Indian trained Graduate engineers for the Dangote Refinery, have promised to deploy the knowledge and skills they have acquired to ensure that the recurring seasonal fuel scarcity in Nigeria is permanently halted.
The engineers, who described their experiences as second to none in the history of Nigeria oil and gas sector, vowed that never again would Nigeria experience fuel scarcity as the Dangote refinery would be operated in the most efficient manner.
The returned engineers, who narrated their experiences at the Refinery premises at Lekki, Lagos said that they had both theory and practical training in India and that they witnessed a refinery a refinery being built from the scratch.
Opeyemi Oyedepo, who is a process engineer and Igwe John, a petroleum and gas engineer told the management how they were made to be part of trouble shooting during their training, a development that boosted their confidence.
Meanwhile, the Technical Adviser to Dangote Refinery, Engineer Babajide Soyode expressed satisfaction that the best of the graduate engineers were selected as attested to by the trainer’s in India.
He said that the management is proud of the engineers who have displayed a thorough understanding of what they learnt in India, adding that India has the biggest refinery in the world and are ready to train young engineers.
The company’s Director of Human Capital Management and Project Support, Mohan Kumar, while presenting the returnee engineers said the company is laying a solid foundation for the takeoff with the training of the engineers.
He said that the young engineers were trained at Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd. in India on how to manage the operations of the refinery.
Kumar added that the engineers had gathered fundamental practical knowledge about refinery.
According to him, the engineers are recruited and trained to witness the building of the refinery from scratch. He said the engineers spent two months in classroom training and three months on the job training.
Kumar explained that the engineers were trained by experts who had over 45 years experience in refinery operations, stressing that the training became imperative due to the commitment of Dangote Group to promote local content by developing indigenous capacity.
“The engineers are expected to also transfer the skills acquired to other Nigerians when the refinery comes on stream.”
Dangote Oil Refinery Company had, in preparation for takeoff, sent in batches of local Graduate engineers to Bharat Refinery in India, the biggest in the world, for training in refinery operation and production.
The refinery is hoped to operate with a capacity of 650,000 bpd and will commence operation as the country’s four refineries have gone comatose. [myad]
Vigilant youths in Umuoba Uratta in Owerri North Local Government area of Imo State, at the weekend, caught a married woman in a bush, engaging in a free sex with her lover, whose name was given simply as Dona.
The youths, who trailed the lovers to the bush, later matched the man to the village square naked, even as they refused to collect the N5,000 which the woman, a mother of two, offered to them so that they would not expose her.
It was gathered that based on tip off, the youths had engaged in monitoring the lovers, with the woman first moving into the bush before the randy man, who is alleged to be an Indian hemp addict.
One of the youths identified as Amaechi told Punch that he caught the couple in the bush with four other youths, after about 10 minutes of the duo’s entry.
The source said: “I moved right inside the bush, on nearing there, we saw that the lovebirds had already started the act.
“The boxers (inner wear) of the man, which he (randy man) used to cover his mobile phone was taken away by me without the lovers’ notice.
“I came out and alerted other youths, who immediately surrounded the bush.
“We were there for hours, before the woman first came out from the bush. She pleaded with us to take it easy and promised to give N5,000 for drinks, but we disagreed.”
The youths further combed the bush, dragged her lover who was stark naked and matched them to the village.
The incident occurred in one of the bushes in Umuoba Uratta in Owerri North Local Government area of Imo State, where the lovers were both residents.
When contacted, the State Police Public Relations Officer, Andrew Enwerem, said the matter had not been reported to his office.
The federal government has filed a two-count charge against the Senator representing Kogi West in the National Assembly, Dino Melaye, for allegedly giving false information to the police in relation to a claim he made on April 17 about an attempt to assassinate him.
The charge sheet marked: CR/106/18, which was made available to journalists during the weekend. It was filed on January 31 this year before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) in Maitama by the office of the Attorney General of the Federation (AGF).
In the charge, Melaye was accused of falsely incriminating the Chief of Staff to Governor Yahaya Bello of Kogi State, Edward Onoja David, in his assassination attempt claim.
He was also accused of deliberately giving false information to the police to frame Governor Bello’s Chief of Staff as the mastermind of the assassination attempt on him at his hometown in Ayetoro-Gbede in Kogi State in April last year.
According to the charge, the police discovered the alleged falsehood in Melaye’s claim while investigating the Senator’s allegation that some individuals attempted to assassinate him.
In the second count, Melaye was accused of making false statement of facts in a phone conversation with Mr. Mohammed Abudu Abubakar, a son of the late former governor of Kogi State Abubakar Audu, with the intention of harming the reputation of David.
In the charge, Melaye’s alleged offences are said to be punishable under sections 140 and 393 of the Peal Code Law, Cap. 89, Laws of Northern Nigeria, 1963.
The first of the two counts read, “That you, Senator Dino Melaye, male, of the Senate, National Assembly, Three Arms Zone, Abuja, on or about the month of April 2017 at the Police Force Headquarters, Abuja, within the jurisdiction of this honourable court in the cause of an investigation into the alleged assassination attempt on you, sometimes in April 2017, you gave information to the police stating that one Mr. Edward Onoja David (Chief of Staff to the Governor of Kogi State) did mastermind the attack with intent to convict him for the offence which statement you either knew or believe to be false and you thereby committed an offence punishable under section 140 of the Penal Code Law, Cap. 89, Laws of Northern Nigeria, 1963.”
Melaye was said to have told Abubakar, son of a former Kogi State Governor, in a telephone conversation how he framed Edward Onoja David in the assassination attempt.
He was also said to have made the false claim in the statement he made to the police on April 17, 2017 during police’s investigation into the alleged attempt to assassinate him. No date is set yet for his arraignment. [myad]
Kadaria Ahmed again stamped her persona and brilliance as the anchor of her show, The Core, on Channels TV yesterday night. The panelists which comprised the Minister of Agriculture, Chief Audu Ogbeh and 3 other people ( a lecturer from the Bayero University Kano, a Police AIG and a female CSO activist ) offered valuable insights into what the real problems are. The panelists also offered solutions.
Members of the audience too, acquainted themselves well with their multi-disciplinary perspectives on the crisis. Kadaria was very firm and fair. She had total control of the show. Her firmness ensured the language of discourse was decent and civil without name-calling. For a LIVE National Television programme, Kadaria as the anchor of a potentially explosive subject put up a command performance.
These are my takeaways:
The 2-hour show was very educative and informative as most people who watched from homes and electronic devices would be better informed about the real issues and what should be the imperatives in seeking permanent solutions. Cattle Colony was better explained by Chief Ogbeh as a Cluster of Ranches beyond the pejorative biological and zoological meaning. In a crisis situation words acquire new meanings. Power of words!
Audu Ogbe is a very knowledgeable and hands on Minister of Agriculture. A repository of knowledge who, without doubt is doing a good job and being a man from Benue he offered pragmatic solutions. I pray the Governor of the state will play less politics with the crisis and allow solution.
It is almost true that it is in the DNA of a black man to live for only today. We leave problems to fester seeking only short cut solutions without thinking of tomorrow and all its ramifications. From the show, Audu Ogbeh recalled that Uthman dan Fodio, over 200years ago warned about this same problem of herdsmen and farmers. 200 years after, we have not changed our practice of rearing cows from same antiquated method while in Argentina, Brazil, Mexico, United States and many countries it is a multi-billion dollars industry using modern methods.
The Nigerian media does not know how to report conflicts and this was confirmed by Musikilu Mojeed, the Editor-in-Chief of Premium Times, who reinforced same view. The media especially mainstream media, like a typical Nigerian is also emotional and maintains one-way track on national issues. Truth is always the victim when issues are blurred. In most cases, media blur issues in Nigeria for motives that are not ennobling and healthy for national development. Media accentuates crisis with slanted reportage and oftentimes, the media reports ignore the nuances and the real issues on the altar of sensationalism. Nigerian media has refused to take the lessons on how media was the major enabler of the 1994 Rwanda Genocide. Red Cross, NEMA, NOA, DFID, UNDP and local CSOs with focus on governance and development should be organizing trainings on Conflict Reporting for Journalists. Universities can also run certificate programmes on Conflict Reporting for Journalists.
Social media is a force for good and evil in Nigeria like it has been all over the world. People without the foggiest idea on practicability of a policy/initiative will shoot it down and abuse those with expert knowledge. When Audu Ogbeh two years ago, said ranching is the best way to solve the herdsmen/farmers problem and Nigeria like other countries that have made success of animal husbandry, must import grass from Brazil, he was shouted down and called names.
Governor Ortom has not done well in dealing with the crisis. He is a profiteer of the crisis. He is simply using the crisis for political effect. His interview on the programme yesterday showed the Anti-Grazing and Ranching Provision Law he signed was targeted against herdsmen of Fulani ethnic stock. A law or a government policy should not target any ethnic and sub-ethnic group. A law that only gives 1 year lease on land is not a progressive law. A government wants herdsmen to do ranching, yet will only give 1 year lease that is renewable every year. Who will make an investment on ranches in Benue when the government can decide not to renew your lease the following year? A governor of a state is not as helpless on security matters if he decided to work with the existing security structure in the state like Governor Ortom makes it look. There is no Commissioner of Police, DSS Director or Civil Defence Commandant in a state who would not respond to a crisis situation or who would be instructed from Abuja to allow killings to continue. Governors in Lagos, Kogi, Ogun, Kaduna and other states that have experienced serious security breaches in their states had worked well with the same Federal security infrastructure available to them. When Ogun and Lagos State Governors (Amosun and Ambode) needed the military to bomb Arepo and Ikorodu creeks they got President Buhari’s approval. The criminals that used Arepo and Ikorodu creeks as base were taken out by the air force.
The security problems involving herdsmen/Farmers in Benue, Nasarawa, Taraba, Zamfara do not have same colouration of Fulani attacking and killing farmers as being reported by the media. The herdsmen are also victims of armed local militia, rustlers, political and business elite.
The crisis will fester until government at all levels- Federal, States and LGAs have same singular and clear agenda to really solve it. The solutions are more with the States and Local governments than the Federal. It is LGAs that collect cow levies from cattle rearers and the law vests land with the state governors. One wonders why States and LGAs cannot take advantage of an economic activity with huge revenue potentials and maximize it to create jobs.
Cattle rearing should be seen as a serious economic activity that requires government support like other economic activities that government supports through fiscal regimes and other interventions.
Religious/Ethnic conspiracy theories should be taken out of the problem. The criminal elements causing trouble on both sides should be apprehended. Government must bring to bear all the terror machines of state to stamp out killers of Nigerians living in Benue or any part of the country. Those already arrested should be prosecuted. Social justice must be done, if for anything, for the memory of the dead victims and to assuage the pains of the living. [myad]
Government of Saudi Arabia has introduced Value Added Tax (VAT) on anything intending pilgrims buy in that country, in addition to the capturing of Biometric information of the pilgrims. The measures will take effect from this year, 2018 hajj operations.
These facts were disclosed by the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Barrister Abdullahi Mukhtar Muhammad when he briefed President Muhammadu Buhari at the Presidential Villa, Abuja on the 2018 Hajj Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) Meeting held in Saudi Arabia.
A statement by the Chief Information Officer of NAHCON, Alhaji Adamu Hassan Abdullahi, on the presentation of the MoU to the President, said that the Executive Chairman of the Commission was accompanied to the Aso Villa by the minister of State for foreign affairs, Mrs. Khadija Bukar Abba Ibrahim.
The statement said that President Buhari expressed his commitment to the welfare, health and security needs of Nigerian pilgrims while on pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia, after being informed that Nigeria’s approved quota for Hajj 2018 is 95,000 slots with 75,000 going to State Pilgrims Welfare Boards and Agencies and 20, 000 going to Private Tour Operators.
The NAHCON Chairman was said to have briefed President Buhari also on some of the new policies introduced by the Saudi Arabian Government which included payment of Value Added Tax (VAT) by all consumers of goods and services in Saudi Arabia beginning 1st January, 2018; fixing of May 2018 as the deadline for the conclusion of all Hajj arrangements and the introduction of biometric data capture for all intending pilgrims.
It said that the President expressed concern over the challenges being faced by intending Umrah pilgrims (lesser hajj currently ongoing), even as he said that Nigeria is not against the introduction of Biometrics capture by the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia but the hardship caused by the non-preparedness of the company appointed to implement the policy in Nigeria.
The statement quoted the President as assuring Nigerian pilgrims of his commitment to address the problem along with its attendant consequences on Hajj and Umrah operations.
Meanwhile, NAHCON has announced that it has embarked on nationwide sensitization and enlightenment Programmes for intending Pilgrims across the Six Geo Political zones of the Country.
It said that the idea is to educate the Pilgrims of the new policies being introduced by the Saudi administration in Hajj management, naming such policies as Value Added Tax, Biometric Data Capture and the introduction of SR20,00 charges for Hajj and Umrah repeat goers.
The sensitization drive will also remind intending pilgrims of the need to conclude payments for the 2018 Hajj on or before March 31st when NAHCON will close payment for the 2018 Hajj season in order to meet up with the Saudi dateline.” [myad]
The Department of State Services (DSS) today, Saturday, briefed President Muhammadu Buhari on how the three abducted University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID) lecturers were released today in Maiduguri, the Borno State capital, by suspected Boko Haram terrorists after some negotiations, ordered by the President.
Ten women, who are wives of police officers, were also released by the Boko Haram terrorists.
A statement by the senior special assistant to the President on media and publicity, Malam Garba Shehu said that the release followed a series of negotiations as directed by President Buhari and was facilitated by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC).
The statement said that the three lecturers and 10 women that were rescued are in the custody of the security service and are on their way to Abuja with the assistance of the Nigerian Army and the Air Force. It said that a team of doctors and psychologists has been placed on standby, adding that the rescued persons may be presented to the President and thereafter released to their families, if there are no issues of security or medical concerns.
It said that the President got step by step progress reports on the lengthy negotiations that took place before the release, adding that he received the good news with a lot of happiness.
“He commended all those who in one way or the other helped in making the release possible.
“He then urged the DSS and the Nigerian Army to intensify efforts to bring home the remaining Chibok Girls still in the custody of the terrorists.
“The Director-General, Malam Lawal Daura, assured the President that they were working hard to bring home the remaining girls and, as soon as possible, bring the Chibok Girls saga to an end.” [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari’s extended family has been struck by the loss of two senior members who died within a few hours of one another.
The Presidential spokesman, Malam Garba Shehu, in a statement today, Saturday, said that Hajiya Halima Dauda who was buried in Daura in the early hours of today, Saturday, is the President’s niece and younger sister to his close associate and nephew, Malam Mamman Daura.
He said that the President’s niece died at about the age of 56, leaving behind 10 children, four of them male and six female, including one of President Buhari’s Personal Assistants, Mohammed Sabi’u Tunde.
According to Garba Shehu, the burial of Hajiya Halima was attended by a Federal Government delegation led by the Chief of Staff to the President, Malam Abba Kyari. Others on the team were Senator Hadi Sirika, Minister of State in charge of Aviation; Alhaji Isma’ila Isa and Sayyu Dantata both of them businessmen; three Senior Special Assistants to the President, Sarki Abba, Ya’u Darazo and Garba Shehu; the Director General of the National Intelligence Agency, Ambassador Ahmed Rufa’i Abubakar, the Permanent Secretary, State House Jalal Arabi and the State Chief of Protocol, Ambassador Lawal Kazaure.
The Presidential spokesman said that Buhari family had yesterday, Friday, buried Hajiya Ai’sha Alhaji Mamman, saying that she was the wife of the President’s elder brother, Alhaji Mamman.
The statement said that Malam Mamman who received the delegation on behalf of the family and the Emir, Alhaji Umar Faruk for the people of Daura Emirate, thanked God for the lives of the deceased and all the visitors for sharing the moment of grief with them.
Among those received by the family in Daura are the Governor of Bauchi State, Mohammed Abubakar, the Inspector General of Police, Ibrahim Idris, EFCC Chairman, Ibrahim Magu and a former Military Governor of Kaduna State, retired Brigadier-General Jafaru Isa.
Meanwhile, the former Vice President and chieftain of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Alhaji Atiku Abubakar, has commiserated with President Buhari over the passing on of his sister in-law, Hajiya Aisha Mamman.
Atiku, who holds the traditional title of Waziri Adamawa, took to his Twitter handle @atiku today, Saturday to express his condolences to President Buhari.
He twitted: “@atiku On behalf of the Abubakar family, I commiserate with @NGRPresident@MBuhari over the passing on of his sister in-law, Hajiya Aisha Mamman. May Allah grant her Aljannah Firdaus, and grant the Danbaffale Mamman family in Daura the fortitude to bear the loss. Ameen.”
“@atiku Malam Yusuf Buratai, a World War II Veteran and father of COAS Lt. Gen. Tukur Buratai will be remembered for his services to keep country and the world safe and united. May Allah grant him Aljannah Firdaus. Ameen.” [myad]
A chieftain of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) in Kaduna, Alhaji Hussain Jallo, has called on the party leadership to avoid impunity and imposition of candidates or be prepared to face worst defeat in 2019 elections.
Jallo spoke when some national and Kaduna State executives visited him at his residence in Rigachikun, in Kaduna on Saturday.
“If the main opposition party, the PDP engages in impunity and imposition of candidates for the 2019 general elections, it would suffer a worse defeat than it did in the 2015 polls.
“The PDP has bright chances of defeating the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) in some states and at the national level, such chances could be lost to impunity and imposition of candidates,” he warned.
Jallo, who was Special Adviser on Politics to ex-Vice President Namadi Sambo, appealed to members at all levels to unite and ensure that the party takes its rightful place as Africa’s largest political party. [myad]
Governor Ifeanyi Ugwuanyi of Enugu State has sacked 104 Executive Assistants over non-performance.
The Governor, who announced the sack today, Saturday, was angered by the sacked Executive Assistants from Enugu North Senatorial District of the state over their nonchalant attitude towards the ongoing voters’ registration exercise by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC).
The sacked aides represented the 104 wards in the Senatorial zone.
Governor Ugwuanyi declared the positions of the affected Executive Assistants vacant and directed them to go back to their various electoral wards to revalidate their mandate and obtain fresh endorsement from the people before being reappointed.
The governor regretted that some of the former EAs were not on ground and had not lived up to their responsibilities in the wards in terms of sensitization, mobilization and promotion of government programmes, policies and interests at the grassroots.
Addressing members of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) at the Enugu North Senatorial District Committee meeting of the party held at its zonal office in Nsukka, Governor Ugwuanyi said that the INEC voters’ registration is key to the fortunes of the party and state ahead of 2019 general elections.
He said that the exercise offered the people of the state and the zone in particular another opportunity to justify themselves as those who had always been known for their highest number of voters during elections.
The governor emphasized the need to involve those who are committed to the party and its government in political appointments and advised the stakeholders to allow the people at the grassroots choose those who will be appointed as Executive Assistants to manage the activities of his administration at the ward level.
The governor told the councilors, supervisors and other political office holders at the ward and local government levels to reside in their areas and participate actively in the affairs of the party and the government, adding that the council chairmen will be held responsible if they do not comply with the directives.
“The on-going voters registration is the key. It is very important to us. It is beyond election. It is about all of us.
“Unfortunately, the EAs appointed to drive this campaign for the government at the grassroots, have not done much in terms of sensitization and mobilization.
“I hereby declare their positions vacant in Enugu North Senatorial District. They should go back and get the endorsement of the people at their various wards for re-appointment.” [myad]
One thing you cannot take away from Chief AuduOgbe, the Minister of Agriculture is his oratorical skills. He speaks with the conviction and vehemence of a salesman – reeling out suspicious statistics which cannot be crosschecked by his mesmerized ill equipped audience.
Often when I listen to him speak in public, I go away blaming whoever convinced him to go into academics and later politics for ruining the career of a successful street salesman.
My first close but brief encounter with the Minister was in 1983 when he was President Shehu Shagari’s Minister of Communications. I was a reporter with the New Nigerian at the time and Abba Dabo my Editor enjoyed giving me the toughest assignments he faced. He it was who sent me to Maiduguri in 1982 when the Maitatsine killer squad started an insurrection at the Bulunkutu quarters of the town. I saw holy hell there.
In 1983 when General Buhari, the GOC of 3rd Armored Division in Jos invaded Chad in hot pursuit of some renegade Chadian troops that had attacked and killed Nigerian soldiers, Abba Dabo tipped me to follow him.I did – the only Nigerian reporter on his trail. I was later told it was my report, lavishly carried on the front page of the New Nigerian and repeatedly relayed by the BBC Hausa and Africa service that alerted Shehu Shagari, the Commander in Chief that his troops were deep in Chad – fighting a war. Gen Buhari invaded another country without the knowledge of his Commander in Chief.
Back to Audu Ogbe in 1983, my brief was simple. There was a great controversy then involving a contract that was given by Gen Murtala Mohammed when he was Head of State. Known as the Aerostat Balloon communication project, it had consumed hundreds of millions of dollars without a single improvement of Nigeria’s telephone services. Abba Dabo delegated me to investigate the story. In Lagos, I met the Minister who referred me to one Engineer Mohammed, a director in the ministry.
It was Engineer Mohammed who gave me the details of the deal. He brought a huge file and let me peruse the details. Going through, I saw a Supreme Military Council document which revealed that Murtala Mohammed signed the contract on 12th February 1976, a day before the whisky besotted Bukar Suka Dimka pummeled him to death in broad daylight on a Lagos Street. That was the biggest privilege I enjoyed as a New Nigerian reporter – having unfettered access to classified documents of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria. I will always be grateful to the newspaper.
AuduOgbe started his political career when he left his job as a French teacher at the Murtala College of Arts and Science Makurdi to contest elections into the Benue State House of Assembly. He won and was in the House before President Shehu Shagari appointed him a Minister. Since then, I do not have any record of his contesting a direct election where ordinary folks vote. He has been in public service though, mostly through appointments. Under the Obasanjo presidency, he even got as high as the National Chairman of the ‘biggest political party in Africa’.
While these appointments may put him in public glare, they rob him of an essential ingredient of a successful politician: high up there without feeling the pulse of the people he is supposed to lead.Audu Ogbe was one of the prominent leaders of the APC from Benue at the time of the last general elections in 2015. But his performance in that election did not impress anybody except himself. Those close to him said he did not vote because he did not even register to vote.
The results of the elections in his own ward, Local Government and Senatorial Zone did not speak well of him as a leader of the APC. The party was thoroughly thrashed by the PDP, with David Mark as the Supreme leader in that part of Benue State.
It was President Buhari who came to his rescue by nominating him as Minister. It was a hard pill for the leaders of the APC in the two zones of the state who delivered victory to the party to swallow but they did. Still, in a frightening demonstration of human and political insensitivity, President Buhari again ignored the two APC senatorial zones in his next round of appointments. This time he did not only go for somebody in a PDP dominated zone, his choice for Ambassadorial appointment was an active PDP card carrying member.
If the President had gone ahead with sending the PDP hot head as an Ambassadorial nominee as he was insisting, he would have been disgraced by the Senate. The two Benue APC Senators who gave the party victory were determined to shoot the nominee down. Wise counsel prevailed and the President reluctantly found an APC man for the appointment.
The APC style of handling matters in Benue is that neither the party at the National level nor the President is sensitive to the true feelings of the people. Chief Audu Ogbe represents Benue in Buhari’s cabinet. But it is doubtful if he understands how his people feel especially on the controversy between sedentary farmers and the wandering cattle men.
Benue is a state where all issues and politics are often split along ethnic lines. But the rampaging herdsmen who have killed the Tiv, Idoma and Igede indiscriminately have brought unity to the squabbling ethnic men. Benue is united irrespective of tribe behind the anti-open grazing law passed by the State House of Assembly and signed by Governor Samuel Ortom.
Benue people today are under a frightening onslaught from herdsmen and many meanings are being read – wrongly or rightly – into the new found strength of their attackers. Audu Ogbe’s strange solution to this is ‘cattle colonies’.
Who is Audu Ogbe working for in Buhari’s cabinet with his queer theory of cattle colony?
Maybe he is working for President Buhari who against all odds appointed him Minister. But as an itinerant reporter, I often go to Daura where the President has a small ranch. If the President who employed Audu Ogbe believes so much in cattle colonies he should have established one and not a ranch that I know and have visited on several occasions. So, evidently Audu Ogbe is not even working for his employer.
At a point, I thought Audu Ogbe was working for cattle breeders whose leaders stunned the civilized world by rationalizing in a BBC interview the brutal murder of 73 innocent women and children on new year’s day in Benue; they said it was a reaction to their 1000 cattle that were stolen. But on 2nd February 2018, Jibril Ibrahim reported in his back page column in Daily Trust a revealing meeting between the Nigerian Bar Association and the Benue State Branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in its Abuja Headquarters on January 27th 2018. He wrote:
“One of the highpoints of the meeting was the Associations passionate appeal on the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Audu Ogbe to drop the idea of cattle colonies. They explained that they are being falsely accused of being colonisers and the use of the term colony by government is being used to victimize them as agents of the said plan. They added that they are not colonisers and government should stop associating them with the concept.”
So if Audu Ogbe is not working for the Benue people he represents in Buhari’s cabinet; is not working for President Buhari himself and is not even working for cattle breeders in his energetic crusade for cattle colonies, who is he working for? [myad]
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Who Is Audu Ogbe Working For? By Emmanuel Yawe
One thing you cannot take away from Chief AuduOgbe, the Minister of Agriculture is his oratorical skills. He speaks with the conviction and vehemence of a salesman – reeling out suspicious statistics which cannot be crosschecked by his mesmerized ill equipped audience.
Often when I listen to him speak in public, I go away blaming whoever convinced him to go into academics and later politics for ruining the career of a successful street salesman.
My first close but brief encounter with the Minister was in 1983 when he was President Shehu Shagari’s Minister of Communications. I was a reporter with the New Nigerian at the time and Abba Dabo my Editor enjoyed giving me the toughest assignments he faced. He it was who sent me to Maiduguri in 1982 when the Maitatsine killer squad started an insurrection at the Bulunkutu quarters of the town. I saw holy hell there.
In 1983 when General Buhari, the GOC of 3rd Armored Division in Jos invaded Chad in hot pursuit of some renegade Chadian troops that had attacked and killed Nigerian soldiers, Abba Dabo tipped me to follow him.I did – the only Nigerian reporter on his trail. I was later told it was my report, lavishly carried on the front page of the New Nigerian and repeatedly relayed by the BBC Hausa and Africa service that alerted Shehu Shagari, the Commander in Chief that his troops were deep in Chad – fighting a war. Gen Buhari invaded another country without the knowledge of his Commander in Chief.
Back to Audu Ogbe in 1983, my brief was simple. There was a great controversy then involving a contract that was given by Gen Murtala Mohammed when he was Head of State. Known as the Aerostat Balloon communication project, it had consumed hundreds of millions of dollars without a single improvement of Nigeria’s telephone services. Abba Dabo delegated me to investigate the story. In Lagos, I met the Minister who referred me to one Engineer Mohammed, a director in the ministry.
It was Engineer Mohammed who gave me the details of the deal. He brought a huge file and let me peruse the details. Going through, I saw a Supreme Military Council document which revealed that Murtala Mohammed signed the contract on 12th February 1976, a day before the whisky besotted Bukar Suka Dimka pummeled him to death in broad daylight on a Lagos Street. That was the biggest privilege I enjoyed as a New Nigerian reporter – having unfettered access to classified documents of the Supreme Military Council of Nigeria. I will always be grateful to the newspaper.
AuduOgbe started his political career when he left his job as a French teacher at the Murtala College of Arts and Science Makurdi to contest elections into the Benue State House of Assembly. He won and was in the House before President Shehu Shagari appointed him a Minister. Since then, I do not have any record of his contesting a direct election where ordinary folks vote. He has been in public service though, mostly through appointments. Under the Obasanjo presidency, he even got as high as the National Chairman of the ‘biggest political party in Africa’.
While these appointments may put him in public glare, they rob him of an essential ingredient of a successful politician: high up there without feeling the pulse of the people he is supposed to lead.Audu Ogbe was one of the prominent leaders of the APC from Benue at the time of the last general elections in 2015. But his performance in that election did not impress anybody except himself. Those close to him said he did not vote because he did not even register to vote.
The results of the elections in his own ward, Local Government and Senatorial Zone did not speak well of him as a leader of the APC. The party was thoroughly thrashed by the PDP, with David Mark as the Supreme leader in that part of Benue State.
It was President Buhari who came to his rescue by nominating him as Minister. It was a hard pill for the leaders of the APC in the two zones of the state who delivered victory to the party to swallow but they did. Still, in a frightening demonstration of human and political insensitivity, President Buhari again ignored the two APC senatorial zones in his next round of appointments. This time he did not only go for somebody in a PDP dominated zone, his choice for Ambassadorial appointment was an active PDP card carrying member.
If the President had gone ahead with sending the PDP hot head as an Ambassadorial nominee as he was insisting, he would have been disgraced by the Senate. The two Benue APC Senators who gave the party victory were determined to shoot the nominee down. Wise counsel prevailed and the President reluctantly found an APC man for the appointment.
The APC style of handling matters in Benue is that neither the party at the National level nor the President is sensitive to the true feelings of the people. Chief Audu Ogbe represents Benue in Buhari’s cabinet. But it is doubtful if he understands how his people feel especially on the controversy between sedentary farmers and the wandering cattle men.
Benue is a state where all issues and politics are often split along ethnic lines. But the rampaging herdsmen who have killed the Tiv, Idoma and Igede indiscriminately have brought unity to the squabbling ethnic men. Benue is united irrespective of tribe behind the anti-open grazing law passed by the State House of Assembly and signed by Governor Samuel Ortom.
Benue people today are under a frightening onslaught from herdsmen and many meanings are being read – wrongly or rightly – into the new found strength of their attackers. Audu Ogbe’s strange solution to this is ‘cattle colonies’.
Who is Audu Ogbe working for in Buhari’s cabinet with his queer theory of cattle colony?
Maybe he is working for President Buhari who against all odds appointed him Minister. But as an itinerant reporter, I often go to Daura where the President has a small ranch. If the President who employed Audu Ogbe believes so much in cattle colonies he should have established one and not a ranch that I know and have visited on several occasions. So, evidently Audu Ogbe is not even working for his employer.
At a point, I thought Audu Ogbe was working for cattle breeders whose leaders stunned the civilized world by rationalizing in a BBC interview the brutal murder of 73 innocent women and children on new year’s day in Benue; they said it was a reaction to their 1000 cattle that were stolen. But on 2nd February 2018, Jibril Ibrahim reported in his back page column in Daily Trust a revealing meeting between the Nigerian Bar Association and the Benue State Branch of the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association in its Abuja Headquarters on January 27th 2018. He wrote:
“One of the highpoints of the meeting was the Associations passionate appeal on the Minister of Agriculture, Mr Audu Ogbe to drop the idea of cattle colonies. They explained that they are being falsely accused of being colonisers and the use of the term colony by government is being used to victimize them as agents of the said plan. They added that they are not colonisers and government should stop associating them with the concept.”
So if Audu Ogbe is not working for the Benue people he represents in Buhari’s cabinet; is not working for President Buhari himself and is not even working for cattle breeders in his energetic crusade for cattle colonies, who is he working for? [myad]