President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to begin a two-day working visit to Lagos State from Monday, thereby making him the first Nigerian President that will officially visit the state in the past fifteen years.
The Lagos state Commissioner for Information and Strategy, Steve Ayorinde, who made this known in a statement, said that the President would inaugurate some landmark projects which the administration of Governor Akinwunmi Ambode had fully executed in its first year.
In the statement, Ayorinde said that President Buhari’s official visit “is the first time in about 15 years that a sitting president will be visiting the state on a working visit.” Ayorinde said that during the visit, Buhari will formally inaugurate the Lagos State Emergency Management Agency (LASEMA) Rescue Unit in Cappa Oshodi built by the state government to ensure prompt and swift response to emergency situations in the state.
The commissioner said that after unveiling the LASEMA Rescue Unit, the President will inaugurate the newly constructed Ago Palace Way in Okota, Isolo after which he will pay homage to the Oba of Lagos, His Royal Majesty, Oba Babatunde Rilwanu Aremu Akiolu at the Iga Iduganran, Lagos Island.
“The President will later be hosted to a reception by the state government at the Tafawa Balewa Square, Lagos where he will also commission and hand over security equipment and vehicles contributed by the Ambode administration to security agencies to beef up security in the state.”
He said that Lagos residents are looking forward with excitement to receive the President in the state, just as he urged residents to bear with law enforcement agents and traffic control authorities who will effect road diversions in some of the routes that the President motorcade will pass through during the visit.
Meanwhile, the state government has released traffic guide, which it said, would help its residents to review their travel plans between Monday and Tuesday to avoid undue traffic congestion in the metropolis.
It would be recalled that former President Olusegun Obasanjo made the last official visit to Lagos in November 2002 and thereafter, there has been no sitting president that had officially visited the state despite its status as Nigeria’s economic capital and its contribution to national economy.
However, all the past Presidents had, during their tenures, used the Murtala Muhammad International airport in the state as transit point and paid non-state visits to Lagos. [myad]
The erstwhile self-acclaimed largest political party in Africa, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has split into four factions, with governors being led by Senator Ahmed Makarfi even as former information minister, Jerry Gana, the controversial chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff, and elders also go their different ways.
The factions sprang up following t he national convention of the party which ended in confusion on Saturday in Port Harcourt, the capital of Rivers State.
While Senator Modu Sheriff announced the postponement of the convention due to court injunctions, a former Governor of Kaduna, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, was elected the party’s caretaker national chairman by a group of PDP governors backed by Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu.
Earlier in the day, a splinter group led by Professor Jerry Gana gathered in Abuja to hold a parallel convention after the pro-Sheriff group insisted on its plan to organize the convention in Port Harcourt.
The Professor Gana group is said to be favourably disposed to the idea of putting in place a caretaker committee to run the affairs of the party, pending the conduct of an acceptable national convention.
Professor Gana’s parallel national convention which was held at the M & M Event Centre, started by 10 am and ended by 12 noon. It adopted a former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu and Professor Tunde Adeniran as coordinators of the party pending when the next national convention of the faction would be held.
Although the date for their next convention was not announced, the convention also ratified a 57-member steering committee that would administer the affairs of the party nationwide.
A member of the steering committee, Chief Dubem Onyia moved a motion that “in compliance with the court order, Mantu and Adeniran should run the party until the next convention.” Mantu and Adeniran were upheld as the co-chairmen of the party.
This was even as some leaders of the party loyal to the Jerry Gana-led faction have dismissed the caretaker committee set up Saturday by the party in Port Harcourt as “unconstitutional,” saying only the party’s Board of Trustees is legally mandated to take over the party whenever there is a vacuum.
The leaders spoke at a press briefing at the residence of a former deputy senate president, Ibrahim Mantu, in Abuja.
At the briefing, which was addressed by Mantu and Tanimu Turaki, a former Minister of Special Duties, the leaders said they had been vindicated by what happened in Port Harcourt on Saturday.
They warned that the decision to set up a caretaker committee instead of allowing the BoT to pilot the affairs of the party could further deepen the division within the party’s ranks.
“At this point in time, the only legal organ body conditionally empowered to actually takeover the affairs of the party is the BoT,” Mr. Mantu said.
“After watching events at Port Harcourt convention, it’s necessary for us to react to some of the things we saw there. First and foremost, we want to thank our members throughout the nation for giving us support that has actually led us to achieve some of the goals we have set for ourselves.
“We were opposed to the zoning and indeed the zoning has been cancelled or set aside.
“We also opposed to the convention taking place and the convention did not take place courtesy of the court.
“Again, we were opposed to the way the Congresses have been conducted, that, they fell short of our expectations. Now these congresses and conventions have been set aside.
“This group can confidently say that we have achieved all the targets we set to achieve,” Mr. Mantu said.
Turaki also said the party had been clearly vindicated.
“We here have sat down and reviewed the happening in Port Harcourt very carefully and the decisions that came out have clearly vindicated our position which is based on principles. We had taken a position that things were done wrongly and unconstitutionally. Things have been done without due regards to processes and procedures.
“It is now for the BOT to step in and take charge. It is there in our Constitution that in a situation like this, which is unprecedented, that the BoT, the conscience of the party, as the fathers of the party should step in immediately,” Mr. Turaki said. “There shouldn’t be any vacuum and we are concerned that what is coming out of the party from Port Harcourt may likely deepen our disagreement.”
Yet, a group of elders of the party have said that the Board of Trustees should take over the affairs of the party in place of dissolved National Working Committee. The Co-Chairman of the group – Concerned Peoples Democratic Party Stakeholders – Senator Ibrahim Mantu, who reacted to the developments from the National Convention of the party held in Port Harcourt, Rivers State said that elders group have rejected the caretaker committee and that the only constitutional organ to run the affairs of the party in a situation as had arisen was the leadership of the BoT. “There is a body that is constitutionally mandated to take over the affairs of the party and that body is the conscience of the party called the Board of Trustees,” he said. Mantu said the development in Port Harcourt was a clear vindication for the group’s demands and principles. “We were opposed to the zoning and indeed the zoning has been cancelled or set aside. “We were also opposed to the convention. And the convention did not take place courtesy of the court. “Again, we were opposed to the way the congresses have been conducted, that they fell short of our expectations. Now these congresses and conventions have been set aside. “This group can confidently say that we have achieved all the targets we set to achieve.” [myad]
Niger Delta Avengers is the name of a new group of militants in the Niger Delta who claim to be different from the former agitators and militants who operated between 2006 and 2009, largely under the umbrella of the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND). The title of this group may well serve as the thematic and definitive umbrella for the resurgence of low-level insurgency in the Niger Delta, for in the last month alone, more groups have joined the NDA to wage war against oil installations, the Buhari government, and the Nigerian state. These include the Isoko Liberation Movement and the Red Egbesu Water Lions. The groups are working in concert with the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) led by detained Nnamdi Kanu.
The NDA runs a website (created in February 2016) where it posts news items and statements; and in terms of rhetoric, and activities, there is no doubt that the various groups are indeed on “a vengeance mission”. They are angry over what they consider the continued marginalization of the Niger Delta, the unjust allocation of oil mining licenses to persons from non-oil producing areas, the hounding of officials and associates of the Jonathan administration by the present administration (hence General Torunanawei, coordinator of the Red Egbesu Water Lions issues a seven-day ultimatum calling for the release of Colonel Sambo Dasuki, and the de-freezing of the accounts of ex-militant leader Government Ekpemupolo). There is also some concern about environmental pollution, the scrapping of the Maritime University at Okerenkoko and undisguised discontent with the Buhari administration.
More than any of the emergent groups, the Niger Delta Avengers have used their online resources to articulate the basis of this vengeance mission in such posts as “Operation Red Economy”, “We shall do whatever is necessary to protect the Niger Delta interest” and “Keep your threat to yourself, Mr. President”. Their statements are written in halting, extremely poor English, but their various strike teams, which they boast about, have proven to be deadly through recent attacks on oil infrastructure creating a global oil supply crisis, and bringing down Nigeria’s daily oil production from 2.2 million barrels to just about 1.4 million.
Shell has had to shut down its Forcados terminal. Chevron’s Escravos operation has been breached. ENI and Exxon Mobil have declared “force majeure”. Shell and Chevron are moving their staff out of the Niger Delta. The avengers claim they are not into kidnapping, or the killing of people and soldiers, but no one is sure yet about the depth and extent of this new phase of Niger Delta insurgency, and of course, the oil and gas multinationals have since learnt not to trust either the Nigerian government or the criminals who target oil infrastructure to make political and ethnic statements. But the question is: why vengeance? The reason this question is important explains the seeming indifference to the crisis, at least for now, within the larger Nigerian community and why the avengers have so far been dismissed, to their dismay, as “empty heads” and “criminals.” Not a few persons have asked: what else do Niger Delta militants want?
Recall that in 2009, late President Umaru Yar’Adua introduced an amnesty programme to end Niger Delta insurgency. Two years earlier, the architects of Nigerian politics had also deemed it necessary to allocate the Vice Presidency to the Niger Delta, and by sheer providence, the occupier of that slot, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan soon became Acting President following the death of his boss, and later in 2011, he won the Presidential election and became President.
For about seven years, under this programme, introduced by President Yar’Adua and sustained by President Jonathan, Niger Delta militants were demobilized and disarmed. The top hierarchy soon became security consultants to the Federal Government, monitoring pipelines, and helping to check oil theft. The middle cadre was placed on a monthly stipend while those who could be trained were sent to technical colleges and universities in Southern Africa and Eastern Europe. The militants became rich and gentrified, and with their kinsman in office as President in Abuja, the people of the Niger Delta began to feel a sense of ownership and belongingness that no one in that region had felt since 1960.
But what is now happening clearly shows the limits of the politics of appeasement that Nigeria has played since independence. No country can be successfully run on a short-term basis and through the assignment of tokens to aggrieved parties within the union. It was mere delusion to have ever imagined that the people of the Niger Delta could ever be successfully appeased with a pacifying short-term amnesty programme and a shot at the Presidency. Even under President Jonathan, there were protests about the distribution of amnesty largesse, and disagreements among the former militants, who practically relocated to Abuja to take advantage of their brother’s ascendancy. The quarrel was all about who got what and it was only a matter of time, before those who felt short-changed would stage their own drama, which they have now started, in the hope that they may be luckier this time around and get their own share of appeasement. This is the sub-text of the deliberate distancing by the new boys from the old guard of militants.
They seem to have been further provoked by the arrival in Abuja of “a new Pharaoh who does not seem to know Joseph.” President Muhammadu Buhari has approved funding and payments under the Niger Delta Amnesty programme, he has also appointed a Minister of Niger Delta and a Special Adviser on Niger Delta Amnesty, in addition to extending the amnesty initiative, beyond the initial December 2015 deadline to December 2017. But there is no programme of patronage, the type that channels money into the pockets of Niger Delta militants, warlords or foot-soldiers, and since Abuja also seems to have become wasteland for the once-triumphant Niger Deltan, the Jonathan crowd, and the fisherman’s cap, the informal patronage that turned many Niger Deltans into king’s men and women, has vanished. The emergent militant groups also have other selfish reasons why they are angry not just with President Buhari but also with the Nigerian state, for in the end, after the 2009-2015 period, position, cash and contracts appeasement has not in any way resolved the core problems of existential and environmental crisis in the Niger Delta. Nigeria merely postponed the evil day and unless we deal more forthrightly with the vexatious issues of equity, federalism, justice and citizenship driving Niger Delta and Biafran nationalism, those who throw tokens at the problem can only do so in vain.
The bad news is that President Muhammadu Buhari doesn’t seem to be in a hurry to address these fundamental issues. He probably has every reason to be angry, and he may even raise such questions as: what is wrong with these Niger Delta avengers? What exactly do they want to avenge -their kinsman losing election? Do they think they can blackmail government even when the amnesty programme has been “magnanimously” extended? These may sound emotional, but they are serious questions, signposting how access to power at the centre and survival in that space has become a victim of deterministic ethnic rivalry. The emerging trend that whoever becomes President of Nigeria now has to worry about the possibility of being sabotaged by an aggrieved ethnic group or groups is dangerous for our democracy.
Recall also that after the 2011 Presidential election, the people of the Niger Delta while certainly elated about one of their own emerging as President, were also painfully aware that in the course of the feverish politics of succession in 2010, leading up to the nominations for 2011, certain interests and voices from the North had threatened that should Dr. Jonathan become President, Nigeria would be made ungovernable for him. And as promised, the Boko Haram threat, which had been an issue before 2011, soon got worse and from 2011-2015, the Jonathan administration had to struggle endlessly with overt national security challenges designed and delivered in the North East, and other parts of the North. The Boko Haram crisis and the abduction of the Chibok girls eventually became key negative factors for the Jonathan campaign in the 2015 Presidential election.
It is also similarly on record that before and during the 2015 elections, certain Niger Delta elements also threatened that should President Jonathan lose the election, Nigeria would be made ungovernable for President Buhari. And again as promised, the South East and the South South, President Jonathan’s main support centres, have thrown up major security threats since President Buhari won and assumed office. When governance and politics are thus reduced to a game of thrones, democracy and sovereignty are endangered. Already the Niger Delta Avengers have announced a plan to declare a sovereign state of Niger Delta in October 2016. Nigeria sits on a precarious balance.
There is no justification however, for President Buhari, in dealing with these challenges, to also play the game of vengeance. Speaking in China, recently, he directed the military to crush the new Niger Delta militants and indeed there has been a scaling up of military operations in the region. A military solution to a crisis such as this, as has been learnt with the Boko Haram, and much earlier in the Niger Delta, ultimately proves to be inadequate; instead there should be a return to the core issues of making Nigeria a country that works for everyone regardless of extraction – religious or ethnic. President Buhari is a livestock farmer; it should not be too difficult for him to understand how the chickens are now going home to roost in the Niger Delta. In the face of unemployment rate hitting 12.1%, youth unemployment, 42.24%, the GDP recording a negative growth of -0.36%, inflation standing at 13.7%, crude oil accounting for 90% of exports and 70% of national revenue, crude oil production dropping to low levels, and the country facing recession, a foreign exchange and power supply crisis, and financial insolvency, renewed restiveness in the Niger Delta, and threats by avengers who want to cut off Nigeria’s key source of revenue, can only further deepen the people’s agony, and place the country on danger list.
President Buhari may deal with the impunity and criminality of the avengers, but Nigeria must address the more ideologically original parts of their protest, and how particularly, the politics of appeasement has made the country far more vulnerable than imaginable. Preventing the country from imploding so dangerously, on so many fronts, as is currently the case, should be considered a matter of urgent national importance. [myad]
The embattled National Chairman of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Senator Ali Modu Sheriff, has made it clear that he remains the national chairman of the party even as he described the national convention held in Port Harcourt, the Rivers State capital, on Saturday as a charade.
Modu Sheriff said the Convention, which he had earlier announced postponed, stood cancelled. He said what transpired at the Sharks Stadium in Port Harcourt after he pronounced the Convention cancelled was a charade, adding that it was illegal. Sheriff had on Saturday, pronounced the Convention postponed, alluding to the court judgments directing that it should not hold. He asked the delegates who turned up for the convention to return home. But after the pronouncement, the Deputy National Chairman of the PDP, Uche Secondus, declared the Congress open. At the Congress, it was agreed that a former Governor of Kaduna State, Senator Ahmed Makarfi, should head an interim committee to lead the party. Makarfi is to be assisted by six other members. The team was given 90 days within which to conduct an acceptable National Convention. [myad]
In what looked a political drama on Saturday, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) ignored proposal for the postponement of its national convention to come up with the former governor of Kaduna State, Ahmed Makarfi as its caretaker national chairman. The controversial national chairman, Ali Modu Sheriff suddenly found that he had been stripped of the post as he folded his arms on the strength of the proposed postponement of the convention, which the governors of the party and other chieftains defied.
Modu Sheriff who had earlier addressed news men at Le Meridian Hotel in Port Harcourt, citing court orders restraining the party from proceeding with the convention, briefly appeared at the convention but left before the decision was taken to raise Makarfi as caretaker chairman.
Sheriff had said at the news briefing: “if we proceed with the convention, we will be charged for contempt of court. As a responsible party, we have to respect the court orders. We will reconvene as soon as we are able to dispense with the court cases.”
But His directive was ignored as the convention went on as planned with the 12 PDP state governors and other leaders of the party in attendance.
One of the first decisions taken by the convention was the dissolution of the national working committee of the party by a motion moved by former Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Austin Opara, and seconded by another former Deputy Speaker, Hon. Emeka Ihediora. The convention went on to set up a seven-man Caretaker Committee. Governor Nyesom Wike of Rivers and Chairman of the party`s National Convention Committee put the question and the motion was affirmed by the delegates. The convention also approved another motion to set aside decisions taken by the NWC and zoning of its presidential candidate for 2019 election to the north. The motion was moved by Dr. Babangida Aliyu, a former governor of Niger state and seconded by Governor Ifeanyi Okowa of Delta. The convention also set up a seven-man caretaker committee headed by the new caretaker chairman, Makarfi with Senator Ben Obi as secretary. The committee was given three months to organize a new National Convention to elect new national officers. The delegates also barred the committee members from contesting any position in the next convention. Makarfi, in his speech, said he accepted to serve because it was about the unity of the party and progress of the country. “ I humbly accept this challenge and I do so, on behalf of other members of the committee. Other members of the committee were nominated on trust.” Makarfi assured that the committee would serve and bring unity to the party. “I assure you, you will have no cause to worry. None of us is seeking for any office. We are here to serve and bring unity to our party. I call on all aggrieved party men and women to give us a chance to rebuild our party to give hope to Nigeria and black race.” The other members of the committee were Sen. Odion Ugbesie, Sen. Abdul Ningi, Mr Kabir Usman, Mr Dayo Adeyeye and Alhaja Aisha Aliyu. [myad]
Officials in charge of hajj operations in Nigeria have given an indication that it is only Muslims who passed medical test that would be allowed to perform this year’s hajj in Saudi Arabia.
The information is coming from the Kano State end of the operators, via the state Pilgrims Welfare Board.
The Public Relations Officer of the board, Alhaji Nuhu Badamasi, who gave this indication in Kano, stressed that the directive emanated from the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), an umbrella body of the hajj operations across the country.
Badamasi said that the medical test is necessary because no intending pilgrim would be allowed to travel to the Holy land without knowing his or her health status, adding that the mandatory medical test is in compliance with the directive of NAHCON.
According to him, all state pilgrims welfare boards must ensure that intending pilgrims undergo medical test to enable the board to know their health status.
“The form is designed by NAHCON and pilgrims must attend the screening at the designated government hospitals. Each pilgrim is expected to go to the designated hospital with his or her Hajj payment receipt for easy identification.
“The forms have already been distributed to the hospitals with the names and pictures of the intending pilgrims.
“What is required from them is to go to the designated hospitals where their forms are sent and attend the screening.”
Badamasi said that the exercise is expected to end within the next two weeks.
No fewer than 5,600 intending pilgrims from the state are expected to perform the 2016 Hajj to Saudi Arabia.
Meanwhile, the Ogun Muslim Pilgrims Welfare Board has called on intending pilgrims to augment their 2016 interim Hajj fare from the initial sum of N800,000 to N1.180 million.
The Executive Secretary of the board, Alhaji Sefiu Rasheed, made the call on Saturday while briefing newsmen in Abeokuta.
Rasheed said this was to enable the board to remit the required funds to the National Hajj Commission of Nigeria (NAHCON), Abuja, before the deadline.
According to him, the board has resolved to fix the fare at N1.180 million tentatively, pending the Federal Government’s final decision on the concessionary exchange rate.
He said the board took the decision as the Federal Government was yet to take a definite decision on a concessionary exchange rate because “the Hajj fare is being projected on a current Central Bank Dollar Exchange rate.’’
“Let me assure you, however, that the board will refund excess deposits to offset Basic Travelling Allowance whenever the Federal Government grants concessionary exchange rate.
“The board has fixed June 17 as deadline for payment by all intending pilgrims.”
The executive secretary said that a Hajj seminar for the intending pilgrims had been scheduled to hold simultaneously in Abeokuta, Ijebu-Ode and Ilaro central mosques on May 24.
According to him, the event is compulsory for all pilgrims as this is essential for a successful Hajj.
He urged all eligible intending pilgrims to attend the seminar at the designated central mosques in their respective senatorial districts. [myad]
The management of Kunike International School, Osogbo in collaboration with Delta School District in Vancouver, Canada has offered to give full scholarships to the first two Chibok girls that have so far been rescued from the captivity of the Boko Haram sect.
The Director of Kunike International school, Mr. Amos Adekunle, who announced the offer in a statement in Osogbo on Saturday, said the girls needed to be encouraged to fulfill their dreams of getting quality education which was temporarily stopped by the terrorists, who invaded their schools on April 14, 2014 and abducted over 200 girls.
The statement read: “The management of Kunike International Schools, Osogbo in conjunction with the management of Delta Schools District, in Vancouver, Canada is extending full scholarships ( all tuitions and boarding) to the first two Chibok girls, Amina Alli and Serah Luka that were recently rescued from captivity.
“Kunike is located in a well secured and safe environment in Osogbo, the Osun State capital.
Amina Ali Nkeki with her four-months-old baby and Serah Luka were rescued this week from Sambisa Forest which is the hideout of the dreaded terror group. [myad]
“What is IPOB asking for? They say they are being marginalized, when did they realise that they are being marginalized? Is it about 12 months ago when power changed hands? If the former President Goodluck Jonathan government had continued, would there have been that agitation? Were they not saying he is Ebele Azikwe and he is their brother and that his administration was an administration of the south-east?
These are the questions posed by the special adviser to President Muhammadu Buhari on media and publicity, Femi Adesina, when he spoke in an interview with Punch.
Adesina said he was very sure that generation that fought the 30 months civil war to keep Nigeria as one will never be part of the quest of the current agitators.
He said that if a referendum was conducted in the south-east, the result will show that a larger number will prefer to stay within the Nigerian federation.
“Why did we fight that 30-month grueling civil war to keep Nigeria one if at the end of the day, people will just stand up and say ‘we are dismembering the country’?” he asked.
“The issue is that even among those who live in that geographical area that used to be called Biafra, is there a consensus that they want self-determination? Among those who are there, there is no consensus. Those young people got together because they never experienced war, they never knew the trauma of the civil war in which more than two million Nigerians died. They are the ones beating the drums of self-determination.”
He also reacted to various allegations of dictatorial tendencies leveled against Buhari, the state of the economy, militancy, among other issues.
“We know that this president is a democrat and he is very liberal. We know him when he was a military ruler, now we have seen him as a democrat. We know he is playing the game according to democratic principles and ethos. One thing I am very sure of is that this president is a democrat,” he said.
Adesina also expressed confidence that the current administration would change the country for better.
“Nigeria is like a plane taking off with its nose in the air. As long as the nose of the plane is in the air, you know that it is gaining altitude. Before this government came, the nose of the plane was down and one did not know whether it would land safely or crash-land. There is a lot of hope in the country now.
“This time last year, we did not know whether Boko Haram would advance into the core south and core-west. It seemed it would because Boko Haram was not just confined to the north-east then; it was in the north-west and north-central. The sect was active in Abuja, it was active in Kogi and the next thing was that it was going to make a foray into the south-west and go into the south-south and we know what would have happened to the country if that had happened. So if you compare the security situation this time last year with the situation now, you will know that Nigerians have a lot of reasons to be thankful to God.
“Anybody who blames this government for the nation’s economic woes does not understand the issues. A government does not run down the economy in 12 months. This government came on board to meet an economy which the President said had been vandalised. What this government has been doing in the last one year is coping with the consequences of the rot that the previous government left behind. It is not only about the previous government, but an accumulation of what was done by the many governments in the 16 years of the Peoples Democratic Party in power.
“Do not forget that these were years that oil sold for an average of $100 per barrel and there was a time it hit $140 per barrel. How come we did not save? How come we have no reserve? How come infrastructure is at the stage it is? Anybody who says this government caused it does not just understand and I would want to pity such a person.”
The presidential spokesman said the government was on top of the situation in the Niger Delta, saying most of those behind attacks on oil installations have been arrested.
“Saying government is at a loss is not right because each time this (pipeline attacks) happens, in a couple of days, those who did it are apprehended. I am sure that in everywhere it has happened, those responsible have been apprehended within a number of days,” he said.
“So you cannot say the government is at a loss because it has the capacity to deal with it. I am not saying that it is by the use of force or arms alone that government is going to respond to it, but then, this government does not lack capacity to respond to that development.” [myad]
Oklahoma state legislators, in the United States of America, have approved a measure that would make abortion a felony for doctors, with potential penalties that include removal of medical license and a maximum prison sentence of three years.
The state House has approved the measure last month with a vote of 69-15 and sent it to the Senate, which passed it on Friday with a vote of 33-12.
Senate Bill 1552 now goes to Governor Mary Fallin to sign or veto it. However, the new abortion bill will automatically become a law, should Fallin, who was sworn into office on January 10, 2011, refuses to sign or veto it.
However, there are few exemptions. Abortion will only be allowed if it is to preserve the life of the mother or to remove a miscarriage.
Pregnancy resulting from a man making love with is daughter or a woman making love with her son cannot be terminated. Also pregnancies resulting from women being forced against their will cannot be terminated.
Some Senators maintained the fact that they support the bill because state government is responsible for protecting life in the state.
According to Republican Senator, Nathan Dahm: “Since I believe life begins at conception, it should be protected, and I believe it’s a core function of state government to defend that life from the beginning of conception.”
Senator Ervin Yen, a Republican and the Oklahoma state Senate’s only physician described the bill as “insane.”
According to Cheeky Dave, who is also against the bill: “the use of political office to impose religious beliefs on people that do not practice that particular or any religion is an abuse of power; an abuse of power is simply tyranny, which I am sure these republicans will say that they are opposed.”
In this case, the wealthy women will be able to go to another state and have their abortion done if they do not wish to have any child while the poor ones who cannot afford to go to other states to do the abortion will have no other option than to have the baby. [myad]
The Media Adviser to Bauchi state governor, Yakubu Mohammed has explained how the state government spent the N8,609,100,000.00 bailout fund given by the Federal Government, purposely for the payment of accumulated salaries of civil servants.
In a statement on Saturday, Yakubu Mohammed said that out of the total amount received from the federal government, 8,521,100,000.00 was used to off-set backlogs of salaries, adding that the process of paying salaries was started by Governor Abubakar even before the idea of bail-outs to states was conceived.
Debunking what he called insinuation by rumour mongers that Governor Mohammed Abubakar squandered the money, the spokesman insisted that the bailout fund was use for the purpose for which it was released. He said that it is not true that a Presidential investigative team was in the state to verify the alleged misappropriation of the funds by the state government, saying: “t his is false and a move designed by mischief makers to bring the administration of Governor Abubakar into disrepute.” Yakubu Mohammed commended the efforts of the governor in ridding the state of corruption, especially in the civil service.
This was even as he said: “what is happening is a subtle blackmail by some powerful individuals in the state who are not comfortable with the ongoing staff verification and a fight to stop corruption in government to paint the administration of Governor Abubakar in bad light.
“There is no blackmail or intimidation from any quarter that will derail the good governance policy of the present administration from delivering the dividends of democracy to the people of Bauchi State.” [myad]
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President Muhammadu Buhari is expected to begin a two-day working visit to Lagos State from Monday, thereby making him the first Nigerian President that will officially visit the state in the past fifteen years.
