria’s raw material sector.

He identified industrial processing parks, mineral beneficiation and refining, agro-industrial platforms, circular-material processing, industrial input manufacturing and enabling infrastructure as viable investment platforms.

He noted that diaspora investors could contribute beyond financial capital by bringing technology, international business networks, governance standards, technical expertise and access to global markets.

He maintained that Nigeria’s industrial transformation requires coordinated investment across the entire value chain, from raw material sourcing and aggregation to processing, manufacturing, certification and export development.

Professor Ike-Muonso stressed that the country’s industrial future would depend not merely on the volume of raw materials extracted but on the capacity to transform them into competitive products that meet domestic and international market requirements.

He maintained that developing local value chains would stimulate industrial growth, create employment opportunities, diversify exports, conserve foreign exchange and deepen Nigeria’s technological capabilities.

Through its strategic interventions, the RMRDC is positioning itself as a critical bridge between resource availability, investment opportunities and industrial competitiveness, with the ultimate objective of transforming Nigeria from a predominantly raw material exporting economy into a strong manufacturing and value-adding nation.

Ike-Muonso has demonstrated this since assumption of office as the Director General/ CEO RMRDC in the area of capacity building, improved working conditions, promotion of merit, and maintaining a conducive environment that rewards excellence, innovation and dedication. This is evident in his institution of RMRDC training school, reward for winners of the RMRDC innovation challenge among others.

His commitment has brought recognition both nationally and internationally: Al-Jazirah double honour awards as Public Servant /Government Agency of the year 2024-2025 and the recent election as the Sub-Saharan Africa Regional Representative on the Board of the World Association of Industrial and Technological Research Organisations (WAITRO) is a attestation to his commitment.

Concluding the lecture, the DG charged staff, researchers, manufacturers and investors to see themselves as nation builders in the new era of raw materials-led industrialization.

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