The Board of Continental Broadcasting Services Ltd. (CBS), owners of Television Continental, TVC and Radio Continental has announced the shutdown of TVC News Africa in its stable and the layoff of 145 of its workforce.
A statement by the management of the media outfit said that the decision was parts of its effort to restructure its enterprise.
“The winding down of TVC News Africa will allow us concentrate on these key areas of our business. We wish to make clear that our core channels consisting of TVC News Nigeria, TVC Entertainment and Radio Continental will now become the main focus of our business going forward where we will deliver high quality news and entertainment programmes to our audiences and advertisers across Nigeria and beyond.”
According to the statement, the restructuring is geared towards repositioning the business for better and greater delivery of its services to audiences and advertisers alike, adding that the exercise would enable the management to reconfigure its workforce as part of the rationale to achieve its objectives.
The statement said that that the CBS Board of Directors also approved substantial new investment in its staff across the group of companies which will enable it substantially enhance its news and current affairs output on TVC News, entertainment programming on the market leading TVC general entertainment channel and the key radio asset, Radio Continental.
“For those staff members affected by today’s announcement the Board of CBS Ltd. has approved a generous severance package in addition to a programme of assistance to enable them seek new employment,” the statement said.
The media outfit is said to have been owned by a chieftain of the All Progressives Congress (APC), Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu. [myad]
In my own opinion, the enemy of Ndigbo is Ndigbo itself. I remember a time in this country when all the six ministers in Jonathan’s kitchen cabinet were all Igbos: Anyim Pius Anyim was SGF, Ngozi Okonjo Iwealla was in charge of finance; Emeka Wogu was in Labour and productivity; Berth Nnaji was in Power and Energy; Dieziani Madueke was the powerful minister. The six of them outside the Federal Executive Council would meet and decide what and what not to be discuss at the larger FEC.
Whatever they decided would eventually be d position of government.
In six years, this was the situation. Okiro and Onovo had d police under their control. Ihejirika and later Minimah controlled d Army. These powerful Igbos could do and undo. Nigeria was in their pockets.
Rather than care about d poor Igbo chaps scattered all over the country, they were busy diverting billions of naira into their accounts at home and abroad.
The 2nd Niger Bridge, they didn’t do. They shared the money.
The Lagos/Calabar rail lines passing through nine States, three of them in the South East, They were not bothered. They refused to pay the Chinese the Counterpart fund. They shared the money. Enugu/Onitsha, Aba/PH and other roads of economic importance to their fellow Igbos, they abandoned.
Who is to blame? Who is marginalizing the Igbo’s?
You had your chance, you bungled it. There was only one Yoruba minister worth mentioning at the time: Akinwunmi Adesina.
He was in Agric. His budget was less than 1% while Emeka Wogu in Labor had over 10% for his ministry; Anyim had unlimited access to d treasury for the benefit of himself and family members.
The poor Igbo guys meant nothing to him. If an Igbo becomes President tomorrow after Jonathan, will there be any difference? The Igbo man will marginalize his fellow Igbo people. [myad]
The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Anchor Borrowers Programme (ABP) is believed to have yielded 2.1 million metric tons of rice and over 450,000 metric tons of wheat besides providing over one million direct and indirect rural jobs.
The programme is said to have also brought significant improvement in fish, tomatoes, shogun, cassava and maize yields.
Under the scheme, the Federal Government, through the CBN, invested about N33 billion in 21 states with Kebbi, Cross River, Kano, Jigawa and Anambra, Ogun, Niger, Benue, and kaduna states taking the lead.
Informed source in the apex bank said that the fast growing agricultural production will boost food security, conserve foreign exchange, tackle poverty and unemployment in the country.
It was learnt that the thrust of the CBN Anchor Borrowers Programme is to ensure food security, encourage import substitution, increase the income of farmers, fight poverty and conserve foreign exchange for the country.”
It was learnt that with the programme, the national output will rise to over 4 million tons, while the yield per hectare has increased from less than 2 tons per hectare to 6.5 to 7 tons per hectare.
Confirming the development, the apex bank’s acting director of Communications Mr. Isaac Okorafor, said that with the improvement: “we project that by 2018, Nigeria should be able to meet its rice needs. The good thing about this program is that no political farmer has access to it. All participants are geo-physically enumerated. every farmer must have at least a hectare of farmland that must be identifiable on satellite with his or her complete identity through the Bank Verification Number (BVN).”
Okorafor, who appealed for the active participation of all the state governments to fast track the economic recovery program of the government and help improve the standard of living of the Nigerian farmer, said: “we are impressed with the examples of Lagos and Kebbi. This is a case where the governors of the states took personal interests in the collaborative efforts that produced what we know as Lake Rice. That is why we recorded tremendous success in Kebbi. So, for the CBN ABP to work successfully, the state governors must cooperate with the CBN. The personal commitment of the governor of Kebbi was extra-ordinary.”
He encouraged farmers across the country to, as a matter of necessity, organize themselves into strong and disciplined cooperatives, to be able to successfully benefit from the CBN scheme for guaranteed food security for the nation. [myad]
The Nigerian Football Federation (NFF) has released the list of Super Eagles squad expected to feature against Bafana Bafana of South Africa. The Super Eagles will face South Africa in the next qualifying match of the African Cup of Nations (AFCON2019) championship.
The players for the match, which will be played on June 10th, 2017 at Akwa Ibom, Godswill Akpabio International Stadium, at 5 pm invited are as follows:
An Igbo group known as South East Peoples Assembly (SEPA), has called on the Federal High Court in Abuja to revoke the bail it granted the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu for violating some of the conditions for such bail.
The group, in a letter dated May 31 and signed by its President, Prince Chukwuemeka Okorie, asked the Chief Judge of the high court, Justice Ibrahim Auta, to as a matter of urgency, revoke Kanu’s bail.
SEPA said that the IPOB leader has continued to conduct himself in a manner that is totally at variance with terms and conditions of his bail, among which included that he must not hold rallies, grant interviews or be in a crowd of more than 10 people.
“Obviously, the recklessness with which he made media statements and even organised the ‘Sit at Home and Stay Indoor’ protest to mark the so called BIAFRA HEROS DAY on Tuesday, 30th May, 2017 is a threat to the unity, security and peace of Nigeria as a sovereign nation.
“We have no iota of doubt that he is trying to push our dear country Nigeria into an unnecessary precarious situation for his personal agenda and those of his paymasters.
“Sir, our decision to write this demand letter to your good office at this time is to forestall another civil unrest in Nigeria, particularly around the Igbo speaking region.
“As you well know, the struggle by Kanu to be relevant under the guise of actualisation of Biafra does not enjoy the support of right thinking Igbo people both at home and in diaspora.
“That he suddenly addresses himself as the Supreme Leader of Biafra points to how arrogant and disrespectful he is to legitimately constituted authority in the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
“The pertinent question on our minds as stakeholders is: Has Kanu been consistent in providing the court with reports on the progress of his health and treatment on a monthly basis since he was granted bail? We fear that if Kanu is not tamed by Your Lordship as a matter of urgency, the IPOB may create a situation where it becomes difficult if not impossible for genuine development to take place in the South East under the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR.
“History has taught us that the Civil War of 1967-1970 started gradually and later turned out to be something that caused our people unimaginable losses.
“We cannot afford to fold our arms this time and allow a stooge imported from the United Kingdom by stark enemies of Nigeria to maintain a state of belligerence against the nation and keep the name of Igbo people in the news for the wrong reasons.
“At the SEPA, our very mission is that we believe in the truth and can on the strength of this declare that the temporary freedom being enjoyed by Kanu has been abused. Therefore, we join the other patriotic Nigerians in urging Your Lordship to consider adopting the appropriate procedure to ensure that Kanu’s bail is revoked within the next 7 (Seven) working days.
“It may interest you to know that the whole world is watching how you have been faring to reposition the Federal High Court on the path of excellence and restore her lost glory.”
It will be recalled trial Justice Binta Nyako had on April 25, granted Kanu bail after he spent about a year and six months in detention. Justice Nyako said her decision to release Kanu on bail was based on health grounds.
She cited an affidavit that was attached to the bail application Kanu filed through his lawyer, Mr. Ifeanyi Ejiofor.
The court held that Kanu must produce three sureties, including a “highly respected and recognised jewish leader”.
According to the court, aside a jewish leader, Kanu must also produce a “highly placed person of Igbo extraction”, as well as “a highly respected person who is resident and owns landed property in Abuja”.
Each of the sureties, among who was Senator Enyinnaya Abaribe, deposited N100million each.
The other sureties were a Jewish High Chief Priest, Immanuu-El Shalom and a Chartered Accountant residing in Abuja, Mr. Tochukwu Uchendu.
Justice Nyako had equally held that Kanu who was arrested by security operatives upon his arrival to Nigeria from the United Kingdom, must sign an undertaken to make himself available for trial at all times.
Kanu was ordered to surrender his Nigerian and British international passports, even as the court compelled FG to return to him, his wedding ring and reading glasses.
However, Kanu’s co-defendants, Chidiebere Onwudiwe, Benjamin Madubugwu and David Nwawuisi, were denied bail by the court which described charges against them as “very serious.” [myad]
The Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign state of Biafra (MASSOB) and the Biafra Independent Movement (BIM), under the leadership of Chief Raph Uwazurike, have warned the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), NNamdi Kanu, against instigating Biafran youths towards violent agitation.
“In the course of celebrating Biafran day which began from 22 to 30 May, we didn’t block any road; we didn’t destroy the properties of Nigerians nor engage in any act of lawlessness. But we choose the part of peace as approved by the United Nation and the International community.
“But Kanu and his group chose the part of violence and were instigating innocent Biafrans to engage in acts of lawlessness with some of them losing their lives in the process.
”We condemn this act in its entirety as we believe that its against what Biafra stands for and is known for. If Kanu and Madu cause the death of all Biafran youths what will be the gain of their agitation?
“My advice is that Nigeria government and security agents should do their job, and stop looking the other way while one man causes confusion everywhere.
“We in MASSOB believe in non violence as a way of achieving our Biafra as being championed by our leader, Chief Raph Uwazurike. Any other group that engages in violence is an enemy of Biafra struggle and should be treated as such.”
He said that Biafra has come to stay and that any group engaging the security agencies in a shootout, engaging in destruction or any act of destruction in the name of Biafra, are enemies of Biafra and should be regarded as such.
The MASSOB/BIM zonal Leader for Ebonyi Central, Chief Gideon Iloke, who spoke to news men today, Wednesday, on the outcome of the May 30 Biafran Day celebration, said that the United Nations and the international community frown at the use of violence in separatist agitations, adding that it was the reason why Chief Uwazurike-led MASSOB/BIM adopts non-violence in the pursuit of Biafran freedom.
He regretted the violence and clashes that erupted in Onitsha and some other Biafran cities during the Biafran Day celebration, saying that the fallen Biafra heroes would be turning in their graves seeing young Biafrans being misled to avoidable deaths.
Chief Iloke called on the security agencies to wake up to their responsibility and stop looking the other way while some miscreants are causing destructions in the society.
He commended MASSOB/BIM members for the peaceful way they comported themselves during the 9 days celebration of Biafra, saying that history and posterity will remember them as true heroes of the struggle.
“MASSOB/BIM believes in nonviolence agitation and we have remained so since 1999 to date. We have many groups claiming to be agitating for the actualization of sovereign state of Biafra, but I want to tell the World that any other group apart of MASSOB/BIM that believes in non violence is fake and should be arrested.
“This is because MASSOB/BIM believe that we can achieve our aim without instigating biafrans to violence and lawlessness.IPOB Leader ,NNamdi KANU and Uchenna Madu were long expelled from MASSOB because of their believe in violence and destruction. [myad]
“I’m not allowed to become chief of army staff because I’m Igbo. What sort of stupid country is that? Why would any idiot want me to be in that sort of country?”
These are the words coming from the leader of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB), Nnamdi Kanu, when he granted an interview to Al-Jazeera in his Father’s house in Umuahia, Abia state.
He said “Nothing seems to be working in Nigeria. There is pain and hardship everywhere. What we’re fighting [for] is not self-determination for the sake of it. It’s because Nigeria is not functioning and can never function.”
Kanu decried the perceived marginalization of the Igbos in Nigeria, saying that they have been prevented from aspiring to assume important positions in the country such as President, Inspector General of Police, Chief of Army Staff amongst others
“I’m not allowed to contest for the presidency of Nigeria because I’m Igbo. I’m not allowed to aspire to become the inspector general of police because I’m Igbo.”
Kanu, who was granted bail last month, said that he doesn’t care if he is flouting one of the terms for his bail which prohibits him from granting media interviews.
“I don’t care. I can’t go outside to call for a press conference. I can’t go on Biafra Radio to broadcast. I can’t allow large [groups of] people to basically congregate outside to see me…it’s like asking me not to breathe.” [myad]
Kano State Governor, Dr. Abdullahi Umar Ganduje has described those who kidnapped a member of the House of Representatives, representing Takai/Sumaila Federal Constituency, in Kano state, Hon. Garba Umar Durbunde as wicked and heartless.
Hon. Durbunde was kidnapped earlier today, Wednesday, by unknown men at Jere, along Abuja Road at about 5pm on his way back to Abuja.
Governor Ganduje, who was shocked by the news of the sad and unfortunate event, condemned it in the strongest term as an act of wickedness perpetrated by evil and cold-hearted elements.
He called on the police force and other security agencies to intensify effort to rescue the kidnapped lawmaker, while also advising members of the public to be vigilante and security conscious at all times.
The Kano State Commissioner for Information , Mallam Garba Mohammed in a statement said Governor Ganduje, expressed shocked on the incident which occurred as Muslims are currently observing the Ramadan Fasting.
The Commissioner asked the police and other security agencies to do all they could to rescue the lawmaker.
Alhaji Garba Durbunde, member representing Takai/Sumaila federal constituency in the House of Representatives, was reportedly kidnapped by unknown persons along the Jere-Abuja Road, Kaduna State. [myad]
Debris of houses is seen after a flood affected a village in Matara, Sri Lanka
At least 203 people have been killed and hundreds of thousands are displaced after flooding and mudslides hit large swathes of Sri Lanka.
More than 1,500 homes have been destroyed and 16 hospitals evacuated since heavy rains began to hit southern and western areas of the island.
More than 600,000 people remain temporarily homeless after the landslides and floods, the worst to hit Sri Lanka in 14 years.
With a lack of temporary shelters, many displaced people are at risk of contracting mosquito-borne dengue fever and other diseases, the UN said.
Sri Lankan disaster management minister, Anura Yapa said many of the victims would have survived had their homes not been built on slopes.
The minister who vowed to demolish all illegal structures said: “If we don’t stop this madness, we are going to end up with a bigger disaster very soon.
“About 30-40% of this disaster is due to illegal constructions. The local councils should never have allowed homes to be built on (landslide-prone) mountain slopes.”
Yapa said that residents in the worst-hit Ratnapura and Kalutara districts have ignored repeated warnings to evacuate.
He said: “We have a cultural issue where people don’t accept that they are at risk. We are also considering laws to force people to leave when evacuation warnings are issued by the Disaster Management Centre.”
Divers and navy personnel from India are helping Sri Lanka’s army, navy and air force with relief and rescue efforts.
Government spokesman, Rajitha Senaratne said that medical teams were being deployed to prevent the spread of waterborne diseases.
About 24 countries have pledged support and Australia, Japan and Pakistan are among those to have donated supplies, including water purification tablets and tents.
Foreign minister, Ravi Karunanayake said the government had been “moved by the spontaneous response”.
The flooding is the worst since to hit the island since May 2003, when 250 people were killed and 10,000 homes destroyed.
Last year, a landslide killed more than 100 people in central Sri Lanka. [myad]
In a profound historical recollection, 1983 is back in our consciousness. And the tell-tale signals are assailing our sensibilities: first was the tendentious rumour alleging the poisoning of President Muhammadu Buhari; there was the wicked threat in the social media by a police officer of Biu origin, Borno State, to kill 200 Nigerians if Buhari dies; then the ludicrous warning and hubris by two northern leaders, Junaid Mohammed and Ango Abdullahi, that power would remain in the north in 2019; and, wait for the bomb, the devious alarm raised by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt. General Tukur Buratai, which was suggestive of a proclivity towards a coup plot.
These disingenuous propositions with far-reaching political implications are capable of sinking or submerging the very socio-economic and political foundations of the nation. Although, while it may be speculative that these characters acted some prepared script, historical knowledge is enough to help in deciphering that the tones were aided by a community spirit that advances the need for a section to retain presidential command in 2019 in our recurrent struggle for power.
Buratai’s angle continues to agitate the mind the most. Army chiefs are usually not known to be flippant. Therefore, when on May 16, 2017, Buratai called national and global attention to himself and to the army via the alarm he raised over the discomforting relationship between some officers and politicians, he got many Nigerians to engage in some obligatory reflection of his motivation and essential persona.
Some critical questions consequently arose. Why did the army chief choose to openly advise soldiers not to hobnob with politicians through the media instead of the established chains of command? Secondly, did Buratai inform the acting president, Professor Yemi Osinbajo, before making such a weighty statement, which should have been complemented with a strong warning from the presidency? It was not until May 29, 2017 that Osinbajo made a tacit reference to the matter in his Democracy Day address to the nation.
Osinbajo had said, in part, “…What is not normal, or acceptable, is employing these frustrations as justification for indulging in discrimination or hate speech or hateful conduct of any kind, or for seeking to undermine by violent or other illegal means the very existence of the sovereign entity that has brought us all together as brothers and sisters and citizens.”
Buratai’s alarm, contained in a statement signed by Army spokesperson, Brigadier-General Sani Kukasheka Usman, suggested that some army guys and politicians were possibly up to something devious and had warned, point-blank, that any officer or soldier of the Nigerian Army found to be hobnobbing with such elements (politicians) or (found to be) engaged in unprofessional conducts such as politicking would have himself or herself to blame.
Let us now rewind to 1983 for some historical aids. A post in the social media by Abdul Mahmud, a constitutional lawyer and human rights activist, joggled our memories. Read him: “When Uba Ahmed promised the historical landslide and moon slide of the National Party of Nigeria (NPN) in April, 1983, opposition politicians of the Unity Party of Nigeria (UPN) and Nigerian People’s Party (NPP) warned him of the dangers of stealing the peoples’ mandate.
“Then, Gen Mohammed Wushishi, Chief of Army Staff, entered the fray. He warned ‘sojas’ who were mingling with politicians (in order) to do something sinister to the constitution to desist. NPN had its landslide and moon slide. The nation erupted with the old Ondo up in flames; Ikemba Front and Jim Vanguard turned the old Anambra into a war zone.
“There was no governance across the country between October and December 1983. Power was slipping from a section of the country…Then, ‘sojas’ struck. A northerner was named as the military head of state. Power returned to a section of the country…We are back to 1983. General Buratai is playing the same old game… setting our country on the beaten road…. Gird up your loins, folks; soon, we will return to the barricade to defend our country against military hawks and vultures.”
Mahmud’s historical account was salutary. The similitude the account has with the present development is indeed troubling especially within the context of the state of governmental affairs in Nigeria that has created great uncertainties and aggravated genuine concerns over the fate of a sick President Buhari who remains in the UK for medical treatment. There is, indeed, a serious cause for apprehension by Nigerians over Buratai’s alarm. Genuine fears that some elements might really be interested in undermining and dislodging the civilians have gathered more credence.
We are flummoxed that the National Assembly has not shown sensitivity to the matter by issuing a strong response that such developments demand. Buratai’s curious alarm had already created room for devil’s advocacies and conspiracy theories around a rumoured coup plot before the Defence Headquarters came out nine days after to debunk the rumour as unfounded. In a statement, signed by the Director, Defence Information, Major General John Enenche, it urged Nigerians not to panic and assured that the armed forces were totally loyal to the commander-in-chief and were in complete subordination to civil authorities.
There is, however, a measure of relief flowing from the Defence Headquarters’ disclaimer, which implication seems far reaching. Buratai’s perceived calculative, disingenuous and dangerous mind game is not a shared value in the armed forces. It may, therefore, be hasty to surmise that a likely Buratai’s gambit has exploded in his face since no one can, as yet, put a finger on his motivation for raising the alarm.
However, some intelligent guesses could be hazarded in this circumstance. One, Buratai may have sincerely acted to forestall a tendency towards a coup plot in the circumstance of a national politics that has become endangered due to the ill-health of a president of northern extraction; and Buratai himself being a northerner in whom Buhari has invested a huge trust.
The second guess is along the line of a moot point that Buhari’s health condition is on a fatal plunge and that the negative outcome would lead to a new presidential power configuration. Some forces in the north are said to be plotting to forestall a repeat of what happened to the late President Umaru Yar’Adua when he died in office and thus paved the way for vice president Goodluck Jonathan to become president.
The third guess is that Buratai had possibly appraised the different scenarios; and, finding out that the constitution will push political considerations to the background, decided to act politically correctly by trying to worm his way into the heart of the administration by raising a suggestive alarm, which would portray him as patriotic in the administration’s estimation. He would then sit pretty in its good book as a loyal and trusted officer with his eyes sharply focused on the office of the Chief of Defence Staff at the expiry of General Abayomi Olonishakin’s tenure.
But whatever was the real motivation and intention of Buratai’s scaremongering, the one important consensus that has crystallised by way of reactions is the popular opposition to the return of the military into governance. Experience, they say, is the best teacher. Democracy, they say, is better than the most benevolent military dictatorship. Basically, people hold government to account in a democracy. This is not so in a military government.
Kudos must, therefore, be given to the like of the National leader of the All Progressives Congress, Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers State, Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta State and other democrats who have warned the military against staging any coup in the country. Tinubu’s assertion that Nigerians would resist any attempt to usurp the current administration of President Buhari was an understatement of what Nigerians could do.
Nigerians would, against the backdrop of the nation’s unsavoury past under military dictatorship, occupy Nigeria in defence of democracy, and not necessarily the APC administration. The Arab spring saga would be a child’s play in the circumstance. Whatever problems that arise in the perfection of our democratic experiment and power distribution, political solutions remain the most veritable option to explore in support of constitutional democracy in the country.
Ojeifo and Ariyo-Atoye contributed this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com[myad]
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