The Nigerian Exchange Limited (NGX) posted strong gains last week, with investors adding more than N1.062 trillion to their portfolios. The All Share Index (ASI) rose to 101,129.09 points from 99,378.06 points, marking its highest weekly gain since March 2024.

The market's year-to-date return of 35.2% has outpaced Nigeria's November inflation rate of 34.6%. This performance was driven largely by rallies in blue-chip stocks, with ARADEL leading the gains at 20.73%, followed by GTCO at 7.65% and Zenith Bank at 4.20%. However, some major stocks declined, including BUA Cement (-2.11%), MTN Nigeria (-0.28%), and ACCESSCORP (-0.62%).

The total market value increased to N61.303 trillion from N60.241 trillion the previous week. Analysts attribute this bullish trend to strong buying interest across major sectors, particularly in consumer goods companies like Honeywell Flour Mills, Nigeria Breweries, and Nestle. They also note that investors are taking year-end positions ahead of the Christmas holiday, with an increasing number of companies reaching new 52-week highs.

The market's upward momentum has been supported by robust money flows and cross-deal transactions as the year draws to a close.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Israel's Netanyahu eyes Iran after triumphs over Hamas, Hezbollah, Syria

2025 will be a year of reckoning for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his country's arch foe Iran.

The veteran Israeli leader is set to cement his strategic goals: tightening his military control over Gaza, thwarting Iran's nuclear ambitions and capitalising on the dismantling of Tehran's allies -- Palestinian Hamas, Lebanon's Hezbollah and the removal of Syrian president Bashar al-Assad.

Assad's collapse, the elimination of the top leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah and the destruction of their military structure mark a succession of monumental wins for Netanyahu.

Without Syria, the alliances Tehran has nurtured for decades have unraveled. As Iran's influence weakens, Israel is emerging as the dominant power in the region.

Netanyahu is poised to zero in on Iran's nuclear ambitions and missile program, applying an unyielding focus to dismantling and neutralising these strategic threats to Israel.

Iran, Middle East observers say, faces a stark choice: Either continue its nuclear enrichment program or scale back its atomic activities and agree to negotiations.

"Iran is very vulnerable to an Israeli attack, particularly against its nuclear program," said Joost R. Hiltermann, Middle East and North Africa Program Director of the International Crisis Group. "I wouldn't be surprised if Israel did it, but that doesn't get rid of Iran."

"If they (Iranians) do not back down, Trump and Netanyahu might strike, as nothing now prevents them," said Palestinian analyst Ghassan al-Khatib, referring to President-elect Donald Trump. Khatib argued that the Iranian leadership, having demonstrated pragmatism in the past, may be willing to compromise to avert a military confrontation.

Trump, who withdrew from a 2015 agreement between Iran and six world powers aimed at curbing Tehran's nuclear goals, is likely to step up sanctions on Iran's oil industry, despite calls to return to negotiations from critics who see diplomacy as a more effective long-term policy.

DEFINING LEGACY

Amid the turmoil of Iran and Gaza, Netanyahu's long-running corruption trial, which resumed in December, will also play a defining role in shaping his legacy. For the first time since the outbreak of the Gaza war in 2023, Netanyahu took the stand in proceedings that have bitterly divided Israelis.

With 2024 coming to an end, the Israeli prime minister will likely agree to sign a ceasefire accord with Hamas to halt the 14-month-old Gaza war and free Israeli hostages held in the enclave, according to sources close to the negotiations.

But Gaza would stay under Israeli military control in the absence of a post-war U.S. plan for Israel to cede power to the Palestinian Authority (PA), which Netanyahu rejects. Arab states have shown little inclination to press Israel to compromise or push the decaying PA to overhaul its leadership to take over.

"Israel will remain in Gaza militarily in the foreseeable future because any withdrawal carries the risk of Hamas reorganising. Israel believes that the only way to maintain the military gains is to stay in Gaza," Khatib told Reuters.

For Netanyahu, such a result would mark a strategic victory, consolidating a status quo that aligns with his vision: Preventing Palestinian statehood while ensuring Israel's long-term control over Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem -- territories internationally recognised as integral to a future Palestinian state.

The Gaza war erupted when Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and taking 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies. Israel responded with an air and land offensive that has killed 45,000 people, health authorities there say, displaced 1.2 million and left much of the enclave in ruins.

While the ceasefire pact would bring an immediate end to the Gaza hostilities, it would not address the deeper, decades-old Palestinian-Israeli conflict, Arab and Western officials say.

On the ground, prospects for a Palestinian state, an option repeatedly ruled out by Netanyahu's government, have become increasingly unattainable, with Israeli settler leaders optimistic that Trump will align closely with their views.

A surge in settler violence and the increasing confidence of the settler movement - highway billboards in some West Bank areas bear the message in Arabic "No Future in Palestine" - reflect a growing squeeze on Palestinians.

Even if the Trump administration were to push for an end to the conflict, "any resolution would be on Israel’s terms," said Hiltermann of the Crisis Group.

"It's over when it comes to a Palestinian state, but the Palestinians are still there," he said.

In Trump's previous term, Netanyahu secured several diplomatic wins, including the “Deal of the Century,” a U.S.-backed peace plan which Trump floated in 2020 to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

The plan, if implemented, marks a dramatic shift in U.S. policy and international agreements by overtly aligning with Israel and deviating sharply from a long-standing land-for-peace framework that has historically guided negotiations.

It would allow Israel to annex vast stretches of land in the occupied West Bank, including Israeli settlements and the Jordan Valley. It would also recognise Jerusalem as the "undivided capital of Israel" - effectively denying Palestinian claims to East Jerusalem as their capital, a central aspiration in their statehood goals and in accordance with U.N. resolutions.

SYRIA AT CRITICAL CROSSROADS

Across the border from Israel, Syria stands at a critical juncture following the overthrow of Assad by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) rebel forces, led by Ahmad al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani.

Golani now faces the monumental task of consolidating control over a fractured Syria, where the military and police force have collapsed. HTS has to rebuild from scratch, securing borders and maintaining internal stability against threats from jihadists, remnants of the Assad regime, and other adversaries.

The greatest fear among Syrians and observers alike is whether HTS, once linked to al-Qaeda but now presenting itself as a Syrian nationalist force to gain legitimacy, reverts to a rigid Islamist ideology.

The group’s ability - or failure - to navigate this balance will shape the future of Syria, home to diverse communities of Sunnis, Shi'ites, Alawites, Kurds, Druze and Christians.

"If they succeed in that (Syrian nationalism) there's hope for Syria, but if they revert to their comfort zone of quite strongly ideologically-tainted Islamism, then it's going to be divisive in Syria," said Hiltermann.

"You could have chaos and a weak Syria for a long time, just like we saw in Libya and Iraq."

Reuters

In 1991, Nigeria was in the full throes of the interminable transition to civil rule programme of General Ibrahim Babangida. The effort by the regime in 1991 to relocate their terminal date from 1992 to 1993 coincided with a planned meeting in Ibadan, South-West Nigeria, of the leadership of the National Association of Nigerian Students (NANS).

At the time, the security agencies had secreted on major campuses around the country assets masquerading as students. University of Ibadan was no exception. The unsuspecting NANS leadership was taken by surprise when the SSS swooped on its meeting, abducted the entire lot and dumped them in the Kirikiri Maximum Security Prison in Lagos, with notice to no one. The abductees included then President of NANS, Mahmud Aminu; their Svengali, Bamidele Aturu; as well as other notables in the movement such as Naseer Kura and Funso Omogbehin.

To make the grab look lawful, the regime issued a back-dated order for their detention under the State Security (Detention of Persons) Decree No. 2 of 1984, effectively making them hostages in law. On a routine professional visit to the Kirikiri Prisons in 1991 to see some other detainees, the then Officer in Charge (O/C) of Records at the facility pulled me aside and whispered about the presence in the prison of the leadership of the NANS. Until then, nearly 10 days after they went missing, no one knew where they were. If Mungo Park had made the journey, the history books would probably have recorded that he “discovered” the then leadership of the NANS in Kirikiri Prisons.

The lead lawyer for such matters then was Kanmi Isola-Osobu, a brilliant Life Bencher, who was also lawyer to Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Kanmi’s office was opposite Adekunle Police Station in Yaba, Lagos; beside Tunji Otegbeye’s hospital. There were no cellular phones. I visited Kanmi’s office on a Monday afternoon to brief him about the students in the hope that he could lead the legal proceedings on their behalf. He was busy. With a familiar glint lighting up his face, Kanmi later informed me that he had been busy lubricating the struggle.

The case went before Nureini Abiodun Kessington, whose court at the time had a deserved reputation as the graveyard of bloated professional egos. With subversive invention, Kessington promptly ended the abduction of the student leaders and ensured that they were released with no substantial interruption to their academic careers or lives thereafter.

Those of us who became active against military rule then were inspired largely by two things. One was the hope that the end of military rule would see the end of such practice; the other was the dutiful resistance of some courageous judges like Kessington. In hindsight, we may have been naïve about the nature of power and the resilience of its methods. A quarter of a century after the end of military rule, the practice continues to prosper. To make matters worse, courageous judges appear to have become extinct.

First, the politicians discovered they could emulate the soldiers. In January 2017, Audu Maikori had been a lawyer for nearly sixteen years. He was a leader in entertainment law in Nigeria and president and chief executive officer of a thriving start-up in the sector known as Chocolate City Group, with interests in radio, television, events, movies, and music. A son of Southern Kaduna, Audu was also a powerful voice and amplifier of the sufferings of the people under the predatory rulership of then Governor of Kaduna State, Nasir el-Rufai.

On  or around 17 February 2017, police officers from the Kaduna State Command of the Nigeria Police Force abducted Audu from Lagos and embarked on a cross-country dash with him; first to Abuja, where he was detained in the police cell in Asokoro. The following day, they ferried him to Kaduna for further detention. After two days of detention, the police in Kaduna granted him bail.

It was in Kaduna that Audu discovered that his abduction was in connection with a post on his Twitter feed about the crisis in Southern Kaduna. A fortnight after Audu’s release on bail, Governor Nasir el-Rufai, while headlining the Social Media Week in Lagos on 4 March, promised that he was “trying to link the dates of [Audu’s tweets] to attacks that may have happened the next day on Fulanis and if we are able to establish that causation,…. we know what it means.” Under his orders, the police snatched Audu again and this time detained him in nasty conditions in the State Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS). He had become a hostage in law.

Audu subsequently sued el-Rufai and the Police. On 27 October 2017, John Tsoho, then a judge of the Federal High Court, issued a judgment invalidating Audu’s abduction from Lagos. The judge held that “a warrant of arrest issued by a Magistrate in Kaduna was not valid for execution in Laos, except and until endorsed by a court in Lagos. Not even a warrant issued by a State High Court can be validly executed in another State without endorsement by a competent court within the State where it is to be executed.” He awarded N40 million in damages against Governor el-Rufai. After the Court of Appeal reaffirmed the essence of the judgment by the Federal High Court, el-Rufai appealed to the Supreme Court to assert his right to abduct Nigerian citizens at will and hold them as his own hostages in law.

Two years later, judges and magistrates invented jurisprudence to ground the practice of hostage taking through law. Unlike in Audu’s case, the police officers who abducted Steven Kefason from Port Harcourt on the orders of Nasir el-Rufai in May 2019,  could not even be bothered with a warrant. After snatching Steven, they secreted him in a cell in Mini Koro, Rivers State overnight, before ferrying him by road in a brutal ride to Kaduna. Over three days, they denied him food, access to communication or personal sanitation.

In Kaduna, Steven was interrogated in equally brutal conditions, under the personal supervision of the governor’s legal adviser. The reason for the abduction – it turned out – was a tweet by Steven around 20 April 2019, in which he said that, “while over 12k Kajuru IDPs are living in a terrible condition, their LG Chairman, Cafra Caino, was hosting his old school mates to a birthday party at Kajuru Castle….” The facts were not in dispute but el-Rufai nevertheless instructed the abduction of Steven on charges of incitement and injurious falsehood. One month after Steven’s initial abduction, the Magistrate in Kaduna denied him bail on 20 June 2019 because, “while on bail, [he] further made social media posts further insulting the person of the Governor and that of the Chairman of Kaduna and Kajuru LGAs respectively.”

On 27 February 2020, Peter Mallong, a judge of the Federal High Court in Kaduna, denied Steven’s request for judicial review of his abduction and the decision of the Magistrate, claiming, in an extraordinary travesty of jurisprudence, that he was bound by the decision of the Magistrate to deny bail because the issues were the same and the parties were largely the same. Following his abduction, Steven suffered as hostage in law for over six months with no redress and came close to losing his life. The injustice of the judgment cried out to the Heavens for redress.

In July 2023, Peter Mallong died at 60.

Those who wonder how the country ended up with the utterly shameful charade being orchestrated in a squalid courtroom in Ekiti in the case of Dele Farotimi have Peter Mallong to thank for having written the manual on judicial enablement of the practice of rendering citizens into hostages in law. This narrative has wider ramifications.

** Chidi Anselm Odinkalu, a professor of law, teaches at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy and can be reached through This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

As Christmas 2024 approaches, an unprecedented wave of economic hardship is forcing Nigerian families to make difficult choices between tradition and survival. With food inflation soaring above 40 percent in Abuja alone, many households are going to bed hungry, while others struggle to maintain even a shadow of their usual holiday celebrations.

The harsh reality is evident in markets across the nation's major cities. At Mile 12 International Market in Lagos, trucks laden with tomatoes, peppers, and vegetables create an illusion of abundance. But behind this facade, a complex web of challenges drives prices ever higher. Truck owner Shehu explains the brutal mathematics of food distribution: "We spend between N500,000 and N800,000 per truck on diesel, farm security, and checkpoint fees before reaching Lagos. It's suffocating us, but we have no choice."

The impact on everyday items is staggering. A chicken that cost N15,000 last year now sells for N35,000, with only older layers available at the previous year's price. "What will that do for my family?" asks Mummy Somto at Agric Market in Ikorodu, her voice heavy with frustration. "We have never seen it like this in Nigeria. I hope this hope is the hope."

The ripple effects touch every aspect of daily life. At Daleko Market, the prices tell their own story: a 25-liter container of vegetable oil sells for up to N95,000, while garri reaches N56,000. Even basic ingredients like curry and thyme now cost N550 per roll, and a single small onion bulb commands an astronomical N200. Mrs. Bukky Osagie, a rice vendor at Mile 12, watches as customers increasingly opt for half bags instead of full ones. "Last December, a bag of rice was between N65,000 and N70,000. Today, it starts from N95,000. How do people survive this trend?"

The traditional journey home for Christmas, a cornerstone of Nigerian cultural life, has become an impossible luxury for many. In Kaduna, Nonye Juliet calculates the painful math of her journey to Owerri: last year's round trip of N100,000 has risen even higher. The situation is even more dire for air travelers, with fares seeing a staggering 218 percent increase since June. A one-way ticket from Abuja to Lagos now costs between N220,000 and N285,000, forcing many to abandon air travel entirely.

Those who must travel by road face their own challenges. A journey from Abuja to Lagos that previously cost N28,000 now demands up to N60,000. At Jabi Motor Park, trader Emeka Uzo observes the impact: "People are no longer travelling as much. Even buses are going half-empty because of the cost of tickets."

Families are adapting in various ways. In Benin City, Mr. Uche Isaac, a commercial driver, breaks with tradition: "I have never spent Christmas outside my village, but this time, I will celebrate it in Benin City." With transportation costs of over N200,000 for his family of seven, he's chosen to use the money for rice and meat instead. Victor Okechukwu from Imo State plans to travel alone, breaking his journey through Onitsha to save costs. "Life will continue after the yuletide celebration," he reasons.

The Federal Government has attempted to ease the burden with initiatives including 50 percent rebates on transport fares, free Compressed Natural Gas bus services, and free train transportation in Abuja. However, these measures provide little comfort to families like Miriam Jagaba's. Shopping at Utako Market with her four children, she laments, "Last year, I bought a bag of rice for N75,000, but now it's almost double. It's heartbreaking."

Yet, amidst the hardship, the spirit of celebration persists. At Daleko Market, Mrs. Hannah captures this resilience: "Whether the devil likes it or not, we will celebrate with our families and share love during this season. We will just have to adjust our spending according to our means." In Ilorin, Mazi Joseph, a shoemaker, maintains that some community events cannot be missed, regardless of cost. "This is not new," he reflects. "Things have always been expensive, even though this year is different in dimension and progression."

As Christmas 2024 approaches, this season of joy has become a testament to Nigerian resilience, with families finding ways to preserve the spirit of celebration even as they adapt to unprecedented economic challenges. While traditional homecomings may be muted and feasts scaled back, the determination to maintain family bonds and cultural traditions remains unshaken, even if through more modest means or remote connections.

In a devastating weekend that underscores Nigeria's deepening economic crisis, at least 39 people lost their lives in two separate stampedes during food distribution events.

The tragic incidents occurred Saturday morning in the capital city of Abuja and the southern town of Okija, Anambra State, just days after another deadly stampede claimed 35 children's lives at a school funfair in Ibadan.

In Abuja's Maitama district, 10 people, including at least four children, died and eight others were injured during an annual charity event at the Holy Trinity Catholic Church. The tragedy unfolded around 6 am as desperate residents from distant areas like Mararaba, Nyanya, and Mpape gathered for food distribution.

"Initially, everyone was orderly, but as the day broke, the number of people doubled," recalled John, an eyewitness. "In their desperation to get the rice first, people began pushing and shoving. Before we knew it, we started hearing cries for help from those who had fallen or sustained injuries."

The situation in Okija proved even more catastrophic, with 29 people reported dead at the Obijackson Centre in Amanranta. The stampede occurred around 7:45 am as crowds gathered to receive palliatives including 25kg bags of rice, vegetable oil, and cash gifts from the Obijackson Foundation's annual Christmas distribution.

Eyewitnesses described heart-wrenching scenes, including a mother who died with her baby strapped to her back. While the child survived, the incident epitomized the desperate conditions driving people to risk their lives for basic necessities. "The cause of this is poverty and the high cost of rice," one witness observed. "If it were not so, this unfortunate incident would not have happened."

Reverend Father Mike Umoh, National Director of Social Communications at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, noted that while such charitable distributions have been routine for years, the unprecedented turnout reflects the nation's deteriorating economic situation. "This sad event should be a signal to other organizers to be more careful and implement better crowd control measures," he stated.

These tragic events, occurring just days before Christmas, cast a somber shadow over the holiday season while highlighting the desperate circumstances facing many Nigerians amid rising food prices and economic hardship. As communities mourn their losses, calls grow louder for more regulated and secure methods of distributing aid to those in need.