₦airaland Forum

"We can't afford $5m a day for rice shipments in this country. It's gone on for 40 years. And I assure you that it's our reckless policy of importation that's brought Nigeria down to where she is now.

Those who keep talking of imports either don't mean Nigeria well or simply refuse to recognise the fact that we can't afford the imports."

People keep screaming at Buhari "open up all the borders, let the rice come in" but they always behave bury their head in the sand like the Ostrich ignoring the above.

It has gotten to a point, where the nation can no longer afford the unbridled importation of rice. We just have to tell ourselves the cold truth and move with it.

As a matter of urgency, we should declare an emergency on rice cultivation and production. We should be able to feed ourselves.

They should not force the hand of the Acting President with this cooked report abeg.

One nonsense nameless person wrote some trash, and wrote APC at the bottom and people are already believing.

APC has a new spokesperson and that statement was not issued by the person.

some people no go like this.

The protest actually is a little confusing.

It will really make no difference because it is not directed at a specific policy of government that a reversal is desired.

Instead of this ambiguous protest that boko haram may use protestants as bombing targets, people should just be ready to go to the polls to vote the candidate of their choice in 2019.

GreyLaw:
No, we are not preempting the future, and we know all the constitution says as regards this matter. Point is, if the three-month period elapses, the guy, Onnoghen, is gone.

Yes, the president would not have run foul of the consitution if he does not substantiate the ACJN, but remember what I said earlier: the president's leanings in terms of appointments do not favour his image, as he has hitherto had this penchant for appointing his fellows from up north into sensitive positions, hence the noise from Nigerians.

Is Justice Onnoghen the only JSC from the South??

When the Service Chiefs were appointed all of them had seniors.

The Chief of Defence Staff from Ekiti had lots of seniors from the North.

Even the Chief of Naval Staff from Cross River state had other people from the North as his seniors but they were all bypassed and he was appointed.

The position of CJN is not the birthright of Justice Onnoghen. The president can decide to bypasss him and the substitute nomination and request further nominations.

You people should stop talking as if it must only be Justice Onnoghen.

The constitution does not impose such seniority succession plan, it came by convention and it's rigidity can result in a wrong candidate getting appointed no matter the stains on his/her dossier.

The framers of the constitution that gave the elected leader of the country the prerogative of appointment, as it is also applicable in so many other countries of the world knows what they were doing.

Justice Onnoghen is not the only Justice of the Supreme court. The president can decide to bypass him and request the nomination of another person. Recall that the last time we had a CJN from the south also coincide with when Buhari was the Head of State.

Infact the NJC is supposed to be giving presidents flexibility by nominating as many as 5 persons. Instead of trying to tie the hand of the president.

The reason for this seemingly teleguiding of the president is simply because the NJC as presently constituted gives too much powers to the CJN. The senate needs to look into this and ensure the NJC is made more democratic.

GreyLaw:
Well, my point is that if Onnoghen is to become the CJN, he cannot wait two years like Magu, except there is another way around it. And this is in reference to the three-month time limit set on his position as Acting CJN.

The prerogative of appointment is with Mr. President according to the constitution. If the president decides to wait out the 3 months period, he has not run foul of the constitution.

In fact, the constitution clearly even specifies what should happen in case such a scenario occurs. Mr. President cannot be stampeded into making critical decisions in a hurry as he will be one to fully bear the blames of such decisions. Even if he eventually decides to bypass Justice Onnoghen, he still has not run foul of constitutional provisions on the appointment of the CJN.

The Acting tenure of Justice Onnoghen is not yet over, so we should not preempt what the future can birth.

GreyLaw:
I wanted to keep silent at your comment, but couldn't

Magu's position is one completely under executive purview: no time limit, no expiry put on his postion of 'acting chairman', plus, his name can be sent several times. In Magu's case, the complete prerogative lies with the president.

For Onnoghen's case, it is a completely different arm of government, with the constitution to back them up. Furthermore, there is a time limit of 3 months set to his position of ACJN in which case he'll be retired, I think, if he isn't confirmed as the substantial CJN. Thus, the president is doing his image a lot of harm by not sending the man's name for confirmation without giving Nigerians cogent reasons.

Finally, the President's antecedents do not speak well of him at all, especially in the area of fairness to all region in terms of appointments. Let him do whatever he wants, in the end, posterity will judge him.

dokyOloye:
Your master sheik Osama BinHary is quick to re-send Magu's name for confirmation after d senate rejected it d 1st time,in spite of heavy corruption allegations hanging on his head.
But when it's time for d CJN,U start trying to bamboozle us wt motion wtout movement English.
U think say all of us na illiterate almajiris?

agabusta:
And you Deliberately ignored the fact that Magu was in acting capacity for almost 2 years before his name was sent to the senate for confirmation.

As you can see, the person I replied was the one that used Magu as a comparison. Although there are lots of inconsistencies in your response, but I'll just let it pass, as my response was based mainly on the usage of Magu as an analogy by the poster I quoted.

Why is Wike going to court to stop the investigation by the IGP? I dont understand this country again oh.


Why is the court blackmailing a party to a case?

The court has not issued any orders to stay action and it is insinuating that the IG is expected to stay action on the issue till the court decides. Why cant the court just issue the said order instead of using style to blackmail the parties to a case.

mayorchelsea:
You can not send Magu's name to the NA twice for confirmation and not forward the name of the acting CJN and expect people not to think of religious or tribal sentiments,Buhari and his advisers sef!That's even if he listens to them.

agabusta:
And you Deliberately ignored the fact that Magu was in acting capacity for almost 2 years before his name was sent to the senate for confirmation.

I am sure if Magu was from the South, people like you would have claimed that was the reason he was in Acting capacity for so long.

dokyOloye:
Your master sheik Osama BinHary is quick to re-send Magu's name for confirmation after d senate rejected it d 1st time,in spite of heavy corruption allegations hanging on his head.
But when it's time for d CJN,U start trying to bamboozle us wt motion wtout movement English.
U think say all of us na illiterate almajiris?

And you Deliberately ignored the fact that Magu was in acting capacity for almost 2 years before his name was sent to the senate for confirmation.

When you hate so much without the capacity to do any harm to the one you hate, you start going insane.

That is exactly the problem with this slowpoke. You better change your ways before you die of hate.

It's only the one that hates that suffers. In fact, you posts aptly depicts that. It shows you have been chronically suffering all this while, which has pushed you to be vomiting this senseless trash.

Guyman02:
All Yoruba Billionaires made their money easily from aligning with Fulanis who gave them remnants of Oil Blocks in the Niger Delta including Adenuga, Tinubu, Otedola, Folawiyo, even the woman Tailor Alakija; thats why they sponsor media campaigns against Nnamdi Kanu for opening the eyes of more people in the SS and regular calls on the FG to crush the Avengers and bombard the creeks to kill those protesting the degradation of their environment.

The hatred of Igbos is mostly because they cant be fooled easily with propaganda, even the British failed in that direction with indirect rule and other schemes.

From this comment, it is obvious who is hating who.

jaymejate:
You people will just be finding all means to get money. Who licensed them before and where were you then?

They'd probably done that through settling some of you and now you want to get more money from them.

One word, thieves!

So what do you think is the way forward. They should leave them alone to operate?

The chairman said it was the duty of the Committee to unearth procedural inefficiencies in the award of the licenses, adding that presentation of documentary evidence for the discretionary awards is critical to the investigation.

Committee chairman making sense. I just hope he will continue making sense even after all the companies with faulty documentations have gone to grease his palms.

The Committee made its declaration after Oriental Energy and Platform Petroleum failed to provide satisfactory responses to issues of licence approval and payment of royalty to the Federal Government.

While Oriental Energy failed to prove the authenticity of its oil field license, Platform Petroleum said it defaulted in royalty payment for the whole of last year.

Another interesting one.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) also compounded the issue by informing the Committee that it has no records in its system of Presidential Approvals for some of the licences that were granted through discretionary powers of the Petroleum Resources Minister.

This country sef. Imagine this nonsense. And the so called operators are allowed to operate without proof of Presidential Approval?? And they are still operating even till now. Does that mean the DPR does not carry out periodic audits of those operating oil blocks?

Wonders will never end in this country. There is so much room for corruption and fraud.

Reps seek revocation of oil bloc licences

he House of Representatives will ensure that oil bloc licences issued without due process are revoked, it emerged yesterday.

This is in addition to the forfeiture of oil and gas licences by companies that have variously defaulted in the payment of requisite fees to the government.

This followed the discovery of some oil and gas companies operating in deviance of the law yesterday at the on-going investigative public hearing into the status of several Oil Porospecting Licences (OPL) and Oil Mining Leases (OML) and marginal oil fields.

The Committee, chaired by Gideon Gwani (PDP, Kaduna) expressed disappointment at the response of some oil gas companies that failed to present presidential approvals for their licenses.

The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) also compounded the issue by informing the Committee that it has no records in its system of Presidential Approvals for some of the licences that were granted through discretionary powers of the Petroleum Resources Minister.

The Committee made its declaration after Oriental Energy and Platform Petroleum failed to provide satisfactory responses to issues of licence approval and payment of royalty to the Federal Government.

While Oriental Energy failed to prove the authenticity of its oil field license, Platform Petroleum said it defaulted in royalty payment for the whole of last year.

In response to the Committee’s query, DPR said it does not have the Presidential Approval for Oriental Energy’s license in its system.

The DPR also failed to provide satisfactory response to Platform Petroleum’s royalty payment default.

As a result, the Committee said the ownership of all the affected companies must be produced by the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

It also declared that it will recommend for the revocation of licences of all oil companies found culpable of defaulting in payment of oil fees to the government.

The chairman said it was the duty of the Committee to unearth procedural inefficiencies in the award of the licenses, adding that presentation of documentary evidence for the discretionary awards is critical to the investigation.

He said: “Those who failed due process and whose licences to operate came through processes other than those prescribed by the law, we will recommend that such license be revoked, relinquished and thrown back into the basket for Nigerians to bid for properly.

“In the course of this investigation, we found out, even today (yesterday) that a company refused to pay royalty for the whole of 2016. This is a fee that is supposed to the paid monthly.

“As such, it is important that DPR begins to enforce the Act since it is clear that any company that failed to do business in accordance with the Act, not paying the requisite fees, as and when due, that company’s licences be relinquished and the bloc taken away.

“We are looking at the process by which these licences were acquired because we found out that the process might have been abused.

“It could be that someone in government was doing business with the issuance of these licenses to themselves and their cronies by manipulating Presidential Assent.

“We found out that languages that were not presidential were used in some of these letters of award.

“That has given the Committee an idea of how things were manipulated and that is why we want to take it further by finding out the owners of these companies from the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC).

“This Committee is detemined to expose any oil company that did not get its license right and we will recommend it for revocation.

http://thenationonlineng.net/reps-seek-revocation-oil-bloc-licences/

Mynd44, OAM4J, Lalasticlala

Really!

Atiku2019:
Atiku will visit the U.S. whenever it's necessary to


Sail On Sir Atiku

I trust you to campaign. you no dey tire? or you just resumed your own shift.

Atiku2019 what say you?

EXCLUSIVE: Why we won’t say whether Atiku is barred, wanted in America — U.S. Govt.


The United States government has said it would require the legal consent of former Vice President Atiku Abubakar before releasing information about his immigration status in the country.

The U.S. government was responding to a PREMIUM TIMES enquiry on whether Mr. Abubakar was wanted in, or barred from entering, the U.S.
“U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) is prohibited by law from releasing such information without the written legal consent of the individual about whom you are asking these questions,” Julie, a Senior Public Information Officer at U.S. CBP said in an email response.
The agency declined to provide Julie’s surname, citing “security concerns”.

The former vice president’s U.S. immigration status was, once again, the subject of debate following a spat with Governor Nasir E-Rufai of Kaduna State last November.

Mr. El-Rufai had dared Mr. Abubakar to travel to the U.S., suggesting he was wanted for alleged corruption.
The governor was reacting to an interview Mr. Abubakar granted to Zero Tolerance magazine, published by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, where he accused Mr. El-Rufai of betrayal after bringing him into government.

According to the magazine, when asked about claims by former President Olusegun Obasanjo, that there is still a valid travel restriction on him to the U.S., Mr. Abubakar said he had been to the country on several occasions before the relocation of his family.

“The reason why I always visited the US was because of my wife,” Mr. Abubakar, who was vice president between 1999 and 2007, said. “She is no more in the US. So I don’t have compelling reason to visit the US now.”

But Mr. El-Rufai accused Mr. Abubakar of corruption saying the former vice president stayed away from the U.S. for fear of being arrested.
“Can Alhaji Atiku explain the findings in the report of the United States Permanent Sub-Committee on Investigations which detailed a pattern of wire transfers of more than USD 40 million from offshore companies like Siemens into bank accounts controlled by him and one of his wives,” the governor said in a statement he issued after Mr. Abubakar’s interview.

“The report detailing the US Senate findings is online, as one of four case histories of foreign corruption in the USA. Alhaji Atiku should tell a better tale of why he is avoiding the United States of America.
“Someone as obsessed with Nigeria’s presidency as he is, should clear up such matters conclusively. We wait to see how well he does with that.”

Last November, the U.S. Department of Justice told Nigeria’s The Punch newspaper that it did not have any record showing that Mr. Abubakar had a pending lawsuit in the U.S.
Asked whether Mr. Abubakar’s records should not be accessible to the Nigerian public since he had held – and is possibly planning to hold – public office, the U.S. Customs and Border Protection replied: “According to U.S. law, CBP cannot release such records without his (Mr. Abubakar’s) legal authorization.”

PREMIUM TIMES asked Paul Ibe, Mr. Abubakar’s spokesperson, if his principal would be willing to give his consent for the release of his immigration status as stated by the U.S. government agency, and he said he would refer the question to the former vice president.
Efforts to get a response from Mr. Ibe after two weeks were unsuccessful as he failed to answer his calls or reply messages.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/headlines/221995-exclusive-wont-say-whether-atiku-barred-wanted-america-u-s-govt.html

enigma3000:
why not wait and know his reason b4 u spew trash

Is the reason not supposed to have been advanced with the memo authorizing their suspension? This country sef. Everything is just upside down and people don't speak out because of partisanship.

Nkemtreasure:
OP, guess you are economical with the truth. It was on news last week and I think it was their fault. He invited all the private schools to a meeting were he personally presided. Probably they thought that it was a commissioner that was coming, and most of them refused to come. This was what led to the suspension /withdrawal of their licences. It was even on morning cross fire on Nig Info this morning.

If its Buhari that did half of this, cries of dictatorship will pervade the cyberspace. So because some schools were absent at a meeting, the next thing is to withdraw the license of the school without providing any reason for the shutdown??

Are we living in a Banana republic? Are there not supposed to be standard procedures for issuance and withdrawal of license to schools?

Wike the trouble maker.

eph12:
Even after the same person has been exchanging letters with the same government and an agreement has been reached. Amechi Wike or Buhari is not at fault here. I think the custom were either not informed or someone is trying to create problems here

Customs are very much informed. They are just trying to cover their asses in case a legal issue comes up. All they will say is that the goods were abandoned and duties and holding charges were not paid after xx years, hence, the goods were forfeited to the government. More so since most of those letters were not addressed to customs.

Naijalabel:
And yet we were told unknown importers.

SMH for Nigeria

http://www.naijalabel.com/2017/01/amaechi-reacts-to-seized-helicopters.html?m=1

If you abandon your goods at the point of entry without going to pay duty and demurrage, the goods will be tagged 'imported by unknown persons' and forfeited to the FG after a while. This is despite that your name is on it. So far you don't come to claim your goods with the evidence of duty and other required payment.

TheSlyone2:
I tire o.

Benny, you self dey here?

Someone cannot wear the same cloth within the spate of 8 months again?

And even who told u guys it is same cloth? Because it is same colour? Buhari has over time shown his fixative of wearing solid colours repeatedly.

So whenever he wears white Agbada everyday of the week, it means it's same cloth he wears throughout that week right?

Whenever he wears that his black Aboki babariga on international travels, it means it's same cloth right?

You guys should please use your senses. You are embarrassing the country with such shallow thinking.

Luizkid:
why are people trying so hard to prove he's alive, if he's alive then he's alive

They are trying to heal some people of their ignorance and stupidity.

dragonking3:
Lalasticlala please move this thread to the front page to show the lies being circulated round..

Here is the link of the picture of Buhari and Abubakar Atiku last year which vanguard was circulating as recent.

https://www.naij.com/863336-another-apc-chieftain-visits-president-buhari-london-photo.html

The internet never forgets

When did Vanguard tell u that PMB picture and Atiku is recent?

I just don't understand, is it that they have kidnapped the brain of majority of youths in this country?

The level of shallowness and intellectual bereavement is mind blowing. Despite going up and down and presenting self as literate, they have shown themselves to be the greatest illiterates of the century that can't read and decipher simple news reports.

otunbakolawole:
So you say, but Wike is telling us based on those documents that Rivers state government can't pay duty of less than 300,000,000 naira without waiver? That Rivers state government can't negotiate demurrage cuts and with the terminal operator? Very funny! There is more to this than its been revealed.

The reason Wike would not want to pay is simply because the aircrafts right from time were to be in custody of the airforce. Read the Premium Times link below.

He knows that due to political differences with the FG and also his belligerent nature to the FG, they will deny him access to the helicopters.

So what's the point in paying 300m?? When in actual sense, security operations falls under the purview of the FG and Rivers state govt cannot use the aircraft as they deem fit.

But wait a minute, who in his right sense will even release military-grade helicopters to a personality like Wike? Civil war don start be that na.

http://www.premiumtimesng.com/regional/ssouth-east/129199-we-bought-two-helicopters-but-for-security-reasons-governor-amaechi-says.html

freeze001:
If you say everyone should wait till the time lapses that would amount to some level of acquiescence. We cannot pretend that d country has not been polarised along ethnic n religious lines; the Judiciary has been headed strictly by Northerners for upwards of 30yrs and no Southern President has left any nominated CJN acting in limbo and unsure of his status. Naturally, if you're honest, u can clearly see how it feeds into the narrative of bias n religious intolerance on the part of the government.

The President is not at liberty to pick n choose who becomes CJN without proffering cogent reasons for rejecting anyone nominated by the CJN. It also goes against the spirit of the Constitution to simply wait out the three months and then have another nominee presented. If he has a problem with the acting CJN becoming substantive CJN hence his curious refusal to comply with constitutional requirements, he ought to state them formally within this 3 months and d nominee or acting CJN in this case should be afforded enough time to respond to whatever issues d executive may raise. Allowing the 3 months to lapse precludes all of those and does not bode well for democratic governance.

It is not out of place for d president to at all times act timeously, he doesn't have to be bound by law to do that! It's simple n common decency. Now I have always quarrelled with leaving an appointee in acting capacity for even longer than a month because it fetters his independence with his fate hanging in d balance because he doesn't know if he'll be confirmed or kicked put n replaced by another. The issue with Magu would have been avoided if d president had been proactive in having him vetted by d DSS say a month before the expiration of the tenure of d previous EFCC boss; once cleared, his name would have been forwarded to the Senate and he'd have been confirmed upon appointment. That way he doesn't play his hands and it begins to look like the Senate is threatened by his 'diligence' and then appears to deliberately scuttle his substantive appointment. That is not stampeding the president, it is proper practice n common sense.

Now, if the Acting CJN is passed over for his junior, that offends d principle of seniority within the judiciary. What happens next? Will he then be forced to retire without attaining the mandatory age of retirement when he's not incapacitated in any way? There must be balance in all things and frankly, d president should have jumped at the chance to have an arm of government headed by a southerner to avoid unnecessary disquiet and earn him even better acceptance. As it stands, he just keeps giving off the strong stench of a an ethnic and religious bigot.

All this passage for me alone?? Okay please. I agree to all your points, before you come back with x2 of this.

NOETHNICITY:
even Though Magu of effc's name was sent for confirmation afta almost 2yrs in acting capacity, the hypocrites didn't see anything wrong wit it.
now it involves a southerner pmb is being accused of bias.
this is jus he sadly our ppl ve become very blind.

I just dont understand what has come over them.