There is electricity now at the Nigerian Airforce Base Ikeja, Lagos.

The Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja DISCO, restored power to the Base following the disconnection last week over a N4.3 billion debts.

Vanguard reports that though, the disputed bill has not been paid, there are interventions to settle and offset the bill.

Vanguard was reliably informed that pre-paid meters were installed at the Base, on Wednesday, before power was restored.

Sources at the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company told Vanguard “We have installed a prepaid meter, just like the Army cantonment template, at the Air Force Base in Ikeja.

Now that we have reinstalled the prepaid meter, we have restored the supply. Henceforth, they will only use the electricity they pay for.

“Before now, we tried to reduce the debt by suggesting installing a prepaid meter, but they did not allow us to do it.

“However, because a customer is a customer, we will continue to have a relationship with them.

“Regarding the debt payment and the issue that happened last week, that may not be immediate because as an arm of the Federal Government, most of those issues don’t happen here in Lagos, but in Abuja.

The immediate problem has been solved, and they now have electricity and a meter.”

Former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s newly launched memoir, ‘Nigeria: Past and Future’, has come under fire for allegedly downplaying the significance of President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s infrastructure projects, particularly the Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway. 

In a sharp rebuttal, Dada Olusegun, Special Assistant to the President on Social Media, accused Obasanjo of attempting to rewrite history while neglecting his own failures in office.

In chapter six of his new book, ‘Nigeria: Past and Future’,Former President Olusegun Obasanjo  described the N15.6 trillion Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway project as wasteful and corrupt.

He equally slammed the President Bola Tinubu administration for having spent N21 billion on a new official residence for Vice President Kashim Shettima, calling it a misplaced priority and conduit designed to embezzle public funds.

The book was one of the two new books unveiled to mark Obasanjo’s 88th birthday last week.

However, in a post on his verified X handle, @DOlusegun, on Thursday, lambasted the former president, stating that his claims in the memoir would “further relegate his integrity as the leader who opened Nigeria to the cankerworms of corruption.”

Olusegun wrote: “By underplaying the importance of the Lagos-Calabar project in his latest book, President OBJ has not only affirmed to those who witnessed his administration’s several failures to address the needs of the country when he had the opportunity, but he has also put in written form a position which generations to come will indeed question.”

He accused Obasanjo of failing to deliver on key infrastructure projects during his eight-year tenure, particularly in his home state of Ogun. 

According to Olusegun, the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway, one of Nigeria’s most crucial road projects, stagnated for 16 years under Obasanjo and his party, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), until former President Muhammadu Buhari revived it.

Despite spending 8 years in government and failing in his attempt to force himself on Nigerians for a further four years as President, Baba Obasanjo failed woefully in addressing the infrastructural needs of his state.

“Indeed, it took former President Buhari just three years to deliver the first modern rail to pass through Baba’s backyard in Abeokuta”, he said.  Olusegun also accused Obasanjo of mishandling Nigeria’s power sector, failing to revive the nation’s refineries, and overseeing a fraudulent privatization of NITEL. 

He argued that Tinubu is now making the tough decisions that past leaders, including Obasanjo, failed to take.

The National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC, has gone digital in its efforts to rid the country of substandard and falsified pharmaceutical products.

During a two-day workshop and training session in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, on Wednesday, NAFDAC introduced an app, Greenbook, an online platform for identifying the source of a product.

The Greenbook allows consumers to enter the product name, brand name, or registration number to search for information about its registration status.

If the product is listed in the Greenbook, it signifies that it has been registered by NAFDAC and is considered authentic.

The app serves as a tool to help consumers identify and avoid potentially fake or substandard products.

The Director-General of NAFDAC, Prof. Mojisola Adeyeye, speaking at the workshop in Port Harcourt, stated that these fake products are “produced by our greedy businessmen and their international collaborators to get rich or make money,” describing it as the worst form of inhumanity of man to his fellow men.

Prof. Adeyeye, who was represented by the Director of the Post-Marketing Surveillance Directorate, NAFDAC, Fraden Bitrus, noted that the agency has, over the years, deployed various measures to combat falsified products.

She expressed concern that counterfeiters have adopted increasingly sophisticated methods to advance their trade but assured that NAFDAC “is poised to use technologies and modern means to mitigate the activities of counterfeiters, hence the need for stakeholder sensitisation.”

She added that the workshop aims to educate stakeholders and provide hands-on training on the NAFDAC Greenbook, the Traceability Regulation 2024, and the Paediatric Regulation 2024, ensuring that both the regulator and the regulated are aligned in the fight against substandard and falsified medical products.

Prof. Adeyeye revealed that the project is being implemented in phases, initially used for COVID-19 vaccine distribution as a pilot project, which yielded highly effective results.

She noted, “Within 24 hours, batches of substandard or defective vaccines distributed in the country were traced and recalled.”

She further stated, “We have implemented it for commodities in public health, such as antimalarial and narcotic products.

Over time, we will extend it to other products. Please note that with this technology, stakeholders can detect and reject SF products before they enter the supply chain.”

She called on all stakeholders in the healthcare sector to support these initiatives to combat fake products and ensure the availability of quality, safe, and efficacious medical products for the people of Nigeria.