2023 was eventful for Nigerians.
It began with a frenzied naira shortage that caused untold financial pain. It is ending with the harsh effects of the petrol subsidy removal amid the worrisome insecurity challenges that have seemingly left the government helpless.
Below are some of the definitive events that reverberated across the country in the past 12 months.
Naira scarcity:
Nigeria was hit with a devastating cash shortage in January 2023 after the Godwin Emefiele-led Central Bank of Nigeria announced the introduction of redesigned banknotes in October 2022 to rein in excess cash, fight crime and kidnapping, and address inflation and counterfeiting.
Millions of Nigerians were cash-strapped, spending endless queues in banks daily to swap their old bills for new ones or to get cash to beat the February 10 deadline. Point of Sale, POS, merchants became the new lords in town, charging desperate citizens as high as 50 per cent for any amount withdrawn. Violent protests rocked several cities with many banks vandalised and set on fire by irate youths.
The Supreme Court, in March, provided succour by extending the time limit to the end of the year. And just when it was weeks to the expiration of the old notes, the Court overruled the earlier judgement, saying that the old and new naira notes would continue to be in use beyond 31 December.
General election:
The 2023 general election was held on 25 February and 18 March for the presidential and federal legislature polls, and governorship and state legislature polls, respectively.
The presidential election was a hard-fought contest between Atiku Abubakar, Bola Tinubu and Peter Obi of the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP; All Progressives Congress, APC; and the Labour Party, LP, respectively. The Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, declared Tinubu the winner of the election.
Tinubu secured 37 per cent of the votes to defeat his closest rivals, Abubakar who got 29 per cent and Obi who polled 25 per cent of the vote casts. Defeated candidates Abubakar and Obi legally challenged the results, claiming to have each won the election. The election tribunal and the Supreme Court affirmed Tinubu’s victory.
Removal of petrol subsidy:
Tinubu, ‘possessed with courage’ at his inauguration in May, scrapped the costly petrol subsidy that has kept the price of petrol relatively low in the country. His off-script ‘The fuel subsidy is gone’ remark sent Nigerians rushing to the petrol stations to nab a last cheap drop of petrol, signalling the end of the subsidy era.
The cost of petrol climbed to N537/litre from N198/litre hours later. In July, the price hit N617, and the country’s oil marketer Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited, NNPCL, attributed the rise to “market forces.”
The removal of the petrol subsidy had a ripple effect on the Nigerian economy: the prices of commodities are now on the high side as inflation has reached an alarming rate of 28.2 per cent. Government at the federal and state levels says they are working relentlessly to abate the sufferings of Nigerians.
Hilda Baci’s world cooking record:
Hilda Effiong Bassey, a 27-year-old chef popularly known as Hilda Baci, in May, dominated headlines around the world for cooking for 100 hours in the hopes of landing a world record.
Bassey’s four-day cooking marathon tagged the ‘Hilda Baci Cookathon’ kicked off at exactly 4:00 p.m. on 11 May 2023 and ended at 10:00 p.m. on 15 May 2023 at the Amore Gardens in Lekki, Lagos State. Setting an initial 96-hour target, she went further to achieve a 100-hour cooking feat to beat the previous record of 87 hours, 45 minutes set by Lata Tondon from India in 2019.
In June, the Guinness World Records, GWR, confirmed Bassey as the new record holder for the longest cooking marathon by an individual, cutting her time to 93 hours 11 minutes because she “mistakenly took extra minutes for one of her rest breaks early on in the attempt.” Bassey’s record was broken in November by Alan Fisher, an Irish chef who cooked for 119 hours 57 minutes.
Mohbad’s death:
Nigerian singer Ilerioluwa Oladimeji Alabama, better known as Mohbad, has passed on 12 September at the age of 27, leaving fans and the Nigerian music community in deep mourning.
His former boss, Naira Marley and his right-hand man, Sam Larry were arrested following intense social media speculations that they were involved in the tragedy. Both men exonerated themselves from all the accusations.
Currently, the duo are out of police custody after a court granted them bail. The result of the autopsy carried out on the singer’s corpse is yet to be made public and the Lagos State Police Command is yet to conclude its investigations.
Tudun Biri bombing:
Scores of villagers in Tudun Biri, Igabi LGA, north of Kaduna city, gathered for a religious festival and were slain by the Nigerian Army on 3 December.
While the press reported a range of death figures between 60 and 120; Amnesty International’s Nigeria office said that 154 people were buried after the attack, citing reports of its workers and volunteers in the area. Dozens were injured and rushed to the hospital.
In its defence, the Army said its troops were on a routine mission against terrorists when the “mistake” occurred, explaining that the drone released on the defenceless civilians was targeted at terrorists. Army chief Taoreed Lagbaja visited the scene of the explosion and tendered “unreserved apologies” on behalf of the Nigerian Army to the community, and the people and government of Kaduna State. He as well as President Tinubu ordered an investigation into the disaster.
Plateau Christmas Eve massacre:
Armed gangs, locally called “bandits”, overran more than 15 communities across Bokkos and several other LGAs in Plateau State between 23 and 25 December, killing nearly 200 persons. They also burnt several houses, displacing scores, plundered farmlands and injured many.
The attack was denounced by Nigerian authorities and the international community, including the United Nations and the French government who urged the Nigerian government to bring the dare-devil killers to book.
President Tinubu has instructed security agencies to “scour every stretch of the zone and apprehend the culprits” and ordered the “immediate mobilisation of relief resources” for the survivors and prompt medical treatment for the wounded. The Senate has summoned the security chiefs to find out why the attack was not foiled.
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