Featured
Dickson Meets Buhari, Insist On Devolution, Restructuring …As Herdsmen Kill Six In Taraba, Two In Benue, Again
The Bayelsa State Governor, Hon Seriake Dickson has told President Muhammadu Buhari that Nigeria was in dire need of restructuring and devolution of power, saying without it, there would not be stability in the states of the federation.
The governor, who met President Buhari behind closed-doors at the Presidential Villa, Abuja, yesterday, said that there was the need to carry every section of the country along, adding that the government should, as a matter of urgency, have a change in the approach to security management, especially in the Niger Delta region.
Fielding questions from State House correspondents after the meeting, the Bayelsa State governor said he had a frank discussion with the President with regards to the ongoing debate on restructuring of the country.
According to him: “I am here this afternoon to see the President and to confer with him on critical national issues, and also on issues that are pertinent to the stability, security and development of Bayelsa State and the Niger Delta region.
“And we had a very fruitful discussion, and I am grateful to the President for the opportunity he afforded me to intimate him on the challenges and also of the prospects.
“You recall that since my re-election, this is the first time I would be here, I am not a regular visitor here. So, I thank the President for availing me the opportunity to share perspectives on very serious issues on security, stability and development of Bayelsa and the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
“We talked about the need to revisit the Brass energy, we talked about the need for change in approach to security management in the Niger Delta, and we talked about the challenges of stabilizing the Niger Delta and the need for federal support.
“We talked about a whole range of other issues, including what we think should be the final response to the ongoing debate about devolution, and I believe that we had a very fruitful interaction.”
On what were his concerns on the issue of security and what he would want the President to do, Dickson said, “I had a discussion with the President, he is the President and Commander-in-Chief, he is the leader of the country, and these issues are beyond partisan politics, and we had a frank discussion.
“He understands the issues because he served in that region during the war when he was a younger officer, he is familiar with the challenges that I have come to discuss with him, and I look forward to collaborating and working with the President and the security officials to advance security in the region.
“Governors of the Niger Delta region are doing a lot, and as governors, we will continue to do our best, working with the security agencies, we should be apolitical in supporting constituted authorities in the states. We expect that this interaction will yield positive results.”
Also commenting on his meeting with the Kaduna State Governor, Mallam Nasir el-Rufai, he said: “I was in Kaduna to confer with my brother friend and colleague, the governor of Kaduna State. As you know, he chairs the APC panel on restructuring or devolution. And that panel as far as I am concerned, did a good job.
“What we need is what it agreed upon to expand the scope of consultation. My view is that all parts of Nigeria needs to be carried along, and especially the leadership of Northern Nigeria. It needs to be engaged and contacted, and their buy-in and support. It is not only essential; it is indispensable to the success of the new Nigeria we are trying to carve.
“Not only have I visited Governor el-Rufai, in the next coming days and weeks, I will be visiting a lot of my colleagues in other parts of the country. I will be visiting and interacting with a lot of other opinion leaders and stakeholders.
“We are talking about our country and every part of the country has to be carried along. We need to interact and know what their fears and concerns and perspectives are so that we can, at the end, craft a position that will represent the collective aspirations of all parts of our country because this country is in dire need of devolution, this country is in dire need of a return to the essential founding fathers principles of our nation.
“That is when you can have stability in the states; that is when we would have unleashed the huge potentials that exist in every part of the country.”
Commenting on the value of the award given to him by the Leadership Newspapers, he said, “I was conferred with Leadership Award on the account of the modest efforts and investments we are making in the education sector in Bayelsa.
“There is no doubt that sector has changed in Bayelsa over the past six years. We will continue to make more investments. I thank Leadership; I thank all those who are working with me and the team. I am dedicating this award to the good people of Bayelsa State,” Dickson added.
Meanwhile, the Chairman of Yorro Local Government Council in Taraba State, Hon. Joseph Sonweri, yesterday, confirmed killing of six people in a fresh clash between herders and farmers in the local government.
Sonweri said though the cause of the crisis was still not clear, but that security agencies were on the trail of the boy allegedly said to have caused the clash.
“I can’t tell you exactly what happened now, because we are still trailing the boy that was said to have led the attack. He is on the run and his family has deserted their house.
“We spoke to him early in the morning but his line is off now so we are trailing him. Until we get him or any of his accomplices, then we can know exactly what happened,” he said.
He, however, said the situation in the area was calm as security agents had been deployed to maintain peace.
Also speaking, the Chief of Yorro community, Chief Ado Adamu Mazan, who condemned the killings, told newsmen during an interview, that he has forwarded their complaints to the commissioner of police for necessary action.
“It was just a little misunderstanding between herdsmen and farmers in one of the villages. We were told that some Fulani herders strayed into a farm belonging to a native, leading to the clash.
“We have since forwarded our complaint to the commissioner of police in Jalingo and has responded promptly by sending security to the area,” he said.
The traditional ruler called on the people of the area to tolerate one another in the interest of peace and development.
Meanwhile, persons suspected to be Fulani herdsmen have killed two people along the Naka/Makurdi Road.
The incident was said to have occurred last Tuesday while the deceased were returning from the burial of the Catholic priests and 17 parishioners killed by herdsmen earlier last week.
The deceased, who were said to be riding on a motorcycle, were said to have been ambushed by the herdsmen who reportedly slaughtered them.
Naka/Makurdi road, which is a federal road, has been abandoned for a long time due to the activities of herdsmen along the federal highway.
A native, who spoke to newsmen said, “The two men were returning from the burial of the Catholic priests and the parishioners when they were attacked by herdsmen.
“Naka/Makurdi highway has been abandoned since herdsmen invaded Naka a few weeks ago. Anyone coming to Makurdi from Naka has to pass through the major road to Taraku, making the journey of 30 minutes’ drive to result in two and a half hours’ journey.
“I think the deceased just decided to take the route; unfortunately, they were killed,” the local said.
Efforts to get the state Police Public Relations Officer, ASP Moses Yamu, were not successful, as he did not respond to his call.
The Benue State Governor, Samuel Ortom, however, confirmed this while receiving in audience yesterday, the Nobel Laureate, Prof. Wole Soyinka.
“Killing is still ongoing. Just on Tuesday, two people returning from the burial were killed along Naka/Makurdi road,” Ortom told his visitor.
Reps Fail To Override Buhari On Peace Corps Bill
The controversial Nigerian Peace Corps Bill has finally been jettisoned as attempts by the House of Representatives to override President Muhammadu Buhari failed, yesterday.
The bill failed to pass the second reading at the House of Representatives, yesterday.
The House of Representatives, which boasted that it would override the veto of the Buhari could not achieve its aim.
The bill seeks to turn the Peace Corps, currently a non-governmental organisation, into a government para-military agency.
The bill, which was passed by the National Assembly amidst controversy, was rejected by President Muhammadu Buhari, who refused to sign it into law.
Buhari, in February, refused to assent to the bill because it was a duplication of duty and could conflict with the functions of the existing security outfits – the police and the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC).
The bill was sponsored by Emmanuel Orker-Jev (APC, Benue) and passed by the National Assembly in 2017.
In separate letters to the Senate and House of Representatives, Mr Buhari also cited security concerns and financial implications amongst reasons for his decision.
The bill was transmitted to the president in December, 2017 by the Clerk to the National Assembly, Sani Omolori.
The Nigerian police had remained opposed to the legalisation of the corps.
On February 17, 2017, it stormed the organisation’s headquarters in Abuja and arrested its head, Dickson Akoh, and about 49 other members.
The police accused Akoh of using the Peace Corps, registered as a non-governmental organisation, to swindle young job seekers and operate as a para-military agency.
Akoh, who denied the allegations, was later granted bail.
Letters
Ban On Christians Fellowship In Universities
If the story making the rounds on two Nigerian universities being sued for allegation of their ban on Christian fellowship in the campus is anything to go by, then Nigeria is in for another trouble.
According to the story, the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), Katsina State branch, in conjunction with an American conservative Christian legal advocacy group, Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF International), has instituted an action against two universities in Katsina State for indefinitely banning Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campuses.
The suit was said to have been filed against the two universities for violating the right to religious freedom by “indefinitely prohibiting” Christian groups from holding fellowship meetings and worship on campus.
The Christian legal advocacy group further alleged that one of the universities enforced the ban by locking all worship and fellowship centre on university grounds, preventing Christian students and groups from accessing the facilities and banning them from meeting for worship and fellowship elsewhere on campus while their Muslim counterparts at both universities have been permitted to hold worship and fellowship meetings in university-constructed worship and meeting spaces.
Recall that in 2017, there was a news report on the outlaw of any other religious or tribal association on campus besides the Muslim Students Society of Nigeria by the authorities of the Umar Musa Yar’Adua University, Katsina, Katsina State. A circular credited to the institution’s acting Dean of Student Affairs, Dr. Sulaiman Kankara, which was later disowned by the university, contained the directive.
The last time I checked, Nigeria is a democratic, circular state where every individual is free to practise any religion of her choice. Section 38 of the Nigerian constitution provides: “Every person shall be entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and religion, including freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom (either alone or in community with others, and in public or in private) to manifest and propagate his religion or belief in worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
It is therefore wrong for a public university to indulge in this discriminatory act. A university is supposed to be an intellectual environment where people should be allowed some level of freedom. There must be robust fellowship and inter-faith relationship. People must be able to relate with each other without any discrimination or stigmatisation.
Knowing how delicate issues on religion are in Nigeria, one hopes that the authorities of the institutions concerned should swiftly look into the report and retrace their steps. The court should be objective in deciding the case and give students of other religions some leverage of freedom. It must be stated that the judgment on this case should not be delayed to avoid any retaliation in other parts of the country.
We already have a lot of issues to deal with in the country. Adding a religious crisis to it could be disastrous. Any university established and funded by either the federal, state or local government, should have freedom of religion. Let there be no more trouble in the country, please.
Waheed Abiodun,
Victoria Street,
Port Harcourt Township.
The NIMC, NCC Partnership
Reports have it that the National Identity Management Commission (NIMC) and Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC) disclosed that they have partnered to enhance seamless linkage of National Identification Number-SIM across the federation.
Both Commissions said that in recognising the significance of this initiative in enhancing security and improving service delivery, they were committed to improving processes and enhancing efficiency.
This is a welcome development. It has been worrisome why Nigerians should be made to go through the rigorous process of linking their National Identification Number (NIN) with their phone numbers every now and then. Some people who engage in online transactions have recorded some losses over the past few weeks as some internet providers barred their lines due to their inability to successfully do the linkage.
Two weeks ago, I went to a High Court for an official engagement and was shocked to see the number of people seeking to get court affidavits for the linkage of the NIN with the phone numbers so that their line will be unbarred.
It is therefore hoped that the NIMC, NCC partnership will remove all the bottlenecks surrounding the Nin, SIM linkage and make the process very seamless. It is also hoped that this will be the beginning of the process of proper identity management in the country and gradual collapse of all the various forms of identification – Drivers Licence, Voters Card, NIMC card. Bank cards etc into one identity card so that one would not have to be moving around with loads of identity cards.
Ebele Ubani,
Jabi, Abuja.
The Unwanted Strike
Just when the students of Nigeria public universities are rejoicing that there had been a no interruption in the universities’ academic calendar for sometiime, the news about the warning strike by the Non-Academic Staff Union of Educational and Associated Institutions (NASU) and the Senior Staff Association of Nigerian Universities, (SSANU), broke.
The Joint Action Committee of the two organisations had directed members to commence a seven day warning strike last week, following the federal government’s inability to pay their four months’ withheld salary.
I do not even understand why the government should allow labour unions to down tools before acting on their demands. Did President Bola Tinubu not direct that university workers that were on prolonged strike in 2022 and their salaries stopped by the Muhammadu Buhari’s administration after the invocation of “No Work, No Pay” policy, should be paid four months of the withheld salaries?
Have members of the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) not been paid in line with the president’s directive? Why were SSANU, NASU and unions concerned not paid? These bodies issued an ultimatum to the federal government. Why was there no effort to address their grievances within the window period?
It is said that what is good for the goose is also good for the gander. So, the government, having paid ASUU, should also endeavour to settle SSANU and NASU so that there shall be no interruption in our academic calendar. We did no wrong by choosing public universities. Government, ASUU, SSANU, NASU and what have you should let us learn in peace and graduate at the record time like our colleagues in private universities, please.
IB Michael,
University of Port Harcourt,
Port Harcourt.
Letters
Obi Should Do More, Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage, Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
Obi Should Do More
The Presidential Candidate of the Labour Party (LP) in the 2023 election, Mr Peter Obi, has continued to voice out his opinion on the happenings in the country. On the budget padding scandal currently rocking the upper chamber of the National Assembly, he has told the Senate to provide Nigerians with some explanations on the matter.
He said the claims and counter-claims over the alleged N3 Trillion which was alleged by Senator Abdul Ningi to have been padded into the 2024 budget, requires proper explanation as to what Nigerians must need to know regarding management of the nation’s, insisting that the suspension of Senator Ningi for three months does not address the issue.
The Labour party chieftain had also expressed his concern over the hunger in the country a few days ago. He raised the alarm that Nigerians were spending all their money on food.
It is commendable of Obi to have stood with the masses at this critical time in the nation’s history and be critical of negative happenings in the country and bad government policies. However, Obi should do more than just criticising. It is said that “a tree cannot make a forest”. Therefore, Obi should galvanise all the law makers both on the national and state levels to tow the same line with him, which should be seen as the position of the Labour Party.
In 2023, there was a revolution in the country. People of all walks of life, of various religions and tribes trouped out in support of the labour party because they believed in Mr Peter Obi. People saw the Labour Party as a needed alternative to the two most populous political parties, PDP and APC. Based on Obi’s personality and popularity, some people who ordinarily would not have won councillorship positions in their communities were elected into state and national assemblies. Many of them won the elections for free, spending no shi shi.
Painfully, after assuming the exalted positions, many of them, especially those in the national assembly seem to have forgotten the masses. It is now business as usual. Among the seven senators and 36 House of Representative members of the Labour Party in the National Assembly, which one of them has moved a strong motion about the hardship currently being faced by the masses and how to address it? How many of them stood by Senator Ningi on the budget padding revelation? What out the exotic cars distributed to them, how many of them advised that they should go for less expensive cars and the excess money channelled into developmental projects? It has become a case of one not talking while on the dining table, right?
Obi should be able to organise his party to form a formidable opposition and a party that does things differently, a party that stands with the people. If the labour party elected political office holders carry on the way they have done since they came into office, they will keep de-marketing their party, forgetting that 2027 is just around the corner.
Ngozi Omeje,
Umuahia, Abia State.
Discordant Tunes On Minimum Wage
I have followed the discussion on the proposed new minimum wage with keen interest and I just hope the leadership of the organised labour will be firm enough to represent the workers and refuse to fall prey to the ploy to disunite them.
It is disheartening seeing workers come up with different amounts as the proposed minimum wage. While the Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, demanded that South-West states should pay N794,000 the Trade Union Congress, TUC, asked for N447,000. Similarly, workers in the Federal Capital Territory demanded N709,000, while their counterparts in the North-West clamoured for N485,000.
This idea of singing in discordant tunes is not good for strong unionism. I recall my days as a civil servant in Ibadan, Oyo state. That was during the time of Adams Oshiomhole as the National President of the NLC. The labour union was a force to be reckoned with and whenever the workers barked, the government caught cold. The increase in workers’ wages was fought for as body. There was nothing like federal workers going to the left and the state workers going to the right. Of course then, in 2000, the TUC did not exist as a separate body. The entire workers spoke in unison.
Yes, the states did reserve the right to say whether they can pay the national minimum wage or not but the national body of the NLC was carried along in the negotiation. Please, the NLC and TUC should come together and present a common front in the new minimum wage quest and ensure that workers in the states also get a fair deal. If not, some of the greedy governors will continue to subject the workers to hardship.
Pa Micheal Adeniran,
Rumuogba Housing Estate, Port Harcourt.
Akpabio’s Unguarded Comment
“Today, he’s responding to a remark by the Governor that has nothing to do with him. The opposition is urging the Senate president to be mindful of his utterances. How can he turn the burial of late Access Bank CEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son, such a sad moment, to a political attack?. It’s disappointing. That’s political recklessness taken too far. We, the opposition parties, won’t tolerate such utterances anymore if it continues.”
Above was the response of a member of the House of Representatives and Chairman, House Committee on Petroleum (Downstream), Hon. Ikenga Ugochinyere, to the Senate President, Senator Godswill Akpabio, unguarded remark on Gov. Siminalayi Fubara’s comment during the burial of the late Access Holdings Plc GCEO, Herbert Wigwe, wife and first son last weekend.
It is hoped that Akpabio will heed to the advice and learn how to talk in public. Tracing his character as a public servant and political office holder in various capacities over the years, one would notice that the senate president lacks the act of public speaking and carriage.
Was it not recently that he announced that the clerk of the house had sent money to each of the senators’ personal account for their holiday enjoyment only to be called to other and he changed it to ”In order to allow you to enjoy your holiday, the senate president has sent prayers to your mailboxes to assist you to go on a safe journey and return.” What about the “honourable minister off your mic” shameful display.
Whoever wants to die seeking public/political office should go ahead but leave our dear governor alone.
Loveth Opusunju
Minima, Opobo, Rivers State.
Featured
Fubara Promises Rivers Support For Wigwe Varsity …Cautions Political Class On Power Tussle
Rivers State Governor, Siminalayi Fubara, has promised the state government’s commitment to supporting Wigwe University.
Fubara disclosed this on Saturday after the funeral service of the late Chief Executive Officer of Access Holdings Plc, Herbert Wigwe, in Isiokpo, Ikwerre Local Government Area of Rivers State.
Wigwe, alongside his wife, Doreen, and son, Chizzy, died in a helicopter crash in California near the Nevada border, United States of America.
Also involved in the crash was the Chairman of Nigerian Exchange Group Plc, Abimbola Ogunbanjo.
The governor said, “I want to say our brother has finished his work, though short. We, as a government, will do everything with the Wigwe Foundation to immortalise one thing.
“It is not the bank, the bank might have a new identity, a new boss to run it, other ventures will also have their names; but one thing that has his name is Wigwe University.
“We will do everything within our power to make sure the dream will continue to live just as he has planned it.”
Fubara questioned the mourners as to why they kept chasing worldly desires, stressing the significance of impacting lives rather than struggling for power.
“This one has to do with the political class, what is all these struggle all about? You want to kill, you want to bury, what is it all about?
“This is a man who was not a politician, he made his money through our investments, he had the world in his palm financially, he controlled even the political classes; but today, with all the power financially couldn’t control life. Is it not enough to ask ourselves why are we struggling? Why are we not making an impact on the lives of our people?” he queried.
Dignitaries present at the funeral service include the Senate President, Godswill Akpabio; Chairman, Dangote Group, Alhaji Aliko Dangote; former governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria , Sanusi Lamido; Governors Alex Otti (Abia) Dapo Abiodun (Ogun), and Babajide Sawwo-Olu (Lagos).
Other dignitaries are former governors Kayode Fayemi (Ekiti), Peter Obi (Anambra), Rotimi Amaechi (Rivers), Bukola Saraki (Kwarra), and James Ibori (Delta), among others.
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