From left: Arc. Mike Onolememen, Minister of Works; Arc Namadi Sanbo, Vice President, Federal Republic of Nigeria; Governor Emmanuel Uduaghan of Delta State; Hon. Ndudi Elumelu, member, House of Representatives and others during the commissioning of Utor Bridge, on Asaba, Ebu/ Urhomi Road. [myad]
President Goodluck Jonathan has commended the administration of Dr. Emmanuel Uduaghan on the giant developmental strides it has achieved in Delta State.
Dr. Jonathan spoke today at the commissioning of the Utor Bridge on the Asaba-Ebu-Uromi Road which will ease movement from the eastern part of the country to Abuja by more than two hours.
Represented by his Vice, Mohammed Namadi Sambo and accompanied by the Governor of Delta State, the President observed that Dr. Uduaghan has delivered on several critical sectors in the state.
“You have created the enabling environment for development to take place. You have the transport sector, you have transformed so many areas and it is highly commendable and we will continue to partner with you in this direction.”
President Jonathan explained that the commissioning of the bridge is a re-affirmation of this administration’s commitment to improve on the infrastructure base of the country, adding: “it is gratifying that the completed bridge is positively impacting on the people of the immediate community and other Nigerians.”
The President sadi that he has directed the minister of Works to commence the design of a dual carriage way on the road to facilitate movement of people and goods to different parts of the country.
“We have asked the Minister of Works to commence the design for the dualisation of the road,” the President said while reiterating his administration’s commitment to partner with the private sector in the development of the country.
Dr Uduaghan had on his part commended the President Jonathan’s led administration for transforming the country and challenged the Ministry of Works to showcase President’s achievements.
“This is an era we need to showcase the many achievements of the President, we thank Mr President for speedily completing this project.”
The Governor noted that the bridge project was very important because it will facilitate movement between the people of Delta and Edo States, adding, “three quarter of the people in Edo State and those in Kogi State can now make use of the airport (the Asaba International Airport).”
He used the occasion to call on the Federal Government to device means of regulating weight of vehicles that ply the roads, observing that the durability of the roads were been affected by the weight of the vehicles that ply them.
“We need to regulate the weight of the vehicles that ply this road for the road to last . This road is very important to us that is why we are also constructing a flyover at the Inter Bau Roundabout because we are envisaging a lot of traffic on the road,” the Governor said.
The Minister of Works, Arc. Mike Onolememen had in his welcome address said the Utor River Bridge on the Asaba-Ebu-Uromi Road cost the Federal Government N4.4 billion and would facilitate free flow of vehicles, people and materials and thanked Governor Uduaghan for his cooperation which facilitated the completion of the bridge. [myad]
There is a popular saying that a stitch in time saves nine. That is to say that taking action at the right (earliest) time can stem a lot of problems. In other words, delay, they say, is dangerous.
And, in Nigeria today, it has become clear that the government does not give any special regard to the concept of a stitch in time, meaning that it thrives on delays and therefore their dangerous consequences. It has now become traditional that the government would first allow a small problem to rise to a big and almost uncontrollable level before moving on to find solution.
This is true of the historical tapestry of the operations and activities of an outlawed group, popularly known as Boko Haram.
In deed, there is no denying the fact that the news that made headline on Friday in most of the media outfits, about moves by Nigeria army to negotiate cease-fire with members of Boko Haram was both nerve-soothing and encouraging.
As a matter of fact, the war between Boko Haram and the Nigeria army in parts of the North was becoming so intense and embarrassing that the only option left was the announced negotiation for a cease-fire on both sides.
Of course, the announcement by the Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh did not come to many people who have kept tracks of the happenings in the security circle as a new thing.
On two or three occasions in the past, move such as this was made by the government of Goodluck Jonathan to engage some individuals believed to enjoy the respect of Boko Haram leadership, including Dr. Datti Ahmed in dialogue with the sect: there was even a Presidential panel, set up by the government and headed by special duties minister, Barrister Tanimu Turaki to take a look at the possibility of granting amnesty to Boko Haram members. At the end of each of such moves, statements portending positive end to the insurgency that had claimed the lives of over 10,000 innocent Nigerians at different points and times were made, but they never produced physical results.
Just like the way the government first reacted with some kind of scorn, to the abduction, by Boko Haram, of the nearly 300 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state on April 14 this year before taking it serious a week after, the government had continued to treat the issue of dialogue for a truce with the sect with the same scorn at best, and at worse, with disdain, calling whoever made such suggestion names.
Suspicious as the move by the military to negotiate cease-fire with, and release of the Chibok girls by Boko Haram, coming so close to election period may seem, it still doesn’t cancel the fact that such move is highly desirable to a nation that has been so traumatized; for even the military whose rank and file is being threatened with disintegration and to the people of the North East whose socio-economic life and even politico-cultural standing has been reduced to zero.
This is saying in effect that peace, irrespective of how it is attained, is more desirable than the politicization of the lives of the people anywhere in Nigeria and, in deed, in the world.
We in Greenbarge Reporters do pray fervently and hope genuinely that Air Marshal Badeh would not wake up suddenly to disown the statement about the negotiation for cease-fire or that this move would not be truncated again through an act of executive insincerity and arrogance. [myad]
The Governor of Niger State Babangida Aliyu has warned against the House of Representatives endorsing the removal of immunity clause for President and governors from the constitution, saying the removal would cause unnecessary burden for the leaders.
According to him, if the immunity clause is removed, it will distract the leaders, shifting their attention from administrative issues to court cases.
“If governors and President have no immunity on certain issues, they may waste all government resources on cases that normally should not have gone to court. There are things that we should put into consideration, many at times, cases that could have been resolved outside court are allowed to go to court.
“If the immunity clause is removed, at every move, you will find people going to court on matters that have no bearing with the issue that have been taken to court.”
The House of Representatives on Wednesday recommended the removal of immunity clause for the President and governors after the final process of the amendment of the constitution.
The amendment was met as 252 out of the 261 members that voted were in favor of the amendment.
But Aliyu said though he was initially in support of the removal, but with the benefit of hindsight, the immunity clause should not be totally removed.
“This is a dicey suituation. When I came newly (as governor), I was one of those who said the immunity clause should be removed but with the insight I have now, I think we should look at the issues properly, not simply to remove the immunity just like that but to look at areas where decisions would be taken straightforward without any court implication.” [myad]
Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Air Marshal Alex Badeh has announced that the military has gone into a cease-fire agreement with members of the proscribed Boko Haram and that the Islamist militant group has indicated its willingness to discuss issues including the release of more than 200 female students of the Government Girls Secondary School, Chibok in Borno state whom they abducted in April this year.
“A cease-fire agreement has been concluded between the Federal Government of Nigeria and the Jamatu Ahlis Sunna Li Daawa Wal Jihad,” Air Marshall Alex Badeh said today in e-mailed statement, referring to Boko Haram.
“I have accordingly directed the service chiefs to ensure immediate compliance with this development.
“From the discussions, they indicated their desire for and willingness to discuss and resolve all associated issues. They also assured that the school girls and other people in their captivity are alive and well.”
In the past, Boko Haram have twice refuted claims it had agreed a cease-fire deal after authorities announce an agreement had been reached. [myad]
A 63-year-old un-named U.S citizen, traveling from Nigeria to the U.S, died today aboard an Arik Air flight from Nigeria to New York after vomiting in his seat and complaining of chest pains even as officials said that he did not have Ebola.
Health officials wearing hazmat suits boarded the Arik Air flight from Lagos when it landed at JFK’s Terminal 4 at 5:45 p.m.
The victim, was said to have died an hour before landing. He was traveling alone, vomiting and complaining of chest pains before he died.
According to a Port Authority source, passengers were held on the plane while Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workers examined the man and determined he had died of a heart attack, not the virulent disease that has killed nearly 4,000 people, nearly all of them in West Africa. [myad]
Fayose taking oath of office at his inauguration as Governor of Ekiti stateMr. Ayodele Fayose took over as governor of Ekiti state today, describing his immediate predecessor, Dr. Kayode Fayemi as a pretender and interloper who was foisted on the people of the state, even as he accused him of accumulating a total sum of N49 Billion as debt for him to contend with.
“My heart bleeds today as I report to you, that our state had been plunged into a heavy debt dungeon of over forty nine billion naira by our own brothers and sisters.”
Fayose who spoke after he has been sworn-in in Ado Ekiti, the state capital, said that with the immediate past governor in charge.”the ship of state drifted with neither a compass nor a navigator.”
He said that he left over 10 billion naira (in liquid cash and securities) in the state in October 2006 alongside all the monumental infrastructural and human developments that were emplaced
during his first coming, adding: “this huge sum was depleted by the quasi-military emergency government that was foisted on our people by a power hungry cabal which masterminded and supervised my ouster. All the governments that forced themselves on the good people of Ekiti since I left office in 2006, including the out-going cloned democrats, served every interest other than that of the ordinary Ekiti people.”
He gave a run-down of how the state had been plunged into a heavy debt dungeon as follows:
(i) Bond (Capital market) and Agric Loan – N21.2b
ii) Other Bank Loans – N15.5b
(iii) Outstanding, Salary (two months) – N3.2b
iv) Unremitted monthly deductions from salary (4 months) – N2.4b
(v) Unpaid Subventions to Parastatals and Tertiary Institutions – N700m
2014 Leave Bonus – N400m
Unpaid Pensions and Gratuities -N3.2b
Unremitted withholding taxes and other deductions -N850m
Indebtedness to Contractors – NIO.Ob
Total = N57.45P.
He also gave the position of monthly accruable incomes (net) to Ekiti State as follows:
(I) Statutory Allocation from the FG – 2.3b
Value Added Tax (VAT) – 650m
Internally Generated Revenue – 350m
3.300b
According to Fayose, the state has been committed financially up and until year 2020, even beyond his own administration.
“The proportionate benefits of this huge debt profile to our people remain to be seen or felt by the ordinary man and woman in our state.
“My intention here is not to join issues with the immediate past administration which was substantially responsible for this debt burden. However, I consider it expedient that this parlous position of our finances be made known to members of the public who gave us the mandate to be here. The situation is a challenge that requires our collective effort and creative devices to resolve. My consolation and hope is in our astute human resource capacity and creativity to pull our state out of the palpable quagmire. I therefore appeal to our people to show understanding at this period and be wary of their distractive tendencies, unfounded rumours and outright propaganda of falsehood, as the new government finds appropriate solutions to this immediate challenge.”
The governor regretted that Ekiti people were made to swim against the tides in the last eight years and that the popular will of the majority of the people was supplanted with the selfish interests of a powerful few.
“We were seized in the jugular by power mongering demagogues who foisted on us an emergency rule at first. They thereafter manipulated hallowed democratic institutions and produced
“Our state witnessed many tragedies, including destruction of human lives and properties. There were waste and unproductive expenditure of huge sums of money, considerable slowing down of progress, and incalculable sufferings and deprivations.
“There was smear and malicious campaign of calumny against the innocent and orchestrated celebration of the desperate. They could however fool all of the people some of the time, but could not sustain their foolery for long. Ekiti people have seen beyond their veil of fraud and deception and rejected them all.”
[myad]
Reuben AbatiPresident Goodluck Jonathan’s special adviser on media and publicity, Dr. Reuben Abati has described the comments made yesterday by the former Nigerian Head of State and Presidential aspirant of the opposition All Progressives Congress (APC), General Muhammadu Buhari as baseless, irresponsible and false.
He said that the Presidency noted with disappointment and regret, the reckless, baseless and unsupportable charges made against the Jonathan Administration yesterday by a supposed elder statesman, General Muhammadu Buhari.
In a statement today, Dr. Abati said that the Presidency rejectted the allegations made by General Buhari against the Jonathan Administration at yesterday’s declaration of his intention to contest the 2015 presidential elections as an irresponsible denigration of President Jonathan’s sincere efforts, over the past four years, to positively transform Nigeria.
“It reflects very badly on the character of the political opposition we now have in Nigeria, that a political leader of General Buhari’s stature will deliberately make such false and uncharitable comments about the elected leadership of his country, merely for personal and sectional political gain.
“The falsity of General Buhari’s anti-Jonathan and anti-PDP claims will be obvious to knowledgeable Nigerians and friends of the country, but for the benefit of others we will like to affirm that there is absolutely no truth whatsoever in his charge that “the last 16 years of PDP Government has witnessed a decline in all critical sectors of life in Nigeria” or that “the economy continues to deteriorate”.
Statistics and rankings from the National Bureau of Statistics, the Central Bank of Nigeria, the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and other international economic agencies give the lie to General Buhari’s claims on the state of the Nigerian economy.
“As is well known, available figures, statistics and ratings show that the Nigerian economy has consistently maintained an unprecedented growth rate of 6-7% under the Jonathan administration. They also show that the Nigerian economy is now the leading economy in Africa and the 26th largest in the world with a gross domestic product of over $500 billion per annum.
“Also contrary to General Buhari’s assertion yesterday, Nigeria’s agricultural sector is thriving under the reforms being implemented by the Jonathan administration as current production figures show and neither manufacturing nor commerce is “down” as the APC presidential aspirant alleged.
“His most uncharitable and inexcusable accusation against the present administration was that election rigging continues to thrive in Nigeria.
“We trust that all patriotic, objective and non-partisan Nigerians will reject that allegation knowing it to be invalid and they will have the evidence of the progressively freer, fairer and ever more credible elections conducted under the Jonathan administration to support their position.
“Despite the other false accusations General Buhari made against the President who he clearly fears to take on in an honest, issues-driven presidential election contest, President Jonathan will continue to carry forward his transformation agenda in the power sector and other areas.
“The President will not be discouraged or deterred from his objective of repositioning Nigeria for accelerated and inclusive socio-economic development by the partisan and jaundiced views of power seekers like General Buhari who cannot see the obvious results of the current administration’s efforts through their blinkered eyes.
“We also draw the attention of Nigerians to the total lack of originality in the hackneyed manifesto offered to Nigerians yesterday by the APC Presidential aspirant.
“All that General Buhari promises to do are already being done by the Jonathan Administration to the acclaim of ordinary Nigerians and there is no evidence before Nigerians that the APC leader and his acolytes can do them better.
“The retired General is free to renege on his well-publicized pledge not to seek elective office as he has done, but we urge him to conduct his presidential campaign with greater regard for the truth.
“We also urge him to eschew unbecoming false accusations against others like a true elder statesman and to focus his campaign on more original ideas for the promotion of peace, stability, unity and progress in our beloved nation.”
[myad]
General Muhammadu Buhari (Rtd)Former Head of State, General Muhammadu Buhari, has complained about the fees charged by his party, the All Progressives Congress (APC) for its expression of intent and nomination form.
But the National Chairman of the party, Chief John Odigie-Oyegun, while issuing the nomination form to Buhari today, assured that the leadership of the party will do everything to hold a rancour-free primary.
Speaking while at the APC headquarters to pick his nomination form, the former Head State said he tried during the meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee to see if he could influence the scaling down of the fees but could not.
“It’s a pity I couldn’t influence this amount to be put down as in the case of ladies and the disable that intend to participate. I always look left and right in our meetings but I could not read sympathy, so I kept my trap.
“But I felt heavily sorry for myself because I don’t want to go and ask somebody to pay for my nomination forms, because I always try to pay myself, at least for the nomination.
“N27 million is a big sum, thankfully I have personal relationship with the manager of my bank in Kaduna and I told him that very soon the forms are coming, so, whether I am on red, or green or even black please honour it otherwise I may lose the nomination.
“I was about to go to Kaduna this morning and I told the Chairman but he said in that case, you better pick your form and keep a straight face that means there is no excuse,” Mr. Buhari said.
In a short remark, the APC National Chairman, John Oyegun, told Mr. Buhari and his entourage that the party decided to make the nomination fees high “in order to separate the men from the boys.”
Details later…
[myad]
Minister of Work, Mike OnolememenThe Minister of Works, Mr. Mike Onolememen is not comfortable with what he called low level of funding of the roads sector in the country, saying that it is unacceptable.
The minister, who spoke at the ongoing National Council on Works at Asaba, the Delta State capital today, said that government is looking towards the private sector and other sources to raise funds to maintain and continuously improve the roads.
He said currently, the Federal Government is spending about N1.8 trillion on federal roads across the country but that the level of funding is inadequate to protect the roads, which he said bear the load of more than 90 percent of freight transportation.
He said that government has already proposed a number of measures to get funding from the private sector and the general public to finance the roads and keep them in shape.
One of the measures is the reintroduction of tolling on the highways to attract private sector investment in roads; and the introduction of weighbridges to check overloading by vehicles using the highways.
“We are currently reviewing suggestions by stakeholders to determine their appropriateness on the basis of ‘user pays’ principle, as to stimulate private sector investments in road development in our country,” he said.
Onolememen added, “The 2014 National Council on Works will also focus on preservation of huge investments in the road sector through enforcement of axle load control on our road network.”
He said state governments and corporate bodies as well as transport unions have been enjoined to set up weighbridges in their facilities to help check the overloading of vehicles.
[myad]
