₦airaland Forum

Former Military President, General Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida, IBB, has dismissed suggestions that Nigerians will accept a one-party state.

Babaginda, who was Head of State between 1985 and 1993, claimed that a one-party state tends to lead to dictatorship.


He made this known on Friday during an appearance on Channels TV’s Inside Sources with Laolu Akande.


His words: “I have been in a military regime, and the Nigerians I know won’t allow a one-party state. I have been a military man. And I know dictatorship is not good and can’t be good in a civil society.

“Nigerians who I know won’t allow a one-party system and will talk you out of it until you get tired.”

IBB also reiterated his call for a two-party system, stating that it prevents rancour and will save the country a lot of funds and issues associated with a multi-party system.

He said: “Immediately after independence, Nigeria tended to gravitate towards a two-party system. The number of parties formed a coalition to gain power. It happened in the first and second republics. It showed up again in the third republic and the current republic.

“At the time, we believed Nigerians were capable of a two-party system because it saves you a lot of ‘wahala’ and no rancour. You can choose from A or B.”

According to the Independent National Electoral Commission, INEC, there are 19 registered political parties in the country.

Bandits reportedly struck again early Thursday morning at Kuka Babangida village, Jibia Local Government Area of Katsina State, killing no fewer than nine residents including the village head, Idris Haruna.

The chairman of the LG council, Bashir Sabiu, confirmed the incident, alongside the spokesman for the Katsina police command, ASP Abubakar Aliyu.

The PUNCH gathered that the bandits attacked the village a few minutes before midnight and operated till around 1:30 am on Thursday.

Villagers said the bandits took time to go from house to house in search of valuables, including money.

Sources further disclosed that the bandits killed the village head, his four children, and four others in the process.

It could not be established whether they abducted people or went away with valuables.

The state Commissioner for Internal Security, Nasiru Muazu who spoke on the incident through his spokesman, Hassan Dan-Alli, said, “The state is committed to the protection of lives and property of people of the state. We shall not relent in our efforts to ensure that our people are safe wherever they are.”

Efforts were being made to bury the victims on Thursday, when this report was filed.

The PUNCH reports that the bandits killed no fewer than six traders last Friday morning who were on their way to a local market at Yantumaki in the Danmusa Local Government Area of the state.

The traders, who were travelling from Maidabino, were attacked just a few kilometres from the market.


Former Secretary to the Katsina State Government, Alhaji Inuwa Mustapha, has, however, urged governors of North-Western States to jointly tackle banditry instead of doing it individually as currently being done.

He insists that no state can single-handedly tackle the problem.

Inuwa, who is a chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party, in an interview with The PUNCH, also advised the governors to put pressure on the federal government to assist them in tackling banditry and other crimes in the region.

The former SSG insists that tackling banditry in the North-West Region requires “well-coordinated, sustainable and simultaneous operations against bandits.”

He said, “I will keep on saying this. Bandits may be large in numbers but they are not large enough to be a threat to national security if they are well tackled.

“In the first instance, there is no state in Nigeria that can single-handedly tackle insecurity. It requires the collaborative efforts and support of others including that of the Federal Government. If you could recollect, from January 2017 to 2019 Katsina put in several strategies to tackle insecurity, especially banditry.

“We put up amnesty, met the bandits’ leaders, banned sales of fuel in jerry cans, closed cattle markets, shut down communication in some councils. But you know, these bandits are mobile, highly mobile. When you put up measures that are unfavourable to them in your state, they move to other states where they will be operating from.

“Let the Governors come together; let them put pressure on the Federal Government. With the active support of the President, they should carry out a well-coordinated simultaneous operation using both air and ground troops in the region, and with the assistance of local guides and local hunters who also know the terrains, these bandits would be tackled.

“We are concerned and every well-meaning Nigerian should be concerned too. Some schools cannot be accessed because of the activities of the bandits; so also some markets. Every day, we pray for the end of the problem.”

Chevron Nigeria Limited has appointed a new Chairman and Managing Director, Jim Swartz.

This was contained in statement made available to The PUNCH on Wednesday by the firm’s General Manager, Policy, Government and Public Affairs Esimaje Brikinn.

According to the statement, Swartz was appointed “as the Chairman and Managing Director of Chevron Nigeria/Mid-Africa Business Unit, effective April 1, 2024.”

Until his appointment, Swartz was the Vice President, Capital Projects based in Houston, USA.

“He brings a wealth of experience in the upstream business and a proven ability to build effective partnerships with stakeholders,” the statement said.

A graduate of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where he received a Bachelor of Science in Geology, Swartz also obtained a Master of Science in Geology from the University of Oklahoma.

He was said to have joined Chevron in 1990 as a Geologist in Louisiana and has since held positions of increasing responsibility in Angola and the United States.

Swartz replaces Richard (Rick) Kennedy, “who has elected to retire after almost 40 years of service to the company.”

The Naira on Tuesday depreciated to N1,089.51 against the US dollar at the official foreign exchange market.

Data from FMDQ showed that the Naira dropped to N1,089.51 per US dollar compared to N856.57, which was quoted at the end of business on Monday.

The figure represents N220.38 depreciation in the local currency compared to the N856.57 per dollar on Monday.

The development comes after the country’s currency dropped after three days of successive gains in the new year.

Similarly, the Naira dropped to N1,245 per US dollar from N1,240, which it traded on Monday at the parallel market.

The depreciation comes despite the Nigerian federal government receiving a $2.25 billion foreign exchange support loan from the African Import-Export Bank over a week ago.

iwaeda:
https://dailytrust.com/b-haram-kills-6-injures-4-in-borno/?

politicoNG:
https://saharareporters.com/2024/01/09/breaking-ondo-state-government-fixes-akeredolus-burial-february-23-excludes-ssg-oladunni?fbclid=IwAR1hUs53LtKSEA611mXFIHnxVcqyjni9eSchoA3I803badVoyCWAYvukIM8#google_vignette

Juraj:
My friend is attempting to get tourist Visa to a Schengen country, one of the requirements is proof of employment.
He have tried with Offer Letter but it got rejected, when asked at workplace nobody seems to have Employment Contract either.
When asked directly his boss, he is being told that there is only offer letter.

Are they trying to gaslight him or is it common practice to only get an offer letter ?

Work is long term, full time, already there for 2 years +
Thanks

The Trade Union Congress (TUC) has claimed that the Federal Government stopped paying N35,000 minimum wage after first month despite having the revenue to pay.

The President of the Trade Union Congress, Festus Osifo, made this claim in an interview with Arise Television on Monday.

According to the TUC, the government has stopped the promised 6-month wage award payment after the first payment was made.

Meanwhile, the union has given President Bola Tinubu a 10-point agenda as part of its demands to the federal government.

Osifo said the Nigerian government has the required revenues to meet the demands of the trade union, but lacks the will to “actually do what is right.”

He said, “If you’ve signed an agreement and you’re finding it difficult to implement, what you do normally is for you to call the other party, and you sit down together. But we don’t even think that is the challenge, we don’t think that is the problem.

“Because today, you could see from the federation account how much they share every month, it has doubled compared to the figures that they were sharing or the amount of money that they were sharing as at April/May.

“Today, they share trillions of naira, that shows that even if the value of this money has plummeted, even if the value has gone down, but the physical note is there, the volume has actually gone up.

“So, they could actually take care of this. It is not because they don’t have revenue, but it is the will for them to actually do what is right. You know very well, that as at when this government came in, the exchange rate was somewhere around N450 to a dollar. But today, officially, it is over N900, which is times two. That has actually made the government to be earning more money.”

Osifo noted that the government had not notarised the 10-point agenda that the TUC had presented to the government, which was eventually agreed with.

He said, “The last point in that agreement that we reached as at then contained the fact that it will be a consent judgement, but up till now, to the best information available to us, that has not been done. As at today, it’s not been placed before the court of law for it to be adopted as a consent judgement.

“But even beyond that, there are some provisions in that agreement that we felt that government, they have not implemented to the latter.”

He further said, “It is left for government to tell us the reason why they have not taken that document to court, it’s left for them. But for us, our responsibility is to hold them accountable to be sure and certain that every statement in that agreement as agreed with them must be implemented.”

Osifo then said that the demands that the TUC listed in the 10-point agenda came about as they considered the suffering of the average Nigerian because of high rising prices due to inflation, the removal of fuel subsidy, and other economic challenges.

He stated, “It was based on this that the government came up with this 10-point agenda, because we feel that if government is sincere enough to implement these and put frameworks in place to address all these, the life of an average Nigerian will be better.”

“This government must sit down, buckle its belt and address the issues that are affecting Nigerians,” he said.

Former Minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development, Sadiya Umar-Farouq, has finally submitted herself for investigation at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in Abuja.

The ex-minister, who is being probed over the sum of N37,170,855,753.44 that was allegedly laundered under her watch through a contractor, James Okwete, arrived at the EFCC office on Monday morning.

“I have, at my behest, arrived at the headquarters of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) to honour the invitation by the anti-graft agency to offer clarifications in respect of some issues that the commission is investigating,” she wrote on her X handle.

Faiththatworks:
This PDP statement is why I wonder if Nigeria would ever have an opposition party.
Assuming and I concede to the PDP that the Minister indeed paid over 500million to the personal account of the project manager, who should be used as a scapegoat.
Is it the madam secretary who allegedly diverted over 44 billion to her cronies or the one who paid over 500 million with paper approval and documented electronic trails that should be made a scapegoat.
That's what PDP has been doing for the last 9 years of being in the opposition,leaving the elephant in the room and always going after the cockroaches.
That's one of the one reasons they lost the presidential election of 2023,the party was obsessed with siding with Ayu,a man who could only influence the election in one state at the expense of 5 Sitting state governors.
It was one of the worst decisions I have ever seen any politician make since the army handed over to Politicans in 1999.
They have started this absurd politicking again in 2024.
At least we have paper trail showing the Minister indeed approved the disbursement of the money,but Madam secretary who allegedly diverted 44 billion can't show who,when and how her own money was approved and disbursed yet the PDP expects us to leave the 44 billion and go after the 500 million.
Seriously It would have been better if the PDP just asked the security agents to go after both women instead of this press statement that tried to exonerate the bigger alleged mover of money and focus on the smaller one.
PDP refocus your strategy in 2024....
God bless PDP,we really do need an opposition in Nigeria
God bless Nigeria........

favor914:
Lucky Igbinedion done join APC Edo State?

Jking20:
Pdp/APC all birds of the same feathers!

matify83:
Monitoring spirits have resumed from recess