₦airaland Forum

More and more facts are adding up. Today, May 1, President Uhuru Kenyatta of Kenya announced an 18% increase in minimum wage. Meanwhile, we can see our president, just wonder if we'll ever see a new minimum wage then.

https://www.nairaland.com/3773854/uhuru-kenyatta-announces-18-percent

President Uhuru Kenyatta has announced 18 per cent increase in minimum wage during the Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park, Nairobi.

Up to Sh100,000 of bonuses and overtime shall not be taxed in order to cushion Kenyans from high cost of living.

The minimum taxable salary shall be Sh13,475.
Central Organisation of Trade Unions had requested for a 22 per cent increase in basic pay, citing inflation which has constantly been increasing.

The president said progress to build a prosperous economy to allow Kenyans earn decent living was on course. He underlined current efforts in road construction, lowering barriers to trade, quality education as some of the strategies.

The President urged employers to ensure workers are safe and said State will soon embark on inspection of safety at work place to ensure compliance.

On foreign jobs, Uhuru urged Kenyans to only work with accredited agencies in securing jobs abroad especially in the Middle East.

"We have streamlined administration and management of employment agencies to minimise on exploitation, it is upon you now to work with accredited agencies, said uhuru.

Atwoli called on the government to create post-independence cities to not only decongest Nairobi but also tackle unemployment.

Low turnout marked the Labour Day fete with many workers staying away probably due to bad weather in Nairobi.

Nonetheless, other leaders including deputy president William Ruto, Nairobi governor Evans Kidero, Senator Mike Sonko, Labour Cabinet Secretary attended the function.

https://www.standardmedia.co.ke/business/article/2001238266/uhuru-announces-18-per-cent-rise-in-minimum-wage

Hmmm...
I watched Amaechi on @MaupeO show, HardCopy. I was disappointed. He said the government ran on 3 promises, to make it worse, he even struggled to recall 2 of theses promises.
I was pained.

Hmmmm... Father that cannot address his people on worker's day.

From my perspective, this is more of a new jail conditions than bail. I salute his resilience still. #TrueIgbo #Proud #Dialogue

Hmmmm...
When will the president speak for himself again?
We know him as that kind of man. Even his wife got blasted when she tried to assume too much. So, I really don't know what y'all are arguing.
How's he gonna contest? By proxy I guess.

Well written.

He will run by proxy.

Hmmmm...
We must fight against foreign interference and fancy diplomatic statement to cover up, lest these people stylishly colonize us again.
Come to think of it, colonizing us won't be a bad idea. After all na the one wey your brother dey opress you bad pass.

...in his best interest and the interest of the Nigerian people.

...spoken from Ota perspective.
I cant fault you sha...Having lunch in well decorated halls and talking nonsense, meanwhile some people cannot live peacefully on top kpako. They even shot some that pay tax that's used to cater for their luxury.
Let Lagosian speak for themselves.

GEJ has accused the US for having a hand in it. Former governor Babangida Aliyu have revealed how 12 governors, including himself were invited to the US to plot the removal of then President GEJ. Many Nigerians believe the foreign governments have always influenced our elections, yet nothing is been done. The same America we revere, Obama made similar allegation and a committee is looking into that. When we are not careful we would sell our freedom and be colonized once again.
As for Tinubu he equally removed himself from power.
Truth be told, him power don less.

Four post and Tiny post was good. But Monkey post is the best and most common till date.

I think one of the reasons the Muhammadu Buhari administration currently seems overwhelmed and isolated is because the honcho and those close to him bought the hype that he was the only man that could change Nigeria.

There is no doubt that a man, especially one widely touted to be of exemplary disposition can lead a revolution to change the lives of a people irreversibly but it is delusionary for anyone to imagine that only him and a select group of people around him are enough to change a country. It is a fallacy that democracy will never accommodate. Change that endures can only occur when the people buy into the vision and pursue with vigour as their leader. And the measure of effective leadership is how much you succeed in transiting your vision to others, it is only then that change can be achieved.

One of the most phenomenal stories of the rebirth of nations this century is that of Singapore under the leadership of the inimitable Lee Kuan Yew.
Although the father of Singapore sometimes tended towards benevolent dictatorship, he never allowed himself the indulgence of being seen as the lone motivator of the improvements that visited his country under his watch. He, in fact, used every opportunity he had to speak about his deliberate efforts at raising social consciousness and gaining the understanding and support of his people through mass mobilisation in every major reform attempt. For Yew, his government’s “greatest asset was the trust and confidence of the people.”

That is one skill at that which Nigeria’s leadership is deficient. From what we have seen, this government believes that not many people possess the morality to join the president in the very urgent task of turning Nigeria around. And they would go any length to establish that.

For instance, behind Buhari’s acquiesce to the cheeky suggestion of former British prime minister, David Cameron that Nigeria was a fantastically corrupt country was from a deep sense of self-righteous contempt for the people.
Not even members of the federal cabinet seem to have the benefit of the president’s absolute confidence as he once referred to them as mere “noise makers” ahead of their appointment. This would also be why most ministers are said to have access to the president only during the weekly meeting of the federal executive council.

But members of the executive at least have it relatively good with the president. Until last week, when the secretary to the government of the federation, Babachir David Lawal was suspended from office, no member of the executive could be said to have tasted of the president’s obvious distrust of the average Nigerian public office holder. This has been copiously demonstrated with the other arms of government.
Take the national assembly, set up by the 1999 constitution (as amended) to make laws for the good governance of the country as well as check and balance the activities of the executive. As it were, it would be impossible to achieve any serious transformation without the collaboration of this group of men and women and the president. But what have we had for the past two years? A battle, first over sharing the booty of the electoral victory of the ruling All Progressives Congress.

Rather than utilise the first 100 days of the administration to cultivate the legislature and lay the foundation for collaboration, the Buhari Presidency alienated the legislature and then finally went into a full war to impugn the reputation of not just the leadership but the institution. The result is an almost irredeemably damaged relationship between the two arms. This accounts for the delay in the passage of the government’s two budgets so far and the refusal of the Senate to even consider the list of prospective Resident Electoral Commissioners.

The executive has also succeeded in bringing the National Assembly into disrepute in the reckoning of a lot of Nigerians. The people do not only see their representatives as corrupt, they also consider them as inconsiderate and selfish. As a matter of fact, the national assembly is literarily the synonym for everything anti-people currently such that two or three members have almost lost their lives to mob actions lately. The system has sown the hate seed in the people. However, a legitimate question to ask would be what exactly has the national assembly done against the Nigerian people that members of the federal executive have not?

The next group that has been targeted by the government is the judiciary. Before last September’s midnight visit to seven senior judicial officials by the Department of State Services on allegations of corruption, the President had mouthed the lack of cooperation from the judiciary in the war against corruption that Nigerians already labelled the judiciary, “enemy of the people number two.” Then, the arrest and the final disrobement of the judiciary of the little honour left happened that September midnight. These days, virtually all judgments emanating from our courts, especially once they do not favour the executive, bear the sign of judicial compromise in the eyes of Nigerians. It is a very untoward place for the judiciary of the nation to be and we have the executive to blame for it.

And now, the fourth estate of the realm is coming under attack. It would have been possible to dismiss Monday’s inexplicable expulsion of Lekan Adetayo, correspondent of The PUNCH from the presidential villa by the chief security officer to the president, Bashir Abubakar, as the mere exuberance of an over-indulged officer but the revelation that he had called State House reporters to a coaching session a few days before this action indicates that the presidency may be succumbing to temptation for paranoia and intolerance.

It is true that this is an isolated case; it is also true that Buhari’s media office has clarified that he would not approve the harassment of any journalist, but who needs this president’s approval here?
Two things show that the president would need to quickly clip the wings of his overzealous staff and, by all means, avoid a repeat of this sad event. The first is that the CSO did not see wisdom in discussing his summary expulsion of the journalist with the media office. And the second is the insinuation that the reports which incurred the wrath of the security man were sponsored by politicians apparently seen as hostile to the president’s interest.

If the CSO could, for 2019 projections, treat a journalist this way, at this time when his principal is still struggling to fulfil the promises he made for his first term, what will he do as the 2019 elections get closer and allegiances become clearer? In any case, nothing can be more injurious to these folks’ 2019 calculations that the antagonism inherent in picking on democratic institutions and whittling down their influence and reputation serially. No one wins a war against the people, not even the military and President Buhari of all people should know that.

https://www.thecable.ng/presidency-war-everybody

Funali herdsmen invade his house, then he speaks.

It is finished.

I'm observing.
You just can't kill an ideology. Slaughter them and you'll just end up radicalizing them.
It is it time. Just how many have to die before we realise this?
Dialogue NOW.

Let me believe he meant expansion. Otherwise, this only shows how politician will only care about themselves till death.
Nigerians wise up.

Akporrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All this one because of waving of hand?

Hmmm.
...and it all came to pass. He eventually had Alamasiegha disgraced and as for Atiku, he's still struggling and probably will continue in that feat as long as Obasanjo is alive. Confirmed and reliable sources also say that the former governor of Crossriver State was approached for VP slot and he rejected same.

PUNCH State House correspondent, Olalekan Adetayo, in this interview by
OLALEYE ALUKO, responds to the Chief Security Officer, Bashir Abubakar’s leaked memo and other related issues.

How did you feel after your encounter with the CSO ?

I felt very bad. I felt humiliated that my professionalism was called to question in a very unjustifiable way.

The CSO claimed you said your editors wrote the story. Did you actually say that?

I could not have said that. I think in the process of talking , he made reference to the lead story of Sunday PUNCH on anxieties as regards the President’s health status. The story came with three riders . One of them was a call made by the Arewa Consultative Forum, advising the President’s wife not to allow a cabal to mismanage her husband’s health. Arewa youths also made a claim that the President had been kidnapped from Nigerians. The third rider was a reaction from the Presidency. So in the process of talking , the CSO picked on the one attributed to the ACF and said I claimed that I spoke with the ACF.
He said, ‘I will call the ACF man now and he will tell me if he spoke with you.’ I then told him that the story had a joint byline and I do not cover the ACF. I told him that somebody else wrote the ACF part.
That was what I told him. I reminded him that the story contained the President’s spokesperson’s (Femi Adesina ) reaction . Adesina had said that the President was recuperating and that was what I told the CSO. I never said my editors wrote the story.

How would you describe the meeting that the CSO held with journalists?

I was not at the said meeting. I did not attend.
Is it true that journalists at the meeting reached an agreement with the CSO regarding how the president / presidency should be covered?
I do not know about an agreement but I know some colleagues told me that it was like a journalism class, whatever that means.

Was that the first time that the CSO would meet with journalists ?

Yes, to the best of my knowledge. That was the first time since he became the CSO.

What made you to write about the President’s health?

My responsibility is to cover the activities of the President, the Vice - President and even their immediate family members. I resume at the Villa every morning and I do not leave there until late in the evening every day, except perhaps during the weekends. The President, as we very well know, returned to this country on March 10 after his medical vacation. And since then, there has been relatively no activity in the villa.
The questions on the lips of many is: where is the President? Where is he? Is he okay?
And since I cover the Presidency, it is one of my responsibilities to attempt to provide answers to these questions. And that was what informed that story.

Did you have any encounter with the CSO prior to this incident?

Yes, I had an encounter with him the first time on one of the stories mentioned in his memo. It had to do with the “accidental discharge” in the Villa .
Like he did on Monday, he summoned my colleague from the Daily Trust , Isiaka Wakil , and I to his office . He said he was bitter that we wrote that kind of story. Throughout the conversation, he did not say that the report was wrong .
That particular incident of “accidental discharge ” was reported by almost all the national newspapers in this country. At that point when we left , I told my colleague that I suspected foul play because the CSO invited only two of us to his office .

What were specific allegations he levelled against you?

His bitterness was; why did we write that kind of story? But the story was reported by all the national newspapers.

Do you think his understanding of journalism is sufficient for him to usurp the roles of the President ’s media aides?

I doubt it. I doubt that he has an understanding of journalism. For example, when he complained about the “accidental discharge” story, he went on to say that the story was even used as the lead story for the newspaper.
He kept repeating that point. I expected him to know if he understood journalism that my responsibility as a reporter ends when I send a story. Whether it is the lead or inside or anywhere is the responsibility of the editors.

You’ve read the CSO’s memo, on what points do you agree or disagree with him?

I read his memo and I disagree with him on many points. I expected him, for instance, as far as the questions he raised about the Saturday column was concerned, to mention instances where events held in the places I reported that there had been no events.
The thrust of that column on (that) Saturday was that I listed some places in the Villa where activities were holding before , but since the President returned on March 10, nothing had been done in those places in the Villa.
Except for the Council Chambers where the Federal Executive Council meetings normally hold, I expected him to come out with his position that on this day , this event was held inside this hall you mentioned and the President attended and so on. But he did not do that . He made sweeping statements.
During my discussion, with him, he even tactically agreed with me that events did not hold in those places when he said that the President was at liberty to hold his meetings or events wherever he wanted . Those were the CSO’ s words.
At a point , he said I was sponsored. That is to show you that the CSO does not understand the concept behind my Saturday column. It is a soft column that talks about things that will not necessarily go into everyday news.

I once wrote a piece , same column, listing those same places as bubbling with events. I described them then as places in the Villa, where decisions about Nigeria were taken. So, I wonder why the CSO got angry.
The CSO claimed that you apologized to him …
Thank you. Wisdom is the principal thing . The CSO invited me into his office; into his comfort zone. Two of his men were interjecting as he was talking with me. My first instinct in that kind of situation was how to leave that place; not only alive but with a sound mind.

I needed to leave that place, and alive to tell my story. At a point, he even threatened , saying, “If you don’t answer some of the questions I will raise now, you will not go home today.”
Therefore yes , at a point, I begged him. Not that I said that the story I wrote was wrong , but for me to get a leverage to leave that place. And it worked. Because I guessed that was why he decided to release me to go and make a statement. I followed one of his men out .
As I was going with that man, I saw some of my colleagues standing in the corridor where we normally stood . I used that opportunity to hint them about what was happening in case anything untoward happened .
You must have read in his memo that I did not put any apology inside the statement I wrote. I wrote in my statement that I did not have any ulterior motive in writing those two pieces.
The man who took my statement returned to him . I guess it was when he read the statement and saw that I did not apologise that he ordered that my pass be withdrawn and that I be escorted out of the Villa.

What role did the chairman of the State House Press Corps play?

In my first narrative of this incident, ( my reporter’s diary), I deliberately left out the Chairman of the State House Press Corps, Mr. Ubale Musa, because I felt it would be petty to begin to drag names unnecessarily into my incident.
But since the CSO mentioned him specifically in his leaked memo, I will explain Ubale's role . It was Ubale who called me on that day that the CSO wanted to see me .
I was at the VP’s wing of the Villa, monitoring the panel probing the suspended Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Babachir Lawal, when Ubale called that he was at the President’s wing and asked me to come over to see the CSO.
I told him this invitation was strange and it should have come from the presidential spokesmen.
I tried getting across to them. Garba Shehu was not in the office but I later got in touch with him on the telephone. I went to Femi Adesina’s office and informed him of the invitation. He asked me to go, and to keep updating him. Adesina asked me to tell Ubale to see him since I told him he was the one that called me to say we should see the CSO together.
When we got to the CSO, I thought after all, there were two journalists and three security officers. But I started having problems with Ubale’s “intervention” in the matter.

While "intervening” , Ubale told the CSO that even some of our colleagues had been complaining to him that the kind of stories I wrote made them get queries from their bosses in their offices. I was shocked because I heard that for the first time from Ubale and he told me that in the presence of the CSO.
It was Ubale again that said he felt I was under some pressure from the office and asked the CSO to probably look beyond me and look at the “ larger picture of my office.”
The CSO then put the question to me and wanted me to say on record that I was under pressure. I told him there was no pressure that I could not handle. So this is the area that concerned Ubale.

Ubale Musa said you apologised. Your reaction?

Like I said earlier, I apologised, not for the content of the stories but when I discovered that my life was no longer safe in the office, I had to apologise to escape the situation.

The CSO accused you of ‘ carrying mischievous…

The accusations have no basis. Anyone who reads PUNCH very well knows that we don ’ t write stories without getting the comments of all the people mentioned . With all humility , if the presidential spokesmen would be fair, they will rate me as one of the top five among the correspondents who call them regularly on a daily basis for one reaction or the other . That is The PUNCH ’ s style .
No story goes without being balanced . Now the CSO may not know this because he is not the spokesman . So, I could not have called him for reactions .

Can you speak on some of the stories that the CSO complained about ?

On the Risk Caution Allowance: the security personnel were complaining in the Villa that the Presidency owed them a year backlog of allowances, since the President came in. These were people saddled with the responsibility of protecting the President; they were hungry and aggrieved. I am not a security expert but I know there is danger inherent in that.
If you read that story, I spoke with the presidential spokesmen, and one of them said the National Security Adviser was aware of the development and was already working on how to pay those personnel. To show you that I had no ulterior motive, the last story I did on that issue was “ Buhari okays jumbo allowances for Villa security operatives, ” published on October 25 , 2016 .

The operatives that I fought for did not even tell me when they were paid . But when my investigation confirmed that they had been paid , I went ahead with the report . The people concerned saw it and jokingly said I had exposed them and that people were now making financial demands from them.
But I told them that by not writing the story, I would not be fair to the government since I wrote when they were not paid. I had no personal interest in the matter.

On the accidental discharge, yes, there was a discharge at the administration reception point and a female caterer was injured . She spent days at the State House Medical Centre and we wrote that story.
The CSO did not say the incident did not happen. He only alleged in his memo that I championed the writing of that story, despite warnings from Ubale Musa and my colleagues.

I love that part of the memo because it is revealing . But the CSO should have gone ahead to mention the colleagues who asked me not to write the story the same way he mentioned Ubale specifically .
Ubale did tell us that we should not report that incident. He mentioned the Officer in Charge, SSS, as the person allegedly pleading that the story be avoided. I think someone in the press corps raised a point that, if such a request should be made at all, it should come from the presidential spokesmen. To be fair to the two of them ( Femi Adesina and Garba Shehu ) , they had earlier made it clear to us that they would never ask us to drop any story but they would rather react to it.

In my contribution to my colleagues that day , I said it might be difficult not to do the story given that we are in the digital age . Anyone could have witnessed the incident or seen the woman in the hospital, and put it on online platforms such as Facebook.

A consensus was then reached that by evening, if there was nothing online, we would leave the report . But I later got a call from my office , saying they saw the story somewhere and I had not filed it. That was in the evening, after we had already left the Villa . Out of consideration, I started calling colleagues, especially those in the print media, one by one that in order to avoid trouble in their offices, they should decide whether to write the story or not, but I would write it since the story had reached them in my office.

The following day, the CSO summoned the
Daily Trust reporter and I to his office. The CSO sent the OC SSS to bring the DailyTrust reporter and me. In the process, the OC SSS asked why only two of us wrote the story out of all journalists in the villa. The Daily Trust reporter had to correct the OC SSS that all the major newspapers did the report and it was not only two of us. The OC was surprised, but quickly said his boss would decide . That is to tell you that they had preconceived notions about PUNCH and Daily Trust as far as that story was concerned and that has been confirmed by his memo.

You were accused of trying to satisfy some subterranean interests … bent on undermining the government?

Those allegations are baseless. When people do not like a particular report, they come up with allegations that you have a sponsor. I can say it with all humility that I did those pieces, just in the line of duty and with no ulterior motive.

http://punchng.com/my-ordeal-at-the-hands-of-buharis-cso-punch-reporter/

Its not like we really need to see the president, we need to see development. US president Roosevelt was struck with polio while in office. He managed and learnt to walk a few distance with braces and was careful not to be seen on a wheel chair in public. And still he's the president that led US through World War II and economic depression.

With $16 billion World Bank assisted power project how many watts did Obasanjo generate?
He tried and failed you. What has his successor tried?
We are hit with stagnation, diseases, inflation, job loss, etc as a result of unguarded statements. Which father goes out to say my daughters are bad and expect suitors? He has chased investors away, so he must shoulder the burden of infrastructure by himself.
I ask which is better: To prosper in corruption or to suffer in corruption? Because all governments are corrupt, including Western governments. It takes two to tangle.

Very true. That woman spoilt some things for GEJ. Notably, the discord between brothers (GEJ and Amaechi) leading to his eventual failure and collapse of PDP. Amaechi was embittered, GEJ should have called PEJ to order on time in this regard. Amaechi is an astute politician. He helped coordinate APC to victory.
GEJ needed him for 2015, but for a woman he lost.

Arrant nonsense. Is this about loyalty or courtesy?
Didn't the Emir of Kano just meet with the Ooni of Ife in cordial and courteous manner?
This piece is highly misplaced.

...meanwhile you robbed in broad day light. A whole oil vessel miss for on top water. $16bn abi na $14bn world bank assisted electricity project nkor?
$16 billion na joke?

http://thestreetjournal.org/2012/05/revisiting-the-power-sector-probe-how-obasanjos-men-paid-16-billion-for-darkness/

Let's leave talk abeg.

Well done columnist, Niran Adedokun.

Confession time.

Is that so?
I just hope its not with the tone I read it?
We know what follows that tone in Nigeria.
Well...everyone vouched for the VP's integrity, so whatever happens, I accept it.

Hahahaha...
But why should highly sensitive documents/drives be in the house of a senator na?
But how could the senate blame the delayed passage of the bill on the "stolen" documents/drives? So how have they been deliberating on the budget when its in the house of a senator? Or are they implying that after deliberation the senator still takes everything home when he has an office in the complex?
There's more to this.

Femi should leave recovered fund out of this.
Money without owners? Then how can that not be said to be a failed sting operation or window dressing for Magu's anti-corruption drive.
As for US there's no need to dignify them with an answer. Many believe they've even killed presidents across the world, talk less about getting involved in a country's choice of leadership, especially in Africa.
...Obama, Cameron and Hollande left office without having their wish fulfilled in their own country....and this makes me happy.