₦airaland Forum

Former Aide-de-Camp (ADC) to ex-President Olusegun Obasanjo, Major General Christopher Jemitola on Thursday slumped at the IBB Golf Course in Abuja and died.

Sources close to his family confirmed that he was quickly rushed to the hospital but was declared dead upon arrival.

The late General was at several times, the Corp Commander Nigerian Army Signals, Nigeria’s Defence Adviser to Brazil and Director of Army Public Relations.

Jemitola who hailed from Ososo in Akoko Edo Local government area of Edo State served as Obasanjo’s ADC from 2003 to 2007 while he was still a colonel.

He later became the Chief of Policy and Plans (COPP) in the Nigerian Army before his retirement.

According to Bayo Onanuga, Special Adviser to the President on Information and Strategy, from Frane, the president would move to Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, for the forthcoming African Union Summit.

“In Addis Ababa, President Tinubu will join African leaders at the 46th Ordinary Session of the Executive Council and the 38th Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU Heads of State, scheduled from February 12th to 16th, 2025.”


“The president will arrive in Addis Ababa early next week for the African Union summit. While in France, President Tinubu will meet with his French counterpart, President Emmanuel Macron,” Onanuga said in a statement.

Tinubu’s trips abroad have come under public scrutiny on the back of the economic hardship in the country, with Nigerians raising concerns over his large entourage.

There have also been arguments whether such trips had attracted commensurate benefits and investments for the country.

But while appearing on a Channels Television programme a few weeks ago, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Yusuf Tuggar, had said Nigeria is rich enough to fund the president’s frequent foreign trips.

He had said Tinubu, contrary to the complaints, even needed to embark on more trips because of its strategic importance and inherent benefits to the country.


The minister noted that Tinubu could only strengthen ties with fellow global leaders in his quest to set the country on the right path.

He had said, “It is not a fair assessment. The administration is still new because the President was sworn in in 2023. In global terms, he is still a new president. He needs to interact with his colleagues and fellow heads of state to be able to establish relationships.

“You can further see the fruits of these trips and their benefits which attracted $2bn (worth) of investments like he did in Brazil. In fact, I would venture to say we are not travelling enough. We should do more.

“Nigeria has the money. How much does travelling cost compared to the benefits? Again, how much does it cost really when you compare it to some of the things that the President has already addressed?


“How much have we wasted on fuel, electricity and other subsidies? He was subsidising consumption instead of production and subsidising the real sector of the economy,” he added.

Since assuming office in 2023, Tinubu has reportedly visited about 19 countries on 32 foreign trips.

ABUJA — THE National Security Adviser, NSA, Mallam Nuhu Ribadu, has debunked the allegation that in his capacity as the chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission, EFCC, he labelled President Bola Tinubu, who was then governor of Lagos State, corrupt.

Ribadu made the denial in reaction to the allegation by the leader of Northern Star, Hajia Naja’atu Muhammad.

In a Tiktok video, Hajia Muhammad berated Ribadu for serving in Tinubu’s government, whom he castigated when he was EFCC chairman.

Ribadu, who claimed that the allegation is malicious, demanded a public apology and retraction within seven days.

The NSA, in a letter by his lawyer, Dr Ahmed Raji, SAN, said publicly or privately, he never called out Tinubu for corruption.

The letter reads: “Clearly, in the text of your recording you stated that when our client served as the Chairman of the Economic and Financial Crimes, EFCC, he allegedly named President Bola Tinubu, alongside Sen. George Akume and Sen. Orji Uzor Kalu (all former Governors, and in that order) as the governors in Nigeria who stole the most from public treasury.

“You also stated that today, our client who once held the above odious view about President Tinubu has turned around to be his staunchest defender; especially, with regard to what you stated to be the government’s agenda to silence voices of dissent to the government, citing the alleged arrest of a certain Prof. Usman Yusuf as an example.

“You also stated that our client’s alleged attitudinal change towards President Tinubu means that he has either become a liar or that he lied when he allegedly described President Tinubu, Sen. Akume, Sen. Kalu and other governors as thieves.

“Privately or publicly, our client has never expressed the above viewpoint about President Tinubu and/or Senators George Akume and Orji Uzor Kalu, which you attributed to him.

“In fact, our client has never held such a viewpoint about the President; hence, it came as a complete surprise to him when his attention was drawn to the aforesaid publication by you against him.

“In the foregoing premise, our client hereby challenges you to provide evidence of your allegations therein against him; which have cast him as double-faced, duplicitous and deceitful in the eyes of right-thinking members of the society.

“Although masked as a clarion call to the North to rise up to your perceived injustice against the North by the government of the day, your publication is also inciteful of violence towards our client. Given this far-reaching ramification of your publication, our client will not sit back and watch his hard-earned reputation and goodwill destroyed by your malicious decision to not only lay false allegations against him, but also, to cause the same to be published for the world’s attention.

“Your intention to bring our client to public ridicule, opprobrium, scorn and shame etc., is laid bare when it is considered that you deliberately caused same to be published on social media, where it has since gone viral.

“Surely, the damage occasioned to our client by your deliberate but ill-advised action is unquantifiable.

“However, our client will be assuaged if you retract the said publication and tender an unreserved public apology to him in at least five national daily newspapers within seven days of receipt of this letter.

“If not, we have our client’s further instructions to seek redress against you in a court of law where exemplary damages will be claimed against you. Kindly be advised.”

The decision followed an interrogation by Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat, who summoned both the Oba and his victim.

The Ogun State government has suspended the Olorile of Orile-Ifo, Oba Abdulsemiu Ogunjobi, for six months following a viral video showing him physically assaulting a 73-year-old titled chief, Areola Abraham Love JP.

The embattled monarch also risks arrest as human rights groups demand his prosecution.

The suspension was announced on Monday in a statement by Kayode Akinmade, Special Adviser to Governor Dapo Abiodun on Communication and Strategy.

The decision followed an interrogation by Commissioner for Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs, Ganiyu Hamzat, who summoned both the Oba and his victim.

According to Akinmade, “This became imperative due to the reckless utterances and public misconduct of the Kabiyesi, which have gone viral on social media and caused public outrage.


“Following investigations, the Kabiyesi has been suspended and stripped of the paraphernalia of the Olorile-Ifo stool, pending the determination of his culpability or otherwise.

“This decision was taken in conjunction with the Egba Traditional Council, in accordance with Section 52(1) of the Ogun State Obas and Chiefs’ Law (2021).”

SaharaReporters reported on Monday that the Nigerian police said it had invited and interrogated the embattled monarch over the assault video.

However, beyond his suspension by the government, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights (CDHR) has petitioned Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, demanding Oba Ogunjobi’s immediate arrest and prosecution for the January 21 assault.

In a statement released on Monday, CDHR National Vice President, Yinka Folarin, accused the monarch of using his past as a police officer to intimidate and harass members of the public.

“The atrocities of Oba Ogunjobi, as captured in the viral video, include the brutal assault on 73-year-old Elder Areola Abraham Love JP, a resident of Ifo.

“The victim, an elderly man battling health issues, narrated that he was on his way to get food when the monarch called him over. Out of respect, he crossed the road, only to be slapped multiple times, kicked, and forced to kneel and prostrate by the Oba and his suspected thugs.”

The CDHR insists that Oba Ogunjobi must be arrested and prosecuted, stressing that no one is above the law, regardless of their status.

The Federal Government says plans are ongoing to increase electricity tariffs “over the next few months”.

It, however, said that the planned increase needed to be balanced by subsidies for less-affluent electricity users.

Bloomberg quoted the Special Adviser to President Bola Tinubu on Energy, Olu Verheijen, as giving this hint at the Africa Heads of State Energy Summit in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, where Nigeria presented a $32 billion plan to expand electricity connections by 2030.

According to the presidential aide, Nigeria is trying to resolve the transition to a cost-efficient but cost-reflective tariff to attract private investors.

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She said: “One of the key challenges we’re looking to resolve over the next few months is transitioning to a cost-efficient but cost-reflective tariff.

“So the sector generates revenue required to attract private capital, while also protecting the poor and vulnerable.”

Last year, the federal government approved a threefold increase in electricity tariff for customers under the Band A classification.

The fresh move to raise tariffs comes amid mounting pressure from Nigeria’s debt-burdened electricity distribution companies for tariffs to be cost-reflective so they can improve their finances.

Suspected terrorists have killed at least five persons in Lighitlubang village in the Mangu Local Government Area of Plateau State.

The attack, which occurred on Friday night, was allegedly carried out by suspected terrorists.

According to eyewitnesses, the attackers stormed the village while residents were sleeping and slaughtered the victims.

One of the villagers, Moses Bankat, confirmed the incident to PUNCH Online in Jos on Saturday.



He said, “It happened yesterday at about midnight of 31/01/2025. Some suspected terrorists entered Lighitlubang village in Bungha District of Mangu Local Government and killed a family of five people, a man, his wife and a child with another man and wife all slaughtered.”

Confirming the incident to our correspondent, the spokesman for the Plateau State Police Command, DSP Alabo Alfred, said security agents had been deployed to the affected community to maintain peace and order while the investigation had begun

[b]“I will get details from the DPO if they return from the bush because they have gone to the village,” [/b]the PPRO said.

It was learnt the attack has sent shockwaves through the community, with many residents expressing fear and anxiety.

Although 2025 has only just begun, the Machiavellian maneuvers and the increasingly tensile, high-decibel political shrieks being emitted by politicians about the 2027 election might lead one to believe that the election will take place next year.

Of all the political realignments that are forming preparatory to the 2027 election, it’s the unity in political adversity between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and former Governor Nasir El-Rufai that strikes me as the most intriguing.

El-Rufai feels understandably betrayed by his humiliating exclusion from the Bola Tinubu administration whose ascent to power he helped to facilitate with uncommon vim and vigor. Nonetheless, he is protesting his betrayal by making common cause with Atiku Abubakar whom he had serially stabbed in the back more treacherously than Tinubu has thrown him under the bus.

It is akin, in a way, to a soldier who, after leading a fierce battle to enthrone a king, finds himself cast out of the palace. Wounded and seething, he seeks refuge in the camp of an old mentor and ally whom he once betrayed in the heat of war, hoping that their shared resentment for the new ruler will be enough to overlook past treacheries.

Recall that El-Rufai consistently disclaimed any debt to Atiku Abubakar in his political rise even when leaked US Embassy cables quoted him as telling US Embassy officials that Atiku is the single most important reason he made an “accidental” detour to public service. Worse still, he was the lynchpin in President Olusegun Obasanjo’s all-out, no-holds-barred, scorched-earth decimation of Atiku’s presidential aspirations.

As I pointed out in my August 12, 2023, column titled “El-Rufai’s Betrayal and Akpabio’s Buffoonery,” it was El-Rufai who carried Obasanjo’s messages to Western embassies saying Atiku must never be allowed to be president.

“On September 21, 2006, for instance, El-Rufai met with the U.S. ambassador to Nigeria and the UK High Commissioner ‘under instruction’ from President Obasanjo to inform them of and seek their blessing to deny Atiku Abubakar the chance to succeed Obasanjo,” I wrote and characterized El-Rufai’s volte face as “a wild change of loyalties.”

Of course, it’s a banal fact of Third World life that betrayal is the lifeblood of partisan politics. So, there’s nothing out of the ordinary about El-Rufai’s duplicity. In any case, El-Rufai had also ridiculed Muhammadu Buhari as a bigot who was “serially unelectable” but later embraced him and even became the single most important reason why Buhari decided to run for president again, according to Buhari himself.

Yet, although Atiku must have developed a thick skin to perfidy (I am sure he, too, has stabbed quite a few people in the back in the course of his political career), I can’t help but wonder what goes on in his mind when he strategizes with El-Rufai toward the political containment of their common foe now.

Does he see El-Rufai as a repentant traitor seeking redemption, or merely as a desperate, scorned man whose newfound friendship is actuated by opportunistic political self-preservation rather than conviction?

Atiku must feel like sharing a meal with a man who once poisoned his drink. He will probably watch his hands closely and weigh his every word, knowing that today’s ally could easily be tomorrow’s betrayer.

Nevertheless, in the ruthless calculus of politics, perhaps Atiku understands that some alliances, however uneasy, are dictated not by trust, but by the urgency of a common enemy.

This sentiment underpins the rumored subterranean rapprochement between Bola Ahmed Tinubu and Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso. Although they appear to be at loggerheads, there are credible hints that Abdullahi Ganduje’s recent appointment to the chairmanship of the board of the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria is a calculated first step to strategically ease him out of the chairmanship of the APC, which is said to be the irreducible minimum for Kwankwaso’s alliance with Tinubu.

A Tinubu-Kwankwaso alliance is projected to be a formidable checkmate for the emerging Atiku-El-Rufai coalition.

However, in all the alliances and re-alliances that are being formed and reformed and the boundaries of friendship and betrayal that are being negotiated and renegotiated, one thing has been remarkably missing: how to reverse the progressively worsening plight of common people.

The condition of poor people who are vulnerable to the whirlingly blinding vagaries of market forces is the cornerstone of my public intellection. This sprouts from my own experiential brushes with poverty growing up. Although I have escaped my past condition, I have not lost, and won’t ever lose, my empathy for the poor

None of the people strategizing about taking over or retaining power in 2027 spares a thought for the seemingly irreversible death spiral that cruel neoliberal economics has visited on the masses of economically disinherited Nigerians. That worries me deeply.

It is obvious that even so-called opposition politicians don’t have an alternative template for husbanding the economy. That’s why their criticism of the present torment has been muted at best. They all believe the state should be rolled back from the quotidian life of everyday folk and that governments have no responsibility to assist citizens to live decent, dignified lives.

This style of government frees people in power from the responsibility to be accountable to the people and the license to jettison the unwritten social contract they signed with the people.

They all want a country where, as I pointed out in the past, the economy will “grow” even if that causes the people to growl. “After the economy has ‘grown’ but the people still groan, where is the growth?” I wrote in my June 24, 2023.

That is precisely what is happening in Argentina, which is pursuing similar inhumane market-centric policies as Tinubu. Argentina’s populist rightwing president is getting plaudits for “growing” the economy while the people are growling in anguish.

He is being celebrated for achieving a budget surplus at the expense of deep deficits in people’s quality of life, at the cost of a recessionary economy that has plunged more than half of the country into extreme poverty. The Western press is also praising Tinubu’s “reforms.”

No politician, to my knowledge, is talking about a more compassionate, people-centered approach to managing the economy. Unfortunately, the people don’t seem to care. Maybe that’s why the politicians don’t care, either.

Or perhaps it’s the other way around: the politicians stopped caring first, numbing the people into apathy through years of airy promises and performative concern. When hardship becomes routine and disappointment a certainty, cynicism replaces hope, and survival takes precedence over ideals.

In such a climate, politics becomes a spectacle rather than a means of change, and the people, resigned to their fate, watch passively, expecting nothing and receiving exactly that.

Betrand Russell could very well be describing Nigeria’s situation when he wrote 1923 that “A very large percentage of English-speaking people really believe that the ills from which they suffer would be cured if a certain political party were in power. That is a reason for the swing of the pendulum.

“A man votes for one party and remains miserable; he concludes that it was the other party that was to bring the millennium. By the time he is disenchanted with all parties, he is an old man on the verge of death; his sons retain the belief of his youth, and the see-saw goes on.”

*MINISTRY OF DEFENCE*

PRESS RELEASE

THURSDAY,30TH JANUARY 2025

MATAWALLE TO AMAECHI: DESIST FROM INCITING VIOLENCE OR FACE CONSEQUENCES

..Characterized Amaechi and his cohorts as an alarming manifestation of the politics of pull him down syndrome........

The Honourable Minister of State for Defence, H.E Dr. Bello Muhammed Matawalle, MON, has condemned in the strongest terms the reckless and inciting utterances made by former Minister of Transportation, Rotimi Amaechi, regarding the leadership of His Excellency, President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, GCFR.

Amaechi, speaking at a recent conference in Abuja, irresponsibly declared that Nigerian politicians must “steal, maim, and kill” to remain in power—an assertion that not only insults the intelligence of Nigerians but dangerously seeks to radicalize the youth and destabilize the peace and security of the nation.

Reacting to Amaechi’s statement, Dr. Matawalle said:

“It is both reckless and dangerous for a former public office holder to make such inflammatory remarks. At a time when the government is working tirelessly to consolidate national unity and security, no responsible leader should be fanning the flames of violence and political unrest.”

He further cautioned against any attempt to mislead young Nigerians with a warped narrative of violence and anarchy, emphasizing that Nigeria is a sovereign nation governed by laws, not a jungle where power is seized through brute force.

“Let me make it clear: the security agencies are on high alert. Any individual or group found inciting violence or attempting to destabilize this nation will face the full force of the law. We will not tolerate any form of subversive rhetoric that seeks to undermine national unity or incite lawlessness,” Dr. Matawalle warned.

The Honourable Minister reminded Amaechi that power is earned through democracy, not through intimidation, violence, or lawlessness. He reiterated that President Tinubu’s administration remains committed to upholding peace, democratic values, and the security of all Nigerians. His commitment to the unity and progress of our great nation is unwavering. Having experienced both military rule and democratic governance, he would never undermine the very democracy he has fought to uphold.

Highlighting the achievements of the current administration in a relatively short time, Dr Matawalle confidently asserted that President Tinubu will secure a decisive victory in the 2027 Presidential election. He called upon Nigerians to place their faith in the leadership of President Tinubu GCFR and to disregard the vituperations of Amaechi and his associates, whom he described as politically irrelevant and out of touch with current realities of national development.

“Amaechi and others who think they can manipulate our youth into chaos should rethink their actions. This government will not fold its arms and allow any individual to disrupt the peace and stability of Nigeria,” he added.

The Ministry of Defence, in collaboration with relevant security agencies, will continue to monitor activities aimed at disrupting public peace and will ensure that anyone found culpable faces severe consequences.

Henshaw Ogubike, mnipr FCAI Fsca Fcpe
Director, Press & Public Relations
Ministry of Defence

For: Honourable Minister of State for Defence

Creamypie:
To help his master rig it in 2027

A nurse, identified as Chiemela Nonye, has accused Chief Superintendent of Police Nkiruka Ugwu, attached to Area ‘M’ Command, Idimu, Lagos, of paying her to bear false witness in a rape case, alleging that the senior police officer is threatening to kill her, if she mentioned her name in an on-going investigation of rape, at the Area ‘D’ Command, Mushin.

However, when CSP Ugwu was contacted, she said “I told her (Nonye ) never to involve my name. She can’t try it. Why would she involve my name? Am I fighting her with Amuche? She should go ahead and do whatever she wants to do. If it is my case she wants, I am ready for her. She cannot try to mention my name.”

On the allegation of locking the mother of the minors shop , with an instruction to touts to kill her if she dared to open the shop, she said, ” I have nothing to say. They can all go ahead with whatever they want to do. I am not a sister to Amuche. God forbid, I am not.”

Nonye was arrested by the Police at the Area D Command, in Mushin, on January 22, 2025 following a petition by one Mr Ekwenyu Uchenna.

The petitioner stated that Nonye bore false witness against him, by claiming she witnessed his defiling of three teenage siblings in April 2024.

Consequently, the petitioner was reportedly arrested and detained for seven days at the Alausa Police Division, from where he was transferred to the Force Criminal Investigation Department, FCID in Abuja, where he spent additional three weeks in detention.

Uchena, told Vanguard that he was moved from the FCID Abuja, to the State Criminal Investigation, SCID, Panti, Yaba, Lagos where a discreet investigation was carried by detectives who said there were no facts to prove he penetrated the minors and was subsequently released. According to him, he was arrested alongside the mother of the three minors, because operatives led by Deputy Superintendent of Police, DSP Philomena Ehiokhilen alleged that she connived with him to rape her children.

However, upon his release, he petitioned the Area D Command, Mushin, where nurse Nonye, during interrogation, admitted in a written statement that she was paid an undisclosed amount by the CSP to fabricate the lies against Uchenna and mother of the minors.

In a recorded telephone conversation between nurse Nonye and mother of minors, she was heard begging for forgiveness, claiming that CSP Ugwu has been threatening to kill her if she mention her name.

The recorded telephone conversation went thus: Nurse Nonye : “I don’t know why I agreed to this. As I speak with you, I’m in tears. Please forgive me. I didn’t know why I agreed to frame Uchenna. Please help me apologize to Uche.”

Mother of minor: “We are all human. I know how both of us were. I went to my lawyer’s office and explained everything, telling him it was not you. You were pushed into this. If he wants to speak to you, he can confirm you were pushed out of ignorance. After hearing from you, if they find out you were misled; they will know how to exclude you from the matter. So, leave Uchenna out of this because I have told him you are not the main problem. CSP Ugwu is the real problem. She pushed you into this.”

In a chat with Vanguard, the mother of the three minors, alleged that the CSP Ugwu had threatened her life numerous times and also destroyed her businesses.

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She said “CSP Ugwu came to my shop located at Cele-Egbe, last year and seized my goods. She told the touts in the area to kill me if I tried to go near the shop. She said she was the Divisional Police Officer, DPO. Since then, all my goods have been.