Novel coronavirus (COVID-19), which first berthed in Wuhan, a city in China, before embarking on a global voyage, has foisted a tough financial regime on the nation’s 36 states as revenue both from internal and external sources has headed south. Sunday Tribune looks at the coping strategies deployed by the states to weather the pandemic storm.
COVID-19’s attack on the Nigeria’s economy is multifaceted. China, the country from where the pandemic travelled to other parts of the globe, is the world’s largest crude oil importer. To contain the spread of the virus within its territory, China shut down its factories and restricted its nationals to their homes. Shutting down the factories meant a reduction in demand for oil, which resulted in a tumble in the price of oil. As the virus spread to other countries, more economies shut down, less oil was required and further down went the price of crude. It was so bad that in March, Mele Kyari, the Group Managing Director of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) alerted the country to the fact there were no buyers for the nation’s oil.
Speaking at a consultative roundtable with the CBN governor, Godwin Emefiele, themed ‘Going for Growth’ in Abuja, the NNPC boss said, “Today, Nigeria has some 50 cargoes of crude that have not found landing. This means that the traders do not know where to take these projects to.”
The demand for oil also got so low that in April, Nigeria’s Bonny Light sold for $12 a barrel.
As revenue from oil declined sequel to the spread of COVID-19, so did income of the Nigeria Customs Service. As factories shut down in China, United States of America and India, which constitute 31.34 per cent, 11.35 per cent and 7.49 per cent respectively of the country’s total imports, revenue from the ports took a hit.
In March, the Nigeria Customs Service realized N31.2billion in revenue at the Tin Can Port as against the projected N47.4billion, which represents a loss of N16.2 billion. The loss is a consequence of a lull in activities at the port due to the pandemic. The situation is not different in other ports where missed target has become the norm. The situation forced the Federal Government to review its expectations from the Customs for 2020 from N1.5tn to N943bn.
As a result of the effects of the pandemic on the nation’s major sources of revenue, allocation to the nation’s components from the Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has also been on a decline. While FAAC shared N716.298 for December 2019, it shared N647.353 for January 2020. This went further down to N581.566 for February 2020 although there was an improvement for March when N661bn was shared, all indicators point to a further decline in April.
The spread of the virus and the intention to contain which made the federal and state governments to lock down the country have further put many states in the country in a dire financial strait as they have to contend with both shrinking allocation from the Federation Account and dwindling internally generated revenue. Coupled with the fact that the President recently signed the Minimum Wage Bill, which increased the monthly salary of the least paid person in the country from N18,000 to N30,000, into law, the states are at their wits’ end.
Pushed to the wall, state governors have resorted to different strategies to cope with the situation.
Kaduna slashes workers’ salaries
The COVID-19 precipitated lockdown and economic slowdown cost Kaduna State N6billion of internally generated revenue in six weeks. According to the Managing Director of Kaduna Market Development and Management Company, Hafiz Mohammed Bayero, the lockdown imposed in the state deprived the state of its IGR as all the companies and individuals who were supposed to pay into the coffers of the state couldn’t pay as they did not engage in any business activity as a result of the shutdown.
As a coping strategy for its dwindling revenue, Kaduna State government announced a reduction in the salaries of different categories of its functionaries. This was contained in a statement by the governor’s media adviser, Muyiwa Adekeye.
According to the statement, “Career public servants earning a net pay of N67,000 and above after-tax will donate 25 per cent of their pay monthly whilst the quarantine conditions are in place.”
The statement added that all the state senior appointees, including commissioners, permanent secretaries, special advisers and heads of agencies were to donate N500,000 each in April 2020 and 50 per cent of their emolument in subsequent months till the end of the quarantine.
Lagos IGR down by 30%, to re-order 2020 budget
Speaking on Lagos State’s IGR in the light of the meltdown inspired by COVID-19, the state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Mr Gbenga Omotoso, said there has been a 30 per cent decline in the state’s monthly takings as IGR.
“It is obvious that the internally generated revenue has gone down by between 25 and 30 per cent. It has gone down. I can’t put naira and kobo to that now, but we are not allowing that to discourage us because we are already planning to reorder the budget. We are already planning so many things to look at the good side of this major problem, rather than the bad side.
“We are already looking at how to turn thing around, how to use this adversity to turn things around, to create more jobs, how to warn more money, in order to fulfill our promises for the year. So we are not allowing that to discourage us,” he explained.
But Sunday Tribune investigation revealed that Lagos unofficial revenue earning before COVID-19 scourge was around N33 billion monthly.
Kebbi may default in salary, pension payment
Faced with the reality of a declining allocation from the Federation Account, Kebbi State governor, Atiku Bagudu, convoked a meeting with critical stakeholders where he challenged them to chart a way forward for the state in light of the challenging financial situation the state had found itself. At the meeting which had traditional rulers and other sectoral leaders in the state in attendance, the governor intimated them with the fact that what came to the state from the federal purse as a result of the pandemic had fallen below the monthly wage bill of the state, which is put at N 1.95 billion, warning that the state might be unable to pay salaries and pensions.
The lockdown occasioned by the pandemic has affected the economic fortune of Kebbi State. Being a purely civil service state, Kebbi depends largely on revenue from the Federation Account. When at the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, the state government pronounced several measures to contain the menace of the virus, the internally generated revenue of the state took a bashing as many organizations from whom the revenue would have been generated could not transact their businesses.
Measures like ban on interstate movement, restriction in operation of market contributed immensely to the reduction of the state’s IGR.
Malam Atto, a member of the NURTW told Sunday Tribune that his union that used to remit substantial amount of money to government coffers can no longer do so because of closure of interstate borders. Likewise the Birnin-Kebbi Central Market, the biggest in the state, has also seen its monthly revenue generation fall far below the expected projection. The market which used to open between 10am and 6pm now opens by 10am and closes by 3pm. This situation, according to Alhanssan Abdullahi, the secretary-general of the central market in Birnin-Kebbi, has grossly affected revenue into the state coffers.
A senior officer in the state’s Ministry of Finance explained to the Sunday Tribune that revenue generation of the state government in the past month had been awful, pointing out that the lockdown had forced a lot of men and women in the trading sector to abandon their means of livelihood at the urban centres to go to their various villages, adding that this had adversely impacted the IGR.
The lockdown is also having it toll on the agriculture fortune of the state as many farmers are forced to remain indoors. Malam El-Yakub, a big time food stuff trader, warned of a bleak future if a proactive step is not taken by the state government to encourage farmers to return to their vocation before the rainy season sets in. “I foresee hunger in the land except a proactive approach is taken by government and other stakeholders,” he said.
Ondo may be unable to pay workers if lockdown continues —Commissioner
The Ondo State government has admitted that the disruption caused by COVID-19 pandemic, which has contributed significantly to a drop in the price of crude oil and, by extension, the revenue to the country and the state, may force the state into a situation that might make it difficult to pay workers’ salaries.
The State Commissioner for Budget and Planning, Mr. Emmanuel Igbasan, said it is going to be a tough situation for the state and the country as a whole, especially when the price of crude oil which represents about 95 per cent of the nation’s export revenue has nosedived.
Igbasan predicted that Nigeria, like most of other countries, would be badly hit because of the country’s reliance on crude oil, while he said uncertainties still surround how long the outbreak will last.
He, however, said managing the situation would depend on policy measures to be introduced by government and how people and business sectors would respond to the measures.
He said “I think it’s going to be a tough one for our state and all the states in Nigeria in particular and even the whole world in general, because this destructive COVID-19 has impacted the supply and the demand side of the economy sector and most states do not have any fiscal space to navigate.
“For example our state depends largely on the federal revenue allocation on monthly basis. The revenue inflow from the sales of oil has dried up and the federal government took the benchmark from $57 to $25 now, while we have more than 50 cargoes on the sea without any buyer.
“The situation is very precarious, albeit the federal government has taken some practical steps, getting money here and there to shore up the revenue.”
He noted that “a larger chunk of revenue also comes from Customs, from the custom duties and the ports and now that most countries are locked down and there is no import or export, that revenue source will also be affected. But the federal government has deemed it fit to get money to stimulate the economy and that has been the saving grace.”
Igbasan explained that the Ondo State Internally Generated Revenue has been affected by the development, predicting most states might not be able to pay their wages as time goes on.
“As we speak now the state Internally Generated Revenue has also been impacted and it’s not enough for us as a state to cover our overhead or our recurrent, including our salaries. I think it’s only two states, Lagos and Rivers that can conveniently do that but now that we are locked down, there could be retrenchment, as most sectors are losing on a daily basis and asking for tax waiver, so it’s going to be a tough one indeed.”
Speaking on generating IGR during the COVID-19 period, Igbasan said, “We are generating IGR but with the situation of things it cannot be as it used to be. Our part of the IGR is part of the taxes collected from the public servants and they have received their salaries, which means that a chunk of revenue would have turned into the internal revenue of Ondo State.
“Apart from this, instead of total lock down, what we have is partial stay at home in the state, especially some civil servants and some restaurants or where people gather.
“Essentially, what we have in the state is curfew, so that many people still find one way or the other to do one thing or the other in a little way. There is still some revenue but not as much as we used to have.”
He disclosed that the state government has been trying to put some measures in place to cushion the effect of the pandemic and not to get the state into any financial crisis at the end of the day.
He said the state had ensured prompt payment of workers’ salaries and said “even before the advent of the COVID-19, the economy of the country had been badly exposed due to some economic forces.
“In the last three or four months what has been coming as monthly allocation was not enough to cater for our public servants on monthly basis. But because the governor has made the covenant that the labourers deserve their wages, we embark on precautionary measures to ensure that these salaries continue to run.”
He said some of the measures include the prioritisation of salary payment and said “this has been given priority even from the onset of this administration and salaries are paid as and when due and apart from this, six out of seven months’ salary arrears had been paid.
“Another measure is that we have renegotiated some of the debt burden we inherited and we renegotiated it with the bond holders because we are paying about N700m monthly, so we negotiated the term and elongated the term and we were lucky to have it done”
Igbasan, who said the monthly wage bill of the state is between N3b and N3.5b, hinted that the state might not be able to pay the wage if the situation continued.
He noted that some private sector had commenced downsizing, not only in Nigeria but across the globe and said “we can only pray and be optimistic that the lockdown is not prolonged.”
Gombe dumps new minimum wage to beat COVID-19 effects
Gombe State’s internally generated revenue for April was less than N300million. This was a great departure from the norm as the IGR was usually above N400m. The development, according to the state government, was a consequence of COVID-19 pandemic.
The state Commissioner for Finance and Economic Development, Hon. Muhammad Gambo Magaji, said that, “We have just reorganised the IRS but COVID-19 has affected the required steam.”
To mitigate the effect of the COVID-19 on the state, the commissioner said, the state had reverted to the old salary structure and had abandoned the new minimum wage so that the government would be able to continue to pay salaries.
According to him, salaries for state and LG workers now hover around N2.5bn after reverting to the old salary scale.
Muhammad Magaji said that while the state is able to manage to pay the old salary, “We are soliciting for the FGN to suspend repayments on loans to states. This greatly assist states remain afloat”.
He concluded that, “We have been prudent, cutting our recurrent expenditures and ensuring we live within our means.”
Kwara to scale down governance, overhead costs
Faced with dwindling federal allocation and low internal revenue generation, occasioned by the coronavirus pandemic, the Kwara State government has said that it will cut down cost of governance and overhead costs, while focusing on projects with immediate impacts on the people’s wellbeing.
Speaking in Ilorin, the state capital, the state Commissioner for Finance, Oyeyemi Olasumbo Florence, said that such projects would include social investment programmes, healthcare, and school rehabilitation
Oyeyemi, who spoke against the backdrop of the just concluded budget review sessions across the MDAs, said Kwara State is aligning government spending with available resources in the face of dwindling allocation from Abuja and internally generated revenue (IGR).
“The focus will now be on projects that would have instant impacts on the living standard of the masses. There will be cut in the cost of governance especially overhead costs and some capital projects,” she said.
She linked the revenue drop to the COVID-19 pandemic and the global crash of oil prices, adding that the review means that there would be sizeable cut in overhead cost and capital projects in line with the economic realities.
“We had a budget of N162.84bn for 2020. But it is clear now that our allocation and what we expected will no longer be feasible, it is better we cut our coat according to the available cloth,” Oyeyemi said.
“All we are doing now is preserving the state’s wealth to take care of major expenses of the state like first line expenses – salaries and taking care of the poor and providing for the completion of the ongoing projects. Area that we will still look into is education sector because we will be providing alternative for classroom learning. Also, the present administration has embarked on several water projects which must not stop because at a time like this, our people need potable water.
“As a government, we have decided to reduce the cost of governance and there will be a sizeable reduction in our overhead cost to focus on other pressing areas.”
She also said the report from the budget review is being collated to a whole document that Governor Abdulrahman Abdulrazaq will then forward to the House of Assembly for passage.
Ekiti to stop nonessential spending to meet up with shortfalls in revenue
The Ekiti State government has lamented the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the state’s economy, noting that most nonessential expenditure of the government had been stopped in order to meet up with the reduction in the money accruing to the state.
The governor, Dr Kayode Fayemi, had, on March 29, declared a total lockdown of the state which lasted until May 4 when it was relaxed as part of measures to stem the spread of the deadly disease in the state.
Speaking with the Sunday Tribune in Ado-Ekiti, the state capital, the commissioner for Budget and Economic Planning, Mr. Femi Ajayi, said that the lockdown declared in the state brought a reduction to the internally generated revenue.
Ajayi said the economy was completely locked down for a month, hence the inability of the government to meet up with the revenue compared to the period before the pandemic.
He stressed that salaries of workers in the state would not be reduced like it is being done in some states.
According to the commissioner, “Ordinarily, you should expect a shortfall in revenue looking at the lockdown in the state and across other states and countries. It is the people and business that should pay tax that are locked down, so it is really a difficult situation.
“What we have done is to stop spending on unnecessary things, especially traveling and trainings, unless on essential services such as health and security because the governor has promised he would not reduce the salaries of workers in the state. I hope you are aware that other states are doing this.
“It is only the salaries of the political office holders that have been reduced by half but workers will not be affected that is our determination as a government.”
The commissioner added that before the outbreak of COVID-19, the state revenue was between N550 million and N600 million monthly which he said had reduced drastically, “because most of the revenue comes from the businesses affected by the lockdown.”
Osun didn’t generate any revenue in April —Commissioner
Amid the growing cases of COVID-19 in Nigeria and its negative effect on the nation’s economy, Osun State government has lamented that the outbreak of the pandemic has dealt a great blow to its finances.
The state Commissioner for Finance, Mr Bola Oyebamiji, who spoke to Sunday Tribune, disclosed that the government did not generate any revenue in the month of April due to the total lockdown of the state for four weeks to checkmate the spread of coronavirus.
According to him, “Before the lockdown, we had improved our IGR tremendously. We really worked on it. We were generating between N700 million and N800 million monthly. In the last ten months, our IGR has been in the region of N1 billion and this has assisted us so much majorly on our expenditures.
“We were able to achieve this because of the proactiveness and finesse of the state executive led by Governor Gboyega Oyetola, most especially with the appointment of the new chairman for Osun State Internal Revenue Service (OIRS). The governor gave them a target. The chairman of OIRS and his team have been trying to shore up the revenue base, but they have not yet met the target set by the governor. However, they are still working very hard to meet the target. We have a geometric increase in the IGR,” Oyebamiji remarked.
He continued, “Fortunately, we were getting to a level of stability in the finance of the state before the advent of COVID-19. The pandemic is a financial war because it has been very difficult for us to generate revenue. We have locked down the state for four weeks. In those four weeks, it as bad as if we didn’t generate any revenue at all.
“Though we have a framework to take care of shortfall in revenue, our framework was not expanded to take care of big one like this COVID-19 pandemic. But, we are trying to manage our expenditures, which we have reduced to the barest minimum. Ordinarily, it would have been very difficult for us to pay April salary, but because of the prudence and proactiveness of the governor, we were able to pay the civil servants last month salary.
“We have also reviewed our budget to reflect the current realities by adjusting our capital expenditures. It is very important for us to reduce the capital and administrative expenditures, but it is very difficult to reduce the recurrent expenditures. This is because it involves day-to-day activities. There are some overhead expenditures that are fixed, such that you cannot do anything about it.
“More importantly, our thinking majorly is to automate all our revenue collection process. This is our focus to block all leakages. Leakages are the main enemy of any economy. If we are able to do that effectively, there would be value proposition in our IGR. We cannot burden our people with the payment of more tax and that is why automation of our revenues is key. We must eradicate cash payment in revenue collection.
“The current wage bill of the state government is between N2.1 billion and N2.2 billion monthly.”
On the plan of the state government for post COVID-19 era, Oyebamiji said “part of our plans is the review of our budget, which we have already done. We must reduce the cost of governance and brainstorm on what we can do to attract more funds into the coffers of government.
“Another strategy is the automation of all the payments that constitute revenues of the government. We would also intensify our sensitisation programme to encourage our people to pay their taxes. Besides, we would also focus and invest in agriculture so that our Gross Domestic Product (GDP) can increase. We would assess more funds for our farmers from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) at reduced interest rate. We would also be more involved in clearing of land for our farmers to encourage them in the cultivation of crops.
“We have plans to also encourage the ease of doing business with a view to increase the commerce of Osun State and this will assist the state to generate more funds”, Oyebamiji stated.
COVID-19 has affected Benue’s IGR drive —Commissioner
The Benue State Government has lamented that the novel coronavirus pandemic ravaging the country has affected the revenue generation of the state.
State Commissioner for Finance and Economics, Mr. David Olofu, who disclosed this during an interview with our correspondent in Makurdi, explained that the state has not been able to generate IGR since the COVID-19 pandemic broke out coupled with lockdown.
Although, sources at State Internally Revenue Service indicated that the revenue base of the state has gone down drastically.
According to the source who did not want to be mentioned, what comes to the state now is less than N300m monthly aside the statutory tax deduction from civil servants.
“You know the major source of revenue is from the tax return from agricultural produce but now that there is lockdown across the country, few traders now come to the state.
“Aside the statutory tax deduction from workers, what came to the state last month was around N300m and the possibility that it will still recede is there,” the source said.
But the Finance Commissioner, who could not give specific response, said “It is a very challenging time. Like you all know, revenues are driven by money and commercial activities within the society. At a time like this when everything is shut down, those activities are part of everything that has been shut down.
“So, it is going to be difficult but Governor Samuel Ortom, in his wisdom and because of our peculiarity, has done a partial shutdown which means people can still move about within the day time, definitely the Internally Generated Revenue, IGR, will be affected and we are hoping that we will still be able to get some into the coffers of government.
“Therefore, it is still too early for me to know the level of impact that will come upon the IGR of the state. It is until the figures come in at the end of the month that we will know how the lockdown has affected the IGR of the state.
“But what I can say for sure is that definitely there will be an impact and that impact will be downward, that I can assure you.
“It is against that background that Governor Ortom directed that we review our budget. That review is still a work in progress and it was approved by the State Executive Council and what we did was to review it downward by 70.9 per cent which amounted to N70 billion.
“That became very necessary as a measure during this period because, the governor, in his effort to operate a transparent accounting system, also needs to make sure that the deviation of the budget is also brought down within a manageable gap. What I mean by that is that the approved budget and the actual budget are two different things.
“Consequently, between the gap of the approved budget and the actual money that comes in, we are trying to make it as minimal as possible so that it will be moving forward to a realistic budget because these are the things that will show that we are managing the economy in line with global best practices.”
On wage bill of the state, sources in the finance ministry said that the wage bill of the state now hovers around N2.1 billion monthly.
The sources said that with the dearth of workers in all the ministries and parastatals and agencies due to retirement and death, the workforce has gone down.
“Remember, the governor recently said that the state government would soon lift embargo on employment and this is because the ministries, agencies and parastatals are short-staffed and this has made the state’s wage bill to drop from N3.5bn to N2.1bn.
Plateau cuts political appointees’ salaries by 50%, administrative cost by 40%
The dwindling revenue both from the Federation Account and IGR has forced Plateau State to tweak its projections and expenditure for the year, thus slashing political appointees’ salaries and allowances by 50 per cent and administrative cost by 40 per cent.
While speaking with the Sunday Tribune, the state Commissioner for Information and Communication, Mr. Daniel Majang, disclosed that what used to come to the state from the Federation Account has gone down drastically from N3billion monthly to N1.2billion, adding that the state had to look inward and other areas to cover up the wage bill.
He said: “The wage bill of the state for April was N2.6 billion, made up of salaries, pension and sundry expenditures. The Internally Generated Revenue has gone down but it is still manageable. The IGR now covers between N600 million to N650 million on a monthly basis. It is going down based on the situation we have found ourselves.
“For this reason, the government has to reduce expenditures by 40 per cent, administrative cost by 40 per cent, political office holders’ salaries and allowances by 50 per cent. Not only this, the state government is still adjusting. Also, the processes of fresh employment; implementation of the new minimum wage; funding of on-going projects among others are affected in the interim.”
As a result of the impact of Covid-19, the state government has equally directed the State Economic Advisory Council to immediately brainstorm and come up with practical and comprehensive strategies on the sustainability and continuation of the state economy under COVID-19.
The State Commissioner of Information, Mr. Daniel Manjang, said the governor equally directed the council to put together a post-COVID road map for the Plateau State economy especially for its revival and recovery and mandated the council to liaise and consult extensively with all ministries, department and agencies; local government councils, key private sector players in the state in the manufacturing, agriculture, banking and finance; hospitality and entertainment; trade and commerce; ICT; mining sector; and other important stakeholders like the MSMEs; the informal sector; Trade Associations; Chambers of Commerce; development partners NGOS and CSOs, Labour Unions etc.
In Jigawa, IGR sources are affected
The onset of COVID-19 and its effect of the economy has compounded decline in internally generated revenue by the Jigawa State government.
Reports from the state indicated that collection of revenue in major places in the state has been greatly hampered by the restrictions and partial lockdown enforced by the state to prevent the spread of the virus.
Markets were shut down, just as motor parks were closed following restriction on interstate movements. All these sources of revenue for government have been affected by the regulations put in place to contain the spread of the virus.
Speaking to Sunday Tribune, the chairman, Jigawa State Board of Internal Revenue, Alhaji Ibrahim Ahmed Sani, said “the pandemic has seriously affected revenue generation in the state as all businesses are affected as a result of closure of business places to curb the spreads of the disease.”
According to him, “the state revenue generation has dropped with over 50 per cent following the closure of most of sources of revenue.”
Sani explained that the state has a system where registered business individuals, organisations and companies are paying their taxes online, adding that, that had been put on hold because of the lockdown.
He added that “all our markets, motor parks and small and medium enterprises are locked. Even the pay as you earn (PAYE) of many has been stopped because of the situation.”
Kano’s N3bn IGR for N10b monthly wage bill
Kano State’s Internallly Generated Revenue (IGR) is not currently stable, fluctuating between N3 and N3.5 billion monthly and the workforce for both the state and 44 local government councils is 185,000.
The state government says it spends between N9.6 and N10 billion every month to pay the workers.
Though the state governor, Abdullahi Ganduje, recently announced that the state was working on how to increase the IGR from N3 billion to N10bilion, noting that if the state could not match the Lagos State in terms of IGR, at least with N10 billion IGR, Kano would be able to at least help in reducing the burden of paying the workforce.
According to him, “Sustenance of monthly salaries which hitherto would not been seen as an achievement is now an achievement because so many states are unable to fulfill this important obligation.
However a reliable source informed the Sunday Tribune that since the lockdown, it had not been an easy task for government to make ends meet, with the possibility of drastic pay cut remaining high.
The state chairman of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), Alhaji Ibrahim Minjibir, said “it was a known fact that the lockdown has a serious economic effect, though the government has not notified the body of any attempt to reduce the salary of workers.”
He explained that he would not comment on the likely decision from government, saying “when we reach the bridge, we will cross it.”
A source in the Ministry of Finance said the IGR that was hitherto coming from some companies in the state had reduced drastically because most of them were not operating fully.
The source hinted that the state government had resolved to cut off unnecessary expenditure in the light of the current challenges.
The source added that some of these expenditures that were reduced included imprest that was normally given to respective ministries and parastatals and other money used to procure one item of the other.
Civil servants, who are used to getting their salary before end of the month, are now getting their salary at the beginning of a new month.
- Reports by: Biola Azeez, Ilorin; Johnson Babajide, Makurdi; Ayodele Ajoge, Birnin Kebbi; Oluwole Ige, Osogbo; Muhammed Sabiu, Kaduna; Hakeem Gbadamosi, Akure; Yomi Ayeleso, Ado-Ekiti; Michael Ishola, Gombe; Isaac Shobayo, Jos; Adamu Adamu, Dutse; and Kola Oyelere, Kano
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