Former President Olusegun Obasanjo says
President Muhammadu Buhari may not do well in economy and foreign
affairs, except in military matters.
“Buhari is not a very hot person on the economy and foreign affairs,” Obasanjo said.
The former President stated this on
Monday at the third International Conference on African Development
Issues — themed, “Driving inclusive and sustainable development in
Africa: Models, methods and policies” — organised by Covenant
University, Ota, Ogun State.
While reacting to a question posed to
him by a member of the audience: “Is there any hope for Nigeria under
the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari?”, Obasanjo replied,
“Is there any hope for Nigeria under this administration? I came back
from Geneva, Switzerland a few days ago to attend a conference titled,
‘Are elections giving democracy a bad name?’ We had an election, we
elected a leader and the good thing about democracy is that the power
you have to elect a leader is also the power you have to remove him. I
am saying this because I said earlier that if you don’t see any leader
that has done well in the 56 years of Nigeria’s independence, then let
us forget about Nigeria.
The emergency meeting of the National
Executive Committee of the Nigeria Labour Congress on Friday took a
decision to embark on “total strike” on Wednesday to protest the
increase in the fuel pump price from N86 and N86.50k to N145 per litre
by the Federal Government.
The meeting, which was also attended by
all the major civil society organisations based in Abuja, was chaired by
the President of the NLC, Mr. Ayuba Wabba.
The meeting, which was held at the Olaitan Oyerinde Hall of the Labour House, Abuja, started at about 4pm and ended by 5:25 pm.
The Peoples Democratic Party has
recently been plagued with one crisis after another and a major test
before it is tied to who emerges the party’s national chairman at its
next convention, GBENRO ADEOYE writes
From all indications, now is the time
for the Peoples Democratic Party to be united and strong, but
ironically, it seems to be the time the party is at its weakest point in
its 17-year history.
Since the party was relegated to the
main opposition status after losing the presidential seat to the ruling
All Progressives Congress in 2015, the tale has been about one
wrangling or the other- all internal. And there seems to be no immediate
end in sight to the ongoing crisis in the erstwhile biggest political
party in Africa.
Indeed, the party is at a crossroads and
some decisions made ahead of the 2019 general elections look set to
either make or mar the party’s chances to discover its lost relevance.
But there is one major decision to be
made first, which will decide the fate of the party’s current National
Chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff beyond May 21, 2016- the date of the party’s
national convention.
By all standards, Sheriff is arguably
the most unpopular chairman in the party’s history, so the test before
him and his backers are quite stiff. Although, Sheriff has enjoyed
considerable support from PDP governors, he has largely failed to win
some other key caucuses of the party to his side.
Seventy three suspects who specialise in
cultivating and dealing in cannabis have been arrested by the National
Drug Law Enforcement Agency.
The suspects made up of 60 males and 13
females were apprehended in Edo State with 10,094.75kgs of cannabis
between January and March 2016.
A statement by NDLEA spokesperson, Mr. Mitchell Ofoyeju, released on Thursday, described how the cannabis hauls were seized.
He said, “A cannabis laden Toyota Hilux
and a J5 bus with cannabis disguised as pineapple shipment were
impounded, while a warehouse located at the Okpuje forest, Owan West
Local Government Area of Edo State, was detected and 2,590kgs of
cannabis were seized.
“Four notorious drug dealers at Ekpoma,
Auchi and Benin as well as five young farmers from Taraba and Plateau
States are among those being investigated for cannabis cultivation and
trafficking by narcotic undercover operatives in Benin City. The Edo
State Command exhibit room is already filled to capacity with over
80,000kgs of cannabis.”
A former governor of Jigawa State, Sule
Lamido, on Monday said he would contest the nation’s Presidency on the
platform of the Peoples Democratic Party in 2019.
Lamido made this known to newsmen in his
village, Bamainain, which is located in the Birnin-Kudu Local
Government Area of the state.
He, however, said the party’s ticket
would not be given to anybody on the platter of gold, adding that a
candidate must earn it.
“If my party finds me worthy of its presidential ticket to serve Nigeria, I will thank God and oblige.
“Although there are issues in the party that we are all working to resolve; we hope to have success soon and come out united.
“As I’m talking to you now, we are
working silently to resolve our differences and bring back to our fold
those that left the party for the All Progressives Congress,” he said.
The former governor said that the internal crisis within the PDP was the reason for its defeat in the 2015 general election.
He said that the party had the capacity
to rule the country again, stressing, however, that the members must
work hard to achieve that.
Lamido denied any rift between him and his successor, Governor Muhammad Badaru of the AP
The Oyo State Police Command has arrested 21 robbery suspects in various parts of the state.
According to the state Commissioner of
Police, Leye Oyebade, some of the suspects were recently released from
prison. Among the suspects is a six-man gang, said to operate in Oyo,
Ogbomoso and Ilorin.
They suspects are Aliyu Azeez, 28;
Olanrewaju Ajayi, 23; Kehinde Abiodun, 28; Adeleke ADeyemi, 26; Teslim
Muhammed, 26; and Adamu Muhammed, 23. Leader of the gang, Teslim
Muhammed, said they were arrested after taking delivery of guns in
Ilorin.
He said, “We had yet to make use of the
weapons when we were arrested. After the guys who brought the guns to us
were arrested, they implicated us and brought the police to our hideout
in Agbabiaka area of Ilorin. The guns were actually brought to me. We
all met at different occasions. I knew Azeez through a friend called
Tosin.”
The member of the All Progressives
Congress representing Awe-South state constituency at the Nasarawa State
House of Assembly, Mr. Yahaya Rilwanu, has been attacked by some youths
who alleged that he did not deliver the dividends of democracy to them.
The youths were said to be APC members from Ribi town.
It was gathered that a fight broke out
between the supporters of the lawmaker and the angry youths who demanded
the dividends of democracy from the lawmaker.
The crisis allegedly followed an altercation between one of the youths on the entourage of Rilwanu and one of the Ribi youths.
The Movement for the Actualisation of
the Sovereign State of Biafra on Monday replied the leaders of the
South-East chapter of the All Progressives Congress, who advised
pro-Biafra groups in the zone to forget the struggle for the secession
of Biafra.
MASSOB said it would not abandon the
struggle. It urged the Igbo and the members of the other ethnic
nationalities in the South-East to disregard the advice of the Igbo APC
chieftains.
In a communiqué issued after a meeting
in Enugu on Friday, the leaders of the South-East zone of the APC urged
MASSOB and other pro-Biafra groups to have a ‘rethink’ and give up the
struggle for the actualisation of an independent state of Biafra.
“We call on all the groups agitating for
separation from Nigeria, particularly the Indigenous Peoples of Biafra
and the Movement for the Actualisation of the Sovereign State of Biafra
to rethink and abandon the idea, and join other ethnic groups in
building a formidable Nigeria where all Nigerians will be equally
treated in line with the constitution of the Federal Republic of
Nigeria,” the South-East APC leaders said in the communiqué.
Anti-riot policemen have blocked the BringBackOurGirls
members from accessing the presidential villa where they planned to hold
a press conference.
The DPO, Asokoro Police Station, CSP, Grace Longe said the
protesters cannot be allowed to access the villa for security reasons.
The BBOG is currently holding its world media conference to
commemorate the two years anniversary of the abduction of 219 Chibok
schoolgirls at the entrance road to the presidential villa.
OLUSOLA FABIYI
writes on the plan by the main opposition party, the Peoples Democratic
Party, to poach from the ruling All Progressives Congress in its
build-up to 2019
Of all the 30 political parties in the
country, only the Peoples Democratic Party has a functional church built
within its premises. There is also a mosque, all within the compound of
the party’s national headquarters located at Wadata Plaza, Wuse Zone 5,
Abuja.
Activities within the church, which is
known as PDP National Chapel, picked up a few days to the conduct of the
last general elections, which the party lost to the All Progressives
Congress. The party, however, didn’t limit its prayers to the church
and the mosque alone.
On Tuesday, members of the party
gathered at the National Executive Hall. One of the agendas of the
meeting was to inaugurate the four committees set up by the party’s
National Working Committee.
The committees were those of the
National Convention, Reconciliation, Finance and Zoning. As usual, the
party would not start any business without appealing to God to be in
their business.
The lot of who to appeal to God in
prayer fell on a former Chief of Staff to former President Goodluck
Jonathan, Mr. Mike Ogiadome. Picking his words carefully, he said the
loss of the election was not that God was not ready to hear the prayers
of members of the party, but that the party and its members had offended
God.
It was with rapt attention that members
of the party including its National Chairman, Sen. Ali Modu Sheriff,
members of the NWC and governors listened when Ogiadome launched into
prayers.
He said, “We offended God. We had done
what we ought not to have done. We were to rule for 60 years, but we
offended you God. That was why we were defeated during the last
election. Father, forgive us and give us back the Presidency in 2019.”
The hall, which was filled to the brim, roared with a thunderous “amen.”
“Father, we have learnt our mistake.
Return our party to Aso Rock in 2019,” he further prayed, and with a
renewed vigour, the members of the party answered with a more vibrant
“amen”.
The leadership of the party, however,
seemed to have realised that prayer without action might amount to
nothing in the country’s political space. Hence, since the party lost
the general election to its challenger, the All Progressives Congress,
in 2015, it had begun moves to rally round its disgruntled members on
how to regain power.
Several meetings had been called while
strategists were asked to examine the remote and immediate causes of the
party’s monumental defeat; the first of its kind the party suffered
since 1999 when the country returned to democratic rule.
This was why it said it was abiding by
the suggestion made by its committee on Post Election Review headed by
Deputy Senate President, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, by zoning the PDP
presidential ticket for the 2019 elections to the North.
A human rights lawyer, Mr. Femi Falana
(SAN), has advised the Federal Government to shelve its plan to obtain
$2bn loan from China.
He said instead of “plunging the nation
into more indebtedness” the Federal Government should intensify efforts
to recover some funds totalling about $200bn which were either not
remitted to the Federation Account or stolen from the nation’s treasury.
Falana gave this advice in a letter
dated April 8, 2016, addressed to the Minister of Finance, Mrs. Kemi
Adeosun, threatening to sue the Federal Government if his request was
not taken seriously.
He said, “In the light of the foregoing,
we are compelled to call on the Federal Government to muster the
political will and courage to recover the aforesaid withheld or stolen
wealth of not less than $200bn belonging to the Nigerian people.
The umbrella body of Ijaw youths, the
Ijaw Youth Council Worldwide, has alleged that the Economic and
Financial Crimes Commission is laying a foundation for the arrest of
former President Goodluck Jonathan.
The IYC, however, advised the anti-graft
agency to shelve any plan to “persecute” the former President,
insisting that such a move would spell doom for the Muhammadu Buhari
administration.
Speaking at a news conference on
Saturday to mark the burial of a former Bayelsa State Governor, Chief
Diepreye Alamieyeseigha, the IYC President, Mr. Udengs Eradiri, said
most of the close allies of Jonathan had been arrested by the EFCC.
He particularly condemned the recent
arrest and detention of Jonathan’s cousin and contractor, Mr. Robert
Azibaola, over an alleged $40m contract fraud.
Eradiri said Ijaw youths would not allow
Azibaola, Jonathan or any rising Ijaw leader to be persecuted by the
EFCC, the way the Federal Government dealt with the late Alamieyeseigha.
The General Overseer, Latter Rain
Assembly, Lagos, Pastor Tunde Bakare, has lampooned politicians and
political parties for using the abduction of 219 Chibok schoolgirls to
score cheap political points.
He noted that the nation had not given
the issue the necessary thoughtfulness and seriousness it deserved,
stressing that those who are in a position to act have not taken
sufficient action towards addressing it or even towards calming the
anxiety of the waiting Chibok parents.
The cleric said this in a sermon on
Sunday during the thanksgiving service to mark the global action week in
commemoration of the second anniversary of the abduction of the
schoolgirls organised by the BringBackOurGirls coalition at the Unity Fountain, Abuja.
Bakare stated that the girls would have
been rescued if they were children of the political and religious elite
and appealed to President Muhammadu Buhari to prioritise their rescue
in the midst of the numerous challenges before him. He stressed that the
girls had become the symbols of the soul of the nation.
