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PDP Faults Buhari’s Handling Of Insecurity
For the umpteenth time, the major opposition party in the land, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), has urged President Muhammadu Buhari to accept responsibility for the increasing wave of banditry and sundry crimes across the country.
This is even as the party questioned the capacity of the All Progressives Congress (APC)-led government to muster the needed courage to run the terrorists out of town and restore peace in the country.
Speaking in Abuja, National Publicity Secretary of the party, Kola Ologbondiyan, decried what he called the failure of President Buhari to build on the achievements of the PDP-led government in the fight against insurgency, when he took over the reins of power in 2015.
“Before the APC came into power, the insurgents had been engaged and forced to retreat to the fringes. At the approach of the 2015 general election, no local government was under the control of insurgents. The Federal Government has been lethargic in the fight against insurgency.
“The inability and incapability of the Presidency to frontally face banditry and other vices is a big problem. The demeanour of President Buhari does not show a man who knows how to handle our beloved country,” he said.
Tracing the worrisome state of security in the past few years to what he described as the inability of the ruling party to leverage on what they met on ground in 2015, the publicity scribe continued, “If the PDP government was in power up till this moment, it would have routed these bandits, terrorists, and criminal elements. I say this because Nigerians will recall that the PDP brought in mercenaries and when the PDP first mooted this idea, El-Rufai (Nasir) led APC to claim that we were bringing in people to come and kill opposition people. The government of PDP ignored that call and brought in mercenaries but as soon as they got into power, they chased them away.
“You will recall also that Governor Babagana Zulum of Borno State recently urged the Federal Government to bring in mercenaries because there is a lack of trust and confidence in the fight against terrorism and banditry. If the mercenaries were allowed to stay, the story would have been different today,” he added.
Coming short of asking those who made a deal with killer bandits to unmask themselves to Nigerians, Ologbondiyan lamented the trade that banditry has since morphed into, saying “banditry has become a business, a venture where people are making profit. This is beyond Boko Haram now. Do not forget that some of the bandits have made confessions that they were promised some things during elections but since the promises were not fulfilled, they are now out to make their money.”
Buhari, had earlier in the week, directed troops to be ruthless against insurgents, bandits and kidnappers; a development many believe is capable of keeping the pressure on the criminal elements.
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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