The senator representing Kaduna Central, Shehu Sani, on Sunday kicked off distribution of 100,000 radio sets to communities in seven local government areas under his zone.
While presenting the radio sets to representatives of communities in the seven LGAs namely: Kaduna North, Kaduna South, Birnin Gwari, Chikun, Giwa, Igabi and Kajuru in Kaduna, Mr. Sani described radio as the major source of enlightenment and access to information especially to the grassroot in the northern part of the country.
He said, “Radio is the major source of information dissemination in the region with or without electricity. So, I am sharing this radio to contribute towards political consciousness within the people of my own senatorial district,” he said.
On his alleged suspension from the All Progressives Congress, APC, Mr. Sani said the national secretariat of the party had advised that all sides cease “all forms of attacks on the pages newspapers and I have instructed all my supporters and followers to abide by this”.
Mr. Sani, who is the chairman, senate committee on foreign and domestic debt, blamed the governor of Kaduna State, Nasir El-Rufai, and his supporters for the crisis. “But it is unfortunate that some persons within the circle of the governor have made crisis a source of their own monetary gains,” he said.
“So, as far as I am concerned, we will abide by what the national secretariat advised. It is shameful and disgraceful that individuals within the so-called state level are insulting reputable personalities at the national level.”
Mr. Sani warned of a looming crisis in the Kaduna APC, and said without both sides accepting to remain in peace, the party will continue to face problems. He called on Nigerians to continue to support and pray for President Muhammadu Buhari.
“The president has two categories of enemies, those who like the president by mere words and those who hate him in their hearts,” he said.
“APC is Buhari and Buhari is APC and we are in APC if Buhari is in APC. Therefore, no amount of blackmail, propaganda against me will discourage me or the people of Kaduna State because our people have become more aware and enlightened about the political developments around them.
“Whoever does not want Buhari to continue beyond 2019 is enemy of Buhari and Nigerians,” he said. Abdulkareem Akarami, who spoke on behalf of the beneficiaries, thanked the senator and urged other political leaders to emulate him.
“Radio is our live and we thank the senator for the distribution which will help most of us who cannot afford their own because of our economic status,” he said.
Kelechi2020: Fayose my governor...... you are a subtle voice in the midst of fear ravaged minds.... the life of opposition, the threat to the king of Aso rock....buhari is all yours....engage him but don't forget that as a governor you generate nothing relevant to sustained. your state, that buhari still remains the breast in your mouth that you suck and feel like you are doing well,the day he removes the breast not even IMF or any Chinese bank will help you.....
Gbenu soun jarey!
Buhari doesn't even know the blabbermouth existz..
politricks: I used to laugh when people say Fayose(the pampers marketer) is the nightmare of buhari and yet buhari keeps ignoring him because he knows that 'silence is the best answer for...., instead of him to face the ponmo and meat he likes cutting, he is disturbing us with noise.
The guy is the best nigerian entertainer into politics. I really love the way Buhari ignores him.
Fayose is like a defeated mourinho...{that noise he makes after every defeat}
I am not a sycophant to say that it was after Buhari became president that I started praising or talking against him.. I started from day one.
I was 24 years old when Buhari was head of state of Nigeria. We were daily being beaten in Ibadan when we queued up for essential commodities. I remembered how he stopped import duties and did a lot of things damaging to the economy, the same way he is still doing it today. God raised Joseph at a given time. God raised Moses to warn Pharaoh of the consequences of his leadership, until he perished. I have said it clearly that any attempt to confront me and attack my government will bring Buhari’s government down. My name is Ayo Fayose, I mean every word I am saying. As powerful as God has made the snail, he warned the snail to beware of salt. God gave the snail a protected shield behind him and told him to crawl all over the world, but warned him to be mindful of salt. I am salt. He should be mindful of me. It doesn’t matter his might, we have seen presidents before. We were here when Obasanjo was here. We were here when other presidents came and we will still be here when he will leave. I am not a coward. Call me controversial if you like. Men that will make history will be very controversial. Courageous people will be controversial. The bible makes it very clear that the righteous will be as bold as a lion.
PT: You talked very courageously and when men do that they always have some backbone or alternative power support, what is yours?
Fayose: Let me tell you the truth, the bible says before we were born, we were known by God even in the womb of our mother. Today this is the way God has made me. Anybody can trace my background, my father and the kind of family I come from. I have God’s backing, and above all, I have a wonderful wife, a woman of God. Aside that those who put their faith in the Lord, they can never be denied. We cannot all be in the same party. We cannot all be afraid. There must be one or two of us who will be very conscious in very bad weather. So I don’t have alternative medicine. I only have God.
PT: So having said much about the Buhari’s person, what is your assessment of the administration in the last seven months?
Fayose: I am not impressed. I am not impressed. Buhari administration has shown the hallmark of a very vindictive leader. Let us reflect carefully on Jonathan. A leader needs all the peace to run a country. Part of the hallmark of a good leader is to be able to rally everybody in times like this. Look back. Jonathan was magnanimous. He could have said I am a sitting president and cause the country headache, but he did not do that. He willingly relinquished power because of the overall interest of the country. Instead of Buhari coming…….you begin to vilify everybody. You begin to do factional pursuance of the fight against corruption. It doesn’t work like that. Go and look at Buhari’s antecedent. I stand to be corrected. It doesn’t matter how many people are feeding under him now, I can always tell you that those who are rearing this lion will end up in his stomach. There is nothing new in governance. We were young here before. We were kids, we became boys, we became men and we became average aged men now. We know that the rate at which Buhari is going, he is going to destroy this country.
There is no hiding place for dictators. The only thing binding us together in this country is the constitution. How can the president begin to incarcerate and take away people’s rights because you are president today? It’s not right. That era is gone. I was listening to the president on the television. He said somebody stole and some people are somewhere suffering. Is the president now a law unto himself? Is he a judge in his own matter? For every matter you in the executive find wrong, you present it to the judiciary? Why would you judge them on the television? That’s not right. Let me give you an instance, this young man in South Africa that was said to have killed his girlfriend. He was granted bail. He killed. Everything the law says you are entitled to bail. If you say no, you are a dictator. Imagine somebody that you locked up, gave several charges, the court gave conditions for bail, he met the conditions, he came out, and you rearrested him. Those who are promoting this lion will end up in his stomach.
PT: You have recalled your forceful removal from office through the use of federal might. You have also described Buhari as a vindictive person. Don’t you envisage a repeat of the 2006 experience where the president organized your removal if you continue your attacks?
Fayose: If nobody had done anything against me at that time, maybe I would not be as visible as I am now. Everything works together for good. You may have power, you may use power, but there is a certain beginning for a man and there is a certain end. Again as I told you, the worst of situation is death, I am not afraid of that. The more you pursue me, the more you will run into trouble. Don’t forget that after nine years my removal was upturned by the tongue-lashing of the justices of the Supreme Court against my adversaries. It doesn’t matter what you suffer today because you are saying the truth. Those who stood by the truth in the bible excelled in the long run. The story of Joseph is fresh in our memories. The story of Daniel is fresh in our memories. Nothing lasts forever, I am not afraid of Buhari.
PT: You have consistently criticized Buhari for his lopsided fight against corruption. Does the recent arrest of his associate, Jafaru Isa by the EFCC not change your opinion on his anti-corruption fight?
Fayose: That is cosmetic. They should tell us the account where he paid that money. I read in papers today that they will not release Olisa Metuh until he pays. So if the man says I have a right to be heard in court to defend myself, you will force me to go and pay. It was in the days of Obasanjo that you believe you can incarcerate people for as long as you want because you want them to even lie against themselves. That Jafaru or Kafaru or whatever you call his name…you can’t cover your tracks. The fact that he returned N100million – does that mean he cannot be charged to court. Everybody is still in the face of the law, innocent. You know, they will be searching for my name now to find out whether Fayose’s name is in that scandal. I am here, I can’t go anywhere. This country is our home, our father’s land. God has produced me at this time for his purpose and I am telling them to do whatever they like but I am going higher.
This is not my stopping point. No matter the persecution, I will remain resolute. You fight corruption within the ambits of the law. You don’t take away human rights. Taking away human rights and trampling on the constitution and the rights of people is worse than corruption. If you look very closely at what the law says. The law says it is better for nine bad people to be set free than for one innocent person to suffer. People should be given the benefit of the doubt. When you were reading my story in the papers those days with headlines like ‘Ayo Fayose stole N1.3billion’ ‘Ayo Fayose carted away poultry project money’…… I am the one still sitting down here as governor of Ekiti State without apologies to them. I’m still alive when the Supreme Court gave this judgment. It is fair to give people fair hearing. Most of the people that fought against me that time are now my friends. They have seen the light. They have realized that what they did to me was most unnecessary. God fights the battle of the man that believes in the truth.
In this first part of a no-holds-barred interview with PREMIUM TIMES’ Josiah Oluwole in Ado-Ekiti, the Ekiti State Governor, Ayodele Fayose, speaks about his administration, President Muhammadu Buhari, and other matters.
PT: You have been in office for over one year now? How has it been? What difference have you made in the lives of Ekiti people?
Fayose: You will recall that I am a second term governor and I must have come with some level of experience otherwise we will be in a very serious and a very terrible situation as a government. This is beside the fact that the economy of the state under the last administration was not impressive.
The handling of the economy and other things that happened created a lot of challenges for this administration. I employed a strategy to be transparent and took time to engage the people. When you engage the people in the running of your government, it would leave no room for stories and fifth columnists. You will have the people defend you in the event of any misinformation. The other issue that we cannot ignore is the financial inabilities facing my government as a result of the borrowings of the last administration. One, Ekiti earns about the least in Nigeria. Again, Ekiti has low level internally-generated revenue. When you put all this together, it is not an easy run for the government.
The last administration took two sets of loans – the loan from commercial bank and the bond. The bond was for N25billion and the commercial loan was for N31billion, aside from unpaid salaries. These, put together, have handicapped the government from functioning. But it is not enough to tell stories because we told the Ekiti people that we have answers to these problems, so we have to face it. After explaining the cause of the situation to the people, we still have to find solution to the problems. We reduced the size of government. We had about 34 permanent secretaries heading MDAs. We had to cut it down to 25. Of the 25, we have statutory boards like the Teaching Service Commission, Local Government Service Commission, the Civil Service Commission, etc.
They are boards you cannot run like the regular ministries. Cutting the size of government and being realistic is important. Before you do that, you have to be an example. You have to run government like your personal business in terms of the fact you have to feel the pains as an individual in order to win the trust of the people.
We ensured the blockage of all wastages. Even at that, the nose-diving of the allocation that comes to the state is another challenge. Between January to October 2014 when (former governor) Fayemi was here and January to October 2015, we had a shortfall of about N11billion of what accrued to the state within the space of 10 months. That made it uneasy for us to run the government. Within the ambit of this, we need to maintain the payment of salaries. One of the things that can cause the downfall of any government is when you cannot pay the wages of your workers or issues that tend to mortgage the future of workers.
PT: Are the Ekiti people following you in the austere measures you are introducing at the moment?
Fayose: The working class is the pulse of the people because the political class is seen as political heads. When you pay salaries it goes down to the commoners. The man that get his wages will have to get his food in the market, he will have to buy pepper, he will buy fuel and all that and in turn the economy expands and the people are reached. One of my strategies is to bring the workers together and declare the earnings of government every month. There is a document from Abuja that says this is your earnings. I give it to them. The state wage bill is supposed to be N2.6 billion but what we got was N1.375 billion.
That is about half. They know that this government is transparent. I make public announcement. I declare the assets of government. The standing committee of the labour, the NUJ, and all that, come together and I ask them to look into the balance and see how we can pay wages. Actually, if they see that what you earn is not up to what you will pay, they know that it is not the fault of the governor. But what we try to do is to ensure that whatever comes is used judiciously for the benefit of everybody. So communication is important. Many people do not know the purpose of the austere measures. They don’t know the price of oil. They only know the status of their stomachs and so you have to educate them. My style is a government that is in tune with everybody. I am a governor that goes to everywhere and every home. I call the different segments of the society and intimate them. They are happy and they know I am giving my best.
PT: What differences can you spot between your first tenure in office and now?
Fayose: Let me tell you this that it is on record that I took over government in 2003 when the economy was at its lowest ebb. Workers were owed salaries. I recall that I paid all the salaries. At my departure I left over N10billion in the coffers of government. We spent N1.14billion as part of contribution for the recapitalization of Wema Bank, among the states of Oodua. And in the entire tenure, I did not borrow a dime to run the state. Far reaching projects that touched the lives of the Ekiti people were carried out under my government. Forget about politics of blackmail and all the noise. There was no road in Ekiti that was dualised before my coming in 2003. I had to summon courage to demolish houses and pay compensation. I did Ikere to Ado-Ekiti, from Ado-Ekiti up till the state hospital. I did Irona, that is, Mathew Street junction up to Ilawe. I was the one that did Adebowo to the police headquarters. I built the Governor’s Office, the fire station. I built the popular Ayo Fayose Market. Even if you don’t like my face, you have to call that market. I built the road from Ikere to Igbara-Odo, from Igbara-Odo to Ikogosi, from Ikogosi to Aramoko, from Aramoko to Efun-Alaye, and from Ado to Afao. I recall that I built the road from Afao to Ire, and so on. I did a lot you cannot forget so soon.
PT: Why are you not able to do the same now?
Fayose: We are doing our best within available resources. We just dualised Awodele and we are doing many more. But it is more challenging now because of the debt profile of our state. We are going to continue to service it until the year 2036. It is more challenging. They have committed the state so badly. If I come here and tell you that it is not challenging I will be deceiving you. The difference is that we are carrying the people along so they can understand where we have found ourselves. Up till the time the bailout (funds) provided the leeway, it was not easy at all.
PT: Your brand of politics is that of controversy. You cut an impression of a very controversial personality. You raised a lot of controversies in your first tenure leading to your impeachment and now it is almost the same, why is it so?
Fayose: I am like that. Everybody is peculiar. You become an issue when you are not a conformist. I am a very clear person. The style in Nigeria and the world over is to lie. It is to do a make- belief. It is to deceive the people. It is to promise change, when you know it is only a “one chance” promise. I am not a man like that. I am not a perfect man, but the path of a righteous man is always a challenge. They know that l represent light. Let me explain to you – have you ever seen in Nigeria where any man will leave office in those challenging situations and will come back again, eight years exactly. I was forced out of government at gunpoint under the Obasanjo administration on the 16th of October 2006. I came back on the 16th of October 2014, exactly eight years. Analysts told me that I took oath of office at exactly the same minute. Let me tell you the truth.
There is a way truth catches up with people and there is a way posterity judges you right. Posterity is judging me right because I have dominated the politics of Ekiti State in the last 15 years. Nobody can controvert that. The denominator in politics is the people, not propaganda. If the people can say this man come back in a falling state…I am the issue in Ekiti politics and by extension Nigerian politics. I am the longest serving Nigerian governor. I served in the Obasanjo administration. I was in the same tenure with (Bola) Tinubu, with (Adamu) Mu’azu and others. I was in the same administration with former President Goodluck Jonathan and am now in Buhari administration. I am a major force, I am a factor; you cannot ignore me. If you ignore me, it is at your own peril.
PT: You just mentioned that you were forced out of office under the Obasanjo administration…..
Fayose: (Cuts in) I don’t want you to ask that question yet. I just want to round this one off. I want you to take note. I am the first Nigerian governor to defeat two incumbent governors at two different attempts, landslide. I did not only defeat them, I defeated them in their homes, in their wives’ bedrooms, in their sitting room, everywhere. They were badly defeated. They have all the forces, they have all the money, and they have the contacts. It shows with all the noise, all the controversies, I am the issue there. I served in the south west 12 years ago, and with all due respect to all my former colleagues, I am still a factor and a force they cannot forget in Nigerian history. All politics are local. Without this fact that I am strong at home, nobody will remember me today. I defeated Adeniyi Adebayo; I defeated Kayode Fayemi and they all came together to face me and by the grace of God, I defeated them. That shows you that this man has a backing beyond normal. Let me tell you – it is not easy. They cannot come out to say why is my “wife” beating me all the time? They can only come out to cover their tracks. They are not on ground here. In Nigerian politics I only say the truth. They took me to EFCC for eight years. I was detained in Ikoyi prison for 45 days. My wife was detained for 33 days and I won all litigations against them. They went to harass my wife at home and I got judgment against them for N10 million. They went to the Court of Appeal, I defeated them. They went to Supreme Court, I defeated them. I am waiting to collect my money from them now. You see you cannot get it more right than I am getting it.
Whether you like me or you don’t like me, it is either you like or you hate. I too I don’t like you if you don’t like me. I am not sorry for you. I told Nigerians that they should not vote for Buhari and that Buhari will not do well. My name is Ayo Fayose. He will not do well. The attitude of a man can only be corrected when you are still young. The older you get….
PT: Your Excellency let me guide you….
Fayose: (Cuts in again) Don’t guide me…the older you get, you will continue to exhibit your traits. That is why I told you Buhari is a dictator; he can never lead a people or a government without being dictatorial. Ask another question.
PT: Why have you been frontal in your attacks on President Muhammadu Buhari and the Federal Government?
Fayose: You see, the power of Buhari is not more than to kill somebody. He can send soldiers to you to come and kill you but people will know that the killing is not normal. It must be a high-wired killing. I am not afraid of him. The power of Buhari is not more than you go and lock somebody up. I am not afraid of him. I am not in the calibre of politicians who are saying, ‘ah don’t let me die o! Don’t let my mother die o,! You don’t take the inheritance of your father if you are not sure you are ready to take it. I am not in that category. Most noble men today have gone underground for fear of the unknown. And in times like this, when you train a lion, when you keep a lion in your family house, those of you promoting that lion will end up in his stomach one day. The same thing we were telling Obasanjo that time. We said Obasanjo was a dictator. Obasanjo consumed most of them who were promoting him that time. I have never minced words, before the campaign...
Why is the naira on a freefall? The most common answers you will get from Nigerians are: blame it on President Muhammadu Buhari, for insisting on “outdated ideas” in forex management; or Mr. Godwin Emefiele, the CBN governor, for “wrong-headed” monetary policies; or former President Goodluck Jonathan, for “mismanaging” the economy; or former minister of finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, for “covering up” the true state of the economy under her watch; or the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) for “misruling” Nigeria for 16 years; or the All Progressives Congress (APC) for “promising so much” and “delivering so little” since coming to power.
It doesn’t matter who you blame. The fact remains that if oil goes back to $100 today, we will have enough dollars to play with again — Emefiele or no Emefiele, Buhari or no Buhari, APC or no APC. The inflow will more than double. Our foreign reserves position will be strong enough to withstand and satisfy our voracious appetite for imports. The three tiers of government will have more money to share at FAAC. More contracts will be awarded. More money will be released into the economy. Banks will be awash with cash. The construction industry will bounce back to life. Bricklayers, carpenters and painters will return to work. Our faces will be full of smiles again.
But that is exactly our problem: this hopeless romance with the petrodollar. Our hopes are built on nothing less than petrodollars. We are over the moon when the price is high and under the weather when the price is low. In his best seller, The Parable of Dollars, Rev. Sam Adeyemi writes on how wise investment decisions and good management can produce a success story. My own The Parable of Dullards today is the flip side: how our age-old poor investment decisions and lack of foresight got us snookered. We export crude oil and use the income to import petrol, when we could be earning dollars by exporting both crude and petrol. With due respect, we are dullards.
We are now paying for the sins of the past 40 years when oil boom overwhelmed us and we lost our senses. We would rather build state-of-the-art government houses than build roads. Governors were building meaningless airports so that private jets can pick and drop them at their backyards. We would rather import petroleum products than build refineries and become exporters. We would rather import generators than build power plants. We would rather export cocoa and import chocolate. We fell in love with imports and dollars, and now we can no longer eat or drink without checking oil prices. Believe me, we are dullards.
I have watched Emefiele struggle to keep the naira on its feet, but I can assure him that he is fighting a lost battle. I pity him. This is the wrongest time to be CBN governor. There are no easy answers to the currency crisis. An import-dependent country is a dollar-dependent country. Forex will only flow into the economy based on what we have to sell to the rest of the world. As at today, oil is our biggest product. And oil is $30. And $30 is not good enough. When crude oil averaged $80, official exchange rate was roughly N152 and black market was around N154. Reserves were in excess of $50 billion. Oil at $30 cannot sustain N197 to a dollar because our import bill has gone crazy. There is a connection between oil price and exchange rate. Nigerians must know this. We are depleting our reserves and if care is not taken, Nigeria may be shut out of international trade.
The major measure adopted so far by Emefiele is “demand management”. By that he intends to trim the population of those demanding for forex. To an extent, it makes sense in this situation. If you have $28 billion in reserves (just enough to guarantee imports for at least six months) and the demand for forex is going to overwhelm that, what do you do? You can choose to deplete your reserves until you can no longer import — meaning even essential commodities and pharmaceuticals cannot come in and school fees of foreign-based students cannot be paid. You can also choose to place restrictions on who can access forex at the official market. You can also choose to allow your currency adjust to the market realities and protect your reserves.
So far, the CBN has banned forex allocation to dozens of imports — ostensibly to encourage local production — but the problem remains unsolved. It is very good to focus on encouraging local industry, but forex ban will not automatically yield result. There are other factors at play — particularly infrastructure and finance. In the long run, we would benefit but let’s hope we would still be alive in the long run. Also, banks have restricted use of naira cards abroad but the problem remains. The CBN first reduced and then banned forex allocations to bureaux de change (BDCs), but things are getting worse. All emergency measures seem to be failing.
So why are these measures not helping the naira? Because we have only succeeded in refusing to meet official demand for forex — but the actual demand remains. And actual demand will be met one way or the other since economic activities and life must go on. So unmet demand heads for the black market. Only the privileged have access to dollar at the official rate of N197, while the real value of the naira — as determined by the forces of demand and supply — is now roughly N300. That is a gap in excess of N100. If a “big boy” gets $100 million at N197, he can manage to make a cool N5 billion by diverting just $50 million to the black market. They know how they do it.
A renowned economist noted at a private forum recently that the federal government has moved from fuel subsidy to “dollar subsidy”. The big boys are enjoying a subsidy of more than N100 on every dollar. But the government is being short-changed. The three tiers are sharing oil revenue at N197 to a dollar, and in real life they pay for goods and services at N300 to a dollar. Meanwhile, if oil revenue for December was $1 billion, the three tiers would share N197 billion, whereas the open market value of the revenue is about N300 billion. By sharing N197 billion instead of N300 billion, they are losing N103 billion at the real market value of their oil income.
What, then, is the way out of this crisis? I have only one suggestion: the time has come for the president and his team to have a frank conversation on this exchange rate meltdown. I don’t think there is anywhere in the world where the difference between official rate and that of the parallel market is up to 50%. Buhari and his team must sit down and paint all the possible scenarios with an open mind. Certainly, there is no decision that will not hurt us. Something has to give. The pertinent questions should be: what option is least harmful to the economy? What option is more realistic and sustainable? What option can lead to recovery? One thing that is very glaring is that the foreign exchange policy is Buhari’s baby. He said in France last year that he was the one who directed the CBN to stop giving forex allocation to finance certain imports. He has also said you only devalue your currency to encourage exports and make your products cheaper abroad. Very good points. But that is one view. In truth, you can also be forced to devalue out of necessity, when you don’t have the means to meet the forex demand. In O’Level Economics, if demand is high and supply is static or dropping, price will go up. The demand for forex is high and our reserves are dropping. Do the math. This is no Quantum Physics.
Government says the masses will suffer from price increases if the currency is devalued. Again, very good point. But are the masses not suffering already? Are prices not on the rise? Are we buying things at the same prices we bought them two months ago? Do the favoured importers who get dollars at N197 price their goods at that rate? Does the government have a mechanism of monitoring and enforcing that the benefits get to the “masses”? In fact, the favoured manufacturers also incur costs that are priced at N300 to a dollar and which they can do nothing about. In truth, most traders source forex at the black market and price their goods accordingly. O, poor masses!
When Buhari won his election, it was like a new day for Nigeria. Many investors were eager to pour billions of dollars into the economy. If former President Goodluck Jonathan attracted an average of $6 billion foreign investment in his time, Buhari had the goodwill to attract $12 billion. But the initial enthusiasm and confidence have evaporated as the new administration stalled on key decisions. No serious investor wants to be in a market full of distortion and moving goalposts. We need to refocus and re-strategise. I plead with Buhari to have a frank talk with his team. I don’t claim to know the perfect solution, but I don’t think we have chosen the best option.
“How our age-old poor investment decisions and lack of foresight got us snookered. We export crude oil and use the income to import petrol, when we could be earning forex by exporting both crude and petrol”
AND FOUR OTHER THINGS...
SUPREMELY SETTLED
So the Supreme Court has declared again that nomination is a party’s internal affair. In upholding the election of Benue governor, Samuel Ortom, the court dismissed the appeal of PDP’s Terhemen Tarzoor in a very brief judgment, saying since the appellants were not APC members, they lacked the locus standi to challenge the nomination of Ortom. This is exactly the case in Taraba state, where APC is challenging the legality of PDP’s nomination of Darius Ishaku. Hopefully, in future election litigations, no lawyer will raise this issue again — and no tribunal will again go against the Supreme Court pronouncement. Settled.
JANUARY 1966
Events commemorating the failed Kaduna Nzeogwu-led coup of January 15, 1966 only reminded me of one thing: the beginning of Nigeria’s fragmentation. That coup and the series of events that followed — culminating in the civil war — are certainly not our proudest moments as a nation. Not only did the coup terminate our first experience of democracy, Nigeria thereafter became fully pronounced along ethnic and regional lines. My conclusion remains the same: immaturity and inexperience got us into the tragic sequence of events. All said and done, I still believe Nigeria is more crisis-resistant today than it was in 1966. Positive.
TAX AMNESTY
I was somehow surprised by the massive interest of readers in my article canvassing amnesty for millions of tax defaulters. I said the amnesty should aim to bring defaulters into the tax family without repercussions for their past. While most readers supported my proposal, some questioned the rationale behind it. “So those of us who have been law-abiding are fools?” one respondent asked. Look at the Prodigal Son: was his brother, who did not go on riotous living, a fool? Let’s calculate the cost of coercive enforcement and the benefits of voluntary compliance. Something must give, in any case. Pragmatism.
WANDER WONDER
Do you know you can be arrested, charged to court and convicted for “wandering”? I mean, the police can see you taking a stroll on the street, stop you, ask you where you are going, and if the officer is not impressed with your English, he can decide to charge you to court for wandering? And the court will convict you? I’m not joking. A certain jobless Sunday Vincent, 27, has been sentenced to three-week imprisonment by an Abuja area court for “wandering”. He has an option of fine of N3,000. He will end up with a criminal record. Ridiculous.
Nigeria’s Minister of Interior, Abdulrahman Dambazau, has been caught on tape using an officer of Nigeria’s secret police, the State Security Service, to clean his shoes in public.
A video sent to PREMIUM TIMES by one of its readers showed the minister, dressed in white gown, relaxing on a couch with his legs stretched out.
The SSS officer appeared from the sides, with a handkerchief in his right hand and a holstered service pistol protruding from his jacket.
He was shown stooping before the minister, using his left hand to lift Mr. Dambazau’s right leg, slightly above the floor to clean his loafers. The minister bent his head to notice him, before looking away to focus on the event unfolding in a distance.
The minister was at the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps Academy in an Abuja suburb for an event in December.
He was seated between what seemed to be top officers of the NSCDC who merely took short glances at the SSS officer stooping before them. Soon, the right leg shoe was glistering again and he steadily dropped it back to a dusty floor. The minister adjusted himself in his couch and gently raised the left foot, appearing detached, while the SSS officer took it in his palms again and wiped off the dust.
Top Nigerian officials are known for misusing or abusing security details posted to them. Apparently irritated by the way security officials are treated by the VIPs to which they are attached, the Inspector General of Police, Solomon Arase, in May last year, warned police officers against running errands or doing domestic chores for their principals.
“Those of you who are posted to VIPs, on no account should you carry their bags and on no account should you act as domestic servants to them,” Mr. Arase told police inspectors and other rank and file on May 21, 2015, shortly after he was appointed Inspector General
“You are police officers of the Federal Republic of Nigeria and they must respect you as such. Your uniform must be respected, anybody who wants to hire a domestic help should not use our policemen who are sent to protect them as domestic help.
“I have directed the commissioner of police in charge of the airports that if they find any of you carrying boxes (of VIPs) and rifles, and dragging them all over the place, they should arrest you and you will be punished.’’ It is not clear whether the SSS gave a similar instruction to its personnel.
The Presidency has said President Muhammadu Buhari will be willing to receive and listen to former President Goodluck Jonathan to make clarifications on the multi-million dollar arms procurement scandal perpetrated under his administration.
The Special Adviser to the President on Media and Publicity, Mr. Femi Adesina, stated this in an interview on Saturday.
Asked if Buhari would be ready to grant Jonathan audience if the former President sought to make clarifications in view of the revelations coming from the EFCC’s probe of the scandal, Adesina said because of Buhari’s belief in decency and civility, he would not shut out his predecessors, even if some people had done so in the past.
Adesina said, “A former President should always have access to a sitting one. It would be uncouth and indecent to shut out a former occupant of such lofty office. If some people did it to their predecessors in the past, it is not this President who believes in decency and civility.
“Yes, President Buhari will always grant audience to former President Jonathan, if there is any request for such. A rebuff does not come into the picture at all.”
Meanwhile, a top government official who spoke on the condition of anonymity said that the former President had tried to reach out to the National Security Adviser, Babagana Mongunu.
The source, however, said he did not know if Jonathan had succeeded in establishing a contact. “I know that the former President has been trying to reach the NSA. Whether he has succeeded, I do not know. You can ask the NSA himself,” he said. It was the NSA, on the orders of the President, who constituted the committee that has audited the procurement of arms and equipment in the Armed Forces and Defence sector from 2007 to 2015.
Most of the information in public domain on the arms scandal is from the findings of the committee, which has submitted two preliminary reports so far.
joseph1832: I believe they do. May be the real reason why Jonathan was given that award was because he was the first African president ever to accept defeat. Who really knows.
The day they give Mama Piss a nobel prize in literature, that's the day I will make a video and call Wole Soyinka a FOOL!.
joseph1832: While all this claim and counter claim is going on, one christian conference in U.S.A decided to give Jonathan, a man who was complacent in corruption, an award.
makes me wonder if these pple have an idea of who jonathan was/is..
You know, sometimes the whites are so daaft they could award someone like patience Jonathan a nobel prize in literature
A doctor in New York has been banned and is being investigated for masturbating on the face of an unconscious woman.
The 45-year-old doctor, David Newman is being investigated for sexually assaulting a 22-year-old patient while she was unconscious and receiving treatment at Mount Sinai Hospital, New York, US. According to investigations, the patient was admitted with severe pains in her right shoulder and chest. She was attended to by two nurses in a private who gave her morphine.
The nurses asked her to remove her shirt and bra so she can wear a hospital gown for an x-ray. The woman told investigators that while she was there waiting, Dr. Newman came into the room and gave her a another dose of morphine despite her protests that she had already been given the drug.
She further claims that while she was unconscious, she heard the sound of someone pleasuring himself. She was unable to move but felt sperm on her face.
She told investigators that Newman wiped the sperm from her face with a blanket after he finished masturbation on her.
The national leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party has said it didn’t ask any of its members to collect money on its behalf from the office of the former National Security Adviser, Col Sambo Dasuki (retd).
It also said its members who are currently facing trial for allegedly linked with the collection of money from the former NSA, have nothing to do with the party and should therefore carry their own cross.
The Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the party, Alhaji Abdullahi Jalo, said this at a press briefing in Abuja in Monday.
He said, “Money earmarked for arms purchase, some people diverted it to something else. So many people that you cannot even expect were involved. Now, darkness has come to light.
Jalo insisted that the transactions between the party chieftains facing trial and those in the EFCC custody did not receive the blessing of former President Goodluck Jonathan.
He said, “All of you are aware that there was a dinner, where money meant for campaign was realised. That’s known to all of us, billions of naira were given by business tycoons in this country.
“So, why should somebody now tell us that money meant for arms and appropriated by the National Assembly was diverted into PDP campaign”
“Haliru Bello did a contract with the office of Sambo Dasuki to the tune of N600m with his company’s name, not PDP.
“In the case of Olisa Metuh, his company allegedly had transactions with the office of National Security Adviser. So, what is PDP business with that?”
Politics › Shehu Sani Distributes Radio Sets To Supporters, Wants Buhari Beyond 2019(PHOTO) by midolian(op): 8:31pm On Jan 25, 2016
