₦airaland Forum

Mama papa and pikin

Vawulence ti de o

shegz24:
Bro there is a chance that these Northerners respect their brotherhood more than any party loyalty.

If the ticket goes to anyone other than Tinubu, then they have indirectly selected Atiku as the next president.

It's a game

Honestly, I don't even know what to expect anymore. Who from the South do those 11 northern govs really believe will defeat atiku in the north and are willing to stick their neck out for him? Osinbajo? Amaechi? Who, really? Cus we all know they don't want Tinubu.

The southern govs are just patting themselves on their backs thinking they've won. Also, what of the APC South eastern aspirants, padlock dey their mouths? LOL

LMAO

I dare you, Buhari. I effing dare you. Una go lose wotowoto


Meanwhile ...

seems I've seen his body of work before. so sad though. RIP to the dead

Winters23:



Una no dey taya?


I thought the man was never a threat?

I tire o. LMAO

LMAO!!!!

Chai, ómó. I don laff tire today.

Make you go open am na so you go tell us wetin dey inside

.

That's the standard asking price now, as APC has set the bar.

Idiotic people (kidnappers and politicians) quoting 100M like it's nothing. Na Peter Obi God go safe us

Fearme344:
I can see gana must go oo.. hmmmmm.

You people should stop nau. I've been laughing anyhow since

successmatters:
A proper, very orderly election, no back stabbing and no bad blood.

Peter Obi for president.
Tinubu for VP

All your own na to find trouble this morning

Ebonyi State Governor and Chairman, South-East Governors’ Forum, David Umahi, on Sunday, boasted that if he clinches the presidential ticket of the All Progressive Congress, he will defeat the candidate of the Peoples Democratic Party, Atiku Abubakar, before 12noon of the election day.

The governor, who is a presidential aspirant of the ruling party, spoke when the national leadership of the Nigeria Union of Journalists and National Association of Women Journalists, paid him a courtesy visit at the new Presidential lodge, Government House, Abakaliki, on Sunday.

Umahi said he was not comfortable with the show of financial imprudence exhibited by the presidential aspirants of the PDP during their Party’s primary election in Abuja.

He said, “Assuming I was the President, I would have impounded those vehicles in Abuja. I weep for this country.”

The APC Presidential aspirant emphasised that he left PDP because the South-East was marginalised under it, adding that the achievements he had so far recorded under the APC administration remains unbeatable and indelible.

He called on Nigerians to cast their votes for leaders with enviable pedigree and antecedents, rather than those without the vision to transform the country.

On Biafra, Umahi insisted that Ebonyi State was not part and parcel of Biafra as Ebonyi had over the years suffered disenfranchisement and marginalisation in the hands of other South-Eastern States.

He applauded the President, Major-General Muhammadu Buhari (rted), for his enormous support to the growth and development of the state.

Umahi, who charged media practitioners to partner his administration in every sector, advised them to guide against any behaviour that is capable of putting the media community in a bad light.

Earlier, the National President of NUJ, Chris Ishiguzo assured the Governor of the cooperation of the media even as he commended Umahi for advancing the course of development in the state.

https://punchng.com/ill-win-atiku-if-given-apc-ticket-umahi-boasts/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1653839273-1

By Law Mefor

The crisis and haemorrhage rocking the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in the South East in particular and across the nation, did not come to many as a surprise. There is nothing happening to the party in that region that I did not predict in my tribute to former Deputy President of the Senate, Senator Ike Ekweremadu, on his 60th birthday earlier this month of May. It wasn’t even difficult to predict either. The PDP lost its soul long ago and behaves like a man destined for doom, who arrogantly takes the wrong step at every corner and arrogates to himself the power of invincibility while walking to his own damnation.

In that piece, I highlighted how the PDP was consistently trumping its own constitution, guidelines, and relevant laws of the country in its determined bid to undo not only the South-East presidential aspiration, but also to undermine, embarrass, and edge out some of its notable leaders, who had shown unmatched loyalty to the party in its most trying times. Consequently, I warned against the way PDP’s National Chairman, Senator Iyorchia Ayu, had wilfully mortgaged the party to the demi-gods called governors and how he was aiding and abetting the irresponsibility and pervasion of democracy and PDP’s constitution and guidelines in the processes leading up to the PDP primaries.

I expressed particular displeasure at how Ayu was overseeing a clearly rigged three-man ad-hoc delegates election at the wards, which compilation had no semblance of democracy. In most cases, such as in the case of Enugu State which was reportedly compiled in a hotel adjacent the Government House, people just sat somewhere and compiled names.

I forewarned PDP this way: “Lastly, let it be on record: the PDP national leadership encouraging irresponsibility and irrationality going on in Enugu State and the South East is taking too much for granted. That you have thrown the presidential race open has already left the people of the South-East deeply hurt. Any attempt to manipulate the governorship ticket to an unpopular candidate anointed by any governor in the South-East amounts to taking too much for granted. And as one has often warned on matters like this, there will be consequences and by then, it will be too late”.

But did Ayu-led National Working Committee of the party pay any heed? Did the greedy power mongers called PDP governors pay any heed? No! What of the PDP elders? There is virtually none left unmuzzled by interests and patronage. When you’re at the dinning table, you must observe table manners.

Consequently, in the absence of statutory delegates due to the non-signing of the Electoral Act amendment, the governors weaponised the fraudulent delegates lists at the kangaroo primaries to impose their lackeys, yes-men, and accomplices on the party in the House of Assembly, National Assembly, and Governorship primary elections. They are also poised to repeat the same in the presidential primary.

In Anambra, to underline the fact that the Igbo have never been in PDP’s equation going into the 2023 presidential race, Ayu and his puppeteers ensured that the leading aspirant from South-East and about the most popular aspirant in PDP nationally, Peter Obi, was schemed out of the National Delegates from his state. The entire 21 National Delegates from the 21 local governments of Anambra were fraudulently handed over to someone that would execute the bidding of PDP’s dollar-blinded masters against the aspirations of the South-East region.

In Enugu State, Ekweremadu, who literally took bullets for the PDP after the 2015 election even when he had everything to gain by defecting, was thoroughly mistreated. As a principled politician and man of conscience, Ekweremadu must have reckoned after his reemergence that as the only PDP political office holder at the federal level after the 2015 tsunami, he was the beacon of hope for the party faithful.

Alhaji Adamu Mu’azu left the country as Chairman of the PDP immediately after the 2015 election before he eventually defected to the All Progressives Congress (APC) alongside former governor Mallam Isah Yuguda; former Secretary to Federal Government, Yayale Ahmed; and former PDP Deputy National Chairman, Senator Babayo Gamawa in January 2019. Countless others who benefitted so much from PDP’s 16-year rule dumped the party and fled. Some PDP governors, including governor of Ekweremadu’s home state, Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi, disappeared from the scene – never attending PDP functions, never attending National Executive Committee meetings, never seen at PDP Governors Forum’s meetings, and never speaking up in defence of the party, masses or democracy. Some governors eventually defected. But Ekweremadu stood strong.

When some PDP governors like Nyesom Wike and Ayo Fayose imposed Ali Modu Sheriff as Muazu’s successor against all voices of reason in the party, including that of Ekweremadu, it was still this same Ekweremadu that joined forces with the likes of Senator Ahmed Maikarfi, etc. to rescue the party from Sheriff’s stranglehold.

Yet, once he declared his gubernatorial ambition, which he hinged on his belief that the best route to revival and development is to get the states working again, the gang up and hell were let loose on him by his governor and Wadata Plaza. Apart from attacks on his supporters, media reports were rife about how no single result sheet was seen in a y of the 260 wards during the ward congress and how the panel from Wadata plaza accepted a fraudulent list of delegates compiled days before the real exercise, while jettisoning the outcomes of the real exercise conducted at the designated venues. The three-man delegates list is now a subject of three litigations and Zamfara tsunami appears imminent.

In Abia, the Minority Leader of the Senate, Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, who has stood up to be counted when it mattered for the PDP, was mistreated too. He has been a fearless thorn in the flesh of the ruling party. He has been vocal and helped to galvanise the opposition. Yet the party he sacrificed so much for refused to recognise his efforts.

In manipulating Abaribe and Ekweremadu out of contention in the PDP Abia and Enugu gubernatorial primaries, zoning was trumpeted. But why should you jettison zoning the centre and uphold it in states? Is that not approbating and reprobating at the same time?

In the case of Enugu, there were lucid arguments including a 2018 interview by ex-governor Sullivan Chime stating emphatically that there was zoning in Enugu. In any case, why not provide a level playing field and let the people decide?

The Deputy Minority Leader of the House of Representatives, Hon. Toby Okechukwu, has functioned so well as an opposition in parliament. He has shone like a million stars in projecting and protecting the PDP and masses interest in and outside parliament. He has fought for democracy, including the Electoral Act where he brilliantly ensured the stalemate that stalled the efforts to throw away the electronic transmission of results on that fateful 15th July 2021. That gave a leeway, which the Senate’s decision was overturned.

But today, the same party has connived with Governor Ugwuanyi to treat him like a nobody. From televised heavy shootings that lasted for hours at the Awgu venue of the Aninri/Awgu/Oji River Federal Constituency primary, to harassment and intimidation of his honourable person by thugs and agents of the state government, to the flawed and fraudulent delegates identification process that created way for the impersonation and flooding of the hall with unknown delegates, and to the outright rigging by imposing an already prepared result, the PDP did everything to ensure that he was humiliated. In backing out of the primary, he described the process as a comedy of errors.

As I write, another major presidential hopeful from South East, Senator Pius Anyim, has issued a statement complaining about PDP’s hide and seek game with Ebonyi delegates list.

I had earlier warned the PDP that when people have shown this level of fidelity to the party or grown to a certain level, the least you could do for them, is to ensure that the process is transparent so they can fail or succeed fairly. Yet, Ayu sold out to the governors to the extent that the likes of Obi, Ekweremadu, and Abaribe pulled out from the presidential and gubernatorial primaries. But Ayu and his puppeteers, the governors, forgot that whereas they could hijack the primaries and impose their minions, they would not be able to hijack the general election where the masses will speak loudly.

Meanwhile, this is not the first time the PDP is mistreating Ndigbo or those who had showed fidelity. After all, Chief Alex Ekwueme, who co-founded the PDP was thrown under the bus at PDP Jos 1999 convention. But to think that 23 years from that Jos convention, PDP will still mistreat a region that has given its all to the party since 1998 and held the bastion of opposition post 2015 as well as mistreat the likes of Obi, Abaribe, Ekweremadu etc. the same way it mistreated Ekwueme, sends cold shivers.

But the good thing is that Ndigbo are no longer taking it lying low. The result is the current profuse bleeding of the party in the region. Not only are bigwigs like Obi, Ekweremadu, Abaribe, etc. left or on their way out, the party has virtually lost whatever sentiments it enjoys in that region.

Instructively, I warned the PDP sometime in last year, that the Igbo wouldn’t blink an eye voting the APC or any other party for that matter if the injustice they were already cooking at the time was eventually served on Ndigbo. Therefore, I believe that the quite justifiable mass resignation by South-East PDP big wigs from the party are just a foretaste of things to come. It is a prelude to PDP’s Nunc Dimittis in the South-East, albeit one composed by the party itself. It is now too late to salvage the dying horse that is already flying its last kicks.

• Dr. Mefor is a Senior Fellow of The Abuja School of Social and Political Thought and writes from drlawmefor@franklinemmanuel30gmail-com

https://www.vanguardngr.com/2022/05/obi-ekweremadu-abaribe-et-al-how-pdp-composed-its-obituary-in-south-east/

Johel:
AMEN AND AMEN.

Yes and yes. But please let's register and get our PVCs in readiness for the coming revolution

seunmsg:
Chidoka self don chop breakfast. I like the way Wike is dealing with Atiku urchins all over the place. Wike dey give them wotowoto.

If e pain, follow Peter Obi Pandora to Labour Party and stop crying like bush baby all over the place

ItsTutsi:
What astonishes me, is that, they are not even pretending or trying to be just and fair!! The way Wike is manipulating the process, how does he expect to win the presidential election?

Make we dey watch am nau. Man go chop breakfast lick plate join

Ebubu3:
Dave Umahi was very wise. All his words on PDP has come to pass.

Wike controls PDP = happened.

PDP will not reward SE for 23 years 90% support = happened. Obi has left and Anyim has been disenfranchised.


Ntoor to them


I stand with my political father, Umahi.

And to think I wasn't the biggest fan of his all this while. My gripe was that he moved to APC. He should still decamp na ...

L M A O O O O O O O O O O O O O O O

Them don run this one street too? Hahahaha

I owe Dave Umahi an apology. He's the one who saw all this year's ago. Then Peter Obi. And now Anyim.

LMAO. Ómó I can't stop laughing here. This party is an atrocity and beyond depravity.

ItsTutsi:
Umo!! Its like PDP neva ready to learn and change from their old days!! They most understand they are opposition now, they cant afford to be careless

Party wey don die can't afford to be careless? Wike Is just the discless console version of Buhari.

.

okeysoninv:
nsukka people should not vote for that fat incompetent ofe onugbu

LMAO! How I wish I registered in Nsk, I swear this fat fvck and PDP as a whole won't even smell office again

The BBC has apologised after a message appeared on screen reading “Manchester United are rubbish”.

The line popped up on the BBC News ticker at the bottom of the screen during a tennis update on the 9am to 10am broadcast. Later in the morning, the presenter Annita McVeigh apologised to any Manchester United fans who may have been offended, saying the mistake had occurred as someone was learning how to operate the ticker and was “writing random things not in earnest”. Another message reading “Weather rain everywhere” also appeared on the ticker.

McVeigh said: “A little earlier, some of you may have noticed something pretty unusual on the ticker that runs along the bottom of the screen with news making a comment about Manchester United, and I hope that Manchester United fans weren’t offended by it.

“Let me just explain what was happening: behind the scenes someone was training to learn how to use the ticker and to put text on the ticker, so they were just writing random things, not in earnest and that comment appeared. So apologies if you saw that and you were offended and you’re a fan of Manchester United. But certainly, that was a mistake and it wasn’t meant to appear on the screen. So that was what happened, we just thought we’d better explain that to you.”

The BBC presenter and Manchester City fan Clive Myrie tweeted “I had nothing to do with this!!” with the hashtag mcfc, after City won the Premier League title on Sunday.

https://twitter.com/CliveMyrieBBC/status/1529063826234216449?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1529063826234216449%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ffootball%2F2022%2Fmay%2F24%2Fbbc-apologises-after-manchester-united-are-rubbish-appears-on-ticker-news-tennis

A BBC statement added: “There was a technical glitch during training with our test ticker, which rolled over to live programming for a few seconds. We apologised for any offence caused on air.”

New manager Erik ten Hag has begun his first official week in charge of United. Despite Sunday’s 1-0 loss at Crystal Palace consigning them to a new Premier League low of 58 points and sixth place, the Dutchman is confident he can revive the club’s fortunes. “The season before, this squad finished second, so it has the potential,” he said. “I think if we improve, if we can work with them, we can get more out of them than this season.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2022/may/24/bbc-apologises-after-manchester-united-are-rubbish-appears-on-ticker-news-tennis

ekenetheorg:
Good. They should equally issue bonds let's see who will buy

sheybi they stopped issuing bonds some time ago and said investors should instead use the money for FDI. Or something like that.

Nna ehn, this current administration odiegwu

Somebody please explain this to me like is football

Napoli manager Luciano Spalletti has backed Nigeria international Victor Osimhen to score more goals for the club next season.

Osimhen was recently named the Best Young Player of the 2021/22 Serie A season, beating the likes of Juventus’ Dusan Vlahovic, Leao of AC Milan and Sassuolo’s duo Gianluca Scamacca and Giacomo Raspadori to the prestigious award despite scoring fewer goals.

Osimhen claimed the award despite missing a chunk of the season through injuries and other health-related issues but managed to score 14 goals and had five assists in what was his second season with the Italian outfit.

In an interview published by TuttoNapoli, Spalletti admitted that the Nigerian was highly missed while out with injury, but is in no doubt that he will score more goals.

“Yes, we discovered some things that unfortunately this year due to too many injuries, due to the need for him to work with the team on the details,” Spalleti said

“For example, he went from hole to hole, but if you raise it to him, he has a level above normal.

“Having him available immediately is a big advantage for him and the team; I am convinced that he will continue to score many goals, and he will increase his quality in finishing."

Osimhen has been linked with Manchester United and Newcastle United in the past few weeks and recent reports suggest that Arsenal have tabled a significant bid for the 23-year-old.

Napoli have, however, rejected the offer as it was below the €110m Il Partenopei are demanding for their Nigerian import.

https://punchng.com/spalleti-backs-osimhen-to-score-more-goals/?utm_term=Autofeed&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1653279427

There was drama at the Redeemed Christian Church of God (Central Parish) in Abuja on Sunday as members protested against the killing of Christians in Nigeria over alleged blasphemy with their lips sealed with sellotape.

The protest which took place after the Sunday service at the Central Parish in the Wuse 2 area of Abuja was led by the Regional Pastor of the Parish who refused to give his name to journalists.

Another church pastor said the decision not to speak on the protest was an “order from above.”

The protesters who declined to speak to journalists had their mouths sealed with sellotape claiming it was a silent protest against killings in the name of God.

The PUNCH reports that a presidential aspirant for the 2023 election under the platform of the All Progressives Congress and Vice President Yemi Osinbajo is a member and Senior Pastor of the RCCG.

Some inscriptions on the placards carried them included, ‘Stop the killing! God is watching’; ‘No killings in the name of religion’, ‘Don’t defend the indefensible; and ‘Let’s live together in peace.’

The Christian Association of Nigeria had called for a nationwide protest over the gruesome killing of Deborah Samuel, a 200 Level student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto by Muslim fundamentalists.

Some Muslim colleagues of Deborah alleged that she blasphemed their religion, for which she was stoned to death before setting her ablaze.

The killing elicited international outcry while the Sokoto State Governor, Aminu Tambuwal, imposed a 24-hour curfew on the metropolis to restore order.

Violence also erupted on Friday in the Katangan area of Warji Local Government Area of Bauchi State over alleged blasphemy.

Trouble reportedly started in Bauchi following a social media post by a 40-year-old staff of the Medical Department Warji Local Government, Rhoda Jatau, which was considered blasphemous to Islam.

However, the President of the Christian Association of Nigeria, Samson Ayokunle, instructed Christians in the country to be discreet in carrying out the protest in view of a threat by an unknown Islamic group to do a counter-protest.

He urged church leaders to do the protest by carrying placards within the premises of their local churches or CAN secretariats.

https://punchng.com/blasphemy-drama-as-abuja-rccg-members-stage-protest-with-sealed-lips/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1653243434-1

EmeraldJD:
Obollo... Fresh banana and groundnuts comes to my mind..

The best in naija!

MangekyoAlt:
See the wild baboons protesting for bloody murderers. Abokîs, I say unto you......... Tempers are boiling down south. Millions are keeping tabs on your actions, and most importantly, what becomes of the Abokî murderers you're protesting for. We see how churches are burnt and business of southerners confiscated. You guys should be careful because if somehow this results to civil war, it won't just be Nigeria vs South east. Normally I trust that Igbo people alone can give you Abokîs a run for your money 1VS1. But add we the Niger deltans and south west...... The nature of the defeat.... The complete annihilation.... I'm not sure if words would be able to describe it.

Rugged u

BlackSpanner:
Nigeria !!! A land that defies common logic & impossibilities made possible.


For more incoherent lies, text APC to 419

LMAO. This is the best one yet

Some Muslim youths are planning a protest in Sokoto State to demand the release of two suspects arrested in connection with the gruesome murder of Deborah Yakubu, The PUNCH has learnt.

Deborah, a Christian youth and 200-level Home Economics student of Shehu Shagari College of Education in Sokoto, was mauled and burnt to death for alleged blasphemy of Prophet Muhammad (SAW).

In a notice circulating online, the youths agreed to meet at the Gawon Nama Roundabout by 9am.

Two phone numbers were scribbled on the notice but the date of the meeting was not stated in the e-flyer written in Hausa.

The translated version of the notice read, “We are calling on Muslims in Sokoto State to gather where there was a riot to save brethren in Islam that are battling the faith of Islam and upholding the respect of prophet of Allah S.A.W.”

The Police Public Relations Officer in Sokoto, Sanusi Abubabar, confirmed the brewing protest in a telephone interview with The PUNCH on Saturday.

“We are on top of the situation,” he told our correspondent, adding that the police authorities in Sokoto are in talks with leaders of thoughts and opinion moulders in the state.

The police in Sokoto had confirmed the killing of Deborah by extremists on Thursday.

“Students forcefully removed the victim from the security room where the school authorities hid her, killed her and burnt the building. The students banded together with miscreants and barricaded the Sokoto/Jega road,” the PPRO had said in a statement.

“Two students were arrested in connection with the crime committed. The school has been closed down by the school authority, and policemen were deployed to give tight security coverage,” Abubakar had added.

Many civil society groups and lawyers have condemned the murder of Deborah while some persons have defended the mob action.

Sokoto, a state in Nigeria’s North-West has a more Muslim population than Christians and there have been cases of sectarian strife and religion-triggered extrajudicial killings.

https://punchng.com/blasphemy-youths-plan-protest-in-sokoto-demand-release-of-suspects/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1652528015-1

Despite spending no less than N129.084bn on agriculture loans to farmers, Nigeria’s agricultural imports continued to take an upward trajectory, hitting N2.7tn in 2021 alone.

According to findings by our correspondent, the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Federal Government, through the Agricultural Credit Guarantee Scheme Fund (ACGSF), has guaranteed a total of N129.084bn in agriculture loans to farmers in the country.

Figures by the National Bureau of Statistics in a recent report titled “Foreign Trade in Goods Statistics” also revealed that in 2021, Nigeria’s agric imports stood at N2.7tn, indicating an increase of 36.6 per cent over the previous year, when compared to the value recorded in 2020 (N1.7tn).

The Chairman, ACGSF Board, Mr. Stephen Okon, while speaking recently in Calabar at the ACGSF 39th Board meeting with stakeholders on the new ACGSF Guidelines and Operations, had disclosed that so far, a total of N129.084 had been spent on agricultural loans to farmers.

He said, “The ACGSF scheme has proved relatively successful in de-risking the agricultural sector in Nigeria as evidenced in the number of loans guaranteed from inception to date. A total of 1,224,795 loan beneficiaries valued N129.084bn were guaranteed from inception to February 2022. “

However, despite the substantial investment in agriculture, Nigeria’s agricultural exports, according to available statistics, continue to trend upwards on a year-on-year basis.

According to figures sourced from four quarterly foreign trade reports by the NBS, during the period in review, Nigeria, despite investing billions of naira into the agricultural sector, only managed exports worth N504.4bn, leaving a balance of trade of -N2.2tn.

Also, a cursory breakdown of imports revealed that in Q4 alone, Nigeria imported various agricultural products like palm oil, wheat and other items to the tune of N300.21bn, a development that threatens local production of products that are produced locally in exportable quantities.

“The major agriculture goods imported in Q4, 2021 included Durum wheat (not in seeds) from the United Arab Emirates (N174.80bn) and Lithuania (N57.21bn). This was followed by crude palm oil from China valued at N20.28bn and from Malaysia (N16.49bn) . Palm Olein worth N31.43bn was imported from Malaysia,” an NBS report said.

In an interview with The PUNCH, Deputy President of the Lagos Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dr Gabriel Idahosa, cited factors such as maturity of agricultural products, and insecurity, among others, as reasons Nigeria’s hefty investment in agriculture had not produced tangible results.

He said, “There are reasons why that investment is not translating into rapid decline in importation. One, is that the agriculture industry is a long cycle industry, except for some crops like vegetables that you can grow and harvest in six months. All other crops, even rice, require some period, a year or two, of investment before you begin to see the result.

The second reason is that a significant part of this country, as we know, is being impacted by banditry and terrorism. So a lot of that investment has not translated into immediate farming activity to the level that is expected, and some of that investment don’t get to have any results.”

He also said that the CBN’s intervention programmes were often laced with terms and conditions that would make them less profitable to farmers who sometimes resorted to other funding sources to avoid the stringent conditions.

“The third part of it is the import effectiveness of the CBN intervention because the farmers complain that, for example, an equipment they can buy for, say N5m, CBN intervention charges them about N7m. They always say that CBN interventions are overpriced. So, we have an issue with that. It’s not as profitable for them if they have other sources of funding where they can negotiate terms."

Similarly, an economist at the Pan-Atlantic University, Associate Professor Olalekan Aworinde faulted the Federal Government’s agricultural intervention scheme, describing it as a means through which bureaucrats funneled public funds back into their own pockets.

“All the monies that the Federal Government is saying that they are giving out to boost agricultural production, the first question we ask ourselves is, who are the beneficiaries? Are these beneficiaries traceable? If they are traceable, what are the conditions? We, first of all, have to look at the impact assessment of that loans. This is glaring. It tells us that the money probably goes to the bureaucrats.”

https://punchng.com/agric-imports-hit-n2-7tn-despite-n129bn-intervention-loans/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=1652425951

The Federal Government and the Nigeria Inter-Religious Council on Thursday failed to convince the striking Academic Staff Union of Universities to call off their industrial action during a meeting called by the Chief of Staff to the President, Prof Agboola Gambari, and the Minister of Labour and Employment, Chris Ngige.

The meeting which was also co-chaired by the Sultan of Sokoto, Sa’ad Abubakar, and the Christian Association of Nigeria’s president, Dr. Supo Ayokunle, could not persuade the ASUU leaders to return to the classrooms while negotiations were ongoing to meet their demands.

It was gathered that the FG and NIREC attempted to persuade the union to return to the classrooms during the closed-door technical session, promising that their demands would be met, but the ASUU leadership reportedly said the government had to meet part of their demands which they could use in convincing their members to call off the ongoing strike.

The meeting, which was held at the banquet hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja, was attended by other registered trade unions in universities, as well as identified interest groups and civil society groups.

But providing an update on the meeting, Ngige said that the Federal Government had reached an agreement with the union, adding that certain timelines had been set and that specific parts of the agreements would be implemented from next week.

According to the minister, the issues of wage review and renegotiation of the 2009 agreement would be addressed soon.

He stated, “We have reached some agreements and we hope that by next week, those agreements will be maturing and the different unions will have something to tell their members, so that they can call off the strike.

“We have put some timelines for some aspects like renegotiation of 2009 agreement in terms of condition of service and wage review. So, we are hopeful that by next weekend, the unions will see a conclusion of that area.”

Speaking earlier, Gambari admonished the university-based unions to put the interest of students in focus, noting that resources are not finite.

ASUU President, Prof Emmanuel Osedeke, recalled that NIREC had earlier intervened in the issues last November, noting that the Sultan and CAN leader also met with the President, Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), who set up a three-man committee which met with the union for the first time on Thursday.

He stated, “Why our people are worried is this: even when we had gone on strike for 12 weeks, that committee is meeting with us for the first time today. Suppose we didn’t go on strike, it’s going to take three years. That is the problem we are having in the system. I believe these problems can be resolved within three days if the will is there on both sides.”

ASUU had, on Monday, extended its roll-over strike which started on February 14 by another 12 weeks.

Its demands include the funding for the revitalisation of public universities, the Earned Academic Allowances, the University Transparency Accountability Solution and promotion arrears.

Others are the renegotiation of 2009 ASUU-FG Agreement and the inconsistency in Integrated Personnel Payroll and Information System.

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