News

Fayose Slams Buhari’s NIA DG’s Appointment

Published

8 years ago

January 12, 2018

Ekiti State Governor, Mr. Ayodele Fayose has chided President Muhammadu Buhari over replacement of the sacked National Intelligence Agency (NIA) Director General, Ambassador Ayo Oke with Ahmed Rufai Abubakar, a northerner, saying; “The President has further demonstrated to Nigerians that he is an unrepentant sectional leader, who does not care about the feelings of people from other parts of the country.”
The governor said; “with the appointment of Ahmed Rufai Abubakar as the NIA’s Director General, all heads of security agencies are now northerners and the question is, is this what those who enshrined federal character in our constitution envisaged?”
The governor’s Special Assistant on Public Communications and News Media, Lere Olayinka quoted him as saying in a statement issued in Ado Ekiti yesterday, that “seeing what President Buhari has turned the country to, the forefathers of Nigeria, who laid the foundation of the country on equity, justice and fairness will be lamenting wherever they are now.”
He said; “Ambassador Ayo Oke was removed from office the same day Babachir Lawal was removed as Secretary to the Government of the Federation. While Lawal’s replacement came from his home State, Oke’s replacement came from the north. That is unacceptable.” Governor Fayose, who reminded Nigerians of President Buhari’s directive that the World Bank should shift its focus to the northern region of Nigeria, maintained that “because of the President’s nepotism, religious bigotry and favouritism, Nigeria is now more divided than ever before.
He said it remained on record that President of the World Bank Group, Jim Yong Kim reportedly said that in his very first meeting with President Buhari, he (Buhari) said specifically that he would like the World Bank to shift its focus to the northern region of Nigeria.
The governor said “President Buhari has consistently demonstrated that he is an ethnic champion.
This he has done again with the appointment of yet another northerner as the NIA Director General. “Even at a point, the National Chairman of the President’s party, the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Oyegun had to openly fault the appointments made by the President, saying that as many as three people were appointed from one ward in a local government in the north.
“The implication of what the President has done is that, when Security Council meeting is held today, apart from one or two insignificant people, those in the meeting will be people from one section of the country. “Even para-military agencies are headed by people from President Buhari’s section of the country.
This is unfair.” Reminding Nigerians of his earlier warnings that President Buhari was operating as a president of the Northern Nigeria only and the appointments made by the President negated the principle of federal character, Governor Fayose said; “Those who argued then that the President made the appointments on merit should come to the open to tell Nigerians, especially those from the south that there is no one that merited appointment as Director General of NIA.
“Like I said before, those politicians, who painted the picture of a changed President Buhari to Nigerians before the 2015 presidential election must have seen now that he (Buhari) can never change from an ethnic champion to a nationalist,” Governor Fayose said.

News

FG Ends Passport Production At Multiple Centres After 62 Years

Published

12 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Nigeria Immigration Service has officially ended passport production at multiple centres, transitioning to a single, centralised system for the first time in 62 years.

Minister of Interior, Dr Olubunmi Tunji-Ojo, disclosed this yesterday while inspecting Nigeria’s new Centralised Passport Personalisation Centre at the NIS Headquarters in Abuja.

He stated that since the establishment of NIS in 1963, Nigeria had never operated a central passport production centre, until now, marking a major reform milestone.

“The project is 100 per cent ready. Nigeria can now be more productive and efficient in delivering passport services,” Tunji-Ojo said.

He explained that old machines could only produce 250 to 300 passports daily, but the new system had a capacity of 4,500 to 5,000 passports every day.

“With this, NIS can now meet daily demands within just four to five hours of operation,” he added, describing it as a game-changer for passport processing in Nigeria.

“We promised two-week delivery, and we’re now pushing for one week.

“Automation and optimisation are crucial for keeping this promise to Nigerians,” the minister said.

He noted that centralisation, in line with global standards, would improve uniformity and enhance the overall integrity of Nigerian travel documents worldwide.

Tunji-Ojo described the development as a step toward bringing services closer to Nigerians while driving a culture of efficiency and total passport system reform.

He said the centralised production system aligned with President Bola Tinubu’s reform agenda, boosting NIS capacity and changing the narrative for better service delivery.

News

FAAC Disburses N2.225trn For August, Highest In Nigeria

Published

13 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Federation Account Allocation Committee (FAAC) has disbursed N2.225 trillion as federation revenue for the month of August 2025, the highest ever allocation to the three tiers of government and other statutory recipients.

This marks the second consecutive month that FAAC disbursements have crossed the N2 trillion mark.

The revenue, shared at the August 2025 FAAC meeting in Abuja, was buoyed by increases in oil and gas royalty, value-added tax (VAT), and common external tariff (CET) levies, according to a communiqué issued at the end of the meeting.

Out of the N2.225 trillion total distributable revenue, FAAC said N1,478.593 trillion came from statutory revenue, N672.903 billion from VAT, N32.338 billion from the Electronic Money Transfer Levy (EMTL), and N41.284 billion from Exchange Difference.

The communiqué revealed that gross federation revenue for the month stood at N3.635 trillion. From this amount, N124.839 billion was deducted as cost of collection, while N1,285.845 trillion was set aside for transfers, interventions, refunds, and savings.

From the statutory revenue of N1.478 trillion, the Federal Government received N684.462 billion, State Governments received N347.168 billion, and Local Government Councils received N267.652 billion. A further N179.311 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) went to oil-producing states as derivation revenue.

From the distributable VAT revenue of N672.903 billion, the Federal Government received N100.935 billion, the states received N336.452 billion, while the local governments got N235.516 billion.

Of the N32.338 billion shared from EMTL, the Federal Government received N4.851 billion, the States received N16.169 billion, and the Local Governments received N11.318 billion.

From the N41.284 billion exchange difference, the Federal Government received N19.799 billion, the states received N10.042 billion, and the local governments received N7.742 billion, while N3.701 billion (13 per cent of mineral revenue) was shared to the oil-producing states as derivation.

News

KenPoly Governing Council Decries Inadequate Power Supply, Poor Infrastructure On Campus

Published

13 hours ago

September 19, 2025

The Tide

The Governing Council of Kenule Beeson Saro-Wiwa Polytechnic, Bori, has decried the inadequate power supply and poor state of infrastructural facilities and equipment at the institution.

The Council also appealed to the government, including Non-Governmental Organisations, agencies, as well as well-meaning Rivers people to intervene to restore and sustain the laudable gesture, dreams and aspirations of the founding fathers of the polytechnic.

The Chairman of the newly inaugurated Council, Professor Friday B. Sigalo, made this appeal during a tour of facilities at the Polytechnic, recently.

Accompanied by members of the team, Prof Sigalo emphasised the position of technology, technical and vocational education in sustainable development.

He noted that with the prospects on ground, and the programmes and activities undertaken in the polytechnic, there is no doubt that the institution would add values to the educational system in our society and foster the desired development, if the existing challenges are jointly tackled.

This was contained in a statement signed by Deputy Registrar, Public Relations, Kenpoly, Innocent Ogbonda-Nwanwu, and made available to The Tide in Port Harcourt.

The chairman who restated the intention of his team of technocrats to ensure that KenPoly enjoys desirable face-lift, said the Council would deliver on its core mandates, accordingly.

Earlier, the Rector, KenPoly Engr. Dr. Ledum S. Gwarah, commended the appointment of Professor Friday B. Sigalo as Chairman of the KenPoly Governing Council.

He described him and his team as seasoned technocrats and expressed confidence in their ability to succeed.

The Rector pledged the management’s support to the Council to ensure that KenPoly resumes its rightful place in the comity of polytechnics in the country.

Facilities visited by the Governing Council include KenPoly workshops, laboratories, skills acquisition centre, library, hostels and medical centre.

Chinedu Wosu