South Carolina Senator, Linda Graham has warned the Republicans not to nominate billionaire Donald Trump to run the Presidential race in November, warning that if they insist on him, the party would stand destroyed.
This is even as Trump had almost secured the party’s nomination, a situation that has divided top ranking Republicans.
“If we nominate Trump, we will get destroyed and we will deserve it,” Senator Graham emphasized after Texas Senator Ted Cruz dropped out of the race, effectively clearing a path for Mr. Trump.
Meanwhile some Republicans took to social media to disavow their membership in the party by burning their voter registration forms.
Others, though, started to fall in line behind the candidate, with an excuse that Trump is vastly preferable to Hillary Clinton. Mrs. Clinton is the likely Democratic nominee.
Trump is deeply unpopular among many key voting blocs in the United States. [myad]
Nigeria Army has announced a total blockage of all entries to the notorious Sambisa Forest in Borno State against the Boko Haram insurgents.
The Chief of Army Staff, Lieutenant General Tukur Buratai, said today, Wednesday said that the ground troops had blocked movement of Boko Haram terrorists in and out of Sambisa forest. Buratai, who was answering questions from newsmen shortly after monitoring troops’ deployment at Banki Junction in Borno State, said that the ongoing “Operation Crack Down” had been successful as the troops are making steady progress in dismantling the remaining Boko Haram hideouts in Sambisa. “The troops are doing very well; they had some challenges in terms of encounters with the terrorists in the theatre but that is being tackled. “The troops are forming a blocking force to prevent the terrorists from moving into Sambisa or coming out of the area. “I am here to see the ground forces and how they are doing. “So far so good, but there is tremendous operations going on presently inside the main Sambisa forest.” Buratai said that he was at Banki to confirm the movement of troops and equipment and to observe the situation in the theatre. Buratai said that the location of troops at Banki Junction was significant in the military operations to restrict the movement of the insurgents from outside the country through Cameroon or Chad. “We were together with the Chief of Defence Staff and the Chief of Air Staff in Maiduguri where the theatre commander briefed us on the ongoing operation crack down. “This Banki Junction is a major route that links the North to the South and is also bordering Cameroon; it is also a link to Chad Republic. “It is a major route which the Boko Haram insurgents have been using to move between the Sambisa forest and the northern part of the country, up to the Lake Chad waters. “So, it is an important location, which has tactical, strategic as well as operational significance to what we are doing in this region.” The army chief said ground troops supported by Nigerian Air Force fighter jets would continue to hit the forest until the insurgents were eventually cleared. [myad]
The United Nations Resident Coordinator in Nigeria, Fatma Samoura, has called on the Nigerian government to provide an enhanced security around the Internally Displaced Persons’ Camps in the North East where Boko Haram insurgents are still operating.
Samoura said that there are people in these camps who have still not been reached due to the insurgency and therefore called for the presence of more security personnel to enable access to those people.
“There is the need to enhance the security of the humanitarian actors based in Maiduguri through more regular flights in and out of Maiduguri. There is also the need to secure the roads leading to the different capitals of the States in the North East region.”
The UN chief who spoke to News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja said that everything is being done to ensure that the Internally Displace Persons resumed their normal lives.
Samoura, who is also the UN Humanitarian Coordinator and Resident Representative of UN Development Programme, asked the victims of Boko Haram insurgency not to give up on their current condition.
“For the IDPs, I just want to encourage them that their sufferings will be a thing of the past very soon.
“I also want to assure them that conducive conditions for their safe return will be put in place so that they can resume their normal lives.”
Samoura said that apart from directing the immediate relocation of the UN Humanitarian Coordination Centre to Borno State, she had taken steps to improve access to IDPs through dialogue with humanitarian actors. [myad]
Vice President Yemi Osinbajo has said that President Muhammadu Buhari is quietly revolutionizing agriculture without giving it a name.
He said that by launching the CBN Anchor Borrowers financing initiative in Kebbi State, while also flagging-off the dry season rice and wheat farming late last year, what the President did was setting-off an agricultural revolution without saying so.
The Vice President spoke today when he met with a delegation of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria, and the Wheat Farmers Association of Nigeria, alongside Kebbi State Governor Atiku Bagudu, at the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
Osinbajo who described rice and wheat farmers as among the most important people in Nigeria today, said that President Buhari’s action showed that he had a clear idea of how to execute a formidable agricultural policy.
He quoted the President as having made it campaign promise to pursue an active agriculture policy in rice and wheat production, because Nigerians consume them much.
Earlier the Kebbi State Governor, Bagudu had observed that the political will of the Buhari presidency in supporting rice and wheat farmers is energizing the agricultural sector, raising the esteem of the farmers and heightening productivity.
“As a result, Nigeria would be self-sufficient in rice under two years and in wheat within three.” [myad]
Ekiti State Governor Ayodele Fayose has admitted that President Muhammadu Buhari is like his own grandfather and therefore cannot abuse him, even as he insisted that he is not fit to rule what he called ‘complex Nigeria’ at this moment.
The governor, who spoke at the an event organized by the Oyo State chapter of the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) to celebrate the World Press Freedom Day in Ibadan, said those who voted for Buhari in the last presidential election did not know who he was, adding that in the last one year, Nigeria had never had it so bad.
Fayose said: “people say that I abuse Buhari. I am not abusing him because he is like my grandfather, but I know the history. Eighty per cent of people that voted for Buhari in the West did not know him. They are between 18 and 40. They voted because they wanted change desperately and I agree with them. He left government 32 years ago so they did not experience his rule.
“Today, the Peoples Democratic Party is no longer in government so they should stop blaming the PDP. They told us that dollars would become one to one but where is that today. The regime of fuel subsidy is gone and we now have food subsidy. Queue is back at filling stations. Whatever I say is divine. The next to happen will be removal of Kogi State governor. I have not lost a battle in my life and when I lost one, I came back to win.
“We have never had it so bad like in the last 12 months; electricity has gone to zero and we no longer have light in our houses. I am here to tell Nigerians that we are in the wrong direction because you cannot give what you don’t have. There is time to retire because of the diminishing return on the functionality of the brain. At 75, my mother can do little.”
The governor also criticized the corruption fight of President Buhari, describing it as biased.
“When you want to deal with corruption, do it whole heartedly. Don’t say because this person has now joined the All Progressives Congress, he is now a saint. When I was supporting ACN, they gave me many titles. Now that I am no longer with them, they see me as enemy,” he said.
The governor admonished journalists to stay on the path of truth and support the truth no matter their closeness to politicians.
Speaking on the financial situation of his state, Fayose said the debt of the immediate past government had become a burden to the state because more than N1bn was being deducted from its allocation to service the debt. He informed that the repayment schedule of the debt spanned over 20 years.
“When I left as governor in 2006, I left N10.4bn in the coffer but when I returned eight years later, I met debt. Every month, N1.5bn is removed from the state allocation to service the debt of the past administration. Those who ran states aground cannot become lecturers on administration,” Fayose said.
While reiterating his support for Ali Modu Sherif as PDP chairman, Fayose called on older people in the party to allow younger ones to run it because their ideas led to the ‘accident’ that the party had in 2015 elections.
“People are tired of seeing the same old faces. The older generation should take the back seat and allow the youth to do it. When we need them, we will consult them. Many young people are dying with their knowledge. They should rise and challenge the older politicians.
The governor bemoaned the killings perpetrated by the Fulani herdsmen, saying the gains of victory over Boko Haram were being eroded with the inaction of the Federal Government over activities of the herdsmen. He also said that it was possible that Boko Haram fighters had transformed to herdsmen.
On the strategy to employ to combat the herdsmen menace, Fayose said if the herdsmen grazed on Ekiti farm, the people would retaliate by poisoning water for the cattle to drink.
“I have told my people in Ekiti; if the herdsmen graze on our farm and try to attack us, we will put Gamalin 20 (poison) in the water for their cattle to drink. Who is giving them AK 47 rifles? Who is supporting them? We must be ready to defend ourselves.” [myad]
The Nigeria Labour Congress, NLC, has described the call by the former Senior Special Assistant to ex-President Goodluck Jonathan on Public Affairs, Doyin Okupe, that state governors should sack civil servants to resolve the irregular salaries payment crisis, as jaundiced and absurd.
In a statement, factional NLC President, Ayuba Wabba, said Okupe’s argument that the governors should sack their workers because “virtually all state governments in the country have over-bloated civil service” was “jaundiced.”
Okupe had cited the example of Ogun State, which he claimed was receiving N2 billion monthly from the federation account between 2008 and 2009, but was paying out about N1.8 billion as staff salaries, wages and overhead costs to civil servants during the period.
The former presidential spokesperson said a situation where 10 per cent of the population was consuming 90 per cent of the wealth of the state was “an obvious socio-economic absurdity and incongruity”.
But in a swift reaction, Wabba dismissed Okupe’s figures as “political statistics” that are neither good for his health nor the health of those with whom he seeks to impress.
The NLC president said that since he believed in the equitable distribution of the nation’s wealth, he would not subscribe to an arrangement where 10 per cent corner 90 per cent of a state’s the resources.
Wabba advised Okupe to conduct a forensic audit of Ogun state’s pay to civil servants, contractors and politicians as well as the cost of running government houses.
According to Wabba, for the NLC staff salaries and allowances were not the reason(s) the economy of the states were in shambles, pointing out that the Congress believed serial corruption in the states was responsible.
Apart from the states’ failure to save for the rainy day, high cost of governance through hiring of aides on high salaries, unlawful and unacceptable severance packages for ex-governors and their deputies, cost of political expediency, failure to invest, were to blame.
He said that during difficult economic moments like what Nigeria is facing, what is needed are measures to stimulate the economy, rather than those to deepen the people’s misery and further weaken the economy.
“It is not a favour when the state employs its citizenry. It is merely doing its duty as prescribed by the Constitution,” Wabba said.
He said that it was in consideration of this point that President Muhammadu Buhari gave bail-out funds to the state governors to help them pay salaries and pensions.
The NLC President, however, expressed shock that rather than call for the sanction of governors who failed to properly utilize their bail-out funds, and creating misery to the people as well as overheating the polity, Okupe would be calling for the “blood of hapless civil servants.” [myad]
As the Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki battles the Code of Conduct Tribunal which is trying him for alleged false asset declaration, no fewer than 77 Senators are believed to have perfected plans to impeach him. Information reaching us indicated that the embattled Senate President may be impeached any moment from now by many Senators, including the Senate Minority Leader, Godswill Akpabio, who were initially behind him. The Senate is made up of 109 members.. It was gathered that if after May Day break Saraki refuses to resign, the Senators would go ahead to get him impeached. Saraki has tried without success to let himself off the hook of the CCT where he faces alleged false declaration of assets. His support base among his colleagues has diminished in the past three weeks, even when some still talk openly of their resolve to stand by him till the end. National chairman of the All Progressives Congress (APC), John Odigie-Oyegun, recently told a newspaper that Saraki will not get sympathy from the party in his travails. Asked if his removal will not provide an opportunity for the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to enthrone one of its own as Senate president, Oyegun said the APC would not be bothered by such a scenario playing itself out, but the party is doing everything to ensure the matter does not get to that stage. A party source said that the Presidency, which has distanced itself from Saraki, has engaged in what he called “harvest.” According to the source, Buhari’s allies are wooing PDP senators, especially those from the South East and South South, to defect to the APC to shore up numerical strength of the party in the Senate. The senators, allegedly led by Godswill Akpabio (former Akwa Ibom State governor), were said to have held a meeting with Buhari in the Villa on the night of Wednesday, April 27 and pledged their support for his anti-graft war. It was earlier reported that Akpabio has formed and championing a new group of G-77 and had vowed to work with Buhari. “They said they have discovered that Buhari meant well in his anti-corruption war and that they have to support him,” a source disclosed.
Charly Boy, already 38 years in marriage, has offered to counsel couples who have been having challenges in their marriages, to stem the high rate of marriage breakups nowadays.
“Talk to me I swear, I am very saddened how the marriage institution is going down the drain these days. Young people are no longer responsible or disciplined enough to stick it out in any given relationship and I fear that in the next five years, marriage as we know it, may become old fashion. Na Wa!!
“A while back, I was talking to one of my sons who at 38 still can’t rap his head around the permanence of marriage and this gave me cause for concern when he asked me, “why must marriage be forever or for better for worse, and couldn’t it be for maybe a few years as mutually agreed. I may be old/new school, but I still believe in Family and Marriage.
“I believe that every human being is created to have a desire to be married and some have a desire to be single. But most of us want to be married. So, you CANT have a healthy marriage with unhealthy habits. Mbanu!!!
“Whether or not a young couple stay together often depends on why they got married in the first place. Take it from me, It is not a lack of love, but a lack of friendship that makes unhappy marriages.
“Being married to the same person for almost 38 years has thought me that marriage is no moimoi, neither is it beans and rice. Both parties must work at it daily and must give all of himself /herself everyday, forever. For me and my wife we are committed to managing each other because the devil we know is better than the Angel to come. Marriage like I keep saying is how we maturely deal with our incompatibility rather than our compatibility.” [myad]
The Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, has charged the National Youth Service Corps to step up its unifying role against the backdrop of the ethnic tensions being experienced in the country. He gave the charge today when the NYSC Director-General, Brigadier General Sule Kazaure paid him a courtesy visit in his palace. The Sultan’s advise came against the background of the violent clashes between herdsmen and farmers in parts of the country as well as agitation for self-determination by an ethnic group. He said that the NYSC Director-General assumed office at a critical time when those problems needed to be nib in the bud even ax he expressed belief in the continued relevance of the Scheme. He called on those managing the scheme to use it to instill in the youth the spirit of togetherness. “We believe in Nigeria; we believe we can build it together irrespective of our diverse ethnic backgrounds. The two major religions teach us to be our brothers’ keepers. “Here in Sokoto, we will continue to do what is right; we will continue to be hospitable to everyone irrespective of what happens elsewhere. Other states should replicate what we do here,” Sultan Sa’ad reminded the Director-General of the enormity of the responsibilities of his new office, and urged him to try not only to build on the achievements of his predecessors, but surpass them. He assured that the NYSC Scheme would continue to enjoy support of the Sultanate Council, adding: “Corps members would be taken care of and accepted as our children.” Earlier, the NYSC Director-General had thanked the Sultan for his support to the Scheme. Kazaure said he was in the palace to seek royal blessings, and to canvass for the sustenance of the cordial relationship between the NYSC and the Sultanate Council. He condoled with the Sultan over the death, two days ago, of the Walin Sokoto, Ambassador Hamzat Ahmadu. [myad]
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South Carolina Senator, Linda Graham has warned the Republicans not to nominate billionaire Donald Trump to run the Presidential race in November, warning that if they insist on him, the party would stand destroyed.
