The Governor Nyesom Wike-led government of Rivers State has ordered the sack of 344 employees, comprising lecturers and non-academic staff of Rivers State Polytechnic, Bori.
The appears to be a follow-up to the earlier alarm raised by the ruling Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), in the state in April this year that the management of the state polytechnic was employing people without going through due process.
According to PDP in the statement issued in April this year by its state Chairman, Felix Obuah, the party had described as frightening, illegal employment in Rivers State Polytechnic Bori.
He alleged that at least 500 people were secretly employed without going through due process.
“The Chairman, Rivers State Civil Service Commission, Mr. Ngo Martins-Yellowe and the 23 Local Government Caretaker Committee Chairmen are also secretly employing thousands of persons to swell the number of civil servants in government employ and councils, so that the incoming PDP government will battle with the alarming wage bill.
“PDP appreciates the employment of Rivers people, but such employment must follow due process, must not be partisan and without hidden agenda.”
Frowning at what he described as uncalled for, and criminal act by political aides to the governor in connivance with some senior officials of government, Obuah said: “change of guards in governance is a normal tradition and does not mean the end of government or discontinuation of political leadership in the state.”
Speculations are rife that Governor Wike may soon start the process of sacking over 13, 200 teachers employed by former Governor Rotimi Chibuike Amaechi more than a year ago to teach in primary and secondary schools. [myad]
Senate President, Dr. Bukola Saraki has warned government agencies that are in the habit of diverting government’s revenue to desist because the Senate would deal with them henceforth.
He particularly referred to federal government ministries, departments and agencies (MDAs), noting that most of them are not only mismanagement the revenue due to the Federation Account but have failed to remit same, adding that this government will no longer condone such act.
Addressing the chairman of the Revenue Mobilization Allocation and Fiscal Commission (RMAFC), Engineer Elias Mbam, and his team when they paid him a courtesy visit in his office, Senator Saraki noted that non-compliance by agencies of government in remitting monies had brought major setbacks in the processes of governance.
He emphasized that the Senate would support government efforts in bringing to justice, any erring agency that indulges in diverting government’s revenue, adding: “monetary revenue and allocation is a serious challenge to our economy. Though, diversification of economy is very important but it is not an overnight issue. We must block every leakage in government revenue.
“We made campaign promises to Nigerians, and we must fulfill all our pledges. It cannot be business as usual. We will do everything within our capacity to elevate the living standard of Nigerians,” he said.
The Senate President had also made it clear on his Twitter handle that the annual wardrobe allowance for each senator is N506,600 per annum, about N2.25 million for their four-year tenure, even as he absolved lawmakers form what he called indiscriminately allocating monies to themselves.
According to him, it is only RMAFC that has the responsibility of fixing their remuneration and that the Commission would soon publish details of their allowances on its website.
“RMAFC was in my office to clarify (that) wardrobe allowance is N506,600 per senator. I have just been informed that RMFAC will be publishing details of allowances on their website.
“With the current challenge we are facing as a nation, RMAFC will be reviewing allowances to reflect the current economic trend. Fixing remuneration is sole responsibility of RMAFC,” the Senate president said.
It would be recalled that media reports had come up with an allegation that a member of House Representatives collects N17.5 million as wardrobe allowance annually, while a senator receives about N21.5 million. [myad]
China has banned civil servants, students and teachers in its mainly Muslim Xinjiang region from fasting during Ramadan and ordered restaurants to stay open.
Most Muslims are required to fast from dawn to dusk during the holy month, which began on Thursday, but China’s ruling Communist party is officially atheist and for years has restricted the practice in Xinjiang, home to the mostly Muslim Uighur minority.
“Food service workplaces will operate normal hours during Ramadan,” said a notice posted last week on the website of the state Food and Drug Administration in Xinjiang’s Jinghe county.
Officials in the region’s Bole county were told: “During Ramadan do not engage in fasting, vigils or other religious activities,” according to a local government website report of a meeting this week.
Each year, the authority’s attempt to ban fasting among Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang receives widespread criticism from rights groups.
Uighur rights groups say China’s restrictions on Islam in Xinjiang have added to ethnic tensions in the region, where clashes have killed hundreds in recent years.
China says it faces a “terrorist threat” in Xinjiang, with officials blaming “religious extremism” for the growing violence.
“China’s goal in prohibiting fasting is to forcibly move Uighurs away from their Muslim culture during Ramadan,” said Dilxat Rexit, a spokesman for the exiled World Uyghur Congress.
“Policies that prohibit religious fasting is a provocation and will only lead to instability and conflict.”
As in previous years, school children were included in directives limiting Ramadan fasting and other religious observances.
The education bureau of Tarbaghatay city, known as Tacheng in Chinese, this month ordered schools to communicate to students that “during Ramadan, ethnic minority students do not fast, do not enter mosques … and do not attend religious activities.” [myad]
“I don’t know if there are demons besetting that place that is making things difficult to work out there. Apart from hoping that things will change in that place, I also feel we should employ prayers for the complex to be restored.
“We all know what Ajaokuta Steel Complex (in Kogi state) stands for, and we are putting it to paper and debate it. By that, I mean the sectoral debate that we have proposed in our legislative agenda.”
These are the words of the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon. Yakubu Dogara who hosted members of the Kogi State caucus in the House as they paid him a solidarity visit in his office yesterday.
Dogara went on: “we have to engage on issues that affect the people more – like these that you have raised about Ajaokuta. Itemising the economic benefit of the place is the kind of things that I would like to see members canvass for on the floor of the House. We must not joke with this as it affects all of us.
“We must open a legislative debate on Ajaokuta within the first and second week of our resumption to be sponsored by one or all of you so that we can resolve and send our resolution to the executive for implementation.”
Speaker Dogara advised the federal government to put more effort into the resuscitation of the Steel Complex in order to check the problem of unemployment in the country. He assured the group that the House will soon begin interfacing with the executive in its bid to solve the perennial problem bedevilling the steel complex which he described as a platform for the industrialisation of the country.
We implore you to support this leadership as it’s necessary for the success of the House; for, we will not shut our doors to any member”, he said. [myad]
Muslims in Nigeria joined their counterparts around the world today to commence this year’s Ramadan fast, following the declaration of moon-sighting by the President-General, Nigeria Supreme Council for Islamic Affairs, NSCIA and Sultan of Sokoto, Alhaji Muhammad Sa’ad Abubakar III, yesterday. This is even as President Muhammadu Buhari, former Vice President Atiku Abubakar and other leaders asked Muslims to use the Holy month to pray for peace and development of the country.
The Month of dawn-to-dusk fasting also comprises of intense prayer and nightly feasts otherwise known as iftar.
Addressing newsmen in his palace, the Sultan stated that, Thursday June 18, marks the beginning of Ramadan 1436 A.H, urging Muslims to use the 29 or 30-day period to offer prayer for peace and development of the country.
President Buhari, in a congratulatory message released on his behalf by the Senior Special Assistant (Media and Publicity), Garba Shehu, implored Muslims to seek maximum benefits from the Ramadan period “by being helpful to all manner of people, learning and following the true message of the religion as taught by the Holy Prophet.”
The President in his message directed an appeal to the perpetrators of violence and destruction in the name of Islam all over the world to desist from tarnishing the name of the religion.
“As we make collective efforts to bring to a permanent end the menace of the Boko Haram in the Lake Chad basin countries, let me use this auspicious occasion to appeal to our misguided brothers to drop their arms, embrace peace and seek a better understanding of Islam during this Holy period and beyond,” Buhari said.
The President prayed to Allah to bring peace and harmony to all parts of the country and the world at large.
“I wish all our citizens a blessed Ramadan. Ramadan Kareem Mubarak,” the statement concluded.
Also in a statement released by his media office in Abuja today, Atku said that he was constantly saddened by the frequent explosion of conflicts and violence, which poses threat to the country’s peace.
According to Atiku, Muslim leaders should intensify efforts to eliminate the influence of extremists in the life of Muslims, calling on political leaders to show extra vigilance to stem the growth of extremism.
He expressed sadness that people have been turned to captives of fear because of the spectre of terrorism, even as he called for urgent action to attack the roots of terrorism by attacking the ideology.
To attack the ideology, he explained that innocent Muslim disciples should be shielded from the influences of extremist teachers, who might exploit their ignorance and push them into criminal atrocities.
Atiku also expressed his sadness at how a minority group of misguided bigots are giving innocent Muslims a baggage of negative image.
He, however, advised Muslims to continue to pray for the peace of Nigeria.
In their messages, Governor Akinwunmi Ambode and Speaker of the Lagos State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Mudashiru Obasa, stressed the need for strict adherence to the dictates of Islam throughout the period.
They also urged Muslim faithful in particular and Nigerians in general to use the Ramadan period to pray for peace and unity to reign in Nigeria.
In a statement by the Chief Press Secretary to the Governor, Habib Aruna, Ambode said Ramadan signifies a month of piety and total abstinence from food and all vices for all believers.
He urged all Muslims to ensure that the abstinence from all vices which is embraced during the period should become an everyday affair because in doing so each person would be at peace with him or herself.
The governor, who also used the occasion to preach peaceful coexistence among all residents of the state, added that it is only in a peaceful atmosphere that all plans and programmes of the present government can be actualized.
“At this critical period of nation building, the lessons of the Holy month of Ramadan must permeate all actions and deeds of the people in such a way that each person serve as his brother’s keeper always”, the governor said.
He said it should also be a period of rededication to the ideals of nation building by the entire citizenry, especially at this period when majority of Nigerians have expressed their choice at the polls for a Change which must be total and all encompassing.
Also, the Speaker, in his Ramadan message through his Chief Press Secretary (CPS), Mr. Musbau Rasak, described the fasting period as a period of sober reflection which gives Muslims opportunity to move closer to Almighty Allah and seek His face in supplication and prayers..
“It is a period of sober reflection, a period we move closer to Almighty Allah in supplication and prayers and a period prayers are answered by Almighty Allah, so it is not only for Muslims alone who should make positive use of this spiritual period but also Nigerians in general irrespective of their religious belief,” the Speaker said. 9myad]
Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega, has congratulated the 774 Electoral Officers from across the country on the success recorded in the April 28 and May 11 general elections in the country, even as he asked them to reflect on the shortcomings of the Commission during exercise in order to improve on future elections.
Addressing the staff at a one-day post 2015 general election retreat for Electoral Officers, tagged “2015 General Elections: lessons and way forward,” held at NAF Conference Hall, Kado, Abuja, the INEC Chairman said: “Let us not waste time discussing what we did right; what we did right was good and it has helped us to have a good election in 2011 and 2015 but let us focus on what we did wrong. What were those things that we shouldn’t have done which you have observed as field officers that we did, which we need to correct or improve on as we move towards the future?”
Professor Jega made it clear that he was very happy with the role the electoral officers played, adding: “as we are all aware, not only Nigerians but friends of Nigeria all over the world have been appreciative of our efforts to deliver free fair and credible elections in our country. You have worked very hard, tirelessly under very difficult circumstances to get this outcome.”
The INEC Chairman stressed the need for the Commission to continue to do its best to improve the electoral process, asking them not to rest on their oars in a bid to continually raise the bar in the business of electioneering.
“There is no doubt that for our country to continue to develop, we need good elections.
Well conducted elections will result in the election of good people which can drive the process of governance very well and deliver good governance for our people in terms of satisfying the needs and aspirations of our people through the governance process.”
In his goodwill message, the Country Director of International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), Shalva Kipshidze, congratulated the Commission for the successful conduct of the 2015 elections. He, however, pointed out that there was room for improvement.
“IFES is happy to support your Commission’s effort to review the conduct of the 2015 elections so as to build on the good practices and lessons learnt as we prepare for 2019 general elections.” [myad]
Donald Trump, an American estate tycoon has declared his intention to run for the American Presidency, saying: ‘I will be the greatest jobs president God ever created.’
Trump, it would be recalled, entertained the idea of a presidential run in 1988, mulled it over in 2000, seriously considered it in 2004 even as in 2014, he threatened, very briefly, to run for Governor of New York.
But, today, standing on the basement floor of the Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in front of eight American flags, Trump promised the game of pretend is over: “I am officially running for President of the United States. And we are going to make our country great again.”
In a rambling hour-long stream-of-consciousness speech, The Donald vowed he would be “the greatest jobs President that God ever created.” He said he would “build a great wall on our southern border and have Mexico pay for that wall” and rebuild the country’s nuclear arsenal that “doesn’t work.”
He blasted the $5 billion price tag for Obamacare websites and said he could do better. “I hire people, they do a website, it costs $3,” he boasted.
And, of course, he reminded the crowd: “I’m really rich…that’s the kind of thinking you need for this country. It sounds crass, it’s not crass.”
A team of accountants, he said, has been toiling for months to calculate his total net worth of $8 billion, and assets of $9.24 billion.
“That’s the kind of thinking our country needs,” he said in apparent reference to his wealth. “We have the opposite thinking. We have losers. We have people that don’t have it. We have people that are morally corrupt.”
Trumpalooza was unlike any regular candidate’s announcement. Reporters from Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and gossip reporters from Page Six filled the marble basement of Trump Tower.
Unlike the kick-off acts of the more deliberate candidates, where regular Americans are placed in closest proximity to the candidate, and the press is shunted to the back of the room, supporters were kept upstairs while area closest to Trump was reserved for hundreds of reporters and television cameras.
A crowd filled up three floors of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, leaning over the amber-colored mirrored walls, waving signs that said: “Donald, We need YOU!!!”
The soundtrack of the event was pure schmaltz, featuring pieces from Phantom of the Opera and Cats.
“This is beyond anybody’s expectations,” Trump crowed from the podium, after descending the escalator with his wife, Melania, dressed in stiletto heels and a strapless white dress. “There’s been no crowd like this. Some of the candidates they went in, they didn’t know the air conditioning didn’t work and they sweated like dogs…They didn’t know the room was too big because there was nobody was there. How are they going to beat ISIS?”
He vowed: “nobody would be tougher on ISIS than Donald Trump.”
And he said America was currently losing to other world powers like China.
I’m not saying they’re stupid, I like China (…) I just sold an apartment for $15 million to someone from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?
“I’m not saying they’re stupid, I like China,” he said. “I just sold an apartment for $15 million to someone from China. Am I supposed to dislike them?”
Trump criticized President Obama for failing to be a cheerleader for the United States, and said as president he would immediately repeal Obama’s “illegal” executive action on immigration. But he said Obama would be welcome on his golf courses. “I have the best courses in the world,” he said. “If he’d like to play that’s fine. In fact, I want him to leave early and play, that would be a very good thing.”
Trump’s disgust was not just directed at the current administration. He said he was against the Common Core education standards that have been championed by rival Jeb Bush, who he also criticized for being too soft on immigration.
But in perhaps his clearest articulation of why he’s running, Trump declared, “We need a leader that wrote ‘The Art of the Deal’” a reference to his 1987 book.
Still, Federal Elections Commission records show that, as of noon on Tuesday, Trump has not yet filed any paperwork regarding his candidacy or finances. He has 15 days to do so.
Trump was introduced by his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who during the speech held hands with her husband, real estate mogul Jared Kushner, who owns the New York Observer.
“His legend has been built and his accomplishments are too many to name,” Ivanka Trump said. “Most people strive their entire lives to achieve great success in a single field. My father has succeeded at many, at the highest level and in a global scale….the common denominator is him.”
The campaigns of Jeb Bush, Rand Paul, Lindsey Graham, and Carly Fiorina all declined to comment on what Trump’s entry meant for the presidential race. Other campaigns couldn’t immediately be reached for comment.
Republican National Committee spokesman Sean Spicer called Trump “a successful businessman” and said, “We’ve got a number of caliber candidates running in this cycle.”
He said Trump would be able to participate in the debates if he qualifies like any other candidate. “If he meets the requirements, he’s in.”
In a tongue-in-cheek statement, the Democratic National Committee welcomed Trump to the crowded Republican field: “Today, Donald Trump became the second major Republican candidate to announce for president in two days,” said spokeswoman Holly Shulman. “He adds some much-needed seriousness that has previously been lacking from the GOP field, and we look forward to hearing more about his ideas for the nation.” [myad]
United States of America has announced the killing of the Al-Qaida’s number two leader, Nasir al-Wahishi in airstrkes. Al-Wahishi was said to be the commander of the Al-Qaida’s powerful Yemeni affiliate which has been dealing the global network its biggest blow since the killing of Osama bin Laden and eliminating a charismatic leader.
According to the US, Nasir al-Wahishi is the latest in a series of senior figures from al-Qaida’s Yemen branch eliminated by US drone strikes in the past five months, including its top ideologue and a senior military commander.
The US activity against al-Qaida is also not limited to Yemen. Over the weekend, a US airstrike in Libya targeted an al-Qaida-linked militant commander, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, who led a 2013 attack on an Algerian gas complex that killed 35 hostages including several Americans. US officials are still trying to confirm whether he was killed in the raid.
Al-Wahishi was a former aide to bin Laden who, after the al-Qaida affiliate in Saudi Arabia was crushed in the mid-2000s, rebuilt it in his homeland Yemen and turned it into the terror network’s most dangerous branch. He also served as deputy to Ayman al-Zawahri, who succeeded bin Laden in 2011 as the network’s leader. The US put a bounty of up to $10 million on al-Wahishi.
The Yemeni branch, known as al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula, claimed responsibility for January’s attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that killed 12 people. It also attempted several direct attacks on the United States including the botched 2009 plot to bomb an American passenger jet.
A senior operative in the affiliate announced al-Wahishi’s death and said his deputy, Qassim al-Raimi, has been tapped to replace him.
“Our Muslim nation, one of your heroes and masters has departed to God,” Khaled Batrafi said in a video statement dated June 14 but released by the group online Tuesday. In a eulogy, he said al-Wahishi “took part with (al-Qaida’s) first generation in hurting America in different places of the world starting from the 1990’s.”
Batarfi vowed that the group’s war on the United States would continue, saying “the blood of these pioneers makes us more determined to sacrifice.” He said the US would “taste the bitter flavor of war and defeat until you stop supporting the Jews, the occupiers of Palestine, until you leave the lands of the Muslims and stop supporting apostate tyrants.”
Al-Wahishi’s death came in a US drone strike a week ago in the southern Yemeni port city of Mukalla, which al-Qaida captured in April. Yemeni security officials said two other militants were killed in the strike. They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the press. US officials had said they were trying to verify whether al-Wahishi was killed.
Al-Raimi, the new leader of AQAP, is thought to have masterminded a 2010 plot in which bombs concealed in printers were shipped to the US on cargo planes before being detected and defused. He is believed to direct training camps in Yemen’s remote deserts and mountains, where he organizes cells and plans attacks.
AQAP’s master bomb-maker, Ibrahim Hassan al-Asiri, is also believed to still be alive. He is thought to have designed the bombs used in the cargo planes plot and in the 2009 plane-bombing plot, in which the bomber hid explosives in his underwear but botched the detonation.
Al-Asiri also designed the explosives used by his own younger brother, who blew himself up in a failed 2009 attempt to assassinate Prince Mohammed bin Nayef, then head of Saudi Arabia’s counterterrorism agency. Mohammed is now the crown prince. Al-Shihri is a Saudi national.
Al-Wahishi’s death is a major loss for al-Qaida as it struggles to compete with the Islamic State, a breakaway group that has seized vast swaths of Syria and Iraq and spawned its own affiliates elsewhere in the region. The Islamic State group has also gained loyalists in Yemen in competition with al-Qaida.
Both groups are dedicated to bringing about Islamic rule by force, but al-Qaida does not recognize the IS group’s self-styled caliphate and has maintained that the priority should be to wage jihad against America in order to drive it out of the Middle East.
Al-Qaida has been able to make major gains in Yemen the past months as the country is torn by war between Shiite rebels known as Houthis who have taken over much of the country and their opponents, a mix of local militias, southern separatists, Sunni tribesmen and backers of the president, Abed Rabbo Hadi Mansour, who was driven abroad by the fighting. Al-Qaida’s militants have allied with some of the anti-Houthi forces in fighting the rebels. Batarfi said his group is fighting rebels and allied forces in 11 fronts.
The capture of Mukalla was the group’s biggest victory. It freed a number of prisoners, including Batrafi. It then struck a power-sharing deal with local tribesmen.
But Mukalla has proved something of a death trap. Besides al-Wahishi, US drone strikes in and around the city have killed the group’s top military commander Nasr al-Ansi, its most senior religious ideologue Ibrahim al-Rubaish, and key operatives Mamoun Hatem and Khalwan al-Sanaani.
In recent years, US strikes have also killed Anwar al-Awlaki, an American-Yemeni militant preacher who was a major recruiter for the group, and Saeed al-Shihri, an ex-Guantanamo detainee from Saudi Arabia who was al-Wahishi’s deputy at the time.
The intensity of US drone strikes comes despite the withdrawal earlier this year of US counterterrorism personnel from the al-Annad air base in southern Yemen in addition to the closure of US embassy in the capital because of the country’s fighting. The Special Forces commandos at the base had played a key role in drone strikes and there had been major concerns that the withdrawal would undermine the fight against al-Qaida.
Al-Wahishi was known as bin Laden’s “black box,” keeping the al-Qaida leader’s secrets. It was not clear how much involvement al-Wahishi had in the 9/11 attacks in the United States.
During the US-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, al-Wahishi fought alongside bin Laden at Tora Bora before the al-Qaida leader slipped across the border into Pakistan. Al-Wahishi fled to Iran, where he was detained and deported to Yemen in 2003.
He was among 23 al-Qaida militants who broke out of a detention facility in Yemen’s capital, Sanaa, in February 2006. Three years later, al-Wahishi announced the creation of AQAP, which gathered together Yemeni and Saudi militants following a sweeping crackdown on the extremist group by Riyadh.
According to the US government’s “Wanted to Justice” program, al-Wahishi, “is responsible for approving targets, recruiting new members, allocating resources to training and attack planning, and tasking others to carry out attacks.” [myad]
A civil rights group, Centre for Social Justice, has sent a petition to the Independent Corrupt Practices Commission (ICPC), asking it to investigate the appointment and activities of the Nigeria Export and Import (NEXIM) bank’s Executive Director for business Development, Mrs. Folake Itohan Oke Salami, which they claim is undeserving.
In a letter addressed to the ICPC, signed by Comrade Ikpa Isaac for the group, dated 5 June, 2015, the group said the appointment of the Executive Director, Mrs. Folake Itohan Oke Salami did not follow due process as she was not qualified to be appointed executive director in the Bank.
“As the situation stands, we have carried out private investigations on the credentials of the said Mrs. Folake Itohan Oke Salami and discovered that she committed fraud and told huge lies on oath in order to occupy the aforesaid position”. It read in part.
The group which is a coalition of civil rights groups addressed a press conference claiming, Mrs Salami had falsified her experience status in the banking sector to influence her appointment into that position, stating that her claim of working in a multipurpose cooperative Society did not fit the bill as stipulated by the Central Bank of Nigeria.
In a press briefing held in Abuja and addressed by the Executive Coordinator, the group claimed the said Executive Director had used her claimed as owning a multi-purpose cooperative society to influence her appointment.
“In the light of the above, paragraph 3.2A of the said circular states that a Managing Director, Deputy Managing Director and Executive Director of a bank such as NEXIM Bank must have possess a minimum of fifteen(15) years post qualification experience out of which, at least, ten (10) must be in management and leadership positions…
“Sir, we make bold to state that a “Multipurpose Cooperative Society” does not qualify as a bank in the eyes of the Central Bank of Nigeria. It therefore follows that Mrs. Folake Itohan Oke Salami’s claim of having acted as the Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer of her mushroom “Multipurpose Cooperative Society”, thereby fraudulently earning herself the prestigious position of Executive Director Business Development, Nigerian Export-Import Bank to the detriment of the other suitably qualified Nigerian citizens constitutes an offence punishable under Section 25 of the Corrupt Practices and other Related Offences Act No. 5, 2000,″ it stated.
They called on the ICPC to ignite full-fledged investigation into the records of Mrs. Salami to ascertain whether or not she is qualified ab initio to be considered and appointed as Executive Director Business Development of Nigerian Export-Import Bank.
They also demanded that upon confirmation, it was clear that she is not qualify and she lied on oath, and that criminal proceedings be initiated against her to ensure that she is not only removed from office and sent to jail but that the salaries, emoluments and allowances she had received while fraudulently occupying the office be returned to the coffers of the Federal Government of Nigeria to serve as deterrence to other Nigerians.
The group however warned that failure by the Commission to act on the petition within Seven working days will leave them with no other option than to mobilize the media and other concerned organizations to occupy the commission’s office until the attention of Mr. President and the international community is drawn to the matter. [myad]
The immediate past governor of Kano State, Dr. Rabiu Kwankwaso, has regretted that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) which would not allow anybody from another party to occupy any vital posts in its 16 years reign, has now shamelessly accepted the position of the deputy senate President, even as he swore that All Progressives Congress (APC) would not accept such abuse.
Kwankwaso, who spoke in an interview with the Nation in Abuja, said: “It (Deputy President of the Senate) does not belong to them. I have been in PDP from 1999 until 2014 or so. You see, it was unthinkable in PDP for you to allow any other party to take any of those positions. They have done it five times and they never allowed any member of any party to go near those positions, so I think it was unfair and not correct and they took it shamelessly and I am sure our party will look at it and take what belongs to our party back.
“As far as we are concerned, PDP was dead until recently when this ambition brought certain people to do what they should not do in democracy and party politics and how they are just about to create unnecessary life for them to the extent that some of them are servicing again and making all sorts of statements.”
Faulting Ekweremadu’s election and his assumption that the slot was meant to integrate the Southeast, Kwakwaso said that it is wrong, adding that he had just read (from media), that Ekwerenmadu was speaking ‘nonsense.’
“Just yesterday, I was reading, I don’t know whether it is true or not, that Ike Ekweremadu was talking rubbish, nonsense. It is like they have reasons to speak again and I think it is because of the mistakes of our members. I believe that at the end of the day, the party and members must get a way of coming together and behave well, I think that is the only way we can make progress.”
“I don’t think I should be in a hurry to say that he should resign but all I know is that many things have gone wrong to the extent that the party has to put its acts together to make sure that things that are done in that way are stopped and from there, we will build the party again.
He warned that the political romance between Senator Saraki and Ekwerenmadu will create inhibitions for the Buhari administration and that this happened because the APC leadership missed some vital steps and gave ample opportunity to Saraki’s group, which used it effectively.
“To the best of my knowledge, the Saraki group is yet to reach out to the Unity Forum of Senator Ahmed Lawan and Senator George Akume.”
Kwakwaso said that though the APC was divided, but that it is not too late to correct things, even as he said that Saraki became the President of the Senate because of some factors, including conspiracy against Asiwaju Bola Tinubu, the failure of the APC leadership to act on time, the plot by G-5/G-7 members who were interested in seeing one of them occupy a position; and some groups who believed that Saraki had given them so many things and it was pay-back time.
“On the issue of what went wrong, I think there were so many things having to do with time. This election had to do with time. We had so many weeks before the election to address this issue. This is not the time to say I told you or I told them, but many of us tried to tell our leaders to do the right thing at the right time.
“I think the party missed the crucial opportunity to address this challenge. I think time was crucial of which the party missed some important steps and therefore things went wrong. I told you the party missed some vital steps and gave an ample opportunity to Bukola Saraki’s group and they used it effectively and took all the advantages that had to do with the mistakes of our leaders.”
Kwankwaso said some forces in APC also contributed to the “sad” development in the Senate, especially those who conspired against Tinubu.
“I am aware that members of the G-5/G-7 group were interested in seeing one of us occupying one of the strategic positions. I am also aware that there are some people in the party who believed Tinubu had taken so many things and it was time to take a break. They had a perception that Tinubu was trying to take it all. There are other groups that believed that Saraki had given them so many things and they had to pay him back. Many senators believed that they were supported by Saraki.”
“You see, first of all, the President will face a lot of irritations in the sense that these people must be very angry with themselves, they must be very angry with Nigerians and, therefore, will do everything possible to put all sorts of hurdles on the way of Mr. President. That is obvious.
“I can always read their mind. I was one of them, I was part of them, I was part of the party but we had to leave the party because of this attitude. So, in some of the books that I read, especially Islamic books, there are things that we call Sadaqatuljariya (doing charitable deeds like building schools, hospital, throughout your life) and you will be getting reward and even after you die.
“These sorts of mistakes are what we call Musibatuljariya. It is so bad and it is a bad thing that will continue to occur until the system goes to end because they have their own agenda to tackle the APC, to tackle the APC government, they are angry with themselves, they are angry with the people and Nigeria because they feel Nigeria belongs to them and they wanted to take everything and Nigerians rejected them.”
Kwankwaso is also of the opinion that the President is not with the development in the Senate.
“I think the position of Buhari was that the party should handle it. I don’t think he wants to put his fingers there. I am not sure his fingers are in it but what I know is that I am not sure if he is happy that members of our party could not be loyal to it. They could not go by the dictates of the party. I am not sure if Buhari is a happy man even though he did not put his fingers but he was expecting that members of his party will be loyal to the party.
“I don’t know his mindset, I have not seen him since the election but I am sure that he cannot be a happy man with his party, where he is the national leader, has set up position and some members decided to go against it to the extent of bringing people who should not be in those positions.”
The former governor also said that Saraki’s alliance with the PDP might make reconciliation to be problematic.
“I believe the party is doing something that will bring back the members together and have good understanding but what complicated the whole situation now is that more than 50 percent of Saraki is in PDP, if you take the condition of the position of the Senate President. I don’t know which percentage he will give and, therefore, it becomes more difficult.
“And the implication of this now is that very soon, the leadership of the Senate will start Tambuwalising the party and, of course, the government as we have seen in 2011.”
“I think the party, unfortunately, is divided but it is not too late to correct many things but the party should take certain steps to ensure that such things will never happen again in the party and I am one of those who advised or tried to advise my brother, Saraki that he should not go too far with that ambition under this circumstance.
“At this level and his level, people should be more careful and cautious in what they do and what they don’t do and especially that the situation is even worse than the case of Tambuwal during the House of Representatives election of principal officers in 2011.
“Of course, Tambuwal’s case was a case of going out of zoning but all the positions went to members of the party. But this time around, because of the ambition of our members, I think they went and connived with people who are not only opponents of the party but enemies of the party to fight the party after the people of this country have discarded these people.
“And now because of ambition, these people were made in a way relevant and I don’t think that is the best way to go. Members of the party should have certain limitations, they should know when to start and when to stop and I think this is going too far in romancing members of the PDP.
“Maybe there are ways APC can accommodate the Southeast by way of appointment but certainly, we have not seen PDP in the five times that they had reasons to select leaders in the National Assembly, they never considered other parties in terms of giving them position but I am sure that our party had it in mind that it will carry the Southeast but not in the position of the Senate President.
“The Senate has Deputy Senate President; that position does not belong to the PDP and that is the mistake Ekweremadu is making. Now he said he was elected deputy Senate president, yet he reduced himself to a zone and a tribe, which is not good enough.
“We are not saying he should step down or stay; what I am saying is that what they have taken does not belong to them and all those who supported him and his party to get it have made a big mistake for themselves, the party and indeed for the country and they should be ashamed of themselves.”
On the way out of the logjam, Kwankwaso said the APC leadership has to enforce discipline.
“I don’t know, the party must be doing its own bit but if I were the national chairman, I would either write to these members individually a letter of displeasure or call them and tell them because there has to be discipline.
“It does not matter whether you are 10 or 20 or even 1,000, whatever your number is in a party, as long as there is no discipline, definitely there will be problem. I am one of the senior senators by any standard in this country but because of the consideration of the fact that Buhari is from the Northwest, of course not from Kano, you are not seeing me going round to say I want this position or that position.
“I have president in my zone and I have to be considerate in the sense that other zones should get it. It is not like you will come by all means and you must take it whether it favours the zoning, the party or not. So, all these things must be respected by the party and the members.
On the likelihood of the Saraki reaching out to Lawan’s Unity Forum for reconciliation, Kwankwaso said: “I think it is good to have reconciliation but I am not aware of it, nobody informed me.
“I am just watching the development and, in fact, on that very day immediately after the so called election, I had to travel to Paris to receive an award . . . I learnt that some members were sworn in; well I will wait till they come back from their break.” [myad]
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