PrinceOfLagos:
Dis one all of Dem are dumping APC as rightly predicted by primate Ayodele, Who will now vote for Tinubu at the primaries

You granted an interview few days ago where you stated why it is expedient for the federal government to remove subsidy now. However, some Nigerians have said there wouldn’t have been a need for subsidy removal if President Buhari had fulfilled his promise to fix the existing refineries and build new ones. How do you respond to that?

Let me talk about subsidy first before I answer that question in particular. Subsidy is an economic necessity but also a huge political problem. Various governments have bowed to the political side of it. In the past, the governments that tried to take the bull by the horns, the people did not trust them enough to manage the resources that will be accruing to the government as a result of the removal of subsidy.

The immediate benefit of the removal is that the government will have more resources at its disposal to carry out projects and other infrastructural developments. But in the past, Nigerians were not too comfortable with these previous governments because of their reputation for profligacy.

That is why most of us fought in 2012 during Occupy Nigeria protest during the Jonathan presidency. President Buhari is a leader that enjoys public confidence because Nigerians know that he is not profligate, they know that he does not dip his hands in the till.

They also know that he is a president that runs a zero-corruption policy. So, as a result of that, people may have more confidence in this government to manage the resources accruing from removal of subsidy. Therefore, it may be more acceptable to the public if this particular government explains to them what it intends to do with the monies that will accrue to government from the removal of subsidy.

Nigerians are beginning to see the commitment of the president to infrastructural developments. Most of these monies we are borrowing, people can see the effect everywhere they go. You see the airport, rail lines, roads, Second Niger bridge and so on. People are beginning to see the visible things that we are using these monies for. With that, they will have more confidence that, if with so little the president can do so much, if more resources are available to him, perhaps he will do much more.

Now coming to your question on the issue of refineries, if you have been following the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approvals in the last seven months, you will see that we have actually approved a memo to rehabilitate the refineries. But this takes time. It cannot be turned around overnight.

First of all, you have to first go round the world in search of the best hands, not some quacks that were used in the past. In fact, during Obasanjo’s time, those turn around maintenance were given to local contractors who just pocketed the money and I am sure you know those I’m talking about. Some months ago, we did approve a memo to refurbish the refineries. To that extent, yes, we can now say that Mr. President has fulfilled that promise. He has approved but it takes time to do all these things. In the meantime, whilst the refineries are not fully back on track, you can see that between 2006 and 2018 alone, we spent N10 trillion on subsidy alone.

That is about $25 billion. In 2019 and 2020 alone, we spent close to N3 trillion, which is about $7 million on the turnaround. Today, we are doing between N200 billion to N250 billion monthly to subsidise petroleum products. That is the kind of money we need for our infrastructure. If we have that kind of money available to us, we may not have budget deficits and may not need to borrow.

The major issue that we have with budget deficit is that the funds are not available. Now, we have even got a deficit budget, you are now saying on top of that deficit budget, we should now subsidise again by N250 billion per month. The reality is that if you keep doing that, the economy will collapse. However, having spoken of the realities, I am not unmindful of the effect on the masses. That is why I said it is a political dilemma. How do you help the masses through this difficult period? My heart is also there too.

Some analysts are saying that petrol may sell above N340 per litre in 2022 if subsidy is removed. How true is that?

I don’t think government has fixed the price but they will not even be the ones to fix it. They will allow the market forces to go to play. But the truth is that this government is really thinking outside the box.

The Minister of Finance has said we may have to give N5,000 per month to some of the most vulnerable citizens and we have a social register for that already. We are just hoping that Nigerians will understand and pass through that difficult time. Over time, the masses benefit from subsidy removal because they will have more access to good roads, clean water, healthcare and power supply. Power supply is very necessary for them to boost their small businesses. Artisans like welders who have abandoned their work due to lack of electricity will be able to go back and be more productive. So, the masses will be the greatest beneficiary if subsidy is removed.

You recently said it was out of the jurisdiction of the #EndSARS panel committee set up by the Lagos state government to investigate the activities of Federal Government institutions and officials such as the Nigeria Police Force and the Nigerian Army. But some lawyers have claimed your position has no legal basis. Any response to that?

I wish they listen more to my interview before they responded. Because I made it abundantly clear and I kept emphasizing on it that my views are not the position of the federal government. I am a lawyer, a member of the Inner Bar in the first instance before I became a Minister. So, I’m entitled to my views. Nobody should kill themselves over it. Federal government has not said anything over that so I don’t know what this hullaballoo is for. Since I made my views known on the report, many of my colleagues who are also in the inner bar have called me, congratulating me and thanking me for raising the points. So, if some sections of the press want to prosecute an agenda, you will see them interview only three lawyers that are normally anti-government and they will use it as a major headline in their newspapers such as ‘Lawyers Slam Keyamo’ as if three lawyers are the right statistics for lawyers in the country. Nigerians don’t know some of these tricks of journalism. I have aired my views and whoever wants to attack me should talk law and not attack my person.

Why do you think the report was leaked in the first place?

I don’t know. Maybe it was done by those who have an agenda. You don’t leak a report of a commission. It is the person who set up the commission that you should report to and he will take action on it. But like I said in my other interviews, submitting a Tribunal report is just a process in a chain of events leading to a final verdict. The final verdict lies in the hands of the governor who can either reject or accept it. It is just like somebody who files a case in court and makes a beautiful submission to the judge. Then the person goes about jubilating about on the submission. All the panel just did was to make a recommendation. At the end of the day, what they have done is not judgement but a recommendation. By law, the same law that they are relying on to celebrate the report is the same law that says that the report will be subject to the final decision of the governor. So, you cannot accept one part of the law and reject the other.

The Whistleblower policy of the federal government seems to have died a natural death since the departure of former Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun. What do you think is responsible for that?

I may not have the true picture of what is going on there because the Attorney-General of the Federation should actually be on top of that. Most of the whistleblower things have to go through his office or the agencies under him such as the EFCC and others. So, the AGF should be in the best position to tell us exactly what is going on now. Whether people are doing it silently or not, I may not be privy to such information.

A former Chief Whip of the Senate, Prof. Sola Adeyeye, has said that the 8th Senate under Bukola Saraki failed Nigerians by confirming Abu­bakar Malami as a minister in 2015 despite his mediocre performance during his screening.

Speaking with Daily Indepen­dent in Abuja, Adeyeye, a professor of Biology, who was in the Senate for eight years (2011 -2019), said Nigeria would have been spared some of the incompetence and anomalies being witnessed in the Ministry of Justice today under Malami’s watch.

While sharing his views on the request by Igbo leaders to President Muhammadu Bu­hari to release Nnamdi Kanu, leader of the Indigenous Peo­ple of Biafra (IPOB), who is currently facing treasonous charges at the Federal High Court in Abuja, Adeyeye said due course in Nigerian judicia­ry is too slow and protracted because of the incompetence of lawyers in the Ministry of Justice.

“Honestly, I don’t know what they (Igbo leaders) discussed with the president. Personally, I’ve learnt that until you have the facts of a situation, you should be very careful. Yes, the president is correct. When a matter is within the judiciary, the executive should not pre­empt it.

“Having said that, we must also remember that even when a court has sentenced a person or pronounced him guilty, the prerogative of mercy resides with the president. He can still pardon whoever is convicted. But at least, he would have es­tablished the fact of conviction and he would have said ‘look, we don’t want trouble, we want peace in all parts of Nigeria. But let the process take due course’.

“What I think is that the so-called due course has been too protracted. Cases are run too slowly in this country. I do not know whether it is because the Ministry of Justice is filled with incompetent people or it is that some people have just decided to let things snowball into whatever direction of in­competency.

“Look at the number of peo­ple against whom very egre­gious allegations have been made concerning corruption. Few people have been convict­ed and we are grateful for that. But see how long it took to con­vict Abdulrasheed Maina. A level 14 person who has been shown to own so much. It took forever to get him convicted.

“Part of quite frankly I be­lieve is that if you look at the Ministry of Justice, most of the lawyers who work there are not among the best in the country. The minister is just one senior advocate of Nige­ria. Is he going to appear in ev­ery case in which the Federal Government has very serious cases to prosecute? Is he going to face Wole Olanipekun here today, Olisa Agbakoba there tomorrow, Falana in another place tomorrow? He is just one person”.

Speaking on Malami’s ap­pearance before the Senate on October 14, 2015, Adeyeye said despite his rank as a Senior Advocate of Nigeria (SAN), the responses given by Malami to the questions asked him were so mediocre that he strongly be­lieved he shouldn’t have been confirmed.

According to him, among the 37 ministerial nominees that appeared before the Sen­ate, he believed that Malami and Professor Claudius Dara­mola from Ondo State failed the screening exercise.

He said he raised the is­sue among his colleagues but many of them said President Muhammadu Buhari who did not attach portfolios to the names of the then ministerial nominees will not make Mala­mi the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice when there are other Senior Advocates on the list such as Babatunde Fas­hola and the late James Ocholi.

“In any case, when Malami appeared before the Senate in 2015, I didn’t think he passed. I didn’t think he should have been confirmed. In the 8th Sen­ate when Malami appeared, he was among two nominees who I thought did not do well. At that point, I brought it up in ex­ecutive session. I also brought it up at principal officers meeting that two of the nominees did not do well and one of them was Malami. The other was a Yoruba man.

“I argued passionately that the president sent us a list of 37 people from 36 states and the FCT. Thirty-five of them were adjudged to have done well but two of them did not do well. They should not have been confirmed".

“If we had done that, we would have been spared the incompetency that we now see in the Ministry of Justice. Of course, some of them at that time were arguing that Mala­mi was not likely to be made the Attorney-General and Minister of Justice. Ocholi, who had done very brilliantly at confirmation, should have been made the Attorney-Gen­eral and Malami would have been the Minister of State for Labour. But that was not what happened.

“Instead, Malami became the Attorney-General and it is the prerogative of the president to choose who he wants. That also depends on the level of con­fidence he has in the person. Once the Senate says this per­son has scaled the fence, then you cannot blame the presi­dent again. But quite frankly, I believe the Senate failed the nation at that point”.

Adeyeye said he took the is­sue of Malami and Daramola to Saraki, the then Senate Pres­ident. He, however, said Saraki who agreed with him couldn’t act on it because he didn’t want to be seen as opposed to Presi­dent Buhari.

“Fortunately for Bukola Saraki, I went to him on the is­sue. But Saraki was afraid that if he should reject Malami and not allow him to scale through, it will be seen that he went to double cross the president. Hell no!

“The interview session at the Senate was public, shown on live television. Everybody saw that questions were asked and for a senior advocate of Nigeria, the responses we got from Malami in my own opinion were so mediocre that he should not have been con­firmed. Same with Professor Daramola from Ondo State. Both of them shouldn’t have been confirmed. But the rest is history. A nation is like a man or woman; you will sleep on the bed you have laid”, he said.

Malory:
I hope Air Peace has not entered the hands of the Fulanis

With the approval granted by President Muhammadu Buhari that the national con­vention of the ruling All Progres­sives Congress (APC) will hold in February 2022, the coast is getting clearer as the next item on the agenda after the convention is the party’s primaries. Of paramount importance to stakeholders in the party is the presidential primary where the candidate who is ex­pected to fly the APC’s flag in the 2023 presidential election will be elected.

Speaking in an interview with Daily Independent last week, Omoba Tunde Ajibulu (mni), a former member of the APC Presidential Campaign Council said it is not out of place for President Buhari to play a huge role in the emergence of the APC presidential flagbear­er, who may likely succeed him in May 2023 if the ruling party wins the election.

According to Ajibulu “He most certainly should be inter­ested in who will take over from him and build on the legacies his government is putting in place, especially the transport system, like the rail and other infrastructural developments in the country. He should be instrumental even in the emergence of such a person”.

Many APC leaders have said they don’t understand the body language of the President now as to his choice for 2023. He has not given directives to nation­al leadership of the party to work for the emergence of any candidate. However, one thing is certain, the Presidential candidate is coming from the Southern part of the country. The leaders also agreed that whoever the president backs stands a chance of getting the ticket as most stakeholders in the party will align with his decision.

One Good Turn Deserves Another?

“One good turn deserves another” is a popular English maxim which, according to the Merriam Webster dictionary is “used to say that a person should do something nice for someone who has done something nice for him or her”. This is what loyal­ists of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, for­mer governor of Lagos state and APC national leader are looking forward to in the 2023 elections. But for God and Tinubu, Buhari wouldn’t have become presi­dent in 2015. After three failed attempts in 2003, 2007 and 2011, Buhari gave up, wept and said he will not be contesting the presi­dency again.

“This campaign (2011) is the third and last one for me since after it, I will not present myself again for election into the office of the president,” Buhari, who ran on the platform of the Con­gress for Progressives Change (CPC) had said . However, an alliance with Tinubu’s Action Congress of Nigeria( ACN) changed the game. With support from All Nigerian Peoples Party (ANPP) led by Ogbonnaya Onu and a part of the All Progres­sives Grand Alliance (APGA) led by Rochas Okorocha, APC was formed and Buhari became the presidential candidate.

Buhari had massive northern support but in terms of finan­cial war chest, analysts believed that he couldn’t have defeated former Vice-President Atiku Abubakar in the APC primary. But he did, courtesy of Tinubu, the APC governors and other stakeholders in the party.

Right from the presidential primary of the party in Decem­ber 2014 which was held at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, Tinu­bu used his influence to package Buhari for the election. He pro­vided the funds, logistics, media coverage and other campaign materials used by Buhari for the election. Infact, most of the statements ascribed to Buhari during the election has been de­nied by the President. Many of those promises are just ‘sweet words’ Tinubu and his foot sol­diers came up with to market Buhari and make him attractive to Nigerians while making the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and its then candidate, former President Goodluck Jonathan look like lepers that shouldn’t even be touched with a long pole.

In February 2018, Tinubu’s wife, Senator Oluremi Tinubu, granted a television interview where she decried that her hus­band was ‘trashed’ or discarded after the APC won the 2015 pres­idential elections.

She had said “He (Tinubu) was campaigning, I did too. We were running three campaigns in my house. And for him to be trashed like that? “Occasionally, I would chip in and I would say, ‘You’re still helping out? Why are you helping out?’ He would say, ‘This country matters to me more.”

Before Mrs Tinubu’s inter­view, President Buhari’s wife , Aisha, had also lamented that those who worked for her husband to get into power had been sidelined in the scheme of things under the current admin­istration.

Against all odds, Tinubu still went to campaign for President Buhari’s reelection in 2019. Un­like 2015, the 2019 election was a herculean task for Buhari, ow­ing to his performance in office which many believe was below par. However, with support from Tinubu and other major stake­holders, he won.

There is no doubt Tinubu is desirous of contesting in 2023. At least, that has been confirmed by elder statesman, Alhaji Tanko Yakassai whom Tinubu recently visited in Abu­ja. When asked whether Tinubu told him he would be contesting for President in 2023, Yakassai said, “He (Tinubu) did and he asked for my support”.

Landmines Ahead

It is however unclear if Bu­hari thinks of Tinubu as a wor­thy successor. Already, there are landmines already set in front of the man popularly called ‘Jaga­ban’ if he decides to run. One of them is the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). Already, various peti­tions have been submitted to the commission on Tinubu who has been accused of controlling the finances of Alpha Beta Consult­ing and for using the company to divert Lagos State funds. Peti­tions to investigate the contents of two bullion vans entering Tinubu’s Bourdillon residence on the eve of the 2019 presiden­tial election is also in the custo­dy of the EFCC.

Recently, the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), AbdulRa­sheed Bawa, said Tinubu is un­der investigation.

“You asked me a question ear­lier about arresting people be­fore investigation and now you are saying why didn’t we arrest Tinubu? Why didn’t you just say ‘arrest him”? Investigation is ongoing. When you are inves­tigating matters like this, they don’t end in a day.

Another landmine being plot­ted against Tinubu is religion which was used to stop his aim of becoming Vice-President to Buhari in 2015. Some stakehold­ers in the party are rooting for a Southern Christian as the pres­idential candidate. According to them, it will be unfair for anoth­er Muslim to emerge as the flag­bearer after Buhari, a Muslim has spent eight years in office.

Tinubu’s Loyalists Speak

Speaking on whether Buhari will support Tinubu’s presiden­tial bid, the South West Agenda for Asiwaju (SWAGA’23), a po­litical platform promoting the presidential aspiration of Asi­waju Bola Tinubu has said it is confident that President Buhari will not betray the former Lagos state governor on the issue of who clinches the ticket of the APC for the 2023 presidential election.

Speaking in an exclusive interview with Daily Independent, Bosun Oladele, a former member of the House of Representatives who is the national secretary of SWAGA said he be­lieves that President Buhari, as a man of honour and integrity will reciprocate Tinubu’s good gestures if he decides to contest in 2023.

“The president has been a man of honour and integrity. At least, people say he doesn’t betray his own. So, if that is the case, I don’t see him betraying Asiwaju Bola Tinubu. And if I become as old as the President, in my advanced age, the only important thing that I should be chasing is when posterity will judge me”.

“That is the most important thing that should occur to anybody that is advanced in age because it is only the grace of God that has given each person that advancement in age. So, if we have that grace, we must not waste it. A man’s word should be his bond”.

Also, another group within the ruling party, APC Nigeria4N­igeria Youths Alliance (APCN­4NYA) stated that President Buhari and members of the party from the North are mor­ally bound to support Tinubu’s presidential bid.

According to the group, the contributions of Asiwaju Tinu­bu to the formation, growth and progress of the APC was too massive and difficult to be ignored by stakeholders in the build-up to the forthcoming poll.

“The year 2023, it said, will mark a watershed in the nation’s political journey when the party, particularly stakeholders from the North deliberately allows the South to take over Nigeria’s leadership mantle. To us, no oth­er person in the South fits the bill to take over from President Muhammadu Buhari than Asi­waju Bola Ahmed Tinubu come 2023, the group said.”

“We members of the APC Ni­geria4Nigeria Youths Alliance are calling on President Muham­madu Buhari and our brothers in the various chapters of the party in the North to collectively support the bid and aspiration of Asiwaju Bola Tinubu for the presidency in 2023”.

“It is a known fact to all Ni­gerians that but for the efforts, mental sagacity and resources that God has endowed Asiwaju Tinubu with, we are sure that the party won’t be in govern­ment today. One good turn de­serves another.

Will Buhari repay Tinubu back for the support given to him in 2015 and 2019 and queue behind if direct primaries was used to select the APC flagbear­er? Time will definitely tell.

SmartPolician:


I shook my head when you claimed that Festus Keyamo is stupid without stating how. That man is way too smart and intelligent for Seun Okin to interview him.

I think it's only Maupe Ogun-Yusuf who has the experience and intellectual capacity to engage Mr. Keyamo in such conversation.

I watched the interview and was surprised how Seun would let him get away with his controversial answers, probably because he doesn't know how to counter them.

The Federal Government has developed a code of conduct for all social media platforms in the country, Festus Keyamo, Minister of State for Labour and Employment has disclosed.

Speaking on Channels Television programme ‘Sunday Politics’ monitored by DAILY INDEPENDENT, Keyamo who is a member of a committee set up by the federal government to meet with Twitter said the social networking site has almost complied with some of the conditions given to it by the government such as payment of taxes and opening of an office in Nigeria.

Speaking on the code of conduct for all social networking sites, Keyamo said “The federal government is very anxious, not only Twitter. In fact, but we have also developed a code of conduct for all of them”.

“They have agreed to a code of conduct, that is Twitter and every other platform because we are using the example of Twitter to draw code of conduct for all other social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and all of them” .


“We decided at the committee level that we don’t want to isolate Twitter and give them some kind of bias treatment different from other social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram and all of that. So, we are developing a code of conduct not for Twitter alone but for the general social media platforms on the responsible social behavior that they must comply with”.
“Code of conduct can be made as bye law under the NBC code because that is broadcast” he said.

Chief Olabode George, a former Deputy National Chairman of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) has slammed a N500m lawsuit against a chieftain of the party, Dr Adetokunbo Pearse over alleged defamation of character.

Pearse, a state chairmanship aspirant of the PDP in Lagos State was alleged to have said that Chief George, was responsible for the disruption of the state congress election of the party on October 16.

While confirming the lawsuit in an interview with DAILY INDEPENDENT, George said “I have asked my lawyers to take him (Pearse) to court for defamation. I don’t want to comment about him because he is an infra dig”.

“If I tell you about his character, he will be ashamed to leave his house. When we get to court, he will come and repeat what he said about me and who fired the gunshot. It was an insulting statement by him to make about me and I have sued him for N500m”.

However, speaking with our correspondent, Pearse who confirmed the receipt of the letter from Chief George’s lawyer said he will never apologise as he never accused Chief George of being responsible for the gunshots that brought the congress to an abrupt end.

“The third week in October, he sent me the letter from his lawyer that if I did not apologise for accusing him of truncating the election, he will take me to court and I will pay N500m. I replied and I told him that rather than apologies, let me tell you how you messed up”.

“He thinks I said he was the one that ordered the shooting. I never said so. All I’m saying is what happened at Tafawa Balewa Square should be looked into”.

“On the day of the congress, I came in about 12:30 pm. All the delegates were there from across the state lined up peacefully under their tents in order of their local governments. By 2 pm, Senator Biodun Olujimi had started accreditation. By 3 pm, they had accredited every local government and voting started right away alphabetically”.

“When voting started, all of a sudden, Bode George went to Olujimi, who is the Secretary of the congress and said she should cancel the election. The woman said ‘no, I can’t do that. He now threatened that ‘if you don’t cancel the congress, you will see’ and he walked away”.

“ As he walked away, we started hearing gunshots. When the delegates started hearing gunshots, they ran away and that was the end of the congress. That was exactly what I said. I never said he ordered the shooting”.

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) on Wednesday said Nigeria is suffering from uneducated and rudderless leadership of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

Debo Ologunagba, National Publicity Secretary-elect of the party disclosed this on Wednesday while featuring as a guest on Channels Television programme ‘Politics Today’ monitored by Daily Independent.

He said the PDP is more than ever determined before to rescue and rebuild the country after chasing out the APC from power in the 2023 general elections.

Also speaking on the two-day retreat of the PDP organised for the NWC members-elect in Abuja, Ologunagba said the essence of the retreat is to reappraise the affairs of the party and strategise on how to rescue Nigeria from the grip of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

“The retreat is to rescue and rebuild Nigeria. That is basically the message to Nigerians. The essence of this retreat is to have a re-orientation, one for the existing leadership of the party and to have an orientation for the new incoming leadership”.

“Second, to have an appraisal of the mission and vision of the party. Thirdly to have a conversation between the party leadership and the stakeholders as to why we got to where we are and how we can move our party, and more importantly our nation forward, having regards to the monumental failure and the rudderless leadership of this government called APC.

“So, for us, it is for us to have soul-searching, reappraise our processes, look at our connection with our people and move the country forward, latching on that theme ‘rescue and rebuild Nigeria’.

“We all know that Nigeria requires rescue. It has been captured as it were by lies and propaganda, by ineptitude, by reckless leadership, by uneducated leadership. Nigeria now will be digitalised by the PDP government and that is why we had the retreat,” he said.