There are indications that the Rivers State All Progressives Congress (APC) has settled for a member of the House of Representatives, Mr. Dakuku Peterside, as its consensus governorship candidate for 2015.
Peterside, who represents Andoni/Opobo/Nkoro Federal Constituency in the National Assembly, was chosen over and above a member representing Rivers South East in the Senate, Senator Magnus Abe.
The governorship candidate emerged at a stakeholders’ meeting which was presided over by the State Governor, Chief Rotimi Amaechi. [myad]
The Central Bank of Nigeria has devalued the Naira by N13 saying that the move is part of efforts to strengthen the nation’s economy.
CBN Governor, Mr. Godwin Emefiele, disclosed the devaluation to newsmen after a meeting of the Monetary Policy Committee today.
Emefiele explained that under the new arrangement, the Naira would now exchange for N168 instead of the old official rate of N155 to one US dollar.
He said the meeting also decided to increase the Monetary Policy Rate by 100 basis point from 12 per cent to 13 per cent.
The MPR is the rate at which banks borrow from the CBN to cover their immediate cash shortfalls.
The higher the cost of such borrowing, the higher the rate at which banks advance credit to customers.
Emefiele noted that there was an increase in Cash Reserve Ratio on private sector deposits by 500 basis point from 15 per cent to 20 per cent.
The CRR is a monetary tool used to either call up excess liquidity or release funds needed for the growth of the economy as situation demands.
He added that the public sector CRR would be retained at the current level of 75 per cent and the symmetric corridor of plus or minus 200 basis points around the MPR will be maintained.
“The public sector should be retained at 75 per cent and foreign exchange trading position should also be retained at one per cent.”
The CBN governor said that the decision to lower the value of the Naira against the dollar is to strengthen the currency. [myad]
The national leadership of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) has vowed to take on the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC) if its leaders failed to stop denigrating the office of the President through their utterances, warning that enough is enough.
In a statement today by the National Publicity Secretary, Chief Olisa Metuh, PDP warned leaders, governors and elders of APC to respect the office of the President of the country and stop insulting him. The ruling party said that the actions of the opposition are posing threat to the very survival of democracy and Nigeria as a nation.
The PDP noted that while it is preparing for the 2015 general elections with a view to winning, APC is actively planning to scheme itself into power in 2015, using violent uprising as replacement for planned peaceful polls.
“PDP will no longer condone the deliberate, unwarranted and sustained vicious attacks on the person and office of the President, the institutions of democracy and the unity of the nation by the opposition All Progressives Congress, APC.
“The PDP will no longer fold its hands while the desperate desire of the APC for power unchains undisciplined impulses and actions posing a threat to the very survival of democracy and the nation.
“The PDP has been watching carefully as the rank and file of the APC, the governors, party leaders, presidential hopefuls and even sidekicks run amok, competing in a heavily subjective castigation of President Goodluck Jonathan with incendiary utterances, signposting its plans for the dastardly when it loses in next year’s general elections.” [myad]
Members of the House of Representatives and some Senators are believed to be pushing ahead with their plan to impeach President Goodluck Jonathan for what they called“incompetence, corruption and unprecedented impunity.”
Top ranking members of the House of Representatives hinted today that the lawmakers have concluded arrangement to start impeachment process against the President immediately they reconvene next week Wednesday.
This is just as the lawmakers coordinating the impeachment process have disclosed that they have identified over 50 constitutional violations against the President, which would form part of the impeachment notice.
A House of Reps members disclosed that both chambers of the National Assembly have resolved to work together for the common good of the country by impeaching, adding that the impeachment plot against Jonathan is not a partisan affair as lawmakers from all the political parties have identified with the “cause” and will not give up until the President is “sent packing.”
“I’m sure you read the reports today that senators are going to move against Jonathan. Now you can confirm that the impeachment thing is not about APC. It is a non-partisan cause. We have all resolved that the man (President Jonathan) must go.
“Never in the history of Nigeria has a leader displayed such crass incompetence as we have seen in President Jonathan. It is glaring and you can feel it. Mr. President, with due respect, has shown that he is not capable of running this country. That is the basic truth”, he stated.
According to the lawmaker, over 50 impeachable offences have been identified against the president and members of the House would work closely with the Senate to ensure that the president is impeached. [myad]
As if they ran this government from the moon, totally oblivious of what goes on here on the scorched earth, the President of our country, Dr. Goodluck Jonathan told an international audience last week that as far as the Boko Haram insurgency is concerned, they should not take the Nigerian media reports seriously. Does he not know what is going on in the country he rules?
In this extraordinary but not unprecedented attack on the Press, the President at a meeting of Nigeria’s Honorary International Investment Council said that “we are improving on security.
“For about a week now, there have been no reports of Boko Haram seizing more territory. Rather, we are steadily pushing them back. The impression being created by sections of the media that the situation is worsening is not true.” Really?
Is this the reason why things built up to such a pass that lives and territories are being lost?
Is it silly to assume that our leader is “protected” from some of the shocking but true accounts of victims of violence, the internally displaced persons on what they saw and what is happening that this self-styled man of God will dismiss the reports as being media creations?
There have been complaints that the unfolding disaster in the North-East is barely noticed by the global community. The world appears fixated to to ISIS in Iraq and to Ukraine. To get the same impression from those who rule our country is doubly compounding. Muslim and Christian victims of the violence agree on one thing: their government is not only unresponsive but possibly complicit in what is going on. The President has himself spoken about fifth columnists in his government.
In a published article by a senior member of the Adamawa Peace Initiative, API a certain Dr. Francis, an internally displaced person (IDP) from Mubi told a meeting at the St. Theresa Cathedral on November 20 that: “months ago the military came, went house to house, and collected all small arms including cutlery. So before Boko Haram came, they disarmed us. They came and took it all. We had no way to defend ourselves and had to run for our lives when they came.”
Alhaji Salihu at a meeting at the Muslim Council told the same story on November 14: “They searched house to house, some of us have cutlery and bows and arrows… everything, they collected everything including cutlery. The soldiers collected everything.”
For most Nigerians, five years of insurgent attacks have been a sorry and sobering spectacle and not a media creation.
A week to this famous London speech by their leader, Nigerians fleeing the Boko Haram attacks in thousands – the UN says a Million-and-a-half rendered homeless nationwide- are IDPs that had massed in Yola, taking shelter as internally displaced persons. Authentative figures showed that the Red Cross had housed and was feeding 5,000; the Catholic Church, 29,106; Kinjir Foundation, 2,276; Iliya Adamu Develoers (IAD) a Non-Governmental Organization, NGO was catering for 1,548; New Gospel Life Centre, 260; Assemblies of God, 1,201; Centre for Women and Adolescent Empowerment, 969 and the Jama’atu Izalatul-Bid’a Wa Iqamatus-Sunnah (JIBWIS), 1, 855.
The Upper Room Chapel, a Christian worship centre had 1,343; Bole Community, 801; Elkizya Yaruwa A Nigeria (EYN) Jimeta, 1,356; International Rescue Commission (IRC)/State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), 6,111; American University of Nigeria (AUN), Yola, 2,166; Higgi People Initiative (HPI) Yola, 6,163; and Other Adamawa Peacemakers Initiative, API, 273.
These figures, which were themselves put together by the API also indicated the following IDPs: Printing Press Staff, 345; Jama’atul Nasril Islam, 17,290; Muslim Council, 3,493; Margi Community, 5,500; New Arrivals Across the Bridge (EYN), 50,000; New Arrivals Jimeta, 30,000; New Arrivals, Yola, 30,000 and New Arrivals with Individuals, 10,000.
Apart from showing a lack of empathy, the assertion that “no territory” had been seized by Boko Haram is astonishing. How and why was a rag-tag army of cultists allowed to so flagrantly mock the sovereignty of Nigeria and taunt the state in the first instance?
Mr. Jonathan must know that every day of the insurgency takes a toll on the authority of the state and of his government.
When a terrorist group kills, maims, loots and seizes territory on which they raise own flags, the state can ill-afford to dither or appear to do so.
This government must be held squarely accountable for the farce that has unfolded in the North-East where a culture of impunity, belligerence and seeming complicity is taking root.
The media are no more than a reflective mirror upon society. If Mr. President doesn’t like what is in the mirror, he should first of all listen to the cries of his people who are suffering in silence. Next, he must act to change the unwanted reality, which the media merely reflects. Come down from the moon, listen to the people and see what is going on. Then do something to end it. The media must not be anybody’s whipping boy. [myad]
President Goodluck Jonathan, today, in Bachaka, Kebbi state, flagged–Off the Great Green Wall that passes through eleven countries, including Nigeria. The Great Green Wall was endorsed in 2007 by the African Union for the Sahara and the Sahel Initiative with the objective of tackling the detrimental social, economic and environmental impacts of land degradation and desertification in this part of our continent. The African Union, through its New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD), the Programme is conceived as a 15 km wide strip of greenery (of trees and bushes) of some 7,775 km long, from Senegal, in the west to Djibouti in the Horn of Africa in the east. Flagging-off the programme, President Jonathan said that this biological corridor along the southern border of the Sahara is a panacea of halting the movement of the Sahara desert southward, protecting water sources and restoring habitats for biodiversity, energy resources and agricultural production. “It is important to note that the Regional Afforestation Project, the Great Green Wall Sahara Project has taken off in some member countries notably Senegal, Chad and Niger. “To this end, a Great Green Wall of about 1,500km-long (East-West) and 2km-wide (North-South), using both economic and forest tree species to be based on community-driven, integrated rural development approach was agreed for the Nigeria segment. The idea is that the project will principally check the advancement of desertification and erosion as well as restore eco-balance even as it creates sustainable jobs for thousands of our youths who are without jobs. “The initiative, undoubtedly presents us a great opportunity to advance our vision of a green pathway for human development, and address new and emerging environmental challenges in our country.” Jonathan noted that desertification is one of the greatest environmental and developmental problems of the 21st century, saying that this ecological problem can trigger a vicious circle of environmental degradation, impoverishment, forced migration and conflicts, often threatening the political stability of affected countries and regions. He said that waging an effective fight against the spread of desertification is one of the greatest challenges in development politics today. “In Nigeria, the worst environmental changes brought about by desertification mostly occur in eleven frontline States of Adamawa, Borno, Bauchi, Gombe, Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Jigawa, Sokoto, Yobe and Zamfara. “However, the impacts of this invidious phenomenon are not only visible within these States but gradually creeping into other States of the Federation, and with the potential to weaken our socio-economic development efforts and engender other challenges. “The Great Green Wall Programme is an expression of our commitment for enhanced environmental management, and thus overcome the problems of desertification. It is a strategy adapted by African leaders supported by the international community and development partners, to fast track the attainment of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), roll back poverty and address the specific risks and vulnerabilities in our dry lands. “Our desire to enhance the economic transformation of our great nation, and improve the livelihoods of the citizenry requires that we address the risks and vulnerabilities in the drought and desertification affected States. This is what we intend to achieve by coming together to implement this programme.” The President acknowledged that the challenges ahead in the dry-lands are daunting, but that it is their duty and responsibility as Government to make a difference in the well-being of the people. “Our belief is that the Great Green Wall Programme will assist us in combating desertification, and land degradation. And ultimately it will be a vehicle in our determination to eliminate poverty, and create wealth for our people. “The project will also help reduce unemployment and rehabilitate over 2 million hectares of degraded land and improve agricultural productivity. “On a global scale, our component of the GGW programme will serve as a launching pad for achieving Zero Net Land Degradation target as agreed by World Leaders at the last Rio+20 Conference in Brazil.” [myad]
Here is a statement by Muslim Rights Concern (MURIC) on the Nigeria’s new N100 note. The new N100 note was unveiled to Nigerians recently by President Goodluck Jonathan in commemoration of Nigeria’s 100 years’ anniversary. The statement is hereby reproduced for record.
“The Federal Government, on November 12, 2014 unveiled the new design for the N100 commemorative centenary banknote which will be officially issued on December 19.
“However, the office of the Muslim Rights Concern has been inundated with calls for action on the Jewish symbol on the new note. Nigerian Muslims are complaining that the Arabic writing in Hausa language (the Ajami script) that read ‘Naira Dari’ (i.e. one hundred naira) on the N100 note has been removed and replaced with the Jewish symbol, the Star of David.
“As a faith-based human rights organisation which believes in the dialogue option, MURIC is duty bound to articulate the demands of Nigerian Muslims, particularly on matters which have to do with imbalance in treatment of the adherents of the different religions governments (federal or state).
“MURIC recalls that Arabic inscriptions which have always been on Nigerian currency since independence were unceremoniously removed in 2005 from N5, N10, N20 and N50 denominations. They remained on N100, N200, N500 and N1,000 denominations.
“Nigerian Muslims regard the latest action, namely, the supplanting of Arabic with Jewish symbol from the new N100 as a continuation of the campaign of elimination by substitution against Arabic language and, by implication, against Nigerian Muslims.
“It is well known that a large section of the Nigerian population use the Arabic Ajami and removing it from the new note will deprive millions of users of the Arabic Ajami of the ability to recognise, identify and use the new currency.
“Furthermore, putting the Jewish symbol on the new N100 falls short of international standard, as currencies worldwide are designed to suit each nation’s culture and history.
“Where does the Jewish symbol fit in? Which Nigerian community speaks the Jewish language? The insertion of the Jewish symbol is, therefore, clannish and parochial. It is tainted with undisguised religious fanaticism.
“There is nothing wrong for our president to like Israel as a nation, but it is another thing entirely to openly and brazenly promote Zionism at the highest office in this country when we are still struggling with the last vestiges of colonialism. Nigerian Muslims are becoming increasingly suspicious and very uncomfortable with the actions and inactions of President Jonathan.
“Firstly, in spite of the preponderance of Muslims in the South West, he appointed no single Muslim as minister in the whole region for almost four years. Secondly, he marginalised Muslims in the deliberations which took place in the national conference by appointing a meagre 189 Muslims as against 303 Christians.
“Thirdly, Mr President saturated the security system in Aso Rock with Israeli security operatives, a nation well known for its animosity towards Muslims. The supplanting of Arabic language with Jewish symbol is the fourth among Jonathan’s anti-Muslim policies.
“If once is happenstance, if twice is a coincidence and if the third time is enemy action, what do we call the fourth time? We are sick and tired of our president’s hatred for us. He openly confronts Muslims and goads us to challenge him.
“But we will not be provoked. Neither shall we be intimidated by executive maladministration. As apostles of dialogue and advocates of peaceful coexistence, as tax-payers, voters and citizens of this country, we hereby ask President Jonathan to explain the Jewish symbol on Nigeria’s money.
“We also demand to know why the presidency could not employ security experts from neutral countries like Britain or France instead of Israel, which is a sworn enemy of Muslims. Mr President may also deem it fit to tell us if there is no correlation between the Israeli security experts in Aso Rock, the Israeli caught with Nigeria’s N9.3 million arms money in South Africa and the Jewish symbol on the new N100 note.
“Mr President sir, are you not gradually selling Nigeria to Israel? Are you sure this will not attract the wrath of Israel’s enemies to our dear country? Can this also be partly responsible for the viciousness of the Boko Haram phenomenon?
“MURIC appeals to Muslims nationwide to await President Jonathan’s response to the above questions and to remain calm and law abiding. Islam teaches tolerance (Qur’an 3:134) and obedience to constituted authority (Qur’an 4:59),” the statement read. [myad]
A federal court in Abuja has struck out charges against Aminu Ogwuche, suspected to have been the mastermind of the Nyanya bomb attack in Abuja.
The two-count terrorism charges brought against Ogwuche was struck out by the court, for what the court called lack of diligent prosecution on the part of the police.
The suspect has been on trial for months for the attack in April 2014 that killed more than 70 people.
However, Ogwuche is to remain in the custody of the Directorate of State Security (DSS).
The Nigerian government had accused Ogwuche of being behind the attack. The government said that Ogwuche fled to Sudan after coordinating the attack.
He was later repatriated to Nigeria to face charges. [myad]
President Goodluck Jonathan has demanded apology from the Muslim Right Concern (MURIC) for accusing him of promoting Zionism. The President, through his special adviser on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati, in a statement today said that it is not true that he is using the highest office in the country to promote Zion nation. “I think that is a most unfortunate statement coming from Professor Akintola of MURIC and for which they owe me an apology.” The President who was reacting to a statement signed by Professor Ishaq Akintola, the Director of MURIC, denied the allegation against him that there is a Jewish symbol in the proposed commemorative new N100 note, which will be officially issued on December 19. Jonathan said he found Professor Akintola’s allegations rather curious, adding: “he needs to be told that I am not anti-Muslim as he alleges. I am the President of all Nigerians, whatever may be their beliefs.” On the MURIC director’s allegation that Muslims were marginalized in the national conference, the President described it as a very unfortunate thing to say. According to him, the truth is that the national conference organised by this administration has been praised and described as one of the best of such conferences ever organised in this country. “It was a purposeful conference, a conference in which a lot of maturity was displaced. Religion did not become a big issue in that conference. “Rather, the conference became a platform for addressing many issues of general concern to various groups, ethnic or religious. “MURIC cannot claim not to know that that was a very successful conference.” On MURIC allegation that the security system in Aso Rock is saturated with Israeli security operatives, the President described it as a blatant lie. “There are no Israeli security operatives saturating the security system in Aso Rock. To convince himself that this is true, we will like to invite Prof. Akintola on a visit to the Presidential Villa, to see whether indeed it is Israelis that are in charge of security. “The security operatives in the Villa are not foreigners, they are Nigerians and there is no connection with Israel whatsoever. “The premised of the issue that formed the basis for Akintola’s vituperation is wrong and he is misinformed. “The symbol his statement is referring to is the Star of David. “There is no where on that proposed note as indicated in the specimen that has been widely publicized where there is any Jewish or Zionist symbol or the Star of David.The Star of David is a hexagram which is two triangles of equal lines superimposed on each other. The hexagram is a very popular symbol but it is not on that naira note. “The symbol that he is referring to is not a Jewish symbol. It is what they call spark security feature. It is an optical magnetic feature which enables the public to authenticate a currency note whether it is genuine or counterfeit. “That is the function of that particular design. That design is not an hexagram and it is not in any way associated with Israel or Jewish or Zionism. It is two squares merged into one with a Manila briquet, which is a symbol of the cowrie money used during the colonial era. It is an attempt on the part of MURIC to cause disaffection because on the design of that note, the value of that note is written out in the three major languages in Nigeria, recognized in the constitution: Yoruba, Igbo and Hausa. He said that no attempt has been made to use this proposed naira note to discriminate against anybody and the attack on me is undeserved, unwarranted and totally unkind.” He believed that MURIC will see the need to quickly apologise for misleading the public and for issuing that kind of statement that can cause disaffection against him. [myad]
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