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Buhari, APC Nazifying Nigeria With Poverty -Timi Frank
A political activist and former Deputy National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Comrade Timi Frank, yesterday, accused General Muhammadu Buhari and the All Progressives Congress (APC) of Nazifying Nigeria with deepening poverty.
Frank, who was reacting to a report by ‘The Economist’ Magazine that, “Nigerians have become the poorest citizens of a country in the whole world, under President Muhammadu Buhari’s first term in office,” said the gradual extermination of Nigerians through poverty is an incontrovertible fact that the present government has refused to acknowledge.
“The reality on our streets speaks to that of a failed country. But the agony and irony of this precarious situation is that General Buhari and his boot lickers continue to deny the reality which their actions and inactions have foisted on the people,” he lamented.
He added: “General Buhari has failed to recognize that a democracy is not a military government. He has failed to realize that you cannot run a multi-ethnic and pluralistic society on the principle of command and control style which has been his hallmark as an unreformed and unrefined General in a democratic dispensation.”
He further lamented that while the world has since given up on Nigeria as a failed state, General Buhari is destroying it further with his archaic and centrist disposition.
“It is not that there are not enough courageous and patriotic men in the corridors of power today but in an attempt to escape the unmitigated poverty that the reign of General Buhari has foisted upon Nigerians, they have been forced to toe along.
“They have acquiesced like men whose consciences have been seared with a hot iron. Their major preoccupation is scrambling for the partition of the economic soul of the country to gratify their unbridled avarice and lust for ephemeral material gains.
“General Buhari and his minions have Nazified Nigeria. The Nazification is a grand plot by the regime to exterminate Nigerians with poverty, banditry and economic woes now rife across the country.
“How can General Buhari be in charge of the Executive, do the work of the Legislature and run the Judiciary? General Buhari’s command and control style of governance did not work when he was Head of a military junta, it has not worked in the last four years, it is not working now and it will never work.
“We can no longer afford to let the IMF, World Bank, China, development partners and donor agencies to bail us out of this deadly economic quagmire.
“This is the time to arise and take back our country if peradventure we can stop the drift and make life bearable for the over 90 million Nigerians now living in abject poverty and hopelessness.
“Many are perishing those that are fortunate to be alive daily contend with harsh and unimaginable livelihoods. Unemployment pervades the land. Incomes are declining. Healthcare is unaffordable. We still lack basic amenities.
“We are confronted by bandits and kidnappers on our bad roads, killed in our villages by insurgents. We have been besieged in our own country by a Pharaonic regime.
“Except we speak up, we may all likewise perish. God forbid! I believe that there remains enough good and patriotic men in Nigeria to confront this evil regime and stop the country from sliding irretrievably,” he lamented.
Rivers State Head of Service, Dr (Mrs) Inyingi Brown, has called on rural communities in the State to embrace the Rural Access and Agricultural marketing project (RAAMP) with a view to improving their living conditions.
This follows the ongoing sensitization campaign by the State Project Implementation Unit (SPIU) visits to Degema, Abonnema, Afam headquarters of Degema, Akuku Toru and Oyigbo Etche and Omuma local government areas respectively.
Dr Brown who was represented by the Deputy Director, Special Duties in her office, Mrs Dein Akpanah, said RAAMP was initiated by the Federal Government and World Bank to economically empower rural dwellers.s
She said the World Bank understands the plights of rural farmers and traders in the State, and therefore came up with the programme to address them.
According to her, RAAMP will improve the conditions of farmers, traders and fishermen, and therefore, behoves on every rural communities in the State to embrace the programme.
The Head of Service also said the programme would support the youths to be gainfully employed while bridges and roads will be built to link farms and fishing settlements.
Also speaking, the State project coordinator, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the programme has the potential of creating millionaires among farmers and fishermen in the State.
Kpakol who was represented by Engr. Sam Tombari, said RAAMP would help farmers and fishermen to preserve their produce.
According to him, the project will build cold rooms and Silos for preservation of crops and fishes while access roads will also be created to link farmers and fishermen to the market.
He, however, warned them against any act that will lead to the suspension of the projects by the World Bank.
Kpakol particularly warned against acts such as kidnapping, marching ground, gender based violence and child labour, adding that such acts if they occur may lead to the cancellation of the project by the World Bank.
During the visit to Oyigbo local government area, Mr Joshua Kpakol, said the team was there to let them know how they will benefit from the Raamp.
The coordinator who was personally at Oyigbo said the World Bank introduced the project to check food insecurity in the State.
He said already 19 states in Nigeria are already benefitting from the project and called on them to embrace the project.
Meanwhile, stakeholders in the three local government areas have commended the World Bank for including their areas in the project.
They, however, complained over the incessant attacks by pirates on their waterways.
At Degema, King Agolia of Ke kingdom said land was a major problem in the kingdom.
King Agolia represented by High Chief Alpheus Damiebi said many indigenes of the kingdom are willing to go into farming but are handicapped by lack of land.
Also at Degema, the representative of the Omu Onyam Ekeim of Usokun Degema kingdom, Osoabo Isaac, said Degema has embraced the programme but needed more information on the implementation of the programme.
Similarly, while High Chief Precious Abadi advised that the project should not be narrowed to only crop farming, a community women leader, Mrs Orikinge Eremabo Otto, called for the construction of cold rooms in all fishing settlements in the area.
At Abonnema, Mr Diamond Kio linked the problem of the area to incessant piracy along waterways.
He also expressed fears over the possibility of the project being hijacked by politicians.
Also at Abonnema, a stakeholder, Ikiriko Kelvin, called on the World Bank to design an agricultural project that will suit the riverine environment, while at Oyigbo, HRH Eze Boniface Akawo expressed satisfaction with the project.
John Bibor
The political mudslinging between the Senate leadership and Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan continued yesterday as the Senate named Senator Aniekan Bassey as the new Chairman of the Committee on Diaspora and Non-Governmental Organisations.
Senate President, Godswill Akpabio, announced the appointment during yesterday’s plenary, confirming Bassey’s replacement of Senator Natasha Akpoti-Uduaghan, who is currently on suspension.
Akpoti-Uduaghan was reassigned to the Diaspora and NGOs Committee in February after she was removed as Chair of the Senate Committee on Local Content during a minor reshuffle.
Bassey is the senator representing Akwa Ibom North-East Senatorial District.
Although no reason was given for her removal yesterday, the change is believed to be connected to her unresolved suspension.
In May, Justice Binta Nyako of the Federal High Court ordered her reinstatement and directed her to tender an apology to the Senate.
However, the Senate has insisted it has not received a certified true copy of the court judgment.
Akpoti-Uduaghan who represents Kogi Central, has yet to resume her legislative duties despite a recent court ruling that voided her suspension.
In a televised interview on Tuesday, Akpoti-Uduaghan said she was awaiting the Certified True Copy of the judgment before officially returning to plenary, citing legal advice and respect for institutional process.
Although the Federal High Court described her suspension as “excessive and unconstitutional”, a legal opinion dated July 5 and attributed to the Senate’s counsel, Paul Daudu (SAN), argued that the ruling lacked any binding directive to enforce her reinstatement.
Akpoti-Uduaghan, one of only three female senators in the current assembly, said the continued delay in allowing her return was not only a denial of her mandate but also a blow to democratic representation.
“By keeping me out of the chambers, the Senate is not just silencing Kogi Central, it’s denying Nigerian women and children representation. We are only three female senators now, down from eight,” she said.