Former Emir of Kano, Muhammadu Sanusi II, on Wednesday, said elections of leaders for the country should be based on competence and not ethnicity.
He said candidates’ agenda should also be scrutinised “so as to know what we are going into before we get into it.”
Sanusi spoke at The August Event 2022 organised by the Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi Foundation in collaboration with St Nicholas Hospitals held in Lagos.
The event tagged, “Nigerian Healthcare System: The Past, Present and Future; celebrating the legacy of Chief Dr Moses Adekoyejo Majekodunmi,” is held every two years to celebrate the legacy of MAMF founder’s passion for growth and development in healthcare and education.
Sanusi, who was the chairman of the event, said, “Political aspirants should also be asked of their plans for hospitals and education amongst other key undeveloped areas in the country.
“The government has lost respect for the profession and no amount invested into education can be gotten back in salaries in this country. Doctors and teachers deserve a decent life and respect.
“Education and healthcare are the basic foundation for the development of a nation, and the rate of brain drain is high because prepared budgets in the health and education sectors have been embezzled and mismanaged.
“In 2016, 18 % of inflation was recorded which made the price of everything on average to double every four years. A bag of rice which sold for N8, 000 in 2015, now cost N35,000.
“In 2011, a debate was held right here in this same venue about fuel subsidy. We did everything within our powers to tell Nigerians to cater first for priorities, but we now spend a borrowed N6.7trn on fuel subsidy which will continue until June 2023.
“Inflation, exchange rates, cheap fuel that is not produced by our refineries all create negative impacts, and are also a brain drain of the economy which cannot be addressed in isolation.”
The General Overseer of the Deeper Life Christian Ministry, Pastor William Kumuyi, has declared that only God will determine the next president of the country, come 2023.
Also, the cleric noted that everything is in the hands of God concerning the change of power next year and that Nigerians will rejoice at the end of it.
Kumuyi made the declaration on Wednesday at the palace of Osemawe of Ondo Kingdom, when he visited the monarch, Oba Victor Kiladejo.
The visit was part of the activities of the church to herald a six-day crusade tagged, ” Global Crusade with Kumuyi”, holding in the ancient town.
He said, “As to next year, 2023 about the election, everything is in the hands of God. I want to tell you, no pin drops anywhere in the world without God’s knowledge and nobody goes ahead without God’s control. He controls everything that happens in the world.
“Would there be an election next year? would there not be an election? Who will emerge as the president of our country? Who will come out as governor of each of the states? Known unto God before the beginning of time and what we want in answer to the problem of contentious people in our land. What He wants will come true. When a lion is coming, no rat stands in his way and says you can’t pass.
“When the Almighty says this is what it is, for Nigeria in particular, for 2023 in particular, no elephant of a man can stand in its way. God’s will will be done and we will all rejoice.” Speaking on the programme, Kumuyi explained that the church chose Ondo the town for the crusade because God Himself chose the venue.
“At this time, we are choosing Ondo City because God has led us to do so. He, God choose Ondo for GCK,” he simply stated.
In his remarks, the Osemawe said the crusade would benefit the town and the state in general.
Earlier, the state Governor, Mr Rotimi Akeredolu, had hosted the pastor and his team in Akure, where he commended Kumuyi for his passion for preaching the gospel saying his visit to the state would usher in good tidings.
Akeredolu also lauded Pastor Kumuyi’s prowess as a former lecturer and accepted the invitation to be at the crusade with some of his cabinet members.
chymeze: The doctors they are said to be churning out every year, how many of them have experience? The experienced ones are leaving the country and it will take another years of training for these new doctors to gain experience. Moreover I know a lot of these newly graduated doctors who have started plotting their ways overseas and for those that remain, how will they gain the experience when the multitude of the experience doctors that they should train under are leaving? Nigeria is in a mess
In all honest many of our leaders dont know what is at stake, was he not same Minister during covid-19 that he never knew things are bad like this!
Racoon: And the same FG is begging healthcare professionals not to immigrate? And the FG send DSS to scatter the Saudi Arabia agency recruiting Nigerians in Abuja?
Meanwhile, where are the so called doctors when even the president and top politicians go to see healthcare outside this country? This government is really filled with incredibly stupid, grossly useless and irresponsible people.
4 people just called and 3 of them knows how many are living in the next 2 weeks!
naijabetlee: The All Progressives Congress, APC, has assured the youths that when elected, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu’s administration would be inclusive and fair to all Nigerians, irrespective of ethnic religious and political affiliations.
The Director-General, APC Youth and Students’ Council, Mazi Ezenwa Onyirimba, stated this on Tuesday during a sensitisation visit to Connected Development Initiative, Abuja.
According to him, Tinubu’s antecedents indicate that he had previously ran a government that was highly adjudged as inclusive in terms of the demography, the religion and the background of political appointees.
The APC leader said, “When he (Tinubu) was the governor of Lagos, the greater percentage of his cabinet members were under the age of 40. It was a good development for the youths of Lagos at that time.
“The structure of his cabinet also showed that he picked people from diverse ethnic and religious backgrounds. At the end of the day, they collectively succeeded.”
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He noted the current challenges rocking the nation and expressed confidence that the APC presidential candidate will address them, if he takes over the helm of affairs in this nation.
In his remarks, Mr Hamza Lawal, the Chief Executive of Connected Development (CODE), chided the nation’s leaders for embezzling the commonwealth of the people plunging the nation into deep woes.
“The current script is not working. There’s a global campaign by the UN SDGs which talks about flipping the scripts. I think that it should even start from Nigeria. Our current script is not working, if we look at our current challenges which insecurity and unemployment,” he said.
Lawal, therefore, called on all presidential candidates to reserve at least 50 percent of all intended cabinet positions for the youth in the spirit of inter-generational equity.
He added, “It is important that as we grow as a people, we must stop the blame-game. The older generation continues to see the youths as the problem and vice versa.
“Honestly speaking, Nigerians want a president whose cabinet is made up of under 40’s, because we are an upwardly mobile and technologically driven generation. It will only be fair that if we constitute over 50 percent of the eligible voters, we should also make at least 50 percent of the cabinet members.”
apache22b: If Tinubu was as bad as the Obidient's urchins claims he is, Wike will not be in London working with him. Think about it. You think a whole Wike doesn't know what is good for Nigeria ?
Nigeria and Nigerians knows what's good for them, that's why they are rejecting Peter Obi and his Obidient urchins with all their strength.
If we miss Tinubu that means we have completely lost it in Nigeria.
Bola Ahmed Tinubu will be the end of ASUU strike .
My fellow youths and Nigerian students be wise, let's get it right this time .
Tinubu is the only answer to all our troubles in this country.
Peter Obi and his Obidient urchins are all pathological liars, even Lai Muhammed will be a child's play where Peter Obi is .
If you live in Ikorodu, you will not think backward like this! Which Tinubu, Lagos has not been this bad, Agura Gberigbe, Imota, Ogijo!
The Minister of Health, Dr Osagie Ehanire, says there are enough medical doctors in the country, and the Federal Government is working toward replacing any medical doctor who resigns and leaves the country.
Ehanire made the assertion on Tuesday in Abuja during a media conference.
He also said there was no embargo on the employment of doctors and other health personnel in the country.
“There is no embargo on employing doctors; where there is a need, we do. But, because there is a Civil Service regulation, there are processes before doctors are employed.
“We have heard complaints of doctors who are now leaving the system but there are actually enough doctors in the system because we are producing up to 2,000 or 3,000 doctors every year in the country, and the number leaving is less than 1,000.
“It is just that the employment process needs to be smoothened,” he said.
The minister explained that the ministry was working with the Office of the Head of the Civil Service to use the ‘One-for-One’ employment strategy so that if one doctor or nurse resigns to go abroad, another one is employed.
“So, if we have one replacement then you are not likely to have shortage.
“But that has been worked out because the Head of Service had the experience that in the past when one person goes, they use the opportunity to take three and those others may not even be people who are required.
“We want to use this policy so that we can reduce shortages and have our personnel back in our hospitals,” he said.
Dr Deborah Bitrus-Oghoghorie of the Department of Hospital Services said the issue of the two weeks’ ultimatum given by the National Association of Resident Doctors for the Federal Government to meet the demands of the association or risk an industrial action was being looked into.
According to her, they are mainly financial issues, which the ministry could not solve on its own.
“The issue we have with the resident doctors are mainly financial issues and because of that, we at the ministry of health cannot handle it alone.
“So, what we are doing now is to facilitate resolving the issue with the Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning and the National Salaries, Incomes and Wages Commission (NSIWC).
“We want to assure you that the ministry of health, especially the department of hospital services, is working very hard to ensure that industrial action is averted,” she added.
The News Agency of Nigeria reports that on Aug. 20, the resident doctors had given the Federal Government another two weeks’ notice within which to implement the payment of the new hazard allowance and arrears stipulated as at Dec. 22, 2021.
The two weeks, which took effect on Monday, will elapse on September 4.
The said hazard allowance is contained in the circular issued by the NSIWC dated Dec. 22, 2021, with reference number SWC/S/04/S.218/11/406.
Some of the other demands of the association include the urgent implementation and commencement of payment of the 2022 Medical Residency Training Funds in full to its members using the old template.
Also, that the shortfalls using the newly reviewed template be computed and incorporated/factored into the 2023 budget and paid in arrears.
The contractor handling the construction of the MKO Abiola International Airport at Ido Osun in Osun State, JM & AS Limited, has written the state government to demand immediate payment of N570.2m debt expended on the project or be ready for court action.
The firm gave the state government two weeks to pay the debt following reports that the airport had been handed over to the Nigeria Air Force by Governor Adegboyega Oyetola-led government.
Counsel for the firm, Mr J. J. Usman (SAN), in the letter to the governor, a copy of which was made available to our correspondent in Ibadan on Monday, frowned on the handover which it described as a unilateral decision.
He said it was improper for the Osun State government to abandon the agreements reached with the company on the job without paying for jobs done.
The letter read, “It is instructive to note that the sum due to our client and outstanding debt has remained unpaid after several demands, leading our client to vacate the site since it became impossible for our client to continue with the work owing to the failure and refusal of the government to pay the outstanding debt.
“Our client further informed us that having served the government notices of intention to vacate the site due to government failure to pay, they indeed vacated the site sometimes in 2017.
“While our client was waiting for the government to comply with the terms of the contract by paying for Certificates Nos 4 and 5, and to enable them return to site and continue with their work, the state government has curiously and purportedly re-awarded the contract or handed-over the site to a different company other than Awol International Limited as contained in the MoU despite the subsisting of the contract of our client, which has not been terminated.
“It is our client’s instruction to us to demand and we hereby demand from you the following: The immediate payment of our client’s outstanding balance of N570,231,101.94 being the balance for the interim Certificate No. 4 and Interim Certificate No. 5 outstanding as contained in the final account.”
“And also your government to provide the enabling environment for our client to mobilise back to site as our client’s contract is still subsisting and our client is willing, able and capable of completing the construction of the Moshood Abiola International Airport Osogbo, Osun State.
Recall that the airport project was started by the administration of Rauf Aregbesola but it was not completed throughout his eight years in office.
Oyetola had earlier in July said at the handover ceremony that, “I would like to state here that request by the Nigerian Air Force for the State Government to cede the runway and the entire airport corridor to them shall be granted. The corridor will be developed for both military and civilian use.”
The Ogun State government has noted that the contractors handling the repair of the Long Bridge axis of the Lagos-Ibadan Expressway are slow.
The PUNCH reports that the gridlock caused by the repairs on the Long Bridge has caused misery for motorists, as the spot has also attracted miscreants who rob commuters at odd hours.
Speaking to our correspondent via phone on Monday, the Chief Press Secretary to the state governor, Kunle Somorin, sympathised with motorists, noting that the Federal Government had been contacted concerning the repairs.
He noted that the state government has reached the Federal Ministry of Work to hasten the repair process.
Somorin said, “We’re at work on it. We’ve made representation to the Federal Ministry of Works to ensure that something is done fast about that, because we understand that it was caused by potholes that the contractors are battling with.
“But we feel that they’re too slow and something serious should be done about it immediately.
“We sympathise with the motorists and the commuters there. We’re not leaving them to their devices.”
According to him, the state government was assisting by deploying traffic personnel to the site.
“We have even offered to give them our personnel to assist; to provide security for 24 hours service so that the road could be fixed. That’s what we’ve done.
“But it’s a federal road and we cannot take over management of that road. We can take care of the traffic situation but the diversion the contractors need is unrealistic,” Somorin said.
Somorin also showed optimism on the response of the FG, stating that the road will be fixed “in no time.”
“Our traffic management agency operatives are there. The solution to it is for the contractors to fix the road.
“We’ve made representations to them and we’re sure that in no time, something will be done,” the governor’s aide said.
femisplash: You must be an illiterate. If you had ever listened to Shettima speak, you would know he's far more enlightened, fluent and intelligent than Obi. As Caimpaign starts, people would begin to separate the wheats from the chaffs.
ryloy: Going by their performance in answering questions in their panel discussion at #NBAAGC2022, when it comes to citing figures and data, and giving examples from other countries, I think that @PeterObi has met his match in @KashimSM !
drizslim: Daniel Bwala, spokesperson of the Atiku Abubakar presidential campaign organisation, has made a blunder regarding the chances of his principal winning the election in 2023.
Speaking during Channels TVs Sunday Politics programme, he said only Labour Party will be able to compete with the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC).
Bwala joined the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) from the APC weeks ago and got appointed to the Atiku Presidential campaign organisation.
In response to a question on whether PDP should be jittery going into the election with APC, he said only Labour Party should have such fears.
The lawyer accidentally said that PDP knows that it stands no chance of winning the presidential election, but when he realised his error, he quickly corrected himself and mentioned APC.