Sensational R&B duo singers, Peter and Paul Okoye has won the best group category of the 2015 MAMA awards in South Africa
The talented Afropop duo were the biggest losers at last year’s edition of MTV Africa Music Awards. The duo were defeated three times. They lost out in the categories; Song of the year, Best Group and Artiste of the Year won by Davido.
Emotions ran wild last year when Nigerian superstars, Davido, Clarence Peters,Tiwa Savage and Flavour clinched a total of six awards at the 2014 edition of MTV Africa Music Awards (MAMA) held at Durban’s International Conference Centre,South Africa. [myad]
Editor-In-Chief/Chief Executive Officer of Greenbarge Reporters, published online by Greenbarge Media and Communications Limited, Yusuf Ozi-Usman was one of the media executives who welcomed President Muhammadu Buhari when he formally assumed his official function, from Aso Rock Presidential Villa, Abuja, as President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria…recently. [myad]
President Muhammadu Buhari’s wife, Aisha, today, hosted some children to an elaborate reception as part of activities marking this year’s Eid-el-Fitri. The party was held inside the old Banquet Hall of the Presidential Villa, Abuja.
The President’s wife asked the children to be good ambassadors of their parents and the country, stressing that the future of the country is in the hands of the children.
Mrs. Buhari advised them to face their studies and be obedient to their parents even as she also asked them to continue to pray for other Nigerian children who are presently residing inside the different Internally Displaced Persons camps scattered all over the country because of acts of terrorism in parts of the country.
She assured them that the present administration attaches great importance to the welfare of children and would stop at nothing to ensure their protection and development.
“You are to complement the efforts of government by working very hard in school and to be obedient to your parents.
“Tomorrow, you may be the President, the President’s wife, senators, honourable members, governors, medical doctors, teachers, journalists, engineers, nurses, lawyers and the rest of our honourable professions.”
The President’s wife also urged parents to encourage and monitor their children.
After spending about two hours with the children, Mrs. Buhari sought their permission to leave so that she could go and prepare the President’s dinner.
“I’m going to leave you soon. I want to go back home to cook for my husband. Because my children are here playing with you, so nobody is at home, only my husband. So I want to go back home to be with him and also cook dinner for him,” she told the the highly elated children.
The venue of the event was tastefully decorated with various playing spots provided for the children.
The party featured different games, dancing competition and fashion parade, among others.
Mrs. Buhari was accompanied by wives of some former governors. [myad]
Arsenal, today, defeated Everton by 3-1 to lift the Asia Trophy in Singapore.
Theo Walcott put the Gunners in front at the break, before Santi Cazorla and Mesut Ozil put them three clear.
Petr Cech was handed his debut by Arsene Wenger, but he couldn’t register a clean sheet in his first appearance as Ross Barkley pulled one back for Everton.
First Nation Airways has blamed officials of the Federal Airports Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) for the collision of its two of its aircrafts yesterday in Lagos.
An official of the airline, Rasheed Yusuf, in a statement said that if FAAN officials were diligent, the incident would have been avoided.
The statement reads in full: ”This Press Release is to clarify the ground incident that occurred on Friday, July 17, 2015. Our Aircraft Registered No. 5N-FND wing tip touched the wing tip of another sister aircraft already parked at another gate. This incident is avoidable if the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria marshallers had been diligent to avoid marshalling the aircraft wrongly.
“We urge the Federal Airport Authority of Nigeria (FAAN) to retrain the marshallers as we understand that the marshallers at MMA2 are deployed by FAAN under an MOU with Bi-Courtney Aviation Services Limited, the operator of MMA2, Ikeja. It is important to emphasize that at no time was the safety of passengers at risk.
“The regulatory authorities will also need to enhance oversight of the marshallers and their authorisation to arrest the growing incidents of aircraft damage on ground in Nigeria which is embarrassing. Besides the huge losses that First Nation and other airlines suffer as a result of avoidable ground incidents, you will recall that a similar incident involving Emirate aircraft occurred only a couple of days ago.
“First Nation Airways takes passengers’ safety seriously. The regulatory authority (NCAA) has been informed of the above incident. Aircraft has been assessed and repairs is ongoing to ensure that the aircraft return to service in strict compliance with the highest safety standard in accordance with industry best practices.
“First Nation Airways since launch in 2011 continues to build high standard of operation with safety as the airline’s essential focus.” [myad]
Having been considered by the International Foundation for Electoral Systems (IFES), to have demonstrated unwavering commitment to democracy and human rights, the body has slated the immediate past Chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Attahiru Jega for this year’s edition of the Charles T. Mannat Democracy award.
The IFES, which is based in the United States, is the administrators of the award. The award will be presented Professor Jega and other awardees at an elaborate ceremony in Washington D.C. on September 29.
Every year IFES, a leading pro-democracy organisation that advocates improved electoral systems around the world, recognizes accomplishments of individuals in advancing freedom and democracy.
The organisation does this by bestowing awards on these outstanding individuals in honour of past chairs of its Board of Directors: Charles T. Manatt and Patricia Hutar, and Senior Adviser, Joe C. Baxter.
Professor Jega would be honoured under the Charles T. Manatt Democracy Award category.
Three individuals are honoured each year in that category: one U.S. Democrat, one Republican and a member of the international community who demonstrate unwavering commitment to democracy and human rights.
Professor Jega is the international figure chosen for the award this year, and he is being honoured for leading INEC to conduct one of the most credible elections in Nigeria’s history, even in the face of intimidation and sabotage by some of his own staff and officials of the past administration.
Democratic Leader, Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Congressman Ed Royce (R-Calif.) are to be honoured alongside Jega.
They will receive the awards at a special ceremony, co-chaired by IFES Board of Directors and Baker & Hostetler LLP Partner, Ambassador Tom McDonald and Manatt, Phelps & Phillips LLP Partner June L. DeHart on September 29, in Washington D.C.
“Chairman Jega’s leadership was instrumental to Nigeria’s successful general elections in 2015,” said IFES President and CEO, Bill Sweeney.
“He deserves full credit for his efforts to increase the credibility and transparency of the electoral process under extreme logistical challenges, such as terrorist threats from Boko Haram, where failure could prove the catalyst for predicted election violence.”.
Jega’s expert management of the 2015 general elections positioned him as a credible election administrator, IFES said.
“The complex Nigerian electoral environment consisted of 69 million eligible voters, 155,000 polling booths and 700,000 temporary staff deployed across the country. These recent elections resulted in the country’s first democratic transfer of power.”
“I am deeply honoured to accept the 2015 Democracy Award from IFES,” ProfessorJega said in response to his nomination for the award.
“INEC’s long-standing partnership with IFES in preparation for the 2015 general elections resulted in a credible process accepted by Nigerian citizens and the international community. These elections have put Nigeria on the right path toward democratic stability.”
Jega, who left office as INEC Chairman on June 30, has returned to his lecturing job at the Bayero University Kano, where he was also a Vice Chancellor before he was appointed INEC boss in June 2010 by former President Goodluck Jonathan.
Until his appointment as vice chancellor, he lectured in the department of political science.
He once served as national president of the Academic Staff Union of Universities [ASUU].
Jega remains the only chairman of the electoral body to organise two national elections – 2011 and 2015 elections. Sometime in March, Jega indicated he would not accept tenure renewal.
“I am grateful to God,” he said at the time. “I was asked to come and contribute my own quota to the national development and I have done my bit to the best of my ability.” [myad]
A 21-year old British-Nigerian Cambridge graduate, Precious Oyelade, has impressed academics with her dissertation on Nigeria’s flourishing film industry, better known as Nollywood, to the extent that she secured a first-class rated paper that is set to be published.
Precious Oyelade, from south London, defied the statistics to graduate with a degree in politics, psychology and sociology from Britain’s leading university with her dissertation, ‘changing representations of Nigerian identity: An exploration through Nollywood and its audience.’
Oyelade, whose parents hail from Nigeria, was inspired by her heritage to explore a new narrative in her 10,000-word paper that fed directly into her final degree grade.
“For me it was the issue of identity. I really wanted to look at how Nollywood impacts those who have grown up in the diaspora, who identify as Nigerian but still see themselves also as British and what distance exists between us and those in Nigeria in relation to film.
“In my study, I found that we as a diaspora have the choice and an ability to decide which part of our identity we want to focus on.”
Potentially, one of the first of its kind at Cambridge, the decision to write the most significant project of her academic career on Nigeria’s film industry was a risk Oyelade admitted that she nearly didn’t take.
“People were advising me to do something that is popular within academic culture so that I could get the best supervision from someone who’s a specialist. It was a big leap of faith especially in a traditionally academic institution like Cambridge,” she said.
After receiving her result, the graduate said she nearly fainted. “Once you get past a 75 [mark] the work is regarded as publishable. I scored a 78 so my supervisor has been pushing me to get it published because it’s opening a wider narrative about the Black British experience and the fact that we’re not a homogenous group.”
Oyelade expressed a future ambition to work in the Nollywood industry which she regards as having unlimited potential, but for now she is happy working with young people not in education, employment or training. [myad]
Saudi authorities have announced that they have broken up an organisation linked to the Islamic State (IS) group that has been terrorizing many parts of the world. The authorities also announced the arrest of 431 of the members of the group, most of whom are Saudis.
Authorities have “managed over the past few weeks to destroy an organisation made of a cluster of cells, which is linked to the terrorist Daesh organisation,” the interior ministry said, using the Arabic acronym for IS. [myad]
I have continued to watch with keen interest the game that is playing out in the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly over allegation that the Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended) was changed without the knowledge of the Seventh session of the Senate under the leadership of Senator David Mark. The Unity Forum, which lost the senate leadership contest to Like Minds group, adverted attention to the issue on the floor, and would not allow it to be swept under the carpet despite the ruling by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on a point of order by Senator Kabiru Marafa, that the chamber has only one rule book: “That is Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended).” Conventionally, every new session of the Senate, since 1999, had its rule book, not completely different from the previous one, but benefitting, where and when necessary, from some minimal or far-reaching amendments. Such amendments are usually ratified in plenary by the Senate. The Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended), the document which was circulated to members of the Eighth session during the June 9, 2015 inauguration did not benefit from such ratification. Agreed that the rule book is the business of every Senate session as argued during an interview session last Tuesday on CHANNELS TV by Solomon Ita-Enang (former Chair of the Rules and Business Committee of the Seventh senate); but the Eighth session, at the point of inauguration, had not had the opportunity to look at the book and fashion out necessary amendments. I remember it was the Fifth session of the Senate that amended the 2007 rule book (that effectively accords ranking or cognate experience pre-eminent consideration in leadership appointments) which became the 2011 rule book, as amended, in the Sixth session. Did the Seventh session, which could have amended the document, do so? If it did not, the purported 2015 rules book could not have superseded the 2011 rule book because the Eighth session, which was yet to be inaugurated, could not have amended the 2015 rules book that was circulated on June 9, 2015. That was the point Marafa was making and I am at great pains to fault his position. Marafa had, through Orders 110, 3(e) (i), made his pungent intervention: “Any senator desiring to amend any part of the Rules or alter any clause shall give notice to such amendment and write to the President of the Senate, giving details of the proposed amendment. The President of the Senate shall, within seven working days of the receipt of the notice, cause the amendment to be printed and be circulated to members. Thereafter, it shall be printed in the Order Paper of the Senate.” To strengthen his position, he had claimed ignorance of any such notice, receipt of notice, printing and circulation of the notice to members and its subsequent printing in the Order Paper. Read him: “I have Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), which I was given when I was sworn-in as a senator on the 6th of June, 2011. When I was sworn in two weeks ago (June 9, 2015), I was handed another Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended). I did say that day that I cannot recall… and I used the opportunity provided by the break we went-the two weeks break-to go through the Hansards of the Seventh Assembly and I could not find anywhere these rules were amended or changed. This book (Senate Standing Orders 2011) clearly spells out how it can be amended. And that is the order I have just read….” Point well made! No explanation to counter his position has been sanguineous enough to achieve that effect. The laborious attempt made by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, did not fly in the face of simple logic. His explanation, perhaps, at best, amounted to what could safely be described as illogicality of logic. Read him: “I would like to offer explanation to my friend, Senator Marafa. He’s just four years old in the Senate. Some of us have been here for 12 years. From 1999 till date, this Senate has come with its own rules. There was Senate rules book of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and now 2015. The reason is quite simple. If you look at Section 64 of the 1999 Constitution, it says that the Senate and House of Representatives shall each stand dissolved at the expiration of a period of four years, commencing from the date of the first sitting of the house. “So, the implication is that the rule he was referring to ended with the Senate on the 6th of June. That is why we had Senate Rule Book of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and now 2015. If he is seeking to amend any Senate rule, he can only amend the existing one, which is the one for 2015. So, between now and 2019, this particular rule will govern us and can be amended in the manner he has suggested. Between now and until after 2019, we are going to have another Senate Rule of 2019. That has been the process and procedure since 1999. And it is based on the provisions of the Constitution….” Who amended the 2011 Senate Standing Orders to produce the Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended)? When and how was it done? Did it follow laid-down procedure as circumscribed in the extant rule? Can you now see what I meant about the feebleness of the attempt to counter Marafa’s position? These are the issues the Senate should address. I believe the Senate knows the truth. I can understand that there is a whiff of desperation in the ambience of the Upper Chamber in the lingering battle for leadership position, which Saraki is currently annexing. What the Unity Forum, which promoted the candidature of Ahmad Lawan, is aiming at through Marafa’s gambit is to vitiate the moral basis of the current leadership of the Senate. This explains the petition the group sent to the Police alleging forgery of the rule book and requesting investigations into it. What should have been an internal affair of the Senate has now been externalised due to the grudge fight for position. The vitiation of the moral basis of the Senate leadership under Saraki would be possible as long as it can be proved that the process of inauguration was grounded on the rules contained in the controversial Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended). Even if the argument is valid and a basis for interrogation of the malfeasance of changing the standing rule book arbitrarily is established, how should the Police have responded and proceeded in their investigations? Expectedly, the Police had already had friendly chats with the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, over the matter. The Police probably felt that being the head of the National Assembly bureaucracy, and especially being the one who performed the inauguration, he should be able to speak about the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015. I do not share the view that the Police erred by speaking with Maikasuwa. That was the best thing to do in order not to progress in error. That meeting, even though one is not privy to the discussions, might have provided an opportunity for him to enlighten the Police officers about the workings of the Legislature and who are the custodians of the rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives are. And once that is established, it should have, by now, been clear to the Police where to fish for the truth in the murky waters of leadership tussle in the Senate. Sifting the submission of Adetutu Folasade-Koyi in her piece titled “Who changed the rules?” under Senatewatch Column of Tuesday, July 14, 2015, I concur that Maikasuwa is not a lawmaker; that he is a civil servant who has no business with parliamentary rules and procedures; and that he is not even the custodian of the rules of both chambers of the National Assembly. I hope the Police are now well informed as to where to go in furtherance of their investigation in quest for the truth. I also concur with one Ariyo Dare’s views published in a number of national newspapers on Sunday, July 12, 2015 about the overall role that Maikasuwa played to ensure that the National Assembly inauguration on June 9, 2015 was not stalled. Dare’s views came against the backdrop of the subtle attack on Maikasuwa by Abbah Mahmood in his back page Thursday Column in Leadership of July 9, 2015 wherein, to use Dare’s words “he (Mahmood) magisterially declared in his treatise” that Maikasuwa yaci kasuwarsa kawai (Maikasuwa just ate his market). But after explaining Maikasuwa’s impartial and constitutionally-guided role during the inauguration, Dare had countered Mahmod thus “Maikasuwa ya gyara kasuwan democratiyan Nigeria (Maikasuwa has succeeded in helping to strengthen democracy in Nigeria).” I find it difficult to disagree with Dare.
Ojeifo, Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine, sent this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com[myad]
When they meet at the White House Monday, U.S. President Barack Obama and his Nigerian counterpart, Muhammadu Buhari will no doubt discuss ways of beating Islamist extremist group Boko Haram. But their second, equally important priority is ending the strain in U.S.-Nigerian relations that has hampered efforts to fight the militants.
U.S.-Nigerian relations clearly declined during the administration of former president Goodluck Jonathan, who Buhari defeated in Nigeria’s March election, said E.J. Hogendoorn, deputy program director for Africa at the International Crisis Group, a Washington-based global analysis firm.
The main problem, Hogendoorn said, was the inability of the U.S. and Nigeria to cooperate in the battle against Boko Haram.
“There was a lot of willingness in the U.S. government to try to provide assistance to the Nigerian government security forces,” Hogendoorn told VOA.
“Some of that was taken, much of it wasn’t,” he added. “That had to do with personalities and the [Jonathan] administration itself. Buhari has clearly signaled he wants to start over. He’s fired all the senior military chiefs…. And the fact that he’s here relatively soon into his administration suggests he wants to discuss seriously with the U.S. where they can work together.”
“That said, the U.S. needs to recognize that Nigeria is a proud nation and that we will need to treat them as partners rather than as someone that can be lectured to,” Hogendoorn said.
Boko Haram not the only concern
President Obama reached out to Buhari immediately after he was declared the winner of the election, congratulating him on his victory and thanking him for his efforts to ensure Nigeria’s election process was peaceful. He also called Jonathan and thanked him for conceding the poll and calling on supporters to accept the outcome.
The White House has said Presidents Obama and Buhari will discuss “shared priorities” at their meeting Monday, including cooperation to advance a “holistic, regional approach to combating Boko Haram” and Nigeria’s efforts to advance important economic and political reforms.
“Unfortunately, there are major concerns about the Niger Delta [region] and how stable that will be,” said Hogendoorn. “There are major concerns about the economic stability of the Nigerian state with the decline in oil prices, and problems with chronic corruption. My understanding is that the U.S. government is discussing all these issues with President Buhari.”
But Boko Haram unquestionably remains the top concern. Nigeria and four nearby countries are currently setting up a multi-nation task force to fight the extremists, who have periodically launched attacks in Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Earlier this year, those three countries helped the Nigerian army drive Boko Haram out of towns and cities it had seized across northeastern Nigeria.
But after a short lull, the militant group resumed its attacks soon after President Buhari assumed office on May 29. In one of the largest attacks blamed on the group, twin blasts rocked a market in the northeastern town of Gombe on Thursday, killing nearly 50 people.
“I think the real issue for President Obama and President Buhari is how do you sequence the enormous challenges that President Buhari is facing,” Hogendoorn said. [myad]
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Alleged Forgery Of Senate Rules: Matters Miscellany, By Sufuyan Ojeifo
The Unity Forum, which lost the senate leadership contest to Like Minds group, adverted attention to the issue on the floor, and would not allow it to be swept under the carpet despite the ruling by the Senate President, Bukola Saraki, on a point of order by Senator Kabiru Marafa, that the chamber has only one rule book: “That is Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended).”
Conventionally, every new session of the Senate, since 1999, had its rule book, not completely different from the previous one, but benefitting, where and when necessary, from some minimal or far-reaching amendments.
Such amendments are usually ratified in plenary by the Senate.
The Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended), the document which was circulated to members of the Eighth session during the June 9, 2015 inauguration did not benefit from such ratification.
Agreed that the rule book is the business of every Senate session as argued during an interview session last Tuesday on CHANNELS TV by Solomon Ita-Enang (former Chair of the Rules and Business Committee of the Seventh senate); but the Eighth session, at the point of inauguration, had not had the opportunity to look at the book and fashion out necessary amendments. I remember it was the Fifth session of the Senate that amended the 2007 rule book (that effectively accords ranking or cognate experience pre-eminent consideration in leadership appointments) which became the 2011 rule book, as amended, in the Sixth session. Did the Seventh session, which could have amended the document, do so? If it did not, the purported 2015 rules book could not have superseded the 2011 rule book because the Eighth session, which was yet to be inaugurated, could not have amended the 2015 rules book that was circulated on June 9, 2015.
That was the point Marafa was making and I am at great pains to fault his position.
Marafa had, through Orders 110, 3(e) (i), made his pungent intervention: “Any senator desiring to amend any part of the Rules or alter any clause shall give notice to such amendment and write to the President of the Senate, giving details of the proposed amendment. The President of the Senate shall, within seven working days of the receipt of the notice, cause the amendment to be printed and be circulated to members. Thereafter, it shall be printed in the Order Paper of the Senate.”
To strengthen his position, he had claimed ignorance of any such notice, receipt of notice, printing and circulation of the notice to members and its subsequent printing in the Order Paper. Read him: “I have Senate Standing Orders 2011 (as amended), which I was given when I was sworn-in as a senator on the 6th of June, 2011. When I was sworn in two weeks ago (June 9, 2015), I was handed another Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended). I did say that day that I cannot recall… and I used the opportunity provided by the break we went-the two weeks break-to go through the Hansards of the Seventh Assembly and I could not find anywhere these rules were amended or changed. This book (Senate Standing Orders 2011) clearly spells out how it can be amended. And that is the order I have just read….” Point well made!
No explanation to counter his position has been sanguineous enough to achieve that effect. The laborious attempt made by the Deputy Senate President, Ike Ekweremadu, did not fly in the face of simple logic. His explanation, perhaps, at best, amounted to what could safely be described as illogicality of logic. Read him: “I would like to offer explanation to my friend, Senator Marafa.
He’s just four years old in the Senate. Some of us have been here for 12 years. From 1999 till date, this Senate has come with its own rules. There was Senate rules book of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and now 2015. The reason is quite simple. If you look at Section 64 of the 1999 Constitution, it says that the Senate and House of Representatives shall each stand dissolved at the expiration of a period of four years, commencing from the date of the first sitting of the house.
“So, the implication is that the rule he was referring to ended with the Senate on the 6th of June. That is why we had Senate Rule Book of 1999, 2003, 2007, 2011 and now 2015. If he is seeking to amend any Senate rule, he can only amend the existing one, which is the one for 2015. So, between now and 2019, this particular rule will govern us and can be amended in the manner he has suggested. Between now and until after 2019, we are going to have another Senate Rule of 2019. That has been the process and procedure since 1999. And it is based on the provisions of the Constitution….”
Who amended the 2011 Senate Standing Orders to produce the Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended)? When and how was it done? Did it follow laid-down procedure as circumscribed in the extant rule? Can you now see what I meant about the feebleness of the attempt to counter Marafa’s position? These are the issues the Senate should address. I believe the Senate knows the truth. I can understand that there is a whiff of desperation in the ambience of the Upper Chamber in the lingering battle for leadership position, which Saraki is currently annexing.
What the Unity Forum, which promoted the candidature of Ahmad Lawan, is aiming at through Marafa’s gambit is to vitiate the moral basis of the current leadership of the Senate. This explains the petition the group sent to the Police alleging forgery of the rule book and requesting investigations into it. What should have been an internal affair of the Senate has now been externalised due to the grudge fight for position.
The vitiation of the moral basis of the Senate leadership under Saraki would be possible as long as it can be proved that the process of inauguration was grounded on the rules contained in the controversial Senate Standing Orders 2015 (as amended). Even if the argument is valid and a basis for interrogation of the malfeasance of changing the standing rule book arbitrarily is established, how should the Police have responded and proceeded in their investigations?
Expectedly, the Police had already had friendly chats with the Clerk to the National Assembly (CNA), Alhaji Salisu Abubakar Maikasuwa, over the matter. The Police probably felt that being the head of the National Assembly bureaucracy, and especially being the one who performed the inauguration, he should be able to speak about the alleged forgery of the Senate Standing Orders 2015. I do not share the view that the Police erred by speaking with Maikasuwa. That was the best thing to do in order not to progress in error.
That meeting, even though one is not privy to the discussions, might have provided an opportunity for him to enlighten the Police officers about the workings of the Legislature and who are the custodians of the rules of the Senate and the House of Representatives are. And once that is established, it should have, by now, been clear to the Police where to fish for the truth in the murky waters of leadership tussle in the Senate.
Sifting the submission of Adetutu Folasade-Koyi in her piece titled “Who changed the rules?” under Senatewatch Column of Tuesday, July 14, 2015, I concur that Maikasuwa is not a lawmaker; that he is a civil servant who has no business with parliamentary rules and procedures; and that he is not even the custodian of the rules of both chambers of the National Assembly. I hope the Police are now well informed as to where to go in furtherance of their investigation in quest for the truth.
I also concur with one Ariyo Dare’s views published in a number of national newspapers on Sunday, July 12, 2015 about the overall role that Maikasuwa played to ensure that the National Assembly inauguration on June 9, 2015 was not stalled. Dare’s views came against the backdrop of the subtle attack on Maikasuwa by Abbah Mahmood in his back page Thursday Column in Leadership of July 9, 2015 wherein, to use Dare’s words “he (Mahmood) magisterially declared in his treatise” that Maikasuwa yaci kasuwarsa kawai (Maikasuwa just ate his market).
But after explaining Maikasuwa’s impartial and constitutionally-guided role during the inauguration, Dare had countered Mahmod thus “Maikasuwa ya gyara kasuwan democratiyan Nigeria (Maikasuwa has succeeded in helping to strengthen democracy in Nigeria).” I find it difficult to disagree with Dare.
Ojeifo, Editor-in-Chief of The Congresswatch magazine, sent this piece from Abuja via ojwonderngr@yahoo.com [myad]