Category: Politics

Already, a proposed sale of 12 attack aircrafts and 28 helicopter engines worth $857 million has been put on hold.

Foreign policy observed that Western governments and international human rights organisations had ramped up their criticisms of the Nigerian government, particularly, in the wake of its ban on Twitter, systemic corruption issues, and the Nigerian military’s role in deadly crackdowns on protesters after widespread demonstrations against Police brutality last year.

Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Bob Menendez, called for a “fundamental rethink of the framework of our overall engagement” with Nigeria during a Senate hearing with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

We have insisted on due process and the presentation of hard evidence before my friend and brother Sunday Igboho can be extradited from Cotonou to Nigeria.

We have condemned the illegal manner in which the Kenyan authorities kidnapped Nnamdi Kanu and returned him to Nigeria.

Those that are complaining about us asking for due process and insisting on the presentation of hard evidence before a court of law before Abba Kyari can be extradicted to America are myopic and naive.

You cannot insist on due process for Igboho and Nnamdi Kanu and deny it to Abba Kyari.

You cannot be selective in your application of justice.
You cannot have it both ways: you either believe in the rule of law or you do not. You either believe in due process, fairness, equity and justice or you do not.

We stood up for Allen Onyeama of Air Peace when the Americans wanted his head. In the end he was vindicated as there was no hard evidence against him and we discovered that the whole thing was a conspiracy to destroy him and take over his business.

Why should we not accord Abba the same benefit of the doubt or protection given the fact that he is also a Nigerian. Or is it that some Nigerians are more equal than others?

The fact that Abba is a policeman or a northern Muslim does not mean we should feed him to the dogs. The fact that he was in SARS does not mean we should crucify him.

Resigning our sovereignty to the Americans and acting as if they are God by considering one of our own guilty simply because they have indicted him or wish to investigate him is utterly shameful.

I accord the same presumption of innocence unless and until proven guilty by a court of law to Abba as I do to Sunday and Nnamdi.

I refuse to apply the rules and the law selectively. I refuse to allow my emotions to becloud my better judgement.

I refuse to associate myself with any witch hunt or to be infected by a herd and lynch mob mentality.

This is because I have been a victim of such myself many times in the past and I know what it is like.

We are all equal before the law and we must not apply it selectively or on a regional, religious or ethnic basis.

It is Sunday, Abba and Nnamdi today: it could be you tomorrow. And when that happens the only thing left to protect you from injustice are God and the law.

Morale of the tale: always be cautious before you condemn and assume guilt and always insist on hearing the other side of the story and seeing the evidence before you accept the assertions and allegations of either the state or an individual as being true and valid.

There is nothing more grievous before God than to send an innocent man to the gallows or to wrongly accuse the innocent and it comes with curses.

President Muhammadu Buhari is set to construct three new custodial centres with 3,000 capacity to ease congestion in correctional homes in the country,

The Minister of Interior, Mr Rauf Aregbesola, made this known on Friday at the inauguration of the Nigerian Correctional Service, Osun State Command Headquarters Complex, in Osogbo.

Aregbesola said the new custodial facilities would be cited in Karchi in Abuja, Kano, and Bori in Rivers.

According to the minister, each of the facilities will have courts for the trial of inmates.

He said the Federal Government’s plan was to extend the construction of such capacity custodial centres to the six
geopolitical zones in the country.

The minister disclosed that the custodial project in Kano was near completion.

Aregbesola said when the custodial projects were completed, they would help to ease congestion considerably and enhance the capacity to manage facilities for corrections of inmates.

The minister explained that the national custodial centres currently had the capacity to accommodate 57,278 inmates.

“But as of the last count, earlier in the week, there is a total population of 68,747 inmates, indicating an overpopulation capacity of 18 per cent,” he said.

He said the government had been addressing the challenges of congestion.

The minister noted that at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ministries of Interior and Justice initiated a presidential pardon and amnesty programme for inmates.

According to him, some federal offenders benefited from the
programme and got reprieve, while the state governments got recommendations and guidelines for the release of their own convicts.

Aregbesola said that over 5,000 inmates had so far been released under the programme.

The Permanent Secretary, State House, Tijjani Umar on Tuesday in Abuja asked staff members to take oaths of secrecy while threatening whoever is found guilty of leaking inside information with stiff penalties.

He said staff members who disclose confidential information without authorisation will face penalties under the public service rules.

The Permanent Secretary stated this at the administration of Oath of Secrecy and Declaration of Secrecy to 42 staff members of the State House, POLITICS NIGERIA reports.

The Oath of Secrecy was administered by Justice Hamza Muazu of the Federal Capital Territory High Court.

According to the Umar, the oaths were administered to staff members who handle classified documents.

‘‘We discovered that due to deployment of officers and retirement, a number of our staff need to be placed under the radar so that they will be aware that their jobs, the kind of documents or information they are handling from day to day and beyond, are so important and must be safeguarded.

‘‘That’s the reason we decided to do the needful by administering the Oath of Secrecy, highlighting the importance of letting them know what information they are managing and the consequences of the breach of such information,’’ he said.

The Permanent Secretary noted that even though there had not been any breach, thr exercise will be continuous.

‘‘We have not had any breach. We don’t anticipate having any breach.

‘‘But then it’s our duty to let them understand that if there is any, there will be consequences after investigations and that also include after they have retired from the Civil Service,’’ he added.

Earlier before the administration of the Oaths, Mr Tukur Yahaya, the Director of Special Services Department, Office of the Secretary to the Government of the Federation, took the staff members through a sensitisation process, explaining the essence of the Official Secrets Act, 1962.

‘‘The essence of this exercise is to ensure the safety and security of government information, documents and facilities,’’ he said.

The Northern Elders Forum has advised the next political party that will take over the helms of national affairs to prepare itself for a very difficult assignment of fixing the country.

According to the forum’s spokesman, Hakeem Baba-Ahmed, the President Muhammadu Buhari’s ruling All Progressive Congress would have completely wrecked Nigeria by 2023 with the growing insecurity and economic woes.

Baba-Ahmed stated this during an interview on Channels Television on Monday, while also blaming the nation’s ruling elite for the failure of the country.

He said the country’s current challenges were not just as a result of banditry and kidnapping activities but also leadership failure.

He said, “What are you going to do with 2023 because between now and 2023, APC would have completely wrecked this country? You are going to take over a country that has been completely destroyed by a party that has been substantially produced by the PDP and how are you going to fix this country? What’s your blueprint for what happens to Nigeria in 2023?”

Nigeria has been experiencing a series of security threats ranging from terrorism, banditry, militancy, cultism among others in several parts of the country.

The country has been ravaged by terrorism for more than 10 years – a menace which has claimed the lives of over 36,000 people and forced hundreds of thousands to be homeless in the North-East.

The Islamic State of West African Province (ISWAP) split from the jihadist group Boko Haram in 2016 and has since turned a dominant threat in Nigeria, attacking troops and bases while killing and kidnapping passengers at bogus checkpoints.

On March 1, the insurgents razed a United Nations humanitarian compound in the town of Dikwa after dislodging troops, killing six civilians.

Nigeria’s jihadist violence has spread to neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger, prompting a regional military coalition to fight the insurgents.

Ahead of the 2023 general elections, the presidency has asked that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) forget about returning to power in 2023, as the masses will trust President Muhammadu Buhari during the next general election cycle.

These comments were made by Garba Shehu, a presidential spokesperson on Tuesday. Mr Shehu described Mr Buhari as a “strong factor” in the politics of the country.

“The president is entrenched politically. He is such a strong factor in the politics of this country and nobody can wish him away using tweets,” Mr Shehu said while addressing the press in Katsina.

He also addressed the ruling party’s opposition, asking them to set aside their ambitions to gain political power in the next cycle as Mr Buhari enjoys “unshakeable support” from the masses.

“I think it is in the interest of the opposition particularly, to admit that the president matters a lot to the people of this country. He matters to the party and the unshakeable support he enjoys in Daura and this country cannot be wished away, whether you are using digital media or propaganda,” Mr Shehu said, “We see PDP nursing the false hope of taking over power in 2023. The masses will never abandon President Buhari’s leadership. I’m sure in 2023, they’re waiting for him to show the way.”

Mr Shehu argues that nobody in the current administration will risk destroying the structures put in place in terms of the economy and welfare of Nigeria’s 200 million people by allowing another political party to take control of the machinery in 2023.

Senator Rufai Hanga, former Chairman of the defunct Congress for Progressive Change (CPC) says there was an agreement that the National leader of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Asiwaju Bola Ahmed Tinubu would succeed President Muhammadu Buhari in 2023.

Hanga said the purported agreement is the reason why Tinubu remains in the ruling party after Buhari’s first term.

“This is an open secret. There was an implied agreement. Even in law, there is implied and expressed act. If something is expressed, there are no two ways about it. There was an implied agreement that he would take over. That is why he didn’t back out after the first tenure. If Tinubu knew that he would not benefit, he would have backed out during Buhari’s first tenure. But he knows there was an agreement,” he said.

Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, on Friday, criticised the President, Major General Muhammadu Buhari (retd), for ignoring the calls to ban open grazing and approving N6.5bn for ranching in his home state of Katsina.

Ortom, who spoke to journalists in Makurdi, described the decision as hypnotical and called on the President to extend the gesture to all the states of the federation.

The governor, who took credit for initiating the call for ranching in the country, argued that Benue State deserved to be given a N100bn ranching grant.

He said, “I also read somewhere that Mr. President approved N6.5bn for ranching in Katsina State. What kind of hypocrisy is this? Are we a serious country at all?

“It is hypocrisy for the Federal Government to approve money for ranching in a state and leave others out. In fact, the governor of the state, in his remarks, said N5bn had already been remitted to their coffers. So, I begin to wonder where we are headed.

“Our agitation in Benue State since 2017 has been for ranching and the governor of Katsina State said it is un-Islamic for anybody to talk about open grazing,” the governor said.

Former governor of Osun State, Olagunsoye Oyinlola, has revealed that former President Olusegun Obasanjo warned the leaders who supported President Muhammadu Buhari in 2015 that the General was unfit to govern the country.

The former governor bemoaned what he described as “the failure” of President Buhari, to deliver on his campaign promises.

Oyinlola, who said that he played a critical role in the campaign that brought Buhari to power, said he was regretful of his action, adding that he should have listened to former President Olusegun Obasanjo’s warning that Buhari was unfit to govern the country.

The former governor said this in an interview he granted BBC Yoruba, which was monitored by Newsflash Nigeria.

Oyinlola said, “I am saddened that Buhari said he did not know what restructuring is. I played an important role in the process that brought Buhari to power. One of the policies we sold to the South was restructuring but it was shocking that in an interview, the President said he didn’t know the meaning of restructuring. May God forgive us and have mercy because this was contrary to what we envisaged.

“We made a lot of promises to the people but none of the promises he made has been fulfilled, especially on the security issues. It was like Boko Haram would be forgotten within six months of Buhari’s becoming the President. Chief Olusegun Obasanjo warned us that Buhari was not fit to run the country but we did not listen to him.

“We thought that since he was once a military Head of State, he would know how best to handle the insecurity that the country was faced with. Since we gained independence, and civil war, there’s no moment scarier than what we have now.

Former governor of Abia State and the lawmaker representing Abia North Senatorial District in the Senate at the Senate plenary on Thursday stated that he voted against the use of electronic means to transmit election result by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) during the debate of the on the Electoral Act Amendment Bill 2021 because there was mobile phone network in his village.

Kalu who was called upon by the Clerk of the Senate to cast his vote for or against the electronic transmission of result by INEC said:

“Because there is no coverage in my village, Senator Abaribe knows that that there is no coverage in my village, where we come from, I vote NO.”

Sen. Kalu is from Igbere, a suburban town in Bende Local Government Area of Abia State. Igbere is located 66 miles from Aba the Commercial City of Abia State and about 50 kilometres from Umuahia, the Abia State capital. The town is barely 8kilometre from Abriba, a major town in the state with very high GSM network coverage.