The former governor of Nasarawa State, Aliyu Akwe-Doma, is dead. He was said to have died today, Tuesday, at the age of 75 years and six months, after a brief illness in an Israelis hospital.

The nephew to the deceased, Ahmed Bako, confirmed the death of Akwe Doma, even as sympathizers are already gathering around the deceased Abuja residence in Orozo, Karshi district of Abuja.

Aliyu Akwe Doma, was born on 1 September 1942 in Doma Local Government Area of Nasarawa State to parents from the Alago Ethnic group. Akwe Doma completed his primary education in Doma Junior Primary School and Lafia Senior Primary School respectively between 1951 and 1957.

He proceeded to Government Secondary School, Katsina Ala and the Higher Teachers’ Training College, Gombe, where he obtained the Grade II teacher’s certificate in 1963. He attended the University of Ibadan from 1964 to1966, the British Drama League, London, England in1968 and the World Tourism Organization, Centre for Advanced Tourism Studies, Turin, Italy in 1973. He attended Ahmadu Bello University, Zarian in Kaduna state in 1976, and Ambros Ali University, Ekpoma in 2002 where he obtained a Master’s Degree in Public Administration.

He entered the old Plateau State civil service, where he rose to become Permanent Secretary in several departments between 1976 and 1983. He then became Deputy Governor of Plateau State. He was a member of the Presidential Joint National Consultative and Advisory Committee of Traditional Rulers and Leaders of Thought from 1995 to1998, and a member of the National Committee on the future of Higher Education in Nigeria from1996 to1998.

He was appointed a member of the Technical Committee of Presidential Council on Tourism in 2004. He held private sector positions as Chairman of the Oriya Group of Companies in 1984, Chairman of Integrated Tourism Consultants in 2003 and as a representative of  Steyr Nigerian.

Aliyu Doma ran successfully for election as governor of Nasarawa State in April 2007 on the People’s Democratic Party (PDP) platform, taking office on 29 May 2007. He ran for a second term in office in April 2011, but lost to Umar Tanko Al-Makura, the candidate of the opposition Congress for Progressive Change (CPC).

Following the religious crisis at Kasuwan Magani in Kajuru Local Government Area, in Kaduna state, no fewer than 65 persons have been arrested, charged to court and are now in remand in prison.

Briefing news men today, Tuesday, on the efforts so far made to bring the crisis to an end, Samuel Aruwan, Senior Special Assistant on Media and Publicity to Governor Nasir El-Rufai said that 65 persons have been charged before a magistrate’s court in Kaduna, saying that all the suspects have been remanded in Kaduna Prison custody and the case adjourned to the 15th, March 2018.

“After assessing the situation on the ground and preliminary report, the Commissioner of Police, Mr. Austin Iwar told journalists, that security agencies have arrested 18 persons in connection with the mayhem. Since then, further arrests have been made.”

Aruwa said that it was in the same Kasuwan Magani the state recorded the first religious violence in 1981, adding that the state government will not relent in vigorously prosecuting the suspects.

The governor’s spokesman said that in response to the latest incident, the state government directed that the security agencies to contain the situation, prevent escalation, investigate the violent incidence, effect arrests and prosecute persons indicted.

“The security agencies have since complied with the directives and security agencies are still carrying out internal security operations in Kasuwan Magani and its environs, stretching from Maraban Rido to Maraban Kajuru”, he said.

“On 27th February 2018, a team from the Kaduna State Security Council visited Kasuwan Magani.

“The team, led by the General Officer Commanding, I Division Nigerian Army, Major General Mohammed Mohammed, included Commissioner of Police Austin Iwar, State Director of Department of State Services, Mohammed Wakil, Commander Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps, AM Bunu, Special Adviser on Internal Security, Col. Yakubu Yusuf (rtd) and Samuel Aruwan, Senior Special Assistant, Media and Publicity.

“The legacy of violence in Kaduna State has been enabled by impunity. This cannot continue. Nobody will be allowed to use religion or ethnicity to justify criminal conduct.

“It is also important to stress that nobody or group has the constitutional right to force other people to embrace their prejudices or beliefs. Matters of faith are the prerogatives of individuals whose voluntary decisions must be respected by all.” [myad]

Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has made it clear that neither President Muhammadu Buhari nor anyone in the Presidency dictate to the operatives of the Economic and Financial Crime Commission (EFCC) on who to arrest and prosecute for corruption.

Professor Osinbajo, who spoke to news men in Lagos said: “one of the things that the President decided to do is to ensure that every agency does its work without direct interference from the President.  So the President does not call the EFCC, and say, “Go and arrest Mr. Ekpeyong,” no. And that’s one of the most important things about the style of this government, and we want the agencies to do their work. No one has showed up and called Magu and say, “Look, go and arrest.” That’s what it is.

“The President has said that the EFCC has the absolute right to go ahead and do whatever it needs to do to ensure that anybody who has committed a crime, or who is suspected to having committed a crime, is brought to justice.

“Let me just say that the President has pointed out that the South East wasn’t the region that voted heavily for the APC, but that is not in any way stopping the President from appointing four senior ministers from that part of the country. He could have appointed junior ministers. By appointing four senior ministers, I think that it shows that he is interested in the South East region of Nigeria.”

Transcript of the interview is reproduced herein:

Q: The state of primary healthcare in the country.

Vice President: Of course, our health system has long suffered. That is one of the chief concerns that we have been focusing on; getting the diaspora to work with us to improve our health system. We are also looking at how healthcare insurance can improve it. I agree that if all of us put our resources and our time in local medical care, we will improve it. I have no doubt in my mind that our local healthcare system is what most of us subscribe to at least, and our doctors are some of the best in the world.  But that’s one of our commitments to make it work.

Q: Crude oil as the main driver of the economy, and FG dialogue with groups in the Niger Delta region.

Vice President: First of all, the dialogue started in 2016 and it continues. We began to dialogue with all the groups in the Niger Delta and we hold very regular meetings with PANDEF, which is the umbrella body. We also hold regular meetings with many of the groups in the Niger Delta and they are all actively involved with us.

I don’t know whether you are familiar with the Maritime University. The Maritime University has taken off, you know. Only a few days ago, the announcement was made that they are eligible for JAMB (the University was recently granted approval by the National Universities Commission (NUC) to commence undergraduate degree programmes effective from the 2017/2018 academic session). Interviews are taking place for the Maritime University, forms have been provided and we are talking to all of the principal parties in that zone who are interested in the work the Maritime University is doing. Many people are involved in that process. That is the kind of thing we are talking about to provide the kind of facility to help people in the Niger Delta, especially in Maritime University.

Also, look at modular refineries, 38 licensed modular refineries investors have indicated interests (10 of the licensed refineries are at an advanced stage of development). One, of course, has started in Bayelsa; another is being shipped in at the moment. There are about three or four different engagements with modular refineries operators. So we are putting that together, and one of the critical things with modular refineries is that we are trying to ensure that, first of all, it is private-sector driven. Government has to provide the licenses, but also there is community involvement; communities also have a stake in the modular refineries. So we are doing that as well. We are working very hard on that.

Q: Alleged claims that PANDEF leader said FG isn’t doing anything in the region.

Vice President: I don’t know when Chief Clark made that statement. I think that, by and large, all of what I’m saying is being done.  It is obvious for everyone to see. I’ve no real problem demonstrating this, but as a matter of fact, if you look on our website www.ndnewvision.gov.ng on the all of the Niger Delta issues, we have almost a blow-by-blow account of what we are doing, including the Ogoni clean up.

I think there is a lot going on. You can’t address all of the problems at once. We have provided plenty of information. We have Inter-ministerial meetings where the different stakeholders meet constantly with leaders of the Niger Delta. I think you can imagine development is something that no one can be completely satisfied with at any point in time; that’s why it’s called development.

Q: Success of the Ease of Doing Business reform, visa reforms, and FG plans to attract more foreigners to contribute to the country’s economic growth.

Vice President: I think it was for those people that we designed our visa-on-arrival policy. It is for people who are bringing in their resources and money.

Q: Does this special visa apply only to poor countries, especially those low on human development index?

Vice President: Not necessary. Let me explain what we are trying to do with visa-on-arrival: you apply online so you get a visa, and this is where we are issuing the I-Step so that there is passenger information ahead of your arriving in Nigeria. That is one of the infrastructure we are putting at the airport now. You arrive at our port, we can give you a visa right there; that is what Singapore and other countries do, irrespective of where you are coming from you can get the visa there.  When you arrive in Nigeria we have advance passengers information, even the visa-on-arrival that’s where we are heading.  The most important thing is that there is a record.

Q: The second Niger Bridge and Buhari administration’s efforts to win the South East.

Vice President: Let me just say that the President has pointed out that the South East wasn’t the region that voted heavily for the APC, but that is not in any way stopping the President from appointing four senior ministers from that part of the country. He could have appointed junior ministers. By appointing four senior ministers, I think that it shows that he is interested in the South East region of Nigeria.

Secondly, previous government merely talk about the second Niger Bridge. We have moved to site, we are working on the second Niger Bridge.  We’ve provided for the second Niger Bridge in our budget we have also provided infrastructure fund for the second Niger Bridge. Also, we are doing the Lagos-Calabar road. The Lagos-Calabar road goes through the South East region, that’s one of the very important thing we are doing and we put money behind it. The President himself negotiated the loan from the Chinese government. He actually went to China to negotiate and these are ongoing projects.

Ariaria market today is possibly the largest MSME hub in the whole of West Africa. The Federal Government, with the private sector, is powering Ariaria market so that every of the 21,000 shops in Ariaria market has power. The roads to the market are in the budget.  Let’s bring it down to what we are doing; the first of our MSME clinics was in Aba and we are committed to ensuring Aba is a hub that it ought to be.

This is where we spend a lot of time and energy to move regulatory agencies so that they actually have a one-stop centre there, so that NAFDAC, SON can move into that place. There is a lot of work that’s going on. The truth is that we do what needs to be done. We were elected to do the right thing by everyone and we are doing it. I’ve gone to the South East several times.  I’ve visited Nnewi and many parts of Anambra as well, where we look around and look at ways of supporting industries there and we are still committed to that zone.

Q: Areas that FG could have done better.

Vice President: Let me say that one of the very important things for me, I think we could have done far more in terms of jobs, direct jobs now, because we’ve done enough. We first created jobs in agriculture. Perhaps we are hoping we would be able to provide by now 500,000 of our N-power jobs, but because of the income we are able to provide 200,000. We have another 300,000 waiting to be employed. So maybe a year into our government, we could have done 500,000. So for me I think if we have the kind of resources that people had 10 years ago when oil was $115 per barrel we could have provided far in excess.

I also think that, perhaps in the area of power, especially trying to do much more, but power is privatized. A lot of the power companies, a lot of the GENCOs, the DISCOs in particular, simply don’t have the resources to replace assets, so they slow down.  How I wish they have more funds to pump into assets and we hope they have more resources to do so. We’ve put in place the over N700 billion payment assurance scheme, but that is insufficient.

Q: DSS disagreement with the NIA in the past, recommendation of EFCC Chair, Ibrahim Magu, by the President and DSS’ letter against that; these point to discord within the administration…

Vice President: That’s not true. Let me put it this way; first let’s take the Magu example. One of the things that the President decided to do is to ensure that every agency does its work without direct interference from the President.  So the President does not call the EFCC, and say, “Go and arrest Mr Ekpeyong”, no. And that’s one of the most important things about the style of this government, and we want the agencies to do their work. No one has showed up and called Magu and say, “Look go and arrest.” That’s what it is.

While you will find, for example, that the DG, SSS, upon the request by the Senate, wrote a security report and sent it, yet it is up to the President to decide whether he’s going to present this candidate. Interfering with the process of a security report is not leadership, that’s obstructing. He is not supposed to interfere. If you say, “Send your report”, whatever report you want to send, the man defends himself, and we still believe he is the right person for the job. That is the position that we took when he was presented the second time.

Of course, the Senate has had their own say on that and they are entitled to take some of the positions they are taking. But the President believes that this is the right man for the job, so he presented him the second time.

Q: Arrest of DG, NIA by the EFCC.

Vice President: With respect to the arrest of DG, NIA, and some of what took place, I think the fair thing to say is that the President has said that the EFCC has the absolute right to go ahead and do whatever it needs to do to ensure that anybody who has committed a crime, or who is suspected to having committed a crime, is brought to justice, and that’s the position that the EFCC has taken. You know the EFCC has issued a notice for the DG, NIA, and SGF to attend interview with the EFCC; but we are sure that that process would be followed to a logical conclusion.

To ensure that you allow government agency do their business, that’s very important; that’s institution building.  Look at what is happening in the US today; the President is sometimes angry with the FBI because the FBI is doing its independent work, and that’s what we hope to achieve: when you see countries where agencies are doing their work the way they are supposed to do it. [myad]