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Nigerians Are Dying, Buhari Must Resign, Northern Elders Insist
The Northern Elders Forum (NEF) has said that President Muhammadu Buhari has no empathy and has failed to recognise that Nigerians were scared and dying.
The Spokesman of the group, Hakeem Baba Ahmed, said this while speaking with Channels TV over the increasing rate of insecurity in Nigeria, yesterday.
He said the Presidency keeps telling Nigerians to pray but has failed to do anything serious about the killings in the country, especially in the North.
“I feel sorry for the president, if he does not do anything, and we just hear excuses, then, we are in serious trouble.
“The Presidency does not feel empathy. We don’t see a Presidency which recognises the fact that we have serious problems, but all we hear is we should pray.
“We are praying that God shows Buhari the way to fix the country. As northerners, we are dying and Southerners are being killed.
“Buhari needs to do something serious, we measure him by just one thing, and that is: ‘What is the outcome of your commitment?’ The country has become so dangerous to live in.
“How many have to die before Buhari do something serious? Ahmed questioned, and urged the president to resign if he cannot arrest the increasing spate of insecurity in the country.
Reacting to the call, the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Mohammed, condemned calls for Buhari’s resignation, insisting that the President would complete his tenure despite the calls from several quarters.
Nigerians from various walks of life had called for the President’s resignation in the wake of Boko Haram’s massacre of farmers in Borno State and the general insecurity in Nigeria.
Mohammed described the call for Buhari’s resignation as irresponsible and cheap.
He insisted that Buhari would complete his tenure despite calls to resign.
Recall that the Northern Elders Forum (NEF), had called for Buhari’s resignation due to the high rate of insecurity in the North and the country at large.
However, Mohammed insisted that those calling for Buhari’s resignation were playing dirty and cheap politics.
He spoke during a meeting with members of the Newspaper Proprietors Association of Nigeria (NPAN), in Lagos, yesterday.
According to Mohammed: “In the wake of the killing, there have been calls in some quarters for Mr. President to resign. Well, let me say here that this call amounts to playing dirty politics with the issue of security, and it is cheap and irresponsible.
“Mr. President was elected in 2015 for a four-year term and re-elected in 2019 for another four-year term. No amount of hysterical calls for resignation will prevent him from serving out his term.
“Now, let’s put things in context. Before Mr. President assumed office, Boko Haram could stroll into any city, especially in the north, to carry out deadly attacks. Abuja, the nation’s capital, Kano, Maiduguri, Jos, Damaturu, etc were regularly targeted. Motor parks, churches, mosques, shopping complexes were not spared. Today, that is a thing of the past. Suicide bombers used to have a field day detonating their bombs and killing innocent people.
“Therefore, calling on the President to resign every time there is a setback in the war on terror is a needless distraction and cheap politicking. Let’s stop playing politics with the issue of security.”
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.
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.
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
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