• Committee’s report a recommendation, insists Lai Mohammed
• Unions threaten fresh industrial action
• States reserve right to determine salaries, says El-Rufai

The Federal Government might have successfully hoodwinked the organised labour into calling off its planned industrial action while at the same time having the last laugh on workers’ demand for a 30,000 minimum wage.

One after the other, unions across the country had expressed desire to ride out the storm alongside the organised labour. Many Nigerians, believing a major strike was imminent, had also hurriedly stocked up on fuel and other essential items.

But the Federal Government seemed to have tinkered craftily with time, engaging labour leaders in a protracted dialogue that began 11:30 a.m. and dragged into the D-Day

If workers felt relieved the ‘mother of all strikes’ had been called off because labour leaders won the deal, signals from the presidency are showing the Federal Government has effectively deflated enthusiasm for the planned industrial action, while at the same time retaining the trump card to implement its own version of a new minimum wage.

A reliable labour source who was at the make-or-mar meeting had confided in The Guardian that indeed N30,000 was the final submission. But a witty agreement moved by the Federal Government had ensured the leaders kept a sealed lip until President Muhammadu Buhari received the report of the tripartite committee.

Nigerian workers have since waited anxiously for the president to mouth the happy disclosure. But this might never come. The conspicuous avoidance of the ‘N30,000 word’ in Buhari’s speech has raised concerns within labour ranks that the presidency is unwilling to transmit the agreed deal to the National Council of State and the National Assembly.

“I want to assure you all that we will immediately put in place the necessary machinery that will close out these open areas. Our plan is to transmit the executive bill to the National Assembly for passage within the shortest possible time.

“I am fully committed to having a new National Minimum Wage Act in the very near future. As the executive arm commences its review of your submission, we will continue to engage you all in closing any open areas presented in this report. I therefore would like to ask for your patience and understanding in the coming weeks. May I therefore, implore workers and their leaders not to allow themselves to be used as political weapons,” Buhari had said.

Also yesterday, Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, shockingly referred to the report by the tripartite committee as “a recommendation” which the president would “consider” and then “make his views known in due course.”

Pressed to make further comment following the Federal Executive Council meeting at State House, Abuja, Mohammed insisted: “I said a recommendation was submitted. Mr. President will get back to the committee after he has studied the recommendation.”

On whether a review of the revenue sharing formula would be in the offing, if the new minimum wage is approved, to enable states to pay, he answered: “Once again, like I said, a recommendation has been made and in responding to the recommendation, all these views will be taken into consideration.”

But labour leaders are not ruling out a return to the battlefield. In an exclusive interview with The Guardian, General Secretary of the Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC) Peter Ozo-Eson said: “If anybody contemplates reduction, we will be back to the trenches and our members would direct us on the next step to take. But we think in the interest of industrial peace and harmony, what needs to be done now is that this compromise amount is forwarded to the National Assembly because reducing it will be extremely problematic.”

On his part, Peter Esele, a former president of Trade Union Congress (TUC) and a member of the team that negotiated the 2011 minimum wage, said neither the National Council of State nor the National Assembly could renegotiate a figure already agreed upon by the tripartite committee.

According to him, “The biggest problem we have as a country is our government. Government officials do not know what it means to negotiate; they have no respect for negotiated agreement and contracts. This is the scenario: government appointed the chairman of the committee, appointed its minister as deputy chair, and then the president says he will ‘look’ into the report. What is the president looking for in that report?

“N30,000 is a negotiated figure done by its own representatives. Does it mean that the presidency does not trust the capacities of those it appointed? Labour started with N66,500 and later came down to N30,000, which is a negotiated figure arrived at as a result of negotiation. And now, government is ‘looking’ at this? How?

“If government will ‘look’ at the figure again after negotiation, why didn’t it legislate the figure instead of allowing people to waste their time for one year? The truth is that whatever is negotiated cannot be changed. Otherwise, labour goes back to the trenches.”

The immediate past NLC General Secretary and now Executive Secretary of Organisation Trade Union of West Africa (OTUWA) John Odah, added: “It is in the interest of this government not to allow this process to drag longer than necessary because minimum wage affects the large chunk of workers of this country. I know labour knows this and will not allow anybody to mess with them. Tripartite negotiation is sacrosanct and people should just respect it.”

In a related development, Kaduna State governor, Nasir El-Rufai, yesterday stressed that matters of a new national minimum wage should be worked out by individual states according to their financial abilities.

He stated this in Abuja during his presentation at the fourth National Internal Generated Revenue (IGR) peer-learning event organised by the Nigeria Governors’ Forum (NGF).

“I do not agree that national minimum wage should be under the federation. I think minimum wage should be done by each state according to the level of income,” he said.


https://guardian.ng/news/how-fg-fooled-labour-on-strike-n30000-minimum-wage/

Very long over due.

By William Bertrand

Nigeria is poised to be one of the most important nations in the world. It has the resources, the population, the creative and entrepreneurial power and the geo-political presence to lead Africa and the world through some of the great global challenges of this century.

Bill Gates, along with Warren Buffet, are investing heavily in Nigeria’s future. The Gates Foundation has programmed $1.6 billion towards helping solve major social and economic problems in the country. Gates, an objective and reasoned observer of the potential of Nigeria, clearly identifies the problems that stand in the way of reaching the country’s potential. I share his view, which is why I strongly support giving Atiku Abubakar a chance to lead Nigeria into its rightful position of world leadership.

Gate’s said in a recent trip to Nigeria:

“If you invest in their health, education, and opportunities — the “human capital” we are talking about today — then they will lay the foundation for sustained prosperity. If you don’t, however, then it is very important to recognise that there will be a sharp limit on how much the country can grow.”

Education, particularly girls’ early education, and primary health care, with a strong emphasis on early childhood nutrition, are sadly lacking in Nigeria’s investment plan. These areas are where prior Nigerian politicians have failed. The results of this systematic neglect of the basics are that millions of poorly educated and poorly nourished Nigerians are left without the capacity or the tools to face the future.

In 2010, at the request of the then newly appointed President of the American University of Nigeria (AUN), I joined the governing board of that institution. I continue to serve as Vice Chairman of the Board, dedicating my time and effort without compensation. During this time, I have had the opportunity to observe and interact with AUN’s founder and chief benefactor, Atiku Abubakar, on a personal and professional level.

I have worked and lived in Africa since 1968 and have been part of developing several institutions of higher education on the continent. In no other country have I encountered a person who has dedicated so much of his personal fortune to supporting an American-styled university. I have dedicated my professional career to that approach and to the use of education as a fulcrum to improve the world we live in. The opportunity to assist in this pioneering effort to create a university in impoverished rural North-Eastern Nigeria, has been an honour and a privilege.

Why is an American style of education important to Nigeria and to Africa? First and foremost, the American approach is an applied one. America has a great tradition of land grant universities that are dedicated to applied research in service to the local areas where they are located. As part of the university system, they support outreach workers or extension workers to take the results of this research to the local producers as quickly as possible. In a rapidly changing technology-driven world, this element of constant community education is vital.

AUN has dedicated itself to being a development university “focused on resolving Nigerian problems of social and economic development and then applying these solutions to the rest of Africa.” Mr. Abubakar strongly supports this direction, intellectually and financially. He clearly understands the need to have the most current technology applied to resolving local problems and has put his own resources to work, doing so on countless occasions.

Community outreach and community involvement are another element championed by the American style of higher education. AUN programmes, such as ‘Feed and Read’ for destitute local children, taking in and educating over a hundred Chibok girls, and the Adamawa Peace Initiative, in response to the Boko Haram uprising, are all successful outreach programmes that have demonstrated a different, more applied, and yes, more American style of higher education.

The American style has always focused on critical thinking and individual innovation in thoughts and actions. Classes are not just exercises in memorisation but are designed to challenge and stimulate analytical processes. The individual and cultural change required to embrace the characteristics of modern society and rapid change do not come easy. Atiku himself was motivated to found AUN by his conviction that his life and career had been changed by two American teachers – Peace Corps Volunteers. He felt, as I do, that the European elitist model of education still ruling the Nigerian academe did not best serve the needs of Nigeria with its rich potential of human capital.

His effort to build a prototype at AUN has not been without its problems, including a US Congressional investigation into the relationship with American University in Washington. When I joined the Board, along with Eamon Kelly, the former President of Tulane University, we engaged the services of one of the best law firms in New York to look into the charges. Dr. Kelly had been president of the National Science Foundation and the American Association of Universities in the United States; he could not afford any hint of wrong doing. The response from the lawyers was that there was absolutely nothing in the Congressional report that involved Atiku Abubakar. With this assurance, we both joined the Board. We have never had cause to regret that decision.

During the years that we at Tulane actively supported the AUN effort, its footprint as a university dedicated to development was firmly established. Even with the day-to-day problems of operating an American style institution in the far north of the country, surrounded by Boko Haram, the university has grown and matured. AUN has developed new programmes in entrepreneurship and law and is planning other specialised degree programmes in applied development areas. The university has created innovative outreach programmes that fought to bring peace and sustainable development to Adamawa State and by extension to all of Nigeria.

I see no other person in Africa who has so consistently given of himself and his resources to support education — from primary to university — under the most difficult of circumstances. He understands the role and importance of technology, and perhaps more importantly has the personal integrity and courage to listen to others who sometimes disagree with him, and to change his mind accordingly. Nigeria is fortunate to have the opportunity to elect such a man to lead the country to its rightful role as an African and world leader. There may not be many more such chances.

William Bertrand is Wisner Professor of Public Health at Tulane University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/10/19/a-view-of-atiku-abubakar-from-the-united-states/

About this period, four years ago to be precise, I had gone to visit a notable politician and a member of the Peoples Democratic Party. Politics was very much in the air then as is the case now, and my host was neck-deep in it all. He was a major grassroots politician and a man of experience, who brought into party politics so much enthusiasm and elan. I observed him at very close quarters and it was right to conclude that he was one of President Goodluck Jonathan’s unwavering supporters. Publicly, he gave the impression that he had held down his state, and even a substantial part of his region, for both the party and the president.

He reportedly ran a strong grassroots political structure which included traditional rulers, students, market women, religious leaders and the ordinary people, who on election day were expected to vote en masse for the ruling party and put the then emergent and assertive All Progressives Congress and its leaders to shame.

During elections season, there are persons like that in every political party. They are the people on the field. They take reports to Abuja, give feedback to the party at the national level and shuttle between their states and Abuja. They attend every major campaign. They say the right things. They pump up party leaders with adrenaline. When they do a calculation of the party’s chances and how happy the electorate is with the leadership, you would feel like celebrating even before the polls. The really talented ones among them are, for the want of a better term, charmers or perhaps illusionists. This particular politician, who shall remain nameless, is experienced and talented.

We got talking. He asked me: “Reuben, what do you think of the PDP’s chances in the 2015 elections?” I told him everything looked good and that the party would retain its majority status in power. I reeled off the achievements of the Jonathan administration. The APC challenge? I dismissed the APC as a party of propagandists. “Those people? They will win in a few states, no doubt, but they can’t take the Presidency…” When you are around politicians and you listen to them everyday, you are very likely to believe them and even begin to sound like them. Loyalty is also important, but this was not just about loyalty. I felt the president’s good performance deserved to be rewarded by the Nigerian people.

“I don’t see us winning”, my host responded. I was shocked. I almost fell off my seat. I wasn’t too sure that I heard him well. I asked what he meant by that. The party primaries had been concluded. Turn-out at campaigns was beginning to build up. The state governors were all upbeat, or so it seemed. The traffic of politicians to-ing and fro-ing the Villa was so much there were hold-ups at the gate.

“We are going to lose”, my host repeated.

“How?”

“I will tell you”, he said. “I have been in politics for years, and I have learnt to study the art very well. I can tell you that five months before any election, you can easily tell if your party is going to win or not. It is not even a matter of analysis. As a politician, you will know – from what the people say, from listening carefully to your followers, from watching the body language of the international community, and by just generally looking beyond the façade. I don’t see us winning.”


“Yes, spirit of error. I have been around long enough to know when a political party begins to fail and when it begins to lose the people, and even its own members. That is where we are, everybody is just making mistakes.”


“But the ruling party looks good to me or am I missing something?”

“Yes, you are,” he affirmed.

He then proceeded to offer a state by state analysis of the party, painting a picture of grievances over party primaries, the imposition of candidates by the party’s National Working Committee, a growing pattern of deceit, the ethnic and religious division between the North and the South, and how the PDP had lost many of its faithful members. He went on:

“I don’t deceive myself. Many of those governors you see who are promising heaven and earth, you will see that when the time comes, they will not deliver. There are many aggrieved persons staying back in the party who will not lift a finger to help the party. The people who have been badly treated during the primaries, and they have been ignored, nobody is listening to them, they will claim to be working for the party, they may even collect money but from what I see, it is only if a miracle happens.”

“This is serious”, I said. “But sir, why don’t you take this up at the highest levels, since you are convinced that the enemies are within”.

“I won’t call them enemies. I think it is something even more serious. When people join political parties in Nigeria, they expect to gain something in return. They want to be rewarded. They may follow a leader but you have to settle them. I think the party and the government have been overtaken by the spirit of error.”

“Spirit of error?”

“Yes, spirit of error. I have been around long enough to know when a political party begins to fail and when it begins to lose the people, and even its own members. That is where we are, everybody is just making mistakes.”

A few weeks later, I saw the same man, back-slapping at party campaigns, hailing the president and other party leaders. I was confused. Obviously, I thought the spirit of error had disappeared and there was renewed hope for the party. I called the man aside out of curiousity: “Sir, what happened? Is there hope now?”

“I am a politician,” he said. “Every politician is an optimist. It is not over until it is over.” I didn’t get a chance to ask him again about the spirit of error. But his prediction turned out to be prophetic.


I may see the need to visit that senior politician again to give me the benefit of what old men see sitting down, which younger men may not see even when they are standing.


I believe that history is about to repeat itself in Nigerian politics. The ruling party, the All Progressives Congress is exactly where the Peoples Democratic Party was in 2014/2015. APC leaders are making exactly the same mistakes. The PDP, which appears to have learnt some lessons, is suddenly a re-energised party and with the emergence of Alhaji Atiku Abubakar as its standard bearer and Peter Obi as running mate, the same Nigerian people who thought the PDP was bad are now turning around to say the PDP should be forgiven. All sleeping cells of the PDP across the country are suddenly awake. The umbrella is up again, the rope that tied the broom together is loosened.

The success of the PDP in the last few months does not necessarily owe itself to any ingenuous strategy on the part of the leaders of the party, however, but more to the many unforced errors, and own goals, by the ruling party and its government. The government at the centre has lost the plot. When these days, its foot-soldiers and spokespersons argue that members of the PDP are corrupt, the quick response by even the worst critics of the opposition party, PDP, is that they can’t see any difference between the APC and the PDP. Some even insist that the PDP is better. In three years, the APC has frittered away its goodwill. The same international agencies and platforms that used to promote the administration have turned their back on it. Internally, the party has been overtaken by all kinds of little Hitlers who have no qualms imposing their will on others and trampling upon the letters of democracy. This much was put on embarrassing display during the recent gubernatorial election in Osun, and the party’s primaries across the country, but notably in Lagos, Osun, Rivers, Delta, Imo, Zamfara, Ogun, Oyo and so on. In 2014, five governors walked away from the PDP. In 2018, many leaders of the APC have also taken a walk. The PDP told its disaffected members – “good riddance.” The APC is also singing the same song in 2018.

In 2014/15, the APC’s selling point was President Muhammadu Buhari. He was promoted as a nationalist, a man of integrity and a reformed democrat. He promised to fight corruption and the people hailed him. They were tired of the PDP. They wanted change. Many believed in him as the messiah who will turn Nigeria around. Close to four years later, President Buhari is now at that point where most Nigerian leaders find themselves, covered by that standard, unscientific excuse: “the good man who is surrounded by bad people, bad advisers and bad politicians.” The economy under his watch is slow and unproductive. In three months, the country’s debt profile has jumped from N22.4 trillion to $73.21 billion and the country wants to borrow more. His administration usually blames the previous administration. Many Nigerians no longer consider that a good strategy. They are similarly skeptical about the war against corruption.

This last point is well illustrated by the recent announcement of a plan to effectuate Executive Order No 6, under which the government proposes to place a travel ban on some yet unnamed and undisclosed Nigerians. Under the Order, the government seeks to stop persons indicted for corruption from travelling abroad, and to attach their properties. The argument by government spokespersons that they are relying on a judgement by Justice Ijeoma Ojukwu of the Abuja Federal High Court has been exposed for what it is: a lie, a ruse, an attempt to misinterpret the court, knowing that the judge is not likely to engage in a market-place explanation of its own ruling. That was the same thing they did at the 2018 NBA Conference, when they said the rule of law could be violated and that the Supreme Court had given them the right to do so in the Asari Dokubo case. This is not good for the state of our law.

The Court was clear: the attorney general of the federation can apply Executive Order No 6, only through the instrumentality of a Court Order. By by-passing the Court, the executive arm seeks to be the judge, the jury and the executioner in its own case. It usurps the roles of the judiciary and the legislature, and serves notice of a return to dictatorship. The Order, as proposed, has been correctly described as a reincarnation of the notorious Decree 2 of 1984 and a violation of Section 41 of the 1999 Constitution.

The newspapers published a list of 50 names but the executive has since announced that it has not published any list, but the people concerned know themselves. How? The combined effect of this opaqueness is that the government has imposed a regime of fear on the people. A secret watch-list which can be applied at will is an act of intimidation against the Nigerian people. It is reckless and unwise, because political intimidation is the worst, most brazen form of rigging! In an election season, it is scary. As a strategy, it makes no sense. At a time when the president and his party need the people’s votes, an open subversion of the rule of law is not a good method of votes solicitation. Whoever chose this time to take Nigeria back to 1984, has only strengthened the resolve of those who are already whispering that a second term for President Buhari would translate into misery for Nigerians. Executive Order No. 6, rather than further advance the anti-corruption war, has merely promoted fear and intimidation as instruments of governance. This is one more major error by the Buhari government. I may see the need to visit that senior politician again to give me the benefit of what old men see sitting down, which younger men may not see even when they are standing.

The Persecution of Ike Ekweremadu

While writing the piece above, I kept receiving on my phone what’s app messages attacking Deputy Senate President Ike Ekweremadu. I am sure other Nigerians would have received the same hate-message either on whatsapp or through other media. Ekweremadu is pointedly accused of being the brain behind the Igbo drama over whether or not Peter Obi is the fit and proper person for the position of running mate to Atiku Abubakar, on the platform of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP). While other Nigerians have settled that matter and concluded that Peter Obi is in order, and that Igbos deserve to be Vice President of Nigeria and even President in due course, the Igbo elite, playing well-known stereotypical politics, are trying to create a little self-serving show of their own. They don’t need it. They should look at the bigger picture, and stop behaving like a child that lost a promised candy.

The persecution of Ekweremadu is unfair and undeserved. Ekweremadu, yes, has been council chairman, Secretary to the Government of Enugu State, a Senator since 2003 former Speaker of the ECOWAS Parliament, and two-term Deputy Senate president, and one of the persons on the Atiku shortlist. He deserves to be celebrated and not be used as a scapegoat for the discomfort of other persons who lost out in the race. Ekweremadu himself has said that he is in support of Peter Obi. So, who are the agent-provocateurs out there in the East? Ekweremadu was for a while the last man standing for the PDP and Ndigbo. He is paying a heavy price for this. He has been brutalized.

The ruling party attacked him with the police and the EFCC. He was accused of having properties. They are charging him from one court to another. His emergence as Deputy Senate President and his loyalty to Senate President Bukola Saraki made them unhappy. When the PDP seemed to have completely lost its bearing, Ike Ekweremadu stood firm. He deserves recognition for this. The political jobbers who are trying to set him and Peter Obi on a collision course even before the 2019 elections are enemies of Ndigbo. The urgent task before the Igbo elite is to seek those who are trying to divide them, the mercenaries among them, and the need to protect the larger Igbo interest. Both Ike Ekweremadu and Peter Obi deserve the support of the Igbo elite, not a squabble of the villagers.

Reuben Abati, a former presidential spokesperson, writes from Lagos.

https://opinion.premiumtimesng.com/2018/10/16/the-spirit-of-error-in-nigerian-politics-by-reuben-abati/

There has been some clarity about Nigeria’s 2019 Presidential election, with the end of the October 7 deadline set by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) for the conduct of party primaries at all levels. On Saturday, the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) at its convention held in Abuja, ratified the choice of incumbent President Muhammadu Buhari as its flagbearer, with a curious vote tally of 14. 8 million. President Buhari and his supporters have continuously left no one in doubt that they intend to have a second shot at power and office.

The number of party members across Nigeria who endorsed the Buhari candidacy has however raised eyebrows. 14. 8 million! In the 2015 elections, that was a little less than the same number of total votes that the incumbent got in a nationwide general vote. What is the actual number of persons on the party’s membership register – 15.6 million? Concerned observers have argued that this is an indication of the determination of the ruling party to rig the 2019 Presidential elections, in favour of a 75-year old candidate to whom they insist, there is no alternative. The No-Alternative talk is of course the height of sycophancy and the extent of its idiocy has now been exposed.

Just as the APC held its convention over the weekend, other political parties participating in the 2019 general elections were also busy choosing their own candidates, and now we have on the field, the following Presidential candidates: Atiku Abubakar (People’s Democratic Party), Donald Duke (Social Democratic Party), Olusegun Mimiko (Zenith Labour Party), Omoyele Sowore (African Action Congress), Kingsley Moghalu (Young Progressives Party), Fela Durotoye (Alliance for New Nigeria), Tope Fasua (Abundance Nigeria Renewal Party), Eunice Atuejide (National Interest Party), Adesina Fagbenro-Byron (Kowa Party), Eniola Olajuni (Alliance for Democracy), Gbenga Olawepo-Hashim (Alliance for People’s Trust), Obadaiah Mailafia (African Democratic Congress), Alistair Soyode (Yes Electorates Solidarity), Hamza A-Mustapha (People’s Party of Nigeria), Chike Ukaegbu (Advanced Allied Party), Ahmed Buhari (Sustainable National Party), Usman Ibrahim Alhaji (National Rescue Movement), John Ogbor (All Progressives Grand Alliance), Yabagi Sani (Action Democratic Party), Moses Shipi (All Blending Party), Peter Nwangwu (We the People of Nigeria), Edozie Madu (Independent Democrats) and Obiageli Ezekwesili (Allied Congress Party of Nigeria). Twenty-six Presidential candidates so far, except any one has been overlooked in our list.

What we know is that this is probably the most demographically diverse Presidential contest line-up in Nigerian history – an indication of the people’s determination to participate in the country’s political process at the highest level. From a 35-year old Ukaegbu to Buhari who is officially 75, the refrains in Nigeria’s emerging democratic process, deducible from the names of the political parties are “action”, “progressive”, “new”, “renewal”, “alliance”, “sustainable”, “rescue”, “people”, “democracy”, “democratic”, “blending”. This is in keeping with the mood of the opposition in the country. The people, as reflected in the political parties’ nomenclature, want a new Nigeria, change and progress. It is an obvious comment on the performance of the incumbent administration.

The point has been made, and it is a useful one, that whereas there has been increased interest in the Presidential race, particularly given the number of young candidates inspired by the Not-Too-Young-To-Run law that was passed in May 2018, in reality, the 2019 Presidential race in Nigeria is bound to end up as a two-horse race. Only two of the many political parties- the APC and the PDP- have the following, the structures, resources, and the necessary brand recognition to be able to put up a good showing. The PDP was in power from 1999 to 2015. It was displaced in 2015 by an alliance of political parties that took the name: All Progressives Congress.

Today, the APC is the party in power and its candidate is President of Nigeria. Both the APC and the PDP are in charge at the state level and they both control the majority of seats in legislative assemblies across the country. Many of the other political parties in the race are products of alliances and mergers but as at this moment, there is not yet a compelling alliance or merger, such as in the case of the APC in 2015, that can threaten the dominance of two political parties – the APC and the PDP. Some of the emergent Presidential candidates are political tyros, but who nevertheless bring a freshness of ideas and style to the unfolding contest.

What we see with plain-sight certainty is that the 2019 Presidential election in Nigeria is bound to be a strong fight between the APC and the PDP and between former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and President Muhammad Buhari, indeed more of a beauty contest between the latter. There is not much difference between the two political parties, Nigeria’s politics is hardly driven by any ideology only by symbols. The APC uses the broom as a symbol, the PDP the umbrella, that is the only known difference, the truth is that members of the two were all either a member of one or the other at a point in their political careers. Former Vice President Atiku has been in both parties crossing from one to the other in the last four years. President Buhari has been previously a member of the ANPP, later the CPC, before joining the APC. While the people may not see a difference between six and half a dozen, they will make a choice on the basis of the personalities and perception of the two leading candidates. Except the unexpected occurs, the next President of Nigeria will either be incumbent President Buhari, who will be running for President for the fifth time, or Alhaji Atiku Abubakar who previously sought the same office, without success.

Both candidates are of Northern and Fulani extraction which fits into the country’s unwritten geo-politics. Atiku is from the North East state of Adamawa. Buhari is from the North Western state of Katsina. To the average, majority-group, Northern voter, a major calculation in Nigeria’s ethnic and religious politics, the emergence of Atiku and Buhari means that power will remain in the North for another four years if Buhari wins, and possibly eight years more if Atiku wins. Both men are also Muslims. Both men are also septuagenarians. Atiku is 71. Buhari is 75. The younger Presidential candidates will seek to make heavy weather out of this, but it may not count for much in the contest. Both men have had significant experience at the highest level: Buhari as military Head of State (1983-85) and Atiku as Vice President to President Olusegun Obasanjo (1999 -2007). One of the major issues to look forward to is the health status of the two main candidates. The incumbent has been in and out of hospital in the course of the last three years, spending close to 100 days out of the country in one notable instance. Atiku in comparison, appears much healthier, except any damaging medical report shows up before the crucial vote.

Buhari’s handlers have lost the “No-Alternative” argument. On paper and going by the facts, Atiku presents a very formidable alternative. His emergence as the standard-bearer of the PDP is strategic. PDP members have chosen wisely. The PDP has been struggling for survival since it lost power at the centre in 2015. The return of some of the key politicians who defected from the party: including Senator Rabiu Kwankwaso, and Senator Bukola Saraki helped to place the party on the path of revival. Atiku’s emergence as Presidential candidate has strengthened that process.

Atiku has all that it takes to build bridges across the divides within the party and lead a robust campaign against President Buhari. The President’s men will seek to campaign on the platform of integrity. They will argue that Buhari deserves a second term because he has been able to wage war against corruption. They will paint Atiku as greedy and corrupt, and insinuate that a vote for both the PDP and Atiku will be a vote for corruption. This is at best a time-bound cliché. The Atiku team should be able to mobilise compelling and damaging counter-narratives.

The Buhari campaign is vulnerable on another score: performance. President Buhari came to power in 2015 with the promise that he would run a government of CHANGE, offer Nigerians a better life and greater hope. He was seen as a messiah. For the first time in his bid for the Presidency, he was embraced by every major constituency in the country. Better known as a provincial political leader, he received impactful support from the South West, the East and the North, and was projected as a truly national politician and a remodeled democrat. But as it happened, Buhari and the APC over-promised and under-delivered. They promised to fight corruption.

Public opinion is grossly divided on that. They said they will fix the economy. They have presided over one of the worst economic seasons in Nigerian history. They were sure that security would no longer be a problem given Buhari’s background as a military leader. Instead, Nigeria’s security problems became worse. In 2014/2015, Buhari had the support of Nigeria’s former leaders – military and civilian – who thought he would make a better President than President Goodluck Jonathan. He has lost that support. He has since received letters asking him to shape up or ship out, or better still, to forget seeking a second term in office. He has not heeded that advice. Civil society has also changed its mind about the promise that he held out. The international community is not impressed either.

On all counts, Atiku Abubakar stands a good chance. In Nigerian politics, the maxim that “the taste of the pudding is in the eating” also rings ever so true. But his golden moment lies ahead of him. Fears that his emergence as PDP Presidential candidate could cause friction within the PDP did not materialize. The other interested candidates not only embraced him, they promised to work with him to ensure the victory of the PDP in 2019. Atiku has the support of Nigeria’s leadership elite, including the extremely influential class of retired Generals. His boss, President Olusegun Obasanjo who once wrote him off has not objected to his emergence. Obasanjo is an astute political pragmatist. He has not minced words in saying that Buhari does not deserve a second term. He clearly also understands that personal differences apart, an Atiku Presidency will in many ways, be an extension of the Obasanjo legacy. If there is any other political legacy that Atiku knows, it invariably hacks back to Obasanjo. Atiku came to limelight through the Shehu Yar’Adua political machinery: the People’s Front of Nigeria (PFN) which later became the People’s Democratic Movement (PDM). Yar’Adua who was murdered in prison, by the Abacha government, used that platform to build bridges across Nigeria. Obasanjo was Yar’Adua’s friend, they were both Abacha’s prisoners, and he would later prove his loyalty to the man who previously served him as Chief of Staff, by anointing his junior brother, Umaru Yar’Adua as Nigeria’s President in 2007.

It was Atiku Abubakar not Umaru Yar’Adua who inherited the Shehu Yar’Adua political machinery. In fairness to Atiku, he has kept that machinery alive, oiling it, over the years, such that there is no part of Nigeria where you do not have a PFN-PDM cell. Atiku’s emergence has automatically re-activated those cells. In comparison, Buhari has no political machinery of his own other than his folk hero status among Northern youths. The educated ones among those Northern youths are now rebelling against him. There is a class of young Northern intellectuals, educated in some of the best universities around the world who have the capacity, I mean the intellectual heft, to assess every argument or proposition on its own merits. They have turned against Buhari. They resent the triumph of the stereotypical Northerner under his watch. They feel insulted. They are unimpressed by the small games that Nigerian politicians play. They, not even the Lagos-Ibadan press will be Buhari’s main undoing in the months ahead. I cannot confirm that they are over-awed by Atiku either. They will probably classify him as a better representative of the North.

Atiku is cosmopolitan. He has since leaving office in 2007, opened himself up to ideas, and the modernist world. Significantly, he has not branded himself as a cattle-rearer. He has investments in education, agriculture, maritime and other sectors of the economy. There has been no complaint about his emergence as PDP Presidential candidate from Corporate Nigeria – that wing of Nigerian politics populated by deluded egoists who think money is everything- and that is understandable. Corporate Nigeria knows that its leaders can have a comfortable conversation with Atiku because he has a working and practical knowledge of how the Nigerian economy works. He once headed the country’s Economic Management Team and he superintended over Nigeria’s privatization process. Nobody will have to speak to him in Hausa language to explain the meaning of simple economic terms.

Politically, even members of the ruling All Progressives Congress see Atiku Abubakar as one of their own. There is no major player in this country who has not had the opportunity of interacting with Atiku at one level or the other. To every other constituency, Atiku is saying that Nigeria must be restructured. He poses a real threat to President Buhari’s second term ambition. Senator Kwankwaso, now the main PDP politician in Kano State, will divide the votes in Kano in Atiku’s favour. The South East and the South South may not vote for Buhari. In the South West, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the Godfather of Lagos State politics, has every reason to give Buhari “an Ambode treatment.” The Atiku Challenge is real and bankable. The only option available to the incumbent is rigging! While nobody in the Buhari camp can afford the luxury of laughter, me, I just dey here dey laugh. I will tell the story in print and on television.
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/10/09/2019-atiku-vs-buhari/

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) yesterday warned the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) not to contemplate bending the rules to smuggle in candidates from the Zamfara State chapter of the All Progressives Congress (APC).

The opposition party said it was aware of a clandestine meeting today between topmost officials of INEC and Zamfara State Government, where INEC was instructed to manipulate the system and bend the rules to accommodate the APC.

The PDP in a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Mr. Kola Ologbondiyan, warned the Chairman of INEC, Prof. Mahmoud Yakubu, over attempt to manipulate the processes and use underhand measures to liberate the APC from the cul de sac it plunged itself into in Zamfara State.

He stated, “The PDP wants the APC and INEC to know that our party is at alert regarding all electoral processes, in line with our avowed determination to dismantle APC’s rigging machinery in the 2019 general elections.

“Legally, all congresses and related processes for election of candidates for various offices for the 2019 general elections ended yesterday (Sunday, October 7, 2018), the Zamfara State chapter of the APC has not conducted any congress, and by the provision of the law, it has no candidates in all the elections.

“We insist that the laws guiding our elections must be upheld, as the PDP will never accept anything short of that.”
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/10/09/zamfara-dont-bend-rules-for-apc-pdp-cautions-inec/

Please can someone with a Pass in O'Level Maths do a Masters degree in Peace and Conflict studies at NOUN?

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Pius Adesanmi’s “A Nigerian, Library and Lawmakers” (Sahara Reporters, December 24). I will like to add a footnote to what he has raised: hopefully, the likely beginning of a useful conversation around the subject of reading, literacy, politician-constituency relationship, and the normative/practical value of knowledge and research in governance. At the risk of over-simplification, Adesanmi’s argument is that Nigerian politicians, unlike their counterparts in Canada and I suppose elsewhere also, do not read. They don’t do research. Nigerian legislators don’t make use of libraries either for research or for any other purpose.

The average Nigerian politician does not connect with his constituents at the level of ideas. What drives Nigerian politics is the sharing of cheap envelopes, containing a percentage of stolen funds. Adesanmi laments in that elegantly comparative piece, but he does not tell us what can be done to get the Nigerian, not just the politician, to return to a culture of reading and research. I’ll probably also spend more time in the next paragraphs, lamenting. That is how bad and serious the problem is.

When I arrived in Abuja in June 2011 to take up appointment as Official Spokesperson and Special Adviser on Media and Publicity to President Goodluck Jonathan, one of my first concerns was how to set up a library at home. It would have been difficult for me to move my libraries (in Lagos and Abeokuta) to Abuja. I needed to set up a new one, focusing majorly on the new assignment and its research requirements. I made contacts and asked for the big bookshops in town. I didn’t know I was fooling myself. I spent more than a week, driving around the city trying to locate bookshops. I was told there was a bookshop around the old secretariat in Area One. When I got there, the most important item on display was stationery and different copies of the Bible from King James’s version to the New International edition. I left the place.

I was then directed a few days later to Odusote Bookshop, Abuja branch. I was excited. Odusote Bookshop used to be a major centre in Ibadan in those days. Together with the CSS bookshop around Oke Bola, and the University of Ibadan bookshop, the Odusote bookshop served the city of Ibadan and its intelligentsia very well. This was before the arrival of Mr Kolade Mosuro’s Booksellers Limited in Jericho. I rushed to Odusote Bookshop. What did I find? A shadow. Old, worn out books. The Abuja branch looked like a run-down store. Books have a certain smell. Bibliophiles sometimes go to bookstores just to smell the books, have a feel of the new arrivals section and then take a cup of coffee and go home. A bookstore is a centre of culture; in London and Washington DC, some of my favourite bookstores truly fit that definition. A dusty, stale bookstore discourages you. I bought a few books from Odusote, but my search around Abuja continued.

I kept calling persons I thought would know, but no one could really help. Each time I asked for a bookshop and mentioned something about buying books, the conversation always ran into a ditch. The only person who paid attention was Oronto Douglas. He offered to introduce to me a gentleman who would help me set up a library. He would get the books from wherever and deliver them. I only needed to indicate subject areas. I didn’t think this was the way to go. I like to choose my own books. I enjoy moving from bookrack to another, engage the booksellers, examine the books the way a love-vendor checks out a prostitute, before making a purchase. If it is a recommended book, I like the experience of going after the book myself and when it arrives, nothing compares to the exhilaration of a new discovery.

I finally found what looked like a book section inside a Supermarket at the Abuja Silverbird Galleria. I walked round. The best books you could get there were “how to” books, those get-rich-quick-become-a-strategist-and-an-achiever-in-one-week-type-of-publications. I read such books too, but in this particular bookshop, there was no doubt that the books were dollar-denominated. They were so expensive you’d be busy palpitating while reading the books later, once you remembered the cost. I tried other stores around the city, but these were mostly those stores where books are displayed next to groceries, cosmetics and toiletries. I wanted law books. I eventually found specialized bookshops, which sell only law books around the FCT High Court and the Corporate Affairs Commission. Building up a law section on my shelves was probably the easiest task.

I later stumbled on another bookstore at Ceddi Plaza. It was newly set up by a young man who knew what he was doing and who obviously understood the importance of knowledge. It was a neatly organized bookshop, small, but well-appointed. The fellow had read some of the books himself and he could recommend books of interest. It was always a delight going there to look at new acquisitions. One day, I went back there and found the place boarded off. I asked around. What happened? The bookshop had been transferred to another floor. The owner could no longer afford to pay for the strategic location he had chosen. I found the bookshop in a hidden corner of the Plaza. Six months later, it had disappeared altogether. The owner’s dream died. The gentleman is probably now busy running a pepper soup joint, a short-time hotel or he is at best, a harried investor in the MMM Ponzi scheme: these are far more profitable enterprises in Nigeria than the selling of books or ideas.

One day, someone took me to Biobak Restaurant for lunch, and in between trying to find a parking space, I saw something that looked like Booksellers in a place called City Plaza. I couldn’t believe my eyes. I rushed into the place. Booksellers: Abuja branch? It didn’t quite look like the big centre in Jericho, Ibadan but I established a relationship with the staff, and throughout my stay in Abuja, they helped me to source any book I wanted, if they could. But for the most part, I bought books from Glendora in Lagos, at the airport outlet and Awolowo Road, and from Amazon (by order) and Waterstones on Oxford Street, London: my favourite spot in London.

I have gone through this narrative simply to show that in Nigeria’s Federal Capital Territory, nobody is interested in books or ideas. Abuja does not even have a public library, digital or analogue, that I know of. And yet it hosts about five universities (!), and just a few kilometres away in neighbouring Nasarawa state, there is another university in Lafia. Abuja is the home/workplace of probably the most important people in Nigeria from lawmakers to the big politicians, but it is also an ideas-person’s hell. The first day I went to the bookshop in Area One, the man on duty, sensing my agony, called me aside and told me:

“Oga, are you new in town?”

“Yes”

“The way you are looking for bookshops and books, I can figure it out”

“For me, books are important.”

“Oga, take it easy, nobody comes to Abuja to come and read. Everybody is here to make money.”

I was puzzled. He continued:

“I am telling you. This place is the city of government and contracts. People are looking for contracts and money. This our bookshop, we are just selling stationery and exercise books and religious books that the people will need, because anybody that comes here either has an alfa or a prophet working for them. With time, you will learn. I will advise you to forget about books. Look for contracts, Oga.”

Asking me to forget about books is like asking me to forgo oxygen. But the man was right and Pius Adesanmi put his fingers on it. And it is not simply an Abuja problem. Since the politicians took over governance, they stopped worrying about education, reading, research and ideas. We like to blame the military for everything, but ironically, under military rule, things were not this bad. I wrote my Ph.D thesis in those days visiting a local library in Imo, Abeokuta. It was owned, and managed by the local council as a community library!

That library was later moved to Ake, just behind the Centenary Hall. When the universities were shut down and we were all sent away, I ended up writing three chapters in that new library. This was in those days when we relied on index cards for research and those secondary school graduates who helped to type our drafts on manual, usually damaged typewriters, often insisted on correcting syntax and punctuation, instead of admitting that their typewriters were either faulty or that they did not understand what they were typing.

There were libraries in other major cities in Nigeria too. You could borrow books from the community library and return them later. Local councils built libraries. State governments encouraged reading and even bought books for students. There were national archives, with the most patronized domiciled at the University of Ibadan. In those days, when Nigerian lawmakers stood up to make a contribution in parliament, people listened because they made a lot of sense. They spoke like men and women who could think. Today, things have gone so bad we now have lawmakers who know next to nothing about anything. They want to ride the most exotic cars that money can buy. They import the prettiest girls from across the globe. They insult women. They don’t even know the history of Nigeria.

Abuja big men and women in fact employ assistants to read newspapers for them! While Abuja has no libraries, standard bookshops, or gentlemen, it is nonetheless very rich in hotels and napoi joints. Hotels have become the new libraries. They are the only places where any form of thinking takes place. As it is in Abuja, so it is in the states, and that is why government at all levels seemingly considers investment in education, an avoidable distraction. There is an Ake Arts and Book Festival. Before it, there was the Garden City Book Festival in Port Harcourt, but government no longer cares. Reading is anathema to the populace. Nigerians read to pass examinations, thereafter reading is abandoned. We are in the age of goggle-it-intellectuals.

Ideas drive and build nations. A country without a positive and deep current of thought is bound to run into crisis. So it is with Nigeria where the leaders only become animated when they want to share money or play partisan politics. The root of the crisis lies in the recruitment of wrong persons into power. Try and compare the cabinet list in Singapore with that of Nigeria, for example. The difference is clear. The message is clear. The answer lies in a re-configuration of the leadership recruitment process and the vigilance of civil society insisting on higher values.
https://www.thecable.ng/nobody-comes-abuja-read

At least 10 more persons were feared killed as the recent violence in Jos, the Plateau State capital, continued to escalate to other parts of the city yesterday.

This is even as several houses and vehicles were burnt by some irate youths to avenge the killings of their kinsmen.


Following the development, two socio-political groups in Plateau State, Miango Youths Development Association (MYDA) and Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation (BECO), have demanded an investigation into the allegation that fake soldiers took over the streets and perpetrated the killings.

Violence had erupted in Jos on Friday following the killing of 11 persons by some unknown gunmen at Rukuba road in Jos North Local Government Area (LGA) of the state.

The riot however, turned ethnic and religious on Sunday, leading to an attack on a church and counter attack, which resulted in more deaths.

While the security agents battled to control the violence, it was however, gathered that the situation took a frightening dimension between Monday and yesterday when some people suspected to be fake soldiers in military uniform invaded Tina Junction, Dutse-uku and Nasarawa-Gwom communities and opened fire at the residents, some of whom were keeping vigil over their communities.

The fake military men reportedly shot indiscriminately at the people and set houses ablaze at random, holding the community hostage for close to two hours before the arrival of the real security agencies, which later repelled them.

It was also gathered that the situation got worse in the early hours of yesterday, when some Hausa/Fulani youths and the natives squared it up in areas like Rikkos, Dogon Dutse, Yan Shanu, Nasarawa-Gwom and burnt several more houses, including other places of worship.

A community leader in the area, Mishkaham Mupum of Nasarawa Gwom, Mr. Samuel Dawam, became a victim of the fake soldiers, who killed him in his house.

The Police have ordered that residents of these communities to remain indoors for 24 hours, while the city centre, especially the commercial area of Ahmadu Bello way is also deserted and commercial activities crumbled.

Consequently, two socio-political groups in Plateau State, Miango Youths Development Association (MYDA) and Berom Educational and Cultural Organisation (BECO), have demanded an investigation into the allegation that fake soldiers have taken over the streets and perpetrating the killings.

Spokesman of MYDA, Lawrence Zongo, alleged that residents no longer have trust and confidence in soldiers.

He alleged that, “Nigerian soldiers are killing innocent citizens; they may be fake or real, claiming that they are for peace keeping. This is too bad, Nigerian Army are colluding with the criminals and terrorist to kill natives of Plateau. We can’t trust them, their peace enforcement is one sided, favouring terrorists and criminals killing our people daily.

“Soldiers don’t kill criminals any more but kill innocent citizens and allow them (the killers) go free. From last year to date no fewer than 40 people have been killed by people suspected to be Nigerian soldiers.”

Also speaking, the spokesman of BECO, Mr. Sam Godons demanded an investigation into the allegation that soldiers were involved in the killings.

He said, “We need government to get to the bottom of this, if they are fake or real soldiers, let the government unravel this thing. The government is well equipped with machinery and has the power to get to the root of this.

“But why has it not been so? This allegation of fake soldiers has been on for a decade or more, but we don’t know why the government is quiet about it. Who else would confirm whether they are fake or real soldiers?”

Media Officer of the Special task force (STF), Major Umar Adam confirmed the renewed hostility in some parts of the state capital but declined comment on the number deaths and houses burnt. He also debunked the allegation that soldiers shot at the civilians.

Adam said, “I know some people were killed and houses burnt but the figures are yet to be ascertained. We don’t work with speculation. All I can tell you for now is that all the areas you mentioned are under control and our men are on top of the situation. When the figures are ready we would call you and brief you accordingly, but for now normalcy has returned to the affected areas.”

The Commander of STF, Maj. General Augustine Agundu, also dismissed the allegation that soldiers killed during the riot.

He said, “Nigerian Armed Forces are professional Armed Forces. It is you that don’t believe in the Armed Forces that you have.”
https://www.thisdaylive.com/index.php/2018/10/03/again-10-feared-dead-houses-burnt-as-jos-violence-escalates/

Yes the info about crisis in that area of Jos has been confirmed by multiple sources, with potential of further escalation. I hear that an entire family was wiped out in Rukuba area by marauding murderers who have not been reined in by the powers of the State. This has triggered violent reactions by aggrieved elements who are even defying the military. What a shame that lives are being wasted with impunity and people have guts and audacity to openly canvas even for a single vote at this time!

Yes this has been confirmed by multiple sources. I hear that a family was wiped out in Rukuba area by marauding murderers who have not been reined in by the powers of the State. This is only the latest in a series of genocidal attacks and serial bloodletting by blood thirsty 'unknown gunmen'. This has triggered violent reactions by aggrieved elements who are even defying the military. What a shame that lives are being wasted with impunity and people have guts to openly canvas a single vote at this time!

The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Osun State, on Monday alleged that there is an ongoing crackdown on top leaders of the party by security operatives in Osogbo, Ile Ife and Orolu – areas where the rerun election is to hold on Thursday.

PDP in a tweet alleged that a top leader of the party, Alhaji Fatal Diekola was arrested in Osogbo.


“In Osogbo ,a top leader of the @OfficialPDPNig, Alhaji Fatal Diekola was arrested.He was rough handled and beaten up despite his ill health. His aides were matcheted.Other PDP leaders at Osogbo are been harrassed with many of them unable to sleep in their respective homes”.

The party further stated that the situation was the same in Orolu as APC thugs struck this morning, beaten up PDP leaders.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/breaking-security-agencies-arrest-pdp-leaders-in-osogbo.html

Someone said these guys either team up and put their house in order or risk going to jail one by one next year!

Someone said these guys either team up and put their house in order or risk going to jail one by one next year!

State governors across party lines are presently fuming over an alleged secret payment of N16.67 billion, said to be the last tranche of Paris Club refund payment to Osun state government.

The state government was in December 2017 paid along other states by the federal government the third tranche of the refund, amounting to N6.3 billion.

Paris Club refund is a partial settlement of long-standing claims by state governments relating to over-deductions from their Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) payments for external debt service between 1995 and 2002.


Three tranches had been released earlier to all the states, with the last released alongside the December 2017 federal allocations to enable most of the states owing months of staff salaries offset the backlog.


At least three state governors from both the ruling APC and opposition PDP who spoke to Saturday Sun on the latest payment yesterday expressed anger over the secret manner the payment was made to only Osun. They argued that the refund was made to empower the state government successfully prosecute the September 22 governorship election in which the APC candidate, Isiaka Gboyega Oyetola is facing a strong challenge from the candidates of at least three other parties; PDP, ADP and SDP.

“All states and governors need money at this critical time to pay workers salaries and provide basic infrastructure needed by our people but instead of the federal government treating us equally, they have chosen to pay only Osun state this huge sum at the expense of the rest of us who are equally in dire need of whatever refund we have left”, one of the state governors told Saturday Sun yesterday.

Another governor who also sounded unhappy about the development said “the secret payment was all geared towards mobilizing for APC in the coming governorship election in Osun and certainly not for the state workers. Otherwise, it should have been a general and open payment to all the states.”

The third governor who also said he got wind of the payment vowed that he was going to mobilise his colleagues to pressure the federal government to release whatever is due to other states without further delay. “What is sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander”, he stressed.


The Federal Government had in March, 2018 claimed that it had so far shared N1.9 trillion among states as support from the Paris Club refund. Vice President Yemi Osinbajo made this known in his address at the fourth edition of the Ogun Investors’ Forum in Abeokuta.

Osinbajo said that the Muhammadu Buhari-led administration had continued to extend equal and unbiased support to states of the federation regardless of party affiliations. He said it would be difficult to point to any government that had been more supportive in the development of the ambitions of states as the present administration.

The Vice President had recalled that no fewer than 26 of the 36 states in Nigeria could not pay the salaries of their workers when the present administration assumed power in 2015. Osinbajo explained that the federal government, however, came to their rescue by extending funds to them.
http://sunnewsonline.com/paris-club-refund-govs-angry-n16-67b-secret-payment-osun/

Indeed how much and still available?

2019: Should these killings continue?

The Tiv Area Traditional Council (TATC) in Benue State has banned the practice of holding festivities in the house of a bride's parents during traditional marriages on the ground that such party-like activities are alien to their culture.

Also, the council has pegged total expenses on marriage including dowry or bride price as well as sundry issues which at the moment vary from one community or family to another not to exceed N100,000 in any part of Tivland.

This decision was contained in a communique issued at the end of the General Assembly (Ijirtamen) of the Tiv nation held at the TATC Chambers on Friday, August 17, 2018 and was chaired by the Tor Tiv, Professor James Ayatse.

"The practice of holding festivities in the house of the girl’s parents popularly known as Traditional Marriage involving cutting of cake, dances, parties should be discontinued as it is alien to the Tiv way of life. Celebration of a new wife is done by the Tiv People only in the husband’s house.

"Love should be the primary issue between the families concerned in marriage discussion and transaction but not money. Therefore, total expenses on marriage including dowry or bride price (kem kwase) and all sundry issues (Azaan a kwase) which at the moment vary from one community or family to another should not exceed One hundred Thousand Naira (N100,000.00) in Tivland," the communique stated.

It added that traditional marriage ceremony where bride price is to be paid shall involve only the elders of the two families concerned, stressing that the practice of inviting and bringing large numbers of friends and well-wishers to the occasion is alien to Tiv tradition and therefore abolished.


The council maintained that any Tiv girl to be given out in marriage must attain the age of 18 years and above as it stressed that the violation of the marriage tradition shall attract boycott by traditional rulers and elders and the denial of traditional marriage registration, including other traditional sanctions as the community may deem appropriate.

Reacting to the development, Ter Makurdi, Chief Joseph Sule Abenga, in a chat with newsmen in Makurdi at the weekend, posited that the change would encourage young men to marry ladies of their choice without much stress and thereby reducing incidences of elopement due to high bride price.

Meanwhile, the General Assembly was attended by traditional rulers of the Tiv Area Traditional Council, 14 Chairmen of the Tiv speaking Local Government Councils in the state, chieftaincy holders, the executive committee of Mzough u Tiv, Governor Samuel Ortom and the interested public.
https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/tiv-bans-traditional-marriage-festivities-peg-expenses-at-n100-000-267570.html

But what is this guy's staying power? He seems to be resilient and surviving against all odds!

Armed security operatives comprising men of the Nigeria Police and Department of State Services (DSS), yesterday invaded the Benue State House of Assembly, ordering staff out of their offices.

The Clerk of the House, Dr. Torese Agena, who confirmed the incident to reporters in Makurdi, the state capital, said the security men sent him packing and other workers at the Assembly complex. Agena claimed that the heavily armed security operatives made their way into the Assembly premises two hours after work resumption. According to him, the security agents claimed that the new state Commissioner of Police, Bensan Gwana, gave the order that all staff should vacate the Assembly.
He described the situation as harassment too much, adding that for the past two weeks now, staff of the Assembly were not allowed to do their job.

Agena said: “As I talk to you, the police officers are still there and you can’t see any staff at the Assembly because they were chased out of my office.
“We are calling on the commander-in-chief to direct the inspector-general of police to tell the Commissioner of Police, Benue State Command, to withdraw his men from the premises of the Benue State House of Assembly so that staff can do their work unhindered.” Reacting, Security Adviser to Benue State Governor, Col. Paul Hemba (rtd), said the policemen claimed they were acting based on “order from above.”
Hemba said: “I got the information about the chasing away of civil servants and I called the commissioner of police. I spoke with him a while ago and he confirmed, yes, indeed that there was order from above and then, I told him about the concerns of the civil servants and the clerk of the House. “But he told me that the order was from above and that he would take steps to get clarification from Abuja; that he is on his way to Abuja for IG’s conference.”
https://newtelegraphonline.com/2018/08/benue-assembly-police-dss-chase-away-clerk-staff/

A fortnight ago, the unthinkable happened. The National Assembly, located at the Three Arms Zone, Abuja, had some unfriendly visitors – cows. The visitors, numbering over 100, strolled into the well-fortified premises with unquestionable audacity.

Their pilots, Fulani herdsmen, led them into the no-go area. They bypassed the first and second gates. They were heading for the main building, apparently to witness the day’s proceedings at the Red and Green Chambers, when security agents, who were hitherto snoring, suddenly woke up. They hurriedly went for the gate and locked it.

Motorists and other road users, had to wait for the cows to have their right of way before embarking on their journey. Despite the presence of over 250 security agents attached to the National Assembly, cows had a free ride.
The above scenario is a daily occurrence in Abuja, Nigeria’s capital city. From the highbrow Central Business District, to Aso Drive in Asokoro, Kubwa to Nyanya, herdsmen and their cows ply their trade unhindered.

Since 2015, when the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari stepped in, the herders have become bolder. In front of the expansive Federal Secretariat, they ply their trade. Parts of the route leading to the Presidential Villa, herdsmen are found there grazing.

Despite repeated promises by the Federal Capital Territory Administration (FCTA), to step in and stop the open grazing, it is yet to move a muscle, three years after. Instead, it looks the other way, while residents who now live in fear, are warning that the bloodbath in some parts of northern states, may soon spill over to Abuja.

Residents who have taken to social media and other platforms to express their misgivings are questioning the job description of Abuja Environmental Protection Board (AEPB). For them, AEPB leaves the real deal and pursues shadows.

Everyday, AEPB officials harass petty traders. They arrest and shame them openly. Their goods are seized and sometimes destroyed. In Abuja, AEPB officials harass and arrest women at night who they tag prostitutes. There have been unconfirmed allegations that some of the arrested women offer sex in exchange for their release. Others who are unlucky, face trial and are charged accordingly.

The brazen display of force by AEPB officials and their willing allies, are repeatedly condemned by residents. Emmanuel Ogbeche, Editor, Abuja Inquirer, in one of his Facebook posts, threw jibes at AEPB. He said rather than carryout their statutory responsibilities, by ensuring that herdsmen and their cows are not allowed to ply their trade openly, they go after petty traders and prostitutes.

He wrote: “Last night at Wuse II, I saw operatives of the Abuja Environmental Protection Board, (civil defence, police, and thugs I call them) raid roadside sellers and seized their goods. No problem if they were really enforcing the law.

“Just a few hours before then, I had encountered cattle on the Wuse-Kado-Gwarinpa Road. So you know, the AEPB has an out-station by Kado. The cattle herders graze almost daily on that major road without molestation. But it is not so for petty traders struggling for daily survival.

“The AEPB Act 1997 Act No. 10 of 1997 Statutory Legislation Applicable Area of the Federal Capital Territory stipulates that the board has the mandate to regulate all infractions including keeping of animals and pets. So why is the FCTA through the AEPB fixated on hawkers and not animal husbandry that we now find cows even in Three Arms zone? One Nigeria bullshit!”

Media aide to the FCT Minister, Abubakar Sani, reacting to Ogbeche’s post, insisted that residents must assist government in ensuring that herdsmen are not allowed to move around the city with their cows: “With profound respect sir, the AEPB Act, just like the Police Act gives you the power of arrest. Until all of us as citizens begin to play our roles as stakeholders in the Abuja project, the buck passing won’t stop. So sir, next time you see any infraction, perform your civic duty and law enforcement will takeover from there. So lets get started.”

Director of AEPB, Baba Lawal, told Daily Sun, that his agency “is empowered by law to arrest street hawkers. Whenever they are arrested, they are arraigned before Magistrate court, where they are tried.”

On activities of prostitutes, he said a case was instituted against AEPB some years back: A judgment was given against the agency. Since then, AEPB has not been directly involved in the arrest and prosecution of prostitutes.”

Another respondent, Evelyn Dadu, who was more forceful in her intervention, said the only solution is to ensure that the current government is voted out in 2019. She warned that if the current government is allowed to return, the open grazing in Abuja would not stop:

“If you vote in these people again, you will know that what you are seeing now is a child’s play if compared to the terror they will unleash. Vote wisely and educate the people around you to do same. If they depend on rigging schemes, someone will be better than them in scheming. May God give us genuine, intelligent and hardworking leaders in Nigeria.”

http://sunnewsonline.com/cows-everywhere-herdsmen-defied-security-invaded-national-assembly/

A passenger, Ibrahim Garba, said the airplane, which left Murtala Mohammad International Airport, Lagos at exactly 11.30pm, attempted to land at MAKIA at 12.55am but could not touch ground due to turbulent wind.
“The pilot attempted landing twice but failed. He was later directed to go to Katsina or Abuja and land there. Again, we went to Katsina State and the pilot could not make it there. We finally went to Abuja and landed safely.
“It was a terrible experience. The pilot wept seriously after we landed in Abuja. I am sure he was also shocked by the development,” he added.
Another passenger, Alhaji Habib Muhammad, said “The captain made an announcement that he was having difficulty to land due to heavy wind and promised to manage the situation.
“We spent more than 20 minutes waiting for next directive and later the pilot was directed to go to Abuja where we landed around 2am. We thank God.”
When contacted on phone, the Assistant General Manager of Azman Air, Engineer Nuruddeen Aliyu, confirmed the incident and said it was caused by heavy windstorm.
He said, “I was in the aircraft when the incident happened because I came back from South Africa and joined the aircraft that was involved in the incident in Lagos. I was not worried at all because I am familiar with such situation.”
He, however, said contrary to speculations, the aircraft went to Katsina airport because it was not among the alternative airports for MAKIA.
“It was not technical issue as many people think. It was purely a natural issue and when we went to Abuja, the pilot landed safely and when the situation stabilised, he return to MAKIA and landed safely around 5am,” he added.
https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/panic-as-azman-aircraft-fails-to-land-in-kano-259995.html

2019 election is a referendum on whether these killings should continue or not.

2019 election is a referendum on whether these killings should continue.

2019 elections is a referendum on whether these killings should continue or not.

Let your rage and reactions spur you to get PVC. 2019 election is a referendum on the spate of killings and kidnappings nationwide.

2019 election is a referendum on the spate of killings and kidnappings nationwide.

2019 election is a referendum on the spate of killings and kidnappings nationwide.

2019 election is a referendum on these killings.

2019 election is a referendum on these killings.

Nasarawa Governor, Umaru Tanko Al-Makura, has approved the utilisation of all the seven gazetted grazing reserves of the state for the purpose of the ranching programme in the state.

The grazing reserves are located in Awe, Keana, Doma, Assakyo, Konva, Gtata and Kurudu councils.
The governor equally directed the state ministries of Agriculture, Lands and Physical Planning, affected local government councils and communities where these grazing reserves are located, to accord all the necessary support and cooperation for the successful implementation of the programme in the state.

A statement signed by the Secretary to State Government, Mohammed Hassan Abdullahi, said “Nasarawa State government is completely in support of the Federal Government’s initiative, and our state is willing and available to provide all resources and support, to ensure the success of the ranching effort.

“The steps are geared towards assuaging and finding a lasting solution to the age-old challenge of farmers-herders conflict, which has been with us from time immemorial.”
[b]Meanwhile, the paramount ruler of Akaleku in Obi Local Government Area, Zhe Augustine Alao, has been accused of ordering the Tiv community in his domain to cede their farmlands to Fulani herdsmen.

The Tiv community in the area, led by their leaders, Mr Vandesalen Shie and Moses Andrew, said this, yesterday, in a statement they jointly signed, a copy of which was made available to Daily Sun, in Lafia, yesterday.

The community also alleged that the Zhe Akaleku recently connived with the Fulani herdsmen and brought in the Special Anti-Robbery Squad of the police, who arrested and detained four members of the community, at the State Criminal and Investigation Department, in Lafia, for resisting the takeover of their farmlands by herdsmen.
The statement gave names of the detained persons to include Andrew Agah, Ordam Vandesalem, Timbee Vandesalem and Motswenga Vadesalem.

“The Tiv community, therefore, wondered why the Zhe Akaleku will order us to cede our farmlands to Fulani herdsmen, even as we have settled in the area over a decade.”
[/b]When contacted, the Akaleku paramount ruler dismissed the allegation by the Tiv community that he had ordered the ceding of their farmlands to herdsmen.
“I only waded into a land dispute between the Tiv farmers and Fulani herdsmen in my domain,” he insisted.
http://sunnewsonline.com/nasarwa-monarch-cedes-tiv-farmland-to-herdsmen/