— Adeboroye, Ex-perm sec

By Isa Abdul

Lapses in Nigeria’s bureaucratic system have been identified behind the penetration of the government by a fake presidential agency, according to a former Permanent Secretary of the Federal Civil Service Commission, Goke Adeboroye.

Adeboroye said this on Channels Television’s Inside Sources, following the discovery by the Independent Corrupt Practices and Other Related Offences Commission, ICPC, of the alleged Presidential Foreign Intervention Promotion Council, which the commission said operated with forged appointment letters and other official documents.

He said the incident raised questions about how an individual could allegedly gain entry into the government system, secure an appointment, access budgetary provisions and obtain office space without the relevant authorities detecting the irregularities. In his own words:

“The exposure of that fake presidential agency is a major lapse to say that somebody can actually come into the system, get in on the budget, get offices, and all of that.”

Adeboroye identified weaknesses in the bureaucratic capacity of key offices within the Presidency and government, including the Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, the Office of the Chief of Staff to the President and the Office of the Head of the Civil Service.

He said the bureaucracy supporting these offices ought to be sufficiently capable of helping the President implement his policies while providing the necessary checks to prevent fraudulent or unlawful directives from taking effect.

“The bureaucracy in those offices are not strong enough to be able to help the President drive the vision at the speed and with the efficiency that he wants,” Adeboroye said.

He said the incident also highlighted the relationship between political office holders and career civil servants.

He noted that while political appointees issue directives, civil servants must have the professional competence and integrity to question instructions that do not conform with established procedures.

“The political office holders are principals to the bureaucracy, and a lot of times, the bureaucracy takes directives from them.

“You need a bureaucracy that is not just professional but also has the capacity. The commitment to the system is also driven by his own or her own personal integrity,” he said.

Adeboroye maintained that civil servants should be able to identify suspicious communications purportedly originating from the Presidency because they aren’t familiar with the established channels through which presidential approvals are transmitted.

“Whether the person brings fake or whatever, you as the civil servant should be trained to be able to detect what should be a genuine communication from the State House. You work in that system,” he said.

He explained that presidential approvals ordinarily pass through established channels involving senior government officials.

“When the President approves anything, he always minutes to about three people. It goes to the Chief of Staff, it goes to SGF, and if it has something to do with civil service, the Head of Service will have it.”

According to him, the existence of such channels should enable officials to verify questionable directives before acting on them.

Adeboroye recalled an incident from his time as Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Interior involving a former governor who claimed to have presidential approval for a diplomatic passport.

He said the then Comptroller-General of the Nigeria Immigration Service, Ude, did not act immediately but cross-checked the purported approval before proceeding.

Adeboroye said the official discovered that there was indeed an approval but sought an audience to advise the President on whether the former governor, who was no longer in office, should be granted a diplomatic passport.

He said the official’s action demonstrated the importance of experience and knowledge of government procedures in preventing irregularities.

“That’s somebody using the experience of the system to ensure that you are not outplayed,” he said.

Adeboroye added that officials could have easily verified they authenticity of questionable directives through direct communication with the relevant offices.

“So we would have expected that on a simple phone call, when I was working in the office of Ekaette, Secretary of Government, I could pick a phone, call any minister, call this, it’s just a phone call from the office of whoever to say, ‘Chief of Staff, is this true’? And that would have actually corrected it,” he said

By Felix Umande

New Zealand’s government has introduced legislation to ban children under 16 from using social media, joining a growing international push to shield young people from harmful online content and the risks associated with excessive social media use.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said the proposed law was necessary to protect a generation of children from what he described as the growing harms of social media, including addictive technology, harmful content and online pressures.
“We simply cannot accept the harm being done to a generation of New Zealand children,” Luxon said.

The prime minister said one in three New Zealand children aged between 13 and 17 now spends at least five hours a day on social media. He said excessive use was affecting young people’s family life, mental health, sleep and education.

Under the proposed legislation, major platforms including Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat and Facebook would be required to take “reasonable steps” to ensure their users are at least 16 years old.

Platforms could use existing account information, facial age-estimation technology, digital identity services and formal identification documents to verify users’ ages.
Companies would also be required to assess the risks their platforms pose to children and report on measures taken to reduce those risks.

Firms that fail to comply could face penalties of up to 10 per cent of their global revenue.

Education Minister Erica Stanford said the bill would place clear legal obligations on social media companies, while children and their parents or caregivers would not face penalties.
However, the legislation faces significant political hurdles. The government’s coalition partners, the libertarian ACT Party and populist NZ First, have expressed opposition to the proposal.

NZ First criticised Australia’s experience with a similar ban, describing the legislation there as a “colossal failure.” ACT has also argued that the proposed restrictions would not work and that teenagers could easily find ways around them.

The main opposition Labour Party has yet to decide whether to support the bill. It has submitted dozens of questions concerning issues including how age verification would operate and which platforms would be covered.
“We take this legislation very seriously,” Labour spokesman Reuben Davidson said, warning that the safety of young people in Aotearoa New Zealand was at stake as they faced increasingly complex online risks.

New Zealand’s proposal follows Australia’s landmark social media restrictions, which came into effect in December 2025 and barred under-16s from platforms including Facebook, Instagram and TikTok. The Australian measures were introduced to tackle problems such as online bullying and exposure to “predatory algorithms.”
However, a peer-reviewed study by Australia-based researchers published in June found little evidence that teenagers had significantly reduced their use of social media following the ban.

New Zealand’s proposed legislation will therefore face close scrutiny over whether age restrictions can be effectively enforced and whether they can deliver the intended protections for young people without simply driving teenagers toward alternative ways of accessing social media.

The story of Dr Eruani Azibapu Godbless, a trained medical doctor- turned businessman, a graduate of the University of Port-Harcourt, is both interesting and inspiring.

After graduating from the medical school, he worked in the private and public sectors.

In the course of his medical practice, he demonstrated a high degree of commitment to his work which helped him to get multiple promotions before he was called upon to serve as the Honorable Commissioner for Health in Bayelsa State.

In the course of this political appointment, he also got appointed as a Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, then the governor of Bayelsa State.

While growing up, Dame Patience Jonathan (Former First Lady) connected Dr Eruani to Alhaji Aliko Dangote and The Dantatas.

Even though the entrepreneurial spirit was always there, connecting with like minds helped to fan that flame the more.

The entrepreneur in him triggered his looking around the whole of Bayelsa without seeing any sand supplier.

Consequently, Dr Eruani chose selling sand in the State to fill the gap. He did so at a commercial scale by introducing the mechanized approach.

He pulled his resources together and launched a dredging company, Azikel Dredging.

It was from this dredging company (selling of sand) that he made his first ₦1 billion ever.

That ₦1 billion revenue from sand business proved that the concept was right.

Using the proceeds from selling sand, he bought his first helicopter and private jet, and expanded to other businesses.

Today, he has diversified into aviation, power generation and recently, petroleum.

Today, work is on top gear at his $1 billion Azikel Refinery investment and it will be commissioned soon. When in full operation, it will be delivering 25,000 barrels per day.

There are some lessons to learn from Dr Eruani Azibapu Godbless, .

First of all is that, no business is really too small or beneath your standard if you are a big thinker.

Ordinarily, many would expect that a medical doctor at his level going into business will start by building a hospital.

That may have been the disappointment of his former colleagues. Many probably expected when they heard that he left active medical practice that he had started a big hospital instead of selling sand in Bayelsa State. Others would expect he had rather joined them to japa, get a better job or build a new hospital.

But he understood alone “why” creating jobs and wealth for other people is so that they can live healthier lives.

Every business is as big as the mindset and the vision of the person who’s operating it.

Using the revenue made selling sand, he bought his first helicopter and private jet. Today, he has 3 helicopters and 3 private jets (short and ultra-long ranges).

Secondly, associating with people who can inspire you is important. Who you associate with can influence your life in more ways than you can imagine.

It is better to be alone than to be in the wrong company. Being alone doesn’t mean you are lonely.

Mrs Patience Jonathan’s facilitating Dr Eruani to connect with Alhaji Aliko Dangote and The Dantatas many years ago, while they were much younger, became vital in his entrepreneurial quests.

According to the Former First Lady, Dr Eruani was the youngest among them in their clique. She asked him to follow Alhaji Aliko Dangote closely and he did.

I’ve come to discover that entrepreneurial excellence is a culture-based thing. You can pick up a lot about why someone is wealthy or poor by looking at their way of life (which is culture).

Thirdly, it’s necessary to venture into any business only when you believe in it or understand it in and out.

Yesterday, a young man asked me what business do I recommend he can do with the ₦500,000 he’s planning to save up.

If you are reading this, I want you to know that it’s a terrible business The Medical Doctor Who Sold Sand, Owns 6 Aircrafts and is Building a Billion-dollar Refinery in Bayelsa State

By Son Tertsegha

The story of Dr Eruani Azibapu Godbless, a trained medical doctor- turned businessman, a graduate of the University of Port-Harcourt, is both interesting and inspiring.

After graduating from the medical school, he worked in the private and public sectors.

In the course of his medical practice, he demonstrated a high degree of commitment to his work which helped him to get multiple promotions before he was called upon to serve as the Honorable Commissioner for Health in Bayelsa State.

In the course of this political appointment, he also got appointed as a Special Adviser to President Goodluck Jonathan, then the governor of Bayelsa State.

While growing up, Dame Patience Jonathan (Former First Lady) connected Dr Eruani to Alhaji Aliko Dangote and The Dantatas.

Even though the entrepreneurial spirit was always there, connecting with like minds helped to fan that flame the more.

The entrepreneur in him triggered his looking around the whole of Bayelsa without seeing any sand supplier.

Consequently, Dr Eruani chose selling sand in the State to fill the gap. He did so at a commercial scale by introducing the mechanized approach.

He pulled his resources together and launched a dredging company, Azikel Dredging.

It was from this dredging company (selling of sand) that he made his first ₦1 billion ever.

That ₦1 billion revenue from sand business proved that the concept was right.

Using the proceeds from selling sand, he bought his first helicopter and private jet, and expanded to other businesses.

Today, he has diversified into aviation, power generation and recently, petroleum.

Today, work is on top gear at his $1 billion Azikel Refinery investment and it will be commissioned soon. When in full operation, it will be delivering 25,000 barrels per day.

There are some lessons to learn from Dr Eruani Azibapu Godbless, .

First of all is that, no business is really too small or beneath your standard if you are a big thinker.

Ordinarily, many would expect that a medical doctor at his level going into business will start by building a hospital.

That may have been the disappointment of his former colleagues. Many probably expected when they heard that he left active medical practice that he had started a big hospital instead of selling sand in Bayelsa State. Others would expect he had rather joined them to japa, get a better job or build a new hospital.

But he understood alone “why” creating jobs and wealth for other people is so that they can live healthier lives.

Every business is as big as the mindset and the vision of the person who’s operating it.

Using the revenue made selling sand, he bought his first helicopter and private jet. Today, he has 3 helicopters and 3 private jets (short and ultra-long ranges).

Secondly, associating with people who can inspire you is important. Who you associate with can influence your life in more ways than you can imagine.

It is better to be alone than to be in the wrong company. Being alone doesn’t mean you are lonely.

Mrs Patience Jonathan’s facilitating Dr Eruani to connect with Alhaji Aliko Dangote and The Dantatas many years ago, while they were much younger, became vital in his entrepreneurial quests.

According to the Former First Lady, Dr Eruani was the youngest among them in their clique. She asked him to follow Alhaji Aliko Dangote closely and he did.

Even though contestable, it’s important to note that entrepreneurial excellence is a culture-based thing. You can pick up a lot about why someone is wealthy or poor by looking at their way of life (which is culture).

In addition, it’s necessary to venture into any business only when you believe in it or understand it in and out.

That explains why even though Dr Eruani, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and many others have not come from petroleum engineering background but because of strong conviction, they are doing well in it.