ON JUNE 8, 20207:46 AMIN CORONAVIRUS UPDATES, NEWS

By Nwafor Sunday

The governor of Abia state, Okezie Ikpeazu, has tested positive for coronavirus, Vanguard reports.

Ikpeazu had gone into isolation before his result returned positive, and had directed the deputy governor to act on his behalf.

Disclosing this in a statement, on Monday, John Okiyi Kalu, the state’s commissioner for information said: “On Saturday, 30th May, 2020, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu volunteered his sample for COVID-19 test and subsequently directed members of the state Executive Council (EXCO) and those of the inter-ministerial committee on COVID-19 to submit themselves for the same test.

“On Tuesday, 2nd June, 2020, the result of Governor Ikpeazu’s test returned negative. On Thursday, 4th June, 2020, the Governor submitted another sample at NCDC laboratory for confirmation and the result returned positive.

READ ALSO: Ikpeazu: Where are the roads predecessors did in Aba?

”As a result, Governor Okezie Ikpeazu has gone into isolation, as required by relevant NCDC protocols, and he is being managed by a competent team of medical practitioners with a view to nursing him back to good health.

”Consequent on the above, the Governor has directed his Deputy, Rt Hon Ude Oko Chukwu, to act on his behalf pending his full resumption of duties.

”We wish to urge all Abians to take the fight against COVID-19 serious as the disease is real but not a death sentence. Our state has the resources to manage patients back to good health.”

Vanguard

AntonVince:
Until our electoral laws are rejigged to recognize independent candidacy, politics in Nigeria will remain that of chop-I-chop and settlement; where merit in appointments is disregarded and the genuine desire to deliver good governance to the masses is sacrificed on the altar of political patronage.

The current structure where some disgruntled political Godfathers and Party Chieftains are so powerful that they can exploit party machinery to hold an elected public officer to ransom does not bode well for the people.

From Lagos to Edo and now to Oyo, it's the same shameful call for a governor to fling open the State coffers for some greedy criminals to plunder.

Sad!

Africa's Position in the Global Economic System

by Mavis Enyan March 31, 2020

Does Africa have the need to continuously borrow Money for her today’s survival while creating debt-burden the next generations?
The simplest answer that can be given is “it depends”, -but on what?

In conventional economic theories, we are told that when a government prints money, it exposes itself to inflation because there will be more money in the system to chase fewer goods, causing the money to lose its value.

However, if we can think beyond these theories, and accept the fact that these theories were developed by humans; individuals with brain capacities same as ours and we also have the capacity to device alternative models to solve our own problems, then, we can start to ask questions like: How can there be fewer goods in the system if the money printed is used as an incentive for innovation and production rather than serving as an object for demanding goods and services?; what is the central duty of a sovereign government when it prints paper and calls it money? What are the fundamental differences between monies printed into an economy and those borrowed into the same economy? Questions of these kinds can help us probe deeper to understand the system that controls us better.

To a very large extent, when a government borrows money, it shows the lack of ability and understanding of that government to an effective management of the economy. Unfortunately, the idea of going to another sovereign country to borrow paper (fiat money) instead of using our sovereign status to print money and manage this printed money to support our developmental projects and programs has become the normal and easy way for almost all African countries since attaining independence status.


Why should someone print paper and hand it over to you as money and let you pay back not with the same paper (paper as used here means what one has the right to print, in this case, if America prints dollar for us to support our economy, we should be able to print our own currencies to pay back after our economy has become stronger and not to pay back with dollar which we do not have the right to print and as such, it becomes a value for us), instead, we are required to pay back these paper loans in values, resources, and efforts? I know it is not as simple as I am putting it in this piece, but the truth it is that, it is also not as impossible as they make it looks to us.

Before going further, it is important to point out that in an extreme distressed circumstance, a country may borrow money in a 1 or 2 cases (this happened to continental Europe, wherein, after the Second World War when America has to print and loan out money to Europe under the Marshall Plan to help them recover from the total breakdown). However, it is so not normal for a sovereign nation to resort to borrowing of paper money as a way of life. In fact, no one has borrowed her way into freedom or development.

At this stage, I want to point out, first and foremost that every sovereign state, no matter how small it may be, has the right and authority to print and manage its own money.

Second, I want to state categorically that the act of printing money does NOT result in inflation (that concept is a hoax at least). Rather, it is the mode of management of the printed money that causes inflation or deflation.

For example, if the government of Ghana (inset here the name of any African country of your choice) realises that a region/state needs a road and it estimates the cost of constructing the road to be 50 Billion Ghana Cedis (inset here the currency of your selected African country). If the government goes on to print 50 Billion Ghana Cedis for the purpose of this project, and then calls on a Chinese or an European construction agency to construct this road on a condition that 20% of the capital cost is giving to the government or the political party in power as a kick-back, the following is what will happen:

1.The Chinese or the European company will demand that the payment is made in Chinese Yuan or European Euro. This means, the government of Ghana has to place the local currency it has printed on the international financial market to demand for Yuan or Euro. When this happens, there will be more Cedi (than it should be) on the market and if there are not equally more customers on the market demanding for Cedi, then this automatically reduce the value or relevance of Cedi, hence drastic or continuous exchange rate depreciation of the Cedi.

2.Once, the company pays the 20% of the capital cost to the government or party in power, it immunes itself of any system of control that is meant to regulate and manage the economy of the said African countries. In this case, the foreign construction company will construct a road with a quality far below what the money it has received should normally construct, it will under-pay local labour if it ever employs one, and it will invade taxes and all other statutory payments. The compositions of these negative actions will weaken the economic management regime of the said country.

Additionally, it is important to consider that the 20% (paid in kickback) which has gone in the hands of the ruling gangs as a mere paper because they have received that without working, or exchanging any value for it. The effect from this is no different from the damage the economy will suffer when a criminal sits in his or her room and print counterfeit and release them in the economy. Yet this money will be cheerful release in our economy through unproductive and abusive channels such as paying for sex of, and rent for ‘slay queens’ and ‘Bleep boys’; sponsoring of political hooliganism to destroy lives and properties in our countries; and embarking on expensive holiday trips abroad and showing offs at public gathering and events.

In the end of all the above scenarios, what will happen is that Ghana has used it sovereign status to print 50 billion in cash/paper but that 50 billion paper has not been properly managed to translate into /create actual wealth in equivalence of 50 billion. This, among many other negative economic consequences will result in inflation (more money in the system chasing fewer goods) because the focus of the money printed was to serve as object for demand rather than being an incentive to induce production and innovation. It will also result in exchange rate depreciation and damaging of the country’s economic sovereign worth because no one can trust a system managing by ineffective heads.

On the other hand, if the government prints 50 billion of the local currency for the purpose of constructing a road and this government ensures that the capacity of local construction companies are strengthened to execute the project, it will have no need to put such huge amount of the local currency on the global financial market for foreign exchange (because local companies are paid in local currency) to damage the exchange rate value of the local currency. Ethiopia has been able to developed strong local Construction, Banking, and Telecommunication system to champion the country’s development internally. Other African countries can learn from the Ethiopian system.

In the event that 50 Billion is printed to embark on road construction, all that the governments has to do to avoid inflation is to internally manage this printed money to ensure that:

1.It is fairly and widely distributed
2.It translates into multiples of actual values and wealth in the economy

Why is Fair and Widely Distribution of Printed Money Important?

First of all, every member of a society has some potential(s) or value in them which when is encouraged and tapped, will contribute to national development. However, this value cannot just be tapped unless regimes of rewards and recognition are instituted as a modality of exchange for these inherent values in the citizens.

After printing money, the government has a management duty to ensure that the money does not get concentrated in the hands of a few people; rather it must be wisely and widely distributed with an objective to use it as a bait to attract and uncover hidden potentials in citizens for national development.

How can this be done?

Whereas the main objectives of businesses owners will be to maximize profit, the government who has a duty to provide social good must at all times aim at maximizing quality and ensure that standards are strictly adhered to. When this is done, contractors are expected to spend the money received fairly on ‘all’ sectors of the economy to ensure widely and fairly distribution of the money.

For example, by insisting on quality and adherence to standards, the construction of a single road can lead to: increase demand for general logistics; available capital for trading and operations of the banking sector; higher employment and welfare for citizens; and capital returns for government to embark on other project generated through efficient and transparent tax system and many other benefits to the economy.

When the printed money is efficiently managed to inject the above benefits in the economy, the beneficiaries, will subsequently use and reuse the money/the benefits to create multiples of values (far higher than the original value of 50 billion) in the economy, thereby, promoting steady and long-term development of the country.

Will Printing of Money rather than Borrowing be an Easy thing to do by any African Country?

Certainly not, no single African country will find it easy to adopt this strategy; it even seems impossible because, lending to keeping Africa and her future in debt is a big business that helps those who want to keep Africans in an unending slavery use in controlling both the labour and human capital, and natural resources on the continent. By this any country/leader that makes such an attempt will face strong sabotage, sanction, and likely power instability from the controllers of the system.

Nonetheless, Africa will certainly win, when all or most African countries come together in unity and make this a continental policy. Without, doing this in unity, we must consider it that we are ready to bring our next generation into a new mode of slavery.

Kemz77:
Fake news...Yorubas doing damage control to tell you that "everybody is doing it." Abeg, we know una tactics

People run away as a South African Police Services armoured vehicle drives into a street during clashes with residents of Tafelsig, an impoverished suburb in Mitchells Plain, near Cape Town, on April 14, 2020, after some people in the community did not receive food parcels which were being handed out as part of the support for this community during the nation wide lockdown to curb the spread of the COVID-19 coronavirus. (Photo by RODGER BOSCH / AFP)
‌
South African police on Tuesday fired rubber bullets and teargas in clashes with Cape Town township residents protesting over access to food aid during a coronavirus lockdown.

Hundreds of angry people fought running battles with the police, hurling rocks and setting up barricades on the streets with burning tyres in Mitchells Plain over undelivered food parcels.

“We have small children. We want to eat. They must also eat,” said resident and mother Nazile Bobbs.

“They said we are going to get parcels, where (are) the parcels? How long are we (going to be) in the lockdown?”

South Africa is currently in the middle of a five-week lockdown to curb the spread of coronavirus which has so far infected more than 2,400 people.

President Cyril Ramaphosa has promised to provide basics such as water and food supplies to the poorest South Africans.

Many people, especially those working in the informal economy, are unable to ply their trade and have lost income due to the lockdown which came into effect on March 27.

Community leader Liezl Manual said people came out of their homes “frustrated wanting to know” where the food parcels were.

“I don’t think Ramaphosa is doing something,” said another resident Denise Martin, adding that people would “rather die of coronavirus than to die in our homes of hunger”.

Some government officials were starting to become overwhelmed by the surging needs in a country ranked among one of the world’s most unequal.

“People are so desperate for aid such that even those people that would not be provided by us think they can get support from us,” Busisiwe Memela-Khambula CEO of SA Social Security Agency (Sassa), a government department responsible for distributing food aid.

The department normally helps people with disability, those who failed to access their social security grants or those generally experiencing hardships, she said.

“But unfortunately now everybody is experiencing hardships,” she said on local television.

By Adebayo Abdulrahman - April 4, 2020

The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, NCDC has announced a new case of coronavirus in Oyo state thereby increasing the number of cases in the state to nine.

The agency disclosed this in a statement on its official twitter account on Saturday afternoon.

According to them, the new case does not increase the number of confirmed cases in the country because it is an error discovered in their report on Friday night where they added the case in Oyo to the 25 cases in Osun state.

FULL STATEMENT BY NCDC

“On the 3rd of April 2020, we reported 26 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. An error has been discovered in this report as follows:
“There were 25 new cases of #COVID19 in Nigeria. The 26th case was a repeat result of a previously confirmed case and NOT a new case
“As at 10:30 pm 3rd April, there are 209 confirmed cases, 25 discharged and 4 deaths
For a breakdown of cases by states-

Lagos- 109
FCT- 41
Osun- 20
Oyo- 9
Akwa Ibom- 5
Ogun- 4
Edo- 7
Kaduna- 4
Bauchi- 3
Enugu- 2
Ekiti- 2
Rivers-1
Benue- 1
Ondo- 1

Of the 25 new cases reported, 1 case was inadvertently reported from Osun state. This case was from OYO STATE

The correct breakdown is as follows:

Lagos- 11
Osun- 6
FCT- 3
Edo- 3
Ondo- 1
Oyo- 1

We regret the error in our announcement of new #COVID19 cases in Nigeria yesterday.

The NCDC remains committed to ensuring transparency and accurate reporting of infectious disease cases in Nigeria.

'We are on the verge of a massive collapse': Ex-Energy Secretary Perry says COVID-19 will ravage oil industry

William Cummings, USA TODAY

Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry believes that the oil industry could collapse because of the dramatic decrease in demand worldwide caused by the coronavirus outbreak and a steep decline in prices.

"Our capacity is full. The Saudis are flooding this market with cheap oil," Perry told Fox News host Tucker Carlson on Tuesday night. "I'm telling you, we are on the verge of a massive collapse of an industry that we worked awfully hard, over the course of the last three or four years, to build up to the number one oil and gas producing country in the world, giving Americans some affordable energy resources."

Many U.S. states and countries around the world have ordered their citizens to stay home in order to contain the spread of the virus. And airlines have dramatically cut back on flights as the number of passengers has fallen off. Fewer cars on the road and planes in the sky means far less demand for oil.


Coupled with a dispute between Saudi Arabia and Russia that has resulted in an oil surplus, the price for crude as well as gasoline has plunged. The national average for gas in the U.S. is now below $2 a gallon.

Perry, a former governor of oil-producing Texas, said that could destroy smaller, independent companies and hurt the people who depend on them for jobs.

"There's this host of Americans who their entire future – taking care of their family paying their mortgages – is tied directly to the energy industry," Perry said. "It's a driver of a massive amount of our American economy."

And he said the loss of those smaller companies would have long term consequences for the American consumer.

"If we woke up a year from now, and there were five big companies because all of these independents were gone out of business ... I would suggest that would make a lot of Americans really nervous," he said.

Perry's concerns appeared prescient Wednesday after the Whiting Petroleum Corporation announced it was filing for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. In announcing the decision, CEO Bradley Holly cited "the severe downturn in oil and gas prices driven by uncertainty around the duration of the Saudi / Russia oil price war and the COVID-19 pandemic."

Javier Blas
✔
@JavierBlas
BREAKING: U.S. shale company Whiting Petroleum becomes the first to go down, filling for chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, as #oil prices plunge. Whiting is big in North Dakota's Bakken basin | #OOTT #OilPriceWar #covid19 #NorthDakota

As one measure to address the crisis, Perry said that he would advise President Donald Trump to tell refineries to only use U.S. crude oil for 60 to 90 days.

Perry said that would "give a buffer to the market" and "send a clear message that we're just not going to let foreign oil flow in here" and "bust our oil industry."

U.S. national security is at stake, Perry said.

"If our independent operators – who have led the shale revolution, who have made America the number one gas-producing country in the world – if we lose that, we'd go back to 1974," Perry said. "I remember what that was like, where we were beholden to countries that didn't necessarily have our best interests in mind."

Perry also suggested that the Treasury Department should buy up oil futures to help buoy the industry.

Perry was one of the longest-serving members of Trump Cabinet before he resigned in October amid scrutiny of his role in the Ukraine scandal that led to Trump's impeachment.

Contributing: Nathan Bomey

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Coronavirus has oil industry near 'massive collapse,' Rick Perry says

Thu 2 Apr 2020

Food banks are reporting unprecedented demand across the US as millions lose jobs, investigation shows

An unprecedented number of Americans have resorted to food banks for emergency supplies since the coronavirus pandemic triggered widespread layoffs.

The demand for food aid has increased as much as eightfold in some areas, according to an investigation by the Guardian, which gives a nationwide snapshot of the hunger crisis facing the US as millions become unemployed.

About one in three people seeking groceries at not-for-profit pantries last month have never previously needed emergency food aid, according to interviews with a dozen providers across the country.

The national guard has been deployed to help food banks cope with rising demand in cities including Cleveland, Phoenix and St Louis amid growing concerns that supplies may run low as the crisis evolves. Overstretched food pantries are switching to drive-thrus and home deliveries to minimize the spread of Covid-19 as almost 300 million Americans are urged to stay at home.


“I’ve been in this business over 30 years, and nothing compares to what we’re seeing now. Not even when the steel mills closed down did we see increased demand like this,” said Sheila Christopher, director of Hunger-Free Pennsylvania, which represents 18 food banks across 67 counties.

Last year, 4.3bn meals were distributed to more than 40 million Americans through a network of 200 food banks and 60,000 pantries, schools, soup kitchens and shelters, according to Feeding America, the national food bank network. The working poor, elderly and disabled and infirm accounted for the vast majority of food bank users.

This week, the Guardian contacted food banks and pantries in nine states, which all reported unprecedented demand, plummeting donations from retailers, and a fall in personnel due to the coronavirus crisis.

*In Amherst, home to the University of Massachusetts’ largest campus, the pantry distributed 849% more food in March compared with the previous year. The second-largest increase in western Massachusetts was 748% at the Pittsfield Salvation Army pantry.

*The Grace Klein community food pantry in Jefferson county, which has the largest number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in Alabama, provided 5,076 individuals with food boxes last week – a 90% increase on the previous week.

*In southern Arizona, demand has doubled, with pantries supplying groceries to 4,000 households every day – double the number supplied in March 2019. “We saw an increase during the federal government shutdown but nothing as rapid, massive or overwhelming as this,” said Michael McDonald, CEO of the Community Food Bank of South Arizona.

*A helpline set up by the Greater Pittsburgh community food bank has received more than a thousand calls in the past two weeks, 90% of which came from newly unemployed people. Here, pantries ordered 50% to 60% more food for March and April than usual.

*The Lakeview pantry in Chicago is on track to provide food for as many as 2,000 individuals this week – compared with 1,100 before the coronavirus crisis.

*The north Florida food bank, which relied heavily on contributions from retailers, has seen donations drop by 85% to 90% as shoppers bulk-buy, leaving shelves empty. But donations from restaurants, golf tournaments and even Disney World have increased, so the food bank is switching to ready meals, paying furloughed chefs to cook for thousands of senior citizens in housing facilities.

*In Las Vegas, the Three Square food bank has increased weekly food distribution by 30%, from 1m to 1.3m lbs of food. New drive-thru distribution centres have been set up across the valley as 170 of its 180 distribution outlets have been forced to temporarily close due to CDC social distancing guidelines. “Every line at every distribution centre exceeds the amount of food in our trucks,” said chief operating officer Larry Scott.

*The Kansas City-based Harvesters food bank, which serves 16 counties in north-east Kansas and 10 in north-west Missouri, sent out 12,000 boxes to pantries on Monday 23 March – a 140% rise on the 5,000 boxes typically ordered. “It was the largest distribution day in our 40-year history,” said its communications manager, Gene Hallinan.

This snapshot is representative of the national picture, according to Feeding America. “This is a perfect storm impacting food banking as we know it,” said a spokeswoman, Zuani Villarreal.

On Tuesday, Cleveland police and the Ohio national guard helped load boxes of groceries into cars at a new drive-thru pick-up service located in the huge downtown municipal car park.

At least 2,765 families were provided with a week’s groceries – 36% of them first-timers – compared with 1,500 at a similar event last week, when the queue stretched almost three miles. A cab driver, single mother who worked in hospitality and freelance photographer were among those requesting help for the first time.

In this March 20, 2020 photo provided by the United Center, a worker moves food onto the floor of the United Center in Chicago. The Greater Chicago Food Depository, Chicago’s food bank, will be utilizing the United Center as a satellite storage facility in response to the increased need for food during the coronavirus pandemic.

The rust belt states are among the hardest hit by the coronavirus economic crisis. More than 187,000 Ohioans filed for unemployment benefits during the third week of March when businesses were closed by the governor – an extraordinary increase on the 7,046 claims filed the previous week, according to the Department of Labor.

The Greater Cleveland food bank received 800 calls to its helpline during one day last week – eight times the usual number. “I’ve never seen anything like it in over 20 years of service. We’re seeing people from every socio-economic level because the majority of Americans live paycheck to paycheck,” said the food bank’s CEO, Kristin Warzocha.

Half of American adults have either no emergency savings or not enough to cover three months of living expenses, according to Bankrate’s 2019 Financial Security Index.

Demand tripled
There was a similar dramatic scene in Phoenix, Arizona, where 1,500 people queued up for food boxes at the St Mary’s main office – compared with 450 just two weeks ago. Here, the national guard is also pitching in at the makeshift drive-thru centre as volunteer numbers have plummeted from 250 a day to less than 50, as the vast majority are senior citizens advised to stay home to minimize the risk of Covid-19.

In total, St Mary’s – the oldest known food bank in the world – supplies 700 pantries, shelters, churches and social service centres in seven counties where one in five children struggle with hunger.

“First we saw people who lived paycheck to paycheck, got laid off and didn’t know where the next meal was coming from, followed by those who had a couple of weeks of savings. Now, people who knew about us because they donated or volunteered are coming in for food,” said Jerry Brown, media spokesman for St Mary’s. “The 2008 recession doesn’t touch this. It’s a different ballgame.”

Before the coronavirus pandemic, about 37 million, or one in eight, Americans could not always access enough nutritional food to lead healthy, active lives. Food insecurity forces families to make tradeoffs between basic needs such as housing, medical bills and food, and many do not qualify for federal nutrition programs.

The government rescue packages include some measures to help alleviate food insecurity such as expanding eligibility for food stamps, increasing commodities donations from the Department of Agriculture (USDA) and providing $1,200 to every American earning under $99,000.

But experts warn that help has been slow, patchy and inadequate so far.

“Philanthropy and not-for-profits are not going to be able to meet food demands. The government needs to step in,” said Kellie O’Connell, chief executive of the Lakeview pantry in Chicago.

Caitlin Welsh, director of global food security at the Washington based Center for Strategic and International Studies, said: “The supply chain is strong but as the number of food insecure people increases continuously, we’ll perhaps need a new wave of federal legislation directed specifically at household food security.

“These numbers show that the pandemic is causing economic shocks never experienced in our lifetime.”

By Ikechukwu Odu

NSUKKA—–The popular Enugu’s native doctor, Simon Odo, a.k.a Onu Uwa, has explained that he marries a new wife anytime his older wives insult him. While explaining why he married the 58th wife recently, Odo, who is also known as the ‘king of satan’ said he cannot stomach insolence and unruly behaviours from women folks, adding that he marries new wife anytime he was let down by the attitude of his wives.

He spoke during an exclusive interview with Vanguard at his country home, Aji, in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area of Enugu State, Sunday, saying ” I marry anytime any of my new wives insult me. I cannot stand a woman insulting me.

“If there are 20 dead men in Nigeria for instance, only five of them died naturally. The other 15 were caused by heartbreaks and bad attitudes from their wives. That is why I marry anytime a woman insults me.”

When asked how he provides for his extended family, he explained that God did not make mistakes by giving him plenty children, adding that He provides for all His creatures. He alleged that the actions of humanity have put God in a state of confusion.

“If I want to kill you, I will ask God for His grace. The person I want to kill will also ask God for his protection. The armed robbers on the highway pray to God for the success of their operations, while roads users pray to the same God for protection against robbers. God is confused about the actions of humanity because of their evil actions.

“God has abandoned humanity due to the spate of evils they perpetrate. He no longer answers our prayers because we have no love for Him or our fellow human beings. Children do not obey their parents anymore, this was not the case when I was young. There was absolute respect for elders then.

“There are four of us who people use to dupe unsuspecting members of the Public. The first person is God, the second person is Jesus Christ, then queen of oceans, and myself, the king of Satan. People go about claiming that I am their father and that they can perform all sorts of miraculous healings. To be frank with you, I did not train anybody in traditional medicine, so those people are fraudsters.

“People also go about claiming false prophecies from God, Jesus Christ, and queen of oceans; claiming that they heard from God, and duping people of their hard-earned treasures. They are 419ners and people should be wary of such them,” he warned.

He said that there are deaths of genuine native doctors due to the love for money and materials things in Nigeria, adding that people of his stock who genuinely heal people may not be more than 30 in Nigeria.

PaChukwudi44:

APC's votes are null and void and wont factor in the calculations.Remove APC's vote the PDP guy met the requirements.I feel for Lyon he was undeed by his deputy

OndoFirstBorn:


My brother, i'm simply pointing out the obvious ni o. Abi which of the thing i said is wrong? My Governor is a true Omoluabi!

OndoFirstBorn:
"The world suffers a lot not because of the violence of bad people, but because of the silence of good people."

I think it's time we started referring to Governor Akeredolu as a National Leader and not southwest leader. Governor Akeredolu could have chosen to be silent Just like Tinubu, Sanwo-olu, Dapo Abiodun and Gboyega Oyetola or remain silent because of his 2nd term ambition, but he continues to prove to be a selfless Leader. History will be kind to him!

Bigdocemo:


This isn't true, new LGA administrators were just inaugurated.

Realdeals:

Stop defending anything because it's related to your party APC

funmike83:

Why did Ajimobi work the ones he met ??

Realdeals:
Dapo Abiodun of Ogun state will definitely do the same, where is the letter?

seunmsg:
Community and state policing featured prominently in APC manifesto. This is the time to walk the talk. The president must resist all political and tribal consideration and support the effort of south western states to protect lives and properties. I

Former Vice President, Atiku Abubakar, has thrown his weight behind the setting up of community, state and zonal policing to complement federal policing.

In a statement on Sunday by his media adviser, Paul Ibe, the ex-Vice President emphasised that the primary responsibility of government at all levels is the protection of lives and property of the citizens, as enshrined in the constitution.

Atiku’s statement is coming on the heels of controversy over the setting up of a joint security outfit, Amotekun, by governors of the six states in the Southwest.

“In carrying out this function, the state employs different layers of measures to ensure effective and efficient policing. It is without doubt that in the past decade particularly, the current policing administration in our dear country had been stretched to its limits and it is obvious that the reality of our domestic security upheaval will demand of us to recalibrate our police systems.

“In the First Republic, before we gravitated too much to the centre, policing was done federally with each native authority and region having some mechanisms to deal with little upsets that were the security concerns of those times.

“In the present day Nigeria, there is hardly any state of the federation that does not contend with some type of security challenges.

“Because our security challenges are diverse in forms and impacts, it is thus incumbent that centrally controlled police architecture cannot exclusively deal with those challenges.

Consequently, there is need for the creation of additional policing structures in the country to address the rapidly growing challenges of insecurity and crime”, Atiku said.

According to him, the time is ripe to seriously confront the reality of insecurity in the country by addressing the urgency of introducing state police, zonal police and community policing to complement the efforts of the current federal police.

He added that it’s obvious that current levels of insecurity in the country are giving rise to major initiatives such as Amotekun and the issue need not be controversial in the first place.

Atiku argued that the police are likely to be more effective if they constantly operate in the same local community or local government because such closeness might create a bond with the local people, thereby enabling community cooperation and participation that would engender proactive outcomes in crime prevention.

Continuing, he said, “Nigeria is a vast country facing enormous security challenges and, therefore, there is the urgent need to create more security structures at the local levels to reduce the burden on the federal police.

“The issue of security shouldn’t be politicised and monopolised in the face of our current alarming security challenges characterised by the fear of even travelling on our highways by the citizens who might be intercepted by kidnappers and taken hostage for ransom.

“Local policing shouldn’t be mistaken for an effort to hijack the role of the federal police or a competition with the federal government.

Read Also: Amotekun: FG should swallow their pride – Tiv leader

“The obvious inadequacies of the federal police to effectively deal with these rapidly growing security challenges make local policing not only desirable, but also necessary.

“The police are more likely to be effective in areas where they are well known and trusted by the local communities who in turn are willing to share information about known criminals and criminal activities, thereby foiling those crimes before they are even carried out.

“It is a given perception that when people have a role in their own security, they are going to help to defeat the criminal in their tracks and that the more they are involved, the more likely they would perceive the police as their friends”.

Atiku however canvassed a reduction of states and local governments to peripheral players in security matters in the envisaged new policing order.

He stated further that when local police structures are closest to the grassroots, emergency response will be more effective than the current unwieldy chain of command that renders local government chairmen ineffective when their people are under attacks.

“As a matter of fact, it is refusing to adopt new ways of doing things that poses a threat to the unity of the country. It has never been this bad to the extent of threatening the unity of the country”, he added.

Iamgrey5:
He actually did

Tinubu is the person trying to destroy the group

Tinubu is not overly happy that Opc and Afenifere were later involved in the group.


Remember opc complained they were not involved before they were finally involved in the last minute, which prompted Governors of Lagos, Ogun and Osun not to attend the meeting.


Those groups have not been pro Tinubu at any point in time especially the Ogunmakin guy.


Tinubu is now caught between a rock and hard place.