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Bauchi Speaker Bags NIM Fellowship for Excellence in Governance

Bauchi Speaker Bags NIM Fellowship for Excellence in Governance

Sunday Aborisade in Abuja 

In recognition of his exemplary leadership and outstanding contributions to public administration and the management profession, the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Hon. Abubakar Suleiman, has been elevated to the prestigious grade of Fellow of the Nigerian Institute of Management (Chartered).

The conferment, approved by the Council of the Institute, will be formally bestowed on the Speaker on Monday, September 8, 2025, at a ceremony in Abuja. 

The confirmation was conveyed via a letter dated June 11, 2025, signed by the Registrar/Chief Executive of the Institute, Taiwo Ganiyat Olusesi.

According to the Institute, the Fellowship is one of its highest professional honours, reserved for individuals who have demonstrated outstanding leadership, a commitment to good governance, and tangible contributions to the development of the management profession and civil society at large.

“This unique award is conferred on members who have contributed to the development of the Institute, the management profession, and civil society,” the council stated in a letter addressed to the awardee.

The council noted that Suleiman is expected to actively participate in the Faculty of Fellows, where his extensive experience in governance will further enrich national discourse.

Speaking on the honour, the Speaker expressed deep appreciation to the Institute.

He described the award as a humbling recognition of decades of dedicated public service.

“This honour is not just for me but for the people of Bauchi State who entrusted me with leadership. It challenges me to do more in promoting ethical leadership, sound governance and the growth of our management profession,” he said.

Born in Ningi, Bauchi State, on September 24, 1969, Suleiman’s public service career began in 1989 as a confidential secretary. 

He later rose through the administrative ranks of the Bauchi State Government and held senior positions at the National Eye Centre, Kaduna, before retiring voluntarily in 2018 to join active politics.

Elected into the Bauchi State House of Assembly in 2018, Suleiman made history by becoming the first three-term Speaker in the state’s history. 

He also served as Chairman of the Conference of Speakers of State Legislatures of Nigeria and currently chairs its Constitution Review Committee.

Academically distinguished, he holds degrees in Public Administration and Public Policy from the University of Maiduguri and Bayero University, Kano, respectively, and is presently pursuing a Ph.D.

His national and international recognitions include a United Nations POLAC Honorary Doctorate in Social Justice and Peace Advocacy and the UN/Federal Ministry of Women Affairs HEforSHE Award. 

He is also the holder of traditional titles such as Dangaladiman Ningi and Barden Kudun Katagum, underscoring his deep-rooted connection to his community.

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Sunday Aborisade in Abuja  In recognition of his exemplary leadership and outstanding contributions to public administration and the management profession, the Speaker of the Bauchi State House of Assembly, Hon.
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Knight Frank Spotlights Infrastructure Growth, Market Resilience, Emerging Trends in New Report 

Knight Frank Spotlights Infrastructure Growth, Market Resilience, Emerging Trends in New Report 

Knight Frank Nigeria has highlighted the resilience of Lagos’ real estate sector, pointing to stabilising macroeconomic conditions, rising office occupancies, infrastructure-driven opportunities, and a fast-expanding digital economy as defining features of the market in the first half of the year. 

This disclosure was made during a briefing in Lagos to announce the release of the H1 2025 edition of its flagship research report, the Lagos Market Update. 

Insights from the report, alongside commentaries from the firm’s leadership, underscore how affordability pressures, shifting consumer preferences and investor confidence are reshaping the city’s property landscape. 

The report showed that Nigeria’s economy gained some traction in the first half of 2025, with inflation falling from 34.8 per cent in December 2024 to 22.97 per cent in May 2025 (partly due to CPI rebasing by the National Bureau of Statistics), while the naira appreciated from N1,661 to N1,539 to the US dollar. 

These shifts influenced the residential, office, retail, industrial and infrastructure markets across the city.

Speaking at the media briefing, the Senior Partner/CEO of Knight Frank Nigeria, Frank Okosun, said: “The Lagos property market is a mirror of Nigeria’s economic realities. In the first half of 2025, we witnessed significant reforms that stabilised the naira, a notable drop in inflation, and a renewed push for infrastructure development. These shifts are directly shaping the dynamics of real estate across the city.”

The Head of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Knight Frank Nigeria, Lanre Sonubi, added: “This report is not just a presentation of figures, it decodes the implications of market shifts. For instance, while office occupancies are rising, rents are softening, creating opportunities for tenants. These insights are essential for investors, occupiers and policymakers who must anticipate change and make informed decisions.”

According to the report, the residential sector is adjusting to changing demand patterns, with tenants exploring suburban areas such as Ikorodu and Ibeju-Lekki, while short-let apartments and studio housing continue to grow in popularity.

The Lead Research Analyst at Knight Frank Nigeria, Mr Daniel Fabi, also noted that the office market showed resilience as occupancy in Grade A spaces rose from 65 per cent to 73 per cent, even though prime rents in Ikoyi softened slightly to $55 per square metre. 

“Eko Atlantic City is consolidating its status as a new business hub, with MTN Nigeria and First Bank relocating their headquarters there,” he added.

Meanwhile, in the retail sector, consumer preferences are shifting towards hyper-local shopping outlets, with local players such as Bokku! Mart expanding rapidly to over 150 branches, outpacing international brands.

The industrial sector also posted gains, supported by increased manufacturing activity and policy reforms such as the Federal Government’s ‘Nigeria First’ initiative.

Infrastructure development remains a key growth driver. 

Projects such as the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway, the 68km Green Line rail, and the Opebi-Mende Bridge are expected to open up new opportunities for real estate and economic activity.

The report also highlighted the rapid growth of digital infrastructure, with Lagos now hosting 18 data centres and more under construction. 

Rack Centre inaugurated a new 12MW facility in April, while Open Access Data Centres announced a US$240 million expansion that will double its capacity to 24MW by 2027, further positioning Lagos as a hub for Africa’s digital economy.

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Knight Frank Nigeria has highlighted the resilience of Lagos’ real estate sector, pointing to stabilising macroeconomic conditions, rising office occupancies, infrastructure-driven opportunities, and a fast-expanding digital economy as defining features
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Appraising Wike: A Candid Political Prognosis

Appraising Wike: A Candid Political Prognosis

By Mobolaji Sanusi

“A good example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.”———Anonymous

Nyesom Wike has firmly emerged as a celebrated power broker under the current political dispensation. From historical records, he didn’t just arrive at this destination without fighting battles. Some he won by sheer providential interventions, others with unbridled political resilience. But one thing is clear, he has, within the past ten years, established himself as a political warlord with a big war chest and vast connections in the right places.

There are several instances to buttress these assertions. For example, his reelection as his home state’s local government chairman, after serving his first term was guaranteed by the accidental meeting and intervention that had a touch of providence of then governor, Dr. Peter Odili, who vetoed the truncation of his second term candidacy for Obio-Akpor Local Government Area when his name was almost removed from the list.

Later, he moved to join the tortuous battle for the restoration of Rotimi Amaechi’s governorship ticket and after the Apex Court’s miracle verdict that proclaimed him governor, Amaechi compensated him because of his committed roles in his ascension struggles by appointing him as his Chief of Staff. And when they fell apart, he meandered his way to emerge as a minister of the federal republic of Nigeria under the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan. He used the opportunity of that position to successfully launch the battle to succeed Amaechi as governor and ruled the state for two terms of eight years.

Unlike other governors before him in Rivers State who failed to install their preferred successors, Wike set the precedent of handpicking his successor in Governor Sim Fubara. But against his own public pronouncement that after his governorship duty, he would not jostle for any political appointment having failed to secure the vice-presidential slot to veteran presidential candidate, Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, GCON, Wike resurfaced in Abuja where President Bola Tinubu, GCFR, graciously appointed him as the high profile minister of the Federal Capital Territory(FCT). The first southerner to occupy the position.

In Abuja, he battled the Abuja mafia that saw him as attempting to unsettle the progress-retarding status quo ante cartel in the FCT. While slugging it out with the cartel, his installed successor in his home state, Fubara, was fomenting the battle for political independence which Wike wasn’t ready to give.

As a man who is used to fighting battles, even at the shortest notice, he fought Fubara to sustain his domestic political survival and to preserve his inexorably rising political profile in Abuja. In the end, he taught Fubara a great lesson by not only making the state ungovernable for him but in also stimulating a volatile political environment through his foot soldiers on ground that led to the imposition of an emergency rule in Rivers. With emergency rule in place, the contentious local government elections conducted by Fubara was annulled, in supposed obedience to the apex court’s judgment.

Finally last Saturday, a fresh local government election conducted in the twenty-three local governments in the state returned Wike as the indisputable godfather of Rivers State politics. The exercise adjudged by observers to be peaceful, surprisingly saw the All Progressives Congress(APC) won twenty councils while the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the state of which Wike is a member, won a paltry three council areas.

Wike, with his delicate hybrid brand of politics, is now firmly in control of the grassroots across Rivers state.

The FCT minister can henceforth reassert his authority over APC and PDP machineries and also be in-charge of the local councils’ chairmen, councillors and more importantly, grassroots mobilisation. He is strategically brainy enough to rename his group after the president’s political shibboleth: Renewed Hope Agenda bloc. By this nomenclature, his loyal tendencies in both APC and PDP are now firmly under his influence ahead of the 2027 general election. Effectively now, Wike, not Fubara, when the emergency rule is lifted, will dictate the modus of delegates’ selection and equally who gets what ticket in the upcoming and subsequent primaries. His national political influence as a strong south-south leader is now gradually, if not already solidified.

A subregional powerbroker in Wike, if he manages his affairs well, is now in the making. He can now consolidate his networks and loyalty base as a trusted ally of the president. But for how long can Wike play the president’s game? Except he decides to commit self-inflicted political suicide, his loyalty to the president cannot falter between now and 2027. Again. Would he have helped our current president if Atiku had picked him as his running mate in late 2022? After 2027, especially if Wike is not reappointed or that his FCT portfolio, which today stands unlikely, is changed, won’t his current disposition to the president change?

By 2031, ceteris paribus, apologies to the economists, when the president would have finished his second term in office, won’t Wike turn against him if he thinks political calculations preferred by the president are not favourable to his aspirations?

Yours sincerely is asking these questions because of the cautionary aphorism of that Chinese philosopher that championed personal and governmental morality, Confucius when he said: “The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute. The man who does not ask is a fool for life.” Because l do not want to be a fool for life in view of Wike’s antecedents in actions and words, which are not favourable to the president and even the APC that is the central government party. His 2022/23 actions and uttered words most especially, lacked political integrity and character.

Barrister Wike spewed out statements and put up conducts against the president and his party that should make a right thinking person ponder on whether his seeming current “absolute political loyalty to the president” is not something fleeting and for his current political survival? In our assessments of persons, Frank Herbert admonished us to ask: “Do actions agree with words? There’s your measure of reliability. Never confine yourself to the words.”

For a concise juxtaposition, past and present actions and words should be used if we’re desirous of arriving at an empirically appropriate conclusions on the FCT minister.

Wike was once caught on camera espousing denigrative statements on our president and APC: Lets highlight two instances and the first being where he alluded to one of our dear president’s campaign statements; he derisively enthused: “I heard people declaring for APC saying that they want to continue the good job of Mr President (Buhari). Is it the good job of people dying everyday? Is it the good job of naira falling everyday? I feel so ashamed that we have gotten to the level of sycophancy. Where people will come and say they want to continue the good job of Buhari….What is the good job of Buhari? Is hunger the good job? Is poverty and insecurity the good job? Or the economy falling the good job? It’s such a shameful thing. I can’t believe that someone will come out in today’s Nigeria and say I want to continue where Buhari has stopped.”

The second being at a point in time when asked if he’ll leave PDP for APC: He sarcastically declared: “Leave for where? I presently have malaria that can be treated easily and I will go and look for cancer that will kill me immediately?….Is the APC a party? A party that has killed Nigerians? No way, I can’t leave the PDP for such a party. Any fight we engage in the PDP is inside the PDP and that is where I will fight. If they like, they injure me there or I injure them but I won’t ever run away. Though I know they cannot injure me….That is where we will fight our fight but to leave the PDP that has common malaria for the APC that has cancer, no, it can’t happen.”

Who knows what Wike will say about our current president if they developed strained political relationships somewhere along the line? If for nothing, we have seen and heard words and dispositions of Wike to some of his past political benefactors including Dr Peter Odili, Dr & Mrs Goodluck Jonathan, Rotimi Amaechi and others.

Yours sincerely is only just being futuristically cautious by drawing our dear president’s attention to what a politically cantankerous Wike could do, after all, Wolfgang Schauble once said that “reliability is the precondition for trust.” Also, Confucius’ disdain for unreliable people under whatever guise is unsparing when he referred to them as “utterly useless.”

It is necessary to point out that this piece is not out to denigrate Wike who is widely seen, acknowledged and justly celebrated as “Mr Projects” during his 8-year tenure as governor of Rivers State. The same commendable template of projects’ initiatives, he has been implementing in the FCT infrastructural turnaround, as its hardworking minister.

Most times, habits develop into character and following from this, the reliability of Wike’s political character is somehow questionable and to protect our President, this necessitates the need to advert our minds to this detrimental political temperament of Wike and to prepare an antidote for curtailing him when the time comes.

Besides the aforementioned, ride on the presidential beloved Barrister Nyesom Wike, the Mr Projects of the FCT.

•Sanusi, former LASAA MD/CEO is a managerial psychologist and currently the managing partner of AMS RELIABLE SOLICITORS.

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By Mobolaji Sanusi “A good example is not the main thing in influencing others, it is the only thing.”———Anonymous Nyesom Wike has firmly emerged as a celebrated power broker under
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