Let's focus APC and LP for now

Hmmm

Make a better decision now.

They should make a better decision or might regret it later.

Keep on making an effort, God will see you through.

That's not a disaster then

They're strong o

You're funny

Others are comfortable supporting Tinubu, while others are comfortable supporting Obi too.

But there are more with him.

Impressive

From father?
Children of nowadays ehnn

For real

Great

Another crisis seems to be brewing in the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) as loyalists of the party’s former caretaker committee chairman and governor of Zamfara State, Mai Mala Buni have drawn a battle line with the party’s chairman and Buni’s successor, Abdulahi Adamu. More than one week after making some weighty allegations against Buni, loyalists of the Zamfara governor are fighting back.

Adamu had at a press conference, said he inherited N7.5 billion debts on legal fees alone when he took over the affairs of the party from Buni.

He also accused the Buni-led caretaker committee of overbloating the workforce of the party, maintaining a staff strength of over 200.

There were more than 200 staff on the payroll and during the audit we had to query where these number of people work. They went to the media that we can’t pay salary of staff just to blackmail us,” Adamu had told journalists. A member of the National Working Committee (NWC) of APC told Saturday Sun that Adamu’s outburst has unsettled governors, senators and other leaders of the party, who were members of the Buni-led caretaker committee.

The NWC member said Adamu’s outburst may further escalate the crisis rocking the party since the emergence of Bola Ahmed Tinubu as presidential candidate of the APC in June.

He said Adamu intends to release the comprehensive report of the audit committee he set up when he assumed office.

According to the member, alleged financial misappropriation, lack of due process and other unethical conducts by Buni-led caretaker committee might be made public in the coming days. He said Adamu’s end game is unknown, as no member of the NWC was consulted before the weighty revelations were made public.


The member who was one of those sponsored by Buni to emerge as an NWC member, said loyalists to state governors and staff of the party might repay Adamu by leaking sensitive dirty dealings of the party to the media in the coming days. He said Buni and his loyalists, who are still rooting for Adamu’s replacement, are expected to hold an expanded meeting, where the issues raised will be tabled.

He said if Buni who he claims is angry decides to fight back, the party will wash its dirty dealings outside.

For instance, he said the expenditure of funds realised from purchase of forms by Adamu-led NWC, still being questioned.


He added that the refusal by Adamu to push for the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting, will be tabled in the coming days by those hurt by the outburst.

He said: “Our national chairman making such unguarded statements at the peak of our campaign is reckless. The party is trying to reconcile everyone. Yet, the chairman is fighting personal battles.

“Cant he wait until after the elections to implement the audit report? Why sack staff now when they’re needed during the campaign to fix things? Who is advising Adamu?

“He’s acting like a sole administrator and no one can call him to order. The party needs to find a way to dismiss those media reports. Otherwise, the opposition will have enough to nail us with as we approach the elections.”

Spokesman of the party, Felix Morka, could not be reached for comments. Notwithstanding, another NWC member who spoke to Saturday Sun, said: “Journalists should have asked Adamu to explain more when he made those allegations. The party hasn’t commented on this issue. The issues raised are grave and they were unexpected from the national chairman of the party.

“APC NWC members are reviewing the various documents to understand what informed the allegations by Adamu. These matters and the allegations are criminal.

“When NWC members are done studying the details of the various reports by the transition committees set up, issues raised will be addressed. When Buni took over, he inherited some liabilities from Adams Oshiomhole.

“Oshiomhole too inherited some things from John Odigie Oyegun. That’s how it works. But to openly accused Buni was uncharitable.

“For the records, the over-bloated workforce he’s referring to, Buni didn’t do that. He didn’t recruit. It was Oyegun and Oshiomhole that recruited those staff. It appeara Adamu has some scores to settle with Buni.”

But Adamu’s men are also determined to fight back. A member of APC National Working Committee from North West, said those who feel slighted by Adamu’s outburst, either have something to hide or are trying to undermine his leadership.

He wondered why governors and other leaders of the party are unwilling to give Adamu a free hand to reform the party and play an active role in Tinubu’s campaign.

He said: “Adamu has not done anything close to undermining anyone. His views may not always be popular, but he needs to be respected as chairman. We cannot continue to monitor everything he does.

“Elections are coming and the party needs to close ranks if we must win. The chairman has been urged to tone down on granting interviews. The party has a spokesman that will do that job..”

Apex Igbo socio-cultural organization, Ohanaeze Ndigbo, and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) have said that inviting presidential candidates of the country’s political parties to speak to them was not in their agenda. Publicity Secretary of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, Chief Alex Ogbonna said there was no need inviting any presidential candidate for a meeting since the group believes it should be the turn of the South-East to produce the president of Nigeria in 2023.
In 2019, the Igbo supported Alhaji Atiku Abubakar wholeheartedly, and what the race is suffering today is the outcome of our deep support for him. But he worked against the Igbo. Is he the person we are going to listen to?

“Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu is a democrat, and he fights injustice, but yet he is going ahead to make sure that the South-West gets the presidency again.

“We are in tandem with other southern groups- Afenifere, PANDEF and the Middle Belt Forum (MBF) for insisting that the presidency should rotate to the South-East for peace in this country. So, there is no need to invite any of them.” On the Labour Party candidate, Peter Obi, Chief Ogbonna said Obi is a national icon and a global citizen working to positively rewrite the story of Nigeria, adding that Ohanaeze is fully supporting him.

In the same vein, President of the MBF, Dr. Bitrus Pogu, said the forum could not invite any of the presidential candidates to address them when they have already taken a position.

He said: “Our position is clear, we told the world that we have assessed the candidates as individuals and as political parties. First and foremost, along with our friends in the South, we have decided that the presidency has to go to the South after eight years of a Northern president. Secondly, we came out clearly to say that we would not support a Northern president when any of them emerges as a candidate of any of the political parties. So, why invite someone you had already said you would not support when he emerged?

“Thirdly, in the South, there are two presidential candidates of repute who came out. One from the APC and the other from Labour and from analysis, we settled with the South-East candidate. We agreed that the best candidate for Nigeria at this time is Peter Obi and we have come out clearly without mincing words to say that Peter Obi is our candidate.

“So, why should we be hypocritical when we have already taken a position to want to listen to others? If somebody says he wants to talk to us in spite of the position we have taken, we’ll listen to him. But we have already taken our position, and that position is that we endorse Peter Obi from the South-East, given the fact that for fairness, equity and justice the president should come from the South-East.

“As a material, Obi stands out as the best in the political space in that position at this point in time. So, we are not going to invite anybody and we are not joking about it.”

Alright

Our incoming president

Vote for Tinubu

And you were listening?

Can you imagine

Aren’t political and public office holders in Nigeria the luckiest? At a time when labour unions in other climes are agitating and demonstrating for wage indexation against rising inflation, Nigerian officials are poking the bear at home. South Africa’s Public Servants Association (PSA) has announced its intention to embark on strike by Wednesday after rejecting a 3 per cent wage offer from the government. The government’s offer to public servants included a once-off cash payment of 1,000 rand ($55), but the unions say that does not materially improve their income. Most unions in the country’s largest labour federation COSATU have also rejected the government’s wage offer and are demanding 10 per cent increase
Across Europe, workers and their trade unions have been pushing for wage increases that will compensate for the soaring energy bills and the rising cost of living. In Belgium, unions are fighting against employers and right-wing parties to avoid a suspension of the raise that upholds their purchasing power. In Luxembourg, unions have just managed to reverse a decision by Parliament to cancel indexation in 2022 and 2023. The main unions in Spain are demanding an increase in wages across the board in response to spiralling inflation that has made many people’s salaries to have fallen in real terms. The story is the same in Austria where metal industry workers are demanding 10.6 per cent pay rise.

Months after the purchasing power of Tunisians got eroded amid rising prices, high unemployment and widespread poverty, Tunisia’s government and the country’s main labour union (UGTT) recently struck a pay deal that involves a five percent annual hike to public sector wages every year until 2025. The agreement between both parties came after arduous negotiations and a general strike that shut down the North African country in June. It is unconscionable that despite the wave of agitations by workers elsewhere for wages to match inflation and the rising cost of living, all the Nigerian authorities can think of is to increase the emoluments of the already gorged public officials.

The Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), an agency responsible for determining salary structure in Nigeria, recently announced that it has concluded arrangements to start the process of reviewing the remuneration of political and public office holders as well as judicial officers in the country. Those to benefit from the largesse include the president, vice president, governors and their deputies, legislators and other political office holders. This came amid media reports that the severance packages of political office holders including President Muhammadu Buhari, Vice President Yemi Osinbajo and the twenty-eight governors leaving in 2023 would cost the country N63.43bn.
According to a document obtained from the RMAFC website, a breakdown of the gratuity indicates that the Federal Government would pay out N3.39bn while the states will cough out N60.06bn. In Nigeria, political office holders are entitled to 300 per cent of their annual salary as gratuity. In some cases, ex-governors are paid 100 per cent of their annual basic salary for life after leaving office. They would also get new cars every three years, a house in any part of the country, free medical care, as well as furniture allowance and car maintenance allowance as part of their severance package.

As things stand at the moment, the Nigerian President earns N14,058,820 per annum (p.a.); the Vice President N12,126,290 p.a.; Ministers, Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Head of Service, Chairmen of Constitutional bodies N7,801,640:00 p.a.; Ministers of State and members of Constitutional bodies N7,536,683 p.a.; Special Advisers including speechwriters N7,091,493 p.a. These are their annual basic salaries excluding their entitled allowances like accommodation, furniture, duty tour allowance, estacode, medicals, severance gratuity, leave and motor vehicle loan and what is paid to their domestic staff. It is unacceptable that it is this same set of over-paid officials that the RMAFC is seeking to increase their earnings, even when the national minimum wage of N30,000 cannot afford a bag of rice.

Shouldn’t an increment in salary be directed to the workforce who are the driving force of productivity and economic rejuvenation of any nation? We are yet to see the tangible contributions these public office holders make to Nigeria’s economic growth that entitle them to jumbo emoluments. Beyond the inherent impropriety of robbing Peter to pay Paul, Naija News is worried that the planned increment in the salaries of top functionaries is coming at a time the Buhari government intends to borrow N8.80tn to fund the proposed 2023 Budget which has a deficit of N10.78 trillion with the country’s public debt stock at N42.8tn as of June 2022. The country’s balance sheet is in such dire straits that the Minister of Finance, Zainab Ahmed, disclosed in August that, “there will be no provision for treasury-funded MDA’s capital projects in 2023”. About 70 per cent of the national budget is recurrent expenditure while the other 35 per cent is shared between debt servicing and capital expenditure.

The country which finances is bleeding shouldn’t be feathering the nest of cushy public officials. It goes without saying that the fat cats to whom the revenue allocation agency wants to dish out more largesse do not quite need the extra money unless to be squandered in obscene opulence at the expense of everyone else. Pray, what will the enhanced salary do to a governor who receives at least an unappropriated N500 million every month as a security vote? There are some state governors who even get as high as N1.3 billion per month. If these slush funds were judiciously used, Nigeria won’t be this debilitated by insecurity, banditry and terrorism.

The amount that these political and public office holders are paid as salaries is not even unsustainable, given that the federal government, according to Governor Godwin Obaseki, has resorted to the illegal printing of money to meet its monthly obligation to workers. Speaking only a week ago, the Edo State helmsman said, “the debt this country is going to N60 trillion. When are we going to come out of it? Every day, every month, they are printing and printing money to pay salaries. When I cried out years ago, I never knew it was as bad as this. What will happen to the Naira? Only God will help us.” This certainly shouldn’t be the time for RMAFC to get profligate with the nation’s scarce resources. And if there must be a review of the salary structure, it should be in favour of civil servants whose take-home salary cannot take them home yet they have to grapple with inflation currently over 20 per cent.

Egalitarianism is better suited to this circumstance, and Naija News advocates the practice of the principle of “from each according to his ability” and “to each according to his needs”. The country is stymied by misfits, the indolent and incompetent occupy public who are solely attracted by the jumbo pay and benefits attached to public offices. While government officials in developed countries carry their own bags and pull chairs to sit in meetings, Nigeria essentially pays hangers-on to do those for the principal. The words of Ludwig von Mises that “there is no more dangerous menace to civilization than a government of incompetent, corrupt or vile men” rings true.
Politicians who are not prepared for the rigours of office meander their way into public offices and rely on the retinue of aides and appointees doing all the work for them. No wonder spent forces and those who have long past their prime are gunning for the most important job in the country yet have the temerity to tell Nigerians that being the President does not require the energy of a mountain climber, wrestler or bricklayer. The other day, a governor appointed 28,000 special assistants. With such a staggering number of aides to complement those already in his service, what else is left for the governor to do? Yet, these are the sort of principals whose salaries are about being raised by the revenue allocation commission in a time of austerity!

Naija News demands that if there must be an increase in the government’s recurrent expenditure, it should be to pay lowly workers what is commensurate with the times. Since Nigerian government officials are already among the highest paid in the world, efforts should rather be diverted into making local civil servants at par with their foreign counterparts who are granted wage indexation to survive the rising cost of living.

A man identified as Abubakar Mohammed has been sentenced to death by hanging for murdering his girlfriend and harvesting body parts from her in Adamawa state.

Mohammed was convicted and sentenced by the Adamawa State High Court for the heinous act after the buyer allegedly promised to pay N10 million.
On Tuesday, the presiding judge, Justice Bulila Ladokiya Ikaro, ordered Mohammed’s execution for murdering Christiana Augustine, removing her eyeballs, cutting her breast, and removing her tongue.
On Wednesday, it was learned that Abubakar, a father of seven children from Jauro Tukur village in Akko Local Government Area of Gombe State, moved to Shagari Phase II, Yola South LGA of Adamawa State in search of greener pasture.

He became a water vendor and fell in love with Christiana along the way.

He had also come into contact with a man named Buhari Mohammed, who was also a Yola resident, and who allegedly told him about a man who wanted to buy eyeballs for N10 million.

According to reports, Abubakar considered where he could get it and eventually settled on his girlfriend, Christiana.

The story began on January 26th, 2019, when Abubakar went to Christiana’s house to see her and convinced her to meet him where they used to meet for their tryst.

Christiana showed up at the unfinished building where they had previously met, but instead of making love, Abubakar took out his knife, slit her throat, and plucked one of her eyeballs while damaging the other in the process.

The convict then took the eyeballs to Buhari, who was said to have expressed shock and chased Abubakar away with the eyes the next day.

Following the discovery of Christiana’s lifeless body in the unfinished building the following day, Abubakar was pursued and arrested, resulting in his arraignment and prosecution.

At the most recent hearing on the case on Tuesday, Justice Bulila Ladokiya Ikaro sentenced the convict for culpable homicide after he was tried and found guilty of possessing human parts.

On point

Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State on Wednesday night met with his counterparts from Abia (Okezie Ikpeazu), Ebonyi (Dave Umahi), and Cross River (Ben Ayade), over the 2023 elections.

POLITICS NIGERIA reports that the quartet met at Wike’s private residence in Rumuepirikom, Obio Akpor Local Government Area (LGA) of Rivers State.
Details of their meeting are still sketchy, but this newspaper understands that it is connected with the forthcoming general elections in Nigeria.

While the host governor, Wike, and Ikpeazu are members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Messrs Umahi and Ayade are chieftains of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).

The meeting is coming at a time of internal crisis triggered by demands being made by Wike and four of his aggrieved colleagues: Ikpeazu, Seyi Makinde of Oyo State, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State, and Samuel Ortom (Benue).

It is understood that Wike and his loyalists are not backing down on their call for Iyorchia Ayu to step down as the National Chairman of the PDP in order to pave the way for a Southerner to succeed him.

Why didn't he go alone?

Put my trust in God.

He have done noble.

OMG

Cool cool

Well done