Daily Watch – Tinubu and Atiku win in early contests, Nigeria loses top LNG status

Bola Tinubu, the All Progressives Congress (APC)’s presidential candidate, won the presidential election in Ekiti. The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reported that Tinubu polled a total of 201,484 votes to defeat Atiku Abubakar of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) who had 89,554 and Peter Obi of the Labour Party (LP) who polled 11,397 votes across the state’s 16 local government areas. The PDP won the presidential election in Osun. According to Professor Ogunsola, who is the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos, the PDP polled 354,366 votes against the APC’s 343,945 votes. Labour came a distant third with 23,283 votes. Abubakar won the contest in President Muhammadu Buhari’s home state, Katsina, polling 489,045 to edge out Tinubu who polled 482,283 votes. In Ogun, Tinubu had the upper hand, finishing first with 341,554 votes, while Abubakar came second with 123,831 votes. Peter Obi finished third in Ogun and fourth in the Katsina contests.

Nigeria has lost its status as Africa’s biggest exporter of Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) to Algeria as the continent’s biggest economy saw its export decline the most in January. An analysis of flows data from Refinitiv Eikon, one of the world’s largest providers of real-time data, showed Nigeria’s LNG exports decline last month as Algeria surpassed Nigeria to be Africa’s largest LNG producer for the first time ever on a monthly basis despite record spot prices for the commodity. “In January, Nigeria’s LNG exports slumped to about 1 million tonnes, representing a 35 percent year-on-year drop versus Algeria, which exported around 1.1 million tonnes,” Refinitiv Eikon said. At name-plate capacity, BusinessDay findings showed Nigeria LNG’s (NLNG) project can export up to 1.8 million tonnes per month. According to a report by the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS), the country is expected to export 16.2 million tonnes of LNG this year, having seen a 15 percent fall in 2022, following periods of maintenance, weather-related outages and sabotage to pipes supplying the main facility in Bonny.

Ghana’s Parliament has refuted claims that it has passed the Electoral Commission (EC)’s Constitutional Instrument (CI) that seeks to make the Ghana Card the sole document for voter registration. In a release signed by parliamentary spokesman Kate Addo, the publication was false. “Parliament states categorically that it has not passed any such instrument.” the release clarified. In a related development. the Executive Secretary of the National Identification Authority (NIA) in Ghana, Professor Kenneth Agyemang Attafuah said about 3.5 million Ghana Cards have been locked up in a bonded warehouse of Identity Management Systems Limited. This, he said, was due to the agency’s inability to clear its outstanding debts as a result of financial constraints. Speaking on Joy FM‘s NewsFile programme on 25 February, Prof. Attafuah noted that his outfit has been faced with financial difficulties from August 2022 to date. According to Attafuah, as of 19 February 2023, over 17 million people have registered for the Ghana Card. 

The United States is “exerting unprecedented pressure” on African countries, including attempting to disrupt a planned Russia-Africa summit, Russia’s deputy foreign minister was quoted as saying on Saturday. Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov, quoted by the state TASS agency, reiterated Moscow’s accusations of the “collective West” staging a campaign to isolate Moscow. “The United States and its allies are conducting an unprecedented campaign for Russia’s political and economic isolation, including the disruption of the Russian-Africa second summit in St. Petersburg,” Bogdanov told TASS.