Nigeria Vice President Mohammed Namadi Sambo has given assurance that the government of President Goodluck Jonathan has designed strategic programme of actions to revive the fortunes of the Northern region and make it great again.
Namadi Sambo who spoke today in Kaduan in a lecture delivered on his behalf by Kaduna state Governor, Mukhtar Yero said that agriculture has been restored to its pride of place in the region through the administration’s Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA) where agriculture is now treated as a business and not a programme.
At the lecture organized by the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF) and the Arewa House’ Centre for Historical Research and Documentation, at Arewa House, Kaduna, said that the Jonathan government has also articulated a long term strategic development blueprint, tagged “Nigeria Vision 20:2020,” saying: “this is our homegrown strategic development agenda for stimulating economic growth, diversifying the economy away from Oil and launching the country onto the path of sustainable and rapid economic development.  One key element of the vision is the specific recognition of Regional development.  This is being complemented by the Transformation Agenda, 2011-2015, which is the medium term strategic plan of the Federal Government.”
The Vice President reiterated the administration’s commitment to a sustained improvement in the economic management of the country, which he said had impacted positively on the performance of the north and the country at large with a robust growth averaging 7 percent.
Apart from agriculture, the Vice President said, the administration has made deep inroads into the development and improvement of other sectors of the economy which included Education, Healthcare, Transport and Healthcare as well as anti-corruption, employment and wealth generation in the country.
On Education, the Vice President said, Federal Government has approved the sum of N1.5billion, in addition to the Tertiary Education Trust Fund to further support the improvement and development of all federal and state-owned universities across the country, while the sum N297billion has been expended under the Universal Basic Education Programme (UBE) to the development of infrastructure, learning and teaching materials as well as capacity building in basic education institutions.
On power and irrigation, Namadi Sambo added, work has commenced on the construction of the 700mw Zungeru Hydro-power project awarded at the cost of N200billion while  contract has been awarded for the 3050mw Mambila Hydropower at the cost of USD6billion
He said that in tackling corruption in the country, the administration has made laudable progress using what he called: “preventive approach.”
“Our approach to corruption is Preventive rather than Curative. We are aware that we have to deal with impunity and we are taking a systematic approach. With seeming lack of institutions, systems and processes to block corrupt action, we are using technology and biometrics to prevent its occurrence.”
He said that corruption convictions under the Jonathan administration has increased by 88 percent while the nation has recorded about 91 percent drop in illegal currency outflow which he said is an all-time low record in the country.
On leadership, Namadi Sambo insisted that the North has never lacked Visionary leaders who have instilled the culture of peace order and good governance in the region.
The Vice President recalled the years 1959-1966, as golden era of the North and extolled the visionary leadership of the late Sardauna of Sir Ahmadu Bello and the Premier of Northern region whom he said, ensured the Unity and Prosperity of the region.
“With his maxim of One North one Destiny and his Northernisation policy, the late Sir Ahmadu Bello, the Sardauna of Sokoto and the first and only Premier of Northern Nigeria, ensured the unity, uniformity and prosperity of the region to the admiration of all.”
In a keynote address, the Chairman of the Arewa Consultative Forum (ACF), Alhaji Ibrahim Coomasie said that at the time the North attained self-government, it was led by selfless, hard working and committed individuals who channeled all their energies to build the region without recourse to ethnicity, religion or any other primordial ties.
He called on the present generation to wake up from their deep slumber, reminding them that each individual has a duty to the country.
“Each of us has a duty to our community and our country; we can either fulfill or betray it. And when we are tested, as all will be, the judgement of history cannot be evaded. And so, I say to you too that we cannot deny the evidence of our own eyes.”
The lecture with the theme: “The North and the Nigerian Federation: Past, Present and the Future” was organized to commemorate the 56th anniversary of self-government in Northern Nigeria. [myad]

All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organisation has raised questions over President Goodluck Jonathan’s sincerity when he compensated the families of Immigration recruitment tragedy while he continues to retain in their positions, those whose shoddy arrangement for the recruitment that led to the death of the job seeker.
Reacting to the five million donations to each of the 15 families of Nigerian job seekers who died during the March 2014 Immigration recruitment exercise, the director of media and publicity for the APC Presidential Campaign, Garba Shehu made it clear that the party has no quarrel with bringing relief to the families of the victims, including automatic employment to 33 members of the families but questioned what he called “the insincerity of the Jonathan administration in its attempt to throw dust in the eyes of Nigerians by pretending to be caring on the first anniversary of the Immigration recruitment tragedy.”
Garba Shehu said that the Jonathan’s government has morally tainted what was supposed to be a humanitarian gesture, adding that it is morally outrageous to spare those public officials whose greed had led Nigeria to the March 2014 Immigration recruitment tragedy.
According to him, it is not enough to pay compensation to the families of the promising Nigerians killed in that stampede but to hold those officials accountable for the incident accountable for the shoddy arrangement for the recruitment exercise.
The APC Media Campaign Spokesman said no sensitive government would have remained indifferent to the actions of the government officials whose rapacity landed Nigeria into such avoidable human disaster, saying that in other societies, such officials would have resigned automatically and apologized to the people.
Garba Shehu alleged that the Jonathan government is characterized by arrogant insensitivity to public feelings and “notorious tendency to promote and entrench impunity by creating sacred cows even where human lives were lost.”
He said that accountability is the hallmark of a democratic government but that, the Jonathan government has shown its disdain for such accountability. [myad]

Yoruba ethnic conglomerate: Oodua Peo­ple’s Congress (OPC) may have been embroiled in serious crisis as members have sacked its President, Dr. Fredrick Fase­hun and went ahead to appoint Comrades Dare Adesope and Odunayo Ogunmoye as President and Vice President of the association respectively.

Members were said to have taken the action in protest against what they called the announcement, in October last year, of new executive by Dr. Fasehun, which did not go down well with them.

The aggrieved members who carried various plac­ards with inscriptions like: “Dr Fasehun is no more our leader, O.P.C is tired of bad leadership,” “Dr Fasehun is misleading the Yoruba race, O.P.C must move forward, enough of this stagnancy” “Give us comrade Dare Ad­esope as our president, a lot of souls are being wasted without compensation” “Enough of this slavery, Dr. Fasehun has no right to ex­pel any member of O.P.C” among others, accused the founder of the group of hand-picking executive members, financial misappropriation, lack of rule of law, failure to keep to promises among oth­ers.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was said to have happened two weeks ago, when one of Fasehun’s executive members, alleg­edly ordered the shooting of some members which led to the wounding of one Biodun Oyepeju.

Speaking to the press in Ado Ekiti yesterday, Com­rade Ajayi Edward Olusola, the new Director of Public­ity of the OPC reiterated the fact that Fasehun remains the founder and should function only in that capacity. He said the reason for a new leader­ship was due to the need for young, energetic, reliable and credible individuals to take over from Fasehun who is over 80 and needs to hand over the baton to the younger generation.

Olusola accused Fasehun of financial misappropria­tion, stating that the national secretariat’s land was bought by a former governor of La­gos State and ever since, the land has remained under de­velopment and uncompleted. ‘’ For an association of over 20 years, nobody knows where the financial account of O.P.C is”, he said.

He described the leader­ship style as one man govern­ment who never cared for the members and he is autocratic in his dealings with every­one which is the opposite of what he preaches as a self-acclaimed democrat.

“Once you oppose the de­cision of Baba, he‘ll say you are expelled. There was nev­er a time when Baba slept, woke up and say let me go and visit the family of mem­bers that lost their lives’’, he alleged.

Olusola calls on the nation to stop dealings with Fasehun as he is no more the president of the OPC but the founder.

Those who attended the press conference included National leader Alhaji Bature Gbada, former Personal As­sistant to Dr Fasehun, Alhaji Adeyemi Taofeek, the Ekiti State OPCcoordinator, Dele Olorunfemi and his coun­terparts from Osun ,Ogun, Ondo and Kogi.

Reacting to the news of his sack, Fasheun described Adesope and others as jok­ers.While describing Adesope and members of his group as renegades, Fasheun said;

“Nigerians should not take Adesope and his support­ers serious. They have been expelled from OPC since December last year.Is it not funny,how can a tenant say he want to eject his landlord?It is not possible. I remain OPC leader as long as I’m alive.Ad­esope and his co-travellers are greedy fellows who want to use OPC as an instrument of harassment and extortion,and when reports of their nefari­ous activities were brought to our notice, a panel was set up to investigate them,and they were found guilty,and con­sequently they were expelled from the organisation’.

Urging members of the public not to take Adesope serious,Fasheun said;’’I urge these impostors to stop parad­ing themselves as OPC mem­bers, and if they fail to do so we are going to inform rel­evant security agencies about their illegal activities’’. [myad]

President Goodluck Jonathan, today, personally presented letters of employment into the Nigerian Immigration Service to members of the 15 families who lost sons and daughters during the Service’s recruitment exercise last year.
At a brief ceremony in the Presidential Villa, President Jonathan gave letters of employment to 33 members of the  bereaved families.
Three members of each of the families were offered to three emeployment even as some of the bereaved families are yet to present qualified members to take up the offer.
In his remarks at the occasion, the President said that he was deeply saddened by the death of their relatives in circumstances that were completely avoidable and unwarranted.
President Jonathan said that the Federal Government is fully committed to ensuring high standards for recruitment processes into the public service, and the provision of safety measures to avoid the recurrence of the March 15, 2014 incident which claimed many lives.
“Today is a sad day for all of us. First, let me convey our deepest condolences to the families who lost very young people during the recruitment exercise into the Nigeria Immigration Service.
“It is quite regrettable and we promise that such a thing will never happen again.”
President Jonathan apologized for the delay in fulfilling the promise of employment to members of the bereaved families, explaining that employment into the public service must go through some processes.
Cheques for an undisclosed amount were also given to each of the bereaved families at the occasion.
“The cheque is not for compensation. You cannot replace somebody with any amount of money,” Jonathan said.
Speaking on behalf of the bereaved families, Yunusa Imam thanked President Jonathan for the cheques and letters of employment.
“We thank you, Mr. President for the promises that you have kept. We are profoundly grateful,’’ Imam, a guardian of one of the victims said.

[myad]

All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential Campaign Organization has said that the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Federal Government is working extra hours to raise malicious charges against the leaders and suspected financiers of the opposition APC, using the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) in order to force General Muhammadu Buhari to “try his own men” in a test of his bid to fight corruption without fear or favor.
A statement by the APC Presidential Campaign Organisation’s Media Director, Garba Shehu alerted Nigerians that the federal government is planning to take advantage of a vow by General Buhari that if elected, he will not investigate the past, but that all on-going cases, as he said will be allowed to run through the courts without any
hindrance.
“In what is clearly a mischievous attempt to railroad the Presidential Candidate of the APC, General Buhari to subject his own supporters to trial and conviction, the Federal Government, in a letter signed by the Chief of Staff to the President, Brigadier General Jones Arogbota (rtd) sent a list of some of the most senior APC leaders, businessmen and company CEOs with a view to the immediate commencement of investigation and trial against them.
“The list as circulated on the web, included former Vice President Atiku Abubakar, Governor Rotimi Amaechi, Governor Adams Oshiomhole, Senator Bola Ahmed Tinubu, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Aminu Tambuwal and Governor Rabiu Musa Kwankwaso of Kano State.
“Others are Senator Danjuma Goje, Senator Bukola Saraki, Faruk Ahmed, Executive Director PPPRA;
Sulaiman Barau, a Deputy Governor of the Central Bank; the MD of the Nigerian Ports Authority, Habib Abdullahi and the DG of the NCAA, Captain Mukhtar Usman.
The rest are the MD of NDIC,
Umaru Ibrahim; Governor of Kwara State, Abdulfatah Ahmed; the Group Executive Director of the NNPC, Aisha Abdulraham; the Governorship candidate of the APC in Taraba State, Senator Aisha Alhassan; the PDM candidate for Adamawa Governorship election, who was formerly the Executive Secretary of UBEC, Ahmed Modibbo as well as the former Minister of Education, Professor Ruqqayyatu Ahmed Rufa’i.
“The letter-forwarding the list to the EFCC quoted the Chief of Staff as saying that he had been “directed by the C-in-C (President) to instruct your Agency to clandestinely investigate the personal and official finances” of the listed individuals.”

[myad]