Nigerian Army court martial has sentenced 54 soldiers to death by firing squad while five have been discharged and acquitted.
Professor Yemi Osinbajo, who today, emerged the running mate to the All Progressives Congress (APC) Presidential candidate, General Muhammadu Buhari is son in-law to the late political sage, Chief Obafemi Awolowo. He is married to Dolapo, who is a grandchild of Awolowo and they are blessed with three children.
He is a resident pastor at the Olive Tree House of Prayer for All Nations, Banana Island, a parish of the RCCG.
[myad]
President Barack Obama has announced an historic shift in U.S. relations with Cuba, asking the Congress to end the embargo imposed on the island in 1961.
“There can be no other president, leader and commander that can lead that common sense revolution which Nigeria urgently needs than Gen. Muhammadu Buhari. I will proudly serve this country with him.’’
“The huge outpouring of support and acceptance has been a great encouragement to me and hardened my resolve to lead the process of rebuilding a new Nigeria and securing our future.”
[myad]
The Minister of Finance, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo- Iweala has said that the Federal Government is targeting about N3.60 trillion revenue in 2015. Okonjo-Iweala disclosed this at the public presentation of 2015 budget today in Abuja.
She said that the government expects to earn N1.92 trillion from oil transactions and N1.68 trillion from non-oil.
According to her, this implies a ratio of 53 per cent oil revenue to 47 per cent non-oil revenue to fund an aggregate budget expenditure of N4.36 trillion proposed for 2015 Budget.
The minister explained that the expenditure figure comprised N412 billion for statutory transfers, N943 billion for debt service and N2, 616 billion for recurrent (non-debt).
She said that N634 billion was for capital expenditure, including provision for Subsidy Reinvestment and Empowerment Programme (SURE-P).
She disclosed that the government was contemplating short and medium-term measures in expenditure, adding that the focus was on cutting ‘’non-essential and non-developmental’’ expenditures from the budget.
‘’In the short term, the strategy to curb recurrent expenditure will increasingly rely on implementing the right technologies such as biometrics and digitising government payments,’’ she said.
Okonjo-Iweala also said that through the implementation of IPPIS, the Federal Government saved about N185.4 billion and weeded out 60,450 ghost workers from 359 Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), adding that more funds would be saved.
“ We intend to ramp up the work on the platforms in 2015 to improve on our transparency, efficiency and efficiency objectives while saving the much needed resources for reinvestment to benefit all Nigerians,’’ she said.
She stated that in the short-term, the government would institute measures to reduce spending which would save a total of N82.5 billion.
“On overhead expenditures, we propose cuts to International Travels and Training by 50 per cent for all MDAs, saving about N14 billion, while other provisions for Overhead expenditure have been dropped completely, saving about N4 billion.
“Administrative expenditures for Buildings, Equipment, Supplies, etc, MDAs’ provisions for the procurement of administrative supplies and equipment will be cut, saving about N5 billion.
“Procurement and upgrade of buildings were similarly curtailed, saving about N44 billion, while another N76 billion is proposed for reallocation to more impactful programmes of government in the security, health, and education sectors,’’ she said.
The minister said that the government had also commenced partial implementation of its Whitepaper on the rationalisation of agencies based on the ‘’Steve Oronsaye Report’’.
This, she said, would target savings of about N6.5 billion in the 2015 Budget from the rationalisation of some agencies, committees and commissions.
“Nevertheless, medium term measures require greater efforts to cut the cost of governance across all tiers and branches of government and this requires support from the legislature to amend laws underpinning certain agencies.
“ A list of such laws will be submitted to the National Assembly for consideration by the second quarter of 2015.”
She said that a fundamental restructuring of budgets was required at the federal and state levels ‘’if fiscal sustainability would be achieved in the nation’s economy, going forward’’.
[myad]
Nigeria’s stock exchange has fallen to a two-year low by about 30 percent against the background of the falling oil price.
Delta State Governor, Dr Emmanuel Uduaghan today, presented a budget proposal of N327.68 for the 2015 fiscal year to the State House of Assembly.
The Deputy Speaker of the Delta State House of Assembly, Rt. Hon. Basil Ganagana assured Governor Uduaghan on behalf of the Legislature that the budget proposal would be given speedy attention to ensure service delivery to Deltans.
A Nigerian Army Commanding Officer fighting Boko Haram in the North East has warned in an explosive open letter to President Goodluck Jonathan that both the Nigerian Army and the country will soon crumble under Boko Haram if his advice on how to go about fighting members of the sect is ignored.
The letter, which was addressed to the President and Senate President, David Mark, detailed several troubling issues that are plaguing the troops who are fighting Boko Haram in the region.
The officer pointed at massive corruption, lack of resources and troops’ motivation as factors militating against the quest for a successful campaign to end Boko Haram’s deadly reign of terror in the land.
The top military officer’s expose which he claims would lead to a threat to his life further warned that if his pleas continue to be ignored by President Jonathan, the situation would be disastrous
“If all issues raised in this letter are not urgently addressed, the Nigerian Army will soon be history and by implication there will be no country called Nigeria,” he said, adding: “no country without a strong army will survive.”
Here reproduced is the full text of the Commanding Officer’s letter to President Jonathan:
PLEASE MR. PRESIDENT SAVE THE MILITARY AND NIGERIA FROM COLLAPSING
1. Sir, I am constrain to write you this letter which I consider it a matter of more than great importance for me to inform you and put to record issues that are happening in the North East (Operation Zaman Lafiya). I choose this medium to write you this open letter because I have written similar letter but no action was taken which I believe some forces have blocked it are now after my life. Sir I have served in 7 Division as staff officer and presently I am the commanding officer of 103Bn in the field. My combined wealth of experience as a staff officer and now commanding officer are the disturbing fact that necessitated me to write you this letter. While as a staff officer, I was among those who believed that the commanders in the field are not doing well. But presently, as a commander in the field, I found out that it is not the fault of any commander that the defeat of the so called BOKO HARAM (BH) has not been achieved.
2. First and foremost sir, the Nigerian Army is poorly equipped in the North East, if all the battalions are well-equipped as required; it will not take the Army more than two weeks to flush out the BH. Presently there are four units in my location here in KONDUGA including 21 Armoured Brigade HQ. If all the units are provided with all their requirements, we can advance and flush out BH out of North East. Mr. President sir, the Nigerian Army is well-trained and capable of defending our nation. It has demonstrated the capacity to even successfully enforce peace in other nations. Why not in our own country Nigeria?
3. The fact about NE operation is that we are poorly equipped, understaffed, high corruption from Army Headquarters down to battalion level. Commanders see it as opportunity to make money. My predecessor has complained of the same problem. Instead of ASA addressing the issue raised by him, the army authorities decided to Court Martialled him. All the units in NE are understaffed, but on payroll their strength are complete just to collect more allowances than what each unit is supposed to. The commanders see it as a personal money making venture rather than taking care of men and equipment. This ugly trend led to loss of many officers and soldiers and thereby having adverse effect on the moral (sic) of troops. Majority of soldiers in the operation area wear mufti (civil cloths) under their military uniforms in case there is an attack and the troops cannot withstand the BH, they found it easy to disguise as civilians to enable them escape. This is not the traditional practice in the NA. Though it is lack of adequate equipment and poor administration from the higher authority that resulted to this ugly trend by our troops
4. Sir, another bad and unprofessional act is that soldiers don’t take to orders from their superior officers because they have lost confidence/trust from them. The case of former General Officer Commanding 7 Division Major General A. Mohammed is enough evidence to show that all is not well in the Nigerian Army. It will interest you to note that worse cases has been recorded before that of the former GOC and more are still happening, but nobody is ready to investigate the root cause of problems facing the troops in the field.
5. This brings me to a recent occurrence which is my main purpose of writing this letter. As I mentioned earlier, due to the failure of the authority to address issues that I made mentioned, when a unit is attacked and overran by the BH not because the soldiers are unable to fight, but lack of weapons, ammunitions and communications equipment, the soldiers on many occasions will ran away, and a commander cannot stand and fight alone as a result of this. Presently seventy percent of commanders in the NE are facing Court Martial due to the reasons mentioned. We the commanding officers are very worried over this development. This is because we many soon find our self as victims of this maladministration from our higher authorities.
6. There is no sincerity in this operation; this is because the present acting GOC has never visited any location outside Maiduguri town not to talk of principal staff officers in Army Headquarters or even the COAS. But we keep on hearing all sorts of lies that Generals are leading the fight against BH. These are facts that can be confirmed from officers and soldiers in this operation including those in the 7 Division Headquarters. The GOC is so afraid that even with the Divisional Headquarters; he doesn’t go out and always locked himself inside his office. Infact it is a common knowledge among officers and soldiers in this operation that the acting GOC is here to make his money and earn his promotion to the detriment of the operation. The completion of his mansion at No 8 Gwamna Road in Kaduna which the GOC ignorantly disclosed that when he completed it, will be among the best houses in Kaduna, has turned to be a subject of discussion among troops.
7. The former 21 Armored Brigade commander is facing Court Martial today because the acting GOC does not want to see him and his garrision in Maiduguri town simply because of the huge monthly allocations from the Borno State government to the brigade garrision. He wanted to be collecting his money by using 7 Div Garrison, but in reality 7 Div Garrision does not have troops to claim such money. It is worthy to note that the GOC received 33,000litres of AGO and PMS each, 600 bags of rice monthly from Borno State government. All these items are diverted for his personal use.
8. Recently the newly appointed 21 Brigade commander lead 3 units to flush out the BH, that operation was successful, almost 300 BH were killed, weapons and vehicles were recovered from them, in the process the troops exhausted their ammunitions from the Div, the GOC simply replied that there was no ammunition this made all the troops to withdraw back to KONDUGA.
9. Presently more than 3000 officers and soldiers are either killed in action, deserted, captured as POW or on AWOL. But due to lack of proper administration the army directed that their salary should be stopped. This affect the families of those that are either genuinely killed in action or captured as Prisoners of War. It has also affected some of the troops that are still participating in this operation.
10. Mr. President sir, if all issues raised in this letter are not urgently address, the Nigerian Army will soon be history and by implication there will be no country called Nigeria. No country without strong army will survive. I decided to write you this letter because the life of officers and soldiers trusted in my care are no longer save. My life is also at the stake because the NA authority as usual will say I have communicated directly to you as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces and may sanction me. As a citizen of this country and a commander in the operational area, with all the points I have mentioned in this letter, it is clearly that the Military authorities have failed the country, as such they should be held liable for their misdeeds.
I have consulted seasonal constitutional lawyers if writing you this letter will be an offence, but they said it is my constitutional right to inform the C in C about what is happening in the NE and within the military which if not address will affect the survival of Nigeria.
[myad]
Labaran Maku who recently resigned from the Federal Cabinet as information minister to contest the governorship position in his Nasarawa state has turned a complainant as he was defeated in the primaries conducted by the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)
In a letter dated 9th December, 2014 and addressed to the Chairman, Governorship Primaries Appeal Panel, Maku said the PDP in Nasarawa State had earlier written to the national secretariat of the party on 28th November, 2014 to protest the sudden change of the list of delegates from Keana,Obi, Lafia, Akwanga, and Nasarawa Eggon Local Governments.
He said that despite the letter of protest, the Chairman of the Electoral Panel, Senator Adolphus Wabara, following protest by aspirants, insisted that he had instructions from the national secretariat to use the altered delegates list for the governorship primaries.
The former garrulous minister wondered why there were separate delegates list for the conduct of state and National Assembly primaries and the governorship primary.
“The difference is clear and there is no reason whatsoever for the sudden change of the list close to the time of the primary election. The question is how did these delegates in Annexure “B” emerged? Who conducted the process that made them delegates? I submit that Annexure “B” was not only concocted for this process but was illegal, unlawful and undemocratic. I urge you to wade into the matter and set aside the gubernatorial election based on this undemocratic and anomalous primary election.”
Maku said the use of the doctored list of delegates outside the original and authenticated list of delegates was not only illegal and unlawful but could not form the basis of any credible and authentic elections, adding: “the candidate who emerged from such an exercise cannot truly be the candidate that represents the aspirations of the people of Nasarawa State and our great party”.
He added that besides that, the conduct of the primary election did not comply with the guidelines of the electioneering as the number of ballot papers far exceeded the number of delegates in Nasarawa State.
Maku complained that the use of threat and coercion was applied to prevent delegates from freely expressing their choice of candidate as voting commenced late and went into the night thereby exposing delegates to danger.
“it is on this premise that I urge you most respectfully to use your good and exalted office to timeously intervene by canceling the gubernatorial primary election held in Nasarawa and to conduct another primary election so as to ensure that a free and fair election is conducted in the state.” [myad]
There was an interesting episode way, way back during the Second World War in Kano City. That time, the colonialists were in power, during which they recruited very heavily from these parts. Our young men were merely given a short training and dispatched to the warfront, mostly in Asia.
An order had come down that all ward heads in the vast city should each submit ten names of able-bodied young men.
Even in those times, you know that the local ruler will not write down his son’s name or that of his beloved in-law.
In this particular ward, there was a young man called Dan Umma – ugly-looking, massively built and aggressive-looking. No doubt about it, he was much hated by the ward-head. For this reason, Dan Umma himself knew that there was no way he could escape this hate list. His was the first name on it. As with the others, he was given his due share of Atampa wax print, a white fabric, ten Shillings and was asked to report at the Polo Ground where the recruitment officer would make his final selection. They lined up in their knickers and the white military officer made the rounds for his choices.
He looked at his young man up and down, then marked “x” against his name on the sheet of paper he held. “Dan Umma,” he thundered, “go home, you are rejected.”
Delighted and relieved, the first stop he made was at the court of the Wardhead. “Dan Umma,” queried the ruler, “you are supposed to report today at the Polo Ground. Why are you here?” The recruitment reject’s answer was that everything has its time.
“You may be my ward head but that is not to say your will must be done. The wish of a ruler is not a law” and vanished from the Court. This is the lesson I wish to take forward.
The out-going Deputy-Governor of Sokoto State, Alhaji Muktari Shagari has come last in the primary election organized for governorship aspirants in his party, the Peoples Democratic Party, PDP and since then, he has not stopped talking about why he feels cheated and that the results be upturned so that he can get the ticket. Shagari claims that he was promised the ticket eight years ago in a deal brokered by the national leadership of the party which, he now says, must be respected.
A report of the Sokoto primary in the Hausa newspaper, Rariya said that the winner, Ambassador Abdullahi Wali obtained 547 of the total votes cast. Senator Abubakar Gada and Minister Yusuf Suleiman came second and third and that Muktari Shagari got just a single vote, the one possibly cast by himself.
Since this incident was reported by this newspaper, it has touched off a chain of online reactions, with many of the commentators asking why Shagari, having lost the election is now crying to the party establishment in Abuja to retrieve the ticket from the winner and hand it over to him. Some are asking: Does he know the party he belongs to? Does honour exist in PDP? Do they keep promises made? Certainly no.
Muktari Shagari claims that eight years back, he won 80 percent of the votes in the PDP to stand as their Governorship candidate. In his manner of doing things, the then President, Olusegun Obasanjo looked at their candidate and party, and convinced himself that they did not stand a chance. He went on to negotiate a deal with a faction of the then All Nigeria’s Peoples Party, ANPP led by now Governor Aliyu Wamakko. And because Wamakko looked more promising upon defection to the PDP, the President gave the governorship ticket to the decampee and that is how Wamakko was made governor and Shagari attached to him as deputy.
It is possible that Shagari was promised the governorship upon Wamakko’s completion of term, but how many promises did the PDP make which they did not fulfill?
PDP is on the record as having broken the major principle upon which it evolved; one that endeared it to Nigerians North and South, the policy of power rotation just so that it could suit the convenience of the sitting President, Dr. Jonathan Goodluck. Who did Mr. Jonathan use as legmen to sell this betrayal of the North to the North? Muktari Shagari was among the outspoken Northern leaders who urged the party on to break its rule and confer the title upon the President in 2011 and they are threatening to do the same in 2015.
When therefore he reeled out his story of the refrigerated or is it archived ticket, it shook many BBC Hausa listeners with laughter over the weekend. That was like rewriting the history in which he played a big part in smashing up. The whole North rose up to speak against the injustice of Dr. Jonathan continuing in office in 2011, that is after completing the late Umaru Musa Yar’Adua’s term. The country said to PDP, keep your agreements, allow power to shift to the North. Muktari Shagari and his ilks made nuisance of these calls even as his boss, the Governor of Sokoto State, Wamakko stood solidly in support of the zoning agreement. Now, Mr. Shagari has become a victim of broken promises by PDP, there he is crying like a lost sheep.
Meanwhile, in total disregard to his cries, the PDP leadership in Sokoto had shrugged and moved on. Their Chairman says that: “any such agreement, if exists, is between you and Abuja. Go there and get its redemption. For us here in Sokoto, we were asked to organize primaries for all the contestants, which is what we just did. The winners have emerged and we are going ahead to submit the list of their names.”
Beyond the outward expression of the state party chairman, the hidden message he is sending to the aggrieved Deputy Governor is that if the man is looking for his promised free ticket, he should go and ask President Obasanjo who gave that promise. When President Yar’Adua died, President Obasanjo pushed to have Shagari appointed as Vice President to acting President Jonathan. Today, not only Obasanjo is out of office, he is equally out of the loop of the political power. He has no ticket to give anyone.
The story of Muktari Shagari is the story of the wheel of God. This man was one of the architects of a shameless chapter in the history of the country’s ruling party. He chose to side with untruth and as the wheel of God turns against betrayers and the unjust, the best action for all decent men and women to take is to watch and remain silent. He enjoyed the deprivation of his people to rightfully take their turn to govern, but cries out that his own turn is being taken away. What kind of selfish person is this? In other communities, Muktari Shagari would have been placed on the permanent blacklist of the betrayers of his community. He deserved his fate.
[myad]
