Category: Politics

Protocols,

Gentlemen of the Press,

APC HAS MURDERED DEMOCRACY

We have called you this afternoon to join our voices and anger with that of Nigerians and all lovers of democracy in condemning what happened in the National Assembly yesterday Thursday and today Friday.

How a representative of the people enjoying their mandate blatantly turned their back on them and toed the line of a political party interest that is clearly against the people.
By the choice of the All Progressives Congress, APC to put party interest before National interest, they have vividly murdered democracy by the actions of their members in the two chambers of the National Assembly yesterday and today. For us in PDP, today is a Black Friday for democracy.

It’s an established fact in all democracies world wide that a free, fair and credible election is the tripod of any democracy. The action of APC in swaying their members against Electronic transmission of Election Results clearly undermines and shows in unmistaken terms that APC is not ready to face the Nigerian electorates.

It also shows that the dilly-dallying of APC all the while in amending the Electoral Act is deliberate as they never wanted from inception to do anything that will deepen democracy in our country.

This is notwithstanding that the party is a huge beneficiary of Electoral Reform carried out by the PDP administration.

We therefore unequivocally condemn and reject the amendment of Electoral Act as passed by the National Assembly and urge President Muhammadu Buhari to fulfil his anti-corruption crusade and see this as corruption and the big

scam.

The PDP will take all necessary legal steps to ensure that this APC scam is not allowed to stand in any way.
We therefore call on all lovers of democracy who see free, fair and transparent election as vital, to stand up against this fraud.

Before I end these remarks gentlemen of the Press, may I commend members of the PDP in the two chambers for standing up for democracy when it mattered. History will be favourable to them.

I like to also urge the Press as vanguard in the democratic struggle to take up their arms against this anti democratic action.

Thanks for your attention and God bless. Happy Sallah in advance.

The Arewa Youth Consultative Forum, AYCF, on Thursday declared that the North still has four years to rule Nigeria, after the tenure of President Muhammadu Buhari.

AYCF National President, Yerima Shettima made the declaration while faulting Southern governors call for a rotational presidency in 2023.

Speaking exclusively with DAILY POST, Shettima insisted that former Presidents, Olusegun Obasanjo and Goodluck Jonathan ruled Nigeria for 14 years in favour of the South, while late Musa Yar’Adua and Buhari would have ruled for 10 years in 2023, hence the North has four years outstanding.

Southern governors had demanded that the Southern part of the country should produce Nigeria’s next president in 2023.

They made the call during a meeting in Lagos State.

Reacting, Shettima noted that Southern governors cannot intimidate the North with such decisions.

He said: “That is their personal view which is not binding on Nigerians and Northerners.

“We are in a democracy and it must be practiced with all inclusiveness; as far as we are concerned, it’s not binding on anybody and nobody will abide by such resolution.

“If we are talking about justice, it was not served to us as far as we are concerned, because there is no way Obasanjo would have had eight years uninterrupted, Yar’Adua only did two years then Jonathan took over as an acting president in 2009 and in 2011, Jonathan should not have contested going by the arrangement.

“North is supposed to have eight years uninterrupted but there was interruption due to natural or unforseen circumstances we found ourselves in.

“We foresaw a day like this coming, Jonathan contested in 2011 and won the election. He had six years while Obasanjo had eight years; all in favour of the Southern part of the country. Jonathan and Obasanjo did 14 years in favour of the South.

“After the death of Yar’Adua, the two years outstanding with Buhari’s eight years, if he finishes, you discover that North has only 10 years; so where lies the remaining four years, where is justice?

“We insist that nobody can intimidate us, I will say it again, nobody, not even the Southern governors can intimidate the North as it is today.

“The decision of the Southern governors is purely their business and is not binding on any of us in the North.”

“Those castigating me for wearing the “Dot!Nation” Polo should know that i can even wear it to Aso Rock if anything carries me there.

“There’s nothing an Igbo man will do in this country that people will not talk. If an Igbo man goes to Hausa land or Yoruba land and purchase a land, build a small house and start up a business, God being on his side, he start progressing, others will start envying him.

“Those people envying him might even be in that land before the Igbo man came and they saw the land, yet unable to buy any but ones the Igbo man steps up, everyone will start shouting he’s now taking over our land.

“Give the Igbo people a little opportunity to be on their own and watch them do the unimaginable within a very short period of time.

“Mr. President said we are like a dot in a circle and i am trying to replicate what he said, yet people are complaining, some are crying and while others have developed sudden High Blood Pressure over a common Polo.”

The Human Rights Writers Association of Nigeria, HURIWA, has called on President Muhammadu Buhari to change the name of the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning to “Ministry of Foreign Loans Collection.”

HURIWA made the call while lamenting the continuous loan applications by the ministry.

The frontline rights group, in a statement by its National Coordinator, Emmanuel Onwubiko said: “Vexed by the unrelenting applications by the Federal Ministry of Finance and Budget for foreign loans since the assumption of office of the President Muhammadu Buhari’s government in 2015, a call has gone to the President to rename the ministry of finance and Budget to Ministry for foreign loans collection.

“We honestly think that the President should table before his weak Federal Executive Council the proposal for a change of name of the Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National planning to the Federal Ministry for Foreign Loans and Debts accumulation.

“This is because Nigerians have come to see that the Minister of Finance Zainab Ahmed does nothing else than inundating Nigerians with the bad news of the constant requests from all kinds of places around the world for external loans which are actually not been utilised to grow the economy or advance the living conditions of Nigerians but these huge loans are used to service the ballooning costs of running government and paying juicy allowances to Federal government officials”.

HURIWA also dismissed as puerile and distasteful, the opinion credited to the Senate President, Ahmed Lawan for saying that Nigeria will continue to apply for foreign loans because the nation is poor.

The Rights group said it “made no sense to accept such a fallacy from the Senate President because in the first place, Nigeria is not poor but resource rich but has poor and corruption infested political leadership and importantly, poor nations without resources aren’t given or granted loans by creditors unless such debtors have collateral by way of resources that the creditors like China can fall back on if Nigeria fails to meet her repayment conditionality.”

HURIWA said: “If Nigeria was such a poor country, creditors like IMF, World Bank, China, Paris Club and London Club won’t be falling on each other to extend loans and credit facilities to a poor nation which is why China for instance has a proviso for sovereign guarantee before awarding those frivolous loans because China is aware of the resource rich nature of Nigeria.”

The right group frowned against the backdrops of the latest approval by the National Assembly of a further $6.18 billion foreign loan by Buhari, stressing that the essence of setting up a ministry of finance is to fashion out and effectively implement sustainable and viable financial mechanisms for aggressively boosting the economy of Nigeria and Nigerians and for promotion of the principles of transparency, accountability and good governance through good policies.

HURIWA also lamented that whereas most nations of the world are concentrating her economic and national planning efforts towards boosting the productivity of the citizens and Gross Domestic Products of their countries through industralisation and the administration and maintenance of public works and social infrastructures to create enabling environment for private sector businesses to thrive and drive economic growth, the federal and state governments in Nigeria are in the bonanza of collecting foreign credit facilities and loans so as to finance the ostentatious political lifestyles of the politicians in the corridors of power.

A former Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission, Prof Attahiru Jega, has warned the Senate against confirming the appointment of a presidential aide, Lauretta Onochie, as a National Commissioner of the Independent National Electoral Commission to avoid controversy.

The former INEC boss said this while featuring on Sunday Politics, a current affairs programme on Channels Television, on Sunday night.

Onochie had on Thursday during her screening by the Senate Committee on INEC, denied being a member of the All Progressives Congress since 2019.

But Jega said, “This kind of controversy is really avoidable. Any person who generated such a controversy; the appointing authorities should be careful because you don’t want to appoint anybody that can raise suspicions or doubts or can lead to a loss of trust of the electoral management body.

Buhari administration plans to lift 100 million Nigerians out of poverty in 10 years will not be based on a business as usual approach, but a very simple, common sense strategy that will deliver the results as the President promised, says Vice President Yemi Osinbajo (SAN).

According to him, “I really want us to approach this as much as possible, commonsensically, so that we are able to resolve all the issues and focus on the real progress.

“I want us to look beyond all of what we are going to be doing, there is going to be a considerable amount of paper work, but a lot of common sense is what grows economies. It’s what other countries have done, not really reinventing the wheel. So, I want us to focus on those commonsensical things, so that we can actually move forward.”

Citing the example of Bangladesh where a poverty reduction strategy was also implemented, the VP noted how the country’s manufacturing sector was key.

“Bangladesh actually exports more garment than we export oil,” the VP said.

A two-time member of the House of Representatives, Karimi Sunday, has added his voice to the quest for 2023, insisting that it is still the turn of the North to produce the President.

Karimi, who made the disclosure on Friday while throwing his support to the position of the Northern elders, said it is still the turn of the North to produce the next President in 2023.

Karimi Represented Yagba Federal Constituency in the National Assembly between 2011 and 2019.

He said: “Since in 1999 the rotation started from the South and ended in the North, it should start from where it ended as it’s the normal practice for rotational agreement.

“Where you do contribution, it normally starts again from the endpoint.

“Also between 1999 and 2023, Chief Olusegun Obasanjo from the South-West ruled for eight years and handed over to Alhaji Shehu Musa Yar’ adua, who ruled for two years and died.

“President Goodluck Jonathan ruled for six years and handed over to President Muhammadu Buhari, who will complete his eight years in 2023.”

Karimi maintained that “Since the South has a combined period of 14 years while the North will complete 10 years in 2023, for the sake of equity, the next President should come from another geo-political zone from the North, preferably North Central.

The House of Representatives has passed for second reading, a bill seeking to amend the 1999 Constitution to allow creation of state police and legalise regional security outfits. The current police system will be decentralised by moving police from the Exclusive Legislative List to the Concurrent List.

Chairman of the House Committee on Judiciary, Onofiok Luke, who sponsored the bill, said in the explanatory note that the bill seeks to alter the Constitution “to provide for state police and other state government security services to enhance security and preservation of lives and properties in Nigeria”.

The bill especially proposes an amendment to Section 197(1) by inserting new Paragraphs ‘e’ and ‘f’ to provide for ‘State Police Council’ and ‘State Police Service Commission,’ respectively.

The new paragraphs read, “(9) A State Police Council shall comprise the following members: (a) the governor, who shall be the chairman; (b) the chairman of the State Police Service Commission; and (c) State Commissioner of Police.

The Lagos House of Assembly on Monday passed an amended version of the Criminal Justice Law of the state barring the police from henceforth parading suspects before the media.

The bill was passed at a sitting presided over by the Deputy Speaker, Wasiu Eshilokun-Sanni, on behalf of the Speaker, Rt. Hon. (Dr) Mudashiru Obasa.

The bill further stipulates conditions under which a policeman can arrest without warrant one of which is that a person must be reasonably suspected to unlawfully be in possession of firearms or other such dangerous instruments.

A subsection of the bill also barred the police or any other agency from arresting a person “in lieu of any other person in a criminal matter.”

The bill adds that a person who is arrested “shall be given reasonable facilities for obtaining legal advice, bail or making arrangements for defence or release.

We have the law for the North and the law for the South.
In the North, terrorists are called bandits, government negotiate with them and pay them huge amount of money for their terrorism.

In the South, unarmed freedom fighters are called terrorists, government arrest them and even kill them at will.
In the North, police don’t arrest criminals or extort motorists.
In the South, police arrest innocent citizens and extort motorists.

In the North, Islamic police (Hisbah) arrest Nigerian police for drinking alcohol.
In the South, police arrest vigilantes that drink alcohol and label them criminals.

In the North, Northern youths can kill innocent Southerners and no one will arrest them.

In the South, Southern youths get arrested for attacking armed Fulani herdsmen.

How will people believe in One Nigeria with these treatments?