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Lagos ramps up safety protocols ahead of Detty December

The Lagos State Government has announced heightened safety measures to prevent stage collapses and crowd-related incidents during Detty December festivities. The decision followed lessons from the overwhelming influx of attendees and a near-tragic incident in 2024.

The Director-General of Lagos State Safety Commission, Mr Lanre Omojola, made this known at the ongoing Lagos State 2025 Ministerial Press Briefing in Ikeja.

The briefing was for the Lagos State Ministry of Special Duties and Intergovernmental Relations to give an account of its stewardship in the past year, in commemoration of Gov. Babajide Sanwo-Olu’s second year of second term in office.

“We had an influx of people from overseas. It was beyond our imagination.

“The commission was literally all out, day and night, ensuring that people could come back from overseas, have fun and be safe,” he said.

Omojola confirmed that a stage collapse was recorded during one of the high-profile events.

“However, our guys were on the ground that day. In spite of the pressure, a swift response from emergency personnel helped to avert serious injuries,” he said.

The director-general said that the state was introducing an initiative aimed at pre-emptive protection to ensure stronger safety assurance this December.

“What we want to have is what we call tourism safety marshals. Experts have already developed a strategic safety plan.

“This enhanced focus on safety aims to provide both locals and visitors with a secure environment for celebration, reflecting the state’s commitment to public welfare during one of the busiest periods of the year,” he said.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Detty December in Nigeria refers to the festive period from mid-December to early January, characterised by vibrant celebrations, social gatherings and parties.

It is a time when many Nigerians, including those in the diaspora, return home to celebrate with family and friends, and the cities experience a surge in tourism and economic activities. (NAN)
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Visa applications for some nationalities could be restricted

Visa applications from nationalities thought most likely to overstay and claim asylum in the UK could be restricted under a new government crackdown. Under Home Office plans, first reported in the Times, people from countries such as Pakistan, Nigeria and Sri Lanka may find it more difficult to come to the UK to work and study. Ministers believe there is a particular problem with those who come to the UK legally on work or study visas and then lodge a claim for asylum – which if granted, would allow them to stay in the country permanently.

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Our upcoming Immigration White Paper will set out a comprehensive plan to restore order to our broken immigration system.” It is not clear which nationalities are most likely to overstay their visas as the Home Office has not published statistics on exit checks since 2020, due to a review into the accuracy of the figures. Many exits from the UK can go unrecorded, meaning those without a departure record were not necessarily still in the country.

Prof Jonathan Portes, a senior fellow at the academic think tank UK in a Changing Europe, said the impact that restricting visas would have on the number of asylum applications was “likely to be quite small”. “I think the impact here is not designed primarily to be about numbers overall, it’s designed to be about reducing asylum claims which are perceived to be abusive,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme. “When you have someone who comes here ostensibly as a student and then switches quickly to the asylum route… that is an abuse of the system – the government is trying to reduce that.”

Latest Home Office figures show that more than 108,000 people claimed asylum in the UK last year – the highest level since records began in 1979. In total, 10,542 Pakistani nationals claimed asylum – the most of any nationality. Some 2,862 Sri Lankan nationals and 2,841 Nigerian nationals claimed asylum in the same period.

Latest figures for 2023/24 also show there were 732,285 international students in the UK, with most coming from India (107,480) and China (98,400). The number of UK work and study visas dropped in 2024, compared to the year before.

Since becoming prime minister last year, Sir Keir Starmer has promised to reduce both illegal and legal migration – but has previously declined to offer a net migration target, saying an “arbitrary cap” has had no impact in the past. Labour’s plans to reduce migration include making it a criminal offence to endanger the lives of others at sea, to target small boat crossings, and cutting demand for overseas hires by developing training plans for sectors that are currently reliant on migrant workers.

Sir Keir has criticised the previous Conservative government, saying it failed to deliver lower net migration numbers “by design, not accident”. Net migration – the number of people coming to the UK, minus the number leaving – hit a record 906,000 in the year to June 2023, and then fell to 728,000 in the year to June 2024. New rules introduced by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a bid to reduce migration levels appear to have contributed to the fall.

The previous Conservative government increased the minimum salary for skilled overseas workers wanting to come to the UK from £26,200 to £38,700 and banned care workers from bringing family dependants to the UK. Labour was already under pressure to make changes to the immigration system – but that pressure may have grown after Reform UK’s successes in last week’s local elections.

Reform won 677 of around 1,600 seats contested on Thursday across a clutch of mainly Tory-held councils last contested in 2021.

In its general election manifesto, Reform said it would implement a freeze on non-essential immigration. Those with certain skills – for example in healthcare – would still be allowed to come to the UK.

Reacting to the results last week, Sir Keir said he shared the “sharp edge of fury” felt by voters leaning away from the major parties, arguing that it would spur him on to “go further and faster” in delivering Labour’s promised changes to immigration and public services.

Enver Solomon, chief executive of the Refugee Council, said that “some people on work or study visas may find their lives at risk because the political situation in their home country has changed”, adding that it was right they were “protected from harm and given a fair hearing in the asylum system”.

Plans to tackle overstaying were already being worked on before the local elections.

Everyone’s attacking Obi, while he worries about Nigeria — Former NERC chair, Amadi

An ex-chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, and Director of the Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, Sam Amadi, has lamented what he described as the growing pattern of unwarranted attacks on former Labour Party LP presidential candidate, Peter Obi, by senior government officials.

This was as he noted that while Nigerian politicians talk about him, Obi talks only about Nigeria’s undeserving condition.

Amadi, in a commentary he shared on his official X account, observed that it has become a troubling trend for members of the present administration to frequently target Obi, despite his consistent focus on Nigeria’s dire socio-economic realities, rather than on personalities.

The former NERC chairman cited the recent criticisms from the Presidency, the Governor of Lagos State, and Senate President, Godswill Akpabio as examples of this misplaced focus.

DAILY POST reports that Obi had recently stated that the “labour of our heroes past has gone in vain”-a sobering reflection on the country’s current state of affairs.

The observation was met with a sharp rebuke from Senator Akpabio, who accused the former governor of Anambra State of being disrespectful and dishonouring the legacy of Nigeria’s founding fathers.

Lagos State Governor had also lashed out at Obi, reacting to comments he made during a recent foreign engagement, where he critiqued the country’s economic trajectory.

In the same vein, the Presidency had earlier dismissed Obi’s ideas and proposals on governance and economic reform. Amadi, however, offered a counter-narrative, arguing that while the political elite expend significant energy attacking Obi, the man himself remains resolutely focused on Nigeria’s structural challenges and the urgent need for reform.

“If elections were a purely rational exercise, Peter Obi is so far the only candidate who ought to be elected”, Amadi stated.

He bemoaned what he called the disproportionate attention paid to Obi by high-ranking government figures, asserting that Obi has steered clear of personal attacks and has, instead, consistently advanced a vision for national renewal rooted in prudence, accountability, and economic revitalisation.

Everyone’s attacking Obi, while he worries about Nigeria — Former NERC chair, Amadi